Relevant Roundup #3

Cyberpunk 2077 comes under scrutiny

After a poor launch with refunds being offered for digital copies and accusations of transmisia in the game, Cyberpunk 2077 has been one of the biggest disappointments of the year, for anyone who actually believed the hype. Things have gone from bad to worse in recent days, as management were asked how they thought they could make a game on exploitative capitalist practises when they forced their workers to crunch to get the game out by its (third) deadline.

TMNT and Radiophobia

‘Heroes with a Half Life: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and American Repression of Radiophobia after Chernobyl’ by Nicky Falkof is an interesting article on how well the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle TV series tackles the fears of mutations and radiation contamination.

Who owns Commander Shepard?

This 53 minute video (with closed captions) examines just how much freedom the player has to mould Commander Shepard throughout the original trilogy. There is focus on how the narrative and RPG mechanics shift between the games, and what compromises had to be made.

Designing Garrus

In this eight minute video, Derek Watts, the art director for Mass Effect 3, talks about the process of designing Garrus and the struggles the team faced when trying to figure out how to represent female turians.

Final Fantasy VII and just what was going on with those experiments

X-Soldier breaks down just how much attention was paid to detail the incredible creatures of the Final Fantasy VII remake. This essays pays particular attention to the development that has taken place from the original game, and how Shinra may be using experiments on living creatures and people to its benefit.