Daniel Whitehill

When the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset releases in Q1 2016, it will include a gamepad -- a familiar one, at that. Oculus has partnered with Microsoft to bundle the wireless Xbox One controller and adapter (usable with Windows 10) and enable streaming of Xbox One games to the device.

"Rift will natively work with Windows 10," said Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, during today's Oculus E3 2015 livestream. People will be able to "stream their Xbox One games like Halo, Forza, and Sunset Overdrive to the Oculus Rift using the controller that they know and love."

A short clip demonstrated what that looks like: a "virtual cinema." You put on the Rift, "like a baseball cap," and what you see is exactly that -- a theater with a giant screen displaying your chosen Xbox One title. It looked a little strange, but maybe it's more novel in person with VR.

From indie underdog to Facebook bought to Microsoft partnered.

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Starfighter: Eclipse may sound like a title for a run-of-the-mill sci-fi game involving spaceships, but don’t let the name fool you. It’s actually way steamier than that.

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Paul Feig's lady Ghostbusters is taking its gender-swapping to new heights -- because in addition to the new team of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones replacing the original Ghostbusters, Thor himself is standing in for Annie Potts' Janine Melnitz, one of the most underrated parts of the original movie. Feig made the announcement on Twitter:

Our receptionist. #whoyougonnacall pic.twitter.com/wGTzs8KdUs

-- Paul Feig (@paulfeig) June 10, 2015

Apparently, the new Ghostbusters' receptionist demanded that his role be expanded in the script before accepting the part, which was accommodated. Hopefully that just means that this version of the team will need to raise some money by doing an extensive calendar shoot with Hemsworth and the next-generation version of Slimer showing off their proton six-packs.

How do you spice up a news story about a non-fatal car crash in Jackson, Mississippi? By involving this guy.

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Some people revel in being a big fish in a small pond. But real fish stuck in a real pond probably aren’t as happy about the situation. So to make the Koi swimming around in your backyard a little happier, consider upgrading their pond with this floating dome that lets them actually swim above the surface of the water and see the world outside their underwater home.

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For every police killing that garners national attention, there are dozens that go unnoticed. And while the US government doesn’t keep an official record of police shootings, it’s becoming increasingly clear that such records are badly needed.

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It looks like the final model of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has leaked. After a couple years of development, and several iterations of developer kits, the Rift seems to have a finished design, according to images found in the Oculus website's code by Reddit user explogeek.

Users discovered a full pre-order guide for the Rift. Last month, the company released its recommended PC specifications for the Rift, noting that the headset would require a good PC. This guide corroborates this statement, but it also notes the minimum specs for the headset:

• 4 GB RAM
• Nvidia 9800 or AMD 4870 graphics card with 1 GB dedicated RAM
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU or 2.4 GHz AMD Phenom 9850 Quad Core CPU
• 65 GB HDD

Among the additions to the headset include built-in earphones, which will rest on the user's ears while the headset is on. It's not clear at the moment whether those can be removed and replaced with a better pair, something that many users will want to do.

The headset also includes a remote for navigation according to the images. The remote has a trackpad similar to that shown on Valve's new Steam controller, as well as a back button. Clearly this remote is meant for simple tasks only, and will be supplanted by a gamepad or other input device if the user is playing games.

Last month, Oculus also announced that the Rift would launch in early 2016, bringing it into the same launch window as Sony’s Morpheus VR headset for the PlayStation 4. Valve's Vive headset is still due to be released by the end of this year.

This leak most likely comes ahead of an announcement of the final model of the Rift at the Oculus event on June 11. As this is a leak, the details are still subject to change. Some of the guide also looks unfinished, so keep an eye on GameSpot for any more news of the Rift when it becomes available later this week.

A few years ago, I talked to a guy in his mid-30’s on Grindr who said he wanted to have condomless sex with me. He assured me he was on Truvada. I declined but kept in touch. When I started writing my first Truvada story in late 2013, I wanted first-hand accounts of PrEP users so I reached back out to him in an attempt to interview him. He flaked on me multiple times and I didn’t hear from him again until a few weeks ago. He hit me up on Facebook to tell me he missed our interviews because he was on meth at the time. Furthermore, he had just gotten out of Rikers. He told me if I ever wanted to publish something about what it’s like to be a (white) gay man in that jail, I should hit him up. I agreed immediately, met him for brunch, and had him tell me his story. He asked to remain anonymous. The first-person account below is the result of our interview.

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Time for the final stand of Katniss Everdeen -- the first trailer for Mockingjay Part 2, the final Hunger Games movie. (Also one of the more disconcerting instances of the last movie in a trilogy being split into two movies, but that's none of our business.) From the trailer, it looks to be the most action-packed, grim installment of the series, which is about what you would expect from a YA series that leads to full-on revolution against a dystopian society. By now, Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss is leading a giant army in full revolt against President Snow, with whom, we suspect, she has some personal beef. The most dystopian moment of the trailer, though? A brief glimpse of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who at least was not digitally recreated for his scenes as Plutarch Heavensbee. Check it out below.

Watch me bend it like Beckham. – daisy100

Upvote winners (it’s a tie!):

Dude! When you said you got cut I thought you meant they threw you off the team. – Harveyrabbit

“You try it”
“I’m not gonna try it.”
“Let’s get Mikey! He’ll try anything!” – Vernicious

(Thanks Rob)

For a very long time, whenever I saw a picture of Zoe Saldana and her hot hipster husband, I would just refer to him as “Zoe Saldana’s Hot Hipster Husband” or “Fabio of Williamsburg.” Eventually I learned that Zoe Saldana’s husband had a name, and it was Marco Perego. Now it looks like I’m going to have to take a dry cloth and wipe away the name “Perego” from the white board in my brain, because that’s not his name anymore. Zoe Saldana recently admitted during an interview with InStyle (via UsWeekly) that her husband decided to go by “Mr. Marco Saldana” ever since they made it legal two years ago.

“I tried to talk him out of it. I told him, ‘If you use my name, you’re going to be emasculated by your community of artists, by your Latin community of men, by the world.’ Marco looks up at me and says, ‘Ah, Zoe, I don’t give a shit.'”

I’m with Marco on this one. If you have the opportunity to take your name from fairly sexy to mucho sexo (Marco Saldana is a very sexy name), you should take it. And if anyone gives him stank eye because he took his wife’s last name, he can just be like “My name is Marco Saldana, your opinion is invalid.”

At least we know Marco did it for the right reasons. If Marco’s motivation for changing his name was to take advantage of his famous wife’s last name and get special treatment, he would have legally changed it to Marco Kit-from-Crossroads. Nothing says “Right this way, sir!” like letting people know you’re married to the third-billed star of one of the greatest movies ever made.

The only thing missing is Soulwax FM.

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MIT has already demonstrated that its incredibly nimble and fast robot cheetah can run free without the need for cables or safety tethers. But now it’s not only able run down its prey out in the open, it can also jump without losing its stride. So when the robot uprising eventually happens, ducking behind a wall isn’t going to help you. Thanks, MIT!

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Shia’s latest motivational video shows that you can be anything you want to be. – PinkIsTheBlondeofColors

Upvote winner:

Not quite the discreet shipping the Adam and Eve website promised. – pamorama_j

Pic: Tosh.0

Following the triumphant launch of HBO Now over the last few months, Showtime is rolling out a standalone offering of its own. Starting July 12th you’ll be able to watch Showtime for $11 per month without cable.

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We’re still reeling from the epic, book-bettering events of the latest episode of Game of Thrones. Want to see what went into the making of one of the coolest sequences on the show so far? HBO has released an awesome look behind the scenes at how they filmed “Hardhome.”

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