So the 2010s have been…interesting. World ending predictions. Box Office Breakthroughs. 2016. It’s had it all! Now, as we come to the end of the decade, many people (myself included) are reflecting on their favourite forms of media in that time.

For me personally, the 2010s will be remembered as the time that I got back into video games “properly,” for want of a better word. In the mid-late 00s I basically only played the various iterations of FIFA (yes, I was one of those kids), but 2010 really opened my eyes to so much more than that, and I thought I’d reflect on that revelation in this blog by discussing my top 10 games of the 2010s.

A couple of rules before we get started: the game has to have had some form of release between 1st Jan 2010 and 30th Dec 2019. I also have to have played and beaten the main “story” of the game if single-player, or had a good chunk of time in it if it’s multiplayer. So, whilst the first criteria technically qualifies the critically acclaimed game Granny:Chapter II available now on Steam, as I haven’t beaten or even played the game it won’t be in this list. Sorry, Granny fans!

Also, this is my personal opinion on my top 10 favourite games released in the 2010s, rather than necessarily the most influential games. I will be making that list, and probably writing that up tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that. As this is my personal opinion, it should go without saying that your favourite game might not be on here. I know, horrific to think, but my top 10 probably isn’t the same as yours, and that’s ok. It doesn’t make you wrong, it just makes you wrong in my opinion.

With that said, let’s chat about five honourable mentions and then crack on with the top 10!

Honourable Mentions

These are the games that I really really liked, but didn’t quiet make the list for one reason or another. These are in no particular order.

First up, we have Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. I really enjoyed being a pirate and trawling around the Caribbean with my crew singing shanty after shanty and shooting down ships. However, not so keen on the bumming around on islands and the tailing missions. Y’know, the Assassin’s Creed parts of the Assassin’s Creed game. Also Welsh protagonist is a plus in my eyes.

Also getting a nod is Zachtronics’ programming puzzler Opus Magnum. I loved the sandbox-like structure of this game, and the quest to make the solution as efficient is possible points to good design. However, I wasn’t super keen on the endgame stuff once I’d beaten the main story part of the game. Maybe I need to trawl through the Steam Workshop some more to discover more good stuff.

Insomniac’s Spiderman was my Game of the Year last year, and was genuinely pretty much everything I was looking for in a Spiderman game as a fan of the franchise. Really well put together ending too. However, as I’m a Gwen Stacy fan all the way and the MJ levels were boring it gets docked points.

The Sexy Brutale, 2017’s Game of the Year in my opinion, had an interesting take on the murder mystery game genre, with its time-looping gameplay mechanics and “how stop it” rather than “whodunnit”. I was gripped for my entire playthrough of it. I even went and tried to find all the collectibles, which I never do in games. I just wish there was more of it!

Just missing out on the Top 10, and it was only just, is Hidden Folks. This game was a charming, hand drawn, black and white Where’s Wally game. All the noises, drawings and animations in the game were made by the same guy. They’re literally noises he makes with his mouth. It’s so much fun, go and play it!

Now then, let’s take a look at my Top 10 Video Games of the 2010s!!!!

10. The Stanley Parable

This game is hysterical. That’s all that I can really say about it.

The Stanley Parable is a story about Stanley, but it also isn’t. It’s about giving control to a player and watching a narrator react to what you do.

You can follow the narrator’s instructions to the letter and be done in 5 minutes if you want. There are still several comedy moments in it and they hint that there’s more going on than is revealed in the initial playthrough.

As you gradually experiment with different parts of the game, the game reacts accordingly. It has a witty response to most of what you can imagine, and also encourages you to try and discover its hidden depths with its achievements.

There are so many endings as well! Did you see the Broom Closet Ending?! The Broom Closet Ending was my favourite!

9. Thomas Was Alone

This game made me care more about its characters than pretty much any other game this decade, and the characters are rectangles!

Thomas Was Alone is a pretty simple platformer that, again, is carried by its narration and the way it makes you feel. This time Danny Wallace lends his voice to give a surprising insight into each rectangle’s motivations and ambitions in life. They all have their own little personality quirks and names. You empathise with them, and perhaps relate their goals to your own. It makes you invested by making them relatable.

In an age where people say that they can’t “connect with a character” because they’re of a certain gender, I point to Thomas was Alone and say “I connected with these characters and I’m not a rectangle!”

Mike Bithell’s debut title is short, but sweet. Simple, but spectacular. The fact that it can do so much with so little is a testament to how good it is, and you should definitely play it if you haven’t already.

Keep moving down, and to the right.

8. Portal 2

This placed a lot lower than I thought it would.

Controversially, I actually prefer Portal 2 to Portal. It expands more on the initial game’s design and just has more puzzles. That and the multiplayer component puts it above its predecessor.

I know Portal was packaged as part of The Orange Box and was initially nothing more than an afterthought, and it is still an amazing and innovative game with tight design. I just, prefer Portal 2. Like I said at the start, my opinion.

The portal-based physics puzzle game is still as great as it was when it first came out. Well designed, tight chambers that expand to a ruined facility that gives insight into what came before makes Portal 2 more than just lots of small puzzles, and the trademark humour is still there. GLaDOS is as cutting as she was in the first game, and delivers one of my favourite lines in any game ever:

Look at you, floating gracefully through the air. Like an eagle, piloting a blimp.

GLaDOS

The additions of Stephen Merchant as Wheatley and J K Simmons as Cave Johnson also contribute to the comedy, as well giving GLaDOS more character depth, and the whole thing is just, brilliant.

The community chambers are also great fun to play through with a friend. The Steam Workshop has really breathed life into a lot of games. Including some on this list hint hint.

7. Horizon Zero Dawn

Ahh, one of the many open world games that I played this year and fell in love with. Breath of the Wild. Assassin’s Creed IV. Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2. The things that set Horizon Zero Dawn apart in my mind are both the setting and the characters. The post-apocalyptic world full of robot dinosaurs is beautiful and surprisingly full of life. It has a varied landscapes, from deserts to snowy wildlands and each one of them is picturesque. My PS4’s background image is one from Horizon Zero Dawn, and I have no intention to change it any time soon.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here: Aloy is my favourite video game protagonist of all time. She is relatable and grows through the game with us. She discovers as we do, but still feels very much a part of the world. She starts as a tribal outcast, before gradually and organically growing into something that is an integral part of the landscape. Whilst there is still a little element of “you were destined to be this hero we’re making you be” you buy into it by the time the game wraps up to its climax.

Guerrilla Games did world building so right here.

The combat is also enjoyable. Each dinosaur is like a puzzle, almost like the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus. You learn weaknesses by fighting them and figuring stuff out yourself. You have a variety of arrows and playstyles to have a go with, and it’s fairly fluid. The melee combat is pretty clunky, but launching an arrow into a big dinosaur’s underbelly from the other side of the map is so satisfying to pull off.

However, anything that flies in that game is a massive pain. 7th place.

6. The Return of the Obra Dinn

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I love a good mystery, and a good logic puzzle. Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn combines both of these things and creates a completely unique experience.

You’re an insurance person trying to investigate what happened to a mysterious ship that has washed up on UK shores. It sounds boring, but you also have a magic pocketwatch that allows you to hear dialogue of a corpse/skeleton moments before they die and a still of their death. You have 60 people to try and identify and work out their fate, and it starts with mutiny and leads to a much deeper conspiracy.

Gameplay consists of combing each scene for clues that might indicate how each crew member disappeared from this ship, but you’ll also need to piece things together from other scenes to work out some of the fates.

There’s so much depth and complexity in the design, helped by the minimalist artstyle, and you’ll need to be really thorough to work things out. You can also guess some things, but it’s hard to completely guess everything.

It’s a wonderful logic game that feels like it was made for people like me. The only problem with it is that, once the mystery is solved, you know how it works. There isn’t much replayability. I’m still waiting to forget it so that I can play through it again!

5. Tabletop Simulator

Board games have been a big part of my life, especially in the last 5 years or so. My university mates and I used to get together some evenings and play Werewolf or Funemployed, and nowadays my girlfriend and I frequent a board game cafe to find more two player stuff. Then we buy the games and take them home.

Tabletop Simulator brings all of that to my online library too. It allows me to play board games with friends, whilst not having to physically own the board game. It also epitomises the wonders of the Steam Workshop. If you like board games and have friends online, then Tabletop Sim is a must. It’s £15 (plus a few DLCs) and then you have a plethora of games available of Steam that some talented people have put together in the game. For free. There’s no better deal than that on the whole internet in my opinion.

If you want some recommendations, for big groups you can’t go wrong with Werewolf or Red Dragon Inn. For 2 or 3 of you stuff like Exploding Kittens and Codenames are simple to pick up.

Also you can flip the table if you lose. It’s great.

4. Sid Meier’s Civilization V

Now here comes the game that I’ve put the most hours in to.

I don’t tend to like strategy games. I find the amount of micromanaging too much and eventually I just get bored. I’ve tried to get into things like Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis, but I just can’t.

For some reason, though, I can’t put down Civ V. It’s like my comfort game; if I have nothing to do and 3 hours to kill, I’ll load up a game of Civ V and chill out. I always tend to come back to it after a while. It very much has that “just one more turn” mentality, much to my girlfriend’s misery.

Whilst the AI is definitely in need of a revamp (it really can’t do war at all), and without mods certain things in the game are very broken, Civ V is just a chill time, or fun with friends. Unless you’re winning, then they all try to kill you; and it becomes a race to click fastest, or a slog waiting for the other person to take their turn.

The fact I’ve put nearly 600 hours into this game, when I don’t really care about strategy games suggests that it must be doing something right, so it gets up to 4th place.

3. Minecraft

I imagine that this will be in a lot of people’s Top 10 games of the decade, and for good reason too.

Minecraft’s presentation is simple, but its gameplay is so addictive. From being dropped into a world and being terrified you work your way up and become one of the most powerful beings in the whole infinite world. From punching trees to fighting dragons, Minecraft has it all!

For me, even Vanilla Minecraft can be fun. Coming up with an idea of what to build, giving yourself a goal, and working towards it is such a satisfying gameplay loop, and one that Minecraft does better than any game I know.

There’s more too. There’s Creative Mode, where people have made some amazing works of art, such as the whole of Westeros, and also a lot of mods to make the game even more of a time sink. Plus it’s fun with friends, and there are a lot of mini game servers to get your fun that way.

Minecraft might well be the most complete gaming experience in this list. However, I still think that there are two games that came out this decade that are better than it.

2. To The Moon/Finding Paradise

You’ve probably never heard of either of these games. Allow me to explain why I love them so much as to say they’re better than every game in the 2010s bar one.

I love games that tell a story. Games that can provoke an emotional reaction. We’ve already seen some great story based games in this list, and there are so many that I’ve enjoyed, but not included.

I’ve also played plenty of emotional games this decade. Valiant Hearts, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Bastion, Thomas Was Alone. All great games, but To The Moon and its sequel, Finding Paradise, did something to me that these other games failed to do.

They made me cry.

I’m not the kind of person to cry at films, at music, at video games, nothing. But these games, about fulfilling the final wishes of dying people, brought that out of me. Both times I played through them. Kan Gao’s soundtrack and engaging characters. The story buildup to the payoff. It just all got to me.

Like in Thomas Was Alone, I cared about the stories of these people, and the playable characters Eva & Neil were sarcastic and funny throughout, until they hit a genuine emotional conflict towards the end. You feel those things with them. Even though they’re effectively dreams, they make you care. It just got to me so much that it provoked a real, physical response, and no other game did that. That’s why these place so highly.

There’s still one game that was better than all of these, though…

1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Ah yes, the other open world game that I really really liked. So much so that it is my favourite game of the whole decade.

The Witcher 3 is how a AAA game should be made. A wonderfully crafted story with fantastic characters. A vast open world with so much to explore and discover. Fun and satisfying combat/gameplay and a variety of enemies to fight. Positive practices by CD Projekt Red in the form of 16 free pieces of DLC at launch. I could go on and on about the things that I liked about this game.

Once I’d finished the main game and the 2 DLCs (about 30 hours of gameplay – if you rush it – for a total of £20) I just wanted to play it again. I started a new game plus run, which I never do in any game. 150 hours into that and I’m still not done finding things.

There are so many fun quests and side quests and fun little easter eggs in the game. Once I found the Monty Python one I knew that this game was special.

Whilst there are a lot of cutscenes at the start and a lot of mechanics to get your head around, once you get going you’re armed with everything you need to know to beat the game.

The witcher contracts are fun to try and play detective and work out what’s going on. In most cases you can either kill the monster and be done with it, or dig a little deeper and work out the story behind it, and the fact that the game offers that without slapping you in the face with it is so rewarding, and no two contracts are the same.

Amazing main quests, amazing side quests, beautiful world. Plus you can have sex on the back of a unicorn of you really want to.

The Witcher 3 is, without doubt, my favourite game of the decade.

So, that’s it. My 10 favourite games of the 2010s. I now look forward to seeing what the 2020s bring, and if they can improve on what we’ve seen already.

Do you agree? Probably not. Are you upset because your favourite game didn’t make it into the Top 15? I hope not. Like I said, that’s my list and my opinions. I encourage you to share your opinions on your favourite games this decade, and join me in looking forward to what the future holds for gaming.

Well, it’s that time of year again. It’s the gaming equivalent of Christmas. Except it’s in June. And you can’t have the presents until next year. And you have to pay for your own presents.

It’s E3! That glorious time where gamers forget about all of the other bollocks that goes on in this industry and fawn over some new games that we can look forward to from our favourite AAA studios. Also EA is there.

I’m definitely more on the pessimistic side of E3 and can’t really get caught up in the hype as much as some others can. There always just seems to be a catch hidden in the background somewhere, and I can’t muster the enthusiasm for pre-rendered trailers for a game that won’t release for another year. Sorry, this probably won’t be an overly positive thing.

That being said, I do enjoy watching the press conferences on the off chance that something interesting catches my eye. The most recent example that I can think of of a game that I wouldn’t have bought if it wasn’t for E3 was Cuphead, and I enjoyed that. So E3 is good for something I guess.

So, in celebration of this glorious time of year for us to bow to our lord and saviour Phil Spencer (would’ve been Todd Howard, but he knows what he did last year and none of us should ever forgive him) and I cover all of the press conferences this year, starting with Microsoft and ignoring EA entirely.

Just to quickly say, I have no desire or interest in anything EA produces, I haven’t for about 5 years now. I don’t really care anymore about FIFA, and they just treat consumers with such contempt that I can’t care about anything that comes out of any of their lying stinking mouths. I’m waiting to see how they fuck up Jedi:Fallen Order, or they make it so grindy that they put microtransactions in because “consumers ask for them.” Just manipulating the Star Wars fanbase with their selfish hogging of the licence. Fuck EA, let’s talk Microsoft!

E3 2018 Conference

Before we get in to my notes for this year, I just want to chat a bit about Microsoft’s event last year which, controversially, I didn’t like all that much.

I was chastised because I said that Microsoft didn’t have the exclusives that they need to sell their system. I said “Microsoft have some good stuff coming out…next year” and was promptly shut down for it in the VC I was in at the time. Well, what’s come out since then? Forza Horizon 4 was ok, and nothing else of note, and that’s reflected in the sales. Sony crushed it last year, and it’s because of their exclusives.

Don’t get me wrong, console exclusivity is wholly anti-consumer, and I worry that Sony is making the same mistakes now as it did during the PS3 era, but sadly exclusives sell systems, and both Sony and Nintendo have Microsoft by the short and curlies on that count.

They got lots of exclusive premieres, but they weren’t Xbox console exclusives, so who cares? All it really did was make Square Enix’s conference worse because we’d seen everything already.

There was some stuff that I remember liking though. New Cuphead DLC and Original Xbox backwards compatibility were both good, and it was still one of the stronger conferences last year. It still had its problems though.

So what did I go in expecting from this year? More Halo, possibly some VR updates, emphasis on what’s happening next gen. We’d also probably get a fun indie montage like every year and some more “world premieres”.

So let’s see what we got, shall we?

I’ll be breaking down my short notes for each thing that stood out for me, so some of these will be hot-takes combined with some stuff I thought about overnight. I have only watched it once when it was live, so apologies if I’m mis-remembering some stuff.

The Outer Worlds

The premise seems very similar to that of We Happy Few, with a very Fallout aesthetic. Hopefully it’s less buggy than both of those games at launch!

Made by Obsidian, creators of the well received Fallout:New Vegas and it’ll be on Game Pass, so that should be good. It also has some space elements to it, so it could be the Mass Effect game Andromeda should have been. Big expectations, let’s see if it meets them. The trailer was pre-rendered though, so kind of disappointing.

Ninja Theory

So after the big coup of Ninja Theory last year, Microsoft looked like they’d pulled off a massive coup. So, what have they been up to in the last year?

Well, they’re working on some stuff, probably for the next generation console (which we’ll get to later) and got a pre-rendered trailer for a 3 v 3 couch co-op hero…thing called Bleeding Edge. Technical Alpha this summer, but no actual release date. Let’s hope it doesn’t go through a long phase of Early Access.

Phil Spencer

Ahh there he is. Back again in his classic casual jacket over t shirt look to show how much of a “man of the people” he is. Phil takes to the stage in a…Psychonauts t shirt? Interesting choice there, wonder why you’ve got that on? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

Phil talked a lot about commitment for everyone to play anywhere, and honestly I believe him. I look at things like Game Pass, Cross Play and the stuff they’ve done for disabled gamers and Microsoft are shaping up to be a very pro-consumer company lately. They’ve definitely learned from their mistakes of this generation. Sadly it was far too late to save the Xbox One, but hopefully they can bring it back next time with some decent exclusives to back it up.

60 games? 14 exclusives? 30 Game Pass games? It’s a lot of games, but a) how many of those are in the indie montage? and b) how much will we actually see of each game? Microsoft has a tendency to have a lot of World Premieres to fill out their conference, but then there isn’t much gameplay. So what do we learn about the games here? Sure, having a deep dive into a smaller quantity of games makes for a boring conference, but it’s at least slightly better to me than the 30 seconds of fame approach that Microsoft has been adopting over the last few years.

Jedi: Fallen Order

Look, it was in the Microsoft show so I’m going to talk about it.

The trailer looks fine. It’s got the typical Star Wars thing of “let’s make a cute robot to sell toys” gimmick, so shareholders will be delighted I’m sure. My tl:dr thoughts on this are I trust Respawn, I don’t trust EA.

The question I always find myself asking is “what’s the catch?” It looks ok. Let’s see how they fuck it up in November.

Cyberpunk

Of course Keanu Reeves is in it. Of course he is.

CD: Projekt Red’s latest game has got everyone hyped after the stellar success of The Witcher 3, but I feel like we didn’t really see much here?

Take Keanu Reeves out of it and what did we get? A pre-rendered trailer with no gameplay. There’s character customisation, but I’d rather just play a game with a story written for a character.

Character customisation always ruins my immersion, because I always make the ugliest motherfucker imaginable. I know that’s a me problem, but I’m not the only one that does this surely? I just personally would rather play a story written for a pre-determined character in a world.

Anyway, back to Cyberpunk. Pre-rendered trailer that told us nothing. Sorry CD:PR, you don’t get away with it. Bring more gameplay stuff soon.

April 2020 release, and we still don’t really have any gameplay to speak of. Apparently some people have seen it, but where? I’m expecting it to be delayed to October 2020.

Indies

Alright, let’s talk Indie Montage.

Ori looked fine. Though the Limbo comparison will probably be even more obvious with a giant spider as a main antagonist.

I’m actually quite down for Minecraft Dungeons. Co-op looks necessary for progress, but it could be a fun little romp as a gateway dungeon crawler.

Spiritfarer looked cool. Pyre meets Stardew Valley sort of. I’ll be interested to see how the relationship system works, as I enjoyed that kind of thing in games such as Night in the Woods.

Battletoads (yes I know it’s Rare but I’m putting it here because it didn’t really have enough written about it to warrant putting it anywhere else). It looked like fun with friends, probably less so in singleplayer though. Lots of varied game modes might keep that one fresh. I’m cautiously optimistic.

The Legend of Wright was…interesting? It seemed kind of like Tearaway meets Scribblenauts. I couldn’t really say much beyond that.

Then we come to the ID@Xbox monstrosity. ALL the indie games. ALL the fun! Woooooo!!!!!!

One game did stick out in there, though, and that was Felix the Reaper. Fun dancey puzzly fun? I’m down. Keeping an eye on that one for sure.

I do like the ID@Xbox thing, I just wish it had less games in it. I get that they’re trying to show how many indie devs they work with, but I kind of want to see that little bit more detail in each of the games. Maybe focus on less games and show us some of the faces behind the work.

The one thing that I’m not sure how I feel about, however, is having Indie games available on Game Pass day 1. On the one hand, it’s great for exposure to a wider audience of people who can play your game. On the other hand, does that mean less income? Plus you’re in the same space as so many other games, how do you stand out from the crowd? I don’t really know, I’d be interested to see how the revenue is divided amongst the different devs.

I guess from an Indie Dev perspective it’s less crowded than Steam right now so maybe it leads to more success?

Game Pass Ultimate

Speaking of Game Pass…

From a consumer’s point of view, this is looking like a great thing to own. Indie games available Day 1. AAA titles such as Metro Exodus and Borderlands Handsome Collection being there, and now it being on PC, this was one of the things that I stood up and took notice of.

The Ultimate Game Pass promises access to Game Pass on console and PC, plus Xbox Live Gold for $14.99 a month. I believe it works out a little bit cheaper if you go Ultimate rather than having Gold and Game Pass separately, so if you have an Xbox it makes sense to get it, right? Even better if you have a Windows PC.

This kind of stuff illustrates to me that Microsoft has the potential to really corner the PC Market in a big way. It has better QC than Steam does, and seems less bitter tasting than the Epic Store is with its buying up exclusives. It has a good basis of indie games and devs seem to want to work with them. If they can improve the Windows Store itself, Microsoft could be coming into the fold in a big way here. Metro Exodus on Game Pass also takes a huuuuge dump on Steam.

Double Fine Join the Fun

Let’s get to my highlight of the show: Double Fine joining up with Microsoft and giving us a Psychonauts 2 trailer. It was mostly pre-rendered with bits of gameplay similar to the original, but I can’t wait for this game. No release date, though, and it’s supposed to be here in 2019.

Double Fine is a great acquisition to the Microsoft team. Between them and Ninja Theory we could see some fantastic IPs coming from Microsoft next generation. Though I am also worried that it could be a similar story to Rare, where the potential was never fully realised. Time will tell, I guess.

Gears 5

The only really big Xbox exclusive with a 2019 release date, and we got some more information on Gears 5 multiplayer.

The modes could be interesting and varied, and hopefully we see more in the coming months leading up to the September 10th release date, but again, it was pre-rendered. There was no gameplay in it. Maybe there was some stuff afterwards with the wrestlers showing how it plays, but why didn’t we see that in the conference? I guess this is the thing that annoys me most. Microsoft have crammed so many premieres and exclusives that nothing really gets a spotlight for us to see anything of any substance. Every year they’ve shown more and more games with less and less depth. Quality. Over. Quantity. Please.

Other Quick Things

Again, just going to rattle off some of the other stuff that they showed before we get to the big finale and my overall thoughts of the conference:

• Lego Star Wars. K. Cool. Could be fun.
• DBZ RPG. K. Cool. Could be fun.
• 12 Minutes. I like stuff that AnnaPurna has a hand in, and I’m a sucker for Groundhog Day style time loops. I’m invested in this game.
• New controller. Perfectly happy with my current controller thank you, though I’ve heard that it is pretty good.
• Gears Pop. Who actually cares?
• State of Decay 2 expansion. Who actually cares?
• Forza Horizon Lego Expansion. Ok, you’ve got me. I am so down for Lego Racer in the UK.
• Dying Light 2. There has never been an interesting character called Aiden in any video game ever, plus zombie apocalypse is pretty played out now.
• Elden Ring. From Software’s impossibly hard games with GRRM’s impossibly hard to follow plots. Could be brilliant, but I imagine you need to really explore everything to understand what is actually going on.
• Flight Simulator could be fun if you like those types of games.
• Phantasy Star Online 2 is apparently a big thing. Never heard of it. Not my kind of game to be honest.
• Age of Empires 2 on Xbox. Interested to see how it plays on controller as a strategy game. I should probably get around to playing it at some point…
• Borderlands 3 story tie-in DLC is free and out now if you have Handsome Collection, which is on offer basically everywhere at time of writing. Still need to properly get in to that series, but kudos for the free DLC.
• Crossfire X-clusive. I learned literally nothing about the gameplay.

Project Scarlett and Halo:Infinite

So Microsoft are planning to release their next generation console Christmas 2020, alongside Halo Infinite. In the short interview documentary thing they claimed that it can deliver 8k and 120fps. I’d be curious to know on what games this was tested? I very much doubt it’ll be able to hit those rates on a game like Cyberpunk or even Dying Light 2. I’ll take 60fps and less loading times though. Also be curious to see the price point compared to the X or an equivalent PC. It’ll probably be cheaper than the equivalent spec PC, but will it be affordable?

Also another pre-rendered trailer, this time for Halo:Infinite. Where are the other people from Halo 5, exactly? I guess they’ll drip feed us with more stuff in the run up to launch, but I’d have liked just a little bit more before I get too excited over it.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the Microsoft conference was ok. It had some good stuff and Xbox has promise for the next generation. Highlights were definitely Game Pass Ultimate and Double Fine joining.

But the problem is that I’ve been saying that Xbox has potential for the last 3 years and they’ve never capitalised on it. Backwards compatibility, Xbox One X, acquiring studios. None of it has shifted units off the shelves.

The movements they seem to be making in the PC market are promising, even if the Windows Store is currently an incomprehensible mess, and I hope that they become a contender here, I really do. From what I’ve seen this year, though, I don’t think that they’re going to shift many console units this Christmas either. Set themselves up for next year, great, but what do I, as a current gen Xbox owner, have to look forward to between now and 2020? Gears 5. That’s it.

For those who already own an Xbox, and only an Xbox, you’re probably pretty happy, and I’m glad for you. However, the question I ask every year is if I was looking for only one console this year, would I buy a PS4, Xbox or Switch? Right now, I’d take either of the other 2 over Xbox, and they didn’t convince me this year that that’ll be any different over the next 6 months. They need good exclusives fast if they’re going to actually sell the systems.

The pawns are now in place for you to do very well, Microsoft. Actually make an aggressive move to take the Queen of Nintendo and put Sony in check.

I’ve been using my Xbox One as a high-powered DVD player for the last year or so (aside from Forza), and that doesn’t look likely to change between now and E3 2020.

Also no info on the Cuphead DLC. Is that still coming out in September?

I’ve already highlighted other problems I had with it. The quantity over quality idea they seem to escalate every year, and so many pre-rendered trailers with not much actual gameplay. Though that problem is not exclusive to Microsoft. HA! See what I did there?!

I’m ending it there because it isn’t getting any better than that. Bethesda next when I actually get around to watching it…

If you were to ask most normal, functioning human beings what they think the most evil video game villain is, they’d probably say “Sephiroth” or “Bowser” or “Ganon”.

Me? I’d have to disagree. Sure all of these people have their evil merits; Sephiroth’s brutal murder, Bowser’s constant kidnapping and Ganon’s power fetish. But none of them compare to the main evil present in any video game, and the topic of this blog post.

There is no doubt in my mind that Moneybags from the Spyro franchise is the most evil character in video game history. Ok maybe he doesn’t kill that many people (not ones that we see anyway) but his evil manifests itself in other ways.

I’m not here to try and convince you that I’m right. Oh wait, no, that’s exactly what I’m here to do. I have 3 main points that I’d like to share with you now.

First of all, just look at the guy. He just looks like the kind of guy who wants to spend all of his time shouting at his servants and beating them if they don’t obey his orders to the letter. He carries his abundance of gems around with him, flexing all of his wealth on those less well off than he is, and has that fancy broach on his chest that is so blatant he may as well constantly scream “Muuuaaarr yes, I’m sooooo wealthy. Look at meeeeee and how much better I am than you.” Fuck off Moneybags.

Not only that, but he doesn’t have any trousers or pants? What’s up with that? The dude can clearly afford them, but decides to let it all hang out for us to see. It has to be a conscious choice.

Actually, I know exactly why he does this. It’s because Spyro is at the perfect height for face to crotch chatter. If it wasn’t for low-resolution PS1 era graphics, we’d be talking to his penis everytime we saw him. It’s his way of trying to assert dominance. The bastard.

Thank god they put trousers on him for the Reignited Trilogy, but now he just looks even more like the smug fuck that he is. Makes me sick to just look at him.

What’s even more insulting about Moneybags is that, on top of his clearly exorbitant wealth, he’s constantly asking for more. He’s at every damn turn in Ripto’s Rage trying to nickel and dime you for more moves to learn. He is an actual hinderance to gameplay; even moreso than any Dark Souls boss because you can’t defeat him. He literally stands in your way, stopping you from moving forward until you’re prepared to cough up the cash. There’s nothing you can do about it. Add to his coffers or get away from his penis.

Want to learn to dive? Can’t. Maybe get past some hungry metal sharks? Nope. Or even just get through a damn door? Sorry mate, gonna need those sweet sweet gems. You’re literally going around the Realms of Avalar to try and buff up Moneybags’…well, moneybags.

He has no regard for Spyro’s safety whatsoever if there’s no benefit to himself. “Would you like to dive underwater Spyro? You’re welcome to try, but only I have the true power to ensure you don’t drown or get eaten by hungry sharks.” He’s definitely one of those pharmaceutical reps that would find a cure, but would then charge through the nose so that no-one can actually afford it. The rich become richer, and I can’t stand it.

Let’s just transition smoothly back to reality for a second. What would you say represents the most evil practice in the game industry right now? Lootboxes? Microtransactions? Corporate greed in general? That’s what I’d say. Greedy CEOs trying to squeeze every last penny out of the consumer so that they can continue to appease shareholders and fill their back pockets with more money than they can reasonably spend in their entire lifetimes. Pulling more and more stuff out of their games so that they can charge it back to us later in cosmetic microtransactions and season passes.

And Moneybags is the video game representation of these evils.

Think about it. Withholding vital gameplay mechanics behind a paywall? Having no regard for the wellbeing or progression of the player? Dressing up in a suit and looking like a smug twat? These two things are too similar for it to not be coincidental.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick even looks a bit like Moneybags, if you put a monocle on him and squinted real hard.

• 

• 

Look at them and tell me I’m wrong. I dare you.

Moneybags was clearly what gave these money grabbing fucks inspiration for doing what they’re doing to our beloved video games right now. Cutting it up and selling us back the parts. He was the first, and therefore the worst.

So in conclusion, the evidence supporting Moneybags being the most evil villain in video game history is 3 fold:

1. He is a smug trouserless flexer who demands that we speak to his penis in any form of communication;
2. He tries to hold back basic survival things in order to try and score a quick buck;
3. He’s basically Bobby Kotick’s inspiration. I bet Kotick has a shrine of Moneybags in his office.

I believe that is all the evidence I need. Don’t bother with you’re rebuttals because you clearly have none. I have blinded you all with my flawless logic once again and convinced you that this is the truth of the matter. I now bid you good day, and remind you to always be on the lookout for bears in monocles. And Bobby Kotick.

Well, better late than never I guess.

So I recently finished “The Last of Us” on my stream and people in my chat requested that I do a review of it, so here we are.

I’ll probably end up doing this for all the games that I play from start to finish on my long play streams, maybe some other games as well if I feel like they’re worth talking about. Don’t expect regular or timely reviews, this is purely an archive of my opinion on games that I have played.

I also won’t be giving a score at the end of this, because I don’t think that you can really quantify a complex opinion in that way. I may make a quick list of pros and cons at the end of the review as a kind of TL;DR, I’ll see how I feel by the time I finish writing this.

As this is my first game review, I guess I’ll briefly talk about how I plan on structuring it. I’ll start by discussing my knowledge of the game and the world around it before I ever played it, so setting up what I expected from the game itself. I’ll then move on to discuss the story, keeping things as spoiler-free as possible. Any spoilers that I do add I have considered to be minor, and won’t in any way hinder your enjoyment of the game in my mind. If this ever fails to be the case then please let me know.

After that’s clear I’ll talk about the gameplay, discussing the main gameplay loop and how I thought it was executed. After that, I’ll discuss any other noteworthy points that deserve either praise or condemnation as I see fit. I’ll then give an overall summary of my thoughts after beating the game and a quick list of pros and cons.

With that out of the way, let’s get cracking with the review!

The Setup

The Last of Us is a game that a lot of people have heralded as a masterpiece in gaming, and something that everyone should play. Developed by long time Sony stalwarts Naughty Dog, it was released in 2013 for PS3, with a remastered PS4 version released the following year. It is regularly praised for it’s engaging and emotional story, captivating characters, and high tension.

Now, much like Naughty Dog’s other highly popular series of the time Uncharted, I missed this game the first time around; mostly because I didn’t have a PS3, but also because my gaming at that time was predominantly multiplayer-focused. This would have been near the end of my second year of University when this first came out, and at the time I didn’t really play much other than FIFA and Star Wars Battlefront 2 with my then-housemates.

Since then, of course, I’ve really changed tack and immersed myself in more and more singleplayer worlds. I’m working my way through a backlog of fascinating titles that I missed out on the first time around, and The Last of Us was the latest in that long line. I picked up the Remastered version for the PS4 and cleared the time in my stream schedule to play it to completion, long after the game’s inital release. With a sequel arriving imminently, I figured that now was as good a time as any.

In terms of my expectation from the game itself, I figured that the narrative would be taking the lead here, seeing as how everyone basically said that it was “Oscar-Bait”. So I was hoping to be gripped by a story that kept me intrigued whilst gameplay took a back seat, leading me through a linear sequence of stealth and cover-based shooting, a la Uncharted 4.

I’m also kind of over the whole zombie apocalypse thing, hence why this has probably taken me so long to actually get round to playing. So much of popular culture in the last 10 years or so has been devoted to zombies that I’m just kind of done with it. Thankfully, most people seem to agree with me nowadays, with only the odd zombie game popping up every so often – Days Gone being the latest such title on the PS4 no less. So I put it off until such time I had nothing else to do and sat down to play it. Let’s see how it fared shall we?

The Story

The Last of Us opens with a prologue where you play as a young girl alone and scared in her own house, and quickly sets the scene for how this iteration of zombie apocalypse begins. Basically it turns out that there are lots of nasty spores that acted in a similar way to BSE or Mad Cow Disease, but with more horrible fungal growths on people’s faces.

Once the opening hits you right in the heartstrings we fastforward 20 years, and hairy dad Joel is trying to make ends meet with his friend Tess trying to get more food tokens in a heavily military controlled Boston. After an encounter with revolutionary group The Fireflies, Joel is tasked with escorting 14 year old Ellie across the country. Once there, it is hoped that within this moody teenager lies a cure, as she has been bitten and after about 3 weeks she only shows enough of a transition so that we know she’s been infected (think Shireen Baratheon in Game of Thrones).

Through this cross country escort quest we see Joel and Ellie’s relationship grow and develop, but a lot of it does also take place off screen. I’m fine with us not bumbling around from Boston to Pittsburgh to Jackson to Utah entirely on screen, feel free to keep the pace up when everything is basically fine. I feel like we see a lot of the events that would trigger their relationship to grow and change without seeing a lot of the fallout. It’s certainly not a deal breaker though, and we see enough to fill in the blanks ourselves. It’s a very organic and believable growth. I just wish we’d seen more of it.

There are other optional dialogues that give you an insight into certain character’s hopes and dreams, which are great for fleshing them out. They’re great for Ellie in particular, who is still portrayed as a kid lost in a world and with a bigger purpose than she can perhaps comprehend. If there weren’t these dialogues she really would just come across as a psychopath in certain scenarios. They do a great job with her character, and Ashley Johnson does a stellar job voicing her. Troy Baker also deserves a huge amount of credit for his job as Joel, as well as Nolan North who has a brief appearance here in a villain role.

Overall, without giving too much away, the story is solid here. It’s very character focused and more about them than it is the world. In the sequel I’d hope for more of a wider scope on the world around the main characters, but if you want a solid character drama The Last of Us does an exceptional job. I’d have loved to have seen some more dialogue in between levels personally, but that’s just me being nitpicky more than anything else.

The Gameplay

Gameplay of The Last of Us consists of a sequence of wandering around talking, finding ladders and boards to help Ellie cross some water as she can’t swim, stealthing around zombies and cover based shooting. Though the shooting is not as much of a priority as the stealth, as ammo is scarce.

The problem with the stealth, particularly early on, is that it’s not entirely clear whether or not you are in cover sometimes. Sometimes I’d think that I was perfectly safe and planning my attack, before a zombie starts screaming and all of its rowdy mates know exactly where I am. Then it’s time to start burning all of my ammo until I inevitably die to a zombie that has a delightful one hit kill attack. By the way, there’s no way to escape it until you unlock a perk, by which point you’re mostly fighting people rather than zombies anyway so it doesn’t matter!

To help you with the stealth, Joel has a “Bat-vision”-esque hearing, so you can tell where zombies are if they make a sound and can watch where they are to plan an attack. You can’t mark them though like in Assassin’s Creed, so you should always be aware of your surroundings before striking that one Clicker that’s been giving you trouble for the last 5 minutes!

The advantage of stealthing against the One Hit Kill Clickers is that they can’t see and only hear movement, so you don’t need cover against them if you’re light on your feet. You’ll also have to have a shiv if you want to take them out, as strangling doesn’t work on them for some reason.

Speaking of strangling your victims to death, why does Joel sometimes decide to stomp on a bad guy’s head, thereby alerting everyone in the same postcode that he’s there?! It really annoys me that I can pull off a super sneaky flanking maneuver on a guy and then Joel decides to crack his skull against the concrete floor and everyone just goes apeshit. I’m guessing that I get spotted at the last second and he has to react accordingly, just frustrated me is all.

One thing that the stealth sections help absolutely nail though is the tension. The sound design and the gameplay in these sections aid each other superbly here, to make you feel like you’re constantly about to get jumped. The visual cues that you are in someone’s line of sight are subtle, but terrifying. Make sure you’re using both Joel’s ears and your ears constantly and always look behind you. If you hear a sudden whoosh it probably means that someone can see you, and if you don’t move quickly you’re going to be exposed to a world of bullets and pain, so always look around you. This added to the lack of ammo for the majority of the game leaves you to think that, more often than not, it’s better to just die and start again than try and fight your way out.

As I got closer to the end and had more ammo to play with, though, I switched my tactics to incorporate gunplay more. Use my stealth to headshot a guy stood still, then shotgun anyone who comes near me, finally run away until no-one knows where I am. Repeat until either ammo runs out and I die, or I kill everyone.

This is only really viable though when you have gun upgrades. Every now and again you’ll run across a workbench, from which you can convert those nuts and bolts that you’ve probably found lying around the place into gun upgrades. Useful upgrades are a larger clip capacity, faster reload speed, or a scope for your hunting rifle. These are pretty much essential if you want to have a decent crack at the latter sections of the game, so be sure to keep an eye out for screws, tools and workbenches!

So yes, there is crafting in this game. On the fly, you can create scissor bombs, shivs, first aid kits, molotovs and smoke bombs. I mainly got by with scissor bombs and first aid kits though, shivs taking more of a back seat, much like the zombies towards the end of the game.

You craft using bits of cloth and bottles of booze you find lying around the environments, so be sure to have a good look around to find things that you can use to help you out. Again, these things are basically a necessity in this game (except for probably smoke bombs), so exploration is imperative, particularly in the quieter sections.

Aside from the tense combat sections, there are also small sections of puzzling, most of which involve finding a ladder to climb onto the next part of the game, or finding a board for Ellie to stand on to cross a patch of deep water. The added touch of Ellie not being able to swim was a nice one in my opinion, as looking for a board necessitates exploration, having a look around the world and picking up bits of lore. It’s clever design, even if the actual gameplay at its core is a bit repetitive in these parts.

It’s also probably worth mentioning here that the AI is a tad brain dead at times, particularly for your companions. Some of them have a penchant for just kind of wandering around doing whatever, with no real regard for self-preservation. Luckily the zombies are also kind of brain dead, which is appropriate when you think about it. Some of them just kind of stand there and wait to be killed, and they also don’t see your AI sidekicks, which is kind of a relief otherwise the game would be unplayable. I guess it’d be kind of cool if you could command your AI partner to do some specific action, like take out a Clicker or distract so that you can flank. As it is, they just kind of do their own thing. They can be useful at times, but they’re more of a hinderance to gameplay than a help.

Overall, the gameplay does well to create a solid tension that builds, particularly in the early parts of the game. The stealth can be frustrating and the AI leaves a lot to be desired, but it does enough to keep you going through, and absolutely helps to nail the atmosphere. It’s very Resident Evil IV in that it gives you just enough to progress, though is considerably less scary than that game.

On the other side of that, it’s always fun to set a fat zombie on fire with a flamethrower. Or any zombie for that matter.

The Other Stuff

Let’s talk about some of the other stuff around this game that goes beyond the main talking points.

The music in this game is subtle yet exceptional. Its understated tones convey humanity on its last legs superbly. Gustavo Santaolalla has done a fantastic job composing the score.

The game also uses visuals, as well as audio cues, very well. There are no objective markers or much of a UI, which is something that could have been very problematic, but thankfully you learn to pick up on visual cues that seem natural within the world. If you’re ever unsure where to go, just follow the Exit signs. It definitely does this better than Uncharted and, while it takes some getting used to, is a greatly appreciated feature for making the world feeling more real and for aiding immersion.

The other visual touch that I liked was the remnants of the world before everything went bad. Whilst the story itself isn’t so much about the world, that doesn’t mean that Naughty Dog skimped on the detailing, with bodies lying in research labs, shrines to fallen loved ones and diary exerpts from schoolkids that basically read “Being alive sure is fun! I hope we can stay safe and nothing bad happens.” This is something that I liked in Horizon Zero Dawn and something that it done well again here.

The game itself looks good, but I also feel that Naughty Dog does that thing that they did in Uncharted 4 and be really self-indulgent about it. Every now and then the camera pans across a wasteland landscape and Ellie or Joel will say “wow, can’t deny the view though.” Stop stroking your own dick Naughty Dog. We know the game looks good, you don’t need to be so smug about it the whole time.

The Summary

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with The Last of Us. It’s a game that is just too much of a rarity nowadays. Everything seems to want to be a 30-40 hour epic, and forgets that you can tell a tightly focused story with some interesting characters and be just as, if not more, successful. It has its problems, sure, but the characters engaged me and the story was good enough to keep me invested in a zombie game. That takes something. The gameplay can be repetitive at times, and a lot of the tension disappears as you approach the end, but I can definitely recommend that you pick this one up if you haven’t played it already. I’m on board and ready for the sequel.

Pros

• Great character development of the two leads;
• Visual and audio cues to aid progression feel natural and aid immersion;
• Incredibly tense atmosphere;
• Superb voice acting.

Cons

• Gameplay can be repetitive at times;
• AI not the brightest;
• Clicker one hit kill move is frustrating.

Well, there we are. Game of Thrones has had its finale, and I don’t know how I feel about it.

I have a feeling that I know how a lot of people felt about it. Those who have loved the series so far, including Season 8, probably enjoyed it. Those who have hated the latest season will have already made their minds up and nothing that they could’ve put on that screen will have changed their minds.

Me? I sit somewhere in the middle. I certainly have no love for S8, Episode 5 in particular leaving a bad taste in my mouth, but I thought that the ending I saw before me was…fine. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad. I neither love it nor loathe it.

It has polarised fans, to be sure, and I’ll probably be here slinging mud at both sides of the fence on which I sit. I’ve been saving my thoughts after “The Long Night” for one huge-ass post about it, probably the last one on this series. I may do one on GoT vs ASOIAF once I catch up on the books, but that won’t be for a long time to come. Spoilers ahead.

The Last 3 Episodes

I think it’s best to take this entire arc as a whole rather than breaking it down into smaller parts, as some of the points I want to make span all 3 of them.

We’ll go in order though, starting with “The Last of the Starks”. I thought that this episode was…fine. Much like the finale, I don’t really think it was awful, but there were certain parts of it that I didn’t like. The cringey Gendry scene with Arya, the “one in a million” Scorpion shot, and the fact that Dany didn’t see Euron’s fleet coming. “Daenerys kind of forgot about the Iron Fleet”. Really? Cersei’s biggest threat. Forgotten? If nothing else, would Yara not have maybe mentioned it, having spent Lord of Light knows how long imprisoned by it? It served the plot though, I guess.

There were other issues, too. The fact that, once again, there was no reason for Tormund to survive the previous episode other than to say some funny lines. He literally did nothing other than cart Ghost back to the North. The whole “we still have half our forces and they’re the same strength as Cersei’s” trope made no sense. Where the fuck were they? Did they just charge past the undead hordes and stop for tea and cakes? That trope in particular frustrated me, because in Episode 5 there was no reason for them to do it, other than to create false tension. The weakness of this episode, in my opinion, is the next episode. So we’ll put a pin in it for now.

There is an annoyance that we won’t put a pin in, though. A lot of people’s frustrations with this episode boiled down to “mehh the coffee cup” and “booooooooo Jon didn’t pet the puppy and that’s why I hated it”. Grow up. I’ve seen professional reviewers slight this episode because Jon didn’t pet Ghost. Seriously? That’s all that you’ve come to expect from Game of Thrones now?

I’ll save some more bile that I have for fans of this show later on, I’m not finished yet.

Let’s instead discuss the bits that I did like. The scheming and the politics. Tyrion and Varys deciding what the best course of action would be to serve The Realm. Reminded me of the early scenes with Baelish and Varys in the throne room. Those were some of my favourite scenes in the entire show, because it was clever men being clever and being the real kingmakers. Game of Thrones had a depth to it that went beyond wars and kings. It’s very much why something like “Yes, Minister” appeals to me. Sure you have the person wearing the crown, but the real rulers are the ones that put the crown on their head in the first place. A lot of fantasy shows that I’ve seen prior to GoT omit those kinds of people, and I’m glad we got that little flavour of that here.

Now, on to Episode 5. There was no conflict in my mind about this episode. I absolutely hated it.

The whole false tension of having equal sized armies didn’t matter because Drogon just wrecked everything. Missandei being captured wouldn’t have happened if Dany just burnt the Iron Fleet and all of the scorpions after Rhaegal died. It was a choice made for the sake of the plot, not because it made logical sense to do it, and for me (a fairly logical person) it just felt wrong.

Speaking of things that felt wrong, let’s talk about Daenerys’ heel turn.

I get that “this has been foreshadowed” in previous episodes. Here’s the thing though:

Foreshadowing is not character development.

It’s been said before by many people who didn’t like this episode. While yes, Daenerys has tortured and killed the slavers, they were slavers. She burnt the Tarlys, but they refused to bend the knee to her. She was ruthless, sure, but she was ruthless against those who wronged her, and did it all in service of the people. She was a protector of the people who could not protect themselves. That was her story.

This decision, in my opinion, was so far out of character that I can’t forgive it. If you want her to see red then fine, have her burn The Red Keep. Maybe innocent people die in the rubble, not directly her burning them alive in the streets. Having her burn the entire city makes absolutely zero sense for her character, and doesn’t matter because you can have exactly the same effect if she just burns down The Red Keep. For me, it was a tool designed to advance the plot, nothing more. Sure they planted the seeds of foreshadowing to justify it, but it isn’t consistent with her development as a person. The woman who locked her dragons away because one child burned. The one who immediately freed The Unsullied and let them go as they pleased. There are as many examples of her good actions as well as her bad, people will just pick and choose according to what their belief is.

Other things I didn’t like. Arya’s plot armour springs to mind. I’ve said before that a little bit of plot armour is fine, and this is nothing new to Game of Thrones (see both Sam and Tyrion for such examples) but it has to be done in a way that is somewhat believable. How is it that Arya clearly gets burned by dragonfire and yet is completely fine? Not only that, but people not 10 feet away from her are turned into the kind of meat that has been left in an oven for 12 hours after you came home drunk wanting food and then passing out before you get the chance to turn the oven off. I’m sorry, but that just asked me to suspend my disbelief far too much. Also yes, random horse was there, I guess. Not that it mattered at all, because it promptly fucks off by the start of the next episode.

I’m also kind of down on how Jaime’s character ended up. Not as down as I was when the episode first aired, but still not delighted either. In my mind, Jaime’s arc has been about honour vs duty. It starts with him choosing his honour and him doing what’s right for the benefit of the common people over his duty as a Kingsguard. He stabs The Mad King in the back. When we finally see him, his duty is now to Cersei. Everything he does, he does for her. Him getting back to King’s Landing up to Season 4 is done in duty of her. He goes to Dorne to free Myrcella for her. He goes to remove the Blackfish from Riverrun for her.

Then Cersei destroys The Sept of Baelor, and Jaime becomes conflicted. He still chooses duty to her by travelling to Highgarden and kill Olenna, but he finally chooses his honour when Cersei reveals her plan to betray the living and the pact she made to send her armies north. He breaks free of it and chooses to fight for the living. That, for me, is what his story was about, and it felt slightly off that he went back to her after all of that. I think it would have been a better ending had he died fighting alongside Brienne in the Battle for Winterfell. Goes down for his honour.

I initially thought him going back to Cersei was a betrayal of his character arc. I’ve walked back on that a bit now, though, as it can possibly be justified as “an addiction” or him not being able to accept who he is. I don’t know. I don’t like it, but agree to disagree on that front.

Cleganebowl was good, though. I liked that. I also liked the scene with Jaime and Tyrion in the army camp.

Right, now that you’re up to date on my thoughts heading into it, let’s talk about the finale.

Like I said before, it was fine. Nothing much really offended me, apart from Sam’s cringey dialogue discussing a democracy and the whole “Song of Ice and Fire” scene. That was just a bit bad and unnecessary. Tyrion’s plot armour was strong yet again, the man gets a lot more speaking rights than most prisoners. The whole thing just felt a bit rushed. They just seemed to be like “okthisandthenthisandthenthisanddoneokbye”.

Drogon just burning The Iron Throne and pissing off makes me think that they planned the whole “Jon kills Dany” thing, but then they kind of forgot about how the dragon would react. They planned the rest of Jon’s plot, so gave Drogon specific instructions to not burn the man who stabbed his mother.

Also Grey Worm seemed to concede too much ground on Tyrion and Jon punishments after Bran becomes king. Again, it just seemed like they had this big moment planned and didn’t sort out the logistics until after.

Overall though, the majority of the character endings were fairly decent. Sansa becoming Queen in the North, Jon returning to The Night’s Watch, Arya travelling beyond the known world. Even Bran being king kind of made some sense to me, as he was obviously always something bigger than people playing politics. I do see the narrative contradictions though; him saying “I can’t be king, I’m something else now” and then later being like “I’ll do it, it’s why I’ve come here.” It certainly wasn’t the choice I would have made, but it didn’t offend me too much. I think if the ending had had everyone dying and being sad it wouldn’t have been a satisfying conclusion, which for fans isn’t a great thing. You want at least some characters to triumph.

I also really liked the scene of Brienne writing Jaime’s history into his page of the Kingsguard books. That was a very nice touch. Bravo for that.

I can definitely say that the ending is “bittersweet”, possibly veers a bit more on the “good” side of an ending for what I personally expected, but it didn’t exactly leave a sour taste in my mouth. It was fine. There were problems, to be sure, but it’s not as bad as How I Met Your Mother’s ending. Or Lost.

Now, let’s talk about more of the stuff around this last season that goes beyond the show that they put in front of us.

The Writing

Right, let’s talk about this because I have some stuff to say.

There’s obviously been a lot of backlash from fans about the writing of the show, particularly since “The Long Night”. I personally 100% agree that the last 2 seasons have felt very rushed and barrelling towards the climax of the show. It felt like D&D got the Star Wars gig and then were like “let’s wrap this up and move on to the next thing.”

By the way, if you think that these two will ruin Star Wars then where the fuck have you been for the last 20 years? Star Wars was ruined loooooong before them and, if anything, my views for the Disney Star Wars trilogy were “nicely shot, plot is awful” so it should be right up their street 😉

Anyway, back to Game of Thrones. While the Season did feel rushed and some things that they were building up to didn’t really pay off that well e.g. Jon’s true parentage not really meaning a whole hell of a lot, I still think that there were some good character moments here. Theon defending Bran to the last man and redeeming himself, Jorah dying to defend his Queen, The Hound finally defeating his brother. Those character endings are good endings in my opinion, and didn’t feel too forced or unnatural. It seems to me that the minor characters, who perhaps didn’t really have much of a look-in at the start of the show, weren’t constrained by GRRM’s ending and were allowed to grow and take an organic path. The major character endings felt less organic because they weren’t given the development time to grow onto that path. I personally think that the show would definitely have benefitted from 10 episodes in Seasons 7 & 8. I don’t think you’d need 10 seasons because that would have made the plot glacially paced and probably wouldn’t have made compelling viewing.

Which brings me to the main point that I want to make here. You may notice that I’ve tried to make it very clear that this is all my personal opinion and my interpretation. There is no one objective correct way to have this be done, and I feel like a lot of the Game of Thrones fandom hasn’t grasped this. My interpretation of events is most likely different to yours, and that’s okay. We may discuss it, debate it, agree to disagree, but neither of us is wrong. That’s the take home message from this. Again, no names, but I have seen people on my timeline demand that you re-watch each episode and answer a fucking quiz before you move on to the next. Oh, I’m sorry, your interpretation is the only correct one now, is it? No, it isn’t, and neither is mine. I’ve watched the series through 3 times now, I think I have my own interpretation set and consistent thank you very much, but it’s probably different to everyone else’s. That’s what makes TV, film, music, art etc. so great. It means different things to different people, and we can discuss them and broaden our horizons to how other people perceive the same thing. We don’t have to agree, but we don’t have to chastise either.

Writing is not an objective thing. I’ve seen the phrase “objectively bad” used to describe the writing of this season by people who clearly have no idea what the term objective means. By what metric? The majority of fans disliking it? That doesn’t make something objective, it makes it popular opinion. Key word there being opinion. Writing doesn’t work that way. Stop thinking that it does. Some people enjoyed the finale. That’s fine. They’re not any less a fan of the show because they don’t share your opinion. Get over yourself.

If you want my interpretation of the writing here, I think it’s a bastardisation of D&D’s story and GRRM’s ending. For me, Daenerys going mad screams a GRRM ending. The problem is that the trajectory on which D&D’s characters were doesn’t really match that too well, not in a way that can be corrected in 13 episodes anyway. I do blame them for that. HBO offered them 2 full seasons and they were like “nah, we got this in 13 epsiodes.” It just felt a little bit jarring for me, and the last 2 seasons has been them moving characters according to that end goal, not just going down the path that was more organic for the characters.

I don’t think that they’ve become bad writers overnight. I just think that their decision making wasn’t the best in these last 2 seasons. It became more about advancing the plot and fan service than about character decisions having consequences that felt real.

Oh, and also, people who signed a petition demanding that HBO should re-make the final season? Really? You’re that entitled? It’s a fucking TV show. Get a grip.

The Good Stuff

I don’t want to end this on a negative, so I do want to mention some of the things about this Season 8 (and the show as a whole) that I have really enjoyed.

Firstly, the music throughout the show’s run has been incredible. Ramin Djawadi and all of the talented people that have developed the score over the last 9 years all deserve tremendous credit for the work that they’ve put in. Whenever I hear any arrangement of “The Rains of Castermere” I get chills down my spine. It’s so powerful and really did a fantastic job of setting the mood in almost every scene.

Secondly, the directors deserve a lot of credit for making the show look great from start to finish. If you look at some of the behind the scenes stuff you see a lot of the work that goes on, particularly for the big battle scenes such as The Battle of Blackwater Bay. I hope to see more of these people’s work in future.

The other main positive note is, of course, the acting. I can’t think of a single actor who phoned it in, or didn’t get me to believe that they were the characters they were portraying and that they were alive in this world. Particular credit must go to the ones who made it through from S1E1 to S8E6; Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Maisie Williams & Sophie Turner all did an incredible job of bringing their characters to life. If I was to pick my favourite acting performance, though, it has to be Iwan Rheon playing Ramsay Snow/Bolton. He played such a good villain that I fear he’ll have the Anthony Hopkins problem of not being able to cast him as a good guy or hero because he’s so obviously going to turn into a villain it’s more of a surprise if he doesn’t! Jack Gleeson as Joffrey also did this very well.

There are probably so many more things that I’ve forgotten about and people that deserve praise for the work they’ve put in, but I just want to close by saying that this show has been one of the few to actually keep my interest for its entire run. It’s something that I will still watch for years to come I’m sure, and will be the show that I compare future fantasy genre TV shows that I decide to watch.

But for now, my watch has ended.

I’ve been on my own for the last 3 years.

No, I don’t mean that in the sense of having nobody around me. I’m blessed to have a fantastic support network of friends, family and loved ones. So I’m good on that front. I mean to say that I’ve been living on my own for nearly 3 years now, and it got me thinking on the stuff that I’ve learned about myself and life generally in that time.

Living on your own something that I think that everybody should give a chance should the opportunity arise, unless of course doing so may result in you seriously harming yourself (serious mental illness, for example). You learn and grow a lot as a person, or I know I certainly did.

So here are [insert correct number here] pros and cons of living alone. Some of these are serious, most of these are probably not.

Pro: No Judgment

If you’re anything like me, you pretend you dislike people and don’t care what they think, but secretly you’re afraid of disappointing them in so many different ways. Well, you don’t have to worry as much about that on your own! Nobody judges you in your own space because nobody else is there!

I know people like to joke about the “being naked all the time” thing, but I don’t so much do that as somebody that’s slightly body conscious. Plus I tend to like having my blinds open in the kitchen and Christ knows nobody needs to see that! I mean more of the “you won’t be judged if you’re still in your pyjamas on the settee at 4pm having not moved for 6 hours” thing. This is on the weekends of course, I work and am a model professional…sometimes (no I never watch Twitch streams or write these entries at work, shut up).

The space is entirely yours, and you have the freedom to do as you please, within reason obviously. Maybe you like to spend a little bit longer in the shower, or doing your hair. Maybe you put your cutlery away in a “weird way” (this is a contentious topic between me and my girlfriend, apparently knife-fork-spoon isn’t how you do it). In your own space, it doesn’t matter. Organise your stuff as you like it, without the need for a second opinion, or to check if you’d be using someone else’s shelf in the fridge, or glaring eyes if you put the ketchup in the wrong place…

…Cupboard by the way, I know it says keep it in the fridge, but it just doesn’t seem right to me to do that.

Con: Chores

I am a lazy motherfucker. If I could have a magic machine that would do all of my washing, drying and general chores around my house I would take it in a heartbeat. Gives me time to play more video games.

Then again, I imagine basically everyone would do that, so I don’t know what my point was. Chores suck I guess, and living on your own means that no-one else is going to clean up your mess for you. Takes more time out of my evening than I would like after a long day of work.

I get into a routine with it now though, just spend my Saturday or Sunday getting it done and then it’s all fine. You get used to it, but I can’t say that I’ve ever enjoyed it. Plus it all becomes that much harder if you’re busy elsewhere on the weekends. So it goes in the con pile.

Pro: Independence

This is actually a pretty serious point that ties in quite well to the last one.

Like I said before, it forces you into doing things that other people may have done for you in times past. You learn keep things in order because you have to. You really mature emotionally and personally, and truly become able to live independently, moreso than if you have roommates in my experience.

It’s not even the doing chores and managing bills side of things. There’s no-one else really there to focus on your time management, so you need to learn that if you struggle with it. You learn to motivate yourself a lot more, which is something that I initially found hard, but got better at it over time. Personal growth and care is important, and living on your own forces you to do it; it becomes more of a priority.

I know that this pro kind of contradicts my last pro of being judgment free, but it’s about finding a balance right? Sort your chores out, have a shower, then eat an entire tub of ice cream watching Brooklyn 99 through for the 5th time.

“Perfectly balanced. As all things should be.” – Thanos

It also means that you learn how to deal with people’s shit. Speaking of…

Con: Bills

Maybe this is mostly a consequence of where I live, but bills suck and are expensive. So much of my money goes straight into rent & bills; I have none left for all those Twitch subscriptions that I need to pay for!

It’s so important to keep track of direct debits and ensure that the right amount goes out of the right account at the right time. Luckily I have online banking so that makes things a little bit easier, but companies will try and dick you over at times that are convenient for them, especially energy companies. The bastards will overcharge you and then try to give you back the credit in a process akin to removing blood from a stone.

Without roommates you don’t split bills, everything falls on to you. That has its pros; you don’t have to worry about chasing people up for money to make sure that they’re paying their share, but the obvious con is that everything costs that little bit more. It’s not exactly “2 people use twice as much energy as one person,” it’s not quite that simple. I don’t know the exact maths of it though, one day I’ll sit down and do a calculation because I’m a nerd, but my point is that it’s that bit more expensive to be paying for everything on your own.

It’s also disheartening to see that large chunk of my money going towards my rent every month, but I can live in the hope that a mortgage will be cheaper. If I ever get there…

Con: Loneliness

This is a pretty serious one, and something to be aware of if you do decide to take the plunge and live on your own. I’ll talk about my own personal experience here, but also keep in mind that everyone’s is different.

When I first lived on my own, I had moved to a completely new place to start my PhD. Initially I was very excited, but I had no friends there, my family was further away than they’d ever been, and my girlfriend at the time was across the other side of London. It was tough. Not helped by the fact that on my first day I tore my fingernail off my right ring finger and spent 6 hours in A&E while they wanted to X-Ray me to see if I had a broken bone!

I definitely didn’t by the way, they could’ve just strapped me up and sent me home, or cut the thing off, but the NHS is in a pretty bad way right now so I can’t get too mad about it.

I started my PhD, and things were great. I started getting back into scouting again, and made some friends through there. We weren’t particularly close at that point, but it was a start.

Then that January my girlfriend broke up with me.

I knew it was coming, and we parted on fairly good terms, but it still hurt. The only real connection I had to that past life was gone. The work started piling up and getting harder. I felt like I didn’t belong, that my progress was slow. I had some friends, but I never felt more alone in my life. I was scared.

This was all exacerbated by the fact that I was in my own place. Nobody to talk to beyond my parents, who I’m fortunate to always have on the other side of the phone, but I was scared to tell them. Especially my mother. In hindsight I don’t know why I felt this way, she’s always been fantastic at setting me straight. I guess I’d feel like I’d disappoint her, or that she’d make me come back home. I don’t know.

Anyway, the point is that being on your own means having to fight these thoughts constantly without much in terms of social distraction. You can’t really turn around to your flatmate and say “I feel like shit, can we go for a walk or a drink or something?” It’s hard. You’re constantly battling these thoughts and being on your own means that nobody else really sees those tell tale signs.

Luckily, I stopped spiraling, got into some online therapy, and met my current girlfriend, who has been nothing short of amazing.

Pro: Putting Life into Perspective

I didn’t want to end this blog on an unhappy note, because I have enjoyed living on my own all things considered. It hasn’t been without its drawbacks, but the fact that I overcame them makes it all the more important for me to have done. I could have thrown in the towel and given in, but I didn’t. That is an achievement in and of itself.

Whilst you do have dark thoughts, and I know I still get them from time to time, you are also allowed moments to stop and think. To self reflect. Put things into perspective. It gives you a measure of the truly important things in life, and you prioritise those things. Living alone allows you to find a healthy work/life balance, and live life the way you want to. Roommates are fantastic from a social perspective, but I often felt like I was doing things at their pace rather than my own. That is entirely fair, living with roommates does teach you the importance of compromise. But living on your own allows you to find a balance that works for you, without the worry of needing to adjust for other people.

I think that those moments are so critical to personal development. Living on your own allows you to define yourself as a person; for the first time my actions weren’t defined by what other people wanted me to do. I did what I wanted to do because I wanted to do it, and I felt more assured of my convictions and more confident.

I wouldn’t have done half of the things that I have done in the last 3 years if I hadn’t taken the bold choice to live on my own. It is hard, sure, and there is certainly an adjustment period required – particularly if you are moving to a completely new place – but for me, the positives outweigh the negatives. Whilst I look forward to the next chapter of my life, which hopefully involves me living with the woman I love, I will always cherish the time I’ve spent living on my own.

So I guess, in summary, there are pros and cons to living on your own, much like everything in life I guess. I wouldn’t have changed much; I mean, I wouldn’t have voluntarily gone through depression and anxiety, but I also don’t regret the choices that led me there. Being on my own has been great overall. Not easy, but great. I really do think that you’ll learn more about yourself if you do decide to do it. Just be aware that the takeaway menus really pile up fast…

I’ve decided that I wanted this blog entry to be a bit more positive than I have been in the first three. Don’t worry, more misery and ranting will probably happen in the next one.

For now though, I want to discuss and pay tribute to someone who has quickly become one of my favourite musicians and artists, despite only really discovering him about 9 months ago. Miracle of Sound has basically taken over the music I listen to at work or when I walk anywhere. In 2018, he was by far my most played artist on Spotify, partly because I use his music as an intro to my streams, and partly because I can’t get enough of his work.

For those of you who perhaps don’t know Gavin Dunne (aka Miracle of Sound) he mostly writes songs about popular media, with predominant focus on video games. His songs are very rock and metal oriented, but there are many different genres that are explored depending on the particular inspiration. For example, his latest work – “Rebirth” – has many Japanese folk elements incorporated into it, as the song is written about From Software’s latest death simulator and salt manufacturer “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice”.

As well as being an incredibly talented musician (self taught, according to his blog), he also strikes me as one of the nicest guys to ever exist. His songs are DMCA free, so streamers (like myself, unsubtle plug) and Youtubers can use them, subject to certain conditions which must be adhered to, and can be found here. On top of this, he shies away from controversy and internet drama, choosing instead to focus on his music and the things that give him joy.

In the interest of wanting more people to discover this guy’s talents and just pay a little bit of a tribute to him in my own “unique” way, I’ve decided to take you through my personal favourite songs of his, and encourage you go support him on Youtube, Patreon, Spotify, Twitter. Everywhere. Do it now.

Anyway, Top 5 songs time. This was difficult to compile because there are so many songs that I like, but it was also difficult to write, as I find it very hard to quantify why I like a particular song most of the time. I can tell you that it’s a good song and that I connect with it in some way, but it’s hard for me to explain beyond that. I’ve tried my best here, but this is far from comprehensive. Most of the reasoning will boil down to “I enjoy it because I do”. I’ve also not listened to every song that Gav has written, so there may still be some hidden gems that I’ve just not yet encountered.

So let’s crack on with Top 5 songs, prefaced with some other honourable mentions, all links taking you to the Youtube video. Honestly, I could put so many more in here, just go check it all out. There will also be other good songs that I’ve linked in throughout the rest of this Top 5.

Honourable Mentions

My Odyssey (feat. Karliene), Welcome to the Family, Road Rage, Into the Wild, My Revolution.

5: Grainne Mhoal, Queen of Pirates

Starting off with some Irish Pirate Metal. It’s hard to pin down exactly why this song sits above the others that just made it to “Honourable Mentions” and maybe if I’d been writing this on a different day it would not be here, but as of right now, I’m really enjoying this song.

There are a lot of reasons why this made my Top 5 above the others though. It’s partially due to the fact that it pays tribute to a badass woman, partially down to my Irish roots, but the main reason is that I’m really digging the pirate metal genre right now. I’ve been listening to a lot of Alestorm lately and this song reminds me of them in a good way.

This is the kind of song that I can imagine listening to in a dodgy Irish bar in Spain drinking more than I should be, and that makes me happy in a weird way.

I’d also encourage anyone to go and learn more about Grace O’Malley, she led a pretty interesting life. Met with Queen Elizabeth I and conversed with her as an equal. Maybe a pirate game based around her someday would be pretty cool?

Oh, if you like this one, I can also recommend Sirona. That’s also pretty great, but has a slightly different tone to Grainne Mhoal. It’s more about healing than swashbuckling.

4: Breaking Down the Borders

I’ve just started dipping my toe back into the world of Borderlands with my girlfriend in anticipation for the 3rd installment, and Gav’s Borderlands 2 hit should be up here because it really captures the essence of the game. The tinny sounding guitar that immediately makes me think of Seasick Steve and of the scrap that is used for a lot of the constructs on Pandora (no, not that one).

I’m also a sucker for a catchy bridge and/or chorus, and this song definitely has both. The instrumental just before each chorus is infectious, and will be stuck in your head for a good period of time. You’re welcome.

3: Ode to Fury

I’m very much of the opinion that Gav’s music has gotten better over time, and his latest album (Level 9) is his strongest so far. There are so many great songs, as well as superb collaborations with amazingly talented people such as Karliene, but which to choose to represent the whole album?

It was going to be either “Ode to Fury” or “When I Swing By“, but I ultimately went for the former because it represents the struggles of a deeper, more interesting character.

First of all, I love the hints of Norse folk that are present in this song. The drumming makes you think of a viking longship, and is coincidentally very representative of what you spend a good portion of the game doing, and the constant chanting is incredibly atmospheric. But the struggles of Kratos, that are present in this game’s main themes, are captured beautifully in Ode to Fury.

Kratos is someone who has finished what he set out to do in Greece, and moved on with his life. Settled down. Started a family. Yet his anger and hatred that he felt for all of his life are still a part of him; “The fury it never leaves me.”

The song makes me think of the moment about two-thirds of the way through the game, where Kratos is returning to his modest shack to recover the Blades of Chaos. Where Athena manifests herself in a vision and reminds Kratos of who he once was, and still is to some extent.

Anyway, God of War is a great game. Ode to Fury is a great song. Level 9 is a great album.

2: Ploughing a Troll

Remember when I was being serious about my reasons for “Ode to Fury” being so good? Well, now for something completely different.

I love it when Gav writes silly songs. Songs that poke fun at games, or just poke fun at media in general. Good examples of this are “Call of Duty Circus” and “Wigglesticks,” which genuinely made me laugh more than it should have when I first heard it. I sadly can’t in good conscience count it though because it’s only 45 seconds long.

Instead, the song I’ve chosen to represent Miracle of Sound ridiculousness is one about a farmer finding love in the form of a she-troll, based in the world of The Witcher. Musically very simple, but also very effective.

If we’re talking about a song transporting me somewhere as a sign of it being good, then “Ploughing a Troll” is right up there. When I hear this song I imagine myself around a campfire with my mates, guitar in hand, singing this song. As a member of The Scout Association I used to enjoy singing, drinking and having a laugh around a fire in my youth, and this song would definitely have been a worthy accompaniment to those nights.

It has all the ingredients for a great campfire song; entertaining verses to listen to before you get to a simple chorus that everyone can learn the words to quickly. Plus it’s really well written in the sense that it’s funny. Somewhat unlike this blog, but I’ll get better at that one day. Probably.

1: Sweet L.A.

Whilst I think that the overall quality of Miracle of Sound has improved over the years, my favourite song is still one of his earliest.

“Sweet L.A.” isn’t necessarily up here because it contains the deepest lyrics, or that it’s the best musically. It’s because it can take me to a place that I’ve never been, apart from in playing L.A. Noire of course. My mind’s eye immediately sees in black and white, and can imagine this being performed in a speakeasy by a man in a trilby singing into one of those old-style mics (you know the ones I mean? The kind of thing you’d expect Frank Sinatra or Elvis to sing into).

The sax is saxual (not a typo; pun very much intended), the piano understated but still does its job superbly, and the vocals are soothing and bassy. I could listen to this song several times over and find something new that I like about iteach time. It captures the style perfectly, and that’s what puts it on top. No other Miracle of Sound song, as great as they are, can put me back into the world of a game that I’ve played better than Sweet L.A. can.

It helps that the game L.A. Noire has a special place in my heart from a streaming perspective as well, as it’s the game that got me to Affiliate, but that doesn’t subtract from the fact that this song is beautifully written, beautifully performed, and my favourite Miracle of Sound song.

So that’s it. My personal Top 5 Miracle of Sound songs. Like I said before, there are so many more that I didn’t even name here, just go and listen to it if you like video games and metal. Hopefully there’s enough of a diverse mix of songs that I’ve included here to get you started. There’s bound to be some great stuff that you enjoy, and don’t forget to support Gav on the links that I put above. It keeps him creating and sharing his talent with the world, which I for one greatly appreciate.

Any songs that I’ve missed that are your favourites? Feel free to comment and let me know what your personal Top 5 is or, if you’re new to Gav’s stuff and enjoy it, let me know what song(s) got you into it.

Oh wow, another post about Game of Thrones. How exciting for us all. Probably another long read as well. Spoilers ahead.

I said I would do it and it has to be now so that if I’m right I can look all smug and satisfied with how I called it.

In all seriousness, I’m pretty bad at predicting how Game of Thrones will play out. I thought Jaime was going to die in Season 5 after he made his way back to Cersei. As far as I was concerned that was his arc done. Oh how foolish I seem now.

On the other hand, I did correctly predict that after the thrilling fight between Brienne and The Hound in Season 4, when Arya left him to die, that wouldn’t be the last that we’d see of Sandor Clegane. I had the logic of “This is Game of Thrones, a show that has a lot of gore and death. If we don’t see main characters die explicitly, then they aren’t dead.

It’s why, for the longest time, I held the belief that Stannis would return in some way shape or form before everything wrapped up. We didn’t see his head getting lopped off by Brienne, even though we saw the motion, so it made me think that there was still more to come from him. Besides, Melisandre has been right about basically everything else up to this point, why was she so wrong about Stannis? I guess with The Night King dispatched at the end of the last episode we won’t be seeing any more of seeing Stephen Dillane’s grizzled grumbly face in the last three episodes, but who knows? It could still happen.

Anyway, here are my main thoughts and predictions of how certain plot points will wrap up in the last three episodes. Some of these have been making the rounds on forums for a while, some have (as far as I’m aware) come from my brain alone.

I just want to preface this by saying the following: I am by no means a screen writer or anything of that sort. I don’t have every dialogue thought out or how this will work out in practice. This is just a bit of fun, and my interpretation of how some things go. This is also not a comprehensive list of every character arc for the rest of the series. If it isn’t mentioned here it’s probably because I don’t know how that particular moment will come to pass. All we can do is watch and see.

Prediction 1: Daenerys Executes Tyrion for Conspiring with Cersei

Yep. Let’s open with this one.

This is a prediction that took me a while to ponder over. Tyrion, alongside Arya and Brienne, is probably one of the most consistently popular characters in the show. He is GRRM’s favourite character. So why do I think that he’ll die?

The answer is Cersei. There is still speculation about whether she is pregnant or not, whether she lied to try and keep Jaime on side. I’m not so sure about that. However, what I am sure about is that Tyrion agreed some form of deal with her off screen that revolves around her pregnancy. He said something to her that convinced her to return after she was not for turning for the longest time. Especially to him.

For all of her psycho-bitch character, and how she’s slowly become more and more bloodthirsty, Cersei does have one “weakness”: her children. She loves her children and will do anything to protect them. Even bargaining with the one person she hates more than anybody else.

So, does Tyrion agree to help her escape King’s Landing should the war go badly? I don’t think so. I don’t see how he’d logistically be able to do that as he has no real power there. Will he ask Daenerys to spare her? Possibly, but I can’t see that happening too much either, nor do I think that Cersei is so pessimistic that she sees herself losing in that moment. No, I think he’s agreed something much bigger with Cersei. Something that Daenerys would see as treacherous.

I think that Tyrion has agreed that, if Cersei agrees to help in the war against the dead, her unborn child will be the heir to The Iron Throne, whatever happens. We know that Tyrion is concerned about the succession; there is a whole scene on Dragonstone dedicated to it in Season 7:

“We will discuss the succession after I wear the crown.” – Daenerys Targaryen.

He is also aware that Dany can’t have children. Or as far as she is aware she can’t. So who takes the throne afterwards? I think that he agrees that Cersei’s child will be taken as either Jon’s or Dany’s ward and heir to the Iron Throne once Dany is dead and they are of age. Provided she helps in the war against the dead.

This is why I think he looks so gloomy at the end of Season 7. His plan won’t work because she will look to Jon for the succession. She may decide to fight the prophecy and try to have children anyway. He knows that this goes against his plan and Cersei will be furious.

Obviously, we know that Cersei doesn’t agree to this anyway and just kind of plans her own thing with The Golden Company. So how does Daenerys find out about their plot? Does Tyrion come clean, or is it perhaps Cersei who gives up the ghost once she’s defeated? That I don’t know, but I don’t think the Khaleesi will be pleased with her Hand after that. Conspiring with the enemy? That’s treason right there, and we know how she deals with traitors.

“Dracarys”.

I’ll admit that this might be a bit out there, and there are probably some gaps in this theory that I maybe haven’t covered, but I think it would make a good twist, and a gut-wrenching moment that has been teased by writers and actors alike.

We also know that prophecies are an integral part of Game of Thrones, and Cersei is told by the witch in Season 5 that she’ll only have 3 children. So, if she is pregnant, the child doesn’t make it. Which brings me to…

Prediction 2: Arya Kills Cersei, but is then Killed by The Mountain

With a significantly reduced army after the war with the undead, Daenerys and Jon will need to be clever about how they approach the last war. We still have Yara’s fleet, and we get a glimpse of that in the Episode 4 preview, but other than that, we have maybe a few Unsullied and Knights of the Vale. Maybe some of the Northern houses. Is that enough to sack King’s Landing?

I don’t think so. I think they’ll need a more covert operation to take down Cersei from within. Enter Arya’s faces.

Let’s assume, for the moment, that Cersei doesn’t know about the death of Petyr Baelish. I don’t know how she would know, so let’s proceed with that assumption. Arya travels down the King’s Road posing as Littlefinger. She takes Jaime and The Hound with her to earn trust at the gates. She claims that Baelish captured Jaime Lannister and have returned him for justice. Probably take some Knights of the Vale too to maintain the facade. This works and they’re let in. Jaime is taken prisoner, possibly dealt with by Bronn and Qyburn, “Petyr” is taken before the queen. There’s some dialogue, Arya reveals herself. Off comes her head.

I know a lot of people think that Jaime will be the one to do it, due to the “Valonqar” prophecy in the books, but the show prophecy makes no mention of that. It deliberately avoids it because Jaime doesn’t kill Cersei in the show. Arya will. There’ll probably be some Mary Sue arguments regarding Arya, and I get it that if Arya kills The Night King and Cersei then it may be a bit much for one character, but I thought this before “The Long Night” so I’m seeing it through dammit!

Anyway, Mountain doesn’t like this. They start fighting. Bronn kills Qyburn to help Jaime and The Hound escape. They make it to the Throne Room, but are too late. Sandor watches Arya die to his brother. Clegane-bowl happens. Bam.

Prediction 3: Bran Turns “The Mad King” Mad

This is a pretty common theory so I don’t want to dwell too much on this one. It’s teased in Hodor’s story how outside voices can influence the world that Bran is warging in to as the Three-Eyed Raven. So something goes wrong, perhaps the dead come back. Perhaps Dany or Jon lose the plot on the dragons. Who knows? But if “Burn them all” starts happening within earshot of Bran, it sends Aerys II into a fit of madness, and kicks off this whole saga.

I’m not as sure about this one as Season 8 has progressed for two reasons: 1) I’m not sure how or why Bran would be near enough to a battle for them to shout “Burn them all” unless he’s warging at the funeral pyre at the start of the next episode; and 2) Bran seems to be pretty in control of his powers. Would he not already see that happening? Maybe he has to do it for all of the events to set in motion. Maybe Grey Worm dies and Missandei loses it, tells Daenerys in council to “burn them all”. That’d be cool. I don’t know too much about how it works. I guess we’ll find out.

Prediction 4: Daenerys & Jon win the battle; Dany Returns to Essos and Daario Naharis

I don’t imagine that the first part of this prediction is all that controversial. We expect that Cersei will fall at the end, but what happens afterwards?

I guess we’re all under the assumption that Daenerys will take what she perceives as rightfully hers. The main point that her entire story has led to. All of the hardships. All of the pain and suffering. To her crown.

Except that, Daenerys’ story has never really been about the Throne itself. Not in my eyes anyway. It’s been about her developing as a leader, about understanding how to rule, sure, but not in Westeros. As Tyrion has said before, she is not really aware of Westerosi politics. Of how business is conducted there. She’s never really seen it. Her story has been about liberation. The freedom of slaves in Essos. The collapse of Slaver’s Bay.

This, combined with the revelation of Jon’s true parentage, suggests that she will relinquish the crown and return to where she perceives as home. I don’t think she’ll want to keep up a relationship with her nephew (despite Targaryen history in the incest department) so she gives the crown to the man who has it by right, and returns to the one who loved her and wanted her more than anyone else. To Daario Naharis.

Also, nobody besides Hot Pie gets to just exist through Game of Thrones, so Daario isn’t done yet. Maybe the Second Sons come to fight for Daenerys against Cersei. No idea how they’d know though. We’ll see.

Prediction 5: Sansa Ends Up On The Iron Throne

So, when all is said and done, Daenerys Stormborn takes her dragons (or possibly dragon) and returns to Essos where she feels she can do the most good. That leaves Jon Snow with the crown that is his by right.

Except for one thing. He doesn’t want it. He’s never wanted to be King. His quest was to save the living from the dead and he’s achieved that. I think that, for him, he’ll want nothing more than to live out the rest of his days quietly, or perhaps as Warden of the North.

Let’s also recall Cersei’s prophecy:

“You’ll be queen. For a time. Then comes another, younger, more beautiful, to strike you down and take all that you hold dear.”

Some would argue that this has already come true. That Margaery was that queen. Cersei wasn’t really queen at that time though. She was queen regent.

To me, that leaves only two contenders: Daenerys and Sansa. I think that the “strike you down” part will be due to Sansa coming up with the plot to send Arya in (back in Prediction 2) as she knows about her many faces. Perhaps it’s a side conspiracy between the two sisters and Jon and Dany had nothing to do with it. Sansa being the mastermind. That would be justice right there.

As I’ve said in Prediction 4, I don’t think that Daenerys will take the crown. By that logic it can only be Sansa, which makes sense. Jon would trust her to do it more than anyone else. She wants to be queen, she’s made no secret of that, and her story has been more about Westerosi politics than Daenerys’ has. Seems like a pretty decent candidate for Queen of the Andals etc. to me.

So that’s it. My 5 main predictions of how certain characters’ arcs will resolve by the end of Season 8. There were, of course, many omissions. I’ve said before that I think Sam will live through it all and document it. I’ve said that Gilly dies, so there’s your tragedy in his story. I have no idea where Davos ends up, perhaps he takes up the mantle of 1,000th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. Maybe it’s Ghost, who can say? We have 3 episodes left, let’s see if this post ages well or poorly.

Edit: Welp. 0/5 is pretty poor, isn’t it?

If you’re anything like me, your Twitter feed has exploded over the last few days about the fact that Sonic looks humanoid and creepy in the latest trailer. It’s the latest thing that we’re supposed to be angry about because the internet said so.

Here’s the thing though; I don’t care. I don’t understand why anyone cares. Nostalgia? Sonic has been neither good nor relevant for 20 years (don’t give me that shit about Colours or Generations being alright). Mania was ok, but it was more of a case of reminding people that Sonic used to be good in the 90s, it’s not enough to justify making another (probably) trash tier video game movie.

Maybe I’m just biased. Or miserable. Or both. I don’t really have much nostalgia for the Sonic franchise. I remember playing one of the early games on a Sega Mastersystem at a very young age and not being very good at it, and I also played a lot of Sonic Heroes when that came out. I 100%-ed that game. Then the dark times came. I, like many others, was burned by Sonic 06 and lost most of my interest in the franchise. I even went back and re-played Sonic Heroes in my Masters year and realised what a dumpster fire that game was. The rail grinding. OH GOD THE RAIL GRINDING!!

Anyway, back to Movie Sonic. Yeah it looks weird. I’m not sure why the human teeth are a thing. The eyes are maybe a bit on the small side, but it’s not like they made it completely different. It’s still clearly Sonic the Hedgehog. I don’t understand why there is so much damn outrage about a movie that, let’s face it, the majority of us aren’t even going to see.

We know how the video game movie dance goes. We kid ourselves that “maybe this one will be different,” that it will “break the mould for video game movies.” We then see the critic reviews and hear word of mouth and we see it for what it is. Same shit. Different anus.

As for my opinion on the trailer, it was just…meh. Jim Carrey was there being Jim Carrey, but it wasn’t overly offensive. Just, not for me. Granted I don’t go to the cinema all that often anyway, but this didn’t make me sit up and take notice. I saw it, I was apathetic towards it, I moved on.

“Then why did you decide to write something about this?” I hear that voice in my head cry as I type this out. If I don’t care then I don’t need to put this down in blog format. Just mill about quietly until the anger washes away like it always does, and then move on. The thing is though, I was going to do just that. I’ve seen the trailer, seen the memes, and kind of let it wash over me. I didn’t care.

Until I saw a tweet from Jeff Fowler saying that they were looking into a redesign of the character.

The first point I do want to say is kudos for listening to feedback. A lot of companies and producers wouldn’t even produce a response. This is, as far as I’m aware, unprecedented for any movie, let alone a video game one.

However, my main question is For what reason? I imagine the majority of people who saw the trailer had a view similar to my own. Looks kind of crappy. Sonic looks weird. Let’s poke some fun at it and move on with our lives because it doesn’t really matter all that much.

But the fact is that something caused the change, and it seems to me that a lot of people probably sent threats to Fowler and/or his team, demanding that they change it. Maybe I’m wrong and they got the wrong end of the stick and decided to start from the ground up because it was getting the wrong kind of PR. Looking at the replies to the aforementioned Tweet though, I doubt it.

I guess this is what annoys me the most. People being entitled, demanding that they change things to appease them, when in reality, they’ll eventually move on with their lives. The next thing will come along for people to be outraged by, they’ll sink their teeth into that for a bit, and then move on again. Lather, rinse, repeat. I doubt the majority of those who complained will even see the film when it is finally released, even if the new Sonic looked exactly like how everyone imagined it in their mind’s eye, or based on the numerous (admittedly better looking) redesigns.

Do you know who can’t move on now though? That animation and art team. The team who worked hard to get that trailer to our eyeballs. For maybe 48 hours of outrage, they’ll be stuck re-animating and re-making parts of that film, that they thought were finished, for months. A lot of them may have decided to move on to different projects, decided to take on more work, but now they can’t because of this decision. Or even worse, they do take it on and end up overworking themselves. Putting half of their time into two things rather than all of their time into one thing.

On top of that, all of this will just cost more money, meaning it’s even less likely to turn a profit. Based on my wildest speculation, I don’t think that the extra revenue that might be attained from the character change will offset the cost of several months more work that nobody was prepared for.

Admittedly, all of this is entirely hypothetical, and I don’t know in massive amounts of detail how one goes about re-animating something, or even animating something in the first place. This isn’t my world. I’d also imagine that it will take significantly less time to re-draw everything than it would to draw it in the first place, so maybe I’m completely wrong and it’s actually going to be all fine and breezy and it’s not as big a deal as I’m making it out to be.

Here’s the thing though; I bet a significant number of those that were outraged didn’t even consider this as a possibility.

The extra hours that it would take. Potential overtime and crunch periods. They just thought of themselves. Threw their toys out of the pram and demanded things be changed because “it’s not how it’s supposed to be,” and I bet they’ll complain about the new Sonic anyway. Because it’s what people do.

So I guess my point is the following. Yes, movie Sonic looks weird. Yes, them taking on feedback is great, I hope we see more of it from others. No, I don’t think them re-designing from the ground up is necessary, because I’m not going to see the movie. They could make Sonic the Hedgehog look like a topless Scarlett Johansson and I still wouldn’t go and see the damn movie. Nobody (apart from small kids & their parents) is going to see this movie.

I hope that I’m wrong, and that everything works out well for all parties involved. That the internet has done something to everyone’s benefit and the change in Sonic means that it smashes it at the box office. I doubt it though, because there’s more to a film than what its main furry mascot looks like, and that trailer still didn’t amaze me into watching it. I imagine a lot of others are going to be the same.

I don’t care what Sonic the Hedgehog looks like in a film I’m not going to watch. You shouldn’t either.