-deep breath- I’m going independent! After a career of covering video games for MTV News, Kotaku and Axios, I’m launching Game File, a reader-supported site and newsletter for my reporting about video games. https://t.co/UYp1CYF6m9

Want to support more freelance reporting and reviews on Game File? Now's a great time to support Game File and to help fund future guest contributors Guest writers receive a flat rate plus a 25% cut of any annual subscriptions purchased in the 24 hours after their articles run

https://t.co/bWTiqW4WCZ

Want to support more freelance reporting and reviews on Game File? Now's a great time to support Game File and to help fund future guest contributors Guest writers receive a flat rate plus a 25% cut of any annual subscriptions purchased in the 24 hours after their articles run

NEW: @jmrivera02 has written Game File's first freelance game review--about one of 2025's stranger games "Blippo+ feels like something I was lucky enough to catch in the wee hours of the night, on a channel that I wasn’t supposed to receive" https://t.co/XxswbGYP1X

SCIENCE OVER SCIENTISM: THE MAHA IMPERATIVE See the extended @RWMaloneMD interview, including footage not shown in my MAHA documentary: MALONE ANSWERS THESE KEY QUESTIONS -What are the necessary reforms for independent, wholistic medicine? -How should patients be evaluated

In October, Microsoft cut the word "diversity" from 2025 versions of multiple annual filings For this story, MS head of comms, Frank Shaw, told me: "Our mission and commitment to our culture and values remain unchanged: empowering every person and organization to achieve more"

Microsoft, like many companies, has pulled back from talking publicly about diversity since the start of a U.S. presidential administration that has threatened to investigate corporations over their diversity initiatives

A year ago, Microsoft touted its D&I filing as "our most global and transparent report to date." This year, there just isn't one (This is a chart from the 2024 report)

NEW: Microsoft confirms to me that it won't publish an annual Diversity & Inclusion report, ending a decade-long run MS' top spokesperson tells Game File that MS has "evolved" past publishing one Prior reports tracked pay equity, company demographics https://t.co/uLPERakQXO

Drag x Drive somehow remains the top Switch 2 game in my house In September, I wrote that my 8-year-old son loves it Last night at bath time: "Daddy, in Drag and Drive, I can do unbelievably amazing tricks" [pauses; beaming] "I’ve been park champion... I'm level 107!"

Company says: Tencent deal is on track, Assassin's Creed franchise overperformed, Rainbow 6 suffered a cheating wave and that a mystery game is set for early 2026 (Black Flag remake?) But, hey, I'd gotten up to listen to a 3:30am ET earnings call just in case!

NEW: Ubisoft has not been sold, nor has it collapsed. The week-long delay in its corporate earnings, the subject of much speculation, was due to--are you sitting down?-- financial reporting technicalities regarding two unspecified partnerships. https://t.co/iv2Q5t3asV

I was early in the game, so it was largely unmarked. The area I explored lined up with 3 or 4 hexes Here's the rest of that preview... https://t.co/G0l2YkXnLU

One more Metroid Prime 4 thing... the mysterious world map I included this clip in my preview last week. The main zone I explored had the familiar Prime 3D map. But it zooms out to show a map made of hundreds of hexagons. Not sure how it'll fill out

News Tower is, among other things, an argument for making video games about topics games don't usually cover. And it was inspired by an article from a decade ago showing photos of how The New York Times was made in 1942. More here: https://t.co/miKTa1D4AR

First-time Dutch game studio Sparrow Night, have created a game with interconnected systems for chasing stories, competing with rival papers, training reporters, adding photos, covering overseas news, keeping the bathrooms clean...and you can publish stories by John Steinbeck

REVIEW: In the last two weeks, I've spent 30+ hours playing the remarkable News Tower, a PC/Mac strategy game about chasing deadlines and making hard choices while publishing a weekly newspaper in New York City in the 1930s. https://t.co/miKTa1DCqp

I left the room, returned, and solved the puzzle. Main difference is no tutorial/controls-reminder when I begin executing the solution Nice to have these options. I plan to scan a lot and keep tutorials off.

Here's my playthrough of it, across two clips. In the first one, I'm scanning various things in the room and am actually more interested in breaking the wall on the side (clearly can't yet)

Here's another puzzle Samus encounters a few minutes later, first with Nintendo's tutorial-on footage Note that they do some scanning, which provides clues, but quickly get control prompts (not fully giving the solution away, but reinforcing the controls)

That clip was from Nintendo's b-roll, which includes text that will always appear when you get this upgrade, and then step-by-step control tips for solving the puzzle that appear immediately Here it is from my playthrough, with tutorials off