My favorite game crit pieces are either those where I go YES YES YES the entire time, or, like here, those where I go "This is excellent! I DISAGREE" (primarily because Amaterasu *also* uses a buster sword to mend the world) Strongly recommended read, and subscribe to Unwinnable, it's good stuff

Re-sharing (and actually linking 😅) an old @unwinnable.com thing I did for no reason 🤷‍♂️ "... creative endeavors almost always benefit more from the people that make them being allowed to decide when they’re done than they do from an uncaring studio executive trying to squeeze blood from a stone."

ICYMI: "Progress and struggling to try is not so cut and dry in this world of androids, nor in ours." @quiltedpoints.net examines freedom and progress in Subsurface Circular:

ICYMI: "The biggest chord that Okami struck with me is the accessibility of direct action." @gottsdamn.bsky.social finds a way to challenge climate change through Okami:

okami has always been a game about the environment. thanks to @unwinnable.com for letting me give voice to that!

From @danlesac.bandcamp.com's soundtrack to @mikebithell.bsky.social's dialogue and everything in between, Subsurface Circular is packed with style, clarity, and wit. Don't let my essay or the game's age scare you away, it's still one of the most thoughtful and engaging things I've ever played.

"Progress and struggling to try is not so cut and dry in this world of androids, nor in ours." @quiltedpoints.net examines freedom and progress in Subsurface Circular:

"The biggest chord that Okami struck with me is the accessibility of direct action." @gottsdamn.bsky.social finds a way to challenge climate change through Okami:

As part of this celebration, if you subscribe before we release issue 201, you'll also get access to all 302 issues of the Monthly and Exploits! So get to signing up: unwinnable.com/subscribe/

In honor of our upcoming 200th issue, we collected all 202(!) covers of Unwinnable Weekly and Unwinnable Monthly: unwinnable.com/2026/06/19/2...

Next week, @unwinnable.com's 200th issue comes out, so I put together a gallery of all 202 covers of Unwinnable, dating all they way back to 1872. Er, I mean 2014. unwinnable.com/2026/06/19/2...

ICYMI: "Mortal Kombat is a winningly bad movie; Annihilation is an annoyingly bad one." @orringrey.com watches the 1990s Mortal Kombat movies:

"Mortal Kombat is a winningly bad movie; Annihilation is an annoyingly bad one." @orringrey.com watches the 1990s Mortal Kombat movies: buff.ly/hAi7C8c

It's incredible to see the magazine reach this point, and for this special moment - Don't Stop Believing goes to Hell.

I did early impressions of @humblegrove.bsky.social's "A Line Held Tight"!

Your monthly reminder that @unwinnable.com rules and you should be reading their writers often.

I wrote about Gibson’s Pattern Recognition and the commodification of no-logo on Instagram.

I decided to do some fun psychedelic typography (cuz it looks rad) for the cover of this month's copy of @unwinnable.com. @fawnrelic.bsky.social did a killer painting for the cover and left enough space for fun design. Anyway, this issue is full of awesome stuff and neat things that you'll enjoy.

This month I did an indie sampler! Featuring (deep breath): Amberspire! Wax Heads! Tethergeist! Sol Cesto! The Last Winter Knight!

I painted the cover of Unwinnable Monthly Issue 200! What a fun commission!

Was incredibly honored to write the cover story for Unwinnable's 200th issue. Cheers!

wrote about doing this for 10 goddamn years

Don't leave your pies unsupervised during this season of the vulture. Feast your eyes on Unwinnable Monthly Issue 200, featuring @gottsdamn.bsky.social on Okami and our usual cabal of contributors. Buy: buff.ly/jlKvwGN Subscribe: buff.ly/wd5q5n6

So I finished Dark Souls recently, and I had a lot of thoughts. Thank you @unwinnable.com for giving me a space to share them.

ICYMI: "Whether in Dark Souls or in reality, it’s difficult to imagine an end to the status quo, however suffocating that status quo may be." @macreadymusings.bsky.social muses on Dark Souls and the status quo:

So, can I use this space to explain how the cover of the March 2022 issue came to be (where I just so happened to get the cover story, coincidentally)? ... well I'm not hearing any objections so I guess I will! Might take some time though...

"Whether in Dark Souls or in reality, it’s difficult to imagine an end to the status quo, however suffocating that status quo may be." @macreadymusings.bsky.social muses on Dark Souls and the status quo:

In honor of our upcoming 200th issue, we collected all 202(!) covers of Unwinnable Weekly and Unwinnable Monthly: unwinnable.com/2026/06/19/2...

Stefanie has some hot takes in this one.

This is one part of a celebration of hitting the 200-issue milestone. Another is that if you subscribe now, you'll get all 202 issues (I never claimed to be good at numbers) of Unwinnable Weekly/Monthly AND all 100 issues of Exploits, for free. unwinnable.com/subscribe/

ICYMI:"I think it’s almost kind of the ultimate adaptation of Hamlet when Hamlet itself is the play performed within the main storyline." @nochshorn.bsky.social and Hamlet aficionado Stephanie talk about Slings and Arrows as a Hamlet adaptation:

Part one is here. Up next… Taylor Swift? unwinnable.com/2026/04/27/t...

Part 2 of my series on fake productions of Hamlet is here! I loved this one as much as I didn’t love Hamnet.

"I think it’s almost kind of the ultimate adaptation of Hamlet when Hamlet itself is the play performed within the main storyline." @nochshorn.bsky.social and Hamlet aficionado Stephanie talk about Slings and Arrows as a Hamlet adaptation:

ICYMI: "What happens, though, when my capacity for immersion allows a game to punish me for recognizing it as a luxury?" @jhensliterature.bsky.social leaves Animal Crossing behind:

"What happens, though, when my capacity for immersion allows a game to punish me for recognizing it as a luxury?" @jhensliterature.bsky.social leaves Animal Crossing behind:

ICYMI: "At the end of 2017, with Shenda’s death still so close, I somehow knew exactly what was coming. It’s the goodbye." @luke-k.bsky.social realizes how Blackwood Crossing touched on the grief he's had since 2017:

"At the end of 2017, with Shenda’s death still so close, I somehow knew exactly what was coming. It’s the goodbye." @luke-k.bsky.social realizes how Blackwood Crossing touched on the grief he's had since 2017:

This is a slice of my heart. unwinnable.com/2026/06/15/b...

ICYMI: "Playing Coffee Talk Tokyo is not unlike experiencing the gradual decline of a cafe you’ve frequented for years." @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social plays Coffee Talk Tokyo:

ICYMI: "If FromSoft refuses to revisit King’s Field or Shadow Tower even in the most superficial ways, I’ll just keep digging through other new and old releases." @robsteinone.bsky.social goes on a quest to find true King's Field-likes:

"Playing Coffee Talk Tokyo is not unlike experiencing the gradual decline of a cafe you’ve frequented for years." @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social plays Coffee Talk Tokyo:

"If FromSoft refuses to revisit King’s Field or Shadow Tower even in the most superficial ways, I’ll just keep digging through other new and old releases." @robsteinone.bsky.social goes on a quest to find true King's Field-likes:

I wrote (@unwinnable.com) about how people often don't get what makes a King's Field, and how tough it is to find anything like it now. "... the games give you a sword and just kind of shove you into the world without so much as a pat on the back. And they absolutely do not tell you, 'Good luck.'"

ICYMI: "There’s no clear point in the game where one region ends and another begins. The land instead adjusts in part and parcel." Justin Reeve explores the environment of Red Dead Redemption:

"There’s no clear point in the game where one region ends and another begins. The land instead adjusts in part and parcel." Justin Reeve explores the environment of Red Dead Redemption:

ICYMI: "Gone is the engaging combat, atmospheric and immersive stages, or any semblance of the design philosophy that defined the original game[.]" Vincent Dilworth explains why Devil May Cry 2 fell flat and how it changed its series' trajectory:

ICYMI: "PAX promised a plethora of playable pastimes, and I partook." @rubeck.bsky.social tries out a few games at PAX East 2026:

"Gone is the engaging combat, atmospheric and immersive stages, or any semblance of the design philosophy that defined the original game[.]" Vincent Dilworth explains why Devil May Cry 2 fell flat and how it changed its series' trajectory:

"PAX promised a plethora of playable pastimes, and I partook." @rubeck.bsky.social tries out a few games at PAX East 2026: