Pearl Abyss has released the second Features trailer for Crimson Desert. This new trailer focuses on the game’s combat and progression systems. It covers how you’ll unlock skills, upgrade equipment, face the threats of Pywel, and grow into a formidable fighter. Crimson Desert started as an open-world MMORPG. During development, though, Pearl Abyss pivoted and … Continue reading Second Features Trailer for Crimson Desert Highlights Combat and Progression Systems→
There's still time to set yourself up with a banging home theater set before the big football game. Best Buy recently kicked off an outstanding deal on the Sonos Premium Entertainment Set, which includes the Arc Ultra soundbar and Sub 4 sub.
Normally this bundle retails for $1,998 and there's a Sonos sale going on right now that drops it to $1,599. However, Best Buy currently has it for just $1459shipped. That is the best price I've ever seen and beats out last year's very popular Black Friday deal by $40. You may still have the chance to get it delivered before Sunday, February 8, or for peace of mind you can choose in-store pickup at your local Best Buy store.
Sonos Premium Entertainment Set for $1459
Includes Sonos Arc Ultra ($1,099 retail) and Sonos Sub 4 ($899)
The Arc Ultra is Sonos' best soundbar and its flagship speaker
The Arc Ultra is Sonos' best soundbar speaker, replacing last year's Arc model. It is a massive 46" soundbar that houses 14 total speakers, including five tweeters (plus two upward-firing speakers for Dolby Atmos supported height channels), six midwoofers, and a four-motor, dual-membrane Sound Motion woofer. The Arc Ultra uses AI enhancement technology to isolate and boost the clarity of dialogue and voices. It also has a built-in microphone so that it can be controlled using voice commands from the Sonos app or your favorite smart assistant. Check out our own Sonos Arc Ultra review.
The Arc Ultra and Sub 4 are the perfect Dolby Atmos matchup
The audio savvy knows that a single speaker isn't enough to reproduce an entire soundstage. If you could pick only one other speaker, then a subwoofer would make the most meaningful impact. Given how the Arc Ultra excels at the highs and mids, the subwoofer addition would be a no-brainer. The Sub 4 features dual inward-facing 5"x8" woofers and a traditional ported design that allows for a louder and deeper low-end. It also has much more power than the Sub Mini and can reverberate the walls of any sized room in your house. There's no better complement to the Arc Ultra.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
A new report has shed light on Microsoft’s Xbox plans for 2026, while confirming one unannounced game is still in the works.
As Microsoft announced last month, Playground's Forza Horizon 6 is out in May. The Verge said Halo: Campaign Evolved is tentatively targeting a release in the summer. Gears of War: E-Day, meanwhile, is set for the second half of the year. Playground's Fable, as we know, is due out in the fall. Microsoft reportedly wants both Gears of War: E-Day and Fable to avoid GTA 6’s gargantuan November launch.
According to the report, the Fallout 3 remaster fans are desperate to see announced is still in “active development,” three years after it appeared in FTC documents as part of Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard. The Verge said Bethesda is keen to ensure the game is polished enough to enjoy a successful launch similar to last year’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which Bethesda chief Todd Howard recently told IGN he was "really, really pleased" with.
Bethesda's space RPG Starfield, meanwhile, is reportedly set for new content soon, and it looks like we’ll hear about the heavily rumored PlayStation 5 version soon, too. Double Fine's recently revealed Kiln is reportedly out in April.
In terms of hardware, The Verge said Microsoft will release a new Xbox controller this year. It will reportedly include Wi-Fi connectivity to reduce Xbox Cloud Gaming latency. There's no suggestion Microsoft will release its next-gen Xbox this year, which tallies with recent comments from the boss of AMD. However, The Verge expressed hope that Microsoft will talk more about its next-gen console plans later this year.
Last month, Microsoft held an Xbox Developer Direct Showcase where it revealed new information and gameplay on everything from Forza Horizon 6 to Fable. Check out everything announced here.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Capcom has just released a PC demo for Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. This demo will let you play the beginning portion of the game for free. It will also let you test the game and see whether your PC can run it. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection tells the story of two … Continue reading Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection PC Demo Released→
Looking for a high-capacity, high-output power bank with a slim footprint? Amazon has dropped the price of the Baseus Blade 20,000mAh 100W power bank to just $39.99 shipped after you apply coupon code "YBKEIAQE". Unlike previous iterations of this deal, you do NOT have to be an Amazon Prime member. Unlike most high-capacity power banks that are shaped like a chunky bar, the Baseus Blade is slimmer. It's powerful enough to charge any gaming handheld PC at its fastest rate. This is one of the most popular power banks on IGN.
Baseus Blade 20,000mAh 100W Slim Power Bank for $39.99
The Baseus Blade measures only 0.7 inches thick. Most high-capacity power banks are well over 1" in thickness. The Blade achieves this slim depth by going with a wider body design. The form factor allows it to fit perfectly in a laptop bag or backpack sleeve. It still weighs in at about one pound which is comparable to other power banks, so no give or take there.
The wide body allows it to squeeze in four ports: two USB Type-C ports each with 100W of Power Delivery and two USB Type-A ports each with 30W output. Note that the maximum charging output is 100W. That means although all three ports add up to a total of 160W, only a maximum of 100W will be delivered across all three ports if they are used simultaneously.
The 20,000mAh capacity can fully recharge your gaming handhelds
This Baseus Blade boasts a generous 20,000mAh, or 74Whr battery capacity. If you factor in 80% power efficiency, here are the approximate number of times you can fully recharge each gaming handheld or iPhone model:
Nintendo Switch 2 (18Whr) about 3.3 times
Steam Deck (40-50Whr) about 1.2-1.5 times
ROG Xbox Ally (60Whr) about 1 times
ROG Xbox Ally X (80Whr) about 0.7 times
Lenovo Legion Go S (55Whr) about 1 time
Apple iPhone 17 (14Whr) about 4.2 times
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (20Whr) about 3 times
The 100W output can fast charge nearly all phones and gaming handhelds
The Baseus Blade has USB Type-C ports that provides up to 100W of power output but it will automatically throttle down to whatever maximum rate the plugged-in device accepts. The Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 can only accept a maximum of 18W-30W of power output. The Steam Deck can accept up to 45W. The Legion Go S accepts up to 55W. The Xbox ROG Ally X can actually accept charging rates of up to 100W.
This power bank can be brought onto airplanes
You don't need to worry about being stopped at airports. The 20,000mAh 74Whr capacity is well below TSA's 27,000mAh/100Whr carry-on limit, so you are safely in the clear.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Bethesda has trumpeted the news that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be squeezed onto a proper Switch 2 Game Card for its physical release — though other titles coming to the console will just be codes in a box.
During today's Partner Direct broadcast focusing on upcoming games coming to Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, Bethesda boss Todd Howard briefly appeared to welcome a swathe of games coming to Nintendo's newest console.
In a press release sent to IGN following the broadcast, Bethesda has now detailed its launch plans further, and announced on social media that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would get a full-fat cartridge launch, rather than on one of Nintendo's widely-disliked Game-Key Cards.
Bethesda's social post has received a string of praise, with many fans wondering how the game has been made to fit onto a Switch 2 cartridge. "Wow, totally unexpected," wrote Digital Foundry veteran and game preservation fan John Linneman in response.
As announced (and leaked) earlier today, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch digitally and physically on May 12. The game's DLC, The Order of Giants, will also be available download separately on that date.
Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition launches digitally on February 24 and physically on April 28. Skyrim Anniversary Edition is available digitally already, and will come in a box on April 28. Finally, Oblivion Remastered has a vague "2026" launch window for now.
Project Hail Mary is almost here, but before the highly-anticipated film can grace us with its presence, it has to drop a final trailer. Well, according to a new TV spot teaser, below, both the film’s final trailer and a Super Bowl spot are coming very soon.
It seems as though we will also get a trailer for the new Steven Spielberg epic Disclosure Day, which might just be my most anticipated trailer of the game personally. One thing to note is that it's looking like there won't be any Marvel trailers this year, meaning no sneak peaks at Spider-Man: Brand New Day or Avengers: Doomsday just yet.
Project Hail Mary was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from a script by Drew Goddard based on the 2021 novel by Andy Weir. It stars Ryan Gosling alongside Sandra Hüller, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, and Milana Vayntrub.
The film is set to be released in theaters on March 20, just under two months from Super Bowl weekend.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
You've probably heard of Hellboy, but did you know this demonic paranormal investigator has a family? That was one of the big reveals in Mike Mignola's Hellboy in Hell series, which introduced Hellboy's brothers, Gamon and Lusk. Now Mignola is teaming with his own brother, Todd, to craft a new story that sheds more light on Hellboy's dysfunctional family dynamic.
IGN can exclusively debut a new preview of The Crown: A Tale of Hell, which is set in the 16th Century and focuses on Hellboy's brothers and their long-lost mother. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:
The Crown: A Tale of Hell is a two-issue series co-written by Mike and Todd Mignola, while artist Warwick Caldwell-Johnson (Our Encounters With Evil) makes his Hellboy debut on the series. The first issue features covers by Mike Mignola and Caldwell-Johnson. Here's Dark Horse's official description of the series:
The Crown: A Tale of Hell stars Hellboy’s brothers Gamon and Lusk, who first appeared in Mignola’s beloved 2012 series Hellboy in Hell, as they fight for control of Pandemonium in this demonic family reunion. But it isn’t just the siblings who get involved in the power struggle, as their mother returns from her prison for the first time in a hundred years with plans of her own.
“Todd came to me with the idea of writing something about Hellboy’s brothers,” said Mike Mignola in a statement. “It never would have occurred to me to do more with those guys but it didn’t take much prodding. Brothers writing about brothers in a somewhat complicated family dynamic—once we got going it was almost too easy. And fun. And SO MUCH fun that I could only imagine it drawn by Warwick.”
“The Crown follows a day in the 16th century life of Hellboy’s ‘Hell family.’” said Todd Mignola. “In the bowels of Castle Azzael, a crown is secretly being forged for a new king. Palace intrigue and deceitful backstabbing ensue as Hellboy’s dad, uncle and half-brothers all vie for the prize; for the chance to seize sleeping Satan’s throne.”
The Crown: A Tale of Hell #1 will be released on February 11. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.
Odds are, if Mouse: P.I. for Hire caught your eye, it's because of its unique, hand-drawn, black-and-white 1930s-era "rubber hose" animation style. But it's aiming to be a lot more than just a pretty face. We played Mouse last year – and we'll be doing so again as part of this month's exclusive IGN First coverage – but today we're taking a deeper dive into its wild cartoon arsenal and its boomer shooter-inspired combat.
The developers at Fumi Games told us, "The core combat gameplay revolves around an 'Always Be Moving' approach, encouraging players to stay constantly on the move to survive." Complicating that will be environmental hazards, like freeze, turpentine, fire, and explosive barrels that can either be used against you or used by you. But ammo and health are scattered about, encouraging further exploration of the environment. And you won't be a tank; just a few hits can put hero Jack Pepper in a serious world of hurt.
Meanwhile, an assortment of core abilities and unlockable ones will help you Always Be Moving, such as a slide, dash, double jump, pipe crawl, kick, wall run, and wall climb – along with your multipurpose tail that, over the course of the campaign, can be used for lockpicking, helicoptering, and as a grappling hook.
Power-ups, too, will spice up the moment-to-moment gameplay, like Spinach (think: Popeye), Coffee (activates Cuphead-like finger guns that shoot rapidly), Chili Peppers (damage bonus + rate of fire bonus + fire damage), and Cheese (health powerup that can be activated anytime you want).
But let's get to the stars of the combat show: the weapons (See a bunch of them in the gif gallery above). There are a whopping eleven of them, starting with your fists if you run out of ammo – but you'll probably never use them if given any other choice. Moving up from there, the Micer pistol is what you'd expect, though it does have a burst-shot alt-fire. Your Boomstick, meanwhile, packs a short-range punch – with a hold charge/pump fire as an alt.
Things get more interesting and unique with the Devarnisher, which melts the skin off your foes, Roger Rabbit-style, courtesy of the balls of turpentine it fires. Its alt-fire is a larger blob that explodes to affect more enemies. The James Gun is a Tommy gun that stops enemies from attacking and has a spray fire for an alt.
The Kiss Kiss is a double-barrelled shotgun that adds fire damage thanks to its exploding shells. The alt fire on this one is a larger, area-of-effect explosion. The Loose Cannon, meanwhile, really leans into Mouse's cartoon framework; it's a literal cannon like you'd find on a pirate ship that has knockback effects as well as doing big damage. In alt-fire mode it launches a charged-up burst shot. The Jar Head, on the other hand, fires waves of psionic power that stun and eventually kill enemies – and it carries an AoE. Its beam-attack alt is particularly potent if you aim at the opponent's head.
The last of the arsenal starts with the Portable Freezer, firing a cold beam that slows and eventually freezes foes in their tracks, allowing you to shatter them. The alt-fire spits speedy snowballs. I'm eager to try the Hellrazor, a chainsaw that pummels enemies with fire damage if they get hit with the wave. Its alt-fire is a traditional chainsaw that you do not want to be caught on the business end of.
And finally, the D-namite can take out certain walls and floors in addition to blasting the bad guys to bits. All told, I'm eager to try out all of these toys. Circle March 19 on your calendar, as that's when Mouse: P.I. for Hire will be released on PC, PlayStation platforms, Xbox platforms, and Nintendo Switch platforms.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired 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.
Dell wants the Alienware Aurora 16X to be your star mid-range gaming laptop, and it mostly succeeds in that role with its strong RTX 5070 performance and gorgeous 16-inch, 2K display. But after spending enough time with it, its keyboard gets too tiresome to game with, and I clung to my gaming headset even when playing alone. Already, those flaws mixed with a high price tag are tough to swallow. However, the Aurora 16X still gets the job done (and in style), so it might still be worth taking a look.
Design and Features
Just because it’s smaller than the Area-51 doesn't make the Aurora 16X sleek — it’s still a chunky beast, but I’m not mad about it. The indigo colorway spreads like a silk sheet over the Aurora’s anodized aluminum lid. I love this color way more than what the Area-51 is wearing (teal), which is ironic because that’s the more expensive one.
The curved edges around the lid, hinge, and sides give a soft approach, which is a refreshing break from the usual edgy gamer look. With little-to-no flex over its iridescent Alienware logo, this gaming laptop is hella sturdy. It stacks up to 14.05 x 10.45 x 0.76~0.92 inches and 5.7 pounds.
Popping open the hood revealed more of the same sleek colorway, this time on a magnesium alloy frame with a nice satin finish. There’s a curved palm rest for comfort and ease of lifting the lid. Meanwhile, the keyboard is neatly packed in the center, but supports only one-zone RGB lighting, which looks cheap. The touchpad sits just underneath, somewhat smaller than I expected, and the bezels on the display look a bit thick due to the angled lip.
A neat feature about the underside is there’s a thick slab that props the laptop up, with vents all around it to ensure good airflow. More laptops need better cooling designs like this — there’s nothing more annoying than an underside that gets scorching hot because you positioned it on the wrong surface.
Configurations
The Alienware Aurora 16X is a classic mid-range gaming laptop, but it comes in pricey compared with other rigs in its category. But that’s what you get when you’re looking to buy from a premium brand like Alienware. Here’s what’s packed in the unit Dell sent me for review:
This review unit costs $1,999 (seen for $1,649), which is up there for an RTX 5070 gaming laptop. It also comes in an RTX 5060 version for $1,549. But if you’re looking for something cheaper than that, you need to lose the “X” in the Aurora 16X (yes, really).
The Aurora 16 comes in two GPU variants, including the RTX 5060 and RTX 5050, and both opting for an Intel Core 7-240H processor. They cost around or under $1,000. But wait, what does the “X” really lose you? Well, you drop to a 120Hz display with lower brightness, a 720p webcam, and you lose the Thunderbolt 4 port. The latter two are pretty insignificant, but losing the display is tough.
Display
While I will continue to rant about Alienware needing to offer OLED or Mini-LED options for their gaming laptops, the Aurora 16X’s IPS display is quite stunning.
This display is plenty bright, rated at 500 nits, and offers a crisp 2560 x 1600 resolution, so I could admire the sharp strands of hair on Naoe Fujibayashi’s head in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Making my way through Hijacked in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, the brown wood planks contrasted well against the milky white ship, which was dreamy enough to get me killed by some jabroni running out of the cabin.
With Nvidia G-Sync to reduce screen tearing and the 240Hz refresh rate, getting in car chases across Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 felt satisfyingly smooth as I drifted back onto the highway. However, keep in mind that if you want to use the full breadth of the 240Hz refresh rate, you’ll need to turn down the graphics quite a bit. An RTX 5070 can’t get you quite that far on the highest settings – especially at 1600p.
Everything In-Between
There’s a decent number of ports to get your essential peripherals all connected to the Alienware Aurora 16X, even if you don’t have Bluetooth accessories. There’s a Thunderbolt 4 slot for fast connectivity (great for external storage) as well as an additional USB Type-C port. You also get two USB Type-A ports and a headphone jack to connect legacy devices. Then there’s an HDMI 2.1 slot to connect to an external display, and an Ethernet port to speed up your internet speed. But with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, you shouldn’t have to worry much about connectivity.
The keyboard is comfortable thanks to the cushy palm rests, but the key travel is a bit short. It’s okay to type on, but it’s not satisfying to use when gaming. I wish the keyboard was a bit higher on the deck. The angled palm rest makes it feel like my hand is sliding off when in the WASD position. And the touchpad is in a similar boat where it’s unpleasant to use – it’s too resistant, stiff, and small.
Laptop webcams are almost never good, and the Alienware Aurora 16X’s 1080p shooter is no exception. It’ll get you through video chatting with friends, but between the grain imposed over the image and the washed out colors, I wouldn’t try to stream with this thing.
Dolby Atmos isn’t enough to elevate the speakers beyond middling. The dialogue in Cyberpunk 2077 sounded crisp, but combined with the gunfire and techno music, it felt more like a muddled mess. It gave me a headache listening to it for a short while. I highly recommend gaming with headphones.
Performance
The Alienware Aurora 16X delivers all the performance you expect from an RTX 5070, hitting solid numbers even in the highest settings on intensive AAA games. However, you may struggle in certain areas, especially if you’re averse to supersampling technology.
Before I got to the crunchy numbers, the Alienware Aurora 16X suffered from some serious stuttering while gaming. I updated my graphics drivers and Windows 11, and yes, turned it off and on again. I took a peak at the Alienware Command Center (Settings > Performance) and saw that Hybrid Graphics was enabled, which allows the laptop to switch between integrated and discrete graphics to save on battery life. I disabled that with the MUX Switch and games ran fine after that.
I reached out to Dell for some insight, and a representative tried to replicate the issue on a different machine, but didn’t see the stuttering. I have experienced issues with hybrid graphics on other gaming laptops, so it might not be a problem on Aurora 16X, but if you run into it, you now know what to do.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 ran smooth as I started rinsing fools through a Japanese feudal castle and a war-torn Alaskan town. The benchmarks reflected that great performance, too, proving that the Alienware Aurora 16X can handle competitive games at the highest settings. However, as I mentioned earlier, the Aurora isn’t taking full advantage of its 240Hz screen. If you want higher frames, you need to turn the graphics down.
On a more intensive test, the Alienware Aurora 16X cleared 30 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at its native resolution set to Ray Tracing Ultra. However, Ray Tracing Overdrive proved to be too much for it, and that tracks with most mid-range gaming laptops. But if you run it at 1200p, you’ll get playable frames at the highest settings.
With no upscaling technology, the Aurora 16X’s RTX 5070 did decently well on the Metro Exodus benchmark, scoring close to 60 fps at 1200p on the highest settings. But it failed to get past the 30 fps threshold at its native resolution.
In games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you can see the benefit of frame generation technology. At Ultra High settings on its native resolution, the Alienware Aurora 16X jumped from unplayable to an average of over 50 fps.
Battery Life
Gaming laptops typically don’t last very long in the battery life department, although they’ve improved over the years, with laptops like the Razer Blade 14 hitting over 7 hours. But the Alienware Aurora 16X isn’t a 14-inch gaming laptop with reduced power output. Its chunky 16 inches lasted only 3 hours and 20 minutes on Procyon's Office Productivity Battery Life Test. (This is with hybrid graphics enabled.)
The Alienware Aurora 16X isn’t going to get you very far when gaming on battery alone, not to mention the fact that the performance will tank as well. I highly recommend keeping the Aurora 16X plugged in at all times.
Square Enix is planning to "share more updates than ever before" on its Final Fantasy 7 Remake project this year, according to game director Naoki Hamaguchi.
"We’ve announced that FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH will launch on June 3.
"With the addition of Switch 2 and Xbox, the game will be released as a full multi‑platform title.
"This year, we plan to share more updates on the FINAL FANTASY VII Remake Project than ever before.
"We look forward to celebrating together with even more players around the world."
We’ve announced that FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH will launch on June 3. With the addition of Switch 2 and Xbox, the game will be released as a full multi‑platform title. This year, we plan to share more updates on the FINAL FANTASY VII Remake Project than ever before. We look… https://t.co/GFImeiPiC7pic.twitter.com/f0TaiDHlhJ
— 浜口直樹 /FFVII REBIRTH launches on Switch2&Xbox Jun 3 (@nhamaguc) February 5, 2026
This is exciting news for Remake fans, who have been on the edge of their seats for the last few years, waiting for news of the third game in the trilogy, which we have yet to see at all. Though Hamaguchi didn't outright say it, this feels like a tease for a reveal this year. Rebirth left the story on one heck of a cliffhanger, with players left doubting whether the game's most famous twist really took place or not. The third game has a lot of work to do to land the plot plane set up by Remake and Rebirth, and it will be interesting to see how Square Enix does it. Fans have already been speculating as to what Part 3 will be called, following the "Remake" and "Rebirth" titles as well as "Reunion" on the recent Crisis Core remake. Popular suggestions include Reincarnation, Revival, Reawakening, Redemption, and Return.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was also excellent, with us giving it a 9/10 and saying it "impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenges and an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long."
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Netflix is taking us back, not a few decades but millions of years to the era of dinosaurs. The streamer has revealed its official trailer, key art, and release date for the upcoming documentary series The Dinosaurs.
The poster features a monstrously huge dino mouth about to swallow a shark whole, and the trailer gives viewers a glimpse of exactly that in action, while narrator Morgan Freeman tells us: “This is the story of the dinosaurs.” Intense stuff! The sneak peek also gives viewers a look at many different types of animals sharing the world with dinosaurs, as well as several different types of dinos themselves.
Take an epic journey into a lost world in THE DINOSAURS, a new documentary series narrated by Morgan Freeman, premiering March 6.
From executive producer Steven Spielberg, Amblin Entertainment, and the award-winning team behind Life on Our Planet. pic.twitter.com/Dv5LC07n1F
The series, which will consist of four hour-long episodes, is narrated by none other than one of the smoothest voices in Hollywood: Morgan Freeman. Plus, the legendary Steven Spielberg is producing the series, so there’s already two great reasons to watch.
Alongside the other details, Netflix also revealed the show’s logline: “Welcome to The Dinosaurs – an epic journey into a lost world. From executive producer Steven Spielberg, Amblin Documentaries, and the award‑winning team behind Life on Our Planet, this groundbreaking documentary series follows the rise and fall of the dinosaurs across hundreds of millions of years.”
Dan Tapster, Keith Scholey, and Alastair Fothergill will serve as co-showrunners, with Nick Shoolingin-Jordan directing the series and Lorne Balfe serving as composer. Industrial Light & Magic is also behind the visual effects and animation in the series.
The Dinosaurs is set to premiere on Netflix on March 6.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
Today's Nintendo Switch Partner Direct has revealed a new exclusive for Switch 2 — bizarre-looking dinosaur survival game Tokyo Scramble.
While a trailer shown during the Partner Direct focused on tension, and the fact that protagonist Anne has to rely on setting traps for survival, a subsequent video posted by Binary Haze takes a more light-hearted approach.
In a montage of scenes we see a dinosaur (officially here called a "Zino") getting stuck going the wrong way up an escalator, as Anne makes a quip about its daily steps. Further clips show dinosaurs getting pelted with beach balls, repeatedly flattened and set on fire by various objects, electrocuted by a tripwire, rammed by a minecart and yanked off by a robot arm. Honestly, it's enough to make you feel sorry for them.
As well as hairy velociraptors, other Zino species include one that looks like a vampire bat, and another hairy creature that looks a cross between a dragon and that thing from The Neverending Story.
"A life-or-death struggle begins deep below Tokyo, where clear thinking and split-second decisions could make all the difference," reads an official blurb. "You play as Anne, a survivor who finds herself in a network of subterranean caverns overrun by Zino – mysterious creatures that resemble dinosaurs. Use stealth, strategy, quick thinking and unwavering determination to escape the prehistoric world alive."
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the game is your ability to share control with up to three other players across Switch and Switch 2 consoles via GameShare. Here, control of Anne's movement, actions, abilities and even the game's camera can be portioned out to a group.
If you're a horror fan who's been keeping an eye on the A Nightmare on Elm Street seven-film 4K collection since its release, we have exciting news: it's dropped to a brand new all-time low price at Amazon. It's currently on sale for $67.49 at the retailer, which is 36% off its list price of $104.98. This means you get all seven movies on 4K for just under $70, or about $10 a movie, which is a pretty sweet deal.
Considering this is the lowest price we've seen so far on this collection, now is an excellent time to grab it for your library if you've had your eye on it.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: 7-Film Collection on 4K for $67.49
This looks like a great 4K collection for Freddy fans, too. Alongside seven movies on 4K (which you can check out below), it also comes with theatrical and uncut versions of the first A Nightmare on Elm Street and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5, along with 3D glasses for you to wear during part of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
All Movies in A Nightmare on Elm Street’s 4K Collection
Outside of 4K deals like this collection, there are plenty of newer 4K and Blu-ray releases coming out soon that are currently available to preorder. If you're curious what's on the horizon, take a look at our rundown of upcoming 4Ks and Blu-rays. This can point you towards what's available at the moment so you can start preordering your favorites to have for your library this year.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Fans of 2023's Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, got a delightful surprise this morning during the Nintendo Partner Direct, with the reveal of a surprise sequel coming to Nintendo Switch. It's called Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse, and it's coming out in just two weeks, on February 19.
The Mermaid's Curse follows a young pearl diver named Yuza who one day, while working, sees a ghostly version of himself. This sets off a chain of other strange incidents: corpses washing up, a girl with no memories, and townsfolks with ulterior motives. As Yuza, you'll question people around the island to try and find out what's going on, while also diving into the waters of the bay for clues. All of it has ties somehow to a centuries-old legend of a mermaid, and true to form, it all seems kind of creepy!
The original Paranormasight debuted in 2023 on Switch, PC, and mobile. While thematically similar, it told a different mystery story with different characters, and it's unclear if there will be narrative times between The Seven Mysteries of Honjo and The Mermaid's Curse. The first Paranormasight was well-received, and currently stands at an 85 critic score and 8.9 user score on Metacritic. We're still waiting to hear if the new game will come to other platforms, but given the mobile and PC releases of The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, it seems like a reasonable expectation.
You can catch up on everything announced at today's Nintendo Direct right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
As Fallout Season 2 draws to a close, all signs point towards Colorado as the setting for the next adventure. A postcard left in an abandoned cryopod all but confirms that The Ghoul’s wife and daughter are waiting for him there, and a shot of the Enclave’s secret headquarters suggests that the show’s newly-revealed big bad is operating out of the Rocky Mountains.
For fans, this is an interesting new direction. After the first season explored California, the setting for the original two Fallout games, and the second expanded into the Mojave wasteland of Fallout: New Vegas, it seemed logical that the story would continue to visit familiar locations. Washington, D.C. or Boston, the settings of Fallout 3 and 4, respectively, seemed sensible bets. But certainly not Colorado, which despite geographically making sense for the next steps beyond the New Vegas strip, is barely a footnote in the RPG’s extensive lore.
Dive deeper into the Fallout archives, though, and Colorado becomes significantly more important. The state was planned to be the setting for what would have been Interplay and Black Isle Studios’ third Fallout game, codenamed “Van Buren”, which was cancelled back in 2003. Since then, dozens of design documents have fallen into public hands, revealing the intended storyline for what could have been the original Fallout 3. And as the show signals its intent to travel to the Centennial State, it’s impossible not to wonder if Season 3 will be at least a little inspired by the Fallout that never was.
The Second Apocalypse
Akin to Hank MacLean’s attempts to bring “civilization” to the wasteland, Van Buren would have told the story of a man who looked out at what’s left of humanity and yearned for a better world. That man, Doctor Presper, saw hope in the fires of nuclear armageddon (yes, another one) and planned to take command of an orbital missile system in an effort to cleanse the planet’s surface. He and his followers would sit safe in Colorado’s Boulder Dome, a colossal, bomb-proof research facility, and later emerge into a brighter tomorrow. Sounds a little like Vault-Tec’s plans for the original apocalypse, right? Which, as we’ve learned this season, was actually orchestrated by the Enclave.
It seems unlikely that Van Buren’s exact plot could become the story of Fallout Season 3, though. Introducing Presper’s cohort of mad scientists and their mission to preserve their vision of the human “master race” seems redundant when the Enclave, a faction of mad fascist scientists, are already a key part of the show’s story. But the overlap between these two groups, in conjunction with the Colorado setting, points to exactly where the two projects could merge: What if Presper, or a Presper-like figure, is in charge of the Enclave’s activities in the American Southwest? And now, 200 years after the first bombings, the faction intends to do it all over again in an effort to achieve the exact results it hoped for the first time around?
There’s another interesting overlap: In Van Buren, the orbital missile system is locked behind a series of safeguards. The satellite continually assesses the planet’s population and tracks the spread of “New Plague”, a highly contagious disease that had previously required a complete quarantine of the US to control. Should the number of New Plague-infected people increase past a certain threshold, the satellite will release its missile launch codes, allowing its controller to end the epidemic in nuclear fire. Presper’s plan was to spread the plague across the wasteland, which in turn would grant him control of the missiles.
The New Plague is an interesting piece of Fallout lore because, during the 2050s, the race to develop the cure led to the development of the Forced Evolutionary Virus. The FEV is already one of the show’s mystery plot points, somehow linked to the Vault 31, 32, and 33 experiment. And, as we can infer from Steph’s triggering of “Phase 2” in the Season 2 finale, the experiment is likely controlled by the Enclave. The question, then, is why does the Enclave want a bunch of FEV-infected vault dwellers? Well, perhaps in an adaptation of Van Buren’s story, they’re the key to wiping the surface clean and allowing the Enclave complete control of the wasteland.
New Van Buren
The introduction of Colorado, a virus, and a clan of genocidal scientists obsessed with human purity by no means guarantees that Fallout Season 3 will adapt the ideas created for Van Buren. But I present this theory not based on wild speculation, but Fallout’s own history. While the Fallout 3 that was eventually released to the world in 2008 shared nothing in common with Black Isle Studio’s blueprint, Fallout: New Vegas did. Van Buren was set to feature multiple competing factions, difficult choices that shape the wasteland, and deep character-building systems – the very structure that New Vegas was built atop. But it goes deeper: Caesar's Legion, the violent army of Roman cosplayers, was originally created for Van Buren, as was a battle for control of the Hoover Dam, the climax of New Vegas’ campaign.
The resurrection of those cancelled ideas was in no small part thanks to the fact that several of Van Buren’s designers became the architects of Fallout: New Vegas at Obsidian Entertainment. The show, however, has no such connection to the series’ lost past. And yet, despite being executive-produced by Bethesda’s Todd Howard, the show is keen to continually explore beyond the boundaries of his studio’s tenure as Fallout’s owner. Shady Sands, the NCR town so key to Maximus’ and Lucy’s stories, was only ever in the original Interplay games. Vault 33’s failing water chip storyline is a direct nod to the plot of the first Fallout. And the depiction of the Brotherhood of Steel veers closer to that shown in the early games than it does Bethesda’s interpretation. All that considered, it wouldn’t be that surprising if showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet decide to dive into the Van Buren files and adapt its ideas, turning Fallout Season 3 into a homage to the Fallout game we never got.
Dead Tactics
When talking about Colorado, though, we can’t ignore Fallout Tactics. While not exactly “dead” in the way Van Buren is, Fallout Tactics is something of a dead end; a spin-off created in 2001 that failed to start a sub-franchise for the series. It tells the story of a Brotherhood of Steel squadron on a mission to find Vault 0, a pre-war command bunker buried deep below the Rocky Mountains in El Paso County, Colorado. Their journey towards the vault sees them battle an army of robots, which are revealed to be controlled by The Calculator; a fusion of human brain and digital computer that resides at the heart of Vault 0.
Considering Season 2’s post-credits scene sees the Brotherhood’s Elder Quintus proclaim himself “The Destroyer” while unfolding the blueprints for a giant nuclear robot, it’s easy to see how Season 3 could draw inspiration from Fallout Tactics. Quintus could dispatch his knights to Colorado in search of a vault that contains the parts required to build Liberty Prime. The Calculator would be long gone – Fallout Tactics takes place in 2197, a century before the show – but the valuable relics that Quintus requires could well lie in wait for him.
While Fallout Tactics’ position in the lore is a little murky, we do know that Vault 0 was designed as the “nucleus” of Vault-Tec’s bunker system. Well, that was its final form: during the development of the original Fallout RPGs, series creators Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky had the idea that it could have been controlled by the Enclave, collecting data from every other vault to aid their grand plan. And who, according to the show, is the shadowy puppet master behind Vault-Tec? The Enclave. Season 3 has the opportunity to weld these ideas together. And if the Fallout games are anything to go by, the Brotherhood of Steel and Enclave are destined to butt heads eventually. Will Vault 0 be where Quintus proves his destroyer credentials by eradicating the Enclave?
This is, of course, all just theorycrafting. An exploration of the lesser-known corners of the Fallout universe on the off chance that their stories become relevant, rather than a genuine prediction of the show’s future. But writers – especially those handling pre-existing universes – don't dive in blind. They’ll know about Fallout Tactics. They’ll know about Van Buren. And so, even if Fallout Season 3’s trip to Colorado is entirely composed of original material, I’m willing to bet that there will be references to Fallout’s dead past littered among the Rockies.
Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.
Sony has finally announced Guerrilla’s Horizon live service multiplayer game, Horizon Hunters Gathering. It’s due out for PlayStation 5 and PC.
A “small-scale” closed playtest is due at the end of February, which you can sign up for via the PlayStation Beta Program. Expect crossplay and cross-progression. There's no release date yet, nor is there word on whether it's free-to-play or a premium game. The debut trailer, which includes gameplay, is below.
As you can see from the trailer and screenshots, Horizon Hunters Gathering has a cartooney art style, which is in contrast to the photrealistic visuals of the mainline Horizon series. Clearly, Sony and Guerrilla are trying to create a more lighthearted experience with Hunters Gathering, with the Zero Dawn and Forbidden West more serious offerings. There are strong Monster Hunter vibes, too.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, game director Arjan Bak said that in Horizon Hunters Gathering, you fight deadly machines in tactical three-player co-op action and adapt your Hunter for intense missions.
"Combat is tactical, reactive, and deeply skill-based, building on the tactical precision of the Horizon games while embracing the dynamics of team play," Bak said. "The foundation of Horizon Hunters Gathering centers around challenging and replayable hunts."
Bak confirmed two game modes: Machine Incursion, which is described as "a high-intensity mission" where waves of machines pour out from underground gateways, led by a "formidable boss"; and Cauldron Descent, a longer, multi-stage trial in which "ever-changing rooms push Hunters to their limits, from brutal machine encounters to hidden doors that promise power and reward for teams prepared to open them." Both modes wil be available in the upcoming closed playtest.
There's a roster of Hunters to play as, each with distinct melee or ranged playstyles and weapons. Bak said there's also a rogue-lite perk system to craft the build you want. Story wise, there's a narrative campaign "which will introduce new mysteries, characters, and threats, but we’re keeping it under wraps for now," Bak said. "What we can say is that Hunters Gathering is fully canon and its story doesn’t stop at launch!"
The social hub is the name of the game: Hunters Gathering. It's "a vibrant social hub where players can connect, prepare, and celebrate victories together. Here, you can customize your Hunters, visit vendors, upgrade gear, and team up for your next adventure."
Horizon Hunters Gathering isn't the only multiplayer game set in the Horizon universe. Bizarrely, NCSoft and Sony are working on Horizon Steel Frontiers, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game designed for mobile devices, but also playable on PC. NCSoft is said to be working closely with Guerrilla to craft the world, but this is very much an NCSoft-developed game. Horizon 3, meanwhile, was in late 2024 described as being "a ways off." Sony is said to be aiming to start filming its live-action Horizon Zero Dawn movie this year, with a release at some point in 2027.
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.
Listen, I’m always going to have a Leon-sized hole that needs filling and from playing his portions in the latest Resident Evil 9 Requiem demo, I’m pretty sure I’ll be taken care of (for the year, at least). The roundhouse kicks, the corny one liners, and the brutal blood-splattering finishers – things I loved from the recent Resident Evil 4 remake round out what’s otherwise a terrifying survival horror experience. And the crux of that survival horror is stealth and having the proper mechanics in place to make that tension tangible. So, not only does Grace’s side of Requiem evoke a petrifying sense of dread atop the classic puzzle-solving of the series, it’s also a fantastic expression of the kind of stealth-action gameplay I’ve been wanting for a while.
Our previous Resident Evil 9 Requiem preview by my colleague Dale Driver touched on plenty of sentiments I share; most notable for me being the refreshing balance between the drastically different playstyles of Grace and Leon as dual protagonists. Grace being timid and having to rely on moving slowly and carefully, contrasting with Leon being the action hero who blasts through every zombie. But it’s the Grace sections where Capcom is doing something really special with stealth gameplay that feels natural and forward-thinking.
Capcom has made a big deal out of zombie behavior where their presumed personalities as humans feed into how they move and react in the game world as zombies. One example being the zombie fixated on light switches in a dark hallway you have to pass through as Grace – instead of taking him head-on with your limited resources, you can slip by and hit a light switch down the hall to distract him to clear the path to the other end. While this isn’t a complicated situation on its own, it’s a microcosm of how Requiem is challenging you as Grace, where observation and environment are just as important as staying out of sight. The game doesn’t outright tell you this, so thinking outside the box can lead to more elegant solutions.
What’s more frightening is the butcher who roams the kitchen...
This notion of watching out for zombie behavior is flipped around at times, too. Like when walking through the dining room where zombies are just feasting on the dead bodies on the table, not giving a damn about your presence and leaving you alone. I wasn’t sure if they’d react to me poking around picking up items, yet I still treaded carefully and let them do their thing. Naturally figuring out how these enemies respond to you and their surroundings is a fascinating way to give variety to navigating the labyrinthine halls, and a touch of detail that isn’t often seen.
What’s more frightening is the butcher who roams the kitchen. Early in the preview, you have to slip through by pushing a cart to clear the path across the kitchen, and you have to do this undetected, which requires you to pay attention to his patrol pattern. It’s simple enough, and making a mistake means he’ll chase you down and show you how terrifying he is; one hit and you’re dead. But later in the playthrough where you have to revisit that general area, he begins patrolling the hallways around the kitchen, and here, his presence is truly felt. Hearing his footsteps set off alarms in my brain that he began lurking, and the tension that created changed how I navigated an area I already mapped out.
I would duck and peek out from adjacent rooms to see if he was coming, and make a mad dash to where I needed to go hoping for the best and not looking back. One time, I was peeking from the parlor room thinking I was out of sight, but the butcher caught me peeking just a little too confidently and pulled up on me – I now had this cat-and-mouse chase, luring him in one direction before juking him to get out of the room.
Probably the biggest comedy of errors during my playtime came from dashing to the cold storage room where my next objective was. I had a straight shot from, like, three hallways down and I risked it all by booking it and letting fate take the wheel. Just as I got to the last stretch, there was the butcher turning the corner and ending up right in front of me along his new patrol pattern. I backpedaled in a panic, pumped my one remaining shot from the superpowered Requiem pistol and the rest of my 9mm rounds, but it wasn’t enough; so I just took the L and reloaded my save.
The first time I got hit with a jump scare was when Chunk burst out into a hallway after I picked up a quest item. It began chasing me and it was easy enough to run to a room for safety since it couldn’t get through normal-sized door frames. But the rest of the surrounding hallways were fair game. And like many Resident Evils with puzzles, backtracking to this area later on filled me with dread. Thankfully, Chunk wasn’t as overbearing, but it’d more frequently completely block certain paths, forcing me to either take the long way around or wait things out until the coast was clear. But on my first attempt, I wasn’t exactly sure what its behavior pattern would be. And that’s a key part of making stealth gameplay interesting and horror work well – it’s that unpredictable nature of hostility.
These stalker-type enemies aren’t meant to be killed (as Grace, at least), and they’re also not quite like the persistent threats of Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 or Nemesis in Resident Evil 3. Each one seems to play different roles and present a different kind of dread throughout Requiem, which I suspect will lead to more variation. Even thinking back to the very first Requiem preview I played last year with the monstrous patient roaming the halls of the patient wing in Grace’s opening section, that was closer to a specifically scripted sequence. But it was a much more close-quarters stealth challenge where the windows of opportunity to escape were tighter. So, already, that’s three unique enemies playing into a horror experience in their own ways.
Requiem being primarily a survival horror game means it’s going to be a bit outside of what I traditionally expect from stealth-action games; or rather the stealth mechanics you see in so many action games. Hiding in tall grass, waiting for enemies to turn their backs, and getting a one-hit kill undetected is a tired trope at this point. Grace does get craftable single-use items for stealth kills, and I hope we’re challenged by limiting quantities so we have to really consider when to use them. But even then, Requiem doesn’t just deal in patrol patterns or throwing an object to cause a distraction, it also deals in vulnerability and the fear of unpredictability for Grace’s chapters. It’s not just the fear of getting detected, but the consequences that come with it.
Grace's portion of Requiem was about an hour-and-a-half to two hours of playtime. And after that, I was pretty exhausted from the tension. Don’t get me wrong, I was exhausted in a good way. However, that’s what makes the interstitial Leon sections so important. They’re a reprieve and an outlet to get all that stress out, a palette cleanser to balance things out and look at some of the same environments from a different perspective. This also offers a sort of best-of-both-worlds for the series, the slow and deliberate pacing of Resident Evil 7 alongside the top-tier action from Resident Evil 4, as examples.
After getting hands-on with a total of about four hours of Resident Evil 9 Requiem at this point, and sharing that experience with colleagues, I’m more excited for the series than I have been in recent memory. It’s the old mixed with the new, but all in a modern package with two protagonists I already like a lot. No shade to RE7 and RE Village, but Ethan Winters doesn’t compare to Grace, and definitely not my guy Leon. And with a thoughtful mix of action and stealth gameplay, February 27 can’t come soon enough when Resident Evil 9 Requiem hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Full spoilers follow for Starfleet Academy Episode 5, “Series Acclimation Mil.”
This week's installment of Starfleet Academy makes good on a promise Paramount+ essentially made last summer at San Diego Comic-Con when the streamer released a trailer for the series which seemed to indicate that the mystery of Captain Benjamin Sisko would be addressed. Sisko, of course, was the Starfleet officer and Emissary to the Prophets, played by Avery Brooks for seven seasons on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, who disappeared in the classic series finale "What You Leave Behind," apparently ascending to a higher form of life as one of the other-wordly and god-like Prophets himself.
And now the episode of Starfleet Academy which delves into this topic has been released. In “Series Acclimation Mil,” Kerrice Brooks' Sam -- who is something of an emissary herself for her people -- embarks on a mission to learn everything she can about Sisko. Along the way, none other than Cirroc Lofton returns as Jake Sisko, having played Benjamin's son in DS9 all those years ago. And while Brooks does not appear as the long-lost captain, we do hear his voice in the final moments of the episode... and if you look really closely, you can see an image of his face in the clouds in that last shot.
We spoke with showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau about the decision to return to the story of the Siskos, how it was achieved, and more...
The Return of Captain Benjamin Sisko and His Son Jake
IGN: At what point did you say, "We want to address the Sisko of it all"?
Noga Landau: I have to say that when I started this job, people from my past, the most random people were emailing me, DMing me and saying, "Hey, congrats. And by the way, when is someone going to do something for Captain Sisko? When is someone going to do something for DS9?" So it felt like the universe was sending us a very clear message.
And then honestly, in the room, we knew we wanted to do a Sam episode, and she's an emissary, and who's the most famous emissary in all of Star Trek? It's Captain Sisko. And our two writers for the episode, Tawny Newsome and Kirsten Beyer, they are walking Trek encyclopedias and their love for DS9 goes so deep. They know it so well. And they came together and we broke the story, we figured out how to write the love letter we wanted, but also really honor Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton.
And Cirroc, who is a friend of Tawny, so generously said he would come back and play Jake Sisko again, which was incredible. It was a dream come true to see him on screen again.
Alex Kurtzman: I think the other thing too is that Sam is asking this question, "Okay, I don't know what it means to be an emissary. It's this responsibility where I'm essentially supposed to be a bridge between my species, which I'm not even sure I fully agree with, and then the Federation. And where do I fit in there? What if I don't agree?" And is my job as emissary going to remove my personality from my choice, my own will from the equation? Obviously that mirrors a lot of what Sisko had to go through and the sort of "What am I going to give up for this particular task that I've been given?" So it felt like a very organic connection point.
IGN: What was it like getting the character of Jake and getting Cirroc back on set?
AK: They were very emotional, I think, for everybody. And he was very generous. He was very happy to be there. He really liked the script. He fully understood that it was a love letter, and he's very close with Avery. And so we really looked to Cirroc to make sure that... He was the best we could get, the Avery stamp of approval. And we had reached out to Avery and we didn't hear from him for a while, and so Cirroc ended up being the voice for us. And then by the end, Avery did reach out. And that is his voice you hear at the end of the episode.
It's really him, and it's a spoken word recording that he did himself a while ago that he let us use. And it happened to be ... the message of the episode. It was very strange. So maybe the clouds were watching.
It's a spoken word recording that Avery did himself a while ago that he let us use. And it happened to be ... the message of the episode. It was very strange.
IGN: Did he explain what it was about this particular story that finally made him want to even acknowledge Star Trek? He's been pretty adamant about, "I'm done. I'm out. Don't talk to me about it."
NL: In the way that you leave a love letter for someone expecting for it only to be received, that's really what we did with him. We did not want to ask anything in return. We wanted him to have this and just to receive it and to take it, if he was willing to.
The fact that he then let us use his voice at the very end was so impactful and so emotional. And it would've been enough for him just to watch the episode and enjoy it, but I think we had a joke on set that Cirroc in many ways was our emissary to Avery, and it was simply enough to know that he's out there somewhere in the universe and he knows that we made this episode for him.
Starfleet Academy Episode 5 is available on Paramount+ now.
Connexion
