More And More Game Makers Are Talking About Crunch

When you’ve been reporting on a subject for a long time, you can feel when the winds are beginning to shift, and in 2018 it’s started to feel like game studios are actually having serious conversations about crunch. This week alone we have significant examples from two of the biggest publishers around. Crunch, or extended,…

Only One Of These Fortnite Action Figures Is Super Cuddly

Available for preorder today at Thinkgeek, McFarlane Toys’ Fortnite collectible figures capture some of the game’s most iconic skins as huggable seven inch articulated works of art. Okay, one is slightly more huggable than the others. For such a competitive game, one would think I’d be drawn to the rare Black Knight or Skull Trooper…

Pachinko Company President Murdered In Japan

Masaki Uchigashima, president of Nagoya-based pachinko machine maker Takao, was found stabbed to death in the company parking garage. Aichi Prefecture police are calling it a homicide. ANN reports that the 39-year-old pachinko president was stabbed multiple times in the head and the stomach. According to authorities, Uchigashima’s suit was disheveled as though he put…

Red Dead Redemption 2: The Kotaku Review

From tip to tail, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a profound, glorious downer. It is the rare blockbuster video game that seeks to move players not through empowering gameplay and jubilant heroics, but by relentlessly forcing them to confront decay and despair. It has no heroes, only flawed men and women fighting viciously to survive…

Turning Leaves. Kyoto, Japan. By Naoki Natsume/Ishii | Flickr 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 Vermin Tide

Patrik Rosander is an artist at Fatshark, where he’s worked on games like Warhammer Vermintide II You can see more of Patrik’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Pokémon Go Clone Has You Collecting Catholic Saints

The Vatican has commissioned a mobile game called Follow JC Go, an AR title which is almost identical to Pokémon Go, only you’re out there collecting Saints and “blessed characters from the Bible”. It works exactly the same as Niantic and Nintendo’s blockbuster: you hit the streets and run into things you can capture, only…

Women On Twitch Go Without Makeup To Support A Fellow Streamer

Earlier this week, one of the most followed streamers on Twitch, Pokimane, surprised viewers by kicking off her stream sans makeup. On Monday, the Fortnite player, podcaster, and IRL streamer decided she’d walk her fans through what it takes to do her makeup for one of those streams. It ended up touching off a wide…

Soulcalibur VI‘s Unique Mechanics Take Center Stage In Early Competition

Even in a genre as varied as fighting games, the Soulcalibur series has maintained a distinctive personality throughout several installments thanks to its fluid, weapon-based combat. Soulcalibur VI, which landed on store shelves just last week, continues this tradition, and both pre- and post-launch tournaments have provided some of the most exciting moments in modern…

Here’s All The Overwatch LEGO Sets

That Bastion was just the start; there’s a whole line of LEGO Overwatch sets coming, featuring many of the core cast, some locations, some vehicles and of course, The Payload. While not officially announced by Blizzard yet, Target went and put pictures of the sets up a bit early, andThe Brothers Brick were able to…

Fallout 76 Feels Like Two Different Games

There’s a lot of tension in Fallout 76 between the series’ solitary past and its new multiplayer future. During my four hours in the game’s beta last night, these two sides of the game repeatedly rubbed up uncomfortably against one another. I have a tough time imagining how they’ll ever be reconciled. Fallout 76 began…

I Can’t Wait To Get Black Ops 4‘s Magical Unicorn Gun

There’s a pretty unicorn gun that can be earned in Black Ops 4, and other really fun camos and variants can make your gun glow as you perform well. Treyarch is doing a great job with the camos and variant guns for this year’s Call of Duty, and I’m on a mission to unlock them…

Lineage 2 Revolution Adds Hot Anime Orcs

Orcs. The craggly-faced brutes of the fantasy RPG world. Scarred by countless battles, these hideous creatures are the embodiment of brutality and violence. Unless they’re in Korean-developed mobile MMO Lineage 2 Revolution. Then they’re kind of hot. Introduced in today’s big update for the massively multiplayer mobile game that’s eaten a fair amount of my…

Finally, An Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Ship Battle I Enjoyed

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s live events have finally launched, one week after they were initially promised. These limited time quests offer difficult targets to take down with special rewards for anyone who manages the deed. The first limited bounty—a quest to destroy a rogue pirate ship—is straightforward but the extra difficulty led to one of the…

Battlefield V’s Battle Royale Mode Won’t Launch Until 2019

Battlefield V will launch on November 20 without its new battle royale or co-op modes, EA and DICE confirmed today. Instead, these highly-anticipated features, part of the game’s free Tides of War post-launch updates, will land somewhere between January and March, 2019. While neither of these modes is technically “delayed,” since specific release dates hadn’t…

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Acts Like An RPG, But It Doesn’t Go Far Enough

The other day, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey hit me with a real slobberknocker: It told me that a family I’d decided to save from impending slaughter earlier in the game was carrying a disease that ended up spreading to a whole island. My character, Kassandra, was immediately distraught. “We can go back anytime you want,” another…

Meltan Revealed To Be The First Mythical Pokémon That Evolves (Into An Absolute Unit)

You know Meltan, the weird little hex-headed mythical Pokémon that started showing up in Pokémon Go last month? That’s not even its final form. Get enough Meltan together and they merge to form the massive Melmetal. In the latest Meltan Research Update on the official Pokémon YouTube channel, Professors Willow and Oak witness the evolution…

Fortnite’s Halloween Event Released, Then Removed Because Of Issues [Update: It’s Working Again]

Another day, another Fortnite patch. The one that went live this morning is V6.20, notable for introducing the game’s Halloween event, Fortnitemares. Unfortunately, players began experiencing problems, including long matchmaking times, as soon as they started trying to play. Within a few hours the event had already been removed. [Update – 11:11am]: The Fortnitemares event…