I was doom-scrolling through ancient internet archives the other day (yes, 2021 is considered ancient now, thanks to the neural-interface rollout of 2024 that made all text pre-2025 feel like cave paintings), when I stumbled upon a week of TheGamer articles from October 2021. I chuckled, I cringed, and then I realized five years later, every single one of those hot takes still slaps harder than a Magikarp using Splash. Let me walk you through this time capsule of wisdom, because honestly, it feels like the industry learned absolutely nothing — and I love it.
The Dodo — A Beautiful Disaster
Back then, the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition had just dropped, and Andy Kelly reminded us of the sheer joy that was the Dodo. For the uninitiated, this was the “airplane” in GTA 3 that wasn't supposed to fly. Rockstar built a clipped-wing bird and apparently patted themselves on the back for a good joke, but players did what we always do: we broke the game with ridiculous controller voodoo, brute-forcing short flights just to see a low-poly Liberty City that looked like a fever dream. In 2026, with GTA 6’s photorealistic skyscrapers and actual flight physics, I still pine for the Dodo’s chaotic struggle. My brother and I spent hours trying to coax that tin can over the Callahan Bridge. The remaster fixed nothing about it, by the way — and thank the spaghetti code gods for that.
Half-Life: Alyx and the VR Dream That’s Still Just a Dream
Andy Kelly also lamented that almost nobody could play Half-Life: Alyx because VR hardware was a luxury few could afford — or had space for. Fast-forward to 2026, and while the cost of entry has dropped (Meta’s Quest 5 is practically a Happy Meal toy compared to the Valve Index), VR still hasn’t become the mainstream revolution we predicted. Sure, we’ve got haptic gloves and omnidirectional treads that cost half a kidney, but Alyx remains the high-water mark no other title has touched. And the irony? Valve finally gave us a non-VR Alyx port in 2025… and it was a mouse-clicking, keyboard-tapping shadow of its former self. Andy was right: the game was built for a headset. I tried the flat version and felt like I was watching a 4D movie through a letterbox.
Ash Ketchum’s Farewell Tour (We Should Have Seen It Coming)
Eric Switzer theorized that the Pokémon anime was setting up Ash’s exit. He was one hundred percent right, but we didn’t want to believe it. In 2022, Ash won the Masters Eight Tournament, and by 2024 he’d waved goodbye after a final arc that reunited him with every friend he’d made since 1997. Cynthia’s return in the Journeys series was the smoking gun — Ash had to beat her to cement his legacy. I ugly-cried for a solid twenty minutes during the finale. The man (who never aged) finally became the very best. It’s 2026, and the new protagonist, Riko, is fine, but we all know the anime peaked when a kid in a Pikachu onesie turned down a bike ride to walk across four regions for no reason.
Mihoyo’s Elon Musk Fiasco — Aged Like Milk in a Genshin Impact Reactor
Jade King dissected Mihoyo’s truly bizarre 2021 tweet that asked fans to follow an account named “Ella Musk” for rewards. Even in 2026, with Genshin Impact having swallowed the mobile-gaming world and Honkai: Star Rail now a bigger gacha monster, Mihoyo still can’t read a room. They recently ran a promotion where you had to retweet a fountain statue twenty times to unlock a resin discount. The hubris, Jade called it, and she was being polite. Back then, Elon Musk was still a divisive tech bro; now his neural-link startup is literally partnering with game studios to let you feel the damage numbers. The Ella Musk incident feels like a crystal ball into the cringe-tastic metaverse future we’re currently living in. I’m still not over it.
Scalpers: The Final Boss We Can’t Defeat
Mike Drucker’s guest rant about scalpers during a rocky console launch hit me right in the credit card. PS6 dropped three months ago, and guess what? Same story. The bots snatched up every unit within 0.3 seconds, and the only way to get one was to pay a scalper who had the audacity to list it at 140% markup with a note saying “no lowballers, I know what I have.” Mike called the system rigged, and he was spot-on. The collective rage of gamers has done nothing but provide scalpers with memes to laugh at while they count their ill-gotten gains. In 2026, “digital queues” are a thing, but they just mean you get a prettier error message. I’ll be eighty years old, trying to buy a PlayStation 9, and a scalper will still be there, relishing my pain.
Dave Chappelle and the “Cancel Culture” Smokescreen
Stacey Henley’s take on Dave Chappelle’s The Closer felt like a scalpel at the time, and in 2026 it’s a full-blown dissection of how not to handle controversy. Chappelle claimed he was being “canceled” for transphobic jokes, while the real casualties were Netflix employees who staged a walkout and got suspended. Since then, Chappelle has released two more specials, each leaning harder into the same schtick, and Netflix has rolled out a “creative freedom” policy that basically translates to “you can’t hurt our feelings, but we can hurt yours.” The term “cancel culture” has been beaten into a meaningless pulp, mostly by people who still have massive platforms. Stacey’s essay should be required reading for anyone who thinks being criticized is the same as being silenced. I read it again this morning and felt both vindicated and exhausted.
Five years on, this old TheGamer lineup reads less like a weekly roundup and more like a prophecy. We still break janky vehicles, covet VR masterpieces we can’t access, mourn Ash, side-eye Mihoyo’s PR stunts, fight scalper bots, and argue about what “cancel culture” actually means. The more things change, the more we stay hilariously, frustratingly the same. And I wouldn’t have it any other way — just please, let me buy a graphics card at MSRP before I die.