Very nice surprise on my doorstep last night: @mackeza.bsky.social's new book Super Nintendo. Extra surprised because I forgot I'd pre-ordered a copy from Waterstones (having more recently pre-ordered the audiobook) and also because the book isn't out for another week!

Having played through Leap Year entirely on the Steam Deck I know this will be lovely on Switch/Switch 2. An excellent puzzle platformer, about 2-3 hours long (perfect!), and cheap too.

Good news: She liked it! Bad news: She liked it! A lot. I think the free trial-imposed deadline created a sense of urgency, but it was difficult to draw her away to do other things. However the parental controls meant I had a time limit she didn't breach and would much rather it than more Netflix

Remembering Michael Bloomberg's 2020 US presidential campaign (for some reason), and looked up the only caucus here won, and had completely forgotten she was running to be the Democratic candidate back then, and actually came second to Bloomberg and got 2 delegates en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Am...

Every damn time. And it's one of my children's birth month too.

i talked to the lead designer for Seance of Blake Manor, one of my favorite mystery games of last year. it's not as brain-destroying as something like Blue Prince and that's very much by design. you can walk away and come back to it, for example www.mothership.blog/seance-of-bl...

Using the Switch Online trial to let the (almost)9 year old try out Stardew Valley. Was surprised to discover via the Parental Controls that it's a PEGI 12 game; have added to safelist and will keep an eye out. Hoping it's just the "simulated gambling" that's responsible as we can manage that.

Needed to put together two A5 images together to print out invites for my daughter's birthday party. The joy of Linux is that I don't even need to open an image editor, I just ran "convert +append *.png out.png" and they're side by side horizontally. No giant data centre required.

I'm not even into football but this is joyous!

I wonder what happened in the US in January 2025 which caused the measles cases by week to rocket upwards... 🤔

Calling transphobia a 'gateway drug' to the far right undersells it. It's pure accelerant. Grimly fascinating to guess what crankery becomes any famous transphobe's secondary obsession, cos they all have one: 15 minute cities are fascism! Grok noncing is cool! ICE are good! We should kill all dogs!

Isn't this a telling aspiration? To want robots to look after your kids, so you can do stuff, rather than robots to do stuff, so you can spend time with your kids? The darkness inside these shrivelled men must be like a gaping unfillable void.

For the first 35 years of my life I only knew Sony TVs as the living room TV, from my parents' CRTs to my first big TV purchase as an adult, to my first 4K TV. They were *the* TV maker for so long.

@qntm.org This book was recommended on this week's The Besties podcast, think it might be in your wheelhouse thebesties.substack.com/p/terminator...

When people talk about reasons to leave X, the fact that the owner is a mass murderer doesn't get mentioned enough. The Grok porn stuff is foul. The naked white nationalism is foul. This is worse.

I know the Steam Detective Fest is in my wheelhouse because 5 games on my wishlist went on sale for it, 1 on there got released alongside it, and 1 got a demo for it. store.steampowered.com/category/det...

Amused by a #FormulaE team celebrating a pole position apparently having paid no attention to race control that their driver's lap has been deleted. Reminds me a bit of the Massa celebrations getting cut short in F1 in 2008.

One reason I feel like I'm going mad is, even if Musk did immediately halt Grok and issue a grovelling apology - rather than PAYWALLING IT - he should *still* be prosecuted and his website banned. Very obviously! You don't get out of CSAM charges by just stopping. AND HE STILL HASN'T STOPPED.

It's now unconscionable for the government to be posting on X. X is not a neutral utility, it is far, far darker: an environment that shapes behaviour, rewards cruelty, and normalises abuse. @theleaduk.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/theleadu...

Brr! London is chilly overnight, and A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build is FREE because of our ridiculous Pay What The Temperature Is pricing model. draknek.itch.io/a-good-snowman Get it before it's hot!

One day into 2026 and already taking advantage of National Trust membership, and escaping from the detritus of Christmas

Turns out every button in Birdcage is bindable, and in an attempt to cancel out of the menu I accidentally bound the same button for confirm and up, and now pressing B always does both actions at once, making the menus un-navigable. 🤦

An example of how the Ai integration in a Google search is ruining the results. While I usually skip by the "AI overview", here it has taken my search for a particular Formula E event, matched it with a *different* event, and then given me search results for that, making my search useless.

Arriving just before Christmas were two physical @blueprincegame.bsky.social major keys, purchased from @iam8bit.com - excellent recreations of the garage keys and the prism key, but I'll explain neither for risk of spoilers!

Managed to get a classic moment of video game Christmas when we surprised our eldest (nearly 9) with her own Switch; big grin on the face, wasn't expecting it 😁 She hadn't asked for it, but often plays with me or her younger sister, and this will give her a chance to discover what she likes

Leave me alone, Fitbit, it's Christmas!

I think you're about 20 years late, Amazon.

Getting ahead of the Christmas "What day is it?!" by emerging from a surprisingly long VR session of racing in Gran Turismo 7 shocked by the time and a little confused about where I am.

Taken the children to soft play, and they're now at an age where they just go off and I'm barely needed. I made a big mistake not bringing along something like the Steam Deck for a Hades 2 run, given I have no signal inside this metal box and only very weak WiFi.

Strange Jigsaws is one of the most slept-on games of 2025

And if you just NEEEED to be reminded of "the good old days of XBLA Summer of Arcade", Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure is a lovely little romp that features artwork from David Hellman, the part of the Braid team that isn't a transphobe and hasn't said women don't have brains for STEM.

If you’re interested in a grand sokoban adventure that’s not made by a massive bigot (which I’m bringing up for no reason of course!), might I suggest Isles of Sea and Sky? One of the best games of last year by a lot! store.steampowered.com/app/1233070/...

I don't know what's worse; that LEGO shipped an expensive set with an embarrassing typo, or this wonky sticker placement by a person pointing it out.

Epic pays for licensing fees for the games they give away for free as promotions. Which means even if YOU aren't paying for it, you're giving money to JK Rowling to harm transgender people AND elevating her stature by giving her franchise higher numbers. NO TERF WIZARD GAME. NO TERF WIZARD SHOW.

Worth a read through this whole thread, and to check out the referenced games and creators

BBC Four still out there justifying linear broadcasting; flicked through and Hitchcock's Psycho was on. A film for which I knew through the famous scene and the music, but had never seen in full. Might not have chosen it from a streaming service but couldn't pull myself away after stumbling on it.

My amazing and creative wife set up a fantastic @blueprincegame.bsky.social trail for my birthday this morning to retrieve my presents 🤓

My amazing and creative wife set up a fantastic @blueprincegame.bsky.social trail for my birthday this morning to retrieve my presents 🤓

Step 1: Watch this hilarious video Step 2: Buy Despelote Step 3: Play Despelote Step 4: Transcend from "Slug Dusted with Salt" to "Enriched Human" through the power of autobiographical storytelling Step 5: Gradually descend back into the default state of "Goo Ball"

i asked Gabe and Julián to make an accolades trailer for despelote and it finally coming to switch. Here is that trailer: youtu.be/_MXKlgMZ3Jc?... despelote comes to Switch this Thursday in North America, December 18 in Japan, and January 13, 2026 in Europe.

18.5 hours across well over 100 levels and somehow I managed not to fill an entire grid once and get this last achievement in Spooky Express.

Been quiet all week with the nerves around this, but I am now most definitely fine. In the best sense 😄

After today's race I'd like to report that I'm fine. Still totally fine. Not at all nervous that the championship is being thrown away. Just completely and utterly fine.

Sektori has that same glow and joy for me as Geometry Wars did. Like that game, I'm not especially good at it, but it doesn't matter, the endorphins rush anyway.

Preventing competition through your dominant platform used to be an antitrust violation, but now... 🤷‍♂️

Feels a lot like the tobacco companies who suppressed research their products did harm, or oil companies who did the same regarding climate change. Utter moral failures.

As a McLaren #F1 fan I'm completely fine today. Just fine. Are you fine? I'm fine. Everything is fine. www.the-race.com/formula-1/mc...

I don't use the word lightly, but this is really just evil isn't it. "Your identity makes us uncomfortable so be gone from public spaces." Fuck off.

I find this thumbnail triggering because I instinctively know this isn't a valid solution! And I know that because I've put 13 hours into Spooky Express so far, and sometimes I'm seeing tracks laid out when I close my eyes.

Beat the silver medal time on an Assetto Corsa Rally stage by half a second. Then proceed to run over the marshall at the end and get a 10 second penalty. 🙃