Month: January 2018

Looking for a way to ring in the new year that involves little more than your couch and a TV? Luckily for you, the start of a new month means new movies and TV shows added to several streaming services–including Hulu.

In terms of movies, there are a number of standout titles being added to the streamer, but none quite as excellent as both films in the Bill & Ted series. Both Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey arrive on January 1, along with movies like Zodiac, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Karate Kid 1-4, and Grizzly Man.

For TV, new seasons of Fear the Walking Dead, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Homeland all arrive. January will also see the addition of many cooking shows, with new episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen, Beat Bobby Flay, Cupcake Wars, and Great Food Truck Race among the titles arriving.

You can take a look at all of the Hulu additions for January below. You can also see everything Netflix is debuting during the first month of the new year.

Arriving on Hulu in January

January 1

• 10 to Midnight
• A League of Their Own
• All Is Lost
• American Ninja
• American Pickers: Season 14
• Ancient Impossible: Season 1
• Anger Management
• Art of the Prank
• Assassination
• Avenging Force
• Babel
• Baby Mama’s Club
• Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics: Seasons 8 & 9
• Beat Bobby Flay: Seasons 1 & 2
• Best of Man v. Food: Season 1
• Beyond the Sea
• Big Driver
• Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
• Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey
• Black Rain
• Bloodsport
• Bolero
• Breaking Borders: Season 1
• Brothers
• Brother vs. Brother: Seasons 1 & 2
• Burning Blue
• But I’m A Cheerleader
• Capote
• Cold Case Files (Reboot): Season 1
• Cold Mountain
• Coming Soon
• Container Homes: Season 1
• Cool World
• Counting Cars: Season 6
• Cross Bronx
• Cube
• Cube 2: Hypercube
• Cube Zero
• Cupcake Wars: Season 8
• Cutthroat Kitchen: Season 7
• Daddy Day Care
• Dangerous Curves
• Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: Season 22
• Down in the Delta
• Drop Dead Sexy
• Duck Dynasty: Seasons 10 & 11
• Evolution
• Excess Baggage
• Flawless
• Flea Market Flip: Season 3
• Flip or Flop: Season 5
• Food Network Star: Season 12
• Frailty
• Freedom Writers
• Ghost Adventures: Season 11
• Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies Go to College
• Great Food Truck Race: Season 7
• Green Street Hooligans Underground
• Grizzly Man
• Hamlet
• Hercules in New York
• Highway
• Horsemen
• Hot Rod
• Hustle & Flow
• I Spy
• Invaders from Mars
• Invasion U.S.A.
• Ironweed
• Kill the Irishman
• Liz & Dick
• Look Who’s Talking
• Look Who’s Talking Now
• Look Who’s Talking Too
• Love & Death
• Love Story
• Missing in Action II: The Beginning
• Mona Lisa Smile
• Mountain Men: Seasons 1-6
• Murphy’s Law
• My Boss’s Daughter
• Night of the Living Dead 3D
• Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection
• Ninja III: The Domination
• P2
• Paper Heart
• Platoon Leader
• Pretty Bird
• Primitive
• Punch Drunk Love
• Requiem for a Dream
• Reservoir Dogs
• Revenge of the Ninja
• Revolutionary Road
• Richard the Lionheart
• Saturday Night Fever
• Secretary
• Shirley Valentine
• Show of Force
• Six Degrees of Separation
• Sliding Doors
• Songcatcher
• Spaceballs
• Step into Liquid
• Street Smart
• Subspecies
• Subspecies 2
• Subspecies 3
• Subspecies 4
• Subspecies 5
• Sunshine Cleaning
• The Parent Trap (1961)
• The Parent Trap
• The Fourth War
• The Future
• The Karate Kid
• The Karate Kid: Part II
• The Karate Kid III
• The Next Karate Kid
• The Phantom of the Opera
• The Pom Pom Girls
• The Presidio
• The Wraith
• Thelma & Louise
• Total Recall
• Two Family House
• Uncommon Valor
• War
• Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan: Seasons 1 & 2
• Witless Protection
• Words and Pictures
• Zodiac

January 2

• Cruel and Unusual

January 3

• The Game Changer

January 5

• The Devils Double

January 6

• Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait

January 7

• Yakuza Apocalypse

January 8

• Frank

January 11

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 5
• These Final Hours

January 12

• False Flag: Season 1
• Homeland: Season 5

January 13

• XXX: The Return of Xander Cage

January 15

• 12 O’Clock Boys
• The Alchemist Cookbook
• Are We Done Yet?
• Are We There Yet?
• Advanced Style
• Afterimage
• Bending Steel
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
• Coherence
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Dogs on the Inside
• Meek’s Cutoff
• Polina
• Polytechnique
• The Queen
• Sex Guaranteed
• Soul on a String
• We Need to Talk About Kevin
• Wendy & Lucy

January 18

• Barista

January 19

• My Best Friend

January 21

• School Life

January 22

• Espionage Tonight
• Ingrid Goes West

January 24

• Detroit

January 25

• Sword of Vengeance

January 27

• Crash Pad

January 29

• Beside Bowie
• Halloween Pussy Trap Kill Kill

January 30

• Fear the Walking Dead: Season 3
• Uncle Grandpa: Season 5

January 31

• All Dogs Go To Heaven
• All Dogs Go To Heaven 2

Blizzard has teased new content for Overwatch in 2018 including a new event, characters, and the release of a new map.

In a developer update video, game director Jeff Kaplan talks about what the Overwatch team has planned for the game in this new year.

Kaplan confirmed the new Blizzard World map announced last year which features a Blizzard-themed amusement park will be coming “very soon” with “tons of great Easter eggs” as well as other “great new maps” to come in the future.

He also discussed about a new Lunar New Year event, much like last year’s Year of the Rooster event, which will feature “pretty significant content that players are going to be very happy with.”

Continue reading…

The World Health Organization, the public health division of the United Nations, has released its newest list of classified diseases–and “gaming disorder” is included. A draft of the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) describes this as being characterized by a “pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour” online or offline.

The description goes on to say that gaming disorders can include the following: “1) impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context); 2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities; and 3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.”

People suffering from the so-called “gaming disorder” run the risk of “significant impairment” to their personal, family, social, education, and occupational lives, according to the WHO. The description goes on to say that “gaming disorder” can be a continuous condition or it can be episodic or recurrent in nature. For it to be suggested that a person has “gaming disorder,” they would display these behaviour patterns for a year or longer.

The WHO also has a listing for “hazardous gaming,” which the organisation says “refers to a pattern of gaming, either online or offline that appreciably increases the risk of harmful physical or mental health consequences to the individual or to others around this individual.”

It goes on to say: “The increased risk may be from the frequency of gaming, from the amount of time spent on these activities, from the neglect of other activities and priorities, from risky behaviours associated with gaming or its context, from the adverse consequences of gaming, or from the combination of these. The pattern of gaming is often persists in spite of awareness of increased risk of harm to the individual or to others.”

Speaking to the BBC, technology addiction specialist Dr. Richard Graham said he welcomes the WHO’s decision to making “gaming disorder” a recognised disease. “It is significant because it creates the opportunity for more specialised services. It puts it on the map as something to take seriously,” he said. At the same time, he said he worries that it could also lead to “confused parents whose children are just enthusiastic gamers.”

Not everyone is thrilled with the WHO’s decision to recognise gaming addition as a medical condition. The Entertainment Software Association, which represents the video game industry’s interests in Washington DC and organizes E3 every year, said the move “recklessly trivializes real mental health issues.”

“Just like avid sports fans and consumers of all forms of engaging entertainment, gamers are passionate and dedicated with their time,” the ESA said in a statement to Gamasutra. “Having captivated gamers for more than four decades, more than 2 billion people around the world enjoy video games.”

“The World Health Organization knows that common sense and objective research prove video games are not addictive. And, putting that official label on them recklessly trivializes real mental health issues like depression and social anxiety disorder, which deserve treatment and the full attention of the medical community. We strongly encourage the WHO to reverse direction on its proposed action.”

The newest ICD draft is not yet finalized, so things could change regarding its content and language. We’ll report back with more details as they become available.

Regular updates to Grand Theft Auto V continue in 2018. Although the first weekly update of the year is not a massive one, Rockstar has released a cool new vehicle and announced some new discounts and extended bonuses that may get you to boot up the game on PS4, Xbox One, or PC.

GTA V’s newest car is a rally vehicle, the Annis Savestra Sports Classic. It’s available now through Legendary Motorsport, and while it looks to be a worthwhile ride on its own, it can get even better. Those with access to an Avenger or Mobile Operations Center have some optional upgrades for the Savestra, including mounted machine guns.

If you don’t yet own a MOC, you can pick up the cab for 50% off its regular price from now through January 8. You can get also get 30% off the Coil Cyclone or Grotti Visione, or 25% off the Ocelot Ardent (a weaponized vehicle), the FH-1 Hunter helicopter, P-45 Nokota plane, and HVY APC (another weaponized vehicle). In the case of the latter three, the discount applies to both the buy-it-now and trade prices.

On the bonus side, Adversary modes Slashers and Occupy are awarding players with double GTA$ and RP until January 8. The Premium Stunt Race is Duel, with a restriction to Muscle-class vehicles, while the Time Trail is Up N Atom. The Premium Race hands out big GTA$ payouts to the top three finishers, while everyone gets Triple RP. The Time Trial offers GTA$ and RP for those who can beat the target time.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi closed out 2017 as the year’s highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office, eclipsing the year’s longstanding winner Beauty and the Beast. But what other films join these two in 2017’s best-performing films in North America?

Check out the gallery or the chart below to find out a breakdown of the year’s top 10 grossing films, including their total grosses, as well as their openings.

Continue reading…

Among the many additions coming in Civilization VI‘s first expansion, Rise and Fall, are eight new civs and nine new leaders. Developer Firaxis has now shared the details about another of these: Cree, a group of indigenous Canadians.

In Civ VI, the Cree are led by Poundmaker. As detailed in the video above, the Cree are a trade- and alliance-oriented civ. Their unique ability is Nihithaw, which grants them a free trade route after researching Pottery. Additionally, the first time a Trader moves into an unclaimed tile that is within three tiles of a Cree city, it’s claimed for that civ. That’ll make your decision about where to send your Traders even more important than usual.

The Mekewap is Cree’s unique improvement, and it provides production and housing; it also offers gold if it’s adjacent to a luxury resource or food if it’s next to a bonus resource. Cree’s unique unit is the Okihtcitaw, a recon unit that takes the replace of the Scout. It’s a more effective fighter than the standard Scout, and it also comes with a free promotion.

As for Poundmaker himself, his unique ability is Favorable Terms. Any civ Cree strikes up an alliance with provides shared visibility. Additionally, any external trade route with cities that have camps and pastures provides extra food, while the other city gets extra gold.

Rise and Fall releases on February 8. Other civs to be revealed so far include Mongolia and the Netherlands, while India will gain Chandragupta as an alternate leader to Gandhi. The expansion aims to change the late game, adding a new Loyalty system, new types of alliances, Governor characters, and more.