This article contains spoilers for Paradise Season 1; Paradise Season 2 debuts on Hulu on February 23.

The first season of Hulu’s Paradise was extremely hard to talk about before it was released, particularly because the premiere episode’s big twist – that the show takes place entirely inside a suburban-style bunker under a mountain in Colorado after the apparent end of the world – was expressly forbidden from being mentioned in reviews. Well, the secret is out, and while there are plenty more twists and turns in Season 2 of the series – including a likely game changer in the finale (seven of the season’s eight episodes were provided to critics for review) – it’s a little easier to talk about this time around. With Season 2, Paradise continues to be one of the most propulsively binge-worthy dramas on TV.

To revisit Season 1 just a bit: After the murder of third term President Cal Bradford (James Marsden), Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) went down a conspiracy rabbit hole, unraveling some of the truth behind the bunker community of Paradise and how Samantha "Sinatra" Redmond (Julianne Nicholson), the billionaire behind its construction, was maybe not being so truthful about what went down outside its walls.

Specifically, after a bit of the ol’ insurrection led by Xavier, he discovered that not only are there people alive outside Paradise, his wife – who he thought died the day a super-volcano exploded, causing a tsunami to wreck most of the world – is alive as well, and living in Atlanta. There’s a lot more that happened as the show jumped backwards in time to show how we got here, as well as moving the conspiracy plot forward in the present, but the most important bit of info to know is that the season ended with Sinatra on life support, Xavier exiting the bunker via a small airplane to go find his wife, and Cal (ostensibly the third lead of the show) still very much dead, though often popping up via flashback to give ghostly advice.

With the dual secrets of the premise and how the world ended out of the way, we’re in literal and figurative uncharted territory in Season 2. Granted, showrunner Dan Fogelman has a fair amount of post-apocalyptic TV shows and movies to pull from, as well as mystery box/flashback-heavy shows like Lost, which he picks and chooses from liberally as we explore more of the world outside as well as how life continues inside Paradise. But what characterizes the new season more than anything is that while Fogelman lays in new mysteries and new sci-fi concepts to replace the ones tied with a bow in Season 1, he also leans straight into his comfort zone: emotionally charged character studies.

The thing is that Paradise is an odd note on Fogelman’s resumé. He hasn’t shied away from more fantastical concepts in the past; he wrote Cars, Tangled, and even a draft of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Most of the time, however, he’s been known for more grounded human fare like: Crazy, Stupid, Love; the late, lamented TV show, Pitch; and most notably, This Is Us.

Paradise Season 2 – at least in its first half – might as well be called This Is The Last Of Us without the fungal zombies. Yes, they’re in a post-apocalypse that’s been devastated by climate change – though the show rarely says those words – but everybody is so nice. We’ve been trained time and again by shows like The Last of Us and particularly The Walking Dead to expect that every time you encounter a new community, they might seem good at first, but it will turn out that they’re eating people, or they’re fascists, or they’re just not prepared to survive the circumstances of their particular apocalypse.

While Fogelman plays with that, he seems far less interested in what makes a world fall apart than what helps build it back up again. To that end, the majority of the season also takes the form of the more focused flashback episodes from Season 1. There, we got the full-on flashback episode of “The Day,” which revealed how the world fell in pulse-pounding real time. Paradise Season 2 isn’t quite on par with that high watermark episode, but instead channels the feeling of an extended sequence in the finale, where we met a construction worker helping build the bunker and followed him as he befriended his crew, discovered things weren’t quite right, tried to stop the bunker from being built, and ultimately failed.

Season 2 takes the feeling of that extended sequence and runs with it, almost becoming a Paradise anthology-style series where each episode is done in one, only lightly connecting to the episode that came before, and often keeping our main characters off-screen for episodes at a time. Part of that is utility, given we’re now following multiple characters in multiple locations versus the more focused locale of “just” Paradise in the first season. But another part of it is that it allows Fogelman the space to spend time emotionally with the characters, particularly new cast members like Shailene Woodley’s lost Graceland tour guide, and Thomas Doherty’s mysterious Link (yes, named after the Legend of Zelda character). We don’t know those folks yet the same way we know Xavier, Sinatra, and Cal, so while there might be some audience frustration about our Season 1 stars being in absentia for large chunks of episodes, when you’ve got good actors digging into meaty speeches and one-on-one scenes, you won’t really miss the folks you already know.

But don’t worry: Paradise falls back on a more conventional TV structure eventually. The level of restraint shown in the early part of the season is laudable, and particularly with Hulu dropping three episodes on premiere day, it should be less frustrating for fans of the series than if, say, you had to wait three to four weeks to find out what happened to Xavier, or what’s going on back in Paradise.

On that note, Sterling K. Brown continues to be the most ridiculously charming man on TV. While most of his arc falls under the heading of “I just want my wife back!” action heroes, and Brown’s chiseled muscles certainly make him convincing in the show’s infrequent but well-staged blockbuster action scenes, it’s Brown’s smile that makes viewers melt. Early on, there’s a swoon-worthy flashback to Xavier’s past that lets the actor flex all his rom-com muscles, and you will grin a goofy smile the entire time as Brown provides more raw romance power in a single scene than most movies can manage in their entire runtime. Other episodes let Brown flex his dramatic muscles as his hard-earned steely demeanor begins to melt thanks to Paradise’s Nice-pocalypse. And then other times, he just flexes his muscles, and when he does – hubba-hubba.

Nicholson also gets some substantial dramatic work this season, and though we may run out of rope eventually with the plotline that she’s been traumatized and motivated by the death of her son well before the end of the world, we haven’t gotten there yet. Nicholson is a master of the locked-up microexpression performance, and her sympathetic bad guy persona lets her play that to the hilt.

As for other members of the cast, Nicole Brydon Bloom continues to be a delight as the Wii-obsessed psycho secret service agent, Jane Driscoll; she bubbled in the background in Season 1, but the show knows what they’ve got with her unhinged performance and lets her freak flag fly in Season 2. And while he has less to do now that we know how he was murdered as well as his role in ending/saving the world, Marsden’s Cal is still incredibly engrossing in every flashback appearance. His folksy “I’m just a dumb, young guy who happens to be President” attitude belies a sharp judge of character, and an episode late in the season gives Marsden a stellar monologue. Cal may be back essentially because the show likes working with Marsden, but we like watching Marsden, so they get a pass here.

If Paradise Season 2 excels when it’s working with dramatic, human scenes, it struggles a bit with the sci-fi elements, which become more outlandish and farther from reality in Season 2. While this was never an expressly political show despite opening with the murder of the President, the idea of billionaires abandoning Earth to a climate disaster they caused is very present in our reality. The second season moves further away from that with new sci-fi ideas that are far less based in reality and seem more focused on the longevity of the series than reflecting something happening outside our window. It’s unfortunate, because it moves the show from pressing sci-fi warning to something more akin to naive fantasy. Granted, naive fantasy is where Fogelman lives, even when his shows are ostensibly set in the real world versus some time in the near future. But depending on how the finale pans out – there are big secrets being held back – it’s possible we could get something very timely, or we could end up diving completely into something less relatable and more fantastical.

Even given that, and with some of the jankier decisions on the part of our characters later in the season – choosing niceness, all apologies to Fogelman, is not always the answer when the stakes are this high – Paradise remains engrossing pulp fun. There’s a lot resting on Brown’s prodigious muscles to keep this show going, but thanks to a game supporting cast and plenty of twists, turns, and flashbacks that will tug on your heartstrings, the Hulu hit may be almost paradise, but it’ll keep you knocking on Heaven’s door, begging for more episodes.

With a slim, comfortable feel and a premium-only feature at a 25% discount, the EasySMX S10 has a leg up on most of the market when it comes to great third-party Switch 2 controllers. While it doesn’t pack the same punch as the first-party Switch 2 Pro Controller, the S10 makes for a solid second option for anyone willing to sacrifice ancillary stuff like Amiibo support. Plus, it comes with better triggers and a customizable d-pad.

EasySMX has made a big push into the third-party controller scene with one big claim: remote wakeup. It’s odd that Nintendo locked this basic, highly convenient feature behind the $80 Switch 2 Pro Controller or its even pricier counterpart, a pair of Joy-Con 2 controllers. This confusing change from the original Switch keeps just about every pro controller option from waking up the Switch 2 with the Home button. Even the official Switch 1 Pro Controller falls short here, effectively paywalling what should be a universal, standard feature. Enter EasySMX with a somewhat awkward solution to the issue, promising remote wakeup with a strange workaround.

Per the instructions provided by EasySMX, I synced my shiny new controller, detached both Joy-Cons, and then reattached them within 20 seconds after the initial sync. After putting my console back into sleep mode and trying to wake it up again… I got nothing. A few frustrated tries later though, it did work. I haven’t had any issues since it clicked, aside from when I connected the controller to my PC and then went back to the Switch 2, but I just repeated the process without issue.

In motion, the controller itself is really comfortable, especially for anything that relies heavily on its two buttery-smooth sticks, with comfortable, textured grips that kind of remind me of the DualSense’s stick grips. I played the entirety of Once Upon A Katamari, which is controlled almost exclusively using both sticks, using the S10.

My only real gripe with the sticks extends to the rest of the controller’s face; it’s all too low-profile. The grip part of the stick, where it mushrooms out from the rest of the stick, is too close to the rest of the controller, considering the distance between each controller element. This gives a kind of claustrophobic feel to swapping between sticks, buttons, and the d-pad. Granted, my thumbs are a bit bigger than average, but I found myself accidentally bumping the stick when pressing up on the d-pad.

That flaw aside, this d-pad is great. Despite literally inventing the d-pad decades ago, Nintendo has repeatedly dropped the ball in recent iterations, with a design that often accidentally triggers a secondary input in an additional, adjacent direction. I can’t tell you how many games of Tetris 99 I’ve had to salvage because of an accidental input from Nintendo’s first-party Pro Controllers. The Switch 2 Pro Controller is a step in the right direction, but it’s not where I need it to be.

The S10 offers customization between a classic d-pad and a circular design similar to the one found on the current Xbox models. I usually prefer the circular setup, but the traditional mode is a little more precise. Either way, it’s nice to have a choice.

The mechanical face buttons press with a satisfying little click like a mechanical keyboard would. They’re also pretty low-profile – which unfortunately isn’t my preference, because they give each press a kind of soft feeling that I can’t get behind. The triggers and bumpers, on the other hand, are much more comfortable and satisfying to press. They’re still low-profile like the first-party options, but this works much better for non-analog triggers than it does face buttons.

The grip buttons are the weakest link, though. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally pressed them just by gripping my controller tighter. This won’t be an issue for everyone, especially people with smaller hands and fingers, and it only became an issue when I had those buttons mapped to an input. Still, I wish there were a tighter gate to minimize accidental presses.

Charlie is a freelance contributor for IGN. You can reach them via Twitter or Instagram at the handle @chas_mke.

Razer has announced a new high-end addition to its Huntsman line of mechanical keyboards. Called the Huntsman Signature Edition, this tenkeyless keyboard will be made of more premium materials, cost $499.99, and "is debuting in a limited drop of 1,337 serialized units," the company says in its announcement. Why that number? You know why. (But if you don't, here's a primer on l337 speak.)

It's in the construction and materials where the spendy new Signature Edition sets itself apart from the older Huntsman V3 models it resembles (and that don't quite measure up to the Razer BlackWidow V4 that IGN prefers for gaming). Where previous Huntsman keyboards are encased in plastic, the Huntsman Signature Edition will be housed in a CNC-milled, anodized aluminum chassis, with a shiny, mirror-like finish on the underside and other parts of the keyboard, such as the company's special triple-headed snake keycap.

The company also promises that the keyboard's interior is "carefully layered ... with tuned foams and sound-dampening materials" to create "a full, rounded typing sound while improving overall key feel."

Otherwise, this fancy USB-C-wired keyboard will feature the same analog optical switches and Rapid Trigger Mode found in the Huntsman V3 Pro, as well as the 8,000Hz polling rate the company has given the latest version of that keyboard.

So, if you liked the responsiveness of the V3 models, there's probably a lot to like for you here, as well. Look for other typical Razer Huntsman keyboard features, including RGB lights under the keys, adjustable key actuation (between 0.1mm and 4mm), and on-the-fly macro recording. The Huntsman Special Edition will be available on Razer's website starting at 8AM PT on February 22 for $499.

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.

Nowadays it's quite difficult to find an RTX 5070 Ti prebuilt for under $2,000, and when you do, it's usually stripped of any other high-end component. However, for this week only, Lenovo actually has two RTX 5070 Ti configurations priced under $2K, and they're actually pretty well equipped otherwise. This is made possible thanks to a 10% off coupon code "PDLIVE26" that went live on Presidents Day and is, fortunately, still avaialble.

Thinking of saving money by building your own DIY RTX 5070 Ti system? Think again. The RTX 5070 Ti graphics card is currently selling for at least $250 over MSRP. Other options, such as the Radeon RX 9070 XT or RTX 5080, also have a steep markup. With the rising prices of GPUs and RAM, you don't want to miss out on this rare opportunity.

Lenovo Legion Tower 5 RTX 5070 Ti Gaming PC for $1,799

Amazon has killer deals on Ravensburger puzzles and Nintendo Switch digital games. Beyond that, you can grab Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora From the Ashes Edition for PS5 for only $28, or grab a Godzilla-themed monopoly for $30. Be sure to grab your MTG x TMNT preorders; some have even gotten a serious discount.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora From the Ashes Edition for PlayStation 5 Hits New Low Price

Duck Dodgers: The Complete Series Hits Lowest Price Ever

Amazon’s Digital Nintendo Switch Game Sale

Amazon has discounted digital versions of Nintendo Switch games. A whole bunch of titles are on 33% off or more. Everything from Luigi Mansion 2 HD to Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a part of this deal. One game you might be particularly keen on grabbing is Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, as Nintendo just launched the Switch 2 upgrade, which you can purchase directly from Nintendo for just $5. It brings support for 4K/60fps on TV and 1080p/60fps when playing on the Switch 2.

Grab Godzilla x Monopoly for Only $30

Save Up to $90 on the Logitech G Pro X 2 Gaming Headset

Amazon Ravensburger Puzzle Deals

Ravensburger jigsaw puzzles are on sale at Amazon. However, all the puzzles are lightning deals, so once a certain amount is sold, the deal expires, and they’re selling fast. There are discounts of 30% to nearly 50% off, offering solid savings. Tolkien fans may want to grab the Lord of the Rings puzzle, but there are plenty of other options, from adorable illustrations to stunning scenery.

Save 40% on Anno 117 for PC

Alienware AW3423DWF Gaming Monitor Is $200 Off

MTG x TMNT Draft Night Is Discounted

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Note: This is a spoiler-free review of the first four episodes of the Scrubs revival series. The first two episodes will premiere on ABC on Wednesday, February 25, and on Hulu on Thursday, February 26.

In an era where it seems easier to count the hit shows that haven’t received a big-budget streaming revival, it was inevitable that Scrubs would make its return. The original series is still beloved by fans, despite that underwhelming final season and its failed attempt to spin off into something new. Those fans needn’t worry about Season 10. The series immediately captures that old magic upon its return, even if it’s not all smooth sailing at Sacred Heart.

Original creator Bill Lawrence and stars Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, and Donald Faison are all back for Season 10, which immediately rectifies the big problem with Season 9. There’s a strong argument to be made that Scrubs simply isn’t Scrubs without the core bromance between Braff’s Dr. John “J.D.” Dorian and Faison’s Dr. Christopher “Turkleton” Turk anchoring each and every episode. The new season wastes as little time as possible before reminding us of how fun these two are together. Their chemistry is just that good.

That’s what’s so immediately striking about the Scrubs revival. It’s as if it hasn’t been 16 years since the series’ cancellation. Sure, everyone has a few extra lines on their faces and a little more gray in their temples, but Braff, Chalke, and Faison have that same youthful energy and charm that characterized the show back in the day. Watching the first episode is like settling in with an old friend who doesn’t mind that you haven’t called or written for the past decade. It’s all good.

For anyone who adored the first eight seasons of the series, this is the epitome of sitcom comfort food. Even with a new showrunner in Aseem Batra, the new Scrubs clearly isn’t out to reinvent any wheels or blaze new trails for medical TV dramas. The series isn’t completely oblivious to the harsh realities of life in a modern American emergency hospital, but that all takes a backseat to the camaraderie of the doctors and J.D.’s zany inner life. The Pitt is right there if that’s more your speed.

Of course, a lot of time has passed, and not everything is like it was back in 2001. That’s where hardcore Scrubs fans may be in for a bit of an adjustment period. Some of the series’ core supporting cast also return (most notably Judie Reyes as Turk’s other life partner, Nurse Carla Espinosa, and John C. McGinley as the fiery Dr. Perry Cox), but there are some notable gaps. Perhaps most head-scratching is the absence of Neil Flynn’s Janitor. Between that and the relative lack of focus on Dr. Cox in these first four episodes, the series struggles to fill the void when it comes to antagonists in J.D.’s life. It almost succeeds with the introduction of his new professional rival, Joel Kim Booster’s Dr. Eric Park, but here again, Dr. Park isn’t in the spotlight enough in these first four episodes.

Enter the new batch of medical interns. Sacred Heart is, after all, a teaching hospital at the end of the day, so it’s necessary to introduce a new batch of wide-eyed, ambitious doctors-in-training to take the place once filled by J.D. and friends. There’s certainly an appeal in watching that role reversal play out. But, on the other hand, the shadow of Season 9 still looms large, and there’s the all-important question of whether the newbies can hold their own against the old guard.

The initial verdict is… fine? None of these intern characters are particular standouts in these early episodes, but the show only gives the actors so much to work with. The characters aren’t necessarily shoved in our faces the way Season 9’s new cast was. Most of these interns have one distinguishing characteristic (the handsome one, the British one, the social media-obsessed one) and exist to play the straight people to J.D., Elliott, and Turk more outlandish doctors. Only by Episode 4 does it feel like they’re starting to develop more coherent personalities and foibles.

Luckily, the new season does find plenty of success with Vanessa Bayer’s Sibby, Sacred Heart’s new medical wellness director. Sibby is there to embody the changing culture that has cropped up since the heyday of the original series and put a hard kibosh on Cox’s withering rants and The Todd’s (Robert Maschio) rampant sexual harassment. Bayer gets ample room to shine in these four episodes and quickly emerges as the strongest of the show’s new ensemble cast. Also of note are Michael James Scott and X Mayo as a tag-team nurse duo who help fill the void left by Aloma Wright’s Nurse Laverne.

If it's time to upgrade your gaming monitor, you can't go wrong with an OLED. And if you've got the funds to get the biggest and best, LG's highest-end OLED is the 45" LG UltraGear 45GX950A-B 5K2K gaming monitor. It normally retails for a hefty $2,000, but Amazon has just discounted it to $1350.18 with free delivery. This is the lowest price I've ever seen for this particular monitor, just make sure your desk has enough space to accomodate this ultra-wide behemoth.

Update: LG is offering "Outlet Pricing" at $1389 (scroll down until you see it). As-is it's not as good of a deal, but you may be able to get a lower price if you have a coupon code sitting in your inbox or by signing up for the newsletter. Sometimes LG will also send you a coupon code if you just leave the item sitting in your coupon code for a little while. YMMV.

45" LG UltraGear 5K2K Gaming Monitor for $1,350

I’ve played all of the God of War video games, including that one with the Reject Your Child quick time event, and that crappy mobile game from back in the Bush Administration. I played at least one game I only half remember of the God of War card game. I was a Kratos main in PlayStation All-stars Battle Royale. I like the guy, is what I'm saying, as a sort of cathartic avatar of the Id taken to its very tragic limits in Greece, and as a clunky conversation starter about guilt and finding power in something other than grievances in Midgard. But I can’t recall ever wondering “I want to know more about pre-Ares Kratos’ teenage years.” And as an answer to a question I would probably never ask, Sons of Sparta is a pleasant character rehabilitation of a largely unlikable guy couched in a largely boring adventure about Kratos learning the value of responsibility.

It’s also a pretty mediocre metroidvania, clearly taking the form and function of these games but failing to meet the high bar set by the titans of the genre, let alone bringing anything novel to this specific experience. You’ll move through colorful locations, doing the kind of running, jumping, button pressing, object pushing, and monster slaying that will be second nature to your inner Belmont, but you’ll do so at a pace so slow that it makes the journey feel like aimless wandering, fighting through hordes of baddies with combat that tries too hard to be special but ends up crowded and cloying.

I found this young Kratos to be a well-meaning, earnest guy piously (maybe naively so) devoted to the gods and the stubborn defender of his younger brother, Deimos. These are better times for the pair, who have just been granted permission to leave Sparta in order to adventure through and protect the surrounding lands at their own leisure. The well-written banter between them, and the other young people living in the Spartan agoge, reveals the Kratos that could have been, a charismatic, duty-bound leader that is tough when necessary, but also introspective, open to learn, and most jarring of all, funny.

Even the brief moments of pre-Ares pledge adult Kratos in Sons of Sparta, who is telling his daughter the happenings of the game as a fable while she’s grounded, reveal a man who actually has capacity to love his wife and child in the present, and not just be consumed by rage because of their passing. They banter back and forth in the background as notable in-game events go down, and the way Calliope will cast doubt on the seemingly tall tales of her father, or follow up on moments that either seem contradictory or wrong was charming in the way The Prince attempting to recount his journey in The Sands of Time was.

Ultimately, these don’t really save the story from feeling dull and rote. Sons of Sparta is full of interesting characters that you meet after long stretches of not very interesting travel and exploration. The many locations that Kratos and his brother romp through, like the fiery foundry of Daedalus or the dense and spooky Veiled Bog, look good but there’s nothing all that special or memorable about them. A lot of them seem to be begging to tell the story of what got them to the state they're in, like a haunted Winery that is covered in a goop and being possessed by Grecian Ivan Ooze, or a farming village where all of the residents have been replaced by cultists. But Sons is content with just marching you through a place in service of one long goal, to find a missing student of the Agoge, without stopping to elaborate on any of these side stories.

The around 20 hours of my journey was a lot of me wishing I could know more about a cool place I was in, knowing the best I was going to get was a blurb in the lore compendium, checking off every single Metroidvania trope without really any hope of seeing much innovation on the concept. The only “new” idea Sons has about the genre is when the player can expect to gain the signature abilities these games are known for. There's no explicit right or wrong time to gain mechanics, of course, but I went about 10 hours before gaining the ability to drink a healing potion and got a double jump a few hours later, things you might expect to do at the beginning of similar titles. But you spend so much of the early parts of Sons of Sparta running such rudimentary obstacle courses that every time I gained something like the ability to sprint, I felt like I had to wrestle through a fugue state to give it a fair shake.

Combat, for better and worse, was the most reliably compelling thing going on for a lot of the game. Kratos has a lot of offensive options but none that really resemble the God of War’s barbarism. Armed with a spear and a shield, you'll mash a single attack string, poking and bashing enemies into submission. Normal attacks cause spirit orbs to float out of your targets, which fill your gauge that can be used to turn your blows into spirit attacks, doing less damage but generating health orbs and significantly more stun meter, which you want to build especially on stronger enemies as a stunned opponent is one that can be executed.

I immediately missed the attack paths of the other series’, that let you mix light and heavy attacks or control tempo with delay strings. Instead, you can equip different spear shafts that change your combo-enders, providing one big damage attack but very few of which stand out from one another outside of this. One adds a Brad Pitt-style leaping spear thrust that gives your combo a little more range, but I didn’t find fussing over the right last hit to be worth much.

Instead, the real effective ways to spice up your damage dealing comes from attaching different spear tips that add passive effects. They unlock active abilities as you upgrade them. Not all spear tips are made equal and there are clear stand outs, like one that extends your reach. The reach-extending one’s active ability made every attack hit twice for a brief period of time. These have a more dramatic effect on your playstyle than the shafts, but I rarely strayed away from this tip as it seemed to clearly be the most versatile. I didn’t find many opportunities to get the most out of some funkier ones like the poison tip or ice tip, which do damage over time and slow enemies, respectively, as they’re effects never gave me a clear enough advantage against tougher enemies that seemed just as dangerous under these conditions.

Pommels can be added to the bottom of the spear to give Kratos another active ability, these being more like special attacks that spend your spirit meter to do. The differences between these were more dramatic - one allows the spartan to deliver a flurry of thrusts in quick succession while another sends him marching, spear swinging in wide arcs around his body. I changed these up the most to adapt to challenges because each felt tailored to handling specific sorts of the threats.

The most dramatic offensive tools are those that come from the gifts of the god that Kratos and Deimos invite themselves to possess. These operate like spells that, mostly, give Kratos options he can’t get from his spear and shield - namely good ranged options like Apollo’s sling that lets you launch pellets of solid light at foes, or Hestia's shrub whose leaves toss bouncing flames. They also double as keys to specific sorts of locks that litter the vast world of Laconia, Apollo’s light can power specific generators and Hestia’s fire can burn away prickly bushes. But in combat, they are often your strongest and most restricted tool, limited by a magic gauge that can’t be refilled through your attacks like health and spirit can.

There’s quite a lot of ways to attack the enemies of Sparta, many little ways to modify these, and even more ways to grow and change these modifications through the upgrade crafting system. But so few of these options have remarkable gameplay consequences that incentivized me to explore past my early game habits. I didn’t even consider upgrading any of my spear tips past the level required to get their special abilities, and that was only just so I could see them in action. That isn’t to say the combat is easy, per say, but most of your most effective battle plan is to mash attack when able, after getting a safe moment or two to do so.

Enemies can be diligent and lethal, attacking often and in groups, requiring you to get pretty familiar with Kratos’ powerful defensive tools in order to survive. The parry is great for breaking up combos and putting stun damage on a foe, but it isn’t so strong that you autowin the skirmish after a successful swat, like some other games that might reward a good parry with a free execution. You still have to stay locked in, because the enemy will recover quickly to get back to the beating. Dodges, and the handful of follow up attacks that you can nail after, are necessities as well, and mixed together can make getting out of tougher binds feel rewarding. All of these actions can be modified or enhanced through equipment as well - shield rims can make counter attacks stronger or simply raise your armor and make you tougher to take down, for instance.

Bad guys get a little too cute with the kinds of offense they can dish out, though. Most action games feature enemies who flash red to denote an unblockable attack, but Sons of Sparta can feature enemies with a whopping four different kinds of special attack conditions, modifying whether an attack can be blocked but not evaded, ones that guard break but can be parried, or ones that you can defend in no way shape or form outside of simply not being around when it happens. This maximalist approach to defensive Simon Says creates too many variables in combat with lots of foes, and losing in scenarios where multiple enemies might hit you with different kinds of attacks at once always feels like whatever the Greek word is for bullshit.

Boss fights turn the screen filling attack machine up to 10, which is definitely a change of pace They don’t start getting tricky until about the last third of the adventure, but those baddies make you earn through extended chains of pattern recognition and reflex checking bullet storms. The easier ones in the earlier in the game can be more disappointing on the difficulty side, but what all bosses share is that they further remove the opportunity to take advantage of many of your offensive tools, since they seem to be largely immune to status effects and don’t have stun bars.

PlayStation has shut down Bluepoint Games, the studio behind the remakes of both Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls.

This comes from Bloomberg, which confirmed the news with PlayStation. Roughly 70 employees are going to be impacted by the closure when it officially occurs next month.

“Bluepoint Games is an incredibly talented team and their technical expertise has delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community,” a PlayStation spokesperson told Bloomberg. “We thank them for their passion, creativity and craftmanship."

According to a previous report by Bloomberg, Bluepoint was working on a live-service God of War game up until January of 2025, when the projet was canceled. The studio then spent last year pitching new projects, but ultimately was shuttered before it could get one moving.

Bluepoint was founded in 2006 by former Retro Studios employees, and proceeded to work on a number of PlayStation games, including several collections of existing games such as the God of War Collection, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. It also served as a support studio on ports of games like PlayStation All-Stars, Flower, and Titanfall.

But Bluepoint's claim to fame was its 2018 remake of Shadow of the Colossus, followed by its 2020 remake of Demon's Souls, both of which were highly praised by critics and fans. It wasn't until after Demon's Souls that Sony acquired Bluepoint in 2021. Under Sony's management, Bluepoint did some co-development work on God of War Ragnarok, but otherwise did not release or announce any new games.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Toy Story 5's official trailer has arrived and, alongside revealing more of the battle between toys and tech, we also learn a bit more about how Woody is reunited with his friends after the events of Toy Story 4.

Toy Story 5 is set to be released in theaters on June 19, 2026, and our favorite toys are going up against their biggest foe yet, technology. In Bonnie's house, this is seen in the form of a new tablet named Lilypad that threatens to change playtime forever.

This is obviously a big deal for the toys as they exist to make their kids happy, so Jessie uses a walkie talkie to talk to Woody and tell him they need help. As it turns out, Woody is seeing many more abandoned toys in the wild as well due to this tech takeover. We all knew Woody would come to the rescue, but it felt like the deal was sealed when Jessie said, "I'm losing Bonnie to this device..."

We see Woody's grand return after he went off with Bo Peep and the lost toys at the end of the last film, and he is now sporting both a poncho and a bald spot that is very shiny. What follows is a glimpse of the adventures to come, including Buzz getting backup in the form of an army of newer Buzz Lightyears.

Oh, and I also want to shout out the beginning of the trailer, where we get to see Bonnie's very stylized version in her mind of the wedding between Forky and a new plastic knife character named Karen Beverly. And yes, Jessie does say, "I now pronounce you husband and knife." It's different from the way we saw Andy play with his toys, and that's kind of beautiful!

We also learned of a few new voices that will be part of Toy Story 5, and they include "Craig Robinson as Atlas, a cheerful talking GPS hippo toy; Shelby Rabara as the excitable camera toy Snappy; Scarlett Spears as the sweet and shy 8-year-old Bonnie; Mykal-Michelle Harris as Blaze, an independent 8-year-old girl who loves animals; and Matty Matheson as the tech-fearing toy Dr. Nutcase." And for those wondering, Keanu Reeves will be back as the Canadian daredevil toy Duke Caboom.

For more, check out our 30th anniversary retrospective on Toy Story and our chat with Pete Docter on the heart of Toy Story and the threat of AI and tech.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.

If you're seeking chart-topping gaming performance, then Alienware's biggest and most powerful prebuilt desktop computer should be high on your list. For just a few more days the Alienware Area-51 AMD Ryzen X3D Edition RTX 5090 gaming PC has dropped in price from $5,650 all the way down to $4,249.99, a savings of $1,400. Prior to this sale, the lowest price I had seen for this exact configuration was $5,000. This was one of the best gaming deal to come out of the Dell Presidents Day Sale earlier this week.

Alienware Area-51 Ryzen Edition RTX 5090 Gaming PC

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the best gaming CPU for most people

...but you can also upgrade to the 9950X3D for a reasonable price

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is considered to be one of the best gaming processors on the market and outperforms any Intel or AMD non-X3D chip in games thanks to AMD's 3D-V-Cache technology. It only has eight cores, but that makes no difference in gaming since most games can't utilize more than eight cores (if that) anyways. That's why its gaming performance is nearly identical to the pricier 9900X3d and 9950X3D.

Now if you regularly use your PC for non-gaming applications that actually do benefit from as many cores as possible, then you can upgrade to an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 16-core processor, which doubles the core count while offering similar gaming performance, for an additional $250. That's actually very reasonable as far as CPU upgrades go; the difference in MSRP between a 9950X3D and 9980X3D is $220, so you're only paying an extra $30 for the upgrade.

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 absolute best performance for your gaming PC, there is literally no other option from any other brand.

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.

As Pokémon Go announces a seismic shakeup of its Mega Pokémon, IGN has chatted with the smash hit smartphone game's developer on the inspirations for the move, what's changing for the better, and what the future of Mega Pokémon looks like in the game.

Today, Niantic announced the addition of a new, tougher Super Mega Raid tier with fresh battle mechanics but better rewards, a fresh currency to engage with Mega and Super Mega raids, and a fourth Mega Evolution tier for your Pokémon to grind for an unlock more bonuses.

Niantic says Super Mega Raids will require upwards of seven players, who are strongly encouraged to bring Mega Pokémon into the fight in order to break shields thrown up by the boss during battle. New and existing Mega Pokémon will feature in Super Mega Raid battles over time, and will reward more Mega Energy once defeated. This will come in handy for levelling your own Mega Pokémon to the new Super Max tier, which provides further boosts and allows you to re-Mega your Pokémon every 24 hours.

Finally, and perhaps most controversially, is the introduction of the new Link Charge currency for Mega and Super Mega Raids. The idea here is that this, like Max Particles, provides a separate method to access in-game content that doesn't just rely on raid passes (though you can still use raid passes for Megas if you choose). How exactly this will be balanced, however, remains to be seen — though Niantic says it will provide better value. Read on for more detail on all of the above in our chat with Pokémon Go's senior producer John Funtanilla.

Hey John, great to chat with you again. Let's start with Super Mega Raids — is the pitch here that they're going to be the equivalent of Gigantamax in terms of difficulty and launch cadence? Will we really need seven or more players as has been indicated?

John Funtanilla: Yeah, the mission with Super Mega Raids is similar to Gigantamax and we want to lean into the community play aspect of the game that's gone very well. We want to make sure that we're gathering folks and we have seen a lot of success with that — communities of sometimes hundreds of players in San Francisco going up and down on the piers playing together. That really inspired us and we know that was happening all across the globe. Not to say that there wasn't also some Trainers that also did low count lobbies and were challenging themselves to beat these Gigantamax battles with four or five players. We're very careful with the tuning and we were kind of surprised by that, but we do feel like if you're a really talented player, you understand the systems, you are able to do different strategies that beat these raids. For Super Mega Raids, it's kind of the same thing. We are targeting around a seven to eight player headcount to win, and that's pretty sizable, but again, it's related to how big your communities are, and being able to find the communities. I can go into it a little bit later, but I would say yes, expect same kind of level of difficulty for Gigantamax and there's some mechanics in there that require group play.

Right, there's mention of shield breaking mechanics which sound interesting. I find the Gigantamax battles fun because they do require extra strategy, but I know you always have to balance that with the fact your playerbase has a mix of hardcore players and more casual 'Korean grandmas'. You have to fit both those things, to some degree. So, were there any learnings from Gigantamax that you applied here to the new Mega changes?

John Funtanilla: Gigantamax was such an ambitious effort. We really wanted to introduce a whole new system. As you know, there's the three Nax moves, there's Power Spots. It was a massive, massive effort to finally bring in and actually unlock Gen 8 into the game. For Super Mega Raids, it's kind of an incremental approach. It's a little bit more challenging than normal raids, but other than that it does play using a normal raid battle format. We explored different mechanics and we didn't want to veer away to something that was unfamiliar to players — so we added different iterations on top.

Walking through what this type of battle is, Trainers will need to bring in a Mega Pokémon — it's not required, but we definitely encourage you to bring one in to take down one of those shields. And when we're playtesting internally, people are bringing in Mega Pokémon, and when that last person comes in, there's this big climactive moment where the shields break. There's an amazing visual but not only that, though, there's a huge amount of damage that's done to that boss. And so you get to that powered up form, you're trying to chip away at it, you're yelling at other players to bring in their Mega Pokémon. If they were knocked out, tell them to relobby, heal that Pokémon, bring it back in. We really wanted to lean into that. And that's why I keep saying we wanted community play to be kind of streamlined for this one, it's less tactical than Max Battles but we wanted that excitement, that energy that comes from that moment.

Riftbound's second set, Spiritforged, is out now, and it appears cards are a little easier to get ahold of (depending on where you live). As usual, the League of Legends' trading card game is both a hit for competitive players and collectors alike, with plenty of valuable chase cards to hunt for as you crack packs.

Like Origins before, there are a handful of alternate cards that are worth a pretty penny, and we've found the most valuable cards in the set, based on listings from TCGplayer. We've ranked these based on market price, and there are even several that are already selling for thousands of dollars.

The 10 Most Valuable Riftbound Spiritforged Cards

The most cards with the highest price tags, just like with Origins, are the Signature foil editions. These feature the same art from the Overnumbered versions, but the difference is that they feature an etched signature of the artist. The combination of being highly sought after by collectors and depictions of fan-favorite characters are the main contributors to their price.

10. Ahri - Inquisitive (Overnumbered)

9. Bard - Mercurial (Signature)

8. Karma - Channeler (Signature)

7. Yasuo - Windrider (Signature)

6. Aphelios - Exalted (Signature)

5. Soraka - Wanderer (Signature)

4. Sett - Brawler (Signature)

3. Vayne - Hunter (Signature)

2. Irelia - Fervent (Signature)

1. Ahri - Inquisitive (Signature)

Where to Buy Spiritforged

If you're hoping to test your luck and pull one of the above cards, TCGPlayer has stock of all sealed product available, although at inflated prices. Booster boxes come with 24 packs, or you can buy single boosters. If you decide to pick up a Rumble or Fiora Champion deck, they both come with one booster pack, as well.

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

Third-person, team-based shooter Time Takers recently announced that a closed beta test will begin on March 13 and shared details about what you can expect from this first look at the game.

Time Takers is developed by Mistil Games, published by NCSOFT, and focuses on fast-paced matches where you compete for time itself. It combines elements of survival shooters and battle royales, but it isn’t defined only by kills, it’s about stealing or defending time.

Each player has a lifespan that’s fueled by Time Energy, and it gradually depletes. Your lifespan is represented on screen as a timer ticking down. You can hold a maximum of 5 minutes and 30 seconds, and if your timer reaches zero, you’re eliminated. If you’re killed with time still left on your clock, you’ll lose some Time Energy but respawn. You can lengthen your lifespan by earning more Time Energy, which you can get by killing other players, defeating monsters on the field, or picking it up from spawn points around the map.

When you accumulate Time Energy, it will also fill your level gauge. As you level up, your character’s unique skills will be unlocked and upgraded in a set sequential order. Collecting Time Energy will also grant you a currency called Time Coins, which can be used to purchase or upgrade passive abilities on the respawn screen or at shops scattered across the map. At any time, you can manually sacrifice some of your current lifespan to add to your level gauge and level up. This obviously puts you at risk of dying faster, but it can be key to unlocking an ability you really need. You have to decide which is more important.

Each match progresses through seven phases, and you can see your current phase in the top left corner of the screen. With each phase that passes, Time Energy spawn points get more rare and your lifespan depletes faster. Those spawn points also gradually get closer together, until the final phase has only one spawn in a specific spot.

This system means a couple things. For one, simply camping in one place is unreliable. If you do that, you risk watching your lifespan tick away with no way to replenish it. You have to stay on the move to reach spawn points or take out opponents frequently. Second, the shrinking spawn points force combatants into smaller spaces as phases progress. This also rewards players who pay attention to where the spawn points are in each phase, since you can come up with an optimal route to efficiently gather energy and level up as quickly as possible.

So in short, you’ll need to decide in each battle how to approach things. Do you want to minimize risk at the beginning, sneaking around the battlefield to gather Time Energy and level up your abilities without directly fighting anyone? Or do you want to go in guns blazing, hunting down opponents to steal their Time Energy as quickly as possible and put them on the defensive immediately?

The first closed beta test will include 12 playable characters, each of whom have unique skills and playstyles. Matches in the closed beta will be in trios, with four teams of three players each, and you’ll need to coordinate with your team. You’ll each lock in your character and weapon before the match, with no duplicates allowed on the same team. Characters are grouped into Damage Dealer, Support, and Tank archetypes, but your choice of weapon can help define your role. For instance, there are support-oriented weapons that allow you to heal, while there are high-DPS weapons for close-range (flamethrowers) and long-range (sniper rifles) combat.

During the match, if you stay close to your teammates, you’ll form a link. While linked, teammates acquire Time Energy simultaneously and can transfer it between each other to cover for someone whose time is running out. If you want to take advantage of this, it can alter your team’s weapon choices, passive abilities, and tactical approach.

For example, if someone on your team wants to use a sniper rifle, that can give them a huge advantage if they reach high ground with good sight lines. But they’d likely have to stay separate from their teammates, weakening the link for the whole team. However, equipping the Link Repeater passive will cancel that out and allow you to link up no matter the distance. So unlocking that passive quickly becomes a top priority.

The combatants and battlefields are pulled from different eras of the past and future, and environments and conditions will change as matches progress. Momentum can shift at the drop of a hat, thanks in large part to Pods, which can spawn randomly and grant benefits to the first person to interact with it. Those benefits include temporarily pausing your lifespan depletion, the ability to launch a missile at a specific enemy, or a Weapon Exchange Voucher that will let you switch to a different weapon.

The beta will include three maps: Yokogawa, Morstadt, and Miraesi, which represent the wide range of time periods depicted in Time Takers. Yokogawa is pre-modern Japanese themed and shaped by traditional architecture. Morstadt is based on medieval times, with stone structures and layered routes. And Miraesi is a futuristic setting inspired by Seoul that blends dense urban layouts.

The closed beta will run from March 13–21, with 8 hours of playable time each day, and it’s focused on players in eight countries: the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. If you live in one of those countries, you can sign up to join the beta through the game’s Steam page. Sign-ups are open now, and it will still be possible to sign up while the beta is ongoing.

If you don’t live in one of those countries, you’ll have a chance to get access to the beta through the Time Takers Discord channel. If you join the channel and invite a friend to join too, you can be selected to take part in the beta no matter where in the world you are. Head to the linked Discord channel above to get all the details.

Major Peaky Blinders movie news ahead: the official trailer for the upcoming film Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man was just released — and it reveals that Barry Keoghan will play the son of Cillian Murphy’s iconic character Tommy.

The sneak peek of the movie, which will finish off the storyline started in the six-season series, revealed that Keoghan’s character has been "running the Peaky Blinders like it's 1919 all over again,” according to Sophie Rundle’s Ada, in Tommy’s absence after he pulled back from the gangster life.

Creator Steven Knight recently opened up about casting Keoghan in the role. "I never leap on board when people start saying about an actor, 'Oh my God, he's got this stillness,'" Knight told Entertainment Weekly. "You start using all these words about an actor. But with him, it's all true. I wanted him to be the son from the beginning, and when we knew we got him, he took it to another level. Who he is in real life is perfect for this. He's just so good."

He noted that the film’s focus has shifted a bit over the years, but the essence and main narrative have stayed the same since he started building out the film when Peaky Blinders was actively airing. "The father and son were the main structures," he told the outlet, which highlights how important it was to get a top-notch actor like Keoghan in the role.

Knight also put the spotlight on the ending of the trailer, which features Keoghan’s character and Murphy’s character having a moment together. "Just to see those two in The Garrison on either side of the bar drinking whiskey — didn't get any better for me,” he gushed to EW.

The Immortal Man represents the final goodbye for Thomas Shelby, who was first introduced in the first episode of Peaky Blinders back in September 2013. The movie, which was written by Knight and directed by Tom Harper, is set to arrive in theaters on March 6 and then debut on Netflix on March 20.

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

Mattel is unsurprisingly betting big on the Masters of the Universe franchise in 2026. Even as a new live-action movie hits theaters, Mattel will be kicking off a new publishing program that will see the release of new novels, comics, middle-grade stories, and art books.

IGN can exclusively reveal the first wave of books in this He-Man-centric publishing program. Read on to learn more.

Masters of the Universe: The Junior Novel

Release Date: May 5, 2026

Author Steve Behling is penning a novelization of the new film geared toward younger readers.

Masters of the Universe: The Power Within and Masters of the Universe: I Am He-Man!

Release Date: May 5, 2026

The Power Within is a storybook based on the film, while I Am He-Man! is an early reader adaptation. Both of these books are penned by Eric Geron.

Teela: Daughter of Eternos

Release Date: June 2, 2026

This YA novel is a tie-in to the film that focuses on the relationship between Teela, Man-at-Arms, and Evil-Lyn. The book is written by Mackenzi Lee.

Masters of the Universe: The Art of the Film

Release Date: September 22, 2026

As the name suggests, this is a coffee table art book that offers a deep dive into the concept art and development of the new movie.

Masters of the Universe: The Wings of Fate

Release Date: June 10, 2026

This four-issue comic series from Dark Horse Comics is set in the world of the film. The series is written by Tim Sheridan, illustrated by Will Sliney, colored by Israel Silva, and lettered by AndWorld Design.

Masters of the Universe: Legends of Eternia

Release Date: November 1, 2026

This book marks a first for the He-Man franchise, as it's a manga-style graphic novel set in the film universe. It's published by TOKYOPOP and written by Amanda Deibert.

Retro Power! Coloring Book

Release Date: May 5, 2026

This adult coloring book features artwork pulled from the classic 1980s He-Man and She-Ra cartoons.

Skeletor Has No Friends

Release Date: May 5, 2026

This humor-focused kids book sees Skeletor learn a valuable lesson about being nice to others. The book is written by Robb Pearlman and illustrated by Andrew Kolb.

Skeletor Ate My Homework (The Adventures of He-Man and Porter #1)

Release Date: September 1, 2026

This book kicks off a new middle-grade series that sees an Earthling boy named Porter drawn into the world of Eternia. The book is written by Stephan Pastis and illustrated by Will Henry.

“Masters of the Universe has always been more than a single format—it’s a mythology that evolves across generations and mediums," said Ryan Ferguson, Global Head of Publishing at Mattel, in a statement. "With this publishing initiative, we aren’t just retelling the film’s story; we’re expanding the world of Eternia in ways that invite fans to go deeper and discover new facets of the universe. Through Mattel Press, we’re partnering with New York Times-bestselling authors and top creative talent to move quickly into diverse formats and reach a broader range of readers, while still delivering rich, meaningful storytelling for longtime fans. From character-driven young adult novels to manga-inspired narratives and fan-centric celebrations of the lore, this slate reflects our ambition to build Masters of the Universe into a fully realized, multi-platform franchise that resonates with fans old and new.”

Previously, IGN got an exclusive look at the new Masters of the Universe toys and figures being released alongside the movie. We also recently learned that Dark Horse's Masters of the Universe: The Sword of Flaws miniseries has been expanded into an ongoing series.

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