This week, we’ve picked apart the Dead Space remake, found out what James Gunn is planning for DC’s future, and watched a beautiful queer story unfold in The Last of Us. It’s been a busy seven days, and as it’s Thursday, it’s time to look back over the highlights.
What's Cooler Than An Asteroid City?
Sci-fi is the perfect place to come up with eccentric ideas for futuristic civilisations, and, as Features Editor Andrew King argues, there’s little better than an asteroid city. He’s been playing through the Mass Effect trilogy and reading The Expanse, both of which feature the sci-fi phenomenon.
For The Expanse, it’s Ceres, a hollowed-out floating chunk of rock that brings the familiarity of an underground base to space. For Mass Effect, it’s Omega, a city that transformed the shape and appearance of the asteroid, with giant glowing red lights circling the underbelly, marking a towering structure that stretches into the void. These aren’t just novel ideas, but a glimpse at how capable humanity is at adapting, able to live anywhere across all space, even if that’s inside the head of a giant, dead celestial as with Guardians of the Galaxy
The Dead Space Remake Removed One Of The Original's Creepiest Easter Eggs
Speaking of cool sci-fi, the original Dead Space had an easter egg in chapter five that has been cut in the remake, as noted by Tabletop Editor Joe Parlock. During the frantic chaos of fighting back against what is essentially Dead Space’s answer to Resident Evil’s tyrants, there’s a long corridor with a crying lady at the end of it. She’s missing an eye, has flayed skin, and doesn’t respond, just standing there, sobbing.
Strangely enough, the body beside her has the same model with the exact same wounds. When you later return, the crying woman is gone. You could say this is 2008 limitations on display, but it’s likely foreshadowing Isaac’s loss of sanity as he begins to hallucinate and slowly lose his mind, yet she’s nowhere to be seen in the remake.
Without The Big Three, It's Time To Rebrand E3
Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation won’t be making an appearance at this year’s E3, the event’s return to in-person after four years. As Features Editor Eric Switzer argues, this is another notch in E3’s belt as it continues its steady decline, and with so many other events cropping up in its place, it might be time for a rebrand – leave the big reveals and press conferences to the other players, and go all in on being a video game fan expo.
The Last Of Us Shows That Some Queer Stories Are Right To End In Tragedy
Warning, spoilers for The Last of Us HBO.
The Last of Us aired its third episode this week, a flashback-centric bottle episode dedicated to Bill and Frank as they fell in love, grew old, and died together. As Lead Features Editor Jade King writes, it’s a beautiful queer story that doesn’t hide the blemishes, letting us see Bill and Frank survive an apocalypse together as they find purpose in each other’s company, warts and all. That extends to their deaths, as they take their own lives due to Frank’s terminal illness, but there’s nothing wrong with finding more purpose in a fulfilled end than meaningless existence.
DC Having The Same Actor In Everything Won’t Work For Video Games
James Gunn finally dropped his big DC plans this week, announcing the first slate of movies as well as how he’s going to work with standalone projects like The Batman and Joker. But something that has caused concern is how he wants to use the same actors across movies, games, animation, and television, something that Editor-in-Chief Stacey Henley points out doesn’t make sense. It cuts out talented voice actors, while also demeaning them as nothing more than stand-ins – imagine Arkham Knight with Jared Leto instead of Mark Hamill.
However, Elseworlds is how The Batman and Joker, as well as unconnected games, will be branded, and this cross-media actor synergy was revealed in response to a question, not as part of the wider announcement. Gunn may then walk it back, but as it stands, it’s a plan full of holes.
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