A Surprising Number of People Feel Bad For Pirating Stardew Valley

Whenever piracy is mentioned, people always whip out the argument that, if pirates actually like the game, they’ll totally purchase it in the future. For Stardew Valley, the farming simulator which is currently tearing up the Steam sales charts, that age-old saying might actually be true for some players. Yesterday, as I was rounding up…

Blade & Soul Finally Gets Some Damn Warlocks

Finally something to do with the Warlock-only equipment that’s been dropping since NCsoft’s martial arts MMO launched in North America back in January. Fans knew the Warlock, a ranged spellcaster released further down the line in the earlier Asian versions of Blade & Soul, wouldn’t be making it into the game in time for launch.…

Spider-Man Is Totally Okay With Letting Someone Else Be Spider-Man

The original wall-crawler is a little salty about Miles’ costume, though. Because even he has to admit that it’s cooler. Spoilers follow. For those who may not know who Miles Morales is, he’s a teenage Spider-Man from a now-dead alternate universe. He started webbing up bad guys after the death (and eventual resurrection) of that…

Former Destiny Developers Discuss How Hard It Is To Make AAA Games

To say that making big games like Destiny is “difficult” is kind of like declaring the Grand Canyon is “deep,” so it’s always interesting to hear new insights from people who have been in the trenches. Ex-Bungie developers Jaime Griesemer and Marty O’Donnell, who have worked on Halo and Destiny, gave some pretty fascinating quotes…

Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2: The Kotaku Review

Remember the early days of online multiplayer shooters, when most players were too busy having fun to worry about things like stats or other players’ performance or who your mother may or may not have slept with? Garden Warfare 2 remembers. In 2014 EA and Popcap games made a competitive online shooter for consoles and…

Turn-Based Games Are Good This Year

XCOM. Fire Emblem. Civilization. Invisible Inc. Endless Legend. Don’t look now, but if you’re a fan of video games where the action is broken up into turns, you’ve never had it better. Despite being one of the oldest game design fundamentals around, having been so liberally lifted from tabletop gaming all those decades ago, over…

The GTA Series In The Style Of Pokémon

CJ, Niko Bellic, Tommy Vercetti and GTA III’s Claude, all together, in a fantastic demake by Hat-Loving Gamer. And it’s not just a demake. The battles and other mechanics are now all similar to classic Pokémon games. It’s a tougher world, so the gym is no longer used for Pokémon battles. To contact the author…

Diablo III Players Discover New Secret Cow Level

In honor of an artist who worked on World of Warcraft and Diablo, and who passed away two years ago, Diablo devs secretly snuck a mini-event into Diablo III. It’s a special version of the famous Cow level and players found it pretty quickly. It’s very easy to unlock compared to other Diablo III secrets.…

In The Shadow of the Minecraft Colossus

Colossi: giant statues in the real world, gargantuan creatures in fiction. They terrify and inspire awe, even (especially) when they’re painstakingly built by hand in Minecraft. This particular colossus was built by PlanetMinecraft’s Divici, who’s otherwise known for his anime- and LOTR-related builds, over a two-week period. He actually made two versions of the colossus,…

Japan Looks to Relax Rules for Foreign Animators

Do you dream of making anime in Japan? The country’s government is working to make that more of a possibility by hopefully easing up on rules and regulations for foreign animators. According to the Nikkei Asian Review (via Mulboyne), the Japanese government has created a bill, which also includes designers and cosmetic professionals, that will…

Cat Looks Just Like a Studio Ghibli Character

This is Gimo. It’s a black Scottish Fold. Next to it is Makkuro Kurosuke, a character created by Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki. Makkuro Kurosuke (aka Susuwatari) are translated as “soot sprites” or even “dust bunnies.” They appear in My Neighbor Totoro when Mei, Satsuki and her father move into their new house. They’re also in…

What Grand Theft Auto III Looked Like on the Drawing Board

Today Tokyo saw the opening of Game On, an exhibition showcasing the history of video games and exploring the question “Why are video games so interesting?” One exhibit is a recreation of the planning board used to visually plot out the missions of PS2 classic Grand Theft Auto 3 Each of the three whiteboards represents…

Sunset from the Rainbow Bridge Loop. Tokyo, Japan. By Mike S. 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!

Overwatch Player Goes From Hero To Zero In Seconds

There’s nothing more heartwarming than a good comeback… unless you’re on the receiving end of said comeback. Jonathan Larsson pulled off a beautiful play as Tracer, resulting in a four-player multi-kill. Each team is made up of six players, so it was essentially a minor extinction event. The other team was getting awfully close to…