Culture

French Court Says Valve Must Allow Steam Users To Resell Games

Back in 2015, Valve got sued by a French consumer organization called UFC-Que Choisir (not to be confused with non-French, non-consumer organization the Ultimate Fighting Championship). UFC-Que Choisir had a multitude of bones to pick with the longtime Steam steward, the biggest among them being that Steam doesn’t let users resell their games. Four years…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: I Still Hate My Ex

Hello, you hideous and shimmering sexbeasts, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column to guide you through the Metroidvania of love. This week, it’s all about the end of relationships. Break ups and divorce aren’t the end; they’re the beginning of a new chapter in your life. But how do you…

I Wish Games Didn’t Update So Much

Where a video game goes, a patch will surely follow. It wasn’t that long ago that updates were rare things, but today almost every game will get updated at some point—some far more than others. While it may sound strange, there are times when I wish that biweekly updates just weren’t a thing anymore. Sometimes…

I Have Had It With Games That Always Send Me On Detours

I don’t trust waypoints anymore. You know, those little icons on video game maps that show you where your goal is? They’re filthy liars, and I wouldn’t trust them with my coffee money. It happens all the time: A character will tell me that I need to get to a certain location to get a…

Haven Island, the next location in the Hitman 2 Expansion Pass, arrives September 24. Set in the Maldives and following up on the events of the previous Bank map, Haven comes with a host of new challenges and full support for Contracts mode. It also comes with this excellent new trailer.

Track: Never Say Never | Artist: That Dog | Album: Retreat from the Sun

Before The Harvest. 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!

The Tankiest Of Tanks

Bruno Gauthier Leblanc is an art director at Eidos Montreal, the studio behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Thief and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided You can see more of Leblanc’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page

DOTA 2 Cheats Are Getting Their Asses Banned Until 2038

Valve released a matchmaking update for DOTA 2 yesterday, and as part of it, some players breaking the rules have begun receiving comically long bans. Valve’s notice for the updatesays it’s targeting “bad actors”, aka those with “exceptionally low behavior scores”, anyone buying or selling Steam accounts to get a higher rank, players “using exploits…

Eight Tips For Using The New Steam Library

Yesterday, Steam’s first big library overhaul in eons entered open beta. The fresh coat of paint and (virtual) new shelves make for welcome additions, but it’s going to take some getting used to. Then there’s the new community-centric game page display, which somewhat ironically has the community divided. Here are some tips to help you…

Player Spends $62,000 In Runescape, Reigniting Community Anger Around Microtransactions

“At this point, it’s no longer pay-to-play,” said a commenter on Runescape’s subreddit. “It’s pay-to-pay.” Controversy over microtransactions is rocking the community of 18-year-old fantasy online role-playing game Runescape. Criticism of the game’s allegedly predatory microtransactions bubbled over after a recent UK Parliament report referenced disordered levels of spending in video games, specifically flagging Runescape…

Truck Carrying Gaming Dice Spills Onto Highway, Rolls A Perfect 756,000

On Friday, September 13, a truck bound for the Georgia-based tabletop and video game company Trivium Studios took a turn too sharply, spilling 216,000 gaming dice onto Interstate 75 in Atlanta in what could be the biggest unintentional dice roll ever. According to Trivium Studios’ community manager, speaking to Kotaku about the incident, the truck…

The Internet Reacts To Sirfetch’d, Pokémon Sword‘s New Farfetch’d Evolution

Farfetch’d, the leek-carrying bird pal that’s been around since the original Pokémon games, is finally getting an evolution of his own. His buff new form, appearing exclusively in Pokémon Sword, is called Sirfetch’d, and the internet has some thoughts about this smug bird knight. According to the official Sword and Shield website, Sirfetch’d is incredibly…

I’ve Finally Gotten Tired Of Making My Video Game Characters Look Like Boring Slobs

I recently got my hands on Daemon X Machina, the new mech action game for the Nintendo Switch, and I was immediately dazzled—not by the power and might of my giant robot armor, or the weighty action of sci-fi combat—but by how much fun it was to style my mech and its pilot in some…

Speedrunners Are Demolishing Celeste‘s Difficult New Chapter

Celeste’s recently added epilogue, Farewell, is an extremely difficult but charming send-off to a fantastic game. A normal playthrough takes anywhere from four to five hours and is immensely challenging. Skilled speedrunners are completing it in less than 20 minutes. Farewell adds tons of new mechanics to Celeste and even teaches players some advanced techniques…

Just What Everyone Needs, A Merge Dragons Sequel

Gram Games’ Merge Dragons is a very popular free-to-pay mobile game about combining three things into better things and spending money on dragon gems. Merge Magic, out today on iOS and Android, is a new game about combining three new things into better new things and spending money on magic gems. It has new art,…

Long-Rumored Apex Legends Hero Apparently Spotted In Game

Apex Legends added its first new hero, the speedy Octane, early after launch. The electric-fence-dropping Wattson followed at the start of Season Two in July. Since then, there’s been supposed leaks and speculation about the next hero. Most folks believe it will be a sneaky hacker named Crypto, and he seems to have made an…

Track: When I’m Five | Artist: David Bowie | Album: David Bowie

Ride On. Bater, Croatia. By Eduard Tucaković | Instagram | Official Site 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!

You Can Eat This Game’s Box If You Want

The physical copies of this year’s Football Manager game are made almost entirely from recyclable materials, from the case to the shrink-wrap to the ink that’s printed on it. You could even eat the cardboard, if that was something you ever felt the need to do. As GI.biz reports, this year’s game—and every version going…