Culture

Final Fantasy VIII‘s Triple Triad Is Why I Love Card Games

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered is finally here, which means I can continue my long and storied history of never actually finishing Final Fantasy VIII because I am too busy playing Triple Triad. It’s a whole thing: I get a copy of Final Fantasy VIII, immediately start playing the in-game card game more than anything else,…

Track: Lithium | Artist: Nirvana | Album: Transmission Impossible (Live)

Square Enix Shows Real-Time Graphics Of The Future

Square Enix studio Luminous Productions has unveiled a new tech demo called “Back Stage” that shows how it uses ray-tracing tech. The demo is rendered in real-time  Luminous Productions was established last year and staffed with former Final Fantasy XV staff. The game’s director Hajime Tabata initially headed up the studio. He has since left Square…

The Time I Wrote George Lucas A Letter

Growing up in the 1980s, I was a huge Star Wars fan. The first movie I ever saw in a theater was The Empire Strikes Back. I loved it. Like everyone else, I eagerly awaited Lucas’ overdue return to the director’s chair. And in 1994, I wrote him a letter asking about the then-unmade future…

Wheels. Tokyo, Japan. By ShuYung Wu 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!

How A Colorblind Artist Makes Magic Cards & Video Games

Paul Scott Canavan is one of the best artists working in entertainment today, with a list of clients and employers ranging from Wizards of the Coast to Valve to Games Workshop. He also used to be an art director at Axis Animation, a company responsible for cinematic video game trailers and intros. So if you’ve…

Cosplay Looks Totally Different Through The Lens Of An Instant Camera

We’re so accustomed to modern cosplay photography being slick and bright and clean that it’s easy to settle into the idea that’s the only way to take photos of people in costume. But this series of shots from this year’s DragonCon shows that a change of hardware can make a big difference to how we…

K.K. Slider Is The Most Influential Musician Of Our Generation

Beyoncé? Radiohead? Taylor Swift? Daft Punk? All great musicians, yes, but not quite the single greatest musician of our generation. That honor is reserved for someone so great he verges on fictitious: K.K. Slider. In a way, it feels blasphemous to claim that the greatest musician of our generation is someone who doesn’t even hail…

Tony Hawk Shares Unused Motion Capture Footage From Original Pro Skater

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is now 20 years old. It’s a milestone that means a lot to a whole lot of people—Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was a watershed moment in video games, a sports game that captured the imagination of skaters, non-skaters, and fans of Goldfinger’s “Superman” alike. In observance, Tony Hawk recently shared a…

Next Week’s Big Red Dead Online Update Will Include Bounty Hunting

The next big Red Dead Online update arrives next week and will add new roles, such as becoming a bounty hunter. Each new role will come with new gear, abilities, and clothing. Rockstar is also promising improvements to the combat and movement controls. After a long period of silence, Rockstar has finally revealed more details…

European Guild Blazes Through WoW Classic’s First 2 Raids In 6 Days

After World of Warcraft first launched on November 23, 2004, it took players 69 days to defeat the endgame raid boss Onyxia. The ten bosses of the Molten Core raid weren’t completely conquered until April 25, 2005. It only took European guild APES six days to accomplish both feats in the newly-launched World of Warcraft…

Control Is Packed With Alan Wake References

Control, the latest game from Remedy Entertainment, has completely taken over my brain. In it, you play as Jesse Faden as she explores the Federal Bureau of Control, a federal agency that studies and contains supernatural objects. Playing a game about secrets and conspiracies will start making you believe in secrets and conspiracies, it turns…

Track: Coming Down From Outer Space | Artist: Acid King | Album: Middle Of Nowhere, Center Of Everywhere

I Can’t Convince My Friends That Overcooked 2 Is Fun, Not Stressful

No game is more controversial among my friends than Overcooked 2, a relatively innocuous game about cooking, plating and serving food. Overcooked 2’s saccharine art style and upbeat ukulele soundtrack are a thin cover for is deeply stressful gameplay. For me, this is a draw; for everyone else who comes to my apartment, Overcooked 2…

Track: [I Know] I’m Losing You | Artist: Rod Stewart | Album: Every Picture Tells A Story 

That Reminds Me, Where The Hell Is Advance Wars

Waldemar Kazak is an artist from Russia. You can see more of Kazak’s stuff (and purchase prints of his work) at his personal site

Oh, It’s Just T-Pain Cosplaying As A Tekken Character

DragonCon, one of the biggest conventions in the US, is going down this long weekend, and among the cosplayers in attendance is rapper T-Pain, living his absolute best cosplay life as Tekken’s Leroy Smith. Leroy is a brand new character for Tekken 7, meaning this could all be just a very good marketing stunt. Then…

I Should Stop Quitting Games At Boss Fights

I finally got a chance to boot up Control a couple days after the game launched. Since it was late at night, I only had a little time to explore its unsettling world before I had to go to bed. I quit at the game’s first boss fight, intending to play more later. Instead I…

The Week In Games: Brr! It’s Cold In Here!

Do you love Monster Hunter: World? Do you love snow and ice? Well, then you are going to be very excited this week! A brand new expansion for Monster Hunter: World releases later this week. Speaking of cooler weather, around where I live the temperature is starting to dip below 80 more and more. Summer…

Midnight Stop

Oleksiy Rusyuk is a concept artist and illustrator at GSC Game World, the studio behind the STALKER series. You can see more of Oleksiy’s stuff at his ArtStation page