My Switch 2 arrived! I did get Donkey Kong (which seems okay?) but the game I'm most interested in playing is...Breath of the Wild, a game I first played through on WiiU, then Switch 1. The new features seem fine. Mostly it's the resolution and framerate that are exciting.

I was planning to bake a pie tonight for my wife's birthday tomorrow, but our cooktop stopped working. Repairman is coming this week, but I was all geared up and ready to go for a pie!

A little poem to start off the new year. My apologies to W. H. Auden, and to villanelles in general. jordanmechner.com

Be nice to your producers today especially. They're remembering what was going on and facing the dread of having to actually circle back.

Good thread! Steam as a platform RUNS on wishlists and reviews. If a game looks cool, do the dev a favor and wishlist it. If you liked it, review it. These are SO important.

Happy birthday to the one and only, Hayao Miyazaki.

I dunno if there's any truth to the rumor that a new Witcher 3 expansion is coming, but if there IS, it immediately jumps to the top of the games I'm most looking forward to this year. (And that's despite my opinion that the end of Blood & Wine is an absolutely perfect close to Geralt's story).

My first Nancy strip, for New Year’s Day 2026❣️

My 2026 started by discovering the power strip on my pinball cabinet died. Not the end of the world, but it's a major pain to replace. Starting this year right, I guess.

How I'm entering the new year.

O inebriated gods of the final days, I stagger before you to present my final offering of the year: a Holiday Eggnog Custard Pie. May this alcohol-drenched delight bring you succor as we say farewell to 2025. #pieforthepiegods

Not only a perfect denouement, it was the end of an era. Thirty years ago today, this strip was published.

I'm loving all the New Vegas in Fallout season 2, and practically screamed when Victor showed up. But it sucks that they recast the role. It's not like they couldn't have gotten William Sadler! Whoever is doing the voice is fine, but he's no Sadler.

Thanks to an expensive couple of holiday weeks, I finally have enough points on my credit card to get a Switch 2 without paying a dime. Yay! Now I have a few days before it's delivered to figure out the arcane details of migrating my account and digital games from one console to another.

"What was your biggest impact on the internet?" I published the first year of Penny Arcade.

It's almost cute how desperate Amazon is to get me to enable AI on Alexa. They keep sending me notifications and emails. I bought those heavily subsidized devices to use as clock radios, bluetooth speakers, and kitchen timers. There's literally nothing else I need them for.

I so need to read this. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Seeing No Other Choice in 35mm at the Angelika today. Unfortunately the only seats we could get at the last minute are a liiiitle far back.

Times Square last night. NYC in the snow is the best.

Settling in for a night of legitimate theater.

Quote this with what you have accomplished in 2025, no matter how small: 🎮 Shipped a game! 💬 Published seven long form interviews at The Comics Journal! 🥧 Baked 30 pies! 📚 Read 75 books! ✊ Refused to let the bastards grind me down!

I had a good reading year! 75 books. I hit 93 a few times in the past, but I was traveling a LOT more those years. This year I finished the Discworld series, got up to date on The Witcher, read The Power Broker, some pulp noir, and a lot of great non-fiction. www.goodreads.com/user/year_in...

Make a Bond movie casual. LEAFRAKER

I always forget about this part

Merry Christmas from NYC, where we're visiting family. We will of course be celebrating in the traditional Jewish fashion: a movie and Chinese food. youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8?...

I love this movie. By far my favorite Christmas flick. 1) It's legit sci-fi. The plot could easily have been a Twilight Zone episode. 2) It's DARK. The third act? Hoo boy. 3) The performances are so good! Stewart, Reed, Barrymore, Grahame! It's great on TV. It was amazing when I saw it on film!

The brilliant Jules Feiffer died a year ago shortly before his 96th birthday. He was drawing until the very end. He dances on through a mountain of amazing work. www.thenation.com/article/cult... #Julesfeiffer #Feiffer #Villagevoice

The best of 2025 roundup is up at @comicsjournal.bsky.social today. Want to see what bizarre, totally unexpected book is my favorite graphic novel of the year? You'll just have to click through to find out. www.tcj.com/the-best-com...

I saw this trailer before Avatar, and my immediate thought was this looks like a really mediocre movie, but if it were a @mrsambarlow.bsky.social game I'd play the crap out of it. youtu.be/7H7Djx17l8Y

So much dialog in The Evil Within was like this. Sebastian would walk into a room and announce his presence. He'd see a ladder and say, "guess I can go up." We cut most of it, but the one that still cracks me up to this day is when he falls into a giant pool of blood, and he says, "Blood?"

This is just awful news. RIP.

Ahhhhhh this looks so good. The only question is which theater I go to. Do I see it in on 70mm film? Or do I go to the Smithsonian for the full IMAX experience? youtu.be/Mzw2ttJD2qQ

I consider myself a thoroughly modern person, but I do also send letters on a nearly 100 year old typewriter, complete with personalized stationery and a wax seal. And let me tell you, there's something incredibly satisfying about sealing a letter with a monogram wax seal. It's all royal and stuff.

Dispatch is like, perfectly calibrated for my interests, so I knew I was gonna dig it. But I was NOT prepared for how good it looks. The animation is easily as good as anything on TV these days, and in many cases, significantly better. I had to check if it's actually running UE4. Well DONE, AdHoc.

I'm not a huge Lego guy, but this is so cool. Lots of really nice touches.

Checking my spreadsheet (yes of course there's a spreadsheet!) I seem to have made a whopping 30 pies this year. And I might have one more left in 2025! That's a pretty sizable increase from the last few years, which have been 23 or 24. The dark lords of baking are pleased. #pieforthepiegods

I appreciate that the theater was trying to cut back on trailers because of Avatar's insane 3+ hour runtime, but I didn't get to see the previews for Doomsday or The Odyssey. I feel cheated. Especially since they did manage to find space for their stupid commercials.

O pretentious gods of French patisserie, I humbly approach your glorious table with my latest offering: a French Apple Tart. May this creation be worthy of being served alongside a baguette and a nice camembert.

If you're the kind of weirdo who jumps at the words, "very Japanese takes on Dragon's Lair and Space Ace" then you should know the Taito LD remaster collection is currently on sale. The games rule, and these are *excellent* releases. I want more like this! store.steampowered.com/bundle/50291...

Then: Shadow of Mordor. Now: Shadow of Mordor. Lot of good games that year (including one I worked on!). But that still reigns.

I'm making an apple tart this weekend, which will inevitably involve peeling a ton of apples. That's the most annoying and overly time-consuming part. Apparently there are people who peel apples using an electric drill? I...might need to try this.

I don't think people realize how big YouTube is, and what this represents. YT is bigger than any other streaming service, and has nearly twice the viewing audience of Netflix.

Oh, wow. I remember seeing a preview in some magazine (EGM?) and being amazed they were even attempting this.

Bjork has given us her hitbox. I expect the lab folks to have her frame data ready for the rest of us by EOB

I do step outside from time to time, but really, my primary beat at TCJ is talking to artists from the '90s. Talking to Jeff was a real joy. For two decades he worked a job where nobody knew he was secretly an acclaimed artist. Now he's back to reclaim his legacy. It's a great story!

New Spielberg sci-fi? NEW SPIELBERG SCI-FI. youtu.be/UFe6NRgoXCM