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(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: The Guest

Where You Can Stream It: Netflix

The Pitch: Writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard reteamed after their 2011 home invasion horror "You're Next" to create "The Guest," an '80s flavored thriller with a sweet synth soundtrack and some serious Halloween vibes. 

"The Guest" stars "Downton Abbey" heartthrob Dan Stevens as David Collins, a young soldier who shows up on the doorstep of the Peterson family, claiming to have served with their son who was killed in action. Parents Spencer (Leland Orser) and Laura (Sheila Kelley) both welcome David into the family with open arms, but their 20-year-old daughter, Anna (Maika Monroe from "It Follows"), isn't so sure. David helps teenage brother Luke (Brendan Meyer) with bullies, pumpkin carving, and his self-confidence, but Anna still thinks that the sweet super-soldier isn't all that he says he is. 

As Anna discovers more and more about David's past, the bodies start piling up and the Halloween dance becomes the least of her worries. Lance Reddick stars as the military agent in charge of hunting David down before it's too late, but Halloween in this town ends up being one bloody holiday. 

Why It's Essential Viewing

"The Guest" is about to get a gorgeous 4K Blu-ray release, but Netflix also just added it to the streaming platform, just in time for Halloween! I make it a tradition to watch "The Guest" every year in October, because it's the perfect movie to get you in the mood for spooky season. It wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, paying homage to the greats while still being its own thing. The music is reminiscent of Carpenter, the cinematography blending the work of De Palma, Tarantino, and more. It's a creepy, sexy, sleek thriller that oozes style while maintaining a sense of fun that keeps it from being too much of a bummer. 

There's also loads of Halloween imagery, from David helping Luke to carve his jack-o-lantern to the many Halloween decorations that seem to be everywhere. The Petersons have pumpkins and fall leaves everywhere in their home, and they're all over the high school Luke attends. Even the diner where Anna works has Halloween decorations hanging up, so it's impossible to forget exactly what time of year "The Guest" takes place. A big chunk of the third act takes place in a homemade haunted house in the school gym, so it's permanently cemented its place in the Halloween cinema canon.

The Petersons Are The Perfect Popcorn Family

One thing that "The Guest" hinges on is the audience's willingness to care about the Peterson family enough to be concerned about David. After all, David is ridiculously good-looking, charming, and he's a total badass kill guy. It's almost impossible not to root for him, but the movie helps us root for the family he's infiltrated. By pitting the audience's desire to see David do some damage and their desire to see the Petersons stay safe against one another, the movie maintains tension from start to finish. 

The Petersons feel like the average all-American family. They're not rich, but clearly comfortable. Father Spencer misses having another adult man in the house after the death of his son Caleb, and he starts treating David as a surrogate. They drink beer together and watch sports, and when his wife Laura questions some of David's odder behavior, he explains it away with "maybe he's got the PTSD." Total Dad move, through and through. Laura sometimes cries in the laundry room when she thinks about her dead son, but she's also doing her best to get Luke through high school and keep Anna from getting into trouble and dating drug dealers. Anna and Luke are each dealing with the loss of their brother in different ways, but both are clearly struggling. 

David seems like the perfect fix for this slightly broken family, filling in the cracks left behind by the death of Caleb. He helps Luke with his homework and helps him dodge detention. He does chores around the house, helps with laundry, and even drives Anna home after she gets high at a party. So why does it feel like there's something sinister lurking beneath all of that smolder?

Stevens Is Scary Sexy

Stevens became famous for acting in stodgy period romances on the BBC, but he's in totally different form in "The Guest." He skirts the line between creepy and cool, his lingering stares leaning closer to stalker territory as the movie progresses. Even though she doesn't trust him, Anna develops a bit of a crush on him (girl, same), and even makes him a mix CD of her favorite music. David knows how to turn on the charm, but the filmmakers regularly remind us that he's not as sweet as he seems. He manages to keep his murderous tendencies on the down-low for awhile, but when Anna overhears a phone call where he's asking for fingers, her crush becomes concern. 

Everyone puts in a great performance, but Stevens anchors every single scene with a quiet intensity. It feels like he's constantly tensed and ready to strike, like an animal that's been cornered but won't go down without a fight. By the time he kills a couple of local criminals (played by Joel David Moore and Ethan Embry, who should both be in everything), we know that this story can't have a happy ending. 

"The Guest" becomes a game of cat-and-mouse that switches players multiple times, and revealing any more than that would do it a disservice. This sexy, stylish flick is a lean thriller that deserves a massive cult following. Honestly, the soundtrack does too. 

The Ultimate Spooky Synthwave Soundtrack

Not only is "The Guest" a great Halloween movie that's scary, sexy, and a lot of fun, but the soundtrack absolutely slaps. If you've never dabbled in the genre of synthwave before, this is a perfect primer. Synthwave is an electronic music subgenre based on the music of action, sci-fi, and horror movie soundtracks from the 1980s. Synthwave seeks to emulate the music of pioneers like John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream, and it's the perfect fit for the 80s-themed imagery of "The Guest." (If it sounds kind of familiar, synthwave first gained mainstream popularity with the "Drive" soundtrack in 2011.)

The soundtrack features songs by Love and Rockets, Mike Simonetti, Stevie B, Clan of Xymox, and more. It's full of thumping beats and sinister sounds, and makes the perfect soundtrack for your Devil's Night plans, Halloween party, or even just going to the gym.

Read this next: The Daily Stream: Peter Hyams' Stay Tuned Is One Hell Of A '90s Throwback

The post The Daily Stream: The Guest is the Perfect Halloween Watch appeared first on /Film.

RBDOOM-3-BFG 1.3.0 adds PBR, Baked Global Illumination and TrenchBroom Mapping Support. This release fixes the darkness of Doom 3 and makes the game look more similar to Dead Space and Doom 2016 without adding new textures and materials. RBDOOM-3-BFG 1.3.0 presents Doom 3 BFG in a fresh look and you will be impressed how much beautiful artwork was in Doom 3 which you haven't seen before because the lighting was all pitch black. The original main goal of this 1.3.0 release is to give modders the ability to make new content using up to date Material & Lighting standards. Adding PBR is a requirement to make the new content look the same in RBDOOM-3-BFG as in Blender 2.9x with Cycles or Adobe Substance. PBR became the standard material authoring since 2014. Many texture packs for Doom 3 like the Wulfen & Monoxead packs were made before and are heavily outdated. With this release modders can work with modern tools and expect that their content looks as expected.

[link] [189 comments]

Living in an older house is, for many reasons, an experience. From architectural details you don’t see anymore, to layers of paint and wallpaper, to custom built-ins, there are features hidden everywhere.

Read more...

If you're a living human being then chances are you're familiar with "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." It's the embodiment of the cult musical, the midnight movie favorite that has become a rite of passage for generations of fans of kitschy sci-fi and queer kids the world over. 

Initially a flop upon release, the 1975 movie adaptation of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" soon found its fans and evolved into a near-legendary cinematic experience. The audience catcalls and throwing of toilet paper are almost as iconic as the film itself. Even after Disney acquired the movie through its acquisition of 20th Century Fox and began withdrawing archival Fox movies from theaters, the studio allowed "Rocky Horror" to remain a midnight screening staple.

Once you've actually seen "Rocky Horror," it's hard to imagine anyone getting to the end of the film and saying, "Wow, I can't wait for the sequel." Musical sequels rarely happen and almost never work. Yet "Rocky Horror" creator Richard O'Brien had a bunch of ideas for a follow-up, and so, in 1981, audiences got the official sequel to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Sort of. But not really.

Brad And Janet Redux

"Shock Treatment" isn't technically a sequel to "Rocky Horror." Some of the characters from the first film are here, but not in ways you would recognize, and there are no sweet transvestites or B-movie parodies. There's no Tim Curry or Susan Sarandon. O'Brien is here, but not as Riff Raff. There isn't a corset in sight. Rather, the film -- directed by Jim Sharman, who also made "Rocky Horror" -- is a kind of alternate reality version of its more famous predecessor. The wide-eyed picture-perfect couple Brad and Janet are here, but they clearly never made their way to the Frankenstein place. As the tagline put it, "It's not a sequel ... it's not a prequel ... it's an equal!"

This time around, Brad and Janet (now played by Jessica Harper and Cliff DeYoung) are living in Denton and having some marriage troubles. The picturesque '50s town has been taken over by a mysterious fast-food magnate named Farley Flavors, and now everything is encased within the Denton Television (DTV) network studio. Essentially, it's a 24/7 reality TV series long before that genre was even a thing. Brad ends up confined to a quack medical facility run by two very familiar faces, while Janet becomes an egotistical diva star of the network.

Where "Rocky Horror" looked to the past for its inspiration (most notably sci-fi films and the burgeoning queer movement of the early '70s), "Shock Treatment" gazes towards the near and deceptively sinister future. The concept of reality television as we know it was just around the corner at the time, although it would take a few decades for it to evolve into the utterly inescapable entertainment force we know and fear today. O'Brien may not have fully known it at the time, but he was tapping into a burgeoning cultural shift that would irrevocably change how we understand television and celebrity.

The Acceptable Face Of The Human Race

Denton's residents proudly swarm into DTV to become the audience and participants of a seemingly never-ending cycle of shows that sell a heightened fantasy of good clean American life. As the opening musical number "Denton U.S.A." puts it, they're "the acceptable face of the human race." They cheer on commercials and coo over product placement and even sleep in the studio at night to be up bright and early for the next day of excitement.

The sheer surrealness of this set-up is utterly normal to Denton's locals, which explains how neither Brad nor Janet seem particularly shocked when a game show leads to Brad being institutionalized. Soon, his perilous situation (and endless drugging by the "doctors" who turn out to be European character actors looking for a new gig) becomes just another form of entertainment in Denton. If "Rocky Horror" was a subversion of the rigid gender norms of a bygone era, "Shock Treatment" embodies the growing conservatism of the uber-corporate Reagan era.

Indeed, mental health is the newest gimmick being packaged and sold to the masses via Dentonvale. Farley Flavors, also played by Cliff DeYoung, wants to "put sanity back on the national menu" via his blatantly evil plans to enslave the world using shock treatment. Obviously, the real nuances and difficulties of mental health struggles aren't Farley's priority. What matters is making it look cool to be committed, and he does that so well (with one especially catchy song where he brags about how he's "gonna take over the entire human race!") that Denton's locals flock to his scheme. All who are critical of him are cancelled or booed off stage. 

The notion of being sold a crock of sh*t and giddily swallowing it because a charismatic TV pitchman with fascistic leanings tells you to do so isn't a subtle dig, but it remains dishearteningly pertinent. The Trump administration had a lot of people considering the prescience of "Network," but "Shock Treatment" is far more fitting a comparison.

Why Shock Treatment Wasn't As Big As Rocky Horror

Don't let this thematic discourse trick you into thinking "Shock Treatment" is po-faced. It's really a blast. The tunes may not be the legendary earworms you heard in "Rocky Horror," but they show O'Brien at his most lyrically witty. Brad and Janet lament their waning marriage in a song titled "Bitchin' in the Kitchen", where they find inspiration in the ad breaks ("Dear blender, oh won't you help a first offender, oh toaster, don't you put the burn on me.") After Janet's bigoted father finds out that a friend of his was caught up in a gay sex scandal, he sings a number about what defines a "real" man. One line says that "men should know the right occasions to indulge in tax evasions." 

It's the kind of scathing satire of pompous American masculinity that wouldn't seem out of place in a John Waters comedy. If there's a weakness in this musical, it's in how many of the songs don't seem connected to the story, even if they are solid numbers. Janet sings a slinky number called "Looking for Trade" that comes out of nowhere and is shot like a De Palma movie. No complaints, of course, but it's not exactly crucial to the narrative.

Rather than let the movie stand on its own two feet, Fox tried to reverse-engineer another midnight cult hit. "Shock Treatment" was treated like an exclusive "only for the real fans" event from the get-go, and it was only released as a midnight screening special on Halloween 1981. It never received a full general theatrical first-run release. Fox executives didn't seem to understand the problem with this method or how cult movies actually happen. As a result, "Shock Treatment" ended up being a bigger financial flop than "Rocky Horror." Fans of the original movie didn't warm to it either -- not when all the things they loved about "Rocky Horror" seemed wholly absent from its "equal." Even O'Brien would later refer to "Shock Treatment" as "an abortion." Its journey towards anything remotely resembling cult status took a bit longer than its older sibling.

But people did eventually return to "Shock Treatment." "Rocky Horror" is now probably too mainstream to truly be cult-friendly, but "Shock Treatment" has retained its rough-around-the-edges underground feel. It's a retro tale with a timely theme, a hidden gem with many layers still to be revealed. It all depends on whether or not audiences are ready for a story about charismatic con artists and the ways we eagerly buy the dangers they're selling. But with songs!

Read this next: The 15 Best '70s Horror Movies Ranked

The post 40 Years of Shock Treatment, the Underrated Rocky Horror Sequel appeared first on /Film.

AtomTeam's follow-up to 2018's Fallout-inspired ATOM RPG is the subject of a new four-page review that we've conjured up for your consumption. A couple of paragraphs about Trudograd's mechanics to get you started:

Seeing how Trudograd was originally planned as an expansion, it allows you to import your high-level ATOM character. Alternatively, if you don't have a save file or are looking for a more challenging experience, you can create a new agent. If you decide to go that route, you'll start the game at level 15 with some basic gear to see you through the opening sections. You'll also need to answer a few questions related to some of the major choices from the previous game.

Either way, the game's roleplaying system should feel familiar to anyone who's played Fallout before. The game's attributes don't follow the SPECIAL system to the letter, but they're still pretty much the same thing.

Skills are a bit different. There are 16 of them in Trudograd, and out of those, only 6 are weapon-related. The rest allow you to become better at talking, trading, sneaking around, and so on. As you raise your skills, you'll be unlocking various threshold bonuses that vary from slightly more damage to permanent attribute increases.

Behaviour Interactive fleshed out a creepy cast of characters by negotiating rights to everything from Saw to Silent Hill.

Intel's ARC Alchemist graphics cards pictures which include high-end and entry-level Xe-HPG GPU-based models have been leaked by Moore's Law is Dead. The high-end graphics card in particular being the most interesting of the two since we also get a glimpse of its PCB in close to final form.

Intel ARC Alchemist Graphics Cards Pictured, Include High-End & Entry-Level Xe-HPG GPU Designs

MLID had already shared the first PCB shots of the ARC Alchemist high-end graphics card back when it was still in the early engineering phase. Earlier this month, he also shared new renders, showcasing the high-end ARC Alchemist shroud design in detail. Now, MLID has leaked out both, the high-end and finalized design for the Intel ARC Alchemist high-end graphics card featuring up to 32 Xe Cores and also renders of the entry-level part with up to 8 Xe Cores.

Intel ARC Alchemist High-End Graphics Card PCB Pictures (Image Credits: MLID):

Starting with the design, the high-end graphics card features a design similar to the one we saw in the renders but now it looks more polished with reflective silver colors and two 9-blade fans that feature the proper Intel logos. The PCB has seen a major change since the last time we saw it in its prototype stage. Since this is close to its final design, the PCB color has been upgraded to black and the size itself has gotten shorter. The power connectors are no longer on the back but on the sides of the card and the high-end variant utilizes an 8+6 pin configuration for a maximum power draw of 300W. The second fan mostly blows air through the aluminum heatsink as it extends beyond the PCB. There should also be a backplate on the card but that has not been shown in these pictures.

Intel ARC Alchemist Entry Level Graphics Card Pictures (Image Credits: MLID):

The entry-level Intel ARC Alchemist graphics card reminds me of the Xe-LP SDV. The rendered design is said to be based on the real thing which MLID can't show right now. The card features a compact design with a dual-slot form factor and may feature a single 6-pin connector to boot. The card offers four display outputs (3 DP + 1 HDMI). MLID also states that AIBs are desperate for a low-end graphics card solution to tackle the likes of the GeForce GTX 16 series which are expensive and the supply issues have made pricing even worse. With an entry-level ARC Alchemist graphics card, it might just have the potential to disrupt the low-end desktop GPU segment.

Intel Xe-HPG 512 EU ARC Alchemist Graphics Card

The top Alchemist 512 EU variant has just one configuration listed so far and that utilizes the full die with 4096 cores, 256-bit bus interface, and up to 16 GB GDDR6 memory featuring a 16 Gbps clock though 18 Gbps cannot be ruled out as per the rumor.

The Alchemist 512 EU chip is expected to measure at around 396mm2 which makes it bigger than the AMD RDNA 2 and NVIDIA Ampere offerings. The Alchemist -512 GPU will come in the BGA-2660 package which measures 37.5mm x 43mm. NVIDIA's Ampere GA104 measures 392mm2 which means that the flagship Alchemist chip is comparable in size while the Navi 22 GPU measures 336mm2 or around 60mm2 less. This isn't the final die size of the chip but it should be very close.

NVIDIA packs in tensor cores and much bigger RT/FP32 cores in its chips while AMD RDNA 2 chips pack a single ray accelerator unit per CU and Infinity Cache. Intel will also have dedicated hardware onboard its Alchemist GPUs for Raytracing & AI-assisted super-sampling tech.

The Xe-HPG Alchemist 512 EU chip is suggested to feature clocks of around 2.2 - 2.5 GHz though we don't know if these are the average clocks or the maximum boost clocks. Let's assume that it's the max clock speed and in that case, the card would deliver up to 18.5 TFLOPs FP32 compute which is  40% more than the RX 6700 XT but 9% lower than the NVIDIA RTX 3070.

Also, it is stated that Intel's initial TDP target was 225-250W but that's been upped to around 275W now. We can expect a 300W variant with dual 8-pin connectors too if Intel wants to push its clocks even further. In either case, we can expect the final model to rock an 8+6 pin connector config, The reference model is also going to look very much like the drone marketing shot Intel put out during the ARC branding reveal. That reference design was leaked a while back by MLID too. There're also talks about a custom lineup being worked upon by Intel's AIB partners.

Intel ARC Alchemist vs NVIDIA GA104 & AMD Navi 22 GPUs

GPU Name	Alchemist DG-512	NVIDIA GA104	AMD Navi 22
Architecture	Xe-HPG	Ampere	RDNA 2
Process Node	TSMC 6nm	Samsung 8nm	TSMC 7nm
Flagship Product	ARC (TBA)	GeForce RTX 3070 Ti	Radeon RX 6700 XT
Raster Engine	8	6	2
FP32 Cores	32 Xe Cores	48 SM Units	40 Compute Units
FP32 Units	4096	6144	2560
FP32 Compute	~16 TFLOPs	21.7 TFLOPs	12.4 TFLOPs
TMUs	256	192	160
ROPs	128	96	64
RT Cores	32 RT Units	48 RT Cores (V2)	40 RA Units
Tensor Cores	512 XMX Cores	192 Tensor Cores (V3)	N/A
Tensor Compute	~131 TFLOPs FP16 ~262 TOPs INT8	87 TFLOPs FP16 174 TOPs INT8	25 TFLOPs FP16 50 TOPs INT8
L2 Cache	TBA	4 MB	3 MB
Additional Cache	16 MB Smart Cache?	N/A	96 MB Infinity Cache
Memory Bus	256-bit	256-bit	192-bit
Memory Capacity	16 GB GDDR6	8 GB GDDR6X	16 GB GDDR6
Launch	Q1 2022	Q2 2021	Q1 2021

Intel Xe-HPG 128 EU ARC Alchemist Graphics Card

Then lastly, we have the Intel Xe-HPG Alchemist 128 EU parts. The top config is once again a full-fat SKU with 1024 cores, a 64-bit bus interface, and up to 8 GB GDDR6 memory. The cut-down variant will come with 96 EUs or 768 cores and a 4 GB GDDR6 memory featured across a 64-bit bus interface. The chip will also feature a clock speed of around 2.2 - 2.5 GHz and have a sub 75W power consumption which means we will be looking at connector-less graphics cards for the entry-level segment.

Performance is expected to land between the GeForce GTX 1650 and GTX 1650 SUPER but with raytracing capabilities. One big advantage that Intel could have over AMD and Intel is that with these cards, they might enter the sub-$250 US market which has been completely abandoned in the current generation of cards. The GeForce RTX 3050 series only got a laptop release so far with RTX 3060 serving the entry-level Ampere segment at $329 US while the RX 6600 is expected to be AMD's entry-level solution for around $300 US.

This GPU will be very similar to the DG1 GPU-based discrete SDV board however Alchemist will have a more improved architecture design and definitely more performance uplift over the first-gen Xe GPU architecture. This lineup is definitely going to be aimed at the entry-level desktop discrete market based on the specifications.

Intel Xe-HPG Based Discrete Alchemist GPU Configurations:

GPU Variant	Graphics Card Variant	GPU Die	Execution Units	Shading Units (Cores)	Memory Capacity	Memory Bus	TGP
Xe-HPG 512EU	ARC A***	Alchemist-512EU	512 EUs	4096	16/8 GB GDDR6	256-bit	225-275W?
Xe-HPG 384EU	ARC A***	Alchemist-512EU	384 EUs	3072	12/6 GB GDDR6	192-bit	225-275W?
Xe-HPG 256EU	ARC A***	Alchemist-512EU	256 EUs	2048	8/4 GB GDDR6	128-bit	150-200W?
Xe-HPG 192EU	ARC A***	Alchemist-512EU	192 EUs	1536	4 GB GDDR6	128-bit	150-200W?
Xe-HPG 128EU	ARC A***	Alchemist-128EU	128 EUs	1024	8/6/4 GB GDDR6	96/64-bit	50-75W?
Xe-HPG 96EU	ARC A***	Alchemist-128EU	86 EUs	768	8/6/4 GB GDDR6	96/64-bit	50-75W?

Based on the timeline, the Xe-HPG Alchemist lineup will compete against NVIDIA's Ampere & AMD RDNA 2 GPUs since both companies aren't expected to launch their next-gen parts by the very end of 2022. NVIDIA and AMD are expected to release refreshes in early 2022 so that might give Intel's new lineup some competition but based on current performance expectations, the refreshed may not bring drastic performance differences to the lineup. The Xe-HPG ARC GPUs will also be coming to the mobility platform too and will be featured in Alder Lake-P notebooks.

The post Intel ARC Alchemist High-End & Entry-Level Graphics Cards Pictured, Xe-HPG GPU Powered Designs For Gamers by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Modder ‘y2keeth’ has released a brand new version of his graphical mod for Doom 3: BFG, Doom 3 BFG Hi Def. This mod aims to improve the game’s graphics by introducing higher poly models, tga texture sources, soft shadows and various effects. Unfortunately, the modder did not share any additional details. From the looks of … Continue reading Doom 3 BFG: Hi-Def Mod looks glorious, V3.2 available for download →

The post Doom 3 BFG: Hi-Def Mod looks glorious, V3.2 available for download appeared first on DSOGaming.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: A new study from the [CDC] finds that vaccination provides better protection against hospitalization with COVID-19 than a previous infection with the virus. The analysis found people hospitalized with coronavirus-like symptoms were more than five times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 if they had had recent prior infection than if they were recently vaccinated. The study released Friday examined more than 7,000 people across nine states and 187 hospitals, comparing those who were unvaccinated and had previously had the coronavirus in the last three to six months and those who were vaccinated over the same time frame. The CDC urged even those who were previously infected to get their shots. [...] Overall, [CDC Director Rochelle Walensky] said at a press briefing earlier this week that the hospitalization rate among unvaccinated people is 12 times higher than for vaccinated people. The vaccination rate for those 12 and older has now reached 78 percent with at least one shot, but Walensky noted that still leaves more than 60 million eligible Americans unvaccinated.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fallout 76 wasn't very good at launch. It was prone to griefers, bereft of life, clunky, and buggy as all hell - worse than Cyberpunk, and it's not even close. Many of those issues remain: crashes are common, bugs still abound, and the UI is more nightmarish than any Scorched you'll come across in post-apocalyptic Appalachia. But they're less severe than they were, and no longer laid bare in an empty world where players have little to do other than harass each other.

The last three years have had their ups and downs, but a few key updates - Wastelanders, Steel Dawn, The Legendary Run, and One Wasteland For All - have made Fallout 76's world a drastically different one than players entered back in 2018. There are NPCs now, and proper quest lines with branching dialogue that make it feel more like a Fallout game. It's a better MMO, too, with more daily quests, endgame gear, and roleplay options. So, what if Fallout 76 came out right now?

Well, to start with, it's pretty unlikely that Fallout 76 would be sitting on a Metacritic score of just over 50%. Judging from the handful of scored and unscored reviews that cropped up following the release of Wastelanders, we'd probably be looking at a score a little higher than 60%, maybe even higher given recent updates like Worlds and Locked & Loaded.

RELATED LINKS: Fallout 76 Mutations, Fallout 76 Perk Cards, Buy Fallout 76

"Schitt's Creek" made history in 2020 when the show swept the Emmys, breaking the record for most wins by a comedy in a single season and becoming the only show to ever win all four of the acting categories in the same year. 

Created by a father and son team, Eugene and Dan Levy, "Schitt's Creek" is about wealthy video store magnate Johnny Rose and his soap opera star wife, Moira, who suddenly find themselves dead broke. The family's last remaining asset is a small town called Schitt's Creek, a town the Rose family bought years ago as a joke gift for their high-maintenance son, David. Now, the Roses and their children, David and Alexis, must say goodbye to their pampered lives and learn how to survive as they relocate to live in a motel in Schitt's Creek.

As the show was created by the Levy men, there's a level of personal insight into each other's personal lives that impact the show's writing. On a recent episode of "The Kelly Clarkson Show," Eugene Levy opened up and discussed an iconic episode that Dan Levy wrote, more than likely, just to screw with his dad. "I'm a little picky about my hair and it's not, you know, it's not vanity, it's just really tough hair to do, you know, for me," Eugene said. With this sensitivity in mind, Dan Levy wrote Eugene Levy's nightmare episode.

'Ah, Dan, Really?'

Dan Levy wasted no time messing with his dad, because the second episode of season one of "Schitt's Creek" is called "The Drip," and in it, Johnny Rose wakes up to find that there has been a slow drip coming from the ceiling above his bed all night, and he wakes up completely soaked. "When I read the scene, I said, 'Ah, Dan, Really? It can't drip anywhere else except on my hair?'" Eugene Levy told Kelly Clarkson. Despite the discomfort, Levy agreed to the scene, understanding the comedy surrounding the scenario.

We were shooting the scene and I took a break and I looked in that little hand mirror, and I'm going, 'Okay, it's all right, I think I can live with this,' and then I hear a voice saying, 'I think it should be more wet ...' that was Daniel. And I said, really? And he said, 'Yeah, I don't think it's gonna play unless it, it's really got to look like it's wet.'

Kelly Clarkson joked that this must be some sort of revenge for Eugene not giving Dan something for Christmas (the Levy family is Jewish, by the way) to which Eugene replied, "It's from something, and I could never to this day track exactly what it was, but we did the scene." Regardless, Eugene had a great time filming the scene saying, "Honestly, I mean, I got as much fun watching him watching me be as miserable as I was doing the scene, but it all worked for the scene."

Check out the full clip from "The Kelly Clarkson Show" below:

Read this next: 15 Shows Like Brooklyn Nine-Nine You Need To See

The post One Episode of Schitt's Creek Was Written Just to Annoy Eugene Levy appeared first on /Film.

Intel has shared two videos, showcasing its DLSS rival, XeSS, in Hitman 3 and The Riftbreaker. In these videos, Intel compares the re-constructed 4K image of XeSS with native 1080p. According to Intel, XeSS 4K will have performance comparable to native 1080p in these two games (which is why the blue team has compared these … Continue reading Intel shows off its DLSS rival, XeSS, in Hitman 3 and The Riftbreaker →

The post Intel shows off its DLSS rival, XeSS, in Hitman 3 and The Riftbreaker appeared first on DSOGaming.

Modder ‘XF-Alien’ has released a brand new total conversion mod for the original Half-Life game. Titled Half-Life: Delta, this mod features 4 chapters and 31 gameplay maps. Moreover, it packs a lot of new content, as well as new weapons and a new Dark Ambient soundtrack. Here is the plot/story of Half-Life: Delta. “The protagonist … Continue reading Half-Life: Delta is a Total Conversion for HL, featuring 4 chapters and 31 gameplay maps →

The post Half-Life: Delta is a Total Conversion for HL, featuring 4 chapters and 31 gameplay maps appeared first on DSOGaming.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night put an extra dash of 'vania in the Metroidvania world thanks to the influence of long-time Castlevania lead Koji Igarashi, and the devs have kept things going with a robust array of free content update - though those updates have been subject to several delays. But they're still coming, and now the devs have confirmed a few details about the next new playable character.

"We can confirm that this new character is NOT from the world of Bloodstained," the devs say in the announcement. "We have been working closely with a well-known partner to bring their character (and a friend) into the game. As with previous characters, you will be able to explore the entire map, though certain abilities will need to be acquired before some areas and bosses can be accessed. Along the way you will be able to increase the rank and class of the character’s special ability to grow in power."

The Bloodstained roadmap previously put both "special crossover content" and the new playable character in the fourth quarter of 2020. Then in the first quarter of 2021. Now there's no clear release timeframe, as the developers are dealing with "major technical issues".

RELATED LINKS: Bloodstained release date, Bloodstained demo

Scientists have discovered a new phase of water -- adding to liquid, solid and gas -- know as "superionic ice." The "strange black" ice, as scientists called it, is normally created at the core of planets like Neptune and Uranus. From a report: In a study published in Nature Physics, a team of scientists co-led by Vitali Prakapenka, a University of Chicago research professor, detailed the extreme conditions necessary to produce this kind of ice. It had only been glimpsed once before, when scientists sent a massive shockwave through a droplet of water, creating superionic ice that only existed for an instant. In this experiment, the research team took a different approach. They pressed water between two diamonds, the hardest material on Earth, to reproduce the intense pressure that exists at the core of planets. Then, they used the Advanced Photon Source, or high-brightness X-ray beams, to shoot a laser through the diamonds to heat the water, according to the study. "Imagine a cube, a lattice with oxygen atoms at the corners connected by hydrogen when it transforms into this new superionic phase, the lattice expands, allowing the hydrogen atoms to migrate around while the oxygen atoms remain steady in their positions," Prakapenka said in a press release. "It's kind of like a solid oxygen lattice sitting in an ocean of floating hydrogen atoms." Using an X-ray to look at the results, the team found the ice became less dense and was described as black in color because it interacted differently with light. "It's a new state of matter, so it basically acts as a new material, and it may be different from what we thought," Prakapenka said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Relaxing means something different to everyone. From meditation tools to silky robes, these ideas are sure to please.

Commentary: Feeling existential? This sci-fi movie tackles what it means to be alive.

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A few days ago I asked Lifehacker readers to share with me the trauma inflicted by the films they saw as children—the disturbing scenes they witnessed well before they were ready to handle the horrors they contained.

I wasn’t looking to hear about the time dad let you watch A Nightmare on Elm Street. Obviously that’s…

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The latest Version of DOOM BFA now with improved SDK support.

It’s no secret that many users finally make the switch from Windows to Linux because of a desire to make their own choices and take control of their computer and privacy. Although there are many Linux distros, each different from the next, security and privacy are the common threads running through all of them.

Humans love it when dogs cock their head to one side, but no one really knows why, and there have been few studies into the adorable phenomenon. Some have speculated dogs tilt their head to better hear certain frequencies or see past their snouts. — Read the rest

My car tire had a dry-wall screw in it. I bought a cheap tire plug repair kit at the local Pep Boys for about $12. It was hard to use because I had to apply a lot of force to the plastic handle and it was painful. — Read the rest

"Die Hard with a Vengeance" is easily the best sequel in the entire "Die Hard" franchise, but it took a little while to get there. Just as the original "Die Hard" and "Die Hard 2" were based on pre-existing material that was repurposed into action blockbusters, "Die Hard with a Vengeance" originated in a stand-alone project called "Simon Says." Brandon Lee ("The Crow") was once slated to star in "Simon Says" early in its original iteration. When that didn't work out, Warner Bros. picked up the script and tried to turn it into a "Lethal Weapon" sequel. And finally, Fox snagged it and turned it into "Die Hard with a Vengeance." But there's one element of the script that didn't make it into the final cut: a much more brutal ending where John McClane takes vengeance a little too far.

The Movie We Know

In "Die Hard with a Vengeance," a hungover and downtrodden John McClane is pulled back into action in New York when his presence is requested by a terrorist who has just detonated a bomb downtown. The terrorist calls himself "Simon," and he sends McClane and a begrudging sidekick named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson) on a game of "Simon Says," where a series of riddles and games are scattered around the city with bombs attached to them. But there's one major bomb at an unknown school in the city that lingers throughout the entire day, and all of New York's cops are trying to figure out where it is.

During this game that "Simon" has created, McClane learns that the identity of the terrorist is actually Simon Peter Gruber (Jeremy Irons), the brother of Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) who was killed by the detective in the original "Die Hard." Simon's plan isn't to actually blow up a school, but to steal literal truckloads of gold from the Federal Reserve while they're out looking for the school bomb. Simon's game with McClane is just a little fun to get back at the cop who killed his brother.

After McClane and Zeus figure out Simon's real plan, they find him and his crew on the cargo ship that is hauling all the gold. Unfortunately, they're unable to stop him, and they're left on a tanker vessel and tied to a bomb in the cargo hold. Simon then broadcasts a message proclaiming his plan to blow up the tanker and scatter all the stolen gold across the bottom of the ocean in order to destabilize the Western world economy. Simon escapes, but McClane and Zeus also make it out alive before the bomb detonates. McClane also knows that Simon didn't actually blow up the ship to spread the gold on the ocean floor. Simon just wanted everyone to think that he did as one last trick.

With no idea where Simon has gone, it seems the terrorist has gotten the best of McClane. But that's when McClane's depressed state becomes an asset. He's been nursing a hangover all day, and just before Simon left him to die on the tanker with Zeus, McClane jokingly asked for some aspirin. Simon laughs at the idea and tosses him a small bottle of pills. McClane actually holds onto the bottle after escaping the tanker vessel, and after it seems Simon has gotten away, he notices that the bottle says "Nord Des Lignes," which just so happens to be Quebec's Largest Truckstop.

The police surround a nearby warehouse in Canada where they find Simon and his crew, and after a shootout with police, the terrorist tries to make a getaway in a helicopter. As they're attempting to fly off, McClane shoots an overhead power line that falls onto the helicopter's blades, causing it to crash and explode. Game over.

So how much different was the original "Die Hard with a Vengeance" ending that we didn't see?

Die Hard With A Vengeance Alternate Ending

In the alternate ending for "Die Hard with a Vengeance," which was actually shot and included on a special edition release of the film on DVD, Simon still makes his getaway. But rather than McClane realizing that he's in Quebec, the cop actually tracks him down to Hungary. He reveals to Simon that he figured out the gold wasn't actually sunk in the ocean. Instead, Simon kept the gold, smuggling it across the globe by melting it into statues of the Empire State Building.

Though it seems like the movie was called "Die Hard with a Vengeance" because of Simon being Hans Gruber's brother, this different ending actually gives McClane his own brand of revenge. The ensuing confusion over Simon's heist caused McClane to lose his job and pension all over again, and the police and FBI actually suspect that McClane was part of the heist all along. So McClane is pissed, and he's out for blood.

By the time he's found Simon, McClane has already dispatched with the rest of Simon's gang, and now he wants to play a game of his own. It's called "McClane Says," and Simon has to answer a series of riddles himself or else he'll be blasted to hell by a Chinese rocket launcher that McClane forces Simon to spin in a sort of Russian roullette scenario. The sight and aiming markers have been removed so there's no way of knowing which end the rocket will shoot. That puts McClane in danger too, but since he's got nothing to lose, it doesn't matter. In the end, McClane forces Simon to push the rocket's trigger after he gets a riddle wrong, and the terrorist gets blasted through the torso. 

You might think that the ending was changed because it had John McClane take a little too dark of a turn. After all, vengeance isn't exactly McClane's style, especially something so cold and calculated. It probably worked better in the framework of the original script with a different main character, but it just doesn't mesh with John McClane. Even the way the scene was shot doesn't feel like it fits with the rest of the movie, with the back and forth between Simon and McClane shot almost entirely at a Dutch angle. But that's just part of the equation. 

As indicated in the DVD commentary for "Die Hard with a Vengeance," this original ending was changed because it was also too anticlimactic. The scene is basically a quiet, menacing conversation before a rocket is sent through Simon's torso, and it's not really on par with what you expect from the "Die Hard" franchise. The ending that made it into the final cut delivers an action-packed conclusion where McClane still kills Simon, but only in response to Simon trying to kill him when the police arrive. Plus, the traditional "yippe-ki-yay, motherf***er line" feels rather forced in the original ending, but it comes off much more naturally in the ending they settled on.

So that's the story of the alternate "Die Hard with a Vengeance" ending that might have resulted in the sequel being a little worse. But even with that alternate ending, "Die Hard with a Vengeance" is still leaps and bounds better than the rest of the sequels. 

Read this next: 17 '80s Action Movies You Definitely Need To See

The post The Brutal Die Hard With a Vengeance Ending We Didn't See appeared first on /Film.

Author Frank Herbert famously pulled from many different sources for inspiration when crafting his original "Dune" novel in 1965, but the story itself proved to be as widely influential as any sci-fi or fantasy tale that we've seen in the time since -- even leading to some surprising echoes of "Dune" in unexpected places. Though many of its spiritual successors (chiefly "Star Wars") would end up beating the property to the big screen, it's still perfectly fitting that Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of the sprawling epic would, in turn, pay homage to the greats that came before it. As it turns out, Villeneuve and his entire creative team traced their influences back to one of the most revered movies of all time: Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now."

Influences And Inspirations

Upon its release, "Dune" ended up giving viewers a little crash course in film history. For instance, it's not terribly surprising that the director behind "Blade Runner 2049" would capture our first extended look at the city of Arrakeen by evoking very similar sequences of the camera floating over immense cityscapes in both the original "Blade Runner" and Villeneuve's masterful 2017 sequel. That's not where all the cinematic references end, however. To their credit, many on Twitter quickly put two and two together and drew parallels between the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (played by Stellan Skarsgård) and Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now," the legendary officer-turned-warlord who was brought to life through an unforgettable performance by Marlon Brando.

Well, those parallels weren't by accident according to Bob Morgan, a co-costume designer on "Dune" who has previously worked as a costumer on "Speed" and costume designer on "Inception," "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," "Live by Night," and "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil." /Film's Jack Giroux caught up with Morgan and dug into how Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" couldn't help but seep into their vision for the monstrous villain Baron Harkonnen.

"[Fellow costume designer Jacqueline West] mentioned Colonel Kurtz from 'Apocalypse Now.' It made so [much] sense, like, oh yeah [Laughs]. He is that kind of brooding guy. Just that sweat. I think that was one of those movies I saw three times as a kid, because I was so blown away by it. Little did I know, years later I'd be tapping into it. It's all derivative, right? We're affected by what we've seen and experienced in our lives. You bring all of that forward whether consciously or subconsciously."

The specific mannerisms of Baron Harkonnen wiping the sweat off his face in our first introduction to the villain in "Dune" clearly parallels Brando's Kurtz doing much of the same when we finally meet him late in "Apocalypse Now," but Morgan's comments show how the similarities go much deeper than the surface. With "Dune: Part Two" officially moving forward and more screen time opening up for those who may have been a bit underserved in the first film, we can expect Villeneuve and his team to sneak in even more references and homages to their favorite stories.

"Dune" is currently playing in theaters and on HBO Max where available.

Read this next: The 10 Best Sci-Fi Movie Villains

The post Dune Villain Baron Harkonnen Was Inspired by Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

With the release of "Last Night in Soho", director Edgar Wright takes the leap into full-blown psychological horror. Previously, his films have walked the line between comedy and other genres (zombies, video games, horror), but nothing to date could have prepared audiences for what he's unleashed with this film. 

"Last Night in Soho" takes the mood of a psychological thriller and wraps it around the supernatural, giving us something that feels strange and new. Combined with Wright's uncanny knack for filmed transitions and careful use of music, he feels like he could very easily take the mantle of a modern-day Alfred Hitchcock.

"Last Night in Soho" tells a story about Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), an aspiring fashion designer who can see the dead. When she heads to London, there are worries that she'll be too overwhelmed, but she flourishes after her dreams whisk her back to the '60s at the height of the fashion and music she loves so much. There's a sinister side to all of it, however, and as Eloise blends the two worlds together, she has trouble telling fact from fiction. Is she going crazy? Or are there really ghosts trying to tell her something?

We took a look at seven films you'll want to watch if you liked "Last Night in Soho," all classics in their own right.

Vertigo (1958)

Alfred Hitchcock is the master of the tense buildup and Edgar Wright takes moves straight from Alfred Hitchcock's psychological masterpiece, "Vertigo." The 1958 thriller tells the story of an ex-police detective afflicted with vertigo, Scottie Ferguson (Jimmy Stewart), who witnesses a crime. But did he actually witness the crime he thinks he did? As the film plays out, Ferguson realizes that things weren't what they seemed from the beginning and the crime he thought he saw was something else entirely. 

"Last Night in Soho" also plays on themes from "Vertigo" in the way characters are interested in seeing themselves in other people. In "Vertigo," Kim Novak's character is slowly transformed into someone else and begins to don her appearance (albeit at the insistence of Ferguson.) In "Last Night in Soho," Eloise transforms herself into an ideal version of herself, trying so hard to look like Sandie (Anna Taylor-Joy), the woman in her '60s dreams.

Hitchcock's construction of the story, carefully laying the context of the crime and situation, may well have been on Edgar Wright's mind as he constructed the twists and turns of "Last Night in Soho." The thematic crossover between the two films is remarkable and worth your time to investigate.

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

There is nothing more frightening than a well-constructed ghost story from Guillermo Del Toro. "El espinazo del diablo" (or "The Devil's Backbone") is Del Toro's first masterpiece of the genre. Set during the Spanish Civil War, the film follows Carlos, a young boy whose father died in the conflict. He's sent to live in a distant orphanage for boys, away from the fighting. Ghosts plague him as well as the living and he slowly realizes that the ghosts aren't trying to hurt him, but rather trying to save him and get their vengeance against the one who killed them.

In Del Toro movies the ghosts are often terrifying through the first act of the film, but eventually the hero realizes they're benevolent and trying to save and protect them. It's an inversion of this that Edgar Wright leans on for the stunning climax of "Last Night in Soho," and creates such a fantastic twist on the trope.

Even if "The Devil's Backbone" had nothing to do with "Last Night in Soho," it's always worth revisiting this Del Toro classic.

Rear Window (1954)

Watching "Last Night in Soho," one easily gets the impression that Alfred Hitchcock was a primary influence on Edgar Wright. The film is dripping in thematic similarities to Hitchcock's work and "Rear Window" is no exception. Another Jimmy Stewart vehicle, "Rear Window" follows him as L.B. Jeffries, a photographer with a broken leg. He sees things in his convalescence that make him believe one of his neighbors has murdered his wife and disposed of the body. Obsessed with discovering the truth, he employs his would-be girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), to help get to the truth.

Things don't turn out well for them and both of their lives become endangered as the killer discovers that there is a witness to his crime. The entire time, Jeffries is forced to agonize over whether or not a crime was actually even committed.

More than anything, "Rear Window" explored the nature of voyeurism and jumping to conclusions. Eloise's entire story in "Last Night in Soho" is plagued by this, as her voyeuristic nature takes over, plunging her into a dream world that becomes a nightmare.

What Lies Beneath (2000)

In 2000, superstar director Robert Zemeckis tackled the idea of a Hitchcockian thriller that includes the supernatural. In Hitchcock films, the villain is always grounded right here on Earth. For Hitchcock, it seems like that was the most frightening thing he could think of -- that there were monsters living beside us. Zemeckis explored a version of Hitchcock that accepts that the supernatural is not only possible, but frightening.

The assembly of "What Lies Beneath," the turns it takes and its raw construction, are so masterful and tied to Hitchcock that it might be easy to dismiss as a clone. But Zemeckis adds something more to it and we're all better for it. Through the character of Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer), it hits many of the same notes of descending into madness that "Last Night in Soho" does, making it a must watch if you loved Edgar Wright's film.

I wrote about "What Lies Beneath" for /Film in 2018, and you should revisit both that piece and the film.

Rope (1948)

"Rope" is Alfred Hitchcock's first color film, and he uses light and color in ways that felt like a revelation in the 1940s. Through the course of the film, the sun descends and night overtakes day. Outside the window, a flashing neon light intrudes on the inside of the scene and every time Eloise is in her apartment in "Last Night in Soho," this callback to Hitchcock was all I could think of. Wright takes that one step further, timing the music and editing in time with the flashing lights in order to match the mood of the scene. It's masterful to watch him take things one step further than Hitchcock.

The other thing that makes "Rope" remarkable is how it oozes a fear of discovery. Jimmy Stewart (again) plays a college professor whose students took his ideas a step too far and murdered one of their classmates. Stewart is the only one who suspects what they could have done and engages them in a game of cat and mouse to discover the truth. The end of the film is punctuated by a monologue that might be one of Stewart's finest. Building the context of fear is something Hitchcock made his name with, Wright takes it a full step further in "Last Night in Soho."

"Rope" is often dismissed as lesser Hitchcock and a failed experiment, as the film was designed to appear to be one seamless shot. But don't let anyone fool you into thinking it isn't worth your time. It's terrific, and watching it side-by-side with "Last Night in Soho" will only aid in your enjoyment.

Dead Again (1991)

Kenneth Branagh is an incredible director in his own right and, in 1991, crafted his own version of a Hitchcockian thriller, this one leaning on the trope of reincarnation to frame the story. "Dead Again" tells the tale of a private detective (Branagh) who comes across a woman with amnesia (Emma Thompson.) 

The two realize they might be the reincarnated versions of a pair of star-crossed lovers that suffered a terrible fate decades prior. Margaret Strauss (Thompson) was murdered and her husband, Roman (Branagh), was accused of the murder and sentenced to death. The movie engages in the same sort of twists and turns that Wright engages with characters in "Last Night in Soho." The use of actors like Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp really help sell the inevitability of the direction and misdirection in this regard.

"Dead Again" is a wonderful film, a blend of Hitchcock if he took on topics like reincarnation, and it heavily borrows imagery from his repertoire like "Spellbound" (1945). Those recurring visual motifs across time are something Wright plays with like an expert.

It also has one of the great Robin Williams bit parts, making it doubly worth your time.

Psycho (1960)

No one could photograph sleight of hand with a knife and a murder like Alfred Hitchcock, but Edgar Wright really gives him a run for his money. The iconic shower scene where Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), dressed as Mother, murders Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is one of the most legendary murders committed to film. It's built with such a frenzied tension but there's something about the craftsmanship of each shot, all showing you something you maybe only thought you saw.

As "Last Night in Soho" plays out, knife-play becomes integral to the plot and Wright is able to play sleight-of-hand tricks of his own.

Both films also feature a killer you sympathize with to a degree, making them perfect companions.

Read this next: Alfred Hitchcock's 15 Best Films Ranked

The post 7 Movies to Watch If You Loved Last Night in Soho appeared first on /Film.