Ratchet & Clank – will Switch 2 games look this good? (pic: Sony)



The Friday letters page asks if it’s still worth buying a Switch this year, as a reader asks Sony to give up on the Activision acquisition.



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Power upgrade With the talk about the Nintendo Switch 2 escalating every day I have to wonder what difference it will make if it really is as powerful as PlayStation 4. Most people would say that the next gen games don’t look much different from the last gen ones. Heck, there barely are any next gen-only games, so in theory the Switch 2 is going to be capable of running something that looks like Horizon Forbidden West or God Of War Ragnarök.



I can’t imagine it would do, specs are always overexaggerated at this stage of finding out about a console, but if it’s anywhere close that is suddenly going to give Nintendo a lot more scope in what they do. A Zelda game that looks like Witcher 3? A Mario game that looks like Ratchet & Clank? A Metroid game that looks like Dead Space? I mean, that sounds great, right?



So I’m curious to hear if people who currently don’t have any interest in the Switch would be tempted by one that was that powerful? And how much less powerful would mean you’re definitely not interested? Korbie PS: What are poor Game Freak going to do with all that power? They’re already so far behind the times they’re just going to end up even more embarrassed, I feel.



Just a name I can’t really see any problems with EA Sports FC being just as successful as FIFA. Maybe it’ll be a little lower to begin with but I’m sure it’ll soon catch up afterwards, plus EA won’t mind as there’ll still be ahead, because they don’t have to pay for the FIFA name, which makes it much easier to hit a profit.



As GC said, I don’t expect the first game to be much different from what FIFA 24 would be. Although, I actually expect it to be pretty bare bones, as they’ll be able to use the excuse of starting from scratch for years. Even though they’re not at all.



EA could certainly do with some decent competition, but I doubt it’ll come from FIFA, who I doubt have any idea of how to produce a video game. If they just let 2K do their thing, and gave them free reign like they did to EA, then it might work out but this whole situation came about because they wanted more control, so I don’t see that happening. Lemno



Different worlds All these video game movies coming out of the woodwork… it’s just madness. We’d had, what? Two or three video game movies that have done okay and absolutely no major hits at all. The Last Of Us was massive, sure, but that’s a TV show and based on a game that is leagues above most others in terms of storytelling – definitely Sonic the Hedgehog!



Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Five Nights At Freddy’s, and Minecraft aren’t only not the same league they barely feel like they’re the same artform. That’s not a criticism of either side, it’s just to point out how stupid these Hollywood producers are, signing up the most famous names and never the ones that are actually suitable to being a film.



Some will argue it doesn’t matter but with two bad Mario movies it feels to me that the brand as a whole is tarnished. God helps us if they do a Zelda film and it’s terrible as well. Gordo



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Let it go I do wonder what kind of relationship Sony is going to have with Activision after all this nonsense is over. It seems pretty obvious that the deal will go through now so shouldn’t Sony be trying to ease down on the rhetoric and just let it go? Instead they’re just coming across as more and more crazy.



I get it, I wouldn’t trust Microsoft (or Sony) to tell me their name if they thought they’d make a penny of profit out of lying but that’s just big business. Sony just need to go back and work out how to make some kind of Call Of Duty killer. It’s just a game of soldiers, it really shouldn’t be that hard. Especially as the own Bungie now.



With Battlefield falling away I feel there’s plenty of room for someone to make a new, not so serious military shooter and now Sony has all the reason to make it. I bet they don’t though. They’ll bet all their chips on that Last Of Us multiplayer game, which I really can’t see catching on. Call Of Duty might be edgy sometimes but it’s never grimdark. Melbor



Flip a coin Having owned a Wii U, I held off on purchasing a Switch as I was still able to play most of the Nintendo games that interested me on the Wii U, such as Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros., Splatoon, etc. My plan was to wait for either the Switch Pro or the Breath Of The Wild follow-up to take the plunge on a Switch.



Now that Tears Of The Kingdom has been announced I pre-ordered a Switch OLED Tears Of The Kingdom special edition with matching case. But with these recent rumours of a Switch 2 being released this year, I am having second thoughts. Am I making a mistake? Am I backing a losing horse two times in row? What do you think GC? Should I cancel my order and hold off a bit more? On the other hand, if the rumours turn out to be incorrect, chances are I will miss out on the sweet-looking special edition. Ali K



GC: There are some compelling rumours suggesting this year, but so far no evidence. If we were forced to guess we’d say it wasn’t going to launch in 2023. It’s close to 50/50 though and if it’s not this year it will almost certainly be 2024.



Practical footwear Another thing I wanted to bring up about the Resident Evil 4 remake is how Ashley now looks more like a real person that you would see out on the street. Instead of a cosplayer dressed as, well, Ashley Graham. It was those weird, folded over boots that she had on that I’ve never seen anyone in real life wear. They did look more cushioned, however…



While she’s not as impractical as Miss Wong, those blocky heels look higher than Cubans to me. I wince every time Leon gives her a boost up to ledge or something. The heels aren’t digging into the shoulders, but it still looks uncomfortable. For both parties!



She also doesn’t need to be caught as much and will jump from certain heights. Again, they’re not spine-destroyers, but that’s gotta hurt, right? By contrast, Ada must have her bones and muscles to be genetically enhanced or something to be going around this rough, muddy terrain. She wore stilettos in the sewer as well, remember! That makes her a force to be reckoned with…



Then I heard the Merchant said the funniest thing I’ve heard in the game so far. Hopefully this doesn’t count as a spoiler, but he said: ‘Gun rhymes with fun for a reason, mate!’ Awful. But great. DMR



Angry on the internet I think the worst thing when I hear about things like the review bombing of Resident Evil 4 is that my initial thought is to dismiss it as being ‘just kids.’ Then I think about it for a second and realise that it’s not kids. All or most of them are going to be at least in their thirties, because they’re the people that know and care about the original Resident Evil 4.



The thought that some tragic thirtysomething is sitting there typing furiously on his keyboard, about Leon no longer looking up Ashley’s skirt, is profoundly depressing. What do they want? Some kind of sex pest DLC to restore the line about Ashley’s ballistics? Focus







Hardware hearsay A fun range of new hardware rumours doing the rounds this week. On the Switch 2 it seems like more of the same rumours. That it’s PlayStation 4 power and launching somewhere after but maybe including ‘Christmas 2023’…. you can’t have any kudos for that, everyone thinks that. Even the model of Nvidia chips used in it are fairly common knowledge at this point, it’s only the finer details at the edges (like how it will achieve its 4K upscale) that are unknown.



PlayStation 4 output is a nice upgrade over the current Switch and should let Nintendo showcase a noticeable generation leap in its first party titles. 3D Mario (maybe Kart) magic at Ratchet & Clank levels of fidelity would be a killer launch app for sure. I would worry about third party support given how far ahead Sony and Microsoft’s current generation machines are and how resource intensive modern game development is. Needing to develop for Xbox Series S and Steam Deck might help there though.



For Sony a portable streaming PlayStation seems like an odd idea… when everyone has large smartphones and/or iPads. Maybe they’ll be something about the hardware and software integration that means it’ll be a much more stable and responsive experience than just a software portal on Android or iOS? Personally might be interested, I treat gaming more like reading books than watching movies which is why I love the Switch. So I prefer portable play even at home, I’m a niche case though.



Also, not sure why Sony is leaning into this ‘halo product’ strategy, PlayStation VR2 and now a ‘Q Lite’? Sometimes it makes sense to keep a product going that isn’t a money maker, does PlayStation VR2 make the PlayStation brand feel more cutting edge even if it’s not selling? I imagine it provided a lot of hardware and software experience to Sony that will be useful at least. So maybe this Q device will do the same for its cloud streaming integration. Marc



GC: The rumour is that it’s more for remote play, which they are giving a renewed push at the moment.



Inbox also-rans So Sony believes Microsoft will release buggy incomplete versions of Call Of Duty to encourage players to buy an Xbox. Does this explain their lacklustre PC ports as of late then? DarKerR (gamertag)/DarKerR-UK (PSN ID)



GC: Did you need to make it ports in the plural? You know it’s only been the one.



There’s a new arcade opening in Belfast on May 13th called Base . I won’t be attending that weekend because, y’know, Zelda, but I’ll definitely write up a Reader’s Feature on the place shortly after if readers are interested? ANON



GC: Please do!



This week’s Hot Topic The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Gamgee, who asks what is your favourite non-violent video game?



Games where you don’t have to hurt or kill anyone are more common than they used to be but they’re still fairly rare, so which is your favourite? Any kind of violence counts, whether it’s cartoonish or gory, but what is your favourite game where everybody lives?



Is that what attracted you to the game or were you unconvinced it would be fun until you tried it? How much does the violence in a game influence what you play and what other kind of non-violent games would you like to see become more prominent?



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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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MORE : Games Inbox: Microsoft Xbox conspiracy theory, Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom score, and Activision Blizzard







MORE : Games Inbox: PS5 Pro in 2023 concerns, Resident Evil 4 vs. 2, and the future of The Legend Of Zelda





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