Valnet Inc. holds a veritable sequoia tree’s worth of brands at this point. Not to clutter a paragraph withall brand names under the Valnet umbrella, but there’s Screen Rant, Collider, CBR, TheGamer, Hardcore Gamer, Simple Flying, How-To Geek, Backyard Boss, TheSportster, Hot Cars, you name it, Valnet’s got it!
Here at Game Rant, we’re focused (obviously) on video games. We cover new game releases, discuss game theories, write in-depth walkthroughs and build guides, and deep-dive into everything we can about games. However, as evidenced by other sites within the Valnet Gaming portfolio, we don’t hold a monopoly over gaming. As a matter of fact, even our sister sites whose focus isn’t gaming cover the subject.
Over on our sister siteScreen Rant, they publish a variety of gaming articles. This week, we asked some of our top Game Rant contributors about their favorite gaming content from Screen Rant, and here are their responses!
ScreenRant Pick
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Anthony Taormina has been with Game Rant since nearly the beginning. Inan overview of Game Rant’s history for its 15th anniversary, Anthony chronicled some of his time with the site. This extends to when ScreenRant and Game Rant were true sister sites, prior to the acquisition of either by Valnet.
His pick for his favorite gaming article of the past week on SR is as specific as it is thought-out.
I enjoyed this one because it gives insight into the editorial team at SR while also establishing their knowledge of a franchise, all with a very simple headline. And then the content of the post touches on a well reasoned argument for including something that I had thought about when playing MH Wilds but couldn’t quite put my finger on.
Russ Boswell’s default work setting is “busy-as-heck.” There is always a game that needs guiding, content that needs editing, and a million other tasks that need to be done. It’s only fitting that one of his favorite game series is the lengthy and time-consuming Final Fantasy.
“I’ve been an avid Final Fantasy fan ever since I was old enough to hold a controller,” Russ tells us, “and I’ve played every mainline game (and as many of the spin-offs as I could get my hands on). Final Fantasy 7 holds a special place in my heart because it was the first game in the series I really followed closely along with (being old enough to appreciate the themes, characters, and storyline). Because of this, I was incredibly excited to play through both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. I feel like both games are great in their own right, but Remake felt a bit more “special” compared to Rebirth (even if I did enjoy Rebirth’s twist on the iconic story a bit more).”
All this segues perfectly to his favorite article published on ScreenRant this past week.
This article from Sean Migalla does a great job of pointing out some of the issues I perceived with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and some of the things I would like to see in the upcoming third installment of the remake saga. One of my favorite aspects of Final Fantasy 7 was how ‘free’ it felt. There was minimal hand-holding, and players were simply free to go wherever they wanted (through trial and error). This exploration, paired with the great underlying story, is one of the things that made me fall in love with the game the first time I played it. The writer did really well in expressing some of the most poignant issues with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. While the second installment in the saga certainly isn’t a bad game, it has much it could improve on moving into the third and final act. Sean brings up a myriad of smart points concerning world-building, exploration, quests, and some stagnant moments that would be better tweaked for a better future release.
Mark Sammut writes and edits like there’s no tomorrow. Though he says he plays games and watches anime in his downtime, it’s a wonder he has any downtime to spend given how incredibly hard he works.
But he’s clearly had the time to play through a lot of classic game series, and his pick of ScreenRant articles this past week showcases this.
I enjoyed reading Tom Wilson’s Pokemon article, primarily because it reflects my current position with the franchise and, honestly, a lot of other classic series. Change and evolution can be used interchangeably at times, but the latter is more important than the former in most cases. This article illustrates that difference perfectly.
Game Rant Evergreen and Database Editor
Tom has not only written many an article here on Game Rant, he’s worked extensively onthe Game Rant Database. The scope of the project has taken up a lot of his time, but he’s proud of the massive accomplishment of seeingthe GRDB launch.
And when he’s not assiduously updating our database of over 10,000 games? He’s playing Schedule 1, of course.
Screen Rant is usually my go-to site for TV and movie-related news and features, but every now and again, I find myself clicking through to one of their gaming articles while browsing. This week, an opinion piece discussing the lack of challenge in Schedule 1’s main questline caught my eye, as this is something that I too found myself thinking about while playing through the game last month. Given how popular Schedule 1 is and the fact that it’s still in early access, calling out its shortcomings takes a bit of courage, but the writer’s criticism felt fair and constructive. They also backed it up with suggestions for how the developer could improve the difficulty and better set up the endgame, and while I may not have agreed with all of them, it still made for a very interesting read.
GR + SR = Forever
While Screen Rant’s primary editorial mission centers on delivering comprehensive coverage and insightful analysis of the film industry, their forays into the realm of video games have garnered considerable respect and positive recognition from the dedicated gaming experts here at Game Rant. We appreciate their coverage and the thought that goes into it. Despite the clear differences in the core subject matter covered by SR, with its emphasis on cinema, and GR, which is deeply immersed in all aspects of the interactive entertainment landscape, both entities share a common parent organization in Valnet Inc.
In simpler terms, even though SR and GR are different branches, we all come from the same Valnet family tree.
