What The Heck Is DC Comics Doing to Scooby-Doo?

Shaggy looks like he lives in Bushwick now and works at an artisanal clam chowder pop-up. Zoinks, Scoob! Corporate synergy is afoot. Warner Bros. owns both DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera; for years, the former company has published comfortingly, familiar comics based on the latter’s baby-boomer cartoon properties. Now, as announced today in an Entertainment Weekly…

Star Wars: Episode VII‘s Niima Outpost, In LEGO Form

That’s a huge Star Wars diorama! But a giant Millennium Falcon like this deserves an extended diorama. In this case, the extension is the junkyard settlement Niima Outpost on Jakku, a quite important location in Episode VII It’s an Incredibly cool display, made by Wookiewarrior. Here’s a closeup of the market area, with the ruthless…

Fan Makes Cool Paper Versions of Classic Game Scenes

The very first stage of the original NES Castlevania, the spooky Ghost House from Super Mario World, our first battle with Bowser in Super Mario Bros. Scenes we probably all remember and encountered one way or another, from the NES days, that Mark Green resurrected with brilliant dioramas. His pieces are basically 3D papercraft versions…

American Truck Simulator Impressions: I Nearly Crashed Into a Bus

I’m falling asleep at the wheel. I’ve been driving for 16 hours straight, hauling freight across the border between Nevada and California. Yawning, my eyes briefly flutter shut and I lose sight of the road. My eyes flick open and I straighten up my lorry. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK I should pull…

Hayao Miyazaki Confirms Princess Mononoke Urban Legend as Truth

There’s a long-standing urban legend that part of Princess Mononoke is really about leprosy. Now, the film’s creator, Hayao Miyazaki, confirmed that this was no legend. It’s a fact. The thematic element in Princess Mononoke that is most commonly discussed is nature, but there are other subtextual themes running through the work. [Image via rshijima…

In Yakuza 6, You Can Beat Up a Japanese Convenience Store

Yakuza 6 isn’t out yet, but holy crap, it already looks incredible. In this footage from the demo, Kazuma Kiryu walks in on a guy brandishing a knife at a convenience store clerk. The guy tells him to buzz off and orders his goons to beat Kiryu to death. So, Kiryu punches the hell out…

Japan, Where the PS Vita Won’t Die

This week, the biggest selling video game in Japan is for the PS Vita. While the handheld seems to be on its last legs in the west, here in Japan, it’s doing pretty well. According to the latest Weekly Famitsu, the PS Vita version of the enhanced remake Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, which launched on January…

Melon soda and donuts. Mister Donut in Japan. By Michael Chen Shaffer. 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!

Noragami Aragoto Is An Action Anime in a World of Gods and Spirits

When I reviewed the first season of Noragami a few years back, I had mixed feelings about it. However, that was only because I felt it could be great once it got past its opening missteps. Noragami Aragoto was all I hoped for and more. Much of Aragoto is spent focusing on the god Bishamon.…

Fantasy Scene #1, by photographer Danny Passarella (whose work we’ve covered previously). You can get it here

You Look Rough, Darth

Riyahd Cassiem is a freelance artist from South Africa who has worked in both film and video games. Below you’ll see a collection of his killer digital sculpts. You can see more of Riyadh’s work at his personal site and ArtStation page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big…

AI Learns To Beat Master Of Ancient Chinese Board Game

Go is a board game from China that’s over 2000 years old. It’s complex as hell: there are more possible positions in the game than there are atoms in the universe. So news that a Google AI has beaten a human master at the game is fascinating/terrifying. AI has been beating humans at chess for…

Lupe Fiasco Wants To Fight Daigo At EVO

Hold onto your potatoes. Earlier today, a fan asked Lupe about EVO: Next thing you know Mad Catz is on the scent: And just like that, Lupe was in, Note this hasn’t been confirmed; Twitch and Mad Catz (who sponsor Daigo) are merely working on it. Though really, who’s going to say no to this…

Sony Tried To Trademark ‘Let’s Play,’ Got Smacked Down

Last year, Sony quietly tried to trademark the term “Let’s Play”, which they want to use for marketing, but which everyone else associates with videos of people playing games on the internet. Thankfully, the USPTO is having none of it. A law firm involved in disputing Sony’s application filed a letter of protest a couple…

Blade & Soul MMO Log One: I Know Kung Fu

Technically I know advanced assassination techniques, but it’s all a sort of Kung Fu as far as NCsoft’s latest Korean import is concerned. Check out my impressions after one week of that sort of fighting—you know, the one everyone is doing. As with any massively multiplayer online role-playing game, we like to put between two…

Rise Of The Tomb Raider Can Really Push Your PC (But It’s Worth It)

Sometimes you just want to play a really pretty PC game, and in walks the PC port of Rise of the Tomb Raider. I already played through the enjoyably acronymed “ROTTR” on Xbox One last fall, and at the time was struck by how gorgeous the game could be. It stands to reason that it’d…

Here’s What Happened After A DayZ Player Gave Complete Strangers A Loaded Gun

DayZ social experiments continue to delight and amaze me. The set-up for this one is straightforward. Cyborg Lizard decided to gift other players a new gun, no strings attached. What would these armed players do in response? Would they be kind? Or would they stab Cyborg Lizard in the back? I know what you’re thinking.…

Tips For Playing The Witness

I’d rather not spoil anything. I’d rather you figure out everything in The Witness yourself. But if you need some general advice, here goes. Keep A Notebook Nearby You’re going to start this game drawing lines through easy puzzles and you’ll wonder why in the world people said this game was difficult. Then you’ll get…