Brain Worms

Brain Worms

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A still from Monkey Man (2024), with the main character standing in silhouette against a painting of a huge battle.

Why does Monkey Man talk about John Wick?

We all want to be the cool dude who kills the bad guys and drives off in the expensive car. But that's not reality for those truly suffering.

Which sketch from I Think You Should Leave should you show to your normal friends?

Which sketch from I Think You Should Leave should you show to your normal friends?

I'm not doing it. I don't even want to be around anymore.

Preston Garvey from Fallout 4 holding a rifle and saying something boring.

Do you have free will in Fallout 4's Commonwealth Wasteland?

Fallout 4 may have particularly weak writing, but it also has a lot of weak world-building and weak quest design to back that up.

Why did they make gamer Spider-Man love cops?

Why did they make gamer Spider-Man love cops?

Doing the work of the police isn't uncommon in video games. But what does it mean for the player to be made complicit?

What video game's easy mode makes me feel the worst about myself?

What video game's easy mode makes me feel the worst about myself?

Games used to put a lot of effort into making players feel bad and then they stopped. Thankfully, gamers took over.

Which cyberpunk video games will let me own a dog?

Which cyberpunk video games will let me own a dog?

Can you punk the dog?

A character from Dragon Ball Z powering up a Kamehameha attack while looking fiercely determined.

How many D&D warlocks would it take to blast a hole through the Pentagon?

In this wild world, you never know when information about the number of warlock lasers needed to destroy a government building will come in handy.

Eike and the fortune teller from Shadow of Memories, sitting inside the Alchemist's House.

Has any video game protagonist ever done more damage than Eike from Shadow of Memories?

With great power comes the utter destruction of reality at the hands of the dumbest man to ever press a button.

A still from the film Totally Killer, where the character Jaime is wearing her mother's old jacket.

Where did Pam's jacket come from in Totally Killer?

In episode 2F09, when Itchy plays Scratchy's skeleton like a xylophone, he strikes that same rib twice in succession yet he produces two clearly different tones.

Mario and Luigi from the Super Mario Bros. Movie, in a plumbing truck.

What was the plot of the Super Mario Bros. movie? No, really, what happened?

We're the Mario Brothers, and our plumbing goes far. We had our own movie and... uh... there was a star...

A screenshot from Final Fantasy VIII, in which the main character Squall tries to play cards with a wounded man.

Why doesn't my fiancée understand how the Plus rule works in Triple Triad?

The rules of the card game are very simple, please just look at this elaborate napkin diagram I made.

A muscle car driving down a San Francisco street in the game Driver San Francisco.

Is Driver San Francisco actually hardcore anti-copaganda?

Tanner is an abusive, power-hungry, dangerous man with the backing of the US state. What a hero.

Cover image for the game DreamWeb, which depicts an eye trapped in a red vortex.

Can I track down the author of a walkthrough for the 1994 MS-DOS and Amiga game DreamWeb?

The most important thing about this violently strange adventure game is obviously that someone wrote a guide about it.

Thomas Jane's Expanse character Joe Miller wearing a trilby.

Why does Thomas Jane wear that ridiculous hat in The Expanse?

All great detectives have either a cool hat, or a nice car. There are no cars in space.

Could you afford a robot body if you lived in Night City?

Could you afford a robot body if you lived in Night City?

Despite implants being everywhere in Cyberpunk 2077, the economy has some holes.

A city in Civilization 6, surrounded by mountain ranges.

Is it wrong to cause extinction level events in a video game?

Genocide is really interesting, but please don't quote me on that.