Games Inbox: Is Requiem the best Resident Evil game?

The Tuesday letters page wonders why Microsoft doesn’t make more live service games, as one reader thinks Crimson Desert will either be a massive hit or a disaster.

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

Top three
I’ve just finished Resident Evil Requiem and I can see why it got so much acclaim. I basically agree with the GC review, including the bit about the last hour or so being ‘undercooked’. That felt like they’d run out of time or something because it all seemed very rushed and kind of underwhelming.

I won’t spoil some of the plot points, but I will say that the final boss battle was also very weak, in a game that already doesn’t have that many good ones.

Beyond that I really can’t pick a fault. I like the two characters, the villain was good, and they didn’t go overboard on the nostalgia. The graphics were great, it was pretty scary at times, and Leon was hilarious.

It’s definitely top tier Resident Evil but is it the best? It’s tricky for me but I would say that Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 remakes were slightly better. It’s a close run thing though and those three would be my top games. But at 30 years old it’s impressive there’s very few truly bad games in the series, and most of the best ones have been in just the last few years.
Stenton

No service
One thing about Sony (and Ubisoft’s) obsession with live service games is that I’m always surprised that Microsoft has made no attempt to make any itself. I think maybe Forza Motorsport was meant to be one, but they changed their mind? I’m not sure, as it’s not my type of game, but it’s literally the only one I can think of.

Not that I want them to, you understand, but how can Sony bet their entire business on them being a success, almost to their complete ruin, and Microsoft doesn’t think it’s worth doing any at all? I mean, Microsoft are not exactly against chasing some trends but how comes it’s never that one? I’ve never heard them talk about it either, because they could’ve claimed it as a positive as far as I’m concerned.
Lauft

GC: They do have Sea Of Thieves, and several pre-existing ones through their various acquisitions, but you’re right, their attitude towards the concept is surprising.

Very early memories
Thanks to Grackle for his mail of earliest gaming memories. The earliest game I can clearly recall playing was a Pac-Man knock-off on a clone of the Atari 2600 system called the Philips something-or-other, way, way back.

I’ve never seen or heard any references to that Philips system, so I looked it up – turns out it was released outside Europe as the Magnavox Odyssey 2, which I have heard of. Does anyone else recall playing it? (The Pac-Man clone was called Munchkin, by the way – not a bad game, I thought.)

After that it was the ZX Spectrum with Horace Goes Skiing and the rest is history. Hope that makes some of your readers feel a little younger.
Mickah

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

All or nothing
Up until recently I hadn’t even heard of Crimson Desert, now it seems to popping up all over my social media feeds.

It feels like, from what’s been said, it’s either going to be a game of the year contender or a buggy overambitious mess. Never before can I think of a game that, at least in terms of the critics’ consensus, could either be very well received or very poorly received.

I’m interested to see how the reviews will pan out.

Although a little part of me somewhat selfishly hopes it doesn’t get great reviews. I’ve only just bought Resident Evil Requiem and Pokémon Pokopia in the past week or so and don’t really have the time for a massive open world game at the moment, not to mention the money. And I know from experience if it turns out to be a great game then I’ll feel I am missing out.
matc7884

Celebrity developer
I didn’t know Michael B. Jordan was in Gears Of War 3, that’s pretty cool. It’s nice to know he’s a fan of games as well. Although, it doesn’t really show other than that. You get a lot of celebs saying they’re fans nowadays, because they’re all young enough to have grown up with it, but you never see that reflected in what they do.

Even John Carpenter being a fan for years only ended up with some dodgy looking Left 4 Dead clone. I remember when Vin Disesel, who as far as I remember is more of a Dungeons & Dragons fan, set up his own company to help make The Chronicles Of Riddick game. That was ages ago, and nothing more really came of it, but at least that showed a bit of an initiative.

Setting up my own developer is definitely what I’d do if I was rich and famous. If you say you’re a fan of games, then it seems the obvious thing to do to try.
Mengo

GC: He’d already been in The Wire by that point, so kind of. We’d imagine he counts Creed as his big break and that was four years after Gears Of War 3.

Thank goodness for Thank Goodness
Morning to ‘ye. Managed a few more hours on Thank Goodness You’re Here! to wrap up my third playthrough since its release in 2024. I’ve already extolled the slapstick, surrealistic splendours of this gem before, but even after a year and a half I still had a great big smile on my face throughout the diminutive salesman’s continual excursions into progressively peculiar situations.

I adored the elegant balance of the mundanity and magic in the small Yorkshire town setting, the pretty saucy visual gags, and intoxicating vivacity of the inhabitants, cleverly looping comedic structure, and outright outlandish, even outrageous, sense of humour – the scenario with the lactose-infatuated boy was questionable to say the least.

Sure, the actual gameplay is very simple and lacks any real nuance and depth, but as a portrayal of a wondrously amusing cartoonish place, replete with a feverish imagination and delightfully puzzling internal logic of a quaint and quirky English town, I thought it was a resounding success. One of the true hidden gems of 2024. It’s so rare to play a game that’s genuinely funny and feels so quintessentially and unapologetically British these days. I honestly couldn’t hold my tears during the inspired vegetable store vignette!

I urge the GC readership to support the fine folk at Coal Supper by buying Thank Goodness You’re Here! and apologies in advance for pontificating; but please don’t be a ‘ price shagger ‘ and purchase the game outside the sales if possible to amplify the appreciation. It’s only £15 to be fair.

We need more warm, zestful, culturally enriched games like this in development to offset the unflattering perception generated by all the charmless, insipid products that flood the medium. Can’t wait to see what these talented lot make next!
Galvanized Gamer

Everybody lives
Hearing about Bend Studio having a new game on the boil, it’s very hard not to say why did Sony keep them going and get rid of Bluepoint? I can’t think of anything Bend has ever done that’s been particularly good, and they’ve been around since the PS1 era – so they’ve had plenty of chances.

The obvious thing though, is why not keep them both? If Bend are somehow worth keeping then I don’t see an argument for shutting done anyone else. Especially not Bungie or Bluepoint.
Cordon

Honouring the deal
I’ve a PS5 Pro and was very pleased with Digital Foundry’s conclusions from its tests on the first round of games, using Sony’s updated in-house upscaler PSSR.

Along with AMD’s FSR and Nvidia’s DLSS on PC and Switch 2, and with other tools like frame generation and ray reconstruction, it’s great to see these techniques steadily improving and offering the image quality of native resolutions.

The ultimate point of these techniques is to be able to offer advanced graphics and ray tracing at higher frame rates.

Even now Cyberpunk 2077 running at native 4K, ultra settings, with path tracing will humble a £2,000+ graphics card like the GeForce RTX 5090.

So, if we want graphics like GTA 6 with any hope of getting a stable 30 fps on current gen, or even 60 fps on PlayStation 6, then these techniques are vital.

With the update finally looking like it will deliver the quality mode 60fps box Sony touted and the extra 1GB of SSD storage, anyone who picked a Pro up for £560 during the recent sale got a good deal in today’s economy.
Simundo

Inbox also-rans
The PS5 Pro updates are all very good but why wasn’t this available when the console first came out. It’s like buying a Ferrari and being told it’ll only go 60mph for the first two years.
Xtro

I still liked the rumours that the next 3D Mario is going to be Donkey Kong vs. Mario game. Now they’ve established what DK is like to play as I think that would definitely be cool as a co-op or competitive game.
Purple Ranger

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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