Games Inbox: When will the new Tomb Raider be revealed?

Metro

3 days ago

The Wednesday letters wonders when people will start asking about GTA 7, as one reader considers going to the Switch 2 midnight launch.
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Forgotten treasure
I've seen a lot of rumours about Resident Evil 9 or Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 being at the Summer Game Fest, or Xbox or Sony's events, but I don't think I've seen anyone even pretend that Tomb Raider might be there.
It is now seven years since the last game and while they said they were doing a new one we haven't seen or heard anything about it. I know the developer and their owner has been having problems but surely this is the high priority? The moneymaker they have to get right?
It sounds like things are going badly to me and yet we haven't heard about that either. It's like the game has just disappeared, never to be talked about again. I really hope someone does this summer though.
Dace
Serious games
I think I'm at the point where there has to be another major Nintendo exclusive out this year or I'm not getting the Switch 2 until there's more first party games than we know of now. I'm sure Mario Kart World is great, and maybe Donkey Kong Bananza as well, but I need to see a bit more variety than that.
A new Zelda or Splatoon, for a slightly more serious vibe, would've been fine but we've not heard about either and there's no sign of any equivalent or anything that isn't that dumb Dynasty Warriors spin-off.
It's a strange omission really, because all they need was a quick CGI trailer, or even just part of montage, and a vague promise and that would've been it. But at the moment I have really no idea what serious games are coming to Switch 2 or when I might find out more.
Austin
Analogue launch
As the concept of physical games slips away from us, I have to say the idea of a midnight launch for the Switch 2 actually seems pretty appealing. I've already taken the Thursday off to play the console, so I might actually do it.
Although how long until the concept of a physical console becomes outdated? Streaming is surely only a few years away from becoming mainstream and if you want a computer chip in your head you can already control games with your mind, instead of using a gamepad.
The whole world is going digital-only and games are naturally at the forefront of that. It might be the future, but I think I'll go to one more midnight launch while the shops still exist for them to take place in.
Vona
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Difficult decision
As a very indecisive person, I often have a hard time deciding on what difficulty setting to play a game. Although I'm a very experienced gamer, I'm not the best, but I also don't want an easy ride. I expect difficulty settings in some games, but I've always thought that they are a result of bad design.
The game I'm playing at the moment, which I think should not have one, is Forza Horizon 5. The idea that you lose on a particular difficulty setting and then replay it on a lower setting just seems a waste of time and seems completely counterintuitive to how a game should work.
What are your thoughts in the matter? Do you share my sentiments at all?
John
GC: Ultimately, we think it should be decided on a case-by-case basis, but we do have a lot of sympathy with what you're saying. Something like Doom having multiple difficulty levels makes sense, since you're purposefully making it harder for yourself each time, while some family friendly games often have an ultra easy, quasi-invincible mode that also seems appropriate. However, when an ordinary game has three different difficulty levels for no apparent reason we do agree something has probably gone wrong.
Star Wars celebration
I'm really curious to see if EA is going to react to all these calls for a Star Wars Battlefront 3. They're not exactly ones to waste money usually but it seems like the sort of thing that Lucasfilm themselves might respond to, where they like the idea that people are calling out for a sequel.
Worst case scenario is it'd be some free to play rubbish trying to be replace Apex Legends but an actual normal paid-for game, with lots of content and no microtransactions, I would be all for. Problem is that it'd take five years or so to make and who knows what state Star Wars or EA will be in by that point. Some kind of annoucement or beta for 50th anniversary in 2027 would be amazing though.
Grackle
Free advertising
So on this this exact date in one year's time, I could be playing GTA 6? Yeah, count me in as someone that doesn't believe it'll happen. It'll be delayed again and come out in the autumn, which is probably what Take-Two would prefer anyway. Not that it's really going to make any difference, given basically everyone with a console or PC in the world is going to want to buy it.
Even if you hate GTA, and I know it's not for everyone, I can't believe there is a single gamer that doesn't at least want to see what it looks like for the graphics and open world alone. Which, to be honest, is why I think a lot of people play it anyway.
If this year belongs to the Nintendo Switch 2 then next year is going to be all about GTA 6. At that point, even if you do like it, you're probably going to be sick of hearing about it. But what can you do? This will go way beyond marketing. In fact, they wouldn't have to spend a penny on selling the game as word of mouth will do it all.
It will gradually fade back to background noise but then the question becomes: how long until we start talking about GTA 7 instead?
Whistler
Unexplained pricing
So Sony raises the price of the PlayStation 5 one month and then decreases it the next, but only for a few weeks for a sale? Is it even worth asking what's going on? Although the most important question is why did we and a few others get a price rise and the US didn't? Are we literally paying for Trump's tariffs, while the US doesn't get affected at all?
Of course, Sony will never be taken up on this because they never do interviews anymore and who knows who's even in control now. So instead we've got to pretend to act grateful for the prices going back to what they were in the first place.
Goots
I have the rasterisation!
I've enjoyed seeing some of the early performance comparisons between the Switch 2 and the current and last gen home consoles. Digital Foundry have taken a lot of stick for saying that the Switch 2 sits somewhere between the PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro in rasterisation performance (what we'd have conventionally referred to as 'power') but that's a very negative interpretation of what they've said and completely ignores a point that they return to over and over again: the days of new consoles and GPUs being pushed forward solely by hardware grunt are gone.
PlayStation 4 level rasterisation in a handheld that has low memory bandwidth, superfast storage, and access to modern features such as DLSS and ray-tracing will produce markedly better looking (and hopefully better running) games than a PlayStation 4.
Indeed, some of the footage from Switch 2 docked gameplay is displaying better texture quality and clarity than the Xbox Series S (albeit at a lower native resolution), which is in no small part down to the superiority of DLSS in comparison to the software-based upscaling or anti-aliasing techniques employed by the current and last gen home consoles (other than PS5 Pro).
I understand that a lot of people's eyes probably rolled back in their heads reading that, and not just due to my overuse of punctuation. However, I find it absolutely fascinating that we've reached a point where these technologies can help a relatively underpowered console punch so far above its weight in terms of what we, the gamers, actually see on screen.
It can only bode well for the next generation of consoles, any future handheld PCs/consoles and hopefully our wallets that tangible performance leaps can be obtained without needing to cram in a GPU that's a foot and a half-long and costs £2K. Maybe PlayStation 5 performance in a handheld isn't as far-fetched as it once seemed.
Magnumstache
GC: It would certainly help to explain the implied plans for Xbox and PlayStation's next gen portables.
Inbox also-ransIt's a shame Nintendo gave up making mini-consoles, I really would've liked one for the Game Boy Advance. My one is broken now and the Switch is too big to really get the same vibe from it.
Bootles
I read that Doom: The Dark Ages sold less than 1 million copies so far. Game Pass or not that can't be good. I hope it doesn't put them off a Quake reboot.
Fonky Gibbon More Trending
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