Rooster premieres Sunday, March 8 at 10:00p.m. ET/PT on HBO. New episodes drop weekly.

Rooster is Steve Carrell at the top of his game. It’s also Danielle Deadwyler at the top of her game. Phil Dunster, Charly Clive, Annie Mumolo, Lauren Tsai, and John C. McGinley too. The new series from Scrubs and Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence and his producing partner Matt Tarses (Sports Night, The Goldbergs, Scrubs) is a delightful comedy about coming home, even if “home” is an unfamiliar place.

The HBO series (the first s 6 of 10 total episodes were available for review) stars Carrell as Greg Russo, a famous author known for his breezy “beach reads,” and whose fictional protagonist is nicknamed the titular Rooster. Greg pays a visit to the college campus where his daughter Katie (Clive – The Lazarus Project, All My Friends Hate Me) teaches and hijinks ensue. Katie is going through a personal crisis – her husband Archie (Dunster, in a delightful smarmy twist on his Ted Lasso character Jamie Tartt) left her for a younger grad student – and is hanging on by a razor’s edge. In a moment of midadventure, Katie accidentally burns down Achie’s house and Greg is more-or-less blackmailed by the school’s president into taking a teaching job in order to get Katie out of hot water.

Greg is immediately a stranger in a strange land; the students consider his novels little more than populist trash and he’s living in the shadow of his revered ex-wife (Connie Britton), who made a huge donation to the school. But soon, unsurprisingly, Greg finds his place. He uses the teaching job to reclaim his divorce and help Katie. But this isn’t an “Old School” situation. Rooster isn’t the story of an awkward man trying to reclaim his youth. It’s much more subtle, thoughtful, and brilliant than that.

As the inker on the legendary Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Klaus Janson's Bat-pedigree is guaranteed based on that series alone. But Janson has had a long, prolific career drawing the Caped Crusader and numerous other superheroes, and that work is being celebrated at a new exhibit at New York's Philippe Labaune Gallery.

IGN can exclusively reveal some of the original artwork on display at the new exhibit. Check out the slideshow gallery below to see pieces from The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, Batman: The Last Halloween, and more:

Janson's 50-year career started with a stint on Marvel's Black Panther series in 1974. Janson has worked as a solo artist and as an inker for a number of acclaimed pencillers like Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., John and Sal Buscema, Dick Giordano, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gil Kane, and Gene Colan. The exhibit brings together 100 pieces of original art from across Janson's career.

“Through this survey, Klaus Janson emerges as a singular figure whose adaptability, sensitivity, and understanding have permanently expanded what comics can achieve,” says Philippe Labaune. “His ability to work as a penciler, inker, colorist, writer, and teacher demonstrates the depth and range of his contributions to the medium and underscores why this exhibition is so significant. The exhibition celebrates a life in comics, offering a rare and considered perspective on the medium, and honoring an artist whose work has defined the visual and emotional language of American comics for generations.”

The Klaus Janson exhibit will run from Friday, March 6 through Saturday, April 11 at the Philippe Labaune Gallery, which is located at 534 West 24th Street in New York. There will be an opening reception on March 5 from 6pm to 9pm ET.

Previous artists featured at the Philippe Labaune Gallery have included Frank Cho, Paul Pope, and Will Eisner.

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

Pokémon Pokopia is out today (hooray!), and if you somehow don't have enough to do in that game already, there's a limited-time event on the way later this month that will give you even more little tasks, items, and Pokémon pals, as it's bringing Hoppip, Skiploom, and Jumpluff to the game. It starts next week, but if you don't mind a little manipulation, you can just play it right now.

Per an official announcement, beginning March 9 at 1pm PT through March 24 at 12:59pm PT, you'll be able to encounter Hoppip in Pokémon Pokopia, as well as collect a new "cotton spore" material. Cotton spores can be exchanged for picnic-themed furniture items, which you can then use to build habitats that will attract Hoppip's evolutions, Skiploom and Jumpluff. The official announcement warns that you won't be able to encounter these Pokémon outside the event, so you'll want to make sure to play during these dates if you want them in your game.

What's more, you'll also need at least one rebuilt Pokémon Center in order to encounter Hoppip and friends. Rebuilding a Pokémon Center is an endeavor that can take a few hours of gameplay minimum, so you'll want to get a jump-luff on that to make sure you don't miss out.

But you don't have to wait until March 9 to get started. If you open up your Switch 2 system clock and set it to a date and time within the event range, and you already have the finished Pokémon Center, Hoppip will just be chilling in your game right next to it. I managed to get Hoppip to appear in my game, and it sent me out to the Dream Islands to collect Cotton Spores for furniture. Be mindful that doing this can potentially muck with things in other realtime games, like Disney Dreamlight Valley and Animal Crossing, so it may be best to set it back to normal once you're done and before opening any of those games.

In addition to the Hoppip event, those who purchased Pokopia early can get an in-game Ditto rug for free using the Mystery Gift function in the menu. The Ditto Rug is available until January 31 of next year so you're not likely to miss out even if you wait to buy the game. And, as a heads up, you can get the Ditto Rug in-game without using this function too. This just gives you a free one much earlier than you'd otherwise encounter it.

Pokopia is amazing, and I said as much in my 9/10 review: It's "an enjoyable building and town simulator that capitalizes on the charming personalities of its monsters in a way that appeals to both the creative and collector alike." Wondering which Pokémon you'll be able to live alongside? Check out our list of all the Pokémon in Pokopia, and take a look at our Things to Do First in Pokopia guide to make the most of your first few days. To help you get started, we've also got a list of 17 things that Pokopia doesn't tell you, plus How to Raise the Environment Level and How to Raise Pokémon Comfort Level.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Nathan Fillion has hyped up Firefly fans with a number of social media posts that has some hoping for a series return over 20 years after it was canceled.

Fillion, who plays Captain Mal Reynolds in Firefly, has made several social media posts where he visits various cast members from the show while highlighting a mysterious “announcement.” He’s made videos with folks like Morena Baccarin, Gina Torres, Summer Glau, and Sean Maher, and in the clips, he tells his former costars that “it’s time.”

It seems as though Fillion is hinting at some kind of cast reunion, but in what form will that reunion take? That’s anyone’s guess right now. In the post where Fillion joins forces with Maher, the caption tells fans: “Some of you have guessed convention, podcast, or cross-over. You are wrong.” And that means some folks who assumed Fillion and his other former Firefly costar Alan Tudyck would be hosting a reunion (and maybe even a rewatch, too) on their podcast Once We Were Spacemen are probably ultimately incorrect.

When is this big announcement happening, you might be wondering? Well, in Fillion’s latest post — all of which have been made on his podcast account, fueling that speculation — he visits costar Jewel Staite and confirms that the surprise will be revealed on Sunday, March 15, though he doesn't clarify where or how the announcement will be made.

As far as what the announcement could actually be, fans have been musing about a potential 25th anniversary reunion special, one bigger than a podcast meetup, or even the highly anticipated and hoped-for revival series fans have waited patiently for.

"I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, if Nathan Fillion is leading us on with these hints I will curse his sudden but inevitable betrayal," said one fan on the Firefly subreddit, which as you can imagine is all sorts of busy right now.

That said, Baccarin, who played Inara Serra, previously opened up about how unlikely it was for a full-scale revival to happen. "There’s always talk. There’s always people asking about it. Part of me would be excited to revisit that world, and part of me is also a little bit like, I love it so much where it is, that I’m worried about reopening that door,” she explained on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum back in July 2025. “That’s a lot of different careers and different people that you have to negotiate with and make work and all that … schedules and whatnot. Could there be a comic book or [another] thing–maybe?"

Firefly premiered on Fox in September 2002 and ran for just 11 of its 14 episodes before being cancelled. The series, created by Joss Whedon, followed the crew of the spaceship known as Serenity helmed by Fillion’s Mal Reynolds in the year 2517 and ended up becoming a cult classic once it made its way to DVD. We’ll see where this new announcement takes things for the fans.

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

The developer of Marvel Rivals has addressed what it called the “disturbing trend” of "incentivized throwing,” where players are enticed by third-party bounties to deliberately sabotage matches.

Last month, Marvel Rivals players called on developer NetEase Games to take action after the emergence of an unofficial bounty website that triggered fears it could harm the community it was supposedly trying to protect.

Fans of the hero shooter sounded the alarm when third-party site Intlist.org went live on February 22. Established by Marvel Rivals content creator and X/Twitter user EchoRivals, Intlist’s goal was to give players an avenue to name those who intentionally sabotage or “throw” multiplayer matches and “put a price on their head.”

“Put a bounty on griefers & throwers,” the first, now-deleted post on its X account read, promising a system that offered an 80% payout for those who successfully throw matches in retaliation. “Someone queues in, throws it back, gets paid.”

One Reddit user calling attention to the issue said they’d seen an increase in sabotaged matches for every kind of player, warning that “now every game is people throwing each other’s games.” The Intlist account replied to the criticism, insisting: “Collateral damage is an unfortunate reality of war.”

Now, in an official statement published to the Marvel Rivals Discord, NetEase threatened players who engaged with external bounties with a permanent ban.

Here’s the statement in full:

We have recently identified a disturbing trend within our community: "incentivized throwing," where players are enticed by third-party bounties to deliberately sabotage matches. This behavior not only undermines the integrity of our game but also tarnishes the experience for honest players who are committed to fair competition.

In light of this, we want to make our position clear:

We maintain a strict zero-tolerance policy against any form of malicious disruption. To combat this issue, we are implementing a specialized investigation protocol focused on identifying and addressing negative gameplay linked to these external bounties. Accounts found to be violating our policies will face serious repercussions, including, but not limited to, permanent bans. We strongly advise players against jeopardizing their valuable accounts and hard-earned progress for the sake of temporary incentives.

Moreover, to reinforce the principles of fair competition, we have enhanced our regulations regarding negative gameplay. Accounts found to be engaging in disruptive behaviors, such as malicious idling (AFK) or intentionally throwing matches, will incur significant penalties following reporting and verification.

If you encounter players who are maliciously idling or intentionally throwing games, we encourage you to utilize the reporting feature immediately. Your reports are crucial and will be thoroughly investigated by our dedicated team.

Maintaining a positive gaming environment is a collective responsibility. Thank you for your continued support!

Intlist had already been pulled offline last month, promising “something big is coming.” At the time, EchoRivals claimed the site was locked down after they “detected unauthorized access to our database from a single bad actor.”

Today, March 5, EchoRivals posted in the Intlist Discord to say the website would remain offline “for the time being,” adding: “No ETA on when/if we will be back. This was my decision.”

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.

Doomsday Diner is the restaurant sim that dares to take post-apocalyptic storytelling to a new height by focusing on an element we so often overlook, that of the humble hot dog. A new trailer and a playable demo drop today, ahead of a PC release on Steam later this year.

It has all the hallmarks of the classic diner sim, cooking, cleaning, upgrading your equipment piece by piece but with some added carnage as you do your best to defend your humble eatery from wasteland raiders. To keep things spicy, the controls are physics-based, which should make for some sausage slinging chaos when the pressure is on.

The maniacs behind the game are Space Rock Games, a studio in New Zealand that is also working on Criminals Within, an asymmetric co-op multiplayer action-adventure game with a fantasy flavor. Members of its team have worked on notable titles like Fable, Path of Exile, Chivalry 2, Alien vs Predator and Black And White 2.

Doomsday Diner joins the collection of increasingly unhinged sim games on Steam, which includes big names like House Flipper, Goat Simulator and Powerwash Simulator, but also hidden gems like Paver Simulator, TCG Card Shop Simulator, and Crime Scene Cleaner.

You can wishlist Doomsday Diner now.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

You play a handcrafted puppet in a papercraft world in Hidalgo, a newly announced cozy narrative adventure that's playable in co-op. It's based on the novel Don Quijote de La Mancha, and it's in development for PC.

Appropriately named developer Infinite Thread games promises first-person parallax puzzles, cozy boss battles, environmental puzzles, and a wholesome-themed story. When playing in co-op, one player controls Don Quijote, while the other controls Sancho. Check out the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.

Hidalgo is due out later this year on PC. Wishlist it on Steam if you're interested.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Earlier in 2026, we got our first look at Saber Interactive’s currently Untitled John Wick Game at a Sony State of Play. But apart from an impressively cinematic trailer, very little is known about the upcoming project. Well, IGN recently spoke with Saber’s Chief Creative Officer, Tim Willits, and squeezed a few extra tiny details out.

A John Wick game seems like a no-brainer. In theory, it's gun-fu action, which is not overly dissimilar from Remedy’s Max Payne bullet-time combat or Sifu’s hand-to-hand melee combos — the former has already received a movie adaptation, with the latter in production at Netflix from, incidentally, John Wick’s Chad Stahelski. So, the Keanu Reeves-led movie series making its way into video games seems a natural reversal of the adaptation process.

It’s a sentiment shared by Willits. “The great thing about the Wick series is when you watch the movies, they're kind of like video games. You have a group of enemies, then you have some tough guys, and you have a boss fight, and then you have a group of enemies, tough guys, and a boss fight. So it's really exciting to bring that action to a video game. It's going to be like watching a movie. That's all I can say.”

While the structure of the game remains unknown, we can infer that this will perhaps be a level-based action game in the mold of classics like the aforementioned Max Payne, if the flow of grunts, brutes, and bosses that Willits mentioned is as suggested. What we do know, however, is when the game will be set, and, in turn, how its place on the John Wick timeline may impact its style of gameplay.

“So yes, it's before movie one,” Willits confirms. “And you can kind of infer that because [in the reveal trailer] he's getting measured for his suit, and he looks a little bit younger.”

Because this John Wick is a prequel, Saber’s intention is for fights to be a little bit more clumsy than what fans have seen on the big screen, and the combat is more instinctual. This would, in theory, give the game a nice sense of progression, as we presumably gain experience and unlock skills on our way to becoming the much-feared Baba Yaga figure inhabited by Keanu Reeves’ assassin in the first movie. It also, crucially, means he isn’t fuelled by the murder of his beloved dog, so, thankfully, we won’t have to go through that trauma all over again.

We’ll learn plenty more about the Untitled John Wick game as we creep closer to its release, but Willits is very excited about getting it in players’ hands, claiming it's “Saber's biggest announcement we've ever done.”

For a developer now highly adept in adapting existing IP into games, that’s no small claim, with the highly successful Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and Evil Dead: The Game under the studio’s belt, as well as the upcoming John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, Jurassic Park: Survival, and Hellraiser: Revival.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

What next for Temuera Morrison and his iconic character Boba Fett in the ongoing Star Wars franchise? Not much, it sounds like. In a new interview, the actor said Boba is still “on the shelf” — despite his attempts to spark a return.

In August last year, Morrison called on Star Wars fans to inundate Lucasfilm with requests to see the actor reprise his role as the iconic bounty hunter, with The Book of Boba Fett Season 2 looking increasingly unlikely.

Morrison, alongside Daniel Logan, who played young Boba/Jango Fett’s clone son, told fans at the FanX's Tampa Bay Comic Convention that there’s nothing in the works in terms of a new appearance. He then used the opportunity to issue his plea: “I think we really have to treasure those moments now. All of you need to send a fax, or a letter, or an email, to those powers that be at Lucasfilm. I'm sure they'd love to hear from everyone. Please give Daniel Logan and Temuera Morrison another chance and put them somewhere.”

It turns out that slightly irked Lucasfilm, who called Morrison up to reiterate Boba’s situation.

“I was only joking. I’m at a convention, and I say stupid things,” Morrison told Inverse. “Then I’ve got [Lucasfilm] ringing me: ‘Look, you’ve been put on the shelf, Boba Fett. We might open up the jar later.’”

Morrison originally played Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones, but years later rejoined Star Wars as Jango's son and clone Boba Fett.

The last time we saw the 65-year-old New Zealander play Fett was at the end of The Book of Boba Fett, in February 2022. The Disney+ spin-off series proved divisive, with some Star Wars fans feeling it went too far in softening the iconic villain's character.

Morrison told Inverse that he had hoped to get multiple seasons out of Boba Fett. “It was a big deal for me,” he said. “When you do a series like Boba Fett and work with Ming-Na [Wen], I started to think, ‘Man, this is it. I’m away. Season 2, 3, 4.’ But at the end of it, we had a great time. I was honored to be brought back after all that time.”

Even with The Mandalorian and Grogu coming out in May, a Boba Fett return feels low down on Lucasfilm's priority list. Will there be a The Mandalorian Season 4? Lucasfilm has yet to say, but if it does happen, perhaps Boba Fett would pop up there. Otherwise, if Lucasfilm actually makes the Dave Filoni New Republic team-up movie it has announced, perhaps Boba will join forces with Mando and Ahsoka in an Avengers-style fight against Grand Admiral Thrawn.

However, outgoing Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy made no mention of the Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and Boba Fett crossover movie when revealing her exit in January, though it's likely her successor, Filoni himself, will be the one to give an update on this as its fate likely rests on the performance of The Mandalorian and Grogu this year.

In June last year, Morrison revealed he actually pitched Lucasfilm on Boba Fett appearing in Ahsoka Season 2 ("can I be Rex and take his helmet off, please?"), pointing out that he plays not just Boba Fett but all the clones based upon the character.

In 2024, speaking at the From Clone Troopers to Bounty Hunters panel at Fan Expo Chicago, Morrison cited The Book of Boba Fett's poor reception as the reason for the once beloved character not returning in Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu. The show, which told the story of Boba Fett as he escaped from the Sarlacc Pit and acted as a miniature season of The Mandalorian, was among the worst received Star Wars shows. "This show's reception does seem to have impacted the future of the character in the franchise," Morrison said at the time.

Amid all this, only two Star Wars films are definitively confirmed to release: The Mandalorian and Grogu launches in theaters on May 22, and Ryan Gosling's Star Wars: Starfighter arrives on May 28, 2027.

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.

We’re dumping the clutch on our March IGN First "cover story" effective immediately with Forza Horizon 6! As such, feel free to slide into the passenger seat and enjoy nine minutes of exclusive gameplay from the next instalment of Forza Horizon: the reigning heavyweight champ of open-world racing series.

This never-before-seen gameplay features a Saleen S7, an American turn-of-the-century cult supercar, being taken on a brisk journey through a portion of Forza Horizon 6’s Japan-based map. Moving from the south, you’ll be able to observe segments of rural, rolling countryside and a section of Tokyo itself before reaching the base of the mountains. We'll have much more exclusive coverage of Forza Horizon 6 all throughout March as part of IGN First!

Forza Horizon 6 takes the acclaimed driving delights of the series and finally sets them loose on the distinctive roads of Japan. With more cars than ever on day one, a progression system inspired by the original 2012 Forza Horizon, and long-awaited tweaks to customisation, Forza Horizon 6 appears it’ll be barrelling into our homes with its foot flat to the floor. After you’ve checked out the exclusive gameplay above, check out the first developer gameplay overview, as well as our initial interview with the Playground team following the game’s announcement.

Forza Horizon 6 is coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam on May 19, 2026, though it will be available with Early Access for Premium Edition players starting four days earlier (on May 15). It’s also coming to PlayStation 5 later this year.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is in select theaters on Friday, March 6, and premieres Friday, March 20 on Netflix.

Four years after the Season 6 finale and 13 years since Tommy Shelby first rode into frame on a black horse, Peaky Blinders is back, ushering in a new era for the British period crime drama now set against the backdrop of the Birmingham Blitz. But Director Tom Harper's The Immortal Man is both a beginning and an end – a final hurrah for Cillian Murphy's beloved antihero as he's pulled out of self-imposed exile to settle a score as World War II rages on.

Full disclosure: I never watched the series beyond the first episode of Season 1, but after 112 minutes of viewing this film, I'm inclined to make up for lost time. That's due in large part to Murphy, an actor brimming with so much pathos that he elevates everything he's in. Here, as Tommy – contemplating his life of violence, the losses, and legacy while hiding out in an isolated farmhouse – you don't need to know the ins and outs of his criminal past to recognize the heavy burden on his soul. It's present in every shrouded glance and the stiffness of his body. It’s there in his pained eyes as ghosts of dead loved ones invade his solitary retreat, which soon morphs into stoic resolve once he realizes the chaos of war won't let him hide away any longer.

In 1940, Birmingham was taking heavy fire from Nazi forces; bombs rained down on the midland city, aiming at munitions factories worked by local women. Their tragic deaths are devastatingly reimagined in an incendiary opening sequence that soon leads to the arrival of the Peaky Blinders, now led by Tommy's illegitimate firstborn son, Duke, who calmly enacts violence to take ownership of the country's weapons.

Barry Keoghan replaces Conrad Khan in the prodigal role, showcasing a less sinister edge than we're accustomed to when he's cast as an antagonist. Duke is really just an insecure kid with abandonment issues; he was sold by his Irish-Romani family to his father, who subsequently disappeared. His aunt Ada (Sophie Rundle), now a Member of Parliament, has zero patience for the aggressive resurgence of the Peaky Blinders under his leadership.

It's the sort of morally ambiguous, character-driven arc that Peaky creator and writer Steven Knight is known for. Duke seeks acceptance through power, even if that means accepting a deal with the Nazis to flood the British banking system with hundreds of millions of forged banknotes in order to send the country into freefall and help Germany win the war. He sees it as an opportunity to step out of his father's shadow, but once Ada threatens the contract, he's forced to reckon with his actions, which Keoghan calibrates with quiet fortitude and vulnerability.

Once a suited, booted, and flat-capped Tommy returns to Birmingham, the real action begins. A tense but hilarious confrontation with a gobby (chatty) soldier at the Blinders' haunt, the Garrison Tavern, reminds everyone who Tommy Shelby is – the type to bring a grenade to a gun fight and throw in a one-liner about music in pubs for good measure. It's one of a few dry jokes that earn a knowing chuckle, with Packy Lee earning a fair few laughs as Tommy's long-suffering sidekick, Johnny Dogs. Tommy’s reunion with Duke is far messier; he throttles his son and throws him around a pig sty, demanding answers about his involvement in the murder of a relative. With lesser actors, this scene might have veered into the ridiculous, but Murphy and Keoghan play it so intensely and emotively straight, you're swept up in the image of men's dirty behavior coming to a head.

The Immortal Man certainly has style. Fontaines DC's Grian Chatten and Amyl and the Sniffers' Amy Taylor add original songs to the anachronistic, atmospheric score with some recognizable needle drops from Massive Attack and Nick Cave. We see a muddied Tommy riding through Birmingham's battered streets like he's just come from the Front Line trenches with citizens reaching out to him – a messiah returned to save them. Tim Roth's smooth-talking Nazi sympathizer Beckett makes his entrance with a casual "heil f**king Hitler." Roth is always a reliably likeable baddie, and here he exudes a charmingly nonchalant energy for a war profiteer.

Rebecca Ferguson oozes into Tommy's life as a Roma fortune teller, the camera shifting seductively as she embodies his dead lover and manipulates him out of stagnation. Peaky Blinders clearly celebrates the Irish-Romani roots of its characters, and it makes sure its mystical practices, language, and ceremonies are sensitively handled…though I do wonder how many actors with that particular heritage were cast in these roles.

The elephant in the room is Arthur Shelby, Tommy's volatile brother, played by Paul Anderson in the series. Legal issues regarding substance abuse prevented his involvement in the film, and his absence is felt in a shakily-handled flashback subplot. But devotees will be happy to see the returning Ned Dennehy as Charlie Strong and Stephen Graham as union convenor Hayden Stagg, who both aid Tommy in his mission to foil the Nazi's counterfeit scheme in the Liverpool dockhouses. It's a tense, action-packed finale complete with exploding canal boats, Nazis getting punched, and a heartbreaking showdown between Tommy, Beckett, and Duke.

The Immortal Man may not have reinvented the wheel with conventional wartime escapades, but it ticks most of the boxes for Peaky Blinders fans, with Murphy and the cast playing a blinder.

If you’ve seen anything of the upcoming survival horror game Hellraiser: Revival, then you’ll know it isn’t for the faint of heart. Full of bloody violence, gruesome gore, and BDSM-themed sex and nudity, it's a true translation of the pain and pleasure film series, which, despite all of these extremities, has managed to secure an ESRB rating.

Chief creative officer at Saber Interactive, Tim Willits, shared the news in a recent interview with IGN. “I can say that we have our ESRB rating, which was great, and we had to take nothing out for that,” he confirmed.

The fact that nothing had to be cut may come as a surprise to some. Of course, different ratings boards around the world weigh different aspects of mature games more than others. In the U.S. and Canada, the territories covered by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) are traditionally stricter when it comes to sexual content, something that Hellraiser: Revival certainly doesn’t shy away from — its opening scene is an extended sequence of sadomasochism involving hooks and other sharp objects. So, it’s somewhat impressive that the game has passed through with nothing needing to be taken out.

As for other regions around the world, that’s still very much work in progress for Saber. European ratings boards such as PEGI and the USK view graphic violence in a different way than America does, but are more liberal when it comes to the sexual side of things. Similarly, the Australian Classification Board is far stricter on games involving drug use, so it remains to be seen if just one version of Hellraiser: Revival will be able to be released globally, or if altered versions exist depending on where you live.

It’s something that Saber is exploring currently and feels confident about. “We're working with all the other ratings groups now, and I think that we're going to do really well,” said Willits. “It's all context. It all fits with the IP. It is an artwork, and it is a mature game for mature audiences. We've stayed within those lines, and we've been very successful at moving the game through all rating boards.”

Willits and the team are not shying from the graphic side of the game either. “It's an active goal for the team. Yes. You can actually say that,” Willits explained. “Because if you are familiar with the franchise, if you're familiar with what Clive [Barker, Hellraiser creator] has done, it definitely pushes. And when we announced that we were making this, lots of people online were like, ‘They better do it right, they better not make some ‘whooshy’ game that's all censored.’ So we've tried to embrace it as much as we can. I really hope that players, they're kind of like, ‘What's around the next corner? What crazy stuff am I going to see next? Where is this going to go? Oh my God, I can't believe they did that.’ That's the kind of emotions that we want to get out of people.”

Last year, we heard from Willits that Saber intended to push its M Rating as far as it could with the upcoming video game adaptation. In that interview with IGN, he said: “We are going to go as far as we possibly can, as far as the people that make rules will let us go.” Well, it looks like that’s exactly what the team has done, securing an ESRB rating long before we even know the game’s release date.

Having played a good chunk of Hellraiser: Revival at gamescom 2025, I can indeed confirm first-hand that the limits for what’s allowed in a video game are being stretched by this blood-soaked pain and pleasure fest, where internal organs more often than not end up becoming external ones. You can read my full Hellraiser: Revival preview here, where I called it “Resident Evil for sickos.” I stand by it, even following some of the gory sights I’ve seen in Capcom’s latest, Resident Evil: Requiem.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

When it comes to LEGO sets, high piece counts and high prices often go hand-in-hand. For years, the standard LEGO pricing came out out to approximately 10 cents per brick, which meant a 5,000-piece set would probably cost $500, give or take. But the modern era has made this formula a bit more nuanced. Partnering with a third-party (like Disney, for example) will drive the price higher. And sometimes, the uniformity and commonness of the pieces will make the price lower.

So, even though this list and our list of the Most Expensive LEGO Sets have some significant overlap, it's not identical. Here, in ascending order, are the 10 Biggest LEGO Sets You Can Buy, as measured by piece count. We'll be updating this list, but it'll probably be awhile before another set tops 10,000 pieces.

Biggest LEGO Sets You Can Buy

The above is a quick TL;DR of the list. If you want details about any of the sets, keep on reading.

Avengers Tower

Star Wars: Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser

The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Castle

The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell

Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon

Death Star

Titanic

Eiffel Tower

It's been several years since LEGO formalized its creative partnership with Nintendo – a partnership that has resulted in several of LEGO's most inspired, accessible sets. Back in 2020, LEGO delineated a clear division between their child audience and their adult audience. On one hand, the children received Super Mario playsets – digital/physical hybrids that allowed kids to build their own Super Mario courses. On the other hand, the adults received iconic replicas – massive sets that triggered waves of Gen-X nostalgia

But in the years since, LEGO has deliberately blurred the line between their child and adult audiences. The new LEGO sets for kids are a bit more complex and involved; the new adult LEGO sets are a bit more cartoonish and whimsical. It's befitting that Nintendo, which bills itself as a family-friendly company, features LEGO sets with such cross-generational appeal.

LEGO/Nintendo is slowly expanding its sub-themes, from exclusively Super Mario to Sonic the Hedgehog and Animal Crossing. And now, LEGO Zelda and LEGO Pokémon are here too. Below we've highlighted some of the very best LEGO Nintendo sets available in 2026.

Adventures with Interactive LEGO Mario

LEGO Piranha Plant

LEGO Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi

LEGO Great Deku Tree Set

Mario Kart - Mario & Standard Kart

Prince Florian & Castle Bowser

Game Boy

Yoshi Bike

Ocarina of Time – The Final Battle

Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise

Project Hail Mary co-director Christopher Miller has moved to clarify recent comments in which he said there isn't a single green screen shot in the entire movie.

The Ryan Gosling sci-fi film, due out March 20, is based on The Martian author Andy Weir’s hard-science novel of the same name, and revolves around an astronaut who encounters an alien while trying to save Earth.

In interviews with the press, Miller, who directed Project Hail Mary alongside collaborator Phil Lord, said there is no green screen at all, the ship was built as a set, and the alien character, called Rocky, was actually in the scenes as a puppet. This, Miller said, helps make Project Hail Mary feel real.

Those comments sparked a mixed reaction, with some expressing disbelief, especially when you consider Project Hail Mary spends much of its runtime in space. “They actually shot in space,” joked author Zoë Rose Bryant.

Now, Miller has issued a clarification statement, taking to X / Twitter to say "no green screen" doesn’t mean "no VFX.”

“There were, in fact, thousands of VFX shots in the film (2018!),” Miller went on to say. “Green screen is sometimes used in lieu of building sets or figuring out locations/lighting in advance, which can be noticeable if not done carefully, and is something we didn’t want to do. We built the entire interior of the Hail Mary ship — but within the ship, there were still wire and puppeteer removals and ceiling replacements, etc.

“When Ryan is outside on the hull of the ship, we shot him in front of a black background for space and a shifting hue background when he was up against the aurora of a planet which allowed for truer interactive light on him than a green screen would. The wide space exteriors and spaceship shots were entirely digital and beautifully done by ILM. Rocky was a seamless blend of puppetry and animation from Framestore. And other great work from many more. It really does take a village and we had the best of the best on our side.”

So, Miller was correct in saying no green screen was used, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t visual effects in Project Hail Mary, which some had taken it to mean.

One high-profile fan of the approach taken for Project Hail Mary is Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro, who praised Miller and Lord in a social media post. "What Phil and Chris did here, the amount of PRACTICAL sets and effects and puppets is just so beautiful to see," he said.

What Phil and Chris did here- the amount of PRACTICAl sets and effects and puppets is just so beautiful to see- so inspiring to hold- it's a goal- and aspiration and a commitment. Specially now- so much- now. https://t.co/7GjAdUC2wA

— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) March 4, 2026

The first trailer for Project Hail Mary was released at the end of June last year — and it blew up online, garnering over 400 million views in a single week. At the time, that was a record for a film that was not a sequel or a remake.

Project Hail Mary stars Ryan Gosling as a professor, scientist, and astronaut who wakes up one day on a spaceship with no recollection of how he got there and a new mission that will put him at the center of saving humanity from a catastrophic event. Sandra Huller and Milana Vayntrub star alongside Gosling, who also produced the project. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse fame have teamed up once again for their first directed film in 12 years following 2014’s 22 Jump Street.

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.

Highguard, the free-to-play PvP raid shooter announced at The Game Awards last year and set to close next week, has released its final update.

Developer Wildlight announced that it would permanently shut down Highguard on March 12, but not before a "farewell tour," which also just-so-happens to be the name of the shooter's final patch.

Highguard launched on January 26 after almost no communication with prospective players between its December announcement and launch day. While Steam concurrents almost hit a high of 100,000, peak concurrents on Valve's platform soon plummeted (neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public). And though Wildgate was quick to address issues with the game, even adding a 5v5 game mode to counter 3v3 complaints, shortly thereafter, most of the studio was laid off.

Now, as the team issues its final patch, it thanked everyone who has and is still playing Highguard, writing: "Even though we are shutting the game down, we are excited to give our remaining players one last big update to keep you entertained over the weekend. Thanks again for playing with us. Enjoy!"

This final update adds a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and a skill tree for those who want to get their final matches in.

Highguard 'The Farewell Tour' Patch Notes:

For our final patch, we’d like to thank everyone who has played and is still playing Highguard. Even though we are shutting the game down, we are excited to give our remaining players one last big update to keep you entertained over the weekend. Thanks again for playing with us. Enjoy!

Account Progression

You’ll now level up your account level just by playing the game. As you return to the lobby, you’ll gain XP, level up, and earn Skill Points to be spent on the new Skill Tree!

Everyone’s account will start at level 0, and goes to level 100.

Your first level acquired will reward you with 5 Skill points. Afterwards, you receive 1 skill point per level up until level 40 for a total of 44 points to spend. This allows players to choose up to two skill trees to max.

Skill Tree

The Skill Tree is designed for players to build out their upgrades in 4 distinct playstyles. Each branch has a variety of options for players to choose from, with 2 tiers of power on all small nodes. Here is a list of what each branch focuses on, along with a few examples.

• Raider - for players looking to be unstoppable during Raids, along with some buffs and abilities focused on general combat efficiency.
  • Infiltration - while raiding, zipline further into the enemy base
  • Juggernaut - destroying a wall provides a short duration overshield
  • Spearhead - you receive a Domesplitter and a Thumper Charge when your Siege Tower rolls in
• Harvester - for players who are looking to increase their Vesper gain and the power of their Warden Axe
  • Heavy Swing - you swing your axe with two hands, instantly destroying Vesper Nodes
  • Shatter Orb - destroy enemy soul orbs with your Throwing Axe or Regular Axe Swing
  • Field Crafting - Create Armor, Equipment and Raid Tools in the battlefield
• Treasure Hunter - for those players who love to loot
  • Treasure Seeker - hidden chests can be found and opened at PoIs
  • Archaeologist - Can sell items to Trader Flynn
  • Artifact Mastery - Amulets have a bonus magical property when equipped
• Protector - for players who enjoy defending and keeping the team together
  • Resonant Walls - reinforced walls are more durable
  • Unbreakable Armor - once every 2 minutes, armor loss is prevented on death
  • Vanguard - while defending your base, allies can spawn on you

You can unequip a skill easily, and you can Reset all your points at no cost by clicking the button at the bottom.

We’ve tuned the XP gain to be very fast so players can earn points quickly and enjoy the full spectrum of the feature.

New Warden - Koldo

Koldo was discovered on Highguard. A lost soul from long before the continent disappeared, trapped inside a suit of armor, he searches for answers to his past. Koldo uses the power of his soul to protect his allies.

Passive: Guardian Angel

Protect any friendly orbs around you from destruction.

Automatically deploy your shield when reviving allies.

Tactical: Soul Shield

Deploy a shield for you and your allies.

Ultimate: Battle Cry

Koldo raises a standard that creates a protective dome. He can pick up and carry the standard, and drop it again at will.

Being inside the dome gives allies faster health regeneration.

New Weapon - The Switchback

The Switchback brings unparalleled versatility, comfortably handling both close range and long range encounters. When used in hipfire, it’s a shotgun. Aiming down the sights will transition the weapon into a marksman rifle.

The name “Switchback” originates from its unique double-barrel design. You’re able to rapidly shoot twice before needing a rechamber, though you also can pace your shots to keep up a continuous stream of fire.

In the field, many Wardens have sought to wield the Switchback. Only a few have truly learned to master it.

Gold Versions

The Switchback has 2 gold versions that can be found in loot chests, or with Trader Flynn.

• Basebreaker
• Repeater

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

This article contains spoilers for Resident Evil Requiem.

Resident Evil Requiem is now in our hands and, as our review makes clear, it’s a massive success. But what’s next for Capcom’s long-running horror series? Resident Evil has settled into a release cadence over the last few years that alternates between new mainline entries and extravagant remakes. With the most recent remake being an overhaul of Leon S. Kennedy’s iconic Spain-set adventure, Resident Evil 4, the next one up on the docket is likely to be Chris Redfield’s co-op odyssey, Resident Evil 5. That would be interesting for many reasons, but to make matters more intriguing, one of Resident Evil Requiem’s third act plot reveals seems to hint at the ways Capcom intends to alter the series’ continuity in a hypothetical remake of the fifth mainline chapter. Let’s take a look at how Requiem may be quietly setting up a lore-altering remake of Resident Evil 5.

Big Spencer

Even people who have never played a Resident Evil game before have probably at least heard of the Umbrella Corporation, the nefarious pharmaceutical company behind many of the series' biohazardous events. Who they’re less likely to be familiar with is Oswell E. Spencer, the founder and CEO of Umbrella. Although he’s rarely made direct appearances in the games, Spencer could arguably be considered the overarching antagonist of the entire franchise. The first game took place in his mansion, after all, and the series’ dense web of viruses, monsters, and shady villainous factions almost all tie back to Spencer in one way or another because of his initial work with bioweapons.

Resident Evil Requiem brings Spencer back in the spotlight, but in an unexpected way that recontextualizes his place in the Resident Evil universe. Where previous lore depicted Spencer as a megalomaniacal oligarch who wanted to remake the world using weaponized viruses, Requiem presents a more human side of this ambitious scientist.

Warning! Resident Evil Requiem spoilers follow:

If you’ve spent any time in Resident Evil Requiem’s Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, you know to steer absolutely clear of “the chef." A towering, burly, machete-wielding shambler, he’s the toughest “regular” zombie Grace can face in Requiem’s terrifying first half. The only way to take him down is to stock up on bullets, Hemolytic Injectors, and a whole lot of courage.

Or just get one of the noise-sensitive zombies to one-shot him.

As you’ll probably already know, there are a number of different zombie types or “characters” in Rhodes Hill. Among them are audio-sensitive patients who will lash out at anything that makes too much noise. If you’ve unlocked the Internal Dispute trophy, you’ll know you can exploit that quirk to get this zombie type to attack other enemies. That’s exactly what X user @neko_sougo did, baiting the noise-hater into attacking the chef. The results are unbelievable: a one-hit kill.

シェフゾンビまで、一撃で倒す「ノイジー」...#バイオレクイエム #バイオハザード pic.twitter.com/CcWmqDWoWr

— それいけジェットでやってみよう！ (@neko_sougo) March 4, 2026

It seems impossible, and it is… well, certainly on the standard difficulty level. But this video clip seems to have been captured from an Insanity difficulty run. That would not only explain the massive amount of damage the zombie can inflict, but also the location of this one-sided brawl. Typically the chef hangs out in the kitchen, and later patrols the adjoining hallway of the west wing’s first floor. The noise-hating zombie, meanwhile, is located one floor up, in the office, which is where this clip was filmed. And so the chef has had to be baited far away past his typical patrol boundaries, something that the Insanity difficulty allows for.

There’s another clip to further suggest the noise-hater is a juggernaut on Insanity mode. User @SparkingSushi posted a clip showing the patient one-shotting Chunk, Rhodes Hill’s grotesque stalker enemy. To be clear: Chunk is the most formidable enemy in this section of the game. He takes no less than three Hemolytic Injectors to kill on standard difficulty. A hit to the cranium with a metal pole shouldn’t flatline him. And yet here’s the evidence in full-colour.

He can one shot chunk too on Insanity mode pic.twitter.com/CL64Oh295I

— Gadaven (@SparkingSushi) March 4, 2026

While these clips do seem to suggest that the noise-hater is incredibly powerful at Insanity difficulty, there are other things to consider. Requiem has only recently been released, and so hasn’t had every patch it’s likely to get across its lifetime — perhaps, then, this is a bug. We should also consider the idea that the clips are rigged. In a world where we’d all like our clips to go viral (and the chef one very much has, with 2 million views on @neko_sougo’s post and a further 2.5m views on a repost from @REBiohazardNews), we shouldn’t discount that perhaps the chef had been heavily damaged before the camera started rolling, allowing for the one-shot kill.

Should the power of this zombie be real, though, then it’s not only a very cool quirk, but potentially a wildly useful addition to Grace’s toolkit during an Insanity run. Forget pistols, knives, and lethal blood injections, all you need is a few glass bottles to bait all of your foes towards the insta-kill I.V. drip.

Earlier this week, Capcom announced that Resident Evil Requiem had already passed the 5 million sales mark — a record for the franchise's recent history. If you're already one of the millions playing, IGN's Resident Evil: Requiem guide will help you every step of the way through RE9. Take note of these key tips and tricks before you get started, and focus on finding these important items early. Plus, our comprehensive walkthrough will make sure you don't miss a single Bobblehead or file as you try to survive from the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center all the way to Raccoon City.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.

Bungie has finally revealed Marathon’s premium currency, called LUX, while promising it can’t be used to buy gameplay advantages.

In a tweet, the official Marathon account reiterated that seasonal gameplay content is free for all players. This includes zones and Runner shells (playable characters) for the extraction shooter.

“There is no pay for power,” Bungie said. Premium Pass rewards only include cosmetics, not gameplay items. And LUX can only be used for cosmetics, “not gameplay advantages.”

Meanwhile, Reward Passes do not expire, so you can buy a previous season’s Reward Passes. You unlock rewards in your Rewards Passes using Silk, which is earned by playing the game. You can’t buy SILK. You can also earn cosmetics via the Codex, with others available for purchase.

Confirmation of Marathon’s premium currency comes just hours before the game itself goes live (check out the Marathon release times here).

We’ve got plenty more on Marathon, including one Bungie developer’s commitment to “fontslop,” and Bungie’s words of reassurance on Marathon’s difficulty curve. Check out IGN's Marathon review so far to find out what we think.

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.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse — announced at Sony's State of Play showcase last month as part of Konami's celebration of Castlevania's 40th(!) anniversary — will play like a classic Castlevania game rather than a roguelike, despite the expertise of the studio making it.

That's according to Konami, which told The Verge earlier this week that while the game is in development by Dead Cells maker Motion Twin, it will play like a traditional Castlevania game.

"Castlevania Belmont's Curse is a 2D action-exploration game where players can freely explore vast, elaborately crafted maps," Konami's Tommy Williams said. "It is not a roguelike or roguelite game."

As for why Konami's making this clear now? Well, the announcement trailer did leave some fans wondering about the gameplay, not least because some thought they spotted a whip card pop-up on screen, as though it was a roguelike power-up.

As one prospective player said on Reddit following Konami's clarification: "Okay NOW I'm interested. I'm so sick of Metrovania games that are roguelike or roguelite or Soulslike, for that matter." Another simply said: "I wouldn't want it any other way, to be honest."

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is out later this year on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and is already available to pre-order. The new stylized 2D Castlevania game co-developed by Evil Empire and Motion Twin is set in 1499, where Medieval Paris is engulfed in flames as monstrous creatures suddenly emerge from the shadows. Armed with the legendary holy whip, the Vampire Killer, Trevor Belmont’s successor ventures into the burning streets and the looming castle to hunt down the beasts.

Konami says this is just the first announcement to mark the series' fourth decade, which started way back on the original Nintendo Entertainment System and has since spawned a hugely successful and critically acclaimed adult animated series on Netflix.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the latest Universes Beyond set for Magic: The Gathering, and it's out this week. If you’re already sold on meeting up with cardboard versions of the Heroes in a Half Shell, their friends, and their foes, then I've got some great news.

Crimson Desert is almost upon us, and we’re now getting a sense of what it is all about and how, exactly, this ambitious open world action adventure works. IGN’s recent Crimson Desert preview, for example, is packed with fresh details, and we even have a big interview with one of the developers. But one talking point that has emerged over the last day is Crimson Desert’s ‘fast forward’ button, which lets you speed through dialogue — and it turns out there are plenty of people who have a lot to say about it.

X / Twitter user Jake Lucky posted footage of fast forward in action, showing how it speeds up dialogue in cutscenes in a tweet viewed over 1.1 million times. “One of the features I really liked in Crimson Desert is you can fast forward through dialogue while still being able to understand the context, it's not a jump skip, but a time save,” Lucky said.

One of the features I really liked in Crimson Desert is you can fast forward through dialogue while still being able to understand the context, it's not a jump skip, but a time save pic.twitter.com/g3KiQVUxEE

— Jake Lucky 🔜 GDC (@JakeSucky) March 4, 2026

Some reacted negatively to the feature. “You're... playing an RPG, but you're happy you can skip dialogue?” said one person. “I'd like to play an FPS, but can we have a button that lets me skip the shooting?”

“Hey when you only got five hours to play it sure is nice, plus not every dialogue was something I needed the full story on (like rescuing a cat off a roof),” Lucky responded. “To each their own.”

Negative comments kept on coming, however. “Skipping dialogue in an RPG is kinda crazy, imo,” said another. “Unless it's a second playthrough.”

“If you need to ‘time save’ it means you're not really liking what you're playing....” another said.

However, there are some who are praising the feature, and highlighting other games have had similar features.

“People keep making fun of this. But I’ve played the game,” Swany Plays Games said. “When you die to a boss or need to reload a save, or want to do a second playthough. It’s nice to be able to skip dialogue…

“It isn’t ‘TikTok’ brain. When you have a game this big, you see a ton of repetitive cutscenes. You don’t need to watch the dialogue for a cutscene you’ve already seen seven times (for example turning in a bounty). I actually wish they had a skip button and not just fast forward. Having the option to skip or fast forward isn’t a bad thing.”

The mention of Crimson Desert as an RPG rekindles memories of a recent debate over how the game should be categorized. Let’s start with developer Pearl Abyss’ official description of its own game:

Crimson Desert is an open-world action-adventure game set in the beautiful yet brutal continent of Pywel. Embark on a journey as the Greymane Kliff and restore what has been lost. Explore uncharted lands, fight against threats that stand in your way, and discover the wonders the world has in store.

Pearl Abyss does not call Crimson Desert an RPG here. It’s an “open-world action-adventure” game. Will Powers, director of marketing at Pearl Abyss America, recently told fans not to expect RPG elements in terms of decision-making and choice and consequence as it relates to your character in Crimson Desert. The sheer amount of things to do in the world will facilitate the role-playing part of the game instead, which players will form through “head canon.”

“You choose the type of character you want to play as in terms of your progression within the systems in the game,” Powers explained. “And then through head canon you’re having this very different experience than other players because of the scope and scale of the game. You’ll be distracted by something, you’ll go on this quest line, you’ll have an experience that’ll be radically different than someone else, even though they’re playing the same game and the same canonical storyline that you both are going through.”

And after the debate over whether Crimson Desert is an RPG or not went big online, Powers himself explained why Pearl Abyss doesn’t want to call it an RPG, even though it’s perfectly happy for fans to do so.

“Open world questing and action sandbox for sure,” Powers tweeted. Then, in response to someone who said it should be made clear that Crimson Desert is not an RPG to avoid mismanaged expectations, Powers said: “honestly.... it's not my place to dictate someone else's experience. If because of good amount of RPG elements in the game, they want to call it an RPG... Sure. I'm just explaining why WE don't call it one.”

We’ve got plenty more on Crimson Desert, including Powers’ reaction to people who have accused Pearl Abyss of “hiding” console footage. Crimson Desert is due out March 19 priced $69.99. Pearl Abyss recently confirmed it does not contain a cosmetic cash shop nor microtransactions of any kind.

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 2025 felt busy, 2026 is already shaping up to be a big year for the Pokémon TCG with the expansions it’s got coming up.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game is charging into its 30th anniversary year with the rest of the Pocket Monsters franchise, with a renewed focus on Mega Evolution, anniversary celebrations, and tightly curated sets designed to keep both collectors and competitive players fully locked in.

While the full year’s roadmap hasn’t been revealed yet, three major products are already confirmed, and they give us a very clear idea of what kind of year we’re in for.

Here’s everything we know so far about the confirmed Pokémon TCG releases for 2026, including when they launch, what makes them special, and where you can actually buy them right now.

Deal Alert: Perfect Order Booster Bundles Discount at Amazon

Mega Evolution: Perfect Order – March 27, 2026

If Ascended Heroes has set setting the foundation of what the Mega Evolution's expansions are going to look like, Perfect Order is certianly kicking things up a notch.

Arriving on March 27, 2026, the next expansion is going to be honing in on many of the Pokémon featured in the Legends: Z-A game.

Among the cards announced from the 120-card set so far, we know we’re going to be seeing many of the game’s starring Mega Pokémon; Mega Zygarde ex, Mega Starmie ex, and Mega Clefable ex; but also some surprising extra additions like Meowth ex.

If you're looking to secure the goods, your best bet is either TCGplayer or Amazon right now. Prices are rapidly dropping for ETBs at TCGplayer, while preorders for Booster Bundles are now live at Amazon, and they're listed for way under market price right now.

While the Booster Bundle deal I mentioned eariler is not quite as good a value as picking up the Booster Box at TCGplayer right now, including 36 packs for $228.80 market price (working out at $6.35 per pack), it's still a great deal for anyone who hasn't got a spare $200 to throw around, but still wants to get involved with the new set.

Funnily enough, while ETBs continue to drop in price, the booster box is actually on the rise, jumping from around $200 just last week to almost $230 now.

First Partner Illustration Collection (Series 1) – March 20, 2026

The International version is designed as a celebration of the bonds between Trainers and their First Partner. Each collection includes 1 Promo Booster Pack, where you can pull three of nine illustration rare-style promo cards.

Each of these cards feature stunning illustrations of beloved first partner Pokémon. You’ve got your classic Kanto friends - Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander. Then, we jump forward a few generations to Sinnoh, with Turtwig, Pipulp and Chimchar. Last, but certainly not least, we find ourselves in Alola with Rowlet, Popplio and Litten.

Available imagery seems to show the packs being a mixture of one Phantasmal Flames and two Mega Evolution, but we like to warn that the contents may always differ from unit to unit.

The Pokémon Day 2026 Collection can be bought now at Amazon for around $39, or from around $25-30 on TCGplayer at current market rates.

The Pokémon Company started releasing annual holiday calendars back in 2022, inspired by the Pokémon Countdown Calendar from 2008.

These products are surprisingly good value in the current TCG market, as well as for casual fans of the series in other forms. You can see the listing here at Amazon or scroll on for more details.

The 2025 Pokémon Holiday Calendar released on August 22 and initially retailed for $49.99 at Target before quicklly selling out. It's now available at Walmart for a pricier $64.99 or at Amazon for $69.

Black Bolt and White Flare - Released Jul. 18, 2025

Pokemon Pokopia is out now, and I loved it. I gave it a 9/10 for IGN, and one of the things I praised most highly about it was its story and the ways in which it leverages nostalgia for emotional impact. In the review, I didn't talk much about the specifics of that story, because I didn't want to spoil it for anyone.

But Pokopia has been released, and I have been unleashed. I need to tell someone about this story, because it's kind of unhinged! Pokopia, despite having a cute and wobbly exterior, is hiding (not very subtly) an extremely grim story, one of the darkest in the Pokemon universe so far. So if you're prepared to delve deep, deep into spoiler territory with me, get ready. We're gonna discuss Pokopia's full plot and ending and why it has massive implications for the franchise.

WARNING! I AM HOLDING NOTHING BACK. This article delves into full spoilers for the entirety of Pokemon Pokopia's story! Do not read unless you either do not care about spoilers, or have already finished the game! I'm SERIOUS!!!

By the time you roll credits on Pokemon Pokopia, you've likely sorted out the basic thrust of the storyline: humanity is gone. Entirely. As documented in the Hacker's Confessions, the Team R Grunt's journal, Someone's journal, and the Professor's diary entries, the Pokemon world is an empty ruin in Pokopia because of a massive climate disaster that seemingly affected everything: every region, every continent, everywhere. A group of scientists saw that disaster coming, and began making preparations to evacuate humanity...to space. And it sounds like they were successful. So yeah, every human who lived in the Pokemon world was sent to space sometime before the events of Pokopia, or else they likely perished in the flooding, drought, volcanos, and other mass devastation.

Meanwhile, most Pokemon were placed inside a computer system to effectively hibernate until the humans could come back and salvage the planet. And the intention was for humanity to come back. Except...there is a lot of evidence to suggest that it's actually been hundreds of years since they left. Hacker's Confessions #6 suggests that "even a slight deviation" from the plan could leave humans stranded in space for hundreds of years, saying that they built a failsafe so that if that happens, the system storing the Pokemon on the planet would "release the Pokemon most suited to those environments." Which seems to be exactly what's happening in Pokopia, as Professor Tangrowth explains up front that he hasn't seen a single human or Pokemon for ages, but all of a sudden they're appearing everywhere. Of course, Ditto is the first one to show up - as a Ditto, it's the best suited to every environment.

The "hundreds of years" theory is further supported by Someone's Journal #4, which documents the steady, unexplained rising of the ground in Saffron City into the air. It says that some scientists believe that "in a matter of centuries this area will be as high as a mountain, in terms of elevation." By the time we make it there as Ditto, those cities are the Sparkling Skylands, even higher than the mountains. Again suggesting multiple centuries have passed since humans left. That doesn't even get into how deep down the Pewter City museum is buried, or how long it would take for nature to overgrow Fuchsia City the way it has by the time we show up.

Assuming that's true, then something has gone wrong with humanity's evacuation plan, leaving them unable to easily return to the planet in a timely manner. At the end of the credit roll, we see the rocket manage to reach one human out in space, alone, and the Ditto plush in the window suggests it might be the player character Ditto's trainer. But that's impossible if hundreds of years have gone by. And it's unclear if this person is alone, has any ability to get back to the planet at all, or even understands the implications of the rocket reaching them. Multiple notes we pick up imply that any number of things could go wrong and leave humans stranded in space, never to return, and given that they didn't make it back in the appointed time, it's fair to assume something happened to prevent them.

What's even sadder is that Ditto, Professor Tangrowth, and their pals know none of this. They can't read. The notes we find are for the benefit of the players, but the Pokemon planet-side will just go on believing that humanity can come back one day if they just make the world nice enough. And, if you needed another reminder, this disaster has apparently impacted the entire world. Not just Kanto, but every region. So that leaves a world full of Pokemon, awkwardly mimicking the lives of humans as best as they can remember them, hoping for a reunion that may never happen.

Pokemon Pokopia is indeed about a Pokemon Utopia - an idealistic world where only Pokemon exist and are allowed to thrive. There's plenty here to meditate on, such as whether or not the climate disaster in Pokopia was caused by humans, or if the Pokemon will ultimately be better off without them. Some certainly seem to be happy they're gone (Mewtwo), some are fairly indifferent (Kyogre), while others, like Garbordor, actually thrive off of having humans around. And of course you have folks like Ditto who miss their human partners, and do not realize those human partners are almost certainly deceased by now. Pokopia is grim, guys. I cannot believe they let developer Omega Force get away with this!

This, of course, leads to plenty of questions about what this means for the larger Pokemon universe. Is Pokopia even canon? When does it take place? Is it in some kind of alternate universe, like the ones posited in games like OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire? Is the Kanto region of Red, Blue, and Yellow inevitably headed for future destruction? Because look, if Pokopia is canon... humans are extinct. There is a version of the Pokemon universe where humanity took off and left Pokemon behind to take over. What does that mean for the world? Are there other universes where this didn't happen? Did...did humans take some of the Pokemon with them and colonize other planets?

We will likely never get the answers to any of these questions, as Pokemon games have a habit of dropping lore bombshells like this and then never really resolving them, though Pokemon Legends: Z-A did recently wrap up at least one loose thread from Legends: Arceus that really nagged at me. It also seems like Pokopia's devs are up for at least some ongoing support of the game, so maybe we'll get a final chapter at some later date.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go cry over the final cutscene for the 17th time. Ditto, buddy, I'm so sorry.

Wondering which Pokemon you'll be able to live alongside? Check out our list of all the Pokemon in Pokopia, and take a look at our Things to Do First in Pokopia guide to make the most of your first few days. To help you get started, we've also got a list of 17 things that Pokopia doesn't tell you, plus How to Raise the Environment Level and How to Raise Pokemon Comfort Level.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.