Jeff Dunn

senior reporter covering consumer tech @yahoo. prev: engadget, ars technica, business insider, lots of freelance. son of massachusetts. UTFT.

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

Work-related note: I'm now writing for Yahoo full-time as part of their Yahoo Tech vertical. Still covering + reviewing lots of consumer tech -- much of it gaming, but also phones, laptops, audio, accessories, etc. Any PR folks following me in those fields, get in touch!

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

spent some time with Splatoon Raiders a couple weeks ago. it’s looking like a game for the loot freaks

https://t.co/vC1LGDYpKu

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

allow unlimited two-way substitutions after 120 mins (so each side can put out a new XI), hydration breaks every 15-20 mins, golden goal rules

but in reality there's no pure fair way to settle it, so a shootout is probably the best we've got. it's always entertaining at least

[The New York Times @nytimes]

From @TheAthleticFC: Penalty shootouts are brutal. Is there a better way to settle tied games? A fairer way? A more fitting test of skills?

We asked our writers and this is what they think the World Cup can steal from other sports: https://t.co/r4KfBlk4e1

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

106 pts for rd 3 and back up to 8.7k rank. praise be to Jan Paul Van Hecke.

unlimited transfers for the rd of 32. going Lautaro over Haaland/Kane will kill me but I'll gamble on double Argentina attack against Cape Verde. quali booster chip active, +2 pts for everyone who wins.

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

i am a sicko, so yes i am playing World Cup Fantasy

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

solid score for round 2, but was only ever going to go downhill. still happy with the rank. we move. 🇩🇪 👎

wildcard active for round 3. big guns up front, betting that messi plays even with argentina safely through.

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

https://t.co/4aC6QsQnxN

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

seems like a good time to re-share this. if you're not sure why Apple and seemingly every other tech co is hiking prices, here's an explainer i wrote for Yahoo a few months back. (some smaller details have changed obvs.)

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

nah man. i don't care if his larger point makes sense. we are not letting dudes from those golden state warriors teams tell us why basketball sucks now

[dank @cptdankkk]

Draymond Green says basketball is no longer a poor kid's game: “It's a rich kid's game”

“I didn't learn how to do a proper individual workout till I got to college. Growing up I'm going to hoop. Where's the nearest run. Drop me off, I'll play all day. That's what we did. We hooped all day. I think there's a huge benefit to that because you just learn to see the game”

“It's different when somebody just putting you in a position to tell you to do this move. How do you use your creativity? How do you learn if somebody just say do this? How do you know what your game is if you never tap into it and just figure it out”

“I think there's a time and place for a trainer and I think with where the game has gone, you need those resources in order to be successful”

“I feel like basketball used to be a poor man's game. Poor kids played it. We were poor. We had nothing and it was our way out. Basketball is not a poor kid's game no more. Basketball is a rich kid game”

“The days of seeing LeBron James from Akron, Ohio, from a single mom, those days are numbered. Because if you don't have the resources these days, you can't make it. But that’s also why you don't see as great basketball as you did before, because there's no imagination”

“Everybody's doing the same thing, playing the same way. I think a lot of that is due sometimes to having trainers. You just become a carbon copy of somebody else the trainer created”

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

previewed the new rhythm heaven game
https://t.co/y2WNuCnP25

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

previewed star fox and now i kinda want to play it in mouse mode https://t.co/7lUg79P6M8

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

i'll never get this kind of whinging. i *want* to read a writer's bullshit, that's what's honest. you're getting one guy's perspective when there's a million others out there. "this guy sucks" has been a cornerstone of criticism forever. shore up your fragile egos.

[NIB @nib95_]

PC Gamer gave 007 First Light a 65/100, its lowest score.

Unfortunately a scathing review was a foregone conclusion as the journalist they picked for the review; Joshua Wolens, has publicly revealed his contempt for James Bond and notion he shouldn't even be in games.

In an article titled "Hear me out: What if James Bond just shouldn't be in videogames?"

Joshua refers to Bond as a "smug tool" that "doesn't quite fit into games", in part due to being "an insufferable public school dickhead...a rowing club Tory boy through and through", who "comports himself like a man who has a right to the Earth and everybody on it."

And later that "part of his charismatic arrogance is that he is suave and unflappable. Well, great. Good for him. I am not suave, and I flap at the slightest inconvenience. I simply don't fit into him?"

Which could almost be mistaken for jealousy, but also begs the question, why the need to completely relate to or embody a character in order to enjoy the media?

Some of my fave games and media in history follow characters who are nothing like me, often times murdering psychopaths or mix of some other morally repugnant or deeply damaged concoction.

Call it emotional maturity being able to engage and really enjoy media and characters beyond having to feel wholly self reflected or personally pandered to.

It's no wonder in the review Joshua writes "you still have to endure him [Bond] for the length of the game", like it was some torturous ordeal for him.

Compounded by him admitting he "was ravenous to play anything with the IO badge on it after the masterpiece of Hitman: World of Assassination", but clearly disappointed the next game was Bond IP.

Presumably desperately wanting them to go back to working on a chatacter/IP he doesn't have contempt for, that or for IO to re-work Bond into being something he was never intended to be.

All leading to the main question; why give the review to someone who clearly despises Bond, didn't enjoy the preview and who's conclusion from it was implying Bond shouldn't be in games?

For clicks, exposure or drama?

Because to me it's somewhat unprofessional. Akin to giving someone who hates racing games and Gran Turismo in particular, GT7 to review. Or someone whe hates Mario, a Mario game to review.

Reviews are to inform potential buyers, and buyers don't tend to buy or want to buy things they already hate or dislike.

This doesn't feel that different from these grifting social media hate merchants who hate play games in a bitch eating crackers way, to either look for faults or through a lens of premeditated confirmation bias.

Is this what PC Gamer or parts of gaming media are devolving into now?

Find the journalists with the most contempt for a particular IP, character or genre to review them, in order for the highest chance of dunking on the work of hundreds or thousands of people, but getting extra edgy exposure?

Disappointing.
#007FirstLight

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

Also he used to host a dope weekly trivia night at this bar in Bushwick

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

Tyler is not only an incredibly adept writer who can turn assignments around quickly while maintaining a genuine voice, he might also be the easiest guy on the planet to just have an engaged conversation with. Any workplace would be lucky to have him!

[tryler @tylerlauletta]

I was unfortunately one of the many laid off by Sports Illustruated today. It was an incredible run. So thankful for the great teammates I had there, and my comrades at @si_union for their solidarity through the tough times.

Onward!

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

that said, it’s a video game, and sometimes monkey needs his bananas. i’m playing it a lot and Having Fun

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

this, except serious, is basically the chief criticism of any forza horizon game. it centers tourists. more or less what i wrote about the last one

https://t.co/jc1U0BPwyY

[@KedgeOnline @KedgeOnline]

Playing a lot of Forza Horizon lately and I’m really struggling with why a city or region would actually want to host the fictional Horizon Festival. Ignoring the almost-guaranteed catastrophic loss of life, the insurance payouts alone would be ridiculous.

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

well, not quite. wound up top 150k. not great, but just outside top 1%. had a horrible start and was as low as 750k with 10 weeks left, so happy enough with the recovery. we go again.

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

as an american who recently had a kid, the only attainable goal i have left in life is, of course, to finish in the top 10k in Fantasy Premier League. it's year 11 for me, previous best rank is 22k, last year was 76k (which was enough for top 1%). here's my team to start the year

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

this could be the guy who finally listens when i beg: please bring back 1 vs 100

[Tim Sweeney @TimSweeneyEpic]

Matthew Ball, author of the famous 2020 essay (and later book) on the evolution of gaming toward the metaverse, has joined Microsoft as Chief Strategy Officer for gaming.

https://t.co/z9idPI9c4k

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

please god. it’s disgusting to watch and it doesn’t actually work. killed any enjoyment i’ve had for the sport, even during the one title run it felt gross.

[Rob Perez @WorldWideWob]

Watching the Celtics brick wide open three-after-three-after-three to end their season and, likely, this style of offense in the NBA.

[Jeff Dunn @deffjunn]

Good. GM next.

[Underdog MLB @UnderdogMLB]

Full list of Red Sox firings:

Manager Alex Cora
Hitting coach Peter Fatse
Bench coach Rámon Vazquez
Assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson
Third-base coach Kyle Hudson
Hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin

Game-planning coach Jason Varitek will be reassigned to new role.