Blizzard Responds To Accusations Of Censorship In Hearthstone‘s Latest Patch

In the lead-up to Hearthstone’s upcoming “Saviors of Uldum” expansion, Blizzard Entertainment released a patch yesterday that ran a couple housekeeping alterations to make way for the new content. The update removed some older cards from the game’s Standard mode, added some new cards to the game’s Classic set, and in a move that’s stirred…

Ronald McDonald’s Name Is Slightly Different In Japan

One of the world’s most famous corporate mascots has a slightly different name in Japan, where Ronald McDonald is known as Donald McDonald. In Japanese, the character’s name is written as ドナルド・マクドナルド (Donarudo Makudonarudo). Similarly, the McDonald’s backed charity is locally known as the Donald McDonald House. The burger chain first came to Japan in…

The Curse Of The Yakuza Games

The Yakuza games and their spin-offs have long starred some of Japan’s biggest celebrities. Now that some of those celebs have ended up in trouble, there are rumblings of a Yakuza curse. Dun dun dun. Earlier this year, actor and musician Pierre Taki, who appeared in the Yakuza spin-off Judgment, was picked up on drug…

Tako Tako 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!

Apologies in advance, as I expect my latest Super Mario Maker 2 level to occupy much of the video game discourse for months to come. I anticipate many a thinkpiece. If you want to try for yourself, it’s 7JF-QBH-34G. Just know that you, the “player,” are implicated in all that happens.

But That’s None Of My Business

Chi Ngo is an artist from Vietnam currently working in Los Angeles You can see more of Chi’s stuff at her personal site and Instagram

Steel Division II, So Close To An RTS Classic, And Yet So Far

I’ve never tried harder to like a game in my life than Steel Division II On paper it seems absolutely perfect for me: it’s a pretty World War II real-time strategy game, it’s quite serious about its physics and ballistics range and unit composition and it has some bold, almost board-gamey ways for its battles…

Custom Controller Lets You Rage-Quit By Literally Pouring Salt

A very wise man who wore a hood and whose skin was practically melting off his bones once said, “Good! Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you.” Probably, he was talking to a gamer about video games. Competitive games make people mad. There’s no getting around it, so you might as…

Split Screen Was Quietly Removed From Black Ops 4, But It’ll Be Back This Month

Last week, as part of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s June 25 update, Treyarch quietly removed split screen co-op play from the game’s battle royale mode, Blackout. At first, no one was sure what was going on, but today, Treyarch said the feature will return on July 9. “Split screen Duos in Blackout was…

Everything That’s New In Apex Legends Season Two

Apex Legends Season 2 arrived today. While players have known a lot of what it would contain for a while, it’s exciting to finally see the new character, weapons, and locations in action. As video producer Paul Tamayo and I discuss in the video above, the most notable Season 2 change is new character Wattson.…

Role-Locking Could Resuscitate The Overwatch League

“Can I say anything I want?” asked Jong-ryeol “Saebyeolbe” Park after a particularly satisfying victory for his Overwatch League team, the New York Excelsior, last year. His translator nodded. Park’s eyes lit up. “I’m the best Tracer in the world.” He stuck his tongue out. Park was referring to the Overwatch hero Tracer, a zippy…

I Could Watch Final Fantasy XIV’s New Big-Headed Cactuars Trying To Pose All Day

With their distinctive cactus appearance and signature pose, Cactuars are one of Final Fantasy’s most iconic creatures. The top-heavy Gigantender, introduced in Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion, is doing the best it can to live up to that legacy, bless its giant plant heart. Cactuar are called Sabotenders in Final Fantasy XIV, using the Japanese…

Fighting Game Tournament Has Too Much Actual Fighting

Community Effort Orlando has grown to become one of the biggest fighting game tournaments in the world, putting it just below the Evolution Championship Series in terms of both size and importance. The event’s 13 different fighting games were exciting to watch, but in a few cases, the excitement got to be a bit much.…

Stop Calling Games ‘Metroidvania’

Let’s talk about one of my least favorite words in the video game lexicon: metroidvania. A portmanteau combining the video game titles Metroid and Castlevania, it takes two made-up video game titles that are pretty cool and evocative on their own and inelegantly mashes them into something worse. And now, that word is one we…