The Monday letters page asks why EA is shutting down the Battlefield 3 servers, as one reader advises how to ban GTA 5 in your household.
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Small leap
Reportedly the PS4 Pro made up 14.5m of the PS4’s 117m units shifted, around 12%. Some units would have been double dippers, so I’d say 10% is fair. The PS5 Pro will be about the same percentage as well.
Although I don’t think there’s much crossover between Sony’s hardware and software divisions the complaints about the former due to the lack of the latter is to be expected.
I’m not sure though why the 90% who have no interest in the Pro have to get so bent out of shape about what it’s offering, even if they are scratching their heads and can’t see it.
It was never aimed at them and the base unit exists, the Pro is no skin off their nose. Leave the 10% to enjoy the gains they want and welcome.
Clearly though, the Pro does represent the problem diminishing returns will have marketing their next console to the majority of their customers.
I don’t see how Microsoft or Sony can build a console for an acceptable price in the next three years that can demonstrably show a worthwhile-to-most leap in graphics.
Simundo
In the mood
I went into Star Wars Outlaws with some trepidation, due to the lukewarm critical response and my own experience of becoming more and more jaded with the games industry in general, especially triple-A titles. I’m happy to say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the game and to cut a long story short, I’m enjoying it. After 24+ hours I still get a tingling sensation when walking the streets of Tatooine.
I wonder if they could have crammed in a few more iconic locations, but fingers crossed for the next gaming foray into the Star Wars universe. I still think The Mandalorian is begging to be made into an open world bounty hunting game, or from a personal perspective I would love to see something done with Darth Bane.
I don’t know what percentage of my enjoyment is due to circumstance; longer nights and colder weather making gaming easier and more appealing. Also, I think I need to be in the right frame of mind to really enjoy a game and wonder how many times I’ve not enjoyed or discarded a game due to my own situation at the time. Is this something that you find when reviewing games? And if so, how do you tackle the issue?
Themadmonk82
GC: We’re not sure how to answer that, other than to say that’s our job.
Made in America
Everyone’s love-to-hate orange businessmen has made his way back into the White House. What does this mean for the gaming industry and more importantly Xbox?
Trump’s potentially new import tax of 10% on foreign goods and 60% from China could spell absolute disaster for the gaming industry. We could see a 10% rise in video games from any American game studios (let’s not even think about microtransactions) and the Xbox itself whilst an American company is produced in you guessed it… China.
Could Xbox see its already struggling console see a massive 60% price increase? Will Microsoft owned games increase by 10% or will they pass it off as one of their foreign studio’s creation? Time will only tell but what we can be sure of is gaming is going to see an even more turbulent time during the Trump presidency.
Boy Wonder
GC: The tariffs are to discourage foreign imports, not US exports. Unless you’re implying a tit-for-tat trade war, which is possible. The Xbox Series X/S, like most consoles, is primarily made in China, so in theory it would be subject to the 60% tariff. Unless it’s decided it doesn’t count because Microsoft is American.
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Home advice
Working in IT and having boys myself, it struck me reading the article about GTA 5 how much parents have to assume responsibility for not allowing their kids to play it. Whilst it’s impossible to control what happens in their friends’ homes, it is possible to stop it being played at home.
Routers have a feature which allows you to block websites and there’s certain software you can put on your PCs and laptops if they are gaming that way, that totally block websites and category features. Not to mention parental features on other gaming devices that should be turned on and using a pin or password unknown to the child.
There are so many online YouTube tutorials on this now, there’s no excuse for parents. Also, speak to the broadband providers technical team.
Sarah Hertford
To be confirmed
Are GC or any readers finding problems with the PS5 Pro?
I am on a PlayStation 5 Facebook group (over 8,000 members) and there are people reporting not booting, rebuilding databases and crashing out.
It looks like they are already having to be sent for repair to Sony. Which can only look really bad for a very premium product, even if just a handful.
For me, it has put it to ‘TBC’ for buying one right now.
Si Zero
It’s in the game
I’ve been playing a decent amount of Battlefield 3 before the servers shut down for good yesterday, in EA’s yearly culling of online services.
In relation to the servers and games being delisted, how does it work exactly? Are the servers always managed by Microsoft and Sony in that they switch off the multiplayer servers, but one retain one server that holds the copies of the game for when people redownload it, which is tied to the user’s licence for the game?
Ubisoft’s decision to release a patch for The Crew 2 to make it playable offline in the future is commendable. Yes, the valid argument is that it should never have been online only and they have also ended the original The Crew’s life prematurely, but at least this user friendly option has been applied and hopefully many other companies can implement this going forwards.
Back to Battlefield 3, I returned to it last night to play some of the campaign again and found that you cannot even access any of the maps for multiplayer. So, they still remain installed on my console, yet I now cannot even open them.
I really hope game preservation takes a step forwards, as it is sad to see so many games and game modes wiped from existence.
NatorDom
GC: EA has a unique relationship with Microsoft, in that they run their own servers. Microsoft wouldn’t let them do it at first and EA didn’t actually support Xbox Live in the early days. They’ve never said why they want control but it’s assumed to be so they can shut down games whenever they want, thereby encouraging you to buy new entries in the franchise.
Omniball
I was thinking about the recent mention of a new Speedball 2 lately. I still have a version on Xbox 360 where you can revert to the original graphics, and I still love it. Anyway, I’ve been enjoying the latest Call Of Duty, Black Ops 6, and was wondering if you combined the omnimovement sliding from that game, plus a button to tackle and get the ball from your opponent, a new version of Speedball could work really well.
Imagine multiplayer with all players controlled by real human teams. Inbox magic, make it so.
Johnny Alpha SD
Currently playing: Black Ops 6, Flintlock: Siege Of Dawn, and Elite: Dangerous Odyssey via GeForce Now, Steam on Microsoft Edge app on Xbox Series X – sounds complicated but works really well and is free.
Explaining horror
I’ve previously mentioned my intention to play P.T. via the 10th anniversary re-creation in VR, on Dreams over the Halloween season and… it was just too much!
I totally freaked out after many attempts and experiencing the bathroom, the flying window, the creepy lighting and an up close encounter with Lisa. The latter was the last straw. Being the coward that I am, I checked out walkthroughs on YouTube, so that I had an inkling of what to expect, and I’m glad that I did as the last puzzle sequence would have meant me never escaping that infernal hallway as the stress slowly diminished my actual lifespan.
It truly is a masterpiece of genuine horror and even after watching walkthroughs, I had to play it flat before playing in VR (which was still scary).
On browsing YouTube for walkthroughs, I came across this interesting little feature called P.T.’s Hidden Meaning. It suggests that, whilst Silent Hills had been in production, P.T. was released by Hideo Kojima in the knowledge that it would never see the light of day.
It was effectively his way of hitting back at Konami after their acrimonious parting. It really is quite fascinating, and the evidence is both compelling and plausible. It makes a lot of sense when held up against the demo’s content and the eccentricity of Kojima. It is well worth checking this link out for any fans of P.T.
D Dubya
GC: There’s almost a year between P.T. being released and Kojima leaving Konami, but it’s an interesting theory.
Inbox also-rans
Hi just wondering if you were going to review Nikoderiko The Magical World, a great looking platformer that came out recently, think more people should know about it.
Zombiekicker
GC: Maybe, the graphics certainly look good.
Sad news about the death of Tony Todd, who is most famous for his roles as Candyman and Final Destination. It is going to hit different when we see him in Indiana Jones And The Great Circle next month. RIP Tony Todd.
Si
GC: He was also the Vortigaunts in Half-Life 2, Admiral Briggs in Black Ops 2, and Venom in Spider-Man 2 (and presumably the rumoured Venom spin-off game).
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