Happy Pride Month even though I’m gay year-round!! It’s hot and stormy! Not-E3 is coming up! VGBees will be doing some special coverage with both John and Niki in attendance — they’ll both be on Giant Bomb at Nite and we’ll also be recording an episode at some ungodly hour after Summer Games Fest on Friday. Not necessarily for VGBees, I’ll also be watching just about all of the week’s showcases and putting together a list of the games (trailers, really) that I find interesting. That’ll be out sometime in the second or third week of June.
New From Me
Digimon Story: Time Stranger Review: I finally went back and finished Digimon Story: Time Stranger after chunking down the first half or so in October, and…! It’s a game! There’s a lot to it.
Flock Review: While cleaning out my Google Drive I found a half-forgotten, mostly-finished review of Flock, the birdy-ish creature collector from Hollow Ponds and Richard Hogg (Wilmot’s Warehouse, I Am Dead, Hohokum). After a bit of cleanup, it was ready to post!
Games Played, Mini-Reviews: May 2026: My Games Played, Mini Reviews for May 2026 features: Echo Chaser, mini pharma, Season 31, Digimon Story: Time Stranger, Carrot Kingdom, Leaftaker, and Panthalassa.
On to VGBees!
Episode 101: AKA the “No Bummers” Episode, as promised! When we receive complaints they’re often to lament how negative we are towards our subject matter. We’re a video game podcast in a late-stage capitalist world, covering games news during the industry’s absolute worst period for workers’ rights and safety, amidst a global rise of fascism threatening every supporting structure, from the supply chains that build our machines to the artistic freedom that creates our games. In other words: what is there to be happy about? I enjoy the feedback and do agree that there are times I could lay off or bring more balance; at the same time, VGBees’ cynicism is a defining trait in our field. At a certain point, positivity and neutrality are a betrayal of reality. Shows and publications that don’t meet that reality are just running defense — PR — for an industry that doesn’t want them and “fans” that don’t respect their individual voices. Still, this was a fun bit to attempt. One of the funniest episodes of VGBees, owing largely to John putting up a heroic performance despite being stuck in a Toyota Sienna in Somewhere, Alabama.
Episode 102: John and I goin’ hard on the games news of the week! Sony records an enormous loss on their Bungie acquisition and also pretends that they love AI as part of a shareholder dance. Microsoft reshuffles their Israel branch as the investigation into their connection to the Israeli Ministry of Defense continues. Months after leaving Bandai-Namco, Katsuhiro Harada is heading up a brand new SNK studio to work on a game that’s never going to come out. Sega officially recognizes that live service is bad business, GameStop is loudly rebuffed by eBay, and House Hunters is the finest piece of hotel entertainment there is.
Episode 103: Happy 15th birthday to Terraria! Rest in peace to the legendary Tom Kane, a voice actor whose work you certainly know and appreciate. A litany of bad news for the likes of PlayStation Plus subscribers, D&D video game fans, Quantic Dream & probably Embracer employees, and anyone who likes Bungie in any way. John bought a PS5 Pro so we grilled the hell out of him for it, booooo!!
Episode 104: For episode 104, we were joined by a very special guest in Jeff Gerstmann! I’ve never met Jeff before and am not a “child of Giant Bomb,” so I definitely kept to the sidelines a bit here — I’d rather speak too little than too much when a guest is on. As for news: The Witcher 3 is getting some brand new DLC in 2027, 12 years after the game’s release. Unreal Engine 6. Man. Hiroishi Iuchi, the director of Ikaruga, has left developer M2 and his in-progress shmup, UBUSUNA, is cancelled… or is it? Microsoft continues to be a mess. Valnet sinks to a new low — incredible, as already the most pathetic rag in games media — as it shifts its site TheGamer to a pay-per-click model for writers and editors. John and Jeff both played 007 First Light for a bit and give us their preliminary thoughts, as did I for Amanita Design’s beautiful new game, Phonopolis. There’s also the two games I already wrote about — Carrot Kingdom and Panthalassa — and Jeff getting into Nintendo’s new definitely-not-WarioWare mobile game, Pictonico.
I’ll also quietly share a future “New From Me.” As I’ve alluded to a few times now on socials, I’m putting feelers out for a game developer interview series. I’m really not interested in doing a “Hello Famous Developer, Your New Product Is Coming Out, Could You Please Tell Us Some Cool Things About The Product?” kinda thing (not to say that discussing an upcoming game or work-in-progress would be discouraged, but I think you know what I mean). The main component of this I’m still rolling around in my head is the format… I long wanted to make a podcast, but that introduces a number of problems. Most folks have a setup suitable for work calls, but not necessarily podcasts. Keeping a public show on schedule is already a daunting task, and even moreso when your punctuality also depends on that of your unaffiliated guests. There are many devs who may be uncomfortable having their voice published, because they’re queer or trans or have an accent or don’t speak English very well, or are just plain uncomfortable! To that end, I think I’m interested in a “come as you are” format. Ideally, I’d like to do these interviews over voice for the sake of conversation, and record them for the sake of easy recordkeeping. If a guest is comfortable with it being published as a podcast, then we’ll do that. If not, then it’ll be a transcribed interview (maybe with an additional, abridged article for key points). If they can’t do voice either, then we could live text chat over Discord or some such. Have I been thinking about this for too long…? If you’re a developer with thoughts to share, and especially if you’d be interested in chatting with me for 1-2 hours, please email me ([email protected]) or, if we’re social media friends/mutuals, you can go ahead and just DM me. Keep in mind that “game developer” includes non-commercial developers, musicians, producers, and any other role or level which doesn’t get the clout a programmer/lead designer might.
Song of the Newsletter
As I continue the slow ascent to my final form (señora), I’ve started listening to the radio in the car a lot more. I listen to my own playlists all the time at home, and I can get a bit annoyed deciding what to play on short trips, so radio it is. I mostly put on Majic 102.1, Houston’s R&B (and friends) station, for the obvious reason of R&B being good, but also because their programming-to-music ratio is solid most hours of the day and the advertisers always show out for their commercials there. A lawyer saying, “Oh, you think my commercials are annoying…? Get in a car accident,” is crazy. Love that. Anyways, I’d never heard this remix of “Just Kickin’ It” by Xscape and I liked it a lot, so that’s the song of the newsletter!
News & Recommendations
You don’t have to watch any not-E3 stuff if you don’t want to, y’know. It (probably) isn’t your job. Even if your job is related, it probably isn’t your job. You can always go back and read some shitty roundup from The Verge or whatever if you’re really that curious. There are many parts of life to which this could apply…