Really looking forward to Factory Town 2. @easmussen.bsky.social's first Factory Town was a bit rough in the UI department but still a lot of fun once you got used to it, and I can't wait to do it all again with new automation toys in a tropical setting. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEcR...

Embargoed trailer so I'm not going to grumble about the game but I can say that any time I see this type of run animation I die on the inside. Stop it, it's stupid! Let your character have some dignity rather than being defined by a trope refined beyond the point of anything any human has ever done.

Someday I'm going to make a list of "I love everything about this game except playing it" games. This thought brought to you by seeing mention of The Outer Wilds, which I'm sure I'll give a 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th chance later on.

I know this review is taking some heat but to me it looks perfectly reasonable. Arc Raiders used AI? Ok, 2-star penalty. Everything is great but it uses AI is like a Michelin 3-star meal with just a bit of dogshit on the plate. It tinges everything. The correct amount of dogshit is zero.

I hate that I'm pleasantly surprised by the news the Supreme Court has upheld gay marriage, but also I'm very happy the Supreme Court has upheld gay marriage. It shouldn't feel like a victory but somehow it does. apnews.com/article/supr...

It's finally time for water in @keengamesstudio.bsky.social's Enshrouded! The major update, Wake of Water, has landed bringing in water as a physical in-game object, plus a new biome featuring plenty of watery exploration. And a complete rework of all weapons, too! hardcoregamer.com/swimming-in-...

Mmmm…. Dangerous!

A couple of weeks back I had the chance to go to Los Angeles or San Francisco for a two separate November press events. I was tempted to do both, honestly, because it's been a long while since the last one. Then I realized that might be a bad idea with the government shutdown and decided against it.

If GTA had kept on with the San Andreas style I might care that GTAVI is delayed. GTAIV and GTAV both made it very clear I'm not needed there any more so it was nice while it lasted. Also, union busting Take 2 can fuck aaaaaaaaaaaaall the way off.

There we go! Can't wait to find out more.

Election day, but thanks to early voting I don't have anything else I need to do. Only two questions on my ballot and one of them was a voter restriction measure that would have limited my early-voting ability, so that was a big old No.

Well that went well/poorly. Good for the Vectrex and I still need one, but I was there 2 minutes after the Kickstarter went live and the Kickstarter back-end was overwhelmed. No Founders/Early Bird for me, it just got stuck loading forever. Thanks, Kickstarter. Big help there.

Ugh, just saw the “…but if I kill you, I’ll be no different from you.” trope. It’s not the stupidest trope out there but it’s definitely near the top of the pile.

I've been having a great time with @ivysly.com's Evil Egg, a classic arena twin-stick shooter. Tons of enemies, excellent power-up system, and a super-chunky pixel style that gets wonderfully messy as enemies get splattered across the rooms. hardcoregamer.com/freebie-twin...

Me: Yay, final paragraph and I’ll have this article written! Wind: Ha-ha! There goes your power!

While it can't match its AAA predecessor with AAA budget, @thqnordic.com's Wreckreation is still a great time. Full-on aggressive racing in a wide-open map built for turning into an epic stunt-racer playground, or whatever else you use its tools to design. hardcoregamer.com/review-wreck...

Really clear rainbow-arc thingy in the clouds-

Accidentally posted about politics elsewhere and now I'm being told I should vote for the guy who only got rid of his Nazi tattoo when it impacted his campaign, rather than the woman in her mid-70s who did good work as governor. You'd think I'd know better than to talk politics online.

I know everyone loves Balatro but every time I look at it I see the poker theme and Nope on out of there. I know it's not a poker/gambling game, but the theme is enough to keep me away. Kind of like westerns, which is another theme/setting that's an interest x 1/3 debuff.

This went up when I was away- Full Metal Schoolgirl, ignoring the weirdly shoehorned-in pervy bits, is a pretty decent combat roguelike let down by its camera and checkpointing system. Fun when it works, then overly-punishing on run's end. hardcoregamer.com/review-full-...

Really looking forward to checking Mouseward out when I get home. Right now, though, is-

Reminder to myself when I get home from vacation. Win11 is still new and Copilot needs to be burned out at the roots.

You can’t tell me what to do!

Going for a walk on the ocean.

Everyone be good this week, I’m off until Friday to Acadia National Park. Exhibits are closed but the mountains are open.

The US Gov moderation list to block the lot. Or verify each one, which is what I did using the criteria "Does it instantly go partisan attacking the Democrats?" The answer was yes and a block to all but, and this was a surprise, the TSA account. bsky.app/profile/eva....

Kind of sad that I've passed up two press events coming up, one in LA and the other San Francisco. We don't have much in the way of air traffic control right now so flying strikes me as a terrible idea.

I don’t indulge much in nostalgia but Sega CD is an exception. More please, @limitedrungames.com!

I had high hopes when news broke that @fabraz.bsky.social was heading the new Bubsy game, and the Bubsy 4D demo does a great job of meeting those expectations. Bubsy's got a strong, responsive move-set and the levels encourage creativity in chaining them together. hardcoregamer.com/preview-bubs...

Reinstalled Enshrouded a couple months back and have been poking away at it here and there since. First time playing- installing shaders. Upgraded graphics card- installing shaders. Finally got Win11 on this PC- installing shaders. Each one is a reasonable one-time process, but *sigh* anyway.

I didn't manage to 100% the demo for @astrobotanica.bsky.social's Astrobotanica but close, thanks to a sneaky gold statue hiding... somewhere. Open-world survival as an alien on prehistoric Earth, cataloguing its plants and befriending the Neanderthals. hardcoregamer.com/preview-astr...

I think the reason I'm having trouble caring too much about Xbox dying as a brand is that it's been irrelevant to me since the 360 days. The Xbox 360 was a top-tier console but Microsoft never recovered from the Xbox One debacle. I would have like to have cared, but they wouldn't let me.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Tokyo Fears Rhapsody but had been curious. Turns out it’s a goofy-ass manga that I can’t quite call shonen-parody, but maybe? Definitely falls under being a guilty pleasure.

Ok, seriously, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees ambling into DC continuity? She's more a planner than fighter so doesn't stand a chance, but that's still one hell of an unexpected crossover. I wasn't expecting DC K.O. to be so much fun, but it's a really pleasant surprise.

I mean, at least one antifa member reviewed the game positively...

Can't wait! (Also not being home Wednesday makes writing things up properly very difficult)

Just made a typo in a post over on Mastodon. Hit the edit button and fixed it. This is what posting in The Future feels like! Or possibly distant past, seeing as Facebook (ugh) has the same function.

Been spending the last couple weeks with @nomorerobots.io Little Rocket Lab as my Steam Deck playing-in-bed game, chatting with townspeople and automating the place in a Satisfactory/Stardew Valley mashup. The two genres fuse perfectly in a lovely chill adventure. hardcoregamer.com/review-littl...

Finally! Windows 11 upgrade took far longer and was more of a pain than I'd planned, but it's complete! Now to forget about it forever.

Hard drive upgrade = success! I’ve recovered most everything I need and Windows feels much faster now. Next up, finding out what I don’t know I missed.

In other news, the first two episodes of May I Ask For One Final Thing? are out and yeah, that's a fun one! Made my wife an avatar of the main character, although it's a bit sepia due to being a flashback.

Ok, so far in the quest to get the Win11 upgrade going I've- Tuesday, installed the new SSD on my PC's motherboard Not showing up, deal with it later. Today- Verified motherboard is set up right Verified showing in BIOS Researched how to make it show in Windows

Ah, so that's why the news articles are saying @hamishsteele.bsky.social's Dead End: Paranormal Park is a kids show. It's rated TV-Y7 because there's no blood, swearing, or nudity in it. That doesn't mean the storylines are kid-oriented, just that it tells them without harsher content.

I've been waiting impatiently for a US release date of @oniongames.bsky.social's Stray Children for a while and today it's announced as coming 10/30, worldwide. You can't go wrong with a game that describes itself as a Bittersweet Fairytale RPG. hardcoregamer.com/stray-childr...

Dead End: Paranormal Park was an absolutely fantastic show. I’m still sad it didn’t its final season but the graphic novel wrapped it up nicely. Even incomplete, I’ll recommend the show to anyone.

I need a better metaphor for AI than "dogshit on the plate". There's only a bit of dogshit, surely you can eat around it? Everything else is delicious, can't you just deal with it being there? And no, there's dogshit on the plate so I'll pass.

Ah, screw it, time to pick up @megabonk.bsky.social's Megabonk. Maybe I'll get it some coverage at some point or maybe I won't, but I really just want to play! store.steampowered.com/app/3405340/...

Oh damn! The falling speed of the lava globules make it feel almost slow motion, but you can see by the lava flow (by going to Youtube for the live cam rather than this video clip) it's moving at the rate you'd expect. I'm now just flipping between V1cam and V3cam in a semi-hypnotized state.

Why did I spend all this time cleaning up that section of the back area when nobody on Earth ever goes or looks there? First picture is halfway done.

I don’t want to have to talk about today’s giant steps to fascism, or state that I’m antifa, or reiterate that Israel <3s genocide. I want to talk about whatever messy eater disemboweled a pine cone on my back porch railing.