Started playing #BLUD, I’m only about ten minutes in because sleep got the better of me last night but it looks pretty good so far.

Seepage is one of those bands that just sticks in your brain. If you like the tongue-in-cheek of Zane’s angsty edgelord teen vibes, the developers also made a doomlike in the same universe, developed by and starting that character.

I actually really like the SNES game, it is objectively not great though. You can’t even save, so emulation is a must unless you can dedicate an 8-10 hour sitting to it.

Particularly that it switches between top-down outdoors and a pseudo-FPS indoors, and the claustrophobic interiors and darker music give it a lot of charm.

After the Helldivers fiasco, I think it’s time to raise the plank and hoist the sails, Yarr.

And they’re probably carving themselves a nice bonus out of the tax write-off for the studio closure.

I mean, let’s not forget that the early consoles had their own pitfalls, a period of gaming that spawned tropes like ‘Nintendo Hard’ and ‘Guide Dang It’ in order to, among other things, pad out the length of what we would consider an otherwise barebones game, and to sell time on their hints and tips hotline. I do feel like there was less bullshit in the past, but it definitely still existed.

I preferred the switch lite with a protective case that gave the grips a little more body, made it way more comfortable to hold. At least until I picked up a Steam Deck, which ended up being pretty much everything I wanted out of portable gaming, and waaaay easier to emulate on.

No discredit to R.E.M. but my world’s been ending for over a decade and I feel like dogshit constantly. Nobody told me the apocalypse would be heralded by the dumbest fucking cryptobros and AI prompters the world’s ever seen.

Meta acquiring Oculus

As someone with industry experience working with VR, I can tell you it’s a mixed bag. I think there’s certainly no way Oculus (and consumer VR in general) takes off the way it did without Facebook’s dollars behind it, and it’s certainly paved the way to the outstanding quality of standalone HMDs that are on offer today. However, it killed the initiative for PCVR hardware with the non-consolation that Meta, Pico, and HTC offer “Link mode” on all their headsets and it’s iffy on good days, which makes B2B PCVR very difficult to facilitate without some serious legwork on lowering latency over the air connections. Would that we could revive the Rift S, that headset was perfect for our needs.

The one in the manager’s mind, that also isn’t actually an MVP because sales over-promised and now you have to find a way to deliver.

Dark Disciples 1 and 2, including the temple of eternity module.

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/dark-disciples-43a

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/dark-disciples-2-43b

Redfall also flopped last year

Feels like an understatement - this was the game that killed Arkane, because a majority of the team decided they’d rather fuck off than work on whale chasing live-service nonsense. And like, good on them, but it means no more Dishonored, no sequels to Prey, no chance of Arx Fatalis II, and it fucking sucks to see enshittification strangling good talent. I hope they’ll find success outside of MS’ looming shadow.

I don’t know if I could call it good, exactly, but one unique concept that I haven’t really seen captured anywhere else was the Dungeon Maker series on PSP, that allowed you to build dungeons that you would then explore/fight/loot, to give yourself funds to build out further/deeper, ad infinitum. It was clunky, controlled pretty stiffly and basic as ARPGs go, and after a certain point you kind of went on autopilot, but there’s a certain je ne sais quoi to it that I really quite enjoyed, especially if you planned out your builds. I think a similar title was released on the DS but it was turn-based and not particularly well-executed.

Seconding the Dark Clouds, god I wish that series had continued.

Volatile

Read: We don’t want to put the time and resources into making quality games when we can prey on whales in shitty Skinner box mobile apps.

I got a Serta Lautner executive chair as a gift, normally runs about $300 off sale. It has adjustable air-bladder lumbar support and is so soft I’ve taken naps in it.

I recently accidentally sheared a bolt holding one of the arms on because I failed to check it every 6 months, I called the support group and the lady on the other end was kind enough to waive the cost of the replacement kit and shipping. Cannot recommend enough.

I don’t think they would want to deal with this shit again, and I wouldn’t blame them. I’m just going to be content with the fact we got one good game.

Nothing of value was lost. Any content worth having couldn’t have existed without Kurvitz’ writing.

I’m glad someone else said it.

Crow Country looks and feels really good. It’s by the same folks that did a whole bunch of flash games back in the day, notably Detective Grimoire, which is getting iterations today.