Steam Next Fest is back with a new batch of demos, livestreams, and spotlights on several upcoming games from indie developers. And as has become tradition, games from publishing platform indie.io are heavily featured.
So clearly, there are lots of different gaming experiences on offer. But we decided to focus on four specific titles that you can try for yourself right now, most of which just got new updated demos as part of Steam Next Fest.
From a dev team of two co-creators, Pluto sees you play as a less-than-heroic wizard who needs to break out of jail to attend their niece’s birthday party. It’s a roguelike deckbuilder with a unique spellcasting system where elemental sigils are connected to each of your fingers. Your deck is made up of spells that use different combinations of these sigils, and some spells can share sigils, meaning it’s possible for spells to overlap and combine.
So building your deck isn’t just about stacking the most powerful cards, it’s about experimenting with several different cards and finding ones that synergize well together and let you pull off gradually more complicated interactions. You’ll need them to take out the monstrosities you face as you race against the clock to get out of jail in time. Pluto recently announced it will be fully released on March 9, and it got a brand-new demo as part of Steam Next Fest, which you can download for free here.
As you could hopefully guess from the name, Esports Manager 2026 is a strategy-sim game where you lead an esports team and control its day-to-day operations. That means managing all facets of the team: talent acquisition, team finances, player morale, tournament performance, brand growth, leadership structure, everything.
You can scout and recruit real-life players, and you’ll need to consider market dynamics to figure out the right time to add them to your team. You’ll design training programs to help them grow, hire a staff to support them, and chat with them to make sure they’re happy and their goals are being met. Then take them into Simulation mode, where you’ll take part in esports tournaments and control your team’s tactics as you try to establish yourself as the team to beat. Esports Manager 2026 also has a brand-new free demo included in Steam Next Fest, which you can download here.
Inspired by Celtic mythology and Arthurian legends, SoulQuest has you take up the sword of Alys, a woman whose husband’s soul has been taken by the gods. She’s not a fan of that and will hack and slash her way through hordes of divine servants and the gods themselves to get him back.
Combat is fast-paced and has you combine sword attacks, magic, and ultimate abilities to unleash your wrath. It’s a system designed to be easy to pick up and play quickly, but difficult to truly master. You can string certain attacks into jump strikes, allowing you to juggle enemies in the air and pull off long combos. There are also secrets to discover, using basic platforming or Alys’s ability to slide down vertical surfaces and jump off them.
Like the previous two entries on this list, SoulQuest also dropped a new demo as part of Next Fest. It adds a new zone with new enemies and the game’s first god boss fight against the pagan deity Cernunnos. It also adds a new secret mission that wasn’t possible to find before. To try it yourself, you can download the demo here.
We finish off this list with a medieval city builder from Reverie World Studios, developers of the Kingdom Wars series. In City States: Medieval, a continent lies divided, and you lead a city state as it vies for power, wealth, and status while surrounded by powerful kingdoms. You’ll be charged with leading your city state to prominence by building up trade routes across the known world, improving your economy, and protecting your land from your greedy neighbors.
Your city will also have a legendary hero to help lead it, one whose skills will develop as time goes on, expanding your options for supporting the city. They can do things like defend the city, boost construction and city growth speed, or be sent to foreign courts to engage in political intrigue. You only have one hero, though, so you need to think through how best to use them. If you keep them at home, growth opportunities could pass you by. But if you send them on expeditions, your city’s defenses will suffer. And foreign invaders will try to besiege you. You’ll need to use a combination of real-time strategy combat and tower defense mechanics to push them back and prevent your city from falling. To get a taste of these strategic possibilities, you can try the demo here.
Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends are about to face the biggest threat of their lives, literally. IGN can exclusively reveal Sonic the Hedgehog X Godzilla, a new crossover miniseries that sees Godzilla dragged into Sonic's world. He's fast, but can Sonic do anything to stop this massive kaiju from rampaging through the Green Hill Zone? We're about to find out.
Sonic the Hedgehog X Godzilla is written by Nick Marino (Godzilla Rivals) and drawn by Jack Lawrence (Sonic the Hedgehog), with colors by Reggie Graham. Check out an exclusive preview of the cover art to issue #1 in the slideshow gallery below, and then keep reading to learn more about the series from Marino and the editorial team.
Sonic and Godzilla are easily two of IDW's biggest licensed properties, especially with IDW redoubling its focus on the Godzilla line over the past year. In that sense, it's not surprising that the publisher would seek to bring the two together, and IDW Sonic Editorial reveals that they've been looking for ways to make that happen for some time now.
"IDW is constantly brainstorming new potential crossovers, and we’ve always been especially excited about the possibility of bringing these two iconic licenses together," Sonic Editorial tells IGN. "This crossover in particular is also one that fans have been asking us for loud and clear for years, so it’s been high up on the list to try to make happen. Who wouldn’t want to see the Blue Blur vs the King of the Monsters, after all? So this idea has actually been on the IDW team’s radar for a very long time, but it wasn’t until the last year or so that all the pieces fell into place and we could get to work on it! We’re lucky to have such a great creative team to bring this story to life, and of course, this crossover would not have been possible without a tremendous amount of support from Sega and Toho!"
As mentioned above, Marino is no stranger to the Godzilla franchise, having previously penned the series Godzilla Rivals. But that was a very different type of Godzilla story, and Marino explains what makes Sonix X Godzilla such a unique writing experience.
"The main difference between writing Godzilla and writing Sonic X Godzilla? HUMANS! Aside from Dr. Eggman (who, let's be real, is a very specific kind of human), SxG is populated solely by talking animals, kaiju, and robots," Marino says. "My previous Godzilla work was set in Pittsburgh along my old pizza delivery route. The conflict in that story was all about how the kaiju disrupted human life in that very real city, and my own human experience informed the narrative. SxG takes the Toho monsters to Sonic's world, a place where sassy technicolor animals move at blinding speeds. What does a pink hedgehog with a giant mallet think when she sees an enormous flying insectoid beast the size of a city block? That's a totally different kind of writing challenge."
We were also curious what Godzilla movies or Sonic projects Marino drew inspiration from for this project. Suffice it to say, Sonic Adventure fans will be pleased.
"Sonic Adventure became a huge inspiration on this project somewhere in the second-ish year of development (it's been a long ride!)," Marino says. "When you're dealing with giant monsters, you have to think on a bigger scale, and Station Square provided an incredible canvas for us to splatter with destruction and mayhem. My collaborators, Jack Lawrence and Reggie Graham, have risen to the challenge, depicting that special city with jaw-dropping detail.
Marino continues, "When it comes to the Toho side of things, I sought inspiration from some of my fave flicks that feature rotating battles between multiple kaiju like Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, and Godzilla vs. Megalon."
Obviously, these are two franchises with two very distinct visual styles. How is the creative team working to combine the two into one cohesive comic?
"Ultimately, it all comes down to Jack Lawrence's brilliant vision for this adventure," Marino says. He's unbelievable. I'm doing my best to cook up fun scenarios for him to draw, and then I'm making sure my panel counts leave enough room for him to properly play around with the fantastic spectacle that this crossover deserves. I'm fascinated by the scale of life, how we perceive lifeforms differently from bacteria to planet-wide ecosystems, from micro to macro. This particular character combination allows me to explore that in a fun way and it's been really satisfying. I hope our readers agree that the end result is a cohesive mix of these two visual focuses -- small speedsters and massive monsters -- that delivers the best of both worlds!"
Sonic Editorial adds, "Nick has done a great job establishing the tone of the story right off the bat and keeping in mind the scale difference of our Sonic characters and Godzilla characters, which definitely helps inform the art, but we also have also worked closely with Toho to make sure that Jack’s designs for the kaiju are staying true to these beloved characters while also having a little bit of a Sonic-inspired flair to them. They’re entering into Sonic’s world, after all, and we wanted to make sure this crossover had a unique look that would make these versions of the Godzilla monsters memorable."
Sonic X Godzilla specifically draws Godzilla into Sonic’s universe rather than vice versa. We were curious if that premise held the best storytelling potential for this crossover.
"With crossovers, there can be a lot of tricky elements to balance – we want to create something new and fresh but still recognizable and true to both IPs," Sonic Editorial says. "Ultimately, as we were coming up with ideas for what we could do, we landed on Sonic’s world being invaded by kaiju. A kaiju battle in a city is such a classic touchpoint in Godzilla media that we couldn’t pass that up, and Sonic’s world is so rich and developed that we thought it would be a lot of fun to put locations that Sonic fans already know and love under threat."
Sonic x Godzilla isn't just about pitting the Blue Bomber against the King of Monsters. There's a critical X-factor in this story in the form of Dr. Eggman, who sees an opportunity amid the chaos.
"Dr. Eggman is smitten by one particular monster in our story and it's not Godzilla!" Marino teases. "From the moment he lays eyes on it, Eggman just knows that this monster will provide untold new possibilities for him. He's also curious about what lies on the other side of that gaping dimensional fissure sitting out in the ocean..."
As Marino hints above, the cover art above suggests that more monsters than Godzilla may be stomping through the Green Hill Zone in this series. Marino promises fans the series seeks to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by both franchises.
"Since my first call with the Godzilla and Sonic editors in the summer of 2022, my goal has been to take the audience on an adventure across Sonic's world, from corners we visit often to locales we haven't seen before," Marino says. "The specific settings have changed a lot as the story has evolved, and it's all been for the better! My incredible editors, Thea Cheuk and Bixie Mathieu, have encouraged me to play with some wonderful existing settings and helped me develop my own.
Marino continues, "For example, Eggman needs a lab big enough for his kaiju-sized ambitions, right? Naturally, Knuckles will be joining in on the fight too, and I think you can guess what (or, rather, where!) that means. And for the old school gamers out there, if you remember Amy's first action stage from Sonic Adventure, then you know that you're in for some incredibly amusing action in Sonic X Godzilla."
Sonic the Hedgehog X Godzilla #1 will be released in Summer 2026. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.
Microsoft's divisive 'This is an Xbox' marketing campaign was disliked by many employees, a new report has claimed.
The advertising — which claimed that phones, tablets and smart TVs now all counted as "an Xbox" too — effectively told consumers that you no longer needed to buy an Xbox console to play Xbox games.
Now, a new report published by The Verge has labelled this campaign as having "offended many Xbox employees internally", and tied it to the wider "Xbox everywhere" strategy being pushed by now-former Xbox exec Sarah Bond.
The Verge's report links Bond closely to Xbox's marketing efforts last year following the departures of other senior employees, and suggests she was invested in the move to broaden the Xbox brand away from the perception that it was solely console-based. The report also notes the fact that Bond personally announced the Xbox mobile gaming store in July 2024 — a project that would have helped this multi-device Xbox push to become more realized, had it not been continually delayed.
Finally, citing sources among Xbox employees past and present, the report paints a negative picture of Bond's relationship to other Xbox staff.
IGN previously noted that Bond's departure was only officially referenced by Spencer in his own leaving statement. Other statements issued at the time by Sharma, Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, and Xbox studios boss Matt Booty, all made no mention of Bond or her departure whatsoever.
This is 45% off its full list price of $59.99, but more importantly, it appears to be the lowest price it's hit at Amazon so far, according to price tracker camelcamelcamel. Previously we saw it drop down to $39.97 back at the start of January, so this is a great chance to add it to your library for even less. It's one that's definitely worth the investment, too.
Astro Bot for $32.99
Astro Bot won over many hearts back when it was first released, and for very good reason. Our review from IGN's Simon Cardy called it, "A collection of endlessly inventive levels and fantastically fun abilities" and said "it delivers joy in spades, never once becoming even remotely dull or repetitive." He even added that, "Team Asobi has crafted a mascot platformer that goes near enough toe-to-toe with Nintendo's best efforts, and that's about as high a compliment as I can give it."
The praise certainly didn't end there, though. Astro Bot also won Game of the Year at The Game Awards back in 2024, and took home our top prize as the best PlayStation game of 2024. In regard to the latter, IGN's Matt Purslow said, "Astro Bot is a Mario-matching 3D platformer that excels on all fronts: tremendous stage design, intuitive movement, fun power-ups, and a smart approach to combining all of those elements in exciting new ways on each world visited."
As mentioned before, this isn't the only game deal to explore right now. If you're curious what else PS Direct has to offer at the moment, check out our big rundown of PlayStation's sale, which runs until March 9. This includes plenty more great game deals, including a discount on Ghost of Yotei.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
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 9800X3D Edition RTX 5090 gaming PC has dropped in price from $5,650 all the way down to $4,499.99, a savings of $1,250. Alternatively you can upgrade to the 9950X3D CPU for an additional $200, which comes out to $4,699.99. These are both competitive prices considering the fact that most RTX 5090 prebuilts are currently selling for $5,000 or more.
Alienware Area-51 Ryzen Edition RTX 5090 Gaming PC
The Alienware Area-51 is Dell's flagship gaming PC. The product photos don't give it due justice; this is a big chassis that towers over the Aurora R16 model with superior build quality and a redesigned cooling system with even greater airflow. This is the only model that can be configured with the hot and power hungry GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card. The first wave of Area-51 systems featured Intel CPUs exclusively, with AMD X3D options only available since late November.
This $4,450 config is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, 32GB of DDR5-6400MHz RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Additional system details include a 360mm all-in-one liquid cooling system for the CPU and a massive 1,500W 80Plus Platinum power supply that allows plenty of headroom for future upgrades.
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 $200. That's actually very reasonable as far as CPU upgrades go; the difference in MSRP between a 9950X3D and 9980X3D is $220, and you're paying less than that.
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.
Marvel Comics took to the Comics Pro retailer convention to shine a spotlight on two of its biggest 2026 storylines, Avengers: Armageddon and Queen in Black. Both of these crossover events will help to define the ongoing direction of the Marvel Universe in the latter half of 2026.
First up, Avengers: Armageddon is a new limited series from Captain America writer Chip Zdarsky and artists Frank Alpizar and Delio Diaz. Aramageddon is being compared to 2004's Avengers: Disassembled in terms of being a major watershed moment for the Avengers franchise that will completely transform Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Armageddon builds on the fallout of One World Under Doom and ongoing story threads in Captain America and Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon. As the world continues to reel from Doctor Doom's brief reign, Red Hulk decides to claim the kingdom of Latveria for himself. That sparks a global conflict that draws in the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Wolverine.
Marvel's official description teases, "Red Hulk’s devastating tear across the globe must be stopped…but it will take a colossal gathering of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to do it! Calling in the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Wolverine and more…but who will survive this super-powered cataclysm?! There will be a pre-Armageddon Marvel Universe and a post-Armageddon Marvel Universe. Be here to bear witness to the transformation."
Avengers: Armageddon #1 will be released on June 3, 2026.
Meanwhile, Queen in Black is an event spinning out of the pages of Al Ewing's Venom series. The symbiote god Knull recently made his return, only for the Asgardian death goddess Hela to show up and usurp his throne. Now, Knull has found a new source of power, and he's ready to wage war on the self-proclaimed Queen in Black. Venom (none other than Mary Jane Watson) and her allies are all that stand between Earth and total annihilation.
Check out the covers to Queen in Black #1 in the slideshow gallery below:
Queen in Black is written by Ewing and illustrated by Iban Coello. The first issue features covers by Ryan Stegman, Coello, Peach Momoko, Skottie Young, Patrick Gleason, J. Scott Campbell, John Romita, Jr., JeeHyung Lee, and Chip Zdarsky.
"The only threat bigger than one evil God is two of them fighting each other, with Earth caught right in the middle,” Ewing said. “As an old-school ‘60s Marvel villain, Hela's a great match-up against the newer school of Knull, especially given the steps she's been taking to get onto his level. There can only be one winner - but whoever wins, it's the worst news possible for our heroes."
Queen in Black #1 will be released on July 1, 2026. You can preorder both books at your local comic shop.
The queen of weird is joining our new princess of weird. Netflix has just revealed that none other than Winona Ryder is set to join the cast of Wednesday in a guest starring role for Season 3.
The casting marks yet another collaboration between Ryder and the show’s executive producer Tim Burton, who famously worked together on his 1988 hit Beetlejuice and the 1990 classic Edward Scissorhands. It’s also a reunion with the show’s star, Jenna Ortega, who starred alongside Ryder in the recent sequel film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as Ryder’s character Lydia’s daughter (which Burton also directed).
"I'm so excited to be back for Season 3, and it’s great to be reunited with all of the original cast," Burton said. "The addition of some dear friends and past collaborators of mine… makes this season extra special. I feel very lucky."
The details of Ryder’s role are being kept under wraps, so any word on who she’ll be playing and how it will integrate into the show’s ongoing plot are going to be nonexistent at this point — and it’s sure to keep fans guessing until the next season finally drops.
Ryder joins Eva Green, who was recently cast as Morticia Addams’ mysterious sister Ophelia for season 3, as well as Noah Taylor, Oscar Morgan, Kennedy Moyer, and Chris Sarandon (yes, the speaking voice of Jack Skellington himself from 1993’s A Nightmare Before Christmas). That said, it looks as though their roles are also being kept under wraps — at least for now.
Wednesday premiered on Netflix in November 2022 to critical and audience acclaim, and it quickly became the most-watched English-language season of television on the streamer to date. Season 2 premiered August 2025, with the first part becoming available on the platform and the second part arriving the following month.
As for a release date for season 3, no official info has been announced just yet — but hopefully, the Addams family will be back on our screens ASAP.
Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
“Zero Parades is ultimately about identity,” explains Kaspar Tamsalu, art director at developer ZA/UM. “The conflict between what you subscribe to as an individual, as a private person outside of the professional sphere, and then how that mixes with what your vocation is.”
Your vocation in ZA/UM’s latest RPG is espionage. Hershel Wilk, your protagonist, is a spy for The Superbloc, a union of left-wing republics. She was born bourgeois before ending up spying for the communists, a background story intentionally filled with blanks to allow you to shape Hershel as you see fit.
“Just because she's from a communist country does not mean that she subscribes to the ideology,” says Siim "Kosmos" Sinamäe, Zero Parades’ principal writer. “This is up to the player to decide. Spies can be spies for ideology, for money, for a sense of accomplishment, or because they are batshit insane and want to do things like that.”
Sinamäe quickly offers an example of the latter: “I'm going to subscribe to this thought called Unguided Missile Strikes, because I want to say violent things to people. I want to threaten people with nuclear strikes, because that's the type of spy I am.”
When Sinamäe says “subscribe to this thought”, he’s referring to Zero Parades’ Conditioning system, which reformats Disco Elysium’s Thought Cabinet for an espionage setting. When exploring the world and talking with characters, you’ll encounter new ideas and concepts you can “subscribe” to, rewriting your personality to unlock new dialogue options and roleplaying opportunities. But where ZA/UM’s previous game explored what it would be like for an alcoholic amnesiac detective to soak up ideas like a sponge, Zero Parades approaches the mind of a spy like a collection of masks. Which one is required for today’s task? This required a new method for thought subscription.
“You get the choice about whether or not you want to reinforce or punish the thought,” explains Nicolas Pirot, Zero Parades’ lead technical artist. “You have a branching option of, ‘I don't like this. I don't want that to be a part of myself. I was always a violent spy. I no longer want to be a violent spy.’ You can resist that, and then that'll have a different impact on the way you do things.”
“It's really framed as this violent reordering of your mind,” he concludes.
It’s All in Your Head
That violent reordering is viewed through the flickering glass screen of an old CRT television. Much of Zero Parades’ in-world technology is modelled after the gizmos and appliances of the 1990s – down at the Bootleg Bazaar, you’ll find vinyl records housed in plastic cartridges in an analogue echo of Sony’s old MiniDisc format. This approach extends past the boundaries of reality and into Hershel’s psyche. The art team needed something functional but flawed to represent this spy’s troubled mind – a mind that could tune itself into dangerous thoughts and settle into uncomfortable programming. And so the Conditioning system’s menu sits inside that box of cathode rays.
“It's in an imperfect state,” explains Maeve Bonefacic, a technical artist at ZA/UM who helped create the system’s look and feel. “In the sense that [the television] works, it does, but there's a slight imperfection to that tool. We worked a lot on the particular glitches and effects that a CRT might have.”
I want to threaten people with nuclear strikes, because that's the type of spy I am.
The CRT is just one example of Zero Parades’ fascinating, two-pronged approach to art design. There’s the physical – the environments you explore, the people you meet, the items you acquire – and then there’s the creations of Hershel’s mind, represented by the wild art cards assigned to each quest, the disturbing televised thoughts assessed through Conditioning, and the badges assigned to your sentient skills. ZA/UM describes this approach as representing the two realms that Hershel exists in: the objective and subjective.
The subjective side of Hershel’s reality is spearheaded by lead illustrator Anton Vill, who created the surrealist artwork for Disco Elysium, including its grotesque Thought Cabinet. Once again, he took inspiration from the work of David Lynch, particularly the ominous tone of Twin Peaks’ dark forests, reflecting the messed-up thoughts of a broken character in his bizarre, twisted, emotionally heavy artwork. In one example, a collection of five, cigarette-smoking Hershel doppelgangers face each other in an unnerving pentagon as words of insecurity, such as “abandoner”, “liar”, and “f***ing spy”, hover above them on flowing reams of paper.
“I'm a huge fan of this kind of mysterious, dark, inner world of a person,” says Vill. “I think that shines through [in Zero Parades’ subjective artwork] and I think it’s perfect for the game.”
The Portofiran Identity
While the art team understandably wanted to create a sense of warped darkness for Hershel’s interior thoughts, it needed to create a complementary vibe for the physical world. It would need to be via different techniques, though, so that subjective thoughts didn’t merge with objective reality.
“We try to subtly inject this unease for the players,” says Tamsalu. “There is a lot of detail that we put into the game, but the way we have textured these [details], and how we approach lighting for the scenes and set up these situations, there is this underlying current of something brewing.”
This thing that is brewing is, of course, why Hershel is in the city of Portofiro. But her job is very unlike that of Disco Elysium’s disaster cop protagonist, and the espionage story Zero Parades tells had a significant influence on the way the city was designed.
“When you’re a police officer looking into a crime, anybody who's in the vicinity is a potential suspect and expected to speak with you,” Tamsalu explains. “And in a spy game, it's kind of like the inverse of that. You don't want to stand out. And because of that, we needed to create a slightly busier backdrop. That's why you have these characters that go about their own business, and you have your own covert business as you navigate through that.”
While capturing the heart of spy fiction has been an important part of the project, ZA/UM has been very intentional with how it has approached a genre filled with tropes, staples, and conventions. As you’d expect from the studio, this isn’t a James Bond or Jason Bourne adventure, but nor does it aspire to be a John le Carré novel repackaged as a video game. This had to be a fresh take on this shadowy world, and so a number of rules have been set in place. For instance, Herschel is an “operant”, rather than an agent. Her mission takes her “in-theatre” rather than in the field. And her employer, the communist Superbloc, flips the typical capitalist nation perspective of classic Cold War thrillers.
“We wanted to avoid the obvious spy themes,” says character artist Liis Väljaots, who explained how this philosophy extended into the art. “One of the things we wanted to avoid was making the world look too noir-y and too oppressive, to kind of contrast the subject matter, which is quite serious.”
“There are a lot of trench coats in the game, though,” she laughs. “That's undeniable.”
Roll Play
Your choice to wear a trench coat or not is just one of many decisions that shape the kind of spy you are – clothing, as in Disco Elysium, provides stat modifiers that boost or inflict penalties on your skills. That pool of skills has been reduced (now 15, down from Disco’s 24) with the idea of making each attribute more prominent and viable. They’ll also be tested with much more frequency.
“We have a skill check every 3,000 words, compared to Disco Elysium’s every 6,000 words,” reveals Sinamäe. “We feel this makes the player more engaged with what they're doing and what type of spy they want to be.”
As I explored in IGN’s hands-on preview of Zero Parades, skill checks have deeper mechanical complexity this time around thanks to the Pressures system. Each of your skills fits into one of three categories – athletic, psychological, and intellectual - and those categories have corresponding “health” bars that measure your fatigue, anxiety, and delirium levels. Fail a psychological skill check and your anxiety bar will fill. Max the bar out, and you’ll take a permanent stat penalty.
Things are made even more interesting by the ability to “exert” a skill check – you can roll an extra die to increase your chances of passing the check, but at the cost of purposefully damaging the skill’s corresponding pressure bar.
“It's like, how much more can the player take?,” says Bonefacic. “Can I afford to, for example, exert a dice roll? Am I allowed to do that? Do I have the resources to do that? I think it has added an interesting element of strategy.”
That strategy wouldn’t work if there were no method for reducing your pressure gauges. By default, a bar will reset after taking so much damage that you endure a stat penalty, but that’s hardly an approach to build a self-care system around. Instead, you can have Hershel perform a ritual.
“Rituals are a system that we have where you can reduce your pressures by doing all kinds of small things in the world,” explains Pirot. “It can be sitting on a bench and watching the sunrise that might lower your anxiety. It can be smoking a cigarette, having a cup of coffee, or yelling at someone in the street. These very small, very immersive moments, that are available in different parts of the world at different times, that can help an incredibly stressed out, anxious, fatigued, or delirious spy to keep their sanity more or less in check.”
Rather than, say, the classic health potion of other RPGs, which are clearly labelled and a genre staple, you’ll need to discover these rituals through exploration and experimentation. They also unlock further roleplay opportunities – yelling at someone in the street doesn’t exactly sound like a traditional remedy, but for an operant boiling over with rage, it may be very cathartic.
“By the player making a build choice of, ‘I want to be a very violent spy’, they would naturally seek out the rituals that complement that,” says Pirot.
Rituals, mental masks, blending into busy cities, and threats of nuclear armageddon. These are all important aspects of Zero Parades’ spy fantasy, and each is manifested within the game by a different team at ZA/UM. Writing works alongside artwork and system design to produce a world through which you can observe, bargain, and bully. A world in which you can roleplay the type of spy you think can change the world. Or, at the very least, change their place in it.
Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.
It’s hard to believe the Nintendo Switch’s first year gave us The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey just a few months apart, but it really was a fantastic start for the system. So fantastic in fact, that both of which feature as #2 and #3 in our top 100 Nintendo games of all time list.
Given its size and scope, that’s a big deal, and it’s still the most recent 3D Mario platformer we’ve got. This huge 3D adventure pairs Mario with Cappy, a fun new character who allows Mario to transform into characters, enemies, and inanimate objects alike, opening up the sandbox of each of its distinct worlds to fun puzzles.
With the arrival of the Switch 2, the game looks better than ever. There’s improved image quality, particularly when playing on TV, and HDR support added. The update is free, too.
In our review, Ryan McCaffrey awarded a ‘Masterpiece’ score of 10 out of 10, and said, “Super Mario Odyssey is a brilliant adventure and love letter to the series that made Nintendo a household name.”
The Nintendo development team that worked on Super Mario Odyssey released Donkey Kong Bananza as a Switch 2 exclusive last year year, and it even got nominated for Game of the Year as well.
Robert Anderson is IGN's Senior Commerce Editor and resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.
This article features contributions from Lloyd Coombes.
A pair of figure skaters at the Winter Olympics performed a brilliant tribute to Mortal Kombat during the event's final days that's well worth a watch.
The routine was created by Georgian skaters Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, who used their appearance in the Olympics' more lighthearted Exhbition Gala to skate while dressed up as Kitana and Sub-Zero.
Together, the duo traded fake punches to the fighting game franchise's classic Techno Syndrome music. Thankfully there was no actual blood or fatalities on the ice, though the routine did end with Sonya's kiss of death. Friendship? Not likely.
Figure skaters Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava performed a Mortal Kombat routine at an exhibition gala pic.twitter.com/FwqvQhgJ5a
"Dude," reddit user Filmmakernick wrote, "this made me cry. Maybe it's my sentimentality in my old age, but this is something I never thought I'd see on such a grand stage and at the Olympics?! What a cool moment in MK fandom! What a stunning skating routine, too! Loved the costumes and Easter Eggs! It was beautiful, man. :)"
"No spine rip 2/10," wrote umeys, who was seemingly less impressed.
Last year saw the launch of the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, a collection of numerous classic games in the series, newly-released across PC, Switch, PlayStation and Xbox.
Up next for the franchise in general is the Mortal Kombat 2 movie, which will see Karl Urban reprise his role as Johnny Cage, beginning on May 8. In December, the film's producer Todd Garner responded to a barbed comment made at The Game Awards during an appearance by the cast of this year's rival Street Fighter film, currently due for release in October. "I don’t climb over others to get ahead," Garner declared.
Image credit: Foto Olimpik/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Vantage Studios, the Ubisoft subsidiary that now manages the publisher's biggest brands, has announced a fresh leadership team for Assassin's Creed.
The blockbuster historical stabathon series will now be led by Martin Schelling, a veteran Ubisoft producer who previously served senior roles on Assassin's Creed titles such as Black Flag, Origins and Valhalla, and has recently served as Ubisoft's Chief Production Officer.
Schelling will be assisted by Assassin's Creed veteran Jean Guesdon, who will assume the role of Head of Content for the franchise. Looking after the series' creative direction, Guesdon will be applying the experience he's gained as a long-term designer on the series, working on more than a dozen titles in the franchise, back to Assassin's Creed 1 in 2007.
Finally, François de Billy will serve as Head of Production Excellence, following previously acting as Production Director on Valhalla and Origins.
Ubisoft told staff of Côté's departure via an internal email that discussed the need for Vantage Studios' leadership team to be "aligned" with its core goals. At the time, IGN reported that Côté had been offered a role as part of Vantage Studios' leadership, but declined.
Côté has since launched a lawsuit against Ubisoft that claims he was essentially replaced in his role early in 2025 by Vantage Studios' newly-installed leadership, Christophe Derennes and Charlie Guillemot — the cousin and son of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. With this layer of management now above him, Côté alleges he then learned over the summer of 2025 that Vantage was now seeking to hire a new Assassin's Creed franchise boss, too.
Last week, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reaffirmed that the company had "several" Assassin's Creed titles in development, comprised of both single-player and multiplayer experiences. Back in 2022, Ubisoft announced a raft of upcoming games including the now-launched Assassin's Creed Shadows, the witchcraft-inspired Assassin's Creed: Hexe (another single-player blockbuster) and Invictus (a multiplayer game). The company is also widely-expected to announce its long-awaited Black Flag remake soon.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Magic: The Gathering launched its Final Fantasy set last Summer, and while it feels a lifetime ago with such a fast-moving set release cadence, its Commander Decks live long in the memory.
All four were solid, and Amazon has most of them discounted right now. Not only does that include the popular Limit Break and Counter Blitz decks, but the new version of Limit Break with a Promo Card and download code is discounted, too.
Get Final Fantasy Commander Decks at a Discount Right Now
Starting with Limit Break, the new ‘Game Edition’ includes the 100-card Commander deck helmed by Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER, and an exclusive Promo Card, too. It also has a Steam code for the original Final Fantasy 7 (not to be confused with the remake). It’s now $72.99, down from $99.99 (which was admittedly steep anyway).
If you already have that, or just want to save some Gil, you can pick up the standard edition for $64.45, discounted by around five bucks. The deck is equipment-focused, aiming to get your creatures powered up to trigger effects like token generation.
Whisper it, though: We still think Counter Blitz, the Final Fantasy X deck, is the best of the bunch. Its combination of Tidus and Yuna can use Summons for big power on the board, and manipulate the counters to keep them around indefinitely.
Finally, the Final Fantasy 6-themed Revival Trance isn’t the most cohesive deck out of the box, but with the right upgrades, it could be really useful. It’s traditionally been discounted right from launch, and it’s got a 30% discount, too.
That brings it down to $48.75, meaning the only deck from the set not included in the current deals is Final Fantasy XIV’s Scions and Spellcraft - that one is out of stock at the time of writing.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
Ahead of the debut of its Red Band trailer during IGN Fan Fest later this week, IGN can exclusively reveal the first poster for Faces of Death, the upcoming reboot of the controversial 1978 horror classic that is set to debut in theaters on April 10, 2026.
While you can check out the trailer on Day 2 of IGN Fan Fest on February 26, this poster should give a tease as to what horrors await those brave enough to see this in theaters. As the poster warns, you won't be able to unsee the things you see on screen.
The original Faces of Death from John Alan Schwartz became a cult classic and quite controversial as it was presented as a faux documentary that rumors claimed featured real-life deaths on screen. While it turned out most of the footage was fake, there was pre-existing footage of real deaths in the film.
In this new take on Faces of Death from director Daniel Goldhaber, the story will continue to explore that 'is it real or not?' conversation, and explore what happens when "a woman working as a content moderator for a major video platform discovers what appears to be re-enactments of murders from the original film. In an online world where nothing can be trusted, she must determine whether the violence is fiction, or unfolding in real time.”
Faces of Death stars Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria), Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things), Josie Totah (Saved by the Bell), Aaron Holliday (Cocaine Bear), Jermaine Fowler (The Blackening) and Charli XCX (The Moment), and is being written by Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei.
Every year since WWE 2K22, it’s felt like I write variations of the same opening paragraph, that ultimately end with one simple question: How does an annual sports game top what they did the year before? That question becomes slightly more complicated, though, when some (including myself) consider last year’s entry to be the best it’s ever been. WWE 2K26’s answer is simple: you add more. Lots more.
This year, everything is expanded and built upon, and though no one thing feels like a particularly massive swing, every mode comes with incremental additions to make it worth your while. In fact, there was so much that not only does it feel like it’s impossible to summarise concisely, but there wasn’t close to enough time for me to sample everything in my few hours of hands-on time. So if you’re interested in all the new updates to universe mode, community creations, MyFaction or The Island, then I’d suggest this isn’t the preview for you. However, what I will do is focus on the central element that ties it all together and the iterations that interest me the most: the gameplay.
Small adjustments can be felt from the moment the bell rings. Last year’s addition of chain wrestling has been expanded, allowing you to create moments tailored to each wrestler’s sensibilities. With a quick press on the d-pad, you can now select to deploy unique motions, such as a handshake, a rush, or even drawing energy from the crowd. There’s also a more ambiguous ‘approach’ option, which in turn creates a sub-menu that allows you to begin trading blows, engage in chain wrestling, or just have an intense staredown. What may appear to be gimmicky actually works surprisingly well, providing more cinematic actions to appropriately begin anything from a friendly rivalry to a blood feud. Previously, my default was always just to run and attack, but these starting actions now add an extra sprinkle to the already-impressive spectacle simulation. It’s not going to change the way you play, but it successfully adds an extra layer of welcome immersion to each match opening.
Once the match progresses, things feel very familiar. Match fundamentals work very similarly to WWE 2K25, aside from some subtle alterations to the reversal system (which is now more tied to the stamina wheels) and barricade combat, which now lets you both climb up and duke it out during a balancing act. Most notably for me, though, is the update to the collision mechanics, something that feels like it’s been neglected for a while now. Previously, discarded weapons lying around the ring served little purpose once they’d left your hands, often blending into the environment as decoration with no further impact on gameplay, But gone are the days of characters clipping through them completely, as in WWE 2K26, dropping a superstar onto steel steps, kendo sticks, or steel chairs matters, with what I assume is a damage level increase and new, realistic reaction animations. Whip Sami Zayn into a cinder block, and it breaks under his weight. Riptide Bron Breakker onto the steel steps, and his body will crumple around its shape. Discarded weapons now have added value and contribute another step forward towards matching the WWE television experience.
Lift up the ring apron, and your weapon wheel will now have a bag of violence ready to deploy.
The standout of these interactive weapons, though, and my personal highlight of WWE 2K26 is actually a brand new addition for the series - something that feels like it should have been around forever, but finally makes its debut this year. Thumbtacks. Lift up the ring apron, and your weapon wheel will now have a bag of violence ready to deploy. Simply pour the dozens of metal pins onto the mat, and you're ready to turn your opponent into a human pin cushion. Tacks aren’t just reserved for finishing moves either. Any slam in the proximity of these nasty spikes will decorate their back, knees, and forehead in silver, helping you finally recreate gloriously violent WWE moments like Cactus Jack’s face-first descent into a pile of the violent objects by a sinister Triple H.
Thumbtacks, better collision reactions and starting actions, although fun, are all in service of matching the WWE product, as are micro adjustments like the new blood splatter effect that splashes the screen when you or your opponent gets busted wide open. This is ultimately a fighting game, but one that knows which side its bread is buttered. Drama and storytelling are the name of the game, and this year also receives a vital upgrade in its voices, with the additions of Booker T and Wade Barrett to the commentary table. The latter not only offers a different accent to the soundtrack of your actions, but both bring a new sense of excitement that is hard to quantify, but vital to keeping the series sounding fresh.
From playing, it quickly became clear to me that this year, the moment-to-moment match action has received small but welcome improvements to the already successful formula. But just like in real life, a WWE fan’s appetite for chaos is only satiated with new match types and WWE 2K26, much like last year, lobs four more onto the pile: Three Stages of Hell, I Quit, Dumpster and Inferno matches.
The Inferno match, which surrounds the ring in a wall of flames, is undoubtedly the most visually impressive addition. Much like its sporadic appearances on WWE over the years, it's certainly a spectacle and a worthwhile inclusion, although, like last year’s Underground addtion, it’s hard for me to invest too much time into a match type that limits your ability to use every inch of the ring, as it always feels less enjoyable to me to conclude a fight in anything but a pinfall or submission. Because of this, I didn’t spend much time in this fiery new mode, but its addition is a welcome one, even if it’s only from a WWE historical perspective.
The dumpster match also helps fill the gap in WWE’s legacy. In practice, it’s a reskinned version of the casket and ambulance brawls, but it’s hard to see what they could have done differently from a gameplay perspective. It’s also nice for 2K to tick off another match type as developer Visual Concepts slowly but surely works its way through all the crazy concepts we’ve seen throughout WWE’s history, regardless of their real-world success. Although saying that, I would be surprised if we see a Punjabi Prison or Kennel From Hell match anytime soon. Feel free to shock me, though, WWE 2K27.
The I Quit match doesn’t feel like just another match variation on the pile, but rather its own beast entirely.
When it comes to fresh match types, the most exciting addition for me, though, is the long-overdue return of the I Quit match. Notably different from the ever-present submission bout, which just limits the decision to a legal tap, rather than the all-out warfare and humiliation the I Quit match can deliver. Proceedings begin like any other hardcore match, but instead of pinfalls or traditional submissions, the fight will now only end when you or your opponents verbally say "I quit" into the microphone, with the referee also audibly making requests.
How this works in practice is a quick-time event that demands you master timing on a spinning wheel full of green blocks, which will shrink over time based on the damage you take. Interestingly, unlike some of the other mini games in the series, the aggressor isn’t directly competing for these green blocks; instead, you can place pre-earner blockers to make the timing more difficult. There’s a deliberate strategy to this, and I immediately found myself considering my submission requests more thoughtfully, making sure I had enough banked blockers (earned by performing certain big attacks) before commencing the humiliation routine. You can also increase your chances by using weapons like the kendo stick or steel chair in the submission manoeuvre, once again harking back to classic WWE moments. The I Quit match doesn’t feel like just another match variation on the pile, but rather its own beast entirely.
All of this year’s adjustments serve the wider presentation of WWE 2K26, and that ever-moving, monolithic WWE dragon they’re always chasing. Make no mistake about it, while the grappling has always and will always be the core of this series, the spectacle of WWE is just as important a part of the package. In my lifetime, we’ve gone from WWF Warzone’s soulless arenas (I can still hear that single voice in the crowd repeatably telling me to open a can) to 1-to-1 representations of pyro-infused, singalong entrances and accurate depictions of the ebbs and flows of a rabid live crowd. I have little doubt that WWE 2K26 is set to be the best the series has ever looked, sounded, and felt, and if you’re a WWE obsessive eager to replicate the pageantry at home, then you’ve never had it better.
Dale Driver is an Associate Director of Video Programming at IGN. Be thoroughly bored by following him on Bluesky at @daledriver.bsky.social
Indy's globetrotting gaming adventure, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is heading to Nintendo Switch 2 this year. Thankfully, its release isn't too far away, either. For those who can't wait to step into the shoes of this famous archaeologist, the Switch 2 version of the game is currently available to preorder at a variety of retailers with a release date of May 12 this year (see it here at Amazon).
Check out one of the links below to preorder a copy for yourself to have ready to boot up on release day. Further down you can learn more about what preorder bonuses you'll get to enjoy with it, too.
Preorder Indiana Jones and the Great Circle On Nintendo Switch 2
It's also worth mentioning that for this physical release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Nintendo Switch 2, Bethesda has confirmed that the game will be on a Switch 2 Game Card rather than a Game-Key Card. That means you'll get the full game on the cartridge, rather than have to download it.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (Switch 2) Preorder Bonuses
Alongside the game itself, those who preorder Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Nintendo Switch 2 get to enjoy a couple of additional goodies in the form of The Last Crusade Pack. This pack contains the Traveling Suit Outfit and Lion Tamer Whip which, as the name of the pack suggests, are from The Last Crusade movie.
What Is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a single-player, first-person game that was developed by the team at MachineGames and published by Bethesda. It's a thrilling adventure that our review from IGN's Luke Reilly called, "An irresistible and immersive global treasure hunt, and far and away the best Indy story this century, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle doesn’t belong in a museum; it belongs on your hard drive where you can play the heck out of it."
Other Preorder Guides
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution's latest expansion, Ascended Heroes, is (as per usual) increasingly hard to get hold of right now. While Ascended Heroes cards are now available, stock is painfully low or nonexistent at most major retailers.
If you're looking to bag yourself an ETB (or several) that sport a rather magnificent Mega Dragonite, now that it's officially 'available', then here's where you can currently pick one up, and what prices to expect at each retailer.
MSRP is $49.99, but the current market price at TCGplayer is listed at around $119. That's a fairly significant drop from what we were seeing near the beginning of the month ($140-$160), and back to the prices we were seeing across January.
Fans can only hope this doesn't reverse in the coming weeks, and perhaps even continues to drop further. But, in my view, the market price looks to be levelling out at around $115-$120, so if you're desperate and not looking to wait any longer, this is the best time to buy. Walmart also currently has the ETB in stock for $60, with access limited to paid Walmart+ members.
Compare this to Phantasmal Flames, as that was settling at around $150-$200 in November last year, but has thankfully since come down to around $80-90 market price, which is much better, a whole lot more what most fans would be happy/ expecting to pay for an ETB these days, even if it is above the original list price. We can only hope that Ascended Heroes follows a similar trend.
In terms of where to buy, TCGplayer is the most reliable option, but also the most expensive, so proceed only with the knowledge that you're paying a premium. Amazon is sticking to matching market price, so you can find an Ascended Heroes ETB for $119.99 there as well.
It's also significantly down compared to its sky high $399 price point I'd seen most recently online, and, according the latest data, has dropped 29.83% at TCGplayer over the past month.
It's still pretty steep all things considered, but hardly unsurprising with how sought after these exclusive ETBs are, even years after release. Still, at this price, I wouldn't be surprised if more than a few fans snap it up, as it's one of the better resale deals I've seen on a Pokémon Center exclusive ETB.
That's the price of cards on the resale market these days! I'm sure most of us are already quite used to it, even if it's still a mega pricey. That being said, in my opinion, you may be better off waiting for prices to come back down a bit a few months down the line, so a bit of patience may pay off if you can manage it.
I'd say anywhere around the $100 mark is a good time to buy the standard ETB, but if you can wait a few months longer, hopefully we can see these falling to around $80-$90 as well, just like the Phantasmal Flames ETB has.
Robert Anderson is Senior Commerce Editor and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.
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