The Friday letters page discusses the inherent problems with previewing video games, as one reader salutes the release of Rhythm Paradise Groove on Nintendo Switch 1.

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

Evolution or decline?
As we crawl towards the release date of GTA 6 I find myself asking what some people may think is a silly question: will it be better than GTA 5? Obviously, the graphics will be better and I’m sure there’ll be more things to do and a bigger open world and all that, but none of those things make one game better than another.

The things I like best about GTA 5 are the characters and dialogue, the design of the open world, and individual missions. And with so many people leaving and joining Rockstar in the more than a decade since GTA 5 there’s no guarantee any of those things will be as good in the new game.

I’m particularly worried about the dialogue, because both the main writers have left and that’s got to have a big effect on how the game comes out. There’s very little dialogue in the two trailers so far, so it’s very hard to tell whether it’s any good or not.

There’s also the stuff like the driving and combat, which has never been great in GTA and often has strange control systems. That could be improved or it could go the other way. Thinking about it, I’d hate to work on the game because there’s just so much that could go wrong, I wouldn’t want to be making these decisions.
Purple Ranger

Portable market
Just saw some stats for Switch 2 sales in Japan and apparently it’s almost caught up with the PlayStation 5 already, at 5 million consoles to 7.5 million. It’ll easily pass it this year and that blows my mind considering Sony had an almost five year head start.

I don’t think the reasons are very hard to work out: the PlayStation 5 is much more expensive (the Switch 2 is cheaper in Japan than here) and it’s not portable but it’s still a really bad number. It makes me think that the PlayStation 6 portable is something that Sony wants specifically for Japan and they don’t necessarily care how well it does in the West. The rumours about it certainly make more sense to me now, seeing how bad the PlayStation 5 is doing.
Onibee

State of Sony
The Witcher 3 DLC and the Assassin’s Creed 4 remake are all well and good but that means another State of Play with little or no first party Sony games. The last one was good but that barely had any either. We do at least have a few on the docket at the moment – Saros, Marvel’s Wolverine, and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet – but it’s still not much and definitely not enough to make it clear that Sony has done some big U-turn on their previous policy. It’s just slightly better than the last couple of years.

If the God Of War spin-off is announced in the summer that will probably be it and I just don’t know how excited I am at playing as Kratos’ wife, who we saw for five minutes tops in the last game. I’ve seen people suggest that Sony are holding most things back for the PlayStation 6 but man, what a wasted generation this was.
Cuit

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Classic sequel
Just a heads up to say the Broken Sword Smoking Mirror: Reforged Kickstarter has gone live, where you can pre-order a digital or physical collector’s edition of the remake of the second Broken Sword game.

I don’t know where they go after this game for remakes, as although the other Broken Sword games are very good, in my opinion, they are not classed as classics as Broken Sword 1 and 2 are. I’ve just backed for my physical edition and my name in the credits!
Andrew J.
PS: I noticed the date has possibly slipped for the Pragmata amiibo. Originally, I think it may have been due out on 17th April 2026, at the same time as the game, but it seems to have recently slipped to June 11th 2026. I presume the game is not delayed and it is just a manufacturing delay with the amiibo.

GC: The game’s not delayed.

Time travel movie
So just got back from watching Mario and I have to say I really enjoyed it. We watched it in 4D and I really think that added a lot to it. Watched a few movies that way, including the last Mario film, but this time felt extra good.

The seats never stopped moving and the vibration, air blasts, and water sprays really made it for me, the 3D effects were pretty good too. Maybe I wouldn’t enjoy it as much watching at home but overall a great experience. And made me want to dust off my neglected Switch 2 for some Mario Kart.
P B

Strategy wizard
As the Spectrum is getting Inbox attention, I feel compelled to mention what, to me, are two of its’ best games; Chaos: The Battle Of Wizards and Rebelstar, both by Julian Gollop. Chaos was up to eight-players on a single screen, with wizards given random spells to deploy creatures that could be real or illusory and is still a blast today. Top tip: always cast Disbelieve if a player manifests a dragon.

Rebelstar was Gollop honing the turn-based, limited action point strategy game that would later become XCOM. It’s one of the best value games ever, as it released on the budget Firebird label for £1.99, which wasn’t a great deal of money 40 years ago in 1986. Highly addictive for 1 or 2 players and very innovative.

Chock full of features, such as opportunity fire, diverse reloadable weapons, complex inventory management, healing items and melee weapons, as well as the ranged combat. Like XCOM, you also cared about your troops, and should Rita Rumpo be killed the turn after using AP on a reckless missed shot, that left them insufficient points to get back to cover, you were gutted.

What Gollop wrung out of the 48K Spectrum was mind-blowing. A tired Raider could even pick up a coffee token and get a brew from the moonbase vending machine or equip a lawnmower and mow the garden area if fed up of blasting robots.
Reg Smythe

Press ZR to pay respects
Can’t say I’m particularly interested in Rhythm Paradise Groove but I’ll salute it anyway as Nintendo’s last first party game on the original Switch. An amazing console and I think it’s definitely going to be regarded as one of the best ever the more distance we get from it.

The Switch 2 has got a lot to live up to in terms of its legacy, and I don’t think anyone would try and argue its first year has been as good as the Switch 1’s. It’s not been terrible, but it looks worse compared to what’s come before. Personally, I think it’s been a mistake not to have a proper Nintendo Direct before now.
Coolsbane

Wrong impressions
Old Man Yells at Cloud incoming…

Reading your Samson review and it’s making me think that the preview sessions game journalists go to are just a big scam, or the write-ups that follow them are (not you, I genuinely believe you’re one of the good guys).

I read multiple previews of Samson gushing about how promising and exciting it was. How on earth can we believe any of that with how the reviews have panned out. I don’t think subjectivity can even be argued in this case, it’s being slammed across the board.

Same with Crimson Desert. Most of the previews I read failed to mention how truly atrocious the controls and writing, etc. were, and some of these people had hours of hands-on time. It’s disingenuous and sells people on an experience without the full facts.

It makes me enjoy your content even more, and I’d add GameRanx on YouTube to this too.
RJ

GC: Thanks. Previews are always difficult to judge, since you always have to bear in mind the game isn’t finished yet. We didn’t do previews for Samson or Crimson Desert, though, so we can’t comment on that. However, in our Resident Evil Requiem review, we did point out that our preview of it was based on the absolute best parts of the game – although, of course, we didn’t know that at the time. Not that the end result wasn’t still excellent, but what we played wasn’t an entirely fair representation of the final game.

Inbox also-rans
When I see a quote about GTA 6 making players millionaires I just want to roll my eyes but the worst thing is it’s probably true, if it’s anything like Roblox. I just hate to think of the kinds of games and modes they’re going to be making with it.
Hoover

I was going to ask if Samson is coming to consoles, but then I read the whole review and, you know, it’s fine. Keep it on PC.
Spatz

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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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In the tradition of indie classics such as Limbo and Inside, comes a new action adventure starring a cartoon octopus caught up in an alien invasion.

We don’t actually play that many video games that are truly awful, since there’s usually nothing of note about them to make a review worthwhile. There’re occasional exceptions, like the mind-bogglingly terrible Code Violet and the baffling MindsEye, but most of the worst games are just worthless slop of the sort Sony is currently trying to clear out from the PlayStation Store.

The majority of video games aren’t unusually good or bad, they’re somewhere in the middle. And so it can be difficult to know which are worthy of further investigation, given there are dozens of new indie games released every week, even at quiet times of the year.

We’re not familiar with French developer ZDT Studio, since this seems to be their debut game, but since the graphics for Darwin’s Paradox looked good, the publisher is Konami, and octopuses are cool we decided to give it a go. In the end we wish we hadn’t, not because it’s terrible but because it’s so deeply average.

Maybe average isn’t entirely fair. The graphics are really good for an indie game and on paper your octopus powers are all very neat, including the ability to camouflage yourself; shoot out ink to cover your escape; and walk along any surface, including the ceiling, like a spider (which we’re pretty sure octopuses can’t do, but whatever).

Darwin’s Paradox is, rather randomly, named after Charles Darwin’s discovery that tropical seas don’t seem to contain enough nutrients to sustain coral reefs, despite the fact they’re teeming with life. That has nothing to do with the game, other than the octopus you control is called Darwin, whose friend is captured by secret aliens running a food processing company and planning to invade Earth.

What this translates to in gameplay terms is a 2D platformer influenced by the likes of Limbo and Inside, but swapping melancholic mystery for cartoon silliness. Darwin spends a surprising amount of time on dry land but whether he’s hiding from guards or trying not to get eaten by a moray eel everything works in the same general way.

His camouflage ability is basically a cloak of invisibility and as long as you activate it in time you become completely invisible to enemies. Although it does take a while to complete, so you spend a lot of time slowly inching your way across the screen, spending more time going into camouflage than moving or hiding.

Spraying ink is only good for masking your movement underwater but the gob of liquid you shoot out can be aimed quite precisely and so ends up getting used to activate switches and machinery when you’re on land. Although you don’t have any offensive abilities at all.

The climbing on any surface gimmick is used a surprising amount and while it seems quite clever at first it’s fiddly and inconsistent. Not enough to be a total wash but certainly enough to irritate, with sticky and slow movement that makes you constantly wish you could just get back in the water, where you’re much more mobile. The worst thing, though, is the game is filled with trial and error traps that often cannot be foreseen.

The checkpointing is generous enough that you don’t usually have to repeat too much but it’s still frustrating getting caught out by something you couldn’t have anticipated, especially as it happens so often. Even without this, the puzzles just aren’t interesting enough to engage you, as the solution is usually instantly obvious but pushing items where you want them or getting a pixel perfect jump just right is frequently more difficult than it should be.

As the scope of indie gaming begins to grow wider, from tiny games made by a single person to those whose scale begins to rival low-end games from traditional publishers, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to judge how fair their price tags are.

Darwin’s Paradox is relatively expensive and it’s only around six hours long and yet you can see where all the money went, as the cartoonish visuals are excellent and mixed in with almost photorealistic backdrops. That said, it’s never actually funny, no matter how often Darwin’s googly eyes try to emote as he’s being pecked to death by birds or squished by alien machinery.

Despite its attempts to provoke a reaction we found it impossible to hold any strong feelings about Darwin’s Paradox. It’s competently made, very pretty, and almost completely uninteresting. The dull and long-winded puzzles are the biggest problem and give the impression that the whole game was designed around the visuals, with everything seemingly having been worked back from there.

That’s never been a good way to make a video game and while this is an acceptable enough way to waste away a rainy Sunday afternoon, that’s about as positive as we can be about it.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Price: £19.99
Publisher: Konami
Developer: ZDT Studio
Release Date: 2nd April 2026
Age Rating: 7

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The Friday letters page tries to guess what the Nintendo Switch 2 Lite will cost, as one reader is shocked by the behind the scenes info on The Last Of Us Online.

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

First party trio
I know that Xbox gets ragged on a lot everywhere nowadays, and I’m not going to pretend they don’t deserve most of it. However, it’s not all bad and, as someone that owns an Xbox Series X/S, I feel I have to try and look on the bright side.

This is easier than you might think because they have a really stacked first party line-up this year, including Forza Horizon 6, Halo: Campaign Evolved, and Fable. There might also be Gears Of War: E-Day, but I’m not clear if that’s meant for 2026 or not.

That is a much better line-up than either Sony or Nintendo at the moment, in my opinion, and while I agree it may get overtaken by the end those are not games to be ignored. I would assume Forza to be the biggest, but I think Fable has a chance to do very well too. I’m not so sure about Halo though, given we’ve already had one remake of it and there’s no multiplayer.

Crazy to think Halo has gone from Xbox’s most important franchise to a second-stringer. Nothing lasts forever, I guess.
Korey

GC: Gears Of War: E-Day has no release year, so it could conceivably be this year.

Lite on value
With prices constantly going up it seems to be only a matter of time before the Switch 2 is even more expensive and I still haven’t got one. I have to assume this is encouraging Nintendo to fast-track the Switch 2 Lite, although who knows how quickly it will be to appear. But perhaps the biggest question now is how cheap could it be?

The normal Switch 2 is £400, or thereabouts, so surely the aim would be to get the Lite version to under £300. But even that seems a lot. That’s still only what the original Switch was at launch, so I’d appreciate at least another £50 off. Although in this case I do accept that there are outside factors.

Gaming is going too expensive in every aspect and I really think it’s about time console manufactures acknowledge this and make an effort to change things as a priority. I would look to Nintendo more than anyone to lead the way on this but so far there’s not really been anything.
Ollienaut

Come back later
I completed Life Is Strange: Reunion over the weekend and basically agree with your review. The whole thing is a rushed mess, with reused graphics, bad branching storytelling, and a terrible plot. Not only do I not think there’ll be another one after this, but I don’t want it after this; Max and Chloe deserved so much better.

Square Enix obviously knew all this would be disaster or they wouldn’t have held back the review copies, so why do it at all? Better to let the series rest for a few years, until people really start to miss it, and then do a new game, even if it ends the story, then with a team that wants it and hasn’t just been gutted by their corporate overlords.
Grackle

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The budget of Zelda
The idea of Nintendo becoming a big time film studio is so funny to me. The company with the least interest in telling a story is making the most successful movies… even if they don’t have stories either. The success of the second Mario film, which I haven’t seen, is only going to cement them further and other studios will be knocking down their door trying to get involved.

But like you said, that live action Zelda seems near impossible to get right. It could be done but I don’t have enough faith in the director or Nintendo as producer to make it work. I also can’t believe that Nintendo will pony up enough money to do the visuals justice.

An animated movie would’ve been such a better choice and a really good thing for more adult themed animation at the cinema. Or at least more adult than Mario. Zelda is the best video game franchise ever but what’s the betting it won’t be the best film ever? Or anything less than an embarrassment?
Coolsbane

Virtual worlds within worlds
Buying a game to pretend to own boxes of games you already have on digital is a hell of an elevator pitch. It’s always fascinating to me to read about these weird PC simulators, like truck sims and that powerhouse one.

I’d never want to play them but after thinking they’re a joke I always end up looking them up and it turns out they’ve sold 10 million or something. It’s easy to forget that non-gamers have very different interests and priorities to the rest of us.
Snoopy
PS: What is an elevator pitch anyway? Is that an American thing and they mean lift?

GC: We think they mean lift, yes.

Cyberdyne Systems
That guy that was working on The Last Of Us Online for seven years only for it to cancelled must have a level of patience I can’t even begin to imagine. Apart from anything, I’m surprised he stayed in the games industry and didn’t go off and work for a saner kind of company afterwards.

Never mind the amount of hours everyone must’ve spent on the game, how much money did it cost to employ hundreds of people for seven years to make absolutely nothing? And the reason they cancelled it is because they didn’t want to spend the next 10 years making more content for it? Did they not know what a live service game was before they started?!

The more you learn about the games industry the more you begin to wonder whether anyone in it has any common sense. There are some creative geniuses making the games but everyone else around it seems to be running on only half a tank.

They keep trying to replace developers and artists with AI but how about swapping out some of these producers and exec types? As useless as AI is I don’t see how it could do any worse in most cases.
Lynch

Resiopia PD
I knew fans would get creative with Pokémon Pokopia and some of those examples were really great. I particularly appreciate whoever did the Resident Evil one because they edited the video for it so well too!

My dream is to recreate the towns as they were, but I don’t know if I’ll ever really get there. I still hold out enough hope that I don’t want to read that Reddit that tells you how to do it though. The fun of the game is working things out for yourself, and I appreciate that it doesn’t hold your hand as much as you’d think.
Bosley

Do a barrel roll
Nice article on The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. I agree that it’s definitely not a dumb Minions style movie that just wants you to ‘switch off your brain’ (ever notice that the people that say that are the least likely to ever watch something where you need to switch it on?).

It’s crazy and weird (I saw it yesterday with my kids) but it’s meant to be like that and, as you say, it’s closest thing you can get to a game without actually playing it. Is there a better movie that could be made with more character depth? Maybe but I don’t know who you’d get to write it.

As far as I’m concerned the only thing it could do with is more proper jokes in the dialogue, as it was kind of flat like that. But I enjoyed it. The only character that came anywhere close to being annoying was Yoshi and he was fine. I don’t anticipate getting to watch it 100 times when it hits streaming but the first time at least it was pretty fun.

I especially like the Star Fox bit, which I don’t see how any kid could properly understand, but Glen Powell was perfect and I now fully expect a new game to appear, because there’s no way they did all that just so people can play Lylat Wars on Nintendo Switch Online.

I do wonder what it’s going to be but perhaps something lower budget, that is just an on-rails shooter, and go back to basics like that? That’s not the normal approach Nintendo takes but then they don’t have many dead franchises like that, that they have to try a different trick with.
Gordo

Inbox also-rans
If it really is just a fiver I think I’d be a lot more interested in an Indie Game Pass than the Xbox one. I had it for a while and I barely played any of the first party games.
Renton

I’m not sure I see the point in a PlayStation 6 portable. If you’re only going to use it in the house how would it be any different from using a PlayStation Portal?
Wilks

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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.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

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It was always going to be a massive hit, but what does the success of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie mean for future Switch 2 games.

When the first Super Mario animated movie launched in 2023, it was met with a critical drubbing yet was so beloved by audiences that it became the most profitable film of the year and one of the highest grossing animated movies ever made.

Its sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, has so far been met with even harsher reviews (its Rotten Tomatoes score is 42% compared to the first movie’s 59%), but that’s done nothing to deter fans or hamper its box office performance.

It only came out in cinemas yesterday (Wednesday, April 1) and has yet to release in Japan, but it’s not only have had a stronger opening than the first movie but the biggest opening day of any movie so far this year.

According to Deadline, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has made at least $34 million (£26 million) in its first day, which is more than the $31.7 million (£24 million) the original Mario movie made on its first day.

It’s also surpassed Ryan Gosling sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary’s opening day earnings, which made $33.1 million when it launched on March 19.

Deadline notes that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has also had the best April Wednesday opening of all time, which is an oddly specific record. The question now is what sort of legs the movie will have but with little in the way of competition in the next few weeks it’s likely to continue to do very well.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed $1,360,847,665 (about £1.03 billion) by the end of 2023, making it the second highest grossing movie of the year behind the live action Barbie movie.

Currently, the highest grossing movie of 2026 is Chinese sports comedy Pegasus 3 at $632,040,000 (£479 million), with Project Hail Mary in second place at $330,412,913 (£250 million).

If The Super Mario Galaxy Movie makes as much money as its predecessor, that would handily make it one of the biggest movies of 2026. Distributor Universal Pictures is said to be forecasting the sequel will make $186 million (about £141 million) in its first five days.

That’s less than the $204.6 million (about £155 million) the first movie made in the same time frame, which suggests its total earnings, while likely still massive, won’t reach the same dizzying highs as the first movie.

What will be interesting is what kind of impact the movie’s success will have on game sales. Nintendo purposefully re-released both Super Mario Galaxy games last year to drum up excitement for the movie, so they’ll no doubt see a bump in sales.

We won’t know until Nintendo shares a update itself, in a future financial report, but it’d make sense as Nintendo reported a boost in sales for Mario related games after the first movie came out.

Nintendo had a new Mario game prepped that year, in the form of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which was announced and launched several months after the movie.

Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to be the case this year. Granted, Nintendo hasn’t shared firm plans for the second half of 2026, but it was recently rumoured that the next big Mario platformer isn’t until at least 2027.

Instead, the new movie does more to promote Star Fox, of all things, through protagonist Fox McCloud’s cameo, with a new Star Fox game reportedly planned for this summer.

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The Thursday letters page has initial fan reactions to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, as one reader is annoyed that Sora and Pragmata are coming out at the same time.

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

Review in progress
I’m sure we’re probably only a month or too away from Sony officially announcing the PlayStation 6 now, just like Microsoft already has for the Xbox. I’m not going to bother saying I think it’s too soon because I think that’s almost everyone’s opinion.

The PlayStation 5 still selling so well makes it seem extra unnecessary, but it did make think what the legacy of the console will be. For me the PlayStation 4 was Sony’s best console, thanks to its great games line-up, so I’d give it a solid 9/10.

But what about the PlayStation 5? For me personally it’s no more than 5/10, maybe less. There has been great games on it but Sony hasn’t had much to do with most of those and most seem like they could’ve just been PlayStation 4 games.

Am I being too harsh? Curious to know what other readers think as I realise that’s quite a drop.
Purple Ranger

Subliminal marketing
Just seen The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and I already don’t believe a word about not building up to a Smash Bros. film. No spoilers, but let’s just say the Fox McCloud cameo is not the only one that comes out of nowhere.

The amount of time spent on Star Fox kind of surprised me though. There is no way they aren’t building up to a new game reveal. That whole bit was basically an ad for a game that hasn’t been announced yet. Although I’m perfectly happy with that.

I thought the film was good, at least in terms of pleasing kids and Nintendo fans (i.e. me). The story’s very basic but I was surprised that all the characters got a little chance to shine, even though there’s a lot more heroes than the first one. My kids loved it.
Penfold

Portable games for portable consoles
The idea of a PlayStation 6 (or more likely PlayStation 5) handheld sounds all well and good but I sincerely doubt that Sony is going to make or encourage games that are exclusive to it, which means you’ll only ever be playing the same home games on a handheld.

I know some people like this, but I’ve never really seen the appeal. I’m not that desperate that I need to still be playing on the train and even if it’s in bed or something I’d rather just set up a TV there, it’s not much effort.

Am I the only one that only likes to make games made for a portable? That’s how it was for the PSP and PS Vita after all.
Gauntlett

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Out of control
I am an avid fighting game fan and have been enjoying Street Fighter 6 and the recent release of Virtua Fighter 5 on Switch 2 (it plays fantastically well, by the way). However, when playing in handheld mode I find the Joy-Cons, especially the L and R buttons, way too easy to accidently hit and cause the wrong move to come out in a match.

Nintendo designed the L and R buttons to be longer and extend round the side of the Joy-Con. This design choice means I frequently make input mistakes. Am I the only person experiencing this? Nintendo seem to celebrate the design choice, but it removed handhled play for me with some games. Using a Pro Controller in desktop mode is a workaround but it would be good to be able to pick up and play in my hands sometimes. Have you in GC has this issue?
Bristolpete

GC: Not really but the Joy-Cons are a jack of all trades, master of none type situation. So there’s always going to be some games where they’re not very well suited.

A game of two halves
I don’t know about a backlash for Resident Evil Requiem, because I don’t think there’s any doubting it’s a good game. But I do think it’s been overrated and the way it gets worse the longer you play it is very disappointing.

What I find interesting though is a comment GC made where they said that the second half in Resident Evil games is almost always the worst. And it’s true! The problem is that most of the time that always involves some kind of underground laboratory and at that point all the gothic horror goes out the window.

Mind you, I think they were trying to avoid that in Village and I don’t think it worked. Probably because that one was just okay all the way through.
Grinch

Ring out
I don’t know what’s going on with the rights exactly, but The Lord of the Rings seems to be having its Star Wars sequel trilogy moment right now, where they’re just churning out any old rubbish because they’re desperate for content and they know they’ve already done all the obvious stuff, so they’re just throwing things at the wall in desperation.

You’ve got the awful Amazon series, the deeply uninteresting sounding Hunt for Gollum movie, and almost every video game ever made since the movies were out.

Now we’ve got rumours of the Tomb Raider people making a game, which has got to mean it’s an action game, because they’ve never done anything else (also, you would’ve thought they’d be too busy with the new Tomb Raider).

A Lord of the Rings game should be about strategy and dialogue, not trying to turn it into a Dark Souls clones or whatever it is that Crystal Dynamics are planning.

In terms of action, what everyone remembers from the films is the epic battles on a huge scale. I don’t think there was any on-on-one combat that was particularly memorable, unless you count Gandalf vs. Saurman.

The Shadow Of Mordor games were okay in themselves but they weren’t really anything like the movies and definitely nothing like the book. It’s not a question of getting the visuals or the lore right, you’ve got to let the game match up with the nature of the source material and I don’t think any Lord of the Rings game has really done that.
Focus

Extinction event
In Wednesday’s Inbox, Solabound said, ‘Also, I echo the reader’s sentiment that Sony have just removed any chance of me buying into a PlayStation 5 or 6; I’ll be very surprised if that isn’t the death knell of the traditional home console industry.’

I made very accurate predictions about the PlayStation 7 and the future of gaming that other readers in the Underbox simply scoffed at, at the time.
LeeDappa

Bad timing
A useful summary of the most interesting game for April but I do find it interesting how which months are busy now seems to have become completely random. It used to be that November was busiest, ahead of Christmas, then Easter (because kids are off the longest) then just a bit run-off early in the year from games that missed their spot.

Now it seems a big game can come out at anytime of the year. I think that’s for the best, as everything coming out at once doesn’t help anyone and it stops video games seeming like just a kid’s toy, even if Christmas is never not going to be the busiest time.

For April I’m most interested in Pargmata and Sora, which both seem to have something in common with each other, as old school third person shooters, that seem to require quite a bit of skill to play.

I assume them both coming out at the same time is just a coincidence but it’s odd how often that happens. We haven’t seen anything like them for what seems like years and yet, just like buses, here are two of them at the same time.

It may seem like just a meaningless quirk of fate but it’s actually more important than that because I can’t afford to get both at once, so I’m going to have to wait for the reviews and make my decision then, which might not have happened if they’d come out a bit more spread apart.
Grant

Inbox also-rans
Having just seen the new Super Mario movie (which I thought was all right) I don’t believe for a minute that Nintendo isn’t building up to Smash Bros. There’s a cameo near the end that makes absolutely no sense otherwise.
Lawton

Just came back from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and I really enjoyed it. I’m not sure it makes much sense if you’re a non-fan but the big surprise is that Star Fox is in it quite a bit and I thought that worked really well.
Xama

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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.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Is there a Resident Evil Requiem backlash?

MORE: Games Inbox: How expensive will the PS6 be?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is there really going to be a Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake?

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The Monday letters page is appalled at the idea of another PS5 price rise, as one reader questions how a Star Fox revival could work.

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

Too good to be true
If the rumours hadn’t come from such good sources I wouldn’t believe the news of a Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake, simply because that seems far too straightforward and obvious. It’s exactly what fans want and that’s something Nintendo almost never does.

I would be amazingly happy if it did happen, but I’ll continue to be dubious until it gets an official annoucement. My dream is that they get Capcom’s Resident Evil remake team to make it. Can you imagine how good that would be? Especially after how well Requiem works on the Switch 2.

The worst case scenario is if they get some no-name team, like the ones that did Link’s Awakening, to make it and it’s all some semi-cheap cash-in. I would not put this past Nintendo as they don’t like spending money and you would assume the main Zelda team is busy right now.

Of course, the question is why didn’t they announce this for Zelda’s 40th anniversary, especially with console sales on the slide, but I’m sure we’ll never get any sensible explanation for that. On balance, I believe the remake is real but I don’t yet believe it’s a good idea.
Onibee

Foxed again
So it looks like Nintendo is pretty dead set on making a new Star Fox, huh? Even if you don’t believe the rumours, putting him front and centre in the new Mario movie is a very strange move if it’s not for a specific reason. I’m all for it but I am dubious as to what it will be and who’ll make it.

The problem with Star Fox is that the first two games – the good ones – are pretty simple updates of the old 2D shmup formula. Star Fox 64 had 3D movement with all-range mode, but it was very limited and I’m not sure how far you can push that and stay mainstream.

The reason the other games have failed is not so much that they were bad but that they diluted the formula so much it didn’t really mean anything anymore. What is Star Fox? Is it a 3D shmup or is it just any random game as long as you have the same characters in it?

That second approach has clearly not worked and I hope Nintendo realise that and take things back to basics.
Starch

Rich customers
I don’t even know what to think about the PlayStation 5 price rises. It says it all when I’ve forgotten whether this is the second or the third one. I do think it’s probably not the last though.

It’s pointless saying it would be madness to release the PlayStation 6 anytime soon but despite that being how everyone else sees it Sony are not going to listen. The world does not need or want an even more expensive console that does nothing except add AI slop (I agree with the Reader’s Feature that a DLSS 5 style tech is very likely).

There’s absolutely no logic to it but it’s not going to stop them because they’ve just got it into their heads that as long as some (rich) people will buy it, it doesn’t matter how many poorer people they lose along the way. Well, count me out, that’s all I can say.
Gritt

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Quick reminder
I recently downloaded Minishoot’ Adventures and whilst I initially enjoyed the game’s exploring, I soon gave up.

There seems to be little or no ability to know where you’ve been in the game. I don’t get to play games as frequently as others so it’s often a few days or a week between sessions, so I’ve completely forgotten where I’ve been and where I’ve got to go. It’s so frustrating.

Is this a shared frustration? You alluded to it in your review, but I just find it such an impediment to my enjoyment. It doesn’t help that the regions look very samey too.

Do you have any tips to help with this?
John

GC: There’s no real way round it, apart from making notes. We mentioned a feature in our re-review of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, that reminds you of the last four things you did when you load the game up again, after stopping. That’s the sort of useful idea that is still not commonplace 22 years later and there’s no reason why.

Better late than never
I’m really glad that Silent Hill f has done so well, that now it’s getting crossovers with other horror series and manga with new endings and all the rest of it.

I admit that I thought announcing all these games was a waste of time and the series was doomed but I’m happy to be wrong. I guess sometimes just throwing enough stuff at the wall until it sticks does work.

Although hopefully they have got into a grove now and Townfall will be good as well. If it is and that’s three good games in a row (maybe four with the remake of Silent Hill 1) that will be quite the comeback.
Grackle

Balancing expectations
With all the doom and gloom around Switch 2 sales, I think people are forgetting what Nintendo forecast when it launched the machine and actual sales figures.

When they launched the machine they predicated it would sell 15 million units by March 2026 and last official sales figures suggest it has already sold 17 million units by the end end of 2025, so it’s already best it’s own estimates by 2 million with three months to spare.

Nintendo did increase the forecast to 19 million units after strong initial sales, so if you were to take that into consideration then they only need to sell 2 million between January and March 2026. And let’s not forget that it was only in February that they kept the 19 million forecast, by which time they would know if it’s tracking to hit their targets – they can’t knowingly mislead shareholders unless they are looking to get sued.

That’s not to say the Bloomberg reporter is flat out wrong – producing 6 million units a quarter means they would be looking to sell 24 million in any given year, which is crazy numbers in the current climate. And maybe Nintendo gave themselves a reality check that they are producing more than they need to, rather than suggest the Switch 2 is a sales flop.

Also, with the EU stating electronic devices need to have user replaceable battery going forward that could be another factor to slow down production of current model, to move capacity over to a revised model.

Basically, not everything needs to be doom and gloom all the time, and it’s OK to take reports with a pinch of salt if they are not backed by hard data.

Either way we find out in a few weeks when the next set of financial results are released (and maybe I’ll have custard on my face).
Anon

GC: It was Nintendo’s own president that admitted Christmas sales in the West had been ‘slightly weaker’ than expected. The question isn’t what’s happening but how serious a problem it is for Nintendo – and you’re right that, at the moment, the answer is probably not much at all.

The Elder Scrolls 6: Bohemia
For anyone hankering after a new Elder Scrolls game can I recommend Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Just picked it up in the PSN sale and while it starts out pretty difficult, I’m really enjoying the first person exploration and levelling up by doing. Definitely worth a look.
Matt (he_who_runs_away – PSN ID)

Life is strained
In addition to Shahzaib Sadiq’s concern regarding the quality of Life Is Strange: Reunion, he said, ‘but if it is another disappointment from Deck Nine, that is the final nail in the coffin.’

Sadly, I think the damage has already been done, starting with Double Exposure.

I’ve written in to the Inbox three times regarding my love for Life Is Strange, Before The Storm, and True Colors but in one of those emails, I expressed my own worries around the time Double Exposure was being revealed officially.

I said having Max as the main protagonist – something some of the fans wanted, but not me – was probably a bad idea, as I felt it was watering down and taking away the magic of what we loved of the first game, à la Ellie in The Last Of Us. And now they’ve bought back Chloe, which looks like they have either run out of ideas or simply given in to fan demand, which in turn may leave a permanent bad mark on their character.

The series now appears to be reliant on these two fan favourites, that they are now at risk of being overexposed, if you will.

I also mentioned in one of the aforementioned emails that some story characters are best confined to the one game/film they originated in, because actually sometimes, the wonder and speculation of what happened to them is better than what we actually know due to official canon.

I never played Double Exposure and just won’t ever, because I feel this game series has become a Donnie Darko/Ginger Snaps type thing where the first film was great but subsequent films told a story no one wanted to hear or cared for in the first place.

I sometimes feel we gamers don’t really know what we want…
LeeDappa

Inbox also-rans
Excellent interview with Jesper Kyd, GC. He’s always been my favourite video game musician and I had no idea he, or half the companies he talked about, go back so far.
Purple Ranger

GC: Thank you.

A £90 price increase for all PlayStation 5 console is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t believe that me buying one at launch turned out to be the cheapest option. And yet I still feel like I was conned somehow.
Grendel

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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.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Will there be a Super Smash Bros. movie?

MORE: Games Inbox: What is the best 2D Mario platformer?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is the Nintendo Switch 2 becoming a failure?

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A remake of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time will allegedly launch this year, to mark the series’ 40th anniversary, but not a new 3D Mario.

Nintendo’s Christmas game for 2026 has been the subject of much speculation this year, with the common assumption being that a successor to Super Mario Odyssey is the obvious choice.

The announcement of Pokémon Winds and Waves for 2027 only solidified this belief, but it seems like Nintendo has another firecracker in store for the Switch 2 later this year.

According to reliable insider NateTheHate, who accurately leaked details on the Switch 2’s launch, Nintendo is planning to release a remake of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time ‘in the second half of 2026’. He’s also leaked several other games from Nintendo’s line-up, with his information being corroborated by VGC.

There are no details on the scope of the remake, or confirmation that it is definitely Nintendo’s big Christmas game, but it stands to reason it’d have to be a substantial overhaul if it is – especially if it’s a Switch 2 exclusive.

Nintendo released a minor Ocarina Of Time remake on the Nintendo 3DS in 2011, which featured updated graphics, stereoscopic 3D, and quality-of-life improvements. The Nintendo 64 original from 1998 is also available on Nintendo Switch Online, so another remake will have to sport some decent improvements to encourage people to lay down cash.

If it turns out to be the reimagined version we’re all hoping for, it’ll certainly be a big deal. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time is widely recognised as one of the greatest, and most influential, video games of all time.

A remake makes sense to celebrate The Legend Of Zelda’s 40th anniversary, although it is peculiar that Nintendo hasn’t announced it already. The actual anniversary has already passed (February 21) and a small teaser may have helped drive lagging Switch 2 sales in the West. It would also give those Zelda Lego sets some added context.

While a Zelda remake appears to be on the cards for 2026, NateTheHate ruled out the chance of a new 3D Mario arriving this year. ‘One game that will not be releasing in holiday 2026 is 3D Mario,’ he said on the latest episode of his podcast. ‘3D Mario will be releasing in 2027.’

If that’s true, that means a 3D Mario and Pokémon Winds and Waves will be arriving in 2027, which is a pretty big double whammy. It’ll also mark 10 years since the release of the last 3D Mario game, Super Mario Odyssey, which is pretty crazy to think about.

There have been other Mario games released over the years since, though, including Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario Maker 2, and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury.

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MORE: Silent Hill f reveals crossover with another classic Japanese horror game

MORE: Devil May Cry 5 and Hellraiser coming to Switch 2 amidst Nintendo Direct rumours

MORE: PS5 price rise confirmed with £90 increase on all consoles in the UK

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The Monday letters page is keen to find out what happens after Resident Evil Requiem, as one reader has no sympathy for Crimson Desert players.

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

Marathon effort
The thing that gets me about this weekend-only Marathon business is how Bungie have less than zero respect for people’s time. We’ve all been saying that about games for a while now but level-grinding to unlock something you can only play for eight days a month is crazy too me.

Never mind what you’re supposed to do if you happen to work over the weekend (I often have to come in on a Saturday) but I guess that just makes the ones that do get to play it even cooler, right?

As if the ugly graphics weren’t putting enough people off, this actually kills any though I had of ever giving it a try. I don’t know whether the game is going to be successful or not – it seems to be doing okay but not great – but when I play a video game it’s not so it can become a second job for me.
Zeiss

Marketing spend
Is it only me that gets constant adverts for World Of Warcraft’s new expansion, every time I go on YouTube? I have no interest in the game, I’ve never played it or visited a website about it, and I’ve certainly never watched a video on it, but I get spammed with ads for it constantly.

The weird thing is I get very few other ads about games, despite that being one of my favourite things. Fortnite is about the only other thing I get a lot, which probably says a lot about how much these companies are spending on advertising compared to everyone else.

I’m a big Resi fan and have been watching a ton of videos about it lately, but I never saw a single ad for Resident Evil Requiem. That doesn’t seem to have affected its sales but I wonder what would’ve happened if it had been shown everywhere?
Logan

Risk and no reward
I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve got any sympathy for anyone that pre-ordered Crimson Desert and is now regretting (or, more likely, pretending to anyone that will listen that it’s good, actually). A too-good-to-be-true game from a developer with no experience in the genre, or anything much except one MMO, should send those alarm bells ringing straight away.

If you’ve got £55 just lying around, that you can afford to gamble on a game being good, based on virtually nothing, then I don’t think you can really complain about anything. I’ll wait until the game is cheap… and then spend the money on something else, because it sounds awful.
Spency

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Single option
I don’t think the PlayStation 5 still beating the Switch 2 in sales is too much of a surprise. Nobody is going to buy an Xbox Series X/S at the moment so if you want triple-A games then the PlayStation 5 is the only option.

The Switch 2 is a great console but it’s not going to be the first choice for anyone but families and hardcore Nintendo fans. That is still a lot of people, but I think there’s always going to be more wanting to play the best-looking versions of the latest games.

Resident Evil Requiem on the Switch 2 looks good but it’s still not as great as the PlayStation 5 version. But it’s not just graphics. Nintendo’s online services are still very limited compared to Sony and Microsoft. Who wants to play EA Sports FC on Switch 2? And you still can’t play Call Of Duty, despite all Xbox’s talk.

If you’re into games even just a bit you can’t make do with just a Switch 2, so your only options are a PlayStation 5 or a PC.
Kimble

Pokémon Endgame
Loved the Reader’s Feature about Pokémon Pokopia. I’m what I guess you’d call a lapsed fan and haven’t really been into the series properly since the DS days. I took a chance on Pokopia, after all the good reviews, and I’ve been loving it.

I almost got teary eyed at the end, especially when I realised there was tons of stuff I could still do, and that’s before getting into the Minecraft stuff or Animal Crossing style home improvement. Really excellent game and all the better because it was a surprise. More of this please, Nintendo!
Colin

Future fashion
Nice Reader’s Feature about what the next mainline Resident Evil should be, although I doubt even Capcom knows yet, as the success of Requiem probably caught them a bit off guard. If the rumours are right, we’ve got remakes of Code: Veronica and Resident Evil 1 coming first, so it’s obviously a long way off.

I’m more than up for those but Resident Evil 1 again seems like the perfect time for another soft reboot, with Resident Evil 10 following after that. As to what it will be I think there’s two main problems: do you change the characters and do you change the gameplay?

Considering how popular Grace seems to be I think there’s no doubt that Capcom can still make fun new characters, without having to rely on the old ones. In terms of gameplay though, Requiem was pretty traditional really and people loved that. Probably a lot more than if it had been open world or co-op or whatever.

So as much as we can predict anything at the moment, I think you’ve just got to look at what’s successful now, before they start making the new game. If people had hated Requiem and were demanding something new then that’s probably what Capcom would’ve done, but that’s not how it is right now.

Games taking longer to make is bad in so many ways but one that I think not a lot of people mention is that you start making them based on current trends and then by the time it’s finished who knows what will be popular. That probably explains a lot of live service games.
Cubby

How they do it
Just wanted to say that I really appreciate the behind the scenes videos in Resident Evil Requiem. I guess I already knew that’s how they did the tech but it’s really nice to see a fairly long segment broken down like that.

Although I wonder how long until time-consuming and expensive things like that are just faked with AI, because it’s ‘good enough’. Crazy to think that 30 years ago the same franchise had tank controls and characters that looked like something out of Minecraft. Happy birthday Resi!
Winston

Front loaded
That’s me finished Resident Evil Requiem on all three difficulties. It’s safe to say it is superb, with amazing graphics, fun gameplay, and a pitch perfect tone.

I still can’t help feeling it could have been even better though. To my surprise, as a big fan of Resident Evil 4, my favourite sections of the game were Grace’s. They’re really tense and atmospheric, with the Rhodes Hill Care Centre making for a wonderful setting. Having zombies with personalities works brilliantly and I wish they had doubled down on the idea with even more variety.

The second half of the game has more generic and returning enemies from the series, which seem a bit uninspired compared to those in the first half. There is too much fan service in general towards the end, especially with the bosses, and I would have preferred to see more original ground broken. I’m not convinced we even needed to return to Raccoon City at all, I’d have preferred to stick around Rhodes Hill with perhaps more institutions/buildings nearby to explore.

It’ll be really interesting to see what direction they take for the next game. I know they experimented with open world for this one and I think that might be the way to go to reinvent the series again. Can’t wait to see!
Ryan O’D
PS: My favourites are:

1. Resident Evil 4 remake
2. Resident Evil 2 remake
3. Resident Evil 1 remake
4. Resident Evil Requiem
5. Resident Evil 7

GC: We think it’s fair to say most, if not all, Resident Evil games are better in the first half than the second.

Inbox also-rans
This business about the EU Switch 2 model made me realise how happy I am that region locking is a thing of the past. What a dumb idea that was.
Focus

Crimson Desert might be a bad game but I tell you one thing, it’s made me really keen on playing a new The Witcher, just from looking at the videos. Hopefully the rumours of new DLC this year are true.
Kryzer

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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.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Crimson Desert worth getting?

MORE: Games Inbox: Are people right to criticise Nvidia’s DLSS 5 tech?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Starfield a good game?

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The Friday letters page is surprised GTA 6 no longer has the most watched trailer record, as one reader laments the death of Red Storm Entertainment.

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

Crimson letter day
Can’t say I’m surprised at the negative Crimson Desert reviews. Although I guess I should call them ‘mixed’ which seems to be what we’re supposed to say when all the trustworthy sites mark it down and the ones you’ve never heard of give it 9/10.

The graphics do look good, and I can’t pretend I wasn’t swayed by them when I was watching the trailers, but I’m very suspicious of any game that’s claiming to be the next big thing, and it’s made by a developer with very little experience in the genre.

When you know they’ve only ever made an MMO before the whole game seems like exactly what you’d expect from that. Its Metacritic score is lower than some people seem to have expected, so I think it’s clear it’s not a great game, but from what I’ve read the score isn’t low enough.

I also have a really bad feeling about the console versions. The fact that there’s not a single review of the PlayStation 5 version is giving me Cyberpunk 2077 vibes and that’s not going to be a pretty sight.
Hammeriron

Not awful
Can anyone explain to me why anyone thought Crimson Desert was going to be amazing? I’m going to assume it was nonsense whipped up by streamers and YouTube, since as I write this it’s doing really well on Twitch, but why? Surely they haven’t run out of things to talk about or were they just doing advertising for the company?

It may seem harmless but they’re talking people into paying £50+ for a game that doesn’t sound like it’s any good. And we haven’t even seen what it looks like when it runs on consoles, so I can’t wait for that obvious disaster to be revealed.

Of course, the second stage will be people who were tricked into buying it pretending to everyone else that it’s actually really good or ‘not that bad’. I don’t know about you I demand a bit more than that for my entertainment.
Lee Perrin

Losing the crown
Interesting that GTA 6 had its trailer record broken by what I would’ve thought was a relatively ordinary new Marvel movie. I’m sure it will do well, but it won’t do as much as the last Spider-Man film (because it was a crossover) and I doubt it’s going to be a cultural moment like Avengers: End Game or something like The Force Awakens. GTA 6 is absolutely on par with those sort of things though, so I’m surprise it’s not still number one.

I guess population growth alone will mean the number always goes up but with cinema attendances down… it’s just not something I would’ve betted on. I’m not going to say something daft like GTA 6 isn’t going to do well but this is the first sign we’ve had that it does have its limits. But to be fair that surprisingly sensible Take-Two boss does seem to realise that.
Dustin

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Beyond monsters
Been playing Pokemon Pokopia since launch. My, that game is a compulsive one, right?

Anyway, got me thinking, when is a pocket monster not a pocket monster and it’s just an animal? When a bird can fly and dart about quickly, isn’t it just a bird? No room for you in my pocket, pigeon! And if a squirrel doesn’t have a flaming tail or the ability to bend spoons with its mind then isn’t that just a fluffy rodent?! Kicked from the team ya furry rat!

Is there a discernible difference, or was Ash just going around enslaving wildlife for 25 years?
big boy bent
Currently playing: Pokopia and Thank Goodness You’re Here!, was chuckling away as I mowed the park with the daisies because I knew what was coming… I love you… I love you… I love you…. ha ha ha! Looking forward to more.

GC: Pokémon are fully sapient, unlike ordinary animals. No more so than in Pokopia, where they communicate with each other like a human would and perform complex tasks.

BSAA Dispatch
I hope Leon and Ada have hooked up, I think that would be neat. I think other than Barry Burton none of the other characters are confirmed to have a partner of any kind? I love Resident Evil and I would very much support a game that was not a survival horror. Something that was more comedic, sure, but also something that was more dramatic, with time for everyone to sit around and chat.

I don’t even know if half of these people have even met each other. Does Leon know Jill? Does Claire know anyone that isn’t Chris? Why has Sheva never come back and do they keep in touch?

I’m imagining some kind of visual novel/point ‘n’ click thing. Maybe something like Dispatch, where action is happening but it’s all about how the people are behind the scenes, I think that’d be a great idea.
Lobbie

La fin
Very sad to hear about the death of Red Storm Entertainment. I used to love the early Rainbow Six games, back when they were primarily tactical games, with action only as a minor aspect. Those days are obviously long gone but then so too is the whole franchise. Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon are both dead, and so is all the experimental stuff like EndWar and H.A.W.X.

Rainbow Six itself is essentially dead, with Siege being all that’s left of it, and it has nothing in common with the old games. The only other thing is The Division, which I would’ve sworn is also dead but apparently has a third game on the way, but either way it’s just another live service game.
As an adult, I have to admit I do look on the games in a different light.

They’re very right wing (as Tom Clancy was himself, even if he wasn’t a nut about it) and the whole gun fetish thing is kind of distasteful in the current age. As was said, it’s completely different to what Ubisoft used to be about and in that sense I’m not as sad to see the end of it all.

Let’s face it, if they were to bring these franchises back it’d be in name only, like Ghost Recon Wildlands, so what’s the point? I wouldn’t have shut down Red Storm but I would’ve had them making something that was a bit more political nuanced and not so much trying to appeal only to Americans.

I don’t have much faith that Ubisoft can make it through the next few years but if they do I hope they can get back some of what made them interesting in the early 2000s. Military games are fine, but they have to make them more than just shooting galleries. They need a more European perspective, not an American one.
Claborn

Petition for a petition
Can confirm that boost mode on the Switch 2 is really good. It’s the only thing that’s got me off Pokémon Pokopia (for a while) and while it is a shame that not all games are affected equally, I do think it’s a good start.

I would definitely sign the petition for a Switch 2 edition of Astral Chain, but I realise that’s never going to happen. I would love to hear of a sequel though, because I thought the original did better than expected. PlatinumGames seemed like they were in trouble for a while there but Ninja Gaiden 4 reviewed well, so hopefully they’ve still got the juice.
Luminous

Cheap graphics
I found the DLSS 5-ified images revealed the other day a bit off putting to be honest.

While clearly a lot better in the amount of detail over the original images I do think they all were overly bright and had that artificial, unnatural feel you see with a lot of AI.

While not AI, the first thing that sprang to my mind was the awful, garish, pimped up remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved. I’ve played the game several times since and always use the original graphics, just at a higher resolution, as I think they look much better and atmospheric than the technically better, more detailed, retina burning newer graphics.

I’m sure DLSS 5 and its implementation will improve though and look more natural. It’ll probably be useful for a lot of smaller devs to punch above their weight in the graphics department.

I quite like that Take-Two guy but GTA 5 is generally considered the highest grossing entertainment product ever, with something like $10 billion in revenue. He’s got a bit more resources at his disposal than nearly everyone else.
Simundo

GC: That doesn’t seem like a good reason to put up with AI slop. Many lower budget and indie titles are visually impressive already, the idea of losing that in favour of a generic AI look is an awful thought.

Inbox also-rans
Why would Sony change the name of PlayStation Network? PSN is a perfectly good acronym and unlike most Xbox names it means what is. I’ll put it another way: I’m jealous of how many millions of dollars some marketing consultant charged to change it to PlayStation Online, or whatever it’ll be.
Cinder9

I am also very keen to know what Persona 6 is like. I’d be going through the roof now, annoyed at the lack of news, but I remember it was exactly like this waiting for Persona 5. That was worth it so hopefully this will be too.
Tater

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

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.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Are people right to criticise Nvidia’s DLSS 5 tech?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Starfield a good game?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Requiem the best Resident Evil game?

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The Tuesday letters page is shocked at how expensive amiibo have got, as one reader laments the recent job losses amongst Battlefield 6 developers.

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

Yearly celebration
So MAR10 Day is here again but this time it feels like Nintendo is building up to something in terms of an annoucement. There was that Mario Kart World rumour but if that happens I don’t see how it’s going to be announced because not even Nintendo shadow drops a Direct. Unless Nintendo is also going to start announcing things through tweets, but let’s hope not.

I have to say, I can’t wait until the Super Mario Galaxy Movie is out because I feel too much attention is being taken up by that and we won’t get any real movement on a new game until that’s over. I couldn’t care less about a Mario film but I’m really impatient to know about the next 3D game. But I think it’s pretty obvious they’re waiting for the movie to come out first.

Even so, I do have some hope we’ll get at least a tease of the next 3D Mario today. They’ve already announced their sale and the new games on Nintendo Switch Online, so it would be disappointing if we didn’t get at least a little bit of news.
Onibee

Premium products
I completely believe that Project Helix is going to be around a grand, but I also believe that Xbox are crazy to dot it. Except, it does seem to be the way things are going. If less people are buying and playing consoles then the obvious way to make up the money, for a publisher, is to make a more expensive item, which will make the same amount of money even if less people overall buy it. It’s why Ferrari don’t bother to make a family hatchback, because it’s chicken feed in comparison.

I don’t think it’s going to work for Xbox, because who’s going to want to buy Xbox after all this, but it definitely seems to be the way that Valve are going with the Steam Machine. Sony are basically there already, given how expensive the PS5 Pro is.

There’s no way I’m paying that much for a console, but it does make me wonder what kind of games are going to playing on it. Are they just going to be the same ones as normal with better performance? Because I can’t imagine anyone making an exclusive game for a format with only a few million customers.
Hammeriron

Worst job in the world
It’s been said before, but I honestly don’t know why anyone would want to be a games developer. I imagine the pay’s okay (except for all the unpaid overtime) but there’s literally no certainty of keeping your job, no matter how well whatever you’ve made does. And even if you do keep your job you’re only months away from being replaced with AI. And then, if by some miracle, you’re still kept around you get to worry about death threats from rabid fans.

I don’t see any positives at all. If you’re intelligent enough to be able to make games there’s a hundred other jobs using similar skills that would be far less hassle. I remember when it used to be seem a dream job to me but now it seems more like a nightmare. Commiserations to everyone working on Battlefield 6 that got laid off by EA.
Royston

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

A new problem
I can tell you now, if dynamic pricing becomes a thing with video games I’m out. It’s retro and indie games for me and nothing else. Every day publishers seem to come up with new reason not to buy their stuff and it’s doing my head in.

Make a good game and I’ll pay for it. I’ll probably even pay £60+ if it’s really good and I don’t feel that you’re messing me around. But it’s never that simple. Everything’s got to be more expensive than it pretends or have small print that makes it worse.

I know there’s no going back but I really miss the PlayStation 4 era. All this stuff was starting then but it hadn’t got bad yet, while the games were top notch. This whole generation has been nothing but downhill in every way.
Stoney

No story
Some interesting info on Marathon’s player counts on the Xbox, with is at number 32 over the last week with the server slam at 37th. Also note that Helldivers 2 is still number 16 on this list.

There’s no supporting narrative, but the PlayStation side of things shows Marathon as 38th with the Server Slam at 26th. Helldivers took 18th place over the week.
NatorDom

GC: We’re not sure what to draw from this other than both games are doing quite well on both formats?

Ignorance is bliss
There’s been a lot of talk about what Xbox is doing in terms of hardware but I think a bigger question is what’s going to happen to the games under this new boss. Any decent business person should be able to make fairly sensible decisions about a console but game development is a whole different kettle of fish.

It’s different for every game, it involves lots of factors she won’t have a clue about if you’re not a gamer, and in management terms Microsoft has been terrible at it since forever. On the hand that could actually be good news because maybe someone more objective, that isn’t particularly interested in games, can offer a better perspective on things.

We all know Phil Spencer didn’t work out so he kind of makes a good argument that the people in charge shouldn’t be gamers, because they have a warped perspective.

But how is this new ‘AI guru’ going to make decisions on what to do with the next Halo or if Gears Of War needs a reboot? The problem I see is that Microsoft already tends to overestimate how good, and how popular, its games are and now we’re going to have people whispering into the ear of this acknowledged non-gamer that everything they do is fantastic.

There’s so much that can go wrong, but I guess we’ll just have to see. But if there is a turn around we’ll know from now on that the secret of running a good games business is to know nothing about games (at an exec level at least).
Gorf

Half price
Happy Mario Day to GameCentral, all readers, and Underboxers! I see the Pragmata amiibo is in stock to pre-order on the UK Nintendo Store, it is £24.99 – which is a lot for one small amiibo.

I thought there might be an amiibo of the soldier too but there isn’t.
Andrew J.

GC: That’s madness. The game itself is only £50.

People change
To Scooter and changing tastes in games, my niece, well great niece, at 11 plays all the usual: Minecraft, Fortnight, Roblox, Rocket League… but I suppose that’s for socialising purposes too, but she’s more than willing to try other games.

Couple of years ago I got an arcade emulator, two hardy joysticks and six buttons a piece, you can jostle each other and slap the sticks around, just like you’re in a real arcade, circa ’94! And she loves that, her and her sister discovered the many joys of all the varying versions of Street Fighter 2 at Christmas. The younger one found Chun-Li instantly, girly and cute, and quickly discovered her button mashing 100 foot kick, which she used constantly to defeat her big sister!

So she’s now Chunners forever more, the older one now methodically tries each character until she comes across Eddy Honda and his own 100 hand slap! That’s the end of Chun-Li and all hell breaks loose. There’s screaming, name calling and a strop or two… ah, memories, of the days controllers used to hit the walls, controllers I hadn’t had to buy!

Also, with Game Share on Xbox, she’s had Street Fighter 6, Hogwarts Legacy, and WWE 2K24. She was keen on Star Wars Outlaws but don’t think she tried that yet and her mam said she couldn’t play the Resident Evil 2 and 4 remakes, ‘cos they were too scary. What kids play now is probably 50-50 gaming and socialising, which we/I could only do face to face back in the day.
big boy bent

Inbox also-rans
Interested to see what else Shinji Mikami can come up with at his company, but I’ll be honest, he hasn’t really done anything great since he left Capcom/PlatinumGames. If he’s still got one great game left in though, I’d love to see it.
Fester

I didn’t realise Slay The Spire is nearly 10 years old. Crazy how time flies. But I guess that explains why there’s been so many clones over the years, they’ve had plenty of time.
Lokishat

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

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.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Will Project Helix be a successful comeback for Xbox?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Pokémon Pokopia really worth getting?

MORE: Games Inbox: Will Resident Evil Requiem get a Mercenaries mode?

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