The Friday letters page is unimpressed by the latest State of Play from Sony, as one reader worries about the third Star Wars Jedi game.
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Nothing again
I know we were warned but just what is going on with Sony and their State of Plays? I don’t know what the point of the one on Thursday was supposed to be but all it did for me was confirm that Sony is asleep at the wheel and just do not care about anything anymore. It’s like they’ve given up and yet the PlayStation 5 is still selling amazingly well. I just can’t even begin to understand what they’re doing and I know it’s pointless asking anyone else because no one does.
That game they started the State of Play with… was that some kind of joke? Why on earth would you start your pre-Christmas showcase with that? Who is running Sony’s marketing department nowadays, Microsoft?
What gets me is that they decided to have it on the exact same day as a Nintendo Direct which was a hundred times better and yet the Switch is in its last days, and you can see Nintendo is starting to wind things down. But they’re doing it gracefully and with still a lot of cool looking games.
The PlayStation 5 is right at its peak, and it’s got nothing, almost completely nothing. Once Spider-Man 2 is out what then? When will we get a new first party game announced? This time next year? I just… I don’t get it.
Korey
Baby, step away
The State Of Play sucked. But it always does. I want to make one point though. WTF is Baby Steps? It blew my mind at how it looks worse, than The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum? At least we knew what to expect from that. This looks dreadful. We didn’t get Silent Hill 2 Remake. But we got that. Absolutely disgraceful.
Why would Sony even give this abomination screen time and begin the event with such a terrible game? I won’t be surprised when it flops, because at least, Getting Over It was a fun experience. This just looks confusing and, frankly, a waste of Bennett Foddy’s talents. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 saved the show for me.
Shahzaib Sadiq
Final year
I thought that was an excellent Nintendo Direct. I know a lot of the games were remasters or remakes but the Switch 2 is probably going to be out by this time next year, or close to it, so in that sense I think Nintendo had a lot more than I would have expected.
Very happy to see Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, although the first Paper Mario was very good too, so I don’t know why they haven’t remastered that as well, since there’s now going to be a gap between Super Mario RPG and the second Paper Mario.
I have no idea what’s going on with Princess Peach: Showtime! but personally I consider that a positive in a game. I wonder if that will end up being the last big budget original for the Switch though? It seems like it might be, although it probably depends on whether Metroid Prime 4 is cross-gen or Switch 2 only.
Grant
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Easy mode
I bought Final Fantasy 16 over the weekend, on a whim, and have been enjoying the story and the Game Of Throne-iness of it all. I really enjoy the history lessons you can get in-game and learning more about the world and timeline! What I can’t stand are the completely pointless battles. It’s way too easy! I literally just work through all of my special moves in each fight, and I’m guaranteed to have killed all the enemies and taken no hits.
The bosses offer a bit more of a challenge but that’s just because they are so spongy.
I’ve been searching online to see if the game gets harder but I’m just given tips such as ‘try not using items’ or ‘don’t upgrade weapons’.
I love the Final Fantasy series and I want to play more for the story and atmosphere but it’s going to be a boredom grind of no challenge fights.
TommyFatFingers
Not too big to fail
I don’t know how I feel about the idea of Square Enix getting bought out by someone else but I’ll be honest, I haven’t enjoyed anything they’ve done, except for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, for a very long time. I don’t know if it’s a buyout that’s needed but something needs to be shaken up.
These big companies are like oil tankers though, it takes so long for them to turnaround that there’s really no way for them to get out of danger in time. I’d rather Sony bought them because they’re a Japanese company but even as PlayStation owner I don’t want their games going exclusive, even though I know they will. It’s a bad situation and Square Enix has only really got themselves to blame.
Gordo
Forced out
I hope the exit of the Star Wars Jedi director will not prevent there from being a third game as not only have I enjoyed them both but there was a big improvement from the first to the second and I was hoping for that again with the next one.
Trying to guess why he might have left though I did the maths and realised he’s been at Respawn for nearly a decade and I bet he just didn’t fancy and other five years of the same thing, no matter how much he might have enjoyed it at first.
It reminds me of the situation with God Of War where they were going to make the reboot a trilogy but they didn’t because it would’ve just taken too damn long to make them. I don’t know if there’s anything that can ever be done to reverse the trend of games taking longer and longer to make but at this rate developers will only have time for one game before they retire!
Dannet
No one home
I wonder if it’s crossed Sony’s mind to buy up No Man’s Sky and make any future updates exclusive to the PlayStation 4/5? Now that Starfield is a major hit, Sony could hop on the bandwagon and grab a pre-made space exploration sim that they could pump a million or two into, so that it could rival the Xbox behemoth.
Just a thought.
Bobwallett
GC: We’re not sure what, if anything, has crossed Sony’s mind over the last nine months or so.
The last failure
I thought that was a great Nintendo Direct. The 40 minutes just flew by and it seemed like there was a new game every few seconds, that’s how these things should be done. It was F-Zero and Donkey Kong that interested me the most though, since neither game has seen a new entry in years.
I imagine that F-Zero 99 is testing the water for a new game, or at least an F-Zero GX remake. I doubt it’ll do that well though. People complain about Nintendo not making a new one but the fact is none of the games sell. They’re not a charity, there’s no point them making games they know nobody will buy. I wish F-Zero was bigger than it is but the fact is it’s not. Heck, not even WipEout was popular anywhere but Europe.
Donkey Kong is obviously a different deal though. There were the rumours of a new 3D game that came to nothing but I still think it’s inevitable. Nintendo has been pushing him a lot lately – he was in the Mario movie and there’s two new Kongs coming to Mario Kart 8. Maybe Mario Vs. Donkey Kong is just to keep the name out there and have people look forward to more from him.
We’re not going to find out what’s happening with either now until the Switch 2 but while I’m relatively confident that Donkey Kong will be back in the limelight I think this will be the last failure for F-Zero.
Alrazor
Inbox also-rans
The State of Play is up to Helldivers 2, but I just wanted to point out that the first game was possibly the worst way to introduce a showcase. Especially after the excellent Nintendo Direct earlier. Could a game be any less funny and pace crippling as whatever it was called?
Wonk
GC: It was called Baby Steps and you’re right, that was painful.
Personally I’m quite enjoying Starfield and I’m very glad it wasn’t connected to Fallout. I’ve had more than enough of that goofy retro 50s style. It got old for me a long time ago.
Focus
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Onibee, who asks what new games would you like to see released for the Switch 2 in its first 12 months?
Rumours about Nintendo’s next console are gathering pace, with reliable sources claiming it will be roughly as powerful as a PlayStation 4 – or perhaps even more so. There has been some vague talk of new games, such as a new 3D Mario, but nothing substantial, so what would you like to see most in terms of first and third party games?
Try and keep things realistic – Nintendo isn’t going to release all its heavy hitters at the same time – but feel free to imagine your dream launch line-up, as long as it’s also reasonably believable.
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