The Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for a couple of months now, and while the conversation about Nintendo’s pricing of its titles is likely to continue, Amazon is at least offering some discounts on Switch 2 games.
From Madden NFL 26 to Civilization VII, there’s a little of something for everyone. Here are the best deals we've spotted, starting from as low as $30, and well worth considering even in the build-up to the October Prime Day and Black Friday sales to come.
Switch 2 Games Are As Low as $30 at Amazon Today
The cheapest game here is Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, which has a 25% discount that brings it down to $29.83. That’s a great deal for a multiplayer puzzler that’s easy to play for all ages.
You can save 30% on Raidou: Remastered – The Mystery of the Soulless Army Launch Edition (that’s one hell of a title), bringing the action RPG down to just $34.99 from $49.99, while Rune Factory Guardians of Azuma offers combat and farming in equal measure for $59.50 - a discount of 14% from its MSRP of $69.
Next up, the Switch 2 Edition of Civilization VII is $59.99, reduced from $69.99. Not a huge discount, admittedly, but the Switch 2 Edition adds some excellent mouse control functionality.
For EA titles, the excellent co-op adventure Split Fiction is down to $46.99 (expect it to be a firm favorite for Game of the Year discussions), while Madden NFL 26 only launched a few weeks ago and gets a 29% discount. It’s now $49.99, down from $69.99.
Lloyd Coombes 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.
Still Stars Echo is a "meditative space odyssey" with minimalist puzzles that takes you on a journey across the galaxy to uncover the mystery behind a lost civilization. It's in development for PC and due out in 2026.
There's no combat and you can't fail, so you can just mellow out and traverse through Still Stars Echo's five chapters, solving puzzles along the way. But as the saying goes, it's not always about the destination but the journey itself, and Still Stars Echo promises a myriad of massive environments and an atmospheric soundtrack that developer Semidome, Inc. recommends you experience with headphones on. Check out the reveal trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.
You can wishlist Still Stars Echo on Steam if you're interested.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
The long-awaited next-generation entry in the skateboarding series Skate is finally here, and some of the best moments we've seen shared by players so far don't even include a skateboard.
A cursory glance on social media will bring up a whole host of viral clips wherein players are rolling, spread-eagling, falling, and sliding across Skate's maps. Or, as this player puts it: "Bro what am I even playing rn why is this faster than skating."
Apparently, anyone can move like this, too. As KontoLetzPlay explains, you just need to hold forward and then move back and forth between a roll and a spread eagle as you go.
"The roll is quick and pushing off with a jump in the roll is good," they said. "Meanwhile; the spread eagle gives you speed in the air, as well as a slight boost once you land on the ground, since it puts you into a slide. It's extremely simple, but it does take some slight getting used to, considering the devs definitely didn't build the movement to be used this way. But it's just: Roll > Push off from roll > spread eagle > automatically land in a slide > slide into a roll > push off from roll > repeat."
Flailing around the map hijinx aside, Steam reviews suggests not everyone's having as good a time, though, as the 6,300+ user reviews left so far have put Skate on a 'Mixed' aggregate score, with PC players complaining of crashing, poor voice acting, and "missing" features like Hall of Meat and Pro Skaters.
"If you're looking for a true successor to Skate 1, 2, and 3, this isn’t it," wrote one reviewer. "Aside from the controls, every other gameplay element from the previous titles has been stripped away. No Hall of Meat, no Game of Skate, no missions or storylines with real-life pros. In their absence, we got a soulless cash-grab with a fully functional cash shop inside a 7GB beta. I can’t believe I waited years for this."
"Online only slop with day one server issues, same challenges over and over for ripoff chips for a spin on the lootbox casino for frankly terrible cosmetics, none of the gamemodes that made the previous games fun, No S.k.a.t.e, deathraces, own the spot career or hall of meat, the art style is not what the devs promised in earlier playtest builds, character creation and customisation is abysmal," opined one unhappy player.
It's not all bad news, though. "I figured people would review bomb it when it came out," said a less critical fan. "Listen, this game is great. It's one of the best feeling skate games that we have out right now. I understand people are upset about no story mode and missing features but it's in early access... what don't people understand about that?"
"I can clearly see the direction developer Full Circle is taking the series, but I can also say that Skate is shaping up to be a game worthy of being the long-awaited sequel to 2010’s Skate 3," IGN wrote in our Skate hands-on preview earlier this year. "The gameplay seems refined and lives up to its predecessors, the world is big and fun to explore, and the overall sandbox’s 'do what you want' vibe is really making me look forward to diving back in."
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.
We’ve got the debut trailer for the Anaconda reboot, which shows that the film is actually about Jack Black and Paul Rudd rebooting Anaconda.
The promo, below, shows Black and Rudd dreaming of rebooting the original Anaconda, the 1997 horror movie about a really big snake who kills people. Unfortunately, the pair can’t raise enough money to make the big budget reboot they want, so they have to do it on the cheap. As you’d expect, things do not go to plan.
We see glimpses of the Anaconda itself attacking people, what looks like a certain kill moment, and Jack Black used as bait for the others to escape. Black, however, is very much alive.
As well as Black and Rudd, Anaconda stars Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior, and Selton Mello.
Here’s the official blurb:
Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd) have been best friends since they were kids, and have always dreamed of remaking their all-time favourite movie: the cinematic "classic" Anaconda. When a midlife crisis pushes them to finally go for it, they head deep into the Amazon to start filming. But things get real when an actual giant anaconda appears, turning their comically chaotic movie set into a deadly situation. The movie they’re dying to make? It might just get them killed......
1997’s Anaconda is a cult classic horror film starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, and Owen Wilson. It was ravaged by critics, but it performed well at the box office, grossing $136 million worldwide. A sequel, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, arrived in 2004, followed by three more made-for-television sequels.
This new Anaconda is a comedy. In their announcement video, Rudd declared: “You want to get scared? You want to laugh? You want to celebrate with your friends?”
And yes, it’s coming out on December 25, 2025. “What you gonna do, open presents?” joked Rudd.
Anaconda is directed by Tom Gormican (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F). Gormican and Kevin Etten wrote the script. Brad Fuller and Andrew Form are producing through Fully Formed banner.
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.
When I hear the name “Elder Scrolls,” thoughts of exploration, grand quests, and a character that’s a blank slate come to mind. A toy box of potential and possibilities that I can just have fun in, whether I want to become the most powerful mage in the realm or the master thief with a tendency to steal all of the wheels of cheese in the world. Somehow, the madlads at Chip Theory Games, known for their staggering component quality and games like Too Many Bones, have managed to condense that sense of exploration, discovery, and player choice into a game that I find to be both one of the most approachable and daunting campaign board games I have ever played.
Predating the video games (all of the currently existing games take place during the Third Era with exception of Skyrim, which is during the Fourth), Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era allows one to four players to take in the sights and uncover nefarious plots throughout three-act campaigns of the various realms of Tamriel. Whereas some games – let’s use Gloomhaven as an example – feature a single campaign that can take dozens, if not hundreds, of hours to complete, Chip Theory has designed Elder Scrolls to be a treasure chest that can provide dozens of smaller campaigns to explore.
In the base box, you have access to five different regional books – Skyrim, Blackmarsh, High Rock, Morrowind, and Cyrodil – referred to as Gazzetteers. These spiral-ringed notebooks contain all the cities and essential information you need to complete the main quests for that region.
When it comes to the different regions you can explore, while Chip Theory could have simply left them as just unique map layouts or quests to pick from, they have gone the extra mile and made each feel like its own unique character. Each one not only features its maps of unique locations and overland spots to explore, but it also comes with special mechanics that impact other elements of gameplay, including adding abilities to enemies you may encounter.
Blackmarsh, for example, features a shifting weather system that will hinder your movement. High Rock has civil unrest that may restrict what actions you can take in towns. These elements further add to the personality and immersion of this adaptation, which makes me appreciate the whole experience that much more.
A campaign is composed of three “sessions”, with the party following leads or helping out on a quest given to you by one of the game's eight possible guilds, which, with the end of each session, further provides choices as to how you want it to continue next. Regardless of the quest you choose to tackle during a session, they will never last more than 12 (in-game) days, with each day providing a new activity to partake in, be it stopping by and resting at the nearby town to restock on items and learn new skills, delving into dungeons, or helping a passerby. And if you're like me, who easily gets sidetracked in the video games with the occasional side quest, then you will be pleased to know that there is a large deck of side quests to take part in here too, including some hilarious and more outlandish ones like getting someone some home-cooked meatloaf. No, I’m not kidding.
A single campaign session usually took around 3-4 hours for my friends and me to get through, but this was cut down to around the 3-hour mark once we really had a grip on how Elder Scrolls and our characters worked. This means that it is entirely doable to comfortably complete a whole campaign over a weekend, or even just one day. This fact alone has made Elder Scrolls far more alluring to play, even if it isn’t exactly a small or quick game to set up. Granted, this time can, and will, fluctuate depending on what side quests you decide to tackle, how you plan out your days, and what enemies you face off against.
It is entirely doable to comfortably complete a whole campaign over a weekend, or even just a day.
My favorite part of the Elder Scrolls video games is the seemingly bottomless rabbit hole that is the character creation system. I’m happy to report this has been carried over into the board game. All of the series’ races, presented on large cards you keep next to your player board, are here, with each option having a different allocation of base stats and a special ability.
This is only the start. You also pick from different classes and weapon styles to further customize your avatar, all of which add different dice and actions you can take during the game. And for folks who prefer a more support role, there are options for you too, like being a Pilgrim that specializes in letting your party take free actions while in town, or swapping out treasures, or taking the Speech talent that can help you talk your way out of fights, removing enemies from the board. I’m not going to math it out, but between all of the available options to pick from, there are A LOT of permutations of characters you can play as.
The various stats and skills you decide on are all slotted into your player board into four lines, with two slots open on opposite sides from one another, with six spaces between. You only have access to these six spaces to improve either of the skills that are across from one another, meaning that to improve one, you do so at the possible expense of the other. I love how this makes even leveling up or picking your initial skills so much more of a strategic exercise with consequence, but it also provides even more outlets to mess around in subsequent campaign play-throughs.
In fact, making characters feels a bit like a game in itself, and I will admit to busting open my game box with the sole focus of making a character. And all of this is just the start, as you also collect equipment and other items during your adventure that add additional bonuses to your character, all of which result in Elder Scrolls being a package that will delight fans who enjoy min-maxing their characters in RPGs.
In fact, making characters feels a bit like a game in itself.
But, what good would a super cool character be if there was nothing cool to wack with them? For fans of Chip Theory’s Too Many Bones, the combat will feel similar in Elder Scrolls. Each attack you use has specific dice associated with it, and its relevant stat – stamina for physical attacks or magicka for spells – and your level in that ability dictates how many dice you can roll. Once a die is rolled, it moves to your cooldown area, making it unavailable to use again until it has returned to your active player board. Some skills even provide bonuses while in your cooldown row, but this row can also be gunked up with fatigue, which makes it take longer for dice to return and be usable again.
Combat takes place on maps made up from neoprene hexagonal tiles that, depending on the encounter type, are either static or expanded and revealed as you fight, with both enemies and players being represented by Chip Theory’s signature poker chips. Your typical enemies are typically picked by plucking blindly from a bag composed of monster chips, each with an associated level and potentially unique traits, from a general pool and regional-specific ones. This sort of “luck of the draw” approach, along with the inherent randomness of rolling dice for attacks, makes it so encounters can swing wildly in terms of challenge or how long they take to complete, but even the most challenging skirmishes felt more like exciting puzzles to work out than chores to suffer through.
If you are thinking this all sounds overwhelming, then you aren’t alone. With its nearly 100-page rule book, a standalone tutorial rulebook, multiple sheets devoted to keywords defining monster traits, and more, it can be a lot to take in and process. Just talking about it is making my head spin a bit, and there are more mechanics and other minutiae that I haven’t even touched on.
Thankfully, Chip Theory Games recognizes the game's considerable demands and offers a helpful hand-holding tutorial (a jailbreak in typical Elder Scrolls fashion). I also highly recommend checking out the free digital tutorial on Dized. It does a solid job guiding you step-by-step – its how I learned the game. Thankfully, the moment-to-moment gameplay is pretty straightforward; it is just getting to that point that is the biggest hurdle.
All of that content results in a massive box weighing in around the 20-pound mark (about 10kg for the rest of the world). A significant factor in this game’s weight, which is on par with a small dog (my Shiba Inu is 20 pounds), is thanks to the component type and materials that Chip Theory is known for – plastic, neoprene, and more plastic. Everything crammed into a box could be dumped into a bathtub with little repercussion (please don’t try this), with the exception of the rulebooks, which I am pretty sure are just plastic-coated paper and may not be waterproof. The quality is spectacular, but the pain in my back from hefting the monster onto my gameshelf is less so.
All of that content results in a massive box weighing in around the 20-pound mark.
For all that Elder Scrolls has going for it, this is a game for people who know they like board games and have a good deal of experience under their belts playing them, especially complex ones. While the smaller campaign and smart session break-up make this an approachable campaign game from a time-investment standpoint, *waves hands* EVERYTHING else makes this far from a great “players first campaign game” option. Folks who love video games should not immediately jump into Betrayal of the Second Era unless they are prepared and willing to tackle the beast of a learning curve this game has. However, as long as you know what you are getting into and are willing to stick through it, Betrayal of the Second Era is worth it and then some.
Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era is a heavy game (both mechanically and physically) with an equally hefty $225 price tag. But in return, you get one of the richest tabletop video game adaptations as well as one of the most replayable campaign games on the market. The fact that I can enjoy a full story over the course of a weekend, or even a day, shoots this high on my list for game days with friends who I know are into more complex games.
Chip Theory looks to further expand on the system they have built too, with one expansion, Valenwood, already available and an upcoming crowdfunding campaign, “The Heroes of Tamriel”, promising five new expansions “and more surprises” that launches in October. Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era has quickly become one of my favorite campaign games in my collection, and I can’t wait to see what else Chip Theory Games has in store for this mysterious era of Tamriel’s history.
The Darkness is undoubtedly one of the most successful indie comics of the 1990s, spawning several ongoing series, numerous spinoffs and crossovers, and even a pair of well-regarded video games. Fans will be happy to know that The Darkness is making its return to the stands just ahead of the franchise's 30th anniversary, and original creator Marc Silvestri is back on board.
IGN can exclusively reveal that Image Comics and Top Cow are rebooting The Darkness with a new ongoing series that kicks off in December 2025. The new book will be written by Silvestri. Ed Benes (Justice League of America) will draw the first issue, with inks from Matt “Batt!” Banning, Sal Regla, and John Livesay, colors by Arif Prianto, and letters by Troy Peteri. Raymond Gay (Gunslinger Spawn) will take over art duties beginning with issue #2. The first issue features covers by Silvestri, Benes, and David Mack.
Check out the slideshow gallery below to see cover art and early interior pencils for The Darkness #1:
The new series isn't a continuation of the existing The Darkness mythos, but will deliver a new take on the adventures of mafia hitman-turned-supernatural avenger Jackie Estacado, beginning with his origin story.
Here's Image's official summary of the new series:
In a world consumed by shadows...one man becomes The Darkness. Jackie Estacado is back! Thrust into a supernatural war between the dark and the light in a no-holds-barred adventure where the edge of our reality grinds against supernatural forces grappling for control over each other and the waking world.
Mafia Hitman Jackie Estacado was both blessed and cursed on his 21st birthday when he became the bearer of The Darkness, an elemental force that allows those who wield it access to an otherworldly dimension and control over the demons who dwell there. Forces in the world rise up to face Jackie and the evil his gift represents. There is one small problem in this story…evil is good.
“The Darkness has always been one of my favorite characters, and I’ve wanted to come back to it for a long time,” said Silvestri in a statement. “Fans have been asking for years when Jackie would return, and now we get to deliver something truly special. This is going to feel familiar, but it’s going to take you places you’ve never been before.”
“This isn’t just a nostalgia trip—it’s a reinvention,” added Silvestri. “We’re going back to what made The Darkness such a hit: Its grit, its danger, its sense that power always comes with a price. But this time, we’re turning everything up to eleven. Jackie’s world is going to expand in ways readers never expected.”
The Darkness #1 will be released on December 10, with a final order cutoff of November 10. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.
Are you playing Borderlands 4 on console and have noticed odd performance problems the longer you play? You’re not alone.
Players have reported their frames per second count fluctuating and gameplay stuttering on console, even on PS5 Pro. In fact, oddly, particularly on the more powerful PS5 Pro.
Some players think this might be the result of Borderlands 4 suffering from a memory leak, although that remains unconfirmed for now. It seems restarting the game does help (some players are recommending restarting every few hours, which isn't ideal), but it’s hard to say exactly why because reloading can trigger changes that would perhaps improve performance anyway, such as time of day lighting.
What we do know is that Gearbox is looking into the issue. In a tweet, Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford told one disgruntled PS5 Pro user that quitting the game and restarting is a workaround until the developer sorts the problem out properly.
“Known issue of perf dropping on PS5 pro after several hours of continuous play,” he said. “Workaround until we patch: Quit game and restart. Sorry for the friction!”
All eyes are on Gearbox right now amid an internet backlash to the performance of Borderlands 4 — which has come despite huge player numbers on Steam. The studio released an update for the game on PC — without patch notes — that hasn’t seemed to fix much of anything.
Gearbox has posted a Borderlands 4 Nvidia Optimization guide on Steam, advising players how to optimize their graphics settings for “better performance and framerates” on PC with the Nvidia app, although users report mixed results.
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.
Connexion
