How Telltale Games Plays with Expectations in Their Superhero Series

*80s pop music playing in the distance* (via Den of Geek)

I don’t have to tell anyone reading this site that we’re living in a world saturated by superhero media. Between the hundreds of movies, TV shows, Netflix originals, video games, and of course comics, how does one stand out from the crowd? Especially when you’re one of many adapting/rebooting something as ridiculously overdone as Batman? Well, you do what Telltale Games does: you acknowledge that media saturation and the fact that your title character is a pop culture icon, and you decide to use that to do something different. You accept that your players will be bringing some knowledge of the superhero franchise—be it Batman or, more recently, Guardians of the Galaxy—you’re adapting to the table. And you use that knowledge as a foundation to play on audience expectations and take the opportunity to toy, fanfiction-style, with some “what if?” scenarios to create innovative and intriguing new takes on the familiar stories. And you do it all while exploring and giving agency to sidelined women characters, too!

Spoilers (mostly minor, but major ones are tagged) for both Batman: The Telltale Series and Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series beyond the jump!

Trailer Tuesdays: Tales From the Borderlands

If there’s one good thing that spawned from the travesty that is the VGAs (Spike’s Video Game Awards), it’s the opportunity for different companies to interact with each other. And while Spike themselves seems like a channel that has absolutely no clue how to handle their demographic, this last year—in between the terrible hosting and the inept jokes—the audience was finally rewarded with a trailer to a game that could be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

Tales From the Borderlands combines two of my current favorites of the video game industry, Gearbox’s Borderlands IP and Telltale Games, into one delectable game series a la The Walking Dead. Expanding upon the huge, multi-planet universe, the game is focusing on two new characters: Fiona, who’s wanted for fraud, and a mystery dude who’s decked out in Hyperion gear—I don’t know if he’s half robot/loader or what, but he looks cool.

As with the theme of Borderlands, the obvious thing to think is that the pair is after one of the many treasures that’s said to lay hidden in Pandora’s wastelands. However,  I can’t see Telltale taking that route. Especially with the appearance of Handsome Jack, the big bad of Borderlands 2 who is also currently very dead, it seems like there’s much more to this side-project than meets the eye.

Fanfiction Fridays: Never Getting Over The Walking Dead

Let it be known that before I even started reading, I knew exactly what I was getting into. Maybe I’m a masochist at heart, but with the recent teaser of Telltale’s sequel to their acclaimed The Walking Dead game, I was feeling some zombie fic something fierce. No, that’s a lie. I was feeling some Clementine-and-Lee-family fic something fierce. If you’ve played or watched through the game, you already know that’s a recipe for tears.

Feels bad, man.
(art by JhonyHebert @ deviantArt)

[Spoilers beneath the cut]