I’m Considering Restarting New Games After An Hour Or Two

If I had more time, I’d begin playing games a little differently than I have for the last 30 years. I’d start them, but then I’d stop a couple of hours in and start again. I’ve been thinking about what it would be like to play games this way because I just had this experience…

Top YouTubers Are Taking Heat For Their Deals With A Controversial Mental Health App

Over the last week, some of YouTube’s biggest personalities have become embroiled in a controversy surrounding an app that connects people to mental health counselors. The mental health app has sponsored top YouTubers like Philip DeFranco, Boogie2988 and Shane Dawson and reportedly offers these video makers referral fees when fans sign up to get help.…

Runescape Developer Cuts Ties With Twitch Streamers After Allegations Of Sexual Harassment, Violence

RuneFest, a convention run by the creators of RuneScape, is supposed to be an annual celebration of the fantasy MMO that came out in 2001 and has stayed improbably relevant in 2018 due to updates, iterations, and an active streaming community. This year, some attendees raised concerns about one streamer in particular, Ali “Gross Gore”…

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s Cultist System Is One Of The Game’s Best Features

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey balloons the further you get into it, adding layers of complex systems from nation-conquest battles to mercenary bounties. These help give a sense of how fragile and war-torn Greece has become in the game’s storyline. But a later system is more devious, and an important addition to the franchise as a whole.…

PSN Name Changes Are Officially Coming

Last week, we told you that game developers were preparing for PlayStation Network name changes to arrive. Now, the news is official, with Sony announcing this morning that users will be able to change their old PSN IDs starting in early 2019. Thefirst change will be free, Sony says, and subsequent changes will cost $10…

Jesse Jackson’s 1988 Presidential Campaign Lives On In South Korea

Jesse Jackson might have lost his 1988 bid, but his campaign lives on in South Korea as youth fashion. If you’ve spent any time in Asia, you’ll know that it’s not uncommon to see interesting English slogans and expressions on t-shirts and sweatshirts. (Likewise, the English speaking world does the same with foreign languages!) Earlier…

Hunter x Hunter‘s Creator Keeps Making Secret Pop Idol References

When not on hiatus, Yoshihiro Togashi brings Hunter x Hunter to life. And in that famed manga, it appears he keeps making secret references to idol girl group Keyakizaka46. Featuring a slew of members, Keyakizaka46 debuted in 2015 and is the sister group of Nogizaka46, which is AKB48’s official rival group. As Hachima points out,…

Wet Shibuya. Tokyo, Japan. By Alex Knight | Instagram  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! 

Techwear Vibes

Alin Alexandru is an artist from Romania who has worked for companies like Ubisoft. You can see more of Alin’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Playing Super Mario Bros. With A Live Band Doing The Soundtrack Behind You Must Be Nice

While you or I would play Mario with the game’s original soundtrack chirping out of TV speakers, George Salazar got the chance to play recently with a “full sized jazz big band, orchestra, and choir” providing the tunes. The death music is wonderful

Steam Developer’s Catastrophic Mistake Has A Sort-Of Happy Ending

A little more than a week ago, Steam developer HyperReuts was at rock bottom. The studio had given out 10,000 free keys for its multiplayer arena space game Evolvation, only for scammers to snap up a chunk of them. In response, HyperReuts tried to delete the offending keys, but in the process, it accidentally zapped…

A 1:1 Scale Zelda Bike For Nintendo Labo

We’ve seen some ingenious Labo designs lately, but this one from an Australian contest winner takes the cardboard cake. Not content with building something small and cute that sits on a desk, Jordan Booth from Australia won Nintendo’s local Labo competition with this life-size replica of Zelda’s Master Cycle Zero, complete with moving handlebars, rocking…

We Love How Stupid The Venom Movie Is

Three decades ago Marvel Comics debuted one of its most popular anti-heroes, Spider-Man arch-enemy Venom. Now Eddie Brock and his slavering black and white symbiote pal have gotten a solo, Spider-Man free shot at the big screen. Did that turn out to be as bad an idea as it sounds? Chris Person, Ethan Gach and…

Ubisoft Explains Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Microtransactions And Some Of The Math Behind Them

The presence of microtransactions in a big video game can poison the player’s experience, leaving them to wonder if things have been designed in a way to drive them to pay extra. So it goes with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a very good $60 game that launched with at least $80 in microtransactions. Odyssey’s optional microtransactions,…