Hey-o!
We're a quarter of the way through the year, can you believe it?
As usual, the early months are a little slow for new games. But we've still had a few big hitters, including Marathon, Resident Evil Requiem, and Crimson Desert. Not that I've had a chance to play any of them, besides Resi!
But don't let my situation stop you. Here's your monthly round-up of articles and videos worth checking out. Speak soon!
New Releases
Read - Online games force players to embrace impermanence during uncertain times - "Marathon’s ephemeral loop discourages stockpiling and showmanship. If dropped, high-level weapons are just free ammo for the next player or raw materials to be claimed by the uninhabitable planet".
Read - I Miss When Multiplayer Games Weren't Changing All The Time - "Marathon's recent tweak to gun noises is the latest example of how, in 2026, games can't solidify into anything special".
Read - Bungie's Marathon Is Only Doomed If Sony Wants It To Be - "Two things have become clear since Marathon launched at the beginning of March. The first is that it’s a very cool game that feels unlike anything else out there. The second is that most players are perfectly happy having nothing to do with it".
Read - I'm in a situationship with Marathon's "worst" gun - "Marathon meta? Cryo Archive? Runner, wake up: we're frolicking in Perimeter with a volt thrower".
Read - Crimson Desert is great because it's a total mess, not in spite of it, and I hope Pearl Abyss doesn't change too much - "A strange narrative regarding Crimson Desert started to sprout up after the reviews for Pearl Abyss's peculiar RPG first appeared—that it was somehow a disappointment.".
Watch (12 mins) - Resident Evil Requiem Is a Resident Evil Game About Resident Evil Games - "Resident Evil Requiem is about a lot of things – the terror of the unknown, the scars of our past, the benefits of a good fanny pack".
Watch (18 mins) - Resident Evil Requiem Has the Franchise's Worst and Best Designs - I don't agree with this video at all. I actually think the differences between Grace and Leon work wonders for the game's pacing. But interesting to see other opinions, nevertheless!
Behind the Headlines
Read - They Fell for It - Autumn Wright writes about the reporting and response to Nvidia's DLSS 5 slop-o-matic filter.
Read - The Fortnite layoffs are another consequence of gaming giving into big tech’s fads - "It’s never a good look when the company running what is still, inarguably, one of the most popular and successful games in the world lays off 1,000 people, as happened with Fortnite maker Epic Games this week".
Design
Watch (1 hr, 53 mins) - GMDC 2025: Game Retention, Marketing, Sound, Alt Ctrl, Directing, Pixel Art +More! - Our very own GMTK Discord server has its own online convention with talks. Here's this year's event!
Watch (20 mins) - Why Nintendo's open worlds feel so empty - "I want to explore why Nintendo fell in love with open worlds, what makes some of them so great, and others feel dull and empty".
Watch (10 mins) - Mechanics I Hate and How Games Fix Them - "Sometimes I want to love a game but one little thing seems to drag down the entire experience. Let's talk about the games that take mechanics I hate and put a spin on the formula to turn them into something amazing".
Development
Watch (19 mins) - My Game Idea Sounded Amazing (it wasn’t) - "In this devlog, I discuss why I’m walking away from a year of progress on my micro-RTS and how "chronic prototyping" led me to build a slots-based autobattler".
Read - Two Steam games had a similar idea, name, and release date ... but only one became a top seller - "Retro Rewind and Rewind 99 are both VHS rental store management games vying for attention on Steam".
Watch (40 mins) - Do THIS to get more wishlists - "Hey here is a secret: enter festivals to get wishlists (see saved you a click)". Chris Z explains all.
Read - Clair Obscur writer shares advice to improve your game's story - "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen explains how thoughtful information sharing can help your team".
Culture
Read - A Love Letter To 'Girl Games' - "I collected buttercup petals and tailored clothes in the whimsical Pixie Hollow; I roller skated and applied makeup in the glamorous shopathon Bratz: Rock Angelz".
Watch (39 mins) - Wii Horror Games Were Built Different - "Nintendo aren't exactly known for their horror games, yet they created one of the most interesting homes for the genre to flourish with the Wii".
Watch (21 mins) - Three - The Machine That Took Over Tekken - A python script, used to automate Tekken 8 gameplay, upended the game's ranking system.
Watch (44 mins) - How Fans “Ripped” Mario Kart World’s Soundtrack - "Mario Kart World has an extensive soundtrack…but, without an official release, it can only be heard in-game with intrusive sound effects. A group of passionate fans looked to remedy this problem with some creative engineering".
Critique
Read - I'm convinced the greatest horror game of all time is a lonely nightmare from 2003 - "It's impossible to overstate how intoxicating the Crimson Butterfly remake's mood is, especially in the dollmaker's cottage I'm currently trapped in".
Watch (32 mins) - More Games That Save the Best for Last - Jacob Geller looks at the games that do something wild with their last levels.
Artistry
Read - Designing Oppression in the Skies of Half-Life 2 - "From The Children of Men and The Pianist to Let The Right One In and No Country For Old Men, gray skies have long served cinema when it has aimed to evoke melancholy".
Watch (23 mins) - When Video Games were Brown. - Ahoy analyses thousands of gaming videos to determine if and when games became drab.
History
Read - Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP: An oral history - "Celebrate the 15th anniversary of Superbrothers, Jim Guthrie, and Capybara releasing their musical adventure game, and everyone wondering what was up with that".
Watch (2 hours) - Spore (From The Sims Creator Will Wright) - It's one of the most ambitious games - and most quickly forgotten about. Here's the full development
Watch (2 hours) - Sega Saturn Retrospective - "In exploring the Saturn's library, I unearthed a lost civlization that aimed to speak through their art, and these fantastic games are in danger of being lost to time".
Watch (8 mins) - Why do NES colors look so different in emulators? - "Have you ever looked at an NES game in an emulator or on original hardware and wondered why the colors weren't quite what you remembered? Me too, and I decided to dive into it and find out".
Beyond Games
Watch (13 mins) - The world's most annoying road - There's a road that goes from Canada to Argentina. Well, almost. Map Men explain.