Culture

Hackers Are Defacing Roblox Avatars With Trump Paraphernalia

Players of kId-friendly creative place space are discovering their accounts have become inadvertently political, as hackers dress hundreds of users up in pseudo-MAGA gear and inject Donald Trump 2020 campaign messages into their user profiles. “Ask your parents to vote for Trump this year! #MAGA2020” is the message appearing in more than 1,500 Roblox user…

Riding Horses In The Last Of Us 2 Feels Great, Here’s Why

The Last of Us Part 2 is a big, big game that excels at the little things: the way Joel raises his hand to block sunlight from his eyes, or the way Ellie marks up a map of downtown Seattle with a Sharpie. Another killer small touch is the haptic feedback—the rumble you feel in…

Xbox Summer Fest Will Debut Over 60 Demos You Can Try At Home

With in-person gaming events out of the question this year, Xbox is turning to a digital alternative to show off some upcoming Xbox One games. Starting on July 21, the Summer Games Fest Demo Event will allow players to check out early builds for a ton of games from their couches rather than a crowded…

EVE Online Player Stages Massive War To Honor His Fight Against Cancer

Two weeks ago, an EVE Online veteran received some difficult news. Christopher “Chappy78” Chapman found out that the pancreatic cancer he had been fighting off was not only back, but the prognosis was not good. This news also came the week before Chappy’s birthday. Facing down the barrel of such terrible news, he turned to…

Fallout 76 And CrossCode Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass Next Week

Heads up, Game Pass members: If you’ve recently purchased Fallout 76, you should return it. Bethesda’s online shooter-cum-role-playing game is coming to Xbox Game Pass on July 9. Set before any other game in the Fallout timeline, Fallout 76 puts you in the shoes of a survivor from Vault 76. When the game launched in…

How’s It Going?: Burnout Edition

We’re halfway through the week! Welcome back to our daily open thread. I get a few days off after the long weekend next week, which I am badly looking forward to. While I’ve enjoyed not having to commute, I often joke that the flipside of working from home is living at work, and I’m definitely…

Track: Gunjou Biyori -Ideal Days For Ultramarine- (From “Bon Voyage”) | Artist: Tokyo Jihen | Album: Hard Disk

ONWARD!

Guillaume Duchemin is an artist from France. You can see more of Guillaume’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Amazing Emulator Turns 2D NES Games Into Fully 3D Worlds

A strange new product appeared on Steam last week: a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator that translates the 2D pixel graphics of classic 8-bit games into 3D worlds built with voxels. It’s called 3dSen, it has standard and standard+VR versions, and it lets you experience a select slice of the NES library from unusual new perspectives.…

Cards Against Humanity’s Workers Are Unionizing

Following the latest round of complaintsover poor ownership and a “toxic” office culture, the workers at the company behind Cards Against Humanity have decided to unionise. In a statement released earlier today, Cards Against Humanity Workers United announced that they had signed up with Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board, and are “optimistic” that the…

Amazon’s Crucible Flopped So Hard It’s Being Un-Released

In this era of constant updates, games leave closed beta on a regular basis. They don’t often re-enter it. However, like a groundhog emerging to un-see its own shadow, Amazon’s team-based shooter Crucible is no longer a fully released video game. Crucible’s post-release beta comes on the heels of a rocky launch, which consisted of…

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Helps Queer Players Express Themselves

On May 28, Daisy stood on a pink-and red-striped flag, a gray beret perched atop her magenta hair, waiting for her friends to fly into her island on Dodo Airlines. One by one, seven of them arrived and stood on the dock awaiting Daisy’s instructions. Meanwhile, at her parents’ home in the southern United States,…

How’s It Going?: Taxes Edition

It’s already Tuesday! Welcome back to our daily open thread. In the middle of a meeting yesterday I remembered Tax Day is coming up, briefly derailing said meeting as several of us went “oh, crap.” I think the temporary pause on my student loan payments is also up soon, which means bidding farewell to looking…

Fortnite Is Finally Out Of Early Access

Nearly three years after the launch of Fortnite: Save the World—the original survival defense game barely anyone played and not the battle royale afterthought that became a worldwide sensation—Epic Games is ripping off that early access bandaid and declaring Save the World a real, premium game. Battle Royale and Creative are losing their early access…

Nintendo President Apologizes For Joy-Con Trouble

During a recent financial Q&A, Nintendo finally apologized for issues caused by Joy-Cons but will not comment further due to the current class-action lawsuit. Players have been dealing with what’s called Joy-Con drift as Kotaku previously reported, stating how it was becoming a real problem. Last year, a class-action lawsuit was filed with Nintendo accused of…

Track: Kyoto | Artist: Phoebe Bridgers | Album: Punisher

Multiple People Accuse Skullgirls Developer Of Making Inappropriate Sexual Comments

Two people have accused Mike Zaimont, a lead designer on Skullgirls and Indivisible, of making them uncomfortable with demeaning and sexually suggestive comments. One incident allegedly occurred recently via private messages, while the other accuser claimed they happened in person over the course of years. Bunny is a popular Twitch personality with over 1.5 million…

The Art Of The Last of Us Part II

The end of the world has never looked so good. While The Last Of Us Part II is very much a game about people, and how incredibly shitty we can be, it’s also a game about beauty. In those same people, sure, if that’s the glass-half-full take you want to bring to this discussion, but…

Report: Harry Potter Game Devs Distressed Over J.K. Rowling’s Rampant Transphobia

Developers on the upcoming Harry Potter game have privately expressed concerns over series creator J.K. Rowling’s transphobic comments, according to a new report from Bloomberg Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first published in 1997, eventually spawning a mega-popular series of young adult fantasy novels, movie adaptations, and various other merchandising. But as fans…

Twitch Suspends Donald Trump For Hateful Conduct

Today, Twitch temporarily suspended the official channel of Donald Trump, the President of the United States, for hateful conduct. Trump’s account is generally used for online broadcasts of rallies and other events, not Trump’s nascent career as a racist Valorant player. After Twitter accounts that monitor Twitch reported that his channel had been suspended, Twitch…