Games Inbox: Elden Ring vs. Horizon Forbidden West, Soulsborne difficulty, and Death Squared love

The Monday Inbox reminisces over its favourite glitches from Modern Warfare, as a reader is disheartened at the rising price of retro games.

To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Forced choiceIt’s a shame that Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West are released just one week apart, forcing me to choose which to play first, but given the delays I guess that’s just the way the cookie has crumbled.

What are the good readers going for first? It’s tricky for me because I like the look of Elden Ring more, and it’ll probably be a better game overall, so I want to play that first. BUT I’m assuming Horizon’s story is more integral to the experience, so I’m actually leaning towards playing that first to minimise spoiler chances. It also gives the internet an opportunity to write some tips and guides for Elden Ring, which help me through FromSoftware games (particularly if I should choose to try and get all trophies/achievements).Henshin Agogo

Dance of deathI was just reading about the invisible player glitch in Warzone and it brought back some very happy memories. Back when playing Modern Warfare there was a glitch where you could prime a Javelin anti-tank weapon and have it explode when you died or let go of the button. Basically, it turned you into one of those headless suicide bombers from Serious Sam.

I’m not one for cheating, but for one night it was so much fun running into control points full of enemies and exploding. After a couple of days the news was out, and everyone knew the glitch. You’d look around and see everyone performing a strange dance after they spawned. The dance of death which enabled the glitch. Most weren’t very good at the dance so more fun was had murdering them too.

Luckily Infinity Ward soon patched this out. It’s just a shame they never stopped the hacked lobbies which ruined a game I’d still be playing now.Evilmoomin

Lowered difficultyRecent letters highlight the issue I have with Soulsborne difficulty. Maybe I’m old school but I want the difficulty to be such that I can beat the game with a reasonable level of challenge on my own (unless it’s clearly a multiplayer game). Bringing in a big brother to do the hard work on a boss feels like cheating.

If I can’t afford the time and effort to get good enough on my own, then I lose interest and the games stay unfinished. I’m sure others are good enough to not need help but my average skills are not at that level.

lower level of difficulty that allows me to complete the games with reasonable challenge but without outside assistance would be great. Miyazaki’s comments around Elden Ring difficulty sounds like it might get the balance right.

Keep up the great work.Tinkers77

GC: We don’t see how co-op is ‘cheating’ but easy mode is not, especially given one is endorsed by the creators and the other is something they’ve repeatedly said they don’t want to do.

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Moving upI’m so sick of hearing that Microsoft taking over Activision Blizzard is a bad thing. Even if/after the deal goes through they will still only be the third biggest publisher in the world behind Sony and Tencent.

Last generation Sony dominated the gaming market and Nintendo found their footing once again, so do I think exclusives are a bad thing? NO, it’s business. Sony will survive, as well as Nintendo, no matter what happens. If anything, I think that this deal will force innovation on all sides to try and get people onto their platforms.

Personally, I will buy whichever platform appeals to me the most at the time and I just wish that people would admit this is the same for them. I don’t know any other industry where this sort of hatred and fearmongering happens.

We gamers will always play the games we want to, if that means switching platform then so be it.Reverentwolf

GC: If the acquisition goes ahead Microsoft will be the second biggest, after Tencent.

Outside the boxAfter reading the comments on this week’s Hot Topic I was unsurprisingly not shocked by the reaction of (most) PC gamers. As usual, spouting thier laissez-faire attitude towards anything that happens outside of their chosen platform. Look, we get it; PC is better blah, blah. Taking a peek outside your shiny box of expensive water-cooled plastic and precious metals and you may find that there’s more to the world than graphics cards that need more power than the national grid. There are literally millions of other people who enjoy gaming on many other platforms, from console to mobile devices.

Also, banging on about companies who have shuttered before is really stupid. Atari was a master of its own downfall (and almost the entire US gaming market), Sega (does quick check) oh turns out they still exist making and publishing games!

Neither of those companies were put out of business by monopolisation of the market. Neither were the others mentioned, it was either bad business decisions or a lack of interest in their own products.

What they fail to understand is that by big conglomerates hoovering up any studio that sells a decent game there stands a chance that everything becomes cookie cutter. For all their faults, Nintendo (and to a lesser extent Sony) do try to innovate, taking them away will be bad for everyone; even if PC gamer can’t see outside their own plastic boxes.Button Bashford

The price of artWatching some Saturday morning TV and came across a show called Pawn Stars, that title always catches me out. There was a guy on it selling a rare copy of Mario on the NES and he was asking for a million. Now in this case the game was bought by the pawn shop, but it got me thinking, if a game ever sold for that amount, would non-gamers start collecting games for future profit or do you think it would be a one-off event? I think the idea of buying anything that isn’t life-saving equipment for that kind of stupid money is, well, stupid.

Games are art, I won’t hear otherwise. They make people happy, angry, and sad, and make them think, but no way should someone pay an obscene amount just to display what amounts to a box with a screenshot printed on it.

I think there was a story on Metro that someone had bought a game for a large amount but don’t recall offhand what it was.BobwallettPS: Didn’t get round to the Hot Topic but I don’t think I’d miss it if Sony and Microsoft stopped producing consoles, as 1) I’d not have to buy two new consoles every few years, 20 My PC would get a lot more attention, and 3) As long as FromSoftware kept making games I’d get whichever company’s device lets me play the game on.PPS: Last thing, my nephew is really getting into Transformers, what would be the best/cheapest toys I could start him on?

GC: There was a spate of video game sales at over $1 million last year, the highest was $2 million for Super Mario Bros. There was considerable speculation that, much like NFTs, the sellers were gaming the system to artificially inflate the perceived value. As for Transformers, the War For Cybertron line has always seemed pretty good, outside the cheaper core toys. Although the only one we have is the Impactor figure.

Dead goodJust wanted to say thanks to the reader last week who suggested Death Squared as a good co-op game for the Switch. Haven’t yet played it in co-op but I gave it a go solo, controlling both characters with both joysticks, and man, what a fantastic little puzzler! It’s a real head-scratcher though, but when you work out the solution to a tough level it’s sooo satisfying.

There’s a free demo with 10 levels on the eShop so I highly recommend giving it a go!Stephen

American empireConsidering I was a Sega disciple for years you’d think I’d be more than happy to see the old arch nemesis and the young pretender, who both finished off the once mighty Japanese company, go the to wall but it’d be the exact opposite emotion. I know they’re only companies who want your money (is there a company who does not want it?) but for me Sony and Nintendo are at the core of the industry, and both have provided me the greatest collection of video games I’ve experienced.

From Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Final Fantasy 11, Shadow Of The Colossus, the brief but masterful Journey, Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, and the greatest game ever made (I’m talking about Bloodborne) the list could go on and on.

Nintendo are beloved but what sealed Sony’s place alongside them was playing the delightful Astro’s Playroom. Shedding the odd nostalgic tear for the boot up sound of the original PS1 right up to the T-Rex final boss, it reminded me of many, many fond memories of all of their consoles.

I owned the original Xbox mainly for the fabulous port of OutRun 2, plus I’ve owned two Xbox 360s, so it’s not total brand loyalty devotion, but as an individual already disillusioned with the awful state of affairs that drives most of Hollywood’s atrocious output, I’d hate it if the gaming industry just became a monopoly for American super companies to churn out generic experiences and the two Japanese companies to simply be swallowed up into a horrible Disney+ mincing machine.

I find totalitarian regimes intolerable in any form and if that’s what happens to the industry then I’m afraid I’m out. Melodramatic maybe but sadly true.MisanthropicMan42

Inbox also-ransJust a little note on Friday’s letter about Edge magazine. It’s included in a Kindle Unlimited Subscription if you have one. Look in the magazine tab.Dirtystopout

Can you please confirm when your Dying Light 2 review will be out?Manic miner 100 (gamertag)

GC: We’re not allowed to, but it’s before the launch.

This week’s Hot TopicThis weekend’s Inbox is your chance to vote in the Readers’ Top 20 of 2021. As always, all you need to do is send us a list of your top three games of last year, in order of preference. Here’s our Top 20 if you want some reminders of what came out.

As long as it was released new last year you can vote for anything you like, but if you want to be featured in the Hot Topic itself then we want to know why you voted for what you did and how you think it ranks compared to other top-rated games.

Do you think 2021 was a good year for video games, given the limitations imposed by the pandemic, and what are your abiding impressions of the year? What events do you think will have a lasting impact and how do you hope 2022 will improve things?

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

The small printNew 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.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

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