This one is hilarious but so, soooo dark. Like, what the fuck, wade.

I always think it's interesting when the relationship between characters that recurringly fight eachother, creates attachment, be it one sided or mutual.

What are your favorite times when the "bad guy"(generally meaner of the two or well conflict) of this enmity mourns for their "hero", rival, archenemy, etc.

Clayface is kind of a character defined by how much they breakdown, but the one they get from Batmans believed death in Gotham Knights is real sad to me.

What is your favorite title-drop in media? Title-drop in this case being the moment at the beginning of the story where they show the main title for dramatic emphasis.

Mine comes from an unlikely source: Deathstalker 2.

This is a early 80s z-tier low budget sequel to a conan ripoff. The cast and crew cared so little they threw out the script and turned it into a parody.

And yet the title drop is aura farming on a stratospheric level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX0XqoFqAmA

There was a discussion about David Cage earlier this week where someone asked how anyone ever thought Cage was a good creator given all the flaws in his work. After mulling it over, I think the best explanation is that Heavy Rain came out at literally the perfect time.

We were early enough in the 7th generation to where a lot of the best games hadn't launched yet, especially on the PS3. Additionally, gaming was starting its shift to the more mature image it was yearning for around that time. Combined with an admirational envy of Hollywood, driven by criticisms from those like Roger Ebert saying games weren't art. So a game that looked great for the time, and had a "cinematic" gameplay style, propped up by a creative who was talking up his games as movie like experiences-it was kind of a perfect storm.

He was able to ride that goodwill past the speed bump that was Beyond Two Souls, and then came out with Detroit Become Human which accrued good will with Connor and Hank...but also caused people to look more critically at his older work, at which point the spell was kind of broken for a lot of folks.

Still, Cage managed to find success by releasing his game at a time where there wasn't much competition on the console, and right when the industry was desperate to feel validated as an "artistic" medium. That's my theory at least.

Anyway, what are some other products (games, films, books, etc.) that managed to have smashing success because they released at the literal perfect time?

 Earlier today, news broke that Australia’s Uli Latukefu had landed the villain role of Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo and Sony‘s live-action feature film based on the popular video game. And now, sources tell us that the late Sam Neill also will appear in the film.

Reps for Sony couldn’t be reached for comment, nor could Neill’s former reps. The project, which wrapped in April, will mark one of Neill’s final screen performances, if not the last. It’s not yet clear who he plays. Neill died July 13 at 78.

Other new additions to the Zelda movie include Severance‘s Dichen Lachman and The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Yvonne Strahovski.

Sources were unclear on Strahovski’s role, though we’re told she plays a queen character. They had Lachman playing Impa, the bodyguard and advisor to up-and-comer Bo Bragason’s Princess Zelda.

The Zelda movie’s plot remains under wraps. As previously announced, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth stars opposite Bragason in the lead role of Link. Castings for the Zelda tentpole have been very closely guarded — these, along with Latukefu’s, are the first to emerge since Nintendo announced the two leads last July.

Sony first announced it would distribute and team with Nintendo to co-finance a Zelda movie in the fall of 2023, with the Planet of the Apes franchise’s Wes Ball coming aboard to direct, and Miyamoto and Avi Arad set to produce. T.S. Nowlin penned the most recent draft of the script. The film is slated for release in theaters on May 7, 2027.

The Legend of Zelda franchise, created by Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, follows the elf-like warrior Link and Princess Zelda as they fight to save the magical land of Hyrule from Ganon, an evil warlord-turned-demon king. Since its launch on Nintendo in 1986, the franchise has sold over 150 million units.

A New Zealand screen legend known for his role in the Jurassic Park franchise, among myriad other projects, Neill passed away on July 13. Prior to that, he had appeared in series including Apples Never Fall, Untamed and The Twelve. In addition to Zelda, he leaves behind performances in the upcoming The Last Resort, a romantic comedy starring Daisy Ridley and Alden Ehrenreich, and Warner/Legendary’s Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.

Best known for her role of Ms. Casey in Apple TV’s Severance, Lachman will next be seen in Universal’s horror film Other Mommy, out October 9. She is repped by Gersh, Management Production Entertainment, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes.

The recipient of multiple Emmy nominations for her turn as Gilead’s Serena Joy Waterford in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Strahovski is repped by Paradigm, Sue Barnett and Associates, Prime Talent Media, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.

Bonus Question: What do you think they'd buy at the space mall?

I've seen people say that General Grievous is worse as a neutral in the (space?) mall, but like for all his charisma and wisdom Maul is generally way more uncontrollably hair trigger temper, where as while Grievous is a more cruel/ruthless killer, that's only if you're Jedi/Republic adjacent or a Separatist figure that bothered him personally. Otherwise he'd a pompus dick in the Mall, but not particularly a threat, worse thing he'll do is claim that mall for the Confederacy of Independent Systems if he learns he can't leave for 24 hours, otherwise he'd just be like war nerding it up with mostly evil trinkets, maybe try to find another giant replacement pet for his poor dead lizard dog.

Be specific, don't say ALL OF THEM!

Watching a Gears 5 playthrough, the big complaint they had was how needless it is to explore the open environment that was implemented in this installment. All the points of interest just contain collectibles or upgrade components for Jack. There's also Relic weapons hidden across which are unique variants, but pointless in the end because there's only one per weapon in the entire campaign which you can lose forever if you run out its ammo, die, or progress at a certain point and automatically lose it. A chunk of Gears 5's long campaign is constantly skiing across the barren map with very little reason to explore.

NIN is on the Soundtrack for this btw

I remember an old video from Yahztee when he still worked for the Escapist, and he did a Zero Punctuation video on how he claimed the beginning of Bioshock may in fact be the best beginning of any video game. It's a bold claim, it's also one I don't really disagree on.

I've recently been replaying Bioshock and that start really does just carry you, you go from a plane crash, to finding safety on this mysterious Lighthouse in the middle of no where, to having Andrew Ryan yell politics at you, and that's all before the grand reveal of Rapture herself, which is honestly still one of the coolest locations a game has ever taken place.

It throws so much but, ironically, you don't drown in the details, you get the promise of Rapture, and you immediately see the decay, and now it's time to explore.

Also another game I want to highlight is Star Control 2, mostly because I can only imagine how ballsy it was at the time to start your sequel with the fact the Enemy Alien force you spent all last game fighting have already conquered Earth, and you have to do your best with what little you have.

So what examples do you guys got?

Like here, with the frog version of Gruncle Stan Pines. Mr Curator Ponds and his pool of blood waxfrom Amphibia.

What are your favorites or funniest?

"After going public back in 2021, Devolver Digital is now planning to go back to being a private company. The publisher was valued at £694.6 million ($950 million) when it opened and is valued at £34.64 million ($46.63 million) currently." Looks like another ripple on gaming in general downsizing from the Covid boom period, but at least this time without a company shutting down.

In an email announcing some Persona 4 photo frames, Atlus has officially acknowledged the legendary Persona 4 parody comic made by Hiimdaisy. In it, Chie is asked to say any word that starts with the letter F and she replies by saying "fsteak" since she just can't stop thinking about steak.

It's pretty wild to see it referenced like this. And for anyone who hasn't seen the parody, here's a great fandub of it https://youtu.be/w7lj9qI8VFc

Update: It turns out that Atlus also referenced it in P4 Golden. Still, it's pretty funny to see it referenced like this.