if @dasharez0ne.bsky.social was active in the 19th century

AAAAAALWAAAAYS
I WANT TO BE WITH YOOOOU
AND MAKE BELIEVE WITH YOOOOOU
AND LIVE IN HARMONY, HARMONY
OH LOOOOVE

It's 2026 and Mastertronic is looking for new games to publish. Maybe you have what it takes...

if that's what insurance companies actually offered I wouldn't mind paying them so much

Screenshot from Tomodachi Life, in which I have correctly identified an image as being a pork pie.

I appreciate that there was someone British on Tomodachi Life's team, as evidenced by the appreciation for pork pie

Screenshot from Tomodachi Life. A rough approximation of Hatsune Miku is saying "If I lived with Patti-pon, how could we spend our days?" and the dialogue options are "Gaming", "Eating sausages", "Flatulence" and "I'll tell you!"

the eternal dilemma

The thing that always gets me with this is:

"Embrace AI!"
"OK, how? Why?"
"You just should!"
"You haven't provided any way in which it will be useful."
"You should still use it! It's REALLY IMPORTANT!"

You know, I'm not sure it is.

The infinite growth model is one of the worst things to happen to journalism/media. At some point you reach the ceiling of people who want to read your magazine! You can just make enough money to pay people well and publish things and not grow forever!

maybe hire some actual coders instead of trading "Claude Code buddies"?

yay! I got this today also. Had a little play at lunchtime and I'm already charmed by it.

I have a copy of PC Zone here from December 1997 that says in its masthead that "The January issue of PC Zone goes on sale Thursday 18 December".

Can't speak for the actual contents of the magazine (my experience working on a mag was 2 weeks work experience on PC Zone), but the cover date was, under most circumstances for monthly magazines, a month ahead of the month in which it would be released, so you'd get a June issue in May.

Game comes out that isn’t an extraction shooter, indie, or 200 hour open world RPG.

“This is like a PS2 game.”

AI star symbol.

It's funny (not funny) how this ubiquitous symbol screams 'beware, incoming trash!' I have an instant reaction of revulsion whenever it pops up.

Started playing Tomodachi Life this lunchtime. What a lovely, silly game. Just what the world needs right now.

(on the positive side, that segment from Australian news on retro gaming that went mildly viral recently did a relatively decent job of getting across the joy of gaming... and had some hilarious special effects, too.)

Where's our PS6 ask the BBC, 2 years early. YouTube video by Yesterzine - The Literal Magazine Show

This is unfortunately something of a pattern for the mainstream media... still. It's hard to excuse at this point, with the size and age of the industry! A pal of mine did a vid on this a while back: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5_P...

Ahead of my NYU talk on the history/future of games journalism, I want to test a theory about how small/big games media is:

Please share links to where you get games reporting/criticism.

They can be a site, blog, YouTuber, streamer, social handle, podcast. They must be places/people you trust.

Wack Game Boy Zone Emotional DMG

Smaller/specialist blogs I will read when they have something new to post, but which aren't "reporting"/criticism sites per se:
wackgameboy.zone (@vysetron.pixeldie.com)
retro365.blog (@ernstkrogtoft.bsky.social)
dirtyfloppies.com (@krugman.net)

Honestly there aren't many sites I consider in a "regular" rotation these days, which makes me sad. I'd love to feel a site was "home" like back in the 1up days!

Stuff I do read semi-regularly:
digitallydownloaded.net (@mattatddnet.bsky.social)
@aftermath.site
@timeextension.com
@giantbomb.com

We all are.
Across the entire world.
We all are.

The inability of some people on the Internet to deal with sincere, genuine enthusiasm for something is one of the worst things to have happened to Online in the last few years. There's always been a certain undercurrent of it, but it's got especially bad since people started saying "cringe".

if you need a chatbot for "inspiration" when ordering from a coffee shop you are a dork-ass loser who deserves to have their head flushed down the toilet

More fine work from @shaunmusgrave.bsky.social on the Evercade blog today.

No, just regular retail. Think I just got it off Amazon or somewhere like that.

A cup of tea with a "Wagon Wheel" treat: chocolate-covered biscuits with a marshmallow centre.

Meanwhile, in the UK, we think of this:

There's a PS5 physical. (I have it!) Dunno about other platforms though.

every line on that cover makes me want to punch a hole in a wall

Bravo. Particularly after seeing other sites that have gone down the pan after acquisitions.