I eventually bounced off the first Mortal Shell because it was too fucking hard, but I ended up screwing around with the Open Beta for the sequel and it got its hooks in. That's one of the best demos I've ever played for a game, and it did a mean trick where there are invisible forcefields at certain points to halt your progress. I mean, I guess they can't give the whole game away, but God Damn if that didn't inspire a purchase. Now I know exactly what's behind that shimmering curtain of force: death, death, and more death. Which I should have guessed from the jump.

I'm obsessed with Lanterns. We both are. And even though our affection for justice is roughly equivalent - even though I'm the only one who knows what Sector we're in - still, the ring chose him. I have a rubric for keeping myself unmolested in this time, and it involves recognizing if something is green or not. Historically, green has been an inviting color - that's what makes it all so insidious.

I have been spending a few hours each weekend working with traditional tools. My family started requesting Pokemon and I’ve been sharing some of my progress over on my BlueSky. I know not everyone is on social media these days so I’m sharing here:

I haven't even seen any of the leaks; they are effervescent, and quickly boil away. I just know that there are a steady set of leaks for a game that is considered synonymous with the industry, and it only blooms narratively from there: now in addition to the data heist we've got crypto, and for a brief time there was a supposed Dead Man's Switch that would have released the game to the world if anything happens to him. Just unbelievable stuff. I hope the "Cyberleek Entity" is having fun while it lasts. You know? Order DoorDash or something. Do it up.

I always thought the comparison between "Actual Play" and Pornography was kind of a silly joke that had a little bit of truth in it, like all jokes which have the capacity to endure. Apparently this is something that people fought over, and were subsequently dissuaded from, all before I ever got to it. It's certainly never stopped me before. Previous interlocutors might have been dissuaded on account of their social station or desire to appease a cryptographically cycling moral framework. In my degraded state, laid low by my…. Well, by my "me," currying favor is not only beneath me it's literally impossible.

Whenever Gabe gets a bee in his bonnet about something, I tend to benefit. So do you, ultimately. When he got seriously into Formula 1, somehow by the end of it we were operating a racing reality show via Motorsport Manager with larger than life characters and life-changing stakes every week. I guess the actual cars were also cool.

For what always felt like a one-off experiment, Splatoon has had a long and successful career of being The Weird Kid in the family. If you have a child on the spectrum, there is a chance that you know a lot about Splatoon. In my experience, they're often ready to detail things for you. I suspect there's something about growing up feeling like an alien that makes this hyperpop, alternate-earth music video feel like home.