Videogame #22 for 2026 is Clickolding (2024). The gag's all there in the name and the trailer - actually playing it adds little other than a sore finger. Despite a credited sensitivity consultant, it reeks of a lack of maturity in the themes it's playing with (SW, sexual violence, suicide).

Videogame #21 for 2026 is The Red Pearls of Borneo (2026), by @bushmonkey.bsky.social. An absolute delight - a deduction mystery that's as good as any out there with a satisfying puzzle that's evocatively written. And it's free! Recommended to anyone who likes deduction.

Book #21 for 2026 is Translation State (2023) by Ann Leckie. It's a slow start, but once its three leads finally intersect it's quite lovely. I maybe would have preferred it to focus on the courtroom/politics story without needing the third act's metadimensional disaster adventure, though.

Begging the media to stop framing falling house prices as if it's a bad thing.

Police very rarely solve property crimes, and when they do it is almost always by accident, usually by finding a trove of stolen items while executing a warrant for an unrelated matter. Relatively few of those items are reunited with their original owners.

Em, midly@lefttheprairie.bsky.social · 4d ago

It’s so funny when people are like “sure you’re an abolitionist now but wait until you’re the victim of a property crime.” Buddy, the most useful thing the police have ever done for property crime is put the form you need to submit to your insurance online.

Happy 22nd birthday to the Daigo Parry. I always play this when it turns up in my feed just to hear that crowd go wild.

Fighting Game Anniversaries@fganniversaries.bsky.social · 5d ago

Evo Moment #37, also known as the Daigo Parry, occurred at the 3rd Strike semifinal match at EVO 2004 22 years ago today. It had Daigo Umehara's Ken making a comeback against Justin Wong's Chun-Li by parrying Houyokusen with only 1 HP left & countering it to win the match.

I think every movie should start with the camera slowly turning 180 degrees to reveal a collectible behind the camera before continuing.

Matt Patches@misterpatches.bsky.social · 6d ago

One thing video games have over film is collecting shards. Regardless of how big Christopher Nolan goes with his camera, his movies will never allow us to collect shards.

I did not expect that Charli XCX's Wuthering Heights album would be a put-it-on-repeat no-skips kind of album for me, but here we are.

Film #126 for 2026 is The Sheep Detectives (2026). Knives Out, but with sheep. Thoroughly charming, filled with heart, and the mystery is completely satisfying, if a *tiny* bit obvious. The kind of family film with just enough genuine sadness at its heart to be meaningful and memorable. A+.

Videogame #20 for 2026 is Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! (2026). Crazy Taxi meets Carmageddon. The core gameplay loop (drive, smash into things, do jumps) is solid and fun enough to largely excuse the game's single small map, short grind-heavy campaign, and vestigial features.

Film #125 for 2026 is Supergirl (2026). This is a great 90s-style superhero flick, unwisely asked to bear the expectations of a franchise-building blockbuster. Milly Alcock is thoroughly charming, and it's consistently and unapologetically fun, as long as you don't stop to think too hard.

Let's put some ogres on pikes.

Jordan@slclunk.com · last wk.

Lol fuck off that’s cool as hell

I love it when the Guardian puts two different news stories in the same heading, implying a connection.

Bluesky is an amazing tool for being reminded that every day there are people saying, "I've never played a Final Fantasy, I'm going to play all of them in order," who genuinely don't know that's a terrible idea, and you know, actually, they're probably going to have fun.

I can confirm that this has the juice. Pretty much exactly the game that it looks like in this video. Will definitely pick up a copy once the full version is out.

Alpha Beta Gamer@alphabetagamer.bsky.social · last wk.

In this indie base-building horde FPS game, you blast massive swarms of goblins as they try to attack your bell tower! Guns 'n Goblins has a free demo out now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/881940/G... Extended Gameplay Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kl2... by indie dev Soul Game Studio

"We're going to scream loudly and stressfully at every Australian but we're letting you know in advance so you can anticipate it" is exactly on point for the current world mood. Well done, Australian government. (AusAlert national test at 2 pm today, Mon 27 July.)

I have been visited and blessed by the spirit of trans allyship. My day is complete.

Celebrating the Odyssey vibe by listening to Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Warriors". (Yes, I know the book and to a lesser extent the film are based on the Anabasis, but the musical version has a lot more riffs on the Odyssey.)

Ben-Hur lives up to its reputation as both good (it's really solid, and semi-intentionally queer to boot) and lengthy. Holy crap, it's been going for three hours, how is it still not done? A film to make Christians beg for Jesus to die faster.

Sophia_Nyx 🏳️‍⚧️@sophianyx.bsky.social · 2w ago

Name a film that’s too long.

Film #124 for 2026 is Sorry to Bother You (2018). A wildly inventive, hilarious and angry film about race, capitalism and union organising. It's Get Out, but with telemarketers, but it's nothing like Get Out in any way. Deeply weird, but with purpose. Recommended.

A reminder that "AI detection tools" do not work and are not capable of working, and that when you talk about them you're just helping people shill for snake oil, and giving cover for people to be harassed on the basis of false positives.

The joke of Afterlife With Archie was that it was so weird compared to normal Archie comics. I'm not sure it works in a post-Riverdale world. "Sabrina starts a zombie apocalypse and people die" would be, like, a B-plot on that show that you forget by next season. variety.com/2026/tv/news...

‘Afterlife With Archie’ Series From ‘Riverdale’ Team Greenlit at Disney+

Disney+ has ordered the series version of the "Afterlife With Archie" comics, Variety has learned.

variety.com

We've been watching The Queen's Gambit and I appreciate that - as far as I can tell - every game and every move on screen makes sense in context. And it's a great show. But also chess remains a really terrible boardgame, I'm sorry, people. Like watching people being super-serious about Monopoly.

Book #21 for 2026 is Provenance (2017) by Ann Leckie - a re-read. In many ways I prefer Provenance to the Ancillary books. It helps that it's playing in the mystery/long con genres, but also it's simply a more straightforward human story, less reliant on worldbuilding. In any case, it's an A+.

Film #123 for 2026 is Live Free or Die Hard (2007) aka Die Hard 4.0. The action scenes are genuinely spectacular - if ridiculous - but the film conspires to suck the fun from them with a depressing blue-grey colour palette and a joyless, humourless idiotic script. A franchise low point.

Wow, Die Hard 4 is really bad. Dingy, joyless... and John McClane is just straight-up an unlikeable asshole in this one.

Film #122 for 2026 is Backrooms (2026). It's far cleverer than I had anticipated, even having read reviews. Borrowing the Silent Hill franchise's best idea reaps significant dividends. And that sound design! Impressive.

Film #121 for 2026 is Hard Boiled (1992). Hard Boiled really is that good. Even when it's stupid or sexist or copaganda - which is pretty much all the time - it's still hopelessly cool. A top tier action film of this era.

Very hard to focus on regular work stuff when the US is over there doing a fascism.

When a lo-fi track begins with the sound of a cassette being loaded into a player.