Did Marvel’s Wolverine make a good impression in the State of Play?

The Thursday letters page is cautiously optimistic about Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis, as a reader is worried about the sequel to 007 First Light.

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

Expected response
I think I agree with your summary of the State of Play, in that it was solid, didn’t do anything wrong, and yet I wasn’t excited by it at all. The problem is, and I think you hinted at it, is that while I’ll probably even buy Wolverine and God Of War Laufey, I already know what they’ll be and while I’m sure they’ll have unexpected moments they really don’t seem to be doing anything we haven’t seen before.

It’s the problem with sequels and using existing IP and while I understand it, and even encourage it when it comes to something I really like, they almost seem like wasted games, in terms of not moving anything forward.

I’m sure they’ll rake in the money, because tried and tested is what sells, but I feel Xbox has an opportunity here, to have a much more surprising showcase, with some games that aren’t just the obvious go-tos. They’ll probably miss the open goal though, they usually do.
Gazza

Logan Drake
I’m getting some serious Uncharted vibes from Marvel’s Wolverine. The whole thing with the chase on the bike reminds me of the Madagascar chase from Uncharted 4. That was probably the best bit in the entire game, so you can’t blame them for trying to copy it, but it doesn’t give me much hope that Wolverine is going to be very original.

Especially when they had that bit where he’s looking down at the soldiers below and he’s doing some simple stealthing about (like Batman: Arkham Asylum, again). I just don’t know what’s going to be special about the game other than its production values. But then I suppose Wolverine doesn’t really have particularly interesting powers from a video game perspective.

He’s just got short daggers in his hands really, and there’s probably only so much he can do with that, so I’m not entirely on board yet.
Goldie

Direct cycle
There’s got to be a Nintendo Direct next week. I don’t care how obstinate Nintendo are, you can’t go half a year without announcing a single big game or saying what’s coming out at Christmas. Especially not with a price rise coming up, where you’ve really got to justify why people should be buying the console.

I agree with GC though, in that it’ll be a minimum effort and probably only announce one or two big things, then the rest will be already announced games, DLC, and Switch 2 editions. Then we’ll be right back into wondering if there’s going to be another Nintendo Direct and if there’s a secret Christmas game they haven’t told us about yet.

I get why things are like this now but it’s kind of exhausting and not as much fun as it used to be.
Zeiss

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Modern gaming
I recently purchased 007 First Light for the PlayStation 5. I put the disc in and downloaded what popped up to get everything ready for when I could start to play. I sat down today to begin and there was an update, just seven minutes – so annoying but not too bad. I played through the first tutorial mission. All pretty standard but I was keen to see what was next after all the positive reviews.

The game halted suddenly after the intro music, a pop-up stating ‘content downloading, returning to main menu’. I look in the PlayStation 5 downloads and I have more stuff downloading, three hours worth (yes, I have slow internet where I live but nothing too unusual).

I was quite underwhelmed with the early stages of the game, thinking that it continues the trend with modern triple-A games being mildly interactive unimaginative movies rather than actual games. Add to this the fact that I can’t actually play any more of the game today and I really do think that modern gaming is finally becoming not for me.
Alex

GC: You really should’ve waited until it had finished downloading before starting it, as it’s colouring your view of the game.

Traffic jam
Really looking forward to Onimusha: Way Of The Sword continuing the Capcom quality run, but that last week of September period is an absolute nightmare. All those games coming out at the same time, all trying to stay out of the way of GTA 6… they’re all going to suffer and some of them are going to flop completely.

Nobody has enough time or money to play them all even if they wanted to, so hard choices are going to be made. In this case it doesn’t seem publishers had much choice about what to do, but I hope some of them change dates now that they see how things have shaken out.

It’s Control Resonant I fear the most for. Remedy games just don’t sell and this one isn’t going to either if it’s like the sixth most high profile game of the week.
Grackle

Bubble Raider
So what they’re saying about AI in Tomb Raider is that you can guarantee people are going to find AI stuff in the game, in the first week or so, and then we’ll get the usual apology tweet saying they thought they’d removed it all (aka they were hoping nobody would notice).

I would love to know how much time they think they’re saving by using AI for temporary graphics and then going to all the trouble of removing them (or not) and/or changing them. That sounds like a faff to me and unlikely to save much time, while also generating bad publicity.

What did they do before? Presumably used graphics from older games, which considering Crystal Dynamics has been making Tomb Raider games for decades now they must have plenty of by now. Just use ones from Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which was the first time they did a remake.

I understand that AI can help with programming but we’ll probably never know about that, so you can’t say anything about it, one way or the other.

But in terms of anything else I don’t see how it’s helping at all, other than making the developers look incompetent and heartless. The sooner this ridiculous bubble bursts the better. I’d almost wish NFTs had caught on instead at this point.
Sharkton

Thunderballed
As much as I’ve loved 007 First Light, I have big worries about the sequel. It turns out the reason Amazon, who own the Bond licence, weren’t involved in First Light is that they hadn’t bought it when it started. But now they own it they want to publish any game in the future.

That has me very worried, as IO published First Light and that seems to be one of the main reasons they did it. If Amazon kicks off IO from being the developer that would be an absolute disaster.
Private

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Top two
Being firmly in the camp that believes Returnal was the best PlayStation 5 game by a country mile, I’ve been looking forward to Saros more than any other game in a long while. Now that I’ve completed it, I can say without a doubt: this is easily one of the top two games on the console.

Like many others, I was mildly disappointed at first. The atmospheric, abstract storytelling of Returnal is a bit more prescribed here (though, ironically, many complained that Returnal was too abstract). However, once I got over the fact that it’s different, I came to enjoy it immensely, possibly even more than its predecessor.

The combat, as always with Housemarque, is second to none; for my money, it’s the best shooting in any game ever. The new mechanics, like using your shield to charge up power weapons and parrying red bullet, add brilliant, fun layers to the loop. The guns are as good as ever, with each class possessing its own distinct style and playing completely differently to keep things fresh.

At first, I thought the shotguns were duff, but once you unlock the enhanced melee attack, staggering enemies with a blast and smashing them to pieces becomes extremely satisfying. Personally, my favourites are the Chakrams, reminiscent of the Dreadbound in Returnal with a few twists, which can absolutely melt through enemy health bars. The bows are great fun too.

When you’re in that flow state, juggling standard fire, alt-fire, shields, power weapons, and parries, it perfectly captures the intense bullet hell arcade action of Ikaruga or Housemarque’s older titles, but blown out into a big budget, 3D space. The sheer drama of each fight leaves you breathless, and the boss fights are extremely impressive. It is a non-stop rollercoaster ride; a sci-fi, bullet hell space opera extravaganza.

I also enjoyed the narrative and found myself genuinely looking forward to the cut scenes to unpick what was going on. The endings are great too.

Is it better than Returnal? The combat is absolutely better. And while I preferred Returnal’s atmosphere, I still really invested in this story. Ultimately, the reason I keep playing these games isn’t the plot; it’s the gameplay, and in that regard, Saros just pips it to the post.

Either way, both games are entirely unique. No other titles on the market feel like them, which is incredibly rare in this day and age, and exactly why I love them both so much. Choosing between them is like picking a favourite child. Either way, Housemarque has proven once again that they are the absolute kings of modern arcade action.
Mud

GC: We think you liked the story a bit more than we did but generally, we agree – especially in terms of the combat.

Inbox also-rans
Anyone want a Metal Gear film? Give War Machine a go. Obviously, there’s a lot less history, dialogue and confusing plotting. Best thing is, its runtime is a lot shorter than some Metal Gear cut scenes.
Bobwallett

The announcement trailer for the Tomb Raider remake looks absolutely incredible. I’m in awe! One of my favourite video game franchises. They can’t mess this one up, can they?
Paul C.

GC: Anything is possible.

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The small print
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