The Monday letter page thinks this could end up being a very big week for PS5, as one reader is highly suspicious about GTA+.
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Abused genre
So it’s another , eh? GC predicted there’d be one coming for Gran Turismo 7 and they weren’t wrong, but I’m still wary about getting the game. Changing how much in-game currency you earn definitely seems like a good thing, but Sony hasn’t even tried to explain why they did it in the first place. More importantly, they haven’t done anything about being always-online or even said why it is in the first place.
I don’t get what possible benefit it has for anyone, Sony or otherwise, and it has the very obvious downside of when it goes down it creates incredibly bad press because, as another reader pointed out, this sort of thing doesn’t happen to Microsoft.
Although just to balance things out I will remind people that Forza Motorsport 7 was one of the worst culprits for loot boxes back around the time of Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Why both companies use racing games for their worst practices I don’t know. Especially as the reason why the reboot of Forza Motorsport was rumoured to have been scrapped is because it was intended as a free-to-play game filled with microtransactions.
Is it because these games are extra expensive to make and they need to recoup the investment? Or am I being too kind and it’s just they think petrolheads can be coaxed into paying extras easier than other people? I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s put me off Gran Turismo 7 until it goes on sale. I believe it is worth getting but I’m not paying full price for it, not unless they remove always-online
Casper
Well done everybody
I don’t write in nearly enough to say thank you to your good selves for the continuing excellence of your reporting, reviews, and just general news coverage but I’m especially poor on letting the recent set of excellent Readers’ Features go by without comment, praise or thanks.
So to remedy this, only a little, I would just like to say how much of a pleasant read by yourhomeisatrisk was. I use the word pleasant with the highest regard on such a well written piece, to which I can draw certain parallels to my own gaming forays recently.
So thanks again to all those who take the time to put together such enjoyable pieces for rest of us to read.
Best wishes and good gaming to all
NCD
Amiga 500++
I grew up with an Amiga 500+, my father wanted me to have a computer instead of a console. It came with a lot of very difficult games, the only games I managed to defeat were Chessmaster, which my father taught me to defeat, and later Body Blows. I still have it today and have upgraded it with a modern Wicher 500 .
However, a newer, cheaper accelerator called the has been released. I would recommend upgrading original hardware over an emulation device as it is much more cost effective than it used to be, although there are no save states I believe. The original expensive accelerators, like the Vampire, are a bit out of reach for some budgets.
Growing up I couldn’t afford Amiga games. I would receive one a year on my birthday. The problem being sometimes I wouldn’t choose a very good game. So I resorted to demos found on the cover of magazines that I used all my pocket money to buy monthly. The public domain scene on the Amiga was brilliant.
After reading the article this weekend I must point out that Cannon Fodder was available on SNES as well, it was not an Amiga exclusive.
Sheel
GC: It was also on the Mega Drive and a bunch of other formats, but we think most fans would agree that Cannon Fodder without mouse controls is not Cannon Fodder.
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Amiga loyalist
I enjoyed reading the and reminiscing about some of those games.
As with all mini-consoles, they are always a sort of greatest hits list (although this particular machine appears more as a ‘what we could get’ list). Sadly, not every game owners of the original machines had were the greatest.
As an example, I had an Aunt give me Home Alone for the SNES, since I liked the movie so much. Not the best game out there by a long shot, but one that was part of my gaming landscape growing up.
For me when the Amiga was in its prime I lusted after one, but sadly couldn’t convince my parents that my aging Amstrad required replacement.
It was serious applications like Final Writer and Easy Calc that made my parents sit up and take notice. I eventually got an A1200 but Commodore folded not long after.
Still, I rocked my A1200 with pride until ’98-99, when I was dragged into the PC world by my college course. There was sadly no Amiga equivalent to Visual Basic.
I felt like a dirty traitor, but after getting my first 3D accelerator (a used 3DFX Voodoo) donated by a friend. I eventually warmed to the ways of Windows.
Commodore Fan
PS: Thanks for being my daily read GC. I work in logistics, and your site is partially how I have remained sane during these times.
Day of the Amiga
Just a short message to say has the Amiga on the front cover and inside as well (obviously!). Just bought it for myself. I get the A500 Mini on Friday, 8th April, look forward to getting it after GameCentral’s excellent in-depth review.
Andrew J.
PS: I have had a lot of rejected comments on the Underbox just recently some were really silly being blocked, as in one message I said Uncharted 2 was a big improvement over Uncharted 1 a few weeks ago and I got my comment rejected the other day. I have seen this has been a problem for other people too and it has been on messages where they have not been saying anything offensive or swearing.
GC: Can you send us the exact text you wrote and the day you posted it and we’ll try and get it looked at.
Rescue plan
Thanks to Hennish for their at the weekend, as a long-time fan of the series I had the exact same reaction when I first read the news that EA are already planning a new game. After a month or so of not playing 2042 I got a text from a friend saying he had been playing on the Portal servers and was actually having a good time despite a low player count. I decided to join in, had some fun for once and came to the conclusion that the game can be saved by carrying out the following actions:
Delete the specialists. Delete their stupid dialogue at the end of the round. Delete the core maps. Delete Hazard Zone. In fact, take everything that is 2042 and put it in the bin, then delete the bin.
Rename the game to Battlefield Portal and make Portal the main feature.
This is now a spin-off game and not a main entry.
Add voice chat, a scoreboard screen that actually appears between rounds, persistent servers, keep all the current classes, vehicles, weapons and maps, but add fan favourites from Battlefield 2, 3, Bad Company, Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 4 over time. Or all at once, go nuts. Maybe even add some 1942 and Vietnam stuff in there too; I’m more of a modern-day shooter fan, but if there’s demand for it then add these in. In essence, make it a proper, classic Battlefield experience.
The possibilities with Portal are endless and it is by far, in my opinion, a more enjoyable experience than the core 2042 game modes. If only the player numbers were higher because the computer has fantastic aim.
Trailbreaker83
Big week
So there are a lot of rumours about this week and it sounds like it really is going to happen. That and perhaps even more. Greg Miller from Kinda Funny has delayed his podcast this week because he’s expected multiple announcements. No indication of what they are but it seems like this could be Sony’s big pitch for the rest of the year and beyond, maybe their version of E3 done early.
Or maybe not. It’s still just rumours but by the end of this week I’m hoping we know a lot more about the future of PlayStation than we currently do.
Baker
Switch tracks
Grab Turismo 7 has justifiably been criticised recently but I have nothing to add to this beyond what has already been said, or to what GC stated in of what is a truly excellent and enjoyable game.
And I do absolutely love playing it, but having not done so since the early PlayStation 2 days the one thing that stood out to me was how inconsequential and dull the music choices are compared to the interesting and varied licence choices in the early days of the series. The engine sounds are absolutely fantastic so perhaps there was a conscious choice to give less prominence to the musical tracks but, nonetheless, I found this slightly disappointing.
So, onto the purpose of this letter. It is possible that this is already widely known, and I am just not up to speed on things, but I thought I would share what I discovered last night. Having downloaded the Apple Music app on the PlayStation 5, I put on an album from my library and it played along very nicely instead of the usual boring background music whilst I browsed the store. However, then I went back into Gran Turismo 7 it carried on playing whilst on the map, so I thought I’d try a race.
Because the sound effects on the menus were playing over my song I was expecting a horrible mashup of engine sounds and two music tracks but to my surprise, the game recognised what was going on and the usual music did not play. So what I ended up with was the fantastic engine sounds and screeching tyres as usual, but my own choice of song with volume perfectly adjusted to the right level as if it was part of the game.
I know that this is very long winded way to describe something very small but for me it was like the old days of PlayStation 1 Gran Tursimo and it was brilliant.
Dan Street
GC: We’d be surprised if that was widely known.
Inbox also-rans
A GTA+ subscription service sounds terrible before you’ve even started but why is it next gen only? Clearly it’s not because of any of the tech involved so what’s the reason supposed to be? Is this the only reason they remastered the game, so they coax people into paying for this as well?
Bmp
Sony and their U-turns are becoming a bit of a cliché at this moment. On the one hand admitting you’re wrong is important, on the other how could they not see the problems a mile off? Make cars harder to earn in Gran Turismo? Sure, people are going to love that! Especially as it’ll then make us look super shady with all the microtransactions! (For the record I don’t think that’s why they did it, I think they just never thought it through.)
Cranston
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Xane, who asks what’s your favourite retro video game format?
With TheA500 Mini creating a surge of interest in the Amiga 500, we want to know what’s your favourite retro format of all time – assuming that retro means anything up to and including the Xbox 360 era. Any kind of gaming device counts, including consoles (both home and portable), home computers, and the PC. Although if it’s the PC please be specific about the time period in question.
What is it you like about the format and how much does nostalgia have to do with your choice? What were the format’s best games and is there anything about it that you miss from modern devices?
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
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.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to .
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