Culture

A Video Game Halloween Costume Is Not Appropriate Covid-19 Protection

Halloween costumes always seem like such a rip-off. They’re really only appropriate for one day out of the year and kids usually grow too fast to use them again before the next Halloween rolls around. I don’t blame anyone for trying to find a way to repurpose a costume that would otherwise be gathering dust…

GameStop Will Reopen Some Stores In The Middle Of A Pandemic

GameStop’s CEO is taking a 50% salary reduction as part of pay cuts across the company as it prepares to re-open stores in some states, the company announced today. “The Company has begun the process of re-opening stores in Italy, Germany, Austria and the states of South Carolina and Georgia and is preparing for the…

Doom Eternal World Record Speedrun Uses Secret Teleporter Room

You never know what you’re going to see in a speedrun. The players working on beating Doom Eternal as quickly as possible, for instance, have found a way to enter a secret developer room that allows them to grab a BFG and complete the Mars Core mission much faster. Doom Eternal is a big, wonderful…

Animal Crossing Fans Improve Classic Album Covers With K.K. Slider

Crafting a memorable album cover is a nearly unfathomable art. An artist must catch the zeitgeist with their bare hands and run it through a prism that spits out something equal parts strange, broadly appealing, and impossible to look away from. Weirdly, though, very few of these so-called “geniuses” add cartoon dogs to their masterpieces.…

Broken Valorant Skin Gives Players Better Vision While Scoped

“Pay-to-win” is one of the ugliest phrases in gaming, especially when it comes to a competitive game like Valorant. Players recently discovered that a paid skin in Riot Games’ shooter allows for a wider field of vision while scoped than should be possible with a sniper rifle, leading to player outcry and a promise of…

Nvidia’s Streaming Service Keeps Losing More And More Games

Games like Oxygen Not Included, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, and the entire Arkham series are set to be pulled from GeForce Now on April 24. Nvidia announced the latest round of departures in a blog post last night about the future of its fledgling video game streaming platform. “We’re transitioning as many games to GeForce…

How’s It Going?: Old Favorites Edition

The week continues. Welcome back to our daily open thread. I have a lot of new games to play, but last night I decided to tinker around in stealth game Mark of the Ninja, which I haven’t played in a while. It was fun to remember what I’d loved about the game, as well as…

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Is Getting Leif, Jolly Redd, And More Seasonal Events

Nintendo announced Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ next set of free updates this morning, and they include upcoming visits from the the shrub merchant Leif and art dealer Jolly Redd. The updates include both visits from new villagers and a series of limited-time events pegged to upcoming holidays. They start rolling out on April 23. Here’s…

Track: Tender | Artist: Blur | Artist: 13

Death Stranding’s PC release has been delayed due to the novel coronavirus covid-19 pandemic. The new release date is July 14. According to Kojima Productions, the delay is “to allow more development time amidst the current work-from-home orders in place.”

The My Nintendo App Has Gone Live In Japan

Nintendo has launched its My Nintendo App in Japan on Android and iOS. The free app lets users check the latest Nintendo news, watch Nintendo Directs, shop on the Nintendo Store and more. Users can also create their own pages, Wish Lists, track their Switch’s Activity Log, and access QR codes at the Nintendo Tokyo…

Empty Osaka Station. Osaka, Japan. By Dave In Osaka | Follow Here On 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

Track: Self-Immolate | Artist: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard | Album: Infest The Rat’s Nest

What Up, Big Fella

Artem Chebokha is an artist and illustrator from Russia who works at Wargaming, the studio behind World of Tanks You can see more of Artem’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page

How To Be A Great Dungeon Master

The idea of being a Dungeon Master in a tabletop RPG is, understandably, pretty daunting. A table full of people looking at you constantly, listening to your every word, stumbling clumsily through your well-crafted world with all the grace of an out-of-control semi-trailer? A nightmare by anybody’s standards. But don’t worry! You got this. We…

Twitch’s Budding Weed Stars Are Doing Their Best To Educate People, Whether Twitch Likes It Or Not

Twitch’s gardening section contains multitudes. Some people broadcast apple orchards. Others build birdhouses. Others play Stardew Valley. But at most times of the day, those streams are crowded out by one of the most instantly recognizable plants on earth: the seven-armed starfish, Beelzebub’s kale salad, other names I didn’t just make up. I speak, of…

Final Fantasy VII Remake Gave Me A Chance To Examine My Own Anger

Although I’ve been made aware of the major story beats in Final Fantasy VII over the years through osmosis, Remake is the first time I’ve experienced them personally. I wasn’t prepared for the impact Shinra’s attack on Sector 7 would have on me as I played over the weekend, and now more than ever am…

Super Mario Odyssey Gets Remade In Mario 64

Pack your bags—we’re going to New Donk 64. Mario modder extraordinaire Kaze Emanuar is back with their latest project: a Mario 64 mod called Super Mario Odyssey 64. As the name suggests, it recreates much of the Switch game inside its Nintendo 64 predecessor, resulting in a nifty demake that looks like it would be…

Another World Creator Shares Toy Car Footage He Used To Make Video Game Art

Over the weekend, game designer Éric Chahi shared footage of him playing with a toy car that was used to make one of the cutscenes in 90s scifi adventure game Another World come to life. It’s a cool look at what goes on behind the scenes of classic game animation. 1991’s Another World holds up…

Just Watching Games Done Quick’s Pump It Up Run Feels Like A Workout

This weekend, the folks at Games Done Quick put together a charity speedrun event to raise funds for covid-19 relief. Games Done Quick events are typically a speedrun showcase, meaning the games featured are meant to be completed as fast as possible. But every so often, an event will pop up on the schedule that’s…