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Games Inbox: Is Forza Horizon 6 the best game of 2026?

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Forza Horizon 6 – game of the year? (Microsoft)

The Tuesday letters page has a hopeful theory on the new Kingdom Come game, as a reader is worried what Epic isn’t saying about Unreal Engine 6.

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

New Horizons
Nice Reader’s Feature at the weekend, about Forza Horizon 6, that I pretty much all agreed with. I’d say the problem with Xbox is that not only did they not nurture the franchises they had but they didn’t create enough new ones. It was obvious for years that Halo was fighting a losing battle against Call Of Duty, and Gears Of War hasn’t been something anyone cares about since the third one.

That’s not unusual, nothing stays popular forever, but Forza Horizon’s success seemed to come by accident and had very little to do with Xbox who has instead spent all their time with weird little indie type games and stuff with not much mass appeal.

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What they needed was an army of Forza Horizon type games: a mainstream idea done really well and with no equivalent on PlayStation. It all seems a bit late now but, like the reader says, maybe Fable with be good too. But for me Forza Horizon 6 is definitely game of the year so far and I’ll be interested to see if it stays that way.
Carlton

Dam it
That Unreal Engine 6 reveal was indeed very weird. All those amazing tech demos going back decades and the one for the next gen engine is Rocket League with slightly better grass. If that’s not a sign of things to come, in terms of the new consoles not having graphics that are much better, I don’t know what it is.

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I am very grateful there didn’t seem to be any sign of AI nonsense but I’m secretly worried that the reason it was so low-key is because they’re not talking about all that yet. We’ll see, but I have this nasty feeling the AI floodgates are going to open soon and at the moment nobody wants to be the one that goes first. Microsoft will be the first, I’m willing to bet, but at the moment not even they’re brave enough to put their head above the trench.
Campbell

Sleeping giant
I have a hard time imagining Take-Two will release as many games as they say, but I hope it’s true because they seem like they could be a much bigger deal than they are. I know with Rockstar you don’t need to do anything else, but they easily could put out many more games than they do.

Three new IP in the next few years? And all those sequels and remakes? We’ll see but with nothing on the schedules at the moment I’m not that hopeful, especially as I seem to remember them saying this before and nothing happened but more NBA and wrestling games.
Corton

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Tortoise and the hare
I’m kind of surprised that Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold as well as it has. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s an amazing game and well deserves its place as the third best-selling game of all time. And surely any game by Rockstar is likely to do very well.

However, Red Dead Redemption 2 is not easily accessible given its length and the fact the violence and adult themes are likely to exclude younger players. It’s also a game that requires a certain level of dedication. I, myself, found it to be a bit of a slog at first and for a long while wasn’t convinced.

It’s only after really committed to it that I was able to appreciate what the game had to offer. Personally, I think the game is a masterpiece but from some of the online chatter opinion seems divided so it’s slightly crazy to see how well it’s sold and how it continues to sell.
matc7884

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GC: The secret to its success is that it’s consistently sold well over time, even if it’s never been a chart topper to the same degree as GTA. It’s also been dirt cheap for the last several years.

Adult humour
Been playing Lego Batman over the weekend, with the boy, and it’s a riot. I don’t think he got a lot of the jokes, but he likes playing with his dad and smashing things to pick up Lego studs.

I think the success of these games is not just down to the co-op and the cute graphics but the fact that there’s a lot there for adults as well. Not only has my boy not seen any Batman film that isn’t a cartoon he definitely hasn’t seen American Psycho, but I got that visual gag and had a good old chuckle about it.

So well done on the game and I hope it doesn’t take too long for the next one (Harry Potter related, I would guess).
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Sequel deliverance
There’s no way that new Kingdom Come game is Deliverance 3. You can tell just by the way they’re talking about it, let alone the fact that they can’t make two big games at the same time, between that and Lord of the Rings.

I am very interested to see what the game is though. Not just because I liked the previous games, but it’ll be interesting to see if they can make a good, and different, game but in a short period of time. Presumably it’ll be using the Deliverance 2 game map and probably a lot of other stuff from the game, and that really feels like something games should be doing a lot more in general.

This whole generation we’ve seen nothing but talk about how games take too long to make now, and I haven’t seen even the slightest attempt to try and fix this from any publisher. They just seem to be ignoring it and being happy with putting out far less games than they used to (well, they’re probably not exactly happy about it, but they’re not upset enough to do anything about it).

Maybe I’m expecting too much from Warhorse but if they can show that using an existing game to make another similar but different one works that could be a trend. So you basically make one game per franchise per generation and then lots of spin-offs from that.

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Zelda: Majora’s Mask was basically that, so if the idea’s been around that long I’m not really sure what’s taking so long.
Kiff

Silent pessimism
Good luck to Bloober Team in making the Switch a haven for horror games but I can’t see it happening. The Switch does have horror games but I don’t get the impression many people buy them on Switch, it’s just not the sort of thing you get the console for.

But then again, I’ve never seen Bloober Team do anything good that isn’t Silent Hill related, so while I’m looking forward to their remake of the first game I’d need a lot more convincing about anything else they did, Switch or otherwise.
Bloodye

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Long version
Good tidings. I haven’t showered in two days in this sweltering heat, a potential biohazard in the making? But in less grim news, I’ve just completed my second playthrough of Resident Evil Requiem and what a triumph it was. I can’t stop thinking about it. Requiem is quite comfortably the best original entry in the series since the seminal Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube for me.

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Rhodes Hospice is such a memorable location, I’d even go as far as predicting that gamers will look back on it down the years as an iconic setting in the series, alongside the Spencer Mansion, Racoon City Police Department, and Valdelabos (the Spanish village) and Salazer Castle from Resident Evil 4.

And I just love how idiosyncratic and reinvigorated the resident zombies are this time around. Capcom should be applauded for the fact that they’ve injected their classical infected with a renewed blood.

I can almost overlook the lack of traditional puzzles in the game due to the strategic puzzle-like element that permeates the hospice – in the way you can manipulate the zombies by observing their quasi-human routines and interacting with the environments to divert them from their mindlessly repetitive, and frankly tragic, behavioural patterns.

Weaponising the zombie patient with the splitting headache, for instance, to cause havoc on the other walking dead never loses its comical lustre. I read in the in-game lore that one of the singing zombies with the sonic attack shrieks was diagnosed with ‘main character syndrome’, and was in direct competition with the other performer of rather beautifully haunting singing, which made me laugh. Such a lovely worldbuilding detail that encapsulates the refreshingly campy and endearing personality of Resident Evil Requiem.

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As for the Girl, she/it’s a genuinely ghastly and frighteningly adversary, and even more terrifyingly unpredictable in the Insane difficulty mode. Chunks, also known as the grotesque Michelin Man, inspires both awe and pity at how it miraculously writhes through the constrictive corridors of the care centre. Blister eads particularly fill me with dread, their agility and aggression is so ferocious they make the Crimson Heads from the original Resident Evil remake seem rather tame by comparison!

Whilst Leon’s secluded campaign doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights of Grace’s opening portion of the game, I vehemently disagree with some of the sentiments out there that Leon’s parts dilute the overall quality of the package.

I thought My Kennedy’s section was exquisitely engineered for the most part and very entertaining throughout. With some tense and very interesting tactical moments in the level design that were up there with Resident Evil 4 for inspired game design for me. And considering how fantastic the shooting mechanics were I never once felt fatigue from dispatching the zombies in the bombed out and depleted Raccoon city ruins.

I will concede, however, that had Leon’s parts adhered throughout the campaign to the incredible short burst, explosive catharsis of his supporting roles in the first half of the game, then Resident Evil Requiem would’ve easily been in the running for the best Resident Evil game for me.

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But I must reiterate that I still admired the more open-ended design in Raccoon City and how audacious and pretty ambitious it was in the grand scheme of things, probably because I’m such a big fan of the critically under-appreciated The Evil Within 2. The high octane action set pieces and the return to the famous police station were also just… chef’s kiss.

I also don’t quite understand the complaints regarding the bosses, for me they were just fine, not amazing, other than an excellent close quarter fight towards the end, but certainly fun and roughly similar in quality with the bosses in Resident Evil 2 and 3 remake, Resident Evil 7, and Resident Evil Village.

The only exception to the standard really was Resident Evil 4, which I felt had some of the best boss design in gaming period – the Del Lago lake monster, El Gigante, Chief Mendez, Ramon Salazar, Verdugo, Jack Krauser, etc. – and the remake certainly reinforced that position.

So all in all, I was utterly enthralled by Resident Evil Requiem, and I can’t wait to see what the major DLC has in store for us. Also, PlayStation VR2 compatibility please!
GG

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Inbox also-rans
Liked your review of R-Type Dimensions 3 but I though there was a R-Type Final 3? I never got around to getting it, but I’m sure I saw it listed.
Bonzo

GC: R-Type Final 3 Evolved is not really a sequel but a remastered PlayStation 5 version of R-Type Final 2, with some new levels. R-Type Final 2.5 would’ve been a more accurate name.

Is it true they’ve renamed Fairgame$ to Br€ak In? That would be hilarious.
Tom

GC: Sony registered the name Break In but it’s not clear what for, so it might be the new name for Fairgame$. Adding the euro symbol was just an online joke.

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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.

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