Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DbDEcdtR9-n/?igsh=MWJrczUyMXJ0cG16cQ==

My two go-tos are Homer's "in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics", and Sonic Boom Knuckle's "what, I can't be a meathead AND a feminist?"

These redesigns almost feel like Final Fantasy inspired, I want to say FFX. I like his Mumm-Ra with that transformation based unstoppable villain half monster villain feeling. But I do wonder why an Ape. Sources in the forbidden website formerlly known, as Twiter:

franck_sabatier/status/2074186847840825664

franck_sabatier/status/2076694399916900694

franck_sabatier/status/2077451932268986501

Modern is in quotation marks because it's not official. But I like it, very anime but done well, better to me than his Saiyan He-Man, which I didn't hate but felt like an uneeded spin.

The footage comes from the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl: Behind the Scenes DVD – Make All. It covers the two-year long development history from Game Freak. While it was never released publicly, a version of the DVD was posted online to the Internet Archive courtesy of neos_tcg and Lewtwo.

In addition to general behind the scenes stuff like development footage, a bunch of scrapped/beta designs for Generation 4 Pokémon are included in the documentary, alongside early Beta build footage of Diamond and Pearl. Images of bunch of the concept art for Beta Pokemon are included in the article itself, alongside a link to the full documentary (embedded in the article, as far as I can tell). Really interesting to see what a bunch of the Gen 4 Pokemon were originally gonna look like, and a bunch of designs (including starters) that never saw the light of day.

Seeing how much attention this discovery is getting and knowing the Pokemon Fandom, there's probably fanart of these designs being created as we speak.

I personally want madworld for the wii to get a re release and a sequel,

its vibes, its artstyle, its music is too beatuiful to be left in the wii era.

also unless its for the switch i dont think you could even play it with its dedicated motion controls.

One example I can think of is the scene in Toy Story 2 where Woody is being restored. All the little bits in it combine to make a scene that still holds up really well. This includes stuff like the eyeballs moving around when the drawer is opened, the use of shadows and reflections on different objects, the pretty heavy focus on the humans, whose designs have improved heavily from how they looked just 4 years earlier, the magnifying effect when the restorer uses his glasses, and the individual threads on Woody's stump. It's still extremely impressive even today.

From Bionicle, "Piraka" is a Matoran expletive/vulgar insult refering to a raving, thieving, violent murderer.

A band of ex Dark Hunter made up of only Skakdi with bad attitudes, crashed upon, looted and brainwashed people the Lands of Voya Nui. Seeking the remaining powers and trinkets of the believed to be destroyed Makuta Teridaxa and would discover and seek there the Mask of Life.

The Matorans of this land called them, Pirakas and though the villanous band at first didn't understand it since it's not a word in their langauge. Once they did understand it however, they came to really like the word and started refering to their little group gaining legendary power as,

"The Pirakas!"

How many subs would it take for Pat to sing “Toxic Love” a la Tim Curry?

For Pat pre-empting the stream with "this is the worst part of ARR", there was plenty of content to be had with this latest stream. These are actually in opposite order of what I was drawing, fully expecting them to wait 'til next week for Haukke. But since I was already doing it, might as well make it now!

Source (it's me!): https://bsky.app/profile/maelstromtear.bsky.social/post/3mrbl55naak2l

Xbox is now bringing backwards compatibility titles to PC as part of a broader effort to preserve Xbox titles of the past.

The first four games that are available now in supported regions are:

• BLiNX: The Time Sweeper
• Conker: Live and Reloaded
• Crimson Skies®: High Road to Revenge
• Fuzion Frenzy®

Minimum system requirements: 

• GPU: Nvidia GTX 950 or AMD Radeon RX 550 or Intel UHD 770 or Intel Arc A310  
• CPU: Min 4 Cores Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or AMD Ryzen™ Z2 A Processor  
• RAM: 8GB  
• OS: Windows 11   
• Drivers and Versions: Latest Version as of January 2026 

Recommended specifications: 

• GPU: Radeon RX 68005 or Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti or Intel Arc A770 
• CPU: 6 cores and 12 threads Intel Core i5-10400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme 
• DirectX Version: DirectX12 API, Hardware Feature Level 11 
• GPU VRAM: 8GB 
• OS: Windows 11 
• Drivers and Versions: Latest Version as of January 2026 

Veteran game director and self-confessed movie buff Hideo Kojima revealed that he’d like to pass away in a movie theater, just as the film itself is about to start. The 62-year-old made the comment at a film festival in Rome earlier this month, and recently shared a clip of the moment on his official X account.

“I’ve always thought that when I die, I would like to die in a movie theater,” Kojima said in Japanese, as translated by IGN. He goes on to explain that “I love the bit before the movie starts the most. Enter the movie theater, the lights go off and commercials and trailers play, yeah? I’d like to die just before the movie starts.”

Kojima delivered this declaration in a serious tone but with a hint of a smile. The Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator is, after all, a prolific cinemaphile, proclaiming on his X account profile that 70% of his body is made up of movies.

This isn't the first time Kojima has spoken about his own death. Last year, hot on the heels of revealing a number of discarded video game ideas and even an idea for a ‘Forgetting Game’ where the main character gradually forgets important information and abilities if you take too long a break from playing, Kojima said he had left his staff a USB stick of game ideas for after he dies.

If you don't know what Stylized Realism is, it is when a piece of media looks realistic but has more exaggerated features. I was made more aware of this art style thanks to this Backloggd list.

My favorite example of this art style in action would be with most of the 3D Final Fantasy games (except Final Fantasy VII, which looks more animesque and blocky than the other games, and Final Fantasy IX, which is more cartoonish than the other games), with the best examples within the series being FFX, FFXIII, and the VII Remake games.

As the title states, what're some instances where you didn't know something was being referenced/parodied until you actually got context? Bonus points if the thing getting referenced is way outside the expected age range of the audience.

A lot of stuff in cartoons I watched growing up. As an example, I've talked about how The Spongebob Movie is a loose adaptation of The Odyssey. When I had that knowledge, so much stuff in the movie made more sense. But as an example from the main series, the episode Squeaky Boots is a spoof of The Tell-Tale Heart. Then both Billy & Mandy and Codename: KND have plenty of other examples. Blly & Mandy has the multiple references to Dune, the fact that Dracula is both a play on Blackula and Redd Foxx, and the episode parodying Hellraiser of all things. Then KND has the episodes parodying The Animatrix and Alien, and the episode where Numbuh One is helped by a parody of Minsc from Baldur's Gate, complete with Jim Cummings voicing him.

Ben 10 has an example that got more obvious as the series went on. Way Big is directly inspired by Ultraman. Hell, he even has Ultraman's crossed shaped energy beam. Then there's his species name of To'kustar. As in, tokusatsu, the genre of Japanese superheroes that Ultraman was responsible for pioneering. And then Omniverse just decided to remove all subtlety by having him talk in an exaggerated Japanese accent.

Earlier this week, a podcast appearance by GSC Game World founder Sergiy Grygorovych brought about claims that Xbox paid more than the cost of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl’s development.

Speaking with OLDBoi, Grygorovych said that the money taken on from Xbox paid for the game’s costs “before the first day”. Now, in a statement provided to Insider Gaming, developer GSC Game World is refuting those claims.

GSC Says The Claims Are Untrue

Reaching out to Insider Gaming, a representative for GSC Game World said the company didn’t want to respond to Grygorovych’s comments, but felt it was now necessary “as continued silence may be perceived as confirmation of information that is simply not true.”

The company says his claims don’t contain the facts behind the deal.

“In accordance with the agreements reached between the parties, Sergiy was not involved either in negotiations with partners regarding S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 or in the actual development of the game throughout its full production cycle,” they said. “We have always fully honored these agreements on our side. For this reason, his comments regarding the company’s activities cannot be considered an accurate reflection of the actual state of affairs.”

They continued: “The development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 became one of the most challenging projects in the history of the video game industry. We believe the story of this game should be based on facts, not on assumptions or subjective opinions.”

GSC Game World says they are “sincerely grateful” to everyone who made the release of STALKER 2 possible, including players, partners, those defending Ukraine, and owner Max Krippa. Krippa, the company says, “funded the majority of the development budget.”

“We hope that such public statements will not distract attention from what truly matters to the team today,” the studio said. “GSC Game World is currently putting the finishing touches on a significant update for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, as well as its first large-scale story DLC. We will be sharing more details very soon.”