This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things, up to (but not including) Season 5, as well as Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

We’re almost at the end of the road for Stranger Things. After nearly a decade and four blockbuster seasons, as well as a Broadway play, the Netflix hit is closing the book on the Upside Down with a three-part Season 5. With the show creators, the Duffer Brothers, promising this fifth and final season will wrap up all the show’s mysteries – and perhaps more importantly to the focus of this article, the character arcs – fans are on high alert, wondering who if anyone is going to die by the series’ end.

To be clear: nobody has to die in this final season. It’s entirely possible the show could end with all the characters alive, happy, and settled, starting a new life with Demodog pets and Demogorgons working at the local garden shop. In fact, despite some big character deaths over the past four seasons, the Duffers have been very careful and calculated about making sure those deaths have the proper impact.

“It’s important that every death resonates in a big way,” Matt Duffer told Time Magazine in an interview last month, “which is why we’re very careful who we kill because it has these massive season-long ripple effects. Otherwise it just doesn’t feel like it has any weight to it.”

That’s all well and good – one could throw out that nobody will die because the show doesn’t have time to deal with the deaths – but let’s be honest: all bets are off. Nobody is safe, and with the town of Hawkins under siege by the villainous Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) and frequent incursions from the Upside Down, things are looking more dire than ever for everyone involved. Heck, the Duffers have teased that you’ll be “crying in front of strangers” if you see the finale in theaters. Probably not crying with joy, right?

With that in mind, we’re going to break down every major member of the show’s main cast and give our best educated guess as to who will kick the bucket in Stranger Things Season 5, from least likely to most likely. And we’ll throw in plenty of fan theories and conspiracies along the way, so let’s run up that hill one more time and figure out which Stranger Things characters are most likely to die in Season 5!

Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson)

You can’t spell America without Erica, and even though she was a relatively late addition to Team Hawkins, we can’t imagine Stranger Things without Lucas’s bitingly sarcastic little sister.

Why she’ll probably die: Honestly? Erica isn’t going to die; we’re not even going to entertain the thought. This isn’t fan blinders so much as the fact that the impact of killing one of the younger members of the cast would tie into something the Duffers have avoided for the past few seasons: It would be unnecessarily sad.

Why she probably won’t: The bigger reason, though, is that Erica is the future of Hawkins. She’s grown into a powerful and devoted Dungeons & Dragons player of her own, and while the early word is that spinoffs won’t be tied to Stranger Things as all the plotlines will be wrapped up, it only makes sense that Erica will be carrying the torch at the end of the season in a new D&D game, whether that’s picked up in a new series or not. If any character is completely safe, it’s Erica.

Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono)

The Wheeler matriarch has been curiously featured heavily for a parent character throughout the action of the previous seasons. While she doesn’t technically know what’s been going on with the Upside Down, there’s always been the suggestion that maybe she knows more than she’s letting on. In fact, there’s a popular theory that she is secretly Alice Creel, the sister of Henry Creel, aka Vecna, and did not, in fact, die when Henry attacked his own family. Seems far-fetched, but hey, why not; after all, they’re both blonde! That’s how theories work; they’re based on the color of people’s hair.

Why she’ll probably die: The juice-loving Holly Wheeler is finally a main character in Season 5, with twins Anniston and Tinsley Price replaced by actress Nell Fisher. While we don’t expect the show to murder a child, putting Holly front and center means that her mom, Karen, may be in danger protecting her.

Why she probably won’t: One could argue that leaving the three Wheeler kids motherless would throw them toward growing up and taking the family lead, perhaps a theme of the final season, but there’s really nothing to be gained by killing off Karen… unless that wild Alice theory is revealed to be true. On the other hand, her clueless husband Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest) can go at any time, and honestly, nobody would even notice or care. Hey, he may have died seasons ago and nobody thought to try and wake him from his armchair.

Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder)

The mama bear of the Byers family has always been right in the center of the action, and with her son Will in particular in even more danger than ever before, is it on the one-time Lydia Deetz to make the ultimate sacrifice?

Why she’ll probably die: As one of the few characters who hasn’t “died” but been part of the main action, Joyce certainly could be in trouble in this final season. Based on trailers for Season 5, her son is in a tough spot with Vecna, and we know she’ll do anything for her kids. There’s also the matter of the plot of the play, The First Shadow, which finds Joyce far more tied to Henry Creel than has been let on in the TV show. Fans have also put Joyce pretty high on their “to die” tier list, mostly because they expect the cursed Byers family to suffer some sort of loss by season’s end.

Why she probably won’t: Again, there doesn’t seem to be anything gained by Joyce dying. Per the repercussions thing, there’s a good chance the Duffers want to give as many people a happy ending as possible; having Joyce find out her cursed family isn’t so cursed might be a good thing indeed.

Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo)

Dustin is always leading the team into danger and naming the monsters, but is his name about to come up… for death?

Why he’ll probably die: Dustin is the least likely of the core group of kids to die, which means he’s maybe the most likely to die, because we won’t expect it? There’s another reason he could kick the bucket, at least according to fans: His line, “If you die, I die” in Season 3, spoken to Steve Harrington. While that wasn’t written into law or anything, Steve and Dustin have been so tied together, it might be a mercy to take them out at the same time rather than eliminating one or the other.

Why he probably won’t: He’s Dustin; he’ll be fine.

Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin)

Lucas has seen significant growth throughout the run of the series, but his Achilles’ heel is Max Mayfield, who he loves more than anything.

Why he’ll probably die: Max was left in a comatose state at the end of Season 4, and we’ve already seen footage in the trailers of Lucas trying to protect her in the hospital. Their relationship has hit multiple rocky points, but what better way for Lucas to prove his love than to make the ultimate sacrifice for Max?

Why he probably won’t: Other than his link to Max, there’s not a lot working against Lucas in a “gonna die” pool. It would rip Max’s heart out (assuming she wakes up), and destroy the rest of the D&D party – not to mention Erica, her blasé attitude be damned – but as with a lot of these deaths, Lucas dying would be more of a bummer than a triumphant exit.

Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard)

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. We learned Mike was the “heart” of the party last season, and there are certainly some romantic feelings Will seems to have towards him that a section of the fanbase would very much like to see resolved. But once those are out of the way…

Why he’ll probably die: Mike has been curiously sidelined in the action for someone who is supposed to be the center of the party. He’s been there as Will’s friend, Eleven’s boyfriend, and even settled his beef with Hopper. But it’s hard to argue that Will hasn’t quite stepped up to save the day in the same way as the other characters. It’s entirely possible that he could do just that here in the final season… at the cost of his life.

Why he probably won’t: You may be aware of this, but a body can’t survive without the heart. Whatever anyone thinks about Mike as a character, the Duffers clearly feel he is central to the survival of the party, so survive he shall.

Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer)

In some ways, Nancy is the leader of the whole kids’ group. She knows how to make a plan, she’s an intrepid reporter and sleuth, and she fires a mean shotgun. But when you’re the center of the action, you’re also smack dab in the middle of danger.

Why she’ll probably die: Nancy is also in the center of a love triangle between her current boyfriend, Jonathan, and her old one, Steve. Not to make everything about romance, but one way out of this pickle is to kill Nancy rather than having her choose one or the other.

Why she probably won’t: While we’re only talking a few seconds of footage here, there’s a scene in the trailer where Nancy is sobbing and washing blood off her hands. That certainly points to someone else dying, not her.

Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink)

We already noted that Max was left comatose at the end of Season 4, so she’s going to have a hard time fending off Vecna and his minions. Sure, the baddie doesn’t need her to open the portal to the Upside Down anymore like he did in the previous season, but that doesn’t mean she’s safe.

Why she’ll probably die: The better question is: Will she get better? Eleven was unable to find Max in the void, meaning she might be gone for good. Fans have also pointed out that Sink was the only cast member to wear white on the Stranger Things Season 5 premiere red carpet, which they take as a subtle hint that Max is with the angels now. While Lucas is trying to keep Max’s body safe, there may be nothing left to save.

Why she probably won’t: There are a lot of ways out of this one, and having Max narrowly survive getting killed in Season 4 only to die of natural causes in Season 5 isn’t a rousing end to the MADMAX story. There’s more to come with her, her relationship with Lucas, and her ties to Vecna and the Upside Down. She’s in dire circumstances, for sure, but there’s no reason to think she won’t wake up at some point this season… probably sooner rather than later. Also, other cast members did wear white at the London premiere, so that whole dress theory doesn’t hold a lot of water.

Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke)

The former Scoops Ahoy employee and BFF of Steve Harrington may have finally found love in the finale of Season 4 (maybe); will it all be ripped away in Season 5?

Why she’ll probably die: Robin is one of the only characters without familial ties, which means the impact of her death would be felt differently than a lot of the rest of the cast. But if you’re going to kill Robin, you might as well have her and Steve blow themselves up together in a blaze of glory; we really don’t want one going out without the other.

Why she probably won’t: Killing the one openly gay character on the show (Will wasn’t quite out yet the last time we saw him) would be a very bad look for the series. Also, everyone loves Robin. Don’t kill Robin. Okay? Okay.

Steve Harrington (Joe Keery)

Steve has been marked for death pretty much since the first season of the series, and was in fact supposed to be a one-season bully character. But everyone liked Steve enough that they didn’t just keep him around, they gave the character a massive redemption arc. He’s the babysitter, he’s a warrior, and he’s a loyal and devoted friend and ally of the LGBTQ+ community. Not only that, but he’s rekindled a spark with Nancy, particularly after revealing that he always dreamed they would get married with six kids and an RV.

Why he’ll probably die: Like we said, Steve has the mark of death on him. If Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) hadn’t bought it in Season 4, it likely would have been Steve, particularly after getting chomped on by some demo-bats. Pretty much every season so far, fans have speculated that Steve is going to die, and having him sacrifice himself (with Robin or not) would finish his redemption arc and clear the deck for Jonathan and Nancy as endgame.

One additional piece of “evidence”? Steve just isn’t in the Season 5 trailer that much. There could be a lot of reasons for that; for example, it’s three minutes from well more than eight hours of television. Then again, there could be the dire reason that Steve is being sent to Hair-ven in the first few episodes.

Why he probably won’t: Steve has been so heavily predicted for so long, there would be a sense of inevitability to his death instead of surprise. But there’s also a pretty good indication that the show is leaning towards Steve and Nancy as an endgame relationship, not Jonathan and Nancy. We’ve got a lot of real estate to get through before we see the outcome, but the reports of Steve’s death may be greatly exaggerated. You can tell mom: The babysitter’s not dead… at least, not yet.

Jim Hopper (David Harbour)

Hawkins’ sheriff has grown a ton over the course of the show, opening up tremendously after the devastating death of his daughter to become a father for Eleven and a romantic interest for Joyce… as well as mostly tolerating the rest of the kids. He’s the action hero of the show, the literal and figurative adult in the room, and always throwing himself into danger head first.

Why he’ll probably die: Like we said, if there’s danger and explosions, Hopper is right in the midst of them. He’s willing to die, and even almost did back at the end of Season 3.

Why he probably won’t: Fans have marked Hopper as “safe” in the destruction of Hawkins in Season 5, mostly based on the fact that the show already did a fake-out death with the character, and that’s fair. But, and we realize this is the wrong section for it, that also seems like why Hopper could kick it for real this time. Harbour has been pretty open about feeling like the show has been spinning its wheels with Hopper for a while, so with not much left to say, perhaps there’s only one word left: Goodbye.

Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman)

The erstwhile reporter and conspiracy theorist has become a main part of the adult cast, palling around with Joyce and Hopper, particularly during their Russian adventure in Season 4.

Why he’ll probably die: Look, someone has got to die this season, right? Nothing against Murray, but he’s the easiest to kill off in a fun way, thanks to Gelman’s always over-the-top delivery, It could also have an emotional impact – Joyce and Nancy would probably be bummed in particular – and then we could move on without it ripping apart a whole family or serious romantic relationship. This is more about logistics, but Murray’s death could give the final season the gravitas it needs without sacrificing the rest of the episodes (and the finale) to rioting fans.

Why he probably won’t: Like we just said, all apologies to Murray stans, but his death wouldn’t have the intense emotional impact of almost any other one on this list. So would it be necessary?

Will Byers (Noah Schnapp)

There’s an argument to be made that Stranger Things is Will’s story, not Eleven’s. The argument against that theory is Will was mostly off-screen during Season 1. But it looks like the younger Byers son will be front and center in the action this season as the first five minutes flash back to Will’s time in the Upside Down, and we know that Vecna needs Will to finish what he started… whatever that is (hey, maybe it’s just a particularly difficult jigsaw puzzle, who knows).

Why he’ll probably die: If you’re going to wrap up Will’s story, one way of doing that is to kill him off. One could also venture that Will making an active choice to sacrifice himself to save the world from Vecna is the opposite of where we first found him: kidnapped to the Upside Down to serve Vecna’s bidding against his (no pun intended) will. With the rest of the D&D party growing up faster than Will, what with their relationships and all, this could be his final step into becoming an adult… even if it would be his final step, period.

Why he probably won’t: There are so many theories swirling around Will, it’s hard to keep track. One states that he is (somehow) Eleven’s brother; another is that he is the Earthly avatar of Vecna you see wandering around in the trailer. Whatever happens, it’s clear that Will is vitally crucial to the plot of Season 5, and that means there needs to be some sort of closure. Will, maybe more than anyone else, has been put through the wringer over the course of four seasons. Doesn’t he deserve a little happiness at the end, or at least a little kiss from Mike as a treat?

Eleven / Jane Hopper (Millie Bobby Brown)

Whereas there’s an argument to be made that Stranger Things is Will’s story, there’s another, probably better argument to be made that it’s Eleven’s story. Whatever side you fall on, the psychically-powered superhero is in training, Luke Skywalker style, to take Vecna down, and that’s what she’s gonna do by season’s and series’ end.

Why she’ll probably die: To take things a little further, if you go just by the TV show, then this whole thing is her fault. Sure, Henry Creel is a weirdo who liked to fill jars with spiders and loved killing his family, but Eleven is the one who opened the portal to the Upside Down and sent Henry there, which eventually turned him into Vecna. This is all Eleven’s doing, and if she’s going to make things rightside up, she’ll have to give up everything in the process.

Why she probably won’t: To get into big spoilers for The First Shadow, this actually isn’t all Eleven’s fault; it’s the Mind Flayer who corrupted Henry Creel and has been manipulating things since the very beginning. The Upside Down and its infection predates anything that has happened on the show, and if the series works in any of this mythology, it absolves Eleven of a lot of the personal guilt she likely feels about everything. A late-in-the-season revelation could change the course of the plot, allowing her to live out her life happy and free of the torture she’s been through since her birth in Hawkins Lab.

Henry Creel / Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower)

The big bad, Vecna, is coming to destroy not just Hawkins but the entire world. Nancy already had a vision in Season 4 of what his plan is: total invasion of Earth, including monsters we’ve never seen before. Can anyone stop him? Yes, probably.

Why he’ll probably die: He’s the villain; of course he has to die. And he’s caused so much pain and suffering for decades, and killed so many people, that there’s no path of redemption for Vecna. He’s a total psychopath who needs to be stopped at any cost. Is there any way this doesn’t end with Vecna dead?

Why he probably won’t: ...Actually, there sort of is. As we mentioned above, The First Shadow presents Henry as a disturbed child who does just need love, and finds it thanks to his friend Patty Newby, the sister of Bob “The Brain” Newby (Sean Astin). Patty is, as far as we know by the end of The First Shadow, alive and well in Las Vegas, where she went to find her mother. Henry is also sort of befriended, or at least not bullied, by younger versions of Joyce and Hopper, as well as Bob. If you’re wondering why they never mentioned it before (not to get too in the weeds), but as of the end of Season 4, Joyce and Hopper have been in Russia and have no idea the man manipulating things is their old classmate.

So there are a few options for people to reach out to Henry on a human level, to get back to the kid who was infected by the Mind Flayer and further corrupted by Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) at Hawkins Lab. Heck, it’s fair to speculate that Eleven beats Vecna not by obliterating him, but by healing him; after all, time and again the show has doubled down on how love is far, far stronger than hate when it comes to the powers of the Upside Down*. The final episode is titled “The Rightside Up,” so it’s not as wild a theory as you might think.

*The First Shadow explains that all the psychic powers Henry, Eleven, and the rest of the kids exhibit are all from the Upside Down and not naturally occurring, so there’s a lot of mythology to throw in there if they do want to include the play at all.

Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton)

The older Byers brother has been at a loss about what to do with his life over the past few seasons, and found meaning in his relationship with Nancy. With that on the rocks, is Jonathan going to end Season 5 under the dirt?

Why he’ll probably die: In the trailer, there’s a very telling scene we referenced earlier of Nancy sobbing and rubbing blood off her hands. While fans have gone to Steve, we’re going to play a hunch and say Jonathan is going to be the one to die. Rather than Steve proving his love, it’s Jonathan who finally steps up and makes a decision, either to save Nancy or others by making the ultimate sacrifice. Yes, it clears the way for Nancy and Steve to be together in the end, and it’ll wreck them as well as Will and Joyce. But there’s not a lot else to do with the character at this point. If we were betting, we’d put all our chips on Jonathan being the big death of the final season.

Why he probably won’t: Look, this is mostly based on a hunch. But unlike Murray (sorry again, Murray), Jonathan’s death would have real emotional impact, and also align the pieces on the board the way they likely need to be placed before the finale. Even more than Vecna, we’re sure Jonathan isn’t making it to the end of Season 5.

Looking to buy a loved one some Magic: The Gathering for the holidays, or picking some up for yourself over the Black Friday weekend? Then we’ve got deals for you. From Booster Boxes teeming with packs to preconstructed Commander Decks and more, we’ve been hunting for Magic products and have found some great deals.

Even better, the deals are only likely to improve as we enter the ‘real’ Black Friday period in the coming days. So, without further ado, here are our favorite Black Friday deals on Magic: The Gathering.

TCGPlayer’s 10% Cashback Event (Nov 28 - Dec 1)

Looking to buy single cards you need? This might just be the place to do it. TCGPlayer has long been one of our preferred ways to buy cards, and its 10% Cashback Event, which runs from November 28 to December 1, can net you a portion of your purchases back in your pocket.

The best part is that everything is eligible, so you can use it on sealed products, too.

Booster Boxes

Amazon’s discounts on Booster Boxes aren’t filed under its Black Friday deals, but there’s plenty to like about them. For one, Avatar: The Last Airbender, the game’s latest set, has seen its price drop from the ludicrous price of $209 to a more reasonable fee for a box of 30 packs. It’s now $173.98.

Sticking with Universes Beyond, the Marvel Spider-Man box has dropped from the same price down to $144.99, while you can pick up a box of the Final Fantasy set for $164.99.

This year’s Tarkir: Dragonstorm set’s Booster Box is down to $107.94, a third off of its MSRP, and if you don’t mind picking up an older, non-legal set, there’s 12% off the Phyrexia: All Will Be One booster box, now $117.94.

Commander Decks

Commander is Magic’s most popular format, and Wizards of the Coast helps keep it that way with a bunch of preconstructed decks for newer and established players to pick up and start playing with immediately.

Amazon has a ton of savings on them, too, particularly if you’re looking for Universes Beyond options.

Final Fantasy’s Counter Blitz deck (our pick of the bunch) is down to $44.99, as is Scions & Spellcraft. Limit Break, which used to be massively overpriced, is now down to $56.99, while Revival Trance is $38.60 (admittedly, it's usually around that price).

Away from Final Fantasy, Bloomburrow is a great set, and you can snag two of its adorable Commander Decks for under MSRP. Animated Army is 20% off at $37.94, while the Mrs. Bumbleflower-helmed Peace Offering is $38.60.

The Fallout Commander Decks are also great, and the Scrappy Survivors one, starring Dogmeat, Ever Loyal, is down to $49.47.

Not only is the Sultai Arisen Commander Deck down to $44.95, but you can grab a bundle of every Commander Deck from the Tarkir: Dragonstorm set for $149.99. That makes each $30, including Temur Roar and Sultai Arisen, which were both very popular at launch.

If you’re shopping around, be sure to check out our list of the best Magic: The Gathering precon decks you can find right now.

Gift Sets

The Xbox 360 turns 20 years old today, and so what better time to look back at the games that most defined the console. The 360 was not only the most successful machine Microsoft has ever made, but arguably the most beloved too. And for great reason: the second Xbox mixed powerful hardware with innovative, boundary-pushing, and risk-taking software to power a memorable generation that lasted eight years – longer than any other Xbox so far.

I had a front-row seat to the Xbox 360 era from start to finish during my time at Official Xbox Magazine and then IGN, so here are my picks for the top 20 games that defined the Xbox 360.

20. 1 vs. 100

Released: 2009

One of Microsoft’s boldest experiments in the Xbox 360 era was 1 vs. 100, a live game show where most players would be randomly selected to play along in The Crowd, while a lucky 100 would be chosen to be in The Mob and a single person would be chosen as The One.

You had to log on at specific times to play 1 vs. 100; it wasn’t available to you anytime you wanted to fire it up. Microsoft ran it with a live host from a studio in Seattle. But when you joined in for what was literally appointment gaming, you were rewarded with, in some cases, real-life prizes such as Microsoft Points – up to 10,000 for The One if they won, which is the equivalent of $125 – or free Xbox Live Arcade games.

It was a truly unique social gaming experience emblematic of the creative risks and online bets Microsoft was taking and making in the Xbox 360 days, and though I was never selected to be The One, I was in the 100 once and won 80 Microsoft Points (aka $1). I know that might not sound like it was all that worthwhile, but I promise you it was as engaging and memorable as it was short-lived. My proudest Xbox Achievements are having all 12 of the possible 12 from 1 vs. 100, because the game is gone and, sadly, never coming back.

19. Viva Piñata

Released: 2006

Long before Microsoft paid $69 billion for Activision-Blizzard, it shocked the world by purchasing a controlling stake in Nintendo second-party powerhouse Rare in 2002 for $375 million – the equivalent of over $600 million today. Viva Piñata wasn’t the first game the studio made for Microsoft – the fine-but-forgettable Grabbed by the Ghoulies came first in 2003 before Rare dropped two solid launch titles for the Xbox 360 in 2005: Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero. But its first bona fide hit for Xbox was 2006’s Viva Piñata, a life sim in which you grew and maintained your garden full of adorable piñata-fied animals. It spawned a sequel, a Nintendo DS handheld version, and a short-lived animated series. In hindsight, it was ahead of its time; it would seem to have great potential to thrive now in a world where Animal Crossing is a massive hit for Nintendo. But even back in the 360 days, it was Rare’s first defining moment for its new platform.

18. Lost Odyssey

Released: 2007

No Xbox has ever successfully gained a real foothold in the Japanese gaming market, but you can’t say that Microsoft never tried. Arguably the company’s biggest push came in the Xbox 360 era, when one of the biggest overtures made to Japanese audiences by the American behemoth came when it partnered with legendary Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to help fund his new studio, Mistwalker. The two JRPGs Mistwalker created for Microsoft live on in Xbox lore: Blue Dragon, a cartoony adventure with art by another legend, Akira Toriyama, came first, arriving in Japan in 2006 and in the Xbox’s home market in the US in 2007. But it’s the second game – the darker, more serious, Unreal Engine-powered, four-DVD epic called Lost Odyssey, that showed the rest of the industry that the Xbox could go toe-to-toe with Sony and Nintendo in the JRPG department and wasn’t just a Western RPG powerhouse. No one questioned Xbox’s RPG credentials after that.

17. Dead Rising

Released: 2006

By default, every game released for the Xbox 360 during its first few months that wasn’t also available on the original Xbox – and there weren’t nearly as many cross-gen games back then as there are now – was an Xbox 360 exclusive, since the PlayStation 3 didn’t release until late 2006. Among those exclusives was one of the most memorable zombie games of all time.

Capcom’s Dead Rising, which was produced by Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, was something we truly hadn’t seen before: a triple-A game set inside a gigantic mall with literally hundreds of characters on the screen at any given time. And those characters, of course, were zombies. So, so many zombies. (Side note: one of the Xbox 360’s most famous Achievements – remember, the console invented those too – was the Zombie Genocider Achievement that required you to kill the number of zombies equivalent to the population of Willamette: 53,594).

Dead Rising was uniquely told on a timer – you had three in-game days to complete the story and, hopefully, escape the Willamette Mall. This resulted in numerous possible endings and, thus, ample reason to replay the campaign. Just as memorable was that as photojournalist Frank West, you could turn just about anything in the mall into a weapon. But you also earned Prestige Points by taking perfect pictures of the insanity around you – which you’d accumulate to level up and have a better chance of survival.

Dead Rising was not only one of the defining games of Xbox 360’s first year, but it showed us that the “HD Era” was truly capable of giving us gaming experiences that we’d never had before.

16. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

Released: 2005

Xbox Live Arcade – the brilliant indie-turned-small-scale-and-indie game publishing program that offered a curated selection of bite-sized games on a weekly basis (who remembers Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays?) – did as much to define the Xbox 360 as any triple-A game did. The most-downloaded Xbox Live Arcade game ever was Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Bizarre Creations’ unlockable Project Gotham Racing 2 minigame that found a second life as a day-one debut download on the then-brand-new XBLA platform. Geometry Wars’s premise was deceptively simple: survive as long as you can while blasting larger and larger waves of encroaching enemies. For a lot of gamers, when they think of Xbox Live Arcade, the first thing they think of is Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.

15. Ninja Gaiden 2

Released: 2008

PlayStation may have had God of War, but Xbox had Ninja Gaiden. The first in Ryu Hayabusa’s modern revival helped legitimize the Xbox as a viable platform for Japanese-developed games, and the Xbox 360-exclusive sequel upped the ante for the more powerful new console. It brought more weapons, more bosses, and more resolution, now that Ninja Gaiden was in HD (fun fact, though: the first game natively supported widescreen way back in 2005!). Oh, and it also served up a whole heck of a lot more blood thanks to the new dismemberment system.

Ninja Gaiden 2’s action was far more violent thanks to your new ability to slice off the arms, legs, and heads from your foes. It only augmented an absolutely sublime fast-action combat system, even if having all those additional pixels couldn’t quite fix the troublesome camera. Sadly, this would prove to be series mastermind Tomonobu Itagaki’s final contribution to the franchise, but at the time, it asserted the Xbox 360 as the place to go for the best of any genre.

14. Braid

Released: 2008

Odds are, if I say the words “Summer of Arcade,” it brings up positive memories for you. The annual promotion was a genius bit of Microsoft marketing that sought – successfully, I might add – to fill in the quiet summer months that tended to be devoid of major game releases with 4-5 weeks of curated heavy hitters in the indie and bite-sized game space. The very first one took place in 2008, and boy did it ever set the tone! Galaga Legions, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Castle Crashers, and a platformer called Braid from a then-unknown developer named Jonathan Blow. Though smaller in scope than a traditional big-budget game, Braid had every bit the looks and the brains of one thanks to its distinct painterly artstyle and challenging time-manipulation-based puzzles. If everyone wasn’t paying attention to Xbox Live Arcade before Braid, they sure as heck were after.

13. Crackdown

Released: 2007

It is a double-edged sword that the original Crackdown will perhaps forever be thought of first and foremost as The Game That Came With the Halo 3 Beta. But anyone who bought Crackdown just to get a crack at playing Halo 3’s multiplayer for the first time quickly learned that the candy wrapper tasted just as good as the candy bar inside. Crackdown – the brainchild of original Grand Theft Auto creator David Jones – set players loose inside a comic-book-esque world as a would-be superhero with no rigid structure. Instead, you had total freedom to go anywhere and try anything in its Pacific City sandbox. That meant that, yes, you could make a beeline straight for the top kingpin of one of Crackdown’s gangs. You probably wouldn’t be powerful enough to take them down at that point, though – you got literally stronger in Crackdown by defeating enemies and picking up experience orbs of different flavors depending on how you took them down, such as with melee combat, in a vehicle, or with a gun. Eventually, you’d be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, lift cars over your head and throw them, and more. In a time when there weren’t a lot of good sandbox games not named Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown brought something fresh and fun to the table.

12. Forza Motorsport 3

Released: 2009

Why Forza Motorsport 3 rather than Forza Motorsport 2, which was the first entry on the Xbox 360? Easy: because FM3 is where Forza passed Gran Turismo as the best simulation racing series in the world. Visually, the series always set the bar high, and its second lap on the 360 kept the pedal to the metal in that department. And the car list was never in question. But what Forza Motorsport 3 added was the Rewind mechanic that allowed you to press Y to reverse the action a few seconds if you crashed or took a turn too fast. You could turn it off, of course – Forza Motorsport was always nothing if not customizable – but it added a thick layer of accessibility and approachability to what had always been a pretty buttoned-up, serious racing sim. The Rewind feature only added to what I always called the “soul” of Forza – my vague but I think accurate way of describing the joy and spirit that Forza Motorsport always brought to players, whereas Gran Turismo, for all its simulation racing brilliance, always felt more…clinical. Forza Motorsport 3 was Turn 10’s turning point where the studio passed the competition and never looked back.

11. Left 4 Dead

Released: 2008

Valve and partner Turtle Rock Studios (who Valve acquired mid-development) practically started the four-player PvE trend in shooters with Left 4 Dead, a brilliant, sometimes scary, and always replayable co-op shooter that had you proceeding through several five-level-long campaigns, surviving waves of zombie attacks thrown at you by the AI “Director” while you clamored for each map’s limited resources, seeking the shelter of the safe room at the end of each chapter. Its mechanics were simple but fun, and thanks to the Director’s always-changing placement of common and special enemies alike, it never quite played the same way twice. Plus, running an entire campaign only took 60-90 minutes to complete, so you and your friends could jump on Xbox Live, have fun together, and feel like you accomplished something by the time you signed off for the evening. It’s almost quaint to think about now in our current age of long-tail live-service games that try to keep you on a hamster wheel, grinding to the next unlockable or piece of content. But Left 4 Dead both respected your time and made great use of it. Many games have since imitated it, but none have ever topped it.

10. Limbo

Released: 2010

Though Limbo didn’t come along until over halfway through the Xbox 360 generation, it is nevertheless the standard-bearer for what Xbox Live Arcade was capable of. Developer Playdead’s side-scrolling physics-based platformer told the harrowing story of a boy who…well, no one’s quite sure, really – there are many intriguing theories as to what the real story of Limbo is! But what’s not up for debate is that Limbo is about as close to perfect as a video game can get in terms of mechanics, art, animation, audio design, and polish. (Playdead’s next game, 2016’s Inside for Xbox One, would prove to somehow be even better than Limbo, but that’s a story for another day.) It was the perfect rebuttal to film critic Roger Ebert’s assertion from three months before Limbo released that video games weren’t and could never be art. Limbo defined Xbox Live Arcade, cementing Microsoft’s already established small-games platform as one of the very best things about the Xbox 360.

9. Rock Band

Released: 2007

If you were a gamer in the late 2000’s, odds are you were either an active participant in the plastic-instrument rhythm-game craze that Guitar Hero started, or you knew someone who was. Developer Harmonix Music Systems built Guitar Hero but then sold it to Activision. That’s when the developer advanced the exploding genre forward with Rock Band, a four-player co-op game whose multiplayer experience is truly unlike anything else you’ve ever played. A singer, guitarist, bass player, and drummer worked together to hit the right notes as they came down the note highway, truly and emphatically delivering a convincing replica of the feeling real-life musicians have when they play together. Rock Band was truly remarkable, not just for its core gameplay and multiplayer alchemy, but also for its commitment to music. Harmonix added to the game’s music library with new songs via DLC every single week for eight years, eventually adding full albums like Pearl Jam’s Ten, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Rush’s Moving Pictures, Foo Fighters’ The Colour and the Shape, and more. Rock Band may not have been exclusive to the Xbox 360, but it was nevertheless a defining game for the console, standing out amongst the even heavier hitters coming up higher on this list that arrived at the same time.

8. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

Released: 2006

Around 30-60 minutes into the first-person RPG The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, when you first emerged from the dungeon and into the open world for the first time, you spun your character around and your jaw dropped. A truly next-gen, high-definition world was all around you, and in it you could go anywhere and, seemingly, do anything. That Oblivion dropped so soon after the Xbox 360 launched – just four months into the new Xbox’s lifecycle, and while PlayStation gamers were still stuck on the PS2 that wasn’t capable of anything that looked remotely like it – only made Bethesda’s first console-on-day-one role-playing game that much more incredible. While the Xbox 360 had a very good launch lineup, nothing at the time (or really in hindsight) made you have to buy the console immediately. Oblivion changed that. You had to get a 360. You had to see this. And the gameplay lived up to the graphics. Oblivion packed dozens of hours of open-world medieval-fantasy role-playing, spanning many memorable quests and locations. It was a generation-defining moment.

7. BioShock

Released: 2007

Before BioShock, stories were mostly secondary in first-person shooters. Sure, there was Halo, but that was the (wonderful) exception to the rule. BioShock – the brainchild of Ken Levine, creator of the emergent-gameplay classic System Shock 2 – had the depth of a great book, the plot twist of a memorable movie, and the gameplay to match the very best of any action game on the market. It was set in a failed undersea utopia – the city of Rapture – where visionary Andrew Ryan’s dream turned into a nightmare. As players discovered Rapture, they found it overrun with creepy monsters as well as curious Little Sisters and their drill-armed, divesuit-wearing protectors, the Big Daddies. It’s not hyperbole to say that BioShock elevated video game storytelling, and the fact that it was initially released as an Xbox 360 exclusive only helped further define the second Xbox as a must-have entertainment delivery box for your living room.

6. Fable 2

Released: 2008

While it wouldn’t be fair to say that Fable 2 was the Xbox 360’s Zelda, it was a large-scale action-adventure RPG with charm for days and a unique consequence system that would change your character’s physical appearance based on how good – or evil – you chose to be. Fable 2, for the most part, delivered on the remaining promises made by renowned designer Peter Molyneux’s first attempt on the original Xbox. No, you couldn’t plant a seed and watch it grow into a tree, but you could wander the world of Albion with your trusty dog at your side, battling Hobbes, leveling up by actually doing jobs, and building relationships – yes, even romantic ones – with townsfolk. Player choice was at the heart of Fable 2, making it yet another fantastic and unforgettable role-playing game for an Xbox platform that, until the 360 came around (see what I did there?), was known primarily as a first-person shooter box. There had never been and still hasn’t been anything quite like Fable, and the series was at its best with Fable 2, its first Xbox 360 entry.

5. Grand Theft Auto 4

Released: 2008

To say that the buildup to Grand Theft Auto 4’s release was a big f’n deal would be a colossal understatement. The biggest franchise on Earth was going next-gen, with a brand-new game engine and the power of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to allow for more open-world possibilities than ever before. And while the previous 3D games had all debuted as PlayStation exclusives, GTA 4 would ship day-and-date on Xbox 360. But Microsoft wanted more than that. So they paid through the nose for timed exclusivity on both of GTA 4’s brilliant expansion packs: The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. Then-Xbox boss Peter Moore even announced this monumental get by repeating his Halo 2 release date trick, rolling up his sleeve to reveal a “tattoo” of the Grand Theft Auto 4 logo. Suddenly, the Xbox 360 was the best place to play the first next-gen GTA game, and both expansions were so good that I can’t imagine anyone – be it Microsoft writing the check or players picking up the 360 version of the game – regretted their choice.

4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Released: 2007

Shout-out to Call of Duty 2, which was a day-one launch title for the Xbox 360 and truly started Call of Duty’s ascent to becoming the biggest non-Grand Theft Auto video game franchise in the world, but Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the one that really sent the series into the stratosphere. It almost seems silly to say now, but before Modern Warfare, Call of Duty had only ever been a first-person shooter set in World War II. Infinity Ward not only jumped the timeline forward, but everything else, too. The stellar single-player campaign was full of shocking moments, while the multiplayer built on top of the fast time-to-kill the franchise was already known for and paired with some truly memorable maps to make it a must-play. That this hit just after the juggernaut known as Halo 3 – combined with the effortlessness of connecting with your friends on Xbox Live – cemented the Xbox 360 as the place to play multiplayer shooters.

3. Mass Effect

Released: 2007

Mass Effect promised players a true space opera – a trilogy of games where your choices would affect your relationships with other characters and lead to your own unique outcomes and endings. Your character would import into the subsequent games in the promised trilogy, and in the end it would be unlike any role-playing game you’d ever laid your hands on. And the first Mass Effect – an absolutely visually stunning Unreal Engine-powered epic from the RPG kings at BioWare – delivered on its end of the bargain. The Mass Effect universe felt lived-in, with myriad alien species all interacting with each other at the Citadel, a galactic hub at the virtual center of the universe. You played as a male or female Commander Shepard, a human who becomes the first of their species to be welcomed into the ranks of the Spectres, a group of space sheriffs given incredible power and leeway to protect the galaxy. No one had ever seen anything like Mass Effect before, and the fact that it came from the same development team that gave us the original-Xbox-exclusive Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, meant that Xbox truly had some of the world’s most talented RPG developers on its side.

2. Gears of War

Released: 2006

You know a game is a big deal when its developers can ask Microsoft to double the amount of RAM in the Xbox 360 before the console makes it to market – and Microsoft says yes. Gears of War was perhaps the best-looking action game anyone had ever seen when it was released just 11 months into the Xbox 360’s lifespan, but it had incredibly weighty third-person cover-based gameplay to match its stunning looks. Gears of War dropped us onto the planet Sera, into the middle of a war between humans and the Locust, an underground-dwelling alien race hellbent on obliterating humanity. Gears of War is a war story, and while its Active Reload system, delightfully vicious chainsaw finishing moves with the Lancer rifle, and engrossing team-based multiplayer were all top-shelf, it’s arguably its empathetic characters that secured its place in gamers’ hearts. Marcus, Dom, Baird, and Cole – Delta Squad – really felt like brothers, and we became emotionally invested in their wartime journey. It’s no wonder Microsoft later bought the franchise for $2 billion.

1. Halo 3

Released: 2007

The Xbox 360 may not have had a new Halo game on day one, but as the rest of this list has shown, it didn’t need it. Still, when the day finally came in September of 2007 for the hugely anticipated Halo 3 to drop – nearly two years into the new Xbox’s life – it couldn’t have been a bigger deal. The original Xbox’s Halo 2 had infamously ended on a cliffhanger, and Halo 3 was built to resolve it – throwing plenty more hardware horsepower at Master Chief in the process. Story-wise it stuck the landing this time, giving players a satisfying conclusion that closed the book on Bungie’s trilogy, but not before Chief told us, “Wake me, when you need me.”

Meanwhile, multiplayer picked up where Halo 2 left off, augmenting the best online multiplayer infrastructure with Forge, a new level-editing tool that let players build their own maps. In hindsight, this is where Halo peaked in terms of success, popularity, cultural relevance and impact, as Call of Duty took its place at the top of the first-person shooter ladder after the release of the aforementioned Call of Duty 4. But we finished the fight, and the Xbox 360 eliminated any remaining doubt as to its dominance in the games industry.

Those are our picks for the 20 games that defined the Xbox 360. Are there any you’d like to add? Leave them in the comments below, and to the greatest Xbox console of them all, let me say, happy 20th anniversary and thank you for the countless amazing memories.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Best Buy is offering a great deal on a powerful gaming laptop ahead of Black Friday. For this week only, you can pick up the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16s GeForce RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop for just $1,499.99 with free delivery after a $400 instant discount. This is a well-equipped laptop, boasting a gorgeous 16" 240Hz OLED display and a high-end Intel Core Ultra 9 HX series processor. The RTX 5070 Ti is a powerful mobile GPU that can run any game you throw at it.

Acer Predator Helios Neo RTX 5070 Ti Laptop for $1,499.99

If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further. Just for Black Friday, Dell has kicked off the best deal I've seen on a top-shelf Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 equipped gaming PC. Right now you can get a very well-equipped configuration for $4,299.99 after a massive $1,200 off instant discount. Complementing the uber powerful RTX 5090 GPU is a liquid cooled Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and a generous amount of RAM and SSD storage.

Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Gaming PC From $4,299.99

This system is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor with upgraded 360mm liquid cooling, 32GB of DDR5-6400MHz RAM, and a 2TB SSD. The 1,500W 80Plus Platinum power supply is generously rated to take on even the most power hungry of gaming PCs, and that's important in this case because a GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card has a minimum recommended rating of 1,000W. A 1,500W power supply will leave you plenty of room for upgrades down the road.

New for 2025: The Alienware Area-51 Chassis

Dell unveiled the new Alienware Area-51 gaming PC at CES 2025. The chassis is a super-sized upgrade to the 2024 R16 system with aesthetic and cooling redesigns and updated components. The I/O panel is positioned at the top of the case instead of the front, and the tempered glass window now spans the entire side panel instead of just a smaller cutout. As a result, the side panel vents are gone, and instead air intakes are located at the bottom as well as the front of the case. Alienware is now pushing a positive airflow design (more intake than exhaust airflow), which means a less dusty interior. The internal components have been refreshed with a new motherboard, faster RAM, and bigger power supply to accommodate the new generation of CPUs and GPUs.

The RTX 5090 Is the Most Powerful Graphics Card Ever

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 has emerged as the most powerful consumer GPU on the market. Although with this generation Nvidia has prioritized software updates, AI features, and DLSS 4 technology to improve gameplay performance, the 5090 still boasts an impressive 25%-30% uplift over the RTX 4090 in hardware-based raster performance. If you want the absolute best performance for your gaming PC, there is literally no other option from any other brand.

Check out more of the best Alienware Black Friday deals.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Apple products are always some of the most sought after items every Black Friday. Pretty much every major retailer tries to jump in on the Apple train and compete to offer the best possible deal. With both the Amazon Black Friday sale and Best Buy Black Friday sale already live for 2025, the race for who has the best discounts has officially begun. There are plenty of price drops on AirPods, MacBooks, and iPads readily available pretty much everywhere now—except for the Apple Store.

Apple did announce its Black Friday plans alongside all of the new sales this week, but they were exactly what you'd expect from Apple. Starting on November 28, you'll be able to earn different quantities of Apple gift cards when you purchase select products directly from the Apple Store. As exciting as that promotion sounds, you can find better Apple deals at Amazon much earlier than that. Right now in fact.

Apple Black Friday Deals at Amazon Today

The most notable Apple deal we've seen so far at Amazon is the latest Apple AirPods Pro 3 dropping a new low price. These new earbuds were announced back in September during Apple's iPhone 17 event, so its pretty surprising to see them already getting such a substantial discount. The older AirPods 4 are also getting a pretty substantial price cut down to just $79.99, which is also the lowest we've seen them go since they first came out.

Outside of the AirPods deals, there's also a pretty good deal available on the 2025 MacBook Air with the M4 chip included. We reviewed the latest MacBook Air refresh back in the spring when it first came out and called it "a gorgeous laptop that’ll get you through all of your daily tasks without breaking a sweat or even needing to be plugged in for long periods of time." This Black Friday discount drops $250 off its usual, which matches the lowest price we've ever seen on it.

As for tablet deals, the 2025 11-inch Apple iPad has dropped back down to its lowest price of the year. This is a discount that has been available off and on pretty much sense they came out back in March, so it's not as exciting as some of the other deals here. Still, if you're in the market for a new iPad during Black Friday this year, this deal is still worth considering.

Should you wait for better Black Friday deals?

Although both Amazon and Best Buy have already launched their official Black Friday sales, it's still pretty early. Both Target and Walmart Black Friday sales are set to kick off early next week and will potentially feature Apple discounts that we haven't seen yet. It's also possible that Amazon could potentially drop prices even further on actual Black Friday, which is something we've seen the retailer do in the past. So if you want the best possible prices, you may want to wait until next week before you buy.

If you've been waiting for the right time to bulk up your gaming library, now's your chance. While we're still waiting on Nintendo's deals, Xbox and Amazon launched Black Friday sales earlier this week. Now PlayStation has entered the fray with a spread of discounts on games, accessories, and even PS5 consoles.

While it's worth checking your wishlist and doing some scrolling, as a starting point, we're seeing great discounts for anyone looking to start or fill in the gaps on a Final Fantasy collection.

Final Fantasy Games on Sale for Black Friday

Overall, you’ve got options. The PlayStation Store offers the best discounts on the FF7 Remakes, but Amazon is actually offering physical copies. It really comes down to how much you care about having those games lined up on your shelf vs. sitting in your digital library. If you’re on the PC side, Steam is also running a PlayStation publisher sale that includes roughly the same discounts.

The Final Fantasy Pixel Collection is pretty unreal bang for your buck. It includes the pixel remasters of the first six Final Fantasy games for just $30 total with the current price drop, making it a great choice for something you can really dig into over the holidays. The discount also applies to the Nintendo Switch version.

While we wait for news on the third and final part of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy, you can pick up the first two games at a discount. Remake Intergrade (Intergrade just meaning the PS5 version) has dropped to $19.99 for physical and $14.99 for digital.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, released just last year, has dropped to $39.99 for the physical copy on Amazon and $34.99 through PlayStation. Michael Higham's 9/10 review of Rebirth for IGN describes how it "impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion as both a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenge and depth, and as an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long."

The most recent mainline release, Final Fantasy XVI, has dropped to its lowest ever price on Amazon, which happens to be $5 cheaper than you can find it on the PlayStation Store. While outside of Black Friday deals themselves, Amazon does have a teensy tiny 5% discount on the most recent spin-off release, Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles.

More PlayStation Black Friday Deals

PlayStation has knocked $100 off both its PS5 and PS5 Pro consoles, the only real console deals we’ve so far this Black Friday. There’s also PlayStation Plus discounts and a spread of DualSense controllers on sale, including my personal favorite, the limited edition Ghost of Yotei version.

Blythe (she/her) is an SEO Coordinator at IGN who spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.

I've had a Kindle Unlimited subscription for a couple of years now and can honestly say it's worth every penny. As someone who reads a lot of books on my Kindle Paperwhite, I realized I was spending way too much on Kindle ebooks. Sure, there are plenty of ways to read free books online, but the convenience of being able to just tap a button and start reading was too much for me to pass up. This especially became a problem when I started getting really into a series and each new book was $4.99 or more.

I decided to try out Kindle Unlimited when Amazon offered this same 3 months for $0.99 deal two years ago and it's been awesome. The full-price subscription is $11.99 per month, so if you're someone who is reading three or more books a month it pretty much pays for itself. And if you just want to test it out and see what books are available, you only need to spend $1 to get three months of access.

Black Friday Kindle Unlimited Deal

Note: This review specifically covers the Multiplayer modes in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. For our thoughts on the other modes, see our Zombies review or our campaign review.

It's autumn, 2025, and I have played enough of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 multiplayer to settle into my annual camo grind. I have prestiged, both in character level and my assault rifle, and after about 20 hours I feel confident declaring that the multiplayer portion of Black Ops 7 is great. I've had an absolute blast thanks to solid maps, the awesome updated omnimove system, and the choice to play either skill-based or traditional matches. It’s not without flaws: mid-match leavers have been a real problem in the default matchmaking, and while all the guns feel really good, none of them are standout stars – but the things I like, and some parts I downright love, far outweigh the things I don't this year.

Since skill-based matchmaking is the most contentious subject around this year's Call of Duty, I'm going to address it right here at the start. I believe swapping out SBMM as the default setting is great… and also it sucks. It's a real Schroedinger's CoD situation here. The biggest win for everyone, however, is the fact that you have a choice. Treyarch could have only done it one way or the other, but it gave us both, and the freedom to switch between these modes whenever you want is fantastic – especially because I often found traditional, non-SBMM to be a very humbling, and sometimes even frustrating, experience as a CoD player of medium skill.

First, a little background for those unaware: SBMM has been the default matchmaking mode for a while now, and very vocal portion of the CoD faithful hate it. When you'd queue up in a lobby for a multiplayer match, some Activision supercomputer somewhere would run the numbers and match you up with people of roughly the same level of skill. The criticism of this system is that you don’t really know whether or not you are good or bad, because SBMM made it so players never had to face too great a challenge. If you dominated for a few matches, you just got moved up to another lobby to match your skill, and lobbies weren't persistent. Same thing if you stunk up the joint, you'd drop down, but there was no real way to tell where in the power ladder you were at any given time.

So, this year, Treyarch made lobbies where "skill is minimally considered" be the default, but kept the option open to still play SBMM in the matchmaking menu (though it's not really apparent unless you know what to look for). Again, I really like that they give you the option for either, but I do wish the distinction was made a little more obvious, because the difference in terms of play experience is substantial. My gut tells me the vast majority of CoD players don't even know about this change, and there are surely a lot of non-competitive people wondering why in the hell they suck all of a sudden this year.

I've been playing both modes but using the default non-SBMM lobbies the majority of the time, and let me tell you: you don't know what the hell you're in for when you first enter a new match. You might find yourself in a lobby of complete boneheads who you can easily dominate for the win. I found this situation to be a frequent enough occurrence to be noticeable, but not a majority one. No, most of the time, I'd seem to load into a lobby with the god-tier Call of Duty players who this matchmaking change had in mind. And when that happens, it tends to not be very fun.

There is something to be said about playing against people above your skill level if you want to get better. Michael Jordan didn't get so good at basketball by only practicing against a high school team. But on the flipside, I am the high school basketball player, and now I'm loading into a lobby with the 1996 Chicago Bulls.

It's quite hard to learn what you’re doing wrong when you're facing people with skill levels that completely dwarf your own. By the time my reflexes register an opponent, I'm already dead. Don't get me wrong: I love being able to witness this level of play. It's super human. Sometimes I'll watch a replay of my own defeat just to be amazed by how good the other player is. In some instances, getting completely smoked has opened my eyes to what's possible and given me something to aspire to. But all that promise of self-improvement is short lived, because after a match or two of coming in dead last, I'm ready to find a new lobby.

And I know I'm not the only one – I at least finish matches like that, but others aren’t usually so courteous. In one extreme case, my team had multiple players of exceptional skill, one of whom had the Nuke calling card. You can't get that calling card without scoring 30 uninterrupted kills in a single match. You gotta be real good, and this person was truly incredible. So, rather than get shot down over and over again, the other team just quit. By the end of the match, it was six versus one, which turned an exciting win into a huge letdown, with the latter half of the match spent running around the map trying to find the one brave hanger-on.

Even when the imbalance isn’t quite that drastic, I see at least one or two people drop out frequently in the default lobbies. Some of those are going to be people who went AFK or lost their connection, sure. Maybe that's the case more often than I am assuming, but it sure does feel like other players are getting frustrated faster and more consistently than when SBMM was the norm, especially when it happens to five out of the six members of the opposing team – something I’ve never seen occur in a CoD before this one.

Does this mean I think including non-SBMM is a mistake? No, but only because you can still go back to the old style. The best part of the change is we can finally see what it’s like after years of debate, but better still, there's a choice between the two systems. I don't think having non-SBMM as the default has proven to be the right move, and I hope Treyarch decides to flip it back at some point in a post-launch patch. But at least the option means everyone can be happy. (Just kidding! This is Call of Duty, there's going to be unhappy people no matter what.)

One of the side benefits to this new system is that once you get your ass kicked a few dozen times and go back to the SBMM lobbies, you will feel like a god for the first few matches. The persistent lobbies carry through on both modes, so you can stick with the same group or back out to find a new lobby. It's actually super easy to swap around, which is a real time saver if you're burning a 2XP token.

Weapons and Loadouts

Black Ops 7 is the first CoD I can think of where I haven't gravitated toward a single dominant weapon for my playstyle. Last year it was the XM4 assault rifle. It just felt good from level one on up, and by the time I had all the attachments, it cemented itself as my go-to option. In the years before that, I gravitated towards SMG and even marksman rifles (I'm weird but I love the Kar98 in Modern Warfare). This year, none of the guns are really jumping out at me, nor giving me that past feeling of "oh yeah, this is the one I'm going to grind first." But that’s more a testament to how they generally feel really good across the board more than anything else..

One surprise for me, though, is the MK.78 LMG. I've always enjoyed the LMGs, but this one is ridiculous. I can score kills from halfway across a map like Retrieval with ease. The only real weakness is in those tight interior sections of a map, which is to be expected given its slow aim-down-sight speed, but even then I find myself getting the jump on people more often than not. It isn't until they're almost in melee range that it fails me. It's my favorite gun at the moment, and I expect some manner of nerf in the future honestly, as it feels a little too easy to use right now.

I feel the same way about the M8A1 marksman rifle, a burst-fire gun that I also really like and sometimes seems a little too accurate. A well-aimed three-round burst can usually dispatch an opponent with ease no matter where you are on a map. The same holds true for the Shadow SK sniper rifle. If you've read any of my past reviews, you know I hate sniper rifles and the people who use them – but, for whatever reason, I'm actually pretty capable with the Shadow SK. Sniper is a class of weapon I've historically only really played to satisfy some daily challenge or on the camo grind, but this year I find it to be well within my capabilities as a CoD player. I dropped on iron sights as an attachment and ended up getting Play of the Game at one point. It's fun and I'm good at it, which makes me naturally assume there's something wrong with it.

While even the best weapons don't really stand out to me like in years past, the notable exception are the SMGs, but they stand out because they feel bad. It's usually one of my favorite weapon classes, but this time none of them have felt like anything I want to use long-term. Traditionally they've always excelled at close-to-medium range, but this year's don't seem to work at anything but super-close range. I'm going to have to revisit them, but of all the unlockable SMGs, I didn't find a single one I’d consider for a daily driver. I'm hoping when I get deep into my camo grinds I'll find some combination that feels right, but for now, they're very uninspired.

Here's the thing about Call of Duty: the guns are always good. They figured this formula out a long time ago, which makes it hard to significantly improve on them. This year is no exception. With the exception of the SMGs, this relative equality of quality across the board is one of the more impressive parts of this series, even if it means there are no true stars this year. It's a ultimately good problem to have. "Oh no, I like almost all of these guns, boo hoo to me, they're nearly all fun and good."

Omnimovement Rules

Omnimovement is a relatively new addition to CoD, one that I liked last year but found generally favored controller players. The best thing about the addition of omnimovement, however, was the ability to functionally move and aim while prone. It's a very legit strategy in multiplayer to fling yourself backwards into a corner and reduce your target footprint while maintaining full aim. Before omnimovement, you'd lay prone and were extremely limited in how and where you could aim. All the cool stuff from Black Ops 6 is still here, and I do think for the most part it helps controller players more than mouse and keyboard nerds like myself, but that doesn’t mean I’d trade it away.

What's new for Black Ops 7 is the ability to wall run and wall jump, and that changes everything in the best possible way. When you come around a corner, you best be keeping an eye on the sky, because the move now is for people to try and get the jump on one another, literally. It's a whole new axis you need to be aware of, and it seems like it should be overwhelming to try and keep track of, but it's not. It's actually awesome, especially when the situation is flipped and you fly out from behind a wall and dispatch an opponent before you even hit the ground.

You can bounce up to three times, and there are precious few places where this can be consistently maxed out, but in Cortex I got smoked by someone who made full use of that to bounce back and forth between the giant sci-fi holding tanks. I even watched him do it in awe, something that no doubt cost me the L – but hey man, respect where respect is due.

The maps are purposefully designed with this new system in mind, and Blackheart and Imprint in particular have spots where CoD is practically begging you to wall run and jump. It doesn't feel tacked on or unnecessary, either. It feels as natural as any other movement on any other map in any other CoD. It's just done so well, and in some ways legitimizes traditional bunny-hopping. Now, instead of spamming jump like an idiot, you can parkour off the walls to both avoid getting hit and nail that perfect trick shot of your own.

What I find technically impressive is I've yet to encounter any glitches or exploits to the improved omnimovement system. It seems like letting players bounce 30 feet in the air would expose some cracks in the geometry, but so far, so good. It does feel a little weird when you jump higher than the top of a structure but an invisible wall keeps you from landing on it. I would like it if there were more areas only accessible with smartly timed jumps. Right now, there's a floating shipping container in Exposure that requires good timing to reach, but that's about the only one that springs to mind. And getting to it is so fun: timing your jumps with the sway of the container. Give us more hard-to-reach places, please!

More Multiplayer Modes

Skirmish, the 20v20 mode, is new this year – but outside of the purposes of this review, I don't think I'll play it again. It's just not fun. The maps are too small for Warzone-type play, but too big for the normal objective-based play. It's pure chaos, but not in a way I enjoy.

Since you respawn from the air in a wingsuit, you're a prime target to get shot out of the sky and go right back into a 10-second cooldown to spawn again. On the flip side, if a sniper has you pinned down, you can just respawn and fly toward wherever they are sitting to take them out. Either way, I can't figure out a strategic approach to Skirmish that’s any fun, which is something I value greatly in my multiplayer modes. The quick turnover rate means you don't get the opportunity to flank an entrenched player or team, or really make any strategic moves at all other than land, shoot, die, repeat.

Gunfight returns this year and it's another mode I don't really care for. They're 2v2 matches where you get random guns at the start of each round, taking place on small maps, and it's not for me. Playing with a random person isn't very fun, unless you end up with someone REALLY good. It just doesn't jibe with the way I want to play Call of Duty and, in my experience, whichever team gets the first win is going to be the one that wins the whole match more often than not. But I'll never advocate for fewer modes, and I know some people really enjoy Gunfight, so I’m at least glad it’s available.

Most of the more traditional multiplayer modes from last year are back as well, including Kill Confirmed, Domination, Hardpoint, Control, and Team Deathmatch, and I don’t really dislike any of them. Search & Destroy is also back, but I have not once been dropped into a map for it in regular matchmaking. In fact, I found myself dropped into Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed, and Overload way more than any of the other modes, and I’m not totally sure why that is.

Overload is new this year, and it's basically capture the flag. There's an EMP device that spawns on the map, and the goal is to pick it up and run it into the opposing team's zone to get the win. I actually really like this mode, especially on maps like Flagship. Unlike Skirmish, the chaos is fun, and doing a diving leap into the enemy team's zone when you have the EMP is an excellent feeling.

Overload is definitely my favorite objective-based mode, while Team Deathmatch and Free-for-All remain my favorite modes of all. When I'm on the grind, I'll uncheck all modes except those two, and only select them all again when I'm teaming up with friends for some generalized multiplayer chaos. Both of these modes have always been my favorites because the objective is simple: get as many kills as possible during a match to win. I'm a simple man of simple tastes. When there's only one thing to do, there's less chance your team will screw it up – especially since my occasional frustration with objective-based modes in CoD arises when people treat them like Deathmatch anyway. For example, you might have a team in Hardpoint that completely dominates the field, scoring kill after kill, but also ignores holding the Hardpoint, and you end up with a sour-tasting loss.

That's not the case in Team Deathmatch or Free-for-All. You just run around shooting people until the match is over. No pick-ups like Kill Confirmed, no holding an area like Hardpoint, no rushing the EMP device to the enemy's base like in Overload. They're my favorite modes because I can shut off my brain and focus on getting better with my weapons. And, best of all, any skill improvements made during Team Deathmatch and Free-for-All carry over to the objective-based modes.

Mapping it Out

Black Ops 7's first batch of multiplayer maps are really good. They all do an excellent job showing off the new wall run and wall jump mechanics, with some areas on the maps specifically designed to let you run and jump over pits or around corners. I don't think there's a dud in the bunch. Even the ones I didn't really care much for at first, like Scar or Homestead, I warmed up to quite a bit after a few matches.

I think my favorite maps are Retrieval and Hijacked. Retrieval is a medium-sized map with a melting glacier on one end, a frozen river on the other, and plenty of structures and different levels in between. It's where I was able to get my first "moonshot," an 86m shot with the MK.78 LMG. Apart from being a really fun map, it's also visually one of my favorites. I love the winding tunnels of sparkling ice inside the base of the glacier.

Hijacked takes place on a yacht with two lanes down either side, a middle area where they all meet, and different levels of the boat both above and below deck. It's a great map to rack up multikills, especially if you're playing against a team of less experienced players. You can post up on one of those lanes and wait for people to come around the corner in a group and just go crazy. At the same time, it's a snap to flank those positions, so you can't stay for too long unless you want to get smoked.

All of the maps are built expertly. There's no annoying sniper nest or hidey-holes in them, which means campers have a really hard time spending half the match in one little area. If you stop moving, someone's going to get you, because there's nowhere to hide that doesn't have some angle of attack. You might find a place to back into a corner, sure, but we all know to check the corners in Call of Duty. It boggles my mind to think about the know-how involved in designing maps like the ones here, with a level of expertise that brings the quality of all the maps to a consistently high standard. None of them rise too high above the pack but, just like with the guns, that’s not a terrible problem to have when I’m having such a good time with all of them.

Black Friday is theoretically one of the best times to buy just about anything, but with ongoing price hikes, I’ll be the first to admit it’s getting harder to figure out what’s an actual deal. Rest assured, there is one certainty: Black Friday is always when you’ll find the lowest prices on streaming subscriptions.

While I expect plenty more streaming deals to go live closer to Black Friday, Apple TV has joined Crunchyroll in announcing a discount sooner rather than later. From now until December 1, you can grab six months of Apple TV for $5.99/month.

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