Games Inbox: EA Sports FC 24 versus FIFA

The Tuesday letters page wonders what secrets the Sony hacks might be hiding, as one reader is glad nobody has bought Capcom.

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One step beyond
I’ve been playing EA Sports FC 24 over the weekend as well and I think I’d generally agree with GC’s appraisal so far. You could imagine it being FIFA 24, but there are more changes than usual, like that one year in each generation where they go all out and you see a major step up from what it used to be. It’s still the same thing but you do feel it’s hit another milestone.

Despite what the Ultimate Edition box art would have you believe, the graphics are very good and I think PlayStyles works great. The whole role-playing element is very good and, as you said, something that, in hindsight, they’ve been building towards for years.

People complained that FIFA was always the same year to year but I think it’s like fighting games where you’re always going to struggle with new ideas to come up with – and fighting games have got years between them, not just 12 months.

The worst thing about any sports game these days is the microtransaction, but if you take that out of the equation I think EA Sports FC 24 could well be the best football game so far and a clear step above FIFA.
Rosti

Secret files
I don’t in any way condone hackers but it would be a supreme irony if the only way we found out about Sony’s future plans is via someone literally ripping the information out of their hands. It sounds like the hackers are maybe pretending they got away with more than they did but what would we even expect to see if we could – I dunno – access Jim Ryan’s laptop or something?

Would we find dozen of previously unannounced games? Would there be an obvious explanation for the current silence? A reason that they’ve not done a single thing with PlayStation VR2 since launch? Or would the hard drive be mostly empty and actually they’ve only got a few things on the go at the moment?

I honestly don’t know and the long Sony go without announcing anything the more surreal and inexplicable it all gets. More than two years since they announced a new single-player game? Surely they won’t make it two years, but would you bet against them at this point?
Lonny

Begins with E
RE: Orgen letter on space games. Try Endless Space 2. I’ve been playing it on Xbox Game Pass; it’s for the Xbox Series X/S but you can play it on Xbone through the cloud. Takes a while to get used to the controls but once you do it’s great. No on-foot stuff, just piloting around the galaxy. There are stories and missions, it’s the nearest to old style Elite of all the space games.

Good combat, first or third person views, trading, mining, upgrade your ship or buy a better one… I think it’s only single-player. I like it anyway.
Johnny Alpha SD
Currently playing: Endless Space 2, Enlisted, and Clash Royale for my sins

GC: We’re pretty sure you mean Everspace 2, which is indeed a good call for space-based games.

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Interactive fandom
In the late 90s there was a movie called Cube which was created on a very low budget of $250,000, at the time about £200,000, and it exceeded expectations. The movie was way better than expected. A fan-made version of a game of this movie has been done and this is ongoing and getting more upgrades.

I often wonder if the owners of the movie and creator of the game would consider working with a studio to make this into a full completed game and would like to ask if GameCntral has ever heard of this movie and if so what they think of the fan-made game.
gaz be rotten (gamertag)

GC: We saw the film back in the day, but this is the first we’re hearing of a fan game.

Virtually forgotten
Just a thought on the PlayStation 2, I’ve been really enjoying some of the games on the headset; the experience is great, the headset is comfortable, easy to use, and the graphics are very good. Compared to the original PlayStation VR it feels a massive step forward. But then I look at the catalogue of games I have for the original headset and there is no comparison.

I wrote to you before the PlayStation VR2 launched, expressing my surprise that no mention was being made of transferring games to the new headset. And that surprise has turned, frankly, to dismay. Sony seem to have forgotten the device. On the PS Store the first PlayStation VR games are listed ahead of the new ones, which look like afterthoughts. And really, it’s not a surprise when you look at the titles available for the original headset.

Astro Bot: Rescue Mission and Blood & Truth, for a start, are up there with Half-Life: Alyx as essential experiences. But then the PlayStation VR has Skyrim, Doom 3, and any number of other genuine meaty games. The performance might struggle but the games are there. And the games and the original PlayStation VR work on the PlayStation 5.

It’s quite frustrating to find myself returning to an older headset in order to find engaging games. I do need to apologise to makers of great games on the PlayStation VR2, which I might have missed; my argument is with Sony who produced a brilliant piece of hardware and then seem to have forgotten it in favour of a weird pseudo-handheld. Please get a grip and make, or even more importantly, upgrade some great games.
Nick G

GC: You’re absolutely right. The hardware is great but the software support from Sony is unforgivably bad.

Unofficial Portal
I’ve been using a Backbone One for a while, to do remote play, and as good as it is, the main issue really is the small screen size when games are designed for a TV. So when I found out the Logitech G Cloud is now available in the UK I bought one almost immediately.

The screen’s still a little small for something like Starfield’s ship builder, but the rest of the game is perfectly fine. Which given the length of Starfield and not wanting to take the family TV for that long is a really good thing (basically my main reason for buying it). So if anyone’s interested in the device my ultra short review is it’s good and does everything you expect.

I also think some people are being overly negative on the PlayStation Portal, as the things that would make this device better is if it were more like that. It’s got an even bigger screen and from what I understand the controls are identical to a regular controller, it cost £50 less and given it’s made by Sony you expect the support to be good. The Logitech, by comparison, is essentially an Android tablet with the Xbox app installed. Its usefulness is essentially down to a free app in an App Store.

I get that, like the PlayStation 5 itself, the design is a bit polarising, but if I had a PlayStation 5 I’d definitely be buying one.
Tim

Indie gamer
It is kind of surprising that Capcom has lasted this long as an independent, since they’ve got a lot of great IP and yet have never been that big, financially speaking. I’m certain that if they were an American company Microsoft would have swallowed them up years ago.

That strikes me as a major difference between how American and Japanese games companies do business. Japanese publishers very rarely seem to buy other studios outright but instead prefer to invest in them or, if they’re another publisher, merge with them.

Even Sony has never bought anyone that big. Bungie is the biggest that comes to mind and that was both very recent and an American company. I know it’s naïve to wish everyone could just be their own little thing but I do.
Focus

Easy mode
RE: Adam in Monday’s Inbox. My knowledge of the goings on of the different companies is far from encyclopaedic. I had no idea Miyazaki was the number one at FromSoftware but that doesn’t mean the board of directors have no say or influence on behalf of the company as a whole and the shareholders.

I stand by everything else though, some of the AI summons in Elden Ring absolutely can trivialise any boss fight, apart from Rennala funnily enough – not after the first playthrough at least. The boss fights have nothing to do with Elden Ring being open world, it is a deal more accessible than Dark Souls 3. Play one after the other and see for yourself without five or six years between.

Also, when I said I kept hitting ‘difficulty bottlenecks’ I wasn’t being literal. I meant that up until very late game I was still getting one or two spotted which isn’t usual for me. Lastly if you haven’t played Armored Core 6 yourself, maybe don’t comment on my skills or lack of.
Mitchel

GC: We agree with you on Elden Ring. We think it’s obvious they were trying to make it a little easier than normal, at least in terms of ashes and co-op. It being considerably more successful than Dark Souls is essentially proof of that.

Inbox also-rans
Quick question, are the changes in Cyberpunk 2077 significant enough for you to review the game again?
Mr B

GC: No, we don’t see any need for that.

Does anyone else’s brain automatically translate EA FC 24 as EA FIFA Championship 24? It will now.
Mark Matthews

GC: At first we thought it was quite a good name but the more we use it the more awkward it seems, especially EA FC 24.

This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Sunny, who asks which older games are you now unable to play because they feel too outdated?

The exact age of the game doesn’t matter but what was it exactly that put you off? Was it the graphics, the gameplay, the controls, or something else? Do you find that you cannot play games after a certain point in time or is it all on a case-by-case basis?

Which games do you feel have aged the best and are there any common issues you’ve noticed, in the ones that have not?

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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.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

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