Sundays are spent popping into the corner shop and buying a Lion bar. Before we get started, read this week’s best articles on games (and game-related stuff).
On Eurogamer, Caelyn Ellis Become Detective Elden Ring. The hard art of recreating someone else’s save file, something I never thought of before. And in a game as rich as Elden Ring.
Sellen offered to pay someone to recreate their thrifty Elden ring, but without the unfortunate death of poor Jar Bairn. I can totally see why, when young JB was a lovely little example of Elden Ring’s fascinating pot players. Paying someone to play a game with you may seem strange, but after chatting with them privately, I discovered that both are busy people with little time to play games. While they only played the game for sixteen hours or so, that represents a few months of overall time that is hard to get back. Intrigued by the challenge of recreating their savings presented, I accepted the weirdest commission of my freelance career to date.
For The Washington Post, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Julia Mio Inuma and Shiho Fukada visited Studio Ghibli’s long-awaited amusement park. It’s fun to watch an amusement park not to detox your lungs on a roller coaster and, like, enjoy the sweet atmosphere. Nothing to say other than, “Yes, I want to go”.
Clusters of soot, aka Makkuro kurosuke, hide in the corners. The individual contracts signed by people whose names were stolen by Yubaba, or Granny, before Chihiro entered the spirit world in “Spirited Away”. A Totoro is sleeping soundly in a corner of the children’s play area. Realistic expressions of raccoon dogs in “Pom Poko.” Acorns stacked along a walking path in the Dondoko Forest. Fully functional gas stove in Nishi’s antique shop. Drops of water the size of your hand as you see the world through Arrietty’s eyes.
On Polygon, Jacob Linden investigates Link is wearing pajamas in A Link To The Past. A gentle dive into a serious question, with some additional tidbits of history added for good measure. Polgyon is running a Video Game Fashion Weekif you are interested in other articles like this.
A manga created for the Nintendo Power-powered game suggests a different pajama design, with Link waking up in a red shirt with a deep plunging collar. He also has an alternate nightgown in this art for the GBA release. Undoubtedly, the simplest and most boring explanation is that the game developers did not find it necessary or sufficient resources to show the Selection Link between the wardrobe options in the intro. You could even argue that this choice makes the last time you get your armor upgraded more impactful. But we can dig deeper into this. What if Link was sleeping in his armor as a hidden aspect of Hylian’s combat training?
For Bloomberg, Lucas Shaw wrote about Netflix’s New Netflix Search. Take a look at Netflix’s laid-back ethos that means some act back carefully as competition grows and its subscribers dwindle.
At the end of 2021, the numbers cannot be ignored and executives need to figure out the answer. In March, Neumann, the chief financial officer, dropped the test ball at an investor conference. Netflix is not religious about advertising, he said, adding, “Never say never.” A month later, as the stock tumbled, Hastings officially made the decision. He said Netflix will be testing ads in the next year or two. That remark blinded most of his employees, especially the elderly, who saw a lack of advertising central to the company’s mission. But once Hastings decided to move on, Netflix wasted no time. After not selling ads for 25 years, it will now build an ad business within the next seven months.
On Eurogamer, Ishraq Subhan drew attention to your console’s power usage when streaming video. A quick news post convinced me to stop streaming on a Smart TV instead of a PS5.
Word analysis FlatpanelsHD found that streaming video on PlayStation 5 consumes 25 times more power than Chromecast, while Xbox Series X consumes up to 18 times more. To factor those numbers into watts, the PS5 and Xbox Series X consume up to 80 W and 57 W respectively when playing video, compared to just 3.2 W on the Chromecast or 4 W on the Apple TV.
This week’s music is Strangers (feat. A$AP Rocky and Run The Jewels) by Danger Mouse & Black Thought. This is YouTube link and Spotify Link. From the album Cheat Codes. Turn it up.
I would also recommend Belize (feat. MF Doom) and Aquamarine (feat. Michael Kiwanuka) in the same album.
That’s it, see you next week!
