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The Decked Out Lenovo Legion Tower 7 RTX 5090 Gaming PC Drops to $3,600 for Black Friday

Lenovo's most powerful Legion gaming PC just dropped to a new price low. The Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 10 gaming PC equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor and RTX 5090 graphics card is marked down to $3,399.99 after you stack two coupon codes "EXTRAFIVE" and "LENOVOHOLIDEAL". This is currently the least expensive RTX 5090 prebuilt I've seen so far for Black Friday. The Alienware Area-51 from Dell Outlet comes close, but it's a refurbished product.

Lenovo Legion Tower 7 RTX 5090 Gaming PC for $3,600

The Legion Tower 7 is Lenovo's top-end desktop computer, boasting a well-ventilated chassis with a mesh front panel housing six total 120mm fans (including three fans for the 360mm liquid cooling system) to keep your components nice and cool. The system is powered by a generously oversized 1,200W power supply. We reviewed last year's Legion Tower 7i desktop, which uses the same chassis, and came away impressed.

This particular configuration features an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor, GeForce RTX 5090 32GB graphics card, a whopping 64GB of DDR5-5600MHz of RAM, and a 2TB PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor has a max turbo frequency of 5.7GHz with 24 cores and a 40MB L2 cache. According to Passmark, this is Intel's best gaming CPU and the Intel chip that can compete with AMD's X3D processors. It's paired with 64GB of DDR5 memory.

The RTX 5090 Is the Most Powerful Graphics Card Ever

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 has emerged as the most powerful consumer GPU on the market. Although with this generation Nvidia has prioritized software updates, AI features, and DLSS 4 technology to improve gameplay performance, the 5090 still boasts an impressive 25%-30% uplift over the RTX 4090 in hardware-based raster performance. If you want the best performance for your gaming PC, there's no competition. Check out our Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 FE review.

Why Choose Lenovo?

Lenovo Legion gaming PCs and laptops generally feature better build quality than what you'd find from other prebuilt PCs. For desktop PCs in particular, people like the fact that Lenovo does not use proprietary components in its computer systems, so they're easier to upgrade with off-the-shelf parts. Although we haven't yet reviewed the new 2025 models, we have reviewed last year's Legion 7 desktop and really liked its build quality and performance.

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.

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These LEGO Sets Are Retiring Soon and Black Friday Deals Are Your Last Chance to Buy

LEGO will soon be retiring another batch of sets, but luckily you can pick some of them up at a discount during early Black Friday deals from Amazon and Target. These are only a handful of sets that will be sunsetted sometime early next year, but you can check out an exhaustive list on BrickEconomy for a full breakdown of which LEGO sets are on the way out.

LEGO's official Black Friday sale doesn't kick off until November 28, so be sure to check back this Friday for more LEGO deals on sets retiring soon.

LEGO Sets Retiring Soon On Sale For Black Friday

All of the above are great LEGO sets for adults, especially if you're a big Star Wars fan. The Droideka buildable model is an impressive almost one-to-one recreation of its onscreen counterpart and even rolls into a ball. The Tantive IV and Mos Espa Podrace models are also good picks that look great in a home office space. All three of these sets are part of the LEGO Star Wars 25th Anniversary collection and come with info plaques printed onto bricks.

The LEGO Ideas line turns LEGO fans' creations into actual sets, and the Insect Collection is a colorful, super detailed kit featuring a buildable beetle, praying mantis, and butterfly. Target has the Ideas Viking Village model, which harkens back to a LEGO era circa 2007 before the majority of their set were depicted licensed properties. This comes with four Viking minifigures and tons of little details in the 2,103-piece build.

LEGO Black Friday Deals at Best Buy

Amazon and Target aren't the only retailers offering discounted LEGO sets for this year's Black Friday. Best Buy has a handful of fun sets to pick from on the cheap, including a few of the sets that will be retired soon.

Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.

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A Bunch of Lord of the Rings Board Games Are Getting Limited Black Friday Discounts

A handful of fun Lord of the Rings board games are on sale at Amazon as part of its Black Friday sale. Most of these are Amazon Lightning Deals, meaning they're only available while supplies last. You can save between 15% and 30%, depending on the game you pick, and they vary in play style from hours-long campaign style games to shorter sessions for a quick game night.

The Lord of the Rings Board Games On Sale For Black Friday

Risk: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition is a classic with an iconic skin. This version of the popular board game comes with maps of Middle-Earth locations like Gondor, Mordor, and more, making you feel like you're actually doing battle with hordes of orcs. There's also The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth card game and the Spreading War Expansion, two very in-depth campaign games that'll definitely make you lose a few hours.

For a little quicker and lighter, the Duel For Middle-Earth strategy game has players choose between the Fellowship or Sauron in an epic battle that only takes about 30 minutes to complete. In our hands-on review of the game, we said "Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth deserves to be lauded for presenting such an exciting and varied game off the back of such an accessible setup."

I'd also recommend the Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking game we reviewed earlier this year. This roughly 20-minute experience takes you through the story of the first book, using cards to either progress or avoid peril. In our hands-on review we mentioned "Its simple rules and working together gameplay make it great for families, but its twists on the trick-taking formula and storytelling beats make it deserve a much wider audience."

Whichever game you decide to try out, it will offer plenty of replayability for dozens of hours of board gaming.

More Lord of the Rings Gifts

If you're not that into board games, we also have a detailed Lord of the Rings gift guide to look through, perfect for holiday shopping for that special Middle-Earth fan in your life. We cover everything from LEGO sets and Magic: The Gathering cards, to jigsaw puzzles and the massive Deluxe Illustrated Editions of all the books. Or if you're looking for something a little different, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Soundtrack on vinyl is part of the Amazon's popular buy 2, get 1 free deal on vinyl and CD's, books, movies, and more.

Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.

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A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Seven-Film 4K Blu-ray Collection Hits Its Lowest Price Yet for Black Friday

Black Friday is a great time of year to stock up on Blu-ray copies, 4K and otherwise, of your favorite movies and TV shows. Take A Nightmare on Elm Street's seven-film 4K Blu-ray collection, now at its lowest price yet of just $82.89 at Amazon for Black Friday. That's down from $104.98, and just under $12 per movie!

Black Friday Deal: Save on A Nightmare on Elm Street 4K Collection

If you've got an itch for a holiday horror marathon, Freddy Krueger is prepared to scratch it across these seven movies in the mainline Nightmare series. (We're sorry to report that 2003's Freddy vs. Jason isn't included.) In addition to the movies, this set includes theatrical and uncut versions of the first and 5th films in the series, along with other bonuses that include a pair of 3D glasses for the 3D ending of Freddy's Dead. Here's the full list of movies in the collection:

All Movies in A Nightmare on Elm Street’s 4K Collection

  • A Nightmare on Elm Street
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
  • Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
  • Wes Craven's New Nightmare

If these seven films aren't enough and you're looking for more to marathon throughout December, Amazon's got you covered with plenty of great 4K and HD Blu-ray deals right now. Alongside this collection, the retailer has also dropped the price of the Dark Knight Trilogy on 4K below $30 and Jurassic Park (one of my personal favorites) on 4K is down to less than $12. There's no better time to stock up on the movies and shows that have been on your radar this year.

For a full breakdown of the series, make sure to check out our guide to A Nigthmare on Elm Street movies in order.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

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This is The Best PlayStation 5 Console Deal for Black Friday This Year, Here's Why

The PlayStation 5 has been around for going on five years, and Sony’s system shows no sign of slowing down. In that time, we’ve had exclusives like Spider-Man 2, Ghost of Yotei, and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Plus, with Marvel’s Wolverine slated for 2026, there's plenty more to look forward to.

And, thanks to Amazon’s Black Friday deals, you can save $100 on a PS5 just in time for Christmas. My favorite pick is currently the PS5 NBA 2K26 Bundle, now $449.99.

As it includes a free game in NBA 2K26, you're getting another $70 in value (or $30 in the sales), so this is arguably the best console deal in the sale.

Save $100 On A PS5 for Black Friday

At Amazon, you can snap up a PS5 Slim with a disc drive for playing physical games and media for $449, or a Digital Edition for $399. That includes the new Black Friday Fortnite bundles, as well.

There's also $100 off the PS5 Pro, which uses PSSR upscaling for enhanced resolution without sacrificing frame rate, and it has advanced ray tracing in supported games, as well as a 2TB internal SSD. The console is down to $649.

While Microsoft puts its games just about anywhere, Sony still has plenty of franchises it’s keeping for itself (and for PC gamers via Steam). From Marvel’s Spider-Man to God of War, these are games you won’t find on another console, making PS5 easy to recommend for players who are interested in a whole multitude of genres and IP.

With the PS5 being slimmed down, we gave the hardware 8 out of 10 in our review, with Jada Griffin saying, “In 2023, the slimmed-down PlayStation 5 maintains all of its strengths. Extremely fast loading times and a best-in-class controller make it a pleasure to use.”

The PS5 Pro, on the other hand, got a 7 out of 10 from Michael Higham. Michael said, “The PlayStation 5 Pro is an impressive console with noticeable boosts in performance and graphics for games that take advantage of its powerful hardware.”

“But for $700, you’ll need to think twice about whether or not the upgrade is worth the price tag.”

Given that you can save $100, that might make the price easier to manage.

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.

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The Well-Equipped Lenovo Legion Tower 7 RTX 5080 Gaming PC Drops Below $2,100 for Black Friday

For Black Friday, Lenovo has dropped Legion Tower 7 RTX 5080 gaming PC to the absolute lowest price I've ever seen. You can get a nicely configured system for just $2,089.99 after you apply coupon code "EXTRAFIVE" in cart. This beats out the previous low by over $300. It's not the least expensive RTX 5080 prebuilt for Black Friday (the Alienware Aurora R16 starts at $1,815), but it's easily one of the most well-rounded configurations for its price.

Lenovo Legion Tower 7 RTX 5080 Gaming PC From $2,090

The Legion Tower 7 is Lenovo's top-end desktop computer, boasting a well-ventilated chassis with a mesh front panel housing six total 120mm fans (including three fans for the 360mm liquid cooling system) and an 850W 80Plus Gold power supply. This particular configuration features an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K processor, GeForce RTX 5080 16GB graphics card, 32GB of DDR5-5600MHz of RAM, and a 2TB PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor has a max turbo frequency of 5.7GHz with 24 cores and a 40MB L2 cache. According to Passmark, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a better gaming chip than the previous generation's Intel Core i9-14900K.

The RTX 5080 is the second best Blackwell graphics card, surpassed only by the $2,000 RTX 5090. It's about 5%-10% faster than the previous generation RTX 4080 Super, which is discontinued and no longer available. In games that support DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation exclusive to Blackwell cards, the gap widens. This is an outstanding card for playing even the latest games at 4K resolution with high settings and ray tracing enabled. Check out our RTX 5080 GPU review.

Why Choose Lenovo?

Lenovo Legion gaming PCs and laptops generally feature better build quality than what you'd find from other prebuilt PCs. For desktop PCs in particular, people like the fact that Lenovo does not use proprietary components in its computer systems, so they're easier to upgrade with off-the-shelf parts. Although we haven't yet reviewed the new 2025 models, we have reviewed last year's Legion 7 desktop and really liked its build quality and performance.

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.

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Cricket 26 Review

When I fired up Cricket 26 for the first time and hopped into a quick five-over game to get my eye in, I was pleasantly surprised by how substantially smoother it all seemed in contrast with the messy launch state of 2023’s Cricket 24. Cricket 26’s lighting and player models all really pop, the inputs feel far snappier, and the fielders all seem like they actually know there’s a game being played – unlike the dawdling doofuses in Cricket 24 who all seemed to stand around with their hands in their pockets. Then my match between the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals crashed at the change of innings. At which point I reloaded it, and it crashed again. And again. In fact, the longer I played Cricket 26, the more obvious its numerous technical flaws became, to the point that I’d have to say that my experience with Big Ant Studios’ latest has been a bit like playing on a cricket pitch in Perth – the grass looks greener on day one, but it’s not too long before the cracks start to show.

Still, there’s no question that when it works, Cricket 26 presents a much more enjoyable representation of the sport than Cricket 24 was ever capable of. Batting, in particular, feels far more responsive and natural – whether you’re using the arcade-style button controls or the more intuitive dual-stick setup. For the first time in a long time with this series, I feel like I’m able to consistently direct my strokes where I actually intend them to go, unlike Cricket 24 which often felt a bit predetermined in the way I’d keep knocking off-drives straight to the same cover fielder no matter where I aimed or how well I timed it.

That’s not to say that scoring runs has become too easy, however, and I’ve found myself playing down the wrong line and getting beaten on the inside and outside edges of the bat, which also feels far more true to life. Even on the default difficulty setting, batting in Cricket 26 has provided an absorbing challenge for the most part. I’m yet to feel the need to dig deep into the menus to painstakingly fiddle with the various timing and physics sliders in an effort to make it feel more realistic like I did with Cricket 24, which takes a lot of the trial and error out of the experience.

Bowling, on the other hand, hasn’t changed quite as much but it still feels engaging. I had hoped that the wobble seam delivery would have been added to Cricket 26, especially given that it’s become such a common variation these days that Pat Cummins has basically made it his stock ball, but sadly that’s not the case here – and the floaty knuckleball that a number of Indian pacers have added to their arsenals over the past decade or so hasn’t been included either. However, while the delivery types themselves remain the same, there has been some added nuance introduced in the form of the effect of wind on the ball. An arrow on the edge of the pitch map indicates the direction and strength that a gale is blowing, and that can be used to enhance the amount of swing on a delivery (or if you’re batting, how much further a lofted shot will travel should you aim it downwind). It’s a thoughtful addition that brings some extra strategy to each ball you face or deliver.

Cricket 26 presents a much more enjoyable representation of the sport than Cricket 24 was ever capable of.

There’s clearly been a lot of work put into player animations too, especially as far as unique bowling actions are concerned. It’s great to see Nathan Lyon’s signature right-handed flick to the side as he leaves the top of his mark, or Mitchell Santner’s shark fin-like front hand carving through the air above his head as he’s about to release the ball. Some of these unique bowling actions aren’t just for show, either – I’ve found facing Jofra Archer to be noticeably more awkward than other fast bowlers, not just because of his speed on the ball but also the way he seems to lumber in so casually before suddenly exploding through the crease. It’s kept me more conscious of making subtle adjustments to my shot timing as the opposing team rotates from one bowler to the next.

Elsewhere, fielding has been substantially overhauled, although certain frustrating quirks still remain. There’s now much less of a delay between a fielder gathering the ball and making a return throw, and there are some new catching animations that see them diving and sliding around in a more agile fashion than they ever did in Cricket 24. However, the slow-motion runout system almost always makes me throw to the opposite end that I intended, and wicketkeeper behaviour is erratic. One moment they’re stubbornly refusing to swipe the bails off during a genuine stumping chance, the next they’re taking a superhuman catch around their ankles down the leg side. Yet, by and large, Cricket 26’s fielders display a level of alertness that more closely resembles the real thing, and it’s nice to see them run in pairs for relay throws or dive towards the rope for a tap-back.

Un-urned

Given that it’s been branded as ‘the official game of the Ashes’, you’d think that Cricket 26’s special mode dedicated to the freshly reignited Australia-England rivalry would have been given extra attention from the developers to ensure that it really capitalised on what has been one of the most hyped test series in recent memory. However, there appears to have been about as much thought and effort put into it as England’s approach to batting on day two of the recent first Ashes test. Sure, you do get to play all five test matches in the series in all of the relevant Aussie venues, including a day-night pink ball test at the Gabba, but there really is little else here to distinguish the mode from just building a series yourself using the tour creator that returns from Cricket 24.

There are no practice matches to play for the touring side, although given English coach Brendon McCullum’s ‘it will be alright on the night’ philosophy for player preparation, perhaps that’s true to life. Instead, the build up to each of the five matches in the series goes like this: you press a button to travel to the city hosting the match, complete a fairly modest and non-tailorable training minigame that involves bowling precisely three deliveries and a handful of batting strokes, select your final 11 from your squad of 16, mindlessly spam your way through painfully generic answers in a press conference, and then play the match itself. Repeat that four more times and you’re done.

There appears to have been about as much thought and effort put into [the Ashes mode] as England’s approach to batting on day two of the recent first Ashes test.

There is a team confidence meter to maintain, and optional match objectives to complete as well, but it all feels a bit nebulous. Team confidence fluctuates depending on match results, success or failure in the training minigames, and your responses to press conference questions, but it’s all applied so inconsistently and absolutely none of it seems to have a measurable effect on anything. I failed my first training session and my team confidence took a dive, meaning I went into the opening test at Perth with my Australian team seemingly flagging at 55% confidence. It clearly didn’t make much of a difference, though, since I still ended up smashing England inside three days.

The pre-match press conferences are particularly hard to engage with, given that the questions you have to field are often factually incorrect. I kept getting asked about how I felt about securing a draw in a previous match, even though I’d won it, or I’d be asked to reflect on my performance at a certain venue even though I hadn’t played there yet. It feels less like facing a press room full of proper sports journalists and more like being punked by a crowd of teenage TikTok pranksters.

Successfully completing optional match objectives also gives team confidence a boost, but these goals seem to veer wildly from the realistic to the ridiculous. In one match I was tasked with scoring 64 combined runs with the tail, which was tricky but ultimately attainable, while in another my objective was to bat at above eight runs an over, which is an insane demand for a test match innings. You could field a team of 11 Harry Brooks and still struggle to score at that rate. You couldn’t field a team of 11 Brendan Doggetts, though, or even a single Brendan Doggett for that matter, given that he’s disappointingly absent from Australia’s Ashes squad in Cricket 26 despite making his international debut last week.

Armchair-man of the Board

So the Ashes mode is more slapdash than fierce clash, and Cricket 26’s only other new mode of note, the management career, is equally as half-baked. To be honest, I’m typically not one to dabble in the front office side of sports simulations, so perhaps I’m not best equipped to evaluate this series’ first crack at allowing players to run a cricket club. However, after investing several hours into this fairly superficial squad management sim let’s just say I’m unlikely to become a convert any time soon.

There’s just not an enormous amount to it. You don’t get to manage the budget for player salaries, or hire a coaching staff, for example. You basically just pick your team and either play the matches or simulate them, not unlike the existing player career mode minus the training minigames and net sessions in between. It also seems a shame that there’s no option to watch a generated highlights package when you simulate the result like you can in the Football Manager series. Unless you want to be fully hands-on with each match, your only exposure to the team’s performance is via static scorecards and text-based match reports that pop up in your email inbox, which feels pretty dry.

If you do opt to play the games yourself, there doesn’t appear to be any management options during a match that make it feel any different to the general gameplay featured elsewhere. You can’t, say, run tactical team instructions out to the middle with the 12th man during a drinks break, or send a substitute fielder on because your ageing opening batsman injured his back playing a golf tournament the day before the game. Strangely enough it also doesn’t seem to factor in the unavailability of players with national team duties either. I was able to steer the NSW Blues to the top of the Sheffield Shield, largely because the likes of Australian test team stars Steve Smith, Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc were inexplicably available to be picked for every match of the domestic summer.

Cricket 26’s management career just feels underdone and, in some aspects, partially broken. You can adjust training schedules for each of your players, like assigning them recovery sessions to reduce fatigue or team bonding sessions to boost their individual morale meters. However, I struggled to really get a feel for the impact of these options given that the training section of the management menu often just completely failed to load. I also encountered a bug that would cause Cricket 26 to crash everytime I tried to finalise my line-up. The irony that the design of Cricket 26’s dedicated management mode appears to have been somewhat mismanaged certainly isn’t lost on me.

The irony that the design of Cricket 26’s dedicated management mode appears to have been somewhat mismanaged certainly isn’t lost on me. 

Elsewhere, Cricket 26 possesses most of the same feature set as Cricket 24, from the largely unaltered player career mode to the microtransaction-riddled card collecting of Pro Team – with the latter featuring a new mode called Centurian. At the time of writing this just has a ‘Coming Soon’ message posted on it, leaving me completely in the dark as to what it might actually entail. The robust suite of customisation tools for everything from players to bats to stadia remain present and useful, while the actual number of licensed teams stays more or less the same. On the upside, all but one of the 10 IPL teams are now officially included, but on the downside you still need to rely on the talents of community creators to import Indian and South African squads into Cricket 26, and New Zealand’s Dream11 Super Smash competition has seemingly been ditched entirely.

Patches Fix Matches

In every area in which Cricket 26 excels, though, the shine is regularly taken off it as though it’s been polished with a piece of 60 grit sandpaper pinched from David Warner’s kit bag. It feels exhilarating to setup a batsmen by pushing a few straight balls across him before pulling the trigger on a hooping in-swinger than cannons into his pads, but it’s infuriating to slave away in search of a wicket only to watch a thick edge sail into the keeper’s gloves and have it given not out for no clear reason, with no option to challenge the umpire’s decision (at one point, this happened to me three times in the space of one over). It’s satisfying to swivel-pull a short ball into the crowd for six, but absolutely deflating to hook it down to deep backward square and get caught on the boundary, only to watch the fielder very clearly step on the rope, and still be given out anyway.

I like that matches can now be affected by rain and outcomes can be decided by the Duckworth-Lewis method, but so far my only exposure to it came when I was a mere three overs into the first innings of a T20. Without warning, the game was abruptly called off due to rain and my team was declared the winner – even though I was the only one who’d had a chance to bat. This is not to mention the regular crashes I’ve experienced during the 20 hours or so I’ve invested into Cricket 26 on the PlayStation 5 so far, or the many UI glitches – like the scoreboard for The Hundred that seems to be a placeholder hastily cobbled together in MS Paint. Or the many unrealistic AI behaviours, like bowling a bunch of short stuff in the opening over of a test – or indeed opening the bowling with one of its batsmen.

The shine is regularly taken off it as though it’s been polished with a piece of 60 grit sandpaper pinched from David Warner’s kit bag.

Meanwhile, and as has long since become customary with Big Ant’s cricket games, the in-game commentary is about as accurate as often as a broken wristwatch. I welcome the presence of cricket luminaries like David Gower and Adam Gilchrist to bring their insights to the game, but not when it seems like they’ve been blindfolded and spun around in a circle before they entered the commentary box like they’re playing a verbal game of pin the tail on the donkey.

In spite of these issues, I find myself far more invested in Cricket 26’s future because the core experience out in the field is such a major step up from the previous game that I’m willing to live with the noticeable rough edges. Assuming that Big Ant can stamp out most of the bugs, this could yet turn out to be one of the best cricket simulations the Aussie developer has ever produced. Yet even though the developer does have a track record of providing plenty of post-release support to its cricket games – and there have already been four patches for the PlayStation 5 version in the first week since launch – it’s hard at this point to be confident that it will rectify all of my complaints. As if to justify my slight pessimism, I fired up Cricket 24 this week to compare it side by side with Cricket 26, only to discover that Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett’s facial textures had disappeared completely. I know the English batting order has a tendency to lose their heads, but this is ridiculous – and then my test match crashed before I could even bowl a ball. To be clear, that’s after more than two years of post-launch patching.

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Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Is Down to Only $25 for Black Friday

The legendary Black Friday sales are here, and hundreds of amazing video game deals are live across Amazon, Target, and Best Buy. Among these, the latest Yakuza game – Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii – is down to only $25. If you missed this one back in February, there has never been a better time to jump in and sail the seas with Goro Majima.

Score Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii for $25 During Black Friday

Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii might just be the most unique entry in the entire Like a Dragon/Yakuza series. Goro Majima wakes up on an island without his memories, and before long, he's the head of his very own crew of pirates. It's got the usual Yakuza beat 'em up gameplay, but Pirate Yakuza gets naval combat too, letting players command a pirate ship and attack others on the high seas.

If you've never played a Yakuza game, you can start with Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii if you wish. While the stories are all interconnected, each one stands on its own, too. Some events may not hit the same if you jump around, though, so we recommend playing in order, if possible.

While the next Yakuza game is a much-needed remake of Yakuza 3, Pirate Yakuza will still be a key piece of the story for the next mainline entry. As such, if you're aiming to catch up on the series anytime soon, this is a game you likely will need to play to be prepared for what's to come.

More Amazing Black Friday Video Game Deals

Noah Hunter is a freelance writer and reviewer with a passion for games and technology. He co-founded Final Weapon, an outlet focused on nonsense-free Japanese gaming (in 2019) and has contributed to various publishers writing about the medium.

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Early Black Friday Deals Today: Gaming Deals Across Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox

Black Friday Week has officially arrived, with early Amazon deals causing a domino effect across the world wide web. I've got PlayStation 5 console and game deals, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 bargains, reasonably priced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, highlights from Walmart's Black Friday sale, cheap Hulu add-ons for 12 months and fricking Xbox Crocs. Xbox. Crocs.

There's something crazy in the air today, and it's early Black Friday deals that could very well get you sorted for the holidays before Black Friday drops on 28th. Let's get straight into it:

LEGO Christmas Tree

There are a good number of Christmas-themed LEGO sets available now, but this Christmas tree is the best deal available. It’s actually a 2-in-1 build because you can use the pieces to build one big Christmas tree, or two smaller trees. Either way, $25 for this set is a killer deal ahead of the holidays.

Best PlayStation Deals Today

Elden Ring for $15, Assassin's Creed: Shadows for $30 and the same goes for Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Even Battlefield 6 is going for below MSRP at $52.99. This year's Black Friday video game deals are crazy. Plus, the PS5 Pro is down to $649.99 right now and is a great time to buy at this price.

Best Nintendo Deals Today

Whilst we've got more chance of GTA VI releasing this week than getting a big discount on Nintendo Switch 2, there's plenty of game and accessory discounts to tide us over. Legend of Zelda: TotK amiibo have rocked up for $9.99 (like my Goron jokes!), big first party titles for Nintendo Switch that have free Switch 2 upgrades are also available for $30, like Super Mario Odyssey, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Remake and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. The same goes for Star Wars Outlaws on Switch 2, which is a great technical display on what Nintendo Switch 2 can do (if nothing else).

Best Xbox Deals Today

A Xbox Series X controller for $27.99? I couldn't care less if it's Amazon Resale at that price, and this service is pretty solid to boot. It's also a good time to accept the writing on the wall for Game Pass price hikes, considering you can still get 3 months of Ultimate for $59.99. There's some great game picks for $29.99 each such as Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and EA Sports FC 26.

Top Walmart Black Friday Deals So Far

Walmart has brought its game this year, with deals like AirPods 4 for $69, AirPods Pro 2 for $139 and a 65-inch 4K LED HDR TV for $228. Gaming deals are strong here too, such as the Fortnite PS5 Digital console for $399 that includes nearly 10 in-game cosmetic items including a skin and 1000 V-bucks. That's a perfect present idea right there.

Walmart Pokémon Plushies for $25

Some of these plushies go for over $70 throughout the year as they're bigger at 24" in size. They're official and made by Jazwares, the creators of Squishmallows. Expect these plushies to be soft and made with premium materials. They're brilliant stocking fillers that in no way, shape or form could fit in a stocking.

Black Friday Streaming Deals

Yep, I'm starting to feel the pinch of streaming services now costing more than what a cable subscription used to, which pretty much defeats the object of streaming in the first place. However, some of the biggest platforms (and some niche ones) have some fantastic Black Friday deals to save a small fortune. Mega Fan Crunchyroll is $99.99 for 12 months, which will have your animé itch scratched. Hulu has a number of Disney+ combos and very cheap ways to add services such as HBO Max and stars for $2.99 per month, too.

Xbox Classic Crocks Now Available

You can buy Xbox Crocs with a controller layout on the front of them. I really don't need to say anything else to make you understand that you need them on your feet at all times. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of "Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior". Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.

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The Best Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally Accessories Available Now

The ROG Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally consoles have finally arrived, offering the power and portability of a PC gaming handheld with Microsoft's newly redesigned Xbox interface. Our reviewer liked the ROG Xbox Ally X very much, hailing it the new standard for handhelds moving forward. (We'll be testing the ROG Xbox Ally in the near future too – stay tuned.) While both Xbox Ally models come with a 65W charger and a stand, there are some other clever accessories available that'll let you get the most out of your new gaming machine. From storage upgrades to protective cases and useful docks, we've rounded up the best accessory options available right now.

We've been testing PC gaming handhelds like the Xbox Ally consoles for years, so we've got some good baseline recommendations for some of the most important accessory categories ready to go for launch – and we'll keep this article updated with our latest picks as we get new gear in for testing. But if you're itching to stock up on extras ASAP, these are the accessories we can vouch for with confidence.

Best Xbox Ally X MicroSD Cards

More graphically intensive games often come with hefty storage requirements that can soon outstrip the 512GB built into the Ally or 1TB built into the Ally X, but it's simple to add more storage using great value MicroSD cards. We've restricted our recommendations to cards that meet the A2 standard, as this is a good indicator of reasonable loading time performance. MicroSD cards are now available in sizes up to 2TB, with Samsung, SanDisk and PNY all represented amongst our picks.

Best Xbox Ally X SSD Upgrades

As well as inserting a MicroSD card, you can also upgrade the high-speed NVMe SSD built into the 512GB ROG Ally and 1TB Ally X with a bigger alternative. Asus has opted for a full-size (2280) socket here, so you're not limited to the physically smaller 2230 standard as was the case on the original ROG Ally and Valve's Steam Deck. We've opted for PCIe 4.0 drives that offer a healthy storage increase over the default drives, while also balancing price and performance.

Best Xbox Ally X Screen Protectors

As the Xbox Ally X and Ally share screens with the earlier Asus ROG Ally and Asus ROG Ally X, plenty of screen protector options are available. The DBrand tempered glass screen protector remains our top choice for its overall quality and idiot-proof application, but you've got plenty of cheaper alternatives to pick from should you prefer to stay under $10.

Best Xbox Ally X Gaming Headsets

The Xbox Ally handhelds are designed to be played wherever, so we've selected a quartet of headsets that are also fully mobile. The Arctis GameBuds are our top pick, offering low-latency and high-quality USB-C or Bluetooth audio in a convenient pocketable package, but you could also consider full-size options that are cheaper (the wired HyperX Cloud III) or more expensive (the on-ear Turtle Beach Atlas Air wireless headset and the luxurious Arctis Nova Pro Elite). In general, the more you expect to play these consoles on the go, the more we'd recommend a headset that is light, wireless, and has great ANC.

Best Xbox Ally X Cases

Cases are one of the more model-specific categories, but the free market has responded with a good selection of first-party and third-party options. We've selected both, including a good inexpensive option that's specially adapted for the wider shape of the Xbox Ally and Ally X, the official Asus case that offers a detachable accessory pouch, a classic shoulder bag and the always-popular DBrand Killswitch protective cover. Whether you prefer something slim and simple, or capacious and capable, there are at least a couple of great options to mull over here.

Best Xbox Ally X Docks

The Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally come with a redesigned Xbox interface that should make it easier than ever to stay away from the full-fat Windows 11 interface, but at some point, you're probably going to need to spend some time there to install and set up your non-Xbox games, tinker with settings, or otherwise use these handheld gaming machines more like a regular Windows laptop or desktop. When that time comes, a dock is absolutely indispensable, allowing you to connect a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and other peripherals while also keeping the console charged and ready to go. Docks are also great for turning the Xbox Ally or Xbox Ally X into couch gaming machines, though you'll need a gamepad or other controller as well. This dock from Jsaux is our top pick at present, offering HDMI 2.1 compatibility, gigabit ethernet, two full-size USB ports, USB-C and 100W of pass-through charging.

Best Xbox Ally X Portable Chargers

Battery life is always going to be a concern on the Xbox Ally handhelds, even with the improvements found in the new streamlined version of Windows they sport – and their modern AMD Ryzen Z2 series processors. Having a portable charger on hand can go some way to alleviating battery life anxiety though, with this particular example from Anker giving you an extra 20,000mAh to play with. That should pretty much double your expected battery life, and with up to 65W of output to a single port, the console will recharge even if you're playing a graphically demanding game at the same time.

Best Xbox Ally X Controllers

If you want to use the Xbox Ally X or Xbox Ally with your TV in a more traditional console experience, then you'll need to pick up a gamepad or two. A huge variety of controllers will work here, including standard Xbox Series controllers in Bluetooth mode, but we like the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 as it comes with a convenient USB-C wireless dongle for lower latency and offers better durability than the first-party Microsoft alternative thanks to its TMR joysticks and Hall Effect triggers.

Will is deputy tech editor for IGN, specialising in PC hardware, sim racing, and display tech. He has been publishing about games and technology since 2001 (age 12). Will was formerly Deputy Editor at Digital Foundry. He is currently playing Battlefield 6.

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The Invincible Compendium Trade Paperbacks Are All on Sale For Black Friday

Robert Kirkman's first two trade paperback Invincible Compendiums are part of Amazon's early Black Friday buy 2, get 1 free sale, a great excuse to catch up on the comic that inspired the Amazon show, and pick up another graphic novel for free. Already own one of them? Don't worry – Invincible Compendiums One and Two are 33% and 31% off respectively. As for Invincible Compendium Volume 3, that's on sale for a generous 42% off, but is not included in this bundle deal.

Invincible Compendiums On Sale At Amazon

Published by Image Comics, Invincible quickly become one of the highest praised independent comics around. So much so that it has a multi-season show on Prime Video and its own fighting game on the way. The three Compendiums collect the comic series' entire 144-issue run into three tidy books with complementary spines that should look nice together on any comic fan's bookshelf. If you're more of a digital comics reader, check out our guide on how to start reading Invincible for free online.

And if traditional books are more your style, the buy 2, get 1 free deal has a handful of great box sets of popular series like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Dune, The Chronicles of Narnia, and so much more you can bundle together.

Buy 2, Get 1 Free On More Comics

If you've already read through Invincible, this sale has dozens of other comics included as well. All-Star Superman is one of the best stories featuring our favorite Boy Scout around, while TMNT: The Last Ronin tells an uncharacteristically dark tale compared to the campy, colorful cartoons that gave the Ninja Turtles their mainstream success. I'd also recommend Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, as it's the inspiration for the upcoming film starring Milly Alcock in the title role.

Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.

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Protect Your Xbox Ally or Xbox Ally X With These Top-Tier Cases

The ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X handhelds bring new levels of power and portability to Windows gaming PCs, packing in console-level features into a small package. With even the cheaper vanilla Ally costing $599 and the more expensive Ally X hitting a full $999, it's also a PC that requires some measure of protection, but there isn't a case or cover included in the box. Instead, you'll have to turn to one of the dozens of cases available online, whether that's the lone official option from Asus itself or a third-party design made to fit the Xbox Ally's prodigious dimensions. I've rounded up some of the best options to make that choice clearer.

TL;DR: These Are the Best Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X Cases

I've been testing PC gaming handhelds and the cases that hold them for the last half-decade, and I've got a good sense of the brands and designs that are best poised to stand the test of time, protecting your Xbox Ally and potentially adding on some convenient extras for years to come.

There are a good range of options here, from slimmer bags designed to simply carry the console itself, to roomier cases that offer plenty of space to add in other accessories you may want to bring with you. Many of them include memory card spaces, a holdover of being Switch and Switch 2 case designs, but the best models also include handier slots for tucking in charging cables, docks, and other accessories.

1. Jsaux Carrying Case

The Best Xbox Ally X Case

This Jsaux slim case is our top choice, offering great protection for the Xbox Ally or Xbox Ally X while taking up minimal space. That means there's only room for a few MicroSD or full-size SD cards to be held inside, rather than having a special cavity for extra docks, chargers, or other accessories, but I think that's a reasonable trade-off for anyone that largely uses their Xbox handheld as just that, a handheld.

There are a few niceties here, including a soft inner lining that feels pleasant to touch, extra raised cavities to protect the thumbsticks, and a small handle that means you can carry the case easily in one hand. However, this is still probably best used as a true travel case, packed within a larger bag or backpack.

For the money, this is a great case that absolutely nails the essentials that doesn't overstuff extra features that you may not need.

2. Asus Official ROG Xbox Ally (2-in-1) Premium Case

Best Premium Case

If you prefer a high-end case for your high-end PC gaming handheld, this official option from Asus is excellent. It combines a slim travel case with a detachable accessory pouch, letting you bring everything in one combined unit or leave the accessories at home to travel lighter. The case itself has a water-repellent coating that should save the unit from accidental splashes or light showers, while the memory card sleeve inside can be folded up to serve as a makeshift stand. There's also a fleece inner lining that keeps the console safe and protected while in transit.

This is a thicker and heavier case than our No. 1 pick, and it costs more too, but it does also give you plenty of added functionality. If you have a bunch of accessories for the Xbox Ally that you'd like to keep in one convenient place, this is a great way to go about it.

3. Tomtoc Shoulder Bag Carrying Case

Best Shoulder Bag

The Tomtoc Shoulder Bag is an absolute classic, with a roomy design that can accommodate a wide range of gaming handhelds, including the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. If you have more than one handheld, then this is a great option given its versatile sizing.

The bag's W-shaped internal structure can be left alone to provide extra protection and rigidity around the vulnerable thumbsticks of your handheld, or removed to save space and weight. I kept this installed throughout my testing, and still found I had plenty of space to pack in cables, a dock, a wall adapter and other accessories without the bag feeling overstuffed.

This is a shoulder bag, but you can also remove the strap to save some space if you're planning to keep this in a larger bag or backpack most of the time. I found myself doing this on one trip, and ended up placing all of my tech inside to simplify my packing, which worked well.

4. DBrand Killswitch

Best Always-On Protective Case

If you prefer a cover to a case, then DBrand make the best option available right now, a variant of the Killswitch case that debuted with the original Switch and has been developed for subsequent gaming handhelds. The idea is that the case provides both protection and extra grip, making for a more comfortable gaming experience with relatively little added weight or heft. You also get a choice of skins, including fun X-ray designs in two colors, to change the look of your device.

While the default allocation includes the case, a kickstand, and a skin of your choice, you can also add on a travel cover which provides extra protection while the Xbox Ally or Xbox Ally X is not being used. Other add-ons include stick grips and screen protectors, both of which are well-implemented.

I've been using a DBrand case for my Switch 2 since the console released, and I've found that it makes a big difference to ergonomic comfort. The Xbox Ally is already a more comfortable device, thanks to its thicker frame, but extra grip and extra protection is always welcome.

How to Pick the Best Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X Case

Thus far, most of the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X cases that we've highlighted are relatively similar. That means you can't go too far wrong, though it is worth considering where you fall on the "everything I need" to "slim and stylish" spectrum. If you have a penchant for packing portable chargers, extra cables, and other sensible Xbox Ally X accessories all in the same bag, then it makes sense to go for a larger option. However, if you're likely to pack this extra gear elsewhere, or leave it at home, then going for a slimmer option means that you can leave more space in your bag for other things – or get away with a smaller bag altogether. The Tomtoc carrying case above includes a strap, making it a great choice if you want a standalone case that doesn't need to be shoved into a larger bag.

We've constructed this list to favor cases and bags that specifically call out compatibility for the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, due to their bigger width versus prior PC handhelds, but it's worth also checking other cases that you may have purchased for other handhelds, including the Switch and Switch 2. The larger of these may be able to pull double duty as an Xbox Ally or Xbox Ally X carrier, though we still recommend picking up something that's specially shaped to fit these unique consoles.

It's also worth bearing in mind that there's a big size difference between the ROG Xbox Ally consoles –including the ROG Xbox Ally X and ROG Xbox Ally that are the focus of this article – and the similarly named ROG Ally X and ROG Ally. These slightly older devices lack the "Xbox" part of the name, and are significantly slimmer: 1.28 inches for the 2023 ROG Ally, 1.45 inches for the 2024 ROG Ally X, and 2 inches for the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X models. That means the thicker Xbox Ally handhelds are unlikely to fit in most cases built for the non-Xbox Ally devices.

Will is deputy tech editor for IGN, specializing in PC hardware, sim racing and display tech. He has been publishing about games and technology since 2001 (age 12). Will was formerly Deputy Editor at Digital Foundry. He is currently playing Battlefield 6.

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Amazon vs. Walmart: Which Black Friday Sale Has Better Deals?

Walmart has officially launched its Black Friday sale, which means every major retailer is now offering a full selection of discounts. We're still a few days away from actual Black Friday, but if you're looking to do your shopping right now, you have tons of options available to you. Too many options, honestly.

I've been covering Black Friday sales since October when Best Buy first launched its early deals, but it's only now that I'd recommend actually doing the bulk of your deals shopping. Walmart was the last holdout, and now that its sale is here, it's worth digging into where you can actually find the best deals.

Amazon vs. Walmart Black Friday Sales Comparison

Walmart Has the Best New Deals

I don't really do much shopping at Walmart outside of Black Friday, but I have to admit that the retailer does consistently have some of the best Black Friday deals every year. More specifically, Walmart launched its sale with discounts on select Apple products and video games that, frankly, can't be beat. Amazon has price-matched a number of new discounts that Walmart just launched, including a number of LEGO deals, but for the most part this sale has discounts you simply can't find anywhere else. This has been especially true for things like Nvidia 50-series GPUs, which Walmart has been better about keeping in stock. There are even exclusive products like the Icon Blue PS5 Dualsense controller that is both exclusive to Walmart and on sale right now.

Walmart's Black Friday sale is scheduled to last from now through November 30 before switching to Cyber Monday deals. I'd expect there to be more deals dropping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, especially for things like high-end TVs, but in the meantime here are some of the best discounts worth checking out today.

Amazon Has the Most Black Friday Deals

The Amazon Black Friday sale – which first launched last Thursday and has been adding new deals pretty much every time a new sale elsewhere goes live – is by far the biggest one available. Amazon has all of the PlayStation Black Friday deals and Nintendo Black Friday deals that went live over the weekend, with the exception of a few individual games. The Super Mario Odyssey deal, for example, went out of stock at Amazon pretty quickly and is now only available at Target and Walmart. With that in mind, I'd say Amazon is generally the best Black Friday sale online, as long as it can maintain its stock with popular items. It's also hands-down the best place to buy Amazon-owned devices and services like Kindle e-readers or an Audible premium subscription.

The sheer size of Amazon's sale makes it the easiest to shop overall, which is really the draw. It's easy to search for discounts and almost everything that's on sale will be at the lowest price you can find online. Because of how connected it is to other online sales, Amazon is the most likely to have new discounts starting on actual Black Friday. Target has already stated that another round of Black Friday deals are set to drop on November 28, and Amazon has matched pretty much everything Target has done so far.

Which Black Friday Sale Should You Shop First?

As part of IGN's Deals team, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't recommend you shop around before you buy anything. But with that in mind, I'd recommend starting your shopping at Amazon first. You can't really beat the convenience of Amazon when it comes to online shopping, and the fact that the retailer automatically tries to price-match most items makes it a good starting point. Walmart definitely has some really good deals, but once you start utilizing the search function it becomes a lot harder to discern what is actually a Black Friday deal and what's just a third-party listing for a product or a refurbished item.

The exception to this is that even though Amazon has pretty much everything, it doesn't actually have everything. Some of the best Black Friday sales are available directly from manufacturers rather than major retailers. For example, if you're hoping to buy a Dell laptop this week, your best bet is to shop the Dell Black Friday sale directly rather than go through Amazon. The same applies to most major brands, with the exception of Apple's Black Friday sale, which is actually quite lame.

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Get All of the Harry Potter Movies in 4K for Just $8 Per Movie Today

The holidays are upon us, and that means there's no better time to cozy up and binge all eight Harry Potter movies. Luckily, as part of Amazon's Black Friday sale, you can score the entire 8-film collection in 4K UHD for only $67.99. For about $8 per film, it's about as low as this price is going to go, and a great way to upgrade your existing collection if you haven't yet.

Harry Potter 8-Film 4K UHD Collection for $67.99

The Harry Potter movies are near and dear to my heart, and I can't believe the first movie is turning 25 next year! If you haven't seen the movies in a while, they are absolutely worth revisiting, and this 8-film collection is the perfect way to experience them again. With a brand new Harry Potter HBO series due out next year, now is a great time to catch up on the original films.

The Harry Potter 8-film collection contains:

  1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
  2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)
  8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2)

But the Harry Potter deals don't stop there. Amazon has marked down the LEGO Harry Potter Mandrake set to its lowest price ever at $40.99. This set is marked for retirement soon, so it may be the last time you'll be able to purchase it.

Amazon's Black Friday sale is underway, and features hundreds of great deals that you can score right now. Other retailers have kicked off their big sales, too, including Best Buy, Walmart, and Target, so get to shopping before the deals are gone!

Matthew Adler has written for IGN since 2019 covering all things gaming, tech, tabletop games, and more. You can follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.

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The Wonderful LEGO Ideas Insect Collection Set Is an Incredible Value at Under 4 Cents Per Brick

Black Friday is the best time to score some really great deals on themed LEGOs, and each year there's a new set that hadn't been discounted before. This year it's the LEGO Ideas The Insect Collection 21342, which is down to just $40 after a 50% discount. At a mere 3.6 cents per brick, this is one of the best values I've seen for a set. It's also refreshingly unique, fun to build, and looks great to boot, so long as you don't have a bug phobia.

50% Off the LEGO Ideas The Insect Collection 21342

The LEGO Ideas The Insect Collection 21342 is a collection of three separate builds comprised of 1,111 brick pieces in total. Each build is modeled after a real insect: the blue morpho butterfly, Hercules beetle, and Chinese praying mantis. They're all roughly the same size, with the mantis measuring 7 inches high, 6.5 inches wide, and 6 inches deep. These are fairly large, lifelike models and you'll definitely feel like you're getting your money's worth.

Each bug build is poseable and includes additional elements like leaves and branches, flowers, mushrooms, and even a buildable honeybee. LEGO collectors will also be delighted to know that there are some unique printed pieces, like the 7-spotted ladybug. There are no stickers in this set, and there's plenty of variety and color, making it a perfect example of what a LEGO "Ideas" set should be. It's also one of the best $40 sets I've seen.

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.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Complete Series on Blu-ray Is $99 for Black Friday

Discounts are running rampant this week, thanks to Black Friday. While the big day isn’t until November 28, you can already score thousands of deals, including on 4K Blu-ray movies. If you just want to buy one thing, I have a recommendation. Grab Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete Series on Blu-ray, currently on sale for $99.99 (see it at Amazon). That’s a killer deal for 178 episodes of sci-fi television.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-ray Box Set Deal

Star Trek: TNG, as it’s known to all the coolest of people, debuted in 1987 and ran for seven seasons. It introduced what, to my mind, is easily the best Enterprise crew ever assembled. You have the Captain Picard, Riker, Troi, Worf, Data, Beverly Crusher, and all the rest. It’s a deep bench of beloved characters, who travel the universe seeking out, as they say, new life and new civilizations.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is such a good show that even its less-than-stellar episodes are worth watching just to hang out with the crew. For me, the show is so cozy that watching it is like basking in bridge ambiance as you drift off to sleep. I could live on that ship – and after spending 178 television episodes with the crew, it kind of feels like you do. The episodes are all here along with various bonus material, spread across 41 discs. It’s a lot!

For more Star Trek: TNG goodness, you’ll want to keep an eye out for LEGO Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise, which launches on Black Friday, November 28. And for more deals, check out Amazon’s early Black Friday deals. Or Target’s. Or Best Buy’s. There are plenty of sales to go around, even this far ahead of Black Friday proper.

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.

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The Best Gaming PC of 2025

In case building your own rig is too much work right now or simply not a priority for you, you can always opt for a top-tier prebuilt gaming PCs. You'll miss out on the satisfaction of building your PC from the ground up, but all that time you saved skipping research, waiting for components to arrive, building your machine, and inevitably troubleshooting when something goes awry can be spent actually playing PC games.

The half-baked prebuilt systems of yesteryear are no more, cutting far fewer corners for a long-lasting gaming PC that can take on all the action you throw its way. With the latest and greatest graphics cards and processors becoming pricier than ever, you may even save money by opting for something from Alienware, MSI, or HP. Plus, most options are easy enough to open up to upgrade components down the road, including our favorite gaming PC, the Legion Tower 7i.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Gaming PCs:

Buying a gaming PC is a bit more involved than a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S. You’ll need to determine the types of games you want to play and how you want to play them – even great budget gaming PCs won’t be running Cyberpunk 2077 at the highest settings. Finding the proper processors, storage, memory, cooling, and other hardware and ensuring all the components work well together can make or break the rig. Luckily, many manufacturers take care of a good chunk of that guesswork so you don’t bottleneck the system.

One thing to keep in mind is that RAM prices are extremely high right now. This is thanks in large part to AI data centers scooping all of it up, according to a post from Bontech Labs, which has led to prices of memory going up significantly. This hasn't significantly impacted the price of prebuilt gaming PCs yet, but as PC builders start working through their existing inventory, I'd expect that to change.

Whether you're looking for something more affordable for indie games, want a compact option to save space in your studio apartment, or are after a top-tier rig to tackle the action in 4K, we’ve got you covered. One of the five pre-built gaming PCs we’ve selected will align perfectly with your needs.

1. Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 10

Best Gaming PC

Prebuilt gaming PCs have always had a problem with proprietary hardware, and the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i really does show we're through those dark ages. It used to be that if you bought a gaming PC from Lenovo or Dell, you'd get a tower that was plenty powerful for the time, but because it was using some bespoke motherboard or power supply, you were limited when it came to upgrading your system.

The tower has been updated with new hardware, now with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and an RTX 5080, but when we reviewed it we were surprised by how much more it costs this time – even if it has genuinely excellent gaming performance. Not much other than the price and the components have changed, though.

You still get a straightforward mid-tower case housing industry-standard hardware, making it incredibly easy to fix it if something breaks or upgrade once new hardware comes out. Don't get me wrong: The Tower 7i does fall into some of the same pitfalls of any prebuilt system these days – Lenovo cheaped out a bit on the memory and the motherboard – but because all the components are the standard size, you can just swap both of those components out for better stuff when you can afford it.

This results in a gaming PC that's not just great because it plays games well, but because it serves as an entry point to customizing your own system. Building an entire system from the ground up can be an intimidating and time-consuming thing; upgrading one or two parts of your PC is way more approachable.

2. Asus ROG G700 Gaming PC

Best Gaming PC for the RGB Lover

When you're getting a prebuilt gaming PC, you're generally looking for something that works but also looks amazing. To be honest, there aren't a lot of PC manufacturers that really nail the latter – especially among big names. But the Asus ROG G700 genuinely looks amazing, even if it leans a little further toward its "gamer" influences than some people may prefer.

This gaming PC has RGB-lit panels in several areas, bedecked with ROG logos. This is something the company likes to do with its motherboards, but now extends to the case itself. To be fair, part of this is because Asus didn't include an expensive motherboard like the ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme. But it still kind of looks like a high-end motherboard is in there, as long as you don't look too closely. Asus also hid the power supply and all the cables under a PSU shroud. That's relatively common, but what sets this one apart is a bit of prose about "being unconventional" that's backlit by RGB. Never change, ROG.

As for the system itself, the model we reviewed is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, 32GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. That's more than powerful enough to handle most games at 4K, with only Black Myth: Wukong falling below 60fps with everything cranked. If that build is a little too much for you, you can get it with an RTX 4060 for much less, but I would advise getting at least an RTX 5060, especially for the premium Asus charges for putting this rig togther.

3. iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh Gaming Desktop

Best Budget Gaming PC

Not all gaming PCs are either prohibitively expensive or lack power with dated hardware, and the iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh Gaming Desktop is proof. With it comes the latest 14th-generation Intel Core i7 processor for speedy performance in everyday tasks and games. When paired with the best budget GPU, Nvidia’s RTX 4060, this rig has enough processing headroom to sail through games in 1080p at high frame rates. Looking to play in 1440p? It shouldn’t have a problem cruising through non-ray-traced games like Total War: Warhammer 3.

The iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh Gaming Desktop is even a viable option for those ready to dip their toes in game streaming, as its current-gen processors partner perfectly with the 32GB of high-bandwidth DDR5 RAM. So, running Twitch along with a game shouldn’t slow things down too much. Storage wasn't overlooked: A 1TB SSD is baked in for speedy app launches and saves.

Even if this gaming PC isn’t as powerful as some premium options, it still gets hot. Luckily, the case is roomy with mesh at the front and top panels for proper airflow and ventilation. Three ARGB fans at the front and one at the back aid in keeping things frosty. However, better cooling options couldn't hurt. Luckily, iBuyPower has made things relatively easy to upgrade. With Nvidia’s RTX 5000 series and 15th-gen Intel Arrow Lake processors dropping sometime in the not-too-distant future, it’s nice to have the option to update hardware rather than starting from scratch. Just be sure the B760 D5 motherboard and 600W PSU can handle those newer components.

Given all that's on offer for less than $1,500, the iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh Gaming Desktop is a great value. What helps elevate this budget gaming PC even further is the inclusion of a gaming keyboard and mouse with some flashy RGB lighting. These aren’t the best peripherals out there, but perfect for those just beginning their gaming journey.

4. Asus ROG NUC

Best Mini Gaming PC

Shopping for a mini gaming PC is an exercise in compromise. You can get an extremely small gaming PC like the Asus ROG NUC, but in order for the chassis to get down to that size, there are major losses in performance. Asus handles this by equipping the ROG NUC with a mobile-class RTX 5080 and an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, the latter of which is typically found in Ultrabooks. This is more than enough horsepower to power most games at 1080p, but you will run into issues at higher resolutions, especially in demanding games like Black Myth: Wukong.

Now, I haven't reviewed this year's model of the Asus ROG NUC. However, I did review last year's Asus ROG NUC with this in mind, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it handled games at 1080p. At that resolution, I was able to run pretty much any game under the sun at maxed-out settings while maintaining 60fps. That's impressive, given that the PC is basically the size of a cable box and can fit pretty much anywhere. And now that it's been updated with Blackwell graphics, that performance should be a bit better – though Nvidia's RTX 5000 series hasn't had quite the glow-up some folks were hoping for.

All of this makes it an excellent home theater PC that can also play PC games. And if you're comfortable tweaking game graphics settings, this mini gaming PC would make a perfect companion for a 4K TV. You can store your media library there and have instant access to your movies and TV shows, while also being able to boot up Steam and play your games when you want to. Just keep in mind that you can likely get similar performance from a gaming laptop most of the time.

5. Maingear Rush Artist Series

Best Boutique Gaming PC

For about as long as I've been playing PC games, Maingear has been around making some of the most gorgeous gaming PCs on the planet. The company has always had a great eye for detail and backs it up with one of the best warranties in the business. The downside? They're super expensive.

Even with that in mind, I was impressed by just how pretty the Maingear Rush Artist Series was when I reviewed it. Essentially, Maingear took the Lian Li O11 case and airbrushed art onto it, and you really need to see it in person to grasp just how gorgeous it is. Every inch of this gaming PC oozes with detail, and it's one of the few times where I can't look away from it, even though I'm pretty burned out on flashy RGB lighting at this point.

A good gaming PC is more than just how it looks on your desk, though, it needs to perform. Luckily, you can configure the Maingear Rush basically however you want to. Maingear's website will let you build anything from a entry-level model with an RTX 5050 and a Ryzen 5 processor to the configuration I reviewed, with its RTX 5090 and Ryzen 9 9950X3D. Just keep in mind that the more power you pump into this thing, the more expensive it's going to be – and it doesn't exactly start cheap.

You do get more than just the PC for your purchase, though. The computer comes with free tech support for life, which will follow the PC even if you sell it. Maingear's tech support will walk you through all kinds of troubleshooting and in the off chance something does need a repair, the company offers free labor on all repairs and upgrades; you just pay for shipping and new components if necessary. That's probably not enough to sell it to experienced PC builders who can definitely get a PC with similar specs for much less. But if you don't want to deal with servicing your rig, the extra money you pay for this Maingear system might just be worth it.

How to Choose a Gaming PC

Prebuilts are the most surefire way of getting into gaming and arguably the most cost-effective hardware you can buy. With a system, you’re not only getting the hardware inside, but time savings of having to track down the best processor to best RAM for your system and putting it all together yourself and praying it actually boots up correctly.

Prioritize the GPU

Just like building your own PC you want to make sure you’re spending your money where it’s needed most. Firstly, you should prioritize getting the graphics card you need for the gaming monitor or the gaming TV you’re gaming on. There’s no need for anything better than an Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti if you’re just playing games on a 1080p display.

Likewise, you should only need an Intel Core i5 or Ryzen 5 processor with at least four cores to play most modern games comfortably at any resolution.

Think about how comfortable you are swapping out parts

System memory and solid-state drives can be the biggest money sink for any system. Those comfortable with upgrading their system after it arrives should choose a configuration with the smallest storage and RAM capacities possible, as buying these components yourself can often be more cost-effective.

If that last suggestion resonates, perhaps a barebones system is what you seek. Those can be much cheaper since they come with all the major hardware – such as the CPU, GPU, and power supply – installed, but they usually lack storage, memory, and an operating system as a trade-off.

Consider a boutique builder

Lastly, if you want more control over what exactly is going into your build, go with a boutique PC builder. Origin, Maingear, DigitalStorm, Falcon Northwest, PC Specialist, and many more companies offer excellent PC building services that let you pick exactly which components go into your gaming PC. From there, they build your system with the sort of cable management some can only dream of while ensuring it all works properly out of the box.

In case this all sounds a little overwhelming to you, NZXT has its own PC building service called BLD. Instead of picking every part that will go into your PC, you chose the games you’ll actually play and the service gives you several configuration options that will be able to run the games for a smooth experience.

Similarly, iBuyPower offers an Easy Builder service that operates in very much the same fashion. Users can select games that they play from a small pool that includes Fortnite, GTA V, Apex Legends, WoW, League of Legends, Overwatch, and Battlefield V. From there, users can select whether they play at a 1080p or 1440p resolution, as well as their budget, and the system will spit back a few configurations to choose from.

Prebuilt PCs also come with several features and pieces of software you might find convenient. Many gaming PCs in this category come with some sort of overclocking support and even a one-click button to boost your system's performance. Of course, it's easy enough to download a piece of overclocking software like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision X. Additionally, your machine may come with system monitoring software that makes downloading and updating drivers a breeze.

Gaming PC FAQ

Should you buy a gaming PC or a gaming laptop?

Unless you’re looking for an all-in-one portable package, a gaming PC is usually better than even the best gaming laptops. With a desktop, it’s much easier and less expensive to upgrade parts, and they tend to last longer before going obsolete. Read more about gaming PCs vs. gaming laptops.

Is it easy to upgrade your prebuilt gaming PC?

It depends. Most PC manufacturers have figured out users absolutely hate proprietary parts. While you might still find no-name motherboards installed into the heart of your PC, they should all at least fall in line with the standard size and layout of Mini ITX or Micro ATX motherboards. The best gaming PCs should allow you to easily swap out the CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage on your system with just a few simple tools or just a screwdriver.

Better yet, systems that tout tool-less upgradability don't require you to undo screws or anything to replace any of the major components. One of the things you'll likely find on most modern chassis are thumbscrews, which can be removed after a few quick twists with your fingers rather than a screwdriver. Additionally, tool-less SSD and hard drive caddies make expanding and replacing your storage just a little bit easier.

Should you buy a gaming PC or a console?

When comparing a gaming PC vs. console, there appear to be more similarities than differences these days, but one still comes out on top: the gaming PC.

Not every aspect of a gaming PC beats consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Consoles are much easier to use. You’ll also find that even the most expensive consoles are cheap compared to a quality gaming PC with a good graphics card, although there are good budget GPUs. There are some great handheld gaming PCs and mini PCs that are more affordable, but they’re better for indie games or older cross-platform console titles.

Where a gaming PC pulls ahead is in its gaming library, peripherals, upgradeability, and overall performance. There’s no denying that there are a massive amount of PC games, and of course, a gaming PC has cross-platform compatibility with popular console titles. Beyond gaming keyboards and gaming mice, you’ll find a wealth of other peripherals, from racing wheels to controllers, that all work seamlessly with a PC. You can also enjoy better visuals and a higher performance ceiling, and it’s easy to upgrade components. That makes a well-equipped PC the clear winner.

Can you find a good gaming PC for under $1,000?

Yes, it’s absolutely possible to find a great gaming PC for under $1,000. You just need to manage your expectations. Less powerful hardware will usually come in these ultra budget-friendly desktops, meaning gaming performance is more limited. Even still, you should have no problem running many of your favorite games in 1080p or sometimes even 1440p at respectable frame rates. Your PC may struggle during more graphically intensive games running at their top settings, but the savings you enjoy might be worth the trade-off.

Should you build your own gaming PC?

Building your own gaming PC has many benefits. First and foremost, you get to customize your PC to your own specifications, including only the components you want and need. Rather than purchasing a prebuilt desktop that may not be tailored to your requirements, you can select all of the individual parts that make up a gaming PC.

However, you will need some knowledge of how to build PCs, or at least be able to closely follow an in-depth YouTube video. This is where things get a little tricky. If you’ve never built a custom gaming PC before, you will need to do some research. From understanding how each component interacts with each other, to how to hold a stick of RAM or a CPU so you don’t damage it, there’s quite a large learning curve.

If you do decide to build your own gaming PC, you will likely find that you can save some money over the long run compared to buying a prebuilt machine. Choosing your own parts means you can keep an eye on sales and offers to get the best deal possible.

But building a gaming PC isn’t for everyone. If you aren’t rigid on the specifics and don’t have a particular build in mind, it can be less troublesome to let someone else do it for you. You also get the added reassurance that the PC will be professionally built, and there’s no chance your warranty can be void.

After you've scored an awesome gaming PC, be sure to grab the best gaming accessories for the ultimate PC battle station.

Jacqueline Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN. When she's not helping her friends and family buy computers, you can usually find her tinkering with her own PC.

Image Credit: Annalee Tsujino is a multi-disciplinary designer and illustrator. Check them out on Instagram @antsu_illustrations.

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Walmart's Black Friday Apple Pencil Deal Is the Best Price We've Ever Seen

You'll find a number of deep Apple discounts in Walmart's part of this week's Black Friday deals, one of the nicest of which the $30-off Apple Pencil (USB-C). $49 is an all-time low price for one of our favorite iPad accessories, which usually goes for $79.

With Amazon currently offering this Apple Pencil for $69, Walmart’s deal is significantly better. It’s likely that you won’t see this stylus drop any lower in price during all of the upcoming Black Friday sales. So, be sure to snag the Apple Pencil (USB-C) for this price while you still can, as deals this good won’t last long. That said, it's good to note that this is the base model version of the Apple Pencil, rather than the version from IGN's best smart pens list that attaches magnetically and charges wirelessly.

Score Almost 40% Off the Apple Pencil (USB-C)

The Apple Pencil (USB-C) is an excellent stylus that works with all iPads, including our favorites like the iPad Pro and Mini. Its ultra-low latency, tilt sensitivity, and pinpoint precision makes it an invaluable illustration and design tool for creatives. Note-taking and marking up documents is also simple when using this stylus. Of course, it also conveniently charges via USB-C, hence the name, while the other Apple Pencil models magnetically attach and pair instantly with most iPads.

While the best deal is on the Apple Pencil (USB-C), some might need a slightly more capable stylus. The Apple Pencil Pro amps things up a bit, offering pressure sensitivity, a built-in gyroscope, squeeze gestures, wireless charging, and more. Walmart has dropped over $30 off the price tag for a limited time, making the stylus under $100.

Other Walmart Black Friday Deals

After you’ve added the Apple Pencil to your cart, Walmart has tons of other killer Black Friday sales to check out. You can even score 50% off a Walmart+ subscription for early access to deals, free delivery, and more.

Danielle is a Tech freelance writer based in Los Angeles who spends her free time creating videos and geeking out over music history.

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