Kicking off 2026 with a look at the gaming landscape and how generative AI has ensured gamers can't trust that the games they play are completely made by humans www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

Love this story from @jacksonwryan.com about Lente, a game designer who developed a game about cleaning up waterways on a boat while, yes, she was living on a boat. More lovely stories about the people behind games by talented writers, please!!

CNET’s @outonalumb.bsky.social took the #OnePlus15‘s cameras for a spin around LA. This is OnePlus’ first phone since its partnership with Hasselblad ended. Take a look at David’s photos to see what OnePlus is doing without the iconic Swedish camera maker www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/...

I’ve written about sustainability in the games industry and this book will be a great comprehensive overview — perfect for folks wondering how games will clash with climate change. I’ve even got a chapter in it covering games media’s role!

give greta thunberg a gundam

In Maui, I’m at the #snapdragonsummit2025 keynote with @katiecollins.bsky.social hearing about what Qualcomm’s got in store for next year’s phones and PCs via their chips

It should be needless to say, but it is perhaps at this moment worth saying, that transgender individuals have the same right as anyone else to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Very excited to try the new Star Wars mixed reality playset experience - my colleague @outonalumb.bsky.social checked it out in LA, and I’m envious www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

If only so many of the writers we need right now hadn't lost their jobs aftermath.site/tyler-robinson...

Adjusted for inflation Spirited Away cost $22 million to make. The Triplets of Belleville cost $16.5 million, Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers cost $14.28 million, and Oscar winner Flow cost only $4 million. These critically acclaimed, made by real people films, cost less than this pile of actual vomit.

ZDCG demands accountability for continued attacks on media workers in Gaza:

NEW: Israel targeted and killed five @aljazeera.com journalists in Gaza. They risked everything to document atrocities so we could know the truth. Killing them is an attack on journalism itself. With @nwu.org, we demand accountability: newsguild.org/the-newsguil...

Our Eater GoFundMe is up! We all know this has been a difficult year for Vox, but the folks at Eater have been extremely dedicated in their support for each of their colleagues, past and present. Let's support them now!!! #unionstrong #voxunion #1u gofund.me/04932462

Absolute garbage.

Hulk Hogan ratted out other wrestlers attempting to unionize to save his own position and paycheck above anyone else's & gladly accepted funding from Peter Thiel for his Gawker court case that paved frequently abused legal precedents for the rich to shut down any media outlets that embarrass them.

"flight manifests for 3 legally contested deportation flights from Texas to El Salvador contain dozens of additional, unaccounted for passengers than a previously published Department of Homeland Security (DHS) list of people deported from the United States on those flights, 404 Media has learned."

ICE is out of control. This is not law enforcement. It is state violence.

There is no city, state or federal district where it is legal to terrorize and detain people for being brown and working in agriculture. These raids must stop immediately. 8/

I honestly think ANDOR is more inspirational and rousing than like, the past 20 years of democratic messaging.

At SGF, I played Snap & Grab, @nogoblin.social’s glam 80s heist game where a stylish photographer steals from the rich by shooting photos of her targets — a “Hitman meets Pokémon Snap” as the game’s dev described it www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

I had a great chat with the director of the Onimusha reboot, we talked about how they’re leveraging Capcom’s new tech and growth in recent years. This was one of my favorite games I saw at Summer Game Fest 2025.

The SGF game that stuck with me is @nyamakop.co.za’s Relooted, a heist game about liberating African art/artifacts from museums to bring back to their home countries. "We wanted to make it feel like you're in a heist montage” -creative director Ben Myres www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

Aftermath (at last) has a pitch guide! We're a growing outlet and can only accept so much right now, but we'd love to see stories you think might be right for us. Learn more about what we're looking for and how to pitch here: aftermath.site/aftermath-free...

Yep, @owlcatgames.bsky.social's The Expanse: Osiris Reborn was inspired by Mass Effect, along with Baldur's Gate 3 and JRPGs. Creative Director Alexander Mishulin chatted with me about the upcoming action RPG's combat and how they'll bring The Expanse to gaming: www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

Cozy horror fans should keep their eyes on Grave Seasons, a farming sim with a serial killer — which is randomly assigned every playthrough, upping replayability. The game comes out next year. www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

Wandering around the sometimes ridiculous things at @awexr.com, I also saw bits of hints at what’s going to show up in hardware to come. A recap, with some VR bungee jumping: youtu.be/NXxqVY9GHu0?...

"Enjoy" is a weird word to describe my feelings towards this story by @nathangrayson.bsky.social, which keenly captures the cognitive dissonance of attending SGF against the background of ICE protests and burning Waymos. But yeah, man. That. aftermath.site/summer-game-...

Learn who Melissa Hortman was, and what was taken from us.

I had no greater honor at #summergamefest than getting to play - and get schooled by - the designer of Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy set, learning the ins and outs of how turning Cloud, Sephiroth, Lightning, Terra, Yuna and more into cards is the future of Magic. www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

MaxFun CEO Bikram Chatterji joins folks from @defector.com, @hellgatenyc.com, and more on this panel happening tomorrow. Interested in the future of worker-led media? Drop in via Zoom and hear from the people working to make it happen.

All the people I still know in LA laugh and laugh when they hear that "Los Angeles is burning." I made a couple of maps to show just how tiny and localized the protests are. GOPers are working really hard to make an excuse for declaring martial law. People should be very wary of that.

Just wrapped #SummerGameFest2025 having seen and played a dozen or so games — excited to share everything in the weeks to come. But playing games is a privilege, mere miles from major protests against ICE, a surreal and somber reminder of injustice in the US.

Okay, day one

Got to YouTube Theater right as SGF 2025’s trailer showcase kicked off, but wow — nearly 50 trailers, reveal of Resident Evil 9 AND Mads Mikkelsen + Kojima, blessed

Part two of my chat with Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki, in which I ask perhaps the biggest question about a FromSoftware game: why isn’t there a poison swamp? www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

Love to struggle through Elden Ring Nightreign only for the game’s director Junya Ishizaki to say he’s solo’d every boss…including the final boss. www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

Elden Ring Nightreign distills Souls action into co-op boss runs, ambitiously adapting the FromSoftware experience to a new game type. Tough but uneven, unfriendly to newcomers but sublime when everything goes right, this roguelike Soulsike is unlike any other game: www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

Hell yeah! Great on @ignunion.bsky.social to expand the umbrella and fight for more workers 💪💪💪

My guest episode of Obvious Skill Issue is out now! @outonalumb.bsky.social and I had a great convo about GTA6, my tour of the San Francisco Nintendo store, and the getting to try FBC: Firebreak. youtu.be/PbVPZT_TufA?... (Thanks @seanbooker.bsky.social for letting me fill in!)

Vox has a successor clause in its 2022-25 WGAE contract, meaning any buyer would need to abide by the contract [https://www.wgaeast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/10/Vox-Editorial-WGAE-CBA-2022-2024.pdf]. Rather than do that, Valnet liquidated everyone represented by WGAE. Hideous villain shit.

A bit late, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is excellent -- mature storytelling amplified by tight & unique combat, amazing music, great voice acting and a beautiful world. Gorgeous in all aspects, balancing wonder and despair, it's a singular game. And lovably French. www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

Nintendo officially delays pre-orders in US due to Trump tariffs. No new date set, but June 5 launch date hasn't changed. By @ogreporter.bsky.social: www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

I got to sit down with Keita Takahashi (Katamari Damacy) at GDC to talk about his new game to a T, the Playdate, and what growing up in Japan taught him www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

Four hours of playing Doom: The Dark Ages and I like the new flavor of a slow-moving shield-and-shooting slugfest. It kinda feels like airbrushed heavy metal van art in a video game, if you know what I mean.

[email protected] returns with its full staff, editorial independence AND will publish its magazine again. Unheard of in digital media.

Full story on the United Videogame Workers (UVW) union: www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...

Correction: the United Video Game Union (UVW) under the @cwaunion.bsky.social launched today at #GDC2025 and after a panel, marched to nearby Yerba Buena gardens