Dick Cheney departs the world he made: defector.com/dick-cheney-...

New awareness campaign

@stolisomancer.bsky.social 's piece on Resident Evil and my essay on Madden in @lifebarmag.com made Critical Distance this week, alongside a lot of other really good games writing. I'll link both below, but everything here is worth your time. Support good games writing!

I'm back on the Daydreamcast for my annual Halloween episode with @edgarallanbro.bsky.social, to talk FEAR, MORTAL KOMBAT, and NINJA GAIDEN 4.

I had forgotten how irritated I was as a kid with all the MK3 fatalities that render your opponent into several discrete chunks with their hands floating next to their torsos. I used to play MK3 at the convenience store by my high school and all the fatalities in that game were *disappointing*.

Hope, Zombies, and Resident Evil by @stolisomancer.bsky.social "In Resident Evil, almost uniquely, victories are possible. They’re always difficult and often costly, but the characters can win. The world can be saved, and is in fact worth saving in the first place." Read on:

Trending: From stress relief to self-discovery: UW researchers reveal the deeper impact of video games https://www.geekwire.com/2025/from-stress-relief-to-self-discovery-uw-researchers-reveal-the-deeper-impact-of-video-games/

Reactionary content creators and “thought leaders” truly believe they’re the other side of a coin. They think that a decades-old market research firm whose value is entirely dependent upon its veracity is cooking its numbers to push an agenda because that is what they do.

New report about crazy Xbox profit expectations helps shed light on Microsoft’s broader gaming changes https://www.geekwire.com/2025/new-report-about-crazy-xbox-profit-expectations-helps-shed-light-on-microsofts-broader-gaming-changes/

I've often joked that the Trump presidencies feel like a rejected parody script from 1985, but no individual element bothers me as much as this. The CDC head during COVID being named "Redfield," and now this shitbird having the same name as the evil corporation from "The Boys," is too on the nose.

I genuinely wonder when people are gonna start voting with their wallets and stop rewarding companies for using AI, Arc Raiders using it for genAI voices is frankly disgusting and it blows my mind that some people will defend it, and now Arc Raiders is sitting at 3rd top selling on Steam

“My life was a series of battles. And I kept on winning.”: Skybox remembers Tomonobu Itagaki by @edgarallanbro.bsky.social feat. several Skybox contributors "Tomonobu Itagaki was a rock star. Maybe our last one." Read on:

That's right

Former Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki has passed away, as confirmed by his Facebook and personal friends. "Words of departure - my life's light is about to run out." www.facebook.com/tomonobu.ita...

Life of a guide writer: I am now cursed to forever spin 180 at the start of any new level of every game and check to see if there's a secret behind me. This is exclusively because of that one DOOM level where the chainsaw is hidden right behind you at the start.

“No Kings” is great , but we really don't get a functioning democracy back until we internalize, bone deep, the instinctive response to this and every other statement like it: “I don’t care what that rich guy thinks.” Make it your morning affirmation. Say it ten times at the top of every hour.

Today did remind me to look up the link, if any, between Hershey's Mr. Goodbar and Diane Keaton's LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR. Apparently there isn't any and the candy's over 50 years older. I might've renamed the candy after the movie came out, were it me.

Every time I see the word "capex," I think it's something to do with superheroes before I realize I'm reading financial news. Always interesting to see how my brain poison has manifested today.

“Why isn’t anyone covering our indie games?” 1. The gaming press has been decimated by business suits, and the whims of an uncaring search engine behemoth 2. Doing the job means you get death threats and harassment 3. There are more games released in 1 week than there were in entire months in 2015

I wouldn't call it "extremely upbeat," but the Pink Spiders' "Busy Signals" feels like it was written and recorded for this specific purpose.

My next column on @hard-drive.net is being delayed by some backend changes on the site, which should be finished next week.

Amazon unveils revamped Luna cloud gaming platform with new focus on party games https://www.geekwire.com/2025/amazon-unveils-revamped-luna-cloud-gaming-platform-with-new-focus-on-party-games/

Small old world. The YouTube algorithm served up an old episode of "Saturday Morning Scrublords" and I learned I was on the old Higher Voltage board at the same time as two of those guys, back when the Kerri Hoskins Appreciation Thread drew an appearance by the actual Kerri Hoskins.

In hopes that I never have to hear about Eric Adams again, I'm reposting this banger:

Reminded myself of something last night: If you're one of the people I've seen saying you'd love a game like SILENT HILL F if it had all the puzzles but no combat, check out THE COMA trilogy. It's a Korean horror series about a haunted high school that has no fighting at all; you run, hide, or die.

Looks like my next column at @hard-drive.net will be delayed due to a back-end update on the site, so no indie talk today. You're off the hook. For now.

Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser will retire in December https://www.geekwire.com/2025/nintendo-of-america-president-doug-bowser-will-retire-in-december/

SILENT HILL f

Incidentally, since the Discourse has moved this way: It's not that SILENT HILL F has bad combat like SH2 did, where it just kind of existed without further comment. It's that it genuinely inhibits the experience and punctures the narrative. You'll see what I mean when/if you play SHF on Hard.

In case you were curious what my opinion is about this week's new entry in the SILENT HILL franchise, I wrote some of my thoughts down for Skybox. I think you'll be able to split the reactions to this down the middle by who likes maddening stamina-combat games and who doesn't. I don't. At all.

It’s so funny for Sucker Punch to burn good will like this right before a release. Your game stars a woman, there’s no universe where the people trying to scare you don’t think it’s gay and soy.

Game Night: Punch Every Bug You See in ‘Star Fire: Eternal Cycle’ (Minus World Article) hard-drive.net/news-games/g...

It's Friday, and you know what that means: I'm back on @hard-drive.net to talk about #indiegames. This week, I've been playing the Chinese roguelike STAR FIRE: ETERNAL CYCLE:

However you define political violence, the right is responsible for much more of it. The Anti-Defamation League (hardly a left-wing org!) found that all “domestic extremist-related killings” in 2022 were done by right-wing extremists, the vast majority (84%) white supremacists. trib.al/ycZNDE1

Kind of a crazy question, but if anyone in my Bluesky network happens to know someone who knows someone with any knowledge of historical Japanese marriage customs, I've got some questions I'd love to ask an expert.

Revisit the whole "hopepunk terrorist" angle that went underexplored in the Krakoan era. It's not a superhero book anymore; it's utopian political sf/f.

relevant life lesson from comics on this one

It's sort of fascinating how the Occam's Razor on today's SHf/DualShockers incident could be two different things: - Valnet screwed up. - An inexperienced freelancer screwed up. Either or both are likely. (And it's never a bad time to spread the good word: Don't Work for Valnet Sites.)

The right-wing is trying to end competitive elections and freedom of speech in America. The left-wing is occasionally very annoying. Grow up.

This was a nice surprise. One of the other guide writers at IGN pointed me at this Reddit post about the SILENT HILL 2 guide I wrote last year. Nice to know somebody appreciated all my dumb jokes. As one of the commenters said, you do get loopy when you're writing these things at 3 AM.

...stop sending me press releases about "holiday gift guides." It's still technically summer. Do not threaten me with your tinsel mayhem until I've survived Thanksgiving.

It's Friday, so let's talk #indiegames. I'm back at @hard-drive.net with my weekly column, in which I discuss the recent EA release STICK IT TO THE STICKMAN. It's actually fairly popular already, so I screwed up that part of my column's mission statement again. Read this anyway.

being in games world gives you a leg up in understanding the stupidity of our culture while also ensuring that no one outside of that world really takes anything you have to say that seriously

I get why people on Bluesky/Twitter/Facebook aren't fedposting in this environment, but when the NYT has apparently adopted a similar stance...

"A good review also expands the conversation on a work of art rather than just evaluating it... A seasoned critic will give me background on that movie’s production... point out other things I wouldn’t have noticed and/or known without their help."

The Abundance Guys are selling fake solutions in order to protect the oligarchs funding their fancy conferences, their think tanks, their new Substack blogs, and their speaking tours. Pass it on.

I don't think anyone with an honest memory of those consoles can actually forget how poor their sales were, as it's likely been an itch in their brains ever since. The actual draw as a Dreamcast owner was how experimental most of its library felt, even in 2000.

Every time you see an inaccurate post mentioning how Silksong, Clair Obscur, etc was made by like 12 people in their basement with no internet remember that some C-Suite exec is going to point at that when signing new games, cutting studios and teams, and dismantling foundational pillars