Niv M. Sultan

seconding this, big time. it does so much so well, but is worth it for the music alone. Coker doesn’t miss

“That's 40 *cents*. Cents are a form of currency one hundred times smaller than the reál. I'm not even going to take this. Come back when you have 130 reál.”

Isn't it... evil? The order of magnitude between what is asked of a person -- and what they have?

looking forward to it!

"And yet DOOM wants to roll the dice on you. DOOM thinks you will learn to love rage again, to experience its visceral pleasure. DOOM wants you to unlearn all those lessons in civility, in comportment, in tone, in the “benefit of the doubt.” DOOM wants you to consider that when “they go low,” you will scrape the pits of Inferno to go ever lower. DOOM wants you to feel more."

I revisit this piece -- on Doom 2016, by @materialistjew.bsky.social -- at least once a year. it has become bedrock, and only more relevant

lareviewofbooks.org/article/doom...

"Of course, videogames have graphics..."

been very excited for this -- pumped to dive in tonight (and then read your review)

“What, you've never seen a man getting a panic attack before?” (Try to keep breathing.)

now just desperate to see Amano's take on this

Chappell Roan with a sword

Chappell when she unlocks her upgraded class

Chappell Roan, Lil Nas X, and Post Malone in suits of armor

Final Fantasy XVII

"In the morning, through the window shade When the light pressed up against your shoulder blade I could see what you were reading All the glory that the Lord has made And the complications you could do without When I kissed you on the mouth"

and we are most definitely talking about Sufjan

"Once I thought I saw you in a crowded hazy bar Dancing on the light from star to star Far across the moonbeam I know that's who you are I saw your brown eyes turning once to fire"

if we're talking lyricists, we're talking Neil Young

like, come on --

"suspend" is interesting -- could be read many ways (like "suspend" = "pause"), but I imagine grabbing your taste and having it swirl in front of you, suspended, for examination

and you really feel it when someone takes an axe to the hedging and qualification that so frequently pervade criticism

adding on this, I think often about Peter Schjeldahl's "The Art of Dying." if you like or love something, champion it; if you don't like or love it, be generous in your consideration of it (thoughtful and curious, not obsequious, deferential, or afraid)

www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

Again respectfully, I’d say no. If you really like it, argue that it’s good. Make the case for your experience. Critics, stop saying “some of my favorite games are 7/10s” and give THOSE games 9s or 10s. Stop deferring to notions of faux-objectivity and champion the things you actually really like.

Chris is, as always, an incisive and delightful read

5 ran so Tactics could sprint

"Directed and written by Matsuno Yasumi and first released in 1997, Final Fantasy Tactics is a treatise on historicization: its artificiality, its fickleness, and its capacity to abuse and be abused. What, then, does it mean for Square Enix to remaster the title? In an industry and culture bent on recommodifying the past—often with an airbrush in hand and idiosyncratic expression in its sights—this renovation could easily have betrayed the convictions of its source material. But be at rest: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a gentle and thoughtful touch-up of a foundational work, a brushing of the text’s sharp teeth."

reviewed the remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics, which remains an exceptional study of how history is constructed, revised, and weaponized. (even the choice to require the fast-forward button to be held down is a political one)

www.slantmagazine.com/games/final-...

"Directed and written by Matsuno Yasumi and first released in 1997, Final Fantasy Tactics is a treatise on historicization: its artificiality, its fickleness, and its capacity to abuse and be abused. What, then, does it mean for Square Enix to remaster the title? In an industry and culture bent on recommodifying the past—often with an airbrush in hand and idiosyncratic expression in its sights—this renovation could easily have betrayed the convictions of its source material. But be at rest: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a gentle and thoughtful touch-up of a foundational work, a brushing of the text’s sharp teeth."

reviewed the remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics, which remains an exceptional study of how history is constructed, revised, and weaponized. (even the choice to require the fast-forward button to be held down is a political one)

www.slantmagazine.com/games/final-...

two-sec cooldown on the blast 👀

writing up my review and you...just posted it out

[ludonarrative dissonance take] new God of War often gets brought up as an example of this, but I don't think that's totally fair. sometimes parenthood feels like, and maybe even is, chopping things up with an axe (and foraging and crafting and unlocking new skills and raging)

Okay I'll bite a little, you're not upset about there being too many games, you're upset that there are a selection of games that the industry has insisted you Must Play and everything is a time investment plus all your time is mentally drained by the modern internet and you're old

thank you very much!

thank you very, very much

really means a lot to me. I’ve admired your work for ages

too kind!

"Where roguelite design often feels tacked onto games, suggesting depth without doing much digging, Hades II’s use of the form compellingly evokes the oral tradition of Greek mythology. Each run—replete with delightfully varied boons from the gods, lyrical narration by Homer himself (voiced by the always transportive Logan Cunningham), and confrontations of both dramatic and mechanical intensity—becomes a fresh retelling of the legend of Melinoë." "Some say she slew Chronos with an axe so immense she had to drag it, sparking, along the ground; others insist she did the deed with dagger and sickle in hand, the blades booming with explosions like kindling in Hephaestus’s forge. (May we all enjoy the dizzying highs of the upgrade combo that leaves a fiery trail in Melinoë’s wake and hurtles a swirling orb of water forward when she hits the brakes. What a lovely mess.)"

reviewed Hades II, whose roguelite structure evokes the oral tradition of Greek myth, and whose tone shifts away from the first game's soapiness and into tragedy

www.slantmagazine.com/games/hades-...

thank you! (and any praise from you is high praise!)