Hey folks, just added Rogue Trader to my Steam curator page. 👍

A god damn phenomenal RPG that gives us a 40K game that isn't just space marines again, has some incredible writing, I adore the companion characters, even holds up to the high bar BG3 set!

store.steampowered.com/app/2186680/Wa… So, what exactly is a Rogue Trader?

Well, let's put it in Victorian era terms... if the Imperium of Man is the British Crown, then the rogue traders are akin to the East India Company. Hugely powerful in their own right, with a writ of trade from the Emperor himself. Basically:

If you're wondering why people slept on Prey 2017 at launch, despite it being a god damn masterpiece, you should know that people were rather furious with Bethesda at the time for cancelling Human Head's ambitious and extremely promising Prey sequel in favour of a reboot... The original Prey from 2006 was a pretty well liked FPS, and the sequel was gathering some rather intense hype off of the back of the impressive trailers, it was a pretty big deal, so when Bethesda pulled the plug on it people were considerably outraged

This is something I'm finding incredibly frustrating, bad games get so much attention, be it this or that Kong game or the shitty Silent Hill rip off, they suck the oxygen out of the room and there are so many games far more deserving of the spotlight the likes of Gollum had.

https://twitter.com/IronPineapple_/status/1734773446268092682

And I get it, the designated garbage game du jour gets a public flogging because it's easy for anyone to get their dunks in without having played it, but it stinks considering how there are so excellent games that barely get a fraction of the hyper-attention paid to Bad Game™

It's kind of a shame how much attention a bad game can get because everyone's dunking on it, when there's so many neat little games that deserve so much more attention, and don't get it. Kinda wish we could have more of that energy for uplifting the good stuff that needs it. I've been playing a few gems that've flown under the radar a bit this year, from the Devil Daggers inspired Killbug, Shardpunk Verminfall exceptional turn-based strategy roguelike, slick movement and puzzles of Teslagrad 2, or the weird medieval guys of Inkulinati, and more.

My personal highlights from today are release dates for games I've been looking forward to!

My Friendly Neighborhood - July 18th
Shadow Gambit - August 17th
Fortune's Run - September 1st Links for ya to wishlist, if you want.

My Friendly Neighborhood is easily one of my most anticipated games, it's basically first-person Resident Evil with Muppets, there's a demo, try it!

store.steampowered.com/app/1574260/My…

I don't want to just say "it's a cult" and leave it at that, but organised transphobia employs a lot of cult like tactics and actively does a lot of damage to the people who buy into it, isolating them from friends and even family, so transphobia becomes their only social outlet.

https://twitter.com/the_nerd_skull/status/1658556981031112704

Like, y'know the way fundamentalists are sent out proselytizing, not really to convert anyone, but to make them feel rejected or even hated by people outside their church? It's like that with organised transphobia and keeping folders of porn to spam at strangers on social media.

This was in the context of Ireland's referendum on marriage equality, and this was just the level of vile they felt comfortable putting in print. What LGBT people campaigning for the Yes vote were subjected to on social media from homophobic bigots at that time was starkly worse

https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1658074991013904385

You can see in that article a rhetoric that speaks in reference to the unsaid, it's couching a lot of its language in the reader knowing something that it's not willing to explicitly say outright; "Fair debate is being suppressed, No campaigners are being attacked"

Sorry I haven't streamed, overslept. But here's a pic from Kiki's big outing yesterday evening. She has a fantastic time. Kiki is getting pretty old, she'll be 14 this year, and she can be very grumpy and not want to go for walks. She wouldn't even go down the street for me yesterday evening. So fine, we went for a drive, took her out to a beach, and then she was full of excitement and adventure!

Okay, I got one for you all. What's a movie you love, that you can't recommend to anyone without warning them first?

For me, it's gotta be Takashi Miike's 1999 masterpiece Audition. Damn, you lot have some good taste!

They privatised the railways, Peter.

Nazi Germany's economy was kinda notable for being the first example of mass privatisation, they privatised the banks, shipping, public utilities, everything they got their hands on they sold to private interests. Yes, very left wing indeed.

https://twitter.com/ClarkeMicah/status/1635211805705523201

Long before Reagan and Thatcher, it was the Nazi policy of 'Privatisierung' that defined the concept of privatisation in the 20th century. Hitler's policy was that enterprise should be in private hands, and that state ownership should be avoided unless necessary for rearmament.

Hey, where's everyone going, bingo? I'm playing the Resident Evil 4 remake Chainsaw Demo right now, and I'd love you to come join me. Link to my channel in the replies. I'm live now! As always, signal boosts hugely appreciated 'cos twitter really seems to bury my links twitch.tv/caseyexplosion

One of the things that bothers me about the backlash against accessibility options in games is that while you might not see the need for those options, for now, things could very well change in the future, and you may find yourself needing some form of accessibility options.

https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/1635336218245500929

And you may find yourself with some sort of injury, and you may find yourself with hearing loss or worsening eyesight, and you may find yourself needing to use accessibility options, and you may ask yourself "Well, how did I get here?" LETTING THE DAYS GO BY

This was how I first saw RoboCop as a kid. I distinctly remember some of those lines, "bad motherCRUSHER" lives rent free in my head, but that version had heavily censored the violence too, so when I finally saw the unedited version I was absolutely gobsmacked at how gory it was

https://twitter.com/psychotronica_/status/1634970614325985281

The lengths they went to edit around showing anything was impressive, if awkward. But I had seen this TV version several times as a kid, so actually seeing how gratuitous Murphy getting blown apart was for the first time? Total shock to the system.

If you're wondering how anyone took Jordan Peterson seriously in the first place, it's because he started with lying about trans people, and too few people see transphobia as the red flag it should be, he was always like this, but nobody cared when he was bullshitting about us. I think this video by HeyItsVadim really cuts through the bullshit, and actually interviews one of the protestors from the protest that kinda started Peterson's whole grift, and discusses what it was actually about.

"What're ye buyin'?"

Howdy strangers, time for a thread of games I'm looking forward to! Stuff to pack your wishlists with, and I'll also highlight if a demo is available so you can try right away if you like! I always love when there's a demo, makes my job so much easier. 1. Dredge

Out at the end of the month, this supremely atmospheric horror fishing game absolutely took me by surprise when I tried the demo during a recent Steam Next fest, and I cannot wait to lose my mind at sea.

store.steampowered.com/app/1562430/DR…

"Complaining about game prices make you look like a cheapskate!"

Yes, and? Have you seen the world lately? I've lost track of how many once-in-a-lifetime financial crises I've seen in my lifetime, the cost of living crisis is crushing everyone, and they're hiking game prices? I'm sorry, I don't care if I sound like a cheapskate for saying it, I'm not gonna play that game. 60 bucks is expensive for a game as is, and I'm not gonna pretend it isn't, a lotta people can't afford that at the best of times, asking for EIGHTY bucks a pop for a game? Come on.

Not only did we say that the religious right's switch to focus on trans people post Obergefell v. Hodges was a stepping stone to rolling back all progress on LGBTQIA+ rights, we showed you them saying it too, detailing their plans, and we were ignored.

https://twitter.com/PinkNews/status/1631614143563169792

Here's what they were saying at the Family Research Council's 2017 Value Voters Summit, style guides for religious bigots on how to couch their bigotry, and go after the right targets to, and I quote directly from them; "divide and conquer"

lgbtqnation.com/2017/10/christ…

Hey folks, you never need to apologize for not watching my livestreams. When I bemoan that Twitter buries links to my channel, I want to be clear that I'm taking issue with the algorithms (an issue many streamers face) and never admonishing individual people for not watching. I regularly have people say that they've been long time followers on Twitter, but never knew that I streamed, and that's like... wow, they must be doing a really good job of hiding my tweets that tell people I'm live. But that's something every content creator deals with.

Btw I'm not against AAA games as a whole, just the ones with shitty monetization practices.

This year has actually been pretty fantastic for AAA games that I've played; Nioh 2 and Days Gone hit PC this year, Resident Evil Village was freakin' incredible! Deathloop rocked. 2021 has been the first year in a long while where I've actually felt I had to skip some of the AAA titles that I've been interested in, 'cos there's too many games I'm already playing; Scarlet Nexus, Nier Replicant, Guardians of the Galaxy. It's been a pretty good year all told.

"AAA videosgame need to raise their prices, or we're gonna keep having microtransactions and lootboxes"

Nope. No they don't. It doesn't work that way at all. If AAA companies raise the base price of their games to $70 or $80, they'll still tack on predatory monetisation. Let's just get that one out of the way first of all, these corporations are out to make as much money as they possible can, and if they're already engaging in predatory monetisation that is netting them astonishing profits, they'll never willingly give that up. Ever.

I wish there was some sort of formal LGBT history being taught, because the way even recent events are promptly forgotten is harrowing in how they repeat.

In the US, conservatives led a crusade against LGBT people serving in the military precisely by claiming predatory intent.

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1453299900930740233

The implication that the conservative campaign revolved around was that if gay people could openly serve, the fear that they would sexually assault straight soliders would be so devastating to the moral and preparedness of the military as to impede it's entire ability to function