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The problem with game of the year lists, if your feet are suitably submerged in the PC Gaming swamp, is that they don't tend to highlight anything you won't have already heard about. That's less true for ModDB's Mod of the Year Awards, which can shine a light on experiences that may have slipped under your radar.

This year's publicly voted for crop (as with most year's crops) was heavy on mods for old-school shooters, though mostly not too old-school for me to skip them. Second place was won by impressive S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat overhaul Anomaly, while first place went to Half-Life 2 mod Entropy: Zero 2. Check 'em out below, along with the runner ups.

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"Evil Dead Rise." That's it ... that's the introduction.

Seriously, do I need to say more? The first trailer for the highly-anticipated return to the "Evil Dead" franchise has arrived, and it has exceeded even my wildest expectations. If you thought that writer-director Lee Cronin was exaggerating the amount of blood that would be in the film, consider yourself proven wrong. Seriously, it's a good thing everyone that follows the franchise's Twitter account voted for the release of the red-band trailer instead of the green-band one.

"Evil Dead Rise" has been a long, long time coming, and its recently-released trailer gives us so much to discuss. Was that window exploding with blood a "Shining" reference? Does this dire and bleak atmosphere feel more similar to the 1981 classic or its 2013 continuation? Is the influence of the Necronomicon really going to take over an apartment complex ala "Demons 2?" Wait, speaking of which, are those actual human teeth attached to the Necronomicon? What the hell?

Unfortunately, the answers to these questions and the thousands of other ones that will inevitably come up will have to go unanswered for a couple of months. Thankfully, this newest trailer is chock-full of details to obsess over in the meantime.

When I Was Just A Little Girl

We have known for some time that the central characters of "Evil Dead Rise" would be a pair of estranged sisters, Beth (Lily Sullivan) and Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland). The latter is a single mother of three living in a Los Angeles apartment complex, and her eldest son (Morgan Davies) finds a mysterious book in its cellar. Needless to say, futzing around with that and a creepy vinyl recording becomes a recipe for disaster. Ellie gets possessed at some point not seen in the trailer, and she's just a little bit out of it.

A case in point is the way she cooks her eggs. What kind of person just throws whole eggs onto a pan and fries them that way? Well, a person that's possessed by a Deadite spirit, that's who. Her children and estranged sister are understandably worried for Ellie, but according to her, she's just fine. Just ignore the scabbing, the yellow eyes, and the fact that she's fantasizing about cutting them all up like carcasses.

Back To The Cabin

It looks like the apartment complex won't be the only major setting where "Evil Dead Rise" takes place. Throughout the trailer, we see scenes from what appears to be an updated take on the original film's cabin in the woods. This cabin looks more like a vacation AirBnB or Vrbo rental than an abandoned family property, and it appears that a family is taking some time to relax.

Unfortunately, that relaxation doesn't last forever. While it's unclear whether the family seen in the trailer is connected to Beth and Ellie, they clearly have a similar demonic possession on their hands. One vacationer looks to have gotten into a fight with another, leading to her entire scalp getting torn off. Even though it cuts away just as it happens, it is still a brutal sight made even worse by it getting casually dropped on the cabin's river dock. Don't worry, though, because you're about to see a whole lot more stomach-churning imagery in this trailer.

Crash Course In Motherhood

From the looks of it, Beth appears to be a bit of a loner. Not only does she not have a partner or family of her own, but it also looks like her relationship with Ellie isn't exactly the most well-maintained. We don't know the cause of this strained relationship, but it'll likely become a point of contention once Ellie gets possessed by a Deadite.

As a result of the new demon problem around the apartment, Beth looks to become a protector of Ellie's children. Unfortunately, it looks like only one of them is currently safe from the Necronomicon's grasp, and that is Ellie's youngest daughter. In order to survive the rampage, Beth must protect the young girl from whatever evils the book conjures, even holding up a signature franchise chainsaw to protect her. The bond between a woman and her niece looks to be an important one for "Evil Dead Rise," especially when the girl comments to Beth that she'd be a good mother (because she knows how to lie to kids).

Do You Want Cheese With That?

We've stalled long enough — there seem to be some genuinely terrifying mutilations happening in "Evil Dead Rise," and that's saying something. The franchise has always been known for its brutal kills and possessions. However, the new methods of killing these Deadites are dishing out seem to be next level.

In one shot, it appears that Ellie is about to stab one of her children in the eye with a tattoo needle. Not only is this a disturbing tool to get stabbed with, but it could also give more insight into the characters. Astute fans might have noticed that Ellie has an elaborate vine tattoo on her hand on the film's first official poster, and tattooing needles aren't exactly common household gadgets. Perhaps Ellie is a tattoo artist that brought home her tools at the worst possible time.

However, arguably the most disturbing tool of torture is something we all have in our kitchens — a cheese grater. It looks to be wielded by one of Ellie's older children after Beth throws it in self-defense. Unfortunately, the newly-possessed teen has heightened reflexes, catching the grater and slamming it down on Beth's leg. I'm squirming in my desk seat just typing this out!

Okay, let's stop here before my stomach decides to churn again. "Evil Dead Rise" will swallow your soul in theaters on April 21, 2023.

Read this next: The 31 Scariest Movie Scenes Ever

The post Evil Dead Rise Trailer Breakdown: The Most Beautiful Dream Becomes a Bloody Nightmare appeared first on /Film.

It’s salad season. Not because of the produce currently available—though I love a winter salad—but because now is the time of resolutions, and meal planning, and “getting it together.” A lot of people associate those things with eating bowls—big metal bowls—of raw greens and other vegetables, and bagged salad kits are…

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One of the prominent developers behind the bitcoin blockchain said he has asked the FBI to assist him in recovering $3.6 million worth of the digital coin that was stolen from his storage wallets on New Year's Eve. From a report: Luke Dashjr is a developer of the Bitcoin Core, an app that runs 97 percent of the nodes making up the bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin Core derives from the software developed by the anonymous bitcoin inventor who uses the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. That software was called simply Bitcoin but was later changed to Bitcoin Core to distinguish it from the coin. Dashjr has been contributing to the Bitcoin Core since 2011 and has long championed the concept of decentralization that the cryptocurrency was founded on. On New Year's Day, Dashjr took to Twitter to report that his entire bitcoin holdings -- worth roughly $3.6 million -- were "basically all gone." He said the hack stemmed from the compromise of a PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) key that he used to ensure that his downloads of Bitcoin Core and a smaller app known as Bitcoin Knots weren't laced with malware. He said all his computers were compromised and urged people to hold off downloading new versions for the time being. "So to be clear: DO NOT DOWNLOAD BITCOIN KNOTS AND TRUST IT UNTIL THIS IS RESOLVED," he wrote. "If you already did in the last few months, consider shutting that system down for now." In the same thread, the developer said he had contacted the FBI and police but hadn't received a response. "What the heck @FBI @ic3. Why can't I reach anyone???" he wrote. "I paid those taxes and the police don't care. What a scam."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Mediterranean diet has made the bullshit list of “best diets” once again, which got me thinking: has anybody ever gone on the Mediterranean diet? Like on purpose? There’s no straightforward app to track it, and no easy-to-read book that gives simplistic rules to say yes or no to a given meal.

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If Allison Williams is starring in a horror movie, it's a guarantee that we're in for one hell of a ride. After her breakthrough performance on the hit HBO series "Girls," Williams cemented herself in horror history by starring opposite Daniel Kaluuya in "Get Out," Jordan Peele's masterwork debut feature that completely changed the game for studio horror films. Her follow-up feature performance was in the twisty Netflix exploitation thriller, "The Perfection," a criminally underseen gem that needs to be at the top of your watch list.

Now, Williams is returning for her third venture into the genre with the newest Blumhouse flick boasting a horror dream team of creatives, "M3GAN." Williams stars as Gemma, a brilliant roboticist who invents a lifelike robotic companion meant to act as a child's best friend and a parent's "greatest ally." There's only one massive problem: M3GAN is protective, defensive, and learning. I recently sat down with Allison Williams to learn a bit more about why she keeps coming back to horror, and figure out if she's just as creeped out about AI as I am.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

On Horror And Playing 'Cool' Women

Between "Get Out," my personal favorite "The Perfection," and now "M3GAN," what is drawing you back to horror over and over again?

I think I must be dark in some way that I don't understand [laughs]. I think the true answer is that all of those movies have a couple of things in common. They all engage with a subject matter that is real and serious, and something that people talk about with a lot of weight that kind of lifts it into a genre that can have a little bit more fun with it. Which sounds messed up when you're talking about things like sexual assault, and race, and loss, and trauma. But this genre has a way of taking those subjects and kind of messing with the way we usually talk about them and loosening up the area with which we can engage with it.

Oh, totally.

Which I love, because I think that sometimes, as Jordan [Peele] used to say a lot when we were promoting "Get Out," the way we talk about race is broken and we needed new language for things to be able to make the conversation more meaningful, deeper, revive it for this new generation that doesn't know how to talk about it. So that's one thing.

The other thing is that the women in these movies, these women that I've played, are just cool. And I read these scripts and I engage with the characters that I'm being asked to read for. And so often they don't have time in the thematic world of the movie or in the story to become meaty and three-dimensional and someone I feel existed before the movie and continues to exist after, let alone someone I feel like I know. So that combination, plus the fact that filmmakers really get to just make what they imagine in this world, they get to let their genre freak flags fly, and these movies live lives that are very specific and very much lived in the spirit of the filmmaker. I just find that experience to be thrilling. So I think that's a very long-winded answer.

The Memeable M3GAN

Oh, but it's a perfect answer. When the first trailer for "M3GAN" dropped, the internet exploded, and I'm just curious what your response was to seeing people just immediately gravitate toward it.

We were all just cheering because it's a very specific movie tonally. She's a very specific kind of gal. And our challenge marketing and promoting the movie is just making sure that people get her and they go into the theater understanding who she is, and people just got it. They were doing the dance and watching that happen with such a thrill, but also just seeing her face in memes where it was just someone serving attitude and being sort of doubtful. And I just loved it. It made us so happy because we just thought, "They're already having fun with her." People are dressing up like her for Halloween and the movie hasn't even come out yet. It's just such a delight. What more could you ask for? It's the best.

On The Horrors Of AI

Has working on this movie made you more hesitant about the future AI overlords taking us all over?

Yes, but it has in a very interesting way. I feel like we have a lot of responsibility for the AI that we bring into the world, that people in AI understand, for the most part, but consumers of it don't really think about a lot. So there is of course this element that something's being taken from us if something's listening and learning, et cetera. And there's also the question of, if we are building these things, they're our responsibility. That's Gemma's whole arc. She basically has two children, one of which she comes into the custody of and the other one that she builds from scratch. And the question is what does she owe to each? And I think that is part of it that I didn't think about a lot before, but I think about a ton now. When you build something that can think for itself, you're its parent. You have to take care of it and make sure it learns ethics, for example, which M3GAN could have used. I'll just put it that way. But yeah, I definitely look at smart devices with a little bit more skepticism now."M3GAN" arrives in theaters on January 6, 2023.

Read this next: Horror Movies You Don't Want To Miss In 2023

The post M3GAN's Allison Williams On Why She Keeps Coming Back to Horror After Get Out [Exclusive Interview] appeared first on /Film.

Groove to the beat

When you ask a rhythm game fan to list their favorite titles, good money says that they'll start rattling off a bunch of games you can't actually play. Many of the "best" rhythm games are available only to those with access to a halfway-decent arcade or expensive peripherals. Most of those expensive and inaccessible games are excellent, but what are the odds that you'll actually play Dance Dance Revolution A20 or Rock Band 3 in the near future?

If you're like me and only have a couple of modern consoles and a halfway decent PC, it can be hard to break into rhythm gaming. Thankfully, there are plenty of top-tier titles readily available on modern platforms. They might not be quite as good as the finest offerings at a Round1, but they do have the undeniable benefit of being playable.

10. UNBEATABLE [white label]

[caption id="attachment_356563" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via D-CELL GAMES[/caption]

UNBEATABLE, a rhythm game with the panache and style of an anime fighting game, probably won't be out until the end of 2023. Its "demo," UNBEATABLE [white label], is out right now, and beyond being an impressive taste of what's to come, it's also one of the best rhythm games on PC.

UNBEATABLE [white label] is less of a demo and more of a companion piece to UNBEATABLE. The game has its own story, which is currently incomplete (per developer D-CELL GAMES, it will be completed with a series of episodic releases). More importantly, it's got a killer soundtrack and truly engaging visuals. It's a real treat, especially at the low low price of free. While I'm pretty excited for UNBEATABLE, I'm more than happy to spend more time with [white label].

9. Incredibox

[caption id="attachment_356565" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via So Far So Good[/caption]

I'm not sure if Incredibox counts as a "rhythm game," but it has the "rhythm" tag on Steam and it rocks, so I'm including it. Incredibox is a kind of music production toy which involves layering different loops over one another to create awesome music. It's almost impossible to make something that sounds bad.

Incredibox doesn't have a lose state and it doesn't involve tapping anything to the beat, so it might not be a rhythm game in the same way the other titles on this list are. Still, I have often felt that the joy of rhythm games comes from the imitation of "creating" music, and Incredibox is a pretty natural evolution of that concept. If you love music, it's at least worth checking out.

8. Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory

[caption id="attachment_356567" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Square Enix[/caption]

I really wanted to put a Theatrhythm game on this list. Unfortunately, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and its sequel, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call are both trapped on the 3DS, and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy All-Star Carnival is an arcade exclusive. So, while we wait for the Theatrhythm series to return to modern home platforms in February, I'll give this spot to another Square Enix/indieszero collaboration: Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.

This isn't just a consolation prize - Melody of Memory is great. It's probably the easiest game on this list, but it's got nearly every song from one of the best franchise soundtracks in video game history. Rhythmic "combat" is an idea that's been tried before, and it's not at its deepest here, but it's undeniably very satisfying. There are plenty of games that can rigorously test your dexterity and sense of rhythm, but when you just want to feel good tapping away at some beautiful music, it's tough to do better than Melody of Memory. It's one of my favorite Kingdom Hearts games, and it's also an excellent rhythm game in its own right.

7. Trombone Champ

[caption id="attachment_356568" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Nothing in Trombone Champ sounds "good," but that's not really the point. This uproariously funny title places you in control of a "tromboner" (the game's word, not mine) and gives you free rein to play whatever music you want. There is a beatmap here, but the game absolutely will not help you hew to it at all, which means that most of your tromboning will consist of playing a note that's either just barely wrong or entirely wrong.

There might be a way to get good at Trombone Champ. I've never seen it happen, and I've never tried to do it. I'm happy to be the world's worst tromboner. It's funnier this way.

6. Metal: Hellsinger

[caption id="attachment_356104" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Funcom[/caption]

Metal: Hellsinger recently found its way onto my list of personal favorites from 2022, and with good reason. This rhythmic first-person shooter actually feels like both a rhythm game and a first-person shooter. What's more, it feels like a good rhythm game and a good first-person shooter.

If you enjoy heavy metal, DOOM (2016), and rhythm gaming, then this game is pretty narrowly targeted at you. Even if you don't like any of those things, though, you probably won't be able to resist falling for Metal: Hellsinger's charms. How many games feature Troy Baker as a talking skull narrating over a Matt Heafy solo?

5. Rhythm Doctor

[caption id="attachment_356569" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Rhythm Doctor is phenomenal. This charming early access rhythm game is deeper and more interesting than most fully released games of the past several years. Rhythm Doctor is set in a struggling cardiac hospital that makes the decision to employ a remote intern. Your job is to restart patients' hearts by tapping one button to the beat.

It's not as heavy as it sounds - in fact, Rhythm Doctor is quite goofy. The game's world is vibrant and zany, populated by really interesting characters (not exactly a common thread in rhythm games). It also wrings a very impressive amount of mechanical complexity out of just one button, and, of course, the music is amazing.

4. Crypt of the Necrodancer

[caption id="attachment_356570" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Crypt of the Necrodancer is so simple that it hurts my brain. Literally all you do is move around a dungeon to the beat, attacking enemies simply by bumping into them. There are some basic buffs and item pickups, but at its heart, it's exactly what it looks like. It's all about reading and responding to patterns in the most simple manner possible, and it's wildly addictive. Every time I start playing Necrodancer, I lose hours to it.

On its face, Crypt of the Necrodancer is very basic. And yet, there's nothing else quite like it. Necrodancer uses its simplicity to its advantage to create one of the most enjoyable rhythm experiences out there.

3. Beat Saber

[caption id="attachment_356571" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Beat Games[/caption]

Alright, this might be stretching the boundaries of what you can actually play. You do need a virtual reality headset and a decent amount of space to play Beat Saber, which will immediately make it a tough sell for many. But a Meta Quest 2 costs less than most current-generation consoles, and once you're past that (admittedly tall) hurdle, it's tough to do better than Beat Saber.

Beat Saber is a game about hitting blocks with lightsabers to the beat, and it feels great. It's the kind of motion control magic that lights up something primal in the human brain. It's fun to hit stuff, it's fun to feel the beat, and it's fun to ply Beat Saber.

2. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone

[caption id="attachment_356573" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Sega[/caption]

When you hear the words "rhythm game," you probably instantly picture something that looks like a Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA game. Colorful button prompts float across the screen in front of a video of anime girls dancing. You tap the right button when the prompts line up. Occasionally, you hold those buttons, or you slide the analog stick. Yes, this is rhythm gaming perfected.

Every Project DIVA game is pretty similar and pretty great. If you've only got a Switch or a PC, Mega Mix is a fine option, too. I've included Future Tone on this list simply because it's the one I play the most, but it's hard to go wrong with any Project DIVA game. These are the rhythm game-iest rhythm games around, and they're good for scratching any musical gaming itch.

1. Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun!

[caption id="attachment_356574" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Bandai Namco[/caption]

Like Project DIVA, you can pretty much insert any Taiko no Tatsujin game into this spot. The series hasn't changed a bit in over twenty years. You press one button when the note is blue and another button when the note is red. Mindlessness becomes meditation becomes mastery. This is Taiko no Tatsujin.

The secret to picking your favorite Taiko no Tatsujin game is simply looking at the tracklist. I like Drum 'n' Fun because it's got the best One Piece opening and the best Super Mario Odyssey track, but you can really pick whichever game has your personal favorite songs. This one gets bonus points for being one of the few rhythm games that you can play with just about anybody. The barrier to entry is very low thanks to incredibly simple controls, but true mastery can be extremely difficult.

The post 10 best rhythm video games you can actually buy, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

If your resolution is to eat healthy in the new year, please don’t hop into any crash diets or misguided detoxes. Here are some of our best tips, articles, and in-depth guides about how to eat healthy in a way that’s actually good for your body and mind.

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Keeping their tradition alive of launching a new graphics architecture every two years, this year, NVIDIA introduces its Ada Lovelace GPU. The Ada GPU is built upon the foundation set by Turing. NVIDIA terms the Ada Lovelace GPUs as a quantum leap over Ampere, and the GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition based on NVIDIA Ampere GPU excels at everything versus the previous gen.

The Ada GPU architecture has a lot to be talked about in this review, but so does the new RTX lineup. The Ada lineup offers faster shader performance, faster ray tracing performance, and faster AI performance. Built on a brand new process node and featuring an architecture designed from the ground up, Ada is a killer product with lots of numbers to talk about.

The fundamental of Ada was to take everything NVIDIA learned with its Turing & Ampere architectures and not only refine it but to use its DNA to form a product in a completely new performance category. Tall claims were made by NVIDIA when they introduced its Ada lineup last month with up to 4x performance claims & we will be finding out whether NVIDIA hit all the ticks with its Ada architecture as this review will be your guiding path to see what makes Ada and how it performs against its predecessors.

Today, we will be taking a look at the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card. We will be looking at various AIB models since the 4070 Ti doesn't feature a Founders Edition model.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Gaming Graphics Cards - The Biggest GPU Performance Leap in Recent History

Turing wasn't just any graphics core, it was the graphics core that was to become the foundation of future GPUs. The future is realized now with next-generation consoles going deep in talks about ray tracing and AI-assisted super-sampling techniques. NVIDIA had a head start with Turing & Ampere and its Ada generation will only do things infinitely times better.

The Ada GPU does many traditional things which we would expect from a GPU, but at the same time, also breaks the barrier when it comes to untraditional GPU operations. Just to sum up some features:

• New Streaming Multiprocessor (SM)
• New Turing Tensor Cores
• New Real-Time Ray Tracing Acceleration
• New Shading Enhancements
• New Deep Learning Features For Graphics & Inference
• New GDDR6X High-Performance Memory Subsystem
• New HDMI 2.1 Display Engine & Next-Gen NVENC/NVDEC

The technologies mentioned above are some of the main building blocks of the Ada GPU, but there's more within the graphics core itself which we will talk about in detail so let's get started.

Let's take a trip down the journey to Ada. In 2016, NVIDIA announced their Pascal GPUs which would soon be featured in their top-to-bottom GeForce 10 series lineup. After the launch of Maxwell, NVIDIA gained a lot of experience in the efficiency department which they put a focus on since their Kepler GPUs.

Four years ago, NVIDIA, rather than offering another standard leap in the rasterization performance of its GPUs took a different approach & introduced two key technologies in its Turing line of consumer GPUs, one being AI-assisted acceleration with the Tensor Cores and the second being hardware-level acceleration for Ray Tracing with its brand new RT cores.

Then came Ampere with its brand new Samsung 8nm fabrication process, and NVIDIA added even more to its gaming graphics lineup. In the Ampere GPU architecture, NVIDIA provided its latest Ampere SM along with next-gen FP32, INT32, Tensor Cores, and RT cores. The focus was to boost both rasterization and ray tracing capabilities to new heights.

Now enter Ada, a brand new architecture that aims to take everything from the first two RTX GPUs and perfect it. The graphics architecture is designed for speed and that it excels at. So let's see the architecture in detail. Following are the few main highlights of the Ada Lovelace GPU architecture:

• Revolutionary New Architecture: NVIDIA Ada architecture GPUs deliver outstanding performance for graphics, AI, and compute workloads with exceptional architectural and power efficiency. After the baseline design for the Ada SM was established, the chip was scaled up to shatter records. Manufacturing innovations and materials research enabled NVIDIA engineers to craft a GPU with 76.3 billion transistors and 18,432 CUDA Cores capable of running at clocks over 2.5 GHz while maintaining the same 450W TGP as the prior generation flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GPU. The result is the world’s fastest GPU with the power, acoustics, and temperature characteristics expected of a high-end graphics card.
• New Ada RT Core for Faster Ray Tracing: For decades, rendering ray-traced scenes with physically correct lighting in real-time has been considered the holy grail of graphics. At the same time, the geometric complexity of environments and objects continues to increase as 3D games and graphics continually strive to provide the most accurate representations of the real world. The Ada RT Core has been enhanced to deliver 2x faster ray-triangle intersection testing and includes two important new hardware units. An Opacity Micro map Engine speeds up ray tracing of alpha-tested geometry by a factor of 2x, and a Displaced Micro-Mesh Engine generates Displaced Micro-Triangles on-the-fly to create additional geometry. The Micro-Mesh Engine provides the benefit of increased geometric complexity without the traditional performance and storage costs of complex geometries.
• Shader Execution Reordering: NVIDIA Ada GPUs support Shader Execution Reordering which dynamically organizes & reorders shading workloads to improve RT shading Introduction efficiency. This improves performance by up to 44% in Cyberpunk 2077 with Ray Tracing Overdrive Mode.
• NVIDIA DLSS 3: The Ada architecture features an all-new Optical Flow Accelerator and AI frame generation that boosts DLSS 3’s frame rates up to 2x over the previous DLSS 2.0 while maintaining or exceeding native image quality. Compared to traditional brute-force graphics rendering, DLSS 3 is ultimately up to 4x faster while providing low system latency.

The NVIDIA Ada Lovelace AD104 GPU features up to 5 GPC (Graphics Processing Clusters). This is 1 less SM compared to the Ampere GA104 GPUs. Each GPU will consist of 6 TPCs and 2 SMs which is the same configuration as the existing chip. Each SM (Streaming Multiprocessor) will house four sub-cores which is also the same as the GA102 GPU. What's changed is the FP32 & the INT32 core configuration. Each sub-core will include 64 FP32 units but combined FP32+INT32 units will go up to 128. This is because half of the FP32 units don't share the same sub-core as the IN32 units. The 64 FP32 cores are separate from the 128 INT32 cores.

So in total, each sub-core will consist of 16 FP32 plus 16 INT32 units for a total of 32 units. Each SM will have a total of 64 FP32 units plus 64 INT32 units for a total of 128 units. And since there are a total of 60 SM units (12 per GPC), we are looking at a total of 7,680 cores.

Moving over to the cache, this is another segment where NVIDIA has given a big boost over the existing Ampere GPUs. The L2 cache will be increased to 48 MB. This is a 12x increase over the Ampere GA104 GPU that hosts just 4 MB of L2 cache. The cache will be shared across the GPU. The GPU will also feature up to 80 ROPs for the full-die.

There are also going to be the latest 4th Generation Tensor and 3rd Generation RT (Raytracing) cores infused on the Ada Lovelace GPUs which will help boost DLSS & Raytracing performance to the next level. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti makes use of the full AD104 GPU die which means that there's no room for expansion for a future high-end GPU on the AD104 silicon. It is possible that tweaked silicon with faster clocks may appear in the future but the core configuration may not change.

NVIDIA AD104 'Ada Lovelace' Gaming GPU Block Diagram:

NVIDIA AD104 'Ada Lovelace' Gaming GPU 'SM' Block Diagram:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti

• 40 TFLOPS of peak single-precision (FP32) performance
• 80 TFLOPS of peak half-precision (FP16) performance
• 348 Tensor TFLOPS
• 641 Tensor TFLOPs with sparsity
• 93 RT-TFLOPs

At the heart of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card lies the Ada Lovelace AD104 GPU. The GPU measures 295.4mm2 and will utilize the TSMC 4N process node which is an optimized version of TSMC's 5nm (N5) node designed for the green team. The GPU features 35.8 Billion transistors.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will use the full 60 SM configuration for a total of 7428 CUDA cores The GPU will come packed with 48 MB of L2 cache and a total of 80 ROPs. The clock speeds for the graphics card are rated at 2310 MHz base and 2610 MHz boost clocks.

As for memory specs, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti features 12 GB GDDR6X capacities that will be adjusted at 21.0 Gbps speeds across a 192-bit bus interface. This will provide up to 504 GB/s of bandwidth.

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB "Official" TBP - 285W
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8 GB "Official" TBP - 290W

As far as the power consumption is concerned, the TBP is rated at 285W. The card will be powered by a single 16-pin connector which delivers up to 600W of power. Custom models will be offering higher TBP targets. The card will still ship with the same 12VHPWR connector but they will come in either 3x 8-pin or 2x 8-pin adapter packages.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Graphics Cards Performance

As for the performance of these monster GPUs, NVIDIA shared the computational and gaming performance figures and it looks like the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will be sitting slightly ahead of the GeForce RTX 3090 with around 40 TFLOPs of Compute power.

Just for comparison's sake:

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: 83 TFLOPs (FP32) (2.5 GHz Boost clock)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080: 49 TFLOPs (FP32) (2.5 GHz Boost clock)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti: 49 TFLOPs (FP32) (1.86 GHz Boost clock)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti: 40 TFLOPs (FP32) (2.6 GHz Boost clock)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090: 36 TFLOPs (FP32) (1.69 GHz Boost clock)

Based on a boost clock speed of 2.6 GHz, you get up to 40 TFLOPs of compute performance and you can definitely squeeze out a lot more with an overclock as we had demonstrated with the RTX 4090. One should remember that compute performance doesn't necessarily indicate the overall gaming performance. Even so, it will be a huge upgrade for gaming PCs and an 8.5x increase over the current fastest console, the Xbox Series X.

As for the gaming performance, NVIDIA heavily emphasizes the use of RTX & DLSS3 plus the new RT-overdrive mode when comparing the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card with older RTX 30 GPUs.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Graphics Cards Price & Availability

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card will be available starting tomorrow for a price of $799 US. The card will only be available in custom flavors.

[link] [46 comments]

And the leaks keep on coming. In May 2022, the 2001 build of Duke Nukem Forever got leaked online. Then, earlier this month, we got a leaked version of PREY 1995. Afterward, the source code for the arcade version of Mortal Kombat 2 found its way to the Internet. And this week, the source codes for the classic … Continue reading The source codes for Blood 1996 and Dungeon Siege have been leaked online →

The post The source codes for Blood 1996 and Dungeon Siege have been leaked online appeared first on DSOGaming.

Hot on the heels of the RTX update for Portal, one of the best mods for Valve's first-person action-adventure game is getting the ray-tracing update, too. Nvidia has shown off some initial footage of the Portal: Prelude mod to highlight its new RTX Remix modding platform, and it's working with the mod's original creator on the new remastered version.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Portal system requirements, Portal RTX system requirements, Portal movie announced by J.J. Abrams

For the first time in nearly a decade, a new "Evil Dead" movie is on the way. "Evil Dead Rise" officially has a first trailer, which means it's a real movie, which is still hard to believe after years of sequel discussions and rumors. Writer-director Lee Cronin has assured fans that the film will exist in the same universe as the original Sam Raimi classic, featuring buckets of blood and plenty of Deadites — despite the fact that, according to early synopsis from Deadline, it's moving the action from a secluded cabin setting to a Los Angeles apartment.

Ahead of the trailer's release, word was that "Evil Dead Rise" wouldn't feature some of the franchise fixtures Raimi fans know and love, like Bruce Campbell's Ash or Raimi himself behind the camera. But both Raimi and Campbell are producing along with Ghost House Pictures co-founder Rob Tapert, meaning the new flick has the official approval of three of the men who brought us the original, blood-soaked, and wonderfully batty trilogy.

The Necronomicon Takes LA

If that gnarly red band trailer is too much for you, we've included the tamer regular trailer at the bottom of this post.

"Evil Dead Rise" is once again set to bring back the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead that royally messed up Ash Williams' life back in 1981. This time around, though, the book will find its way into an LA apartment building, where it unleashes all sorts of hellish scenarios on a mother named Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), her three kids, and Ellie's sister Beth (Lily Sullivan). Gone is the familiar cabin in the woods that anchored both "The Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead II," along with Fede Álvarez's gnarly, reboot-adjacent 2013 film.

While most of the coverage of the new film has been focused on the new setting, I'm even more intrigued by the other part of the synopsis: what the hell is going to happen to a trio of kids thrust into the messed-up world of "Evil Dead"?! We'll find out when the film hits theaters, but until then, we'll have to speculate based on this first look and "The Hole in the Ground" filmmaker Cronin's words on the film so far. In December, Cronin told Empire that "There's more Deadite dialogue than ever before" in the new film, and that the movie used 1700 gallons of fake blood.

Though it's been a while since we've gotten a new "Evil Dead" film, the franchise itself has been anything but dead. From 2015 to 2018, Raimi, Ivan Raimi, and Tom Spezialy brought fans even more Ash in "Ash vs Evil Dead," a series that ran for three seasons on Starz. While the series was ultimately canceled, Campbell has also mentioned that an animated continuation may be in the works.

"Evil Dead Rise" hits theaters on April 21, 2023.

Read this next: The Saddest Character Deaths In Horror History

The post Evil Dead Rise Trailer: The Deadites Are Back in a Whole New Location appeared first on /Film.

We're now in the first week of 2023, and that means different things for different people, such as taking another stab at a New Year's resolution that's been on the list forever or getting started on a plan to reach a goal before the year ends. For Louisiana residents, it also means having to verify their ages if they want to access porn online. 

A new state law (PDF, courtesy of Motherboard) went into effect on January 1st, requiring websites containing "a substantial portion" of "material harmful to minors" to ask users to prove that they're 18 or older. "Substantial portion," according to the new law, is more than 33.3 percent of a website's content. As Gizmodo notes, Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube have already started asking visitors to verify their age.

Websites that host content that can be considered porn have to implement "reasonable age verification methods," including asking users to present a government-issued ID or a digitized form of it. Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube had chosen to ask visitors to prove their age by using their LA Wallet app, which is the state's digital wallet app for drivers licenses. A video posted on Twitter shows how Pornhub uses the app to check for a user's age. 

In the document detailing the law, its authors said: "Due to advances in technology, the universal availability of the internet, and limited age verification requirements, minors are exposed to pornography earlier in age. Pornography contributes to the hyper sexualization of teens and prepubescent children and may lead to low self-esteem, body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior. Pornography may also impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction."

Speaking to TechCrunch, Olivia Snow, sex worker and research fellow at UCLA's Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, described the need for verification to access porn as "surveillance." She also said that it can harm LGBTQ populations in extreme cases: "As homophobia and transphobia — especially homophobia in the context of porn — is rising, I could totally see the state zeroing in on people consuming gay porn, or lesbian porn, and either surveilling them further or criminalizing that." Critics are also raising security and privacy concerns about having to present IDs to access porn online even if Pornhub promises that one's "proof of age does not allow anyone to trace [their] online activity."

The Pale Blue Eye arrives on Netflix soon, and here, we discuss whether the film is based on a true story or fictional.

Nowadays, audiences prefer films and TV shows based on true stories, and that’s because they can feel more connected to the story and the characters that are not a work of fiction. Another reason is that a viewer experiences somewhat real emotions and actual instances on the screen. However, fictional stories can be entertaining and inspiring too. Well, here, let’s focus on The Pale Blue Eye‘s source material.

• MORE: Alice in Borderland Season 2 Ending Explained: Does Arisu and Usagi Get Together?

The Pale Blue Eye -True Story or Fictional?

The Pale Blue Eye is not a true story. It’s based on the same named novel by Louis Bayard, released in 2003. The book’s summary says that it tells the story of hatred and revenge that takes place in the U.S Military Academy.

Even though the film is based on fiction, some elements of it exist in reality. For instance, the cadet named Edgar Allen Poe, who helped the fictional detective Augustus Landor was a famous author in the 19th Century. The author was popularly recognized for his short stories and poems, including The Raven.

Every heart tells a tale.

Christian Bale and Harry Melling star in THE PALE BLUE EYE, on Netflix January 6. pic.twitter.com/o8GidfXN4u

— Netflix (@netflix) October 27, 2022

As per Screenrant, the film doesn’t involve the real-life experiences of Poe, but it does show where the author was during the film’s timeline. In fact, in 1830, the author was in West Point. Two of his writings were also published during the time he spent in West Point.

Where To Watch The Pale Blue Eye?

The Pale Blue Eye came out to selected theatres worldwide, and now, it will be on Netflix on January 6, 2023. Well, if you haven’t watched the outstanding suspense thriller film yet, you can watch it in the coming weekend that too without leaving your comfort zone.

• MORE: Where Was The Pale Blue Eye Filmed?

The post Is The Pale Blue Eye a True Story? appeared first on ForeverGeek.

CatacombGL is an open source project to run Catacomb 3D (1991), The Catacomb Abyss (1992), The Catacomb Armageddon (1992) and The Catacomb Apocalypse (1993).

Humanity’s peculiar gait has long confounded engineers and biomechanists—but it might be one of nature’s clever tricks.

To be a clone soldier is to have an unlucky station in life throughout the "Star Wars" franchise. Bred and conditioned for military servitude, the clone troopers (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), known as Clone Force 99 aka the Bad Batch, don't really know a galaxy without war. As the Republic morphed into the Empire, the clone troopers confront a more precarious and expendable position in the galaxy as conscripted stormtroopers usurp their military roles. Even clones loyal to Emperor Palpatine don't get the best treatment. This slams in full force in season 2 of the "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" CGI cartoon (created by Dave Filoni, with Jennifer Corbett as head writer), the follow-up to "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" animated series.

Being AWOL clones with mutations and specialized abilities (unlike "reg" clones), the titular Bad Batch siblings face the growing tyranny of the Empire. After they survived the latter's orbital bombing of Tipoca City, squad leader Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Omega (Michelle Ang) have broken off ties with their sharpshooting brother, Crosshair, who is on his own journey serving the Empire. Living hand to mouth, the Bad Batchers are pulling mercenary gigs for the Trandoshian Cid (Rhea Perlman). 

Season 2 Goes More Episodic

"The Bad Batch" is not an exceptional "Star Wars" installment on Disney+, but the cartoon is worth it to "Star Wars" fans who want to witness the Republic-to-Empire transition through the eyes of clone troopers. In the 14 (out of 16) episode screeners provided, "The Bad Batch" season 2 has displayed some upgrades in terms of storytelling (and their wardrobe as well). For starters, the Bad Batch siblings butt heads over their survival choices more than ever. And their disagreements are affecting the dynamic for better or worse, something that was nearly missing in season 1 that deferred to Hunter's perspective.

As season 2 covers more of the Empire's grip on planetary societies, the Bad Batch's episodic encounters with the various shapes of oppression (wealth hoarding, worker exploitation, environmental desecration) on different planets are just as meaningful as their own way of survival. The new season does a little more to highlight the inner lives of survivors, non-clones and clones alike. Some of the best storylines deal with the Empire's marginalization of aging clone soldiers. 

The Bad Batch Grows Up

One of my biggest season 1 criticism was that Echo and Tech existed in the margins. With varying degrees of success, season 2 compensates for their initial lack of a voice. Echo was mostly a minor voice of dissent against Hunter, while Tech was mostly strategic input. While he's still undercooked as a character, Echo has more of the spotlight on his own motives. Before, I also complained about Tech being a one-note contributor to the Batch, so his character development has become season 2's most pleasant surprise. The premiere gives his worldview a small but meaningful nudge, and a later lighthearted episode grants him the limelight.

Some may bristle at Omega, yet another kid character conforming to a "Star Wars" habit of giving badass adult figures a child to mentor or parent. Fortunately, Michelle Ang's performance has kept Omega's characterization with a childlike freshness that sets her apart from Ashley Eckstein's Ahsoka Tano from "The Clone Wars" or Taylor Gray's Ezra Bridger from "Rebels." Namely, Ang possesses a gift of injecting simple lines with cosmic understandings. Also, whereas Wrecker and Hunter had parenting moments with Omega in season 1, season 2 gives her a fresher dynamic with Echo and Tech.

But the most compelling of the Bad Batch is their estranged brother, the hard-boiled Crosshair, who always seems to be the catalyst for darker storylines. Whereas our central Bad Batchers barely compromise their noble character, Crosshair's conscience is always in question. So it's a pity that this season seems to abridge his arc within the Empire. Still, Crosshair stars in (arguably) the series' best episode—perhaps a contender for the Best of Star Wars Television. The impact of Crosshair's relationships with reg clones cannot be spoiled here. None of the Bad Batch's tribulations are as grimy as Crosshair's trials.

Stray Thoughts

Whitewashing: Don't expect any adjustment to the Bad Batch's pale skin tones (compared to regs), which have been the subject of whitewashing criticisms.

Filler: There is one inventive "Indiana Jones"-inspired episode, a fun filler unlike the one filler dud in season 1, that may or may not be teasing some outside lore.

Clones don't have political representation: I do have a particular criticism of one of the best season 2 episodes. It centers the clones' lack of political representation, yet it is not quite a clone-centric episode.

Some welcomed voice talents: Wanda Sykes contributes her voice talents as Phee, a bubbly and boastful pirate who shares the treasure-hunting occupation of Mika Grey from "Star Wars Resistance." Though like Mika, it feels like she exists outside "The Bad Batch" as her own character. Jimmi Simpson also has a chilling role I will not disclose.

Music: Composer Kevin Kiner is pulling off his excellent scoring, as usual, toying with various genre-based textures for a variety of worlds and situations.

The first two episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 are now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes weekly.

Read this next: The Most Brutal Moments In The Star Wars Franchise, Ranked

The post Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 Review: Clone Force 99 Grows Up A Little appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The effect of social media use on children is a fraught area of research, as parents and policymakers try to ascertain the results of a vast experiment already in full swing. Successive studies have added pieces to the puzzle, fleshing out the implications of a nearly constant stream of virtual interactions beginning in childhood. A new study by neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina tries something new, conducting successive brain scans of middle schoolers between the ages of 12 and 15, a period of especially rapid brain development. The researchers found that children who habitually checked their social media feeds at around age 12 showed a distinct trajectory, with their sensitivity to social rewards from peers heightening over time. Teenagers with less engagement in social media followed the opposite path, with a declining interest in social rewards. The study, published on Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics, is among the first attempts to capture changes to brain function correlated with social media use over a period of years. The study has important limitations, the authors acknowledge. Because adolescence is a period of expanding social relationships, the brain differences could reflect a natural pivot toward peers, which could be driving more frequent social media use. "We can't make causal claims that social media is changing the brain," said Eva H. Telzer, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and one of the authors of the study. But, she added, "teens who are habitually checking their social media are showing these pretty dramatic changes in the way their brains are responding, which could potentially have long-term consequences well into adulthood, sort of setting the stage for brain development over time." "They are showing that the way you use it at one point in your life does influence the way your brain develops, but we don't know by how much, or whether it's good or bad," said Jeff Hancock, the founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, who was not involved in the study. He said that many other variables could have contributed to these changes. "What if these people joined a new team -- a hockey team or a volleyball team -- so started getting a lot more social interaction?" he said. It could be, he added, that the researchers are "picking up on the development of extroversion, and extroverts are more likely to check their social media." He described the paper as "a very sophisticated piece of work," contributing to research that has emerged recently showing that sensitivity to social media varies from person to person. "There are people who have a neurological state that means they are more likely to be attracted to checking frequently," he said. "We're not all the same, and we should stop thinking that social media is the same for everyone."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti is a graphics card I never expected to actually see arrive this early. Yet, here it is, whirling away within my gaming PC, pumping out high frame rates at 4K with ultra settings enabled. Sounds great, right? Well, not quite, as while it packs a respectable next-gen punch for a lot less than the RTX 4080, price still prevents it from being the midrange GPU gladiator I want it to be.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Nvidia RTX 4080 review, Nvidia RTX 4070 rumours, Best graphics card in 2022

NVIDIA's new RTX 40-series GPUs are insanely powerful, but also wildly expensive. That's my big takeaway after reviewing the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 — sure, they're fast, but who can justify spending over $1,000 on a video card? With the RTX 4070 Ti, which debuted at CES 2023, NVIDIA is offering a slightly more reasonable alternative. Starting at $799, it's still fairly pricey, but at least it's under $1,000. And best of all, it's in many ways better than last year's 3090 Ti, which initially cost a whopping $2,000.

After announcing two RTX 4080 cards a few months ago, NVIDIA surprised us all when it "unlaunched" the $899 12GB model. Given its much lower specs, there were plenty of complaints that it seemed a bit too expensive to be called a 4080. So now we've got the 4070 Ti at $100 less, with the same 7,680 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR6X memory that the 4080 was supposed to get. Sometimes, yelling at companies online gets results.

If you've got a small case, the 4070 Ti may also be the first RTX 40-series GPU you can actually use. Both the 4080 and 4090 Ti were triple-slot behemoths — they took up a significant chunk of my fairly roomy mid-tower case – whereas the 4070 Ti just needs two. It also requires far less energy than either of those cards, since it can run with a 700-watt PSU and has a maximum power draw of 285W. (The 4080 requires a 750W PSU, while the demands an 850W unit.) NVIDIA says the 4070 Ti uses around 49 percent less power on average than the 3090 Ti.

Given where it sits alongside the RTX 4080, the 4070 Ti performed exactly as I expected. It clocked in around 20 percent slower in 3DMark's TimeSpy Extreme Benchmark, as well as the Geekbench 4 Compute test. It was also a full 30 fps slower while playing Halo Infinite in 4K with maxed out graphics settings. Now those numbers may sound disappointing, but I was ecstatic to see them. Sure, it's slower, but the 4070 Ti is actually keeping up fairly well with a card that's $400 more expensive (and in many cases, far more). That's something to celebrate!

None	3DMark TimeSpy Extreme	Port Royal (Ray Tracing)	Cyberpunk	Blender
NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti	10,624	14,163/66fps	4K RT DLSS : 78fps	7,247
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX	12,969	14,696/68fps	4K FSR RT: 57fps	2,899
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT	11,688	13,247/61fps	4K FSRT RT: 50fps	3,516
NVIDIA RTX 4080	12,879	17,780/82fps	4K DLSS RT: 84fps	9,310
NVIDIA RTX 4090	16,464	25,405/117.62 fps	4K DLSS RT: 135fps	12,335

NVIDIA's DLSS 3 upscaling technology also proved to be incredibly useful once again. I reached a smooth 78fps in Cyberpunk2077 while playing in 4K with graphics ray tracing settings set to high. And if you need even more frames, you can always bump down to 1440p with DLSS 3, where I managed to reach 90 fps. The 4070 Ti also blew away the Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX in Blender's benchmark, though that may have been due to unoptimized drivers on AMD's part. 

If you've got a 1,440p monitor running at 120Hz or more, the 4070 Ti is clearly the more sensible purchase in NVIDIA's new family. Halo Infinite hit 165 fps while maxed out in that resolution, and I saw 130 fps in Control was graphics and ray tracing settings cranked up. And, it's worth noting, I didn't encounter any of the odd driver instability that crashed my system multiple times with the Radeon RX 7900 cards. The 4070 Ti was also twice as fast as both of those AMD GPUs in Control while using DLSS 3 and ray tracing in 1440p and 4K.

The ASUS TUF 4070 Ti I reviewed retails for $849, but I ran it at the same stock speeds as other $799 cards. The GPU reached 76C after hours of benchmarking and gaming — that's not as low as the 70C and below temperatures I was seeing on the 4080 and 4090, but those cards also had far more elaborate cooling.

As impressed as I am by the 4070 Ti, every prospective GPU buyer should know that NVIDIA's 30-series GPUs are still great! And while they don't have DLSS 3, they still have excellent DLSS 2 upscaling. Best of all, they're falling in price now that another generation of cards have arrived. You can snag 3060s easily for less than $400, while I've seen 3070s falling below $600 regularly. I'm sure we'll see a 4060 card later this year, but if you're in a rush, don't look down on older hardware.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

If anything, the RTX 4070 Ti is awful news for AMD. The Radeon RX 4700 XT and XTX are both faster GPUs in many benchmarks, but once you start enabling ray tracing, they practically crumble. And worst of all, they're $100 and $200 more, respectively. Personally, I'd rather the power of DLSS and the stability of NVIDIA's hardware and software, over the raw speed of those AMD cards.

While I miss the days of “reasonable” video card prices under $500, the 4070 Ti still feels like a dose of sanity. Unless you’re a high-level streamer or pro gamer, there’s little reason to spend four figures on a video card. $799, though? That’s doable. And if anything, it pushes the prices of other hardware down considerably. Even if you don’t buy the 4070 Ti, we should all be thankful it exists.

AMD has confirmed that the throttling issues on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference models are related to the thermal solution.

AMD Confirms Radeon RX 7900 XTX Thermal Solution Issues, Committed To Provide A Solution To Affected Users

Over the past week, users started reporting a serious issue with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX 'MBA' reference graphics cards that caused overheating and resulted in thermal throttling. This made reference designs perform worse since they were running at lower clock speeds and while the initial response from AMD was that everything was 'Normal' and declined an RMA to a customer, the company later softened its position and asked affected users to contact the support team.

Now, after a few days of investigation, AMD is still determining the root cause of the throttling & overheating issues but has provided us with the following statement which more or less confirms the issue might be related to the thermal design which is something that has also been pointed by hardware experts such as Der8auer and Igor's Lab.

We are working to determine the root cause of the unexpected throttling experienced by some while using the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards made by AMD. Based on our observations to-date, we believe the issue relates to the thermal solution used in the AMD reference design and appears to be present in a limited number of the cards sold.

We are committed to solving this issue for impacted cards. Customers experiencing this unexpected throttling should contact AMD Support (https://www.amd.com/en/support/contact-call).

via AMD

AMD states that the problem is present within a limited number of Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards but it looks like the actual number of affected graphics cards might be higher and within the range of 1000s as mentioned by Igor's Lab. Igor has talked with a few system builders/distributors who states that the issues have been known for weeks and it isn't just one batch that is affected but several (4-6 to speak). Following are some of the quotes from Igors Lab:

The problem is already known for more than two weeks and is communicated between AMD and the distributors (internally) .. How exactly the problem will be communicated to the end customer has not yet been finally decided. … AMD’s statement was originally supposed to be made on January 3, 2023 at 6 p.m. CET, but it was postponed. 

As assumed, the cause is the evaporator chamber…  Several batches are affected. Currently, 4-6 batches and thousands of graphics cards are assumed. Only MBA cards are affected. (quote from email)

We had to return 300+ graphics cards of Asus MBA, Sapphire MBA, PowerColor MBA, XFX MBA to the retailers/warehouse/wholesale…
Complete systems also had to be disassembled for this procedure. (quote from email)

End customers have to contact the vendor or AMD support directly. Distributors and stores have to send the affected graphics cards to wholesalers and warehouses. (quote from email)

via Igor's Lab

There have also been reports that the problem arises around 2-3 weeks into the usage of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards so there may be more cases popping up soon if that is true. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX MBA 'Reference' graphics cards were amongst the first designs to hit retail shelves and a lot of users bought them since they were the only ones priced at MSRP. But now, these same graphics cards are affected by thermal throttling and overheating issues which may lead to a major recall or RMA.

The post AMD Confirms Radeon RX 7900 XTX Throttling Issue Related To Thermal Solution Used In Reference Design by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

The Madden 23 SSL error, which has made it impossible for players to access CFM mode in the NFL sports game, has likely resulted in a permanent loss of 60% of player Franchise data, with EA issuing an apology and outlining plans for data recovery.

[link] [22 comments]

Ransomware: contemporary threats, how to prevent them and how the FBI can help In April 2021, Dutch supermarkets faced a food shortage. The cause wasn't a drought or a sudden surge in the demand for avocados. Rather, the reason was a ransomware attack. In the past years, companies, universities, schools, medical facilities and other organizations have been targeted by ransomware threat actors,

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Quality assurance workers at Microsoft's ZeniMax Studios, the people who make the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Doom, games, just voted to form a union, making it the first games studio to unionize under Microsoft and the largest group of union-represented Quality Assurance testers at any U.S. game studio. ZeniMax Workers United and the Communication Workers of America didn't share the exact vote count but said that the 300 QA testers overwhelmingly voted in favor of their union. Workers decided to join the union by signing union authorization cards or by voting via an online portal. As the company had previously promised, Microsoft has recognized the union. "Before us is an opportunity to make big changes and bring equity to the video game industry. We want to put an end to sudden periods of crunch, unfair pay, and lack of growth opportunities within the company. Our union will push for truly competitive pay, better communication between management and workers, a clear path for those that want to progress their career, and more," Victoria Banos, a senior QA audio tester at Hunt Valley, said in a statement. "It's difficult to express in words just how much winning our union matters to us. We've been working so hard to get here that it would be impossible not to be excited. We know this is not the end of our hard work, but reaching this milestone gives us faith that when workers stand together, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to," Dylan Burton, a senior QA tester in Dallas said in a statement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There are a handful of films that seemingly every American high schooler watches at some point in class, but Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" starring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting is arguably the one most watched. I distinctly remember my teacher warning us not to complain when Hussey lets out a wailing cry lamenting the turmoil between the Capulet and Montague families, joking, "yes, yes, she's very annoying, you'll just have to deal with it." Nowhere in my teacher's laundry list of preemptive warnings did she include the fact both Hussey and Whiting would be shown partially nude during a bedroom scene.

Her defense was that if we knew it was coming, our hormonally charged brains wouldn't be able to focus on the film knowing there was going to be T&A. However, there's a much bigger problem than whether or not some immature high schoolers can handle seeing naked bodies on screen — it's that Hussey and Whiting were both only teenagers when they played the titular characters, meaning everyone who has watched the Academy Award-nominated film has viewed the nude form of underage actors.

Hussey and Whiting are now in their 70s, but according to Variety, they have filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica Superior Court accusing Paramount of sexual exploitation and the distribution of nude images of adolescent children. The suit alleges that the deceased Zeffirelli had assured both actors that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments during the scene to prevent nudity, but allegedly suggested they perform in the nude on the day of shooting or else "the Picture would fail."

'What They Were Told And What Went On Were Two Different Things'

Olivia Hussey was only 15 years old at the time of playing Juliet, while Leonard Whiting was 16. The complaint alleges that director Franco Zeffirelli had shown the actors where the camera would be positioned and promised there would be no nudity photographed or released, which is obviously not what happened as the final cut showcases the nudity of both actors.

"What they were told and what went on were two different things," Tony Marinozzi, a business manager for both actors, told Variety. Marinozzi talked about the trust these teenagers had in the director, how that trust it was taken advantage of, and the power imbalance that existed between the young actors and the director:

"They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he would not violate that trust they had. Franco was their friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do? There are no options. There was no #MeToo."

The complaint alleges that Hussey and Whiting have suffered "mental anguish and emotional distress in the 55 years since the film's release," as well as a loss of job opportunities. It is believed that the pair are seeking damages "believed to be in excess of $500 million." Considering the countless number of people who have seen "Romeo and Juliet" just from educational viewings alone, this high price tag seems perfectly acceptable.

Past Comments Do Not Erase The Reality Of What Happened

Solomon Gresen, the attorney for both Hussey and Whiting, was reported by Variety as saying, "nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn't be exhibited." Gresen added, "These were very young naive children in the '60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them. All of a sudden they were famous at a level they never expected, and in addition, they were violated in a way they didn't know how to deal with." California law recently temporarily suspended the statute of limitations on older claims of childhood sexual abuse, which sparked an influx of complaints against the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of America, and the "Romeo and Juliet' case.

The frustration lies in how people are already trying to use Hussey's previous comments about the scene as a way to ignore or excuse the very real crime that had occurred. In a 2018 interview, Hussey told Variety, "Nobody my age had done that before," and added, "It was needed for the film." Sounds a lot like Shelley Duvall's comments about her mistreatment during the production of "The Shining."

That same year, Hussey had told Fox News that while the scene was "taboo" in America, it was very common in Europe. This is true, but the massive difference here is that the age of consent in 1968 America was 21 years old. Let's play Devil's Advocate and say that the two were fine with the nudity at the time — it doesn't change the fact that these two teenagers were failed by the adults in charge of the production who should have known better than to exploit their underage performers. Yes, it was "a different time," but there were consent laws in place that were willfully violated.

Hussey And Whiting Should Win Their Case

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting are not the first actors to speak out against the nude scenes filmed during adolescence. Brooke Shields has spoken out at length regarding the film "Blue Lagoon," which showcased explicit content featuring the actress as a 14-year-old. Regardless of how many years have passed since the film was released, Hussey and Whiting are right to hold accountable the people who have profited off of the exploitation of their underage bodies. There's a short monologue from the Patrick Wilson and Elliot Page horror flick "Hard Candy" that perfectly describes this situation:

"It's just so easy to blame a kid, isn't it? Just because a girl knows how to imitate a woman, does NOT mean she's ready to do what a woman does. I mean, you're the grown-up here. If a kid is experimenting and says something flirtatious, you ignore it, you don't encourage it. If a kid says 'Heeey, let's make screwdrivers' you take the alcohol away and you don't race them to the next drink!"

The uncomfortable truth is that sexuality is absolutely a part of life for many teenagers, and exploring those realities on screen can make for powerful storytelling. However, this is why it's important to prioritize the safety of actors over "authenticity." Two of the best showcases of the exploration of budding sexuality in recent years were in the film "Yes, God, Yes" and the hit TV series "Pen15," but in both instances, hired actors who were of legal age so as to not exploit children. "Romeo and Juliet" is a phenomenal retelling of Shakespeare's classic play, but the scene in question is readily available on Tube Sites, while the feature film requires a VOD rental.

I hope they win.

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The post 1968's Romeo & Juliet Actors Sue Paramount for Child Abuse Over The Film's Nudity appeared first on /Film.

A group representing internet service providers across Europe said on Tuesday that a proposal to make Big Tech companies pay towards telecom operators' network costs could create systemic weakness in critical infrastructure. From a report: Telecom operators have been pushing the European Union to implement new laws that would see U.S. tech firms like Alphabet's Google, Meta's Facebook, and Netflix bear some of the costs of Europe's telecoms network, arguing that they drive much of the region's internet traffic. In September, European Commission's industry chief Thierry Breton said he would launch a consultation on so-called "fair share" payments in early 2023, before proposing legislation. Now, the European Internet Exchange Association said the proposals risked reducing the quality of service for internet users across Europe, and could "accidentally create new systemic weaknesses" in critical infrastructure, in a letter addressed to the European Commission's industry chief Thierry Breton and the Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Although it seems like everything is getting a revival these days, that likely won't be the case for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the beloved coming-of-age supernatural series that ran from 1997 to 2003. Whereas "Community" is getting its six seasons and a movie, "Buffy" got the movie first, then seven seasons, then nothing. 

That's not to say that a revival isn't possible at some point down the line, it's just that it's going to be hard to pull something like that off when the lead actress isn't interested. When Sarah Michelle Gellar was asked by SFX if she'd want to play Buffy again, she gave a definitive answer: "I'm not." 

At first glance, this might seem like a response to the many allegations of workplace misconduct and abuse revealed about "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon, with Gellar herself recently describing the show as having had an "extremely toxic" behind-the-scenes environment. While that certainly doesn't help, Gellar's main reservation comes down to a fundamental quality of the show itself, one that might be undermined by her returning to take over as an adult reaching into middle age.

"I am very proud of the show that we created and [a revival] doesn't need to be done," Gellar explained. "I am all for them continuing the story, because there's the story of female empowerment. I love the way the show was left: 'Every girl who has the power can have the power.' It's set up perfectly for someone else to have the power."

'The Horrors Of Adolescence'

In a way, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is a little like the "Scream" movies that also started off in the late '90s. Although the first "Scream" started off with teenage Sidney, in the 2020s the franchise has moved away from fully-grown Sidney to focus on a new group of young adult survivors. There's been a lot of controversy around how "Scream 6" doesn't seem to include Sidney at all, even though it's probably for the best that the franchise moves away from the pattern of upending Sidney's life over and over again.

Just because "Scream 6" doesn't include Sidney doesn't mean it's going to be a bad film, but it does make the film a harder sell to fans who see the character as the heart and soul of the series. "Buffy" without Gellar would also be a hard sell. Having another teenage girl take up the mantle could put the new actress in an impossible position, being constantly compared to such an iconic character. It would be difficult, but it would be the smarter choice for the series as a whole, as Gellar herself explained: "The metaphors of 'Buffy' were the horrors of adolescence. I think I look young, but I am not an adolescent." 

As much as we all love Buffy Summers, underneath all the supernatural elements the series was always about young people struggling to figure out their place in the world. Maybe there will be a successful revival one day, but Sarah Michelle Gellar will never be the center of it. 

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The post Sarah Michelle Gellar Has No Plans to Ever Return as Vampire Slayer Buffy Summers appeared first on /Film.