games Archives

Fun-tastic gift ideas

🎁 Bring the holidays to life with these fun picks.

Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman is the holiday version of the party game Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza and it is so. Dang. Fun. Under $10, too.
Print Polaroids from any phone with a mini photo printer ($79, 21% off). It doesn’t need ink and can even print stickers!
Tamagotchis ($23) are tiny virtual pets that have been wildly popular since the ‘90s. Finally, a gift that impresses both kids and the 35-year-old millennial in your life.
Flex your pop culture expertise with a celebrity trivia game for under $15 … because everyone needs to know Nicki Minaj used to work at Red Lobster.
Wear out dads and kids with a T-ball hitting set (38% off). Just don’t miss and make it onto one of those YouTube fail videos.
Monopoly GO! (under $15, 28% off) is the more family-friendly version of Monopoly. Bank heists in Unicorn Land are more exciting than property management.

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Dino-mite: That little dino game Google displays in Chrome when your internet is out is surprisingly fun. You can play it even if your connection is good. Type chrome://dino into the Chrome browser address bar and hit Enter. Use the spacebar to hop over obstacles.

How to earn $25 million a year on eBay

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Linda Lightman started by selling her kids’ video games on eBay in the ’90s. Today, she operates a 100,000 sq. ft. warehouse with a dedicated team, all thanks to her eBay success. Plus, updates on Apple’s AI developments and tax credits for EVs.

Pika-chew on this: Pokémon Go players aren’t just catching digital monsters; they’re training AI to navigate the real world for free. Every time a player scans a location or uses their camera to catch a Pokémon, it builds a detailed 3D map. With over a million scans a week, this tech is filling in missing details on mapped buildings and outdoor areas. Talk about a genius idea!

What was the first video game ever played in space? Was it … A.) Pong, B.) Super Mario Bros., C.) Tetris or D.) Space Invaders?

Find the answer here! →

1 in 5 remote workers

Naps during the workday. A new survey revealed 33% of remote workers take calls in the bathroom and 17% watch TV or play video games. Working hard or hardly working?

Your a** is grass

We’re less than a month out from Labor Day (and football season). A cookout without lawn games is a very sad affair.

Anyone else get excited about Olympic badminton? I found a stake-free badminton set for under $45 with everything included.
Allow me to introduce you to giant Jenga (26% off). Take it to the next level by writing fun challenges on the blocks!
“Bucket ball” is super-portable and fun for kids, too. It’s like cup pong, but without the alcohol. This set is 20% off with a coupon.
Take your bocce ball game to the next level with a regulation-sized set. that comes with a carrying case ($43.17).
Don’t cheap out on a cornhole set that’ll get soggy by next season. This patriotic set will go the distance (25% off).

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

📉 Watch the kiddos: Roblox stock dropped 9% after claims surfaced that the online game platform is a “pedophile hellscape.” Kids are being exposed to grooming, p*rn, violence and abusive language. Games kids can join include “Escape to Epstein Island” and “Run from Diddy Simulator.” Awful.

Calling all gamers: If you’re on an Android device and spend a lot of money on apps and games, you should know about Google Play Pass. For $5 a month, you’ll get access to more than 1,000 paid apps and games — no ads or in-app purchase pop-ups, either.

🐔 Best of cluck: If you see someone “bawk”-ing at their phone, they’re probably playing TikTok’s new chicken filter game. It’s a 2D platformer (like Mario) where you can control the on-screen chicken with your voice to navigate obstacles. Soft “bawk”s make the chicken walk forward, and loud “bu-gawk”s make it jump. What a world we live in.

Stop buying movies on Apple, Amazon and others: A new California law will force digital stores to admit you’re licensing content and you don’t actually own it. This is in response to companies like PlayStation and Ubisoft deleting games from players’ accounts after shutting down the servers.

Everyone should have an antenna: This is a no-brainer if you’re a sports fan and your favorite games are on local channels. Here’s a solid option that includes a DVR, and this one gets the job done on a budget. Try this site to see what channels you can get at home.

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

🏈 Miss the game? You can watch NFL games for free using Tubi. You won’t be watching live games, but Tubi offers replays after they air. If you don’t mind a delay, this is a solid pick.

Hide your credit card: Roblox is adding paid video games to its ecosystem. So far, they’ve relied on the free-to-play model with optional in-game purchases (using Robux, the game’s currency). Pro tip: Only connect preloaded debit cards or gift cards to games. If it’s credit, a kid can spend as much as they want.

📚 Turn “da-da” into data: Get your kiddo ready for the future (and AI) with these 30 free STEM resources. The list includes apps, games and classes to teach youngsters stuff like coding, aeronautics, mathematics and, yes, data science.

Upload vs. download speeds

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Are your video calls freezing or games lagging even with fast internet? The issue might be your upload speed, not download. Here’s how to check it.

10M copies

Three-day sales of Black Myth: Wukong, a new action game for PC and PlayStation 5. It’s based on the Chinese novel “Journey to the West.” It’s officially one of the fastest-selling games of all time, and it broke the record for the most-played single-player game on Steam, taking out Cyberpunk 2077.

3 hours a day

The sweet spot for gamers. Studies show playing video games for under three hours a day correlates with better mental health and less stress. Over three hours? Those benefits went — poof — goodbye.

$257,631 lottery prize

Left sitting for six months because the winner thought it was a scam. The 41-year-old Michigan man had no idea he was entered in the giveaway since it was a bonus for playing other eligible games online. If you get calls and emails about a big win, call your state’s lottery office to confirm. How come this stuff never happens to me?

Here VR, folks: Microsoft ordered a few hundred thousand micro-OLED displays for its next-gen VR headset. The plan is a device that makes watching movies and playing games more immersive. If Microsoft prices it under $500, they might have something. The $3,500 Apple Vision Pro was a complete bust.