On its Early Access launch day, before I'd unlocked anything, I was struck by how much Slay the Spire 2 felt more like a remake of the original Slay the Spire than a sequel. The tutorial didn't tell me – someone with over 1,000 hours in the original – anything I didn't already know. The map where you choose your path and whether to aim for riskier battles with higher rewards or potentially lower-stakes encounters (which can still turn wild on you) is exactly the same, and the turn-based combat follows basically all the old rules of how you spend your allotted energy points to play cards that build up your armor and hack away at the enemy's defenses and health until one side or the other is dead.

That's not a bad thing when your starting point is one of the all-time greats – just a few months ago I lavished praise on another deckbuilding roguelike sequel, Monster Train 2, for a similar approach. And as I've progressed and unlocked some of the new content over the first eight or so hours of runs, this follow-up has come more into its own: Two entirely new characters – the Regent and the Necrobinder – join three revamped ones, and loads of new enemies, bosses, artifacts, and random events make Slay the Spire 2 feel worthy of being called a sequel, even if it's extremely familiar in its opening hours. It also has a new art style that's very quickly won me over with its larger characters and less subtle animations (including more elaborate enemy deaths) that make it a bit more lively even though everybody's holding still most of the time.

Since we're still so early, I've been concentrating my progression efforts on my old favorite character, the Defect. This faulty robot is a lot chunkier-looking this time, but his orb-summoning and evoking mechanic is carried over almost unchanged. However, balance is different enough that as someone who routinely blasts through Daily Climbs in the original, I've only managed to win a couple of runs thus far – my first, as the Ironclad (which is probably kinda rigged to make us feel powerful), and one more since as the Defect. Part of that is that there are quite a lot of new cards to unlock that will certainly make things a bit easier than when I'm working with just the basics, and part of it is me cockily charging head-first into battles with elites and bosses I've never seen before and getting my butt handed to me as a learning experience. But it's not like I go into a roguelike of any type expecting to win runs early on – losing and then improving is a big part of the fun.

One area developer Mega Crit has definitely gotten a little more inventive is with special events, some of which can give you a sort of quest that can span across acts (think a more formal version of the first game’s Red Mask interaction). I've gotten a map in Act 1 that led me to a huge treasure pile in Act 2, and a key in one act that opens a chest in the next. There's also a bird egg that must be hatched at a rest site (so it comes at the opportunity cost of not healing yourself or upgrading a card). Those are represented by unplayable cards until their quest is resolved, so there's at least a minor consequence to carrying them with you because they take up space in your deck and hand that could've gone to something useful in the moment.

I've also seen a bit more willingness to let us tweak how cards work beyond simply upgrading them. A few new modifiers like letting you re-use a card, making defense cards exhaust but gain +1 after use, giving you an extra energy the first time you play a card, making a card retainable, etc. – these all have the potential to make builds a lot more flexible than in the original.

The big feature that truly sets Slay the Spire 2 apart is the up-to-four-player co-op mode, and in the couple of runs I've done with others, it's been more than a little chaotic. Within each turn of combat, it's a real-time free-for-all where everybody plays their cards at once, so if you're not coordinating your attacks over voice chat it gets crazy extremely quickly as the cards stack up and wait their turns for their animations to play out. If you plan on getting anywhere as a team you'll definitely want to make sure you're working together, because Slay the Spire 2 balances out the presence of multiple players by dramatically increasing enemy hitpoints (and their attacks hit everybody at once), so you'll need to focus fire to take out priority targets quickly. Given there's no matchmaking to find random people to play with, though, it's safe to say you'll be in some form of communication with your teammates.

Things are made a little more forgiving in co-op in that downed players are automatically revived to 1HP after a battle and you can use your rest site action to heal a teammate instead of yourself. You also get the same number of random artifacts as you have players each time they're handed out, which lets you choose the best fit for each of your builds (with any disputes settled randomly). I can see that giving you a major leg up over simply taking whatever pops out of a chest. I've also gotten a few co-op-specific cards that allow me to boost my teammates, such as giving them a random card to play in combat.

Of course, I expect that the difficulty will ramp up pretty dramatically as well, and require even more planning of your order of operations than you have to do alone. It's deliberately designed to make you and your teammates hash things out in conversation: You can't see a teammate's entire hand, but they can mouse over one card at a time and it'll be displayed over their character's head so you can see what they're talking about. I also love how you can draw on the map now, plotting out where you're going or just doodling. (That works in single-player as well, if you want to leave yourself a note.)

I will say that it would be great if Mega Crit could find a better solution for what happens when someone in your party has to bail mid-run, because right now that person's character just stops and you have to abandon your game with nothing to show for it. To be fair, a typical run isn't going to go more than an hour and everybody should know what they're getting into before setting out on a group adventure, but things happen.

After just one day of playing there's certainly a lot more here to cover, especially since it at least appears to be largely "complete" in terms of how much content is here (though who knows how much bigger Mega Crit plans to make it before 1.0). Outside of the balance changes we've been told to expect, the only real indication that this is an early access game is the goofy MS Paint-style placeholder art you'll see on a handful of cards and in the progression tree that serves up bite-sized bits of lore as you unlock new cards, potions, and artifacts.

So how long will it take me to wrap up this review? Hard to say: this isn't really the kind of game that you ever fully "beat," and if the first one is any indication I'll likely still be doing the randomized Daily Climbs in Slay the Spire 2 well into the 2030s. But I expect I'll be able to form some coherent thoughts about its new ideas within the next week or so of bashing my head against its various bosses and figuring out how to generate the star currency the Regent uses to cast his spells and how to manage the Necrobinder's pet skeleton hand. So check back next week for more impressions, and tell us how your early runs have been going so far in the comments.

It sounds like bad news for those who want to get their hands on Valve’s upcoming new hardware. The company suggested Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Frame could all be delayed even further, potentially into 2027.

Valve announced all three products late last year, with the aim of releasing them at some point in the first quarter of 2026. In February, Valve signalled a delay was coming as a result of AI shortages that are causing PC hardware to spike in price. This had made it difficult for Valve to pin down a price and release date for the Steam Machine and Steam Frame. But at the time (early February), Valve still planned to release its hardware in the first half of this year.

Now, in a just published ‘Steam Year In Review 2025’ blog post, Valve said “we hope to ship in 2026,” which suggests we may have to wait until next year for the Steam Machine to come out. “As we shared recently, memory and storage shortages have created challenges for us,” Valve said. “We’ll share updates publicly when we finalize our plans!”

The Steam Machine is a mid-level gaming-focused PC designed to be more accessible than a standard desktop PC, with a sleek, cube-like design and SteamOS on-board. We here at IGN have offered our thoughts on how much the Steam Machine will cost, suggesting it’ll probably be higher than people think. Chatter about pricing ramped up last year when Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips suggested it wouldn’t follow a “console pricing model” of $500, after he mentioned the figure in a meeting with Valve staff.

In an interview with Skill Up from last year, Valve's Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais discussed the price of Steam Machine without actually confirming what it would be. The conversation began with software engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais confirming that Steam Machine is more powerful than 70% of gaming PCs that Valve registers on its hardware survey, in terms of general GPU level, saying: “We have looked at that number as part of speccing the machine, so it’s possible it’s evolved a little bit over time, but I think ballpark, it’s about there.”

He then said that fans should expect the Steam Machine price to be around the same as if you were to build a PC from parts to get “basically the same level of performance.”

“I think that if you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that's the general price window that we aim to be at,” he said. “Ideally we'd be pretty competitive with that and have a pretty good deal, but we're working on refining that as we speak. Right now is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be because there's a lot of different things… a lot of external things.”

In that context, Valve’s Steam Machine will likely cost above $750. We’ve suggested Steam Machine will cost $700-$800. To put that into perspective, the base PS5 with a disc drive currently costs $549.99, while the PS5 Digital Edition costs $499.99. The PS5 Pro, meanwhile, costs $749.99.

Skill Up then asked Valve to rule out the Steam Machine being subsidized hardware, saying: “like Valve is not going into this thinking we're going to eat a big loss on this so that we can grow market share or category or anything like that, correct?"

Pierre-Loup Griffais’ answer here was unequivocal: “No. It's more in-line with what you might expect from the current PC market. Obviously, our goal is for it to be a good deal at that level of performance.”

He then went on to make the case for Steam Machine at that sort of price, pointing to the value you get from the various features it includes that simply wouldn’t be easy to replicate if you were to build your own PC from similar parts.

“And then you have features that are actually really hard to build if you're making your own gaming PC from parts, right?” he continued. “Like things like, obviously the small form factor and I think the noise level that we achieved — or lack thereof — is really impressive, and we're excited that the people are going to find out how quiet this thing is. But also some integration features like HDMI CEC, right? Like being able to turn on your TV, turn off your TV, control it with your TV remote, change the volume, all that kind of stuff.

“Like the Bluetooth and wireless work that we've done, the four antennas, the very deliberate design to make sure that you can have a great experience with four Bluetooth controllers from any manufacturer, plus our Steam Controller receiver integrated as well — that’s all hard to do. But more importantly, you can turn on the machine from your controller, which is not something that is actually straightforward depending on the type of PC you have or the main chipset and all that.

“So being able to sit down on your couch, press one button on your controller, and the whole thing lights up like you'd expect for a thing that's in your living room, I think that's really valuable. And there's not really a price point to that because it's not really something that exists in the PC market right now.

“There's people that are going to be perfectly happy building their PC at whatever level of spec, and that's going to be a great experience for them. We're building Steam OS so that if they want to use it for that they can and they can have essentially the same experience. And if they're happy with that, that's perfectly good with us. But we expect the machine is a nice baseline offering that lets you have some features that are really hard to get to otherwise.”

Valve designer Lawrence Yang then chimed in with his own thought: "for me one of the benefits of Steam Machine is, I'm someone who used to build my PC in college and I am too old and tired to do that now!”

Some have questioned Valve’s refusal to subsidize the Steam Machine and thus, theoretically at least, miss out on having a greater number of people buying games through Steam. Larian publishing director Michael Douse, who is in charge of business development regarding the likes of Steam megahit Baldur’s Gate 3, took to social media to suggest Valve will lose “far more” than the approx. $200 difference by not having more users on the Steam storefront, “which is essentially a money printing machine.”

“That said it isn't stupid to not sell things at a loss, just peculiar in this case,” Douse continued.

We’ve got plenty more on all Valve’s hardware announcements, and have a handy roundup. We went hands-on with Steam Machine and Steam Controller, and if you’re wondering about Steam Deck 2, we asked Valve about that as well.

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.

If it's time to upgrade your gaming monitor, you can't go wrong with an OLED. And if you've got the funds to get the biggest and best, LG's highest-end OLED is the 45" LG UltraGear 45GX950A-B 5K2K gaming monitor. It normally retails for a hefty $2,000, but LG has just discounted it to $1399.99 with free delivery. On the product page under the standard $1,999.99 price you should see "Save Big with Outlet Pricing". Select the discounted outlet price and proceed to cart.

45" LG UltraGear 5K2K Gaming Monitor for $1,399.99

Ever since digital streaming was introduced as an alternative to cable, companies like Disney, Warner Bros, Netflix, and Amazon have been finding new ways to "revolutionize" monthly subscriptions, which has more or less come right back around to the concept of cable. (Only now every "channel" requires its own login and password, and costs at least $10 a month.) As the streaming service war wages on with constant changes, mergers and acquisitions, "bundles" are becoming more common as more streaming services are created, and some of these have gotten creative with including both digital and physical services.

The ability to combine multiple networks and major streaming platforms into a single subscription is becoming simpler than ever (thankfully) and gives better savings over subscribing individually to every service you'd want. Depending on your needs as a subscriber and your interests as a streamer and/or online shopper, the options available should tick many of your boxes. Check out our picks below for the best streaming bundles in 2026 to help you save on your streaming bill.

Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max Bundle – $19.99/month (with ads)

Editor's Note: This article is sponsored by ONNIT Alpha BRAIN.

Competitive PC and console gamers know that your mental state is just as vital as your skills and equipment when it comes to winning. If you’re not focused, a mispress or panic input could lead to your demise, especially in esports, where mere milliseconds matter most. Sure, getting enough sleep and breaks can help, but sometimes you just need a boost of focus during those extended gaming sessions and pivotal game moments.

If you haven't heard of ONNIT Alpha BRAIN yet, it's a nootropic designed to help you get past cognitive fatigue by supporting focus, memory, and clarity. From serious gamers to athletes, this brand is growing to gain international attention. (Apparently Joe Rogan is a fan.)

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This week has been historic for Pokémon, as we celebrated the franchise’s 30th anniversary with a Pokémon Presents that gave us our first look at Pokémon Winds and Waves.

With the reveal of a new region based and our first look at the Generation 10 starters, we bid a fond farewell to Paldea.

This ‘see you later’ to Generation 9 has definitely been reflected in the Pokémon TCG, as Scarlet & Violet - 151 has become the market's hottest focal point this week.

Using data from TCGPlayer, the gold standard for secondary market pricing, we’ve analyzed the biggest movers of the week to see which cards are capturing the anniversary hype.

7. N's PP Up - 262/217

Amazon just recently dropped the price of the Apple Watch Series 11 back down to the lowest price I've seen. Most colors and styles start at $299 for the 42mm size and $329 for the 46mm size. The Apple Watch is indisputably the best smartwatch for iOS users. It's stylish, boasts excellent build quality, and seamlessly integrates with your iPhone. It's loaded with tons of practical health and fitness features, including activity tracking and heart rate monitoring. The stats from your workouts are automatically recorded and stored onto your iPhone so that you can track your progress.

Apple Watch Series 11 for $299 ($100 Off)

New to the Apple Watch 11th generation model specifically are (1) the Apple Intelligence powered "Workout Buddy" that motivates you during exercise, (2) hypertension notifications, and (3) a sleep score that measures the quality of your sleep. Hardware updates include a brighter and more scratch resistant display, 33% longer battery life, and 5G cellular connectivity.

Can you use an Apple Watch with Android phones?

Although it's technically possible to use an Apple Watch with an Android phone, we wouldn't recommend it. Apple made it so that a lot of the functionality of the Apple Watch requires a smartphone with an iOS operating system. There are some workarounds to implement some of the features, but for the average person, the hassle isn't worth it. If you're absolutely intent on getting an Apple Watch, then getting an iPhone first would be the best option.

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.

If it’s Wrestlemania season, that means it’s time for a new WWE 2K game. 2K26 came in hot, a little too hot to get a comprehensive look at the entire thing before the “pay more to play early” period opened up today. But I've spent a good chunk of time running the ropes in this year’s ring, and so far it’s been a solid next chapter in what has been this series’ most impressive run to date. That said, with another milquetoast showcase mode and the growing presence of monetization wrapping itself around the experience like an anaconda vise, it’s starting to feel like the golden age for 2K wrestling games might be coming to an end.

2K26 hasn’t learned many new moves since last year, mostly just tweaking existing base mechanics. The biggest slam to the system is an adjustment to stamina, adding a condition called “winded” to superstars who run out. While winded, your stamina wheel turns from yellow to purple, and you can no longer run or use reversals until it empties and goes back to normal. This adds more risk-reward to all of the offensive and defensive actions you do in the ring that cost stamina.

It also creates a solution to the 2K series issue of how powerful the reversal system is (you are basically unstoppable if you’ve become the Tribal Chief of pressing one button on time, every time) by making it cost stamina to do and penalizing you for running your stamina into the red. However, it doesn’t address the problem of how the reversal prompts are unintuitive and sometimes at unpredictable points during a move’s animation, making picking the system up feel impossible without hours of ring time and muscle memory development. You win some, you lose some.

Other adjustments are nice to have but don’t change the flow or feel of matches significantly. Harkening back to the series’ pre-Visual Concepts days, collision physics have been changed slightly, so throws and bumps are less trapped in canned animation sequences and interact with objects around them. A body suplexed into the ropes will actually bounce off them in a more appropriately reactive way instead of attempting to clip through them. Throw an opponent onto the ring stairs, and they’ll properly crunch around their hulking metal block. Does this allow objects laying on the ground to do a significant amount more damage if you drop someone on them, an ever-present trope of professional wrestling of all forms? More testing is necessary, but it’s unclear right now.

Another blast from the past are the additional match types added in 2K26: I Quit, Dumpster, Inferno, and Three Stages of Hell. That last one is essentially a gauntlet match where you choose three different match stipulations and you wrestle through them, two-out-of-three falls style. The Dumpster match is functionally no different than the Casket or Ambulance matches, where you have to weaken opponents enough to shove them in a box they don't want to be in. The Inferno match returns from the Smackdown vs Raw series with a more straight forward play path: Doing moves increases the temperature gauge, and once it's at max, you must expose the enemy to the flames to win. This was cool, but also isn’t that special once the new car smell has burned away.

I Quit is arguably the best of these new options, basically elaborating on the submission match, but instead of the normal mashing minigame, players that are being forced to say I Quit must pass a series of checks hitting the right spots on a gauge enough times to continue on. These spots get smaller as you take more damage, and opponents can add blockers to make the task that much harder, which they can earn the same way they earn finishers. This is a really clever idea, just complex enough to be engaging and tactical without being too much to deal with.

I dabbled in The Island, the weird, Street Fighter World Tour-esque multiplayer hub world that lets players create their own wrestlers, participate in open world RPG-style quests while also competing with each other on leaderboards, and it’s at least a more coherent game mode out of the gate this time. It embraces the fantastical nature of last year’s version, leaning into mysterious powers of The Island of Relevancy, now being divided up by three different factions all fighting to gain its magical powers. This sort of pro wrestling RPG nonsense is something that I would be all over on paper, but the original Island’s poor writing and janky pacing put me off. This year at least seems to be attempting to address that. I'm not sure it's a better written project yet, but it's at least fully voiced and easy to navigate. I haven't gotten deep enough to see just when the cold grip of monetization starts to strangle this mode into submission, but if it’s anything like last year’s, it will be early and often.

Battle Passes make their debut in 2K26, and they leave a lot to be desired. There is a lot to earn split between free and premium pass tracks. Many of the free rewards are arenas, superstars, championships, and cosmetics you would have otherwise earned a free currency to buy from an in-game store in previous games, while the premium track features a lot of MyFaction related goodies and a handful of extra wrestlers, with this first season themed around the stars of AAA. These replace the wrestler DLC drops of old, and I can see them being a frustrating replacement – not simply because it means you’ll need to grind matches in order to unlock things you’d just buy previously, but also because unlocking new tiers seems to take a lot of work. I spent around five hours between random exhibition matches, showcase mode, and The Island, and have only made it to tier four of 40. At the end of the track are unlockables, like what would have been the late Bray Wyatt’s last costume and a really cool move that I would have loved to give to a custom wrestler, but I fear I simply don’t have the endurance for that grind, or the patience to accept that I even have to.

I’ve spent most of my time so far with this year’s Showcase, themed around the highlights and lowlights of CM Punk’s two-pronged WWE career. It suffers from most of the same problems that these modes always have, like its gaping holes in history that it has to ignore for corporate reasons, or the awkward ways it tries and fails to recreate major moments in real matches as gameplay moments. I'm a little bit more than halfway through it, so I won’t comment specifically on what’s absent or not until I see it all, though I can be confidently disappointed that his matches with Bryan Danielson won’t be among the playlist since he’s with a rival company these days.

The 10+ year gap he’s had in his career is already a spectre that really haunts this mode, as it makes the pickings for memorable moments to relive slim. They try to address this with a little kayfabe, Punk engaging in a little metanarrative between matches to use the “Slingshot Technology” that Showcase employs to meld matches and real footage as a sort of time machine. That allows him to both undo some losses in his own career, embody Bret Hart to prevent the Montreal Screwjob, and indulge himself in a bunch of “what if” dream matches. These definitely feel more like busy work than cool experiences, even though they are right in line with the toybox nature of wrestling games to begin with.

So far, WWE 2K26 is proving that this solid five-year run the series has been on was built on a great foundation. One that has barely had to change, but continues to in ways that are starting to hurt more than help. The smaller gameplay tweaks and match types are at best great and at worst irrelevant, and there are still large bugaboos that show no real sign of improvement, like the centerpiece Showcase mode. And some changes, like the addition of the battle pass, make growing your collection of cosmetics, moves, and wrestlers worse and more expensive. This isn't a knockout blow for the series, but its certainly a threat to the champion. Hopefully, when I sink more time into other modes like MyRise and MyGM, they’re good enough to help rally this heavyweight to a win.

Nintendo has sued the U.S. government over “unlawful” tariffs, demanding a refund with interest.

Aftermath was first to report on Nintendo’s lawsuit, which was filed in the United States Court of International Trade today. Nintendo is focusing on refunds of tariffs that were struck down last month by the Supreme Court, which said President Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) was illegal. Following the Supreme Court decision, Trump introduced a new 10% global tariff rate.

In early April last year, Trump held up a chart while speaking during a “Make America Wealthy Again” trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House, and declared “Liberation Day.” The announcement confirmed additional tariffs targeting goods imported to the U.S.

The U.S. Customs and ‌Border Protection agency ‌said it collected ​about $166 billion in duties and deposits under the emergency tariffs imposed ‌by Trump. According to Reuters, the CBP said a tariff refund system would be ready in 45 days.

Trump's tariffs upended Nintendo's Switch 2 pre-order plans. Following the “Liberation Day” announcement, Nintendo took the unprecedented decision to delay Switch 2 pre-orders in the U.S., blaming the impact of Trump’s tariffs and “evolving market conditions.”

Nintendo issued IGN the following statement at the time:

Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.

Nintendo announced the Switch 2 at $449.99, with a Mario Kart World bundle priced $499.99. Mario Kart World was priced $79.99. The company later hiked the price of its accessories, including the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, Joy-Con 2 Pair, and Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip, although it kept the price of the console the same.

At the time Nintendo made its pre-order delay announcement, U.S. markets had tumbled after China hit back against Trump's tariffs. China, which then faced a 54% import tax, retaliated with the announcement of an additional 34% tax on U.S. goods.

Tariffs are essentially taxes placed on the cost of importing certain goods. While it's possible for companies in the supply chain to simply eat these costs, more often than not these taxes are passed onto consumers. Last year, Nintendo leaned on its Switch 2 units imported from Vietnam, rather than China, in order to maintain the $449.99 price of the console.

Nintendo issued IGN the following statement: "We can confirm that we filed a request. We have nothing else to share on this topic."

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

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

The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X is the best Windows gaming handheld PC. No longer do you have to be tethered to your PC or laptop to play your favorite computer games because the Xbox Ally X has the power to run even demanding PC games thanks to the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor. All the miniaturatization comes at a cost, and the Xbox Ally X comes in at $1,000 retail. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to get a discount by purchasing an import or pre-owned model.

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X from $919.99

Open box - Excellent condition

Whether you’re looking to cosplay as Spider-Man or want to have arguably the best Venom comic collection in one hardcover book, the Marvel deals are solid today. That’s not all, you can score a Disney+ and Hulu bundle for $4.99/month, or get $10 off Pokémon Legends: Z-A for Switch 2 for your Pokémon fix, if you don’t want to pay full price for Pokémon Pokopia just yet. Also, today’s the day that Magic’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle set drops. Take a look at all the top deals below:

TL;DR – The Best Deals for March 6

$10 Off Pokémon Legends: Z-A for Nintendo Switch 2

Disney+ and Hulu for $4.99/Month

37% Off a Spider-Man Electronic Expressive Mask

$54 Off Venomnibus by Cates & Stegman Hardcover Collection

Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution—Perfect Order Booster Bundle Preorder In Stock on Amazon

Pokémon Mega Evolution - Ascended Heroes Elite Trainer Box Drops to $109.88 on Amazon

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The Bear star Jeremy Allen White is making the jump to the Star Wars galaxy in The Mandalorian and Grogu, but he won't exactly be recognizable as the oversized, ax-wielding gladiator Rotta the Hutt. Director Jon Favreau has offered new insight into this imposing character, comparing White's Rotta to Michael B. Jordan's Adonis Creed from the Creed movies.

Favreau made the comparison in a new interview with Empire Magazine, revealing that Rotta is a fighter who feels the shadow of his father, Jabba the Hutt, looming over him at all times.

With the premiere of Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord just weeks away, we're starting to see the first collectibles and figures based on the new animated series. Hasbro has released images of its first wave of Star Wars: The Black Series figures inspired by the show, and they're looking pretty darned cool.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at all four Maul: Shadow Lord figures:

This first wave of Shadow Lord figures includes Maul himself, along with his faithful Mandalorian minion Rook Kast, his new protege Devon Izara, and the Sith Inquisitor Eleventh Brother. Strangely, Maul's new enemies, Captain Brander Lawson and his droid Two-Boots, are missing from the lineup, but we assume they'll be included in a future wave.

Like the rest of the Black Series line, these figures are designed in 6-inch scale and include various weapons and accessories. Maul even includes a fabric cloak to differentiate him from previous Clone Wars-style figures.

These figures are priced at $27.99 each and will be released in stores in Spring 2026. You can find Amazon preorder links for all four figures below:

Lucasfilm recently released a new trailer for Maul: Shadow Lord, and we've broken down all the major Star Wars characters who appear in the series. You can also learn more about the prequel comic Star Wars: Shadow of Maul.

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

One of the better regarded 3D printers with multi-color print capability is now priced well under $300. AliExpress is currently offering the FlashForge AD5X 3D Printer with integrated multi-filament printing system for just $265.23 with free delivery after you apply coupon code "35USAFFS". Make sure you're signed into your account to see the shipping options. The exact same printer sells for $340 on Amazon, but it retails for $499.

Note: Sign into your account and then refresh the page to see the shipping options.

You're buying it from FlashForge's official store on AliExpress. It ships free locally from the United States and arrives within 1 to 2 weeks. The AD5X is considered by many to be one of the best multi-color 3D printers priced below $300. It is easy to setup, it produces great 3D prints with minimal fiddling, and there are plenty of mods available including an official kit that fully encloses the chamber and another that adds a camera, all at an affordable price point.

Flashforge AD5X CoreXY Multi-Color 3D Printer for $265

Not everyone is the DIY type. If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, Dell is one of the best brands we'd recommend. Alienware desktops and laptops feature solid build quality, top-of-the-line gaming performance, excellent cooling (further improved on the newer models), aggressive styling, and pricing that is very competitive with other pre-built options. Best of all, there are plenty of sales that happen throughout the year, so it's not difficult to grab one of these computers at considerably less than their retail price.

Dell and Alienware Coupons

Alienware Area-51 Gaming PC Deals

If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further. Dell unveiled the new Alienware Area-51 gaming PC at CES 2025. The product photos don't give it due justice; this is a big chassis that towers over the Aurora R16 model with superior build quality and a redesigned cooling system with even greater airflow. This is the only model that can be configured with the hot and power hungry GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card. The first wave of Area-51 systems featured Intel CPUs exclusively, with AMD X3D options only available since late November.

Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming PC Deals

The Aurora R16 is Alienware's bread and butter gaming PC. It can be equipped with an Nvidia RTX 5060 graphics card all the way up to an RTX 5080 and the prices for Cyber Monday are extremely competitive with other brands. For example, currently Alienware has the least expensive prebuilt RTX 5080 gaming PC that I've found anywhere. Most of these systems are customizable, however it's not difficult to upgrade your own RAM and storage yourself.

Alienware Aurora Gaming Laptop Deals

Alienware's newest mainstream gaming laptop is dubbed the "Alienware Aurora" and it replaces the previous generation's x16 and m16 series of laptops. It comes in two models: the 16 and 16X. The 16 is the more economical model, but gamers should definitely opt for the higher-end 16X model. If you're looking for build quality and performance on par with the previous generation m16, then the 16X is its spiritual successor. It features an anodized aluminum lid and base, a higher quality display, a more powerful CPU, and a GPU that isn't throttled for maximum gaming performance.

Alienware Area-51 Gaming Laptop Deals

Alienware 18 Area-51 (18")

Alienware 16 Area-51 (16")

The Area-51 is Alienware's new flagship gaming laptop for 2025. It features an anodized aluminum shell for both the lid and bottom chassis with a gorgeous iridescent finish. The frame is made of a durable and lightweight magnesium alloy. Cooling has been upgraded with generous amounts of copper and a new thermal interface material to better transfer heat away from your hottest components as well as more fans and bigger cutouts for greater airflow. Dell claims that the laptop can handle a higher power ceiling of up to 240W TDP without raising acoustics.

Design-wise, the Area 51 has a sleeker, more contoured shape compared to previous models, with rounded edges and soft corners replacing the traditional squared off design. The hinges are internally positioned so that they're near invisible. There's a transparent window on the undercarriage to show off the internal components. As befits an Alienware laptop, there's plenty of RGB illunimation, although most of it can be turned off if you want your laptop to be a bit more subtle.

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 second Magic: The Gathering set of 2026 is here, and it’s Turtle Time! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have emerged from the shadows in cardboard form, but despite coming from the sewer, there’s treasure to be found.

Below, you’ll find the priciest cards from the set so far, thanks to our friends at TCGplayer, with the caveat that these are pre-launch prices and subject to move around more than a backflipping reptile.

Some values with rise, some will fall, and there's every chance that this list looks completely different by this time next week - we'll update it in the coming days in any case.

10. Turtles in Time (Showcase Fracture Foil)

If the excitement of a new Spider-Man movie coming out this year has you itching to check out collectibles and gear, Amazon is the place to look. At the moment, the retailer is offering a great limited time deal on the Marvel Legends Series Spider-Man: Homecoming Mask, which has dropped from $139.99 to $87.99 (see it here).

According to price tracker camelcamelcamel, this even marks a brand new low for this electronic Spider-Man mask, which is a sweet bonus. Whether you want it for cosplay or just as a fun piece to display or wear on its own, this is an excellent time to swing in and add it to your digital shopping cart.

Marvel Legends Series Spider-Man: Homecoming Mask for $87.99

Warning: This article includes spoilers and details about Ted Season 2.

Ted is back on Peacock, and for Season 2 it's bringing a little bit of magic along for the ride. In Episode 3, "Dealers & Dragons", Ted and John are drawn into a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Prepare to see a very different setting for the show, a cameo from the world of tabletop gaming and a truly incredible scene involving Ted and a reference to the movie Philadelphia.

The Ted and fantasy universes might not make for the most obvious crossover, but as IGN discovered when it visited the set of the Dungeons & Dragons episode, a huge amount of work went into making sure this was a true tribute to the iconic tabletop game. (Look for our full video report from the set of "Dealers & Dragons" this Monday, March 9th.)

Don't worry, this isn't about to get Stranger Things traumatic; Ted is still very much the foul-mouthed fluffball we know and love, even when he's transported to a world of wizards and spells. The plotline behind this little jaunt into the magical realm is powered by a need for weed, rather than saving the world from the Abyss.

In order to win their prize, John and Ted have to complete a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Ted is the bard, John is a mage (or wizard, in modern Dungeons & Dragons speak), mom Susan is a fighter, dad Matty is a cleric and Blaire is a thief. As anyone who has ever LARPed will tell you, fantasy is nothing without some decent drip. Doing D&D right means dressing the part, and the cast explained their new looks for this very special episode.

Casting Spells

"Something I learned, wizard robes are fucking hot. Like, warm, like physically very warm," said Max Burkholder, who plays John. He's a legitimate Dungeons & Dragons fan and helped the rest of the cast understand the game's world and storytelling. Having gotten into it while watching games online during the quarantine, Burkholder even tried to set up a one-off Dungeons & Dragons campaign with the cast, creating characters for them.

He talked about the process of working with the costume department on his outfit. "My one note that I gave to Heather [Pain], our costume designer, about it was I want to have so many pockets. I want to have pockets in the sleeves. I want to have pockets here with little bullshit and little trinkets I've got on my belt. A leather pouch that in it has another leather pouch. I've got keys, a spell book.

"Everything about mine looks exactly like you would think a wizard should look. Except not as many stars and moons on the cape like Fantasia. And no giant conical hat. But I've got the hood, I've got the robes, I've got the staff. It's pretty incredible."

Meanwhile, dad Matty, played by Scott Grimes, had the cleric costume with a more unusual focal point, apparently entirely Ted mastermind Seth MacFarlane's idea. "I wear a Friar Tuck wig, which is just a bald spot in the middle with a rim of hair around it," said Grimes. "We did six tests because I didn't realize I'm a redhead, and my skin is very, very pink and lots of different colors. So the bald spot in the middle took 16 people to make it. They bring it to me and they put it up against my face and I'm like, 'that's not what I look like'. But it is. It's freckled and speck[s] and little skin cancer here and stuff like that. Oh, it's humbling."

Alanna Ubach, who plays mom Susan Bennett, got arguably the coolest makeover, with a full set of armor. "I wanted to translate Susan into what she would imagine she would wear," said costume designer Heather Pain. "She wears a lot of sweater vests and turtlenecks. What if we made her armor a little bit like her sweater vest? The line of it with a turtleneck, but then bring in, like, this weird kind of disco chainmail that feels more ’70s."

Of course, sometimes you have to make sacrifices for fashion. "Susan is happy to be Susan the destroyer. And she's in this sort of Joan of Arc-esque armor," said Ubach. "The armor is so heavy and so constricting that I need help going to the bathroom, and I'll leave it at that. Wardrobe had to follow me to the bathroom so that I can take off my skirt and my sword and my 700 belts and my tampon [a key prop from the episode] and hand it to them, and then I can go pee."

Down and Dirty

One of the biggest changes for viewers and the people working behind the scenes is that most of the action doesn't take place in a bedroom or a school hall – instead, it takes place in a fantasy land. One the set designers built. In fact, the creation of the classic fantasy landscape required 25,000 pounds of dirt to be flown in.

"They triple refined it. They like sieved through three things. They had like an environmental pathogen breakdown report for all the dirt," said Burkholder. Unfortunately that dirt did include a stowaway cricket, and a noisy one at that.

"We had to redo that scene about three or four times. I was like, where's the damn cricket?" said Ubach.

Expect forests, ominous chambers full of spikes, and of course a tavern, which I'm pretty sure has to be included in any fantasy story by law. One scene sees the band of adventurers solving a riddle while surrounded by four statues. If you think the statues look lifelike, it's because they're actually dancers brought in to play the parts. The dancers wore stiff, plastered costumes and couldn't move, hear or see what was going on around them.

"Everytime we walked into the room I just thought that there were four statues in there, and then they would start moving and I'd be like, 'oh, I guess they got moving statues.' And then I would remember that they were four dancers doing an incredible job for me," said Burkholder.

From School Days to Screen

The writers made the very smart choice not to spend the episode dealing with the D&D algebra that is creating a character sheet, or endless dice rolls. It skips the mechanics to get straight to the fantasy, without sacrificing authenticity. One of the people making that happen was writer Chelsea Davison, who played the game in high school and brought her full nerd powers to recreating the game for the show.

"As a high school student, I played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, and that was a huge part of my adolescence. That was something that Seth had never played, but he knew how passionate fans of D&D are," explained Davison. "He was like, 'okay, well, it doesn't make sense, in that Ted and John were a little too cool. They wouldn't just be playing this. They don't have a campaign going. They can't commit to anything. But what if there's a way to get them hooked into a game for one episode?'"

MacFarlane actually had Davison lead a game of Dungeons & Dragons for the writers room. "Which was crazy because I've only ever played with, like, five players, when I've been a DM, a dungeon master, and this was a room of 12 people," said Davison.

"It was just chaos. Mostly people who had never played before in their lives. And we created characters, played the whole game. I mean, it was dark by the time we finished, but so many of those things, like the riddle from the episode, is the riddle I used in the room with them that I wrote for that campaign."

If there's still lingering doubt, Dungeons & Dragons nerds will know they're in good hands the minute they see a familiar face - Brennan Lee Mulligan - playing the role of dungeon master. He's best known for his work on Dropout (formerly CollegeHumor) and created the popular Dimension 20 series show, where he and a team play through different campaigns.

"Brennan and I are friends from UCB, in New York," said Davison. "And I'd watched his meteoric rise through Dimension 20 and, when we were writing this script and I was writing this character of the Dungeon Master, this was something that I said to Aimee [Carlson, executive producer] and others, that in a perfect world it would be Brennan. He would be so great. Luckily, the stars aligned and it worked out."

You'll be able to see the episode for yourself from today, but the set visit and an early preview of the episode shows that all the effort the cast and crew put into making this special episode happen was worth it.

"It is so big," said Davison. "It is a huge undertaking. And, you know, I think Seth was really passionate that if we're going to do it, let's do it 100 percent. We don't want to have them be playing some knockoff fairies and whatever. We want this to be really authentic to this fan base, so we ended up saving this episode for Season 2. I'm so glad Season 2 happened so that we got to bring this all to life."

All episodes of Ted Season 2, including "Dealers & Dragons," are available on Peacock now. Be sure to read our Ted Season 2 review.

Nintendo has announced a Nintendo Direct revealing the final trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. It is set for Monday, March 9, at 2pm PT / 11am ET / 9pm UK time.

To manage expectations, Nintendo said no game information will be included in the presentation.

Recent trailers for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, due to hit theaters April 1, have sparked all sorts of questions about unannounced Nintendo characters who may pop up in the film. Some fans even believe the movie will revolve around time travel. Last month, a familiar but unannounced name popped up in a theater chain's description of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Along with Mario and Luigi, the upcoming animated sequel will also see Bowser Jr, Yoshi, Birdo, a T-Rex, and Rosalina, the latter of whom is voiced by Marvel star and Nintendo fan Brie Larson. All of the same major cast members are back from the first movie, too, including Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek.

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

The Pixel 10a has arrived to give Google fans a newer affordable option at $499. But apart from a few minor design tweaks, the addition of Satellite SOS, and a slight extension to the software support window, the Pixel 10a doesn’t shake things up. While it would prove a good option if every other phone stuck to its retail price, there’s no ignoring the fact that the Pixel 10a is launching months after the Pixel 10 has already seen discounts as low as $550.

Pixel 10a – Design and Features

Google’s Pixel 10a isn’t revolutionary or even exciting. It borrows the tame looks of the Pixel 9a, which had eschewed the eye-catching camera bar of mainline Pixel models. But where the Pixel 9a’s cameras rose up slightly from the back of the phone, the Pixel 10a’s cameras actually sit slightly below the back surface. This was a point Google emphasized in its launch, but it’s not a unique technical achievement considering RedMagic’s bold gaming phones have done so for a few years running.

The display is respectable, but pretty much no phone at or over $500 can get away with much less. The 6.3-inch screen offers a fair 1080x2424 resolution that’s plenty sharp for most uses. It can run smooth at 120Hz but doesn’t have the ability to drop down to 1Hz for extra efficiency. Still, it’s hard to get mad at a colorful OLED that can reach as high as 3000 nits.

The display is flanked by stereo speakers. One ports out the bottom of the phone while the other is tucked into the earpiece. They put out decent volume, though I found them a touch harsh while gaming and had trouble hearing podcasts in the kitchen over cooking noises.

The phone’s footprint is modest. It’s larger than the Pixel 9 but mostly smaller than the Pixel 9a save for a slight bump to thickness. It’s comfortable in the hand but doesn’t feel totally compact. Part of that is because its 6.3-inch display still has somewhat thick bezels all the way around. Google claims they’re thinner than the Pixel 9a’s bezels, but neither are competing for record thinness.

The choices Google made for what to pack into the compact frame are interesting. It made some nice inclusions, like a physical SIM slot to complement the eSIM support. The phone gets a USB 3.2 port for faster wired data transmission. Google even opted to include the necessary hardware for Satellite SOS, something the Pixel 9a missed out on.

Google left some surprising things out, though. There are no magnets to allow for Qi2 and Pixelsnap accessories. The Pixel 10a can still wirelessly charge, but only at up to 10 watts. And though 30W charging is supported, you’ll need to have your own capable charging brick.

The Pixel 10a can unlock with facial recognition or an under-display fingerprint scanner. Both worked quickly in my testing.

Durability should be OK but not amazing. Gaskets are built in to give the phone a commendable IP68 water resistance to keep dust and water out even under almost five feet of water. The plastic back material feels nice and glassy, but shouldn’t shatter like glass if dropped. Gorilla Glass 7i on the front has avoided blemishing in my time testing, but it doesn’t promise as extreme drop- or scratch-resistance as the Gorilla Glass Victus showing up on more flagship phones. The phone gets an aluminum frame, and Google matches it to the rear color, but this can scratch up

Pixel 10a – Software

The Pixel 10a comes running on Android 16 and Google promises 7 years of support with OS and security updates alongside its Pixel Drops, which brings new features now and then. This long-term support may be one of the Pixel 10a’s most compelling features, as this kind of support is already rare for any phone, let alone one without a flagship price tag.

Some highlight features of the Pixel 10a’s software are support for Auto Best Take and Camera Coach in the camera app, helping users frame photos and capture group shots without anyone blinking. The phone also supports a new Quick-share feature that’s compatible with iPhone’s Air Drop. In testing, this let me share a file directly with an iPhone with just a couple taps.

Pixel 10a – Gaming and Performance

The Pixel 10a didn’t get any notable under-the-hood upgrades. It has the same Tensor G4 chip that the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9a came running on. That chip was already trailing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips when it launched, and the gulf is only widening. Its 8GB of RAM is less than the Pixel 9 included, but hasn’t been an impediment in regular use.

It’s not as though the Pixel 10a is slow. In everyday use, it’s been able to keep up just fine. It fluidly ramps up to 120Hz for smooth animations while swiping around, and it browses the web without fuss. It can handle light games well. I played an hour of Carrion and the phone only got slightly warm, and I couldn’t tell whether that was because of the game or just the phone's curious tendency to get a little warm. It even handled Rainbow Six Mobile at Ultra settings smoothly. Bigger, more demanding games like Where Winds Meet can’t go all-out, though. The Pixel 10a was able to run the game at its Ultra graphics preset, but it was capped to 30fps. It largely maintained that framerate at least. The phone seems to throttle enough to avoid getting hot in use, but warmth is almost constant.

While serviceably fast, the performance limits that exist today are only going to become bigger impediments in the future as more demanding games and apps arrive. So even if Google continues to support the phone with software updates, its hardware may simply not be viable for much at the end of that support window.

Compared to other recent devices, the Pixel 10a’s performance leaves a lot to be desired. It falls shy of the budget Poco X7 Pro in multi-core and graphical performance by a considerable amount. That only widens when facing off against a more potent device like the OnePlus 15R, which the Pixel 10a tended to fall anywhere from 30 to 50% behind. The Pixel 10 also comes out ahead of the Pixel 10a, albeit not with much of a graphical bump to speak of. And though it may seem like an obvious outcome for the Pixel 10 to exceed the Pixel 10a, it matters for potential buyers because the Pixel 10 has already seen discounts that bring its price far closer to the 10a’s price than MSRP would have you believe.

The battery life of the Pixel 10a is good, but not impressive. It fits in a 5,100mAh pack just like the 9a, and it’s been good for all-day battery life with a little juice to spare. But the phone seems to have a bit more passive drain overnight than I’d like, so I don’t expect to easily get through two days of heavy use.

Pixel 10a – Cameras

The cameras have generally been a highlight of Pixel phones, and though the budget series makes some sacrifices, they can still perform well. That said, the Pixel 10a does nothing new. It has the exact same camera system as the Pixel 9a. Considering that it has the same SoC as the Pixel 9a, there’s really nothing new this phone can do in the camera department.

• 48MP wide, f/1.7, 1/2”, OIS, EIS
• 13MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 1/3.1”, 120-degree FoV
• 13MP Selfie, f/2.2, 96.1-degree FOV

It’s not entirely bad news. The main sensor was great last year and is still great this year. It captures plenty of light, helping make the most of even dim environments. It provides sharp and colorful images with a ton of detail. The wide aperture also lends to a soft background blur when taking close-ups.

Google would say the sensor is good enough to zoom in digitally, but most shots I took with digital zoom don’t hold up well when viewed at full size. Zooming into 2x on the phone does have some advantages over simply zooming in on a 1x photo, as the phone does extra noise reduction and sharpening, though even that doesn’t make it a great photo.

The ultra-wide sensor is useful to have for getting extra perspective on large and close subjects. It gets a good amount of detail, even if it can get soft around the edges. It’s not a perfect complement to the main sensor, though, as I caught it shifting the color temperature from the main sensor, which can make for an inconsistent series of photos. The tighter aperture also doesn’t let it perform as well in dim environments, so where the main sensor may be capturing crisp and clear shots, switching to the ultra-wide sensor could lead to noisy photos.

The selfie camera is also acceptable. It gets decent light and natural colors alongside a wide enough FOV to capture a couple of friends in the same shot.

While not mind-blowing, the quality of the cameras on the Pixel 10a is still enough to keep it somewhat protected against the OnePlus 15R or Poco X7 Pro for anyone who prioritizes photos over gaming performance. That said, it still leaves the Pixel 10a facing off against the reality that the Pixel 10 has been (and almost surely will be again) on sale for $550-$600, and offers a big advantage with its additional telephoto sensor.

Mark Knapp is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything electronics and gaming hardware. He has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry with bylines at PCMag, Reviewed, CNET, and more. Find Mark on Twitter @Techn0Mark or BlueSky at @Techn0Mark.

From a return to Narnia to the latest Hunger Games prequel, here’s what to look forward to this year.

Last year, I shared eight of the best book adaptations that would soon be on our screens, and 2026 is shaping up to be another great year for new movies and TV shows.

Plus, there are even more that haven’t yet received a release date, such as Mike Flanagan’s Carrie TV series and the highly anticipated Neuromancer adaptation. So, we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop with them - and more - as the year progresses.

But until then, these are the best 2026 book adaptations that you won’t want to miss.

Sunrise On The Reaping

Expected release date: (November 20, 2026)

Warning: this opinion piece contains spoilers for Resident Evil Requiem.

For three decades, players have been going toe-to-toe with zombies and other monsters in the Resident Evil series. This year’s latest mainline entry, Resident Evil Requiem, marks the beloved franchise’s 30th anniversary by being a love letter to the series’ entire past, from its early days of creepy, puzzle-filled survival horror to its adrenaline-fuelled action horror era. But while this approach has been praised almost unanimously across the board – we awarded Requiem 9/10 and its Metacritic score stands at 89, the highest of any modern, non-remake Resident Evil – I feel that its attempt to mix both of the series’ historic styles together creates a clash, rather than cohesion. Rather than a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, it feels to me like Resident Evil Requiem has a bit of an identity crisis.

Over the past decade, Resident Evil has reformulated itself as a slow-paced survival horror game, returning its mainline entries to the style of the 1996 original where every shot counts and everything around you is a threat. You're not a larger-than-life hero, instead you're an everyday person thrown into a nightmare scenario and you have to somehow find a way out alive. Seemingly inspired by indie hits like Amnesia and Outlast, Capcom opted for a first-person POV for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and its sequel, Village, which anchored you in the terrifying experience of their everyman protagonist, Ethan Winters. This new formula worked well, garnering critical acclaim and reigniting many people’s interest in the franchise, myself included. This was an especially important victory for Capcom because of how poorly 2012’s Resident Evil 6 was received, which almost entirely abandoned the series’ survival horror roots in favor of horror-themed action.

But with the release of Resident Evil Requiem, it feels as if some of the work that Capcom has been doing over the last few years with Biohazard and Village has been thrown out the window. It is, for sure, a great game that’s engaging from start to finish, but its big swings from terrifying survival horror to relentless action set pieces makes it feel as if Capcom couldn't pick a lane for Requiem’s overall tone. While playing through the campaign, I couldn’t help but feel that it was suffering from an identity crisis. And because of that, I found that many key plot points missed the mark for me. A prime example of this occurs towards the campaign’s midpoint, when Grace’s child ward, Emily, transforms into a giant monster. It’s a moment that’s supposed to create a cocktail of emotions – shock and upset over what’s become of your friend, fear for what will happen next – but before any of that really comes into play, Leon rushes in, guns blazing, to save the day.

While playing as Grace, Requiem is a slow-burning survival horror – the exact style of game I've come to expect from the series. Similar to when playing as Ethan Winters, I was forced to think carefully about how I wanted to approach each situation, and I often would ask myself, "Is this fight worth the ammo?" Every time I ran into a creature that would tower over me, I'd often scream out in real life, then proceed to run for my life in-game. The fear was only amplified by the fact that Grace’s sections employ the series’ traditional labyrinthine level design, and so I was often forced to revisit locations I’d previously barely made it out of alive in search of hidden treasure pieces needed to move the plot forward. The puzzles those treasures are used to solve aren’t exactly the hardest, but their presence is appreciated, and it made playing as Grace even more enjoyable.

Ultimately, a lot of Grace's gameplay is grounded in reality – yes, a reality where zombies tear off faces and doors are unlocked by gemstones – but the oppressive atmosphere, overwhelming odds, and vision-limiting first-person perspective makes playing as her truly scary. Even though she is employed by the FBI, she's essentially a pencil pusher who has next to no combat experience in the field. It makes you feel truly vulnerable, and so this was the strongest part of the game for me.

Leon’s sections, meanwhile, feel like a complete 180 from everything you experience as Grace. Replicating the approach of 2005’s Resident Evil 4, Leon’s most famous mission, most, if not all of the horror elements are removed from his sequences and story beats, which undermines much of what you played through as Grace – once again, Leon’s brutal gunning down of the monster Emily transforms into feels like it’s from a completely different story than the one Grace was experiencing. This is where the identity crisis really kicks in. Ammo is not as scarce anymore, and you're encouraged to run headfirst into battle. Rather than search for helpful scraps, Leon has access to a shopping and weapons upgrade system that rewards you with currency based on how many zombies you've killed. The only way to get better gear is by racking up a high kill count, a system that goes against everything the game’s Grace-centric first half was building towards. As Grace, I’d learned to be fearful of pretty much everything coming my way, especially the larger monsters that stalked the corridors of the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. Leon, on the other hand, could solve such issues with a few shotgun shells and a grenade.

Unfortunately, the same can also be said about the puzzles (or lack thereof) Leon has to solve in his portion of the game. A lot of them mostly involve running to site X just to open location Y, which feels a notable step down compared to the more sophisticated problems facing Grace. This huge shift in approach between the two characters means it almost feels like playing an entirely different game during Requiem’s second half. Leon and Grace's parts feel like two sides of a strong coin, but they are underdeveloped because they're so split. Rather than complimentary halves, they feel like mandatory reflections of the series past to honor the series’ 30-year milestone. As I played, I began to wonder if Capcom was trying to directly appease its many generations of fans – those who loved Resident Evil 7 and 8's old school-influenced gameplay and those who liked the more action-packed style of RE 3-6 – rather than finding a new formula that combined elements of both.

It seems strange that Capcom has tried to do this multi-style catering, as such an approach was widely unpopular when the studio first tried it in 2012 with Resident Evil 6. Much like Requiem, that game was split into distinct sections that delivered different gameplay styles. Leon’s storyline, while admittedly still action heavy, was focused on more traditional horror goals, while Chris and Jake’s campaigns were almost Call of Duty-like in their approach to action. Granted, this time around, Capcom has done a much better job of both sides of the coin – Grace’s side of things is genuine survival horror, while Leon’s is a good tribute to the style of RE4 – but it’s nonetheless odd to see it take such a massive swing towards a campaign structure that had already done a lot of damage to the franchise. Towards the end of the game, it almost feels like you're playing a more polished version of Resident Evil 6 rather than the successor to Resident Evil 7 and 8.

What really makes all this frustrating is that Capcom has shown with Resident Evil Village that you can still have these over-the-top action moments without undermining the horror and tension built up throughout the game. A key example can be found at the tail end of the campaign, when the perspective switches from Ethan to Chris Redfield – the classic Resident Evil hero who’s a proficient soldier at this point in the timeline. You play his sequence as an FPS, killing everything that stands in your way. But because this is a single sequence, rather than half of the game, it feels like a refreshing vignette rather than a case of split personality.

With it being the 30th anniversary of Resident Evil, it's clear that Capcom's goal for Requiem was to pay respect to and celebrate the many different things this series has been. And when it’s exploring those things in isolation, it’s undeniably compelling. I loved creeping around Rhodes Hill as Grace, and I loved ripping through the streets of Raccoon City as Leon. Together, though, these elements make for a campaign that feels fractured. Its lack of commitment to one style really hurts Requiem’s overall big picture, and in its worst moments the clash between horror and action undermines much of the tension built up as Grace and inflicts tonal whiplash. There’s a lot I like about Resident Evil Requiem, but I wish the game belonged to either Grace or Leon, not both of them.

Luis Joshua Gutierrez is a freelance writer who loves games. You can reach him at @ImLuisGutierrez on Twitter.

The Witcher franchise has always been a natural fit for the comic book medium (see our review of 2014's The Witcher #1 for more). Now those stories are being brought to an entirely new audience, as WEBTOON reveals it's acquired the rights to Dark Horse's back catalog of The Witcher comics.

This is the latest collaboration between WEBTOON and Dark Horse, with the latter's Cyberpunk 2077, Critical Role, and Avatar: The Last Airbender comics also appearing on the platform. Check out the slideshow gallery below to see how the series will look in the WEBTOON format:

WEBTOON is kicking things off with The Witcher: House of Glass, which was written by Paul Tobin, drawn by Joe Querio, and colored by Carlos Badilla. House of Glass is set in the world of the Witcher games and follows Geralt of Rivia as he makes his way through the titular haunted mansion.

Here's the original logline for The Witcher: House of Glass:

Traveling near the edge of the Black Forest, monster hunter Geralt meets a widowed fisherman whose dead and murderous wife resides in an eerie mansion known as the House of Glass - which seems to have endless rooms, nothing to fill them with, and horror around every corner.

WEBTOON will begin serializing The Witcher on Monday, March 9 at 5pm PT. These stories will be adapted from the original Dark Horse graphic novels and modified for WEBTOON's vertical scrolling format. New installments will be added weekly.

In other The Witcher news, reports suggest that The Witcher 3 could be getting another expansion. You can also check out our comprehensive timeline of all The Witcher books.

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

War Machine premieres Friday, March 6 on Netflix.

Not to be confused with Netflix's 2017 Brad Pitt war satire of the same name, this War Machine stars Reacher's mammoth Alan Ritchson. He's a nearly aged-out Army Ranger hopeful (with a haunted past) whose two-hour Armed Forces commercial gets interrupted by a giant death robot from outer space that's a bulky combination of Aliens-style Power Loader and Tron-esque Recognizer. War Machine is an action/sci-fi mashup in the vein of Predator that stands slightly (on its tippy toes) above most of streaming's unchallenging, disposable rabble, mostly due to a ferocious mass casualty event of a second act.

War Machine's threat of a giant boxy contraption, instead of an alien monster, saves us from possible shoddy CGI, but it also adds to the film's visual dryness. It's mostly a drab, brutalist shoot 'em up that lacks the uniqueness needed for a great sci-fi invasion story. Ritchson's "81" (everyone has a number instead of a name) and his squad are on a final training mission when they're ambushed by a giant intergalactic bot, which tests his mettle while blowing most everyone else to Kingdom Come.

During the death bot's second assault, War Machine ticks upward a bit as the movie flashes its fangs. There's a particular chase scene that stands out due to its mercilessness, and it's here that the movie feels powered by its own engine and not just set on riding the coattails of things that came before it and did it better. It's a shame that the rest of the movie was designed to be a merely adequate affair, unchallenging and dry. Because the sci-fi behemoth element adds a horror movie-style bit of crash therapy in a "the monster is grief" sort of way. War Machine could have been a much deeper, satisfying experience, but they make the choice, in the end, to tease a possible franchise, and that deflates the resolution.

Ritchson is very good in this, providing a nice mix of tortured vulnerability and hulkish heroics. His physical hugeness takes a back seat in War Machine, as he's covered up for most of the movie in combat gear, but just knowing he's swole helps sell 81's unsettling obsession with durability and going the distance. 81 also comes with a tragic, recent past that gets unspooled throughout this crucible. Jai Courtney has a small but important role here as 81's brother, feeding into the redemption arc that helps give 81 layers as a character. Far more layers than the supporting soldiers, who, save for two, only get the barest of focus. They're mostly just faces in the chaos.

The blueprints for War Machine, as an action movie, are solid. The hero has a bone to pick with the universe. The universe sends a bone to pick. But this doesn't save it from moments of feeling like stodgy four-quadrant content. And the way the cosmic blastoid bot gets defeated, its weakness, is super silly. Almost enough to take you out of the story. No, it's not a big red "power off" button on its face but... that's not far off. Ultimately, War Machine -- which also stars Dennis Quaid, Esai Morales, and Stephan James (as one of the soldiers with "more to do") -- will rest comfortably as a medium-fine flick that you'll never watch again.