The Friday letters page thinks Sonic the Hedgehog is the worst thing to ever happen to Sega, as one reader is unsurprised that Silent Hill: Ascension is bad.
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Please stop
I’m sure all these rumours about a PS5 Pro are true and all I can say is just don’t. If you bought every piece of PlayStation hardware this generation you’d be down almost £1,200. And that’s not including the Pure headset, DualSense Edge, PS5 Slim, and whatever else they’ve been hocking lately. They have literally released more hardware this year than software and that is ridiculous.
How much more money do they want out of us? A PS5 Pro is going to be at least £500, maybe £600, for a tiny differences in graphics and performance that you’re going to need to watch a YouTube video to even notice. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like 60fps in all my games, but not to the point that I’m going to buy a whole new console for it.
But that’s almost not the point. Sony, will you just stopping faffing around and release some games for once? What is wrong with you? Why do you constantly keep releasing ultra expensive hardware and not any games to go with them? Oh look, the PlayStation Portal is coming out soon (RRP £200), it’d be nice to have a new portable-friendly game come out alongside it, wouldn’t it? Well, tough luck, you get nothing.
It’s my opinion that Jim Ryan did not leave of his own accord and Sony is as tired of his nonsense as the rest of us are. I’m really beginning to think Xbox looks like a better option, especially as there’s been no hint of an Xbox Series XX, or whatever nonsense name they’d give it.
Garvin
Further proof
There stopped being any question that Modern Warfare 3 is just reheated DLC a long time ago but this thing with the trophies is just underlining the fact. Anyone that buys it this year is part of the problem as far as a I’m concerned. The game is £70 and yet it’s really just DLC that was going to sold at, what… £30 tops?
I’m not a Call Of Duty hater, I’ve enjoyed it plenty in the past but there has to be a reason for a sequel to exist. There has to be an actual product there, not just something cobbled together at the last minute to meet the traditional release date.
If it is just DLC then it’s not even going to finish the story or anything, they’ll need a Modern Warfare 4 for that. Unless they decided to add an ending at the last minute and it’s all incredibly rushed. I don’t know which would be worse.
Dunston
No surprises
Nice review of Silent Hill: Ascension, although I think I could’ve written most of it the second it was announced because it always sounded like a terrible idea. I don’t trust Konami at all at this point. The only reason the Metal Gear Solid compilation was any good is because most of it already existed before, done by Bluepoint, otherwise I bet they would’ve messed that up too.
Like you, I full expect the Silent Hill 2 remake to be bad, given Bloober Team’s track record. I do hold hope out for Silent Hill f though and possibly Townfall. The new Contra game should be good if WayForward are doing it too, but I suspect if those work out it will be in spite of Konami not because of them. You can’t just leave the games industry for 10 years and suddenly expect to be knocking out hits by taking he cheap route and doing the minimum effort. It’s such a waste.
Trepsils
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Closed world
I agree that Capcom has been on a good run lately but I hope that big budget Resident Evil 9 does not mean open world. We’ve had some open world areas before, but they’ve always been very small and I think it’s best like that. As soon as you have an open world everything immediately becomes more generic and Resident Evil can’t afford to be like that.
I think Capcom realise that, they’ve not made a bad Resi game now for over a decade, but I feel this is a problem in general for games today, where they feel that open world is both fashionable and an easy way to make a game seem value for money. Gears 5 was the worst example of this and I think a lot of publishers have learnt from that.
Moxie
Mixing it up
I use an Astro A40 Headset (wired) and MixAmp for playing games and watching films/TV/Blu-rays. It was recommended to me by another GameCentral reader in 2016, but recently I dropped the mix amp by accident and the USB port on it is wobbly and it now does not work with my PC. It will work with my consoles and TV but I have to get the cable in the right position so it does not disconnect because of the loose USB port.
This is the broken Astro MixAmp I have and I was thinking of replacing it with this one. I was just wondering if anyone could give me any advice if this is a good idea or not and any recommendations.
I connect the MixAmp to my LG 4K TV via the optical port on the back of the TV, so I don’t have to swap any cables over unless I want to game on my PC, because the PC is in a different area to my game consoles. I prefer wired to wireless and then I don’t have to worry about charging another device. Hopefully a reader can advise.
Andrew J.
Dead ends
I’m sure some will have sneered at Sega suggesting it could still beat Mario with Sonic but I have to admire their tenacity. Over 30 years later and they’re further away than ever from doing it, but that’s still their goal. I don’t see it happening though. Not can they not put out one classic game, that isn’t Sonic Mania – which is half remake, but even if they did they’ve be up against 40 years of Mario excellence. It’s impossible for them to ever compete 1:1.
I’m beginning to think that Sonic’s success was overall bad for Sega. It’s distracted them ever since, trying to replicate the success of the Mega Drive, which they never manage to do, while leaving everything else to be forgotten and ignored.
I like Sonic as much as the next man but it’s never been as good as Mario, and yet Nintendo has never had anything like OutRun, Golden Axe, or Phantasy Star. That’s what Sega should have concentrated on, not the ever decreasing returns from bad Sonic games. It’s too late to change anything now, I suspect, and it sounds like they’re not trying to anyway. But if you asking me they’re chasing an impossible goal.
Boris
Made In Britain
I was listening to an episode of the Back Page podcast the other day, and there was a brief shoutout to David Jenkins from GC (episode 6 of the PC gaming classics if you want to check it out). This got me thinking: did GC ever consider making or participating in a podcast before?
There is a noticeable dearth of good UK-centric gaming podcasts. The Back Page and My Perfect Console are probably the only ones out there (thanks to whoever suggested them on these pages). The US-based ones are dominating the airwaves so to speak.
Ali K
GC: We’ve never really had the time. As we understand, they take quite a bit of effort to organise and edit.
Tales of performance
The rumours of a PS5 Pro are not surprising, nor will I be surprised if it does release. I was playing Tales Of Arise on the PlayStation 5 today and there’s an option in the game whether you want to prioritise graphics or performance. Choosing to prioritise graphics will give you the best visual fidelity but the frame rate will generally be below its target of 60 frames per second, as that supposedly it is maxing out the PlayStation 5’s graphical capability.
Choosing Performance will give slightly less visual fidelity but it will mostly be at its intended target of 60 frames per second, although can still drop every now and then when there is a lot happening on screen. Now I am not saying the developers knew a while back that the PS5 Pro is a strong possibility, but rather they probably included these options just in case it did get released, looking back at the PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro.
In my opinion the PS5 Pro is needed, not only because of Tales Of Arise being very demanding but also other games in general as over the past two or three years they have become very graphically focused and need more powerful hardware to give consistent performance.
orionz25
GC: Performance and quality modes are commonplace for many games nowadays.
Inbox also-rans
Anyone else think Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s final battle mission took a little inspiration from Hi-Fi Rush?
Adam_Lion_23 (PSN ID)
Currently playing: Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Typically, this has just arrived (Thursday), on release day no less. I can’t remember the last time that happened. Oh well, off to Father Christmas with you, see you soon.
Beastiebat (PSN ID)
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Danse, who asks what franchise or genre have you changed your opinion on over time?
Not every game or concept can grab you straight away, but are there any that grew on you over time? Similarly, is there any that you used to enjoy but have now grown tired of?
What caused the change and did it happen suddenly, with just one game or experience, or gradually over the time, following multiple sequels and similar games? Is there anything in the future that you think could change your mind again?
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The small print
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