• Last week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," the hottest game of 2017, is now running on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
• Previously, "PUBG" had said it was using Amazon Web Services, Azure's single biggest rival. 
• It's a big win for Microsoft — the game is a large part of the Xbox One holiday sales push,  and now it's helping bolster Azure's appeal to the significant market for video games.

When Microsoft reported earnings last week, CEO Satya Nadella highlighted that "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" — the hottest video game of 2017 — is now using the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to power online play.

As Windows Central rightly notes, this is interesting because PUBG had previously disclosed that it was using Amazon Web Services, the $18 billion cloud computing giant that's also Microsoft's biggest rival in the ongoing cloud wars. It's unclear if this was a total shift from AWS to Azure, or just piecemeal, but regardless, it's a notable win for Microsoft.

"Gaming pushes the boundaries of hardware and software innovation, with some of the most CPU and GPU-intensive applications and content, giving us a huge opportunity in the cloud," Nadella said during Microsoft's recent earnings call, citing "PUBG" as an example. 

If you haven't heard yet, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is a bloody battle royale for Windows PC gamers, where 100 players are dropped onto an island, forced to scavenge supplies and fight to be the last person standing. It's become a monster hit on the Windows PC, already selling over 13 million copies this year at $30 a pop.

And Microsoft recently announced a partnership with the game's developers to bring it to the Xbox One game console by the end of the year, and the Sony PlayStation 4 later, if ever.  It was a big win for Microsoft, which expects "PUBG" to be a major reason why people buy the Xbox One over the PlayStation 4 this holiday season.

To go back to the cloud for a moment, video games are actually a key battleground in the cloud wars. As Nadella notes, modern video games take immense amounts of processing power to run properly. To meet those needs, titles like "PUBG" are turning to the cloud, where developers can pay-as-you-go for fundamentally unlimited supercomputing power out of these tech titans' own massive data centers.

Both companies have looked inwards, as they court video game developers to their respective platforms. Microsoft says that "Crackdown 3," a flagship Xbox One game coming next year, uses the Azure cloud to power its futuristic mayhem.

Meanwhile, Amazon's $970 million purchase of video game streaming site Twitch was largely intended to push forward Amazon Web Services, giving developers a way to integrate their games directly with the service. However, "Breakaway," a game developed in-house by Amazon, was recently put on hiatus to be "reworked."

Either way, signing up the hottest game of the year is a big win for Microsoft Azure.

Representatives for Microsoft and the "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds" team were not immediately available for comment.

SEE ALSO: 5 numbers that demonstrate the meteoric rise of the $400 million game that's dominating 2017

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NOW WATCH: Everything you need to know about 'Battlegrounds' — an unfinished game that’s already made $60 million

• Apple's smart speaker, HomePod, will go on sale in December for $349. People will use it by talking to it. 
• Apple wants developers to make Siri apps for the HomePod, but only in a few categories — messaging, lists, and notes.
• This means that users won't be able to tell the HomePod to play music from Spotify, although Apple's streaming service, Apple Music, is supported. 

Apple encouraged developers on Monday to make apps for HomePod, Apple's new smart speaker that will go on sale before the end of the year. 

Because the HomePod does not have a screen, users are expected to interact with it primarily by talking to it and to Apple's voice assistant, Siri. 

But the third-party apps that Apple is opening the doors for on the HomePod are fairly limited — Apple says that only apps that revolve around messaging, lists, and notes can integrate with Siri on the HomePod and will use a nearby iPhone or iPad to process commands. 

The lack of music app support means that users won't be able to play Spotify on the HomePod the way it was intended — by using your voice to tell it to play a song. (Users also won't be able to order an Uber or Lyft by speaking to the HomePod, or make a call on Skype, based on the limited app categories.) 

Apple Music users, of course, can call up their favorite tracks or albums by speaking to the smart speaker. 

"We are always working to have Spotify available across all platforms, but we don't have any further information to share at this time," a Spotify representative told Business Insider, pointing out that users will be able to play Spotify on the HomePod speaker by using the AirPlay feature from an iPhone or iPad. Users will control the music by tapping around the Spotify smartphone app, rather than by using verbal commands.

"Third party apps like Spotify would just play music on HomePod using AirPlay 2, as we said back in June," an Apple representative told Business Insider. AirPlay enables HomePod to be used like other wireless speakers. 

When Apple first opened up Siri to third-party developers it took a similar approach. At first, Apple limited Siri access to apps only in a few categories, such as ride-hailing and fitness, although it expanded the number of categories earlier this summer.

However, Siri still does not support music apps on the iPhone and Spotify has no Siri features. 

SEE ALSO: Apple will open Siri to new kinds of apps at next week's conference, but it won't try to match Amazon's wide breadth

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For the over 60 million PlayStation 4 owners out there, the future is bright.

If you thought 2017 was a great year for games, 2018 looks like it may be even better. Sony just showcased a mess of new games coming to the PlayStation 4, like the charming and silly "Spider-man" game you see above.

Perhaps you're looking for something more gritty, like the highly-anticipated "The Last of Us" sequel? 

Whether you're looking for something family friendly, for something deadly serious, or for a gorgeous remake of a gaming classic, Sony's PlayStation 4 has something for you in 2018.

Check out the rundown below:

SEE ALSO: 16 reasons why now is the perfect time to buy a PlayStation 4

1. "Detroit: Become Human"

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Release date: 2018

2. "The Last of Us: Part II"

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Release date: Unknown

3. "God of War"

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Release date: Early 2018

• Ratings have been solid for the World Series, which demonstrates the massive amount of advertising exposure big TV events can deliver.
• To date, the games have generated over 5.1 billion ad impressions and over five hours of pure advertising time on TV sets across the US.
• People on average are watching 86% of the ads during the games, which for the most part have discouraged people from flipping around.

The World Series has been absolutely wild, and ratings — though down from last year's historic run for the Chicago Cubs — have been solid for Fox, even topping "Sunday Night Football," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Besides attracting a large audience, the games have provided a text book example of why advertisers are still in love with TV, despite all of its flaws and challenges.

For one, across the first five games, World Series ads on Fox have generated well over 5.1 billion impressions, according to the analytics firm iSpot.tv, which measures attention for TV ads using a panel of 7.3 million Smart TVs.

An ad impression in this case is recorded every time a person watches at least three seconds of an ad from the start. That metric is probably about the closest thing to a view in web video, depending on the media company involved. Delivering that much ad exposure in such bursts of time is TV's enduring strength.

Though 7.3 million TVs represent only a slice of total TV viewership in the US the iSpot data is able to compile a comprehensive list of which advertisers ran during the game and how people responded. 

Overall, iSpots says that over the first five games:

• 142 advertisers have run a total of 226 ads
• There have been 601 ad "airings" to date
• That translates to over five hours and 10 minutes of pure advertising 

YouTube TV has had a huge sponsorship presence during the series. But interestingly, Fox itself has been the biggest advertiser during the games, found iSpot:

Meanwhile, given the riveting, tight nature of this year's World Series, people have stayed tuned in. According to iSpot, the ads run during the games have been watched to completion by an average of 86% of the viewers.

That puts the World Series' ad attention score above some kinds of TV programming, like say morning news shows, though its score is behind ads showing during serialized shows like "Law and Order SVU" and "The Walking Dead" – which boast of ad attention rates above 90% on average.

Of course, some people do flip around during commercials. Here's a second by second look at viewership during the games from Inscape.tv:

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So far, 2017 has been a stellar year for Nintendo. From the time of its release in late March, Nintendo's newest console – The Switch – has sold 7.6 million units. This, combined with the popularity of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" and "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" have helped boost the company's revenue. 

It doesn't seem like its good fortune is going to come to an end anytime soon either. Nintendo expects to sell 14 million units of the Switch console in its first year. To put that into context, its predecessor, the Wii U, sold only 13.56 million units during its five-year lifetime. And as we can see in this chart from Statista, Nintendo's projected operating profit for 2018 is roughly double what the company reported in 2017.   

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NOW WATCH: Watch Google repeatedly mock Apple at its October Pixel event

• Blumhouse-backed digital-media company Crypt TV is trying to build out a stable of horror franchises on Facebook.
• But the company is much less focused on hoping Facebook pays off in advertising revenue.
• Instead, Crypt TV is licensing original shows to digital-media distributors and selling merchandise.
• "If you make good stuff, the business will come," Jason Blum said.

Clowns are having a big year, and not just Pennywise from the monster hit movie "It." Giggles the Clown is having a moment.

The character, which combines a chilling smile and a girl-power sensibility, has been appearing in a series of popular Facebook Live videos over the past several months as well as live fan gatherings. Giggles' merchandise has found its way to 200 Spencer's stores. The character recently made a paid appeared at a scary amusement park and Facebook recently featured a Giggle's face filter that even found its way onto the 'Today" show on NBC.

Giggles is a breakout character for Crypt TV, a horror media company aimed at the social and mobile generation. The company, backed by the red-hot horror-production firm Blumhouse and prominent media investor Ken Lerer (a backer of BuzzFeed and HuffPost), has shifted gears over the past year as Facebook's algorithm and business priorities have changed.

Launched in 2015, just as Facebook was becoming a big outlet for video, Crypt TV initially focused on making short, one-off, hopefully viral clips for Facebook. One of its early hits was "6-second scares," a series of short films that are both funny and macabre.

But earlier this year, Crypt TV secured more funding, right around the time that Facebook pushed publishers to make longer, TV-esque video — clips that would be bankrolled by mid-roll video ads.

That was what many publishers, who were waiting — and arguably are still waiting— for a big Facebook video-ad windfall. But instead Crypt TV pushed toward trying to build out a stable of recurring characters — a universe, if you will — while focusing on finding ways to make money beyond advertising.

"We think the next Frankenstein, the next Freddy Kreuger is going to come from the phone," said Crypt TV's 26-year old founder Jack Davis. "We're trying to build our own monster universe."

So far, the universe includes Giggles, who first appeared last October on Facebook Live. She immediately clicked with fans, and now has her own Facebook page with over 300,000 followers.

Davis said that Giggle's appeal lies in the idea that her teen fans feel like they know her — she'll respond in character during Facebook Live chats, for example.

But Crypt TV is also trying to build out more traditional horror franchises, including "Sunny Family Cult," a show about a very creepy family which debuted earlier this year at the Tribeca Film festival, and "The Birch," a supernatural favorite of Jason Blum — who runs Blumhouse ("Get Out," "The Purge").

You might be surprised that horror-movie fans, who still consistently show up at the box office, would be looking for this kind of content on their phones. But Blum isn't.

"I think this is really the people that produce content finally catching up to consumers and accepting that this is where people want to watch stuff," he said.

Not that he isn't thinking bigger.

"Crypt can be somewhat of an incubator platform for turning one of these videos into a TV show or movie," Blum told Business Insider. "When you have existing IP you are 10 steps ahead when launching a movie."

Before Crypt TV graduates to green-lighting big-screen hits, the company has focused on licensing content to digital outlets such as Verizon's Go90 and the youth-oriented media company Fullscreen.

Crypt TV has sold traditional ads for movies like "It" and the latest in the "Saw" franchise. But the focus has been making money off of Facebook, including a growing number of merchandise deals like Sunny Family Cult masks and the official Crypt TV digital store.

"We didn't want to just to grow and sell ads," Davis said. "We're trying to build an identity. And you have to embrace the storytelling formats in mobile and social."

Blum said that Crypt is much better off focusing on making fans happy at this point in its development.

"People get too focused early on, on monetizing while they're building an audience," he said. "That's not as important to me. The less time you worry about that the better. There are more and more outlets.

"If you make good stuff, the business will come."

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• An arrest warrant on a felony charge for actress Rose McGowan has been issued after her personal belongings tested positive for narcotics on a January 20 flight.
• McGowan tweeted that the charge is "horse----." 

An arrest warrant has been issued for actress Rose McGowan for felony possession of a controlled substance, according to the Associated Press.

The warrant was obtained February 1, after a police investigation of personal belongings left behind on a January 20 United flight arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport tested positive for narcotics.

The warrant has been entered into the national law enforcement database, and McGowan has been contacted to appear in a Loudoun County, Virginia court, according to the AP.

McGowan responded to the warrant in a tweet on Monday:

McGowan has become one of the leading voices in speaking out about sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood after accusing Harvey Weinstein of rape. Her accusation followed the bombshell reports in The New York Times and The New Yorker that the movie executive had allegedly sexually harassed and assaulted women for over three decades.

SEE ALSO: 19 powerful men accused of sexual misconduct in the wake of Harvey Weinstein

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NOW WATCH: Unboxing the iPhone X: Here's everything inside and what you'll need to get

• Nintendo still hasn't found success in smartphone gaming.
• Even Nintendo's biggest property, "Super Mario," struggled to succeed on mobile.

The biggest phone game of 2017, "Super Mario Run," has been downloaded over 200 million times. Even with that huge number of downloads, Nintendo says it still hasn't "reached an acceptable profit point." 

The game is available on Apple iOS devices, like the iPhone and the iPad, as well as Android devices. It costs nothing to download, and the first few levels are available to play, but anything beyond that requires a one-time $10 unlock fee. 

Though "Super Mario Run" has been downloaded over 200 million times, it sounds like only a fraction of those free downloads users turned into paying customers. That's not a huge surprise — the mobile gaming market is notorious for low "conversion" rates (non-paying players converting into paying customers).

Nintendo has even spoken about this problem in the past with "Super Mario Run."

As of January, the game was converting about 5% of its players. Even if we're being generous and saying that number rose to 10%, that would mean just 20 million people paid $10 apiece for "Super Mario Run." After Apple takes its cut, and taxes come out, Nintendo's looking at a relatively paltry return. Instead of looking at this solely from a product perspective, Nintendo's looking at "Super Mario Run" as a learning experience.

"We have learned a lot in terms of game development and deployment that we want to take advantage of moving forward," Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said. 

The change in approach can already be seen in Nintendo's next mobile game, "Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp"— it costs nothing to download and play, and follows a free-to-play model where users can pay to speed up in-game actions. 

"Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp" isn't out everywhere just yet, but it's already begun rolling out in Australia; the game will head to other regions in the coming weeks. Check out a trailer for it right here:

SEE ALSO: Nintendo's next big smartphone game is a new entry in the 'Animal Crossing' series

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Warning: Spoilers for season two of "Stranger Things." If you aren't caught up on the series, read at your own risk. 

Season two of "Stranger Things" brought back all of our favorite Hawkins, Indiana residents, and it introduced some new ones.

This time around, we got to know minor characters from season one like Steve, Lucas, and Dustin. 

This season was also packed with character development, scary monsters, big hair, and teenage heartbreak.

So we've rounded up which characters were the smartest, dumbest, luckiest, and more in our power rankings. 

Here's the "Stranger Things" power rankings based on what we saw in season two:

SEE ALSO: The 9 biggest questions we have after watching 'Stranger Things' season 2

Jim Hopper — the dumbest, best dancer

Hopper makes some questionable choices in season two. His plan to keep Eleven in a cabin makes sense. He's protecting her from the people hunting her down. But he probably should have expected a teenager with literal superpowers to retaliate and want to see the sun for a second.  

Hopper also jumps right into the Upside Down all alone. And instead of immediately climbing out back to regular earth, Hopper keeps going — and going, and going, all by himself, until a monster wraps around his entire body.

Hopper likes to work alone, but he's seen what the Upside Down can do before, and he honestly is lucky that he is saved by good timing. 

The best thing Hopper does this season is a cute little dance in a scene with Eleven, which has already turned into a meme. 

Steve Harrington — best babysitter, best hair

Steve spends the bulk of season two running around with unlikely pal Dustin. Then he is in charge of Lucas, Mike, Max ,and Dustin while the adults and other teens go off and do the real work. 

Turns out, heartbroken Steve is good at babysitting with the help of his assistant: his spiked baseball bat that he uses to fight demodogs and protect the children.

Steve also, as always, has the best hair. In season two he comes out strong with a bigger, better, more 1984 hairstyle, thanks to Farrah Fawcett hairspray.

Thank you for being Steve, Steve!

Eleven — most emo

Emo wasn't really a thing yet in 1984, but it's the best way to describe Eleven in season two.

Hopper is basically her dad now, but he has a set of rules for her. She can't leave the cabin, and she can't even open the curtains. He does treat her to Eggo waffles every night, but that's really the only thing she has going for her.

After spending all day, every day, alone confined to a small space, Eleven starts to get moody. She is becoming a teenager, after all. So she has an intense fight with Hopper, goes to Chicago, and comes back wearing all black with heavy eyeliner to match. She looks like, in Hopper's words, "some kind of MTV punk." The most surprising thing here is that Hopper knows what MTV is. 

Now, thanks to Hopper and Dr. Owens, Eleven might get to be an ordinary kid who inevitably turns on her parental figure for a few years. 

• Researchers have modeled how a zombie outbreak would spread across the US.
• Big cities would be particularly dangerous places to be at the start; isolated regions in the mountains would be relatively safe.
• These sorts of models are the same ones that researchers use to understand real diseases.

If — or when — the zombie apocalypse comes, those of us in big cities are in trouble, according to research presented at the American Physical Society March meeting on March 5, 2015.

Starting in a big city like New York or Atlanta means you are basically screwed from the start in the event of a zombie epidemic there, according to Alex Alemi, a graduate student at Cornell University who was part of the research team.

You are much better off starting farther away from people, they say, which gives you a better chance of avoiding infection. Ideally, you'd escape to an almost empty region like the Rocky Mountains.

"I'd love to see a fictional account where most of New York City falls in a day, but upstate New York has a month or so to prepare," Alemi said in the APS press release.

Authentic disease modeling

Alemi and colleagues used standard disease models to estimate the zombie infection rate around the US, assuming humans would need to be infected by a zombie bite (of course). Also following standard protocol, zombies travel only by walking and wouldn't die naturally but would need to be "killed," presumably with a well-placed blow to the head.

Essentially, they used a realistic model that's very similar to the way epidemiologists calculate the spread of other viruses, but using fictional parameters unique to zombies. They did make some assumptions, including a transportation infrastructure collapse. It's hard to imagine airports staying operational for long in such a scenario.

The video below shows how a national outbreak would play out. The top right map, susceptible humans, shows the human population that's still able to be infected. In the green bottom right map, the "killed" zombie population grows, but as you can see in the red bottom left map, so does the infected population. The top left is a composite map of the other three.

As you can see, the Rockies are the safest place to be in this fictional scenario — sparsely populated and difficult to reach.

And big population centers are the worst place to start the outbreak. About 28 days later (coincidence?), they become safer as the areas that surround them become more dangerous.

Though of course, as Terrence McCoy pointed out at The Washington Post, if a large percentage of the population flooded any area, the risk of infection there would skyrocket.

The statistical research was inspired by a reading of Max Brooks' "World War Z," a book that is better than the movie that was based on it.

How it works

Alemi and coauthors modeled out the population centers of the country and then assumed certain possible interactions, with an element of randomness. A zombie might bite and infect a human or the person might escape or kill the creature. And of course, the undead shamble onward.

Also, in reality, an outbreak probably wouldn't start all over the country, and there are some variables. The undead might be more or less aggressive or more or less mobile.

So the research team built an interactive model that allows you to simulate an outbreak, picking a starting point, a zombie-bite to zombie-kill ratio, and whether the zombies are fast or slow.

As you can see in the GIF below, a fast-zombie outbreak in New York City would be devastating within 24 hours.

Not looking good. More complex variables would be interesting, though.

"Given the time, we could attempt to add more complicated social dynamics to the simulation, such as allowing people to make a run for it, include plane flights, or have an awareness of the zombie outbreak, etc.," Alemi said in the press release.

While zombie scenarios might seem like something a bit silly for researchers to spend time on, public health researchers tend to like these sorts of scenarios since they help educate people on how diseases spread. The CDC even maintains a "Zombie Preparedness" page.

Physicists seemed to want to be prepared. The talk was reportedly standing-room only.

This story was originally published in 2015.

SEE ALSO: Horror movies tap into a primal fear instinct in your brain

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• Horror films can be so scary because they're able to bypass our knowledge that we're watching something and trigger a real fear reaction.
• Neuroscientists have started studying people when they watch films, and filmmakers are consistently able to trigger similar emotional reactions in viewers, especially with scary movies.
• As filmmakers get a better understanding of the science and technology improves, this effect will get even more powerful.

It's October, the perfect time for scaring yourself with a spooky film.

Some people adore the rush they get from watching a horror flick; others can't stand how filmmakers somehow worm their way into your consciousness, building up tension and then striking that moment of terror with a jump scare or with some creepy moment that seems to burn itself into your brain.

Using images and sound, the best horror directors are able to tap into a part of your brain that operates purely on instinct.

When you sit down to watch "It" or "The Ring," you know that the movie isn't real. And yet somehow, the best scary films put you on the edge of your seat, ready to jump — sometime actually eliciting a yelp or a gasp.

That's a powerful effect.

"Usually when we're watching something we've shut down the motor regions of the brain, and yet those stimuli [from a shocking scene] are so strong that they overcome the inhibition to the motor system," said Michael Grabowski, an associate professor of communication at Manhattan College and the editor of the textbook "Neuroscience and Media: New Understandings and Representations."

We jump or yell because a film bypasses our tranquilized state and taps into a primal instinct, which is to react immediately to protect ourselves and warn others — before taking time to process what scared us.

"The scream is a way to alert others in your social group and scare off attackers," said Grabowski.

These scary moments supersede our rational thought process that knows they aren't real.

Neurocinematics

Grabowski's background is in filmmaking, but his research now is focused on an emerging field called "neurocinematics," which focuses on the connection between the mind and the experience of cinema.

While filmmakers have been able to evoke emotional responses in viewers for more than a century, it's only now that modern neuroscience can show us what's happening in someone's brain.

This goes beyond horror, too. Think of the last time that you felt emotion while watching any film, whether you laughed or suddenly felt tears welling up in your eyes during "Inside Out." Despite knowing that what you're watching isn't real, you feel real emotion.

But as Uri Hasson, a researcher and professor who focuses on neuroscience and psychology at Princeton, discovered when conducting the study that first coined the term "neurocinematics," people watching something scary or suspenseful tend to have particularly similar responses in their brain.

For now, that insight is mostly helping us understand what that fear looks like in the brain. But some researchers think that modern filmmaking, with an updated understanding of neuroscience and psychology, is actually better able to tap into emotion than it used to be.

As Dutch media studies professor Patricia Pisters wrote in an essay for Aeon, "in contemporary thrillers, the spectator knows just as little as the characters, and is immediately drawn into the subjective emotional word of the protagonists. As spectators, we indeed experience the world increasingly 'inside out' and have direct access to the drama of the neural mechanisms of emotion. We are taken on a neuronal rollercoaster that will eventually give us the story."

In the future, said Grabowski, it's possible that filmmakers will be able to use even more precise insights to directly stimulate certain emotions, to control when their audiences jump and what they feel.

When you combine that with powerful technologies like virtual reality, something that makes it even harder for us to tell reality from fiction, the possibilities are fascinating and even a little scary. (If you have a Cardboard headset, check out the terrifying short film "Catatonic" — the future of interactive media is somewhat terrifying.)

It's like the dream of Alfred Hitchcock that Pisters cites in her essay, quoted from Donald Spoto's biography of the filmmaker.

"The audience is like a giant organ that you and I are playing," Hitchcock reportedly told scriptwriter Ernest Lehman. "At one moment we play this note, and get this reaction, and then we play that chord and they react. And someday we won't even have to make a movie — there'll be electrodes implanted in their brains, as we'll just press different buttons and they'll go 'oooh' and 'aaah' and we'll frighten them, and make them laugh. Won't that be wonderful?"

This story was originally published in 2016.

SEE ALSO: Technology is eroding our ability to understand what's real and what's just an illusion

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• This is the third Thor movie in the franchise and it's very different.
• The laughs and weird moments are what you'll remember most.
• But sadly Cate Blanchett as the villain is one-note and is often just doing a strange, Enchantress from “Suicide Squad” walk. (Come on, Marvel!)

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead.

It seems after two “Thor” movies, Marvel decided to do a huge pivot in tone for its third, and thank goodness it did.

Not to say that “Thor” (2011) and “Thor: The Dark World” (2013) aren’t good — they aren’t the best Marvel movies, but they are definitely watchable — but we all needed a change from the super-serious family drama surrounding the son of Odin.

Enter filmmaker Taika Waititi. Waititi has an outlandish style highlighted in his out-there indie films (“What We Do in the Shadows,” “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), and he brought the perfect new feel to Thor.

If you’re a Marvel Cinematic Universe fanatic, you know that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) have been out doing their own things since “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), and didn’t appear in “Captain America: Civil War.” (In “Doctor Strange,” Thor appeared in the end credits.)

In “Ragnarok” (in theaters on Friday) we find out what they’ve been up to.

After a stint trying to track down the Infinity Stones, we find Thor on his way back to his home of Asgard, as word is that Ragnarok, a giant battle foretold to lead to the ultimate destruction of Asgard, is coming. He returns to find Loki (Tom Hiddleston) ruling the world disguised as their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Needing to warn his father about Ragnarok, Thor makes Loki take him to where he left their father. After a funny cameo by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the brothers find Odin, who is on the verge of death. He reveals that there is an even greater evil that’s to come, Hela (Cate Blanchett), the sister they never knew they had. Following a quick battle, Thor and Loki find themselves on the planet Sakaar where they meet a bunch of interesting characters, including Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (voiced by Waititi), Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), and Hulk, who has been on the planet for two years. They team up to head back to Asgard to take down Hela.

Sounds like a cut-and-dry Marvel movie, huh?

Well, along with the usual exposition, the movie is filled with deadpan jokes and is-this-scene-really-in-a-Marvel-movie moments. From Thor and Hulk sitting on a bed talking about their feelings, to Goldblum being his most Goldblum, “Ragnarok” is an enjoyable break from the more “serious” issues explored in the MCU.

“Ragnarok” certainly isn't the first Marvel movie to be fun. All MCU titles have taken pride in having a playful mix of laughs and action (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies and "Spider-Man: Homecoming" are recent examples).

But what Waititi brings to “Ragnarok” is a step beyond that.

Every funny remark or action in “Ragnarok” is extended further, and what comes out of that is a playful tone that is a nice break to the mind-numbing violence.

It's also nice to see Hemsworth being allowed to show off his comic chops beyond just a line here or there in the previous two movies.

But that’s not to say the movie is perfect.

There are points when the momentum stops for (ugh) plot. Most of the movie is split up between Thor and his “Revengers” trying to get off Sakaar, and the evil things Hela is doing on Asgard. The shift to the action on Asgard is dull and by-the-numbers.

Sadly, Blanchett doesn’t help in this part of the movie. Like most superhero movie villains, Hela is bland and predictable. Blanchett has a few chances to get in on the fun, and throw out a witty line of two, but often she’s impaling things (or people) with the unlimited swords she can summon and doing a distracting Enchantress from “Suicide Squad” walk.

SEE ALSO: The director of "Thor: Ragnarok" says the movie is so unconventional Mark Ruffalo joked they'd both get fired

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This year in horror movies has seen a number of critically acclaimed films that were also hugely successful at the box office.

While "It" is on its way to becoming the highest grossing horror film of all time, Jordan Peele's "Get Out" became an instant hit and certified modern classic upon its release in April. 

To track which horror films of this year are worth watching, we turned to the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes for its list of the most critically acclaimed "scary movies of 2017," ranked by their composite critical reception. We excluded any film that had less than 40 reviews to skew the list toward wider releases, and we used audience scores to break any ties. 

Here are the 7 best horror movies of 2017, according to critics:

Note: We've footnoted foreign films that were initially released in previous years but saw a North America release for the first time in 2017. 

SEE ALSO: The 20 top-earning horror movies of all time

7. "The Limehouse Golem"

Critic score: 77%

Audience score: 60%

Summary: "A series of murders has shaken the community to the point where people believe that only a legendary creature from dark times - the mythical so-called Golem - must be responsible."

What critics said: "This nasty little Victorian London horror film has more than a few blood-soaked charms of its own." — Chicago Sun-Times

Initial release: Sept. 2016; North American release: Sept. 2017. 

6. "It"

Critic score: 85%

Audience score: 86%

Summary: "A group of bullied kids band together when a shapeshifting demon, taking the appearance of a clown, begins hunting children."

What critics said: "This new 'It' has more on its mind, and gives more body and voice to [Stephen] King's ideas of childhood anxieties and the corrosive power of fear." — New York Magazine

5. "The Transfiguration"

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 55%

Summary: "When troubled teen Milo, who has a fascination with vampire lore, meets the equally alienated Sophie, the two form a bond that begins to blur Milo's fantasy into reality."

What critics said: "Bold and brutal in shocking spurts, the indie horror drama from writer-director O'Shea is a startling debut that leaves a fresh mark on the genre while celebrating its forbears." — Los Angeles Times

• Netflix and Media Rights Capital have suspended production of "House of Cards," Business Insider confirmed. 
• The two companies have halted the show in what is meant to be the sixth and final season.
• The news comes two days after actor Anthony Rapp made a sexual misconduct allegation against Kevin Spacey, the show's star.

Netflix has suspended production on its sixth and final season of "House of Cards," in light of a sexual misconduct allegation against the show's star, Kevin Spacey, Netflix confirmed to Business Insider.

"MRC and Netflix have decided to suspend production on 'House of Cards' season six, until further notice, to give us time to review the current situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew," the two companies said in a joint statement. "House of Cards" was in production in Baltimore.

The companies added they were "deeply troubled" by the allegation against Spacey.

Netflix announced Monday that the show's sixth season would be its last. The news followed an allegation of sexual misconduct against Spacey by the actor Anthony Rapp, who said Spacey made a sexual advance toward him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. 

Following the accusation, Spacey wrote an apology that he posted on Twitter, in which he came out as gay, and said that he did "not remember the encounter," but that if it happened it "would have been deeply inappropriate, drunken behavior."

Spacey's apology drew widespread criticism, especially from the LGBTQ community.

The show's cancellation was reportedly not an effect of the Spacey allegation, as the decision had been in the works since the summer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

While it is unclear when or whether the show's sixth season will continue production, Netflix reportedly has three "House of Cards" spinoffs in the works.

Deadline first reported the news of the show's suspension. 

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NOW WATCH: Here's what Melissa Joan Hart — who played Clarissa and Sabrina the Teenage Witch — is doing today

• The biggest game of 2017, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," is heading to consoles.
• It'll arrive on the Xbox One first, on December 12. 
• The PC version is still on track to reach "1.0" by the end of 2017.

Forget about Super Mario — the biggest game of 2017 is "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," the insane 100-player fight to the death that's already pulled in tens of millions of players on PC. 

And on December 12, "Battlegrounds" is finally heading to the Xbox One as a "console exclusive" game. That means it's only available to play on the Xbox One — a PlayStation 4 version is expected down the line, but nothing official has been announced. 

Like the PC version of "Battlegrounds" — which first arrived back in March and has subsequently taken over the world of PC gaming — the Xbox One version of "Battlegrounds" will launch in an unfinished form, for $30. It arrives as a part of the Xbox "Game Preview" program, which allows game developers to start selling a game that's still in development to players who will accept the risk of playing an incomplete game.

"Battlegrounds" originally launched on Steam's "Early Access" program, which is similar to the Xbox Game Preview program. Developers post a game for sale, and Steam users can buy it knowing they're at risk of encountering technical issues (or a game never being completed by its developer). The PC version of "Battlegrounds," Greene told us in a recent interview, is still on track for reaching "1.0" by the end of 2017.

The Xbox One version, however, has a different trajectory — Greene and his employer, South Korean game company Bluehole, don't have a planned date to reach 1.0 on the Xbox One just yet. The plan, they said, is for both the PC and Xbox One versions of "Battlegrounds" to be identical, and for players to compete across both platforms. There isn't a stated window for when the game might reach that stage.

Both the Xbox One and PC versions of "Battlegrounds" are getting one feature this year that fans have been waiting on: vaulting. 

It may sound trivial if you're not one of the tens of millions of people playing "Battlegrounds" already, but the ability to vault over short objects in-game is a crucial addition that players have been clamoring for. If nothing else, that feature is planned for both versions of "Battlegrounds" this year.

"PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" will cost $30 on Xbox One, the same price listed on Steam for PC users. It arrives, via Xbox Game Preview, for Xbox One on December 12.

SEE ALSO: 16 reasons why now is the perfect time to buy an Xbox One

DON'T MISS: Forget 'Call of Duty' — the hottest game of 2017 is an insane 100-player battle royale

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NOW WATCH: Everything you need to know about 'Battlegrounds' — an unfinished game that’s already made $60 million

• Jennifer Lopez listed her 6,540 square-foot duplex for $27 million earlier this month.
• The penthouse apartment has four terraces and overlooks Madison Square Park. 
• Some reports say Lopez is selling the apartment to buy a new place with boyfriend Alex Rodriguez.

Jennifer Lopez has left the building.

The singer-actress has listed her New York City penthouse, located in The Whitman, a luxury four-unit building overlooking Madison Square Park, for $26.95 million.

Adam D. Molin, founder of Molin Group, holds the listing.

Lopez — who raked in $38 million in pre-tax earnings last year — bought the 6,540 square-foot duplex, complete with four outdoor terraces, for $20 million in 2014.

People magazine reported that Lopez plans to purchase a new home with Alex Rodriguez, who she has been dating since February. 

Even with Lopez on the way out, the halls of The Whitman will remain star-studded. Residents include former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, hedge fund manager John Silvetz, and NASCAR's Jeff Gordon.

Take a peek inside 21 East 26th Street:

SEE ALSO: Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought their $88 million Bel Air estate with a little-known mortgage strategy anyone can use — but probably shouldn't

DON'T MISS: Beyonce and Jay Z's new $26 million secluded Hamptons mansion sits on an exclusive stretch of waterfront — take a look inside

The Whitman Mansion was originally built in 1924 in New York City's trendy Flatiron neighborhood. The building was converted into boutique condominiums in 2013, with listing prices starting at $10 million.

Source:Curbed New York

Referred to as "the crown jewel" of the Whitman — which has a private gym and 24-hour doorman — the penthouse comprises 6,500 square feet of interior living space across two floors and 3,000 square feet of outdoor space on four separate terraces.

Source:Zillow

A private elevator opens up to a sun-filled great room with a skylight and three sets of French doors boasting up-close views of Madison Square Park. The penthouse has four bedrooms and six-and-a half bathrooms.

• A24's secret Chance the Rapper movie, "Slice," now has a teaser trailer. 
• The movie will come out in 2018 with a cast that includes stars from "Stranger Things" and "Atlanta."

One year after A24 — the company behind the Oscar best-picture winner "Moonlight" — announced that it was making a secret movie with Chance the Rapper called "Slice," a teaser trailer for the project has been revealed. 

The horror movie surrounds the murder of a pizza delivery driver, and the mystery of who is behind it. The suspects range from drug dealers to a werewolf. 

The movie will star Chance and be directed by Austin Vesely, who has directed numerous Chance the Rapper music videos.

"Slice" will also star Joe Keery (Steve from "Stranger Things"), Zazie Beetz ("Atlanta," "Deadpool 2"), and Paul Scheer.

The movie opens in 2018. 

The first teaser doesn't show much footage, but certainly gives the vibe that "Slice" is going to be a creepy movie. 

Watch it below:

SEE ALSO: "Thor: Ragnarok" works because it leans into laughs and weird moments more than any other Marvel movie

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NOW WATCH: 13 details you might have missed in 'Stranger Things' season 2

• Police said that multiple people are dead after an incident in New York City on Tuesday afternoon.
• Singer Josh Groban said he was near the scene, and tweeted his firsthand account. 
• Groban did not see anything, but said he "heard gunshots." 

One person is in custody following an incident that police said left multiple people dead and others injured in Manhattan, New York City, on Tuesday afternoon. 

Singer Josh Groban said he was near the incident, walking his dog, and tweeted his firsthand account. Groban did not see anything, but he heard it, he said.  

At least six people were killed after the driver of a Home Depot pickup truck reportedly struck numerous people near the West Side Highway in downtown Manhattan. Fox News reported that the driver of the vehicle drove into the bike lane in the wrong direction for more than 10 blocks, hitting cyclists and pedestrians.

Here are Groban's tweets referencing the incident:

SEE ALSO: Multiple fatalities in New York City after truck driver plows into crowd

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NOW WATCH: How to use the iPhone X now that the home button is dead

• One of the best shows for Facebook's new Watch platform is Refinery29's "Strangers."
• Business Insider spoke to the creator of "Strangers" Mia Lidofsky about her new series.
• Lidofsky got the idea for the series after having an interesting Airbnb experience, and has a lot of hope for the Watch platform.

So far, Facebook's new video platform Watch is full of mostly forgettable, mediocre content, but the platform is also home to one of best scripted series out now: Refinery29's "Strangers."

"Strangers" follows a freshly single Isobel (Zoe Chao) as she explores her newly discovered sexuality, while Airbnbing her spare room in order to make ends meet. As new people enter Isobel's home and life, she's forced to confront and explore new aspects of herself. 

The scripted series produced by Refinery29 is a poignant, heartbreaking, and tenderly told coming-of-age tale, sure to resonate with anyone who has ever felt uncertain about what they want in life.

The series also has some impressive guest stars like Jemima Kirke ("Girls"), Shiri Appleby ("UnREAL"), and Jemaine Clement ("Flight of the Concords").

Business Insider spoke to the creator of "Strangers," Mia Lidofsky, to learn what inspired her to make the series, and what her hopes for the Watch platform are.

This is what Lidofsky had to say about her new series "Strangers": 

SEE ALSO: Most of Facebook's new 'Watch' shows are stuck in a boring purgatory between premium TV and the charm of YouTube

Lidofsky's idea for strangers blossomed from her own experience renting her apartment on Airbnb.

Amanda Henning Santiago: I know "Strangers" is based on some of your own experiences. How did you turn your own stories into a series? 

Mia Lidofsky: I decided to put my apartment up on AirBnb and move out west. It was Thanksgiving and we [Lidofsky and Richard Shepard] had just finished shooting "Salem." 

I was so homesick, and I really missed the East Coast, I missed New York, I missed my family, and I missed my New York community. I was like, "I have to get back to New York at least for a visit." My apartment was already rented. So I decided, "Okay I'll become a renter." And I rented this beautiful loft in Williamsburg with a friend who was coming home with me for Thanksgiving. It was this kind of extraordinary re-entry back into New York because I got to try on a different life than the life that I had left.

I really fell in love with this apartment, and was super sad to leave. When I was exchanging the keys with the host JP, he called me up and he was like, "Mia I've got a funny story for you," and I was like, "Alright JP what you got?" 

He said, "Well, I'm dating this girl," and I was like great, I'm already interested.

He said, "She lives in LA."

And I was like well that's complicated, but he said, "No, she's been living in the West Village for the last three months."

I said, "Oh cool, I used to live there. I have an apartment there."

He said, "I know," and I was like, "Okay?"

Then he said, "You know I stayed with my girlfriend this weekend, so you could stay in my place?"

I was kind of confused, I was like is he trying to make me feel guilty? Like, I paid him. Then he said, "Mia, my girlfriend is your subletter. I stayed in your apartment this weekend."

JP and I had never met each other, we had only met through Airbnb, and in the course of one weekend we had traded beds in order for each of us to actually survive — JP's an artist as well —  being artists in the city. That was just a really memorable moment for me.

I thought about sharing communities such as AirBnB, and Uber, and Lyft, and Citi Bike, and all of these ways in which the world is shifting toward this sharing economy. And how it just brings this ability to bring different people into your life. It became this really powerful idea for a storytelling vehicle to bring all different kinds of people in and out of a protagonist's life.

I knew I wanted to tell a story about a bisexual woman. I knew I wanted her to be going through a life crisis about her sexual identity, and where she was in her career, and just sort of explore this life on the cusp of 30.

There's this perception that we're supposed to have it all figured out, and be on this certain path, and be really confident in that. But I wanted to look at what happens when you have this quarter-life crisis, and realize that there's incredible newness and truth in you that you're just discovering.

Lidofsky's connections with actors on past projects resulted in some amazing guest stars on "Strangers."

Henning Santiago: There are a lot of really amazing actors on "Strangers." Jemaine Clement is in the first episode, which I was super excited about.

Lidofsky: Jemaine is one of the funniest people I have ever met, and when I was helping produce "People, Places, Things," — he was the star of the film — we became close. He really wanted to champion my voice, and he was excited for me about "Strangers."

You know early days when it was just a seed in my mind he was like, "I'll be in it, you just call me."

I actually had a lot of actors say that, like Shiri Appleby. When I was working with Jesse [a former colleague] and [Appleby] came in to guest star on "Girls," she was like, "When you make something, you call me."

In many ways ["Strangers" is] a testament to people showing up, and following up on their word. 

Lidofsky believes that Facebook Watch is "going to be a really good thing."

Henning Santiago: "Strangers" is currently on Facebook Watch, which is where I initially found it. I'm just curious to hear how you feel about Watch?

Lidofsky: Listen, it's extraordinarily exciting to be a part of the first generation of any kind of new platform. You know I think that Facebook in many ways is a home that I never would have anticipated, or thought about, but in many ways it feels totally perfect, and the right home for "Strangers."

In the sense that in the best ways this platform is another sort of sharing economy. It's a place where there are 2 billion viewers, and if this show has the potential to reach a fraction of that 2 billion people ... My hope in filmmaking is to help change the narrative of normal; create crazy positive portrayals of women, of female friendships, of lesbians, of bi, of trans, of sexually curious, questioning, real people. And if I can do that with an endless capability of an audience, that's super exciting for me as a creator. 

I mean that's a really powerful tool that I don't take lightly. I think that there's a plethora of content out on Facebook right now — on the Watch platform — and perhaps it's complicated or confusing to find shows that feel good and right. My real hope is that eventually "Strangers" will stand out as a quality show that people love, that people connect with, that they laugh at, that they cry to, and that it finds its audience. 

I am truly optimistic about what Watch can and will do, and you know it's early stages. At one point Amazon had just started, and people were like, "But I order bulk toilet paper and DVDs, what do you mean they're gonna make 'Transparent,' and 'Mozart in the Jungle?'"

And I think people were confused when Netflix and Hulu came on the scene. I have to trust in what Facebook is trying to achieve, and what they're capable of, and you know I believe this is going to be a really good thing.

Netflix has done some house cleaning in 2017, cutting high-profile, expensive shows like "Sense8" and "The Get Down." It's also killed flops like "Girlboss" and "Gypsy" after only one season.

On Monday, the streaming service confirmed to Business Insider that "House of Cards," its first big original series, will end with its sixth season.

The conclusion of the show has been in the works since the summer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But the announcement did come the day after the show's star, Kevin Spacey, was accused of sexual misconduct by actor Anthony Rapp.

On Tuesday, Netflix suspended production on season six until further notice. Netflix said that it needs "time to review the current situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew." 

Netflix historically has canceled very few shows — only about nine (or up to 12, depending on how you count). But if CEO Reed Hastings gets his way, expect more in the future.

"We've canceled very few shows," Hastings said at the Code Conference in May. "I'm always pushing the content team. We have to take more risk. You have to try more crazy things. Because we should have a higher cancel rate overall."

Here are the nine shows Netflix has killed, along with their critic and audience ratings from Metacritic.

Additional reporting by Jethro Nededog.

SEE ALSO: I watched all of 'Stranger Things' season 2 — and the best thing about it is it never tries to top season 1

"Longmire": Canceled after six seasons (three on Netflix)

Netflix description: "This contemporary crime thriller focuses on a Wyoming sheriff who's rebuilding his life and career following the death of his wife."

Critic rating: 75/100

Audience rating: 9.2/10

"Lilyhammer": Canceled after three seasons

Netflix description: "They killed his dog. They made him run. Now he's living a new life in a strange land ... like a boss."

Critic rating: 68/100

Audience rating: 7.6/10

"Hemlock Grove": Canceled after three seasons

Netflix description: "A quaint town links a mangled corpse to a dark outsider with a carnivorous secret. But monsters come in many forms."

Critic rating: 37/100

Audience rating: 6.7/10