PlayStation 5 exclusive Astro Bot saw its supposedly final drop of downloadable content released today in the last announced weekly speedrunning level, but fans are scratching their heads over a number of unreleased bots present in the credits.
Reddit user pkowswald noted that, even with the additional two bots released in today's DLC, there are still several game franchises such as Assassin's Creed and Rayman credited in Astro Bot despite not having individual bots of their own.
While it's entirely possible this is from deals fallen through or content cut, what makes the prospect of more DLC down the line more believable is that the credits were actually updated to include an extra character upon the final speedrunning level's release. None of the unused franchises were cut either.
Astro Bot still includes licensing credits for Rayman, Worms, Assassin's Creed, Beyond Good & Evil, Croc, and Tomba, the last of which was added today. Nothing official has been said about if these games will be featured eventually, or if more DLC is planned. The PS5 exclusive seems to have performed well both commercially and critically though, so Sony may want to push more DLC down the line.
Just days ahead of its 20-year anniversary, Half-Life 2 has a new trailer for its RTX remaster.
Valve’s influential first-person shooter launched on Steam on November 16, 2004. Ever since then, and the release of Episode 2 in 2007, fans have called on Valve to release Half-Life 3. But alas, it seems further away now, all these years later, than ever before.
Still, Nvidia has decided to release a new trailer “celebrating the game’s enduring legacy” that offers another look at the remaster, Half-Life 2 RTX. Half-Life 2 RTX is in development at 100-person mod team Orbifold Studios, and adds full ray tracing, remastered assets, and DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction as a free DLC for Half-Life 2 owners.
So, what is the status of Half-Life these days? In 2020, a making-of for VR exclusive Half-Life: Alyx revealed a swathe of games developed and shelved by Valve between the release of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Valve's latest VR game. That list included details on a version of Half-Life 3 that was in development for around a year.
Geoff Keighley's The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx revealed that at least five Half-Life games were canceled between Episode 2 and Alyx, along with a number of other projects — the most notable being a project officially referred to within Valve as Half-Life 3.
Half-Life 3 was said to have been created in the Source 2 engine and drew some gameplay inspiration from Left 4 Dead. The project known as Half-Life 3 would have used procedural generation between hand-crafted story moments to create a more replayable game. For instance, the game would generate a building and an objective (such as rescuing a prisoner), then create a route through it and fill the building with enemies, meaning that section would always play out differently.
The team went as far as scanning Frank Sheldon, the actor whose likeness was used for the series' G-Man. However the Source 2 engine was unfinished, and the project "didn't get very far" before it was dropped. It was in development for around a year between 2013 and 2014.
What might have been? Since then, Valve has released Counter-Strike 2 as an updated form of CS:GO, and multiplayer game Deadlock in early development form. The company has yet to make any indication that a new Half-Life game, Half-Life 3 or otherwise, is in the works.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The heroes of Red One, a glittering lump of yuletide action-comedy coal coming to a multiplex near you, travel the world via secret portals hidden in the back of toy stores. To which any child in the audience might ask, “Wait, there are stores that only sell toys?” Well, not anymore, Timmy. Such brick-and-mortar establishments have largely been wiped out by Amazon, a.k.a. the mega-corporation that bankrolled this movie. To see the company build the lore of a would-be blockbuster around a business model it destroyed is about as galling as, say, Netflix making a sitcom about Blockbuster.
Speaking of the streaming giant, Red One is not a sequel to Red Notice, though it does share a star and a general air of crass commercial indifference with that algorithmic slop. There’s something distinctly Bezosian about its vision of the most wonderful time of the year: Santa Claus, as played by an unfathomably overqualified J.K. Simmons, is a rise-and-grind mogul who hits the gym before climbing onto the sleigh and runs his operation with an efficiency that could put a twinkle in every billionaire’s eye. Early on, the movie touches down in the North Pole, and the place has all the dreamy enchantment of a fulfillment center. The elves, we’re told, work 364 days a year, taking only December 26 off. Like their counterparts at Amazon, they could use a better contract.
At two-sizes-too-small heart, this is a buddy comedy, unboxing and pairing off a couple of stock action figures after Santa is kidnapped by Nordic witch Grýla (Kiernan Shipka). To save Christmas, the big guy’s 300-year-old head of security, Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), must join forces with Jack O'Malley (Chris Evans), a slovenly, cynical hacker and deadbeat dad. “Do I look human?” Drift at one point rhetorically asks his mismatched partner, and even ignoring his iconic cartoon physique, the answer is once again “no”: Defaulting to a stony, humorless glower, The Rock is all plastic machismo here. That leaves Evans to pick up the comic slack, which he does with a smidge more New Yawk attitude and pathos than strictly required. Of course, going above and beyond material this shoddy is no great lift. Mostly, his performance leaves behind a warm-and-fuzzy gratitude that Ryan Reynolds wasn’t available.
Imagine a holiday-season answer to Men in Black with more acronyms than jokes. When nu-manji director Jake Kasdan isn’t introducing some new wrinkle in the mythological intelligence agency run by a poker-faced Lucy Liu, he’s bombarding us with gaudy attractions. The CGI stocking stuffers include a trio of malevolent snowmen, a Hot Wheels car magically scaled up to full-sized Lamborghini proportions, and a talking polar bear with no personality. The effects have a garish inconsistency familiar to the age of blockbuster crunch. To subject your eyes to them is to feel pangs of sympathy for the overworked, non-unionized artists who presumably sacrificed a holiday or two to make a release date probably set in stone before the script was written.
As spectacle, Red One is sub-Marvel, a further degradation of that assembly-line entertainment model. The characters speak in canned witticisms: “Use your words,” one says when another is speechless. “I’m right here,” he retorts when they’re talking about him as though he’s not there. Was a single scene shot on an actual set? The whole movie is lit like a digital fireplace, bathing the actors in a chintzy synthetic glow. The action scenes – like the one where Santa gets nabbed, and Drift takes pursuit across the screensaver landscape of the North Pole – are dark, choppy, and weightless. For an upcharge, families can experience these joyless amusement-park rides through the immersive magic of D-BOX or 4DX. You’ll really believe you’re watching the film in a drafty theater during a blizzard while unruly children kick the back of your seat.
There’s exactly one inspired sequence in Red One. It’s the stretch where Drift and O’Malley fall into the clutches of Santa’s estranged, sadistic demon brother, Krampus, who’s played by Games of Thrones scene-stealer Kristofer Hivju. The fun is all in the Norwegian character actor’s flamboyant performance – the arrogant theatricality he projects beneath his elaborate prosthetics. Here and only here does Red One feel like it’s even reaching for a gag, rather than trying (and failing) to coast toward laughs on the back of its premise. If the mere thought of Santa needing a bodyguard doesn’t leave you in stitches, it’s going to be a chilly couple hours.
Imagine a holiday-season answer to Men in Black with more acronyms than jokes.
What’s downright insulting about Red One is its insincere feigning towards some sort of celebration of the purity of childhood. “We work for the kids,” Santa tells Drift, who’s mulling retirement and can no longer see past the cruelty and greed of their parents. That thesis, a sentimental ode to the true Christmas spirit, is pretty rich coming from such a crass, noisy holiday distraction with no greater ambition than shaking a few extra dollars from the pockets of families looking to kill some time on winter vacation. Were this movie a toy you’d find on a shelf (or, let’s be real, an Amazon wishlist), it’d be the kind of trinket that’s expensive in price, cheap in construction, and destined for a spot on the landfill.
Hisense has hit its stride and its 2024 televisions continue to be a premier example of value for the dollar. The U7 series (also called the U7N in some markets) is meant to sit a tier below the U8 series, which I already reviewed highly earlier this year. It's best described as a "lower-mid-level" television, but it sits in the tier that is the lowest I would recommend a television for serious gamers. It uses miniLED technology and features full-array local dimming.
The thing is, while yes, there are certainly reasons to spring for the higher-end U8, I have to admit that most average television buyers aren't going to notice the difference. Both get very bright, both have great color accuracy, both support gaming well, and both look great in the living room.
Sure, the U8 brings better brightness and more dimming zones, but the U7 is shockingly competent for a television in its class. There is room for improvement, to be sure, but the Hisense U7 is a great 4K television for multipurpose use.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Design and Build
The Hisense U7 is a smart-looking television. It's relatively thin for an LED and very lightweight. Without the stand, it would be pretty difficult to tell it apart from the U8 series television it sits below since they share much of their design in common.
Where they differ is in the stand, where Hisense chose to go with a dual-foot, center-positioned stand that has a large piece of plastic that sits between them, giving it the illusion of one giant foot.
It is a very low profile design and situates the display extremely close to your stand, so if you have a soundbar, you might find that even if it is very thin, it comes up and blocks either the IR reader for the remote or leaks up and blocks the display itself. While the remote can be paired to the TV so that it doesn't need a clear line of sight to the IR reader to operate, that only applies once the television is on. That means I had to go up to the television and aim it behind my soundbar in order to turn the U7 on before sitting back on my couch and navigating normally.
Luckily, the stand is very sturdy, if not a bit oddly designed with the dual foot and plastic cover system it has. That plastic cover also takes up valuable vertical real estate, so if you do have a sound bar you may want to remove it. It doesn't serve any stability purpose as far as I can tell – it's just aesthetic.
Cable management is passable. Cables are routed through a set of plastic hooks on either side of the TV and then back behind the dual-foot stand. When you have the plastic cover in place or a soundbar up front, cables are well hidden.
Looking at the U7 from the front, the power cable plugs into the right side while all the other ports sit on the left. That includes four HDMI ports, two of which are HDMI 2.1 compatible and feature up to 4K at 144Hz. The other two cap out at 4K at 60hz but one of those is the eARC input. I appreciate that Hisense put eARC on one of these lesser ports instead of combining it with a high-performance port like Sony does on the Bravia 7, since it lets me use multiple gaming systems simultaneously and without needing to plug or unplug them.
Of note, this only applies to the larger options. For the 55-inch version, Hisense did take one of those high-bandwidth ports for eARC.
The U7 also features a list of other ports: one USB-A 2.0, one USB-A 3.0, an optical digital audio input, a LAN connection, and composite video. The U7 also supports WiFi and Bluetooth 5.3 as well as ATSC 3.0.
Finally, Hisense supports voice control with its televisions and this can be physically turned off via a switch at the base of the TV. When you do this, an orange LED appears and does not turn off. This is certainly an improvement versus the three brighter LEDs of previous years, but it's still an irritation that I would prefer Hisense remove entirely.
Hisense U7 (2024) – The Remote
The Hisense remote is one of the larger you'll find on a modern television, although it doesn't really need the space since there aren't a ton of buttons. At the top are five pre-programmed shortcut buttons and one customizable shortcut button. My model came with Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Disney+, and Tubi as the options.
Aside from the standard fare of buttons, Hisense put a Menu button in the lower left which is how you can quickly access television settings and also the Game Bar, which I'll get into below.
It's a perfectly fine remote that gets the job done.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Software and UI
Hisense, like Sony and TCL, uses Google TV which is one of the easiest to manage and customize, and has support for basically every streaming service you could want. While yes, it does pack a lot of advertising onto the front page in the form of "recommendations," you can turn most of them off by going to Apps Only mode. There, only the main promotions banner shows and it usually is themed to new releases or seasonal content on popular platforms. I find it relatively easy to ignore.
There is sometimes a slight delay between a button press and seeing that request reflected on screen, but it's not an overly obtrusive delay and it's not consistent. Once the TV is on and fired up, it's usually a pretty smooth navigation experience.
If you like customizing your viewing experience, Hisense gives you a pretty robust menu to do so. You can select picture profiles and adjust brightness, contrast, strength of the dimming zones, and more. Brightness actually does mean brightness in the interface too – it doesn't just make the content on screen lighter but actually raises the power of the backlights.
There is one nitpick I have with Hisense TVs and it's not just on the U7: I don't like that if I turn the volume down to zero, it shows a mute icon on-screen. Sometimes I just like on-screen content but no sound and I don't like seeing that icon up there. I understand it if I actually hit "mute," but I would prefer no indicators on screen for when the volume is set to zero.
Hisense has very good HDR support in addition to a built-in filmmaker mode. The U7 supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG, which means for almost everything, you'll get a great color-matched HDR experience.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Picture Quality
The Hisense U7 is very color-accurate and has good uniformity across the panel. The colors lean a bit blue, but that's easily corrected if it bothers you. In testing, the panel showed 99.5% coverage of sRGB, 83.2% coverage of Adobe RGB, and 93.5% of the DCI P3 color gamuts with an average delta E of less than one. That's a great showing for any television, but for a display in this price bracket, it's outstanding.
Uniformity is great too. Outside of the very far top corners, which dipped below nominal tolerances, the rest of the panel performed great and you should expect great color across the screen.
I do want to point out that I think Hisense has a "dirty panel" problem, though. The last four Hisense televisions I've reviewed had small scatterings of grey pixel splotching in places that, prior to this, I was willing to chock up to bad luck. However, it's become common and consistent enough for me to point it out now: there is a chance you'll have these splotches on your display and they do not come out. My U7 review unit has the largest splotch I've seen yet, located in the middle upper third of the display. Most of the time, I can ignore it, but when gaming I definitely see it.
The U7 has Hisense's new Hi-View Engine PRO chip which is designed to make a variety of content look better. I can speak to the results: movies, games, and television look pretty darn good. The U7 will perform better if it has more data to work with, so that means higher bitrate content is going to give you the best results and low-quality 720p streamed television looks pretty weak.
When it does have a good high-definition stream to work with though, I was very happy with the color balance and contrast, although I will admit the U8 has the U7 beat when it comes to deeper blacks.
Panels like this one typically perform worse when not viewed straight on, but I don't think the off-angle viewing degradation is particularly bad here. Sure, some contrast falls off but it's still perfectly serviceable for a living room.
One weak spot for Hisense televisions is that they are susceptible to bloom – when bright objects set against black backgrounds have a glow around them – and that remains the case here. You'll definitely see it if you have subtitles against letterboxed content. This is very difficult to get rid of on LED displays and really the only solution is OLED, so seeing it here is not a surprise.
Brightness comes in just below 1,000 nits, which isn't nearly as bright as the U8, but it's still plenty bright for many rooms and will only be challenged by big, sunlit windows directly across from the panel. I found the glare to be minimal on the U7, too and while reflections do appear, they're not overly distracting.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Gaming Performance
I like gaming on Hisense TVs, as I find the balance of colors, saturation, and contrast to be very easy on the eyes and pretty true-to-life. That remains the case here, as extended sessions playing Risk of Rain 2 (PS5), Apex Legends (PS5), and Cyberpunk 2077 (PC) left me pretty satisfied with the results.
Apex Legends and Risk of Rain performed the best as the on-screen content doesn't demand a lot from the panel. Where the U7 was notably weaker than higher-end televisions was on Cyberpunk, where the wide range of colors and deep shadows compound into a complicated contrast situation that the U7 didn't handle as well. It wasn't much worse than other LED displays, even those that are more expensive, but I definitely noticed a comparable loss of visual fidelity.
But for high frame rate competitive gaming, I don't want that much contrast and don't seek out dark shadows, and there the U7 did great. The game bar is one of the better iterations on the market and shows not only the current resolution and frame rate, but also gives you access to gaming specific settings that anyone who spends a lot of time on a PC or console will appreciate.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Audio Quality
When you make televisions this thin, you run up against physics and as a result, very few (if any) companies are making televisions that sound good with no assistance. Don't get me wrong, the U7 gets loud and you can clearly make out audio, which is great, but there is almost no low-end to it. Bass is weak and even mids feel lacking in places.
Hisense tried by implementing a bass into the rear of the TV, but there just isn't much room for air to move around in there, so the results aren't ideal. You'll want some kind of external sound system for the U7, and my previous notes about how limiting the stand is for sound bars further complicates the situation. You may be best served wall-mounting this display.
Hisense U7 (2024) – The Competition
The U7's biggest competition comes in the form of TCL's QM7 and Hisense's own U8. TCL's QM7 is a very nice television that has slightly better color accuracy and brightness, but also comes in around $100 more expensive. For a couple hundred dollars more, you're looking at the U8 which is an upgrade when it comes to brightness and contrast. All of these televisions are vying for your attention and are within a few hundred dollars of each other and they all perform quite well, provided you know why one might cost more than the other and if you're willing to take that sacrifice to save the cash.
I’ve gotten used to making some kind of concession when it comes to a television under $1,000. Be it a weird stand, combining the eARC port with one of two 120Hz options, bad sound, a dirty panel, poor brightness, or weak HDR support, there has always been something that makes me say, “ah, that’s why it’s only $700.”
TCL has in recent years been outclassed by the very good Hisense options at the same price but makes a return to form with the QM7, eliminating any concessions and delivering a television that just flat-out performs better than the competition – Hisense included.
This is almost a flawless television at this price level, with my only caveat being pretty bad halo-ing when viewing the panel off-axis. That’s pretty much the lone complaint, though, and TCL has made an excellent television for gaming and multipurpose use yet again.
TCL QM7 (2024) – Design and Build
Pretty much all manufacturers are running with the same design aesthetic now, which means that unless you know where to look, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a visual difference between a Sony, Hisense, LG, or TCL television. From the front, the QM7 goes with a thin-bezel design and a center-placed stand. A small bar at the bottom that serves as the reader for the remote and the power light is the only difference in thickness across the entire face of the display.
For an LED television, the QM7 is remarkably thin and light. Usually, mini LED panels trade thin, featureless fronts for thicker, heavier backs, but somehow TCL eschewed this and delivered a television that’s easy to remove from the box and position in your living room.
On the upper third of the backside, the QM7 sports an Onkyo ultra-bass (which is part of a full Onkyo-branded 2.1 sound system) – an attempt by TCL to make the mids and lows a bit better than thin TVs can typically manage. More on that later, but it’s worth pointing out from a design perspective since it’s the first thing you’ll notice about the rear of the QM7; it’s hard to miss.
TCL placed the power input on the (from the front) left side of the TV and all of the other inputs on the right, which is the opposite of most other new TVs on the market. You’ll find two HDMI ports capable of supporting 4K at up to 144Hz and two more capable of 4K at up to 60Hs. Gratefully, TCL combined the eARC port with one of those lower-spec ports, so you will be able to use your soundbar with the QM7 without sacrificing one of the high-performance ports, meaning you can plug in both a gaming console and a PC (for example) at the same time. Sony, take notice.
You’ll also find a 3.5mm audio jack, two USB-A ports, a LAN port, an optical audio input, and composite video. The QM7 also supports WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2.
Cable management is very good, as all cables can be routed around the back and into the large stand that has a solid cover to keep them all in place.
Speaking of the stand, it is relatively low profile but raises the QM7 up high enough that a short soundbar can comfortably fit below the display and not block the remote receiver unit. That sounds like something that should be standard, but many television manufacturers are forgetting this important detail. It should be noted that it’s not a ton of space, so taller soundbars are still not going to fit, but my Bose soundbar is short enough that it works.
TCL QM7 (2024) – The Remote
TCL’s remote is what I would call utilitarian, as it’s not a particularly pretty remote. It’s one of the few places where the QM7 shows its lower-price tier, in my opinion. It’s a rather large remote with rounded edges and sides, which does make it comfortable to hold. All of the buttons are easy to access.
The QM7 comes pre-loaded with six shortcut buttons and my review unit features Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, TCL TV, Apple TV, and Pluto TV. The inclusion of TCL TV feels like an option that will be largely ignored along with the other TCL Home shortcut button that lives right above these six options, but the rest are largely useful. You can’t reprogram these, but TCL does give you a shortcut button that you can customize.
The only confusing thing about this remote is how many buttons there are that appear, at least at first glance, to do the same thing. You’ve got a home button and a TCL Home button, and a settings button and both an info and hamburger button, for example. They do different things, but they look so similar that you’ll have to spend time with the remote to figure it all out.
TCL QM7 (2024) – Software and UI
TCL, like Hisense and Sony, uses a slightly modified version of Google TV as the operating system of this television. TCL leaves it largely unchanged except for the addition of the TCL Home tab at the top, but you can ignore it rather easily.
While the QM7’s price may put it in the “mid-tier” or even “budget” segments, TCL didn’t skimp on the processing power as button presses feel very snappy and responsive. Side-by-side with the Hisense U7, for example, the QM7 feels noticeably faster.
Google TV also typically grants access to a ton of picture options and while what TCL has isn’t as robust as what Sony offers in the Bravia 7, it’s on-par with what Hisense offers – and that’s going to be plenty for most users.
You get a few different picture settings depending on what app you’re in, but expect to find Sports, Movie, Action, Vivid, Gaming, and HDR. Most settings, outside of IMAX Enhanced, offer the ability to customize further in Advanced Settings, with access to color, clarity, brightness, and more. I had no problem getting the QM7 into a good place for my particular setup and especially enjoyed the wide variety of HDR options.
The TCL QM7 has support for Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HDR 10+, and Hybrid Log Gamma, and also has a built-in system for IMAX Enhanced, which is a certified at-home format for content that IMAX says meets the highest certification standards in calibration, resolution, color, brightness, and contrast. It doesn’t stop there though – it also customizes sound performance to be ideal for what is being watched. With the QM7, I found myself preferring this mode over the basic Movie mode for viewing movies and high-quality TV shows.
TCL QM7 (2024) – Picture Quality
While it’s not the brightest television in the mini LED space, the QM7 does very well with a peak brightness around 1,500 nits. That’s super bright and it’s more than enough to overcome the glare-prone front panel in most situations – although if you’re watching dark content, that glare will rear its head pretty quickly. That said, I think the QM7 is a good pick for most living rooms since, due to its excellent brightness, it has enough juice to overpower even bright windows directly across from the screen.
The QM7 performs very well in color tests, especially in this price tier. It measured pretty well, hitting 99.7% of sRGB, 92.6% of Adobe RGB, and 91.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamuts with an average delta E of 0.55. That is excellent performance for any television and that’s made even more impressive given the low cost of the QM7.
The panel tends to favor blue in exchange for greens and reds, but it’s slight and doesn’t contribute to anything noticeable while viewing content regularly. You can also tone any visible blue down by adjusting the warmth in Advanced Settings or, if you’re feeling industrious, adjust those color balances individually. I don’t think that most people will need to, though, as the color looks very good to the naked eye.
Panel uniformity could be better, but is pretty much hitting par for televisions in this category. The right bottom and top corners saw tolerances fall below nominal, but the important parts of the screen – the middle – are very good.
As is often the case with LED televisions, the TCL QM7 has problems with halo-ing around bright objects set against a dark background, but how bad it is depends on where you’re sitting.
If you’re positioned directly in front of the TV, you might not notice the halo effect at all. It is certainly there, but TCL did a good job suppressing it from the ideal viewing angle. Off-axis, however, is a different story. Even 30 degrees to the right or left and that halo will seem to balloon outward significantly. Worse, it’s not even just a white halo, but has tinges of purple and blue. It’s very distracting, so bear this in mind with where you have seating around the QM7.
TCL QM7 (2024) – Gaming Performance
The QM7 is an excellent gaming television. While it’s not going to beat an OLED for rich shadows, bright highlights, and robust colors, it’s one of the most pleasant gaming experiences I’ve tested on an LED display.
On budget displays, I often find that while they are packed with dimming zones, as the QM7 is, they don’t adjust rapidly enough at 60Hz or 120Hz and bright or dark spots take a second to adjust exposure as you look around an environment. That doesn’t happen on this display, and even in high-paced gameplay like in Apex Legends or Cyberpunk 2077, I never felt like the display was holding me back.
As mentioned, the QM7 gets very bright, and that’s fantastic for HDR gaming. I really like playing Cyberpunk 2077 on this TV and would say that the only time my experience has been better is on the LG G4 OLED. Contrast is probably this panel’s weaker spot, but it’s not that bad and I’ve certainly seen worse. Also, weaker contrast with an LED display compared to an OLED is going to be an issue no matter which brand of TV you get and I think TCL did as good a job as they could. It’s more than serviceable and that is made even better considering this is a $600 television.
TCL’s game bar is pretty darn good, too. It doesn’t have quite the number of options as LG’s but it looks good and gives you immediate access to most of the settings you will want to toy with. The QM7 also supports AMD Adaptive Sync via FreeSync Premium Pro, making for an outstanding gaming experience both with a console and a gaming PC.
TCL QM7 (2024) – Audio Quality
My expectations with built-in audio on flatscreen televisions are very low – with so little room to work with, the laws of physics just can’t be overcome.
That said, TCL did an excellent job with the QM7. The aforementioned subwoofer doesn’t actually do much for the lows, but mids are a lot stronger than I was expecting and, mixed with pretty good highs, the overall sound quality provides more detail and depth than is typical of a television like this – and especially one at this price.
The QM7 can also get surprisingly loud. The quality starts to waver as you push it higher, but you shouldn’t have a problem hearing this TV even if your living room is huge.
I will stop short of saying you don’t need a soundbar, as the QM7 will still struggle with lows and true bass, but it’s perfectly serviceable for sports and broadcast TV. For movies like Dune or television like House of the Dragon, though, you’ll want to get a proper sound system or sound bar to truly enjoy the sound as it is meant to be heard.
TCL QM7 (2024) – The Competition
TCL’s QM7 initially competed in between the Hisense U8 and U7, but some price cuts across both brands have the QM7 now priced identically to the U7 and just $200 below the U8. As I mentioned in my U7 review, all of these televisions are vying for your attention and are within a few hundred dollars of each other, and they all perform quite well. It’s hard to go wrong, but I’m leaning more toward the QM7 now than before given its better overall performance, especially considering how snappy the UI is comparatively.
The video game industry is currently in the thralls of a paradox. For players, it could be argued we’re in one of the greatest times for gaming – there’s incredible breadth of choice across consoles, handhelds and PCs made ever-more accessible through gaming subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. But from an industry perspective, things could not be more dire. More and more studios seem to be closing, original IPs are being scrapped mid-development, and vast legions of game developers, programmers, artists, and animators have been cut loose. To put it simply: the AAA video game bubble has finally burst.
Across the past two years, over 23,000 jobs in the video game industry were lost, with a staggering 6,000 in January 2024 alone. Over 30 video game development studios have ceased operations including Arkane Austin, Volition, and most recently, Firewalk Studios. What’s worse, this trend only shows signs of continuing rather than diminishing. How did we get here? Some analysts have concluded these closures and redundancies are a necessary remedy to companies having overextended themselves in response to inflated demand in the market during the COVID-19 pandemic. While that’s undeniably a factor, I believe the truth lies in other long-gestating issues within the AAA project bubble.
Just five years ago, AAA projects’ average budget ranged $50 - $150 million. Today, the minimum average is $200 million. Call of Duty’s new benchmark is $300 million, with Activision admitting in the Competition & Market Authority’s report on AAA development that it now takes the efforts of one-and-a-half studios just to complete the annual Call of Duty title.
It’s far from just Call of Duty facing ballooning costs. In the same CMA report, an anonymous publisher admits that development costs for one of its franchises reached $660 million. With $550 million of marketing costs on top, that is a $1.2 billion game. To put that into perspective, Minecraft – the world’s best-selling video game of all time – has of last year only achieved $3 billion. It took 12 years to reach that figure, having launched in 2011.
The realities of these budgets mean entire publishing houses are massively overstretched and are now desperately facing the consequences: if their developers’ huge projects don’t make money immediately, they must die. Sega’s sci-fi shooter ‘super game’ Hyenas was in development at Creative Assembly for seven years, and – just as it was publicly playable for the first time via alpha testing – it was cancelled. The reason? Sega preemptively concluded Hyenas couldn’t make its money back.
Blizzard’s survival project Odyssey had a similar trajectory. Odyssey would’ve been the studio’s first new IP in eight years and, given the market’s love for games like Minecraft and Rust, such a gaming titan should’ve undoubtedly made waves with this project. When Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, the project was swiftly killed with little reason publicly given beyond inconveniences in switching engines to increase player count on the servers.
The current AAA publishing cull reflects a deep-rooted fear to engage with anything new and original.
These examples of the current AAA publishing cull reflect a deep-rooted fear to engage with anything new and original, with publishers perhaps more risk-averse than ever to stray out of their established IP safety bars. But even well-known IP that could be worth millions in sales and revenue is being left to rot. Despite owning Infamous, Jak & Daxter, Killzone, Resistance and Sly Cooper to name a few entries in PlayStations’s sprawling dormant library, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki recently claimed the company lacks enough original IP to consolidate itself as a true gaming powerhouse.
What Totoki may mean is that Sony’s older catalogue of library IP does not fit the mould of what every publisher has been mindlessly chasing for the better part of the decade – the next big live-service money printer. It’s difficult to imagine much fanfare for a Sly Cooper reboot where Bentley and Murray are purchase-to-play, grand heists are season pass bonuses and worlds are delivered half-baked instead of fully formed. It’s undeniable that on some level, the video game market has changed forever because of the live-service model. New video games don’t just have to compete with new rivals but somehow find space in an increasingly crowded market dominated by decade-old titles like Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto: Online – games which will continue to hold higher player counts than many of the top-sold games of the last few years. But live-service titles require investment of not only money, but time to find their audience – neither of which was afforded to Firewalk Studios’ Concord.
The recent fate of Concord’s Firewalk Studios serves as a microcosm for the increasingly bleak outlook for the next few years in video game development. Concord was Firewalk’s first game, its baby in many ways. An eight-year development bolstered by a Sony acquisition (with a reported cash injection of $200 million plus), PlayStation reportedly believed it had the next Star Wars-esque franchise on its hands. But the game struggled significantly across both its beta testing period and launch, and was soon completely shut down by Sony, with Firewalk closed for business shortly after. Concord’s downfall happened faster than any other failed game of the live-service era.
Just a decade earlier, though, a similar disaster was plaguing Blizzard’s Diablo 3 – the crippling ‘Error 37’ message made the game unplayable and fans worldwide decried the absolute failure to launch. Soon after, the game’s real-money auction house left players with a foul taste in their mouth and Diablo 3’s reputation was roasting in the fires. But rather than abandoning it, Blizzard not only repaired the game and removed the Auction House, but fundamentally upgraded and evolved it to Diablo 3 2.0 with its Reaper of Souls expansion, finally cementing its comeback as a brilliant game. It’s a similar story we’ve seen with CD Projekt Red’s hard-fought battle to win Cyberpunk 2077 fans back.
If the alleged $200 million + budget had been lowered, the project direction refocused as a spark for a new universe rather than a Big Bang, it doesn’t seem hard to believe that Concord may have found its audience with some Blizzard or CDPR-like shepherding from Sony. Many projects akin to Concord could be the medium-size successes they deserve to be, if not for the financial corners these publishers have found themselves backed into.
If everything is ‘bigger and bolder’, who possibly has the time to play more than one or two games each year?
Not that such financial corners are anything publishers should always attempt to navigate. Gamers are beginning to wane interest in these monolithic projects. You need only look at a top rated games of 2024 list – whereas 2023 award lists were littered with AAA titles from 500-strong studios, 2024’s show a revitalised hunger for a smaller, more independent spirit. Arcade machine throwback UFO 50, the Metroidvania-esque Animal Well, poker roguelite Balatro, and text-based pixel-art adventure The Crimson Diamond are just some of the games you’ll see appearing again and again on these lists. Despite their numerous differences, they share a commonality – a smaller, more refined experience that recalls earlier eras of gaming where marriages of mechanics and storytelling were key through technological craftiness, rather than literal country-sized game worlds. The nostalgia they create for older video game generations are central to the heart of their creation: they just want you to pick them up and have a good time now and again. The slow but increasingly clear pivot of video game audiences to a potential indie game renaissance is a clear message to publishers that if everything is ‘bigger and bolder’, who possibly has the time to play more than one or two games each year?
That’s not to undercut the difficulty in getting those independent titles made. UFO 50’s Mossmouth LLC team consisted of six developers working over many years, while both Animal Well and The Crimson Diamond share similar stories of being crafted by solo developers - Billy Basso and Julia Minamata, respectively – over several years. Even a smash-hit like Lethal Company started life as one-man-band developer Zeekerss learning to develop games on Roblox before expanding his knowledge. All of these developers put everything they had over several years of their lives into creating these games – not in pursuit of money, but because of a passion. That’s why they don’t need humongous worlds or 300+ side-quests to tick off – these games all feel like lean enjoyment machines.
It feels like the top-end of the video game industry is currently faced with two paths to choose from. The first is the status quo; it can continue to engorge on bigger budgets with impossibly-open-yet-incredibly-empty worlds filled with 80+ hours of content that has about 10 hours of meaning to its players, or hopelessly pursue the live-service train which left the station over 5 years ago, with late passengers wondering why the money isn’t rolling anymore. These billion-dollar gambles could pay off, but it’s becoming less and less likely. Or, they could opt for the second path and take a page out of Julia Minamata, Billy Basso and Zeekerss’ books – a wider breadth of projects, smaller in scope and scale with a refined focus on gameplay mechanics, and perhaps a return to older styles of video games long-dormant. Projects where developers aren’t afraid to take weirder choices and unexpected left-turns lest they crash their $400 million ship into a ‘mixed-to-decent’ initial reception.
Maybe studios can remember that we used to play video games because they were fun – not because of their bigger-than-last-year maps carpeted by denser, higher-resolution grass that you walk across to finish another piece of side content that pushes you one digit closer to 100% completion.
Call of Duty Black Ops 6’s Winner’s Circle is now in battle royale Warzone, players have noticed following the launch of Season 1.
With Season 1 out now (via a mammoth 40GB update), Warzone players finally get to experience the Black Ops 6 integration into the free-to-download battle royale. It’s early days yet to issue a verdict on how the addition of weapons and Omnimovement from Treyarch’s recently released first-person shooter affect the Warzone meta, but one thing is clear: the unskippable Winner’s Circle has spread across games.
You can see Warzone’s take on the Winner’s Circle in the clip below, captured from Call of Duty streamer Symfuhny’s gameplay by CharlieIntel. It shows the entire squad of four players (rather than the top three performing players on the winning team in Black Ops 6), and lets players select from the emotes now shared across both games.
As noted in the Warzone Season 1 patch notes, the exfil sequence duration has been reduced with a larger focus on the winning squad. Players can now swap between their own squad and the winning squad showing off accolades and player stats. There is a new progression overview screen too, focused on player choice experience.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
One of our favorite Game Pass Ultimate deals just got even better ahead of Black Friday. Today only, Woot is offering an extra 20% off the 1 and 3 month memberships, which were already discounted 19% each. Just enter code TWENTY at checkout. This drops the 1 month membership to just $11.03 and the 3 month membership to $29.19.
Considering Xbox raised the price of Game Pass Ultimate this year to $19.99/month, you're saving $8.96 with Woot's 1 month membership deal and $30.78 with the 3 month discount. As we mentioned earlier, it only lasts through today until 11:59pm CT, so act fast to secure your codes!
Save on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Memberships at Woot
If you want to look outside of game deals, don't worry, Black Friday offers a little something for everyone thanks to the numerous different retailers that hold their own sales. Quite a few are even jumping on the sale event bandwagon early, like Walmart which has discounts on everything from TVs to Pokémon TCG to Walmart+ memberships right now. It's a great time of year to pick up a little something for yourself or get started on your holiday shopping. If you're focusing on the latter this year and aren't sure where to begin, we've got some recommendations for gift card ideas that are worth giving out this year, too.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
Atomfall launches March 27, 2025, developer Rebellion has announced.
That’s across PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and straight into Game Pass.
Dubbed British Fallout, Atomfall tasks players with solving the mystery of what happened at the Windscale nuclear power station in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster.
Here’s the official blurb:
To solve this, you will need to navigate military encampments, delve through abandoned bunkers below ground and risk your life in Pagan ruins. Central to the dark mystery is the host of eccentric characters and cryptic organizations that inhabit the quarantine zone. These individuals have been cut off from the outside world for years and left to their own devices, so are anything but normal. But be careful, they aren’t all friendly and you will need to get to grips with an array of ranged and melee weapons if you are to survive.
The new trailer, below, is designed to showcase Atomfall’s folk horror influences and the Casterfell Woods location. There’s a burning pyre, an “unsettling” wicker man, numerous fallen bodies, and a ringing telephone box that needs to be answered.
Atomfall’s Deluxe Edition grants three days early access and the planned story expansion DLC, when it’s released.
Here are the Atomfall game features:
A single-player survival-action game, drawing from science fiction, folk horror and Cold War influences to create a world that is eerily familiar yet completely alien
Explore a dark and foreboding world with varying environments and locations
Uncover leads through investigation, exploration, conversation and combat as you attempt to solve a mystery inspired by classic British science fiction such as The Day of the Triffids, early Doctor Who, and The Quatermass Experiment
Desperate high-stakes combat blends expert marksmanship with vicious hand-to-hand combat
Craft items and weapons that may save your life, ransack ruined houses for supplies and even unearth hidden treasures using your trusty metal detector
Define your character through interactions with NPCs, light RPG elements and skill trees
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Star Wars is forever bringing back elements of the prior Extended Universe and Andor Season 2 is doing its bit by featuring a ship from a 1994 video game.
IGN's Andor: Season 1 review returned a 9/10. We said: "Andor is one of the very best TV shows of the year and as good as Star Wars has been in a long, long time."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2 helped propel Disney to what CEO Bob Iger described as “one of the best quarters in the history of our film studio.”
Disney has endured a number of tough years, with its Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar movies and TV shows struggling to break out. But Deadpool & Wolverine, the only MCU movie of 2024, and Pixar's Inside Out 2 helped change all that during the fourth quarter of its financial year (July to September 2024), contributing $316 million in operating income (profit). All told, Disney saw an incredible $4 billion globally from the box office this year.
Disney also saw solid profit from its streaming business, with Disney+ and Hulu bringing in $253 million for the quarter. Disney’s total streaming operating income, which includes money made from ESPN+, was $321 million. A year ago the streaming business suffered a $387 million loss. During the quarter, Disney+ saw 4.4 million additional Core subscribers. Disney+, now five years old, now has more than 120 million Core subscribers. All told, Disney now has 174 million Disney+ Core and Hulu subscriptions.
In total, Disney sales increased 6% for Q4 to $22.6 billion from $21.2 billion in the prior-year quarter, and 3% for the year to $91.4 billion from $88.9 billion in the prior year. And while income before taxes declined 6% to $0.9 billion in Q4 from $1.0 billion in the prior-year quarter, income for the full year increased 59% to $7.6 billion from $4.8 billion in the prior year.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Despite being the face of a Hollywood film franchise and the star of a three decade old video game franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog is still homeless.
As reported by Automaton, fans grew concerned recently after discovering what appeared to be a major change to an incredibly random piece of Sonic the Hedgehog lore. A comic featured in the 2025 Sonic the Hedgehog Annual claimed the blue blur lived in Green Hill Zone, the iconic opening level to the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
But Sonic lore has otherwise stated he's a drifter, roaming from place to place and never settling down, with even official channels like the TailsTube web series pointing to this fact.
Some fans were therefore relieved to hear Sonic had settled down, while others were in an uproar, forcing the hand of Chris Hernandez, Sega's associate manager of Sonic the Hedgehog lore, who clarified the annual's claim was just a misprint.
"Sorry to burst the bubble so late here," Hernandez said on X/Twitter. "This was something we caught early on but it looks like an older draft got through on accident. Sonic doesn't have a home; he's still a drifter. Will work on making sure this doesn't happen again. Thanks for catching this."
Sonic appears too busy to sit down and apply for a mortgage, with his third film debuting on December 20 and bringing Shadow the Hedgehog to the cinematic universe. An enhanced remake of Sonic Generations folded in the edgier hedgehog in the aptly titled Sonic x Shadow Generations.
In our 9/10 Sonic x Shadow Generations review, IGN said: "Sonic x Shadow Generations takes an already excellent game and spring jumps it to new heights with a creative Shadow campaign and an appreciable graphical upgrade.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Infinity Nikki, the open-world dress up role-playing game from former The Legend of Zelda director Kentaro Tominaga, launches on PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile on December 5.
Developer Infold Games revealed the date alongside a new trailer, below, which showed off a ton of the world alongside its characters, their companions, side activities, and clothes players can dress up in.
"Infinity Nikki breathes new life into the Nikki series by delivering an open world experience unlike any other," the synopsis reads.
Infinity Nikki Official Release Date Set for December 5!💫
Check out the Official Release Date Announcement Trailer for Infinity Nikki! Stylists, are you ready to set foot in the enchanting Miraland? Soar through the sky, relish each thrilling step, and capture all these… pic.twitter.com/05CMzti0in
"Players will discover and explore a charming, vibrant world through activities such as fishing, pet grooming, and fashion contests. Additionally, a diverse cast of characters will brighten the world through evocative and engaging story quests, while locations will challenge Nikki with platforming challenges to take advantage of her movement and exploration toolsets."
The game also has a staggering 30 million pre-registrations, meaning its launch next month could set some records of its own.
Controversial games and entertainment company Embracer has provided a financial update and in it delivered a verdict on its recently released games.
Embracer, which bought the Tolkien IP in 2022 for $395 million, said The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria’s Steam and Xbox launch in August “performed slightly above management expectations,” which sounds like corporate speak for did well. Free Range Games’ survival and crafting game first launched on PC as an Epic Games Store exclusive in October last year, before coming out on PS5 in December.
While we’re on The Lord of the Rings, Embracer said Middle-earth Enterprises had a “slow quarter” year-on-year (the July to September Q2), with no notable new partner releases, but a higher film revenue than expected. Embracer said it’s seen encouraging fan reactions to the marketing it’s doing for the December release of anime The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
Embracer had a brutal Q2 for PC and console games, with tough comparisons from last year’s Remnant 2 and Payday 3. The most notable new release, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, late in the quarter, “was well received by players but initial digital sales were slower than expected.” That’s corporate speak for a flop. In contrast, Satisfactory’s 1.0 launch on PC “performed above management expectations,” which means it did great. Coffee Stain Studios’ first-person open-world factory building game had over 200,000 concurrent players in September.
Embracer has endured a tough time in recent years, laying off thousands of staff (the number of game developers working at the firm has decreased from 10,654 to 6,250) and selling a number of its studios, including Borderlands maker Gearbox and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 developer Saber Interactive. Today, it announced the sale of subsidiary puzzle game mobile developer Easybrain to digital games company Miniclip for $1.2 billion, which should keep the lights on for the foreseeable future.
As for the rest of its financial year, Embracer is pinning its hopes on the hotly anticipated Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which it said was still on track for its February 11, 2025 release date. It still owns Metro developer 4A Games, which is working on a brand new game in the series. Asmodee, Embracer's tabletop games company, is still up for sale.
"Over the past 15 months, we have created a stronger foundation for long-term value creation, lowering our net debt and our capex," Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said.
"We have many high-performing and efficient companies, several with industry leading margins. However, we acknowledge that parts of our PC/Console and Entertainment & Services segments are still underperforming due to delays and low ROI for primarily small and mid-sized releases. Combined with fixed operating costs this creates unacceptable margins which we are firmly addressing ahead of the spin-offs."
Other Embracer games in the works include Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core, Fellowship, Gothic 1 Remake, Hyper Light Breaker, Killing Floor 3, REANIMAL, Satisfactory (console), Titan Quest II, Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered, and Wreckfest 2.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Nintendo masterpiece The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time sees protagonist Link play beautiful melodies on an ocarina to cast magical effects and save the world. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii does the same, sort of, except protagonist Majima instead summons a giant glowing jellyfish that fights pirates.
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii developer Ryu Ga Gotoko Studio shared the combat abilities Majima can use in the game in a blog post translated by Gematsu. This included details on the Dark Instruments he can deploy and the sharks, apes, and jellyfish they summon to fight baddies.
Alongside the more traditional Mad Dog style Majima has used throughout the entire Yakuza / Like a Dragon series, players can also choose to use his Sea Dog style that's more fitting for Majima's new life as a pirate.
Primarily using cutlasses to take down enemies, the Sea Dog style also lets Majima use sidearms to activate triple finishers. Three sidearms are available throughout the game, including the Cutlass Boomerang, Pistol, and Chain Hook.
Things get particularly wild with the Dark Instruments, however. Majima will build up a Madness Gauge while fighting (separate to Heat Actions) that can be used to activate this new ability, with players able to choose between playing a violin, saxaphone, guitar, and the aforementioned ocarina.
"Blowing into Majima’s cursed ocarina beckons a terrifying jellyfish to emerge from the briny deep," reads the description, which officially dubs the jellyfish the Dark God of the Deep. "This creature will heal Majima and his allies, as well as shock and immobilize nearby enemies."
The violin summons giant sharks which deal heavy damage, the guitar summons a "ferocious" ape that inflicts massive damage with limited range, and the saxaphone summons an "avian ally" that blows enemies away.
UPDATE: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone Season 1 is live now.
ORIGINAL STORY: Black Ops 6 Season 1 launches today, November 14, and with it comes a mammoth update that has become a Call of Duty trademark.
The Season 1 update, which brings Call of Duty up to version 1.061.000, is available to download now and weighs in at a gargantuan 40.422 GB on PS5 and 38.724 GB on PS4.
This is an enforced update for Call of Duty, the all-encompassing app that houses Black Ops 6, Warzone, and prior Call of Duty games. You need to download the 40 GB update for the base game even if you don’t have Black Ops 6.
Season 1, which goes live at 9am Pacific / 5pm UK time, makes a number of significant changes to Black Ops 6, adding new Multiplayer maps, skins, a battle pass, and big balance changes. Activision published the Season 1 patch notes overnight. New updates are also coming for the Black Ops 6 campaign and Modern Warfare 3, if you have those downloaded.
Call of Duty, with its various evolving modes like Multiplayer and Zombies alongside yearly releases on top of separate games like Warzone, is not only messy but takes up a big slice of your storage. For this year’s game, Activision made a number of changes designed to streamline the Call of Duty interface, offering more direct access to games and more control over downloads.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Mortal Kombat 1 developer NetherRealm fully unveiled Ghostface overnight, showing off the DLC guest character’s signature hunting knife, crawling skills, and ability to phone in a fellow Ghostface partner to help finish off victims.
But what the developers failed to reveal is which Mortal Kombat characters they’re quietly bringing back to the series via the Scream villain’s various versions that are available in-game.
During a Kombat Kast, NetherRealm confirmed there are actually three versions of Ghostface: the main Ghostface is the villain from the Scream films, as you’d expect, but the identities of the other two are secrets NetherRealm challenged players to work out for themselves.
As reported by EventHubs, NetherRealm confirmed that the other two Ghostface versions are Black Dragon characters called, at least for now, The Enforcer and The Assassin. Black Dragon is Mortal Kombat’s mercenary clan headed up at various points (the timeline is pretty complicated!) by fan-favorites Kabal and Kano. The lore justification here is Ghostface has been transported to Lui Kang's timeline without his partners from the movies, so recruits two members of the Black Dragon clan to help him out.
So, Ghostface is actually three characters in one. You can switch to temporarily playing as The Enforcer or The Assassin by holding a button during certain moves. You can tell them apart by their knives, if you look closely. You get 12 seconds to play as an alternative Ghostface before you revert back to the OG, or your opponent lands a hit and triggers the OG to come running back in.
Players have analyzed The Enforcer and The Assassin’s unique movesets for hints at the Black Dragon characters’ true identities. Already, there are two outstanding suggestions.
Warning! Spoilers for the identity of Ghostface in Mortal Kombat 1 follow.
Mortal Kombat fans have identified moves that are directly related to Kobra (Enforcer) and Kira (Assassin), two human Black Dragon members who each made their debut in 2004’s Mortal Kombat: Deception. We also see Assassin do Kano’s famous roll attack, but Kira does this move as well in both Deception and 2006’s Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. As you can see from the movesets, this one looks nailed on.
Reaction to this revelation has been positive, not only because it’s a clever way of bringing back two rather obscure Mortal Kombat characters that perhaps would never have seen the light of day otherwise, but also because it leaves the door open for other, perhaps more wanted characters to appear as Kameos or even fleshed out DLC characters with a potential, but so far unannounced Kombat Pack 3.
As for Ghostface, the OG version is voiced by Roger L. Jackson, who has voiced the character throughout the Scream franchise. Ghostface joins the Mortal Kombat 1 roster on November 19 as part of the early access period for Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns Expansion owners, followed by wide availability for purchase on November 26. Up next is Conan the Barbarian and T-1000 Terminator.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Amazon is already rolling out some impressive early Black Friday deals after announcing its official sale dates. The standout offer is the Fire TV Stick 4K, now at its lowest-ever price of $21.99 (according to camelcamelcamel) beating its previous best of $25 during Prime Day.
It’s official: You can now play Xbox games on compatible Amazon Fire TV devices. Players with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and a Fire TV Stick 4K can connect a wireless controller and access the Xbox Cloud Gaming library, which includes games like Palworld and Forza Horizon 5.
Here’s How to Start Playing Xbox Games on Your Fire TV Stick:
Install the Xbox app through the Fire TV app store
Sign in with your Microsoft account
Pair a wireless Bluetooth controller to the TV through the “Controllers and Bluetooth” submenu in the Fire TV’s settings. Compatible controllers include the Xbox Wireless Controller, Xbox Adaptive Controller, PlayStation DualSense Wireless Controller, or DualShock 4 controller.
Unfortunately, only specific Fire TV devices support Xbox Cloud Gaming. Thankfully, both the 4K and 4K Max sticks in the deal above work just fine! It’s also worth checking your TV model, as the Xbox app is also already available on certain Samsung TVs.
Once you’ve got your compatible Amazon Fire TV device, you can start setting up the Xbox app. Before jumping into instructions, it's important to note that you must have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to play Xbox games on your Fire TV Stick. At the time of writing, Fortnite is the only exception to this rule. It’s also important to note that because you’ll be streaming the game, the caliber of your internet will affect the experience, with a poor connection impacting visual quality and potentially creating input lag.
When Is Black Friday 2024?
The actual date of Black Friday in 2024 falls on November 29 this year, but the deals season will begin a lot sooner than that. Amazon’s Black Friday Week will extend well beyond the day itself, starting on November 21 and running through the end of Black Friday.
Whether you're shopping for tech, toys, or holiday gifts, Amazon’s Black Friday Week sale is promising plenty of opportunities to score discounts. Retailers will not reveal their biggest Black Friday deals until the big day, but most general deals will be available well in advance.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Black Friday is fast approaching, and Amazon is next to officially announce its sale dates. Amazon's "Black Friday Week" sale will kick off on Thurday, November 21 at 12:01am PST and runs through Friday, November 29 at 11:59pm PST, with the retailer promising millions of discounts across a wide range of categories. Here's what you need to know about one of the year's biggest shopping events, alongside the best Black Friday deals that are already available at Amazon.
Amazon Black Friday Deals
Amazon is already showcasing some early discounts, and one of the big standout offers is the Fire TV Stick 4K, now at its lowest-ever price of $21.99 (according to camelcamelcamel), and beating its previous best of $25 during Prime Day earlier this year.
Think about it this way: There's a 100% certainty of more digital games sales over the Black Friday period, and these gift card discounts mean you can save even more. Or you could actually gift them, if you want? There are also discounts on Fortnite V-Bucks, Xbox Game Pass Core, and Roblox Digital Gift Cards if you're so inclined.
When Is Black Friday 2024?
The actual date of Black Friday in 2024 falls on November 29 this year, but the deals season will begin a lot sooner than that. Amazon’s Black Friday Week will extend well beyond the day itself, starting on November 21 and running through the end of Black Friday.
Whether you're shopping for tech, toys, or holiday gifts, Amazon’s Black Friday Week sale is promising plenty of opportunities to score discounts. Retailers will not reveal their biggest Black Friday deals until the big day, but most general deals will be available well in advance, such as the Fire TV Stick deal we mentioned.
What Black Friday Deals Can You Expect from Amazon?
The retailer hasn't revealed much, but so far here's what Amazon plans to feature deals on across more than 35 categories, including:
Electronics: Deals on popular brands like Sonos and Dyson
Toys: Discounts on favorites like Hot Wheels
Home and Kitchen: Products from brands like KitchenAid and Solo Stove
Beauty and Fashion: Offers from Clinique, New Balance, and more.
Amazon Prime members gain access to exclusive deals, fast free delivery, and other benefits. You can get a 30-day free trial, or membership costs $14.99 per month or $139 annually, with discounted options also available.
You won't need a Prime membership to access the Black Friday deals, like in Amazon Prime Day, but it might still be useful for fast delivery, and access to any surprise deals Amazon does decide to put behind its paywall (such as the 10% off gaming gift card deal that's already live).
With Black Friday getting closer, it's a good time to start planning your shopping in earnest. Here are a few Black Friday tips that you should be considering ahead of the event:
Set a Budget – Keeping track of how much money you can actually spend is important to avoid overspending. When everything is on sale, it can be easy to buy more than you really should just because things are at their lowest price of the year.
Create a Shopping List – Knowing exactly what you're trying to find discounts on is a great way to avoid making unnecessary purchases. It can also make it easier for you to compare prices between retailers or set price drop alerts ahead of time.
Compare Prices – Although Amazon tends to automatically price match most things, it's still good to compare prices to other retailers before you buy. You can also use the website CamelCamelCamel to compare current prices against Amazon's historical pricing.
Find Unbiased Reviews – Amazon reviews have gotten somewhat better in recent years, but you should still do research outside of the site before making a decision. Seek out unbiased reviews on expensive purchases before you buy. IGN's Tech reviews, for example, are a great place to look.
Be Wary of Sponsored Products – Search results in Amazon include sponsored sales that may not be what you're looking for. Look for the little 'sponsored' tag before you click. You may want to scroll past those.
Make Sure to Clip Coupons – One of the easiest ways to save money on Amazon that many folks seem to miss is the clipping of coupons. There are a ton of coupons available for Prime Members, and all you need to do is check a box on the product page for additional savings.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
If you highly revere the first three Grand Theft Auto titles, as I did and still do, today's your day to revisit that iffy remaster bundle. Work has been done and they're going for mighty cheap prices now. How much better is the spit shine? Well, I'll let this article/video tell the tale on its own.
Today in Wow You're Aging news, I'm celebrating the 21st of cult hit Beyond Good & Evil. Weirdly, most modern gamers probably only know this title through the talk of its ludicrously delayed prequel, a project 16 bloody years in the making. But the fact that Ubisoft can't seem to let that initiative die is a ringing testament to how gamers like me felt about that very special 2003 original. Buy the 20th Anniversary remaster, and you'll get a unique blend of photojournalism meets Wind Waker-esque action-adventuring, stealthing, and semi-open-water exploration.
Insomniac's Pro Enhancement approach on the Spidey titles is mirrored here—two modes: "Fidelity Pro" and "Performance Pro." The former targets 30 fps and lets you individually tune the ray tracing features to achieve higher frame rates with the VRR and 120 Hz Display options. My recommended is Performance Pro, as it targets a silky 60 fps and uses PSSR to retain (almost) all of the ray tracing stuff. You will get RT Ambient Occlusion, but not the "High" settings of RT Key Light Shadows (better shadowing at mid-to-extreme distances) or RT Reflections (smoother animations within reflections). Again, I'm all about fluid action that still blows minds like a RYNO 8 to the face—so this is my pick.
The developers behind Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket have teased some of the updates players can expect to receive in the coming months, including additional booster packs, trading, and other new features.
The team detailed their strategy in a post published on its official X/Twitter account. It’s a message that thanks fans for trying out Pokémon TCG Pocket since its launch a few weeks ago, and more importantly, it tells players what they can expect if they stick around. Update plans not only include new cards but even new, mysterious features that have yet to be announced.
Hi everyone! Today, I'd like to share a brief statement by the #PokemonTCGPocket Team about more immediate updates coming to the game in the next few months.
I look forward to sharing more details with everyone as they become available! pic.twitter.com/eaN35vRpSw
Pokémon TCG Pocket will receive at least one “major update” in the near future, with the team saying that the plans is to release new booster packs before the end of the year. Those who have picked up the Pokémon mobile game so far have been treated to three packs – Genetic Apex Mewtwo, Charizard, and Pikachu – with three pools of cards to choose from. It’s unclear exactly how many more packs will release in the next few months or which creatures they will feature.
How and when the card roster will grow remains a mystery, but one feature that has been on everyone’s minds is currently slated to arrive early next year: trading. The ability to trade cards with other players is a Social Hub menu option that’s been grayed out since launch, and in January, Pokémon TCG Pocket will finally make it available to use. It’s worth noting that today’s message clarifies that only “certain cards” will be available to trade at release, with the team promising to “expand the selection of cards that are able to be traded” over time.
While the message keeps more than a few details hidden, rest assured that more features will come to Pokémon TCG Pocket down the line. “Also, we have other new features in development outside of the trade feature introduced here,” the message says. “We plan to announce more details about the update as the dates for the addition of these features are finalized, so please look forward to it.”
This mobile version of everyone’s favorite pocket monster trading card game has taken the world by storm since it launched late last month. Developer Creatures Inc. announced Pokémon TCG Pocket managed to surpass 30 million downloads last Friday – just more than one week after launch. Although release dates for expansion sets have not been officially revealed, a datamine from earlier this week suggested that more cards may be due to arrive in December and January.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
Lenovo didn't wait around until Black Friday to drop the price of the Ghost Cipher Limited Edition Xbox Series X|S wireless controller to the lowest we've seen. Right now you can get it for just $54.99 after a 21% off discount. Although Xbox controllers in standard colors are likely to be discounted further for Black Friday (we expect they'll be $39.99 each), it's less probable that the Ghost Cipher edition will follow the trend, since it was only just released on October 21. This is an official Microsoft controller that's compatible with Xbox Series X and S consoles as well as your PC.
21% Off Xbox Controller Ghost Cipher Edition
The Ghost Cipher Edition is an absolutely gorgeous controller, with a translucent clear top case, rubberized ash gray grips, metallic bronze triggers and D-pad, and a solid white back. The interior components are colored silver to match the overall theme. Aesthetics aside, this Xbox wireless controller is identical to the one that's bundled with the Xbox Series X and S console. Standard features include textured grips, hybrid D-pad, button mapping with the Xbox app, a 3.5mm audio jack that works with any wired headset, and a Share button to upload screenshots and video.
The controller supports both Xbox wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. That means you can use it for your PC or mobile device. In fact, we think this is the the best PC controller you can get. If your PC doesn't have Bluetooth, you can still use it in wired mode with a USB Type-C cable or go out and buy a Bluetooth or Xbox wireless adapter.
Get the Sky Cipher Controller as Part of a Bundle Discount
A similar looking edition is the Sky Cipher controller, which features the same trasparent casing but in blue instead of clear. It's available on Amazon as part of an Xbox Cloud Gaming Bundle, which includes the controller, an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, all for only $79.99. Better yet, this bundle will allow you to play Game Pass games without having to own an Xbox console.
Xbox Gift Cards Are on Sale at Amazon
Amazon Prime members can get 10% off Xbox gift cards and PlayStation Store gift cards. We only see this deal come around a few times a year and it's usually only for smaller denominations. This time around you can get up to a $100 Xbox gift card or $250 PlayStation gift card and still get the discount.
3 Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $36.49
Woot! (which is owned by Amazon) is offering the best deal on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Right now you can get a 3 month code for only $36.49. Earlier this year, Microsoft raised the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $19.99 per month, so now you're saving 40% off a 3 month membership. Note that you can purchase multiple codes and apply them to your account, up to a maximum of 36 months. If you're an Xbox gamer, this is a great way to save a lot of money in the long run since you won't have to buy new release games individually to play them.
When Is Black Friday 2024?
The actual date of Black Friday in 2024 falls on November 29 this year, but the deals season will begin a lot sooner than that. Leading up to the big event, retailers will begin to open deals online. This usually starts in the last week of October, just before Halloween. Each week leading up to the event will slowly roll out more deals, which ultimately leads to massive discounts on Black Friday. Retailers will not reveal their biggest Black Friday deals until the big day, but most general deals will be available well in advance.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
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