Games Inbox: Is Marathon worth playing?

The Monday letters page is keen to find out what happens after Resident Evil Requiem, as one reader has no sympathy for Crimson Desert players.

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

Marathon effort
The thing that gets me about this weekend-only Marathon business is how Bungie have less than zero respect for people’s time. We’ve all been saying that about games for a while now but level-grinding to unlock something you can only play for eight days a month is crazy too me.

Never mind what you’re supposed to do if you happen to work over the weekend (I often have to come in on a Saturday) but I guess that just makes the ones that do get to play it even cooler, right?

As if the ugly graphics weren’t putting enough people off, this actually kills any though I had of ever giving it a try. I don’t know whether the game is going to be successful or not – it seems to be doing okay but not great – but when I play a video game it’s not so it can become a second job for me.
Zeiss

Marketing spend
Is it only me that gets constant adverts for World Of Warcraft’s new expansion, every time I go on YouTube? I have no interest in the game, I’ve never played it or visited a website about it, and I’ve certainly never watched a video on it, but I get spammed with ads for it constantly.

The weird thing is I get very few other ads about games, despite that being one of my favourite things. Fortnite is about the only other thing I get a lot, which probably says a lot about how much these companies are spending on advertising compared to everyone else.

I’m a big Resi fan and have been watching a ton of videos about it lately, but I never saw a single ad for Resident Evil Requiem. That doesn’t seem to have affected its sales but I wonder what would’ve happened if it had been shown everywhere?
Logan

Risk and no reward
I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve got any sympathy for anyone that pre-ordered Crimson Desert and is now regretting (or, more likely, pretending to anyone that will listen that it’s good, actually). A too-good-to-be-true game from a developer with no experience in the genre, or anything much except one MMO, should send those alarm bells ringing straight away.

If you’ve got £55 just lying around, that you can afford to gamble on a game being good, based on virtually nothing, then I don’t think you can really complain about anything. I’ll wait until the game is cheap… and then spend the money on something else, because it sounds awful.
Spency

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Single option
I don’t think the PlayStation 5 still beating the Switch 2 in sales is too much of a surprise. Nobody is going to buy an Xbox Series X/S at the moment so if you want triple-A games then the PlayStation 5 is the only option.

The Switch 2 is a great console but it’s not going to be the first choice for anyone but families and hardcore Nintendo fans. That is still a lot of people, but I think there’s always going to be more wanting to play the best-looking versions of the latest games.

Resident Evil Requiem on the Switch 2 looks good but it’s still not as great as the PlayStation 5 version. But it’s not just graphics. Nintendo’s online services are still very limited compared to Sony and Microsoft. Who wants to play EA Sports FC on Switch 2? And you still can’t play Call Of Duty, despite all Xbox’s talk.

If you’re into games even just a bit you can’t make do with just a Switch 2, so your only options are a PlayStation 5 or a PC.
Kimble

Pokémon Endgame
Loved the Reader’s Feature about Pokémon Pokopia. I’m what I guess you’d call a lapsed fan and haven’t really been into the series properly since the DS days. I took a chance on Pokopia, after all the good reviews, and I’ve been loving it.

I almost got teary eyed at the end, especially when I realised there was tons of stuff I could still do, and that’s before getting into the Minecraft stuff or Animal Crossing style home improvement. Really excellent game and all the better because it was a surprise. More of this please, Nintendo!
Colin

Future fashion
Nice Reader’s Feature about what the next mainline Resident Evil should be, although I doubt even Capcom knows yet, as the success of Requiem probably caught them a bit off guard. If the rumours are right, we’ve got remakes of Code: Veronica and Resident Evil 1 coming first, so it’s obviously a long way off.

I’m more than up for those but Resident Evil 1 again seems like the perfect time for another soft reboot, with Resident Evil 10 following after that. As to what it will be I think there’s two main problems: do you change the characters and do you change the gameplay?

Considering how popular Grace seems to be I think there’s no doubt that Capcom can still make fun new characters, without having to rely on the old ones. In terms of gameplay though, Requiem was pretty traditional really and people loved that. Probably a lot more than if it had been open world or co-op or whatever.

So as much as we can predict anything at the moment, I think you’ve just got to look at what’s successful now, before they start making the new game. If people had hated Requiem and were demanding something new then that’s probably what Capcom would’ve done, but that’s not how it is right now.

Games taking longer to make is bad in so many ways but one that I think not a lot of people mention is that you start making them based on current trends and then by the time it’s finished who knows what will be popular. That probably explains a lot of live service games.
Cubby

How they do it
Just wanted to say that I really appreciate the behind the scenes videos in Resident Evil Requiem. I guess I already knew that’s how they did the tech but it’s really nice to see a fairly long segment broken down like that.

Although I wonder how long until time-consuming and expensive things like that are just faked with AI, because it’s ‘good enough’. Crazy to think that 30 years ago the same franchise had tank controls and characters that looked like something out of Minecraft. Happy birthday Resi!
Winston

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Front loaded
That’s me finished Resident Evil Requiem on all three difficulties. It’s safe to say it is superb, with amazing graphics, fun gameplay, and a pitch perfect tone.

I still can’t help feeling it could have been even better though. To my surprise, as a big fan of Resident Evil 4, my favourite sections of the game were Grace’s. They’re really tense and atmospheric, with the Rhodes Hill Care Centre making for a wonderful setting. Having zombies with personalities works brilliantly and I wish they had doubled down on the idea with even more variety.

The second half of the game has more generic and returning enemies from the series, which seem a bit uninspired compared to those in the first half. There is too much fan service in general towards the end, especially with the bosses, and I would have preferred to see more original ground broken. I’m not convinced we even needed to return to Raccoon City at all, I’d have preferred to stick around Rhodes Hill with perhaps more institutions/buildings nearby to explore.

It’ll be really interesting to see what direction they take for the next game. I know they experimented with open world for this one and I think that might be the way to go to reinvent the series again. Can’t wait to see!
Ryan O’D
PS: My favourites are:

1. Resident Evil 4 remake
2. Resident Evil 2 remake
3. Resident Evil 1 remake
4. Resident Evil Requiem
5. Resident Evil 7

GC: We think it’s fair to say most, if not all, Resident Evil games are better in the first half than the second.

Inbox also-rans
This business about the EU Switch 2 model made me realise how happy I am that region locking is a thing of the past. What a dumb idea that was.
Focus

Crimson Desert might be a bad game but I tell you one thing, it’s made me really keen on playing a new The Witcher, just from looking at the videos. Hopefully the rumours of new DLC this year are true.
Kryzer

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