The Evil Dead film franchise holds the distinct honor of having not only a groovy remake, but also a downright terrifying recent standalone movie as well. Both of these films are getting new 4K steelbook editions from Shout Factory, so if you're looking to grow your horror collection with some stylish physical media, you can grab both of them right now. Evil Dead Rise will be out first on February 18 and is priced at $35, while the Evil Dead remake arrives on March 18 and is priced at $45. Evil Dead (2013) $45 Based on the Sam Raimi film that was first released in 1981, Evil Dead is technically a secret sequel to the original. Directed by Fede Alvarez--who recently helmed the pretty great Alien: Romulus--the 2013 Evil Dead movie goes all in on the Deadite horror of its source material. All the hallmarks of the franchise are here--a cabin in the woods, an ancient book you definitely shouldn't read aloud from, and primordial evils--and the movie is a stomach-churning experience with gruesome special and practical effects.Special features for this release haven't been confirmed yet, but if it inherits the extras from the previous 4K release, you can expect audio commentary from the cast and crew, several mini-documentaries about Evil Dead's production, and promotional materials. Preorder at Walmart Evil Dead Rise $35 Evil Dead Rise was released back in 2023, and this flick is one of the more terrifying entries in the series. Starring Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland as two estranged sisters trying to save their families from the Deadites, the movie is bloody, horrifying, and full of scares that'll make your heart skip a few beats. Preorder at Walmart In case you'd like to build a complete Evil Dead collection, the rest of the films starring Bruce Campbell as the boomstick-wielding Ash Campbell--and the TV series--are available on Blu-ray as well. These have been pretty popular over the decades, and the older movies combine horror with gruesome slapstick comedy. The 2015 TV series ran for 30 episodes across three seasons and was sadly canceled in 2018.An animated revival of the TV series has been in development since 2022 and a new spin-off film, Evil Dead Burn, is scheduled to be released in 2026.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Amazon has revealed its first batch of free PC games on Prime Gaming in 2025, and this month, subscribers can add classic sequels and zombie-slaying shooters to their collection. As a reminder, once you claim the free games from Prime Gaming, they are yours to keep forever--even if your subscription expires. If you aren't a member, you can sign up for Amazon Prime for as little as one month to take advantage of the subscription and score some great freebies. Sign up for Amazon Prime The first wave of releases are now available, and one of the highlights here is BioShock 2 Remastered. The 2010 sequel saw players return to the ruined undersea city of Rapture as one of the infamous Big Daddy enforcers. Players were able to explore the fallen metropolis, and the game's gunplay and storytelling was further refined. This remaster also added major graphical upgrades alongside the fun Protector Trials mode.You can also check out the side-scrolling action-RPG Eastern Exorcist, puzzle game The Bridge, and a few other interesting titles right now. Starting January 16, you'll can claim games like the action-racer GRIP, check out an RPG set in the SteamWorld universe, and attempt to discover if you are indeed smarter than a fifth-grader.Continue Reading at GameSpot

There are plenty of places to explore and activities to discover in the Rinascita region of Wuthering Waves, and that includes a decent variety of overworld puzzles and challenges. One such challenge includes Tactical Hologram: Vitreum Dancer, a completely different style of Tactical Hologram challenge that can net players a ton of useful rewards.

The "final" trailer for the highly anticipated anime adaptation of Yuto Suzuki's Sakamoto Days manga has revealed the series' English dub cast ahead of its premiere. The anime broadcasts worldwide on Netflix on January 11, with new episodes coming out on Saturdays.

Despite being a relatively new game, TCG Card Shop Simulator already has a plethora of mods that players can download. As always with mods, some are made to inject a little bit of humor into the game, while others bring in new features to improve on some of the existing mechanics.

I appreciate you taking the time to provide some feedback JoeJ

As a longtime tabletop role-player, watching Dimension 20s Dungeons and Drag Queens is the same experience as introducing a friend to a favorite television show you know theyll dig. All the joy of watching your beloved show, and the joy of watching someone else learn to love it as well.The actual play setting, helmed by game master Brennan Lee Mulligan with players and RuPauls Drag Race stars Alaska Thunderfuck, Bob the Drag Queen, Jujubee, and Mont X Change, returned for a second season this week. Hot off the success of their season 1 adventure, the Questing Queens found out what comes after you become famous heroes.Youre called to more adventure, is the answer, but Dungeons and Drag Queens season 2 is deepening and broadening its mandate, and in doing so adding yet another great facet of sharing your favorite with your friend: You can see the twist coming and they cant.[Ed. note: This story contains light spoilers for Dungeons and Drag Queens first season, and lighter still spoilers for the first episode of season 2.]From the beginning, Dungeons and Drag Queens has straddled the audience of experienced and knowing TTRPG players/actual play watchers and the audience of folks whove never engaged with the hobby or the medium at all. You only have to look at the comments on any Dungeons and Drag Queens YouTube clip to see it. Theyre full of Drag Race fans who started watching to get more of their faves, and stayed subscribed because of how effectively the first season presented the appeal of TTRPGs and the actual play medium (and, it should be said, vice versa).The brilliance of DaDQs first season what makes it more than just the thrill of two things that dont usually go together were the subtle ways Dimension 20 adjusted itself on the expectation of an audience new to the actual play medium and even the TTRPG hobby itself. The season featured a more straightforward (but still twisty) story than other seasons, bringing enough rule-explaining back into the edit so that non-TTRPG players could get a sense of the stakes. And Mulligans own improvisational chops got a real workout from a set of players in the process of discovering in what ways they liked to engage with a TTRPG world, hatching capers like deciding on a whim to, for example, steal from a high-level shopkeeper and unsuccessfully trying to run.It was delightful to watch the queens challenge Mulligan in ways that his usual casts dont, and season 2 is already continuing that theme. Instead of long-form improv comedians drilled in yes, and and playing in the space, Alaska et al. are improvisational performers from a more adversarial, lets say tit for tat tradition, and it gives the seasons some of their best metatextual moments. As in this weeks episode, where Jujubee described her character Twyla pulling a length of fae-twine from around a package, saying, And I keep the twine because I think its going to come in handy later. Then she locked eyes with Mulligan and snapped, Right?!Its not the classic moment when a player focuses too hard on an immaterial detail, but a player inventing the importance of a detail whole cloth, pointing right at their DM, and declaring that they better make it important later if they know whats good for them. A gauntlet clearly thrown.And to a seasoned fan of Dimension 20 and a seasoned TTRPG player its clear what Mulligan is doing in this first season 2 episode. Now that the characters and their players have the basics down, he takes them right to a masquerade ball (every TTRPG player should know the pleasure of taking your character to a fancy party instead of a forbidden dungeon) and introduces a smorgasbord of plot threads. Suitors, shifty returning NPCs, secret messages you might not be able to trust, new revelations about the drawbacks of your sudden fame.Dungeons and Drag Queens season 1 was about establishing the appeal of TTRPG gameplay, and season 2 is showcasing exactly how that gameplay can deepen and broaden once there is a foundation of characters, world-building, and plot elements to call back to.And thats where the dramatic irony comes in.Like any creative, Mulligan has themes to which he is consistently drawn, and longtime viewers will be hip to them. An NPC whos building beachfront-ready property on the top of a mountain range while letting coastal mansions go for a song? Mulligans gotta wake up real early in the morning to get that foreshadowing past me. But have the Questing Queens noticed? Will they notice? When will they notice?Theres still plenty for them to discover, and for me to enjoy watching them discover, as theyre introduced to one of my favorite hobbies.

When Karim El-Ishmawi was a child he often visited a home located in a small town in Bavaria, Germany. The memorable residence, integrated into the mountainside, was designed by Hans Ziegler. Spacious and multilayered on the inside, the structure is barely visible from the outside, and to the young El-Ishmawi it was comparable to a cave. As he explored it, his interest in architecture was ignited.As a teenager, Karim El-Ishmawi experimented with different forms of expression, from graffiti and film to installations. The former East Berlin during the 1990s was a place where his imagination was allowed to flourish.Karim El-Ishmawi \\\ Photo: Sebastian DorkenWith his pals (and co-founders) Chris Middleton and Martin Jacobs, El-Ishmawi was able to experiment and explore in new ways. My passion has always been creativity in a collective, he says. Simply putting ideas into practice seemed to be a natural phenomenon in this constellation. I am firmly convinced that these two people unleashed my drive and creativity more than my parents or anyone else ever could have.El-Ishmawi never had a set career path, but in 2005 the trio founded Kinzo. Noted for a holistic and participatory design approach, the team conceives new living and working environments. Responsible for project management and strategy, El-Ishmawi plans every facet from the perspective of future users.No matter what he dreams up, the end result is better because of his collaboration with Jacobs and Middleton. We do what comes along and is interesting, El-Ishmawi notes. It is certainly easier to cast a team of experts with clearly defined skills, and a business plan within an existing network of parents and acquaintances. But the feeling of doing something like this with friends is unbeatable.Today, Karim El-Ishmawi joins us for Friday Five!Photo: Karim El-Ishmawi1. Alvaro Siza Boa Nova Tea Pavilion (1963)My partner Chris and I often go on vacation together with our families. Most recently we were in Portugal in the Porto area. For architects, it is a place of pilgrimage, and for the family, simply an outstanding experience. Sizas projects in and around town are as well integrated into everyday life as they are into the landscape. Take the Boa Nova Tea House or the pools in Lea da Palmeira, for example: They are remarkably scenographic and yet somehow feels benevolent and modest.Photo: Karim El-Ishmawi2. Salone I The Saunarider (2022)This is such a Berlin collaboration! Together with fashion/art project BLESS, architect Sam Chermayeff furnished a classic Mercedes-Benz with an interior made of wooden beads and a stove in the trunk to create a mobile sauna The Saunarider was last seen in the Salone in Milan in 2023. Hot shit!Photo: Karim El-Ishmawi3. Boston City Hall (1968)In 2015, I spent some time in Boston, as I was a visiting professor at the Wentworth Institute. My first tour of the city took me straight to the brutalist icon. I am amazed of how close the ugly and the sublime can be.Photo: Karim El-Ishmawi4. Your Rainbow Panorama (2011)What started as a pretty standard business trip to Aarhus quickly turned into the epitome of aesthetic sensory modulation: a visit to Olafur Eliassons spectral circle atop the ARoS art museum.Photo: Andrea Bonso5. Salone II | Interna_Mente by Materica (2023)I saw this installation in the Alcova during Milan Design Week 2023: The interior of a former cold storage room was entirely covered with metallized sheets, and due to the oxidation and coloration the reflection of light made me feel like I was in a kaleidoscope. The guys from design studio Materica applied real-metal coating to every material to great effect. Shiny and mesmerizing!Works by Kinzo:Photo: Sebastian DrkenAdmiralspalast (2023)The Admiralspalast on Berlins Friedrichstrae, an iconic building since 1911, has been transformed by Kinzo Architekten into the headquarters for a digital service provider. This project merges the buildings rich history with a forward-looking workspace. Originally featuring an ice skating rink, bowling alleys, a cinema, and a Roman-Russian spa, the Admiralspalast embodied the opulence of Berlins Golden Twenties. Kinzo Architekten preserved and integrated historical elements like Art Nouveau mosaics and Art Deco windows into the new design, creating a unique blend of past and present. The redesigned office spans three floors, offering spaces for collaboration, retreat, and individual work, aiming to bring employees back from remote work. Highlights include a communal area with a bench modeled after the former ladies pool, a relaxation room adapted for modern use, and a large hall with a circumferential gallery and various themed rooms.Photo: Schnepp RenouDas Center Potsdamer Platz (2024)Kinzo Architekten revitalized the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz, transforming it into a dynamic hub for community and participation. The holistic placemaking concept enhances Potsdamer Platz as a vibrant meeting place for visitors and an attractive location for businesses, retailers, and restaurants. The project involved developing target-oriented usage formats for commercial and public spaces to seamlessly re-integrate the site into the urban fabric. Lobby D, once merely a transit space, now offers two floors of work and meeting areas, including a separate workshop room. The renovation involved dismantling the interior faade and raising the mezzanine ceiling. Additionally, the Passerelle was converted into a bicycle parking area with space for over 200 bicycles, connecting the Potsdamer Platz subway and S-Bahn station with the Sony Center Forum.Photo: Sebastian DrkenNike One Central HQ (2020)The Nike Central HQ, located in Berlin-Friedrichshain, seamlessly integrates into the urban fabric of the neighborhood, creating a diverse office campus for up to 300 employees. It features flexible work areas, influencer and athlete spaces, showrooms, and sports facilities. The building, a blend of an old carpentry workshop and new constructions, transitions from an intact old structure to a partially new middle section and a completely new third part that matches the original faade. The campus includes the City Hub, a central caf and reception area next to an outdoor basketball court, and a roof terrace with urban gardening. Only 30% of the space is standard office area, emphasizing a dynamic and agile working environment. Recycled materials and finishes reflect the brands origins and philosophy, with distinct branding for Nike and Converse.Photo: Schnepp RenouPostfuhramt (2022)Following various interim uses by Berlins art, culture, and club scene, the Kaiserliches Postfuhramt, a former post office, was acquired by a new owner in 2012 and has since been renovated. Transformed both architecturally and as a historic preservation project by Kinzo iit now serves as an innovation center for a medical technology company, featuring exhibition, conference, and training rooms. Kinzos role extended beyond interior design to exploring and mapping the buildings layers, which were meticulously restored by conservators to integrate historical fragments into the overall design. New elements emphasize the use of steel, either raw or matte black, reflecting the industrial heritage of the Postfuhramt. The redesigned workspace aims to support flexible team and project structures, exemplified in the attics iLofts, which offer versatile office spaces, meeting rooms, lounges, retreats, and a library. The historical fragmentation is both felt and partially visible, harmoniously blending with contemporary interventions.

Clerkenwell Design Week, the UKs premier design festival celebrated for its dynamic community of creatives and architects, is unveiling an exciting new chapter with the CDW 2025 Product Awards. This landmark initiative, in partnership with SANDOW DESIGN GROUP, will honor the most groundbreaking and imaginative interior design products shaping the future of the industry.The awards are set to spotlight innovation across a broad spectrum of categories, including furniture, lighting, flooring, kitchen & bath, textiles, and more. Special recognition will also be given to products pushing boundaries in sustainability, technology integration, accessibility, and modular design.For exhibitors, this program represents a unique chance to elevate their brand on a global stage, leveraging the expansive reach of SANDOWs renowned platforms, such as Interior Design, Metropolis, and Design Milk.Finalists and winners will gain unparalleled industry exposure, from prominent features on digital platforms to a celebratory event at Clerkenwell Design Week 2025. Entry submissions open on January 20, 2025, with an early bird option available through February 14, 2025. All entries must be submitted no later than March 28, 2025.For full details, including categories and submission guidelines, visit clerkenwelldesignweek.com.

A company operates in an ecosystem of opportunities, where competitive advantage can be won by seeing what others are not even aware of(1).Examples of three different types of maps: AIDA, Journeys and Systems. Illustration by theauthor.Common customer insight models reduce an organizations ability to take advantage of its own unique experience, knowledge and competencies simply because when adding our own insights onto a map we tend to make the brutest simplifications:Reducing the customer to a manageable objectwithout external influence, tobeshuffled down a predictable linearpathtowards an unavoidable goalignoring everything that doesnt fit into the models one-dimensional view.Ive observed a fewthings:The customer does not operate in a vacuum. They are one part of a larger system. A system with many levers organizations can choose to influenceif we can seethem.We usually do. We usually see them and know them. But fail to choose maps of our environment (e.g. market) that allow us to include them limiting our decision-making, strategies, and execution.Success can be determined by our awareness of the situation we operate in (2). Our ability to work together as an organization on the same map (3). Set strategy, plan, and execute. The map we make will limit or expand the opportunities we see, enabling us to make better decisions than our competition (5), and delivering better outcomes to our customers and ourselves.Success can be determined by our awareness of the situation we operatein.And this is where the opportunity lies: the better we are able to map out what leads to what we want, the better we will be able to outperform our competitors and over-deliver to our customers and ourselves.If we make a map of the worldthat:Removes all internal expertise and competencies (what makes us unique)(6) andpaints the same picture of the world as everyone else has (including our competition)then we will make the same decisions as everyone else, offering the customer the same value as everyone else, competing on price or efficiency alone ( a race to the bottom ). Or to repeat the David Ogilvy quote: if you got nothing to say, sing it(7).If we are in a race to the bottom because of our focus on price or efficiency, then its not because thats the only choice we could make. Its because its the only choice we couldsee.But if we make a map of the world that nobody else has, which captures nuances, influences and levers our organization is fit to take advantage of. Then we can set our strategy, plan and execution based on our own strengths, offering the customer relevant value nobody else does, winning in the marketplace (6)(8).Lets compare threemapsThe first map is the AIDA-model. Its designed for a media environment anno 1898 and as with other linear or hierarchical models it has been thoroughly debunked (4) as a poor predictor of human behavior. The AIDA model is a reflection of what the organization wishes the customer would do in a simplified universe that only includes theproduct.Illustration of AIDA-model.The second map is the customer journey. Another linear model that is most efficient at removing information. It pretends that people are on journeys towards purchasing products. Models like these not only removes vast amounts of insights from understanding what creates a customer, they also tend to silo thinking to only one or a few types of influences coming from only one area of the organization (9).The third map is a causal diagram (10). Not perfect, but more inclusive and representative than the others. Its main weakness is that it can only represent known insights and relationships (11), but this goes for allmaps.With a Causaldiagram:Everyone can add their insights to themap.It manages to represent the most significant known forces of influence from across the entire organization and ecosystem (12).It is a shared map. It manages to connect different areas of the organization through the same view of the ecosystem they together are trying to influence.It helps the organization find a shared narrative and language which leads to shared discussions about their purpose, role, and goals(13).An illustrative causal diagram mapping out influences on the decision making of a physician. Made by the author with input from Perplexity.The immediate challenge with a system map is that people balk at the first impression. But a system map is far easier to understand and use than a statistical or linear model. Because the latter is a distortion: its a simple, clean model, but it represents a version of the world that nobody is familiar with and everyone has to learn as an alternative to what they alreadyknow.A causal map in contrast represents the relationships and influences we already see and recognize, even as small children (11). It doesnt create an alternative narrative, it visualizes our own narrative. Once we learn how to read it, understanding it, sharing it, and collaborating on it becomesnatural.The simplest possible way to read a system map / causal diagram. Illustration by theauthor.Ps. if you want to make your own system map this is the simplest place tostart.Now Imagine!Which of these three maps best captures and represents the true environment our offering operatesin?And if we wanted to use a map to identify our best opportunities to have influence, which map would wechoose?Winning is not about making better decisions than everybody else, its routed in our ability to see what nobody elsesees.Our decisions follow our insights, not the other wayaround.Using the same methodology, models, and simplifications as everyone else sets us up for expensive failure from the start. It narrows our opportunities, removes our unique competencies, and puts us in a competitive space where we are not competing based on our strengths but on universal commodities (hygiene factors) like price or efficiency.We win by the quality and strength or our strategies, planning and execution. But its all rooted in our ability to see (14). Having a map of the world nobody else has helps us see opportunities nobody else does and the possibility to coordinate and compete based on our own unique expertise and strengths.Having the right map is the springboard to the rest of what we do to win(2).Sources / furtherreading:(1). Gary Hamel, source unkown, https://www.garyhamel.com/(2). Simon Wardley, Situation Normal, Everything Must Change, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty6pOVEc3bA(3). IBM C-Suite Study, IBM Study: C-suite Leaders Look to Customers to Steer Business Strategy, https://www.ibm.com/blogs/think/nl-en/2013/10/07/ibm-study-c-suite-leaders-look-to-customers-to-steer-business-strategy/(4). AIDA-Model, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_(marketing)(5). Helge Tenn, Customer as Competitive Advantage, https://uxdesign.cc/customer-as-competitive-advantage-19a6ede62852(6). David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad, Can you say what your strategy is, https://hbr.org/2008/04/can-you-say-what-your-strategy-is(7). David Ogilvy, behance, https://www.behance.net/gallery/1625743/If-You-Have-Nothing-To-Say-Sing-It(8). Mark Lipton, Walking the talk (really!): why visions fail, https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/walking-the-talk-really-why-visions-fail/(9). Based on conversations with the CustomerC-community in Norway, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/helgetenno_customerexperience-customer-business-activity-7276133041905766400-n7EW/(10). HBR Faculty, Causal Diagrams: Draw Your Assumptions Before Your Conclusions, https://www.harvardonline.harvard.edu/course/causal-diagrams-draw-your-assumptions-your-conclusions(11). Judea Pearl and writer Dana Mackenzie, The book of why, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Why(12). Donatella Meadows, Dancing with Systems, https://donellameadows.org/archives/dancing-with-systems/(13). Clayton Christensen, unkonwn reference, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Christensen(14). Christian Madsbjerg, Look, https://madsbjerg.com/Competitive advantage comes from seeing what nobody else can was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.