Happy Monday, folks, and welcome to the Weekly Video Games Thread!

I just beat Fire Emblem and am gonna just relax, so let’s have a simple prompt from a screenshot I’ve held onto last year. It’s from Resident Evil 3, the remake, and it presents a vision of American car culture that I can only call brutally optimistic. You find this near the end, I believe; I think it’s one of the last notes in the game. And that’s our topic: in-game notes and stories. These can be literal notes laying conspicuously on the ground or some other form, like Metroid Prime scans, audio logs, found footage video, or graffiti with a clue. These are some of the more blunt examples of environmental storytelling, and they can be some of my favorite pieces of writing in game. There are pieces that are scary or tense or tragic or funny.

That’s on you to provide today, now that I’ve got you started. What are your favorite examples of this trope in a game? And are there new forms you’d like to see?

And, marching into November, what did you play this weekend? But before you do that, remember to check out Lily Bones’ latest “Game News Roundup!”