Reconnect Recap, w/e 3rd March - A lot of turning back time
Connecting you to incredible games writing.
Kia Ora folks!
It’s been a quick week for me, have been trying out Avowed, playing Stardew Co-op with my partner, and rolling out a few behind the scenes updates to the site.
For those new to the newsletter, this is a companion piece to Reconnect, a website that puts over two hundred games writing blogs into one spot to make it easier for us all to find that next great read. This newsletter comes out weekly and recaps the best articles to appear on the site from the last week.
Lets get into it!
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
RetroDodo gives us a review of a newly released game boy game, Baby Rex. A re-release of the original to bring back the feeling of getting a game physically and feeling the cartridge and manual. It still boggles my mind that companies are making games for old consoles. Such a cool thing.
Multiplier brings us an interview with Ally Hennessey, an Australian game director, to provide a sense-check on where the Australian game development scene is at, given a turbulent few decades.
Indie Game Picks shows off Halls of Torment a game that crosses Diablo and Vampire Survivors.
Just One More Turn talks to us about an Italian study that used GTA V to train self driving cars.
SuperJump Magazine brings us their monthly issue of Indie Games, whilst it was busy month for AA/AAA games, the Indies didn’t slow down and there are som gems in there.
Press Any Button throws me back to my teenage years in their latest newsletter, Guitar gaming peripherals are back, and they ain’t cheap.
Game Wisdom asks the question, is trading skins in games i.e CSGO, gambling?
PixelFix gives us a deep dive on a PS1 Joystick I never knew existed. It’s an absolute beast.
RetroDodo announces another upcoming AYANEO console, this one perfectly replicating the gameboy micro. My favorite game boy.
GameDev Reports - sponsored by Neon gives us a double dose of gaming analytics. First up is the numbers from Feb / March and you can easily guess which game sold 4m units. Secondly we have downloads and revenue figures for mobile games in February. As someone who doesn’t game on my phone it fascinates me the amount of money moving through these platforms.
TimeExtension brings us two pieces of exciting retro news. The first being an HDMI HD mod for the GameCube, and a PS3 android emulator that is in the works.
GamingOnLinux shows off a cool new way to read wikipedia… in a 3D Godot game.
ReadOnlyMemo goes deep into the technical details around new updates in the retro shader world which makes things perform better.
Something Extra
I Love Hue Too is the sequel to I Love Hue and it’s a relaxing, but challenging, experience testing a players color perception as well as problem solving. Been watching videos of it this week and I don’t imagine i’ll be any good at it, but it looks pretty and unique, which is a plus in the slew of mobile slop.
Writer Recap
Cat writes the stuff my brain loves, as a queer person I love their multi-part series about Queerness in video games. As a liberal I loved reading their recent piece, Why I love Punching Nazis, and as a long suffering Destiny players I loved their thoughts on why they quit playing. I thoroughly enjoy reading their work and I think you will too! Give them a follow!
Thanks so much for the shout-out Alex! You do great work and I'm really glad you like what I do too!