Dailyposts

If you're at all interested in Charles Schulz's Peanuts , it's a good idea to invest in Fantagraphics' The Complete Peanuts . It's a 26-volume set that contains every strip that saw publication, with around two years of strips per book. There's a Kindle version if you're strapped for shelf space, but if you're shelling out for 26 volumes of anything, you may as well go for the physical edition. source https://www.polygon.com/peppermint-patty-best-friend-charlie-brown-peanuts/

After bringing the Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari 2600, and Sega Genesis to life in brick form, Lego is teaming up with PlayStation for a new retro console recreation. The Lego PlayStation set is finally here and launches Oct. 1. source https://www.polygon.com/lego-playstation-price-release-date-availability-october-2026/

Xbox’s tough 2026 continued in September with another round of shake-ups that left fans little to be optimistic about. Layoffs and studio departures have made the future of Microsoft’s gaming brand unclear as its focus tightens around major IP. Considering the grim vibe, October has become a crucial month for Xbox. Two major first-party releases, plus a slew of promising Xbox Game Pass additions, will need to impress players enough to keep looking forward to Project Helix . source https://www.polygon.com/new-xbox-games-october-2026/

Perhaps because I watched the entire series so quickly, the Weeping Angels began to feel a bit overused, prompting me to roll my eyes every time they popped up on screen. That’s mainly because of the series 5 two-parter, “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone,” which involves an entire army of Weeping Angels on an alien planet in the distant future. “Blink” works because it’s a more intimate and claustrophobic story; “Flesh and Stone” doesn’t because it does too much. source https://www.polygon.com/doctor-who-the-angels-take-manhattan-14th-anniversary/

There are still a few years left in the 2020s, but it’s already been a fantastic decade for science fiction movies. The Dune films are likely the biggest highlight, as director Denis Villeneuve has finally brought the proper scale to Frank Herbert’s novels from the 1960s. The 2010s were certainly a better decade for the superhero sub-genre of sci-fi than the 2020s have been, particularly for Marvel Studios, but there have still been some breakout comic book films like Deadpool & Wolverine , Superman , and Spider-Man movie that broke every box office record in Hollywood history. Even some non-franchise sci-fi films have managed to achieve greatness, like Project Hail Mary . source https://www.polygon.com/best-sci-fi-movie-quotes-of-the-decade-2020s/

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System followed up the NES with a spectacular lineup of 16-bit games from all over the map, including simulation, RPG, sports, adventure, and of course platformer titles. With the exception of the many licensed greats that are unlikely to ever be offered on such a service, Nintendo’s Switch Online service has brought back many of the greatest hits from the SNES library, and they’re now available to play as part of your subscription. Despite its growth, thoughHowever, there are 10 essential SNES games still missing from Switch Online. Here they are, ranked from 10 to 1. source https://www.polygon.com/best-snes-games-missing-nintendo-switch-online/

At a Disney D23 panel in August, Dave Filoni revealed what his mission statement was for Star Wars after taking over Lucasfilm from Kathleen Kennedy. source https://www.polygon.com/star-wars-episode-x-jon-watts-simon-kinberg/

In the history of Buffy the Vampire Slayer , nobody has ever made an entrance quite like Spike. After crashing his car into a Welcome to Sunnydale sign, he emerges, clad in his iconic leather duster. He lights up a cigarette and says to no one in particular: "Home sweet home." source https://www.polygon.com/buffy-vampire-slayer-school-hard-retrospective-spike-first-episode/

The Nintendo Entertainment System is credited with rescuing a flailing industry back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Over the years, hundreds of amazing games launched for the console, and many of the best and most memorable of them are now available to play on Nintendo Switch Online . However, dozens of other fantastic titles still haven’t reached the service, and that needs to change. Out of those dozens remaining, here are 10 NES games that still need to come to Switch Online as soon as possible. source https://www.polygon.com/best-nes-games-missing-nintendo-switch-online/

With that in mind, we set out to identify the five best pop culture parodies from the 1990s, skewering movies like Gremlins 2 , The Flintstones, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . While it's been more than 30 years since issues appeared on magazine racks, most of the jokes haven't aged a day since the source material has remained popular. Actually, a couple of them have managed to get better with age thanks to the current state of American politics. source https://www.polygon.com/mad-magazine-parodies-1990s-aged-perfectly/

There have been plenty of RPGs over the years that include an arena combat segment. It's as much a staple of the genre as a sewer dungeon and a prison break. But most of the time, it's just a brief diversion from the main quest of saving the world and/or killing a wrathful god. That's not the case with Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave , whose first act lets you experience Dagsion's Heroic Games through the eyes of four rival contenders . If you're enchanted by the concept of an RPG centered around a high-stakes tournament, you absolutely need to check out Atlus's 2024 banger, Metaphor ReFantazio . source https://www.polygon.com/fire-emblem-fortunes-weave-metaphor-refantazio/

Ten years later, John Stewart continues to do the impossible. source https://www.polygon.com/hbo-lanterns-episode-7-john-stewart-powers-green-lantern/

Cats, however, can never be heroes. source https://www.polygon.com/best-far-side-comics-about-cats/

Nobody understands that better than Takashi Yamazaki. With his new film, Godzilla Minus Zero , the Japanese filmmaker raises the stakes of the series in every way possible. source https://www.polygon.com/godzilla-minus-zero-review/

In previous years, Lucasfilm and Disney outlined some plans for the future of the Star Wars universe , including updating fans on upcoming projects and confirming a few release dates. Since then, a number of movies have been canceled or preserved in carbonite, including Rian Johnson's Star Wars trilogy and Kevin Feige's project , or delayed, such as Donald Glover's mysteriously missing Lando film. One canceled project that we didn't even know anything about until Adam Driver himself leaked it was The Hunt for Ben Solo . source https://www.polygon.com/star-wars-upcoming-movies-tv-shows-release-dates-2027/

First played in season 7 with Jeremy Culhane, Anna Garcia, and Oscar Montoya, “Rulette” is ripe for chaos. Players wear velcro suits that get dotted with random rules they receive after spinning a giant, The Price Is Right -style wheel. They’re forced to obey those rules lest they lose points (rules might include being extra polite or not being able to use curse words ). source https://www.polygon.com/dropout-game-changer-sam-reich-interview-rulette-2026/

By the ‘80s, that pessimism curdled into a fully realized vision, and no film played a larger role in that than Scott’s Blade Runner. Its production is also one of the most infamous studio-creator struggles in Hollywood, with five different cuts released over the years. It wasn’t until 2007 that Blade Runner: Final Cut arrived, delivering the movie that Scott had envisioned all along — the fullest version of a film that, even in its mangled theatrical form, reshaped science fiction forever. That version is currently streaming for free on YouTube, and it's worth checking out if you've ever watched another cut of Blade Runner and wondered what else was hiding beneath its cyberpunk surface. source https://www.polygon.com/ridley-scott-blade-runner-final-cut-free-youtube-september-2026/

Recently, a great many people have recommended that I watch Dark Matter , the second season of which premiered in August on Apple TV. The first couple of times it happened, I was confused, as I'd already seen Dark Matter and it had gone off the air almost a decade ago. Did someone get around to reviving it? source https://www.polygon.com/dark-matter-2015-canada/

By now, 26 years after the strip ended, Peanuts often feels like it comes pre-digested. Even during its original run, much of Peanuts got carefully filtered through layers of T-shirts, greeting cards, and inspirational wall posters. That reduced much of it to the benign emptiness of a Precious Moments figurine. source https://www.polygon.com/wisest-charlie-brown-line/

If 2026 has proven anything, it's that horror filmmaking is firing on all cylinders. Earlier in the year, Curry Barker dissected modern intimacy through the nightmare lens of Obsession , while Damian McCarthy built a masterclass in spatial dread and folklore with Hokum . Continuing the threads of 28 Years Later , Nia DaCosta expanded Alex Garland’s post-apocalyptic mythos with a riveting second entry built on her signature visual flair and relentless momentum. More recently, Zach Cregger turned raw survival panic into a cinematic art form with Resident Evil . It’s been an unusually stacked year, offering horror fans an uncompromising lineup with little time to catch their breath after each new release. source https://www.polygon.com/backrooms-hbo-max-streaming-september-2026/

That's been the case for most of the 21st century, as the superhero genre exploded off the page and onto screens of all sizes. And that's especially true in animation, which has always felt like a natural fit for the hand-drawn origins of our favorite heroes and villains. After the success of '90s cartoons about Batman and the X-Men , the medium expanded in the early 2000s with hit series Justice League and X-Men: Evolution . However, one superhero TV show stood out for highlighting teenage struggles while fighting crime, and it's streaming for free on Tubi. source https://www.polygon.com/teen-titans-2003-dc-comics-rec/

In the days before streaming, when people had to tune into a TV show at a specific day and time, it was important that the first few episodes — instead of just the first episode — served as an introduction to the show, so as not to alienate viewers who didn’t catch the pilot and wouldn’t be able to catch it until it appeared as a rerun. source https://www.polygon.com/x-files-squeeze-retrospective/

Six years after its theatrical debut, one of the most important movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Endgame , returns to cinemas with an extended version, Avengers: Endgame Encore , which is four minutes longer than the original. While Encore will officially debut on Sept. 25, some early screenings are already happening in certain parts of the world, so fans planning to watch the movie in theaters should be wary of spoilers. source https://www.polygon.com/avengers-endgame-encore-leaks-doomsday-spoilers/

Epic Games and Disney have collaborated before to bring Toy Story characters to the Battle Royale. However, this time around, the two have joined forces to publish a Creative Map in Fortnite . Everyone's favorite animated toys have disappeared through a rift; it is up to players to get them back and recover all of their items and memories. source https://www.polygon.com/fortnite-toy-story-creative-map-codes/

But while Schulz was still figuring out the look and feel of Peanuts back in the 1950s, the early years contained sparks of absolute genius that would inform the strip’s 50-year run. Here are five such comics that show Schulz was always a genius, even when Charlie Brown didn’t quite look like the Charlie Brown we all know and love nowadays. source https://www.polygon.com/5-perfect-peanuts-comics-charles-schulz-genius/

The term “monster” is used liberally, mind you, because here it could refer to any weird new creature, case, or even superpowered person. Regardless, there were a lot of different monsters on the show, but all of them fall short of one the show introduced during a season 2 episode called “The Host.” source https://www.polygon.com/x-files-the-host-flukeman-best-monter-of-the-week/

Anya Taylor-Joy has firmly established herself as one of her generation’s leading and most versatile actors. At 30, she has built a career across film and television , appearing in franchises like Super Mario and Mad Max , and winning a Golden Globe for her role in The Queen’s Gambit . This year she starred in the Apple TV series Lucky and will also appear in Dune: Part Three . She is one of the few modern stars who comfortably fit the movie-star label. It all began with her career-defining breakout role, which turned the final girl trope on its head — a girl who survives not by fighting, but by giving in. source https://www.polygon.com/anya-taylor-joy-the-witch-horror-heroine/

Stephen King is one of the definitive authors of our time. Known as a horror master, he’s worked across all sorts of genres, from high fantasy to dystopian fiction. King's visions of the future are often just as bleak as his work in horror, swapping supernatural monsters for advanced technology and how it complicates the human condition. They're also often eerily prescient — and only get scarier as time goes on. source https://www.polygon.com/stephen-king-the-running-man-arnold-schwarzenegger-streaming-free-youtube/

When you grab downloadable content for a game, generally, you’re expecting more of the same experience: a few extra hours, some new gear, perhaps a boss fight the base game didn’t have room for. What if, instead of new outfits and a handful of fetch quests, a DLC decided to crown you the new god of madness? What if it dropped you into hell to stop a president’s wedding, or handed the entire story over to a teenager narrating her own homebrew Dungeons & Dragons campaign (complete with a dragon she very clearly made up five minutes ago)? source https://www.polygon.com/best-video-game-dlcs/

One of the earliest scenes in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice returns to the big climactic battle from Man of Steel . This time, we see it from Bruce Wayne ’s perspective on the street, where collapsing buildings and crashing Kryptonians look less like superhero spectacle and more like mass destruction. It raised an interesting question that James Gunn's DC Universe has yet to answer: What is it like to be a normal person in this superhero world? source https://www.polygon.com/lanterns-episode-6-starro-suicide-squad/

Call of Duty: Warzone , the "massive free-to-play combat arena" game, is moving on from last-generation platforms. Alongside the announcement of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 back in May, Activision announced that Warzone will no longer be playable on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this year. source https://www.polygon.com/call-of-duty-warzone-shutting-down-ps4-xbox-one/

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie is finally out, and it’s great . Though it’s been crowned the highest-rated video game adaptation to-date , the Barbarian and Weapons director made the deliberate choice not to adapt any existing Resident Evil game. Instead, he tried to reconstruct the player experience in movie form, complete with resource management and puzzle solving. source https://www.polygon.com/best-games-for-resident-evil-movie-fans/

Since Persona 5 released in Japan in September 2016, we have seen its upgraded and expanded version in Persona 5 Golden , a direct sequel in Persona 5 Strikers , and even spin-offs like Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth . More recently, Persona 5 's Tae Takemi became Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaey's obsession . In addition to serving as a fruitful source of media products, one of Persona 5 's most important contributions was the more mature view of the world it brought to the series. source https://www.polygon.com/persona-5-10th-anniversary/

Countless American adaptations of British classics have fallen woefully short of the source material. Either the British humor simply doesn’t translate well because of cultural differences — which is why the U.S. version of Gavin & Stacey was far too cringeworthy to enjoy — or it feels so similar that there’s no real reason to adapt it in the first place. source https://www.polygon.com/ghosts-cbs-free-streaming-pluto-tv/

If you were in a position to be reading comics at the time, then Calvin and Hobbes likely found some way to crawl into your brain. At a moment when newspaper comics were beginning their headlong dive into functional irrelevance, Watterson was insistent upon keeping his work creative, fresh, creator-owned, and maybe most importantly, at a legible size. source https://www.polygon.com/calvin-and-hobbes-best-quote/

Most psychological thriller movies online are locked behind a paid subscription to Netflix, HBO Max, or Prime Video, but some choice titles are available to stream for free. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of five fantastic psychological thrillers that you can watch at no cost whatsoever. source https://www.polygon.com/best-psychological-thriller-movies-free-streaming/

It’s September, and depending on where you live, still hot. Summer is almost over, but a heat wave in New York has us cranking the AC and binging Netflix inside. Apple picking or whatver can wait until next week. Fall isn't going anywhere... yet. source https://www.polygon.com/netflix-weekend-binge-september-2026-shows/

Most time travel movies don’t sweat the math — or, more accurately, the quantum physics of how time travel might actually work. The writers and directors include the time-travel concepts that will help their story and ignore the ones that won’t. For example, when Doc Brown takes Marty and Jennifer to the future in Back to the Future Part II , they can’t meet their kids because Marty and Jennifer would have been absent from the timeline for the past 30 years. Wait. What? source https://www.polygon.com/time-travel-movies-that-make-sense/

Threshing Day is the next entry in Rebecca Yarros' Empyrean series. This novella will feature threshing day stories from 13 characters mentioned in the Fourth Wing books . Despite the book coming out this month, not much is known about it, as it was only announced a few months before release. Thankfully, Yarros has decided to satisfy our curiosity and reveal which characters will get a story in Threshing Day . source https://www.polygon.com/fourth-wing-empyrean-series-threshing-day-characters-revealed/

After spending most of its runtime moving at a frankly ridiculous pace, Resident Evil tapers into what is inarguably one of the best video game movie endings ever and arrives at the exact place you might expect a Resident Evil story to end. There are plenty of skin-dripping zombies, grotesque mutations, and blood (quite literally) everywhere. source https://www.polygon.com/resident-evils-wild-final-act-explained/

When you think about horror and romance, it’s easy to see them as two contrasting genres. But look at media like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak to see how romance can add a frightening, even melancholic, element to a scary story, making it all the more memorable. Both movies show how love can turn us into monsters, but another horror classic perfected the same metaphor—and it's free to stream on Pluto TV. source https://www.polygon.com/hannibal-free-to-stream-pluto-tv/

The summer after my freshman year of college, I returned home to partake in a favorite pastime among my group of friends: staying up far too late and seeing stupid movies at our local theater. That summer, we also founded a highly competitive Wiffle ball league, complete with drafted teams and a custom-built backstop with its own strike zone. source https://www.polygon.com/wanted-movie-streaming-free-youtube/

Today, many RPG fans are well acquainted with Persona 3 , which originally debuted in Japan on July 13, 2006. That game carried the series to new levels of success, ensuring a reliable audience for each new entry. Just look at how many people are eagerly awaiting Persona 6 , a full 20 years later. source https://www.polygon.com/30-years-ago-a-moody-atlus-spinoff-paved-the-way-for-a-massive-rpg-transformation/

In case you missed it, Polygon's Editor-in-Chief Matt Patches and Supervising Video Producer Simone de Rochefort are gracing the YouTube space with a new weekly news show called Point It Out! To celebrate its launch, we've partnered with our friends at Secretlab to send a brand-new chair to three lucky winners over the course of three weeks. source https://www.polygon.com/secretlab-polygon-point-it-out-giveaway-contest/

Baldur’s Gate 3 is full of moments like this: A great character, an intriguing story, and then no reliable way to learn what happens next. For Mizora — Wyll's patron devil, the one who granted him his warlock powers — a new mod has delivered a way around that issue. While Mizora technically does hang out in camp, she does so only on her terms — and when you see her, generally, you want to shove her back into whatever pocket of the Nine Hells she's crawled out of. Unless, of course, you can recruit her hellish talents to support your aims. Now, thanks to the brand new mod Mizora Joins the Party from modder WorldWalker42 , you can do exactly that. She's not the only NPC who deserves an upgrade to companion status. Here are 10 more. source https://www.polygon.com/bg3-best-non-companion-npcs/

LitRPG, which stands for literary role-playing game, is one of the newest genres in literature. (The term only emerged in 2013, when it was coined by a publishing house in Russia that was releasing a series inspired by MMORPGs.) The first stories about people trying to advance in game-like worlds by gaining new abilities and facing increasingly dangerous threats were self-published, but they have increasingly received formal book deals based on their proven success. While Sword Art Online and Solo Leveling used the concept for web novels that became extremely popular anime, Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl is the first English-language LitRPG to become a real crossover hit. source https://www.polygon.com/5-litrpg-books-to-read-after-dungeon-crawler-carl/

Generally, when people think of Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes , they think of fun, innocent adventures with a little boy and his plush tiger, oftentimes exploring the woods or riding on a sled in the snow. They may also recall the thoughtful comic strips where Calvin and Hobbes talk about life’s biggest questions . They might even think about the strips where Calvin was falling asleep in school and dreaming about being Spaceman Spiff. But every Winter, Bill Watterson would offer up much darker fare. source https://www.polygon.com/10-darkest-calvin-and-hobbes-snowman-jokes-that-reveal-bill-wattersons-twisted-genius/

That's in addition to stellar third-party support, with almost unanimous buy-in from indies and several big publishers going all-in on porting their biggest titles to Switch 2 — notably Square Enix, with the Final Fantasy 7 series, and Capcom, with Resident Evil, Onimusha, Pragmata, and more coming. source https://www.polygon.com/best-nintendo-switch-2-games/

The Xbox brand kicked off in 2001 with an enormous black box that proved Microsoft could hang with the major console players just fine. However, the Xbox 360 was the hardware that revealed Xbox had the potential to dominate the space, thanks in part to hits like Halo 2 and Gears of War . Microsoft, frankly, has been trying for a repeat performance ever since. source https://www.polygon.com/most-underrated-xbox-360-games/

If you watched the Diablo 5 panel at BlizzCon 2026 , you likely heard that Blizzard is once again embracing procedural generation for the overworld in its forthcoming action RPG. This is a stark contrast to Diablo 4 , which controversially had a mostly static open world for players to explore. source https://www.polygon.com/diablo-5-no-open-world-blizzard-interview/

Marvel heroes have been mainstays in video games since 1982, when Spider-Man first swung onto the Atari 2600 in a titular outing. But not every attempt to bring the dynamic heroes to digital life has met with success (if you don’t remember The Uncanny X-Men on the NES, your life is better for it). source https://www.polygon.com/best-marvel-video-games-ever/

Looking back, the late 2000s marked a short, largely unsung golden age for quirky TV antiheroes. It was like every showrunner in Los Angeles tuned in to a marathon of The Saint around the same time, which led to a short but memorable fascination with crime-fighting criminals. source https://www.polygon.com/leverage-free-youtube/

While Diablo 5 has made a big splash at BlizzCon 2026, some role-playing game fans may have missed the pedigree of some of its developers. Not only are series stalwarts like game director Joe Shely and production director Tiffany Wat working on the follow-up to Diablo 4 , a notable former BioWare developer is serving as Diablo 5's narrative director: Jennifer Brandes Hepler. source https://www.polygon.com/diablo-5-interview-jennifer-hepler-blizzcon-2026/

Blizzard Entertainment announced a brand-new StarCraft game at BlizzCon 2026 this weekend, a reveal that came with two big surprises: It's an open-world shooter — not a real-time strategy game — and it won't be out until 2030. While the official return of StarCraft was met with great excitement, the far-off release date was a shock to fans. Blizzard does not have a habit of announcing far-off release windows, nor does it have the best reputation for sticking to announced release dates. source https://www.polygon.com/starcraft-2030-release-date-dan-hay-blizzcon-2026/

Brandon Sanderson is such a prolific author that just getting through his bibliography could keep a reader busy for years. But Sanderson also teaches creative writing and has lectured on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, often sharing his thoughts on the fantasy genre and its leading talent. He’s suggested his fans read Robin Hobb, George R.R. Martin, Anne McCaffery, and Mary Robinette Kowal. Sanderson has also made a host of specific recommendations spanning the novels that inspired him as a kid to brand new releases. If you’re looking for something to read while waiting for the next Cosmere book, here are 10 books Sanderson suggests picking up. source https://www.polygon.com/brandon-sanderson-book-recommendations/

With the 3DS eShop closed, the system’s software library has already begun to feel like a relic. That’s a sad fate, considering how many hours of enjoyment it provided before Switch became the only Nintendo platform anyone wanted to talk about. Fortunately, not all of those games have been lost to the march of progress. Many of them were released physically, so you can add them to your collection after a quick trip to your favorite used game store or auction site. And right now is the perfect time to build your library, before everyone else joins the race. Here are 10 near-perfect Nintendo 3DS games nobody played that would make great additions to your collection. source https://www.polygon.com/best-3ds-games-underrated/

The Vermilion Mask ’s electrifying premiere — which airs in October on Crunchyroll — wastes little time putting these powers to use as it introduces apprentice mask maker Peru d’Arrest and his world-spanning quest to destroy his former master’s masks. There are epic fights, compelling villains, and a sword so preposterously wide it makes Cloud Strife’s Buster Sword look small by comparison. source https://www.polygon.com/vermilion-mask-anime-director-interview/

As the glory days of classic Westerns began to fade in the 1960s, so did some of the romance associated with it, bringing about the more complex, morally ambiguous “Revisionist Westerns.” One of the most important films from the early days of the Revisionist Western is 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars starring Clint Eastwood in his first major film role. It’s directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone. A Fistful of Dollars is currently available for free on YouTube and is a can’t-miss for film fans — even those that aren’t so into Westerns. That’s mainly because A Fistful of Dollars is also a solid crime and action story that just so happens to take place in the Old West. source https://www.polygon.com/a-fistful-of-dollars-clint-eastwood-free-to-stream/

DC Studios and Warner Bros. released Supergirl earlier this year in theaters as the second film in James Gunn's nascent cinematic DC Universe . Despite a solid star in the lead role and a story adapted from one of the character's most well-received comics, the movie failed to garner widespread critical and commercial success. Supergirl ended its theatrical run with just $126 million earned at the global box office. source https://www.polygon.com/supergirl-hbo-max-streaming-date-announced/

Hollywood has given us pretty much every possible version of a Santa Claus movie over the years. We've had good Santa, Bad Santa , Tim Allen Santa, and even evil robot Santa. But in 2022, Violent Night managed to put a fresh spin on the character by combining Santa Claus with the gritty action-hero story of Die Hard and the expertly choreographed combat of the John Wick movies. Violent Night was a surprisingly delightful spin on the genre, and four years later, we're getting a sequel that takes the series in an even more surprising direction. source https://www.polygon.com/violent-night-2-exclusive-preview/

Steel Ball Run uses its 1890s setting to follow a grueling cross-continental horse race across North America with a $50 million grand prize attached to it. Paraplegic ex-jockey Johnny Joestar and the charismatic Gyro Zeppeli team up to win this multi-stage race, but the racetrack becomes a one-way highway to hell as a hidden national conspiracy unfolds. source https://www.polygon.com/netflix-steel-ball-run-anime-yasuhiro-kimura-interview/

"Look at the giant snake movies that have come before us," Nelson tells Polygon. "With the exception of Anaconda , they're kind of jokes." (To be honest, even Anaconda is kind of a joke, to the point that Jack Black and Paul Rudd turned the concept into a meta-comedy in 2025 . And that's coming from someone who loves Anaconda .) source https://www.polygon.com/beware-boiuna-director-interview-mike-nelson/

The Mongoose stars Neeson as Ryan "Fang" Flanagan, a military veteran who gets caught up in a high-speed, cross-country chase after inadvertently stealing an expensive, high-tech car. Pursued by countless cops, helicopters, and one very angry Michael Chiklis as a Texas lawman with an axe to grind, Fang races toward the southern border, while his story makes national headlines and inspires a wave of supporters who help him outsmart the cops. It's a modern folk-hero legend with plenty of everything you'd expect from Neeson: non-stop action, wild stunts, and lots of gruff dialogue. source https://www.polygon.com/liam-neeson-mongoose-director-interview/

There are few things more humbling in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim than finally defeating a powerful enemy, looting their corpse, and immediately discovering that you are carrying too much stuff to move. Thankfully, IKEA has arrived in Tamriel to solve Skyrim’s most persistent problem: clutter. source https://www.polygon.com/skyrim-ikea-mod-shelf-matt-berry/

It's safe to say that Game of Thrones has become a cultural juggernaut. George R.R. Martin's book series, and the web of TV series that have been inspired by it, have been dominating our pop culture for years, and a few of the biggest characters are about to make a comeback. source https://www.polygon.com/game-of-thrones-war-for-westeros-trailer-daenerys-targaryen/

Some shows change television forever. Anthologies have never been the same since The Twilight Zone , the modern sitcom owes a lot to I Love Lucy , and puzzle-box mysteries all had to step up their game after Lost . But sometimes, a show’s influence on the medium is more subtle, like Roots quietly championing long-form storytelling or The Wire redefining grounded realism on TV by exploring uncomfortable topics within a crime drama setup. source https://www.polygon.com/miami-crime-drama-series-streaming-free-tubi/

source https://www.polygon.com/great-pumpkin-charlie-brown-best-quote-peanuts/

The special-edition Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 looks great , but don't get too excited just yet. Pre-ordering the console is already a nightmare. The situation surrounding the Nintendo game's foil-cover variant isn't very heartening, either. Worst of all, if you do manage to get a pre-order, the console will be more expensive no matter where or how you buy it. source https://www.polygon.com/zelda-switch-2-preorder-amazon-best-buy-target-ebay-in-stock-ocarina/

Brad Bird ( Ratatouille, The Incredibles ) describes his next movie, Ray Gunn , as The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers . He’s spent nearly 30 years trying to make this unusual mashup of hard-boiled detective story and pulp science fiction . source https://www.polygon.com/brad-bird-ray-gunn-noir-movies-to-watch/

Over the next few months, highly anticipated titles like Cyberpunk: Edgerunner s and Black Clover are returning after a long break. There are also intriguing isekai to choose from, such as season 2 of Reincarnated as a Sword , or the brand-new iteration of Magic Knight Rayearth . Whatever your genre or animation style of choice, it's a good time to be an anime fan. source https://www.polygon.com/new-anime-shows-fall-2026-releases/

Back in May, to mark the third anniversary of the release of The Legend of Zelda : Tears of the Kingdom , Nintendo unveiled a new amiibo figure tied to the game, due this month. It might be the best Tears of the Kingdom figurine yet. Barring any new amiibo reveals at this week's new Zelda-themed Nintendo Direct , it's a strong front-runner for AOTY (amiibo of the year). source https://www.polygon.com/zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-best-amiibo-september-2026/

It takes a remarkable director to vanish for nearly a decade and return with a vision as distinct as ever, but Na Hong-jin has always operated on his own wavelength. His track record speaks for itself. The Chaser and The Yellow Sea cemented his status as a titan of modern South Korean cinema long before his latest project, Hope , redefined what an action film could look like. Although his highly anticipated return escalates into bombastic sci-fi spectacle, its underlying DNA resonates with his earlier work. Na remains focused on ordinary people dragged into mysteries far beyond their comprehension. source https://www.polygon.com/hope-is-the-perfect-excuse-to-revisit-na-hong-jins-best-movie/

While HBO’s DC Universe series Lanterns is mostly a grounded buddy cop mystery, showrunner Chris Mundy isn’t afraid to dig into the weirder corners of Green Lantern mythology. The show is focused on the threat of the Manhunters, the shapeshifting synthetic peacekeepers created by the Guardians of the Universe who eventually went rogue, leading to the creation of the Green Lanterns. We've also met fallen Lantern Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) and even one of the Guardians (Laura Linney). In episode 4, series co-creator Damon Lindelof and writer Justin Britt-Gibson added another classic Green Lantern villain to test John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), but viewers who haven’t read the comics might not realize his significance. source https://www.polygon.com/lanterns-hector-hammond-explainer/

When James Gunn cast Adria Arjona ( Andor , Morbius ) for next year's Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow , reports pegged the actor as playing a relatively obscure DC character named Maxima . But some DC fans have long speculated that Arjona was secretly cast as another, much more well-known DC superhero, Wonder Woman. A recent video featuring Arjona has only served to reignite those rumors, as the actor detailed her intense workout regimen to buff up for the recently released Onslaught and her next big movie, Man of Tomorrow . source https://www.polygon.com/wonder-woman-dcu-james-gunn-adria-arjona-maxima/

Created by Chris Carter , The X-Files was a 1990s series about two FBI agents named Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who investigate cases involving paranormal phenomena. In the season 4 episode “Home,” they are called to the small town of Home, Pennsylvania, after some kids playing baseball discover the body of a newborn buried in a field. The body is so riddled with birth defects that it defies logic, so the case gets referred to the FBI’s X-Files division. source https://www.polygon.com/x-files-scariest-episode-home/

Fire Emblem loves looking back. Fire Emblem Awakening , the Nintendo 3DS title that rescued the franchise from permanent retirement, is packed with references to the series’ history: one character adopts the name Marth , another shouts the names of previous Fire Emblem games on critical hits, and a third character comes straight out of Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light , the first-ever Fire Emblem game. source https://www.polygon.com/fire-emblem-echoes-shadow-valentia-retrospective/

World War II epics tend to emphasize the overwhelming scale of the conflict. Allied forces storm the beaches of Normandy, tanks rumble across Europe, and in some cases, soldiers are just trying to get Matt Damon home . Naturally, Quentin Tarantino doesn’t take a conventional approach to the genre. While his 2009 movie has its fair share of explosions and bloodshed, its most thrilling battles unfold during tense conversations. In perhaps the best example, one man seals several people’s fates simply by holding up three fingers the wrong way. source https://www.polygon.com/quentin-tarantino-inglourious-basterds-streaming-on-hulu/

Many people I know have played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ; shockingly few have actually finished it. Every time I talk to a friend about it, I hear the same story: “I could take on Calamity Ganon whenever I want, but I’m not ready to be done with it.” Like a lot of open-world games, Breath of the Wild is built for procrastinators. It gives you a lot of ways to kill time, whether you’re completing quests or hunting down every last Korok seed. All the while, Hyrule burns thanks to your completion anxiety. source https://www.polygon.com/blood-dawnwalker-open-world-opinion/

See that Sonic the Hedgehog on the first page of the current Fortnite Battle Pass? That's not actually Sonic the Hedgehog. That is someone completely different who looks very similar to Sonic, because, according to Takashi Iizuka, head of Sega's Sonic Team and lead producer of the video game series, Sonic would never hold a gun. He's no Shadow the Hedgehog . source https://www.polygon.com/fortnite-sonic-the-hedgehog-android-sega-epic-games/

Recommending a zombie movie in 2026 comes with qualifications. Zombies are a cheap monster option for indie horror filmmakers; just stock up on corn syrup and paint all your friends corpse blue. The subgenre was already crowded before the one-two punch of the live-action Resident Evil movies and The Walking Dead turned the 21st century into permanent undead territory. If this century so far has a trademark monster, it’s zombies. source https://www.polygon.com/alive-zombie-movie-netflix/

Ryan Gosling has built one of Hollywood’s strangest little sub-specialties with some of his most recent movies : being a sad, handsome man in space. source https://www.polygon.com/ryan-gosling-blade-runner-2049-streaming-success-hbo-max-september-2026/

It's been a few years, but the X-Men are back in the spotlight. Thanks to the radical success of X-Men '97 and Marvel Studios' upcoming reboot, the mighty mutants are finding a whole new generation of fans. Naturally, those fans are trying to get into the massive maze of X-Men comics, and longtime X-Men lovers have opinions. Some will point to mutant maestro Chris Claremont, who contributed many of the characters and ideas that still shape the X-Men today, or to Jonathan Hickman's game-changing House of X/Powers of X . One X-Men comic is actually a perfect intro to the reboot, but it might cost a pretty penny. source https://www.polygon.com/x-men-mister-sinister-first-appearance-39-years-later-major-price/

Video games are an art form, and the levels used to build many of them can be thought of as the brush strokes that make it all possible. And yet, as with any medium, there are moments that don’t go quite right. Even fantastic games feature stretches where design principles falter or potential remains unmet. source https://www.polygon.com/best-perfect-video-game-levels/

If you saw Obsession , there's a good chance Inde Navarrette has been on your mind ever since. source https://www.polygon.com/inde-navarrette-apple-waffle-house-index/

Over the course of The Gentlemen season 2, both the billionaire Stanley Johnston (Giancarlo Esposito) and cannabis kingpin Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone) explain that Duke Eddie Horniman (Theo James) must suffer to achieve his full potential. Unfortunately, viewers have to suffer with him as Guy Ritchie tosses aside most of the humor and quirky characters that made his Netflix series so much fun in favor of doing a beat-for-beat retelling of The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2 . source https://www.polygon.com/the-gentlemen-season-2-review-guy-ritchie/

On Aug. 27, Electronic Arts released its newest Star Wars game. Star Wars: Zero Company is one of the best reviewed games ever inspired by the series, offering a compelling blend of tactics and fandom that’s nearly impossible to resist. It’s a welcome reminder of the many other terrific Star Wars games we’ve enjoyed over the decades. source https://www.polygon.com/best-star-wars-games-ranked/

Sequelizing 2022’s surprise horror-thriller hit Fall could be a simple assignment: Find a bunch of other victims and dangle them from the top of another tower. But like the foolhardy heroes at the center of this week’s Fall 2: Deadpoint , directors Michael and Peter Spierig weren’t looking for a walk in the park. source https://www.polygon.com/fall-2-directors-interview/

Just a few months after Hollow Knight: Silksong launched, developer Team Cherry announced a DLC expansion called Sea of Sorrows , set to come out sometime in 2026. With only four months left in the year, fans are starting to get antsy. source https://www.polygon.com/games-like-silksong-wait-for-dlc/

The Twilight Zone is a black-and-white television series created by Rod Serling, who also hosted the show and wrote most of the episodes. It aired on television from 1959 until 1964. Over five seasons, 156 episodes were produced. The show is an anthology that delves into stories of both science fiction and horror, and its impact on both of those genres has been tremendous. This includes the entire horror subgenre of living doll films, from Child's Play to Annabelle , thanks to one particularly disturbing episode that inspired them all. source https://www.polygon.com/creepiest-episode-twilight-zone-living-doll/

Nintendo just dropped a surprise update for the 71 million players of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe , bringing brand-new Switch 2 support to the 2017 kart-racing game. The new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe update brings some expected features, including "clearer visuals" for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs, as well as faster loading times. source https://www.polygon.com/mario-kart-8-deluxe-switch-2-update-patch-notes-nintendo/

After 13 years of waiting, Grand Theft Auto 6 is finally starting to feel real — and fans have been desperate for every scrap of information they can get. Recent leaks offered glimpses of the game ahead of its official reveal , while Rockstar's latest footage confirmed that GTA 6 is shaping up to be the bloodiest entry in the series yet . The map is reportedly three times the size of Red Dead Redemption 2 's , and the hype has even sent PlayStation 5 Pro prices through the roof . source https://www.polygon.com/gta-6-netflix-movie-charts/

I’ve never been what you would call a “Star Wars guy.” As much as I enjoy George Lucas’ original film trilogy, they always struck me as perfectly fun popcorn movies rather than masterpieces of American cinema. My interest in Star Wars has only ever been casual outside of those movies, entirely tied to how interested I was in individual projects. I adored Rogue One as a standalone sci-fi war flick, dug The Mandalorian until it collapsed into fan service, and have appreciated Andor ’s tighter focus on the inner politics of Star Wars. source https://www.polygon.com/star-wars-zero-company-andor-story/