Month: January 2021

It feels like this year has only just started, but it’s already time to start setting sights and plans for appointment watching in February. Hulu has announced the full set of content for next month–here’s what you can expect to watch on Hulu in February 2021.

If you missed The Shape of Water back when it came out in 2017, there’s no time like the present–starting on February 15–to catch director Guillermo del Toro’s moving and out there love story between a humanoid amphibian creature and a mute cleaning woman who works in the high-security government laboratory housing it. The movie doesn’t just have an unusual story working for it–the visuals, production design, and writing all fire on all cylinders throughout, making for a wild experience that will stay with you. Watching it will help you understand how it won four Oscars, but also have you wondering why it didn’t net more. You can read our review here.

For something similarly potentially horrifying, the infamous Sonic the Hedgehog Movie lands on Hulu on February 18. Video-game movie adaptations are always a mixed bag, but it might change people’s minds to give it a try if we just mention that, sincerely, this movie tries (and at times, kinda succeeds) at being something more grounded and even vulnerable. Yes, Sonic still goes fast. Yes, Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik is even more cartoony than the digital characters he interacts with. But if you miss out on the first movie, you’ll be that much further behind for the upcoming sequel.

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Now that wireless controllers are the standard, there are two reasons to get a wired controller. At this point, most manufacturers spin it as a means to ensure a stable connection that minimizes input lag and lost inputs. But there’s another, more obvious reason – it’s cheaper. PowerA’s Enhanced Wired Controller for Xbox Series X/S, the next-gen version of its wired Xbox One gamepad, leans heavily on that second consideration.

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At $34.99, it’s just a little over half the $59.99 of the standard Xbox Series X controller. Even if you care more about convenience than performance, and see a hardline tether as a flaw, it’s easier to accept as a concession that keeps money in your wallet. And, as it turns out, the Enhanced Wired Controller Series X is a perfectly passable controller. Though certain aspects of it look and/or feel exactly like the knockoff you’d expect, it performs well in all the ways that count, and offers a couple of useful extra features, to boot.

PowerA Enhanced Wired Controller – Design & Features

Aside from the MicroUSB-powered detachable cable and a few extra buttons, the PowerA Enhanced Wired Controller looks and feels very similar to the standard Series X controller. The chassis measures 6.00 x 4.13 x 2.53 inches (WDH), just a hair larger than the standard Series X controller. Weighing 208 grams, it’s deceptively light: I wouldn’t describe it as especially light in my hands, but it weighs substantially less than the Series X controller (287g). The key takeaway here is that you really don’t feel the controller in your hands at all.

The Enhanced Wired Controller feels nearly identical to Xbox controllers in many key respects: The core button, trigger, and stick layouts are the same. Its face buttons have a touch more travel, but have a similar tactile press. The sticks have the same responsiveness. Since this an Xbox Series X update, a small round version of the Series X/S controller’s new share button features prominently at the center of the face, just below the Xbox button.

There are a few places where you can feel the difference, though. The “grips” on the handles are purely cosmetic, etched into the plastic. Likewise, the analog sticks have textured rims, but aren’t rubberized for grip as they would be on most gear. They will not help your hands steady as you move around the gamepad, or prevent slippage when your hands get sweaty. The D-pad, a simple cross, feels a bit squishy. There’s a strong tactile bump when you press, which is good, but the directional spokes sink a bit when you make a full press.

Build quality is also a concern. The bumpers and triggers are made from a glossy hard plastic, which feel fine while you’re playing, but seem a bit flimsy. The bumpers, in particular, wiggle a bit right out of the box. I’ve only used the controller for about four days and there haven’t been any problems, but after a lifetime of using controllers I wouldn’t expect the Bumpers’ to last for many years, or endure much abuse.

Though I primarily see the Enhanced Wired Controller as a budget-friendly alternative to the standard controller, it does have a couple of useful extra features. Like the Enhanced Wired Xbox One controller, it has a pair of programmable rear buttons, angled at the base of the handles where your middle fingertips naturally rest. You can program the buttons to replicate any of the face buttons, bumpers, or triggers using the program button in the center of the controller’s back. That functionality, while limited compared to the Xbox Elite: Series 2, is standard for most third-party Xbox controllers. Though simple, it’s one of the best two-button rear input designs I’ve used: They feel more intuitive than most rear buttons and paddles, which makes it easy for anyone to pick up and use without any practice or awkward acclimation period.

New to the Series X model, the Enhanced Wired Controller now has a large, transparent headset audio control switch at the bottom of the gamepad. Hovering just over the 3.5mm headphone jack, the dial allows you to adjust a wired headset’s volume by pressing left or right, and mute its microphone by pressing it in.

In general, I have mixed feelings about the utility of putting audio inputs on controllers: On the one hand, it’s easier to make adjustments on the fly with them than with a headset’s onboard controls. On the other, the controls only work with 3.5mm wired headsets that you plug into the controller, which fewer and fewer headsets use as their preferred means of connection. The audio controls do not impact the controller negatively at all, so it isn’t as if I don’t appreciate their presence, but their value is actually more niche than you might realize at a glance.

PowerA Enhanced Wired Controller – Gaming

The Enhanced Wired Controller creates a reasonably comparable experience to the standard Xbox Series X controller. Aside from the wired connection, which provides the standard performance benefits and potentially inconvenient logistical limitations, there are very few times where I noticed what controller I was using. That may sound derisive, but it’s an endorsement: Since the controller costs nearly half as much as the first-party default, “comparable” is a significant achievement.

Playing long multi-hour stretches of Cyberpunk 2077, the controller felt good in-hand. The analog sticks felt snappy, so my movement and aim felt precise. Aside from the bumpers, whose wobble and hard edges are mildly unpleasant, the buttons and triggers all felt comfortable. You only use the D-pad occasionally in Cyberpunk, but I found myself pressing the directions a little longer than I would have with other controllers.

Thanks to their very prominent placement, I found myself integrating the back buttons into my play organically more often than with other controllers. They’re very easy to use and easy on the hands. They’re also easy to flick accidentally so don’t use them anything too critical. (I accidentally skipped some dialogue a few times when I had “B” mapped to the right back button).

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I had a similar experience with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer. Responsive analog stick movement made my movement and aim feel natural. After switching from a high-end third-party controller with configuration software that lets you fine-tune your analog sticks, there were times when the certain movements, like horizontal movement on the right stick, felt sluggish: When I went back to the standard Series X controller, though, the action was very similar.

Astronomers have discovered a new Super-Earth planet that’s nearly as old as the universe itself, but despite what the name might indicate, the words “Super Earth” only speak to the exoplanet’s size as this new planet doesn’t have many similarities to Earth.

This new Super Earth is called TOI-561b and it’s 50% larger than Earth, according to UC Riverside News. It orbits its star in less than half a day though, despite how much larger it is than Earth, which orbits its star, the Sun, every 365 days. TOI-561b is, all things considered, quite different from Earth, but the reason it’s called a Super Earth is almost exclusively because of its size.

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“Super-Earths — a class of planets unlike any in our solar system — are more massive than Earth yet lighter than ice giants like Neptune and Uranus, and can be made of gas, rock, or a combination of both,” according to NASA’s official definition of a Super Earth. “They are between twice the size of Earth and up to 10 times its mass. Super-Earth is a reference only to an exoplanet’s size — larger than Earth and smaller than Neptune — but not suggesting they are necessarily similar to our home planet.”

UC Riverside planetary astrophysicist, Stephen Kane, said that for every day we spend on Earth, TOI-561b orbits its star twice. The reason for this quick orbit is due to the heat created by the planet’s close proximity to the star it orbits. TOI-561b’s temperature is over 2000 degrees Kelvin, which is obviously too hot for life as we know it to exist on the planet. The other reason for the speedy orbit is due to the planet’s density, which is roughly the same as Earth’s.

“This is surprising because you’d expect the density to be higher,” Kane said. “This is consistent with the notion that the planet is extremely old.”

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The older a planet is, the less dense it generally is and that’s because the materials that make a planet dense simply weren’t as abundant the farther back in time you go. The materials that eventually form dense planets are heavy elements that are produced by fusion reactions in stars as they age, according to UC Riverside News. When stars explode, the elements are scattered outward and those elements form new stars and new planets.

Because TOI-561b is not nearly as dense as expected, the astronomers that discovered the Super Earth believe it to be as old as the universe itself as at that point in time, heavy elements to create a more dense planet would not have been as readily available as less stars were exploding since they weren’t as old.

For more science, read about how the Earth is spinning faster than it has in 50 years and then check out this story about how the Moon is rusting. Read about how a space object that passed by Earth was likely from aliens after that, and then read this story about how researchers are trying to turn Mars green.

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Playing the daughter of Thanos in the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Karen Gillan has cemented herself as Nebula, and she is coming back for more. In a recent Instagram post, Gillan confirmed she’ll be shooting as the character again very soon, out in Sydney, Australia, but for what project?

In her Instagram Story post, which DigitalSpy also posted, Gillan said, “This is my hair. I cut it the other day in preparation for Nebula, so we don’t have to get so much hair into the bald cap because I have so much hair. It’s unbelievable. It’s just so thick.”

However, this most likely isn’t for Guardians of he Galaxy Vol. 3, as director James Gunn is in Vancover, British Columbia filming the first season of HBO Max’s Peacemaker series–a spin-off of the upcoming Suicide Squad movie.

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Though the next Steam sale may be on the horizon, you don’t have to wait until February to snag some great game deals for PC. Fanatical, a store that sells licensed PC game keys, just kicked off its big January Savers sale, slashing up to 90% off PC games like Persona 5 Strikers, Rainbow Six Siege, and Civilization VI. The vast majority of the games on sale are for Steam, but be sure to note the launcher before buying–some are for other platforms like Uplay.

The sale notably includes discounts on Persona 5 Strikers, which releases February 23 if you opt for the standard edition. The base game is on sale for $49.19, down from $60. The Deluxe edition, however, releases February 19, so you’ll be able to dive in four days early if you pick that version up. On sale for $57.39 (down from $70), Persona 5 Strikers Deluxe edition gets you a digital art book, digital soundtrack, behind-the-scenes video, and a pair of in-game content packs, in addition to early access. (See our Persona 5 Strikers preorder guide for more details on each edition and other bonuses.) It’s worth noting each version is currently full price on Steam, so you’re better off taking advantage of Fanatical’s deals if you plan to play on that platform.

The sale includes a mix of newer games, such as Devil May Cry 5, Control: Ultimate Edition, and last year’s Resident Evil 3 remake, as well as older titles like Torchlight II and Civilization VI. This is a good opportunity to snag pricier editions of games for cheap on PC, like Frostpunk: Game of the Year edition for $26 (normally $55), Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Ultimate edition for $26 (was $120), and Devil May Cry: Deluxe edition for $23 (discounted from $35).

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If American horror in the ’90s was defined by the slick, commercial thrills of Scream and the films it influenced, then the genre took a darker turn in the 2000s. A sub-genre emerged that was given the name “torture-porn”. This was a label that many filmmakers and fans hated, but nevertheless indicated a focus on nastier and more violent types of horror than what audiences had been enjoying in the previous decade.

While the Saw movies were the most successful horror films to emerge at this time, it was Eli Roth’s Hostel that best defines this era of gory movie-making. Hostel was the film that the “torture-porn” label was first applied to, in David Edelstein’s New York Magazine article “Now Playing at Your Local Multiplex: Torture Porn.” Despite this–or more likely, because of it–Hostel was a big hit when it arrived in theaters in January 2006.

Roth’s movie focused on a trio of young backpackers–two American, one Icelandic–who head to Slovakia in search of good time with the local girls they have been told about. But soon after arriving they are kidnapped by a sinister underground organisation that allows rich businessmen to torture and kill for high prices. Gory mayhem inevitably ensues.

While Hostel wasn’t exactly met with rave reviews, its combination of dark satire, nightmarish survival horror, and over-the-top splatter was highly effective. Roth skillfully builds tension and delivers the gore with glee. Just mention “the eye scene” or “the ankle bit” to many horror fans and they will know exactly what you mean, even if they haven’t watched the movie in years.

Hostel turns 15 this month. It remains a defining horror movie of the 2000s, and despite a varied subsequent filmography, it’s still the movie that Roth is best known for. It can be watched right now for free on Peacock, so we’ve gone back to this gory favorite and found some of the references, Easter Eggs, and behind-the-scenes facts you didn’t know.

1. Hostel was inspired by a real website

The inspiration for the movie came from a disturbing real-life website. Roth was sent a link to a site based in Thailand, that claimed that for $10,000, customers could commit acts of murder. In a 2005 interview, Roth explained, “The site claimed that the person you were killing had signed up for it and that part of the money would go to their family because they were so broke and were gonna die anyway. It was to give you the thrill of taking another human life. We said, ‘Is this bull***t? Is this real?’ It looked real.”

2. Quentin Tarantino talked Roth into making Hostel

It was Roth’s friend Quentin Tarantino who persuaded him to make the movie. He told Tarantino that he was unsure what film to make next, and pitched him his idea for Hostel. As Roth explained, “He was like “Are you f***ing kidding me? That’s the sickest f***ing idea I have ever heard. You’ve got to do that. Do it low budget. Go to Europe and make it as sick as you want to make it.'” As a result of Tarantino’s encouragement, the movie was released as “Quentin Tarantino presents Hostel.”

3. The taxi driver turned up drunk

The actor playing the taxi driver in the scene where the trio first enter Bratislava was so drunk on the morning of the shoot that Roth had to use a sober stunt double for the shots where he is actually driving. The driver appears very briefly in the film, but in this making-of video there’s hilarious footage of him on-set, and he is clearly in no state to sit behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

4. The slaughterhouse scenes were shot in a working psychiatric hospital

The slaughterhouse interiors were shot at Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital in Prague. While the hospital itself is still in operation, the wing the movie was filmed in has been closed and unoccupied for more than 50 years.

5. This adult movie is a pastiche of an Eli Roth film

The adult movie that the guard is watching is a real-life 2003 film titled Sex Fever, which was an X-rated parody of Roth’s first movie, Cabin Fever.

6. There are several cameos

Hostel features three cameo appearances from directors. Tarantino appears as a shirtless German man yelling out of a window, while Roth himself pops up as a stoned American tourist in a coffee shop. Acclaimed Japanese director Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) also makes an appearance as a scary-looking slaughterhouse customer who warns Paxton that “you could spend all your money in there.”

7. This band was made of crewmembers

This rock band appears in posters in three separate scenes. As Roth reveals in the making-of documentary, Bakunas and the Essential Elements was a real band in the 1980s led by the movie’s production accountant Mark Bakunas. The rest of the band on the posters are producers Mike Fleiss and Chris Briggs, co-producer Daniel Frisch, costume designer Franco-Giacomo Carbone, and Roth himself. There’s footage of the photoshoot for the posters in the documentary.

8. All the signs in the town are in the wrong language

Although the movie is set in Slovakia, Roth and his crew made very little attempt to hide the fact that it was shot in Prague in the Czech Republic. Every sign around town is in Czech–and even the train station, which is supposedly in Austria, has Czech signs up. You can actually see the name of Prague station reflected in the window as the train pulls in.

9. This is what Paxton says in German

Paxton begs the doctor not to torture him in German, but Roth left the scene unsubtitled. Paxton’s dialogue translates as, “If you kill me, it’ll destroy your life. Every time you close your eyes, you’ll see me. I’ll be in your nightmares every night, your whole life. I will ruin it.” Unfortunately for Paxton, it doesn’t work.

10. Roth reshot the movie’s ending for theaters

The theatrical ending differs from the ending Roth originally shot–which in turn differs from what was in the script. Roth wrote an ending in which Paxton (Jay Hernandez) kidnaps the businessman’s daughter, and cuts her throat on a train while her father watches helplessly. Roth decided that Paxton wouldn’t go that far, so filmed a more ambiguous ending, in which he simply takes the daughter. “The implication is that he was saving her,” he said. But Roth discovered that test audiences still thought that the girl was going to die, so the sequence was entirely reshot, and the movie ends with the scene in which Paxton kills the businessman in the station toilet. This version was released in theaters, while the “kidnap” ending can be found on the DVD and Blu-ray.

11. Roth was expecting the movie to be heavily cut

Roth expected the MPAA to ask for lots of cuts in order for the movie to get an R rating, so added “extra gore” that he didn’t expect to get through. But as it turns out, the MPAA barely asked for anything to be cut. “The thing that was great about the ratings board [was] having it say ‘Quentin Tarantino presents’ at the beginning,” he explained. “I could say to them if the movie has Quentin’s name and my name on it, nobody is going to accidentally walk into this film and be surprised by what it is.”

12. The Slovakian government were very unhappy

Unsurprisingly, Slovakians were not happy about the negative portrayal of their country, which is shown as a economically deprived, depressing, and extremely dangerous place for a holiday. Tomas Galbavy, a member of the Slovakian parliament, called the movie “a monstrosity that does not at all reflect reality,” and stated that it would “damage the good reputation of Slovakia.” As a result, the Ministry of Tourism invited Roth to visit their country to show how unlike his portrayal it really is.

Roth defended this depiction by arguing that the movie was in fact a critique of close-minded American tourists. “It’s not really Slovakia,” he said. “It’s movie Slovakia, and it’s based on American stereotypes. If you look closely at the film, the people who are actually doing the worst things are other Americans.”

13. Roth asked the President of Iceland for pardon

Slovakia was not the only country that Roth thought might be offended by Hostel. The drunken, womanising Icelandic character Oli led him to ask the President of Iceland for a pardon, during a dinner after the movie’s Icelandic premiere. Thankfully, the President saw the funny side, telling Roth “Well, you know, your character is pretty accurate so I’ll give you the pardon.”