Games

Nintendo's 40th birthday Direct airs this week with the Ocarina remake already promised, so the oldest argument in the series is back. We rank the five Zeldas worth a newcomer's time, keep Majora's Mask away from beginners on purpose, and name the one to open first.

Cross-media

Six entry points for a total newcomer, one winner, and a four-film marathon this Tuesday that happens to include it. Plus why the default answer comes with homework, and where Strange New Worlds, mid-season with its final year already announced, belongs in the order.

Games

The 1.0 build lands this Wednesday with the Deep North, PS5 and Switch 2 versions and crossplay across the lot, and Iron Gate's advice is a brand new world. Our verdict splits three ways depending on who is sitting next to you, plus the price, the crossplay catch, and six games to play instead if Viking mud is not your thing.

Television

Easy Company turns 25 this week, with a new HBO Max documentary and Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston back on camera. We put all three Hanks and Spielberg war series on the table, pick one, sort the rewatch order, and check where the cast went.

Television

Nicolas Cage's 1933 private eye lost his second season last week, three months after the first arrived. Before you press play: whether the finale actually closes the case, which of the two cuts to watch, and where it sits next to the Spider-Verse films.

Movies

Malkovich and Rockwell as CIA men on Easter Island, a 13-minute ovation, a Hollywood Reporter versus IndieWire split, and a watch order for the two months until you can actually see it.

Music

A jury convicted the man who set up his killing last week. We are here for the work: five studio albums, six films, a book of poems and a docuseries, put in the order a first-timer should take them.

Cross-media

He is on the road with Ernie and Emma, the comedy he wrote and directed about a widower scattering his wife's ashes, introducing it himself at 18 Alamo Drafthouses this autumn. Inside: four screen Ashes and one crown, plus the Elvis film that plays differently now.

Movies

She was a secret new mother on two hours of sleep the night The Blind Side won. Sixteen years on, we rank six Bullock performances and the Oscar winner does not come first. Plus the sequel she says she wants to make.

Books

Out this Tuesday: 288 pages, a summer Mandarin course in Taipei, a grandfather's funeral, and no magic or satire anywhere. Early readers are fighting over it. We name the Kuang a newcomer should read first, and the 1985 film she took the title from.

Books

The New York Times says it is, The Guardian thinks it sags in the middle, and Ron Charles calls it one of the most disturbing books he has ever read. We settle whether 640 pages of 1988 Kingston get your month, and which Marlon James a newcomer should open first.

Music

The reunion-tour film carries the brothers' first joint interview in more than 15 years, a Venice premiere they only half attended, and a two-day IMAX head start before it goes wide this Friday, with Disney+ waiting later in the year for anyone who would rather sit this one out. We pick a side on the ticket, and on the reconciliation.

Cross-media

A 2017 series climbed 32 places in seven days to top CrossBinge's TV chart, and we have exactly one guess about who to thank. Also climbing: Project Hail Mary, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, a Kendrick Lamar album and a pen-pal romance, each priced in the hours it asks of you, with one winner for the week.