It's a fun time in the series where it wasn't quite bogged down by endless piles of convolution and was still building out a new universe with novel concepts and characters.
Nowadays I still love it, but man things used to be a whole lot simpler.
I'm replaying Kingdom Hearts 2 on my Steam Deck and the Twilight Town opening is still some of the series' strongest storytelling.
I love how it balances the whimsy and melancholy of Roxas as he discovers everything he's come to care for is a fabrication. So bittersweet and so well executed.
Pragmata is the biggest surprise and one of my favourite games of the year.
An unflinchingly old school and refreshing subversion of prestige triple-A storytelling. It’s warm, charming, and not afraid of its main characters being sickeningly sweet.
My review:
www.thegamer.com/pragmata-rev...
Let’s go! Even all these years later it’s still such a journey.
It’s also research for something so a win-win all around 🤼♀️
Going back to old NJPW matches and ranking them in my notes app feels like some new layer of nerdy.
After hitting credits I worked through all of the endgame content and it’s all worth doing. Combat is rewarding and has just enough challenge while you’re consistently rewarded with new lines of dialogue and great world building.
It reflects in my score, but I dug this more than Resi Requiem.
Pragmata is the biggest surprise and one of my favourite games of the year.
An unflinchingly old school and refreshing subversion of prestige triple-A storytelling. It’s warm, charming, and not afraid of its main characters being sickeningly sweet.
My review:
www.thegamer.com/pragmata-rev...
I did this with a Japanese starter class when I lived in London before the pandemic and the vibes are so good. Like you're in school at night not to trash the place but LEARN STUFF.
I woke up and checked my phone at 3am and thought I dreamt that Enter Shikari had dropped a new album out of nowhere.
Turns out it wasn't a dream so we're vibing while writing up a review this morning 🎶
Ugh I’m sorry 😞
This applies to most modern triple-A games, but I really do wish the default response from so many idiots online wasn't [TRANS SLUR] followed by aggressive death threats.
Why can't gamers be normal.
Meanwhile I'll be beating up bandits and stealing cows by riding them off into the sunset. I don't get the glazing of it from unsavoury corners of the internet but there is a lovely little open world sandbox to be found here.
It still has a lot of weird nonsense to it but I think I've finally crossed the rubicon with Crimson Desert. I'm having fun slowly exploring its world and experimenting with all the systems I discover.
Feels like it's going to keep improving too, even if there's little chance the story is fixed.
back to the wild west.
Today's writing plans expressed through images alone.
@sarahathwaites.bsky.social @oloman.bsky.social @aliciahaddick.com watch out I'm coming back 🙏
Who knows what the world will even look like by then but I'm spending a few weeks in Japan in January to hopefully hang with good pals, attend Wrestle Kingdom, and take in the good vibes for a little bit 🌸
The Haruhi anime just turned 20??? It feels like a tentpole of 2000s Japanese animation that hasn't resurfaced in the same way so many other shows and films have.
This game scratches parts of my brain I didn't even know I had.
This is the second time The Guardian has described a weak animated film as “worse than AI” which is such a poor and weirdly damaging critique to make.
I really expect better from Bradshaw given how long he’s been around.
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...
thank you kyle fletcher I will.
I wrote a tribute to and reflection on eurojank in 2026, and PC Gamer found the perfect title image to match. British teeth are eurojank. www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
Sarah is, for lack of a better term, rad as hell. You should work with her! ✨
It's hard to overstate how much of a butterfly effect it was that my dad refused to buy me a copy of GTA: Vice City and got me Kingdom Hearts instead.
Doubt I'd even be in this line of work right now...
The emotional freefall that comes after a hormone blocker remains far too real 💉
Only five tables? Whoever said it needs sorting out.
Unfortunately not 😩 I swear every facet of our lives is getting more expensive and there's no stopping it.
It's absurd that the video game landscape has reached a point where you are better off buying a console at launch because everything is bound to get even more expensive.
The industry is in such a busted place.
