Nintendo has showcased its revamped look for Diddy Kong, after previously changing the company's decades-old design for his bigger pal Donkey Kong.

Earlier this year, Nintendo fans noticed some distinct changes had been made to Donkey Kong's look within official artwork for the character, as well as in early Mario Kart World footage.

Now, Nintendo has given us a look at some changes to Diddy Kong as well, via artwork from the company's website and brand images on display at Licensing Expo 2025, which is currently taking place in Las Vegas.

As spotted by Nintendo Life, the following images show a slightly more cartoony take on Diddy, with more rounded eyes and a cheekier, friendlier smile.

Attendees at the Licensing Expo 2025, an event for brands to showcase their franchises and secure merchandising and partnership deals, can also see the new-look Diddy (and Donkey) Kong there, as seen in photos from attendee Cptn_Alex on social media.

With the Nintendo Switch 2 just weeks away, now’s a good time to think about keeping your gadgets powered up, especially if you’re planning to game on the go this summer.

Thankfully, two high-powered USB-C chargers from Baseus and INIU have just dropped to their lowest prices in months as part of Amazon’s early Memorial Day sales.

Pokémon TCG sealed product is in a strange place right now. Prices at Amazon and other retailers keep climbing, but single cards from Journey Together and Surging Sparks are crashing hard on the collector market.

That makes the Slashing Legends tin a tough sell, no matter how cool it is. Sure, it comes with two Journey Together packs and a promo Koraidon ex, but at nearly $6 a pack, you’re paying for FOMO more than value.

Still, if you've been waiting for stock, it's worth picking up anyway. But if you’re just after hits, you might want to skip the tin entirely and go straight to the singles. Let's dig in and see what the best deals are for today.

TL;DR: Deals For Today

Budding into a backyard chef this summer? Tufons 4-Burner Propane Gas BBQ Grill is going for $299.99 (down from $409.99). Fitness buffs can snag the NordicTrack T Series treadmill for $1,295.98, saving nearly $400, while tech-savvy homeowners can future-proof their network with the TP-Link Quad-Band WiFi 7 BE33000 Mesh System at $1,151.59 (23% off).

For those on the move, the Windone Electric Scooteris available for $239.99, offering a 19MPH top speed and up to 17 miles of range. Gamers can dive into action with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 for PS5 at just $39.99, a significant drop from its $69.99 list price. Aspiring coders can benefit from the Pearson Learn To Program 2025 Bundle on Humble for $25, unlocking a wealth of programming resources. And for audiophiles, the Assassin's Creed Shadows Soundtrack Collection 4LP Vinyl is up for preorder at $98, featuring 44 tracks across four heavyweight LPs,

Slashing Legends Tin

MTG Final Fantasy Preorders

Meanwhile preorders for Magic the Gathering: Final Fantasy are still up at Walmart and Amazon, specifically the Bundle and Starter Kit for retail pricing.

This is set to be the biggest MTG set in the history of the trading card game, so it's a wise choice to preorder now. You can also preorder single cards at the moment too:

MTG FF Single Card Prices Before Launch

I've focused on some of the more popular character appearances here, but there's plenty more to secure with this set having nearly 700 cards including Extended Art, Boarderless and Surge Foil variants.

The worst thing you can do as a Magic or FF fan is to sleep on this set, it's going to explode. These are the current biggest cards in the set before launch on June 5.

Bear in mind it's mega risky to buy before release day, as prices could plummit in the meantime. Still, it's worth keeping an eye on what's hot, and what's not!

MTG: Marvels Spider-Man Preorders

Spidey is slinging his way to Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond later this year, completing an epic lineup of licenced sets that are bound to breakdown the entry barrier of MTG for most.

Suprisingly, the Play Booster Box and Spidey's Spectacular Showdown Scene Box are back up for preorder.

It's a dream set for Marvel fans, who should get on this set early before prices on single cards goes through the roof.

More MTG Sealed Products

Assassin's Creed Shadows Soundtrack Collection 4LP Vinyl

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Pearson Learn To Program 2025 Bundle

Windone Electric Scooter

4-Burner Propane Gas BBQ Grill

NordicTrack T Series

TP-Link Quad-Band WiFi 7 BE33000

Unlock Pro 3D Modeling Skills With Blender

INIU Power Bank Sale

Amazon is running a solid range of discounts on INIU power banks, covering everything from ultra-portable 10,000mAh models to heavy-duty bricks that can charge your laptop. The compact 10000mAh 5V/3A model is just $15.98 (was $21.99), and the sleek 22.5W 10000mAh version — marketed as the smallest in its class — is down to $22.99. For more power, the 22.5W 20000mAh option is $29.99, and the MagSafe-compatible 45W 10000mAh model has dropped to $35.99 from $49.99. Need something serious? The 27000mAh 140W bank is $71.99 (was $99.99), and the 25000mAh 100W version is $48.58 with an on-site coupon. There’s also a handy 2-pack of 10000mAh banks for $35.99, or a great mid-range 20000mAh 65W model for $35.99. If your current battery pack is on its last leg, or you want one for every bag, these are easy recommendations.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold 256GB

SAMSUNG Galaxy S25 512GB

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 + Smart Tag

Bose QuietComfort

Nintendo Switch 2 Accessories Sale

Did you manage to grab a Nintendo Switch 2 preorder in? If so you'll want to protect that tarrif-dodging investment at all costs. Luckily I've got the best cases, screen protectors and thumb grips on the market right now.

TZGZTs case and screen protector bundle is great value for money at $12.84 and is a consistent best seller.

Looking for cases that will fit inside a Switch 2 dock? JSAUX has us all covered with some option alongside some premium cases and hardshells.

I've included JSAUX as i've been hands on with the products above and can't reccomend them enough.

DOOM: The Dark Ages Limited Edition A3 Art Print

Cooler Master NR2 Pro Mini ITX

Skytech Chronos Gaming PC

ASUS TUF F16

Google Pixel 9 Pro 1TB

Looking for Grow a Garden codes? Well, a code redemption system is finally here! It was added to the popular gardening experience as part of the Lunar Glow event. This big change means it's likely there will be codes relesed in the future, so IGN will keep you covered as and when new codes are released!

Working Grow a Garden Codes (May 2025)

There are currently no active Grow a Garden codes! As soon as new ones are announced, we'll update this article to include the new ones.

Expired Grow a Garden Codes (May 2025)

Unfortunately, these codes have now expired:

• LUNARGLOW10 - This gave players 3x Seed Packs.

How to Redeem Grow a Garden Codes

Now that there's a code redemption system in the Roblox experience, here are the steps you need to follow to use Grow a Garden codes:

1. Launch the Grow a Garden Roblox experience
2. Look in the top left corner to find the Settings cog next to the icon of the backpack
3. Click settings and scroll down to the bottom
4. Copy and paste codes from this article into the Redeem Codes box
5. Press claim and enjoy your goodies!

Why Isn't My Grow a Garden Code Working?

There are usually two reasons why a code isn't working. It's either because:

• The code is expired
• The code has been entered incorrectly

If a code has been entered incorrectly or is expired, it will say the "code is invalid." To stop this from happening, we'd recommend copying and pasting the code directly from this article. We check and test each of the codes before we add them to our articles. However, when copying them, you can sometimes accidentally include an extra space somwhere, so always double check there's no additional spaces!

Where to Find More Grow a Garden Codes

If new codes are added to the game, we'll update this article, so you can always check back here and keep up-to-date with the latest codes. Grow a Garden has its own dedicated Discord server where codes will be announced, as well as game updates.

What is Grow a Garden in Roblox?

Grow a Garden is a new Roblox experience that's become incredibly popular since it launched. The gardening simulator allows players to show off their green fingers, as you buy seeds and plant a variety of crops from basic carrots to exotic dragon fruit trees.

As fruit and vegetables finally sprout, you'll be able to harvest them to sell for Sheckles. To go from a beginner gardener to a pro worthy of awards, you'll want your crops to experience mutations that increase their value. This can happen randomly, with Gold and Big mutations being down to chance, while weather events like snow can increase your luck of a Frozen mutation. There's also gear, and even pets now, that can affect how fast your crops grow, their value, and more.

When is the Next Grow a Garden Update?

Grow a Garden hosts new events each weekend, where players can come together and try out the fresh content for the ever-expanding game. For the next event, The Garden Game are looking to set a World Record! On Saturday May 24, 2025, players are encouraged to login and take part in the Monster Mash World Record. The plan is to have the most people doing the Monster Mash in-game as possible.

This will also be the day that cosmetics are introduced to the game. So, if you've been looking for ways to make your garden more aesthetic, this update is for you. The Garden Game promises a huge update that will allow players to customize their farms, adding in items such as gnomes and water fountains.

It's always worth logging on early before an event begins in Grow a Garden. The most recent event was the launch of the Blood Moon event. If you were lucky enough to login as the event began (like I was), you'll have participated in a special celebratory Disco and got the super rare Disco Mutation. On top of that, you would've also been able to get the Chicken Jockey pet. It's likely something similar will occur -- even if it's just a rare weather event -- when everyone performs the Monster Mash together, so be sure to check it out.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

Pokémon Go has unveiled a new $100 Premier Access ticket upgrade for its upcoming Go Fest: Jersey City event that unlocks in-game items and access to real-world improved facilities — including "upgraded restrooms."

Go Fest is the game's annual big summer event that this year will take place at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, as well as in Paris, France and Osaka, Japan.

Players visiting the Jersey City version now have the ability to upgrade their existing ticket further with the $100 Premier Access add-on, developer Niantic has announced, which offers a range of benefits.

Akin to some kind of Business Class option for the event, those who pay up will get to enjoy a Premier Access lounge.

Niantic said this area will boast "upgraded restrooms, portable charger kiosks with lockers, and seating to recharge yourself for your next adventure." Sadly, there's no further detail on how these restrooms have been upgraded, versus the facilities available to rank-and-file visitors.

You'll also get fast-track entry to the event's Pokémon Center Pop-Up Store, meaning you will skip the line should you want to hand over more money and pick up some Pokémon merchandise.

Why is this useful? Well, Go Fest's merch store is always busy, and queuing eats into your limited window of playtime if you're stuck there, unable to walk about and actually catch the Pokémon you've paid to access.

The Premier Access upgrade's main attraction, however, will likely be the treasure trove of in-game items it also provides, including 100 Premium Battle Passes, 100 Super Incubators, 20 Max Particle Packs and much more. In short, you could easily spend $300 on all the in-game items here.

Here's the full list of what you get:

• 100 Poké Balls
• 100 Great Balls
• 100 Ultra Balls
• 50 Silver Pinap Berries
• 100 Super Incubators
• 10 Lucky Eggs
• 10 Incense
• 10 Star Pieces
• 10 Lure Modules
• 10 Glacial Lure Modules
• 10 Magnetic Lure Modules
• 10 Mossy Lure Modules
• 10 Rainy Lure Modules
• 100 Premium Battle Passes
• 20 Max Particle Packs
• 5 Max Mushrooms

Finally, Premier Access ticket holders will get an enamel pin badge.

Reaction to the ticket offer has been mixed, with some players noting that Pokémon Go has never offered such an exorbitant ticket upgrade before, and that it comes as the game is noticeably offering many more ways to pay than ever.

Others, meanwhile, note that the offer does offer good value for the many in-game items it provides, and that after spending to get to Jersey City and enter Go Fest already, there will be some players with a disposable income who are attracted to a further upgrade such as this.

IGN has contacted Niantic to ask if this offer will be present elsewhere.

Pokémon Go Fest 2025 takes place over the weekend of May 29 in Osaka, the weekend of June 6 in Jersey City and the weekend of June 13 in Paris. This year's focus will be on the release of Legendary creature Volcanion, and the wider release of Mexican regional exclusive Hawlucha.

Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social‬

Doom: The Dark Ages has seen 3 million players since coming out last week, but Bethesda has yet to announce a sales figure for the game.

A social media post from Bethesda confirmed that Doom: The Dark Ages is the biggest launch in id Software’s history by player count, getting to 3 million seven times faster than 2020’s Doom Eternal.

It’s worth digging into the details on these numbers. Doom: The Dark Ages released across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S on May 15, 2025. Steam is the only platform that makes player numbers public, so let’s start there.

On Steam, Doom: The Dark Ages hit a peak concurrent player count of 31,470, and has a 24-hour peak of 16,328 concurrent players. Doom: Eternal hit a peak concurrent player count of 104,891 five years ago, a figure that makes The Dark Ages look like it struggled relatively on Valve’s platform. 2016’s Doom, for extra context, has a peak concurrent player count of 44,271 on Steam, a figure set nine years ago.

However, we must consider the Game Pass effect when thinking about these numbers. Doom: The Dark Ages was a day-one launch across Game Pass for both Xbox consoles and PC. There will be a number of people who dipped into The Dark Ages via Game Pass, rather than pay the $69.99 it costs to buy the game in the U.S.

Perhaps, from Microsoft’s point of view, that’s absolutely fine. It wants to sell PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions after all. But we’ve seen games sell well while also launching day-one on Game Pass, such as the $50 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Clair Obscur has sold an impressive 2 million copies, despite also launching on Game Pass. Doom: The Dark Ages is more expensive — might its price have put some people off?

Which leads me to the next point: Bethesda has announced 3 million players for Doom: The Dark Ages, but not a sales figure. It’s a similar approach it took when celebrating the success of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which has seen 4 million players while also launching day-one on Game Pass. Coincidentally, Ubisoft also announced 3 million players for Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, rather than hard sales.

In truth, only Bethesda and Microsoft will know if Doom: The Dark Ages has hit whatever internal targets it has set. But it’s safe to say that the 3 million player count suggests Doom: The Dark Ages has done particularly well on console and Game Pass, while perhaps struggling on Steam.

IGN's Doom: The Dark Ages review returned a 9/10. We said: "Doom: The Dark Ages may strip away the mobility focus of Doom Eternal, but replaces it with a very weighty and powerful style of play that is different from anything the series has done before, and still immensely satisfying in its own way."

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.

An invasion of Super Earth is underway in Helldivers 2's latest update, bringing the once-distant frontlines of conflict close to home. Amid the chaos of the invasion, Helldivers were informed that the Illuminate have razed the neighboring planet of Mars, and players are already eager for some payback over it.

In-universe news reports detailed the specifics, declaring that Mars has been razed by the Illuminate. The Helldiver Training Sites on Mars were part of the destruction, and the facility operators who were running the training have perished in defense of the planet.

Opening the Galaxy Map in Helldivers 2 right now shows a destroyed, but still present, mass of rock.

#Helldivers2 | #Helldivers2GalacticWar

⚠️⚠️⚠️ MARS HAS BEEN DESTROYED ⚠️⚠️⚠️ pic.twitter.com/sAzkM08qGz

— Helldivers NOW (@Helldivers_NOW) May 20, 2025

Mars was, until a recent update, the training facility for Helldivers preparing to take part in the galactic spread of democracy. The sudden switch of tutorial zones already set off alarm bells a week or so ago, but now, the drive was clear: as part of the invasion, the Illuminate have taken something all Helldivers 2 players had a sentimental stake in.

The official Helldivers 2 account posted some promotional art to X/Twitter, urging players to "Avenge Mars."

Mars has been razed by the Illuminate. All Helldiver Training Sites across the planet, where rigorous, thorough, and safe training of the Galaxy's Elite has long occured, have been destroyed. The expert and seasoned facility PA operators who facilitated the training died… pic.twitter.com/16yEhLK0MM

— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) May 20, 2025

The attempt to stir up the hearts and emotions of Helldivers 2 players seems to have worked, too. Already, Helldivers players are leaning into the bit; one posts a GIF from Starship Troopers, referencing Rico's determination to squash the bugs after his hometown is destroyed, and another shares the closed fist meme that's become ubiquitous in record time. Helldivers 2 players will always lean into the universal storytelling.

Still, alongside all the kayfabe Helldivers posts, some can't resist having some fun with it. "Hey, the only people who are allowed to kill Helldivers on Mars are Super Earth Drill Instructors!" wrote one user. And references to DOOM and various other media are pretty solid, too.

The invasion of Super Earth by Illuminate forces is well underway in Helldivers 2's Heart of Democracy update, which went live today. Players can currently drop onto the planet to defend it against the extraterrestrial squids, and even with some new SEAF back-up, the situation seems chaotic. We'll see how this pans out over the next few Major Orders, but I'm not ruling out a few more gut-punches from Joel and developer Arrowhead Game Studios.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Fortnite has made its long-awaited return to the U.S. Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad users.

Developer Epic Games shared and celebrated the news with a post on X/Twitter, letting mobile gaming fans know that they can finally go back to playing its massively popular battle royale experience after five years of waiting. The new Fortnite iOS store page is back the same as it was the day it left in 2020, though its description now starts with a new message: “Fortnite is back!”

Fortnite is BACK on the App Store in the U.S. on iPhones and iPads... and on the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the E.U! It’ll show up in Search soon!

Get Fortnite on the App Store in the U.S. ➡️ https://t.co/HQu3pYCXFm pic.twitter.com/w74QPFFkOS

— Fortnite (@Fortnite) May 20, 2025

At the time of this story’s publication, some U.S. Apple users may have trouble searching for Fortnite through the App Store itself, though Epic says this will change “soon.” In the meantime, you can click here to see its revived store page. For those in the E.U., you can also now download Fortnite through the Epic Games Store and AltStore.

Fortnite’s reappearance on iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad brings an end to much of the drama surrounding Epic and Apple. It started in August 2020, when both Google and Apple announced they had removed Fortnite from their respective digital stores after Epic launched an update that decreased the price of V-Bucks while adding a direct payment system. At the time, the Fortnite studio explained that its decision was a direct result of what it was calling “exorbitant” store fees issued by Apple and Google.

What followed was a years-long legal battle that kept Fortnite absent from official storefronts for the millions of players who were previously enjoying it through Apple and Google Play. That changed in April when Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said Fortnite would return to the iOS App Store in early May following a decision from a U.S. Federal District Court in California. A bump in the road involving continued blocking from Apple saw its return postponed, but now, after five years, Fortnite is finally back on iOS devices.

Those who download Fortnite on an Apple phone or tablet will now have the option to purchase V-Bucks through the Epic Games Store or via in-app purchases. Those who pick the 2,800 V-Bucks pack for $22.99, for example, can choose to send the money directly to Epic, earning $4.60 (or 20%) back to be used on other offerings from the company.

AMD has announced the Radeon RX 9060 XT at Computex 2025, finally following up on the success of the RX 9070 XT back in March. However, Team Red hasn't shared much information about the upcoming mid-range graphics card.

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT features 32 Compute Units, backed up with 16GB of GDDR6 memory, which is a generous spec for a card that'll likely be targeting 1080p gaming. With such a small GPU, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that it'll take up much less power than the RX 9070 XT, with a Total Board Power (TBP) of 150-182W.

However, because this AMD GPU has half the Compute Units, and consumes about half the power, of the RX 9070 XT, it's safe to assume that it'll be much less powerful – but hopefully more affordable. Unfortunately, AMD hasn't shared any pricing or release date information about the upcoming graphics card.

The Budget Battles Have Begun

While it's annoying that AMD hasn't revealed how much the Radeon RX 9060 XT will actually cost, it's probably not going to be much more expensive than the Intel Arc B580 or the recently-released RTX 5060. Those graphics cards have power budgets of 145W and 190W, respectively, and both launched for around $250-$300. It's very likely AMD is going to target the same part of the market.

That means when the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT launches – whenever that is – gamers shopping for a $300-ish graphics card will have three choices, all from different companies. However, if this new Radeon card stays in that price range, that'll give it the edge; it'll be the only GPU in the segment with 16GB of VRAM, compared to 8GB from Nvidia and 12GB from Intel.

I'll still have to get it in the lab to see how it actually performs, but if the GPU itself is as strong as the competition, the larger frame buffer alone will make it last a bit longer into the future, as games get more demanding on video memory. Only time will tell how much the RX 9060 XT will end up costing, but it may be the budget GPU to watch right now.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

There’s never been a better time to give your games library a spring clean and make room for some banger new titles. Whether you're chasing chill vibes, story-rich sagas, or gloriously chaotic co-op, my deals listicle offers a little something for everyone (and at low gil prices). Let’s dig into the standout gems across Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, PS5, and PC.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm celebrating the 15th birthday of my huckleberry, the rootin' tootin' Red Dead Redemption. To tell the tale true, I've got vivid memories of my launch ride being a bumpy one—where the low end of bugs were freezes and the spectacular high watermark belonged to Donkey Ladies (rideable NPCs spawned with human bodies and ass faces). Patched-out nightmare fuel aside, RDR became a blessed Western odyssey and another notch in Rockstar's gunbelt for touchstone gaming experiences. Us veteran cowpokes still swap campfire stories about our first "ride to Chuparosa (Mexico)" moment.

• NBA 2K25 (-68%) - A$29
• Sea of Stars (-35%) - A$33
• Scribblenauts Mega Pack (-90%) - A$4
• Lego The Incredibles (-92%) - A$7
• Lego DC Super-Villains (-90%) - A$8

Expiring Recent Deals

• Sonic Frontiers (-51%) - A$49
• Sifu (-70%) - A$18
• Lego Ninjago Movie (-45%) - A$49
• Shin Megami Tensei V (-32%) - A$54
• Dragon Ball FighterZ (-44%) - A$50
• Untitled Goose Game (-50%) - A$15

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

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Editor's note: This review in progress is based entirely on the Early Access version of Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, and will be updated with final impressions after the playing the 1.0 version at launch.

Game of Thrones is a series synonymous with epic battles, familial betrayal, and mythical creatures. It’s no wonder, then, that developer Netmarble used it as the backing for its latest mobile-friendly open-world RPG, plopping you right into the middle of the original HBO show with one major goal to achieve: Power. Yet, after 20 hours gallivanting through the Early Access version of Game of Thrones: Kingsroad’s northern factions, consolidating my wealth ahead of its full launch this week, I can’t help but feel worried about what lies ahead as I work my way toward a final review. It’s not the towering enemies or backstabbing friends waiting for me down south that I fear – it’s the reality of just how much grinding (or money) it’s going to take to get there.

Set during the events of Game of Thrones’ fourth season, Kingsroad allows you to join the story as a bastard child and sole remaining heir of House Tyre. With your lord father unwell, your job is to explore Westeros in search of support so that you can buck the bastard title and ascend to lead your people when the time comes. You’ll meet plenty of familiar faces along this journey, too, from Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly to less likeable characters like Roose and Ramsay Bolton. While it might seem like a dense point in the overall plot to drop in, Kingsroad does a decent job of introducing the series’ broader themes through a speedy tutorial, which briefly takes you beyond the Wall to lay up the threat of the White Walkers and the world’s ongoing dynastic conflicts.

Before you grapple with the inherent drama of Westeros, you’ll need to pick a character archetype to play as – a decision that will dictate the style of combat you’ll use as you level up. There are three options to choose from: A balanced sword-wielding Knight, a beefy axe-wielding Sellsword, and a nimble dagger-wielding Assassin. Inspired by Tormund and Brienne of Tarth, I opted for the hulking Sellsword, whose rage and size could sweep through larger groups of enemies with relative ease. If you’re indecisive (like me) and want to mix up your playstyle, the good news is that you can start up an alternate class at any time from the main menu and share loot between your warriors. You’ll still have to replay the central story missions with each one, but this helpful feature at least allows you to sneakily boost their stats and speed through the early game.

Once you’ve made your choice, you’ll also be able to mould their look using Kingsroad’s surprisingly complex character creator. Alongside sliders that control each muscle of the face, you can choose beard length and colour, add battle scars, and even adjust the sheen of their hair. It hasn’t got the intense depth of something like Dragon’s Dogma 2 or inZOI, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I could tweak my progeny's features to my liking.

You can’t simply walk into King's Landing and have your wish to rule House Tyre granted, though. To earn your regal title, you’ll need to work your way up the food chain and earn the respect of the ruling Ladies and Lords of the land. This means completing side quests, clearing out bandits and fiends, and collecting as much loot as you can carry to upgrade your armour. On the surface, this might sound like an enticing fantasy workload. Unfortunately, Kingsroad doesn’t quite have the technical chops to make these tasks truly draw you in.

At first glance, Westeros has been faithfully recreated, and I relished the opportunity to take in the vast icy presence of the Wall and explore the cobbled walkways of Winterfell. However, that initial sheen wears off quickly when you linger a little too long in an area. Patches of grass pop up and down uncannily, and objects or NPCs all start to repeat. Suddenly, this mythical world loses its lustre and feels like a strange simulation. That isn’t helped by how odd the NPCs look and move, with many of the citizens I came in contact with acting as either overly dynamic animatronics or still paintings that eerily follow you with their eyes. This unsettling style is most noticeable in conversations, with some villagers' jaws and eyes oscillating in unnerving fashion as they explain their routine predicaments.

This strange locomotion applied to my own movement as well, and no matter if I was on foot or mounted, it always felt as though I was skating on ice. That was more noticeable on frosty ground, which is surely intentional, but it frequently seemed like I was skidding on top of dry earth as well, with a slight delay to all my actions. Drifting my mount through twisty country roads was funny to begin with, but the constant unwieldy nature of movement gets frustrating fast. Often enough, I would catapult myself off the edge of a hill into an enemy camp without the ability to quickly course correct.

Combat is also a mixed bag, with lots of repeated attack patterns whether I was taking on an area boss or a simple grunt. The foes I was facing were a rotating crew of the same faces, the only difference being how many I would face at once. You dodge or dash out of the way of enemies and then return their hits with a mixture of light, heavy, and special attacks that don’t really attempt to do anything unexpected or fresh. Occasionally, I would be surprised by a quest that required me to use some strategy, like separating select enemies from a larger pack to get an advantage – but more often than not, combat simply came down to taking on gaggles of soldiers until I’d meet their overly familiar boss.

The story cutscenes surrounding my actions were at least enticing, pulling at my heartstrings as they urged me to help find missing children or take out bandits that were attacking weakened farmers. Sadly, the actual process of completing those tasks quickly felt thankless because of the rote combat. There are upgrade trees that can diversify your moveset as you level up, and I’m keen to investigate them further to see how they impact encounters in the full game, but in this early portion, fighting is mostly monotonous.

Thankfully, you can find platforming puzzles nestled across the sizable, icon-covered map that offer a decent reprieve from the mindless fighting, even in spite of the floaty movement. Amongst the medieval castles and quaint villages, dilapidated buildings and cliff faces hide secrets that you can pinpoint with your area scanning tool. Hidden doorways and chests await, usually providing useful caches of loot or lore. When you’re wandering around and getting into the flow of it all, Kingsroad can start to resemble something like a stripped-back mobile port of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The interface design and structure of the open-world and combat seem particularly derivative of Ubisoft’s viking odyssey. It’s not a bad skeleton for a Game of Thrones game, though it can feel a bit egregious at times as you use your ping to highlight hidden enemies.

That said, barriers are set up around this open world in the form of Recommended Momentum requirements. Momentum is a bit like Gear Score in Destiny, a numerical valuation of your stats that takes into account your armour and skill progression, equipped accessories, and more. You’ll need to buff every aspect of your character in order to surpass the criteria required for exploring a new area, which is a reasonable enough limitation if properly tuned. But, rather predictably for a game with its eye on a mobile audience, the trove of consistent loot I was earning from early missions inevitably started to dry up, and I came face to face with the real amount of work needed to continue unlocking story missions. This is where the sinister undertone of Kingsroad’s live service design really starts to rear its head.

The bevy of activities available are persistently counterbalanced by the copious microtransactions peppered throughout. Even beyond the bog-standard battle pass and abundance of different in-game currencies, I was surprised to see just how much of the actual gameplay was tied to some form of transaction. For example, when you die in combat, you can choose to wait 30 seconds or pay to come back faster with all your healing items intact – an essential inclusion if you want to avoid trawling back to camp to buy more items. Alternatively, you can fast travel the slow way by hoofing it to a special signpost, or pay for a premium version where you can warp for free from anywhere on the map. Annoyingly, all of these features impact how efficiently you can reach the Momentum requirements needed to progress, so you’re always goaded to put your hand in your pocket.

Behind every passably accessible system was a far more user-friendly one, but only if you’re willing to fork out for it. It felt as though Netmarble was more concerned with making Kingsroad just frustrating enough to encourage people to spend a bit of cash rather than making the base game reasonably enjoyable on its own. While it’s naive to assume a free-to-play game such as this wouldn’t offer some form of paid content, a cash-based system has been implemented into almost every corner of what’s here, and it cheapens both the world you are exploring and any success you may find there.

Perhaps what’s most upsetting about this model is that beneath the plethora of currencies and grind-heavy progression, Kingsroad does have the capacity to capture the magic of its source material. Riding on a dire wolf across hazy pastoral lands and watching them gradually gain a coat of frost feels cinematic on occasion (and, again, as long as you don’t stop to look too closely). Plus, the stories of the quests I’ve tackled so far do well to curate a tragic atmosphere. But when push comes to shove, the mythic world I was reaching for was always shoved just slightly out of reach by some intrusive nudge to pull out my wallet.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s that it still feels as though I’m barely scratching the surface Game of Thrones: Kingsroad despite sinking over 20 hours into it already. There’s so much more I want to explore in the 1.0 version before I deliver my final verdict, like artefacts, upgrade trees, and the estate management systems. As of right now, though, one thing is abundantly clear: When you play Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, you pay or you die.

There’s something uniquely satisfying about putting down roots in a sleepy town in games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, or Disney Dreamlight Valley. Palia evolves this tradition to great effect, injecting large-scale multiplayer into that tried-and-true formula. After more than 70 hours of chopping down trees, hunting woodland critters, decorating my home, and hanging out with my fellow Palians, I’ve had a fantastic time catching up on all I’ve missed since the early days of the beta. There are beautiful regions to explore, interesting items and artifacts to craft or collect, and lots of compelling quests to complete – and the new content in the Elderwood expansion that arrived alongside its console launch added quite a bit to what was already a life-consuming vortex of coziness. That said, Palia still feels quite unfinished in some ways, with a story that abruptly cuts off right in the middle and some pretty serious bugs and performance issues plaguing it, but it’s easy to forgive much of that when you and your friends are enjoying a quiet evening of fishing together.

Palia is a cozy life sim with one major tweak: you’re in an online world that occasionally compels you to come out of your shell and interact with other humans – a sometimes Herculean task for the introverts often drawn to this genre. As you explore, you’ll encounter others out in the shared world going about their business, and are encouraged (or sometimes required) to cooperate with them. For example, you’ll get a buff for fishing with others and will find magical trees that can only be chopped down with the help of one or more friends. This has led to a community that’s astoundingly positive and helpful, with the vast majority of the public chat being PSAs from players who have found a valuable resource they’d like to share with strangers, then waiting for minutes on end for everyone to assemble before collecting it as a group. I spend a lot of time playing multiplayer games defined by the community’s potent toxicity and savage greed, so this kind of culture was truly a shock to my system that took me a long time to adjust to.

Although multiplayer is its signature twist, you can still do the vast majority of Palia’s activities by yourself. There’s also just a whole heck of a lot for you to do however you decide to tackle it, all in service of building up your home and improving your relationships with the NPC townsfolk. The usual zen-like staples of cooking and catching bugs are all here and actually quite good – the fishing minigame, for example, is less mindless than you usually find in the genre, having you tug and pull on your rod as the fish leaps into the air and puts up a fight. There’s even a few less common options like hunting, where you’ll pick off poor critters who burrow into the ground and leap into trees as you pepper them with arrows. While an absence of stress is an intentional focus of Palia’s design, it sometimes tries a bit too hard to accomplish that goal, like in how your arrows will magically home in on your target incredibly aggressively, sometimes turning corners to aid your aim. I’m all for a laid back experience, but it can be a bit obnoxious when you’re trying to line up a shot and the magnetism training wheels curve your arrow toward a different creature altogether, frustrating what’s supposed to be a chill activity.

Palia has a surprisingly full-featured main story as well. It has you exploring ancient ruins to uncover the truth about a world which was once populated by humans who are curiously gone now, and the dark history of magic that seemingly caused the collapse of society. This adventure is much more light-hearted than that might sound, though, and you’re mostly just given opportunities to learn about the world and hang out with the characters who accompany you on quests while you platform around and solve simple puzzles. Per Palia’s adherence to cozy virtues, none of this is particularly demanding, and the mainline quests can be completed in a matter of hours if you focus on them, but I enjoyed diving just a tad deeper into the world and the break from grinding for iron ore to craft the next piece of furniture I just couldn’t live without.

That said, while I quite enjoy the tale Palia tells, it feels disappointingly incomplete compared to every other aspect of the adventure – even after the Elderwood expansion arrived. The original cliffhanger ending was replaced by yet another hanging chad just an hour or two later, with a handful of chores and a brief new major dungeon spread across a surprisingly short bit of story. You’re telling me I’ve got this massive new map to explore, new creatures to hunt, and new characters to romance, but we still haven’t finished even one arc in the main plot.

Thankfully, there are plenty of distractions and minigames to mix things up, like a hotpot-themed card game I spent way too much time playing, or a surprisingly intricate platforming puzzle that took me hours to master. Sometimes these experiments exceed Palia’s grasp, like the platforming sections in particular, which are held back by clunky controls that don’t seem like they were designed with precision in mind – climbing can be quite an irritating experience as your character will let go of surfaces inconsistently, sending you plummeting to your death. But the stakes in taking these spills are always very low, so there’s not much to lose aside from a bit of your time wasted. Other times, you’ll find yourself doing a sliding picture puzzle and think “y’know, this is pretty nice,” so I mostly found myself happy they took these shots nonetheless.

Of course, the purpose behind all these undertakings is to gain as much gold as you can to upgrade and decorate your home, and Palia’s got one of the better home building systems I’ve seen. Rather than giving you no control over the blueprint of your house like in Animal Crossing or Disney Dreamlight Valley, or making you monkey around with a building mode that has you placing individual walls like The Sims, Palia favors a modular system: You unlock schematics for pieces of a home that you can freely snap onto various parts of your building, making it easy to design the general layout without having to get lost in the weeds. Then, once you’ve built your place, you can decorate it down to the most minute detail, dragging furniture, dolls, and cups around on a grid to make it just so. I could probably spend dozens of hours on this part of Palia alone, were it not for my insatiable need for cold hard cash to fund my homestead expansion. But that desire to make your place exactly as awesome as you want it to be is a serious motivator that sent me out in search of lumber and iron ore time and time again.

Those resource grinds each have their own progression systems as well, as you level up by repeatedly going out into the world and bringing back your haul of raw materials and collectibles to sell. As you plant trees and craft furniture, you’ll unlock new equipment like a loom for creating fabric or a furnace for creating glass. You’ll also get better tools to perform cozy chores with, like a hoe that lets you till land faster or a bow and arrows that will let you take down prey in fewer shots, each of which feels like a handy upgrade that shows up at exactly the right moment you start feeling a need for it. The timegating that sometimes boxes you out of marathoning through everything in other life sims is mercifully absent here for the most part, so you can move as fast or as slow as you care to.

The other major pursuit in Palia is in getting to know and develop relationships with its 26 NPC residents, most of whom are really well-written and have a lot more to them than meets the eye. Most have an arc that takes place over several quests where they let you see a bit more of their personality as you forge a friendship. I quite enjoyed hanging out with the sarcastic and moody daughter of the mayor, Kenyatta, who worked the front desk with all the enthusiasm of April from Parks and Recreation – but after helping her down the extremely chaotic path of discovering what she’s passionate about in life, I grew to appreciate her in a less superficial way. Even characters I really didn't jive with like Elouisa, a cryptid-obsessed hippy who annoyed me to no end, was at least entertainingly irritating, and I’ve learned to appreciate how much her personality bothers me over time. (We’ve all got a friend like that, don’t we?) And, of course, if you’re looking for more than friendship you can partake in Palia’s quite strong dating mechanics to get yourself a girlfriend or boyfriend, or several of them – no judging here.

Unfortunately, this is one area where timegating gets in the way of a good time, and is one of the only places Palia boxes you out. You’re only allowed to chat with each character once per in-game day (a 30-minute period of real time), which improves your social links a very small amount, and you can only give each character a gift once per real world day. So if you’re trying to finish a particular character’s story, you’ll have to log on with regularity and be subjected to the same rotation of brief banter before you’re able to make any real progress. This is especially painful early on when your citizenship in Kilima Village is dependent on having someone in town to vouch for you – a task that’s made impossible to do in a short span by timegating. When every other area of Palia lets you play to your heart’s content, it’s pretty annoying to see such an essential part of this slice of life block you from progressing at your own pace.

Palia has come a long way since I first played it over a year ago, but one thing that remained true after this latest update is that it’s still missing quite a bit. Even with the beefy new Elderwood map joining the original two, the number of areas to explore is fairly small, and though they’ve got nooks and crannies for you to discover, you can more-or-less see most of what’s available in a few hours. Social features, though awesome when they happen, still feel quite slim for a game where the killer feature is supposed to be its online functionality, and there aren’t enough activities that encourage group play. And although there are quite a few options for decorating your house, surprisingly little of it can be interacted with once placed. You can’t lie in bed, turn on the sink, or really do much of anything with most objects, which sometimes made me feel like I was building a museum rather than a home. (They did add the ability to flick the light switches on and off, which is at least something.) Elderwood isn’t planned to be the final update or anything, so these are shortcomings that will hopefully be built out in the future, but I’m a bit surprised that some of them aren’t farther along all the same.

The other major issue with Palia has been its bugs and performance issues, which have gotten remarkably better but are still pretty common. I quite frequently see NPCs sink into the floor, sometimes altogether hidden underground to the point where I can’t interact with them, there’s a bunch of very visible pop-in that happens while you’re running around, and loading times when traveling between each section of the map feel far longer than they should. Playing on the Nintendo Switch is especially eyebrow raising, as everything looks pretty awful and runs significantly worse, to the point where I really can’t recommend it on that platform in the same way I enthusiastically would elsewhere.

As part of its greater HP Memorial Day Sale, HP is offering some excellent deals on its Omen Max 16 gaming laptops equipped with the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti or RTX 5080 mobile graphics. The Omen Max is HP's newest gaming laptop for 2025; it is essentially the Omen 16 but with better materials (including an aluminum-magnesium alloy chassis and lid) and a beefier cooling system to accommodate more powerful, current generation hardware. Both GPUs represent a healthy uplift in performance compared to the RTX 40 series cards, with the RTX 5070 Ti comparable to the RTX 4080 and the RTX 5080 surpassing the RTX 4090.

HP Omen Max 16" RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Laptop for $2,150

In general, the best Memorial Day sales are on things like furniture or clothing. But that doesn't stop retailers from sneaking in discounts on other stuff. Although the Amazon Memorial Day sale has been rather unimpressive so far, the online retailer does actually have a few surprisingly good 4K movie deals going on right now.

These discounts aren't quite as good as the big three for $33 sale Amazon had last month, but if you're looking to add any of these specific films to your physical media collection, these prices are worth considering.

The Best Amazon 4K Movie Deals Today

While there aren't a ton of deals on 4K movies in this sale, the ones that are available are all pretty good. The overall best deal right now is on the Batman (1989) 4K Steelbook. It has dropped to the lowest price we've ever seen and it also comes with a Blu-ray disc. If you're a fan of Michael Keaton's Batman, this is a must-have for your collection. The Schindler's List 25th Anniversary Edition Steelbooks is also at its lowest ever price. The Oscar-winning film was one of the first big movies that put Liam Neeson on the map and is arguably still his best performance to date.

If you're looking for the overall best value, the Get Out/Us Double Feature bundle is sitting at a great price. You get two of Jordan Peele's horror movies for only $25.99, which is the lowest price we've ever seen for this combo.

Outside of those three deals, a few other price drops are worth noting that aren't necessarily a part of Amazon's Memorial Day sale. The latest Captain America movie only recently came out on 4K and Blu-ray and it is already pretty heavily discounted. It's worth adding to your Marvel collection if you already have one, but it wasn't very well-received by critics, so it's potentially worth skipping if you haven't actually seen it yet. There's also a pretty substantial discount on House of the Dragon Season 1, which isn't a movie but noteworthy all the same.

Should You Buy Now or Wait for Amazon Prime Day?

Since Memorial Day sales aren't exactly a treasure trove of 4K movie deals (at least so far), it's probably safe to say you can wait to make any major purchases for your collection until later on. That being said, Prime Day might not be the only time worth buying physical media. Amazon has had two major buy three for $33 movie sales in 2025 and these have been the best overall chances to build yourself a collection. We expect there to be a lot of movie deals on Prime Day this year, because there were last year, but keep your eye out for other special promotions if you want to save the most money possible.

A jump starter is an essential part of car's emergency kit, and a cordless one eliminates the need to plug it into an available cigarette lighter. You don't need to pay a premium for a jump starter that reliably gets the job done, either. Amazon is currently offering Amazon Prime members this AstroAI S8 Pro 12V 3,000A cordless car jump starter for $32.99 shipped after you clip a 45% off coupon code "AQ97FOMC". Not only does it function as a car jump starter, it can also be used as a power bank to recharge your smartphone in a pinch.

Update: This deal is no longer reserved for Amazon Prime members only.

AstroAI S8 Pro 12V 3,000A Car Jump Starter for $32.99

George Wendt, the comedian-turned-actor best known for his role as “Norm Peterson” on the classic sitcom Cheers, died Tuesday at the age of 76.

Wendt died peacefully in his sleep at home, according to The Hollywood Reporter, who received the following statement from a family representative:

“George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him. … He will be missed forever. The family has requested privacy during this time.”

The Chicago native began his career as a standup comic in the 1970s with the improv troupe Second City. As an actor, Wendt found fame – and earned six consecutive Emmy nominations for best supporting actor in a comedy series – during his 11 seasons on Cheers.

Memorial Day 2025 is coming up (the day itself is May 26), but some retailers have already pulled the lever on their sales. You can find Memorial Day sales live at Amazon, Best Buy, and more stores. Among the many appliances and yard tools on sale, you can find some killer deals on video games. Below, you'll find our picks for all the best video game deals in all of the Memorial Day sales that are currently live. Let’s dive in.

The Best Video Game Deals Today

Above is a blurb-free carousel of all the best video game deals for Memorial Day 2025. For details and links on some of the games, keep on reading.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for $49.99

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 for $39.99

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake for $39.99

Star Wars Jedi Survivor for $19.99

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition for $49.99

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 for $19.99

See More Memorial Day Sales Live Now

Looking for more discounts outside of video games? There are already a ton of Memorial Day sales live for 2025. Below are some of the biggest ones we've found so far.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

The graphic novel Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir (MCD, 2024) by Tessa Hulls has won the Pulitzer Prize, announced on May 5.

Feeding Ghosts is the second graphic novel to ever win the Pulitzer, the first being Art Spiegelman’s Maus in 1992. In that instance, Maus received a Special Award. Feeding Ghosts, however, won in a regular category, Memoir or Autobiography, having competed against the best English prose in the world. What’s more, it’s Hulls’ debut graphic novel.

Widely considered the most prestigious award in journalism, literature, and music in the US, the Pulitzer Prize is second only to the Nobel Prize internationally.

It’s a momentous accomplishment, ostensibly the biggest news in the field of comics. But surprisingly, it’s barely been reported on. Since the book won two weeks ago, only a handful of mainstream and trade press reported about it—notably Seattle Times and Publishers Weekly—and only one major comic book news outlet, Comics Beat.

The book, which according to Hulls took almost a decade to create, was called by the Pulitzer Prize Board “An affecting work of literary art and discovery whose illustrations bring to life three generations of Chinese women – the author, her mother and grandmother, and the experience of trauma handed down with family histories.”

Feeding Ghosts traces the reverberations of Chinese history across three generations. Hulls’ grandmother, Sun Yi, was a Shanghai journalist swept up by the turmoil of the 1949 Communist victory. After fleeing to Hong Kong, she wrote a best-selling memoir about her persecution and survival, but then suffered from a mental breakdown, from which she never recovered.

Growing up with Sun Yi, Hulls watched both her mother and grandmother struggle beneath the weight of unexamined trauma and mental illness, which she dealt with by leaving home for the most remote corners of the globe. Eventually, though, she returned to face her own fear and trauma, a generational haunting that could only be healed with the love of family.

“I didn’t feel like I had a choice. My family ghosts literally told me I had to do this,” Hulls said in an interview last month. “My book is called Feeding Ghosts, because that was the beginning of this nine year process of really stepping into something that was my family duty.”

Hulls’ first graphic novel may also be her last, however. “I learned that being a graphic novelist is really too isolating for me,” she said in another interview. “My creative practice relies on being out in the world and responding to what I find there.” On her website, she says she’s “setting out to become an embedded comics journalist working with field scientists, indigenous groups, and nonprofits working in remote environments.”

Whatever the future holds for this groundbreaking artist, Feeding Ghosts deserves to be recognized and celebrated outside the world of comics and especially within.

Roy Schwartz is a pop culture historian and critic. He is a former CNN regular contributor, the author of Is Superman Circumcised? The Complete Jewish History of the World’s Greatest Hero and co-producer of the documentary JewCE: The Jewish Comics Experience. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @RealRoySchwartz and at royschwartz.com.

If you're in the market for a mechanical keyboard that skips the flashy RGB in favor of something a little more classic, you're in luck. Best Buy has dropped the price of the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard, which includes the Best Buy-exclusive joystick, from $100 down to just $80. This is a feature-rich keyboard that not only feels great to use but also looks the part. Check out the full breakdown of the deal below or dive into the full Best Buy Memorial Day sale for more deals like this.

8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard with Joystick on Sale

Eddington opens in theaters Friday, July 18. This review is based on a screening at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

With Eddington, 21st-century horror maestro Ari Aster makes an ambitious swing towards politically flavored comedy – but he misses just as wildly with this dusty, small-town modern Western. The first misfire of Aster’s directorial career makes a futile attempt to capture and satirize the rampant paranoia and cultural fault lines of the summer of 2020 via its COVID-era tale of bitter rivals running for mayor. With flailing jabs in every direction, Eddington ends up with shockingly little to say, and meanders for much of its 145-minute runtime.

There’s some superficial enjoyment to be found, especially in the lead performances: Eddington is an extremely slight work in the body of a comedy that’s only ever funny because the likes of Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone make real attempts at finding something beneath the surface. But given the material they’re working with, they often come up short. Phoenix plays Joe Cross, the rebellious, alarmingly individualistic sheriff of the fictional Eddington, New Mexico, who spends his time listening to right-wing talk radio and attempting to politely (but aggressively) navigate his way around pandemic mandates (or insisting that others do so). His messy domestic life informs at least some of his frustrations, between his withdrawn, younger wife, Louise (Stone), and their intrusive, extended-stay house guest: Louise’s mother, Dawn (Deirdre O'Connell).

Whenever Joe comes home, he finds Louise and Dawn lost down their own separate online rabbit holes. Louise gravitates towards the teachings of new age self-help messiah Vernon Jefferson Peak (a severely underused Austin Butler), while Dawn constantly absorbs and regurgitates absurd conspiracy theories from YouTube. At a glance, these details are not entirely unfamiliar: When Joe scrolls through his phone, he’s met with a variety of content that’s either incendiary or mind-numbingly banal, as any of us might. However, much of this is just window dressing, worthy of a chuckle before we forget about it (Eddington certainly does). Fed up with the state of things, Joe decides to run for mayor against incumbent candidate Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), a smirking politician who harbors an angry streak at home, and who hopes to inject the town with tech jobs by welcoming the construction of a massive data center – portending the popularity of AI in a few years’ time. This is perhaps the closest Aster comes to offering any lasting social commentary.

Given Joe’s attempts to skirt the very rules he’s supposed to enforce, it’s hard not to be unsettled by some of the movie’s early interactions. Rightly so: Phoenix is incredibly adept at barely buried simmering, ensuring that Eddington begins in unnerving territory. This, however, ends up a promise unfulfilled. There’s little exploration beyond the period-piece façade of social distancing and social unrest, which hint towards wider details and context we never see, and whose effects seldom trickle down into anyone’s behavior beyond the first time we meet them. It’s a film in emotional and thematic stasis, even when things appear to change rapidly. It may be set in 2020, but the sickening roller-coaster feeling of living through that moment in time is rarely reflected.

When protests over the police killing of George Floyd begin spreading throughout the United States, the people of Eddington begin preparing for an explosion – but the blast feels only partially formed, and entirely insincere. On one hand, as the town’s more conservative residents grow furious at the increasing presence of Black Lives Matter protesters, Joe and his deputy Guy (Luke Grimes), both white, try to navigate the awkwardness of open discussion with trainee Mike (Michael Ward), who is Black. This subplot makes for an amusing flourish, but it unfolds at length without ever engaging with its central tension beyond fleeting punchlines, and the comedy is seldom informed by Mike’s perspective or experience. On the other hand, the protesters are caricatures of teenagers who don’t know better than to adopt an enlightened vocabulary they barely understand in order to get laid or to show off online. All the while, a lingering enmity between Joe and Ted looms larger, concerning a possible sexual impropriety between Ted and Louise, which may have ushered the latter into her cocoon.

Whatever Aster’s attempts with this premise, he spins far too many plates, and his approach ensures that Eddington’s satire is no deeper than a kiddie pool. The film plays with incendiary material but fumbles it constantly, by rarely (if ever) making genuine attempts to examine the humor or absurdity found within its characters’ points of view. Aster’s grief-tinged horror movies Hereditary and Midsommar depend on a genuine, detailed understanding of who he’s making suffer and why, but he doesn’t apply those skills here. Its construction is ideologically flimsy, as though drawn from a highly removed liberal angle on both right-wing frustrations and left-wing activism. For instance, the mess of conspiracies in Joe’s life keep the more paranoid characters at odds (rather than their paranoia feeding off each other), while the film’s engagement with the era’s discourse on race and policing is no more detailed or honest than that of the teen characters delving into these topics for the very first time.

When Eddington loosens its grip on reality, introducing manifestations of imagined far-right phantoms – like global cabals of child predators responsible for every crime, or an armed Antifa super-state that may as well be an organization run by Bond villains – its ravings feel distinctly un-tethered from Joe’s outlook. Imagine, for a moment, a version of the anxiety-inducing opening act of Aster’s Beau is Afraid, in which Phoenix’s Beau becomes besieged on all sides by a Fox News nightmare of a crime-ridden American city – only this time, Beau isn’t afraid. In Eddington, it’s always someone else’s worst fears peeking through the edge of the frame, rather than Joe’s. What ought to be experiential and visceral becomes distantly observed, since the concerns of Phoenix’s sheriff tend to lie far away from the plot’s strange, Under the Silver Lake-esque unveilings.

What is arguably commendable about the film is the way it shifts in tone, from broad political send-up to crime mystery, after a key turn in the plot about midway through. However, this transformation ends up feeling at odds with the movie’s attempts to dramatize one of the freakier years in recent memory. Its style never evolves in a way that goes deeper into that mood. Even its sprawling Southwestern setting is often reduced to a broad symbol of neighborly schisms and civic malaise, alongside a violent cruelty towards its characters that’s anything but nuanced – let alone as potent as an editorial cartoon.

Rigorous satire hardly demands a gentle hand. However, it does demand the rigor of knowing one’s target intimately, in order to strike it with precision. But Eddington is far from precise. Its distant perspective on the many concerns it portrays – across the bounds of party affiliation or taste – results in a disaffected work that has little to say about its chosen moment, other than the fact that some people were bothered by what they may have imagined others were believing. The film itself may as well be one of those subjects, given its old-man-yells-at-cloud approach to any topic that might remotely force the average viewer to confront their own biases, or even reflect on the festering, uncomfortable feelings that defined the era – and continue to define the current one. If you’re looking for a movie that observes the twisted emotional complexities of a world deep in crisis, and says, “Can’t we all just get along?” then Eddington may be for you.