The Walt Disney Company has been telling some of the most beloved stories in all of entertainment for over 100 years, but it's taken stepping aboard the Disney Destiny for me to feel more a part of them than I ever have before.

After inviting me to Papenburg, Germany, in August to see how the Disney Destiny was built, Disney welcomed me back aboard its newest cruise ship ahead of its maiden voyage on November 20 to experience what makes this Heroes & Villains-themed ship so special. After departing Ft. Lauderdale’s Port Everglades for three way-too-short days, it was those special story moments we were part of - whether it be Loki taking over the Grand Hall and declaring himself king or Cruella de Vil storming into her own lounge - that truly won me over.

Developer Poncle says its newly announced Vampire Crawlers is more of a spinoff than a sequel, but it sounds like Vampire Survivors 2 may actually be in the works, too.

Fans had their eyebrows raised when the studio behind the hit monster-slaying video game announced Vampire Crawlers as its new game during today’s Xbox Partner Preview. While the roguelike deck-builder might seem like a proper Vampire Survivors sequel at first glance, Poncle says in a new interview with Xbox Wire, this isn’t the case.

“This is just a spin-off of Vampire Survivors – hopefully the first in a series of spin-offs!” studio founder and CEO Luca Galante said. “The idea is to take some of the core pillars behind the development of VS and to apply them to existing genres. I’m talking about accessibility, immediacy, affordability, replayability, and sparkly stuff. Tons of sparkly stuff!”

It’s no doubt an idea a wide range of Vampire Survivors fans will gravitate to, especially as Poncle teases what could be more than one spinoff. Alas, the lack of a 2 next to the title means Vampire Crawlers is planned to offer something different from the core experience, but fans hoping for a proper follow-up may not want to count out Vampire Survivors 2 just yet.

“With regards to a sequel to Vampire Survivors, we’re working on something, but we’re not talking about that just yet,” Galante adds.

It's just one sentence of acknowledgement, but it’s still enough to confirm that Poncle has multiple ideas brewing when it comes to the future Vampire Survivors. Whether that lands a 2 next to the original title's name or results in something else entirely, we’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, Vampire Crawlers seeks to bring the humor the series is known for together with a new gameplay loop. A trailer for the spinoff, which Galante says Poncle has been working on for around four years, reveals a switch to first-person gameplay with some dungeon-crawling to boot.

Vampire Survivors 2 could be years away. In the meantime, players can look forward to Vampire Crawlers when it comes to PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S in 2026. For more, you can read our Vampire Survivors 1.0 review, where we gave Poncle’s popular monster-slaying game an 8/10.

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).

Sony's newest flagship wireless noise cancelling headphone has dropped to the lowest price ever, and it's not even close. Ahead of Black Friday, Amazon Resale is selling "like new" Sony WH-1000XM6 wireless noise canceling headphones for as low as $248.43 after an automatic 20% off discount is applied during checkout. It normally retails for $450 and the current "Black Friday deal" for buying it new is still nearly $400 on Amazon.

Amazon Resale (formerly Amazon Warehouse) is Amazon's official account for used goods. The products are sorted by condition, with "Like New" being the best. There's a good chance these items haven't been used at all and were returns from customers who have changed their minds, or simply products with blemished packaging. All Amazon Resale items also get the same 30-day return policy as any other Amazon purchase. Most "Like New" items still have a majority of its original manufacturer's warranty remaining (and sometimes the full warranty if the item was never sold).

"Like New" Sony WH-1000XM6 Headphones From $248.43

Amazon’s Black Friday sale is officially live. Yes, a week ahead of time. Deals will rotate in and out until the day of Black Friday itself, which does make it a bit challenging to figure out whether you’re actually getting the best possible discount.

One of the big draws of any Amazon sale is the amount of discounts on physical media, and the retailer has highlighted a whole section for Black Friday anime deals. There are hits and misses here, for sure, but I managed to pick out quite a few great deals that are at or very close to their all-time low prices.

Anime Blu-rays and DVDs in Amazon’s Black Friday Sale

As with any Amazon sale, I recommend doing a bit of scrolling and searching for your favorite series. If you're looking for some inspiration, Dan Da Dan is a personal favorite from the past couple years, in large part because I still haven’t gotten the banging intro out of my head. The anime adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man has also become a massive hit, and the limited edition Blu-ray of Season 1 includes a 72-page Booklet and digital art galleries. Both of these Season 1 releases have dropped to all-time low prices, making them the best deals from the current generation.

From a little further back in the day, you have the combination of anime that got me personally into the medium. Death Note is nothing short of a classic, worthy of a spot on any collector’s shelf. While not quite at its lowest ever price, a 60% discount is nothing to scoff at.

On the wackier side of things, the complete series of Soul Eater has hit an all-time low. I stand by it as one of the greats in large part for having some of the coolest character designs. (Looking at you, Death the Kid).

There’s a somewhat slimmer spread of anime movies on sale, but there are certain deals that are pretty much unbeatable. This includes one of the more recent steelbook releases, Grave of the Fireflies, hitting a new lowest ever price. While the rest of the Studio Ghibli movies have small discounts right now, I’d expect better deals on those closer to Black Friday. (For reference, they're pretty much always on sale.)

What About Streaming?

Best Buy's Black Friday Sale has officially kicked off with some great deals on gaming hardware. Possibly the very best deal I've found so far is on the Lenovo Legion Go S Z1 Exterme SteamOS handheld gaming PC, which has dropped to just $649.99 after a massive $250 instant discount. This is the lowest price I've seen by nearly $130. Note that this is the more powerful model with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip and it is easily one of the best Steam-based gaming handhelds currently available. It's essentially a souped up Steam Deck alternative.

Save $250 Off the Lenovo Legion Go S Handheld Gaming PC

Godfall developer Counterplay Games reportedly shut down earlier this year, so seeing it suddenly reappear with Armatus, a full-blown roguelite shooter coming to PC and consoles in 2026, might be somewhat of a shock.

A trailer, including everything from far-along cinematics and tense gameplay, materialized during today’s November 2025 Xbox Partner Preview. It’s undeniably got that Godfall flair to it, as its main character can be seen smashing and blasting their way through a post-post-apocalyptic Paris.

It’s not often a game developer seemingly closes down only to reemerge months later with a brand-new video game for PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S. We sat down with Counterplay studio head and creative director Ming Zhang to learn more about Armatus, its roguelike gameplay, and what it’s been like for the team to continue its work when those rumors were kicked up. You can see the full interview below.

IGN: To set the stage, tell me about Armatus and this trailer we're going to see. What are players looking at in this first trailer?

Ming Zhang: What you see in this trailer is snippets of gameplay, largely with a little bit of cinematic footage from our game. You know, it's been a number of years in the making, and this is Counterplay's next entry in our love of visceral combat. You see some of the abilities, some of the enemies, and some of the cool moves that you're going to be you're going to be able to do, in this case.

What can you tell me, in a little more detail, about its gameplay, its story, and, especially, the world it takes place in?

Zhang: It's a third-person roguelite shooter, and in order to build the world, what we did, is we took the concept of urban fantasy, which is the grim supernatural underneath the real world, and we took it to the nines. What happens in the post-post-apocalypse of an urban fantasy world? Well, you know, the real world kind of starts to break apart, and underneath, all the supernatural stuff starts to spill forth, right? When you think about, 'What is a city that evokes classic but also modern, and has all the right tone and tambre, even un-supernatural?' It would be Paris. Starting from there, we then said, 'Well, what is the kind of character that we would have bring here? We wanted to create the supernatural character, who was powerful and had access to these celestial abilities that you would be able to use, but we also wanted to take the sound and fury of modern firearms and put that in the hands of this supernatural being. So, you've got the magic and the firepower, and put it together.

I saw The Vanishing is what triggered this Paris to look like this. What can you tell me about that event and how it resulted in something like that?

Zhang: There's something about the word spoiler that is coming up (laughs), so you'll have to, you'll have to play and find out, but it is the pivotal event. That kicks off the game.

That's totally fair. You talked about it a little bit there, but what else is it about Paris that makes it the location you go to for this instead of somewhere else around the world?

Zhang: Paris just has incredible visuals, as a city. Again, when you think urban fantasy, it's impossible to avoid a lot of the gothic undertones. The architecture of the city already evokes the emotions that we wanted from those from the supernatural side of the world, so combining that real world with the supernatural was a big part of the setting as well.

I'm curious if you can tell us more about the different tools players will have at their disposal. Are there different guns, weapon modifiers, or abilities? What can we generally look forward to?

Zhang: This is a run-based game, and the primary, I say, means of combat that the player has is, of course, your gun. So, you have your gun, you will be able to shoot it, but you also have a melee weapon at your disposal, and you have several locomotion kits and several abilities that you will be able to pick. One of the things that was really important to us was that players do this thing that we internally call 'creative expression through combat,' where not only is it that, you have all these amazing tools that you can use in your in your player kit, it's that you get to customize the player kit that you're taking on the run as you play each run. Just as it's important to have visceral fidelity in the gameplay, it was important for us to have the build craft to go along with it.

Armatus is described as a third-person, roguelite shooter. Are there any specific games that inspired Counterplay when crafting its gameplay?

Zhang: We have a lot of references, as all game designers do. I think you'll have to play and discover all the references, but I think fans of the genre will be very pleased with what we have to offer.

I don't know if maybe you'd have the same answer, then, for some of the different movies, books, and games or shows that inspired the story and universe this takes place in?

Zhang: Well, one of the things that we always look for at Counterplay, and we've done this since the beginning, was interesting genre blends. Without getting you know too nerdy (laughs), we always look for combinations. We always look for the chocolate and peanut butter or whatnot, and so I think a lot of the fun in doing that is for our players to figure it out on on their own, but I think you'll see the inspirations worn pretty heavily on our sleeves.

Roguelite, I think, is a term that a lot of people hear, and they feel like if they've played one, they've played them all. What does Armatus do to stand apart from other rogue lights and shooters?

Zhang: I tend to think of roguelite as a design framework. It'd be like saying, 'If you played one RPG, you played them all.' The design framework is the thing that you scaffold the game on top of, but it's not the only thing in the game. As we emphasized, our game really sings when you get into the combat. Creative expression through combat is a core pillar of what we wanted to do. If you came into this game and you just wanted to slaughter demons using abilities and guns and melee, this is the game for you, and if you wanted to be the kind of person who strategically picks every single upgrade in order to hit the perfect combination and eradicate rooms that way, this is also the game for you. So that's kind of how we think about it.

How long is your average run going to be? Is this the kind of thing where you can play quick run before bed, or do you really need to sit down and lock in for hours and hours?

Zhang: We're still working on the game, so I prefer not to give a number at this at this point, but what I will say is, like many games that have come before and after, both in the third-person action genre, as well as the roguelite genre, the choices that you make have a big impact on how much you can do.

I think at the end of the trailer, you tease a boss fight. I'm not looking for specifics here, but are bosses something players can look forward to in Armatus, and what can you tell me about them?

Zhang: Yeah, bosses are definitely a part of the game. Thank you for that. Bosses are definitely a part of the game, and we call them Greater Demons. What they represent is, if you think of the demonic incursion that's happening in Paris, in the post-apocalypse that we talked about, the Greater Demons are the ones that anchor. They're more solid than the other ones. They're bigger, they're scarier, they are figures of nightmare, and I think players will have a great time being killed and killing them as well.

So would you call Armatus a particularly difficult game, then, or is that in the hands of the player through different options?

Zhang: I think that's going to be up to the player, but I guess you'll have to wait and see on that one, too.

What are some of the lessons the team learned from, specifically, Godfall, because it's really easy to compare these two, that the team brought into the development of Armatus?

Zhang: I think the biggest one is this: Coming out of Godfall, one of the things we consistently received feedback on, and it was almost all positive, but basically the big discussion point was the starting point in the game felt almost primordial. Then, as you unlocked moves in the skill tree, suddenly you were doing this and you were doing that. The combat in that game felt like a conversation with the developers. Again, I'm paraphrasing, you know, one or two reviews here, but that was a major source of feedback we got across the board. Fans really resonated with the dynamic combat that we had in Godfall, and they really liked this conversation with the developer-style of play that they had. So as we moved into our next project, we said, 'Hey, we did it for melee. Can we pull it off for shooters as well?' So we took that, and that's where this emphasis on build craft comes from.

I saw a lot of rumors earlier this year that Counterplay had shut down, and sitting here now, that's obviously not the case. So, I'm curious if you have any comment on that situation you'd like to share, and more specifically, what it's been like for the studio to see those rumors swirl while knowing full well that Counterplay's next game is very much still in development, despite that.

Zhang: I think most of the studio was too busy working on the game (laughs) to really pay attention to rumours that don't really apply to their day-to-day. I think the only comment I really have on it is, the announcement and future release of Armatus is a celebration of Counterplay Games, of our camaraderie, and this team that has gone through thick and thin together. It means the world to us that players are going to be able to see this game. They're going to play it, and we think that people are going to have a lot of fun. So, my comment is, go play Armatus, and then you can tell us how you feel about, right? (laughs)

Moving back to the game itself, I couldn't tell based on the trailer alone. Is this an entirely single-player experience, or are there any multiplayer elements, even scoreboards, or anything like that?

Zhang: It's a single-player game, and as for features, again, we're, we're still in development, so wait and find out.

I get it. It’s hard to talk about these things when the pieces are always moving, I'm sure.

Zhang: I think it's harder not to talk about these things, right? That's kind of the challenge here.

PC, PlayStation, and Xbox versions are on the way, but I also saw that a Nintendo Switch 2 version is in development. Were there any challenges in bringing Armatus to that console, and is the Switch 2 version expected to launch at the same time as other platforms?

Zhang: Yes, they are all expected to launch together. The challenge with these things is always optimization, but if you've seen Godfall, a PlayStation 5 launch title, you know that, if there's one thing that we do well, it's optimizing game systems.

Is there anything about Armatus that you want to talk about or that you want players to know now that they're finally seeing what this looks like?

This game is a love letter to action combat in all its forms. It's a love letter to the urban fantasy, gothic horror inspirations that we see in so many games and fiction all over, and the thing that is most important to us here at Counterplay is for players to see this letter that we've written. So, I can come up here and yammer about systems and features all day long, and all I would be doing is making promises to the audience, but the promise I will make is that if you play our game, you're going to have a really great experience of butchering all these demons.

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).

Publisher Lyrical Games and developer Plot Twist have revealed Erosion, a twin-stick roguelike set in a post-apocalyptic wild west that is set to launch into early access early next year.

The Xbox Partner Preview trailer for the next title from the Kraków, Poland-based studio teases a change of pace for The Last Case of Benedict Fox team as it targets a spring 2026 early access release for PC via Steam and Xbox Game Preview. A full launch is expected to follow later the same year for PC platforms, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S.

Where Plot Twist’s previous title leaned on 2D visuals and a Lovecraftian tale, Erosion seeks to let players loose in a mad open world with fast-paced combat and lots of character. The trailer promises to keep players entertained with destructible voxel environments, a poker mini-game, customizable vehicles, duels, loads of weapons, and boss fights, but that doesn’t mean the team is leaving story at the door.

“In Erosion, players find themselves in a distant future where a mysterious, sentient rock formation called the Pillar is consuming civilization piece by piece,” an Erosion story summary says. “They will descend into the mysterious Pillar to battle through chaotic, fully destructible dungeons, fighting to get one step closer to saving the protagonist’s daughter or losing her entirely to time itself. Every decision changes the story, and every death takes time off the clock.”

Years pass with every death in Erosion, meaning players will want to be extra careful if they don’t want to see everyone – including their daughter – grow old throughout the course of their journey. It’s a twist that’s teased in the trailer, with even the environment seeming to take a beating as time runs its course.

We’ll learn more about Erosion in time, so while we wait, be sure to check out our review for The Last Case of Benedict Fox. We gave it a 6/10 upon its release in 2023, saying, “The Last Case of Benedict Fox is a disappointingly uneven Metroidvania that’s just as likely to engage as it is to enrage.”

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).

As part of Amazon's official Black Friday sale, the retailer is offering an excellent deal on a miniature-sized gaming PC. Right now you can pick up a Cooler Master NR2 gaming PC equipped with a GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card for just $1,899.99 shipped after you apply a $700 off coupon on the product page. This is an amazing price for an RTX 5080 prebuilt, let alone a micro-sized one. The NR2 is housed in Cooler Master's NR200P Max chassis, which is one of the most popular and well-reviewed ITX cases on the market. Despite its compact size, the NR2 is equipped with excellent cooling and powerful components. Normally there would be a high dollar markup on a boutique setup like this.

Cooler Master NR2 RTX 5080 ITX Gaming PC for $1,899.99

Indie developer Cococucumber is, for the first time ever, trying its hand at a sequel with Echo Generation 2.

Where the first turn-based romp channeled ‘80s and ‘90s vibes to create a nostalgic adventure that looked like Stranger Things was tossed into a blender with voxel graphics and classic RPG gameplay, the sequel is going a totally new direction. The sideways prequel skips the cozy small-town feel to drop players straight into a B-movie, cosmic horror story where they play as the missing father from the first game.

Its first trailer, which debuted as part of today’s November 2025 Xbox Partner Preview, teases a much more horrific experience for Cococucumber. We sat down with game director Martin Gavreau and studio producer and director Vanessa Chia to learn more about Echo Generation 2’s inspirations, how fan feedback helped guide development, and why the team decided to revisit one of its existing universes from a new perspective. You can see everything they had to say in the interview below.

IGN: Tell me about what people are going to see on Thursday. Tell me about this trailer and what exactly Echo Generation 2 is.

Martin Gavreau: It's very different than the first game. We were not sure how far we could go with it, because when you do a sequel, you have many options. You could say, 'Let's just do more of the same,' or you do something entirely different, or anywhere in between. There was a bit of an existential crisis of 'What do we do with this?' We felt that we wanted to see how far we could expand on this world-building. The first game, except for a very short moment, everything is within maybe a 5-10-mile radius of a small town, you know? The sequel, it's much more than that (laughs). It's much more. It's across the galaxy. We visit a different planet, we visit a different dimension, a different time era, and also, what's at stake is much bigger than, 'OK, I want to figure out what happened to my dad.'

You think about the first game, you start just playing with your sister in the street with a raccoon, and then at one point, you fight a mech with the cannon and lasers. You're supposed to be just a kid infiltrating a military base. There's a ramp going up to there, and we wanted to have this ramp up on another scale. Sometimes, in some classic RPGs, you start in your town and you end up fighting gods. So it's like, 'Let's go all the way there.'

So, the trailer, what we're going to see is part of the story. We're not revealing everything. There's big story moments that are not in the trailer that we want to keep. I don't think we're going to reveal them even later, before launch, we want to keep a lot of surprise. We're not playing as a kid anymore. We're playing as the father who disappeared, and it's before the first game. I mean, when you you play with time travel, is it a prequel? So it's a part of a prequel/sequel in some ways. There's some connection with the first game that, I think, people who played the first game, will definitely see a lot of connection, but in an expanded universe that happened across a different time.

We're going to jump back and forth between the future and the past. Really, really bigger scope and more complex plot to...I don't want to spoil it, but there's a much bigger issue happening across the galaxy. We, of course, want to go back home because we're getting trapped. To go back will become eventually, of course, still a goal, but what's the point of going back if you're going back to ruins? You don't want to come back to your Hobbit town and the Shire, and then it's all burned and destroyed. So you want to make sure that you go on a journey of adventure, but also you're going to come back to a world that is still, you know, intact and exists.

Echo Generation 2 obviously has some connections to the first game, but it also seems so different. I am wondering, why a sequel? Why a sequel to Echo Generation instead of something like Ravenlok or Riverbond?

Gavreau: I mean, I would love to do a sequel for Riverbond and Ravenlok. Revisiting those games and expanding on them would be a fantastic opportunity. But why do Echo Generation? There's always a bit of a business decision, because there's always a risk associated with making any game, but we're small in the studio, so it's what we feel like doing. We sit down and we talk all the team, share a bit there, you know, their ideas and what we like to work on, because there's always a possibility also to create a new game, no? And it's the same thing with making a sequel, and everybody loved making the first one. I think it's just the desire to go back to this world and expand on it.

We started the production right when the pandemic started, five years ago, already. So it just coincided, where we entered production for it, and at first there was a lot more unknown about, 'Is the whole world gonna collapse? Is everybody gonna die?' We used the game as a small safe haven structure. When I'm at work, we don't talk about politics, we don't talk about the vaccine or the virus. We just...we are living Echo Generation, and we live in that world, to our little bubble of imagination with these cute characters and talking raccoon, you know? It kind of helped us keep our sanity throughout the events of the pandemic, I think.

Maybe there's a special kind of association with it emotionally, and we felt like the story was not finished, that we had so many ideas that we couldn't put in the first game, that were left on the cutting room, so to speak, that we were really excited to go and work more on it. I think that was probably the reason after Ravenlok to go back to Echo Generation. Now, I don't think it's going to be an Echo Generation 3 after that. We have other plans, and there's been a different thing that we've been working on. Between all the games you can do, you have to commit to one, and everybody felt inspired. It's such a long amount of time not to make a game.

It's not going to spend a week or a month, it could be years, and it's what you live with every day. You ask yourself, 'Do I want to live with that world every day? Do I want to explore?' It's a long-term relationship, in a way, because even after you launch, you need to patch it. It's many, many years. I want to make sure that not only me is on board, and I love to do it, but everybody who has to work on it will find something interesting. It was not easy not to make a sequel. We realized it was harder than we thought, but we really wanted to make that game.

Echo Generation really wears its inspirations on its sleeves. Because Echo Generation 2 is so different from the get-go, what are some of the other inspirations for this game specifically? The movies, games, books, and shows that helped influence its development?

Gavreau: That's great that this could be seen, that you could observe those things in playing the first game. We're not hiding it, and we wanted to use different ones for the sequel and go places we didn't go before, like cosmic horror, for example. So if you think about, you know, the Call of Cthulhu and things that are more kind of like, 'What's out there in space? Is there forces beyond what are really there, and we're just not connected with them, and what if they discover humanity? So there's part of it is cosmic horror, but part of it also is Star Wars (laughs). We wanted to keep the same feeling of the first game. We wanted to use a lot of different inspiration that doesn't seem like they're going to work together at first.

We have also part of Cyberpunk. We have Blade Runner. We went for more of the sci-fi inspiration. We have 2001: A Space Odyssey in there. There's also X Files, because it's so fun to have. There's this kind of giant biomass that we teleport experiment again, like The Fly from Cronenberg. So, we went to inspiration that is more in the horror and sci-fi side, even if there's a bit of fun in there. I got fascinated, too, with this idea of the Backrooms. So maybe we have a little bit of that in there. That there's this other reality next to us, where there's this kind of mind maze, where you can get lost.

It's going to be a much more violent and scary game than the first one. Maybe not for kids entirely so much anymore. I think our rating is going to be probably 16 or 18 plus. We don't really think about it, but just when we fill out the questionnaire, whatever happened happened. But there is more blood, more gore, and it is pixel and voxel (laughs). So it's not as scary, maybe, but it's kind of fun in a way, like when you see the scientist getting smashed up with the blood. There's this playfulness with it, like B-movie playfulness that you have in movies like Tremors, and we wanted to capture that cool.

Why is launching day one on Xbox Game Pass the right move, specifically, for Echo Generation 2?

Gavreau: Well, the first one was on Game Pass. A lot of fans and people who discovered the game are on Xbox already, so it just feels like a logical way to do something similar with the sequel. Other than that, for us, I think it's our fourth game that's going to launch on Game Pass. We've we had this amazing relationship with Xbox that we had a chance to have their support. When you are on Game Pass, it comes with a lot of marketing support, like being part of a show or social media. Independent video games don't always have a publisher.

We don't have a publisher, so this kind of support really helped the game to get discovered. There's so many people on Game Pass that if you see a title that you're not familiar with, give it a chance, try it out, and see if you like it. It really helped open a lot of opportunities for the game to be played, and the end of the day, as a game developer, that's what you want. You want to be able to share your creation with as much people as possible. I think with Game Pass, definitely, it's been incredible to have all this interaction and this communication with the community on Xbox.

Were there any major points of fan feedback after the first game that you specifically want to address with Echo Generation 2?

Gavreau: Oh, yeah, definitely. Some of them, we address in the Midnight Edition. When we started the sequel after Ravenlok, we were thinking, 'Why don't we address some of those issues that some people had playing the game and make a special edition of the first game?' That was going to help us get back in that universe and see if it's possible to improve it in some ways, for quality of life. We really listened to player feedback. Also, something narratively, the first game, it was fun for being episodic, and also at the same time, there's a cost, and the cost is maybe the overarching main story suffered a bit from it. We still keep this episodic format in some ways, but there's a much stronger connection around the main story.

This is one of the things we tried to improve. Hopefully, we'll see if that works. Another one is to make the combat faster. The combat is so much faster now, the way we designed it. It was one of the design guidelines from the start. We need to be able to fight and resolve things much faster. If you want to stop and think you can, but if you want to go fast, it is possible to go very fast through the animation or the options given to you.

Going into a deck-building mechanic, now, also keeps the combat interesting throughout. What we saw is, sometimes, people, they find a companion, they love one move, and they just keep playing with that companion and that one move. Well, hey, there are a lot of different interesting moves that we designed, so if we add the deck-building mechanic, now you can adjust depending on the enemies you encounter. Maybe your deck will work against a certain environment, certain types of enemies, but you need to adjust it in other situations.

You need to keep adjusting your combat style, depending on enemies and depending on the type of cards. You have to have more variety on that side. Those were some of the feedback we tried to improve and implement on that side, for the combat and the story.

I don't think I saw a release date. I'm assuming, obviously, that's not something you can give me, but is this a game we see in 2026, or is there any kind of window you are targeting?

Gavreau: I was just talking this morning with a team member and what they were working on next, and they're like, 'I'm done.' (laughs) How can you be done? How can you be done with the game? Let's have a look.

But we're pretty advanced. I think we want to make sure we have enough time to polish everything. We want to make sure that we have time to balance all the combat and the journey, but the game is pretty advanced. How early depends on how fast we can go through the last phase of making sure the game is properly balanced, and everything runs smoothly.

(Editor’s Note: Cococucumber clarified after the interview that Echo Generation 2 is targeting a 2026 release window.)

Is there anything else you'd like to add about Echo Generation 2, the process of getting here, leading up to this reveal, and what it's like to finally pull back the curtain?

Gavreau: It feels strange, because we started working on it so long ago. We started working on it right after the first one was launched, and then it's been in and out. We were exploring different types of gameplay and prototyping. It might be, maybe, four years? I don't know, three or four years that this game has been, in some ways, in development? It feels a bit strange that, finally, we're going to be able to talk about it. We're very excited to see if people are going to remember it or be excited for it.

I think it's four years since (Echo Generation) launched. So you need to come with something new. You need to take some risk. This is what we decided to do with the game. Maybe some people wanted to have something very similar. But this is not exactly the decision we took. We decided to take more creative risk for the story and the game mechanic. Hopefully it still feels like an Echo Generation game, and the fan will embark on this journey and find it interesting, but it's, in many ways, going to be very different.

We were talking about the references, but the tone and the journey, the adventure, the combat, the speed of it, and the violence of it, and the excitement to to travel across the galaxy into to end up finding all those super powerful entities, I think, for us, it's super exciting to be able to finally share some of it, and soon, when it's ready, the game. I would like to talk more about certain things - I cannot at the moment.

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).

Apple has officially revealed its Black Friday plans for 2025, and the promotion details are exactly what you'd expect. Apple is offering up to $250 in gift cards when you purchase eligible products directly from its store. While it isn't surprising to see the same promotion as last year, it's still better than no sale at all. The shopping event will run from Friday, November 28 through Cyber Monday. So if you're planning on making any purchases from the Apple Store, this window is the best time to do so before 2025 ends.

Apple Black Friday Sale Details

Apple will be offering a range of gift cards between $25 and $250 depending on what products you purchase. You can check out the full list of eligible products directly from Apple's Black Friday event page, or check out the inclusions below.

As you can see, the gift card promotion isn't available for everything. The most notable exclusion here is that the only iPhones included are the iPhone 16 or iPhone 16e. None of the latest iPhone 17 models or the new iPhone Air are included here. Black Friday is still arguably one of the best times to buy an iPhone, but if you're looking to buy the newest phones you'll need to look for a deal outside of Apple direct this year.

Apple Black Friday sales at retailers

It's worth noting that Apple's own Black Friday sale never offers the best deals on Apple products. You can usually find the lowest prices on Apple Watches, AirPods, iPads, and MacBooks at other major retailers. Both the Amazon Black Friday sale and the Best Buy Black Friday sale have officially launched and you can already find deals on pretty much everything Apple from there. Most notably, the Apple AirPods Pro 3 have dropped to their lowest price since launch at almost every major retailer except the Apple Store.

Tonight's Xbox Partner Preview showcase has now concluded, and we've got a fresh list of new day one Xbox Game Pass launches to look forward to.

Alongside all the announcements and new trailers today, five more titles were confirmed to arrive day and date into Microsoft's gaming subscription service — including a couple of games available to play today!

Head below for the full rundown of everything announced as coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one.

Developer Panik Arcade has announced its popular rogue-lite slot machine horror game, CloverPit, is getting an Xbox Series X | S version, and it’s out today.

It’s a surprise console launch that was revealed during the Xbox Partner Preview just moments ago. A trailer for the CloverPit port catches newcomers up to speed just after Panik Arcade announced it had managed to sell 1 million copies after a month and a half on Steam.

“CloverPit is the demonic lovechild of Balatro and Buckshot Roulette, a rogue-lite that traps players in a hell of their own creation,” an official CloverPit summary says. Locked in a rusty cell with a slot machine and an ATM, you must pay off your debt at the end of each round, or fall to ruin – literally!”

As Xbox Series X | S players give CloverPit a spin for the first time, Panik Arcade is already teasing the next reason to stay locked in for more, as its presence at the Xbox Partner Preview comes with the promise that DLC, titled Unholy Fusion, is coming soon. Details on the add-on content, including its release date and how exactly it ups the ante, remain a mystery for now.

CloverPit’s surprise appearance on Xbox consoles follows the 1.2 update that slotted in last week. Its main attraction saw hard mode added to the experience, with rebalancing adjustments, as well as a UI overhaul, now in the mix.

CloverPit launched for PC September 26, 2025, and is available for Xbox Series X | S, Xbox on PC, Cloud, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Premium, as of today. It’s unclear if there are any plans to come to more consoles or other additional platforms.

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).

Bloodborne and Hollow Knight-inspired Metroidvania Crowsworn is back with a new gameplay trailer confirming plans to (eventually) launch for PC and consoles.

A long-awaited new, public look at developer Mongoose Rodeo’s highly anticipated, hand-drawn action game arrived as part of today’s Xbox Partner Preview showcase. While an updated glimpse at Crowsworn’s dark fantasy universe and cute-but-intimidating characters is welcome, the real news is that Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S have officially joined PC in its list of platforms.

You can tell exactly which games inspired Mongoose Rodeo with just one look at Crowsworn, but the Kickstarter project says its blend of ideas results in something unique. More than 19,600 backers supported Crowsworn during its initial campaign in July 2021, with its final tally bringing in CA $1,258,068. It was a crowdfunding initiative that saw backers turning up to support its mix of Devil May Cry, Hollow Knight, and Bloodborne combat, with its base goal reached less than three hours after the campaign launched.

“A dark curse has befallen the land of Fearanndal, a once vibrant kingdom,” an official story summary for Crowsworn says. “All but the last remnants of humanity have seemingly vanished, as the world is overrun by sightless creatures of nightmare.”

Kickstarter backers have received exclusive updates every few months for the last few years, but for everyone else, today’s Xbox Partner Preview gameplay trailer and platform commitment represent what may be Mongoose Rodeo’s most substantial showing in quite some time. While we wait for that ever-elusive Crowsworn release date, you can check out IGN’s list of the best Metroidvania games of all time.

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).

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu materialized at the Xbox Partner Preview to deliver the news that it’s coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S summer 2026.

It’s a narrowing of the previously promised release window, which had publisher Nacon and developer ACE Team prepped to deliver its four-player horror co-op vision at some point next year. As its gameplay trailer demonstrates, players will need to work together if they want to survive the Lovecraftian nightmares that lie waiting in The Mound.

Nacon and ACE announced The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu during the March Nacon Connect, revealing the project as a first-person experience set in a jungle with the capacity to twist the minds of any who enters. Players are given weapons and tools to make each trek easier, but the real pull is the mind games that will have friends turning against each other.

“The Mound is inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft with their oppressive and unpredictable atmospheres,” an official description says. “Here, the supernatural forces don't just hunt you down: they distort your perception of every situation to throw you off balance. Faced with diabolical creatures and unexplained phenomena, the border that separates reality from illusion blurs, sowing doubt and paranoia among your group.”

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is set to release next summer.

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).

Publisher Oro Interactive and developer Cybernetic Walrus will let groups of four go undercover as gas station aliens when Roadside Research launches for PC and Xbox Series X | S early next year.

An update for the comedic co-op game arrived in the form of a new trailer shown during today’s Xbox Partner Preview. It comes with the news that Xbox and Game Pass have joined the launch lineup, which should see Roadside Research arriving for PC via Steam, Xbox Series X | S, and Xbox for PC and Cloud Q1 2026.

If you’re watching the trailer wondering, “Are those aliens really working at a gas station?” the answer is no – or at least that’s what they want you to think. Roadside Research sets four players up as a group of undercover extraterrestrials who are hoping to learn more about the human race. Blending takes more than a few masterfully crafted paper masks, with players tasked with managing and maintaining their rest stop in order to attract the right kind of attention.

“Aliens have landed on Earth… to run a gas station,” Cybernetic Walrus’ Roadside Research summary says. “Play solo or up to 4 players and do human tasks to blend in. People depend on you, it’s your job to make sure that the shelves have the correct items, refuel customers passing by, and provide food for travelers. But most importantly, you must conduct your research.”

Roadside Research joins the recent trend that’s seen an increase in friend-focused party games. Highlights from the last few years include Lethal Company, Content Warning, R.E.P.O., and Peak.

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).

Publisher Apogee Entertainment and developer Trigger Happy Interactive made an appearance at the Xbox Partner Preview to announce their first-person psychological horror game, Total Chaos, doesn’t just have a release date – it’s actually out today.

The surprise launch arrives after the Turbo Overkill developer bumped its previous July release date for a broader Q4 2025 plan a few months back. It was a last-minute delay that saw fans left in the dark as the wait for Sam Prebble’s survival horror experience grew, and now, as revealed in its new trailer, that wait is over.

Trigger Happy describes Total Chaos as a descent into madness that takes place in the darkest corners of Fort Oasis. Its status as a full-fledged experience that originally spawned as a Doom 2 mod means player can indeed expect to get their hands on a few guns, which, of course, are a must-have if they want to fight off the creepy crawlies hiding around every corner.

Besides its haunting visuals and humble beginnings, Total Chaos has attracted attention thanks to some of the talent behind it. Prebble is known for leading the charge at Trigger Happy but also has extensive experience in visual effects, with credits on movies like Avatar and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Meanwhile, Silent Hill music mastermind Akira Yamaoka was tapped to create the music for Total Chaos, too.

Total Chaos is out today for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S.

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).

Hitman World of Assassination has seen Agent 47 face a rogue’s gallery of guest stars, but he may only have one shot to take out a notorious hip hop alter ego in the next elusive target mission, Eminem vs. Slim Shady.

That’s right: Marshall Mathers himself is the star of the next add-on mission for IO Interactive’s long-running sandbox stealth series. An Xbox Partner Preview trailer for the music-themed collaboration teases an especially creative mission for players to look forward to as Eminem asks Agent 47 to take care of his chaotic evil twin after he becomes a walking, talking bad guy.

Hitman World of Assassination will soon see players work with Eminem to organize the death of Slim Shady, but IOI is no stranger when it comes to bringing celebrities into its deadly sandbox. Other recent elusive target collaborations have seen Agent 47 coming face to face with Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme, with another 007-themed pack pitting the cold killer against Mads Mikkelsen’s Casino Royale villain, Le Chiffre.

For more on IOI, you can check out how 007 First Light is shaping up. If you’re looking for more on Eminem’s history in video games, you can reminisce about the time the rapper joined Fortnite.

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).

Just a couple of weeks after announcing a drum kit controller, CRKD is once again announcing a new Guitar Hero-style accessory. This time, it comes in the form of a revival of the old Gibson SG Guitar Controller, which should pair nicely with the CRKD Gibson Les Paul controller that IGN reviewed earlier this year.

The new Gibson SG is specifically for PlayStation 4 and 5 consoles, but will work with PC as well. It is, of course, meant to capitalize on Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game within Fortnite that was developed by Harmonix, the studio behind the legendary Rock Band games. If you don't like Fortnite Festival – and IGN wouldn't blame you if you don't – CRKD's SG also has a Legacy Mode for the older Rock Band and Guitar Hero games.

Just like CRKD's Les Paul, the new SG features a Hall Effect strum bar with mechanical haptics, as well as repurposed versions of the switches and knobs you'd find on an actual SG guitar. That is, the pickup switcher is now surrounded by PlayStation controller face- and- shoulder buttons while one of the volume knobs is a wired/wireless mode selector. Also, you'll find a sneaky d-pad tucked in the back of the controller's headstock. The five neck buttons feature mechanical switches, the frets have RGB LEDs, and the neck itself is swappable, just like the Les Paul version. And, naturally, the CRKG Gibson SG has a whammy bar.

CRKD has been on a roll when it comes to releasing rhythm game controllers, but its not the only company trying to capture some of those sweet, sweet Fortnite Festival-fueled guitar hero/rock band nostalgia bucks. Turtle Beach-owned PDP started releasing its own excellent Riffmaster guitar controllers in 2024, including a recent Nintendo Switch version.

You can head to CRKD's site to preorder the $134.99 Gibson SG in black – the only available color option for now. It's estimated to ship December 15 – 19.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

TiGames is keeping up its animal antics with the latest gameplay trailer for Zoopunk, a third-person action game coming to PC and consoles in 2027.

If the anthropomorphic characters featured in the new Xbox Partner Showcase trailer seem at all familiar, that’s because it’s being made by the same team behind F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch. Zoopunk will take things in a slightly different direction, though, with its footage showcasing a healthy dose of gameplay footage featuring a character who’s in search of a mysterious object known as Spark.

Zoopunk brings its sci-fi animal combat to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S in 2027.

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).

Marvel Comics has finally wrapped up One World Under Doom, its major crossover event series for 2025. This series has seen Doctor Doom, now wielding the power of the Sorcerer Supreme, proclaim himself emperor of the entire world. And much to the chagrin of the Avengers and Fantastic Four, it turns out a whole lot of people are perfectly happy living under Doom's iron-fisted rule.

But how does this epic crossover end? Is Doom victorious, or have Earth's Mightiest Heroes finally found a way to topple their new emperor? Who lives, and who dies? And who holds the mantle of the Sorcerer Supreme now? Let's break down everything you need to know about One World Under Doom's final chapter.

Warning: Full spoilers ahead for One World Under Doom #9!

One World Under Doom's Major Death

The entire series has seen Earth's heroes wage a losing battle against Emperor Doom as they face a new world order where superheroes are no longer really necessary. Doom may be an all-powerful fascist, but he's also ended crime and poverty, erased political borders, and ushered in universal health care. A lot of people are perfectly happy making that tradeoff, even after the discovery that Doom has enslaved the people of Latveria to make his new utopia possible.

In order to cement his rule, Doom launched one final attack in issue #8 - a spell designed to turn his rise to power into a fixed moment in time that can't be undone. Unfortunately, that attack resulted in one major piece of collateral damage. His goddaughter Valeria was killed.

Gearbox has released a significant patch for Borderlands 4 that makes some quality-of-life improvements such as smarter loot drops and a new Legendary Loot Indicator for your radar. These arrive alongside visual polish and stability updates for a “smoother” experience on Kairos, Gearbox said.

Digging into the detail, Class Mods have been adjusted to drop more for your current character, which is a welcome change for those on the hunt for ever-improving builds. The loot feed is now updated to display total current currency after spending or receiving money, and the likelihood of unintended movements or knockbacks while reviving a teammate is reduced. And it's worth noting that the patch adds a new Legendary Loot Indicator to the combat radar for easier identification of high-rarity drops. given how busy with loot Borderlands 4 can get, this is also welcome.

In the patch notes, below, Gearbox said it was wrapping up work on Photo Mode, while other updates like support for multiple active Big Encore Machines and more options for scaling difficulty are coming.

Further into the future, Gearbox said it’s looking at ways to improve shared character progression, add additional endgame-focused activities (Takedown), launch cross-save support, and more. Major Updates, which deliver larger-scale changes, are planned to deploy about a month apart.

Today’s update launches alongside Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, which is now free for all players. How Rush Saved Mercenary Day is the first of five post-launch DLC Bounty Packs coming to Borderlands 4. While How Rush Saved Mercenary Day is free for all players, Bounty Packs 2, 3, 4, and 5 are included with Borderlands 4 Deluxe Edition, Borderlands 4 Super Deluxe Edition, the Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack Bundle, and will be available for separate purchase.

Borderlands 4 November 20 Major Update Patch Notes:

Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day

We're stoked for you to team up with Rush and teach Minister Screw the true meaning of Mercenary Day! This being a holiday-themed Bounty Pack, we knew we had to deliver it to you by the end of the year. However, the team realized that there was more mayhem than time when it came to getting as much into Bounty Pack 1 as originally planned while never slowing down in their mission to improve the Borderlands 4 player experience.

So in the spirit of the season, we're giving a gift to all Borderlands 4 players by making Bounty Pack 1 free! Thank you for all the passion and support you've given us as a community. We're hard at work making sure future Bounty Packs are more fully loaded with the compelling content players have been asking for. In addition, we're now adding a new Bounty Pack 5 (more on that in a bit); there's a lot of amazing stuff coming to Borderlands 4, so stay tuned!

• Added support for How Rush Saved Mercenary Day content! Jump into this free content today by finding and interacting with the gift-wrapped present (marked on your map as a new mission) in any major hub, which will initiate the mission to assist Rush!
• Added support for the Bounty Pack 1 Vault Card! Playing Borderlands 4 with a Vault Card active gives you more loot and XP via Daily and Weekly challenges, and it can be leveled up at your own pace (no time limits or expiring rewards here). You can activate it via the Vault Card screen in your ECHO menu. Vault Card progression works just like leveling up: it's all driven by how much XP you're gaining. By exploring Kairos, killing enemies, and completing quests, you'll fill up your Vault Card progression in addition to your regular XP!
  • This includes 4 new pieces of rerollable gear and 24 new cosmetics to earn!

Notable Changes

We wanted to pull these out specifically as they have been heavily mentioned in the community.

• Updated the Weekly Wildcard Missions to set additional start points in missions
• Dev Note: This feature will allow future Weekly Wildcard Missions to jump straight to the meat of a mission.
• Class Mods have been adjusted to drop more for your current character
• Converted the Phosphene weapon challenge from character-based to profile-wide progression
  • Dev Note: This long-term grind is aimed at our most dedicated community members who invest the most time in the game. Still, we agree that completing this collection is more a reflection of your dedication to the game and not to a specific Vault Hunter. This is the first example of allowing more progression to be shared between all characters on your account.
• Updated the loot feed to display total current currency after spending or receiving money
• Reduced the likelihood of unintended movements or knockbacks while reviving a teammate
  • Dev Note: When reviving another player, the reviving player is temporarily given more mass, making enemy attacks less likely to bounce you away from your partner.
• Added a new Legendary Loot Indicator to the combat radar for easier identification of high-rarity drops

Gameplay & Mission Progression

• Addressed an issue that could cause the loss of SDU Tokens or Specialization points; this also returns missing tokens and points to those impacted
• Resolved an interaction where players could not repurchase a boss encounter after all party members were defeated and respawned in multiplayer
• Slide-attacking lootable objects will now open or break them consistently
• Resolved progression blockers for more intuitive gameplay during Faction Survivalist, Wayward Gun, Another Day, Another Universe, the Badass Phalanx bounty, and the Black Market Tutorial
• Corrected behavior where mission items could disappear after replaying and exiting a mission, preventing completion
• Prevented rare instances of some enemies turning into NPCs and becoming unkillable
• Adjusted tracking on some challenges and achievements to award progress as intended
• Dev Note: The Professional now only awards progress for designated challenge conditions, while Private Reserve and What Have We Here? will progress correctly when opening chests with melee attacks. The Arena Grande achievement should consistently unlock in multiplayer.
• Mort will revive players more consistently during Thresher Rancher
• Resolved a condition where vehicles could be instantly destroyed if summoned immediately after using a Repkit with the Splat trait
• Adjusted object placement and pathing across multiple missions, ensuring proper enemy spawns, interactions, Echolocation, and waypoint alignment
• Synchronized some mismatched animations and behaviors in multiplayer
• Resolved a reported issue where players could become briefly suspended in midair when exiting mission replay while jumping or swimming
• Addressed a bug causing the Chopper vehicles to remain in a falling state after performing a vertical jump or powerslide
• Prevented vehicle summoning in restricted indoor areas such as the Umbral Foundry Fortress
• Removed the penalty during Scoundrel Roundup: Kilo if the panel is shot twice
• Updated Mimicron’s combat behavior so it can no longer be stun-locked by singularity effects in the Tipping Point Bunker
• Updated Patrol Ripper contract to progress with intended sources
• Updated the Order Bunker boss Fractis encounter to ensure the boss remains defeatable after entering its shielded phase in The Crawlfort
• Adjusted behavior in The Next Quest Thing so the mission can consistently be accepted after saving and reloading
• Improved enemy physics in Gone Are My Leggies to prevent The Beastie from being launched out of the playable area when hit with high-impact weapons
• Restored ECHO Log rewards for completing optional objectives in three micro-missions when played solo
• Adjusted Arjay’s resistances so status effect damage-over-time now applies correctly
  • Dev Note: Visual inconsistencies with Arjay’s wings might appear as a result of this change, but will not impact gameplay.
• Adjusted arena boundaries so Locust’s gas canisters now spawn correctly within the arena during the Idolator Sol encounter in Fortress Indomita

Vault Hunters

Amon, the Forgeknight

• Updated Forgeknight Forgedrone challenge so it unlocks properly upon meeting completion requirements
• Corrected skill tree investment functionality to prevent Forgeknight from applying skill points out of order
• Updated weapon input handling so Forgeknight can reliably swap weapons after using the whip attack

Rafa, the Exo-Soldier

• Exo-Soldier's Soltado Kill Skill passive has been adjusted to function properly with two skill points
• Improved PROJECT: Raiju capstone behavior so APOPHIS Lance consistently damages enemies during extended uptime
• Adjusted Booming Business passive's functionality to prevent grenade spawns when the passive skill exceeds its intended level cap
• Updated the Temerario passive skill so it provides the intended gun damage bonus rather than a general damage increase

Vex, the Siren

• Updated challenge tracking so the Target Prescience passive only progresses when damaging valid targets

Harlowe, the Gravitar

• Ensured that QED passive skill would remain functional in multiplayer
• Updated Gravitar’s Zero-Point Action Skill so it now properly enters cooldown when used on enemies immune to Stasis. Previously, using the skill on a Stasis-immune target after affecting a normal enemy could cause it to remain active instead of triggering cooldown

All Vault Hunters

• Adjusted critical hit calculations so gun and enhancement damage now applies correctly to all valid hit regions
• Adjusted Cryo resistance scaling so enemy resistances now correctly match each player’s level in multiplayer sessions
• Prevented Action Skills from activating during the first loading screen before entering active gameplay
• Updated kill volume logic to ensure Vault Hunters cannot cheat death while in FFYL and healing with the Legendary Shield Guardian Angel
• Ensured sniper ammo displays full capacity when creating a level 30 Vault Hunter

Gear and Rewards

• Adjusted melee damage on Bayonet weapons so that melee damage increases with bayonet parts
• Updated beam weapon behavior so they will deal proper damage when thrown
• Addressed an interaction allowing players to infinitely scale the splash radius of homing sticky projectiles when using Torgue Legendary Pistol Queen’s Rest with certain builds and firmware combinations
• Updated Skully grenade to adjust projectile damage for consistent output
• Corrected boss health bar updates so sustained heavy Ordnance damage with Amon now displays correctly
• Updated Torgue Heavy Weapon Ravenfire so it now correctly applies elemental damage when equipped with elemental parts
• Adjusted Maliwan Heavy Weapon behavior so projectiles created from a hit don't detonate immediately after spawning
• Corrected the explosion delay of Fuel Rod Discharge to match its description of 3 seconds when used on Ripper shotguns
• Adjusted Rolling Thunder underbarrel grenades on Torgue shotguns to behave predictably on vertical surfaces instead of ricocheting excessively
• Prevented bosses from floating when Exo-Soldier's Booming Business passive skill was triggered with Order Legendary Grenade Skully
• Addressed a condition where the Vladof Legendary Shield Heavyweight could lose functionality after activating Forgeknight Onslaughter skill
• Adjusted projectile interaction during the fight with Vile Ripper so players can now destroy the homing “Unstable Ore” projectiles
• Updated collision behavior so Jakobs Throwing Knife grenades correctly impact the orb surrounding Vile Ordonite of Corrupted enemies
• Adjusted some gear that was behaving inconsistently in multiplayer, such as: the bounce-back force of The Order Legendary pistol Noisy Cricket, reload animation timing for the Jakobs shotgun Hot Slugger, and misaligned accuracy of the Daedalus pistol Bonn-91
• Standardized some instances of Firmware 3-piece bonus cooldowns to appear consistently. Visual cooldowns have been added for Oscar Mike, Ahoy, and Daed-dy O’
• Drops are no longer kept in the air when lowering the platform in All Charged Up
• Restored functionality allowing players to loot and preview weapons from red chests after completing the Blacklime Bunker

Gear Balance:

Darkbeast

• Addressed a scaling issue
• Explosion Chance increased from 5% to 20%
• Damage increased by 15%

Prince Harming

• Addressed a scaling issue
• Self Damage amount reduced from 5% to 1.5% of damage done
• Damage increased by ~24%

Onslaught:

• Damage increased by 75%

Ruby's Grasp:

• Damage increased by ~40%

Lucky Clover:

• Damage increased by 37.5%

Vamoose:

• Damage increased by 20%

Asher's Rise

• Addressed a scaling issue
• Damage increased by 5%

Firmware Balance:

Get Throwin':

• Ordnance Damage increased from 10% to 35%

Daed-dy O':

• Damage increased from 20% to 35%
• Mag Size increase from 15% to 20%

Rubberband Man:

• Damage Reduction increased from 5% to 10%
• Lifesteal increased from 5% to 10%

Jacked:

• Zoom-in Speed bonus increased from 20% to 35%
• Hyperion Shield Capacity bonus increased from 25% to 50%
• Ricochet chance increased from 30% to 40%

Atlas Ex:

• Mode Swap Speed increased from 25% to 33%
• Damage while locked increased from 10% to 25%

Atlas Infinium:

• Fire Rate bonus increased from 5% to 12%
• Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15%

Reel Big Fist:

• Explosion Radius slightly increased

Airstrike:

• Missile damage increased by 35%
• Decreased Cooldown from 8s to 5s

UI, UX, & Text

• Restored filter functionality to Lost Loot menus and addressed non-functional filter selections and sorting dropdowns
• Updated the Lost Loot menu so the selected sort option is retained after exiting and re-entering
• Adjusted map icon layering so Main Mission icons no longer overlap Wildcard Mission Giver
• Adjusted scrolling behaviors in menus in splitscreen
• Ensured the Transfer Machine remains open after exiting inspect mode
• Added separate sensitivity sliders for mouse and controller inputs in the Controls (Basic) menu on PC
• Corrected the buddy widget display so respawned characters no longer appear as “still respawning”
• Updated item rarity displays to show the correct color and tier when playing in non-English languages
• Removed extra ECHO Log slots
• Restored missing item thumbnails in the bank menu and improved loading speed for equipped and backpack item thumbnails when large numbers of items are stored in the bank
• Updated Explore Menu positioning so it displays correctly in front of the explored region during vertical split-screen
• Adjusted layout so Item Cards no longer overlap when compared in horizontal split-screen
• Addressed a reported issue where weapons could unequip and disappear when changing their customization in the Status menu
• Corrected overshield coloration and behavior for pets and buddy widgets so that health, shield, and armor visuals now display properly
• Adjusted Contract trackers to only appear when the Contract is active
• Resolved a reported issue where mission-related celebratory notifications could display duplicate icons
• Added the missing “Restart to Apply Changes” prompt when adjusting texture quality during gameplay
• Updated option descriptions to be more intuitive and player-friendly
• Addressed the chaos displayed by the “SHiFT code is valid” countdown in the SHiFT menu
• Updated controller prompts so the correct input type displays when opening the SHiFT menu from the main men
• Removed an extra scrollbar that could appear when Reporting Users
• Addressed text inconsistencies in some side missions
• Updated D-pad functionality on controller to behave as expected
• Preserved key bindings that could be removed between sessions for non-English keys
• Standardized ECHO Log tracking for the Kairos Speaks challenge to ensure totals display consistently between general and mission log views
• Updated localization, mission naming, and various text descriptions across the game
• Updated end credits

Visuals

• Addressed reported instances where players could become invisible when performing a Vault-level transition during a travel tunnel
• Addressed an issue with missing parts and textures on gear
• Updated ECHO-4 character model and digistruct to have lights, eyes, and thruster effects appear correctly
• Adjusted fishing point visuals so markers no longer appear incorrectly on terrain near Sandytoes Villa
• Updated level geometry and collision across multiple regions to prevent players from becoming stuck, falling out of bounds, or being blocked by invisible surfaces
• Adjusted grappling points and traversal paths in multiple missions to prevent players from chaining grapples into unintended areas or losing functionality
• Addressed misplaced or inaccessible loot containers, including strongboxes and vending-area chests in The Wireworks and Windspear
• Addressed inaccurate rendering of water in some locations
• Corrected lingering slide smoke effects that could appear when moving or jumping after performing a slide
• Turned off the mining laser after shutting down the second Eridium generator in Terminus Range
• Corrected visual stretching on character and NPC cloth when adjusting the FOV while the game is paused
• Updated Dark Subject mission so Tim’s weapon now properly disappears with his model during the “Kill Tim”
• Addressed multiple reported animation inconsistencies including gear, NPCs, hand stuttering, root-lock issues, and visual glitches during combat actions. These improvements remove visible sliding or snapping during melee or grapple sequences
• Improved environmental synchronization in multiplayer
• Adjusted mouth animation timing for Callis in Another Day, Another Universe and for Numba One in Mob Mentality so dialogue syncs correctly
• Balanced underwater lighting and brightness near Belton’s Bore (The Low Leys, Mountains) for more consistent visual clarity when diving below the surface
• Repaired a purple light texture that appeared after interacting with the Auger Shrine in Terminus Range
• Optimized beam effects on some Order gear with lasers
• Standardized bullet shell ejection visuals for Daedalus pistols
• [SPOILER] The smoke during Sophia’s death wasn’t goth enough and was changed from orange to black
• Updated the fade on digistruct to be less uniform
• Resolved flickering from Exo-Soldier’s PROJECT: Raiju Capstone effect when used inside the Order Bunker
• Updated vehicle materials to display correctly after applying paintjobs in the customization menu
• Adjusted deployable barrier visuals on shields and Shield Boi
• Faded the red light trails from Atlas underbarrel tracking Darts and Balls on Jakobs pistols
• Tuned brightness of target marker visuals when using the Ripper Sniper Rifle tracking mode against certain bosses
• Corrected firing animations for Vladof submachine guns with the Extra Barrel underbarrel and Torgue shotguns with Daedalus ammo switcher
• Adjusted Order grenade to no longer slide across the ground when dropped from the inventory
• Adjusted animation blending for Daedalus shotguns using Maliwan Element Switcher to eliminate abrupt snapping and to prevent the secondary magazine from appearing loaded when using the primary firing mode

Audio

• Resolved a reported issue where the crowd could continue to make sounds after they stopped spawning during the Null and Void mission
• Prevented host players from temporarily losing audio if another player joined their session while they were in an ECHO menu in multiplayer
• Addressed missing or incomplete sound effects when looting in multiplayer sessions
• Made the really loud bird in Grasslands quieter
• Additional audio balance adjustments

Player Experience

• Improvements to stability and optimization
  • Dev Note: We are continuing to investigate and will make further improvements to stability and performance.
• Updated PS5 controller LEDs to change color based on the player’s active elemental type
• Addressed unintended adaptive trigger feedback that occurred with Ripper weapons while reloading or firing without ammo

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.

Everyone who is making The Odyssey with Christopher Nolan seems to be taking their job exactly as seriously as they should — especially Tom Holland, who called the head of Sony during filming for Nolan’s epic so he and the cast could screen a 70mm print of the classic film Lawrence of Arabia during production.

Matt Damon revealed the behind-the-scenes tidbit in the latest issue of Empire magazine. “We were at Sony, and Tom Rothman has one of the pristine 70-mil prints of that movie,” he explained in an interview with the outlet. “And Tom Holland, because he’s Spider-Man and he’s everybody’s favourite at that studio, called Rothman and he arranged for us to screen it on a Sunday, the full four hours.”

Damon stars in Nolan’s upcoming film as Odysseus, while Holland plays his son, Telemachus. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita N’yongo, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Mia Goth, and many more.

In the Empire special, Nolan also spoke to the outlet about making something as timeless as an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem.

“Emma [Thomas, producer and Nolan’s wife] said it best when we first announced the project: it’s foundational,” the filmmaker explained. “There’s a bit of everything in it. I mean, it truly contains all stories.”

He added: “As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before. And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with – Ray Harryhausen movies and other things – I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.”

The Odyssey is set to be released in theaters on July 17, 2026.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

We’ve been seeing occasional early Black Friday deals pop up at various retailers all month, but they've finally began in earnest. Both Amazon and Best Buy kicked off their official Black Friday sales on Thursday, November 20. Among the killer deals available at this early date are LEGO Black Friday deals at Best Buy. You can check out the full sale here, or read on for our recommendations.

LEGO Deals

The two biggest ones to consider for any LEGO aficionados out there are the Bumblebee Transformers set and the Fortnite Peely Bones set. The Bumblebee set is great because you can actually transform it from robot to car form without having to take it apart and rebuild it. It's also the lowest price we’ve seen yet. And it’s a killer set – just check out our experience building it.

As for the Fortnite Peely Bone set, it’s one of the many sets LEGO is retiring soon (you'll notice the “Retiring Soon” tag on the official LEGO Store listing). That means LEGO will stop making this set, likely within the next couple of months. After that, once retailers sell through their existing stock, it will only be available on the second-hand market, which is when prices skyrocket.

I have the Peely Bone set and can attest that it’s super impressive in person. It’s both taller and thicker than it appears in the pictures. It stands over 14 inches tall, and is super stocky and sturdy on its buildable base. It comes equipped with a Peely Pick Pickaxe, paint launcher, and Banana Bag back bling.

As for the rest of the sets on sale, some of the deals are better than others. As a general rule, you can save around 20% off LEGO sets in any old sale throughout the year, so a 20% discount isn't special on most sets. The real Black Friday-level deals are 30%, 40%, or even 50% off LEGO sets. You can use that as a guideline for whether a sale price is really worth picking up as Black Friday approaches. If you’re wondering whether a deal is worth picking up, you can also check on Camelcamelcamel, which tracks prices on Amazon and provides a good barometer of how often it drops to any given price.

If the sets you’re after aren’t on sale at Best Buy right now, you only need to wait a little longer. LEGO’s official Black Friday sale doesn’t go live until Black Friday proper, November 28. If you’re looking for deals sooner, this weekend the LEGO Store will host an Insiders Weekend promotion, exclusively for LEGO Insiders (you can sign up here for free). Black Friday is also the day LEGO will release the highly anticipated LEGO Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise, which looks incredible if you ask me. You can see that and more in our look at the LEGO sets for November 2025.

For more sale info, take a look at the timelines for every major retailer’s Black Friday plans.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

Corsair's Platform:6 Elevate gaming desk is robustly constructed and comes with powerful features, including an integrated rail system ideal for streamers and other content creators that need plenty of kit. Add on electric sit/stand motors, multiple cable storage areas and a streamlined assembly process, and the Platform:6 can be incredible for the right person. However, its top-tier pricing ($1399) and an all-or-nothing approach to modularity make it more of a specialist tool than an instant upgrade for the everyman.

I've been using the Platform:6 Elevate as my main work and gaming desk for the past two years, and I've found it at times maddening and at times marvellous. It offers perhaps the most potential in terms of mounting multiple accessories, with a huge amount of flexibility in terms of where and how items like monitors, cameras, lights and microphones are mounted, though it doesn't include an underslung PC mount like the Secretlab Magnus Evo I reviewed last month. Still, there's plenty here to appreciate, alongside a few design decisions that I've ultimately come to disagree with – even though I have no plans to trade the Platform:6 for another gaming desk in the near future.

Corsair Platform:6 Elevate – Design and Features

There are three variants of the Platform:6: the $999 base model, which is a fixed height; the $1399 Elevate model I tested, which adds electric sit/stand functionality; and the $1899 Creator Edition, which adds on a convenient and eye-catching peg board that floats above your monitors. Every variant is well built, with large t–shaped steel legs that provide a good degree of stability even when knocked, and a choice of 1in-thick black laminate (included) or 1.25in-thick dark walnut stain rubberwood ($100 extra) surfaces on the Elevate and Creator Edition models.

Like public transport in the UK, the key to each Platform:6 variant is its rail network. You get one large top crossbar that runs above and along the back of the desk, plus an extra smaller rail built into the left and right sides. The top rail works with the included dual monitor mount, which can handle screens up to 8kg each. That's sufficient for the average 32-inch or smaller screen – my 32-inch Alienware QD–OLED gaming monitor weighs 6kg, for context – but I tend to prefer separate monitor mounts for ultra-wide monitors or putting two 32-inch 16:9 displays next to each other, as it allows for more separation than the single central mount point of the included dual monitor mount can provide.

It's also possible to screw in additional items with the provided t-nuts and a choice of multi-mount or ball-mount adapters, which can be fixed in position or left to slide back and forth along the extruded aluminium tracks. The left and right corners of the top rail also include their own dedicated screw mounts, which are designed for the Creator Edition pegboard attachment (which can be purchased separately) but can also accommodate the previously mentioned adapters. Finally, the monitor arm also has its own central post, which is an ideal placement for a camera. That means there's plenty of scope to add on accessories from within Elgato's ecosystem, though at $50 a pop for an Elgato multi-mount, getting fully set up could be expensive.

Check out our roundup of the best gaming chairs!

Corsair Platform:6 Elevate – Assembly

I first assembled the Platform:6 back in October 2023, so I'll start this section by saying that I don't have any proper professional–grade photos of the process. However, what I noted down at the time – and you can see from my colleague’s assembly photos of the smaller Platform:4 – is that the process was surprisingly straightforward, given its scope and the fact that it took the best part of a day to accomplish.

The trickiest part of the whole adventure came right at the start, when I needed to take everything out of the three large boxes and lug them upstairs without leaving big holes in the masonry. Most of the bits were quite transportable when taken in small batches, but the broad tabletop and the heavy electric motors were more of a mission. Unlike the Magnus Evo, which reaches its full width by screwing three pieces together, the Platform:6 is a single piece, so enlisting the help of a friend/family member/enemy at least at the beginning and end of assembly is sensible.

Once I had everything out of a box and in position, it was the usual story of laying the tabletop upside down onto something soft, slotting in the leg motors, bolting everything into position and then flipping the desk right-side up. Even if you're not a seasoned electric desk assembler, Corsair's user manuals are normally well-illustrated and logically arranged, with clear diagrams and consistent labelling where needed, and thankfully the Platform:6 doesn't buck the trend. If I needed bolts, nuts or new tools for a step, I was sure to find everything in a neatly labelled and separate bag. A decent amount of the packaging was also recyclable or compostable, save for the obligatory large pieces of foam surrounding the heavier components.

After the desk itself is complete, adding the final touches is easy enough. This is largely down to screwing in a crossbar on each back corner, sliding on the dual monitor mount and sorting out the cable situation in the cubby. The cable organiser below the desk is more substantial – and therefore more fiddly – than that of the Magnus Evo, but being able to raise the desk all the way does make it easier to get everything screwed in.

Corsair Platform:6 Elevate – Gaming

As a gaming platform, the Platform:6 has performed admirably, especially when I've been streaming, appearing on podcasts, or recording videos and therefore benefit from having easy mounting points for various electronic accessories. The expansive span of the desk provides plenty of keyboard and mousing space, even after plunking down monitors, speakers, computers, networking equipment and assorted knick–knacks, and the sit/stand motors have enticed me to stand while working more than I otherwise would.

The desk is extremely stable too, and has gracefully handled even heavy dual-chamber PCs over the years. The cable management cubby remains under-utilised – and I don't much like how dust accumulates in its crevices and how little power it can provide – but the larger cable management well below has proven just about sufficient for the parade of peripherals my work requires, even if its complex shape sometimes snags cables that I'm trying to tuck inside.