Tag: Modding

YouTube is the best place to discover new games in 2026

Steam has been the most dominant platform for buying and selling games since the early 2010s. Retail barely exists for PC games now; consoles are the remaining stronghold for physical releases.

One cannot go into the store anymore to see polished or not polished games on display now. The magazines are generally speaking outdated and more about the culture of video games than about the games themselves. So where does the player go to get the latest information about video games? Steam or so I thought.

Steam is a great platform and one that I truly loyal to in a way that GOG would wish to emulate here. However, there is one issue with it. Finding games which are not AAA quality.

AAA has been not as good as it once was but I still have a bias towards them. Independent games are still quite variable in quality and its tough to know what games on Steam are worth your money.

Enter YouTube.

At this point, YouTube has matured enough that there are many creators who make money professionally reviewing games. They are basically replacing GameSpot and IGN here.

How to get a good feed for game recommendations. Follow a creator who plays games consistently. After a while, you will get videos that show you videos from other creators as well as the one you were watching here.

I have found many more games through this way in comparison to searching on Steam. There are simply too many hobby games clogging up the browser on the site.

So if you wish to see what is happening in video games and to play games that worth your time, seek out the video jungle that are YouTube Creators and gamers.

Why Civilization VII is not a Civilization Game: The Emergent Story

The blurbs that appear at certain times of a Civilization III playthrough were always a great way to know about your progress at certain points of a game.

These blurbs, especially the ones that said: “The Most Advanced Nations of the World” or “The Largest Nations of the World” were important to know whether you were going to build a great empire or be at the mercy of your rivals.

This is what Civilization VII is missing. It has the graphics, but it cannot create a feeling of progress or change.

Civilization games are not just about the Civilization but about they affect the world around them. Civilization VII just takes that away and imposes the board game mentality that was starting to creep in with Civilization V.

When you enter a new age, you start with a new civilization of your own choosing, basically resetting the map and you are back to square one. This is essentially splits the game up into three mini games. That is not interesting in the slightest as Civilization is a macro game not some mobile game. While some mobile games are intriguing, Civilization VII basically railroads you into certain gameplay choices. That makes the game less replayable and essentially is changing the spirit of the game.

Civilization V’s continued presence should be a sign of how fans really perceive the newest game. This 15-year-old game continues to outperform Civilization VII. Even Civilization VI, which I had issues with, is ahead of Civilization VII by a considerable amount. I believe that Firaxis Games will have to create a Civilization VIII more quickly than they anticipated as the game is not gaining traction. Civilization VI was in a much better spot a year after release and Civilization V was not surpassing Civilization VI in the player counts.

These small blurbs are just text but they also connect to the great context of the game. You are not simply building a civilization but building a world. That is what Civilization VII lacks and why players are not warming to the game.

The Need to Monetize AI and Ads on ChatGPT and Google Gemini

It seems that the need to monetize everything is coming to the world of AI chatbots. There has been talk of ChatGPT putting ads on their site. It has been such a great tool not having to see ads popup on a website, not having Video ads that break immersion while watching a history video or tutorials on software. However, with so many users on ChatGPT, some 800 million strong, it is clear that ads are going to be put on the site. I believe that it is going to occur early in 2026 as the site needs a way to make up for its debt it has been acquiring and the cost of all the investments from other companies.

I think what needs to happen is that ads have to be implemented carefully. I do not want to have full screen ads such as on YouTube. Every single video seems to have these annoying video ads that comes up every time the content creator is getting to an important part of their video here.

They need to make sure the ads are non-intrusive and relate to agentic AI. Instead of just filling everything with ads which are taking up space, they need to make sure the ads are speaking to customer’s precise views on what they want to purchase on the site.