Following two years of preproduction, game developer 10 Chambers finally announced its new heist game—Den of Wolves—Thursday during the 2023 Game Awards. Set in 2097 in a highly corrupt city located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it is, according to narrative director Simon Viklund, the kind of game …
Read More »Elijah Wood and Mike Tyson Cameo Videos Were Used in a Russian Disinformation Campaign
For around $340, actor Elijah Wood can record you a personalized video wishing you happy birthday. John McGinley, best known for his role in medical TV show Scrubs, will give you a lengthy pep talk for around $475. Priscilla Presley will record a clip talking about everything from Christmas shopping …
Read More »Video Games That Encourage Human Interaction Can Build Better Vibes
Gamers have long been stigmatized as lonely weirdos. Some of that has been deserved—ask anyone who’s had a bunch of children shout horrible slurs at them during a match of Call Of Duty. But some leaders in the gaming industry want to push back against that narrative by creating games …
Read More »The Spy Who Dumped the CIA, Went to Therapy, and Now Makes Incredible Television
“Did you learn things in CIA training about withstanding interrogation that are going to make it harder for me to interview you?” I asked Joe Weisberg, creator of the TV espionage drama The Americans and onetime CIA agent. He looked momentarily startled, as though he’d expected this to be easier. …
Read More »Spotify Is Screwed
Just days after people gleefully posted their Spotify Wrapped, bad news came for the music streaming giant. Spotify announced today that it would cut 17 percent of its workforce, a chunk that equates to an estimated 1,500 people. It’s the third time the world’s largest music streamer has cut jobs …
Read More »The 'Grand Theft Auto VI' Trailer Is Here. And It’s Already Causing Mayhem
The first trailer for Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI has arrived, and it’s promising a new female protagonist. More of a teaser than anything, the trailer introduces viewers to Lucia, a woman who blames her incarceration on “bad luck, I guess.” To say Grand Theft Auto VI is hotly …
Read More »‘Authentic’ Is the Word of the Year. You Read That Right
At first it looked unbelievable, but Henry Kissinger had died. At 100 years old, news outlets—and the world—had been preparing for the passing of President Nixon’s secretary of state for a while. Still, when people were finding out via emoji-filled chain texts, it seemed unreal. Everything does now. Deepfakes, the …
Read More »Dungeons & Dragons Is a Household Name Again
Kyle Newman, director of the cult classic Fanboys, recently coauthored the book Lore and Legends: A Visual Celebration of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game. The book chronicles the astounding success of the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition ruleset, which launched in 2014. “This book explores D&D being nearly extinct in …
Read More »George Santos Was All Hot Air
American politics is a circus. In the arena of Washington, DC, lawmaking and lawbreaking is a fanatical kind of entertainment, a warped experiment that, in recent years, has taken on the veneer of blind zealotry. Republicans, in particular, have thrived on a diet of chaos since the rise of former …
Read More »Spotify Wrapped Is Back Again. Are You a Vampire or a Shape Shifter?
Your first gift of the holiday season has arrived: It’s Spotify Wrapped time. The annual packaging of people’s most-listened-to tracks and artists begins rolling out this morning. An unofficial start to the gifting season, Wrapped has proved to be a social trend that just won’t die. To some, its dominance …
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