10 Video Games That Roasted Themselves
Spider-Man's janky PS4 NPCs are still hanging out on PS5.
Though so many video games are desperate to be taken seriously and prove themselves to be "art," it's always fun when developers demonstrate a more self-aware, light-hearted approach to their own work.
Games are a tricky business at the best of times, with players typically proving finicky and insatiable, and so often the best thing developers can do to apologise for their apparent "mistakes" is to make a crack about them in the next game.
That's absolutely what happened with these 10 games, which administered some outrageous, completely unexpected self-burns, making light of their own story and gameplay gaffes in the most shameless of ways.
Not all developers have the modesty and humility to recognise their own flaws quite this blatantly, but the results absolutely generated some hugely unexpected laughs, and better endeared players to them in the process.
Whether loud and proud self-roastings or more subtle Easter eggs you had to go out of your way to find, these are the prime examples of games daring to throw some shade their own way in ways both hilarious and totally bizarre...
10. Fable II's Anti-Climactic Ending - Fable III
Fable fans will likely remember the colossally deflating moment at the end of the second game where the final boss, Lord Lucien, is killed with a single gunshot after an entire game's worth of build-up.
Though this was to make the dramatic point that Lucien is really just an old man without the Tattered Spire to grant him incredible power, it nevertheless left fans feeling deprived of a gratifying final battle.
But Lionhead gamely responded to the criticism by including an hilarious gag in Fable III's side mission "The Game," where you play a tabletop RPG and end up defeating the big bad Baron with just a single hit.
At that moment, one of your fellow players loudly quips, "What kind of rubbish game lets you kill the villain in one hit?". To anyone left wildly underwhelmed by that Lord Lucien fight, this was an uproariously gratifying apology.