I think the first time I really understood what Moroi was, I mean the down-in-your-bones feeling you get when you’re playing something and the lighting bolt of understanding strikes you right on the noggin, was when my character fed himself to a talking meat-grinder because “something inside [him] screams let's do it!” Admittedly, it would have probably been funnier if Moroi had flashed a game over screen, and most games might’ve as a gag, but Moroi plays it straight. Into the meat-grinder you go, head-first. It chews for a bit and spits you out. You taste terrible, you see, and the grinder’s palate for manflesh is, for whatever reason, a bit more refined. Later on, you can offer it a severed hand (don’t ask) and it’s happy about that, and to grind up the bones and turn the leftover dust over to you so you can use it to help an old woman make “soup” (again, don’t ask), but eating the hand causes it to explode. “You are on fire,” your character remarks glibly as the machine spits binary. But you have your bone dust and it’s not your job to save sentient meat grinders who have developed a taste for longpig, so off you go to break some more stuff. And I said, out loud, “Ah, it’s a game like that.” And I was intrigued.
The word moroi comes from Romanian folklore; it’s used to describe a vampire or ghost, or in some cases, a phantom that rises from the grave to draw energy from the living. I don’t know which part of the definition Moroi the game draws from. What I do know is this: your character, a bearded bear of a man, wakes up in a strange prison, in pain, with no memory of how he got there. Everyone else seems to know him, but he doesn’t recognize any of them. But maybe, as a very tall man in a very strange hat tells him, that’s for the best.
Your first order of business is to get out, and that means solving simple puzzles, many of which boil down to “acquire item, take it somewhere.” Go talk to the cannibal eating himself as performance art who asks that, if eating himself isn’t his magnum opus, lightning strikes him dead. When lightning strikes him dead, take his severed hand and bring it to the sentient meat grinder, who gives you bone dust before catching fire. Then you take that to the tall man in the funny hat, who tells you to take it to the old lady making soup (she needs some salt; you have bone dust. Same thing, right?) before reminding you that “Death will meet you soon enough” and weirdly offering up that his name is Edgar. So it’s off to the old woman, who gratefully accepts your “salt” and is pulled headfirst into the cauldron by the soup to see what’s on the other side. “I'm starting to think that wasn't soup,” your character says. Noticing a pattern here?
It’s got Doom’s Glory Kills, which quite literally teleport you across the screen for very satisfying slow-motion execution that drops health.
On and on it goes, whether it’s a toenail from an overfed corpse still being pumped full of… something, or taking the old woman’s spoon and using it to wake up the rat with the important job of running in his wheel and powering The Horrors (and the doors). But then something strange happens. Moroi gives you a sword, and throws a bunch of enemies at you, and that’s where the magic happens. Combat is simple — the top-down, twin-stick perspective seems a little weird when you’re solving puzzles, but then you get to a combat section and it’s like “Oh” — but it’s fast and hits feel weighty and satisfying and it’s got Doom’s Glory Kills, which quite literally teleport you across the screen for very satisfying slow-motion executions that drops health. And then you get a minigun that shoots harpoons. And that’s rad.
When Moroi is flipping between the two — quick, simple puzzles like using the number of corpses in a freezer to work out a door code, and combat sections against multiple enemies howling for blood like it’s Black Friday and you’ve just snatched the last George Foreman grill — it’s pretty grand. But there’s also plenty of weird stuff beyond that, too. At one point, you save a duck with human teeth from being turned into a wide variety of duck-based cuisine and he rewards you with his teeth so you can reinforce your weapon, and then explains the way out through bloody gums.
Sometimes messages pop up on-screen offering cryptic hints at something more. Other times, story details are left to collectibles scattered around the environment. I particularly liked the one that listed Duck of Eternal Torment as a type of potential meal prepared from our toothy friend, and the one where the cleaning lady resigns because the furniture is upside down every day and she’s convinced the place is cursed and/or haunted.
And it’s never afraid to be weird. One of my Moroi demo’s last segments thrust me into the role of a strange, winged doll tasked by his mother (another doll) with helping his brothers – an increasingly rude group of trees – survive some incoming horror that’s killing all of them by literally giving away pieces of himself to do it. It’s an odd segment, but a compelling one, and when the credits rolled shortly thereafter, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but I am interested in seeing where it goes from here.
There are some things about Moroi that concern me: my demo was buggy (It crashed once;I got stuck between a door and a bookcase a couple times; once I fell through the floor) and some of the writing is uneven. But those are things that can be ironed out. Moroi marries the macabre and the mysterious, and it often went to places I didn’t see coming in my half-hour demo. I’m still not sure what a moroi is in this context, but I would like to find out. After all, who can resist a game with a meat grinder that lusts for the flesh of men and a duck with human teeth?
January is always a quiet month for video games, and 2025 was no exception. With only one new game release cracking the top 20 and the predictable domination of Call of Duty, there's little to crow about from last month... except, perhaps, what may be a comeback story for one of last year's alleged sales disappointments: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth debuted February 2024 to No.2 on Circana's charts, which rank video games by dollar sales in the U.S. It dropped to No.7 the following month, and finished out the year at No.17. While those numbers are respectable, post-launch there were numerous questions about whether or not the game had done well enough for Square Enix's tastes, or even especially well in comparison to other major RPGs in the same year like Dragon's Dogma 2 or its predecessor Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Square Enix ultimately came out saying the game failed to meet its sales expectations, and never even announced a sales figure, suggesting it hadn't done well enough to brag about.
But notably, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth launched as a platform-exclusive on PS5, and exclusives usually face an uphill battle compared to cross-platform releases when it comes to sales. As of January 2025, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth is exclusive no more, finally debuting on Steam and shooting up to No.3 on the Circana charts for the month from No.56 in December. The Final Fantasy 7: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack similarly rose from No.265 in December to No.16 in January thanks to the Steam release.
That's not all. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella pointed out on Bluesky earlier this month that Rebirth had a "fantastic" Steam launch: "Across physical & tracked digital, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was the best-selling game of the week ending Jan 25th in the US market ($ sales), while the FFVII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack ranked 3rd."
Now that's just the U.S., but it's likely this is emblematic of similar sales abroad, which when combined could signal to Square Enix that change is needed. This success inevitably invites speculation that swelling sales thanks to a PC launch may shift the company's plans for future Final Fantasy releases to a cross-platform launch. I asked Piscatella for his opinion on the situation, and here's what he said:
"I mean it's hard for me to say what impact the Steam release has on publisher perception of overall title success. That's subject to all kinds of internal planning and expectations I'm not privy to, of course. But purely looking at consumer response, it was a very good launch month on Steam. This launch does provide yet another benchmark that shows releasing on PC makes a ton of sense at this point regardless of genre or historical release strategies.
"For 3rd party publishers, it's looking harder and harder to release exclusively on a single platform without significant incentives provided by the platform holder."
We'll just have to wait and see what Square Enix's reaction is at its next relevant earnings call...in May. Stay tuned.
It's looking harder and harder to release exclusively on a single platform without significant incentives provided by the platform holder.
As for the rest of the charts, it will surprise no one that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the best-selling game of the month again, followed by Madden NFL 25. The only new release cracking the top 20 in January was Donkey Kong Country: Returns on Nintendo Switch, which reached No.8 purely on the basis of physical sales (Nintendo does not share digital sales data for its eshop).
Also notable was the return of It Takes Two to the top 20, in spot No.20. There's no single reason for this, Piscatella told me. "There has been promotion happening during the month, including the last week of Jan on both the PlayStation store and eShop," he said. "But really, It Takes Two had pretty steady sales all month. But it was in December that It Takes Two really started its latest rally with both sales and engagement upticks that extended into January."
Notably, much of the promotion for It Takes Two comes ahead of the release of Hazelight Studios' next game, Split Fiction, releasing in March.
Overall, games spending numbers actually look a bit sad in January compared to last January, but there's one potential reason for that. This year's tracking period for January was four weeks long, while 2024's January was five weeks long, so that's a whole extra week to make money. But as a result, overall spending was down 15% to $4.5 billion for the month this year (it was 0.3% ahead of January 2023's four-week period). Accessories spending was down 28% year-over-year.
Content spending was down 12% compared to last year, with console content down 35%. Hardware spending was down 45%. PS5 hardware spending was down 38% year over year, Xbox Series was down 50%, and Switch was down 53%. PS5 was the best-selling hardware of the month in dollars and units, with the Xbox Series second in hardware spending, and Switch barely second in unit sales.
The top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for the month of January 2025, based on dollar sales:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Madden NFL 25
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
EA Sports FC 25
Minecraft*
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
EA Sports College Football 25
Donkey Kong Country Returns*
Hogwarts Legacy
Sonic Generations
Helldivers II
Astro Bot
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
Super Mario Party Jamboree*
Elden Ring
Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack
Mario Kart 8*
The Crew: Motorfest
UFC 5
It Takes Two
* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana's data. Some publishers, including Nintendo and Take-Two, do not share certain digital data for this report.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Genshin Impact is getting an official cookbook later in 2025, and IGN has an exclusive first look.
Genshin Impact Official Cookbook: Culinary Journeys Across Teyvat, by Thibaud Villanova, comes out September 2, 2025 and “invites readers to explore, taste, and experience the fantasy world of Teyvat in an entirely new way.” There are even prefaces from Michelin star chefs Paul Pairet and Mory Sacko.
As you’d expect, the cookbook lets Genshin Impact recreate dishes from the game, accompanied by cooking quest givers the Gourmet Supremos. There are 60 recipes designed to take budding chefs on a culinary journey through the first four major regions of Teyvat: Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, and Sumeru.
The images, below, show recipes for ‘Dinner of Judgment,’ a speciality of Rosaria, the ‘Lighter-Than-Air Pancake,’ and the tantalisingly named Nutritious Meal (V.593). If you’re curious, Nutritious Meal (V.593) revives a character and restores 20% of Max HP, then restores an additional 1,500 HP to the target fallen character with a 120-second cooldown in Genshin Impact itself.
Chef Villanova, who goes by @gastronogeek on Instagram, is no stranger to creating recipes based on video games, and has published more than 16 cookbooks that have sold over 500,000 copies.
As for Genshin Impact, if you’re low on ingredients, take a look at our Genshin Impact codes for some freebies (in-game only, though, not actually edible). For your next trip to Teyvat, here are the current Genshin Impact banners for Version 5.4, and our guide to the best Sigewinne build if you get lucky on her banner.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The Pokémon Company was awarded “substantial” damages as part of a settlement in a long-running lawsuit with the developers of Chinese copycat mobile game Pocket Monster: Remake.
Pocket Monster: Remake launched in 2015 and appeared fairly popular, having earned upwards of around $42 million in a single year according to The Pokémon Company, as reported by The South China Morning Post in 2022.
The game featured seemingly unaltered Pikachu artwork from the Pokémon Yellow box as the app icon, while other branding for the game featured what appeared to be Ash Ketchum, Pikachu, Tepig, and Oshawott, again unaltered. Gameplay of Pocket Monster: Remake from perezzdb on YouTube shows myriad other familiar characters and Pokémon in what appears to be intended as a remake of the original games.
Perhaps inevitably, The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit back in 2021. Three years later, in September 2024, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruled in favor of The Pokémon Company, awarding around $15 million. But both companies appealed the ruling, leading to this week’s settlement announcement.
As reported by Automaton, The Pokémon Company also published a public apology letter from Pocket Monster: Remake maker Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology Co., Ltd., which was issued across all major social media platforms. In it, the company admits ripping off Pokémon characters, promises never to do it again, and confirms it has now shut down Pocket Monster: Remake entirely.
Here’s the apology in full:
Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "the Company") has launched and operated the self-developed mobile game "Pocket Monster: Remake (口袋妖怪：复刻)" (alias “The Pocket Journey (口袋之旅)”, hereinafter referred to as "the Game") since July 2015 through the Company’s subsidiaries (including but not limited to Khorgos Fangchi Network Technology Co., Ltd., hereinafter the Company and its subsidiaries collectively referred to as "We") and various online game operators.
In December 2021, The Pokémon Company (hereinafter referred to as "TPC") filed a lawsuit with the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court in Guangzhou Province, alleging that the Company infringed its copyright and engaged in unfair competition. The first-instance judgment ruled that the Company was liable for the claimed copyright infringement and unfair competition, and ordered the Company to pay damages in the amount of 107 million Chinese yuan to TPC. The case was heard in the second instance on December 18, 2024, and under the mediation of the High People's Court of Guangdong Province, TPC and We reached a settlement on the issue of compensation.
Under the guidance of relevant precedents and judicial documents issued by the High People's Court of Guangdong Province, We have deeply realized that our acts had violated relevant laws during the second-instance trial and settlement process. The Game has extensively used design elements of the well-known Pokémon Video Game Series, infringing the copyrights related to the Pokémon Video Games, and has unfairly taken advantage of the fame and reputation of the Pokémon Video Games, thereby constituting acts of unfair competition. Our copyright infringement and acts of unfair competition have caused significant economic losses to the rights holders and severely damaged the image of the original Pokémon Video Games. We hereby sincerely apologize to TPC and other rights holders, as well as the vast number of players, consumers, and the general public.
The Game has now been completely removed from the market and operations have ceased. At the same time, We have paid a substantial economic price and incurred significant reputational damage. We have deeply reflected on it and learned our lessons. In our future operations, We will place a high priority on intellectual property protection, refrain from infringing upon any related intellectual property rights or interests of the Pokémon Video Games and their rights holders, and avoid engaging in any related acts of unfair competition.
While The Pokémon Company has found success with this copycat video game, it's still embroiled in a lawsuit with Palworld maker Pocketpair, which it sued for patent infringement last year. Pocketpair has vowed to fight the case in the Japanese courts.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Corsair has clarified recent comments from one of its executives who claimed Grand Theft Auto 6 would release on PC early 2026.
During a financial call, Corsair Gaming’s VP of finance, Ronald van Veen, said: “Yeah, GTA 6 is probably the one everyone is talking about. And we’ll get a glimpse of that, I think, later on in the year for console. My understanding now it’s going to come out in the fall for console, and then early 2026 for PC.”
That was enough to spark a number of headlines about Corsair’s apparent insider information on GTA 6’s release window, but a representative of the company told IGN that Ronald van Veen’s comments were speculation, and confirmed Corsair does not have release dates supplied from Rockstar or Take-Two.
It’s an omission in keeping with developer Rockstar’s playbook for its previous games, but in 2025 feels outdated. And, given the increasing importance of the PC for a multiplatform game’s success, is GTA 6’s no-show on PC a missed opportunity or even a mistake?
“So with Civ 7 it's available on console and PC and Switch right away,” Zelnick said of Firaxis' recently launched Civilization 7. “With regard to others in our lineup, we don't always go across all platforms simultaneously. Historically, Rockstar has started with some platforms and then historically moved to other platforms.”
Rockstar fans have noted the studio's historical reluctance to release other past games on PC day-and-date with console, as well as its fraught relationship with the modding community over the years. Still, some had hoped that a game as big as GTA 6 could be a turning point for the studio's PC gaming attitude.
Big Rockstar titles tend to get to PC eventually, but the question of how long PC gamers will have to wait for what could end up being one of the biggest games ever remains. Given GTA 6’s fall 2025 release window, it seems likely PC players won’t get to play the game until 2026 at the earliest.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Marvel Television has reportedly paused work on three shows: Nova, Strange Academy and Terror, Inc.
Sources told Deadline that the projects were never greenlit and may still come out, but Marvel has shifted its priorities.
The change in strategy comes as Marvel Studios prepares to launch Disney+ show Daredevil: Born Again. This week, Marvel Studios’ head of streaming and TV Brad Winderbaum revealed the company is exploring the opportunity of reuniting the street level heroes of Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist, better known as The Defenders.
Marvel Studios is now taking the approach of developing more shows than it makes, but, as Winderbaum told Screen Rant last year: “We’re really being careful about what we choose to do next.”
Strange Academy was expected to revolve around a magic school founded by MCU mainline character Doctor Strange, with Wong in charge. There’s no information on Terror, Inc., however.
Here’s what we know for sure when it comes to Marvel TV shows: Daredevil: Born Again hits Disney+ on March 4, Ironheart, on June 24, and Wonder Man is due out in December. Three MCU films are due out this year following the launch of Captain America: Brave New World: Thunderbolts in May and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Image credit: Marvel via Getty Images.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Overwatch 2 Season 15 appears to be going down well, improving sentiment around what was once the worst ever user-reviewed game on Steam.
We're now nearly nine years out from the debut of Overwatch in 2016, and two-and-a-half from the launch of Overwatch 2. In August 2023, Overwatch 2 became the worst user-reviewed game on Steam ever, with most of the negative reviews focused on monetization after developer Blizzard was heavily-criticised for forcing its premium predecessor to update into a free-to-play sequel, rendering the original Overwatch unplayable back in 2022.
But while Overwatch 2 still has a ‘mostly negative’ user review rating on Steam for all reviews, recent reviews have shown an improvement to ‘mixed.’ That means 43% of the 5,325 user reviews left in the last 30 days were positive.
That might not sound like much to crow about, but for Overwatch 2, which has endured overwhelming negativity since its release on Valve’s platform, it’s a significant milestone.
This improvement has to do with the recent launch of Season 15, which made a number of dramatic changes to Overwatch 2. While the roadmap ahead includes much of what you'd expect to see in terms of new content, the core gameplay itself has seen a seismic shift, including the additions of hero perks and the return of loot boxes.
“They just released Overwatch 2,” reads one recent positive review. “The recent update is what the game should always have been before corporate greed got in the way.”
“For once, I must come to Overwatch's defense and say they really have stepped up their game,” reads another. “Going back to what worked in Overwatch 1 while introducing new and fun mechanics to the game. A certain game made them LOCK IN and I couldn't be happier. Now we just gotta wait for next season with an actual cooler battlepass.”
That’s a reference to the hugely popular Marvel Rivals, a similar competitive multiplayer hero shooter from NetEase that’s seen 40 million downloads since launching in December.
In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller discussed the new reality Blizzard finds itself in, with Marvel Rivals now out in the wild and attracting tens of millions of players.
"We're obviously in a new competitive landscape that I think, for Overwatch, we've never really been in before, to this extent where there's another game that's so similar to the one that we've created," Keller said.
You’d think this would be a bad thing for Overwatch, then, but Keller called the situation “exciting,” and even said it was “really great” to see Marvel Rivals take ideas established by Overwatch in a “different direction.”
Still, Keller admitted Marvel Rivals’ success had forced a change in attitude within Blizzard when it comes to Overwatch 2, saying: “this is no longer about playing it safe."
Of course, it’s way too early to declare Overwatch “back,” and there is a push and pull with Overwatch 2’s Steam user reviews that suggests it’ll be extremely difficult for the game to improve upon ‘mixed,’ no matter what Blizzard does. Meanwhile, Season 15 has caused an uptick in players on Valve’s platform, with peak concurrent player numbers almost doubling to 60,000. It’s worth noting that Overwatch 2 is available on Battle.net, PlayStation, and Xbox, and neither Blizzard, Sony, nor Microsoft make player numbers publicly available.
For context, Marvel Rivals, which launched a new mid-season update itself recently, had 305,816 peak concurrent players on Steam over the last 24 hours.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
George R. R. Martin has issued the strongest tease yet that an Elden Ring movie may come to pass, but has acknowledged a significant blocker to his potential involvement with it.
The Game of Thrones creator famously dreamed up the world and history of FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, which went on to become one of the best-selling games of 2022. FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco leaned heavily on Martin’s involvement in promotional material, and the game credits begin by saying the Elden Ring world was created by FromSoftware chief Hidetaki Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin.
So, would George R. R. Martin be interested in coming back for a sequel to Elden Ring, if he’s asked? That’s the question IGN put to the man himself as part of IGN Fan Fest 2025. In his response, Martin sidestepped Elden Ring 2, but did drop a big hint that an Elden Ring movie could be in the works.
“Well, I can't say too much about it, but there is some talk about making a movie out of Elden Ring,” Martin said.
“I don’t see any reason to deny another interpretation or adaptation of Elden Ring, a movie for example,” explained Miyazaki in an interview with The Guardian. “But I don’t think myself, or FromSoftware, have the knowledge or ability to produce something in a different medium.”
“So that’s where a very strong partner would come into play,” continued Miyazaki. “We’d have to build a lot of trust and agreement on whatever it is we’re trying to achieve, but there’s interest, for sure.”
However, speaking to IGN, George R. R. Martin acknowledged that there may be a significant blocker to any heavy involvement he may have with the Elden Ring movie: he’s still working on The Winds of Winter.
“We'll see if that [the Elden Ring movie] comes to pass and what the extent of my involvement was, I don't know,” he said. “I'm a few years behind with my latest book, so that also limits the amount of things that I can do.”
In December, Martin said: “Unfortunately, I am 13 years late. Every time I say that, I’m [like], ‘How could I be 13 years late?’ I don’t know, it happens a day at a time.”
“But that’s still a priority," he continued. "A lot of people are already writing obituaries for me. [They’re saying] ‘Oh, he’ll never be finished.’ Maybe they’re right. I don’t know. I’m alive right now! I seem pretty vital!”
It's only the latest in what's been an increasingly bleak wait for The Winds of Winter, with the most recent entry in the series, A Dance With Dragons, publishing in 2011. That's the same year that HBO premiered the insanely popular TV series Game of Thrones, which is based on the A Song of Ice and Fire series and drew a lot more eyes to the world of Westeros.
As for Elden Ring, Martin explained his work on the game, telling IGN how he helped FromSoftware on worldbuilding.
“... when they came to me, FromSoftware, they wanted the world. They knew the action of Elden Ring that the players would get into would be in the ‘present.’ But something had created that present, had created that world. So where did that world come from? And I've done a lot of world building, most notably on Westeros and the backgrounds of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. And I like doing world building. So what had happened 5,000, 10,000 years before the current day action in Elden Ring that led them to that place? And I had some ideas about the magic and the runes. There was a lot about runes. And I worked it all out.
“It was interesting that the team flew in and we had a number of sessions and they would fly back and do their magic, and then they would come back here a couple months later and show me what they had, which was always amazing to see what they came up with.”
Was everything Martin wrote used in the game, or is there more material that could be used in future installments?
“Yeah, I think especially when you're world building, there's always more that you actually see on the screen,” Martin replied.
“And that's true of any of these big epic fantasies. I mean, you look at Tolkien and there are hundreds of pages of past history before you get to even the era of the Hobbit and dozens of kings and wars and things like that.”
Photo by Amanda Edwards/WireImage.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
MachineGames has just released a new update for the PC version of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle that adds support for DLSS 4. Thanks to this update, RTX50 series owners will be able to use DLSS 4 Multi-Frame Gen. Not only that but the update adds a new option for ray-traced shadows to include … Continue reading Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – 4K/8K Path Tracing DLSS 4 Benchmarks→
Yes, some are calling for the likes of Venom star Tom Hardy, the MCU's Idris Elba, Professor X actor James McAvoy, Magneto actor Michael Fassbender, and Kraven’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who was previously rumored to be top of the list) to be given the role. But the clear fan-favorite is Henry Cavill.
It didn’t take long after Bezos’ tweet for Henry Cavill to trend online, and that’s because of the sheer number of James Bond enthusiasts calling for the Superman and Witcher actor to take over where Daniel Craig left off.
During a 2023 interview with The Express, Campbell said of Cavill: “He looked great in the audition. His acting was tremendous. And look, if Daniel didn’t exist Henry would have made an excellent Bond. He looked terrific, he was in great physical shape… very handsome, very chiseled. He just looked a little young at that time back then.”
“It was ultimately down to, and this is what I’ve been told, it was just down to me and Daniel, and I was the younger option,” said Cavill in an interview with Josh Horowitz.
“They obviously went with Daniel and I think it was an amazing choice to go with Daniel. I probably wasn’t ready at the time and I think Daniel did an incredible job over the past movies, so I’m happy they made that choice.”
It’s no secret that 007’s producers were on the lookout for the next James Bond after Daniel Craig left the franchise behind with No Time to Die. But could Cavill now play Bond? “By the time Daniel got to [No Time To Die] really he was at an age where one more would have been too old for him,” added Campbell.
“I think they sign on for three Bonds, I’m not absolutely 100% certain of that. I know with Pierce [Brosnan] he had to sign on to three when we did him. So, that’s going to take, what, six years of your life maybe? I suspect Daniel [had] the same deal. And the next guy’s going to have to do that.
“Henry’s 40, so by the time he’s done the third one he’s going to be 50. Anything beyond that’s two, three years per Bond. He’s in good shape Henry, he’s a good guy. He did very well in the audition, but ironically, he was too young.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Cardy, Matt, and Mat are back for some February Friday fun and frolicking as a range of delights are explored, including first impressions of the multiplayer spin-off Elden Ring Nightreign. There's also time for a look at awards contender The Brutalist, new Adult Swin animation Common Side Effects, and visual novel dice-roller Citizen Sleeper 2.
Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you're enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
TiMi Studio Group has just released the Black Hawk Down campaign for Delta Force. This campaign is free to everyone, and I highly recommend trying it. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, Black Hawk Down sports some pretty impressive visuals. As such, I’ve decided to capture some footage from it at 8K. To capture this gameplay … Continue reading Delta Force: Black Hawk Down at 8K/Max Settings on NVIDIA RTX 5090 with DLSS 4→
2025 is definitely shaping up to be a huge year for DC's flagship Batman comic. Current writer Chip Zdarsky just ended his run with Batman #157, paving the way for Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee's Hush 2 storyline in March. And once Hush 2 is over, DC will be relaunching Batman with a new #1 issue, new writer, and new costume.
As revealed at the ComicsPro retailer event, the new volume of Batman will be written by Matt Fraction (Uncanny X-Men, The Invincible Iron Man). Current Batman artist Jorge Jimenez is remaining on board, though as mentioned, he and Fraction have designed a new costume and new Batmobile to ring in the new series. Batman is trading in the black and gray suit for a more vintage-inspired blue and gray costume. Check out the new Batsuit below:
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Batman. It was the first comic I ever read,” said Fraction. “Jorge and I have a very superhero-forward kind of take on Batman. We’ve got a new Batmobile, we’ve got a new costume, we’ve got new characters, and we’ve got a lot of old ones too—good and bad; all the stuff that makes Batman the coolest character in comics. We want to celebrate it all.”
Batman #1 will be released in September 2025.
Alongside the Batman news, DC also shed more light on the future of the Superman line at ComicsPro, as DC's "Summer of Superman" event continues. First, Supergirl is getting a new series and a new costume (designed by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau) of her own. Sophie Campbell (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) will write and draw the new book, which brings Kara back to the city of Midvale.
“I came up in the comics industry doing mostly graphic novels that I wrote and drew myself, so doing the same with Supergirl feels like I’m returning to my storytelling roots,” said Campbell. “My main touchstones to Kara Zor-El were the stories and the wild costumes from the 70’s, the 1984 Supergirl movie, and The CW show, which I was a huge fan of. In creating this version of Supergirl, I’ll be drawing on some of those influences as the series unfolds.”
Supergirl #1 will be released on May 14.
Next, Action Comics is getting a new creative team, as Justice League Unlimited writer Mark Waid teams with Resonant artist Skylar Patridge. The series will shift focus to Clark Kent's teenage years in Smallville, exploring how he came to terms with his burgeoning powers as Superboy.
"I start the book with Clark as a 15-year-old boy, learning to be a superhero for the first time,” said Waid. “What is that like, learning to use your powers at that age? What kind of challenges are you facing? Skylar and I are also bringing Smallville a little more up to date—it still has that rustic feel to it, but farms don’t look like that anymore."
Waid and Patridge's run kicks off with Action Comics #1087 in June.
Finally, DC has decreed that Krypto is A Very Good Boy and will be getting his own five-issue miniseries as part of the DC All In initiative. Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton is written by Ryan North (Fantastic Four) and drawn by Mike Norton (Revival). The series will explore Krypto's origin story in greater depth than ever before.
“Krypto's origin has always been done at kind of a high level," said North. "The little guy starts out on Krypton, ends up on Earth, and helps Superman fight crime. The chance to really define Krypto—to show what a little lost dog would go through if he landed all alone on a strange alien world named Earth—was really enticing. And I also fell in love with the idea of treating Krypto as the actual dog he is: he doesn't talk, and we don't cheat by reading his thoughts in balloons either. Mike Norton’s art captures exactly what needs to be ‘said’ in every scene.”
Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #1 will be released on June 18.
If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to plug your PlayStation VR2 headset into a proper gaming PC and dive face first into SteamVR’s rich back catalog of games, your options have been disappointingly limited. Previously console-bound PS VR2 owners are in luck, however, as Sony released a $60 adapter last fall that enables the PlayStation VR2 to be used with any modern gaming PC – that is, as long as your PC meets the headset’s minimum specs. But connecting the PS VR2 to a PC isn't as simple as just plugging in the adapter and calling it a day. Despite being marketed as a plug-and-play device, there are some tricky omissions in its built-in features that may make it require some additional setup, depending on your existing PC configuration.
How to Connect to Your PC With the Adapter
Before you dive into the step-by-step setup instructions, it’s important to make sure that you have everything you need. Via the adapter, the PS VR2 is fully compatible with most SteamVR games, but you’re going to want to make sure your PC has sufficient Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, a spare DisplayPort 1.4 cable, a free AC power outlet nearby, and both the PlayStation VR2 and SteamVR apps installed on Steam. The two Sense controllers packed in with the PS VR2 are charged through USB-C, so you’ll need two USB-C charging ports and USB-C cables to keep both controllers charged between uses – though there is a Sense controller charging station available on Sony’s website for $50, which is much simpler to use.
What You'll Need
First off, we recommend taking account of whether or not your gaming PC is able to work with the PlayStation VR2 headset. An easy way to find that out is by visiting Sony’s official PS VR2 PC Adapter preparation page. Assuming your system is up to snuff, here’s everything else you’ll need:
A PlayStation VR2 headset
The PlayStation VR2 PC adapter (AC adapter and male USB 3.0 Type-A cable included)
A free USB 3.0 Type-A port on your PC (note: Sony warns against using an extension cable or external hub in the adapter’s pack-in quickstart manual; in our review, we relied on a powered external hub which worked perfectly in practice, despite the warning)
Bluetooth 4.0 capability on your PC (either built-in or via an external Bluetooth adapter)
Steam and SteamVR installed on your PC
The PlayStation VR2 app installed inside of Steam
How to Connect: Step-by-Step Instructions
Once you have everything together, follow these steps to connect your PS VR2 to your PC:
Install SteamVR and the PlayStation VR2 app
If you don’t already have it, you’ll need to download and install the Steam Windows client.
Once Steam is installed, open it and install the SteamVR app.
Set up your PC’s Bluetooth and pair your Sense Controllers
From your PC’s start menu, navigate to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > toggle Bluetooth to “On.”
Now that your PC’s Bluetooth radio is activated, it’s time to pair your Sense controllers. On each controller, hold down the PlayStation button and Create button until the white light at the bottom starts to blink.
Once both controllers are discoverable, you can scan them into your PC’s known Bluetooth devices by clicking the “Add device” button to the right of “Devices” on the Bluetooth & devices page of your PC’s Settings menu:
Select “Bluetooth” from the menu
Search for PlayStation VR2 Sense Controller (L) and PlayStation VR2 Sense Controller (R) in the dropdown menu. Connect both devices.
If you’re using an external Bluetooth adapter on a system with a built-in Bluetooth radio, there’s an extra process to follow. Open the Device Manager from your start menu, look under the Bluetooth tab for an internal Bluetooth driver such as “Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R)”, right-click the driver, and click the “Disable device” option.
Set up the adapter and connect it to your PC
Plug the PS VR2 adapter into an unused USB 3.0 Type-A port on your PC.
Use a DisplayPort 1.4 cable (sold separately) to connect the adapter to a free DisplayPort slot on your GPU.
Connect the AC power adapter to the PS VR2 adapter’s DC IN connector.
Plug the power adapter into an electrical outlet with or without a grounding port. Once powered on, the adapter’s status indicator will turn solid red.
Connect the PlayStation VR2 to the the PC adapter via the USB-C port on the front of the adapter.
Turn off Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (optional)
If your PC is equipped with a newer GPU, such as a 40-series Nvidia RTX card, it may be necessary to disable Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling for a stable experience while playing certain VR games:
Navigate to Settings > System > Display > Graphics.
On the Graphics page, click “Default graphics settings.”
On the next page, turn the “Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling” slider to the left.
Restart your PC.
Launch the PlayStation VR2 App and SteamVR
Boot up the PlayStation VR2 headset by holding down the central button underneath the visor until you feel the headset rumble.
Turn on SteamVR and set it as your default OpenXR runtime.
From your desktop, open the PlayStation VR2 app to wirelessly update your Sense controllers’ firmware and begin the process of setting up your PS VR2 headset, including setting up your Play Area and other preferences.
Follow all instructions on screen and within the headset as you set up your IPD and display distance. The included instructions also help you tighten the headset’s fit to a comfortable level around your head.
Once the setup is complete, you’re free to play SteamVR games to your heart’s content!
Can You Connect to PC Without an Adapter?
At the moment, whether or not you can connect the PS VR2 to a PC without an adapter is a bit shaky. The short answer is: no. However, according to a report onRoad to VR, some GPUs released around 2018 included a USB-C port and a feature called VirtualLink, which some users have reported allows a direct connection to the PS VR2 as long as the PlayStation VR2 app is installed, bypassing the need for the PC adapter.
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