Games Inbox: Is Helldivers 2 in decline? Achi-News

The Thursday letters page is excited by the Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered collector’s editions, as one reader has a theory about Nintendo and Shiver Entertainment.

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Stuck in the middle
As someone who played the game almost every day in the beginning I’m not surprised that people are starting to lose interest in Helldivers 2. I can’t say why it happened so suddenly but, for me, the reason why I stopped playing so regularly not only because of the nerfs of all the good weapons but also because it becomes a bit similar.

You can only play the same thing over and over so many times, and for me I’ve reached my limit. I’m aware that things like Fortnite and Rainbow Six Siege seem to go on forever, but I need at least some sort of variation. I’ll probably get back into the game properly in a few months, but I can’t imagine myself playing it as much as I ever did again.

Helldivers 2 didn’t do anything particularly wrong, but you can have too much of a good thing. How much this applies to other people I can’t say but it occurs to me that most of the long standing live service games are either aimed at kids (Fortnite and Minecraft) or shooter fans hardcore (Rainbow Six and Counter-Strike) .

There isn’t much middle ground between those and yet that’s exactly where Helldivers 2 is. Maybe that was even the point. But if it was, I think we’re going to find out that those kinds of games don’t work in the long run.
Sasquatch

Working as intended
So is Hellblade 2 the 2024 version of Ryse: Son Of Rome? As in it looks amazing but not much happens.

I wasn’t surprised by the low score as I had played the original and was very impressed by it. The whole gimmick of the voices was annoying. The fight was one note and it was like three or less enemy types.

Has Ninja Theory made a good game yet? A quick Google check, nope. Maybe Enslaved but not a great record. Of course, it’s just my opinion and others might love Ninja’s previous one but I’ll continue to not buy their output unless it’s cheap, like the games I played.
Bobwallet

GC: Ryse was primarily an action game, so in that sense it was more of a failure. For better or worse Hellblade 2 is the way it is on purpose. We’re not big fans of Enslaved but we always felt that the DmC reboot was underrated, even if the story elements were terrible.

90s nostalgia
It’s strange 30 years since Resident Evil 1. I remember buying a PS1 to play it and calling everyone in the room to look at the life-like graphics. Nothing like it at the time or the horror style that made you jump. One of the few games I kept going back to.

Amazing how far we’ve come in such a short time, although for me Super Mario 64 was the most amazing achievement with the limited hardware of the time. Remember to watch the intro, wait for the game to start outside the castle, then realize that it has started and that the whole games are like that. Witchcraft at work. Magical, spent 100+ hours getting all stars.

Good luck and fingers crossed to everyone at Digital Foundry and Eurogamer staff. Anxious times. They are gamers as well as quality journalists.
TWO FACES

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Lara in the flesh
Great news for me!

Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered is getting a physical release on September 24. I’ve been wanting to play this but wasn’t keen on the idea of ​​a digital copy when my other Tomb Raider games are on disc. Glad I stayed now.

It comes out as a standard edition. But even better, a deluxe hardback edition that will include maps, an 80+ page book, a soundtrack download, and a greatest hits music CD. It all sounds very retro and just the sort of thing I was originally hoping for. It will be out on PlayStation 5 and Switch. No mention of Xbox.
Tony- -1975 (PSN ID)/SW-4453-8520-2043 (Switch)

GC: There’s also a £160 Limited Run Collector’s Edition which includes all sorts of other goodies, such as action figures and replica pistols.

Previous advice
AG: Chaosphere and Paul C’s startup and other problems with the Xbox Series X. I often find that Satan Therapist advice back from 2019 – on these very pages – usually solves a variety of issues with the console . The advice was for the Xbox One, but I see it applies to the Xbox Series X as well.

Specifically: ‘Go to settings, then Disc and Blu-ray, and hit clear persistent cache three times (just like clearing the Xbox 360 cache).
Then navigate to advanced settings under network and clear Alternate Mac Address which restarts the Xbox and all is smooth again, at least on this end.’

Hope this helps to some extent.
NatorDom

Dirty discs
I have a small problem, I received a new and sealed System Shock from Hit today for PlayStation 5 and I could hear the disc loose inside before I opened the jiffy.

I opened it and I could see a few small marks on the disc, I have installed the game to PlayStation 5 and it has installed perfectly and I have started the first area after the cut scene when selecting New Game.

I haven’t had any problems yet. If the disc is installed correctly, does this mean that the disc is working properly?

Should I send the disc back for a refund?

I had Sea Of Stars delivered around the beginning of the month by Hit and the disc was loose there too but there were no marks and it fitted perfectly.
Andrew J.

As they come
Great review of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, GC. I’m definitely interested. I played one of them briefly or Super Mario RPG on the DS 15-odd years ago so here’s my question… I know Mario games don’t really have an ongoing story, but what do you think? is the best order to play these games?

Like in those Paper Mario/Mario RPGs. They all seem to be available now either on Switch, Nintendo Switch Online or DS. So, which is the most coherent / enjoyable way to experience them? Like even in your review you referenced a few different games in their history.

Thanks for your response and keep up the good work!
Lizardmen

GC: Thank you That’s a lot of games though and none of them have any direct story connection (that we remember). We would play Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, and The Thousand-Year Door, then go straight to The Origami King. The Mario & Luigi games are a bit more cohesive, with recurring characters like the great Fawful, but the answer to any question like this is always release order.

Any port in a storm
Interesting news about Nintendo buying the Shiver Entertainment lodge. Despite some confusion in the readers about the quality of recent ports I feel that the reasons Nintendo was in the market for a studio like that makes a lot of sense, while hoping to avoid the gaps in the Switch line on Switch 2.

Third-party ports to the Switch usually required an expert hired by the original publishers or developers. Panic Button’s work on Doom is probably the most famous but Saber’s work on The Witcher 3 and Feral’s on Alien Isolation are also notable.

With Nintendo buying their own port studio it seems they could be offering this service to third parties internally. If EA or Microsoft can cut deals with Nintendo directly for the Switch 2 versions, you’d imagine it would be more attractive to bring their games over to the new platform.

Then there are patches for existing Switch games for the Switch 2. Many first and third party Switch titles would benefit from being upgraded, so handling this with a dedicated studio that knows the old and new hardware would be advantageous.

I have a feeling, like other readers, that Nintendo will charge for enhancements to older games, not a bad thing since these things take resources to produce. I can see Switch 2 playing Switch games out of the box fine but if you want higher frame rates and resolutions… that’s going to be £10 and Shiver will do the job.
Marc

GC: You talk about the studio as if it is some kind of renowned expert in its field, when its cinematography suggests anything but. Do you really want the people behind the Mortal Kombat 1 port to remaster Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?

Inbox also ran
Great review on the Paper Mario game. I remember playing this on the GameCube and it was great. I was quite sad when it ended. Do you think the load times will become much shorter with the Switch 2 if it’s backwards compatible?
Rave

GC: Thank you It will probably be a little faster but it’s not a big problem, just a minor irritation.

I don’t see why Helldivers 2 is getting more and more popular but how is that going to affect Sony’s future plans? This should teach them how you can never say you’ve had success until much later with live service games, but somehow I don’t think they want to hear that.
let’s go

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