we're having a good time with BAD INFLUENCE!! get on in here! twitch.tv/aqualounge_tv

This week: Nostalgia. And lots of other things, to be sure. But, like, a *lot* on nostalgia: critical-distance.com/2026/05/17/m...

Don't ask which seat, just get in cargo. The arrogance is off the charts.

@carolynmichelle.bsky.social one of my favorite reviews!

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 achieves its ideal form completely outside itself. The story becomes easiest to love once nobody is actually playing it anymore. WE ARE ALL BECOMING MORE THICK: jakesteinberg.substack.com/p/we-are-all...

Ravers, punishers, coworkers, circuits, club kids, djs.

Look! I'm sorry I started writing this a week ago and I promise it's coming at it from a different angle. Okay here's 3000 words on mixtape with no pictures so you know I'm serious and my birthday was over the weekend so be nice to me. carlitocalzone.neocities.org/posts/mixtape/

Qué locura de texto de @pontxolo.bsky.social podcastlevelup.es/mixtape-la-l... Sí a todo lo que dice. Creo que el juego es hiperconsciente de su carácter de artefacto, por eso el anacronismo con Mitch Murder o casi todas las secuencias de ensoñación. Es un recuerdo dentro de un recuerdo <3

The master, @nicanor.bsky.social, has spoken. carlitocalzone.neocities.org/posts/mixtape/

It's heartbreaking that games as a medium remain out of reach for people telling the stories worth telling most. www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfe...

The growth of #battery storage in evening peaks has been stunning, and in the last ew months has completely pushed out #gas generators in the Sunshine state.. https://reneweconomy.com.au/big-batteries-took-a-bite-out-of-gas-generators-evening-peak-party-then-they-ate-the-whole-dinner/

NEW ESSAY TIME @stevenstoermer.bsky.social on Battlefield 6 "[it] demures from naming names out of a dual desire. One, to present combat as an apolitical mirror image of the real world but that is vacuum-insulated from it. Two, to depict a fantasy of player agency" www.stopcar.ing/a-vivisectio...

Keep us paid, keep us sourcing and editing top tier writing from the best in games criticism. Here: www.patreon.com/bulletpoints

Congratulations to @christapsell.bsky.social!

Gaming culture company Lost in Cult is entering a new arena with a physical games publishing initiative called EDITIONS Interview by Luis Aguasvivas ➡️ https://www.superjumpmagazine.com/lost-in-cult-builds-a-little-art-gallery-of-gaming/

"In the New York Times Simulator the effects of your actions aren’t explicit...you have to make educated guesses about their outcomes." Luis Aguasvivas (@aguaspoints.bsky.social) interviews NYT Simulator creator Paolo Pedercini! www.gamerswithglasses.com/interviews/n...

Faculty in the Media | Ajay Singh Chaudhary in conversation with Luis Aguasvivas on the intersection of ecology, economics, and the videogame industry | For Unwinnable | buff.ly/Qzanqdo

UDO. Guida ai videogiochi nell'Antropocene (The Unidentified Digital Object. A Guide to Videogames in the Anthropocene) is a unique contribution on the topic of videogames and climate change. Imagine @mitpress.bsky.social doing an English language release of this book 👀. One can only hope.

Marathon has been eating my brain and I was so happy to have the space to write something weird and ambitious about it

I reviewed @hypergames.no's Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth. To my surprise even though this game is set in winter, it is one of the warmest game I have played in a while. Highest recommendation from me.

- If you’re a publisher and would like to insert another coin, I’d love to publish a revised and updated English edition with a new title and a new structure. Get in touch. - If you’re among the people who still don’t own it but would like a copy, get in touch.

This review amazing. The book it is on Liza Minnelli's Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! is the most disturbing fun I have had so far this year.

@critdistance.bsky.social "...was founded to help centralize the reading and help put writers in conversation with one another." I must admit that at times I have been part of the problem.

In general we should try to shy away from analysis that concludes that one of the smallest social media platforms with the highest density of the most unloved people in the world has outsized influence on a country in which every branch of government & corporation is controlled by fascists.

@critdistance.bsky.social "...was founded to help centralize the reading and help put writers in conversation with one another." I must admit that at times I have been part of the problem.

The WGGB's Videogames Committee is looking to run online networking events for game writers, in addition to its in-person networking events Please fill in our short online survey, so we can take into account game writers' needs/preferences when planning these events www.surveymonkey.com/r/F6DWLKC

Ya tenemos llamada a comunicaciones para el #DIGRAES26. Envío de propuestas: forms.gle/EWkFZ3mwGKpy... ¡Os esperamos en Elche!

A magisterial takedown of "viewpoint diversity". No notes. Full article here: www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/wer...

oh hell yea! two startmenu reviews on this week's CD roundup: my Titanium Court review, and @aguaspoints.bsky.social's review of the new Moomins game (which is an excellent read even when you're ignorant of the subject matter) www.startmenu.co.uk/home/review-... www.startmenu.co.uk/home/review-...

Nostalgia has always been a feeling of great pain to me. When I experience it, it reminds me that something in my life is wrong. Nostalgia as it is expressed now is capitalist brainwashing. Fuck that shit! Hats off to Kunzelman.

Nostalgia has always been a feeling of great pain to me. When I experience it, it reminds me that something in my life is wrong. Nostalgia as it is expressed now is capitalist brainwashing. Fuck that shit! Hats off to Kunzelman.

Wow this moment seems oddly like it might be a good one to read some actual, thoughtful critique written a dozen years ago about how Mass Effect reinforces War-on-Terror era ideas about 24-ish extralegal heroes www.firstpersonscholar.com/blasto-sacer/

also let’s all take a moment to appreciate the beautiful mind that came up with "The Millennial Gastropub Owner’s Desired Vibe.”

I have reviewed Mixtape. This is the Hater Zone. Don't be surprised to find Hater Opinions here. I've warned you.

Suzuki Kōji has passed away, what a horrible shock. I really enjoyed translating the fascinating book he wrote right after The Ring, a mix of genre and literary fiction called The Shining Sea (光射す海)

@noescapevg.com just released an awesome zine covering Marathon and Armored Core VI. Kaile is one of the best and a huge influence on my work. I will purchase and give away 10 copies of this Zine to ten random folks that repost. noescapevg.itch.io/no-escape-20...

How do you adapt the Moomin stories? @hypergames.no knows best: • getting the curvature of Moomintroll just right • avoiding any reference to capitalism (which hasn't yet sullied Moominvalley) • leaning into life's heaviest questions Beautiful work, all told. www.theguardian.com/games/2026/m...

did this + some research in URL: chrome://flags/ search "gemini nano" disable items found search "on device" disable items found in URL: chrome://settings/ai turn off "history search" and "help me write" this all fully disables the AI summary that generates when you google something! yay.

Great review! As Caribbean born a city slicker, I don't understand the attraction the fantasy Mixtape has one people. Gio made me understand it a little bit more. I still don't like it, but I have an newfound appreciation for it. Nevertheless, Rockford is not welcome in New York; bad friend.

Are all mediums similarly in simultaneous disdain for and thrall to nostalgia as videogames? Biggest two pieces of game news this week (bigger than the EA layoffs) were the second remake of a game from the 90s and a game about how cool and important the 90s were

Critics that love Mixtape just need to admit that they are tired of playing games.

@noescapevg.com just released an awesome zine covering Marathon and Armored Core VI. Kaile is one of the best and a huge influence on my work. I will purchase and give away 10 copies of this Zine to ten random folks that repost. noescapevg.itch.io/no-escape-20...

I also have a dark side. Well... I mainly have a dark side.

It’s quite quaint to scroll complaints about the adaptation of an n64 era Videogame character feeling weird.

We were correct, but no one wanted to listen. The Tiresias of our time, shepherds without a herd. You didn't want to believe, and now you live in disbelief.

Prophets.

@rubeck.bsky.social has some thoughts on the divine right of kings. "[Final Fantasy] forgets the relentless march of time and that capable, compassionate leadership is not genetically passed down but something that needs to be forged and maintained through the ages."

FACTS if we lived in a society.