The Outer Worlds is the new RPG from Obsidian. A combination of Fallout and Firefly, many are calling it the proper single player RPG players have been needing for years and many are calling it a Game of the Year contender. As I recorded this, I was the majority of the way through the game and while it's not bad by any means, it doesn't take any risks or innovate in any of the ways it should have. I go into detail with these impressions.

Google's promised new revolution in cloud gaming, Stadia, launched to founder backers yesterday and releases widely to the public today. With a few exceptions, the launch seems to have been a mess at best and seems to indicate a product that was shipped when it was nowhere ready to. I discuss this, plus what problems Google thinks Stadia is actually solving and whether they needed solving to begin with.

Recently, a sequel to the cult classic Norse hack n' slash RUNE was released to mixed reception. The next day, its developer Human Head Studios announced they were closing their doors, despite taking an Epic exclusivity bribe for the game and it apparently selling better than they thought. This has left both players and their pseudo publisher wondering what kind of support the title will receive. The whole saga is very strange and I talk about that and why this kind of thing further erodes the already razor thin trust gamers have in the industry.

In what should come as a surprise to no one, Don Cherry said something controversial and ignorant. However, this time he did it in the era of cancel culture and something he previously would have gotten away with has now resulted in him being fired from the iconic Coach's Corner role he's held for several decades. While I think Don Cherry is often an ignorant blowhard who needs to keep his political nonsense of out of his hockey, I also think this reaction was overblown and more than a little hypocritical.

My ninth year in a row of doing the Extra Life 24 hour gaming marathon for the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario has concluded. It was overall a great year but also came with its share of challenges and lessons learned. I go over all of those in this informal postmortem.

I'm still raising money for my 2019 campaign until the end of the year so if you have a few bucks to spare to help sick kids and want a free PC game for your trouble, you can donate at http://extralife.pxa.ca. Thanks for your support!

The new private equity owners of the former Gawker group of web site have made some major changes to the user experience on their sites but more importantly, have laid off some writers and warned others to stay in their lanes and keep politics out of sites that aren't supposed to be for that. These writers are losing their minds but I think it's about time and will hopefully (but likely not) teach them a lesson they should have learned years ago. I talk about what this could mean for these sites and others that operate in a similar way.

Joker is not only an atypical superhero movie, it's not a superhero movie at all. Despite all the manufactured outrage about it, I think it's not only a brilliant movie but one of the most brilliant ones I've seen in a long time. Not everyone agrees though and the discussion has been fascinating. I keep things spoiler-free until a clearly marked segment near the end but if you've seen the film, I'd love to know what you think about it as a whole and particularly, the parts discussed in that segment.

It's the day where Canadians choose who will next lead our federal government. I've been very conflicted when it comes to who gets my vote for a number of years now but this election will probably be my toughest choice yet, even though thanks to our obsolete voting system, my choice is literally meaningless in the riding in which I live. I talk about this and why I think the biggest choice this election is which third-party will hold the balance of power in a near guaranteed minority government. Regardless, GO VOTE TODAY CANADA!

My CBC Vote Compass results: https://votecompass.cbc.ca/canada/results/af10535c-93c6-4fab-ab8e-319e3fc4ba89

Another minor panic about the future of the Mixer platform seems to be going through the community again and this was amplified by the surprise and rapid-fire announcements that both founders of the platform will be leaving Microsoft. I talk about not only why people shouldn't be worrying so much but also why the departure of the founders is probably a good thing.

Blizzard recently banned a competitive Chinese Hearthstone player and withheld substantial prize money because he spoke out in support of Hong Kong protesters during a live broadcast. The Internet has exploded in response to this, more so than I would have expected. I offer my take on the events and in particular, how this shows the incredibly hypocrisy of a company that espouses progressive values on one hand but sides with a dictatorship on the other, all in the interests of shareholders instead of principals.