A while back we had a letters page here on TheSixthaxis, and I thought this weekend would be a great time to re-open the TSA Mailbag and address some of your letters on the site, especially as a couple of them were on the same subject and replying in person wouldn’t really have helped any of our other readers.  I’ll try to do this each Sunday, so if you have anything you want answered on the site, drop me an email at al@thesixthaxis.com with ‘LETTER’ in the subject line and I’ll do my best to answer on a post like this next weekend.

When will we be able to use our TSA Points on Games Basement? DB, via email.

Hopefully very soon, DB.  I’m just waiting on the final word from the guys at Games Basement as to the actual mechanics of the scheme, but most of the work is already in place and ready to go.  It’ll probably be in chunks of 1,000 points, mind, to each administration costs because each transfer will require manual work at both sites to remove the TSA Points and then add them to your Games Basement account.  Stay tuned for an announcement soon, though, and apologies for any delay.

Why did you give Forza III a 10/10, and Uncharted 2 only a 9/10? BS, via email.

I’ve been asked this several times since the review, and the answer’s simple: it’s the best racing game around and is, in my opinion, pretty much flawless.  We use the whole scale of scores here on TSA, and whilst we award an ‘average’ game a 5/10 across the board, a 10/10 doesn’t signal a ‘perfect’ game, it’s merely one that’s on the top of the pile.  If you want a racing game this year, Forza III’s easily the best available and thus warranted the score.

As for Uncharted 2, remember that 9/10 is still a fantastic score, but I had minor issues with the gameplay, disjointed pacing and the fact that the game was the same two things over and over again.  It’s a brilliant game, but not worthy of all the endless praise it was awarded.  Was it nearly a 8/10?  Very.  Right up until the last minute, in fact.

What happened to Nick and Peter? NW, via email.

Nick left the site to pursue other areas of interest, and Peter didn’t want the pressures of being the editor for TSA.  Both were absolutely understandable and entirely amicable – Nick’s been great for the site over the last year and I was sad to hear that he didn’t have time to write for us anymore, and Peter’s been instrumental in building up the site’s reputation but he’s still writing for us, just not sat on the Throne of Doom whilst he’s doing it.  You’ve got to remember that nobody (including me) gets paid for doing this, so we can’t expect ’staff’ to give up anymore time that they feasibly can do without impacting on family and social life.  Trust me, it’s far more of a slog than you might think, this.

I’m missing TSA Points for tips, when will we get them? IK, via email.

When Liam left the responsibility of adding TSA Points for tips fell on my doorstep, IK.  I remember writing myself an email with a date that I’d done the last tip on (it’s another manual process) – it was the 27th of August so I’m massively behind.  I know this, and haven’t forgotten – I just plan to do a big blitz of all the point adding just before we cement the Games Basement point transaction thing (see first letter, above).  Points for Trophy lists are normally done the day Zuler sends me the new lists over, but again I’m about a week behind on that.  Thankfully points for comments are automatic!

There were many more emails (no, anon, we don’t sell your email addresses no matter what you want to accuse of us) but those seem to be the most requested and probably the best way to kick-start our Sunday Letter feature again. More letters next week, then (assuming you lot send them in) and remember to let us know if we can use your name and/or TSA ID when writing your letter, otherwise you’ll get the rather anonymous looking initials!