The Wednesday letters page agrees with the backlash against Nvidia’s DLSS 5 tech, as one reader wonders why Öoo was never in the UK Indie World.

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

No star review
So the inevitable has finally happened and Starfield is coming to PlayStation 5 (but not Switch 2, for some reason, I noticed). As someone that has played the game on PC I would say now that it is not something to get excited about. I have no idea what the new story DLC will be but the problems with the game are so deep it’s literally impossible for it to fix it.

I really resent that game. It tied up Bethesda for years and is going to lead to something like a 20 year gap between Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls 6. 20 years! And the only other proper game they’ve made since then is Fallout 4. People talk about Sony wasting a generation, but Bethesda has wasted two. Skyrim was an Xbox 360 game, for pity’s sake!

The worst thing is that thanks to Skyrim I have little faith in The Elder Scrolls 6 being worth the wait. Starfield has a shopping list of problems but one of the main ones is that it’s so old-fashioned. The dialogue system, the AI for companions, and the way towns work is almost exactly the same as Skyrim.

And then the one thing you’d want to be the same as Skyrim – the exploration and open world design – is completely missing. Instead of getting an amazing open world with a secret around every corner you get an infinite collection of identikit, randomly generated planets that are about as interesting to explore as Milton Keynes on a Sunday. So no, I would not recommend Starfield to any PlayStation owners.
Korbie

Consumer backlash
GC always says the best way to stay positive about the games industry is to just go away and play some new games. That’s true but the other thing that gives me hope is how the majority of gamers are anti-AI, much more than you would expect of a hobby where technology is so important.

This Nvidia DLSS 5 tech is horrendous and emphasises the fact that AI is attempting the death of art. As if it wasn’t bad enough that all AI artwork looks the same, and it is everywhere because it’s so easy to make, now games have to look like it as well. The levels of uncanny valley are off the scale, while there’s no consistency of any kind (Grace doesn’t look anything like herself in AI-o-vision) and the lighting is terrible – like the game is constantly shining a high-powered spotlight at the screen.

As usual with AI, it’s all a solution to a problem that doesn’t actually exist and as usual I imagine Nvidia and other companies will respond to the intense, and very clear, negative reaction by… doubling down on it all and blaming gamers for not liking it. I don’t know about PlayStation 6 but it is very obvious that the next gen Xbox is going to do nonsense like this and I’m already sick of it.
Zeiss

Ugly future
That Nvidia DLSS 5 stuff is so ugly, I can’t believe anyone involved thought it was a good idea. Do they not have eyes? Digital Foundry is getting so much grief for being positive about it and I can’t say they don’t deserve it.

What makes me laugh about all the comparison images is that the only game that looks halfway decent is Starfield, and that’s because it already had a bland art style with dead-eyed characters, so adding an AI filter of exactly that didn’t make it any worse.

The Resident Evil Requiem shots are laughable though and the idea of video game graphics no longer being what the developer intended but some on-the-fly guessing game made up by the AI is disgusting to me. The future sucks.
Focus

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Secret mode
I love seeing the difference between how other companies show off their new products and updates and what Nintendo does. We get a big blog post and lots of details from Sony about their PSSR tech. Then we get some kind of preview blow-out from Nvidia about their AI thing, which seems to have blown up in their face. And then for Nintendo and their boost mode… they keep it a secret and don’t tell anyone.

I only found out about it from the news reports but giving it a quick twirl it does actually seem quite good. You can definitely see the difference it makes and that’s pretty rare in these instances, in my experience.

Now all we need is an annoucement for that ‘proper’ Nintendo Direct we’re all waiting for. Which could take place anywhere from tomorrow to December. Because it’s Nintendo and who knows what they’re ever thinking.
St1nger

Improved formula
Am I missing something? All Resident Evil bosses are just run around, pop off a few shots, rinse and repeat. Not played Requiem yet but I can’t imagine it’s much different. Not that this is a bad thing but it is part of the formula.

I’m saying this as a massive fan too, but I love the games as an overall experience, in spite of the boss fights usually.
Bobwallett

GC: You are missing that… maybe that part of the formula should be changed?

Spore reproduction
I was thinking of old games that never got a sequel or modern day equivalent and I remembered Spore, which at the time it came out I was kind of obsessed with. For those that don’t know it was by the creator of SimCity and The Sims, so it was a big deal at the time, and was about controlling a species from microscopic organisms to space-faring aliens.

That sounded great in theory but in reality it was just half a dozen minigames that weren’t that great. However, the creature designer was amazing and I had hours and hours of fun creating my own creatures and messing around the editor. It was the only thing at the time better than the WWE creator-a-wrestler.

I think it was a flop, so there was no sequel at the time and to be honest I haven’t heard anyone talk about it in years. I do feel it’s the sort of thing that could do very well today with an update though, as, to me at least, it was basically the Minecraft of its day in terms of you ignoring what the game was actually about and making your own stuff.

One of the big ideas was that the things you designed in the earlier eras carried through to the later ones but that wasn’t really very obvious when you played so I would focus more on that and making it more one game with the same controls rather than a bunch of separate ones. Civilization takes place over thousands of years but it’s still the same game, so something like that.

It couldn’t be an official sequel though, because it was by EA and I don’t see any chance they’d approve anything like that.
Sandlow

Nothing like it
Thanks for the review of Öoo. I had never heard of this game until now and I don’t understand why it wasn’t in the UK Indie World. Surely the whole point of them is to highlight games just like this?

Given the low price I have bought it already and look forward to playing it tonight. I love seeing how unusual and imaginative indie games can be, compared to big budget games. Don’t get me wrong, I love myself a blockbuster, if it’s well done, but even something like Resident Evil Requiem is getting criticised for being original. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for Öoo.
Royston

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Prehistoric gaming
RE: Grackle and Mickah. Having just turned 50, and been around games since I can remember, I have some very old gaming first memories. I think the very earliest one would have been Escape for the ZX Spectrum – a simple maze game where you had to find a key to ‘escape’, avoiding dinosaurs as you ran around the map.

I also remember playing Gorf in the arcades around the same time, whilst on a family holiday to Swanage, and being amazed when my brother told me it was the word frog spelled backwards! (Well, I was only six at the time.)

I’ll try and find the time to turn this into a Reader’s Feature as I’m pretty sure I can remember the first game I played on many formats, including Spike on the Vectrex, Shadow Of The Beast on the Amiga, Pac-Land on the Commodore 64, and Cuthbert Goes Walkabout on the Dragon 32.

Good memories, good times.
Jonathan Foley
Currently playing: Horace (Switch) and Virtual Boy (Switch 2)

GC: We look forward to that Reader’s Feature.

Inbox also-rans
So this Clunkin’ Bell restaurant hasn’t even opened yet? We’re getting leaks and rumours about GTA knock-off restaurants but nothing about the actual game? That about says it all.
Mentz

I’m sorry but if DLSS 5 or anything like it is part of the PlayStation 6 then that’s it for me as far as gaming is concerned. These artless, cynical tech bros trying to destroy art, just because they can’t make it, is revolting to me.
Devo

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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 Requiem the best Resident Evil game?

MORE: Games Inbox: What’s the first video game you ever played?

MORE: Games Inbox: Who will win out of PS6 vs. Project Helix?

The Friday letters page has some choice words to say about Sony’s handling of the PS5 generation, as one reader thinks Mario Kart Arcade is a bad game.

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

Wasted generation
Just seen the news that Sony is shutting down Bluepoint Games and I’m appalled. That team put out nothing but top quality games and were specialists in remakes, which we’ve had more and more of recently, so you would’ve thought they’d be extra valuable to Sony right now.

Instead, we just see continued short-sighted, bone-headed decision making from Sony, who have been awful this whole generation. The PlayStation 5 has been a disaster and I’m not confident that Sony has any kind of plan to avoid permeant decline, all the while shutting down more and more developers. I definitely would be polishing up my CV if I worked at Bungie or Bend Studio.

The obsession with live service games, which clearly hasn’t ended at all, has been such a disaster. Not just in terms of failed games (remember, Concord cost $400 million!) but a whole wasted generation, where developers have had no time to make anything else, and are now being shut down before they have the chance anyway.

I detest Sony for how they’re handling all this, and I say that as someone that’s owned an original PlayStation console and everything else since. They shut down one of their best developers just so they could look good to their investors for five minutes and it’s obvious they’ll happily sacrifice more for the same reason.
Cranston

Pity the poor exec
Thank goodness that Hermen Hulst, Head of Worldwide Studios at PlayStation from 2019-2024, is here to protect the company from ‘changing player behaviours’ and ‘rising development costs’ by shuttering one of their most renowned studios.

Absolutely nothing else he could’ve done since 2019, to give players the type of games they expect from PlayStation. Nope, we all wanted 12 live service games, from studios who specialise in single-player games, so it’s our fault for changing our minds…

PlayStation has been on the slide since they consolidated and moved their headquarters to the USA. They’ve lost almost all of the riskiness and playfulness that made them successful in the first place. Hope the Bluepoint employees bounce back quickly.
Magnumstache

Never-ending Kratos
I was really hoping that Santa Monica Studio would be working on a new IP or sci-fi game but it really doesn’t sound like that’s what’s going on. I loved the last two God Of War games but the story’s over and I have very little confidence that there’s a good plan for what happens next.

Cory Barlog said he didn’t make the Norse games a trilogy because he didn’t want to work on the same story for 15 years but here we are and it’s looking very much like he’s just going straight back to God Of War.

I know the next game is meant to be a spin-off but how different is it going to be really? Unless it’s a flight sim or something it’s just going to be more of the same and that’s a shame.
Coolsbane

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Experimental reasoning
It does make me laugh that Todd Howard has now publicly admitted that people find Starfield boring, but I’m sure he doesn’t really understand why. How someone of his supposed experience could have put out such a dull, badly made game I don’t know. He’s just lucky the Fallout TV show was a hit, as otherwise I think he would’ve fond himself out the door.

No one would love The Elder Scrolls 6 to be great more than me, but Bethesda is too high on its own supply nowadays and I really have much less confidence in them than I used to. He tries to paint Starfield as some big, risky experiment but all they do was take all the best bits out of Skyrim and replace it with nothing.

I’m not really sure what he’s on about with Fallout 76 either. It’s just a bog standard MMO cobbled together with left over bits from Fallout 4. It’s those two games that made me start to think less of Bethesda, not because they were risky ventures but because they were lazy cash grabs.
Shortround

Kart it off
I always wondered why Nintendo bothered with the Mario Kart arcade games. They weren’t very good, because they let Bandai Namco make them, and it hardly seems like Mario Kart is a series they have to get people interested in or promote. It’s not exactly an unknown brand, is it?

Putting Pac-Man in was extra weird too, as even though he’s a cartoon character he still looks out of place. Anyway, I still gave it a go. But paying £1 to play one race of the worst Mario Kart ever isn’t something I’d want to do again.
Biter

Bad business
The gaming world can truly change on a dime. Bluepoint Games has been shut down by Sony. After giving us fans a brilliant remake of Demon’s Souls and Shadow Of The Colossus, Sony has closed down the studio. One of their most revered, to say the least. It’s out of nowhere and quite a baffling decision. From what I understand, the studio was to create a video game based on an original IP and not another remake. So why Sony have chosen to erase that prospective idea is beyond my understanding.

Then again, we hadn’t heard any news, updates or any information from them in a long time, so perhaps it was inevitable. I suppose the silence was a reckoning or rather an ill omen in the shadows. I really would have liked to see what Bluepoint were making or what was cooking behind the scenes. To see the creativity floating around, but it either happens with a new studio that is formed, or it remains a what if?

It worked for Sandfall Games. After they broke away from Ubisoft, we were presented with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the rest is history. So maybe the developers still have a semblance of a future. What that will be is unclear at this moment, so who knows what is next?

On another note, it’s a week from tomorrow that Resident Evil Requiem releases. A funny anecdote is that I pre-ordered it for £47.99, on Amazon. I take another look and it’s suddenly £59.95. Talk about a lucky move. It looks absolutely fantastic and since Leon Kennedy is my favourite male gaming character, I hope it reviews well.
Shahzaib Sadiq

Two for two
I want to recommend Pure Pool Pro on PlayStation 5. It’s a really fun game with excellent physics. It looks great and has an enjoyable career mode and trophies.

It’s only the second game I’ve bought for the PlayStation 5 after Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots. Keep up the good work.
EricBIG777 (PSN ID)

GC: Thank you.

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Actually final
RE: Ochreblue. I find it hard to imagine, after the Final Fantasy 7 remakes have been completed, that another remake of a fan favourite would be made anytime soon, at least on the scale of Final Fantasy 7’s budget.

I think that so much money has backed these three massive games that it would seem nonsensical to risk another big venture so soon, due to what the actual returns were from a financial point of view. I can imagine that it would have needed a lot more sales to accommodate a reason to make, let’s say the sixth or ninth Final Fantasy games in the series, even if they definitely do deserve one.

Possibly a remastered version of Chrono Trigger would be interesting, with a fresh lick of paint and a new up-to-date remake of the original soundtrack would be a great winner for me and other fans. No need to go and rebuild everything like the FFVII Remake, but way simpler using artwork that is skilfully applied to the cute looking world whilst keeping the atmosphere peak.

But we definitely have to get into our minds that the Final Fantasy 7 remakes could be the ultimate Final Fantasies, encapsulating everything from the original and introducing so much more.

This asks the question of how powerful do the next generation of consoles really need to be and have graphical qualities reached their zenith yet? GTA 6 will probably be that zenith but it’ll be pretty obvious that GTA 6 will be earning a hefty profit when the sale figures start coming in.

But definitely it will be an exception compared to other big releases, who will be relatively successful but with way less titles being sold. Let’s see what happens over this year and the next.
Alucard

Inbox also-rans
Sony shut down Bluepoint Games? Make it make sense! Surely they should be remaking Bloodborne?
Zombiekicker

One positive thing about all these console delays is that parents could be saved the £400 to £1,000 yearly scramble to get a new toy for their spoiled kids.
Bobwallett

GC: Who is spending £1,000 on new consoles every year?

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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: Could memory shortages destroy the console industry?

MORE: Games Inbox: Will Resident Evil Requiem be worth getting?

MORE: Games Inbox: When will the PS6 be out?