Io Black
@ioblack.bsky.social
Co-creator of drugsandwires.fail (on hiatus). Tech, gaming, roleplaying, occasional moments of lucidity. Marketing was a mistake.
How could anyone gaze upon this buffet of tactical options and not come away convinced that yes, imAI-powered gaming is indeed The Future™?
October 24, 2025 at 6:19 PM
How could anyone gaze upon this buffet of tactical options and not come away convinced that yes, imAI-powered gaming is indeed The Future™?
As well-preserved as the core loop is, though, I'd still give an edge to the Eidos duology, whose denser, richer urban environments reward furtive exploration far more readibly than neutron bomb-empty New York or Paris. (Never mind Invisible War, where "cities" consist of five-odd alleyways.)
October 23, 2025 at 8:03 PM
As well-preserved as the core loop is, though, I'd still give an edge to the Eidos duology, whose denser, richer urban environments reward furtive exploration far more readibly than neutron bomb-empty New York or Paris. (Never mind Invisible War, where "cities" consist of five-odd alleyways.)
Nine years and three computers later, I've finally rolled credits on the original Deus Ex and can once again show my face in the respectable corners of cyberpunk fandom.
October 23, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Nine years and three computers later, I've finally rolled credits on the original Deus Ex and can once again show my face in the respectable corners of cyberpunk fandom.
To your original point, though - I've seen Yokoyama's concepts for the costume, but the bird seems to have been derived from this particular Mœbius piece:
October 17, 2025 at 6:25 PM
To your original point, though - I've seen Yokoyama's concepts for the costume, but the bird seems to have been derived from this particular Mœbius piece:
The LionWing release will be a more substantial animal than this, mind - The Renewal, the updated core rulebook we're using as the basis for our localization, pulled in a smörgåsbord of content from the RPG's myriad boxed sets, including literally hundreds of additional abilities.
September 29, 2025 at 5:29 PM
The LionWing release will be a more substantial animal than this, mind - The Renewal, the updated core rulebook we're using as the basis for our localization, pulled in a smörgåsbord of content from the RPG's myriad boxed sets, including literally hundreds of additional abilities.
I’ll ‘fess up - half of the reason I‘ve hung onto some of the less legitimate chunks of my game collection is to remind myself of a time when deranged, wildly inaccurate media summaries were the province of flesh-and-blood humans, not burning piles of VC cash.
September 22, 2025 at 3:18 PM
I’ll ‘fess up - half of the reason I‘ve hung onto some of the less legitimate chunks of my game collection is to remind myself of a time when deranged, wildly inaccurate media summaries were the province of flesh-and-blood humans, not burning piles of VC cash.
Spent the weekend with Lunacid, @akumakira.bsky.social's vaporwave-tinged celebration of all things King's Field. It's a less punishing affair than your typical Soulslike, but neatly replicates From's blend of compelling exploration and cryptic puzzles while still finding room for its own quirks.
September 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Spent the weekend with Lunacid, @akumakira.bsky.social's vaporwave-tinged celebration of all things King's Field. It's a less punishing affair than your typical Soulslike, but neatly replicates From's blend of compelling exploration and cryptic puzzles while still finding room for its own quirks.
And yes, the contents are just as amazing as the cover lets on. Any one of these pages is a shitpost meme template waiting to happen.
September 12, 2025 at 2:00 PM
And yes, the contents are just as amazing as the cover lets on. Any one of these pages is a shitpost meme template waiting to happen.
Growing up in the early ‘90s meant coming of age at a time when even the idea of computing was still novel enough to birth explainers like this one.
September 12, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Growing up in the early ‘90s meant coming of age at a time when even the idea of computing was still novel enough to birth explainers like this one.
Feeling another one of those “done with reality“ moments creeping up on me.
September 6, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Feeling another one of those “done with reality“ moments creeping up on me.
A bit of a curveball for folks who know me mainly as the bad tech and sad cyborg guy, yes, but I've also spent a half-decade studying the development of tabletop role-playing in Japan, compiling what's probably the most comprehensive list of Japanese-language RPG releases out there.
August 28, 2025 at 6:08 PM
A bit of a curveball for folks who know me mainly as the bad tech and sad cyborg guy, yes, but I've also spent a half-decade studying the development of tabletop role-playing in Japan, compiling what's probably the most comprehensive list of Japanese-language RPG releases out there.
Happily, it's also a gaijin-friendly entry point into a transmedia franchise that's been trucking along in Japan for a good four decades now, producing a slew of sleek, memorable mech designs to boot.
August 28, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Happily, it's also a gaijin-friendly entry point into a transmedia franchise that's been trucking along in Japan for a good four decades now, producing a slew of sleek, memorable mech designs to boot.
First released in '89, this is old school "real robot" anime gone fully medieval, a densely detailed East-meets-West world where a patchwork of nations does battle with semi-sentient bio-mechanical war machines while spellcasters put their mental health on the line for arcane power.
August 28, 2025 at 6:02 PM
First released in '89, this is old school "real robot" anime gone fully medieval, a densely detailed East-meets-West world where a patchwork of nations does battle with semi-sentient bio-mechanical war machines while spellcasters put their mental health on the line for arcane power.
Found myself becoming weirdly obsessed with this bargain shooter ever since I tripped over it during one of PSN's endless cavalcade of sales. Not obsessed enough to actually buy it, mind, but whenever the universe goes badly askew, I now just shake my head and utter "Madness... madness beverage."
August 16, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Found myself becoming weirdly obsessed with this bargain shooter ever since I tripped over it during one of PSN's endless cavalcade of sales. Not obsessed enough to actually buy it, mind, but whenever the universe goes badly askew, I now just shake my head and utter "Madness... madness beverage."
What perfect album came out when you were 16?
No contest, really.
No contest, really.
July 26, 2025 at 9:08 PM
What perfect album came out when you were 16?
No contest, really.
No contest, really.
Me, I just remember all the low-key thirst that ensued when that first page was posted.
July 18, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Me, I just remember all the low-key thirst that ensued when that first page was posted.
...I'm sorry, your radio station is named 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 again?
July 11, 2025 at 8:50 AM
...I'm sorry, your radio station is named 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 again?
Apropos of Tek, I'm now struggling like hell to remember what neurological misfire prompted "Drugs & Wires as ghost-written by Ernest Cline," which is... probably for the best, honestly.
June 6, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Apropos of Tek, I'm now struggling like hell to remember what neurological misfire prompted "Drugs & Wires as ghost-written by Ernest Cline," which is... probably for the best, honestly.
These are already screamingly prevalent issues for digital publishing and online retail as a whole, ones no major platform seems to have found a silver bullet for. And the trend is hard to ignore: the "better" imitative AI gets, the more basic usability gets pushed to the breaking point.
June 4, 2025 at 8:37 PM
These are already screamingly prevalent issues for digital publishing and online retail as a whole, ones no major platform seems to have found a silver bullet for. And the trend is hard to ignore: the "better" imitative AI gets, the more basic usability gets pushed to the breaking point.
Middleware, robust engines, asset shops, and anything-goes storefronts have knocked down a lot of gaming's entry barriers, which is reflected in the almost exponential growth in titles. Steam alone notched 18,764 new releases in 2024 - that's over 50 new releases a day, every single day.
June 4, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Middleware, robust engines, asset shops, and anything-goes storefronts have knocked down a lot of gaming's entry barriers, which is reflected in the almost exponential growth in titles. Steam alone notched 18,764 new releases in 2024 - that's over 50 new releases a day, every single day.
There's some legitimate use cases for LLMs in a gamedev workflow, but let's be frank: the big hook for imitative AI isn't that it makes games better. It's the fact that it makes them cheaper and faster to produce.
June 4, 2025 at 8:07 PM
There's some legitimate use cases for LLMs in a gamedev workflow, but let's be frank: the big hook for imitative AI isn't that it makes games better. It's the fact that it makes them cheaper and faster to produce.
Bandai's been effectively erased from TRPG history in the past four decades, but was actually the first company to jump on the role-playing trend, investing a fair bit of money in an ill-advised range of pseudo-RPGs between '83 and '84. Unfortunately, those games pretty much died on the shelf.
April 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Bandai's been effectively erased from TRPG history in the past four decades, but was actually the first company to jump on the role-playing trend, investing a fair bit of money in an ill-advised range of pseudo-RPGs between '83 and '84. Unfortunately, those games pretty much died on the shelf.
There's a third contender for that crown: Bandai's Space Cobra: Final Weapon, which absolutely would have been first on the scene if Bandai hadn't botched the production, thereby delaying its launch from late-ish 1982 to sometime around the beginning of 1983.
April 18, 2025 at 2:22 PM
There's a third contender for that crown: Bandai's Space Cobra: Final Weapon, which absolutely would have been first on the scene if Bandai hadn't botched the production, thereby delaying its launch from late-ish 1982 to sometime around the beginning of 1983.
I won't exactly say I miss the doofier side of '90s sci-fi aesthetics, but it was kind of nice to have future looks that weren't just some variant of Temu Syd Mead, Apple Store, CGI Greebles, or Concrete™.
April 1, 2025 at 6:51 PM
I won't exactly say I miss the doofier side of '90s sci-fi aesthetics, but it was kind of nice to have future looks that weren't just some variant of Temu Syd Mead, Apple Store, CGI Greebles, or Concrete™.
Obviously, not everything you see in D&W has a 1:1 real-world counterpart. Most of Unylsk's incidental architecture is a broad smush-up of Riga, Moscow, and any other urban center with the right (read: wrong) vibes - at the end of the day, it's about giving our city both texture and character.
March 27, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Obviously, not everything you see in D&W has a 1:1 real-world counterpart. Most of Unylsk's incidental architecture is a broad smush-up of Riga, Moscow, and any other urban center with the right (read: wrong) vibes - at the end of the day, it's about giving our city both texture and character.