September 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@chloyster@beehaw.org how have u not posted the release date trailer yet? lol

We made it y'all

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36027977

Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.

Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.

Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.

Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.

Source: Graham Day, a Twitch partner on X/Twitter.

Title basically. Which games did you not like on PlayStation, Xbox or PC but once you got a handheld device you really liked it?

I've noticed a trend—particularly in some recent RPGs—of, well, let's call it 'Netflixiness'.

Dialogue designed to leave absolutely nothing to interpretation, to exposit information in the most direct way possible, devoid of any real character or context. There's an assumption that any moment the audience spends confused, curious, or out-of-the-loop is a narrative disaster.

I hate to keep knocking Dragon Age: The Veilguard about, especially since I still had a decent time with it all told, but the thing that made me break off from it after 60 hours really was its story. It's a tale that does get (slightly) better, but it gave me a terrible first impression I never quite shook.

Starring a Chinese underworld god.

Forget about the sequels to Hollow Knight or Resident Evil, this is the real shit!

Game Information

Game Title: Sword of the Sea

Platforms:

• PC (Aug 19, 2025)

Trailer:

Developer: Giant Squid

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 87 average - 87% recommended - 15 reviews

Critic Reviews

But Why Tho? - Kate Sanchez - 10 / 10

Whether it’s the game’s not-too-subtle commentary about climate change or Nava’s explanation of the Wraith, Sword of the Sea is trying and succeeding at making an impact

COGconnected - James Paley - 90 / 100

The music is chill, the vistas are fabulous, and the vibes are immaculate. If you’re looking for a short, singular gameplay experience, Sword of the Sea will be perfect for you.

DualShockers - Callum Marshall - 10 / 10

My only gripe is that the story doesn't offer a grandiose message or hit as hard as I would have liked, relying more on pageantry and spectacle to get by. But, rarely does a game take me aback and thank my lucky stars that the medium of video games exists, and that's why we see this one as one of the standout performers of 2025 so far."

Eurogamer - Chris Tapsell - 5 / 5

Movement, meaning and mindfulness combine in Giant Squid's latest, a game of free-form expression and flow.

Game Rant - Cameron Swan - 9 / 10

The latest title from the Abzu and Pathless developers, Sword of the Sea is a must-play meditative game that won't take up much of your time.

GamesRadar+ - Rachel Watts - 4 / 5

The boundaries between what is air, water, and land are totally blurred.

GamingBolt - Ravi Sinha - 7 / 10

Sword of the Sea is like a siren - beautiful, inviting and great to listen to. Despite cutting through with an impeccable sense of style, the lack of a cohesive narrative and short runtime feels like you're treading water.

KonsoliFIN - Joonatan Itkonen - Finnish - 5 / 5

Sword of the Sea is a gorgeous and hypnotic arthouse epic full of incredible set pieces and stunning visuals that sets another high bar for studio Giant Squid as the premiere destination for meditative gameplay.

PC Gamer - Sean Martin - 78 / 100

A short but spectacular surfing game, Sword of the Sea's atmosphere and movement propel it where its simple and repetitive puzzles can't.

Push Square - Robert Ramsey - 9 / 10

Sword of the Sea certainly won't have the same impact that Journey did all those years ago, but in so many ways, it feels like a direct evolution of that legendary experience. It's a beautifully smooth game, set across a series of gorgeous environments that are a joy to explore. While its more game-y elements do feel a tad forced, they're not enough to distract from what is a sumptuous adventure.

Slant Magazine - 3 / 5

Sword of the Sea also ends very abruptly. And though it may be strange to criticize a game for being too short—better to be left wanting more, right?—that abruptness only magnifies the sense that something is missing here.

The Indie Informer - Jill Grodt - 9 / 10

Sword Of The Sea is a pleasure to play. Its traversal system allowed me to soar irreverently through monumental graveyards. Its narrative saw me flooding death with life and new hope. Its beauty boyoyed my spirit. Even with a few rough moments at the end, I still want nothing more than to fly back into its world.

TheGamer - Ryan Thompson-Bamsey - 4.5 / 5

It’s a short journey that took me a smidge over three hours to complete, but heck, what a stupidly enjoyable three hours those were.

VDGMS - Darren Andrew - 8 / 10

At this point, there are no surprises with Giant Squid and the games they create. They are fine tailors of interpretive, environmental experiences. Journey was about hiking and Abzu was about scuba diving. Giant Squid possess the ability to encapsulate what makes these experiences magical and Sword of the Sea is no exception, as it’s another love letter to nature and reconnecting with it through the power of a board beneath your feet. It might be short in length, light on gameplay and abstract in meaning, but the experience is transcendent.

I assume I'm not the only one who has played the same games on different type of storage: commonly HDDs and SSDs, but I also set up two RAID 0 filesystems (one on two HDDs, one on two SSDs), and I even installed Deep Rock Galactic on RAM.

However, more often than not loading times have been too similar across storage media.

I'm asking this mostly because I'm considering getting two SSDs dedicated to a RAID0 setup, as of now my RAID0/SSD filesystem is "only" 200GiB wide and it's sharing its drives with the OS and other things, but since I'm not short on space it may or may not be worth the price to set up a reasonably large FS with fast I/O.
I also suspect that my game loading times may be limited by the fact that I'm running most of them on Linux via proton, if everyone's experience contradicts mine then that's probably why; in fact, I'm pretty sure VKDX shader compilation adds some CPU-bound time.

[alt text: an illustration of economist Adam Smith next to a photo of Karl Marx. There is text below the images which says: "'Are you gonna buy PEAK? It's 8 dollars and it's fun with friends.' -(dash) Adam Smith, in a letter to Karl Marx. Marx never replied."

If anyone can make a compilation of news and articles in the facts, that would be great.

For those who don't know, Roblox is a publicly traded company and they are down almost 2bn dol on the stock market because they are being accused of facilitating the sexual exploration and grooming of children.

They just banned a player who was groomed by a roblox developer and then started a catch a predator project that resulted in the arrest of 6 adults accused of predating on children using the game.

Chris Hansen contacted the player and they are doing a documentary on the sexual predation that occurs on the plataform. There is a class action, so if you are in the US and know someone who has been abused on roblox, you should contact them.

I don't know much about the situation, I just watched a couple articles about it.

To top it all off, the CEO announced that roblox is pivoting to becoming a dating website. This is not the onion, fellers.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/30381965

i recommend you watch all of it