Pushing Buttons: Breaking Bad meets GTA – and other shows I’d like to play
Game adaptations don't have to be terrible. But as Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan admits, bringing action from screen to console isn't as easy as it sounds
Welcome back to Pushing Buttons! This issue is going out on my birthday. Presents would be nice, but what I actually want is a week off to finally play Elden Ring. Only slightly more importantly, today is also when the finale of Better Call Saul airs in the UK, closing out a story that began with Breaking Bad's first TV episodes in 2008. I will really miss this series - there is nothing in television quite like creator Vince Gilligan's sumptuous shots and tight dark-comedic writing. I've often wondered why there's been no Breaking Bad video game - especially because Netflix has shown a great deal of interest in the games, from buying studios to bankrolling endless TV adaptations. (Side note: did you know that Netflix subscribers get access to 24 mostly excellent games for free, including the sci-fi masterpiece Into the Breach? I didn't, until last week.)
I would have expected some drug-empire management game, maybe spliced with scenes from the show, or with scene-setting and dialogue from its writers. Or perhaps an interactive-movie tie-in along the lines of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, where your reactions send the story spinning off in different directions. It would be expensive, sure, but Netflix has never minded spending money.
Microsoft stopped disclosing sales figures for Xbox consoles long ago, but early in the PlayStation 4/Xbox One era it was fairly clear that the PS4 was streets ahead. It comes as no surprise, then, to learn that the PS4 outsold the Xbox One by more than two to one, as revealed by court documents. Is it any wonder that Microsoft prefers to frame the console wars on its own terms and talk about Game Pass subscribers and engagement instead?
The Pokemon world championships are in London this week for the first time. The tournaments will be live-streamed, but Pokemon fans can also pay 10 to go and spectate. I went to this tournament in Washington in 2014 and it's one of the most wholesome video game events I've ever been to - I especially loved all the millennial parents proudly watching their little kids compete.
Lastly, enjoy this footage of a game in which you are a squirrel with a gun, which quite deservedly blew up on Twitter over the weekend.
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