iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 3h

played my wife the main theme from FF Resonance and she asked if we were at graduation. fucking roasted (and soon to be divorced)

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 6h

Lake has me thinking of Dale Cooper which has me thinking about how I just want to be as happy as that man when he has a coffee and some pie in front of him

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 17h

A great deal happened today. But nothing more important than this. SCOTUS allows Trump Administration to continue sending detained migrants to third countries with which the migrants have no prior connection. Just appalling.

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 22h

as a former Dota player (like, 20+ years of it), I greatly fear what Deadlock may one day do to me

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gita “the formalist” jackson @xoxogossipgita.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Journalism in general is terrible for women and people of color and games journalism is all the same shit but in a pressure cooker

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

realizing I really like games where you run really quickly (Control Resonant, Saros) but have never played a Sonic

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

not sure where the random encounter convo is stemming from, but my two cents is that random encounters are good and that sometimes you just need to get your shit blown up out of nowhere

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

sharing this one more time — on the distinctive and inventive world Control Resonant creates. (trying to free myself from the need to discuss every single element, plus, and minus of a game when reviewing; how liberating)

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

my review of Control Resonant, which remarkably maps Dylan's inner life onto an open world, reckons with COVID, and all but bursts with spectacle and emotive heft www.slantmagazine.com/games/contro...

Text: Traversal is far more compelling, as Control Resonant remarkably maps Dylan’s inner life onto his movement through the open world. Though Dylan’s capacity to levitate carries a sense of liberation—from the inconveniences of urban planning, from the F.B.C.’s unshakable grip on him—so, too, does it communicate his ostracization. Rather than walking among the F.B.C., whose agents hush their conversations or berate Dylan when he approaches, he soars above them, a pariah tolerated solely as a weapon. All the while, he floats across chasms with the same relaxed, Peter Pan-esque bearing as Jesse, underscoring her absence and his loneliness.

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Control Resonant DLC gonna go crazy

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

with Ace Combat 8 reviews out, can people care about Control for a few more days (until my review of Resonant goes up)?

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Control (Remedy Entertainment, 2019)

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I've only spent a bit of time with this one so far, but it's very compelling, nice emergent storytelling and characterization

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Carolyn Petit @carolynmichelle.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Stoked to have a review of Control Resonant by the always thought-provoking Cole Kronman on Kotaku today. kotaku.com/control-reso...

You’ve seen it in trailers: there is another, more opaque antagonistic force afoot in Control Resonant, one that effectively warps spaces and objects into fluctuating, kaleidoscopic recursion art. The game calls this force “The Pattern,” and it’s the basis for the vast majority of its most inventive aesthetic and ludic ideas. From Control onward, Remedy has fully embraced the notion of video games as interactive art exhibits, designing environments under the guiding principle that 3D art and 3D level geometry can be the exact same thing. Resonant represents what is perhaps the most compelling implementation of this ethos yet: The Pattern is a visual and technical marvel, and it’s also an impetus for players to rethink their relationship with spaces that regularly twist and fold back on themselves. There is nothing else that plays quite like this because there is nothing else that looks quite like this—the case for Remedy, once again, is that they understand on a bone-deep level what makes this medium interesting, and pursue their vision with a fervor begotten of generosity. They made Resonant because they want us to understand, too.

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Control? I'm too busy Controlling the urge to play Fire Emblem

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

summoning the willpower required to finish Onimusha before starting Fire Emblem

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Hasbro's quest to release countless D&D games can never change the fact that they didn't create the best D&D games (Dragon's Dogma 1 and 2)

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

conversations about videogames make a lot more sense when you realize that everyone's wrong, all the time. someone disagrees with you? they're wrong. someone agrees with you? they're wrong. does that mean you're wrong? yes, always

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

[guy who cancels Ms. Rachel but it’s because she had a typo in her Ed Sheeran post]

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

anybody else getting Liv Tyler's Arwen from Shizuka (vibe/facial expressions/etc.)

Liv Tyler as Arwen (woman with a grey hood up)

Shizuka from Onimusha (red-haired woman with a pensive expression)

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

it's fucked up that Kingdom Hearts is in Fortnite. crossovers are so cheap, especially when they don't make a hint of organic sense. anyway, back to giving Sephiroth a concussion with Goofy's shield

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

call it a game and give it a 7/10

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

choosing to make peace with the immense likelihood that my insistence on writing about games will likely end up with me publishing stuff on a quaint blog

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

payday is tomorrow because Fire Emblem comes out on Thursday. the big bang happened first to set it all in motion

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

[game uses the likeliness of a dead man] “it is entirely a coincidence if anything in this game reminds you of a single thing outside if it”

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

gonna start getting more serious about assigning scores to reviews. game doesn’t have Issen? minus one star (of five)

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

when I argue with you, I am critiquing. when you argue with me, it is a witch hunt. we are not the same

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

demo rips, put it on the Switch and ruin my life

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

really thoughtful piece by Chris that does the service of including a screenshot of the actual correct answer to "what is the hottest a person has ever looked in a movie" (Mifune in Snow Trail)

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

extremely grim to feign concern about climate change being too topical when there'll be no planet to enjoy "entertainment" on when climate change's moment passes

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

gamers, the single most entitled audience that will do the absolute least to foster meaningful engagement. they simultaneously want everything and just one extremely specific thing. a black hole that spins art in circles for eternity

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

hateful, dumb, lazy shit that will consign people to hell

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Eternal Anima looks very intriguing btw

Screenshot from Eternal Anima: turn-based battle with enemies on left and allies on right. Character UI at bottom of screen

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I continue to be surprised by how much I enjoy illustrations of game characters playing on a Switch

Anthropomorphic cats from Monster Hunter happily playing on Nintendo Switches

G'raha Tiah from FFXIV (red-haired cat guy) playing a Nintendo Switch with a moogle (cute white-furred creature with a pom pom on its head) on his shoulder

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I have been planning on being a Saga guy for a long time and think I will become a Saga guy now

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I was not a Metroid guy but think I am a Metroid guy now

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

sorry, I will take a roguelike mode in every single game

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

new Onimusha is a Sekiro-like (beard daddy)

Takamura from Onimusha (large, older man with long hair and a dark beard, golden vest, golden gauntlet, hand on the hilt of the sword at his hip, jolly smile)

Owl from Sekiro (large, older man, long hair and a white beard, feathered cape, sword in hand)

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Nic at Jank is one of the finer recent moves of videogame crit

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I've gone with Japanese audio for Onimusha, but my ~research~ shows that Tashinga Bepete is doing absolutely diabolical work as Ganryu in English

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Craig Jenkins @craigsj.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

cranking the realism slider on the polygonal toon world of n64 zelda leaves some stuff lookin fuckin crazed / hilarious but link been my guy from day one so

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

while we're all here, can anyone with a PR contact for Fire Emblem DM me?

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Aonuma: the gameplay has been "improved" the massive thinkpiece machine, dusty and ravenous: hummmmm

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Nintendo's gonna send recordings of your humming to Amazon and the CIA

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Niv M. Sultan @nivmsultan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

quest log is more sacrilegious than the art style

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