Ready Player One was either a fantastic tribute to nerd culture or an annoying slog filled with nostalgic pandering, it really depends on who you ask.

But what usually isn’t up for debate is how cool that whole The Shining sequence was.

For many fans, it was an exciting tribute to a classic film. For director Steven Spielberg, it was an ode to a friend.

Starting March 12, as a sponsored promotion for the Ready Player One movie, Roblox, a Minecraft-esque MMO that also allows players to create their own games, held their own Easter egg hunt of sorts. After a gruelling set of challenges, a player called R0cu was declared the winner of the event on April 3. However, other players are saying that they made it to the end of the Easter egg hunt first.

A giant pile of nerd references masquerading as a movie, Ready Player One, premiered last night. Seung Park, Tim Rogers and I all watched it, and now they're going to talk about it.

Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Ready Player One, like the source material, is chock full of references to 80s music, movies, and video games. It also throws in a few Master Chiefs, Overwatch characters, and the Iron Giant for good measure. Usually these references are surface level and fleeting, but a few carry more weight -- like the appearance of Adventure for the Atari 2600.

Ready Player One is set to hit theatres soon, a film that's gotten a mixed reception so far (you can read our review here). The virtual world of pure imagination that director Steven Spielberg has created differs from Ernest Cline's original novel, but one of those changes has created, or rather enhanced, a major problem - if everyone in the story is totally obsessed with pop culture, why don't we see any of it made after 2018?

Ready Player One is all about people using a virtual world called the OASIS to make their dreams come true. While virtual reality has only been a thing - at least in name - since the 1980s, people have been dreaming of life in fictional worlds for thousands of years. In a new episode of "That Looks Familiar", Beth Elderkin looks at the real history of why we're so obsessed with virtual reality.

Now that the first wave of Ready Player One reviews have confirmed what the earliest trailers for the film suggested - that it's over-reliant on genre culture nostalgia because its story is sorely lacking - the newest trailer is trying something bold: Explaining the plot, instead.

The early reactions to Ready Player One after its screening at SXSW were mostly positive, but don't count ours among them. It isn't so much a movie about loving old video games and other cultural artifacts. It's about loving to love those things, which makes Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the bestselling novel feel hollow despite - or maybe because of - the relentless pop culture references it throws at you.

One of the greatest directors of a generation, and one author who owes that director a huge debt of influence.

Rollercoasters have come a long way since the theme park rides of old, as thrill-seekers and park operators look for the next big thing.

Ready Player One has it all wrong.

The first Ready Player One preview had a load of cameos and pop culture references, so it's no surprise that the latest one does, too.

Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One adaptation got its first poster this weekend and there's something a little off about it. Namely actor Tye Sheridan's left leg which seems to stretch on into infinity.

We still know very little about how Steven Spielberg is adapting Ernie Cline's Ready Player One. We know the cast and that it's coming out March 30, 2018, but that's about it. However, now we know T.J. Miller is playing a role invented for the film, and that the character is a huge Star Wars fanatic.

Steven Spielberg is bringing Ernest Cline's book Ready Player One to the big screen. The famed director is currently filming in the UK, and here's a peek at the production.

Thanks to its endless references to 1980s video games, Ernest Cline’s 2011 book Ready Player One is hard not to like if you’re a gamer of a certain age. It makes for a rip-roaring read: the classic hero’s journey redone with Back to the Future shout-outs, Joust and John Hughes. And it’s soon to be a film, too: Steven Spielberg is scheduled to start shooting this summer, ahead of a March 2018 release date.