The Thursday letters page is largely happy with Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct, as one reader is impressed by Flight Simulator 2024’s graphics.
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Clash of the titans
That Nintendo Direct wasn’t bad. It’s clearly starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel, as they get ready for the Switch 2, but that’s okay – they have to stop sometime. Super Mario Bros. Wonder will get them to Christmas and then it sounds like they’ve got a few minor things, including the Princess Peach game, that will get them to the Switch next year, which I would expect in early or mid-2004 – definitely before the end of the year.
I’m not pretending that’s any great insight, I imagine it’s what most people think and what Nintendo will be expecting people to infer, but it all seems a reasonable plan to me.
What most interested me about the Direct was that we had both a new 2D Super Mario and a new 2D Sonic, both of which looked good. Now that’s not much of a surprise for Mario but apart from Sonic Mania we haven’t had a properly good 2D Sonic since the Mega Drive era. But if both games work out could that reopen the debate about which is better? Sonic or Mario? At least in terms of 2D games.
I realise that Mario will always be more consistent, but could a case be made that the best Sonic games are better than the best Mario ones? Could Sonic Superstars actually turn out better than Wonder? I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know I will always prefer the original Sonic to any 2D Mario I’ve played. Maybe Wonder will be the one to beat it, but somehow I doubt it.
Ashton Marley
The beginning of the end
I thought the Nintendo Direct was very good, even if it had a hint of Switch’s final year about it.
It was good to see Nintendo capitalise on the monumental success of the Mario film with the triple announcement of the Super Mario RPG remake, the Luigi’s Mansion 2 remaster, and a long-overdue new solo adventure for Princess Peach.
Fans of franchises I’ve no interest in, like Splatoon, Pokémon, and Pikmin were well served too, and I’m genuinely impressed that a game like Batman: Arkham Knight is running on the console.
The Japanese Direct also showed off Otogi Katsugeki Mameda No Bakeru: Oracle Saitarou No Sainan!!, a 3D platformer from Good-Feel that takes inspiration from older Goemon games, apparently. The fact that Western Directs skipped this announcement suggests Nintendo are cautious about a release outside Japan, which is a shame because it looks like a fun platformer.
ANON
PS: I forgot to mention my highlight of the Direct: Super Mario Bros. Wonder! It clearly has a lot of the New Super Mario Bros. franchise’s DNA, but it looks really imaginative with some great animation. I’ll definitely play it over Christmas.
GC: Mameda No Bakeru looks great, thanks for pointing that out.
Time is of the essence
My Game Pass subscription is about to expire in the next few days. Naturally I was looking around to see if I could find a deal and heard the Xbox Live Gold conversion still works, albeit slightly less cheaper than before.
Apparently, if I were to buy a 12 month Xbox Live subscription and then a one month Game Pass subscription it would convert to 13 months of Game Pass. Do you know if this is true or not? Or perhaps a reader might know. Is there a certain method? It seems too good to be true, so I’m slightly reluctant to try it, as I don’t really have a use for Xbox Live without Game Pass.
matc7884
GC: We’re sure a reader knows, but make sure to sort things out soon.
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Photorealism in flight
I’m shocked that more people aren’t talking about the new Flight Simulator 2024 footage. They’re pretty much the best graphics I’ve ever seen (from a technical standpoint). I haven’t played the original from a couple of years ago, but I don’t remember it looking as good from the footage? Although it was also impressive.
I’ve yet to take the current get leap and I’m very much still on the fence. I’ll probably treat myself to a console at Xmas and I think I’ll wait to see how Starfield turns out. Bethesda have a history of releasing broken games, and I don’t know why Starfield would be any different, but it does look pretty epic even if I was getting No Man’s Sky vibes at points – I don’t care how many big updates it’s had, it’s still incredibly dull.
Conversely, Spider-Man 2 looked a bit naff and not a huge leap from the original. Before seeing the footage I was convinced I would get a PlayStation 5, with it come the festive period.
Rangersingh (PSN ID)
Last minute weakness
Well, I cracked and pre-ordered Final Fantasy 16. Not sure when the review comes out (probably day of release) but time will tell if I’ve made a huge mistake (surely can’t be as bad as Agents Of Mayhem the last game I pre-ordered) but the hype got me, despite telling myself it wouldn’t.
Now the next challenge is not to call in sick at work and have a four day weekend getting fully stuck in!
Michael, Crawley
GC: If Agents Of Mayhem isn’t enough to put you off pre-ordering then nothing will be.
Staying frosty
Well, it sounds like I’ve gotten lucky by buying the PlayStation 5 version of the Aliens: Dark Descent game, rather than the PC version. I’ve not come across any bugs yet, but I’ve only put a few hours in. I can say that I am over the moon with the atmosphere and the gameplay that I have experienced so far, and it sounds like, from the reviews, that I am in for a treat if my version is able to avoid technical glitches.
The original release date was a week or 10 days later so I don’t get why they’ve given reviewers a broken PC version if they’ve managed to fix most issues shortly after giving out the review copies. Perhaps you reviewers were the beta testers?
I’m gonna have to complete this on at least hard mode before I can consider buying Final Fantasy 16, so hopefully by then it will be considerably cheaper that the current £65 asking price.
TommyFatFingers
GC: The Aliens: Dark Descent review situation couldn’t have been handled worse, it’s a shame.
EA 2 for 1
EA is splitting its teams as per this announcement.
Apologies if you have already seen it; I wasn’t sure if it was worth reporting or not?
NaotrDom
GC: It’s of passing interest but we didn’t feel it warranted a story. Not until there’s some sign it’s going to change anything in the publisher’s output. Thanks for the tip though, we always appreciate them from readers.
Standard business practice
I’m not sure how the idea that Microsoft want to put PlayStation out of business is any kind of revelation. What else do business rivals usually try to do with each other? Either one buys the other or the other is destroyed. I’m not condoning Microsoft’s words or actions, or Sony’s for that matter, but this whole charade has gone on too long.
Either we accept that a giant-sized company spending $69 billion to buy market dominance is a bad thing or we don’t. I mean, that’s the root of the argument and it doesn’t need any complicated proof or evidence, it’s just a simple yes/no question of whether we allow it or not.
Personally I’m against anyone using that amount of money to instantly get that much power over a whole industry but it’s not my decision. Whoever’s it is should get a move on because this whole thing is damaging gaming and causing Sony in particular to act very strangely.
Gorman
Inbox also-rans
GC, was there meant to be a link or picture (or list) of the Zelda Steam Train? Nothing shows on my PC or mobile phone.
Anon
GC: It should’ve been an embed of a Facebook video. It worked for us but if it didn’t for you here’s the direct link.
Yes, I much prefer Branston Beans over Heinz, to be honest. I mean, I can eat Heinz too and they’re OK. All I can say though is avoid the low sugar beans at all costs.
r-s-w
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The small print
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