You Are the Umpire

The Smart Play toys can battle, heal, and level up in ways that mimic actual Pokémon games, Lego revealed in an exclusive Polygon interview.

N++ is an absolutely stellar game. I even like the unconventional name and appreciate developer Metanet Software's continued embrace of the N name first used for its original Flash creation more than two decades ago. But it's also a name that comes with some issues, perhaps best demonstrated by the game's name on Steam being followed by "(NPLUSPLUS)." So what do you do when you're making a multiplayer follow-up and need to come up with a name? "It's always been hard for us to name these things," Metanet's Raigan Burns said when asked about the name of the newly announced N+ Infinity Times Two.

If you've played the Call of Duty games in recent years--arguably any of them past the first handful--then you know the games tend to star heroes with near-superhuman reflexes, athletic abilities, and rapid decision-making. For Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Infinity Ward is taking a step back, partially, from these larger-than-life heroes and putting you back in the boots of a regular "grunt" soldier. The decision to move back to regular soldiers--which should be familiar to Call of Duty 2 players, for example--came about as Infinity Ward developed the setup for Modern Warfare 4's story. Set

Bars or barf?

If you're a LEGO fan, it can sometimes be hard to keep track of what sets are retiring soon, which ones are out of stock, and so on, so we've done the research for you. Every month, LEGO sunsets a selection of different sets that have been on the market awhile, meaning they often can't be purchased directly through their site or at most major retailers after the offcial retire date. This month is no different, but almost 30 of these sets are already out of stock on LEGO's website. Luckily, Amazon still has a handful of them in stock if you're looking to pick one up before t