The Wednesday letters page defends Nintendo’s first party record on Switch 2, as one reader offers their opinion on the Marathon Sever Slam.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Hardware options
I’ve been watching all the news about memory prices rising and the PlayStation 6 being pushed back to who knows when and it’s left me unsure as to what to do, because I currently only have a PlayStation 4. Naturally, I don’t want to buy a PlayStation 5 just as it’s replaced by a new machine. But at the same time I don’t, as you can tell, care about getting the latest hardware just as it comes out.

Curious to know if anyone else is in the same boat, as I’ve kind of got three options: skip the generation entirely, get a Switch 2 instead, or get a PlayStation 5 and just end up late to the PlayStation 6 as well.

I previously didn’t give much thought to the Switch 2 option but given how well things like Resident Evil Requiem have apparently turned out I’m thinking that might be the best bet. I’ve only had a Wii before, so it’d be kind of interesting to take a break from Sony while the bigger picture sorts itself out.
Gambon

Opposites attract
Really looking forward to playing Pokémon Pokopia tomorrow. It wasn’t on my radar at all until I saw all the positive reviews and now I’m really excited to spend the weekend with it, especially as it’s something my wife will almost certainly enjoy as well.

I got Resident Evil Requiem last week and loved that but at the end of the day it’s only 14 hours or so long and while I do want to replay it, it’s not something I want to do immediately. But a game that is apparently very long and involved, but also laid-back and ‘cosy’, sounds like the perfect follow-up.

Reminds me of the time Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out on the same day. Sometimes it’s nice to have a contrast, where the only similarity is that both games are good.
Carson

Not a sprint
Just passing on my thoughts about Marathon, I hope the full game sells well to keep Bungie alive, but I’m on the fence whether to buy it or not.

I played about six hours of the Marathon Server Slam. The base gameplay and shooting mechanics are great. I for one loved the graphic style too. However, I’m not sure I will bother with the full game due to it being an extraction shooter. For me, I just find it a bit too tedious; the missions are mundane. Each round you play is ~20 minutess and you only meet one or two teams of real players. I find it overly repetitive, similar to how Helldivers 2 was.

Now I don’t know if the full game will have deathmatch mode or something similar added, but if it does I would buy it nearly half to relive the old Halo 3 Slayer days.
Carlos

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Ooo, that’s a good one
I really enjoyed the new Indie World Direct. I’m delighted by Heave Ho getting a sequel, the first is probably one of the funniest games for multiplayer.

Getting a shadow drop for Blue Prince is very welcome too, I did a lot in that game through Game Pass but will double dip on Switch 2.

That wood game looked adorable and I’m keen for anything from the Guacamelee developers.

Unbelievably though, I’m most excited by a game that was only in the Japanese version of the Direct. Öoo got an unexpected release and wasn’t featured in the Western stream. I’ve had my eye out for this since it came out on PC, so an unexpected shadow drop on Switch is brilliant news and may sway me away from Resident Evil Requiem, even though I want to finish that before Pokopia.

I know everyone wants to hear from Nintendo about their first party plans, but it’s nice to have such an overwhelming selection of brilliant third party indie and AAA games to enjoy in the meantime.
Euclidian Boxes

GC: Thanks for mentioning that, we had no idea. It’s on the UK Nintendo eShop right now, so we’ll see if we can get a review done.

Something to look forward to
The behaviour of FromSoftware towards Bloodborne truly is bizarre. They keep saying the game is special to them and everything, but they won’t even release a PlayStation 5 patch?! How does that make any sense whatsoever?

Mind you, I don’t understand why anyone is pushing for a remake either. The game’s a PlayStation 4 title, how much better do you expect it to look? Especially as From won’t do the remake themselves, so it’ll be missing lots of little details and secrets that only they know about.

What we need is a sequel, and soon. For all we know that’s what they’re working on but the way he talks about it I don’t think there’s any chance the director would be anyone other than Hidetaka Miyazaki. But he’s doing The Duskbloods at the moment, which implies no serious work has started on Bloodborne 2 yet.

So… I look forward to playing it in 2031, I guess? Or maybe 2035 for the 20th anniversary? Let’s at least hope they can make it by then.
Gavin

User approval
Congratulations to Capcom for scoring the highest rated user score on Resident Evil Requiem. I’ve only played a bit of it and I’ve so far played through the introduction, dispatched some zombies as Leon, and woke up in a very creepy medical centre.

I have to also commend Capcom for changing up the behaviours of zombies. A zombie that sings creepily, a maid zombie cleaning the floor, and a chef zombie with a chainsaw. Very unique and it’s very well deserved to see Requiem dethrone Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Which is the better game is a topic that will divide fans and gamers, but that’s a topic for another day.

Crimson Desert is set to release in over two weeks, and I honestly can say I have no idea where the reviews will land, especially with the embargo lifting one day before release and by then my pre-order will be all but ready to be dispatched. I truly hope this is the next Elden Ring and Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, rather than the next Forspoken. It looks insane and if the execution is right it could be the perfect title to hold us off until GTA 6 releases.

I’ve also heard some rumblings of Cory Barlog’s next game. Starring Faye as the lead character and utilising a Devil May Cry style of combat gameplay. It’s certainly what I didn’t expect and didn’t ask for. But it’s unconfirmed for now, so I’ll wait until Cory clears the rumours up. But it seems quite a disappointment to me. I would have preferred something fresh instead. Not a live service title per se, but maybe an original story and a new set of characters.

Faye is only in God Of War Ragnarök for 10 minutes and considering I only saw her once in the game, when I came to her section, I don’t see a full title warranted. Freya would have been a better choice. Perhaps a prequel and her journey up to the events of the 2018 game. She’s one of my favourite characters, so I would have loved to see her have her own game. No one asked for Faye. But we’ll see and wait for confirmation.

On a final note, I’m absolutely stoked for the Fatal Frame 2 demo that drops in two days. I really hope this works as well as Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil Requiem has. Then we can get the first and third games remade and on PC. Fingers crossed.
Shahzaib Sadiq

Regular event
The Indie World was fine and all but I can’t believe they couldn’t have found a fair few more games to promote. 15 minutes seems kind of pointless. If you’re going to try and make people sit down and watch a showcase at least make a proper go of it. 15 minutes is okay if it’s just one game but either this needed longer or they should do it on a more regular basis, like once every month.

I would be happy with that. I buy most indie games on Switch because it’s more convenient to play them like that, but while Nintendo does more to promote them than Sony it still doesn’t do much.
Tosh

What’s the big secret?
Whilst I understand some of the frustration towards Nintendo I do feel it is somewhat overblown. I know people are keen for news on their big franchises such as Zelda and Mario. I’m in the same boat, myself. However, since the Switch 2 launched there’s many Nintendo exclusives that have released or are due soon, Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Drag x Drive, Kirby Air Riders, Fast Fusion, two Pokémon games, Metroid Prime 4, Yoshi And The Mysterious Book, and Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment.

Granted, some of these are cross-generation and not all have been a hit. I get that the quality of certain games hasn’t been up the usual standard of what Nintendo usually produce and that gamers want to know what they are planning next. However, Nintendo have always seemed to keep things close to their chest and announce games only a short time from their launch date.

It’s still early days in the Switch 2 lifecycle and I’d argue they have been far more active in releasing new exclusives than Sony or Microsoft have been this generation.
matc7884

GC: You’re right but at the same time Nintendo has never been quite this secretive before, without an obvious reason. It’s not even clear whether they’re consciously doing things differently or if they’re just letting the chips fall where they may.

Inbox also-rans
It’s so weird to me that NieR:Automata is getting an Overwatch crossover and we still haven’t heard a peep about any kind of sequel. That game will be 10 years old next year!
Focus

Would just like to see I got Minishoot’ Adventures a year or so ago and really loved it. Would definitely recommend it to others now it’s on console.
Skimboat

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

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