iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Slitterhead is one of the great "7/10 (complimentary)" games of recent years and should be played, even though it's like 97% voice acting-less and also completely parry-obsessed. Incredible body horror action concepts in there/kind of a good Mortal Shell-like in that specific way.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

(I say "potentially" because I suspect, as I'm re-reading these Florida Frenzy & Blood and Grits pieces, that some of the Crews personal stories are autofiction.)

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Re-read Harry Crews' "The Most Kindest Cut of All: Vasectomy," and it is wild (unfortunate, sad) that he concludes all the young women of the doctor's office wanted his sperm and not that he was potentially being shamed for making himself less of a man/having his gendered role in society policed.

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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The future of the military is one computer shooting missiles at whoever it wants and thousands of soldiers who stand around looking sexy

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Jessica Cogswell 🌸 @jessicogs.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Exactly. I am tired of seeing the “I always knew”/“their work was actually bad” takes whenever allegations emerge. Sometimes—often, actually!—bad people find their way into good spaces and make good things. And you’re not better than the folks who were taken advantage of for “always knowing”

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shaunt @shaunvids.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

language model programs have no conscious intent or ethical understanding and they never will. you can program them to say they do, but they fundamentally cannot

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

(It's funny because Soulstice a couple years back was very much in the DMC DMC style, which I think says something about that style: It didn't meet post-DMC 4 standards, but I always found it fun, in part because it was simple to control. It's like the God of War of DMC-lineage games.)

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The Control Resonant combat sure has some DMC Devil May Cry vibes, to me, from a distance (connotation: positive).

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Reading Brautigan has been like reading Pynchon for the first time in college, though--sort of "Where has this guy been all my life?"-like. Like, "I was predestined to like this and can't believe nobody told me sooner."

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Finished my first little Richard Brautigan collection of Confederate General, Dreaming of Babylon, and The Hawkline Monster. I think I preferred Confederate General to the genre subversions, largely because it is more actively sentimental/eventually melancholy. Love all 3's humor & language.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I keep thinking I should replay Mirror of Fate...

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I haven't quite been tempted into playing the MercurySteam Metroids, but every time I see the Lords of Shadow-isms in those games, I think "Hmmmmm."

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Instead of Hiring That Man, Nintendo should have hired all of us!

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Lazlo Mortal Shell 2 has to be one of the coolest fat guys in gaming, just by virtue of sharing the same animations as the rest of the cast (so he doesn't do "X, but fatly").

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Down Here For Your Soul @bombsfall.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

leftist bros naturally using the existing american fascist government as a distraction from kitchen table issues like the career of Hasan Piker

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It feels like they tried to combine the base Mortal Shell experience and the Virtuous Cycle DLC into one thing, with a focus on getting the big "broken" effects on accessories and Shell skill trees to trivialize high-risk enemy encounters. If you're not "breaking" it, then it probably feels hard?

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Mortal Shell 2 difficulty--I mostly do not find it difficult, but I'm playing it the way I played 1 (running heavy attacks and exclusively Hardening, none of the other new parries). Sometimes I do get clipped & am surprised at just how much health it takes, so parry-focused people may be suffering?

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Favorite Shells so far in Mortal Shell 2 have been Gragu and Smert. I like their quirks that take some adjustment. I thought Smert was some kind of wizard before playing, which is especially funny now that I know his actual character/abilities. (I guess it's KIND OF like magic, Jack Garland-style.)

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I do find Mortal Shell 2's world stressfully open; while I wasn't as into Proxima as I thought I would be, I find Gragu satisfyingly Wide.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I may or may not write about the REANIMAL DLC when it's all out, but I did play #1 the other day, and I thought it was very good. I now do think the chases can replace the stealth IF they continue to make them a bit more complex than just running in a straight line. (Loved the flamethrower guy bit!)

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

South of Midnight is one of the best looking games I've played this console generation (up there w/ Silksong for me in having a compelling look). Also, very big PS360-era action-adventure hack-and-slash vibes (connotation: positive): a lil janky, a lil too much combat, glowing orb upgrade collectin.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Just in time for DLC #1, here are my REANIMAL base game thoughts: on the box art, the big disappointments (disclaimer: still looking forward to the DLCs!), themes, classic God of War-like elements, what it even means to "re-animal," etc. thathorriblepen.blogspot.com/2026/08/rean...

A simple collage of two video game screenshots arranged horizontally—The one on the left is from REANIMAL and depicts a group of children in a small motorboat, on dark water at night, with an unclear landscape around them apart from a lighthouse that stands atop a distant cliff; the screenshot on the right is from Resident Evil 5 and depicts the two main characters in a small boat, on murky water on a cloudy day, with a marshy landscape somewhat visible, particularly a primitive village made of wood rising from the water in the background. The two games look quite different: Beyond their distinct art styles, REANIMAL uses a distant camera that creates a wide shot of the scene, but Resident Evil 5 has a camera close to the shoulders of the player character, framing the action from his perspective. REANIMAL has no visible on-screen display, but Resident Evil 5 has health, weapon, and ammunition displays for the two characters and also a small map of the level.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The blacksmith in Mortal Shell 2 (demo) has me in a "I also choose this guy's dead wife" situation since he's clearly attracted to his upgrade machine, and the more he talks about it, the more I'm kinda seeing his perspective on things.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

You know who else went on an "Odyssey"? Fern Nomadland 2020. On the blog, I explore the lasting impression of the van toilet pooping and, of course, AMAZON (but I try to do it in a personally-annoyed way). thathorriblepen.blogspot.com/2026/07/re-n...

thathorriblepen.blogspot.com

Re-Nomadland Film Feelings

Before revisiting Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland (2020), I had two distinct left-over impressions from my first viewing years ago: One was a memory ...

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warrior cop @wyattprivilege.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Every dollar spent on social services is, in some sense, a theft from the weapons industry

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Topher Florence @topherflorence.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

90% sure whoever made this put simply smallville era tom welling and allison mack into the video game

pixelated characters in a dating sim who resemble clark kent and chloe sullivan from the hit tv show smallville

a photograph of 20 something underwear model tom welling pretending to be a high schooler

a photograph of notorious cult ringleader allison mack on smallville before or during all that shit happened i'm not sure.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Decided to try playing Dungeon Siege 3 again... (I think I like it better than 2 now. It's a lot less like 1, of course, but also less like Diablo than 2.)

From the video game Dungeon Siege 3: The player is interacting with a man hanging head-down and bound in spider silk. There is an enormous spider in the background, and the hanging man is saying "How did you...? It's right behind me, isn't it?"

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Bobby Schroeder @ponett.dog · 14/07/2026

i have the teen titans go poop song stuck in my head because of that one joe biden video. what a sentence to type

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Too Old To Die Young--It's annoying in ways that really speak to me. At least one meta-ish joke of the series is how it lures w/ Hardcore Dirty Cop Angst & then eventually swings around to somebody getting fucked with a horse whip. (Diana's day off in the final ep looks like it feels good as hell.)

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Inevitably, every group will one day mistake a seeming bunch of noise on Twitter for real-life influence. It comes for us all, tbf!

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The ongoing Sony anti-digital-only stuff on Twitter certainly has (if it didn't always have) that feeling of over-estimating the significance of Twitter. No discs is bad, but the ongoing pestering & the reactions to the Call of Duty re-releases just have that "I VOTE w/ my WALLET" vibe. (Pointless).

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Maybe it's just the unfortunate unique alignment of my social media feeds, but Sony announcing they're going disc-less in the same time period where we (I) learned just how apparently easy it is to hack someone's PlayStation account has me feeling Despair re. this whole hobby.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

As someone who only watched the first and (most of) the last episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus

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My Name is Grant @mynameisgrant.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

An under discussed element of the place of tv shows in American homes that’s been lost in the streaming era: it isn’t just that they made 22 episodes a year, they reran them over the other half of the year. If you were home you were still with your fiends who live in the TV year-round.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

I do appreciate that the Sphinx in Dragon's Dogma 2 gives you actual little challenges and riddles since I thought it might just pose everyone's favorite (four legs, two legs, three legs) riddle and call it a day Because Video Games.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Sort of like how I didn't get/like Bane until I saw him in the Secret Six years ago, I actually kind of feel like I might like Mundus as a character after watching this adaptation.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Mixed feelings about Netflix DMC season 2: Obviously, Shankar is INCREDIBLY annoying, but I still think the show is pretty good. I don't feel much of anything for its Dante, but I'd go so far as to say I prefer its Mundus, Arius, Arkham, and Lady, with an * for the last 2 until I see their reunion.

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Tim Rogers minus context @108minuscontext.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

There’s the varmint!

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Finished South of Midnight--The traversal, puzzles, and combat could definitely have scaled up better/more/more consistently for my taste, but I enjoyed the solid action-adventure of it all. Easily some of the best visual art and music of the console generation too.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Stellar Blade sequel can't fool me with that trailer--I know it'll just be waddling around waiting for parries.

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Nathan Grayson @nathangrayson.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

for six years now, one person has sat on the URL for a common misspelling of summer game fest (which SHOULD be plural, not singular imo). this year's redirect is personal

“Trans rights have been important to me my entire adult life,” Knapik wrote on Bluesky. “My first job after leaving the Army (which no one who knows me will admit happened) was for my mother at the Hippo in Baltimore. The Hippo was, to my knowledge, the largest queer nightclub in Baltimore, maybe the state. … It wasn't my first time among LGBTQ+ communities—my mother is a lesbian, my friends were sometimes queer, and people I had known throughout my time in the Army transitioned immediately afterwards—but my time there did more to shape me into an upstanding person than service ever did.”

Knapik believes that homophobes and transphobes are a dying breed in the grand scheme of things, but they’re not going out quietly.

“I (perhaps naïvely) believe there are fewer of those people these days, but they are inarguably louder and more powerful than ever. They hold office, they own websites,” he wrote. “UFC fucking champions posting AI videos depicting hate crimes. Shit we didn't accept from YouTubers a decade ago has become passé behavior for major public figures. So yeah, the silly typo website redirects to a place that fights as well as anyone can for trans people in this environment. I'm just garden-variety bi, but I've been within the echo radius of trans hate—and trans joy—for decades, and seen how gleefully the former shreds the path to the latter.”

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I'm still annoyed they took out the first Lightreaper encounter (I guess to support permadeath runs) because it messes with Harkyn's intro/his sense of importance to the story, and it makes the already weak idea of that boss as a persistent threat weaker still.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Haven't noticed many meaningful differences in a Lords of the Fallen "Veteran" playthrough so far--Mostly, it's my first contact with the new "default" enemy density, which kind of... sucks. Making the initial area easier makes sense, but the swamp feels unnecessarily empty, like they panicked.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

There IS something off-putting about air-combo-ing as Kratos' photorealistic hot dead barefoot wife, however.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

God of War 4 betting on a jump-button-less cinematic action future just keeps looking sillier.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Endings-wise: They're all disappointing in and of themselves, but I like that Infernal sends you back out into the world (in a way that's more obvious than Umbral), & it's the only ending where your characters isn't just dissolved. I like Umbral for giving Harkyn's story a definite conclusion, tho.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Finished up my Umbral ending playthrough of Lords of the Fallen at last--It is WILD how low trophy percentages still are for this game, years later, and the fact that at least someone thinks that marketing the sequel to chuds is going to improve those numbers in Lords 2 II (aka, 3) is also Wild.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Like, either you think a coyote telling a bear to "Ravage me like I'm a fucking campsite!" is funny or you don't, and I DO think it's funny. The way the characters are simultaneously people (moving around upright a lot, wearing SOME clothes) and animals (poo-poo pee-pee) just works for me.

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Monty Terrible @thathorriblepen.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I'm enjoying Mating Season so far (4 eps in). It lacks the relatability that (I think) made Big Mouth so good, but as someone who enjoyed the writing and performances in that other show, this seems like a very satisfactory successor. It even still has an opening theme, which I was worried about.

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