I remember splurging a bit for the DVD-ROM edition of the original BG1 because it would all come on a single disc instead of the 5 CD-ROMs it usually came on. I think that was the first, and one of the few games I got in the 90s that was available on DVD-ROM

Also God of War (2018) lampshaded the yellow paint in an incredibly poignant and heartbreaking manner. That reveal is among my favorite video game moments - and it got some nice callbacks in the Ragnarok flashbacks.

At this point, someone needs to drive a big truck full of money up to Sid Meier’s house to buy the rights to make a current generation Pirates! That game had everything you would want about playing a pirate: solid naval combat, ship boarding, sword fights, land invasions, dancing with the daughters of governors,…

I totally get the games trapped on old consoles. I finally got myself an Series S when they announced the 1TB edition, so I could finally play the first RDR after years of fruitlessly waiting for a PC port (much less dream of a current gen remaster). Looking forward to playing it next year, which seems largely dry for…

PlayStation dropped Facebook integration 4 years ago in October 2019. So I think YouTube and the PS feed thing are the only direct shares you can do from the Share menu now.

NGL: When I first saw the GIF at the top of the article, I thought the dude was riding a motorcycle. It wasn’t until the 3rd cycle that I really saw it was a horse.

TIL that I make decisions on what movies to see in the theater based on who shows up on the red carpet at the premiere in some far away city.

io9 couldn’t even be bothered to write anything when Gene Wolfe died, so I’m not exactly surprised to see that myopic trend continuing.

The first Burton film opens up with two thugs talking about the new crazy guy running around the city dressed like a bat, and then Batman shows up. I still think it’s one of the most effective first reveals of Batman in any of the films.

Horizon Zero Dawn is being remade also for some reason. Doesn’t make any sense since it is a game that already plays well on PS5 and still looks fantastic.

No Red Dead or Horizon Games? Oof!

In the SFF literary realm these have commonly been called portal fantasies.

Unrelated to your post, but I would kill for an SSV Normandy level in Powerwash Simulator

A good example of your bad fan service was in Obi-Wan when he’s in the Inquisitor’s vault. The lingering pans over the dead Jedi knights took a lot of time and momentum from the episode and didn’t mean anything to people that we not invested in watching The Clone Wars or whatever.

Just a quick correction in the fifth paragraph:

The one time I did a Renegade run it felt like one of the most brutal narrative experiences I’ve encountered in a game. I remember trying to keep track of the amount of times Shepard commits or helps commit genocide, patricide, and matricide. By ME3 I found that I could not choose any of the asshole responses when…

This sort of reminds me a little of Elsinore where you play as Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and find yourself trapped in a supernatural timeloop. Your goal is to try and find ways to survive through the events by changing things.

You’re right about the visual upgrade. I think this was the first time I actually saw the physical signs of Saren’s indoctrination (beyond the blue eyes) immediately when he first appears on Eden Prime. In the past, even playing with the texture upgrades, it all got lost in the turian biology.

It’s a shame that Rockstar doesn’t have interest in starting a new game series. There was a point in RDR2, around the Guarma chapter, when I found myself thinking that I would probably really enjoy a pirate game built in the same world & engine.

I really just want Sid Meier’s Pirates! with 2021 (2022?) quality graphics and quality of life improvements. That would make me very happy.