Let's beat AI - January Newsletter
Happy New Year! Welcome to the first 2026 edition of my newsletter, and the third edition total. I feel like every edition is a win, and every time you remain subscribed is a win as well. I’m happy to say we have 10 subscribers now and two are paid! It’s not a lot but I’m ever thankful for your time and generosity, allowing me into your email each month. And if this is your first time, welcome!
But I’m feeling like once a month is a long time before we’re able to share in any kind of communication.
When I decided on once a month, I wanted it to feel like you could forget about me and focus on whatever else you’re doing—the attention economy is exhausting. Plus, a monthly newsletter gives me more time to send something with sharper writing. But I feel like there are other ways I’d like to engage with you during the month, leading up to the monthly newsletter.
I’m thinking about adding my review notes on games that I review for GamingTrend (edited for writing practice and readability—my raw notes would make your head spin) so you can get a behind the scenes look at what a reviewer goes through while playing a game with the intent to give a thoughtful opinion.
Or instead of showing my notes, giving greater details of my review by making videos discussing my thoughts of the game I reviewed since I record everything.
Either of these would be a paid subscription offering as it would be a lot of time to edit the notes or record and edit a video, but I think the insight would be really worth it—if not for you, then maybe for someone else you know who might be interested.
I’d love to know your thoughts. If you didn’t know, you can comment on these newsletters. I’ll include a button below.
I’m also considering including content like video or my notes due to the increased threat of AI in the writing industry. I talk about that below, as I’m sure for many of you, regardless of what industry you’re in, AI is looming larger and larger.
I wrote plenty at GamingTrend this month; opinions on Hades II and Arc Raiders, review for an abysmal girly DOOM-like shooter, thoughts on a previous Overwatch event, and one of the best representations of diversity in games. Plenty of interesting reads (I think so!).
February is looking like a good chunk of solid games and opinions for me to discuss, as well. I’m already looking forward to the Black history and love month.
Enjoy this issue!
What’s on my mind
I follow this guy on YouTube named Charles Cornell, a musician who entertainingly explains what’s happening in songs, including video game music. Here’s a great video of him reacting to and explaining music from Expedition 33.
I watched another video of him discussing AI’s influence on music, specifically noting that we’re reaching the point where the average person doesn’t notice when music includes AI—or even cares if it does. It’s disturbing to think about.
I’d say some time in October, I had recently been listening to GameChops’ Zelda-inspired Lo-Fi tracks at work. As a result, YouTube recommended a Pokemon jazz video, or something of the like, I don’t remember exactly. I hadn’t heard of the creator, so I clicked, and I was immediately enchanted with the extremely funky interpretations of some well-known songs from Red and Blue.
The comments (paraphrasing) said things like “This is fire!” I agreed. But around the fifth track, my brain started picking on the drums. I started hearing familiar licks from other songs. I also picked up on how the tempos were nearly the same.
What started out as glee over newfound funky interpretations, turned into soul searching. Why is this drummer and the music metronomically rigid? Why are all the songs using the same tempo? I played drums for 28 years, so idiosyncrasies pop out at me.
I realized the drums were, at best, digital. I was disappointed they weren’t human, but now I wondered… is this actually AI music?
Of course, YouTube has a way of telling on itself. I clicked out of the video, and I saw another video for a different game with a similar thumbnail style from the same channel. This time, I clicked on the profile. You have got to be kidding me. An entire channel based on recreating video game music… with AI.
*click* Do not recommend this channel.
Not only were these interpretations digital, they were just a mishmash of AI scrapes. I was mad at myself for not spotting it sooner. But I realized I only sensed that something was up because I could feel that it had no feeling.
Music is inherently emotional communication, which is why it’s the most resonant entertainment medium. Some people don’t like any TV, movies, books, or video games. Everyone likes some kind of music. Everyone connects with someone’s emotional outpouring.
This made me reflect on the future of games writing, a fraught industry constantly fighting to remind people that humans are writing, not large publications (IGN gave this game…, for example).
The reality of AI now is that writing is much easier to fake. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard just use ChatGPT. Their logic is that you can get your message across without needing to think about grammar, structure, tone, clarity, etc. AI can do all of that for you!
This is why LinkedIn comments feel vapid. Anyway…
I learn from an editor who’s now writing a book on how to apply principles of writing to AI output. He’s convinced it’s not going away, so if you’re going to use it or have to use it, might as well teach people what good writing looks like so you can mold the output to your voice. It’s a terrible thought, but it’s the reality. The tech billionaires are hell bent on making AI work, and so much money is poured into it, regardless who wins the war, someone is going to win and make AI permanent, at the expense of our planet, our livelihoods, and our minds.
Writing is most susceptible to AI and most easily missed by humans. Most people don’t know the fundamentals of good writing. I needed 28 years of drumming to pick up on AI music! No, I don’t think humans who accept punctuation-less emails and poorly communicated tweets can spot good writing. They only know when it’s obviously AI.
Still, I believe that AI can never replace anything creative. Even if AI could objectively create beautiful prose, or sonically amazing music, or become an actress in Hollywood, AI could never replicate the soul.
I am writing this. That little injection about LinkedIn, that was me, based on my experience. AI could replicate that I did that, and even inject its own whimsy based on whatever it’s scraped, but it can’t fool you forever.
With that said, it can fool people who don’t follow someone. This is where it gets tricky for gaming publications.
How do you know if whatever was written on IGN, GameSpot, GamingTrend, The Gamer, or even publications on Substack used AI? You have to know the person. I know Travis Northup, freelance writer for IGN. I know him as a human being, and I can spot his written tone and voice from a subheading. I can do the same with John Walker at Buried Treasure, or Jeff Gerstmann, or Alex Navarro at Nextlander. I’ve never met them, but I’ve listened to and read their work for 27 years. I’m sure you could do the same for your favorite whatever.
But most people won’t know the difference. So how does an industry AI-proof itself? One, maintain trust. I think more people will go independent. Corporations keep pushing AI, which erodes trust.
Two, video will become essential. Yes, AI can spoof video too, but it takes much more resources, and more importantly, it’s harder to spoof someone’s soul.
The combination of independent publications and video will help build trust. And it will ultimately enhance writing because people will be familiar with their favorite writer’s voice.
In my line of work specifically, I think reviews will need to shift to video to avoid the coming increased AI accusations (it’s only a matter of time before some stupid reviewer is caught using AI for their review). Not just scripted takes, but live video assessments anchored with writing. Or the other way around—writing anchored with live video assessments.
That’s my initial assessment of how we AI-proof this industry. It’s unfortunate we have to think about this, but it’s the current reality.
It’s this kind of nonsense that makes supporting your favorite people more important. Whether that’s me or whoever, support them. It’s the world we’re headed down.
Humanity is resilient. We’ll figure it out, but this world’s elites have done such a good job at dehumanizing and devaluing creative and thoughtful work because they are such broken people; unable to emotionally connect with human experiences. And that’s what they’re relentlessly trying to wipe away.
Let’s beat AI.
What I wrote for GamingTrend
I want to keep playing Hades II, but it’s pushing me away
I like Hades II a lot. It feels great, but there are some things that make Supergiant’s first sequel bloated.
Most rougelikes (or roguelites, whatever) allow you to progress straight through—A to B. You’re free to engage or disengage with any of the content that’s not critical to beat the game. This is true of the first Hades. This is why it felt unique to the roguelike genre: the story organically intertwined with failed runs. Extra conversations or side content was optional. Sometimes, you would be rewarded for doing them, but importantly, it was optional. Now Supergiant is saying all of the content is important, but I’m not convinced that it is.
Don’t Stop, Girlypop! review
I wanted this game to be good, but it’s just not.
It’s obvious Funny Fintan Softworks loves this game, but there are so many bizarre balance issues and unjustifiable missing features that could have been avoided just by stepping back and thoughtfully observing the games that inspired them.
Relooted truly represents what it means to have diversity in the games industry
This is a game about repatriating stolen African artifacts. I love the concept. And it’s got so many people on Steam riled up. They can’t seem to help themselves. They see a game with black people and must show their racism. It’s upsetting and entertaining at the same time. But this game would not exist if Nyamakop hadn’t made it. That’s the benefit of having different voices in the industry.
There’s an increasing awareness of European and American museums stealing artifacts from around the world to place into their museums. It robs the countries of their stories and history, and many countries are doing what they can to repatriate those artifacts. Relooted asks “What if we made a game about taking back those artifacts?” In this case, yes, stealing. The characters in the game recognize the absurdity and optics, but they also recognize the urgency. Every year a museum keeps those artifacts, it’s another year the rightful country and culture doesn’t benefit. It is absolutely a politics, economics, and power equation. Nyamakop, the developers, say let’s just paint a world where we steal them back.
Arc Raiders is definitely about shooting—but it shouldn’t have been
Arc Raiders became one of the most popular games by the end of 2025, and based on what Embark Studios’ CEO has been saying, it doesn’t seem like Embark Studios was prepared for that level of success.
Tension is the identity of Arc Raiders. If you remove tension, it’s no better than a round of Warzone. Before players were added, Arc Raiders had tension, but Embark experimented with adding players, and then found more tension. Adding humans has been undeniably effective. If you watch someone play Arc Raiders, you’ll immediately feel it from hearing buzzing miniguns, shots popping off in the distance, ominous footsteps, creepy droids on the ground that seemingly appear from nowhere, and a bunch of other sounds. But there was a side-effect when Embark added human players: human decisions. By adding PvP, Arc Raiders immediately became about shooting other people—maybe not to the studio, but to the players. And it’s what the players think that matters.
Overwatch 2’s Showdown Shuffle creates more frustration than fun
Someone at GamingTrend disagreed with my take here because I focus on the human problems with this mode, but that’s a big factor in multiplayer games, particularly if completing challenges is tied to what your fellow humans do. And something about this mode made people play Overwatch very poorly.
Showdown Shuffle functions similarly to Mystery Heroes, but it’s a role queue mode with different parameters that make you switch your hero—mostly by kills and assists. I started with tank, which I knew was my weakest role, but I needed to finish seven games in each role, so I decided to start with my worst role. Similarly to Mystery Heroes, I like the variety and surprise from playing different characters. It’s like hearing your favorite song come on the radio (is that too old of a reference?). I normally wouldn’t play certain characters as I play Overwatch like I choose my food at restaurants: I know what’s good and I’ll keep ordering that. But it’s incredibly frustrating to play a character you’re not familiar with alongside other teammates who also don’t know their character well; trapped because we can’t get a kill. It’s the blind leading the blind. That’s no one’s fault but it tends to create this vicious mental snowball effect in players where they start playing the worst kind of Overwatch.
For God’s sake, Arc Raiders doesn’t need a trading marketplace
More evidence to suggest that Embark Studios’ CEO doesn’t quite know what to do with Arc Raiders’ success. But it’s obvious they shouldn’t do this.
Embark Studios has two games—The Finals and Arc Raiders—both which have been successful. Only Supergiant Games and Respawn Entertainment are studios that I can think of in the modern era that have had this much success consistently. But the studios mentioned have had success because they have standards they have not negotiated. Embark Studios now has a choice for how it will think about their successful games, and Arc Raiders is the first test. It’s not looking good. If the CEO is even thinking about adding a marketplace to a game that is based on getting loot as the core of the gameplay, it’s clear greed is setting in.
That concludes this edition. Thanks again for reading! See you in February!