As more people are vocally anti-AI, new spin/trend has developed where company leaders or community managers will state that 'they don't like AI slop either', which sounds disarming, but carries the implication that their stuff *isn't* slop, and they're the ones who will do it the *right* way

Last year or so has been a journey of me remembering/accepting that The Strokes are, in fact, one of my favorite artists www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4qs...

Morrowind in the hearts and minds of gamers lately 😤 But you don't have to care about TES to enjoy this. Really excellent article on game lore and worldbuilding from @duncanfyfe.net. (Glad as ever @remapradio.bsky.social is providing space for pieces like this) remapradio.com/articles/who...

Sinnematography

9 games that made me 🌱 my9games.com

Me and @himynameiszack.bsky.social played plenty of Marathon during the server slam and wrote about it for @pcmag.com. We had our hesitations around extraction shooters heading in, but dare I say...we enjoyed ourselves? www.pcmag.com/opinions/we-...

Had my head down with the holidays, a busy (but fun) CES, the obligatory CES flu, and then an NDA rush...a whirlwind! At least I came out the other side with this nice video on our first Intel 'Panther Lake' testing, with an eye on graphics & gaming @pcmag.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-50...

Replaying The Witcher 3 (NG+) with the next-gen update on PC for the first time and can't stop taking screenshots as I travel It was already in my top 3 all time, even more stunning now [1440p, RT Ultra, RTX 5070 Ti]

I love @lostincult.co.uk

LaFleur on LinkedIn right now

Kingdom Come: Homework II

I wrote about Rob Reiner: www.vulture.com/article/rob-...

it really feels like a lot of the anger over that game is based around like 6 different posts from nobodies around launch that were "finally turn-based games are good unlike that JP SLOP" and it has somehow warped into hatred of the devs themselves (and the game ofc) and its really depressing

Deserved Clair Obscur sweep I'm afraid

A beautiful sunset on MAMDANI'S NEW YORK tonight 😌

😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎

it's obviously important that zohran won. but it's equally important that cuomo and the despicable, racist, contemptuous, arrogant, loathesome forces arrayed behind him were brutally defeated. they banked on new yorkers hating and fearing each other. and they lost. what a town.

Relief! Optimism!

Socialist NYC mayor is such a tremendously good vibe shift and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise

Back levels 📈

🗣️ Zohran szn

The AWS outage today is a good reminder that there is no "cloud", there's just somebody else's computer.

Folks, it's now Gaming Sunday

Making more of an effort to shift my work posting over here too! Yesterday's Nvidia x Intel news was a big surprise, and there's a lot to digest. My 5 biggest questions and takeaways for PCMag: www.pcmag.com/opinions/int...

One of the more fun and unusual products I've reviewed lately for PCMag, @frame.work's first desktop: www.pcmag.com/reviews/fram...

Finally getting 'round to Red Dead 2 and, surprise, it's real good 🐎🚬

Been much more active with my movie watching and Letterboxd lately 😌 Follow along if you're on there~ letterboxd.com/Pyrrhus/

Chelsea, world champions! What an outing

We're simply so back

DARE WE DREAM NEW YORK?

Tough task but gave it a shot~

I'm proud I don't have Andrew Cuomo's record of corruption, scandal and disgrace. And the name is M-A-M-D-A-N-I.

Everything else about the race aside, I still can't believe Zohran, who I've already voted for twice before as my local assemblyman, has this much name recognition and discourse now (good!)

Had a super busy week covering Computex. Taiwan showed me a great time in my few free hours, which is a testament to what an interesting place it is

KNIIIICKS

Behold! @pcmag.com's tariff tracker, where we will be answering this question: "Is the cost to build a PC going up?" Most components are made in China, but so far the tariffs haven't hit yet—except on GPUs, and prices are going wild already. Follow along: www.pcmag.com/news/tariff-...

i am far too stupid to be weighing in on this but one thing i would stress is that gaming media’s collapse wasn’t an inevitable fact of life. it’s the result of very stupid people making decisions they could have just as easily not made

Ah man...sad times for this industry. Any publication with goals loftier than a race to the bottom can't sustain itself for long. Some great work here over the years

Oblivion Remastered, Switch 2 order, Clair Obscur (which I hopefully like), two great days of weather—a real birthday bounty for me

Just barely, but Switch 2: acquired

Despite my best efforts, Oblivion Remastered 100% worked on me, and it looks way better than I thought it might. They got me!

Every new detail that comes out about Switch 2 since the stream ended

in an internet full of content, real writing is more essential than ever. Hire Chandra and that's absolutely what you'll get

Newsletter: There is no AI Revolution. Consumer adoption of generative AI outside of ChatGPT is barely 100 million people, every single company in generative AI is deeply unprofitable, Microsoft is pulling capex, and OpenAI spent $9bn in 2024 to lose $5bn. www.wheresyoured.at/wheres-the-m...

Been playing Avowed early: It's good! You should try it for yourself

It's a farce that he's still in office

Dictators and authoritarians globally are cheering Trump/Musk's destruction of USAID. But Trump/Musk think that's *good.* They're aligned with the dictators/authoritarians in this regard. My exchange with former USAID official @jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social on this: newrepublic.com/article/1912...

1. DREAD DELUSION The most engrossing game world in 2024. Its worldbuilding, writing, and atmosphere operate at such a high level—especially for a small team—with a striking visual style all its own. It left the most lasting impression on me this year and, I suspect, will do so for far longer.