Absolute Wonder Woman Embraces Its Wild Religious Heritage Beautifully - Unwinnable Diana prays. She prays often, and when I say she prays, I don’t mean like in a cliche Hollywood way.

ICYMI: "To have her be so significant, only to then humble herself time and again? That’s what brings it all home."

@unabridgedgamer.bsky.social explores Absolute Wonder Woman's treatment of spirituality:

Absolute Wonder Woman Embraces Its Wild Religious Heritage Beautifully - Unwinnable Diana prays. She prays often, and when I say she prays, I don’t mean like in a cliche Hollywood way.

"To have her be so significant, only to then humble herself time and again? That’s what brings it all home."

@unabridgedgamer.bsky.social explores Absolute Wonder Woman's treatment of spirituality:

What Knights of the Old Republic Taught Me About Wanting Too Much  - Unwinnable Her reaction did not push me away though – it pulled me in.

ICYMI: "She seemed to exist independently of me before I arrived to this universe, and would continue to after I moved on."

@drowwpoison.bsky.social tells the story of how KOTOR's Bastila Shan shifted her expectations in videogames:

Absolute Wonder Woman Embraces Its Wild Religious Heritage Beautifully - Unwinnable Diana prays. She prays often, and when I say she prays, I don’t mean like in a cliche Hollywood way.

To say I found @kellythompson.bsky.social and co.'s work a refreshing change of pace for depiction of spirituality, prayer, and religion is an understatement.

My full column on Absolute Wonder Woman below, courtesy of @unwinnable.com!

I wrote this!! I played KOTOR for the first time last year and it has changed the way I interact with games. I’m forever grateful I didn’t give up despite spending a ridiculous amount of time in Taris bc I couldn’t figure out the map lmao I love u KOTOR!!

What Knights of the Old Republic Taught Me About Wanting Too Much  - Unwinnable Her reaction did not push me away though – it pulled me in.

"She seemed to exist independently of me before I arrived to this universe, and would continue to after I moved on."

@drowwpoison.bsky.social tells the story of how KOTOR's Bastila Shan shifted her expectations in videogames:

three cartoon characters are riding birds on a brown background Alt: Terra, Locke, and Edgar on chocobos riding through a desert in FFVI.

Post-drafting for the @unwinnable.com FF special issue and my brain is still on a journey.

Fantastic interview!

Being a Samurai is a Thankless Task: Eiichi Kudo's Samurai Revolution Trilogy - Unwinnable Violence is often the only solution – but never a good one.

ICYMI: "'Let’s spit our hatred on the government!' one samurai says, before [11 Samurai's] bloody denouement. Sometimes, that’s all that’s left."

@orringrey.com watches Eiichi Kudo’s Samurai Revolution Trilogy:

Emotional High Fidelity: On Adapting Horror Games - Unwinnable Both Return to Silent Hill and Iron Lung take creative liberties with the stories they tell, but only the latter is successful as an adaptation.

ICYMI: "Stories are only universal if you preserve the things about them that make them human, even if those parts are not always easy to deal with."

@glassethound.bsky.social explores how the Iron Lung movie succeeded where Return to Silent Hill failed:

Being a Samurai is a Thankless Task: Eiichi Kudo's Samurai Revolution Trilogy - Unwinnable Violence is often the only solution – but never a good one.

"'Let’s spit our hatred on the government!' one samurai says, before [11 Samurai's] bloody denouement. Sometimes, that’s all that’s left."

@orringrey.com watches Eiichi Kudo’s Samurai Revolution Trilogy:

Emotional High Fidelity: On Adapting Horror Games - Unwinnable Both Return to Silent Hill and Iron Lung take creative liberties with the stories they tell, but only the latter is successful as an adaptation.

"Stories are only universal if you preserve the things about them that make them human, even if those parts are not always easy to deal with."

@glassethound.bsky.social explores how the Iron Lung movie succeeded where Return to Silent Hill failed:

Sitting Down with Sam Eng - Unwinnable When you open Unity, it’s the primordial soup of development stretched out to infinity.

ICYMI: "When you open Unity, it’s the primordial soup of development stretched out to infinity."

@ashlikeadragon.bsky.social chats with @bysameng.com about developing Skate Story:

Memory Games - Unwinnable Especially in a mystery, characters are developed by their functional interactions with the world.

ICYMI: "I think there’s a version of The Tainted Cup that worked, but unfortunately, as it stands, Din felt undermined."

After experiencing The Tainted Cup's treatment of a certain character's memory, @chiltonm.bsky.social can only see the Nero Wolfe books overshadowing it:

Being a Samurai is a Thankless Task: Eiichi Kudo's Samurai Revolution Trilogy - Unwinnable Violence is often the only solution – but never a good one.

"Lets spit our hatred on the government," with Eiichi Kudo's Samurai Revolution Trilogy at @unwinnable.com:

I love videogames as an expressive medium because within mass market digital media, it has the widest expression space currently. You can technically fit every movie and every book into a videogame: your entire game could be about reading books, or listening to an album, and the entirety of those pieces of media can be within the game. But then, I also look at it the other way where the expression space of a smaller medium can still be very large. Just because videogames are wider doesn’t mean music is any lesser; you can still express yourself so much in a record. Even in a subset of that, the album art is self-expression, and is a subset in itself of visual art.

Dizzy eye emoji (from @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social ‘s interview with @bysameng.com)

back in unwinnable with one of the real highlights of my stateside trip:

having the chance to interview the wonderful @bysameng.com on skate story, learning to skate and develop games, culture, new york and coffee shops

thank you again to sam for his time and to unwinnable for giving it a home! 💜

Reviewed Jennette McCurdy’s new novel in here, which I mostly really enjoyed!

damn i say some sick ass shit here

Sitting Down with Sam Eng - Unwinnable When you open Unity, it’s the primordial soup of development stretched out to infinity.

"When you open Unity, it’s the primordial soup of development stretched out to infinity."

@ashlikeadragon.bsky.social chats with @bysameng.com about developing Skate Story:

Memory Games - Unwinnable Especially in a mystery, characters are developed by their functional interactions with the world.

"I think there’s a version of The Tainted Cup that worked, but unfortunately, as it stands, Din felt undermined."

After experiencing The Tainted Cup's treatment of a certain character's memory, @chiltonm.bsky.social can only see the Nero Wolfe books overshadowing it:

The only joke is the one on you for not picking this up, fool.

Read interesting criticism and commentary on romance novels, music, video games, American Psycho, Minecraft, and me interpreting the celestial signs!

It’s exploits day! This issue contains my review of the new Mitski album and I also had the pleasure of editing @gracemachine.bsky.social ’s review of Half His Age

Need a break from April's Fools' jokes? Check out the new Exploits issue.

You’ll only be able to find my opinions about bone temples and their various audiovisual ephemera in Exploits. Subscribe today!

The cover of the April 2026 issue of Exploits, featuring “A Shipwreck in a Storm” by Jean Pillement from 1782, a painting of people clamoring onto a rock in the stormy ocean as a ship sinks in the background. Text at the bottom indicates that this issue covers romance novels, Mitski, Half His Age, American Psycho, Alone, and Minecraft paintings.

It's no joke -- the April 2026 issue of Exploits is here, chock full of microcriticism from a variety of voices.

Buy: buff.ly/5AFr7mz

Subscribe: buff.ly/QxiJSb4

Read Beatrix Kondo's essay on romance novels: buff.ly/11rAfPx

Female Sex Tourism & Severance - Unwinnable Like all trips, all vacations, you eventually must return home.

ICYMI: "Helena Eagen is Angela Deem."

@barelyconcealed.bsky.social explains the similarities between a Severance plot line and sex tourism:

Female Sex Tourism & Severance - Unwinnable Like all trips, all vacations, you eventually must return home.

"Helena Eagen is Angela Deem."

@barelyconcealed.bsky.social explains the similarities between a Severance plot line and sex tourism:

You Must Learn to Like Men: Why Red Sonja (1985) Is the Way It Is - Unwinnable Some things work, though.

ICYMI: "It feels very much like two different plots that got haphazardly tied together, and like almost everything else about the movie, the two never sit comfortably side-by-side."

(TW: sexual assault mention) @orringrey.com watches Red Sonja (1985):