Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – a franchise in decline? (Picture: Activision)

The Wednesday letters page wonders how powerful the handheld Xbox will be, as one reader imagines Fallout : Seychelles.

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Neglected Duty Call Of Duty as the 30 minute showcase at the end of the Xbox summer preview sounds about the least exciting thing imaginable. What were they going to do if they hadn’t bought Activision? Although I suppose everyone at Microsoft must now be huge Call Of Duty fans, now that they’re in control of such a massive seller.

If Modern Warfare 3 didn’t do any damage to the franchise then nothing will, short of another Second World War game, but it seems so tired and unimaginative nowadays. It’s just part of the gaming furniture. Nobody expects anything new or interesting from it, it’s just something that exists for casual gamers to buy every year, as tradition demands.

Since we already know this year’s game is a Black Ops sequel set during the Gulf War, I have a hard time imagining it’s going to be bucking any trends. Maybe the one after that? Probably not. It’ll be at least three years till Microsoft buying Activision has any affect on what gets made and I’m not sure they would’ve insisted on more innovation anyway.

To me, Call Of Duty feels like a franchise that has just lost its relevancy. Not in terms of sales or players but in terms of being a game that people talk about and which inspires others. Everyone used to want to make a Call Of Duty clone at one point but now they just don’t bother. It’s got to show some major change for me to get excited about Call Of Duty again and I don’t see that ever happening. Clifford

Size matters An Xbox handheld could work but I don’t see how they’re going to make it powerful enough to attract the usual Xbox crowd. The Steam Deck isn’t that powerful and I’m sure the Switch 2 won’t be either, just because there’s only so much you can do at that size and with decent battery life.

So, is the new portable Xbox going to be happy being no more powerful than the current generation or potentially less? That’s one way to solve how expensive games are to make, I guess, but it doesn’t sound like a very Microsoft solution to a problem. Franky

Worst show on Earth I think I felt GC’s pain talking about the Housemarque reveal . Not so much because there was no sequel, which no one was expecting, but because it was such a low effort announcement. Having zero information about anything in the tweet and barely anymore if you happened to check on Dark Horse’s website (which wasn’t mentioned in the tweet) is just… did they want to make an announcement or not?

The lack of showmanship in the games industry now is ridiculous. Nothing gets announced until five minutes before it comes out, and when it does it’s just a tweet or a blog or a pre-rendered trailer. Where are the previews and interviews we used to get? I know it’s publishers trying to limit risks, and probably reduce costs, but it’s all so feeble and unexciting.

At least Xbox is making an effort for their summer showcase, even if I couldn’t give a fig about Call Of Duty. Carne

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Minimal Fallout I imagine Todd Howard must be unbearable to be around at the moment, now that Fallout has exploded the way it has. He obviously thinks it’s some sort of satirical classic, given he doesn’t want to set it anywhere but America , but I really don’t think that’s how anyone else sees it.

I hope the London mod will be good, but a lot depends on the sense of humour for that one and I haven’t really seen anything to indicate what that’ll be like one way or the other. Personally, I’d rather see what life is like in a country that didn’t get nuked. I’m sure they weren’t aiming missiles at the Seychelles or wherever, so what are they doing now?

They would’ve got hit by the nuclear winter and fallout but otherwise, in theory, they should be unaffected. It’d be interesting to see how the weird 1950s world evolved for a country that wasn’t part of the war and what America and other countries do once they realise some places are unspoiled. Seems like a good idea to me anyway. Gadge

Out of stock My favourite source for acquiring amiibo is probably Andrew J., that writes in here quite often. But I did have an email from the Nintendo store telling me that 130 amiibo were now in stock.

I’ve tried for two days now, intermittently, and I can’t get onto their amiibo page. Either it’s in high demand or they’ve not quite finished editing the page to go live.

Are amiibo really that popular? I just need one to finish my collection: Sora. He’s been out of stock since pre-order time. I never pay over the odds to scalpers for the items so I’m just going to hope I get lucky. Nick The Greek

GC: It’s live as we type this , but Sora is not in stock.

15 years of crowdfunding Thank you to the Dude Abides for the recommendation of the PC Specialist shop website, and Simundo in the Underbox for mentioning Overclockers and Chill Blast as possible places to buy a gaming PC. And also for the advice, as well, from them and That Guy and other Underboxers. With having to save up for a PC now, unfortunately I might not be able to get a Switch 2 on launch now. Andrew J. PS: I don’t know if GameCentral know, but on Sunday, 28th April Kickstarter was 15 years old. Their first project successfully funded was an illustration that raised $35! They have had many Kickstarter campaigns for games and still do. Over the years they have had games like Elite: Dangerous, Shenmue 3, Broken Sword 5, System Shock 1 remake, Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, and Hollow Night. One of the projects that started on Kickstarter is now a household name: Peloton. Currently playing: Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge (PSVR2)

Remake of Time I still find it odd that there has never been a proper home console remaster/remake of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time.

It’s not just one of the very best Zeldas ever (tied with A Link To The Past in my opinion) but unquestionably one of the very best games ever, yet we’ve had HD remasters of weaker entries such as The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess? Adams6legend

GC: There hasn’t been one of A Link To The Past either, unless you count the very minor changes to the Game Boy Advance version. We think The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are just easier to remaster, since they have relatively modern 3D graphics. We wouldn’t be surprised if they popped up again this Christmas, to fill out Nintendo’s unexpectedly empty release schedules.

More Trending Fallout will never be set anywhere but America says Bethesda boss Todd Howard New Fallout game will arrive ‘sooner rather than later’ claims source Games Inbox: Was the Fallout 4 next gen update a waste of time? Games Inbox: What will the next Fallout game be? Read More Stories

Half time already Remember the Unreal Engine 5 video running on a PlayStation 5? Tomb Raider on steroids, basically. Google it if you don’t remember. That’s coming up to four years ago in a couple of weeks. I know the industry is now very different, COVID/hybrid working, length of time to develop, etc. but it’s incredibly disappointing that we’re hearing rumours of Microsoft going next gen in 2026.

So, they would have to reveal next year you’d think, and to me, we’re nowhere near done with this generation. That Unreal Engine 5 video felt like a big moment, a T-Rex on PS1, a Super Mario 64 type moment. And although I’ve played some incredible games this generation (Returnal being the best, in my opinion) we’ve not moved forward like I’d have thought.

I know I’m preaching to the choir, but we’re halfway (or more) through the current console lifespans and can count on one hand the classics since 2020 that aren’t remasters or what felt like basically DLC – I’m looking at you Spidey 2/God Of War Ragnarök!

I’ve tried, but live service games just aren’t for me. A new Naughty Dog IP, Resi 9, Astro’s Playroom (but 20 hours worth) shouldn’t be too much to ask. It’s all just a bit disillusioning at the moment playing backlog games… anyway back to Cyberpunk 2077 it is! Lizardpudlian

GC: It does seem far too early, but sales of both the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 are slowing, and that’s enough to trigger the next generation. Tech demos are never truthful indicators of console’s power though, and you can guarantee that will be true of whatever gets rolled out for the PlayStation 6 too.

Inbox also-rans Thanks to kev_j_stewart and his Reader’s Feature about the PlayStation Portal . As a new dad I have also noticed my backlog of games steadily increasing, due to only really playing when everyone else is in bed. Perhaps it’s the Portal that I need. Or maybe I’ll get a Steam Deck too. TommyFatFingers

I really could do without a Wii nostalgia trend. That console was awful and I’m very glad it’s been resigned to the history books. Literally the only good game on it was Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. Royston

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