GCW-Zero – just in case you were short of new hardware announcements this week
GCW-Zero – just in case you were short of new hardware announcements this week

Today’s morning Inbox wonders about the next next generation, as one reader frets over the lack of Crysis 3 and Castlevania on Wii U.

Please note: we are currently collating votes for the Reader’s Top 20 of 2012, so please send us a list of your top three games from last year to the email address below. The games must have been newly released in the UK at some point during 2012, but that’s the only restriction on your choices. We’ll announce the results on the weekend of February 2.

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

Retro new
Thought some readers might be interested in this, it’s a Kickstarter campaign for something called the GCW-Zero. It’s a portable specifically designed for playing retro and open source games and is meant to be a better version of those fake retro consoles like the Neo Geo X that never turn out as they promise.

I’ve not used one myself but apparently a few have already been built so this isn’t a pie in the sky thing like some Kickstarters. Also I thought it would be good to have some hardware news for something gamers might actually be interested in. I just cannot understand that Nvidia Shield in particular, it looks really expensive and if you’re a gamer then why on earth would you want to play Android games when you can just get a proper console?

I just don’t see what it’s supposed to offer anyone, but then I’m not sure I get the SteamBox either. If it’s just a PC then why not… just get a PC?
Franky

No labels
So I see there’s been another report about the PlayStation 3 taking over the Xbox 360 in worldwide sales, I could’ve sworn that already happened a while back but either way it’s pretty obvious that the PlayStation 3 is going to come second this generation at the end of the day – putting Xbox 360 in last place.

I don’t mean this in a fanboy-ish way, since I own both consoles but I’m always confused by people that say that Microsoft did really well breaking into the industry with the Xbox and even that Xbox 360 is doing well for its second console. What kind of faint praise is that? Sony’s first console one its generation by a landslide and its second was the best-selling ever. I really think a company of Microsoft’s size should be doing better than this.

The point I take from this though is that most people don’t actually care about who makes their console and in reality there is no such thing as customer loyalty. People abandoned the PlayStation brand in droves this generation and despite hardcore gamers favouring the Xbox 360 it hasn’t done it all that much good.

So when these companies are swaggering about at E3 pretending they’re all that I hope they realise they’re just one bad launch line-up away from obscurity.
Keith Murray

GC: Those are unofficial shipping estimates, not sales figures, but it’s been clear for a while now that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 worldwide sales are so close there’s essentially nothing in it.

Gadget man
Call me a geek, but I think that IllumiRoom tech looks quite interesting, exciting even. I’m sold on the idea, but it would’ve been nice to see an image of the product, although perhaps it would’ve been too revealing since it’s highly likely it will integrate with the next Xbox.

It’s difficult to gauge how much more immersive it would make a game, and the cluttered room in the video was no doubt deliberate to suggest it won’t be an issue. Just another gimmick? Only time will tell, but put me down as intrigued – which is no great surprise since I love technological advances full stop.
Up4Banter

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

Cheap as you like
Just wanted to chip in about the comments on tablets vs. handheld consoles. The argument for tablets was that you can get cheap/free games whereas console releases are expensive. However, I got a PS Vita for Xmas which you can download hundreds of Minis, PSP games and PS one classics on for very cheap prices.

As a PlayStation Plus member I also just downloaded Uncharted, Mortal Kombat and Gravity Rush for free. I already had a PlayStation 3 so I can download all the Minis and PS one games I’d previously downloaded to that for free as well, but never had time to play (I downloaded everything that came up for free but couldn’t take over the TV as much since my son was born!). And the best things is I can play all these games with proper gaming controls on a gorgeous OLED screen!

The Vita is a very nice bit of kit itself and it also has very good email, Facebook, Twitter and Internet apps, which are some of the main attractions of a tablet. I know it gets a hard time for not having a lot of big titles being released for it but there’s still plenty to keep you going and that’s not the only string to its bow.
monkee_nutz (PSN ID)

The next next gen
I hope that this next gen of consoles won’t be the last of a physical console. The problem for me is that the next Xbox will cost around £300-£500 but I have a nice 55 inch TV to play it on. If the next consoles will be online and accessed through TVs along with all the other gadgets I dread to think how much a TV of the same size will be. I worry as well that the sort of deals you get off Steam will become a thing of the past once everyone has only one option to play games. Why have deals when they know there is no other competition in pricing? Add to that not having a console under your TV just sounds plain wrong.

I feel the same with mobile gaming and the questions asked if it could take over console or portable gaming. What?! I have an iPad, iPhone, 3DS, Wii U and Xbox 360. I’ve played the likes of Infinity Blade (beautiful to look at but shallow and repetitive), NOVA, and Dead Space (controls are so poor it’s laughable), they last about 10 minutes before I’m bored or had enough and even though they look pretty they feel cheap and no way I would ever want to see a AAA console game cheapened this way.

Even titles like Push Panic, Angry Birds, and Cut The Rope last only minutes at a time, with weeks or months between playing them. When games like Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Resident Evil Revelations, and Paper Mario are played daily. The only game to be played on iPad these days is Solitaire when the misses is in bed because I’m having way to much fun next to her playing 3DS or Wii U.
Terror4mer

GC: Do you mean the next gen as in the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 or the one after? Because you’re probably talking 2020 at the very earliest for that, and we’re sure we’ll all have free energy and robot butlers by that time.

Wait and see approach
I find it very odd and a bit worrying that there seems to be so much hate written about Nintendo. Non-Nintendo fanboys (not that you can take them seriously – they are idiots) seem to want them to fail as a company. Would that be good for competition? Would the identikit PlayStation 4 and NextBox be the only choice?

Clearly the Wii U is on a par or even more powerful than the current gen and while this will probably be no match for the next Microsoft and Sony offerings it is certainly more than capable of running current gen games such as Crysis 3 and Castlevania, which the publishers in their infinite wisdom have decided not to bring to the Wii U. Why is that exactly?

Lack of potential sales due to it being a new console? Doubt it as if the PlayStation 4 or NextBox had just been released then I don’t think those machines would get the same snub. So it seems that some games publishers too want the machine to fail. They know that by not supporting it they are simply driving people towards the other consoles. Maybe it’s simply a perceived lack of sales due to third party never selling so well on Nintendo? That’s exactly what Nintendo are trying to change so give them some slack.

I read something about some Nintendo/EA Origin deal falling through. Sounds like EA are playing spiteful childish games to me. But here’s another thing – I also have a PlayStation 3 and I absolutely love the Dead Space games. Got Platinum Trophies for them both and Dead Space 2 was the most challenging Platinum I have ever done. Very hard indeed. I was really looking forward to Dead Space 3 but do you know what? I feel a childish spat coming on and I’m not going to buy it. These things can work two ways…

Incidentally, I realise that EA have supported the Wii U at launch but none of those titles appealed to me. I am just sick to death of people who for some reason would like to see Nintendo fail. A world without the genius game design and minds that bring us Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Pokémon, etc. and full of generic shooters is probably the day I give up on gaming. Don’t get me wrong I like good shooters but I also like the game design genius that is Zelda and Mario.
Steve

Justified purchase
Before I started reading GC religiously I didn’t really know much or care about developers or publishers of games. I still don’t know much, but I am aware enough to know who CliffyB is now, and have read with some interest and even sadness the goings on at various developers/publishers on these pages throughout the year.

I know I harassed everyone last year with my non-stop stream of letters (three) expressing my love of Sleeping Dogs. I promised myself I would stop after reading back some of my spittle-flecked, body smothered in peanut butter declarations of obsession with this fantastic title. So you can imagine my excitement to see it placed 20th on the charts for 2012. Ooh snap! A Japanese man is flicking you a massive ‘V’ Bobby Kotick.

I wish more publishers would take a gamble on a game that’s nearly finished. I mean surely there is less risk than being involved from the beginning because you would literally be going hands on with the product and making an informed decision rather than being pitched an idea or concept. Also you would possibly benefit from controversy and subsequent curiosity of the game being canned in the first place. Star Wars: Battlefront III is worth a punt for someone surely?

I hope the moderate success of Sleeping Dogs can save even one other game. Sleeping Dogs might not be perfect in any way, but the team who made it certainly put a lot of effort into a making a quality game with the resources they had. Hardly anyone criticised the actual gameplay. I am not saying all games that get scrapped should be saved, some obviously deserve to be, but there is more than one Sleeping Dog that can’t be left to lie on a scrapheap.
Deceitfularcher

Objection sustained
I want to object! Not to anything you’ve done or said, I’m just wondering where the iOS Phoenix Wright HD Trilogy is? There seems to have been a lot of announcements about it, dating late August, stating it would be released ‘this fall’. Which suggests to me it was expected to be released late last year, but that’s the last record I find of its existence anywhere. Does the gaming equivalent of ‘fall’ actually cover a larger period of time than the actual season itself?

Do you have any ideas when more details, or an actual release date, are likely to be announced?
Daleeboy

GC: We just asked Capcom and they said it’s been delayed until ‘early 2013’, they don’t know why though.

Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here

Inbox also-rans
There’s a lot of hardware news at the moment (stupid hardware news for things I can’t imagine any sane person buying) but no games, when’s the first big preview show of the year?
Kefka

GC: You might get one or two at GDC in March, but E3 in June is the first dedicated preview event of the year. Although that doesn’t mean there can’t be individual announcements before that.

I’m curious has anyone actually ever caught all the Pokémon in a game? I think GC mentioned they got them all in the first one?
Pasty

GC: Yep, we got everyone, including Mew, in Pokémon Blue. We’ve never managed it since though.

This week’s Hot Topic
The discussion point for this weekend’s Inbox is an obvious one given the time of year: what 2013 game are you most looking forwards to?

We have a list of the more prominent titles here and our regular release schedule listing here, so if you’re not sure what’s due out this year do use them for reference. You’re free to suggest anything else that isn’t listed, but if it’s something that’s not yet been announced try and explain why you think it’s not just wishful thinking to expect it this year.

Since this year is likely to see the release of the next generation Xbox console, and possibly also the PlayStation 4, feel free to suggest launch games for them too. Although again try and make sure your choices make logical sense (for example a new Gears Of War is unlikely as we already have Judgment out this year, and Halo 4 only came out last year so Halo 5 is almost certainly not imminent).

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

The small print
New Inbox updates appear twice daily, every weekday morning and afternoon. 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.

If you need quick access to the GameCentral channel page please use: www.metro.co.uk/games