Mark Stevens
@retroblique.bsky.social
Geeky Brit based in the USA. Follow for occasional observations on creative writing, music production, art & design, video games, film, and television.
So let me get this straight: Bethesda decided to re-release Fallout 4, which forced a buggy update on everyone that breaks the game for many people and forces crashes for others, and they’re charging you $20 to access just 150 pieces of CC content, from which you’ll just pick and choose anyway.
November 13, 2025 at 5:27 AM
So let me get this straight: Bethesda decided to re-release Fallout 4, which forced a buggy update on everyone that breaks the game for many people and forces crashes for others, and they’re charging you $20 to access just 150 pieces of CC content, from which you’ll just pick and choose anyway.
The (very possible) death of Xbox isn’t really such a bad prospect. The last time the industry was just basically the PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo was the mid/late 90s when it was just the PC, PS1, and N64, and that was a very fertile, interesting period for the industry.
October 23, 2025 at 8:04 AM
The (very possible) death of Xbox isn’t really such a bad prospect. The last time the industry was just basically the PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo was the mid/late 90s when it was just the PC, PS1, and N64, and that was a very fertile, interesting period for the industry.
Current Xbox messaging:
Developers need to give us more money.
Current Xbox owners need to give us more money.
Future Xbox owners need to give us more money.
There’s no guarantee the games/developers you enjoy have a future with Xbox.
Developers need to give us more money.
Current Xbox owners need to give us more money.
Future Xbox owners need to give us more money.
There’s no guarantee the games/developers you enjoy have a future with Xbox.
October 23, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Current Xbox messaging:
Developers need to give us more money.
Current Xbox owners need to give us more money.
Future Xbox owners need to give us more money.
There’s no guarantee the games/developers you enjoy have a future with Xbox.
Developers need to give us more money.
Current Xbox owners need to give us more money.
Future Xbox owners need to give us more money.
There’s no guarantee the games/developers you enjoy have a future with Xbox.
Vibe coding a Hitman GO style game with procedurally generated levels. Green = player, red = static enemy, orange = patrolling enemy, yellow = exit. This is after about 10 minutes work and half a dozen iterations where each iteration either improves an existing feature or adds a new one.
October 22, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Vibe coding a Hitman GO style game with procedurally generated levels. Green = player, red = static enemy, orange = patrolling enemy, yellow = exit. This is after about 10 minutes work and half a dozen iterations where each iteration either improves an existing feature or adds a new one.
Didn’t expect Electronic Arts AND Game Pass to both commit suicide in less than one week.
October 2, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Didn’t expect Electronic Arts AND Game Pass to both commit suicide in less than one week.
Still trying to reconcile the fact that Alien: Earth is both an intriguing TV show but also a terrible entry in the Alien franchise.
September 29, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Still trying to reconcile the fact that Alien: Earth is both an intriguing TV show but also a terrible entry in the Alien franchise.
As much as I don't want to see EA gutted, I'm struggling to recall anything of theirs I've played over the last 5 years, except for the Dead Space remake, the two Jedi games, and some of the F1 games.
September 29, 2025 at 5:40 PM
As much as I don't want to see EA gutted, I'm struggling to recall anything of theirs I've played over the last 5 years, except for the Dead Space remake, the two Jedi games, and some of the F1 games.
A tip of the hat to the level designers at Machine Games who worked on the new Quake levels. Dimension of the Machine has some amazing environmental design, lots of great verticality, use of color, etc. If you've overlooked their new maps for Quake, Quake 2, and Doom, definitely check them out.
August 14, 2025 at 7:23 PM
A tip of the hat to the level designers at Machine Games who worked on the new Quake levels. Dimension of the Machine has some amazing environmental design, lots of great verticality, use of color, etc. If you've overlooked their new maps for Quake, Quake 2, and Doom, definitely check them out.
What's wild about 80s gaming is that it wasn't unusual for different regions (eg, USA & UK) to have their own unique version of a licensed game on the same platform. Take Ikari Warriors on the Commodore 64 for example.
July 31, 2025 at 12:45 PM
What's wild about 80s gaming is that it wasn't unusual for different regions (eg, USA & UK) to have their own unique version of a licensed game on the same platform. Take Ikari Warriors on the Commodore 64 for example.
Maybe it's just the people I'm friends with on PSN (a mixture of real life friends, online friends, and random people who friended me after "bonding" over an extended multiplayer session), but I notice that a good number of them buy This Week's Big AAA Game and only ever play it for about 10 hours.
July 31, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Maybe it's just the people I'm friends with on PSN (a mixture of real life friends, online friends, and random people who friended me after "bonding" over an extended multiplayer session), but I notice that a good number of them buy This Week's Big AAA Game and only ever play it for about 10 hours.
Someone tell me I'm overreacting for having lost all faith in Xbox as a platform and publisher. I really want to be wrong, so please tell me where the silver lining is in all of this. What should be looking forward to? Not spoiling for an argument, I'm genuinely curious.
July 5, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Someone tell me I'm overreacting for having lost all faith in Xbox as a platform and publisher. I really want to be wrong, so please tell me where the silver lining is in all of this. What should be looking forward to? Not spoiling for an argument, I'm genuinely curious.
Can anyone show me a screenshot of AI/plagiarism detection software specifically calling out em-dashes or parenthesis as evidence of AI generation? I'm about 99% convinced this whole "em-dashes = AI" nonsense is simply perpetuated by lazy-ass professors who heard that somewhere on the internet.
May 21, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Can anyone show me a screenshot of AI/plagiarism detection software specifically calling out em-dashes or parenthesis as evidence of AI generation? I'm about 99% convinced this whole "em-dashes = AI" nonsense is simply perpetuated by lazy-ass professors who heard that somewhere on the internet.
Threads Gamers currently getting mad at video game publishers and developers releasing games “to make a quick buck”. How is this even a gotcha? Yes, that’s what consumer products are designed to do — make money. 🙄
May 11, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Threads Gamers currently getting mad at video game publishers and developers releasing games “to make a quick buck”. How is this even a gotcha? Yes, that’s what consumer products are designed to do — make money. 🙄
Despite it literally being a bullet point in some of the pre-release marketing, they apparently didn’t fix the leveling issue in #OblivionRemastered after all because “authenticity”. Oh well, here’s me not going back to it then. I don’t have the patience for tiresome workarounds. 🤷♂️
April 30, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Despite it literally being a bullet point in some of the pre-release marketing, they apparently didn’t fix the leveling issue in #OblivionRemastered after all because “authenticity”. Oh well, here’s me not going back to it then. I don’t have the patience for tiresome workarounds. 🤷♂️
I wish Clair Obscur’s long-press windows for flee and skip were just a teensy bit longer. Twice now I’ve set up a character to deliver a deliciously buffed 9 AP attack only to accidentally trigger flee.
April 29, 2025 at 4:27 PM
I wish Clair Obscur’s long-press windows for flee and skip were just a teensy bit longer. Twice now I’ve set up a character to deliver a deliciously buffed 9 AP attack only to accidentally trigger flee.
If you’ve never used Threads I envy you. Posting and commenting there is like being the substitute teacher in a classroom full of unruly, inattentive 12-year-olds tying to push all your buttons.
April 26, 2025 at 3:55 PM
If you’ve never used Threads I envy you. Posting and commenting there is like being the substitute teacher in a classroom full of unruly, inattentive 12-year-olds tying to push all your buttons.
If we want to be nitpicky, Oblivion Remastered is a remake and not a remaster. Although in this case I get the feeling Bethesda want us to still think of the original as the “definitive” version and the Remastered edition as merely an alternate take that’s not intended to replace the original.
April 26, 2025 at 5:20 AM
If we want to be nitpicky, Oblivion Remastered is a remake and not a remaster. Although in this case I get the feeling Bethesda want us to still think of the original as the “definitive” version and the Remastered edition as merely an alternate take that’s not intended to replace the original.
Getting tired of the Clair Obscur vs Oblivion Remastered manufactured drama. They’re two very different games. They’re both on Game Pass. They will find their audience and their audience will find them. Also, people are free to buy whatever the hell they like without guilt-tripping gatekeepers.
April 25, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Getting tired of the Clair Obscur vs Oblivion Remastered manufactured drama. They’re two very different games. They’re both on Game Pass. They will find their audience and their audience will find them. Also, people are free to buy whatever the hell they like without guilt-tripping gatekeepers.
Oh dear, I’m going to bounce off Expedition 33, aren’t I? It’s the same with every Final Fantasy game — I go into each one confident that THIS time I’ll be able to engage with it to a reasonable degree, but each time I bounce harder.
April 24, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Oh dear, I’m going to bounce off Expedition 33, aren’t I? It’s the same with every Final Fantasy game — I go into each one confident that THIS time I’ll be able to engage with it to a reasonable degree, but each time I bounce harder.
If your game’s setting screen(s) have reset/revert options, just go ahead and autosave every change I make. It can be frustrating to go through half a dozen tabs of settings, making changes, without realizing it’s not saving your selections between tabs (and not informing you of this behavior).
CAN BE
can.be
April 24, 2025 at 3:34 PM
If your game’s setting screen(s) have reset/revert options, just go ahead and autosave every change I make. It can be frustrating to go through half a dozen tabs of settings, making changes, without realizing it’s not saving your selections between tabs (and not informing you of this behavior).
Played #Avowed for a little bit and noticed it has the same fixed two-speed (non-analog) movement as #OblivionRemastered. However, in Avowed it feels much more natural and disguises the fact it isn't providing true analog movement, whereas Oblivion feels clumsy and obvious. Let's examine why.
April 23, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Played #Avowed for a little bit and noticed it has the same fixed two-speed (non-analog) movement as #OblivionRemastered. However, in Avowed it feels much more natural and disguises the fact it isn't providing true analog movement, whereas Oblivion feels clumsy and obvious. Let's examine why.
Still, the good thing about turning on my Game Pass for the first time in about 9 months is that I can now give Avowed, Atomfall, South of Midnight, and Expedition 33 a go.
April 23, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Still, the good thing about turning on my Game Pass for the first time in about 9 months is that I can now give Avowed, Atomfall, South of Midnight, and Expedition 33 a go.
Not entirely sure why they added auto health regeneration to #OblivionRemastered. I guess it’s to discourage Wait spamming, although they could have made it optional, tied it into difficulty, or made the regen rate a lot slower. At the moment it kinda makes Restoration-focused builds redundant.
April 23, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Not entirely sure why they added auto health regeneration to #OblivionRemastered. I guess it’s to discourage Wait spamming, although they could have made it optional, tied it into difficulty, or made the regen rate a lot slower. At the moment it kinda makes Restoration-focused builds redundant.
To better illustrate what I'm talking about re: Oblivion Remastered's non-analog movement controls. OG Oblivion's analog movement curve on the left, Oblivion Remastered's "analog" movement "curve" on the right.
April 22, 2025 at 5:47 PM
To better illustrate what I'm talking about re: Oblivion Remastered's non-analog movement controls. OG Oblivion's analog movement curve on the left, Oblivion Remastered's "analog" movement "curve" on the right.
And #OblivionRemastered has annoyed me right out of the gate with its complete lack of an analog movement curve on the left analog stick. There's literally only two fixed movement speeds -- walk and run -- which is going to wreak havoc with my my usual thief/sneak play.
April 22, 2025 at 5:00 PM
And #OblivionRemastered has annoyed me right out of the gate with its complete lack of an analog movement curve on the left analog stick. There's literally only two fixed movement speeds -- walk and run -- which is going to wreak havoc with my my usual thief/sneak play.