awkward

What’s more awkward than returning to your hometown? Returning to your hometown and getting hit on by everyone you grew up with. Thirsty Suitors takes that mortifying experience and turns it into a comedic adventure where every embarrassing run-in with a flirtatious townie becomes a stylish video game battle. It’s a bit like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, though without the morally murky power dynamics. I went hands-on with Thirsty Suitors as part of Tribeca Fest and was quickly charmed by its premise. Though it uses…

The entire time I watched Players, a new Paramount Plus show about competitive League of Legends, I kept feeling like something was just a little off. Players is a mockumentary about Fugitive Gaming, a fictional team that’s a member of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), the North American wing of professional League of Legends esports. Much of the show revolves around the relationship between Creamcheese (Misha Brooks), a brash veteran who has been a star of the team since its founding, and Organizm…

Microsoft might soon mitigate some of the worst nuisances in video chats. The Verge notes Microsoft is rolling out AI-based voice quality upgrades that should help every call participant hear each other clearly. New machine learning models can not only cancel echoes, but even reduce the chances of awkward interruptions by eliminating echo-related overlaps. This won't stop rude people from hijacking the conversation, but it might help you raise an important point without completely disrupting someone else's train of…