Culture

Vaping Congressman Who Spent Campaign Funds On Steam Games Resigns

U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) said he will soon resign from Congress after pleading guilty to charges of misusing over $250,000 in campaign funds, including $1,528 that he spent on Steam games. “Shortly after the Holidays I will resign from Congress,” Hunter said in a statement today. “It has been an honor to serve the…

Minecraft Is The Top YouTube Game Of 2019, Thanks To A Boost From PewDiePie

It’s not like Minecraft ever really went anywhere. But it definitely spent the past handful of years less firmly entrenched in the zeitgeist than in the first half of the decade. Not so in 2019. The blocky game about digging holes and punching the ever-loving shit out of trees is back on top of YouTube,…

The Elder Scrolls: Legends Is Officially Dead

The Elder Scrolls: Legends isn’t shutting down, but Bethesda announced today on the game’s subreddit that the developer has ceased working on any big updates or future expansions. “We decided to put any new content development or releases on hold for the foreseeable future,” Christian Van Hoose, the game’s community manager, said on Reddit. Players…

Let’s Talk About Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Spoilers

The end of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order totally rules, and it rules even more if you don’t know anything about it. If you have beaten this game, then you’ll enjoy this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, in which we dissect the game’s take on the Force, the Jedi Order, and also that one character…

Mario Maker 2‘s New Speedrunning Mode Looks A Lot Like A Popular Fan-Made Hack

In addition to the ability to play as Link, Super Mario Maker 2’s latest update has added a new speedrunning mode that’s remarkably similar to one rom hacker’s mod of an SNES emulator called Quantum Mario. This has raised questions about Nintendo’s relationship with the Mario homebrew community and the designers that power its Mario…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for finally fixing my endlessly running toilet, a process internet videos say is very easy but has thusfar involved me opening the toilet tank, staring in confusion, and then closing the tank again. The weekend is also for playing video games while I avoid this task. I’m excited to check out Mosaic…

The Words For Gaming In Different Languages

Like any community in the world, people who play video games have collaboratively created their own language and slang. Many of these words are international, but different languages have different ways of talking about play. This piece originally appeared 3/29/18. I’m totally fascinated by the way language influences culture and the way we think. It’s…

Cult Classic Game Where You Can Raise A Princess Of Hell Coming To Switch

Child raising simulator Princess Maker 3 is coming to Switch on December 23, and—no, wait, come back! I promise it’s cool. In Princess Maker 3, you schedule out your daughter’s time between various school and work activities to raise her skills. You can also take her on adventures, which are basic RPG sequences where your…

Track: Rhythm | Artist: Iri | Album: Groove It

Late Night Walk. Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto, Japan. By Butch Smith. 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!

lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax/study to

Igor Piwowarczyk is an illustrator from Poland who we last saw on Fine Art helping out on Blizzard’s anime-style trailer from 2018 You can see more of Igor’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Halo: Reach, As Told By Steam Reviews

Halo: Reach, Bungie’s final entry in its second (of three, so far) series about armored space knights, is finally on PC. People are clearly excited, so much so that they managed to propel it to the third most-played slot on Steam earlier this week. But do they actually like the port? Yes and no. For…

Amazon Customers Buy Nintendo Switch, Get Sent Condoms, Tambourines, Electric Toothbrushes Instead

There are reports coming out of the UK that at least a dozen people who bought a Nintendo Switch as part of Amazon’s Black Friday sales did not get sent a Nintendo Switch. Instead, they’ve received everything from air freshener to photopolymer resin instead. The Mirror has been rounding up some of the complaints, which…

Snoop Dogg Is Now A Sports Game Commentator

Because why the hell not, Snoop is now an official commentator in EA Sports’ NHL 20 While this might sound like a random event generator got us to this point, there is a reason behind it: Snoop has done actual NHL commentary work in real games, which if you’ve never heard it is wonderful: Here’s…

In Defense Of Hop, The Unlucky Pokémon Rival

I will not hear any more slander about Hop, your rival in Pokémon Sword and Shield Your rivals in the more recent Pokémon games have trended more towards “childhood pal” than the “bigtime assholes” you had to trounce in the older ones. I have strong memories of wanting to just beat the shit out of…

Track: Turn To Hate | Artist: Orville Peck | Album: Pony

Rocket League Replaces Loot Boxes With Pricey Item Shop [Update]

Rocket League players will no longer have to worry about grinding for new crates and the keys that unlock them in order to get the custom skins they want. But the new alternative will hurt their wallets. Yesterday, Rocket League’s Blueprint update went live, kicking off season 12 and adding a new item shop where…

Razer CEO Berated And Threatened His Staff, Former Employees Say

Min-Liang Tan was “officially pissed off,” he wrote in an email to members of Razer’s marketing team in February of 2014. The gaming hardware company hadn’t made the business website Fast Company’s 2014 list of “Most Innovative Companies,” and in his email, part of an exchange obtained by Kotaku, Tan asked of his marketing employees,…

Track: Skinny Love (Live) | Artist: Bon Iver | Album: For Emma, Forever Ago

Glorious Morning. Kyoto, 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!