Just my blogroll - BlogFlock

The Sunday Papers - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-08T08:01:00.000Z

Sundays are for waking up and remembering you said you’d help your sister-in-law move house. A burning fear flares in your gut, not of the manual labour, but of how she said it was fine because she’d bought a flatbed trolley off a Chinese website for £40. The fear fades into sad resignation that you’ll end the day picking up splinters of shattered plywood out of a carpet.

This week’s readings are a little light on actual videogame stuff. Though let’s be honest, sometimes videogames don’t deserve it.

Don't like how often map conditions rotate in Arc Raiders? Sorry, but the devs say "that most likely won't change" - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-07T22:54:48.000Z

For all of their faults (the list may be endless), the interesting thing about live service games, when done well anyway, is the way they can change from day to day. There's an actual living quality to them that, even if I'll always prefer them, a singleplayer game can't capture as well. One such game that can change quite drastically is Arc Raiders, with its varying map conditions and events, swapping in and out at the whims of its developers. This rotation isn't something universally loved, but CEO Patrick Söderlund has said that they're here to stay.

Prince of Persia creator shares his sympathies with The Sands of Time remake devs: "Artists put their hearts into their work" - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-07T21:34:17.000Z

Last month, Ubisoft pretty unceremoniously cancelled a bunch of games, the most notable of the bunch being that long gestating Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. This came as part of a major restructuring at the company, putting up to 200 jobs at their Paris HQ at risk, ultimately leading to a call for an international strike, and the firing of one Assassin's Creed designer. It's all a concerning mess, and now the creator of Prince of Persia and lead designer on the original Sands of Time Jordan Mechner has shared his sympathy to devs affected by the remake's cancellation.

Square Enix's baffling murder mystery social game Killer Inn gets a quick, free-for-all playtest ahead of its release next week - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-07T19:03:59.000Z

In a few months time we'll be approaching the anniversary of Square Enix realising that actually, their commitment to releasing certain games only on particular platforms isn't that good for them after all. These following two years will supposedly have been a time of internal change for the studio, with that translated externally via the Final Fantasy 7 Remake games releasing on more than just PlayStation. Perhaps they're finally making smart choices! And then last year, instead of finally showing off something like, I don't know, Kingdom Hearts 4, which was first revealed four years ago now, they announced Killer Inn. Okay! And now, you can try it out for yourself.

Through pool, dice and stickers into a blender and you get STICKER/BALL, a roguelike that relishes in chaos - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-07T18:17:31.000Z

I'll be truthful with you for a moment: I do, from time to time, enjoy a game where I do not have to be supremely strategic, and get to watch different lights and colours light up on my screen. Something that's got the juice, but doesn't ask too much of me. Everyone needs to turn their brain half off once in a while! And I believe I could quite easily find myself switching off that half to STICKER/BALL once in a while, a "pool game roguelike from the future."

Exodus' writer wants to make the Mass Effect successor's side quests so good you won't care if you're rewarded for doing them - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-07T17:04:44.000Z

You know, you'd think that with decades worth of RPGs in existence, side quests would have been more or less figured out by now. And yet, there are still enough games releasing that seem more interested in going for quantity over quality. But for the devs over at Archetype Entertainment, the goal is to make the side quests in their upcoming sci-fi jaunt Exodus not feel just "tacked on."

Declarative, Reproducible Emacs - Irreal

2026-02-07T15:55:27.000Z

Jacob Boxerman has a nice video and related blog post about his approach to configuring Emacs in a declarative and reproducible way. By “reproducible” he means that if he installs his init.el on a new system, he gets the exact same Emacs environment. That doesn’t mean just things like colors and key bindings but also that the same versions of the same packages are loaded and available.

By “declarative” he means, essentially, that he uses use-package and straight.el to specify and configure his packages in a declarative way. The goal is that the order of the declarations doesn’t matter and if one declaration s deleted, no other package is affected.

The video is a tour through a sample configuration based on Boxerman’s that shows how he accomplishes these things. The declarative part is mostly handled by use-package while the reproducible part depends mostly on straight’s ability to lock a file to a specific version. Take a look at the video and associated blog post for the details.

If, like me, you don’t have multiple machines that you require to provide exactly the same Emacs environment, you can probably omit straight.el but the idea of putting all your configuration in use-package blocks is a good one. It goes a long way towards ensuring that changes in one area won’t affect things in another.

Boxerman describes an excellent way of keeping your Emacs configuration under control and avoiding problems when—inevitably—you have to make changes. The video is only 8 minutes, 23 seconds so it’s easy to find time for it. If you find his ideas useful, take a look at his post, which explores them in a bit more detail.

I'm certain the pirates in strategy game Menace are laughing at my mistakes - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-07T14:30:00.000Z

My Menace campaign hasn't been a rousing success. In my first mission, I failed a string of optional objectives and saw one of my squads gunned down by a group of heavily-armed, jetpack-wearing space pirates. I got revenge by running them over with an APC. So, we'll call it a draw. But I need to up my game if I'm to kick these freeloading bandits off the planet Backbone.

What are we all playing this weekend? - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-07T08:00:00.000Z

I'm likely going to be spending much of this morning preparing conversation topics for the two-year-old's birthday party I'm going to this afternoon. It's not the toddlers that are the issue - all the old standards go down a treat with them – "Do you like the taste of boogers?", "What's that behind your ear?", "What's your position on jelly?" (To which the answer is always "On a plate!"). No, it's the parents that are the issue.

They get really weird when you as them if they like the taste of boogers.

Xah Talk Show 2026-02-06 Ep758 JavaScript. Array Sort, Peter Norvig, is Python Acceptable Lisp - Xah Emacs Blog

2026-02-07T02:49:13.000Z

2026-02-06

Xah Talk Show 2026-02-06 Ep758 JavaScript. Array Sort, Peter Norvig, is Python Acceptable Lisp

An in-kernel machine-learning library - LWN.net

2026-02-06T23:01:08.000Z

For those wanting more machine learning in the kernel, Viacheslav Dubeyko has posted a new in-kernel library for that purpose.

What is the goal of using ML models in Linux kernel? The main goal is to employ ML models for elaboration of a logic of particular Linux kernel subsystem based on processing data or/and an efficient subsystem configuration based on internal state of subsystem. As a result, it needs: (1) collect data for training, (2) execute ML model training phase, (3) test trained ML model, (4) use ML model for executing the inference phase. The ML model inference can be used for recommendation of Linux kernel subsystem configuration or/and for injecting a synthesized subsystem logic into kernel space (for example, eBPF logic).

It is rigorously undocumented and there are no real users, so it's not entirely clear what the purpose is, but there are undoubtedly interesting things that could be done with it.

Inverness - Take on Rules

2026-02-06T20:11:24.000Z

When I Invited All of You Over to Watch the “The Big Game,” I Assumed You Knew I Was Talking about Human Chess - McSweeney’s

2026-02-06T18:00:00.000Z

I don’t know why you’re all so upset. I’m sorry if there’s some “other event” that you were all more excited about that’s apparently also happening at the exact same time as this party, on the second Sunday in February at 6:30 p.m. But if you were confused by my invitation, that’s on you. I said that I was throwing a party to watch “the big game,” and I think any reasonable person would have understood that I was talking about watching a game of human chess.

That’s right, human chess: thirty-two actors in elaborate, historically authentic costumes as the chess pieces, and two chess grandmasters controlling the action, all of which plays out on the giant chessboard I built in my backyard. Yes, if there’s something other than human chess that people call “the big game,” I’m simply not familiar with it.

Fine, I’ll address your questions and complaints one by one:

First of all, I don’t see any issue with my choice of words. Human chess is quite literally a big game. Not only that, I can’t think of ANY game that is bigger than human chess. Were you expecting to show up and watch a human-scale version of Chutes and Ladders or maybe Hungry Hungry Hippos played with real hippos? Don’t be ridiculous, you would never want to have to deal with hippos—believe me, it’s enough trouble wrangling the real horses ridden by the human chess knights. No, there’s no game that comes even close to being as big as human chess; therefore, human chess is THE big game.

Please stop asking if we can turn on a TV. I can’t imagine what TV show or live event you’d want to watch when you could be watching the big game. And anyway, because of the cost of building the giant chessboard, feeding and stabling the horses, and paying the chess-piece actors (who are all in SAG and are not working for scale), I can’t afford a television.

There WILL be a halftime show. Admittedly, it’s almost never clear when the halfway point of human chess is, but we usually just decide to have halftime at around the four-hour mark (we like to let the grandmasters take their time). Entertainment will be a lute player and a falconer.

It’s true, in the lead-up to this party, I have been talking a lot about how excited I am for the big game’s ads. The “ads” are the advisors who make sure the actors playing the chess pieces speak in period-accurate ways, stay in character, and don’t spook the horses. The ads ARE very funny, and I DO often quote their jokes (which are about human chess) at the office water cooler the day after the big game.

NFL is an abbreviation that stands for “Nice, Fun, Large.” After all, human chess is all three of those things.

Many of you seem to be particularly hung up on the fact that I repeatedly talked to you about whether or not tailor Swift would be attending the big game this year. My tailor, Stephen Swift, comes over to watch the big game whenever I organize one, but he was feeling a little under the weather this year and wasn’t sure he could make it. I don’t know who this singer is that you’re all talking about, but tailor Swift calls his clients “Swifties” and he is engaged to a player who’s played in the big game the past two years—that handsome pawn over there on d4. Stephen also sewed all the costumes worn by the human chess pieces.

Chips and Dip are the two falcons who will be performing with the falconer at the halftime show. The falconer comes from Upstate New York, which is why his act is called “Buffalo Wings.” You better believe we got Chips and Dip and Buffalo Wings for the big game!

When I said we’d be “cracking open some cold ones,” I was, of course, referring to what happens when one of the knights gets removed from the board. Knights’ armor stiffens in the chilly February weather, and to be taken off, it has to be “cracked open” with a special tool made for removing knights’ armor in games of human chess. If you didn’t understand that, then why did you all insist on high-fiving me every time I referenced “cracking open some cold ones”? If you want a beverage, I’m more than happy to pour you a flagon of mead.

Finally, you can all stop shouting at me that today is a Super Sunday. I agree! ANY day of the week is a super day when you get to watch the big game (which, again, is obviously human chess).

Fine, leave if you want, but you’re all still invited back next month for my Oscar watch party. I promise, it’s exactly what it sounds like.

If you're struggling to play tactics sim Menace, it could be because your antivirus is randomly deleting files - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-06T17:36:40.000Z

This week saw the early access launch of turn-based tactics game Menace, created by the piss-swigging misanthropes behind Battle Brothers. Julian has been having a wonderful time playing it and learning about the importance of spare ammo and adequate reconnaissance. It could have been worse, Julian. Your antivirus software could have deleted some of the game’s files. This being one of the currently known issues listed in the patch notes for the game’s first proper update.

Square Enix announce Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse, sequel to one of 2023's best horror mystery games - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-06T16:55:42.000Z

Square Enix have announced Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, a summery sequel to horror mystery visual novel Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo. The original game earned itself a double thumbs-up from former RPS reviews editor Rachel Watts, shortly before she vanished while gathering blood-stained stones one moonlit night. (I am just joshing with you – Rachel is alive and well over at Thinky Games. Remember, there's no such thing as ghosts and there definitely isn't one hovering behind you right now.)

The Mermaid’s Curse should be good, then. It trades the first game’s gloomy streets for the coast of Japan, where young pearl diver Yuza Minakuchi discovers another version of himself at the bottom of the ocean. I routinely discover other versions of myself at the bottom of a bottle of Tuppersmith's Old Peculiar, but nobody's making any dang visual novels about me. Anyway, here’s a trailer.

Six stable kernels for Friday - LWN.net

2026-02-06T16:45:01.000Z

Greg Kroah-Hartman has released the 6.18.9, 6.12.69, 6.6.123, 6.1.162, 5.15.199, and 5.10.249 stable kernels. As always, each contains important fixes throughout the tree; users are advised to upgrade.

Ardour 9.0 released - LWN.net

2026-02-06T16:24:54.000Z

The Ardour digital-audio-workstation (DAW) project has announced the release of version 9.0.

This is a major release for the project, seeing several substantive new features that users have asked for over a long period of time. Region FX, clip recording, a touch-sensitive GUI, pianoroll windows, clip editing and more, not to mention dozens of bug fixes, new MIDI binding maps, improved GUI performance on macOS (for most) ...
We expect to get feedback on some of the major new features in this release, and plan to take that into account as we improve and refine them and the rest of Ardour going forward. We have no doubt that there will be both delight and disappointment with certain things - rather than assume that we don't know what we're doing, please leave us feedback on the forums so that Ardour gets better over time. Those of you new to our clip launching implementation might care to read up on the differences with Ableton Live.
In the coming weeks, we'll begin to sketch out what we have planned next for Ardour, in addition to responding to the feedback we get on this 9.0 release.

[$] Kernel control-flow-integrity support comes to GCC - LWN.net

2026-02-06T16:23:30.000Z

Control-flow integrity (CFI) is a set of techniques that make it more difficult for attackers to hijack indirect jumps to exploit a system. The Linux kernel has supported forward-edge CFI (which protects indirect function calls) since 2020, with the most recent implementation of the feature introduced in 2022. That version avoids the overhead introduced by the earlier approach by using a compiler flag (-fsanitize=kcfi) that is present in Clang but not in GCC. Now, Kees Cook has a patch set adding that support to GCC that looks likely to land in GCC 17.

Razer BlackShark V3 gaming headset review - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-06T16:13:20.000Z

Like the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL keyboard – except as astute readers will notice, this is a headset – the BlackShark V3 Pro is something I’ve welcomed into my everyday PC kit for months, yet apparently needed the invention of a new review format in order for me to talk about it. Whoops. Still, the length of that happy headwearing should tell you something: I like it, a lot.

If you think open worlds are too big, play Shrinko / if you think open worlds are too small, play Shrinko - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-02-06T16:02:57.000Z

The open world dislikers bundle through the door of Dr Shrinko’s office like mardy harlequins, fuming and shrieking in their oversized licensed gear. One is wearing GTA 6 brand trousers so long they reach to her eyes. Another sports an Elden Ring hat that extends to his ankles. “Doctor, doctor!” they wail. “The open world games are too big. They consume all of our free time. Why, it takes Yasuke 40-100 hours to get from one end of Assassin’s Creed Shadows to the other!”

Dr Shrinko leans back in his chair with a pleasant smile. “Solution is simple,” he trills. “Make Yasuke 40-100 times larger.”