In print, King Sorrow is a doorstopper of a novel. It’s a behemoth, ringing in at just shy of 900 pages. But those pages go fast. This is an easily digestible book that tells the story of a group of stoned college kids who make a deal with dark forces they don’t understand. It’s written by Joe Hill, his first novel in nine years. It’s an excellent read, and right now the Kindle edition is on sale for $1.99. If my math is correct, that’s roughly $0.002 per page. That’s a lot of bang for your two bucks.
King Sorrow (Kindle Edition) for $1.99
Joe Hill, for those unfamiliar, is the author of acclaimed novels like NOS4A2 and The Fireman, as well as the short story “The Black Phone,” which was the basis for the excellent horror movie. He also happens to be Stephen King’s son, and King Sorrow features a number of Easter eggs nodding toward the horror master’s works.
In the King Sorrow, a group of six college friends get wasted one night and semi-accidentally summon the titular dragon from an alternate dimension called the Long Dark, asking for its protection. Their goal is to rid themselves a dangerous criminal element that has recently started plaguing them. But as sometimes happens to the best of us, the cure ends up being worse than the disease.
The deal they make with King Sorrow brings this malevolent creature into our world on a recurring basis and alters the trajectory of their lives for decades to come. Each of the friends gets their own long section of the book while they deal with King Sorrow as the years go by. Because the story is told in such an episodic way, it’s no surprise that the TV series adaptation rights have been optioned.
We deemed King Sorrow one of the best new books of the month when it came out in October. I listened to the audiobook version (which rings in at 26 hours long), but I might pick this up for two bucks for a future re-read. It really is a thrilling story from start to finish, with plenty of twists and surprising detours throughout. If you grab this ebook for $1.99, or even pick up a hardcover copy for $20 (which is 50% off), you probably won’t be disappointed.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
They say every day is a school day. Today I learned a new term; one I’ve never heard in 23 years of writing about racing games, and nearly 40 years of playing them.
The term? Vibe driving. The meaning? Well, for Playground it describes the actions of players who just hop in a car, plant their foot on the pedal, and cruise through the open world.
“We know from multiple games now that there are so many players who just vibe drive; they just go from place to place in their car experiencing the world,” explains design director Torben Ellert. “So making a world that was both authentic to what Japan feels like, but was also rewarding for players to drive around in, was something we really wanted to do this time.
We know from multiple games now that there are so many players who just vibe drive; they just go from place to place in their car experiencing the world.
“Part of that comes from the fact that telemetry tells us that we’ve got this huge cohort of players who just drive but, as you know, the campaigns in the previous games were quite hooked to specific things. And the players who were just driving, they didn’t have a lot of cars [and] they didn’t have a lot of credits, because they weren’t engaging with the game’s structured campaign of progression.”
Playground Games has previously discussed its tweaked approach to the core campaign of Forza Horizon 6, which discards the concept of arriving at the Horizon Festival as an established superstar. In Forza Horizon 6 you will find yourself in Japan as a tourist, with no initial association with the Horizon Festival. It’ll only be as you successfully complete the qualifying events that you’ll earn a wristband to enter the big show as an accredited festival racer.
What’s set to follow will be a much more curated racing experience, graduating through the Horizon Festival’s coloured wristband tiers through the car classes – which have been inspired by the very first Forza Horizon game. As a result, Forza Horizon 6’s highest car classes will be off-limits within the confines of the festival’s event structure until much later in the game. The idea here, it seems, is a more overt (and potentially more rewarding) sense of progression.
What appears to have made these changes to the campaign flow possible – without compromising the freedom the Forza Horizon series regards as a core pillar of its identity – are the ways in which Forza Horizon 6 will go about rewarding play elsewhere.
“While we do have a festival campaign that is a bit more structured than we’ve done in the past, we really wanted to just have things to do as you drove around in Japan,” says Ellert. “That brought us to this language of ‘Discover Japan’, that really serendipitously turns out to be the Japanese tourist agency’s tagline, ‘Japan: Endless Discovery.’ That was neat.”
While we do have a festival campaign that is a bit more structured than we’ve done in the past, we really wanted to just have things to do as you drove around in Japan.
Ellert recalls feedback from players in the wake of the release of Forza Horizon 4, confused about the lack of things to do on the map.
“Hearing back from players who people knew, like, ‘Oh, I started the game and I drove to Edinburgh, and there was nothing on the map,’” he says. “Uh-oh. Well, it’s because quite literally you didn’t do Tarn Hows. If you don’t do Tarn Hows the game doesn’t click over and give you the next thing.”
However, instead of twisting arms to get players to engage with a single method of proceeding, Ellert explains it felt better to design Forza Horizon 6 in a way “that would lift people” who chose to play it their way.
“On the one hand I think it comes down to this desire to have things that are just organically in the world as you drive around,” he says. “Those obviously can be vistas that you can see, or cool bits of road that you can encounter, but connecting them to gameplay systems was really important because that creates more engaging experiences.
“So I think one answer for it is from that point of view: make things that you discover that are playable, just in the world. You reduce the friction; you make it easier to do something together with other people.”
The “something” that I’m demonstrated today is Forza Horizon 6’s new time attack driving.
“Time attack is a brand new feature for Forza Horizon 6,” explains lead game designer Dave Orton. “It’s a shared-world feature where it’s all about getting the fastest lap time possible on these incredible grassroots circuits across our map.
“They’re quite varied. You might have an off-road one, you might have a track-focused one. And really, at its core, you are setting a lap time and then trying to beat that every time. And we have splits that show you getting faster or slower, and every time you do a lap you get credits and XP as well. That’s the solo experience, and there’s kind of a loop where you can just hot lap for as long as you want.”
However, time attack takes on a new dimension when playing with or around others.
“Really it’s a place where we’ve seen other players gather,” Orton continues. “It’s a place of activity. I go back to that shared-world energy that you get from real players. This is a hotspot where you’ll find other players who are also hot lapping.
“We also have these in-world leaderboards that track the best times across the community, and that is filtered to your PI class. These are actually grounded, in-world leaderboards. You’ll see the top three times across the community at your PI, and you’ll see your time – so you’ll always see your name; you’ll always see your car with your livery, and where you rank on that leaderboard.
“You can also see your rival as well, and the way that that rival system works is it will always prioritise your friends. So you might be driving past, and then you can see that one of your friends has actually topped your score. All within the world; you just see, ‘My friend’s there and they’re ahead of me,’ and you can go in and try and beat them. It’s a system that, when we put it in the game, we’ve just continually built upon it and got it to where it is now. The moment we put time attack in and had something tracking your lap time, we knew we were onto something. Then we started adding deltas of your lap time, then we started adding splits, then we started adding the combos. And we’ve developed this feature to be something that we’re really, really excited to play.”
The moment we put time attack in and had something tracking your lap time, we knew we were onto something.
Engaging with time attacks in Forza Horizon 6 is a completely seamless experience. You don’t need to drive to a marker in the world, activate it, and get loaded into a lobby. You just drive out to one of the map’s permanent race circuits, drive into the precinct itself, and then drive onto the track. At that point, you’re racing.
“We’ve also got a time attack circuit on Legend Island, and it’s incredible,” says Orton. “So as you work your way through the campaign and become a Horizon Legend, you have access to this brand new area, and there is a fantastic time attack circuit on there. So I’m really excited to see what people do on that.”
Finding organic ways to reward players for things they were already doing was a key driver behind the addition of time attack.
“Horizon is a game that means a lot to many people, and it means different things to different people,” says Ellert. “There are people to whom really clean, technical racing is everything. And you have people who just want to drive around. You have people who want to build, or people who want to take photos. There are many people and many different ways to play a Horizon game.
“In previous games we’ve moved to a broader kind of campaign that says, ‘Whatever you do will progress you.’ And for this game, we wanted to be able to lean into that in a way that was very much driven by where you drove. If you could find it, it was a thing, you could do it. If you can find a street race somewhere in Tokyo City, you can do that street race immediately. There’s no gating to it. And because we had that freedom – because you could just drive off and take some photos or drive off and do one of the Horizon Stories – that meant that we had a full progression system that afforded those players a way to play the game.
“It meant that we could then say, ‘Okay, what if Horizon Festival races actually were gated by progression? What if you had to use C-class cars and B-class cars and then A-class, before you could get a chance to use your S1s, your S2s or your Rs? You had to move up through the ranks. Because we had the ability to say, ‘Look, if all you want to do is vibe drive, the game will absolutely let you do that, and reward you for doing that, and give you progression for doing that. It meant that we could apply more structure to the festival's fantasy in the world.”
If all you want to do is vibe drive, the game will absolutely let you do that, and reward you for doing that, and give you progression for doing that.
“Let’s say you're at the B-class wristband,” says Orton. “If you’ve got an S1, you can still take that round in the free-roam world. You can still take that to the shared-world experiences. You take it to your street races, time attack. But when you go into the Horizon Festival wristband campaign, that’s when the restrictions come in.”
“I think the really nice thing about it is that it speaks to something that players do anyway,” says Ellert. “Much like the drag meets feature, we know players love synchronised drag lights. They love to see whose car is fastest.
“And by finding ways to just lightly roll in systems that can make that a more rewarding thing to do, it feels like, instead of saying to players, ‘No, come little friend; we must go and do this now,’ it’s more like, hey, keep doing the things that you’re already doing, and there are these systems that come into place to make that a more rewarding experience. Horizon is better together, right?”
We’re not shown a demo of the Forza Horizon 6’s open-world drag racing in action, but the team reports it will function in the same way as the time attacks.
“Like time attack, it’s all in the shared world,” says Orton. “So you’re not loading out, you’re not matchmaking. We have three drag strips in our world, and all of them have a grid at the start and it’s got synchronised lights for every player across the community.”
“You can rock up to a grid, you can ready up, and say, ‘I want to drag race.’ That will put you in your grid, and then you just wait for the green light. So, at that point, you can hold the e-brake and get your throttle up. And then as soon as that light goes green, if you pull off, you get thrown into a drag meeting. It tracks your time. Similar to time attack, you’ll get credits and XP every time. You make your way back, and you go again.
“They also have the same in-world leaderboard tech as well. So you’ll see the best drag racers in the community, you’ll see your time, you’ll see your rivals. And the great thing about those in-world leaderboards for time attack and drag meets is they reset each week. So there’s a new routine that players can have where, every time the season changes, you can go and put your name up on the board again.”
With time attack and drag racing checked, the next logical step would be drifting, would it not?
“Yeah, we’re very excited about that as well,” grins Orton. “That’s all I’ll say.”
“For what it’s worth, now we’ve got events that can occur in free roam, it’s just changed the way we think about our experiences going forward in Horizon. There’s a neuron in all our brains going, ‘Right, we’ve got something here.’ So, yeah, watch this space.”
For what it’s worth, now we’ve got events that can occur in free roam, it’s just changed the way we think about our experiences going forward in Horizon.
There’s another layer to the open-world experiences of Forza Horizon 6, and that’s the game’s new link skill system. Forza Horizon fans are no doubt very familiar with the skill point system, and how it’s tied into earning and unlocking car perks, multipliers, bonuses, and even exclusive cars. This time around, however, you’ll get a buff on skill points by earning the same skills as other nearby players at the same time.
“So our skill system touches everything you do,” explains Orton. “If you smash through a gate, you get a wreckage skill. It’s a really compelling loop as you just vibe drive and drive around in our game. And we wanted to create multiplayer experiences from our skill system.
“So with link skills, if you perform the same skill with someone else, you get rewarded with a link version of that. So if I’m tandem drifting with Torbin, we get a link drift. If we’re going down the freeway as fast as we can, we get a link speed. And it’s such a frictionless way to connect with other players. You’re just playing the game near someone else and, just by doing that, you’re getting rewarded for it.
“As you are around other players and just playing the game you’ll have these soft attractors that reward you for sticking together. And our link skill system is just that, all the way up to if you do a 12-player barrel roll, you’ll get a version of that. And I want to see people do that!”
“It’s fully systemic,” adds Ellert. “So, yes, there are places where it’s more likely to happen, which is why we looked at the time attack. You’re much more likely to see speed and drift there but, at a danger sign; you go off that danger sign together, you’re going to get link air.”
“And drag meets: link burnout skills,” says Orton. “It’s just a really nice way of just rewarding you for being around other people without you really thinking about it.”
Forza Horizon 6’s aftermarket cars are an adjacent concept sprinkled into the open world. They’re cars that you’ll come across, parked up and available for purchase from within the open world itself. As part of today’s demo, a customised Honda S2000 is sitting near the entry of one of the time attack circuits. As players, we’ll be able to roll up to these and purchase them – and either send them to our garages or hop behind the wheel immediately.
“Because that system always looks at the kinds of cars that you could afford, the state of your campaign, you are almost always going to see a car that is relevant to the thing you’re about to do, and it’s cheaper than buying it at the Auto Show,” says Ellert. “So it’s the optimal way to expand your car collection. And you get this benefit of, you see the thing in the world. It’s better than just a piece of UI.”
“Yeah, there’s something about seeing the car in the world,” agrees Orton. “There’s kind of an allure to it.”
For his part, Orton regards the addition of things like seamless time attack and drag racing in the open world, plus the link skill system, as an evolution on the shared-world Horizon Life feature of Forza Horizon 4.
“That completely changed the way you experience Horizon,” he says. “With real players and real people, you get this unexpected fun, and the slight randomness of real people that you can’t recreate anywhere else. That’s an energy that we wanted to just capture and continue to improve on. So, with things like time attack and our link skill system, it’s really creating systems that draw players together so that we have more of those fun encounters with other players.
With things like time attack and our link skill system, it’s really creating systems that draw players together so that we have more of those fun encounters with other players.
“And we know that a load of players spend their time in this state, in this free roam space of other players. So we knew there are players there we can get features for. And really it was kind of a synergy of, we know there are players in the space, and we know we want to draw players together with more systems that encourage you for just driving around and exploring.
“And I guess a final point as well; the players who are in this space, we want to give them more ways for them to earn credits and XP. Previously, the best way to do that was to go into an event and load out and whatnot. But really now, if you just stay in that space and you’re hot lapping on time attack, or at drag meets, you’re earning credits and XP just from doing that. And that was another reason. Because then suddenly you have more credits. You can buy more cars, you can buy more aftermarket cars. So your garage gets bigger. And then you start to see the breadth of our driving experiences, all within the same space.”
IGN will have plenty more on Forza Horizon 6 throughout March, including a deep dive on its Japan-based map, a look at the game’s new customisation, and more.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
IGN can exclusively reveal the new trailer and key art for the upcoming fourth season of the MGM+ mystery series From.
The trailer can be viewed via the player above or the embed below.
“In Season Four, the closer the residents of town get to the answers they seek, the more terrifying their search becomes. Who is the Man in Yellow, and what does he want?,” according to the official plot synopsis.
“Will Jade and Tabitha’s revelation be the key to finally going home? How much longer can Boyd hold the town together, even as his body and mind are falling apart? And what role will the town’s most recent arrival play in the events to come? Season Four will open doors that some in town will end up wishing had remained closed.”
Harold Perrineau leads the ensemble cast which includes Catalina Sandino Moreno, Eion Bailey, Hannah Cheramy, Simon Webster, Ricky He, Chloe Van Landschoot, Corteon Moore, Pegah Ghafoori, David Alpay, Elizabeth Saunders, Avery Konrad, Scott McCord, Nathan D. Simmons, Kaelen Ohm, Angela Moore, A.J. Simmons, Julia Doyle, Robert Joy and Samantha Brown.
From is created by John Griffin and executive produced by Griffin, showrunner Jeff Pinkner (Lost, Alias, Fringe) and director Jack Bender (Lost, Game of Thrones, The Institute).
From: Season 4 premieres on MGM+ on Sunday, April 19th.
The Herman Miller x Logitech Embody is the chair that supported me through lockdown in 2020, and almost six years later it still feels nearly brand-new. That's a rarity for the gaming chairs I've used in the past, which have all shown visible signs of wear – or even genuine functional misfortune – after similar timeframes. While the design has remained the same ever after, Herman Miller and partners Logitech have produced new colorways over the years, including an eye-catching navy/purple "Nova" combo plus the white/orange "Ignite" shade that recently arrived at my doorstep.
That makes it a great time to mull over exactly why the Embody has remained my go-to option, despite testing a half-dozen other great gaming chairs in as many years – many of which come with much longer feature lists, greater adjustability and more attractive price tags.
Design
The Embody Gaming Chair is a striking chair to look at, especially in some of the wilder colorways available. Each two-tone design highlights the almost skeletal structure at the back of the chair, with segmented soft and stretchy plastic supported by thin plastic ribs that gradually link up into larger assemblies and finally join onto the aluminum frame. Underneath the seat, a denser mesh of similar construction supports your weight.
Meanwhile, arms curve up from the base of the chair, again with a more organic shape compared to the default racing-style bucket seat used by most gaming chair manufacturers. This structure gives the Embody more flexibility than those other designs; as you change position naturally, the chair stretches, supports and realigns.
The front of the chair, aka the bit that will potentially appear in Zoom meetings, is much more anonymous. Black or white polyester fabric covers the back rest and seat, with an extremely subtle color-matched Logitech logo and a few textural ridges being the only design elements of note beyond the overall gently curving shape. The top of the arm rests are made of squidgy foam, and the five-star base holds double-wheel casters of a modest (2.5-inch) size.
All told, the seat measures 29 inches wide, 41 to 52 inches high and 38 to 46 inches deep, while the total height of the chair is 42 to 45 inches. With these dimensions and a maximum weight capacity of 300 pounds, the Embody Gaming Chair is robustly constructed and should suit even the big and/or tall, including my 6'2", 190 pound frame.
Assembly and Adjustability
I normally need to spend a lot of time detailing the assembly process in chair reviews, but thankfully I don't have to do that here. That's because the Embody is shipped fully constructed, so you simply open one face of the massive cardboard cube that arrives, and the chair rolls out, ready to go. You're left with a huge amount of cardboard to cut down into small enough pieces that it'll fit into your recycling situation, or you can leave it in place if you want a king-sized box for your kids/cats/enemies to chill in. Still, versus other chairs that come packed in all manner of non-recyclable foam, polystyrene or other assorted guff, the Embody is mercifully easy to clean up after. Not having to spend an hour (or three) on assembly is also a massive plus.
Once you've lugged the chair into position, you're free to set it up, which is again quite straightforward as the Embody's feature list isn't miles long. A pull control on the front right side controls the hydraulics, letting you raise or lower the chair, while a dial in the same spot controls the tension of reclining. On the back right, you can adjust the strength of the lumbar support, with the chair moving from being straight-backed to being more s-shaped. A paddle on the left locks or unlocks the recline mechanism, and handles on either side of the front of the seat let you extend the seat depth. Finally, the arm rests have small buttons hidden underneath; pushing them in allows the arms to be raised or lowered. You can also exert a little force to pull the arm rests out wide, or move them closer to your body.
It's all very straightforward stuff, and yet there's plenty here that is unique in its execution. The arms, for example, can drop so low that you can move fully underneath most desks; normally, I'd have to completely unbolt the arms and take them off to adopt my favored forearms-on-desk typing position. Likewise, moving the arms in makes me feel more cozy in cold weather, especially if I have a hoodie on, while pushing them wider gives me more room to wriggle in warmer weather. The backrest adjustments seem better suited than most in pushing me into an upright position that's actually comfortable for hours on end, and being able to extend the seat depth is brilliant for when I've got my foot up on the desk's cross-brace.
There's also plenty that's not here compared to most gaming chairs. The arm-rests aren't "4D", so they don't move forward or backwards or rotate side to side. The back of the seat ends at my shoulders, and there's no head rest. Similarly, there's no ability to recline at nearly 180 degrees.
I miss absolutely none of these features. In fact, I'm actively glad that they haven't been included, as their omission makes the Embody a shorter, more mobile chair that's easier to push from one room to another, or fit under a standing desk in its upright position. The lack of a neck rest means that you actually need to sit upright rather than doing a full-body slouch, and no deep recline means that you must lie down on a bed or something, all of which feel like they're much better for you. Indeed, I had fairly bad back pain off and on for years before getting the Embody, and it's been much rarer since.
Still, some of this will come down to personal preference. I know some people that love to rest their arms on their chairs, and the Embody doesn't offer much adjustability here. Likewise, if you are the sort of person that likes to tilt way back and stare at the ceiling while thinking, the Embody doesn't allow for it. That doesn't make it a bad chair by any means, but as with many peripherals, it's as much a case of individual need as it is of objective measurement of quality.
Comfort and Performance
The Embody, like other adjustable gaming or office chairs, will take some time to get dialed in. While height and arm rest position is likely something you'll set once and not touch too often again, adjusting the strength of the lumbar support and how the chair reclines may require some experimentation. There are no discrete notches to signify where in a given settings' adjustment you are, and changing one setting can impact another, so you may have to keep tweaking things for a period of days or weeks before you're truly happy.
Still, what you're actually changing is at least easy to understand, and most people that have tried the Embody – including my wife and friends that have stayed with us for a few days or weeks – ended up being quite happy with overall comfort levels after spending a day or two making adjustments.
Once set up, the Embody is a stalwart companion for both working and gaming. I try to mix standing and sitting when working, and having a chair that provides a good amount of lumbar support while also fitting easily under a standing desk makes things a lot easier. Similarly, having arms that drop down low enough to let me slide under a desk and put my face really close to the screen is ideal for Counter-Strike and other games that reward being able to spot changes to just a handful of pixels.
On days where I'm being naughty and not standing up at all, the Embody is supportive and comfortable enough that I can sit down for four hours, type up a bunch of reviews, and get up without feeling in pain. It's still obviously better to take breaks, stand up, go look at nature and so on, but for days where you need to lock in for whatever reason, the Embody has been excellent.
Best of all, that comfort has persisted. I'm now nearly half-way through the chair's 12-year warranty period, and my old chair looks and feels nearly identical to one delivered just a few weeks ago. (Having said that, I really do need to vacuum some of the fluff out of the back of the seat.) That experience gives me a unique opportunity to recommend a product based on real long-term use, rather than a necessarily brief initial testing period, and do so with a real measure of confidence.
Will is former deputy tech editor for IGN, specialising in PC hardware, sim racing and display tech. He has been publishing about games and technology since 2001 (age 12). Will was formerly Deputy Editor at Digital Foundry. He is currently playing BattleTech Advanced Universe.
Epic Games has announced a major change to the prices and distribution of Fortnite's in-game V-Bucks currency, and blamed the cost increases on the need to "help pay the bills."
Fortnite's billion dollar-grossing battle royale mode launched back in 2017, and has frequently found itself as part of the cultural zeitgeist. But while recent years have seen ever-bigger collaborations with movies and pop stars, its player numbers have been dwarfed by third-party game platform Roblox.
All of that said, however, you'll soon be paying more for V-Bucks. You'll also get fewer free V-Bucks from the game's battle pass, and fewer from the game's Fortnite Crew subscription.
At the same time, Epic Games has reduced the V-Bucks cost of the battle pass (and the OG, Music and LEGO Passes) slightly in a move that makes this seem a little more palatable. But in a world where all of the game's big collaborations land in the Fortnite shop, it's the rise in V-Bucks prices that will likely see fans ultimately forking over more money than before.
Another major change will see the Fortnite battle pass only include the exact number of V-Bucks necessary to buy the next one, rather than providing half its value again as a bonus.
$8.99 will now get you 800 V-Bucks, down from 1000, which is also the new cost of the game's main battle pass and OG Pass. (The Music and LEGO passes will cost 1,200 V-Bucks going forward, instead of 1,400.)
$22.99 will get you 2,400 V-Bucks (previously 2,800), $36.99 is now worth 4,500 (down from 5,000), while $89.99 will get you 12,500 V-Bucks (instead of 13,500). If you're topping up your account with an exact amount of V-Bucks to buy a specific item, meanwhile, it now costs $0.99 per 50 V-Bucks rather than $0.50, effectively doubling the price.
Other than stating that it needs help paying the bills, Epic Games has not made any further comment on the reasoning for the price rises. The changes will go into effect on March 19, at the beginning of the next battle royale season — a trailer for which dropped to fan acclaim just yesterday. (Surely Dwayne Johnson doesn't cost that much? Maybe he does.)
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Sound is a criminally under-respected aspect of film production, and there’s a school of thought that most audiences are more likely to be taken out of the experience of watching a movie by bad sound than bad picture. With its “haunted podcast” hook, Undertone has no shortage of respect for the aural arts and does emphasize them consistently, using sound to ratchet up the intensity and sustain a threatening mood. But with little in the way of interesting visual ideas or compelling drama to support that mood, Undertone is far more muted than its interesting central conceit provides for.
Undertone follows podcaster Evy (Nina Kiri), who’s largely homebound taking care of her comatose, dying Mama (Michelle Duquet). The auditory experience of Undertone has been billed as critical to the film, and director Ian Tuason gets Undertone off to a good start by quickly establishing Evy’s difficult circumstances in a montage that establishes not just the look of the house they share, but the sound. Tuason captures the stillness of the home, Mama’s labored breathing, hints at the happier life Evy and her Mama shared before she fell ill; they’re all reminders of how sidelined Evy has become in her own life.
That all slides away when Evy sits at her table and puts her headphones on to record The Undertone Podcast, a show in which she skeptically debates her believer co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco) about paranormal phenomena and conspiracy theories. Undertone’s sound mix focuses on Evy and Justin’s voices at the expense of all other background noise during their recording sessions. It’s a great technical hook for the movie that succeeds at not just demonstrating how the podcast is Evy’s escape from her dire circumstances, but providing a clean sensory stage for the auditory horror. As a device for driving dread in horror, restricting a character’s senses and channeling that into the filmmaking is a savvy move to create a base level of tension, and it’s a stylistic choice that does help Undertone maintain momentum, even through a mystery that winds up feeling like a broken record.
Evy and Justin receive an anonymous email containing 10 audio recordings from an unknown sender which document the plight of Jessa and Mike, an expectant young couple who seem to have been plagued by a supernatural entity as they prepare to welcome their baby. From there, Undertone falls into a predictable rhythm: Evy and Justin listen to more of the recordings which reveal more of the Jessa and Mike thread, something causes the two to stop the podcast taping, and Evy experiences something spooky in the time before the next session, suggesting that maybe whatever’s happening on the tapes is starting up in her own home.
Undertone’s visual and aural approaches to horror seldom feel like they’re working in concert...
Opening email attachments from unknown senders is, of course, the “reading Sumerian out of a book bound in human flesh” of 21st century horror, and that’s emblematic of where Undertone fails to consistently deliver on its premise: it’s quite old-fashioned. Secret messages in lullabies played in reverse, creepy crying babies, passages that trigger events around the person listening, elements of speech hidden in the spectrogram of the files, long stretches of silence punctuated by spikes in volume for an easy jump scare… these are tricks we’ve specifically seen/heard before in audio-forward horror like Session 9 or Pontypool and, really, across countless other horror movies too. There’s nothing inherently wrong with reaching into a well-worn trick bag to put your own spin on the classics, but Undertone’s horror seldom takes advantage of the modern trappings of podcasting to any specific degree. The recording of the Undertone Podcast episode in question winds up just functioning as a structural home base for the plot, which feels like a missed opportunity for Undertone to create more of a unique identity for itself.
Undertone’s nondescript visual sensibility further hampers those identity issues. Tuason favors languid takes with the camera drifting around the naturalistically-lit recording space, creating a sense that something terrifying is lurking just out of view. Undertone’s narrative rhythm seldom allows for that dread to pay off during the sessions though, as it’s usually after those that Evy sees hints that the entity from the tapes may be encroaching on her. So, as the movie goes, the recording sessions actually start to feel like a safer space for Evy. As for when she’s checking to see what’s going bump in the night, Evy plays out a familiar pattern of slowly walking to the source of the noise, and either finding nothing or, at most, there may be something creepy that activates in soft focus just out of her field of view. Undertone’s visual and aural approaches to horror seldom feel like they’re working in concert, and neither is consistently effective enough to make up for the shortcomings of the other. The mix of the movie’s unsettling tone and the mystery of just what’s causing the chaos on the tapes (and how that chaos is bleeding into Evy’s life) are each compelling enough to keep Undertone afloat as it goes, but don’t expect it to echo with you too long after its 94 minutes are up.
As Evy, Nina Kiri’s got a hell of a job in selling the horror of what’s on those tapes all by herself onscreen. Dramatizing the act of active listening is a tall order, but Kiri does well with matching the pitch of Evy’s reactions to what’s going on in the recordings without ever selling anything too hard. That composure carries into moments where she’s struggling with her relationship to alcohol or investigating the increasingly strange occurrences around her house, like the appearances of strange tokens or her mom somehow appearing out of bed, despite being effectively brain dead. But in the moments where Evy speaks to her unresponsive “Mama”, Kiri adopts a childlike tone that feels incongruous to the more assertive Evy we see during the podcast tapings, even if she’s not “in character” in front of the mic. The choice to infantilize Evy in that way, especially as she considers having a child of her own, feels aimed at propping up Undertone’s motherhood theme which, with Mama’s failing health and Jessa’s harrowing circumstances at front of mind, seems like it should be a far more prominent part of Undertone’s full picture than it winds up being.
Evy’s at a fascinating point in her life, debating whether to go right from being a full-time caregiver to her mom to a full-time caregiver to a child of her own, so it’s increasingly aggravating for that idea to get more and more backgrounded to the surface-level supernatural spookies that are pulling her mind in different directions. Not helping any of this is Justin, Evy’s grating London-based co-host. As the true believer, Justin’s the one more concerned with the theater of the podcast, but even when he’s not amping up the showmanship when “in character,” DiMarco is less successful than Kiri at matching his emotional tenor to what’s going on in Evy’s house. Most of Justin’s dialogue is nakedly designed to keep the plot moving or to prompt Evy to reveal a little more about how she’s feeling, but as the only other real character in the movie, especially because he’s off-camera the whole time, Justin could’ve used a lot more fleshing out for as much airtime as his voice gets.
Featuring a character dressed like Link and a creature that looks like Pikachu, upcoming Steam game Pickmon isn't afraid to hide the games it's clearly, er, inspired by.
A initial trailer for Pickmon, below, begins with Link, or whoever the main character is supposed to be, leaping from a clifftop that's clearly a riff on Breath of the Wild's Great Plateau, while familiar-sounding piano notes tinkle away in the background.
Not-Link deploys his glider, and is shown to have a not-Pikachu clinging onto his shoulder. A dragon-like creature definitely not based on Rayquaza then also drifts past — and this is all in the trailer's first two seconds.
PickMon | Summer Game Fest 2026 Trailer | Pockegame This is the official account of PickMon. #PickMon is a brand new multiplayer monster-collecting game with open-world survival elements! 🧭Open world survival crafting game for up to 32 players! 🔫Gather your weapons and go on… pic.twitter.com/IdR6byINRk
The next few minutes of Pickmon footage offer much more of the same, with creatures familiar to both Pokémon and the gun-toting Pals of Palworld (the previous Pokémon-like game to land on Steam, which is also still the subject of a Pokémon Company lawsuit), as well as some rudimentary base-building and farming mechanics.
The trailer concludes with a prompt to go wishlist Pickmon on Steam now, and to look out for a future release that's rather ambitiously "planned for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation."
Let's be honest here, everything about this trailer looks set to spark obvious comparisons to Nintendo properties. Even the name of the game's developer, Pokegame, seems part of the bit. For an indie developer looking to launch its first game, it's a safe way to grab attention — and if Nintendo was to start legal action, well, that's even more publicity guaranteed. And already, a Pokémon player has claimed Pickman copied one of their designs for a Pokémon fan design, too.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Nintendo will bother getting involved. While the comparisons between Pickmon and Pokémon are far from subtle, Nintendo currently seems to have gotten bogged down in its previous Palworld lawsuit, which has dragged on for over a year while Palworld itself remains on sale, albeit with a few minor gameplay tweaks.
Perhaps notably, Pickmon does not seem to include the same catch mechanic as Pokémon, which Palworld initially contained at launch, before tweaking. Instead of creatures being caught and unleashed from a ball, Pickmon seems to have them being summoned forth from magic cards.
"What if we take Palworld, and take its designs EVEN CLOSER to the original Pokémon designs were inspired and even dare promising a release on Switch?" wrote one fan after seeing Pickmon in action. "This is the smash bros 'everyone is here' trailer of plagerism [sic]," said another. "We have Pikachu at home ass trailer," said a third.
But despite the criticism, it's hard to imagine Pickmon's developer is upset about all the attention. Whether it will now also gain the attention of Nintendo, however, remains to be seen.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
It’s Mario Day (MAR10), and LEGO is celebrating by announcing a new Mario Kart LEGO set. It’s Luigi & Mach 8, a set that ought to look great on a shelf sitting next to Mario & Standard Kart. This new Luigi set is available for preorder at the LEGO Store for $179.99, with a release date of April 1. No foolin’.
Luigi & Mach 8 LEGO Set
LEGO Super Mario: Mario Kart - Luigi & Mach 8 is the second set of its size and ambition in the Mario Kart sub-series under the wider LEGO Mario framework. The first was the aforementioned Mario & Standard Kart (which we built and you can see it here at Amazon if you’re interested). These are big, colorful, statement-making sets. This one rings in at 2,234 pieces, so it’s a sizable build.
Our reviewer of the Mario set wrote that this is “a build that everyone can love. Casual builders will appreciate its bright primary colors and its big, chunky parts, which make for a surefire crowd-pleaser. Experienced LEGO builders will appreciate the intricacy of the Kart's construction and the absence of stickers; every piece of visual flair is printed directly onto the bricks themselves.”
The Luigi & Mach 8 set features the speedy Mach 8 race car, with a happy Luigi in the driver’s seat. It features bright green, blue, and yellow, with red stars on each of the wheels. The whole thing sits on a buildable stand, which it can actually roll off if you want to play with it (though it’s aimed at the 18+ age group, making it officially one of the many LEGO sets for adults).
For more Mario Day buys, you can check out a host of Switch and Switch 2 Mario games that are on sale for as low as $29.99, about as cheap as first-party Nintendo games ever get. Or you can check out our favorite LEGO Nintendo sets, including sets that are on sale, like Mario & Yoshi for 20% off and Piranha Plant for 30% off.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
Boring filler quests, often of the "fetch" variety, used to be derided – but in extraction shooters nobody seems to mind that they're rampant. Go here, scan this terminal, collect ten wotsits, find five doodads, spin around three times and return to base.
Of course, extraction shooters don't stand on the strength of their quests, and these objectives are welcome excuses to explore the map. I don't mind trekking to reach a quest marker if I find something surprising on the way, or an enemy team to fight when I arrive. But these quests cannot get in the way of the looting and shooting.
Not only are Bungie's quests, called "contracts", boring and fiddly, but they're at the heart of the game. Completing contracts is your progress. You cannot mostly ignore them and do your own thing, as I have for my 250 hours in Arc Raiders – you need to finish them to unlock new skills and better gear.
Let me be a bit more specific about their failures.
First, some of these contracts have multiple fiddly steps. An early quest on Perimeter, the starting map, commands you to visit North Relay, South Relay, and Overflow, scanning objects in the first two and downloading an "agricultural report" – try not to explode with excitement – at the third. You could not pick three locations more spread out if you tried.
Remember, every player in a squad will have their own contracts, likely in entirely different areas. Before you know it you've got six target locations: even if you meet friendly players who want to help, that's an impossible task.
These contracts are the only thing that could stop me loading in for run after run after run
At least for that particular quest, you can finish it across multiple runs. Some contracts demand completion in one round. A single distraction – a boss fight, running into a squad of runners, a teammate leading your squad to a different location – can spoil the run. I've died before because I couldn't convince my teammates to accompany me to the final step of a contract that would've reset if I'd extracted.
Marathon's UI doesn't help. On the Perimeter quest I mentioned above, I wasted five minutes searching for two Sparkleaf Bioprinters in North Relay and by the time I found one, it was time to extract. I know now, of course, that you can open your map and hover over a contract objective for more detailed instructions, such as the specific building to search. But why make players menu dive? Why not just put the exact locations front and centre on your map, or simply flag it on your screen as you enter a point of interest?
The tip about hovering over an objective does, apparently, appear in early hints but it's clearly eluded many players by (I've had multiple teammates asking for help finding those damn bioprinters).
The UI issues extend into understanding Marathon's basic systems. For example, the message displayed when you attempt to leave a match early after dying is ambiguous. I, like others, interpreted its message as meaning that leaving while a teammate is alive would incur strict penalties – including losing any progress towards quests. However, as commenters on this very article have pointed out, you actually just lose the reputation rewards issued for your teammates completing their contracts. That's a decent enough system - but the confusion the UI initially inflicted highlights a lack of clarity in the in-game message.
I know this sounds like a big moan. Let me be clear: I'm still loving Marathon and its quirky heroes that set it apart from other extraction shooters. My annoyance with contracts isn't enough to put me off yet, and the fact Bungie plans to make objective markers clearer on your HUD in a future patch is promising.
But more invasive surgery is required. These contracts, which are the heart of Marathon, are the only thing that could stop me loading in for run after run after run.
KOEI Tecmo has lifted the review embargo for FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE. Powered by the Katana Engine, it’s time now to benchmark it and examine its performance on PC. For our benchmarks, I used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, AMD’s Radeon RX 6900XT, RX 7900XTX, RX 9070XT, as … Continue reading FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE PC Performance Analysis→
Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi has confirmed plans to launch a major story expansion for the game, following other additions planned over the coming months.
But Capcom now has much more in store for the game, too — including that story expansion, the addition of a "mini game" in May, and the upcoming arrival of a photo mode.
"[We're] planning to add more add-on content," Nakanishi said in today's video. "First, the much-awaited photo mode. On top of that, there's another surprise coming around May. We're planning to add a mini game. We hope to continue providing support on Resident Evil Requiem to live up to its positive reception.
"Oh... one more thing," Nakanishi continued, sorting through a pile of (clearly humorous) Resident Evil Requiem add-on ideas, including what looked to be a Leon S. Kennedy romance game spin-off, and a version of the game starring Leon and Grace Kennedy as cats. "We are planning to make extra story content!" he eventually declared.
"In this story," he continued, referencing the upcoming expansion, "we will delve deeper into the world of Requiem. We're hard at work on it now. It will take some time, so we ask for your patience and hope you'll look forward to it. Thank you again for all your support!"
No further details were confirmed today about the expansion's focus, setting or playable character — though fans will certainly have some ideas. Could we see other characters linked to Leon make an appearance, such as Ada or Claire? Will we get the answer to who Leon is now romantically involved with, following intense fan speculation (and an apparent declaration by Nakanishi that he's now staying out of it)? And will Requiem's finale, which name-dropped another classic Resident Evil hero, ultimately serve to set up their return also?
Capcom gave no more information on Requiem's upcoming "mini game" set to arrive around May, either, though fans will no doubt expect this to be the series' latest incarnation of its popular Mercenaries mode, where players get to take on waves of enemies in familiar environments, while playing as wider members of each game's cast. Here's hoping we get to play as the chef.
Whether you're still on your first playthrough or hunting down challenges in your fifth, IGN's Resident Evil: Requiem guide will help you every step of the way through RE9. Take note of these key tips and tricks before you get started, and focus on finding these important items early. Plus, our comprehensive walkthrough will make sure you don't miss a single Bobblehead or file as you try to survive from the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center all the way to Raccoon City.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Disney is developing a live-action Peter Pan spin-off centered on tiny fairy Tinker Bell, to launch on Disney+.
Tink, as the project is titled, will feature an updated version of the classic fairy character, according to a new report published by Deadline. There's no word yet on when the project will be released.
This latest iteration of the idea is being spearheaded by Disney veteran Gary Marsh, who previously worked on the earlier Witherspoon-era version of the project, and written by Liz Heldens and Bridget Carpenter, who have credits on Friday Night Lights, Deception, Parenthood and Only Murders in the Building.
Disney previously featured a live-action Tinker Bell in Peter Pan & Wendy, its straight-to-streaming movie that landed on Disney+ in 2023 to mixed reviews. Indeed, a spate of poorly-performing Disney live-action remakes saw the company briefly pause its plan to produce more — until last year's Lilo & Stitch, which made over $1 billion at the box office.
Other upcoming live-action Disney remake projects in the works include the forthcoming Moana (set to arrive in theaters on July 10), as well as plans to remake Tangled, Hercules and Bambi. A live-action Lilo & Stitch sequel is also in development, as well as plans to make a Beauty and the Beast spin-off starring Gaston. Can Tinker Bell one conjure up the old Disney magic once again?
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Pokémon Pokopia players are speaking out to save others a whole lot of time and bother — because no, you don't actually need to water every single square of the game's world.
When you first start playing Pokopia, your character wakes up in an arid wasteland that was once a lush Pokémon utopia. There are no humans anymore, the world is in ruins, and other Pokémon are few and far between.
On top of that, you've likely seen screenshots and trailers showing the possibilities in store when you do revive Pokopia's world — and so when you gain the ability to water the ground and bring back its green hues, many players' first instinct (including my own) is to do so everywhere. For hours. Every. Last. Square.
Well, it turns out you don't need to do that. As many players are now taking to social media to point out (and also, very mildly spoil) there will soon come a time when all of this is handled for you. And if you'd prefer not to read more about what happens next, well, take this as your cue to stop reading — but also stop watering, too.
Nobody ask me if Pokopia has a story, I’ve been watering grass for 4 hours before I let myself progress pic.twitter.com/WP6EKIql85
Thank you because that was starting to feel like such a huge task and I haven't been focusing on the main quests as much because the dry and withered look BOTHERS me 😭
Yes, eventually your world will experience rain, something that will sort out all those areas of dry ground for you, and immediately make the game look a lot more like those screenshots and trailers. Until then, you really only need to water the plants and trees that you need to create habitats or farm resources such as fruit.
How do you kickstart Pokopia's rain, you may ask? It's as simple as crafting the Rain Dance Site item and then activating it using a Water-type Pokémon. This is something that you'll complete as part of the game's main storyline when rebuilding the Pokémon Center in Pokopia's starting area, so you can't miss it. And for a more detailed walkthrough on increasing your world's humidity, IGN has you covered.
For now, though, relax and put away your Water Gun. Rain's comin'.
IGN's Pokémon Pokopia review returned a 9/10 score, and dubbed the game as "an enjoyable building and town simulator that capitalizes on the charming personalities of its monsters in a way that appeals to both the creative and collector alike."
Re:Rangers X, previously known as Anime Rangers X, was released in February 2026. With its new launch comes new codes. So, if you're looking for an extra boost to get some Gems, Soul Fragments, and more, IGN has you covered! We've got the details below on the current and active codes for the experience, as well as the rewards you'll get for redeeming them.
When you're in the game, look on the left side of the screen
The blue button with the ribbon says Code
Click this, copy the code from this article, and paste the code in
Hit Redeem and enjoy your goodies!
Why Isn't My RE:Rangers X Code Working?
When a code for a Roblox Experience isn't working, it's usually because the codes have been typed in incorrectly or they're expired. Lots of codes are case sensitive, so you'll need to make sure it's exactly how it appears in this article.
We test each code before uploading them, to make sure they're active, so be sure you're copying it straight from our article (without any sneaky extra spaces) to get the right one. If it's still not working, make sure you've joined the Community, and made it to Level 5.
Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.
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