Good News is a weekly collection of stories from this week about things that were actually pretty nice. From pop culture to maybe even some politics, we all deserve a dose of good news.
The best game of 2024 is now on PC
In our humble opinion, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was the best game of 2024—a very solid year for games. And yet, only Rebirth made me scream at my TV at 1:30 in the morning.
Until this week, Rebirth was only available on the PlayStation 5. Not even a PlayStation 4 would do. But as of January 23, Rebirth is also playable on PC. And by all accounts, it’s a good port! It’s even Steam Deck Verified, you so can play it on the go! What better time to play as a ragtag group of weirdos fighting to stop the corporate government from destroying the planet?
If you want to milk the experience for all it’s worth and have hundreds of hours of gameplay, you could also play the original Final Fantasy VII, its prequel Crisis Core, and Remake (the first entry in the Remake trilogy, of which Rebirth is the second). You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but as someone who spent their 2024 more-or-less serving myself this deluxe menu, I actively recommend it.
Snitch lines spammed in glorious ways
It’s been a dark week for politics. We don’t have to talk about it. Here, we celebrate the small victories. And one of those victories is that the state of Missouri was forced to take down a “snitch form” to out clinics giving gender-affirming care. The reason, according to TechCrunch, is because people were spamming the form with “fan fiction, rambling anecdotes and the Bee Movie script.” The Bee Movie once again steps up to help the people.
Elsewhere, Trump’s new snitch line which encourages federal employees to rat out diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives is facing similar troubles. Except according to The Huffington Post, this one is getting signed up for porn sites, in addition to getting spammed with Simpsons jokes and—you guessed it—the Bee Movie script. Excellent job, everyone.
Cynthia Ervio, Demi Moore, and a good cat get Oscar nods
We got our 2025 Oscar nominations this week, and even if it felt like a given, it’s always nice when people get the acknowledgement they deserve. In this year’s case, I was particularly pleased to see that both Cynthia Ervio and Demi Moore were nominated for Best Actress, for their incredible work in Wicked and The Substance, respectively. The bad news is that only one of them can win, and I don’t want to choose.
Moore won her first-ever major award earlier this month at The Golden Globes, and her speech was killer. “In those moments when we [women] don’t think we are smart enough, or pretty enough, or skinny enough, or pretty enough, or successful enough or basically just not enough, I had a woman say to me, ‘Just know you will never be enough. But you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick,’ ” Moore said. Hell yes.
Elsewhere, the stunning dialogue-less animated feature Flow was nominated for both Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature. The nods themselves are very well-deserved, but they come with the additional bonus of being the first time ever that a Latvian film has been nominated for an Oscar.
Cat allergic to other cats goes viral on Reddit
Speaking of cats, what’s a respectful Good News segment without a cat in it? As it turns out, there’s a cat that’s gone viral over on Reddit because his owner gave her an allergen test, and it turns out he’s allergic to … other cats. He’s a fluffy boy, too. Is he allergic to himself? Don’t worry, though: his owner’s giving him treatment. He’s fine.
Tentpole manga/anime series finally gets LEGOs … kind of
“LEGOs for adults” is becoming more and more of a thing. Within the last year, we’ve gotten epic Lord of the Rings and Legend of Zelda sets. Simultaneously, One Piece‘s global fame is on the rise. And so, this week, LEGO announced they will finally be making One Piece sets. Eiichiro Oda, the mangaka, was particularly thrilled, which truly warms the heart.
The only catch is that the LEGO sets will not be based on Oda’s manga or Toei’s anime, both of which have be running for over 25 years. Instead, the LEGO sets will be specifically based on Netflix’s live-action adaptation. Which is kind of strange. But hey, I’ll take anything which will allow me to construct the Going Merry going of LEGOs.
Taskmaster announces new series with notable American comedian
If you don’t know about Taskmaster, consider this a bonus piece of good news: it’s all on YouTube for free, and it’s rather inarguably the best “game show” in existence. Hosted by Alex Horne and Greg Davies, the British show has five comedians compete to perform absurd tasks over the course of ten episodes. These tasks can be anything from “deliver this letter in the most spectacular way” to “push this watermelon up this slide while only touching it with breadsticks.” Taskmaster rules.
This week, Taskmaster announced their contestants for series 19, and one challenger will stand out to a certain circle of American comedy fans: Jason Mantzoukas. Mantzoukas might be most well-known for his role on The League or as one of the co-hosts of the popular podcast How Did This Get Made?, but he’s also just a delightful agent of chaos. He’s perfect for the show. And hopefully, this means Taskmaster might ask more Americans in the future. (I nominate Paul F. Tompkins.)
LA fires near 100% containment
Lastly, an update on the devastating Los Angeles fires. Our news cycle tends to report on things at their worst, but quickly lose interest when things continue on for a while. So it’s well worth pointing out that, thanks to the hard work of LA firefighters (including prison inmates), the LA fires are finally approaching full containment. According to CBS News, as of January 20, the Eaton Fire was 95% contained. The Palisades Fire was 77% contained as of January 21. And there’s potentially rain in the LA forecast this weekend.
If you can, the LA-based Anti-Recidivism Coalition has a fund to benefit the incarcerated people who have been working hard to fight the LA fires.
Published: Jan 24, 2025 04:21 pm