Games Inbox: The Last Of Us Part II most anticipated, Okami 2 hopes, and Jak And Daxter reboot

Interesting to see that The Last Of Us Part II was voted the most anticipated game of 2018 at The Video Games Awards. I would’ve thought Red Dead Redemption II was a shoe-in for that, but apparently not. I wonder if it has to do with the game’s short trailer and the lack of news since? I remember it came out the same day as the Switch reveal and I’m willing to bet Rockstar expected them to be the bigger news.

The trailer looked great but it didn’t really show much and we’ve not really learnt anything with the second one, other than the facial animation still isn’t as good as Naughty Dog. I don’t see how a delay plays into it not getting nominated, so I don’t see it as anything other than people apparently losing interest a bit.

It’s still my most anticipated game but am I the only one? I’d get anything Rockstar probably, but the closer it is to GTA the more likely and a new Red Dead is basically as excited as I’d get about any game that wasn’t GTA VI.
Stick

Wow, I guess the warnings that there wouldn’t be much at PSX weren’t kidding. Nice to see even more VR support though. I agree with the guy that wrote in saying that Sony has actually handled things very well. I’ve no complaints given the small audience and I think it’s obvious in the sales figures that they’re being rewarded for it.

The big news was MediEvil, but I don’t know how they managed to not have any kind of a real trailer, so it’s hard to get excited about that. (I’ll be honest, I barely remember the original.) Interesting to see them admit that they’re only doing it because of how successful Crash Bandicoot was though. You would’ve thought that would have led to a Jak And Daxter remaster instead, which was also a Naughty Dog game. Although I guess it was more complicated so might have been harder work.

Jak And Daxter was an odd series. The first one was kind of more like Banjo-Kazooie but the sequels went all edgelord and like a tween-friendly GTA. I could see a return to the original style working, as Sony hasn’t really got anything else like that and I assume we’re not getting another Knack now. Surprised we haven’t heard about a new Ratchet & Clank yet either, the remake seemed to do really well.
Kurt

I really like the look of that GTFO indie game (terrible name, as usual) that was shown at The Game Awards. I don’t know if the enemies were actually zombies but the whole game had a very Aliens vibe and I still feel that’s a movie that games have never truly done justice to.

So many games have ripped it off so much over the years there’s not much point doing it officially anymore, but the look of the film and that sense you could die at any second even though there’s tons of heavily armed guys around you is still pretty rare. Especially in a sci-fi game.

Left 4 Dead is probably the closest thing too it, but that game’s so old now there really needs to be some way to modernise and expand it. I hope that’s what GTFO is, and it’s certainly got my attention. The Game Awards really impressed in general this year: tons of announcements, the actual award winners were pretty good, and the whole thing had a positive vibe. Still only watched edited highlights though.
Stimpson

After the good news of Oculus Rift compatibility for Doom VFR I’m gearing up for Fallout VR. I just looked at the minimum specs and saw the GPU is the £400 GTX 1070. Recommended is the even more expensive 1080.

I know Bethesda role-playing games tend not to be the best optimised games, but the specs needed for Fallout 4 VR highlight the currently colossal processing power that will be needed for higher resolution, better graphics VR. The kind of graphics that will deliver the immersive potential current VR seems to suggest is possible.

PlayStation VR looks like VR’s best hope for mainstream adoption and with over 2 million units sold hopefully we will see PSVR2. But I hope it’s not for two to three years, so it can be running on a PlayStation 5 that’s quite a bit more powerful than the 1070.
Simundo Jones

So if Nintendo does have a new Direct in January, which I would think very likely regardless of whether there are any rumours or not, what are expecting to see? I shouldn’t think there’d be much more on Bayonetta 3 for a while, as they’ve clearly not really started, but Metroid Prime 4 has got to be the obvious guess.

Judging by their previous behaviour I think you’d be looking at one or two major games (maybe Animal Crossing as the other one?) and three or four smaller ones (Super Mario Maker 2 seems obvious). My main hope though is that we get at least one major new franchise.

Nintendo has done great with Splatoon and okay with ARMS, and I hope that is giving them the confidence to keep inventing things. They’ve had a great cap-off to a brilliant year and it’s good for the whole industry if they keep things that way next year.
Ishi

I would absolutely be over the moon if Capcom announced an Okami 2, based on the new remaster and what Hideki Kamiya said to you. I remember him also mentioning that he was going to be talking to Capcom about making a game with them, and since that almost certainly isn’t Devil May Cry V it looks like Okami 2 is the next most obvious. All circumstantial evidence, but it all adds up!

Do Platinum have enough people to make a big Zelda style game though? I guess Scalebound was something similar, but considering that game almost killed them I’m a bit wary about them taking on too much.

Would love to see the game get a proper follow-up (I know there was that DS game) and some mainstream appreciation. Maybe Nintendo could help fund it and make it a Switch exclusive? Hoping for some news early next year!
Onibee

GC: Platinum is a surprisingly big company, and they don’t have that much announced at the moment; so that at least shouldn’t be a problem.

I know it’s getting to that time, but I really don’t see Sony releasing a PlayStation 5 anytime soon. A new generation basically wipes the slate clean and although I’m sure Microsoft would love nothing more than to do that at the moment Sony has an enormous lead and everything to lose by essentially starting again. The PlayStation 4 is still selling great and it’s still only been four years.

I think they will announce either a PS4 Pro 2 or just keep with how things are for at least three or four more years. Just like last gen I think this will be a long generation. There’s just no need to make a new console. The graphics aren’t going to be that much of an improvement and who needs all that expansion and confusion? Not Sony I’d say.
Einy

I didn’t actually expect any chance of a SoulCalibur VI realistically happening this decade, but happening it is. Strangely, as little as we have thus far seen, early signs are promising.

I have said before on this hallowed gaming altar to Cybertron, that the series would need to wipe the slate clean – à la Mortal Kombat 9. And while there is nothing concrete to prove this, that we see Sophitia in her old, SoulCalibur 1 pantomime boots is encouraging. Oh yes it is! Sorry, you knew I wouldn’t be able to resist.

As long as there isn’t even the faintest trace of a whiff of Algol and Sophitia’s dreadful, personality-free children things should turn out okay. Seventh time’s the charm, right?

For those of you who are only as old as Maisie Williams, this is actually the seventh entry in the series – not the sixth. The first was way back on the PlayStation 1 and called Soul Blade, and featured one of the very best soundtracks in the genre. But thanks to a complete cretin by the name of Tim Langdell, who liked to sue anything under the sun that had the word ‘edge’ in it, Namco didn’t want the same headache twice and just called the sequel something else. A little bit of history perhaps for those under 21… Man I’m old.
DMR

GC: You’ve mixed up the explanation slightly there. The original coin-op was called Soul Edge and the home version had to be changed to Soul Blade because of Tim Langdell. SoulCalibur 1 was originally not meant to include quite so many returning characters, which is why it wasn’t called Soul Blade 2.

Regarding deckscrubber02, while playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution I would often go into people’s homes and partake in the bizarre and funny (well to me anyway!) sport of picking their refrigerator up and leaving it standing on their bed!
LastYearsModel09 (PSN ID)

One piece of news that I am happy with is that PSN will allow you to change your PSN ID from next year as when I setup my account I accidently chose the wrong name.
Andrew J.
PS: Here is a digital copy of War For The Planet of the Apes for any reader who sends in a usable Inbox letter.

GC: Thanks very much!

With the final preview event of 2017 now over this weekend’s Inbox asks what was your favourite new video game reveal of the year?

Taking into account showings at E3, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, The Game Awards, Nintendo Directs, and all the others, which new announcement did you think was handled the best – regardless of whether you were interested in the game itself? Which did you find the most surprising and which new game are you personally most excited about?

Were there any major announcements you were expecting to see but didn’t, and where there any reveals that you thought dropped the ball in terms of what or how much they revealed?

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