Welp, I fear for the future of the Dead Space franchise

I think Tenebris Sonia is a must-play indie horror this year with absolute superb special effects and acting from its FMV segments.

Tenebris Somnia Review: The Live-Action Footage Is Worth the Clunk

Tenebris Somnia plays like a clunky survival horror game from decades ago with beautiful live-action cutscenes.

medium.com

It’s unsurprising but disappointing that EA is shuttering BioWare. Mass Effect and Dragon Age are two of my favorite franchises of all time so hopefully someone buys the rights.

EA is shutting down BioWare

The company is also laying off around 400 staffers.

theverge.com

The new Hellraiser game is rad and reminds me more of the original movie than many of its sequels.

Hellraiser: Revival and the Franchise That Finally Meant It

After decades of sequels made to keep the rights alive, Hellraiser: Revival goes back to what the first film was about.

medium.com

Silver Pines is an excellent game with elements of survival horror and metrodivania. It does leave more questions than answers, but the experience is well worth it.

Silver Pines Review: The Job Is the Trap

Wych Elm Games’ debut ties its save system to the voice steering its detective, then saves its best endings for players who look past the…

medium.com

I recently just got the secret ending for End of Abyss, l and it made me really think about the weird power dynamic despite Cel having the best skillset for the mission.

End of Abyss Review: The Only One Who Can Open the Doors

End of Abyss is a good-looking, tense metroidvania with an idea about obedience that it never fully develops.

medium.com

Make Us Whole: The History of Dead Space by @unabridgedgamer.bsky.social explores the vast reaches of the Dead Space universe ☠️ Copies of Make Us Whole, Perfect Organism and Itchy, Tasty are shipping now, no pre-ordering necessary (you lucky ducks) 🦆

Pragmata asks us not only whether AI can become conscious or achieve some level of personhood, but what role we play in its development. I highly recommend it as one of the must-play games of the year.

Gamers with Glasses@gamerswithglasses.bsky.social · 3w ago

New feature! @mayorhere.bsky.social wrote about Pragmata, other minds, and the relationships people create with AI. www.gamerswithglasses.com/features/pra...

New feature! @mayorhere.bsky.social wrote about Pragmata, other minds, and the relationships people create with AI. www.gamerswithglasses.com/features/pra...

The Only Variable: Pragmata and the Minds We Make — Gamers with Glasses

Spencer Johnson sees Pragmata as a mirror for current, distributed interactions with Artificial Intelligence. The key lies in how humans and AI form relationships and develop them together, not in t...

gamerswithglasses.com

I think the addition of The Sift is one of the best announcements that could’ve come out of Minecraft Live.

Control might be the most frustrating game I’ve played this year. I don’t know the last time I played a game that crashed this much.

I have decided to give Substack as a place to post my personal thoughts and essays. For now, I will keep my reviews, previews, and some critical analyses.

A Demo Filled with Dread: My Introduction to Silent Hill

Discovering Silent Hill Through Heather, and Where to Read About James.

mayorhere.substack.com

So Control Resonant is pretty fun except it’s randomly crashed on me like six times in the first day playing it.

I was a huge fan of RuneScape growing up. Dragonwilds was a great way to get me and a couple of friends back together without going to the MMO. #RuneScape

RuneScape: Dragonwilds Review: The Right Way to Shrink an MMO

Jagex spent twenty-five years building a world for thousands of strangers. Dragonwilds is what’s left when that world has to work for you…

medium.com

Sometimes, you write about games. Sometimes, you write about not playing games. Sometimes there's a game called Exhausted Man, and you do both. New from @edmondchang.bsky.social, looking back on a summer without games through the lens of ludofatigue: www.gamerswithglasses.com/features/the...

The Summer without Games, or, Living with Ludofatigue — Gamers with Glasses

Don’t you sometimes just feel…tired? Edmond Y. Chang discusses “ludofatigue,” how it feels to live with the persistent sense that play just isn’t fun anymore, and the perennial relevance of Candleman ...

gamerswithglasses.com

Burn-9 by @14hoursproductions.bsky.social is like a weird fusion between Metal Gear Solid and Dispatch that has you guiding an operative through tense encounters. I highly recommend checking out the demo for yourself on Steam.

Burn-9 Preview: The Guy in the Chair Who Can’t Save You

You’re never in danger in Burn-9, which is exactly why it’s so stressful.

medium.com

Someone should turn the 35 years of Game Informer covers into an archival or pop art exhibit. Even a digital gallery online that shows the cover and a brief snippet on the context would be cool.

I had an idea for a Resident Evil spinoff where you're a ranger in the Arklay Mountains, going about your routine while other rangers radio in injured hikers and rabid animals. Then you head back to your tower for your rifle. No idea what the ending would be tho.

First movie review, and it's Resident Evil (2026). Cregger's take might be the most honest depiction of how most of us would fare in Raccoon City.

Its Own Outbreak: What Resident Evil (2026) Understands About Being Afraid

Zach Cregger’s movie borrows Raccoon City’s bones to build something else entirely, and he’s at his best exactly where he stops trying to…

medium.com

I love when games explore selfhood through machines. Peripeteia gives its cyborg near-unlimited power, then puts it on a timer

Godhood on a Battery: Ownership and the Self in Peripeteia

Peripeteia hands the player the exact power that built its own amnesiac protagonist, and asks what you’ll do with it.

medium.com

As a Midwesterner, I am excited to see how @usualjune.bsky.social depicts the region alongside its supernatural story.

Usual June Preview: A Ghost Story Grounded in a Real Midwest Town

The new demo runs about thirty minutes, split between a crypt and somewhere much stranger.

medium.com

Blood of the Dawnwalkwrs is one of this year’s must-play games with a fantastic setting, atmosphere, and characters. I was anxious about the 30 day timer but it is more than manageable.

The Blood of Dawnwalker Review: The FOMO Was Real, the Shortage Wasn’t

Rebel Wolves built a thirty-day countdown that made me hate it before I realized there was more than enough time to do everything that…

medium.com

Finished the Final Fantasy Resonance demo and it is awesome. I love the HD-2D art style, and this opens up another avenue for future games without relying on photo realism.

Final Fantasy Resonance’s Demo Is the Throwback I Wanted

Square Enix’s HD-2D throwback won me over completely in just three hours

medium.com

Blood Dungeon is a weird and wacky dungeon platformer with mechanics similar to Vampire Survivors. I'm not sure if I'll ever beat it, but it's great for taking the occasional run when you want something different.

Blood Dungeon Review: The Nidhogg Guy Finally Brought His Footwork to a Bullet Heaven

Mark Essen has spent fifteen years designing games around movement. In Blood Dungeon, that instinct finally has to share space with a stat…

medium.com

And also this one, from @mayorhere.bsky.social! We really had so much to say about friendslop medium.com/@spencer2457...

Learning “How to Fish,” Badly, With Guns

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man How to Fish and he buys a shotgun instead.

medium.com

This is very cool. Check out the piece from @corndruid.bsky.social in our pages, and also good stuff from regular contributors @aguaspoints.bsky.social and @exalclaw.com!

Critical Distance | Where’s all the good writing about games?@critdistance.bsky.social · 2mo ago

HI EVERYONE HAPPY SUNDAY HAVE SOME PREMIUM FRIENDSLOP ESSAYS FROM AROUND THE WORLD critical-distance.com/2026/09/06/b...

HI EVERYONE HAPPY SUNDAY HAVE SOME PREMIUM FRIENDSLOP ESSAYS FROM AROUND THE WORLD critical-distance.com/2026/09/06/b...

Blogs of the Round Table Roundup: “Friendslop”

Welcome back, everyone! I am extremely pleased to present to you the entrants in the Blogs of the Round Table “Friendslop” Essay Jam—all twenty-four of them! This has been an incredible…

critical-distance.com

Interview time! I sat down with ORIGAME DIGITAL's @veselekov.bsky.social to talk about Penguin Colony, Lovecraft, how the author's fear of the unknown is inseparable from his racism + xenophobia, and a good chunk more. Full interview on YT, but here's a good slice: exalclaw.com/naphtali-fau...

How ORIGAME DIGITAL Is Tackling Lovecraft Without Erasing His Racism and Xenophobia

"What would Lovecraft have written as a story if he were alive in World War II?"

exalclaw.com

Star Wars: Zero Company is a great game, and proof that this franchise doesn't need chosen ones and prophecies to work. It also introduces a new interesting threat outside of the Separatists and the Empire.

The Ordinary War: Star Wars Zero Company and the Future the Franchise Actually Needs

A tactics game about mercenaries makes a better case for what Star Wars needs next than any of its recent movies or shows.

medium.com

Resonance keeps all the same thematic notes as the Plague Tale series, but swaps its historical background for an inverted Greek myth.

The Mercy Ariadne Couldn’t Give: Resonance’s Safe Reinvention

Sophia can handle almost everything on her own, which is what makes the one time she can’t hit so much harder.

medium.com