After 2 months of work, the Clair Obscur Expedition 33 video is here. I interviewed most of the game's senior leadership team asking one simple question: how did you do this? Their answers were inspiring and moving, and it's no surprise that COE33 is as remarkable as it is: youtu.be/mXLOLgC2V2Q?...

No ways Skillup just dropped an almost 2 hour video. I'm here for this!!!

THIS WEEK:

• MrMattyPlays guest hosts
• Weekly Planet collab
• Oblivion and Expedition 33 chat
• Andy Serkis (yes, really)

youtu.be/PADRsdfjJV4?...

Can’t review Expedition 33 this week as I’m in Tokyo so lemme just say this: it’s absolutely peak and one of the best debut releases I’ve played in a hot minute. Do whatever you have to do to play it right now.

Word of the Day is ‘bayard’ (16th century): one who has the supreme self-confidence of ignorance.

Marvel Snap has been banned in the US in connection with the TikTok ban - ByteDance own both TikTok and Marvel Snap. The dev team claim they didn't know about this until the moment it happened, and are working on a solution:

Tech companies and engineering teams rolling out customer-facing AI agents will very quickly realize a massive problem with them:

They are non-deterministic.

The classic engineering approach of build-->test-->run automated tests to ensure there are no regressions -- this will NOT work here!

Making some predictions for 2025...
- Grand Theft Auto VI will slip
- But Silksong will make it!
- AI will have an Icarus moment
And much more in this week's newsletter: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Word of the Day is one I keep posting at the end of the year, hoping its time will come.

‘Respair’, from the 16th century, is fresh hope, and a recovery from despair.

Here’s to a few drops of respair in 2025.

Within software architecture, few people shaped the industry as much as @gradybooch.bsky.social. Safe to say he's a true legend.

In today's The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast episode, he shares fascinating stories, insights, observations.

Watch here: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/software-a...

Pretty rough comments section on this one. For anyone who watched it (particularly the Star Wars interview) would love to hear your thoughts. Did I not ask the right questions? Were the Ubi devs not giving the right answers? What was the issue here, you think? www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbV5...

Word of the day is ‘suspiring’, from the 16th century: a deep sigh.

(Covers exhaustion, relief, sadness, collapses onto the sofa, or whatever fits the bill).

Supervive combines elements from MOBAs, hero shooters, battle royale and top down shooters, and is one of those rare instances where you can imagine a newly launched competitive experience having an actual future (rather than being delisted after 6 months).
youtu.be/Wnqj-dJjRaA?...

Word of the day is ‘librocubicularist’: one who loves nothing better than reading in bed.

(Not easy to say, but I’m glad to know it exists).

This is both sad and infuriating.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

If we are not willing to pay for the products we use, then the products we use will use us.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chornobyl may one day be a great game, but right now it's simply not ready for launch. Poor performance, myriad bugs and numerous under-baked and imbalanced design elements terminally wound the experience. My review: youtu.be/BRCLRAJkqjg?...

I will tolerate much in the world of online discourse, but I will not suffer the suggestion that Balatro doesn't deserve a GOTY nomination. That is my red line and I will not see it crossed.