All posts tagged: thrill

Licence to thrill: could 007 First Light be the best Bond game since GoldenEye? | Games

Licence to thrill: could 007 First Light be the best Bond game since GoldenEye? | Games

In the wake of the last James Bond movie, No Time to Die, there was a surge of articles asking whether it should spell the end for Ian Fleming’s secret agent. In that movie, Daniel Craig played the character as a fading force, mentally and physically exhausted, and out of touch. “The world has moved on,” Lashana Lynch’s younger agent told him at one point, and in a lot of ways she was right. A product of the cold war era, 007 was a sociopathic misogynist addicted to booze and amphetamines – Craig tried to play all that down, creating a more rounded character and, controversially, giving Bond the ultimate redemption arc at the end of his final outing. But five years later, with the franchise’s new owner Amazon still trying to pull the next film together, we’re about to get what looks to be the best Bond game since GoldenEye. Created by the Danish developer IO Interactive, famed for its Hitman series of anarchic open-ended assassination sims, 007 First Light follows a fresh-faced Bond …

The Thrill of Childhood Rituals

The Thrill of Childhood Rituals

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. When kids spend time together, they create their own rituals and traditions, Julie Beck wrote in 2022—“essentially, their own folklore, or, as researchers call it, ‘childlore.’” A child might think they made up the game of tag or the concept of cooties, but these pastimes and languages are shared across time and place. As we age, Julie notes, we start to forget the experience of childlore: “The rebellious thrill, the intense comradery, the urge to pass the knowledge along (and pretend you came up with it yourself)—all of these things fade with time.” The kids will keep that feeling alive for us, Julie writes. But today, take a few minutes to think back to your favorite game at recess, or the moment you learned how to build a cootie catcher—and take comfort in knowing that kids now and …

F1 will thrill in new engine era and Verstappen sure to stay, Domenicali says

F1 will thrill in new engine era and Verstappen sure to stay, Domenicali says

Feb 20 : Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali has assured fans that the sport’s new engine era will still provide plenty of thrills and Max Verstappen is in no danger of walking away. Four times world champion Verstappen has been outspoken about the new cars not being fun to drive and producing a situation that is “like Formula E on steroids” and “anti-racing”. The Red Bull driver has said before that he will stop racing if he no longer enjoys it but Domenicali said there was no risk of that. “I have a very good relationship with Max,” the Italian told reporters on a video call when asked what made him so confident. “I know him very well. I spend a lot of time with him. That’s the reason. Full stop. He loves Formula One. There’s no doubt about it.” MET VERSTAPPEN DURING TESTING  Domenicali said he met Verstappen during testing in Bahrain on Wednesday and it had been a very constructive talk. “I guarantee you that Max wants and cares about Formula One …

Every thrill ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain, ranked

Every thrill ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain, ranked

A risk for the top choice, as this coaster is not for the faint of heart. But since Magic Mountain prides itself on being a park for those seeking roller-coaster intensity, there’s an argument to be made that its top ride should be the one that arguably offers its most thrills, at least that was the one Thompson made to me. Yet you’ll be forgiven for skipping a ride in which seats rotate 360 degrees, forcing riders, at times, into face-first drops. And those rotations don’t stop, giving X2 its reputation for disorienting riders. The seats extend off the track, giving you a sensation of flight at its most chaotic; with an assortment of loops that suddenly shift direction and segue into drops, X2 aims to keep guests guessing as to where it is heading. Due to the constantly changing direction of the seats, the path of the track can be hard to discern. “There’s nothing else quite like it in the U.S.,” Thompson says of the coaster that, in its original form, opened in …