The Best Video Game Handguns

If you’ve played video games, you’ve encountered a handgun. In the right game, a handgun can be an object of menace or empowerment. But video games often treat them as a starter weapon to be replaced as soon as possible. What makes for a great video game handgun? This piece originally appeared 8/9/17. A Brief…

Speedrunner Completes All Five Main Fallout Games In Under 90 Minutes

A casual playthrough of a Fallout game can take dozens or even hundreds of hours of wandering through wide wastelands. This new speedrun completes the entire series in under an hour and a half. The “Any% Main Series,” carried out by the dubiously named speedrunner tomatoanus, completes all five main titles in the Fallout series—Fallout,…

Amateur Developer Says Adding Dragon Ball Z To Pokémon Helped Make Him A Better Person

Last week, a 22-year-old Frenchman who goes by the online name Z-Mack released the seventh major update to Dragon Ball Z: Team Training, a hack of an old Pokémon game where you can catch all of your favorite characters from Dragon Ball Z and have them fight against each other in the Pokémon world. Dragon…

A Researcher Is Digging Up Largely Forgotten Queer Video Games

In the early 90s, two queer people in the Mission District of San Francisco made games about queer experiences. One was a fantasy role-playing game populated by gay characters, the other a lesbian adventure game. These two developers would never meet. It’s only now, through archival projects like LGBTQ Game Archive, that queer scholars have…

Dungeons & Dragons And Magic: The Gathering Get An Official Crossover

In the greatest bit of brand synergy since the Flintstones met the Jetsons, the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering are smashing together in a new D&D book announced today. Out on November 20, the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica is a D&D lore book set within Ravnica, a massive city from Magic:…

Octopath Traveler‘s Best NPC Is This Reclusive Old Man

Every party member in Octopath Traveler has a special ability that allows them to interact with NPCs throughout the world. Ophilia the cleric and Primrose the dancer can temporarily recruit NPCs into the party and summon them during battles. One unassuming old man is able to unleash Hell upon enemies. I’m pretty sure he’s a…

I’m Okay With 419,826th Place In Mario Odyssey’s Jump Rope Challenge

Every day, we make decisions about the games we will play and the things we will try to do in them. These days, I’m trying to make choices that are smarter, which I hope is the correct way to classify my decision to only try the jump-rope challenge in Super Mario Odyssey once. I only…

The Week In Games: Fly The Friendly Skies

The great big update for No Man’s Sky is coming down the pipe alongside the Xbox One version of the game, and there’s also a heapin’ helping of other games you can enjoy arriving on a plenitude of platforms. Candle: The Power of Flame is coming to warm your puzzle-platforming heart with its light manipulation…

The One Piece Manga Is 80 Percent Finished, Says Eiichiro Oda 

The One Piece manga debuted way back in 1997. That was over twenty years ago. Wonder how much more story is left? Twenty percent, it seems. In an interview with Yomiuri, Oda was asked about how the story has gotten long. “It’s because the characters are acting on their own,” Oda explained. “It’s taken twenty…

New Anime Museum Opens In Tokyo

Iconic anime studio Toei Animation is opening a new museum later this month. It’s located in Tokyo and called Toei Animation Museum. Toei, of course, is responsible for the One Piece, Dragon Ball, Galaxy Express 999, Mazinger Z and Sailor Moon anime shows. At the museum’s various exhibits, visitors can learn how anime is made…

See One Piece Voice Actors Bring Luffy And Usopp To Life 

Luffy’s voice actress Mayumi Tanaka and Usopp’s voice actor Kappei Yamaguchi recently suited up in motion-tracking gear. Hijinks ensued. This wasn’t for the anime, but rather, the idea was to turn Luffy and Usopp into virtual YouTubers It’s wild to see them not only do the character’s voices but to have them also do their…

Sea Fog. Hạ Long Bay, Vietnam. By Jim Sheppard | 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! 

Future’s So Bright

Joseph Feinsilver is an artist based in LA who has worked on stuff like Sunset Overdrive and the Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon You can see more of Feinsilver’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their…

We’ve Had Games Done Quick, Now For Games Done Slow

The two Games Done Quick events are an annual highlight of the speedrunning scene, but a new event in Australia is looking to take the opposite approach. Great Games Done Slow will be held in September, and rather than the chaos and stress of trying to play games quickly, players will instead be “encouraged to…

A Very Good Interview With Persona’s Shigenori Soejima

Shigenori Soejima is one of the great artists working in video games, and classics like Persona and Catherine just wouldn’t have been the same without his vision. This short documentary by Archipel is a must for fans of his stuff, going into his history with Atlus, his primary inspirations and how he approaches his art.…