“He raped me.” “Donald J Trump had raped her along with Jeffrey Epstein.” “She was found with her head ‘blown off’… there was no way it was a suicide.” Now we’re starting to see why Trump was hiding the Epstein files, and it probably gets much worse.

Finished Clair Obscur tonight and it’s such a shame Gen AI creates such a big asterix. I had a great conversation on the themes with my chat. How grief is processed, what it means to move on, the flaws of the characters. It’s powerful stuff. But next up on my docket is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim!

The most memorable thing from teppen is it gave us jyb doing the best what am I fighting for from zero

Kai was upset that we don’t have a Daisy amiibo so he can unlock the Mii racing outfit in MK8. So he drew his own:

Simply Having A wonderful

200 episodes! A rare achievement for most podcasts. Showing up every week for almost 4 years. I'm grateful!!

After nearly 4 years, @brandonbovia.bsky.social and I have finally hit the big episode 200! Is this set a fitting one for such a milestone? Well, there’s no major revelations but it’s still packed with things to discuss. We’re definitely hitting 2 hours sooner than later. youtu.be/IFj7r5H62YY?...

Hoo boy does Capcom’s financial report specifying that they believe using AI would damage their brand and that “games are made by people” make me happy right now.

The actor Michael Sheen used all his money to start a fake debt collecting business, buy 900 people in Wales's debt, and excused it. If Musk bought ALL $194 billion in medical debt in the U.S. and excused it in the same way, he'd still be the world's riches man by hundreds of billions of dollars.

So one from Elpias seems to actually have what happened with the whole Exp33 AI situation. They experimented when the tech first came out in 2022. But abounded it with fully new textures that were supposed to be replaced but they forgot to swap the correct files out.

Tell me you don't see it

I really enjoy the game. In fact I’ve been fast tracking my playthrough of it to finish before the end of the year. But this is right. It’s not there anymore but it was and there should be no exceptions.

I tried this out recently and it’s a great price for a Game Boy Color throwback. It could be a few hours long if you blow through it but easily at least 20 if you actively try to see everything. That’s a hell of a value.

I say this with zero irony: if you are even tangentially a part of a retro video game community, it is your civic duty to push back against this company and shun anyone who doesn't. This is fascism tapping gently at the door and as soon as you let it in, it's going to invite its friends.

It’s about that time of year where I ramble about a bunch of Tales games for over 20 minutes youtu.be/xnaWgTO9FzE?...

Belated tribute to our beloved Blue Bomber! 💙 Happy 38th Anniversary!!! Share with a Mega Man fan!

Maria Shriver, niece of JFK: He was a man interested in the arts, culture, education, language, history... It is beyond comprehension that the president has sought to rename this great memorial. C’mon my fellow Americans! Wake up! This is not dignified. This is not funny... It’s downright weird.

You ever have one of those days where you muse about taking a year to play every single PS1 RPG just for fun?

I for one relish the rise in murder mystery cinema. This looks like a lot of silly fun.

Tonight may be the finale of Mega Man X6! I still have some cleanup to do but then I'm free to challenge Gate's Fortress. What kind of challenge awaits be there? No clue! Let's dive in: www.twitch.tv/bitnerdgames

My second grade teacher's classroom was full of kids books. She encouraged me to take one home and each day I'd come back for more. This led me to Goosebumps then Michael Crichton/Stephen King by 5th grade where I then tried writing, creating a pastiche on Horror Land and I so wish I had kept it.

happy 32nd anniversary to Sega's phenomenal "Phantasy Star: End of the Millennium" for Mega Drive; much love for Hitoshi Yoneda's key art

If I had known the two paragraphs about genAI in my article today would be so controversial, I would have expanded them a bit! Here's a rough transcript of the relevant portion of my interview with Swen Vincke, so everyone has all the context. (Full article here: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...)

Pirate the series. Make your own physical media. That's the only answer when this happens and they haven't put it out any other way.

I've yet to play Baldur's Gate 3, but I did get a code a long time ago for D:OS 2 and with the announcement of the Switch 2 version, I felt like I might carve out some time to try it out. But CEOs gotta screw things up for everyone. My interest is gone. There's no reason to tarnish this legacy.

No matter how hard people try to convince us having empathy is wrong, it is right. No matter how hard people try to convince us that diversity is a weakness, it is a strength. No matter how hard people try to convince us that love is limited, it is unlimited.

So I initially planned on starting the Top 10 Games of 2025 Poll today but then someone brought up a great point. A lot of people won't play many games until after Christmas. So in the spirit of letting all of 2025 pass, the poll won't go live until January 5th.

And so ends Act 1 of Wano...wait, ALREADY?! Time for things to go down very badly, very quickly as @brandonbovia.bsky.social and I discuss it all! youtu.be/BqT2p4rBK78?...

I just learned about Rob Reiner after my stream and I'm just incalculably sad. This is no way for a legacy like his to end.

For what it's worth, this scene is what I always think of when I think of Rob Reiner, his character comforting Edith after a violent murder, at a moment when the world didn't feel like it made any sense. youtu.be/aGM79BJ5SoI

One of my all-time favorite clips of Rob Reiner, from his Friars Club Roast in 2000, as he reads aloud Roger Ebert's infamous scathing review of his movie North. The man had an amazing sense of humor about himself. RIP.

I remember doing the deal for Epic Mickey, and Bob Iger shooting laser beams out his eyes at me in the Disney dining room. “Don’t let this video game fuck up Mickey.” Oh well. That’s over.

The conscious claws of Doc Ock! 🔴 (Spider-Man 2, 2004) As a huge fan of Doc Ock/Alfred Molina for over 20 years Ive wanted to animate him for a long time! Its not often I animate humans as they can be a bit challenging, but for a rough practice clip Im happy with the turnout! :D

You might want to start thinking of your favorite games from this year as Monday is when the poll for the Top 10 Games of 2025 will be released! Will Clair Obscur win ours as well? And what less talked about titles will get talked about? Honestly, that’s what I’m most excited about!

Yeah.

Just finished Wake Up Dead Man. Loved it and its somewhat more traditional mystery structure. The main character stood out to me the most while Blanc himself is maybe not as compelling as usual. Still great but a bit of a backseat. Loved the exploration into the duality of the church. KO > WUDM > GO

Check out my new deep-dive analysis of #MegaManDualOverride's reveal trailer! Mega thanks to @brandon.gvg.io for his help on the editing side! youtu.be/Kbupo0CMMhE

Goodness, what a difference.

I'm so glad this is still a tradition.

We got a new Mega Man! And it looks so good! 11 with some budget behind it! Let my Mega Man-ia Marathon continue!! (I still have so many games to play so it'll likely be out by the time I'd reach it.)

Remember when Disney sued a preschool for painting artwork of Mickey Mouse on its walls? Turns out they could’ve just invested in schools! But nah, we gotta be evil. It’s the CEO way!

This one hurts. Captain Qwark was a staple of my childhood and a big reason for my Ratchet & Clank love. Learning all the other roles he portrayed just shows the sheer talent he had. 66 is far too young.

Tonight! At 9pm EST, I’m playing more Mega Man X6 for the first time! So far I’ve beaten 3 Mavericks and lost one civilian, and while flawed it doesn’t feel that radically worse than X5. We’ll see if that changes as I get to the more notorious levels. Twitch.tv/bitnerdgames

Okay just going through the top 200 now and the most notable thing is that there are three Top 10s with all of their entries filled out. The SNES, Indies from 2015-2019, and shockingly the Wild Card category. People were very passionate about the games that didn't make their initial lists!

Time for something a little more casual as @jon.gvg.io and I do something of an epilogue where we talk about the games that ended up ranked 51-100. And be sure to check out the description for a link with all the results from the 502 finalists! youtu.be/3j6u48QCZ1c?...

so insanely fucking real for this

Was suddenly reminded of Jade Cocoon while chatting with @brandonbovia.bsky.social tonight. I don't think many people even remember that this was a joint project with Studio Ghibli. I remember demos of it, but never picked it up. There were just so many PS1 RPGs to play.

Maybe I’m just ready to move on but the sheer marathon of enemies in Silksong’s Coral Castle feels like it’s too much. Three(?) rounds of enemies that feel never ending and have to be fought again if I die is starting to lose its appeal. The game has pulled this trick far too many times.

You will be visited by three spirits.

This was a crazy culmination to an already-crazy undertaking, pleeeeease give it a watch