Project Hail Mary co-director Christopher Miller has moved to clarify recent comments in which he said there isn't a single green screen shot in the entire movie.
The Ryan Gosling sci-fi film, due out March 20, is based on The Martian author Andy Weir’s hard-science novel of the same name, and revolves around an astronaut who encounters an alien while trying to save Earth.
In interviews with the press, Miller, who directed Project Hail Mary alongside collaborator Phil Lord, said there is no green screen at all, the ship was built as a set, and the alien character, called Rocky, was actually in the scenes as a puppet. This, Miller said, helps make Project Hail Mary feel real.
Those comments sparked a mixed reaction, with some expressing disbelief, especially when you consider Project Hail Mary spends much of its runtime in space. “They actually shot in space,” joked author Zoë Rose Bryant.
Now, Miller has issued a clarification statement, taking to X / Twitter to say "no green screen" doesn’t mean "no VFX.”
“There were, in fact, thousands of VFX shots in the film (2018!),” Miller went on to say. “Green screen is sometimes used in lieu of building sets or figuring out locations/lighting in advance, which can be noticeable if not done carefully, and is something we didn’t want to do. We built the entire interior of the Hail Mary ship — but within the ship, there were still wire and puppeteer removals and ceiling replacements, etc.
“When Ryan is outside on the hull of the ship, we shot him in front of a black background for space and a shifting hue background when he was up against the aurora of a planet which allowed for truer interactive light on him than a green screen would. The wide space exteriors and spaceship shots were entirely digital and beautifully done by ILM. Rocky was a seamless blend of puppetry and animation from Framestore. And other great work from many more. It really does take a village and we had the best of the best on our side.”
So, Miller was correct in saying no green screen was used, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t visual effects in Project Hail Mary, which some had taken it to mean.
One high-profile fan of the approach taken for Project Hail Mary is Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro, who praised Miller and Lord in a social media post. "What Phil and Chris did here, the amount of PRACTICAL sets and effects and puppets is just so beautiful to see," he said.
What Phil and Chris did here- the amount of PRACTICAl sets and effects and puppets is just so beautiful to see- so inspiring to hold- it's a goal- and aspiration and a commitment. Specially now- so much- now. https://t.co/7GjAdUC2wA
The first trailer for Project Hail Mary was released at the end of June last year — and it blew up online, garnering over 400 million views in a single week. At the time, that was a record for a film that was not a sequel or a remake.
Project Hail Mary stars Ryan Gosling as a professor, scientist, and astronaut who wakes up one day on a spaceship with no recollection of how he got there and a new mission that will put him at the center of saving humanity from a catastrophic event. Sandra Huller and Milana Vayntrub star alongside Gosling, who also produced the project. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse fame have teamed up once again for their first directed film in 12 years following 2014’s 22 Jump Street.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Highguard, the free-to-play PvP raid shooter announced at The Game Awards last year and set to close next week, has released its final update.
Developer Wildlight announced that it would permanently shut down Highguard on March 12, but not before a "farewell tour," which also just-so-happens to be the name of the shooter's final patch.
Highguard launched on January 26 after almost no communication with prospective players between its December announcement and launch day. While Steam concurrents almost hit a high of 100,000, peak concurrents on Valve's platform soon plummeted (neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public). And though Wildgate was quick to address issues with the game, even adding a 5v5 game mode to counter 3v3 complaints, shortly thereafter, most of the studio was laid off.
Now, as the team issues its final patch, it thanked everyone who has and is still playing Highguard, writing: "Even though we are shutting the game down, we are excited to give our remaining players one last big update to keep you entertained over the weekend. Thanks again for playing with us. Enjoy!"
This final update adds a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and a skill tree for those who want to get their final matches in.
Highguard 'The Farewell Tour' Patch Notes:
For our final patch, we’d like to thank everyone who has played and is still playing Highguard. Even though we are shutting the game down, we are excited to give our remaining players one last big update to keep you entertained over the weekend. Thanks again for playing with us. Enjoy!
Account Progression
You’ll now level up your account level just by playing the game. As you return to the lobby, you’ll gain XP, level up, and earn Skill Points to be spent on the new Skill Tree!
Everyone’s account will start at level 0, and goes to level 100.
Your first level acquired will reward you with 5 Skill points. Afterwards, you receive 1 skill point per level up until level 40 for a total of 44 points to spend. This allows players to choose up to two skill trees to max.
Skill Tree
The Skill Tree is designed for players to build out their upgrades in 4 distinct playstyles. Each branch has a variety of options for players to choose from, with 2 tiers of power on all small nodes. Here is a list of what each branch focuses on, along with a few examples.
Raider - for players looking to be unstoppable during Raids, along with some buffs and abilities focused on general combat efficiency.
Infiltration - while raiding, zipline further into the enemy base
Juggernaut - destroying a wall provides a short duration overshield
Spearhead - you receive a Domesplitter and a Thumper Charge when your Siege Tower rolls in
Harvester - for players who are looking to increase their Vesper gain and the power of their Warden Axe
Heavy Swing - you swing your axe with two hands, instantly destroying Vesper Nodes
Shatter Orb - destroy enemy soul orbs with your Throwing Axe or Regular Axe Swing
Field Crafting - Create Armor, Equipment and Raid Tools in the battlefield
Treasure Hunter - for those players who love to loot
Treasure Seeker - hidden chests can be found and opened at PoIs
Archaeologist - Can sell items to Trader Flynn
Artifact Mastery - Amulets have a bonus magical property when equipped
Protector - for players who enjoy defending and keeping the team together
Resonant Walls - reinforced walls are more durable
Unbreakable Armor - once every 2 minutes, armor loss is prevented on death
Vanguard - while defending your base, allies can spawn on you
You can unequip a skill easily, and you can Reset all your points at no cost by clicking the button at the bottom.
We’ve tuned the XP gain to be very fast so players can earn points quickly and enjoy the full spectrum of the feature.
New Warden - Koldo
Koldo was discovered on Highguard. A lost soul from long before the continent disappeared, trapped inside a suit of armor, he searches for answers to his past. Koldo uses the power of his soul to protect his allies.
Passive: Guardian Angel
Protect any friendly orbs around you from destruction.
Automatically deploy your shield when reviving allies.
Tactical: Soul Shield
Deploy a shield for you and your allies.
Ultimate: Battle Cry
Koldo raises a standard that creates a protective dome. He can pick up and carry the standard, and drop it again at will.
Being inside the dome gives allies faster health regeneration.
New Weapon - The Switchback
The Switchback brings unparalleled versatility, comfortably handling both close range and long range encounters. When used in hipfire, it’s a shotgun. Aiming down the sights will transition the weapon into a marksman rifle.
The name “Switchback” originates from its unique double-barrel design. You’re able to rapidly shoot twice before needing a rechamber, though you also can pace your shots to keep up a continuous stream of fire.
In the field, many Wardens have sought to wield the Switchback. Only a few have truly learned to master it.
Gold Versions
The Switchback has 2 gold versions that can be found in loot chests, or with Trader Flynn.
Basebreaker
Repeater
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
This article contains spoilers for Resident Evil Requiem.
Resident Evil Requiem is now in our hands and, as our review makes clear, it’s a massive success. But what’s next for Capcom’s long-running horror series? Resident Evil has settled into a release cadence over the last few years that alternates between new mainline entries and extravagant remakes. With the most recent remake being an overhaul of Leon S. Kennedy’s iconic Spain-set adventure,Resident Evil 4, the next one up on the docket is likely to be Chris Redfield’s co-op odyssey,Resident Evil 5. That would be interesting for many reasons, but to make matters more intriguing, one of Resident Evil Requiem’s third act plot reveals seems to hint at the ways Capcom intends to alter the series’ continuity in a hypothetical remake of the fifth mainline chapter. Let’s take a look at how Requiem may be quietly setting up a lore-altering remake of Resident Evil 5.
Big Spencer
Even people who have never played a Resident Evil game before have probably at least heard of the Umbrella Corporation, the nefarious pharmaceutical company behind many of the series' biohazardous events. Who they’re less likely to be familiar with is Oswell E. Spencer, the founder and CEO of Umbrella. Although he’s rarely made direct appearances in the games, Spencer could arguably be considered the overarching antagonist of the entire franchise. The first game took place in his mansion, after all, and the series’ dense web of viruses, monsters, and shady villainous factions almost all tie back to Spencer in one way or another because of his initial work with bioweapons.
Resident Evil Requiem brings Spencer back in the spotlight, but in an unexpected way that recontextualizes his place in the Resident Evil universe. Where previous lore depicted Spencer as a megalomaniacal oligarch who wanted to remake the world using weaponized viruses, Requiem presents a more human side of this ambitious scientist.
In the game’s final act, protagonist Grace Ashcroft learns that her mother, reporter Alyssa Ashcroft, interviewed Spencer in his twilight years. As part of their meeting, Spencer explained that he’d been taking care of an orphaned infant – Grace herself – and gave her to Alyssa to raise. He also seemed to express genuine remorse for all the death and destruction he’d caused. Requiem doubles down on this idea with the twist that Elpis, Spencer’s secret final project that the villains have been seeking all game long, is not a new bioweapon like they believed, but in fact an antiviral agent that can cure infections caused by Umbrella’s viruses. In Requiem’s “good” ending, Grace realizes that Spencer wanted to atone for his actions by using Elpis to nullify the bioweapons he once created. She releases the antiviral into the world, and Leon is saved from his T-Virus infection.
The scene of Spencer and Alyssa’s conversation is remarkable because it managed to evoke pity and even a bit of sympathy from me for a character who I know is an egotistical madman responsible for numerous atrocities and millions of deaths. That’s the power of strong writing and voice work. But while making Spencer more sympathetic serves a self-contained purpose within Requiem’s story, the idea that he had regrets before his death carries huge implications for the series’ established canon, especially as it relates to Resident Evil 5’s place in the timeline.
Flashback Attack
Spencer made one of his few in-person appearances in Resident Evil 5, popping up in aflashback cutscene that featured him talking with another recurring series antagonist, Albert Wesker. Spencer is shown as an old man in a wheelchair, barely clinging to life while still espousing his eugenics-minded philosophy. He raves about how he had the “right to be a god,” and reveals to Wesker that he was part of a program designed to create superior beings whom Spencer was to be the master of. Wesker then kills Spencer, saying that he was “arrogant even until the end.”
This is Spencer’s canonical death, although this version of him is incongruous with the revelations in Requiem. But that might not be a problem if a Resident Evil 5 remake reworks this scene and Spencer’s role in the plot to fit with his newer, more regretful portrayal.
Spencer’s death in Resident Evil 5’s main campaign is merely part of a cutscene, but the sequence became more interactive with the Lost in Nightmares DLC. The expansion sees Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine battle Wesker shortly after he kills Spencer, with you fighting in the very same room he commits the deed in. Should this sequence be recreated and integrated into the main campaign of a potential RE5 remake, Capcom would have the opportunity to rewrite Spencer's final moments so they line up better with Requiem’s reveals. This could be the first moment in the series’ timeline that our heroes learn of Spencer’s real feelings on his legacy. And with the DLC being one of the only parts of RE5 that mechanically feels akin to the franchise’s classic survival horror gameplay, it’s a prime candidate for a level that could be included in a remake that would, presumably, look to reformat the story to better suit the series’ renewed survival horror ambitions.
Capcom has already been fairly liberal with Resident Evil remakes making adjustments to previous continuity.
It makes a certain amount of sense for Capcom to do this, because this very scene has already been the subject of a retcon. The villains’ conversation sees Spencer claim that Albert was the only survivor of the Wesker program, but that turned out to be untrue when we learned about Alex Wesker, who was the main villain of Resident Evil: Revelations 2.
Capcom has already been fairly liberal with its Resident Evil remakes making adjustments to previous continuity. The first game’s remake introduced entirely new characters, the most notable being Lisa Trevor, the daughter of the Spencer Mansion’s architect. Umbrella used Lisa as a test subject, and her mutated body was the vessel from which William Birkin, one of the main villains of RE2, first harvested that game’s G-Virus. Resident Evil 2’s remake, meanwhile, adds a lot of flesh and nuance to characters like Ada Wong, Marvin Branagh, and Annette Birkin.
Most pressingly, Resident Evil 4’s remake ends with Ada stealing the dominant plaga sample (referred to as “the Amber”) and refusing to give it to Wesker, something that very much did not happen in the original game. Since Wesker’s work with Las Plagas created many of the threats present in Resident Evil 5, this alteration (as well as the reveal that Wesker recovered Jack Krauser’s corpse), hints that the context for how RE5’s monsters come to be will be different in the seemingly inevitable remake.
What Does This Mean For Resident Evil 5?
Recent Resident Evil games hinting that the events of RE5 will be different in the new continuity are pretty big clues that a remake of the fifth game is all but assured. While the remakes have been a largely successful creative endeavor, Resident Evil 5 in particular is an interesting subject for a remake. Both its mechanical and narrative relationships to the rest of the franchise are somewhat fraught, and a remake provides the opportunity to smooth over those discrepancies. I doubt that a remake would ditch the co-op campaign – one of the original version’s most beloved and foundational features – but the game marked the point where it was borderline impossible to argue that the series was still trying to be a survival horror game. Resident Evil 4 got away with the shift to a more action-heavy style because it revolutionized third-person shooting and was a masterclass in tension. RE5 doesn’t have the same pedigree and moved even further away from the atmosphere of the early games, something that could be rectified in a remake.
I say this as a fan of the fifth game: it could really use some serious changes. I have played through Resident Evil 5 somewhere north of 20 times, on multiple platforms and with many different co-op partners. It’s an excellent game to throw on with a buddy, and is easy to play as a casual hangout activity. That said, the series’ adherence to the “stop and shoot” mechanic, as appropriate as it is for the classic entries, is not conducive to the fast-paced two-person experience RE5 wants to be, nor is its incredibly primitive attempt at cover mechanics for specific encounters. A version of RE5 that uses the many refinements the franchise has made to its gameplay in the years since the original’s release would let it feel more fresh and dynamic instead of an awkward midpoint between Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War.
More substantively, the Resident Evil remakes have done a tremendous job of improving the franchise’s narrative credibility with stronger writing and more believable performances while not significantly altering the actual plots of each respective entry. Resident Evil 5 could use this more than most, both because it pushes RE4’s carefully considered campy tone a bit too far into maximalist absurdism, and also because the game did not do the best job of navigating the perils of being a horror game with an African setting. RE5 has been a subject of controversy for racial insensitivity since before it was even released, and while your mileage may vary on how big of a problem that is for you, it’s difficult to absolve the game of the accusation. Not even secondary protagonist Sheva Alomar being a heroic figure can eliminate how misguided some parts of RE5 are. It’s not that the story can't be set in Africa, but the game’s middle chapters with plaga-infested tribal warriors could be easily swapped out for something that feels more in line with contemporary sensibilities.
No matter how Capcom decides to tackle a Resident Evil 5 remake, the alterations in these recent games indicate that the studio won't be faithfully remaking RE5's story. Quite how changes to Spencer's legacy and Ada Wong's decision will change the direction of any hypothetical remake is not yet clear, so we can't yet say if such retcons will pave the way for Capcom to better align the game with the creative sensibilities of the modern era, or if it simply means the lore around its story will feature minor adjustments.
We don't know what the next Resident Evil game following Requiem will be, but whenever the Resident Evil 5 remake does come together, it seems like it won't be exactly like we remember it.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.
If you’ve spent any time in Resident Evil Requiem’s Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, you know to steer absolutely clear of “the chef." A towering, burly, machete-wielding shambler, he’s the toughest “regular” zombie Grace can face in Requiem’s terrifying first half. The only way to take him down is to stock up on bullets, Hemolytic Injectors, and a whole lot of courage.
Or just get one of the noise-sensitive zombies to one-shot him.
As you’ll probably already know, there are a number of different zombie types or “characters” in Rhodes Hill. Among them are audio-sensitive patients who will lash out at anything that makes too much noise. If you’ve unlocked the Internal Dispute trophy, you’ll know you can exploit that quirk to get this zombie type to attack other enemies. That’s exactly what X user @neko_sougo did, baiting the noise-hater into attacking the chef. The results are unbelievable: a one-hit kill.
It seems impossible, and it is… well, certainly on the standard difficulty level. But this video clip seems to have been captured from an Insanity difficulty run. That would not only explain the massive amount of damage the zombie can inflict, but also the location of this one-sided brawl. Typically the chef hangs out in the kitchen, and later patrols the adjoining hallway of the west wing’s first floor. The noise-hating zombie, meanwhile, is located one floor up, in the office, which is where this clip was filmed. And so the chef has had to be baited far away past his typical patrol boundaries, something that the Insanity difficulty allows for.
There’s another clip to further suggest the noise-hater is a juggernaut on Insanity mode. User @SparkingSushi posted a clip showing the patient one-shotting Chunk, Rhodes Hill’s grotesque stalker enemy. To be clear: Chunk is the most formidable enemy in this section of the game. He takes no less than three Hemolytic Injectors to kill on standard difficulty. A hit to the cranium with a metal pole shouldn’t flatline him. And yet here’s the evidence in full-colour.
While these clips do seem to suggest that the noise-hater is incredibly powerful at Insanity difficulty, there are other things to consider. Requiem has only recently been released, and so hasn’t had every patch it’s likely to get across its lifetime — perhaps, then, this is a bug. We should also consider the idea that the clips are rigged. In a world where we’d all like our clips to go viral (and the chef one very much has, with 2 million views on @neko_sougo’s post and a further 2.5m views on a repost from @REBiohazardNews), we shouldn’t discount that perhaps the chef had been heavily damaged before the camera started rolling, allowing for the one-shot kill.
Should the power of this zombie be real, though, then it’s not only a very cool quirk, but potentially a wildly useful addition to Grace’s toolkit during an Insanity run. Forget pistols, knives, and lethal blood injections, all you need is a few glass bottles to bait all of your foes towards the insta-kill I.V. drip.
Bungie has finally revealed Marathon’s premium currency, called LUX, while promising it can’t be used to buy gameplay advantages.
In a tweet, the official Marathon account reiterated that seasonal gameplay content is free for all players. This includes zones and Runner shells (playable characters) for the extraction shooter.
“There is no pay for power,” Bungie said. Premium Pass rewards only include cosmetics, not gameplay items. And LUX can only be used for cosmetics, “not gameplay advantages.”
Meanwhile, Reward Passes do not expire, so you can buy a previous season’s Reward Passes. You unlock rewards in your Rewards Passes using Silk, which is earned by playing the game. You can’t buy SILK. You can also earn cosmetics via the Codex, with others available for purchase.
Confirmation of Marathon’s premium currency comes just hours before the game itself goes live (check out the Marathon release times here).
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Castlevania: Belmont's Curse — announced at Sony's State of Play showcase last month as part of Konami's celebration of Castlevania's 40th(!) anniversary — will play like a classic Castlevania game rather than a roguelike, despite the expertise of the studio making it.
That's according to Konami, which told The Verge earlier this week that while the game is in development by Dead Cells maker Motion Twin, it will play like a traditional Castlevania game.
"Castlevania Belmont's Curse is a 2D action-exploration game where players can freely explore vast, elaborately crafted maps," Konami's Tommy Williams said. "It is not a roguelike or roguelite game."
As for why Konami's making this clear now? Well, the announcement trailer did leave some fans wondering about the gameplay, not least because some thought they spotted a whip card pop-up on screen, as though it was a roguelike power-up.
As one prospective player said on Reddit following Konami's clarification: "Okay NOW I'm interested. I'm so sick of Metrovania games that are roguelike or roguelite or Soulslike, for that matter." Another simply said: "I wouldn't want it any other way, to be honest."
Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is out later this year on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and is already available to pre-order. The new stylized 2D Castlevania game co-developed by Evil Empire and Motion Twin is set in 1499, where Medieval Paris is engulfed in flames as monstrous creatures suddenly emerge from the shadows. Armed with the legendary holy whip, the Vampire Killer, Trevor Belmont’s successor ventures into the burning streets and the looming castle to hunt down the beasts.
Konami says this is just the first announcement to mark the series' fourth decade, which started way back on the original Nintendo Entertainment System and has since spawned a hugelysuccessful and critically acclaimed adult animated series on Netflix.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the latest Universes Beyond set for Magic: The Gathering, and it's out this week. If you’re already sold on meeting up with cardboard versions of the Heroes in a Half Shell, their friends, and their foes, then I've got some great news.
Amazon is once again discounting booster boxes, which are now down to their lowest-ever price. This is $124.99, which we saw briefly just a few weeks back, before Amazon hiked it back up to $143.84 for some time. With a return to that low price so soon before release, this is the best time to preorder and secure 30 booster packs at the best price possible.
This is a certified $84.71 in savings compared to its original $209.70 list price. That's also just over $4 for each booster ($4.17, to be precise), which is more than a couple of bucks off what you’d usually pay when buying them individually.
Also, just a heads up, Amazon has a preorder price guarantee, so if it drops even further or somehow goes back up in price between now and release day, you can be absolutely certain that you're paying the lowest price possible.
TMNT has been going through something of a price crash over the past week, with big discounts already available on highly sought after products in the line up, like the Turtle Power Commander Deck dropping to just under $55, and $15 off its MSRP.
That's alongside the Draft Night restock that promptly got an even bigger discount, and is now available to preorder for just $86.99, a massive deal compared to its $119.99 list price.
There's also been a massive restock, followed by discounts on Collector Boosters this week, which should be of interest to anyone wanting to chase the rarest cards going from the new set.
We saw similar drops for Spider-Man, which would be a little worrisome if Avatar hadn’t got the same treatment - and that set was great.
For more on Magic: The Gathering, check out the wild ride that is the game’s 2026 set lineup, as well as our guide to buying the first set of the year, Lorwyn Eclipsed, which launched earlier this year, and already has some mighty impressive cards that are racking up a tidy price on resale.
Robert Anderson is Senior Commerce Editor, and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.
This article also contains contributions from Lloyd Coombes. Lloyd is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
Crimson Desert is almost upon us, and we’re now getting a sense of what it is all about and how, exactly, this ambitious open world action adventure works. IGN’s recent Crimson Desert preview, for example, is packed with fresh details, and we even have a big interview with one of the developers. But one talking point that has emerged over the last day is Crimson Desert’s ‘fast forward’ button, which lets you speed through dialogue — and it turns out there are plenty of people who have a lot to say about it.
X / Twitter user Jake Lucky posted footage of fast forward in action, showing how it speeds up dialogue in cutscenes in a tweet viewed over 1.1 million times. “One of the features I really liked in Crimson Desert is you can fast forward through dialogue while still being able to understand the context, it's not a jump skip, but a time save,” Lucky said.
One of the features I really liked in Crimson Desert is you can fast forward through dialogue while still being able to understand the context, it's not a jump skip, but a time save pic.twitter.com/g3KiQVUxEE
Some reacted negatively to the feature. “You're... playing an RPG, but you're happy you can skip dialogue?” said one person. “I'd like to play an FPS, but can we have a button that lets me skip the shooting?”
“Hey when you only got five hours to play it sure is nice, plus not every dialogue was something I needed the full story on (like rescuing a cat off a roof),” Lucky responded. “To each their own.”
Negative comments kept on coming, however. “Skipping dialogue in an RPG is kinda crazy, imo,” said another. “Unless it's a second playthrough.”
“If you need to ‘time save’ it means you're not really liking what you're playing....” another said.
However, there are some who are praising the feature, and highlighting other games have had similar features.
“People keep making fun of this. But I’ve played the game,” Swany Plays Games said. “When you die to a boss or need to reload a save, or want to do a second playthough. It’s nice to be able to skip dialogue…
“It isn’t ‘TikTok’ brain. When you have a game this big, you see a ton of repetitive cutscenes. You don’t need to watch the dialogue for a cutscene you’ve already seen seven times (for example turning in a bounty). I actually wish they had a skip button and not just fast forward. Having the option to skip or fast forward isn’t a bad thing.”
Crimson Desert is an open-world action-adventure game set in the beautiful yet brutal continent of Pywel. Embark on a journey as the Greymane Kliff and restore what has been lost. Explore uncharted lands, fight against threats that stand in your way, and discover the wonders the world has in store.
“You choose the type of character you want to play as in terms of your progression within the systems in the game,” Powers explained. “And then through head canon you’re having this very different experience than other players because of the scope and scale of the game. You’ll be distracted by something, you’ll go on this quest line, you’ll have an experience that’ll be radically different than someone else, even though they’re playing the same game and the same canonical storyline that you both are going through.”
And after the debate over whether Crimson Desert is an RPG or not went big online, Powers himself explained why Pearl Abyss doesn’t want to call it an RPG, even though it’s perfectly happy for fans to do so.
“Open world questing and action sandbox for sure,” Powers tweeted. Then, in response to someone who said it should be made clear that Crimson Desert is not an RPG to avoid mismanaged expectations, Powers said: “honestly.... it's not my place to dictate someone else's experience. If because of good amount of RPG elements in the game, they want to call it an RPG... Sure. I'm just explaining why WE don't call it one.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
If 2025 felt busy, 2026 is already shaping up to be a big year for the Pokémon TCG with the expansions it’s got coming up.
The Pokémon Trading Card Game is charging into its 30th anniversary year with the rest of the Pocket Monsters franchise, with a renewed focus on Mega Evolution, anniversary celebrations, and tightly curated sets designed to keep both collectors and competitive players fully locked in.
While the full year’s roadmap hasn’t been revealed yet, three major products are already confirmed, and they give us a very clear idea of what kind of year we’re in for.
Here’s everything we know so far about the confirmed Pokémon TCG releases for 2026, including when they launch, what makes them special, and where you can actually buy them right now.
Deal Alert: Perfect Order Booster Bundles Discount at Amazon
I will be talking about Perfect Order just below as well, but it's worth calling out how good this deal is immediately beforehand. Preorders for Perfect Order booster bundles are now live at Amazon (see here), and they're listed for way under the current market price.
You can secure your preorder at just $43.13 right now, which is over $26 under the market price at the trusted resale marketplace TCGplayer ($69.60). Snap one or two of these ASAP, as I don't expect the deal to last until release day on March 27.
Mega Evolution: Perfect Order – March 27, 2026
If Ascended Heroes has set setting the foundation of what the Mega Evolution's expansions are going to look like, Perfect Order is certianly kicking things up a notch.
Arriving on March 27, 2026, the next expansion is going to be honing in on many of the Pokémon featured in the Legends: Z-A game.
Among the cards announced from the 120-card set so far, we know we’re going to be seeing many of the game’s starring Mega Pokémon; Mega Zygarde ex, Mega Starmie ex, and Mega Clefable ex; but also some surprising extra additions like Meowth ex.
While the Booster Bundle deal I mentioned eariler is not quite as good a value as picking up the Booster Box at TCGplayer right now, including 36 packs for $228.80 market price (working out at $6.35 per pack), it's still a great deal for anyone who hasn't got a spare $200 to throw around, but still wants to get involved with the new set.
Funnily enough, while ETBs continue to drop in price, the booster box is actually on the rise, jumping from around $200 just last week to almost $230 now.
First Partner Illustration Collection (Series 1) – March 20, 2026
The journey to Pokémon’s 30th Anniversary has officially begun with these gorgeous illustration rare-style promo cards that commemorate the bonds between a Trainer and their loyal first partner.
Whether you’re a Kanto veteran or new to the world of Pokémon, this new collection encourages you to look back on your favourite adventures from the last 30 years.
The International version is designed as a celebration of the bonds between Trainers and their First Partner. Each collection includes 1 Promo Booster Pack, where you can pull three of nine illustration rare-style promo cards.
Each of these cards feature stunning illustrations of beloved first partner Pokémon. You’ve got your classic Kanto friends - Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander. Then, we jump forward a few generations to Sinnoh, with Turtwig, Pipulp and Chimchar. Last, but certainly not least, we find ourselves in Alola with Rowlet, Popplio and Litten.
We are yet to know much more on the next expansion, but it's expected to be a western version of the Ninja Spinner set that will debut in Japan in March.
Celebration Collection: 30th Anniversary Set - TBC 2026
13 cards were shown off during the teaser video, including Pikachu, Charizard, Palkia, and several others, so it may be fair to assume that these will all be getting reprints, similar to the 25th anniversary Celebrations set.
We know little else about the upcoming set, but we'll be sure to update this page when we know the release date, and with any preorder information.
Ring in 30 years of the Pokémon TCG! 🎉
To celebrate, an exciting line of products is set for simultaneous global launch in participating markets in 2026. Stay tuned for more details! #Pokemon30pic.twitter.com/DdCpcpP7DV
Mega Evolution: Ascended Heroes – Released Jan. 30, 2026
The 2026 TCG year officially kicked off with Ascended Heroes, the second English Mega Evolution expansion of the new era since the base set launched in September last year.
Ascended Heroes leans heavily into classic Mega Pokémon, new Tera cards, Team Rocket Pokémon, and even a Stadium card, with 290 cards coming to the set altogether.
The new set is already getting a fairly staggered release, with the majority of products now releasing between February 20 and April 24. That includes some of the most popular items from a new Pokémon card set, such as the Elite Trainer Box, Booster Bundles, and more.
Mega Evolution’s Ascended Heroes expansion has also quickly become yet another collector-driven Pokémon TCG release, with demand greatly outweighing the supply and maxing out the value of certain cards.
It's already been hard to come by Ascended Heroes preorders, and undoubtedly this delay won't make it any easier for fans after release day. Ascended Heroes ETBs, for example, are currently averaging around $115-120 on resale markets - around a 135% markup from its MSRP of $49.99.
With Mega Evolutions returning in force and Special Illustration Rares pushing presentation to extravagant new heights, the set has created another sharp divide between playable staples and true luxury chase cards as well.
While not every premium pull is destined for competitive dominance, each of the top ten most expensive cards so far has earned a lofty market price with jaw-dropping artwork, gameplay relevance, pure scarcity, or a combination of the three.
Pokémon Day Collection – Released Jan. 30, 2026
Pokémon’s 30th anniversary celebrations were on February 27, but you’ll be able to celebrate all year long with the the commemorative Pokémon Day 2026 Collection that dropped on January 30, alongside Ascended Heroes.
Announced back in December 2025, this is a very small release with one confirmed card: a unique stamped foil promo card of Pikachu looking cute as standard, along with a logo’d metallic coin, and a trio of TCG booster packs from different sets.
Available imagery seems to show the packs being a mixture of one Phantasmal Flames and two Mega Evolution, but we like to warn that the contents may always differ from unit to unit.
The Pokémon Day 2026 Collection can be bought now at Amazon for around $39, or from around $25-30 on TCGplayer at current market rates.
Pokémon TCG: 2025 Release Calendar – A Look Back
Despite the Pokemon TCG's ongoing supply issues driving prices up, 2025 was one of the most packed years for the trading card game, both in expansions releases and just how expensive some products and chase cards have been worth.
Still, even for casual collectors, the hundreds of new cards released have had plenty that are still worth grabbing in 2026, if you can find a price you're happy with. Most notably, 2025 included the launch of the new Mega Evolution series, with the aptly named Mega Evolution set, and the final release of the year, Phantasmal Flames.
Featuring six booster bundles, there's still every chance that you'll pull a Mega Charizard X ex double rare, alt rare, or even Secret Art Rare or Gold Rare. I've pulled three normal 'Zard ex's so far, so no need to worry about deck building with Phantasmal Flames.
They also had the Phantasmal Flames Elite Trainer Box live, which is actually available for $74.99 right now, though it's been going in and out of stock as the months have gone by. With that, I'd suggest keeping an eye on that too.
What made this set even more exciting is its size, with about 90 cards before secret rares, which makes it the smallest English set in nearly a decade. For collectors like me, that usually means a much more manageable chase, while still packing in plenty of heavy hitters for players.
The product lineup altogether for Phantasmal Flames was pretty stacked, too. We got the usual booster packs and booster box (36 packs), a 9-pack Elite Trainer Box featuring a shiny new Charcadet promo, and an Ultra-Premium Collection built around Mega Charizard X ex.
On top of that, two theme decks for Mega Gengar ex and Mega Diancie ex arrived a few weeks early on October 24, which was a fun way to get a taste of the set before launch. If you’re like me and love cracking packs, the booster box was the way to go, but the UPC already looked like the big collector piece this time around.
What tied it all together was the Japanese set Inferno X, which hit shelves there in late September. That set had only 80 cards, and once you added in the Mega Gengar and Mega Diancie decks, you basically got the full Phantasmal Flames lineup.
We'd already seen some killer reveals, including the Mega Charizard X ex secret rare previewed at Worlds, so I fully expected that to be the chase card when this launches. Between the smaller set size, Charizard hype, and some solid gameplay cards, I'm not surprised this one flew off the shelves and I’m definitely glad I locked in my preorder.
Announced at Japan's Championship tournament, the two new sets featuring Mega Lucario ex and Mega Gardevoir ex marked the popular trading card game stepping away from its Scarlet and Violet era.
Finding sealed products like these at a fair price became a challenge very quickly. Some stores were holding MSRP, others were and still are inflating prices, and secondary marketplaces have had their own dynamics to keep in mind, too.
But the gist is: collectors who must have the ETB, Best Buy and Walmart were worth constant refreshing. If reliability matters more, TCGplayer has been the most straightforward (though slighty more costly) option.
While we can expect products from this set to be hopefully keep joining Pokémon TCG deals further down the line, huge initial demand will definitely see certain cards become price juggernauts among upcoming crashers and climbers.
2025 was shaped up to be a huge year at that point, sobut here’s everything else from the rest of the Pokémon TCG big releases last year. As always, IGN will keep tracking the buy links, both here and on socials at @IGNDeals.
Pokémon TCG 2025 Holiday Calendar - Released Aug. 22, 2025
The Pokémon Company started releasing annual holiday calendars back in 2022, inspired by the Pokémon Countdown Calendar from 2008.
These products are surprisingly good value in the current TCG market, as well as for casual fans of the series in other forms. You can see the listing here at Amazon or scroll on for more details.
The 2025 Pokémon Holiday Calendar released on August 22 and initially retailed for $49.99 at Target before quicklly selling out. It's now available at Walmart for a pricier $64.99 or at Amazon for $69.
Black Bolt and White Flare - Released Jul. 18, 2025
If you haven't secured any boosters for Black Bolt and White Flare sealed products, you can still try your luck at local brick and mortar or online, or even online retailers like Amazon right now.
Alternatively, TCGplayer pricing for sealed product has occassionally been crashing, so I reckon we've well been seeing the usual price crash post-launch — as it what happens with some expansions.
What do I think of the set? I think it's great and possibly the best opportunity to pull Illustration Rares in the Scarlet and Violet era, it's ending on a high note.
Personally I'm not a fan of stuffing the set with Pokéball and Masterball rares, but in terms of quality and presentation, they look cool. It would be grand to see Mega Evolution additionally double down on the dual format and loads of Illustration Rares going forward, but this is an encouraging sneek peek into what's next for Pokémon TCG.
Black Bolt and White Flare focus on the 156 Pokémon originally discovered in the Unova region. Each Unova Pokémon appear as either an illustration rare or a special illustration rare card, with different versions available in Black Bolt and White Flare products.
July 18, 2025: Scarlet & Violet Black Bolt/White Flare ETBs (9 boosters, promo, accessories); Binder Collection (5 boosters, Zekrom/Reshiram album); Unova Poster Collection (6 boosters, Snivy/Tepig/Oshawott promos, poster); Unova Mini Tin (2 boosters, art/sticker card).
August 22, 2025: Booster Bundle (6 Black Bolt/White Flare boosters).
Destined Rivals - Released May. 30, 2025
Things really kicked off on May 30with Destined Rivals. This set brought back Trainer’s Pokémon, reintroduces Team Rocket for another round of villainous fun, and includes some of the best card art we’ve seen in ages.
Destined Rivals top chase card prices are also finally stabilizing, making it a great time to snap some up. Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex SIR has been going for anything over $450 since release, but is starting to settle on a more respectable $310.
A while back, the Destined Rivals singles market was bouncing all over the place. Some cards were doubling in price overnight and it was tough to tell what was hype and what would hold. Now, prices feel a lot more stable by comparison.
Some have dipped. Some Destined Rivals bangers are just cruising right at market. It feels like we’re finally seeing what these cards are actually worth.
Above are the ten of the most expensive cards you can find in the set right now. A couple of them are legit strong in decks. A few are pure collector bait. Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex was the hottest card in the set for a while and it’s still holding close to market. The artwork is what does it for me, personally.
Mewtwo looks like it's about to explode, floating in this dim lab setting with everything glowing around it. The ability makes it tough to use unless you’re running a full Rocket build, but once it's active, Erasure Ball gives you some serious power. Definitely still a top-tier pull even with the market calming down.
Journey Together - Released Mar. 28 2025
It’s about time we got a set like this. Bringing back nostalgic Trainer’s Pokémon cards from the Gym Heroes era. N’s Zoroark ex and Lillie’s Clefairy ex end the chaos of endless secret arts for a more curated, collectible experience.
With just 16 Pokémon ex, 11 illustration rares, and three hyper rare gold cards, it’s been easier to track what’s worth pulling without feeling like you need a PhD in pack odds.
Fancy snagging the Enhanced Booster Display Box with its bonus N’s Reshiram illustration rare or pull Iono’s Bellibolt ex? This set screams nostalgia with a new coat of paint.
Rare Cards and Collector’s Highlights
If you’re into collecting, this set hits the sweet spot. It’s got 16 Pokémon ex, six unique illustrations rares, and just three hyper rare gold cards, which means you won’t have to mortgage your house chasing every rarity. As for the artwork. illustrating rares like N’s Zoroark ex will look incredible in your binder.
Pokémon Center’s Enhanced Booster Display Box is the one to grab for preorder exclusives. It comes with a bonus N’s Reshiram illustration rare card — a little extra flex for your collection.
Prismatic Evolutions - Released Jan. 17 2025
Prismatic Evolutions, kicked off 2025, and it’s all about Eevee and its many evolutions. This set is doing things differently, which is probably why stock sells out as soon as it comes in.
This is another 151 situation, but there were plenty of stock refeshes coming throughout 2025, with hopefully more coming eventually in 2026. You won’t find these cards in the usual booster packs.
Instead, they’ve be released in boxed sets throughout last year, each packed full of exclusive cards celebrating Eevee and friends. With over 175 cards, including unique designs and new game mechanics, Prismatic Evolutions is shaping to be a hit with collectors and competitive players alike.
Rare Cards and Collector’s Highlights
For collectors, Prismatic Evolutions isn’t short on treasures. Each Eevee evolution has its special illustration and hyper-rare gold Pokémon ex card, making them must-haves for anyone building a showcase-worthy collection.
The set includes 32 illustration rares featuring detailed artwork for Pokémon ex and Supporter cards, so plenty of eye candy is here. With so many unique finishes and designs, it’s bound to make a few waves among fans.
Between the fresh artwork, inventive mechanics, and the undeniable charm of Eevee and friends, Prismatic Evolutions is set to be one of 2025's standout sets. Collectors and players alike will still find something to love here, from stunning illustration rares to powerful new game cards that can make a real difference in play.
Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.
Pokemon Pokopia is out now, and I loved it. I gave it a 9/10 for IGN, and one of the things I praised most highly about it was its story and the ways in which it leverages nostalgia for emotional impact. In the review, I didn't talk much about the specifics of that story, because I didn't want to spoil it for anyone.
But Pokopia has been released, and I have been unleashed. I need to tell someone about this story, because it's kind of unhinged! Pokopia, despite having a cute and wobbly exterior, is hiding (not very subtly) an extremely grim story, one of the darkest in the Pokemon universe so far. So if you're prepared to delve deep, deep into spoiler territory with me, get ready. We're gonna discuss Pokopia's full plot and ending and why it has massive implications for the franchise.
WARNING! I AM HOLDING NOTHING BACK. This article delves into full spoilers for the entirety of Pokemon Pokopia's story! Do not read unless you either do not care about spoilers, or have already finished the game! I'm SERIOUS!!!
By the time you roll credits on Pokemon Pokopia, you've likely sorted out the basic thrust of the storyline: humanity is gone. Entirely. As documented in the Hacker's Confessions, the Team R Grunt's journal, Someone's journal, and the Professor's diary entries, the Pokemon world is an empty ruin in Pokopia because of a massive climate disaster that seemingly affected everything: every region, every continent, everywhere. A group of scientists saw that disaster coming, and began making preparations to evacuate humanity...to space. And it sounds like they were successful. So yeah, every human who lived in the Pokemon world was sent to space sometime before the events of Pokopia, or else they likely perished in the flooding, drought, volcanos, and other mass devastation.
Meanwhile, most Pokemon were placed inside a computer system to effectively hibernate until the humans could come back and salvage the planet. And the intention was for humanity to come back. Except...there is a lot of evidence to suggest that it's actually been hundreds of years since they left. Hacker's Confessions #6 suggests that "even a slight deviation" from the plan could leave humans stranded in space for hundreds of years, saying that they built a failsafe so that if that happens, the system storing the Pokemon on the planet would "release the Pokemon most suited to those environments." Which seems to be exactly what's happening in Pokopia, as Professor Tangrowth explains up front that he hasn't seen a single human or Pokemon for ages, but all of a sudden they're appearing everywhere. Of course, Ditto is the first one to show up - as a Ditto, it's the best suited to every environment.
The "hundreds of years" theory is further supported by Someone's Journal #4, which documents the steady, unexplained rising of the ground in Saffron City into the air. It says that some scientists believe that "in a matter of centuries this area will be as high as a mountain, in terms of elevation." By the time we make it there as Ditto, those cities are the Sparkling Skylands, even higher than the mountains. Again suggesting multiple centuries have passed since humans left. That doesn't even get into how deep down the Pewter City museum is buried, or how long it would take for nature to overgrow Fuchsia City the way it has by the time we show up.
Assuming that's true, then something has gone wrong with humanity's evacuation plan, leaving them unable to easily return to the planet in a timely manner. At the end of the credit roll, we see the rocket manage to reach one human out in space, alone, and the Ditto plush in the window suggests it might be the player character Ditto's trainer. But that's impossible if hundreds of years have gone by. And it's unclear if this person is alone, has any ability to get back to the planet at all, or even understands the implications of the rocket reaching them. Multiple notes we pick up imply that any number of things could go wrong and leave humans stranded in space, never to return, and given that they didn't make it back in the appointed time, it's fair to assume something happened to prevent them.
What's even sadder is that Ditto, Professor Tangrowth, and their pals know none of this. They can't read. The notes we find are for the benefit of the players, but the Pokemon planet-side will just go on believing that humanity can come back one day if they just make the world nice enough. And, if you needed another reminder, this disaster has apparently impacted the entire world. Not just Kanto, but every region. So that leaves a world full of Pokemon, awkwardly mimicking the lives of humans as best as they can remember them, hoping for a reunion that may never happen.
Pokemon Pokopia is indeed about a Pokemon Utopia - an idealistic world where only Pokemon exist and are allowed to thrive. There's plenty here to meditate on, such as whether or not the climate disaster in Pokopia was caused by humans, or if the Pokemon will ultimately be better off without them. Some certainly seem to be happy they're gone (Mewtwo), some are fairly indifferent (Kyogre), while others, like Garbordor, actually thrive off of having humans around. And of course you have folks like Ditto who miss their human partners, and do not realize those human partners are almost certainly deceased by now. Pokopia is grim, guys. I cannot believe they let developer Omega Force get away with this!
This, of course, leads to plenty of questions about what this means for the larger Pokemon universe. Is Pokopia even canon? When does it take place? Is it in some kind of alternate universe, like the ones posited in games like OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire? Is the Kanto region of Red, Blue, and Yellow inevitably headed for future destruction? Because look, if Pokopia is canon... humans are extinct. There is a version of the Pokemon universe where humanity took off and left Pokemon behind to take over. What does that mean for the world? Are there other universes where this didn't happen? Did...did humans take some of the Pokemon with them and colonize other planets?
The current CEO of Build A Rocket Boy, Mark Gerhard, has announced further layoffs at the struggling UK development studio following the disastrous release of MindsEye, while doubling down on “organised espionage and corporate sabotage” claims.
In July last year, IGN reported that Edinburgh-based BARB had issued at-risk of redundancy emails to its around 300-strong UK workforce after MindsEye flopped at release. Soon after MindsEye came out, BARB said it was “heartbroken” over the issues players had faced with the game, and promised to release a series of patches to fix the significant performance problems, glitches, and AI behavior bugs.
Story-driven action adventure game MindsEye was initially designed to be a part of Everywhere, the ‘Roblox for adults’ creation platform led by former Grand Theft Auto design chief Leslie Benzies. BARB eventually switched to focus on MindsEye, but it has so-far failed to do the business for the company.
Back in July, Benzies told staff that the studio would bounce back and relaunch MindsEye, blaming its struggles on internal and external saboteurs, among other things. Now, in announcing even more layoffs are on the way, CEO Mark Gerhard said the studio had been investigating what he called “criminal activity” that took place around the launch of the game. Apparently that has resulted in “overwhelming evidence” of “organized espionage and corporate sabotage” affecting MindsEye. Gerhard did not share details because, as he put it, “this matter is moving toward prosecution.”
The layoffs announcement was made on Build A Rocket Boy’s LinkedIn page, and the comments from various people in the development community are critical of Gerhard’s statement, with one person calling it “incredibly rude,” and another “delusional.”
In January, Gerhard accused YouTuber Cyber Boi of “media manipulation, espionage, [and] sabotage,” and of “interference targeting” Build a Rocket Boy, as part of a cease and desist demand posted to the MindsEye Discord.
"It is profoundly disappointing to learn that certain BARB employees continue to leak confidential information to you, thereby betraying their colleagues, our studio, and the broader community we serve," Gerhard said.
"This letter serves as a formal cease and desist demand: You must immediately stop all activities related to receiving, disseminating, or otherwise utilizing any confidential information from BARB, as well as any further involvement in media manipulation, espionage, sabotage, or interference targeting our organization. Failure to comply will result in escalated legal action.
"Rest assured, you and your associates involved in this media manipulation cabal will be served with legal papers imminently, as BARB proceeds with complaints alleging criminal espionage, sabotage, and interference.
Earlier this year, BARB said Benzies was on “well-earned temporary leave." A company spokesman told The Times: “He is simply taking a short, planned break following an intense period of work and will return shortly."
Gerhard, who had been BARB's co-chief executive, told staff at the time that Benzies was on “well-earned temporary leave to recharge after more than a year of working round the clock."
“He has our deepest gratitude and, with the leadership team and your support, I will guide us forward,” he added. Gerhard signed the email as “CEO.”
As for MindsEye itself, it’s still struggling for players despite a number of updates. At the time of this article’s publication, just 11 were playing the game on Steam, with a 24-hour peak concurrent player count of just 39.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
If you're looking for Blox Fruits codes, IGN has what you need! In this article, you'll find all the latest and working Blox Fruits codes in March 2026 that you can redeem for free rewards and bonuses, including 2x EXP for a set time, a title, and stat resets.
Active and Working Blox Fruits Codes (March 2026)
Below, you'll find all the active and working Blox Fruits codes that give you additional XP and the rewards you get for redeeming them:
LIGHTNINGABUSE: - 2x EXP for 20 minutes
KITT_RESET: 1x Stat Refund
Sub2UncleKizaru: 1x Stat Refund
SUB2GAMERROBOT_RESET1: 1x Stat Refund
fudd10_v2: $2
Fudd10: $1
Chandler: $0
Bignews: "Big News" in-game title (speak to The Title Specialist under the Cafe in the Second Sea)
SUB2GAMERROBOT_EXP1: 2x EXP for 30 minutes
Sub2Fer999: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
TantaiGaming: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
kittgaming: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
Enyu_is_Pro: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
Sub2CaptainMaui: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
Magicbus: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
Sub2OfficialNoobie: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
TheGreatAce: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
JCWK: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
Bluxxy: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
Axiore: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
Starcodeheo: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
StrawHatMaine: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
Sub2Daigrock: 2x EXP for 20 minutes
Sub2NoobMaster123: 2x EXP for 15 minutes
How to Redeem Blox Fruits Codes in Roblox
To redeem Blox Fruits codes and get free rewards in Roblox, follow the steps below:
Open the Blox Fruits Roblox experience.
Click on the blue gift icon on the left-hand side above the Compass to open the Reward Codes menu.
Copy the code from this article and enter the code in the "Enter code here" box.
Double check it's inputted correctly and then click "Redeem!" to redeem the code.
Expired Blox Fruits Codes
Here are all the expired Blox Fruits codes that are no longer working and can no longer be redeemed:
1LOSTADMIN
GIFTING_HOURS
ADMINFIGHT
BANEXPLOIT
NOMOREHACK
FIGHT4FRUIT
WildDares
BossBuild
GetPranked
EARN_FRUITS
NOEXPLOITER
DEVSCOOKING
REWARDFUN
ADMIN_STRENGTH
THIRDSEA
JULYUPDATE_RESET
Why Isn't My Blox Fruits Code Working?
If the Blox Fruits code you're trying to input isn't working, it's likely due to one of two potential reasons:
There's a typo in the Blox Fruits code.
The Blox Fruits code is expired.
When entering a code into Blox Fruits, ensure it's spelled correctly (for example, capital O and not 0 and vice versa) and that there are no accidental spaces before or after the code. The best way to ensure there are no errors is to copy and paste directly from our article.
If the code still isn't working, then it is probably expired and no longer working.
What is Blox Fruits in Roblox?
Blox Fruits is a Roblox experience inspired by the popular pirate anime One Piece, and is available on PC, console, and mobile devices. In it, you sail the seas as either a Marine or a Pirate to undertake various quests and find Blox Fruits that give you supernatural powers.
Meg Koepp is a Guides Editor on the IGN Guides team, with a focus on trends. When she's not working, you can find her adventuring around Eorzea in Final Fantasy XIV or making miniatures.
All eight episodes of Ted Season 2 debut on March 5 on Peacock.
As soon as Ted Season 2 starts you know you're on familiar ground, with phone sex lines and sperm-soiled tissues. The Bennett family might have had their emotional moments in the first season, but there's nothing like chronic masturbation to signal that the writers haven't gone entirely sentimental. The eight episodes whisk you through chronic teenage libido, marital shenanigans, fantasy roleplay, Bill Clinton, and the psychosexual terror of seeing little Ted running at top speed while sporting a bouncing, purple strap-on.
Max Burkholder, who plays John, is still the hormonal heart of the show. It's a rare actor who can play a teen boy who talks about jerking off constantly and is still ultimately loveable, but Burkholder has that superpower. Even when he's being at his most leg-humpingly horny, he's still ultimately a good guy. The character of Susan breaks out of her mom shell with Alanna Ubach delivering medium-rare middle-aged messiness without overdoing the cringe. Despite my best efforts, even Scott Grimes is winning me over with his portrayal of Matty Bennett, a man I would deliberately sprain an ankle to avoid seeing at a family wedding. I did and still do love Giorgia Whigham as Blaire Bennett, who continues to be the sarcastic voice of reason when one is required. Ted is Ted, and I should probably be worried about how normal a talking teddy bear seems to me now, but have you seen 2026 so far? Talking stuffed animals who smoke weed are the least of our worries.
Some of the jokes are starting to feel a bit repetitive, the novelty of a cute bear who cusses isn't quite what it once was after two movies and a season of a TV, and Ted is never one to miss out on the chance for a cheap laugh, but there are enough new story threads to pull you through any scenes that don't provoke a chuckle or two. I still enjoy a crass sex joke with the best of them, but I want to be surprised.
This season has range too, with single episodes swinging between light and heavy subject matter, juxtaposing a super-serious emotional moment with, say, Ted having a tube of Rolos shoved up his back alley. The first season didn't shy away from more difficult topics - the Christmas episode "Loud Night" was beautifully done - but this time around it feels like the writers had the comedic confidence to take on even weightier topics. The show might be based in the ’90s, but for better or worse a lot of the hot topics remain just as spicy today. It pays off too as the Bennetts feel more rounded, more like a real family, without it ever feeling like you've accidentally switched over to an after-school special.
On the lighter side, the absolute stand out is Episode 3, "Dungeons & Dealers." A loving poke at the world of Dungeons & Dragons, it sees the Bennett clan transported into a fantasy land as a mage, a fighter, a cleric, a thief and a bard. The segment takes its source material just seriously enough to be affectionate, but not strictly enough to feel like being stuck with your 15-year-old nephew who is compelled to give a lecture on the dual spellcasting controversy. It's got it all: taverns, riddles, a surprising use for urine. Burkholder is a genuine Dungeons & Dragons fan, as is episode writer Chelsea Davison, and it shows.
John is 18 years old in this series and graduates by the end, and it's hard to imagine the show being able to continue the careful balancing act between warm and fuzzy feelings and small and fuzzy bears who make jokes about jizz now that the kid isn’t really a kid and is out of school, facing the crushing but ultimately mundane routines of adulthood. That said, I'm absolutely ready to be proved wrong with a Season 3. The Bennetts have earned it.
Amazon just launched a Lightning deal that drops the price of the Hasbro Transformers Studio Series Revenge of The Fallen 3-Pack Converting Action Figure Set down to $69.49 with free shipping. It's currently selling for $125 everywhere else, including on Hasbro Pulse. At the time of this post, Amazon lists the set as 50% sold out, so you may want to hurry.
Transformers Studio Series Converting Action Figures
The Transformers figures include:
The Fallen Leader Class 8.5" figure (converts to Cybertronian spacecraft in 17 steps)
Megatron Voyager Class 6.5" figure (convers to Cybertronian tank in 32 steps)
Soundwave Deluxe Class 4.5" figure (converts to satellite mode in 10 steps)
This set was released on November of 2025 at a list price of $125. The action figures are modeled after the Decepticons featured in the 2019 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie. The limbs are articulated for display-worthy poses and some accessories are included like a 2-piece staff and mask accessories for The Fallen figure.
Transformers Age of The Primes Wreck 'n Doom Collection
Also on sale is the Transformers Age of the Primes Wreck 'n Doom Collection, which includes two Autobot converting action figures. Sandstorm stands 7.5" tall and can convert into a dune buggy in 19 steps and a helicopter in 32 steps. Slugslinger stands 5.5" tall and can convert into a jet in 10 steps.
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.
In 2025, AndaSeat released its most affordable gaming chair - the Andaseat Novis. The Novis looks and feels very much like a premium gaming chair but stripped down of any non-essential features. It's certainly comfortable enough to game on for hours on end. As part of its Spring Sale, Andaseat has dropped the price down from $250 to $219. Stack it with the 10% off coupon code "AndaIGN" and the final price ends up being $197.10. AndaSeat isn't as big of a name in the congested gaming chair market, but it does make high-quality gaming chairs. The Novis was well-reviewed by PCMag.
Andaseat Novis Gaming Chair for $197.10
Use 10% off code: AndaIGN
The Novis follows a similar racing-inspired gaming aesthetic to Andaseat's flagship Kasier chairs. It's available in two upholstery options: PVC leather and linen fabric. PVC leather is what you'll find on most gaming chairs. It's a leather-like vinyl that's resistant to stains and is very easy to clean. I personally prefer the cloth fabric option, however, because it ages more gracefully and you're less likely to end up with a sweaty back or thighs during intense gaming sessions. Underneath the upholstery is 60kg/m³ of cold-cure foam that, according to Andaseat, "strikes the perfect balance between soft and firm, making it cushiony – but with enough body support."
Other features include a molded seat back with a 5cm raised lumbar, side bolsters on both the seat and back for a bit more support, height-adjustable armrests, 155 degrees of reclinability and 15 degrees of rockability, a SGS class 4 gas piston that supports up to 200 pounds on the base model (265 on the XL model). You also get up to 5 years of warranty if you post a photo of your chair on social media, an extra step borrowed from other brands like Secretlab.
You can easily spend upwards of nearly $1,000 on a Secretlab gaming chair with all the bells and whistles. But even budget chairs can give you a comfortable experience experience even during long gaming sessions. Currently our top budget gaming chair is the Razer Iskur X, but the Andseat Novis is just as good of a chair for $70 less.
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.
Frankenstein's lightning-streaked bride has been an enduring image on screen ever since James Whale, the director of the original 1931 Frankenstein film, committed her to celluloid in his campy 1935 sequel, Bride of Frankenstein. Whale's follow-up latched onto a subplot of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, involving the Creature's demand for a female companion, and it became not just a commercial hit but an enduring commentary on gender and sexuality. 90 years later, Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! brings her back to life through a contemporary feminist lens, paying homage to both the Depression-Era classic and Shelley's 1818 novel. Yet as much as the actor-turned-filmmaker reassembles this Gothic horror story with themes of consent, gender violence and female agency, her movie manifesto is garishly stitched together.
As with Bride of Frankenstein, the film uses Mary Shelley as a framing device and casts Jessie Buckley in the dual role of the British author and the eponymous monster just as actress Elsa Lanchester did before her. But where the Bride arrives towards the end of that film, here she takes centre stage, and Buckley proves a formidable force. In shadowy, black-and-white close-up, she first appears as Mary, looming over proceedings like a devilish, rage-filled spectre seeking to course-correct "the paucity of a stifled mind" by continuing her creation story through a female subject. It's pretty bold of Gyllenhaal to have a fictionalised Shelley ridicule her own work and her own mind, but I guess she wouldn't be the first filmmaker to play fast and loose with the legacy of a British female author.
The film's Mary takes brutal possession of Ida (Buckley), an American woman living a hedonistic life, drinking and cavorting with gangsters in a Chicago speakeasy of 1936. Buckley lurches schizophrenically between the competing female minds, raving in Mary's clipped English vernacular and throwing drunken accusations at a mob boss called Lupino (Zlatko Burić), which leads to her inevitable downfall.
In comes Christian Bale's Frank, the 100-year-old Frankenstein's Monster of legend, in search of female companionship to combat his loneliness. He meets Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), a scientist based on Bride of Frankenstein's Dr. Pretorious, whose gender swap from antagonistic "Father of creation" to quirky "Mother of creation" is barely drawn out beyond the blunt humour in her questioning of Frank and his carnal intentions for his mate. Still, she's "mad" enough to accept his commission, and once Ida is reanimated, the plot becomes an erratic mash-up of Bonnie & Clyde, Joker: Folie à Deux and Poor Things.
The Bride! is guilty of overindulging in feminist buzzwords and girl power imagery... But it never lives up to the radical display of female autonomy it promised.
The Bride and Frank have an oddball dynamic; she's the black cat to his golden retriever energy, which offers some comedic charm. Suffering from amnesia, she's sceptical of his claim to her, knocks glass receptacles from tables when she doesn't get her way, and gets frisky at a "deprivation" disco. All the while, he gazes on adoringly; ready to smash some skulls if any gents get overfamiliar – which they do. Attempted rape as a plot device feels pretty hackneyed at this point, but given the overarching themes, it's unsurprising, albeit tedious. It's the violent catalyst for the two monsters to go on the run, murdering (sometimes accidentally) their way from the Midwest to the East Coast and back as a litany of subplots and side characters overwhelm the story.
The Bride's past relationship with crooked detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) is lazily shoe-horned in through late-stage exposition, while his more capable secretary and wannabe detective Myrna Mallow (Penelope Cruz) becomes a "woman vs the patriarchal workforce" trope. As The Bride starts to remember snippets from her life, her incoherent ramblings suddenly make her the unwitting poster child for female liberation. Cue spinning newspaper headlines saying "GIRLS RRRIOT" and ladies rocking ink-splotted lips and wild hair as they start pelvic-thrusting on car bonnets. It's a somewhat juvenile distraction from the emotional core of this story about a woman defining her identity on her own terms.
Frank's almost homoerotic affection for his favourite movie star, Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), fuels the monster's misguided romanticised ideals, but the script falls short of delving any deeper into the queer themes laced into the very Frankenstein films The Bride! takes major inspiration from.
Gyllenhaal clearly has an affection for that cinematic age and uses her modern lens to explicitly show scenes of sex, desire, violence and gore that would've never made it past the Hays Code censors back in the day. She also heightens the monstrous romance with a few manic dance sequences and hallucinatory movie scenes set against Karen Murphy's captivating steampunk Depression-era sets, with Sandy Powell's rebellious costuming marrying punk rock with classic ’30s styling. It's a gritty yet grandiose world, with impressively monstrous hair and make-up design, but the choreography and cinematography don't quite capture the swing time magic the film references, and coupled with the score, things hit more of an awkward rock-opera note than truly raging against the patriarchal machine.
The Bride! is guilty of overindulging in feminist buzzwords and girl power imagery; it even has Buckley's Bride jarringly screaming "Me too! Me too!" in the final act. But it never lives up to the radical display of female autonomy it promised. And therein lies the real tragedy.
Looking for a powerful ebike with the speed and range to meet your ambitious needs? Nowadays you can find a decent ebike for well under $500 if you know where to look (hint: it's not necessarly Amazon). For a limited time, AliExpress is offering the UrLife E20 750W 48V Electric Bike for a super low price of $288.36 after you apply $35 off coupon code "35USAFFS". The exact same bike currently sells for $470 ($360 plus $90 shipping) on Amazon.
The AliExpress marketplace seller "urlifeglobal" is the official manufacturer of these scooters and has plenty of reviews and sales to back up its reputation. Since they've already been shipped from overseas, any tariffs have already been paid for and you also don't need to worry about egregiously long shipping times.
UrLife E20 750W (1,000W Peak) 48V Electric Bike for $288
The UrLife E20 is an adult electric bike featuring a 750W (1,000W peak) motor that can get up to speeds of 28mph. Unlike most bikes in this price range that use a 36V battery, the E20 includes a powerful 48V battery which offer more power, acceleration, and torque, perfect for tackling steep hills. The 13Ah battery offers up to 80 miles of range under ideal conditions. The actual distance is dependent on other factors like your speed, terrain, elevation, and so forth. It's also removable in case you want to store the battery in a separate location from the bike.
The frame is made of carbon steel so it's on the heavier side at about 60 pounds, but it also has a generous weight capacity of 265 pounds. It's equipped with 20" fat tires with front fork shock-absorbing suspension, which makes it better suited for unpaved terrain compared to other bikes at this price.
There are bikes out there that offer high-quality components, a more powerful motor, better upgradeability, and/or domestic customer support, but only if you're willing to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars more. The UrLife E20 bike will stay within anybody's budget. It offers a perfectly respectable assisted ride that will satisfy most bikers.
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.
Lenovo is offering a great deal on an ultra-portable productivity laptop that can also do some light gaming. The Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 16" laptop, equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 CPU and RTX 5050 GPU, has dropped to $749.99 after you apply coupon code "LENOVOLOVE2". That's 50% off the original retail price and also includes free delivery.
3.8lb Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 16" Ultra-Portable Laptop for $750
The IdeaPad Pro is a truly portable laptop, weighing it at a mere 3.6 pounds for a 16" footprint and measuring only 0.62" thin. Both the top lid and bottom chassis are anodized aluminum and the trackpad is made of glass for a premium look and feel. Specs include a stunning 16" 2880x1800 OLED display, a current-gen AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 CPU, GeForce RTX 5050 8GB discrete GPU, 16GB of LPDDR5X-8000MT/s memory, and a 512GB SSD. Connectivity includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, USB-C 40Gbps ports, and HDMI 2.1.
The GeForce RTX 5050 discrete graphics won't turn this laptop into a gaming powerhouse, but it's still a lot more powerful than onboard iGPU options. You'll be able to play low demand games like Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, Counter-Strike, and hundreds of other games out there... just not Cyberpunk 2077 in 2.8K.
For such a lightweight laptop built with premium materials and equipped with current generation components (including a discrete GPU!), the asking price of $750 is an absolute steal. If we were in Back to School season right now, this deal would have already sold out because it's a perfect choice for students at an affordable price.
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.
For the first time in years, Apple has introduced a new MacBook in its laptop lineup. It’s the MacBook Neo, a colorful, lower-power computer that runs on the A18 Pro chip. It’s the cheapest MacBook on the market, with a starting price of $599. Apple is pitching it to students and people who mostly use their computers for non-demanding tasks like email, web browsing, and media streaming. MacBook Neo is available for preorder now starting at $599 (see it at Amazon) with four different color options. It ships starting March 11.
The $599 option comes with 256GB of storage, but you can bump it up to 512GB and get TouchID for an extra $100. I'd recommend doing that, because I use TouchID a lot during any given day, and extra storage is always nice, particularly if you plan on playing games.
The A18 Pro chip was previously used in the iPhone 16. This is the first time Apple has made a Mac that runs on an iPhone chip. For years, every MacBook Apple has released has been powered by the company’s M-series chips (you can preorder an M5 MacBook Air if you need more power).
MacBook Neo has a 13-inch Liquid Retina display and a 1080p FaceTime camera. It has two USB-C ports and a headphone jack, plus speakers on either side for spatial audio. The A18 Pro chip is powerful enough to run AI tasks and video games, at least non-power-hungry ones. So apps like ChatGPT and Canva will work just fine. Apple says it can run up to 16 hours on a single charge.
Perhaps to give it more appeal to the youths, this is the most colorful MacBook in the lineup. It comes in silver, indigo, blush (pink), and citrus (yellow). The colors aren’t as bold as the iMacs, but they’re not far off, particularly citrus. Color options of the other MacBooks have been relatively reined-in for years, so it’s nice to see some vibrancy added back to the group.
In other Apple news, you can also preorder a new iPhone 17e, the lowest-priced iPhone in the lineup.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
In lieu of a polished livestream of a heavily produced, pre-recorded announcement of new stuff, Apple spread out a series of announcements across three days of press releases that culminated in small, invite-only events in a few different cities this week. The biggest news from all of that: The company rolled out its first new Mac laptop product line for the first time since 2015’s plain MacBook. The MacBook Neo is a $599 laptop that comes in multiple vibrant colors and is powered by the chipset of the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. It’s also one of the cheapest machines the company has ever released and it’s landed with impeccable timing, given the supply chain that feeds all of our tech is being gobbled up to feed the great AI beast.
The new MacBook Neo is Apple’s cheapest brand-new laptop, ever, thanks to certain strategic omissions and the inclusion of the A18 Pro chip that Apple put in its iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max phones. With a starting price of $599, it’s still on the high end of budget laptops, but it’s also only a bit more than half the price of the company’s next-cheapest laptop, the MacBook Air. Not only that, but it comes in four colors – Silver, Indigo (blue), Citrus (a yellowish green), and Blush (pink).
Specs-wise, it’s definitely a lower-end device than the MacBook Air, but should be more than sufficient for most casual use and even some professional applications. It has a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine, Apple’s name for its neural processor. It’s got 8GB of RAM, which is piddly for a laptop these days but seems enough to run the company’s AI “Apple Intelligence” features, which the company says will work on it.
iPhone 17e
The iPhone 17e is Apple’s next budget iPhone, and it’s got the right improvements versus last year’s iPhone 16e, mainly in the power department. Where last year the $599 phone lacked MagSafe and was limited to 7.5W wireless charging, this year’s model will get 15W charging with MagSafe. Apple also added a new color to the lineup: Pink joins the black and white color options that were offered before.
The 17e also gets a bump to the A19 and the inclusion of Apple’s C1X modem that Apple says will be double the speed of the C1 found in the iPhone 16e. Otherwise, it’s more of the same. That means a 48MP single rear camera with 2x “optical-quality” digital zoom, a 12MP front camera, and a 6.1-inch 60Hz display with a notch instead of the Dynamic Island pill-shaped cutout from the rest of the iPhone 17 line. Still, the improvements are notable given that the previous model didn’t quite make our list of favorite smartphones.
M4 iPad Air
The newest iPad Air gets an M4 chip, a bump from the M3 that was in the previous-generation model. In addition to the chip bump, the new iPad will also be the tablet proving ground for the company’s N1 chip, a custom wireless chip that brings Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and a Thread radio to the device. The cellular iPad Air will use Apple’s C1X 5G modem, to boot.
Spec bump though it may be, this will be a powerful tablet, with an 8-core CPU, 9-core GPU, and 16-core NPU. Apple says it’s “up to 30 percent faster” than the M3 iPad Air, which is already one of the best tablets around. It gets 12GB of RAM, up from 8GB, comes in 11-inch and 13-inch models, and keeps its usual starting price of $599.
M5 MacBook Air
Apple also updated its MacBook Air line with a new entrant, now equipped with an M5 chip. Mostly a spec bump available in the same four colors, the laptop still got a couple significant changes. For starters, the base storage is now 512GB, and it’s got Apple’s custom N1 chip, which means Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 connectivity.
Apple didn’t raise the price of the Air, which makes it a better deal than past models as components costs for RAM and storage have seen stark increases lately, owed to the voracious appetite of AI firms. That means the new MacBook Air starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch and $1,299 for the 15-inch.
M5 Pro and Max MacBook Pros
The M5 chip made its first laptop debut in the base model MacBook Pro last year, but the higher-end versions of the chip, the M5 Pro and M5 Max, have only just emerged this week, in the form of new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops. The laptops get similar CPU and GPU core counts as before, but now Apple is touting “super” cores that are even more powerful – so much so that the company has gotten rid of efficiency cores on these new Pro models, replacing them with performance cores, instead.
Unlike the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pros got a price bump. They’ll start at $1,699 for the base M5 MacBook Pro (a $100 jump), $2,199 for the M5 Pro MacBook Pro (up by $200), and $3,599 for the M5 Max MacBook Pro ($400 more than before). With that, though, they get a storage bump, as Apple has dropped the 512GB tier and now starts MacBook Pros with at least 1TB SSDs. The new laptops also get Apple’s N1 chip.
Studio Display and Studio Display XDR
Apple announced two new, very expensive 27-inch displays. The 5K Studio Display is the $1,599 follow-up to the company’s 2022 model, albeit with apparently only minor changes: It now has two Thunderbolt 5 ports (one upstream, one downstream for daisy-chaining displays or adding accessories like Thunderbolt docks), and it now supports the Desk View part of Apple’s Center Stage webcam feature. That means now the camera doesn’t just follow you, it’s wide enough to switch it to show what your hands are doing, too.
The Studio Display XDR is where the real action is, thanks to the addition of a high-contrast mini-LED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and up to 1,000 nits SDR brightness or 2,000 nits peak HDR brightness. Features are otherwise nearly identical, except that it gets Apple’s tilt-and-height-adjustible stand by default rather than the simple tilt-only one of the normal Studio Display. Oh, and it costs $3,299 to start ($3,599 if you want the anti-reflective Nano-texture glass). That price would make it hard for this display to beat dedicated gaming monitors, the best of which can cost thousands less.
Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.
Lanterns is one of the big shows that will be part of the first phase of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU (which is officially called Gods and Monsters: Chapter One), and it’s being described as a detective drama that’s inspired by shows like True Detective and Slow Horses. That much is plainly apparent in the recently released Lanterns teaser trailer.
The series, which stars Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, is slated to debut on HBO Max in August 2026. We may still have a few months to wait, but we are starting to learn a lot more about the series and who else will be part of the show.
Let’s break down all the main cast and characters you need to know about so you’ll be ready for this adventure filled with Green Lanterns and more.
Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan
According to HBO, Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Godzilla vs. Kong) will take on the role of the “Lantern legend” known as Hal Jordan. He will work alongside John Stewart as an intergalactic cop, and the pair will be drawn into a “dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”
The teaser trailer establishes Hal as a very gruff mentor to John, one who's unafraid to throw his young charge in the line of fire if it means he'll learn on the job. Hal also seems to have no trouble playing the bad cop, as evidenced by him roughing up a suspect in interrogation and pulling out his ring.
We also catch a glimpse of Hal's rugged Green Lantern uniform in the trailer, one quite a bit different from the CG costume of the 2011 movie:
Hal Jordan was created by John Broome and Gil Kane and first appeared in Showcase #22 in October 1959.
Aaron Pierre as John Stewart
Aaron Pierre (Mufasa, Rebel Ridge) is John Stewart, a new recruit of the intergalactic cops known as the Lanterns. Stewart will team up with Chandler’s Hal Jordan in an effort to solve a murder that happened on Earth.
As the trailer reveals, John is still very much a rookie, having only been training under Hal for a couple of months. Hal tells his new partner, "Don't get hung up on the jewelry, junior. You're just a f****** substitute teacher. You aren't ready to get up in front of the class until the ring says you are." He then promptly throws himself out of their car, leaving John to literally fly or die. A dysfunctional relationship, to say the least.
We see John carrying his Lantern in one shot of the trailer, suggesting he will eventually have cause to use the new tools of his trade.
John Stewart was created by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams and first appeared in Green Lantern #87 in December 1971.
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner
After making his debut in James Gunn’s Superman and briefly appearing in Peacemaker Season 2, Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle) will return as Guy Gardner in Lanterns.
"He's a jerk,” Fillion said of his character to TV Guide. “What's important to know is, you don't have to be good to be a Green Lantern; you just have to be fearless. So Guy Gardner is fearless, and he is not very good. He's not nice, which is very freeing as an actor because you just think to yourself, what is the most selfish, self-serving thing I can do in this moment? And that's the answer.
"I think if he has a superpower, it might be his overconfidence, in that he thinks he could take on Superman. He can't!"
Guy Gardner has been around since 1968, as he was created by John Broome and Gil Kane and first appeared in comics in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #59.
Kelly MacDonald as Sheriff Kerry
Via Variety, Kelly MacDonald (Brave, No Country for Old Men) has joined the cast of Lanterns as Sheriff Kerry, a “non-nonsense woman deeply devoted to her family and close-knit town. Her resilience, shaped by a complex past that’s hardened her resolve, anchors her when the community’s secrets begin to surface.”
Kerry may be a love interest of Hal, but it's clear from the trailer that she has absolutely zero patience for Hal and John sticking their noses in the town's latest murder case.
Garret Dillahunt as William Macon
Via Deadline, Garret Dillahunt (12 Years a Slave, Raising Hope) is William Macon, who is described as a modern cowboy who is a “self-righteous, conspiracy-minded man who masks his ruthless ambition behind a charming and calculated facade.” Billy Macon is his son.
William Macon appears to be a new character created for Lanterns.
Poorna Jagannathan as Zoe
Poorna Jagannathan (The Night Of, Never Have I Ever) will be playing Zoe in Lanterns. She’s rumored to be the love interest of John Stewart.
Zoe appears to be a new character created for Lanterns.
Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro
DC supervillain Sinestro will cause some big trouble in Lanterns, and he will be brought to life in the series by Ulrich Thomsen (The Celebration, The International). In the comics, Sinestro is a former Green Lantern who turned rogue. Via Variety, The Lanterns take on him has been described as “ruthless yet undeniably charming.” He also used to be a mentor to Hal Jordan. It remains to be seen if Sinestro will have turned to the dark side and donned his yellow ring yet in the series.
Sinestro was created by John Broome and Gil Kane in 1963 and first appeared in the comic book Green Lantern, Vol. 2, #56.
Sherman Augustus as John Senior
John Senior is John Stewart’s father, and Sherman Augustus (Virus, The Foreigner) will play the older version of the character. Via Deadline, he is described as the “human embodiment of stubborn” and one who can’t help but try to live in the past and focus on what could have been.
John Senior appears to be a new character created for Lanterns.
J. Alphonse Nicholson as Young John Senior
A younger version of John Stewart’s father, John Senior, will also appear in the show and will be played by J. Alphonse Nicholson (P-Valley, They Cloned Tyrone). Presumably this means we’ll be getting flashbacks to the young John’s life.
Nicole Ari Parker as Bernadette
Bernadette is John Stewart’s mother, and the older version of the character will be played by Nicole Ari Parker (Boogie Nights, Remember the Titans).
Instead of this, mention a bit about her from the comics - looks like she has a tragic fate.
Jasmine Cephas Jones as Young Bernadette
Jasmine Cephas Jones (Blindspotting, Monsters and Men) will play the younger version of Bernadette in Lanterns.
Jason Ritter as Billy Macon
Via THR, Jason Ritter (Matlock, A Million Little Things) has been cast as Billy Macon, the son of William Macon, who is a “good-looking charmer who does his father’s bidding. Capitalizing on his family’s reputation, he clings to his small-town ego and has everything to lose.”
Billy Macon appears to be an original character created for Lanterns.
Chris Coy as Waylon Sanders
Chris Coy (Deliver Us From Evil, Detroit) will be joining Lanterns in a guest starring role as Waylon Sanders, and his description is as mysterious as his character seems to be.
Via Deadline, He is said to be an “intelligent survivor or a nervous truck driver. Age and real name unknown, he’s unbound by the laws of nature.” Huh?
Waylon Sanders appears to be an original character created for Lanterns.
Paul Ben-Victor as Antaan
Via Deadline, Antaan, an extraterrestrial “devoted to exposing the truth and exacting vengeance against those who wronged his people,” will be played by Paul Ben-Victor (The Wire, The Irishman). His character is also “consumed by a deep and unrelenting hatred for the law” and is “determined to deliver justice on his own terms.”
Antaan appears to be an original character created for Lanterns.
Actor Christian Bale, who played the lead in the 2000 American Psycho movie, was recently asked what he thought of the new American Psycho movie coming from Luca Guadagnino. "Whoever wants to give it a shot, give it a pop," Bale told The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere of his latest film The Bride in New York City. "I loved making it with Mary Harron so many years back. So many fantastic memories of it all. Bold choice of anyone to… I don't know if they're doing a remake or what... I don't know anything about it, but all the best to 'em. I like brave people."
Bale didn’t have any particular picks when asked as far as actors to play the iconic Patrick Bateman this time around, but it’s great to see him so open to another portrayal that might end up quite different from his own.
That said, casting has seemingly been a big undertaking for the project. When it was first announced in 2024, Austin Butler was set to star as Bateman — but a 2025 report claimed that The White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger was up for the role. But, as of this writing, no one has officially been attached to the part just yet. It doesn’t seem to be for a lack of trying, though.
"A couple of high-profile actors, whom I can't name, have turned it down," Bret Easton Ellis, author of the 1991 novel on which the film was based, revealed last month on his podcast. "I think maybe because they don't want to be in the shoes of Christian Bale." To be fair, that makes a lot of sense. Bale’s performance is the stuff of legend, and it will probably prove a bit difficult to find an actor ready and willing to do something wholly different with their Bateman — which appears to be Guadagnino’s strategy here.
"From what I’m told, this movie is completely different from Mary Harron’s 2000 movie,” Ellis also shared on the pod. “It's a completely different take, and going to bear no resemblance to that movie."
It’s certainly the move, doing something completely different with the source material versus rehashing the same old thing. Plus, the book and the movie do have a lot of differences between them, so there’s tons of opportunity there to play around. The only other person officially attached to the project besides Guadagnino is The Bourne Ultimatum writer Scott Z. Burns, who also wrote Steven Soderbergh’s 2013 film Side Effects, and it’ll be interesting to see where he goes with this reimagining of a perverted classic.
Before it became a movie that launched Christian Bale into stardom, American Psycho was a critically acclaimed, darkly comedic novel about the poisonous power of the American Dream. And in January, IGN exclusively debuted a new preview of The Folio Society's American Psycho set, featuring new looks at the box design, endpapers, frontispiece, and replica business card.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
With the release of DC K.O. #5, DC's latest crossover event has come to a close. The winner of the high-stakes superhero martial arts tournament has been crowned, leaving only one final battle between the new King Omega and the almighty Darkseid. And when the dust settles, it quickly becomes clear that DC has an even bigger Darkseid story in the works.
What happens in the finale of DC K.O.? We're going to break down this last, epic battle and the immediate fallout, but beware of spoilers for DC K.O. #5 ahead!
King Omega vs. Darkseid
DC K.O. #4 not only featured the first encounter between the Justice League and their counterparts in the Absolute Universe, it also ended on a big twist, with Lex Luthor betraying Superman to win the fighting tournament. As the final issue opens, Luthor is crowned King Omega, and he's clearly enjoying all the power that comes with the title.
However, Luthor's triumph is short-lived. Time Trapper (the evolved, intelligent version of Doomsday) intervenes and gives Superman a second chance to be the hero his universe needs. In his more enlightened state, Time Trapper realizes that his primary purpose isn't to destroy Superman, but to save him. And so he empowers the Man of Steel with both destructive Omega Energy and its polar opposite, the creation-rich Alpha Energy. Superman immediately returns to the battlefield as the true King Omega.
In his new, powered-up state, Superman is now fundamentally linked to the lifeforce of the entire universe. But even that isn't enough to make him a true contender against Darkseid. With the future and present already under his control, Darkseid battles Superman into the past, gaining ground with every mighty blow.
Their fight takes Superman all the way back to the Big Bang. But it's here that Superman reveals this was his plan all along. Absorbing this primordial force of creation, Superman finally gains the power he needs to overcome Darkseid. The villain is beaten back as Superman simultaneously batters him and remakes the entire universe in his image.
One of the constant themes of DC K.O. has been Superman's struggle to accept that sometimes a hero needs to fight to win. And even in his moment of triumph, Superman stops short of killing Darkseid and solidifying this reborn DC Universe. Superman notes that he doesn't want one person to win. No one should wield the power he currently possesses. Superman wants everybody to win. Instead, he gives up that power and summons the other tournament combatants to knock Darkseid out of the DC Universe. The villain is defeated, but hardly destroyed.
How DC K.O. Sets Up DC's Next Big Crossover
In the aftermath of the Superman vs. Darkseid battle, reality returns to some semblance of normality again. But the epilogue in this issue lays a number of seeeds for the future that are worth highlighting:
DC All In Act 2
One of the main goals with DC K.O. is to set the stage for DC All In Act 2, a new publishing initiative designed to build on the success of the original DC All In initiative from 2024. DC will be launching several new ongoing series in the months to come, books that emphasize the same sort of creative freedom and bold storytelling that have made DC's Absolute Universe line such a big hit.
The page above teases some of the many heroes who will be important in the months ahead, including Lobo, Deathstroke, Batwoman, Zatanna, Etrigan, Firestorm, Red Hood, and Jonah Hex.
This issue also reveals that Darkseid's defeat led to an explosion of Alpha Energy. Several heroes - Batgirl, Guy Gardner, Harley Quinn, Wally West - were caught in the explosion and have gained new superhuman powers as a result.
Superman Is Missing
Much like how 2021's Dark Nights: Death Metal ended with Wonder Woman taking a bit of a break, DC K.O. looks to be setting up a prolonged absence for the Man of Steel. Superman is MIA in the aftermath of Darkseid's defeat, dealing with some unfinished business while Batman and Wonder Woman are left to console a concerned Lois Lane. In Superman's absence, his multiversal doppleganger Superboy-Prime has returned.
A New Book in the History of the DC Universe
DC recently published a limited series called The New History of the DC Universe, which is presented as a comprehensive summary of DC's sprawling continuity written by expert time traveler/universe hopper Barry Allen. Barry returns to his home office, only for his computer to be consumed by a burst of Omega Energy. When the energy fades, his manuscript suddenly contains a new entry - Book Zero. This implies something has been fundamentally altered about the history of the DCU.
The Fate of the Legion of Super Heroes
The futuristic Legion of Super Heroes was decimated by Darkseid's takeover of the future, with Darkseid deploying the Legion of the Absolute Universe to kill their counterparts. But having been freed from Darkseid's control, the Absolute Legion is now hiding in the 31st Century of the regular DCU. The last thing they want is to be discovered by their old master, or someone even worse.
This appears to be setting up writer Joshua Williamson's upcoming Legion of Super heroes relaunch, suggesting the series will be about the Absolute Legion making a new home in the ruined future timeline they created.
Beware the Absolute Crisis
Again, Superman and his allies may have banished Darkseid from their universe, but this looks to be only a temporary setback for the villain. He still reigns supreme over the Absolute Universe, a place where the very fabric of existence is permeated with Omega Energy.
Worse, the same martial arts tournament has been playing out in countless other universes, each ending with a newly crowned King Omega being subjugated by Darkseid. He's quickly amassing an army capable of conquering the entire multiverse. Darkseid closes out this seres by teasing, "There will be a Crisis of absolute proportions!"
This looks to be directly setting the stage for DC's next big crossover event. We assume that book will be called Absolute Crisis, making it the latest chapter in a long line of Crisis events dating back to 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths. DC also recently teased the first major Absolute Universe crossover event for Q4 2026, but that may or may not be connected to this storyline.
What do you think of the finale to DC K.O.? Are you looking forward to Absolute Crisis? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The first official trailer has arrived for HBO's Lanterns ahead of its debut in August 2026, and it features a flying Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and a John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) who is in training and waiting for his turn to wield the iconic ring.
Lanterns appears to be taking a much more grounded approach in a world filled with superheroes, as we don't really see any powers take center stage besides a few teases at what this pair can do. Instead, we get a look at the fraught relationship between the old veteran and the up-and-comer who is waiting for his time to shine.
The trailer reveals Jordan and Stewart have been together for about two months now, and Stewart hasn't been able to wear the ring yet.
"Don't get hung up on the jewelry, junior," Jordan says. "You're just a f****** substitute teacher. You aren't ready to get up in front of the class until the ring says you are."
What follows next is Jordan jumping out of the car before it speeds off a cliff, and Stewart needing to find a way to survive, which he does off-screen.
We then get a glimpse of the wider mystery at hand, which involves a murder in the American Heartland. It also includes Sheriff Kerry (Kelly Macdonald), who doesn't like these two getting in her way.
The rest of the trailer is filled with tension between the teacher and his student, a glimpse of Jordan's old suit, and even a tease of the other Green Lanterns, who Jordan believes are all aliens. Oh, and one is a "f*****' squirrel," who is most likely Ch'p from the comics.
"The Green Lantern's oath is to protect people," Stewart says. "We both know I do a better job of this than you."
"This is my job," Jordan responds. "As long as I'm alive, that ain't changin'. So, take a deep breath, junior."
"You're old. You're tired," Stewart says. "And your time is up."
Connexion
