austin_walker
@austinwalker.bsky.social
Writer, Podcaster, Game Designer | Friends at the Table | A More Civilized Age | Shelved by Genre | Formerly: Possibility Space, Waypoint, Giant Bomb, Paste Games
Reposted by austin_walker
I think about Harvestella constantly. I tell people you should play Harvestella and grin like a demon dog when they ask if that's the farming game.
Extreme run for Square-Enix only a handful of years ago when they made so much amazing stuff.
Dungeon Encounters! God, Dungeon Encounters!
Extreme run for Square-Enix only a handful of years ago when they made so much amazing stuff.
Dungeon Encounters! God, Dungeon Encounters!
Square-Enix fired every gun they had March of 2022 and again six months later in September.
Tons of weird, cool stuff released and immediately buried.
Valkyrie Elysium is one of the best character action games of the last decade+ and has an unassailable soundtrack and it will never see a sequel.
Tons of weird, cool stuff released and immediately buried.
Valkyrie Elysium is one of the best character action games of the last decade+ and has an unassailable soundtrack and it will never see a sequel.
December 26, 2025 at 11:25 PM
I think about Harvestella constantly. I tell people you should play Harvestella and grin like a demon dog when they ask if that's the farming game.
Extreme run for Square-Enix only a handful of years ago when they made so much amazing stuff.
Dungeon Encounters! God, Dungeon Encounters!
Extreme run for Square-Enix only a handful of years ago when they made so much amazing stuff.
Dungeon Encounters! God, Dungeon Encounters!
Reposted by austin_walker
if you listened to our Side Story episode about Sol Cesto and heard us talk about Michael Brough's work, this is a very kind offer and a very cool place to get into it - a game about five wands where you don't know what the wands do but buddy... they do something
ATTENTION BSKY: in celebration of Cinco Paus Day's Eve, please message me if you'd like a free copy of the best game ever made. :)
smestorp.itch.io/cinco-paus
Also TSLOG are doing an amazing series of podcasts on Michael's games:
eggplant.show
PLEASE REPOST! OR RE-SKEET! WHATEVER IT'S CALLED!! :)
smestorp.itch.io/cinco-paus
Also TSLOG are doing an amazing series of podcasts on Michael's games:
eggplant.show
PLEASE REPOST! OR RE-SKEET! WHATEVER IT'S CALLED!! :)
Cinco Paus by Michael Brough
Available for Windows, macOS
smestorp.itch.io
December 26, 2025 at 4:10 PM
if you listened to our Side Story episode about Sol Cesto and heard us talk about Michael Brough's work, this is a very kind offer and a very cool place to get into it - a game about five wands where you don't know what the wands do but buddy... they do something
Reposted by austin_walker
500k *sounds* like a lot in a vacuum but by Android free-to-play game standards it's deeply mediocre at best and catastrophic at worst depending on how expensive it was to make. Any random nonsense game you click on the feature page has 1m+ downloads. Games you've never heard of break 10m+.
December 25, 2025 at 4:51 PM
500k *sounds* like a lot in a vacuum but by Android free-to-play game standards it's deeply mediocre at best and catastrophic at worst depending on how expensive it was to make. Any random nonsense game you click on the feature page has 1m+ downloads. Games you've never heard of break 10m+.
Reposted by austin_walker
Literally everything the principals involved here say is just word salad nonsense that doesn't even approach meaning enough to be a lie, but it's also worth noting that the game given up as an example of this tech has 500k downloads on the Android app store. www.ft.com/content/9b1b...
AI ‘world models’ promise to reshape $190bn video games industry
Google DeepMind and Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs target gaming with AI-generated 3D environments
www.ft.com
December 25, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Literally everything the principals involved here say is just word salad nonsense that doesn't even approach meaning enough to be a lie, but it's also worth noting that the game given up as an example of this tech has 500k downloads on the Android app store. www.ft.com/content/9b1b...
Reposted by austin_walker
The second LaserDisc Rip today is rarer than the first, and also is by Japanese City Pop artist Tats Yamashita.
Early 90s. New York City. Real people. A single day documented from morning to midnight. Christmas comes early this year:
Christmas in New York.
archive.org/details/chri...
Early 90s. New York City. Real people. A single day documented from morning to midnight. Christmas comes early this year:
Christmas in New York.
archive.org/details/chri...
October 22, 2025 at 4:17 PM
The second LaserDisc Rip today is rarer than the first, and also is by Japanese City Pop artist Tats Yamashita.
Early 90s. New York City. Real people. A single day documented from morning to midnight. Christmas comes early this year:
Christmas in New York.
archive.org/details/chri...
Early 90s. New York City. Real people. A single day documented from morning to midnight. Christmas comes early this year:
Christmas in New York.
archive.org/details/chri...
Reposted by austin_walker
Reposted by austin_walker
I’ve been chipping away at it since release, about halfway through now, and it’s been a real daily delight.
Still thinking about Octopath 0 as the year closes out. Really chewed through my thoughts for my review but I think that if I could also do one tiny mini-pitch...
This has the best final boss fight of any RPG I've played.
kotaku.com/octopath-tra...
This has the best final boss fight of any RPG I've played.
kotaku.com/octopath-tra...
Octopath Traveler 0: The Kotaku Review - Kotaku
A mobile spin-off transforms into the best game in the RPG series
kotaku.com
December 24, 2025 at 4:33 AM
I’ve been chipping away at it since release, about halfway through now, and it’s been a real daily delight.
Reposted by austin_walker
I’m not even playing this and I get genuinely unnerved by a guy trying to stab us in this episode. What a cool goddamn game
It's the final episode of Echo Night of 2025!
Come watch an experimental film, play with animatronic birds, and @shirokumahi.me gets mad at me!
Also the ~Lovecraft Pool!~
It's always a wild time in this From Software classic!
youtu.be/Z-8TaWjMfbM
Come watch an experimental film, play with animatronic birds, and @shirokumahi.me gets mad at me!
Also the ~Lovecraft Pool!~
It's always a wild time in this From Software classic!
youtu.be/Z-8TaWjMfbM
Let's Play Echo Night - Episode 4
YouTube video by Dia Lacina
youtu.be
December 22, 2025 at 4:06 PM
I’m not even playing this and I get genuinely unnerved by a guy trying to stab us in this episode. What a cool goddamn game
Reposted by austin_walker
Quantic Foundry does legit trustworthy analysis of gamer behaviour, and these survey results are shockingly negative toward genAI, to the point where I’m more hopeful that data driven mobile and AAA backpedals on their uses.
everyone dislikes genai in games, but kids and story-focused players the most.
sounds like we'll be ok. just have to stay the course here and the "inevitable" new technology nobody likes will die. again.
quanticfoundry.com/2025/12/18/g...
sounds like we'll be ok. just have to stay the course here and the "inevitable" new technology nobody likes will die. again.
quanticfoundry.com/2025/12/18/g...
Gamers Are Overwhelmingly Negative About Gen AI in Video Games, but Attitudes Vary by Gender, Age, and Gaming Motivations.
Learn about how gender, age, and gaming motivations shape the perception of Gen AI in video games.
quanticfoundry.com
December 20, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Quantic Foundry does legit trustworthy analysis of gamer behaviour, and these survey results are shockingly negative toward genAI, to the point where I’m more hopeful that data driven mobile and AAA backpedals on their uses.
Reposted by austin_walker
I just wrote an article about this and decided not to publish it yet. It is in the DOJ files (file got renamed after originally published and taken down. It’s online now). But too many unknowns about whether the letter itself is real or not. Some additional info though:
DOJ briefly uploaded this letter from Jeff Epstein to serial child molester Larry Nassar:
"Our president shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to 'grab snatch,' whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system."
"Our president shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to 'grab snatch,' whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system."
December 23, 2025 at 6:45 AM
I just wrote an article about this and decided not to publish it yet. It is in the DOJ files (file got renamed after originally published and taken down. It’s online now). But too many unknowns about whether the letter itself is real or not. Some additional info though:
Reposted by austin_walker
bari weiss saw this and decided that she had to hide it from the american public
Guards began beating him. Beat him until he bled. Knocked his face into the wall, broke all his teeth. No access to outdoors, no contact with relatives.
Now describing US knowledge of CECOT's torture practices, followed by footage of Trump praising those practices.
Now describing US knowledge of CECOT's torture practices, followed by footage of Trump praising those practices.
December 22, 2025 at 10:53 PM
bari weiss saw this and decided that she had to hide it from the american public
Reposted by austin_walker
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
Reposted by austin_walker
I fully missed this went up, but hey, I wrote a blurb about why Despelote is one of the best games this year for @theavclubgames.bsky.social!
www.avclub.com/best-games-2...
www.avclub.com/best-games-2...
The A.V. Club's best games of 2025
Unsurprisingly, the best games of 2025 came from the fringes of the industry. Here's what The A.V. Club's games critics loved the most this year.
www.avclub.com
December 21, 2025 at 11:21 PM
I fully missed this went up, but hey, I wrote a blurb about why Despelote is one of the best games this year for @theavclubgames.bsky.social!
www.avclub.com/best-games-2...
www.avclub.com/best-games-2...
Reposted by austin_walker
So long, Substack! I've moved my newsletter, Kirk's Notes, to a new home with its own URL and everything. I wrote about that, along with some other plans for 2026: www.kirksnotes.com/p/new-home-n...
New Home, New Plans, New Year, NewsLETTER
Some big and small changes for 2026
www.kirksnotes.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:20 PM
So long, Substack! I've moved my newsletter, Kirk's Notes, to a new home with its own URL and everything. I wrote about that, along with some other plans for 2026: www.kirksnotes.com/p/new-home-n...
Reposted by austin_walker
Here’s a “I didn’t play for a week and now the Christmas event stuff started and every recurring revenue system reset requiring a new pop up” version that is somehow twice as long
December 21, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Here’s a “I didn’t play for a week and now the Christmas event stuff started and every recurring revenue system reset requiring a new pop up” version that is somehow twice as long
Reposted by austin_walker
Phantasy Star Online ver.2 (DC / Sonic Team / 2001) - Pioneer II
December 21, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Phantasy Star Online ver.2 (DC / Sonic Team / 2001) - Pioneer II
Reposted by austin_walker
Something in this episode derails us harder than we have ever derailed before, and it starts with me reading off the names of softcore titles from the 1990s.
Between units, a holiday rest: SHELVED BY GENRE today chats about gnomes, small-town detectives, and entrepreneurs as we cover a delightfully odd Lifetime movie that is also sort of a light parody of Hallmark Christmas movies, IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE MURDER. rangedtouch.com/2025/12/19/i...
December 20, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Something in this episode derails us harder than we have ever derailed before, and it starts with me reading off the names of softcore titles from the 1990s.
Really funny to me that Jake Paul got his clocked clean exactly one year after @eyepatchwolf.bsky.social's breakdown of his whole boxing racket.
youtu.be/ktLaMInfono
youtu.be/ktLaMInfono
How Jake Paul Keeps Winning Fights
YouTube video by Super Eyepatch Wolf
youtu.be
December 20, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Really funny to me that Jake Paul got his clocked clean exactly one year after @eyepatchwolf.bsky.social's breakdown of his whole boxing racket.
youtu.be/ktLaMInfono
youtu.be/ktLaMInfono
Reposted by austin_walker
Six Ages for 10 dollars is a completely non-optional deal imo. if you don't know, it is your duty to find out
Everything is on sale for the Kitfox Steam Winter sale!
❄Store page: store.steampowered.com/publisher/ki...
❄Store page: store.steampowered.com/publisher/ki...
December 20, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Six Ages for 10 dollars is a completely non-optional deal imo. if you don't know, it is your duty to find out
Reposted by austin_walker
- Did it require me being sick & 9 years minus one day to watch @notquitereal.bsky.social & @austinwalker.bsky.social play The Division Survival dlc?
- Yes.
- Am I still glad?
- Oh hell yes.
The Division 1's Survival DLC is a super interesting standalone game mode with systemic spice. (1/2)
- Yes.
- Am I still glad?
- Oh hell yes.
The Division 1's Survival DLC is a super interesting standalone game mode with systemic spice. (1/2)
Waypoint Plays - The Division (December 21, 2016)
YouTube video by Waypoint
youtu.be
December 20, 2025 at 3:09 PM
- Did it require me being sick & 9 years minus one day to watch @notquitereal.bsky.social & @austinwalker.bsky.social play The Division Survival dlc?
- Yes.
- Am I still glad?
- Oh hell yes.
The Division 1's Survival DLC is a super interesting standalone game mode with systemic spice. (1/2)
- Yes.
- Am I still glad?
- Oh hell yes.
The Division 1's Survival DLC is a super interesting standalone game mode with systemic spice. (1/2)
Reposted by austin_walker
Is this movie a train wreck? Yes. Do I think I have my best joke of the year on this episode? Also yes.
A new episode of Media Club Plus is out! This time the cast watched SPLIT, a film I'm sure they have nothing to say about at all www.patreon.com/posts/slop-l...
The Slop Lord - Split: Media Club Plus S02E09 | Friends at the Table
Get more from Friends at the Table on Patreon
www.patreon.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Is this movie a train wreck? Yes. Do I think I have my best joke of the year on this episode? Also yes.
Reposted by austin_walker
YES! this is what techbros who have let their creative selves wither call "procrastination" or "inefficiency" and try to technologise away, not understanding that it is the source of creativity and imagination and everything good
When I sit down to write I'm not consciously pulling from my notes, I'm drawing on the 6 months I spent reading biographies, watching hours of interviews, etc. There is a volume of research, of effort & time that is required to create something meaningful to draw from.
December 19, 2025 at 6:28 AM
YES! this is what techbros who have let their creative selves wither call "procrastination" or "inefficiency" and try to technologise away, not understanding that it is the source of creativity and imagination and everything good
Reposted by austin_walker
beating a dead horse but part of what makes art both worthwhile to the creator of it and interesting to the beholder is that you can’t actually beam ideas from your head into exactly what you imagined that way when you make it yourself, and the left turns and fingerprints are all part of it
December 19, 2025 at 5:55 AM
beating a dead horse but part of what makes art both worthwhile to the creator of it and interesting to the beholder is that you can’t actually beam ideas from your head into exactly what you imagined that way when you make it yourself, and the left turns and fingerprints are all part of it