Opinion
149 CommentsPewDiePie versus the media: Why he’s so mad to be losing the fight
PewDiePie, or Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, is likely one of the most powerful individuals in gaming. His channel has over 53 million subscribers, and his videos have made him incredibly wealthy. Forbes estimated his earnings at approximately $15 million in 2016, making him the most successful personality on YouTube by far.
It’s part of what makes his anti-Semitic humor and use of Nazi imagery so hard to dismiss, and what likely forced Disney and YouTube to terminate or limit their relationships with him. But that’s only part of the story: Kjellberg is a young guy with a huge audience who loves laughing at his own messages about killing Jews, and he’s very upset the media isn’t willing to laugh along with him.
It doesn’t work that way
“The media wants to paint me as some sort of...
News
12 CommentsSuper cute Overwatch Nendoroid toys coming, starting with Tracer
A new line of Overwatch action figures are in the works at Japanese toymaker Good Smile Company. The collectible action figure maker has signed a deal with Blizzard to bring Overwatch characters to its line of cute Nendoroid toys and highly articulated Figma action figures.
The first Overwatch character coming from Good Smile Company is Nendoroid Tracer in her classic skin. Nendoroid Tracer includes a wide variety of parts and accessories, including her Pulse Pistols and Pulse Bomb, as well as alternate hands. She even has articulated hair and interchangeable legs, letting action figure fans recreate her familiar poses.
Nendoroid Tracer stands about 100 mm tall (just shy of four inches) and will cost $49.99. She’s available for pre-order now through March 15 and is expected to ship in...
Culture
3 CommentsOverwatch-GoldenEye mashup spans 20 years of shooter greatness
Someone got the bright idea to present a round of Overwatch as if it was a GoldenEye 007 match on Nintendo 64, in four-player split screen with the original game's sound effects. It's a delightful mash-up of 1997’s landmark hit with a popular multiplayer shooter 20 years later.
Torbjorn serves as this game's Oddjob, to great effect. Like the original character, he's so short everyone shoots over his head while he easily guns them down. "The buff Torbjorn needs," Youtuber Noilleber, who made this video, says in its description, and that jaunty 007 hook makes the deaths all the funnier. Frickin' Torbjorn, I thought we banned using him.
Alas, Overwatch doesn't feature split-screen local multiplayer (how the hell did we play that on a 19-inch CRT, by the way?) But it has made its...
Culture
14 CommentsOur first crushes may have been fictional, but the feelings were very real
Valentine’s Day is the one day a year when you’re supposed to tell the special person in your life that you love them. Then never again. I think that’s how it works.
But before dating, relationships, marriages and everything in between, a crucial moment in the earliest period of self-development is the first crush. It could happen as early as six or as late as, well, whenever you develop it, but it’s almost a ubiquitous experience. When you’re younger, the first crushes you tend to develop center on a cartoon, video game, movie or standard TV character that catches your eye.
The characters don’t have to be human, either. When you’re younger, your first crush is just a character that you admire and like watching. It could have been Sandy Cheeks from Spongebob Squarepants, Crash...
Movies
7 CommentsThor reunites with his puny, human roommate Darryl
Thor has teamed up with his Australian, human roommate Darryl in a new video from Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi.
The video marks the second in a series from Marvel that follows the mundane, day-to-day life of Thor living in Australia when he’s not partying with the Avengers. In the last video, which was released last year, Thor introduced everyone to Darryl and his new living environment while also trying to figure out why he wasn’t included in Captain America: Civil War.
Thor and Darryl have the most common roommate problem most people can relate to: an issue with who pays rent. Darryl tries to explain to Thor that he can’t pay with Asgardian coins, offering up the solution of Thor taking on a part-time job. Thor doesn’t take the suggestion well, and it leads to a tense...
Culture
22 CommentsCeeLo Green’s Grammy outfit is being compared to Dishonored, Star Wars and more
Last night, CeeLo Green attended the 59th annual Grammy Awards, but it wasn’t a performance or speech that made him the talk of the night, it was his costume.
Green used the night to debut his new alter-ego, Gnarly Davidson. Part of the alter-ego includes Green wearing an all-gold costume and gold paint across his face. In the photo below, it’s also evident that Green is wearing some kind of prosthetic on his face to accentuate the top of his head, giving him a villainous appearance.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
It’s unclear just who Gnarly Davidson is supposed to be — or who he’s based on — but between the face prosthetics, the all-gold costume and the undeniably ‘50s and ‘60s-inspired sci-fi take the costume seems to be based on, people were quick to make...
Arcade
7 CommentsAmerica’s greatest rhythm gamer is now Dance Dance Revolution’s world champion
North American competitors were invited to compete in Dance Dance Revolution's world championships this weekend for the first time, and what do you know: A Yank showed up and won the whole damn thing.
My dream has come true! I am the international DDR Champion! #6thKAC #DDRChampion pic.twitter.com/G4ofsLB2zf— iamchris4life@6thKAC (@CHRS4LFE) February 11, 2017
You couldn’t have picked a better first-timer from this hemisphere than Chris Chike, aka iamchris4life, seeded first in the DDR competition at the Sixth Konami Arcade Championships. Profiled by The New York Times almost a decade ago, at the height of the Guitar Hero craze, he was the first to 100 percent "Through the Fire and the Flames" on Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. He also was the first to earn 100 percent on a level 17...
PlayStation 4
14 Comments‘PlayStation laptop’ modder updates his line with Pro, Slim models
Ed Zarick, the modsmith who made laptop versions of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (and jammed an Xbox 360 and Xbox One in a single case) is back at it. Here's his new PS4 Slim laptop.
The 19-inch screen is smaller than Zarick's preceding run of "PlayBooks" (with a 22-inch screen). And the case appears anything but slim compared to any laptop launched in the past, oh, ever. But lightest, slimmest, most elegant and all that Apple crap is not the point; this is an all-in-one unit you can take on the go.
Importantly, none of these laptops have batteries. However, they do have an HDMI splitter, so it can jack into a big screen as easily as it is played in a Starbucks. (Well, assuming you're sitting next to an unused power outlet there. Which is a big if, granted.)
It gets better, though....
Culture
2 CommentsLasagna Cat stages triumphant return after nearly a decade away
One of the best and most beloved hallmarks of the “weird internet” was Lasagna Cat, a YouTube series of shorts by Fatal Farm that almost defies description. The 90-second clips were ostensibly live-action recreations of classic Garfield comics, until they suddenly ... weren’t.
This week, after an almost 10-year hiatus, Lasagna Cat has returned, and it’s quickly reclaimed its throne as one of the strangest, most internet-y online exclusives out there.
The short video above, called “1 (800) 591-3274,” is more like a trailer for Lasagna Cat’s eventual return, borrowing elements from action teasers for something wonderful, hilarious and bizarre. Garfield’s owner, the classic nebbish Jon Arbuckle, is forced to call the toll-free number to help bring the series back officially. (The number...
Star Wars
16 CommentsDaisy Ridley won’t even talk about Star Wars to freakin’ Judi Dench
Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express is a star-studded affair, featuring the talents of Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe, Penélope Cruz and ... Josh Gad and Daisy Ridley.
Gad is a nerd. Ridley is the lead of the third Star Wars trilogy.
So, needless to say, he’s been grilling her about Star Wars: The Last Jedi and posting the results on Instagram and Twitter.
Today, perhaps thinking that Ridley might respond more positively to a fellow countrywoman, he enlisted the help of fellow Orient cast member (and nerd) Dame Judi Dench.
I enlisted help today in my quest to get the truth from #DaisyRidley #LastJedi #DontRunFromYourFateDaisy #DameJediKnight pic.twitter.com/KiJMYE8H8L— Josh Gad (@joshgad) February 8, 2017
Ridley’s poker face is the true star here. She knows that...
News
14 CommentsSpending $1,000 in Fire Emblem Heroes still won’t guarantee you every character
In what may be a community first, a Fire Emblem Heroes player spent $1,000 to max out their barracks, hitting the 500-fighter limit in the process. While that sounds like an exorbitant amount of money to spend on Nintendo’s new free-to-play game, it turns out that dropping a grand on the grab bag still didn’t win Reddit user Kookoo22 every available character.
Kookoo22 posted their full collection in an “Ask Me Anything” thread on the Fire Emblem Heroes forum. Other players mostly asked about character stats (Takumi “is great,” obviously) and what kind of job the user must have to maintain that level of disposable income (“Chemical analyst/software developer”), but what’s most fascinating is how many characters they still doesn’t have. Even with 500 heroes in their arsenal, Kookoo22...
Opinion
28 CommentsLady Gaga’s Super Bowl show was a truly great national moment
Two months or so back, sometime after the election, a stray thought came and went: It would be great if, during the seventh-inning stretch of a baseball playoff game, when someone usually sings "God Bless America," a singer followed it with "This Land is Your Land."
The two songs are rival siblings in America's national hymnal. Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land is Your Land" in the nadir of the Great Depression, with the country at the brink of world war, as a jaded reply to the doctrinaire patriotism of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," written in 1918. Guthrie's song is a protest born of legitimate populist suspicion and disappointment, not the manufactured grievance and hallucinated victimhood that somehow elected the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Lady Gaga sang verses...
Culture
5 CommentsEggo and Stranger Things can’t get enough of each other
Netflix aired its first teaser for Stranger Things’ second season during the Super Bowl on Sunday and fans were pleasantly surprised to see a vintage advertisement for Eggo Waffles play beforehand.
The advertisement that plays in the new trailer was from Dec. 1980, and Kellogs dug up the ad from its archive specifically for the trailer. The commercial airs prior to the events of Stranger Things’ first season but still managed to strike the nostalgic chord with Stranger Things fans.
Eggo Waffles, which play a crucial role in Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) cultural awakening, became a staple of the show. Since then, Stranger Things and Eggo Waffles have developed a close friendship online and people have started to notice.
After Netflix tweeted out the trailer, Eggo responded with a GIF...