Following months of rumors, Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Z TriFold. The company says it's releasing the phone in the first quarter of 2026, but it's apparently not yet ready to say how much this phone will cost. Based on the nearly $4,000 price of the Huawei Mate XT tri-fold, I'd guess not cheap.

Rumors have put the Z TriFold's price around the $3,000 price point, which could be reasonable to expect based on its specs. The phone is thin when it's unfolded – 3.9mm at its thinnest point, Samsung says – which is impressive but just a bit thicker than the 3.6mm thick Mate XT. All folded up, the phone is 12.9mm thick, which is only 0.1mm thicker than Huawei's phone. The Z TriFold's 10-inch display, when unfolded, will be a bit smaller than the Mate XT's 10.2 inch internal screen. The display also has a lower resolution and pixel density – 2160 x 1584 and 269ppi versus the Mate XT's 2232 x 3184 and 382ppi. All of this folds up to be 12.9mm thick, which is only .1mm thicker than the Mate XT.

The TriFold has a 6.5-inch OLED cover display with a 2520 x 1080 resolution and 442ppi, capable of up to 2600 nits peak brightness. Like the interior display, it's capable of 1 – 120Hz refresh rate. The phone features five cameras – a 10MP selfie camera on the cover display and one on the inside, a 12MP Ultra-Wide camera with a 120-degree field of view, a 200MP wide-angle camera with 2x optical zoom, and a 10MP telephoto with optical image stabilization and 3x optical zoom, as well as 30x digital zoom.

Inside, the phone sounds a lot like the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which we gave an 8/10 and called the best folding phone yet – and therefore one of the best smartphones overall – in our review. Like that phone, it's packing a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and 16GB of RAM. Samsung is offering it in 512GB and 1TB storage tiers. It's got a three-cell, 5,600mAh battery split up amongst each of its sections, and supports 45W wired fast charging and 15W wireless fast charging – so, Qi2, not Qi2.2. And great news for eSIM haters: it still supports dual physical SIM cards.

Of course, the big question around this phone, besides cost, is durability. Rather than the Mate XT's Z-fold – which, come on guys, it's in the name! – this phone folds inward to protect the interior display. The phone also only manages an IP48 dust and water resistance rating, like the Z Fold 7; I guess Samsung still hasn't cracked the code to the IP68 rating that Google gave its Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Needless to say, more than any other foldable, this is not a phone you want to leave in the unsupervised, candy-caked hands of a child.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

Bose's best noise canceling headphones has a huge discount going into the holiday season. Right now Amazon is offering a pair of Bose QuietComfort Ultra noise canceling headphones for just $279.00 with free shipping. The average sale price during Black Friday and Cyber Monday was $300, so this is a better deal. This is Bose's best (aka flagship) noise canceling headphone and competes with other top-end competitors like the Sony WH-1000XM6. It would make a great upgrade if you're still rocking older generation QuietComfort headphones, and a fantastic gift idea for just about everyone else.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones for $279

There’s a new block on the block, or at least there will be soon. The Steam Machine, Valve’s new cuboid mini gaming PC disguised as a game console is coming early next year. And that’s exciting! I mean, when was the last time anybody had a shot at squeezing into this market lorded over by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo for more than two decades? And how will it fare, specifically, against the PlayStation 5?

I wish I could say this is a straightforward choice, but it’s just not. The Steam Machine will come with all of the full richness of the Steam game library, and it will have certain capabilities beyond what Sony offers for the PS5 – it is a full-on Linux computer, after all. Yet it’s likely that the PS5 will be the cheaper, more performant machine, and will continue to be home to some huge exclusives, or games that run better simply because developers know exactly what hardware they’re making them for. Optimization matters!

But the choice isn’t just about specs and price. The gaming industry is in flux: every month brings more high-profile game industry layoffs; prices have shot up in response to President Trump’s tariffs; and 2025 has seen a lot of high-profile cancellations in series like Perfect Dark and Kingdom Hearts. Picking a game console, now more than ever, is a bet that it’ll give you reasons to keep coming back to it. Unfortunately, there aren’t many of us that can just buy every console we want and pay rent – so hopefully I can help you decide: should you buy a PS5 or a Steam Machine?

Specs and Performance

We won’t know how well the Steam Machine truly runs until we’ve gotten to put it through its paces, partly because of its custom chipset. But we can sure guess based on what Valve has revealed so far, as well as on our own time spent with the hardware when it was announced.

At roughly six inches cubed, things are cramped inside the Steam Machine. Under its black plastic facade is a collection of good, but largely laptop-friendly components. The company has been careful not to frame it as a hot rod, making clear, for instance, that it’ll be relying on upscaling to hit its 4K resolution targets. As IGN has written before, the Steam Machine’s custom RDNA 3 GPU is about on par with a mobile RX 7600. For the CPU, Valve went with a slightly older 6-core Zen 4 chip.

You know what’s even older? The PS5’s components. But age is just a number, and you’ll find more compute in the PS5’s 8-core Zen 2 CPU and its RDNA 2 GPU than what the 5-year-newer Steam Machine offers. We’ll see how the two stack up when the Steam Machine’s GPU actually hits our test bench, but it would be surprising if it was an even match.

The numbers only tell part of the story. Remember, the Steam Machine is console-shaped, but as far as your games are concerned, it’s still just another gaming PC. Very little, if anything, that runs on it will have been created with its specific hardware in mind. Meanwhile, PS5 game developers will have known exactly what hardware they’re programming for (PS5 Pro notwithstanding). That doesn’t mean every PS5 game is perfectly optimized – but it does mean it’s a little more likely to have great-looking AAA games, even as it continues to age.

It’s possible, if the Steam Machine sells well enough, that some developers will start to make games with Valve’s hardware in mind, but I wouldn’t count on that happening frequently, if at all. Heck, even on the PS5 it can feel like developers got about 80 percent of the way there before studio execs called it good, released the game, and laid off the team that made it.

Now, all of that said, will games look bad on the Steam Machine? Oh my, no; there’s plenty of debate over just how well it’ll perform. Just don’t expect its games to be the absolute cream of the crop.

Winner: PS5

Library and Features

Deciding will be tricky if you’re looking at what actually runs on these consoles. The PS5 can only play games one generation back, not counting older remasters and the like. Meanwhile, the Steam Machine will be packed with decades of digital games, via Steam, right at launch. You might already have a huge library at your disposal! That’s a huge advantage that can’t be overstated.

But what about those sweet PlayStation 5 ‘sclusies? Sony hasn’t quite followed Microsoft down its magnanimous path of making its exclusive games multiplatform, so the PS5 is the only way you’ll play titles like Ghost of Yotei or Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. With more than 80 million PS5s sold, there’s no guarantee that the company will veer meaningfully from that strategy. Then again, some games have jumped to other platforms, like the Spider-Man games; and the list of remaining exclusives isn’t long at all.

There’s also approachability to consider: the PS5 is a game console, through and through. When you want to play a game on it, you buy the game, load it, and, generally speaking, play it – so long as it doesn’t require you to log into an account before you can play. (He wrote, while looking askance at Star Wars Outlaws.) That’s mostly how it works with SteamOS, too, but you’ll still have to fiddle with settings in some games, particularly those Valve hasn’t already given a Steam Machine verified badge.

There’s also a very real difference to consider in terms of physical size and hardware features. The Steam Machine is tiny, like a Very Serious take on the GameCube (a GabeCube, you might say), while the PS5 is a behemoth that looks a bit like a black-and-white vampire when it’s sitting upright. Just finding somewhere to put the dang thing is a real challenge. But on the flipside, you can get a PS5 with a disc drive, meaning you can fill your shelves with physical game cases if that’s your thing. (No judgement, friend, I used to be you.) Sure, Valve could have stuck a disc drive on top of the Steam Machine, but in a world where physical PC games have all but vanished, what would have been the point? To play Blu-ray movies? Actually, that would be rad.

Outside of their games libraries, size, and plug-and-playability, the PS5 and Steam Machine are almost bizarro versions of each other. Both systems have touch pad features on their controllers, and both have a handheld story to tell, via the game streaming-only PS Portal and the standalone (but also streaming-capable) Steam Deck. The latter is a standalone system that starts at $400, the PS Portal only streams games and is half the price. That’s not to mention VR – a similar dynamic plays out between the Steam Frame and PSVR 2.

Winner: Tie

Price

Price is where the PS5’s biggest advantage may lie. Even after tariff-induced price hikes, it starts at $499 for the digital edition, which is much cheaper than the $700-$800 that the Steam Machine could cost. The same goes for the $200 PS Portal and $400 Steam Deck, or the $400 PSVR 2 and the Steam Frame, which could easily cost $500 or more.

But there’s more to consider, like the size of your Steam library and the depth of your restraint. If you’ve already got enough compatible games, you could easily get a Steam Machine, then avoid buying any new games for a while to let your wallet cool off. Meanwhile, the PS5 is limited to its own library, plus PS4 games and remakes of older titles. Even if you have a healthy PS4 library, the PS5’s identity is all wrapped up in what a power plant it is. You’ll want some new games that show that off. And it doesn’t take much – one Ghost of Yotei here and a Death Stranding 2 there – before the price differential starts to become a wash.

Assuming a $700 Steam Machine price point, the calculus swings a bit back toward Sony if you buy a disc edition. A lot of PS5 games have come out in the five years since the console landed, and you can get some great secondhand hard copy deals on some of the best PS5 games out there. If Valve just says “to hell with it” and charges $500, though? The Steam Machine is practically a no-brainer from a price perspective. But that’s probably not going to happen.

There’s a lot of “if this, then that” that goes into whether the PS5 is a better deal than the Steam Machine, so for right now, this one is a tie that could tip either way depending on how much Valve asks for its new gaming PC.

Winner: Tie

The Winner Is… the PS5 (For Now)

Sony gets the edge here, but just barely. It’s a more powerful system for one thing, and as this console generation wanes, it will probably age better than the Steam Machine, at least when it comes to AAA games, purely because of console optimization – when developers know the hardware they’re aiming for, their games tend to play and look better.

But the delta between the performance of the Steam Machine and the PS5 is still unknown at this point. And even if it’s about where we think it is, it may not be a meaningful difference for all but the most pixel-peeping among us. The rest won’t notice a difference unless you stick visuals from both systems right in front of them. And even then, most won’t care.

In every other area, the two consoles come up about even, although that depends on certain things. If you have a huge and growing Steam library already, then the Steam Machine could be the obvious choice, even if Valve charges $200 more for it than Sony does for the PS5. If your Steam library is lacking or nonexistant, the PS5 might be the better bang for your buck.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

Max is officially back to being HBO Max. Even though the name has changed (returned?), the library is still full of great films and shows to watch. HBO Max is home to some incredibly high-quality watches, including House of the Dragon, The White Lotus, The Last of Us, and Sinners. You can tune in to Season 2 of Peacemaker and even catch up on James Gunn's Superman beforehand.

If you've been hoping to start up an account to dig into that library, we're here to help. While HBO Max recently increased the price of all of its monthly plans by around $1, we're keeping track of the best price for subscriptions, along with any deals as they appear. Let's get into what's available right now.

Our Top Pick: The Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max Streaming Bundle

Upcoming multiteam MOBA game Project ZETA announced today that signups are open for its next beta test, which will begin on Steam on December 12. This final closed beta will be the last chance to jump in early before the game goes public, and the developers have asked for opinionated players to help shape its future.

If you’re not already familiar with Project ZETA, we can catch you up to speed. Developed by Nirvanana, a team built of former Eternal Return devs, it mixes up the traditional MOBA formula in two key ways. First, instead of the standard of having two teams go head-to-head, it pits five teams against each other at the same time in a race to capture Prisms, the game’s most precious resource. There are multiple ways to get Prisms, giving each team the opportunity to follow different paths to victory. And second, it uses a third-person camera rather than an isometric one, making combat more dynamic and action-focused.

That combat is PvPvE, with monsters and bosses populating the map. Defeating monsters will score you XP and shards, which can upgrade your abilities and provide buffs to your stats, cooldowns, and more. Defeating bosses gets you all of that plus Prisms. However, just picking up a Prism isn’t enough, you need to return it to the center of the map in order for it to actually count toward your score.

And that’s where the PvP comes in. Competing teams can ambush you on your way to deposit your Prisms and steal them from you. And that looming threat constantly affects the strategy your team chooses. Do you blitz bosses and try to rush their Prisms to the center of the map to win quickly? Do you bide your time, taking down monsters to scale your team's power and enter the next fight better prepared? Or do you lie in wait near the center of the map to pounce on opposing teams and take their Prisms after they’ve already done the work for you?

These are all viable strategies, but the reality is within one match you’ll jump between all three. In Project ZETA, strategies shift dynamically from one moment to the next. With five teams roaming the Aran Plateau, improvisation matters most. Focus too much on one adversary and another might stab you in the back, or worse, run up the score to take a commanding lead.

Your strategy will also be driven by the heroes your team members choose. There are currently 13 heroes, with more to be revealed in the future, and they’re grouped into four categories: Fighter, Marksman, Assassin, and Mage. Each hero has unique abilities that can synergize with other heroes, some of which can trigger devastating multikills if you pull them off at the right time.

It’s been six months since Project ZETA’s second closed beta, and a lot has changed in that time. In fact, it’s been the period with the biggest advancements in the game to date. There are two new heroes, reworked visuals and abilities for most heroes, new game-changing equipables, revamped environments, simplified Prism scoring, team respawn fixes, and lots more, all based on player feedback.

The final beta test will offer another chance to provide more feedback and further enhance the game. Anyone in North America or Europe can sign up for it on Steam, and both regions will have devoted servers running on two weekends: the first will be December 12–14, and the second will be December 19–21. For those who can’t stop playing, there will also be a custom game server that will stay live for the entirety of the beta, from December 12–21.

Project ZETA is also available to wishlist on Steam, and if you want the latest info and updates, you can join the official Discord server, follow on Twitter or Facebook, or check out its official website.

Lenovo has dropped the price on one of its best equipped gaming laptops to its lowest price ever. The Legion Pro 5 Gen 10 gaming laptop, featuring an OLED display, Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU, and RTX 5070 Ti GPU, is down to $1,469.99 after you stack two coupon codes "LENOVOHOLIDEAL" and "EXTRAFIVE". That's $1,000 off in combined savings and beats the lowest price I saw during BLack Friday and Cyber Monday. The RTX 5070 Ti is a powerful mobile GPU that will easily run game you throw at it, even on the display's 1600p resolution.

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro Gen 10 RTX 5070 Ti Laptop for $1,470

It’s December, and that means one of the most epic fan conventions in the world is set to showcase some of the biggest upcoming movies, streaming series, and much, much more.

IGN will be on the ground at CCXP25 in Brazil starting Thursday, December 4 bringing you all the biggest news, panels, and celebrity interviews. Over 4 jam-packed days, we’ll be featuring inside looks at some of the most hotly-anticipated properties in entertainment. Check out the full line-up below, and be sure to check back as more movies and shows are added.

Thursday, December 4

• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO Max)

Friday, December 5

• Fallout (Prime Video)
• Marty Supreme (A24)

Saturday, December 6

• Disney +
• Paramount +
• The Boys (Prime Video)

Sunday, December 7

• Primal (Adult Swim)
• IT: Welcome to Derry (HBO)

You can check out the full CCXP25 schedule here.

Last year, IGN was on the ground at CCXP with up-close looks at movies and series including Severance, The Gorge, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Invincible, and more including interviews interviews with Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Adam Scott, and Norman Reedus, and Ana de Armas.

Stay tuned starting Thursday for up-to-the minutes details about everything happening at CCXP25.

Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium is celebrating its first anniversary, introducing a major update with brand-new Crew Deck gameplay. Now there are more ways than ever to interact with your T-Dolls, with exclusive animations and story content for nearly 40 characters. Each Doll has unique behaviors that come out as you spend more time with them, and there are interaction scenes between certain Dolls when they show up together.

New Features Land in Crew Deck Upgrade

With the Crew Deck open, Commanders will find fully realized 3D versions of the collectible cabinet and armory in addition to the new interactive story moments. Commanders should have received mail with an item that lets them unlock the interactive story scene for the hard-eyed but soft-hearted sniper, Makiatto. The story scene "Time Capsule - Pulse-Racing Night" will be available for free. If you already have Makiatto's Outfit ("Embroidered Bamboo, Blooming Shadows"), you'll be able to experience Makiatto's scene after unlocking the relevant area. You'll also be able to get 35 Outfit Access Permissions at no charge through upgrade rewards, mail rewards, and other limited-time events.

An interactive story scene is available for the elite Doll Klukai alongside the release of her new "Cerulean Breaker" outfit, which gives you the unlock item "Time Capsule - Body Maintenance Technician." For a limited time, you will also be able to make exchanges for more Outfit Access Permissions.

Speaking of Klukai, she's the highlight of the Crew Deck's new Holography Function. You can collect 3D trinkets, customize your living space, cook, play minigames in the Crimson Arcade, and lots more.

Anniversary Rewards Overflowing

'Tis all about giving during the Starry Season, and developer Mica Team has tons of limited-time event rewards to put on GFL2’s plate for its first-year anniversary celebration. By joining in, players can earn more than 130 pulls and more than 13,000 Collapse Pieces.

The Crew Deck Date Reward includes 10 Access Permissions, an Elmo Model ornament, 300 Collapse Pieces, and more growth materials. The season also delivers two free outfits: Dragon Chef for Qiuhua from the Glory Store and Enjoy the Fragrance for Springfield are unlocked for free once your collectibles reach the required level. Additional Access Permissions can be earned from daily activities, furniture exchanges, gift packs, mail rewards, and the seasonal Battle Pass event.

Check out the Video of 404 Squad, with More to Come

Commanders can look forward to meeting two new Dolls, Leva and Lenna. These additions from the original 404 Squad use electricity to attack and debuff their foes, and they're sure to give Electric teams a boost.

Check in with GFL2's main site and social media (Including Twitter and YouTube) for more information about the timing of prize drops, stay up-to-date on upcoming collabs with other games and franchises, and to see a new trailer that reunites the 404 Squad when Lenna, Leva, Klukai, and Mechty are reunited under the Commander to carry out a dangerous mission. There are intense battles with gatling guns, helicopters, humvees, and other heavy machinery. Commanders and their Dolls should expect to stay busy for quite a while, but don't forget to relax on the Crew Deck from time to time. That's what it's for.

IGN recently hosted a special screening of the first two episodes of Spartacus: House of Ashur in Los Angeles before its two-episode premiere on December 5. Series creator Steven S. DeKnight and star Nick E. Tarabay were on hand for the event and took part in a Q&A after the screening where they discussed the series, how it came to be, and what we can look forward to seeing.

For those who don’t know, Spartacus: House of Ashur is an alternate history that returns to the world of Spartacus and follows previous series antagonist Ashur. In this version, he lives through the events on Mount Vesuvius and becomes owner of the ludus (a gladiator training ground) that once owned him when he was an enslaved gladiator.

It’s been 12 years since the original run of Spartacus ended, and DeKnight said getting to work with Tarabay again and expanding on the groundwork they laid for Ashur were two of the major reasons he wanted to return for the show.

“The Ashur character, to me, is so intriguing,” he said. “Here’s a guy, when he first got to the ludus as a gladiator, he just wanted to be part of the brotherhood. I always say if Ashur had gotten a hug back then, he would’ve been a different person. But he was mocked and ridiculed and humiliated, and it turned him bitter. So I love the idea of taking this man and giving him a chance to be a better person. Can he be a better person? Or will his demons keep dragging him down?”

Tarabay expanded on that, saying that now that the story is told from his perspective, we’ll see new facets to him that we haven’t before.

“In this season, you’ll see a softer side of Ashur,” he said. “A loving side, a kind of vulnerable side to Ashur. And because of this, because of his feelings now, he’ll do things that you won’t think that he would do. And that’s all I can say about that.”

Through the original run of Spartacus, Ashur was the character the audience loved to hate. Now he’s the protagonist and given a chance at redemption, but Tarabay isn’t worried about how the audience will receive him.

“My job as an actor is to honor the writing, that’s all I do,” he said. “How you guys perceive it, that’s up to you. I leave that to your imagination. I wouldn’t dare to tell you how you should feel or shouldn’t feel. Whatever you feel is how you feel. I do my job, and the rest is up to the gods.”

The original run of Spartacus included real historical events, but telling this new story that takes place in an alternate timeline has allowed the show to stray from history in a way that DeKnight called “very freeing.”

“We have some historical guideposts, but after that… In the first episode, you see Ashur breaks from history by introducing the first female gladiator,” DeKnight said. “Historically, that actually came about 80 years later. But now that Ashur’s alive, he upsets history, and that’s just the first ripple. There are many more surprises coming.”

While Spartacus: House of Ashur is obviously focused on an existing character, DeKnight made it clear he intends for the show to be approachable for newcomers too. Episode 1 begins with a segment meant to introduce new fans to the show’s world.

“We really wanted that opening to be an homage to the original fans and a primer for the new fans,” DeKnight said. “To really set the world, reset the stage, and then we’re just diving right into it and we figure everybody will catch up.”

The show will debut with a two-episode premier on December 5 on STARZ and the STARZ app, with subsequent episodes airing each Friday afterward. The screening IGN hosted also showed those first two episodes, and DeKnight and Tarabay said they’re just the tip of the iceberg of what this season has to offer.

“Seriously, it’s a roller coaster,” Tarabay said. “I always said by the time we get to Episode 5 and from 5–10, I don’t know what the hell’s going on. Really, it’s so good. There’s a couple of episodes that I truly felt that we are in a Greek tragedy, it was so good. And the very last scene of the first season in Episode 10, all of you are gonna be like, ‘What the fuck just happened? Did they really go there?’ I cannot wait.”

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there were surprisingly few GPU deals. Fortunately, If you've been waiting for one of the more affordable Blackwell cards to come back in stock at a reputable retailer, there's a good deal available right now. Walmart is offering an MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 5070 12GB Graphics Card for just $499.99 shipped, or $50 below MSRP. The RTX 5070 is an excellent GPU for gaming at up to 1440p with high framerates, especially with DLSS 4.

MSI GeForce RTX 5070 12GB Graphics Card for $499.99

EA and Battlefield Studios are preparing Battlefield 6 players for Season 1: Winter Offensive with a community letter with a list of changes set to be introduced with the upcoming 1.1.3.0 update.

The message, which aims to roll out the welcome mat for what will be yet another feedback-driven update, was posted on the official Battlefield 6 website today. It comes with a breakdown for some of the community talking points BF Studios has attempted to address so far, while giving fans a closer look at what’s to come when Winter Offensive launches December 9.

With anticheat, challenge/progression, and Escalation updates topping the list of recent highlights, BF Studios is turning its attention to a number of key issues across combat, REDSEC, and the overall Battlefield 6 experience. One especially troublesome issue for the community that the team is seeking to fix with update 1.1.3.0 are audio issues that have existed since launch. Players should notice, for example, that footsteps have been tweaked to “improve clarity, distance definition, and positional awareness across the game.”

“We have also continued to work on performance and memory issues that could cause sounds,” BF Studios says, “such as vehicles or footsteps, to sometimes not play as intended, which has been particularly noticeable on larger Battle Royale maps.”

Following last month’s multiplayer mode tweaks is a set of additional adjustments for Rush and Breakthrough. The studio explains the new changes as another step in the balancing act that has seen it attempting to keep matches fair, with the new update ideally improving the experience for attacking players.

Capture volumes and vehicle availability in Breakthrough will also be updated when 1.1.3.0 launches next week, with BF Studios explaining that Siege of Cairo, for example, will feature an additional attacker tank for Sectors 1 and 3 and a reworked capture area for objective B. Rush fans will notice M-COM locations for Manhattan Bridge and Liberation Peak have been adjusted to further refine attacker gameplay.

“These updates are intended to reduce bottlenecks, remove frustration points, and create more consistent and engaging fights around objectives,” BF Studios says.

“Beyond these highlights, we have also made a range of quality-of-life improvements across UI clarity, minimap behavior, controller aiming responsiveness, and more, which you will see detailed in the full notes.”

Another topic plaguing the Battlefield 6 fanbase since launch involves potential hit registration and netcode issues. It’s an area BF Studios has taken aim at before, with update 1.1.3.0 set to, hopefully, buff out even more scratches related to inconsistent gameplay across multiplayer and REDSEC. Also included in the new changes is the promise that Battlefield 6 will be easier on the eyes thanks to changes to close-range soldier visibility, lighting, prone animations, and more.

While players across the experience will likely pick up on “wide-ranging” changes to weapon handling, attachments, and recoil patterns, REDSEC fans can look forward to armor and tank availability changes. Armor changes for the battle royale experience will be detailed in its own dedicated post in the near future, with tank changes also subject to change as fans get their hands on update 1.1.3.0.

“We are actively exploring several areas aimed at improving clarity, responsiveness, and fairness in combat, BF Studios adds. “This includes further work on edge cases related to hit registration, investigating rare desync scenarios with destructible objects, and gathering deeper data on situations where players feel they were eliminated after reaching cover. These areas remain key priorities, and the findings from our ongoing investigations will inform updates planned for the new year.”

This latest communication from the Battlefield team stops short of providing full Battlefield 6 update 1.1.3.0 patch notes. Players are told to expect a more detailed list of all of the new weapon, map, and mode changes in “the next few days.”

Battlefield 6 Season 1 will deliver its third and final chapter when Winter Offensive launches December 9 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S. While the two previous chapters have introduced additional weapons, modes, and two maps – Blackwell Fields and Eastwood – next week’s content update focuses on its Ice Lock event changes. Expect snowy limited-time goodies for Gauntlet and Empire State, as well as an ice climbing axe melee weapon.

Battlefield 6 launched for PC and consoles October 10. As BF Studios continues to refine its gameplay, players have found themselves divided over map sizes and goofy skins while EA boasts record-breaking launch sales.

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

Stranger Things is taking over as the show approaches its series finale — and now even Google is getting in on the fun by adding an Easter egg to its search engine.

Head to the Google homepage and search for “Stranger Things,” and a Dungeons & Dragons polyhedral die will appear at the bottom of the results screen. If you click it, it’ll roll to a one — which, in turn, makes red bolts of lightning fill up the screen. From there, your results will be vertically flipped… quite literally bringing the page into the Upside Down.

It’s a fun little gimmick that highlights just how popular and powerful Stranger Things has become within the zeitgeist since it started all the way back in 2016.

Speaking of the Upside Down, the most recent trailer for the beloved Netflix series' final season teases that the gang may actually go into it at some point before the show ends. Let’s be real, that would be so cool — and chaotic, which seems to be what we can expect from the last leg of the series.

“I think what's unique about this season is that it starts a little bit in chaos because our heroes ultimately lost at the end of Season 4,” cocreator and showrunner Ross Duffer recently revealed about season 5. “We usually set up their normal life and how they’re going about school, and then we introduce the supernatural element. But in this case, this season is sprinting from the start.”

His brother, fellow cocreator and showrunner Matt Duffer, added that things are very different for the group these days. “They’re not experiencing normal life. Nothing in Hawkins is normal anymore,” he explained. “Their movement is restricted, and there are Big Brother cameras everywhere. So not only are they active — their everyday, normal lives are anything but.”

The last season of Stranger Things is being released in three parts. The first four episodes arrived in time for the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26, with the next three episodes set to debut on Netflix on Christmas Day. The finale will be available to stream on the platform on New Year’s Eve, the same day it will also be released in theaters nationwide.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

Wicked: For Good has had a wildly successful run at the box office so far. If you've seen it and can't wait to pick up a physical copy for your library, its 4K release is now available to preorder. That's not all, though. The climactic final part of the Wicked story is also getting a two-film collection, for those hoping to have the whole tale as one 4K bundle, alongside a fancy Amazon-exclusive giftset and a Walmart-exclusive steelbook.

At the moment, these don't have a set release date, which makes sense given how recently the film just opened in theaters. Bonus features haven't been revealed yet either, but we're keeping an eye out for more information and will update accordingly.

Wicked: For Good on 4K

Wicked Two-Film Collection on 4K

Wicked: For Good Walmart Exclusive Steelbook

If steelbooks are up your alley, Wicked: For Good has one coming exclusively from Walmart. This release, which you can see in more detail below, features Glinda in her bubble and Elphaba on her broom on the front cover, with the Emerald City visible between them. It also comes with a 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and digital copy of the film.

Wicked: For Good Amazon Exclusive Giftset

This is the fanciest release of the bunch. Amazon's exclusive giftset, which comes with a hefty price tag of $229.99, is the ultimate pick-up for Wicked fans. It comes with Wicked: For Good on 4K, Blu-ray, and digital with exclusive packaging, an Emerald City-inspired gold tone metal box, and a numbered certificate of authenticity, which all come packaged in a vibrant pink box.

While we still have to wait a little bit for Wicked: For Good's physical release, there's plenty more coming out this month (and at the start of 2026) that's worth adding to your library. Our breakdown of upcoming 4Ks and Blu-rays highlights the movies and shows releasing over the next few months, so you can stock up on your favorites.

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

Throughout Black Friday and the weekend, there were quite a few worthy gaming PC deals from several retailers including HP, Lenovo, Best Buy, and Walmart. These deals have either sold out or gone up in price. There's really just one retailer that still has its best PC deals still running past Cyber Monday, and that's Alienware. It's still not too late to score a great deal on a powerful gaming PC, but the clock is ticking.

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC From $1,750

Considering what it offers, Disney+ is one of the best streaming services on the block. From classic Disney animated films to the latest Marvel shows, Star Wars movies, and so much more, Disney+ puts an incredible range of high-quality viewing options at your fingertips. There's tons to watch, but after another round of price hikes, you might want to revisit your streaming subscriptions. We're here to help.

At the moment, one of the best Disney Plus bundle deals available is the massive Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max streaming bundle. This starts at $19.99/month (after a recent price hike) to get you all three streaming services with ads. Bundles are definitely worth considering, especially following the news of Hulu eventually fully integrating into the Disney+ app.

How to Get the Disney Plus, Hulu, and HBO Max Streaming Bundle