They say that truth is stranger than fiction. To this, we’ll add that actual science is often stranger than science fiction. But don’t take our word for it. An original series of long form journalism from VICE’s Motherboard and CNET will quickly convince you of that. Called “Dear Future,” the series focuses on the modern explosion of technology and the fascinating stories made possible by scientific advancements. “While we’ve somehow gotten used to impossibly thin TVs, pocket-size supercomputers, and a worldwide network . . . technology and science are still capable of wowing us,” said Motherboard’s chief editor Jason Koebler,…

As part of one of the many petty, savage feuds in Greek mythology, King Sisyphus was forced by Zeus to roll a boulder up a hill and watch it roll right back down as punishment for his murderous, greedy ways. But also, mostly, as punishment for thinking he was cleverer than Zeus. Designers Matt Thorson (TowerFall) and Noel Berry (Skytorn) are currently working on Celeste, a game that’s sort of abstractly Sisyphean: there’s no boulder except the boulder of difficulty you have to shoulder as you guide redheaded Celeste through its 90+ levels. Initially created as a quick, hard-as-nails platformer…

“We’re currently testing a variation of the ‘Nearby Pokemon’ feature with a subset of users,” read the August 9th patch notes for Pokemon GO. “During this period you may see some variation in the nearby Pokemon UI.” This is an understatement. The quality of Pokemon GO is almost irrelevant in the face of its sheer cultural weight, but make no mistake: this game is busted. First it would tell you with a scale of three arcane “footprint” icons your general proximity to a given Pokemon: whether one footprint or three meant they were close is anyone’s guess. Also: what direction…

Animator Veronica Jelinek and designer Tim Garbos’s It Ain’t Over Till the Fat Lady Sings is an adorable two-minute interactive animation that gently pokes fun at the absurdity of five English idioms. “It’s raining cats and dogs” becomes a deluge of pink-and-blue animals pouring from the sky while you open and close an umbrella. You can pull a literal leg until it stretches across the screen and snaps back like a roll of measuring tape. It Ain’t Over Till the Fat Lady Sings is a clever, funny little game that points to some unexplored areas in the overlap between animation…

As the end of August looms ever-closer, the reality of having to go back to school is probably getting a little too real for some of you. Luckily, there’s a game out there to help ease you back into the grind. Desktop Dungeons is so perfectly suited to quick lunchtime sessions or passing the time while you sit in the hallway waiting for your next class that it should come in your parents’ next care package. Each session can take as little as ten minutes, and the randomly generated dungeons ensure you’ll be doing something new every time you play.…

Whether in Gundam or Pacific Rim, everyone on Earth is pretty much guaranteed to have seen a mecha before. The image of a gifted teenager climbing into a building-sized robot is one of Japan’s most indelible contributions to pop culture, but few videogames have really captured that precise mecha mojo. It’s not just about the robots; it’s about the pilots. Usually, they’re teenagers caught between life-or-death combat and having to go back to school. The robots, as in Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-6), might not even be robots but creatures enslaved by an insane pseudoreligious apocalyptic cult. Or, as in Patlabor…