Today's dedicated Nintendo Direct has revealed new details on Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, the next title in Nintendo's social sim series headed to Switch and Switch 2.

Hosted by long-term Nintendo producer Yoshiaki Koizumi, the 20-minute broadcast introduced a look at the latest entry in the Tomodachi series — the first in over a decade. Within the first few minutes, Nintendo answered one of fans' big questions of the game: whether it would cater to same-sex relationships, following a previous controversy.

Nintendo makes good on promise for Tomodachi Life to become more "inclusive"

Players will be able to set their Mii character's "dating preferences" with a combination of three options: Male, Female and Non-binary. The game notes that players "can pick one, more than one, or none."

Memorably, the series' previous game Tomodachi Life experienced a backlash over its lack of same-sex relationships, something Nintendo was forced to comment on after rumors spread online that they had been cut from the game, prompting commentary from late night TV host John Oliver — who broadcast a skit featuring Mario and Link snogging. Notably, Nintendo then promised that if it did make another Tomodachi Life game, it would make it "more inclusive, and [something that] better represents all players."

In 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler did something that both scientists and other mountaineers considered impossible: they climbed Mount Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen. After reaching the summit, they split up for the descent, and it took Messner nearly two hours to reach base camp. When he did arrive, he was suffering from snowblindness. Later, a reporter asked him why he went up there knowing he could have so easily died. “I didn’t go up there to die,” Messner, who would return to complete the first solo ascent (also without supplemental oxygen) of Everest two years later, responded. “I went up there to live.”

It’s a sentiment that would resonate with Aava, the protagonist of Cairn. “All I ever wanted was to touch eternity for an instant,” she tells us at the outset, her eyes to the stars, “To reach one of those rare moments of bliss where everything seems in its place, and you feel you’re part of a whole.” But her mountain isn’t Everest; it’s Kami, a fictional peak no one has ever summited, and she is determined to be the first. Cairn is her story, and like both the mountain she is challenging and the climb itself, it is an incredible one.

Cairn is a game about the climb, about choosing the right route up the mountain, finding the right handhold, taking a chance on the outcropping that seems slightly out of reach, pulling yourself up to a ledge just before your strength fails. Your path to Kami’s summit is up to you and you control each of Aava’s limbs independently (with some optional assistance on by default); each part of the climb is yours. The summit is the goal, but it is enough to make it to the next Bivouac, a tent in which you can sleep, to retape your fingers, cook food, and repair pitons damaged in the climb. There are meters in Cairn that track Aava’s temperature, hunger, hydration level, and overall health, and you’ll need to manage each if you want to survive. Cairn holds you accountable for your choices (if you don’t feed Aava, she will be weaker and climbing will be harder), but it’s rarely overly punishing, and managing your limited resources based on what Kami asks of you is both challenging and rewarding.

What doesn’t have a meter is Aava’s stamina, how strong her grip is at the moment, or how well she is maintaining the position you’ve taken. For that, you’ll have to watch her: the way her arms and legs tremble on an unstable hold, the way she breathes, how she whimpers and winces as she’s about to lose her grip. These tells work great, but they can be subtle, especially at first, and you have to pay attention until you learn what to look for and how to position Aava properly as she moves up the mountain. Aava is incredibly strong, but she’s also human. She cannot hold onto smooth rock for long, nor scurry up a sheer cliff through sheer force of will. Shaking out a tired limb and refocusing while on a semi-stable hold will buy you more time, but you cannot scale all of Kami that way.

Salvation, and progress, are found in the small divots she can grab onto, tiny ledges where her feet can find purchase, a crack on the cliff face she can wedge her toes into. Sometimes, there will be nothing, and you will have to take a risk, to brace Aava’s leg against a flat surface in the hope that she can pull herself up before her strength fails or sidle across a small ledge, her hands pressed against smooth stone.

If the rock is suitable, she can drive a piton into Kami and build a belay, clipping herself to a loop of rope in order to rest. If she falls and you’ve been smart about using pitons, her Climbot helper will catch her, and you can climb the rope back to the belay, or use it to rappel down to an area you might not otherwise reach. But even here, it’s possible to make a mistake and realize you need a belay before Aava has time to drive the piton home, or twist it as it’s going in, ensuring Climbot can only recover part of it rather than the whole thing the next time you’re on solid ground. If the stone is too dense, you’ll have to make the climb unaided. These are Cairn’s most memorable moments. You are going to fall. The only question is whether or not it will kill you, and how much time you’ll lose if the mountain claims you.

You can pull the camera out for a bird’s eye view of your location at any time (and see the route you’ve taken to get there, including failed past attempts), which is crucial for planning the next leg of your ascent. There are no wrong answers. Sometimes, the route is clear, but slower; other times, it’s faster, but more difficult, and requires more risk. Often, it’s somewhere in between, and you’ll have to choose where and how the route challenges you rather than if it will. And then there are the times where you’ll think you’ve found a good route only to reach a section without a clear answer, then check the map again and see that there was another, easier path available. Sometimes, you can tough it out with smart choices, chalk (which increases your grip strength), and a few well-placed pitons. Other times, it’s best to adjust your path.

Climbing Kami is exhilarating, and I often found myself gazing up at the path before me wondering how I would manage it, only to look down and realize I had a short time later. There is joy in planning out a route, in securing a piton at the last second before Aava falls, in finding the right handhold or wedging Aava’s feet into a crevice that unlocks a path that seemed impassible, in chalking up and daring to persist a difficult section in the rain instead of waiting it out on a belay, in seeing the path you chart in your head becoming the route you’ve taken, in finally pulling yourself onto a ledge after a particularly difficult climb when the night is falling and your visibility is failing and Aava is dehydrated and hungry and tired, in beating the mountain through sheer, dogged determination. The act of climbing doesn’t change much throughout Cairn’s runtime (my playthrough took me 19 hours, but I was very thorough), and occasionally Ava’s limbs may spider in strange directions or she may fall through the mountain, but I was so invested it hardly mattered.

As I play, Kami exists as something without end, taller than I could possibly imagine, something I will never complete, and the mountain I am scaling, all at once. It is a remarkable balance, and something Cairn never loses. I will never summit Kami; my victory is inevitable. Each time I make it to a Bivouac (which doubles as a save point), I feel like I’ve done the impossible.

But inside, there is always more to do. I need to tape Aava’s hands, scarred and covered in blood from the climb. I need Climbot to craft new pitons from the scraps I saved. I need to cook a meal, rehydrate. Aava brings supplies to the mountain, but her backpack can only hold so much. Each time I eat a chocolate bar or drink some milk or tape Aava’s hands, I know I am using up a resource I might not get back. Each time I sleep, I know she will wake up hungry. Kami forces me to make compromises. Climbing at sunset is dangerous because I can barely see; climbing at night is nearly impossible, something I only do if I have no other choice. Sometimes, I rest not because Aava physically needs to, but because there is no way to keep going until sunrise.

But it is not all hardship. When I need something, Kami provides. In caves, on ledges, I find dandelions, perfect for tea. Raspberries. Fresh, clear water. Fish. I am always teetering on collapse, never there. There is always just enough, if I’m smart. Climbot recycles used plastic and bottles and makes chalk. Each part of my journey feeds the other.

I learn the mountain’s story. I find the remains of a cable car and its station, of smashed-open vending machines, flyers and advertisements. Tourists walked here, once. Companies offered anyone the chance to see the mountain until it wasn’t profitable anymore, until it failed, until the mountain pushed back. I find the remains of the troglodytes, a civilization built on Kami, beautiful cities carved into the mountain, great statues. I explore. I learn of their resentment of climbers like Aava, the way civilization came for them, encroached on them, eventually forced them down. The remains of what they built are marked by pitons and covered in climbing rope. “My mountain belongs to everyone,” Aava tells a goat that attacks her. But in climbing it, I realize it isn’t true. By being here, I am profaning something sacred. I am walking through the graveyard of a culture people like Aava helped kill.

And I am reminded of the cost of what I am attempting. Sometimes, the hints are subtle. Bear-proof boxes full of supplies. Abandoned backpacks. Other times, they are less so. Dead bodies. “Sometimes you come for the mountain,” Aava says gently, kneeling over someone who shared a dream with her. ‘Sometimes the mountain comes for you.” Abandoned campsites. I learn of a group tracking bears on the mountain, and I wonder what happened to them, and about what I might run into as I ascend. I find the corpse of one-half of a climbing team, two orphans who promised to conquer Kami together, and a letter saying the other has gone on in search of a mystical flower with healing properties, hoping to save his partner. I find markings and letters from a couple who scaled Kami together, getting a little higher each time they attempted it. A broken Climbot still receiving messages because maybe that means the climber it belonged to still is, too.

These stories, and others, recur and build on themselves as I climb, and I find them moving. I explore, go out of my way, to see them. Cairn is not just about Aava; it is about Kami, and everyone who has attempted to climb it. There seem to be two outcomes: either they turn back, or they die. Kami remains unconquered. The mountain always wins.

As I ascend, I also learn about Aava, about the kind of person she is, about who someone driven to do something like this must be. Climbot relays messages she receives as she climbs. From her agent, Chris, who goes from begging her to send him photos to appease their sponsors to just begging her to let him know she’s all right. From her friends, who sing her happy birthday. From her partner, Noami, who does not understand why she is doing this, who reminds her of the cost of what she’s attempting. Aava mostly ignores them. Sometimes they make her smile, make her sad. Sometimes, she is angry with Climbot for playing them.

She meets other people on the mountain. A climber named Marco, who is a fan, grew up reading about her exploits. She is terse with him, occasionally unkind, though she does not mean to be. The quest for the summit may drive her, but she is running away from the world on the ground as much as she is climbing toward Kami’s peak. For everyone else, there is a life at the bottom of the mountain. All they have to do is give up and come down. For Avaa, the climb is all there is.

Cairn never gives us the whole story; everything comes in pieces, in hints, in what’s left unsaid, and in small comments, like the one she makes to Marco when he mentions her father, himself a climber, who put Aava on her first climbing wall when she was three years old. “Great guy,” Marco says, impressed. “So they tell me,” she responds. Like the mountain itself, Aava is complicated, complex, imperfect. And like the mountain, she is incredible. How I felt about her changed as I climbed, but I always understood her. As long as she faced Kami, so would I.

At the end of Cairn, Aava must make a choice about who she is, what she is willing to sacrifice, and how the experience of climbing Kami has changed her. It is a remarkable fusion of gameplay and storytelling, of everything you have seen and done on the mountain. Each choice leads to a different ending. Neither is wrong. I have seen both paths, and in either case, the last couple hours of Cairn are something I will remember for a very long time.

Doom fans will want to keep an eye out for the latest exclusive collectible from Dark Horse Direct. The company is releasing a new statue of the Doom Slayer from 2025's Doom: The Dark Ages in all his shield-slinging glory.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for an exclusive first look at this imposing and very cool statue:

The Doom: The Dark Ages - Doom Slayer Statue is a collaboration between Dark Horse Direct, id Software, and Bethesda Softworks. The statue was sculpted by Bigshot Toyworks and painted by J.W. Productions.

This massive collectible measures 14 inches tall and stands atop a 9.5-inch diameter metallic base. The statue depicts the Doom Slayer holding both a bloody chain flail and his trademark Shield Saw.

The Doom: The Dark Ages - Doom Slayer Statue is limited to 500 units worldwide and is priced at $319.99. It'll be sold exclusively on the Dark Horse Direct website, with an estimated release window between October and December 2026.

In other collectibles news, Hot Toys just unveiled a trio of new KPop: Demon Hunters figures.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

Check out the reveal of Huntdown: Overtime, the upcoming over-the-top pixel-art roguelike prequel to Huntdown. This one's set in New Detroit in the year 2084, and you play cybernetic rogue cop John Sawyer, who's out to clean up the city's scumbag-filled streets. It's in development for PC and due out in Steam Early Access in Q2 2026.

Interestingly, Overtime doubles down on having just one playable character, versus the original, which had three. But perhaps this will prove to be more effective in a roguelike loop as you attempt to take down goons and eventually the exaggerated '80s-style bosses. Watch the reveal trailer above and check out the first screenshots in the gallery below.

Huntdown: Overtime is being developed by original Hundown developer Easy Trigger Games and published by Coffee Stain Publishing. Wishlist it on Steam if you're interested, and/or play the demo!

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired 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.

Magic: The Gathering is set up for a rather busy 2026, with Lorwyn Eclipsed just releasing last week, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in March, and plenty more to come, such as Secrets of Strixhaven and Marvel's Superheroes, both of which went up for preorder recently.

But, there's also nothing wrong with looking back at one of the most exciting releases from last year: Avatar: The Last Airbender. Considered one of the better "Universes Beyond" sets, Avatar was a mighty big release, and well worth checking out in my opinion.

Now, here's the reason why we're talking about it, as its Beginner Box is discounted at Amazon right now, and has dropped to its best price ever.

Kozo Shioya, the Japanese voice actor behind Majin Buu in Dragon Ball Z and the Dragon Ball video games has died aged 71. As announced by his agency Aoni Production on Wednesday and reported by Oricon, Shioya passed away on January 20 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Shioya was the Japanese voice for all appearances of Majin Buu across the Dragon Ball anime and games, with the exception of the genie-like villain’s mini version in 2024’s Dragon Ball Daima, who was voiced by Shiho Amuro.

Fellow Dragon Ball VA Ryo Horikawa, who plays Vegeta, tweeted that he was “utterly shocked” to hear the news of Shioya’s passing, adding that “he was someone that I knew since the very beginning of my voice acting career. We would often go out drinking with everyone after recording. I have nothing but fun memories of him.”

Kozo Shioya, the Japanese Voice Actor for Majin Buu has passed away at the age of 70. Rest in Peace 🙏 pic.twitter.com/IQ4QMdNOri

— Hype (@DbsHype) January 28, 2026

Prolific voice actress Noriko Hidaka recalled working with Kozo Shioya many times, but that voicing One Piece’s Bell-Mère alongside Shioya’s Genzo was “particularly memorable.” She described the fellow actor as like “an older brother,” and that he was a reassuring presence when they were recording.

As well as voicing Majin Buu in Dragon Ball and Genzo in One Piece, Shioya voiced characters across a wide range of anime and game series. This included recurring roles in the Sengoku Basara franchise, in which he played Yoshimoto Imagawa and Xavi. He was also the Japanese language VA for characters in Mobile Suit Gundam, Bleach, Naruto, and Metal Gear Solid (playing Fatman in MGS2 and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in MGS3).

To commemorate the legacy of Kōzō Shioya, let's remember Majin Buu's most emotive moment in Dragon Ball Z ❤️‍🩹 pic.twitter.com/unq7S1crSX

— Dragon Ball Perfect Shots (@DBPerfectShots) January 28, 2026

Very sad to hear about the passing of Kozo Shioya. When I first swapped to the Japanese version of the show well over a decade ago now, his performance as Majin Boo was one that really stuck with me. He truly made that character terrifying in ways I'd never experienced before. pic.twitter.com/M61FEw8vZK

— Ajay (@AnimeAjay) January 28, 2026

Dragon Ball recently announced two new anime series and a new game project, Age 1000. If you missed it, here’s a rundown of all the reveals made at the series 40th anniversary event, Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri, last Sunday.

Image credit: Aoni Production.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Return to Silent Hill may have only released in theaters last week, but director Christophe Gans has already confirmed that a longer Director’s Cut exists.

According to a fan who attended a premiere and Q&A with the filmmaker last week and shared some highlights on Reddit, Gans described the alternate version "as longer and allowing [the story] more room to breathe." This includes the death scene of a prominent character from the game that only briefly appeared in the movie.

"Gans said he struggled to find the right place for it in the edit," the fan wrote. "It is unclear whether [the scene] would appear in the Director’s Cut, though he expressed a desire for audiences to see it someday." He also told attendees that he had been instructed by the producers to keep the movie under two hours long. There is no indication, however, that this Return to Silent Hill Director's Cut will ever be released.

Return to Silent Hill debuted to a dreadful reception last week, with just $3.2 million coming in from North American theaters. Despite Konami resurrecting its horror franchise with two well-received games, Silent Hill 2 Remake and Silent Hill f (as well as the divisive Silent Hill: Ascension and upcoming Silent Hill Townfall), the third Silent Hill movie had the lowest domestic box office opening of all three Silent Hill films; 2006's Silent Hill generated $20.2 million, and the painfully poor follow-up Silent Hill: Revelation just $8 million — which is still more than twice Return to Silent Hill's domestic opening.

IGN's Return to Silent Hill review returned a 5/10. We said: "Return to Silent Hill isn’t completely without merit. It’s certainly a better follow-up to Cristophe Gans’ original 2006 film than 2012’s Silent Hill: Revelation, one that finds some success drawing on the creepy imagery and sound design of the games. But it’s ultimately an adaptation that fails to improve upon the source material or do anything particularly new and interesting. Those craving a truly great psychological horror experience are better off booting up a version of Silent Hill 2."

Gans recently said that despite receiving death threats over adapting the horror series for the big screen, he would be open to bringing another instalment to life, insisting: "I will adapt another chapter because there are some that are extremely good, something very different from the first film, and now Return to Silent Hill. I like this world, and I can see that plenty of people are thinking I’m doing a pretty good job."

The question is, will he get the chance to make another Silent Hill movie? Perhaps working in Gans' favor is the fact Return to Silent Hill carries a modest production budget of $23 million.

You can find out more about what was and wasn't changed in the Silent Hill 2 movie adaptation right here. We also have a handy list of all the video game movies and TV shows coming in 2026 and beyond.

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.

James Gunn has defended The Brave and the Bold screenwriter Christina Hodson amid fan concern following news she will write the DC Universe’s Batman movie.

Last week, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Christina Hodson was writing The Brave and the Bold, which will be the first Batman movie in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe. Hodson is best known for writing 2018’s Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, 2020 DCEU movie Birds of Prey, and 2023’s ill-fated The Flash. She also wrote the infamous Batgirl movie Warner Bros. canceled after it was ready for release.

The backlash has a number of components to it, one of which is The Flash itself. 2023 superhero movie The Flash, starring Ezra Miller, was a critical and commercial flop, pulling in just $271 million worldwide during its theatrical run. Both it and the entire DCEU are now defunct.

Gunn responded to one person on social media who said Hodson was getting “unjust hatred,” suggesting The Flash fans saw in theaters wasn’t The Flash Hodson outlined in her screenplay.

“I will only say anyone maligning Christina Hodson's screenwriting skills has almost certainly never read an actual screenplay by Christina Hodson — she's one of the writers who was with us early in the DCU planning stages,” Gunn said. “I don't think you can judge my writing based on films others directed, as massive liberties are sometimes taken.”

In October, The Flash director Andy Muschietti defended his box office bomb, insisting people “like to talk s***” about films they haven’t seen. In an interview with The Playlist to promote IT prequel series Welcome To Derry, Muschietti insisted The Flash was a good movie, and some of the criticism it suffered came from people who hadn’t even seen it.

“A lot of people did not see it,” he said. “But you know how things are these days — people don’t see things, but they like to talk s*** about it, and they like to jump on bandwagons. They don’t really know. People are angry for reasons that are unrelated to these things.”

Muschietti then acknowledged the impact of Ezra Miller’s off-screen controversies on the movie. “Of course, we had a publicity crisis with Ezra that is undeniable,” he said. “And I’m not questioning that. But yeah, we love the movie. And actually, we really recommend it.”

He continued: “And again, we love the movie. We, you know, we gave it our blood, sweat, and tears all the way to the end. And I watched it, like a week ago, and loved it again.”

In January last year, Muschietti said The Flash failed at the box office because "a lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character."

Muschietti said the film failed to appeal to "the four quadrants" — a movie industry term meaning to appeal to everyone — enough to justify its $200 million budget.

"The Flash failed, among all the other reasons, because it wasn’t a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that," Muschietti said. "When you spend $200 million making a movie, [Warner Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters.

"I’ve found in private conversations that a lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film I’ve learned."

The four quadrants, as defined by Hollywood, are males under 25, males over 25, females under 25, and females over 25.

Woot has plenty to offer right now in its latest 'Video Game Mega Sale!', which is back with some truly excellent discounts, including on a wide variety of Nintendo Switch games.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder are just a few of the games on sale that are worth considering, but there are so many more to check out as well. Have a look through more of our favorite picks from Woot's sale below, and if you're curious to see everything that's discounted, head to the Mega Sale landing page here.

Nintendo recently confirmed a release date for Super Mario Bros. Wonder's expanded Switch 2 Edition, which makes it my top pick in the sale right now. The Switch 2 Edition will be available to purchase separately, or existing Switch owners of the game can alternatively purchase an upgrade pack, which costs $19.99.

So with the $46.99 cost, plus that extra $19.99 to upgrade, you're looking at $66.98 instead of $79.99, so around $13 savings in total, if you don't already own the game. This is the best and most affordable way to play on Switch 2 with the full upgrades and additional content.

Arriving on March 26, the upgraded release will include a suite of new minigames and the ability to play as Rosalina, ahead of her big screen debut in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

An important thing to keep in mind is that all Nintendo Switch games are region-free, so if you come across a game deal from Woot's sale that says it's the 'International Version', it will still work just fine on your console.

What's especially nice about these deals is that certain games, such as Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Breath of the Wild, can be upgraded to their Switch 2 versions for a small fee.

At these prices, you can buy the Switch 1 version and upgrade to the next-gen version for less than it costs to buy their Switch 2 editions. Even a game like Animal Crossing: New Horizons is worth buying now at this price, with its $5 upgrade pack now available, compared to dropping the $64.99 on its boxed Switch 2 edition.

Robert Anderson, Senior Commerce Editor, and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.

This article contains contributions from Hannah Hoolihan.

Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has assured fans that he is "not going to abandon Haunted Chocolatier," saying: "it's taking a while to finish the game," and "that's okay."

In a new blog posted to the official Haunted Chocolatier website, Barone dispelled a number of myths and rumors that have popped up about him and his work on the upcoming game, admitting: "I know, I know, I shouldn't have announced the game so early. But I had my reasons." He added that Haunted Chocolatier will release "when it's done."

Responding to reports that the game will be abandoned entirely and possibly folded into Stardew Valley, Barone shut that down completely, writing: "No. First, I am not going to abandon Haunted Chocolatier. But even if I did, I am not going to add it to Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley and Haunted Chocolatier are separate games. It doesn’t even make sense from a technical perspective, as Haunted Chocolatier is written from scratch, it’s not the same 'engine' as Stardew Valley. You can’t just copy and paste Haunted Chocolatier into Stardew Valley."

Last summer, Barone admitted that he "didn't want to just be the Stardew Valley guy," explaining that was why he's currently working on Haunted Chocolatier. He's been clear that we shouldn't expect a release date anytime soon, though — there's "still a lot to be done," particularly as he feels it's "got to be better" than Stardew Valley. But that doesn't mean he's using Stardew to test ideas for Haunted Chocolatier, or vice-versa.

"When working on Stardew Valley, I’m not thinking about Haunted Chocolatier, and vice versa. I wouldn’t 'test something out' in Stardew Valley because that would be unfair to Stardew Valley, and also I don’t want to spoil ideas for Haunted Chocolatier by adding them first to Stardew Valley. Also, Stardew Valley is a different game, so you can’t really 'test something' for Haunted Chocolatier in it in an accurate way."

Barone also insisted that at no point did he intimate that the new game wouldn't be out until 2030, writing: "I was asked in 2025 if it would come out within the next five years, and I said 'I hope so.' This is very different than saying 'it’s coming out in 2030.' The bottom line is, I don’t want to give a release date. The game will come out when it’s done. Anyway, the only thing that really matters is that I keep making progress on the game and release it. So I’m gonna get back to doing that now.

"TLDR: I’m alive, the game is still in development, and it will come out when it’s ready. Thank you for your patience."

Talking of Stardew Valley: as fans continue to wait patiently for the previously announced 1.7 update, Barone dropped a couple of small, vague, yet exciting hints just before the holidays about what said mysterious update might entail, including a new farm type, and "more character/social stuff."

As for why Barone's working on a Stardew Valley update at the same time as Haunted Chocolatier? "I’m working on a new Stardew update because it’s a very popular game with a large, ever-growing playerbase, and I still have additional ideas for how to improve it."

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.

Nintendo has added health bars to Splatoon 3 more than three years after the game's release, prompting a mixed reaction from fans.

This week, Nintendo dropped an unexpected update to its inky shooter threequel, which originally launched for the original Switch back in September 2022. Alongside a new "Aura Flow" feature and other tweaks, the patch has notably added health bars — something which has come as a huge surprise to fans of the franchise.

In patch notes published alongside the game's 11.0.0 update, Nintendo announced that it would now be possible "to see an opponent's remaining health when they've been hit. Previously, you could only see how damaged an enemy was by looking closely at how much ink they were covered in – not so easy to do in the heat of battle!"

Apart from the surprise of such a major change being made so late in Splatoon 3's life, it's that latter sentence that has left fans with confusion. Splatoon has always featured a visual representation of damage without the need for health bars — how splattered in ink a character is — and health pools in general are typically quite low, with most weapons splatting foes in three or four hits.

Combat is an important part of Splatoon gameplay, of course, but only one component — as matches revolve around coating maps with ink to establish territory control.

"You'll also be able to see the health bars of your teammates if they've taken damage," Nintendo continued. "Keeping an eye on these health bars is a great way to support your allies or chase down weakened foes – even if you've teamed up with Inklings and Octolings you're not familiar with."

adding a health bar after the games update cycle finished like a year ago was certainly a choice https://t.co/glOvo4bme6 pic.twitter.com/P1ZMDIA022

— sunny 🍓 corbeau posting (@sunnydr0pdraws) January 27, 2026

"Health bars are even funnier when you consider Splatoon came up with a unique way to have health bars diegetically - by having the enemy getting covered in ink, that's the stuff that makes the game special," wrote one fan, EIectroDev. "Correct me if I'm wrong but it really took the Splatoon developers three games and over ten years to add visible health bars," noted Thinginator90. "The minds of Nintendo devs never cease to amaze."

"This health bar is so ugly im so sorry i hope we can toggle it off," added candy_draws_o_o, one of many fans to complain about how basic the health bar looks. (And no, you can't toggle it off.)

This week's update also added "Aura Flow," a gameplay feature that rewards competitive play — splatting multiple enemies in quick succession — with a burst of area-covering ink, plus a 30-second buff to speed and other stats.

"I hates this and the health bar update," said KidaToAsobou. "It just makes Splatoon a more aggressive/competitive game. [Splatoon 3] already did that by making the maps smaller forcing players to fight more but this only further incentivizes people to attack the enemy team rather then inking."

It's perhaps unsurprising to see a negative reaction to such changes from fans who have become used to playing Splatoon 3 a certain way for so long. But this only further begs the question of why Nintendo is adding these features now, years after launch. By way of an answer, several fans have suggested the possibility that Nintendo is now testing ideas it is experimenting with ahead of a new iteration of Splatoon, examining feedback and using Splatoon 3 as live gameplay environment to see how player behavior is impacted. "Testing splatoon 4 features I reckon," wrote pejic839, "like when they added online to Super Mario party as a test for Superstars."

Next up for the Splatoon franchise will be Switch 2 single-player spin-off Splatoon Raiders, which will expand the series with a more story-orientated entry. As for Splatoon 4, while another game in the franchise feels inevitable, there's no word on that yet.

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

Amazon is releasing Fallout Season 1 for free on YouTube ahead of next week’s Season 2 finale.

Fallout Season 1 episodes are dropping on the Prime Video YouTube channel daily, with Episode 1, called The End, and Episode 2, called The Target, live now.

It’s a welcome addition for non-Amazon Prime subscribers and a move that will surely build even more interest in the show, with Season 2, Episode 8 set for broadcast next week.

As someone who is up to date with the Fallout show, it was interesting to put Season 1, Episode 1 on YouTube for a few minutes, given recent comments from Cooper Howard / The Ghoul actor Walton Goggins.

Warning! Spoilers for Fallout follow:

In a recent interview, Goggins teased that Episode 8 will finally resolve one of the burning questions fans have had since Fallout hit Prime video back in 2024: how did his pre-war character, Cooper Howard, come to be at that birthday party with his daughter, right as the bombs fell?

"I mean, the whole first seven minutes of this experience in Season 1 was about [Cooper being] a guy at a birthday party,” Goggins told Entertainment Weekly. “Well, how did he get to that birthday party? What happened? It's all leading somewhere."

Rewatching Episode 1, I also picked up on something that passed me by before: during the party we hear a radio news bulletin that tells us the White House still has no comment on the whereabouts of the U.S. president.

Why is that of interest now? This week’s episode revealed the President of the United States, played by Clancy Brown, in a Fallout franchise first (he’s been talked about in the video games before, briefly, but never turned up in the flesh until now). In Fallout lore, ‘The Last President of the United States’ is working for The Enclave, the faction fans suspect to be pulling the strings in the TV show’s overarching storyline. He ditches the White House and relocates to Control Station Enclave off of the coast of San Francisco (we see this in Fallout 2). Based on how things go in Season 2, Episode 7, Cooper Howard is about to find out just how dastardly the U.S. president is for himself.

If you are up to date, it's worth checking out the Fallout co-showrunner's tease about Season 2, Episode 8, which sounds like it will have a significant impact on The Ghoul, Lucy, and Maximus. After that, be sure to check out IGN’s Fallout Season 2, Episode 7 review.

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.

One of the showrunners of the Fallout TV series has discussed the fate of Mr. House as we approach the Season 2 finale, and explained how the show has still managed to avoid making a New Vegas ending canon.

Warning! Spoilers for Fallout Season 2 follow:

Last month, the creators of the Fallout TV show told IGN that Season 2 avoids making any New Vegas ending canon by taking what they call "the fog of war approach." Fans of the Fallout video games had wondered how Season 2 might reflect the various endings of Obsidian’s much-loved Fallout New Vegas, given the show is canon and is set 15 years after the game.

A quick reminder of where we’re at in the Fallout timeline: the Fallout TV show is set in 2296, nine years after the events of Fallout 4 and 15 years after the events of Fallout: New Vegas. We’ve already seen a debate about which Fallout 4 ending should be considered canon, if any. But what about New Vegas?

Depending on the choices the player, aka The Courier, makes throughout the course of the game, New Vegas can end with victory for the player during the Battle of Hoover Dam, which drives out all factions including Mr. House himself, a victory for Mr. House in which he remains in control of New Vegas and takes over Hoover Dam, a victory for Caesar's Legion, or a victory for the New California Republic.

In Episode 7 of Season 2, The Ghoul meets Maximus, and he uses the Cold Fusion diode that Maximus stole from the Brotherhood to power up the machine we saw back when Cooper met House in a flashback on the top floor of Lucky 38. The big terminal boots up, House appears on screen and says: "Well hello, old chum."

This led to a theory that New Vegas’ "The House Always Wins" ending was canon because that’s the only ending House survives. But in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet said that’s not the case because what we’re seeing here is yet another version of House that needed the diode to exist.

"It did seem to us like a version of himself powered by cold fusion would be sort of the ultimate possible incarnation of Robert House," Robertson-Dworet explained. "And as someone who is interested in robotics and artificial non-biological versions of selves, it made a lot of sense to us that this would've been something that he would've developed and sort of be the ultimate version of him. I've always seen it as something that allows for many players' experiences to have happened, but still Robert House had this other version of himself, that he was always ready to create and what he needed was the diode."

Entertainment Weekly then asked if this is in fact House's final final form, and Robertson-Dworet declined to properly answer. "That's an interesting question,” she said, keeping her cards close to her chest. “I'm not answering that, but I'm very intrigued by the question.”

Robertson-Dworet did go on to tease The Ghoul’s bargain with House, which Episode 7 sets up, and its impact on the much-loved character’s future. "He's just given House what he wanted after 200 years,” she said. “He's finally given him the thing that he's most desired. And the question, of course, is what will he get in exchange? He obviously is looking for his wife and daughter, and what will he find?"

Meanwhile, Walton Goggins teased that Episode 8 will finally resolve one of the burning questions fans have had since Season 1, Episode 1: how did his pre-war character, Cooper Howard, come to be at that birthday party with his daughter, right as the bombs fell?

"I mean, the whole first seven minutes of this experience in Season 1 was about [Cooper being] a guy at a birthday party,” he said. “Well, how did he get to that birthday party? What happened? It's all leading somewhere."

All eyes are now on the final episode of Fallout Season 2, which, given Season 3 is already confirmed, will no doubt pose just as many questions as it answers. While you wait, be sure to check out IGN’s Fallout Season 2, Episode 7 review.

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.

DRM-free PC storefront GOG.com has come under fire for promoting a sale with a 'fully AI' image, sparking a backlash from customers and even a member of the company's staff.

A few days back, an eagle-eyed GOG user noticed that an image on the front page of the site's storefront contained many telltale signs of generative AI, including a weirdly old-fashioned TV and what appears to be something like a Super Nintendo console system melting onto a table, which is a strange image indeed for a website selling PC games. As one Redditor joked, "[This is] me after I blast my NES with a heat gun for six hours and settle in to look at the side profile of my 50 year-old-TV."

"Using AI art like this feels directly at odds with the whole reason I buy things from their storefront to begin with," wrote one unhappy commenter. "Deeply disappointing, and will probably hold off on buying from GOG for the foreseeable future because of it." Another added: "As long as GOG is using generative AI images or coding I will never buy another game from their site. This is extremely disappointing. It goes completely against my values and the value of human art preservation I care about GOG for. I'm not budging on this."

Ubisoft has finally acknowledged the never-ending deluge of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake leaks, after yet another slip-up.

Earlier this week, a collectible statue featuring the game's hero Edward Kenway bizarrely popped up for sale on used clothing app Vinted. The item appeared to be the under-wraps tie-in teased last year by merchandise maker Pure Arts — and now, Ubisoft has effectively confirmed that this is the case.

Writing on Twitter / X, Ubisoft used its official Assassin's Creed account to respond to the original post that shared photos of said statue, replying with the classic GTA San Andreas meme showing that game's protagonist Carl Johnson wearily stating: "Ah s***, here we go again."

pic.twitter.com/IRDhrgCPAp

— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) January 28, 2026

The statue's appearance online follows a hint by collectible company Pure Arts last year suggesting it had something in the works for Black Flag which would surface in the not-too-distant future as "there is something going on." Its Vinted listing gave no clue to its origins, though stated that it was due for release in 2026. A detailed close-up of the statue's base shown in photos displayed logos for Ubisoft and Pure Arts, with a copyright mark registered for 2026.

With this now out there, alongside everything else that has leaked about the game, it's perhaps unsurprising that Ubisoft has now given up pretending there's nothing going on. While clearly a humorous response, this also marks the first time Ubisoft has ever commented on anything to do with the Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake, despite a long, long string of reports and leaks surrounding its existance.

Perhaps the most notable confirmation of the project came from Edward Kenway's own voice actor, who initially teased the project before later suggesting he'd been told by Ubisoft in no uncertain terms to stop talking. Finally, last month, the game popped up on the PEGI European ratings board website revealing what looks to be its final title: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.

Officially, Ubisoft has only referred to the game's impending launch by acknowledging it had an unannounced game due to arrive before the end of its current financial year on March 31. Last week, however, this game was then delayed into the coming financial year (ending March 31, 2027) due to the company's major recent reshuffle of teams, projects and studios.

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

The Pokémon Company has officially delayed the Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution - Ascended Heroes Erika/Larry two-pack blisters from its original release date of January 30, 2026, to February 20 in the US and Canada.

Ascended Heroes is the latest Pokémon TCG set from the new Mega Evolution series. But, with the latest delay, this means that just a single sealed product will now be available to fans during its release week.

pic.twitter.com/oSpnpZgEKl

— Pokémon TCG (@PokemonTCG) January 28, 2026

The new set is already getting a fairly staggered release, with the majority of products now releasing between February 20 and April 24. That includes some of the most popular items from a new Pokémon card set, such as the Elite Trainer Box, Booster Bundles, and more.

The delayed booster set features a promo card with either Erika’s Tangela or Larry’s Komala, a metallic coin featuring the chosen Gym Leader, and two booster packs from the Mega Evolution - Ascended Heroes expansion.

The only new booster set available in release week will be the Ascended Heroes Tech Sticker Collection, featuring Charmander and Ghastly as a foil promo card, plus a sheet of tech stickers featuring Mega Charizard Y and Mega Gengar, plus three Ascended Heroes boosters.

It's already been hard to come by Ascended Heroes preorders, and undoubtedly this delay won't make it any easier for fans after release day. Ascended Heroes ETBs, for example, are currently averaging around $115-120 on resale markets - around a 135% markup from its MSRP of $49.99.

Ascended Heroes' Booster Bundles are also looking a little steep right now, and sit at $79.10 market price. That's a fair lot more than its $26.94 list price, roughly a 194% markup, and almost triple the cost for what accounts for just six boosters.

It's a similar story across the board, with fans likely to find it tough to find boosters from the new expansion outside of retailers like TCGplayer. That's also consistent with the follow up expansion for Mega Evolution, Perfect Order.

Ascended Heroes being hard to come by won't be surprising for most fans. The scarcity of the Mega Evolution series isn't exactly an outlier for Pokémon TCG, with stock issues, lack of common availibility, and delays plaguing the world's most popular trading card game for the past couple of years, at least, and stretches back through its Scarlet and Violet series as well.

Robert Anderson, Senior Commerce Editor, and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.

There Will Be Blood and The Batman actor Paul Dano has expressed his gratitude for the support he received after Quentin Tarantino insulted him on a podcast.

Tarantino, who became a household name for writing and directing the likes of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast last year to reveal his 20 favorite films of the 21st century. He picked Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down at number one, but his comments around his number five pick, There Will Be Blood, set the internet on fire. Tarantino said There Will Be Blood might have been his top pick if it weren’t for Paul Dano, who he described as the film’s “giant flaw.” Dano was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for playing identical twins Paul and Eli Sunday in Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 period drama.

Here’s Tarantino’s quote in full:

“Daniel Day-Lewis. The old-style craftsmanship quality to the film. It had an old Hollywood craftsmanship without trying to be like that. It was the only film he’s ever done, and I brought it up to him, that doesn’t have a set piece. The fire is the closest to a set piece. This was about dealing with the narrative, dealing with the story, and he did it f***ing amazingly. There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being number one or number two if it didn’t have a big, giant flaw in it … and the flaw is Paul Dano. Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, but it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest f***ing actor in SAG [laughs].”

Bret Easton Ellis, who wrote 1991 novel American Psycho, suggested Dano faced an impossible task keeping up with Daniel Day-Lewis' Oscar-winning performance. "Daniel Day-Lewis also makes it impossible to make it a two-hander because there are aspects of that performance that are so gargantuan," he offered.

Tarantino countered: "So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG? The limpest dick in the world?" Later, he clarified his position, insisting: "I'm not saying he's giving a terrible performance. I'm saying he's giving a non-entity performance." But Tarantino’s feelings on Dano were made clear: "I don't care for him," he said. "I don't care for him, I don't care for Owen Wilson, and I don't care for Matthew Lillard."

This week, Variety asked Dano about Tarantino’s comments at a 20th anniversary screening of Little Miss Sunshine at the Sundance Film Festival. “That was really nice,” Dano said of the support he received. “I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.”

Variety reported that Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris also commented, with Dayton calling Tarantino’s remarks an “embarrassment.” He added: “I can only think that his rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable. He couldn’t be easily filed.”

After Tarantino’s comments hit the internet, fans moved to defend Dano’s performance in There Will Be Blood, pointing out the context surrounding his role. Dano, who was only 23 years old when he was cast in the film, was originally only set to play the brother Paul, but took over both the twin roles two weeks after filming began when the actor originally cast as Eli, Kel O’Neill, was fired because Paul Thomas Anderson decided he “wasn’t the right fit.”

After There Will Be Blood came out, Dano spoke about the difficulty he faced adding this extra role with very little time to prepare. "On There Will Be Blood I was cast at the last minute," he said in an interview with Indiewire. "I had 3 1/2 to 4 days to get ready for the first day. That was just guts and instinct, not a lot of preparation." Dano went on to receive critical acclaim for his roles in 12 Years a Slave and Prisoners, and won plaudits for his portrayal of supervillain Riddler in 2022’s The Batman.

Meanwhile, Matthew Lillard also commented on his experience, having been the subject of Tarantino’s criticism alongside Dano. The Scream and Five Nights at Freddy's star told Entertainment Weekly that receiving tributes from his peers on social media “was like living through your own wake.”

He continued: “All those R.I.P. emails or tweets and Instagram posts and TikToks, all of the things we see after somebody passes are so sweet. And the reality is I just got to live through all of it firsthand — alive and kicking! I can't imagine a more lovely reaction to what happened.”

Last month, Lillard admitted "it f***ing sucks" to be on the receiving end of an insult from Tarantino. Lillard reacted to the drive-by insult at GalaxyCon in Columbus, Ohio, in December, and addressed the audience of fans by bringing Tarantino’s insult up.

"Quentin Tarantino this week said he didn't like me as an actor," Lillard said. "Eh, whatever. Who gives a s**t?"

Magic: The Gathering just kicked off its schedule for 2026 with Lorwyn Eclipsed, but it won’t be long until we’re teaming up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for their own set in March.

The next set will get its own Draft Night boxed set for players to enjoy right out of the box, and it’s now back in stock at Amazon for the first time in a good while. Here’s what’s included, and how you can save almost $30 as well.