Games Inbox: What will probably be Rockstar’s subsequent sport after GTA 6?

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Post-GTA 6 world
I can’t help but agree with the reader who said they miss the days when Rockstar made smaller games in-between the bigger ones. I don’t know what Rockstar has got planned for after GTA 6, but I think we can bet it’s not going to be a smaller, more experimental game. But then again, maybe it will be?

GTA 6 is going to make so much money Rockstar literally won’t know what to do with it. None of them will ever have to work again and at that point why not do something weird and unexpected? It’s basically either that or just immediately start work on Red Dead Redemption 3 (or a boring remake). I can’t imagine that prospect, of another five years of work, minimum, on a similar kind of game is going to seem all that appealing.

But what do I know about making games? I have to say I feel like I understand it less the more the years go by. Spending six or seven years, or even more, making the same game, not even knowing if it’ll turn out well sounds like it will turn you crazy. I’m sure GTA 6 will be worth the wait but it’s clearly not your average game. It must be nerve-wracking.
Purple Ranger

Trust no one
I’m not sure I particularly trust execs, especially ones at scuzzy publishers like Take-Two, when they say anything about a game’s release date. I know they’re not supposed to lie when it’s a financial thing, but they can say anything they want at this stage and if it does get delayed they can just say something changed.

I’m not saying GTA 6 will be delayed, just that this doesn’t really count as new information. The only thing that’s really going to count is what’s said in the trailers. Surely the next one must be this year and that will reveal the release date. If that doesn’t happen then I’ll definitely not believe anything Take-Two says.
Cranston

Zombie addiction
I know I shouldn’t hype myself up for something that there’s no evidence for but I’m really pulling for a Resident Evil 9 reveal at The Game Awards. Since I’ve never really been a Silent Hill fan I haven’t really liked any of this year’s horror games and it seems ages since Village. Even Resident Evil 4 seems a long time ago for some reason, even though I know it’s not.

I guess that probably means I’m a Resi addict but it really is one of my favourite franchises, even if it’s not 100% reliable. I’m hoping for the return of third person and some more familiar faces. My preference would be for Jill to be the lead, as she hasn’t had a go for ages and her remake was easily the worst one.

I’m happy to be convinced about the idea of open world, if that’s the direction they’re going, but I’d like to see something a bit more sci-fi, to balance out the more fantasy-based Village. But more Resi of any kind is always good by me.
Pinky

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You don’t belong in this world
Silent Hill 2 might have worked out but I’m not sure I really understand where Konami is going with its Metal Gear Solid remakes. I really can’t see them tackling all the games in chronological order, because after Snake Eater they’ve got two portable games and then they’re straight into Metal Gear Solid 5. Metal Gear Solid 1 would be eighth on the list.

Maybe they’re just going to skip around the timeline at random or maybe Snake Eater’s going to be the only remake but that doesn’t seem very likely.

I just don’t see any point in Metal Gear without Hideo Kojima. I’m not even convinced they can or should make a new Silent Hill. To my mind Konami’s number one priority should be a new Castlevania. There’s been so many crossovers and the Netflix show and everything a new game is a decade overdue at this point.
Jackson

Time freeze
I really can’t defend the criticism against recent Bethesda games – I certainly didn’t enjoy Starfield – but man, Skyrim is a great game. Just an absolute, 100% cast iron classic. Normally in these situations, where later games aren’t as good, it’s because people have moved on and no longer work at the developer, but I don’t think that’s really true for Bethesda.

Unless there’s some unsung hero I’ve not heard of Todd Howard is still there and so are a lot of the other people he was working with at the time. I checked Wikipedia and all three of Skyrim’s designers worked on Skyrm, so what went wrong?

I think it’s a case of the game essentially being too successful. They’ve all started to believe their own hype just a bit too much and so they’re still stuck in 2011, while the rest of the world has moved on. I just hope the mixed response to Starfield helps wake them up a bit.
St1nger

Taking one for the team
From what I gather the PS5 Pro has turned out to be a pretty cool piece of kit. I think the initial perception of negligible improvement stemmed from the choice of games in the presentation and the issue of trying to show increases in resolution and framerate to people watching heavily compressed YouTube videos.

The boosts to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and others all look pretty worthwhile. Maybe not £700 worthwhile, but some people will be willing to pay that and more power to them. Literally.

To be honest I’m most interested in what the AI-upscaling technology might mean for PlayStation 6 (and tangentially Switch 2). We’re past the point where we can affordably brute force improvements in resolution and frame rate by adding extra silicon – that can’t happen, unless we are prepared to pay an even bigger premium.

But if a game can be rendered at a lower internal resolution and reliably upscaled to higher resolutions using PSSR or DLSS (which Switch 2 is rumoured to have) we can hopefully get nicer looking games with good frame rates without breaking the bank. So, thank you PS5 Pro adopters for your service, get that PSSR nicely trained up for me and I’ll see you on Version 6.0.
Magnumstache

Business reasons
To reflect a bit on Onibee letter, I think Nintendo has only told us about Switch successors backwards compatibility for one reason. As we recently learned software sales have slowed more than anticipated and that’s due to not having a Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom this year, mixed with some expectancy of the announcement of a new console.

I think Nintendo believe if they reassure everybody the recent and upcoming releases can be used well after the Switch era then players are less likely to hesitate if that is a concern for them.
Bad Edit

Beginner’s role
I’ve been thinking about buying Dragon Age: The Veilguard, as I like the look of the world and environment, as well as the exploration and combat. The trouble is I’ve not really clicked with any role-playing games before. Mainly, I find the menu systems, such as the inventory confusing and combat somewhat overcomplicated with spells, potions, etc.

The Witcher was one game in particular that I found frustrating as the world was intriguing and some of the characters and story were excellent, as well as choices you made having a genuine impact. But I found that the myriad of items that could be found baffling and never explained, especially when you required ‘x’ item to beat certain enemies and I never knew where said item was to be found.

However, I don’t really know if The Witcher is a role-playing game, my understanding is a role-playing game is game whereby you can alter your character’s stats and armour or weapons and can make dialogue decisions, but by that logic most games are role-playing games to some extent. As you can see, I’m slightly clueless. Can you or the readers recommend any more traditional type role-playing games that might be a bit more on the simple side, to ease me in gently?
matc7884

Inbox also-rans
I’ll say one thing for The Getaway, it wasn’t a very good game but those graphics really stand up surprisingly well. For a minute I thought it was a PlayStation 3 game. As I remember though the frame rate was pretty shonky. Wasn’t the developer recently shut down though?
Dennis

GC: Yes, London Studio were closed earlier in the year.

I just finished Life Is Strange: Double Exposure and wow… that was not good. The first couple of chapters were okay but the ending is terrible. And I’m sorry, but that character did not in any way look, talk, or act like Max. Did they suddenly rename her from another character at the last minute?
AmberWarning

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