Games Inbox: Did the Arc Raiders beta live up to the hype?

The Monday letters page is impressed by PS5 Power Saver mode and what it could mean for a new portable, as another reader praises Silent Hill f.

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

Hero arc
I don’t know how many other people played the beta over the weekend, but I really enjoyed Arc Raiders. I haven’t really played many extraction shooters before, because they always seemed very hardcore, but this was actually a lot of fun. You’ve still got the problem that a successful match, in terms of shooting people, can still be a failure if you don’t handle the objectives properly but I appreciate how that gives a different feel to the game.

I think it could probably have done with a clearer setting, because I don’t know what’s going on or if it even has a story, but that’s obviously not very important in this sort of thing.

I don’t know whether it’ll have any staying power, because that’s very hard to predict with these sorts of things, but I’m interested in buying the final game now. I guess that’s what a beta is all about, so from that perspective it was a definite hit, at least for me.
Johnson

Welcome downgrade
This Power Saver mode is very interesting to me. It’s obvious Sony would never make something like that just for the environment. Not only is there no profit in it but they’re keeping it virtually a secret and most gamers aren’t going to want to use it anyway, so it’s not going to make any difference to anything.

However, use that same tech in a new portable and suddenly you have an answer to how Sony can get PlayStation 5 games to work on a handheld. I don’t know how far the technology can go but maybe even PlayStation 6 games can be squeezed on in the same way.

It’s a long time since Sony has done anything really interested with hardware but this has got me pretty excited. I expect it to be announced next year at this point.
Tolly

Young whippersnappers
I thoroughly enjoyed Saturday’s Reader’s Feature about being an older gamer. I’ve had many conversations with younger gamers who don’t know anything about the classics games that I used to talk about, while they were buying full price new FIFA instalments every year despite the only difference often being a few players changing clubs.

Maybe for a while some of us GC regulars can end our letters with our top three games ever?
Adams6legend
Top three: Donkey Kong Country, Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, and Resident Evil 1 remake

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Nostalgia only
RE: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind. I have been waiting for this to reduce in price for the physical version and picked up the collector’s edition of off Amazon for a decent price.

Your review didn’t really like it, but I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you don’t know Power Rangers, so you didn’t really get it. I grew up on the originals, and this game is just pure nostalgia – the Green Ranger, Goldar, Zords, Megazord with the famous music, Rita and they even have the Bulk and Skull music. It is just a fan’s dream. My only criticism is that they didn’t have Lord Zedd but I still loved it.

I see there is a He-Man game on the way, but I watched the cartoon in the 80s but it is too long ago so I will skip – doubt I will get the nostalgia feeling.
Simon

GC: But the He-Man game actually looks like it could be good? And we never liked the show or the toys.

Lacking character
These Pokémon Legends: Z-A quotes from the NPCs are hilarious, but I would love to know whether they’re intentional or not. Seems to me there’s three options and the first is the most likely: they didn’t have the time or manpower to check, they are super naïve and didn’t realise, or their writers were bored and wanted to have some fun.

I may end up getting the game, but I do feel that Pokémon has the least interesting storytelling of any Nintendo game (and, yes, I know it’s not technically Nintendo). I know they’re aimed at kids but look at the Paper Mario games and there’s a world of difference.

Voice-acting would also help, as I feel there are very few memorable characters in any of the Pokémon games. If they didn’t appear in the anime they’re basically personality-free robots and that’s such a waste of an opportunity.
Taylor Moon

Award bait
Interesting review of Keeper but seeing as I don’t have Game Pass anymore it’s not a game I can ever imagine myself playing. I see it’s not on PlayStation 5 yet and I have a feeling it probably never will be. It’s obviously not something that’s going to sell a lot but I imagine it was probably greenlit specifically to be a Game Pass game. Kind of the video game equivalent of Oscar bait, where Microsoft could point to it as proof that they have critical darlings too.

I do wonder whether that would still happen if it was going to be pitched today. Now that Game Pass is only day one on the most expensive tier do things like this and Pentiment have a use to Microsoft? Nobody’s going to join Game Pass to play them and if people are joining for big name games like Call Of Duty is there any need to fill the line-up with what are essentially first party indie games?

It’s hard for me to comment on, since I don’t have an Xbox anymore, but I do think it would be a shame if Microsoft stopped indulging developers like this. I don’t think something like Keeper is going to get made unless it’s a big, rich company trying to prove a point, so when you’re owned by Microsoft they suddenly become the only option.
Gimble

Thoughtful scares
Completely agree with the Reader’s Feature on Silent Hill f. It’s my game of the year and I think a really positive step forward for both horror gaming and Konami. Horror movies are really big at the moment and most of the big ones have something to say, and I’m really glad that video games are starting to do that too.

The days of Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street are long over and modern horror movies are usually more intelligent and thoughtful than any other mainstream films. That doesn’t mean they can’t be fun too, or that shlock is out entirely, but I’m glad we’re going things like Silent Hill f as well.
Blinky

Guaranteed hit
It’s way too early to be saying that Call Of Duty is in serious trouble, like that ex-developer was, but I do find it interesting that while FIFA/EA Sports FC and Call Of Duty have been the two unstoppable juggernauts of gaming for decades now we are starting to see a wobble in them both.

EA Sports FC 25 didn’t sell anywhere near what EA wanted and it’s going to be very interesting to see if this year’s game does any better. If it doesn’t then there’s going to be real trouble, but even if it’s better but still lower than normal, that is quite a shift.

Then what happens if Call Of Duty has the same thing happen to it? Both these games are too big to just disappear overnight but if they slowly start bleeding out over the next few years that is going to be something to see, especially as it’ll create a kind of power vacuum where there are no more guarantees about what will do well.

Well, there’s GTA. I don’t think anyone is going to pretend that GTA 6 isn’t going to be massive, as usual, but one of those comes round only very rarely, so it’s an exception to the rule.

Will we see a new football game arise? Will Battlefield take over as the top military shooter? Or will we see something completely new step in and become the guaranteed hit? I don’t imagine it’ll be anything interesting but remember that things like Need For Speed and Tomb Raider used to be the equivalent of what these two games are now. Nothing lasts forever.
Korbie

Inbox also-rans
Just finished Ghost Of Yōtei and I’ll say I really enjoyed. I get the complaints, about it not doing anything new, but they really weren’t a problem for me, loved the whole thing.
Pinar

Very with another great Switch deal.
Mark Matthews

GC: 99p is 99p.

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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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