Cook Maarten
@maartenbrands.bsky.social
Founder Cook and Becker. Games, Art, Literature, Film, Politics, Memes.
Who are the weirdos "finishing games"? Just leave a trail of barely touched or not even installed purchases like a normal person.
A take-away from The Odyssey is that I felt joy thinking about humans making this. It's wonderous that people make beautiful costumes, build replica boats, act, work together etc. to make something beautiful. And to successfully navigate it all through a cynical, cold studio system. Well done Nolan!
If AI is so incredibly smart —our new God(!)— and Microsoft is investing billions in it, why do they need humans to flag if something is AI? With a goddamn dropdown menu no less.
Tom Warren@tomwarren.co.uk · 6d agoMicrosoft-owned LinkedIn just added a “seems like AI slop” button to report posts that don’t feel human-written. It’s part of a broader push to get rid of AI slop on LinkedIn www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
"A concentration camp, in its most basic definition, is a place where a targeted civilian population, not necessarily accused of a crime, is detained and at least some of their basic rights are suspended," writes @jwashing.bsky.social. "That’s precisely what’s happening in the United States today."
Don’t call them ICE detention centers. Call them camps | John Washington
I’ve spent a decade reporting on immigration enforcement. The word ‘camp’ best captures the political function of these facilities
theguardian.com
Can't wait for UEFA to just host a European Championship every two years, and we never have to deal with Vargentina or other B-tier soccer countries. We'll invite Japan, Brazil and Australia in, and some others we do like.
These OKAMI editions on Hahnemühle Metallic PhotoRag paper are 🔥. We start shipping these next week. Only a few copies left of Path of Heaven (shown here). #okami
I find The Four Seasons on Netflix very US bourgeois, clichéd bullshit. A store brand The White Lotus, which—fantastic art direction aside—I found to be, in itself, a typical white, liberal East Coast elite series, in that it doesn't offer much beyond highly watchable nihilism.
If you try and replicate exactly what Sandfall did, you will not succeed. All success in entertainment is primarily a result of unmanageable fate. Some would say 'luck'. You can manage success somewhat after something hits, but you cannot manifest that initial spark.
Imagine being the founder and CEO of a company who's services lead to so much harm: www.wsj.com/tech/meta-is...
Meta Is Fighting a Mountain of Social-Media Lawsuits—at Just the Wrong Time
In the midst of an expensive AI transformation, the company is grappling with litigation that could cost it billions and force painful changes.
wsj.com
Weirdly, me and my friends find ourselves without a PvP arena shooter to play. We're still defaulting to Halo Infinite but the player base is so small now. I would think this genre is due a revival after all the failed extraction shooters, BRs and mobas?
We're living through times where Russia's war on Ukraine claims 1,300 casualties A DAY. And most of the news is just 'eh, let's talk about some other bullshit'.
My case against Game Pass and any subscription service that needs mass-market adoption to work, is that content quality will inevitably drift towards passable mediocrity, because "mainstream" inherently rejects otherwise.
Stumbled into some Ferrari Luce content again, and I still would like to see a style-knowledgeable person to comment on it, not the Doug De Muro cargo jeans wearing type.
A bright, breezy fun pirate game releasing in the summer. What a shocker that people are interested in this. Pirates of the Caribbean was a notorious flop after all...
Eurogamer@eurogamer.bsky.social · 3w agoIt's clear by now that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been a success for Ubisoft. https://bit.ly/4yqouXG
How can "the software slate be poor" while massive amounts of studios are going out of business due to a too crowded market at the same time? www.gamesindustry.biz/analyst-game...
Analyst: Game console shipments expected to decline 19.5% to 33.9m units in 2026
"The market faces a compounding problem: hardware that's either too old or too expensive for consumers [and] a thin software slate outside a handful of tentpole
gamesindustry.biz
I’ve always admired Amnesty International for its delicate and diplomatic approach in the past, which allowed it to reach people who are imprisoned and tortured under oppressive regimes. They cannot afford to be a megaphone organization without hurting that original purpose.
My faves films of Sam Neill would be Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Event Horizon. In the Mouth of Madness and Jurassic Park. I've seen Dead Calm and The Piano but that was so long ago, can't remember much of both.
Looking forward to hate-watching Argentina. Go England!
ROACH and GERALT AND CIRI. We're doing a small Cook and Becker Anniversary rerelease of two sold-out fan favorite #thewitcher artworks, printed on silver metallic Hahnemühle Metallic 340gsm PhotoRag! #geraltofrivia #witcher
Is Microsoft in the games business because it really, desperately wants to make games?
>80% of online games discourse, is hardware/tech/biz talk, masquerading as games discourse. Framerates, discs, consoles, RAM, prices, market share, AI. All fine and good, but sometimes you just want to say "I'm really enjoying playing Sektori and Minna the Hollower." 🙂
Buying German software: A simple plan upgrade takes 4 days and many emails. The dashboard is from 1997. You can actually call and email good, responsive support. Buying American software: A plan upgrade takes two clicks, but support is a non-working AI chat app you need to download separately.