Games Inbox: What can Call Of Duty do to beat Battlefield?

The Monday letters page asks for recommendations on good co-op games to play with your kids, as one reader reveals why he plays a new Yakuza game every year.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email [email protected]

Call of the comeback
So it’s official and Battlefield is bigger than Call Of Duty, at last. It’s only for 2025 but this year’s Call Of Duty game is going to have to do something major to turn things around and I don’t think it even matters whether the popularity of Battlefield goes up or down.

Call Of Duty is not cool anymore and it’s hard to turn things around when the problem is as vague as that. Black Ops 7 did much worse than I expected and it’s hard to imagine that this year’s game is suddenly going to be a lot better. It won’t have had enough time to make any serious changes based on Black Ops 7’s failure, and at that point you’re looking at three Call Of Duty duds in a row.

At this point I think Call Of Duty is going to need a long time off the top before it can come back. People need time to miss it and want it to have a successful comeback. The problem is, that’s not going to fit with Activision’s plans, so I see trouble ahead.

With Arc Raiders doing well as well I think people are just hungry for something new, or at least different. I hate to say it but now would be a great time for Halo to have a successful return. Although obviously a remake of the original’s campaign isn’t going to do that. Call Of Duty ate Halo’s lunch the first time round, so there’s now a chance for some payback if Microsoft can get itself into gear.

Except, nowadays both games are owned by them anyway so they’re not going to see it like that.
Carson

The wrong nostalgia
Just to say it again but I do not see how you make a Fable reboot and not have a dog companion. It is literally one of the top two most memorable things about Fable 2, even though the dog didn’t really do much. So now would be a chance to make it actually useful.

To put in so many other deep cut references and leave that out blows my mind, especially as the action already looked super generic just from the few minutes they showed, but having a dog helping out would solve that.

I want the game to be good, but I’m seeing far too much pandering to nostalgia and not nearly enough innovation. And yet it hasn’t even got the nostalgia people actually wanted! I’ll reserve my judgement but, for me, that wasn’t a very good reveal.
Ludwig3

No more hardware
I completely agree with the Reader’s Feature about not needing the PlayStation 6, or any other new console, until there’s a major change in technology that actually gives a reason for it. I didn’t get into video games because it’s fun to buy a new chunk of plastic every six years, but because I enjoy the games. It’s them that Sony should be focusing on, not a new excuse for us to buy hardware that doesn’t do anything new.

Graphics plateaued years ago and there is just no point charging hundreds to see those same graphics but very slightly better. It would also be nice if Sony, in particular, actually did something to show off how powerful the PlayStation 5 is. I still don’t feel that they’ve done that and neither has Nintendo with the Switch 2.

If these companies don’t care about the graphics in their games then that should be a clue that it’s not something important enough to force a new generation.
Gambon

Proper co-op
I was looking for a little advice; after playing It Takes Two years ago with my daughter I bought Split Fiction and thoroughly enjoyed playing through it with her. My daughter is 11 and was pretty good at video games, even mostly completing Luigi’s Mansion 3 by herself when she was only five. She was pretty good at Mario and Zelda too.

But then she got into all the tripe like Roblox and after being banned from that (by me) she has found other games which is all but the same, except in name. I recently picked up a Switch 2 and we’ve been enjoying Mario Kart World but I’d love some more co-op games to keep her interested in some ‘proper’ games for a change.

I have all the platforms, PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Switch 2 so any recommendations from yourselves or fellow readers would be greatly appreciated.
P B

GC: Although a number of clones are now in development, games exactly like It Takes Two are still uncommon. But there are some similar titles, like Unravel Two, competitive games like Overcooked! or perhaps a cosy game like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley. Or there’s Lego Batman out this spring.

Remaking a legend
I really hope that the new Rayman game hasn’t been cancelled with all the upset at Ubisoft. The last rumour I saw said it was a remake of Rayman Legends, which doesn’t make much sense to me, because I don’t know what there is to remake. It’s not that it’s a 3D game that needs better graphics or something.

But if they cancelled Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, that they’ve been going on about for ages, what chance does a Rayman remake, that they never even announced, have? People dunk on Ubisoft, and a lot of it is deserved, but they did have some good games, and you shouldn’t want any company to go under.
Tacle

Yearly ritual
I usually play through one Yakuza game a year, as they take me so long to finish that I get to the point where I am happy to just complete the game and give the series a rest as I am ‘Yakuza-ed out’.

I started Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth last week and am already 30+ hours in and only on Chapter 7. These games always start off painfully slow but once the story gets going and all the minigames become unlocked, I usually put a lot of hours into it. I am enjoying the story so far and it’s always good to see Kiryu, even though he has his Superman style disguise with just a change of hair colour.

Although, for me, these games are more about the side quests, karaoke, and minigames/arcade games. I think the selection of arcade games is poor in Infinite Wealth but I am addicted to the holiday island minigame and can’t stop playing it. It is pretty basic, but it has that ‘one more day’ pull factor that just keeps me hooked and there is a farm to unlock, so I will be putting even more hours into it no doubt, once I get to that.

Another fantastic entry in the series and I have the Majima pirate spin-off and Lost Judgment still to play, so I’ll message in again next year about one of them!
Simon

Ony one
Far Cry 3 would possibly be my fave Ubisoft game. The characters, location, and shooting were mostly top notch.

Vaas was obviously wasted but coming after the disaster that was 2, this game is a masterpiece. I loved the first game too but was that Crytek?
Bobwallett

GC: Crytek made the first game on PC but none of the subsequent titles, not even the console ports and spin-offs.

Clap if you recognise it
I watched that Nintendo Direct on Sunday and it was absolutely nothing. Just a trailer and a minute of the producer guy saying that the film was finished except for the sound effects.

The trailer did look good, kind of. It looked expensive and a lot like the games but there didn’t seem to be any kind of story or characterisation or jokes or… anything really. It was just Reference: The Movie.

The first one was just the same, so I see no reason to expect the whole thing won’t be exactly the same kind of empty, hollow experience. I also have no idea why it’s called Galaxy, as there were far more references to other games than there were Galaxy, including Super Mario Bros. 2, of all things.

Overall though, I find it kind of depressing really. Imagine if there was a movie version of Mario that was as good as the games! I don’t know what that would look like but we’re clearly not even close to that.

This also makes me very worried about the live action Zelda movie. The whole idea sounded a bad idea from the start and when you see the low quality that Nintendo is willing to put up with for Mario I really worry what this is going to do for the reputation of Zelda.

I think I much preferred it when Nintendo just made games and almost everything they did was great. I’m starting to worry that the lacklustre Switch 2 launch may have been because some people’s attention, including Miyamoto, were elsewhere.
Dando

Inbox also-rans
So am I right in thinking that Code: Veronica is going to be the next Resident Evil remake now? I thought they weren’t going to do that but I’m super hyped if they are. It’ll be cool to see what they do with a game that wasn’t that great the first time and could be improved with some changes.
Lugget

GC: That is the current rumour but nothing official has been announced.

With your anniversary list of games I was wondering where Bloodborne was and found out it turned 10 last year. That’s nuts! It’ll be 11 in March and they basically have never said anything about it since the DLC came out. So disrespectful.
Blent

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