Just my blogroll - BlogFlock

Netflix to buy Warner Bros for $82.7 billion, including the creators of Batman Arkham and Mortal Kombat - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-05T19:32:13.000Z

It’s after 5pm on a Friday, but no force on this Earth can stop me hurrying back to my desk to report on a large financial transaction. Also, we should have written this up earlier, but we were busy deciding which are the objectively correct 100 best PC games.

I’m not… sure we put any Warner Bros games in that list. I’ve just done a CTRL-F for “Batman” and got zero results. I know, WTF - Arkham Asylum is amazing. Mark needs to stop driving things and think about capes for a change. I’m sure Warner Bros aren’t too bothered about this gross oversight right now, though. Netflix have just revealed plans to buy their entertainment business for $82.7 billion in stock and cash.

Breaking Horses: the thrill of going off-map - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-05T18:24:59.000Z

Significant story spoilers for Horses follow. Also, here is some possibly appropriate music.

Why We’re Paywalling Our Family Christmas Card - McSweeney’s

2025-12-05T18:00:00.000Z

Season’s Greetings from the Mortons!

We know many of you look forward to opening your mailbox each December to receive the Morton annual Christmas card and extensive family newsletter. It brings us no good tidings to let you know that we’ve made the difficult decision to paywall it.

As the years have gone by, the letter has grown in scope. When we sent the first Christmas newsletter, we were just a two-person operation in a small home in Middlebury. Now we have to cover nine busy family members across four states. And sometimes Jessica has a boyfriend. It’s a big operation, and Clare had to learn Microsoft XL or whatever it’s called.

Everybody on our list will receive the Morton Christmas Card featuring a candid photo of us down by the lake, wearing matching outfits. And while we love everyone who receives our card, those who subscribe and support our family’s essential end-of-year work will get even more of our love.

Join the Morton Friend Tier for $17.00 to receive:

Three full pages of updates on the entire Morton clan: Clare (??) and Mark (68); Rachel (39), her husband Greg, their sons Declan (6) & Branson (4); Henry (36), his husband Ian, and their daughter Streisand (1); and Jessica (31)
A recap of our disastrous trip to the world’s most boring hole (the Grand Canyon)
An update on the feud with the neighbor we hate, who parks his F-150 on our lawn
Asides like the day Clare thought she saw Beyoncé at Safeway
In-depth detail about Mark’s toe fungus

This newsletter isn’t just some free social media post. We start working as early as September. It takes days to write and weeks to edit down from its sixty-page first draft. Each Morton family member plays a valuable role in its production, from fact-checking to updating the printer firmware to making tough editorial decisions, like telling me that I “mention Pete Buttigieg should be president” a “weird amount.”

Support our hours of work and upgrade to the Morton Family Tier for $26.00 to receive:

The newsletter printed on one of the few remaining pieces of gingerbread border marble printer paper that Clare hoarded when she found it at Staples in 1995
The grand reveal of who actually writes the newsletter (hint: It’s not really the dog)
One of Clare’s annual homemade ornaments
An apology for how last year’s candlestick ornament looked like a big glittery penis
Access to the Morton Family Games app with crossword puzzles, spelling games, and more

Complimentary subscriptions will be given to families who always send us boxes of Harry & David pears and families who have good-looking sons around Jessica’s age.

From all of us Mortons, we wish you and your family a joyful, peaceful, and blessed holiday season. And don’t expect any freebies on Valentine’s Day either.

Fallout co-creator Tim Cain's rejoined Obsidian full-time to work on a mystery game, but plans to keep his YouTube chats going - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-05T17:14:18.000Z

He's back. Tim Cain, co-creator of the original Interplay Fallouts and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines programmer has emerged from semi-retirement, returning to Obsidian to work on a game he can't talk about yet because legal documents. For the past few years, the veteran developer's been contracting on a number of games, including Obsidian's own The Outer Worlds 2, having previously co-directed the first Outer Worlds.

🥩 Red Meat Friday: Navigating Websites - Irreal

2025-12-05T17:07:28.000Z

The other day, I mentioned that I took a long, excruciating train trip. The outbound trip had been so bad that we were confident the trip home would be much better. It wasn’t, of course. Most of you, I’m sure, don’t care very much and those outside the U.S. can snicker and gloat that at least their trains can provide a pleasant experience.

There is an aspect of the whole misadventure that should concern most Irreal readers, though. The Amtrak Website. It’s horrible and turns the idea of being user hostile into an art form. Rather than dwell on the trip, I was going to crawl off into a corner and do my best to never think of it again. But then I saw this xkcd comic. As he so often does, Munroe perfectly captured the infuriating futility that one feels when dealing with websites designed by those suffering from psychopathy.

Again, I’m sure the details won’t interest most Irreal readers so I’ll spare you. Suffice to say, avoid their Website if you can.

Publisher reveals and immediately cancels new Postal game after fans accuse it of using AI generation - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-05T15:39:39.000Z

Postal developers Running With Scissors have revealed... and now cancelled Postal: Bullet Paradise, a spin-off shooter created by Goonswarm Studios. It seems Bullet Paradise may have featured some AI-generated material, which has prompted an evidently massive backlash among the Postal faithful in the literal two whole days since the project's announcement. Gosh.

[$] Eventual Rust in CPython - LWN.net

2025-12-05T14:33:09.000Z

Emma Smith and Kirill Podoprigora, two of Python's core developers, have opened a discussion about including Rust code in CPython, the reference implementation of the Python programming language. Initially, Rust would only be used for optional extension modules, but they would like to see Rust become a required dependency over time. The initial plan was to make Rust required by 2028, but Smith and Podoprigora indefinitely postponed that goal in response to concerns raised in the discussion.

Security updates for Friday - LWN.net

2025-12-05T14:12:53.000Z

Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (buildah, firefox, gimp:2.8, go-toolset:rhel8, ipa, kea, kernel, kernel-rt, pcs, qt6-qtquick3d, qt6-qtsvg, systemd, and valkey), Debian (chromium and unbound), Fedora (alexvsbus, CuraEngine, fcgi, libcoap, python-kdcproxy, texlive-base, timg, and xpdf), Mageia (digikam, darktable, libraw, gnutls, python-django, unbound, webkit2, and xkbcomp), Oracle (bind, firefox, gimp:2.8, haproxy, ipa, java-25-openjdk, kea, kernel, libsoup3, libssh, libtiff, openssl, podman, qt6-qtsvg, squid, systemd, vim, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Slackware (httpd and libpng), SUSE (chromedriver, kernel, and python-mistralclient), and Ubuntu (cups, linux-azure, linux-gcp, linux-gcp, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-ibm-6.8, linux-iot, and mame).

Don't assume Skyblivion is getting spellcrafting, says UI lead who claims they weren't consulted on delay video - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-05T13:21:57.000Z

Skyblivion, the massive modding project reinterpreting The Elder Scrolls 4 via Skyrim's engine, had its release officially delayed to 2026 earlier this week. The delay followed an ex-Skyblivion level and world designer Dee Keyes alleging that the mod's previous 2025 release goal was "unachievable" earlier this year, in a post which also accused Skyblivion project lead Kyle 'Rebelzize' Rebel and implementation lead Heavy Burns of mismanaging communication within the mod's team. In response, Heavy Burns asserted that "many" of the claims in the ex-dev's post were "either misrepresented or just untrue".

Now, in a Discord discussion emphasising that players shouldn't assume the spellcrafting mechanic the modders have had to cut from the initial release will be put back in down the line, Skyblivion's UI department lead has suggested they weren't consulted about what was said in the YouTube video announcing the mod's delay to next year. That'd be the delay announcement video which features a section specifically dedicated to the current status of Skyblivion's UI and mechanics.

Casting Notice for the Unaired CW Pilot Young Hamlet - McSweeney’s

2025-12-05T13:00:00.000Z

SYNOPSIS
High school is no picnic for anyone, but especially if you’re one of Shakespeare’s most iconic leading men. Hamlet might be the big man on campus, but that doesn’t mean he’s got it all figured out. This drama puts a much-needed spin on a classic by imagining a world where Hamlet is young and hot.

- - -

HAMLET
Sexy football player type, but not just a football player, because we need him to be smart and sensitive too. Lacrosse team, maybe? We’ll come back to this.

Required skills: Smoldering glances, ability to look deep without creating forehead wrinkles.

- - -

OPHELIA
Hamlet’s friend, who has an unrequited crush on Hamlet. It needs to be realistic that Hamlet wouldn’t want to date her, but legally, we can only cast hot people at CW, so we’re kind of in a bind. Maybe she’ll wear glasses? Also, obviously, we’re putting her on the swim team because of foreshadowing.

Required Skills: Able to look hot but in a way where every straight male viewer will be convinced he’s the first person to realize she’s hot. Think Linda Cardellini in Scooby Doo. Or Linda Cardellini in everything.

- - -

HORATIO
Hamlet’s best friend and the comic relief. He’ll have a crush on Ophelia, but it’s imperative she never gives him the time of day. We’ll give him an off-putting hobby that will be repulsive to women, like reading, to solve this. It will also be implied that Horatio has a thing for Hamlet without ever explicitly saying so (but there will be plenty of textual evidence to support it).

Required Skills: Serviceable cafeteria-style cooking. We are on a budget, so we’re cutting the catering company to add this role.

- - -

GHOST OF HAMLET’S DAD
Technically not a ghost, but alive in this series since the show is set in the past, where Hamlet is a hunk, but also in modern times, so that he can go to high school. We should probably change this character’s name to ALIVE GHOST OF HAMLET’S DAD to make it less confusing. Looking to cast an older actor who appears to be on the brink of death, preferably a Timothée Chalamet type in their mid-to-late twenties.

Required Skills: Old.

- - -

GERTRUDE
Hamlet’s mom. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has recently released a statement that if Gertrude is not a total MILF, all the grips are walking off set. This is NONNEGOTIABLE.

Required Skills: Juggling (affairs).

- - -

CLAUDIUS
Ghost of Hamlet’s Dad’s best friend. Cool approachable guy, the kind that you could really settle into a tryst with. Claudius is obviously already hooking up with Gertrude, which will make the inevitable betrayal of murdering the Ghost of Hamlet’s Dad and stealing his wife that much hotter.

Required Skills: Shoulders that you can cry on and/or bounce a quarter off.

- - -

POLONIUS
Occasional third in Gertrude and Claudius’s affair. In the source material, Polonius is hiding behind Gertrude’s curtains when Hamlet confronts her about being with Claudius, so we think it tracks if we make Polonius a total freak who likes to watch. We’ll also later reveal he is a werewolf for the Season 2 omegaverse storyline, so he’ll be really hairy and wear ears sometimes.

Required Skills: [REDACTED].

- - -

LAERTES
Ophelia’s brother. He hates Hamlet, but in an enemies-to-lovers kind of way. He’ll frequently confront Hamlet in very closely blocked scenes where the two guys are screaming at each other, but it also looks like they’re about to kiss. And then one day they do. And then they both kiss Horatio. Hamlet is canonically bi now. Public domain material rules!

Required Skills: Ability to make Shakespeare scholars fight in the streets.

Don't look too closely at the best puzzle game of 2025 - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-05T11:59:00.000Z

Crack open Kaizen like a disposable camera, and you'll find the parts inside are very similar to a subgenre of puzzle game called Sokoban. Developed in the late 80s, these games put you in control of a worker shoving crates around a warehouse floor until they reached their designated position. These sliding puzzles in which you push objects around a space appear throughout gaming. Whenever you're shoving a great stone block in Tomb Raider, you owe a small salute to Sokoban's creator Hiroyuki Imabayashi. Though, make sure the block's not on a slope when you do it, otherwise that's a quick way to make a jar's worth of Lara paste.

Total Chaos stitches Doom to Resident Evil, and it's scarily good - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-05T11:57:29.000Z

I thought I had Total Chaos figured out. Creepy ruined castle, ironically named Fort Oasis. Shambling undead enemies and scuttling monsters. Resource scavenging and simple crafting mechanics. Reeks of knock-off Resident Evil territory, I thought. Not bad territory to be in, mind, but familiar. And, odd, considering I was locking eyes with hellspawn rather than shuffling corpses.

Then I got into my first fight.

Samson, a gritty driveabrawler about duffing up dudes and drifting to defeat daily debt spikes, drops in 2026 - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-05T10:06:20.000Z

If you're a fan of gruff blokes punching goons and putting the pedal to the metal in muscle cars, Samson looks like it'll be up your alley. It's the debut game of Liquid Swords, the Swedish studio founded by former Just Cause and Mad Max developer Christofer Sundberg, and mirrors the gritty open-world destructive mayhem both of those are known for.

Years after toxic workplace allegations, Fullbright's next game asks you to chat it up in a hot spring - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T22:00:00.000Z

There's a new game from Fullbright on the way, revealed tonight at the PC Gaming Show, called Springs, Eternal. The studio's obviously best known for narrative focused games like Gone Home and Tacoma, and Springs, Eternal unsurprisingly looks like more of that, albeit with more of a lo-fi, not-quite PS1 but certainly lower poly kind of vibe, this time set in a hot spring. Sure!

Neath, the Rogue Legacy devs' RPG set in an "irradiated, inverted tower" warped by godly whims, arrives 2026 - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T22:00:00.000Z

"PRAISE NEATH", cry the developers of Rogue Legacy. "What's Neath?", I ask politely. It's their new game, they say, a roguelike RPG with some tactical combat about an upside-down tower constantly shifting because a god can't make up his mind. It's out next year, they add, before their fingers lose grip on the ceiling and they crash down from their inverted positions.

Dawn of War 4 Warhammers out a fresh trailer, introducing the Dark Angels and teasing a playable Primarch - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T22:00:00.000Z

Enter Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4, with yet another trailer showing off Warhammery folks being slapped, smashed, and many other plosives. This one introduces the Dark Angels, who'll be a playable Space Marine faction alongside the Blood Ravens. It also teases letting you into the battleboots of a Primarch to decimate some foes.

Hello Sunshine aims to be the world's best and most poignant escort quest - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T22:00:00.000Z

There are two gods in Dreamfall's third-person survival story Hello Sunshine. One is the enormous robot who saves your life in the game's first and only cutscene - a flaking, orange-hooped juggernaut who promptly turns away from you and trudges eastward, its back emblazoned with a command to "follow". The other god is the sun.

The entangled movement of these gods defines your own. The sun will dry you to leather in moments, and cover is scarce in the game's post-apocalyptic desert. So you must hug the big bot's shadow, which spills backward and forward in the course of each day-night cycle, angling towards or mingling with shade thrown by structures to produce a changing, perilous geography of possibility.

Sable creative director's new studio Eteo are aiming to release their first game in 2027, and have a newsletter starting next year - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T22:00:00.000Z

Gregorios Kythreotis, the creative director of sci-fi hoverbike adventure Sable, has a new thing. He's heading up a fresh studio dubbed Eteo, who'll be aiming to release their first game in 2027. Until then, the studio plan to start putting out a newsletter called Archetypes, which'll debut in January and discuss different elements of game design.

Hooded Horse reveal Substructure, a factory sim from a top Factorio modder in which you excavate the layers of a rogue planet - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T20:15:00.000Z

If you were Senior Floor Manager of Earth, and a weird planet innocently appeared on the fringe of our solar system, what would you do? I would probably not zip out there and plant a factory on that planet, in much the same way that I wouldn’t high-five a bear-shaped shadow on the edge of a campsite. But I am not the modder behind beloved Factorio mod Ultracube, who is now part of game developer Dubious Design.

Carmageddon: Rogue Shift puts a roguelitey twist on the series' classic wheeled warfare, will start bending fenders in early 2026 - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T20:10:00.000Z

Crank up the pounding metal riffs and make sure you're covered in spikes. Carmageddon: Rogue Shift, a roguelite-infused take on the old school automotive murder-battler from Redout devs 34BigThings, has just been revealed and is set to smash onto the scene early next year.