Culture

Our Favorite Cosplay From BlizzCon 2019

BlizzCon 2019 had a different feel to previous years, as big game announcements shared the weekend with protests against the company’s political actions. One thing that remained constant, though, was the quality of cosplay that fans brought to the show. Maybe it’s the focused nature of the con, maybe it’s just the fact that Blizzard’s…

Sorry Forgot My Keys

Chander Lieve is an artist based in New Zealand who most recently worked on Path of Exile 2. You can see more of Lieve’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Look At This Beautiful Game Of Pathfinder

A group of Australian friends just wound up an epic game of tabletop RPG Pathfinder, and I mean, I already said this in the headline, but just look at the thing. Overseen by DM Paul Houlihan, who also did all the painting (the terrain is a mix of stuff, most of it from Dwarven Forge),…

There Was An F-Zero Novel, And Its Art Sure Was Something

In January of 1992, a novel—not a manga, a novel—was released in Japan based on F-Zero. And anyone used to how the series looked and felt on a console will notice it’s quite…different. With a title roughly translated to F-Zero: And Then, To The Gods Of Speed, these scans and info were all uploaded by…

Valve Is Not Making Any More Steam Controllers

We are gathered here today to bid farewell to the Steam Controller, the little gamepad that could in some cases, but couldn’t in others, because it made people’s hands hurt. Its haptic pads are tickling the fingers of angels now. Currently, Valve’s maiden foray into the world of long-distance game manipulation is on sale for…

Twitch Loophole Is Still Inflating Views

Saqib “Lirik” Zahid, who has 2.5 million followers on Twitch, is the last streamer to need a viewbot. Nevertheless, over the last couple of days, his fans and followers wondered whether he’d somehow succumbed—this week, his average 27,000 viewer count for November shot up to a huge 76,000 for no discernable reason. Zahid felt the…

Dota 2 Gets Total Overhaul

I’ve spent over 1,000 hours playing Dota 2 and reading through the game’s latest set of patch notes is breaking my brain. The game’s Outlander’s update went live today, adding not just two more heroes but upending massive aspects of the game, including item delivery, teleportation, late game advantages, and item progressions. The base game…

Valve Removes 1,000 Games From Steam As Punishment For Abusing Tools

There are more than 30,000 games on Steam. When Valve removes the odd offender for breaking the rules by, say, being a low-effort meme masquerading as a low-effort game or by being low-effort porn masquerading as a low-effort game, it’s like siphoning a drop from a bucket. Yesterday, Valve removed over 1,000 games from Steam.…

Facebook has purchased Beat Games, the studio behind virtual reality rhythm game Beat Saber. The developers will “continue to work on Beat Saber across all currently supported platforms”.

Experts Say Geese Aren’t Actually As Bad As Untitled Goose Game Suggests

I love being a goose in Untitled Goose Game. I love to waddle, honk, and flap at people. But how much of what you do in Untitled Goose Game is true to goose life? I spoke to some waterfowl experts to get a read on how true to life Untitled Goose Game actually is. Isabella…

Some Call Of Duty Players Find Themselves Spawning In Mid-Air

Call of Duty matches can be fast-paced slaughterhouses, which is why the game usually respawns you away from other players and, uh, on the ground. Recently, players have been noticing that’s not always the case. “Incredible, just incredible,” Reddit user McNugg2710 said in a November 22 post of a video showing them respawning out in…

How Fighting Game Developers Can Improve Online Play

Netcode, the set of technical protocols that determine online play in video games, is especially important in fighting games. Decisions are often split-second, with just a few frames determining whether or not a punish lands or a combo finishes the job. Netcode is often the main concern of competitive players looking for their next game.…

This Is What Happens When I Explore Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order‘s Amazing World

Oh, cool. I found a secret area in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, everyone. I wonder what kind of reward I’ll find here. This place is way off the grid, so there’s got to be something incredible hidden in these chambers. I discovered this place because I spotted a little green icon on my map,…

Looking Back On The Hypnotic Charm Of Breakout

Pilgrim In The Microworld, a 1983 book by professor, sociologist, and musician David Sudnow, was far ahead of its time. As a book-length digression on a single video game—Breakout for the Atari 2600—it took the emerging medium seriously at a time when it was largely dismissed as a mere fad on the verge of dying.…

Some Of Pokémon Sun and Moon’s Online Features Are Shutting Down In February

The Pokémon company announced overnight that its Global Link Service, which supports certain parts of online play in Pokémon Sun and Moon and their Ultra editions, will be going away on February 24, 2020. While Pokémon Sun and Moon players will still be able to trade and battle directly with one another, features related to…

Track: Tokyo wa yoru no 7-ji | Artist: Pizzicato Five | Album: The Band of the 20th Century: Nippon Columbia Years 1991-2001

In The City. Osaka, Japan. By Brian Ashcraft. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

The Ultimate Crossover Event

Kontorn Boonyanate is an artist from Thailand whose action figure style has me feeling all gloomy about Disney Infinity again You can see more of Kontorn’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Data Suggests Most Steam Users’ PCs Aren’t Ready To Play Half-Life: Alyx

Deep-pocketed companies like Valve and Oculus have been pushing virtual reality for years, but mainstream interest in the practice of strapping video games to one’s eyeballs has remained relatively low. Half-Life: Alyx seems primed to give a whole new audience a very valid reason to hover a hesitant finger over a headset’s Buy button and…

The Pokémon Company Wants To Hunt Leakers On 4Chan, Discord

Earlier this month, before the game’s release, leaked images of Pokémon Sword & Shield starting turning up online. That’s pretty normal for a big video game, but The Pokémon Company are taking the matter very seriously, so seriously that they’re asking a court if they can serve subpoenas on 4chan and Discord. As reported by…