And of course, food:

The bottom doldrums of the castle even had a mini museum of medieval torture devices (that I’m pretty certain were mostly never actually used, but it had cool lightning!)

Today mostly consisted of climbing up to and exploring Celje Castle, which was a real treat; pretty much ever castle I’ve visited on this trip has been a 10/10

I returned to Celje today (where I’ll be staying for the next several days); took a few photos when the weather permitted it:

And rest assured, I still ate very well today too:

Didn’t take as many pictures today because much of it was spend visiting family friends; nonetheless I hope you enjoy these photos I snagged in the Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art:

And of course, no day in Slovenia would be complete without some lip-smacking snackings:

The rest of the day was spent hiking up a steep mountain nearby to bask in some glorious views:

Spent a good chunk of today visiting a mansion in the town of Polhov Gradec that my grandmother (on my father’s side of the family) lived in before she was forced to flee the country during WW2; very sentimental experience:

I have discovered that not only does Slovenia have KFCs, but they’re inexplicably massive

Wasn’t on this episode (due to me currently galavanting around Slovenia), but I’m going to assume the boys had nothing but praise for me behind my back 🙏

I’ve done a lot of intense eating on this trip, but this was probably my most intense yet

Much of day 5 of our Ljubljana trip was spent back in Ljubljana, where it had snowed the night prior. Much preferable to the rain! I also spent some time visiting the Ljubljana city history museum:

A major highlight of my day trip to Celje: trying this curiously-named Slovenian soda, which was surprisingly awesome:

Day four of our Slovenia vacation was spent on a day trip to the city of Celje, (which we’ll be returning too on a later date.) Nice sights, but another dismally rainy day; hopefully it’ll get better tomorrow

No visit to lake Bled would be complete without some delicious desserts (and a pizza):

Some sights from my second full day in Slovenia! This time I went and visited Lake Bled, a picturesque lake with an island church and hillside castle; very popular with tourists and Slovenes alike:

The Christmas King is I

You could put 20 of the best Hollywood screenwriters together in a room for 100 years and they’d never come up with something as sublime as this

Some of the culinary delights I enjoyed during my first full Ljubljana day:

First full day in Ljubljana was a lot of fun (and pretty exhausting, as I’ve still not yet adjusted my sleep schedule)

YES @kozibear.bsky.social !!!! Not to mention how chatty (and excessively hand-hold-y) Adam was in Fusion, and yet people generally adore that game. God of War, Uncharted, Halo, Elder Scrolls… all beloved franchises that also have excessively chatty characters at times. It’s gonna be okay y’all 😂

It’s a weird situation for me to be in (again re: Metroid Prime 4’s current discourse), because I’ve kind of been outspoken in wanting the series to have more characters with spoken dialogue, to lick its wounds from Other M and take another shot at imbuing its adventures with the sort of (1/3)

My quick thoughts on the Metroid Prime 4 discourse: so much of what’s been described with regards to Samus being berated by NPC chatter reminds me immensely of God of War Ragnarok - a fantastic action game with a half-dozen comic relief characters that just wouldn’t stay quiet; I genuinely (1/3)

Greetings from Slovenia! We just arrived Ljubljana, the country’s capital (and I’m pretty bone-tired)

Really loved Dispatch; this was a great superhero story, and easily the best Telltale game not made by Telltale. Wholly recommend it to anyone looking to experience a good-ass story - I will say though, if I had a minor complaint, it’s that I’m disappointed a good chunk of the game’s trophies (1/2)

@scottbromley.bsky.social I sent a support request to Funny Dad T-Shirts, and haven’t got a response yet (concerns a "Resting My Eyes T-Shirt”), there anything that can be done?

We don’t use generative AI at Strange Scaffold and I can confirm that a *lot* of other studios are not—whether indie or AAA. Get outta here with this normalization bullshit.

Winter has come insanely early to Montreal:

Episode 6 of Dispatch is in the bag; agree with @andycortez.cool that we need the team behind this game to write for every game, because Dispatch’s story so far has been a real treat. Excited for the final 2 episodes (which launch just before my trip to Europe!)

Metroid Amiibos be priiiiiiicey

"The AI industry’s most important product at this moment is not a chatbot or a video generator; it’s the story the AI industry is telling about itself.... According to an MIT study, 95% of businesses that have deployed generative AI have gotten no value from it." www.theringer.com/2025/11/04/t...

Don't sleep on The Alters if you haven't played it yet; 11 Bit Studios managed to craft one of the most interesting narrative games of the year, and I loved my entire time with it (most of it at least - I do think that the game peaks somewhat early in its Second act, and that as a result (1/2)

I remember this was first revealed via a cryptic teaser site in 2009 that had the triforce-looking emblem prominently displayed on it, and because it had been some time with no news on (what would eventually be revealed to be) Skyward Sword, people were speculating that it could be a Zelda game 🧚

80 Canadian Dollars 💸

This was a very decent trailer, much better than the previous 2 we’ve gotten. I’m not over the moon with excitement the way I am after watching, say, a Kojima trailer, but it does a much better job at grasping what makes the Metroid Prime “experience” special

oh my goodness I remember playing this specific pinball game a lot as kid unlocked memory moment for me lol

🦈🐙🦞🌊🚣

#ThisThingRulesTrivia 🍂 Since the founding of the Academy Awards in 1929, no movie with "Autumn" in its name has ever won an Oscar. (Movies with "Spring," "Summer" and "Winter" in their titles have, however!)

Last but not least, Joel's November/December BARF poll is now live on our Patreon! Cast your vote on which of these big ol' games you want him to play: • Donkey Kong Bananza 🦍 • Ghost of Yotei 🥷 • The Outer Worlds 2 🌝 • Dispatch 🦸

🥂👁️🥂

The Kozi household is ready for Halloween

Preparing some activated charcoal pizza dough 🎃

I was concerned that playing Hades 1 just a short while before jumping into Hades 2 was going to ruin my appetite for the latter, but thankfully that wasn’t the case; really loved Supergiant’s sequel, and excited to jump into the postgame (once I take a bit of a short break)

Look at this SOLDIER!! @blessingjr.bsky.social

New month, new game! Introducing Frightening Reaction, an Electric Trivia game inspired by Lightning Reaction (that one game that would electrocute you if you failed it). Had a great time playing it on yesterday's @kindafunnyvids.bsky.social Happy Hour podcast with the crew!

Playing bad games doesn't ruin your credibility, it actually makes you learn about what you like. You start noticing effort, weird ideas, stuff that polished games smooth over. Play more broken, weird, and ambitious trash; it’s good for your taste and good for your brain. #blog #gaming

Episode 411 is up on YouTube and Podcast Services! We chat about our thoughts on Halo: Campaign Evolved, and whether or not it's a prelude to more remasters/remakes of other Halo games 🤔 youtu.be/M5Jc2ZbW1Yw

Really loved Dredge; went into it expecting a fun lil' fishing/horror game and was instead greeted with a beautifully polished action-adventure in the tradition of the Wind Waker (that took only a fraction of the time to beat). Excited to talk more about it next week on @respawnaimfire.bsky.social!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy