PRIO: Fortnite Battle Royale is coming to iOS and Android Credit: Epic Games
Fortnite – would things be better if all games were free to play?

The evening Inbox discusses the possible innards of the next gen consoles, as one reader calls for a Destruction Derby reboot.

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

 

The future is free

I’m going to suggest something that sounds of stupid but I really don’t think it is: all video games should be free. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time but after the amazing success of Fortnite I think it’s now pretty clear that if a game is free then it has the chance to get a much bigger audience than if it was paid-for, and that because of that it only needs for people to spend a relatively tiny amount on microtransactions to make more money than a regular game.

Now obviously microtransactions are a sore subject but the ones in Fortnite seem to work pretty well, and I think if they’re cosmetic-only and don’t involve loot boxes there’s nothing inherently unfair about them.

The only problem is that although this works fine with multiplayer games it’s a lot harder to see how to handle more single-player orientated games. But that’s where I think Game Pass is a useful idea. It’s not free of course, because it has a Netflix style subscription, but it’s already pretty good value and it allows you to play any kind of game – including single-player – at no addition cost.

I think a combination of these two systems will be the future and we should embrace them, because they are a hell of a lot better value than spending £40 on a game you may or may not like and then being coerced into spending another £30 on a season pass. Does anyone else agree?
Purple Ranger

 

The little guys

Just a note of thanks and nod in your general direction for some of the reviews of smaller/easily-missed titles recently. The mobile round-up was really useful. I always suspect there might be some lost gems amongst the match-threes and video game offal, and highlighting some of these was highly welcome.

I’ve very much enjoyed Polytopia on my mobile and happy to spend a few pounds the developers have well earned from me. Steredenn on the Switch has been fantastic (and the only time I’ve ever placed anywhere braggable on online leaderboards) and Into The Breach has hooked me to a low-level laptop I’d never normally use for gaming. I love Advance Wars and grid-based strategy gaming and this is the best fix of that since XCOM and Invisible, Inc.

I can’t believe how much people who won’t go near indie games miss out on, but it’s definitely a misplaced or bewildering snobbery I’ve seen. Glad to have some of the small guys raised up and championed by yourselves and to have some help noticing what’s easily missed!
Squinty McGee
Currently playing: see above.

GC: Good, we’re glad you found the reviews useful. Indie titles have to take a secondary priority, for obvious reasons, but we always try to fit them in where we can.

 

Downward trajectory

Seeing as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released in November 2013 then the next gen seven years later in November 2020 seems reasonable. I think the only thing that would delay it is if the current gen continues to sell as well as it is. If consoles sales are on a clear downward trajectory by the middle of next year then 2020 seems likely.

I know we’ve had the mid-gen upgrades but I don’t think the intention was ever to extend the gen with them. 4K and the Elite controller showed there was a sizeable market for high end versions of base models.

Personally, I’m hoping the next gen is a bit more balanced than the GPU heavy one we have now. Much improved CPUs that will provide better frame rates, AI, and physics.

I’m expecting it to probably be the least impressive graphical jump from one gen to another. But considering how amazing Horizon Zero Dawn looks on a base PlayStation 4 I’m convinced seven year newer tech will provide games to get very excited about. The mid-gen upgrades, along with diminishing returns on GPU power, contribute to the leap probably not being as profound as usual but considering most will be coming from owning the base hardware they should see large gains from new hardware.
Simundo Jones

 

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

 

Cost and power

Gaz be rotten said: ‘The processing unit should at least offer 12 high speed cores so that running at 4K and high frame rates won’t be an issue.

There are decent GPUs that have now hit the market capable of this although Sony and Microsoft could consider an optional multi-GPU version years later after hardware price drops of these systems for anyone wanting to run games slightly above 4K, which will happen in the future for PC gamers and console gamers alike.’

As an owner of a 1080Ti, I can confirm this GPU is only just capable of this and not in all games at higher settings, so this is a no go. Multi GPUs are a nightmare and AMD and NVidia, as well as game developers, are distancing themselves from multi-GPU support slowly. 4K 60fps in consoles is a distant dream for most part in AAA titles at this point, as it requires a hellishly expensive GPU. And even if expense was not an issue, the thermal dynamics of a GPU capable of this is too much currently for a small box the size of a console, and it requires a lot of juice to run.

Then there’s the CPU. AMD don’t have anything available that is capable of hitting 60fps in AAA games, which again doesn’t a) cost a fortune, b) is small enough and low energy enough to be suitable to fit in a console. Currently a modern i5 or above is required to hit 60fps in Assassin’s Creed Origins, and the i5 struggles to manage this at all points.

I just don’t see any suitable hardware available to really go to next generation that’s currently available from AMD (or Nvidia) that would allow consoles to be cheap enough and offer significant upgrade over the Xbox One X.
Kiran

 

Specific demands

What Mario Kart 9 for the Switch should certainly have is a good amount of familiar Mario characters, unique Items for each racer, boss battles, a course owned by Peach, Yoshi, and Koppa Troopa.

No course owned by Wario for once, Mushroom City and Toad’s Factory being amongst the retro tracks, being able to select the number of racers per race, unique overview, start up and results themes for each retro track that remix the games they’re from, and Achievements.
CuriousUserX90

 

Length of a piece of string

After years of indifference to the current gen consoles I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and get a PlayStation 4 at the end of the month, but know absolutely nothing about patches or anything like that.

I was wondering if GC or anyone here can give me some advice regarding them; how long do they get released after a game is out and how many gigabytes do they range from? Pending good reviews I want to get Far Cry 5, which is released four days before I get paid.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Uncle_Albert’s_diet_pill_scam1988

GC: Patches can come out at anytime and be any size. Although day one patches are particularly common and are generally a few GB in size.

 

Zee-Out or Zed-Out?

I bow down to your knowledge, X-Out was indeed Cross Out, apparently the Amiga version actually said in speech ‘Now loading Cross Out’. I had the Amstrad version.

That’s solved a near 30-year argument. Which I’ve lost. I’m glad I no longer know this boy. But then the sequel was called Z-Out, so surely I can be forgiven?
Rolph

In relation to this morning’s letter about X = Cross, so did the Switch code name NX stand for Nintendo Cross? As in a home console crossed with a portable. I can’t believe I never spotted that before.
Rankmed

GC: That’s a good point, we don’t know. Although generally the Japanese use of X to mean cross is when it’s on its own. As in Street Fighter X Tekken.

 

Multiple choice

I can’t claim to be an expert but I did get a ‘C’ in Latin at GCSE. If I remember correctly, there is no accepted correct pronunciation of Latin, so we usually just pronounce it by sounding out all of letters.

Machina is a difficult one as you could argue it be pronounced mack-ina or mash-een-a or even match-ina. I use the first two pronunciations interchangeably and have heard the third one used by other people. Not terribly helpful I know so I would say go with whatever you feel sounds right.
Carl (Pumpkindude86 – gamertag)
PS: Thinking about it, mash-ina is also just as viable a pronunciation.

GC: In that case we’ll stick with mash-een-a, which is what we’ve always used. Thanks!

 

Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here

 

Everyone loves Destruction

I was playing Destruction Derby recently and can’t understand why we don’t have a PlayStation 4 version. Surely it would make a lot of sense and would be a very popular online game, or at least I think it would be.

It wouldn’t even need to be a big budget game, although it would be nice if it got that sort of treatment. As long as it had the bowl and some wrecking races it would be just the ticket. I remember playing the original Race Driver: GRID online and it had a destruction derby style race and it got voted for nearly all the time, so there must be demand for it to come back. But I’m not sure who even owns the IP.

I know there is the Flatout series, which is as close as it gets these days, but that lacks the charm and quality of Destruction Derby. I’d like the comments to stay in a new version: ‘Stay away from those barriers they’ll only slow you down!’ and ‘That would make a great replay!’, for example. Who else would welcome a return of Destruction Derby if they can capture the charm of the original and not over complicate things? Sometimes less is more
R1CH5TER
PS: Here’s a code for Annabelle Creation to give out in exchange for an Inbox letter.

GC: Thanks for that. Destruction Derby was a Psygnosis game, so it’s owned by Sony. The original developer was Reflections, who are owned by Ubisoft now. But to be honest the series ran out of steam in the PS1 era and it was really only the first one that was successful.

 

Inbox also-rans

Just a quick one, as the F1 season starts this weekend Codemasters’ F1 2015 is free on Humble Bundle for PC. Best be quick though as it looks like it’s only on offer until 5pm Saturday!
Happy racing everyone!
TheDudeAbides
PS: I know it’s really old, but weirdly I have a spare Steam code for Half-Life 2 if anyone wants it!

Anyone noticed the 30 minute Far Cry film on Amazon?
Chris (wkma)

 

This week’s Hot Topic

The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader R1CH5TER, and asks what is your most played console or computer?

What video game format have you spent the most time on overall, over the years, and how comes? Do you count it as your favourite format and do you still have it plugged in, ready to play, today? Do you keep your old consoles and if not do you regret getting rid of them?

How interested are you in retro gaming and what benefits, if any, do you feel there are in owning the original console itself – instead of a replica or just an emulation of its games?

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

 

The small print
New Inbox updates appear twice daily, every weekday morning and afternoon. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word 4Player viewer features at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

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