Artist Uses GTA V To Explore American Gun Violence

Abertay University professor and artist Joseph DeLappe is using Grand Theft Auto V in his latest digital art piece about gun violence in America. Elegy: GTA USA Gun Homicides was created by the Scottish professor and launched on July 4th 2018. The piece is designed to show the victims of gun violence in the United…

Guild Wars 2 Writers Fired For Calling Out Fan On Twitter

After a Twitter spat erupted into a mob of fans going after a narrative designer for Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet, the developer said that it has fired two employees: Jessica Price and Peter Fries. On July 3, Price, a writer on Guild Wars 2, published a Twitter thread on the challenges of creating a…

YouTuber’s Board Game Tutorials Teach The Rules Wrong, And Way Better

Jeff Kornberg’s YouTube channel, The Dragon’s Tomb, does not stand out from the throng of other channels hosting tutorials for board games. Like his peers, Kornberg explains the rules in a slow, gentle voice with frequent cutaways to each game’s pieces, cards, and setup. The difference between Kornberg’s channel and the others is that every…

It’s Now Even Easier For Overwatch Players To Throw Games

“We deranking u cool?” asked the creator of “LOSING GAMES/TROLL/DERANK,” a group queued up for a game of Overwatch. I agreed. “I’ve never done this before,” I said over comms. “How does it work?” My new teammates explained that we would draw out the game for as long as possible, frustrating our opponents by whatever…

Conan Exiles Is Still Buggy, Even With 1.4 Million Copies Sold

Yesterday, Funcom announced its barbarian survival game, Conan Exiles, has sold 1.4 million copies, making it the company’s best selling game yet. This news coincided with the release of a large patch aimed at fixing a number of ongoing bugs. Funcom called it “The Mother of all Patches,” promising over 500 fixes to the PC…

Octopath Traveler Is Nothing Like Final Fantasy VI

The producer of the gorgeous upcoming Switch game Octopath Traveler made waves this week with a quote in which he said that mechanically it was a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy VI. Other people have made similar comparisons. But Octopath is nothing like Final Fantasy VI—it’s more like a SaGa game, with some experimental ideas…

English Teacher Corrects Student’s Professional Gamer Dreams

Twitter user Zyirue is studying English but has big pro gamer dreams. “I want to be progamer [SIC],” Zyirue wrote on a recent test. The teacher marked the word wrong, correcting it as “programmer.” Zyirue lamented the correction This tweet has gone viral in Japan. Replies included suggestions for how Zyirue could have avoided confusing…

The Sailor Moon Theme On Traditional Japanese Instruments

You might have heard “Moonlight Densetsu,” Sailor Moon’s opening theme song before, but probably not like this. As Japan Trends points out, shamisen player Nami Kineie has done a more traditional version of the song, accompanied by such instruments as the fue, koto and shakuhachi The resulting arrangement and performance works surprisingly well Kotaku East…

The Kill la Kill Game Sure Looks Nice 

As teased last month, Arc System Works is releasing a Kill la Kill game. Here is its debut trailer. Trigger, who did the original anime, is collaborating on the game, titled Kill la Kill the Game: IF. APLUS is handling development duties, and Kill la Kill the Game: IF is slated for a 2019 release…

Takoyaki Time. Osaka, Japan. By William Konings. 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! 

A Very Cute Lil’ Persona 5 Figure

Good Smile will be releasing this Nendoroid version of Persona 5’s Futaba in December. Set to cost around $40, she includes a “standard expression, a downcast expression as well as a grinning expression.” She also comes with Morgana, a keyboard, phone and cup of noodles.

Albums Are Getting Patches Now

In video games, updates are such old news that it’s weird when a game isn’t consistently tweaked for months or years on end. Other mediums, however, are only just catching on to the magic of patches—and patch notes. Earlier this week, fans of professional rapper, sadboy, and Ninja Fortnite duos partner Drake noticed that his…

Gucci Is Here For The 1990s Console War Veterans

Gucci’s new Rhyton sneakers have been designed to do two things: cost a lot of money and inflict visual trauma on survivors of the first great console wars. The company’s subtle branding (I don’t know if you’ve noticed it) on the side of the shoe is written in Sega’s trademark font, while bearing the colours…

Valve Shuts Down New Way Of Estimating Game Sales On Steam

In April, Valve made changes to Steam that bolstered user privacy while hammering a few nails into the coffin of unofficial sales tracking monolith Steam Spy. The service is not 100 percent dead, but developers have been searching for alternatives. Last month, they found one. Now it’s been shut down, too. Tyler Glaiel, a developer…