So, Control has rightfully been nominated for and received many great awards.
The game has many, many great things going for it including being of the best pieces of New Weird (with the proper implications).
But I personally think we should be talking about how Jesse Faden’s wardrobe is utterly amazing not just within the themes of the game, but just in each outfit tells a story and is perfectly designed for its stated purpose.
Every one of them is a distinct outfit which maintains the dignity and practicality of the protagonist, they are consistent with her personality and circumstances. None of them sexual her, even when specifically depowering her to create the feelings of helplessness and vulnerability.
A lot of that can be boiled down to two factors:
- Commitment to creating an entire world and complete story that will be compelling to the audience and a foundation for further expansion
- Hiring women into positions of creative influence and letting them take the lead in conversations that are relevant to women *
This is fantastic costume design, and I cannot recommend this game enough. It’s currently available on PlayStation, X-Box and the Epic Games Store. It will become available on Steam in August next year.
– wincenworks
* For those rushing to type a response about creative freedom etc, I can assure you that this game is very much still a Sam Lake story (perhaps the most Sam Lake story every) and he considers it to be one moreso than Quantum Break. The enemy of creative freedom isn’t diversity and inclusion, its risk adverse executives who believe in simplistic but comforting myths.
Okay, so Tumblr has permanently blocked the Mercenary Suit (which may or may not be available on the backup site… not that I would ever want to subvert our corporate overlords) so let me propose a different outfit from the same, empowering armor manufacturer: The Anti-Venom Suit!
Not only does it empower men with badassery, it stops us from being harmed by venom, poisons, toxins or Venom Snake (aka Keiffer Snake). I mean it doesn’t promise that explicitly, but it’s right there in the title! You can always trust what it’s in the title!
– wincenworks
Another game I’ve never played but felt that it would be fun to do an armor fix for!
BlackRose from .hack
I remember back in the day I thought she looked really cool, and that hasn’t really changed but I wanted to just give her some protection.Also what kinda sword is that I am so confused.
Man, this brings back memories. Mostly of a very depressed and quiet protagonist either sitting around or looking confused/concerned at various set-pieces. (Can you tell that I found the series boring?) Oh, there was also a cat lady. In the games, at least.
I really like the redesign! There are so many small but great changes, like the pattern on her stomach that breaks up the large overall shapes much better than in the original (what large shapes). I especially like the knee guards; they make it really obvious how the original’s inclusion of teal/grey is not enough to tie the design together, but it looks great in the redesign.
I’m also not mad about the sword being changed; I always wondered how it attached to her, even when I used to watch the show.
-Icy
So Wolfenstein: Youngblood has been out for a few days, and the fact that it exists has been driving alt-right, capital G “Gamers” nuts.
It’s a fun action game where a pair of fictional women, who are not designed as Sexbot 3000s, kill a whole bunch of Nazis. As well as that, they work with a primarily female main cast, including a young black woman (voiced by a black woman – yes this is rare in games!) as their super genius handler. It’s great, and that Nazis hate it makes it even greater.
How batshit are they going? Well on top of trying to bomb the Steam reviews and turn the Discussion boards into a cesspit – they’re trying desperately to bomb the Metacritc as well… like no one will be suspicious.
Of course, in the reviews they’re claiming a variety of contradictory issues which I’m not going to go into here since experience tells me they’re going to spam them regardless of how often they’re countered. It’s a thing.
Now, while I’m not a fan of the outfits having plating to essentially showcase where the boobs are – otherwise this is basically how to do any sort of form fitting “soft” armor (chainmail, kevlar, etc). It sits on the body without pushing boobs and butts into display, and the natural light means it’s rarely titillating and definitely not designed for suspicious camera angles (pay attention Mass Effect)
On top of that, the other costumes for the twins and many other female characters are great and the twins are some of the best characters introduced into the FPS genre in a long, long time. So of course bro-dudes hate it with the fury of a thousand suns.
So if you’re looking for a game you can play with a buddy, or just one you play with a female AI companion who isn’t also a Sexbot 3000, and you’re as against Nazis as we are – consider: Youngblood.
– wincenworks
So it seems Remedy (creators of Max Payne, Alan Wake and Quantum Break) have decided to branch out, rather than making a game about a man who can’t stop narrating about his surreal life they’re going to make Control, a game about a woman who can’t stop narrating about her surreal life…
What’s really ground breaking about this though is that it shows exactly how easy it is for developers to make a female character who can run and gun without sexifying up her design. They’ve even refrained from using her pants to produce gratuitous butt shots in the promos!
And it’s a definite improvement on the last role the voice actress played in a Remedy game… because tactical clothes do not fit like that:
It turns out this stuff was easy all along, all you have to do is think of your female character as a person… who knew…!?
– wincenworks
(Yes her hair is sub optimal but in a game where you have surreal telekinetic powers, I will take annoying but expressive hairstyle over “if no boob, how woman” tops any day – at least the former is expressive of character and can make for dramatic framing/composition)
This artwork by (nsfw-warning) @cutesexyrobutts2 (who explicitly is paid money for doing NSFW pics) is not just concept art: it’s an impressive self-own by Mark Kern (GamerGater & general terrible person) AND a great illustration of the folly of the “sex sells” myth. (Turns out sex doesn’t even get attention anymore)
(Before we continue – for the benefit of those about to frantically type a comment – the artwork is very much on brand for the artist, and would even be very suitable in an explicitly erotic game or just as softcore erotic art. The problem isn’t the art itself, it’s that it’s for a game about mechs vs kaiju)
This art was used heavily in a “buy now” promotion a few days prior to releasing the first playable demo* of the game that’s been in development for three years.
As of time of writing:
- The combined total for Mark’s three “check out the demo” tweets is 24 retweets and 115 likes
- Mark’s most popular Em8er tweet (according to Mark) has 82 retweets and 433 likes
- the artist’s tweet has 1,162 retweets and 8,006 likes, with the following hilarious disclaimer reply by Mark:
It’s probably good that the majority of people who like this art like it as a pinup and not as a promise of content to be in the game then.
If the most interesting thing about your game is a thing that isn’t central to the game or in even in it… a giant stop sign, clearly your game is going wrong. I mean at the very least, stop asking people to hand over their money for a product that’s guaranteed to disappoint. ***
This is of course, the most extreme example – but it’s probably something to consider the next time you see a game promoting itself with bizarrely incongruent sexual imagery, big promises and little substance.
– wincenworks
* Playable in the absolute vaguest sense possible – there’s only movement mechanics so it’s not even an alpha release. Incidentally, from the second indiegogo (the first one was just for the site):
(Due to Mark’s forementioned affiliations – it is safe to say that a lot of these backers lost their shit at @femfreq for extending their deadline due to unforeseen support… I wonder what the difference could be…)
** The gameplay video has 5,681 views ** and 469 thumbs up but according to the site, “Em-8ER is a co-op game pitting hundreds of players against an invading NPC horde of aliens in a massive war.” So far he hasn’t clear 250 subs and is offering to maybe allow up to FIVE people people at a time on the same demo map. Good luck with match making.
*** To date Em8er as a product has had three indiegogos and is pitching for people to buy pre-order packages starting at $34.95 US and going up to…
Most popular content (the sexy lady) possibly not included.
