Reconnect Recap, w/e 23rd March - Getting Cozy.

Connecting you to incredible games writing.

Mar 31, 2025

Kia Ora folks.

Well I lost a week to Stardew Valley and Fields of Mistria, and I mean that in a positive way. These games never stuck with me before but now I’ve got the bug and all I want to be doing is relaxing in my quaint little town tending to my farm.

That’s not to say i’ve ignored Reconnect, or the weeks been quiet, quite the contrary! Added even more blogs to the platform and featured over thirty articles alone this week, my new bluesy integration working overtime!

If you are new here, Reconnect is games writing discovery platform, that aggregates over 250 different game blogs into one location for you to enjoy. This, the Reconnect Recap is the companion newsletter giving you a weekly summary of all the awesome game articles being published.

Let’s get cracking!

If you’re on Bluesky, I’ve made a starter pack so that you can follow all the Reconnect writers in one spot. Not 100% complete yet but I’ll keep adding to it.

The Recap

Tony Coles talks about my favourite Hitman game, Absolution, but not as positively as I would have said it.
Game Wisdom explains how video game developers are helping redefine Horse Racing. But rest assured, horse-testicles-Rockstar are no where to be found.
Scanlines brings us an unpopular take, they hate cozy games, now don’t panic, its a very well written and comedic. I even read it whilst I was playing Fields of Misteria.
Nathalie Lawhead wrote a piece that went vu-vu-viral this week, it’s an amazing deconstruction of everything that’s wrong with the games industry and chronic undervaluing of artists in the industry.
1UP Vault gave us an absolute banger piece this week on Women in Video Games.
TimeExtension has two pieces for us this week. First they got hands on with two prototype James Bond games for the N64. Secondly a quite sad story about the stress that Katsuhiro Harada underwent in making Tekken 4.
Seth Sivak explains why picking the right investors for you game is important.
Games that Weren’t is a fascinating blog, covering exactly what it says on the tin, this week we have a 1996 Warner Bros game based on a best selling adult picture book.
Video Game Stories brings us a Q&A with Josef Fares about my new favourite couch-co-op game that my boyfriend and I finished last week and are lost now that its done.
Double feature from Aftermath this week, the first is some awesome news that GameInformer is returning! Secondly we have a great piece about Ubisoft that effectively boils down to ‘water is wet’ because the French company refuses to learn a single lesson.
Cat's Controller Corner puts into words what i’ve been struggling to do for two weeks now, why do I enjoy Avowed so much?
Overkill.wtf talks to the recent news that services like Apple Arcade aren’t being utilised and discusses the other factors to consider in assessing whether Apple cares.
Nintendo is Great explains why the most recent Switch Direct was dissapointing but assures us all why that’s actually not that big of a deal.
RetroDodo gives us their experience with the new Lenovo Legion Go S and explains why it’s the perfect device for emulation.
Maurice Klimek talks to a struggle that I have not just in Game Dev but fucking everywhere in my IT Career, sorry for swearing this is just important to me, that their isn’t enough good documentation and tutorials for tools like Godot. It makes it unapproachable for those who aren’t already seasoned devs.
Finally, GameDev Reports - sponsored by Neon, has the February ‘25 numbers for our great industry. Surprise, the numbers are down on last year. Shock Horror.

Something Extra

This was published a year ago, but it is a report from The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau where it analyses items of significant worth in video games, i.e. a CSGO Knife, and outlines areas of concern and states that the CFPB is watching the world of video games as they should not be immune to consumer protections found in other industries. It’s always interesting when video games think that they can get away with certain things.

Writer Recap

Today I’m highlitang Katya Ryabova who wins the first award for coolest name and second award for having such a great voice in their writing. I might be bias because they write the way I think with plenty of sarcastic comments and pithy one-liners but It makes for an entertaining read. You might have come across their work being featured on Patrick Klepek’s Crossplay but I really enjoyed their comedic piece called ‘20% effort for 80% reward is the new black’ with ‘Time commitment required = curse’ making me laugh the most.