I get the criticism but this is very much to me - and I hate to use a now very overused term - a game that’s all about the vibes. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it’s fun enough and the elements just gel together in such a way to make it a very relaxing, enjoyable experience to me.

Damn, the husband defending Elon and saying he still loves their Teslas just took the “Weird Elon Nerds taking a valid criticism bullet ” meme to a dark next level.

His monster work in Dragon Quest is particularly noteworthy, IMO. He drew some wacky stuff for Dragonball and its spinoffs, but to me it was Dragon Quest’s monsters where you could see his creativity soar.

Finnish and Norse mythology are quite separate beasts, though Alan Wake draws from both. And Saga’s family history happens to draw from Scandinavia and she’s closely related to Tor and Odin (the characters, not the gods for any third parties wondering). 

Yes, God of War is set explicitly in the realms of Norse mythology, but Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2 draw heavily from it as well (as does Control to a much lesser extent). Remedy is a Finnish studio and they heavily incorporate that into their games, particularly in their modern shared universe.

Why are you asking “why is this person gay” in a videogame? It doesn’t need to have anything to do with the fucking plot; there are gay people in real life, sometimes that’s just a person.

“At the end of the day it seems like both sides are talking about the same thing. SBI’s right wing critics insist that SBI is intentionally putting DEI elements into their story and SBI pretty much admits to it”

Did we read the same article because they didn’t admit to that at all? They said that the DEI elements…

Let’s face it: the main reason these mouthbreathers are bent out of shape about Saga Anderson being Black is because of the use of Norse mythology in Alan Wake and in her character’s story arc particularly. It’s barely veiled white supremacist nonsense.

I just can’t believe we’re still in this ‘gamer-gate’ era of bullshit because of these sad pathetic boys with their chauvanistic, racist ideals that ANGERY because they aren’t 100% being catered to. And their usage of the term ‘woke’ is just as pathetic.

Like...it’s ironic that they’ve co-opted a black term in the…

Saga being a Black woman is perfectly integrated into the story and even adds to the story during an early investigation scene.

One image showed several pictures of the protagonist Eve from Korean developer ShiftUp’s upcoming action game Stellar Blade, juxtaposed against female characters from Overwatch, Forspoken, and Life is Strange. “Embrace tradition. Reject modernity” is emblazoned on the collage.

I don’t know, I am of a somewhat mixed opinion on that point. By the time I finished my hard mode run, I was max level, with all maxed materia, 99 of almost every item, and hundreds of thousands of gil, and that would’ve been a crazy starting place because then what level are we in part 3? And does that mean all the…

The first season is flawless TV, and Smart is absolutely phenomenal.

Could not disagree more. While definitely a bygone era at this point, T:L was a high-water mark for 3D movies, and it kept the spirit of the original while also avoiding excessive fan service or MCU-esque tongue-in-cheek nonsense.

I remember this was originally supposed to start filming last summer, but on the first day of production the Hollywood Writers and SAG/Aftra strikes happened, and they had to shut everything down. The director of the movie went on Instagram and penned a very heartfelt, sympathetic “Today was supposed to be the first…

I mean except his monologue where he did make some iffy jokes about people with Down syndrome and used “gay” like it was twenty years ago. 

His Herzog is pure hell gold. He does it on a lot of podcasts, but my favorite is when he’s on Doug Loves Movies. “Herzog” doing movie trivia on stage.

I don’t watch live action remakes of animation on principle, due to the whole “animation is brainless fluff for small children, in order to be seen as True Art it needs to be remade into live-action” stigma. Some things work better in animation, it all depends on the story you want to tell and how you want to tell it.…

Sounds like another 10/10 game for me. More FF7 is better than less FF7. I had to wait 20 something years for this, I’ll enjoy all that Square can give me.

The only reason they exist is an opportunity to make money. It’s not any deeper than that. I’ve seen some people online insist that it’s an opportunity for the story to reach a wider audience, but from the perspective of the people making it, a wider audience just means more $$$.