Kim Stanley Robinson is a master of science fiction, and specialises in the climate crisis. His latest novel The Ministry for the Future explores a particularly grim metric. A “wet bulb” is exactly what it sounds like: a thermometer wrapped in a wet towel. It’s a measure of both heat and humidity, and it’s also … Read more
If you’re put off by the concept of protests, you’re not alone. Josh Drummond explains why you should bite the bullet and go along to today’s climate protests anyway. Argh, protests! They make me cringe. Here’s the big secret: protests make nearly everyone cringe. Most people feel a bit goofy going along to a protest, especially … Read more
Occasional No Man’s Sky correspondent Josh Drummond finds the infinite space-based sandbox game just got infinitely more fun. At the beginning of this year, No Man’s Sky – 2016’s soaringly-ambitious, savagely-received space exploration not-sim – was all but done. Apart from a very small (but very enthused) player base, the numbers of which spiked briefly each … Read more
A dark advertisement for a dairy assistant in South Canterbury promised accommodation sharing with rodents, minimum wage, and drug tests. Josh Drummond applied for the role, and investigated what the classified says about the New Zealand dairy industry today. It may not be what you’d think. It started, as so many things do in New Zealand, … Read more
What’s on the tapes? Pure hype or a genuine ‘reaching out’? The Spinoff’s No Man’s Sky correspondent Josh Drummond on what is proving to be a genuine head scratcher. This post will be updated as the story progresses, so check back often. After a launch that might be charitably described as “mixed” and uncharitably as an … Read more
Launching on March 1, Horizon: Zero Dawn is the next big AAA IP for the PS4. Josh Drummond has a hoon and finds a game that pulls from everywhere, but transcends its magpie tendencies. A girl, in a world very different to our own, is taken in by a strange tribe and raised as an … Read more
We’re less than two weeks into the Trump presidency, and already the world feels like it’s slipping into a black hole of racism and despair. But now’s no time to give up, says Joshua Drummond. Here’s part two of our series on how you can make a positive difference, right here in Aotearoa. Previously: Okay … Read more
You’re probably back at work this week. And it probably sucks. But if want to bring some of the light-hearted silliness of the holidays into your fluorescent offices, Josh Drummond has a six-song playlist that’ll be fun. For you. A lot of us are going back to work this week, and it’s a mixed blessing. … Read more
In June, the internet rediscovered New Zealand’s longstanding ban on personal gardens, and it collectively lost its mind. Joshua Drummond argues that the ban has had its day. First published June 18, 2016. Well, it happened again. We should be used to it by now. It’s only a year since the topic of New Zealand’s … Read more
No Man’s Sky was one of the most anticipated games of all time. Then it crashed and burned on launch, abandoned and even hated by players. This is the story of what happened next. No Man’s Sky was doomed from the start. Touted as the biggest game of all time – a space-based exploration title … Read more
Josh Drummond should be delighting at the former Conservative Party leader being hoist by his own legal petard, he writes. But instead he just feels disgust Colin Craig! The one-time leader of the Conservative party is in the news again, this time after a court found that he had defamed Jordan Williams, to the tune … Read more
Josh Drummond re-enacts Game of Thrones’ Battle of the Bastards in Total War: Warhammer, and it makes much more sense than it did on TV. The television world went barking mad for the ‘Battle of the Bastards’ episode of Game of Thrones last week, with viewers howling at their TV screens at the sheer drama as … Read more
David Farrier and Dylan Reeve’s Tickled had its most gonzo moment yet when two of the film’s subjects dropped in for the Q&A. Joshua Drummond watched the chaos unfold on Facebook Live. “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” David Farrier and Dylan Reeve are living the truth of Hunter Thompson’s famous saying after a Q&A … Read more
The internet rediscovered New Zealand’s longstanding ban on personal gardens, and it collectively lost its mind. Joshua Drummond argues that the ban has had its day. Well, it happened again. We should be used to it by now. It’s only a year since the topic of New Zealand’s gardening ban last exploded on the now-infamous … Read more
An early participant in the saga that became Tickled, Joshua Drummond recounts the online comments, threats and shadow-boxing in the leadup to David Farrier and Dylan Reeve’s acclaimed documentary. For me, it started with trolling. David Farrier had just left a message on the Facebook page of Jane O’Brien Media, a company that seemed to exist solely … Read more
The Australian government has spent $6 million on a bizarre feature-length movie to warn away potential asylum seekers from the Middle East. Josh Drummond sat down with a Farsi-speaking interpreter to watch it. It’s dark in The Spinoff offices, late on a Sunday, and I can’t find the light switch. What little light there is … Read more
Since its announcement No Man’s Sky has exploded brains with the promise of unfettered space exploration. Can it beat the hype? Josh Drummond reckons it won’t, but not for the reasons you think. The game-changing game trailer that will change gaming begins with a black screen. Text flashes that assures us that all footage is captured … Read more
Josh Drummond of Bigpipe, our new Gaming section sponsor, on the fiendishly addictive and deceptively simple soccer/driving mashup, Rocket League. It goes like this: I’m in my second week at my new job at Bigpipe. Our product team – just three of us – are working on probably our most important project, and at the … Read more
Only a few weeks ago, I was looking forward to playing Star Wars: Battlefront for the first time. The trailers showed something special: a game that looked and sounded exactly like Star Wars. Previews for the game were mostly positive, and couldn’t wait to play it. I wasn’t expecting that actually getting to play the game would become something of a … Read more
Helldivers By Arrowhead Game Studios, on PS4, PS3, PS Vita & PC It’s a top-down shooter that isn’t so much a homage to Starship Troopers as it is Starship Troopers. Which is awesome. You and some friends from a hilariously fascist far-future Super-Earth (or just the United States under Trump several years from now) are shot into space to … Read more
Having acquired the grand old age of 32, a lovely wife and a penchant for cooking aspirational middle-class dinners, Josh Drummond examines the nagging question of where to find time for games. My name is Josh Drummond, I’m 32 years old, and I play videogames. Just not very much, apparently. With this videogame writing gig came a … Read more
Josh Drummond of Bigpipe, our new Gaming section sponsor, on the fiendishly addictive and deceptively simple soccer/driving mashup, Rocket League. It goes like this: I’m in my second week at my new job at Bigpipe. Our product team – just three of us – are working on probably our most important project, and at the … Read more
Three or so times a year, media luminaries from all over New Zealand gather in a kind of Hellfire Club – based, of course, in Hamilton. Food is eaten, drink is drunk and a speaker – usually a High Luminary or occasionally Winston Peters speaks. Steve Braunias (newly crowned Books Editor of The Spinoff!) curates the whole shindig; everyone … Read more
After 20 years, Josh Drummond checks in to see how the legendary kid’s show What Now is doing with less Simon Barnett and more Mexican stereotypes. I do believe you think what now you speak, But what we do determine oft we break. – Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2 I’m not sure why I decided to watch What Now. In … Read more
Josh Drummond makes a heartfelt plea for Simpsons fans to cho-cho-choose to put the show out of its misery. On May 14, 2015, my bosom swelled with an unlikely emotion: hope. The news had just broken that Harry Shearer looked like he was leaving The Simpsons. Shearer is the voice of some of the show’s best-loved, most … Read more
Guilty of being an apathetic audience member in the target demographic, Josh Drummond sat down and diarised a week of Campbell Live. HAMLET He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again. HORATIO My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. Campbell Live! Campbell Live, the … Read more