David Merrett

Games completed 2026, #5: Skate Story

Desperately trying to avoid using the 'vibes.' If it's still on PS+, it's well worth checking out.
bckl.gg/q6lx

And some longer, less structured thoughts here: bckl.gg/q6lM

SnakeyDave's review of Skate Story | Backloggd

Loved the look, loved the music (Blood Cultures have a new fan) and, by the end, I liked the story. A limited skating game, but an excellent music-centred experience a la Sayonara Wild Hearts or Thump...

bckl.gg

David Merrett @snakeydave.bsky.social · 7d

Games completed 2026, #4: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

What a shame about the remake, eh? But, it's still worth playing the original. The combat is alright - just don't try and jump over any of the blue enemies.

bckl.gg/q6li

SnakeyDave's review of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time | Backloggd

Played this with a friend, showing him one of my old favourites. It really holds up. Even the combat is not bad; the encounters just suffer from too many respawning enemies. The story and platforming ...

bckl.gg

David Merrett @snakeydave.bsky.social · 7d

Games completed 2026, #3: Despelote

Even with the awkward controls, this kid's better at football than me.

bckl.gg/qY7c

SnakeyDave's review of Despelote | Backloggd

I really struggled with the first half of this. The central kicking mechanic was annoying and I was a little bored. However, I was completely enraptured by the end. One of the chapters added a loose m...

bckl.gg

David Merrett @snakeydave.bsky.social · 7d

Games completed 2026, #2: Blasphemous 2

Turns out, even after putting god knows how many hours into Silksong, I was still in the mood for a Metroidvania packed full of religious imagery. Better than the first one.

bckl.gg/qPle

SnakeyDave's review of Blasphemous II | Backloggd

I found the first Blasphemous a bit underwhelming. There seemed to be a contradiction between the game's portentous tone, with all its overt religious symbolism, and the kinda bog standard Castlevania...

bckl.gg

Reposted by David Merrett, Christine Kooi

Oliver Nachtwey @onachtwey.bsky.social · 7d

Hahaha

David Merrett @snakeydave.bsky.social · 7d

Completely agree.

David Merrett @snakeydave.bsky.social · 7d

Love this piece. Christian Donlan writes so beautifully about the appeal of games.

After the brutal highs of Silksong, Game Pass' latest great Metroidvania shows the genre at its elegant best

After Silksong, it seemed like we needed a break from Metroidvanias. Mio: Memories in Orbit makes us realise we were wrong.

www.eurogamer.net

Reposted by David Merrett

Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 13d

I think a lot about Parmy Olson's observation that AI companies actively push everyone to talk about existential risk, because it distracts from more prosaic current day concerns like copyright theft, conditions for data workers, energy & water use, and their financial situation

Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 13d

‘Humanity needs to wake up’ to dangers of AI, says Anthropic chief www.ft.com/content/c309...

‘Humanity needs to wake up’ to dangers of AI, says Anthropic chief

Dario Amodei posts 20,000-word essay detailing potentially catastrophic risks from powerful technology in years to come

www.ft.com

David Merrett @snakeydave.bsky.social · 25d

@jacobgeller.com Sektori was an incredible recommendation. Not since Super Hexagon has a game plugged so directly into my adrenal gland.

Reposted by David Merrett

Andy Robinson @andyrobinson.bsky.social · Jan 8

A preliminary employment tribunal hearing for recently fired Rockstar Games developers kicked off this week, with their union seeking interim relief.

www.videogameschronicle.com/news/fired-r...

Fired Rockstar Games developers fight for payroll relief at employment tribunal hearing | VGC

Rockstar claims that fired staff were breaching confidentiality agreements…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Reposted by David Merrett

Sunny Moraine @dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social · Dec 28

This is just going to always be my go-to response to this kind of thing anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

I do understand: you want permission. There's a machine in the corner wrapped in human skin that makes things out of shit and blood to look like whatever you want (as long as you don't look too closely). You gave one to your teacher and they didn't notice. Your boss told you to use it after they laid off half the team and it was fine. You fed one to your kids and they liked it. You want to know you can use it sometimes without me thinking less of you. You don't need me to believe it's useful, you just want me to be polite about it.

But I am a hater, and I will not be polite. The machine is disgusting and we should break it. The people who build it are vapid shit-eating cannibals glorifying ignorance. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.

David Merrett @snakeydave.bsky.social · Dec 17

This is fascinating: laurenleek.substack.com/p/how-google...

In some sense it's obvious to say that algorithms mediate and influence our attention and decisions, but the fact they're opaque is horrendous. There ought to be public access for why facebook or google sending you this ad/video/etc.

How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it

I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.

laurenleek.substack.com

David Merrett @snakeydave.bsky.social · Dec 15

Saw it a few months back with a director q&a, and I'm now annoyed I didn’t ask about that.

Reposted by David Merrett

Rebekah Valentine @duckvalentine.bsky.social · Dec 15

whats the best video game movie of all time and why is it Hundreds of Beavers

Garry @thegmcconnachie.bsky.social · Dec 13

Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people

Reposted by David Merrett

IGN @ign.com · Dec 11

Rockstar has claimed the employees it recently fired were dismissed because they leaked game features for upcoming and unannounced titles in Discord, not because they were trying to unionize. https://bit.ly/48A0tTf

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Shannon Vallor, Ben H. Ansell , and 27 more Jonathan Portes, Shannon Vallor, Ben H. Ansell, Brigitte Nerlich, Peter Thorne, Gordon Pennycook, Steve Peers, Tim Bale, Steven French, Tom Shakespeare, Jonathan Wolff, Ben Barr, Lesley A. Hall, Jonathan Hopkin, Lindsay M. Tedds, Rebecca Tushnet, David Merrett, Aaron Sojourner, Douglas Guilfoyle, Justin Lewis, Aurélien Mondon, Alfie Kohn, David Webster, James Connelly, Colm O’Cinneíde, Jon Dean, Tarik Abou‐Chadi, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Constance Bantman, Peter Jacobs

Jonathan Kingham @jonkingh.bsky.social · Dec 6

This is so disgusting.

Reposted by Stephan Lewandowsky, Gavin A. Schmidt, Elizabeth Stokoe , and 6 more Stephan Lewandowsky, Gavin A. Schmidt, Elizabeth Stokoe, David Merrett, Stacy D. VanDeveer, David Murakami Wood, Jon Dean, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Farah Mendlesohn

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Dec 6

Trans women to be barred from main Labour women’s conference in 2026

All delegates will be able to attend fringe programme as party tries to find compromise while complying with supreme court ruling on gender Trans women will be barred from the main part of Labour’s women’s conference next year, the party has said, with entrance to the main conference hall and voting rights denied. All delegates will be allowed to attend a fringe programme, under the party’s plans, as Labour seeks to find a compromise position it believes will comply with the supreme court’s ruling on gender – while also being inclusive to trans delegates. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Jonathan Hopkin, Andrew Leyshon, David Merrett , and 2 more Jonathan Hopkin, Andrew Leyshon, David Merrett, Julie Cupples, Christina Pagel

Sam Bright @writesbright.bsky.social · Nov 27

I'm constantly shocked (but not surprised) by how little we discuss the additional financial burden placed on young people by the Clegg-Cameron student loan regime.

@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇

Rachel Reeves hits young graduates with a double stealth tax

The Chancellor plans to raise as much money from freezing loan repayment thresholds as from the mansion tax

www.newstatesman.com

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings, David Merrett , and 1 more Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings, David Merrett, Tom Griffin

Chris Terry-Enescu @cjterry.bsky.social · Nov 27

The thing about "left on the economy, right on culture" is it's based on analysis of swing voters. Those voters are often low attention and their politics are often not especially coherent. Which is fine for them, it's not their job to run the country, but, you know, the government is

Reposted by David Merrett

Chris Bratt @chrisbratt.bsky.social · Nov 25

Going to be on Novara Live later this evening (I think about 6:45PM?) discussing the Rockstar firings and the union's efforts to get those employees reinstated

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hjc...

Carer’s Allowance Crisis Leaves Hundreds Of Thousands In Debt | #NovaraLIVE

YouTube video by Novara Media

www.youtube.com

Reposted by David Merrett

David Timoney @fromarsetoelbow.bsky.social · Nov 23

"This is a government that was engineered by the politico-media caste to thwart the left, eject the hapless Tories before they did any more damage, and otherwise just sit tight until something turned up to give the economy a boost." More ...
fromarsetoelbow.blogspot.com/2025/11/a-to...

A Touch on the Tiller

This is a government that refuses to publicly choose between the interests of capital and labour and believes it can steer a course between the two.

fromarsetoelbow.blogspot.com

Reposted by Will Jennings, David Merrett

Kate Garraway Enjoyer @jorisbinned.bsky.social · Nov 22

Sorry to keep banging on about it but it's literally *they are on Twitter and think it's the majority view*

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · Nov 22

This is pretty striking and makes me wonder exactly what Labour have been up to in making policy seemingly in response to / fear of the former rather than the middle group.

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · Nov 21

Why do people think England flags have been raised on lampposts?

White adults
National pride: 26%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 49%
Both: 19%

Ethnic minority adults
National pride: 15%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 55%
Both: 20%

yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

Reposted by David Merrett

Sooz Kempner @soozuk.bsky.social · Nov 22

My friend just sent me this t-shirt design and I need it so much.

black tshirt with "Yeah I support LGBT" and then pics of Labyrinth, Green Hill, Bingo Highway and Twinkle Park zones from Sonic

Reposted by David Merrett

Eurogamer @eurogamer.bsky.social · Nov 21

Ubisoft boss believes generative AI is as big a revolution for games as the shift to 3D, as tech is embraced company-wide

www.eurogamer.net/ubisoft-boss...

Reposted by James Harrison, David Merrett

The Herald @heraldscotland.bsky.social · Nov 20

For Women Scotland wins Public Campaign or Campaigner of the Year at The Herald Scottish Politician of the Year Awards 2025, in association with ScottishPower

www.heraldscotland.com/news...

#politicianawards25

Reposted by David Merrett

illusory wall @illusorywall.bsky.social · Nov 19

Showing up in the Epstein Files because you were a thorn in the side of one of his buddies is a serious flex. Rebecca Watson has been doing great work for a long time now.

youtu.be/VNLdyWPAz18?...

So I'm in the Epstein Files

YouTube video by Rebecca Watson (Skepchick)

youtu.be

David Merrett @snakeydave.bsky.social · Nov 19

I remember being blown away by cod 2 on a 360 demo station, how the smoke seemed like it was thick and had real volume in a way I'd never seen before.

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