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This indie sci-fi game is a lesson in resilience and resistance
Citizen Sleeper 2’s android protagonist, in a scene from the game’s trailer.
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An abandoned, powerful spaceship hides somewhere in the Starward Belt.
My contact Yu-Jin swears he can find it — I scrounge up a crew and zip to his coordinates, only to lose out to a competitor who chased us there. Exhausted and defeated, I grit my robot teeth and plan my next gig — anything to scrape together the fuel I need to evade the crime boss on my trail.
Desperation and hope intertwine in Citizen Sleeper 2, out Jan. 31. Like its acclaimed 2022 predecessor, the sci-fi video game puts you in the shoes of an android who’s escaped a dystopian corporation (imagine Blade Runner, from a replicant’s perspective). But despite its interstellar cyberpunk-esque setting, developer Gareth Damian Martin says the series grapples with issues close to home.
“I’m not really ever thinking about the future,” Martin says. “I’m really twisting and emphasizing or making more palpable tensions that I feel in the present.”
These tensions run from the global to the intimate. As an uneasy Gaza ceasefire and grinding siege in Ukraine splash across real-world headlines, Martin says that Citizen Sleeper 2 unfolds “on the shores of war.” Distant battles rumble through the more immediate concerns of the game’s protagonist and allies, who collaborate to scratch out lives on the margins of unchecked capitalism.
Carefully allocate dice to earn money and progress story events — but beware, lower die rolls can have steep risks.
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Fellow Traveler
As cutting-edge as these themes might be, Citizen Sleeper’s grounded in ancient gaming technology.
“Each day you roll five dice,” Martin explains. “So low rolling dice are kind of important in the game, to not be something that you can easily use efficiently — they have to be something that you kind of take a chance on.”
These digital dice force you to consider the risks of your precarious position. In Citizen Sleeper 2, Martin expanded the system to model trauma. Dice break if you get too stressed, requiring costly resources to repair.
“They’ll take little scratches and nicks,” says Martin. “By the end of the game, your dice have been broken over and over again and will be shown right there on the screen as a kind of allegory for all those marks of a story that happened — the body keeps the score, I guess.”
Interview highlights
On failure being built into the narrative of the game
Yeah, this is a huge part of the philosophy of Citizen Sleeper. But then with the sequel, I really wanted to push hard on this idea of, “I’m going to invite you into situations where there’s a lot of different right answers and a lot of different wrong answers.” There’s a lot of different ways that it can break down, can break bad, or it can break good. I want to create these moments that hinge on single dice, where you’re deciding, “Do I use this dice for this” and try to emphasize those and bring stories out of them. You’re always playing as a character who’s struggling, and so when you struggle in the game, it kind of rhymes nicely with the things you know about the character. You know about their body that’s falling apart and about them being pursued and desperate.
A story scene with a crew member. The dice at the top of the screen bear nicks and cracks after repeated breaks and repairs.
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On how this game, released in 2025, speaks to major issues of our time
In a way, it’s kind of for others to tell me how much they feel it does achieve that or not. It’s very much about bodily autonomy in that very literal way and then also a political way. Citizen Sleeper has always been about this tension between, “Is it the most depressing thing in the world that these systems exist and can crush us without ever even knowing?” Or “is it incredible that we’re able to build meaningful relationships within those structures despite the fact that they are so uncaring and vast?” So, I do hope that it feels productive.
On the game centering community, resiliency and resistance
I think that for me, I’m really interested in drawing the focus down into what people are doing to survive and thrive and build relationships and communities. Citizen Sleeper 2 is a real opportunity because I knew this would be a character who is transient and dealing with characters who are going through this transitional moment. To have you then engage with a community that is maybe becoming solid, but also, the knowledge that you can’t necessarily become part of that community permanently. I think games have a kind of tendency to make everything feel permanent. So I really wanted this delicacy of change and of things falling apart and entropy and the kind of beauty of how people resist that and how people build meaning — despite the fact that they know that one day everyone they ever knew and everything they ever thought has gone. I find that eternally kind of beautiful.
Ariana Grande arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.
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The brightest stars in TV and film kicked off the 83rd annual Golden Globes tonight in Beverly Hills, Calif. with Ariana Grande, Noah Wyle, Teyana Taylor and George Clooney are just some the names who walked the red carpet. This year’s ceremony was hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser.
Here’s a glimpse of what some of the attendees are wearing tonight.
Michael B. Jordan
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Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Evans
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Jean Smart
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Teyana Taylor
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Jenna Ortega
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Owen Cooper
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Sara Wells and Noah Wyle
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Claire Danes
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Stellan Skarsgård and Megan Everett-Skarsgard
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Amy Poehler
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EJAE
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Amanda Anka and Jason Bateman
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Paul Mescal
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Adam Brody and Leighton Meester
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Laufey
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Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons
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Chris Olsen
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Lisa Ann Walter
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Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song
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Jacob Elordi
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Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco
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Ryan Destiny
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Jennifer Garner
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Rose Byrne
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Kate Hudson
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Snoop Dogg
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Timothée Chalamet
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Miley Cyrus
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George Clooney and Amal Clooney
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Leonardo DiCaprio
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Michel Martin
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Steve Inskeep
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Leila Fadel
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A Martinez
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Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy
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Amanda Seyfried
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William Stanford Davis
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Tessa Thompson
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Kathy Bates
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Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell
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Skylar Diggins
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Monica Padman
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Adam Scott and Naomi Scott
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Jayme Lawson
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Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson
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Emma Stone
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Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall
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Nischelle Turner
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Brett Goldstein
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Parker Posey
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Vince Gilligan
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Chloé Zhao
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Mark Ruffalo and Sunrise Coigney
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Hannah Einbinder
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Sheryl Lee Ralph
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Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key
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Justin Sylvester
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Judd Apatow and Lesley Mann
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Keltie Knight
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Sarah Snook
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Glen Powell
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Piper Curda
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Justine Lupe
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Helen Hoehne
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Natasha Rothwell
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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis
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Minnie Driver
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Orlando Bloom
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Hudson Williams
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Connor Storrie
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Erin Doherty
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Wanda Sykes
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Nikki Glaser
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Julia Roberts
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Emily Blunt
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Chris Perfetti
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Rhea Seehorn
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Dakota Fanning
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Queen Latifah
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2026 Golden Globes
Nikki Glaser Shouts Out Rob Reiner …
Dons ‘Spinal Tap’ Hat at Close of Show
Published
Rob Reiner wasn’t forgotten at this year’s Golden Globe awards … because host Nikki Glaser paid tribute to him just weeks after his murder.
Here’s the deal … during the sign-off for the awards show, Nikki came onstage wearing a black and white “Spinal Tap” hat — the band which serves as the subject of Reiner’s iconic 1984 mockumentary of the same name.
Worth noting … the Golden Globes do not typically air an in memoriam — so this was the only time Reiner was mentioned at the show.
As you know … Rob and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Los Angeles home last month. Their son Nick Reiner has been arrested for murder in connection to the case.
TMZ.com
Nick’s arraignment was scheduled for last week … but, his lawyer Alan Jackson dropped out of the case — leaving Nick with a public defender and new arraignment date set for late February.
Jackson told a gaggle of reporters outside the courthouse that Nick’s not guilty … but, he simply can’t defend him. He did not provide a reason for his withdrawal.
Our new documentary “TMZ Investigates The Reiner Murders: What Really Happened” dives into Rob and Michele’s grisly deaths … as well as Nick’s history of mental health issues and even how his weight gain set him on a dangerous path.
“TMZ Investigates The Reiner Murders: What Really Happened” is now streaming on Hulu.
On-air challenge
Today’s puzzle is called “Pet Theory.” Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first word start starts PE- and the second word starts T-. (Ex. What walkways at intersections carry –> PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC)
1. Chart that lists all the chemical elements
2. Place for a partridge in “The 12 Days of Christmas”
3. Male voyeur
4. What a coach gives a team during halftime in the locker room
5. Set of questions designed to reveal your traits
6. Something combatants sign to end a war
7. Someone who works with you one-on-one with physical exercises
8. Member of the Who
9. Incisors, canines, and premolars that grow in after you’re a baby
10. Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score this at the Olympics
11. What holds the fuel in a British car
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge was a numerical one from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. Take the nine digits — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You can group some of them and add arithmetic operations to get 2011 like this: 1 + 23 ÷ 4 x 5 x 67 – 8 + 9. If you do these operations in order from left to right, you get 2011. Well, 2011 was 15 years ago. Can you group some of the digits and add arithmetic symbols in a different way to make 2026? The digits from 1 to 9 need to stay in that order. I know of two different solutions, but you need to find only one of them.
Challenge answer
12 × 34 × 5 – 6 – 7 + 8 – 9 [or] 1 + 2 + 345 × 6 – 7 × 8 + 9
Winner
Daniel Abramson of Albuquerque, N.M.
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from listener Ward Hartenstein. Think of a well-known couple whose names are often said in the order of _____ & _____. Seven letters in the names in total. Combine those two names, change an E to an S, and rearrange the result to name another famous duo who are widely known as _____ & _____.
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, January 15 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
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