Culture

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…

How’s It Going?: Good Enough Edition

Alas, it’s Monday. Welcome back to our daily open thread. I spent all weekend cooking, then not wanting the thing I cooked and cooking something else. Halfway through all this cooking I decided I was sick of my own cooking and really wanted pizza, but getting pizza would be the first time I’ve eaten out…

The Week In Games: I Am Iron Man VR

Thanks to Iron Man VR releasing this week on PS4 you no longer need to be a billionaire to fly around in a suit of armor and fight bad guys. After playing a bunch of Half-Life: Alyx not that long ago, I’m a bit nervous about going back to my PSVR headset to play Iron…

NBA 2K20 And Rise Of The Tomb Raider Are July’s PS Plus Games

Today’s PlayStation blog says PS Plus has been around for 10 years, which sure is a lot of years! July’s games are available July 7 to August 3, and they’re only “free” if you have an active PlayStation Plus subscription. July’s PS Plus games are: NBA 2K20 Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration…

She’s Like A Bird, She’ll Only Fly Away

Bryan Sola is a Filipino artist who in addition to a ton of Magic cards has also worked for companies like CD Projekt Red and PUBG Corp. You can see more of Bryan’s stuff at his ArtStation page

PS2 Hack Runs Games On Burned DVD Discs, No Mod Chip Required

Building on an idea he’s had since he was a kid, security software engineer CTurt has developed a way for people to play unofficial games on a PS2 console by burning them onto a DVD alongside an exploit. If you are down for a very technical explanation of how it all works, please check out…