Fallout: New Vegas – the best in the series? (Picture: Bethesda)

The Friday letters page celebrates a great year for Japanese role-playing games, as one reader worries what the failure of Suicide Squad means.

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Not the best It’s Thursday afternoon as I write this and I’m really looking forward to the release of the Fallout 4 next gen update , so that I can dive back into the game. I haven’t played it for years and, naturally, the show has got me hyped about returning to that world.

There seems to be an assumption though, amongst many, that because it’s the most recent game (not counting Fallout 76) that it’s also the best. But I wouldn’t say that at all. For me it’s well behind both Fallout 3 and New Vegas and probably at least Fallout 2, before Bethesda took over the franchise.

It’s still a good game, don’t get me wrong, but apart from Fallout 76 I like them all. But for me New Vegas is easily the best, with the best story, characters, and game world. Its only problems are the bad graphics and the bugs, and that’s more the fault of Bethesda not giving Obsidian enough time to make it.

I really wish the rumours of a remaster or remake had proven true as it’s not only deserved but needed. Unfortunately, Bethesda seem to hate the game because they don’t like it and, like Rocksteady with Batman: Arkham Origins, try to pretend it doesn’t exist most of the time. Toxie

Record year Now that I’ve been playing Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes for a few days I just want to reiterate what a fantastic year this has been for Japanese role-players. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Unicorn Overlord are all time favourites already, but we’ve also had Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, and Dragon’s Dogma 2.

None of those are probably what people would think of for a typical JRPG but they’re all great and we’ve still got With Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and the Elden Ring DLC to come. I don’t know how many of these have been successful – I hear Final Fantasy didn’t do so well – but in terms of quality this is the best things have been in years. Boba

Slightly confident I really hope Nintendo release a Switch remaster of Xenoblade Chronicle X this year, to fill in till the Switch 2 is here. Apart from Nintendo Land, which wouldn’t work on anything but a Wii U, it’s the only decent game that hasn’t had the treatment yet. Thing is though, I’d say it was significantly better than many of those that have already made the jump.

Maybe it’s because it’s a big game or perhaps Nintendo didn’t like the direction it went in, compared to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (which I didn’t like nearly as much)? Nintendo has schedules to fill so I’m slightly confident it will happen but at the same time I think it probably wouldn’t have had a chance at all if not for the Switch 2 delay, and that’s weird. Boson

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Scraping the bottom I’ve just seen that Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League has hit its lowest ever numbers on Steam, barely above a peak of 200. That is insane for a big budget, big name game that only came out in February. It was always a terrible idea, that took way too long to make, but like many I really fear for Rocksteady’s future now.

There’s no way Warner are just going to turn round and let them make a new single-player game after that. I’d be surprised if the whole studio wasn’t shut down by the end of the year, because I also doubt that they’re going to continue with their six season plan or however many it was.

Such a terrible waste of what at one point seemed like one of the best developers in the world. I fully expect this to do nothing to put off other publishers trying to make their own live service game. Trepsils

Sleeping on it Just played Alan Wake 2, after all the hype and awards and… what was that? I don’t want to go on too much about a game I didn’t like but I was not impressed at all. Terrible combat, not scary, and poor writing. I really don’t see what anyone saw in it. That bit with the song and dance was funny but I don’t think that qualifies it for game of the year.

I also don’t get all this stuff about a meta narrative and it being about how long and difficult it was to make the sequel. It took so long because not many people liked the first one and it was too expensive to make. Maybe I’m being dense, but I don’t see that being reflected in the story of Alan Wake 2. 84Colbalt

Worth supporting After enjoying the demo and the positive reviews I ordered Stellar Blade today.

I’m pretty indifferent to the talk around the main characters image. I generally agree with your review that it’s immature and personally put it on the level of the lads mags from the 90s or Page 3 models.

All the pushback saying that is body shamming to say or it’s based on a real women’s scan so not a problem miss the point somewhat. Let’s just call a spade a spade. The devs have said they just like to play games with hot characters.

Beyond it just riffing well on some of my favourite games I decided to put my money where my mouth is and order it day one, as it’s doing a lot I want to see the industry do more of.

It’s an original IP. It’s not live service or multiplayer but single player. It’s not bloated, not a full open world game, with current estimates saying it’s 30 hour 100% time. How long did GC play for?

In a climate of buggy games, it launches in a very polished state with Digital Foundry glowing in its praise on that front. It’s an impressive console debut and a dev I want to see another game from, going by the demo and reviews. In also harkens back to an era of Sony games many complain they have killed off, with their metamorphosis into a Western company. Simundo

GC: We agree with almost all of that. It is bloated when it comes to the open world sections though, even if that can be mitigated, to a degree, by ignoring the side quests. For the purposes of the review we didn’t, so it was a bit beyond 30 hours. It is impressively bug free though.

Last minute delay What are the chances Bethesda will help the modders behind Fallout London and Miami to get their mods working with the Fallout 4 update?

These two mods have been years in the making and just one announcement has put them back for goodness knows how long. Bobwallett

GC: We’re not sure but they’re certainly aware of them both, as they’ve already poached some of the creators behind Fallout London.

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Entitled to your opinion A fellow reader recently said ‘I know it’s the same for all Sony games but there is no way that I’m going to pay £70 for an unknown new IP that got good but not amazing reviews.’

I love your page and have read it daily since the old Teletext days, pausing the screen so I can finish letters before the auto scroll kicked in, before having a daily game of Bamboozle, but there’s been a genuine frustration of late with the entitlement of gamers.

There’s complaints about new IPs, one comes along with genuinely good reviews, but people don’t want to pay for it, it should be half the price. Sorry, what? Because people have come up with a new IP it’s somehow intently worth less than a sequel?

For years, a lot of gamers have moaned about games being announced years in advance and now they don’t know exactly what’s coming in the next 18 months they whine.

Another fellow reader said, ‘What are people supposed to be buying a PlayStation 5 for?’ As far as I can see if you don’t have a PlayStation 5 now chances are you’re typically a late adopter, so that you can get a catalogue of games for cheap and there’d be loads to play if you only just bought into the current gen. What better time to jump in? The way I see it, a console maker only owes you a console. I don’t buy a Sony TV and be grumpy about a lack of Sony film studio releases.

Finally, 2023 was one for the record books in terms of consistent quality releases and 2024 doesn’t seem to be off to a bad start either. The last 18 months we’ve had Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, Resident Evil 4, Lies Of P (it was great), Jusant, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Baldur’s Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, RoboCop: Rogue City, Armored Core 6, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Dragon’s Dogma 2 and more. I’ve not even scraped the surface of indies.

Why are we so hard to please? I find the entitlement entirely draining.

Just finished Jedi: Survivor, dipping into Warzone, and looking forward to both Stellar Blade and Another Crab’s Treasure before Shadow Of The Erdtree. Ranny2011

GC: Not that we don’t sympathise with some of what you’re saying but a new IP is an unknown factor, compared to a sequel where, for better or worse, you know exactly what you’re getting. We’ll offer a longer answer to this question in this week’s newsletter.

Inbox also-rans If there’s anyone in the world that gives a damn about JD Fenix or what happened at the end of Gears 5 I will be shocked. Just reboot the whole series and forget about the last three games in particular. Dandy

Speaking of Ubisoft, is Beyond Good And Evil 2 now the latest video game ever? I think Duke Nukem Forever might still beat it but I can’t think of anything that’s still meant to be coming out that comes ever close. I don’t think we’ll ever see it. eclobber

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