video game reviews @ slantmagazine.com
cryptic crossword solves @ twitch.com/thatcrypticguy
Aaron Riccio
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I worry sometimes whether we did the right thing moving into a new apartment, and then I get a view like this of a rainbow from the kids' bedroom and we're all just happy to here together.
Aaron Riccio
Oh man I love stories that work in marginalia, from Pale Fire to The Lifespan of a Fact. I love that stuff like this gives me a reason to read in print, because the digital options are just not the same. (Also, Alix writes good stuff in general!)
Unopened pirate hauls stuffed with Southern Comforts
Parseword needs a mode harder than Challenge Mode, where YOU still have to type in the substitution or anagram, and it just confirms if it's valid. Anyway, enjoy this inTOXICating loot!
Parseword #135
⚡️ 39s
💎 Perfect
🗿 Challenge Mode
Great observation! Our ability to write from SPECIFIC contexts is one more thing that separates us from AI, which will never understand what it feels like to be keeping yourself awake with Lost Judgment, newborn slumbering on your belly, as you're afraid he might stop breathing while you're asleep.
Control bad credit (6)
This surface is fine, but I think I lean more toward longer surfaces that have more room to play and surprise you. It seems very clear what's happening here.
Coffee Cryptics • Daily clue 2WN4 • Jun 11, 2026
⏱ 14s • 1st try • No hints
Difficulty: 0.7 (Light Roast)
Aaron Riccio
I can always tell if a Minute Cryptic requires a substitution based on the par. Apart from that, very nice riff on the classic "Look, up in the sky!"
Minute Cryptic - 12 June, 2026
"Superman, perhaps? No. It's a bird!" (5)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
🏆 0 hints – 2 under the community par (111,855 solvers so far).
Considering how much I still struggle with puzzles from the UK side of the fence, you know I'm really enamored with the wordplay to share such a clue anyway. This one from Ruskin for @unchcrosswords.com is lovely.
Just played the nifty NULLSTAR SOLUS. You have thrusters on the up, down, left, and right sides of your ship, which you can DISABLE to make the remaining engines more powerful. Real difficult left-brain/right-brain stuff to balance.
So what's the best game you've played that you are TERRIBLE at?
These remain the hardest types of clues for me; the vaguer the cluing for a proper name, the longer it takes me to spot. It's a decent surface, though—just not a surprising one, because composer works exactly as you'd expect.
Aaron Riccio
Aaron Riccio
BE FASTER. Take on the role of a corpo scav drone pilot, tasked with tearing through the decaying corpse of a world to salvage the remains of a powerful energy source. Master flight through hostile en...
my thoughts on criticism increasingly center on how I feel about FFXVI, a deeply flawed game that I think I’ll always love because I played it in the middle of the night while my newborn slept on my chest in a carrier. in other words: our experiences with texts are shaped by context, and that’s good
