Angry the Clown

"Nice try, Lao Che!"

There's a BIG release for Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders coming on November 9th in the US (8th in the UK). It will include both the theatrical and new 'Complete Novel' extended cut. Interestingly this release will be handled by Studio Canal in the UK, and Warner Bros in the US: This is the UK edition: Extras: Includes Original soundtrack CD, 64-page booklet, x 2 posters from artist Tony Stella, 5 artcards from James Hamilton photography, 'Stay Gold' pin badge UHD 1 & Blu Ray 1 : The Outsiders The Complete Novel (2021 Restoration) Audio Commentary with Francis Ford Coppola Audio Commentary with Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Diane Lane, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio and Patrick Swayze NEW: Restoration Story NEW: Interview with Cinematographer Stephen Burum NEW: Deleted Scenes NEW: Francis Ford Coppola introduction NEW: Outsider Looking In - Frances Ford Coppola discusses some key scenes NEW: Old House, New Home NEW: Trailer UHD 2 & Blu-ray 2: The Outsiders (2021 Restoration) Staying Gold: A Look Back at 'The Outsiders' NBC's News Today from 1983 'The Outsiders' Started by School Petition 7 Cast Members (Lowe, Swayze, Howell, Dillon, Macchio, Garret and Lane) read extracts from the novel S.E. Hinton on Location in Tulsa The Casting of 'The Outsiders' Six deleted and extended scenes Trailer from 1983 I'll be keen to see whether the encoding differs between the Studio Canal and Warner releases, or whether Warner will just recycle what Studio Canal put together. No hint at this point as to whether Fidelity in Motion are handling the encoding on this one for Studio Canal.

Not the first time this has been claimed, but it's interesting to see fresh rumours that the new Watches will each gain 1mm in screen size (this is apparently due to closer screen bonding and a new flat edge body design which will have reduced the bezel slightly). I must say, if that happens this year and the real thing looks something like those renders in the image then I'd welcome it. I've never considered the Apple Watch to be particularly attractive. In fairness, part of that is to do with always having favoured round watch faces, but the Apple Watch itself has still yet to win me over in design in looking more like a stylish accessory and less like a device.

Reminder that Xbox's Gamescom Stream is today: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/08/09/join-us-for-the-gamescom-2021-xbox-stream-and-more/

Fran Simeoni from Arrow reveals that Disney still aren't playing nice with indie labels and the Fox catalogue. Kino have recently repeated that they've had no luck getting anywhere with them too.

Hopefully we'll know soon enough as September is almost upon us, though I expect a phone and watch event first. I'm curious to see if it will just be a single new chip, or whether there will be variants with different numbers of cores...etc. I'm certain we'll definitely see RAM move to add 32GB and 64GB options as it would be strange not to see them at the very least match what is offered in the current 16" MBP (and no real excuse not to offer similar options in the smaller MBP given the low thermal requirements of Apple's silicon, so even though I don't think I will go for a laptop again I'd still like to see a relative level of parity between 14" and 16" Pros. I never liked how the 13" MBP had to be compromised on performance). It's frustrating the larger iMac is now rumoured for early 2022 as even if a powerful Mac Mini does surface this year I'm not going to know how the cost of one + external third party display will add up against whatever Apple have planned for the larger iMac until then. Spring's about when I feel I will start needing a new computer. I don't think my old MBP can soldier on much longer though.

Higher end Mac Mini rumours surfacing again: It does seem like an obvious product to release to finally replace the current higher end Intel model.

Sadly it hasn't been updated digitally, no. The pre-patched version on the disc didn't have a locked frame rate so can run at 60, but the downside is you have to put up with some UI bugs (and I believe no HDR support?) so it's not like even having the disc is an optimal solution. I'm hoping they'll get round to it someday, but with Sony's selective investment in enhanced bc who knows?

Fidelity in Motion have done the encode for this one as they re-tweeted PR for the release the other day. It's good to know they're still doing some work for Studio Canal, I just wish it was more frequent! 😩 I'm crossing my fingers they'll do Studio Canal's Mulholland Drive and Highlander discs.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome appear to be set for a release in November in the US. Interestingly, the US also seems to be getting a box set with all four films which is notable because Warner don't own the first film in the US, MGM do, and we've already seen Kino do their own UHD (which is presumably why the first film from Warner would be confined only to a box set, but it will be interesting to see how both versions compare). In the UK Warner have ownership of all four. I've yet to import the Kino disc, but would like to see what Warner do with the audio and whether they include a lossless mono presentation of the Australian mix that Kino's release preserves. It'll also be interesting to see what, if any, special features make it over to Warner's version.

I do rather love that Bethesda's press blurb reads: "We’re excited to announce the most definitive version of Skyrim to date" It would be nice if they'd have detailed the new-gen enhancements though. I can't imagine it's anything substantial graphically as you'd think with it only being three months away they'd show it off, but it seems silly for me not to defer my desire to jump into it until November. I barely played much of it on PC when the special edition came out, and seem to recall hitting a game breaking bug when I had it on 360 that killed my progress,. I'd be surprised if I managed to finish it all these years later, but I don't mind. I wanted to get back into it just to roam around again. I'd assume the game will have been optimised for 60fps native though for PS5, and without having to rely on fps boost on Xbox anymore.

Black Magic Design are boasting of a colossal performance boost with the latest build of DaVinci Resolve for M1 Macs: "This is truly an amazing update that gives customers huge performance and power efficiency gains on Mac models with M1, and it totally transforms your computer, simply by downloading this free of charge DaVinci Resolve software update" said Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty in a press release. "This speed increase is stunning and it's hard to believe. I have not seen a speed improvement this large since the original 68000 to Power PC transition back in the 1990s and it is just amazing. Who would have thought just a year ago that multiple 4K streams could be played back and edited natively on a MacBook Air, but it's easy now on DaVinci Resolve with M1. The engineering team has worked so hard on this new image processing engine for DaVinci Resolve, and it is an incredibly exciting time to be developing software for the Mac!" I look forward to some videos putting it to the test. DaVinci for Apple Silicon was already known to be exceptionally well optimised, so this is quite a boast. If it's as significant a performance boost as they are claiming then one only wonders what might be possible with an M1X or whatever chip is making its way into the forthcoming computers.

Resident Evil 4 still leads for number of ports/generational re-issues surely?

Hah! And to think I had actually planned to revisit this only this past week as I've found myself in a curious mood to dip a toe back into that universe (I've not played Skyrim since the 360 outside of a brief play of the special edition on PC). I downloaded and installed it from GamePass but opted to play though Jedi Fallen Order first. So I must confess that I now find myself welcoming this news with open arms.

Apple's adaptation of Assimov's Foundation books debuts on the 24th of September and is looking very expensive:

It's fascinating what comes back to you after twenty-five years. I played the hell out of Quake on the PC back in the day, then Quake II, and had Arena on Dreamcast but honestly hadn't thought about the series much in the years that have passed, and yet after firing up the game earlier on Xbox I was flooded with an instant sense of familiarity. The weapons, the monsters, the sound effects! It's quite a delight to revisit.

Existing editions of Quake II and Quake III Arena have also been added to PC Gamepass by the way.

Pfff... at least in MY thread about this I posted about the physical release.

"Developed by the award-winning id Software, Quake® is the ground-breaking, original dark fantasy first-person shooter that inspires today's retro-style FPS games. Now, experience the authentic, updated, and visually enhanced version of the original. Experience the Original Game, Enhanced Enjoy the original, authentic version of Quake, now with up to 4K* and widescreen resolution support, enhanced models, dynamic and colored lighting, anti-aliasing, depth of field, the original, atmospheric soundtrack and theme song by Trent Reznor, and more. There's never been a better time to play Quake. Play the Dark Fantasy Campaign You are Ranger, a warrior armed with a powerful arsenal of weapons. Fight corrupted knights, deformed ogres and an army of twisted creatures across four dark dimensions of infested military bases, ancient medieval castles, lava-filled dungeons and gothic cathedrals in search of the four magic runes. Only after you have collected the runes will you hold the power to defeat the ancient evil that threatens all of humanity. Get the Original & New Expansion Packs Quake also comes with both original expansion packs: "The Scourge of Armagon" and "Dissolution of Eternity," as well as two expansions developed by the award-winning team at MachineGames: "Dimension of the Past," and the all-new "Dimension of the Machine." Discover the All-New "Dimension of the Machine" Expansion In the deepest depths of the labyrinth lies the core of lava and steel known only as The Machine. Crusade across time and space against the forces of evil to bring together the lost runes, power the dormant machine, and open the portal hiding the greatest threat to all known worlds—destroy it...before it destroys us all. Enjoy Online & Local Multiplayer and CO-OP Fight through the dark fantasy base campaign and expansions in 4-player online or local split-screen co-op, and compete in pure, retro-style combat with support for 8-player (online) or 4-player (local split-screen) matches. Featuring dedicated server support for online matchmaking and peer-to-peer support for custom matches. Download Additional, Free Mods & Missions Expand your experience with free, curated, fan-made and official mods and missions such as Quake 64, which is available to download and play now. More fan-made and official mods and missions coming soon. Play Together with Crossplay Play the campaign and all expansion packs cooperatively or go toe-to-toe in multiplayer matches with your friends regardless of platform!" And for Romier: I've been having a grand old time playing this for the last half an hour on Game Pass and partying like it's 1996. Apparently it's only running in bc mode on PS5 right now, but a free native patch is forthcoming.

ShopTo tend to get especially aggressive with their PSN top up and PS+ discounts a couple of times a year (typically May/June and then around the Black Friday period in November). I added a year to my PS+ for £32 through them back in May. psprices.com is very useful if you don't use it already. It tracks price drops for the official console digital stores and can send you alerts.

Yes, with the PSN store try to take advantage of sales were you can. The big summer one just ended unfortunately, but it's Sony and there's practically some kind of new sale every couple of weeks. I also tend to top my digital wallet up via ShopTo or CDKeys where I can typically get top ups at a discount (same for my PS+ renewals). I can't remember the last time I topped up my wallet directly with Sony. ShopTo have some quite good prices at the moment (£100 for 89.85, £80 for 72.85, £50 for 43.85..etc) https://www.shopto.net/en/sony-wallet-topup/

Who Framed Roger Rabbit will release on Dec 7th in the US. It will have a new Atmos mix. Best Buy steelbook: UK release should hopefully be around the same time. If Disney are dating December releases I'd like to think we might see announcements for Home Alone 2 and Muppet Christmas Carol, though neither have been hinted at.

They still do, yes. I'm curious if that will change once Epic Universe opens. For now, Royal Pacific, Hard Rock and Portofino Bay include it as part of your stay. I haven't done the numbers to see if you can still save by staying at one of the cheaper hotels and just pay for Express Pass separately though.

Studio Canal will release The Howling in the UK on October 25th Extras are rather thin the ground: Inside the Career of Joe Dante Brand new featurette that celebrates the incredible career of Joe Dante Welcome to Werewolfland A lookback into the special effects of The Howling Deleted Scenes Outtakes Zavvi UK exclusive steelbook: I think MGM have this in the US? So there's a chance Shout might look to doing a UHD re-issue and carry over the extras from their Blu-ray release.