Themes and topics that are explored in gaming these days tend to take on more serious meaning, and at the same time, powerful female leads have continued to arise.
The move away from written coverage of games is a problem for journalists and for the games industry.
What we need is a more honest games media. I'm sorry but if you're an outlet in bed with a publisher or getting goodies to attend preview/ review events then you can't be trusted to be objective. Very similar to the need for getting money out of politics.
Most game journalists are pariahs and low level marketing drones. They got too greedy and cannibalized their respect and trust. Something they learned not to do in their journalism schools. This is why we might as well watch gameplay critics on You Tube. Don't get me wrong, I love reading, but for every genuine article there is a thousand game journalist trying to gloss over monetization schemes so they can sell the game to gamers in order to get free games to do their jobs. It gets old. Even this piece doesn't address the problem.
We need better media in all aspects of society, period. Everything from the gaming press, to MSM is all fueled by clickbait headlines, half truths and buzzword topics that don't give much meat or meaning for the reader to benefit from.
During the Game Developers Session (GDS) conference in Prague, we had the privilege of speaking with Rhianna Pratchett, an award-winning writer and narrative designer. Pratchett, who has penned some of the most memorable female protagonists like Nariko from Heavenly Sword, Faith from Mirror’s Edge, and Lara Croft from the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, delves into the challenges and freedoms of writing for different media, AAA and indie games.
Complex? She literally made Lara Croft whine and have father issues for an entire trilogy
Groundbreaking...
Female Commander Shepard is a way better female character then Lara Croft has been.
Meanwhile it seems that female characters across entertainment media are being dumb down. What they've done to the female characters in the Avatar adaptation is insulting.
8K UUHD with path tracing at 5000 FPS is great, but what if you only have $300?
So the BG3 guys found an optimization for all other platforms by way of the little engine that could... interesting.
The typical "it's holding us back" argument aside, from a sales perspective, the S is selling way more than the X (wasn't it like 75% of total?), so you could make the case that if it wasn't for the S, Xbox would have like 25% of the sales they have now...
This is what happens when you have people jumping the gun for some quick doom and gloom headlines. Not to mention getting opinions from devs that were possibly frustrated that they would have to do some extra tinkering for the S. And to an extent, rightly so. But the optimization and trades are there to make a game play on the S. It's a budget console and it should be treated as such.
But I have to laugh at the rest of the crowd who actually told people that the S was holding back this gen and pretended to be shocked that the S wouldn't have the bells and whistles that the X or PS5 would.
It's almost as if they were reaching, hard.
The S means there will never be a current gen. game built specifically for the SX. Most devs and publishers don't have the talent to optimize like BG3.
BTW, I only game at 30,000 fps...This article is a stupid take. The only thing good about the S is that it kept MSXbox way below 2nd place.
She's strong and, I must say, the sexiest female game character.
Why not just be a strong character? Pratchett says it herself, they're interesting characters, and interesting denotes strong characters. Even if they aren't strong physically, even if they're mentally unstable, they can be interesting, which only leads to an interesting story if put to good use.
I mean with Heath Ledgers Joker, did we say he was a strong crazy character? No, we said he was an interesting character. Because that's what it's all about.
There are examples of strong female characters out there, but to make your character a strong female character instead of a strong character in general, is only looking at the superficial aspect of that character being a female...which more often than not just means they aren't likely to be an interesting character, because being female does not make one interesting. What that character does is what makes them interesting.
That being said, I don't really find the new Lara Croft that interesting, and don't feel she's a good representation of a "strong female character".
They really did suck all the life and character out of lara crofts personality, completely boring, drab character with mental issues that contradicts her motivation on going on just 1 more perilous and dangerous adventure.