Rundown (2/15/2026) How to Display Old Video Games

This Week’s Topics:

• Rundown Preamble Ramble: How to Display Old Video Games
• What The Hell is Going on with Yakuza Kiwami 3? (We All Hate A Fall From Grace…)
• Sony Had A Banger State of Play! (Which Was A Pleasant Surprise)
• Legacy of Kain: Defiant Remastered Announced (They Skipped Blood Omen II!)
• Legacy of Kain: Ascendance Announced (WWWHHHHAAAAAAATTTT?!?!?!?!)
• Dead or Alive 6: Last Round and Dead or Alive 7 Announced (Dead or Alive is BACK!)
• Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition Announced (It’s a Museum, Bay-Bee!)
• Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 2 Announced (Featuring MGS4, Peace Walker, and… Ghost Babel)
• Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse Announced (A Proper Castlevania Game From the Dead Cells Guys)
• Silent Hill: Townfall Announced (Silent Hill is Annualized Again!)
• God of War Trilogy Remake Announced and Sons of Sparta Shadow Dropped (Greek God of War is BACK!)

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Rundown Preamble Ramble:
How to Display Old Video Games

This Rundown preamble is overflow that I initially cut from last week’s Rundown, specifically the segment about Hamster’s Console Archive initiative and the way it presented PlayStation games. Specifically their first entry in this series, Cool Boarders.

I would describe the emulation being used as being very safe, eschewing any sort of visual enhancements. Not necessarily out of any artistic desire or effort to maintain historical accuracy, but out of more economic and production reasons. It’s just the game, presented in 4:3, without any blurring, smoothing, or attempts to enhance the original rendering resolution. It’s still running at 240p, or whatever specific resolution Cool Boarders was designed around.

This approach does not require a ton tuning with each release, as it’s not attempting to add much to each title. The most you get is button remapping, copyright scrubbing, and various CRT or stretching filters. Some people seem to think that this is the ideal, but… I don’t consider that to be the case. This is not the ideal, it is not particularly pretty, and it does not do anything to enhance the image. Yes, this is RAW, it is direct, but that is not always the best way to do things. If it was, then nobody would use any effects or enhancements when emulating older games, there would be no need to modify the way games, new and old, look.

If this is seen as preferable, it’s likely because so many enhancements get things wrong. They muck up the image with excessive filtering, introduce visual artifacts, and do not address any oddities in the original presentation. Such as the signature PS1 wobbling that makes the games look weird. Or the flickering textures that would not have been noticeable at lower resolutions. I’m not going to say that the enhancements on Sony’s PlayStation Plus Classics Catalog service for PlayStation Plus subscribers show games at their best. It’s an effort. An attempt. I would argue that it simply does not go far enough in some cases, and not far enough in others.

Much of the source of my frustration with this argument comes down to different goals. Because I do not like to view these older games as retro games or games of a specific system. I view them, first and foremost, as games. And I want all games to look like games. I want them to follow the same standard, to look consistent, and to follow identical principles in how they are presented.

I do not want a PS1 game to “look like a PS1 game.” I want it to look like the best game it can look like without replacing the underlying assets. I want to see the assets, see how the worlds were created, in all their clarity. Not obscured behind filters or a bit crushed resolution that nobody would willingly use for a more modern title. In early 3D games, I want to be able to clearly see the divide between the 2D and 3D assets.

I don’t care if the intention was to trick me into not being able to tell the difference. I can tell the difference no matter how you display it. And I view any filtering or presentation choice that tries to obscure this fact to be lying to me. What matters most is what is on the ROM, in the files, not the hardware at the time, not the intention of the author. Hell, there’s a 25% chance that anybody who worked on a PS1 game is DEAD. And why should I care what a deadman has to say about anything?

Instead, I want all games to look like games. I want them to follow the same standard, to look consistent, and to follow identical principles in how they are presented:

• Render the game at a high resolution for a cleaner image.
• Apply anti-aliasing in order to make 3D models smoother.
• DO NOT enable texture filtering of any kind and present textures as they are in the games’ files. Use nearest neighbor or something comparable.
• If possible without presenting too many visual issues or objectively ugly stretching, provide an option to present games at 16:9, the standard resolution for modern media.
• Preserve the original color definition of games based on their code, not their screen.

To make this incredibly clear, I don’t want older games to LOOK like modern games. I just want them to be presented, to be rendered, using the same standards as modern games. In a way that prioritizes clarity, real clarity, and does not mask the image. This means that 2D games would be presented with direct, pixel perfect, version of these games with no visual enhancements or accouterments. Because with a sprite, what you get is what you get.

But 3D games are different on a technical level, and there has been a long-standing standard for how they should be enhanced. This has its roots more in PC gaming than anything else, where games were designed to scale with hardware and offer cleaner visuals depending on what hardware people were running. Resolution scaling, down sampling, anti-aliasing to smooth jagged edges on polygons, and disabling texture filtering that mostly exists to create an illusion. Similarly, there was also an expectation that these games would be modified to support widescreen monitors as, well, all it takes to change this is a few numbers in a game’s code, and it’s more attractive than black bars.

I tend to assume that these are pretty standard, non-controversial opinions. When I was getting into emulation, these were the goals. But in the past six years or so with the rise in people striving for vibes, in harnessing aesthetic to feel meaning, the culture has been shifting. And I view that as a mistake. Artistic choice and merit should be recognized, but the way games are displayed should be consistent. Image quality should be king, queen, and the damn jester. Especially the jester! And inconsistency is the enemy. It is a weakness of culture, character, and mind.

Yeah, sure, have an OPTION for people to present games with their scuzzy scanlines, low internal resolution, and blurry filters. If people want to make things look like ass, and know what they are doing, that’s fine with me. I just don’t like it when they platform their bad opinions, without looking at the broader context of what they are saying. Anybody who says that PS1 games should be presented at a certain specific way based on the way PS1 games were displayed it, in my purview, missing the point.

They are latching onto technical details of old hardware rather than the software, and insist that it should look different. Why? …Because they WANT difference, they WANT a barrier, they WANT to differentiate old from the new. They want to feel something different, look at something distinct, and harness a sense of nostalgia based on technological limitations. Whereas I am a “put all the games in a bucket” type of person. And I think that is the best way to look at it, as that is how every other medium is treated.

All movies are movies and should be presented the same way, follow a uniform file type, and generally look like movies above looking like a 70s movie, or whatever categorization one chooses. Their age is determined by what is being shot, how it is being shot, not the filter you apply to the video file. The same is true for music, for books. The exact file type and formatting of the work can always be different, but there is not a gulf of difference in presentation standards. People don’t program their speakers to sound different based on the genre of music they are playing. They don’t watch 90s TV shows with a CRT filter applied. So why should games be treated differently?

Akumako: “Hey, Bitch-a-lie. I think I figured out why there has been a resurgence of people preferring the low res look and scanlined to hell aesthetic with PS1 games in particular. Because it’s hard as ass to make them look like clean. Polygons still wobble, textures still fight each other and flicker like indignant dastards, and there’s still a level of jankiness to the video that comes out. This is after 25 years of people trying to emulate the PS1, on the most up-to-date emulator on the market. It’s hard to get them to look right, so of course some people just raise their hands and say fuck it, this is good enough.”

…Ugh. I’d still rather play any PS1 game with wobble up the ass before I dare acknowledge a scanlines as a presentation choice with more dignity than that shitty sprite smoothing.

Akumako: “This is the hill you’re going to die on, eh?”

Bucko, there are oodles of hills I am willing to die on. At least 144! This is just my current fascination.

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What The Hell is Going on with Yakuza Kiwami 3?
(We All Hate A Fall From Grace…)

So, let’s talk about Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties. Released this past week as the 2026 entry in the annualized Like A Dragon series, Kiwami 3 was subject to a bevy of controversies. Which is rather unique for the series, at least in its modern incarnation. After Yakuza 0 (2015) brought the series from a niche curiosity to one of the favorite game series of people whose job is to talk about games, the series has been full of mostly positive buzz. But all it takes is one big misstep for a series to fall out of good graces with fans, and that seems to be the case here.

As a preface, after getting a remaster of Yakuza 3 in 2019, there was not much demand for a remake. Yes, Yakuza 3 has many flaws and could benefit from a ground-up recreation and expansion. But desire for additional remakes went cold after Kiwami 2 wasn’t great, and with all the games coming out, there was not much need to dredge up old games available on modern platforms. So if they were to remake 3, which they did, they would need to cut very little, refine the emotional core, and expand what’s there. …Which they did not do. Like, at all.

The most damning metric is the butchering done to the side stories. 88 of the 119 side stories from the original Yakuza 3 were cut, which I find utterly inexcusable for a remake, period. But the victims weren’t just copy-pasted side quests. Instead, they cut various beloved side stories such as Murder at Cafe Alps, and the side story where Kiryu emphasizes with the struggles of a trans woman. Which is something you really should not cut, because it’s immoral, and stupid, as Yakuza’s fanbase in the west is quite queer. Even if they added new side stories, and they did, this is just unacceptable for a remake.

Kiwami 3, in many instances, looks like ass. With rough and unfinished lighting that makes for garish environments, asset reuse that teeters into intrusive, and just a lack of polish all around. The series has always been economical about asset reuse, right down to its choice to reuse the same central hub world time and time again. But there’s a difference between a game carefully recycling its assets and just not looking finished.

They recast the supporting character of Goh Hamazaki from George Takahashi to Teruyuki Kagawa, an actor with an (alleged) history of sexually assaulting women and even admitted to it in 2022. The decision to recast a character when the actor is alive, and Takahashi is, is always a bit controversial, but choosing to cast an actor with a history of sexual assault is… well, really stupid, as you are just inviting controversy to your game.

As for why they chose to cast Kagawa in this role, series director Ryosuke Horii said that he chose him because he wanted an actor “who makes you go, ‘This guy’s a creep,'” which is… a choice. The guy in Judgment (2018) who was arrested on possession of cocaine was a no-go, even though it’s not like he was selling drugs. But a sex abuser who admitted it? That’s okay? Really?

https://www.gog.com/en/game/yakuza_complete_series
Rather than let Kiwami 3 and 3 Remastered co-exist on storefronts, Sega has decided to delist Yakuza 3 Remastered from store shelves, only letting people acquire it via a series-spanning bundle of seven other games. Which is just a pretty money-grubbing practice. …Wait, they left it up on GOG. Which is the version to get imo, but this is still a destructive move with precious little justification to be had.

Though, I think the breaking point for a lot of people, that led me to realize that I HAD to cover this story, was an interview where series producer Masayoshi Yokoyama said this might be the last Kiwami game, and that further games could be part of a new series. The wording is vague, but the general sentiment here is that the people in charge of Yakuza are getting cold feet about continuing the series and looking for ways to delay the progression of time.

The series has been suffering from the modern rarity known as release fatigue. Last year saw the unnecessary remaster of Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, which delisted Yakuza 0 from digital storefronts. By pumping out so many new games, fans of the series has been left feeling like the story is not progressing and that continuity does not matter.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (2016) was meant to be the end of series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu’s story. Ichiban Kasuga was supposed to take over with Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon (2020), but they kept bringing Kiryu back in both Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (2023) and Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth (2024). Since then, the series has been mulling around in the past, with Kiwami 3 pointedly bringing back Yakuza 3 antagonist Yoshitaka Mine from the dead so he can be another major character. While the Director’s Cut of 0 ALSO brought back dead characters.

Even casting these important points aside, Kiwami 3 is just not up to the series’ previous standards. I’ve checked out a few reviews, and it seems like they screwed up a bit of everything. The main story saw changes that cheapen its emotional highlight, the combat where systems and styles are mixed and matched into a worse package, and the game simply did not give the original the TLC it warranted. It’s all deeply upsetting to see for a series that once prided itself on consistent quality, and… I really hope they can recover it from here, restore fans’ trust, and fix the busted game they just shipped. That is, assuming you can fix a game that’s, from what I read, was released at least six months too early.

…Also, I REALLY need to play Yakuza 0 sometime. Yakuza 0 has been on my to-play-list for nine years. But instead I’ve been playing dumb crap like Pokémon Black. Because Missy kept pestering me to play it.

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Sony Had A Banger State of Play!
(Which Was A Pleasant Surprise)

So, I was putting aside this Rundown, hoping that Sony’s State of Play would give me something worth talking about, and it gave me… too much, one might say. Normally a State of Play is a sea of whatever with a couple of announcements that I find novel. But this one was chockfull of cool tidbits. Many of which deserve their own segments, but first, there is always riffraff to put in its place.

Brigandine Abyss was announced with a surprising level of bombast, hyping up its legacy as part of a decades-running series, when I had never heard of the series before. It dates back to a 1998 PS1 game from a company that lasted for five whole years. Before the Alundra (1997), Final Fantasy Gaiden: The 4 Heroes of Light (2009) and Bωb Labyrinth (2015) developer, Matrix Software, made a sequel in 2020, Brigandine The Legend of Runersia. Honestly, both of them look rather cheap to me. Their artwork is good, but sprites and models both looked rather basic, at odds with the Western-inspired-yet-clearly-Japanese look to both titles. Though, not the same look. They honestly remind me of Project X Zone or Super Robot Wars, but without the bombast and crossover appeal.

Abyss, by comparison, looks like a far more anime-flavored and widely appealing title. Still with the same copious stats and large number of units, but a brighter anime fantasy art style and more detailed world overall. Otherwise, I doubt they would even let it be part of this showcase. I was curious who was developing it, and while no developer was named, it’s being directed by… Makoto Yamamoto? Of Sengoku Basara fame?

Akumako: “See, I told you that it was a different Makoto Yamamoto directing Tokyo Scramble!”

Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation got another trailer, it looks dope, and was dated for August 4th in a move that I find perplexing. Was the date just not finalized when it was shown last month? Whatever, this is actually PERFECT for me, as my boss typically takes a vacation in early August, right before we start crunching like mad to get returns out the door. So I should be able to go BEAST when it’s still semi-topical!

Shueisha and Acquire are allegedly harkening back to Acquire’s roots as a Tenchu dev with Yakoh Shinobi Ops. A team-based strategy stealth game where you command four ninjas as they infiltrate various compounds. Though what I find interesting about it, above everything else, is its perspective, with the player taking a far away birds eye view of the ninjas as they traverse a realistic environment, where limited visibility due to night and obstacles limits the player’s available information. It’s a very tactical approach to stealth and, mixed with the ability to control multiple characters, strikes me as hecking neat.

A third-person action game based on Keanu Reeves’s John Wick character was announced, coming from Saber Interactive. However, I am not a libertarian crypto bro who wishes he was a “Sigma-coded” action movie star, so I dunno much about John Wick. I only really perked up when it came up because it was set in a grimy Asian city, and I have a strong fascination with those. Possibly informed by Sleeping Dogs (2012), the compelling kusoge that was Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (2010), and any game that dabbles in the impeccable aesthetic mastery of Kowloon. I would never want to visit a place like that in real life. It probably smells like cigarettes, shitty booze, and rotting fish. Though any game that promises to capture this grungy aesthetic gets my approval. For whatever that’s worth.

Death’s Stranding 2 was finally announced for PC, coming on March 19th. Which is good to see, but I’m starting to question Sony’s timed exclusive approach. Knowing that their exclusive library will come to PC in 6 to 24 months is not good for the hype. It’s crummy for people who learned to love Sony’s current line of series, it means they will need to wait while their friends with PS5s get to play the games at launch. And it gives people more reason to block the game on social media, to avoid spoilers, and makes the game less desirable to content creators. If they want to profit off of a game, they want to do it when it comes out on everything. Not when it comes out on one platform. Because when you release on one platform, you are only able to sell your game to active users of that platform. If they were to just release games on Steam and whatever other storefront day-and-date, I think that would be better for them in the long-term.

…Actually, what am I saying? Financially, Sony’s gaming division primarily makes money off of people buying games digitally on PS5 and taking their 30% storefront cut. They make some money off of other platforms, but they ultimately want people to play on PlayStation. They probably HOPE that people with PCs will buy a PlayStation after getting a taste of games like Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, and whatever else they have in the tank.

Project Windless also stood out to me, because it is a brutal giant-chicken-man Musou-like. Based on the Korean novel series The Bird That Drinks Tears and developed by Krafton Montreal, Windless is a AAA action game that I would be inclined to just dismiss as another one, if not for a few things. The game is garishly violent, treating humans as blood packs that burst open when sliced. It features a chicken man as a protagonist, immediately allowing this game to achieve a visual identity among so many other Asia-targeted Souls-inspired third-person action games hitting the market. And it has a compelling sense of scale, with the chicken man being easily twice the size of any human warrior.

Scale is something I feel that not enough games play around with, in part due to the fixation on casting humans and machines as playable characters. However, by making the protagonist really small or unusually tall, it changes how the player sees the world, how they navigate around it, and the overall feeling of the adventure. Whether it be the sense of power that comes from being a three meter tall dude with twin cleavers or a small little robot. …Too bad this is a Krafton joint, so it’s probably gonna be full of some flavor of AI bullshit.

Kena: Scars of Kosmora was announced as the sequel to Kena: Bridge of Spirits. An announcement that made me of “oh, right, I remember being whelmed by that trailer back in June 2020.” After that announcement, as a promising PS5 title, the game was delayed until it squirted out in September 2021, which was a pretty busy time for new releases. Tales of Arise, Diablo II: Resurrected, Deltarune: Part Two, Deathloop, Life Is Strange: True Colors. Gosh, modern release windows are scary to look through. …Especially with all the ports!

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls got an obligatory trailer that only introduced two characters, both of whom I genuinely thought were crossover characters when they were revealed. Can you really blame me for not knowing who Danger, the personification of the X-Men Danger Room is? She’s just some butterfly robot lady and looks anime as hell. And Magik, despite being created back in the 70s, is presented as a teleporting blonde Russian sword girl who turns into an demon oni when she gets angry, and… that is also just anime! I get that this is the whole point, to deliver anime Marvel, but when your roster is only 20 characters, allegedly, you need to make ALL of them iconic to feel like “a slot well spent.” Or at least that’s what the community— something essential for fighting games— will think.

Konami, after dragging their name through the mud and getting by on nostalgia over the past few years, has announced a new action RPG in a brand new IP. A new IP with a stupid name— Rev. Noir— that makes no sense upon hearing it, and is so JRPG that it almost hurts. You’ve got the amnesiac teen boy protagonist, the “special girl” who accompanies him through a world-spanning journey. A great disaster in the form of lightfall, golden rain that falls from the sky and brings death upon all animals touched by it. Plants are okay though. Characters getting pissed at the literal gods responsible for this, fighting fate, the “mandate of heaven,” and trying to “weave together the threads of hope.” Also, it’s being developed by ILCA of all people!

This is the type of earnest nonsense that I love to see from JRPGs, and it warms my heart to see one get greenlit while boasting such a high budget. Boasting an expansive world, quality characters models, cool yet out-there monster designs, flashy effects, and real-time action combat. No release window was given for Rev. Noir, and the game was only announced for PS5, but I am all for this kind of thing. Thanks for making games again, Konami. I appreciate it.

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Legacy of Kain: Defiant Remastered Announced
(They Skipped Blood Omen II!)

Well, this was… not really a surprise when I think about it. Crystal Dynamics has been working with Aspyr on several titles as of late, producing the Tomb Raider collections and the Soul Reaver remaster back in 2024.

I already gave a history lesson on Legacy of Kain following the announcement of the Soul Reaver remaster back in 2024. Basically, it was one of those highly influential PS1 and PS2 series that burnt brightly before market forces, competition, growing budgets, and dwindling sales put it out to pasture. Beloved by those who played it, and unfortunately easy to write off if you weren’t there at the time.

The prior remaster focused on the two biggest games in the series— the big PS1 title and year one PS2 titles, and the remaster was quite good as far as I could tell. Any numbnut who knows how to Wikipedia can say that the next entry should be a remaster of Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen II (2002). An important part of the series’ lineage and the first to be released on multiple consoles. But it’s also a sequel to Blood Omen, an early overhead action game for the PS1 developed by Silicon Knights. A disgraced developer that went bankrupt in 2014, yet every game in their catalog is tainted by Denis Dyack, a pompous asshat I have zero kind words for. So any re-release of Blood Omen would be wracked with some flavor of legal hissy fit.

I don’t think that there would be ANY claim that could be made over Blood Omen II, as Crystal Dynamics made it themselves. …But how the hell am I supposed to know what’s going on behind the scenes at a studio that has been getting stomped in the balls for the past 6 years?

Crystal Dynamics is remastering Legacy of Kain: Defiance (2003), the premature end of the series that served as a dual protagonist adventure and the narrative conclusion, for better or worse. Like with Soul Reaver, it aims to be a smart remaster. New optional models, textures, and lighting have been added to make the game look more like a PS3 game than a PS2 game. The camera system, which was very 2003, has been revised with something more dynamic. While level maps and a wayfinding system have been added to prevent players from getting lost, which is always helpful to some people.

The State of Play also announced features not present in the official press releases. Namely, the restoration of lost levels, the inclusion of “deep lore,” a photo mode, and more. They also hyped up the digital deluxe edition as containing promotional comics from 2003 and… a playable demo of Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy, the canceled sequel to Defiance. …Sorry, what? They are just releasing a playable demo of a game that was canceled over 20 years ago? That is INSANE! …But doing that as part of a “digital deluxe edition” is just dirty. Have some balls and just charge $30 for your game, dude.

This is all good to see. It’s Crystal Dynamics preserving their legacy (while they still can), making this forgotten series available and accessible, for a new generation. I’d say that this means something for the future of the series, but after twenty years since the last Legacy of Kain game, I highly doubt we will ever see a new entry in the series. It sucks, but them’s the breaks.

Legacy of Kain: Defiant Remastered will be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, Switch 2, Steam, GOG, and Epic on March 3, 2026.

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Legacy of Kain: Ascendance Announced
(WWWHHHHAAAAAAATTTT?!?!?!?!)

…WHAT THE FUCK?

How? Why? Huh? Who? What money allowed this project to be?

Okay, okay, so… No, I CANNOT get over this! This series should be as DEAD as can be! It was canceled in 2004. It was canceled in 2012. Its dumb multiplayer shooter spin-off, Nosgoth, was CANCELED in 2016. Embracer killed a Legacy of Kain reboot sometime they bought Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal in 2022! The series is DONE! It’s OVER! There is no WAY that it is going to survive FOUR DEATHS and come out with SOMETHING. But they did it, they goldarn did it.

…By making this a largely 2D game from a small yet experienced developer by the name of FreakZone Games. The guys behind Manos: The Hands of Fate the Video Game, a whopping two AVGN games, and the official video game adaptation of The Rocky Horror Show. Also, Bit Bot Media, a boutique company that mostly produces merch, including a shitty Legacy of Kain graphic novel, is somehow involved in the development front? I’m not going to pretend to know how that works.

Truly, it’s a curious background, and the result is *Legacy of Kain: Ascendance. A *retro styled 2D platformer with modern visual flourishes. With detailed backdrops, lighting, shimmering effects, and sprites whose facelessness almost warrants a comparison to 2000s Castlevania titles, but it’s clearly going for something different proportionally. Looking at its gameplay, it looks like a good action platformer— possibly a Metroidvania— affair. But its other visual elements don’t quite mesh with this deliberate style.

The gameplay clashes with a deliberately illustrated health and magic meter in the corner, and it looks like it was added in post. The trailer opens on a 2D animated cutscene that… smells of slim budget. Kain’s face, the way characters move, it all feels very stilted and unnatural. Like the characters are just 2D dolls with skeletons that are dragged and manipulated, rather than drawn and animated. This style can work, but this trailer is not a great example of that.

Character illustrations look good, but don’t mesh with the established visual style of the series, feeling more like fan art, somehow cheapened by the infusion of Live 2D style sprite shifting. They also don’t emote— their lips don’t even move— creating a dissonant effect. I honestly think it would look better if these character illustrations were converted into sprite art to better compliment the look of the gameplay, make this feel like some long lost retro styled PSP spin-off in the series. Sure, that’s erasing detail, but it’s doing so for the sake of a consistent aesthetic. Same with the use of an HD font in a sprite-based game. I get that this is often done for translation and legibility purposes legible, but this is not a good font for legibility.

Admittedly, there are other parts that look quite promising. The sprite-based CGs of characters go HARD and look great, different enough to mask any aesthetic deviations and feel like their own thing. The inclusion of the original voice actors is a testament to how much the developers WANT this to be a REAL Legacy of Kain game. While the first-person 3D segments teased at the end of the trailer are… likely a repurpose of existing technology the studio developed for prior titles, but look spiritually accurate.

There is something to be said about just letting things die out, let stories end, and not bring back something that so definitively ended. It will be impossible for Legacy of Kain: Ascendance to live up to whatever demands or desires the typical fortysomething Legacy of Kain fan has been fostering over the years. However, whatever idealism one might have will not change the fact that Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is real, it exists, and I cannot say it is done with any level of cynicism. Maybe a slim budget— probably a slim budget— but I’m hoping for the best. You don’t make something like this for a quick buck, and something is generally better than nothing.

Legacy of Kain: Ascendance will be released on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, Switch 2, and PC on March 31, 2026.

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Dead or Alive 6: Last Round and Dead or Alive 7 Announced
(Dead or Alive is BACK!)

Ah, BEANS! I need to talk about Dead or Alive now!

Okay, so Dead or Alive was Tecmo’s big attempt at making a 3D arcade fighter in the 1990s. After Virtua Fighter changed the arcade fighting game, everybody and their pet monkey was developing one of these. They ran the gamut in terms of quality, but DOA was one of the better ones. Good fundamentals, nice graphics for 1996, good music, and overall good vibes. …Also, this game was one of the first notable examples of “jiggle physics” in the world of video games, and they were absurdly bouncy. Like those girls had water balloons for boobs.

Success led to ports of decent enough quality before the series saw a vastly improved sequel with Dead or Alive 2 (1999)). The graphics were a true generational leap forward. Characters were more defined compared to the looser impressions from the first title. Its wacky-ass story was given some sway, and the mechanics were refined so it could hold up next to other 3D fighters. Though the most notable thing about this game is that it spread pretty widely. Getting a Dreamcast port in 2000, PS2 port at the launch of the system in North America and Japan— Europe had to wait a few weeks, and there was even a 2004 Xbox remake with Dead or Alive Ultimate.

After making a smash on the PS2, Microsoft went over to Tecmo and asked them to make a Dead or Alive game for their upcoming Xbox console. The late Tomonobu Itagaki— the sketchy weirdo and likely sex abuser behind Devil’s Third (2015)— was swayed by Microsoft and their powerful DirectX Box, and decided to turn Dead or Alive into the de facto Xbox fighting game. With Dead or Alive 3 launching with the Xbox in 2001, and Dead or Alive 4 ALMOST launching with the Xbox 360 in 2005, just missing Christmas.

The status of DOA as an Xbox stable gave it unique place in the fighting game climate of the 2000s, but that also meant it did not hold a candle to stalwart institutions like Tekken. This led the series to fly under the radar of people who didn’t own an Xbox, or were not into fighting games during the genre’s sleepy period in the mid-2000s. Instead, it was mostly known by its reputation as a fighting game with hot J-babes and jiggle physics. This was kind of the series’ thing in the broader pop culture, in large part due to the infamous Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (2003). A volleyball game, mini-game collection, and gambling game where you are the unseen master of a private resort island full of various women ages [REDACTED] to, I dunno, 25 or something.

Yeah, this was the premiere sex game to joke about during the early 2000s. It knows what it is, what it wants to be, was catering to a dominant market at the time. I’m very sex positive, so you think I would try to defend it, but… is not as overt with its perversions as it could be and is about as boring as it can get as far as sexual fantasies go. Like c’mon, dude, this is an adaptation of a fighting game, you can find more kinky stuff with the grapples in those games!

The Dead or Alive Xtreme series continued as its own thing, largely divorced from the games, and even got a release last year with Venus Vacation Prism, but the existence of this side of the series definitely hurt its credibility in the eyes of the general public. …And fighting game community.

After Tecmo became Temco Koei, they released Dead or Alive 5 (2012), which was a sort of soft reboot for the series, seven years later, targeting the aging Xbox 360 and PS3, after fighting games were back thanks to Street Fighter IV (2009) and the 09-ers that it spawned. However, DOA5 never really made the splash it potentially could or should have. The developers were not quite sure where to draw the line regarding sexual content, and resulted in the game not being perverted enough for freaks. Yet a decade of bad press also gave the games a pervy reputation, much to the chagrin of people trying to push fighting games into being something bigger. The game also had a STUPID level of monetization and alternate outfits.

However, it still sold pretty well, eventually skirting over a million copies thanks in part to the Dead or Alive 5 Last Round re-release. Another attempt, yet the game never attracted the vibrant competitive scene that propels fighting games. It also had this weird attempt at a free-to-play release that saw plenty of downloads, but not many returning players. And from what I recall at the time… the online was not that great. That’s kind of a death knell in the world of fighting games.

The series went dormant, again, before coming back with Dead or Alive 6 (2019), which was attempting much of the same. Trying to modernize DOA’s systems, flair up its presentation, and clean up its reputation, as represented by putting its flagship character Kasumi in a skintight jumpsuit. It had the same egregious DLC practices— with 461 DLC items— a better rollout on modern consoles and PC, and another attempt at creating a free-to-play trial mode. But the game’s support ended after basically a year… presumably due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless, the lack of support led people to leave the game, pursuing any number of other fighters hitting the market.

…So, what now? Is the series just over? Well, not quite. Due to what I can only assume to be an internal groundswell of devs, Tecmo Koei, who was now Koei Tecmo, announced an updated re-release of Dead or Alive 6 for modern systems, Dead or Alive 6: Last Round. It’s basically just DOA6 with some DLC added. The characters belonging to Saudi Arabia’s SNK are not included for licensing reasons. There’s a new photo mode (because lewd). Along with what I’d assume to be various visual improvements and the promise of new characters and costumes through future updates.

Ah, so this is a re-launch of an older game, similar to Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O., but not as pretty. I see what you’re doing, Koei Tecmo. And much like with Virtua Fighter, they promised that a new game was in development, and… I love the fact that THIS is what they chose for the thumbnail to announce that.

I don’t really CARE about DOA. It’s the booby game in my mind and in the minds of too many for it to be seen as a super legit fighter. I can’t say that the fighting game community really needs another game trying to drain their life force. However… if it gets people paid and keeps a series around for those who love it, then sure, why not?

Dead or Alive 6: Last Round is coming to PS5, Xbox Series, and PC on June 25, 2026.

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Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition Announced
(It’s a Museum, Bay-Bee!)

Hey, this was finally announced! And I already wrote a fresh bit on the game two weeks ago, so I can take a shortcut!

The 1995 Ubisoft classic Rayman, has received a full re-release from the wizards at Digital Eclipse, dubbed Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition. I won’t repeat the pros and cons of the original title, but this looks to be another fully packed collection. Complete with an interactive documentary paired with 50 minutes of interviews with the original developers. The expected rewind, save states, infinite lives, and level unlocks if you can’t be arsed to go through a given challenge.

The package contains all five major releases of Rayman, including MS-DOS, PlayStation, Atari Jaguar, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. The 120+ additional levels from Rayman’s New Levels, Rayman 60 Levels, and Rayman By His Fans are also included, presumably based on the DOS version. Though the most curious addition is the inclusion of the Super Nintendo prototype of Rayman, back when it was possibly going to be released for the Super Nintendo CD-ROM.

While I don’t think you should give Ubisoft money given how callously they discarded people’s work, and jobs, within the past few weeks, this is still a nice thing to see. I am glad that Ubisoft was willing to work with a company like Digital Eclipse on this project, because even if the history might already be known, it just hits differently when it’s in a form like this.

Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition is currently available on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, and Steam.

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Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 2 Announced
(Featuring MGS4, Peace Walker, and… Ghost Babel)

OH SNAP! They actually did it! Yes!

The Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 1 was a rather curious package. A re-release with oodles of issues that gave it a pretty dreary reputation, but subsequent updated cleaned things up to a degree you cannot comfortably judge without doing your own research and the PC version was fixed by the fans. Which is pretty much always the case. It let a new generation of people play games that have been left on the relative dustbins of history, only available via emulation and, I dunno, GOG’s re-release of MGS for PC.

It was a good gesture, but various games were left by the wayside, left on aging hardware and not part of the current digital ecosystem. Portable Ops, Portable Ops Plus, Peace Walker, the Acid duology, Ghost Babel. There is no modern console port of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, when Platinum could probably whip up in like four months with ten dudes. Though the big one, the game that has been forever locked to the PS3 as the most PS3-ass game that ever PS3’d. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008).

MGS4, like many games of its era, has gone through a cycle of reevaluation. It was praised upon release. Then it was widely criticized for its storytelling and quantity of story relative to gameplay. Then its gameplay was retroactively looked down upon as lacking the playfulness of Snake Eater and the fluidity the series gained with Phantom Pain.

Then people started really souring on the game, saying something along the lines of “Metal Gear would be better if MGS4 was never made and things were left open.” Which is stupid in my book, as then the unreleased MGS4 would be a hypothetical super game that we deserved but never got. Whatever deserve means in that context. Then, as the nostalgia cycle billowed and people wrote off Metal Gear after Survive, it became a lost part of the saga, too difficult to emulate and too tricky to get. …Unless you’re the sort who likes to tinker and hack 2006 tech.

Personally, I have a lot of nostalgia for MGS4, despite never having played it. I was sick a lot as a kid, had a stress cough, and spent a lot of days at home, away from school, letting myself fall behind in my education during my middle school years. I did my homework and such, still got good grades during this time, but I probably lost a certain crucial part in my development. Especially with my English skills, as there are certain things that I’m supposed to do when writing that I just… don’t. Because I missed like four months of classes across middle school and was almost held back because of it.

During this time, I would browse early YouTube for game stuff, watching full playthroughs of games I was curious about, and Metal Gear was one of them. It’s how I experienced their stories, why I wound up making a crappy fanfic back in 2008, and why I was super hyped to watch the entirety of Metal Gear Solid 4 back in June 2008. I think this was right before I watched all of Ranma ½ in a week and developed a full-blown TSF hyperfixation.

Now, as a 13-year-old of questionable intelligence— getting A’s in school don’t make you smart, they say— this was the coolest shit ever. I did not understand a lot of the themes or nuance or messaging, but seeing a story this grand, this big, with this many callbacks was a damn inspiration to me. I had never seen a story try to DO so much, and carried it with me as a shining example of how to end a saga. It was a creative inspiration to me, and I carry that experience with me to this very day.

That said, I think MGS4 is good, not great. It’s a game with excellent moments, concepts, and set pieces, yet not as cohesive as the three before it, not even close. It’s a product of compromise and limiting creative energy, responding to industry trends, with a translation job that was probably pushed out too quickly, as this was one of the first major worldwide releases of its kind.

Still, I was happy to see it through, and was ready to accept that Metal Gear Solid was over now. Big Boss was dead, Solid Snake was dying, and we only had a cyborg ninja left. When Raiden got a spin-off announced with Metal Gear Rising, I thought it was a cool way to continue the continuity with a new protagonist. Plus, I was psyched to see that a new Metal Gear game was coming to Xbox 360, announced months after I got one for my 14th birthday.

I eventually played Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013), a completely different game, on PC in 2014, but I did not like it as much as I wanted to, as I am just BAD at character action games. I know that you’re SUPPOSED to suck at first and build up the familiarity to get high ranks, I just HATE it when I get a bad grade at something. When I got bad grades in school, like C’s and stuff, I would physically harm myself, BASHING my head against a brick wall, hoping that I would give myself permanent brain damage to excuse my stupidity. …I love Revengeance’s soundtrack though. I used to fall asleep to it on the train when going to work. Good times!

…Also, I was not too jazzed about Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010). Its status as sequel to Snake Eater was interesting, but the move to multiplayer, move to a new console I had no chance of being able to buy, and PSP graphics made it far less appealing. I tried to write it off as a spin-off, just could not get into the motion comic cutscenes at the time, and thought it looked like a step backwards. When I finally tried playing it in 2012 via Bluepoint’s MGS HD Collection, I bounced off it pretty fast, as I was jumping in fresh out of the 10/10 experience that was Snake Eater. …What, I gave it a perfect score! Look it up in the archives! Really, I think I was just MGS’d out and not in the right mindset to approach the game.

You’re not meant to clear through Peace Walker in three days after school like I did with Twin Snakes, MGS2, and MGS3. It’s a game you’re meant to chip away at, play with friends in co-op boss battles, and play it like the multiplayer PSP games that were popular at the time. It tries to indicate that you should approach it differently with its mission system, progression system and bosses, but I think a lot of people bounced off it.

God, I LOVE when I have something personal to say in these segments, it feels so good to let the poison out.

Anyway, I’m burying the lead six feet deep here. The announcement is that Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 2 is a thing, and it will feature Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008), Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010), and… Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel (2000).

A slightly underwhelming collection of games, but I kind of get it. These are the games that sort of need to be experienced for a full-ish experience, and are considered part of the main canon. …And then there’s Ghost Babel, which I should play. It’s quite good and one of the best looking Game Boy Color games. More could be done in subsequent collections, but this is a big enough get, and it will only retail for $50, so… sure this is fine~!

Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 2 will be released for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, Switch 2, and PC on August 27.

…WHAT? How are they getting MGS4 to run on a damn SWITCH? HOW? HOW?!

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Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse Announced
(A Proper Castlevania Game From the Dead Cells Guys)

Damn it Konami, you’ve been pissing me off with your attitude towards Castlevania for the past 15 years! You had a great legacy series with a proud twenty year history. You have some Spaniards make a game based on it, and it’s aight, it’s cool, it has its own idea, and it spanned three games. Neato burrito. Then what do we get? A decade of NOTHING! The concept of a Metroidvania really takes off in the indie scene, Igarashi goes off to make Bloodstained, Konami basically says they don’t care about console gaming anymore. They put out Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls for Apple Arcade in 2021 and don’t bother putting it anywhere else, while treating the people to four re-releases. One of which was only ever released on PlayStation, and it contains two of the best and most important games in the series. Aaaaagggghhhhhh!!!

Did they not KNOW how many DOZENS of companies would be SALIVATING to make a Castlevania? Did NOBODY think to synergize the games with the SIX SEASON Netflix series that started in 2015 and quickly established itself as a hit Texan anime? They had SO MANY chances, but seemingly never took them.

Well, at least they seem to be correcting their actions now. After the highly successful 2023 Return to Castlevania DLC for the hit roguelike Metroidvania Dead Cells— wait, why is Metroidvania capitalized but roguelike isn’t? Stupid gamers! Konami gave developers Motion Twin and Evil Empire the go-ahead to make their own Castlevania game, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. …And it looks SO GOOD!

It has a bold and eye-catching color palate. Silky smooth 3D models with enough color for them to pop out against the darker backgrounds. Gorgeous 2.5D world where every frame looks like a painting. Mobility options up the ass with air dashes, a context-sensitive whip that lets you grapple towards whatever, wall-jumping, slides, and a damn downward shinespark. All in addition to an emphasis on the whip that makes it out to be the most versatile and powerful tool you could ever want. Smack enemies in midair, charge up a super slap, or rush them into a wall with a whip to make them real dead real fast. Paired with dope-looking boss battles, an aesthetic that, while deviating, feels enough like Castlevania, and with that pedigree behind it, I am goldarn sold.

Also, it seems to be following a revised version of Sonia Belmont, who was de-canonized, and it just feels right to bring her back. Thanks Konami. Thanks for doing the right thing and giving the series to someone who cared.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is coming out for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC sometime in 2026.

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Silent Hill: Townfall Announced
(Silent Hill is Annualized Again!)

It’s bizarre that Silent Hill has become an annualized series with a rotating roster of developers from around the world. Poland’s Bloober did good with their Silent Hill 2 remake. I only heard good things about Silent Hill f (2025), which was a pleasant surprise given the Japanese studio’s track record. And now they are going to Scotland’s Screen Burn Interactive. We’ve known they have been working on Silent Hill: Townfall since 2022, but as an indie studio that has seemingly bulked up over the years, who knows what their game would even look like. And the answer is… that it’s a first-person horror title set in 1996 Scotland that is very much in the mold of Silent Hill 2, through possibly a bit more isolating.

Simon Ordell is a man with a murky past and unresolved trauma pertaining to the town of St. Amelia, venturing there to set things right, only to find that the town has been abandoned. The citizens were aware of some miscellaneous doom, monsters are now roaming the streets, and Simon must make sense of it while busting heads with sticks and shooting at them with guns. Just like in the old games.

Also, the protagonist is a Black man, a first for the series, and that is neat. Everybody has horrors to deal with, there are Silent Hills all over the world nowadays, and adding new perspectives gives way to new flavors of horror. Now, does a Scottish studio have the racial awareness to dig deep into that? I’m guessing no, but I like being impressed.

This was all in a very “cinematic” trailer, so I’m not keen to believe any of this is “real,” but I am curious to see how this new take fares when it debuts on PS5 and PC sometime in 2026.

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God of War Trilogy Remake Announced and Sons of Sparta Shadow Dropped
(Greek God of War is BACK!)

The perception and reception of the God of War series over the past few years has been a rather odd thing to behold. The series began with the 2005 banger God of War, a PS2 action game with enough sex, violence, bombast, and Westernness to make it palatable to a Madden and GTA fan, along with enough narrative prowess, careful considerations, and generally good design to make it appeal to the dorks who cared about gaming as an art form. It was beloved by pretty much everyone, except for the genre of people who are sheepish around overzealous ultraviolence. A genre that I think is dead in this era where watching someone get shot by some cop or soldier is a typical Tuesday activity. If it’s not, you should try it. It’s good for the soul.

Success begets sequels, and the series became one of Sony’s bigger fixations the following few years. God of War II (2007) was a PS2 swansong that showed the power of aging hardware in the year when next gen really got its groove on. Chains of Olympus (2008) and Ghost of Sparta (2010) brought the series to PSP in two bite sized chunks that really showed off the capabilities of the little handheld.

God of War III (2010) was a colossal climax that people were waiting the entire PS3 generation for and truly delivered upon the power afforded by the new hardware. While Ascension (2013) attempted to build upon the series with a prequel, but failed to make anywhere near as much impact as, well, the series was done. Over. It was repackaged in a five game set called the God of War Saga in 2012, and there was no real need to build upon it.

Sony evidently felt the same way… so they basically turned God of War into a new series, set decades after the fact with a new setting, new mythology, and the only through lines being story tidbits, melee combat, gods, and the highly iconic Kratos. …Except he had a beard, as was the style of the time. God of War (2018) pretty much eclipsed the original series in terms of popularity and namesake. To millions upon millions, God of War (2018) is just God of War, and God of War (2005) is not a thing. Which is insane for me to recognize, given how popular the original run was, but five years is plenty long enough for a new generation to get into gaming and not give a FUCK about what came before.

Tonally, the 2018 title was far more mature than the rage-filled adolescent march of destruction that defined than the original. Instead, being about a man trying to raise a son he cannot truly relate to, and put to rest his wife’s remains while traveling through a perilous world. A world that draws out some worst in him, bringing back the latent spirit of violence and war. Along the way, he breaks a lot, kills some people, and gradually forms a connection with his son as he grows into his own person.

The gameplay shifted from the authorial fixed camera perspective of the original titles to the mundane behind-the-back POV common among modern third-person games thanks to the other GoW, Gears of War. Combat was far less fixated on dispatching large groups with blades on chains and more about close combat with an axe, trading in flashy DMC-inspired character action gameplay for something with more impact. Though it definitely had depth to it, as evidenced by the optional Valkyrie battles. Meanwhile, the linear go straight structure was replaced with something that facilitated side quests, loot, and shops, providing more of an extrinsic reward than a basic currency-based upgrade system.

If one changed the protagonist and certain plot details, it would just be a new IP, and… part of me wishes it was. When you make such a radical change to a series, you risk irrevocably changing its identity, creating uneven expectations, and stirring contrarian ideas among people who like the games. What makes a game a God of War at this point other than the protagonist and fixation on battling monsters and gods with magical melee weapons in fantastical worlds?

…Well, that’s something that I’m sure Santa Monica Studios is asking themselves, as Sony told them to continue the God of War saga… by going backwards and remaking the original Greek trilogy. God of War (2005), God of War II (2007), God of War III (2010), the core elements of a larger story, are all going to be remade in the coming years via a project dubbed the God of War Trilogy Remake. The project is still in its early stages— not sure how— and the exact form it will take remains to be seen. Will it be a single game that bleeds all three titles together? Probably not. Will it be three $50 released annually? Maybe. That seems pretty safe to me. Will it be made to be more like the 2018 title? Hopefully not, as I think that would be disrespectful… unless they also release a remaster of the originals. Which… I mean, they already remastered them, so…

However, that was not the only God of War announcement, as the show ended with the reveal of God of War: Sons of Sparta. A 2D Metroidvania affair that sees Kratos, as a young boy, venturing through Ancient Greece long before he killed his family, got his powers, and dethroned Areas as the God of War. A novel concept that harkens back to the glimpses seen in the side games, but fully developed and taking a more grounded approach, well, on paper at least. God of War always had the Metroid problem of power scaling as the protagonist needs to get powered down each game to facilitate a progression system.

It’s a cool concept, and a nice way to kick off this Return to Greece era for the series. Though the most notable thing about Sons of Sparta, to me, is the presentation. Being an incredibly fluid “high bit” “modern retro” pixel art based 2D action platformer. Not the first 2D game in the series, technically, but it’s a considerable aesthetic deviation, and I have mixed thoughts on it.

To me, what makes pixel art compelling, what makes it good, is the pixels. Is the fact that everything you see when you see pixel art is a bunch of blocks arranged in a way where they look like a person, a creature, or a place. Seeing the pixels encourages the player to acknowledge the artistry, to understand and respect the craft, and to view them not as animation cels limited by technology, but an aesthetic, maybe even art form, in and of itself. I’m not very good at it, but I have immense respect for the craft. Which is part of why I don’t like it when historical pedants like to slap filters over them. Art is not meant to be behind a Facebook Instagram filter, ya dummies.

Mega Cat is a studio with a lineage in creating retro style games with pixel art— I don’t like the grab bag terminology I’ve been given, but what can I do about it? They have ample expertise in this field, are staffed by people who adore games of yore and have made oodles of NES and Mega Drive games. Yet at the turn of the decade— weird phrasing, but acceptable— they pivoted their approach.

Bite the Bullet (2020) was a retro run and gun game with a lot of modern flourishes and lighting effects, achieving a “modern retro” style. While WrestleQuest (2023) was whether their modern approach was solidified, being a game with pixel art for certain things, while higher fidelity 2D assets were used for most other things. The scaling camera, flashy effects, and different resolution for various assets make it more of a retro flavored game.

It’s new and different to me, going against principles I have previously held, so I am a bit apprehensive to this look. At a certain point, I need to ask why this pixelated approach is being taken. It is so similar to traditional 2D animation, it likely would not take that much more effort or require drastically different processes to just make an… illustrated 2D game. It would appeal to people who don’t care for pixel art, seem more modern, more premium, and likely attract more attention.

…And I am more convinced they should have taken that approach after watching a developer diary. In it, one staff member claims that Mega Cat took the animations and character models from older God of War games, converted them into 2D animation, and traced over that, turning it into pixel art. That is some intense dedication to consistency… but at that point, why make this pixel art?

Akumako: “Because that’s what the studio specializes in, what they’re good at, and what they likely sold to Sony in order to greenlight the project.”

I was just about to say that! Like with many things, Sons of Sparta is the project of circumstances, yet here I am comfortable that workers made these decisions, not managers or executives.

Akumako: “Manager is a job, but I get what you mean. Anyway, Sons of Sparta shadow dropped for PS5 after the State of Play.”

Really? How is it?

Akumako: “The vibes seem pretty good, though it’ll take a minute before any reviews start getting cranked out.”

Cool! So I guess Greek God of War is back?

Akumako: “Eyup! Or, as you like to say, ‘it’s back bay-bee!‘”

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Progress Report 2026-02-15

Uh, so, there are a couple things that I wanted to address this week, but ran out of time, as I was focusing on the Pokémon Black Ramble, which is being bumped up to February 26th so I don’t need to talk about Monkey Man yet.

Beyond gaming, there were a few things that I wanted to address.

Discord is launching this stupid teen by default program to limit people’s ability to access “NSFW” services. Why? Likely in order to cater to certain wealthy groups, and give them an opportunity to provide Peter Thiel’s Persona service with the faces of people young and old. I would honestly leave Discord if I could, as I just don’t like it. It’s been a buggy piece of crap for months now. I hate the pressure that comes with keeping track of what is doing on in servers, and while it is a good way to screen share and chat with friends, I don’t trust them.

They are likely trying to clean up their act before an IPO, and if that goes through, they will fall under the influence of some ultra rich dastard who wants to use this information to further his agenda. I know how this works, and I would LOVE to migrate to a new platform. But I don’t know of a good one that does everything Discord does. Plus, it would need to get the Cassie stamp of approval, and Cassie does not like changing things that work for her.

Also, the polling group Gallup has decided to stop measuring presidential approval after 88 years. They have been the go-to source for gauging what people think of the current US president for decades, seen as a damn institution. Unfortunately, after showing 36% approval of Donald Trump in December 2025 (how?), they are no longer going to publish numbers. Presumably because all of ICE’s human rights abuses have led people to really sour on the fascist fuckwit, and his approval dropped to record lows.

The administration is taking the Nazi Germany approach to most things, so I would be surprised if they didn’t threaten Gallup to stop publishing stats that made them look bad. …Also, the 88 years thing is definitely a coincidence. It’s not a HH, Heil Hitler, reference, and not all patterns date back to that. When I use the numbers 14 and 88 though? That is almost always an explicit reference to White Supremacists, and my incalculable hatred of them. Don’t believe me? Read Psycho Shatter 1988.

Oh, and Falcom is making hella bread after their Trails in the Sky 1st remake, which is good to see! Maybe they will learn to make ALL of their games release simultaneously around the world. It’s like that’s a good business decisions!

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2026-02-08: Finished Garden of Sinners. Really not jazzed about how the final antagonist was a crossdressing cannibal rapist who thought he was the reincarnation of an animal. That was just awkward for a gaggle of trans girls to watch. And the final movie was just unnecessary, and I could not grasp what it was trying to say. Wrote 5,700 words for the Pokémon Black Ramble.

2026-02-09: Finished drafting the 15k word supplemental portion of the Pokémon Black Ramble with the final 2,300 words. Wrote about 2,000 words for the main part of the Black Ramble. Did some revision stuff for the spreadsheet portion of the Ramble.

2026-02-10: Wrote 2,500 words for the Preamble Ramble and the Yakuza Kiwami 3 bits. Added a 200 word conclusion to the Pokémon Black Ramble. Missy helped me edit the Pokémon Black Ramble, but she inadvertently unearthed longstanding school-based trauma, so I was a PRIME BITCH to her.

2026-02-11: Edited part one of the Pokémon Black Ramble. Got distracted by some other crap at night, so did not make much progress after that.

2026-02-12: It was a State of Play day! So I watched the event and wrote 6,200 words about it, stopping before I could finish it.

2026-02-13: Wrote 1,900 words for this fat bitch. Edited her fat ass. Did a bunch of image editing for the Black Ramble. I chopped the veggies, so I can edit the other half of the post on the morrow.

2026-02-14: Edited the second part of the Pokemon Black Ramble, grabbed images, dealt with formatting issues, and got these posts ret-2-go. Then I flopped from fatigue.

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Verde’s Doohickey 2.0 – Act III: Worldly Wonders
Progress Report

NO PROGRESS! Progress is for next week!

Current Word Count: 76,895

Estimated Word Count: 222,222

Words Edited: 0

Total Segments: 30

Segments Outlined: 30

Segments Drafted: 10

Segments Edited: 0

Header Images Made: 0

Days Until Deadline: 136