The evening Inbox celebrates 20 years of Half-Life 1, as one reader looks forward to his PlayStation VR arriving from the Black Friday sales.
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Unsustainable discounts
Crazy to see some of the deals today. Especially as all of them were predicted weeks ago: Assassins Creed Odyssey and Shadow Of The Tomb Raider for a song, Fallout 76 and Hitman 2 almost half price a week later, even Call Of Duty and Battlefield almost £30 off. The only things I could see escape with less than a £10 discount were Red Dead Redemption II and Pokémon.
This is great for my wallet but I dont see how this is at all sustainable. Fallout 76 and Hitman 2 have clearly been such flops that theyre likely to do real damage to their companys. I agree with the theory that Tomb Raider is heading for another reboot as well.
You might say that Black Friday is just accelerating the natural cycle of what happens to underperforming games but this kind of instant punishment seems dangerous to me. What if Bethesda did fix Fallout 76 next week or soon after? What if Hitman 2 had been a sleeper hit? Well never know now.
Well see what happens next year but this all seemed like a bit of a watershed moment to me.
Cranston
Everything was bargains
I always look for a deal on Black Friday but rarely find something I want. However, this year has been different. I got God Of War for £20.99 from Amazon on Monday (Black Friday stretching all week now).
I have also picked up for my PlayStation 4, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider for £24 and Sonic Mania Plus for £15.99, both also from Amazon.
At the time of writing both Tomb Raider and Sonic Mania are still that price.
Pigfish2 (PSN ID)
Mission complete
Well, Ive done it! Black Friday turned out exactly as I hoped and Im now the proud owner of a PlayStation VR! Well, whether Im proud of it depends on whether I like it or not when I turn up I guess, but from the demos Ive played I couldnt be more excited.
Got Astro Bot and Firewall Zero Hour in the sales (thanks for the tips GC!) and will be getting Moss and Tetris Effect as downloads once the headset arrives and Im happy with it.
Crazy to think this thing used to be over £300 when it first came out and I got it for half that. I realise Sony are likely to release a V2 for the PlayStation 5, but thats fine as long as its a major improvement because I feel like VR is exactly the boost my gaming life needs right now. Come on postie, dont fail me now!
Wotan
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First mover advantage
Seen more rumours today that put the PlayStation 5 as coming out in 2020, not next year. Is it me or is that going to leave the PlayStation 4 in limb for a lot longer than is normal? Sony have never needed to skip E3 before and I find the implication that theyre not going to announce any major new games for two years a bit worrying.
I know they got ahead of themselves, but I wonder if they now consider that a mistake? Probably not, as I think thats one of the reasons they were able to so easily beat Xbox but it is going to end up with a very uneven flow of games, or at least news of games.
Microsoft must be watching all this very carefully, and I think the sensible option for them is going to be to launch next year and get in ahead. That should shake things up, and will be very interesting to see if theyll try to copy any of Sonys tricks. Some single-player games would be good for a start…
Doggerel
Two years later
RE: Keeny. No, I dont work for Bethesda and I did make the comment that these types of games from all developers need time to ferment, just like wine. I dont think they should be reviewed until they are up to snuff and in a finished state. I play on and off 7 Days To Die. Ive been playing it for around two years, it is still early access and ugly as sin but when played with a group it can be very much a fun game. With each update the game improves and I hope it continues to do so.
I feel that Fallout 76 could be in the same boat, although I think they should have done it the same way. What is out now should have been early access/testing and not a full price game. It seems rushed and not very well thought through.
Has there ever been an MMO that didnt release in a bit of a state?
Bobwallett
GC: Wed struggle to think of one that launched in a worse condition. We dont understand why youre so keen that people not be told about the state of a game at launch. Or why the sensible solution wouldnt be to just wait until the game is finished and release it then – its not like Bethesda are some struggling indie team who need the early access money to keep a roof on their heads.
Perfect storm
That god mode bug for Fallout 76 is just hilarious. How perfect a disaster Fallout 76 has turned out to be. I was completely neutral to the game when it was first announced, having enjoyed Fallout 4 to a degree but being disappointed by the story and the bugs. It sounds like they took my every complaint with that game and turned them up to 11.
I see the most common question from most people is simply, Why? Why not wait until it was finished? Why release it when you knew the damage it would do? Why havent they upgraded their graphics in all these years? And, perhaps most importantly, why are some people defending it?
I dont have any real answers for this except that I assume the root cause is money and greed. It does make me feel bad for the developers though. Im sure they put in a lot of effort and for whatever reason – budget, time, poor management – they werent able to get a good end result. But I think thats the most frustrating thing about Bethesda: they have some great designers but they always seem to be held back.
Joep
Hail of savings
Ive also got a £6 off Battlefield V physical game code.
Maybe they are feeling the pinch of reduced sales so they are machine-gunning these out, but anyway Im happy to offer it.
As its only valid until the 27th Ive included the code below.
Jean-Paul Satire
GC: Thanks, well pass it on to another reader in the usual manner.
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20 years young
So Half-Life is 20! How did that happen?
This was a ground0breaking game in the way it told its story, as well as the atmosphere it created.
I remember seeing it running in GAME and being blown away by it. I had to play that game!
When I did play it, it was everything I hoped: tense, tricky, surprising. The platforming was awful though, the only weak point in an otherwise masterful game.
I guess your younger readers may not realise how highly regarded this game is in the first person shooter genre.
If anyone wants to give it a go, the whole Half-Life series is on sale at Steam so available for a song!
Im replaying it now, it took about two minutes to download and install which made me chuckle.
If you cant cope with the old graphics then theres always the Black Mesa remake of it, but they are still working on the final stages.
I cant believe its 20! I feel old…
Come on Valve, give us closure and make one last Half-Life!
The Dude Abides
Inbox also-rans
Didnt get any games this Black Friday but I did get a really good 4K TV. Xbox One X last year and this now, Im finally state of the art again!
The Duke
Kudos to that reader and his Zelda (well, Link) art, really great stuff. I love how talented some Inboxers can be!
Cornall
This weeks Hot Topic
The subject for this weekends Inbox was suggested by reader Anton, who asks how many online games are you currently playing?
Games as a service is one of the big buzzwords of the moment in gaming and means any game which is constantly updated with the intention of keeping you playing for months and years to come. Theyre almost exclusively multiplayer (and include MMOs), but the problem with their rising popularity is theres not enough time to play them all – so which ones are you favourite?
How regularly do you play the games and when did you start? How long do you expect to continue playing and how much time do you have for other games, whether multiplayer or not? What do you think of games as a service and how many can you generally have on the go at once?
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