The Stranger Things comic series from Dark Horse kicked off this week. The first issue takes place right after the opening scene of the show — Will Byers making his way home from an exciting Dungeons & Dragons session, only the be sucked into the twisted world of the Upside Down. As Will explores the Mirkwood and looks for a way back to the real world, he stumbles upon the spectral-looking figure in the woods — Eleven. The issue leaves off with Will’s first contact with his mother through the st

But with Destiny’s newest raid, Bungie has not only raised the bar for all future content, they’ve created something that players will never forget. My first time through the Last Wish raid took easily 20-plus hours. There are so many amazing things about the Last Wish raid. It sounds so simple, but Last Wish marries the best parts of every Destiny raid before it: the difficulty of Vault of Glass with the complexity of King’s Fall. I’ve been waiting years for a Destiny raid that challenged my sk

J.K. Rowling never stopped writing Harry Potter. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, published in 2007, could have marked the final entry in Rowling’s seven-part fantasy series. Most of Rowling’s nuggets of Harry Potter additions and explanations are announced on Twitter. This is the issue that Harry Potter fans find themselves confronting in real time on Twitter. Publications like the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian cite her tweets as fact — again, as the creator of Harry Potter, no one kn

Dancing Queen (Netflix Original)From Netflix: Yes, he owns a successful dance studio. FightWorld (Netflix Original)From Netflix: Actor and martial artist Frank Grillo explores and experiences the diverse fighting techniques found in cultures around the world. Jefe (Netflix Film)From Netflix: The story of a boss that everyone hates: some kiss up to him; nobody tells him the truth. Shirkers (Netflix Original)From Netflix: When she recovers stolen film of a movie she shot 25 years ago, novelist San

The latest episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse ended on bleak note unless you were a huge fan of the show’s third season. Afterward, Veneable and Ms. Mead confront Langdon. But he turns the table on them, revealing that he was the one who programmed Ms. Mead to come up with the idea, then promptly ordering the android to shoot Veneable. Mallory, Dinah, and Coco’s bodies are recovered and voilà, Cordelia brings them back to life, then Madison drops her signature line. American Horror Sto

Any self-respecting Pokémon fan has an ever-growing collection of plush toys crowding their desk, bed and/or car. While all jumbo Pokémon plushes are beautiful and deserving of love, some are objectively better than others. However, this giant plush was recalled by the Pokémon Center and is only available from resellers for thousands of dollars. #5: RayquazaLook, Rayquaza is not a cute Pokémon, and cute is generally what you’re going for with stuffed toys. While not quite huggable, this two-and-

Total War: Rome 2 developer Creative Assembly issued a statement on Twitter responding to complaints from some players stemming from the game’s inclusion of female generals, saying it has no plans to change the feature. The reports gained traction thanks to one particular screenshot posted to Total War: Rome 2’s Steam community hub, seen above. “There have been no changes to recruitable female general spawn rates,” Creative Assembly said. Her response to player outcry quickly became the breeding

Dirt Rally 2.0 is coming next year from Codemasters, following up its much-loved, World Rallycross-licensed off-road racer from 2015 with more intense driving, unforgiving real-life courses, and punishing weather. Dirt Rally 2.0 will launch Feb. 26, 2019, for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One, Codemasters announced today. This series is a harder-core take on real-life rally racing as opposed to 2017’s (outstanding) Dirt 4, which took a broader view with procedurally generated courses, nonst

Darth Vader will star in a new episodic series of Star Wars virtual reality games, Vader Immortal, for Oculus’ new all-in-one stand-alone headset, the Oculus Quest. Oculus and ILMxLAB announced the new series today during the Oculus Connect keynote. Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series will span three episodes. The VR series will tell an as-yet untold story in the Star Wars universe, one that will be set during the time period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Writer and executive pro

Insomniac Games clearly put a lot of thought into representing Manhattan in Marvel’s Spider-Man. Quintessential landmarks like Grand Central Terminal and the Empire State Building are present and accounted for. Recreating New York City in fiction can be complicated! Polygon is lucky enough to be based in the beautiful, filthy city that is New York. So we went on a tour of Manhattan to show you what Insomniac changed about Spider-Man’s New York, and why.

Netflix’s newest cartoon series, Hilda, based on the Eisner Award-nominated comics written and illustrated by Luke Pearson, premiered on the streaming network in September. Our family’s first introduction to Hilda came a few years back when it was a feature title on Free Comic Book Day. Suffice it to say that when Hilda appeared in the new releases column on Netflix, my daughter was ecstatic. Netflix’s Hilda, like the comics, focuses on a young girl living in a modern, pseudo-Scandinavian countr

The intro montage of the fourth episode of Tales From the Borderlands, “Escape Plan Bravo,” is a special one. All of the musical choices in the game are good, but “Escape Plan Bravo” is nothing short of perfect. The opening of “Escape Plan Bravo” isn’t the moment the cast of Tales from the Borderlands start completely trusting each other. Tales from the Borderlands is the only Borderlands game I’ve played in my life, and the people behind it had me fully invested in the future of its cast and th

External storage is pretty much a necessity, especially as downloads become the norm. Amazon is discounting a bunch of external storage drives today, including some Sandisk microSD cards. Polygon recommended SanDisk’s microSD cards in our Switch accessories guide, noting that they often go on sale. A 200 GB microSD is on sale for $34.99 (usually $58.45) and a 256 GB model is going for $51.99 (usually $149.99). The highlight of the sale, though, is the massive 400 GB microSD, which until recently

A new trailer for Michael B. Jordan’s Creed II has arrived, and fans of the 31-year-old actor will not be disappointed. The role won Jordan critical acclaim and global attention, and in the trailer, he doesn’t appear to have lost any footing since 2015. Here’s the official synopsis from Warner Bros. Pictures:Life has become a balancing act for Adonis Creed. Creed II is about going back to basics to rediscover what made you a champion in the first place, and remembering that, no matter where you

Right now, though, one of the biggest emergent genres is Dungeons & Dragons. Whether it’s “actual play,” in which a group of people sit down and record themselves playing a tabletop roleplaying game, or resources for people wanting to run their own games, D&D and other tabletop podcasts have become beloved listens. Dragon TalkDragon Talk is the official Dungeons & Dragons podcast of Wizards of the Coast, featuring both playthroughs and discussion about D&D in all its iterations and editions. Cri

But like all things I enjoy, I can also appreciate ways in which they can be improved — for example, by deleting these 37 original Pokémon from existence. WeedleOf the two early-game bug Pokémon, there’s a clear winner, and it’s Caterpie. On the one hand, he’s a cute dino. Of course Marowak’s wearing his mother’s skull on his head; he’s a total dick. It does fish things.

So in the order they premiered, here are the top 10 best episodes of the original Pokémon anime, as determined by us. “Here Comes the Squirtle Squad”This is the last of three back-to-back episodes where Ash meets the Kanto starters that become his Pokémon. Not in the “Pikachu has a creepy, cherubic voice”-type of way either; their normal Pokémon voices (Squirtle squirtle squirtle!) “Pikachu’s Goodbye”The first episode to air after the infamous Porygon episode, Pikachu’s Goodbye is one of the sad

The Digimon show was better than the Pokémon show. While the Pokémon show is nostalgic for people of all ages, the Digimon show was good in a completely different way. Pokémon had some good lessons in there, but rarely were they taught by exploring the consequences of people’s actions. The later seasons of Pokémon, like Sun and Moon, were pretty good and showed the characters grow up and face real issues. Yet the whimsical nature of the original Pokémon show just doesn’t match up to the greatnes

They’re offering a free pack of cards, called the Midterm Pack, to registered voters in six congressional districts. Each pack of cards will be accompanied by some literature aimed at getting them to vote Democratic. The races that Cards Against Humanity is targeting are six potential swing districts, meaning that voters there could oust a Republican incumbent. As it turns out, that’s the same sort of information you need to check an online database of registered voters. If Cards can’t find a re

Doomsday Clock #7 redefines the series in several key ways and brings one of its biggest players out of the shadows for the first time. note: The rest of this post will contain spoilers for Doomsday Clock #1. Jon can’t see his future in Doomsday Clock, and the final thing he can see is Superman throwing a punch at him. Doomsday Clock #7 reveals a lot of secrets about its characters’ pasts, including Ozymandias, the new Rorschach, and Marionette and Mime. The narrative climax of Doomsday Clock wi