A Look Back At Far Cry 2‘s Bleak, Bummer Ending

I’m betting that a lot of people who played Far Cry 2 didn’t finish it. It’s a chaotic, grueling game, and it’s at least five hours too long. If you made it to the end, you got a finale just as flawed, ambitious, and bleak as the game preceding it. Spoilers will follow, of course!…

That Time I Tried To Pirate Spore And Bricked My Laptop Instead

In 2008, I brought my laptop over to my friend Amanda’s house to pirate Spore. Her boyfriend Nate, who worked at the local GameStop, told me to. It’s the shit, he said, and everyone’s downloading it for free. I connected my laptop to her internet and opened Limewire, 2008’s file-sharing software du jour. It was…

Wiz Khalifa Fans, Who Are Probably High, Don’t Realize His Weed Game Is Boring

Wiz Khalifa’s Weed Farm has all the ingredients for what should be, at least, a funny distraction. In practice, it’s really boring, but for the people who celebrate the holiday on which it was released that might not matter. It’s April 20th and Wiz Khalifa—rapper, marijuana enthusiast and Amber Rose’s baby daddy—has released a mobile…

A Dungeon Crawler Based on Indian Mythology

Asura is a hack and slash that puts you in the role of a dangerous demon fighting an evil maharaja. Inspired by Indian myths and full of intense combat, it’s this week’s Indie Pick. I’m a big fan of rougue-lites and classic dungeon crawling.  I picked up Brutal last year and still take time for…

GTA Online Revisits Its Top-Down Roots Next Week

Grand Theft Auto Online’s Tiny Racers update, releasing next week, applies a little historical perspective to the game’s stunt racing, a callback to the series’ top-down origins. Before Grand Theft Auto III intruduced us all to free-roaming vehicle thievery in 3D the series was all about the top-down perspective. Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto…

What People Miss When They Use ‘Autistic’ As An Insult

Elizabeth E. looted everything in Fallout 3’s Raven Rock. She collected three units of vodka, five stealth devices, four cuts of mirelurk meat and 88 Stimpacks, which weighed her down a considerable 3,169 pounds. Her pack was so heavy that traveling from Raven Rock to Fort Independence took four hours. She was over-encumbered and couldn’t…

Saints Row 2 Is Free On PC Right Now

The first Saints Row was a passable, if awkward Grand Theft Auto clone. Saints Row 2 is an honest-to-God classic. You can snag for free right now on GOG. Gamers who have an account at GOG can pick up a free PC copy of Saints Row 2 over the next few days. Following the tale…

Trackballs Still Deserve Our Love

Why waste energy moving a mouse around when you can control everything by placing your hand atop a large glowing sphere like some sort of techno wizard? The world needs more trackballs. In these days of super-precise optical and laser mice measuring their sensitivity in the tens of thousands of dots per inch, the trackball…

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More Classic Games Need Remakes Like Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap

Rather than rebuild Sega Master System classic Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap from the ground up, developer Lizardcube just painted over the original game with modern graphics, music and sound effects. We need more remakes like this. Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, out this week for Switch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 with a…

South Korean Presidential Candidate Releases A Free StarCraft Map

Of course! If you are trying to win votes in South Korea, StarCraft is always one way to appeal to the masses. Presidential candidate Moon Jae-in, who appears to be the front runner, has released two versions of a custom map called “Moonters” (geddit?) to mark StarCraft going free. The maps are available on the…

For Poké Ball Candy Containers, These Seem Nice 

In Japan, Bandai is releasing a set of Poké Ball. There’s a total of 11 different Poké Balls in the set, and while they’re designed to hold candy (and not, you know, Pocket Monsters), these replicas are rather handsome. Over the years, Japan has seen an array of mock Poké Balls. They’re typically sold at…

This North Korean Arcade Propaganda, My Goodness

If you’ve ever wondered what a North Korean propaganda clip for arcade gaming looks like, well, it apparently looks like this. You might remember seeing photos of a North Korean arcade when they first surfaced online in 2008. Some cabinets looked ancient! These images were originally published by the greatest Sega fan site ever created,…

Bandai Namco Announces Code Vein, Which Is Certainly A Video Game

Last week Bandai Namco teased a new game with a lovely hand-painted trailer and the tagline “Prepare to Dine.” Today they officially announce Code Vein, an anime-style post-apocalyptic vampire action RPG that only vaguely resembles the gorgeous animated short that preceeded it. Before we get into the nitty gritty of Code Vein, let’s soak in…

Cold Night. Montréal, Canada. By Akinetopsia. 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!

Spy Game Uses 3D Glasses To Hide Secrets In Plain Sight

Red Scare is a new board game about espionage in the Cold War. And it’s built entirely around a very cool hook: it uses old-fashioned 3D glasses to hide spy secrets on the game’s cards. Supporting up to ten players, everyone assumes (at least superficially) the role of FBI agents working to catch Soviet spies.…

Palmer Luckey Backs Trump With Companies Using Chrono Trigger Names [Update]

Oculus Rift founder Palmer Luckey, who last year spent a lot of money helping Donald Trump get elected, has since spent a lot of money helping Trump throw some big parties. As reported by Mother Jones, Luckey—who last year tried to deny he was a Trump supporter—has since donated $100,000 to Trump’s inauguration committee, basically…

AMD Radeon RX 570 And RX 580 Review: A Little Extra Power Goes A Long Way

While enthusiasts eagerly await to coming of the next-generation of high-end Radeon cards, AMD shores up its starting lineup with the RX 500 series, featuring small but significant improvements over last year’s RX 470 and RX 480 graphics cards. 2016 was a busy year for the video card business, with both major players introducing their…