Wonderful Weather. Kyoto, Japan. By John Ta. 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!

The Lady In Red

Eugene Fokin is a character artist who used to work at Eidos (on Deus Ex), but who is now at Ubisoft. You can see more of Eugene’s work athis ArtStation page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the…

HBO Accused Of Trying To Censor Game Of Thrones Spoilers

HBO has been going after Game of Thrones pirates for years now, but this week things took a turn for the weird when the creator of a popular series of YouTube videos—claiming to air spoilers for the show before it airs—was hit with copyright takedown notices. Frikidoctor, who (via TorrentFreak) claims to have inside sources…

Popular Counter-Strike Streamer Fails Hilariously At Pro Event, Becomes Meme

Jaryd “summit1g” Lazar is one of the most popular Counter-Strike streamers, with more than 1.3 million followers. Over the weekend, he subbed for a pro team. It did not end well. Summit was subbing for a member of Splyce, a not particularly accomplished American team. He’s competed before, but it’s not his main claim to…

Stellaris: The Kotaku Review

Stellaris is a space opera, played out in three acts. It’s the latest game from Paradox’s internal development studio, the guys who brought us grand/complicated/alienating strategy games like Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV. I liked the latter and adore the former, so there was a lot for me to look forward to here!…

Long-Distance Relationships Suck, But VR’s Made It Easier

I looked into my girlfriend’s eyes as I reached out to gently touch her face. In that moment, I felt something. A rush of warmth from my head to my toes. Comfort. Contentment. It should be noted that my girlfriend was, at the time, a floating ball robot. Since early April, my girlfriend has been…

Remembering Naughty Dog‘s First Game

These days, people think of Naughty Dog as the company behind the Uncharted series, but it didn’t start that way. The company’s first game was a swords ‘n sorcery RPG called Keef The Thief, published by Electronic Arts. Naughty Dog has changed directions quite a few times throughout its history. It used to be known…

A Technical Look At What Makes Uncharted 4 So Pretty

Uncharted 4 is, without a doubt, the best-looking video game I’ve ever played. Here’s an in-depth analysis of how the folks at Naughty Dog pulled it off. The good people at Digital Foundry put together this semi-spoilery video—don’t watch it unless you want to see some of the locations and set-pieces in Uncharted 4—that digs…

Uh, Nice Job, Rey

Krzysztof Maziarz is an artist from Poland currently working in the games business. I’m digging the variety of styles here…a lot of game artists can only play a few notes (albeit very well), but Krzysztof’s portfolio shows a real wide range of work. You can see more of Krzysztof’s work at his Instagramand ArtStation pages…

Overwatch Player Obliterates Enemy With Basketball Trap

If you’ve been playing Overwatch’s beta, you’re probably familiar with basketballs in starter areas. Usually people just shoot at them until the match starts, and then they’re left behind, forlorn and forgotten. A couple players, though, figured out how to weaponize them. Puppy :U and his cohort realized that you can attach Junkrat’s steel trap and…

A Rare Mario Maker Super Expert Level That Is Not Trash

I’ve largely avoided stages labeled super expert in Mario Maker; they’re usually nonsense. Sometimes, they’re the right kind of nonsense. My intention this morning was to stream the latest stage from Tristan,an eight-year-old from Canada who’s been crafting devious levels for me. Sadly, Nintendo deleted his stage before I was able to play it for…

Fan Edits Full-Length Movie Telling Dark Souls 3‘s Confusing Story

It’s possible to beat Dark Souls 3 and have no idea what really happened. Fortunately, MoonlightButterfly on YouTube has been meticulously making sense of the series’ complicated storytelling by turning them into movies. I’ve previously highlighted MoonlightButterfly’s work on Kotaku, as the release date for Dark Souls 3 loomed. If you’re looking for an easy…

Fans Remake Classic RTS Games Like Command & Conquer, Red Alert

OpenRA is an open source project that “recreates and modernizes” Westwood’s classic RTS games on the PC by building a new engine for them and making them free to download. Why? A new engine means they can run natively on modern systems, and also means they can run natively at modern resolutions, so you can…

Highlights Of Two Uncharted 4 Levels, One Traditional And One Full Of New Tricks

Above, a video we capped of Uncharted 4‘s ninth level, which plays similarly to many Uncharted levels of old. Below, a video we capped of Uncharted 4‘s 10th chapter, which shows the game opening up, allowing more variety in exploration and combat. Note how open the level is. It includes a number of optional side…

Battleborn‘s Toughest Mission Is The Game At Its Best And Worst

Battleborn has eight story missions available to play either alone or with a group online. I have completed six. The Saboteur is the seventh, and I’m having a hell of a time with it. I am not alone. This piece originally appeared 5/7/16. Many of the story missions in Battleborn require players defend a point…