James is testing the waters

it is definitely an interesting watch lol, actually really excited to see that last one bc i liked this one a bunch, even though i still think the first one mostly sucks.

it's been a... interesting week.

!!! you look incredible!

HUH. that ending sure is something. i see why this one's polarizing.

OH THEY ARE SO SJFSHFBDBFBDDBE

and suddenly it's a heist movie. oh, this movie fucking RULES. it's so good. i LOVE the first movie, don't get me wrong. there's no universe in which this is not just outclassing it in every way so far. the ending could really fuck it up, but right now this is like so much better.

honestly, actually, the references here are quite cool. like Spider-Man 2, The Thing, and also Thing from the Addam's family. like, a bunch of neat stuff.

by the way, much more interesting use of AI than Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning in which AI might as well not exist despite being the big bad. so that's always fun. that movie is so weird. anyway, this movie is a blast. i cannot fathom how people did not love this.

disappointed by the lack of a makeover montage, that would have pushed this into camp classic territory.

i mean, if it's meant to be a subtle nod that's nice, if you think you're getting that past anybody, um, can you be fucking serious?

finally watching M3GAN 2.0 as a little treat, and it is a blast so far, even more so than the first movie, but also why is M3GAN GLaDOS. can we be a little fucking serious. she sounds literally exactly like GLaDOS half the time.

A better world is possible

i mean seriously, how lazy do you have to be to not even read the articles, they aren't even 10 paragraphs, literally less than a five minute read each, and you have the gall to use them as examples in your 2 hour+ video? what a fucking poser.

how bold and ironic to be accusing someone of being too illiterate to critique something, and using headlines from articles you haven't even fucking read, or worse, you have read and disagree with, just loudly announcing yourself as a piece of shit.

screenshots from the second article: Update: Since publishing this, there’s been some interesting conversation on Twitter and elsewhere. Below, I’m posting a Twitter thread from accessbility expert Ian Hamilton about accessibility, difficulty and how developers can think about these issues, as well as this article by game developer Garrick “Doc” Burford about his experience playing From Software titles as someone with a physical disability. Article continues below the tweet. @davethier “easy mode” is a really blunt instrument, there are other ways. To start with it is worth looking at what the designer’s intent is, what they want the players to experience. Many assume that From’s goal is to make games that require a high skill bar; that’s not true. — Ian Hamilton (@ianhamilton_) March 28, 2019

screenshots from the second article: My problem with these is that I don’t think I’d write any of these articles if I didn’t like them so much. There are other difficult games I won’t play, and whatever. But the difficulty is only one part of what defines these games for me, and honestly, it’s not the most important part. From Software has some of the best world building in the business and, I would argue, the best character design. Early on in Sekiro I had to sneak under a bridge, where I found this bizarre, misshapen hermit man that lunged at me with a wicked knife from underneath a broad straw hat. It was gross and strange, the sort of thing you can almost smell, the first glimpse I had had of the malformed underbelly of this world I had only taken my first steps into. That’s what I remember from Bloodborne more than anything: something about the lonely horrible way these characters move is so endlessly fascinating that I could watch them all day, and every time I see one I just need to see the rest. Lots of developers have attempted to imitate From’s style of aggressively spare storytelling that relies on opaque item descriptions and occasional short dialogue to build out worlds that seem so much larger than our own character’s comprehension, but only Hollow Knight ever came close to what makes these games special.

screenshots from the second article: What’s particularly galling about Sekiro is that all other From Software games at least had a sort of safety valve to allow you to move past the game’s most difficult boss encounters with a little help by summoning other players into your game. Sekiro removes even that, and so if you run up against a brick wall, that’s it. Either beat your head against that wall or stop playing. It’s the lack of a summon mode that prevented me from sinking too much of my psyche in the game. I was able to beat the chained ogre without too much trouble–even without the fire thing–and so, I don’t know, maybe I could keep doing well in this game. But I do not like the idea of coming up against a boss that I can’t beat without a week of frustration, and so I can’t let myself get obsessed with this one. There’s a lot of talk about “respecting the player” when it comes to not including an easy mode, an idea that all players can and should play this game in this particular, punishing way. And yet I think the lack of an easy mode showcases the exact opposite. It shows an almost stunning lack of respect for players with the idea that they cannot be trusted with their own gameplay experience, that even those who want a challenging game would somehow be lured by the siren song of lower difficulties and destroy their own experience because they’re too impatient or immature to know what they actually want. The summoning system is a perfect example of this: I never used it once while playing Bloodborne, because I knew what experience I wanted. I didn’t get as into Dark Souls 3, and so I used it liberally.

and from the second one. this one actually at least does specifically ask for an easy mode but it's still like a conversation starter. the author did nothing except say they would like more options in game rather than hitting walls. but someone who doesn't read beyond headlines wouldn't know that.

screenshots from the first article: ...player with constant death, something I—as a parent with limited gaming time—remain very uninterested in. But I wanted to try Elden Ring for a couple of reasons. First, FromSoftware previously addressed the difficulty concerns, noting that while there wouldn’t be difficulty levels (no easy mode!), the game’s open world wouldn’t be quite so challenging, because you could simply avoid a fight until you were ready. (Uh, OK.) Second, I was intrigued by the environment of Elden Ring, which creator Hidetaka Miyazaki built with George R. R. Martin. Then I died five times in 30 minutes and gave up; the frustration completely negated any fun there was to be had. Elden Ring just isn't for me—but I wish it was. I want to explore this open world that people are lauding, to experience its story. I also wouldn’t mind a challenge. (Just because I like easy mode doesn’t mean I crave zero adversity.) But FromSoftware’s insistence on keeping the game nearly impossible for non-elite players feels foolhardy. There’s a lot more to Elden Ring than dying all the time; why not allow a wider audience to experience it?

screenshots from the first article: In many ways, the discussion about Elden Ring isn’t actually about Elden Ring at all. It’s about who’s allowed to have a voice in gaming, and which segments of gamers are catered to. It’s about the very existence of difficulty modes being abhorrent to a small but vocal subset of gamers, and the toxic discourse over easy mode. If you can’t “git gud,” as they say, you shouldn’t be gaming at all. Many people believe the difficulty in Elden Ring is crucial to the gameplay, and that it creates a community around these incredibly hard experiences. I respect that—especially anything that creates a nontoxic community, because that can be hard to find. But I also can’t help noticing that a large swath of gamers, the “filthy casuals” as we’re often called, are pleading just to be included at a basic level—and being ridiculed and attacked for it. (I haven’t even addressed the plight of disabled gamers, who often need accessibility settings to be able to play at all.)

literally from that first article he uses lol. like come on.

what prompted this btw. what a fucking LOSER.

also i will avoid going on a whole tangent about how these people clearly don't see games as art and never engage with them as pieces of art if they're making these jokes, but you know this could be a 200+ post thread with no effort.

for a graphic that's placed at the end of the review. i mean, the joke being made is literally by people who haven't even read the actual article by Dean or the actual articles for all those headlines they like to use as evidence of "game journalists" being weak baby gamers with no skill.

funny enough we have a similar gaming related thing to compare to, so, i assume any person making "gAmE JoUrNaLiSt" jokes is the type of person who thinks "too much water" was a literal and legitimate criticism from that writer at IGN and not like. a quick way to summarize the actual critique—

and for the record, it was never funny or acceptable to make that "joke" and you'd have to be completely ignorant (willfully or otherwise) of the actual facts of the situation to even begin to pretend it had any basis in reality, and your entire bloodline would be ashamed of you.

funniest part is all the youtubers making these "jokes" and not realizing they themselves are effectively "game journalists". such gigantic losers it's really not worth wasting the breath on, but it's such a gigantic red flag i don't see anyone talking about.

if you are still making "gAmE JoUrNaLiSt" jokes in 2025, i think you should be [REDACTED], or actually [REDACTED] by a pair of rabid animals until you lose your sense of self and have a crisis of personhood and can no longer recognize yourself in the mirror. maybe then you'll learn.

🍂 The Steam Autumn Sale is here!

These are the perfect games for the season - cosy but with a touch of the occult 🍂

🌿 Strange Horticulture: 60% off
🛎️ Strange Antiquities: Last chance to get 10% launch discount (ends in 24 hrs!)

Time to visit Undermere...

just looks like a higher fidelity version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine but besides that, sure. it looks fine. really will depend on the actual feel.

A ★★★★★ review of Cactus Pears (2025) This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

My ★★★★★ review of Cactus Pears on Letterboxd boxd.it/b8x75t

Dude talking to wall meme

how I feel trying to explain to normies why nsfw ban and censorship is bad and why they should care

YouTube video by shoogles Metroid (NES) is a complete mess (and that's great).

youtu.be/SqzRILN323c?...

I've been meaning to talk about the Metroid series for a dog's age. So let's do that.

The first one is a real mess, and we should all be very thankful.

anyway. taking a break. gonna go watch Lobos play the game and hope he isn't further than me or accidentally spoils something i haven't gotten to or seen yet.