iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Wallace @exalclaw.com · 13h

This whole group rocks, even when they watched me get held at gunpoint

Me, the blue Big Walkler, being held at gunpoint by Artemis, the red Big Walker. Hiero is holding a radar in the background that makes it look like she’s holding a TV studio camcorder. KM took the screenshot with Adam behind her.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 21/09/2026

Thnx for including the Mafia III piece CD 🧡

It's far from a 1-to-1, but, as Terrence Wiggins gets at in his 2016 review, it's still surreal how well this captures the anxiety of driving while Black, or being Black in predominantly White neighborhoods, even a decade later. It doesn't matter how quietly or loudly you play the radio. It doesn't matter if the car you're driving is freshly cleaned or covered in mud. It doesn't matter how presentable or unassuming you try to be. The moment a cop car appears, accompanied by a curved blue line that lets you know they're watching Lincoln's Black ass, the edge that was, and still is, always there makes itself explicit again.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 19/09/2026

Ren Faire Market had some cool stuff to hang on the fridge

An orange frog in a banging jester outfit

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 10/09/2026

Overworld is handy not just for collecting game reviews but also showing that no women are reviewing these big games, what a resource! I would like to be wrong about this so if you see a Wolverine review that's otherwise, feel free to share below

Push Square: 20m ago

Review: Marvel's Wolverine (PS5) - The Ultimate Wolverine Simulator
MMORPG.com (Jason Fanelli): 20m ago

Marvel's Wolverine Review: Nice Try, Bub
GamesRadar (Leon Hurley): 20m ago

Marvel's Wolverine review: "Missing that crucial X-Factor"
Game Informer (Matt Miller): 20m ago

Marvel's Wolverine Review - Relentless Momentum
MonsterVine (Spencer Legacy): 20m ago

Marvel’s Wolverine Review – Solid as Adamantium
Polygon (Giovanni Colantonio): 20m ago

Marvel’s Wolverine Is the Biggest Disappointment of the PS5 Era
Kotaku (Kenneth Shepard): 19m ago

Marvel’s Wolverine: The Kotaku Review
Checkpoint Gaming (Luke Mitchell): 19m ago

Marvel’s Wolverine Review – Claws and effect
Video Games Chronicle (Jordan Middler): 19m ago

Marvel’s Wolverine Review: Uninspired gameplay leaves Logan feeling declawed despite a strong narrative
Loot Level Chill (Chris White): 19m ago

Marvel’s Wolverine review
Console Creatures (Bobby Pashalidis): 19m ago

Marvel’s Wolverine Review — Back Off, Bub
Shacknews: 13m ago

Marvel’s Wolverine review: Fighting the good fight

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 08/09/2026

Just discovered Exalclaw made it into @warppoint.games, sitting right next to @deletedsavesmag.bsky.social too! Very neat

Stickers for the sites Deleted Saves and Exalclaw next to each other on the directory site Warp Point. Deleted Save's description says "Deleted Saves is a quarterly publication focused on critical analysis of video games and their place in culture." Exalclaw's description says "A website about video games and the stories behind them"

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 06/09/2026

Driving in Mafia III is a vibe

Hottie Lincoln Clay driving down the major highway that cuts through Mafia III’s rendition of New Bordeaux, LO. It’s nighttime, the street lights are on, the highway is busy and leaves a lot of room to drive. Parts of the city skyline are seen on both sides of the highway.

Hottie Lincoln Clay driving down the major highway that cuts through Mafia III’s rendition of New Bordeaux, LO, now with half the screen dominated by the city skyline that has only a few skyscrapers, many short buildings, and some trees sprouting out of a residential area.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 29/08/2026

Might be my new favorite Big Walk pics

Two Big Walk characters on a chair lift in the distance backdropped by green mist as they travel above a mountain

Four Big Walk characters running from a cloud of green mist, which explodes from a flare gun shot

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 28/08/2026

I won't always be first, but I don't have to be last

A screenshot of my time in brlka's 'Today's Star is...', which is 385.88, at 3rd place

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 28/08/2026

If a participation trophy was a screenshot

A screenshot from brlka's 'Today's Star is...' showing my time, 1135.15, at fourth place on the leaderboard. There are only four spots on the leaderboard.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 24/08/2026

Yeah this new sadistic shit rules, not bc it's hard for long but bc once you do it once you *know* you can do it again due to the brevity. I shaved down my time almost immediately after

Exal's time at 1199.24 seconds, 17 on the leaderboard

Exal's time at 624.47 seconds, 8 on the leaderboard

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 24/08/2026

I’d usually save excerpt sharing for down the line, but I really like sharing this story. It gets across why Big Walk will likely be my favorite game this year

Night had caught us by surprise. In an attempt to find and open a shortcut to the starting area, our group found ourselves clinging to our sole flashlight and each other’s voices as we hoped towards the right direction. I can’t remember exactly what the radio had been playing during the clawing through the dark, but I can still feel when it switched. Right as we managed to push through a set of trees and detach ourselves from a few particularly sticky rocks, a sky bursting with stars had suddenly come into view.

In that instance, as we crested a hill and even more stars filled the screen among the dark silhouettes of my fellow walkers, the radio had started the next track — one I can't describe as anything short of ethereal. We all stopped to listen and look up, no doubt looking like a constellation ourselves from the stars’ point of view.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 22/08/2026

You ever read something that hits you like a truck bc of its relevance to current affairs? From Marjane Satrapi’s “Woman, Life, Freedom”, first published in 2023:

Political scientist Farid Vahid, drawn stylishly wearing a t-shirt and glasses, saying “The Islamic Republic is a young regime that created the conditions for its own downfall over four decades.”

Political scientist Farid Vahid, drawn stylishly wearing a t-shirt and glasses, saying “The only thing that could strengthen the regime today would be if another country were to attack Iran.”

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 15/08/2026

There are many dogs in I LOVE DOG, who would've thought

Many dogs in a small pond area, crowded around each other

A singular dog atop a green hill. There are many dogs running in a conga line behind it.

A long line of 103 dogs curving up a green hill to a rocky plateua

A group of dogs standing atop a rock hill as a long line of 111 dogs walk up the hill toward them

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 15/08/2026

Also christ this toy Sora is ugly, getting absolutely mogged by Jack here

Toy versions of Nightmare Before Christmas's Jack and Sora. Sora is hideous. Jack is not.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 15/08/2026

I have found what I was thinking of!!! It was in U.S. Playstation Magazine Issue 61, in its 'What's Next' section on pg. 137 that's part of a long Kingdom Heart feature. A KH movie or tv show is lowkey 24 years overdue @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social v thankful for the work y'all do!

Never shy about extending any of its licenses into other venues, Disney
is already exploring a host of possibilities for the future of Kingdom
Hearts, ranging from feature-length movies to attractions at its amusement parks. So what can we expect next for the franchise? "It's pretty early, but
there's been a great deal of talk about pursuing other mediums," says Dan Winters, vice president of product development for Disney Interactive. "There's a lot of creative development going on with TV animation right now as well as with the feature-film guys, and we're working closely with our publishing arm to talk about bringing out graphic novels to extend the franchise."

Remember, Kingdom Hearts is technically a Disney property, so Square would have little to no say in any of these spinoffs. While producer and character designer Tetsuya Nomura under stands that his creations might soon be out of his hands, he's not troubled by that prospect-though he did confess that he's wary of a possible movie, hoping for something "safer than that."

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 15/08/2026

I'm trying to find the source of this in the VGHF library bc I know it's there, I literally had the notes and DELETED THEM LIKE AN IDIOT, but in the meantime enjoy this feature image from Game Informer Issue 108's Kingdom Hearts preview: archive.gamehistory.org/item/96c2cca...

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 13/08/2026

This game brings me great joy

Five people on a train in Big Walk (one is offscreen, the POV of the shot). Of the four visible, one to the left is holding the blue walking and carrying a radar on their back. Another is pointing the laser pointer off in the distance. Another is sitting on the train's ledge, holding the yellow walking and dangling their feet in the air. One more person is in the train carriage, pointing a flashlight at everyone else.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 10/08/2026

I think this captures what his experience was like pretty well

Exalclaw: Looking back on the project as a whole, if you were to do an 80+ soundtrack again, or just something at this scale—

Andrew: [bursts out into laughter]

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 09/08/2026

@moderation.bsky.app if y’all dont remove this silly ass tag on this post

An Adult Content tag hiding the content of a Human Rights Campiagn’s post that says “let’s go lesbians 🧡🤍🩷”

An Adult Content tag opened to show the content of a Human Rights Campiagn’s post that says “let’s go lesbians 🧡🤍🩷” that shows four women doing nothing worthy of an adult content tag

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 08/08/2026

I am now out but I will answer the remaining questions shortly. Also, this is a BANGER track to listen while driving through furious rain and locking in bc your life depends on it

A pic of Denshattack album, showing Emi and train mid-trick, playing the song Abandoned Shiminami Road

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 07/08/2026

There is power in having no mic, I write better than I talk (photo credit to @kellymerka.bsky.social)

A Big Walk player with a gray head, red torso, and blue pants, holding a cowbell, says “i am invincible”

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 05/08/2026

My local bakery rules

A Mario star-shaped Yuzu Lemon cookie and an oatmeal creampie cookie

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 05/08/2026

ICYMI interview-led preview for Red Kiss dropped! Whole thing's worth a read, but personally liked the chance to ask where a sensitivity reader came into play

There's also the matter of the RPG's other adult elements. For example, while nothing in Red Kiss is pornographic, the nature of vampires and how they feed is inherently sensual and often sexual. The narrative designer discussed how this brought up conversations of consent while developing the game, as a vampire bite is often non-consensual but still a fundamental part of the monster's existence. There's also a few sex jokes and innuendos, but he says it's all being approached from a place of maturity and relevance to the characters' existences.

Publisher Fellow Traveller came up during this part of our chat as helping the team figure out what they could get away with on certain platforms. Moreover, a sensitivity reader, who came in when most of the script was finished, assisted with ensuring the right message comes across while also checking for issues like racism or sexism. “They will ask what the intent is, and if the intent is not conveyed, then we change the context in which the scene becomes more palatable or possible, and [that] the intention is clear” van der Schilden said.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 04/08/2026

I feel like they’d get each other

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 02/08/2026

ICYMI wrote about cheesing for the blog jam, check out the full thing to meet Jank Connoisseur but here’s some words in the meantime

I'd argue that what most Jank Connoisseurs, streamers or otherwise, actually agree to when buying a game is that the developers will deliver the most abstract thing on Earth: fun. Yes, tons of folks buy games to engage with them as cultural products or artistic expressions of real people, but let's not kid ourselves as to how games are most often discussed and utilized. There's a lot of work to be done before a randomly polled player talks like a critic on Bullet Points Monthly rather than an Epic stock holder or sponsored influencer. On any given day, most people are picking up a game for a boost of serotonin and, so long as the game isn't outright throwing bug after bug at them rather than cheeky ways to clear a level, won't do much besides laugh when they discover an opportunity to cheese. The intensity of "failure" tends to lose its edge in rooms full of laughter.

The notable thing about cheesing to me is that, anecdotally speaking, there's rarely a time it's ever made someone want to stop playing. Often, it's more a respite from how the game has presented itself up until a certain point. It's the moment where the player remembers that the pixels were not created in some abstract vacuum, but instead are the labor of humans who may or may not have accounted for a non-traditional method of winning. That's also another can of worms: sometimes what feels like cheesing is something the developers know about and simply decided to keep in there! While players have found of plenty of ways to break a game that developers didn't foresee, it's also true that the success of this entire medium is predicated on making people feel smart, or, if nothing else, able to grow a competency. Sometimes a player's cheesing is the wizard letting them realize the curtain isn't a wall.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 31/07/2026

Yes! YES!!! Hammer is the way 🔨🧎🏿

The majority of the patience in Mina the Hollower is active: circling enemies like a shark while they shoot a million projectiles at you, burrowing under said projectiles, and waiting for the right moment to strike. The hammer requires complete patience – active and passive. Hammers don’t get swung without time to swing them. It forces the player to sit in this uncomfortable world and bet on their own skills to hit something.

The hammer feels inevitable. When I miss, it’s on me for not waiting long enough. How toxic is it to wait around for something that you know will come through for you? How wrong am I actually playing this game? The answer, for me, is not at all.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 21/07/2026

Btw this og message was about pretty much finding this exact snippet in the No Bells article (technically the FB link I saw first is what confirmed it, but seeing this after was great). Research is fun, threads connect in the most sudden ways!

Syed Salahuddin (Co-Founder of Babycastles): I believe Hey Baby and Shawn Alexander’s game [Treachery in Beatdown City] were two we’ve shown before at Babycastles. We wanted to have at least five games I believe, so we probably picked a couple as well.

Kunal: Hey Baby was a game set in a fictional New York where women could freely roam the streets without consequence.

Syed: That game was actually curated [for an older Babycastles show] by Leigh Alexander, who has gone on to do a bunch of stuff within media and video game design. Treachery in Beatdown City was [a New York City-themed fighting game] made by Shawn Alexander, who went on to become a pretty prolific independent game designer.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 18/07/2026

ICYMI wrote about how caretakers are faring in games. Give the whole thing a read, goes into the current issues and consequences at length, but I wanted to share some of the standardized practices caretakers I talked to want to see. Dare I say, several could be helpful to non-game industries too

Workers shared what practices they’d like to see standardized across the industry, from AAA studios to smaller indie projects, to better accommodate the needs of caretakers. Multiple people brought up better parental leave policies as they lamented having to return to work after only a short time at home with their newborns. Others discussed having more healthcare options that cover a broader range of dependents. A couple workers also called for a reexamination of work structures, with an emphasis on switching from systems organized around mandated work hours to deliverable-based systems. Other ideas for standardized practices across conversations included better project planning, paid overtime, relocation packages, four-day work weeks, and unionization.

One suggestion mentioned by nearly everyone spoken to that’s worth dissecting at length: remote work. Multiple caretakers talked about how the policy can make it easier to navigate around the likes of medical appointments, school travel, and sudden sick days — all while not losing additional time to commuting. Scott Christian shared that he thinks “the shift toward remote work that accelerated during the pandemic has been one of the best things to happen for working parents.” As he put it, “Good managers recognize that it matters less when the work gets done than whether it gets done well. Being able to step away to pick your kid up from daycare or school without losing hours to commuting makes a huge difference to quality of life.”

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 08/07/2026

Sharing this piece once more before moving onto next thing, but now with the excerpt that shouts out Hundreds of Beavers and Gwimbly bc that combo still makes me laugh

However, my favorite part of the Video Game House series is how well it captures the feeling of discussing video games online and within smaller communities. This is something that adaptations of video games often fail to do. These million-dollar projects visualize the worlds and problems their characters face, but rarely the off-screen reality that is just as much as a factor in video games. For better and worse, the communities that form around these interactive experiences are crucial parts of the medium’s existence.

To put it another way, these movies have rarely felt like actual video game movies, but more movies puppeteering video game IPs. It's why the hilarious movie Hundred of Beavers, or even the Smiling Friends episode "Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director’s Cut)", feel more like a video game movie or tv show than many works with the medium's most popular characters. It’s also why I consider one of the most video game-like movies of modern times to be Jeff Fowler's first Sonic The Hedgehog movie, because nothing reflects back on the space more than a product being changed close to the finish line — in this case, Sonic’s plastic surgery gone severely wrong — due to consumers flooding the web with harsh criticism ahead of release.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 08/07/2026

Art for this game went hard af

Antar in the Red Fortress next to two masculine statue figures, one covered in blood and the other lightly splattered by blood. In the background are volcano-like structures exploding red.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 08/07/2026

I rock with Saviorless

Antar underwater surrounded by jellyfish that have hands at the end of their tentacles and electric bubbles around their heads. Their hands are skewered.

Antar running beneath the Momar, which is trapped in a contraption that has a door with spikes on it. There is a columnist writing to Antar's left.

Antar on a floor beneath a red smiling creature that is standing on its arms and has spikes protruding from its body. It doesn't look right.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 06/07/2026

Has someone done this yet

The black man-white man arms holding meme where one side says “Gamers/Game press at the end of another year of record layoffs,” the other says “Soccer fans/press after watching FIFA corrupt the integrity of their sport yet again,” and in the middle it says in quotes “but the games were good”

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 06/07/2026

ICYMI here’s why the Mario most likely to do a money spread is my favorite, among other things about the YouTube series he’s in the quoted piece

Mario has been a million and one things on-screen, but, most honestly, he is one of the world’s most successful entertainment companies’ biggest money makers. He is only rivaled by the likes of Mickey Mouse and Superman. Mario’s games sell millions. His movies earn billions. Even now, as the Nintendo Switch 2 has enjoyed a successful release that’s included hits like Donkey Kong Bananza, Pokopia, and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, many are salivating in anticipation of the next 3-D Mario game. Nintendo knows and revels in this.

While several Mario games have influenced and revolutionized the actual craft of game design, that is not necessarily their primary goal. People do not get new Mario games and movies out of the kindness of Nintendo’s heart — the company’s track record with how much it cares for its fans speaks for itself — or Nintendo’s desire to push the boundaries of gaming, but because there’s not a single C-suite executive on Earth, at least any interested in keeping their job, that would let this money faucet be turned off. And very few on-screen iterations of Mario make that truth clear, intentionally or otherwise, like Mark Phillip’s.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 06/07/2026

I shared this week’s CD before even realizing the RDCworld piece made it in!! Appreciate it being included among some really great reads

Vantage Points

Meditations on games, culture, and the worlds that produce both.

hold right by myself | gAmeDHD
Sam Vu Nguyen learns to look beyond the grindset mentality, in Cairn and in life (Further Reading: Steven Santana on Cairn).

Mark Phillips Is My Favorite Mario | Exaclaw
Wallace Truesdale profiles an online comedy troupe with its finger on the pulse of Black gaming culture.

Repairing Historical Memory in Koyamachou | Gamers with Glasses

Dídac Jiménez Torras tends to trinkets, to memories, to lives in a small jam game about a watch repair shop (Further Reading: Franny on Undusted: Letters from the Past)

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 05/07/2026

Once again, I love having a website where I can just write things like this and it makes sense

One of the most sobering scenes in the Video Game House series comes from Crash Bandicoot in Episode 3. As a car packed with Mario, Luigi, Master Chief, and Link talk about Sonic (“He’s about to fall off, no one’s playing his shit anymore,” Mario proclaims), Mario suddenly asks Link to roll the windows up. This is because the plumber just spotted Crash on the street corner, characteristically shirtless but now with a cup in his hand. It's painfully obvious what's happening: Crash is homeless. The other characters theorize that he’s broke due to his remakes failing. As Mario puts it, “Remakes and remasters never hit as hard as the original, Luigi. You know that.”

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 03/07/2026

Show me a cool physical game

A pre-owned PS2 copy of Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Botttom. Spongebob is on the cover wearing a military helmet while saluting. A yellow sticker that reads “$12.99 Pre-owned” sits on the top right of the cover.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 03/07/2026

Me when I take the bit too far and my partner gets the ick

Black Man sitting in the car with his girl who is pissed that her man, who she thought was applying to jobs, gave himself
the superhero name Black Man

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 01/07/2026

This entire interview is worth a watch but this quote at the end is a favorite. It captures how Ellison viewed games and people pretty well, and also hearing him say “pistol packin’ poppas and mommas” is just funny

At the end of the interview, Ellison says “it would be my delight if this game set a trend and all of the arcade bang bang games that turned kids into pistol packin’ poppas and mommas were subsumed into games like this in which ethical considerations, and using your brains, and unraveling puzzles became the modus operandi. It would be my pleasure if that was it. I don’t think it’ll happen. I think you like being diverted too much.”

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 01/07/2026

Oh and also shout out to @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social bc the digital archive came in clutch for some research here. It’s where I got this tidbit about Ellison needing some game conventions explained to him while making IHNMAIMS

thinking the story lost some of its initial horror and shock more as a consequence of Ellison’s unfamiliarity with games. In Issue 225 of Game Informer which featured a piece about the game by Jeff Cork, then-Cyberdream developer David Mullich even mentions how he had to explain certain medium conventions to the author. Independent of that,

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 01/07/2026

Also doing research for this piece led to grabbing one of my favorite screenshots in a while

A screenshot of the YouTube video “Harlan Ellison “I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream” interview where text on screen asks “What do you think about the OJ Simpson trial?”

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 28/06/2026

My thoughts after playing Norco for the first time last week have not changed, seconding the rec

Bluesky message where Wallace says “Def one of those games where if someone ask me to make a best of the year list I’d have to ask “Best Games of 2026 or Best Games I Played In 2026,” cause shit Id sneak it in there”

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 24/06/2026

Just silly little guys playing with words 24 hrs of the day

The title screen for the game Reunion, set to Classic, where a fox and a hedgehog are side-by-side in a forst during the daytime.

The title screen for the game Reunion, set to Extreme, where a fox and a hedgehog are side-by-side in a forest during the nighttime.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 23/06/2026

Like I can't look at this and honestly be surprised that we ended up with Vegeta dancing with Sabrina Carpenter while dodging shots from Peter Griffin

Camp Half-Blood in Poptropica. A satyr in front of a cave that has the words "Percy jackson" above the opening says "Come on in and see percy and his friends!" The player character has a crown and a tail. A sign to the right reads 'Welcome Half-Bloods!"

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 16/06/2026

Literally what happens when you mess with her

A picture of page 254 of Vol. 1 of Stop!! hibari-kun where Hibari unloads an assault rifle toward the reader. The entire panel is rull of TAT TATs and THMMs and PEWWs sound effects, in english and kanji, around her.

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Wallace @exalclaw.com · 15/06/2026

A commenter has called me a “detective” for this video, quick someone die under mysterious circumstances so I can prove it (or, preferably, don’t die and watch the video)

User “@armouros” commenting “you are grate at questioning… you really are a detective” on Exalclaw’s youtube video interviewing game developers making murder mystery games

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