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3200 Red Flags
It’s easy to gaze over the snow-capped peaks of Ambarino or the meandering waters of Little Creek River and assume you are looking at a work of art rather than playing a video game. Every minute detail of Red Dead Redemption 2 is so meticulously crafted right down to the tiniest detail. The way Arthur…
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Like and Share
When I was young, the prospect of purchasing new video games outright wasn’t always realistic. Instead, my friends and I would stand in our local GAME store, craning our necks towards the screens locked behind the plexiglass windows. We jumped from machine to machine, playing demos on endless loops until the ache at the base of…
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The Death of Physical Media
It is hard to deny the cultural impact GTA VI is going to have on the world. Beyond the shock waves it is bound to send through the gaming landscape, it is set to become one of the biggest media launches in history, with other developers already scrambling to avoid the release-window dead zone it…
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Mouse: P.I. For Hire Could Have Bent the Rules More.
You don’t have to look hard to find Mouse: P.I. For Hire’s inspirations. Detective Jack Pepper’s weapons bend and sway in the breeze, sometimes reloaded with a sharp slap to the side of the barrel. The 1930’s Disney pioneered ‘rubber hose’ animation makes for a wonderful showcase of creativity, especially when pressed against the grunge,…
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Games About Unpacking: Grief, Identity, and Abuse
Content note: this article discusses grief, depression, domestic abuse, and trauma. Fishbowl is a beautiful game. But it is also painfully domestic. It follows Alo, a young woman who moves to the city for a new job, only to find that her new life begins in the total isolation of a global pandemic. Her apartment…
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Mixtape: Can You Be Nostalgic for Someone Else’s Childhood?
It feels comfortable skating down long, winding roads beneath the soft glow of a golden-hour sunset. Satisfying to launch a softball out of the park and watch your friend trudge off to retrieve it. And exhilarating to attend one final house party before stepping into a world of endless promise. Mixtape, the new game from…
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Spire Pressure
Is Slay the Spire 2’s Early Access Giving Players Too Much Control? The first Slay the Spire taught me how to succeed. When to remove cards, when to take a curse, when to block, when to take a risk, when to pass on a card because it looks powerful now, but it might be the…
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Talking to NPCs
1. Link to video essay version at the end of the post. This is a discussion about language. More specifically the language systems NPCs use to communicate, how we communicate with them and how, overtime, those systems have evolved to the point where NPCs have started to sound frighteningly human. For me, Oblivion was the…
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The Live-Service Dream is Dying and It’s Taking the Games Industry With It
In the wake of Epic Games’ March 24, 2026 layoffs, the industry’s obsession with eternal games looks less like ambition and more like a slow-moving disaster. Epic said it was laying off more than 1,000 employees, with reporting putting that at roughly 20% of the workforce. For years, the live-service pitch has sold a vision…
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Knowing The Future Wouldn’t Save Them
1 The Drifter was the scariest game I played last year. I don’t mean that as hyperbole – rolling credits left me with a creeping sense of unease that refuses to let go. The game is about one man, Mick Carter, who – within the first hour – has a bag put over his head,…
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Gaming Acuity 