Scary games, healthy brains?, 29/10/2026
Why survival horror might be exactly what the doctor ordered
Latest Gaming Articles
Week in Gaming - 26th Oct #11
The one where I am struggling with the fact it is November
In “Week in Gaming”, I will be talking about the various snippets of gaming media I have encountered and share any stories or games I have come across in that week. I won’t add everything to keep it a short-ish post, but I will include what I was playing and something that was maybe something bigger in my world.
Luna
•
1d
Between you and Jo really enjoying the Petal Runner demo I know I have to try it!
Sey
•
2d
Agree with the November comment haha 😂 when and how did that happen?!
Thanks for joining the impromptu stream! ❤️ It turned out pretty good with some new games I didn’t know about. Petal Runner is one I am hoping to get on Switch 2.
Im finding that if something is less graphically heavy I prefer it on the light weight handheld of the ones I own. 😂
The ‘Tidy Up’ Genre: Why We Clean
Chore Core, a term I think we coined on the show, is in a weird place right now. There are plenty of games out there featuring the gamification of mundane tasks, ranging from power washing to lawn mowing to automotive repair, to name just a few.
Your Guide to November’s Family Friendly Video Games
The entire world is talking about Grand Theft Auto. But we’re talking about Zelda.
It was funny to research this month’s list of games and watch everything come to a halt as Thanksgiving nears. And Grand Theft Auto VI, I suppose, but that likely has little bearing on the kinds of games that would be targeted at kids and families.
Patrick, I have to call you out for choosing the absolute worst review on Metacritic for Shrek 2! 😀 I trust the reviewer for Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, whose 3.5/5 review said, "You pretty much have to have the heart of an ogre—a really mean one—to not have fun with this game." (Oh, yeah! That was me!)
Looking back, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Activision gave the same Diablo-esque engine to Luxoflux for Shrek 2 and to Raven for X-Men Legends -- they're pretty similar, actually.
(I also saw that James Stevenson gave it a B+ for Cinescape!)
Okay whilst everyone waits for ME to be in the next Sonic film 😋 I guess we can check out Sonic Pico Park 🤣
I’m really excited for Escape Academy 2, husband and I really enjoyed the first one. It wasn’t too cruel when you failed and we managed to figure out most of the puzzles without using hints!
I feel like that’s doing Shrek 2 a real dirty there. 🤣
Thoughts: Heart of Neon
Musings about the Jeff Minter documentary
This past week we watched the Jeff Minter documentary called Heart of Neon. It has weirdly stuck with me. These are just some rambles about the documentary - not a review but I did like it.
How Designing Video Games Teaches Us to Build Great Companies
My foreword to Bing Gordon’s new book, “Everybody Wins”
If I’ve learned anything from listening to Bing Gordon dispense timeless product-design wisdom in the form of deep-cuts Silicon Valley lore over the years, then most of you should correctly answer at least two or three of these questions, drawn from the pages of his new book,
Thanks for sharing such an interesting article! I especially liked your point about how manipulation only works up to a certain point. I've actually experienced this myself with my WHOOP.
At first, I thought it was really cool to have all this data about what was happening in my body. But over time, I started feeling like I was trapped in the game. My mood would literally change depending on my daily metrics.
It made me realize how important it is to design products in a way that doesn't constantly pressure people to engage with them.
But as with so many things, there's a fine line between creating healthy engagement and making people dependent on a product.
Good morning Reid.
thank you so much for the recommendation of the book
Everybody Wins by Bing Gordon
The book launch at the Commonwealth in San Francisco was extraordinary!
Thank you
I enjoyed it very much.
Haciendo Comunidad en Estados Unidos.
Claude Code now steers away from cloning existing video games
Users spotted new Claude Code rules telling the AI not to recreate a specific existing game. Anthropic says original games, genre games and your own designs should still work.
Claude Code now steers away from cloning existing video games
Users spotted new Claude Code rules telling the AI not to recreate a specific existing game. Anthropic says original games, genre games and your own designs should still work.
The Future of Consumer Payments May Be Hiding in Video Games
Gamers have little patience for bad payments. Xsolla President Chris Hewish has a few lessons for banks betting on stablecoins, loyalty and digital commerce.
Most stablecoin activity today centers on trading, treasury and cross-border settlement. Where do you see the strongest case for everyday consumer adoption?
On Video Games Boosting Mental Health
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, annoyingly it seemed that every man and his dog got to writing that novel they’d always known they had in them. As for me, I was close to completing the fourth and final draft of my first novel, armed with line-edits from my writing mentor. The stage was set for me to finish this thing, which by then I’d been writing…
Video: Valkyries Blocks and Steals, Finals Games 1 - 4
expect a lot of Kiah Stokes
I made a present for you. It’s a video of all the Valkyries blocks and steals across the first four games of the WNBA Finals. You’re welcome.
Tangential to the content of this post at best, so forgive me as this is just the latest place to share some OT commentary with this community.
Unsure how I feel about this Hollinger opinion piece from today about how MNBA teams should be looking more and more at harvesting coaching talent from the W:
Nice to see Coach Nakase get some deserved flowers but it's a bit of a sour compliment IMO.
Sure, it's an objectively bigger stage, and I bet the coaching jobs pay more. The M also pays the players a lot more. There's just a lot more money all around. That's been a problem for a long time, though we are starting to see that changing.
But this type of thinking also is rooted in a framing that the W is and will continue to be a lesser league, and that coaches should see job offers with the M an opportunity to lift themselves up outta that. Leaning into this thinking by suggesting good W coaches need to be "moved up" to the M simply reinforces existing belief systems that contribute to lesser/inequitable outcomes for the W.
It also implies a point of view that the nature of players and gameplay are similar enough between the leagues that coaching efficacy can and will readily translate from one to another.
It's only one example, but we've already seen this year how NYL did under Chris DeMarco - recall that before the season started, he openly admitted he hadn't watched the W or been super familiar with the Liberty before he got hired on (which sounds like a galaxy-brain GM problem, but still...)
Why Hollinger feels the need to push this line instead of keeping it to himself, or better yet, putting the weight of his writing behind pushing for more equitable outcomes is beyond me. I won't make any declaratives about the reasons why, which may be rooted in structural and/or personal belief systems (whether self-aware or not), but I could make some guesses.
Thanks Eric for putting together these compilations for us
A (Vertical) Slice of News, 15/10/2026
Chris Kerr chats about his ‘fearless’ new game media outlet
Ukrainian game dev lab damaged by Russian drone attack, 22/10/2026
Kropyvnytskyi game hub forced to temporarily close after attack on 14th October
How AI is turning old video games into modern computer code in just days
Welcome to the era of AI game decompilation.
If you’ve spent any time in gaming or developer circles recently, you’ve probably seen the headlines: classic retro games running natively on modern PCs at 4K 240Hz, ultra-niche titles ported to mobile systems overnight, and chaotic game mashups that look like they shouldn’t exist.
REVIEW: C. Thi Nguyen’s THE SCORE is one of the most relevant texts of our time
Fragments on Metrics and Video Games
Note: I’ve opened up comments to all subscribers, free or paid, for the indefinite future. If you have a thought: please click through and share!
In business school there's a saying "What gets measured, gets managed". Many people take it as a commandment, "go forth ye MBAs and make metrics of all systems". But I always interpreted it as a warning. If you tell someone you are going to pay them more (or inversely punish them) when number goes up, they will dedicate their job to manipulating that number.
This sometimes, often times, means doing things to juice the number that won't result in the outcome you want. Say you have a metric for drive-through wait times at McDonalds. That's all ran by a computer system that says what was ordered, by whom, and how long they have waited. So if a manager gets a bonus when the wait time is under 4 minutes, they will instruct their team to clear out the computer whenever it hits 3:59 and send the car forward. They will bring out the food eventually, but since the computer was cleared, the high teenager making your McChicken won't be able to see if you wanted mayo or not.
So a metric that was designed for the outcome of customer satisfaction ends up having the opposite effect and companies are paying bonus' for employees to do exactly what they don't want to happen.
I constantly remind people, numbers are not contextless pieces of information. Big things get missed when you distill or dilute a situation, take out all the statistical outliers to make your graph better, and present a story to an upper management team who is being told what they want to hear. AI is a machine built to do exactly that.
RetroSpace Thoughts: Do NOT Ignore The Mustache
For reals
RetroSpace is an immersive sim that wears its influences proudly on its sleeve. Developed by The Wild Gentlemen, this disco-punk space station thriller draws heavily from genre classics like System Shock 2, BioShock, and Prey. And for the most part, it succeeds in capturing what made those games so memorable. Also has late 90’s Half-Life vibes too. Mostly graphically.
PHP flaw knocks games offline | Switch 2 jailbroken | FC 27 gets PEGI 16 over loot boxes
Gies W43 | October 30, 2026
Final Fantasy 14, Umamusume: Pretty Derby, and more impacted as PHP vulnerability outages hit games around the globe
Can you build a legitimate video game business on prompts? Meta thinks so
"This is the modern way to make video games," says Meta Horizon VP Saxs Persson
Listen now on Apple, Spotify or YouTube
CORE 543: Poke Zero
Scott Jon and Beau are back for another action-packed CORE! Phantom Blade Zero seems to be doing jussssst fine. Also the games of November. Forsaken is the new NMS expansion! Plainsrunning is happening. Scott played Shelves of Sorcery, DinoBones, Tape to Tape 1.0, and Strange Antiquities. As well as OneMoreCrypt.com. Jon played Vampire Survivors for re…
Week in Gaming - 19th Oct #10
The one where I start exploring retro gaming - specifically dual screen handhelds
In “Week in Gaming”, I will be talking about the various snippets of gaming media I have encountered and share any stories or games I have come across in that week. I won’t add everything to keep it a short-ish post, but I will include what I was playing and something that was maybe something bigger in my world.
BioWare closes after 30 years | Project Helix reportedly late 2028 | Mobile games hide dark patterns
Gies W42 | October 23, 2026
BioWare is closing after 30 years
We are in the second phase of the Gamathon
Three Days Down, Three More to Go!
It’s been an incredible three days at Gamathon 2026! From our online sessions to the Industry Dinner and Women in Games Luncheon, we’ve already had plenty of meaningful conversations, learning, and connections.
What video games can teach us about selling consumer products
A guide to understanding and using gamification
Gaming is the next frontier of entertainment. I think some of best stories, today live inside games (check out Red Dead Redemption 2, or even the insomniac Spider Man games - better stories than some films tbh), and mainstream actors now lend their voices and faces to iconic characters. But underneath the storytelling, games have spent decades perfectin…
Too good
Well-written + short, sweet, and insightful
Thanks for sharing!
Gamathon Week Schedule
Here’s the breakdown of the week
It’s Gamathon season and we are super excited to have you join us. Based on the kind of pass purhased, you’ll have access to a variety of activities happening throughout the week.
Related Gaming Substacks
