The Thursday letters page is looking forwards to Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree, as one reader hopes for more Nintendo remasters.
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Unsexy job
The Nintendo Direct was great and all but it later dawned on me the same thing that I’ve said at every one of these events for the last few years: where is Hollow Knight: Silksong? It was announced five years ago and we’ve seen virtually nothing of it since. Assuming it’s out this year it will be seven years since the last one, which seems a crazy amount of time for an indie.
Except because it’s an indie game it means the problem isn’t handling massive teams and working out high-tech cut scenes. I believe the team of developers is actually very small and I’m sure the budget isn’t that big. So what’s going wrong? I assume mission creep more than anything else, especially as it was originally intended to be just DLC.
I think this is a good example of how it’s not just Spider-Man 2 style blockbusters that are a problem to make now but even relatively modest indie games. Developers have got to learn how to restrain themselves and aim for something that can be made relatively quickly and cheaply. That doesn’t mean the game has to be worse, just made more efficiently – so that it actually comes out.
I agree with everything the ex-Sony guy said about concentrating on AA and less high-tech graphics and I think the problems with Silksong prove it’s a problem that’s creeping into everything now. Since it wasn’t at any of the showcases I assume the release date won’t actually be this year, but more likely 2025 or later.
Goulash
Everybody loves Zelda
I love how all the fans seem to have immediately embraced the new Zelda game, all that fan art was adorable. I kind of wish they’d called it The Legend Of Link: Zelda’s Adventure, or something similar, but I guess maybe that doesn’t have quite the same marketing appeal.
I have to say I really like the idea of the game too. The whole idea of cloning ordinary objects and monsters and using them in unlikely puzzle-like situation seems really clever, especially given how many there are. It’s by far my most anticipated game from this recent showcase season and proof that you don’t need big budgets or complicated stories to make a good game, you just need clever ideas and fun gameplay.
If Nintendo is going to make lower budget spin-offs like this every year there isn’t a mainline game then I am all for it. Impa could do with her own game too, and Shiek – since I don’t get the feeling she’ll be in Echoes Of Wisdom? Or was Shiek meant to be a guy? Thinking about it, I’m not sure how much of a disguise it was meant to be.
Farquinn
GC: We think the character is male.
As expected
I 100% agree with all the praise for FromSoftware recently, both their attitude towards treating their developers well and the quality of their work. Seeing Shadow Of The Erdtree become the most highly rated DLC ever was incredibly encouraging for playing it on Friday, even if it’s basically no less than I’d expect.
For my money, FromSoftware is definitely the best modern developer. Nintendo are less consistent than people like to pretend and, for me, Naughty Dog just don’t do interesting enough gameplay to be considered. From are the whole package though and have basically not put a foot wrong since Dark Souls.
I cannot wait to find out what they’re working on next and whether it’s a sequel or a new game I will be there day one, no questions asked. Although I’d fully expect the reviews to be nothing but positive, as usual.
Focus
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New age of heroes
As a huge fighting game fan, I cannot stress enough how much of a big deal the surprise announcement of the Marvel Vs. Capcom collection was. This is huge news! I had great fun watching the reactions of well know fighting community players like Justin Wong and Maximillian lose their mind over the news. The #FreeMvC2 movement came true!!
The only sour note of that reveal was that Capcom are not releasing an Xbox version, which is yet another worrying indication that Microsoft’s console is losing visibility to the PC space. With no cross-play I expect I will double dip a Switch physical and a digital PC version but it’s disheartening for Xbox players to have no option to enjoy this fantastic collection.
Marvel is back baby! It’s time to take you for a ride!
Bristolpete
Out soon
There is something invigorating about an impressive new game reveal with an imminent release date attached.
But we’re being spoilt having Astro Bot and Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom revealed 18 days apart and given release dates 20 days apart in September.
Along with the rest of a good Direct and the Xbox showing it’s been a grand couple of weeks.
Simundo
Maybe next year
I pretty much agree with GC’s ranking of the summer showcases. PlayStation was an embarrassment, Summer Game Fest was boring, and Nintendo and Xbox were great. I’d personally put Nintendo ahead of Xbox, in terms of the number of games I’m interested in, but they were both positive shows, that were fun to watch, and didn’t go on for too long.
I can see that maybe Summer Game Fest just had to roll with the hand it was dealt by publishers, and what they want to show, but I don’t understand what on earth Sony was playing at. I saw this week Bluepoint were talking about how they’re still working on an original game, so why wasn’t that shown? Are Sony pretending they’re above showing pre-rendered trailers, if that’s all they had?
It would be nice to know that they have at least one traditional game in development. You couldn’t move for narrative third person games last gen and now we have, what? Wolverine in 2026? Obviously they have more games than that but what are they and why don’t they want to show them? I feel like fans will still be asking this question in five years.
Hoskins
Direct remastered
I was really pleased with what they showed at the Nintendo showcase but I was a bit disappointed there was no mention of remasters/remakes for Zelda: Twilight Princess, Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
I’ve got something to look forward to from all three platform shows so am happy with that.
Andrew J.
PS: Bargain Alert: Islets is on sale for £7.49 currently, for a week starting from the other day. It is a Metroidvania which got good comments about it when it came out, I can’t remember if GameCentral
reviewed it though.
GC: We never played it but there was a Reader’s Feature on it.
Double-A forever
A better than expected Nintendo Direct, but still fairly low key outside Metroid Prime 4, I thought. It feels like Nintendo’s top tier developers are now all at work on the Switch 2, so the smaller teams are getting their chance to shine with these more limited titles. Metroid Prime 4 was definitely shown on the regular Switch, I’m not convinced yet it’ll be a banger, Prime 2 and 3 are only decent games after all and didn’t build on the classic original.
With this transition to Switch 2, I have a feeling Nintendo aren’t gonna fall into the traps Sony and Microsoft have over ballooning budgets and development times. The shorter, arguably more double-A titles they’ve been putting out over the last couple of years (excluding Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom of course) show what might happen. Even if the new Switch is indeed PlayStation 4 or even Xbox Series S power, the games likely will only be modest evolutions of what we’ve had on the Switch, using the new tools in smart and clever ways, beyond just higher graphical fidelity.
Ray-tracing would be a good example of this, from more sophisticated shadow levels in the next Mario to detailed real-time reflections being used to solve shrine puzzles in the next Zelda. I’m sure the boffins at Nintendo will think of more ingenious applications, like the recent Zelda’s physics engine. Obviously, that means that these games (beyond a resolution and performance bump) may not look much better than current Switch titles, as all the new oomph will be going towards background processing tasks.
If they’re fun to play, should we care that Nintendo games still ‘look a generation behind’ if boundaries are being pushed elsewhere? Some fans will probably be upset if the next Zelda doesn’t look as good as Ghosts Of Tsushima or Mario 3D as good as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart but I’m pretty confident they’ll play a lot better and be more forward thinking.
Marc
Inbox also-rans
I was wondering if any readers can recommend a good external battery/charger for the Switch? I’ve two long flights ahead of me at the start of July and fancy playing Super Mario RPG to pass the time. But obviously battery life on it isn’t great. If anyone has any experience with one please let me know.
ANON
I have never felt so old as reading that story about the Banana game. Have people really got no better way to either entertain themselves or make money?
Jove
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