Man I hope I’m wrong and hell is real

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

s/o to everyone from working class backgrounds in the arts and entertainment who clawed their way to where they are without the benefit of family wealth, career experience, or connections

Finishing the Fight Finishes. @broganchattin.bsky.social, @edgarallanbro.bsky.social, @abrambuehner.bsky.social, and I squeeze the last bits of maximum effort we have to rescue Cortana, stop the Flood, and give a trench run for the ages

When Skybox was looking for people to write about games that are absolutely singular, totally unassailable by AI, there was simply nothing that sprang to mind quite like Excitebots. WHAT A GAME!

Relatedly, I recall a lot of "the joy of canceling plans" jokes and memes from the 2010s and now folks are talking about a loneliness epidemic, and, well...

Not gonna surprise anybody, but my view has always been "I write criticism for me, not some hypothetical person" and saying things like "it's not for me" is cowardly. It is your job, as a critic, to have a fucking opinion, not try to guess what other people will like. Support Critical Error.

2025 is full of moments like this - learning about some awesomely good and important thing the government did that this evil administration is killing

Excitebots: Trick Racing is tremendously odd by @abrambuehner.bsky.social "The only thing that makes sense about Excitebots is that nothing makes any goddamn sense at all." Read on:

for @endlessmode.bsky.social - I wrote about yuri manga 'Black & White' and how it depicts the way women get pitted against each other under capitalism.

We all have a role to play. Saving democracy demands that each of do all that we can. I for one will soon be on the barricades telling ornate, detailed jokes about what I've done with the relentless and grateful mothers of Guardsmen and ICE warriors.

Hello friends. Today, I'm releasing my first Duckspeak album in 5 years. Bones & Skin: 2012 - 2022 is a double compilation pulling together a decade's worth of my rarities, unreleased demos, and covers. It's a vulnerable, messy project that means a lot to me. duckspeak.bandcamp.com/album/bones-...

I feel like I'm losing my mind. This is like reviewing a restaurant's food based on the menu pictures

If I could press a magic button and change one aspect of video games, I would make all games interesting immediately. Not fun, mind. Interesting. Not "oh, it's good 40 hours in once you get the Wizard Strangler and you can perform the Ritual of Eldritch Root Beer." Immediately.

Anyway, I will absolutely be one of the lower scores for Absolum and if you need to understand why you can imagine the word "roguelite," realize that the game chops off core parts of your characters' kits so it can feed them back to you as a progression system, and then look at this image.

“Why isn’t anyone covering our indie games?” 1. The gaming press has been decimated by business suits, and the whims of an uncaring search engine behemoth 2. Doing the job means you get death threats and harassment 3. There are more games released in 1 week than there were in entire months in 2015

of the moral conundrums you will be presented with, as an adult, "stop buying these specific children's toys" is like. the easiest possible

Anyway, I will absolutely be one of the lower scores for Absolum and if you need to understand why you can imagine the word "roguelite," realize that the game chops off core parts of your characters' kits so it can feed them back to you as a progression system, and then look at this image.

The video is still cooking, but my words are hot and ready. I reviewed Absolum for @ign.com. It's an exceptional beat 'em up and a middling roguelite. I enjoyed it, but I wish it hadn't wasted so much of my time forcing me to get my numbers up to progress. Death to RPG elements in action games.

You all helped make 19-year old Ahmed's from Gaza's dream of enrolling in game artist studies come true. Now, he needs additional funding to pay for living expenses. Let's prove this industry tries to take care of anyone that shares our dream of making games. www.gofundme.com/f/help-ahmed...

You need numbers. I can't tell you how important YouTube trailer numbers are. I pitch indie coverage basically every day, and the metric for what gets covered and what doesn't is internal numbers for previous coverage and YouTube. If the audience isn't interested, it doesn’t get spin. That's it.

I had a cursed but also magnificent first day in New York, and I can't wait to see you at the Critical Role x Prime Video panel tomorrow at 11AM. If you can't attend in person, don't forget popverse will be streaming many NYCC panels (including this one) live!

A someone who has been a professor. Yes, absolutely, 100% of the time every time. *Please.* Way more fun to read.

the fact that everyone says franchise instead of series nowadays is so insidious

I am 100% a "I wish to know the moral framework in which I operate" cat, but you know who I could slaughter thousands of with a smile on my face? A bunch of Klansmen. What an all-time unforced error. And why? Because the suits were scared of a bunch of middle-aged losers on YouTube? Jesus wept.

I haven't cared about Assassin's Creed in more than a decade, but I would have played a "you play a Black Assassin that murders the Klan during Reconstruction" Assassin's Creed. That one feels like it shouldn't be controversial, but lots of people wanna show off their white hoods these days.

it’s a real shame that the obsession with “canon” and wikipedia-ification of fiction has people playing choice-based games like they’re a problem to be solved rather than a series of choices you have to stand by.

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

all discourse aside, there is one machine with consciousness. it's printers. they are alive and conscious and they hate you and they'd take your arm clean off if you let them. never trust a printer.

You hate to see it but you expect to see it

AI still can’t do this

The latest episode of The Skybox Podcast is now available on demand! We talk about Final Fantasy Tactics, Hades 2, and... Bop-It: The Video Game? Check it out on Patreon : www.patreon.com/posts/ep-13-... Or Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/7dHe...

very cool of destructoid to post this, and, lo and behold, if you ctrl+f "queer" or "lgbtqia+" you will find zero instances of it on the page. "the deal could be good actually if you don't talk about any of the very real harm it could do."

hands up if you're motivated by spite

Hey, don't shoot the messenger

Also it’s 20% off right now and only 3 reviews away from 200! 94% very positive user ratings on Steam, Steam deck verified, the works! store.steampowered.com/app/1592170/...

kinda nice to just have a real dog shit stinker of a take we can all make fun of. "Your callous mockery of our biggest spreadsheets smacks of hitler" is pretty good

In all seriousness, the "LLMs are people and you're racist if you don't like them" shit is the natural endpoint of a consumerist society in which consuming and fandom are the only modes of identity-building many people understand. Finally, a product no one can tell you not to love.

Wild to watch people try to convince all of us, in real time, that computers are capable of sentience and not just rocks we pumped full of lightning and tricked into doing math. "You are being bigoted toward AI." Please go outside and speak to other people, I beg you.

Today, I get to add Game Informer to my bylines! If you know me, you know I love sports and this was such a great opportunity. What EA Sports FC 26 does well is the depth it brings with its new archetype system and ultimately how it embraces the RPG-aspects of sports titles and pushes it further!

Oh boy! My *checks notes* 3rd once in a century economic collapse!

Additional thought: hard to overstate how many hobbies and just general aspects of American life are based on "goods from anywhere in the world are cheap." You take that away, and people are going to get really fucking mad... just like they do when inflation gets high.

Hell truly hath no fury like Americans who are inconvenienced (or asked to pay more for things for stupid reasons, which is normal to be mad about). I knew the Dems were cooked last election when I went to the dentist and overheard two women in the office talking about how expensive everything was.

43% of Democrats (52% of 18-29 voters) say foreign policy and Israel will play a role in their vote in the 2026 primaries. (81% say the economy and healthcare, of course.) 80% want to reduce support for Israel 74% want an arms embargo 72% say it's a genocide 65% want sanctions

My review of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is finally here… on Skybox! Sorry I was late, but it was worth the wait.

It used to be that just parroting YouTube opinions on games/films/books/TV shows/etx got you *relentlessly* roasted until you knocked that shit off, and somehow it is now worse than it has ever been. We have regressed as a society; I fear we need to bring back bullying.

I can joke about the CEO's crashout, but I'm just bummed to be reminded every day that the worst people you know get the most opportunities, make the most money, and have the most power. If I had known that secret trick to life, I'd be insufferable but not stressing about money all the time.

Maybe today's the day

a lot of people that haven't really said shit about Xbox and the BDS movement are having a DAY talking about all the game pass price discourse. just want to note this still kinda being PR, even if you have negative color commentary. It's allowing the corporation to decide what the convo is and isnt