TheGamer’s Best Features Of The Week: Bury Your Gays, Rings Of Power, And More

thegamer.com:

We’ve been at Gamescom, we’ve been playing The Last of Us remake, and we’ve been talking to the team behind Rings of Power. We’ve been busy, to put it simply.

Here are the best features from TheGamer over the past seven days, from harmful LGBTQ+ tropes to Final Fantasy 14 Macro dances.

RELATED: Remakes Are Worth It For Accessibility Alone

The Last of Us’ Left Behind DLC was ahead of the curve back in 2013, featuring a queer romance front and centre which should’ve been a cause for celebration. Now it’s a sour reminder of how far we’ve still left to go, because Ellie and Riley’s romance was snuffed out mere moments after it began. As features lead Jade King points out, Naughty Dog fell into the Bury Your Gays trope, where queer characters - often lesbians - are disproportionately killed off. The Last of Us’ remake brings that back to the forefront, and gaming could learn a lot from its troubled representation and how its sequel went on to improve things so much.

“We figured that some people might raise an eyebrow at it, but we hoped that the storytelling would be engaging enough that they would come in and just enjoy being in Middle-earth.”

Features editor Ben Sledge sat down with The Rings of Power showrunner JD Payne. They talked about how they’re venturing back into Middle-earth, expanding on The Lord of the Ring’s mythos and the things that Peter Jackson didn’t have room for in his movies, all without falling into the trappings of being an exposition-dumping documentary.

I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is 2022’s slept-on indie darling, a card-based narrative adventure that feels one part RPG and one part point-and-click. And at its heart is a beautifully inclusive story that lets anyone feel welcomed, something that’s