This week on Science Faction, we’re confronting the inevitable decline of both man and machine. Steven’s 3D printer is showing its age, patches are becoming increasingly relatable, and Ben has some thoughts about games that aren’t quite what they first appear to be. We also dig into new Star Wars and Marvel trailers, a pair of Stephen King-adjacent movie reviews, strange new twists on Minesweeper, and several games that seem scientifically engineered to appeal directly to us.

Real Life

Ben starts things off by investigating a pressing technological crisis: what exactly is happening with Steven’s 3D printer? The diagnosis seems to be that it’s simply old and tired—which, frankly, is becoming a recurring theme around here.

That leads us into FDM versus resin printers, the surprisingly low cost of getting into 3D printing these days, and the realization that you can apparently buy a new printer for about a third of the price of a really good LEGO set.

Meanwhile, Steven is ordering patches again, including one featuring a skull giving a thumbs-up alongside the phrase “Everything Hurts.” At some point, novelty merchandise stops being ironic and simply becomes an accurate description of middle age.

Ben also reviews Tunic, a charming, Zelda-esque adventure game starring a tiny fox. But appearances can be deceiving, and Tunic turns out to have considerably more going on beneath the surface than its cute presentation initially suggests.

Devon takes us outside our usual science-fiction territory with Green Book, starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. It’s definitely not sci-fi, but sometimes a good movie is just a good movie. Check out Green Book on IMDb.

Steven then turns his attention back toward the nerdier corners of entertainment with reactions to two big trailers. First up is the Ahsoka Season 2 trailer and what it suggests about the next chapter of the Star Wars series. Then we jump over to Marvel for the VisionQuest trailer and see what’s in store for Vision.

Future or Now

Devon is preparing for his annual trip to Boston to watch the Giants, but there’s still time for movies. He reviews The Life of Chuck, based on the Stephen King story and featuring a decidedly different flavor of King adaptation. You can find The Life of Chuck on IMDb.

He also reviews The Drama, because apparently one movie review wasn’t enough this week. Here’s The Drama on IMDb.

Ben brings us back to games with Quantum Sweeper, a free iOS variation on Minesweeper that takes the familiar formula in a new direction. Learn more about Quantum Sweeper.

Unfortunately, Dragonsweeper has stopped working properly in iOS Safari. That’s a shame, because Ben still thinks it’s absolutely worth your time if you have another way to play it. You can find Dragonsweeper on itch.io.

Finally, Steven has discovered what may be an entire genre of game designed specifically to generate Ben Energy.

There’s RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike on Steam, which combines the hypnotic appeal of a coin-pusher machine with roguelike mechanics.

Then there’s the wonderfully named How Many Dudes? on Steam, which asks one of the most important questions in modern gaming: just how many dudes are there?

And rounding things out is Dogpile on Steam, completing a trio of games that Steven suspects Ben was genetically engineered to enjoy.

From dying 3D printers and increasingly appropriate patches to deceptively deep indie games, new trailers, movies, and a suspicious number of dudes, we’ve got another episode full of the stuff we’ve been watching, playing, and obsessing over.