Arthur Gies (he/him)
@aegies.bsky.social
Painter (instagram.com/pragmagic), Supervising Editor at Wirecutter for tech, founder of Polygon dot com and someone who's consulted on lots of games you liked and more you probably didn't. Tech-fixated, compulsively acquiring 4k physical media.
hello i am back to the outer worlds 2, where i continue to attempt to solve interpersonal conflicts for the good of the galaxy. twitch.tv/aegies
November 30, 2025 at 2:35 AM
hello i am back to the outer worlds 2, where i continue to attempt to solve interpersonal conflicts for the good of the galaxy. twitch.tv/aegies
really kicking myself for not jumping on the $200 4TB western digital NVMes last month. seems like it's going to be a long time before we see prices like that again.
November 29, 2025 at 10:04 PM
really kicking myself for not jumping on the $200 4TB western digital NVMes last month. seems like it's going to be a long time before we see prices like that again.
I think playing a video game from my childhood (in this case castlevania III) elicited clear memories as effectively as smell would. For an hour I was right back in a very specific moment in a specific house.
November 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM
I think playing a video game from my childhood (in this case castlevania III) elicited clear memories as effectively as smell would. For an hour I was right back in a very specific moment in a specific house.
another shorter, post-holiday sleepy stream, this time of castlevania III: twitch.tv/aegies
November 29, 2025 at 2:09 AM
another shorter, post-holiday sleepy stream, this time of castlevania III: twitch.tv/aegies
Instead they make everything more expensive after the first week of October to make the discounts look bigger.
No really.
No really.
imo it would be better to make everything temporarily MORE expensive on Black Friday, to make prices seem lower by comparison the rest of the year
November 29, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Instead they make everything more expensive after the first week of October to make the discounts look bigger.
No really.
No really.
The annual Thanksgiving-ish rewatch.
November 28, 2025 at 7:05 PM
The annual Thanksgiving-ish rewatch.
I regret to inform everyone that the four twenty five mashed potatoes that bon apetit’s YouTube channel just featured are in fact incredible (and pretty painless to prepare).
November 27, 2025 at 8:49 PM
I regret to inform everyone that the four twenty five mashed potatoes that bon apetit’s YouTube channel just featured are in fact incredible (and pretty painless to prepare).
I am once again begging @playstation.com to put out a console ornament.
November 27, 2025 at 5:38 PM
I am once again begging @playstation.com to put out a console ornament.
hello i've only got an hour and a half or so to stream tonight and @jparish.bsky.social's goddamned castlevania videos popped up in my youtube feed so i'm playing some OG castlevania: twitch.tv/aegies
November 27, 2025 at 2:31 AM
hello i've only got an hour and a half or so to stream tonight and @jparish.bsky.social's goddamned castlevania videos popped up in my youtube feed so i'm playing some OG castlevania: twitch.tv/aegies
oh nooooo i have to play more AC shadows www.ign.com/articles/ubi...
Ubisoft Defends Assassin's Creed Shadows Microtransactions And Sets Expectations For The Game's Long-Awaited Arrival of Isu Content - IGN
As a major new update adds fresh story to Assassin's Creed Shadows, including the game's first proper dollop of Isu content, Ubisoft has defended the game's microtransactions and attempted to set expe...
www.ign.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:32 PM
oh nooooo i have to play more AC shadows www.ign.com/articles/ubi...
The original death stranding had a gap of about 8 months from PS4 to PC, so an imminent PC release of 2 wouldn’t be a big signifier of shorter windows for PlayStation releases on PC (though a same year release would be unprecedented). It is movement though.
Death Stranding 2 looks set for a quick PC release, after the ESRB listed a port, published by Sony.
vgc.news/news/death-s...
vgc.news/news/death-s...
Death Stranding 2 looks set for quick PC release, after ESRB listing outs Kojima port | VGC
PlayStation is listed as the PC publisher for On the Beach…
vgc.news
November 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM
The original death stranding had a gap of about 8 months from PS4 to PC, so an imminent PC release of 2 wouldn’t be a big signifier of shorter windows for PlayStation releases on PC (though a same year release would be unprecedented). It is movement though.
couple quick black friday week things that may be actually relevant to more than just pc players. 1) PCIe gen 5 is overkill for almost everything, and 2) PCIe gen 4 is overkill for non-gaming things (unless you work in 8k video production), and 3) storage prices are going up. shop now if possible.
November 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
couple quick black friday week things that may be actually relevant to more than just pc players. 1) PCIe gen 5 is overkill for almost everything, and 2) PCIe gen 4 is overkill for non-gaming things (unless you work in 8k video production), and 3) storage prices are going up. shop now if possible.
holy shit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Judge dismisses cases against James Comey and Letitia James after finding that prosecutor was illegally appointed.
November 24, 2025 at 5:45 PM
holy shit.
Perhaps appropriately given that it’s valve, dota 2 is one of the few games I can think of that didn’t historically have this problem in particular. The devs generally “under-corrected” compared to player complaints and attacked balance issues laterally with nudges rather than shoves.
One of the producers on Guilty Gear Strive said it was basically impossible to source player feedback on balance changes online because nobody had original opinions and would just parrot what the most popular content creators said and so they had to rely on data and I think about that every day.
November 24, 2025 at 4:10 AM
Perhaps appropriately given that it’s valve, dota 2 is one of the few games I can think of that didn’t historically have this problem in particular. The devs generally “under-corrected” compared to player complaints and attacked balance issues laterally with nudges rather than shoves.
Reposted by Arthur Gies (he/him)
the star wars jedi team is also hiring for a senior encounter designer w/AAA experience, DMs are open
the star wars jedi team is hiring: we're looking for a senior technical materials artist (3+ years experience w/ unreal materials). mutuals, my DMs are open
November 22, 2025 at 7:27 PM
the star wars jedi team is also hiring for a senior encounter designer w/AAA experience, DMs are open
I’m not here to yuck anybody’s yum but I will absolutely question someone’s choice of service provider. Also once again I know way too much about certain people’s lives and 2025 didn’t need this.
November 22, 2025 at 12:31 PM
I’m not here to yuck anybody’s yum but I will absolutely question someone’s choice of service provider. Also once again I know way too much about certain people’s lives and 2025 didn’t need this.
i like how deeply this piece has to bury who the former xbox executive is, because if you led with his name nobody would care what he had to say (i'm sure you can guess who it is).
A former Xbox executive has called on Valve to allow third-parties to use SteamOS to make their own Steam Machines, amid concern over the price of the next-gen living room PC. https://bit.ly/44ppQV3
November 21, 2025 at 5:50 PM
i like how deeply this piece has to bury who the former xbox executive is, because if you led with his name nobody would care what he had to say (i'm sure you can guess who it is).
yesterday i actually went through the process of using third party tools to force the xbox fullscreen experience on a windows PC (on a separate windows install) to try it out so of course they announced official beta access for it coming soon, you're welcome everybody.
November 20, 2025 at 6:33 PM
yesterday i actually went through the process of using third party tools to force the xbox fullscreen experience on a windows PC (on a separate windows install) to try it out so of course they announced official beta access for it coming soon, you're welcome everybody.
so apparently that zoopunk game uses a shit ton of AI tools including stable image diffusion. www.gematsu.com/2025/01/tiga...
November 20, 2025 at 6:23 PM
so apparently that zoopunk game uses a shit ton of AI tools including stable image diffusion. www.gematsu.com/2025/01/tiga...
"we're making a sequel to vampire survivors-"
woo-hoo!
"-and it's a roguelite deckbuilder!"
🥲
woo-hoo!
"-and it's a roguelite deckbuilder!"
🥲
November 20, 2025 at 6:11 PM
"we're making a sequel to vampire survivors-"
woo-hoo!
"-and it's a roguelite deckbuilder!"
🥲
woo-hoo!
"-and it's a roguelite deckbuilder!"
🥲
Reposted by Arthur Gies (he/him)
Chat is it a good sign when microcenter has stickered over or removed all the price tags on the RAM?
November 20, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Chat is it a good sign when microcenter has stickered over or removed all the price tags on the RAM?
i'm going to repost this: if you need or expect to need RAM and you see a deal this week (say, less than 150 for 32 GB of DDR5 or thereabouts), buy it. the price increases appear to be accelerating (as i've seen reports of companies buying up and hoarding supply anticipating datacenter buildouts).
if you need RAM or are planning on building a PC in the next few months, if you see a decent deal in the next 10 days, you should buy it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hLi...
November 20, 2025 at 1:43 AM
i'm going to repost this: if you need or expect to need RAM and you see a deal this week (say, less than 150 for 32 GB of DDR5 or thereabouts), buy it. the price increases appear to be accelerating (as i've seen reports of companies buying up and hoarding supply anticipating datacenter buildouts).
Chat is it a good sign when microcenter has stickered over or removed all the price tags on the RAM?
November 20, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Chat is it a good sign when microcenter has stickered over or removed all the price tags on the RAM?
device makers found lots of loopholes and abatement strategies to keep tariff-based price increases to a minimum in 2025. but you can't really do that if the cost of RAM doubles, triples, or (gulp) quadruples. that goes straight into the production cost. those will be passed on (/tariff'ed).
November 19, 2025 at 10:16 PM
device makers found lots of loopholes and abatement strategies to keep tariff-based price increases to a minimum in 2025. but you can't really do that if the cost of RAM doubles, triples, or (gulp) quadruples. that goes straight into the production cost. those will be passed on (/tariff'ed).