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Ten years ago, writer Drew McWeeny posed a question in the headline of his latest column: “Has life in the age of casual magic made moviegoers numb to the amazing?” Frustrated by news of what would be 2016’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, which he considered an unnecessary sequel to a film everyone saw and no one really loved, McWeeny revisited the film’s predecessor, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. He concluded that it was both a terrible movie and a technical marvel. McWeeny’s column articulated an existential crisis in both moviemaking and moviegoing: In a cinematic world without limits, the combination of extraordinary technical innovation and the lack of narrative ambition to match was making moviegoers numb.

We love movie recommendations here at Polygon. But we also love recommending TV shows. Whether it’s horror, sci-fi, miniseries, comedy, thrillers, or just the best of the year, we’re always trying to introduce readers to new and exciting shows they’ll love. And now — after much movie to-do — we want to find the perfect TV show for you. (We mean you.)

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Arkane Austin is officially no more, and Studio Director Harvey Smith, who has worked at Arkane for over sixteen years, shared all his emotions in a long and heartfelt thread on Twitter/X. Over the course of his 30-plus-year-long career in the industry, Smith was a lead designer at Ion Storm on Deus Ex, a director on Deus Ex: Invisible War, and a designer on Thief: Deadly Shadows. After a brief stint at Midway, he joined Arkane to be a creative director, designer, and writer on the first Dishonored.

The enchanting world of The Enchanted World has now expanded its horizons beyond Apple Arcade. It has officially launched for global players on Android. The Enchanted World opened for pre-registrations on Android in early April. If you love games that have magic, mystery and mind-bending puzzles, then keep reading to learn more about this one!

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, Season of Discovery, and WoW Classic. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Helldivers 2 has a bunch of powerful weapons you can use to dish out some serious firepower, and just as many big beasties to use them. On the Terminid front, you'll find no foe scarier than the Bile Titan, a huge mass of pointy bits that loves nothing more than to spit massive globs of horrible goo all over players.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: War of the Visions will soon drop a new update and it looks kind of grim for global players. It’s not a biggie (or is it?) but the devs are taking a new turn with the Final Fantasy BE: WOTV English voice-over. They’re ending all English VOs for the global version of Final Fantasy BE: WOTV.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, Season of Discovery, and WoW Classic. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

In Hades 2, you come across a god called Narcissus. If his name doesn't give it away already, he's a deity known for his beauty who is so narcissistic that he fell in love with his own reflection and became entranced.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Being a Helldivers 2 fan has been an absolute rollercoaster over this past weekend, with the game being the most loved live service game out there, to the most hated, and back again over the course of just a few days. Most of you will know that this was down to Sony's sudden implementation of its PSN account system, requiring Helldivers 2 players on Steam to sign up for the PlayStation Network if they want to continue playing.

One brave cosplayer faced the public dressed as their favorite character from and the results were stunning. Most cosplayers tend to stick to going to conventions or staying in secluded areas for photo shoots while in their costumes, but in some instances, interacting with people who might not be familiar with what's going on is necessary, like this hilarious situation an Astarion cosplayer found themselves in. Oftentimes, most will go about their business without incident, but sometimes confusion will set in.

During latest event, players can track down and rescue Chewbacca on the island. Everyone’s favorite Wookiee warrior can be found attacking Imperial installations across the island on behalf of the Rebellion. If helped, Chewbacca will join up as an NPC companion and gifts a Mythic quality Wookiee Bowcaster weapon as a bonus reward.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, Season of Discovery, and WoW Classic. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

I have some scoop about a new RPG that you’ll love if you’re into urban fantasy tales, and have a penchant for prose. Or if you love werewolves for that matter. Kyle Marquis’s latest interactive novel, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – The Book of Hungry Names, is out on Android.

Love point-and-click games? Well, another one has just hit Android and it looks pretty interesting. Titled The Apocalypse Sacrifice, it’s been published by FOG Games. It’s their first title on Android and is free to play. It’s a new take on the classic genre, where piecing together who you are is just the beginning.

Even though Nintendo still hasn't confirmed it will be releasing the Switch's successor in 2025, one look at its 2024 slate serves as relatively concrete evidence that's the case. There are still games coming, but there's an argument to be made that the last tentpole release on the Switch was Super Mario Bros. Wonder. A game famed for turning Mario and his supporting cast into elephants, and fans in Japan were lucky enough to then see Elephant Mario turned into a plush soon after.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

It’s an iconic collab that spans galaxies! Yes, if you loved flying the Millennium Falcon or conquering the towering structures of Tilted Towers, the Fortnite x Star Wars crossover is something you’ll love.  This epic crossover event has kicked off alongside Fortnite’s v29.40 update. This year’sFortnite Star Wars Day 2024 celebration injects freshness into all game modes, from LEGO® Fortnite to Battle Royale, Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racing.

The Earthen of the War Within are interesting — similar to our own Dwarves and yet unaffected by the Curse of Flesh… Or are they affected after all? Nobbel87 speculates...

An incredible take on Link from shows off one of the character's designs from one of the best games in the franchise:. Following Link on his journey to the Twilight Realm, he takes on the ability to turn into a wolf and travels across Hyrule trying to find the kidnapped children of Ordon village. Fans enjoyed the 2006 game so much that it's become one of the series' many beloved classics

Connections is the latest puzzle game from the New York Times. The game tasks you with categorizing a pool of 16 words into four secret (for now) groups by figuring out how the words relate to each other. The puzzle resets every night at midnight and each new puzzle has a varying degree of difficulty. Just like Wordle, you can keep track of your winning streak and compare your scores with friends.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Blizzard has released a new cinematic for Patch 10.2.7: Dark Heart, in which Khadgar sends his old friend, Alleria, after the mysterious Harbinger. But what does Alleria already know? We break it down below.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, Season of Discovery, and WoW Classic. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

On May 7, author Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook arrives to bookstores, offering 80 recipes culled from across the Seven Kingdoms. In his foreword for the book, A Song of Ice and Fire creator George R.R. Martin heartily endorses Monroe-Cassel’s documentation of the delicacies that range from Dothraki to Dornishmen, and goes a step further, making the case for why he’s a fan of indulging in the “gratuitous.” Read on for Martin’s words, debuting exclusively on Polygon, and a recipe for a roast worthy of the writer’s filling tomes.

My Hero Academia returns this Saturday with the highly anticipated premiere of its seventh season. The latest season of the mega-popular superhero action anime is set to adapt the “Star and Stripe” arc of Kōhei Horikoshi’s original manga. That means the arrival of America’s No. 1 Hero, Star and Stripe, in Japan to aid Izuku Midoriya and his classmates in their battle against Tomura Shigaraki and the Paranormal Liberation Front.

PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra have been around for almost two years, and during that time the subscription service has established itself as an ample competitor to Xbox Game Pass. That means there is a wealth of great games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 owners to check out if they’re looking for something to play this weekend. I think PS Plus subscribers should be looking toward some of the more underrated games in the subscription service this weekend too.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

A brand new collection of is available to solve and today's categories are a fun bunch. Nothing too overly difficult in today's game, but there are a few niche topics that some people may not understand right away. But that's the best part of, each collection of words you get right makes the game that much easier.

It's 7 am on a Friday, you know what that means. It's time for another Insert Coin drop. The video game clothing store has already added Cyberpunk and Witcher lines to its website in 2024, and last week it gave The Last Of Us fans the chance to round out their Joel look by releasing a jacket that looks just like the one the complicated protagonist wears in Part 2. Today's drop is also headlined by a jacket, but the first Shenmue item at Insert Coin is quite a bit different from the brown Joel jacket added to its storefront last week.

If you love the power of gaming PCs and the portability of the Nintendo Switch, you should think about getting a handheld gaming PC like the Asus ROG Ally. If you’re interested, it’s currently on sale from Walmart with an $87 discount that pulls its price down to $400 from $487. It’s a pretty popular device so we expect this offer to attract a lot of attention, which means it’s probably not going to last long. If you want to get this handheld gaming PC for this cheap, you should proceed with the transaction immediately.

Blizzard has posted a substantial breakdown of the Demonology Warlock changes in today's War Within Alpha build going over Demonic Cores, Resources, and Cooldowns!

Starship Troopers actor Casper Van Dien has offered his thoughts on Sony’s PC and PlayStation 5 hit Helldivers 2, and he has some thoughts about those capes.

Hey, everyone! I’m glad to see all of you digging into Season 10. We’ve loved seeing you welcome our newest hero, Venture, and enjoy the Mirrorwatch event (playable now in the Arcade!). However, this week, I want to look ahead to our midseason update and discuss some changes we have on the way for the Tank role.

We hope your calendars are clear over the next few months, because the games industry is pretending E3 is still alive with numerous showcase events this summer. The latest publisher hopping on the bandwagon is THQ Nordic, as it's bringing back the THQ Nordic Showcase this August.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, Season of Discovery, and WoW Classic. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Surprising no one, Ryan Gosling’s press tour for The Fall Guy has been an absolute delight. Much like his many appearances promoting Barbie blurred the line between Gosling and Ken, the promo cycle for The Fall Guy has turned the Canadian dreamboat into a one-man hype train for stunts and the people that do them. The latest stop: Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel, where instead of simply walking over to the couch to chat, the actor staged a one-take fight scene through the studio set to Meatloaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).”

We love movie recommendations here at Polygon. Whether it’s horror, sci-fi, action, comedy, thrillers, or just the best of the year, we’re always trying to introduce readers to new and exciting movies they’ll love. But now we want to find the perfect movie for you. (That’s you.)

The PS Store listing for Horizon Zero Dawn has been updated to state it's leaving PS Plus Extra on 21st May 2024. As a first-party title published by Sony and internally developed at Guerrilla Games, the move comes as a surprise as it was thought all the titles Sony holds the rights to would remain on the service in perpetuity.

Stellar Blade was the best-selling physical game in the UK last week, with its launch sales on PS5 being enough to see it top sales charts in the region. Sony and Shift Up haven't shared any official sales data just yet, but this marks a good start for the title, which holds the potential to sell well long-term. TopSpin 2K25 was another new entry in the UK sales chart last week, debuting in third place.

Atlus has shared another Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance trailer focusing entirely on the new story branch featured in the expanded PS5, PS4 re-release. Also releasing for Xbox systems and Nintendo Switch, you can see exactly what the fresh content has to offer over the original release in the trailer above. An expanded plot and new allies are teased, all of which are set to feature in reportedly «75 hours» of new content.

Despite the love it received from core gamers and critics alike, Remedy's recent effort, Alan Wake 2, has yet to make back its development and marketing budget. This surprising situation has plenty of contributing factors, which we first covered in December, but the reality is that sales are soft. No doubt striking while the irons are hot, Chinese multinational holding company Tencent, the largest video game company in the world, has increased its stake in the Finnish developer from 5% to 15%, securing additional shares and voting rights.

Square Enix has revealed the bugs stopping Final Fantasy XVI players from starting New Game+ and unlocking specific Trophies will be fixed in a PS5 patch slated to arrive at the end of next week. When beginning a second playthrough and deciding to skip the prologue, some users are not seeing essential party members spawn, making it impossible to push the main quest forward. The publisher came up with a workaround, but the PS5 update landing on 9th May 2024 should fix it for good.

Koei Tecmo has shared a brief sales update for recent PS5 exclusive Rise of the Ronin, revealing «sales are surpassing the Nioh series». Without posting any hard numbers, it goes on to say the game has a «high valuation» amongst players and the company is now looking at «mid to long-term growth» for the title.

After almost seven years at the studio, Alex Barnes, director of PSVR2 spinoff Horizon: Call of the Mountain, has been made redundant by Liverpoool-based developer Firesprite. In March, a report from Eurogamer alleged that a toxic work culture had been allowed to develop at the PlayStation first-party developer.

Diablo IV's upcoming Season 4 promises to be transformative. Blizzard has decided to forgo the usual swathe of service content, instead using the opportunity to rework how itemisation builds crafting work and introduce improvements and fixes requested by the player base.

Update: Since publishing this article earlier in the week, Stellar Blade's user score rating has increased another point, up to 9.3 from the Metacritic community. That makes it one of the highest rated PS5 games of all time.

If you’ve been binging Paramount Network’s Yellowstone recently, you’re probably one of the viewers who got curious after seeing the title card at the end of Season 2 dedicated to Melanie Olmstead. If you’re wondering who this person could be in the cast or crew, look no further—we’ve got you covered.

Todd Howard says Starfield's criticism is "perfectly understandable" as the RPG is a "different experience" to Bethesda's other games. 

Helldivers 2's latest balance patch was full of changes for a load of different weapons, for better or worse. However, arguably the best change of all was given to the Senator revolver, and it doesn't make it any stronger – it just makes it significantly cooler.

Helldivers 2 players think they've discovered what could be "Hive Lord tunnels," in what they believe might be the prelude to the return of the gigantic enemies from the original game.

If you’ve never seen the episode of Bluey, the beloved Australian kids’ cartoon, that Disney refuses to screen for American audiences, now’s your chance. “Dad Baby” has been uploaded in full to the official Bluey YouTube channel.

The bad news? It’s the beginning of the month, so rent is due. The good news? Sony just revealed the PlayStation Plus games lineup for May, and there are some serious standouts. The lineup includes Ghostrunner 2, Tunic, Destiny 2: Lightfall and EA Sports FC 24. Most of these games are available for both PS4 and PS5, except Ghostrunner 2 which is only for PS5 players.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Even with Netflix’s recommendation algorithm serving you new movies, new TV shows, and original programming tailored to your viewing habits, the streaming service’s fire hose of content makes what’s coming difficult to parse.

Deliver Us The Moon and Deliver Us Mars studio KeokeN has laid off its entire team after failing to get funding for new projects, co-development or work for hire opportunities through the start of the year. Founders Koen and Paul Deetman have committed to rebuilding KeokeN “brick by brick” in an effort to round out a Deliver Us trilogy with Deliver Us Home

Video game workers in Quebec, under the Game Workers Unite Montreal banner, are partnering with Canadian trade union Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) in an effort to shape the industry for the better. Together, they’re launching a union drive to form a provincewide union for Quebec-based video game workers. Quebec is home to nearly 15,000 workers, according to GWU Montreal, at studios like Behaviour Interactive, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Games, Electronic Arts, and Gameloft, making it a hotbed for the industry and its workers.

All eight Spider-Man live-action movies are returning to theaters this spring, in a series Sony is calling Spider-Mondays . We’ve updated and reposted this essay on Spider-Man’s best movie arc in conjunction with the re-release.

It took a good friend of mine three episodes of the Apple TV Plus show Sugar before he texted me to say that he thought he knew the big twist the series was hiding and that it was “so insane” he had “no choice but to respect it.” Intrigued, I dove into Sugar myself, and three episodes in, I came to the exact same conclusion — but I’m not going to share it with you here because you really need to see it for yourself.

From the beginning, the homoerotic undertones of Dead Boy Detectives are undeniable. Unlike some supernatural mystery shows of the past, though, it’s not just a tease.

DreadXP  and Lovely Hellplace have announced that the classic early 2000’s inspired open world RPG Dread Delusion will be exiting early access and getting its full release on May 14th. The game has been in early access since June 2022, and has received positive feedback from the community during the early access phase.

If you’re someone who loves hidden object puzzlers, then you must have played the Hidden Through Time series already. Now the good news is that after dropping Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic in February, the devs are going to drop another instalment soon. The upcoming title is called Hidden Through Time 2: Discovery. Keep reading to find out more!

Here is more on Fractured Sky: Rift:

Cozy games are absolutely everywhere, and their chill vibes have inspired a whole aesthetic for an audience enamored by games like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Palia. This adorable aesthetic may emphasize pastels and earth tones, but it is also defined by a tidy and ergonomic space that still has plenty of personality.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

We review HeroQuest, the updated version of this classic dungeon crawling classic. Published by Hasbro, this new version of HeroQuest reprints this long sought after grail game.

Fallout 5 won't start development until after The Elder Scrolls 6 launches, so we're a long way off from the next numbered game in the series, but the Amazon show has ignited a newfound hype in the franchise. So, the question is whether a third party will develop a spin-off akin to Obsidian's New Vegas in the meantime.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, Season of Discovery, and WoW Classic. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

Kingdom Hearts IV will grace PS5 boxes next year, according to the increasingly reliable online tipster Daniel Richtman (DanielRPK). The TV and film leaker posted to his Patreon that he's heard about a 2025 release date for Kingdom Hearts IV, just days after his claim Sonic Frontiers 2 is in development was backed up by another reliable insider in Midori. The rumour may suggest we'll see more of the Square Enix title later in 2024 after two years of radio silence since its reveal.

Returnal developer Housemarque has this morning posted a cryptic tweet teasing… something for tomorrow. The team out of Finland uploaded a black and white image seemingly featuring Returnal protagonist Selene's eyes reflected onto broken shards of glass, then teasing news «tomorrow» in a yellow font. You can view the tweet below.

The Sonic cinematic universe expanded beyond the big screen last week as all six episodes of the Knuckles spinoff show sped exclusively onto Paramount Plus. The show has been receiving mixed reviews so far. An audience score of 75 percent on Rotten Tomatoes is pretty great, but the apparent lack of Knuckles in the show hasn't been sitting well with a lot of Sonic fans. Whether you love the show and you'd like to own a physical version, or you don't have Paramount and you're waiting for other ways to watch it, pre-orders for its Blu-ray and DVD versions are already available.

A talented Pokemon fan has recently created an amazing fusion of the Galarian Ponyta with Rowlet, coming up with a brand-new creature. The Pokemon community loves to imagine fusions of popular monsters, and this fan managed to achieve a very cute result with this artwork.

There's something truly magical about special events at Disney Parks, and one of the most exciting parts is all the new, exclusive merch you can snag up and wear or display with pride. Keeping up with that trend, Pixar Fest has a ton of wonderful options for fans of all ages, and Disney invited me out to Disneyland to check out what guests can expect from the event that has officially started and will run through August 4.