The latest news from games, film, technology and digital culture. The stories that matter, without the noise.
Image: Grant Walkup/Polygon Humans excel at twisting comforting icons into their sinister opposites. Case in point: while Hollywood churns out a burgeoning horror universe inspired by stuffed toys, filmmakers have long been fascinated by a far darker inversion — Santa Claus as a figure of menace. Long before modern shock-horror like Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,...
The sequel to “Five Nights at Freddy’s” opened below the original’s debut, but analysts consider this far from alarming. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” launched in U.S. cinemas with $56.6 million, setting a record for premieres on the first weekend after Thanksgiving and becoming one of December’s most successful horror releases. Nevertheless, the film fell...
Eclipse Glow Games has outlined its approach to difficulty and player defeats. Eclipse Glow Games revealed its difficulty philosophy for the upcoming action game Tides of Annihilation. Producer Kun Fu says the team aims to craft boss encounters that feel grand and cinematic while avoiding overly punitive penalties for mistakes. “We pay close attention to...
Work on the sequel to Mutant Mayhem is progressing steadily, despite the release being postponed by nearly a year. Although Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 2 has faced a substantial delay, production is confidently moving toward completion. In an interview with ScreenRant, director Jeff Rowe revealed the team recently held an internal screening of...
Ninja Kiwi continues to push boundaries with Bloons TD 6. Ninja Kiwi has rolled out update 52.0 for Bloons TD 6 and simultaneously launched the ambitious Frontier Legends expansion. According to the studio, Frontier Legends is intended as a “game within a game.” Players step into the role of the sheriff of Sandittown in a...
Image: Warner Bros. Opinion on Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever has softened considerably since the mid-1990s, when critics fixated on the film’s more theatrical touches — yes, even the notorious latex additions to the Batsuit. Back then, Schumacher’s entries were dismissed as garish departures from the darker tone that Tim Burton established. Over time, though, many...
The fifth season of The Boys will conclude the series, giving the creators license to eliminate even fan favorites without hesitation. Karl Urban, who plays Billy Butcher on The Boys, warned fans that the final season will spare neither major nor minor characters. Speaking at Fan Expo in San Francisco, the actor said audiences should...
Some have hoped for a SteamOS-based gaming smartphone. Valve has put to rest rumors about releasing a smartphone running SteamOS. Despite the Steam Deck’s success and the reveal of the Steam Frame VR headset, the company does not intend to turn its operating system into a mobile platform, Valve engineer Pierre-Lou Griffe told The Verge....
Steve Gaynor returns with a new project under the Fullbright banner. Fullbright, the studio known for Gone Home and Tacoma, has announced a new title called Springs, Eternal — an atmospheric narrative adventure rendered in a lo-fi style. Players will visit a mysterious mountain resort where souls caught between life and death congregate. There they’ll...
The massive production scale of James Cameron’s legendary sci fi franchise has reached a new level of financial detail as the official budget for Avatar: Fire and Ash has been revealed. According to industry reports the third installment in the groundbreaking saga features an unprecedented investment in cutting edge technology and visual effects to bring...
