Culture

The Pokémon Company Is Investigating Sword And Shield Cheaters

Pokémon Sword and Shield players recently discovered an exploit they can use to inflate their competitive rankings, and the Pokémon Company is now threatening to ban anyone who doesn’t stop doing it. The exploit revolves around quitting an online match right before you lose by holding down the power button on the Switch. It was…

If You’re Scared Of Spiders, Obsidian’s Upcoming Game Will Have A Mode Just For You

Let’s face it: spiders are scary. Even more so if they get blown up to monstrous proportions. Grounded, the upcoming survival adventure from Obsidian Entertainment, will apparently feature a special “arachnophobia mode” to help players avoid coming face-to-face with the game’s giant eight-legged monstrosities. What exactly this mode will entail is still a mystery Grounded…

Cat Calmly Ruins Twitch Stream

Most cat content on Twitch runs the gamut between harmless use of the animals as cute props and outright abuse. Very rarely does the mischief that these creatures house within their small frames get put on display as it did during a recent broadcast by fighting game streamer David “UltraDavid” Graham. While playing some Killer…

How’s It Going?: Outdoors Edition

It’s Thursday, which makes it almost Friday. Welcome back to our daily open thread. I live in a very crowded city, and it’s been tough not to be able to go outside much. I belong to a Facebook group for trail-runners, which a friend invited me to when I expressed interest in learning to do…

It’s A Good Day For A Final Fantasy VII Electronic Dance Album

Here are three things to do while waiting for tomorrow’s official release of the Final Fantasy VII Remake. Dance, dance, dance. From RoboRob, producer of last year’s Billboard-charting Kingdom Heartbeats, One-Beat Angel is an album that transforms Final Fantasy VII’s most iconic music into danceable electronic tracks. Well, more danceable that before. It’s amazing what…

Track: Let Down (Remastered) | Artist: Radiohead | Album: Ok Computer Ok Not Ok 1997 – 2017

Taking a break. Nara, Japan. By David Parham. 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 

Lunch Break

Alex Andreev is a freelance illustrator and concept artist from Russia. You can see more of Alex’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Next-Gen Consoles Reignite An Old Argument Over Controller Batteries

Without electrical juice controllers are just paperweights, and Sony and Microsoft continue to take dramatically different approaches to solving that problem. Yesterday Sony revealed its PlayStation 5 controller: the DualSense. It’s chunkier than the current-gen DualShock 4 and comes loaded with a number of new features, including haptic feedback and a built-in microphone. People wasted…

‘OK, Boomer’ Girl’s Rise To Twitch Fame Was ‘A Perfect Storm’ Of Memes And Politics

Several decades ago, at the beginning of March 2020, when Bernie Sanders was still in the race for president, a streamer who goes by the handle Neekolul posted a short video of herself lip syncing and dancing along to a song by YouTuber Senzawa made up entirely of variations on the phrase “OK, boomer” to…

Google Stadia Pro Goes Free For Two Months

Google announced today that it’s making its Stadia Pro video game streaming service free to everyone for the next two months, as people stay home to limit the spread of Covid-19. “Video games can be a valuable way to socialize with friends and family when you’re stuck at home, so we’re giving gamers in 14…

How’s It Going?: Simple Pleasures Edition

We’re halfway through the week, if time still has meaning for you. Welcome back to our daily open thread. As I wrote yesterday, I’ve been struggling to do much besides worry lately. Nevertheless, I’m trying to force myself to notice the good things that I can still access, or that this situation is bringing out.…

Gaming PC Builder Maingear Is Now Making Emergency Ventilators

New Jersey-based computer company Maingear announced today that it is retooling a significant portion of its manufacturing facilities, normally dedicated to making very pretty gaming PCs, to create very pretty emergency ventilators to aid hospitals in the fight against covid-19. Emergency ventilators are an important tool in the fight against covid-19, which can severely impair…

Track: Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus | Artist: The Strokes | Album: The New Abnormal

I know you very well. Ayacucho, Peru. By Manuel Huertas | Instagram 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 

Yoshi’s Desert Planet

These Nintendo remakes are getting out of control. And while, yeah, this is very much Just Two Things, I also want to point out the restraint/folly in not going for the more obvious route and making Yoshi the bounty hunter and Mario the weird, powerful baby. These are all the work of concept artist and…

A Reminder That Most Steam Games Tank

Valve put out a big announcement today broadcasting the fact that “there’s been a continuous increase in the number of games achieving success on Steam.” Of course Valve would celebrate their own platform, but in sharing the success stories, it’s easy to lose sight of the increasing number of games that are failing. Valve shared…

Conventions Can Still Be Held, They’re Just Happening Online

One of the biggest casualties of the global Covid-19 lockdowns are events like comic and anime conventions, because huge arenas filled with tens of thousands of people crammed in, hugging and shaking hands are a massive health risk. But that’s OK! We can still have cons on the internet. And not just joke ones, like…

Playing Borderlands 3 Can Help Scientists With Actual Research

Ever felt guilty about playing video games while the world crumbles around you? Well, you’re in luck, because Borderlands 3 now includes a special mini-game that lets you contribute to real-world scientific research while earning in-game rewards. Borderlands Science can be found in the infirmary of Sanctuary III, the spaceship that acts as the game’s…

Everything Shown During Today’s Inside Xbox

Here’s a roundup of everything Microsoft shared during today’s Inside Xbox stream. An early version of Grounded, the upcoming survival adventure game from Obsidian Entertainment, will arrive on Xbox Game Preview on July 28. We learned that while Xbox Series X games can be stored on any external hard drives, they’ll need to be moved to…