iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 11h

Valor Mortis absolutely has the sauce. If other Souls-likes don't borrow from it going forward I'll be shocked.

AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 13/10/2026

I have an appointment when I get off work at 3, and a concert at 6 but @valormortis.bsky.social is out today so I guess I'm streaming between the two? Being an adult and having a day job blows.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 11/10/2026

3 weeks until my birthday, but much more importantly, trying to beat all the Soulsborne games in one sitting. And I'm a speed-walker at best, far from a speed runner. How Long to Beat has it taking 240 hours. It obviously won't take *that* long, but it definitely puts it into perspective.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 07/10/2026

If the person/people talented enough to crack Denuvo consistently isn't well versed in online anonymity I'll be shocked. Hopefully they aren't using windows, though, or maybe Microslop will help out again.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 06/10/2026

I've had, what I think, is an undumped Xbox demo disc on my desk for like 3 months now but the drive I bought to be able to rip games gets here this week and I'm so excited to not look at this demo in shame every day.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 04/10/2026

"$36,000 - Home Grown Textures (get me a colonoscopy from which the images will be used to texture the various gibs and meat moss scattered throughout the game)" Go check out the PIG IRON Kickstarter so one of the weirdest stretch goals I've ever seen gets met. www.kickstarter.com/projects/pos...

Black text on a green background which is itself on a fleshy background.

$36,000 COLON-FRESH TEXTURES

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 03/10/2026

Control Resonant was fantastic. If you like Remedy and the universe, it's a 10/10. The new characters and writing were great, there's plenty of lore as expecter, and the game is good mechanically too. The movement feels incredible. Maybe it's the Souls player in me, but the combat's decent.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 25/09/2026

Happy Halo 3 release day to those who celebrate.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 25/09/2026

Control Resonant does excellent job of showing off Remedy's unique brand of storytelling. Alan Wake, AW2, and Control all felt like they had similar gameplay but Resonant is far removed from all of them, yet it still feels distinctly Remedy. Doesn't hurt that it's been a blast to play so far.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 24/09/2026

Dawnwalker is a fantastic game that feels like a natural evolution of the Witcher formula. The writing is compelling, the characters are interesting and well acted, and it gives you freedom where most RPGs wouldn't. After 54 hours I have 4/6 endings and am guessing I've done 90% of quests.

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Reposted by AlaskanBeard - Zack

This Week in Videogames @thisweekinvideogames.com · 23/09/2026

"When they call it like the [Houses] of Lamentation or whatever, maybe they just threw Gollum in the sphincter door, and he’s just there getting choked by the sphincter, and he’s all like ‘Shire! Baggins!’. You never know."

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 22/09/2026

Ah yes, just what Halo needs, to be more like Call of Duty.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 18/09/2026

Go support Darren OR ELSE (there aren't any consequences and I hope you have a nice day)

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 12/09/2026

Ah yes, just what I wanted, culture being taught by a bot. One of the worst parts of AI is how it homogenizes everything it touches. Letting it run rampant in creative spaces is going to be a disaster for any/all internet culture.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 12/09/2026

So make smaller games. I know it's not that simple, but there's a ton of room for AA games right now. Not every one will pop off, but if your investment isn't tens (or hundreds) of millions it's a lot more palatable and the opportunity for success is the same (just look at E33, or Dawnwalker).

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 12/09/2026

I finally got around to making a guide to set up my Infamous UGC replacement server. www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Gn...

youtube.com

Infamous 2 UGC Replacement Server - InfamousReborn

YouTube video by AlaskanBeard

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 03/09/2026

The Blood of Dawnwalker is good.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 02/09/2026

I think we could all use a pork bun right now.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 01/09/2026

There's a replacement Infamous 2/Festival of Blood UGC server at 152.5(three).194.56. You can point your PS3 or RPCS3 DNS at it, or make local a-records for infamous2-release.ps3.online.scea.com and dbhhpqias9rrc.cloudfront.net pointing to the same IP.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 31/08/2026

Twisted Tower was a blast. I can't recommend it enough as a fun, 8-hour FPS. It absolutely pays homage to Bioshock while feeling wholly distinct. It also had a good story. Unique, entertaining enough, and more importantly, not entirely predictable.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 30/08/2026

I don't need to preserve every leak. I don't need to preserve every leak. I don't need to preserve every leak. I don't need to preserve every leak. I don't need to preserve every leak. I don't need to preserve every leak. I don't need to preserve every leak. I don't need to preserve every leak.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 28/08/2026

Good Charlotte was great. Avenged Sevenfold was good. Statica is one of the worst things I've heard in my life.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 28/08/2026

I'm going to an outdoor concert today 🫠

A screenshot of a weather app that shows the weather in Deer Valley arizona.

Its currently 111 with a high of 111 and a low of 87.
The hourly forecast is 110 at 5PM, 108 at 6, 105 at 7, 101 at 8, 99 at 9, 97 at 10, and 94 at 11PM.

The sunrise and sunset are at 5:59AM and 7PM respectively. The UV Index is 8 (very high)

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 19/08/2026

It is once again "too many games" season.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 17/08/2026

Just told my dogs to ready up when they weren't sitting for breakfast. At least I'm not using scrum terms, I guess.

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Reposted by AlaskanBeard - Zack

This Week in Videogames @thisweekinvideogames.com · 12/08/2026

Bethesda Game Studios workers and union members planted hundreds of red flags and a giant inflatable rat outside of the developer’s Rockville, Maryland office in protest of a visit from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma this week. thisweekinvideogames.com/news/bethesd...

thisweekinvideogames.com

Bethesda Workers Mark Asha Sharma Studio Visit With Giant Inflatable Rat

Workers and union representatives protested the CEO's visit with hundreds of flags at the Bethesda office representing laid off workers.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 12/08/2026

My Infamous 2 replacement server officially works with RPCS3 and RPCN. Still have some work to do to get uploads and hosting ironed out but I'm stoked to have it 90% 3 weeks before shutdown. And I'm up to 207k maps archived, still adding ~200/day. more details below I guess

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 05/08/2026

100%'d Dinoblade. Pretty fun game with a fantastic origin story. Boss rush mode was the last thing I did and it was surprisingly fun. Definitely recommend if you want a Sekiro-like, but dinosaurs.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 31/07/2026

The Limited Run's Star Wars Zero Company collectors edition is *$300* and it comes with a bunch of junk, a desk mat, some patches, and a replica detonator that you can just buy for $43. I'm no stranger to overpriced games, but what the fuck are we doing? The game on Steam is only $50 btw.

Shows the Collector's Edition of Star Wars Zero Company from Limited Run Games.
From left to right:
The box, a certificate of authenticity, a steel book, another box
The game, two pins, a thermal detonator, retro jewel case
A desk mat, character cards
11 patches

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 27/07/2026

Some random Steam keys. Should be obvious which characters to replace. Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga - HolyCowDDW-7PFGC-PWHD9 Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn - 4A4CK-Women'sBasketball2ZA-Z3ITN Disco Elysium - 43V52-G6JimBobM-KN8GB

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 25/07/2026

Sony's killing Infamous 2's servers so I archived all* of it's online content, over 200,000 user-made missions. Infamous 2: archive.org/details/infa... Festival of Blood: archive.org/details/infa... * because you have to search the missions, downloading all is impossible, but I downloaded ~most~.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 24/07/2026

Dinoblade has a few rough edges, but it's fantastic.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 23/07/2026

First concert: Underoath Last Concert: Nic D. & Connor Price Next Concert: Next week, Silverstein/Story of the Year, Motionless in White the day after. Favorite Concert: First time seeing A Day to Remember or Bring Me the Horizon or When We Were Young 2025. Seen Most: A Day to Remember (4).

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 22/07/2026

See, you can win the rat race but you're still nothing but a fucking rat.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 19/07/2026

My neighbors have ~something~ with the same code as my ceiling fan and whenever they do whatever my fan turns off. Could I just change my fan's code? Yes. But why do that when I can automate turning my fan on every 5 minutes, and turning their thing on/off at the same time, presumably.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 18/07/2026

I've been a paid supporter since day one. If you're interested in supporting independent game journalism, this is a great way to do it.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 13/07/2026

Now I'm not saying I figured out how to programmatically download Infamous 2 UGC, but I *do* have 38000 of them on my PC right now. The process requires quite a bit of babysitting, unfortunately, but I'm hoping to have something uploaded to IA this week.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 09/07/2026

there's a Power Rangers pinball game and I just needed to share that.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 06/07/2026

I'm glad none of the studios are being closed completely and that they're all retaining their IP. I'm obviously not a fan of Microslop doing this at all, but it's probably the best outcome considering their peers usually outright close studios. Here's hoping Arkane land on their feet as well.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 03/07/2026

I just asked if there were any "legacy" strawberries I needed to eat ugh

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 02/07/2026

My neighbors have a fan on the same channel as one of my ceiling fans and when they turn theirs off, it turns mine off, and when I turn mine on, it turns theirs on (presumably) I'm about to write an automation to turn my fan on every 5 minutes. I could fix it, but I was here first. And I'm petty.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 02/07/2026

Just saying, you can rip your games for most consoles. The entire PS2 library can fit on a thumb drive (a very expensive one, but still). And if you don't have the means to rip your own games, it's clear the corpos don't care about you, why should you care about them? 🏴‍☠️

A screenshot of three folders, Sort, Consoles, and PC within a file path, /data/Files/Games, showing 3.6TB (terabytes), 1.2TB, and 278.5 GB (gigabytes) respectively.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 26/06/2026

This is so laughably stupid. "Surely it was leadership's fault that our multi-million dollar live-service push failed before. We just need to throw more money at the problem. And if we fail again, we'll just fire all the devs and start over." Fuck corporations.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 26/06/2026

I just spent an hour and 50 minutes fighting the Tree Sentinel duo (in Elden Ring) and I died 46 times. Until the final attempt it didn't once occur to me to jump the shield slam.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 25/06/2026

AMD bringing back an AM4 CPU is clearly a business decision, but it's kind of good for consumers? DDR4 is cheaper than DDR5 and an accessible DDR4 CPU helps people trying to build computers, but what are we doing, man? Having to bring back a last gen CPU because memory is too expensive is insane.

A screenshot of an email from AMD saying they're bringing back the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU.

The full text:

We are proud to relaunch the AMD Ryzen tm 7 5800X3D, the best gaming processor for DDR4 platforms.

for ten years, AMD Socket AM4 has empowered millions of gamers, creators, and PC builders with an exceptional mix of stability, upgrade flexibility, and performance innovation.

The return of the AMD Ryzen tm 7 5800X3D Processor builds on that legacy as the ultimate gaming processor for DDR4 platforms, delivering high-performance gaming for existing AM4 users without the need for a full platform rebuild. Bundled with a Carbice Ice Pad for long term reliability and reduced maintenance.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 24/06/2026

The poor little AC in my server shed is doing it's best. That middle section is the temp in my shed rising up to ~81° F despite the AC running the whole time.

A graph that shows temperature on June 22nd, 2026 from 12AM to 11:59PM. The graph is jagged from 12AM to 10AM, going from 70-80° F. At 10AM it slowly rises up to 80° F before starting to go down around 6:30PM and returning to a jagged graph at 9PM.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 22/06/2026

RetroSpace is a System Shock and Prey (2015) inspired ImSim that has plenty of it's own flavor. My #1 anticipated game now. Transylvania is a beautiful, fun, and cheeky homage to Castlevania. Necrofane is a fun Kingsfield-like with a mysterious dark world. Will definitely check it out on release.

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AlaskanBeard - Zack @alaskanbeard.com · 21/06/2026

I don't normally play Next Fest demos, but there's a few this year I want to check out. s.abg.gg/strm

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