The Friday letters page thinks 2026 may be the best game ever for quality titles, as one reader wants the Street Fighter EX characters to enjoy a comeback.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
New best
So, two more 9/10 reviews from GC on Friday, with Ace Combat 8 and Star Wars: Galactic Racer, and according to Metacritic they’re totally deserved. 2026 is just the gift that keeps on giving. All this and we still have Zelda: Ocarina Of Time and GTA 6 still to come. I think we’re really at the point where we have to start questioning whether this is the best year ever for video games.
I realise these things are subjective, but I think there’s broad agreement that the current best is 1998, with the original Ocarina Of Time, Resident Evil 2, Half-Life, Metal Gear Solid, Starcraft, and many more. 2007 was great too and I think 2019 is the best year in the modern era that can make that claim, but I feel 2026 has it beaten already.
If GTA 6 is even half as good as the hype promises then I think we could be looking at the undisputed best. You know, that year when thousands of developers lost their jobs and the Western games industry felt like it was quickly draining away down the U-bend. Does that count as art out of adversity?
Plankton
The phantom console
I cannot wait to hear how Sony and Microsoft think they’re going to talk anyone into paying £1,000+ for console. I imagine the Xbox one will just be described as a PC with extras but what about Sony? Nobody wants a PlayStation PC, so what are they going to do? Just ask everyone to take a second job and put up with it? I can imagine how that’s going to go down with most people.
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I also find it odd that we’ve had plenty of leaks and rumours about the portable PlayStation but nothing about anything you’d expect to be called a PlayStation 6. Are they really going to call a cut-down, handheld PlayStation 5 a PlayStation 6? I can’t imagine it.
Sony hasn’t used the name PlayStation 6 at all, so far, so maybe it doesn’t really exist in the way we expect. Maybe the portable, whatever it’s called, is it and they’re not actually going to go ahead with a console that costs a grand. Or at least not one that’s aimed at anything other than the existing PS5 Pro crowd.
Gambol
Still exclusive
I recently got gifted a laptop. It’s not top of the line, being over three years old, so I don’t expect to be playing AAA games on it, but it gives me the opportunity to start playing PC games again.
Can you recommend some indie games that wouldn’t be available on the Switch 2? My first stop will be Slay The Spire 2 (once I’ve completed the first one’s Act 4 anyway. I will beat that bloody thing). But after that I’m not sure what other exclusive PC games are worth looking at. I tend to prefer strategy games such as Civilization and Tropico, and role-playing games, to action games.
Solabound
GC: Most decent indie games make it to consoles within a few months, but the excellent Lovecraftian role-player Look Outside is still PC only, as is XCOM clone Xenonauts 2. The Séance Of Blake Manor is also technically PC-only at the moment, but the console versions are due out at the end of the month.
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Free pre-order
I just pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition of GTA 6, as I’d come into quite of bit of cash recently. And we can argue until the cows come home about whether pre-ordering is good or bad. But that’s not why I write to you today.
You see I was under the impression that the reason to open pre-orders was to get a big stack of cash and put it in the bank and earn interest on the hundreds of millions of other people’s money.
Yet when I pre-ordered on Xbox they didn’t take a penny. Despite me also activating the GTA+ subscription I got for free, to play the trilogy and Red Dead Redemption before the launch.
Do they take money on PlayStation? Or has my pre-order gone funky? My friend said this is normal for Xbox pre-orders. This is my first time using it.
Alvin Rainflowers
GC: We’re not sure but a reader should be able to tell you.
Cheap comeback
Street Fighter 6, I reckon, would have a great boost if they introduced some EX characters into the fold. Garuda was always the equal, if not better than Akuma, and Skullomania was such a fun character.
I’d even like to see the Ryu clones Allen and Kairi have another turn; I know he turned evil in 2 or 3. Even liked D. Dark as a man out for revenge against Guile. I assume, as they’re another companies, property the chances are low?
Liam
GC: We doubt it would cost much for Capcom to license them, but they’ve never got round to it. They are all in Fighting EX Layer though, which is not a bad fighter and is currently 79p on the PlayStation Store.
Continue the Fight
Joining in the discussion, regarding remakes and remasters; for someone who has been gaming since the mid-1980s, as much as I love successful new IP, away from the more requested ones such as Dino Crisis and The Simpsons Hit & Run, I feel that there are gems from the past still waiting for their time to shine again.
The brilliance and simplicity of Sensible Software’s Cannon Fodder, for example, given that we are seeing a celebrity anniversary release of the Alien Breed, why not some modern love for Cannon Fodder?
As much as I have enjoyed Capcom’s great run of quality releases lately, there is a lingering frustration I have towards them, which is the continuing neglect of the Final Fight IP. How I would love to see it given the Streets Of Rage 4 treatment, at this rate I would even settle for a re-release of the original three games!
Shaun
GC: The first one is in Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle but it is unfortunate the others aren’t included.
Fearful remake
I am remaking the Amiga game Rears Reloaded. I have been working hard to get the game to have the Amiga retro look, still with the original atmosphere, and not to make it like today’s games. I made it to still have the retro classic feel.
Please see some gameplay in action from my YouTube link below. Your comments and suggestions is very welcome.
John
GC: We’re not familiar with the original game, which seems to have come out in 1995 – long after we stopped using the Amiga. But your work looks very good.
Mainstream news
I think people are right to be a little disappointed that GTA 6 doesn’t seem to be doing anything new, compared to the previous games. In fact, it seems to be doing less when it comes to satire and humour. But now we’re starting to get this talk of sex scenes, I wonder if that’s how they’re going to push the envelope?
They obviously wanted to do it back with San Andreas, with the whole Hot Coffee thing, so maybe they figure they’re too big to be stopped now? I have absolutely no problem with it, but I do wonder if Rockstar is underestimating just how riled up people can still get about this sort of thing, especially in the US.
If some celebrity or politician decides to make it their thing to get the game banned or changed is that really going to help them? It’ll be free publicity, which we’re told is never a bad thing, but do they really need it? I’m not even sure why they’re bothering with these ads in Miami.
It’s their decision but I think it’ll be a shame if the biggest video game launch ever gets overshadowed by people arguing over a sex minigame. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter but I feel that the mainstream discussions about GTA 6 are going to be far more negative than most people realise.
To us it’s the biggest thing ever but to a lot of normies it’s a fresh reason to complain about something that they probably haven’t thought about in a long time. I think the only time I’ve seen games mentioned in mainstream news lately is when Xbox lay people off.
Treantdorus
Inbox also-rans
Haven’t contributed for a while, so thought I would write in. GC, do you plan to look at Dune: Awakening, that was recently released for consoles? Particularly interested in the single-player experience.
Eyetunes (PSN ID)
GC: Probably not, no. MMOs are just too time-consuming to cover properly. We’d welcome a Reader’s Feature on it though.
I still can’t believe that Collector’s Edition for GTA 6 is real. It feels like they made up the price and then filled it with whatever, certain that people would buy it anyway – which they will.
Pieter
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