It’s best not to put too much stock in Gundam Breaker 4’s name. Despite its title, it’s not the fourth game in the series. That honor goes to New Gundam Breaker, which Bandai Namco prefers to overlook due to its middling reviews and overall poor reputation with the fanbase. Instead, Gundam Breaker 4 will be the fifth console release in the now decade-old series, and what Bandai Namco hopes will be a fresh start for the franchise overall.
In an exclusive interview with IGN, Masanori Tanaka says that the team collected “a lot” of feedback from New Gundam Breaker before heading into Gundam Breaker 4. The main takeaway? Fans were confused about the number. But more importantly, they wanted the series to get back to what it did best: letting players smash up AI-controlled mobile suits to build up new and bizarre designs of their own.
“New Gundam Breaker was [player-versus-player] focused,” Tanaka explains. “Now we're actually focusing on PvE for Gundam Breaker 4. So that's a change that was made from the feedback…now we can focus on supporting the quality and letting the game evolve. So for example, the diorama mode [a new mode that lets you pose your models in various scenes] is one of those things. And just refining the action compared to the previous game.”
Gundam Breaker gets back to basics
First released on Playstation 3 and Vita back in 2013, Gundam Breaker earned a following by leaning into the franchise’s pervasive model culture, colloquially known as “Gunpla.” The series takes a traditional hack-and-slash approach to its gameplay, but what makes it stand out is the ability to mix-and-match parts from real-life model kits to create your own ridiculous designs. The unintentional hilarity of these digital kitbash creations taps into an enduring part of the Gundam subculture.
Now we can focus on supporting the quality and letting the game evolve
The series continued through three entries before getting a reboot of sorts with New Gundam Breaker. New Gundam Breaker was criticized for being unpolished and for stripping down the customization and story, hence the return to numbered entries. With Gundam Breaker 4, Bandai Namco is eager to emphasize that it has heard fan feedback and that it is returning to what worked by pivoting back to a more single-player focused experience and optional co-op.
Among other things, the customization has been beefed up, including adding the ability to dual wield one-handed weapons and equip different arms. To emphasize the enhancements to the customization, Kentaro Matano shows off his own creation – a monstrous pink Ball with a bear head, Neo-Zeong legs, and claws.
“So as you saw, you could change the background, highly customizable, different colors. You can also add weathering which we weren't even able to show you,” Matano says, referencing a popular technique used by model-builders to add realism to their designs. “So there's just really vast amounts of combinations that users can just let their creativity just run wild. So those are really the focus.”
Players will have plenty of parts to choose from. With Witch From Mercury proving popular with fans on both sides of the Pacific, Gundam Breaker 4 will feature the Gundam Aerial and Daribalde in what will be the largest roster of models to date, as well as a full English dub.
Technical trade-offs on Switch
Notably, Gundam Breaker 4 will mark the franchise’s debut on the Nintendo Switch after mostly sticking with PlayStation (it’s also releasing on PS4, PS5, and Steam). Asked if there are any technical compromises fans can expect, Tanaka says it will mostly feature a lower framerate, subsequently clarifying that it will be 60fps on PS5 and 30fps on Nintendo Switch..
“I believe the only major technical thing you might see on the Switch is just a different framerate compared to the other platforms,” Tanaka explains. “It might be a slightly different experience compared to a different platform so that our fans can be able to play with the understanding of what they will get on the different platforms. But overall, just the actual gameplay itself, it won’t be a huge difference.”
One way or another, it will be a fresh start for Gundam Breaker 4 as it seeks to reestablish itself with old fans and new fans alike. “We want our fans to really take in Gundam Breaker 4,” says Matano, “because we read everything, we read all the feedback…to create the next generation, the next game with everyone's feedback."
Gundam Breaker 4 will release August 29 on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out all the rest of the biggest games of 2024 right here.
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
Dell has a great deal on an Alienware gaming PC equipped with the most powerful AMD GPU on the market. Right now you can pick up an Alienware Aurora R15 Ryzen Edition Radeon RX 7900 XTX Gaming PC for only $1889.99 after a 10% off code "10AMD" is applied. This is an outstanding deal for anyone looking to get a tremendously powerful gaming PC without paying NVIDIA prices.
Alienware Aurora R15 RX 7900 XTX Gaming PC for $1890
The full specs include an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X CPU, Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU, a very generous 64GB of DDR5-4800MHz RAM, and a 1TB NVME SSD. The Ryzen 9 7900X features a max boost clock of 5.6GHz with 12 cores, 24 threads, and 76MB of total cache. This is one of the highest end gaming and workstation combo chips from AMD; only the 7950X/X3D is better. It's cooled by a Cryo-Tech Edition 240mm all-in-one liquid CPU cooler and three additional 120mm system fans. The entire system is powered by a beefy 1350W 80PLUS Platinum certified power supply.
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is AMD's flagship card, and it's mean enough to challenge the crazy powerful GeForce RTX 40 series cards. When you look at raw benchmarks (without ray tracing or DLSS), the RX 7900 XTX actually edges out the GeForce RTX 4080 in several games. This card won't break a sweat in 4K gaming, even at 60+ fps. Note that if you do want to enable ray tracing, you're better off going with NVIDIA. That is one feature that NIVDIA does better, but you'll definitely be paying a lot more for what is, in my opinion, a neglible improvement. You can read our Radeon RX 7900 XTX review for more details on the GPU.
Why Pick a Dell or Alienware Gaming PC?
Not everyone is the DIY type, and these days prebuilt gaming PC aren't that much more expensive than building your own computer. In fact, depending on the demand of certain components like the GPU, it might even be cheaper. Alienware gaming laptops and desktops offer a staggering array of options, all built into a custom chassis that's both easy on the eyes and easy on the wallet. The newest Alienware gaming PCs have significantly improved their cooling performance, especially when paired with a liquid cooling solution. Alienware gaming laptops in recent years have been redesigned to be thinner and lighter while still offering the same immense power under the hood. Consistent build quality, available inventory, frequent sales, and solid customer service are the main reasons why Dell is one of our picks for best prebuilt gaming PCs.
Heaven or Hell, controllers or cardboard - let’s rock. Guilty Gear Strive: The Board Game from Level 99 Games offers players a new way to experience many of those same pulse-pounding moments and swings in gameplay that fans of the video game expect. Plus, it has a surprisingly fast turn-around between matches and 20 characters to choose from. If you're in the market for a new brawling game for you and a buddy to add to your game rotation, Strive may be it.
Guilty Gear Strive isn’t so much a brand new game as it is the next entry in a long-running series -- think a new season of fighters for the video game. Strive is built around Level 99 Game’s Exceed system, first released in 2016, and has seen sets featuring other prevalent video game characters like Street Fighter and Shovel Knight. Strive (along with all the previous Exceed releases) pits two players against one another on a 9-spaced board, similar to the stage of a 2D fighter. Players advance and retreat around the stage by using their decks of special moves, basic attacks, and super specials, spacing themselves properly to take advantage of their specials to whittle their opponent down to zero life.
At first, it may be hard to imagine that a card game could capture the moment-to-moment action of a fighting video game. Level 99 has had a long time to refine this system. When I’m not playing board games and RPGs, I also love a good fighting game, with Guilty Gear being one of my favorites. So, I’m saying this from a position of familiarity with both the genre and series when I say that this game really nails that feeling.
This game is just as much about accurately reading what your opponent is going to do and responding to it as it is about trying to strategize and best use the moves in your character’s toolkit to poke holes in their game -- just like in a video game. I appreciate the juggling of spacing, trying to keep yourself out of harm's way while just close enough so that you can hit them or hitting them with a weak but fast attack, preventing them from hitting me. It actually does feel like a fighting game -- just played with cards instead of a controller or fightstick.
Much like a match in a video game, it doesn’t take long to play out, making this a solid quick-playing board games. Most games take less than a half hour, and once my friends and I had a grasp on what was going on, it was even shorter. Even when jumping from one character to another, the different styles and mechanics lent themselves more to applying and learning new strategies as opposed to having to start fresh and learn how to play.
On the topic of the characters, I have to applaud the team at Level 99 for doing a good job capturing the feel of each of 20 included characters' play styles from the source material. For instance, Axl’s expertise in battlefield positioning, lets you advantage of his long-range to push and pull his opponents into spots that are best for him. Or, Zato-1 can bring out his tethered demon pal, Eddie, onto the field to attack from. Little touches like that make jumping into this card-based version of Heaven and Hell all that more exciting and approachable.
Most games take less than a half hour.
Strive is an Exceed-based game, making it compatible and able to be played alongside previously released Exceed character sets. If you find yourself smitten with the system after playing Guilty Gear Strive, you can have Sol exchange blows with Ryu from Street Fighter or have Faust take on the knight of shovelery himself, Shovel Knight. All you need to do is pick up their respective decks, and off you go.
After eight years of releases, Level 99 has had a lot of time to figure out and refine the instructions and the best methods of teaching their Exceed system, with Strive benefiting from these refinements. Strive comes with a 27-page instruction book -- ditching the paper foldout of older seasons -- with straightforward explanations and visual examples of some situations you may encounter during a play session. As an extra handy bonus, each player deck also comes with its own set of reference cards showing rules, actions, and all the attacks that the character has access to. Where most games may give you a few, Strive gives you 20 sets.
Playing and teaching with a few friends, even the first time I was learning myself, things always seemed to click by the end of the first game, if not partway through. By the time I was teaching my third and fourth friend the game, where I didn’t need to confirm or double-check my information in the instructions, I could teach the basics in about 10-15 with little issue.
Regarding the components packed into Strive’s box, you can expect some solid-feeling cards with a semi-gloss finish. The cards are sturdy and feel good to shuffle, the tuck boxes for each character’s deck easily fit sleeved decks, and the included neoprene play mat is sturdy and well-constructed. However, I encountered a strange coloring issue around some of the cards that came in my copy of the game. Each character’s specific deck features an associated color scheme on its backside, and there were a few cards in my game where the odd card had a slightly off color to it. Were this color oddity on the front side of the card, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but considering this is a game where knowing what you have coming can adjust your strategy, this difference can provide you with an advantage. Hopefully, this issue isn’t widespread.
You can have Sol exchange blows with Ryu from Street Fighter.
As opposed to the previous releases of sets in the Exceed line, Level 99 has opted to include all the characters in a single release as opposed to bundling a few together and selling multiple smaller boxes. This means Strive comes in a large box, with a shocking amount of wasted space inside, too. The box itself comes in at 39.5cm x 41.5cm, a dimension that from a distance appears to be a square, even when up close appears to be a square, but when it comes to putting the top on the box means that there is a specific way you have to put it on. Does this impact the quality of the gameplay in any way? Not in the slightest. Does it make my eye twitch with minor annoyance when I get it wrong? No comment. But, on a more serious note, unfortunately, the box’s dimensions mean it is too large to fit on an Ikea Kallax shelf, a common go-to game storage solution for board gaming hobbyists, and is something to be aware of.
Guilty Gear Strive: The Board Game is a game where you have to be cutthroat, and players will get the most enjoyment when they play someone of an equal skill level. On the flip side, it also means the differences in experience can vastly skew the game in favor of one player over the other. The fact that Guilty Gear Strive is strictly a two-player board game doesn’t help alleviate or balance out that imbalance either.
PlayStation reversed course on the unpopular decision to require a PSN login for the Steam version of Helldivers 2, but headaches remain for Ghost of Tsushima on PC, which is set to release later this week.
In a post published on X / Twitter, developer Nixxes Software announced that Legends — Ghost of Tsushima's cooperative multiplayer game requiring a PSN login — will be functional on PC at launch, but won't automatically match players on different platforms. Instead, cross-play will carry a beta tag.
"Cross-play will launch in beta, meaning you can try it out by inviting your PlayStation Network friends," the post reads. "We would love your feedback as we continue to make adjustments in the weeks following launch!"
Ghost of Tsushima is the latest PlayStation game to make its way to PSN, and the first to introduce a new overlay that includes trophy support and other perks. However, the backlash against Helldivers 2's PSN requirements has apparently forced PlayStation to reconsider its plans for the platform.
"We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable," PlayStation wrote at the time.
We should get a clearer picture of what the future holds when Ghost of Tsushima launches on PC on May 16. In the meantime, check out our column from earlier today asking a simple question: Where are all the PS5 games?
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
Spoiler Warning: This article contains potential spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2!
A fresh batch of images from the set of HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 has emerged, revealing sneak peeks at a grown-up Ellie, Dina, and a city that has seen better days.
Images from the post-apocalyptic adaptation’s second season began to appear across social media over the weekend. The pictures don’t reveal too much about the show’s plot but do offer first looks at Bella Ramsey’s return as Ellie and Isabela Maerced’s debut as Dina.
Reddit user miss-sarah captured a few more shots, including first looks at a rifle-wielding Ellie and perhaps most importantly, what seems to be her trusty horse companion, Shimmer.
The Last of Us Season 2 is currently shooting in Vancouver. X user Cristina Barper shared some environmental shots from the production, too, revealing overgrown city streets and a first look at Weston’s Pharmacy, an in-game store that’s appeared a number of times throughout the video game series, including a Seattle chapter of The Last of Us Part 2.
Like Season 1 of HBO’s The Last of Us series, Season 2 is confirmed to adapt the events of game developer Naughty Dog’s work, this time following its sequel, The Last of Us Part 2. That means there are at least a few events that longtime fans will be keeping their eyes out for. Some highlights from the video game follow-up include appearances from major players like Abby and Dina, long treks through weathered Seattle streets, and of course, the death of original protagonist, Joel Miller.
We though The Last of Us Season 1 set a high bar for video-game-to-TV-show adaptations, awarding it a 9/10 in our review. At the time, we said, “HBO's The Last of Us is a stunning adaptation that should thrill newcomers and enrich those already familiar with Joel and Ellie's journey alike.”
Expect to see The Last of Us Season 2 premiere sometime in 2025. For more on how Season 2 will bring The Last of Us Part 2 to TV screens, you can read up on our predictions here.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
Madden NFL 25 is apparently set to release on August 16, according to a new report.
Reliable video game leaker and data miner billbil-kun has published a new report detailing what fans can expect from this year's Madden. According to billbil-kun, Madden NFL 25 will be released on August 16, but those who own the Deluxe Edition or subscribe to EA Play will get access as early as August 12.
Although billbil-kun has not revealed any details as to who the cover athlete(s) for Madden 25 will be, the report does confirm that EA Orlando (formerly EA Tiburon) will once again develop the next Madden game. Madden NFL 25 will have two editions: Standard and Deluxe; the former will retail for $69.99, while the latter will cost $99.99.
A proper reveal for Madden NFL is supposedly happening on May 16 — the same day the publisher is set to reveal the official covers for College Football 25, its first entry in the college football video game series since 2013.
The report also claims that Madden NFL 25 will improve the FieldSense technology. This feature originally debuted in Madden NFL 23, with the physics engine being reworked for the newest entry to provide more "realistic animations with fluid gameplay."
The news comes the same day Prime Video announced new content for its streaming service, including a four-part docuseries focusing on the history of the Madden video game franchise.
In our review of Madden NFL 24, IGN wrote: "New animations and improved AI make Madden NFL 24’s on-field action the best it's ever been, but everything that happens off the field is a slog of dated modes and laggy menus that brings everything around it down."
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Apple AirPods are renowned for their popularity and practicality. They boast a sleek design, snug fit, and impressive sound quality, making them ideal companions for various activities like mowing the lawn, hitting the gym, or tackling household chores. Additionally, they're often available at discounted prices, particularly leading up to Memorial Day, provided you know where to look.
For those interested, we've curated the top Apple deals currently available, featuring AirPods 2nd Gen starting at $79.99 and AirPods Pro at $189.99. However, if you're open to exploring alternatives outside the Apple ecosystem, we've compiled recommendations for the best wireless earbuds of 2024 as well. For now, here are all the best AirPods deals available today.
TL;DR - Best AirPods Deals
Best AirPods Pro Deals
AirPods Pro (2nd Gen) distinguishes itself with a USB-C charging port, departing from the Lightning port utilized in its predecessor. This transition mirrors Apple's strategy seen in recent releases like the iPhone 15 and the latest iPads. Notably, "True wireless" earbuds epitomize cable-free convenience, eliminating even the cords connecting each earpiece. This design not only reduces the risk of dislodgement but also permits individual use if needed. Moreover, boasting exceptional sound quality, the AirPods Pro stands out as the sole AirPods variant equipped with active noise-canceling technology.
Cheapest AirPods Deals
If you're keen to hop aboard the AirPods trend without breaking the bank, take a peek at this offer for the 2nd generation Apple AirPods. Whether the added perks like spatial audio and enhanced battery life justify the higher price point is entirely up to you. However, at $79.99, you're snagging authentic AirPods earbuds that deliver nearly identical sound quality to the latest generation. Plus, should you misplace one, the loss won't sting quite as much.
Best AirPods Max Deal
If you lean towards over-ear headphones over earbuds, rejoice! The Apple AirPods Max are presently enjoying a modest discount on Amazon. Typically priced at a substantial $549, they're presently available for $449.99, allowing you to pocket $99.01 in savings. Their value is undeniable, boasting top-notch audio quality courtesy of the Apple H1 chip, Active Noise Cancellation, a generous battery life of up to 20 hours, a comfortable build, and a host of other impressive features.
Best AirPods (3rd Gen) Deals
Apple's third-generation AirPods bring several noteworthy upgrades compared to the 2nd gen model. One standout enhancement is spatial audio, enhancing the immersive experience by creating a sensation of sound coming from various directions. Additionally, the inclusion of adaptive EQ adjusts the audio output based on the unique contours of your ear.
In terms of practicality, the most significant improvement lies in the battery life. These earbuds provide up to six hours of usage on a single charge. Moreover, the case boasts a larger battery capacity, facilitating four additional charges. Consequently, storing your AirPods between uses extends the total listening time to an impressive 30 hours. Here's a nifty tip to check your Apple AirPod battery on any device, even an Android phone.
It also supports quick charging, giving you an hour's worth of use with just a five-minute charge. You can pay $10 more to get the case with wireless charging capability. It works with wireless-Qi chargers, including, of course, Apple's MagSafe charger.
Short answer, absolutely, especially given the current price points. Here's why:
The AirPods Pro feature active (and passive) noise isolation
The AirPods Pro has a key feature that the AirPods do not have, and that is active noise cancellation. Being able to drown out the background noise while listening to your music is an absolute game changer. Those of you who have already experienced it will probably agree, and those of you who haven't will be in for an eye opening experience.
The AirPods Pro feature a better fit
This one's another obvious win for the AirPods Pro. The AirPods Pro have replaceable silicone ear tips that can be swapped out for different sizes depending on your ear. They also fit snugly in your ear to help create the proper seal for the noise cancellation to work optimally. The AirPods, on the other hand, have no adjustable eartips at all. They rest on the outer rim of your ear and don't stay in place as well as the AirPods Pro.
The AirPods Pro features better sound quality
There are a couple of reasons why, but the biggest reason is, again, the inclusion of adjustable ear tips. Because the AirPods Pro fit snugly in your ear, there's much less sound leakage. That means you'll hear bigger and more nuanced sound compared to a pair of unsealed earbuds that are resting on the outer rim of your ear. The 2nd gen AirPods Pro also features the new H2 chip compared to the H1 chip found on the standard AirPods, which Apple claims offers better audio performance.
The first thing that you’ll notice about Smiling Friends, the Adult Swim favorite that recently kicked off its second season, is its inspired mishmash of art styles. On one end of the spectrum are simple, pastel-colored critters: excitable Pim (Michael Cusack) is small, pink, and circular, while laid-back Charlie (Zach Hadel) has a banana-like head protruding from an orange hoodie. On the other end is their boss, Mr. Boss (Marc M.), a hyper-detailed human with a bulbous noggin that makes him look like a cross between Pops from Regular Show and The Man from Another Place in Twin Peaks. Hadel and Cusack, who are also the creators of Smiling Friends, only dial up the contrast from there. The show’s breakout first season employed stop-motion and rotoscope, and the new episodes hardly miss a step, dabbling in 32-bit polygons and, for its second episode, a fully live-action President (Mike Bocchetti) who Pim and Charlie have been hired to cheer up.
That’s ostensibly the premise of every episode, with the characters emerging from their smiley-faced headquarters to assist some strange new character. But it’s more of a jumping-off point than an ironclad structure; the second season’s third episode instead follows Pim and Charlie’s red, necktie-wearing co-worker Allan (also voiced by Cusack) in his attempts to find paper clips for the office. There is no overarching plot here, and there’s only light continuity in a few recurring characters like malevolent TV star Mr. Frog (Cusack again). For as much as Rick and Morty is the current poster child for Adult Swim success, Smiling Friends is a throwback to anarchic, non sequitur-laden Adult Swim classics like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as filtered through the Flash animation heyday of Newgrounds (where Hadel and Cusack honed their craft).
Each 11-minute episode plays like a sort of magic trick: A detail established in the opening minutes inevitably figures into the conclusion, but there are so many bizarre tangents in between that you totally forget what that detail was before it’s called back. Yet at the same time, there’s a skewed logic behind Smiling Friends’ riotous, rapid-fire surrealism. The Season 2 premiere follows a washed-up video game mascot named Gwimbly (Hadel). As a platform star of the 1990s, he’s naturally rendered in muddy polygons that flicker up-close, and he speaks in a tinny, low-quality voice compared to the other characters – to the point that you can hear the mic peak when he yells. When we briefly glimpse Gwimbly in his prime on a CRT monitor, the bright colors and character design recall the PS1 reign of Spyro the Dragon.
Such levels of detail, specificity, and overall experimentation are what takes Smiling Friends to such delightful heights. We see the mundane, often depressing reality at work in what’s otherwise a colorful cartoon landscape: Gwimbly makes his living on Cameo, mumbling awkwardly through a commission while holding his phone at a low angle and using a filter to make himself look less blocky. At the same time, the Smiling Friends universe never feels boxed in by logic: Allan’s quest for paper clips comes to involve a helicopter and a skeleton pirate, and nearly every scene of a malevolent gaming CEO in the premiere inexplicably depicts him fiddling with chicken nuggets and dipping sauce.
The series is particularly refreshing in the space of adult animation, where the medium often feels secondary, if not outright perfunctory. Not every one of these experiments is a success in the new season: the comedic potential of the gross-out, live-action president is somewhat misjudged. But even at its weakest, Smiling Friend radiates glee at the possibilities of its format. There is violence and ugliness in its world, but it’s hard not to smile while watching it all go down.
Dead by Daylight turns eight today, and to celebrate the milestone, Behaviour Interactive held its anniversary stream to share new details on updates headed to the asymmetrical horror game. This includes an official reveal of a new game mode, details on the previously teased D&D chapter, and updates on its upcoming spinoff projects.
But if you missed it, don't worry. We break down every announcement from the Dead by Daylight 8th Anniversary Stream below:
Dead by Daylight's 2V8 mode officially announced
Dead by Daylight fans, your wish has been granted: a 2V8 mode is coming. As the name implies, this game mode will have two killers facing off against eight survivors, and will include a larger map to accommodate the increase in players. However, this won't be a rehash of the previous game mode, as the developer confirmed that Perks will not be available in 2V8; instead, it will be replaced with a Class system.
Because the community has highly requested the 2V8 mode, Behaviour revealed that its initial launch would be a building block for tweaks and adjustments based on community feedback. Behaviour plans to share more details on 2V8 mode in July, with a late summer release window.
Dungeons & Dragons chapter coming to Dead by Daylight next month
This new chapter, which launches on June 3, will introduce Vecna as a new killer, who will have four spells available to his playstyle: Fly, Flight of the Damned, Mage Hand, and Dispelling Sphere. At the same time, the two survivors are male and female Bard characters: Baermar Uraz, a human male, and Aestri Yazar, a female elf. Regardless of which gender you choose, this new survivor has three unique perks: Mirror Illusion, Bardic Inspiration, and Still Sight. Alongside new playable characters, the next chapter will introduce a new map inspired by the D&D franchise. The Forgotten Ruins is a new dungeon-themed map that serves as a home to Vecna after he finds himself mysteriously transported into The Fog. Alongside an expansive main floor is an extensive underground component filled with horrific experiments and secrets to discover.
For those interested in trying the new chapter early, it is available on the Dead by Daylight Public Test server today.
Dead by Daylight spinoff The Casting of Frank Stone gets new trailer, but no release date
Last year, Behaviour announced it was expanding the Dead by Daylight franchise by announcing two new games set in the same universe. One of them was The Casting of Frank Stone, a new narrative-driven game from Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games.
An official reveal came last December during The Game Awards, and today's anniversary stream provided another look at the game. The new trailer reveals that the game is set in 1980 and focuses on a group of friends who are on a quest to make their own horror film.
Though we still do not have a firm release date, today's trailer doubles down the fact that The Casting of Frank Stone is still targeting to release sometime this year.
Dead by Daylight's upcoming PvE shooter, codenamed Project T, is launching an Insider Program
The second of two previously announced spinoffs, Behaviour shared new details about its unannounced PvE game, codenamed Project T. Developed by Midwinter Entertainment, Project T is an action-horror co-op shooter, set in a set in a region called The Backwater, up to four players can join together and fend off the monsters inhabiting the area.
Project T still doesn't have a release window. Still, Behaviour revealed that it is launching an Insider Program, allowing players interested in the spinoff to become active in its development cycle. The insider program will include incentives, such as access to closed playtests.
What the Fog is a new rougouelite Dead by Daylight spinoff for PC
While fans previously knew about the other two spinoff games, Behaviour added a third one to the mix: a 2-person co-op roguelite game called What the Fog. Developed in-house by Behaviour, What the Fog has players control Dead by Daylight survivors Claudette Morel, Dwight Fairfield, or Feng Min as they run, jump, and shoot their way through a swarm of monsters.
What the Fog is exlclusive to PC, with the first 2 million copies available, free of charge, if you sign into or create a Behaviour account. After the promotion, What the Fog, will cost $4.99.
Behaviour teases Castlevaniaas the next chapter for Dead by Daylight
As a final "and one more thing"-type announcement, Behaviour announced that the next chapter coming to Dead by Daylight is Konami's popular action-adventure series Castlevania. Not a ton of information was shared during the stream, but Behaviour promised that fans will get more details on August 6.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
HP has an HP OMEN 40L gaming PC equipped with the GeForce RTX 4060 GPU for only $799.99 after a $670 off instant discount. These is a solid gaming desktop PC with good components and cooling like an Intel Core i5 CPU with heatpipe cooler, an Intel Z790 motherboard, Kingston FURY RAM, WD Black PCIe SSD, and an 800W 80PLUS Gold power supply, all housed in an elegant tempered glass and steel case.
HP OMEN 40L GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming PC for $799.99
This HP OMEN 40L is well equipped for its price point, featuring an Intel Core i5-13400 CPU, GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 16GB of Kingston Fury RGB DDR5-5200MHz RAM, and a 512GB WD Black M.2 SSD. The 13th gen Intel Core i5-13400 CPU features a Max Turbo frequency of 4.6GHz with 10 cores, 16 threads, and 20MB of total cache. This is a good gaming chip that won't bottleneck your RTX 4060 GPU.
The RTX 4060 is considerably more powerful than the RTX 3060 and almost nearly matches the RTX 3060 Ti. I would recommend this card for comfortable 1080p gaming. You could also run games at 1440p with relaxed graphic settings, but at that point I'd recommend upgrading to an RTX 4060 Ti or higher. Because it's a current generation card, the RTX 4060 supports the newer DLSS 3.0 and 3.5 tech. It gives you a very nice framerate boost compared to equivalent AMD cards without sacrificing visual quality.
For those of you on a budget, the RTX 4060 is going to be your best NVIDIA GPU that you're going to find for under $1000, and this HP OMEN is $180 under that threshold. What's more, this is a pre-built HP config with a manufacturer's warranty, so you'll avoid the hassle of building DIY and dealing with component warranties. Check out our best budget gaming PCs of 2024 to see what other alternatives we recommend.
Why Choose an HP Gaming PC?
Comparatively speaking, HP usually has the best prices compared to similar models from Lenovo and Dell. You also get free shipping on all all computer purchases as well as the industry standard 1 year warranty. The HP OMEN line of gaming PCs and laptops feature great aesthetics, premium build quality, and powerful components. We especially like HP's OMEN desktop PCs; we picked the OMEN 45L as our best pre-built gaming PC of 2024 and the Victus 15L as our best budget gaming PC of 2024. At this price, the 40L is actually less expensive than a Victus equipped with the same GPU.
Season premieres of Demon Slayer follow an established formula: Some exhilarating action to remind the audience why this is one of the biggest TV shows on the planet, big reveals that tell us more about the centuries-long history of the Demon Slayer Corps, and a whole lot of exposition. Season 4, dubbed "Hashira Training Arc," is no different, but as good as the action is, it doesn’t inspire much confidence in the rest of the season. “To Defeat Muzan Kibutsuji,” is, after all, a double-sized episode filled with boardroom meetings so long they feel like a Star Wars prequel.
The episode opens on a strong note, with the Snake and Wind Hashiras on the hunt for a demon who’s kidnapped a woman. Though the characters have barely had any screen time until now, the sequence tells us enough to know them as individuals – their visually creative fighting styles and distinctive music themes give us an impression of how they differ from the other Hashiras we've met. It's a fight worthy of the big screen, even if the rest of the episode doesn't fully justify it. There’s also a fascinating journey to the Infinity Castle where demon-kind resides. Turns out, the castle is literally just an old, ruined castle (on the outside, at least), but on the inside it’s a stunning setting with a dazzling design that’s constantly changing and morphing.
Unfortunately, the fight scene is followed by the longest, dullest piece of exposition in the anime to date. The Hashiras gather to discuss several pressing matters including the upcoming all-out war, Nezuko being able to stand in sunlight, and some of the powers awakened during the Swordsmith Village Arc. This sequence takes over nearly half the entire premiere, amounting to nothing more than a major half-tease of things that may become important down the line. As if that weren’t enough, there's yet another meeting later in the premiere to plan out the specifics of the new arc’s titular training. It's saying a lot that even the arrival of Zenitsu is better than watching another minute of these meetings.
Demon Slayer has become the victim of its own dazzling animation, with studio Ufotable choosing to milk the property for all it's worth and expand the action scenes to the point where they’re reminiscent of Dragon Ball Z's filler-stuffed, months-long fights. But at least those thrilling sequences display the adaptation’s visual strengths. The meetings, however? Not so much. “To Defeat Muzan Kibutsuji” supplements the source material with a bunch of original scenes, which may be how the rather short Hashira Training Arc becomes an entire season of television – we’re already through most of the training by the end of the premiere. Still, seeing Tengen return to restore some flamboyance to Demon Slayer is always a good thing.
Master Ubuyashiki's crow is another highlight of the episode. Demon Slayer's use of the crows has always been a bit weird, but rather entertaining; watching this particular crow speak fluent Japanese (with the voice of Bleach's Show Hayami, no less) and flex some detective skills is the kind of nonsense Demon Slayer does well. (Same goes for the extended gag in which Inosuke teaches Nezuko to say his name.) Ubuyashiki (who is not looking good these days) recruiting Tamayo – despite her being a demon – shows we are truly headed to the show's endgame. Let's just hope the Demon Slayer Corps' plan is better than boring Muzan to death in a meeting.
Buying new video games, hardware, and accessories for your preferred console doesn’t need to make a massive dent in your wallet. Deals happen all the time for items like these, so you can save money while investing in your favorite hobby. We also cover hot items coming back in stock, like the PlayStation Portal which is now available again at Amazon for $199. For now, whether you play on PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC, you’ll find the very best deals listed below. And if you've taken advantage of lots of these deals, see our roundup on game storage ideas.
With Xbox debating yet another price hike for Game Pass, there's no better time to get stacking. These three month codes provide a lot of flexibility in how you choose to stack them - whether that be 6, 12, 18, or 24 months - but if you want to go all the way up to 36 you can actually save quite a bit. Admittedly, buying up 12 of these codes can put a strain on your wallet, totaling $443.88 with the link above. However, when you compare it to the cost of Game Pass Ultimate for 36 months at $16.99 per month, amounting to $611.64, you'll realize you're saving $167.76 on your subscription for the next three years. That's absolutely worth the investment, especially if yet another price hike is on the horizon.
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Physical Edition) Preorder
While waiting for Nintendo's Switch successor, you can enjoy some absolute classics with the Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. This is a collection of over 150 challenges from 13 different NES games that's coming exclusively to Switch on July 18, and you can preorder it today. We've included links to the physical edition's preorder below, but if you're looking for even more information on digital editions, check out our Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition preorder guide.
Our Favorite Micro SD Cards for Switch and Steam Deck Are On Sale
The best Switch or Steam Deck SD card should be fast, reliable, and as future-proof as possible. That last one is important, as it was recently revealed a Switch successor will be announced within the fiscal year. Therefore, you're going to want to opt for the latest in SD card tech, which is a micro SDXC UHS-I U3 A2 V30 memory card. That's a lot of random letters, so to save you a bit of time we've left our top suggestions and deals just below for your convenience. To see even more SD card deals, make sure to check out our roundup of the best SD card deals.
More SD Card Deals
Alienware Aurora Ryzen RTX 4090 Gaming PC for $2519.99
Do you prefer to play on a dedicated tower? Navigating the options online can be quite the ordeal. Desk space, portability, and price point are often factors in the decision. However, there are some great PC deals that pop up every now and again that are worth jumping on. One of our favorite deals at the moment is on this Alienware Aurora Ryzen RTX 4090 Gaming PC, which is down 35% to $2519.99 (after using the code '10AMD' at checkout). To see even more PC deals, check out our roundup of the best gaming PC deals.
If you're looking for the latest and greatest deals on PC games, don't worry, we've got you covered there as well. Here, you can find some excellent deals on new releases, like Dragon's Dogma 2, and enjoy some great discounts from Green Man Gaming's Birthday Sale. With the latter, you can use the code BDAY14 at checkout to get an additional 14% off. These excellent deals can be seen below, but to see the full list of discounted games, head to GMG's main sale page here.
Our Favorite Power Bank for Steam Deck is Discounted Right Now
Some excellent power banks are discounted at the moment that are perfectly portable and packing plenty of power to keep you going. In particular, the fantastic Anker 737 is down a whopping 40% to $90.09 (after clipping the 15% off coupon) and the Anker Prime Power Bank is down to $89.98. These are great discounts on reliable power banks that likely won't last long, so grab 'em at these prices while you can!
Meta Quest 2 (128GB) is Down to $199
Amazon is offering a very nice discount at the moment on the 128GB Meta Quest 2. This is one of the best Meta Quest deals available right now, and well worth considering for anyone interested in VR. Normally, this VR headset retails for $249.99, but you can grab it for $199 right now, which is a great price for such a high-quality headset. We gave it a 9/10 in ourreview back when it was released, stating that it "improves an already amazing VR headset with better resolution, refresh rate, and a lower price tag."
Perfect PS5 4TB SSD with Heatsink for $269.99 at Amazon
Looking to completely maximize your PS5 storage capabilities? Then this is the deal for you. For a limited time only, this PS5 4TB SSD is available at Amazon for $269.99 (see here). It has an MSRP of $699.99, which is rather dramatic, but in reality, this and many other 4TB SSDs have been sitting around $280-$300 recently. The 1TB version is also down to just $84.99 as well. Again, we're unlikely to see better deals than this until Prime Day in the summer. You can also check out more PS5 SSD deals here.
Steam Deck Internal SSD: Big Discount on the WD_BLACK SSD
If a micro SD card deal isn't floating your boat for Steam Deck, how about a new internal SSD instead? The WD_BLACK 1TB SN770M M.2 2230 NVMe SSD is currently down to $109.99, which is a nice 15% discount from its $129.99 MSRP.
Score 2 Free Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (New Members Only)
Walmart is now offering two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for free for any current or new Walmart+ members. If you're not currently a member of Walmart+, the retailer offers a 30-day free trial (which will make you eligible for the Game Pass offer), alongside plans for $12.95 paid monthly, or $98 paid annually.
For those interested in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offer, it is worth qualifying that this code will only apply to those who currently don't have an active Game Pass Ultimate membership, and Walmart stresses that this is for new members only. If you're on Game Pass Core, it should be fine to apply to your account. Otherwise, if you're a current Game Pass Ultimate member, the code won't be applicable. If you do qualify, it's a pretty simple process if you're looking to bag the two-month free trial, here's how:
Steps:
Visit the Walmart+ Offer Page and select 'Get Offer' next to the 2 free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate listing
On the 'Offer Page' you will see a unique promo code, copy this code and keep a record of it
Hit the 'Redeem Offer' button on the page to go to the Xbox Site
Sign in to Your Account
Your promo code will autofill -- if it does not then paste/type
Redeem your offer and receive your 2 Free Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Disable auto-renewal afterward to avoid being charged at the end of the trial -- this can be located in 'Services & Subscriptions' in your Microsoft account. You should also do this for Walmart+ if you used a free trial to access the Game Pass offer
A sequel to Amazon's Road House remake is in the works, with Jake Gyllenhaal reprising his role as Dalton.
Head of Amazon MGM Studios Jennifer Salke announced the news during the studio's inaugural upfronts presentation on May 14, confirming that Gyllenhaal would be back to pack another punch as Elwood Dalton in a sequel to 2024's Road House (a remake of the 1989 film of the same name led by the late Patrick Swayze).
With nearly 80 million viewers to date, Jake Gyllenhaal is set to reprise his role as Elwood Dalton in a Road House sequel. pic.twitter.com/XgpD3ScXIS
Plot details are under wraps for now, but the first film saw Dalton, a former UFC fighter, take a job at a roadhouse in the Florida Keys, where he soon discovered things were not as they first seemed. Gyllenhaal was joined on the cast by Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, and Conor McGregor, starring in his feature film debut.
The movie was popular with audiences, pulling in nearly 80 million global viewers since its March 21 debut on Prime Video. Over 50 million people watched it during its first two weekends on the platform, making it Amazon MGM Studios' most-watched produced film debut ever on a worldwide basis, the studio has revealed.
Before going to streaming, Road House premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival, but director Doug Liman opted to boycott the screening in protest of Amazon MGM refusing to give the movie a theatrical release. He stressed that "if we don't put tentpole movies in movie theaters, there won't be movie theaters in the future."
IGN attended the event and gave the movie a 6/10, noting that "the original's bouncer-versus-businessman plot is refashioned and almost given some thematic weight," but the remake ends up trading "'80s earnest silliness with a Saturday-morning-cartoon tone that manages – barely – to overcome its flaws."
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter @AdeleAnkers.
Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon has received its official Season 2 trailer ahead of its June 16 premiere on HBO's Max.
The chunky two minutes and 27 seconds trailer, below, contains myriad scenes not shown off in previous promotions as Westeros prepares for a bloody war.
— House of the Dragon (@HouseofDragon) May 14, 2024
All of its major players are shown off too, such as Emma D'Arcy's Rhaenyra Targaryen and Matt Smith's Daemon Targaryen, alongside a ton of dragons.
House of the Dragon Season 2 otherwise includes the return of Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, Rhys Ifans, and more, alongside new cast members Abubakar Salim, Gayle Rankin, Freddie Fox, Simon Russell Beale, Clinton Liberty, Jamie Kenna, Kieran Bew, Tom Bennett, Tom Taylor, and Vincent Regan.
Season 2 will continue the adaptation of original author George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood, a book outlining the history of House Targaryen (featured in HBO's Game of Thrones series). Martin has already seen the first two episodes and described them as "powerful, emotional, gut-wrenching, heart rending", and "very dark".
In our 9/10 review of Season 1, IGN said: "After 10 episodes, House Of The Dragon has officially emerged as a worthy successor to Game Of Throne
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Laura Kittrell (High School, Insecure) is set as the showrunner, creator, and executive producer, with Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter, Lauren Kisilevsky, and Marc Platt also serving as executive producers. Elle is set to premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, Amazon said. No release window was mentioned, or news on who will play Elle.
Here’s the official blurb:
Elle follows Elle Woods in high school as we learn about the life experiences that shaped her into the iconic young woman we came to know and love in the first Legally Blonde film.
“I truly couldn’t be more excited about this series!” commented Reese Witherspoon. “Fans will get to know how Elle Woods navigated her world as a teenager with her distinct personality and ingenuity, in ways that only our beloved Elle could do. What could be better than that?! I’m extremely grateful to the incredible teams at Prime Video and Hello Sunshine - along with our amazing writer Laura Kittrell - for making this dream of mine come true. Legally Blonde is back!”
"Legally Blonde is back!
Legally Blonde originally released with Witherspoon in 2001 and has gone on to become a classic for 2000s film fans. In addition to spawning a sequel in 2003, the series eventually went on to receive a highly regarded musical adaptation. In 2009, a TV spin-off called Legally Blondes aired on the Disney Channel.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
There's a whole score of incredible Xbox deals to check out right now, including three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $36.99, a 2TB Seagate Expansion Card for $249.99, excellent controller discounts, and so much more. When it comes to picking up new games, hardware, or accessories for your Xbox, it feels good when you can find those items at a discounted price. Here, we'll keep you updated on all of the latest discounts for Xbox, from games to controllers and so much more. Let's dig into the best Xbox deals that are happening right now.
With Xbox debating yet another price hike for Game Pass, there's no better time to get stacking. These three month codes provide a lot of flexibility in how you choose to stack them - whether that be 6, 12, 18, or 24 months - but if you want to go all the way up to 36 you can actually save quite a bit. Admittedly, buying up 12 of these codes can put a strain on your wallet, totaling $443.88 with the link above. However, when you compare it to the cost of Game Pass Ultimate for 36 months at $16.99 per month, amounting to $611.64, you'll realize you're saving $167.76 on your subscription for the next three years. That's absolutely worth the investment, especially if yet another price hike is on the horizon.
Score 2 Free Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (New Members Only)
For those interested in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offer, it is worth qualifying that this code will only apply to those who currently don't have an active Game Pass Ultimate membership, and Walmart stresses that this is for new members only. If you're on Game Pass Core, it should be fine to apply to your account. Otherwise, if you're a current Game Pass Ultimate member, the code won't be applicable. If you do qualify, it's a pretty simple process if you're looking to bag the two-month free trial, here's how:
Steps:
Visit the Walmart+ Offer Page and select 'Get Offer' next to the 2 free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate listing
On the 'Offer Page' you will see a unique promo code, copy this code and keep a record of it
Hit the 'Redeem Offer' button on the page to go to the Xbox Site
Sign in to Your Account
Your promo code will autofill -- if it does not then paste/type
Redeem your offer and receive your 2 Free Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Disable auto-renewal afterward to avoid being charged at the end of the trial -- this can be located in 'Services & Subscriptions' in your Microsoft account. You should also do this for Walmart+ if you used a free trial to access the Game Pass offer
1TB Expansion Card for Xbox for $139.99
Amazon is offering the officially licensed Seagate 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox Series consoles at a nice little discount. Right now it's only $139.99, a reasonable price drop from its original $160 MSRP. This is one of the best SSDs for the Xbox, which isn't surprising since your options are pretty limited. There's also the 2TB version for $249.99 and the 8TB Seagate Starfield Special Edition Game Drive for $189.99.
More Xbox Expandable Storage Deals
The Best Xbox Controller Deals: Select Controllers Down to $49
Ready to add another controller to your gaming setup? You're in luck! There are fantastic deals available on a range of colors, like the Astral Purple, Robot White, and the Special Edition Remix controllers. Check out some of our top picks for deals above and below!
The Best Xbox Game Deals: Get 50% Off The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 & More Game Deals
While Xbox's Spring Sale has ended, the deals for Xbox fans continue! Check out some of the best physical game discounts available, including markdowns on titles like Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and the newly released Alone in the Dark. For more fantastic game deals, click on the links below.
Get Over 50% Off the Xbox Series S Toaster & Xbox Series X Mini Fridge
It looks like a fridge, and it kinda is a fridge (mini), and it's also down to $39.94 at Walmart. Plus, c'mon, who doesn't want the Xbox Series S toaster for their kitchen as well? Not only is it a fun addition to have in your home, but this is a discount you definitely don't want to miss out on, either! It's currently marked down over 50% at Walmart to just $40, which is an excellent deal. What better time to pick it up?
The Diablo IV Xbox Series X bundle is still holding on at Walmart, down $90.00 from its MSRP of $559.99 to $469.99. This has stood the test of time since last Black Friday as one of our favorite console bundles, and is well worth investing in before it's all gone for good.
Get 10% Off the Official Xbox Wireless Headset & More Headset Deals
Does your family complain when you stay up playing loud shooters late into the night? They'll stop complaining if you pick up anXbox headset that lets no one but you hear the delightful explosions you cause on the screen. Right now, you can get 10% off the Official Xbox Wireless Headset and you can also save 20% on the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Gaming Headset at Amazon. To see even more gaming headsets on sale, visit our roundup of the best gaming headset deals.
In general, it is advisable to keep an eye out for sales and restocks throughout the year, as availability has improved since the initial launch of the console. Unlike the Nintendo Switch, there is no specific recommendation to wait for a sale regardless of the time of year. Instead, it's a good idea to monitor various retailers and online platforms for restock announcements and promotional offers.
However, certain events like Black Friday or other holiday seasons may bring about unique bundles, discounts, or promotional deals specifically for the Xbox Series X. These bundles may include additional games, accessories, or exclusive limited editions. While quantities for such promotions might be limited, they can provide an opportunity to get more value for your purchase. See our guide to Xbox Series X prices for more info.
Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S?
Choosing between the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S ultimately depends on your gaming preferences, budget, and specific requirements. Let's compare the two consoles to help you make an informed decision:
1. Performance: The Xbox Series X is the more powerful option, offering native 4K gaming, higher graphical fidelity, and faster loading times. It has more advanced hardware, including a larger storage capacity. On the other hand, the Xbox Series S targets a lower price point and offers a less powerful performance, targeting 1440p resolution gaming and upscaling to 4K.
2. Price: The Xbox Series S is more affordable compared to the Xbox Series X. If budget is a significant factor for you, the Xbox Series S provides a cost-effective option while still delivering a next-generation gaming experience. For example, the Series S can play Starfield at 1440p 30fps (vs 4K 30fps on Series X).
3. Storage: The Xbox Series X comes with a larger internal storage capacity, allowing you to store more games directly on the console. The Xbox Series S, however, has a smaller storage capacity, which means you may need to manage your game library more actively or rely on external storage solutions.
4. Disc Drive: The Xbox Series X includes a disc drive, enabling you to play physical game discs and enjoy a wider range of media options, including Blu-ray and DVD playback. The Xbox Series S, in contrast, is a digital-only console, meaning you can only play games downloaded from the digital store.
5. Graphics and Performance: While both consoles support ray tracing, the Xbox Series X provides a more immersive and visually impressive experience due to its superior hardware capabilities. If you prioritize cutting-edge graphics and want the best performance available, the Xbox Series X is the preferable choice.
Consider your gaming preferences, budget, and whether you prioritize top-of-the-line performance or cost-effectiveness. If you have a 4K TV, want the most powerful console, and are willing to invest more, the Xbox Series X is the recommended option. If you have a lower budget, a 1080p or 1440p TV, and don't mind sacrificing some performance, the Xbox Series S offers excellent value for money.
With how expensive gaming is getting in 2024, we're trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We've got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you're trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Dune: Prophecy, the Bene Gesserit origin series in the works at Max, has cast renowned Indian actress Tabu in a recurring role.
According to Variety, Tabu will play a character called Sister Francesca, described as "strong, intelligent, and alluring" and someone who "leaves a lasting impression in her wake." The outlet further notes that she was "once a great love of the Emperor," so "her return to the palace strains the balance of power in the capital."
Tabu is one of India's most revered actresses, having won numerous awards for her roles in mainstream and independent movies. She expanded into American cinema with The Namesake, her first Hollywood movie, in 2006, followed by Life of Pi in 2012. She also featured on the cast of the BBC mini-series A Suitable Boy.
Along with Tabu, the cast for Dune: Prophecy, formerly known as Dune: The Sisterhood, includes Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel, Johdi May, Mark Strong, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Josh Heuston, Chloe Lea, Jade Anouka, Faoileann Cunningham, Edward Davis, Aoife Hinds, Chris Mason, and Shalom Brune-Franklin.
Based on the novel Sisterhood of Dune, the upcoming series takes place 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides and, per the official logline, follows "two Harkonnen sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind and establish the fabled sect that will become known as the Bene Gesserit."
When Gigabyte first broke into the world of gaming monitors, there were honest questions about whether it would be able to pull it off. It’s not every day a component maker breaks into such a different category, let alone one already dominated by some of its biggest competitors. It’s been five years since that launch, and in that time the company has established itself as one of the brands gamers should be considering, all the way from affordable displays to the high-end and cutting-edge.
The Gigabyte FO32U2 Pro is the company’s new flagship and is easily one of the best OLED gaming monitors you can buy today. Coming in at $1,299 for the model we’re reviewing and $1,099 for the version without DisplayPort 2.1, it isn’t cheap, but it’s also fantastic in just about every way. Whether you’re purely gaming or mixing up your matches with work and the web, it offers big improvements over last generation and a picture that can, at times, be mesmerizing. This is one of the best monitors I’ve ever used and is well worth saving up for.
Gigabyte FO32U2 Pro – Design and Features
The Gigabyte FO32U2 Pro uses Samsung’s latest QD-OLED panel, which addresses many of the issues plaguing prior generations. It comes in an immersive 32-inch size and runs at a full 4K, 240Hz resolution with a peak brightness that exceeds 1,000 nits in sustained highlights. If that weren’t enough, it also comes with a suite of OLED Care features to reduce the risk of screen burn-in and a 3-year warranty just in case the worst should happen.
Unboxing it for the first time, you get all of the expected cables for DisplayPort, HDMI, USB, and power. The power supply isn’t integrated, which helps with the slimness of the panel, but the subsequent power brick is large and in charge, making cable management more of a chore.
You also have the stand, which is just about on par with other premium gaming monitors. It’s heavy but not unwieldy and uses two angled feet for stability instead of a pedestal. You’ll lose a bit of desk space in comparison but nothing major. It offers five inches of height adjustment, 20 degrees of swivel, and -5 to +20 degrees of tilt. You can also rotate the display into portrait mode in a two-monitor setup. The stand comes in two pieces that connect with a thumbscrew, and the whole thing latches onto the back of the monitor, no tools required. It also supports standard VESA mounting if you’d prefer to use an arm.
If you’ve never looked closely at an OLED panel, you might be surprised at how thin it is. There’s a box on the back that houses the internals, but most of the display is millimeters thin. It can be a little unnerving to assemble and adjust but it’s backed by a sturdy frame, so there’s no flex to concern yourself with.
The whole thing looks very premium. There’s nothing overly aggressive that screams “gaming” from the front – there’s frankly no room for it with the monitor’s vanishingly thin bezels. You’ll find a touch of RGB on the back with an animated panel on the top of the processing box and some Aorus staple angles on the rear frame but it’s surprisingly tame.
The picture on the FO32U2 Pro is amazing. Because it can individually dim all of its eight million pixels, it’s able to offer infinite contrast for rich, deep blacks. This particular model, as well as its counterparts at Asus and MSI that use the same panel, has been enhanced with a layer of quantum dots. These nanoparticles work to enhance its brightness and the vibrancy of its colors. It makes for a substantial improvement in picture quality but at the cost of contrast if a light is shined directly on the screen, which creates purplish raised blacks.
It offers very similar specs to the Asus PG32UCDM we reviewed in February: 1,000 nits of peak HDR brightness and 99% coverage of the DCI-P3 color spectrum. Its contrast ratio is technically 1.5M:1, though it may as well be considered infinite at that point. It supports variable refresh rate with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certification and is compatible with Nvidia G-Sync without any stutters or quirks. It’s also VESA TrueBlack 400 certified, which appears to be leveraged in three of its five HDR modes, while the remaining three push the brightness above 1,000 nits sustained in a 2% window.
The monitor comes in two different versions: the Pro model we tested and the standard FO32U2 for $200 less. The price difference is due to the Pro model’s DisplayPort 2.1 port, which is a still-rare and very forward-thinking feature. While most monitors only support DisplayPort 1.4 (which this does as well), DP 2.1 unlocks the full 80 Gbps bandwidth of the connection, removing the need for Display Stream Compression (DSC).
This has a couple of benefits and one big caveat. The higher bandwidth allows you to daisy chain multiple monitors together without running a second cable back to your graphics card. You’ll also be able to take advantage of Nvidia’s Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) to achieve an even more crisp image. The drawback is that you can’t do any of this yet. Neither AMD or Nvidia currently offer graphics cards with DP 2.1 support, though it’s widely expected that this will arrive with the next generation from each manufacturer.
OLED monitors have come a long way since they first hit the market, but burn-in is still a concern. Thankfully, the FO32U2’s suite of OLED Care protections and the 3-year warranty make this less of a concern than it has been in the past. The protections include pixel cleaning on a four-hour timer, pixel shifting, logo detection, static image detection, corner dimming, and average picture level (APL) stabilization. Of these, only the pixel shifting and APL are noticeable for normal use.
The implementation of APL versus the automatic backlight limiter (ABL) on the FO48U is much better. Like many OLED monitors released around the same time, its ABL would dramatically dim the screen based on how much white it detected. Instead, it strives to keep an average balance, so brightness changes are less noticeable and distracting.
The FO32U2 Pro is packed with gaming features. The staples exist inside the OSD, but there are also several new and interesting features. There’s a built-in KVM, so you can switch your peripherals to a console or second PC without needing to swap cables. Gigabyte has also added a new tactical button next to the OSD joystick which can be mapped to a setting of your choice, but by default puts the monitor into 1080p mode. Instead of stretching the image across its full 32 inches, it crops in and gives you a smaller picture on the larger screen to preserve image quality. This is perfect for games where the responsiveness of a 240Hz frame rate is your goal but isn’t possible at 4K resolution.
Inside the OSD, you’ll find its returning gaming features. Classics like PiP/PbP and Black Equalizer are back, which allows you to better pick out enemies in shadowy environments and monitor a second video source while you play. You can set an on-screen reticle, add a timer overlay to your screen, or a system hardware monitor to keep an eye on your speeds, temps, and frames per second even in games that would usually block overlays.
A couple of newer features are included, too. Eagle Eye magnifies the center of your screen to make scoring distant headshots easier. Gigabyte says there’s a Night Vision mode that highlights contrast in bright green but I wasn’t able to find it anywhere, so maybe it’s planned for a future update. It also has built-in speakers, which get plenty loud but are pretty thin sounding. Instead, we recommend plugging in a headset to its included audio port as the monitor comes with a high-end ESS DAC for impressively clear and detailed audio through headphones.
Returning to the OSD, there are plenty of options outside of its gaming features. A wide array of picture presets are present encompassing different genres, common uses, and sRGB. There is a wider amount of HDR modes than we typically see too: HDR, HDR Movie, HDR HLG, HDR Game, and HDR Vivid. Impressively, only the standard HDR and HLG modes lock down the settings. The others allow you to tweak settings to your liking, which isn’t very common.
Within most of the SDR presets, you’re given an even wider array of options to customize the picture. In fact, there’s a full six-axis color mixer, as well as color temperature and gamma settings, in addition to staples like Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Sharpening. There’s a large amount of calibration potential here, should you find there’s a need or your tastes differ from how it comes from the factory.
Most of these settings are available with Gigabyte’s Control Center Software, so you don’t need to spend time in an OSD. While convenient, it’s missing some gaming features, like Black Equalizer. It also removes any ability to assign hotkeys, which is a major loss for the usability of features like Black Equalizer and the Eagle Eye mode. Though you can tie custom functions to all four directions of its joystick and its tactical switch, no one wants to be reaching around under their monitor in the middle of a match.
The software honestly feels like a step back from the simple and small OSD Sidekick Gigabyte used to use. Now, you’re forced to install a whole suite of different modules that you may not even need. Bringing all of its components under one suite makes sense, unless you’re looking for something small and lightweight, or just want to adjust your monitor without clicking the OSD. Then, it just becomes a bit much.
The monitor comes well-calibrated out of the box. On the spec sheet, Gigabyte rates it with an average Delta < 2. In our tests, even this was conservative and it was even closer than that. You could easily use this straight out of the box for creative work. Creative professionals will still want to apply their own calibration for the best results but the FO32U2 Pro is impressively accurate.
Finally, for I/O, we have two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DP 2.1 and one DP 1.4, a mini DP 2.1, and a USB Type-C port that can be set to an alternate mode for data or power delivery up to 65 watts to keep your laptop charged. There’s also a built-in USB hub with two USB 3.2 Type-A ports and a USB Type-B for connecting to your computer, as well as a headphone and microphone jack.
Gigabyte FO32U2 Pro – Performance
The Gigabyte FO32U2 Pro is an absolute performer. Its picture quality is outstanding. The layer of quantum dots immediately enhances its presentation compared to prior-gen OLEDs that lacked them. The screen pops with more brightness and color, even outside of HDR, and the effect is bolstered by its more nuanced brightness management system.
Colors are exceptionally vivid, which makes any kind of entertainment, whether in SDR or HDR, more engaging. Its factory calibration is also close. I measured it at an average of less than Delta < 1 even though it’s rated for Delta < 2. You can put the monitor into sRGB mode to better simulate that space if you don’t have a colorimeter, but the best results can be had by running that extra calibration run at home.
The magic of OLED is its pixel-by-pixel brightness control. Its incredible contrast scales from the deepest blacks to eye-searing 1,000+-nit highlights. The dynamic range is wide, which makes HDR content look vivacious, virtually popping off the screen. The Lower City of Baldur’s Gate 3 never looked so good. You’ll need to be in HDR to achieve the highest brightness, but even SDR content looks good on this monitor.
There is a big difference between its different HDR modes. To achieve its peak brightness of 1,000 nits, you’ll need to be in the HDR Vivid or HDR Game modes. Each hit around 1,080 nits in our testing. Standard HDR mode, HDR Movie, and HDR HLG modes each landed between 472 and 484 nits. Several of these modes don’t allow you to change settings, like the standard HDR mode and HDR HLG, as they both attempt to maintain industry standards. HDR Vivid and HDR Game, on the other hand, are based on your preference and do allow picture customizations.
The response time is expectedly fantastic. OLEDs are inherently much faster than LCD gaming monitors, which already makes ghosting less visible. The high pixel density and rapid 240Hz refresh rate decrease it further. We photographed a run-through of BlurBuster’s Test UFO Ghosting Test and found no ghosting whatsoever.
In-game performance is just as clear and fluid. The mix of high refresh rate and low response time makes shooters like Valorant feel especially responsive. This is enhanced further if you enable Nvidia Reflex, but isn’t necessary to both see and feel its improved fluidity. We noticed this on the Asus PG32UCDM too: compared to jumping from 144Hz to 240Hz on an LCD panel, the upgrade is more noticeable even outside of gaming, moving the mouse.
The reality is that, even with an RTX 4090, most games won’t actually run at 240 FPS outside of esports. But don’t let that dissuade you. The refresh rate and response time of the monitor still make games feel more responsive. This improves alongside your in-game frame rate, so there’s reason to try to improve performance. The higher your frame rate, the increased motion clarity, too. But you still benefit, even without hitting its maximum play rate.
If you keep a console at your desk, the KVM is also very useful. Being able to swap your keyboard and mouse or controller to another console with a single button press eases the switching process. It’s not quite as seamless as the Logitech Astro A50 X’s switch button, but it’s much faster than switching things over manually.
This generation has also brought major improvements to productivity. Text clarity has been a major issue facing OLED monitors, but that’s a thing of the past with this display. Like its competitors, the FO32U2 uses an improved sub-pixel array that is much more effective at preventing haloing/fringing around text. That, in combination with its higher pixel density, makes text comparable to a LCD monitor at typical viewing distances. Technically, it’s still there if you scale Windows to a ridiculous degree, but since almost no one does that, this last-gen Achilles heel appears dead.
Its OLED Care features are more extensive and much better implemented than many first- and even second-generation OLED gaming monitors. The new APL Stabilize setting dramatically reduces the amount of visible brightness reduction when opening white or light-colored content on the screen. For example, on the Gigabyte FO48U, opening a fullscreen Google Doc would instantly drop the brightness by what felt like half or more. Shrinking that window would scale up brightness the smaller it got. You had to trade window size for brightness.
Here, the APL Stabilizer balances screen brightness across the whole panel and sets a cap on its maximum nits across three levels: Low (250 nits), Medium (450 nits), and High (1,000 nits). The default setting is Low and honestly doesn’t give a great first impression: you turn on your expensive, HDR flagship gaming monitor and the screen lacks pop. The picture presets and adjustments fix this. You can change modes at any time, and HDR defaults to High which shines brightly even without bright highlights on screen. Most importantly, it prevents this kind of dramatic dimming. There is a reduction but it's much smaller and we didn’t even notice it most of the time.
Another issue that plagued older OLEDs for productivity is that they would dim themselves any time they detected a static screen (a burn-in protection), but weren’t always the best detecting small amounts of motion, like a moving cursor in a document or spreadsheet. The FO32U2 Pro has the same protection but is much better at maintaining brightness during productivity tasks.
Gigabyte also seems to have fixed the Pixel Clean bug that impacted some models of its FO48U. The bug would cause the display to inaccurately track the amount of hours it had been used, causing pixel cleaning to begin inconsistently. That isn’t the case at all here. The monitor alerts you when it has accumulated four hours of use and gives you the option to run the cleaning cycle immediately or on a delay. Our sample had an issue where this cycle would not run when the monitor went into standby and only when manually engaged, an issue other users have also reported. Hopefully will be addressed in a firmware update.
The series is based on the long-running Tomb Raider video game franchise, which follows the adventures of world-famous archaeologist and adventurer Lara Croft. Amazon, which is producing the show alongside Embracer-owned Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics, said Tomb Raider will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, but it failed to mention a release window or who would play Lara Croft.
“If I could tell my teenage self this was happening I think she’d explode," Phoebe Waller-Bridge said. "Tomb Raider has been a huge part of my life and I feel incredibly privileged to be bringing it to television with such passionate collaborators. Lara Croft means a lot to me, as she does to many, and I can’t wait to go on this adventure. Bats ‘n all."
"I can’t wait to go on this adventure. Bats ‘n all.
Last year, Phoebe Waller-Bridge said she hoped to develop something "dangerous and exciting" with the Tomb Raider TV show. "There's room to do something really quite dangerous," she said. "And if I can do something dangerous and exciting with Tomb Raider, I already have an audience of people who love Lara and hopefully will continue to. And that is a very unusual position to be in. It's the old Trojan horse."
Waller-Bridge is no stranger to the action-adventure genre thanks to scripting James Bond film No Time to Die and more recently starring in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but she revealed her appreciation for the Tomb Raider franchise dates back even further. "My parents were very smart because they didn't actually limit me," she recalled of playing Tomb Raider. "They could sense that I was going to just game myself into the ground, and I did. I packed the PlayStation away, and I was like, 'I've got to not do that because I've got to write and read and do other stuff.' "
The Tomb Raider announcement follows Amazon’s hugely successful Fallout TV show, which was created in close collaboration with Fallout developer Bethesda. Meanwhile, Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Games are working together to develop and publish a new multiplatform Tomb Raider game. The as-yet untitled game is described as “a single-player, narrative-driven action-adventure that is an all new, next chapter to Lara Croft’s legendary explorations in the Tomb Raider franchise.” A release window has yet to be announced.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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