Pop Culture references

[JJ Styles]

Bonus points of culture who can get this reference. Also posting a much happier topic for once

So one of the most charming (or cringy depending on your pov) things about any video game out there are some of the pop culture references that you may come across as you play them. Pop culture references are basically direct shoutouts or call outs to things in popular culture or phenomena and they can be based from things from other media, real life events, people, and of course other video games. They can come in form of easter eggs, secrets, or basically in our face entities in a video game.

So what are some of your favorite video game pop culture references? What do you think are some or the elements that make them work? And what is your overall opinion about them in a nutshell.

I expect great things from you ladies and gentlemen.

 

[Yukari]

I'm okay with them sometimes. The thing is, a game with a lot of pop culture references tends to age really, really fast. If you watch an episode of, for example, South Park from only a year or two ago then it can feel incredibly dated due to the pop culture references.

 

[JJ Styles]

"As far as pop culture references go, they are great conversational pieces especially when they are cleverly referenced. They are often a source of trivia as well as providing some insights to how game devs and designers do their thing.

Fallout new vegas has a vuckload of clever pop culture callouts and considering who made new vegas in the first place, they were bound to be great. Then again Fallout itself is a series built upon cleverly written and referenced pop culture phenomenas so its a given. I wish i could say the same for Fallout 4 though.

Then theres something that takes the entire concept and slaps it harder than a teenager's first time prom dance. Borderlands 2 is an example of a walking meme town of 2012, the year it was released. its dlcs take the memes and cultural references further. Some are even downright obvious but thats the magic of anthony burch. And as far as bl2 goes, i do have to give an award to the torgue company for having some of the best item prefixes for anything in any game ever. DOUBLE PENETRATING unkempt herald, CASUAL ravager, DERP Nukem (double reference), WILD ogre, just to name a few rather well placed prefixes.