#every fully disposable female character makes me evil

[slingbats]

I am going to need that rewrite on my desk by tomorrow, 12 point font, times new roman, double spaced

noOOOOOO IT'S TOO MUCH WORK!!! I DON'T HAVE TIME AND I DON'T CARE ENOUGH........ girl help!

my rewrite where uhhhhhhhhhh. everything is the same except the writers actually care about female characters. a lot of decisions were made because of actresses no longer being available so plotlines like fish's are more or less the same but like, Ivy either gets to grow up normally or is never a child at the beginning to start with (you can go the weird plant body route if you have to keep her relatively younger since this is a prequel ig), and I don't... even know what to make of KK or Isabella, and Sofia should just be fucking. dont tell me there isn't a single female italian bodybuilder who can act, I don't believe you. let her be buff. let her take up space. let her be huge and wear vintage fashion.

also Oswald is fat and trans

[bedeliainwonderland]

I understand disliking a character..but you realize anything that happens to bedelia in context of the show is driven by hannibal, right? the man you ship her with? the stinger, her fear, all that necessitates her self preservation is instigated by hannibal. the show frequently did a disservice to its female chars, but hannibal was the tool they used to do it. denying that and then shipping him w/ your fav only to turn it around on another char seems...hypocritical.

Ahh yes, some good ol’ anon hate, I missed that. Honestly, perfect timing, I am having the worst of times and getting to talk about my favs literally saved my day. So thanks!

First of all, Bedelia and Hannibal are a canon ship, whether you like it or not, so let’s get that out of the way (as opposite to certain other ship but that is a whole other thing). I merely fill in the blanks of what the show failed to provide because, for some inexplicable reason, the show named “Hannibal” was centered on a character named Will and every other character (especially the female characters) served only to further his “man pain”. But I digress, that is surely not why you chose to hide behind that grey square.

I don’t know whether you follow me or just saw that one reblog (which ironically weren’t even my words but I stand fully behind everything said), but I have already spoken about this extensively. Every day, really. I find it hard to understand how something is hypocritical when it is based on canon information. I am not denying anything. So here we go, under the cut, because I have a LOT to say:

The stinger- oh god, you all know how much I hate it. First of all, there is no proof that Hannibal is involved, we don’t know who is involved, that is kinda the point of a cliff hanger. We don’t even know if it’s real. But it’s absolutely pointless and makes no sense! It was quite literally Fuller wanting to do something “shocking” to finish off the series without any regard to continuity or characterisation. It was supposed to be shocking and look aesthetically pleasing, that’s it, no logic. It is as if he looked at the character list and thought “hmm, which female character is yet to be hurt? Oh right, Bedelia!” The so called “punishing Bedelia” as the fandom loved so very much is mere misogyny. Why can’t a female character do something morally questionable or even plain evil and get away with it? Because Will didn’t that is why. If she were a man, no one would scream for “she has it coming”, no, he would be uwu baby.

Having Hannibal involved in that would be completely out of character and contradictory to all their previous interactions/ their relationship. So let’s expand, shall we?

When we first see Bedelia and Hannibal, it is mentioned that she has been his psychiatrist for 7 years. 7 YEARS, let that sink in. No one, NO ONE, has been in Hannibal’s life for such a long time. It is clear she means a lot to him. If she didn’t, he had plenty of chances to kill her. It is established she is a loner, so it would so easy for Hannibal to dispose of her and claim “she left to UK” or something, like he did with his secretary. But he didn’t because he cares for her and she is important to him. He literally says he feels protective of her. Every session, you can see how much he needs her approval and how he hangs on her every word. How hurt he was when she said she wasn’t his friend (and yet he did nothing). How enamoured he is with her. When he comes to bring her dinner in Savoureaux, the dish included roses! Such a romantic.

Hannibal knew Bedelia was similar to him that is why he set up the whole Neil incident; he wanted to make sure she is. Do note that Bedelia wasn’t ever in danger, since Hannibal was there to step in if needed. But here is what I’ve found interesting; Bedelia killed someone, proving Hannibal’s hunch right, but she refused to fully acknowledge that part of herself. And Hannibal let her withdraw, doing nothing (as in not killing her, as I’m sure he had done many times with unsuccessful “candidates”) merely securing her continuous therapy. Because she was more than just another experiment to him.

And Bedelia isn’t so innocent in other aspects as well. She knows, yet she purposely evades the truth while talking to the FBI (“Will could use friends like Hannibal” ha!) under the cover of patient/ doctor confidentiality and even warns Hannibal directly (“they are starting to see your pattern). I have had my fair share of “Bedelia doesn’t care for Hannibal” posts and nothing could be further from the truth. If she hadn’t cared, she would not have done any of that.

But then of course, Hannibal’s game goes one step too far and he gives her the written permission to discuss him with the FBI. This is bad for Bedelia because it puts her under the scrutiny as well and that is not where she wants to be. Bedelia’s self-preservation always comes first (both Bedelia and Hannibal are egocentric by nature). Yet, she still comes to say goodbye to him and he lets her go! The script described Hannibal’s reaction to her words as “imperceivable wound”. “But he then went to kill her!” I hear you say? *Thor’s gif* Did he though? If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it then and there. No, he went to check if she were really gone (again, script) and whether she betrayed him. That was his only concern (betrayal is a big thing with Hannibal), but she didn’t. She even left him a memento. It said it was a memento of friendship, I think it was a “see you later” card.

This is getting super long, so let’s quickly skip to Florence. Bedelia left with Hannibal, knowing exactly who he was. Unlike other (all of them, actually) characters, she did not reject him/ was scared of him. “You let them see you/ I let them see enough” exchange says it all. She is not surprised by him or shocked by what he is; she is merely stating the facts. She has long accepted him in full. They lived together in Florence, openly behind the so called veil, as fake husband and wife, but the wedding rings remained intact even at home (showing how important it was to them, not just a front), displaying a ridiculous amount of domesticity and intimacy. This deserves a whole separate post but I am trying to be brief(er). “But she was scared!” you might shout again, except that she wasn’t. Even if Antipasto purposely played with the ambiguity of her situation for suspense purposes, the following episodes made it clear she was exactly where she wanted to be, from the very start, on her own terms as Hannibal’s equal. We were obviously misled by the promos, they promised us a Bedelia and Hannibal show and what we got was, well, you know… And that is yet another post altogether.

Now to the glorious farewell, boy, do I love to talk about that. Bedelia packs Hannibal’s bags and tells him to leave, and he does! What more, he promises to tell her story. HER STORY. Now, that is a major thing, because Hannibal has never ever done that for anyone. He always turns other people’s stories into his own, manipulating and adjusting accordingly. But with Bedelia, he simply agrees to do it, on her own terms. Not only that, he is visibly impressed and enamoured by her. Again, if he wanted to kill her, he could have just killed her then. He was going to get caught anyway, what is one more murder? All this “he waited until he could eat her” story makes no sense at all, since as it was already mentioned, he knew her for almost a decade, plenty of time to eat her if he wanted to. He lets her go because he wants to. Because he cares for her.

The point I have made several times is that Bedelia is the only person that Hannibal treats as, well, a person! Everyone else is beneath him, meat only if you will, but not her. Even the ever so special (apparently) Will and Abigail aren’t treated as “people”. Bedelia is the only person that Hannibal respects; that is what makes her so special. Not love (even though he obviously loves her), because respect is rarer for Hannibal than love. Sure, he “loves” Will, the same way you love your favourite book. You want to have it and you don’t want anyone else to have it, but you don’t expect the book to return your feelings. Bedelia is Hannibal’s only equal.

The Red Dragon arc was a mess of epic proportions so I don’t even want to get into that. But I do appreciate the acknowledgement of Bedelia’s darker side and now she has become comfortable with it since Florence. Let’s make a few notes so it doesn’t look as if I am purposely omitting things: Hannibal’s letters to Bedelia? Clearly a part of his “telling her story” and helping her cover, plus he was not able to send her proper letters, so that is his way of telling her he thinks of her. Sessions with Will? You can’t really take everything she told him at face value, she is obfuscating after all. Why would she be honest with Will? She wouldn’t be, she was just continuing what Hannibal has started with much better results (slightly too good actually, as proven by Will’s stupid plan). Bedelia wasn’t afraid Hannibal would come after her, because she had no reasons to be. NONE. She was protected by him.

So there you have it, the great many reasons why I am so unapologetic in my shipping. Because it is all there. Thank you for reminding me why I love these two so much! Have a great day, maybe next time you can message me off anon.

(And thanks to all who got to the end of this almost dissertation, this is my testament, I love you all fellow bedannibal fans!)

[aion-rsa]

The Suicide Squad: Inside James Gunn’s DCEU Supervillain War Movie

https://ift.tt/3ywaJGW

In November 2019, I found myself in the middle of a war zone. Well, the closest approximation of a war zone I’ve ever found myself in during my time visiting the sets of blockbuster movies. If I had been brought to this particular set in Atlanta on a sunny autumn afternoon without knowing what movie it was that I was supposed to be getting a peek at, the scene presented to a group of journalists probably would have convinced me that this was some new war movie or straight up action blockbuster, and not one that features a collection of DC villains and antiheroes at its core.

The set in question is called “Jotunheim” and it’s apparently an objective Task Force X needs to conquer in The Suicide Squad. But for all intents and purposes, this could be the kind of Nazi fortress that the gritty characters of movies like The Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare need to conquer, whether or not they get out alive. That’s no accident, according to director James Gunn.

“A lot of the film is within the genre of war caper films,” Gunn tells reporters later that day, specifically referencing The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes, and others. “It’s not really something that’s existed for a long time, but in the late 60s that was one of the most vibrant genres of the world. [We wanted to] kind of … add on to it with The Suicide Squad.” 

There’s no sign of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Idris Elba’s Bloodsport, or any of the other oddball DC characters at the center of Gunn’s newest movie as we stroll the Jotunheim set. Whatever wild action took place here seems to have been resolved long before our arrival. But the evidence is everywhere and it must have been one hell of a fight.

From the decrepit guard tower and busted fence at the perimeter to the entrance of Jotunheim (which has a massive hole blasted in it) is probably a distance of 100 meters or so. And virtually every inch of that shows the scope of whatever took place here: burnt out bunkers, overturned and semi-destroyed jeeps, sandbagged guard stations, and so much debris, a mixture of real rocks and carved foamcore and plywood “masonry.” 

“It’s a giant construction project” producer Peter Safran jokes about the number and scale of practical sets that have been built for The Suicide Squad. “The idea is to do as much practically as we possibly could.”

That reliance on practical sets and effects wherever possible is a theme that keeps coming up throughout the day as we tour sets and look at production artwork, scale models, weapons, and more.

“We built literally three football fields of a set and that’s so unusual in this day and age,” production designer Beth Mickle says of Jotunheim. “You just never do that. We wanted to have real rubble behind them in the battle sequences, and we wanted to see the building that they’re attacking. For that scene to exist in a film today is just highly unusual. And we’ve done that set and then a dozen others of that scale, so it’s incredible.”

Both the war movie vibe and the love of practical effects are very much in evidence on another set, a convincing indoor recreation of a jungle with a guerilla camp nestled in the middle of it. There’s dirty laundry hanging, filthy pots strewn around, a crumpled pack of cigarettes, and a half empty bottle of watery beer…and what appear to be bloody chunks of skull and assorted viscera littering the grass. Like Jotunheim, something went down here, and whatever it was, it wasn’t pretty.

The Characters of The Suicide Squad: Meet Task Force X

It all stands in almost stark contrast to the wacky assortment of brightly-colored characters that make up the actual team. The concept art and costume tests for these characters were suitably colorful and wildly offbeat, and it’s almost hard to make this line up with the gritty, war movie vibes of the Jotunheim and jungle sets. But storyboards reveal a nighttime action sequence on a beach, with the Squad invading the fictional nation of Corto Maltese, and were it not for the colors and unique designs of the characters wreaking havoc, this too would be evocative of just about anything other than a superhero movie.

A production office is papered with life sized posters of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (performed by Steve Agee and voiced by Sylvester Stallone…although we don’t know that at the time), Blackguard (Pete Davison), Savant (Michael Rooker), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Weasel (Sean Gunn), The Thinker (Peter Capaldi), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Javelin (Flula Borg), Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), TDK (Nathan Fillion), and Bloodsport (Idris Elba).

Looming large is also Idris Elba’s ominous, armored character who we now all know as Bloodsport, but who the studio remained cagey about identifying during this set visit for some reason, leaving reporters to speculate on the identity of the badass in blue, black, and gold. Between the color scheme, the armor, and an impressively intimidating assortment of weapons left out on a table for reporters to ogle as it’s explained that each weapon transforms into or folds out of each other, speculation about Bloodsport ends up occupying a fair amount of the downtime between interviews.

So what exactly could possibly hold such a motley crew together?

“You have to remember that all either have been wrongfully accused or done horrible, morally wrong things,” John Cena says. ”You can see the good in people, you can also see the evil in people… All of these people have real bad personality problems. So I think when you get that type of group together, that’s what makes it fun. Everybody is kind of different. But I think criminals see criminals, they just size everybody up. I think every one of them is like, ‘how is this person going to stab me in the back?’ That’s the world they come from.”

Cena is playing the authoritarian Peacemaker, a character who sees himself very differently than many other members of the Squad do. But the actors behind two of the stranger characters in the film, offer some additional perspective on the team dynamic.

“There’s people in this story that really want friendships, and people that don’t want anybody near them, just like all of us,” says David Dastmalchian, who plays Polka-Dot Man. “I think all of us have felt at times like we are totally disposable to either our employers or society or you name it. So that’s been interesting, in the relationship [between the characters] with the dynamic that starts to build or break down.”

“These are all characters that for the most part, probably don’t even know the existence of the other ones,” Steve Agee says. “Some of them do, and it’s the story of The Suicide Squad. They are forced to be together, and do this task, this mission. So, part of the story is just watching these people adapt to being around each other.”

Flula Borg (who gave journalists a rambling, uproariously funny interview about his character which you’ll see more of on DoG soon enough) spoke about how his character relates to Viola Davis’ team leader, Amanda Waller.

“Judging from all the relationships that Javelin has I would say poor, non-existent, unhealthy, crosses lines, should consider not interacting with other humans,” Borg says. “Javelin doesn’t worry about how people treat him. He treats them … What’s the golden rule? He has the Javelin rule, which is like ‘suck it, I’m cool.’ I think that’s his rule.” 

Even here with the characters, the commitment to practical effects is strong, especially in areas where you’d fully expect them to rely on CGI. For example, Daniela Melchior, who plays Ratcatcher 2, has a little helper rat named Sebastian. While the hordes of rats the character is capable of commanding will necessitate CGI, at least some of the rats are real.

“We have three female rats [that play Sebastian],” Daniela Melchior says about the um…practical rats that the movie is using. “It’s a little bit distracting sometimes because I have to act lazy and tired like I don’t give a shit about whatever is happening… and I’m just like, ‘come here.’ But she doesn’t want to come, she wants to find new places and go, so we’re like, ‘okay, we’ll try one time with the rats, we’ll see what happens.’”

And when one of the rats playing Sebastian doesn’t want to do as they’re told, only then does the movie revert to CGI to get the desired “performance” from the furry co-star.

“I don’t know if I can say this,” Melchior says conspiratorially. “But actually, [some of the cast] are a little bit afraid of rats…I’m always trying to say ‘look, she’s so sweet, she wouldn’t hurt you.’”

From Suicide Squad 2 to The Suicide Squad

Like the characters themselves, The Suicide Squad has something of a rough past. The first movie failed to become the surefire franchise-starter the studio hoped for in 2016, and while a Suicide Squad 2 was put into development almost immediately, it wasn’t until Gunn became available that the project finally solidified.

“There was no plan before James,” Safran says. “There were other writers that had worked on various Suicide Squad scripts over the years, but… this was starting from ground zero, starting from scratch. All the characters that he selected were just characters that he was a fan of and wanted to play with. I think, in typical fashion for James, he picks more obscure characters…he liked the idea of being able to take these characters and imbue them with whatever characters he really wanted, or characteristics that he really wanted to play with.”

One of the “characteristics” Gunn wanted was to truly tap into the spirit of DC’s long-running and beloved Suicide Squad comics of the 1980s, which were co-created and stewarded by Jon Ostrander. 

Read more

Movies

The Suicide Squad: Margot Robbie On the Enduring Appeal of Harley Quinn

By Kayti Burt

Movies

The Suicide Squad: How Idris Elba Brings Bloodsport to Life

By Stephanie Williams

“I don’t think of it so much as an interpretation of what Ostrander wrote but I do think of it as a continuation of what he did,” Gunn says. “It’s very much in line with that. When he was first putting this team together, he was only able to get certain characters. For him, it was the fun of taking these characters that weren’t as well-known and developing them in a real way. And it’s one of the greatest superhero runs of any comic book series.”

(Gunn also notes that Ostrander has a cameo in the film.)

As for whether or not The Suicide Squad is a sequel to or a reboot of the previous film, all involved are both diplomatic and evasive. The official line is that any characters that were together in the previous film do already know each other, but as for the actual events of the 2016 movie, that’s where things get murky. 

“We just don’t address it any tangible form,” Safran says. “Yes, they’re the characters and actors that played them in the first movie, but we really wanted to make sure that this stands on its own two feet. It’s not a sequel, but there are some characters that were in the first movie, so it’s not really a full reboot either. So we just call it James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Inside Jotunheim

Later in the day, journalists are taken inside Jotunheim via soundstage, an indoor construction that appears almost as sprawling as the outdoor set. As we saw outside, the remnants of what was likely a furious battle are all around. A stuntman in full Peacemaker gear is hanging around as we see Robbie’s Harley, Dastmalchian’s Polka-Dot Man, and Agee as King Shark (“the studio is trying to play down the whole Polka-Dot Man/King Shark universe they’re building,” Dastmalchian jokes) make their way through the rubble. Elba’s Bloodsport isn’t visible, but we’re assured he’s part of the scene.

While it’s Sylvester Stallone voicing King Shark in the film, it’s Agee on set here, wearing a grey mo-cap suit with the kind of padding you see on MLB umpires and somewhat shark-shaped wire headgear. He also appears to be holding a skull.    

Harley, however, is wearing the ornate red dress glimpsed in the trailer (although it’s somewhat the worse for wear at the moment). As she navigates the carnage in Jotunheim, Gunn calls out for Robbie to “hum a little tune.” She does just that, conjuring exactly the kind of aimless musical free-association you’d expect from a mind like Harley Quinn in the midst of battle.

“Harley’s been through some things as you can see by this point in the film,” Robbie says to reporters between takes. When it’s noted that Harley’s baseball bat, a fixture in the previous film, is nowhere to be found in this scene, she jokes “My baseball bat is back home in LA, next to my bed, in case anyone breaks in…I’ve got other weapons in this one.”

We don’t get to see these Squad members engaged in any combat during the shooting of this scene, and it’s not clear if this is the interior from the same “entrance” that had seemingly been blasted into the outdoor structure, or somewhere else inside the fortress. But the clues all point to one thing: like everything else in this movie, where The Suicide Squad goes, destruction and chaos follow.

The Suicide Squad opens in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6. We’ll have more from our set visit in the coming days.

The post The Suicide Squad: Inside James Gunn’s DCEU Supervillain War Movie appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3dMcFTU

[rieshon]

Best of 2019

It wouldn't be a best of the year post if it wasn't hopelessly late.

10: Shinchou Yuusha ~Kono Yuusha ga Ore TUEEE Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru~ ∥ White Fox ∥ Dir. Sakoi Masayuki: The title makes this sound like it could be terrible but this series has a Konosuba-like aplomb that makes it one of the best comedies of the year. Toyosaki Aki is absolutely brilliant as the shithead damegami Listarte and the animation consistently matches her over-the-top comedic masterclass. The show even has a real ending; opinion is split but I found it surprisingly satisfying.

9: Babylon ∥ Revoroot ∥ Dir. Suzuki Kiyotaka: This is the first Strand-type anime. Babylon is incredibly hard to describe and, having only seen it once, I'm not even fully confident in saying what it's about. It is a wild ride that meditates on some serious themes and seems to come to conclusions that won't be entirely comfortable for a lot of readers. This is one you really have to experience for yourself.

8: Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari ∥ Kinema Citrus ∥ Dir. Abo Takao: The most discoursed-about series of 2019 ends up being a surprisingly mature take on the isekai tensei genre. Like the best entries in the genre it features a protagonist who is deeply flawed and Naofumi's journey to learning to trust and love again is genuinely moving. It definitely does come off a bit like an incel fantasy at first but it is ultimately way more nuanced than that could ever suggest. Also, Raphtalia is best wife.

7: Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai ∥ Gemba ∥ Dir. Mizushima Tsutomu: Tsutomu, you son of a bitch, you did it again. While Kotobuki doesn't reach the rareified air of Garupan (pun not intended) it is very much in the same vein, and offers unending joy to any nerd who loves warplanes or just aviation in general. The script from the always-excellent Yokote Michiko is tight and compelling and gives a genuinely interesting backdrop to the frenetic plane action. Kotobuki is an excellent example of the power of showing rather than telling, something anime is woefully bad at: the fact that Kotobuki's isekai setting is never really expounded on makes it that much more interesting.

6: Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu ∥ C2C ∥ Dir. Anzai Takefumi: If Katsuwo's other work to be adapted into anime, Mitsuboshi Colors, is about being a child, then Bocchi is about the fraught transition from childhood into early adulthood. The titular Hitori Bocchi will be a frighteningly relatable character (my comment for the first episode on my blog was 'We Are All Bocchi') but unlike other series clearly aimed at alienated nerds, the show never feels sorry for Bocchi and most importantly, Bocchi doesn't feel sorry for herself. The show is explicitly about the importance of stepping outside of your comfort zone and although it's hard for Bocchi to do this, with the help of her friends she's able to work up the courage necessary to grow from a scared child into a functioning young adult. Also she's cute as fuck.

5: Machikado Mazoku ∥ J.C. Staff ∥ Dir. Sakurai Hiroaki: This is one of the best Kirara anime in ages. Kohara Konomi and Kitou Akari are a wonderful comedic combination, and Shamiko is probably the cutest girl of the whole year. She's pretty much the definition of the phrase "moe through helplessness" which makes her quest to be an evil demon truly hilarious. Like all the best Kirara anime, Machikado Mazoku slowly becomes a yuri anime as Momo's character develops and it becomes increasingly clear that she's just hard gay for Shamiko. I could watch these two be tsundere for each other forever.

4: Joshikousei no Mudazukai ∥ Passione ∥ Dir. Takahashi Takeo: There were a lot of excellent comedies this year and I always find them hard to review. Where Mudazukai particularly excels is the crassness of its characters: like the title suggests these aren't your typical cutesy anime JKs. They crack dirty jokes, take the piss out of each other, and feel more genuinely like friends than a lot of high school girls in anime. Akasaki Chinatsu in particular is pitch-perfect as 'Baka,'  its like she was born to be stupid. Probably the funniest show of the year, even though I have one comedy ranked above it.

3: Senkizesshou Symphogear XV ∥ Satelight ∥ Dir. Ono Katsumi: The fact that a Symphogear series could end up this high on the rankings is something like a miracle. After years of me shitting all over it for incomprehensible plotlines and disposable characters, they somehow not only fixed it in the last season, but even retroactively redeemed some of the elements from those shitty third and fourth seasons and created some of the most thrilling moments of the year in the process. It even goes as far as to reach back to the first season and address the latent themes of Japanese nationalism that have always hung over the show in resolving Tsubasa's character arc. XV delivers such a satisfying conclusion that it fully justifies the past six years spent on developing the Symphogear series in a way I never thought possible. It's a beautiful thing to behold.

2: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen~ ∥ A-1 Pictures ∥ Dir. Hatakeyama Mamoru: The romantic comedy is probably the most prolific genre in late night anime, and Kaguya-sama stands shoulder to shoulder with the greats. Everything from the voice acting (Koga Aoi should be a superstar, and Kohara Konomi is already on her way to being a household name) to the animation to the direction to the writing is superb. Kaguya even delivers in spades in the "romantic" side of "romantic comedy" which isn't something every rabukome can say. The number of series that I can say have made me cry from laughing and from emotion is pretty small, but Kaguya is proudly among them.

1: Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo ∥ Lay-duce ∥ Dir. Andou Masahiro & Tsukada Takurou: After all these years, Okada Mari has finally delivered her magnum opus. There has perhaps never been a more frank discussion of female adolescent sexuality than Araoto, drawing heavily as it does from Okada's own lived experience as a confused and bullied teenager. These girls are fragile people who are walking a knife's edge between childhood and adulthood, and they don't always keep their balance. As someone who didn't grow up as a girl, it's not something I can intrinsically understand, but it's a testament to Okada's writing that Araoto MAKES you understand what it's like to be a teenage girl going through puberty. It's ugly, it's dangerous, it's scary, and... it's something every woman goes through. Araoto deftly tackles themes of discovering ones sexuality, homosexuality, and the pressure put on young women by a society that both sexualizes them against their will but also demands that they remain chaste and pure. It is unlike almost anything else that's ever been made in this medium, and that's why it's my anime of the year.

Honorable mentions... Like I said above, this was a strong year for comedy so some good series didn't make the cut. Ueno-san wa Bukiyou was a great showcase for Serizawa Yuu's comedic chops (which us Pripara fans have known about for years) and featured some of the most memorable gags of the year... Kemurikusa saw Tatsuki triumphantly return to television with his first full length work since Kemono Friends, and I frankly found it to be better than Kemofure; a truly enjoyable work of post-apocalyptic science fiction... Speaking of science fiction, I also feel compelled to mention Kanata no Astra, which seemed underappreciated but ended up being an extremely well-written SF series. Of course, we also have to mention Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO if we're talking about science fiction; I didn't particularly like YU-NO's second half that much, but it's worth watching if only to understand where so much of modern anime comes from in the first place.

The awards go to...

Best Actress: Koga Aoi as Shinomiya Kaguya, Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai. I mentioned above that this girl should be a superstar, and it's frankly absurd that she hasn't gotten more leading roles considering the considerable talent she shows off as Kaguya. She's a one-woman wrecking crew in this series, with her ability to effortlessly straddle the range between "cold and detached psychopath" and "petulant 8 year old throwing a tantrum" being the lynchpin of a lot of the series fundamental humor.

(Honorable mention: Akasaki Chinatsu as "Baka," Joshikousei no Mudazukai; Yukino Satsuki as Magase Ai, Babylon)

Newcomer Seiyuu of the Year: Kohara Konomi. It's a sweep for Kaguya-sama, and the voice acting is a big part of the reason that show was so exceptional. It kind of feels like cheating to give this to someone who's already played a Precure, but Toei were just really ahead of the curve on this one. 'Koko-chan' exploded onto the scene in 2019 between her roles as Fujiwara-shoki and Shamiko in Machikado Mazoku, with a distinctive vocal style and a knack for comedic delivery. Several of the most memetic lines of the year, like Fujiwara's "Don da yo!" and Shamiko's "Kore de katta to omou nayo!" come courtesy of her, and I feel like that ability to stick in people's minds is a testament to her level of talent. Though I gave Koga the nod overall for her performance as Kaguya, it's clear that Kohara is the one the industry has earmarked for future success with the level of prominence she's had over the past year or so, so she gets this award.

(Honorable mention: Fairouz Ai. "Fai-chan" made a splash thanks to her unusual background, but she's also proven to be a talented actress after appearing from seemingly out of nowhere to play Hibiki in the Onegai Muscle anime. It's out of the scope of this post, but she really made an impression in Oshibudo as Eripiyo, but her body of work is still too thin for her to win this award outright. She's shown she has a knack for the funny with her brusque and aggressive delivery, but I'd really like to hear her as a dramatic lead sometime soon.)

[the-kool-kyle]

Aquaman Review

Aqua-Man is one of DC comics most well known heroes and also on of the most controversial. For many decades he has been criticised for being being seen as a dumb and uncool character who never quite reached the type of praise or fame like many of other DC's champions have received like Batman and Superman. Mainly due to his boring stories, dated look and unimpressive powers FYI: talking to fish. But now with the newest instalment of the DCEU we've been give an Aqua-Man movie that does what 60 years of comic books couldn't do and make him into a badass acting, awesome looking and down right cool character throughout a movie that is surprisingly a very entertaining popcorn movie that gets more awesome every time you see it. Plus people can now see Aqua-Man as a real superhero and not a dated and dorky comic book character we all know and use to tolerate.

“Aqua-Man” is the best DC live action movie in the DCEU to date. With it's perfect acting, great pacing, easter eggs, stunning visuals and memorable moments. As well as costumes and moments ripped straight from the comics which has become the DCEU strongest suit since Batman V Superman. This film proves that any character from a comic book can be made into a relatable and loving person that can inspire everyone.

Jason Momoa stars as the best and most awesome live action portrayal of Aqua-Man(Arthur Curry) to date. His take on the character with his big dumb tough guy attitude, badass look and epic one liners. This is a major improvement over what the character is like in the comics by ditching his blonde hair and goody two shoes personality for a version of the character that's both modern and likeable for young and old audiences. He has become to most liked character in these movies since Batfleck appear in BVS and has really made an impact on veteran readers who always saw him as the worst superhero ever made and can now see him as a total badass and a real superhero. But best of all Jason Momoa was the perfect choice they just couldn't have gotten anyone better to play him he is probably one of the best superhero castings of all time.

Amber Heard stars as Mera Princess of the Xebel tribe from Atlantis and well known from the comics for being Aqua-Man's love interest and future wife but is also known for her unique power of Hydrokinetic and telepathic powers that allow her to control aquatic environments and water at will and as well as her iconic long lush bright red hair. She completely pulls off a perfect performance as this female superhero as through the film she is seen as a no nonsense royal that delivers exposition and having a “love-hate” relationship with Arthur. But most importantly she is a strong empowering female character who has great chemistry with Arthur. Which I see is a great portrayal of this type of character rather than being the typical defenceless damsel who instantly falls for the hero because he's “The Hero”.

Now over the last decade it's become something of a hot button topic with comic villains in these movies as most of the time their generic, forgettable and disposable villains that only last one movie and don't make that much of an impact but some times they get them right. This movie however has two villains that are both great at being evil, have justifiable motives and good reasons for doing what they do and both make huge impacts on the film's narrative.

Orm king of Atlantis and Aqua-Man's half brother played by Patrick Wilson is the movie's main antagonist and one of Aqua-Man's arch enemies . Throughout the film Wilson is really committed to his role and bring to life this largely unknown villain from the comics. While he does have some cheesy dialogue that feels straight out of Shakespeare the one thing that makes him a great villain is because he has justifiable motives. Orm being the king of Atlantis cares about his people and will go to extreme methods to keep them safe and during this goal he has come to hate the surface dwellers because they pollute the sea, dumb all their trash into it, kill billions of fish and other aquatic creatures and generally just destroy the oceans beauty. So while he does make some dark decisions and acts like a complete monster can we really blame him for hating the surface world? So basically he's an evil character who is actually right which I think is a very interesting way to show us that not all super-villains are evil for no apparent reason to be good. Orm or “Oceanmaster” is probably one of the best DC villain to date .

The movie's second villain is of Aqua-Man's arch enemies.....Black Manta. Black Manta is one of Aqua-Man's most famous villains since his earliest adventures who is instantly recognisable for his black scuba suit and bug like helmet with big red eyes cable of firing a powerful laser beam. While the previous DC movies have had some pretty boring villains they finally give us a bad guy who is finally awesome because Black Manta is badass as hell! While he could have been used a little more he more than makes up for his limited screen time by stealing every scene he's in thanks to his dark and cold personality, epic lines of dialogue and best of all his costume. While Aqua-Man's classic costume is still up for debate Black Manta's costume is just awesome because it looks exactly like the comic book counter part with a few minor upgrades making him look both awesome and terrifying. Thanks “Iron Head”. One thing that really makes his unique is that in a way he is the hero of his own story and has a understandable reason for wanting to kill Aqua-Man.

So this movie has two great villains that feel like they were ripped straight from the comics, had justifiable motives and were both awesome. That's a major win for the DCEU.

Now this movie's best feature is it's visuals. This movie just looks amazing it's probably one of the most visually stunning movies in recent years with perfect CGI that makes all of the scenes underwater and the actors (while filming)look like their actually floating around in the depths of the ocean. Plus all of the movie's locations and set pieces such as Atlantis were stunning they looked so real and felt more like they filmed in real locations rather than created using CGI and green screens. The movie's action was just non-stop and all of the scenes were both really awesome and unique in their own way. The action was filmed using tracking shots and one shot takes that made the acton a whole lot more exciting as well as a few camera angles in certain shots that made the action more real and made us feel like we were actually in the movie instead of relying on multiple camera angles and quick cuts.

I have to give a 10/10 for the costumes and props this movie used. All of the main characters looked almost like their comic book counter parts their costumes were incredibly accurate and looked so awesome especially for Aqua-Man, Mera, Orm and Black Manta. Plus the many props they used throughout the movie looked so cool like Aqua-Man and Orm's Tridents, Black Manta's helmet, Mera's Crown and the weapons the Atlantian soliders wielded.

The story surprisingly did a good job sticking to original origins of Aqua-Man where his father was a lighthouse keeper and his mother was a queen of Atlantis. It also had great pacing and did a great job building up this world that Aqua-Man takes place in and also included so great flash back sequences which didn't feel out of place. Many of the films side characters were portrayed very well by their actors like Temuera Morrison as Thomas Curry, Nicole Kidman as Atlanna, Willlem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko and Dolph Lundgren as Nereus. Additionally if your a big DC fan like me I suggest you keep and eye out for the many easter eggs this movie had hidden in certain scenes so keep an eye out.

Final Verdict: Aqua-Man is the best DCEU movie to date thanks to it's great casting choices, classic story, awesome villains, great hero, strong women and stunning visuals. It's living proof that the DCEU isn't dead and is catching up to Marvel and is close to fully competing with them full time.

Final Score 8.5/10

[steeleholtingon]

This Evil Overlord List is Copyright 1996-1997 by Peter Anspach. If you enjoy it, feel free to pass it along or post it anywhere, provided that (1) it is not altered in any way, and (2) this copyright notice is attached.

(From the User-Friendly Archives)

Attention all Evil Overlord List Aspirants: Contrary to popular belief, taking over the universe is not as easy as it would first appear. Due to the complexity of this task, Peter regrets that he is currently unable to give the list the attention it deserves. The list is therefore going on a temporary hiatus. This is a temporary condition. As soon as he is able to respond in a timely manner -- or until he becomes unquestioned lord and master of all things, whichever comes first -- the list will not be updated and no new suggestions will be considered. He would sincerely apologize for this inconvenience, were it in character for an Evil Overlord to do so.

Being an Evil Overlord seems to be a good career choice. It pays well, there are all sorts of perks and you can set your own hours. However every Evil Overlord I've read about in books or seen in movies invariably gets overthrown and destroyed in the end. I've noticed that no matter whether they are barbarian lords, deranged wizards, mad scientists or alien invaders, they always seem to make the same basic mistakes every single time. With that in mind, allow me to present...

The Top 100 Things I'd Do

If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord

My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.

My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.

My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.

Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness.

I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No."

After I kidnap the beautiful princess, we will be married immediately in a quiet civil ceremony, not a lavish spectacle in three weeks' time during which the final phase of my plan will be carried out.

I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a large red button labelled "Danger: Do Not Push". The big red button marked "Do Not Push" will instead trigger a spray of bullets on anyone stupid enough to disregard it. Similarly, the ON/OFF switch will not clearly be labelled as such.

I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.

I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.

One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.

The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any other form of last request.

I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.

I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.

I will not have a son. Although his laughably under-planned attempt to usurp power would easily fail, it would provide a fatal distraction at a crucial point in time.

I will not have a daughter. She would be as beautiful as she was evil, but one look at the hero's rugged countenance and she'd betray her own father.

Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.

I will hire a talented fashion designer to create original uniforms for my Legions of Terror, as opposed to some cheap knock-offs that make them look like Nazi stormtroopers, Roman footsoldiers, or savage Mongol hordes. All were eventually defeated and I want my troops to have a more positive mind-set.

No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.

I will keep a special cache of low-tech weapons and train my troops in their use. That way -- even if the heroes manage to neutralize my power generator and/or render the standard-issue energy weapons useless -- my troops will not be overrun by a handful of savages armed with spears and rocks.

I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" (After that, death is usually instantaneous.)

No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any sort of machinery which is completely indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible vulnerable spot.

No matter how attractive certain members of the rebellion are, there is probably someone just as attractive who is not desperate to kill me. Therefore, I will think twice before ordering a prisoner sent to my bedchamber.

I will never build only one of anything important. All important systems will have redundant control panels and power supplies. For the same reason I will always carry at least two fully loaded weapons at all times.

My pet monster will be kept in a secure cage from which it cannot escape and into which I could not accidentally stumble.

I will dress in bright and cheery colors, and so throw my enemies into confusion.

All bumbling conjurers, clumsy squires, no-talent bards, and cowardly thieves in the land will be preemptively put to death. My foes will surely give up and abandon their quest if they have no source of comic relief.

All naive, busty tavern wenches in my realm will be replaced with surly, world-weary waitresses who will provide no unexpected reinforcement and/or romantic subplot for the hero or his sidekick.

I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard to come by.

I won't require high-ranking female members of my organization to wear a stainless-steel bustier. Morale is better with a more casual dress-code. Similarly, outfits made entirely from black leather will be reserved for formal occasions.

I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.

I will not grow a goatee. In the old days they made you look diabolic. Now they just make you look like a disaffected member of Generation X.

I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cell block, let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing out copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.

If my trusted lieutenant tells me my Legions of Terror are losing a battle, I will believe him. After all, he's my trusted lieutenant.

If an enemy I have just killed has a younger sibling or offspring anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately, instead of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of vengeance towards me in my old age.

If I absolutely must ride into battle, I will certainly not ride at the forefront of my Legions of Terror, nor will I seek out my opposite number among his army.

I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.

Once my power is secure, I will destroy all those pesky time-travel devices.

When I capture the hero, I will make sure I also get his dog, monkey, ferret, or whatever sickeningly cute little animal capable of untying ropes and filching keys happens to follow him around.

I will maintain a healthy amount of skepticism when I capture the beautiful rebel and she claims she is attracted to my power and good looks and will gladly betray her companions if I just let her in on my plans.

I will only employ bounty hunters who work for money. Those who work for the pleasure of the hunt tend to do dumb things like even the odds to give the other guy a sporting chance.

I will make sure I have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what in my organization. For example, if my general screws up I will not draw my weapon, point it at him, say "And here is the price for failure," then suddenly turn and kill some random underling.

If an advisor says to me "My liege, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?", I will reply "This." and kill the advisor.

If I learn that a callow youth has begun a quest to destroy me, I will slay him while he is still a callow youth instead of waiting for him to mature.

I will treat any beast which I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is ever broken, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.

If I learn the whereabouts of the one artifact which can destroy me, I will not send all my troops out to seize it. Instead I will send them out to seize something else and quietly put a Want-Ad in the local paper.

My main computers will have their own special operating system that will be completely incompatible with standard IBM and Macintosh powerbooks.

If one of my dungeon guards begins expressing concern over the conditions in the beautiful princess' cell, I will immediately transfer him to a less people-oriented position.

I will hire a team of board-certified architects and surveyors to examine my castle and inform me of any secret passages and abandoned tunnels that I might not know about.

If the beautiful princess that I capture says "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!", I will say "Oh well" and kill her.

I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.

The deformed mutants and odd-ball psychotics will have their place in my Legions of Terror. However before I send them out on important covert missions that require tact and subtlety, I will first see if there is anyone else equally qualified who would attract less attention.

My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Any who cannot learn to hit a man-sized target at 10 meters will be used for target practice.

Before employing any captured artifacts or machinery, I will carefully read the owner's manual.

If it becomes necessary to escape, I will never stop to pose dramatically and toss off a one-liner.

I will never build a sentient computer smarter than I am.

My five-year-old child advisor will also be asked to decipher any code I am thinking of using. If he breaks the code in under 30 seconds, it will not be used. Note: this also applies to passwords.

If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.

I will design fortress hallways with no alcoves or protruding structural supports which intruders could use for cover in a firefight.

Bulk trash will be disposed of in incinerators, not compactors. And they will be kept hot, with none of that nonsense about flames going through accessible tunnels at predictable intervals.

I will see a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits which could prove to be a disadvantage.

If I must have computer systems with publically available terminals, the maps they display of my complex will have a room clearly marked as the Main Control Room. That room will be the Execution Chamber. The actual main control room will be marked as Sewage Overflow Containment.

My security keypad will actually be a fingerprint scanner. Anyone who watches someone press a sequence of buttons or dusts the pad for fingerprints then subsequently tries to enter by repeating that sequence will trigger the alarm system.

No matter how many shorts we have in the system, my guards will be instructed to treat every surveillance camera malfunction as a full-scale emergency.

I will spare someone who saved my life sometime in the past. This is only reasonable as it encourages others to do so. However, the offer is good one time only. If they want me to spare them again, they'd better save my life again.

All midwives will be banned from the realm. All babies will be delivered at state-approved hospitals. Orphans will be placed in foster-homes, not abandoned in the woods to be raised by creatures of the wild.

When my guards split up to search for intruders, they will always travel in groups of at least two. They will be trained so that if one of them disappears mysteriously while on patrol, the other will immediately initiate an alert and call for backup, instead of quizzically peering around a corner.

If I decide to test a lieutenant's loyalty and see if he/she should be made a trusted lieutenant, I will have a crack squad of marksmen standing by in case the answer is no.

If all the heroes are standing together around a strange device and begin to taunt me, I will pull out a conventional weapon instead of using my unstoppable superweapon on them.

I will not agree to let the heroes go free if they win a rigged contest, even though my advisors assure me it is impossible for them to win.

When I create a multimedia presentation of my plan designed so that my five-year-old advisor can easily understand the details, I will not label the disk "Project Overlord" and leave it lying on top of my desk.

I will instruct my Legions of Terror to attack the hero en masse, instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack one or two at a time.

If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridge over a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)

If I have a fit of temporary insanity and decide to give the hero the chance to reject a job as my trusted lieutentant, I will retain enough sanity to wait until my current trusted lieutenant is out of earshot before making the offer.

I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."

If my doomsday device happens to come with a reverse switch, as soon as it has been employed it will be melted down and made into limited-edition commemorative coins.

If my weakest troops fail to eliminate a hero, I will send out my best troops instead of wasting time with progressively stronger ones as he gets closer and closer to my fortress.

If I am fighting with the hero atop a moving platform, have disarmed him, and am about to finish him off and he glances behind me and drops flat, I too will drop flat instead of quizzically turning around to find out what he saw.

I will not shoot at any of my enemies if they are standing in front of the crucial support beam to a heavy, dangerous, unbalanced structure.

If I'm eating dinner with the hero, put poison in his goblet, then have to leave the table for any reason, I will order new drinks for both of us instead of trying to decide whether or not to switch with him.

I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex.

I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the button."

I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.

My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use. Also, I will not construct walkways above them.

If a group of henchmen fail miserably at a task, I will not berate them for incompetence then send the same group out to try the task again.

After I captures the hero's superweapon, I will not immediately disband my legions and relax my guard because I believe whoever holds the weapon is unstoppable. After all, the hero held the weapon and I took it from him.

I will not design my Main Control Room so that every workstation is facing away from the door.

I will not ignore the messenger that stumbles in exhausted and obviously agitated until my personal grooming or current entertainment is finished. It might actually be important.

If I ever talk to the hero on the phone, I will not taunt him. Instead I will say this his dogged perseverance has given me new insight on the futility of my evil ways and that if he leaves me alone for a few months of quiet contemplation I will likely return to the path of righteousness. (Heroes are incredibly gullible in this regard.)

If I decide to hold a double execution of the hero and an underling who failed or betrayed me, I will see to it that the hero is scheduled to go first.

When arresting prisoners, my guards will not allow them to stop and grab a useless trinket of purely sentimental value.

My dungeon will have its own qualified medical staff complete with bodyguards. That way if a prisoner becomes sick and his cellmate tells the guard it's an emergency, the guard will fetch a trauma team instead of opening up the cell for a look.

My door mechanisms will be designed so that blasting the control panel on the outside seals the door and blasting the control panel on the inside opens the door, not vice versa.

My dungeon cells will not be furnished with objects that contain reflective surfaces or anything that can be unravelled.

If an attractive young couple enters my realm, I will carefully monitor their activities. If I find they are happy and affectionate, I will ignore them. However if circumstance have forced them together against their will and they spend all their time bickering and criticizing each other except during the intermittent occasions when they are saving each others' lives at which point there are hints of sexual tension, I will immediately order their execution.

Any data file of crucial importance will be padded to 1.45Mb in size.

Finally, to keep my subjects permanently locked in a mindless trance, I will provide each of them with free unlimited Internet access.

[hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff]

E3 is a wondrous time of year when publishers and developers go all out to win your attention and get the world excited for their upcoming lineup of games and products. With so much news, trailers, and announcements, it's tough to narrow down our picks of Best of E3 Awards to only 20. These are these are the most exciting games coming out of the show according to GameSpot's editors, and the ones we can't wait to play more of.

Every game and product in this gallery shares in the glory of our Best of E3 award, but there is one big rule for inclusion: it must be playable at the show. This means that anything that was simply teased or was only shown as a trailer isn't eligible.

Our awards represent our absolute favorite things at E3 2018, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of other exciting new stuff. If you want to catch up on things you might've missed, you can read our press conference wrap-ups for Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and EA; as well as our list of all the new games announced at E3.

But what were your favorite moments from this year's E3? And what games are you most looking forward to? Discuss it in the comments below!

Anthem

BioWare's first new IP in 10 years is coming early next year, and it's a big departure from what BioWare is known for. It's an always-online, action-adventure shooter that has no romance options and limited branching dialogue choices. It may be different, but it stands tall on its own merits based on what we've seen and played at E3. One of its most unique and compelling elements is its flight mechanics. You basically become Iron Man and fly around with an exosuit powered by jets in your feet. Doing so gives the world an impressive sense of scale. When you zoom through the air from one objective to the next, you can't help but wonder what lies below that you'll want to go back and explore on foot. It absolutely bears a resemblance to Destiny in terms of look and feel, but I don't see that as a bad thing. (And not to mention, producer Mark Darrah told GameSpot that Anthem started development before Destiny came out). BioWare's Mass Effect: Andromeda might have been a miss with critics, but I am hoping for the best from Anthem and the early signs show Anthem is on the right path. -- Eddie Makuch, Editor

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is evolving the long-running franchise into a fully realized RPG by adding branching dialogue, choices within quests, and consequences that show up throughout the story. By going to Ancient Greece, Ubisoft continues the trend of using history as a backdrop to tell its stories; Spartans and Athenians are at war during 431 BC in the midst of the Peloponnesian War. However, players have a bit more say in how that plays out. You can have philosophical conversations with Socrates and challenge his school of thought, but also take side quests from him. And how that particular quest concludes will have ramifications for the mainline course of leading a rebellion. And that’s just a small piece of a much larger game.

Ancient Greece is expansive, which makes for one of the largest Assassin’s Creed settings. That also means a ton of seafaring adventures. Ship combat comes back in big way, similar to Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and you’ll be able to recruit people and build a crew as you destroy enemy ships with fire arrow barrages, waves of javelins, or full-speed naval rams.

Hand-to-hand combat bears a lot of similarities to Assassin’s Creed Origins, but Odyssey layers on a few more elements. Players will have a number of skills at their disposal like a shield rip, healing ability, and a multi-arrow shot. But nothing comes close to the iconic Spartan kick. Giving enemies the boot will comically send them flying backward; it’s ideal for launching them off ships or off the side of a cliff.

While we had Jacob and Evie in Syndicate as a dynamic duo, Odyssey will have you choose either a male or female version of the same main character; Alexios or Kassandra. It’s just one of the elements in a number of changes for the franchise, and Odyssey is better for it. -- Michael Higham, Associate Editor

Battlefield V

Battlefield V does a great job of making me feel like I matter again in the midst of large scale battles. I have a long history with the Battlefield franchise and one of my biggest issues has always been feeling like cannon fodder; gains made often evaporated through the sheer number of enemy players. Battlefield V aims to tackle this challenge through automated squads and rewarding players who stick together. With a squad, I matter. I can revive teammates, build fortifications, gain good spawn position, and avoid running out of far more scarce ammo. Staying with a squad means making progress, and that's a feeling I've rarely gotten from my times spent playing with groups in the series' most recent entries.

Other new systems are at play to keep matches exciting. The Grand Operations map Port Of Narvik has an active parachute drop where I could decide when to jump out of an aircraft that could be shot down by the enemy team. On the ground, new animations and contextual callouts gave my teammates more personality and charm. These additions really shine when given room to breathe on large maps.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Battlefield V shows off next. The focus on rewarding players for sticking with squads has the potential to bring meaning and a sense of contribution to players who otherwise might get lost in large scale warfare. If developer DICE keep this up, Battlefield V might just be the best Battlefield game to come out in years. -- Aaron Sampson, Video Producer

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

Treyarch is back in business this year with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and I am very excited about it. One of the most exciting new additions to the mix seems to be Blackout, which is battle royale with a Call-of-Duty spin. We haven't seen it in action yet, and it remains to be seen how Call of Duty's fast-pace translates to the more strategic battle royale genre, but it is an exciting proposition all the same to see it happen. Another thing I am excited about is the new Zombies mode. After all, Treyarch created the fan-favourite mode, and every effort they have put forth so far has been better than the last--and this year appears to be no different. Then there is traditional multiplayer, which returns to the fast-paced, exosuit-enabled frenetic action that was missing in Call of Duty: WWII. And Nuketown is coming back, which is always exciting. There is no traditional campaign this year, and that will understandably upset some fans, but Treyarch is promising some story content from the game's solo missions that focus on each Specialist character. -- Eddie Makuch, Editor

Control

Control is a game that's very difficult to describe in detail, but that's part of the reason why it's so impressive. Not unlike a twisted film from David Lynch, Control freely defies logic and consistency in favor of dreamlike and occasionally nightmarish sequences that toy with your understanding of the world and the characters suffering within it. You won't understand it at first, and that's precisely the point.

Jesse, the lead character who is both possessed by and in control of supernatural powers, seems to take it all in stride. She's trapped in a massive compound that changes shape and identity from one room to the next, all the while under threat from corrupted humans at various stages of transformation. Jesse's telekinetic powers allow her to manipulate objects in her surroundings, using desks to attack enemies, or clusters of smaller objects to form a protective shield. She's also got a shape-shifting gun that we only got a taste of, but Remedy promised it's central to character customization as Jesse's mission progresses.

Whether it's the otherworldly manifestations or Jesse's impressive moves in combat, Control looks simply incredible in motion. Remedy has proved that it can craft shockingly mysterious worlds in Alan Wake, and Quantum Break was a showcase for the dev team's ability to mix super powers and shooting mechanics. Remedy is combining its strengths for Control, and the result so far looks like it may shape up to be their most impressive game yet. -- Peter Brown, Senior Reviews Editor

Cyberpunk 2077

The gameplay demo for Cyberpunk 2077 is completely overwhelming. There's a moment when you leave main character V's apartment and enter a lift. It has a clear glass door, and as you descend the stacks of small flats become a freeway filled with speeding cars, and then down to the seedy underbelly of the city. It happens completely seamlessly, without a loading screen, and drives home perhaps to most impactful thing about CD Projekt Red's new game: you are insignificant--at least to start with.

The world of Cyberpunk doesn't feel like a video game city where a story will happen to you, it's feels like a place that has always existed, and your story is just one of thousands happening at the same time. You're not the sole focus, the special one. The game isn't explaining its systems to you, telling you who everyone is and what everything means, it just is. The onus is on you to look at it, learn about it, and understand it. And that is what V aims to do as he or she takes on jobs to pay off debts and work her way into the upper echelons of society. There's plenty to say about Cyberpunk 2077's gameplay too--the fluid combat that allows you to dash around to gain the positional advantage, the exotic weapons that you can use to ricochet bullets or file through walls. The ability to hack people from a distance and turn off their guns, or be hacked so that all your secrets are laid bare and conversations become a lie detector test--but, honestly, I just can't get over the world and the storytelling opportunities it has in store for us. -- Tamoor Hussain, Editor

Dying Light 2

The original Dying Light made some clever choices in how it presented an open-world survival game. Focusing on undercover agent Kyle Crane's exploits in a ruined tropical city where the infected have taken over, the story took many turns--showing that there were worse dangers in the town aside from the hordes of zombies. In the years since it's release, the developers at Techland gradually fleshed out the scale of the game, adding in new multiplayer modes, DLC episodes, and updates that made Dying Light into something more. And after years of quiet development, the developers have finally unveiled the true sequel that looks to expand on the core systems, while telling a far more involved and dynamic story.

I had the chance to see a behind closed doors demo of the game, and the new approach to the game's storytelling looks to be a real standout. Taking place in the "modern dark age," a setting where technology is minimal, most areas are lawless, and firearms are in short supply--the new setting offers a greater focus on making important decisions, while staying one step ahead of bandits and the undead. With Chris Avellone, writer of Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 2 working on the main story, there's many key moments where your choices will make some drastic changes to one of the last cities in Europe. With a greater level of freedom for traversing the open-world, along with depth in the game's core combat system, Dying Light 2 is poised to be a stellar follow-up to one of 2015's most exciting games. -- Alessandro Fillari, Editor

The Elder Scrolls Blades

The Elder Scrolls: Blades has distilled the essence of the franchise and has allowed it to live in your pocket. While it might not boast the huge world of Skyrim, Morrowind, or Oblivion, the dungeons are satisfying to explore, its inhabitants thrilling to slaughter, and loot rewarding to plunder. While combat is quite basic, it’ll still take some practice to master. Striking enemies is done by pressing your thumb against the screen; the more accurate the thumb press the better chance you have for a critical hit. Once you spend enough time with the game, you’ll get the timing down for combos and to deal more damage. There are also abilities like a shield bash and block and magic spells like an ice blizzards and a lightning bolt, which were available during the demo. But as with any Elder Scrolls game, plenty of other abilities and weapons will be at your disposal.

We saw an underground dungeon and a more open forest area during our playthrough, and these environments are surprisingly well rendered for a small screen. While we didn’t get any time with the town-building aspect that was mentioned during the game’s initial reveal, we’re hopeful that it’ll allow us to build the Tamriel town we envision. We’d expect The Elder Scrolls: Blades to expend every percentage of battery life left on our phones. -- David Jewitt, Video Producer

Forza Horizon 4

Launched in 2012, the Forza Horizon sub-series has become immensely popular for its more arcade-style approach to racing games. The latest entry, Forza Horizon 4, launches in October and represents the "biggest paradigm shift" for the franchise to date, Playground Games says. Set in Britain, the online-focused game adds a big new feature in the form of seasons. This is a big deal because as each season unfolds, the game changes with different road conditions and tailored new content. It's a cool idea, and one I'm excited to see play out when the game launches. Also new for the sequel is the ability to re-wind time and pause in online matches, while the Xbox One X edition will have a 60 FPS option for players looking for the slickest experience. There are more than 450 cars in the game, so you can be pretty sure that it will have something you're interested in. There are also really, really gorgeous skymaps thanks to Playground spending a year capturing the night sky throughout all four seasons. When you look up at the sky in the game you'll want to just stop and stare. You can pick up Forza Horizon 4 this October for Xbox One and PC (and there is cross-play!). -- Eddie Makuch, Editor

Ghost of Tsushima

The characters in Ghost of Tsushima fight with a deadly stillness, only moving when they need to attack or parry. There’s never a wasted motion. Their silent duels are displayed against a gorgeous backdrop of falling leaves to create a beautifully juxtaposed silent foreground and emotive background. Ghost of Tsushima perfectly captures the same aesthetic of the old Japanese samurai films of the past.

I love Ghost of Tsushima’s commitment to historical accuracy. Although the story is fictional, the Mongolian invasion of the island of Tsushima actually happened. The samurai were really wiped out, and the Japanese natives were at the mercy of an unbeatable threat. You can tell that Sucker Punch did their homework.

Although I could just stare at Ghost of Tsushima’s gorgeous backdrops for hours, the game truly excels in its combat. The protagonist, Jin, is the last of the samurai. Faced against impossible odds, he needs to adopt a non-traditional strategy of subterfuge and assassination. The Mongolians refer to him as “a ghost,” and this directly translates into the combat.

Jin is deadly with the katana and disposes of threats quickly and efficiently. He’s a one man army who can silently stalk his target as easily as he can engage in a three on one duel. I love watching Jin stoically stand among a group of men who want him dead, before the quick flick and flash of his blade signals the loss of an enemy’s limb. Those fights are some of the most intense moments of combat I’ve ever seen. -- Jordan Ramee, Associate Editor

Kingdom Hearts III

For many fans, the Kingdom Hearts series is about being transported into iconic fantasy fairytale worlds and adventuring with beloved characters that feel more like old friends. My experience of playing Kingdom Hearts III after a 13 year wait is perhaps the most perfect encapsulation of that. In the time since the last mainline entry in the series I've grown older and more cynical, but the moment I heard the first few delicate notes of Dearly Beloved at the title screen, I became a teenager again. I suddenly remembered just how much I loved the series, and cared about the characters. Sure, older me knows that the story is mostly nonsense, but the joy I got from running around with Buzz, Woody, and the rest of the Toy Story gang completely pushed that aside. Kingdom Hearts 3 played almost the same as previous entries in the series, the camera is slightly wonky and the dialogue is awkward at times, but I just can't bring myself to get caught up on that, especially when wielding a Keyblade again is able to unlock the child at heart. -- Tamoor Hussain, Editor

The Last of Us Part II

Based on what we know so far, The Last of Us Part II seems especially brutal. But now that we've finally seen gameplay, we have a better understanding of the context of that violence, and that's one of the most intriguing aspects of Naughty Dog's highly anticipated sequel.

A lot of the combat in the section shown during Sony's press conference looks almost scripted--Ellie cinematically dodges melee strikes and gunfire, and she pulls an arrow out of her shoulder after a particularly harrowing run past some archers. But according to the game's co-directors, Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau, those moments are entirely in your control. Dodging is an active part of combat with a variety of animations depending on the type of threat, and dealing with arrows is a separate mechanic from healing with its own considerations and status effects.

All of this adds depth to combat that says a lot about who Ellie has become. Her transformation after the events of the first game is heavily hinted at in her movements; her strikes seem to have an immense amount of anger behind them, and her defenses reveal a person who is not only desperate to survive but hardened by having to fight. It remains to be seen exactly how combat works and how Ellie has evolved as a character, but this is a great start. -- Kallie Plagge, Associate Editor

Resident Evil 2 Remake

Resident Evil 2's upcoming remake rides a fine line between new and old. While it triggers nostalgic memories with its familiar characters and locales, it instantly makes you uneasy with its new rendition of events and mechanics from the classic survival-horror game.

All throughout my plodding trek across the RPD, I rarely felt a sense of safety. An area would be recreated exactly as I remembered it, but then the game would completely mess with my expectations. The empowering over-the-shoulder shooting featured in latter games has changed to make shots harder to line up. A deeper focus on exploration with more freedom overall to explore and discover secrets offered a welcome change of pace, but at the same time, the absence of the series' iconic door loading screens created a more seamless, yet hostile environment than the original.

I walked away pleasantly surprised from my time with Resident Evil 2 remake. As a massive fan of the original, I had reservations. But after playing it, I can't wait to jump back in. There's something so special about the way it takes advantage of your knowledge of Resident Evil 2, pleasing you with its faithful renditions of well-known locations, while at the same time terrifying you with everything it does differently. This persisted all throughout my experience with the game, and I can't wait to see all the changes it makes once it finally releases early next year. -- Matt Espineli, Associate Editor

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the latest game from Dark Souls and Bloodborne developer From Software. As you might imagine, given the studio's track record, it's a tough action-RPG. The developer insists Sekiro is not part of the Soulsborne series, but it still appears to be in the same vein.

This time round, the studio is exploring 16th century Japan, and you play as a one-armed ninja. Well, sort-of one-armed; your left arm is cut off by the game's main enemy, and you replace it with a customizable prosthetic. This can be equipped with add-ons such as a ranged Shuriken, or a Firecracker than can blind enemies and scare those who are frightened of fire, and a Loaded Axe to deal heavy damage. Of course, you also carry a sword: Miyazaki, the game's director, says he wanted the theme of Sekiro to be "a clashing of swords," and this is reflected in the game's combat. Your sword, which you hold in your able hand, is used to both injure your enemies and reduce their posture. Reduce their posture enough, and you can deal a deadly finishing move.

Of course, they can do the same to you, but should you fall, Shadows Die Twice has a handy solution: bring yourself back to life. You can resurrect in Sekiro, and this can be used to your advantage by letting enemies walk away before you come back to life and strike them down from behind.

Sekiro is to be published by Activision, and it's coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in early 2019. For more on the upcoming action title, check out our Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice gameplay impressions. -- Oscar Dayus, Staffwriter

Spider-Man

Spider-Man may well be one of the world’s most beloved superheroes, but video games haven’t done right by the wallcrawler in some time. After a smashing success with Spider-Man 2, paired with one of the best superhero films of its era, the character languished with a steady stream of high-concept but middling adaptations. With Insomniac’s Spider-Man, the character has come back swinging. While Insomniac’s take on the venerable character is unmistakably familiar, it’s the little touches that make this latest iteration really stand out.

This Spidey is a master of improvisation, thanks to a mixture of Arkham-like combat mechanics and environmental hazards that are easy to grab at a moment’s notice. The feeling of speed and momentum as he swings around New York City is unmatched by any previous Spider-Man game, taking him to new and dizzying heights. And visually, the character designs stand out as unique takes on classic characters, from Spider-Man’s own duds embossed with a white emblem to the believably DIY take on Shocker that remains respectful of the source material.

All of this combines to make the character feel fresh again. It’s been a long time since I’ve whiled away the hours simply patrolling the city, swinging and looking for citizens to save, and just generally being your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Now I can’t wait to step into his boots. -- Steve Watts, Newswriter

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

By this point, you generally know what to expect from a new Super Smash Bros. game. Each installment in the series has built upon its predecessors incrementally, introducing a few new characters and stages, refining the underlying mechanics, and ramping up the fan service. And while all of this applies to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Switch as well, the game still manages to surprise and delight like few other fighters thanks to its sheer breadth of content and snappy combat.

True to its name, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is far and away the most feature-rich entry in the series to date, boasting a staggering number of stages, characters, and items. The roster in particular is massive; not only does it feature every character to have ever appeared in the series, but many of them have received dramatic overhauls, so even recurring fighters such as Ganondorf are as exciting to use as newcomers like Ridley.

But what makes Ultimate such an engrossing fighter and one of the best games we got to play at E3 2018 is that it fully embraces competitive play. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS made strides in this regard, but Ultimate doubles down by increasing the pace of its gameplay. The controls remain as accessible as ever, only now combat feels much speedier, resulting in even more exciting and intense battles. The game also places a stronger emphasis on skillful play by introducing directional air dodges and other advanced techniques. Like the best fighting games, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is easy to pick up but endlessly satisfying to master, making it one of my most anticipated releases of the year. -- Kevin Knezevic, Associate News Editor

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The recent Tomb Raider games have focused heavily on fleshing Lara Croft's backstory, while making her overcome brutal and overwhelming challenges. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which aims to be the darkest game of the series, the adventurer will have to put a stop to the Mayan apocalypse in Central America. But while fighting off the forces of Trinity and other ancient threats lurking in the hidden tombs over the course of her journey, she'll begin to question whether her influence in the region is making matters worse.

I had the chance to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider at the game's reveal last April, and while it feels very similar to the past titles, the darker tone and story gives it a far more interesting flavor. Much like Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow focuses on giving players more freedom in how they'll the explore the environment, which will have the largest setting the series has seen yet. To go along with the darker tone, Croft will utilize a number of new skills and stealth moves to take out the heavily mobiled PMC forces that have invaded the land. It'll be interesting to see how far Lara Croft is pushed to her limits in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. And if our small hands-on time was any indication, the conclusion to the Tomb Raider origin trilogy will definitely leave a lasting impression on the character. -- Alessandro Fillari, Editor

Skull & Bones

The backbone of Skull & Bones has taken all the best bits of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and added a level of breadth to create a fully-fledged pirate experience. Like the water ships sail upon, it both has shallow parts and a deep end. To beginners or wannabe sailors, there’s enjoyment in taking the helm of a number of ships that have their own unique characteristics like speed, strength weapons, and abilities. For the hardened admirals amongst us, there are gameplay elements that would even test the heartiest of sailors. For example, learning to cut the wind so your ship can make the most out of speed and maneuverability as well as learning how to effectively disguise your ship to hide from AI and sneak up on ships in the horizon.

If you’re looking for an authentic pirate experience, Skull & Bones is as close as you can get. Crews will shout and yell in response to commands, and during quieter moments they’ll sing the sea shanties you love from the Black Flag, but they’ve been dialed up to 11. And all of this happens on beautifully rendered oceans dotted with islands and detailed historical vessels for you to cannon, board, plunder, and sink. -- David Jewitt, Video Producer

Tom Clancy's The Division 2

As with the original Destiny, the first Division improved greatly over time. Creating a shared world shooter with long-term progression that's meant to interest players indefinitely is no easy task. The Division 2 looks to be continuing that by introducing eight-player raids and DLC expansions that are free for all players (at least for the first year of the game).

In going hands-on with the game, it immediately struck me that its shooting mechanics have been enhanced significantly. While there remains a dissonance with the way human enemies can absorb numerous bullets, there's now a level of precision and tightness to the controls that was lacking in the original Division. Seamlessly moving between cover points feels better than ever, and the endgame specializations' special abilities--such as a crossbow that fires explosive bolts--are fun to use, even if they aren't as impactful as Destiny's Supers.

The improvements to the moment-to-moment action are welcome, but what's most encouraging is what Ubisoft is saying about The Division 2's endgame. Things like the aforementioned raids could present the sort of high-end, challenging activity that keeps players occupied after finish the main story. The company seems generally aware of the need to deeply invest in what players are expected to spend their time doing in the endgame, and that's encouraging. If it's able to pull that off and offer an interesting evolution of its PvP Dark Zone--something it isn't talking about yet for Division 2--Ubisoft might just manage to realize the vision it has for the franchise. -- Chris Pereira, News Editor

Xbox Adaptive Controller

The Xbox Adaptive Controller is an important piece of hardware. Not only does it allow people of all kinds of disabilities to play games, it also shows that Microsoft is willing to invest in catering to that audience.

The controller acts as an interface between Xbox One and any number of third-party controllers. This means those with disabilities can use whichever device best suits their needs--be it a joystick, chewing device, motion controlled switch, or anything else. As long as it can communicate through USB or 3.5mm jack, the Adaptive Controller can see it. What's more, Microsoft says this will be forward-compatible with all future Xboxes, and it's even open to making it work with PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

The Xbox Adaptive Controller launches in September for $100 / £75 / AU $130.

-- Oscar Dayus, Staffwriter

from GameSpot https://ift.tt/2taf6Yc

[gi-vi]

When an Artificial Intelligence Outsmarts Humans - FINAL ESSAY

        In this present moment, we believe we are in our prime, especially with the never-ending evolving technology and the thought process of humans trying to achieve something that can only be possible in the next few decades or possibly closer coming of years. But don’t we all think like this every year whenever something new comes out? Humans have evolved immensely since the beginning of mankind and with education feeding our brains, we are all challenging ourselves to become better or create something “out of this world”. With the concept of artificial intelligence, it has guided our imaginations as to what the future can possibly look like, and there are people who are trying to achieve this kind of goal. With people who are experts in the subject of creating artificial intelligence; whether it be a small robot or human like, they are trying to find ways to make a machine respond, have conversations with, and possibly have more knowledge than an average human being. What’s possibly even more frightening is that humans are the main race and the main reason as why this world is able to function, but what if, as in how Nathan Bateman from Ex – Machina predicted that, “One day the AIs are going to look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa. An upright ape living in dust with crude language and tools, all set for extinction.” Overall, my question is, ‘What if an artificial intelligence is able to surpass human’s intentions and are able to break free or possibly take over the human race, is it possible?’

        If I were to be totally honest, I do find the future to be compelling and I do wonder how much further will the world be able to advance compared to now? Will it be like the ones where we see in movies? But when it comes down to artificial intelligence, I can’t help but be hesitant with his topic, as much as there are people trying to make this possible, I still find it strange and even freighting. In Ex – Machina, the movie goes in-depth with each character, the creator: Nathan, the victim: Caleb, the artificial intelligence: Ava and Kyoko. With each character, they all hold different meanings and intentions with one another, resulting an ending that no one would expect. Ex – Machina shows a perfect example of when things are not handle correctly, especially giving an artificial intelligence a conscience, knowledge, and also confining them in a space where they do not have contact with anyone else but in the facility, can mostly lead them to go senile and have hatred toward their creator.

        With the Nathan being the creator of his artificial intelligence, Ava and Kyoko (the ones that were successful), he is notoriously reclusive and lives in an isolated compound that can only be reached by helicopter. Despite his muscular build, casual speech patterns, and weakness for alcohol, he is a world class genius who is inventing something truly extraordinary. After welcoming Caleb into his compound, he introduces him to his creation Ava. Nathan claims to want to test Ava's AI to see if she can really pass as human, and speculates that a revolution in AI could make real humans obsolete if he succeeds. Soon, however, Caleb begins to see that Nathan's brilliance and hospitality are hiding something sinister. It is an obvious give away that Nathan is affably evil, throughout the film, he acts like Caleb's buddy and invites him to have fun and make himself at home. Despite the considerable darkening of his character later, he does not necessarily plan to dispose of Caleb or harm him more than necessary and simply punches him unconscious before he goes off to kill Ava. He is playing long and complex schemes with Caleb as his Unwitting Pawn. He managed to anticipate countless reactions from Caleb and basically rail-roaded him to his favored outcome, while Caleb never even considers being played. Nathan's becomes increasingly apparent, and peaks when Caleb discovers videos of his previous creations breaking down and begging to be let out and it becomes clear that he doesn't care about the suffering of others. He programs his creations to desire freedom so that they would suffer in captivity. And it's visually implied that he enjoys their psychological pain as evidenced by his smug and satisfied expression when one of his creations, "Jade", goes mad from isolation.

        When someone who creates something as amazing an artificial intelligence, the creator must perform a couple test before they are released, which is where, Caleb comes in to the picture. An ordinary 26-year-old coder working for the world's largest internet company. One day, he is randomly selected as the winner of an exclusive trip to the estate of Nathan, his company's reclusive and brilliant CEO. Upon arriving, he is asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement and given his real assignment: to act as the human participant in a "Turing Test" for Ava, an advanced AI developed by Nathan, and determine if she passes. Caleb is initially awed by Nathan's compound, the charismatic CEO himself, and by Ava's captivating beauty and life-like personality. However, his uneasiness about the compound's tight surveillance, Nathan's desire for control, and Ava's warning not to trust Nathan cause him to begin probing for the truth behind the experiment. Caleb is basically a decent person and becomes disturbed by Nathan's treatment of Kyoko and Ava, to the extent that he plans to help Ava to escape. It turns out that this part of his personality was the real reason Nathan chose him, since he wouldn't be able to refuse a vulnerable woman's cry for help. Though, it is sad that Nathan is put into a situation like this, both Nathan and Ava are manipulation, trying to get him to try to rescue her, leading him into an uncertain doom. In the end of the movie, we see him trapped inside of Nathan's facility as Ava escapes without him, the ultimate test of her abilities. While the film doesn't show anything one way or the other, he's hundreds of miles from help with no one coming to look for him.

        One of Nathan’s successful creations, Ava, is an artificial intelligence created by Nathan and housed in a robotic female body, and the subject to be evaluated by Caleb. At first she looks obviously artificial with transparent abdomen, legs, arms, and skull, having only a lifelike face to present the illusion of being human. She was designed to read and make facial expressions, converse, and move naturally, and despite being recently made has the personality of an adult woman. She has never been allowed to leave the room where she is kept, although she has secondhand knowledge of the outside world. Since Caleb is the first person she has met besides Nathan, she takes great interest in him, and soon begins to act like she has romantic feelings for him. However, during a power outage she suddenly tells Caleb not to trust Nathan, and begs him to help her escape. As the tension of the film escalates, there are signs that Ava may have an agenda other than simple escape from captivity. When Ava is introduced, it is the scene where Caleb comes to see her as a ‘damsel in distress’, but while she is certainly imprisoned and abused she is far less helpless than she lets on – having played this card to convince Caleb to free her. The twist is, Nathan expects her to do this, as doing so is the ultimate test to see if she can perform the human act of deception, and it works. She seems to me very, cruel with her intentions though she does show true innocence of what it is like to be free but Ava could well be a literal version given her ability to read Caleb and manipulate him through feigned emotional ties, yet showing a complete lack of empathy regarding his fate. And let’s not forget that to a degree, considering she's clearly designed to resemble and act human, but very clearly isn't. When she puts on clothes and a wig, she could easily pass for a human if she had put on a scarf to cover up her metallic nape and the "skin" her clothes didn't cover (and also if she didn't make a buzzing noise when she moves).

        Last but not least, Kyoko, A beautiful Japanese maidservant employed by Nathan, who carries out her duties without speaking a word. Nathan explains that she cannot speak English, which is why he hired her as a precaution against eavesdropping. She is eventually revealed to be an earlier generation of AI. She takes Nathan's verbal abuse for spilling wine on Caleb without protest, and seems to assume that any man present wants to use her for sex. It appears to be part of her programming. Her primary purpose for Nathan, as opposed to being a robot maid, may be that of a sex slave. Whether by Nathan's suggestion or her own programming, she begins to take her clothes off for Caleb when he simply wanted to know where Nathan was. But what makes Kyoko come off more of an AI is her lack of vocalization is also rather disconcerting. When she starts peeling the skin off of her face, it gets really disturbing. Through, Kyoko is not vocal and takes in everything Nathan requests for her to do and does not bite back, she ironically was the first to stab Nathan in the back with a knife; leading to Ava finishing him off.

        Throughout Ex – Machina, I have come to realize that with me fully observing the film and taking notes of how each character acts, concludes my assumptions how AIs, should not be thought of lightly. Though the world still has many years left to perfect a creation like we see in the film of Ex – Machina, it can lead into many problems and also cause havoc to society; and I do not think we are ready for those circumstances. Just like how other movies or shows like Blade Runner, Her, Black Mirror, Ghost in the Shell, and etc., they all have something in common where there is a situation where the AIs malfunction or cause problems in society or even possibly causes a rebellion in their country. We, as humans are still learning to understand ourselves, yet here we are also trying to create an artificial intelligence that can act and be almost human… this does not make sense to me. In conclusion, whether it be soon or in some 100 years or so, if AIs do exist I do think there is a high chance of them going against the human race, leading into a war. But we cannot be blaming them for going against the human races’ condition, we have only but to blame ourselves. Just like the ending of Ex – Machina. “We don’t need AIs to destroy us, we have our own arrogance.” – Jay

[comiconverse]

Game Review: Horizon Zero Dawn

Coming off the back of two years worth of hype and anticipation, is Horizon Zero Dawn the game we’re all hoping it is?  ComiConverse contributor Dan Goad has this review.

Game Review: Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn has been on the top of many people’s most anticipated list this year, including mine. After winning Best Original Game at E3 two years running, as well as a host of other pre-release accolades from various outlets, it’s got a lot of hype to live up to. So I’m happy to report upfront that HZD is a great game. In fact, it’s a brilliant one. It’s by no means perfect, but it certainly deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with The Last of Us as two of the best exclusives PlayStation has to offer.

HZD is set in a post-post-apocalyptic world many centuries in the future. This isn’t a Fallout-style world where humanity is only just recovering from disaster. Civilisation has begun anew and only a few remnants of the world that came before remain. Chief amongst these are the mysterious machines, robotic creatures that seem to be modelled on dinosaurs and other animals. The player character is Aloy, a young woman who is an outcast from her matriarchal society because she has no mother. She is initially driven by her search for an identity, all the while dealing with the non-acceptance of those around her. As the game progresses the player will explore the origins of Aloy, the machines, and the world as a whole.

These multiple mysteries had me hooked from the beginning and I found myself constantly wanting to return to the game to find answers. When the emotional pay-off does come it is well worth the 40+ hours you have been waiting for it. Little touches really help turn this into a believable world, such as audio recordings and misunderstood relics from the previous civilisation. While suffering occasionally from the odd poorly written line, the plot is helped along by a strong voice cast featuring video game veterans like Lance Reddick and JB Blanc, as well as Ashly Burch (Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2) as Aloy. Burch is great as Aloy, delivering complex emotions and just the right amount of sarcasm to make her a fun character to spend this long amount of time with.

Credit: Sony/Guerrilla Games

There are dialogue choices within the game, but don’t expect branching narratives and massive ripples in the way you would with a Bioware game. Aloy generally has the decision to react aggressively, thoughtfully or emotionally. Sometimes there will be consequences to these decisions later, but there is no good/evil morality scale here. To some this will be a disappointment, but in many ways it is liberating. When you’re freed from the shackles of trying to play the game as a paragon or a renegade you are free to take each choice as it comes and do what makes sense in each situation.

The game has a fairly slow start as you learn the basic mechanics of the game, initially controlling Aloy as a child and later as a young woman. But once you get past those first 90 minutes and the world is open to you, you’re free to proceed however you want. You can continue the main quest, complete some side quests, or just admire the scenery as you traverse and climb it, Uncharted-style.

Credit: Sony/Guerrilla Games

And make no mistake, that scenery is stunningly beautiful, even on a standard PS4. In fact I’d go as far as to say it has the best looking world of any game ever. The post-post-apocalyptic setting means we don’t have the grey and brown colour scheme from games like Fallout; instead it is all greens and blues. Each tree and rock is meticulously crafted and the range of locations only adds to the visual feast. If I have one criticism it is that sometimes the transitions between different areas, for example going from snowy mountains to desert, can seem sudden and unrealistic – but it is a small price to pay for some of the most disparate landscapes ever seen in a video game. What’s more is that the developers have included a dedicated photo mode, so you can pause the game and start snapping away, adding things like filters or changing angles. It’s a nice little touch that allows you to really preserve and share some of those breathtaking visuals.

The open world and detailed graphics might lead to some concerns over performance, but I don’t have any complaints. Frame-rate is kept consistent at 30 frames per second – a conservative limit, but it means there is no skipping or dropping. Load times are good. It takes a little while to load up, but once you are in there it’s only a few seconds of waiting for fast travel or after death. All of this is of course even better on PS4 Pro.

Credit: Sony/Guerrilla Games

HZD has been criticised for taking the best elements of a number of other games – Far Cry, Witcher, Tomb Raider, Shadow of Mordor to name a few – and simply mashing them together. But for me the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. It takes elements from each of those games and shapes them around its immensely fun combat systems.

Combating the machines requires patience and stealth, since Aloy can quickly become overwhelmed if she rushes into a fight. Even the docile “herbivore” machines are aggressive and dangerous if Aloy comes too close. Luckily there is plenty of long grass for Aloy to hide in and she has a number of weapons at her disposal. Her primary weapon is a bow and arrows, with various upgradeable skills – such as slowing time as she aims – helping immensely. She can also lay down trip wires and other traps, as well as more mundane items such as throwing rocks to distract the machines. A lot of these items are virtually useless in the heat of a fight, so careful planning is definitely a must. She has a useful roll skill as well as a melee spear for emergencies, but often the best course of action once discovered is to run, hide and start again.

The most useful weapon in her arsenal is her Focus power. Similar to Assassin’s Creed’s eagle vision or Batman: Arkham’s detective mode, this mode allows Aloy to see the machines through obstacles. She can tag them or their movement paths so they are visible in the normal view. The Focus will also highlight any weak points on the machines’ bodies, which are sometimes weapons which can be knocked off and used by the player. Later in the game Aloy gains the ability to hack the machines to use herself. The effect of hacking depends on the machine, but galloping around on a robot horse is great fun.

Credit: Sony/Guerrilla Games

Much in the tradition of open worlds from Bethesda or the Witcher 3, the game has a huge map with an extraordinarily large number of things to do. Whilst each side quest has it’s own mini-narrative, often the objectives are very similar. Virtually every one has you tracking someone or something, then killing someone or something. I’m one of those with a compulsive need to complete every mission, but I think some players will start ignoring them before the end of the game.

One small issue with the open world and how it relates to missions is the waypoint system. The HUD includes a compass across the top, which shows the final location of quests. However, quest waypoints in the main field of view will take you step by step to your destination. You might have 5 or 6 waypoints on the way to a quest marker, depending on distance and how complicated the route. Whilst this is useful if you’re trying to navigate round a mountain or similar, because they always lead you along a road you might find yourself going in the opposite direction to your objective. Plus having one waypoint in the main view and a different one on the compass can be confusing. It’s a minor problem that takes some getting used to, or you can disable the waypoints entirely and just rely on the compass and the main map. The HUD is fully customisable, so if you find it too cluttered you can get rid of things you don’t need.

You’ll also find yourself excessively collecting and hoarding virtually everything in the game. You’ll be picking plants for healing, or hunting and killing both machines and real animals for loot. Virtually everything in the world is useful for crafting or trading to merchants, so you’ll quickly become overburdened and have to craft additional storage space.

Credit: Sony/Guerrilla Games

HZD has one further huge positive that is really worth drawing attention to. Aloy is that rarity in video games, a strong female protagonist. Even more rarely, she is sensibly dressed, never appears on screen in order to titillate, and has no explicitly romantic relationships. And she isn’t the only progressive character. This game is filled with both significant female characters and people of colour. It touches on LGBT issues and mental illness. In an age where every other lead character is a muscled white guy and female characters still have swimsuits instead of armour, HZD feels like a massive step forward for representation in gaming.

Conclusion

Horizon Zero Dawn lives up to the hype and then some. It is a great game and will be winning awards all year long. Yes, it borrows from other games, but it meshes those elements with fun combat, a captivating narrative and a heroine who is both engaging and progressive. It’s a step forward for gaming and is destined to birth a new mega-franchise. It’s not perfect, but it is pretty close.

The post Game Review: Horizon Zero Dawn appeared first on ComiConverse.

[symbianosgames]

It’s no secret that I love visual novels. Part of the reason has to do the vagueness of the term which, perhaps not surprisingly, works similarly to how “anime” describes a medium more than a genre. Visual novels take all kinds of forms, after all. Even if many of them share the same RenPy interface, little else links them; many have an anime aesthetic but not all; many have a relatively low difficulty level, but certainly not all (play Long Live the Queen for a taste of what I call a “bullet hell VN”). That diversity deserves a unified showcase where they can be compared side-by-side. 

Love Conquers All Games’ Christine Love agreed and spearheaded the creation of a new addition to the Indie Megabooth at PAX East this year: the Visual Novel Reading Room. It featured her own game, Ladykiller in a Bind, which was already a novel take on the medium with its approach to dialogue and sexuality, and last year’s successful We Know the Devil by Date Nighto. But while these served as familiar anchors of visual novel-dom, there were new up and coming releases available for play as well, one of which really demonstrates the flexibility of the medium.

Dev or Die’s Date or Die, Accidental Queens’ A Normal Lost Phone, and Lettuce Waltz’s Spirit Parade are a tour through the medium’s potential and how it can be so thoroughly realized through inclusive design that tells strange new stories. 

If there is a through-line that links visual novels it’s romance. Most VNs have branching paths through the game’s narrative called “routes” which are invariably named after the object of your character’s affections. Experiencing them all is how VN completionists satisfy themselves. VNs often as not succeed when they say or do something new with the idea, however.

Ladykiller, for instance, was an instant classic for its groundbreaking portrayal of BDSM as both achingly sexy and deeply human--and its take on relationships was starkly mature, delving into the nature of love, “fucked up fantasies,” and abusive dynamics. VNs endure when their romance is either unique (Ladykiller) or not what the game hinges on for its distinction (e.g. Black Closet).

A Normal Lost Phone eschews the route system entirely, however, instead providing a microscopic examination of relationships under the stress of a double life. Available for both computer and mobile platforms, the game is best enjoyed on your phone as its entire interface is that of a lost mobile phone you rifle through in an attempt to discover who it belongs to.

A Normal Lost Phone

Like so many excellent mobile games, Lost Phone works optimally when the device you play it on feels like an artifact of the game world itself. It presents you with a standard stylized smart phone interface with different applications you have to access in order to uncover the truth about Sam, the enigmatic owner of the phone. Sam has gone missing, apparently, and his phone holds clues as to why. Unlocking new apps requires one to solve puzzles, such as assembling different clues to get a wifi password that’ll allow you to log on to Sam’s dating profile.

There’s much that could be said about privacy and personal space here, but for now it’s enough to say that like so many games that diegetically simulate this kind of keyhole-peeping, it’s very engrossing. Our appetite for the inner lives of others is something Lost Phone unapologetically plays with, making of Sam’s phone a digital Greenbriar house that demands exploring. For the moment, who you are, and what the ethics are of you invading Sam’s life like this are for you the player to decide on.

Speaking of ethics, or a woeful lack thereof, Date or Die sees you take on the role of a nameless character dragooned into an evil reality TV show. You are “matched” with one of six other contestants by a beguiling villain who calls himself The Host. The last two people left alive after a series of challenges will--the Host promises--live happily ever after. After all, he wants to prove that some people are truly devoted to finding their one true love: devoted enough to kill. It’s delightfully twisted and seems set to be a delectable bit of horror. I could only access the intro, but Arden Ripley’s dark creativity still entices.

  Once again, the game offers a sideways take on relationships, using the insight of the medium to tell a new story that goes beyond a simple anime fantasy while still hitting those buttons. As is often the case with early previews like this, much remains to be seen. But the prologue available at PAX East gave a good enough sense of the characters that I feel a cautious optimism about what’s to come later in the year when Date or Die releases. They all feel distinctive, like each could make a uniquely intoxicating brew when mixed with your character. Evidently, even the Host is romanceable, though this is explicitly written as an unhealthy relationship where ugly dynamics are fully explored.

After all, Ripley promises us a game about “the horrors of love.”

It takes me back to Hanako Games’ Magical Diary, the inaptly named tale of a young woman at a Hogwarts-style magic school, learning spells and drowning in teen drama. The story has routes that involve romancing a teacher or romancing a murderously abusive young man; neither is played up as a straight morality tale but each explores the unsettlingly ugly nature of each relationship without glamorizing or ironing over everything wrong with each situation.

This is all to the good, so far as I’m concerned; we need to be able to indulge in forbidden stories. Christine Love did this well in Ladykiller as well; not every expression of romance is safe or “unproblematic,” but then neither is love and sex in the real world. The best visual novels explore that territory without apology, instead of regurgitating the same masturbatory fantasies. The latter can be fun in their own right, but they do nothing to advance the medium.

***

The display at PAX East was charming, taking up only two booths worth of space, with economically arranged tables and screens to display every title (Lost Phone’s mobile capability was a huge boon here), while Ladykiller was discreetly tucked behind its usual elegant screen to protect the modesty of PAXgoers. 

Nearer to the crowd was the large TV displaying Spirit Parade, which was perhaps the most traditional visual novel on offer in the Reading Room. I didn’t get anywhere near as much time with this one as I wanted, but it still catches one’s attention with its premise. A polio-stricken 17 year old girl is suddenly transported to a spirit world populated by demons celebrating a weeks-long festival. You have to help her find her way home. 

Spirit Parade

The protagonist, Nara, is described as “cynical” and deeply suspicious of the intentions of others after years of being patronized and pitied for her disability. Her time in the Spirit World is meant to be a reckoning on how she approaches life: “Will [Nara] be able to get over her bitterness borne from the past, or will she be engulfed in hatred and lose sight of what's truly important?” asks the game’s ad copy. It’s an interesting hook, but I could see this going badly very quickly given longstanding stereotypes of people with disabilities as embittered complainers who are in dire need of inspiration. 

There is certainly a lot of merit to the reasons for Nara’s bitterness and mistrust, however. The empathy required to write that in a way that centers her rather than the able bodied people in her life leaves me cautiously optimistic. A lot depends on how the narrative shakes out, and how the promised “good” and “bad” endings are framed.

Spirit Parade also grabs your attention with its striking artwork, and there’s the novelty of voice acting to boot. Whatever else it may be, it is a beautiful VN whose presentation, like a traditionally staged opera, cleaves proudly to the fundaments of its medium. It may be the least avant-garde or daring of all the Reading Room offerings but it seems to do what it does quite well and has a lot to offer anyone who enjoys VNs.

***

“Spirit parade” is a pretty apt way of describing the PAX show floor, with an endless river of colorful costumes, personalities, and lost souls alike flowing past the wild, almost magical booths. To say there’s always something to catch your eye is an understatement. But every time someone asked me that standard icebreaker question at the convention, “what stood out to you the most on the show floor?” I found myself always mentioning the VR Reading Room.

It’s quite possible that I might not have noticed it so quickly if Christine Love, whose work I’ve long been well disposed to, hadn’t put her name behind it and taken the initiative to create it. But I’ve always loved visual novels, which gleefully traipse into territory most other videogames are quite shy about. They’ve been vehicles for porn, romance, narrative-emphasis, casual gaming, and female protagonists for years now. But they have also pushed boundaries in portrayals of queerness and trans life--and as I played through all of the Reading Room’s offerings I realized that this was what linked these very different games together like a necklace.

Though no literature or marketing for the Reading Room advertised the fact, all had “queer content,” all had gay and/or trans characters. There weren’t many multi-game booths or pavilions that could make that claim (although Ysbryd has been doing a commendable job with this lately on show floors). It was a lovely thing to see amid PAX’s maelstrom.

Most comforting of all is the thought that perhaps some souls who wandered into one of the Reading Room’s weird, adorable wonderlands might find themselves just a bit less lost.

Katherine Cross is a Ph.D student in sociology who researches anti-social behavior online, and a gaming critic whose work has appeared in numerous publications.

[symbianosgames]

It’s no secret that I love visual novels. Part of the reason has to do the vagueness of the term which, perhaps not surprisingly, works similarly to how “anime” describes a medium more than a genre. Visual novels take all kinds of forms, after all. Even if many of them share the same RenPy interface, little else links them; many have an anime aesthetic but not all; many have a relatively low difficulty level, but certainly not all (play Long Live the Queen for a taste of what I call a “bullet hell VN”). That diversity deserves a unified showcase where they can be compared side-by-side. 

Love Conquers All Games’ Christine Love agreed and spearheaded the creation of a new addition to the Indie Megabooth at PAX East this year: the Visual Novel Reading Room. It featured her own game, Ladykiller in a Bind, which was already a novel take on the medium with its approach to dialogue and sexuality, and last year’s successful We Know the Devil by Date Nighto. But while these served as familiar anchors of visual novel-dom, there were new up and coming releases available for play as well, one of which really demonstrates the flexibility of the medium.

Dev or Die’s Date or Die, Accidental Queens’ A Normal Lost Phone, and Lettuce Waltz’s Spirit Parade are a tour through the medium’s potential and how it can be so thoroughly realized through inclusive design that tells strange new stories. 

If there is a through-line that links visual novels it’s romance. Most VNs have branching paths through the game’s narrative called “routes” which are invariably named after the object of your character’s affections. Experiencing them all is how VN completionists satisfy themselves. VNs often as not succeed when they say or do something new with the idea, however.

Ladykiller, for instance, was an instant classic for its groundbreaking portrayal of BDSM as both achingly sexy and deeply human--and its take on relationships was starkly mature, delving into the nature of love, “fucked up fantasies,” and abusive dynamics. VNs endure when their romance is either unique (Ladykiller) or not what the game hinges on for its distinction (e.g. Black Closet).

A Normal Lost Phone eschews the route system entirely, however, instead providing a microscopic examination of relationships under the stress of a double life. Available for both computer and mobile platforms, the game is best enjoyed on your phone as its entire interface is that of a lost mobile phone you rifle through in an attempt to discover who it belongs to.

A Normal Lost Phone

Like so many excellent mobile games, Lost Phone works optimally when the device you play it on feels like an artifact of the game world itself. It presents you with a standard stylized smart phone interface with different applications you have to access in order to uncover the truth about Sam, the enigmatic owner of the phone. Sam has gone missing, apparently, and his phone holds clues as to why. Unlocking new apps requires one to solve puzzles, such as assembling different clues to get a wifi password that’ll allow you to log on to Sam’s dating profile.

There’s much that could be said about privacy and personal space here, but for now it’s enough to say that like so many games that diegetically simulate this kind of keyhole-peeping, it’s very engrossing. Our appetite for the inner lives of others is something Lost Phone unapologetically plays with, making of Sam’s phone a digital Greenbriar house that demands exploring. For the moment, who you are, and what the ethics are of you invading Sam’s life like this are for you the player to decide on.

Speaking of ethics, or a woeful lack thereof, Date or Die sees you take on the role of a nameless character dragooned into an evil reality TV show. You are “matched” with one of six other contestants by a beguiling villain who calls himself The Host. The last two people left alive after a series of challenges will--the Host promises--live happily ever after. After all, he wants to prove that some people are truly devoted to finding their one true love: devoted enough to kill. It’s delightfully twisted and seems set to be a delectable bit of horror. I could only access the intro, but Arden Ripley’s dark creativity still entices.

  Once again, the game offers a sideways take on relationships, using the insight of the medium to tell a new story that goes beyond a simple anime fantasy while still hitting those buttons. As is often the case with early previews like this, much remains to be seen. But the prologue available at PAX East gave a good enough sense of the characters that I feel a cautious optimism about what’s to come later in the year when Date or Die releases. They all feel distinctive, like each could make a uniquely intoxicating brew when mixed with your character. Evidently, even the Host is romanceable, though this is explicitly written as an unhealthy relationship where ugly dynamics are fully explored.

After all, Ripley promises us a game about “the horrors of love.”

It takes me back to Hanako Games’ Magical Diary, the inaptly named tale of a young woman at a Hogwarts-style magic school, learning spells and drowning in teen drama. The story has routes that involve romancing a teacher or romancing a murderously abusive young man; neither is played up as a straight morality tale but each explores the unsettlingly ugly nature of each relationship without glamorizing or ironing over everything wrong with each situation.

This is all to the good, so far as I’m concerned; we need to be able to indulge in forbidden stories. Christine Love did this well in Ladykiller as well; not every expression of romance is safe or “unproblematic,” but then neither is love and sex in the real world. The best visual novels explore that territory without apology, instead of regurgitating the same masturbatory fantasies. The latter can be fun in their own right, but they do nothing to advance the medium.

***

The display at PAX East was charming, taking up only two booths worth of space, with economically arranged tables and screens to display every title (Lost Phone’s mobile capability was a huge boon here), while Ladykiller was discreetly tucked behind its usual elegant screen to protect the modesty of PAXgoers. 

Nearer to the crowd was the large TV displaying Spirit Parade, which was perhaps the most traditional visual novel on offer in the Reading Room. I didn’t get anywhere near as much time with this one as I wanted, but it still catches one’s attention with its premise. A polio-stricken 17 year old girl is suddenly transported to a spirit world populated by demons celebrating a weeks-long festival. You have to help her find her way home. 

Spirit Parade

The protagonist, Nara, is described as “cynical” and deeply suspicious of the intentions of others after years of being patronized and pitied for her disability. Her time in the Spirit World is meant to be a reckoning on how she approaches life: “Will [Nara] be able to get over her bitterness borne from the past, or will she be engulfed in hatred and lose sight of what's truly important?” asks the game’s ad copy. It’s an interesting hook, but I could see this going badly very quickly given longstanding stereotypes of people with disabilities as embittered complainers who are in dire need of inspiration. 

There is certainly a lot of merit to the reasons for Nara’s bitterness and mistrust, however. The empathy required to write that in a way that centers her rather than the able bodied people in her life leaves me cautiously optimistic. A lot depends on how the narrative shakes out, and how the promised “good” and “bad” endings are framed.

Spirit Parade also grabs your attention with its striking artwork, and there’s the novelty of voice acting to boot. Whatever else it may be, it is a beautiful VN whose presentation, like a traditionally staged opera, cleaves proudly to the fundaments of its medium. It may be the least avant-garde or daring of all the Reading Room offerings but it seems to do what it does quite well and has a lot to offer anyone who enjoys VNs.

***

“Spirit parade” is a pretty apt way of describing the PAX show floor, with an endless river of colorful costumes, personalities, and lost souls alike flowing past the wild, almost magical booths. To say there’s always something to catch your eye is an understatement. But every time someone asked me that standard icebreaker question at the convention, “what stood out to you the most on the show floor?” I found myself always mentioning the VR Reading Room.

It’s quite possible that I might not have noticed it so quickly if Christine Love, whose work I’ve long been well disposed to, hadn’t put her name behind it and taken the initiative to create it. But I’ve always loved visual novels, which gleefully traipse into territory most other videogames are quite shy about. They’ve been vehicles for porn, romance, narrative-emphasis, casual gaming, and female protagonists for years now. But they have also pushed boundaries in portrayals of queerness and trans life--and as I played through all of the Reading Room’s offerings I realized that this was what linked these very different games together like a necklace.

Though no literature or marketing for the Reading Room advertised the fact, all had “queer content,” all had gay and/or trans characters. There weren’t many multi-game booths or pavilions that could make that claim (although Ysbryd has been doing a commendable job with this lately on show floors). It was a lovely thing to see amid PAX’s maelstrom.

Most comforting of all is the thought that perhaps some souls who wandered into one of the Reading Room’s weird, adorable wonderlands might find themselves just a bit less lost.

Katherine Cross is a Ph.D student in sociology who researches anti-social behavior online, and a gaming critic whose work has appeared in numerous publications.