Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram

Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram: Episode 4

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT

In direct violation of several court orders, Tony tracks down ex-Journo and F2P expert Mark Sorrell and harasses him at length, spoiling what would have been a really pleasant walk in the country. We chat about AI for the most part, and how we see it might influence and affect videogames in general. Expect slammed dynamics (sloppy normalisation), some panting (due to exercise), strong opinions (due to gross ignorance on my part) and swearing (par for the course).

Tony wrote about AI once and has seemingly learned nothing since, and you can read it here.

Mark writes about AI and other things right here.

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Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram: Episode 3

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:53:25 GMT

Once again, Tony Coles waffles indulgently about games he loves and loathes with a surprising density of swearing, even by his usual standards. This one is all about the niche, featuring discussion of Shmups R-Type Final 3 Ultimate, Gradius V and the historical compilation, Gradius Origins. Also mentioned for extra cool points are Blazing Star and Progear. Tony uses the second half to ramble about WH Smiths as an excuse to smuggle in a bit about the SID chip and its tunes while utterly fumbling its model number like a rank amateur. He ends up losing his shit, Ed Zitron style, over the death of physical games and arguing that everybody should be ransacking charity shops of DVDs because you can buy a HDMI-out player in B&M for £25.

Read about R-Type Final 3 Ultimate here and here.

Read about the death of GAME here!

Listen to the SIDtune mix right here.

Also read everything on Affectionate Discourse, because he needs the likes and shares.

Email affectionatediscourse@gmail.com or abuse him at length on Bluesky.

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Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram: Episode 2

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 10:00:00 GMT

In a doomed attempt to become a self-facilitating media node, Gen-X bore Tony Coles of Affectionate Discourse rambles at length about games he loved in 2025. For this episode, it's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Sniper Elite: Resistance and Atomfall. Expect swearing, coughing, hugely unreasonable opinions on videogame narratives and some vague observations about things.

Read Tony's thoughts on S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 here or here or here! He also did a guide to playing it, here.

Tony's waffle about Sniper Elite: Resistance is here.

Read how much he loved Atomfall here.

Blah blah Bluesky profile blah, affectionatediscourse@gmail.com etc.

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Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram S00_E00 - The Pilot

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 12:50:08 GMT

Hello! This is the first episode of the official Affectionate Discourse podcast, which is a Substack about videogames and videogaming culture written by me, Tony Coles. This podcast has some origin story waffle, but is mostly to do with my PlayStation 2. Feel free to assail me with any corrections, complaints, desires and so forth. Find me via the Substack, on Bluesky, or email me at affectionatediscourse@gmail dot com.

I sincerely hope I manage to record more than one episode of this.

Best wishes,

Tony

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