Released in two parts, Kill Bill was originally envisioned as a single experience, which has been teased since at least 2008. Now, audiences can finally get a taste of The Whole Bloody Affair across a gargantuan 275-minute runtime (including an intermission), as the unified version of Quentin Tarantino’s sprawling revenge saga roars into theaters after having been screened only sporadically over the decades.

The film is as vicious, fun, and sentimental as it’s always been, and although you could technically rewatch Vol. 1 (2003) back-to-back with Vol. 2 (2004) for a similar experience, nothing rivals the delights of watching Tarantino’s cross-cultural mash-up the way it was meant to be seen. At a micro level, the changes between the duology and the complete epic vary from a few shots to an entire 2D animated sequence (as well as a Fortnite-centric “lost chapter” that plays after the credits). However, the story’s emotional rhythms are also cemented far more firmly this time around. Watching Uma Thurman’s “Bride” — a.k.a. Kiddo, Arlene, Black Mamba, or B-[REDACTED] — tear her way through masked henchmen with a katana in Vol. 1 always felt like a markedly different experience from the more introspective sequel, but the two halves echo each other in more meaningful ways when watched in the same sitting.

For the uninitiated, Kill Bill traces the Bride’s non-linear, globetrotting journey after she awakens from a four-year coma and begins exacting bloody vengeance on her former assassin squad who tried to kill her on her wedding day. Adding to the emotional stakes is the fact that she was pregnant at the time, and now believes her child to be dead – a flourish Tarantino added when Thurman, his Pulp Fiction star, became a mother herself. The result is a fiery lead performance that lives on the edge of melodrama but never tips over into irony. No matter the mayhem on screen, it always feels personal. Recurring images of the wedding chapel massacre add fuel to the fire, but the story remains just as much about a vengeful killing spree as it does about the nature of revenge itself, as well as the way violence curdles the soul.

Of course, Kill Bill is the kind of movie that tries to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to this central theme. It’s a film that revels in the cartoonish blood spatter of classic samurai fare while also featuring harsh close-ups of a bruised and battered bride, presenting two dueling forms of bloodshed. On the one hand, there’s the righteous and ludicrously enjoyable violence of hacked limbs and severed scalps; on the other, the wince-inducing, unapologetically evil violence that robs a woman of her autonomy. It’s a cognitive dissonance the movie never fully resolves, but by the end, neither does the Bride. In fact, she seems consumed by this contradiction, and watching all ten chapters laid out end-to-end practically justifies Tarantino’s refusal to untie these emotional knots. Each vignette works perfectly in and of itself, and if that makes the whole thing a thornier predicament, then so be it.

Two decades on, the story, designs, and characters are as vibrant as they’ve ever been, from the Bride clad in Bruce Lee yellow slicing her way through the House of Blue Leaves (a sequence now entirely in color, emphasizing Robert Richardon’s resplendent cinematography) to the slick charms of David Carradine’s titular villain, who warps the whiz-bang saga into something far more melancholy whenever he’s on screen. Lucy Liu’s icy yakuza boss O-Ren Ishii remains a particular highlight, especially now that she receives an expanded backstory courtesy of an additional anime sequence that adds to her ruthless drive. An additional shot of a sliced hand is really the only major visual update in live action, but the movie’s structure is also impacted by the placement of a key reveal. What was once a cliffhanger at the end of Vol. 1, meant to hook audiences for a sequel, is now a shocking plot twist near the end. This may not change things for long-time fans, but going forward, it ensures that new viewers will never have more information than the Bride, resulting in emotional beats that perfectly map onto her journey.

A handful of theaters are showing the new release on pristine 70mm and 35mm film prints, which – if you’re lucky by way of geography – only adds to the splendor of Tarantino’s cinematic remix. It’s perhaps the mash-up maverick’s most overt work of cultural bastardization-slash-homage, a thin line he traipses with gusto by combining the sounds and styles of spaghetti Westerns, spy B movies, Japanese chanbara (or swordplay) and Chinese wuxia, all choreographed by Hong Kong stunt legend Yuen Woo-ping. However, the long-overdue release is also a more mournful tribute to bygone eras of cinema, simply by virtue of the passage of time: Many of its stars have since departed, including David Carradine, Sonny Chiba, Michael Madsen, and Michael Parks, as well as the film’s editor, Sally Menke. Kill Bill should have always been this way, but it’s better late than never.

Over the past few console generations with built-in storage, gamers were typically stuck with however much space that came with the console. With the PS5, Sony made a surprising move by including an internal M.2 PCIe slot to install an off-the-shelf SSD to supplement the internal storage. Given that this is the same company that paired the PS Vita and PSP with ludicrously expensive memory cards, this was a welcome change of pace, especially given the paltry 825GB of storage you have to work with. Now you can install high-end PC SSDs like the Corsair MP600 Pro LPX, our No. 1 pick, to load even more games nearly as fast as the extra-special drive that's built into the console itself.

TL;DR - These Are the Best SSDs for PS5:

There are a few restrictions. First, you need a PCIe 4.0 or Gen 4 drive or better. This interface allows for SSD speeds up to 7,500MB/s, which is a huge improvement over the 3,500MB/s for Gen 3 M.2 SSDs. You're also going to need an M.2 drive. The actual physical size of the drive doesn't matter, with the PS5 having screw holes for every size of M.2 drive on the market right now. However, most of the time you're going to want to stick with an M.2 2280 drive – they're the most common M.2 drives on the market.

We also recommend getting an SSD with a built-in heatsink. There are size restrictions on the heatsink itself; it can't be taller than 11.25mm. Luckily, there really aren't many SSDs out there that won't fit. Your PS5 SSD needs a heatsink because PCIe 4.0 SSDs have a tendency to create a lot of heat when under load, and the little cubby where the SSD slot is located isn't exactly ideal for passive airflow over the drive itself. So, you'll need a heatsink just to make sure your drive doesn't overheat and throttle its performance. You can either get an SSD with a built-in heatsink, or get a seperate heatsink – either way will work just fine.

As for capacity, choose however much storage you think you'll need. Most people will probably be fine sticking with a 1TB drive to supplement their system. This will essentially double your available storage, and can store a ton of games, or at least allow you to install Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and, like, two other games. You can, of course, splurge for a giant 4TB drive and create a huge archive of games, just be aware that these capacious drives have a much higher price tag.

• If you're an Xbox owner, see our roundup of the best SSDs for Xbox Series X

PS5 SSD Basics

A healthy amount of SSDs are available that pair perfectly with the PS5’s M.2 slot. Given there’s more competition in the space than even just a couple of years ago, you’ll find plenty of high-speed, low-cost drives for a sub-$100 price tag. If you’re looking to amp up storage, you’ll find the price of these drives rises exponentially; bigger drives, like the 8TB SSD from Western Digital, will run you well over $500.

You’ll want to ensure you install an NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD with maximum dimensions of 110mm x 25mm x 11.25mm or 4.33" x 0.984" x 0.442", including the heatsink. Clearly, the PS5 has some cramped, shallow quarters, leading to high temps, rendering a heatsink necessary to prevent bottlenecking or damage to the drive. Luckily, most drives come with an optional heatsink, but if you need to venture out on your own to grab one, be sure it fits height requirements of under 8mm above the SSD or 2.45mm below.

Beyond size requirements, you'll need at least a PCIe 4.0 SSD, that can reach sequential read speeds of 5500MB/s or faster. Most SSDs will have a rated sequential read speed and write speed advertised, so you can get a pretty good idea of how fast it'll be by looking at the box. When you go to install a PS5 SSD, it will run the drive through its own speed test, which will tell you definitively if it's fast enough to run PS5 games. In my experience, this speed test peaks at around 6,500MB/s, so drives that are significantly faster than this aren't really worth getting for the PS5. These days, most PCIe 4.0 drives are rated for aroun 7,000–7,500MB/s, so you'll be spoiled for choice.

Another thing you're going to want to take a look at is the warranty of the drive. This is more than just marketing hype, most SSDs will be rated for an amount of time, usually five years, along with an endurance rating, measured in TBW. This stands for 'Terabytes Written' and measures how much data can theoretically be written to the drive over its lifespan before it fails. This doesn't mean that a drive rated for 700TBW will fail after you fill it 700 times, but instead that it should last at least until that point.

You'll also want to look at the type of NAND memory the SSD is built from. There are three types of NAND that are typically used: QLC, TLC and MLC. The main difference between the three are endurance, with QLC lasting the least amount of time, and MLC being the most durable. Of course, this will also affect the price of the drive, with QLC drives usually being the most affordable drives on the market, with MLC NAND typically found on the most expensive SSDs on the market, and are generally meant for creative professionals, rather than gamers. All of the drives on this list are using TLC NAND, which naturally falls somewhere in the middle.

Given the PS5 only offers 825GB of space and the PS5 Slim has 1TB, you’ll more than likely want and/or need more storage. Games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Baldur’s Gate 3 take up well over 100GB each when installed, so your storage will fill up quickly. The M.2 expansion slot lets you add 250GB–8TB of speedy internal storage. 1TB seems to be the sweet spot between capacity and price, but if you’re looking to put your massive gaming library on one console, you’ll want even more space. Luckily, most mainstream PCIe 4.0 SSDs come in capacities up to 4TB, so you can really build up a library if you have the budget for it.

Beyond an internal SSD, which should be your preferred storage option, you can use an external hard drive. Some external SSD offerings hit relatively high speeds. You can’t run PS5 games on them. However, it will save you the hassle of redownloading larger games, and PS4 titles can be played right on the drive.

Looking for assistance in installing your PS5 SSD after puchase? Be sure to check out our guide on how to upgrade your PS5 storage. Luckily, you don't need to be hardware aficionado to figure it out.

1. Corsair MP600 Pro LPX

Best PS5 SSD

2. Crucial T500

Best Budget PS5 SSD

The Crucial T500 is the best-value SSD around, with nice performance bump from P5 Plus, which previously held this spot. For just over $100, it's a drive offering 1TB of storage with a heatsink attached – only $15 more than the non-heatsink model – and is perfectly sized to slot into the cramped quarters of the PS5. Not only does this drive double the storage on the console, but the hassle of finding and spending extra cash on an absolutely necessary heatsink that fits can be avoided.

Afraid of losing fast speeds with such a great-priced SSD? Don’t be: The T500 keeps up with the best high-performance drives thanks to the Micron TLC 3D NAND flash memory – a solid step up from the QLC NAND seen in many budget SSDs. Max read speeds of up to 7,300 MB/s can be expected from the 1TB drive. Write speeds aren’t shabby either, hitting up to 6,800MB/S. So, everything from game boots and saves to transferring massive gameplay clips will be fast and seamless.

If 1TB doesn’t seem like enough storage, bumping up to the Crucial T500 2TB SSD sees a big increase in storage space and even faster speeds. The TBW rating is also doubled to 1,200 compared to the 1TB drive, though it still offers the same five-year warranty found on most SSDs. Unfortunately, a 4TB option isn’t available for the biggest game library.

3. Samsung 990 Evo Plus

Best PS5 SSD Without Heatsink

While you can spend a lot of cash on a PS5 SSD, I’ve always preferred drives that deliver excellent performance without a bloated price tag. That’s essentially what the Samsung 990 Evo Plus provides. It does have a lower endurance rating than the more expensive 990 Pro, but that’s not something you really have to worry about if you’re plugging an SSD into a console. Plus, the 2TB drive I tested is still rated for 1,200 TBW, which is more than most gamers will ever actually use.

What’s more important is speed. While the drive is rated for up to 7,250MB/s sequential read speeds, the PS5 storage test that runs when you install a new drive rated it at 6,137MB/s. That’s still more than fast enough for PS5 games to run on it, and in my testing, it loaded Metaphor: Refantazio in just 4.37 seconds, a bit faster than the native drive at 4.47 seconds. That’s just a 10ms difference in loading time, but hey, at least you know it’s not going to load your games slower, right?

One thing to keep in mind is that the Samsung 990 Evo Plus is a DRAM-less SSD, which means lower peak performance in pro workloads. However, while it does mean this drive has lower peak performance than it would with a dedicated DRAM cache built-in, the PS5 can’t take advantage of its full rated speed anyways, so it really doesn’t matter. What does matter, though, is Samsung doesn’t currently sell the Samsung 990 Evo Plus with a heatsink attached, which means you’re going to need to pair it with one of your own. Luckily, SSD heatsinks are generally just a few bucks on Amazon, and you could probably get away without one, too.

4. Samsung 9100 Pro

The Overkill PCIe 5.0 SSD for PS5

5. WD_Black P40

Best External SSD for PS5

PS5 SSD FAQ

Is an SSD worth it for PS5?

A good chunk of the PS5’s internal 825GB SSD is taken up by system files, leaving you with a little over 650GB of usable storage space. The PS5 Slim adds a bit more storage, and the PS5 Pro further increases the storage up to 2TB. If you dedicate yourself to only a few games at a time, those smaller storage amounts should probably be enough. But if you like having several games on the go, or are a fiend for live service games that tend to balloon in size as more updates and content packs are added, you’ll soon find yourself hitting the limits of the PS5’s storage. At that point, get yourself an SSD. It's one of the best PS5 accessories you can invest in.

What speed SSD should I get for PS5?

You’ll need an SSD that’s rated with a read speed of at least 5,500MB/s. In practice, it’s difficult not to find a PCIE 4.0 drive that ticks that box. The higher the speed the better, but keep in mind that the PS5 only really supports speeds up to 6,500MB/s. Getting a faster drive than that certainly won't hurt anything, but the system will bottleneck faster drives, especially PCIe 5.0 SSDs that can have read speeds that reach 14,700MB/s or more.

When is the best time to buy a PS5 SSD?

PS5 SSDs are a surprisingly expensive add on to any PS5 console purchase. Prices have dropped pretty signicantly over the years, but if you're hoping to save as much money as possible, there are a few different times that are best for buying an SSD. The first big one is Amazon Prime Day, which usually takes place in July every year. After that, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are an excellent time to find big discounts on PS5 SSDs online.

Are PCIe 5.0 SSDs worth it for the PS5?

Not really. The PS5 supports PCIe 4.0, and though PCIe 5.0 drives are backward compatible with PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 3.0, the console can’t take advantage of the full read and write speeds of the latest drives. That means it’s not worth the extra money, especially when you can often find PCIe 4.0 SSDs for far less.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Addditional contributions by Danielle Abraham and Callum Bains

We’re in the final weeks of 2025, and if you’re looking to start up the new year with a fresh selection of PC games, the Humble Choice December lineup is here to provide. This month’s selection features eight games - including Nine Sols, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Streets of Rage 4, and more - alongside a month of IGN Plus for $14.99 when you sign up for a Humble Choice membership.

Humble Choice December 2025 Game Lineup

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be over, but Sonos has decided to continue the deals extravaganza with a new 48-hour Cyber Sale. For Tuesday and Wednesday, you can score some new discounts on select certified refurbished soundbars, speakers, and subs. Sonos refurbished products come like new, in pristine packaging with all the original accessories. They even come with the same one year warranty as a brand new product.

Sonos Era 100 Smart Speaker

Do you have an insatiable titan-sized appetite for anime and live music? Then you'll be happy to know The Wild Faery Company is bringing back the "Attack on Titan - Beyond the Walls" tour to the United States in 2026. There are 18 cities on the menu, starting in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on February 28 and ending in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 29.

2025's "Attack on Titan - Beyond the Walls" world tour brought thousands of Attack on Titan fans together for a night of live orchestrated music accompanied by clips of epic titan battles from the hit anime that ran for 10 years starting in 2013. There were 51 performances in total, capped off with the finale at New York City's Carnegie Hall on November 1. The tour visited other venues of note, including the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, OVO Arena near London, and the Sydney Opera House.

"Attack on Titan - Beyond the Walls" combines live orchestra and hard rock to bring new life to the music from series composers Hiroyuki Sawano (composer for seasons 1, 2, and 3) and Kohta Yamamoto (composer for the final season). You can expect to hear fan-favorite tracks like "Counter Attack-Mankind," "At'aek ON Taitn," "Apple Seed," and "Footsteps of Doom."

Check the list of shows below to find the performance that's closest to you.

For tickets & more information, visit HERE !

Event Calendar:

• Ft Lauderdale, FL – Broward Center – Au Rene – February 28, 2026
• Tampa, FL – Straz Center –March 1, 2026
• Charlotte, NC – Ovens Auditorium – March 3, 2026
• Durham, NC – DPAC – March 4, 2026
• Washington, DC – DAR Constitution Hall – March 6, 2026
• Columbus, OH – Palace Theatre – March 7, 2026
• Cleveland, OH – State Theatre – March 10, 2026
• Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre – March 11, 2026
• Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theatre – March 12, 2026
• St Louis, MO – The Fabulous Fox – March 13, 2026
• Kansas City, MO – Music Hall – March 14, 2026
• Sugar Land, TX – Smart Financial Centre – March 17, 2026
• Austin, TX – Bass Concert Hall – March 18, 2026
• Denver, CO – Bellco Theatre – March 21, 2026
• Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre – March 23, 2026
• Sacramento, CA – Memorial Auditorium – March 26, 2026
• Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium – March 27, 2026
• Salt Lake City, UT – Abbravanel Hall – March 29, 2026

To get the latest updates, you can follow:

• The Wild Faery on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
• Innovation A&E on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.