Games Inbox: Is Halo: Combat Evolved worth pre-ordering on PS5?

The Thursday letters page shares memories of never having played a NES, as one reader is confused by the secrecy surrounding The Duskbloods.

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

One and only
So Halo: Campaign Evolved is getting pretty close to release and as a PlayStation-only gamer I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve played bits and pieces over the years but since I’ve never had an Xbox myself, I’ve never played any of the games all the way through.

I don’t think I’m particularly unique in that, so I’m not surprised that pre-orders have been very high. I’m not sure whether that’s enough to push it into the big leagues again but what puts me off is Xbox apparently flip-flopping over whether everything of theirs is going to be multiformat or not.

They’re doing that to try and win over Xbox fans and convince them there’s a future for the format. But do they not worry that they’re putting off PlayStation fans, and there’s a lot more of us. I’ll wait and see the reviews but at the moment I don’t know whether Halo is going to be worth it on PlayStation 5.

Because if it turns out to be the first and last Halo game on PlayStation that’s going to be really annoying. And that already seems to have happened with Gears Of War.
Zoomie

Analyse this
I do wonder how much these analysts really know. I get that they have access to figures and statistics that aren’t public, but beyond that they don’t seem to understand much and are always saying pretty silly things.

Selling GTA 6 for more than the average makes no sense because that means less people will buy it. Sure, you’ll make more money per sale but you need as many people as possible on GTA Online, because only a tiny percentage (the famous whales) buy a lot of microtransactions. So the bigger your community the bigger the chances that you’ll attract a lot of whales, as well as normal spenders.

I know GC pointed this out in the story, but I don’t understand why the analyst themself didn’t realise this. If I know that, they should know that.
Grant

Temporary custody
Just read your bit on someone losing 25 years of Xbox. I’m sorry to say it but Xbox, PlayStation, and even Nintendo – if they can delete your data thanks to the terms & conditions we have all agreed to they will delete them, because that means you will need to sign up and buy the games again.

This is why digital isn’t always best and when it means Xbox/PlayStation taking commission for everything that’s sold on their platform, digital will never be best. If you buy the game on a disc you have them for life. Digital you have them till they take them off you.
David

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

Successful System
I’m not sure that the description of the Master System (‘only a minor success’ in the UK) in your NES article is entirely fair in the context of home video gaming at the time. While home computers as a collective may have outsold it, it was the best-selling individual format for a few years (even outselling the Mega Drive in 1991, even though that was the hot new release in 1990).

While the video game market in the UK is now much bigger than back then, for the time the Master System’s performance on these shores was very strong.
Declan

GC: Perhaps modest hit would have been a better phrase.

Common experience
Nice feature on the anniversary of the NES. As someone born in 1990, my first games machine was a Commodore 64 and then a Mega Drive.

So indeed, while I had played a Master System, I’d never seen a NES and hadn’t really heard of them until much later. Of course, the SNES was much more common in the UK.

I find NES games are the oldest I can still enjoy (in contrast to older Atari 2600 games which are just too primitive for me). This is surely a testament to the console’s quality that its games are still playable decades later!
Barry

Opposite brands
Just read the article on the lack of nostalgia for the NES in the UK. When I arrived in the UK in the early 90s, I remembered asking my mother if I could have one.

Growing up in the Caribbean, the kids around me that did have a console all had a NES, which was what I had experienced. We had an Amstrad CPC which belonged to my older brother (which eventually became mine – green screen and all).

I don’t know what stores my mum went to, but they didn’t have a NES, and some didn’t even know what it was. That Christmas morning there was a big box under the tree which I went to unwrap.

As the packaging tore off my smiles turned to confusion, there was a blue font on the box. Once I got further I saw a photo of a console in black. Turns out that I had gotten a Sega Master System 2.

I had no idea what this was, connecting it to my TV I looked in vain for the Alex Kidd in Miracle World cartridge to insert, which I could not find.

In frustration I flicked the power switch and was greeted by a now familiar jingle. It wasn’t the NES I initially wanted, but I fell in love with Sega. Didn’t have many games, but thanks to how common the Master System was at my school, I was able to trade for other games on weekends.

The reversing of brands would again happen when I asked for a Game Gear. Expecting backlit colour Sega goodness, I got monochrome Nintendo fun. Actually, was a good thing as the Game Boy was spectacular and the batteries actually lasted enough for some gameplay.

This is probably the reason why I now have a NES and Game Gear in my retro collection.
Commodore Fan
PS: Thank you Andrew J. for all the retro recommendations. I don’t pop up much nowadays, but they are appreciated.

Unnecessary secrets
I don’t understand why there’s so much secrecy over either Zelda: Ocarina Of Time or The Duskbloods. I guess the original plan for Zelda was that it was a surprise and even though they knew it had leaked beforehand you can kind of give them that. But what’s the point of saying nothing about The Duskbloods for a year, even as you announce the beta testing?

We know the basics of what it is, we know what to expect because it’s From, so either there’s an amazing secret that they haven’t said yet or they’re just being weird for the sake of it. There’s a good chance these are going to be the only major Nintendo games for the rest of the year and yet it’s July now and they’re still treating it like a state secret.
Onibee

This is fine
I know it’s not the prevailing narrative right now, but is the 20% forecast drop in console sales really a ‘complete disaster’, per Cranston’s letter, or is it normal? I also disagreed with console death Reader’s Feature, though it’s nothing we’ve not seen before.

Looking back at previous console sales, they’ve started to taper off around the fifth or sixth year with drops of 20% in their seventh year for the PlayStation 3 and 4 (as most relevant comparisons). This coming year will be the PlayStation 5’s seventh year. PlayStation 5 sales have already overtaken the PlayStation 3 and has the PS1 and PlayStation 4 in its sights.

While I’ve got no major concerns about this gen, I do agree that the next generation is going to be trickier to navigate. Diminishing performance returns and higher prices will mean that there’s less of a reason for existing users to move on from the previous console, something we have already seen this generation.

Still, however we end up playing our games, gaming is ultimately about the software. As long as there’s enough demand, I fully expect the industry to continue to grow, and continue to provide us with great games to play.
Matt (he_who_runs_away – PSN ID)

GC: There’s not enough demand, not at the scale needed for most triple-A games, that’s why this generation has been such a mess. A disaster, you might say.

Inbox also-rans
A few times over the years, and especially during the PlayStation 3 era, I wonder if I’d back the wrong horse with PlayStation instead of Xbox. Stories like this guy losing 25 years of data just because Microsoft felt like it has me glad I made the choices I did.
Caze

I was surprised to find Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced had the same bug as the original game. I thought, as a remake, it would be brand new with everything from the original remade from scratch. Is that not the case?
Bumper

GC: It certainly suggests they reused some code, unless it was a purposeful bug for added accuracy.

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.

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