December 21st

Welcome back readers.

A couple of announcements before we dive into things this week. First, This Week in Videogame Blogging–that’s what you’re reading right now–will take a one-week break for the holidays. Our regular weekly issues will resume Sunday, January 4th.

Fear not, as this leads into the second announcement. Kaile has prepared a holiday feast that will be served in the meantime: our annual recap of our favourite writing on games from the past year. We hope you enjoy it and share it widely!

Finally, less an announcement and more a reminder: if you appreciate our work, Patreon support is what allows us to continue doing it.

This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

Festivus of Gaming

We’re starting with a bunch of different articles under the industry category this week, ranging in format from reporting, to interviews, to commentary; ranging in topic from labour, to remakes, to demographic trends.

• A decade on from Gamergate, how has the games industry changed for women? | GamesIndustry.biz
  Vic Hood reflects on gamergate ten-plus years on with a few of the women who lived through it (Further Reading: Liz Ryerson on the reactionary punditry that has taken hold in the years since gamergate).
• How Women Saved Rune Factory | Uppercut
  Niki Fakhoori reflects on Rune Factory‘s strong popularity among women as the series has moved gradually towards wider character creation and marriage options (Further Reading: Jess Elizabeth Reed on Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life).
• ‘Our industry has been strip-mined’: video game workers protest at The Game Awards | The Guardian
  Alyssa Mercante reports on the United Videogame Workers protest outside The Game Awards (Further Reading: Joshua Rivera on The Game Awards).
• Turbulence around Gaming Developers Conference rebrand reflects changing industry | 48 hills
  Leah Isobel investigates how a rebranded GDC can and cannot represent a changing industry.
• ‘Metal Gear Solid Delta’ Producer Wouldn’t Change A Thing About His Controversial Remake | Inverse
  Hayes Madsen kicks off an interview series focused on remakes with a conversation with MGS Delta producer Noriaka Okamura.
• Concept Artists Say Generative AI References Only Make Their Jobs Harder | This Week in Videogames
  Edmond Tran talks to concept artists across the industry about the myriad problems LLMs have created for their craft and profession (Further Reading: Thomas James on LLM impacts on the translation profession).

“This Week in Videogames spoke to a dozen professional concept artists in the wake of Vincke’s comments, all of whom currently or have previously worked in game development, ranging from indie studios to large AAA developers. All, without exception, said that ?generative AI image tools had only made their lives more difficult – even when simply used as reference material.”

Carrot, Stick

Two more critiques to highlight this week on Santa Ragione’s Horses.

• Horses (Santa Ragione, 2025) | exp.
  Mathew Kumar muses on Horses, the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini, and indegestible art (content notification for mentions of rape).
• kaorukofan1993’s review of Horses | Backloggd
  kaorukofan1993 sees in Horses a game constantly second-guessing itself, an artful work which nonetheless pulls its punches and imposes puzzling limitations on the scope of its critique (Further Reading: Crystal on Horses).

“I disagree with the many thoughtful essayists who claim the game Horses is less interesting than the discourses it has sparked. On the contrary: beneath its bravado as an arthouse horror work lies a great deal of hesitation and trepidation about being subversive and critical. It knows it is on unfamiliar ground and is unsure which toes it’s allowed to step on — certainly not the player’s. It keeps its mouth shut on what it thinks of the player and the systems they engage in.”

Left Trigger, Right Trigger

Part genre section, part relational commentary–here we’re looking at shooters, in general and in particular, and the specific lens through which they resolve the world.

• In Ruins | Bullet Points Monthly
  Autumn Wright ruminates on ruins, Battlefield 6, and Gaza.
• On feeling soul-sick from shooter games | Fogknife
  Jason McIntosh tires of experiencing gameworlds through gunsights (Further Reading: Finn Carney on HOLE).

“I just felt soul-sick, and got a little bit sicker every time I sighted down my barrel at a security guard’s chest, and then didn’t even bother to watch them flinch and fall as I aimed at the next target. And as soon as my nonsensical reaction to my brother’s text shocked me into considering the possibility, I knew for a fact that letting myself become repetition-numb to innumerable and realistically portrayed acts of mass violence through firearms—no matter how fantastic the setting—just makes me feel awful. Maybe that wasn’t always true for me, but it is now, and I don’t expect it’ll ever change.”

Reel Talk

Let’s close things off this week with an array of single-game critiques, touching on home, adversity, locality, and fishing.

• The Lynchian About Fishing reels in the dread beneath the familiar | AV Club
  Dia Lacina casts about in a game that revels in the fundamental weirdness of fishing (Further Reading: The Sidequest crew have a roundtable on fishing games).
• Like Eating Glass – Skate Story (PC) Review | Gamesline
  Maverick grinds the New York-flavoured underworld of Skate Story (Further Reading: Alexis Ong on Skate Story).
• Demonschool’s Namako Is A Model Student For Showing How To Resist Bullies | Exalclaw
  Wallace Truesdale highlights the ludonarrative harmony in Demonschool‘s Namako’s approach to bullies.
• Hollow Knight Taught Louise Chase Hard Lessons About Herself And What She Could Do | startmenu
  Louise Chase steps out of her comfort zone and into Hallownest (Further Reading: Mik Deitz on Silksong and Celeste).
• THE WORLD IS NOT MY HOME | TIER
  Artemis Octavio traces the idea of home-as-connection in 24 Killers.

“American exceptionalism and individualism have taught generations, even young people living outside the United States, the value of self-reliance. 24 Killers washes this away, forces you to enter into a community with weirdos and freaks and meanies, and forces you to befriend them for your own good—to learn to be a better person.”