Games Inbox: Is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 GOTY 2025?

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – the best game of 2025 (Kepler Interactive)

The Monday letters page discusses Nintendo Switch 2 controversies, as a reader imagines a The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind remake.

To join in with the discussions yourself email [email protected]

Game of the year
Being playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 all weekend and, so far, your review looks dead on. It’s a fascinating mix of familiar tropes and very unique ideas. I love how it’s a Japanese role-player but with actual believable people as the main characters.

I love Final Fantasy 7 and the rest as much as the next person but they’re all basically anime characters that don’t talk or act like real people. Clair Obscur is different because they do seem like actual people in a fantasy setting. If this happened to ordinary people, this is how they would act. And yet the combat and game side of things is really good too. It really feels like the best of both worlds.

I see that it’s now the highest rated game on Metacritic this year, ahead of Blue Prince and Split Fiction, although I doubt that’s going to last for long. With Mario Kart World and GTA 6 due out I imagine they’ll be the frontrunners this year, but in terms of outside choices Clair Obscur seems like the real deal.
Focus

Thirtysomething expedition
Spent a decent chunk of this weekend playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (wish it had a catchier title) and it’s been a beautiful well-crafted game so far,

My only real complaint is no map in the dungeons, although very pretty they are easy to get lost in at times, although I thought I would hate the QTE elements but I’m slowly improving

It’ll get a lot of praise for the music, battle system and story, but what I really appreciate is that the characters are all around 30 and act appropriately, quite refreshing vs. the default template of teenagers saving the world
Michael, Crawley

GC: We were worried about the name too, but it seems to have sold very well so far.

Horse before cart
All going well, I won’t get my Switch 2 until release day. However, I have come across a huge sale on the Switch eShop and one of my favourite types of games, Golf Story, has been reduced from £13.49 to just £2.29. However, it wants me to log into my Switch to purchase it. Obviously, I haven’t got my Switch 2 yet. On the 27th of April it goes back up to £13.49, which is a sting knowing that is going for just over two quid now.

Is there any way to get this game? It is a digital copy that I want, (physical copies are going for silly money anyway) I even have £1.50 on my account so I just need to find 79p.
Charlie H.

GC: If you don’t have a Switch 1, maybe you can set up a Nintendo account now and download the game when you get a console? We’ve certainly never tried that but perhaps a reader has.

Email your comments to: [email protected]

Halcyon days
The golden age of video gaming has gone, for me at least.

I will always remember visiting one of many of my friend’s houses, playing Green Beret on the Amstrad CPC 464.

Looking in awe at another friend’s Spectrum with a built-in cassette deck…

Seeing Speedball 2 for the first time on an Amiga… ‘ice cream!’

I chose to start with a Master System along with a copy of Wonder Boy, which grabbed my attention along with ports from the arcades, such as Golden Axe and Shinobi.

I was hooked in 1994 by Ridge Racer and Daytona USA in the arcades.

Plenty of fun was to be had with the Saturn. PlayStation and Nintendo 64.

WipEout 2097 literally made a statement and should be inducted in video game folklore.

Let’s fast forward a bit…

I still play WipEout Omega Collection on PS4 Pro in 2025 and a Switch 2 is on the way for my son.

I’m glad I experienced the early years of video games.

Things are so different now, but I’m so glad I was a part of it.
Carl

Make mine Marvel
It was interesting to read Michael’s take on Marvel’s Midnight Suns. The failure of that game is, in hindsight, to me, a travesty.

Even worse, I’m one of the ones to blame.

Now, I’m a huge Marvel fan, have been for decades. I’m also a huge turn-based strategy fan (have been since the days of Rebelstar Raiders) – with the XCOM series obviously being the daddy here!

What I didn’t think I was a fan of was card deck building games. So I didn’t buy it. I only got it as a freebie on Epic Games Store.

Then I started playing it. And… I love it! Unlike you GC, I like most of the Abbey stuff. I think without the stuff at the Abbey the characters don’t work (and they absolutely nailed the characters in my opinion! The voice-acting and characterisation is spot on, to the point that when I read some of the characters comics, that’s the voice I now hear.). Yes, some of it’s a bit overwrought, but it’s… a Marvel comic book game! That’s what Marvel comic books are like!

The combat is great fun, and I actually like the fact that, unlike XCOM 2, you can never make the game unwinnable (I’ve never won XCOM 2 yet).

Sure, it’s a bit buggy and occasionally shonky, but two things happened that really surprised me with this game, and show how much I think of it:

1) I bought the DLC (and that is some great content too!)
2) I started a New Game+. I have never, ever, since New Game+ became a thing, done a New Game+ run on a game. I’m normally done after one playthrough and ready for the next thing. The New Game+ is even more fun than the first play through.

Anyway, just wanted to share how much I’m enjoying Midnight Suns and encourage anyone who isn’t sure about it to give it a go.

Oh… And anyone who loved the game, check out the original Midnight Sons comic book event if you can. It’s about Lilith returning and centres on Jonny Blaze and Danny Ketch’s Ghost Rider. With some help from lots of supporting characters and was a real shot in the arm for the magic/horror side of Marvel at the time. It was about ’92… it’s on Marvel Unlimited if anyone’s interested.

Have fun gaming Y’all!
The Dude Abides

Ordinary controversy
In response to your question, ‘Which controversy do you feel has been manufactured?’, I’m hoping that was a rhetorical question on your part.

I feel like Nintendo delivered a solid reveal, the hardware’s good without being overly expensive, and there was a better games line-up than I can remember any previous console having. But now, with all the core things the media and influencers would normally sensationalise mostly nailed by Nintendo, it feels like every tiny detail is getting spun into some kind of drama.

Whether it’s about the not giving prices for future games, the hate for Nintendo creating cheap game-key cards that publishers can choose to use in place of download codes, which is odd because that is a massive improvement for gamers. The lack of full backwards compatibility because of Labo, etc., or whatever – it’s like people are looking for things to complain about because there’s no meaningful flaw to latch onto.

Many ‘influencers’ really seem to thrive on that ‘everything is amazing!’ flips overnight to ‘Here’s why I’m worried…’ just to get the views. Manufactured outrage gets attention, even when the core product is solid.

Ironically, nobody seems to care about the one thing I’m nervous about, the changes to game sharing within a family group. Currently two of us can play the same game together off a single digital purchase and it looks like the option will be removed in the future, even if not immediately.
Antony White

GC: It was not a rhetorical question. It took Nintendo three weeks to give UK prices for some games and upgrades and the game-key cards are not intrinsically cheaper than normal carts. We’ve not seen anyone complain at the lack of 100% backwards compatibility, since it’s clearly physically impossible – and that was announced before the Direct anyway.

Second place
RE: Aston Marley’s Readers’ Feature. The reason why Sony are being like this is simple, because they won last gen and are going to win this gen. They think that the new gen they are going to win, as well. The one thing that I miss is E3 and all three of them being there.

First Xbox then Sony and then Nintendo, and they all tried to beat each other. Now with Xbox selling less consoles and Nintendo sort of like in their own world, why does Sony need to try? Xbox at the mo’ is going all out cross-gen at least till the end of the current gen, so why would Sony try?

And even if next gen Xbox did come back all it would take is poor sales and Xbox would have to go cross-gen again. Sony know this. If in 2027, when their new Xbox comes out, if sales are poor Sony know their games will come to the PlayStation, so why try?
David

GC: When it comes to ‘winning’ a generation, the Switch has outsold both the PlayStation 4 and 5.

Elder advice
I would have definitely wanted an Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind remake rather than an Oblivion one, but I definitely agree it’s looking so good and without an insane amount of gameplay changes either!

I did not even know this was in the works and with so many modifications done from fans, was really surprised anything needed done at all, but wow!

Watching the dialogue wheel seems hilarious now but I did think they’d do something a little different. The voices are, I presume, mostly from the original game and not redone obviously and that I suppose includes the majority of NPC’s also! Though riding horses seems a lot less clunky with the majority of weapon play and general movement also.

It will be definitely nice to experience some of my favourite side quests again, especially the ones with funny glitches or ones were the game gets confused and makes it a sitcom or something. Like leading the new soon-to-be-emperor down a steep slope on horseback and hearing a bunch of bedraggled and painful cries behind me as the next emperor emerges without a horse and looking rather worse for wear!

I’ll especially never forget the time where I caused a marriage to become violent between two characters and the guards were called to settle the situation, just because I accidentally caused discord between the two on a side quest which needed to have them work together!

After spending so many hours in the original game, I don’t think I could do any more due to my current list of games that I am enjoying very much. I know Bethesda did not do the remake but oversaw it instead, which keeps the majority of the team on Elder Scrolls 6, thankfully.

It still would be nice to get another studio to do a Morrowind remake or maybe that game is just too old now! Either way, I am pleased with the overall reception of Oblivion and it’s good that the decent amount of hard work with the wonderful graphics has been successful in making this game one of my all-time greats.

Not forgetting the music also, which is possibly the only contender for Skyrim’s amazing score. So congrats to Virtuos and Bethesda developers for making this happen.
Alucard

GC: The original voices are included but there’s also a lot of new recordings too.

Inbox also-rans
I couldn’t guess when Resident Evil 9 will be announced but it feels time; it feels like it’s close. I hope they realise the goofier elements of Village and the remake 4 were popular and lean into that. I hated it when they tried to take it 100% serious.
Bowie

I still don’t understand why a Fallout: New Vegas remaster isn’t the number one priority at Bethesda. They must really resent the fact that everyone likes that one and not the two they made themselves.
Lobo

Email your comments to: [email protected]

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.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: When will there be more UK Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered overrated?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion better than Skyrim?