For the Animal Crossing fans looking for new dialogue or major overhauls to what exists in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you may not want to hold your breath for the 3.0 Update or the Nintendo Switch 2 version. The announcement for anything new for the five-year-old game was already a delightful surprise (especially after Nintendo previously said they were done with major updates years ago), but there don't seem to be many secrets or surprises beyond what was shown in the reveal trailer. IGN was invited by Nintendo to get a hands-off look at what's coming to ACNH on January 15, 2026, and the roughly 25-minute demo confirmed certain ACNH fan factions' excitement and disappointment: namely, this one is for the decorators. That being said, as someone who does love decorating in Animal Crossing, this update is an exciting reason for me to play more regularly again.

The Switch 2 version's three main features aren't all that interesting, though the speed and graphical updates are pleasing. In the demo, I saw and had it confirmed that the Switch 2 exclusive Megaphone tool is limited to calling residents who can actually hear. So, it won't impact anyone inside a building, which makes it less useful for tracking down a particular character. Then, the final major benefit to playing on Switch 2 is being able to play with up to 12 people total in multiplayer, though that hinges on everyone in the session playing on a Switch 2. I feel lucky I know even three people still playing, leaving this update as the least impactful.

The hotel is by far the biggest change out of everything. It was explained that, like other facilities in ACNH, the hotel is something you'll unlock. Since it's tied to the pier, it cannot be moved and getting it is not optional. I didn't see what's involved in building the hotel, but once it's there, it'll receive season-appropriate decor like other facilities. Inside is the welcoming site of Kapp'n's family. The main activity you'll do in the hotel is decorating rooms similar to the Happy Home Paradise DLC, with the key difference being that you have a list of room themes to choose from (such as Ranch Room, Skyscraper Room, and plenty more) and are free to do what you will with it… or skip using a theme entirely and freestyle the design.

If you use a theme, you're provided a selection of items that match. Though unlike HHP, you're not required to use any specific items even if you do opt to use a theme. Then, when you're done, you'll receive a reward of the new hotel currency, tickets, once per day. You can keep decorating the eight guest rooms, but you won't receive any extra currency. Tickets can then be spent at the hotel gift shop that has hotel-related items along with new furniture, most of which I did not get to see. The other way to earn tickets is by crafting requested items for Kapp'n. The new bulk crafting feature wasn't shown in my demo either.

Tourists who stay in the hotel can roam your island in the customizable outfits displayed in the hotel, which helps to clearly identify them. Unfortunately, there wasn't much interaction with tourists in my demo. The one conversation with a tourist didn't make it clear whether or not they can be invited to stay on the island, though it was mentioned in the demo that if the visitor is convinced, they could potentially become a resident.

The four new characters coming to ACNH with 3.0 (two from Splatoon, two from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) weren't present in the demo, though the items that get added to ACNH after scanning one of their respective series amiibo were. It was clarified that to get one of the new Splatoon or Legends of Zelda characters and the associated special items, all you need to do is scan any one amiibo from their respective franchise, rather than any specific amiibo. The items looked great peppered around the item, and it seems most of the items are interactive.

For those looking for even more decorating, Slumber Islands await. We unfortunately again didn't see much of the special Slumber Island space beyond what was shown in the reveal trailer. This feature requires a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. With that, you'll get access to three island save spots and can create a small, medium, or large island, with the large size being close to being the size of the normal island. The Animal Crossing community has come up with some amazing island designs over the years, and the Slumber Islands feature is primed to encourage even more of that. Whatever you've collected will be available on the Slumber Islands, and anything you do or use in the dreams won't impact your main island. It was confirmed during the demo that there won't be any new additional custom design save slots, though, so players will need to get creative with what's already available if custom designs are a key part of their island design process.

Our demo didn't show Resetti's new suite of cleanup services, all the new items coming with the hotel, or how much it costs to upgrade storage. There wasn't a chance to ask the developers questions either, so it's still unclear whether we should expect any other ACNH updates beyond this. I'm eager to see the patch notes whenever Nintendo releases them to see if there are any secret small quality of life updates or item updates for holidays (will we get a 2026 balloon arch for the New Year's event?), but, as I mentioned earlier, I'm skeptical we'll see any major changes other than what's been announced. Even still, I'm enjoying having a reason to return to my island and get it cleaned up for future tourists.

Miranda Sanchez is the executive editor of guides at IGN and a member of Unlocked. She's a big fan of stationery, reading, and bouncing between forever games. You can sometimes find her on Bluesky.

Three years ago, I sat down to watch Avatar: The Way of Water with one big question on my mind: Could James Cameron deliver a sequel to his 2009 blockbuster that’s worth a thirteen-year wait? Three hours and twelve minutes later, it was abundantly clear that yup, dude’s still got it.

Earlier this month, when I sat down to watch Avatar: Fire and Ash, I had a lot more questions. A couple were about loose ends from the previous film, but my more pressing queries were about the film itself. Would a new Avatar film after just three years pack as much of a punch as one that benefited from a middle schooler’s lifetime of anticipation? Also, Cameron’s made some of the best sequels of all time, but what does a James Cameron threequel look like? Well, three hours and seventeen minutes later, I didn’t have quite as definitive an answer to either of those questions… but I did have one huge smile on my face.

Avatar: Fire and Ash picks up immediately after the events of The Way of Water. Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and the rest of the Sully family are mourning the loss of their eldest son, Neteyam (played by Jamie Flatters in The Way of Water). They’ve finally been accepted into the Metkayina clan, but aside from the looming threat of retaliation from the RDA, there are a couple factors preventing them from properly settling down. For one, Jake’s favorite form of grieving involves preparing for war with the humans, an interest the Metkayina clan doesn’t share. Two, they have a kid who can’t breathe. Their adopted son, Spider (Jack Champion), still needs a rebreather to survive in Pandora’s atmosphere, and they only have one backup battery – which, to put it lightly, is stupidly risky. So, Jake makes the unpopular call that Spider should go live with other humans, and to soften the blow, proposes that they make a family vacation out of it by hitching a ride with the nomadic airborne Tlalim clan, aka the Wind Traders.

Aside from all the grieving, Fire and Ash looks and feels very similar to The Way of Water in the early part of the film. While that’s by no means a bad thing, it’s initially lacking in the spectacle, novelty, or for lack of a better word, “newness” I was hoping for from another Avatar. However, that quickly changes with the arrival of the Wind Traders. The Avatar movies have always been a visual feast, but an armada of vessels suspended from enormous flying jellyfish-like Medusoids pulled by cephalopodian Windrays literally and figuratively blows the more familiar imagery out of the water, especially in 3D on a huge screen.

Cameron has always had a flair for large-scale spectacle, but I was equally impressed with the shots of the Wind Traders hocking their wares. In terms of narrative or action, nothing particularly exciting takes place in these shots, but they’re so densely packed with detail, activity, and stuff that I sat forward in my seat. If you’re not as impressed by baskets and gourds at a Na’vi swap meet as I am, don’t worry, the Fire Nation shows up soon enough.

They are the Mangkwan clan – a ruthless and quite literally godless group of Na’vi led by Varang (Oona Chaplin), who is one of the highlights of the film. Chaplin’s performance is properly terrifying, and her whole crew looks and acts more like denizens of Mordor than Pandora. Varang has no qualms about breaking Eywa’s laws, and is extremely eager to get her hands on human weapons. And you know who has access to a lot of those, and a similar penchant for torching Na’vi villages? Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Naturally, they hit it off like gasoline and an open flame.

When Quaritch showed up in the first film, I didn’t think he was anything to write home about. Lang gave a decent enough performance as an extremely hateable badass, but when it was announced that he was attached for all four sequels, it didn’t move the needle for me. His performance in Fire and Ash, however, has elevated him to one of my favorite villains in recent memory, especially in his scenes with Chaplin. The two of them don’t chew scenery – they devour it like a five-course meal.

Another character who unexpectedly grew on me was Spider, which is good, because he’s basically the linchpin of the whole film. In The Way of Water, he’s introduced as the annoying neighborhood kid who’s always hanging around, somewhere between The Simpsons’ Milhouse Van Houten and Eli Cash in The Royal Tenenbaums. In Fire and Ash, Spider is part of the family, and I found Champion’s performance to be fully endearing, resembling the combination of earnestness and obnoxiousness that Cameron brought out of Edward Furlong’s John Conner in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Speaking of which, Cameron has given us some of the most badass moms in movie history. Neytiri definitely kicks some ass in The Way of Water, but it pales in comparison to one particularly explosive sequence that puts her right up there with Ellen Ripley in a Power Loader or Sarah Connor racking a shotgun one-handed. Zoe Saldaña has always been a highlight of these films, but she’s in top form here.

My one hangup about Fire and Ash, if you can even call it that, is that it gave me a sense of déjà vu. Some of the visuals and story beats tread very close to those in the previous films, to the point that it almost felt like deleted scenes or alternate takes intercut with new material. But, looking at Cameron’s past work, it’s safe to assume this is a feature and not a bug. George Lucas once described the Star Wars prequel trilogy’s relationship to the original by saying, “it’s like poetry, they rhyme.” I would argue that Cameron’s sequels have a tendency to amplify and echo; rather than taking a familiar concept, theme, or visual and presenting it as a flipped mirror image, his sequels take something we know and present a grander, more operatic version. “Once more, with feeling,” as the saying goes. Fire and Ash is the first “Part 3” he’s ever done, so I wasn’t sure how it’d shake out. Does it get louder? Does it rhyme? Does it do something completely different?

Watching The Terminator and Terminator 2 back to back, they both open on tandem time travelers, escalate into shootouts and truck chases, then culminate in factory showdowns. Alien and Aliens both feature a crew investigating a distress signal on LV-426, taking some casualties, and misreading a motion tracker with terrifying results before featuring a tense final sequence in which a flamethrower-toting Ripley rescues a loved one before blowing a xenomorph stowaway out of an airlock. In both cases, these similarities are obscured by better effects, incredible action sequences, great characters, and the delightful twist that unlike in the first film, where a scary android character tries to murder the heroine, this time the android is her friend instead.

The Way of Water didn’t subvert Avatar as much as it did submerge it. Jake’s training sequence and rite of passage to join the Omatikaya clan in the first film happened all over again, underwater with the Metkayina. But The Way of Water does have its share of little twists too, In the first film, Jake earned the Omatikaya’s respect by bonding with the vicious killer pterodactyl everyone fears and respects; in the second, Jake’s son is shunned when he bonds with a huge murderer whale that they all fear and hate because of complicated politics, like, one time. In both cases, the big cool animal shows up in the final battle and saves the day.

This is a spoiler-free review of Fallout Season 2’s first six episodes, which start streaming weekly on Prime Video from December 16.

Amazon bet big on the weird apocalypse when it decided to turn Fallout into a TV show. With its kitchy “atompunk” visuals, near-overwhelming amounts of lore, and b-movie violence sitting as equals next to rich conspiracy plots and complex character work, it had every chance of baffling general audiences… and ran the classic risk of annoying the game’s loyal fanbase with even the smallest changes to the established fiction. But that bet paid off. And what do you do when you win big? You go to Vegas. Or, at least in the nuclear wastes of tomorrow, you go to New Vegas – the setting of what many consider to be the best game in Fallout’s long history.

With such a move comes risk again: it’s no easy thing to create something that can stand up to the reputation of one of the greatest RPGs of all time. But while showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet don’t hit the jackpot immediately, this second season quickly finds its identity, and it’s a more authentic adaptation of New Vegas than I ever expected. The writing team has shaped this year’s story around competing factions and figureheads, the game’s flagship feature, making for a tinderbox of a season that’s overflowing with warring tensions, difficult decisions, and backstabbing betrayals. I’ve only been able to watch six out of the total eight episodes ahead of the season’s premiere, but even if the conclusion turns out to be less appetising than a 200-year-old box of Yum Yum deviled eggs, this will still have been a largely worthy follow-up to one of the most surprising success stories in video game TV.

At its core, Fallout Season 2 is once again focused on the journeys of three people. The quests of Ella Purnell’s Lucy MacLean and Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul have combined, and together they trek across the Mojave wasteland and into New Vegas itself in search of their respective families. It’s a road trip that takes a little while to get into gear – across the first couple of episodes the duo finds themselves in overfamiliar territory – but when things do step up, the resulting character development is strong. That’s particularly true of The Ghoul, who now needs to wrestle with his hollowed-out sense of morality in the face of potentially being reunited with the people he loves. Lucy’s evolution is a little more typical of this kind of fish-out-of-water scenario, as she’s forced to adapt to a more ruthless world while trying to hold onto her humanity, but Fallout’s distinct personality keeps this all very entertaining – there’s violence and drugs aplenty for our wide-eyed heroine to contend with this year.

After having been a close companion of Lucy in Season 1, Aaron Moten’s Maximus spends most of his time with the Brotherhood of Steel this year, which significantly shifts the faction’s role in the story. Now in control of the Cold Fusion relic, the Brotherhood is a major player throughout the entire season, rather than just the backdrop for Maximus’ story. In fact, the ruthlessly ambitious aims of Elder Cleric Quintus (Michael Cristofer) threaten to overshadow Maximus’ own development within the first couple of episodes, and remain central to the plot as the season unfolds.

That’s not to say Maximus is demoted from his protagonist status. The brewing conflict between the Brotherhood’s uneasy alliance of members acts as a stage upon which he can be both part of a greater power-armoured ensemble as well as a lead character – he’s kept in line as one of Quintus’ dogs in the season’s opening act, but as a visitor (Kumail Nanjiani) from Boston’s Commonwealth chapter of the Brotherhood shapes him, he’s able to shape the faction in return. Maximus may feel a touch more like a cog in a greater machine this time, but he’s clearly the largest gear.

While Lucy and The Ghoul’s journey is very clearly the season’s central throughline, and Maximus’ struggles with the Brotherhood is the parallel support beam, the show’s scope has undeniably expanded beyond the trio that defined the first season. Now structured more akin to Game of Thrones, there are multiple other concurrent storylines that make Fallout feel like the story of the wasteland itself as much as it is the tale of its key characters. All of this does make for a very packed season, and there are inevitable casualties.

There’s no clearer example than the interconnected vaults 31, 32, and 33, which remain a consistent part of the show despite Lucy’s distant departure. Each bunker now has its own storyline, the most pressing of which is the unfolding conspiracy of 31 and its army of frozen Vault-Tec middle managers, discovered in last year’s finale by Moisés Arias’ Norm MacLean. But while it feels significant, that story fights for space against the seemingly inconsequential plotlines unfolding in vaults 32 and 33. An intriguing mid-season reveal suggests maybe better things are still to come and that we haven't been totally wasting our time, but this is outweighed by a lot of trivial baffoonery. I do very much like Fallout’s comedic approach to its clueless vault dwellers, but it so far feels like this was a joke best left in Season 1.

Out on the surface, there are further stories that deal with the New California Republic and Caesar’s Legion, two significant factions from the New Vegas video game. While the Legion is notably well realised and both groups are elegantly woven into Lucy and The Ghoul’s larger journey, long-time fans who have been waiting 15 years to see more of these factions may well be disappointed that they have, at least within the context of the first six episodes, little bearing on the overall plot, and are only in the spotlight for a single chapter. There’s also no attempt to choose which one of New Vegas’ many endings is “canon”, although I’d argue it was a wise decision to not get tied up in all those details. The narrative solutions Wagner and Robertson-Dworet have devised to sidestep such a problem are strong, and the Legion’s current situation in particular feels like it’d make an exceptional questline in a theoretical New Vegas 2. The NCR gets dealt a weaker hand, but that’s made up for by the way they’re utilised as part of The Ghoul’s story – these factions are used to enrich the journeys of the main characters, rather than be significant players themselves.

There is one New Vegas figurehead that does get to take the spotlight, though: Robert House. The new antagonist of the pre-apocalypse flashbacks, he’s played to slimy perfection by Justin Theroux. Fallout keeps its cards close to its chest with regards to House’s motives, and while fans will already know what his deal is, the involvement of The Ghoul’s former self, Hollywood star Cooper Howard, means there’s still plenty of original, unpredictable material interacting with the established lore.

In my review of Season 1, I wrote that I found Maximus to be Fallout’s most compelling lead, as his deep flaws made him the show’s most complex character. That continues to be true in Season 2, where Maximus’ weaknesses see him crushed and manipulated by a number of other forces, and his attempt to find some kind of a redemption arc is one of the strongest throughlines. However, I suspect by the time the finale’s credits roll, The Ghoul will have ascended to become my favourite of the season. He’s given much more depth this time around, with rare-but-vital flashes of vulnerability. There’s a stronger sense of connection between The Ghoul and Cooper, emphasised by the smart crosscutting of scenes across the timeline that help draw parallels and establish contrast between the man he was and the monster he’s become. Goggins is, as before, exceptional at portraying both sides, but he’s particularly strong during the flashback sequences, where he’s forced to wrestle with his wife’s involvement in the looming apocalypse, and how he could play a role in stopping it… if only he gives into a more violent path.

While Goggins is on track to be this year’s undisputed headliner, everyone pulls their weight. Particularly enjoyable this time around is Kyle MacLachlan as Hank MacLean, whose larger, quirkier role allows him to be very, well, Kyle MacLachlan. Any details about his activities in the Mojave wasteland are strictly off-limits in a spoiler-free review, but there’s a lot to dig into from as early as the first episode, with fascinating links established between him, Lucy, and a number of other characters.

While characters remain Fallout’s most valuable triumph, all the efforts that go into building the world around them continue to be top-shelf in this second season. The initial excitement of seeing the video games’ iconic designs rendered in live-action has admittedly worn off, but it’s still great to see the many newly realised places and creatures. Much has been made of the Deathclaw, which was teased during the credits of Season 1’s finale, and the big, bullish brute doesn’t disappoint. But there are other, even nerdier joys - among them the old T-45 power armour and the television-faced Securitron robots, both lovingly built by an incredibly talented prop department. There’s similar skill demonstrated by the set builders, too, with locations like the Lucky 38 casino and Dino Dee-lite Motel appearing exactly as you remember. They’re not just authentically realised, but smartly employed to create a bond between show and game: I certainly got a kick out of seeing Lucy metaphorically wear the beret of New Vegas’ beloved marksman, Boone, by making a sniper’s nest in the mouth of the motel’s giant model T-Rex, Dinky.

As with the first season, Fallout likes to effectively wink into the camera whenever it’s doing something video game-y, and there’re multiple good examples of that across these six episodes, such as Lucy walking herself through options A, B, and C when faced with a sticky situation, all of which translate to the different branching pathways of a choice-driven RPG like Fallout. Previous video game adaptations have failed at paying homage to their parent medium – see Halo’s bizarre first-person battle sequences – so it’s great to see Fallout continue to successfully remould its foundations into a new format.

After the mammoth success of Baldur's Gate 3, many fans and the industry at large were eager to learn what developer Larian Studios would announce next, and we finally got that answer at The Game Awards 2025 with the reveal of a brand new game in the Divinity series. Divinity is the next big RPG from Larian, and it looks to be just as sprawling in scope and gruesome in its brutality as the developer's previous release.

Shortly after the reveal, IGN interviewed Swen Vincke, founder of Larian Studios and game director of Baldur's Gate 3. Along with sharing his thoughts on that viral tease for Divinity ahead of The Game Awards 2025, he also spoke about the lessons learned from the success of Baldur's Gate 3, and why it was important for Larian to return to the series that built the developer.

Be sure to check out everything announced at The Game Awards 2025 for more, as well as the winners list in full. And if you’re wondering what all this Divinity business is about, check out our handy explainer here.

Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.

IGN: Firstly, were you surprised by how quickly fans kind of figured out what that mysterious statue was and that it tied in to you all?

Swen Vincke: With the speed with which they discovered the statue? Well, Geoff Keighley tweeted it, so we're not surprised by how it turned out after that. I mean, I actually thought we were gonna make it, that it wasn't gonna leak until the show. But yeah, bureaucracy was against us because it was too fast [and too close to the show]. Normally, it takes more time for something like that to be filed, and here they filed really, really fast.

Resident Evil fans are worriedly discussing new screenshots of fan-favorite character Leon S. Kennedy, which look to feature an ominous-looking mark on his neck.

The past week has been a rollercoaster for Leon fans, with leaked artwork confirming the character's long-rumored presence in Requiem, followed by his official unveiling in a trailer at The Game Awards last Thursday.

But now there's concern for Leon's future — as fans analyse screenshots from Capcom's latest trailer that seemingly show a dark, bloodied wound on the hero's neck, and following a comment from Resident Evil: Requiem producer Akifumi Nakanishi who stated that Leon is hiding "a big secret."

IGN has revisited last week's official Resident Evil Requiem trailer that aired during The Game Awards, and enhanced the screenshots you can see below.

Valve has outlined what's new in Dota 2 patch 7.40 and provided a rundown of its latest hero, Largo.

"Dota is an ensemble cast, but keen observers looking through the collection of rogues, wizards, druids, and knights (not to mention two characters named 'ranger') may have noticed the absence of that most maligned of hero classes: the bard. At least, up until now," Valve teased, before introducing Largo himself.

Largo is the shamanic head of the bardmonk order, and unlike bards that "sing about current events and chord changes," he "tailors every song to his exact circumstances, raising his allies' spirits or, if necessary, their foot speed as they run toward battle (or away). As a frog, his prehensile tongue has, shall we say, all kinds of tricks."

One such trick is his Catchy Lick, in which he targets someone, licks them, pulls them back a short distance, and applies a basic dispel. If they're an ally, he pulls them out of harm's way, and if they're an enemy, his tongue deals damage. By dispelling an effect from a target, Largo gets a brief health regen, too. He can also fire froglings that stomp the ground every second, dealing damage and ministuns, and minimize ally mana costs with his Croak of Genius skill.

His ultimate skill is Amphibian Rhapsody. To be honest, with a name as incredible as that, I don't even care what it does, but for those wondering, it's essentially a mini-rhythm game.

"Largo gets ready to groove," Valve explains. "He is disarmed and his ability bar switches to three song abilities, each with different effects. Songs are only effective if strummed on the beat.

"Every time he strums successfully, he gains a stack of Groovin'. Each stack gives him bonus armor and reduces the mana cost of every song, but he loses a stack if he misses a beat. Stacks linger for a short duration when Largo's song ends."

As is tradition, the full patch notes are so huuuge they're too big to publish on Steam itself, but you can find them on the Dota 2 website right here.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Point Break is reportedly getting a TV show set 35 years after the events of the iconic ‘90s movie.

Deadline reports that AMC is developing a TV series based on the 1991 film starring Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty, and Gary Busey.

Point Break, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, follows rookie FBI Agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) who goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of Southern California surfers led by the charismatic Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), who are suspected of pulling off bank robberies as the "Ex-Presidents.” Utah ends up drawn into their adrenaline-fueled lifestyle, and falls for a surfer girl named Tyler (Lori Petty).

According to Deadline, this new TV series revolves around “a dangerous heist crew with ties to the Ex-Presidents gang.” It's set in 2026, 35 years after Point Break's 1991 setting. The series is from Dave Kalstein, whose credits include Amazon’s Daniel Dae Kim thriller Butterfly, and CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles, ABC’s Quantico, and USA Network’s Treadstone. That’s all the information we have right now. There’s no word on new characters, a new cast, or whether Keanu Reeves himself might pop up in some fashion.

This isn’t the first attempt to revive Point Break. A 2015 remake came and went without making much of a splash at all. IGN’s review returned a 5/10. We said: “Point Break gets the stunts right, but is lacking everything else needed to make an enjoyable film experience.”

Hopefully this new TV series fares better.

Photo by Richard Foreman/Fotos International/Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The announcement of both Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst has sparked retcon speculation among the franchise's fandom.

At last week's The Game Awards, Catalyst’s first trailer was immediately followed by the reveal of Legacy of Atlantis, a “reimagining” of the original 1996 classic. Built with Unreal Engine 5, Legacy of Atlantis is due out next year as the franchise marks its 30th anniversary, with Catalyst set to follow in 2027.

While some, quite naturally, suggest starting at the beginning makes sense given the anniversary, others are wondering if the announcement of the new game means the team has to go back and retcon some aspects of Lara Croft's story to make sure everything makes sense in the character's 30-year-old canon timeline.

"There are many theories about why the reimagining of TR1 is happening. Some say it’s only because of the 30th anniversary but I personally think it’s happening because it HAS to happen. We’re entering a new unified timeline where some things need to be retconned and some need to be reimagined," suggested X/Twitter user Merychxrry.

"This kind of reimagining will likely need to happen for every mainline game, but especially for these four story-heavy titles: Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Tomb Raider: Legend, and Tomb Raider: Underworld.

"You might ask, 'Why not TR2-3 first?' Well, they’re not story-heavy. As much as I’d love to see them remade, we first need to unify these four story-focused games. Otherwise, it would take too long to reach them, and their stories would need to be retconned."

As Mery added, the order itself likely doesn't matter — "it could be 4 and 6 first, then Legends and Underworld, or vice-versa" — but since the assets for Legacy of Atlantis will be available first, "it shouldn't take too long to produce these games."

"That is actually genius!" replied one commenter, while another said: "Yes! This exactly!" "I feel like LOA is a test, like the [Resident Evil 2] remake was, suggested someone else. "TR1 was the safest choice they had for a reimagining because of its simple story."

As game director Will Kerslake recently told GamesRadar+, Catalyst fits into the timeline after the events of Tomb Raider: Underworld. The most recent games, known as the Survivor reboot trilogy — 2013's Tomb Raider, 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider, and 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider — are still considered as part of Croft's origin story.

While the news of the recasting was a surprise for some, actor Camilla Luddington — who portrayed Lara Croft in the Survivor Trilogy — shared a bittersweet Instagram post about her time as the lead this week, saying she loved the fans and Croft will "forever be a part of [her]." Alix Wilton Regan will now play Lara Croft in both Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst.

Meanwhile, there's the upcoming Amazon TV show to consider. The live-action Tomb Raider Prime Video series, which will star Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner, will “reinvent the franchise on a massive scale” and will interconnect “live-action television series and video games into a unified storytelling universe.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Copyright takedowns are targeting what appears to be a leaked version of Marvel's first Avengers: Doomsday trailer, which is now being snapped out of existence across social media.

Uploads of the video file began yesterday, and were initially easy to find across social media. But today, copyright notices have replaced numerous instances of the file on X and reddit, and the original video is nowhere to be seen YouTube.

Warning! Potential spoiler for the Avengers: Doomsday trailers follows:

As for the video itself, it features a blurry first glimpse at a returning character not seen since the last Avengers movie: Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, played once again by Chris Evans.

The trailer begins with a figure on a motorbike pulling up to a familiar-looking 1950s house, which Marvel fans may recognize from Avengers: Endgame's closing scene. Inside the house, the figure is revealed to be Steve Rogers, as he folds away his Captain America uniform and picks up a young baby. On-screen text then reads: "Steve Rogers will return in Avengers: Doomsday."

Marvel is, of course, yet to formally announce that Steve Rogers will be part of Doomsday's story. But filming reports from this summer appeared to show this same house being secretly constructed, sparking speculation of the character's return. Fans also spent a good deal of time analysing recent photos of Evans' real-life arms, and noted that he appeared to have gotten his physique Captain America ready.

When asked about not being part of Doomsday filming, Evans previously offered the following answer which did not specifically deny he was part of the movie: "Yeah, I talk to [the cast] all the time," Evans told ScreenRant in June this year. "It's where Pedro [Pascal] is right now. I mean, it's sad to be away. It's sad to not be back with the band, but I'm sure they're doing something incredible, and I'm sure it's going to be that much harder when it comes out and you feel like you weren't invited to the party."

Narratively, Rogers' return would make sense. The character was last seen living happily in the 1950s with Peggy Carter, having presumably completed his final mission of returning the Infinity Stones to their original places in the timeline. Unpicking this happy ending might prove controversial, but story-wise there's certainly room for Rogers to be involved in years of further adventures before he hands over his shield as an old man — something Endgame also showed.

Rogers' mission of returning the Infinity Stones may also explain why he's in Doomsday, the finale of Marvel's Multiverse Saga which has seen numerous heroes repeatedly meddle with parallel universes despite dire warnings of the consequences (looking at you, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Wanda, Captain Marvel, Loki...). It's easy to see how Cap's antics could rope him into fixing a larger multiversal problem he unwittingly contributed to.

Doomsday could also be used to explain how Rogers managed to get back to the main MCU reality in order to hand his shield over (according to MCU time-travel rules, he should technically be in a new branch of reality instead). It's a minor plot point in the grand scheme of things, but one that Avengers director Joe Russo hinted back in 2021 that he and his brother Anthony had considered as a clear idea for more story featuring Steve Rogers.

"One thing that's clear that Anthony and I have discussed, I don't know that we've discussed this publicly at all, Cap would have had to have travelled back to the main timeline," Joe Russo said. "That's something that, yes, he would have been in a branch reality, but he would have to travel back to the main timeline to give that shield to Sam Wilson."

Of course, there are also far more straightforward reasons for Steve Rogers' return. The character was one of the original Avengers and played a key part in the $2.7 billion-grossing Avengers: Endgame. Having the original Captain America back will undoubtedly be a huge audience draw, especially for those who have lost interest in Marvel over the past few years amid a string of underwhelming entries in its Multiverse Saga (and some highlights, looking at you Thunderbolts*).

Having Evans back alongside his former co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) would undoubtedly help cement Doomsday as an Avengers-level movie event (while also simultaneously highlighting Disney's failure to replace its previous leads with similarly beloved stars in the years since).

Disney is expected to officially release the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer this week, attached to its latest blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash. A recent report suggested that four separate trailers would launch over four weeks, in a move designed to encourage repeat viewings of Avatar and keep audiences entertained with a series of big reveals. Confirmation of Steve Rogers' return would certainly be a strong start.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social