Gita Jackson

Video Game About Dating Supreme Court Justices Has A Different Ring To It These Days

The developers making Supreme Courtship always had a tricky needle to thread. To educate players about American government they would let them date Supreme Court Justices. It was meant to be upbeat and a little silly. It’s become a thornier project over the last several weeks thanks to Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, and the investigation of…

Video Game Wikis Abandon Their Platform After Year Of Problems

After a year of issues, the Runescape wiki is leaving the Fandom platform, and more may follow suit. If you need to look up a video game factoid, you’re probably going to end up on a site owned by Fandom, which provides a free-to-use online encyclopedia framework called Wikia. Starting last year, these video game…

Sims 4 Staffer Urges Fans To Stop ‘Attacking/Insulting Our Dev Team’

Once again, Sims fans have brought up old grievances to the game’s developers, leading one to take repeated Twitter breaks and a community manager to issue a plea for decency and patience on the part of the fans. The Sims 4 got off to a rocky start, and its reputation among fans has not quite…

One Fan’s Criticism Of D&D App Roll20 Sends Its Subreddit Into A Meltdown

Roll20, a popular website with tools for pen-and-paper RPG players, has found itself on the bad side of many of its fans after a bungled moderation incident that has led to its entire moderation staff stepping down from its subreddit—and the fourth most-downvoted Reddit post of all time. Yesterday, a Roll20 user named Cory, known…

The First Episode Of Life Is Strange 2 Doesn’t Hide Its Politics

In certain ways, Life Is Strange 2 is a huge departure from the first game. It’s set in a different city, with wildly different characters. It ditches the Gossip Girl-meets-Twin Peaks murder mystery for a harsher story about two teenagers on the run. But it’s still an over the top teenage angst fest. Life Is…

Take A Break With This Cat Who Plays Your Favorite Tunes

Want respite from a hectic, stressful world? Here, have some Bongo Cat. Bongo Cat was originally created by artist Stray Rogue, and wasn’t originally called Bongo Cat or even playing the bongos. Stray Rogue had been drawing a cat-like blob called Rogu for some time. In May, they drew Rogu smacking a counter with their…

Netflix’s Maniac: A ten episode series about experimental psychiatric drugs and the power of friendship. What it is: Jonah Hill is the mentally ill black sheep of a wealthy family, and Emma Stone is a con artist trying to score a rare new drug. Both them enter an experimental medical trial that messes with their…

The Internet Has Been Replaced By Bowser Wearing The Super Crown

A concept introduced in a single fan-made comic strip has absolutely destroyed the internet. In the port of New Super Mario Bros. Wii U for the Switch, called New Super Mario Bros. Wii U Deluxe, Toadette has an item called the Super Crown that turns her into a character called Peachette. That was two weeks…

NBA 2K Players Getting Stuck In Never-Ending Games And Other Bugs

NBA 2K19 players are reporting various bugs in the game’s My Career mode, and some have expressed frustrations with 2K’s slow response to their issues. The replies to 2K’s customer support Twitter account will show variations on the same theme. Some players say they are losing VC, or Virtual Currency, when they try to make…

Spider-Man’s Backpacks Bring The Web-Slinger Down To Earth

Spider-Man is chock full of collectibles. You’re meant to grab tokens from fighting crime and clearing out bases to upgrade and build new suits for Peter Parker. My favorite collectible, though, is the mementos you find in Peter Parker’s backpacks around the city. These backpacks aren’t hard to find; they’re not especially cleverly placed or…

Don’t Worry, Switch Online’s CRT Filter Isn’t Damaging Players’ Screens

Nintendo’s online service for the Switch also grants you access to some classic Nintendo games, and the NES library even provides a filter so it looks like you’re playing them on an old school CRT television. Unfortunately for some players, playing those games with this filter on has left them with an afterimage on the…

A Horror Game That’s Also A Personality Quiz

It turns out the only way to get me to play a horror game is if it’s also a personality quiz. I grew up reading Seventeen magazine exclusively to do the quizzes. Put me in front of a personality quiz and I’ll feel like it’s vital knowledge for me to know which combination of Harry…

Tom Nook Needs To Get With The Times

Animal Crossing’s landlord Tom Nook is a thorn in many players’ sides. When you first arrive in your new small town inhabited by animal folks, he forces you into an exorbitant loan, which you can then pay down by doing odd jobs. He’s not evil, though. He’s just the product of an evil system—capitalism—whose time…

Many Big Games Now Have Two Release Dates, And The Earlier One Will Cost You

What’s an extra day of playing a hot new game early worth to you? What’s the worth of two days? It’s become more and more common for video game publishers to charge players for the chance to play games early. Or maybe they’re just sticking everyone else who pays a meager $60 with a later…

Twitter’s Emerging Competitor Doesn’t Want To Be Twitter

Twitter is a hellhole. Mastodon isn’t trying to replace the trashcan fire that is Twitter, but it is offering its users something different. Mastodon, a social network released in October 2016, could be described as a Twitter competitor, but the more you dig into it, the less true that feels. On the surface, it’s pretty…

The Internet Reacts To Animal Crossing‘s Isabelle In Smash

Isabelle, the beloved assistant to the mayor from Animal Crossing: New Leaf, is coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The internet, myself included, has lost their collective mind. Let me set the scene: I’m 13 years old. For Christmas, I get the first game console that’s truly mine and not my older brother’s. It’s a…

Isabelle Joins Smash Bros. Ultimate As Nintendo Teases New Animal Crossing

ANIMAL CROSSING IS COMING TO SWITCH, I AM CRYING. Not only will Isabelle, the delightful assistant to the Mayor in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, be playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo finally teased a new Animal Crossing game. I have been waiting for this announcement since the Switch was announced, and had almost given…

Luigi’s Still Alive In Luigi’s Mansion 3

Even though we all literally saw Luigi’s soul leave his body during the last Nintendo Direct, he’s back for more in an upcoming Switch game. News editor Jason Schreier wrote a beautiful obituary for Luigi when he was tragically slain during a Nintendo direct. As a nation, we mourned. But no worries friends, he’s back.…

The Sims 100 Baby Challenge Is My New Birth Control

The Sims, by design, is meant to be as malleable as the Sims you create. Sims fans create challenges to spice up this open-ended world, like the Legacy Challenge or the Random Genetics Challenge. I’m trying to beat the 100 Baby Challenge. It’s the hardest task I’ve ever set for myself in The Sims In…

The Internet Reacts To The New Silly iPhone Names

Apple announced some new phones today, and they’ve got real silly names. Every other year, like a curse, Apple released new models of the iPhone. This year’s are called the iPhone Xr, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max. These are baffling names, though I know once they’re in the wild I’ll be dying to have…