The Tuesday Letters page wonders why Marvel video games aren’t selling better as a reader looks forward to a brand new Dreamcast game.
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Moderately disappointed
So I pre-ordered The Callisto Protocol – look, I just liked Dead Space, okay? – and while I probably would have canceled it if the pre-game reviews had come out, they didn’t, so I didn’t. And I have to say I’m not that disappointed.
I realize this isn’t a glowing recommendation, but I’d say I enjoyed it overall, even though it’s a much simpler and less ambitious game than I’d hoped. It’s true there isn’t much to it other than combat and there isn’t much real exploration, especially in terms of alternate routes and the like.
But the combat is really good, and so are the graphics, so there’s some great spectacle in there that I really enjoyed. I’m not sure why they haven’t tried to make more of it, but the one major complaint I have is that it’s basically not scary at all. In fact, it’s so not scary that I’m not even sure if it’s trial and error or if it just wasn’t meant to be.
There are a lot of jump scares, so I think it was meant to be, but otherwise there’s very little build-up or suspense, or at least nothing like Dead Space. A strange game to be sure, but I don’t think it’s a complete bust.
Ishtar
Prepare for the worst
I hope The Game Awards will be good on Thursday, but I have a bad feeling about them making it shorter than usual. The reason it’s long is because of all the damn ads, they wouldn’t cram it with anything else if they thought they could get away with it, so it sounds to me like they just don’t have the games to attract people.
They say 30 to 40 games, but how many of those will be indie games that you never hear from again? I hope for the best, but prepare to be disappointed, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be a highlight.
It seems EA’s plan to announce/market a game until the last minute has fallen flat on its face with Need For Speed Unbound, so I’m not sure why they got the error for Star as well Wars would like to repeat. Sometimes, I swear, gamers would make wiser decisions than most publishers.
Gunston
Need for marketing
I honestly had no idea a new Need For Speed was out until I saw it GC’s review and I’m assuming I’m not alone, because I usually like to think I’m pretty knowledgeable about these things. It doesn’t sound like the game was that bad, so why keep this one more secret than any of the others? It’s not like it’s Battlefield 2042!
It seems especially odd since you would think this was a mass market game, that they could have convinced people to buy just based on the name alone. But I think that didn’t work out. I don’t care because I’m not interested in the series but things like this always make me feel bad for the developers who must have worked on it for years and then it was just sent off to die for no reason .
Tom Cobley
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Three very nothing
So three big releases last week and it all seems to have turned into one big nothing citizen. The Callisto protocol received poor reviews and apparently only works well on PlayStation. Need For Speed Unbound had no ratings and is already a flop, and Midnight Suns sold the worst of them all despite being a Marvel game.
Which means if you discount Spider-Man, Marvel games basically don’t sell. I’m sure free mobile games are doing well, but I can’t think of any big name with a big budget that did. Not Guardians of The Galaxy, not Avengers… the only others I can think of that sell well are the Lego games.
It doesn’t even seem to have anything to do with quality as most of those games are good, even Avengers wasn’t that bad. So why don’t people buy them? It can’t be anything against licensed games, because Star Wars games still sell well. Maybe people are tired of seeing Marvel in movie theaters and TV, that they want video games to be the only place they can get away from!
Pumpkin
Dream game
Something on the GameTrailers YouTube channel recently caught my eye: Intrepid Izzy. It looks like a platformer and something of a Shantae clone. She even has purple hair. I doubt she has belly dancing idle animations. Shantae must really burn a lot of calories that way…
Now it’s £9 on the PlayStation Store – I assume the same goes for Microsoft devices. Not sure about the Switch. But most interesting of all, it came out for the Dreamcast. Yes, the console that stopped officially releasing games over 20 years ago! Of course it costs a lot more for a physical release on a dead format, but hey. Have you heard of it? Would you like to take a look?
DMR
GC: The same team also seems to have made another Dreamcast game called Rush Rush Rally.
Nowhere NieR
I missed the Hot Topic, but all I’m hoping for from The Game Awards is a new NieR game. It’s been so long since NieR:Automata was a surprise hit and they busted out the remaster for the original pretty quickly, which was also a success, and yet nothing has happened since. That seems strange to me.
They’re obviously working on a new game, and I’m sure it’s still a few years away, but I’d appreciate an announcement of some kind. However, I wonder if they will try to keep 2B in it. She’s become quite a popular character in recent years, with plenty of cameos in other games, but NieR doesn’t seem like the sort of series that bothers to give in to fan service.
There’s hardly any connection between the first two games, and the entire series is basically a spin-off of Drakengard, based on an alternative gag that hardly anyone saw. It would be like Metal Gear Solid was created based on the dog ending from Silent Hill.
However, I have complete confidence in Yoko Taro whatever he does, and I’m curious to see what he’s going to do with a big budget and the knowledge that his games are really popular and expected. Somehow I expect that will only make him weirder and wilder.
Ishi
Solid feel
Konami knows they can’t make another Metal Gear Solid with Kojima, so I see a remake as their only option. In what other way can they benefit from the name? They’ve already tried an unrelated spin-off and I wouldn’t bet another one would get any better.
Whether this particular rumor is more true than the previous one, I could say, of course, but I bet something will be announced in the next few years.
Winston
Blue milk
I love that the only reason the Callisto Protocol caused the company’s stock to fall is because they thought it was going to be a big ongoing series, not because it sold poorly or anything. Oh how I wish new games would just come out and that was it, just move on to the next one and something else.
I’m not going to pretend it was ever different, in fact I would hardly say it has changed at all. The only time I can think of anything close to that happening is with Lucasfim Games, who used to make sequels, but also had a constant supply of new IP coming out all the time. The more they started milking Star Wars, the less effort they put in.
I think of Naughty Dog and the God Of War team and BioWare and Respawn and so many great developers and they all seem determined to make sequels to the same old games forever. Or at least for the next 10 years, which is really forever when you consider how long the average person stays at a job. Imagine how much more interesting the gaming industry would be if each of those developers made a different game every time? You can’t imagine how long it will probably be before one of them makes something that isn’t already part of an existing franchise…
iceman
Inbox is also running
Oh look, the US government isn’t going to sue Microsoft for not buying Activision Blizzard, they’re going to put a stamp on it and let them do what they want. I am shocked to hear this. Shocked I say!
Focus
Is BioWare stuck in that dream where you can’t move at normal speed? Why is Dragon Age and Mass Effect taking so long?! Anthem was three years ago and they said they started before that, and yet they can’t even release a finished cutscene? At this rate I look forward to playing their next game when I retire.
Masterston
Hot topic this week
The topic for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Cranston and asks what’s your favorite and least favorite entry in a long-running franchise?
There are plenty of video game series that have been running for 25 years or more, some with dozens of sequels, but which do you think is the best and which is the worst? Try to keep your suggestions to the main sequels, but otherwise you can pick any games from any era or format.
Does a sequel have to have a lot of new ideas to be successful and how much can it differ from the original game before it loses its identity? What advice would you give for the next sequel in whichever franchise you chose?
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