Blizzard Cracks Down On Overwatch Ties, Polarizes Fans

Draws are the bane of competitive Overwatch players’ existence. All that work, and instead of the sweet taste of victory or the bitter agony of defeat, you get the sour milk breath of anticlimax. Late last week, Blizzard took the first steps to fix that. Some players, though, think they might have gone too far.…

Why Opening Loot Boxes Feels Like Christmas, According To Game Devs

Opening Overwatch loot boxes or Halo 5 REQ packs adds a special drama to a gaming session. The crate shakes. A jingle chimes. Lights peek out from the cracks. It swells with potential. Game developers make subtle design decisions that stoke the hope that keeps players opening mystery boxes, crates and packs. And not just…

Exuberant Backflip Emote In For Honor Can Be Used To Dodge Attacks

For Honor’s emotes give players a chance to be flashy during their duels, even if the new ones are a bit expensive. It turns out that emotes have a bit more use that simply taunting opponents. User TheRealCrayfish took to Reddit to show off some sick emote dodging skills. Using the Berserker, they leap right…

You Can Watch Esports In VR Now, But Why Would You?

Here are two questions an annoying friend or relative might ask you: “Does anyone actually watch esports tournaments?” and “Does anyone actually own a VR headset?” A startup called SLIVER.tv has decided to combine these two head-scratchers into one bizarre business plan, which can be best summarized in one question: “Would anyone watch esports tournaments…

Typeshift Is A Word Puzzle That Rethinks Crosswords

Crossword puzzles are the bane of my existence. I find them obtuse and boring. But iOS game Typeshift is a clever twist on the formula that makes them way more tolerable. Typeshift’s developer, Zach Gage of Spelltower and Really Bad Chess fame, says that this game is part of his “pseudo-quest to re-imagine classic newspaper…

New Battlefield 1 Easter Egg Is Like The House From Up

Battlefield is known for its intricate easter eggs and hidden secrets. The latest hidden secret pulls directly from Disney to create a stunning and humorous sight. With the recently release of Battlefield 1‘s latest DLC They Shall Not Pass, it was only a matter of time before easters eggs were discovered. One of the first…

PSA: Don’t Start A New Game Of Zelda Without Switching Accounts

Did you know that trying to start a new game of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will erase all of your current save files? Please do not let this happen to you. Start a new Switch account before you start a brand new game. This weekend, I decided to get my fiancée into Breath of the…

The Crowd Went Wild For Hatsune Miku, The Virtual Anime Pop Star

I’ve seen a massive crowd line up around the block to watch an internet-fueled hologram of an anime girl sing. I’ve seen a packed auditorium erupt into a wild cheer for a text-to-speech voice that said: “Hello Seattle.” I’ve seen our present day, in all its bracing cyberpunk wonder, at Hatsune Miku’s live concert at…

Mass Effect: Andromeda PC Benchmarked On 24 Different Video Cards

It’s hard to believe five years have passed since the March 2012 release of Mass Effect 3, which cemented the trilogy as something of a modern cult classic among RPG fans. Given the prestige associated with the series, it should come as no surprise that it received a new title and even less of a…

Pokémon Developers’ Hiring Ads Lead To Inevitable Switch Speculation

New job ads from Pokémon developer Game Freak are causing speculation that a Switch entry is in our future. There is reason for such conjecture. Last fall, a report appeared that Pokémon was coming to the Switch as Pokémon Star This recent character modeler wanted ad is for a “new title.” Based in Tokyo, the…

Excellent Cosplay This Weekend In Osaka 

On Sunday, the streets of Osaka’s geek area Nipponbashi were overrun with cosplayers, photographers, and rubberneckers. Last year, an estimated250,000 people showed up. I’m betting even more were on hand this year. Once again, the cosplay was terrific. (Though, as reader Yotsuba&Tochan points out, there was reportedly an incident with a cosplayer getting groped, which…

Monster Hunter XX‘s Voice Acting Sounds Pornographic

XX? Surely, Capcom means XXX. The just released in Japan Monster Hunter XX has a handful of voice options for players. One in particular stands out.  Check out how the game’s Type 17 voice compares to hot and heavy Type 18. Goodness. Voices Type 19 and Type 20 don’t sound nearly as porny. This voice…

From Enoshima Sea Candle. Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. By Tom Perrine. 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!

Borderlands Cosplay Is A Family Act

Back in 2015, we named this shot of Feinobi as Borderlands’ Handsome Jack as one of the best pieces of cosplay for the year. It’s now 2017, and he’s finally gotten around to having a proper shoot done of the outfit. What’s more, he’s now joined by his girlfriend Mary, cosplaying as Handsome Jack’s daughter…

A Soft Way To Fix The Switch’s Screen Scratching Issue

Where there’s a hardware flaw, there’s a cottage industry to take advantage of it, and the Switch dock’s propensity to scratch console screens is no different. There’s still no confirmation if the scratches are being caused by sloppy owners or the odd bent dock, but whatever, if you’re concerned that a cheap piece of plastic…

Old Games Catalogues Are Fun

Growing up in Australia in the 80s/90s, I have a very weird emotional attachment to these old retailer catalogues, because in the days before the internet—or even reliable games mags—they were the only real way to get info on what games were coming out and, more importantly, when Via Kotaku Australia, here’s a back catalogue…