This deal makes for $25 off both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions, and $15 off the Switch version. They won't stay at this price for long, though, as Best Buy's Winter Sale only lasts until January 19. Now is the time to make a move on it if it's been on your radar.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for $45
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a game we think is well worth adding to your library. IGN's Jada Griffin had a lot of praise for it in her review, saying it "fires on all cylinders with a fantastic roster, excellent courses, and lengthy list of customization options." If it sounds like a perfect pick to get you through these winter months, now is as good a time as any to put it in your shopping cart.
It's not the only exciting game deal Best Buy has to offer right now, either. The Winter Sale also features discounts on Ninja Gaiden 4, Borderlands 4, and quite a few more. The retailer has even dropped the price of the digital and disc Fortnite Flowering Chaos PS5 console bundle, which is a sweet little surprise after holiday sales. Again, it only runs until January 19, so grab your favorites while they're still available.
Kiefer Sutherland was arrested after allegedly assaulting and threatening a ride-share driver in Hollywood, according to local police.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Sutherland "entered a ride-share vehicle, physically assaulted the driver (the victim), and made criminal threats" in an incident near Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue around midnight on Monday, according to NBC4. The LAPD said the victim was not injured in the incident, which is now under investigation.
The 59-year-old former star of hit TV series 24 was released after paying a $50,000 bond, and is now due at Los Angeles Superior Court on February 2. Sutherland's representatives have yet to comment.
Sutherland is famous for playing special agent Jack Bauer on 24, a role for which he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe, the U.S. president in Designated Survivor, and Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5. In film, he starred in The Lost Boys (1987), Stand By Me (1986), and The Three Musketeers (1993).
Sutherland voiced and provided motion capture for Big Boss/Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5, replacing David Hayter in a decision that proved controversial with fans. Explaining the decision, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima said "I wanted Snake to have a more subdued performance, expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice rather than words.”
Sutherland has a history of arrests. In 2007 he was sentenced to 48 days in jail for driving under the influence and violating probation. Two years later, Sutherland was arrested for head-butting Proenza Schouler founder Jack McCollough at the Mercer Hotel in Manhattan. He was charged with third-degree assault, but charges were dropped after Sutherland and McCollough issued a joint statement in which he apologized. "I am sorry about what happened that night and sincerely regret that Mr. McCollough was injured," Sutherland said in the statement.
Most recently, Sutherland appeared in the action comedy Stone Cold Fox, costarring Krysten Ritter and Kiernan Shipka. He is set to appear alongside Al Pacino in the mob thriller Father Joe from The Fifth Element director Luc Besson.
Photo by FOX Image Collection via 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.
Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders cheater purge is underway, and it seems popular streamer Turner Tenney, a.k.a. Tfue, has found himself in – and back out of – the line of fire.
The internet personality, who returned to regular gaming content creation for the first time in two years in December 2025, announced he had been hit with a 30-day ban (which was reversed after just 24 hours) in Arc Raiders earlier this week. He neglected to share any insight into why he believed Embark may have taken action against his account at the time of his ban, instead only sharing screenshots of the notifications and a separate call to action: #FreeTfue.
Why Tfue was banned in the first place remains a mystery, but fans online have theories. It’s not traditional cheats like aimbot that players believe landed him in hot water with what is currently his go-to game, though. Instead, it’s his promotion of a recently discovered visual exploit that some suspect is to blame.
Players caught wind of the exploit, which utilized developer tools to make spotting enemies easier by forcing environmental effects like fog to a minimum, just last week, January 9. Embark was quick to patch console command access one day later, saying the feature was “never meant to be player facing” at the time – but some PC players had already tried it for themselves.
Nearly nine hours into a stream that took place last week, Tfue can be seen setting up the workaround and using it when loading into Arc Raiders. The process takes only a few minutes and leaves the streamer slack-jawed.
“F**k, dude. That’s bad,” Tfue says when seeing how the exploit is used to illuminate a usually dark hallway. “I shouldn’t have shown this. It’s over.”
The game stream goes black, and he continues: “No, that’s so bad. I mean, people are going to be using that now, dude. What do we do?”
The segment runs approximately 10 minutes and sees the streamer engage in one fight with another player before returning to standard Arc Raiders affairs for another hour and a half. There’s no real evidence suggesting this incident is what led to Tfue’s ban, as many are simply looking to connect the dots as Embark works to make good on its pledge to ensure its extraction shooter is fun and fair for all.
The studio behind both Arc Raiders and The Finals answered long-standing calls to deal with cheaters and exploit-users in a message published January 8. It promised to implement “significant changes” to its anti-cheat strategy in the weeks ahead, saying fans can look forward to a more even playing field as the team deployed glitch fixes and new detection mechanisms. How successful Embark’s actions have been just five days on remains unclear, but it seems some – including Tfue – may already have been on the receiving end.
Just as onlookers had assumed Tfue had been dealt a lengthy timeout, he uploaded a YouTube video, explaining his own theory behind the ban. While many suggested use of glitches or exploits had caused an Embark anti-cheat mechanism to take action, some testing on his end led him to believe the issue could be tied to a new PC setup. At the time, he believed the situation was "a straight-up accident."
"If you guys think that I got banned for testing out an in-game brightness config, it's like... come on, now," Tfue said. "I think it's just a straight-up accident. You know, Embark, it's been brought to their attention that there was a lot of cheating. [Cheaters have been] stream-sniping, people exploiting out of the map, and shooting people through walls, and they're very aware of that. I think they're cracking it down, but I think they just cracked down a little bit too much."
I think they're cracking it down, but I think they just cracked down a little bit too much.
"It kinda sucks," he added. "Honestly it does. I just caught a stray. We're going to hope and pray that it gets resolved."
It didn't take long for Tfue's pleas to be answered. Just minutes after his video was uploaded, he reappeared with a Twitch stream, proclaiming, "I'm free!" Through the ban and unban process, Tfue says his best bet regarding the cause of his ban is that a foot pedal peripheral could be to blame. Otherwise, he's still in the dark as to why Embark originally delivered the temporary suspension.
"I have no idea," he said during the stream. "All I know is all these f**king theories people have made up in their head are all false." IGN has reached out to Embark for comment regarding Tfue’s ban and its anti-cheat measures.
The former Fortnite streamer's break from gaming content creation ended just last month when he announced “I’m back” with a retirement-ending video published December 14. In the four-and-a-half-minute statement, he explained his spark for gaming had been reignited after finally finding a new game that he truly enjoyed.
“I’ve been playing Arc Raiders off-stream, and I’ve been having a really good time,” Tfue said. “It’s like a polished version of [Escape from Tarkov], and I’ve been having a lot of fun playing. Finally, after years of not really gaming or streaming, I actually enjoy a game. I’ve been grinding off-stream, and I’m just like, ‘I just gotta go live because I enjoy it.’”
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
January's list of PlayStation Plus Game Catalog additions has been leaked online, and includes Resident Evil Village.
As ever, this month's additions have been leaked ahead of time by Dealabs' reliable billbil-kun, who states that PlayStation will likely make the list official later today. Already, though, there's excitement among Resident Evil fans at seeing Village join the catalog (it's set to join Game Pass on January 20).
It's a timely addition, just over a month away from the arrival of Resident Evil: Requiem on February 27, and just ahead of this week's Resident Evil Showcase event that's set to stream tomorrow, January 14. If you're yet to play this spooky first-person modern classic, now is a great time. (And hey, one of its characters may be making a return in Requiem, too!)
Elsewhere, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is another notable addition, alongside off-road simulator Expeditions: A MudRunner Game. Both titles originally launched in 2024 to positive receptions.
Rounding out the leaked list are stealth horror game A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, offbeat indie adventure The Exit 8 and top-down racer Art of Rally. PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, meanwhile, will gain access to original Ridge Racer from the PS1.
Even more titles may be added to the list when Sony makes its official announcement later today. We'll keep an eye, and update then with any further additions.
Meta is laying off around 10% of staff at its Reality Labs division as part of sweeping cuts set to affect more than 1,000 people. This includes the closure of a number of VR-first studios, such as Twisted Pixel, the studio behind Deadpool VR, Resident Evil 4 VR developer Armature Studio, and Asgard's Wrath maker, Sanzaru Games. According to Bloomberg, the cuts come as Meta pivots away from the Metaverse towards AI, phones, and wearable tech.
The cuts come just over four years after Facebook changed its name to Meta and went big on virtual reality and the Metaverse.
Letters reportedly went out yesterday (Tuesday, January 13) morning, and developers from the impacted studios shared their shock on social media throughout the day.
"I've just been laid off. It appears the entire Twisted Pixel games studio has been shut down.Sanzaru Games, too," one now former member of staff said, while a designer wrote: "unfortunately, I was part of the layoffs today at Meta, and will be seeking a new role. To my Twisted Pixel Games family: it was an honor to work alongside you for 3.5 years and ship Marvel's Deadpool VR. We made something really special together and no one can ever take that away."
Twisted Pixel is the studio behind a number of popular Xbox Live Arcade games, such as 2009's The Maw and 'Splosion Man. It became a part of Microsoft Studios in 2011, and went on to release Xbox 360 Kinect-exclusive shooter The Gunstringer, and Xbox One game LocoCycle, before becoming an independent company again in 2015 and moving into VR game development.
Meta only acquired Armature and Twisted Pixel in late 2022, and Sanzaru in 2020. However, it is now seemingly shedding much of its internal VR business as Meta scrambles to recover billion-dollar losses and pivot to AI.
In a statement, Meta confirmed the three studio closures: "we said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward Wearables. This is part of that effort, and we plan to reinvest the savings to support the growth of wearables this year."
According to Reuters, CEO Mark Zuckerberg prioritized and spent heavily on the Metaverse, only for the business to burn more than $60 billion since 2020. The Reality Labs business also produces Meta's Quest mixed-reality headsets. According to CNBC, Meta isn’t abandoning VR entirely. It is now courting developers who build games for Roblox to build experiences for Horizon Worlds.
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.
Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick has made a number of claims about the state of his former company, Call of Duty, and the console market as part of a response to a lawsuit.
Kotick, who left Activision Blizzard at the end of 2023 having sold the company to Xbox maker Microsoft for $69 billion dollars, is battling investors who claim he rigged the sale to keep his job and $400 million in change-of-control benefits, and to insulate himself from claims he knew about widespread sexual harassment at Activision. Kotick has denied any wrongdoing.
The investors are led by Swedish pension fund Sjunde AP-fonden (AP7). They have accused Kotick of rushing into the Microsoft merger, and contend the $95 per share takeover price was too low from the outset. AP7 names Kotick, Activision Blizzard, and its owner, Microsoft, as defendants.
As reported by Game File, Kotick has now issued his response to the allegations. In it he accuses Swedish game company Embracer, which owns the rights to the likes of Tomb Raider, Dead Island, and Lord of the Rings, of being involved with the lawsuit and benefitting from it, something the company has denied.
Part of Kotick’s defence uses the declining financial performance of Activision Blizzard, Call of Duty, and the console market in recent years to back up his claim that selling to Microsoft at $95 a share was the right thing to do at that time. And one quote in particular is being picked up by the Call of Duty community as being of interest:
“Today, given that console sales are at an all-time low and Call of Duty sales are off over 60% from the prior year, Plaintiff should be expressing extreme gratitude for the foresight Activision leadership demonstrated in consummating this transaction.”
As Game File points out, Kotick failed to provide evidence of his 60% sales decline claim, and neither Microsoft nor Activision have announced a sales figure for Black Ops 7 yet. But we do know Black Ops 7 has struggled in sales terms compared to Black Ops 6, a fact that's reflected in everything from European sales figures to Activision's own admissions. Circana has reported that November full game dollar sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 finished below those of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 last November, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launching in the October 2024 tracking period.
Of course, none of this takes into account the Game Pass effect. Call of Duty now launches day one on Microsoft’s subscription service, which will no doubt have an impact on sales at least on Xbox consoles. But a 60% sales decline is an enormous drop-off even with Game Pass considered. IGN has asked Activision for comment.
There is data to back up Kotick’s claim about consoles. November 2025 was a shockingly terrible month for video game sales in the U.S. Indeed it was the worst November in video game hardware unit sales, and the worst in physical software dollar sales the U.S. has seen since 1995. More specifically, hardware spending was down a whopping 27% year-over-year to $695 million, the lowest hardware spending total for November since 2005's $455 million. Even worse, unit sales reached 1.6 million, which is the lowest November total since 1995's 1.4 million.
And that's representative of declines across the board. Xbox Series hardware sales were down 70% year-over-year. PS5 sales were down over 40%, and combined unit sales of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 were down over 10% from Switch sales last year, despite this being a launch year for the Nintendo Switch 2.
Kotick repeated his 60% claim elsewhere in his response, where he took a shot at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to block Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard buyout. Part of the FTC’s argument was that Microsoft owning Call of Duty would give it an unfair advantage in the gaming market. But Kotick insists that the struggles of Call of Duty in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Battlefield show that not to be the case.
“The Company’s actual performance since January 2022 is telling, uniformly missing the Long Range Plans’ target metrics — which should come as no surprise, given that the Company historically missed nearly all of the ambitious targets set forth in its Long Range Plans, a fact known well to the Board when the deal was negotiated,” Kotick’s response reads. “All told, had the deal not gone through, this would have likely resulted in a substantially lower stock price, as is easily established by Activision’s financial performance post-closing, which has been far below the ambitious targets contained in the plans.
“Call of Duty is on track to perform over 60% below last year because of intense competition from titles like Battlefield — destroying the FTC’s now defeated argument about Call of Duty’s purported monopoly and the lack of competition in the first-person action game category.”
Following the release of Black Ops 7, Activision announced significant changes to the Call of Duty franchise, including promising never to release back to back games in the same sub-brand (Modern Warfare, Black Ops). Activision released Modern Warfare 2 in 2022, Modern Warfare 3 in 2023, Black Ops 6 in 2024, and Black Ops 7 in 2025. Activision Blizzard is expected to announce this year's Call of Duty in the summer.
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/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.
Emilia Clarke has said she's likely finished working on fantasy projects after spending nine years as Daenerys Targaryen, the central character in Game of Thrones who received a highly controversial ending.
Speaking to the New York Times, Clarke said that it was "highly unlikely" viewers would see her "get on a dragon, or even in the same frame as a dragon, ever again."
Clarke has previously discussed her difficulty processing how her character ended up in Game of Thrones, and her shock at reading the finale's script for the first time. And in a 2021 interview, Clarke said she could "get why people were pissed" with how her fan-favorite character Daenerys was handled in the series' final episodes.
Now, Clarke has said she struggled following the show's finale, especially after she finally wrapped up her last duties promoting the show at the Emmys in late 2019, shortly before the Covid pandemic hit. "It was the first time in my professional life that I stopped," she said. "I had a full mental breakdown. It was almost as if the timing of the pandemic was bang on."
Seven years later, Clarke is now taking on a lead role in a new TV show, cold war spy drama Ponies, which begins streaming via Peacock this week. "I was definitely, like — a lead in a TV show? I know what that commitment feels like."
But Clarke said this lengthy time since Thrones has now allowed her "to realize that I could try and get some autonomy over my choices, my work. So much of my career didn't reflect my taste, I just sort of shot out of a cannon."
This review contains spoilers for Fallout Season 2, Episode 5, “The Wrangler,” which is available to stream now on Prime Video.
We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. The Ghoul has betrayed Lucy, using her as a bargaining chip in his bet to find his family. Ella Purnell appears torn apart as her character’s role in his plan all becomes clear, the tears barely held back as she whispers “We were actually beginning to get along.” It’s the most devastating moment in an emotionally raw episode of Fallout, and certainly justifies her powerfist punch that sends The Ghoul flying out of a second window. The moment captures the full blend of Fallout’s flavour: dramatic, gory, and absurd.
Perhaps the more telling response in this whole exchange, though, is the gritted teeth and low rasp of The Ghoul, who genuinely seems wounded by his own choice. Lucy was good for him – more than just a surrogate daughter, she was a slowly-administered antidote to his lack of humanity. She’s the one drug that The Ghoul can’t afford to go cold turkey on. But his reluctance to see that has led to his impalement on a lamppost, left for dead and with no companion to help find his family.
Splitting up Lucy and The Ghoul shifts Fallout into a whole new phase. While this betrayal (much like the equally phase-shifting Brotherhood of Steel civil war from last week) has always been on the cards, it’s benefitted from a strong, steady build, simmering away through the first half of this season. It’s boiled over at exactly the right moment, leaving three whole episodes to explore the characters’ new situations and set in motion not just a (hopefully) satisfying finale, but put everyone on intriguing paths for the show’s future.
Equally as strong as those story threads is the episode’s visual presentation. Director Liz Friedlander and writer Owen Ellickson pull the same trick here as was used in the season’s third episode, layering The Ghoul’s past and present over each other, cutting back and forth between flashback and current events to draw parallels. Here, it perfectly captures his anguish as his worlds fall apart – in the present, he betrays his sole companion, only for his plan to be instantly derailed. In the past, he learns that he could be the lynchpin of the entire apocalypse. Once again, Ramin Djawadi’s score really elevates the melancholy of this moment, but the true highlight is seeing Cooper Howard ape Dr. Strangelove’s Major Kong as he rides a bucking bomb. If the end of the world really is coming, at least part of him has already given into inevitability. In time, he’ll learn to stop worrying and love the chaos.
Of course, Cooper learning that he may somehow be at the center of the apocalypse wasn’t the only major reveal this week, but it was by far the strongest. The unveiling of the real Mr. House was, of course, inevitable – we knew Justin Theroux had been cast as the industrial magnate months before the show even started, and it was only a matter of time until Rafi Silver was explained away as a body double. However, while the disclosure itself lacks bite, having the double walk up to an unaware Cooper and say “Mr. House would like to see you” is undeniably cool. I’d have loved to have shared in Cooper’s surprise and seen this land in the way it was clearly intended to.
The production design continues to be second to none, and seeing the glittering casinos of the strip before they’re ravaged by 200 years of nuclear winter is a nerdy thrill.
Robert House has been the awkward thorn in this season’s side, and not just because of that re-casting. As one of the major characters of Fallout: New Vegas, those who have played the game already know much about him, and so this season’s threat that House was the man with his finger on the nuclear button was always empty: fans know he has no involvement in the war. The reveal that House has no plans to help Vault-Tec nuke America thus falls a little flat to a sizable amount of the show’s audience. It was a smart idea, then, to tie House’s predictions of annihilation directly to Cooper. That's the real reveal here. “I don’t think you’re a cowboy at all. No, I think you’re a killer!” screams House, a great line that also layers past and present – The Ghoul, of course, wears the costume of a cowboy and has the show’s itchiest trigger finger.
This season’s flashbacks have all been about putting Cooper on the frontlines of Fallout history, but I didn’t expect him to be at the very centre of the hurricane. I do have my reservations about this – I don’t think it would be a good move to re-write the entire of Fallout history and pin it on a Hollywood actor – but so far this exploration of the unknown is working in the show’s favour.
Talking of exploring the unknown, I appreciate that the flashbacks are able to take us to a version of Vegas we’ve never seen before. The production design continues to be second to none, and seeing the glittering casinos of the strip before they’re ravaged by 200 years of nuclear winter is a nerdy thrill. Similarly, it’s great to see Freeside, one of New Vegas’ most recognisable locations, given life on screen. It even has Bethesda level design, with multiple entrances to buildings that allow sneaky characters to get in through the back door and steal overpriced items. Lucy’s sticky fingers adventure in Sonny’s Sundries is yet another example of Fallout having fun replicating the video game experience in a narratively-appropriate way – the important thing about this mini heist, though, isn’t its link to the games, but that its bloody conclusion forces Lucy to question how she’s changed. The Ghoul has undeniably influenced her, and it’s smart to have Lucy ponder that in advance of his betrayal.
With Maximus absent, this chapter of Fallout is almost entirely about Lucy and The Ghoul, which makes for the most focused episode of the season so far. The only outlying factor is Norm, who makes a more substantial appearance following last week’s single scene. Norm has suffered a similar fate to his fellow vault dwellers this season, feeling significantly left behind in the grand scheme of things, and so this week’s massive discovery is the emergency shot in the arm this thread needed. A trip to Vault-Tec’s California office reveals that Bud’s “Future Enterprise Ventures” is actually the Forced Evolutionary Virus, a genetic meddling project that Fallout fans are more than familiar with. It’s a fun tease for what could be waiting in the season’s final act, but more importantly, the F.E.V. is revealed to be a vault experiment overseen not by Bud Askins, but Barbara Howard.
And so, much like last season, Norm’s seemingly disparate plotline is welded into place among the greater picture. This links Norm’s story to Barbara’s, who’s linked to Cooper, who’s linked to Lucy, House, and Hank. These newly forged connections help make the entire season feel like a more coherent whole, and while we don’t know exactly where things will land, you can see how the components are being aligned to ensure everything is in service to each other. This gives me a little more confidence that whatever is going on in Vaults 32 and 33 will eventually be given substance, but with less than half the season remaining, the clock is ticking louder than ever.
Modder ‘DreyDubs’ has released a pretty cool new mod for Fallout: New Vegas. This mod adds Romance and Friendship mechanics to every NPC you encounter. As such, it can further enhance your in-game experience. Going into more detail, Talk of the Town is a Social Expansion mod for Fallout: New Vegas that adds Romance and … Continue reading This Fallout: New Vegas Mod Adds Romance and Friendship Mechanics to All NPCs→
Modder ‘xoxor4d’ has released Update 1.1.7 for his amazing RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod for Grand Theft Auto 4. So, let’s see what this update brings to the table. Update 1.1.7 adds a PBR material for one type of sidewalk and corner variants. It also adds some road PBR materials (mostly generic asphalt) w/o albedo … Continue reading Grand Theft Auto 4 RTX Remix Update 1.1.7 Released→
I have spent more hours than I care to admit trawling storefronts, comparing editions, and convincing myself I absolutely needed one more game for the backlog. Today’s crop feels unusually strong, mixing genuinely new releases with deep cuts that still punch well above their price. There is a little something here for almost every type of player, from pure nostalgia to shiny modern blockbusters.
In retro news, I've cooked a bin chicken feast for the 33rd birthday of Streets of Rage 2, a seminal beat 'em up and massive personal favourite that I played the cartridge pins off. Basically, you and a mate needed to go ever rightward on an ultra-violent rescue mission as one of two loose cannon cops, a spandex-clad wrestler, or the most '90s kid ever (think: backwards hat, rollerblades). Not only were this sequel's fisticuffs more technical than its rival to beat, Final Fight, Streets of Rage 2 also boasted one of the most jam-pumping EDM soundtracks of its era.Seriously.
- Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3/P,X360) 2010.eBay
Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond NS2 (-19%) A$89 Samus is back, the vibes are immaculate, and Retro still knows how to make silence feel threatening. Fun-wise, it's an absolute morph-ball.
Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Rem. (-27%) A$39.90 Turn based comfort food with a deceptively evil difficulty spike. The job system still rules, and yes, you will grind because you want to.
EA Sports FC 26 (-42%) A$64 Incremental changes, same addiction. You will complain about it loudly, then somehow play five matches in a row anyway.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (-80%) A$19.90 Every trilogy, every joke, every brick smashed. Ridiculous value and still one of the best couch co-op peace treaties ever made.
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 (-91%) A$8 Absurdly cheap chaos. Not the sharpest LEGO game, but at this price it barely matters.
EA Sports FC 26 (-55%) A$49 Much easier to recommend once it drops below full price. The football feels better, the menus feel worse, and thus the cycle continues.
Ghostrunner 2 (-44%) A$30.70 A game that punishes hesitation and rewards confidence. When it clicks, you feel like a cyber ninja god. When it doesn’t, you're roadkill.
NBA 2K26 (-51%) A$59 Still outrageously good on the court and still a menace to your spare time. MyCareer will eat your weekend without remorse.
Borderlands 4 (-51%) A$59 Louder, dumber, and surprisingly smarter where it counts. The guns are nonsense, the jokes mostly land, and the loop is dangerously sticky.
Xbox One
Fight Night Champion (-85%) A$4.40 Oldie that's still the undisputed champ. Career mode hits harder than half the genre has managed since.
Battlefield 1 Rev. (-82%) A$8.90 Mud, chaos, and unmatched atmosphere. Battlefield has been chasing this high ever since.
CoD: Modern Warfare II (-73%) A$30 Slick, loud, and built for quick dopamine hits. The campaign is uneven, but the gunfeel still rules.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (-49%) A$59 Deep, awkward, and gloriously uncompromising. You will feel bad at it before you feel brilliant, which is kind of the point.
Lies of P (-33%) A$56.90 A Souls-like that actually gets why Souls works. Creepy, precise, and far better than it has any right to be.
LEGO Skywalker Saga (-73%) A$24 A galaxy of gags and collectibles. You will start for the kids and stay for the completionist brain rot.
Fallout 76 (-80%) A$10.90 The comeback story nobody expected. Still weird, still janky, but finally fun with the right crew.
Guardians of the Galaxy (-71%) A$29 Way funnier than it needed to be. Great banter, strong story, and a soundtrack that does heavy lifting.
PS4
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (-31%) A$48.50 Bright, brutal, and completely unapologetic. Those bridge levels still hit like groin kicks.
Sonic Superstars (-42%) A$55 When it works, it really works. When it doesn’t, it reminds you why Sonic games are a gamble.
Kingdom Hearts III (-69%) A$31.10 Beautiful nonsense. The story is a fever dream, but the combat and spectacle absolutely slap.
Far Cry 6 (-75%) A$22.40 A familiar sandbox carried by a good (not great) villain. You've played this formula before, but will probably enjoy it again anyway.
Paradise Killer (-75%) A$7.30 Unhinged vibes, incredible music, and detective work that trusts you to be smart. A cult classic for a reason.
Superhot (-74%) A$9.10 Time moves when you do, and suddenly you feel like an action movie genius.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (-60%) A$31.90 Moody, slow burning, and emotionally heavier than expected. Comes for your sword arm, stays for your feelings.
Civilization V (-75%) A$7.40 The purest form of time theft. One more turn is a lie you will tell yourself repeatedly.
Adam Mathew is a passionate connoisseur, a lifelong game critic, and an Aussie deals wrangler who genuinely wants to hook you up with stuff that's worth playing (but also cheap). He plays practically everything, sometimes on YouTube.
The brand new Apple AirPods Pro 3 might be one of the best noise canceling earbuds, but $250 is a steep price to pay. You might be better off saving that money and getting these Baseus Bass BP1 Pro wireless noise cancelling earbuds for just $18.99 after $20 off coupon code "BFBP1PRO". You do NOT have to be an Amazon Prime member to get in on this deal. I own these earbuds myself and I have to say they are definitely worth the price.
Baseus BP1 Pro Wireless Noise Canceling Earbuds for $19
Like the AirPods Pro, the Baseus BP1 Pro is a truly wireless in-ear earbud with noise cancelation. Sound quality is great and, true to its name, it does a decent job of simulating real bass. You won't get absolute silence from the BP1 Pro's noise cancelation tech, but it muffles the sound enough for it to be practical. It also features a transparency mode, in case you want to listen in on your surroundings without removing your earbuds.
The Baseus BP1 Pro supports Bluetooth 6 with MultiPoint technology which allows you to pair up to two devices simultaneously. It's IP55 rated, resisting "water jets" and dust intrusion. The earbuds last up to 12 hours with ANC off (7 hours with ANC on) but the charging case extends it to 55 hours (and 36 hours).
For a low, low price of $19 (the cost of a burrito in my neck of the woods), you're not risking very much to give these a whirl, especially considering the fact that Amazon offers a hassle-free 30-day return policy. After trying these out, you might forever wonder why the AirPods 3 costs 12X more.
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.
There's always been a console war-esque discussion between LEGO and Mega Bloks, although not nearly as ridiculous. Both toy brands have seen their fair share of licensed sets over the years, and it's rare when they have overlap. Starting February 2026, LEGO will release its first Pokémon-themed sets, but did you know that Mega Bloks has had its sets available for years? Popular LEGO sets often either sell out fast or are hard to find, but the Mega Bloks Pokémon sets are both a cheaper and more readily available alternative, depending on what you're looking for.
The Best Pokémon Mega Bloks Sets Available Now
The newly-announced LEGO Pokémon sets have already fallen victim to eBay scalpers and resellers, with some listings of the massive Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise diorama set (which MRSPs at $649.99) going for upwards of $1,600. Compared to the Mega Bloks version of Charizard by itself, which is going for just $18.65 on Amazon, the difference in price is staggering. Sure, you don't get a Venusuar or Blastoise to go along with the Fire-type starter, but with how similar the designs are, nobody would blame you for skipping the LEGO version entirely in favor of a cheaper alternative. The LEGO Eevee set is currently going for $59.99, sitting in the middle of the two Mega Bloks versions of the same Pokémon, which are $47.79 and $89.99 on Amazon, respectively.
Another issue many fans are having with the LEGO versions is the overall design. Take the Pikachu set, for example. The Mega Bloks version is a fairly faithful recreation of the creature we've grown so familiar with, while the LEGO version is admittedly a bit hard to look at. It's worth noting that the LEGO version is nearly double the piece count compared to the Mega Bloks version - it's made up of 2,050 pieces versus 1,095, so it's interesting to see that LEGO seems to have missed the mark with the design of the most iconic Pokémon to date.
While there are many LEGO purists and loyalists (I probably count myself among them), it's hard to deny the significantly better value Mega Bloks is offering when it comes to licensed Pokémon building sets. I know we've likely only just seen the tip of the iceberg with what Pokémon sets LEGO will release, but even the selection of different monsters Mega Bloks has is better. And as a die-hard Dragonite fan, I'm eagerly waiting for LEGO to catch up.
LEGO Pokémon Sets Up for Preorder
While some preorders are sold out for now, here are the LEGO Pokémon sets scheduled to release at the end of February. And with Pokémon's 30th anniversary on the horizon and a Pokémon Presents showcase likely, odds are we'll see more of what LEGO has in store.
It's been a banner launch day for Hytale, the new sandbox game from the creators of popular Minecraft server Hypixel. In addition to a surge of players and a lot of positive buzz, it's shot up to become, briefly, the most popular game on Twitch, with over 420k viewers.
This was observed first by PC Gamer, who earlier today clocked that it was the most-watched game on Twitch and the second-most-watched category, only behind Just Chatting by about 43k views. At the time this piece was written, Hytale had dropped down to around 260k viewers, but is still the most-watched video game and the third-most-watched category. It's now behind both Just Chatting and football (soccer, for the Americans) league Kings League. And it seems possible that it will surge further in the coming days.
It's a heck of a comeback story for a game that, half a year ago, was thought to be canceled entirely. Hytale, made by the developers of wildly popular Minecraft server Hypixel, was first announced in 2018 with an incredibly popular trailer, and garnered plenty of buzz at the time. Riot Games took notice, invested, and in 2020 acquired it entirely. However, Hytale was delayed several times as its scope grew, and just this past year was canceled entirely by Riot. Then, in November, co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme announced he had acquired the IP rights back from Riot, and in an incredibly fast turnaround, he and the team got the game ready for an early access release today.
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