Nintendo not hitting the top 10 highest rated publishers for 2025 is really interesting. Hadn't realised how (relatively) poorly a lot of their pre Switch 2 output had reviewed

I think realistically the HP books have plenty of 'hmm' moments but honestly not really any more than most media of that moment (or indeed media widely framed as progressive such as NuWho). Its worthwhile media critique but as a smoking gun of sorts its a harder sell

Recommended if you're a fan of Pentiment and/or Kingdom Come: Deliverance bsky.app/profile/thef...

I say this roughly every 6 months but it bears repeating how much incredible work Chris Columbus did in directing the first 2 movies and spearheading most the iconography and production design that Rowling seems to want all the credit for

Why's he got the Organisation XIII fit on?

even if you put aside everything toxic about rowling, it can't be overstated: the harry potter movies starred basically every great english actor currently living, and the new series, to put it politely, does not

"the good news is that we have found a relatively cheap and easy way to prevent the cast from going through puberty. the bad news is that not everybody in this room is going to like it".

This is not a “problematic fave” situation, she’s the chief financial backer of the very real rollback of trans rights in the UK

Wild seeing a Bungie shooter perform this badly on console, especially Xbox

Logic!

This thing exists almost solely to be thrown into bundles with Hogwarts Legacy for an embarassingly low price

A small but somewhat heartening detail is the show is a bit of a 'break glass in emergency' situation for the franchise. Basically every attempt to expand it beyond nostalgia bait has been a disaster (Fantastic Beasts and the Quidditch live service game being notable bombs)

Saturday Night Live UK seems to be pissing off the centrist dads on here so chalk that up as another win

Its a wider industry knowledge thing but its really common across gaming discourse to simplify budgets to 'more graphics + more game = big spend' which...is somewhat true but is so grossly oversimplified it isn't super practical.

The number of quotes on this refusing to engage with Josh's insight here is...annoying

Can we please collectively stop reporting on Mike Ybarra's bullshit

What the fuck am I looking at

Norway next week 😌💙

Also jesus Tina Fey is so hot

SNL UK good!!

South Korea has crazy subsidies for companies using GenAI so like...be prepared for this to be common/not shocking

Sunday pints etc

I thought it wasn’t out until December?

MINECRAFT THEME PARK OMG

First one is pretty fun! Feel like a sequel could nail it

Saw a great clip of Oprah using a Maya Angelou quote to describe Ina Garten today

'Avatar: The Way of Water' AND 'Fire and Ash' both received an A lol

Deserved!!

Just under 24 hours left to submit your games for the debut Insider Gaming Showcase. If you are a game looking for funding, publishing, or both, submit your game today!

Dude you are better than this

At the pub and they are BLARING 'My Heart Will Go On' and honestly if I was 3 pints down I'd probably cry

Annoying to feel like i'm rushing it before my Norway trip but Capcom seems weirdly averse to Play Anywhere support outside of Game Pass

And then Stick Figure Mansion becomes a micro genre with a thousand riffs on it flooding the marketplace as more and more games launch into a more and more crowded market

Yeah, & of course there's Nintendo, whose brand is cartoony graphics. The game-as-tech-demo is a real phenomenon, but it's never been the only sort of game produced by AAA studios, the industry is good at subsuming dark horse hits, & high production values games do in fact raise the bar for everyone

And then Stick Figure Mansion becomes a micro genre with a thousand riffs on it flooding the marketplace as more and more games launch into a more and more crowded market

Seeing the grimy underbelly of Bluesky (those annoyances who seem to speak like The Guardian comments section became sentient)

Quotes full of people unleashing their inner snob and clearly not understanding that City of Culture is an initiative to boost cultural stuff in underdeveloped cities and towns. If it were just celebrating the most cultured city at present, it’d just be London every time

Someone's relatively inoccuous take on Ninja Gaiden 4 that stuck with me was a 'its not a good story but its told and voiced far more competently than any other game in the series' and that stuck with me as far less faint praise than it sounded

SNL is like...famously a shotgun blast approach to comedy with hits and misses in equal amounts idk why people are acting brand new

I've been enjoying the best Capcom release of the year so far!

Mar 17th - Bartender Doug bets his young cocky friend Brian he'll be working for him by this date. 📽️📅 Cocktail (1988)

Ah man I'm so hyped for more Starfield

We got to sneak a peek at Starfield's next big update(s!). Terran Armada, Free Lanes, and a PS5 port are coming April 7th, here are all the details and a first look at footage.

I need it now

The Safdie allegations did more to tank Timothee's campaign than the Opera/Ballet comments, although they were released to attract the attention of late voters

I'm shaking

DUNE TRAILER TOMORROW

Very hard for me to muster up much real energy for this Nvidia DLSS stuff when neither of the next gen consoles will be able to use it

NVIDIA have revealed DLSS 5. It aims to introduce a 'real-time neural rendering model that infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials.' Is it just us, or does it look like an Instagram AI filter? Details: