Games Inbox: Will Marvel’s Wolverine be as good as Spider-Man 2?

The Thursday letters page is frustrated at an increasingly online-only future for digital game downloads, as a reader gets hold of Saros a day early.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions.

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

New hero
I see that Insomanic are talking about showing off more of Marvel’s Wolverine ‘this spring’.

But does that mean just the usual not-E3 event, which Sony has taken to doing in late May, which is still technically spring, or do they mean a separate event before that?

I know no-one knows but I would be happy if it got its own one because not only do I want to know more about the game but I kind of want to get it out of the way so Sony can announce more new stuff and show off Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

I’m not convinced that Wolverine is going to be as good or as popular as Spider-Man 2.

For a start Wolverine doesn’t have any cool movement system of his own, like web-swinging, and he doesn’t have the same kind of rogue’s gallery as Spidey.

I also think the game is going to be too gory for casual gamers, especially as giant robots and magic powers don’t really mix with tons of blood and guts.

Maybe I’m wrong, because I’ve never read any of the comics, but I’m just not sure there’s much he can really do that would be all that interesting for a video game.

Especially as you know he can’t be killed.
Polar

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Specialist audience
I’m not sure I really understand who the Steam Machine is for.

If you’re a Steam fan already then you’ve got a PC and don’t need a console version of one, especially as it likely won’t even be that powerful.

So it’s for people that want a gaming PC but haven’t got one, but do have £600+ hanging around that they’re willing to spend on one.

That doesn’t sound like it’d be a very big group of people to me.

It’s no skin off my back what they do but whenever there’s a flop that always means taking money away from something else to make up for it.

I don’t want Steam sales to suck for the next couple of years or Half-Life 3 to get cancelled after all.
Uther

Different games
I was dismayed to read on the Eurogamer site that a slew of movies from the Nintendo Cinematic Universe are in the pipeline.

While intrigued at the prospect of a live action Metroid, we can be sure that these movies will be more generic and critically slated than even those of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Worse, they’ll make a ton of money for Nintendo.

What’s good for Nintendo isn’t necessarily good for gaming.

With the challenges the video game industry faces, there’ll be a strong temptation to pivot the business further in this direction and focus on monetising their IP in ways unrelated to actual video games, including theme parks, merchandise, shops, and so forth.

It may have been better for gamers if the Super Mario Galaxy movie had bombed.
Ciara
PS: Despite the trigger warning I really thought the news about XCOM would be game related, a remaster or something.

I would say then that your warning was insufficient.

Admittedly, I didn’t get on with the Marvel spin-off at all.

Apart from anything else, too much dialogue to trawl though.

I did at least purchase it.

GC: It was game related, just not video games.

A Donkey Kong spin-off movie was mooted some time ago; it’s why he’s only a cameo in the Galaxy movie.

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

In the wild
Just scooped up Saros, from CeX of all places, where every title is second-hand and it’s literally impossible to even consider buying a game before it releases.

Unlike Amazon or even GAME, you can’t think of pre-ordering any game, you need to wait until it arrives at the store.

But somehow it was sitting in a store in Essex, of all places.

Two copies were available.

I picked up the first copy and before you know it, it’s sold out immediately.

Used two vouchers to reduce the cost and I only had to pay £28.95.

£34 shaved off the total price.

Speaking of Saros, GC’s review already sold me on the game, but the talk of difficulty modifiers sealed it for me.

The fact is that as brilliant as Returnal is, the fact is that the game has a low completion rate unfortunately.

At least on PlayStation 5.

I can’t speak for PC players.

But the fact that Housemarque took the feedback on board and made changes is a promising sign.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely know I’ll be slaughtered time and time again when playing this.

Every player will be eventually.

But it’s a boon when a title like Hades and Hades 2 don’t offer traditional difficulty settings, but instead offer alternatives to make the difficulty manageable, which I absolutely wish Black Myth: Wukong took in stride.

Wukong needed difficulty settings if it wanted to compare itself to God Of War, which always has had difficulty settings.

But Wukong didn’t even feature a shield, parry or even block.

Even Saros has a shield for defence.

Lies Of P has a parry system.

Wukong has a skill tied to parrying, which is just very questionable.

Elden Ring used the open world to make traversing The Lands Between a more enjoyable experience.

If you found yourself under-levelled for an area, explore elsewhere and come back more equipped.

I don’t ask to be mollycoddled by the developers when it comes to such action titles, though I always do appreciate it greatly.

But it absolutely is titles such as Hades, Elden Ring, and Saros that I appreciate for their approach to difficulty.

Not every gamer has the time to spend hours on bosses or difficult enemies.

So I can safely say that I am looking very forward to Saros and I hope it is easier than Returnal.

Because I would like to see Arjun Devraj’s story through to the end and appreciate the world of Carcosa, without giving up in frustration.

Because a developer like Housemarque deserves that opportunity.

As for what is coming throughout May, when it comes to gaming releases, I’m not entirely sold on 007 First Light and Lego Batman: Legacy Of The Dark Knight.

As far as mainstream titles are concerned I’ll be waiting for the reviews, because Crimson Desert taught me to do so.
Shahzaib Sadiq

Take two games
Rockstar Games returning to some of their older franchises is interesting but a) I don’t really believe them and b) I don’t think a lot of them really hold up anymore.

L.A.

Noire was sold on its graphics when it first came out and nowadays I don’t think there’s any way to update it without totally changing the gameplay.

More realistic looking faces just isn’t enough.

What I’d much prefer is if Rockstar was going to make new IP instead.

Considering the position they’re in they haven’t used the freedom they have almost at all.

There is literally nothing they could want to do next that Take-Two wouldn’t agree to, and yet I have a nasty feeling the only thing they’ll make next is Red Dead Redemption 3.
Campbell

Live service lite
Apparently the PlayStation DRM thing is to close an exploit where people were buying games digitally, taking their console offline and then refunding the game (or something along those lines).

Basically, people were abusing the returns system to play a game for free.

The DRM is allegedly time-limited and lifts after the return window is closed.

Not elegant, but I guess people can’t have nice things.

I agree with the article on PlayStation’s live service approach, i.e.

that they basically have live service lite games in their catalogue now, that were ostensibly single-player games, that are more successful than their targeted efforts.

I’d include things like Ghost Of Yōtei in that, which has had multiple large content updates to add new multiplayer options since launch.

It seems like a less risky approach and had they tested the waters on small-scale multiplayer modes for The Last Of Us and God Of War maybe they’d have had something to show for the effort expended, instead of cumulative decades of work going in the bin.

Going straight to ‘This is the new Star Wars and will make us billions’ was madness.

Ho hum, I’m sure they’ve learned their lesson though…
Magnumstache

Culture bomb
That Take-Two boss has always seemed like he knows what’s going on but he’s definitely right when it comes to people taking time off for GTA 6.

We’ve had a few people talking about it lately, but that game is going to be like a bomb going off in pop culture.

Not only are you going to hear about it everywhere but everyone’s going to be talking about it all the time.

I don’t think movies really have that kind of impact nowadays, but GTA 6 will absolutely be the one thing everyone will be talking about this winter and for months and months afterwards.
Scooter

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Always online
I’m on my second PlayStation 5.

I got a disc version 18 months after it launched but I had to travel for my job for most of 2024, so I sold it and got a digital version so that I wouldn’t have to carry discs with me.

None of the games will work if I’m not connected to the internet when I power it on.

They require this check a lot more often than every 30 days.

Sony customer service told me that I need to nominate it as my main console.

The way they told me to do this was by reading the serial number under my first PlayStation 4, which I sold to get a PS4 Pro years before.

The thing is, I had a small handful of digital games on my disc PlayStation 5 and never had this issue.

It isn’t fun.

I exclusively connect to the internet via my phone’s hot spot now, in case my internet connection goes wonky and I won’t be able to play any of the games I paid for fair and square.
Tom Twice
GC: It’s bad and we fear it’s going to get worse over time, for all consoles, as companies try to squeeze out both physical games and any possibility of piracy.

The likelihood that Sony, or anyone else, will care about an edge case like this is sadly quite low.

Inbox also-rans
I see Marathon’s player numbers are getting close to under 10,000.

That is not good.

I really don’t think Bungie is going to last the year at this rate.

Should’ve made a game with a story instead.
Casper
I was convinced that there was an Umbrella reference in Dino Crisis, on one of the boxes or something, but now I can’t find any evidence of it.

Mandela effect?
Keyts

The small print
New 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.
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