Hollywood’s VR Fantasy Was Everywhere at Comic-Con—With a Catch
At Marvel Studio’s Comic-Con panel on Saturday, director Taika Waititi answered a question about his upcoming film Thor: Ragnarok with a new spin on an old platitude. “Whatever’s inside that rectangle,” he said, “is all that matters.” Given the way virtual reality swept the pop-culture festival this year, though, he might have been the only…
Dream Daddy, a Queer Dating Sim, Might Be the Gaming Miracle of the Year
A month ago, if most people had tried to predict what kind of videogame would become the game of the summer, very few of them would have guessed "queer dating simulator." Yet, Dream Daddy did just that, with a pair of stunning usurpals: Not only did it replace beloved first-person shooter Overwatch as the most-discussed…
Vignettes Invents a New Game Genre By Enchanting Your Phone
It might begin with a table lamp. Tap the shade, give it a spin. Turn the entire lamp, watching the red of its body blot out the yellow of the shade—and then the other way around until all the red disappears, drowned in yellow. Keep turning, and you have a lightbulb. Tap it, and it…
What a Solar Eclipse Taught Me About Love
The darkness came unexpectedly. One second my father was walking my 7-year-old brother and my 10-year-old self past a bodega in New York City; the next, a shadow descended. The noise of the city stopped. A taxi pulled up nearby and parked in the middle of the road. Feet clacked on the sidewalk once and…
When Real-Life Female Friendships are Tough, Games Can Help
"We have to have a girls' night soon!" That’s how a female acquaintance—the one I can say I'm fairly close to—always concludes our monthly lunch date. Despite her cheery insistence, it never happens, but that doesn’t stop me from dreading the possibility.I know that if I go, I'll listen to everyone discuss their marriages, jobs,…
Yes, It Matters That Spider-Man: Homecoming Just Made $117 Million
No one ever really expected Spider-Man: Homecoming to fail. Massive summer comic-book movies out of the Marvel universe don’t really do that anymore. If anything, Marvel has proven over the last few years that even heroes as weird as Doctor Strange and small as Ant-Man can get butts in seats. But when it came to…
The Terrible, Predictable Life Cycle of Every Trump Tweet
Click:A20004-24 There is nothing Donald Trump can tweet that people won't lose their minds over. Whether it's a masterpiece of design, a Crooked Hillary throwback, or a typo made while falling asleep with a death-grip on his government-issued iPhone, no tweet is too dumb or tiresome to rule the entirety of our daily lives. But…
Star Trek: Discovery Is Worth the Price of CBS All Access—Maybe
Last night, CBS finally took the wraps off its oft-delayed new show, Star Trek: Discovery. The two-part debut ("The Vulcan Hello" and "Battle at the Binary Stars") gave fans the first new TV Trek since Star Trek: Enterprise ceased subspace transmission in 2005. And they were ready for it—last night's premiere set a single-day record…
While You Were Offline: Free Nuggs. Pls RT
As of this writing, most of the internet is discussing the US missile strike in Syria, Russia's condemnation of it, or some combination of the two. Oh, you thought Twitter suing the government to keep its users' identities secret would be the most controversial story this week? Nope! In fact, that was just a blip…
The 11 Best Comic Book Movies You Can Stream Right Now
With both Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War Hulk-smashing box office records, the ability to draw large numbers of moviegoers into real, live cinemas might be the greatest super power today’s comic book heroes have in Hollywood—and they’re just getting started. Before the year is up, Deadpool and Ant-Man will both have sequels, Tom Hardy…