Making Videogames the Old-Fashioned Way—On a 52-Hour Train Ride
As I settle into the plush seat of my sleeper car, a game development student from Australia sitting across from me, I feel an intense sense of my own smallness. Claustrophobia has a strong foothold deep on an Amtrak train; you realize very distinctly that you're in a cramped metal tube with no way off.…
Sci-Fi TV Doesn't Have to Be 'Prestige'—It Can Just Be Fun
You live, it’s true, in a Golden Age of Television, and at least some of that gold comes in the form of lucky coins from leprechauns that reanimate unfaithful dead spouses. Which is to say, some of the most premium-est of premium TV right now is genre—science fiction and fantasy. It’s American Gods, Game of…
New Black Panther Trailer Promises Marvel's Most Breathtaking Movie Yet
Click:gold buyers Auckland A few months ago, director Ryan Coogler and the cast of Black Panther came to Comic-Con International and showed a trailer for their new movie. Set to Kendrick Lamar’s “DNA,” it caused a reaction stronger than anything else to hit Hall H for that entire con, and probably a few cons prior.…
Don't Watch This New Blade Runner 2049 Trailer
See that thing up there? The box that says “Blade Runner 2049 – International TV Spot #1”? The one with the tempting "play" button on it? That’s the latest trailer for the sequel-reboot thing to Ridley Scott’s classic 1982 movie. Looks sexy, right? Who can resist Ryan Gosling’s puppy-dog eyes, Harrison Ford’s glowering face, and…
Game of Thrones Recap Season 7, Episode 2: Nothing Is Certain
When it returned for its seventh season last week, Game of Thrones was in a giving mood. From Arya’s revenge for the Red Wedding to Daenerys’ long-awaited arrival on Dragonstone, it was a great week for both the fans who’d waited years to see those scenes on screen, and whoever gets to play those BONG-bong-BONG…
Westworld Recap, Season 2 Episode 4: More Human Than Human
If you thought watching Westworld was like flipping through a blood-soaked college philosophy textbook, you weren’t wrong. Its meditations on the nature of the mind are growing increasingly knotty, putting flesh and bones to the meandering thought experiments that keep undergrads up at night. Episode 4 of Season 2 opens in a sleek apartment. Jim…
Kim Jong-Un Calling Trump a 'Dotard' Gave the Internet a Language Lesson
Pro tip for educators helping teens with their SAT prep: Try to provoke world leaders to fling 50-cent words at President Trump. (Not like "G-Unit," though. The other kind.) Last night, after Trump announced that he would be imposing new sanctions on North Korea, Kim Jong-un called the president a “deranged US dotard” that he…
While You Were Offline: Folks Have Ideas About Where You Can Put Your 280 Characters
This week in "Your faves are problematic" news, Louis C.K. and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, your time has come. But in other news, Eminem has a new song with Beyoncé, which is giving the internet something else to talk about. Is there anything else that had everyone talking last week? Why, we're glad you…
Meet the Guy Bringing 'Dumb Data' Movie Math to Reddit
One afternoon this past summer, Mark Hofmeyer was in the backyard of his suburban Atlanta home, doing his best to retrace Leatherface’s steps. This was not out of the ordinary. Hofmeyer, 35, is a film lover who's spent the last two years writing deeply researched yet thoroughly un-scientific statistical analyses of horror and action flicks,…
The Artist Who Made Zuckerberg Out of Poop Has a New Muse: Elon Musk
Click:hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose HPMC Of all the dimensions of Elon Musk that fascinate his fans—his intellect, his work ethic, his rockets, his dating life—there's one that hasn't been definitively explained: his seemingly self-restoring hairline. In early career moments, like a 1999 CNN segment that followed Musk getting a McLaren F1, or a 2000 image of…