Lewis Gordon
@lewisgordon.bsky.social
Culture on computers, mostly | ✍ The Verge, FT, The Ringer, The Nation, ArtReview, Eurogamer, The Guardian, Vulture | ✉️ lewisjohngordon~at~gmail~dot~com | he/him
New from me: a look inside the world of EDM in the age of AI grifters who are building followings and making money by passing off their songs as being human-made
The Verge@theverge.com · yesterdayAs AI infiltrates the electronic dance music scene, a callout culture is brewing. www.theverge.com/entertainmen...
Good piece that sincerely appreciates what rockstar does that no one else does before twisting the knife at the end to ask what’s it all for. would love a longer version, but you can save that for the full game www.eurogamer.net/gta-6-reacti...
I have one reaction after watching GTA 6's spectacular, 26-minute Netflix reveal: this is what a billion dollars gets you
GTA 6 is a world of surfaces and textures, and while you can see this obviously in the big things, you can actually see it most clearly in the little things.
eurogamer.net
For @apollo-magazine.com, I wrote about "The Last House", "The End of Oak Street" and the "what if home, but bad" micro-genre apollo-magazine.com/end-of-oak-s...
What to do when you’re stuck at home
A crop of films about being trapped inside the house by mysterious forces or the menace of dinosaurs points to lingering post-pandemic fears and paranoia about the future, writes Will Wiles
apollo-magazine.com
For @bandcamp.com, I got Silent Hill don Akira Yamaoka to pick his Bandcamp favorites. Some great choices: new BoC; FlyLo; Ultravox. We also chatted about his creative philosophy and how the "distortions of modern life" naturally find their way into his music. daily.bandcamp.com/big-ups/akir...
“Silent Hill” Composer Akira Yamaoka Picks His Bandcamp Favorites
From ambient to roots rock, here's what the VGM icon is listening to on Bandcamp right now.
daily.bandcamp.com
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, then: Gameplay that's so customary as to be cliched; a familiar path, in more ways than one. But the beguiling atmospherics and lively, compellingly drawn characters elevate it beyond mere retread. My review for @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/games/2026/a...
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy review – picture-postcard retelling of haunting Minoan myth
The medieval franchise is transplanted to Crete, conjuring action-adventure magic from familiar ingredients
theguardian.com
We're approaching that special time of year again. Sign up to the APWOT 7 pre-launch page to be notified when it goes live! 🔥 www.kickstarter.com/projects/caz...
Coming soon: A Profound Waste of Time 7
The seventh issue of A Profound Waste of Time
kickstarter.com
2004/2005/2006. A certain lighting and type of character model that feels to me right in the nexus between real and not real/drawn directly from references but still subjective/dark but vivid/serious, not conservative. Goes well with guns and death.
Please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...
Save The Prince Charles Cinema
The future of the iconic Prince Charles Cinema in London’s West End is under serious threat! We are beyond disappointed that our landlords, Zedwell LSQ Ltd and their ultimate parent company Criterion...
you.38degrees.org.uk
I can't believe we've been doing Bullet Points Monthly for a decade, but somehow we have. The site has almost died many times. It continues still through a mix of bullheaded determination and the joy of working with excellent fellow editors and guest writers. bulletpointsmonthly.com/2026/08/19/s...
What a privilege being asked to contribute to this state-of-the-shooter anniversary package for the big Bullet Points birthday. Reid and the gang are the realest out there. What an endeavour. More imp. I think, what a gift to those who play and make video games — dare i say it, to the culture.
Bullet Points@bpmonthly.bsky.social · 2w agoBullet Points Monthly started 10 years ago. To mark a decade of the site, our editors--Yussef Cole, Reid McCarter, Astrid Anne Rose, and Ed Smith--looked at the state of the shooter. We also got nine contributors to do the same. bulletpointsmonthly.com/2026/08/19/s...
Role-playing game Ithaca is more How To Blow Up A Pipeline than Dragon Quest. I spoke with @thepixelhunt.bsky.social about the game and its big, urgent, ethical question: is political violence against polluters, especially Big Oil CEOs, ever justified? www.theguardian.com/games/2026/a...
Ithaca: a scintillating eco-thriller RPG that aims to confront our violent moment
The latest game from ‘reality-inspired’ studio the Pixel Hunt sees you transporting precious human cargo – and deciding what to do with it
theguardian.com
i am writing a book! i’ve been talking to the creators of doom, marine doom, & america’s army, plus academics, drone experts, former military… it’s been so fascinating and i am excited to share it with you all. all that time i spent playing CS as a teen is finally paying off lol
12 people is too many for Big Walk lmao the game fully started to die once we accidentally split up in half across the map
Ian Fay@ianfay.bsky.social · 3w agoBig Walk is cute. I love hearing the slightly distant voices.
currently working on something, a whole new thing, that touches on games and music and art and culture and everything, that I hope kicks back against this feeling. the convos i've had the past week or so working towards it have been so far-reaching and fun
vibe-free lifestyle and smiling apple purveyor@ellaguro.bsky.social · 3w agothinking about how everything everywhere seems to have become way more insular these days and either unaware or uninterested in the existence of the world outside of itself.
plan to try out Ellipsus (need to be able to access drafts on different devices). anyone have any other suggestions for Google Doc alternatives?
Bogi Takács / WE'RE HERE ToC announced!@bogiperson.bsky.social · 4w agoGoogle Docs leaks private information - www.reddit.com/r/IndieDev/c...
Here's something a few of you might dig: a wildly experimental "open-world album" from cellist and composer, Patrick Belaga. It was inspired, super obliquely, by The Legend of Zelda, so of course, I had to write a few words on it for @bandcamp.com. daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the...
Patrick Belaga, “Solar Calf”
Inspired by "The Legend of Zelda," the cellist and composer bridges minimalism with video game music.
daily.bandcamp.com
Another lovely review of Big Walk:
Lewis Gordon@lewisgordon.bsky.social · 4w agoHere's my review of @househouse.com's Big Walk: an enchanting, if occasionally frustrating, paean to play and discovery; a balm for the pernicious attention-holding logic that shapes so much of online communication. Go play it! (if you're not already) www.theguardian.com/games/2026/a...
Here's my review of @househouse.com's Big Walk: an enchanting, if occasionally frustrating, paean to play and discovery; a balm for the pernicious attention-holding logic that shapes so much of online communication. Go play it! (if you're not already) www.theguardian.com/games/2026/a...
Big Walk review – larking around with mates elevated to an artform
The creators of Untitled Goose Game return with an online, open-world adventure that delivers slapstick silliness and bucolic majesty in nearly equal measure
theguardian.com
Boy, do I have the perfect couple of features for the virtual weather sickos out there. First up, a look at the making of extreme weather in video games, feat. Pacific Drive, Battlefield 2042, and Frostpunk. www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/a...
Extreme Weather Gives Video Games a Powerful Adversary (Published 2024)
Designers are increasingly able to render weather conditions as not just evocative visual effects but phenomena that physically affect the player.
nytimes.com
"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 4w agoGaming thought of the day: a lot of games, because they're unwilling to impose much friction, miss out on the dramatic possibilities of weather. I was playing AC: Black Flag Resync'd and the new dynamic weather feels a bit wasted because storms don't really matter very much.
I want it on the record. Jacob has honed in on almost exactly the thing that I open my review with, though I wrote my lede late last night.
Jacob Geller@jacobgeller.com · 4w agoWatching two of your friends scurry across a field of reeds in a pitch black night, illuminated just by a glowing orb they're holding above their heads, is legitimately beautiful in a way I don't think I've experienced in a co-op game before
More Big Walk thoughts in lieu of my review going live. If you want to get a bit more context on where the devs are coming from philosophically, check out my piece on Melbourne-based crew (feat. some of the Big Walk devs) who cracked out into a RDR2 netherworld. www.theguardian.com/games/2022/m...
‘A giant grey cube floating above the landscape’: exploring the forbidden reaches of Red Dead Redemption 2
A new documentary chronicles the adventures of the Grannies, a group of friends who went looking for the glitchy event horizon of Rockstar’s virtual-western epic
theguardian.com
Great review from @schillingc.bsky.social that touches on something important: when night comes, Big Walk gets dark, like Dragon's Dogma dark. If you lose something (or one another) at that time, you're scuppered, at least until morning (which actually arrives mercifully quickly).
Eurogamer@eurogamer.bsky.social · 4w agoHouse House's Big Walk is equally smart as their Untitled Goose Game in the way it wields its silliness, similarly playful and exuberant, and stuffed with innumerable delightful little touches. Otherwise, it's not much like Untitled Goose Game at all. Our review: https://bit.ly/3RFnP49
This is a great essay by @cushac.bsky.social for @hearingthingsco.bsky.social that has been rattling around in my head for a few days now — on the overabundance of music, the impetus to soundtrack everything, and the dulled experience of an artform. hearingthings.co/stop-listeni...
Stop Listening to Music
...at least from time to time.
hearingthings.co
Hello, I wrote about intriguing space mining visual novel A Line Held Tight from Humble Grove and spoke to the team about games, unions and folk music www.theguardian.com/games/2026/j...
A Line Held Tight – miners, mechs and mismanagement on a distant planet
Deep underground the player joins a colony of ruthlessly exploited pit workers who could be taking on the bosses. How things play out will depend on you
theguardian.com
I come bearing fresh details on one the summer's most intriguing reveals: the terraforming, survival FPS, Haex, set in the wilds of the sub-arctic north. Also, add it to the growing list of games inspired by @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social. www.theguardian.com/games/2026/j...
Haex – a wilder, weirder open-world adventure
The debut from Scandinavian outfit Dead Astronauts promises shooting, survival, and, in a shake-up to the genre, seeds that terraform its pristine world right before your eyes
theguardian.com
This keeps happening. Someone at Steam just seems to pick indie games at random to give the full Spanish Inquisition treatment.
Molleindustria FUTURE? NO THANKS! DEMO OUT@molleindustria.org · last mo.Some sad news regarding today’s release:
I love dice rolls in videogames, I love the way they invite the player to narrate their experience in relation to unexpected events, I love their connections to the history of chance as a storytelling tool, I love the way they attack the player's tendency to want everything their own way.
I read it as a kind of treatise on every generation's desire to leave their mark, be that as politics, goods, technology, or, in the case of the protag Reno, as tyre marks on the Utah salt flats made by a motorcycle hurtling at great velocity (petrol-head land art -- what a thing!)
Lewis Gordon@lewisgordon.bsky.social · last mo.What to say about this except, 'It fucking rips'? Kushner delivers the most insanely readable meditation on the hopes and ills of the 20th century: modernism, revolutions, sports cars, rubber production, bullshit art scenes.
