Anyone looking to add some pizazz to their gaming setup doesn’t have to look far to find ways to do so. One of the best ways is to pick up a special edition controller. And fans of Genshin Impact can now preorder the great-looking PS5 DualSense Wireless Controller – Genshin Impact Limited Edition (see it on PS Direct). It costs $84.99 and is set to release on February 25 in the U.S.

DualSense Wireless Controller - Genshin Impact Limited Edition

Fallout: Season 2 explores the backstory of how movie star and Vault-Tec pitchman Cooper Howard (played by Walton Goggins) went to Las Vegas before the war and met the man who he later tells Lucy MacLean was the main cause of the end of the world: Robert House.

As seen in the trailer, House recognizes the darkness lurking within Coop that will one day consume him as The Ghoul. House deems Coop “actually quite a violent man” who would do anything to protect his family. “You just don’t want to kill me … yet.” It seems then that the first steps of Coop’s tragic transformation into The Ghoul begins with his interactions with Mr. House.

Fans first saw Mr. House in live-action in Season 1 of the hit Prime Video series where the tech magnate was played by actor Rafi Silver. The Leftovers star Justin Theroux takes over the role for the show’s second season, lending the RobCo Industries founder a more urbane gravitas than the character we met in the first season.

I recently chatted with Justin Theroux over Zoom about Fallout: Season 2, his particular interpretation of Robert House, and the choices he made in bringing this iconic video game character to life. (Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity.)

Disney has agreed to license 200 of its most beloved characters for use in Sora's generative AI videos, alongside a $1 billion investment in OpenAI.

The three-year deal will allow users to generate short-form videos featuring Disney icons such as Mickey Mouse, Pixar favorites such as Woody, Marvel heroes like Black Panther and Captain America, as well as Star Wars characters like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.

Disney and OpenAI's agreement includes mention of a "shared commitment to the responsible use of AI that protects user safety and the rights of creators" and, notably, Disney has said that all of its licensed characters will be animated, masked or creatures, with no "talent likenesss or voices."

More to follow...

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Big news for zombieheads: Sony is moving forward with a third installment of the 28 Years Later films, with the decision coming over a month before the release of the second installment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

According to Deadline, original franchise star Cillian Murphy — who led breakout hit 28 Days Later back in 2002 and reprises that role in Bone Temple — is in talks to come back for the third film as well. Alex Garland, who has written all the franchise entries thus far, is currently working on the third entry, which does not have a title at this point in the process.

As far as a director goes for the next film, nothing is set in stone yet. However, Danny Boyle has been open about wanting to direct the third movie, so there’s a good chance he will. That said, we’ll see when that announcement arrives.

Sony has had the option to make a third 28 Years Later film since it won the rights to the franchise, but waited until now to greenlight it. It appears it wanted to gauge the audience response before proceeding — but by the looks of the recent fan screenings of The Bone Temple, which garnered a huge positive response, it felt confident taking the plunge.

28 Years Later managed to bring in over $150 million worldwide in theaters against a modest production budget, which makes it the highest grossing entry in the franchise as a whole. The first three films — 28 Days Later, 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, and this summer’s 28 Years Later — of the franchise have made over $300 million worldwide combined.

The next installment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is set to arrive in theaters on January 16, 2026.

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

Not long ago, the prospect of a 1440p OLED gaming monitor alone would have been exciting. Now OLED gaming monitors are becoming much more widely available, demonstrating performance improvements in leaps and bounds while the technology also trickles down to lower and lower prices. The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG fits somewhere in the middle of that formula, bringing newer Tandem OLED technology while not pushing the limits on speed and reining in the price to a modest $599 – one of the lower prices we’ve seen for any new OLED gaming monitor. But in a market that has been moving fast, the XG27AQWMG’s reservations may hold it back too much.

Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG – Design and Features

The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG is a classy monitor, though not a dazzling one. It keeps things fairly simple – there’s a splash of RGB on the back with an illuminated ROG logo, but it stops well short of garishness. The front also includes an ROG logo below the display itself on a little chin that also houses the monitor's controls: a pair of buttons and a four-way joystick for easy control.

The front of the monitor is all glass with a glossy finish and anti-glare layer that effectively cuts down on reflections. The back may be an all plastic affair, but it looks clean. There’s a large box housing all the electronics, the internal power supply, and the two HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4, and three USB ports (two downstream, one upstream). That internal power supply is a great perk for keeping desk space clean, and the USB hub doesn’t hurt either. A USB-C port with Power Delivery would have been nice to see, though.

The stand is also considerate of desk space. It has a fairly compact, hexagonal base that only takes up 7.4 inches of space front-to-back. While a small stand can present stability concerns, and the display certainly wiggled a bit, the XG27AQWMG never topped in testing. With an included adapter bracket, the monitor can be swapped over to a VESA 100x100 mount, but the included stand is quite flexible, and doesn’t beg for replacement. It provides a 4.3-inch height adjustment range, tilts 5 degrees down or 20 degrees back, can swivel 45 degrees in either direction, and pivots into a vertical orientation in either direction. The top of the stand includes a threaded hole for a microphone, light, or professional camera.

The display portion of the monitor is a very thin panel, as is typical of OLED. Asus shows this off well by partially separating it from the electronics housing on the rear. The bezels around the screen are minimal, though a touch thicker on the bottom. The display also uses a pixel shifting feature to protect the panel, and this can result in one side bezel being noticeably larger than the other (for aesthetically picky individuals, this can be turned off).

The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG doesn’t go very heavy on additional features. There are no speakers, for instance, but it has some typical gaming monitor features like an fps counter and crosshair overlay. The crosshair can automatically shift color for better contrast, which is a neat touch, though I find the crosshair lines a little thick to want to use in any case. Most of its features are meant to keep the OLED panel healthy by intelligently dimming bright elements if they’re on the screen for too long. The monitor can also use a sensor to detect when no one is near the monitor and turn it black, though the minimum time for this is five minutes, which just leaves me questioning: if you can sense I’m not at the monitor, why wait five minutes and not five seconds?

The monitor works with Asus’s DisplayWidget Center software. This provides access to the monitor’s settings through software on your computer, which can be easier to manage than the built-in OSD. Some features only work with the software, too, like linking display profiles to specific games.

Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG – Gaming and Performance

The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG provides a great setup for gaming. The 27-inch, 1440p panel is a tried and true combination for games offering a desk-friendly size with solid clarity that’s also far easier to push at high frame rates than 4K. Getting to match that with an OLED panel capable of running at 280Hz is nothing short of brilliant for gaming. I whipped through hours of combat in Battlefield 6 and had no struggles keeping up with the action thanks to the smooth refresh rates and fast pixel response times – that meant no blur when I had to spin 180 degrees to catch an enemy coming from behind.

The OLED panel is also wonderfully colorful, hitting 98% of the DCI-P3 color space for vivid visuals. If you’re playing a neon-soaked game like Cyberpunk 2077 or Ghostrunner, that color makes a world of difference. And it comes alongside infinite contrast thanks to pitch-black pixels. Unfortunately, the color doesn’t appear to be very accurate. Across several different visual profiles, the monitor saw average dE color errors over 2.5 and max dE errors over 6, limiting its potential for creative use. Only the sRGB Cal profile reached an average dE below 2, but still suffered from a max dE over 6, and it clamped too hard on the color, reducing sRGB color coverage to just 94%.

The XG27AQWMG has its sore points, though. As exciting as Tandem OLED should be, you’ll get some of what you’re hoping for and some of what you’re not. While testing the monitor at its default settings showed perfect black pixels alongside a respectable 253-nit average brightness, maxing out the brightness and enabling the monitor's Performance mode inched up the black floor to 0.02-nit black. It’s hard, bordering on impossible, to perceive, but I measured it consistently. The tradeoff is a more tangible uplift in brightness, with the monitor able to reach 380 nits – a strong result for an OLED display. For comparison, the MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50 topped out at 297.8 nits.

With HDR enabled, the monitor could reach even higher, though this also proved somewhat variable. With a 100% white window, it hit 359 nits, and with a 10% white window it reached 618 nits, both with the Gaming HDR preset. The HDR500 True Black setting had similar performance. While good, the monitor had plenty of room for improvement, and using its Adjustable HDR setting at 100% brightness let it shine even brighter, reaching 842 nits in a 10% window. This setting also didn’t see the raised black floor that had affected other presets. Why Asus made it a minor chore to get this peak brightness is a curiosity, but with HDR performance like this, the monitor has a lot of promise for games and movies alike.

Another OLED issue still lingers here: subpixel arrangements resulting in reduced clarity. While I’ve seen color fringing go from hard-to-overlook to hard-to-spot as panel designs have progressed over the last few years, the XG27AQWMG isn’t at the front of the pack even with its new Tandem OLED tech. This fringing manifests on the edges of fine lines (i.e., text). It’s not a constant nuisance, with black text on a white background rarely exhibiting the fringing. But I’ve seen it more often here than on recent QD-OLED panels.

The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG may have an edge in brightness thanks to its Tandem OLED panel, but it fails to stand out as much as it could with its color accuracy and fringing. This sees it lag behind the MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50, which isn’t quite as bright but hits 500Hz, has the same color gamut, more accurate color, less noticeable fringing, and was $649 at the time of writing.

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 December 2025 that you can redeem for free rewards and bonuses in DTI, including outfits and accessories like hats, bags, and jewelry.

The next Free Comic Book Day may be half a year away, but that's not stopping Oni Press from revealing what they've got in store for 2026's big event. And it's a big one, as it offers a double dose of new stories from acclaimed writer/artist Matt Kindt and his Flux House imprint.

IGN can exclusively reveal that Oni Press will release Mind MGMT/Fort Psycho FCBD 2026 Special. This issue will offer readers a glimpse of both Kindty's Mind MGMT sequel Mind MGMT: New & Improved and Fort Psycho, his upcoming collaboration with The Sixth Gun artist Brian Hurtt. Check out the cover to the FCBD special below:

As the wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 goes on, some fans believe developer Bethesda teased its release year in a live-action Skyrim trailer.

Earlier this week, Bethesda shadow-dropped Skyrim on Nintendo Switch 2, and in doing so released a live-action comedy trailer that saw a bad Santa enlist the help of two of his elves.

The trailer, below, shows one of the elves raising their speech level to 27 after suggesting Skyrim launch on Switch 2, with their overall character level progress working towards 20. Why pick 20 and 27 specifically? Because The Elder Scrolls 6 is coming out in 2027, some fans are now saying.

“This honestly might be the best piece of evidence we have for a release date,” one fan said. “Those are very specific numbers and I don’t think they would use those numbers by accident.” “My god we’ve gotten so desperate,” countered another.

They are oddly specific numbers though, and you’d like to think Bethesda knew what it was doing by choosing them, rather than rolling the dice and coming up with random numbers. This is The Elder Scrolls 6 we’re talking about — it’s one of the most anticipated video games currently in development. Fans want — need! — to know when it’s coming out, and so anything like this was always going to set them off.

But is 2027 a likely release year? Last month, Bethesda chief Todd Howard said The Elder Scrolls 6 wouldn’t be out for some time yet despite being announced over seven years ago. In an interview with GQ magazine to celebrate the release of Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition, Howard said The Elder Scrolls 6 is “still a long way off.” He added: “I’m preaching patience. I don’t want fans to feel anxious.”

You can understand why patience might be difficult for some fans though. In January this year, The Elder Scrolls 6 announcement became as old as predecessor Skyrim was when The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced. Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011, and The Elder Scrolls 6 was revealed on June 10, 2018 — 2,403 days afterwards. It is now seven-and-a-half years since the announcement, and we’re no closer, it seems, to the release of the game.

When the six-year anniversary of The Elder Scrolls 6 announcement arrived in June last year, even Todd Howard paused to say, "oh wow, that has been a while." The Elder Scrolls 6 is at least in production, with Bethesda confirming it had entered "early development" in August 2023 and "early builds" were available in March 2024.

In the GQ article, Howard once again admitted that it has taken too long to get The Elder Scrolls 6 out the door, but did tease a The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered-style shadowdrop — without confirming anything.

“I do like to have a break between them, where it isn’t like a ‘plus one’ sequel,” Howard said of making The Elder Scrolls games again. “I think it’s also good for an audience to have a break — The Elder Scrolls has been too long, let’s be clear. But we wanted to do something new with Starfield. We needed a creative reset.” Bethesda is currently playtesting The Elder Scrolls 6, Howard revealed.

“I like to just announce stuff and release it,” Howard continued. “My perfect version — and I’m not saying this is going to happen — is that it's going to be a while and then, one day, the game will just appear.” The Oblivion Remastered shadowdrop was “a test run,” Howard teased. “It worked out well.”

As for what Bethesda has going on right now, hundreds of people are working on Fallout, Howard said, across Fallout 76 “and some other things we're doing, but The Elder Scrolls 6 is the everyday thing.”

Earlier this year it was confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 will include a character designed in memory of a much-missed fan after a remarkable charity campaign that raised more than $85,000 for Make-A-Wish.

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

Kim Kardashian is joining Fortnite, and you'll be able to play as the TV and fashion icon beginning this weekend.

Two Kim Kardashian skins will become available in Fortnite this Saturday, December 13, cementing the star as one of the game's highest-profile public figures to date.

Leaning into the Kardashian's fashionable status, Kim's skins have been designed to be highly customisable. The Iconic Kim Kardashian skin features her in skin-tight attire with alterable colors, necklines and hairstyles. The regular Kim Kardashian skin, meanwhile, comes with a jacket you can toggle on and off.

The culprit behind the recent viral but very much fake Shenmue 4 trailer has apologized for creating false AI footage of the franchise's fictional fourth game.

In a post on fan forum ShenmueDojo, the creator, under the alias "JustAFan1," issued an apology for misleading the internet — just days after Shenmue developer Ys Net released its own statement that slammed the video for raising fan hopes and revealed it was now exploring legal action.

In their statement, JustAFan1 explained that they had made the video not "out of malice, but love for Shenmue." Indeed, their statement ends with the suggestion that "all the media attention this has received will do something to convince investors" that Shenmue 4 should be made.

"I just wanted to set the record straight for all those who think it might still be half real," JustAFan1 wrote. "It's not.

"I know many of you will want to hang me for dashing your hopes, but know this was not done out of malice, but love for Shenmue. I realize I went about it the wrong way, and I apologize for that. But I hope all the media attention this has received will do something to convince investors that Shenmue is very much alive and profitable if approached correctly."

As proof that they were the creator of the video, JustAFan1 posted a link to a new version of the trailer with additional music and footage, along with a lengthier apology statement in both English and Japanese.

"I want to be absolutely clear: I am merely a fan of the series and have absolutely no professional or personal affiliation with Ys Net, nor have I ever had any," this statement reads. "The creation and release of the trailer, which presented itself as an official piece of promotional material recorded behind the scenes, was a lapse in judgment. I take full responsibility for this action."

JustAFan1's statement continues by confirming that the fake trailer's story elements were made using publicly available lore and common fan theories about where the Shenmue series might progress in future, with nothing that specifically reflected any real development that may or may not be underway within Ys Net.

"While my intent was centered on a positive outcome, the method I chose to achieve it was misleading and unprofessional. I deeply regret creating and sharing information that was not factual, and I understand the negative impact this misinformation had.

"The sole purpose behind creating the 'Shenmue 4' trailer was to demonstrate the sustained and substantial market demand and community enthusiasm for this beloved series," the video statement concludes. "I meant no harm to Ys Net, its brand, or its loyal fans. My motivation was to champion the series and help encourage its continuation, not to mislead or create distress."

Reaction to the statement has been mostly supportive, with many agreeing that the trailer had created fresh buzz for the franchise amid hope for confirmation of a new game.

"Nah, you're good," fan hyo_razuki replied. "I knew it was fake from the beginning but it was fun and you generated some enthusiasm for Shenmue, so no biggie, no need to apologize."

As of now, it's unknown if a fourth major Shenmue game will ever get made, though the franchise's fans certainly hope it happens. Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki told IGN in 2023 that he wanted to create a fourth game at some point, though he is currently still working on an enhanced version of Shenmue 3. This, Suzuki hopes, will win the game a warmer reception across a wider set of platforms, after a middling response to Shenmue 3 at the game's initial launch.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Delta Force is kicking off its year-end festivities with a major splash. With the 2025 Delta Force Invitational: Warfare (DFIW) on the horizon and a jam-packed month of limited-time holiday content, players can dive into a slew of events. From pro-level missions to prediction brackets, exclusive cosmetic items, and chaotic game modes, there is a whole lot to explore this holiday season.

2025 Delta Force Invitational: Warfare Event Roadmap

To coincide with the DFIW, which will see the world’s first 20 vs 20 Warfare World Championship, Delta Force is rolling out a roadmap of four interconnected events.

Fans can tune into the 2025 DFIW starting December 11th at 05:00 UTC across X, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok.

1. Pick’em: Predict the Winners, Claim Exclusive Gear (December 9th – 17th)

The Pick’em event lets players place their predictions on tournament matchups, offering escalating rewards based on accuracy. Pick’em is a single submission only. Once the deadline hits, brackets are locked for good.

Rewards:

• ASV - Night Veil Skin: Earned just by submitting a bracket
• IFV - Zebra: Awarded for correctly predicting at least 2 of the top 4 teams
• Recon Helicopter - Action Time: Given to anyone who predicts the exact Finals matchup

2. Battlefield Challenge: “Play Like a Pro” Mission Track (December 5th – 18th)

This challenge series teaches players the same competitive strategies used by championship teams. Rather than a simple grind, each mission highlights a key tactic from the current esports meta.

Two-Phase Structure:

• Phase 1 (Dec 5): Infantry combat, recon scoring, squad support.
• Phase 2 (Dec 12): Tank gameplay, engineer roles, armour-focused strategies.

Rewards:

• Wheeled Tank Destroyer – Gear Shift
• 2,400 Glacial Tokens

3. Glacial Fortune Shop (December 5th – 18th)

Running alongside the Battlefield Challenge, the Glacial Fortune Shop allows players to redeem their earned tokens for limited Appearances at 600 tokens each. Total completion allows you to buy the full collection.

Available Skins (Glacial Strike Set):

• MK47 Assault Rifle
• SR-3M
• Mini-14
• Bizon

Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 4, which addresses a number of stability and performance issues, arrives on December 16, Capcom has announced.

As part of this, Capcom has "committed" to improving stability and performance, detailing what changes are coming and when, including CPU/GPU improvements, load reduction, and the optimization of "PC-specific processes and addition of options and presets to reduce processing load."

The commitment comes as Monster Hunter Wilds' impressive sales, especially on PC, were offset by its 'Mixed' Steam reviews at launch. Despite director Yuya Tokuda's commitment to stability and improvements, dissatisfaction persists, and even with new content and seasons, fans remain unhappy with the state of the game, to the point where some are taking things too far and harassing individual Capcom team members.

Now, Capcom says the free Title Update 4 will introduce "an array of performance improvements across all platforms," focusing on CPU and GPU optimization and reducing processing load "with more than 100 under-the-hood improvements, among others."

"We'll follow this up in January with a PC-specific update with even more improvements, and are looking into further optimization for implementation in the February content update," the team explained. "We're committed to making Monster Hunter Wilds a great experience for all players. Thank you for your patience and continued support."

Here's the full list of changes, with more to come on December 12:

Monster Hunter Wilds Commitment to Improving Stability and Performance:

December: Title Update 4

CPU/GPU optimization (All Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series, Steam)

• Processing Improvements: Processing time will be improved by distributing the process across frames for elements that demand the heaviest load, which includes players, monsters, and graphical user interfaces.
• Load Reduction: Processing load is reduced by comprehensively reviewing and streamlining various processes, such as reducing the number of simultaneous effects and improving collision detection for Palico and Seikret.
• Various other improvements, including optimization and reduction of memory usage, will be implemented.

January 2026: Steam Version Exclusive Patch

Optimization of PC-specific processes and addition of options and presets to reduce processing load (Steam)

• Adding new graphics and CPU settings as well as new presets, providing additional options to reduce processing load
• Improving shader compilation process (reduced stuttering)
• VRAM usage improvements
• High-resolution texture pack improvements (improving texture streaming speeds)

February 2026: Ver. 1.041 — Additional Optimization

• Adding level-of-details (LOD) quality levels to the polygon mesh for 3D models (reducing GPU processing load)
• We are also re-examining memory-related processes to identify further potential improvements.

Last week, at the PlayStation Partner Awards 2025 Japan Asia held in Tokyo, Monster Hunter Wilds won the Grand Award and the User's Choice Award. In an interview held before the award ceremony, Ryozo Tsujimoto, the producer of this work, and Yuya Tokuda, the director, answered questions from local media, and acknowledged the criticisms raised by players.

"Immediately after the release, we apologized for the inconvenience caused by the volume of content and the difficulty level," Tokuda said. "Despite this, we were delighted to receive various awards, including Users' Choice awards. We would like to thank all the players who have given their opinions and spoken warm words even in this situation. The development team was able to turn everyone's feedback into an asset and work on the update with all our strength, and I think the result was also the reason why players voted for us."

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

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead is working on a roguelite mode, the studio’s boss has revealed, although there's no guarantee it will actually come out.

Arrowhead CCO and Helldivers 2 creative director, Johan Pilestedt, responded to a fan on social media to say “we have a prototype of a roguelite mode — it changes the game fundamentally!”

That casual reveal has already set fans of the explosive co-op action shooter into overdrive imagining how a roguelite mode would work in the game, which revolves around open and shut missions restricted by time limits.

“Going to be us defending the Evac from endless patrols but the bird never shows up,” suggested one fan. “Wave complete. Choose a booster to add: Reinforcement budget, flexible budget, discount budget (reinforcing multiple teammates takes up only one call in),” suggested another. And here’s another take: “I think it would be cool to add that… a mission that has no helldiver limit, or no time limit with a limited amount of reinforcements… and just defend a fort from wave after wave of enemies, and we get rewarded based off of how many waves of enemies we can eliminate before time runs out, or the amount of reinforcements runs out…”

It’s worth pointing out that Pilestedt has only so far confirmed that a prototype for this mode has been built, so it may never come to fruition. But given Pilestedt mentioned it in a post on social media — already viewed over 120,000 times — you’d like to think the developers are confident it will eventually see the light of day.

Clearly, Arrowhead will continue to update the game for some time to come. Helldivers 2 is just coming off its big 5.0.0 patch as well as its jungle-themed Python Commandos Warbond, which adds a number of fan-requested weapons including a minigun. In September, the studio’s CEO confirmed Helldivers 3 is not in any plan developer Arrowhead has right now, saying that instead it wants Helldivers 2 to keep going for years and years, like veteran MMO RuneScape. And then there’s the Helldivers 2 movie, which is picking up steam.

In a subsequent tweet, Pilestedt posted a picture of a meeting with the Helldivers 2 directors to discuss the game's next four arcs, which one fan joked would take a few years to work through. Of course there will be plenty more coming to the game in between.

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

Just a day after Bethesda announced and launched The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Nintendo Switch 2, the publisher has acknowledged the game has performance issues.

In a lengthy thread on reddit that brands the port as a "disaster," there are widespread complaints about input lag and the game's locked 30 frames per second visuals. "There's like a whole second between me flicking the stick and my character moving its head," the post's author wrote, describing the experience as worse than "online Smash Bros."

Many have compared Skyrim's Switch 2 port with that of the far more recent Cyberpunk 2077, which offers 40 frames per second on Nintendo's new hardware while rendering considerably more detailed environments. And there has been criticism, too, of the fact the game hogs 53GB of space on the Switch 2's relatively limited internal memory, compared to just 25GB on PC.

A separate reddit post with more than 2,400 upvotes showing a video of the game's input delay can be seen below:

On Bethesda's official support site, the publisher has listed a question that asks: "Why am I experiencing frame rate issues with The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim following the Anniversary Edition update on Nintendo Switch?"

"We are investigating reports of performance issues on Nintendo Switch with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim after the Anniversary Edition update," is the official response. There's no word on fixes yet, but the publisher said anyone experiencing issues could subscribe to the article for updates.

"In addition, you can provide feedback and information regarding on this topic via the Feedback form," Bethesda concluded.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition is being sold for $59.99. Alternatively, anyone who owns Skyrim Anniversary Edition on the original Switch can pay $19.99 to upgrade the game and play on both consoles.

Included for your money are Skyrim's base game and the three official Expansions: Dawnguard; Dragonborn; and Hearthfire. Players on Switch 2 get experience enhanced resolution, improved load times, performance optimisation, Joy-Con 2 mouse support, motion controls, Amiibo support, and more versus the OG Switch version, taking advantage of the more powerful hardware.

This week, IGN talked with Bethesda Game Studios exec Todd Howard about the company's future plans. Intriguinly, Howard said that while The Elder Scrolls 6 was still the next big new video game to be in the works, Fallout is the franchise the studio is doing the most in right now.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Jim Ward, the voice of Ratchet & Clank's Captain Qwark, has died aged 66.

The news was revealed by his former co-host at The Stephanie Miller Show, who wrote on X/Twitter: "One of the saddest messages I have ever received from the amazing Mrs Jim Ward: Our wonderful 'voice deity' as Steph anointed Jim Ward, passed away today at 10:45am."

Ward co-hosted the show with Miller for 13 years until his departure in 2017. In 2021, it was revealed he had contracted a "severe case" of COVID-19 after being hospitalized for a mild cognitive memory issue, which "completely paralyzed" him for four months. He later developed Alzheimer's disease. It's for this reason that Ward did not feature in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

Yet another leak ahead of tonight's The Game Awards 2025 has revealed a legendary music star as a new James Bond villain in 007 First Light.

In a now-deleted social post from the official 007 social media account, Fly Away singer Lenny Kravitz was unmasked as playing a First Light character named Bawma, who shares Kravitz's likeness. And while the post may have been swiftly removed, the internet still took notice — seemingly letting a further secret out ahead of tonight's big gaming awards and announcement event.

"He rose from nothing, broke free, and built his own Kindom of Aleph," the now-deleted post read. "Introducing Bawma, the largest black-market dealer in the Western Hemisphere who's as charismatic as he is unpredictable."

The accompanying video, now also deleted, shows clearly that Bawma is a villain, as he has strung up Bond and threatens to drop him into a pit packed with crocodiles.

Creative Assembly has confirmed it has a new Total War video game set to be announced at The Game Awards, but what is it? Warhammer 40,000 fans think they know — and one eagle-eyed viewer even spotted what looks like concrete evidence.

The Sega-owned strategy specialist behind Total War: Warhammer (the fantasy version of Games Workshop's much-loved tabletop setting) is rumored to be working on a Warhammer 40,000 and a Star Wars take on its long-running Total War series, and it looks like the Warhammer 40,000 game will finally get announced at The Game Awards tonight.

Redditor Knavbot took to the Total War subreddit to point to a blink-and-you’ll miss it reference to 40K in Creative Assembly’s recent showcase livestream (the one where the developer announced Total War: Medieval 3). I really do mean blink-and-you'll miss it because the files labeled 40k are incredibly hard to spot. I had to slow the video right down at the 32:42 mark and freeze-frame to see them, but yes, they are there:

Jonathan Blow has just "announced an announcement," teasing he just may be getting on a plane today to join a "gaming industry event coming up."

Blow — perhaps best known for 2008's Braid and 2016's The Witness — popped up on his YouTube channel with a brief video, revealing that a project that has likely taken "nine or 10 years to make" is "finally get[ting] out to people." And while it's probably not "a trailer for like an RPG where you fight monsters from hell" — "nothing wrong with that," he hastily added — whatever it is seems likely to be showing up at 2025's The Game Awards.

"We've been working hard on projects for a very long time. We have a wide variety of things that we've been developing. They're very complicated. Sometimes they take a while to come to fruition. Do we give up? No, we do not. We keep going, and we get them done because ultimately, even if something took nine years or 10 years to make, if you work hard for a long time, you can produce something that is tremendously good, much better than you ever expected in the beginning, and then you can finally get it out to people.

The Elder Scrolls 6 may be the next big brand new video game announced by Bethesda to be in the works, but Fallout is the franchise the studio is doing the most in right now, Todd Howard has told IGN.

Fallout Season 2 is set to hit Prime Video this month, and while Bethesda has a new Fallout: New Vegas bundle, there’s no word yet on a Fallout remaster or a Fallout: New Vegas 2 to capitalize on the surge of interest in the franchise.

There was no mention made during the recent Fallout Day broadcast of a Fallout: New Vegas remaster, which some (including Danny Trejo!) had called on Bethesda to develop. Indeed, there were no new Fallout games announced at all. Find out everything announced during the Fallout Day broadcast here.

But there are all sorts of rumors floating around about potential Fallout remakes now that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is out the door (Fallout 3 Remastered was leaked back in 2023, but those plans may have changed). And we know Bethesda wants to eventually get to Fallout 5, albeit after The Elder Scrolls 6.

The last we heard on Fallout 5, by the way, was back in June 2024, when Todd Howard said he wasn’t interested in rushing it out the door. Fast forward a year and a half, and IGN had the chance to quiz Todd Howard on all things Fallout, alongside Kevin Beatty, Head of Product for Samsung Gaming, Interactive Experiences, and Emerging Tech (Bethesda and Xbox recently announced a partnership with Amazon and Samsung to stream Season 1 for free on Samsung TV Plus ahead of Season 2). In the interview, Howard remained coy when asked directly about a number of unannounced projects, but did offer a tantalizing tease that should get Fallout fans excited.

We started by asking Howard if the explosive success of the Fallout TV show had caused Bethesda to alter its plans for new Fallout games, either creatively or timeline-wise. Howard denied that, saying Bethesda already had a plan for the Fallout games it wanted to make.

“No, it hasn't,” he replied. “We had a plan for the games we were going to make. The TV show was part obviously of our Fallout plan as far as a franchise. And in a lot of ways, I view it as an entry, as a game entry. Games are one lens into the world, the TV show is another lens into the world.

“The one thing it has led us to do is people are coming back to the games that are already available. So, you're seeing record numbers again back in Fallout 4, from the first season, again, in this season. Fallout 76 obviously is a game that we've continued to update for the last seven years. So that's probably the one where we really see engaged audiences.

“So, the one thing it's made us do is lean into that. We know that we have an audience there in that game in particular. And the Burning Springs update that just came out, and having Walton Goggins in the game is The Ghoul, just there's some really, really good opportunities there.”

We then asked Howard if Bethesda being owned by Microsoft had made it likely that the company might partner with, for example, Obsidian, developer of the original Fallout: New Vegas, or Wasteland developer inXile — both of which are Xbox studios — on a new Fallout: New Vegas game while fans wait for Fallout 5.

Again, Howard was coy in his response. “We've had a long-term plan for Fallout, and so I wish I could talk about all those today,” he said. “I'll just say this, it's the franchise that we're doing the most in right now.”

That cryptic tease at the end will be of interest to The Elder Scrolls fans patiently waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6 to come out. While that game is clearly of a big focus internally at Bethesda, it’s interesting to learn that there’s a lot more going on for Fallout.

And finally on this topic, we asked Howard if the success of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which has seen over 4 million players since it shadow-dropped earlier this year, was a repeatable trick for a Fallout 3 Remastered. Howard once again kept his cards close to his chest, and reiterated a point he’s been making a lot in interviews lately.

“I will just say that the Oblivion Remaster, we're really, really pleased with how well it did, it was a very long project too, and not just in how it was received, the ability to shadow drop it, and the response to doing that,” he said. “I like to do that with games as much as possible. I love the moment that you find out about a game.”

Howard continued: “And I like to think about when somebody presses play, what is in their head? What do they think? What is their expectation? What's their excitement level? What do they think about the thing they're about to play? And so, I like to back up from that moment with how we talk about it, and sometimes there are big gaps.”

Big gaps indeed. The last mainline Fallout game was Fallout 4, which was released in 2015. DLC content for the entry was steadily released for PC and consoles over the next year, and in 2018, Bethesda launched its multiplayer-centered offshoot, Fallout 76. While fans flocked to the West Virginia-set open-world RPG over time (and after a rocky launch), it wasn’t until the premiere of Prime Video’s Fallout TV show that the Bethesda series leveled up in terms of attention.

Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images.

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

Another day, another leak ahead of The Game Awards 2025 — which is set to feature a look at what's next for Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft.

Ahead of time, cover artwork has leaked for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, what looks to be a full remake of the franchise's original game. There are stills from a new trailer, too, showing Lara Croft in action.

Croft's design here appears to be a blend of the character's 'classic' design with her look from the franchise's more recent reboot trilogy, which showcased her origins. It's presumed that this remake will fully position the series' first Tomb Raider adventure as taking place after that trilogy, as had always been suggested.

Se habría filtrado "Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis", el remake del primer juego con algunas imágenes, portada incluida.

NeoRaider (Resetera).https://t.co/Ni4fGDRQ7F#PS5 pic.twitter.com/T0cBjaFWb1

— Universo PlayStation (@PlayVerso) December 11, 2025

More screenshots of the new Tomb Raider, it looks like a TR1 remake pic.twitter.com/BvmiNrMdAt

— Tarada (Ash)Croft (@JesuisJanice) December 11, 2025

After the images leaked online last night via video game forum ResetEra, fans quickly noted that Croft's box art pose perfectly matches that seen in The Game Awards' official social media teaser for tonight, where she is stood atop a rock, with one arm outstretched, iconic dual pistols raised.

The Game Awards' teaser boasted of "a look at the future of one of gaming's most iconic franchises" and tagged in the official Tomb Raider account, but is a remake really all that's in the works? It seems unlikely. Replying to the leak via ResetEra, noted gaming tipster Shinobi602 suggested that multiple projects would be shown tonight, and fans would not be disappointed.

Indeed, Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics has been working now for several years on its next chapter of the franchise. Here's hoping we get some word of that tonight too.

First announced in 2022, we are yet to see anything of the all-new Tomb Raider, though we did get a look at the Lara Croft redesign last year. Meanwhile, it has been a turbulent time for Crystal Dynamics with three waves of layoffs this year, including 30 individuals last month, an unknown number of workers in August following the cancellation of Perfect Dark by Xbox, and 17 people earlier in the year, as well as 10 others back in 2023.

Alongside all this, we know there's a live-action Tomb Raider series in the works at Amazon in partnership with Story Kitchen, starring Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner as Lara Croft. The show will, per Story Kitchen, "reinvent the franchise on a massive scale" and will interconnect "live-action television series and video games into a unified storytelling universe." How will it all connect? What else is in the works? We may well find out more tonight.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Hunger Games stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are set to reprise their roles as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, respectively, in 2026’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

No specifics of their planned appearance have been otherwise discussed but, as Sunrise on the Reaping is set 24 years before the events of the first film, it’s clear some kind of time jump will be necessary. Those who have already read Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping novel, published in March this year, will already have an idea of how and when Katniss and Peeta are likely to pop up in this adaptation.

The debut trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping was released last month, a year out from its November 20, 2026 release date. It will be the sixth installment of The Hunger Games film franchise.

Sunrise on the Reaping acts as both a prequel to the original series and a sequel to the first Hunger Games prequel story, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes arrived as a novel in 2020, and a film adaptation starring Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler followed in 2023.

Directed by Francis Lawrence (who has helmed the Hunger Games films since Catching Fire), Sunrise on the Reaping will star Joseph Zada, Elle Fanning, Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Jesse Plemons, and Kieran Culkin.

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

Winter season is fast approaching (technically winter starts on December 21 here in the States). You should seriously consider picking up at least a power station to keep your mobile electronics topped up in case of emergencies. If you already are, then check out this great Ecoflow deal just in time for the holidays.

Right now, AliExpress is offering the Ecoflow River 3 230Wh LiFePO4 power station for just $113.45 after you apply $20 off code "AEUS20". It's sold through Ecoflow's official Aliexpress storefront and it ships from a local US warehouse so your order delivers quickly and you don't need to worry about additional tariff fees. Although the product images state a 5 year warranty, I think it actually comes with a 2 year warranty according to Ecoflow's website.

Update: If the page you land on says that the vendor "cannot ship to your location", just proceed to add the power station to your cart. Go back to the product page and it will refresh with the correct shipping options.

Ecoflow River 3 Power Station for $113.45

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

Dell and Alienware Coupons

Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming PC Deals

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

Alienware Area-51 Gaming PC Deals

If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further. Dell unveiled the new Alienware Area-51 gaming PC at CES 2025. The chassis is a super-sized upgrade to the Aurora R16 system with aesthetic and cooling redesigns. The internal components have been refreshed with a new motherboard, faster RAM, and bigger power supply to accommodate the new generation of CPUs and GPUs. With a high-end system like this, it's only fitting that it be equipped with an RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 graphics card, so these are the configurations I've listed here. Note that Dell Outlet refurbished PCs come with the same warranty as buying new.

Alienware Aurora Gaming Laptop Deals

Alienware's new mainstream gaming laptop for 2025 is dubbed the "Alienware Aurora" and it replaces the previous generation's x16 and m16 series of laptops. It comes in two models: the 16 and 16X. The 16 is the more economical model, but gamers should definitely opt for the higher-end 16X model. If you're looking for build quality and performance on par with the previous generation m16, then the 16X is its spiritual successor. It features an anodized aluminum lid and base, a higher quality display, a more powerful CPU, and a GPU that isn't throttled for maximum gaming performance.

Alienware Area-51 Gaming Laptop Deals

Alienware 18 Area-51 (18")

Alienware 16 Area-51 (16")

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

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

Gaming Monitor Deals

Dell makes some of the highest quality gaming monitors around. They're easily on par with the best that other brands like Samsung, LG, and Asus have to offer. For Cyber Monday, they're also incredibly well-priced. For example, the venerable 34" Alienware AW3423DWF Qfor $499.99 is the lower price I've ever seen for a 34" OLED monitor. By the way, if you do opt for a Dell or Alienware OLED monitor, you also get a 3 year warranty that includes OLED burn-in protection.

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

Sony's newest flagship wireless noise cancelling headphone is back on sale again. Just in time for the holidays, Secondipity via eBay is selling certified refurbished Sony WH-1000XM6 wireless noise canceling headphones for just $279.99 (normally $450) after coupon code "KLARNAUS50". It also comes with a 2-year Allstate extended warranty.

This is an amazing gift for anyone who would appreciate a pair of some of the best noise canceling headphones on the market. Your order arrives in 2-4 days, well before Christmas.

Secondipity is a well-established reseller of refurbished Sony products across eBay, Amazon, and more. The eBay storefront has over 100K reviews with a greater than 99% rating.

Sony WH-1000XM6 Headphones for $279.99

Certified refurbished