Oh dear, it’s Monday again. Welcome back to our daily open thread.

As far as we can tell, the three-day arts and EDM camping retreat “In My Elements” proceeded as planned this weekend. Ticket buyers were promised a dreamy open-air tea ceremony, a hidden “Air Stage,” yoga in the “wellnest,” a sunrise over a lake—and also, two rounds of covid-19 tests and a team of paramedics. The…

This week, Ghost of Tsushima releases. This is one of the last big PS4 exclusives left before the PS5 comes out.

The latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator is launching on August 18 on PC. The standard edition, with 20 planes and 30 airports, will be part of Xbox Game Pass for PC. The $90 deluxe edition has 25 planes and 35 airports. The $120 premium deluxe edition has 30 planes and 40 airports. I have no planes or…

On Friday Hasbro launched a crowdfunding campaign for one of the most requested big-budget X-Men toys ever—a large-scale version of the iconic mutant-hunting sentinel robot. The company was looking for 6,000 backers to pledge $350 each to get the 26.34-inch figure made. It was funded in a day.

This was supposed to be Japan’s year. The Olympics were to be held in Tokyo, and the whole world was going to turn its eyes to Japan. Things didn’t work out that way. The anime Japan Sinks feels like a reminder of that fact.

Chinese website VJ Gamer (via Resetera) has uploaded a series of photos of what looks like Lego set 71374, a 2,646 brick recreation of a Nintendo Entertainment System complete with controller, cartridge, and a retro TV set that plays Super Mario Bros. when a crank on the side is turned. I’d buy it.

Next year, a one-to-one scale Freedom Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam Seed will be erected in Shanghai. This is the first official life-sized Gundam to be built outside Japan.

After some leaks earlier this week, Far Cry 6 got a proper reveal during today’s Ubisoft Forward event. It stars Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian) as the main villain, Anton, who is the ruthless dictator of a fictional small-island country heavily inspired by Cuba.

Bands of protesters begging apathetic passersby to rise up. Officers detaining and brutalizing people, seemingly without cause. Fresh graffiti alluding to a dizzying array of injustices: xenophobia, the surveillance state, war. The first thing that struck me about Watch Dogs: Legion is that, despite a multi-year…

Today, Ubisoft hosted its not-E3 event, “Ubisoft Forward.” Though the event was ostensibly about games, it was impossible to ignore the recent upheaval surrounding the French publisher.

Last Tuesday, I played a preview build of this fall’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla for three hours by streaming it directly from one of Ubisoft’s computers. That’s how Ubisoft is doing E3-style previews this summer. It’s useful. Three hours is a lot of time to spend with a game that’s not even out yet, but it’s also…