Don't Trust Roblox - 22/08/25

Welcome to the first edition of Letter to a Gamer, the ad-free, sponsor free, and AI-free newsletter. This release marks the start of a two-week open beta, during which I need your help to understand what works and what doesn't before the paid version launches in September. At the end of the newsletter, you'll find a Google survey. Filling it out will help me a lot, and the first three readers to submit a screenshot of their completion message to the Telegram group (the link is at the bottom of this email) will receive a code of their choice (first come, first served) for:

• Stellar blade (PC)
• Stormgate (PC)
• Days Gone Remastered (PS5)

News index

+ Don't trust Roblox
- ONL Falls Flat, Silksong date!
+ Battlefield 6's Record
- RIP Genshin Impact on PS4
+ Helldivers 2 & Halo 3 ODST

• The most relevant news of the week, and probably the month, in the gaming world is the Roblox v Schlep situation, a scandal so massive it has already cost the platform a stock market loss of more than ten billion dollars.

Schlep is a famous content creator who has been on Roblox for over 10 years (he's 22) and has become famous for spending much of his time hunting down sexual predators, who abound on the platform given that the age of the average user is 14.

His actions speak louder than his words: in two years he had six pedophiles arrested by US authorities thanks to the evidence he gathered while posing as a minor to lure them into his trap. His motivation has always been the desire to ensure that what happened to him when he was 13 never happens to anyone again. He never spoke about it in detail, but it's easy to understand what he's talking about.

The news, however, isn't that he's good at catching predators: what caused the massive scandal was Roblox's decision to ban Schlep because he allegedly violated the platform's terms of service by failing to report the criminals to Roblox before reporting them to the police so that Roblox, not the police, could take action.

His ban highlighted some serious problems related to sexual predators on the platform and sparked such an outcry that several dominoes began to fall.

Louisiana (USA) is suing Roblox because, in the words of State Attorney General Liz Murril, "the platform is rife with harmful and predatory content because it puts profit and user growth ahead of the safety of minors. Every parent should be aware of the platform's dangers to prevent the unthinkable from happening to their children".

Chris Hansen, the investigative journalist and creator of To Catch a Predator (the investigative television program that led to the arrest of dozens of sexual predators from 2004 to 2007), is working on a documentary in collaboration with Shlep to expose what's happening inside Roblox, using sources "internal and external, and by speaking with many victims," ​​he said in a TikTok video.

Indonesia has directly threatened Roblox: either the company opens an office in the country to ensure it follows the country's laws regarding the online safety of minors, or the platform will be banned.

Six of the platform's most popular content creators have left despite Roblox promising initiatives and committees and starting to shut down problematic experiences like Club Iris and Dollhouse Roleplay. "Less problematic" experiences like Private Bedroom and Private Bathroom (you can imagine what they consist of) will be labeled 17+. It's also important to note that the platform lacks a system for verifying user identity and age.

Roblox lost $12.17 billion in the stock market despite one of its most popular experiences, Grow a Garden, reaching a record 20 million concurrent players. Don't trust Roblox, don't interact with it, and if you know anyone who plays it, dissuade them and, above all, keep it out of the reach of children.

• On the news front, the rest of the week was dominated by headlines on the lackluster Gamescom Opening Night Live show, which, in two hours of trailers and commercials, managed to shake the audience only during the announcement, not of the release date, but of a YouTube show dedicated to Hollow Knight: Silksong (which aired two days after) in which Team Cherry revealed the release date: Steam's most wish-listed game ever will come out September 4th.
• The Battlefield 6 open beta has reached 512,000 concurrent players on Steam alone, beating Monster Hunter Wilds' peak (463,000) on the same platform. It looks like Vince Zampella (lead designer of Medal of Honor, founder of Infinity Ward of Modern Warfare 1&2 fame, and founder of the makers of Titanfall and Apex Legends Respawn Entertainment) has hit the jackpot once again after EA handed him the keys to DICE.
• HoYoverse has announced that starting in October 2025, the PS4 version of Genshin Impact will no longer be available on the store and that it will no longer be supported from August 2026 onward due to "obvious hardware limitations." The game recently received a minimum spec increase on PC, but it's strange to see the developers abandon a platform with so many users. The same fate, albeit much sooner, will be reserved for the PS4 and Xbox One versions of PUBG which will crease to exist at the end of Novembre 2025.
• Perhaps the most fitting collaboration between two videogames ever will launch on August 26th when, in conjunction with the release of Helldivers 2 on Xbox platforms, the Halo 3 ODST cosmetics pack will be added to the in-game store for $15. The ODSTs of the Bungie universe are the ancestors of the Helldivers: expendable, launched from orbit and tasked with taking down big, bad, ugly aliens.

What to play this weekend

demos and games to try something new

Looking for something new to play? Something thrilling? Tear-jerking adventures? This list of recommendations has something for everyone, from new releases to early access titles to demos of upcoming video games that are still a long way off.

• VOID/BREAKER: this beautiful, 200-miles-per-hour cyberpunk shooter just hit Early Access on Steam. Few games in the last year have kept me as engaged and focused as this roguelite, which blends Doom, excellent techno music, razor-sharp graphics, well built physics, endless destructibility, and well-crafted enemies. The story has just the right amount of mystery, and the power-ups you unlock make each play-through unique. Its solo developer (Stubby Games, author of The Entropy Center) is a true talent, and if you like fast paced shooters, Voidbreaker will leave you truly satisfied.
• Öoo: Nama Takahashi is known for his innovative and challenging platformers, and after the huge success of ElecHead, Öoo raises the bar once again. The game features a caterpillar who produces bombs and must use them to explore a 2D world to uncover a mysterious secret. There are chasms to jump over, spikes to avoid, blocks to move, and many other challenges that require timing and explosions. The pixel art is well made, and the game lasts between 3 and 4 hours. There's also a demo available for those who want to try it before giving less than 10 euros to its talented creator.
• Legion Was Here (demo): if you've ever dreamt of becoming a shapeshifting spy who must take notes on their hand after stealing someone identity to properly deceive its victims, than Legion Was Here is the game for you. Developed by Geoffroy Monde and slated to release in Q1 2026, this game has a very promising demo in Steam which sets up all the necessary premises: you're a shapeshifting spy that can steal anybody's looks but with a bad memory so you must write on your palm, Homer Simpson Style, clues and suggestions to fool your victims.

Sword of the Sea: review

All battles are filled with woe, but not all wars have winners

Sword of the Sea is a game for those in need of a hug. This game from the makers of Abzu and The Pathless whose creative director was the art director of Journey, won't challenge you in any way, instead, it will take you on an artistically inspired and narratively profound exploratory adventure.

You play as the Ghost, an explorer tasked with reviving the ocean after a war that turned it into a desert. To do so, you'll have to skate your sword between dunes, jellyfish, giant chains, and beautifully crafted desert architecture.

By collecting coins scattered around the map, you'll unlock new tricks for your levitating swordboard, and with each new biome, new puzzle-solving mechanics are gradually introduced without the need for a single tutorial.

Sword of the Sea takes you by the hand and walks you through a timeless story that touches the hearts of those who play in unexpected ways. We won't spoil anything; just know that Giant Squid, as it has done in its other games, will make you ponder the meaning of life, friendship, and the relationship with nature through what, at first glance, seem like completely banal puzzles.

The music, of course, is exquisitely crafted and adapts not only to the settings but to the speed accumulated by the player's avatar. There are ways and techniques to accelerate thanks to the landscape's elements, and masters of the board/sword will also be able to reach unexpected places where they can find collectibles.

Sword of the Sea, however, is above all a game that doesn't require concentration or insane reaction times. It isn't a challenge, but rather an invitation to a beautiful stroll while listening to poignant and comforting stories of distant myths.

Flawless on the technical side, this game is a continuous flow of events, discoveries, and revelations that I found very difficult to take myself out of. Particularly noteworthy is Giant Squid's ability to never push the envelope: every single mechanic lasts no more than two or three puzzles/sections and is quickly replaced by something else, equally easy to understand, to keep the game moving.

This adventure takes less than six hours to complete and leaves a bittersweet taste of hope that only the most thoughtful games can produce. Sword of the Sea's story is a mirror in which to look at oneself and through which to look at our times. The conclusions I drew weren't the rosiest, but at least I was consoled by the idea that all is not lost, that it is still possible to do something for the world, both the one within and the one without.

If you're looking for an experience that's more relaxing than challenging, then Sword of the Sea is the game for you: there's never a dull moment, the pace is fast, and yet, at the end of each session, I left my chair feeling more rested than when I sat down, which is quite an impressive feat.

How I review videogame

An opinion piece on videogame critique

Letter to a Gamer's manifesto reads that I'm a professional journalist and a video game critic. This article explains what these two terms mean and why they're essential to understanding the underlying philosophy of this newsletter.

To become a professional journalist in Italy, you must have passed a state exam that requires (both written and oral) knowledge of criminal law, civil law, European law, constitutional law, a touch of environmental law, the history of Italy and Europe from the 20th century onward, and a whole series of ethical rules that form the cornerstone of the journalistic profession.

All this to say that there are very few places in Italy and around the world where coverage of the video game world is subject to these standards and this type of scrutiny; even fewer that guarantee the absence of external and corporate influence in their recommendations. I'm at your service because you finance me directly, not through an ad or referral-based system, but thanks to those four euros a month that, I hope, you'll decide to spend starting in September.

A school of video game critics has yet to be opened, so why do I consider myself one? Because I've gained enough experience, especially working for Multiplayer.it, italy's N.1 videogame magazine, to have opinions that a large portion of the public considers well-founded and based. I've been playing video games for 25 years, I've been on this planet for 30, and have been writing about them professionally for 6, always respecting the rules mentioned above.

When I review a video game, beyond the more basic technical aspects—trying to understand whether everything works as intended—I analyze its objective and whether it has achieved it to the best of its ability.

This later aspect is fundamental to my critique: if a solo developer making a video game with immense potential has a less-than-stellar interface and the character occasionally fallls through the floor, I'll point it out, but it won't influence my recommendation. If a studio with 2000 employees that charges me 80 euros for its product has even the most basic of technical flaws, then this will have a fair amount of weight in the recommendation phase.

In this newsletter, I want to offer some perspective that's different than usual, which is why AAA games are "request-only," as stated in the manifesto. Part of a critic's job is, in fact, to seek out the best experiences, select them, evaluate them, and then decide whether to recommend them. That's why you won't see ratings on these pages, because critiquing isn't a general recommendation, but a specific one. I'll never claim to elevate a game to a universal masterpiece; therefore, in my reviews, you'll always find a clear indication of the game's intended audience and a clear recommendation to members of that audience, letting them know if the game is worth it.

The audience can be broad, like those who love first-person shooters; medium sized, like those looking for a deductive adventure; small, like those who adore roguelike card games; or niche-sized, like fans of a specific developer's style looking for something similar. This is how the games on these pages will be catalogued, evaluated, and recommended, and I hope that every subscriber will find or discover something that resonates with their interests.

Thank you for reading the first of the two open beta editions of Letter to a Gamer. Starting in September, this newsletter will be behind a paid subscription, so if you enjoyed what you read and want to support my work, just €1 a week, or €4 a month, will allow me to continue producing this kind of independent journalism and video game critique.

See you at the next letter.
Riccardo "Tropic" Lichene