Late in the evening of September 18, photos surfaced of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a brownface costume at a social function. This has caused no end of outrage from the press, general public and his opponents in out ongoing federal election campaign. While I agree what he did was wrong, I also think it's ridiculous to hold something that someone did in the distant past against them today, especially when they've demonstrated that they've improved as a person. I detail that opinion.

Recently released after a long, Kickstarted development, Children of Morta is a Roguelite, fused with elements of ARPGs like Diablo, with a unique set of characters and a breathtaking presentation. I give my impressions after several hours of play.

Children of Morta is available now on PC and is coming soon to all consoles. Use one of the following links to buy it on PC and help support my content:

Humble Store (also supports Extra Life) - https://www.humblebundle.com/store/children-of-morta?partner=pxabstraction&charity=144206

Press code provided by Evolve PR.

A new entry in one of my favourite series in one of my favourite arcadey genres is upon us. The River City series dates all the way back to the NES and has passed through many developers over its history, which is longer than many realize. The latest entry comes from the renowned devlopers WayForward and I went into it with high expectations. I talk about my first couple of horus with the game and whether those expectations have been met.

Intro song is We're the Rivber City Girls, performed by Nathan Sharp and Christina Vee.

Another documentary has his Netflix and despite it's title, it isn't one about the factories in China that make almost everything we buy now, it's about a Chinese company trying to setup a factory in the US. American Factory details this process with a surprising amount of access and shows the cultural and business issues that come from Chinese and American values colliding and why this trend growing should worry people.

Earlier this month, I unexpectedly had to put a lot of my streams and other content on hold because I was so burned out. I originally thought it was because of work and other stresses but after some research, it appears to be not so much because of that but because I've started to become dependent on my ADHD medication. I talk about what that experience has been like and what I'm doing to try to overcome it and still figure out how to treat this disorder.

I've now devoted several episodes to (rightly) addressing a lot of the problems with the Epic Games Store and it's general anti-consumer stance. Many have equated this to me just hating it because it's not Steam. That couldn't be further from the truth and for as much as I use Steam, the service and the company behind it have a lot of problems of their own. I devote longer than I thought I would to talking about those and what Valve should do to improve on them.

An indie game going Epic Games Store exclusive is sadly nothing new and while I'm as sick of podcast about this as everyone else, the spectacularly arrogant and entitled manner in which Glumberland, the developers of Ooblets chose to announce their exclusivity, is something that has to be discussed. In addition, their announcement and some hints from other developers have shed some more light on how the economics of these Epic exclusivity deals work and why it's such a tempting proposition for so many.

The Ooblets blog post referenced in the episode:  https://ooblets.com/2019/07/we-did-the-thing/ 

A big bombshell was dropped in the streaming world today when it was announced that Ninja, one of the biggest streamers in the world, is leaving Twitch to exclusively join Mixer. No one saw this coming and while most people are generally welcome and positive on the idea, some people do have some worries, myself included. I discuss the cons but largely pros of him joining the Mixer fold.