Letting me play Lumines Arise is like handing a Stradivarius to a chimp. Easily the biggest gulf between the quality of the game and the quality of what I achieve in it.

What a run! One of my fave Access memories was helping to Rosie-proof the Christmas Maze challenges, make sure the world's most competitive player couldn't easily destroy them. Playing hide and seek with Rob she squeezed into office cracks I didn't know existed. Truly, one of a kind.

When I arrive at the party

Bengal Brasserie has closed. My Bath Indian restaurant of choice and host to so many great games media curries over the last 20 years. Who could ever forget the NGamer Christmas meal where half the team had a really ugly row about whether the Red Hot Chili Peppers were shit? Wonderful times!

Always loved Matt's oral history pieces - fun to dig into how they come together.

I've never had that deep relationship with Lumines that so many peers have written about brilliantly - but Arise definitely feels like an amazing environment to learn to love it. Another stunning Hydelic score, too. Almost feels wrong playing something this funky in my drab living room.

Early review code for The Back Page podcast.

My favourite Paul Thomas Anderson film.

Something deeply ironic about Chat GPT adverts running before Taskmaster, the ultimate celebration of human problem solving, for better or worse.

Spoiler alert: still one of the greatest games of all time.

Saw this picture of fountain pens on a table and genuinely thought it was a Mario Galaxy level.

Prison Break reboot but it ends with the brothers being accidentally released from prison in episode three.

This is a brilliant feature idea, asking the biographers of eight prominent music acts to pick the moments of an artist's life they'd turn into movie biopics and who they'd cast. www.vulture.com/article/eigh...

Ah yes, the four greatest games of all time.

This was definitely my housemate in London borrowing the Wii U.

How lucky we are to have Cas and the team throwing everything at every issue of APWOT. An honour to be asked to contribute - so many great writers I can't wait to dig into. Its annual arrival is a highlight of my gaming year. Treat yourself to a copy and you won't be disappointed.

Recorded a lovely Mario Galaxy chat last night - a whole two hours on this most sacred of gaming texts. Now blasting through Galaxy 2 for a Patreon episode. Easiest homework I've ever had.

And what does Switch 2 have that those other consoles didn't? Welcome Tour.

My favourite bit of democracy every year: voting for the @myperfectconsole.bsky.social console of the year. Some absolutely wild match ups in this year's poll (and a couple of all timer selections).

Came to office party as Danny from The Shining and they all think I'm fuckin' Mario. 🥲

So many great games, so little time to play them (because I lost myself in Blake Manor). Fun trying to pin down what makes this particular detective game tick - not sure I quite nailed it here, but I love how diverse and strange the genre is. No wrong answers.

Normally enjoy Vulture's film reviews, but that's an absolutely stinking take after a guy makes on uneven movie.

11pm, 29th of October, Irish time. The perfect time to start playing The Séance of Blake Manor.

There are few things better than when a sanctimonious asshole is revealed to be a genuinely questionable human being. Puts a spring in your step.

The highest compliment I can give this game is that in sniffing around the manor's lonely corridors, poking my nose into rooms and the lives that play out in them, Blake Manor has that Hotel Dusk secret sauce. Impeccable vibes. And a much more sophisticated detective game driving it all. Superb!

Thronebreaker was such a treat. Probably time for a replay.

Good to see some love for @xenotilt.bsky.social and @kaizengameworks.com on PlayStation Access. What excellent taste they have. youtu.be/03iuGbqVzJw?...

Used this episode to dig into some lesser known (to me, at least) things to be excited about. Chat about Seance of Blake Manor, Opus: Prism Peak, No More Work For Ito and The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time, amongst others. Hopefully some stuff for your wishlist in there.

Feel like the fact it's for a charity pot is dissuading the celeb traitors from the usual backstabbing routine. Nothing at stake for them personally. You realise it really takes a traitor to catch a traitor in the game. Different vibe to non-famous traitors.

I'd have killed for these numbers working on YouTube.

Games shouldn't cost $100. Games should in fact cost £2, come on a cassette tape, only run on a 20kg computer that you could only buy in Britain in the 1980s, and be made over the course of six months by two 19 year-olds known only as "The Whizzy Brothers".

The robot stuff in Only Murders is so crushingly unfunny it is overwriting my fond memories of Steve Martin's earlier work. He *must* know this is garbage.

Trying to squeeze in the last few Next Fest demos. Anything anyone has played that they deem essential? I find the collection quite nightmarish to explore due to the misleading tags on half the stuff.

The BBC are accidentally running the subtitles to Mrs Marple over the Mercury Prize, and it’s rather wonderful. A few of lines could plausibly have been written by Jarvis.

Man this is sad. Itagaki made some absolute bangers and was one of the few bucket-list interviewees I never quite managed to tick off. (There was an emailer about Devil's Third IIRC but that doesn't count.) Gonna fire up Ninja Gaiden 2 later in tribute. RIP

Second trip to London Film Festival today. Slightly marred by Katharine having to stay home to keep an eye on the gas leak. Maybe the films will be rubbish in some kind of karmic retribution.

Love it when man knocks on front door and tells me our house is reaching the 'low explosive limit' for gas leaks.

You're welcome.

"Magazine ABCs have arrived."

Best SNL sketch in yonks: youtu.be/Enb1qkoAcXI?...

All the filmic goodwill from London Film Festival instantly dispelled by watching The Woman in Cabin 10 back at home. Absolutely hopeless.

My cold makes it sound like I've smoked 500 cigarettes since the last episode. My usual squawk will return, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Really enjoyed Wake Up Dead Man - feels less frivolous than Glass Onion and is elevated by a really winning Josh O'Connor turn (he's more the lead than Craig, and it really works). Great fun watching it with a huge, responsive crowd - you never really get that in a half empty Odeon in Bath.

Heading to the London Film Festival for the first time, get a bit of Knives Out 3 action. Any day with a new mystery film is a good day.

Justified enters the elite club of TV shows that ended well. Must be the magic Walton Goggins touch - this and The Shield are two of the stronger final seasons I've seen.

Might just leave this paused on the TV forever.

As good a pinball videogame as I've played. This properly melted my brain last year.

I love how hard Aidy Bryant sells every line in Platonic. Character could be a total dud in someone else's hands. Another great part of a quietly excellent show.

I think calling it foul drainage is unnecessarily cruel. It's natural produce. No shame in it.