I'm moving cross country in a few days so I regrettably couldn't participate in any review process for the Master Collection vol 2. Glad cool folks are hitting it from good angles. For MGS4: I wrote my own thoughts in June. It's a ~fascinating game that puts every piece of the canon into a blender.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Is An Important Disaster Of A Game

Guns of the Patriots foresaw our current flood of messy cinematic universe mashups

kotaku.com

It's 2026 and I've woken up to thousands of thoughtful words about Metal Gear Solid 4, what a beautiful day to be alive

Carolyn Petit@carolynmichelle.bsky.social · 2h ago

with its impending arrival on modern platforms via the master collection 2, i'm stoked to have this review of metal gear solid 4 by cole kronman on kotaku today: kotaku.com/metal-gear-s...

I think a hard thing for me to navigate as I've returned to on and off freelancing is the way in which the period of like 2005 to 2016 or something is just a gaping black hole? Which is to say I'm reeling by how much even "recent" history and notions of craft just completely faded into dust.

Laaaahdon, the Medium Apple...

I've thought about this game's cliffhanger two or three times a week since January. I need to know what happened! I'm a broken record lately re: Trails but the confidence which Horizon exudes, the melancholy it is comfortable exploring.. really makes it stand side by side with some of the bests

MinnMax@minnmax.com · 20h ago

What's your current GOTY?

This is, in a roundabout way, kinda the plot to Metal gear Rising.

Rebekah Valentine@duckvalentine.bsky.social · 21h ago

THE SENATOR CAN TURN INTO A DINOSAUR?!

Everything a human being writes is subjective! Even and especially when they're making judgments about good and bad. A writer should confidently state what they believe. If everything is hedged with "I believe..." or "This is just my opinion but..." the writing is worse for it!

bolendo@bolendo.bsky.social · 21h ago

My problem with it is that it judges something as inherently more desirable than something else which is not a critique but a subjective judgment of quality And that’s cool but it also rightfully elicits the responses it gets Because people don’t want to be diminished and that’s fine

Really enjoying the Duskblood news and learning that the characters are named things like Sneaky Peter, Senator Vociferous Nighthelm, Bloodneck Jessica, and Crunch.

There's some response to this centered on the idea you should only say nice things about games. Here's the thing: lotta folks lament the loss of criticism ATM. But! You don't get to be sad about a lack of critical writing and also believe the first thing as well. You can't have it both ways.

Jank@jank.cool · yesterday

Death to the self-playing game. www.jank.cool/death-to-the...

Trails SC demo time and it’s time for one of my favorite gremlins to show up.

The fantasy of Ace Combat is becoming something greater than human — faster, stronger, more beautiful and terrible. This journey has consumed me. Have you ever known that you are a triumph? youtu.be/5Cr0p0SmDxU

So stoked that Entropy, from the Dread Delusion folks, is out in early access. Realis fans, if you loved @vor-bokor.bsky.social and @decassette.bsky.social's work in the book, definitely check it out. store.steampowered.com/app/3940340/...

Save 15% on Entropy on Steam

Entropy is a tactical turn-based RPG inspired by classic JRPGs. Assemble your party of mercenaries and forge your own path towards an expedition into hell to stop the demonic incursion. Choices you ma...

store.steampowered.com

It's important that we've seen a shift where Nancy Mace can be chanting "tranny, tranny" in a proceeding of the US Congress, or this can happen, and not only is it accepted it's *treated as unexceptional* in mainstream press. If nothing else it shows us where the supposed moderates stand.

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 3d ago

Tough talk for a guy actively losing a war so pointless his troops are throwing themselves into the ocean

Some continued FakeBond adventures. I actually think the thing standing out so far is the music but I do love all the little gremlin guards with the iconic stock sounds.

Harper Jay@dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 3d ago

Some late night gaming with Agent 64. Feels butter smooth!

I know it's not the point of the post but man I will not let the world take my em dashes from me. Love those fuckers.

Yaroslav Barsukov #NoToWar #НетВойне@barsukov.com · 4d ago

AI RANT Following the cancellation of three major debut book deals over AI suspicions, I decided to put my own (needless to say, 100% human-written) prose to the test. My detector of choice was Originality AI, and the results proved to be jarring, to say the least. 🧵1/5

When Eliwood asks if he’s getting deployed in Hector hard mode

“9/11 was a really big deal for the longest time”

Some late night gaming with Agent 64. Feels butter smooth!

Some late night gaming with Agent 64. Feels butter smooth!

A genuinely interesting little patch that cleans up some language and terminology flubs in the remake. Those mistakes weren't the end of the world but fixing them ahead of SC (you got most of those actors in the booth!) is smart. Helpful in a series focused on long term worldbuilding.

GungHo@gungho-america.bsky.social · 4d ago

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Ver. 1.07 Legacy Patch featuring several changes to in-game terminology is now live. Thank you for your continued support. Full patch notes: loom.ly/nZ4NYlg

On what's probably my 16th or 17th playthrough of Shenmue, it finally happened. My first soda was a lucky can. I did it, mom and dad.

Me and my friends watched The Drama tonight and I genuinely feel like someone hit me in the face with a frozen fish. Amazing editing, a complex and messy script. Houhghhhh..😵‍💫

亡KEI却KOKU心 – Xenoblade Chronicles X (2015, WiiU) Composer & Producer: Hiroyuki Sawano

To the annoyance of many players of this current version of Tekken, I think the real answer can only be Lidia FF2. One lone punch hitting as hard as a 50 cal shot.

MrMKL is Melting 🫠@mrmkl.bsky.social · last wk.

What's the juiciest single strike in fighting games? What button makes you salivate? I would nominate Pipe.

Game design isn’t about being able to identify problems. Everyone who plays games can identify problems. Game design is about diagnosing player experience, having intent, and executing. I think to a lot of folks outside dev, game criticism (an art in itself) is seen as interchangeable with design.

Riley Bruce@rileybruce.bsky.social · last wk.

What’s a thing from your area of expertise (or special interest) that you think it would behoove everyone else to know?

The more time has passed and I've let it really sink in, I actually am really surprised how much my fondness for Endwalker has grown in my heart? By all means I didn't dislike it! But thinking about that one two punch of Shadowbringers into 6.0 was pretty astounding.

yeah man "woke 1" sucked ass. I "woke 1" morning from uneasy dreams to find myself transformed into a giant insect

I wrote a piece literally called "Games Criticism Is A Kindness" but paradoxically: that doesn't mean I think crit can't be mean. Criticism is human enterprise. Excess qualification saves you from mean commenters but it shaves off the human pieces. Sometimes a thing is bad, a behavior is wrong.

headfallsoff@headfallsoff.com · last wk.

one of the major changes in media criticism online in the last half decade is that when people used to do big leftist critiques of why harry potter sucks they always had a disclaimer like "now this doesn't mean i think you're a bad person for enjoying the books." they dont really do that any more