The newest earbuds from JBL – the Tour Pro 3 – are a seamless blend of innovation and performance, offering cutting-edge features and remarkable sound quality. And this latest flagship model from JBL just might be the best true wireless earbuds I’ll test all year. Whether you’re an audiophile or simply someone who wants reliable earbuds for everyday use, you’re going to want to check out everything that the Tour Pro 3 has to offer.

JBL Tour Pro 3 Specs

• Price: $299.95
• Weight: 5.6 grams (each)
• Active Noise Cancellation: Yes
• Weather resistance rating: IP55
• Battery life: up to 7 hours with ANC (33 hours total with case), up to 11 hours without (up to 44 hours total with case)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3

JBL Tour Pro 3 with ANC – Design and Features

Most everything about the JBL Tour Pro 3 exudes extravagance, starting with the sleek, felt-lined packaging it arrives in, with cables and five extra sets of foam tips neatly encased inside.

It was the little things that stood out to me, though, specifically JBL’s attention to detail. The earbuds’ smart charging case has a vibrant 1.57” (a step up from the previous Tour Pro 2’s 1.45” screen) touchscreen display, which was a nice touch. But it’s not just a gimmick – this little screen is surprisingly useful. It lets you check the time, battery status, and even messages without needing to reach for your phone. You can customize the background for a personal touch, as I set mine to a waterfall from a recent trip to Hawaii. What’s more impressive is how the case doubles as a dongle for audio transmission, allowing you to connect to devices like in-flight entertainment systems via aux or USB. It’s a level of utility I haven’t seen in frankly any other earbuds cases.

The design of the earbuds themselves are equally impressive. While they’re a bit bulkier than some competitors (the earbuds I reviewed just before these were the comparatively diminutive Apple AirPods 4, so my recent bias might be showing), their ergonomic design ensures a secure and comfortable fit. I consistently wore them during long work shifts and workouts without experiencing any discomfort or ear fatigue. Plus, with an IP55 weather resistance rating, the Tour Pro 3 handled everything from sweaty gym sessions to light rain on a few morning runs with ease.

In the battery life department, JBL’s new flagships are not a huge step up from the Tour Pro 2, but the buds do improve by an hour or so with up to 8 hours of usage with ANC and an additional 44 hours if you include what you get from a fully charged case. That kind of endurance makes them perfect for extended use, and sets them apart from other premium earbuds that often make battery life an afterthought, like the Apple AirPods Pro 2 and their max of 6 hours of playback.

JBL Tour Pro 3 – Performance

The JBL’s Tour Pro 3 bevy of features really help round them out, but performance is truly these buds’ bread and butter. Right out of the gate, the Tour Pro 3 deliver outstanding sound quality thanks to the buds’ 1-2 punch of a balanced armature drivers and 10.2mm dynamic drivers. The result is an audio experience that’s rich no matter the genre of music or scenario you’re using them in. I tested them with everything from Jelly Roll’s soulful country rap to Led Zeppelin’s classic rock and Doechii’s experimental beats. Every track was expertly balanced, with deep, resonant bass, crisp highs, and punchy mids that brought the music to life. When I tested the Tour Pro 2, I candidly thought they missed the mark when it came to a premium audio experience, so the tweaks JBL made to this new model helped punch things up. To put it simply, these are some of the better-sounding earbuds I’ve tested, and deserve a seat at the table with flagships from Sennheiser, Sony, and the like.

As a side note, if you’ve read my other reviews, you may know that I’m not exactly a fan of spatial audio. I will say that I like the Tour Pro 3’s spatial audio capabilities better than most, because it added depth to tracks more often than it relegated them to sounding downright jarring. While that kind of virtual spatial audio just isn’t me (and it’s not for lack of trying), the Tour Pro 3 offered a better experience in that category than most others I’ve tested.

Looking to a more useful feature, JBL’s Adaptive Noise Canceling 2.0 technology blocked out background noise in my day-to-day environments effortlessly, whether I was in a crowded gym or running alongside busy streets. I also found the earbuds’ ambient sound mode to be a perfectly practical feature that complimented the earbuds’ ANC quite nicely, especially useful during quick interactions like greeting a fellow jogger or taking my dog out for a walk. I don’t think the Tour Pro 3 are redefining ANC by any stretch, but I also believe most people will be pleased with the quality they find.

Call quality is big for me, since I’m a terrible combination of being on the go often and the person that always needs to call instead of text. With six microphones and JBL’s Crystal AI Algorithm, the Tour Pro 3 delivers clear, detailed audio on both ends of a call, even in challenging environments. I put the buds up against my classic bike test – a scenario where wind and background noise typically wreak havoc on call clarity – and my partner and I had a near flawless, uninterrupted conversation as I hummed along on some sweet single track.

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Finally, the JBL Headphones app is a game-changer. Whereas some apps are optional, JBL’s partner software is an essential piece to the package since it offers such a comprehensive suite of features, including EQ customization, fit adjustment tools, and even a "find my earbuds" function. The app’s Person-Fi 3.0 personalized EQ was particularly impressive, using a series of hearing tests to tailor the buds’ audio profile to my unique hearing preferences. I also loved the Smart Ambient mode, which automatically paused playback and ANC when I started speaking. It was a really handy feature for gym workouts with my partner, though it’s worth noting that it can be a bit sensitive when you’re alone, occasionally pausing your music unexpectedly.

One minor downside is the Tour Pro 3’s multi-connection functionality. While the earbuds can connect to multiple devices simultaneously, in this case my phone and laptop, I encountered a few instances where they switched to the wrong source and left me struggling to get them to switch back. I had to dive into my Bluetooth settings and toggle things on and off again to get the buds back on track. It was a small inconvenience, but it happened enough times to become worth noting.

JBL Tour Pro 3 – The Competition

There’s never been as many high-end earbuds options as there are today, and the Tour Pro 3 certainly still has stiff competition. That said, without having the top buds on hand for a direct, side-by-side comparison, my experience with the JBL Tour Pro 3 aligns with what I expect from high-end earbuds, keeping up with some of the best, including the Apple AirPods Pro 2, Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4, and Sony WF-1000XM5.

Where you, specifically, land between these true wireless juggernauts becomes a matter of personal preference, since we’re essentially splitting hairs in areas like (standard) features and price. For example, the AirPods Pro 2 are more compact and intuitive for iPhone users, while Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 4 boasts audiophile-grade sound quality and superb ANC. And of course, Sony’s WF-1000XM5 is often regarded as the gold standard for ANC. While I’m not ready to declare that the Tour Pro 3 can completely unseat these top industry buds, I am confident in saying that the latest from JBL have one of the better blends of high-quality performance and features that you can find today.

The White Wolf is back for the last time. Production for The Witcher Season 5 is currently underway and new photos of Liam Hemsworth as lead Geralt de Rivia, among other new and returning characters, have hit the internet.

The seemingly leaked set photos — which can be viewed via the Witcher fan site Redanian Intelligence — show the Hunger Games actor in full costume with the character's signature long blonde hair, as well as some longtime characters like Meng’er Zhang as Milva and Joey Batey as Jaskier, who have been on the show since former Superman star Henry Cavill led the story. Hemsworth was announced to be replacing Cavill for Season 4 and the fifth and final season back in October 2022.

First Look at Geralt in The Witcher Season 5 (Exclusive)https://t.co/oWfelbYyL7

— Redanian Intelligence (@RedanianIntel) April 26, 2025

Additionally, there were also set images of some new characters being introduced in Season 4 who will continue to play a hand in the final season, including legendary actor (and Morbius) Laurence Fishburne as Emiel Reigs.

Through these leaked set photos, fans could speculate that Season 5 will take a page from Andrzej Sapkowski’s Tower of the Swallow, in which Geralt meets beekeepers who send them toward druids. That said, Season 4 has yet to be released, so the story could really go in any direction at this point — and there’s a lot of ground to cover before fans can put the puzzle pieces this video leaves together.

Cavill isn’t the only person who left the series and had their character recast. Kim Bodnia, who portrayed Geralt’s father figure and mentor Vesemir, will not be returning for Season 4 due to scheduling conflicts. However, Netflix has yet to announce who will be replacing Bodnia for the role — and there is no official release date for Season 4 yet, either.

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

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in games has been discussed more and more lately. NieR series director Yoko Taro has weighed in too, expressing concern that it could lead to game creators losing jobs to AI.

In a recent interview at Famitsu, as translated by Automaton, several Japanese game developers known for narrative and storytelling discussed their approach to game creation. Alongside Yoko Taro, there was also Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape, AI: The Somnium Files), Kazutaka Kodaka (Danganronpa), and Jiro Ishii (428: Shibuya Scramble).

During the interview, the group was asked what the future of adventure games might be, and both Yoko and Uchikoshi discussed AI.

“There’s a lot of new games I want to create, but with AI technology evolving at such a high speed, I fear that there is a possibility that AI-generated adventure games will become mainstream," said Uchikoshi. He went on to note that current AI struggles to achieve "outstanding writing" comparable to human creativity, and that maintaining the "human touch" would be crucial to staying ahead of the tech. Yoko, though, also expressed concerns.

“I, too, believe that game creators may lose their jobs because of AI," said Yoko. "There’s a chance that in 50 years, game creators will be treated like bards.”

When it came to whether they thought AI could imitate the worlds and stories, including the twists and turns, of their works, Yoko and Ishii agreed. Kodaka, however, said that even if AI could imitate their work and styles, it wouldn't be able to behave like a creator. He drew comparisons to David Lynch, and how creators could write a scenario in Lynch's style, but Lynch could then change up his own style while still making it feel authentic and Lynchian.

While Yoko posed the idea of using AI to generate new scenarios, like a route in an adventure game, Kodaka noted how this personalized nature would lead to games being less of a shared experience.

Notable creators have been weighing in with their thoughts on AI, large language models, and other generative systems for a while now. Some have even been experimenting with it, including Capcom and Activision. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa recently said generative AI can be used in "creative ways," but it would also raise issues with intellectual property rights. Microsoft and PlayStation have also weighed in on the topic.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

"Somehow, Palpatine returned." It is the Star Wars meme to end all memes, used to ridicule the Emperor’s divisive return in The Rise of Skywalker. Most fans reacted negatively to Palpatine’s clone-fueled revival after his "death" at the end of the much-loved Return of the Jedi. But what did Ian McDiarmid, who has played Palpatine / the Emperor for over 40 years, think of the backlash?

In an interview with Variety to celebrate the return of Revenge of the Sith to theaters (a re-release that has seen a huge box office, by the way), McDiarmid shrugged off the backlash, insisting “mine and Palpatine’s logic was entirely reasonable.”

"It seemed entirely probable that Palpatine had plan B," he insisted. "Even though he was very, very badly damaged, he would be able to be put it together in some form. When I realized I had a sort of astral wheelchair, that was even better. I just had these four guys who whisked me around the studio; I can’t tell you how much fun that was. Daisy was more worried about that than anything else. And then, of course, we had to devise another makeup look, which was even more grotesque than the previous one."

McDiarmid added, specifically on the backlash to the Emperor's return: "Well, there’s always something, isn’t there?” he said. “I don’t read that stuff and I’m not online. So it’ll only reach me if someone mentions it. I thought there might be a bit of a fuss about bringing him back. But as I said, mine and Palpatine’s logic was entirely reasonable. This man who was horribly maimed thought maybe one day it might happen to him, and we’ve got to have a plan B. I loved the whole idea that he should come back and be even more powerful than he was before. Though this time, he had to be utterly destroyed. So I think he’s dead.”

The Rise of Skywalker vaguely explains how Palpatine accomplished his grand comeback. When Kylo Ren finds him early in the movie, Emperor Palpatine appears to be a reanimated version of his dead self. So it would seem that he didn’t survive his fall at the end of Return of the Jedi.

But his death clearly didn’t stop him or really even slow him down. As McDiarmid said, Palpatine had a contingency plan in place for just such a scenario. In Rise of Skywalker’s vague explanation of Palpatine’s return, Sheev quotes his ever-so-meme-able words from Revenge of the Sith as he delivers his super-villain monologue where he explains his bonkers master plan to Kylo Ren: "The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities that some would consider to be... unnatural."

So, ancient Sith magic. That’s how he did it.

It seems unlikely that the core Star Wars fanbase will ever get on board with Palpatine’s return in The Rise of Skywalker, and would prefer to just pretend it never happened. It will be interesting to see if future Star Wars movies do the same. In November, Daisy Ridley's character Rey Skywalker was reported to be set to appear in "several" upcoming Star Wars films as she's been deemed the galaxy far, far away's "most valuable cinematic asset."

Ridley is already confirmed to be returning in the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy-directed sequel to The Rise of Skywalker. It will tell the story of Rey as she looks to rebuild the Jedi Order roughly 15 years after the events of that film.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

If you've been on the hunt for some good game deals following many of the Spring Sales recently, today is your lucky day. Amazon has dropped a nice little sale on a selection of Capcom games for PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch that's worth a look. This sale includes discounts on Resident Evil 4, Dragon's Dogma 2, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and a few more so you can fill up your library with some exciting new options to play.

We've included a few of our favorite games from this sale below. Pick them up before the discounts are all gone. To see more items on sale, check out Capcom's Amazon sale page here.

Amazon Sale on Select Capcom Games

If you're looking to add even more to your library to play in the months ahead, you'll be happy to know that these aren't the only game deals we've come across today. Woot's offering a very nice selection of Pokémon games on sale right now that are also worth a look. You can learn more about that sale and what Pokémon games are in it at the moment in our breakdown of the best deals of the day.

For even more gaming deals available right now, it's always worth keeping up with our roundups of the best PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch deals. We regularly keep these updated with the latest and greatest deals going on for each platform, from discounts on video games to hardware to accessories. You can also check out our overall roundup of the best video game deals to see our top offers available for each console. This roundup also features PC game deals, so if playing on console isn't your style you can see a great selection of game deals just for you.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

The new incarnation of the Fantastic Four is nearly ready to burst through movie theater screens — but interestingly enough, fans have yet to catch a glimpse of their next nemesis. Galactus, played by Ralph Ineson, will be the upcoming film’s central villain, but he did not appear in the trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, seemingly to keep the character’s design underwraps until release. However, it seems an eagle-eyed Marvel diehard may have inadvertently discovered a full first look at Galactus... via a leaked Lego set.

Warning! Potential spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps follow:

According to Twitter user @blogsbrick, a “Galactus vs. The Fantastic Four” Lego set is set to hit shelves on June 1. The user also included an image of the set’s box, on which Galactus can be seen in his full, huge glory (as well as some cute tiny heroes too). @blogsbrick claimed the photographed set, which will consist of 427 pieces priced $59.99, was found “at a retail store,” but no further details were given.

Lego Marvel Galactus vs The Fantastic Four first look image, found in a retail store

427 Pieces / $59.99 / 1st June 2025#Lego #Legonews #Legoleaks #Marvel #LegoMarvel #FantasticFourFirstSteps pic.twitter.com/yBi52wnA59

— Brick Built Blogs (@BlogsBrick) April 26, 2025

Though fans didn’t get a chance to see film Galactus in the debut trailer, they did get to take in an all-new version of Silver Surfer, who will be played in the new reboot by Julia Garner. As for making sure Galactus was as intimidating as he needed to be on-screen, director Matt Shakman recently opened up about how the team nailed the massive scale of the character in a way that used as little digital effect as possible.

"I didn't want to just use motion-capture for Galactus. I wanted to actually have someone there embodying the part,” he explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. “So we've built an entire costume for him, and we've done a lot of photography testing to figure out, how do you make sure that the scale is correct? How do you film Mount Rushmore?"

The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which kicks off Phase 6 of the MCU, stars Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the titular four and arrives in theaters on July 25, 2025.

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

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’s re-release in theaters was a massive success, earning $25.2 million in 2,775 theatres in North America alone.

That was enough to debut in second spot in this week’s domestic box office chart, behind only Sinners’ impressive $45 million second week haul.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’s box office last week was enough to make it one of the top-grossing re-release weekends in history, behind Star Wars - A New Hope’s $36 million from the 1997 Special edition release, and The Lion King’s $30 million from its 2011 3D release.

Adding in $17 million taken internationally, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’s re-release brought in a huge $42.2 million at the global box office, clearly demonstrating the demand for Star Wars movie re-releases.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith is the final chapter in George Lucas' epic saga, and reveals how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. It originally earned $850 million at the global box office.

The re-release beat The Accountant 2’s domestic box office debut of $24,492,743 and Until Dawn’s $8.015 million. Ryan Coogler’s vampire flick Sinners, meanwhile, is now up to $161.626 million at the global box office after two weekends. A Minecraft Movie continues its march towards $1 billion; it's now on $816.567 million.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone have a new premium emote that lets you hide in a cardboard box — and of course players are abusing it.

Call of Duty has seen its fair share of microtransactions dubbed pay-to-win by the community. The infamous Roze skin, which was incredibly hard to see, ended up being changed for battle royale Warzone. The developers of Call of Duty recently ended up changing a Terminator skin for similar reasons. But this cardboard box emote may be the most pay-to-win of them all.

It’s part of the premium 2,400 COD Points Cardboard Commando bundle, which turns your soldier and weapons into cardboard. Fun at first glance, and certainly in-keeping with Call of Duty’s penchant for goofy skins. But it’s the Surprise Gift emote included in the bundle that has raised more than a few eyebrows within the Call of Duty community.

While The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is, overall, a smash hit, with 4 million players, a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam, and high peak concurrents, some aspects of the rework have caused veteran fans to complain. Chief among them: a door.

Warning! Potential spoilers for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered follow.

This has to do with the door to the Dark Brotherhood’s Cheydinhal sanctuary entrance. It is at the centre of an iconic moment in Oblivion, one that players who took on the excellent Dark Brotherhood quest will probably remember well. In the original Oblivion, the glowing door has a heavy mood aesthetic and a relief showing the Night Mother (who members of the assassination obsessed Dark Brotherhood worship) murdering five children. The Oblivion Remastered version of this door has no glow, is light on atmosphere and, weirdly, has two extra children.

You can see a comparison with accompanying complaint in the reddit post from alvaro-elite, below:

While some are upset that this new door is a lot less moody than the one in the original, The Elder Scrolls lore fans are pointing out that the addition of two kids on the relief doesn’t make a lot of sense when you consider what we know about the story of the Night Mother.

This moment in time is meant to represent the Night Mother’s murdering of the five children she conceived with Sithis, the Elder Scrolls deity who represents emptiness and the Void. As the story goes, the Night Mother is murdered by the locals for murdering her kids, which turns her into the immortal Night Mother in the first place. In fact, in Oblivion, the Night Mother’s tomb includes skeletal remains of one adult and five children, reinforcing this lore.

So why are there seven kids in the scene now, where there were five before? That’s the question fans are asking.

“I have no clue why someone just decided to copy/paste two more children on there,” commented redditor AutisticAnarchy. “I guess the larger texture looked ‘better’ with it or something and the artist working on it didn't understand the lore.”

“I’m still really confused by the thought-process behind it,” added TurboDelight. “Where’d the extra kids come from? Who thought to change what the mural was actually depicting? I can understand not knowing what the figures are meant to represent, but why change an objective detail like that?”

“inb4 it's a lore retcon because something about the Dark Brotherhood questline in TESVI is based around lore written about these two extra figures, be they her sixth and seventh children or otherwise,” suggested ConstantSignal..

“Or the digital artist tasked with recreating the door just didn't know it was meant to depict significant lore and felt the extra figures filled the space better lol.”

The question now is whether Bethesda and developer Virtuos will patch Oblivion Remastered to change the door to be lore compliant, or is this is all part of some masterplan that leads into fun story shenanigans in future games or DLC?

We’ve got plenty more on Oblivion Remastered, including a report on a player who managed to escape the confines of Cyrodiil to explore Valenwood, Skyrim, and even Hammerfell, the rumored setting of The Elder Scrolls VI.

We've also got a comprehensive guide to everything you'll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

Image credit: alvaro-elite / reddit.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Today’s deals are a reminder that sometimes, patience pays off. I want to point out the Pokémon sale at Woot first, because seeing Brilliant Diamond and Legends: Arceus under $45 almost feels like a clerical error.

Add in a serious discount on factory-reconditioned MSI gaming PCs, last-gen graphics cards and more PC components. Or how about a Zelda Master Sword replica that plays music and looks dangerously good on a shelf?

TL;DR: Deals For Today

Pokémon Game Sale

MSI Desktops & Components Sale

The Legend of Zelda Master Sword Proplica

Samsung Pro Plus 512GB MicroSDXC + Reader

Play for Miracles Bundle

8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard (Xbox Edition)

8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse (Xbox Edition)

A former PlayStation narrative director is petitioning the creators of the Until Dawn movie to credit the game's writers in the film.

As spotted by Eurogamer, Kim MacAskill's petition is "calling upon Sony, a leader in the gaming world, to set a precedent for change by revising the Until Dawn credits" by "asking for them to revise their approach to IP crediting, particularly in transmedia adaptations."

"I've just left Until Dawn where the film director, writers, etc, were all credited, but instead of [Sony] mentioning the leading game dev(s) who created this ICONIC game you're clearly proud of, [Sony] just wrapped it as 'based on the Sony game'," MacAskill wrote.

"They spent years breaking their brains to make something incredible, and the world DESERVES to know their names... instead… No credit. No thanks. No honor."

MacAskill went into more detail on a LinkedIn post, asking what the difference was between HBO's adaptation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us — which credits both the studio itself and Neil Druckmann as both writer and director — and the Until Dawn movie.

The director said Sony execs "firmly told" her that "the IP I personally created would NEVER be credited to me as I was salaried (no royalties, no control, no ownership, no acknowledgement)", addressing Sony directly with: "I am struggling with the difference between Neil Druckmann's favor and that of others in your company."

The creative director said that when she enquired about the rights to the intellectual property she created while working for Sony, a company rep told her the megacorp "understood" her position but "this is not something that [Sony] can do," and that it was "nothing personal" — "this is not specifically for you, but this is completely firm-wide."

"All I wanted was to be credited and to potentially have enough ownership for adaptation," she added.

"I am asking for [Sony] to revise their approach to IP crediting, particularly in transmedia adaptations," the director wrote on the petition. "Providing an executive producer credit or acknowledgment equivalent would honor those creators whose visions and passion have given birth to these incredible stories and design, proving transformational in the entertainment landscape.

"Let's advocate not only for the Until Dawn creators but for the integrity of the industry. By ensuring that creative voices are properly recognized, we can continue to inspire future generations of creators who dare to dream beyond current constraints. Sign this petition to urge Sony… and stand with all game creators… demanding well-deserved recognition in transmedia narratives."

In related news, we reported earlier today that it appears one of the PlayStation Plus games for May 2025 will be Until Dawn Remastered. It could be a means of promoting the new Until Dawn movie, which released just ahead of the weekend. It didn't particularly impress us; we awarded it 5/10, writing in IGN's Until Dawn movie review: "Until Dawn is more disappointing than deadly, leaving all the promise of the horror game behind for a jumble of horror-movie re-creations."

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

With Andor Season 2 now in full swing, creator Tony Gilroy has revealed why Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine do not appear on-screen at any point in the series.

Andor leads directly into the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which does feature Darth Vader. The end of Rogue One, where Vader assaults the Rebel command ship while on the hunt for the Death Star schematics, in turn leads directly into the events of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.

So, Vader is operating during the events of Andor, but he does not show up. Why? In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gilroy said a Vader cameo was never on the cards, because sci-fi's greatest villain “doesn’t have a lot to say.”

“No, that was never on my agenda,” Gilroy explained. “Writing for Darth Vader is really limiting. I’ve done it. He doesn’t have a lot to say.”

That is, of course, a nod to Vader's appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gilroy co-wrote the screenplay). In the movie, Vader says just a handful of lines of dialogue to Orson Krennic, who he eventually Force chokes into submission. Vader does not say a word during his signature corridor scene at the end of the film.

So that’s Darth Vader’s absence explained, but what about The Emperor? Again, he’s operating during the events of Andor, and is referenced, but does not appear on-screen.

“He was too big a piece of meat for me to introduce,” Gilroy explained. “It was too heavy a lift. I thought about it at one point, but it was too heavy a lift.”

Gilroy went on to make the point that in the Star Wars universe, during the events of Andor at least, hardly anyone knows about the Jedi or the Sith. The Emperor is referenced, but more like an off-screen politician or president. And so, the likes of the Emperor and Darth Vader in full on Sith mode are “not in the culture.”

“One of the fascinating things that I realized when I started the show in the very beginning is how many billions of beings are in the galaxy,” Gilroy said.

“Nobody knows about the Jedi, nobody knows about the Sith. It’s just a tiny percentage of people that have any notion of it at all. It’s not in the culture. And I remember being really surprised as it was explained. I thought it was something that everyone knew about, but no, it’s very secretive and small.”

Even without such heavy-hitters, Andor has proven a crowd pleaser. In fact, Season 2 has officially made Andor the most critically acclaimed live-action Star Wars film or TV show ever, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

IGN’s own review for the first three episodes of Andor Season 2 gave the show an excellent 8/10, highlighting that Andor “continues to be the most interesting Star Wars has been in years.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Amazon's impressive 3 for $33 4K Blu-ray sale is still ongoing, and it's been a wildly popular option for those looking to fill out their physical film collections.

I'm here to recommend you pick up some of the best comic book films ever made in the sale, including what might be my favorite comic film ever, The Batman.

So what else can you get? For starters, I'd recommend James Gunn's The Suicide Squad. It's probably my favorite film from the old DCEU era, and generally just a brilliant movie. This is a must-own if you're as excited about Gunn's new Superman film as I am.

I'd also suggest going for something cool and obscure, like the 2003 Hulk film, which isn't particularly good per se, but it doesn't suffer from the same comic tropes we see in flicks these days, and as one of the pioneering 21st-century comic book adaptations, it's surprisingly nostalgic as well.

Then you've also got the likes of 300 and The Dark Knight to consider as well.

Admittedly, the rest of these highlights are a little dominated by DC, including duds like Black Adam or Shazam 2. Aquaman and Wonder Woman are still fairly decent, just not on the same iconic level as Batman or Gunn's Suicide Squad.

But, while I've chosen to include them to give you a full view of what's available in the 3 for $33 offering, this sale isn't just limited to comic book films either.

So you don't have to dip into the DC selection if you're just keen on getting a couple of other sci-fi or horror films, for example.

Plus, with this Amazon sale effectively making every 4K film you buy (that's included) $11 each, it's really hard to say no to these discounts right now.

Not only that, but with streamers constantly taking content down or straight up deleting it from existence, I'll be the first to say that we all need to cut our losses and just go back to our big bookshelves of DVDs (Blu-rays, 4Ks, etc).

I've also been working on my 4K collection recently and recommend that all my US-based colleagues pick up some of the best sci-fi films ever, such as The Terminator, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and plenty more.

I also couldn't just move on without recommending some of the monster offerings in the sale as well, such as critical darling Godzilla Minus One.

When Does The Sale End?

It looks like one of the PlayStation Plus games for May 2025 has leaked.

While nothing is confirmed by Sony yet, rumor has it teen slasher horror romp Until Dawn will be a free download for PlayStation players in May. Although the key art certainly suggests it's the Until Dawn Remastered that's coming, rather than the 2014 original, it's not entirely clear; we'll confirm just as soon as we know for sure.

PlayStation Plus is an online gaming service for PlayStation platforms that includes free monthly games, limited-time trials, online multiplayer, and member-exclusive discounts. It also includes a catalog of hundreds of current and classic games for Extra and Premium members, although the monthly free games are available to all players, regardless of their subscription tier.

As speculated by some members of the PlayStation subreddit (thanks, PushSquare), this could be a means of promoting the new Until Dawn movie, which released just ahead of the weekend. It didn't particularly impress us; we awarded it 5/10, writing in IGN's Until Dawn movie review: "Until Dawn is more disappointing than deadly, leaving all the promise of the horror game behind for a jumble of horror-movie re-creations."

That's the same score we awarded the 2024 remaster, calling the game an "overpriced and under-featured remake that seems less like a must-have bit of moonlit murder and something closer to daylight robbery" in IGN's Until Dawn Remastered review. Supermassive's 2015 original fared much better, getting a 7.5/10 from us.

22 games are set to be pulled from the PlayStation Plus library next month, including Grand Theft Auto 5, Payday 2: Crimewave Edition, and the last playable versions of first-party titles Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2. As a result, Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 will now completely disappear for modern consoles.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

If you’re one of the many fans of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered on PC, you might have noticed the game has more than a few issues.

According to the tech experts at Digital Foundry, Oblivion Remastered suffers from “dire” performance problems on PC. Video producer Alex Battaglia called it “perhaps one of the worst-running games I've ever tested for Digital Foundry.”

“Even if you're running the most powerful hardware around, the stuttering is egregious, dragging down the experience to the point where I really don't understand how this was considered good enough for release,” Battaglia said.

“And beyond the hitching, we are looking at one of the most bizarrely resource-intensive games I've ever tested - so even if you're OK with lurching stutter, you'll be turning down the settings just to keep the average frame-rate looking acceptable.”

Perhaps it comes as no surprise then to find that the most-downloaded Oblivion Remastered mod currently on Nexus Mods is P40L0’s ‘Ultimate Engine Tweaks (Anti-Stutters - Lower Latency - No Film Grain - No Chromatic Aberration - Lossless),’ which has been downloaded a whopping 386,604 times in less than a week.

Here’s the mod description:

“Definitive Unreal ‘Engine.ini’ changes with the goal to remove most stutters, improve performance and stability, decrease input latency, improve picture clarity. All with no visual loss.”

“After months of UE5 testing, I would like to share my definitive custom ‘Engine.ini’ changes for the game,” P40L0 explained.

“My goal was to just include as many optimizations as possible (both for CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD) in order to remove most stuttering, improve performance, reduce input latency and improve picture clarity (e.g. by removing Film Grain & Chromatic Aberration, optimize DLSS/FSR upscaling and more) all without any visual loss nor introducing glitches or crashes.”

Reaction to the mod from those who downloaded it is overwhelmingly positive. “Stutter be gone! Simply amazing, thanks!” declared chubbyd07. “This .ini is a miracle. From 15-20 fps outside the prison to 65-70 stable. Running on 3600XT and a 2060 with 20GB of RAM (yes),” added yeeto51. “Uhm, what the hell! I went from 60fps on High Preset around Waynon Priory to 90-110fps on the same location. Wizardry!!” said BabaSmith.

While the PC version clearly has issued, Oblivion Remastered remains hugely popular, with an impressive Steam concurrent peak player count, and over 4 million players across all platforms. On Steam Oblivion Remastered has a ‘very positive’ user review rating.

However, a hotfix pushed live on April 25 has affected Microsoft Store players’ UI settings for graphics, specifically related to upscaling and anti-aliasing. At the time of this article’s publication. Microsoft Store players (so, those playing via Game Pass for PC), cannot adjust those settings due to the issue with the settings UI. Bethesda has said it’s on the case.

We’ve got plenty more on Oblivion Remastered, including a report on a player who managed to escape the confines of Cyrodiil to explore Valenwood, Skyrim, and even Hammerfell, the rumored setting of The Elder Scrolls VI.

We've also got a comprehensive guide to everything you'll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 3.

This week’s episode of The Last of Us takes a moment to grieve and breathe after last week’s showstopper. It also takes a little detour from the game; much of this episode depicts the reaction of Jackson’s people to the events they’ve just suffered, and their vote on if they should pursue Abby or not. This is all original material for the show, and so there’s actually very few scenes in this episode that are taken straight from the game.

There are four key sequences from this episode that are recreations of moments from the game, and here we’ve compared them against the original source material, analysing what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. You can see both versions in the video above, or read on below for our written explanations.

Joel’s House

Following the harrowing murder of Joel in episode 2, Ellie visits her deceased father-figure’s house to mourn. As in the game, the front yard is covered in flowers left by the residents of Jackson. Unlike the game, though, Ellie enters alone rather than accompanied by Dina.

The show’s version of Joel’s house features many of the same props that decorated this location in the game, including his workshop room full of carved animals. In Joel’s bedroom, the bed linen is the same blue and white sheets. More importantly there’s the same red box on the bed that contains his signature items: the broken watch and his revolver. Ellie takes these and holsters the revolver in the waistband of her jeans, just as she does in the game.

Tommy’s Plans

The need for revenge begins to rise when Ellie talks to Tommy about what happened. While the broad strokes of this scene are the same in both show and game, particularly in tone, the actual setting and words are not recreated one-to-one. In both versions Ellie is angry and frustrated that Tommy wants to be more sensible about their next move, and so tonally the scenes match. However, where in the game this conversation takes place in a quiet, private room between just the two of them, in the show it’s conducted out in the open with Dina present.

In terms of dialogue there are close matches – both versions of Ellie say that Joel “would be halfway to Seattle by now” if the situation was reversed. Both versions of Tommy also note that Jackson would be left vulnerable, although in the show this is a clear reference to the prior episode’s horde attack rather than the game’s more general assessment. In both scenarios Tommy says it’s ultimately up to Maria as to if they get to hunt down Abby, but in the show he says that it will need to go to a full town vote, while the game version says he expects there will be “folks she can spare”.

The Ride to Seattle

Ellie and Dina head out to Seattle on horseback in search of Abby and her group. In both versions Dina asks Ellie to recall the first person she killed, and Ellie proceeds to explain how she saved Joel from a bandit in the first game/season. While the show’s dialogue is not an exact match to the game’s script, the details are largely the same – Joel was attacked and Ellie pulled the trigger to save him. The conversation is longer in the game, however, as Dina reciprocates with her own story of her first kill.

Later, the pair discover an overgrown car, which they consider a sign that they’re finally close to Seattle. This is, again, broadly similar to a moment from the game, even if the dialogue line is not a one-to-one match.

6 out of 10

Later in the episode we see Ellie and Dina camped out in a tent. Before lights out, Dina asks Ellie a question: how would she rate their kiss at the dance out of 10? This moment is a recreation of a scene from the game, but the timing and content of this conversation is notably different to the original game version.

In the game, Dina asks Ellie to rate the kiss while they are smoking marijuana at Eugene’s weed den. As we know from last week’s episode, this doesn’t happen in the show since it is Jesse, not Dina, who accompanies Ellie to Eugene’s den. It’s not just the time and location of this exchange that is altered, though. In the show, Ellie says that she’d rate the kiss a six, something that Dina is playfully upset about. In the game, it’s flipped – Ellie hesitates to answer, and so Dina says she’d score it a “solid six”. The two interpretations showcase very different dynamics; Dina in the game is much more confident and knows how to pull Ellie’s strings – she enjoys teasing her. Dina in the show, meanwhile, is depicted as more “teenage” in her approach, which emphasises the “young girls in the apocalypse” element of their love story.

For more from The Last of Us, check out our spoiler-free season two review and our spoiler-filled review of the third episode. We’ve also looked at how the changes to Abby have affected the way the show handled Joel’s death, and spoken to Kaitlyn Dever about how her version of Abby is “so much more” than her rage.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Senior Features Editor.

A The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild speedrunner beat the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the critically-acclaimed RPG at the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience in Japan, which capped playtime at just 10 minutes.

As spotted by VGC, Japanese content creator Ikaboze used an existing save file without knowing what equipment Link had to hand. After deciding to "defeat the final boss while tied up completely naked and with all my equipment removed," the content creator fired up a save that took him to the final boss fight with Ganon. Seven minutes later, Ganon had been defeated, and onlookers broke out in spontaneous applause.

裸でガノン凸って倒した https://t.co/IqRA6PAePw pic.twitter.com/84NhuN1Pjq

— 最強ゼルダGamesいかぼうず (@Ikaboze) April 27, 2025

It was a particularly impressive feat given Ikaboze was using an unfamiliar controller and couldn't even hear the game due to the noise of the convention hall.

“I was surprised by how many people had gathered,” he said. “Staff were even filming on their smartphones. This was the first time anyone had completed the Breath of the Wild demo, and staff congratulated me."

Nintendo Switch 2 Enhanced Edition of Breath of the Wild comes with improved visuals and performance, achievements, as well as support for the new "Zelda Notes" service in the Nintendo Switch Online app. If you already own Breath of the Wild on the Switch, you won't get those features automatically, but you can purchase an "upgrade pack" for $10 to get access. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom upgrade packs are also available for no extra cost to Nintendo Switch Online and Expansion Pack subscribers.

Here's how much Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games cost in the U.S. for those not upgrading:

• Kirby and The Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star Crossed World - $79.99
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - $69.99
• Super Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV - $79.99
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - $79.99

Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders went live on April 24, with the price still fixed at $449.99 — and they went about as well as you'd expect. Meanwhile, Nintendo has just issued a warning to U.S. customers who applied for a Switch 2 pre-order from the My Nintendo Store, saying release date delivery was not guaranteed due to very high demand.

Check out IGN's Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order guide for more.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold over a million copies, publisher Kepler Interactive has announced.

We already knew the debut RPG from developer Sandfall Interactive got off to a flying start given it hit a sales milestone of 500,000 copies sold within 24 hours, and now it's doubled that.

"And here we are. Three days after launch. One million copies sold. Thank you for believing in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33," the studio said on social media over the weekend.

That's not the only milestone it hit, either. According to SteamDB, over the weekend Clair Obscur hit a concurrent peak of 121,422 players on Steam. That's significantly ahead of the concurrent peak of any other game from notable RPG developer Atlus, including fellow RPG darling Metaphor: ReFantazio, which released in October 2024 and boasts a concurrent peak of 85,961 players.

Of course, concurrent records are not indicative of the entire player base — Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also released on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X and S, and was a day-one launch on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription — so the actual number of players who jumped in over the weekend is likely much highly than that, suggesting Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is very popular right now.

In IGN's 9/10 review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, we described it as a "modern RPG classic." Developed by the newly formed studio Sandfall Interactive, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG that takes heavy inspiration from the genre classics, and follows a crew of Expeditioners in a post-apocalyptic world where each year, a giant being called The Paintress etches a new number and erases anyone older than it. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sees you join the crew that travels to the ends of the continent to destroy the Paintress.

If you started over the weekend, or are maybe thinking of jumping in this week, be sure to check out our tips for the important things to know before going into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is set in Cyrodiil, the province in Tamriel home to the Imperial Empire. It is a fantasy setting packed with enough quests to keep even the most dedicated adventurer busy for hundreds of hours. But that hasn’t stopped some from probing the invisible barrier of its border for cracks — and even exploring the regions beyond.

Over the weekend, redditor GnoblinXD recounted their journey through Cyrodiil’s border and into Valenwood, Tamriel’s southwestern province and home to the Bosmer, or Wood Elves, and next door Elsweyr, a region featured in The Elder Scrolls Online. GnoblinXD found they were able to move through the invisible barrier set in place to prevent this sort of thing, and, from there, simply jumped their way across the river and up the cliff face in classic The Elder Scrolls fashion.

“I explored a bit and was surprised to find basically the whole landmass of the map was there, even if not detailed ofc,” GnoblinXD said.

Valenwood itself is a barren area, devoid of life, cities, NPCs, or even trees. There are a number of graphics and environmental issues GnoblinXD ran into while exploring here, which you’d expect given the developers of Oblivion Remastered never intended it to be explored in the first place. GnoblinXD tried to reach what they believe to be the Summerset Isles west of Valenwood, but fell afoul of the void. Reloading from saves set outside the bounds of Cyrodiil do not appear to work, forcing GnoblinXD to restart inside its borders.

If you want details, GnoblinXD uploaded a video, below, showing exactly how to get into Valenwood via this new border-breaking discovery.

Undeterred, GnoblinXD later uploaded images of their journey to Hammerfell, the province in the west of Tamriel rumored to be the setting of the upcoming The Elder Scrolls VI.

Bethesda has remained tight-lipped on where the next brand new The Elder Scrolls game will take place. All we have to go on is the game’s 36-second announcement teaser, which presents a towering stretch of mountains and a picturesque coastline overlooking a vast ocean. The prevailing theory is that the sequel will let players loose in Hammerfell – the central setting of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, as well as a visitable location in The Elder Scrolls Online. With tropical forests, harsh mountains and scenic coastal cities, Hammerfell’s depictions in previous Elder Scrolls games seem to align with the teaser, hinting that we may be set to explore the Redguards’ homeland once again.

To get to Hammerfell, GnoblinXD passed the southern Valenwood gap and walked around the port city of Anvil, the westernmost city in Cyrodiil, and up towards Hammerfell.

“After many an hour spent searching, I finally found my way to the other side of Cyrodiil's northern border!” GnoblinXD said. “The region seems vast. Much bigger than the Valenwood/Elsweyr area. The landmass stretches way beyond render-distance, so who knows how far it goes... Likely there is nothing here, but I'm intrigued nonetheless.”

Now here’s where things get really interesting. GnoblinXD tried to find the coastline from the The Elder Scrolls VI teaser, walking west towards where that area would be in-game, but ended up falling off the edge of the map (“I didn't die, but now I'm stuck in the backrooms of Oblivion, lol.”).

Perhaps GnoblinXD will eventually be able to find that area, or perhaps another player will manage it. Either way, the challenge is set for a glimpse at what may end up being the setting of one of the most-anticipated video games ever.

“I got here using no mods, glitches or console commands, my game is entirely vanilla,” GnoblinXD insisted. “Oh, and it's kind of funny that Hammerfell seems thoroughly covered in forests while Valenwood had no trees at all, lol.

“Anyway, time for me to do some exploring, might update more later :)”

And so they did, this time pictures of a journey into the aforementioned Elsweyr. Elsweyr is of course home to the Khajiit, the playable bestial and feline race feature in all the main The Elder Scrolls games so far.

What’s brilliant about this out of bounds area is that from within it you can see what very much looks like The Throat of the World, the highest mountain of Tamriel and perhaps the most iconic location in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It is here that the Dragonborn climbs the Seven Thousand Steps to the ancient monastery of High Hrothgar, where the order of the Greybeards dwells, and learns from them Shouts and speaks with the dragon, Paarthurnax.

That’s right, you can go to Skyrim in Oblivion Remastered, but you can't actually travel far enough in to get to The Throat of the World or see any sign of life.

This is so cool. If you go to the edge of the map in Oblivion Remastered, you can see Skyrim’s tallest mountain, The Throat of the World, off in the distance. This was not in the original game pic.twitter.com/oilOVpeuXF

— sackchief 🍂 (@sackchief) April 24, 2025

“Much like Valenwood, Elsweyr is quite barren once you leave the border area with Cyrodiil,” GnoblinXD explained. “Unlike Valenwood, however, I suppose the lack of flora and fauna is somewhat more lore-accurate. With that said I found neither cats nor deserts, unfortunately, and most heartbreaking of all, no Moon Sugar :(

“I ran around a bit looking for anything of interest, taking some pictures along the way. I decided to see how far south you could go. Well, it turns out you can go quite far. After reaching and going beyond the southern edge of Elsweyr, there seemed only to be endless sea, so I decided to head east towards Black Marsh instead.

“And, oh boy, Black Marsh is definitely... uh... Unique, let's say. I might make a post about it at some point if people want to see. I didn't see how far east I could go, but very interestingly there is a HUGE landmass beyond the far eastern edge of the map.”

GnoblinXD is still mid-journey outside Cyrodiil, and may uncover even more areas to explore and famous landmarks looming over the horizon. They managed to find their way to both the Morrowind and Skyrim side of the border, but the walkable area doesn’t extend far. “So no selfies from the Throat of The World, unfortunately :(“ GnoblinXD said. However, after their initial post blew up on reddit (19,000 upvotes and counting), it seems others may make discoveries of their own. And so it has proven. "Went to Hammerfell a game early lol," said X / Twitter user @Mar_Animation.

Went to Hammerfell a game early lol.#Oblivion #OblivionRemastered pic.twitter.com/EBB9abBGMD

— River (@maranimation.bluesky.social) (@Mar_Animation) April 27, 2025

Me just generally frolicking outside the map. Evidently someone didn't appreciate me leaving Cyrodill.#Oblivion #OblivionRemastered pic.twitter.com/5N1yZifQD3

— River (@maranimation.bluesky.social) (@Mar_Animation) April 27, 2025

We've got a comprehensive guide to everything you'll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Looking to load up on extra resources in Anime Royale? We've compiled all of the active redeemable codes currently available in the Roblox game, so you can get your hands on a treasure trove of Cursed Fingers, Rerolls, Diamonds, Stat Crystals, and much, much more.

Active Anime Royale Codes (April 2025)

Here are all the currently active and working Anime Royale codes in February 2025 that you can redeem for free rewards in the Roblox Experience:

• AuraFarm - 1,000 Diamons, 10x Cursed Finger, 10x Stat Crystal, 50x Rerolls, 10x Stat Shard (NEW)
• ARISE - 1,000 Diamonds, 10x Cursed Finger, 10x Stat Crystal, 50x Rerolls, 10x Stat Shard (NEW)
• VerySorryForBugs - 1,000 Diamonds, 100x Rerolls, 10x Stat Crystal
• 10kCcuTYSM - 200x Rerolls, 10,000 Diamonds
• Citrus - 25x Rerolls, 1,000 Diamonds
• WeAreSoBack! - 3,500 Diamonds, 15x Cursed Finger, 15x Stat Crystal, 150x Rerolls, 15x Stat Shard
• 4kReacts - 75x Rerolls, 10x Cursed Finger
• 2kReacts - 50x Rerolls, 5x Cursed Finger
• SubToToadBoi - 1x Reroll, 100 Diamonds
• SubToVanilla - 1x Reroll, 100 Diamonds
• SubToMozKing - 1x Reroll, 100 Diamonds
• StopTheVoloLaborPls - 15x Rerolls, 5x Cursed Fingers

Expired Anime Royale Codes

Below, you'll find a list of expired Anime Royale codes that can no longer be redeemed as of April 2025:

• 55000LIKES
• 35MVisitsTyy
• Strongest
• Bald
• 50KFavsTysm
• TheKingHasArrived
• END
• Godspeed
• 50000LIKES
• 45000LIKES
• MiniUpdate
• REWARDS
• TYBWGEMS
• Mugetsu
• Quincy
• Shinigami
• 40000LIKES
• HappyNewYear!!
• INC
• HappyEarlyNewYear!
• SetYourHeartAblaze
• JustARandomCode
• Jolly
• SecretChristmasCode2024
• Christmas2024
• HappyHolidaysEveryone!
• MaintenanceWorldRecord
• FixFixFix
• RealFixes
• Fixes
• Shutdown!
• 35kLikes!
• SuperBooghan
• TrailerCode6194
• SorryForDelayAgainV2
• PlsStopUpdatingAt6AmImTired
• SpoofFightsCyclones
• Wish
• SorryForDelayAgain
• Perfect
• RoyalePass
• Titans
• SorryForDelay!!
• 8KActiveTysm
• IAmAtomic!
• HappyLateHalloween
• Shadow
• CheersToRellHawk
• 25KLIKES
• 30KFAVS
• THANKYOUFORWAITING
• Update2
• SpookySeason
• MiniUpdate
• SorryForDelay
• 100KMEMBERS

How to Redeem Anime Royale Codes

To redeem Anime Royale codes, boot up the Roblox Experience and, once you’re in, follow the steps below:

1. Anime Royale codes work slightly differently to most other Roblox codes. To redeem a code, first enter the hub world and look for the area labelled Codes. It's shown in the image above and can be found between the Raids and Challenge areas.
2. When you arrive, walk up to the shrine below the Codes sign.
3. As you approach the shrine, the codes bar will automatically appear. Input your code and then press Redeem Code to add the rewards to your account.

Why Isn’t My Anime Royale Code Working?

If your Anime Royale code isn’t working, it’s likely due to one of two scenarios. The first is that the code was inputted incorrectly. Make sure you have the code inputted exactly as it is in the Active Codes section above. You can even copy and paste codes directly from this article over to Roblox if you want to make sure you’re inputting them correctly.

The other possibility is the code has expired or you’ve already used it. If your code has been used, a message will appear in the bar reminding you that the code's already been activated. If the code has expired, it'll show up as invalid, meaning its no longer available to use.

How to Get More Anime Royale Codes

If you want to hunt down some extra Anime Royale codes, make your way over to the game's official Discord server. When you've joined, jump into the Game Announcements channel. Whenever a code is added, the devs will drop it in here, so you can copy and paste them directly over to the game.

What is Anime Royale in Roblox?

Anime Royale is a tower defense game that tasks players with tactically defending the worlds of their favorite anime. Featuring familiar faces from shows like Naruto, Dandadan, Demon Slayer and Dragon Ball Z, you'll recruit an army of iconic heroes and villains, using them to defend your base from enemies across a variety of modes.

As you battle your way through its story missions and other challenges, you'll face some of the anime world's most dangerous adversaries and collect resources, leveling up your units to face tougher challenges. So, do you have what it takes to lead some of the toughest anime warriors into battle?

Callum Williams is an IGN freelancer covering features and guides. When he's away from his desk, you can usually find him obsessing over the lore of the latest obscure indie horror game or bashing his head against a boss in the newest soulslike. You can catch him over on Twitter at @CaIIumWilliams.

The following contains full spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3.

“Some people just can’t be saved”. This line that Gail says to a grieving Tommy is a sentiment that runs through the whole of The Last of Us. Joel couldn’t be saved from the violent clutches of Abby, which is, ironically, a result of him saving Ellie back in Salt Lake City. But that rescue only delayed the inevitable of this world. Ellie is beyond saving now – this time from herself – as episode 3 of season 2 of The Last of Us focuses on her refusal to conform to the wants of her larger Jackson community and instead follow her broken heart. It’s a quieter chapter, but one that successfully sets the course towards another oncoming storm.

One versus the many is a theme that percolates through The Last of Us. It’s a tale of selfishness versus selflessness – a conflict once warring inside Joel that now burns within Ellie. She’s forever changed by the events of “Through the Valley,” and Bella Ramsey does a superb job of displaying that devastation at multiple points: Ellie’s mournful walk around Joel’s empty home is incredibly affecting, as is her tearful burying of her face into Joel’s jacket – a moment that can’t help remind me of the heartbreaking finale to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain.

This is a shared grief, though, and the whole community of Jackson finds itself recovering not just from Joel’s demise, but from the ferocious infected attack that tore down its walls. Gabriel Luna – who has perhaps secretly been the season’s MVP to this point – delivers the line “give Sarah my love” with an aching tenderness in the episode’s opening moments and offers a quieter acceptance in comparison to Ellie’s fiery response.

Tommy doesn’t want Ellie to follow the path that Joel took, and it all comes to a head at the episode’s central town meeting, where the fate of Joel’s murderers is decided. What was previously only a scene that took place offscreen in the game has been expanded here to grant us a fascinating look into Jackson politics as remnants of the old world refuse to die. The result of the ballot is devastating for Ellie: only three votes go her way, but who sided with her is left as a tantalising mystery. Jesse’s refusal to commit prior to the vote is followed up by a sheepish look and reluctance to meet Ellie in the eye, suggesting he voted in favour of protecting Jackson, and it wouldn’t be too far to stretch to believe Tommy thinks similarly. Ellie may be insisting to herself that she wants justice, not revenge, but those closest to her know where this road leads.

Everyone, aside from Dina, that is. A combination of being present (albeit unconscious) for Joel’s murder and a simmering affection for Ellie leads her to join in this vengeful mission. Isabela Merced continues to add a plucky charm to the show, offering some much-needed light relief in the face of solemn recent events. But in amongst the playful flirting, there’s a moment of vulnerability from her as she and Ellie settle into their tent for the night. When I was watching all seven episodes of season 2, I was definitely intrigued to see where her character went from here, and curious if Ellie could tear down her quippy walls (much like Joel did with Ellie eventually).

An approach to one character that slightly confuses me is Seth, who, via his desire for violent repercussions and steak sandwich gift, has seemingly been forgiven by Ellie for his drunken, bigoted outburst. It’s somewhat ironic that the person shutting down Ellie and Dina’s romantic moment is the one who opens the gate for them to follow their hearts, and it’s slightly heavy-handed in the way it displays Seth as not only a fundamentally morally flawed human, but one that Ellie eventually seeks help from. It joins the scenes containing Catherine O’Hara’s Gail as being a little too on the nose when it comes to telling the viewer how to feel, rather than leaving spaces to fill in the gaps ourselves. The masterstroke of The Last of Us Part 2 is that it fully lets you decide how you feel about the characters. I fear this adaptation would rather present emotions as fact, rather than letting us interpret the events ourselves – the early reveal of Abby’s motivations being a prime example.

Once outside of Jackson’s walls, we’re treated to some truly gorgeous photography as echoes of sweeping Western-like landscapes return to the show. As ever, production values are of the highest order here as we make our way to Seattle and get our first look at two very different-seeming communities. It’s here where the theme of nurture-versus-nature rears its head again as we see a hammer handed to a young girl with an almost gleeful look on her face. No child is born with violent intentions, but it’s a grim display of how the world of The Last of Us has warped the survival instincts of its inhabitants. It’s no mistake that the same young girl and her father are later found gruesomely murdered, a grim reflection of both Ellie and Abby’s past and perhaps futures. It’s also a nice touch to have Ellie assume Abby was behind this bloodshed, building up the WLF soldier as a monster in her head, much like Abby did with Joel all of those years.

The final shot of the episode is a dominant display of power by the WLF. This isn’t a small militia group waiting for Ellie and Dina, but an army capable of heinous violence. It’s a great, menacing way to close out a largely solemn episode, acting as a riveting tease for more action to come as well as the challenge that faces these two young women. Alone in Seattle after rejecting the wishes of their own tribe, they are now faced with a new, heavily weaponised one. Ellie and Dina are now one, but as the camera pulls up over a Seattle warzone, we get a better look at the vast ranks of the many they face.

Let's launch your week with a banger bargains round-up to tempt your wallet into a little impromptu workout. Whether you're after a grand new adventure, a nostalgic trip down memory lane, or simply looking to snag a hidden gem for a song, this week’s gaming sales offer plenty to smile about. Join me now as I objective mark the stand-outs across Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and PC.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm celebrating the delightfully different Super Mario Bros. 2, a NES great that helped raise me. Amusingly, this sequel seems to have been developed for Western audiences out of a sense of pity (it's mostly a re-skinned game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic). Why? Because Nintendo of America's feedback to home base was that Super Mario Bros.: Lost Levels would be too crotch-kicking a thing for their customers.

We knew none of that at in 1989, of course. All I thought at the time was that I was stoked to have a choice of four heroes with different physics pros/cons. And, while I missed the hilarity of defeating enemies by dropping my buttocks on them, picking up Shy Guys to chuck off cliffs was just as entertaining.

• EA Sports FC 25 (-62%) - A$34
• Switch 2 Screen Protector (-6%) - A$15
• Hogwarts Legacy (-75%) - A$57
• Salt and Sanctuary (-75%) - A$6
• Lego Skywalker Saga Del. (-80%) - A$19
• Undertale (-34%) - A$15

Expiring Recent Deals

• Dragon Ball FighterZ (-43%) - A$50
• Everybody 1-2-Switch! (-24%) - A$37
• Burnout Paradise Rem. (-25%) - A$29
• Mortal Kombat 1 (-40%) - A$36
• Graveyard Keeper (-75%) - A$7
• Cities: Skylines (-90%) - A$6

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

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The weekend is officially here, and we've rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for April 20 below:

11th Gen iPad for $299

The weekend is officially here, and we've rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for April 20 below:

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition for $49.99

The fantasy genre has been inspiring and enchanting readers for hundreds of years. In 1858 Scottish author George MacDonald wrote Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women, which is often thought of as the first "modern" fantasy novel. That perfectly titled book would go on to influence many of the authors that we consider some of our all time favorite authors. Lord Dunsany would be the next writer to reshape fantasy with one of JRR Tolkien's favorite books The King of Elfland's Daughter.

In 2025 readers are just as enchanted and eager to escape into worlds that they can barely imagine, following their favorite writers down the rabbit hole to find strange and beautiful locations filled with surreal characters and never before seen creatures. So it's the perfect time to look back on some of the most influential fantasy authors of all time and explore just why they've made such an impact through the vibrant and imaginative stories that they've told.

J.R.R. Tolkien

There's no question that J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the most influential writers of all time, fantasy or not. His groundbreaking Lord of the Rings books revolutionized the fantasy genre and his world building and deftness at creating new languages have enraptured fans for almost a century.

Inspiring everyone from George Lucas — who literally quotes The Hobbit in the original script for Star Wars — to iconic authors on our list like Ursula Le Guin and George R.R. Martin, Tolkien is almost synonymous with fantasy as he was one of its earliest breakthrough authors. Many of the things that you love about fantasy from the often religious overtones, to the gorgeous landscapes, and unique fictional languages, were all popularized by Tolkien and his sprawling works of Middle Earth. Even adaptations of his work have influenced others as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films inspired a decade plus of fantasy imitators.

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis' enchanting tales of the mystical world of Narnia have had a magic-like hold on children's literature and fantasy since The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first published in 1950. Over the next six years he would release six more books, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician's Nephew, and The Last Battle completing his Chronicles of Narnia series.

Since their original publication the books have achieved the incredible feat of never going out of print with over 100 million copies in circulation in nearly 50 different languages. Interestingly Lewis cited Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women as a huge influence on him, and the Narnia books would go on to inspire children around the world including some of your favorite authors like Bridge to Terabithia's Katherine Paterson. The series has been adapted multiple times, from the classic BBC TV specials to the Disney movies, and soon we'll be getting another version of the classic kids tales from the mind of Greta Gerwig at Netflix.

Ursula Le Guin

This groundbreaking writer is behind some of the most acclaimed fantasy novels of all time. Her Earthsea series follows a young mage as he tries to find his place and freedom in the fictional world of Earthsea. The books made Le Guin the first woman to win both Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, introducing her already popular books to an even wider audience. Philosophical and whimsical, Le Guin also inspired some of your favorite creators like Hayao Miyazaki and his son, the latter of whom would go on to adapt Earthsea to film.

Ursala Le Guin wasn't just a leader in the fantasy field but she was also a famously radical thinker, imagining a better world not just on the pages of her stories but also in the lives of the people who read them. Even after her death in 2018 she regularly finds viral fame as people share videos and quotes of her optimistic thoughts on the end of Capitalism and hope for humanity. A powerful advocate and one of our great authors, Le Guin's work is still just as powerful in 2025.

George R.R. Martin

His epic fantasy novels that encompass his Game of Thrones series are not only massively successful bestsellers but also changed the face of television forever introducing a new era of extremely high-budgets, extreme gore, and of course extreme nudity. What really makes him so influential though is his epic world building which has long been seen as some of the best that fantasy has to offer. From his sumptuous renditions of Westeros to his expansive fictional histories, texts, and ephemera, Martin loves to immerse readers in his worlds.

Outside of the smash-hit cultural phenomenon of Game of Thrones, Martin has shaped both TV and Film writing on shows like the 00s reboot of The Twilight Zone, the cult smash Max Headroom, and the desperately underrated 1989 Beauty and the Beast series starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton! More recently his chilling supernatural noir Dark Winds was adapted at AMC and was already renewed for its fourth season.

Octavia Butler

Although she has in recent years finally become widely recognized for her pioneering science-fiction prowess, Octavia Butler is also a vital part of the fantasy canon. Her breadth of imagination spanned from vampires to time travel and everything in between. Butler herself called her most well known book Kindred "a kind of grim fantasy." And it's a great example of what makes her such a unique and trailblazing author.

Butler is never afraid to bring real world experiences into her genre fiction, with her stories traversing time travel, vampires, and dystopias all the while melding these new worlds with the realities of racism and sexism. Her ability to deal with relatable issues while also building and imagining real futures make her one of the most influential and powerful genre authors of all time. And it's fantastic to see her finally being recognized as the trailblazer that she really is.

Terry Pratchett

His Discworld books took the cozy charm of Tolkien's hobbits and mixed it with absurdist comedy and vibrant fantasy. Never afraid to wrap some satirical commentary in with his wild worlds and magical creatures, Terry Pratchett has long been at the forefront of the now thriving cozy fantasy movement, and one of the most awarded-writers in fantasy full stop.

Like many of the authors on our list, Pratchett didn't just create fictional worlds but he wanted to change our real one too. As he famously put it, "Fantasy isn't just about wizards and silly wands. It's about seeing the world from new directions", Pratchett saw fantasy as a tool for not only comfort and entertainment, but to open the reader's mind to different experiences and points of view. He was also an outspoken advocate for human rights causes and after his own Alzheimer's diagnosis, the right for people with terminal illnesses to die with dignity.

Diana Wynne Jones

One of Pratchett's biggest inspirations, the author behind Howl's Moving Castle and the Chronicles of Chrestomanci is one of the most underrated authors on this list. Her children's books have nourished generations of rabid readers who want to traverse dreamworlds that they can imagine themselves in.

Even those who don't instantly recognize her name have surely discovered her works thanks to a globally beloved adaptation in the shape of Studio Ghibli's fantasy masterpiece Howl's Moving Castle. It's not just readers whose minds she's shaped but authors too, as many readers believe that the boy who lived might never have existed if it wasn't for Jones' truly British take on magic, growing up, and discovering your own power.

Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.

If you're looking for DTI codes, IGN's got you covered! In this article, you'll find a list of all the active and working Dress to Impress codes in April 2025 that you can redeem for free rewards and bonuses in DTI, including outfits and accessories like hats, bags, and jewelry.

Active Dress to Impress Codes (April 2025)

Here are all the active Dress to Impress codes in April 2025 and the free rewards you get for redeeming them:

• ANGELT4NKED - Helmet (NEW!)
• 3NCHANTEDD1ZZY - Wand (NEW!)
• ELLA - Skirt
• 1CON1CF4TMA - Sweater dress
• B3APL4YS_D0L1E - Doll accessory
• MEGANPLAYSBOOTS - Boots
• CH00P1E_1S_B4CK: Streetwear outfit set
• S3M_0W3N_Y4Y: Axe
• KREEK: Bear hat
• LANA: White shorts, shirt, and legwarmers
• LANABOW: White bow
• BELALASLAY: Black jacket with pink halter top
• LANATUTU: White dress
• IBELLASLAY: Red, green, and blonde hairstyle
• M3RM4ID: Orange mermaid set
• TEKKYOOZ: White handbag
• LABOOTS: Black boots
• ITSJUSTNICHOLAS: Black jacket
• ASHLEYBUNNI: Bunny slippers
• LEAHASHE: Sweatshirt and sweatpants
• KITTYUUHH: Black cat
• C4LLMEHH4LEY: Puffy dress and bear headband
• SUBM15CY: Necklace and eyelashes
• D1ORST4R: Bag and bow

All Expired Dress to Impress Codes

Below, you'll find a list of expired DTI codes that no longer work and can't be redeemed as of April 2025:

• Your unique Easter 2025 Easter Bunny Set code
• UMOYAE
• FASHION
• BADDIE4LIFE
• Your unique April Fools' Day 2025 Flamethrower code
• M0T0PRINCESSWAV
• CUPIDSCLOUD
• SWEETHEART (was only redeemable between February 15 and February 16, 2025 at 8AM PT)
• LNY2025
• YEAROFTHESNAKE
• HAPPYNEWYEAR
• NY2025
• WINTERUPDATE (was only redeemable between 8 AM - 11 AM PT on Saturday, 14 December!)
• 4BILLION
• CHOOPIE10K
• THEGAMES
• EYELASHES
• REWARD4CLASS1C

How to Redeem Dress to Impress Codes

Follow the steps below to redeem Dress to Impress codes and claim free rewards in DTI:

1. Open the Dress to Impress Roblox Experience.
2. Click on the handbag icon on the left-hand side to open the DTI Codes menu.
3. Enter your code in the "Type here..." field.
4. Check for any spelling mistakes or errors.
5. Click the checkmark icon to redeem the code.

Why Isn't My Dress to Impress Code Working?

If the code you're trying to redeem in DTI isn't working, it's likely because of one of two reasons:

• The Dress to Impress code is expired
• There's a spelling mistake in the code

When inputting a DTI code in Roblox, make sure it's spelled correctly (for example, a capital I isn't a lowercase l, 0 and not O, and vice versa) and that there are no spaces before or after the code. We'd recommend copying and pasting codes straight from our article to ensure they're correct as we've tested and verified that the codes on this page are working ourselves.

If your DTI code still isn't working after checking for typos, it's more than likely expired and can no longer be redeemed in Dress to Impress.

How to Get More DTI Codes

To get more Dress to Impress codes, the best way is to join the official DTI Discord server. While we check for new codes daily, the quickest way to know about new Dress to Impress codes is to follow the Roblox experience's official Discord server where updates are posted in real time.

You can also check the Dress to Impress X account and the official DTI Roblox Group page.

Are There Any Upcoming DTI Codes?

Now that the Petal Update is live, we currently do not know of any upcoming Dress to Impress codes. We'll update this page as soon as we find out!

What is Dress to Impress in Roblox?

Dress to Impress is a popular dress-up Roblox Experience available on PC, console, and iOS and Android mobile devices. In it, you put on your best outfit to complete a specific theme and walk the runway in a bid to earn votes from other players and become a top model. As you gain votes, you gain ranks and can access more clothing and accessories, so make sure you're truly dressed to impress! Also, for toy lovers and collectors, you can now pre-order a mystery pack of 2 Dress to Impress minifigures right now for $30 at Walmart.

This article contains spoilers for the Until Dawn movie.

I've been racking my brain over the conundrum that is adapting Until Dawn. Supermassive Games' deconstruction of horror cinema through choice-based butterfly effect mechanics is essentially a 10-hour playable movie—a damn fine one written by indie horror staples Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick—so a film adaptation couldn't just be the same thing. But a film that isn’t indebted to the game and its "choose your own adventure" method doesn't feel appropriate either. Sony's desire to release an Until Dawn adaptation seemed misguided upon announcement, and after viewing the film, it's still a headscratcher.

That's because David F. Sandberg's Until Dawn movie betrays the core hook of Supermassive's Until Dawn.

Writers Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler chose to adapt Until Dawn as its title reads. In this case, "Until Dawn" translates into a time-loop-like horror scenario where five young adults find themselves hunted by various baddies, and they only escape if they can survive … until dawn. Should anyone die, they'll wake once a gigantic hourglass fixed to an ominous, skull-adorned mount drops its last grain of sand. Die enough times, and you become a wendigo lost to Dr. Alan J. Hill's delirious experiment. The core impetus of a missing sibling is still there—Ella Rubin's protagonist, Clover, is hunting for her missing sister—but otherwise, you're not on Blackwood Mountain aka Mount Washington (er…yet), and certainly not similarly punished for choices that alter narrative paths.

That's… not Until Dawn.

Death Shouldn't Be An Afterthought

In the game, death matters. It matters so much, in fact, that killing a single character sends ripple effects felt throughout the remaining storylines. There's no regeneration or second chances. Like, famously. That's the point of Until Dawn. The stakes are so astronomically high, the slightest nervous twitch of your controller during a "stay still" Quicktime event could doom multiple characters. Dauberman and Butler fail to translate the nerve-wracking experience of playing Until Dawn, landing on quite the opposite concept.

If anything, Until Dawn is a beginner's attempt at Cabin in the Woods. Glore Valley is drenched by a thunderstorm, except for a perfect circle of sunshine over the welcome center location, like some all-powerful horror movie god is controlling the rain—once again resembling Cabin in the Woods in terms of the “influencing environment” effect. The all-seeing overlord (Dr. Hill), the meta nature of characters joking about horror movie rules, and the different creatures unleashed each rewind? Despite countless plot configurations, the game's powerful storytelling is far superior to this random assortment of scary scenes tied to an hourglass clock. The game pulls players deeper into a web of intrigue, where the movie's Mad Libs nature drags viewers through a jumbled rotation of clowns-and-kooks randomness.

Points are awarded for at least using wendigos. In the game, Fessenden's "Stranger" character reveals that a 1952 mining cave-in led to cannibalism, and said cannibals turned into wendigos that now haunt Blackwood. Here, Clover and her friends start turning into wendigos due to Dr. Hill's experiments on Glore Valley from his sanatorium hideout (resembling his dingy in-game office). It's not a one-for-one translation, nor does it need to be, but the wendigos are overshadowed by a slasher villain vaguely costumed after Josh's psycho getup. There are also witches, porcelain doll-looking masks, creepypasta demons, and water that makes your entire body explode Scanners-style if you drink it. It's a hodgepodge of dangers that have nothing to do with Fessenden and Reznick's straightforward creature-centric game, outside of a few Easter eggs.

The most obvious connection is Peter Stormare as Dr. Hill, Josh Washington’s (Rami Malek) hallucinated psychiatrist who runs players through rigorous psychological tests that influence future in-game details. However, even Dr. Hill features stark differences in the film vs. the original game. In the movie, he's seen as a gas station attendant, but it's not long before he's outed as former game character Dr. Hill—who's in control of experiments on Glore Valley. It’s here where we have the only direct reference to the game’s most well-known character, Josh Washington. After Clover discovers Hill’s “office,” we see her patient profile alongside Josh’s.

There's some exposition about Hill's experiments as we watch prisoners cannibalize bodies and then turn into wendigos to highlight that connection to the game, but the reveal is followed by Clover defeating Dr. Hill pretty easily.

Except she doesn’t. Probably.

As the film ends, we return to the dirty sanitarium office where Dr. Hill explodes after ingesting some 'splodey water, and on surveillance monitors, we see Blackwood's lodge. We then hear Dr. Hill speak, suggesting he was Clover's hallucination, much like Josh's in the game. But, that's right before the credits because I guess Sandberg's movie is an offshoot prequel that, for some reason, has nothing to do with the actual events of the Until Dawn game? If there is a sequel, presumably it'll be about Josh's case of vengeance paid unto the Blackwood group except based on the film's rules … somehow.

Cheap Easter Eggs Aren't Enough

It's just all so generic. Turning Dr. Hill into the baddie removes intrigue and becomes a cheap cop-out, torn from the game but improperly refitted. Then the stinger of Blackwood hits, which again is confusing because in interviews, Sandberg insists his film takes place after the game's timeline—but Blackwood's reveal suggests it's not a sequel, but a prequel. Inconsequentiality plagues Sandberg's film in a way that makes you wonder why it's even tied to Until Dawn (*cough* intellectual property reasons *cough*), which only causes Blackwood's tease to be even more spoonfed and underwhelming. For so long, Until Dawn (the movie) bears no resemblance to Until Dawn (the game)—why pivot back toward the game at the last minute?

The reason is simple: to appease us fans. There are choice moments that attempt to help us relive the game, but they're crammed in like afterthoughts. Ji-young Yoo's spiritualist character Megan has everyone hold hands in silence, mimicking the game's quiet "hold your breath" Quicktime events. There's a shot bathed in red lighting where a wendigo is right by a frightened Clover, and that's a direct reference to the "Don't Move" instructions. But the game's cinematic nature doesn't yield many other level-based opportunities to recreate, nor does the film try. The adaptation’s biggest issue is it never fully comprehends how best to honor Supermassive's inspiration while telling a fresh horror tale.

What else might you recognize? The wendigo audio files are plucked from the game, reusing the same noises. There's also Abe's first death of being chopped in half, which could be respect paid to Josh's fake death in the game, or maybe that's just a lucky coincidence. Are the werewolf sketches in the witch's cabin a possible reference to The Quarry? Is the radio in the basement the same radio in the game where characters find out they must survive until dawn? Chances are yes, but these Easter eggs feel forced.

Look, I'm all for a "spiritual successor." But to do so, there has to be some resemblance to the thing you are named after. While I don't think Until Dawn is a terrible movie, it's a bad Until Dawn movie. It's a far cry from the urgency and invasive dread that Supermassive so easily conjures, speaking to what makes the playable horror movie such a blast to complete (over and over).

As is, the Until Dawn movie doesn't make much sense in context. The events of Glore Valley are a grab bag of ideas from other horror movies that would be nothing but a clip show without Dr. Hill's inclusion. But even with Stormare's reprised role, it's only Until Dawn at face value, nothing deeper. I get the interpretation of the gang's choices forcing them to keep restarting, but it's still too far off-base to consider this adaptation anything more than unfaithful. In the end, Until Dawn is a missed opportunity to bring Supermassive's smash-hit game to life.

If, like me, you have a bunch of DVDs on your shelf, some recent reports may have you worrying if any of your collection has, in fact, rotted.

Many physical media enthusiasts may be familiar with DVD rot even if you don't know that exact term. The overall problem of disc rot has affected all sorts of products for decades, from LaserDiscs to CDs to video games across various platforms, since any disc is susceptible to chemical deterioration thanks to a variety of reasons, and can then be affected by playability issues - including, at the most dire level, simply not being able to be read or played at all.

By and large, coming across disc rot in your own collection is a somewhat random and unlucky occurrence, but once in a while, there is a core issue related to how a disc was produced. Some specific discs with issues have certainly occurred in the past, but over time it’s become very apparent there is quite a recurrent problem with Warner Bros. DVDs produced between 2006 and 2009.

This problem recently got a lot of amplification thanks to an article by JoBlo’s Chris Bumbray, who unfortunately personally encountered the issue on WB-released Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn box sets produced during this era. But among a sect of collectors, this has been a well known issue for years, and covered in great detail by an expert in physical media, YouTuber Spencer Draper, AKA Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader, in a video posted in late 2021 (though he notes others had begun to spot the problem before that).

A Problem Discovered, and a Studio’s Response

As Draper and others began to explore the issue, they even did the detective work to realize that this wasn’t a problem for every single WB DVD produced during this era, but rather those that came from one particular manufacturing plant - the since-closed Cinram plant in Pennsylvania. That matching element was discernible from a tiny manufacturing labeling system you can find on the inner ring of the backside of the disc, where the data is held (more on that below).

A massive collector of film and TV across all formats, Draper estimates he probably owns between 5,000-6,000 films on everything from VHS to LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD and more. And as fate – and a rich cinematic and distribution history – would have it, a large portion of his DVDs were produced by Warner Bros. After first learning about this issue, Draper told me, “I did the mad panic check of every single disc, one at a time.”

The problem is, DVD rot is not always going to show up the same way. As Draper explained: “I found that even doing a scan or trying to do a digital backup wouldn't always guarantee that it was actually rot free and that the only way to really tell for sure was to go through the whole disc. And not just the feature, but all the supplements and the menus and things, and also trying to figure out what titles did [other] people have that I didn't but had gone bad.”

Draper began to contact Warner Bros. Home Entertainment about this issue, which was not an easy journey at the time (as detailed in his video), though as he noted in a follow-up video, WB eventually sent him a large package replacing every title he’d noted an issue with - if they were still producing it that is.

Regarding the studio’s current thoughts on and response to the matter, IGN reached out to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and were given the following statement:

“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is aware of potential issues affecting select DVD titles manufactured between 2006 – 2009 and has been working directly with consumers on replacements or alternate solutions for nearly a decade. Any consumer who is experiencing an issue can contact whv@wbd.com. This is not a new issue. A website recently experienced this issue themselves and decided to write a story about it (since updated) and that has caused the latest news. WBHE has been working with consumers for nearly a decade when it was first brought to our attention. We have offered replacements when possible, or an alternate title when needed. Some of the discs are now out of print or the titles no longer licensed for DVD release. In these cases, WBHE offered an alternate title as a replacement.”

This statement is not too dissimilar from the one WBHE gave JoBlo, though it does extend the years affected from ending in 2008 to 2009, which Draper notes matches what he’s found when checking the titles in question.

How Do You Know if Your DVDs Are Rotting?

So what do you do if you’re concerned about one of your DVDs being among those affected? Your first step should be to look at the copyright year on the back to see if it was produced between 2006 and 2009. Anything produced outside of those years should be fine (for now - more on that below).

But if you do see it comes from those years, Draper explains that at that point, “You need to look at the actual disc manufacturing codes on the inner ring [on the backside of the disc]. And if you see the letters ‘IFPI’ in there anywhere, you know it's one of the screwy ones.”

Keep in mind, these are tiny letters and numbers on the clear plastic inner ring, so they may be hard to spot (and you’ll likely need to magnify them with a magnifying glass or camera).

One quick way to know your disc is probably okay, even if it is from 2006-2009? Look at the back cover of the DVD case. Draper says if you see “a tiny blue stamp that says ‘Disc Made in Mexico,’” then you’re good since those were definitely produced at a different plant.

Ultimately, if you have a Warner Bros. DVD made within those years and want to skip all the hunting for the additional labels on the packaging or discs, Draper adds, “It doesn't hurt to just go ahead and check it. The easiest thing is to just put the disc in and just run through everything on ultra fast forward and then do the same on the extras. I know that sounds stupid, but that's one way of doing it.”

Draper has very helpfully made his own list of the titles he’s aware were affected, which is a great starting point for anyone concerned about this in regards to their own collection. Plus, his list also makes for a good way to be forewarned if you’re looking to buy an older title and want to try to avoid potential issues - even though in some cases that can be incredibly frustrating if there are no other versions available beyond those made during the dreaded rot era.

As a big horror fan, one title that stood out to me in that regard while looking over Draper’s list was the DVD sets for HBO’s Tales From the Crypt, with multiple seasons having proven to be affected. That series is said to have a lot of complicated rights issues associated with it, curtailing its availability, and currently it’s not available anywhere to legally stream, rent or purchase digitally. Worse, those WB-produced DVD sets were the only time the show was ever put on physical media, meaning that if you’re a fan who wants to track down Tales From the Crypt for your collection, you have to do so knowing there’s a very good chance the discs won’t all play correctly when you receive them.

For Draper, a similar issue is with Volume Two of the classic RKO Tarzan films, which had its one and only physical media release from WB and is one of the affected titles. Its rarity means it’s often fairly high priced on the resale market, including on eBay. And then, even if you decide you’ve found a price you’re willing to pay, you have no way of knowing if the discs will turn out to be plagued by issues. Worse, even if everything looks fine when you receive them, it’s often fairly random if and when they might go bad after that. As Draper notes, while LaserDiscs were also prone to rot issues, there seemed to be a time they hit where if they hadn’t gone bad in this regard yet, you were probably fine. But the WB DVD rot issue is a lot more erratic, so a disc could be fine now, but then the next time you go to watch it, it won’t play.

What’s a Typical DVD’s ‘Life Expectancy’?

If there’s any silver lining, it’s that this widespread issue for this particular run of DVDs from this particular studio has also underlined that, by and large, we’re not seeing large-scale DVD rot occurring, even as DVDs themselves near their fourth decade of existence. Draper notes there were some poorly produced DVDs in the early days that suffered from rot, but those tended to be the exceptions.

In regards to how long a typical DVD’s life expectancy is, Sony’s official statement is that “A typical DVD disc has an estimated life expectancy of anywhere from 30 to 100 years when properly stored and handled.” That’s a pretty substantial 70-year gap in terms of possibilities, but as we hurtle towards the 30th anniversary of the introduction of DVDs in 1996, Draper isn’t seeing too much cause for concern anytime soon. “I have early Warner DVDs from 1997, the first [WB] year, snapper case era, perfectly fine. No issues whatsoever. It's like, ‘Well, they managed to nail these perfectly!’ These still work great.”

And so far, there also doesn’t seem to be any notable or widespread issues with Blu-rays. There have been some recent reports about Blu-ray concerns, but Draper notes there really isn’t any heavily repeatable examples he’s seen beyond some examples in France that likely can be sourced to a specific French manufacturer. (On the flip side, nearly all WB-produced HD DVD titles no longer play, for any who did initially invest in that doomed format when it was in a showdown with Blu-ray for dominance.)

At one point, Criterion had a similar disc rot issue with some Blu-rays to the one Warner Bros. has with those DVDs, where discs manufactured at a specific plant were highly susceptible to rot. In that case, not too many titles were affected and Criterion did well dealing with the issue, confirming the details, including the specific titles to look out for, and beginning an exchange program for the discs from later repressings.

As noted above, Warner Bros. are well aware of this ongoing problem with DVDs from that era and emailing whv@wbd.com can begin your process of trying to replace your discs, though Draper cautions he’s seen wildly different responses from those he’s spoken to, including how quickly – or not so quickly – someone gets back to you. And in some cases, you have to deal with pushing back on the hurdle of being asked for receipts on products few people will still have after so long (or perhaps never had, if it was a gift). Plus, while Warner Bros. may have newer editions of many of the titles in question, with many classic films now made using their MOD (Made on Demand) program, there are other films and series that are long out of print and WB will simply not be able to replace thanks to rights issues. WB’s statement does say they’ll then offer an alternate title in these situations, but that’s obviously far from ideal if you understandably just want the film or series you already had in your collection.

Draper wishes the company had been more candid and up front about this issue in the manner Criterion was with their similar occurrence, including providing their own list of titles that may be affected. (The list he made still stands in for concerned consumers since there is no official one.) They also haven’t publicly acknowledged that these rotted discs all came from the same plant, nor explained that there is a way to identify that.

Also, there’s the fact that even if you get a replacement disc of a more recent release of a film, it may very well be lacking bonus features that were only on that earlier version, something Draper has encountered firsthand with films like Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. That movie was recently given a Criterion Collection 4K UHD, but the 2006 Warner Bros. two-disc DVD has hours of exclusive extras that have not been replicated - and Draper’s copy has rotted.

We physical media enthusiasts often note that, in the streaming era, keeping a copy on your shelf has become one of the only ways to ensure you can watch a favorite film or series whenever you want and without any concerns given how little stability there is regarding when and where titles are available online. For the most part, that thankfully remains true, but the WB DVD rot problem points out a glaring trouble spot that can have you ruing the Pennsylvania Cinram plant long after its closure.

Header art designed by Amanda Flagg.

Happy Alien Day! Fans celebrate the iconic sci-fi horror franchise every April 26th and this year IGN marks the occasion by sharing with you these cool new videos from FX’s Alien: Earth.

We can exclusively reveal a new video showing the gestation of a creature aboard a Weyland-Yutani Corp. spaceship.

Running three minutes in length, the gestation video – which you can watch below – pays off a series of short teases we’ve been debuting across our social platforms this past week.

In addition to our exclusive gestation video, there’s also a new teaser FX has released that’s set aboard a Weyland-Yutani ship and shows a crteature within a crate. You can watch that below and find the new poster as well.

The teaser’s voiceover captures that good ol’ Weyland-Yutani hubris that always leads to really, really bad things happening: “This ship collected five different life forms from the darkest corners of the universe, each one a unique deadly species … monsters!”

Here’s the official plot synopsis for the series, which is set in the year 2120 and premieres this summer on FX and Hulu:

“When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in the sci-fi horror series Alien: Earth.

As members of the crash recovery crew search for survivors among the wreckage, they encounter mysterious predatory life forms more terrifying than they could have ever imagined. With this new threat unlocked, the search crew must fight for survival and what they choose to do with this discovery could change planet Earth as they know it.”

Sydney Chandler leads the cast of FX’s Alien: Earth, which includes Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille and Moe Bar-El.

For more on the Alien franchise, check out the IGN community’s ranking of the Alien movies and find out how to watch the Alien movies in chronological order. Plus, discover why we think Predator: Badlands has an Alien connection.

The 2025 NBA Playoffs are finally underway, marking the beginning of the road to a new world champion. And just like the March Madness tournament that wrapped up recently, you can count on a few surprises along the way. There are plenty of hungry teams in the mix, but only one will reign supreme come June. Can the Celtics secure their first back-to-back championship since 1969? Or will the surging Oklahoma City Thunder finally bring home their first NBA title since moving from Seattle?

If you're wondering when and where to catch this weekend’s playoff action, we’ve got you covered. Below is the full schedule with every matchup, tip-off time, and the network each game will air on.

Where to Watch Upcoming NBA Playoff Games

Check out the schedule below to find out where you can watch every First Round game this weekend:

Saturday, April 26

• Cavaliers at Heat, Game 3 (10:00 AM PT on TNT)
• Thunder at Grizzlies, Game 4 (12:30 PM PT on TNT)
• Nuggets at Clippers, Game 4 (3:00 PM PT on TNT)
• Rockets at Warriors, Game 3 (5:30 PM PT on ABC)

Sunday, April 27

• Knicks at Pistons, Game 4 (10:00 AM PT on ABC)
• Lakers at Timberwolves, Game 4 (12:30 PM PT on ABC)
• Celtics at Magic, Game 4 (4:00 PM PT on TNT)
• Pacers at Bucks, Game 4 (6:30 PM PT on TNT)

How to Stream NBA Playoff Games Online

If you don't have cable, don't worry. You can still catch the NBA Playoffs online or through select streaming services. Some streaming services even offer a free trial, allowing you to test the service out while being able to watch some of the games while you're at it.

Matthew Adler has written for IGN since 2019 covering all things gaming, tech, tabletop games, and more. You can follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.

When Bethesda finally revealed Oblivion Remastered earlier this week, I could hardly believe my eyes. Somehow 2006’s trip to Tamriel, known for its weird, potato-faced characters and smeary stretches of low-res verdant grasslands, is now the best-looking Elder Scrolls game ever made. A long history of HD overhauls has conditioned me to expect underwhelming results from remasters – Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Dark Souls Remastered are barely indistinguishable from their Xbox 360 parents, for instance – and so to see the Imperial City that I explored nearly 20 years ago rendered in Unreal Engine 5 with ray tracing was momentarily unbelievable. Not only that, but the game has been enhanced with upgrades to combat, RPG systems, and a multitude of other details. All that considered, I wondered if Bethesda and the project’s developer, Virtuos, had got the title wrong. Surely this is Oblivion Remake, not remastered?

It turns out I wasn’t alone in that thinking. Numerous fans have declared it a remake, and even Bruce Nesmith, the senior game designer on the original Oblivion project, has said “I’m not sure [the word] remaster actually does it justice.” But while I doubted Bethesda and Virtuos’ remaster claim at first, after playing several hours it’s actually pretty clear – Oblivion Remastered may look like a remake but it plays like a remaster.

There are plenty of reasons why Oblivion looks like a remake and they can be easily summed up: Virtuos has done a huge amount of work, with "every single asset redesigned from scratch." In terms of what you physically see on screen, it is all brand new. Every tree, every sword, every crumbling castle. This means Oblivion lives up to modern graphical expectations. Not only is it beautifully textured, it also has gorgeous lighting and a whole new physics system that ensures every arrow and weapon strike affects the world realistically. And while all who you meet in the game are recognisably the same folks you crossed paths with back in 2006, every single NPC model is a brand new creation. It’s a hugely impressive overhaul that rejects the idea of making something that “looks like you remember” and instead aims for something that’s great by 2025 standards. It’s the best a Bethesda Game Studios RPG has ever looked, and if I had seen it before the remaster rumours began I’d probably have believed that it was The Elder Scrolls 6.

It’s not just visuals, though. Combat has been overhauled, and so swinging a longsword no longer feels like fencing with a balloon. The third person camera is now actually functional thanks to the addition of a reticule. Every menu, from the quest journal to dialogue to the lockpicking and persuasion minigames, have all had refreshed interfaces. The original, horrific levelling system has been replaced with a much more logical hybrid of Oblivion and Skyrim’s approaches. And finally you can sprint. With so many visual and gameplay upgrades, surely we are firmly in remake territory?

The big issue here is not so much one of technology, game changes, or project scope, but semantics. There are no industry-defined parameters for remakes and remasters, and publishers recklessly throw the terms around. Rockstar’s “Definitive Edition” remasters of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy are unmistakably blocky PlayStation 2-era games with upscaled textures and modern lighting effects. But the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, also branded a remaster, sports all-new graphical assets and looks like a game from the modern era. Things are even muddier when we get to remakes: Bluepoint’s Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls both rebuild their respective games from the ground up, but are faithful, 1:1 recreations of the original experiences. Resident Evil 2, meanwhile, sticks more-or-less to the original blueprint in terms of structure, but completely redesigns the way you interact with the survival horror icon. And then we have Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, which radically overhaul the design, script, and even story beats of the original games. All five of these examples are considered remakes, but there’s very little shared philosophy between them.

At one point in time, the general consensus seemed to be that if the game had been rebuilt from scratch in a modern engine, it was considered a remake. Remasters, meanwhile, were more limited upgrades performed within the scope of the game’s original technology. Such a definition is clearly becoming fast outdated, though. Today, it seems more fitting to say that a remaster is a graphical overhaul that preserves the design of the original game (bar a few quality of life gameplay upgrades), while a remake redesigns a game from scratch. Such a definition would “downgrade” Demon’s Souls and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Delta to remasters, and ensure the remake term only applies to games that genuinely feel like new takes on old ideas.

Warning: This review contains spoilers for season 2, episode 3 of Doctor Who, "The Well."

“The Well” is an immensely frustrating episode of Doctor Who. There’s real promise scattered throughout its runtime, including some striking horror imagery that feels pulled straight from a Stephen King novel, but it struggles to build on that foundation. Flung 500,000 years into the future, the Doctor and Belinda arrive on a crumbling, ice-laced mining colony where something has clearly gone wrong. The infrastructure is in ruins, the crew has vanished, and only one shell-shocked survivor remains. Right from the off, there’s a cold stillness that slowly settles in and wraps around us like a brisk fog, permeating a slow, creeping dread. It’s a sharp contrast to the brilliant chaos of last week’s outing, but the shift to a slower, more ominous pace is a welcome one.

Surprisingly (unless you’ve read the leaks), it also serves as a direct sequel to 2009’s "Midnight" – a tense, near-perfect bottle episode built around one of the show’s simplest, most chilling ideas. For better or worse, the follow-up isn’t a retread of that one-off, and doesn’t try to be. But while “The Well” starts as a bold successor to an all-time great, it ultimately ends up slipping into pale imitation.

To their credit, Russell T Davies and co-writer Sharma Walfall make a deliberate effort to avoid simply rehashing "Midnight." The entity has been reimagined with fresh rules and visual tricks, and there’s some impressive restraint in how little we actually see of it. They even found a few inventive ways to make this entity almost as terrifying as the first time we encountered it, and there’s still some clear intent in how the mysterious alien is handled. The creature’s design is mostly left to the imagination, and director Amanda Brotchie impressively leans into a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it embodiment.

But it’s hard not to feel that this return chips away at the power of the original. “Midnight” was about fear, groupthink, and the fragility of trust, while “The Well” just awkwardly gestures toward a scary monster and calls it a day. Where “Midnight” left gaps for the imagination to fill, “The Well” feels too eager to explain, too quick to visualise the horror rather than let it haunt from the edges. For all the unease Brotchie's direction carefully conjures, the story underneath feels disappointingly thin by comparison. The Midnight entity is no longer this terrifying enigma relying on mimicry and manipulation to sow paranoia and panic. Instead, it’s now a far more conventional monster of the week, jumping between victims in a parasitic chain in a clichéd pass-it-on setup that recalls horror flicks like It Follows or Smile. Gone is the intellectual dread, the eerie unknowability that made its first appearance unforgettable. It was a malevolent intelligence that even the Doctor couldn’t reason with or outwit, toying with language and fracturing a room using just its guile.

It shares so little resemblance to its original appearance, and it’s hard to escape the feeling that the reintroduction of one of Doctor Who’s most enigmatic villains is unnecessary at best, and actively disappointing at worst. Even taking the episode on its own merits, and putting aside the unavoidable comparisons, “The Well” still struggles to find any way to stand out. The supporting cast is painfully forgettable, the story lacks any substance beyond the Midnight reveal, and even Ncuti Gatwa feels off-tempo, his usual spark dulled by dialogue that forces a semblance of emotional catharsis from scene to scene instead of truly earning it. There are flashes of great tension and horror, but they’re trapped in a script that desperately struggles to find its footing anywhere else.

Entertainment has hit critical mass over the last decade, with more shows and movies being produced and released than ever before. It’s impossible to keep up with everything hitting the digital space, whether it be Premium Video on Demand (PVOD) or a traditional streaming network. With that in mind, we figured it was well past time for us to whip up a little something to help you keep up (and catch up) with all there is to watch in the big, wide world of digital viewing. And thus, the Streaming Rewind was born!

We’ll update this list at the end of each week so you can check out what you may have missed, and what’s coming up on the weekend. We’ll keep it a mix of popular releases and noteworthy lesser-known titles to help you find what’s worth taking the risk on as well as dive into a few things that we loved and why we loved ‘em, or just break down a show or movie that left us with some opinions. Sometimes, we’ll even have guest entries from other members of the IGN staff. If you’re not interested in all that and just want to see a bulleted list of what’s out there, pop on down to the New and Noteworthy and ICYMI sections.

Ash and Freaky Tales Hit Digital and Demand

It’s rare I combine two titles for one of these blurbs, but fate releasing Ash and Freaky Tales on digital and demand in the same week obligates me to talk about them both. They share absolutely no D.N.A with each other with one exception: they’re both weird little guys. Just oddball, out there movies that are there for people who want something a little more esoteric for their weekend viewing pleasure.

Ash (featuring performances from Eiza González and Aaron Paul) is there for folks who like their sci-fi weird and extra serious. It’s trippy and existential with an underlying mystery that extends beyond the “why are we here” of it all. Meanwhile, Freaky Tales is some straight-up silly nonsense. This one features a set of several anthology entries. Each is weirder than the last, but all of them involve beating the hell out of Nazis. It is not a good movie, but it is quite often a very funny movie. Even if perhaps it doesn’t mean to be. (Oh, and Pedro Pascal is in it.)

Andor Returns to Disney+

Cassian Andor and the Rebel Alliance are back, and not a moment too soon. The first batch of Andor Season 2’s episodes have dropped on Disney+, setting up a season of intrigue, espionage, desperation and, of course, rebellion. Though the release schedule is a little wonky (more on that below), I suspect we’re in for one hell of a ride as the last part of Andor’s pre-Rogue One journey comes to a close.

The Last of Us Had Its Big Moment (Max)

Welp. Joel has officially gone golfing. If you don’t understand what that means then please know that the bit is for your protection. If you do know what that means then you’re likely aware that fans are just as divided as ever on whether or not it was the right move, only this time it has the added complication of happening in a new medium.

A massive horde attack on Jackson keeps things moving this week, but only time will tell what’s to come and which of the townspeople made it out of the attack alive and bite free.

New and Noteworthy This Week:

• Andor, April 22 — Disney+
• Ash, April 22 — Digital and demand
• You Season 5, April 24 — Netflix
• Freaky Tales, April 25 — Digital and demand
• Fréwaka, April 25 — Shudder
• Havoc, April 25 — Netflix

ICYMI:

If you had too much going on last week, here are some of the notable things that premiered or debuted on streaming and digital that you may have missed.

• Captain America: Brave New World, April 15 — Digital and demand
• The Woman in the Yard, April 15 — Digital and demand
• Government Cheese, April 16 — Apple TV+
• #1 Happy Family USA, April 17 — Prime Video
• The Rehearsal, April 20 — Max

Marvel Comics may publish a great many stories set across numerous versions of the Marvel Universe, but they've rarely ever released comics that are specifically set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That appears to be changing, with Marvel revealing a prequel comic for the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Simply titled The Fantastic Four: First Steps #1, the prequel is set four years prior to the events of the film. Written by Matt Fraction (Hawkeye) and illustrated by Mark Buckingham (Fables), this standalone issue will recount the FF's debut adventure, seemingly inspired by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's original Fantastic Four #1. We know that the film is mostly skipping over the FF's origin story, so it appears that the comic will fill in for those who want to know how the team came to be.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a new RPG and debut title from the French studio, Sandfall Interactive. With a blend of immersive storytelling and challenging gameplay, there’s nothing else quite like it. Maxroll has been hard at work on helpful guides for Expedition 33. There are guides to help you get started, teach you game mechanics, find valuable loot, and hone your builds. Maxroll’s Codex has weapons, skills, Pictos, and Lumina to help you prepare for the challenges you will face on the continent. If you’re the theorycrafty type, you can use Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Planner to make your own build, then share it on their Community Builds Section.

Getting Started

Get started in the world of Expedition 33 with character guides, beginner resources, and Pictos guides from Maxroll. If you're looking for a step-by-step companion guide to keep up as you play, check out IGN's Expedition 33 Walkthrough.

Beginner’s Guide

Maxroll’s comprehensive Beginner’s Guide for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 introduces the game’s core mechanics like exploring the world, doing battle against Nevrons, each of the playable characters and their unique mechanics, plus introduces the game’s progression systems like weapons, attributes, Pictos and Luminas. Also check out IGN's 10 Things Expedition 33 Doesn't Tell You for a shorter guide of some easily-missed things you should know.

Combat Guide

Learn more about defeating dangerous Nevrons with IGN's Combat Guide. This is a beginner's guide with some tips and tricks, including advice for how to use Lune and Maelle.

Weapons, Attributes and Upgrades

Weapons are a core part of building your team in Expedition 33. Each weapon (and character skill) deals different types of elemental damage, some of which are more effective than others against different Nevrons. Each character has a variety of different weapons that have increased attribute scaling as you level them, plus unlock special bonuses at levels 4, 10, and 20. Read more about Weapons, Attributes and Upgrades.

Pictos and Luminas

Pictos are equippable items that give stats and a variety of unique effects. Each character can equip 3 Pictos, but you can use the Lumina system to gain even more special effects. If you’re struggling on an encounter, consider changing up your Pictos to gain more defenses, add damage or buff your team with things like Shell or Powerful. Learn more about Pictos and the Lumina system, a core progression feature in Expedition 33, and keep track of what you have and where to find them with IGN's Pictos checklist.

Early Game Pictos Guides

The Pictos system provides a lot of room to customize your party and build each character the way that you want, but there are a few Pictos which stand out as especially powerful during the early game. Keep an eye out for Dead Energy II and Critical Burn, complete side-content for the “lone wolf” style Last Stand Pictos and use Recovery to turn one character into a super-tank!

Characters

Learn about each playable character in Expedition 33, their unique mechanics, and skills with Maxroll’s Character Skill Guides.

• Gustave
• Lune
• Maelle
• Sciel
• Verso
• Monoco

More Guides

Maxroll also has a few more guides suitable for the midgame and endgame. These go into detail on how to unlock areas of the map, defeat certain enemies more easily, or which Pictos are the best.

How to Unlock all of Esquie’s Traversal Abilities

Esquie can break through obstacles, swim, fly, and even dive under the ocean. Learn how to unlock all of Esquie’s Abilities as you progress through the game.

Enemy Strengths and Weaknesses

Learn about the Strengths and Weaknesses for the enemies you encounter across the Continent. Abuse enemy weaknesses to deal 50% more damage, and avoid using elements they absorb, as those heal the enemy instead of damaging them!

Zone Progression

If you’re feeling lost after completing the game’s story, Maxroll has you covered with a Zone Progression Guide, which gives some recommendations on when to complete different optional zones. IGN also has a list of Expedition 33 side quests with their rewards, so you can determine which ones are worth completing.

Best Pictos

Learn the Best Pictos to equip in both the early game and the endgame. Maxroll’s guide details Pictos that provide generic power along with those that have more niche uses, empowering new build archetypes.

Codex

Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Codex has information on all of the different Weapons, Pictos, Luminas, and Skills available in the game. You can even adjust the level at the top to see how Weapons/Pictos scale.

Planner and Community Builds

Plan out your build using Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Builder, then share it using the Community Builds section ! Let’s go over a few of the planner’s key features:

Here are the features to keep in mind when using Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Planner.

1. Select your characters and set up the active party. If you want to create different teams (with unique setups for each character) you can also do so here. At the top select an optional tag like “Story” or “Post-Story.” You use this section to navigate between each of the characters on your team to change their setups.
2. Pick your weapon, then adjust the level. As you do the power and scaling change but attributes are not currently factored in.
3. - Select the 6 skills you’re using on the character.
   • NOTE: Gradient Skills are excluded here but you can learn more about them in the Codex!
4. Pick your Pictos, you can use each Pictos once across your entire team. Select the correct level to display the stats added by each.
5. Add Luminas here, the point count is displayed at the top.
6. Allocate attributes, maybe use something your weapon scales off of?
7. Your stats are displayed here, based on Pictos, Attributes, and base weapon damage.
8. Add some notes, tell people about your skill rotation or where you found some of the cool stuff you’re using.
9. Set your build to public to share it with the community.

Tomorrow Comes

That’s it for Maxroll’s new guides for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Why not head over to the build planner and start theorycrafting?

Written by IGN Staff with contributions from Tenkiei and Snail.

Amazon is currently running a massive 3 for $33 deal on 4Ks and Blu-rays. The bestsellers so far have been sci-fi classics like the Godzilla movies, but I’m personally all about adding to my horror collection.

Still, this is one of those deals that’s almost too good. I just want everything. To rein myself in, I wanted to settle on a theme, and I happen to organize by shelves by director. You know what director happens to have exactly three awesome horror movies, all of which are eligible for the deal? Jordan Peele. After scrolling through the entire sale, I’ve decided I'd go for Us, Nope, and Get Out, all for $33.

Nope, Us, and Get Out in 4K for $33

If you forced me to pick a favorite between these three movies, I’d lie to you. Well, I’d say one movie and then immediately feel like I was lying. Get Out, I truly believe, is one of the best directorial debuts in movie history. Lupita Nyong'o’s performance in Us is one of the best I’ve seen in horror, period. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget being awestruck by watching Nope on the big screen.

Nope is also the most recent physical release, and as such the one horror fans are least likely to have already. It’s also a movie I’d hesitate to call just “horror.” IGN’s 9/10 review of Nope describes it as “a sci-fi-horror-comedy that builds cinematic myths before casually knocking them over... from a studio director at the peak of his craft.”

To get this deal (or anything else from the sale), you just have to add all three movies to your cart. Amazon applies the promo automatically.

Jordan Peele's Next Movie Comes Out in 2026

Jordan Peele's next project is set to release in theaters in October 2026. I think it’s safe to say there are pretty high expectations here, but this is one director who’s more than likely to meet them. Peele's production company Monkeypaw is also releasing the sports horror movie Him later this year. In other mediums, the director is collaborating with none other than Hideo Kojima on a game currently titled OD.

More horror movies included in the sale:

The 2021 Candyman remake, which Peele helped write, is also included in the sale. I’ll probably use that as my excuse to get another three movies.

Blythe (she/her) is an SEO Coordinator at IGN who spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.

Lazarus brings together some of the most celebrated names in not just anime but all of entertainment. The completely original sci-fi series is helmed by none other than Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichirō Watanabe, though critic Ryan Guar's review of the first five episodes states that Lazarus is far from a Cowboy Bebop revival. The animation was led by Mappa Studio (Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen) alongside Sola Entertainment (Tower of God), while Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick movies, designed the action sequences.

With so much hype (and a little bit of mystery), it isn't surprising that Adult Swim picked up the anime to air new episodes in the U.S. at the same time as Japan. If you’re wondering how to watch new episodes of Lazarus online, check out the details below.

How to Watch Lazarus

New episodes of Lazarus stream on Max (instead of Crunchyroll or Netflix) the day after they broadcast on Adult Swim. That means new episodes of Lazarus will arrive on Max every Sunday. Max subscriptions start at $9.99 and can be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu.

According to a Warner Bros. press release, subbed versions of Lazarus episodes will air and arrive on Max 30 days after the dubbed episodes.

How to Watch New Episodes Live

Lazarus is airing simultaneously in Japan and the United States. In the States, you can watch new dubbed episodes of Lazarus live on Adult Swim during its Toonami block on Saturday nights. Aside from cable, Adult Swim is included in live TV subscriptions like Hulu + Live TV (which offers a three-day free trial).

Lazarus Episode Release Dates

The first season of Lazarus will include 13 episodes total. Each episode will air live on Adult Swim before arriving on Max. Note that episodes air at midnight (technically Sunday), but are part of Adult Swim's Saturday block, which is why that date is used. Think of it as you'll be staying up, not waking up, to watch new episodes.

Assuming it won't have a mid-season break, here's what I predict the episode release schedule will look like for Lazarus Season 1:

• Episode 1: "Goodbye Cruel World" - April 5 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: April 6, 2025
• Episode 2: "Life in the Fast Lane" - April 12 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: April 13
• Episode 3: "Long Way from Home" - April 19 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: April 20
• Episode 4: "Don't Stop the Dance" - April 26 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: April 27
• Episode 5: "Pretty Vacant" - May 3 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: May 4
• Episode 6: "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" - May 10 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: May 11
• Episode 7 - May 17 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: May 18
• Episode 8 - May 24 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: May 25
• Episode 9 - May 31 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: June 1
• Episode 10 - June 7 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: June 8
• Episode 11 - June 14 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: June 15
• Episode 12 - June 21 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: June 22
• Episode 13 - June 28 (12am EST/9pm PST)
  • Streaming: June 29

What Is Lazarus About?

In a rare move for the anime industry, Lazarus is entirely original. No manga inspiration here, so no reading ahead to find out what happens. Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Lazarus Voice Cast and Characters

Lazarus was created by Shinichirō Watanabe. Here's the main voice cast in Japanese and English:

• Mamoru Miyano (Japanese) and Jack Stansbury (English) as Axel
• Makoto Furukawa (Japanese) and Jovan Jackson (English) as Doug
• Maaya Uchida (Japanese) and Luci Christian (English) as Christine
• Yuma Uchida (Japanese) and Bryson Baugus (English) as Leland
• Manaka Iwami (Japanese) and Annie Wild (English) as Eleina
• Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese) and Jade Kelly (English) as Hersch
• Akio Otsuka (Japanese) and Sean Patrick Judge (English) as Abel
• Koichi Yamadera (Japanese); David Matranga (English) as Dr. Skinner

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered PC players ran into trouble after a surprise update launched today, but Bethesda says a fix is on the way.

Players woke up to find that Virtuos’ massive re-release received an unexpected update earlier today. With no patch notes or clear answer as to what the update addressed, most proceeded with their play sessions as normal. Others, however, quickly found that the first Oblivion Remastered update was causing more problems than it fixed

Yoooo why would @virtuosgames push an update to Oblivion Remastered that removes all upscaling right before the games first weekend?!!?

No DLSS
No FSR

RIP playable performance....

** Disable auto updates or disable internet connection **@bethesda @BethesdaStudios SAVE US! pic.twitter.com/EwJ5eu5qUN

— Twon. (@Web3Twon) April 25, 2025

“Can't change the upscaling methods anymore,” one Reddit user pointed out. “It's set to ‘off’ and while the arrows are clickable nothing happens. So I closed the game, disabled fluid motion in the NVidia app (was testing something before the patch came) and started the game again. Loading times for my save are long again and still can't change upscaling settings lol.

“Now I am stuck with 40-60 fps in high settings with a 5800X3D and a 5080. Nice patch :D”

While some players haven’t noticed much of a change in performance, others are reporting new struggles related to low framerates. Many have also noted that upscaling settings have been completely closed off, leaving fans with major visual issues ahead of Oblivion Remastered’s first weekend in players’ hands.

Bethesda finally attempted to address concerns with a post published on its official support page. As for what today’s Oblivion Remastered update was meant to fix, the post explains the patch simply included “a few backend tweaks and nothing directly impacting game play.” Unfortunately, it seems those who own Oblivion Remastered through the Microsoft Store are the ones running into problems with their upscaling and anti-aliasing options.

“Any graphic settings adjusted prior to the Microsoft Store hotfix are still enabled and function normally," Bethesda clarified. "However, you will temporarily be unable to adjust those settings due to the issue with the settings UI. The team is taking a look and working out a resolution, we will share more info as soon as we can."

For now, there’s no telling when exactly a resolution for what was originally supposed to be an under-the-radar hotfix will arrive. In the meantime, it appears players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S consoles can continue playing with no issue.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion launched for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X | S earlier this week. For more on Bethesda’s shadow-drop re-release, you can check out why Bethesda and Virtuos aimed to maintain the jank of the original game and why some players still love it all these years later.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Video game adaptations seem to be the trend of the hour. Just this month we’ve had A Minecraft Movie, the Devil May Cry anime, and the ongoing The Last of Us Season 2. Now we're getting the movie inspired by Sony's 2015 survival horror game Until Dawn.

I remember Until Dawn releasing at the height of the YouTube “Let’s Play” era and was a game that was as much fun to watch other people play as it was to play yourself. The game featured high-quality cinematics, in-game choices with real consequences and, most importantly, some pretty darn good jumpscares.

It’s not worth talking too much more about the original game because the movie seems to take inspiration mostly from the name and not much else. IGN’s Until Dawn review says it "shares a title and some key details with the game that inspired it, though it mostly tries to do its own thing – to mixed results.” Still, curiosity and a general love of horror is enough for me to still be interested.

If you’re planning to watch Until Dawn in theaters or want a sense of how long you’ll have to wait until it’s available to stream, check out the details below.

How to Watch Until Dawn

Until Dawn just released in theaters on Friday, April 25. You can check for showtimes near you at the main theater links below:

• Fandango
• Regal Theaters
• AMC Theaters
• Cinemark Theaters
• Alamo Drafthouse

Until Dawn Streaming Release Date

Until Dawn will eventually stream on Netflix, which has a licensing agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Recent Sony movies, like Venom: The Last Dance and Saturday Night, landed on Netflix exactly four months after their initial release dates. Assuming this same trend holds, Until Dawn will be available to stream on Netflix around August 25.

What About VOD?

Until Dawn will be available through digital marketplaces like Prime Video before it comes to streaming. VOD release dates vary, often based on box office performance, but generally shorter theatrical release windows mean Until Dawn could be available to rent by the end of May.

What Is Until Dawn About?

While the Until Dawn movie is technically inspired by the 2014 survival horror game, it features different characters and a standalone storyline. Here's the movie's official synopsis:

"One year after her sister disappeared, Clover and her friends head to the remote valley where she vanished to search for answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they soon encounter a masked killer who murders them one by one. However, when they mysteriously wake up at the beginning of the same night, they're forced to relive the terror over and over again."

Until Dawn Cast and Characters

The Until Dawn movie was written by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler and directed by David F. Sandberg (Annabelle: Creation). The movie stars the following cast:

• Ella Rubin as Clover
• Michael Cimino as Max
• Odessa A'zion as Nina
• Ji-young Yoo as Megan
• Belmont Cameli as Abel
• Maia Mitchell as Melanie
• Peter Stormare as Hill

Until Dawn Rating and Runtime

Until Dawn is Rated R for bloody horror violence, disturbing/grisly images, brief strong language, and sexual material. The movie runs for a total of one hour and 43 minutes.

Jesse Plemons has been cast as Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and he will be playing a younger version of the character the late Philip Seymour Hoffman played in the original Hunger Games films.

Lionsgate shared the news and noted that this future Head Gamemaker and rebellion leader will be seen at the beginning of the film "in District 12, capturing the reaping of the Tributes there."

As for the movie itself, it is based on Suzanne Collins' novel of the same name and "revisits the world of Panem twenty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell." And yes, these are the same deadly games that Woody Harrelson's Haymitch Abernathy played in (and won).