Elvis Presley, a poverty-stricken truck driver who became one of the most famous people of the 20th century, once said of being a pop culture icon, “The image is one thing and the human being is another. It's very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.” In his own way, Arthur Fleck – the protagonist of 2019’s Joker and its upcoming sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux – can relate. After all, he was just a struggling comedian and party clown until he unintentionally inspired an anarchic social movement through his Gotham City murder spree. In the sequel, Arthur is a supervillain to some and a superstar to others.

“I think that in the first film, he was really desperate to be heard and he had this misguided idea of being heard. I think initially he just wanted to be heard by a social worker, and then at some point it got perverted in a sense and he wanted mass recognition,” Joaquin Phoenix, who won the Best Actor Oscar for Joker, recently told IGN. “This is in some ways the fallout of that, the idea of celebrity and what do you do when you've created this image in this character and you have to live up to it.”

Phoenix used different rock stars than Elvis to illustrate his point. “What do you do if you are in a band like KISS or something and you've created this character and you have to go out on stage and there's all these pyrotechnics and you do all this theatrical shit, and then at some point you're like, ‘I want it to just be quiet because I want to be myself?’ What happens if somebody's falling in love with you as that character, and how do you live up to it?

“It's something I think that we all do in some ways, or we all present this image as we go about the world. And sometimes you're just like, ‘I just want quiet.’ And I was curious, what would happen to somebody that's made so much noise in the world if he just wants quiet, he just wants an authentic connection with somebody? I think that was part of the inspiration of this.”

(They Long To Be) Close To You: Joker’s Fans

The first Joker film ended with a cult of personality forming around Joker, with violent protests engulfing Gotham City in chaos. The latest trailer for Joker 2 reveals that Joker’s followers didn’t just violently riot in Gotham but nationwide. To his following, Joker is a near-messianic figure, a revolutionary and martyr whose clown visage they’ve adopted in protest against the institutional corruption keeping them down. But it’s not until the events of this sequel that his believers will start to know the real man behind the makeup, Arthur Fleck. Will they like who they find?

“I think they wanted Joker, and I think he realizes that at some point,” Phoenix said. “I think there's a moment where maybe he regrets the choices that he's made, maybe.”

Todd Phillips, the director and co-writer of both Joker films, echoed that in a separate chat with IGN. “It's kind of this idea of when somebody becomes an icon, and we put things on that person as a group, as a society, as a media, as whatever. We put things on that person that maybe they can't live up to. And then, what happens in the worst case scenario, if you finally find love in your life or you think you do, but that person is in love with the character that you represent, not the person that you are.”

That person who falls in love with Joker is Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, played by Lady Gaga. Lee is a fellow patient at Arkham State Hospital when Arthur first meets her, his biggest fan and a kindred spirit. It’s (mad) love at first sight (although there are plenty of fan theories about what’s really going on between them in the film).

“I think he's probably maybe a bit more closed off initially. Certainly, I don't think he has the expectation that he's going to have any kind of connection with anybody. Definitely, it's unexpected,” Phoenix said. “What's nice is Lee comes in and we see him come alive in that moment and through music, and we see this moment where they see each other. And there's something hopeful and really exciting about that that feels different than the first film.”

Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered): Joker & Harley

As Lady Gaga recently told IGN, “Joker is the thing that gives Arthur wings and Lee pulls that out of him. In a way, she's helping to give him wings as he embraces a side of himself that makes him feel less afraid. It's almost to me like the way he protects himself.”

Lee was drawn to Joker by his violent indignation toward a society that has abandoned or outright ignored troubled souls like him. “She's one of those people that got taken by his message on Murray Franklin,” Phillips explained, citing Joker’s on-air rant and subsequent murder of the talk show host played in the first film by Robert De Niro.

“It happens all the time with good and bad people. And I don't know that it was his celebrity that she was attracted to. I think she was attracted to the message or what he was putting out there, even though he kind of did it in a very left-footed way ultimately,” Phillips said. “I don't think it hurt that he was famous too. I mean, you see it in culture. Like, people, they start writing letters to that person. She's kind of that. She fell in love.”

Gaga, who refers to her iteration of Harley Quinn as simply Lee, said her character’s passion for Joker is all-consuming: “I would say that Lee's love of Joker, it borderlines on moments that she knows exactly who she is and moments where she's erased herself because she is so madly in love and obsessed with this person and that makes them very different. Lee would do, say, act, behave in any way that she needed to get his attention, to keep him, to be close to him.

“I think what she craves more than anything is Joker. I think this entire film, she is doing everything she can to pull Joker out of Arthur Fleck. That created this really interesting look into her life and her psyche. At any given moment if he was more Arthur than Joker, how did that make her feel? If she noticed something that he did that felt like Joker, what did that do to her? Sort of creating a woman that's constantly scanning for the thing that she really loves, and also that's a completely unique story.

“He's this person that's really complicated in the world of Gotham, that so many people really identify with him and are cheering him on. Some people are terrified of him and want him to go to jail. That is a complex situation. I tried to focus on how to make that as real as possible, because I thought that that would be the most honest way to honor a female character and also, just to honor the language and the story of this film.”

The House of Gucci and A Star is Born actress believes Joker: Folie à Deux “really asks you to sort of grapple with the masks that we all wear. Also, what is danger and what is not danger, and also the way that we can love parts of each other. Does she love the whole him or does she only love a part of him? Does he love the whole her? What is their capacity even to see each other? Are they just swept up in this tornado that's happening? For sure, identity is a huge piece. I think for my character also, I'm interested to see what the fans of Harley Quinn feel about the way that I explored that sort of dichotomy between Lee and Harley Quinn and how it also played into Joker's fantasy of love.”

Gonna Build a Mountain: Reimagining Harley Quinn

Gaga did her research on Harley Quinn once she landed the role, even if she ultimately chose not to use certain aspects of the character that fans of Batman: The Animated Series and Margot Robbie’s prior screen incarnation might expect.

“I made myself very familiar with her and also I tried to make sure that even when I was seeding things that were true to that piece of her character, that I was also really focused on this story and the love story between these two and allowing that to be also unique and how could it draw upon all of that, but also be different and rare to this story,” said Gaga.

As for Harley Quinn’s trademark thick accent, Gaga – a New York City native – decided not to go that route. “I didn't think that it made sense for this story and for this film in sort of the vocabulary and the language of this movie. I think I felt like I have all the native New Yorker in my bones. That's a part of her on a cellular level. … I really tried to inject as much humanity into this story as I could with these two kind of larger-than-life people.”

Phoenix, who also sang live opposite Gaga in several musical sequences throughout the film, praised his co-star as “a warm and supportive person,” which helped ease any nerves he may have felt singing alongside a global pop star of her magnitude. “I'm more aware of her in some ways, more aware of her super-stardom now after we finished the film than during shooting. She's so approachable and warm that it felt like a partner in something more than I was auditioning in front of this immense talent. I never really felt that way.

“Most films work when actors are challenging each other and you're challenging yourself and trying to find things in the character that feel explosive and exciting in there,” Phoenix said. “Something about what happens when you get these two characters in a relationship, how combustible can that be? And there was something really exciting about that, I think. We just wanted to capture the kind of danger that's inherent in these characters and what happens when they actually get together.”

Audiences can experience the danger that happens as Joker and Harley Quinn get together when Joker: Folie à Deux opens in theaters on October 4th.

For more Joker coverage, find out what Arthur Fleck would think of Batman and about Lady Gaga’s “Harlequin” companion album.

Editor’s note: These interviews have been edited for clarity.

Warning: This piece contains full spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II.

The Last of Us is part of an ongoing craze of faithful video game adaptations with roots traceable all the way back to the original Silent Hill film. However, adapting a game like The Last of Us Part II is a bit different from adapting its predecessor, not just because it has a more complicated, fractured narrative, but also because it’s a (phenomenal) game with much more dramatic meat to explore, both in terms of sheer length and in the thornier dimensions it mines from its characters. To make a show that stands up to its inspiration, it most likely will have to make some major deviations from the source material. While diehard fans may cry foul, it might be the only way this adaptation can feel as vital as the game does.

It’s something co-showrunner Neil Druckmann, who is also creative director of The Last of Us games, agrees on. Talking to Variety about the adaptation process, he noted that a common mistake is “staying so close to the source material that is built and designed and written for this other medium that has strengths and weaknesses, and trying to translate it as is, with no changes to this other medium that has different strengths and weaknesses.” Looking at the newly released first trailer for Season 2, we can already see the first signs of how Druckmann and his creative partner Craig Mazin may have altered the original story to suit the television medium.

Season II.

The HBO Original Series #TheLastOfUs returns in 2025 on Max. #TLOUDay pic.twitter.com/Wdzk759JIg

— Max (@StreamOnMax) September 26, 2024

Different Mediums, Different Priorities

With so many artistic mediums bleeding into each other these days, it can sometimes be hard to remember that video games and television are two very different things. Every medium for telling stories has pros and cons that are virtually inseparable from the form. The narrative techniques that make perfect sense in interactive fiction in regards to scene geography, atmosphere, environmental design, and use of player expression often don’t translate to something with a set runtime and no input from the viewer.

That’s not to say you can’t try. The first season of The Last of Us meticulously rebuilt many moments from the game’s cutscenes, sometimes literally frame by frame. But what purpose does that really serve? The story worked excellently the first time around, the game is available in its best ever form with The Last of Us Part I Remastered, and the cutscenes are readily available on YouTube. If people want a truly faithful version of the story, it’s already out there and has been for years. If anything, taking this cutscene cloning approach, rather than allowing the show’s direction and cinematography to present the story’s most critical moments in a wholly new way, only highlights the ways the original games frequently veered away from the strengths of interactive narrative. And it’s developer Naughty Dog’s adoption of non-interactive storytelling technique that makes such scenes so easy to plop directly into a TV show.

I say this as a massive fan of both games: they kind of already were HBO shows. They do use the possibilities of interactive storytelling to their advantage, but in terms of basic construction and scene direction, even during playable segments, there’s liberal use of the techniques and stylistic conventions of prestige television. This is why it isn’t just ironic that the games were eventually adapted as an HBO show; it was so easy to adapt them because the games did a lot of the work already. This is not to discount any of the contributions from the show’s directors, writers or performers, but the blueprint for a successful television show was already baked straight into the game. So if the next season wants to be its best self, it would do well to find a new way to present the story many of us already know.

Expand and Explore

Even with its fealty to the original game, the first season of The Last of Us often benefited from the deviations it did make. Hiring Latino actor Pedro Pascal gave a strong new take for main protagonist Joel by adding a softer dad-like quality to him compared to Troy Baker’s gruffer edge, adding new characters like Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen expanded the post-apocalyptic world explored in the original game, and devoting an entire episode to the unseen story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and his lover Frank (Murray Bartlett) led to what many considered to be the season’s best entry. Unlike a video game, which usually necessitates some kind of consistency to the player perspective through the controllable character, television affords the opportunity to shift focus more readily, and the show made great use of that in key areas.

The second season should use that technique to greater effect. One of the main structural conceits of Part II is playing through the same three days from both Ellie and Abby’s perspectives. Their separate paths don’t really cross over until the end of the three days, both of them going through intensely personal journeys of revenge and rebirth respectively, meaning that each lead character is essentially gone from the narrative for somewhere around ten solid hours apiece. This makes sense in a video game because jumping back and forth between protagonists each level would be jarring for a player, never allowing them to truly settle into the peaks and valleys of power and equipment a survival action game is supposed to foster. But do we really want to watch four or five episodes in a row without Ellie or Abby showing up?

Intercutting between their journeys and finding ways to draw thematic parallels between Ellie and Abby even when they’re not in the same physical space would help maintain emotional continuity and viewer investment in both characters. After all, the entire point of the extended lead-up to their confrontation is that it’s a battle we don’t want either side to “win,” because we’ve come to empathize with their experiences. It’s hard for an audience at home to go through that if a character is absent for several weeks of television. We also know that Season 2 won’t adapt the entirety of Part II, which gives the creators plenty of breathing room to add or expand on characters, subplots and world-building concepts that could give the series a fresh feel. If the trailer is anything to go by, we may have already seen hints of the show going in this direction.

Trust the Process

It’s a small detail, but the teaser trailer hints at what could be a major deviation from the original game’s setup: it looks like Abby will spend time in Jackson with Joel and Ellie. After we see Abby’s first encounter with Joel and Tommy where they save her from infected trying to get at her through a chain link fence (a scene ripped straight from the game), we later see a shot of the three of them fleeing on horses before what appears to be a horde of infected slamming themselves against Jackson’s perimeter wall. There’s also an earlier shot of a large group of infected being spotted through binoculars as they run through snow, indicating that they are heading towards Jackson, the only area in the game where snow is featured. This all suggests that there could be a sequence where Abby and Joel get back to Jackson and have more interaction than they do in the game (perhaps even involving Ellie) before Abby kills Joel. Such a sequence would be a prime opportunity for more character drama, as well as also giving us more scenes with Pascal before he’s relegated to flashbacks.

Abby ingratiating herself within Jackson’s community (a story thread concept art for the second game confirms the developers considered) and perhaps even casting her as an ally who helps them overcome an infected attack would provide us more context and inner conflict, giving the scene where she finally reveals her true motives a greater sense of dramatic weight. We get little time with Abby before she kills Joel in the game, which is a shocking scene in its original form, but viewers at home might feel a little lost if someone they assume to be one of the series’ two leads is killed so abruptly in the first couple of episodes. Getting us into Abby’s headspace earlier so we know exactly what she’s planning and why is the sort of shift that would help smooth that plot development over. And let’s be real here, more Kaitlyn Dever is never a bad thing (Did you see No One Will Save You? She was very good in that).

Ultimately, we don’t know exactly how The Last of Us Season 2 will pan out, but based on the first season, it’s fair to say the creative team behind the show can be extended a little bit of trust. There’s a murderer’s row of talent involved in the production, and although a game series as beloved as this can engender strong protective feelings from its fans, it can be rewarding to let an adaptation of a story you already know surprise you. The game isn’t going anywhere. The story will always exist in that form. So let’s have a little faith and see what the differences in the new season will add to the story, instead of assuming they’ll only subtract.

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.

Today, card games are everywhere, but in 1993, the trading card game (TCG) genre was born with just one: Magic: The Gathering, created by Richard Garfield. I became a fan a few years later, in 1996, during the release of the Fourth Edition core set.

Once I got the hang of the game, I was hooked for nearly three years. The artwork drew me in, and the flavor text – often witty, dark, and sarcastic – kept me entertained, but what I loved most was playing. The tactile thrill of placing a card on the table, imagining myself as a powerful planeswalker commanding forces beyond mortal comprehension, was unbeatable.

Though other trading card games existed back then, my loyalty to Magic: The Gathering consumed both my attention and my budget. Fast forward to today, and the landscape is even more crowded. The old titans of the genre are still thriving, while countless newer games vie for attention, each bringing something unique to the table.

With that in mind, here are the 10 best trading and living card games to dive into in 2024 – games that are fun to play, boast active communities, and have the potential for long-term growth. Whatever you decide to try out and play, make sure you have a community to share it with: either a local one where you live or an online one that is supportive. The community surrounding the game is as important as the game itself.

The Big Three

These are the established choices for anyone who's deciding on a trading card game.

Magic: The Gathering

Though it’s a Saturday (and I really shouldn't be working), I couldn’t let the 28th of September pass without celebrating the 34th Aussie birthday of my fave console and pack-in combo, Game Boy and Tetris.

Nintendo certainly didn't invent the handheld, but they did lay the foundations of a bona fide handheld gaming market with this bad boy. More than that, they unleashed the Don Bradman of on-the-go consoles—a consistently dominating competitor who retired peerless.

That being said, the Game Boy is just a piece of plastic and silicon without a cartridge—a grey brick, which caught my eye in this “Wicked” TV ad, then this Gamesmen catalogue, and eventually cost my parents $149 ($349 in 2024). Now, a successful debut of any cool product can make its creators some money, but to become a force of nature in a market for more than a decade, your invention needs an irresistible lineup, preferably led by a killer app...

Even the mighty Mario was forced to stand down when Henk Rogers arrived at Nintendo's door with such a thing. He was peddling a game called Tetris, a unique puzzle game from the Soviet Union that had some PC users buzzing already.

What happened next is something you may have seen play out in a movie (kinda, sorta). Rogers and Nintendo intuited that a portable platform could transform a quirky hand-eye challenge into an easy-to-grasp but hard-to-master obsession.

Asus has returned with another revision of its ROG Delta headset. We’ve tested the ROG Delta S and Delta S Animate, and were pleased with the results. Now they get a true successor with the ROG Delta II. At $229, it’s scratching the upper tiers of gaming headsets, but it offers a notable discount compared to some of the best gaming headsets, like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless and Audeze Maxwell while including some of their highlight features. Like its predecessors, the ROG Delta II has some of the makings of greatness, but it just doesn’t quite get there.

Asus ROG Delta II – Design and Features

The ROG Delta II doesn't depart radically from the design of previous Delta models, like the Delta S. The headset still bears a somewhat triangular design for its earcups and includes RGB lighting around the rim and on the ROG logos of each earcup, but Asus has trimmed some of the bulk. The ROG Delta II features more streamlined yolks, which wrap around just one side of the earcup, and the headband is narrower with thin metal extension arms coming out.

These adjustments fit in with the reimagined dual-purpose nature of the headset. Rather than being a wired gaming headset geared for at-home use, the ROG Delta II goes wireless and doubles down on it. The package includes a small USB-C dongle for a dedicated 2.4GHz wireless connection with minimal latency. But the headset also supports Bluetooth, and it can play audio from both sources simultaneously. That dongle supports most modern platforms, too, except Xbox.

There are two volume dials built into the headset with one of the left earcup controlling volume for the 2.4GHz dongle and one on the right controlling Bluetooth volume. Each side also includes a button for playback control. This clear division has proven far more convenient for getting audio levels where I want them than on headsets with most controls packed close together, like on the otherwise brilliant Audeze Maxwell.

In addition to wireless connections, the ROG Delta II supports analog audio input with a 3.5mm connector on the right earcup. Unlike the wireless connections, this one doesn’t work with other signals, but it’ll do in a pinch if your battery dies and you want to keep listening (or if you want to use an Xbox.

The headset is rather stylish overall, with a mix of black and dark grays. The lighting is flashy with plenty of color and smooth gradation between LEDs. The default leatherette ear cushions even have a neat tread pattern on the outside. To add a little extra value, Asus also includes mesh-covered ear cushions for better breathability, albeit with the trade-off being inferior noise isolation.

Looking to upgrade your mouse?

Be sure to check out our guide on finding the best gaming mice!

The microphone on the ROG Delta II is detachable and comes with a fairly effective pop filter. It also has a handy little indicator light to show when the mic is muted. The light is built into a ring that sits just a little ways before the tip of the boom arm, so it doesn’t get covered by the pop filter.

Comfort could be a little better for the ROG Delta II. Asus’s choice to narrow the headband makes for a sharper pressure point on the crown of my head, and it can begin to get tender after several hours, especially with the headset weighing 315 grams. This isn’t outrageously heavy, but it’s not lightweight. The ear cushions thankfully are cozy, providing plenty of space and distributing the pressure widely, not that the clamping force is very hard to begin with.

Asus ROG Delta II – Software

Asus’s Armoury Crate app is probably one of the worse peripheral apps out there. Just installing the “Lite” package took upwards of 10 minutes, it’s still a bloated app, and the app burrows thoroughly into Windows, proving unreasonably difficult to fully uninstall

Inside the app, you’ll get a useful eight-band EQ and a handful of EQ presets you can use for different types of games. There’s also a virtual surround sound feature in the app that isn’t great since it thins out music and doesn’t properly create a surround effect to my ears.

The app features a variety of controls for the microphone, including a noise gate, echo cancellation and noise reduction, and something called “perfect voice,” but testing each of these, I noticed almost no change to the sound of my voice in a recording. Only the noise gate proved to make a clear difference, as it reduced the overall volume of my voice and could thereby trim some of the quieter sounds in my room entirely.

If you want sidetone for the mic, you’ll need the app. Unfortunately, the quality of sidetone is completely different from the mic’s actual sound. It sounds muffled and unnatural. And unless it’s boosted to a high level, it hardly adds to the amount I can hear my voice through the headphones normally. Sidetone also only works when connected to a call (including Discord), so it may not work if you’re using a game’s voice chat.

The few features and limited efficacy of each leave Armoury Crate feeling like an optional installation, and that’s great news, because I’d avoid it if possible.

Asus ROG Delta II – Gaming and Performance

The ROG Delta II musters a solid performance for gaming and beyond. Audio quality is loud and clear, with impactful bass that doesn’t overwhelm the higher frequencies. So if you’re running around in a chaotic battlefield, you won’t have to struggle to hear team comms or other in-game callouts getting drowned in explosions.

Positional audio is strong, too. In Counter-Strike 2, I was readily able to pick out which direction sounds were coming from. This lent me all-too-critical information to get the drop on enemies or catch someone coming up behind me before it was too late. How effective this is will come down to each game’s audio design, but the ROG Delta II is certainly up to the task.

Outside of gaming, the audio balance is a bonus. Listening to music or movies, it’s easy to enjoy the content without an EQ skewing heavily toward the low-end. Bass-lovers can always crank it up with a custom EQ setting, though I don’t think it’s worth the effort of installing Armoury Crate.

One thing the headset can struggle with is noise isolation. Even with the leatherette ear cushions, they don’t seal out a great deal of external sound. I find I end up listening at louder levels to drown out external sound if I’m somewhere noisy, and these headphones do have a bit of on-the-move listening in mind with their Bluetooth connectivity and removable boom mic. Fortunately, the headset can crank the volume to a high enough level that it does effectively overpower a lot of external sounds — mind your ears, though.

The ROG Delta II combines a dedicated 2.4GHz wireless audio stream and Bluetooth neatly. Being able to control Bluetooth volume and 2.4GHz volume with dials on opposite sides comes in handy for quickly finding a balance. In spite of the small dongle, the 2.4GHz even proves impressively stable at some distance, readily going through a couple walls as I moved around my house with the headset on.

Asus touts the 10mm Super-wideband boom microphone’s capabilities, and sure enough, it captures my voice incredibly clearly. It has depth that’s often lost on wireless headset mics, and it doesn’t show the typical signs of compression that tends to afflict wireless voice recordings. That said, it also shows little signs of blocking out background noise. I can clearly hear my keyboard and mouse clicks through the mic, and background noise (like a motorcycle ripping through my neighborhood) is picked up alongside my voice. If you’re just dealing with low-level background noise, the noise gate in Armoury Crate should keep it from being a constant bother, though it won’t isolate your voice from especially loud interruptions.

The battery in the ROG Delta II is a highlight, stretching on and on for days with lighting disabled to reach a rated 110-hour runtime with a 2.4GHz connection and 140 hours on Bluetooth. But lighting takes that down dramatically, dropping to 24 hours and 27 hours, respectively. While Asus’s lighting may be flashy, it’s simply too costly for the battery. And battery life is just the kind of edge Asus needs to stay competitive with something like the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, which has it beat on features and comfort but is limited to a 22-hour runtime (albeit with interchangeable batteries).

Are you wondering if Megalopolis has a post-credits scene? We’ll tell you right here: It doesn’t have a mid- or post-credits scene of any kind.

Full spoilers for the movie follow from here…

Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded, controversy-prone science fiction extravaganza Megalopolis has finally arrived, and while critics are split on the film (as of this writing it’s got a 50% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes), there’s no denying that it’s full of head-scratching moments.

That might even include during the act of buying tickets for the film, where consumers will find that you have two options: Megalopolis: The Ultimate Experience and plain old regular Megalopolis. Let’s delve into what the so-called “immersive” Ultimate Experience is all about, as well as what the ending of the movie means… and more!

What Is Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis?

Having directed such classics as The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and yes, even Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Coppola has earned a certain degree of latitude when we’re approaching any new project from the filmmaker. He also has attracted quite a cast for Megalopolis, which stars Adam Driver as architect of the future Cesar Catilina, Giancarlo Esposito as Cesar’s rival Mayor Franklyn Cicero, Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero, daughter of the mayor and lover of Cesar, Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum, part financial reporter/part Access Hollywood host, and Shia LaBeouf as Clodio, a cousin of Cesar’s who craves his power and influence. Other familiar faces who show up in supporting or outright small roles include Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, and Dustin Hoffman.

It looks like Chucky Season 4 won't be happening after all. Creator Don Mancini revealed in a statement that the horror-comedy series starring the killer doll will be ending after three seasons after USA and Syfy declined to renew it.

“I’m heartbroken over the news that ‘Chucky’ won’t be coming back for a fourth season, but am so grateful for the killer three years we did have,” Mancini said in a statement sent to THR.

“I’d like to thank UCP/SYFY/Peacock/Eat the Cat, our awesome cast and Toronto-based crew (the best in the business), and finally, to our amazing fans, a big bloody hug. Your incredible #RenewChucky campaign really warmed Chucky’s cold heart. Chucky will return! He ALWAYS comes back.”

Jennifer Tilly also paid tribute to Chucky, "We’re really proud of our show. It has been a wonderful miracle working with this talented cast and crew. We were very lucky to have the leadership of our brilliant captain Don Mancini. But (to quote Call of Duty) we are 'down but not out.' Resurrections are Chucky’s specialties and he has many of them!"

So sad to announce that after three wonderful seasons the television series “Chucky” has finally been canceled.

First I’d like to think our fans, who managed to keep the #RenewChucky hashtag trending for MONTHS! Without your loyalty and tenacity Chucky would never have…

— Jennifer Tilly (@JenniferTilly) September 27, 2024

Chucky originally premiered back in 2021, with the second part of its third and final season kicking off in 2024. We wrote in our review of the premiere, "Chucky does a great job of translating the Child’s Play formula to television."

Unfortunately for fans, Chucky Season 3 ended on a cliffhanger, and it's unclear whether it will ever resolved. Mancini apparently had several plans in mind for season 4, but they'll have to wait for now. In the meantime, check out all the rest of the biggest TV shows coming in 2024.

Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Every year I get my hopes up thinking, “This is it: This’ll be the year that EA’s NHL finally gets it together and delivers on its full potential,” only to then spend dozens of hours playing a game that is almost fundamentally the same as the one I played the previous year. There are rare exceptions to this; even though I had my issues with NHL 24, the Sustained Pressure System and Exhaustion Engine at least added something new to the overall gameplay, and NHL 21’s Be a Pro Mode has become a staple. Unfortunately, it seems like NHL 25 isn’t going to be one of those exceptions. Keep in mind that these are just my initial, early impressions of NHL 25 after just a few hours on the ice. But you only get to make one first impression, and right now I’m not feeling too optimistic.

Mechanically I’ve yet to see a lot of meaningful changes, but on the surface level, at least, it’s clear right from the start that NHL 25 is the first game in the series built exclusively for current-gen consoles. The graphics are sharp and the action looks better than ever. Animations are smoother and there’s something satisfying about seeing how much wear and tear you put on the ice. Players now look much more like humans and less like animatronics, so zoom-ins on faces will hopefully no longer provide a lot of nightmare fuel. We can’t say there’s been no positive steps made.

However, Franchise is the only mode that’s been given a significant overhaul relative to last year’s version. The most immediately noticeable change is that the newly redesigned hub menu is sleeker and easier to parse. But there have also been actual gameplay additions, too. For example, GMs must convince free agents to sign with their team if the player’s interest in the organization is too low.

How they go about doing that is up to them. Maybe it’s by promising to let them play on the first line. You can attempt to charm them, but if it fails it might kill their interest in your offer entirely. And players can actually negotiate no-movement or no-trade clauses into their contracts, which is a feature that the NHL playerbase has been requesting for a while now.

GMs can also discuss what the team should be focusing on during the offseason with head coaches, which essentially provides season-wide buffs and debuffs for the team. Players can also be approached with the conversation system to let GMs develop them individually. Seasonal goals and on-ice plays can be assigned, which will lead to boosts if the player is successful. I haven’t had the time I’ve needed yet to see how much impact these types of decisions will actually have in a Franchise playthrough, so I won’t be able to say for certain if these are meaningful until my final review.

You might be wondering how Be a Pro is different this time around. Well, it’s not. Even the intro cinematics seem to be identical, which is doubly bad because I had this same complaint last year. The entire mode just seems shoehorned into each installment with the bare minimum of care or attention. I would love to have some type of story mode that was more than just text bubbles and choosing a response like in those annoying mobile game ads, but I guess that’s just not going to happen anytime soon.

So you can say I’m not wowed by what I’ve seen so far, but we’re still in the first period here: I’ve yet to touch the online modes at all, though I did briefly open a HUT Pack only to have NHL 25 crash midway through the lootbox animation. Hopefully I won’t encounter too many more glitches like that. I’ll be upfront and admit that Franchise Mode has never appealed to me too much because that type of sports sim management is not what I’m personally looking for in a hockey game – I prefer to be out on the ice than in the office – but I do plan to give it a fair shot and see if that mode finally clicks with me thanks to the new changes.

Based on what I’ve played so far, though? I’m just not feeling very impressed by NHL 25. For being the first NHL game exclusively for current-gen consoles, it’s a shame that it seems like it’s still stuck in the same last-gen rut.

DC is bringing more big-name villains to the big screen, as a new report suggests the comic book company is working on a Bane and Deathstroke movie.

Details on what is said to be a team-up movie come from The Hollywood Reporter. The film is allegedly still in its early stages, with no actors or director picked to work on the project just yet. However, the report states that Captain America: Brave New World writer Matthew Orton has been tapped to write the script for the Batman villain movie.

Ahead of its October Prime Day event, Amazon is offering its Prime members a free 4-month trial to Amazon Music Unlimited. Non-Prime members are still eligible for 3 free months. Both are excellent deals considering a trial usually only lasts for 30 days. This subscription normally costs $10.99 per month for non-Prime members and $9.99 per month for Prime members. Note that only new subscribers to Amazon Music Unlimited are eligible for a free trial.

Free 4-Month Trial to Amazon Music Unlimited

For Prime members (3 months for non-Prime members)

Amazon Music Unlimited is a subscription-based music streaming service similar to Spotify and Pandora. You'll have access to nearly 100 million songs completely ad-free. There are thousands of pre-mixed playlists and stations to choose from, but you are completely allowed to pick your own songs and create your own playlists.

In terms of audio quality, just about every song is available in lossless HD. About 10 million songs are also available in lossless UltraHD, which offers better than CD audio (up to 24 bit, 192 kHz) and more than 10 times the bitrate of standard definition streaming services. Amazon is also offering an increasing number of songs that support Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio. Just make sure your audio equipment is up to snuff.

Amazon Music Unlimited works seamlessly on Echo devices and Fire TVs, third-party Alexa smart devices like Sonos, and pretty much any Android smartphone or iPhone through the Amazon Music app.

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

Each Friday, we round up the latest items at IGN Store! This week, IGN Store opened orders for new One Piece, Lies of P, Avatar, and Castlevania products. Additionally, the hottest items of the week included the Zelda, The Last of Us, and Warhammer collections. Finally, items from Warhammer and Atomfall are set to leave IGN Store very soon. Take a look at this week's roundup below!

What's New: One Piece, Lies of P, and Castlevania

iam8bit Vinyl Now Available to Pre-Order

Over the past few days you might’ve caught wind of some controversy stemming from IGN’s community game of the year Face-Off. It’s become a full-on drama, complete with literal ups and downs, shocking twists, and accusations of foul play flying. There’s also quite a bit of confusion, so to clear it up a bit I’m going to walk you through how we got here, and how we’re making it right.

Early this year IGN rolled out a new version of our Face-Off tool, and it’s become a pet project of mine to use it to get our community to create ranked lists of games, movies, TV shows, and literally everything else that people have opinions about. It works by showing you two things and letting you pick whichever you think should win, whether that’s The Empire Strikes Back vs Attack of the Clones, or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) vs Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023). It then generates a list of your personal rankings, while also mashing your votes together with everybody else to create a community ranking. It’s far from perfect, and we hope to iterate on it so that it becomes a better experience that creates a more accurate personal list for you in fewer matches. Even so, it’s been a lot of fun to mess with and find interesting ways to use it – and to watch people agonize over tough choices between two things they love.

On February 22, after a few big 2024 games had launched, I started the What’s Your Game of the Year So Far? Face-Off as an experiment to see how the running tally would look if we’re adding new games as they come out. Importantly, this was an informal test that asked a casual question about how people are feeling in the moment, and it was never presented as our official Game of the Year community vote. We still plan to do that the old-fashioned way later this year, and it will be entirely separate from this. (To answer the frequently asked question of why Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is on the list when it’s a DLC expansion and not a full new game: Because there are no rules and I wanted to see what would happen! I’ll put Starfield: Shattered Space on there next week, too.) This use case technically wasn’t what the tool was built for, but I wanted to see if it would work – and the results have been promising.

How the list shakes out is proving to be very interesting because the community ranking is based on the win/loss ratio, rather than the sheer number of votes a game receives. That means a new entry added in November can outrank something added in May simply because it wins more often, as opposed to more times. For instance, something that’s chosen as the winner in 6,500 out of 10,000 matches will outrank another item that wins 60,000 out of 100,000 matches. (It’s very silly when you add something new and it’s #1 with a 100% win ratio for a brief moment, but that quickly evens out.) So, while the hot new thing might get a lot of wins shortly after it comes out, after the honeymoon period expires and people move on to other games its ranking might fall if it’s more of a flash in the pan than something that sticks with you for a long time, as truly great games do. Ideally, people would only vote on games that they’ve actually played and disqualify the rest (using the little X in the corner of each card) so they’re not voting against something they don’t have an informed opinion on, but realistically I know the overwhelming majority is not going to do that. This is purely a popularity contest.

Even so, it’s been a treat to watch how things have played out, and the resulting ranking is a fascinating melding of thousands of different people’s opinions. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth had held a steady lead most of the year, but Shadow of the Erdtree was nipping at its heels for months. (See? People wanted to vote for it.) When Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Helldivers 2, Space Marine 2, Astro Bot, and Black Myth: Wukong, and other popular games came out, they shot up into the top half of the list and jockeyed for position. There were no hard rules (again, Face-Offs are a wild west territory for us!) but I mostly added games that either scored 8 or above on IGN or had proven themselves popular or at least interesting elsewhere. At the same time, I periodically pruned low-performing games from the bottom of the rankings that looked like they were never going to recover to make way for new entries and prevent the list of games from becoming unmanageably long – Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League didn’t make it, I’m afraid.

Until recently, the GOTY So Far Face-Off wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire in terms of traffic numbers (not a ton of people are looking for Game of the Year content in April). Still, it had been humming along nicely, racking up hundreds of thousands of votes, and I think there’s a lot of potential for it in the future.

Then, late last week, it dramatically blew up: The Black Myth: Wukong fandom discovered the Face-Off page and, seeing that their favorite game was within striking distance of the top of the list, rallied around it. We saw a massive influx of traffic from Chinese and other Asian sources to that page, and over the weekend Black Myth’s win percentage went from a very respectable showing in the 60s all the way up to an absolutely astronomical 90.4%, blowing past Rebirth’s relatively meager 72%. We never saw that coming, and what had been a relatively stable list was upended so quickly our scheduled social media repromotion of a Playlist built to reflect the top games – as they had been – was caught flat-footed and caused major confusion because it hadn't been updated yet. Face-Offs are dynamic and react to the community; Playlists are not and must be manually updated. We’ve learned from this that the two probably should not mix!

Aside from that wrinkle, this response to Face-Offs is exactly what I hoped would happen… but on an intensity level I hadn’t imagined. Our goal is for Face-Offs to be fun, and by golly, people were having an absolute blast with it – some were even livestreaming as they refreshed the page to see how high Black Myth could go! For the record, we don’t consider it cheating at all for fan communities to champion their game and support it by voting, and it’s actually encouraged for people to run through multiple times. (The double-bracket system we currently use means that a single run could possibly eliminate a #3 choice early on, and everything is not matched against everything, so more data gives a better picture of your preferences.) We were thrilled that so many Black Myth fans noticed the Face-Off and participated in force, and we’d love nothing more than for other fandoms to join in the fray. Friendly rivalries like that would be the best-case scenario for us, and we’d find out what other games those groups are into in the process by seeing how the rest of the list shook out. In the past few days we've gotten nearly twice as many votes on this Face-Off than it'd racked up in the previous six months.

But of course, this is the internet, and on the internet we know certain immutable truths. One is that online polling is not secure. Just about anything can be manipulated if someone puts their mind to it, especially if you’re not creating multiple layers of security and identity verification to lock it down. Face-Offs aren’t intended to be taken super seriously, so we don’t even require you to create an IGN account to participate – as we do with our traditional Community Game of the Year vote – because we want as many people to join in as possible. (We’d love it if you did create an account, though – it’ll save your progress on a run and your personal vote count if you’re signed in.)

Another truth is that the more people pay attention to something, the more likely it is that a bad actor tries to ruin the fun. In this case, it appears that someone – probably fully aware of how closely this page was being watched – figured out a way to quickly dump tens of thousands of votes against Black Myth: Wukong into the system, dropping it back down into the high 60s in a matter of hours. If trolling the Black Myth: Wukong fanbase during a moment of triumph was the goal here, it was extremely effective. We’ve seen a lot of anger and accusations of altering the results leveled at us, which is disappointing because again, this was all supposed to be for fun.

To be explicitly clear, no one at IGN tampered with the results of this Face-Off in any way during this period. We’ve spent the past few days investigating what happened, and how we can keep Face-Offs making people happy instead of mad going forward. Here’s what the voting activity looked like on September 21 through 24, by the hour, from the top regions where people were participating.

You can see the massive, sustained influx of pro-Black Myth: Wukong voters who pushed it to the top of the list, followed by a short but potent spike. That corresponds to the period where it fell back down.

The fact that Black Myth’s vote total so quickly surpassed that of games that had been accruing votes for months before it was added to the list of games strongly suggests that someone exploited the system to allow them to vote only on one specific game – something the randomization of matches is intended to prevent. Likewise, that double-elimination bracket system means you should only be able to vote against a game twice in a run before it stops showing up, since it clearly wasn’t going to be your favorite, but that also seems to have been bypassed to achieve this volume of losses in such a short time.

Unfortunately, since Face-Offs aren’t limited to logged-in users it’s not obvious which votes are real and which are fake, so we can’t simply delete the exact number of suspicious votes. However, in the interest of fairness, we’ve decided to remove all of the negative votes from the period that the Black Myth: Wukong community and our engineers have identified as the most likely to be fraudulent, during which the win percentage fell at what should’ve been an impossible rate – a total of 46,000 losses. As of this writing, that change moves Black Myth: Wukong back into the #1 position on the list, with a 76% win rate. It’s unfortunate to lose any valid votes that were caught up in the mix, but this is the best solution we have given the information available.

Over the next few months we’ll keep an eye on this Face-Off to guard against other efforts to manipulate the results. This being the internet, there’s no realistic way to prevent someone who knows what they’re doing from playing dirty tricks on a anonymous online poll, but we’ve taken steps to at least mitigate their effectiveness going forward, and we hope to continue to improve Face-Offs in a lot of different ways to make them even more fun to engage with. I hope you continue to enjoy them!

In the meantime, our What’s Your Game of the Year So Far? Face-Off continues: Yesterday I added The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (to both this Face-Off and our Zelda-specific one), so if you’re playing and have an idea of where it belongs relative to other 2024 games, we’d love to have your vote. If you’re passionate about movies or TV shows this year, check out our Face-Offs for those as well. And share them with your friends – I’m trying to make these a thing.

Dan Stapleton is IGN's Director of Reviews and self-proclaimed Chief Face-Officer. Follow him on Bluesky.

Woot! (which is owned by Amazon) is offering the best deal on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Right now you can get a 3 month code for only $36.49. Earlier this year, Microsoft raised the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $19.99 per month, so now you're saving 40% off a 3 month membership. Note that you can purchase multiple codes and apply them to your account, up to a maximum of 36 months. If you're an Xbox gamer, this is a great way to save a lot of money in the long run since you won't have to buy new release games individually to play them.

3 Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $36.49

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gives you access to a library of hundreds of Xbox games, including day one releases. You can play them for the entirety of your membership without any restrictions. You do lose access to them once your membership is over, but if you ever decide to renew, all your past achievements and progress will be saved. You'll also have access to Xbox Game Pass for PC. Although there aren't nearly as many games as there are on Xbox, there are still plenty of AAA titles to keep you sated. Other perks include exclusive membership discounts, the ability to play your games across multiple devices with cloud gaming, free access to EA Play membership, as well as bonus in-game content and rewards. It is an exceptionally good - almost essential - membership for Xbox gamers. New release games are not cheap, and being able to play them without buying them will save you a lot of money and easily recoup the cost of the membership.

Looking for more deals? Check out all of the best Xbox deals today.

The Apple AirPods 4 earbuds were released earlier this month, but we're already seeing some welcome discounts ahead of the holiday season. Right now Amazon is taking $10 off both models: the AirPods 4 with noise cancellation is down to $169 (from $179) and the AirPods 4 without noise cancellation is down to $119 (from $129). On a related note, the AirPods Pro 2 is also on sale for $189.99 after an even more sizeable $60 discount.

Save $10 Off the New Apple AirPods 4

Lenovo is offering its Lenovo Legion Tower 5i Gen 8 Intel Core i5 RTX 4060 gaming PC for only $769.99 shipped after coupon code "CRAZYLEGION5". This is an excellent deal for an RTX 4060 gaming PC and even better than the recent LOQ RTX 4060 deal, mainly because the Legion 5 Tower is a nicer chassis with more fans. Lenovo Legion gaming PCs feature better build quality than what you'd find from other comparably priced PCs, with mostly non-proprietary parts that are easy to upgrade on your own.

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i RTX 4060 Gaming PC

The Lenovo Legion Tower 5i is equipped with an Intel Core i5-1440F CPU, GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GPU, 16GB of DDR5-5800MHz RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. The latest generation Intel Core i5-1440F Raptor Lake "Refresh" CPU boasts a max clock of 4.7GHz with 10 cores, 16 threads, and a 20MB cache. It's cooled by a robust 120mm tower heatsink fan. This is a very capable desktop processor that performs nearly as well as the Intel Core i7 in gaming.

The RTX 4060 is considerably more powerful than the RTX 3060 and almost nearly matches the RTX 3060 Ti. This is a great budget card for 1080p gaming. You could also run games at 1440p with relaxed graphic settings, but at that point I'd recommend upgrading to an RTX 4060 Ti or higher. Because it's a current generation card, the RTX 4060 supports DLSS 3.0, which gives you a noticeable performance boost compared to equivalent AMD cards without sacrificing visual quality.

For those of you on a budget, the RTX 4060 is usually going to be the best NVIDIA GPU you'll find in a gaming PC that's priced under $1000, and this Lenovo rig is well below that threshold. What's more, Lenovo prebuilt gaming PCs include a 1 year manufacturer's warranty, so you'll avoid the hassle of building DIY and dealing with separate component warranties. Check out our best budget gaming PCs of 2024 to see what other alternatives we recommend.

Looking for higher-end options? Check out the best gaming PC deals today.

Lenovo is offering an Lenovo Legion Tower 5i Gen 8 gaming PC equipped with a GeForce RTX 4070 Super GPU for only $1,349.99 after coupon code: "CRAZYLEGION1". That's a $950 price drop from its original $2,300. The RTX 4070 Super GPU is one of NVIDIA's most popular graphics cards; it performs admirably at 1080p and 1440p gaming, but has the chops to run games in 4K as well. I personally gamed on a 4K monitor with a RTX 3080 GPU (which is less powerful than the RTX 4070 Super) before I finally upgraded to a newer card.

Update: This coupon code was supposed to end already, but it's still available. It may expire soon.

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i RTX 4070 Super Gaming PC

The Lenovo Legion Tower 5 Gen 8 is equipped with an Intel Core i7-14700F CPU, GeForce RTX 4070 Super GPU, 32GB of DDR5-4400MHz RAM, and dual storage (1TB M.2 SSD and 1TB HDD). The 14th generation Intel Core i7-14700F Raptor Lake Refresh CPU boasts a max clock of 5.4GHz with 20 cores, 28 threads, and a 33MB cache. It's a great processor for both gaming and work (on par with the newest Ryzen 7 CPUs). It's cooled by a robust tower heatsink fan.

The RTX 4070 Super video card is a significant improvement in performance over the 4070 (about 10-15% faster at 1440p according to our RTX 4070 Super review). It also has 12GB of VRAM compared to the 4070's 8GB. Like all RTX 40 series cards, the RTX 4070 Super supports DLSS 3.0, which gives it an edge in performance over similarly priced AMD GPUs. This is an excellent GPU for 1080p or 1440p gaming, but it's also more than capable of 4K gaming. At that point a RTX 4070 Ti or higher will give you noticeable gains, but you should be still be able to squeeze 60fps in most games with some graphics settings tweaking (especially with DLSS enabled).

Why Choose Lenovo?

People like the fact that Lenovo does not use very many proprietary components in their rigs, so Legion gaming PCs are generally DIY upgrade-friendly with easily obtainable off-the-shelf components. Lenovo gaming rigs generally also utilize solid cooling, especially for the CPU, even if you opt for the less expensive air cooled option. Check out our best budget gaming PCs of 2024 to see what other alternatives we recommend.

Looking for more options? Check out the best gaming PC deals today.

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

The iPhone 16 series is here, and while it has plenty of upgrades, the year-to-year changes don’t always feel very exciting, so it’s natural to see what other options are out there. And let me tell you, there are plenty. I’ve been testing smartphones for almost a decade, and I’ve seen my fair share of handsets that can compete with Apple’s iPhones, and quite a few bring new capabilities to the table well before Apple does – just looking at folding phones. I’ve also tested iPhones, and I know and respect the qualities that have kept them at the forefront of the market for so long. That knowledge just makes it that much easier to see where an alternative feels right.

For a lot of people, going for an iPhone isn’t going to be the most sensible thing. Even the lowest-cost option in each new iPhone lineup tends to be on the more expensive side of the market – take the $799 iPhone 16 for example, and prices only go up from there. Thankfully, many of the best qualities of iPhones short of iOS and the powerful Apple chipsets are available elsewhere. There is no shortage of quality iPhone alternatives on the Android side of the market.

TL;DR – These Are the Best iPhone Alternatives in 2024

• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - Best all-around
• Google Pixel 9 Pro - Best camera
• OnePlus 12R - Best budget
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 - Best foldable
• RedMagic 9S Pro - Best gaming

By widening your scope, you can find next-level camera systems, designs that go toe-to-toe with Apple’s best, unique form factors that Apple has so far shied away from, more budget-friendly options, and niche models with an emphasis on gaming. There’s plenty to choose from, and rather than just deciding which tier of iPhone is right for you, you can decide which blends of features, build quality, performance, and price fit your needs. Whether you’re looking for the best phone around that’s just not an iPhone or want a device that can match the photographic prowess Apple is known for, you’ll find a good alternative here.

Contributions by Georgie Peru and Rudie Obias

1. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Best All-Around iPhone Alternative

2. Google Pixel 9 Pro

Best Cameras in an iPhone Alternative

3. OnePlus 12R

Best Budget iPhone Alternative

4. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

Best Foldable iPhone Alternative

5. RedMagic 9S Pro

Best iPhone Alternative for Gaming

Amazon is offering this Flexispot 55"x24" Electric Standing Desk for only $197.99 shipped after a combined savings of a $40 coupon that you clip and a 30% off coupon that is automatically applied during checkout. For under $200 you're getting some pretty nice upgrades, like a one-piece solid bamboo desktop surface with pre-drilled grommets, your choice of gray or white metal legs, a pullout drawer, clamp-mount power outlet, and more.

We like Flexispot because it offers quality electric standing desks with all the features you'd want at a fraction of the price compared to other more well-known models. I've personally been using a Flexispot desk for years now and if I were in the market right now, I'd have no qualms getting another. If you're still not convinced, check out our buying guides. We rated Flexispot models as both the best overall standing desk AND best ultra cheap standing desk of 2024.

Flexispot 55" Bamboo Electric Standing Desk

Are you looking for the opportunity to win new games, consoles, and accessories? Look no further than IGN Rewards! Multiple new giveaways and deals are now available for members this October! If you're not familiar with IGN Rewards, it's a platform free for all registered IGN users. You can enter into new giveaways each month, claim exclusive discounts, and so much more!

This month, you can enter to win a Women of Marvel: The Portrait Collection Print, a Custom Crossy Road Castle Xbox Series X, a 12% discount for LA Comic Con 2024, a Warcraft Rumble PURE KICK Collection, and more! Check out all the available IGN Rewards for October 2024 below, and be sure to enter before these giveaways close.

Note: Giveaways are exclusive to accounts based in the United States unless noted otherwise.

Enter to Win a Women of Marvel: The Portrait Collection Print!

In the trailer for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Yakuza fan-favorite Goro Majima wakes on a beach with his memory wiped. A kid with a tiger cub pal named Noah finds him, and before long, Majima finds himself beating up a pirate captain and taking over his ship (or so it’s implied.) I got my first hands-on with the latest in the Yakuza franchise, and I’d love to tell you about it.

I played a short portion of Pirate Yakuza when Majima, Noah, and friends arrived in Infinite Wealth’s familiar locale of Honolulu, but this was very much constructed as a demo, so I can’t be certain of how similar the next series of events would be to the full game. First, a short combat tutorial on mechanics potentially unfamiliar to Infinite Wealth players: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii isn’t a turn-based RPG like Infinite Wealth, but instead an action beat-em-up like the original Yakuza games. This short tutorial primarily described Majima’s two fighting styles: Majima’s classic Mad Dog Style and the new, aptly pirate-themed Sea Dog Style.

In Sea Dog Style, Majima wields dual cutlasses, a long-range hand cannon, and a wire hook that allows you to pull in close to a targeted enemy. A cutlass can also be thrown as a boomerang if a button is held down. Combat is engaging and fun, and I can see it being varied enough to keep things interesting with just its two different styles.

After the basic tutorial, I could choose whether to go to the fabled Madlantis to continue the story, or do one of a few side activities: Karaoke, Dragon Kart, Crazy Delivery, and fit check (change clothes).

I don’t have quite enough experience with these mini-games in previous Yakuza games, so I couldn’t comment on whether anything substantial had changed about them, but they were all fun and worthy of spending time on for the entertainment factor alone. I can tell you that long-time Yakuza fans will definitely recognize at least some of the songs available in karaoke, though.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s mini-game Dragon Kart wasn’t in Infinite Wealth, making it the most far-removed of the side activities available during the demo. This absorbing mini-game is pretty built out in its own right and is basically Yakuza Mario Kart, complete with boosts, drifting, coins, and items. You can also go to a changing room to switch out Majima’s clothes for both his regular and pirate styles.

In between side-activities, I became best friends with a little bird named Joseph and used the new Wire Hook while out exploring to gather a high-up butterfly. Apparently you can swing around Hawaii with it, but I didn’t see any obvious points to trigger this when I played.

Finally, for the main event, I got to see a bit of the brand new location of Madlantis. This grungy yet lively ship-graveyard-turned-mini-city-inside-a-cave-in-the-middle-of-the-ocean looks like a worthy hub. It’s at least home to Pirate Colosseum, where, in the full game, you’ll be able to engage in “intense ship battles” as the Goro Pirates.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try out any sort of ship battle in the demo, which was a little disappointing to say the least, but Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is ship-shaping up to be a seaworthy spin-off with a fin-favorite at its helm. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Ahead of the holiday season, Walmart has dropped the price of the 2024 55" LG Evo C4 4K OLED TV by nearly 50% off (if you go by LG's retail price of $1999.99). Right now you can get it for $1069.00, which is easily the lowest price we've seen thus far for this particular size and model. The LG Evo C4 is an outstanding TV that has won top spots in several of our buying guides, including best 4K TV, best TV for gaming, and best TV for the PlayStation 5. This is an especially good buy if you picked up the new PS5 Pro, since the updated hardware will be able to run more games at a consistent 4K @ 120fps.

55" LG Evo C4 4K OLED Smart TV: The Best PS5 TV

There's no shortage of PS5 controllers, but if you're looking for the best first-party options, there are only two: the DualSense and DualSense Edge. Everyone who owns a PS5 should already be familiar with the standard DualSense as it's included with every console, but players looking for a bit more customization might be tempted by the DualSense Edge. Check out our comparison between the DualSense and DualSense Edge below, including a look at price, features, and our advice on which controller you should buy.

DualSense Controllers: Price Comparison

The most obvious difference between the DualSense and the DualSense Edge is price. While every PS5 comes with a DualSense controller, you will need additional controllers if you want to play couch co-op or multiplayer games on the same console. Getting another one of Sony's standard DualSense controllers will run you $69.99, although you can typically find sales throughout the year to save you a bit of cash.

The DualSense Edge, on the other hand, is sold at more of a premium due to its additional features and included accessories. The DualSense Edge costs $199, on par with other "pro" level controllers like the Xbox Elite Series 2 gamepad.

Specs and Features

Both the standard DualSense and DualSense Edge share key features, such as built-in haptic feedback that provides precise vibrations based on your in-game actions and adaptive triggers that offer resistance when pressed down to simulate different weapons or abilities. They also both feature nearly the same shape and design, so you'll feel at home regardless of your decision.

Each controller also features the same layout and core set of buttons that include the PlayStation's signature parallel thumbsticks, face buttons, and D-pad, as well as the touchpad, integrated speakers, headphone jack, and a built-in microphone. The PlayStation button sits below the touchpad on both controllers, and the Share and Option buttons adorn the face of the controller on opposite sides of the touchpad.

The DualSense Edge also has awesome customizable profiles that can be accessed at any time by pressing either of the Function buttons below each thumbstick. You can create up to four unique profiles that allow you to remap every button on the controller at the system level through an intuitive interface. The ease and simplicity at which you can create and edit profiles is unmatched, and really allows you to take your gameplay to the next level.

DualSense vs. DualSense Edge: Which One Should You Buy?

While the standard DualSense is a fantastic controller, the DualSense Edge is a strict upgrade in about every way, save for battery life. If your gaming tastes skew towards multiplayer games and shooters, the DualSense Edge's interchangeable back buttons and thumbsticks paired with its customizable profiles let you quickly lock in your settings for a competitive edge. The ability to replace individual thumbstick modules could justify the $200 price tag alone, depending on how frequently you're going through controllers due to stick drift.

However, if you tend to play games more casually, or prefer single-player narrative experiences, you may not find a lot of the DualSense Edge's customization features appealing. The standard DualSense's battery life is nearly double that of the DualSense Edge, allowing you to play more without worrying about charging between sessions. The DualSense also comes in a variety of colorways, including a number of special edition controllers to match your style, while the DualSense Edge is only available in white.

Matthew Adler is a Commerce, Features, Guides, News, Previews, and Reviews writer for IGN. You can follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.