Full spoilers for”The Hedge Knight,” the first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follow.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms hilariously establishes in its first five minutes how it is unlike any other Game of Thrones show.

‘It fits my grips as well as it ever did his,” mutters the towering but sweet-natured squire Dunk as he holds his just-deceased master’s sword. As Dunk ponders whether to become a knight himself, the camera holds on his face as Ramin Djawadi’s rousing Game of Thrones theme swells, cueing that great things are in store for our protagonist…only to smash cut to Dunk taking an explosive shit beside a tree. This is no grand hero we’re dealing with, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is not going the route that those familiar with the Game of Thrones franchise might expect. This is further established by the show’s lack of an opening credits sequence, with just the series title appearing on its own.

Running roughly 40 minutes, the series premiere – directed by Owen Harris and scripted by showrunner Ira Parker – wastes no time in setting up its main characters and their world, with Dunk meeting co-lead Egg within the first 10 minutes. The chemistry between the characters is instant; actors Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell make Dunk and Egg, respectively, an endearing, dopey big brother-precocious little brother pairing. Their relationship is the heart of the show and keeps the viewer emotionally invested in what is (so far) a fantasy-free trek through Westeros.

Season One adapts “The Hedge Knight,” the first entry in George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novella series. From the get-go, this is a smaller Game of Thrones experience – one without dragons (it’s set in the century between the end of House of the Dragon and the beginning of Game of Thrones) or magic – but the Targaryen dynasty still sits on the Iron Throne, so there is some familiar connective tissue between all the series.

Since Dunk is but a lowly, aspiring hedge knight, and Egg is seemingly without a home or loved ones, the show adopts a more grounded, unpolished view of Westeros. For now at least, Dunk and Egg are far removed from the prophecies and apocalyptic stakes that mark House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, and the show is liberated from being slavishly tied to those series’ storylines. Without any of their narrative baggage to address, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is free to wander off on its own diverting journey.

This makes the show a great entry point for those interested in venturing into the world of Game of Thrones but who may be daunted by over a decade’s worth of TV episodes and books. No homework is required to watch and enjoy A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, but if you have watched the other shows or read any of the books, you should find much to appreciate in this refreshingly scaled down, character-driven series.

Poor Dunk is the Rodney Dangerfield of Westeros; he gets no respect, no respect at all. Whether it’s from the insolent Egg (“Every knight needs a squire. You look like you need one more than most.”) or the whores and lords of Ashford, where he ventures to take part in a tourney, Dunk is mocked for his size, attire, and his very meagerness. Yet he goes on, despite all the slights; he may not be particularly bright or fearsome, but Dunk has spirit and an innate kindness, especially to animals, as he often talks to his horses and prioritizes their care. Dunk, we will learn, has had a hard life, and is used to being counted out, but Egg sees something in him that Dunk himself might not, and is relentless in pitching himself as Dunk’s squire.

In addition to Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell, Daniel Ings delivers a great performance as Ser Lyonel Baratheon, a debaucherous knight with swashbuckler vibes who takes a shine to Dunk. Other notable supporting turns include Tanzyn Crawford as Dornish puppeteer Tanselle, who catches Dunk’s eye; Shaun Thomas as Dunk’s new pal, a good-natured squire named Raymun Fossoway; and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as the steward of Ashmore, who gives Dunk a hard time about joining the games and also has some pretty disgusting habits.

While Tom McCullagh’s production design and Lorna Marie Mugan’s costumes certainly fit with the overall Game of Thrones aesthetic, Dan Romer’s warm score and the bucolic scenery offer a harmony more associated with Middle-earth than a realm known for its Fire and Ice. This isn’t a criticism, just an observation of how this further differentiates A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms from its franchise forebears.

I've spent an unreasonable portion of my life wandering irradiated wastelands. I have shot geckos in the face outside Goodsprings, talked my way out of Legion death squads, and listened to Mr New Vegas whisper sweet nothings through a crackling radio while I hauled my butt across the Mojave. Fallout is not just a series I like. It is a Graceland I return to yearly. So when Fallout Season 2 rolled back into the cultural conversation and casually dropped New Vegas swagger, Shady Sands and old world icons like The Prydwen on a new generation, my first instinct is not nostalgia. It is logistics. How can I get back in, and how cheaply can I get there.

That is where Fallout 76 and its Burning Springs update come in. Yes, the game that once launched as a wonky multiplayer experiment has quietly and steadily become the most literal Fallout theme park Bethesda has ever built. And right now, thanks to frequent discounts, it is also one of the cheapest tickets into the Wasteland you can buy if you long for a companion piece to the show.

Current Fallout 76 Prices

PlayStation

• Fallout 76 (physical) - $54.95 $23
• Fallout 76: Burning Springs Starter Bundle (Digital) - $11.95

Xbox

• Fallout 76 (physical) - $54,95 $15.99
• Fallout 76: Burning Springs Starter Bundle (Digital) - $11.95

PC

• Fallout 76 (digital) - $54.95
• Fallout 76: Burning Springs Starter Bundle (Digital) - $11.95

Seeing the Sights in Season 2 of the TV Series

Burning Springs is Fallout 76 leaning hard into the series' greatest hits. If Season 2 of the TV show sent you scrambling back to New Vegas footage on YouTube, this '76 update is packed with locations that feel like echoes rather than copies. Familiar shapes, familiar sins, new disasters layered on top.

Take Dino Peaks Mini Golf. Anyone who spent time in Novac knows exactly why giant dinosaurs belong in Fallout. They are ridiculous, they are cheerful, and they are always standing in places where something terrible happened. Dino Peaks is a pre war roadside attraction turned Deathclaw buffet, complete with oversized reptiles that immediately trigger Dinky the T Rex memories. Basically, this is the kind of place Fallout does best. A joke you'll smirk at until something with claws charges you from behind a souvenir stand.

I did not plan to fall in love with my backlog again, but here we are. This batch of deals sent me digging through games I already adore, ones I bounced off years ago, and a few I absolutely paid too much for at launch. There is something deeply satisfying about seeing time, patches, and good discounts finally align. Contents

• Retro
• Nintendo
• Xbox
• PlayStation
• PC
• PC Gear
• LEGO

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, we're celebrating the big 25 for cult classics Armored Core 2 and Tokyo Highway Challenge 2. The former was largely unappreciated outside of Japan in its day, though the series is now bona fide AAA with its seventh iteration. The latter—which copped the suckiest EU market renaming since 'Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles'—garnered an IGN 9.3/10.

Zootopia 2 is now the highest-grossing animated Hollywood film of all time, with a huge $1.703 billion worldwide ($390 million domestic and $1.313 billion international). The Disney film has overtaken Inside Out 2’s $1.7 billion box office haul from 2024. Chinese fantasy film Ne Zha 2, with its astronomical $2.259 billion global box office, remains the highest-grossing animated movie of all time.

Zootopia 2 is now the number nine highest-grossing global release of all time, ahead of 2019’s The Lion King ($1.663 billion), 2015’s Jurassic World ($1.672 billion) and the aforementioned Inside Out 2. Number eight on the list is 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which made $1.921 billion at the global box office.

Disney’s other monstrous money-maker, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is now up to $1.319 billion worldwide after five weekends ($363.5 million domestic and $955.3 million international). Writer and director James Cameron is yet to signal that Avatar 4 and 5 are definitely going to happen, as box office watchers wonder whether Fire and Ash has done well enough to convince the powers that be at Disney to move ahead. The special effects-heavy Avatar films cost a huge amount of money to produce, but they have historically made billions of dollars at the box office. 2009's Avatar 1 remains the highest-grossing movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation), earning a staggering $2.9 billion across several theatrical runs. 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water has earned $2.3 billion, meanwhile, cementing its place as the third-highest grossing film of all time. Fire and Ash looks like it will struggle to come anywhere near to the box office hauls of its predecessors.

Meanwhile, horror sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple appears to be struggling, with $31.2 million from its worldwide opening. Just $13 million came domestically. To put that into context, 28 Years Later, which only came out seven months ago, opened to $30 million from North American theaters alone. While The Bone Temple has great review scores (IGN’s review returned an 8/10), it may be suffering from releasing too soon after 28 Years Later. The hope for Sony will be positive word of mouth fuels a recovery.

What does this mean for the next film in the planned sequel trilogy? Last month, Sony confirmed it was moving forward with the third installment of the 28 Years Later films, with the decision coming over a month before the release of The Bone Temple. Alex Garland, who has written all the franchise entries thus far, was said to be working on the third entry, which does not have a title at this point. Danny Boyle has been open about wanting to direct it. While you wait to find out, check out IGN's article, 5 Questions We Have For the Next 28 Years Later Movie Following The Bone Temple.

Elsewhere, The Housemaid is showing remarkable staying power at the box office, hitting $247.3 million worldwide on its fifth weekend. Starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried and directed by Paul Feig, The Housemaid is a breakout hit fuelled by excellent word of mouth.

And finally, A24’s Marty Supreme earned $9,838,927 this weekend globally ($5,477,927 domestic and $4.361 million international) for a global total to date of $99.5 million. It is now A24’s highest-grossing movie in North America with $80 million, passing Everything Everywhere All at Once's $77 million.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

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Borderlands 4 for $39.99

Despite being on TV for nearly 30 years, with 28 seasons and over 330 episodes so far, there have been shockingly few video games based on the hit animated television series, South Park. That could be down to the fact that video games take years to make and the average South Park episode only takes a few days, meaning the usual topical pop culture references that fuel the show might feel positively ancient by the time a video game hits shelves. Regardless, a dozen South Park games have managed to buck that trend and actually get released since the show debuted in 1997. Some of them great and some of them..not so great. Here are the best, worst, and weirdest South Park games.

South Park

The first South Park video game ever made was an ambitious one, even if a first-person snowball fighting simulator didn’t exactly make a ton of sense for the brand. But since local multiplayer FPS games like Goldeneye were all the rage on the N64 in 1998, it’s no surprise that South Park got a similar treatment, even if the end result was much sillier. Developer Iguana Entertainment (known mostly for the Turok game series at the time) and publisher Acclaim Entertainment came together to create a solid FPS game packed with South Park references, including a recreation of the show’s theme song, multiple playable characters, and Kenny dying brutally before the title screen even appears. It’s not a great game by any stretch, and seeing the traditionally flat and hand drawn South Park characters as low poly 3D models was an odd fit, but it had enough South Park fan service to make it worth checking out at the time.

South Park: Chef's Luv Shack

A year later South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack arrived, this time with a graphical style much truer to the show’s 2D look. Developed once again by Acclaim, it moved away from first person combat, instead providing a game show-style minigame and trivia collection for Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman to compete in. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to play this game without other human players, so if you were an only child (or just a loser like Butters), you were pretty much out of luck. Additionally, the limited trivia question set led to a lot of repetition, meaning the joke got old pretty fast, and fans were once again left holding a licensed video game letdown.

South Park Rally

The third and final Acclaim Entertainment South Park video game once again delivered an experience that critics disliked and diehard fans merely tolerated, this time attempting to take on the popular kart racing genre with the South Park license slapped on. South Park Rally is a crude and ugly kart racer with unreliable controls and lackluster track design, but hey, you can drive Big Gay Al’s car and throw Mr. Hanky turds at other players, so at least there’s that.

Despite the show’s immense popularity, South Park video games ended up taking a seven year hiatus after this capped off Acclaim's trilogy of games, which probably pleased South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, seeing as they once said during a DVD commentary for an episode of the show: “Oh God, the South Park games were so bad. We were so bummed out on those, because we love playing video games.”

South Park 10: The Game

In 2007, South Park celebrated its 10th season on the air less than spectacularly by releasing a bare bones, Europe exclusive mobile game that referenced key moments from the show. South Park 10: The Game is a short and very no-frills platformer that looks like a fan made flash game. Aside from collecting hidden Cheesy Poofs in each level, there’s not much to do or see once you roll credits in under an hour. Still, it was nice to see somebody utilizing the license again, even if the final product was totally average. But you could play as a cow nearly two decades before Mario Kart World let you, so hey, there’s that.

South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play!

Two years later, Xbox Live Arcade got its own South Park tower defense game, pitting its main characters against waves of ginger kids, hippies, cows, and more as they tried to save their idyllic and weird little town. The 2D art direction, official voices and sound effects, and iconic humor elevated a pretty bog standard tower defense outing into an actually solid South Park video game.

South Park Mega Millionaire

Once again revisiting the game show setting for reasons that are unclear, 2009’s South Park Mega Millionaire - hot off the heels of 2008’s hit film, Slumdog Millionaire - was a mobile game that decided it was a good idea to strap roller skates to the South Park kids and put them in precarious platforming situations in front of a live studio audience. It’s not a great game by any stretch, but it does have one of the best South Park video game jokes of all time, as the kids survive a Japanese game show in hopes to win a ten thousand yen prize; unbeknownst to them, ten thousand yen equates to roughly sixty three dollars.

South Park: Tenorman's Revenge

2012's Tenorman’s Revenge is another Xbox exclusive South Park game, this time revisiting Scott Tenorman, a character from the infamous South Park episode where Cartman makes Scott eat chili made from the bodies of Scott’s own dead parents. Well, Scott Tenorman has returned to get revenge in video game form in this brief and mediocre platforming game which is only briefly improved by the occasional boss fight and its central plot device, which focuses on the kids having to recover a stolen Xbox 360 hard drive along with all of their precious game save files.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

As you can probably tell by now, the first 16 years of South Park games left a lot to be desired. Everything changed in 2014 with South Park: The Stick of Truth, a genuinely great RPG that, unlike previous South Park games, was made with direct input from the show’s creators. Known for their previous work on franchises like Fallout and Star Wars, developer Obsidian Entertainment built a fantastic and hilarious 2.5D role playing game that looked and felt almost exactly like an episode of the show. It’s not just one of the best licensed games ever made, it's also a fantastic turn-based RPG in its own right, and definitely the only game in the genre where you have to shrink down your character small enough to explore a human anus so you can disarm a bomb. Take that, Final Fantasy.

South Park: Pinball

Zen Studios, creators of the excellent digital pinball franchise Zen Pinball, created a set of South Park pinball tables that totally understood the assignment, mixing rock solid gameplay and hilarious show references to excellent results. There’s even a dedicated Butters pinball table, as well as Mr. Hanky inspired brown pinballs, in case you ever wanted to knock a bunch of pellet-shaped turds around to compete for high scores.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole

2017’s sequel to The Stick of Truth was The Fractured But Whole, which was probably/possibly legally as close as they could get to putting the word “butthole” in a video game title. Fractured But Whole is another fantastic and funny RPG, this time satirizing the superhero movie genre more than just role playing games in general, and once again looking exactly like an episode of the show. This time around the battle system takes place on a grid complete with environmental hazards like LEGO bricks that can injure characters when stepped on, and features levels like the Peppermint Hippo, a strip club complete with a lapdance minigame sequence, just in case you were worried that South Park would lose its edge in a Ubisoft published video game.

South Park: Phone Destroyer

That same year, South Park: Phone Destroyer was - you guessed it - a mobile game, which just so happens to be the only South Park mobile game you can still download and play on your phone today. Phone Destroyer is a free-to-play card battling game that does a surprisingly good job of playing to the strengths of its platform. You’ll receive believable calls and texts from Cartman, and you can unlock multiple endings based on how much real money players spend on premium microtransactions, even shaming you and telling you to seek help with addiction if you spend too much. More mobile games should do that. The world would be a better place.

South Park: Snow Day!

The latest (but hopefully not the last) South Park video game is South Park: Snow Day, a sloppy action adventure roguelike that simultaneously attempts to complete the story established in Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole, while also returning to the original South Park game’s snowball fighting roots. It’s a shame that Snow Day doesn’t even come close to being fun or funny, with IGN’s own review calling it “thoroughly unenjoyable,” and “uncharacteristicly toothless and unfunny.”

It’s been a weird, windy road for South Park games, but with the recent Fortnite collaboration and megadeal renewal of the show, something tells me we’re just getting started and that hopefully, more South Park games are on the way.

So what’s your favorite South Park video game ever made? What’s your dream South Park game idea that you’d love to see someday? Go on down to the comments section and leave your woes behind. And if you want more about video game tie-ins to highly successful animated sitcoms that have been on TV for decades, go check out my video about the best, worst, and weirdest Simpsons video games.