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Alexander M Cannell

Alexander M Cannell

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Reading List April 2023

The April Reading List is here! Enjoy some good games discourse about how our familiarity with the medium affects our experience of it, have some cathartic commiseration over Waypoint’s untimely demise, and much, much more. For those wondering, the next video (a Games Under Five Hours video) is...

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A Very Belated March Reading List

Heya folks, apologies this one took so dang long to get out. We'll be dialing back the streaming schedule to hopefully give me more time to focus on everything else I'm supposed to be doing.

But it's here! March was GDC month, which always produces some fun anecdotes, Armored Core hype got ...

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Against the Storm Review Available Day Early For Patrons!

It's been a hot minute since I could post a video, but here we are at last! Against the Storm started as a quarterly wrapup contender, but was 1. way too long to feature there, and 2. way too awesome to just write a paragraph about. So it got promoted to full review status!

I haven't been s...

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Reading List February 2023

The reading list is back! This time, we have a game development documentary almost too big to be believed — I'm talking the Lord of the Rings behind-the-scenes scale of massive — as well as interviews on Hi-Fi Rush, psychological analyses of Bioware characters, and more.

Second ...

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Hi-Fi Rush Review is Live!

Man, I did not realize how down bad I was after slogging through Cult of the Lamb.

After playing that game, I was starting to become convinced that I simply didn't like action games and the genre had, somehow, mystically become "not for me." 2022 was a rough year for action games n...

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Reading List (January 2023)

The first reading list of the year is live! This feels like a particularly good crop this time around. We have a few other, deeper looks at Signalis, a phenomenal series of articles by Polygon that squarely hits our interests, and an ongoing discussion about what's worthy of coverage and why. All...

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Signalis Review Now Live!

A new review is live! Elster goes to hell, and so do I.

At long last, we're finally wrapping up talking about 2022, and this ended up being a nightmare project. Not because it was especially complex or because I didn't enjoy my time with Signalis, but just because almost anything that could...

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Channel Update January 2023!

A bit less exciting but still important video today, folks. For longterm patrons, there are a few exciting announcements: a major project I've embarked on as the next sort of "phase" of the channel, the imminent advent of streaming after years of saying I wanted to do some, and a less exciting an...

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Reading List (December 2022)

Yes, you read that headline correctly. We’re pretty well into January at this point, but I still owe you folks a reading list! Enjoy some of the best games crit from December, including the last vestiges of the game of the year debate, a few videos highlighting Fortnite’s ever-changing nature...

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Cult of the Lamb Review Now Live!

Happy new year folks! The year in review is continuing with Cult of the Lamb — one of the biggest indies of August that caught a tiny bit of flack for being too short.

I'm always going to show up for a game that gets the dollar-to-hour crowd in a tizzy, but I found myself with desperately...

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Vampire Survivors Review Now Live!

We're winding down the year, and that means that it's time to do my usual Year in Review series. There are always a few games that just don't fit in the schedule, and this is my opportunity to go back and catch them!

First up is Vampire Survivors, a game that's been a phenomenon since all t...

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Reading List (November 2022)

The reading list comes at last, and this month, the cup runneth over! This is probably the biggest list I’ve ever put together, with banger retrospectives of both the absolute best and the worst gaming has to offer, wonderful critical breakdowns of industry cornerstones World of Warcraft and Ca...

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New Games Under Five Hours Available Early for Patrons!

Games Under Five Hours is back! It's been a hot minute since I've been able to find the space to fit one of these into the schedule, but I always love doing them.

Up this time, we've got hectic shooters, chaotic racers, and Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, which at once perfectly desc...

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Marvel Snap Review Now Live!

Surprise! Another review is now live! After hearing universally good things about it, I got curious about this neat new card game called Marvel Snap. Maybe you've heard of it.

You probably weren't expecting another video so soon, but this is probably the angriest I've ever been in a review,...

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Reading List (October 2022)

With October here and gone, that means it's time for a reading list! With the Nier video out of the way, we'll be returning to much more regular and shorter videos, but in the meantime, we've got a shotgun blast of articles all coming at the concept of time-approachable games from different angle...

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Nier: Automata GTDM Live Early for $5 Patrons!

It's been a hot minute since I've gotten to post in here, but rest assured, I've been working away folks! And now, your's for the weekend before anyone else, I've finally finished the Nier: Automata video I said I'd do...

...Last June. Welp. Sorry that took so long!

As for the video i...

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Reading List (September 2022)

September’s reading list is here, folks! It’s still going to be another two-ish weeks before the next video on Nier releases, but in the meantime, enjoy a whole bunch of chatter on the excellent Neon White, as well as some nuanced discussion about games using art styles as marketing ...

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Neon White Review is Live!

It's review time again, folks! This time, I've put out Yet Another Video About How Neon White Teaches You to Speedrun, a topic that's already been done a dozen times, but fits so cleanly into my wheelhouse that I just couldn't ignore the game. 

Speedrunning is normally not a hobby I wo...

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Reading List (August 2022)

Reading list time has come again, folks! This time, we were blindsided by the sudden arrival of none other than Sakurai himself to the youtube scene and I've once again found a fair few cool articles highlighting anecdotes about how the music in your favorite games is made. Enjoy all that and mor...

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Symphony of War Review is Live!

Another review is live! Symphony of War has been making some waves for the past few months, offering a more mechanically-focused take on the Fire Emblem formula that hearkens back to the franchise's GBA years. But not content to stop there, Symphony of War also took a note from Ogre Battle and fe...

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Fall Guys Review/Essay Available Day Early For Patrons!

Have y'all played Fall Guys lately? I loved this game at launch, but because life is how it is and I'm always moving on to new games, I haven't touched it in almost two years! But I randomly got an itch to play again (that has nothing to do with the fact it coincidentally just went free to play,<...

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Reading List (July 2022)

Another month, another reading list folks! This month, a few different websites all ended up tackling singular topics from multiple angles, giving me a very easy time picking out the theme categories. Enjoy some of the weirdest angles I've seen people cover DOOM from and some commentary on B...

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TombStar Review Now Live!

Another review is live folks! This time, we're leaping to the other side of the spectrum and looking at a real tiny indie game: TombStar.

TombStar's basically "the Enter the Gungeon we have at home." And I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the moment to moment gameplay...

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The Order: 1886 Review is Live!

It's time for another review folks! This time, I'm stepping a little out of my wheelhouse to review a much older game than I usually do.

When it first came out, The Order: 1886 got almost universally panned, and one of the most widespread criticisms of the game was that it was too short —...

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Reading List June 2022

This month’s reading list is live, and it's a print-heavy one this time around. This time, we’ve got a whole bunch Unwinnable’s been unusually charitable with its free articles, all of which have been excellent. There are also unfortunately about a half dozen elephants in the room to acknow...

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A Very Strategic Quarterly Wrapup Now Available For Patrons!

I know I said I probably wouldn't have time to do a whole quarterly wrapup for my next video, but oops, I did it anyway. And this time, I snuck a bonus sixth game in!

The theme this time around is strategy games, a genre that tends to like to take its time playing out. But I happened to fin...

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Citizen Sleeper Review is Now Live!

A new review is live, folks! Sort of.

At first, I approached Citizen Sleeper like a normal review, but I found that I really wanted to focus on one topic in particular: this game's characters. Namely, how they always come through in a clutch moment for you. Citizen Sleeper makes yo...

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Reading List April/May 2022

We're back on schedule with these folks (which is to say, I desperately scramble on the last day of the month to somehow fit this in between videos). Enjoy a fresh reading list, complete with the last of the Elden Ring takes (probably) and the first of the AAA developer unions!

Seco...

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V Rising Review is Now Live!

A new review is live! V Rising appears to have surprised the world with its early access launch popularity, but as a fan of the developers, I've been looking forward to this one for a while. Stunlock's a studio that's been making phenomenal games for a solid decade now, but they've just never man...

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20 More Ukraine Bundle Recommendations — Yours a Day Early!

Thank you for everyone's patience. My next video is now available a day early for all patrons, and it's a biggun! 20 — yes, 20 — piping hot indie recommendations from the Ukraine bundle back in March. Which means you probably already own them, but even if you don't, these are all super tiny i...

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