The Thursday letters page hopes that video game demos will become more commonplace as the generation goes on, as one reader recommends Forza Horizon rival CarX Street.
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Life and death
I really like the fact that Resident Evil has never had a reboot, and I wish other games had that sort of history. There are plenty that have been around for as long or longer, but you don’t get that same sense of looking forward to seeing favourite characters come back or watching them age.
I’d be totally fine with a game where they were getting into their 50s, because anyone that played the original would be in a similar situation and I think that’s really cool. We had an Indiana Jones film recently where the actor was 80 years old but it’s even easier for a game to do, because nobody’s going to break their hip on set.
The big question is whether any of them should be killed off, especially because you know Capcom probably won’t keep them dead and there’ll just pop up again in a few games’ time. Especially if it’s someone as popular as Leon. I say do it though. Bringing them back with prequels, set before their death is fine, but an actual canon death in the timeline I’m totally okay with.
They just have to work on building up the younger characters. Rose is a bit of a non-entity, everyone in Resident Evil 6 was awful, and I can’t even remember what the girl in Resident Evil Revelations 2 was called.
Callum
GC: That was Moira, daughter of Barry Burton.
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Try before you buy
Thanks for the list of free game demos, that’s very useful. I think another reader mentioned how they’re starting to become more common nowadays, after being guaranteed for any Xbox 360 era game but then falling out of fashion. I know the hard data says people that play a demo are less likely to buy a game but I’m not sure how they really measure that.
How can they tell they were going to buy it and then the demo put them off (either because they didn’t like it or, I guess, because they feel they’ve already played it now)? I do see a bit of crossover there with the Game Pass effect, where too much choice becomes paralysing but for me personally, if I’m on the fence about a game or don’t really understand what it is, then a demo is very welcome.
Maybe things will continue to improve and they’ll become more common, because betas are blatantly just demos by another name, and they definitely work.
Skimble
More Battles
My main hope about Battlefield 6 being a success is that it makes it more likely that EA make a Star Wars: Battlefront 3. You know the question must have come up at EA because of Battlefront 2’s resurgence but they won’t want to be spending the money. But if half the work is done in Battlefield 6, and they think its reputation could help it, then we might be onto something.
Although, if there is another one I hope they get much more into the vehicle and space combat than before. That’s what really sets the game aside from Battlefield and other shooters, but it feels like a bit of an afterthought even in Battlefront 2.
Beef that up, don’t bother with a single-player mode, and make sure there’s plenty of content at launch. Maybe they can tie it in with the Starfighter film Ryan Gosling is making, if they need an excuse to focus away from ground combat.
Loni
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Remaking the remake
Very glad to see the rumour that they’re remaking Resident Evil Code: Veronica. That one is the one I wanted the most because it’s very important to the overall storyline but it often gets forgotten because it was originally a Dreamcast game.
It’s also quite a flawed game and I’m curious to see if Capcom will actually improve it, especially as it’s got that pointless rehash of Resident Evil 1 in the middle. To be honest, as good as the other remakes are, what they did with Resident Evil 3 doesn’t give me much hope.
That was already a lesser entry and they somehow made it even worse in the remake, taking out the few things that made it special. But I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, that they learned from that, especially as I believe that was the B-team working on that one.
Not sure why they threw it out so carelessly though. It was a mainline sequel and now they’re left with the difficulty of trying to make Resident Evil 0 decent. Maybe they should do a remake of the remake of 3 instead?
Gazza
Curated selection
I might rate Game Pass more than PS Plus Extra/Premium but one thing the latter is good at, is its picks for the day one indie games it has.
There’s been Stray, Humanity, Rogue Legacy 2, Sea Of Stars, Teardown, Animal Well, The Plucky Squire, Dave The Diver, Blue Prince, and this month Sword Of The Sea.
Good month in general for me with that game, Indika, Earth Defence Force 6, and Unicorn Overlord all peaking my interest.
Simundo
GC: Unicorn Overlord is great.
Cross-platform customer
As well as defining a ‘gamer’ in that spending report, we also need to determine what they mean by a person. Yes, I know that sounds silly but let me continue.
I, for example, have a presence in four gaming sectors:
- Nintendo, where this year I have bought a Switch 2, some peripherals, Nintendo Switch Online, and quite a few games across both Switch platforms. So about £800.
- Microsoft, where I have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription but have bought no games or peripherals: £168.
- Sony, where I have the lowest PS Plus subscription and this year have bought two games: £200
- Apple, where I have not paid anything beyond the Netflix subscription that includes games but regularly play free games like Pokémon Go.
So, does the survey consider me to be one person spending about £1,200 per year on games, or four people that are spending an average of £300 each?
Also is hardware included? And how does it factor in mobiles, tablets, and PCs that also have non-gaming applications?
PazJohnMitch
Out of touch
I’m not sure the graphics are what most people were worrying about when it came to Football Manager 26 but at least it seems like it’s actually going to release this year. I didn’t know what to do without it last Christmas.
We all complain they’re too similar every year but being stuck with the current one for longer than usual, I’m yearning to play the new version. Football Manager used to be so good at understanding its audience, I hope this doesn’t mean they’ve lost that touch.
Skinner
Budget drive
Thought I would send in my thoughts of CarX Street on Xbox Series X, as it’s had me hooked since release. I love open world racing games but got bored of Forza Horizon and Need For Speed; CarX Street does things a bit different and for the better. Firstly, this is not a sim but has more realistic handling than any other open world racer. Hitting objects will slow or stop you, so you can’t just plough through everything. Even going offroad will slow you down and get real slidey, this is a tarmac racer.
The AI is really good, even seeming to act quite human with no catch-up. The world looks great and the devs said they are going to expand it even though its already big. I love that there’s so much traffic, if you turn it to max there’s full-on traffic jams, though it does affect performance. The cars aren’t licensed but look like their real world counterparts, with extensive tuning and customisation. So at least there’s no chance it will get shut down to licensing issues. Also, it’s cross-play, so there’s always full lobbies, something all racers should have.
My only problem is occasional slowdown and no car damage, but the devs are still working on it with a roadmap. More impressive is it’s only £25; it’s gonna keep me busy for a while.
Rob
Inbox also-rans
Game I’m looking forward to is Cronos: The New Dawn.
George
GC: We should be seeing it, and speaking to the developer, at Gamescom next week.
People talking about the Switch 2 Lite, I don’t understand why Nintendo doesn’t sell the current model but just without the dock? They could sell the dock on its own too, if anyone wanted it later, and probably end up charging more for both separately.
Cubby
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