Sure, Christmas might still be several months away, but you might as well prepare for it with a festive treat in the form of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which is getting a brand-new 4K Blu-ray release. For many, the 1966 original is the adaptation of the Christmas classic. The animated film that has stood the test of time, and now it'll finally join the remakes in crisp 4K resolution. Preorders for How the Grinch Stole Christmas are available for $34 at Amazon ahead of its October 29 release.

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas $34

Narrated by Boris Karloff and directed by Looney Tunes legend Chuck Jones, the film tells the classic story of how the Grinch decided to pull off the heist of the century in Who-ville. A crime for the ages, the Grinch eventually faces karmic retribution for his misdeeds when he's cursed to have a conscience that makes him feel guilty. Special features haven't been confirmed for this 4K transfer, although it's likely that this version will inherit the bonus material from the standard Blu-ray released a couple of years ago.

That one had some nice extras, like audio commentary tracks, songs in the key of the Grinch, and a documentary on how the film was made.

Preorder at Amazon The Grinch Remakes

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (live action, 2000) -- $21 ($30)
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Illumination, 2018) (2018) -- $19 ($30)

The wonderful live-action remake starring Jim Carrey is a modern classic in its own right. It's hard to believe. it turns 25 next year, but you can get the Grinchmas 4K Edition for $21 at Amazon. Director Ron Howard's film captured all the magic of the Dr. Seuss book in a big-budget spectacle, while Carrey stole every scene he was in while wearing the infamous Grinch costume. The Grinchmas edition on sale also has a ton of extra content, as you're getting the film in a 4K format, deleted scenes, music videos, a look at how Carrey was transformed into the Grinch, and more.

There's also the 2018 version of the film done by Despicable Me studio Illumination, although this CGI-animated film doesn't have the memorable quality of the '66 or 2000 movies. Still, $19 is a pretty good deal for a 4K Blu-ray that'll keep younger members of the family glued to the TV screen. Plus, it comes with a trio of mini-movies.

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A number of developers believe the next Nintendo console may not be released until well into 2025.

While speaking on the GI Podcast, journalist Christopher Dring sought to clear up a popular rumor that Nintendo's successor to the Switch may be released by the end of this fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2025.

"No developer I have spoken to expects it to launch in this financial year. In fact, they've been told not to expect it in this financial year. A bunch of people I spoke to hope it's out in April/May."

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Blizzard may have just inadvertently revealed a new feature coming in World of Warcraft's new The War Within expansion: the ability for Dracthyr to be classes other than Evoker.

In the most-recent episode of the WoWCast, Blizzard shared an image of the game's new account-wide Warbands login screen, showing four characters around a campfire. One of the characters in question is a Dracthyr, the humanoid dragon race added as part of the Dragonflight expansion. The Dracthyr are currently only able to be one class, the Evoker, which channels the magical powers of the various dragonflights to deal damage and support allies.

The Dracthyr shown in the WoWCast image, however, is definitely not an Evoker. Rather than using the caster weapons Evokers typically wield, this Dracthyr is wielding two giant axes. That has led players to believe the image actually shows a Dracthyr Warrior, seemingly confirming that the race will have its Evoker-only class restrictions lifted for The War Within's launch or sometime shortly after. Blizzard had previously hinted the Dracthyr would eventually be able to play as different classes, but that the feature would not be included for The War Within's release.

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There are dozens of companies offering cloud storage solutions, but few are as affordable as Internxt. The company is currently offering big discounts on all of its cloud storage lifetime plans, which give users up to 10TB of space without monthly fees.

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Internxt provides users with encrypted file and folder sharing, password protection, two-factor authentication, and the ability to upload up to 20GB at once. You can access the service from your laptop, tablet, or smartphone, making it easy to access your content no matter where you're working.

What's most appealing about the service is that it doesn't come with any monthly fees. After making your first payment, you'll never have to pay for the service again. The plans are also reasonably priced, as the company is offering up to 82% discounts on all their lifetime plans. That makes it a great alternative to services like iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox, which require a monthly fee for most of their plans.

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The first reactions to Alien: Romulus are out, but one of the first people to see the original cut of the film was Ridley Scott, the director of the first Alien. After directing the two most recent films in the franchise, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Scott was an executive producer on Romulus. And when he gave his notes to Fede Álvarez, the younger director had a surprising response.

While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Scott said that he felt relieved when he first saw Álvarez's work on the film. He then wrote down his notes for Álvarez, who left the room to read them. That's when Scott heard the director's initial response to his notes.

"He reads them privately, kicks the wall, punches the door, and then comes back out and said, 'They were good notes.,'" recalls Scott. The elder director also revealed that one of his initial notes for Álvarez was to shorten the film's running time.

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Turning raw crops and animal products into artisan goods in Stardew Valley typically increases their sell value. That mostly holds true for truffle oil, which can be made by putting truffles into an oil maker. Truffle oil is worth a good amount of money, and it doesn't take that long to process either. Here's how to make truffle oil in Stardew Valley.

How to make Truffle Oil

Truffle oil is made by processing truffles by using an oil maker. To get truffles you will need to have pigs. The short version is that you will need to build a barn, upgrade the barn to a deluxe barn, buy a pig from Marnie's Ranch, and let it loose on your farm to dig for truffles.

More Stardew Valley guides:

• How To Make Wine In Stardew Valley

• How To Feed Chickens In Stardew Valley

• How To Get Hay In Stardew Valley

• Stardew Valley: How To Unlock The Greenhouse

Once you are routinely getting truffles from your pigs, you can build oil makers to process them. Oil makers can be crafted at farming level 8 using 50 slime, 20 hardwood, and one gold bar. Placing a truffle in the oil maker will convert it into truffle oil in six hours, so you can process multiple truffles in a single day.

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The closed beta for Spectre Divide--a competitive 3v3 multiplayer shooter with a unique gameplay hook--is now live, and if you're looking to jump in, developer Mountaintop Studios has listed two methods to earn a key. The closed beta will be available exclusively on PC via Steam until August 21, and the studio says that if you have played in any of the previous playtests, you'll automatically have access.

The first method for earning closed beta access will be to receive a Spectre Divide drop entry key through an eligible Twitch stream, and once you have it, you'll need to link your Spectre Divide and Twitch accounts. This route will also unlock three exclusive in-game items in the form of a Bad Intentions spray, the Troublemaker Banner, and the Sinister Smile charm.

For the second method, you can request a closed beta access key through the Spectre Divide Steam page, although it's worth noting that Mountaintop will be prioritizing Twitch drops over this method. You can try both methods to boost your chances, and in case you're unlucky, Mountaintop is planning to hold more playtests in the future.

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During D23, one of the highlights of Marvel Studios' presentation was the first trailer for Daredevil: Born Again, the upcoming continuation of the beloved Daredevil series that ran for three seasons on Netflix before migrating to Disney+. The original show ended in 2018, and series star Charlie Cox didn't share the confidence of his co-star, Vincent D'onofrio, that Marvel would call them back for a new series.

Cox told People Magazine that he lost hope for a revival shortly after Marvel's Kevin Feige contacted him in 2020 about reprising his role as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. Since Feige didn't reach out to the other Daredevil cast members, Cox assumed that his cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home would be a one-off. However, D'onofrio never lost hope that he would reprise his role as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin alongside Cox in a new show.

"I'd moved on and occasionally Vincent and I would chat and he would say things like, 'Oh, they're going to call. I think they're going to us, but they're going to call us,'" recalled Cox. "And I would get off the phone and be like, 'The guy's delusional! He's got to let it go. It's going to be 10 years and he's still going. It's over. It's definitely over."

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I was blown away when I first played Shadows of Doubt last year. The detective sim realizes a city of characters, each with their own routines, jobs, and lives to live, and you're dropped into the middle of the locale to solve crimes while you chase down a serial killer. As far as the genre of immersive sims goes, this one seemed to have a lot going for it even while it was in Steam Early Access, and now it's finally coming to consoles alongside its 1.0 update.

ColePowered Games' indie will arrive on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on September 26 as a digital release, though a physical version will soon follow. Detective games are timeless in their appeal, but I've actually never played one that goes to the lengths seen in Shadows of Doubt.

You build out your own case board, red strings and all, and the game is happy to let you make the wrong assumptions. You can play stealthily, sneaking into businesses after hours to rummage through their trash, or take on the role of a confrontational gumshoe who harasses passersby in the streets. You can hack computers, check call histories, bribe people for information, and more. The game gives you an impressive amount of freedom, outdoing many of its genre counterparts in ambition.

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Actor Channing Tatum has joked that he would do all manner of unspeakable things, including killing kittens, to be able to make a standalone Gambit movie. Tatum was going to play Gambit in such a film, but it was scuttled after Disney acquired the character's theatrical rights from Fox, Tatum explained in a recent interview. But the film could now be back on, or at least Tatum believes it's headed in the right direction. This story contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.

Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Tatum said he worked on the Gambit movie for six years, and when it was on the "one-yard line," Disney took over and everything changed.

"We were about to make the movie, and then Fox got bought by Disney," Tatum said.

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Lego and Minecraft is what you'd call a perfect pair, and if you're a completionist looking to get your hands on an exclusive bundle, you can check out this new Lego Minecraft Adventure Gift Set. Available for $30, this is a three-in-one collection that compiles three popular Minecraft sets into one convenient package. Inside, you'll find The Abandoned Mine, The Fox Lodge, and the Lego Minecraft Steve and Baby Panda set.

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These are all quick and fun to build, and once assembled, they all look like a slice of the game brought into the real world. Or you could throw caution to the wind and mix everything up, because there's no wrong way to build when it comes to Lego or Minecraft. Some of the highlights here include a hand-operated mechanism to bring rocks crashing down on hostile mobs when you're assembling the Abandoned Mine, and the Fox Lodge features a lift-off roof to make it easy for builders to arrange furniture inside.

Overall, you're getting 476 pieces of Lego and 11 characters, including foxes, two Steves, two zombies, a Fox Skin minifigure, baby panda, spider mob, and a cool slime. This is primarily aimed at young members of the family who have recently graduated to Lego, and at this price, it's a great gift to consider for them. Buy several, and you can build a massive Minecraft world of your own.

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The team behind Knockout City is going in a very different direction for its next game. Velan Studios recently revealed Midnight Murder Club, a PvP shooter set (mostly) in a pitch-black mansion. Players use their flashlights to creep around the ornate halls, defeat other players, and sometimes even steal valuables before each round ends. And soon, you can do this yourself with an upcoming playtest.

Over on its Steam page, you can now request access for future playtests, and GameSpot is told a closed beta is coming on August 22 that will run until August 26. If, like me, you never really wanted to stop playing hide-and-seek and adulthood just sort of forced that upon you, Midnight Murder Club may be one to watch

I recently joined the game's alpha test and had a great time. Though the game is clearly unlike Knockout City in most ways, it retains one key ingredient in how funny it can be, often as a result of the community itself creating silly moments. I wrote more about that in my recent Midnight Murder Club preview.

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What's this? What's this? A Lego Nightmare Before Christmas set, that's what! Lego is officially turning Halloween into Christmas with its newest set, as fans of the classic film can look forward to a ghoulish collection of locations from the holiday movie. Inspired by Tim Burton's designs, the set is priced at $200 and will be released on September 3 for members of the Lego Insiders club before it rolls out to the wider public on September 6.

See at The Lego Store Lego The Nightmare Before ChristmasGallery

Inside the box, you'll find almost 2,200 pieces that you can use to construct three locations: Spiral Hill, Jack Skellington's house, and the Halloween Town Hall. These include authentic details like the walking bathtub, a chalkboard in Jack's house with his formula for Christmas, and the lectern at the Town Hall where Jack gave his speech about Christmas. You can display them separately, but for a true diorama piece, you'll want to place them together on your shelf, as they really do have an impressive presence.

There'll also be eight minifigures, so you can recreate scenes with Jack Skellington, Sally, Sandy Claws, Lock, Shock, Zero the dog, and the two-faced Mayor. The set includes a booklet featuring interviews with the designers of this kit, as well as all the instructions to piece it together.

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In 1984, director James Cameron established himself in Hollywood with The Terminator. Cameron returned to helm Terminator 2 in 1991, which is widely regarded as one of the best sci-fi action films of all-time. Regardless, the franchise has struggled for the last few sequels. But that hasn't deterred Cameron from pursuing a new Terminator project.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron casually mentioned his Terminator plans without offering any details about them.

"I'm working on my own Terminator stuff right now," said Cameron, who later added, "It's totally classified. I don't want to have to send out a potentially dangerous robotic agent if you were to talk about it, even retroactively."

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Blumhouse's trilogy of Halloween movies are getting bundled together into one deadly collection, and it's now available to preorder at Walmart for $50. While a 4K collection already exists, this new edition does come in an exclusive steelbook case that captures the intensity of cinema's most-dangerous sibling rivalry, and it'll be released on October 8--the same day as the newly announced 16-bit Halloween game (and cuddly Michael Myers plush). The set features 4K Blu-ray and digital download copies of each movie.

Halloween Trilogy Walmart-Exclusive Steelbook (4K Blu-ray) $50

In case you missed out on them, Blumhouse's Halloween film series kicked off in 2018 with a new take on the story of Michael Myers. Set decades after the first film, Halloween tells the story of how his sister Laurie (played by Jamie-Lee Curtis) has been preparing for his eventual return. Once Myers escapes from confinement, he makes a beeline for Haddonfield and unleashes a new reign of bloody terror on the town in his quest to murder his sister.

The first film in this trilogy is easily the best, capturing the pure malevolence of Myers as an almost unstoppable force of murderous nature. While the sequels--Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends--aren't as good, they're still fun slasher movies to watch. For the bonus material, the compilation includes deleted scenes, gag reels, behind-the-scenes features, documentaries, and much more. If you're looking to get all three films right now, there's also a non-steelbook version of the Halloween trilogy available for $45, down from its original list price of $80.

Halloween Trilogy: Steelbook Edition (Walmart) Halloween Trilogy (Amazon)

There were quite a few Halloween movies released in the decades between the 1978 original and the 2018 soft reboot, in case you're looking to complete your Michael Myers collection. Are they mostly bad? Undeniably, but there's a charm to them for being mindless popcorn entertainment. Plus, how many other horror icons have managed to survive a fight with Busta Rhymes? Freddy Krueger wouldn't even last five minutes with the rap icon.

Overall, these are the definitive versions of the classic Halloween films, as you're getting fresh 4K remasters from the original film negatives, a wealth of extra content, and covers with new artwork to make these slashers stand out from the DVD pack. They're cheesy slasher movies--Halloween 3 being the sole exception here as it doesn't feature Michael Myers carving up teenagers--and they're fun for a spooky night of entertainment.

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PlayStation's big new multiplayer shooter, Concord, launches later this month. If you're excited about playing the game as soon as possible, developer Firewalk has now announced the game's early-access launch times and global launch times. Additionally, the developer outlined the game's post-launch roadmap, including the debut of Season 1 in October.

How to get early access

People who buy the Concord digital deluxe edition ($60 USD) can start playing on Tuesday, August 20, while the global launch for everyone begins on Friday, August 23. Pre-loading for all editions of the game begins today, August 13, on PS5. Details about pre-loading on PC were not announced.

Providing early access to people who pay more is a common trend in video games today, and Concord is just the latest game to offer it.

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The Borderlands movie has been a commercial and critical disappointment since it launched last week, but as a possible side-effect, there has been a spike in interest in the video games. Possibly driven by cinemagoers looking to experience the source material, Borderlands 3 has seen a moderate increase in users and has reached its highest concurrent Steam player count since February 2023. According to SteamDB, the game recently peaked at 12,379 players, which is a big increase compared to previous months.

Borderlands 2 also fared better--7,938 peak Steam players recently--and while they're nowhere near as high, the original Borderlands and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel games have also seen increased activity. As mentioned above, this is only for the Steam version of the Borderlands games, so the final results are likely even higher when you factor in users from the Epic Games Store, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4.

Interestingly, Gearbox added a new feature to Borderlands 3 that allows you to skip the entire main campaign with a new character, provided that you have a max-level character and have beaten the campaign once.

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This week, the Alien franchise is celebrating its 45th anniversary by releasing Alien: Romulus. The film is a sequel to the original Alien, and takes place during the decades-long gap between that movie and James Cameron's Aliens. The first reactions to Alien: Romulus have now arrived online; and while most of the early word is good, there are some mixed responses as well.

Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter called it the "summer's best movie," and teased a "crazy new direction."

ALIEN: ROMULUS: Has all the great hallmarks of what you would expect in an Alien flick but never feels like it’s pandering to nostalgia or fan service…and even goes into a crazy new direction. Fede Alvarez & the cast just gave birth to summer’s best movie.

— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) August 13, 2024

Variety's Courtney Howard added that the film "subtly plays the greatest hits" of the franchise.

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With the release of Black Myth: Wukong coming soon, developer Game Science has released a benchmark tool so that PC owners can check if they can run it.

The tool is free to download and players can customize the benchmark settings to preview game visuals and performance under different graphical options. Basically, it just evaluates a player's hardware and system compatibility through real-time rendering of an in-game sequence.

The results will also provide Game Science with feedback on how to further optimize the PC version before launch. The minimum specs are listed over on Steam, requiring an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 processor and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics card, along with 16GB of RAM.

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Two iconic horror flicks are getting new retro-inspired video games just in time for the spooky season. The RetroRealms Double Feature will let you explore bloody 16-bit worlds as Michael Myers and Ash Williams, with preorders now open ahead of its October 18 release for PS5, Xbox, Switch, and PC. It's a collaboration between Boss Team Games and WayForward, the latter of which is responsible for the popular Shantae series. RetroRealms Double Feature: Halloween and Ash vs. Evil Dead even has a pretty awesome special edition featuring a Michael Myers plush, trading cards, a VHS-style box, and more.

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Both games in the bundle feature gorgeous 16-bit graphics and look hyper-violent from the reveal trailer--and if you reserve a copy ahead of launch, you'll get some nice preorder bonuses.

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