James Cunningham

How is this so incredibly obnoxious? Village in the Shade is out today and I'd quite like to pick it up physical on Switch 2. Original Switch is, of course, on cartridge. Switch 2 is game key card, so no point in not buying it digitally. Might as well wait for a Steam sale.

Well, that's me downloading the demo.

Kind of enjoying the grungy feel and sorting mechanics of the Steel Gullet demo. Definitely rough around the edges, but one of the scarce automation games requiring efficient use of space. hardcoregamer.com/feeding-the-...

Don't know how I'd missed @appulsegame.bsky.social/ @rawfury.bsky.social's Appulse up to now but it being in the Steam Next Fest has helped correct that oversight. Pinball space-combat action where each board is a different ship of the fleet heading back to Earth. hardcoregamer.com/bouncing-aro...

Well that's a let-down. The energy system is overly restrictive, basically saying "You're having too much fun, knock it off!" If you level up energy your offense suffers, and you're still running out of bullets in a swarm. store.steampowered.com/app/5184380/...

Watched the first 15-ish minutes of Backrooms with my wife and we wandered away out of sheer indifference. The deal with a movie, or really any media, is it gives me something to care about, I care about it. Backrooms couldn’t be bothered.

How on Earth did Mapquest become the coolest mapping application?

And that’s voting for the year sorted. Whatever happens next, I’ve done what I can.

Graphic novel delivery! Ended up having to order both online because I couldn’t find them locally. Moonlit Spiral was easy enough but I wanted hardcover, while Owl House: Long Lived King I can’t find anywhere for love or money.

The score on @keengamesstudio.bsky.social's Enshrouded was pretty much a foregone conclusion, seeing as it's an absolute favorite I've cleared 230+ hours on so far. Excellent survival/construction/action-RPG in a hand-built fantasy world that stretches on forever. hardcoregamer.com/review-enshr...

Turns out there's more you can do with driving than just go fast. @funselektor.bsky.social's over the hill (noncapitalized) is an offroading game that balances chill and challenge in equal measure, letting you wrangle your favorite vehicle over beautiful terrain. hardcoregamer.com/review-over-...

That's some good game publishing choices there. hardcoregamer.com/small-rodent... hardcoregamer.com/setting-it-a... Those two articles went up 3 days apart, too. :)

I am very sad I don't have time to do anything with Cthulhu Damacy here because while the demo was wonderfully ridiculous, my writing time for today is spoken for.

Today's discourse is on the inevitability of AI. I'd like to offer a counterpoint- It's not inevitable. It's a stupid future, nobody needs to take part in it. And if AAA goes full-on AI, there will still be more excellent human-made games outside of that space than you'll ever have time to play.

Me after writing last night- Trash article, don’t know why I think I can write, I’ll try to edit into readability today. Me today- A little adjustment to punctuation and changing/adding maybe a dozen words, and done!

I knew better than to do this to myself but I just watched the Unity Spark video. I knew it would be bad but I'm still impressed by how utterly it failed. Normal failure is simply things going wrong, but Unity's AI video is two-minutes of the worst possible choices. Simply amazing!(ly terrrible.)

Not at home at the moment, tried to look up information on ebikes. Then I got a strong reminder of how utterly unusable the internet is without adblocking. Ick.

Been trying to get @cuttingcornergames.bsky.social's Pistonica covered for two weeks now and finally have a spare moment. It's a first-person automation game on a tropical island using early-1900s tech, assuming that dirigible-drones are period appropriate. hardcoregamer.com/a-tropical-s...

Cleaning out some old hardware, I just found my old GeForce 560ti card. Part of me feels it might have a use but the rest of me has no clue what that might be.

So uhhh... I guess everyone else liked Minecraft Dungeons II more than I did? I get that it's aiming at a younger crowd, but I didn't feel much of anything while playing. An adequate ARPG with thin coat of Minecraft paint, and that's it. hardcoregamer.com/review-minec...

Did a game about sorting items hit it big recently and I just missed it? I'm seeing a ton of sorting games lately, where you go into a chaotic room or series of rooms and organize everything.

Also at Funspot arcade, star Wars and, much much rarer, Star Trek sot-down cabinets. Star Wars is scarce but I haven’t seen Star Trek since the 80s. I’d forgotten what a great-looking cabinet it has.

Found the Beetlejuice pinball at a visit to the Funspot classic arcade last night. It’s the first table from Spooky Pinball I’ve seen and I’ve got to say, I’m impressed! Really fun, creative layout with a great use of theme.

Need an opinion because a thought just entered my head- Is the Ghostbusters theme song the most 80s song in existence?

Reinventing the wheel is all very nice but not that necessary when nailing every single part of a genre. @kylethompsondev.bsky.social's Well Dweller is a dark but innocent fairy tale metroidvania, nicely challenging and perfectly paced. hardcoregamer.com/review-well-...

when ai leaves u behind

I don't want to complain in response to a developer's post but it's bugging the hell out of me, so I'll just put this here out of direct context- Hey, that looks great! Let me head over to Steam to check i... "...created with the assistance of generative AI tools" Never mind.

Well that turned out even better than expected, and my expectations were already high. @raingames.bsky.social's Knuckle Jet is one of the best 2D(ish) action platformers I've played in years. hardcoregamer.com/review-knuck...

While I don't normally do tower defense, those are some deeply satisfying enemy bug-waves to annihilate in @beltfedgame.com's Beltfed. Build the factory, supply the defensive lines with ammo, wreak havoc on thousands of bugs in a go. hardcoregamer.com/all-aboard-t...

Probably worth pointing out to @bulkhead.com that crunch is the price paid by workers for bad management. And that this is a shit attitude made by leads who view harming people as a price they're happy to pay to get what they want.

Is it bad that, despite hearing nothing but good things and it being a genre I enjoy, I've never played or want to play Lies of P because the name just bugs the living hell out of me?

"It is time for you to embark on the greatest adventure of your life!" and dude, she's 12! Are you really telling a kid that her life is all downhill after this? That's just a dick move right there. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXTy...

When I started my new save for @valheimgame.bsky.social's Valheim review, my last-played date was 7/11/21. It's been a long journey to get here but finally Valheim 1.0 is out, with a bigger, deeper world to craft and fight through. hardcoregamer.com/review-valhe...

I did manage to sneak in a piece for @tobsprgames.bsky.social's Puzzlez spin-off of the Shapez series yesterday. You don't see a lot of the "fit it all in any way you can" style of automation gaming, so it's nice to see a new one is on the way. hardcoregamer.com/taking-autom...

Ooh! Gonna need a couple dozen more of these at minimum, but this is excellent!

Lovely little demo went up today for @oneiricworlds.bsky.social's Yashi: Desert Driver. Hop in your van and explore the desert to find the components needed to upgrade your ride to reach the next area, with your coyote along for the ride. hardcoregamer.com/a-little-des...