Souls Like Strings

But why schoolgirls?

Why

• Extremely varied approaches to combat, almost immersive sim-like
• Detailed, dynamically lit pixel art
• Clearly a lot of care and attention to detail

Why Not

• You will feel the need to google 'how to hide games from my Steam friends'
• Seriously, the devs are just too goddamn horny

Impressions

Lost Ruins has a lot of interesting ideas, from realistic interactions between the elements and various aspects of the environment to survival-horror like item scarcity and lack of healing at checkpoints. The combat is just solid gameplay-wise but really shines in...

I'm starting to think I just don't like puzzle games

Why

• Beautiful painting-inspired art style
• Constantly introducing new wrinkles
• A lot of puzzles have very clever/creative solutions

Why Not

• Some frustration from platforming, even with rewinds
• You don't like puzzle games, not matter how many great ones you play

Impressions

Braid is clearly a great game and I can see why its one of the classics of the genre, but I just can't make myself finish it. My brain-rotted millennial attention span has me reaching for hints or even a guide after ~5...

Don't talk to me or my dragon son ever again

Why

• Unique, charming and funny in clever ways
• Fantastic aesthetic and soundtrack
• Never stops surprising you with how many layers a match 3 + visual novel can have

Why Not

• You need a lot of action to enjoy a game

Impressions

Titanium Court is a weird hybrid of visual novel and match three game, but never has 'more than the sum of its parts' been more appropriate. I was pulled in right away by its unique premise and style; then kept around by...

• Talking to open source maintainers (even within your company) about an idea is good to do before you make a PR
  • You might find their reasoning is very different, even if both your approaches achieve the same goal
• It's possible to install React Compiler in your React 19 project and have it do absolutely nothing
  • For example, if you used webpack (for some reason) and delegated handling of TS files exlusively to ts-loader
  • When the plugin that does the React Compiler stuff is a babel plugin
  • And babel-loader only handles JS files
• ESM...

We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker.

What if corporations could enshittify... us

Finished this on the train to drop The Wife off at the airport for her yearly trip home then promptly forgot to write a review for it in the excitement of unlimited gaming time, so this is over a week late.

That's no particular reflection on the book though; it felt very relevant to the times and had some interesting characters/dynamics between them. It came a year and a half after ChatGpt launched so I wonder when the author started writing it and how much...