DonE

DonE

@optional.bsky.social

let me fish out my sociologist card from my old wallet, I think it said it was good for life co-managing ed @gamerswithglasses.bsky.social previous at Unwinnable, Uppercut Crit, Bullet Points Monthly, Wireframe, Polygon, Symbolic Interaction & more

803 followers914 following2.5K posts

DonE reposted

Gamers with Glasses
@gamerswithglasses.bsky.social

It's Scary Week at GwG! Kicking things off, we have @srtrzinski.bsky.social on Resident Evil: Requiem. Is it fair to call the return to Raccoon City "nostalgia bait," or is it simply impossible to write an elegy without looking backwards? www.gamerswithglasses.com/features/nos...

gamerswithglasses.com“Nostalgia Bait” and Trauma Recovery in Resident Evil: Requiem — Gamers with GlassesResident Evil Requiem’s return to Raccoon City has raised accusations of “nostalgia bait,” but what if it’s not so simple? Samantha Trzinski asks: what if this is a game that has to return to the past...
DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Enjoying this game where your character falls into the North Sea and there are monsters in the fog. That’s right, I’m playing Still Wakes the Deep. #optionalplaying

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Okay, so Neva improves with some more brain teasing and technical platforming in the Winter section. The action still sucks, though. #optionalplaying

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Fired up an old save of Alien Isolation. Entered into an ordinary videogame scene, moving through vents and under a floor while hostile human survivors chattered away. Amazing how much the game benefits from the feeling that There Is Something Else In The Vents. #optionalplaying

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DonE
@optional.bsky.social

The segment after this involves racing ahead of corrupting darkness up a big tree. It seems pretty clear to me that the Gris folks played Ori and Hollow Knight and thought, "hey, we need some more of that action in our next game." But I don't think they worked out how to make that action feel good.

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Also, whoever decided that every death needed to be accompanied by a gurgling scream from the controller speaker, I just want to talk. And say, "fuck you."

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DonE
@optional.bsky.social

That's easy to understand. Less easy is the lack of stagger or juggling when I got hits in. If I'm going to have to jump and hit, then either that should interrupt an attack from the enemy I'm attacking or there should be a readable way to break off the attack so that I can dodge the other enemy.

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

This gets worse when, after taking one out, the platform shifts into uneven levels and more enemies spawn. It's not clear at all which platform the thorns will spawn on, so getting in air hits (which is more difficult with the uneven platforms) might or might not be safe in terms of getting back on.

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

I was frustrated at the multiple attempts it took, not because it was difficult per se, but because the game's designers don't have a good approach to the action they built around. This was just the worst example.

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Each enemy has just two attacks: a big wing hit and a way to cover the ground of the platform with thorns. Both can be dealt with by jumping and air dodging. Of course, you also have to jump to hit them in the air - which takes one of your moves so that it can't be used to get out of the way.

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Ran 10 miles this morning! I think that's my first time at that distance. I've done longer hikes, but it's been a long time. #optionalrunning

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DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Started playing Cocoon the other day. I was pleasantly surprised that it had boss fights, at all, but the third one was especially fun. Good use of the gimmick! #optionalplaying

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

I've been going back to Quartet to spend a few hours in all the optional, end game character stories. The game succeeds in so many ways where Octopath fell flat on its face -- all these characters are involved, instead of stories inexplicably bracketing off the party.

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Also wow, some of these optional endgame bosses have so much health, resistances, and ability to turn up the pressure after soaking up a bunch of damage... you really gotta want it!

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Great run this morning. Best 2mi time so far this year (17:13) on my way to my second best 5k time (28:40). #optionalrunning

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

I legit wonder why I would bother with order of the sinking star when I can just go and play any Draknek and Friends game. I wish He Who Watches had received this kind of press.

DonE reposted

CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective
@crimethinc.com

Yesterday, Border Patrol evicted the tree occupation blocking the border wall construction at Lochiel, Arizona. Today, despite arrests and further repression, people occupied a tree on the south side of the easement, once again halting construction. crimethinc.com/meltice#ariz...

CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective@crimethinc.com

Since July 27, brave people have been occupying an ancient cottonwood tree to block the construction of Trump's border wall, which is destroying the region's ecology. This morning, Border Patrol raided the camp, arresting a number of people and killing the tree. Background: crimethinc.com/lochiel

crimethinc.comThe Border is an Open WoundA report from the tree occupation in Lochiel, Arizona that is halting the construction of the border wall.
DonE
@optional.bsky.social

An act done as part of the creation of a monument to white supremacist paranoia. Fucking despicable.

Feena van@feenavan2099.bsky.social

"Before Stonehenge was raised, before Egypts first pyramid broke ground,before the Nazca people drew their famous lines across the Peruvian desert,someone in what is now southern Arizona shaped a 272-foot fish into the earth On April 23,2026,"a border-wall contractor drove heavy equipment across it"

gadgetreview.comTrump's Border Wall Construction Destroys 6,500-Year-Old Arizona Geoglyph – Older Than StonehengeArizona's 6,500-year-old Las Playas Intaglio, the oldest dated geoglyph in the Americas, was irreparably damaged by border wall construction in April 2026.
DonE
@optional.bsky.social

I’ll find out about the game when I play it, but I can say right now that this is fun.

Veselekov@veselekov.bsky.social

Our launch trailer is entirely in Black and White. Because marketing isn't real, we wanted it to look like a short of the period film.

DonE reposted

grace
@gracemachine.bsky.social

For obvious reasons, I haven't talked much about it on here, but my father died suddenly while cycling. Grateful to @sltrib.com for letting me eulogize him and write about the absolute moral necessity of making roads safer for pedestrians and bikers.

sltrib.comVoices: Deaths like my father’s are not anomalies. They are the bloody cost of our car-obsessed world.“We can, we must, take action now, before some new senseless death proves the need for change all over again,” Grace Benfell writes in an op-ed.

DonE reposted

shy🍬🦇
@shy.center

Lost one of my heroes today. Slinger Francisco, also known as Mighty Sparrow, passed away at 91. Trinidad's most famous calypsonian, always infusing his songs with sharp political wit and humor. A friend and influence to many, including Van Dyke Parks. Here he is performing "Jean & Dinah."

DonE
@optional.bsky.social

Over 9 miles on today’s long run! Planning on raising that by a mile a month ahead of a half marathon at the start of next year. #optionalrunning