Xbox Game Pass is, without question, one of the best deals in gaming. Whether you want to play the biggest new Xbox games the day they launch or dive into thousands of hours of content for one monthly fee, it is a goldmine for players looking to keep up to date with the latest and greatest releases without having to worry about the price tags attached to them.

That being said, Game Pass is a huge service. Across PC and console, there are hundreds of games currently available, with more titles added pretty much every single month. So, for new subscribers wondering where to start, we've put together a list of some of our personal recommendations, so you can get cracking on some fantastic games and make the most out of your first few months.

Xbox Game Pass Tiers

The first thing to note about Game Pass is that it has a selection of different tiers depending on what platform you're using and how many games you want to be able to access. Let's quickly run you through the price structure so you know what you're getting before you buy.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate - As the name implies, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the premium subscription tier. When buying, you'll get access to online multiplayer, Xbox Game Pass Standard, Xbox Game Pass PC, and Xbox Game Pass' cloud streaming services. You'll also get an EA Play membership and bonuses, discounts and in-game perks only available to members. In essence, it's essentially a combination of Xbox Game Pass Standard and Xbox Game Pass PC, plus a few extra benefits (like playing on a FireTV Stick). It costs $19.99 per month.

Xbox Game Pass Standard - Xbox Game Pass standard is the base subscription available exclusively on Console. You'll be able to access the full library of Game Pass games available on Xbox consoles, as well as play online multiplayer and access perks and discounts only available to members. It costs $14.99 a month.

Xbox Game Pass PC - Game Pass' PC-exclusive tier, Xbox Game Pass PC will provide access to the full PC Game Pass library. You'll also get an EA Play membership and perks and discounts only available for members. It costs $11.99 a month.

Xbox Game Pass Core - The other console exclusive Game Pass tier, Xbox Game Pass Core offers a lower monthly cost for a significantly smaller library of "core" games available on consoles. Members will also get access to online multiplayer, as well as deals and discounts in the Xbox store. It costs $9.99 a month.

Best New Games to Play on Xbox Game Pass

Want to get stuck into some brand new additions to the Xbox Game Pass catalog? The following titles are all recent additions that you should absolutely give a go.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

A symphonic blend of turn-based strategy and intense real-time combat, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is already being lorded as a potential game of the year contender, and it's pretty easy to see why. Expedition 33 is an emotional, visually stunning odyssey. Top that off with a bold reimagining of classic JRPG combat systems, which melds fast-paced action game mechanics and the tactical turn-based battles of games like Persona and Final Fantasy, and you have one of 2025's first unmissable experiences. If you want to try it out for yourself, you can get stuck in right now on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Nineteen years after its original release, Bethesda surprised the world by announcing the return of one of its most beloved and widely revered games, unveiling The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and then releasing it that very same day. With stunning new graphics, various overhauls, major UI changes, a fresh character creator and much more, it's never felt better to be accosted by a heavily armored, teleporting Legion Guard who labels you "criminal scum" for accidentally sitting on his horse. With over a hundred hours of quests to complete, demonic Oblivion gates to close and even two full DLCs to conquer, the return of Oblivion is an absolute must for those who missed it the first time around. If you want to discover what all the fuss is about or take a nostalgia tour around Cyrodiil all these years later, you can play Oblivion Remastered now on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Blue Prince

Not only recently added to the Xbox Game Pass library but also just a brand new release, Blue Prince is a critically acclaimed puzzler where you enter the shifting hallways of Mt. Holly, a mysterious manor hiding an array of secrets. You're tasked with searching that ever-changing mansion full of tricky puzzles to conquer, all the while uncovering a rich story through clues left behind by the former owners. Blue Prince has already garnered huge buzz since its release, with our own review saying, "If The Witness, Portal, and Myst are already emblazoned on the Mount Rushmore of first-person puzzle games, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blue Prince carved alongside them soon enough." If you want to uncover the mystery for yourself, you can play it on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.

Blue Prince is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Best Games to Play on Xbox Game Pass

Searching through the broad catalog of Game Pass games? The selections below are some of our absolute favourites the library has to offer.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Where better to start your Game Pass journey than with a rundown of some of Xbox's greatest hits. Halo has forever been the face of Xbox, and its armour-clad, hulking space marine hero, Master Chief, has had some of the most iconic adventures in gaming history. If you want to experience the first four of his outings enhanced with better graphics and shooting bundled into one seamless package, then the Master Chief Collection is a surefire recommendation. Compiling Halo 1, 2, 3, and 4 together, it'll take you from Master Chief's original battle with the covenant all the way to his first showdown with the Forerunners. Better yet, you can install Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach as additional DLC. The Master Chief Collection can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Minecraft

What's there to say about Minecraft that hasn't already been said? Among the most influential and universally loved video games of all time, the experience of jumping in, building your first home, digging for resources and exploring an endless open world has, for many, become a seminal gaming memory. But for those that haven't played in years or have yet to even try Mojang's block-based titan, Minecraft should definitely be on your list of Game Pass stops. Over the years, it's transformed into a hub of endless possibility, so whether you want to build a rollercoaster that runs on Redstone, gear up to face the might of the Ender Dragon or simply create a small riverside farm, you can do all that or more by finding the game on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S.

Minecraft is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Persona 3 Reload

A remake of one of the best JRPGs ever released, Persona 3 Reload is everything that made the original Persona 3 special repackaged with the stylish flourishes, gorgeous visuals, faster-paced combat and jaw-dropping UI that turned Persona 5 into such a hit. In short, it's a modernized Persona 3, and that means it's an absolute must-play. Whether you're trying to grow your friendships between exams or using your off hours to conquer the halls of Tartarus and the various demonic entities dwelling within it, this is just 100 hours of exceptional writing, free-flowing turn-based combat, creative boss encounters and some of the catchiest tunes humanly imaginable. And that's all without mentioning it centers around arguably the most emotional, hard-hitting story in the Persona franchise to date. If you want to uncover the mysteries of the Dark Hour, you can begin your adventure on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S or PC.

Persona 3 Reload is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Resident Evil 2

Although remakes are pretty prevalent in the current gaming landscape, few have had such big boots to fill as Capcom's return to Resident Evil 2. Reimagining such an iconic and beloved horror title is no small feat, but not only did Capcom succeed in making a loving ode to the iconic franchise's second entry; they made one that succeeds on its own merits. With a wonderfully cheesy B-movie-esque plot, tense survival horror gameplay, stunning visuals, immensely satisfying exploration and an endless supply of horrifying monstrosities waiting around every corner, Resident Evil 2 is an absolute must play for those that love a gory, shlocky zombie horror adventure. It can be played on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.

Resident Evil 2 is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Inscryption

The latest release from developer Daniel Mullins, Inscryption is one of the most original and utterly unique horror games of the modern era, which is surprising considering it's a roguelike card game. Handed a deck of bizarre cards, you find yourself trapped in a small log cabin with an ominous stranger who forces you to keep playing a tabletop game with him while you try to stack the deck in your favor and solve puzzles. But the longer you play Inscryption, the deeper the rabbit hole goes, leading you to discover there's far more to its simple premise than meets the eye. It's hard to talk about why its so special without spoiling its best-kept secrets, so trust us and give it a go. We promise you won't regret it. You can get stuck into this deck-building nightmare on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.

Inscryption is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Doom Eternal

id Software's second entry in their Doom reboot series, Doom Eternal knows exactly what it is. It casts you as a terrifying angel of death wielding a steel-barrelled sword of justice, and you're job is to rip and tear your way through anything even vaguely demonic that gets in your way. Cut to 15 hours of non-stop, gloriously over-the-top violence, as you shoot, stab, burn and chainsaw your way through hordes of demons while being serenaded by a heavy metal soundtrack that feels pulled straight from the pits of hell. Doom Eternal is sheer first-person shooting perfection that effortlessly combines satisfying gunplay, exploration and impeccable design to make a must-play symphony of carnage. If you're ready to rip and tear, you can find it on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.

Doom Eternal is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Pentiment

It's easy to look at Pentiment's detailed, historically accurate 16th-century setting and assume it may not be for you. However, the absolute genius of Obsidian's small-scale, dialogue-heavy RPG is that it not only makes such a dense period of history deeply accessible; it makes it absolutely riveting. Between a scandalous murder mystery, strange gossip shared among the local townsfolk and long-hidden secrets that concern the ostensibly altruistic members of the nearby monastery, the small town of Tassing quickly becomes a location that demands to be investigated. And as you do, information, secrets and relationships become a core currency, creating a world where who you talk to and what you tell them comes with heavy consequences. It's Obsidian refining their talent for crafting phenomenal dialogue and designing challenging moral decisions to a sharp point, creating a deeply poignant tale where no issue is black or white and misinformation is deadlier than any weapon. Pentiment is an underappreciated masterpiece, so if you love compelling, layered storytelling, make sure to give it a go on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S.

Pentiment is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Dishonored and Dishonored 2

Dishonored and its sequel, Dishonored 2, are front-to-back two of the best immersive sims ever made. From the moment you step foot in Dunwall and Karnaca, both worlds are filled to the brim with inventive ideas, both through their protagonists' varied skill sets and the way they can interact with the world itself. From offering you a range of shadowy supernatural powers to experiment with and combine to pull off creative kills, to the way each mission constantly reveals new routes to seek out your targets and execute the ultimate assassination, no one does it quite like Arkane, and these back-to-back stealth action masterpieces are truly their magnum opus. So, if you want to dive into two of the last generation's finest offerings, do yourself a favour and get both Dishonored 1 and 2 downloaded on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S or PC.

Dishonored: Definitive Edition is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate. Dishonored 2 is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Fallout: New Vegas

If you're looking to dive into the wealth of Fallout games available on Game Pass, you can't go wrong starting with Fallout: New Vegas. Obsidian's spin-off takes everything that made Fallout 3 such an ambitious reimagining of the franchise and doubles down on it, throwing players into the seedy streets of post-apocalyptic Las Vegas and embroiling them in the power struggle between the various factions vying to control it. But where New Vegas exceeds is not by just being more Fallout 3. Obsidian uses their exceptional storytelling chops and talent for posing morally challenging decisions to create a world that operates purely in shades of grey. The end result is an RPG where every quest, no matter how big or small, has depth, and with four equally great DLCs to play too, it's sure to keep you invested well past the 100-hour mark. New Vegas can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Fallout: New Vegas is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Psychonauts 2

If you're looking for a top-notch platformer that's absolutely crammed to the brim with charm, humour and wacky worlds to uncover, Psychonauts 2 is bursting at the seams with creative ideas. Double Fine's sequel to its cult classic hit is just as gloriously wacky and irreverently silly as ever, with the studio managing to surpass the original's boldest concepts with world after world of strange ideas, novel mechanics and phenomenal characters. So, if the idea of going on an espionage mission in a spiralling hellscape built of teeth or being led on a psychedelic, musical journey by an eyeball voiced by Jack Black appeals to you, you can get stuck into Psychonauts 2 on Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X and PC.

Psychonauts 2 is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Control

A culmination of everything that makes Remedy Entertainment such a stand-out studio, Control is a sci-fi action horror game that revels in stretching the boundaries of all three of those genres. As you navigate its central setting of the Oldest House, you'll move between different universes, fight a variety of monstrous foes and uncover secrets about the strange building's most unsettling mysteries. But the true strength of Control is how willing it is to embrace its weirdness, whether that's through motel lobbies that let you move across time and space, mazes that you'll need to jam out to heavy rock to escape or the kind but bizarre janitor who appears to be an extradimensional being of extraordinary power. It's a world that begs to be explored, and considering you can do that while wielding an arsenal of mind-melding psychic powers, it's absolutely an easy recommendation. It can be played on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.

Control is avaliable on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Balatro

If you didn't catch it last year, Balatro should be high up on your list of games to check out. Pitched as a roguelike Poker game, the concept is, initially, relatively simple. Moving through increasingly challenging blinds, you're dealt cards you need to combine to make poker hands, with each hand accumulating points. Earn enough points, and you beat the blind, allowing you to progress forward. Lose, and your run is over. But while Balatro may seem like a straightforward idea, its sheer creativity turns a mere poker game into an obsessive gauntlet. Whether it's specific buffs that task you with playing in unique ways, boss battles that completely stomp on your strategies and force you to think around them, or special power-ups that you need to employ in just the right way to win a brutal blind, it's not only one of the best card games you can play on a console, but one of the best roguelikes in years. It's constantly challenging you to think outside the box and experiment with its systems to pull off a hard-fought win, and once it's got its hooks in, you'll spend every waking moment thinking about how you'll do just that. Balatro can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Balatro is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

If Bioware's seminal sci-fi space opera trilogy, Mass Effect, has somehow eluded you up until this point, we're jealous, because now you can play all three of these epic RPGs in the best way possible. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition repackages all three experiences with updated visuals and refined mechanics to deliver the definitive way to experience Commander Shephard's hard-hitting mission to save the galaxy from the Reapers. If you've yet to experience Mass Effect, it's front-to-back a masterclass in interactive storytelling, intense squad-based combat, and hyper-immersive sci-fi world-building, and absolutely worth the hundreds of hours you could spend conquering each of its three entries. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is available on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass PC via each tier's included EA Play Membership.

Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition

Ever wondered why "Silksong" trends every single time a publisher holds a game showcase? Well, it's because its predecessor Hollow Knight was so damn good. This action RPG casts you as a silent, sword-wielding bug venturing through a dark, forgotten kingdom on a quest to cleanse it of an infection that violently transformed its inhabitants. It's the set-up to a darkly beautiful masterclass in 2D Metroidvania design, as our small but mighty hero takes on fearsome foes in incredibly challenging combat encounters while exploring, growing stronger and learning exactly how this kingdom fell to ruin. If you want to join the agonizing wait to finally see Silksong hit shelves, get this downloaded and be prepared to lose all your free time until you hit the credits. You can delve into the depths of Hallownest on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition is avaliable on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

It Takes Two

If you're looking for something a little more collaborative to jump into with your membership, Hazelight's game-of-the-year-winning co-op adventure, It Takes Two, is absolutely a must-play. Framed entirely around split-screen play, you and a partner embody Cody and May, a couple going through a complicated divorce that find themselves shrunk down and turned into toys. Committed to finding a way to return to their original bodies, they traverse an overgrown world of magic and mayhem, forced to work together to escape. It Takes Two is absolutely overflowing with creativity, and its greatest strength is how willing it is to experiment with fresh and novel mechanics so frequently that it never loses its breakneck pacing across its fourteen-hour runtime. And that's without mentioning that it's hugely accessible and downright fun to play with almost anybody. If you want to live out your ultimate Honey I Shrunk The Kids fantasy with a friend, you can download it on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

It Takes Two is avaliable on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass PC via each tier's included EA Play Membership.

Inside

If you love an indie horror that's equal parts a haunting narrative adventure and a creative puzzler, Inside is a top-shelf pick. Throwing you into a dark world with no guidance, it absolutely excels in building a sinister mystery that will stick with you long after the credits roll, as you tangle with skin-crawling monsters, explore a factory full of bizarre, twisted experiments and are left to piece together who you are, why you're here and what exactly your ultimate goal is. It's a classic for a reason, and while it's mostly remembered for its jaw-dropping final moments, the journey leading up to its horrifying conclusion is equally as phenomenal. If you want to investigate the game's eerie facility for yourself, you'll find it on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Inside is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

No Man's Sky

Since its slightly underwhelming release, No Man's Sky has had one of the biggest glow ups in video game history. Turning a relatively bare-bones, endless space exploration simulator into a vast, fully-fledged universe that can be explored in a multitude of different ways, Hello Games' stream of incredible updates have gradually made No Man's Sky a multiplayer experience like no other. Its sheer scope and freedom allow you to jet across the cosmos freely, exploring planets, building bases and teaming up with friends to create your own communities, make discoveries and chart a wealth of planets that only you have ever stepped foot on. So if you want to venture across the untamed stretches of the galaxy and join a passionate community of fellow adventurers, get stuck in on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

No Man's Sky is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Celeste

A deeply moving story that lets challenging and incredibly satisfying platforming act as the driving force of its plot, Celeste is one of the best of its generation. Telling the tale of Madeline, a girl climbing the mysterious slopes of Celeste Mountain in hopes of proving her worth to herself, this powerful platformer is a beautiful, heartfelt, emotional odyssey. But where it truly stands out is how it makes you feel that journey through the gameplay itself. While learning to climb the mountain's treacherous, icy terrain can, at times, be tough, Celeste always pushes you to persevere in the face of its various hazards and adversities, as Madeline, and by extension the player, comes to realise that only through failing can they learn to grow. It's a masterful experience that also happens to look gorgeous, is frequently funny and, for completionists, has a hearty supply of tough-as-nails optional challenges for you to spend hours trying to overcome. If you want to start your ascent, you can begin the climb on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S.

Celeste is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.

Dead Space

The original Dead Space is one of the most influential and deeply unnerving horror games ever made, and back in 2023, EA somehow found a way to make it even scarier. Bringing Isaac Clarke's journey through the USG Ishimura back for a full, from-the-ground-up remake, Dead Space's return is some of the best video game horror of the decade so far. With stunning graphics, impeccable sound design, tense, weighty gunplay and enemies that stalk your every move, it takes everything that works about the original and finds a way to make it twice as intense. So if you love a horror game that leaves you jumping at every sound for weeks after, Dead Space is absolutely for you. You can find it on PC, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Dead Space is avaliable on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass PC via each tier's included EA Play Membership.

What's Next For Xbox Game Pass?

As for what you can look forward to next on Game Pass, the biggest release set to hit the marketplace this month is undoutedly Doom: The Dark Ages. A prequel to Doom and Doom Eternal, it'll once again have players strapping into the heavy boots of the Doomslayer, as he rips and tears his way through a fresh horde of demons using an arsenal of medieval weaponry. It'll hit Series X, Series S, and PC on May 15, and be avaliable on Game Pass the day it launches.

Alongside that, you can expect to see Warhammer: Vermintide 2 on May 13, as well as Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo on May 16. We'll be sure to update this page with any new upcoming Game Pass additions as Xbox announces them, so be sure to check back soon for updates!

Callum Williams is an IGN freelancer covering features and guides. When he's away from his desk, you can usually find him obsessing over the lore of the latest obscure indie horror game or bashing his head against a boss in the newest soulslike. You can catch him over on Twitter at @CaIIumWilliams.

Winter’s nearly here, and with it comes the perfect excuse to hunker down with some great games at even better prices. Whether you're chasing sprawling RPGs, stylish indies, or action-packed blockbusters, there’s something worth grabbing on every platform for the weekend. I've pulled out the standout steals from this mammoth lineup to save you some scrolling (and spare your gold supply).

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm celebrating the 27th birthday of Wario Land II, a top ten Gameboy Color great that I sacrificed many a AA battery to. Over the course of its 50+ levels, it impressed with diverse boss battles and a surprisingly complex web of hidden exits, secret paths, and alternate endings. But the guiltiest pleasure I got from it came from the fact that I was looting treasure ripped from Zelda: A Link to the Past (i.e., purple Rupees, the Pegasus Shoes, Flute, Power Glove, etc).

Aussie bdays for notable games

- Wario Land II (GBC) 1998. eBay

- Shinobi (PS2) 2002. eBay

- Day of Defeat (PC) 2003. Get

- MGS: Portable Ops (PSP) 2007. eBay

- Terraria (PS3) 2013. Get

Contents

• Nintendo
• Xbox
• PlayStation
• PC
• PC Gear
• LEGO
• Headphones
• TVs

Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch fans can score Mortal Kombat 11 for just nine bucks, a ludicrous price for a game that lets you uppercut a guy into a spike pit, then play as the Terminator. Also worth snagging is Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, where Byleth’s silent protagonist vibes are flipped completely on their head.

• Lego Skywalker Saga Galactic (-80%) - A$22
• Lego Harry Potter Col. (-80%) - A$8
• Mortal Kombat 11 (-86%) - A$9
• Fire Emblem Warriors: TH (-50%) - A$39
• God Eater 3 (-31%) - A$58

Expiring Recent Deals

• Crash Team Racing NF (-31%) - A$48
• NBA 2K25 (-74%) - A$23
• Life Is Strange: True Colors (-70%) - A$25
• Flashback (-90%) - A$2

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

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Exciting Bargains for Xbox

• Monster Hunter Wilds (-15%) - A$97
• No More Heroes 3 (-56%) - A$33
• Gotham Knights (-73%) - A$29
• Metaphor: ReFantazio (-27%) - A$83
• Dead Space (-75%) - A$27

Xbox One

• Hogwarts Legacy (-50%) - A$49
• The Last Campfire (-90%) - A$2
• Burnout Paradise Rem. (-75%) - A$7

Expiring Recent Deals

• Mafia: The Old Country (-12%) - A$79
• Seagate 1TB Expansion Card (-33%) - A$208
• UFC 5 (-65%) - A$39
• The Witcher 3 (-90%) - A$5
• EA Sports FC 25 (-55%) - A$49
• CoD: MW2 (-73%) - A$29
• No Man's Sky (-60%) - A$35
• Mass Effect Leg. Ed. (-90%) - A$9

Or just invest in an Xbox Card.

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Pure Scores for PlayStation

• Doom: The Dark Ages (-17%) - A$99
• Mafia: The Old Country (-12%) - A$79
• Ghost of Yōtei (-21%) - A$99
• Rise of the Ronin (-19%) - A$101
• The Witcher 3 Comp. Ed. (-75%) - A$19
• What the Golf? (-50%) - A$12

PS4

• Octopath Traveler II (-26%) - A$63
• One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 (-43%) - A$40
• Enter the Gungeon (-75%) - A$5

Expiring Recent Deals

• 40K Space Marine 2 (-18%) - A$89
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (-16%) - A$95
• UFC 5 (-65%) - A$39
• Sniper Elite 5 (-19%) - A$80
• Monster Hunter Wilds (-22%) - A$90
• Red Dead Redemption (-34%) - A$45
• Street Fighter 30th Ann. (-67%) - A$13
• Gran Turismo 7 (-47%) - A$65
• Spider-Man: Miles Morale (-47%) - A$49

PS+ Monthly Freebies
Yours to keep from Apr 1 with this subscription

• ARK: Survival Ascended | PS5
• Balatro | PS5, PS4
• Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun | PS5, PS4

Or purchase a PS Store Card.

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Purchase Cheap for PC

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (-18%) - A$57
• NBA 2K25 (-88%) - A$12
• Mafia: Trilogy (-82%) - A$20
• Superhot (-70%) - A$10
• Death's Door (-75%) - A$7
• Stellaris (-75%) - A$14

Expiring Recent Deals

• The Precinct (-30%) - A$36
• Doom: The Dark Ages Prem. Ed. (-17%) - A$141
• Cult of the Lamb (-50%) - A$17
• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (-90%) - A$8
• The Sinking City Rem. (-50%) - A$29

Or just get a Steam Wallet Card

Laptop Deals

• HP Envy x360 16" 2-in-1 (-39%) – A$1,399
• HP Laptop 15.6" Ryzen (-34%) – A$1,049
• ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 (-35%) – A$869
• Lenovo Yoga 7i Gen 9 (-41%) – A$1,229
• Apple 2024 MacBook Air 15-inch (-16%) – A$2,094
• Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 (-36%) - A$879
• Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen7 (-27%) - A$1,018

Desktop Deals

• Lenovo neo 50q Gen 4 Tiny (-35%) – A$639
• Lenovo neo 50t Gen 5 Desk (-20%) – A$871.20
• Lenovo Legion Tower 5i (-29%) – A$1,899

Monitor Deals

• ARZOPA 16.1" 144Hz (-55%) – A$159.99
• Z-Edge 27" 240Hz (-15%) – A$237.99
• Gawfolk 34" WQHD (-28%) – A$359
• LG 27" Ultragear (-42%) – A$349

Component Deals

• MSI PRO B650M-A WiFi Motherboard (-41%) – A$229
• AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (-7%) – A$876
• Corsair Vengeance 32GB (-35%) – A$82
• Kingston FURY Beast 16GB (-30%) – A$48

Storage Deals

• Seagate One Touch Portable HDD (-24%) – A$228
• Kingston 1TB USB 3.2 SSD (-17%) – A$115
• SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO (-63%) – A$29
• SanDisk 32GB Ultra SDHC (-53%) – A$9.90

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Legit LEGO Deals

• Minecraft The Baby Pig House (-27%) - A$22
• Animal Crossing Isabelle’s House (-43%) - A$40
• Go-Karts and Race Drivers (-33%) - A$10
• Art Love Building Se (-27%) - A$94

Expiring Recent Deals

• Mobile Construction Crane (-34%) - A$119
• Modular Galactic Spaceship (-31%) - A$89
• R2-D2 Model (-30%) - A$139
• Fountain Garden Building (-28%) - A$129

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Hot Headphones Deals

Audiophilia for less

• Galaxy Buds2 Pro (-31%) – A$239
• Technics Wireless NC (-33%) – A$365
• SoundPEATS Space (-25%) – A$56.99
• Sony MDR7506 Pro (-18%) – A$199

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Terrific TV Deals

Do right by your console, upgrade your telly

• LG 43" UT80 4K (-24%) – A$635
• Kogan 65" QLED 4K (-50%) – A$699
• Kogan 55" QLED 4K (-45%) – A$549
• LG 55" UT80 4K (-28%) – A$866

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For the first time, LG is discounting the 27" LG UltraGear 27GS93QE-B 240Hz OLED gaming monitor to under $500 - $494.99 to be exact - after you apply coupon code: "SBHEDMNRQ3X924". It normally retails for $900 and is currently selling for $550 at third party retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. This is one of the best 27" gaming monitors you can get. In fact, we rated the GS95QE, it's successor, the best 27" 1440p OLED gaming monitor of 2025.

LG UltraGear 27" QHD 240Hz OLED Gaming Monitor for $495

LG also includes a 2 year warranty that includes burn-in protection. Burn-in is probably the biggest fear that prospective buyers have when looking at a new OLED purchase. Burn-in warranties are uncommon and a two year burn-in warranty is only reserved for LG's gaming monitors, not for their OLED TVs.

Looking for more alternatives? Check out the best 240Hz gaming monitors of 2025.

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.

League of Legends fans, here's a chance to save on one of the best gaming chairs around and rep your favorite game in the process. Secretlab is currently offering coupon codes good for up to $90 off select League of Legends themed Titan Evo gaming chairs. All chairs ship free from the United States, arrive within 1-3 working days, and include a 3 year warranty (extendable to 5 years if you post a photo of your chair in situ on social media).

It's no secret that we love our Secretlab gaming chairs. Two of the six chairs in our best gaming chair roundup are Secretlab models. Of all the gaming chairs we covered in our "Budget to Best" roundup video earlier this year, my colleague Akeem Lawanson considered the Secretlab Titan Evo to be the most comfortable. No good chair comes cheap and Secretlab chairs definitely cost a premium, but we think the craftsmanship, materials, and customizability are worth it.

Need a handy USB charging solution for your car but don't want to deal with a rat's nest of pesky cables in your glovebox? For a limited time, Amazon is offering this Lisen 69W Retractable Car Charger for only $14.94 after you apply coupon code "CT2Q7HD9" during checkout. This little car charger plugs into a standard 12V vehicle socket and can charge any iPhone (including both new and legacy models). It comes with retractable cables so you don't have to supply your own cable.

Lisen 69W Retractable Car Charger for $14.94

DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn and other Peacemaker crew members seemingly found out Warner Bros. Discovery would be bringing back the HBO Max name while filming promotional material for Season 2 – and their reactions are priceless.

Minds were boggled when HBO’s parent company revealed it would be reverting its streaming service rebrand earlier today. It’s a move that will see apps ditch the Max name in favor of the original HBO Max banner this summer, and if you thought that was confusing, just know that some of the biggest names at DC have been left scratching their heads, too.

The soon-to-be-renamed Max's official X account shared recorded reactions from Gunn and Peacemaker star John Cena shortly after its announcement today. The pair appears to be reading from a teleprompter encouraging audiences to watch Peacemaker Season 2 when it debuts August 21.

As Gunn is telling viewers where to watch, we get to see him react to the name change in real time. Gunn is taken aback when the script he's reading from says HBO Max and not MAX. He's informed that it's not a mistake and will be announced at the Upfront.

That's good actually. pic.twitter.com/b3WNWOsyT2

— Max (@StreamOnMax) May 14, 2025

“God, we’re calling it HBO Max – what?” Gunn teases. “We’re calling it HBO Max again?”

At this point, we hear other crew members, including DC Studios Co-CEO Peter Safran, chime in. It’s a confusing (and hilarious) moment caught on film, but Gunn, at least, says he’s happy with the change: “That’s good, actually, but I didn’t know that was happening.”

Cena, meanwhile, is firmly in the loop. Instead of the footage showing the wrestler-turned-actor finding out about Warner Bros. Discovery’s latest streaming service rebrand, his video actually sees him breaking the news to some of the people behind the camera.

All of this could, of course, just be an elaborate publicity stunt orchestrated by the HBO Max team. Either way, it’s too funny seeing some of the most important names at DC Studios reacting to the streamer's latest rebrand.

POV: finding out about the rebrand from @JohnCena pic.twitter.com/eyQxhTcJrs

— Max (@StreamOnMax) May 14, 2025

HBO Max originally launched in 2020 and served as a hub for a variety of content to stream. It’s name stuck until 2023, when the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery announced it would be ditching the HBO portion of its name in favor of Max. Now, after subscribers spent two years slowly working the one-word name into their vocabulary, the company has decided HBO Max is actually a great name.

No specific release date for the new rebrand has been announced. While we wait for an update on both HBO Max and Peacemaker Season 2, you can check out the most notable DC projects coming in 2025. You can also read up on our biggest takeaways from Peacemaker Season 2's latest trailer.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Electronic Arts has announced to employees that it will be ending its remote working policies permanently, and implementing a full return to office.

In an email sent to employees today viewed by IGN, CEO Andrew Wilson said that in-person work results in "a kinetic energy that fuels creativity, innovation, and connection, often resulting in unexpected breakthroughs that lead to incredible experiences for our players." He then went on to broadly outline that "hybrid work" would now be defined as a "minimum of three days a week in your local office," and that "offsite local roles" would be gradually phased out.

In a follow-up email from EA Entertainment president, Laura Miele, also viewed by IGN, she clarified further details, describing the company as moving from "a decentralized approach to a globally consistent, enterprise-wide work model":

• These changes will not take effect immediately. Employees should continue working as directed by your Business Unit until further notice, regardless of where you live.
• Work model transitions will come with a minimum 12-week notice period before any changes are implemented. The timing will vary by location and will be communicated locally with plenty of notice.
• Hybrid work will mean working from your local office at least three days per week–this aligns with what’s outlined in Andrew’s EA Action.
• We are introducing a new 30-mile/48-km radius around EA locations.
• What this means:
  • Employees who live within 30-miles/48-km of an EA location will transition to a Hybrid work model.
  • Employees who live outside the 30-mile/48-km radius will be considered remote unless their role is designated as On Site or Hybrid.
• We will also sunset the Offsite Local work model. Depending on your location, this transition may take 3 to 24 months.
• Any work model exception and future Remote hires will require a CEO Direct’s /my approval.

Several sources within EA speaking to IGN anonymously said that employees were upset and confused, with some employees sharing hours-long commutes they were now being expected to make, or expressing concerns regarding childcare or personal medical conditions that had benefited from remote work. Others, classified as remote and outside the 30-mile range, expressed concern for what would happen to their roles if they were unwilling or unable to move closer to an office long-term. Two sources explained to IGN that per the breakdown sent by Miele, existing remote workers would have their "exemptions" to return to office "sunset" sometime in the next 3 to 24 months.

While remote work has long been prevalent in the video game industry, it became exceptionally popular during and after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when stay-at-home mandates forced most AAA companies to adapt remote work as a long-term solution. In the years since, more and more companies have hired more and more remote workers, and existing near-office workers have reported moving to cheaper cities away from offices, under the impression that remote work was permanent.

However, other major video game companies have recently been calling workers back to office, resulting in frustration and, at times, employee turnover as workers were forced to choose between expensive or challenging relocation and their jobs. Companies such as Rockstar Games, Ubisoft, and Activision Blizzard have all faced criticism from within and without as a result of these policies. However, the return to office mandates have appeared to move apace, with more companies such as EA opting to require an in-office model once again.

EA recently laid off around 300 individuals company-wide, following earlier layoffs at BioWare this year and the termination of around 670 roles last year.

IGN has reached out to EA for comment.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Bowflex isn't the only option when it comes to adjustable dumbbell sets. PowerBlock is another trusted brand at a much lower price point. For a few days only, Woot! (owned by Amazon) has discounted the PowerBlock EXP Stage 1 (5 to 50lb) adjustable dumbbell set to only $239.99, which is currently $149 cheaper than a comparable set of Bowflex SelectTechs. For those who need more than 50 pounds of weight per dumbbell, PowerBlock also offers expansion kits that can increase the maximum weight to 70 pounds or 90 pounds. Both kits – Stage 2 (50 to 70lb) and Stage 3 (70 to 90lb) – are also on sale at Woot! for $1199.99 each. Amazon Prime members get free shipping; everyone else will pay $6 for flat rate shipping. That's reasonable when you consider the fact that the package is going to weigh over 100 pounds.

PowerBlock Adjustable Dumbbells (up to 90lbs per Dumbbell)

You can now do your best Link impression with a playable ocarina from Deekec. The 12-hole handmade ceramic flute looks exactly how it does in the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and comes with a songbook with 20 iconic songs from the game, like the Song of Time and Song of Storms. It's on sale for $17.99 (10% off) at Amazon right now and is part of a Lightning Deal, meaning only a limited number of these are available at this price.

Grab a Playable Ocarina and Legend of Zelda Songbook

The Nintendo Switch 2 launches on June 5, and while you’ll obviously be able to take it on the go, Nintendo is only claiming a minimum of “2 hours” of battery life in intense games. That’s definitely enough for a morning commute, but if you want your Nintendo Switch 2 to last through longer flights or even just away from a wall outlet, you’re going to need a solid power bank.

While the Switch 2 does include plenty of new hardware features, it’s still just a mobile device that charges via USB-C. That means pretty much any existing power bank is going to be perfect for the portable console. Power banks that are specially designed for the Switch 2 will definitely be coming out over the next few months. Genki, for instance, has a magnetic power bank that attaches to a special Nintendo Switch 2 case to keep your Switch charged without needing to run a cable from your pocket to the console. There are similar solutions out there for the original Switch, but because of the Switch 2’s bigger dimensions, they won’t be compatible with the upcoming handheld.

1. Anker Nano Power Bank

The Best Power Bank

2. Belkin Boost Plus 10K

The Most Portable Power Bank

3. Anker Power Core 24K

An Absolutely Overkill Power Bank

I vividly remember buying my first OLED TV, the LG E8 55 inch back in 2019, right before we all went into hiding. Let me tell you: it was the perfect isolation companion. At the time, I didn’t really know what OLED (organic light-emitting diode) was like. I knew that instead of the backlight in LCD displays, OLED features self-lit pixels, which means infinite contrast. But after jumping onto the pretty boy train in Final Fantasy XV and fighting through scar territory in The Last of Us Part II, it hit me. This is what it feels like to live a nostalgic fever dream-like memory in real time. Naturally, I didn’t stop at the E8.

A few years later, I bought the LG C2 65-inch TV, and since then, I’ve reviewed tons of devices with OLED displays and learned that not all OLED screens are created equal. In fact, not all OLED displays even share the same technology. You might be wondering, “How many OLED types are there?” Well, too many. But there’s really only three you should care about: WOLED, QD-OLED, and AMOLED.

WOLED, QD-OLED, and AMOLED: How They Work

OLED has been around for decades, with companies from Kodak to Mitsubishi trying new takes on the technology. It wasn’t until LG debuted its OLED TVs in the early 2010s that the technology became mainstream.

LG’s variation of OLED is called WOLED (White OLED). The company doesn’t call it that in its marketing because LG is OLED, or so it would love for you to believe. But what is WOLED? As I’ve explained, OLED ditches the backlight and uses self-lit pixels. This gets you the infinite contrast and bold colors. The issue is the compounds in red, green, and blue emitters deteriorate at different rates. As you might know, burn-in is an issue for OLED displays, but this accelerated the process.

WOLED solves this issue by using a pure white OLED layer with a RGBW color filter. So imagine all of those self-lit pixels – they’re not red, green, or blue anymore, they’re just white. However, this has its own issues. Try blasting a spotlight through a bunch of color filters – some of those lights will be brighter than others. This causes imbalanced brightness and reduced color volume. (Pricier WOLEDs try to solve this with Micro Lens Array technology, which squeezes thousands of microlenses onto a single pixel to focus light.)

However, another solution made its debut in 2022, called QD-OLED (Quantum Dot OLED), which was heralded by Samsung. QD-OLED swaps that white OLED layer for a blue one, which hits a layer of quantum dot color convertors. The quantum dots aren't like the RGBW filter because they absorb the light, so when they convert the blue into red or green, they don't lose any of the backlight.

Meanwhile, AMOLED is in its own little category because it’s basically like WOLED except it features a thin-film transistor (TFT) layer, which helps control the charge of each pixel, allowing the pixels to be activated faster. However, that comes at the cost of OLED’s iconic “infinite” contrast.

WOLED, QD-OLED, and AMOLED: Which Is Better for Gaming?

The right OLED tech for gaming comes down to circumstance and preference. If you want the simple answer: QD-OLED is the best. However, there are some situations where you want WOLED, and some where you’re stuck with AMOLED.

First, let’s talk about AMOLED since I was just getting into how it’s in its own little category. Most AMOLED displays are typically found in smartphones and laptops. You won’t see them in many TVs because they’re expensive. AMOLED is flexible (literally, it’s used in foldables), so it can accommodate virtually any screen size and features high refresh rates and better viewing angles. But for the most part, you don’t have much choice in the type of OLED you buy on smaller devices, especially since the display isn’t the sole focus. (Ironically, for something designed for smartphone usage, they are the worst in direct sunlight because of their lower peak brightness.)

When it comes to gaming monitors and TVs, you get the choice of WOLED (marketed as just OLED) or QD-OLED. WOLED gets extremely bright because of its white OLED layer, but that’s only with whites. As I mentioned earlier, the RGBW filter loses a lot of brightness across its colors. So you get an overall brighter visual on a QD-OLED display. And since the quantum dots absorb light instead of filtering it through, you’re also going to see bolder colors.

But let’s go back to the white OLED layer that WOLEDs are rocking. I have my OLED TV situated in my living room across from my windows, so it gets plenty of glare. However, the darkest parts of the TV still look black. Meanwhile, my QD-OLED monitor that’s on my desk does not look black against glare. Instead it gives off a purplish tint. That’s because, in an effort to increase brightness, Samsung removed the polarizing layer from QD-OLED displays, which would normally reduce reflections.

For overall color and brightness, QD-OLED displays technically look better. But in a highly reflective space, WOLED screens are way less distracting. I will point out, however, that this is all in theory. The quality of the displays themselves really comes down to specs. You can’t get around the money factor – the more you spend, the prettier it will be, as a general rule.

But QD-OLED and WOLED may not be the only choices we have for very long.

The Future of OLED Is PHOLED

There are plenty of types of OLED. One of them is called PHOLED (Phosphorescent OLED), which uses phosphorescent materials (as opposed to fluorescent) to convert energy to light. The issue with this technology is that the blue in PHOLED has a significantly shorter lifespan than green and red, which makes a PHOLED panel pretty much DOA.

However, LG just recently announced that it’s overcome the challenge of blue PHOLED and is now ready for mass production. LG refers to PHOLED as “Dream OLED” and that’s because phosphorescence offers 100% luminous efficiency, surpassing the 25% efficiency of fluorescence. That means a PHOLED TV will be brighter and consume less power.

Unfortunately, we won't see PHOLED displays in TVs anytime soon. But we will get a glimpse of the technology in smartphones and tablets sooner than later.

Rami Tabari is a contributing writer at IGN with over 9 years of experience in the tech and gaming industry. You can find his bylines at Laptop Mag and Tom's Guide (and on a random Predator review at Space.com). When Rami isn't wading through a sea of the latest gaming tech, he's agonizing over the worldbuilding in his upcoming novella.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens in theaters Friday, May 23.

For nearly 30 years, the stunts and action sequences of Mission: Impossible have been synonymous with big-screen spectacle. And as expected, the franchise’s newest entry finds Tom Cruise’s alter ego Ethan Hunt risking life, limb, and the fates of millions, this time in pursuit of stopping The Entity, the evil A.I. introduced in 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. But the way I see it, the sequel – which stopped being Dead Reckoning Part Two sometime in the last two years – might be trying a little too hard to top the IMF’s greatest hits.

First thing you should know about me is that I’ve always been a huge mark for James Bond movies. I’ve got a lot of formative movie memories from growing up with those films. So I was, frankly, thrilled to see all the things I loved about Bond captured perfectly in 2016’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the first of now four Ethan Hunt adventures written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie.

Rogue Nation nails the combination of go-for-broke practical stunts, grinning self-awareness, and just the right touch of believability that make up the most important parameters for a successful IMF mission – Fallout nails it slightly less, and I think Dead Reckoning misses by a wider margin. The Final Reckoning, unfortunately, has gone farther afield.

My biggest takeaway from the eighth and very evidently not final film starring Cruise as fate’s chosen lucky boy is that it’s extremely sober. The Final Reckoning veers into melodrama whenever there is story to be told. The cast, which is an assembling of familiar franchise faces and newcomer cameos, whisper-talk their way through soap-opera levels of tension. Nearly every scrap of dialogue is invested in no less than the end of all life on the planet.

But my first litmus test for these movies is how serious they treat Ethan Hunt getting the mission. Rogue Nation was a flirty encounter at a record shop, Fallout’s knock on the door woke him up from a dream where a nuclear blast interrupted his wedding, and Dead Reckoning was some kind of dramatic poetry slam with the IMF Oath and a new recruit. The Final Reckoning features a lo-fi delivery method thanks to the Entity’s infiltration of all things digital – and it’s honestly kinda fun. But the message is the most dire and serious thing. This is a story point introduced by Dead Reckoning: The Entity as a villain capable of literally every bad thing imaginable, like a laundry list of vague shorthand threats – any one of which could’ve been enough to carry a movie. Instead, they’ve all been lumped together in the form of a nebulous digital boogeyman, and reiterating that in the “this message will self destruct” section of the movie sets a very somber tone for everything that follows. Save for a few bits of humor here and there, it’s never shaken (or stirred).

Absurdly astronomical stakes are one of the biggest issues with The Final Reckoning. A good-old fashioned nuke or biological weapon – those live in Mission: Impossible’s sweet spot: life-and-death at a massive scale, while also real enough to be relatably scary. But all life on planet Earth is just too much to plausibly wrap your head around, particularly with how seriously everyone takes everything else compared to say, Rogue Nation or Fallout.

I know I keep swerving away from The Final Reckoning and back into the rest of the franchise but, for better and worse, this is a part eight that’s very aware that it’s a part eight. You can’t call a movie The Final Reckoning without delivering some degree of, well, finality, and oh boy does this one try.

It’s not merely planting Easter eggs from the earlier films so much as picking entire story points – largely unnecessary ones, I would argue. It’s a nice nod to the diehards, but when you consider the nearly three-hour run time and the relative lack of importance these moments have to the overall movie, I’m not sure what McQuarrie and Cruise were trying to accomplish. This is all to say, The Final Reckoning is impossible to review out of the context of the other seven Missions: Impossible, which is why I keep recapping my feelings for the franchise as a whole.

One of the callbacks that I really did enjoy, though, is a guy we’ve seen in the trailers for The Final Reckoning: William Donloe (Rolf Saxon), the poor bastard working in the CIA black vault whose nose Ethan stole the NOC list out from under way back in the ’90s. His part in The Final Reckoning is spot on. He’s a meaningful character for Ethan and the IMF to encounter who also speaks to the themes of the movie: Our lives are the sum of our choices. He’s fun, which is short supply here, and I would’ve loved it if he’d have been the only bit of retconning this movie tried to do.

But I’ve been talking a lot about the things I didn’t like – it’s important to note that there are some things The Final Reckoning very much did right. The action is predictably excellent, with the highlight being Ethan’s infiltration of the Sevastopol, the MacGuffin of a submarine that sank at the start of Dead Reckoning. It is incredibly tense and intricate and claustrophobic and all the other nail-biting things you want from a thriller. More than that, there’s clearly a huge chunk of the reported $400 million budget on screen, and Christopher McQuarrie is getting all the nautical miles he can out of it. The set is equal parts Avatar and the hallway fight from Inception.

The fight choreography is also elevated from previous entries, as other countries send their most special forces after the same prize Ethan is after. The fights are a little more brutal and legitimately feel like the IMF could lose. At this point in the franchise, that’s a difficult tightrope to walk, and McQuarrie and Cruise deserve a lot of credit for that.

They also deserve a fair bit of credit bringing the team together again. I felt that was one part of the Mission: Impossible formula that was a little absent from the last film. The climax of The Final Reckoning gives every team member a job – it’s reminiscent of Fallout in that respect, and very important for the IMF. Because it’s less fun when Ethan is running around doing everything himself. An abiding trust in his team is part of Ethan’s allure – in addition to being, as Shea Whigham’s Jasper Briggs puts it in Dead Reckoning, a mind-reading, shape-shifting incarnation of chaos.

The climactic biplane sequence is great, too. It’s thrilling in parts, funny in others, and most importantly, all the effort and planning that goes into a stunt like that is apparent. The only question I have about it is, would The Final Reckoning be worse if it were a stunt double walking out on the wing of that plane instead of Tom Cruise? Or would it just have one less interesting thing going for it?

A lot of how I feel about this movie, though, comes down to that subtitle. The Final Reckoning can’t be officially final with the way it ends, and I don’t think there are any of us who believe Tom Cruise is done risking his life for our entertainment. So it’s either the best subtitle for this movie, or the worst. Maybe they completely missed the mark on the “Final” part of the equation, and it’s not a representative title at all. Maybe its not-entirely-successful attempt at tying a neat and all-encompassing bow is the Final Reckoning for the franchise and the path it laid out across 8 movies. From a real world perspective, maybe a messy and self-serious capstone to an otherwise iconic franchise is exactly what they deserve and it’s a perfect subtitle.

For my part, because again, I’m a big fan of this kind of movie, I’m rooting for the latter. Threads have been picked up and tugged on in different directions throughout the course of these eight films. That’s just the cost of doing business with a 30-year juggernaut of a franchise. Their mission now, should they choose to accept, is to take the clean slate they’ve created with all those threads tied up, however clumsily, and get back to what Mission: Impossible does best: not take itself so seriously.

The summer movie season is heating up, and all eyes are on James Gunn’s Superman. Anticipation for this big screen reboot continues to grow, with Warner Bros. releasing a brand new trailer that gives us a bit more insight into the movie’s plot and the relationship between David Corenswet’s Superman and Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane.

But really, it’s all about the villains. The new trailer not only showcases Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, but also characters like María Gabriela de Faría’s Engineer, Gunn’s creation the Hammer of Boravia, and the mysterious Ultraman.

It all begs the question - who is really the villain of Gunn’s Superman? Is Lex taking a backseat to some of the DCU’s other baddies? Let’s explore the many villains featured in Superman and how these characters all fit together.

Who Is the Hammer of Boravia?

One of the newcomers in the latest trailer is a hulking, armored character called the Hammer of Boravia. Don’t worry if that name doesn’t set off any DC continuity alarm bells. In this case, Gunn isn’t adapting an existing character from the comics, but rather inventing an entirely new villain for David Corenswet’s Superman to battle. It’s an interesting choice, given how vast DC’s character library is and the fact that the large majority have yet to be touched by the DCU.

This character was actually first teased in some of DC’s promotional material for the film. A faux-Daily Planet newspaper features the headline “‘Hammer of Boravia’ Creates Havoc Downtown.” We seem to be seeing that conflict play out in the trailer, as the Hammer trades blows with Superman and unleashes a devastating laser attack.

It definitely appears that the Hammer of Boravia is relying on technology to even the playing field with Superman. This seems to be a soldier wearing a weaponized battlesuit. The suit reminds us of nothing if not the Zaku from the various Gundam series. Interestingly, Gunn has also referred to the various giant monsters in the film as kaiju. This suggests that the director and his design team have taken a lot of inspiration from Japanese media for their Superman villains, even as Superman himself seems to draw more from the classic Silver Age comics and the graphic novel All-Star Superman. This movie is shaping up to be a unique fusion of Eastern and Western elements.

Based on what Warners has revealed about the Hammer of Boravia so far, we know that this character represents the fictional nation of Boravia, which at the time of the film has recently invaded the neighboring country of Jarhanpur. Superman has just intervened to put a stop to that war, drawing the Hammer’s wrath upon Metropolis. We can see scenes of that invasion playing out in the trailer, and we also get a sense of the serious political fallout Superman creates by interfering in said war. Even the US Secretary of Defense is breathing down his neck.

This makes it clear that Gunn’s Superman will explore the challenges Kal-El faces trying to be not just a force for good inside Metropolis, but on the world stage. He’s doing his best to protect all innocents and creating an international incident in the process. In that sense, the new film seems to share a little in common with Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman, which also dealt with the unintended consequences of Superman operating outside the boundaries of the US. Let’s just hope this doesn’t also result in Jimmy Olsen being shot in the head in the film’s first act.

María Gabriela de Faría’s Engineer

After barely appearing in the first teaser trailer, María Gabriela de Faría’s character The Engineer plays a much bigger role in this trailer. We get a closer glimpse of her nanotech-based powers, and it’s clear right away that she’s no friend of Superman’s.

It’s a bit of a role reversal for The Engineer compared to her comic book counterpart. In the comics, she’s a member of a superhero team called The Authority. The Authority are never painted as outright villains, but they are depicted as a much more proactive and militant alternative to the Justice League. They’re far less concerned with things like collateral damage or national sovereignty. In that sense, it’s easy to see why Gunn would want to include The Engineer, aka Angela Spica, in his film. The new Superman movie is all about the conflict between Superman’s brand of old-fashioned heroism and a new generation of more cynical heroes. We see that conflict embodied even in Superman’s costume, as the angular S logo is borrowed from the graphic novel Kingdom Come, which also dealt with such themes.

But again, it’s up for debate as to whether Angela qualifies as a hero at all in the DCU. The trailer makes it plain that Angela is working for Luthor, and she seems all too eager to take on Superman in the field of battle. We see her battling the Man of Steel in the middle of a baseball stadium, and we also see her tearing into Superman’s loyal robot servants in the Fortress of Solitude. Even Krypto isn’t safe from her wrath, though he gets in a good hit of his own.

We assume that The Engineer, like Luthor himself, believes herself to be on the right side and believes Superman is a threat to humanity. Will she have her mind changed by the end? Possibly. We know that Gunn was at one point planning an Authority movie to spin out of Superman, though that project appears to have been put on the back burner. Still, we imagine Superman is the start of a larger storyline for de Faría’s character.

Is Ultraman in James Gunn’s Superman?

The Engineer seems to be looking for Lex Luthor in the movie, but we also see her fighting alongside a mysterious, masked character who’s been the source of plenty of speculation in recent months. Is this character the DCU version of Ultraman?

That’s definitely the prevailing theory, both because of the large U emblem on his chest and the fact that he clearly has the strength and durability to trade blows with Superman himself. But if this is Ultraman, the movie is definitely taking a loose approach to the source material.

Traditionally, Ultraman is a version of Superman from an alternate DC Universe. He hails from Earth-3, a world where the traditional dynamic between DC’s heroes and villains is reversed. In this world, Ultraman is the leader of an anti-Justice League known as the Crime Syndicate of America, a group that also includes Superwoman, Owlman, Power Ring, and Johnny Quick. Earth-3’s Lex Luthor is that world’s greatest hero. Outlandish as it may seem, we have to wonder if there’s an element to Earth-3 Lex in Hoult’s version. He obviously sees himself as Earth’s greatest hero, in any case.

With everything else going on in Gunn’s Superman, we highly doubt the film is going to be delving into the DC multiverse. It’s more likely that Ultraman is being reworked to become something more akin to Nuclear Man from 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, or some versions of Bizarro from the comics. He could be a character who’s been genetically engineered to mimic Superman’s powers. The fact that we can’t see his face or any part of his body may mean he was horribly disfigured in the process… and is the perfect set-up for a dramatic reveal with Corenswet behind the mask.

Physically, it’s looking like Ultraman, not Lex, is the endgame villain of Gunn’s Superman. The Man of Steel will have to contend with a villain who has all of his strength and probably none of his morality. And if previous trailers are any indication, Kal-El is going to get seriously banged up in the process.

Superman vs. Kaiju

The new trailer showcases the massive scale of this superhero movie. At one point, we even see buildings toppling over like dominoes. As much as Superman is devoted to saving innocent lives, Metropolis may wind up with a body count to rival the climax of Man of Steel if he isn’t careful.

The problem is that Kal-El isn’t just fighting humanoid villains like the Hammer of Boravia and the Engineer in this movie. He’s also got a giant monster problem. We see him battling a kaiju that would be right at home in Legendary’s Monsterverse series or the Pacific Rim movies.

Another scene hearkens back to the original costume reveal photo Gunn released in 2024. That image showed Superman suiting up while a mysterious and very massive monster terrorized Metropolis in the background. That scene will apparently play out in the movie itself, though based on these trailers, we know that Lois Lane is also present. We’ll get to the unusual relationship between Lois and Clark in a bit.

The big question here is why Superman is fighting so many kaiju in the movie. Is there a reason these beasts are rampaging through Metropolis? Is this just an average Tuesday for the DCU, or is something (or someone) summoning them? Hoult’s Lex Luthor seems like exactly the sort of guy who would manufacture a kaiju crisis to make Superman look bad.

On that note, let's finally turn our attention to Lex Luthor himself.

Lex Luthor: Supporting Villain?

The trailer makes it clear that Superman will have no shortage of enemies to punch in his latest big-screen outing. But it doesn’t appear that Hoult’s Lex Luthor will be among them. There’s no need for Lex to don his iconic green and purple armor and take on Superman directly when he has so many other pawns who can do the dirty work for him.

Based on what we see of Hoult’s Lex in the trailer, he’s pretty traditional in his motivations. He sees himself as humanity’s savior, the only guy smart enough to lead mankind into a new era. He doesn’t like that the public has grown so enamored with Superman. He can’t abide the thought of humanity looking to an outside force to save itself when it should be looking to Lex himself. Superman is living rent-free in this guy’s head, and he can’t stand it. This Lex is so anti-Superman that he even refers to Kal-El as “it.”

Lex is clearly going to great lengths to discredit the Man of Steel in this movie. It appears he may even be working with ARGUS, suggesting we’ll see an alliance between Lex and Frank Grillo’s Rick Flagg, Sr. At one point, we see Superman sharing a superhuman prison cell with Anthony Carrigan’s Metamorpho and being beaten by prison guards. Apparently, Kal-El’s political crisis grows dire enough that he’s actually thrown in jail.

All of this suggests that Hoult is playing more of a supporting role in the film than fans might be expecting. Lex is still ostensibly the main villain of the movie. He’s Superman’s greatest arch-nemesis, and that’s never going to change, no matter how many times the DCU gets rebooted. But he seems to be working very indirectly in this film, relying on allies like The Engineer and Ultraman to do the actual fighting while he quietly works to tarnish the Man of Steel’s reputation.

Ultimately, Lex will probably still emerge as the final villain of Gunn’s Superman, but more in a thematic and emotional sense, whereas Ultraman is the prime physical threat. The movie will almost surely culminate in Kal-El proving Lex wrong and reminding the world that kindness, decency, and hope still have a place in our cynical 21st-century world. But don’t expect the two to settle their differences with fisticuffs. And don’t be surprised if Lex doesn’t wind up in prison by the end, but rather sticks around to play a recurring role in the DCU. His defeat will be an intellectual one, not necessarily a physical one.

Lois Lane and Clark Kent’s Relationship

While the villains definitely hog most of the spotlight in this new trailer, it is worth taking a step back to examine the dynamic between Brosnahan’s Lois Lane and Corenswet’s Clark Kent. The opening scene reveals that Lois already knows Clark’s secret. It makes sense. If she’s truly the intrepid, brilliant reporter she’s made out to be, Lois really needs to be smart enough to see through Clark’s flimsy human disguise.

That opening scene is somewhat reminiscent of the one in 1978’s Superman where Margot Kidder’s Lois interviews Christopher Reeve’s Superman for the first time. But in this case, Gunn is downplaying the romantic tension in favor of allowing Lois to really grill Clark on the political fallout of Superman’s actions. Again, she’s a reporter first and a love interest second.

On that note, it’s enough to wonder just what the state of Lois and Clark’s relationship is in this movie. In the comics, Clark only revealed his secret to Lois after they had already fallen in love. But here, she’s already figured it out. The tone of that interview scene suggests that the two are close friends, but not necessarily lovers yet. Though as we see from their dramatic kiss later in the trailer, that will apparently change over the course of the film.

Gunn spoke about the Lois/Clark dynamic when IGN visited the set of the film in 2024, saying “It's a complicated relationship and we really get into it and there's long scenes that are about their relationship and the way they relate and what it would be like for a person, who's this incredibly intelligent, strong-headed, stubborn, skeptical journalist, to have a relationship with someone who can lift a skyscraper.”

One thing is clear - despite the fact that Superman will be contending with villains both human and monster in the movie, Gunn is intent on preventing Lois from falling into the same damsel-in-distress trap that she so often has in past Superman adaptations. This is a character who, intellectually, can hold her own against Superman every bit as easily as Lex Luthor.

Who do you think is the real endgame villain of Gunn’s Superman? Which epic superhero battle are you most excited to see? Let us know what you think in the comments.

For more on the future of the DCU, see every DC movie and series in development.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

You can preorder the next Star Wars novel right now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. New York Times best-selling author Kwame Mbalia enters the galaxy far, far away with the young adult novel Star Wars: The Last Order, the first time in Star Wars continuity where we get to see a post-Rise of Skywalker universe, even before the upcoming Shawn Levy film Star Wars: Starfighter. The 464-page hardcover book will run you $18.99 and releases on October 21, 2025. It does not yet have a cover you can check out, but it will likely be revealed soon now that preorder listings are live.

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The release of Game of Thrones spinoff and The Hedge Knight adaptation A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been delayed until 2026.

Per Variety, Warner Bros. Discovery revealed that the show’s 2025 release date has been pushed to next year as part of its Upfront showcase in New York today. The announcement arrived toward the end of a new trailer which has yet to be made available to the public, so while the latest Game of Thrones series is making progress, it will remain in the oven a little longer before it officially premieres.

While this delay means we'll have to wait until next year to see the show, HBO Content Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys clarified that the series is still expected to release in the winter, suggesting an early 2026 premiere.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been an especially exciting part of HBO’s slate of upcoming shows set in the world of Westeros, as original author George R. R. Martin teased earlier this year that he couldn’t wait to see Dunk and Egg’s story come to TV screens.

“I’ve seen all six episodes now (the last two in rough cuts, admittedly), and I loved them," Martin said in a blog post in January. "Dunk and Egg have always been favorites of mine, and the actors we found to portray them are just incredible. The rest of the cast are terrific as well. Wait until you guys meet the Laughing Storm and Tanselle Too-Tall.”

Martin continued to celebrate A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, adding, “It’s as faithful as adaptation as a reasonable man could hope for (and you all know how incredibly reasonable I am on that particular subject).”

Despite Martin’s towering praise, we’ve seen little from the show since it was announced in 2021. After locking in actors Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell to play Ser Duncan the Tall and Egg, respectively, HBO went on to reveal one image from the show in June 2024. A brief teaser trailer then followed in August, showing a glimpse at some of the series’ major players and a few shots of familiar Game of Thrones action.

We’ll have a better look at A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as we move closer to 2026. When it eventually arrives, it will be available to stream on Warner Bros. Discovery’s renamed service, HBO Max. The company announced plans to revert its branding switch-up earlier today. For more while we wait, you can check out everything you need to know about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).