Culture

The Sims Is Getting A Reality Show Because Why Not

A competition-based reality show themed around The Sims is happening whether you like it or not. The Sims Spark’d, which is set to premiere on July 17, tasks its contestants with building “the most unique characters, worlds and stories” in The Sims 4, according to a press release. Other than that, details are sparse, but…

Ninja’s First-Ever YouTube Livestream Draws Over 100,000 Viewers

Tyler “Ninja”Blevins livestreamed on YouTube today, his first stream since Microsoft announced it was shutting down Mixer. The choice has fueled speculation about which platform he’ll make his permanent home going forward. Over 100,000 people tuned in for the start of Blevins’ first ever YouTube livestream, and his first livestream in nearly three weeks since…

How’s It Going?: Chilling Edition

It’s Wednesday, but I’m just back from a few days off so it feels like Monday. Welcome back to our daily open thread. It was nice to have a few days off! I did many exciting things, like going grocery shopping, and cleaning my couch upholstery, and restringing my guitar. I also worked on some…

Scrabble Bans Hundreds Of Offensive Words From Competitive Play

Hundreds of words are being removed from official Scrabble competitions, with the players’ association coming to an agreement with Hasbro to remove 225 offensive terms. The discussion among the North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA), the representative and advisory board for competitive Scrabble, was started by Scrabble master Cesar del Solar. Solar asked the association…

A Batmobile At The End Of The World

Damon Moran is an artist at Warner Bros Animation Studios. You can see more of Damon’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page

Donkey Kong Country Is Coming To Nintendo Switch Online

OK, we can all stop asking now (for this game, anyway). Nintendo just announced that Donkey Kong Country is coming to the Switch Online’s catalogue of retro games on July 15. It’ll be joined by SNES game Natsume Championship Wrestling, while The Immortal—which you may know more for its box art than the game itself—is…

The Full Adidas x Pokémon Collab Is So Good

While the odd piece has released through 2020—a pair of sneakers here, some slides there—what looks like the full range of Adidas’ Pokémon collab has dropped on the company’s Japanese store, and it’s great There are shirts, bags, shorts and tracksuits! There are multiple pairs of sneakers, stuff for men, women and kids too. I…

Fan Builds His Own SNES x PS1 Hybrid

We’ve recently taken a very detailed look at the “Nintendo PlayStation”, perhaps the most notorious of all unreleased consoles, but something from the same era that’s even rarer is Nintendo’s repeated efforts to create a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES, which ultimately came to nothing. As Chris said at the conclusion of his feature, “the…

The Last Jedi’s Director Made A Pokémon Go Trailer

Pokémon Go has made over $3 billion since launching back in 2016, and that kind of money means you can just walk out and hire Star Wars director Rian Johnson to direct a 30-second commercial for your phone game. Specifically it’s for Pokémon Go Fest 2020, and if you’re wondering whether this was a flex…

The Designer Of The NES Dishes The Dirt On Nintendo’s Early Days

When discussing Nintendo’s rise as a digital dreamsmith in the ‘80s, game designers like Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi get most of the limelight. But it was the hardware designed by Masayuki Uemura that served up their fantasies to millions around the globe. I spent 2019 criss-crossing Japan researching my book Pure Invention: How Japan’s…

Bungie Just Made Destiny 2 Raids More Rewarding (For The Next Three Months)

Raids are some of the hardest but most rewarding parts of Destiny 2. If you’ve spent any amount of time playing the game you really owe it to yourself to see what these six-player missions have to offer, especially since some of them won’t be around for much longer. Last month, Bungie announced that a…

Grab Watch Dogs 2 For Free On PC This Weekend

On Sunday, Ubisoft will show off Watch Dogs Legion during a not-E3 event called “Ubisoft Forward.” But that’s not all the Watch Dogs you can hound up this weekend, as Ubisoft is also giving away a free copy of Watch Dogs 2 for PC. Watch Dogs 2 carries over many of the thematic elements of…

Originally scheduled for release August 28, the completely rebuilt Mafia: Definitive Edition will now arrive on September 25 in order to further polish the yadda yadda whatever. A gameplay reveal is scheduled for July 22, to show everyone what they’re waiting a month longer for. 

The bad news is the release of THQ Nordic’s revitalization of bad baseball man’s RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning has slipped from August 18 to September 8. The good news? There’s an expansion called Fatesworn coming out for the game in 2021. Huh.

Halo 3 Comes To PC July 14

Eyes up, space marines: 13 years after it landed on console, Halo 3 is finally coming to PC. As announced by the official Halo Twitter account, it’ll be available next Tuesday as the next installment of Halo: The Master Chief Collection Halo 3 is the capstone of the original Halo trilogy. The second game, if…

How’s It Going? Toy Edition

It’s day two of my reign as “How’s It Going?” curator, and I’ve already broken out the toys. Welcome back to our daily open thread. Yesterday I talked about my bed desk, the relatively small space that serves as my work/living space. It’s stacked with wires and electronics, game consoles and gadgets, but that doesn’t…

Happy 20th Anniversary To My Favorite Final Fantasy

In 2000, after a pair of PlayStation games that were more science fiction than swords and sorcery, I wanted a Final Fantasy that skewed heavily towards classic fantasy fare. Final Fantasy IX, released on July 7, 2000, in Japan, was exactly the game I was looking for. Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi said Final Fantasy…

Track: You Don’t Know How It Feels (Home Recording) | Artist: Tom Petty | Album: Demo

Rice Fields. Osaka, Japan. By Brian Ashcraft | Twitter 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!

Lil’ Buddies

Aleksey Bayura is an artist at Riot, the developers of League of Legends and Valorant You can see more of Aleksey’s stuff at his ArtStation page