Me: ... Brain: Parliamentary oversight committees should be called "Govern-gloves". Me: ... but obviously furious.

I do love it when Big Finish can use their medium to get creative, and "The Meddling Monks" by @johndorney.bsky.social riffing on BBC audio comedies really delivers. It's a bit like Doctor Who meets WandaVision, except obviously and objectively better because John Finnemore's in it.

Andy Mycock, mate, I am in a uniquely privileged position to say that I don't believe that subheader for an instant.

Just got my first new Crackdown achievement in 19 years! It requires pulling 100 gang members out of moving cars, so I can see why I missed it. Even so, I'd like to thank the proliferation of the modern podcast industry for entertaining me while I rampaged back and forth on a freeway overpass.

Hopes of a productive weekend suddenly dashed upon discovering that I'm missing three achievements (and my save file) in Crackdown...

I would like to befriend the Totem from Monument Valley.

Hello. I would just like to say to any retro game programmers who, for example, changed modes on a SNES so you could take advantage of various effects PARTWAY THROUGH A FRAME are absolutely astonishing. The technical wizardry, wringing every last CPU cycle out of hardware.... incredible. Love you!

VAI Killme.

They should at least have the basic human decency to name his digital clone VAI Kilmer.

I'm not bringin' MIiverse back, I am Sneakers O'Toole!

Oh, never mind, one of their Latin rulers is broken. (Good to know they'll embrace Claude but shun the humble spellchecker.)

Wow, Bluesky's latest measures to prevent people doomscrolling sure are effective!

Lunchtime reading! #NESbook

If Star Fox Zero had been a Pilotwings game I think everybody would have accepted it far more readily, because the new and sometimes complex controls across multiple vehicles would have been The Point.

Oh, go on then:

Sneakers O'Krool #VideoEdits #DonkeyKong

"Don't put all of your eggs in one basket," they said. Conventional folk wisdom! They never once stopped to consider the guy who just walked up to me and took some of my eggs because both of my hands were full of baskets. But he put them in his one single basket then promptly fell on his arse, so.

Someone's stolen my fruit juicer and I can't stop thinking about it. It's really hard to concentrate.

The Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack featuring Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie will be available later this year for pre-order individually! Keep an eye on our socials for more news!

The UK Home Office:

"Why do you not like having AI vibe coding on the BlueSky website?" This is why

The thing about Gold Stake #Balatro is it's basically quitting out over and over due to stars not aligning... and then you get a run like this giving you x64 Mult on every hand. Hooray!

If you didn't know, today is #DrawMerryDay, where basic decorum suggests you draw Merry from @stuartgipp.bsky.social's comic, "Merry Hell". Or, if you have Super Mario Maker 2 handy...

The Pirate Lord and his cronies tricking another unaware pirate with the old "lethal palm buzzer" handshake ruse.

Somebody shouted "GANB!" at me in the street yesterday. That was bang out of order.

Banjo fans! I've recently been pondering (🤔) how Banjo-Tooie has a lot of score-based minigames centered around targets, hoops, etc. that are red, blue or green. Do you have colour vision deficiency? Were these minigames particularly hard for you, or were other clues enough to get by? Let me know!

"But then, just when confidence in my competence is at an all-time low, I'll schedule one of my many swaggering, word-salad press conferences on April Fool's Day!"

I keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines. Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."

As tempting as it can be to hunker down when the world is on fire, #TransDayOfVisibility is a great reason to remember that while we're all suffering from the acts of a chosen few, some among us are priority targets. Rights erased in an uphill battle, day after day. Stand with them, now and always.

"Suck my toes, my darling" - Inkle's book of essays by game writers reveals the secrets behind the worlds we play in www.eurogamer.net/inkle-kaleid...

All this speculation about who the voice actor might be, and then when Fox shows up he's only speaking Lylat.

STUART GIPP'S SILLY GAMING QUIZ Is live now! Make 25 groups of 25! It's fun, maybe? I don't know! Thanks to @vigilsforfriends.com for the major assist! Let me know how you get on :) www.kenandstu.com/podcast/GIPP...

My Resident Evil: Requiem headcanon is that Grace's Line Manager is A.D. Walter Skinner. She keeps texting him going "A monster chased me! 😭😭🥺" while he's lying there bleeding out after his latest fistfight with shadowy Syndicate goons.

Today I learned that "liquorice thief" is a genuine occupation. It takes allsorts, I suppose.

The rain ambience in #Pokopia, coupled with the alternate musical arrangements, is incredibly relaxing and I may have to add it to my "I am writing" playlist...

I can see why so many people “click” with #Pokopia at Bleak Beach. It’s way easier to intuit what the area looked like from context clues, which help you make best use of what remains. Nevertheless, I’m determined to ‘rediscover’ the Wasteland!

What gets me really up-tight, apart from all of the other things, is that we're drifting towards a future where your games won't have a defined art style, created by artists, it will have the particular flavour of AI 'reimagining' that the hardware manufacturer has chosen to ally with.

When LLM makes everything look like low-key identica... that's hegemonAI.

we have a new flappy bird

Pokémon Pokopia might actually be too big and too good. I just returned to the starting area, which I thought I had a pretty good grasp of, spotted something a bit fishy and OH MY WORD this game goes deep.

If you're intrigued by #Pokémon #Pokopia but aren't quite sure what you actually do, as a lot of people seem to be, a summary: It's bleak and grim. But you, a Ditto (taking the form of its long-lost human trainer) can terraform habitats to attract other Pokémon: that's the Viva Piñata part. (1/4)

Today's findings: a slice of hot ginger hitting the back of a throat that's red raw from tree pollen can do 90% of the job if you're looking to turn yourself inside-out.

Okay, it’s lacking certain luxuries (like a roof) but this is much more like home.

The programmers who could make isometric 8-bit games must have been incredibly well-educated. I bet they had, like, forty-five degrees.

There are plenty of clever design decisions in Pokémon Pokopia, but I think my favourite is that the game knows you're going to want to be a homebody early on. Thus, it gives your gang an "until tomorrow" task and with them all out of commission... might as well see what's through those gates, huh?

Charles Vance is the best Starfleet Admiral.

With a different skin, Talos Principle II would have made a damn fine Star Trek game.

"Chris! Chris, wake up!!" "Snhnznzhh-- uh? What?" "They're saying it needs a thumbstick, Chris! None among you ever ONCE stopped to think that the game might not actually be finishable without a thumbstick!" "Ah mate, but what my theory pre-supposes is... we actually DID think of that..." (TBC)