The Wednesday letters page gets nostalgic for the PlayStation 2 and an older era of gaming, as a reader prefers Mario Kart 8 to Mario Kart 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
Red hot download
Just had a couple of matches on Battlefield Redsec and I have to say I’m impressed. Battlefield and battle royale seem like such an obvious match but EA has already messed it up once, so there was no guarantees. I enjoyed it though. The graphics are great, the map is huge, and the class system seems to work really well with a battle royale.
There weren’t many vehicles in the matches I was playing, so I’m not sure what the rules are there, but the destruction still looks amazing and really suits the concept, like a more serious Fortnite. I don’t know how long it will keep my attention, since Battlefield has always been a bit too serious for my liking, but it was definitely worth playing as a freebie and I’ll probably give it a proper go this weekend.
I’ve been quite surprised at how well EA has handled Battlefield 6, as I thought it would be another flop like Battlefield 2042. It wasn’t enough for me to want to buy it at launch but maybe if I get into Redsec I might try and pick it up, which I’m sure is the whole point of it.
Tony T.
The man who cried wolf
I don’t think Peter Molyneux has learned a thing from his past mistakes. Everything he said sounds like him overpromising, as usual, and he said that the new game is like nothing there’s been before, while at the same time saying it’s like Black & White and Dungeon Keeper. Well, which is it, Peter? Is it completely different or similar to your other games?
I do feel a certain amount of sympathy for him, because I don’t think he can help himself, and I do remember his games fondly from the Amiga days. But that was a long time ago and I really don’t think his more recent games stand up to much scrutiny. Fable was never as good as the game he imagined it to be and Godus was terrible and I’m not even sure it was ever finished.
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I’m afraid it’s a case of crying wolf one too many times and now not only will nobody believe you, but they assume even ordinary things you say are some kind of lie or exaggeration.
Blondie
What if?
Locking early access to a game behind expensive premium editions is an unwelcome norm now.
Normally it’s a couple of days but The Outer Worlds 2 is five days. I’m not sure Microsoft can count it as one of their 75 day one games for the most expensive Game Pass tier.
I also logged out and back into my Xbox Series X a few days ago and was presented with a full page ad for the premium edition of The Outer Worlds 2, letting me know I could play early with that edition.
Makes me wonder how far things like early access and ads will go. Can’t remember how long ago that Oblivion horse armour was but look where we are now with that.
Simundo
GC: Horse armour was April 2006, so nearly 20 years now. Somewhere out there, there’s an alternative timeline where people never bought it and microtransactions never caught on.
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Not this year
I don’t know if it’s just me or the community is feeling the same way. But I’m not feeling the hype or even any hype, for Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 this year. I’ll say it that it’s a rather milquetoast vintage, but after the release and overall success of Battlefield 6 it’s easy to say that Activision have much to live up to and even more to match. But I can safely say that judging by the overall release hype of Black Ops 6, and ever since the announcement of the next instalment, it’s truthfully painful to say that Black Ops 7 is just a cash grab.
What else could we say at this point? That Activision will magically innovate and deliver us a game that isn’t just a reskin of Black Ops 6? I’d say that we can judge by sales figures and compare it to Battlefield 6, but since it’s releasing on Game Pass. I doubt that will be very high. As far as I know by numbers alone, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 isn’t even an addition or a statistic in Steam’s most wishlisted titles for 2025. Black Ops 6 didn’t have this problem. Has the fatigue set in? For me, it set in a long time ago.
Shahzaib Sadiq
GC: Call Of Duty has never been particularly popular on PC.
Chained to the desk
Just read the Inbox and saw Benson’s criticising of Hideo Kojima only working ‘on like six franchises’ which is well and good but ignorant of the fact Konami kept forcing him to make new entries in the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
He was bored with it after Metal Gear Solid 3 – before 3, probably. I’m sure if Kojima had his way he would have done something new each time and not pander to corporate overlords and shareholders.
Mr Pippy
GC: No one was forcing him to stay at Konami, especially as he was there for over a decade after the release of Metal Gear Solid 3. And then when he founded his own studio, the first thing he did, after his debut game, was make a sequel.
Less is more
What worries me about this super expensive next gen plan for Xbox is that Microsoft doesn’t even seem to care that it’s only going to sell to a tiny audience. I guess the calculation is that if you sell something that’s three times as expensive you only need a third of the audience to actually buy it.
But that’s still around 30 million people at a minimum, and I would be shocked if that many people wanted to buy a £1,000 Xbox. Not so much because of the price but because… it’s an Xbox. Talk about a tarnished brand, it just seems like it has destroyed any kind of trust or desirability over the last year or so.
And yet Microsoft don’t seem to care. The same people are still in charge, and they still talk as if they’re selling Switch numbers when in reality nobody wants their consoles, and probably never will again.
Sure, their games will sell, on PlayStation 5, but I’m pretty sure Microsoft got into the games business so they could rival Sony, not EA. They’ll be lucky to do even that at this rate and I’m not sure I’ve really got any sympathy left for them.
Roche
World of difference
Just loaded up Mario Kart 8 for the first time in about six months and it still feels as fresh as when I first played it on Wii U over a decade ago now.
I am not enjoying Mario Kart World nearly as much as I have enjoyed Mario Kart 8. I’d have been much happier with more DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe than what we got with Mario Kart World.
Mark Matthews
Halcyon era
So the PlayStation 2 is 25 years old, eh? A shocking length of time but I suppose it feels about right. I have very fond memories of that console and I can’t help but see it as a golden era: graphics that were good enough (unlike the PS1), games that were cheap enough to make that they could be virtually anything, a super healthy Japanese games scene, no microtransactions, everything on a disc, relatively low costs for everything… it was kind of a perfect time.
Obviously, things did get better in terms of the games themselves, and I would say that in many ways the PlayStation 4 was also near perfect, but the PlayStation 2 console is one I have almost literally no complaints about. I suppose you could say there were very few good first person shooters (but TimeSplitters!) and no proper online service, but I’m not even sure that second one is a negative.
You can’t go back, and I don’t see there being much point in being overly nostalgic, but as a lost era it’s not hard to wish that a lot of things hadn’t turned out the way they have. From a time when sequels used to appear almost every year and second-hand was everywhere we now live in a world where games take five years to make and you’re expected to pay £100+ once all the DLC and junk is out.
I’m not saying things shouldn’t have progressed beyond the PlayStation 2 but I definitely wish they hadn’t gone any further than the PlayStation 4.
Ishi
Inbox also-rans
You mentioned there’s £40 controllers for PlayStation 5 but these controllers only work with PlayStation 4 games that are on the PlayStation 5, you can’t play any PlayStation 5 games with them. Hence why I had to pay for a £170 controller.
Rob
GC: Really? That is very strange, we understand your problem then. It must be a licensing issue that Sony are forcing on other companies. We’ll see if we can work out who to ask about it.
Can I just say you were on point with your letter headings in yesterday’s Inbox. I particularly liked the one about Xbox and the rakes.
Cranston
GC: Thanks.
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