amlabella.bsky.social

NEW VIDEO We're delivering pizza, we're watching a baby getting eaten by a fish, and we're watching me losing the will to live. It's a fun time! Obscure & Forgotten PS1 Games Vol.18 is out now! youtu.be/CKbJ5bFixRE

I still have plenty of Derelict Star left to play, but I had to post a Steam review since it deserves so much more attention. It's super difficult but so satisfying! Kudos to @gate.itch.io for making one of my favorite games of the year! store.steampowered.com/app/3641010/...

I’m not much of a figurine guy but I had to get these. They look great!

So we collaborated, multiple authors contributing, on our take. And although featuring only arguably indie games, we nod at AAA titles we deserve to be acknowledged. First up is Wadjeteye's Unavowed, but you'll have to click through for the full list, here: indiegamereviewer.com/top-10-indie...

crying laughing bc i know there are people who will see this and get so pissed they throw up

Based on the attract screen, you won't see the name of this 90s arcade game coming...

Herbie Hancock literally in the studio

Today we have something special: a newly translated interview from July 1996 between Shigeru Miyamoto and Kenji Eno! Conducted just weeks after the launch of Mario 64, Eno takes Miyamoto to task (in a friendly way) with several fascinating critiques of its design. shmuplations.com/miyamotoxeno/

I’m in Minnesota to see some speedruns live at SGDQ!

This is an incredible patch note.

I love this kid vomiting up FIFA

Imagine owning Double Fine and even *considering* closing it. The history of Double Fine is the history of the games industry itself. This is a crime.

People like Kane and many many others that do care about human art and the creative process have been a beacon of hope while trying to navigate making art in this current climate.

Genuinely, this concern about AI is one of the reasons why I think having friction in video games is good and why it's increasingly important to have games that simply exist instead of catering to our expectations. Reposting this message from Kojima about "pre-digested" art:

lmfao

youtu.be/HKDo-aX4XuI?...

heard a guy say "you have to access it through the portal" and i was momentarily struck by how sad it is that what he said is so boring :( "accessing it via the portal" should be wonderful. we deserve that at least. it should be cool to access it via the portal and instead it sucks shit

I also don't think it's hyperbole to say @austinwalker.bsky.social's review of Battlefield: Hardline is one of THE touchstones for modern games crit. www.avclub.com/battlefield-...

Subnautica devs v. Krafton ruling is ABSOLUTELY stunning. Start at the top of page 32 and read until the end of that section on page 37. Krafton CEO was warned by their legal personnel to not follow ChatGPT into what is likely Some Of The Dumbest Legal Shit Ever, CEO believed the plagiarism bot.

Hi everyone. Things have been happening in the fan-translation scene and I've been overdue in talking about them. For the first time ever I've made a long writeup. Please read it and feel free to reach out to me with comments.

Am I using this right? @esotericebb.bsky.social @chrisbodegard.bsky.social

The summit has been reached! Cairn is an incredible game, and that ending was an all-timer. I imagine I'll still be thinking about it a lot at the end of the year when I look back on my favorites of 2026.

I'm posting the VODs of my Cairn streams on YouTube if anyone wants to follow along! www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

It's amazing how Cairn balances white-knuckle stress with moments of absolute beauty. Seems like this is going to be a special game and I can't wait to play more. Kudos to @thegamebakers.com on the launch!

ICYMI: Here are my favorite games from 2025. And I still have a large backlog of games from the year that I didn’t even touch! bckl.gg/qqKH

I’m currently vacationing in Mexico but that’s not going to stop me from posting my GOTY list before 2025 is done! So many incredible games came out this year, I could have easily made a top 20 list. Enjoy reading! backloggd.com/u/amlabella/...

Sektori is awesome! It feels like the successor to Geometry Wars that I've been waiting for my whole life. I'm sure I'll go way down on the leaderboard soon as more people play the game, but it's still cool to see my username so high up there right now!

I love that these two narrative bangers are in a bundle together! 1000xRESIST by @sunsetvisitor.studio was my GOTY last year and Citizen Sleeper 2 by @jumpovertheage.com is a fantastic sequel with a different vibe, deeper mechanics, and the same excellent writing. HIGHLY recommend both!

I've kind of missed games writing and I've been on a big retro kick the last couple of years, so I decided to go ahead and start a retro blog! Still need to play around with the design but my first post on Professor Layton and the Curious Village is now live! nolivesremaining.wordpress.com

Ok, now that I’m done with Silksong I can wind down this week with something calmer and stress-free, maybe a game that doesn’t require too much focus. *checks notes and sees Silent Hill f and Hades 2 are out this week* OH…….

Hollow Knight: Silksong true ending has been achieved! That final boss was such a rush, took me literally 3 hours of attempts. I think this is going to go down as an all-time favorite of mine, though I totally understand the divisiveness. Silksong can be truly punishing at times.

I entered Act 3 of Hollow Knight: Silksong this evening so I'm sure there's plenty more left to experience, but I took a few moments to write a review on Steam. I adore this game.

I'm about 6 hours into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and this game is INCREDIBLE. I love pretty much everything about it; the combat system is a big selling point but the voice acting, characters, premise, art direction, music... it's all so good!

Oh the stress of pre-ordering a console on the internet! I was able to secure a Switch 2 pre-order on Walmart (I got close on Target but it gave me so many errors at checkout). Good luck everyone!

I rolled credits on Blue Prince last night but there's so much more to discover. I'm practically vibrating with excitement this morning at some of the post-game secrets I just discovered. (And kudos to my wife who's an excellent puzzle-solver and has played through most of it with me!).

I'm very early into Assassin's Creed Shadows, but I can tell this is going to be my "I'd like to play more of this game but I can't stop taking screenshots" GOTY.

WOW. Despite what I may end up thinking about the game, the art and world of Marathon seem incredible. This short film does so much to sell its appeal in just eight and a half minutes.

@patrickklepek.bsky.social Hmm, very interesting…

That Death Stranding 2 trailer is wild! The first one is a game I look back on more fondly as time goes by. The closing chapters really hampered my overall enjoyment but the first half is fantastic. I'm excited to see they can do with a sequel.

My GOTY 2024 list is now live! Kudos to @sunsetvisitor.studio, @mossmouth.bsky.social, @localthunk.bsky.social, @animalwell.bsky.social, @cavesofqud.com, @simogo.com, @arcogamedev.bsky.social, and many more for creating such memorable experiences that I loved. lootall.wordpress.com/2025/01/05/g...