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The Nintendo Labo Can Make Some Serious Music

Oh, you thought you were cute playing a little piano on the Nintendo Labo? Here’sJapanese musician Geniway showing just how good the software’s suite of music tools can be. Here’s a Final Fantasy XIII tribute he stitched together: And here’s some Splatoon for good measure: If you’re wondering why he keeps shaking the thing: it’s…

You can now use the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller in the Steam beta client, including its gryo sensor. Valve hasn’t said when it will be available in the main client, but back when support for the PS4 controller was first introduced on Steam it took a little over a month.

Sims Developer Responds To ‘General Unrest’ Among Series Fans

One of the public facing members of The Sims’s dev team took to the forums to address rumors of the end of The Sims 4‘s development. The Sims’ fandom has had a fraught relationship with the most recent game in the franchise. Some fans see the game as a step down from The Sims 3.…

Dead Secret Is A Short, Spooky Murder Mystery

I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve seen more episodes of Murder, She Wrote than is healthy for someone under age 70. I’d like to think that the hours I’ve spent watching Jessica Fletcher do her thing have made me an expert in being a busybody and in solving crimes. How fortuitous, then, that the…

Now’s A Good Time To Clean Up Your PS4’s Hard Drive 

We’re weeks into spring and finally free of the cold, damp reach of late winter. It’s time to clean out your closets, mow your lawn or at least get your PS4 running faster by rebuilding the system’s database. I did, and it made my console run faster. I tend to close a browser tab the…

So Is It Okay To Kill A Westworld Robot, Or What?

The HBO show Westworld is largely focused on a single question: what does it mean for people to kill and abuse robots that look, act, and possibly even feel like humans? Westworld challenges viewers by showing “robots” who are played by flesh-and-blood actors. It tells us they’re not real, but of course, we all know…

Fortnite‘s New Hop Rocks Are Making The Game Wild

Not a sticky-sweet candy or an obscure club drug, Fortnite’s new hop rocks are popping off in the survival shooter’s gameplay. The hop rocks, which developer Epic Games introduced yesterday, are a consumable item players can find in Fortnite’s new Dusty Divet crater. After using them, players jump through the map with low-gravity physics that…

Struggle Just To Act Like A Normal Human In This Physics-Based Dating Game

I love going on dates. What’s not to like about nice food, a good movie, and someone cute to get to know? Check Please casts my assessment of dates into doubt. Billed as a “physics based dating sim,” the game is as painfully awkward and hilarious as your worst date ever. In this game you’re…

FTC Warns Nintendo, Microsoft, And Sony To Review Warranty Terms

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gave Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony a 30-day window in to change their console warranty language to let consumers know they can make repairs or use third-party replacement products without voiding them. The FTC said in a press release on April 10 that various companies, including some in the video game…

My Battletech Pilot Died From A Heartbreaking Stray Shot

Battletech’s giant robot brawls can last a long time before one side claims victory. The recently released tactics game embraces a slow, deliberate pace that can lull the player into false comfort. Thanks to an unlikely dice roll, a single critical attack this weekend became one of the most shocking moments I’ve ever had while…

Far Cry 5‘s Faith Seed Embodies An Evangelical Double Standard

I hated fighting Faith Seed, the highest-ranking woman in Far Cry 5’s fictional cult. She was confusing, annoying, and—like all the game’s enemies—wanted to kill me. I was supposed to hate her, but I didn’t relish winning our final battle. Faith embodies the ugliness of the game’s cult, The Project at Eden’s Gate, but, more…

Activision’s CEO Made $28.6 Million Last Year, 306 Times The Median Activision Employee

Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s compensation for 2017 was $28,698,375, according to filings the video game publisher submitted earlier this week to the U.S. Security and Exchanges Commission. Don’t be too jealous, though—that’s actually a pay cut. But it’s still over 300 times what the median Activision employee made. Kotick, who has long been one of…

Here’s Our Best Look Yet At Red Dead Redemption 2

Here’s the new trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2, a video game about cowboys that I think a couple of people might be anticipating. It’s our best look yet at the upcoming Rockstar western. Among other things, the trailer reveals that the next Red Dead Redemption is set in 1899 and that Dutch Van der…

Nintendo’s new president Shuntaro Furukawa certainly wants the Switch to succeed, but according to Nikkei, he is aiming at a smartphone game to generate over $900 million in sales. “In what I can see now,” he said, “the thing I want to make the big are smartphone games.” Update May 2 – 9:00pm: An earlier…

A Nintendo Labo Powered Wheelchair

Now that Nintendo Labo is out, people are doing cool things with it. Using the motorcycle Joy-Con to control a wheelchair has to be among the coolest of them. This was created by Japanese researcher and inventor Kentaro Yoshifuji. Since Yoshifuji was in high school, he has developed new technology for electric wheelchairs, and this…

Before Space Invaders, Taito Made Vodka 

Nintendo got its start making playing cards. Sega began making amusement machines for the U.S. military. And Taito? It was the first company to distil vodka in Japan. As pointed out in Chris Kohler’s book Power-Up and by game localizer Matt Alt on Twitter, Taito got its start in vodka thanks to its founder, the…

The Skyline. Kyoto, Japan. By José Arturo Vaca Montante. 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! 

Korean Overwatch Hackers Arrested, Hit With $10,000 Fine

South Korea’s new law that takes aim at those who hack online games in order to cheat at them, which went into effect last June, has hackers in hot water. Earlier this year, 13 Overwatch offenders were arrested, and now two have received their sentences. According to a post from Blizzard Korea—which worked with the…

X-Wing Miniatures Game Gets A Reboot

Fantasy Flight’s money-printing X-Wing, which has been killing it for a few years now, is getting a reboot with a new Second Edition of the game. Announced today by Fantasy Flight, it makes a number of changes to the way the game’s played, some of them all-new ideas, others tweaks made in reaction to the…

Battletech Is Pretty Good

Released on PC last week, Battletech is a new strategy/tactics game by Harebrained Schemes (Shadowrun). In the absolute simplest terms, it’s kinda like XCOM, only you’re in control of some giant lumbering mechs. Battletech is a game of two halves. You’ll spend most of your time doing turn-based battle on 3D landscapes, but there’s also…