Executives at Toys R Us told their employees today that the company will sell or close all of its more than 700 remaining stores in the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal said that the news came directly from CEO David Brandon, who delivered the news via conference call. “I have always believed that this brand and this business should exist in the U.S.,” Brandon said. It’s expected that Toys R Us will file for liquidation this evening ahead of its bankruptcy court h

Executives at Toys R Us told their employees today that the company will sell or close all of its more than 700 remaining stores in the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal said that the news came directly from CEO David Brandon, who delivered the news via conference call. “I have always believed that this brand and this business should exist in the U.S.,” Brandon said. It’s expected that Toys R Us will file for liquidation this evening ahead of its bankruptcy court h

Tomb Raider, the 2018 movie — an adaptation of that very game — has the opposite effect, favoring the reproduction of gameplay over story, fumbling its exposition, and dropping one of the Tomb Raider franchise’s core narrative hooks. Tomb Raider makes this mistake often, most clearly by committing the river-to-waterfall-to-parachute sequence of Tomb Raider 2013 directly to film. Forgive the spoiler, but it’s such a fundamental crime against the fundamentals of Tomb Raider that I have to mention

Tomb Raider, the 2018 movie — an adaptation of that very game — has the opposite effect, favoring the reproduction of gameplay over story, fumbling its exposition, and dropping one of the Tomb Raider franchise’s core narrative hooks. Tomb Raider makes this mistake often, most clearly by committing the river-to-waterfall-to-parachute sequence of Tomb Raider 2013 directly to film. Forgive the spoiler, but it’s such a fundamental crime against the fundamentals of Tomb Raider that I have to mention

YouTube’s CEO wants to tackle the platform’s conspiracy theory problem by relying on Wikipedia in an effort to keep viewers informed. But with small boxes sourced from Wikipedia, the video service will make an effort to keep people informed about what they’re watching. YouTube is offloading its responsibility to curb the distribution of dangerous content onto Wikipedia. “Mass shooting, false flag, and crisis actor conspiracy videos on YouTube are a well-established, if not flourishing genre,” sa

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire has been delayed into May. Feedback from those playing a backers-only beta informed the decision to hold the game out another month and touch it up more. Obsidian is touting a sequel that is “significantly larger” than the first Pillars of Eternity, which launched in 2015 and likewise was a big crowdfunding success. Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire opened a fund drive on Fig in February 2017 and quadrupled its original goal, taking in $4.4 million. Pillars of Etern

The event is tied to St. Patrick’s Day, which occurs on Saturday, March 17, this year, and naturally things are looking a lot greener in Call of Duty. Call of Duty: WWII’s latest update adds a new map, Shipment 1944, which is based on the map Shipment from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. On the cosmetics side, Call of Duty: WWII’s Shamrock and Awe event also introduces new reticles, weapon camos, charms, emotes, uniforms and weapon variants. Plus, there are leprechauns now (zombie leprechauns),

The event is tied to St. Patrick’s Day, which occurs on Saturday, March 17, this year, and naturally things are looking a lot greener in Call of Duty. Call of Duty: WWII’s latest update adds a new map, Shipment 1944, which is based on the map Shipment from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. On the cosmetics side, Call of Duty: WWII’s Shamrock and Awe event also introduces new reticles, weapon camos, charms, emotes, uniforms and weapon variants. Plus, there are leprechauns now (zombie leprechauns),

Sega Genesis Classics will bring more than 50 of the best known Sega Genesis games to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on May 29, Sega announced. But Nintendo Switch is distressingly excluded from that lineup, as many Sega fans are pointing out on the company’s Twitter. While demands for a Switch version of, uh, pretty much any game ever run rampant, it hurts that Sega Genesis Classics won’t hit the Nintendo system — especially with the Wii Shop Channel winding down and no Switch Virtual Console in si

Sega Genesis Classics will bring more than 50 of the best known Sega Genesis games to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on May 29, Sega announced. But Nintendo Switch is distressingly excluded from that lineup, as many Sega fans are pointing out on the company’s Twitter. While demands for a Switch version of, uh, pretty much any game ever run rampant, it hurts that Sega Genesis Classics won’t hit the Nintendo system — especially with the Wii Shop Channel winding down and no Switch Virtual Console in si

Today is Pi Day — 3.14, aka the first three digits of pi — and retailers are celebrating this fake holiday with themed sales on electronics (and pizza). For the fourth year in a row, Microsoft is discounting several PCs by 31.4 percent and selling some laptops and Windows Mixed Reality headsets for $314. Pre-orders at Fanatical are already 15 percent off, and Fanatical is offering Polygon readers an additional 6 percent off Surviving Mars pre-orders. Polygon Deals is a biweekly roundup of the be

This is a hidden role game in which the players represent a government desperately trying to pass liberal laws. Two of them are trying to pass fascist laws without alerting the others. And one of the fascist players takes the role of “Secret Hitler” — a character who can immediately win the game for the fascists if they’re elected when there are enough fascist laws on the board. Secret Hitler attempts to simulate the political state of Weimar Germany, and it’s debatable whether its mechanics jus

This is a hidden role game in which the players represent a government desperately trying to pass liberal laws. Two of them are trying to pass fascist laws without alerting the others. And one of the fascist players takes the role of “Secret Hitler” — a character who can immediately win the game for the fascists if they’re elected when there are enough fascist laws on the board. Secret Hitler attempts to simulate the political state of Weimar Germany, and it’s debatable whether its mechanics jus

As the series’ first major outing on Switch, Kirby Star Allies seems like the kind of game that would have been designed with an eye toward pushing Kirby into the future. Yes, somewhat surprisingly, Star Allies marks the first time HAL Laboratory and Nintendo have published a traditional Kirby platformer in HD. Compared even to the recent Kirby: Planet Robobot and its wild giant mech-suit sequences, Star Allies plays things incredibly safe, even as Kirby games go. Wrap UpKirby Star Allies squeak

As the series’ first major outing on Switch, Kirby Star Allies seems like the kind of game that would have been designed with an eye toward pushing Kirby into the future. Yes, somewhat surprisingly, Star Allies marks the first time HAL Laboratory and Nintendo have published a traditional Kirby platformer in HD. Compared even to the recent Kirby: Planet Robobot and its wild giant mech-suit sequences, Star Allies plays things incredibly safe, even as Kirby games go. Wrap UpKirby Star Allies squeak

In fact, Vermintide 2’s focus on blunt melee combat makes it a surprisingly forgiving entry in a genre known for twitch reflexes and precision aiming. If you’ve heard one thing about the Vermintide series, it’s probably the inevitable comparison to Left 4 Dead, the cooperative zombie shooters published by Valve back when Valve published that sort of game. The differences do go deeper, though, reflecting how games have changed since Left 4 Dead debuted a decade ago. Vermintide 2 improves on Left

In fact, Vermintide 2’s focus on blunt melee combat makes it a surprisingly forgiving entry in a genre known for twitch reflexes and precision aiming. If you’ve heard one thing about the Vermintide series, it’s probably the inevitable comparison to Left 4 Dead, the cooperative zombie shooters published by Valve back when Valve published that sort of game. The differences do go deeper, though, reflecting how games have changed since Left 4 Dead debuted a decade ago. Vermintide 2 improves on Left

How much CGI is used in movies these days? While it’s not surprising anymore seeing our superheroes standing on green screen sets, more and more movies that aren’t based in fantastical worlds are using computer-generated special effects. Movies like The Wolf of Wall Street so seamlessly blend backgrounds, foregrounds and CGI buildings together that a scene taking place on a marina can be filmed on an indoor sound stage. The recent I, Tonya used CGI to place the face of actress Margot Robbie onto

How much CGI is used in movies these days? While it’s not surprising anymore seeing our superheroes standing on green screen sets, more and more movies that aren’t based in fantastical worlds are using computer-generated special effects. Movies like The Wolf of Wall Street so seamlessly blend backgrounds, foregrounds and CGI buildings together that a scene taking place on a marina can be filmed on an indoor sound stage. The recent I, Tonya used CGI to place the face of actress Margot Robbie onto

It’s firmly established that the version of Die Hard we all know so well exists in Friends. A season seven episode, “The One with the Nap Partners,” finds the three aforementioned friends watching Die Hard for the hundredth time. Willis doesn’t play himself in the series, but it’s hard to suspend disbelief when the show references Die Hard so blatantly. So we can conclude, that in the MCU the real Black Panther exists, and the film Black Panther exists. But like many of our modern pop culture co