The queen of weird is joining our new princess of weird. Netflix has just revealed that none other than Winona Ryder is set to join the cast of Wednesday in a guest starring role for Season 3.
The casting marks yet another collaboration between Ryder and the show’s executive producer Tim Burton, who famously worked together on his 1988 hit Beetlejuice and the 1990 classic Edward Scissorhands. It’s also a reunion with the show’s star, Jenna Ortega, who starred alongside Ryder in the recent sequel film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as Ryder’s character Lydia’s daughter (which Burton also directed).
"I'm so excited to be back for Season 3, and it’s great to be reunited with all of the original cast," Burton said. "The addition of some dear friends and past collaborators of mine… makes this season extra special. I feel very lucky."
The details of Ryder’s role are being kept under wraps, so any word on who she’ll be playing and how it will integrate into the show’s ongoing plot are going to be nonexistent at this point — and it’s sure to keep fans guessing until the next season finally drops.
Ryder joins Eva Green, who was recently cast as Morticia Addams’ mysterious sister Ophelia for season 3, as well as Noah Taylor, Oscar Morgan, Kennedy Moyer, and Chris Sarandon (yes, the speaking voice of Jack Skellington himself from 1993’s A Nightmare Before Christmas). That said, it looks as though their roles are also being kept under wraps — at least for now.
Wednesday premiered on Netflix in November 2022 to critical and audience acclaim, and it quickly became the most-watched English-language season of television on the streamer to date. Season 2 premiered August 2025, with the first part becoming available on the platform and the second part arriving the following month.
As for a release date for season 3, no official info has been announced just yet — but hopefully, the Addams family will be back on our screens ASAP.
Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
“Zero Parades is ultimately about identity,” explains Kaspar Tamsalu, art director at developer ZA/UM. “The conflict between what you subscribe to as an individual, as a private person outside of the professional sphere, and then how that mixes with what your vocation is.”
Your vocation in ZA/UM’s latest RPG is espionage. Hershel Wilk, your protagonist, is a spy for The Superbloc, a union of left-wing republics. She was born bourgeois before ending up spying for the communists, a background story intentionally filled with blanks to allow you to shape Hershel as you see fit.
“Just because she's from a communist country does not mean that she subscribes to the ideology,” says Siim "Kosmos" Sinamäe, Zero Parades’ principal writer. “This is up to the player to decide. Spies can be spies for ideology, for money, for a sense of accomplishment, or because they are batshit insane and want to do things like that.”
Sinamäe quickly offers an example of the latter: “I'm going to subscribe to this thought called Unguided Missile Strikes, because I want to say violent things to people. I want to threaten people with nuclear strikes, because that's the type of spy I am.”
When Sinamäe says “subscribe to this thought”, he’s referring to Zero Parades’ Conditioning system, which reformats Disco Elysium’s Thought Cabinet for an espionage setting. When exploring the world and talking with characters, you’ll encounter new ideas and concepts you can “subscribe” to, rewriting your personality to unlock new dialogue options and roleplaying opportunities. But where ZA/UM’s previous game explored what it would be like for an alcoholic amnesiac detective to soak up ideas like a sponge, Zero Parades approaches the mind of a spy like a collection of masks. Which one is required for today’s task? This required a new method for thought subscription.
“You get the choice about whether or not you want to reinforce or punish the thought,” explains Nicolas Pirot, Zero Parades’ lead technical artist. “You have a branching option of, ‘I don't like this. I don't want that to be a part of myself. I was always a violent spy. I no longer want to be a violent spy.’ You can resist that, and then that'll have a different impact on the way you do things.”
“It's really framed as this violent reordering of your mind,” he concludes.
It’s All in Your Head
That violent reordering is viewed through the flickering glass screen of an old CRT television. Much of Zero Parades’ in-world technology is modelled after the gizmos and appliances of the 1990s – down at the Bootleg Bazaar, you’ll find vinyl records housed in plastic cartridges in an analogue echo of Sony’s old MiniDisc format. This approach extends past the boundaries of reality and into Hershel’s psyche. The art team needed something functional but flawed to represent this spy’s troubled mind – a mind that could tune itself into dangerous thoughts and settle into uncomfortable programming. And so the Conditioning system’s menu sits inside that box of cathode rays.
“It's in an imperfect state,” explains Maeve Bonefacic, a technical artist at ZA/UM who helped create the system’s look and feel. “In the sense that [the television] works, it does, but there's a slight imperfection to that tool. We worked a lot on the particular glitches and effects that a CRT might have.”
I want to threaten people with nuclear strikes, because that's the type of spy I am.
The CRT is just one example of Zero Parades’ fascinating, two-pronged approach to art design. There’s the physical – the environments you explore, the people you meet, the items you acquire – and then there’s the creations of Hershel’s mind, represented by the wild art cards assigned to each quest, the disturbing televised thoughts assessed through Conditioning, and the badges assigned to your sentient skills. ZA/UM describes this approach as representing the two realms that Hershel exists in: the objective and subjective.
The subjective side of Hershel’s reality is spearheaded by lead illustrator Anton Vill, who created the surrealist artwork for Disco Elysium, including its grotesque Thought Cabinet. Once again, he took inspiration from the work of David Lynch, particularly the ominous tone of Twin Peaks’ dark forests, reflecting the messed-up thoughts of a broken character in his bizarre, twisted, emotionally heavy artwork. In one example, a collection of five, cigarette-smoking Hershel doppelgangers face each other in an unnerving pentagon as words of insecurity, such as “abandoner”, “liar”, and “f***ing spy”, hover above them on flowing reams of paper.
“I'm a huge fan of this kind of mysterious, dark, inner world of a person,” says Vill. “I think that shines through [in Zero Parades’ subjective artwork] and I think it’s perfect for the game.”
The Portofiran Identity
While the art team understandably wanted to create a sense of warped darkness for Hershel’s interior thoughts, it needed to create a complementary vibe for the physical world. It would need to be via different techniques, though, so that subjective thoughts didn’t merge with objective reality.
“We try to subtly inject this unease for the players,” says Tamsalu. “There is a lot of detail that we put into the game, but the way we have textured these [details], and how we approach lighting for the scenes and set up these situations, there is this underlying current of something brewing.”
This thing that is brewing is, of course, why Hershel is in the city of Portofiro. But her job is very unlike that of Disco Elysium’s disaster cop protagonist, and the espionage story Zero Parades tells had a significant influence on the way the city was designed.
“When you’re a police officer looking into a crime, anybody who's in the vicinity is a potential suspect and expected to speak with you,” Tamsalu explains. “And in a spy game, it's kind of like the inverse of that. You don't want to stand out. And because of that, we needed to create a slightly busier backdrop. That's why you have these characters that go about their own business, and you have your own covert business as you navigate through that.”
While capturing the heart of spy fiction has been an important part of the project, ZA/UM has been very intentional with how it has approached a genre filled with tropes, staples, and conventions. As you’d expect from the studio, this isn’t a James Bond or Jason Bourne adventure, but nor does it aspire to be a John le Carré novel repackaged as a video game. This had to be a fresh take on this shadowy world, and so a number of rules have been set in place. For instance, Herschel is an “operant”, rather than an agent. Her mission takes her “in-theatre” rather than in the field. And her employer, the communist Superbloc, flips the typical capitalist nation perspective of classic Cold War thrillers.
“We wanted to avoid the obvious spy themes,” says character artist Liis Väljaots, who explained how this philosophy extended into the art. “One of the things we wanted to avoid was making the world look too noir-y and too oppressive, to kind of contrast the subject matter, which is quite serious.”
“There are a lot of trench coats in the game, though,” she laughs. “That's undeniable.”
Roll Play
Your choice to wear a trench coat or not is just one of many decisions that shape the kind of spy you are – clothing, as in Disco Elysium, provides stat modifiers that boost or inflict penalties on your skills. That pool of skills has been reduced (now 15, down from Disco’s 24) with the idea of making each attribute more prominent and viable. They’ll also be tested with much more frequency.
“We have a skill check every 3,000 words, compared to Disco Elysium’s every 6,000 words,” reveals Sinamäe. “We feel this makes the player more engaged with what they're doing and what type of spy they want to be.”
As I explored in IGN’s hands-on preview of Zero Parades, skill checks have deeper mechanical complexity this time around thanks to the Pressures system. Each of your skills fits into one of three categories – athletic, psychological, and intellectual - and those categories have corresponding “health” bars that measure your fatigue, anxiety, and delirium levels. Fail a psychological skill check and your anxiety bar will fill. Max the bar out, and you’ll take a permanent stat penalty.
Things are made even more interesting by the ability to “exert” a skill check – you can roll an extra die to increase your chances of passing the check, but at the cost of purposefully damaging the skill’s corresponding pressure bar.
“It's like, how much more can the player take?,” says Bonefacic. “Can I afford to, for example, exert a dice roll? Am I allowed to do that? Do I have the resources to do that? I think it has added an interesting element of strategy.”
That strategy wouldn’t work if there were no method for reducing your pressure gauges. By default, a bar will reset after taking so much damage that you endure a stat penalty, but that’s hardly an approach to build a self-care system around. Instead, you can have Hershel perform a ritual.
“Rituals are a system that we have where you can reduce your pressures by doing all kinds of small things in the world,” explains Pirot. “It can be sitting on a bench and watching the sunrise that might lower your anxiety. It can be smoking a cigarette, having a cup of coffee, or yelling at someone in the street. These very small, very immersive moments, that are available in different parts of the world at different times, that can help an incredibly stressed out, anxious, fatigued, or delirious spy to keep their sanity more or less in check.”
Rather than, say, the classic health potion of other RPGs, which are clearly labelled and a genre staple, you’ll need to discover these rituals through exploration and experimentation. They also unlock further roleplay opportunities – yelling at someone in the street doesn’t exactly sound like a traditional remedy, but for an operant boiling over with rage, it may be very cathartic.
“By the player making a build choice of, ‘I want to be a very violent spy’, they would naturally seek out the rituals that complement that,” says Pirot.
Rituals, mental masks, blending into busy cities, and threats of nuclear armageddon. These are all important aspects of Zero Parades’ spy fantasy, and each is manifested within the game by a different team at ZA/UM. Writing works alongside artwork and system design to produce a world through which you can observe, bargain, and bully. A world in which you can roleplay the type of spy you think can change the world. Or, at the very least, change their place in it.
Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.
It’s hard to believe the Nintendo Switch’s first year gave us The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey just a few months apart, but it really was a fantastic start for the system. So fantastic in fact, that both of which feature as #2 and #3 in our top 100 Nintendo games of all time list.
Given its size and scope, that’s a big deal, and it’s still the most recent 3D Mario platformer we’ve got. This huge 3D adventure pairs Mario with Cappy, a fun new character who allows Mario to transform into characters, enemies, and inanimate objects alike, opening up the sandbox of each of its distinct worlds to fun puzzles.
With the arrival of the Switch 2, the game looks better than ever. There’s improved image quality, particularly when playing on TV, and HDR support added. The update is free, too.
In our review, Ryan McCaffrey awarded a ‘Masterpiece’ score of 10 out of 10, and said, “Super Mario Odyssey is a brilliant adventure and love letter to the series that made Nintendo a household name.”
The Nintendo development team that worked on Super Mario Odyssey released Donkey Kong Bananza as a Switch 2 exclusive last year year, and it even got nominated for Game of the Year as well.
Robert Anderson is IGN's Senior Commerce Editor and resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.
This article features contributions from Lloyd Coombes.
A pair of figure skaters at the Winter Olympics performed a brilliant tribute to Mortal Kombat during the event's final days that's well worth a watch.
The routine was created by Georgian skaters Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, who used their appearance in the Olympics' more lighthearted Exhbition Gala to skate while dressed up as Kitana and Sub-Zero.
Together, the duo traded fake punches to the fighting game franchise's classic Techno Syndrome music. Thankfully there was no actual blood or fatalities on the ice, though the routine did end with Sonya's kiss of death. Friendship? Not likely.
Figure skaters Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava performed a Mortal Kombat routine at an exhibition gala pic.twitter.com/FwqvQhgJ5a
"Dude," reddit user Filmmakernick wrote, "this made me cry. Maybe it's my sentimentality in my old age, but this is something I never thought I'd see on such a grand stage and at the Olympics?! What a cool moment in MK fandom! What a stunning skating routine, too! Loved the costumes and Easter Eggs! It was beautiful, man. :)"
"No spine rip 2/10," wrote umeys, who was seemingly less impressed.
Last year saw the launch of the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, a collection of numerous classic games in the series, newly-released across PC, Switch, PlayStation and Xbox.
Up next for the franchise in general is the Mortal Kombat 2 movie, which will see Karl Urban reprise his role as Johnny Cage, beginning on May 8. In December, the film's producer Todd Garner responded to a barbed comment made at The Game Awards during an appearance by the cast of this year's rival Street Fighter film, currently due for release in October. "I don’t climb over others to get ahead," Garner declared.
Image credit: Foto Olimpik/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Vantage Studios, the Ubisoft subsidiary that now manages the publisher's biggest brands, has announced a fresh leadership team for Assassin's Creed.
The blockbuster historical stabathon series will now be led by Martin Schelling, a veteran Ubisoft producer who previously served senior roles on Assassin's Creed titles such as Black Flag, Origins and Valhalla, and has recently served as Ubisoft's Chief Production Officer.
Schelling will be assisted by Assassin's Creed veteran Jean Guesdon, who will assume the role of Head of Content for the franchise. Looking after the series' creative direction, Guesdon will be applying the experience he's gained as a long-term designer on the series, working on more than a dozen titles in the franchise, back to Assassin's Creed 1 in 2007.
Finally, François de Billy will serve as Head of Production Excellence, following previously acting as Production Director on Valhalla and Origins.
Ubisoft told staff of Côté's departure via an internal email that discussed the need for Vantage Studios' leadership team to be "aligned" with its core goals. At the time, IGN reported that Côté had been offered a role as part of Vantage Studios' leadership, but declined.
Côté has since launched a lawsuit against Ubisoft that claims he was essentially replaced in his role early in 2025 by Vantage Studios' newly-installed leadership, Christophe Derennes and Charlie Guillemot — the cousin and son of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. With this layer of management now above him, Côté alleges he then learned over the summer of 2025 that Vantage was now seeking to hire a new Assassin's Creed franchise boss, too.
Last week, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reaffirmed that the company had "several" Assassin's Creed titles in development, comprised of both single-player and multiplayer experiences. Back in 2022, Ubisoft announced a raft of upcoming games including the now-launched Assassin's Creed Shadows, the witchcraft-inspired Assassin's Creed: Hexe (another single-player blockbuster) and Invictus (a multiplayer game). The company is also widely-expected to announce its long-awaited Black Flag remake soon.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Magic: The Gathering launched its Final Fantasy set last Summer, and while it feels a lifetime ago with such a fast-moving set release cadence, its Commander Decks live long in the memory.
All four were solid, and Amazon has most of them discounted right now. Not only does that include the popular Limit Break and Counter Blitz decks, but the new version of Limit Break with a Promo Card and download code is discounted, too.
Get Final Fantasy Commander Decks at a Discount Right Now
Starting with Limit Break, the new ‘Game Edition’ includes the 100-card Commander deck helmed by Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER, and an exclusive Promo Card, too. It also has a Steam code for the original Final Fantasy 7 (not to be confused with the remake). It’s now $72.99, down from $99.99 (which was admittedly steep anyway).
If you already have that, or just want to save some Gil, you can pick up the standard edition for $64.45, discounted by around five bucks. The deck is equipment-focused, aiming to get your creatures powered up to trigger effects like token generation.
Whisper it, though: We still think Counter Blitz, the Final Fantasy X deck, is the best of the bunch. Its combination of Tidus and Yuna can use Summons for big power on the board, and manipulate the counters to keep them around indefinitely.
Finally, the Final Fantasy 6-themed Revival Trance isn’t the most cohesive deck out of the box, but with the right upgrades, it could be really useful. It’s traditionally been discounted right from launch, and it’s got a 30% discount, too.
That brings it down to $48.75, meaning the only deck from the set not included in the current deals is Final Fantasy XIV’s Scions and Spellcraft - that one is out of stock at the time of writing.
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.
Ahead of the debut of its Red Band trailer during IGN Fan Fest later this week, IGN can exclusively reveal the first poster for Faces of Death, the upcoming reboot of the controversial 1978 horror classic that is set to debut in theaters on April 10, 2026.
While you can check out the trailer on Day 2 of IGN Fan Fest on February 26, this poster should give a tease as to what horrors await those brave enough to see this in theaters. As the poster warns, you won't be able to unsee the things you see on screen.
The original Faces of Death from John Alan Schwartz became a cult classic and quite controversial as it was presented as a faux documentary that rumors claimed featured real-life deaths on screen. While it turned out most of the footage was fake, there was pre-existing footage of real deaths in the film.
In this new take on Faces of Death from director Daniel Goldhaber, the story will continue to explore that 'is it real or not?' conversation, and explore what happens when "a woman working as a content moderator for a major video platform discovers what appears to be re-enactments of murders from the original film. In an online world where nothing can be trusted, she must determine whether the violence is fiction, or unfolding in real time.”
Faces of Death stars Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria), Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things), Josie Totah (Saved by the Bell), Aaron Holliday (Cocaine Bear), Jermaine Fowler (The Blackening) and Charli XCX (The Moment), and is being written by Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei.
Every year since WWE 2K22, it’s felt like I write variations of the same opening paragraph, that ultimately end with one simple question: How does an annual sports game top what they did the year before? That question becomes slightly more complicated, though, when some (including myself) consider last year’s entry to be the best it’s ever been. WWE 2K26’s answer is simple: you add more. Lots more.
This year, everything is expanded and built upon, and though no one thing feels like a particularly massive swing, every mode comes with incremental additions to make it worth your while. In fact, there was so much that not only does it feel like it’s impossible to summarise concisely, but there wasn’t close to enough time for me to sample everything in my few hours of hands-on time. So if you’re interested in all the new updates to universe mode, community creations, MyFaction or The Island, then I’d suggest this isn’t the preview for you. However, what I will do is focus on the central element that ties it all together and the iterations that interest me the most: the gameplay.
Small adjustments can be felt from the moment the bell rings. Last year’s addition of chain wrestling has been expanded, allowing you to create moments tailored to each wrestler’s sensibilities. With a quick press on the d-pad, you can now select to deploy unique motions, such as a handshake, a rush, or even drawing energy from the crowd. There’s also a more ambiguous ‘approach’ option, which in turn creates a sub-menu that allows you to begin trading blows, engage in chain wrestling, or just have an intense staredown. What may appear to be gimmicky actually works surprisingly well, providing more cinematic actions to appropriately begin anything from a friendly rivalry to a blood feud. Previously, my default was always just to run and attack, but these starting actions now add an extra sprinkle to the already-impressive spectacle simulation. It’s not going to change the way you play, but it successfully adds an extra layer of welcome immersion to each match opening.
Once the match progresses, things feel very familiar. Match fundamentals work very similarly to WWE 2K25, aside from some subtle alterations to the reversal system (which is now more tied to the stamina wheels) and barricade combat, which now lets you both climb up and duke it out during a balancing act. Most notably for me, though, is the update to the collision mechanics, something that feels like it’s been neglected for a while now. Previously, discarded weapons lying around the ring served little purpose once they’d left your hands, often blending into the environment as decoration with no further impact on gameplay, But gone are the days of characters clipping through them completely, as in WWE 2K26, dropping a superstar onto steel steps, kendo sticks, or steel chairs matters, with what I assume is a damage level increase and new, realistic reaction animations. Whip Sami Zayn into a cinder block, and it breaks under his weight. Riptide Bron Breakker onto the steel steps, and his body will crumple around its shape. Discarded weapons now have added value and contribute another step forward towards matching the WWE television experience.
Lift up the ring apron, and your weapon wheel will now have a bag of violence ready to deploy.
The standout of these interactive weapons, though, and my personal highlight of WWE 2K26 is actually a brand new addition for the series - something that feels like it should have been around forever, but finally makes its debut this year. Thumbtacks. Lift up the ring apron, and your weapon wheel will now have a bag of violence ready to deploy. Simply pour the dozens of metal pins onto the mat, and you're ready to turn your opponent into a human pin cushion. Tacks aren’t just reserved for finishing moves either. Any slam in the proximity of these nasty spikes will decorate their back, knees, and forehead in silver, helping you finally recreate gloriously violent WWE moments like Cactus Jack’s face-first descent into a pile of the violent objects by a sinister Triple H.
Thumbtacks, better collision reactions and starting actions, although fun, are all in service of matching the WWE product, as are micro adjustments like the new blood splatter effect that splashes the screen when you or your opponent gets busted wide open. This is ultimately a fighting game, but one that knows which side its bread is buttered. Drama and storytelling are the name of the game, and this year also receives a vital upgrade in its voices, with the additions of Booker T and Wade Barrett to the commentary table. The latter not only offers a different accent to the soundtrack of your actions, but both bring a new sense of excitement that is hard to quantify, but vital to keeping the series sounding fresh.
From playing, it quickly became clear to me that this year, the moment-to-moment match action has received small but welcome improvements to the already successful formula. But just like in real life, a WWE fan’s appetite for chaos is only satiated with new match types and WWE 2K26, much like last year, lobs four more onto the pile: Three Stages of Hell, I Quit, Dumpster and Inferno matches.
The Inferno match, which surrounds the ring in a wall of flames, is undoubtedly the most visually impressive addition. Much like its sporadic appearances on WWE over the years, it's certainly a spectacle and a worthwhile inclusion, although, like last year’s Underground addtion, it’s hard for me to invest too much time into a match type that limits your ability to use every inch of the ring, as it always feels less enjoyable to me to conclude a fight in anything but a pinfall or submission. Because of this, I didn’t spend much time in this fiery new mode, but its addition is a welcome one, even if it’s only from a WWE historical perspective.
The dumpster match also helps fill the gap in WWE’s legacy. In practice, it’s a reskinned version of the casket and ambulance brawls, but it’s hard to see what they could have done differently from a gameplay perspective. It’s also nice for 2K to tick off another match type as developer Visual Concepts slowly but surely works its way through all the crazy concepts we’ve seen throughout WWE’s history, regardless of their real-world success. Although saying that, I would be surprised if we see a Punjabi Prison or Kennel From Hell match anytime soon. Feel free to shock me, though, WWE 2K27.
The I Quit match doesn’t feel like just another match variation on the pile, but rather its own beast entirely.
When it comes to fresh match types, the most exciting addition for me, though, is the long-overdue return of the I Quit match. Notably different from the ever-present submission bout, which just limits the decision to a legal tap, rather than the all-out warfare and humiliation the I Quit match can deliver. Proceedings begin like any other hardcore match, but instead of pinfalls or traditional submissions, the fight will now only end when you or your opponents verbally say "I quit" into the microphone, with the referee also audibly making requests.
How this works in practice is a quick-time event that demands you master timing on a spinning wheel full of green blocks, which will shrink over time based on the damage you take. Interestingly, unlike some of the other mini games in the series, the aggressor isn’t directly competing for these green blocks; instead, you can place pre-earner blockers to make the timing more difficult. There’s a deliberate strategy to this, and I immediately found myself considering my submission requests more thoughtfully, making sure I had enough banked blockers (earned by performing certain big attacks) before commencing the humiliation routine. You can also increase your chances by using weapons like the kendo stick or steel chair in the submission manoeuvre, once again harking back to classic WWE moments. The I Quit match doesn’t feel like just another match variation on the pile, but rather its own beast entirely.
All of this year’s adjustments serve the wider presentation of WWE 2K26, and that ever-moving, monolithic WWE dragon they’re always chasing. Make no mistake about it, while the grappling has always and will always be the core of this series, the spectacle of WWE is just as important a part of the package. In my lifetime, we’ve gone from WWF Warzone’s soulless arenas (I can still hear that single voice in the crowd repeatably telling me to open a can) to 1-to-1 representations of pyro-infused, singalong entrances and accurate depictions of the ebbs and flows of a rabid live crowd. I have little doubt that WWE 2K26 is set to be the best the series has ever looked, sounded, and felt, and if you’re a WWE obsessive eager to replicate the pageantry at home, then you’ve never had it better.
Dale Driver is an Associate Director of Video Programming at IGN. Be thoroughly bored by following him on Bluesky at @daledriver.bsky.social
Indy's globetrotting gaming adventure, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is heading to Nintendo Switch 2 this year. Thankfully, its release isn't too far away, either. For those who can't wait to step into the shoes of this famous archaeologist, the Switch 2 version of the game is currently available to preorder at a variety of retailers with a release date of May 12 this year (see it here at Amazon).
Check out one of the links below to preorder a copy for yourself to have ready to boot up on release day. Further down you can learn more about what preorder bonuses you'll get to enjoy with it, too.
Preorder Indiana Jones and the Great Circle On Nintendo Switch 2
It's also worth mentioning that for this physical release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Nintendo Switch 2, Bethesda has confirmed that the game will be on a Switch 2 Game Card rather than a Game-Key Card. That means you'll get the full game on the cartridge, rather than have to download it.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (Switch 2) Preorder Bonuses
Alongside the game itself, those who preorder Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Nintendo Switch 2 get to enjoy a couple of additional goodies in the form of The Last Crusade Pack. This pack contains the Traveling Suit Outfit and Lion Tamer Whip which, as the name of the pack suggests, are from The Last Crusade movie.
What Is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a single-player, first-person game that was developed by the team at MachineGames and published by Bethesda. It's a thrilling adventure that our review from IGN's Luke Reilly called, "An irresistible and immersive global treasure hunt, and far and away the best Indy story this century, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle doesn’t belong in a museum; it belongs on your hard drive where you can play the heck out of it."
Other Preorder Guides
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution's latest expansion, Ascended Heroes, is (as per usual) increasingly hard to get hold of right now. While Ascended Heroes cards are now available, stock is painfully low or nonexistent at most major retailers.
If you're looking to bag yourself an ETB (or several) that sport a rather magnificent Mega Dragonite, now that it's officially 'available', then here's where you can currently pick one up, and what prices to expect at each retailer.
MSRP is $49.99, but the current market price at TCGplayer is listed at around $119. That's a fairly significant drop from what we were seeing near the beginning of the month ($140-$160), and back to the prices we were seeing across January.
Fans can only hope this doesn't reverse in the coming weeks, and perhaps even continues to drop further. But, in my view, the market price looks to be levelling out at around $115-$120, so if you're desperate and not looking to wait any longer, this is the best time to buy. Walmart also currently has the ETB in stock for $60, with access limited to paid Walmart+ members.
Compare this to Phantasmal Flames, as that was settling at around $150-$200 in November last year, but has thankfully since come down to around $80-90 market price, which is much better, a whole lot more what most fans would be happy/ expecting to pay for an ETB these days, even if it is above the original list price. We can only hope that Ascended Heroes follows a similar trend.
In terms of where to buy, TCGplayer is the most reliable option, but also the most expensive, so proceed only with the knowledge that you're paying a premium. Amazon is sticking to matching market price, so you can find an Ascended Heroes ETB for $119.99 there as well.
It's also significantly down compared to its sky high $399 price point I'd seen most recently online, and, according the latest data, has dropped 29.83% at TCGplayer over the past month.
It's still pretty steep all things considered, but hardly unsurprising with how sought after these exclusive ETBs are, even years after release. Still, at this price, I wouldn't be surprised if more than a few fans snap it up, as it's one of the better resale deals I've seen on a Pokémon Center exclusive ETB.
That's the price of cards on the resale market these days! I'm sure most of us are already quite used to it, even if it's still a mega pricey. That being said, in my opinion, you may be better off waiting for prices to come back down a bit a few months down the line, so a bit of patience may pay off if you can manage it.
I'd say anywhere around the $100 mark is a good time to buy the standard ETB, but if you can wait a few months longer, hopefully we can see these falling to around $80-$90 as well, just like the Phantasmal Flames ETB has.
Robert Anderson is Senior Commerce Editor and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.
Genki’s Force Field 2 might just be the the ideal grip case for the Switch 2. While its handles don’t add a ton of extra grip, the overall package confers a phenomenal level of convenience and portability, while still protecting my as-of-yet unscathed Switch 2. And with small perks like game cartridge storage and a MagSafe ring, this could well be my new go-to Switch 2 accessory for solo travel.
Keeping with Genki’s sleek, understated-but-stylish branding, the Force Field 2 encloses the Switch 2 with a pair of semi-transparent, dark-grey pieces. The back covers the Joy-Cons and the console itself, with small, rounded handles adding a pair of small grips to the console in handheld mode. And instead of attaching each grip to the Joy-Cons, this case attaches its Joy-Con covers to the back panel itself, with hinges that snap on and off of the controllers while they are attached to the tablet.
This setup makes disconnecting a Joy-Con 2 from the console easier and more convenient compared to detaching a grip that’s attached to each controller individually, which comes in handy for for tabletop and mouse mode play. Folding open each grip reveals yet another efficient design idea, with a game cartridge storage slot that cleverly utilizes each handle.
The back panel that anchors these folding grips to the console itself snaps on tightly to the tablet, hugging it tightly enough to slide into the official Switch 2 dock. It’s kind of a tight fit, but it shouldn’t scratch your screen or anything. It also leaves space for the Switch 2’s improved kickstand. But my favorite feature for the entire case – aside from the protection it offers, of course – is right above that kickstand slot.
The MagSafe ring situated in the middle of the back panel alone makes this case well worth the cost. The Switch 2’s battery life seriously kneecaps its portability; even if you’re not playing in one long session, it’s always a bummer to click on your Switch for some time-melting Balatro on a short flight or train ride only to discover that you forgot to fully charge your console. Here’s where the MagSafe ring comes in: it allows you to attach a portable battery to your Switch without needing to tether yourself to a USB port or outlet.
Genki conveniently sells a slim, powerful portable charger (which also works wirelessly with devices like smartphones) that snaps onto this magnetic ring, and ships with a well-shaped, male-to-male USB-C cable with right-angled ends, letting you charge the console with minimal interference to your playtime. You can also use other MagSafe chargers. In addition to Genki’s portable charger, I’ve also used other MagSafe chargers, like one of Pitaka's Aramid Fiber power banks, with great results. However, I needed to use a different USB-C connector, because its placement and design were made for Genki’s proprietary charger.
The other half of the case comes with considerably fewer bells and whistles, serving as a simple cover designed to protect the console, including its screen and controllers. It snaps to the console with the other half of the case attached, providing a smooth, rounded cover that envelops the console to sit flush with the rest of the case. It’s a smooth, sturdy, protective barrier that doesn’t offer the same suite of flashy features as the other half of the case, but doesn’t need to. It could use its space more efficiently, with more game cartridge storage in the space between the screen and case, though it’s by no means a dealbreaker.
The full case adds less than an inch to the Switch 2 in total, too, keeping everything slim and low-profile, making it easy to store and pack. Even with Genki’s roughly half-inch-thick portable charger on the console, it’s still pretty slim and easy to throw into your bag.
Charlie is a freelance contributor for IGN. You can reach them via Twitter or Instagram at the handle @chas_mke.
KPop Demon Hunters voice actor Kevin Woo has exclusively revealed a new Dead By Daylight Survivor to IGN — for which he'll be providing the voice, if not his singing talents.
If you've watched or sung along to the animated Netflix phenomenon, you'll have heard Woo as the singing voice of Mystery (the boyband member with purple hair over his eyes).
"I personally think as a Killer, Mystery Saja would thrive on psychological manipulation rather than brute aggression," Woo said Woo, who's set to star in a brand new chapter for the horror game, All-Kill:Comeback.
Here, he plays Kwon Tae-young, a tech designer Survivor hired to work on a virtual idol. Players will be able to check him out in a Public Test Build that will go live on Steam tomorrow, on February 24.
"I focused on making every breath, every strained scream, and every moment of fear feel grounded"
Woo previously worked on Dead By Daylight as a consultant on its previous K-pop storyline, which introduced the sociopathic idol the Trickster.
"Transitioning from consultant to fully embodying a character through voice was both surreal and deeply fulfilling," Woo said. "As a consultant on the original chapter, I was involved in shaping the Trickster’s emotional identity — his ego, his obsession with artistry, and the narcissistic rage simmering beneath his polished idol exterior.
"Stepping into Kwon Tae-young’s perspective in this new release allowed me to approach the world of Dead by Daylight from the other side of that mythology. Because I understood the Trickster’s lore so intimately, his betrayal, his fixation on control, and his warped perception of performance. I was able to layer that history into Kwon Tae-young’s fear and internal conflict."
Woo is the perfect person to act as a consultant on the world of K-pop. He performed as part of the line up for K-pop bands XING and U-KISS, and recently announced he was part of a new subunit of U-KISS with bandmates Hoon and Kiseop. But how did his bandmates feel after his consultant work on the role of a killer K-pop idol?
"The irony is that while Ji-Woon Hak’s lore in Dead by Daylight explores betrayal and ego within a band dynamic, my real-life band experience was built on camaraderie and growth. That contrast actually helped me understand the tragedy of the Trickster even more," he revealed.
"They mostly praised me about becoming a 'global Hollywood superstar' after KPop Demon Hunters. It was flattering — but I reminded them that none of this exists without our shared experience as global idols that paved the way for K-pop."
Since Woo first worked on the game in 2021 the world of K-pop has grown to be a much bigger force in the world of global entertainment, in no small part thanks to the incredible success of the Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters, which first aired last year. Woo explained how his work on that project helped him embody the character of Kwon Tae-young in All-Kill: Comeback.
"Voice acting for KPop Demon Hunters deepened my appreciation for how much storytelling can be communicated purely through tone, breath control, and texture. Without physical performance to rely on, your voice becomes the entire emotional instrument. In a game like Dead by Daylight, that responsibility is amplified," he explained.
"As a consultant, I wanted to ensure that the cultural references remained authentic. As a voice actor, I focused on making every breath, every strained scream, and every moment of fear feel grounded within the brutal, high-stakes environment of the Entity’s realm."
He also revealed that voicing a Dead By Daylight Survivor demanded a lot more of him than just reading a script.
"To authentically capture that experience, I had to embody exhaustion, adrenaline spikes, and sudden bursts of panic. I would run in place during takes to elevate my breathing. I rehearsed strained vocalizations that mimic being hooked, injured, or chased," he continued.
"Unlike polished K-pop tracks, which prioritize control and tonal perfection, horror voice work embraces imperfection, cracked screams, unstable breathing, and vocal strain. The chaos is the performance."
And Woo isn't just a consultant or a voice actor when it comes to Dead By Daylight, he's a player too.
"I gravitate toward a tactical Survivor play-style, focusing on stealth loops, careful map awareness, and team synergy," he said. "I’m usually the one prioritizing safe unhooks, body-blocking when necessary, and healing teammates in concealed areas."
Dead By Daylight was first released in 2016 and since then has introduced a steady and increasingly terrifying number of Killers and Survivors to the game, including characters from Stranger Things, Attack On Titan, Resident Evil and of course, Nicolas Cage.
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
The time-travel romantic historical drama Outlander returns for its eighth and final season on March 6th on STARZ.
Season Eight sees Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire Fraser (Caitríona Balfe) return home to Fraser’s Ridge after years away where they must confront both outside intruders and family secrets.
I recently chatted with lead actress Caitríona Balfe about playing Claire Fraser for the last time and what she hopes the legacy of the series will be. (This interview has been edited for clarity.)
IGN: This show has been such a comforting thing for people for so long. And I think at a certain point you just take for granted, it'll always be there. And for it to be ending, but for fans, it must be a little bit of stages of grief. I know there's a prequel and everything, but it's like it's been around so long and it just always felt like it would be there.
Caitriona Balfe: We were young when we started it. It has been the most incredible journey and the most significant part of that journey has been the fandom because they have kept us on air and they have kept us employed and supported us and just been the greatest thing that we could have been a part of for over a decade.
And it does feel very strange to finish this. It was the longest job I've ever had. But look, I think more than 10 years playing the one character, and doing this one show, I think it was time for everybody. But hopefully what we have done is given them something to be proud of, and hopefully they'll enjoy this last season, and then they'll have these eight seasons to re-watch over and over if they ever need.
IGN: What do you want the lasting message or legacy of your Outlander series to be? What do you want people to take away from it in the end and how it'll be remembered?
Caitriona Balfe: If there's anything about Claire and Jamie, they led with love, but they were always seeking justice and fairness. And I think they were inclusive of people. I just think that they gave such a positive influence to the people around them. And I think in terms of the broader picture of their journey as immigrants to a country with a dream and an ideal about how to make that a better place is something that can resonate at this moment in our time, just maybe that there's a resonance there.
IGN: I grew up in Boston steeped in colonial history, it's everywhere. But I think people don't realize just how violent the American Revolution was and how disruptive it was. It was a civil war, and so I appreciate that about Outlander is that they do show in the first episode, you're not in the scene, but there are two loyalists that are strung up.
Caitriona Balfe: And I think people forget how young this country is and where their ancestors maybe came from, and what the reasons were. There was such a tentative... All of these social contracts are so fragile, and a Revolutionary War was trying to rid the people of this country of one oppressive system in the hopes of creating something that was about fairness and equality.
And I think that is maybe things that are, again, in a fragile state at this point. And it's like it's not that long ago, and I think you have to keep engaging with democracy, and keep engaging with these social contracts so that they benefit everybody.
We've all come from somewhere. I'm obviously Irish, but I lived here for a very long time, too. And I think we can't forget that there were people here first, and that many people came here, and it's a continuous cycle, and it doesn't get to just stop. Well, I'm not American, so maybe I don't have a point to say in that part.
IGN: I know we’ve got to dance around spoilers regarding Faith and Fanny, but what can fans expect to see from these revelations that we learned late in the game last season? What is the thing that fans can expect from that particular subplot this season?
Caitriona Balfe: Well, when we open up the season, I think we find out a lot more about potentially what happened, and we see that there's quite a shocking scene in which Claire does something that I think is very, very shocking. And in that there's old wounds reopened and there's grief that is compounded as well as being reawakened.
But to that point, I think Fanny is this lifeline for both Claire and Jamie, where maybe they'll never get to have met their daughter, but at least they might get to have a second chance with their granddaughter. And she's played by such a wonderful actress, Florrie May Wilkinson, who's so wonderful, and there's such gorgeous scenes with her.
But she's a young woman, a young girl who's really endured an awful lot of pain. And so for Claire and Jamie it's about trying to help her heal and give her security and love, and in that way, the entire family unit heals a little, I think.
IGN: What was it like the last day on set, the last take? Was it like the last day of school? "I graduated, this is over!" or was it like a wake?
Caitriona Balfe: It was so strange. You never really know how you're going to feel. And of course they gave us... It was Sam and I were shooting the last scene, and of course it was a seven-page scene in this bedroom and so much dialogue, but it had all of this double meaning about goodbyes, and legacy, and all of these things. So you start off the scene and it's like, "Oh, this is a nice scene."
And then as the scene went on, because it takes a few hours to film all the different things, the studio just started filling up with people. All our cast members came and were in the studio. There was studio execs, there was all the producers, it was all the production team, all of the crew, and it just got harder and harder, because every time you say those words, you find this deeper meaning in it that has resonance, not just for the character, but for you and for your journey and all of this.
And so by the time we got to the end, I was saying to somebody, I was having spasms in my forehead and face because I was such an emotional wreck. And they called cut, and I was sobbing like a... I don't know. And we all had champagne and people were hugging, but at the same time, I was just going around crying in everyone's faces like, "Oh, thank you so much! I can't believe you finished." But it was really special. This has been such an incredible journey and it changed all our lives, so it felt momentous.
IGN: I'm sure they scheduled that scene on purpose.
Caitriona Balfe: Of course, for a reason. How about it, guys?
IGN: You didn't want the last day to be you just getting off a wagon or something.
Caitriona Balfe: This is true.
Outlander, Season Eight premieres on STARZ on Friday, March 6, with new episodes streaming weekly on Fridays.
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