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Game

The Matrix director Lilly Wachowski comes out as a transgender woman 

Thanks friends and family for support The co-director of the sci-fi blockbuster franchise The Matrix has come out as a transgender woman, joining her sibling, who also transitioned eight years ago.
Lilly Wachowski, formerly known as Andy, penned an open letter to the Windy City News about her transition after fears of being outed by British tabloid The Daily Mail. In her letter, Wachowski acknowledged that her transition had “almost" been revealed before, and that her agent had warned her that reporters had been inquiring about her gender. It wasn’t until a Daily Mail writer confronted her, on her doorstep, that Wachowski realized she had to report the news herself.
"You know, when you’re living as an out transgender person it’s … kind of difficult to hide," Wachowski wrote in her letter. "I just wanted — needed some time to get my head right, to feel comfortable. But apparently I don’t get to decide this."
She added that living as a trans woman isn’t easy, but expressed gratitude for the family, friends and colleagues in her life who accepted her without question.
Just a few years ago, Lilly’s sister Lana — who used to go by the name Laurence —came out as a transgender woman, and spoke about her experiences growing up before coming out. Lana completed her transition in 2008, after the release of Speed Runner. While working on the project, multiple reports had come out suggesting that Lana was undergoing a transitional process, but producer Joel Silverman denied it. In 2012, Lana came out as a trans woman, during a behind-the-scenes video for her project at the time, Cloud Atlas.
Together, Lilly and Lana Wachowski directed The Matrix trilogy under their former names, as well as many other movies. The pair also wrote the script for the 2006 film adaptation of Alan Moore’s acclaimed graphic novel, V for Vendetta.
Wachowski’s news was welcomed and supported by GLAAD, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian and transgender persons, but in the same statement GLAAD ripped the publication that forced her hand. Nick Adams, GLAAD’s director of programs for transgender media, condemned The Daily Mail’s reporting as harassment, and warned that "outing" a transgender person is as unacceptable as outing a gay or lesbian individual.
Lilly Wachowski’s full letter can be read here.

Game

XCOM 2’s first DLC pack adds customization options next week 

Confuse your alien enemies “Anarchy’s Children," the first of three planned add-ons for XCOM 2, will bring a variety of additions to the character customizer when it launches March 17, publisher 2K Games announced today.
The pack includes more than 100 new customization options, such as hair styles, face paint, helmets and masks. "Anarchy’s Children" costs $4.99 on its own, but it’s the first part of the $19.99 Reinforcement Pack. That bundle also covers the Alien Hunters and Shen’s Last Gift add-ons, both of which are scheduled to be released this summer.
2K noted that players who have purchased the Reinforcement Pack shouldn’t also buy any of its components separately, since they’ll be charged twice.
XCOM 2 developer Firaxis Games also said today that it’s working on a patch for the game that will include optimizations and bug fixes. The studio did not provide a time frame for the patch’s release, but said it "will have more info to share on this very soon."
For more on XCOM 2, read our review. The game is available on Linux, Mac and Windows PC.

Game

Thumper sending players to rhythm hell on PlayStation VR 

Stylish indie comes to virtual reality Thumper, the unique “rhythm violence" game heading to PlayStation 4 and Windows PC, will also launch on PlayStation VR. Marc Flury, half of two-person development studio Drool, announced the news on the PlayStation Blog and shared a new trailer for the VR version.
"To be honest, at first we weren’t sure whether Thumper would be a good fit for VR," Flury said in the post. "We’ve spent the past few years obsessed with making Thumper the most intense two-dimensional experience possible. Wouldn’t a VR version be too intense?"

Must Read

The making of PlayStation VR

Drool found that, in VR, Thumper is even more intense than usual — but to its benefit, not detriment. Thus, when the game arrives, it will be playable entirely in 2D and with the PlayStation VR headset.
We looked at Thumper last year during Game Developers Conference 2015. During our time with the game then, we called it "simultaneously one of the prettiest and most nerve-racking, sweat-inducing games" we’d ever experienced. Check out our gameplay preview below for more.

Game

J.K. Rowling introduces Scourers, an enemy of wizards and witches 

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed a new enemy that American wizards and witches had to thwart during the 17th century.
In her new series, which explores the history of magic in North America, Rowling introduced a group of authoritarian vigilantes called Scourers. Originally created by a group of like-minded individuals who wanted to create a form of law enforcement for magical beings, they eventually became power-hungry and hateful of the people they vowed to protect.
According to Rowling, the lack of a judicial front for this new group of magical immigrants that had come over from Europe, “was filled by an unscrupulous band of wizarding mercenaries of many foreign nationalities, who formed a much-feared and brutal taskforce."
Rowling added that, eventually, the Scourers become obsessed with capturing magical folk and trafficking them for gold, and indulged in "bloodshed and torture." Although it sounds like this could have been a group as terrible as the Death Eaters, the infamous band of evil wizards and witches that served Lord Voldemort in the original Harry Potter series, Rowling wrote that the Scourers eventually tore themselves away from magic altogether.
In fact, the Scourers came to loathe magical beings and, as they migrated into muggle circles, began to teach their children that magic was real and those that possessed magical powers should be hated.
In the latest edition of Rowling’s ongoing history series, the author also addressed the Salem witch hunt and trials, exploring how detrimental that period was to the growth of the wizarding community in America.
The entire chapter can be read on Rowling’s website, Pottermore.

Game

Feminist Frequency ending Tropes vs. Women for new series on ‘ordinary women’ 

Web show to end later this year Feminist Frequency, the nonprofit organization run by media critic Anita Sarkeesian, is launching a new video project — and wrapping up its current series. The group behind Tropes vs. Women in Video Games posted the video above to debut its next show, Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History. Feminist Frequency is seeking $200,000 on Seed & Spark to fund its production.
Ordinary Women “is going to focus exclusively on real women from history, rather than fictional women from media," Sarkeesian told Polygon. "We’ve talked often about the gender stereotypes that limit the scope of female characters in games, and the Ordinary Women project takes that conversation a step further, highlighting examples of women who have defied those stereotypes."

Must Read

Anita Sarkeesian, ‘gaming’s feminist advocate,’ makes the Time 100

The featured women will primarily be leaders in fields like science and literature. Each of the currently planned four episodes will focus on one woman and feature a combination of live-action and animated segments; Sarkeesian will serve as host.
The $200,000 campaign goal represents a significant increase over the $6,000 goal for Tropes vs. Women. That project went on to raise nearly $160,000.
Donations will be accepted until April 7; campaign rewards included posters and a pack of postcards designed by the character artist for TowerFall. The goal is to release the first episode of Ordinary Women in September.
While Ordinary Women won’t tackle gaming as directly as the well-known, at times controversial Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series does, Sarkeesian said that the new project is an outgrowth of Feminist Frequency’s earlier project.
"In a lot of ways, this new series is a natural progression of the work we’ve done with Tropes vs. Women in Video Games," she told us. "It’s a direct counter to the ‘that’s how women were back then’ excuse that gets used so frequently in video games."
Tropes vs. Women in Video Games will wrap production by the end of 2016, Sarkeesian confirmed. In an FAQ on the Ordinary Women campaign page, she said that "we’re well into the second and final season of the series, which we plan to wrap up by the end of 2016."
The Kickstarter for Tropes vs. Women in Video Games hinted at the series’ conclusion earlier this year before announcing a format change for season two. New episodes of the show, in which Sarkeesian goes in-depth on depictions of women in gaming, are shorter than previous entries.
Eight episodes are planned for the show’s final season. The first premiered in January and detailed the presentation of male and female behinds in video games.

Game

Elektra and the Punisher, explained 

Matt Murdock is Daredevil, a hero who tries to uphold a personal morality that it is wrong to kill criminals, even ones who are truly horrible. But he lives in a world where many people don’t agree, and two of them are showing up in season two of Netflix’s Daredevil series: Elektra Natchios (Elodie Yung, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and Frank Castle, the Punisher (Jon Bernthal, The Walking Dead).
One is an assassin and expert martial artist who enjoys the sai and using vaguely defined mystic talents; the other is a U.S. Marine who’s into wearing shirts with skulls while he kills mobsters and other violent criminals. So if you’re curious about the comic book mythos of these two morally ambiguous warriors, here’s your crash course.

This is the TOC title
Who Is Elektra?

Elektra was never supposed to be famous or popular. She was meant to be a one-off character: a female assassin whom the hero Matt Murdock recognizes as his college girlfriend.
Her debut in Daredevil #168 (1981) was a filler story meant to introduce an old love interest who had lost her way since breaking up with Murdock (ain’t that always the way with vigilantes and their exes?). But during this run, Frank Miller built up the mythology of Daredevil, revealing that he’d been mentored by Stick, one of several warrior mystics called the Chaste who regularly opposed the demon-worshipping, ninja assassin clan known as the Hand. Miller would eventually reveal that Elektra trained under the Hand after she wasn’t accepted into the Chaste.
later creators brought Elektra the depth and agency hinted at in early stories but rarely explored
In Elektra’s debut story, however, we just got a few pages to fill us in on her background. Elektra Natchios is the daughter of Hugo Kostas Natchios, Greek ambassador. (Her mother is not mentioned, but later comics reveal that Christina Natchios died giving birth to her only child.) Elektra’s father has her guarded at all times, even as she attends classes at Columbia University, because he fears terrorists will take her hostage. According to her, this means she has “no friends" at all. Matt Murdock asks her out, but she turns him down and he figures it must be because he’s blind, so, despite knowing her for less than a minute, he reveals his superhuman senses and acrobatic/fighting skills in order to impress her. The two fall in love, but one day Elektra and her father are taken hostage on campus by armed radicals. Oddly, the hostage takers don’t actually make any political demands to the police, only asking for "a car and a plane out of town." Clearly, their plan was: Step 1, hold the Greek ambassador and his daughter hostage; Step 2, ???; Step 3, profit!
Teenage Matt has a red scarf he was going to give Elektra (which suspiciously looks like the bandana she wears with her costume in later years), and uses it as a mask while he takes on the armed radicals. When he accidentally knocks one of them out a window (presumably killing the guy, considering the height), the police panic about what must be going on and open fire, killing Hugo Natchios in the process. Elektra doesn’t cry at her father’s funeral, but decides she must leave Matt and America behind, as she is not "as strong" as Matt is and no longer has faith in laws and government after a police officer killed her father. It’s after this that she winds up becoming an assassin.

The issue ends in the present, with Elektra realizing that Daredevil is her old lover Matt and then crying for the first time ever, we’re told. Because finding out your college boyfriend from a decade back likely objects to you now killing for money and sport is a lot more of an emotional hit than watching your father shot by cops who freaked out after said ex knocked someone out a window. It’s a tale as old as time.
In any event, it was meant to end there, with Matt and Elektra going back to their separate lives. But Miller changed his mind and brought Elektra back in the very next issue for a single page that had her break into Matt’s apartment, become jealous upon realizing he had a girlfriend, then leave. Several issues later, Elektra takes a job as assassin for the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, who by this point has become Daredevil’s main enemy. But she winds up holding back on account of her feelings for Matt, so Kingpin sends the assassin Bullseye to kill her. The confrontation happens in Daredevil #181 (1982): After a heated battle, Bullseye mocks Elektra, cuts her throat with a playing card, stabs her with her own sai, then follows her as she weakly makes her way to Matt Murdock’s apartment and bleeds to death in his arms. After barely a handful of appearances, Miller’s femme fatale was dead, leading into a few issues exploring Matt’s grief and guilt over the event — feelings he didn’t share with his fiancée and friends.

The Hand later decides to use dark magic to revive Elektra and turn her into a loyal undead warrior; the Chaste recruits Matt to help stop this and, in the process, reveals more of her backstory. Readers learn that after the death of her father, Elektra trained with the Chaste but was denied membership for being too emotional, as she was not over the death of her father. She joined the Hand to impress the Chaste by dismantling the evil assassins from within, but then became corrupt herself after being asked to kill her sensei as part of her initiation. The Chaste informed Matt that her love for him was another emotional weakness, and it led to her death.
Matt and his allies foil the plan to turn Elektra into a zombie ninja, and in the process his love apparently purifies the darkness in her soul. Her body vanishes and the story ends with Elektra dressed in white at the top of a snowy mountain peak, one that she had failed to climb before in a test of worthiness for the Chaste.

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After Death

This mountaintop ending was taken to be metaphorical — the issue even said that Elektra and Daredevil would never encounter each other again. Marvel editor Ralph Macchio personally told Miller that she would not be resurrected. Instead, Miller explored Elektra in prequel stories. The 1985 miniseries Elektra: Assassin (written by Miller with art by Bill Sienkiewicz) was a hit with many readers, showing how interesting the assassin was even without Daredevil around. The story explored her origin in more detail, contradicting some of what Miller had written before, as Elektra now trained with the Chaste before her father’s death (and was still rejected for being too emotional). Miller tackled the character again in the 1990 graphic novel Elektra Lives Again, working with Lynn Varley. The surreal story was arguably more about Matt Murdock’s grief, focusing on haunting dreams he has of the fallen assassin.
"Under the circumstances, I think we did a really good job of bringing her back"
Finally, Miller retconned Elektra into always having been a borderline sociopath in the 1993-94 miniseries Daredevil: The Man Without Fear. While she’s dating Murdock, she throws herself into dangerous situations just for the thrill of surviving them, and secretly provokes men into attacking her so she has an excuse to use her fighting skills to hurt them. Wow.
In 1993, Elektra Natchios truly returned from the dead in the Daredevil storyline "Fall from Grace," by D.G. Chichester and Scott McDaniel. What about the promise to Miller that this wouldn’t happen? Pat Garrahy was assistant editor on Daredevil during "Fall from Grace," and had this to say: " meant to keep his promise. But he made the promise when Marvel was a close-knit company, and Marvel the corporation had no intention of leaving Elektra an unturned stone. The orders for Elektra’s return came from above — they wanted to play with her potential as an action figure. Under the circumstances, I think we did a really good job of bringing her back."

"Fall from Grace" reveals that the mountain climbing scene we saw after the Hand tried to resurrect Elektra was literal, not a metaphor regarding her soul. After the Hand’s magic and Matt’s love resurrected her as a pure-souled woman, she’d finally been allowed to join the Chaste, leaving her old life behind her. In "Fall from Grace," the now white-clad and more mystically empowered Elektra returns to New York City to help Daredevil fight evil forces, including Erynys, the living embodiment of the darkness that Daredevil’s pure love removed from her soul.
Elektra kills Erynys, but winds up unwillingly absorbing her darkness back into herself. Feeling tainted once again by emotions like guilt, she cries over the peace that she’s lost. Daredevil then pretends to punch her in the face, only to stop his fist at the last second, in order to prove through her adrenaline rush that life is about passion and feeling rather than living on a mountaintop with no emotional attachments. Elektra sobs in Matt’s arms. And if you think all of this sounds pretty messed up, you’re not alone. Ironically, "Fall from Grace" resulted in Daredevil faking his death (not for the first time) and deciding to cut himself off from all emotions, even pretending not to know old friends and loves, including Elektra. So the resurrected assassin set off to find a new path elsewhere in the Marvel Universe. Fortunately, later creators truly brought Elektra the depth and agency often hinted at but rarely explored in previous stories.

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Modern Elektra

Following "Fall from Grace," Elektra bounced around the Marvel Universe for a while as an antihero without a real calling. In 2000, she got an ongoing series with creators Brian Michael Bendis (creator of Jessica Jones) and Chuck Austen. Bendis largely took her back to her roots, but put her on the side of the angels (in this case, SHIELD). His Elektra believes in harsh solutions but wishes to protect the world and innocents, and remains disconnected from feelings and thoughts that would only make her job harder. She takes down dictators and terrorists, aids trauma and rape victims, and accepts a world of moral ambiguity. This has been the Elektra that we’ve largely known since: one who isn’t defined primarily by her relationship to Daredevil and his response to her death. In the 21st century, she’s been an even bigger part of the Marvel Universe, fighting alongside groups such as the Thunderbolts, the Heroes for Hire, Code Red and SHIELD.
In 2014, she got a new ongoing series by Haden Blackman and Michael del Mundo, and let me tell you, it is great. Whether you’ve never read an Elektra comic before or you’re an old fan, Elektra is a must-read that welcomes you to her mythos. It absolutely shows why this woman stands out from the other assassins and warriors inhabiting the Marvel Universe. Sadly, the series ended in 2015, but with Elodie Yung portraying her in Daredevil’s second season, it seems likely we’ll be seeing her in comics again in big ways.
Got it? Good. Now on to the somewhat more convoluted history of the Punisher!

This is the TOC title
Frank Castle is dead

Frank Castle, the U.S. Marine who became the Punisher, first appeared in 1973’s Amazing Spider-Man #121, by writer Gerry Conway and artist Ross Andru. He was created by Gerry Conway to be a morally ambiguous Marine-turned-lethal-vigilante, one who would start as an enemy to Spidey before becoming an ally. This original version of the Punisher — whose costume was designed by Conway and John Romita Sr. — was an introspective warrior. In his first story, the Punisher explains that he takes no joy in his "lonely war" against major criminals, and wonders if killing them means he’s infected by their evil too. He also argues that there are honorable ways to face and kill foes, and to ignore this would make him simply a murderer.
After four appearances where he was a recurring foil in Spider-Man’s life, the Punisher finally starred in his first solo story in Marvel Preview, a black and white magazine intended to deliver more adult-oriented comic book stories, ones that did not necessarily take place within the canonical Marvel Universe.
"Revenge… a tawdry, emotional response no better than the act that provokes it"
Marvel Preview #2 (1975), written by Conway with art by Tony DeZuniga, was the first reveal of the character’s origin. A flashback shows Frank Castle as a Marine recently returned home from tours in Vietnam. While visiting Central Park with his wife and two children, his family stumbles upon a gang execution in a secluded area (really, you’d think mobsters would be a little more discreet than to perform executions in such a place in daylight). The mobsters open fire on the family of witnesses, and Frank Castle is the sole survivor. Traumatized, the Marine decides that Frank Castle died with his family. Now there’s just the Punisher, a walking avatar of death using all his military training and experience to eliminate those he deems the enemy.
Frank Castle’s origin was explored in greater detail in the 1994 miniseries Punisher Year One, by writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and artists Dave Eaglesham and Scott Koblish. The story shows Castle lost and suicidal after the deaths of his family, hoping that the American legal system will deliver justice. Only after more trauma and defeats does he decide to take matters into his own hands, recording in his first "war journal" entry: "Revenge is not a valid motive. It’s a tawdry, emotional response no better than the act that provokes it. I’m talking about… punishment."

This is the TOC title
The Two Franks

The introspective warrior created by Gerry Conway may seem at odds with the more merciless version readers are more familiar with today. This version of the Punisher, who did not question his actions, first came to life in the early 1980s, in Captain America #241, written by writer Mike Barr and drawn by artists Frank Springer and Pablo Marcos. In that story, the Punisher says he admires Cap, but then opens fire on the hero for getting in his way. In the 1982 Daredevil issues #183 and #184, Frank Miller portrayed Castle as a harsh foil against Daredevil’s morality, a man who argues that vigilantes who don’t kill are part of the problem.

When the Punisher got his own miniseries in 1986, followed by his first ongoing series in 1987, the character was closer to the Conway version, wishing to end criminals permanently but also worrying about causing more fear in the innocent, and acknowledging that some problems couldn’t be solved with bullets. But in the mid- and late 1990s, Marvel wasn’t sure what to do with him; different creators offered very different takes on the Punisher. Marvel even killed the guy so he could be resurrected as an undead warrior working for heaven, thus rebooting him as a supernatural character. It didn’t take.
Then writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon launched a series in 2000 that returned the Punisher to being a human vigilante, following the Barr/Miller interpretation that he did not question his own morality as long as evil people died and innocents and law enforcement did not. In Ennis’ interpretation, the Punisher was a serial killer who targeted other killers. This incarnation struck a chord with fans and creators to come, leading to a relaunch under Marvel’s MAX imprint, which took place outside of mainstream Marvel canon and allowed for more violent and adult-oriented storytelling. This version of Castle met his end in the Punisher MAX miniseries in 2010, written by Jason Aaron with art by Steve Dillon.

This is the TOC title
21st-Century Punisher

Along with Garth Ennis’s out-of-continuity Marvel MAX series, Frank Castle returned to the mainstream Marvel Universe during the Civil War crossover after an absence of a few years, joining Captain America’s group in opposition to Iron Man and the Super-Human Registration Act. Not long afterward, he wound up being killed (again), only to then be resurrected as an undead warrior (again) called FrankenCastle. I’m not kidding. This bizarre incarnation was dropped in 2010 and Frank became a living, non-supernatural human yet again.
A fantastic Punisher relaunch came in 2011 from writer Greg Rucka and artist Marco Checchetto. While many creators had shown would-be sidekicks and replacements for Castle over the years (many of whom wound up shot), Rucka and Checchetto’s run introduced a true partner and protege in the character of Maria Cole, a Marine who seeks out the Punisher as a mentor after her husband is murdered. Personally, I’d love to see her in a Netflix Punisher series if it happens.
Yet another Punisher relaunch came in 2015 under the team of Becky Cloonan (DC’s Gotham Academy) and artist Steve Dillon (Punisher MAX). Time will tell what new and strange adventures Castle will wind up having. Maybe he’ll become a white-haired cyborg who fights Cable for the right to own that look. Who knows? It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that’s happened to him. But with Jon Bernthal playing him in Netflix’s Daredevil, interesting times are definitely ahead.

Game

Zero Time Dilemma’s first screens debut new look for Zero Escape series 

The puzzle-heavy visual novel goes 3D The latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu included the first screenshots of Zero Time Dilemma, the final installment in Spike Chunsoft’s Zero Escape visual novel series. The handful of images from the game, which will launch on PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS later this year, show off its 3D art style — a look that differs from the 2D art typical of the previous games.

Famitsu spoke to Kotaro Uchikoshi, director of the Zero Escape series, who revealed new details about the game. He explained that Zero Time Dilemma will solve “all of the mysteries from the previous games," according to a translation by Gematsu.
Uchikoshi also said that, to accommodate the 3D cutscenes, a new character designer was brought on for the game. "I wanted to give the impression that has changed significantly from the previous game," he said.
Zero Time Dilemma is set one year after the events of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, which launched on Nintendo DS and was later ported to iOS. The game will see the return of characters from that game as well as its follow-up, Virtue’s Last Reward, which arrived on 3DS and Vita in 2013.
Production on the final Zero Escape game was halted in February 2014 due to low sales of the previous games. Uchikoshi announced that development had resumed last year, however, revealing a teaser trailer at Anime Expo 2015. In October, he confirmed the game’s title.
While there’s still no release date scheduled for Zero Time Dilemma, fans of the series can check out a real-life simulation of its puzzle mechanics. An interactive escape room based on the franchise will open in Los Angeles next month.

Game

Ori and the Blind Forest’s Definitive Edition delayed on PC 

The Xbox One version is still coming this week The Definitive Edition of Ori and the Blind Forest will be released this week on Xbox One, but developer Moon Studios is holding back the Windows PC version for a bit, publisher Microsoft Studios announced today.
“Yes, we did announce a release date of March 11th," said Mark Coates, executive producer on the game at Microsoft Studios. "But to make sure everyone who plays Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition gets a great experience regardless of platform, we’re taking a bit of extra time with the Windows Store and Steam versions."

Must Read

Ori and the Blind Forest review: the places you’ll go

The Xbox One version of the Definitive Edition will still be released March 11, the one-year anniversary of the original game’s debut.
Microsoft also confirmed pricing today. The Definitive Edition of Ori and the Blind Forest will be available on its own for $19.99, the same price at which the base game launched a year ago. People who already own the game can upgrade to the Definitive Edition for $4.99.
Moon Studios originally revealed the Definitive Edition at Gamescom 2015, and planned at the time to release it during the holiday season. The company announced in December that it had delayed the project to spring 2016, so this week’s Xbox One release comes in slightly ahead of the new schedule.
For more on the Definitive Edition of Ori and the Blind Forest, check out the trailer above and our gameplay video below, as well as our written preview.

Game

An open letter to the hostages I just saved in The Division 

Dear hostages I just saved in The Division,
I can’t fucking believe you.
Listen, I understand there’s going to be treasure when I save you from the thugs that are holding you hostage. This is a video game. I get it. I wipe out the bad guys, I find the key, I open your cage, I get the treasure inside. It’s Video Games 101.
I’d be thrilled to have a new riot mask. I’ve got embarrassing gloves, a new pair of those would go down real smooth. I’d even take some blue knee pads, hell, make ‘em green kneepads. I’m not so picky.
But, you know what? With God as my witness, if I ever again open the chest inside your cell and it contains A SHOTGUN? You. Are going. To hear about it.
You cannot be held hostage with A SHOTGUN. You can not be held captive by people who are susceptible to being shot by a shotgun (read: all people). You can not be held captive behind doors that can be “unlocked" with a shotgun (read: most doors). You are not a hostage, you are a tenant of the electronics store closet, and you’re living rent-free.
Do you know how hard it was just to find you? Look at my map.

Literally. That’s literally what I’m working with.
I’m sure you’re about to protest, so let me cut off your counter-arguments at the pass:
They would have noticed and shot me! Hi, have you met your captors? Allow me to make an introduction. They are the villains who are so heart-stoppingly stupid that they locked you in a closet WITH A GUN. Also, if you were waiting for a good distraction to make your move, I might have suggested when that heroic Adonis outside was drawingly literally all their fire in an attempt to rescue you. You can’t have missed him, he died and respawned like 17 times trying to rescue your unfathomable uselessness.
Keep out of closets, especially ones with guns in them.
The gun chest was locked! The gun chest was not locked. I know because I opened it and had it been locked that would have required a lockpick and I’ve never ever found a lockpick. Ever. I know there are lockpicks. I’m pretty sure there are lockpicks somewhere. Please let me know if you see one.
I don’t believe in violence! Wait, are you MacGyver? No, no I didn’t think so. You know what happens to people who don’t believe in guns during pandemic apocalypses who simultaneously aren’t MacGyver? They get locked in the closet of a boarded up Radio Shack. You should have hung a sign on the door that said "Please don’t bother saving me, I’m just going to get locked in another closet. This is how I kick it now. Locked in closets. Please slip a Fruit Roll-Up under the door."
All the enemies are total bullet sponges! Yeah, OK, you got me on this one, I don’t have a witty retort. Let’s hope for a patch.
Listen, I’m not heartless. I imagine it’d be scary to take on a building full of thugs armed with assault rifles and surprisingly decent AI. … Oh wait, I don’t have to imagine because I just did it a half-dozen times so my friend the doctor could build a pediatric wing at the post office. The cherry on that crap sundae? Murdering eight guys who were shooting flamethrowers at me — one of whom I’m pretty sure I went to high school with — for you. For you.
OK, you can now officially consider yourself warned. Keep out of closets, especially ones with guns in them. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go have a stern talk with the person using our generators to keep all the Christmas lights at the mall turned on.

I mean, c’mon.

Game

This might be the best video game music channel on YouTube 

These are the high-quality rips you’ve been looking for If you’re looking for some classic video game music to be a part of your workday playlist, you can’t go wrong with GilvaSunner’s YouTube channel, which runneth over with original soundtracks from the NES to the SNES to the PlayStation and beyond.
Check out GilvaSunner’s playlists for more video game soundtracks. There are 400 of these.

If you’re in the mood for something more modern, GilvaSunner’s YouTube channel has recent game soundtracks too, like this selection from The Evil Within.

And the Undertale soundtrack.

If you’re looking for some vocal tracks, GilvaSunner has those too.