Rewatch This Spaces looks at all the times I've done a video game episode so far.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: November 17th 2025
#videogames #gaming #games #marvelrivals #thelastofus #masseffect #n7
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: November 17th 2025
#videogames #gaming #games #marvelrivals #thelastofus #masseffect #n7
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GamingTranscript
00:19This is probably old news, but according to comicbook.com, DC Studios head James Gunn was asked at a studio
00:24event about the idea of a DC Comics answer to the recent video game Marvel Rivals.
00:29The hero shooter with characters from DC's fellow publisher Marvel saying, totally possible, I'll be open to it.
00:35Now this got me pondering the idea about what characters should be in a hypothetical DC hero shooter, but then
00:40my mind wandered into a more interesting topic.
00:43Who gets to be in a hypothetical DC hero shooter?
00:46What I mean by this is that one of the reasons I think Marvel Rivals is a big success, non
00:50-gameplay rise, I don't play it, is because it has a good variety of A-list characters, but also more
00:55lesser known characters in its roster.
00:57Cloak and Dagger, Magic, Luna Snell, Squirrel Girl, and Jeff Landshark aren't characters you think of when you hear the
01:03words Marvel, and I think embracing that variety and having deep cuts along with the A-list is good.
01:07Heck, this expands to the non-playable characters as well, with them going with Galacto instead of Galactus.
01:12So which obscure or lesser known characters can a hypothetical DC hero shooter use?
01:17DC has a lot of characters from different eras, companies, time periods, universes, galaxies, and everybody can't all be in
01:24one game, but there's still a big pool to choose from.
01:26From the Golden Age to the Modern Age, to the Slightly Strange to the Downright Serious, and some from different
01:31time periods.
01:32It's a big roster to pick and choose from, so it does seem a bit of a daunting task to
01:36choose from.
01:36Another thing about Marvel Rivals that got going for them is diversity.
01:40Yeah, Tavell's watching this, and are about to flood my comments with,
01:42Why are you putting the new, well-good-industry plot characters over more traditional and normal ones?
01:48Galax have always been diverse, and Marvel Rivals has embraced that aspect as well.
01:52Not just the fact that it has characters like Storm, Luna Snow, and Black Panther, but also characters of a
01:57diverse background,
01:58taking a mantle of traditionally right characters, like Iron Fist here, who isn't Danny Rand, but Lin Lee,
02:03and the name we're in this game is more inspired by the Mesoamerican version from Black Panther Wakanda Forever.
02:08And DC has got a relatively diverse series to choose from, both original characters, but also legacy characters as well.
02:14Also, they could kind of make characters who are traditionally portrayed and depicted as white into other races.
02:22I mean, DC has done other adaptations, or they've done this before, and they've been doing it for years.
02:29Also, maybe change the gender of certain characters as well.
02:33Again, that's another thing DC's done throughout its adaptations, so that'd be kind of cool to see,
02:38and, you know, it would make the hypothetical game better representative of the world that we live in.
02:43Another thing DC has is a lot of heroes with disabilities, both in a physical sense, but also mentally as
02:47well.
02:47And also, hey, a slew of characters on the LGBTQ spectrum.
02:51Hey, Luna Snow, bringing her up again, because, hey, she is not an American superhero like the rest of the
02:57people on here.
02:58In fact, DC has a lot of heroes from outside of America, and, you know, a lot of games have
03:06characters from around the world,
03:08and, you know, the entire gaming world is more international now, or always has been.
03:12So it'd be kind of cool to have a playable character represent a country that is in America.
03:16And DC has a lot of heroes from around the world, not just America, so you've got a lot to
03:21pick from there.
03:22Also, hey, Jeff Blanchock. Does DC have a bunch of animal characters?
03:26Yes. Yes, they do.
03:28Majority of them are gorillas, but, yes, a plethora of animal characters.
03:32Also, robots and aliens, so it doesn't have to be human characters as well.
03:35Another thing Marvel Rivals has in its pocket is that it draws characters who weren't from the mainline Marvel canon
03:40in its lineup.
03:42Mark is from an out-of-continuity story and not, say, the Betsy Radical Quanon version.
03:46And Penny Parker is a variant of Peter Parker.
03:48And DC has several different characters from different universes.
03:51And companies they would layer by as well.
03:53Some characters have different takes on mainline heroes.
03:55Others are completely original to their own universe.
03:58DC also has characters from not just a contemporary setting, but also from different time periods.
04:04It's the past, the future, the far future, so many different Batman of the future.
04:09I don't think Marvel Rivals has a lot of characters from, say, a different time period,
04:13so that'd be kind of a cool difference between that and a hypothetical DC shooter.
04:17Bringing up Luna Snow again, but she was also an original character who didn't originate in the comics
04:22and was made for another game.
04:24So, maybe a hypothetical DC hero shooter could use some characters who weren't originally from the comics
04:33and were just created for prior adaptations.
04:36There's a whole lot of them, and it would all kind of be a good fit.
04:40In conclusion, if they ever did make a DC Comics-themed hero shooter,
04:43there's a lot of characters to choose from and that they could make some interesting choices
04:46of which characters they should put in.
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05:12Warning.
05:12The following video discusses spoilers about Season 2 of The Last of Us
05:16and elements of the game that has not been adapted for TV yet.
05:20Please watch this at your own discretion.
05:27So, The Last of Us Season 2 has come and gone,
05:30and the reactions to it have been interesting compared to the game it's adapted from.
05:34When The Last of Us 2 came out, it was a divisive game, to say the least,
05:38mostly owing to certain story elements.
05:41Here, the discussion for the TV show seems to be on how the TV show adapted the game,
05:45mostly changing some elements to make it work as a TV show.
05:48Lots of people have decried these changes, and I don't understand where they're coming from,
05:52but I am okay with how they changed things.
05:55Well, yes, there are some moments I wish were in the game, like the scene in the synagogue,
05:58and I do think Abby telling Joel her motivations take away from the mystery that was in the game,
06:02along with showing who the WLF and scars are early,
06:06but I can see why certain elements were changed.
06:08Video game adaptations, especially movies and TV shows,
06:11were, for a long time, seen as not good, often being in poor quality.
06:14Sometimes you can get a Mortal Kombat 1995, or something made by Uwe Boll.
06:19I feel like the reason why video games are hard to adapt is because of one thing that TV shows
06:24and movies don't have,
06:25interactivity.
06:26Video games are an interactive medium.
06:28You control a character, and you can make them do what you want to do.
06:32You can make choices that affect the story, you can fight enemies,
06:35you can choose who you can fall in love with, and you can explore the world.
06:38You can't do that in a film or an episode of TV where you're just watching something.
06:42When reviewing the 2005 adaptation of Doom, Roger Ebert once said,
06:46This movie has been inspired by the famous video game.
06:49No, I haven't played it, and I never will.
06:51But I know how it feels not to play it, because I've seen the movie.
06:54Doom is like some kid came over and is using your computer and won't let you play.
06:59Interactivity is something that inherits video games,
07:01and without that factor, it takes away from the experience and makes it feel derivative in adaptation.
07:05What would make a Last of Us TV show different from something like The Walking Dead?
07:08If you take out all the scavenging and the gameplay sections, if you're not controlling the characters on screen.
07:13Luckily, when it came to adapting the first video game into a TV show,
07:17they did some interesting creative decisions to circumvent the lack of interactivity.
07:21The Last of Us is a more story-driven game, which can easily fit into the mode of television.
07:25The game's chapters and levels have beginning, middles, and endings,
07:28which you can make into TV episodes, and you can even adapt and change it.
07:32The Bill and Frank episode is a complete 180 from the game,
07:35turning another level which you have to try and escape The Infected into a more personal character piece,
07:40putting focus away from Joel and Ellie,
07:42and creates a breather after the action of the last episode.
07:45In an interview with TechRadar, Neil Druckmann talked about this process of adaptation of Craig Mason when it came to
07:50episode 3.
07:51That's what would have been an important thing in the past,
07:53when you're adapting video games and looking at superficial aspects and thinking,
07:56oh, players want to see that gameplay moment.
07:58That's not what they want.
07:59They want the core of the heart of this experience.
08:02The Last of Us Season 1 adds more scenes and more characters to flesh out the world,
08:06taking away the moments where you as a player would explore the world.
08:08In the show, we have scenes in the past, we have scenes outside of America,
08:11and we have new characters, so you can see them follow this mentality when it came to adapt in Part
08:152.
08:16We get more scenes with other characters, we see Jackson thinning off a horde while Abby works on a golf
08:20swing,
08:20and we have new characters and get more flashbacked into other characters like Isaac.
08:24But do they work?
08:25Kinda.
08:25Compared to Season 1, Season 2 is adapted in half of the game,
08:28so you can see moments that clearly are set up for when they deal with Abby's side of the story,
08:32especially the scenes with Ellie training in Episode 1.
08:35Don't think that will come into play later,
08:36or what Joel said to Eugene when they did the porch scene earlier than expected.
08:40With how they structured the season, it does leave things hanging in some regards.
08:43One extra thing I did love was how it had to circumvent the lack of gameplay.
08:47Last of Us Part 2 is a sprawling game,
08:49then the first, lots of exploration and traversal,
08:51and lots of killing.
08:52Lots and lots of killing in the name of revenge,
08:54ending with Ellie's killing of Nora.
08:58A pregnant woman being a dark combination of a quest for revenge.
09:02The show, being a TV show with a set timeline for an episode,
09:05there isn't a lot of time spent on the killing,
09:07so the show changed that aspect,
09:08and by mixing up certain elements,
09:10mainly having Ellie and Dinah go out to Seattle before Tommy,
09:13and in spite of their community's decision not to do so,
09:16and have Dinah get involved with the action after revealing she's pregnant,
09:20but until she's injured and taken out of action,
09:22Jessie and Tommy have to chase off of them because of this.
09:24Then when you get to Ellie's murder of Nora,
09:26the Dark of the Soul moment for Ellie,
09:27is the realisation that she dragged a lot of people into this,
09:30nearly got her girlfriend killed more than once,
09:32and they could have gotten killed as well.
09:34This change is effective,
09:36and manages to contain the same manner of impact the game did.
09:38Still shocking, and managed to capture the core of the game's story,
09:41and you can tell that this is obviously going to have a bit more impactful
09:44when they do get round to adapting the Abbey parts in Season 3.
09:53But ultimately, the second season does feel incomplete,
09:56and there are some moments I do wish we did get to see adapted.
09:58It will be interesting to see how they adapt the Abbey scenes to TV,
10:02what characters will get expanded upon,
10:03and how will it play out as a whole.
10:14We are currently in a boom period of video game adaptations,
10:18a result of a generational shift in the entertainment industry,
10:21where a bunch of people who grew up in the milieu of gaming culture
10:24are now in positions of producing power
10:26to make any TV and film productions based on video games as they wish.
10:30We've already had projects based on Halo, Mario, Sonic, and Minecraft,
10:33and we have many more to come.
10:35One game on the adaptation block is Mass Effect,
10:38the popular science fiction RPG from Bioware.
10:41Now, this made me raise an eyebrow,
10:43because if you recall my last other studio,
10:45I argued that when transitioning from one medium to another,
10:48changes have to be made to make up for the lack of interactivity
10:52inherent to video games.
10:54Video games are an interactive medium,
10:55you control a character,
10:57and you can make them do what you want to do.
10:59You can make choices that affect the story,
11:01you can fight enemies,
11:02you can choose who you can fall in love with,
11:04and you can explore the world.
11:05You can't do that in a film or an episode of TV
11:08where you're just watching something.
11:09One of the big things that Mass Effect has,
11:12that it was a choice-based game.
11:13You choose who you fall in love with,
11:15who you save,
11:16and even the appearance of gender of your character, famously.
11:19So, if you're adapting that to any medium,
11:21it would be hard to contain,
11:22let alone adapt,
11:23given the branching storylines
11:24and how it affects outcomes.
11:26This is why on N7 Day,
11:27we got some details on the upcoming Mass Effect TV show.
11:31In a blog stating,
11:32the show will explore a brand new story within the universe's timeline
11:35and will be set after the original trilogy.
11:37It won't be a retread of Commander Shepard's story,
11:40because after all,
11:40that's your story, isn't it?
11:41Firstly,
11:42this was an obvious direction for any adaptation of Mass Effect to go.
11:45Look at how Fallout,
11:46another choice-based game,
11:47was adapted into TV,
11:48and it seems to be an avenue that other video game adaptations
11:51are going like the recent Death Stranding anime.
11:53Secondly,
11:53I think this is great.
11:54Mass Effect has a great world to play around in,
11:56and there's lots of directions this can go.
11:58But I have something else on my mind as well.
12:00How will this brand new story work?
12:02Details are brief,
12:02and the show is still in development,
12:04so this video could be entirely pointless when more details emerge.
12:07But if this show is set after Mass Effect 3,
12:10how will it reconcile its three endings?
12:12Well, obviously,
12:12having an original story takes away the hurdle of the choice-based system.
12:15If it's going to be set after the trilogy,
12:18then you can't really do that without acknowledging that one of the three endings,
12:22and, you know,
12:23those endings ended with some pretty big shake-ups for the universe at large.
12:26Now, there are ways to circumvent this.
12:28Mass Effect drama set itself 100 years in the future,
12:31and also in another galaxy to avoid any clashes with the endings.
12:35Unrelated to Mass Effect,
12:36but the Mila Jovovich Resident Evil movies at first
12:38implied the plot of the games were happening at the same time.
12:41But then again,
12:41these are early days,
12:42and we don't know how it could go.
12:44But it shows the ways people adapt video games with different play styles to another medium.
12:48You can do a one-to-one adaptation like The Last of Us,
12:50or say it in the same universe like Fallout.
12:52It shows there's no one way to adapt games.
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