This week: RDR2, TotK, ACVI, and several other games that aren't acronyms! critical-distance.com/2023/10/22/o...

October 22nd

Welcome back readers. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks this week to our Discord community–the regulars (and not-so regulars!) there have been an essential pillar for helping us find and c…

critical-distance.com

hello it took two attempts but i made some bread, hope you do something nice for yourself too!

And my new #gamestudies friends, if you find yourself even more curious abt #HistoricalGameStudies and #GamingthePastinEd, I'd be delighted if you checked out gamingthepast.net (there's a book too, but the site is where I've collected almost 20 years of work on games in and outside of history ed.)

Gaming the Past

historical video games in the classroom and beyond

gamingthepast.net

deep-hell.com/swim-sink/ Faith moves us forward. It is a propellant. It is sometimes a convenient excuse for violence. @feelthebryn.bsky.social

AND WE'LL SWIM TILL WE SINK - DEEP HELL

Faith moves us forward. It is a propellant. It is sometimes a convenient excuse for violence.

deep-hell.com

Wrote about Hydlide, a game notorious in North America for sounding and looking and playing poorly, but it's actually a vital piece of action RPG history that, for a few reasons, never got its due outside Japan. One of those reasons? The failure to update it even a little bit for 1989's standards.

It's new to me: Hydlide

Hydlide might have been derided when it arrived on the NES, but it's a vital game in the history of action RPGs.

retroxp.substack.com

hahaha not me; I could sail through Lost Levels like it was nothing when I was 9, but now you throw that shit at me and I'm just, you want me to do WHAT?

Kyle Orland@kyleor.land · 3y ago

To anyone who might want to use SMB Wonder as an opportunity to say “Mario games were harder back in my day!” may I suggest the idea that you may have gotten much better at video games (and basic hand eye coordination) since you were 9?

I reviewed Saltsea Chronicles for @pastemagazine.bsky.social !!! glad to give the new @gutefabrik.bsky.social a Paste 9.7 (i.e. go play this, it’s special)

Saltsea Chronicles Beautifully Finds A Way Forward

Paste Magazine is your source for the best music, movies, TV, comedy, videogames, books, comics, craft beer, politics and more. Discover your favorite albums and films.

pastemagazine.com

Full sequence of the annular solar eclipse at Shiprock, New Mexico. This was a dream composition of mine. So much time, energy, and money went into making it happen. I'm forever grateful to the Navajo for letting me shoot it from sacred ground. An experience I'll never forget.

A very kind friend gifted me a smartwatch and the thing I love most about it is now I get to feel like shit about the 5800 steps I get in on a work day because the watch thinks I should be getting 10,000

When I see some middle-aged neoliberal doing corporate apologia on here I have to wonder what prompted them to choose the trans shitposters/sex workers/autistic millennials site of all sites for their pulpit

I'm seeing an increase across faculties here in (well intentioned!) assignments asking students to engage with Indigeneity and historical colonial injustices in Canada, but I think these assignments were designed for a settler audience rather than the actual student audience taking these courses.

For Bullet Points, I tried to figure out what Starfield, ostensibly a game about space exploration, actually thinks space exploration is. Unsurprisingly, it's mostly a vehicle for becoming the specialest guy there ever was bulletpointsmonthly.com/2023/10/05/a...

It is essential to fascism's endurance that you mistake stupid people as simply evil, and evil people as simply stupid.

Happy to see Remap launch their full site and look forward to their continued success.

If you missed our stream, Remap's big announcement today was the re-launch of remapradio.com. Not only does it look awesome, but it heralds some big news: we're bringing back writing. Many of us at Waypoint are writers at heart, and we don't want to lose that at Remap.

Remap

Remap is a new media company from the creators behind Waypoint.

remapradio.com

I like Analogue's products but I really do not like their business model, practices, or branding. Their identity is predicated on further and continued gentrification of retro games, turning it into a playground for guys in their forties who got in just before the middle class evaporated.

Ghost Structuralist@quips.bsky.social · 3y ago

Some speculations: 1) It's gonna be expensive, moreso than the Duo. The FPGA grunt to drive an N64 core won't be cheap 2) If Analogue does PS1 or Saturn, expect one or the other in two years 3) I think Analogue increasingly sees themselves in competition with upscalers and modders

Some speculations: 1) It's gonna be expensive, moreso than the Duo. The FPGA grunt to drive an N64 core won't be cheap 2) If Analogue does PS1 or Saturn, expect one or the other in two years 3) I think Analogue increasingly sees themselves in competition with upscalers and modders

Analogue is making a 4K Nintendo 64

Break out those cartridges.

theverge.com

If this place ever gets promoted posts I hope it's sooner than later so the site is still small enough that I can personally make an outsized contribution to making each and every promoted account here miserable

Reskeet with a banger pic of your cat

Meg RW@hedgewitch.bsky.social · 3y ago

Reskeet with banger pic of your cat

I recently re-watched The Matrix films with a friend and I was struck not with smug condescension that we used to think trenchcoats and polarized lenses were cool, but rather with a bit of melancholy that we used to think computers were cool.

If you ever need a healthier place to put unfocused rage you could do worse than Vulture Capital firms: www.vulture.com/article/epic...

Bandcamp Hit With Layoffs After Sale to Songtradr

Epic sold the company last month.

vulture.com

I think people make way too big a deal about Martin Scorsese Having Opinions About Media in the exact same way they once did about Roger Ebert.

This week: Saints Row, Volcano High, Halo, and more: critical-distance.com/2023/10/15/o...

October 15th

Welcome back readers. We’re running a shorter issue this week, but one packed with pieces that hit hard and cut deep. Thanks, as always, for sticking with us on our ongoing quest to share the…

critical-distance.com

An overly literal way of taking the temperature of games press right now is to measure how loudly the fans rev up in my 3-month old overspeced laptop when I try to open and read a single ad-choked web article.

Hey game designers, especially all my folks in the ttrpg space: I'm making an itch bundle to benefit Medical Aid For Palestinians. If you'd like to donate your game(s), hit up the QR code below or email me at esther at oak grove dot games. Please share widely, and Free Palestine!

Hello, I came out of writing retirement to post a piece I've had in my head for a while about Live-A-Live and how it tells stories differently. Give it a read, and if you like what you read, consider giving me a tip on my ko-fi! cohost.org/Jeremy-Write...

Live-A-Live and the Once and Future Story

(This article was made possible by the tips from kind folks on ko-fi. If you'd like to see more articles like this from me, consider donating from my ko-fi page. Every $100 adds a new article to the q...

cohost.org

🎮 "did you know? mew's under the truck by the ss anne!" i made a bitsy game about gaming rumours of the past for the #bitsyfest jam by @museumofscreens.bsky.social & @adamledoux.net 🚚 npckc.itch.io/mews-under-t...

mew's under the truck by npckc

thoughts on gaming rumours of the past. Play in your browser

npckc.itch.io

Got a job for you, 621. This time its something personal. My "friend" has a dire need for a crunchwrap supreme, 621. I know I can count on you. Good luck.

old lady on the train, very loudly: you know cannabis? seniors smoke that stuff! it's not just the young kids!

To end your week, Remap Radio is here, featuring the delightful Carli Velocci (@carlivelocci.com). This episode has: Great guest. ✅ Robocop talk. ✅ A lengthy discussion about copy editing. ✅ It's almost three hours. ✅ art19.com/shows/remap-...