Culture

Ready For Launch

Anthony Trujillo is an artist at Blizzard, where he’s worked on stuff like World of Warcraft You can see more of Anthony’s stuff at his ArtStation page.

NBA 2K21 Has Two Cover Stars, And One Of Them Is Rookie Zion Williamson

Like previous years, NBA 2K21 will feature multiple cover stars. Current-gen versions will have the Blazer’s Dame Lillard on the front, while the next-gen editions will feature Zion Williamson, who in any other year would be coming up on his second season, but in this current hellscape is still a rookie. That’s kinda notable, because…

We Are Now Entering The “Animal Crossing Buttplug” Stage Of 2020

A lot of people around the world, especially in the US, are still stuck at home, away from friends and loved ones. Out of this isolation new ways of keeping in touch have emerged, including…buttplugs and vibrators that can sync with Animal Crossing and vibrate whenever the player swings a shovel. As Vice report, Kyle…

Race To Clear The Division 2‘s New Raid Marred By Cheating Accusations

The Division 2 received its second post-game raid, Operation Iron Horse, yesterday, setting off a mad dash by players and content creators to be the first in the world to finish the difficult mission. It took the eventual winners over eight hours to complete the raid, but what should have been a moment of celebration…

New Call of Duty Easter Egg Involves Summoning The Pied Piper

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s latest multiplayer map is infested with rats, but you can pay the piper to help clean house. Modern Warfare’s mid-season update for Season 4 arrived on June 30, bringing a new multiplayer map to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Cheshire Park is a 6v6 map set in urban London,…

Hackers Are Defacing Roblox Avatars With Trump Paraphernalia

Players of kId-friendly creative place space are discovering their accounts have become inadvertently political, as hackers dress hundreds of users up in pseudo-MAGA gear and inject Donald Trump 2020 campaign messages into their user profiles. “Ask your parents to vote for Trump this year! #MAGA2020” is the message appearing in more than 1,500 Roblox user…

Riding Horses In The Last Of Us 2 Feels Great, Here’s Why

The Last of Us Part 2 is a big, big game that excels at the little things: the way Joel raises his hand to block sunlight from his eyes, or the way Ellie marks up a map of downtown Seattle with a Sharpie. Another killer small touch is the haptic feedback—the rumble you feel in…

Xbox Summer Fest Will Debut Over 60 Demos You Can Try At Home

With in-person gaming events out of the question this year, Xbox is turning to a digital alternative to show off some upcoming Xbox One games. Starting on July 21, the Summer Games Fest Demo Event will allow players to check out early builds for a ton of games from their couches rather than a crowded…

EVE Online Player Stages Massive War To Honor His Fight Against Cancer

Two weeks ago, an EVE Online veteran received some difficult news. Christopher “Chappy78” Chapman found out that the pancreatic cancer he had been fighting off was not only back, but the prognosis was not good. This news also came the week before Chappy’s birthday. Facing down the barrel of such terrible news, he turned to…

Fallout 76 And CrossCode Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass Next Week

Heads up, Game Pass members: If you’ve recently purchased Fallout 76, you should return it. Bethesda’s online shooter-cum-role-playing game is coming to Xbox Game Pass on July 9. Set before any other game in the Fallout timeline, Fallout 76 puts you in the shoes of a survivor from Vault 76. When the game launched in…

How’s It Going?: Burnout Edition

We’re halfway through the week! Welcome back to our daily open thread. I get a few days off after the long weekend next week, which I am badly looking forward to. While I’ve enjoyed not having to commute, I often joke that the flipside of working from home is living at work, and I’m definitely…

Track: Gunjou Biyori -Ideal Days For Ultramarine- (From “Bon Voyage”) | Artist: Tokyo Jihen | Album: Hard Disk

ONWARD!

Guillaume Duchemin is an artist from France. You can see more of Guillaume’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Amazing Emulator Turns 2D NES Games Into Fully 3D Worlds

A strange new product appeared on Steam last week: a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator that translates the 2D pixel graphics of classic 8-bit games into 3D worlds built with voxels. It’s called 3dSen, it has standard and standard+VR versions, and it lets you experience a select slice of the NES library from unusual new perspectives.…

Cards Against Humanity’s Workers Are Unionizing

Following the latest round of complaintsover poor ownership and a “toxic” office culture, the workers at the company behind Cards Against Humanity have decided to unionise. In a statement released earlier today, Cards Against Humanity Workers United announced that they had signed up with Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board, and are “optimistic” that the…

Amazon’s Crucible Flopped So Hard It’s Being Un-Released

In this era of constant updates, games leave closed beta on a regular basis. They don’t often re-enter it. However, like a groundhog emerging to un-see its own shadow, Amazon’s team-based shooter Crucible is no longer a fully released video game. Crucible’s post-release beta comes on the heels of a rocky launch, which consisted of…

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Helps Queer Players Express Themselves

On May 28, Daisy stood on a pink-and red-striped flag, a gray beret perched atop her magenta hair, waiting for her friends to fly into her island on Dodo Airlines. One by one, seven of them arrived and stood on the dock awaiting Daisy’s instructions. Meanwhile, at her parents’ home in the southern United States,…

How’s It Going?: Taxes Edition

It’s already Tuesday! Welcome back to our daily open thread. In the middle of a meeting yesterday I remembered Tax Day is coming up, briefly derailing said meeting as several of us went “oh, crap.” I think the temporary pause on my student loan payments is also up soon, which means bidding farewell to looking…

Fortnite Is Finally Out Of Early Access

Nearly three years after the launch of Fortnite: Save the World—the original survival defense game barely anyone played and not the battle royale afterthought that became a worldwide sensation—Epic Games is ripping off that early access bandaid and declaring Save the World a real, premium game. Battle Royale and Creative are losing their early access…

Nintendo President Apologizes For Joy-Con Trouble

During a recent financial Q&A, Nintendo finally apologized for issues caused by Joy-Cons but will not comment further due to the current class-action lawsuit. Players have been dealing with what’s called Joy-Con drift as Kotaku previously reported, stating how it was becoming a real problem. Last year, a class-action lawsuit was filed with Nintendo accused of…