Franchise Festival's first episode on Mass Effect 3 is available now! You can find it on our website, or wherever you listen to podcasts. www.patreon.com/posts/season...

4th completed game of 2026 is Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel (2000). This is the best 2D Metal Gear, and captures the vibe of the core series' writing better than you'd expect for a GBC spinoff. A couple annoyingly meandering stages, though. I wish it was more easily accessible these days. 8/10.

Franchise Festival's first episode on Mass Effect 3 is available now! You can find it on our website, or wherever you listen to podcasts. www.patreon.com/posts/season...

Prosecute ICE. Punish ICE. Abolish ICE.

My dogs are being cozy buddies

We're back with a good ol fashioned topic episode! Give it a listen to where ever you listen to your podcasts.

Exciting news: Franchise Festival will be back with our first Mass Effect 3 episode on February 1, 2026!

Blaaaargh, our street still hasn't been plowed and the snow is like concrete - send help, lol

If you can, please consider joining the big call right now on how to document and record ICE activity in your area: www.youtube.com/live/zqka9fU...

Simpsons gags that amuse me: a thread

they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.

My group chats are full of Minnesotans reacting to today’s murder by figuring out ways they can help. We need people outside of the state to do the same thing. Whatever you wish everyone else was doing right now? Do it today. Let’s make a list of things that could help.

They are never, ever going to win in Minnesota.

I finally watched the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie this week and wow, what an absolute delight!

In solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.

Favorite game from each Nintendo console (share your own!) NES: Mega Man 6 GB: DK '94 SNES: FF 6 GBC: DQ 3 N64: Majora's Mask GBA: Fire Emblem GC: RE 4 DS: Pokemon Soulsilver Wii: Mario Galaxy 2 3DS: Pokemon Sun Wii U: Paper Mario Color Splash Switch: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2: DK Bananza

Please consider signal-boosting this major event in Minneapolis, @npr.org!

Grateful for this response, because the image they're responding to really demoralized me today. So many of us have been fighting all of this madness for a decade, and it's a drag to have folks tell us we're not doing anything because we're not leading a futile, violent revolution.

TWIN CITIES FOLKS WHO WANT TO HELP AND DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START: I put together a big list of resources. Do you want to deliver groceries? do people's laundry? work in community defense? I want to help you get connected! naomikritzer.com/2026/01/19/h...

3rd completed game of 2026 is La-Mulana (2005). An indie puzzle-platformer that presages games like Dark Souls and Animal Well, it somehow squanders all of its early goodwill with a cruel, inscrutable back half that's more unpleasant than a root canal. I think I hate this game.

- Launching on PlayStation, Xbox, & PC - Made Without a Publisher - 50+ levels - Black-owned studio - Dropping in during black history month Don't let it get buried and forgotten

Absolutely losing it at these magazines in Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. genAI could never.

Hey everybody: please recommend one or two terrifying horror movies for me to watch while my wife is away watching our friends' dogs!

For people elsewhere who have asked how to support Minnesota while we’re overrun with nazi thugs, here’s an excellent list of places that could use financial help. Lots of choices. Thank you so much! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Oscar Isaac is so beautiful - that guy was made to be in movies

Last year @toskakoshka.bsky.social and I wrote a bad ass piece on historical revisionism through Call of Duty paratexts and its out(-ish) in the latest issue of of *Digital Culture & Society*. If you're an academic with library access please go download it!

2nd completed game of 2026 is Kirby: Canvas Curse (2005). A fun, stylus-based riff on the Kirby series that's held back by punishing difficulty in the back half and relatively superfluous implementation of the protagonist's copy ability.

Did you know: there is an official regulatory body known as the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation? www.bbc.com/sport/articl...

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself transformed into an enormous Bug-type.

Completed Games of 2026 Thread!

Hit - Doom, Dragon Quest 3-5, Earthbound, Final Fantasy 7, Donkey Kong (GB), Baldur's Gate 3, Silent Hill 2 OK - Mother 3, Deus Ex, Disco Elysium, Donkey Kong Country, Link To The Past, Chrono Trigger Miss - Planescape: Torment, Any bullet-hell game, Tetris: The Grand Master, Monster Hunter

John Cage, submitting the sheet music for "4'33"" to his publisher: What do you think? Publisher: No notes.

Man, I've been playing Kirby & the Canvas Curse, and the final worlds are impossible! Thought I was going to be able to roll credits, but this game is *tough*, haha

A timeline cleanse from me to you

Abolish ICE and prosecute the heck out of its agents - honestly, it's the least we deserve

They're playing "Closing Time" on classic rock radio here at the office at 11AM. This is a sick joke!

All solidarity to the people of Iran - praying that their protests will finally be rewarded with a government that respects the dignity of its people.

a few thoughts youtu.be/lERS4kJIQR8

OP's provided the script - here are links for how you can call your senators and representatives. Be sure to indicate your address if leaving a voicemail, so your opinion gets accurately tallied: www.senate.gov/senators/sen... (Senate) www.house.gov/representati... (House)

If you're a fellow American who wants to take action on the US' illegal and wildly dangerous actions in Venezuela, please contact your representatives NOW: 5calls.org/issue/trump-... (it's easy, and calls/voicemails are a major way that elected officials gauge public opinion!)

The English Teacher feels like it's written specifically for me

Heaven help me, but I loved that Stranger Things finale. Suitably grand yet not lacking in warm character beats. Cheers to the cast and crew for somehow producing a satisfying conclusion to nearly ten years of storytelling.

Happy New Year, friends - I hope you have a good one!

42nd (and last) completed game of 2025 is Star Fox Command (2006). This is a true successor to Star Fox 64, and one that plays to the strengths of the DS with thoughtful stylus controls and turn-based strategy sequences between flight missions. A marvelous little game.

In the spirit of New Year's Eve, enjoy this silly little song from 1967: youtu.be/nes9SgMFqw0?...

Good news, folks: Franchise Festival is closing out 2025 with our annual Games of the Year episode! Better yet, it's on the public feed and available for everybody on Patreon or your preferred podcast app. Enjoy! www.patreon.com/posts/season...

I sure didn't expect to be moved by the writing in solidly 7/10 historical vampire simulator Vampyr (2018), but tonight encountered washed-up anarchist Dyson Delaney. "Cynicism is the polite way to express despair" - killer performance and story all around.

I'm quite a few hours into Donkey Kong Bananza and finding that it reminds me not only of Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild, but also Sonic Frontiers! I wonder if that was an influence, or if it's just coincidence.

The Feast of the Holy Family today was a timely reminder that xenophobia and nationalism is incompatible with Christianity, as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were migrants fleeing government cruelty. It's our sacred duty to love, protect, and support the refugees in our midst.