As much as I’d prefer the people running the companies that make games to play games, why is the new Xbox CEO having limited gaming experience worse than the Take Two boss admitting he doesn’t play them at all?

This week's Memory Card Unlocked newsletter is up, covering Pokemon's big pre-anniversary reveal and where you need to go if you want Mario's Little People (I've also made some improvements so it doesn't just look like a Word document) joshcoulson.substack.com/p/old-pokemo...

When's that review going up on GB @grubb.wtf, Tokyo Scramble needs your help? www.thegamer.com/tokyo-scramb...

Buy a remake studio when all people want are remakes. Don’t have it release anything the entire time you own it. Shut it down. … profit?

My wife is doing The Scarn from The Office as Magik from Marvel Rivals with Plank from Ed Edd n Eddy strapped to her back in Fortnite Fuck going back in time and telling that to a caveman to watch his head explode. I understand every word of it and it’s given me a nosebleed

ChatGPT? Never heard of it. I Ask Jeeves.

Demon Tides is one of my favourite platformers in recent memory, and one with some surprisingly grand ambitions that it absolutely lives up to - roll on Bubsy 4D! www.thegamer.com/demon-tides-...

If you went back in time and told 4yo me I'd be playing Sonic 2 for free on my iPhone in 2026, I'd have wondered what the fuck you were talking about it since it was 1993 Still pretty fucking cool, though www.thegamer.com/sonic-2-free...

I used Zelda’s 2-in-1 Deku Tree set to help my 6yo understand how his brother has the same genes as him just assembled in a different way and I think it might be the best bit of parenting I’ve ever done

Hell yeah! Joe is awesome and I wouldn’t be able to cover TCGs if it wasn’t for the stuff he taught me when we worked together. Super excited for this!

Joe is the card boy of all time. No one has been able to explain TCG stuff to me as well as him, and his work for TheGamer was fantastic. Everyone check this out!!!

If you saw this, know who it is, and your brain immediately went 🎶 Den-ver, the last dinosaur! 🎶 Then I’m assuming you’re at least 35 and therefore a proud member of the ‘oh I guess my knees just make that noise when I stand up now’ club

Everyone is like ‘young people don’t want to go to pubs and socialise anymore, it’s sad’ and then you go to a pub and one beer costs £11

My latest newsletter at Memory Card Unlocked is up now! Thank you again to everyone who has read, shared, and subscribed during these first few weeks. (if you haven't, there are some Steam codes up for grabs for new subscribers this week) joshcoulson.substack.com/p/charizard-...

Kena 2?! State of Play is already a winner. Shut it off. I’ve seen enough. LFG!

Romeo is a Dead Man reviews are all over the place, and that absolutely tracks. It's filled to the brim with odd moments and decisions. It's fun enough, but its frenetic and bewildering narrative choices made it hard to parse and difficult to score. More from me: www.thegamer.com/romeo-is-a-d...

First of all, thank you to anyone who checked out my first newsletter. More than 200(!) of you which is way more than I expected. This week's newsletter is now live! Read, share, and subscribe (it's still free) if you can. It all helps! joshcoulson.substack.com/p/pokemon-pr...

I just finished drinking a bottle of Johnson’s No More Tears and if anything I’m crying even more

Hate how often I have to reshare this but it looks like my two most regular workplaces have cut their freelance budget. I've enjoyed writing, reporting, consulting, and mock reviewing over the past few months and I'd love to do more of that for you. Get in touch with opps, for rates, or any qs.

First review of the year and kicking things off very strongly with the brilliant Nioh 3, which I’ve not put down over the past two weeks. My review: www.thegamer.com/nioh-3-review/

My wife was briefly in the room during the Blight Club Bundle of Nerves Listen-a-thon™ and asked ‘is it really bad that I like this song?’ @tolkoto.com @grubb.wtf @janochoa.bsky.social @danryckert.com

My first newsletter is already live. Subscribe if you like it, or even if you don’t but you like me joshcoulson.substack.com/p/mattel-has...

Memory Card Unlocked didn't pan out the way I hoped it might, so I'm pivoting, playing to my strengths, and starting a newsletter about Lego, TCGs, and all of the other stuff I spend way too much money on. Please check it out and subscribe, it's free! substack.com/home/post/p-...

Still thinking about Hugh Morris

First Silksong, now MIO has taught me I’m a little bitch when it comes to backtracking after losing boss fights. Another game I love every other element of, but hate that one thing enough for it to drive me away.

I woke up at 3:15am and had to be tethered to my phone’s internet on a National Express to write this… But it was all worth it because I got to go to the Pokémon x National History Museum pop-up and it’s amazing! www.thegamer.com/pokemon-natu...

People still playing Pokémon TCG Pocket who have 1-star and 1-shiny cards to trade, hit me up: 0439-4474-0921-4700

Happy Highguard Day to all who celebrate

If you’ve been soundly beaten in Crown Jam at any point this weekend, there’s a chance you lost to me and my 6yo son. We’re really good at it and you’re all terrible.

Laid off the team that made The Lost Crown (incredible game) and canceled the Sands of Time remake after at least 8 years in development, and Ubisoft still expects you to believe Prince of Persia has a future.

If Pokemon is serious about stopping this shit, and it should be, look into the accounts listing these cards and cancel their pop-up store slots so they can't get them www.thegamer.com/pokemon-nati...

I need a randomiser I can load up with episodes of Always Sunny, what we do in the shadows, and all the other shows I watch on a loop so I don’t have to choose one at a time. Like an iPod shuffle but for TV. Yes, I know, I’m old.

Slightly diminish a game. The Witcher 3: Mild Hunt

Stop calling the murder a murder or you might get murdered too is a hell of a thing to say out loud on live TV

Whoever was in charge of replacing the music when the rights expired in Scrubs has done a truly terrible job. Not only are they not sound-a-likes, they don’t even match the tone of the scenes. It’s like they just hit shuffle on the royalty-free machine for each one.

Fiiiiine, I’ll play the episodic superhero game that is almost certainly tailor made for me

I'd have definitely picked purple and green had that been an option at launch, and they know it www.thegamer.com/nintendo-swi...

This Stranger Things secret episode copium has real there’s gonna be a surprise 31st entrant in the Royal Rumble when number 30 isn’t who you wanted it to be vibes

introduce yourself with four indie games

Just heard @grubb.wtf ponder Nintendo releasing a mini Wii in the distant future and I’m only interested if they’re brave enough to call it the Wee Wii

Did anyone check if any other rocks are delicious or did we just find salt and call it a day?

I don’t remember how I wound up with Pokémon Blue, but my dad sent me a copy of Pokémon Yellow with a strategy guide without telling me and it remains a core memory

For the briefest of moments, I thought I was the smartest Mario Kart World player who ever lived

Finished Severance season one and I can’t believe those monsters made you wait three years after 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 ending. I am so sorry.

Saw the new SpongeBob movie today and couldn’t get over how much the Flying Dutchman sounds like Mark Hamill’s Joker, only to get very confused when he turns into a human that is most defintiely not Mark Hamill Anyway, happy to discover I wasn’t hearing things

Oh, you’re a Rhea Seehorn fan? Have you even seen Magic: The Gathering (1997)? www.thegamer.com/rhea-seehorn...

Played AR darts today and when my 6yo did really well I called him Luke Littlest and my wife didn’t appreciate it so sharing here because it deserved better

Horses are weird, donkeys are cute. I don’t know why, but I know I’m right.

In-laws are watching something called Death in Paradise and I just got jump-scared by a rogue @benstarr.bsky.social with an American accent

Never been one for matching outfits, then i discovered me and my newborn son could dress as Joe Musashi and baby Joe Musashi