It's time to retire that bike of yours and upgrade to electric! For Cyber Monday, AliExpress is offering two of its most popular ebikes down to historically low prices, both well under $500. The deals below stand out for the following reasons: 1) they're a lot less expensive than buying the exact same bike off Amazon, 2) they're all shipped from a local US warehouse so you don't need to worry about tariffs or shipping delays, and 3) they're sold by reputable vendors with plenty of reviews and sales to back them up.

Amyet V9-G60 1000W Electric Bike for Less Than $400

If you're exhausted by the ever-increasing price of Xbox Game Pass, there's relief at Amazon in the form of three months of Game Pass Ultimate for just $56.99. That's $18.99 per month, or more than $10 cheaper than the Ultimate plan's usual $29.99 monthly.

Microsoft charges promotional rates first, even if a deal like this is added to existing Game Pass subscriptions, so buyers don't pay their usual rates until the three months is up. And for those who can swing it, the company lets subscribers stack deals. That $30+ savings every three months adds up – it's the difference between paying $240 vs $360 annually.

Save $30 Off Three Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

It’s back, tabletop fans. Both Amazon and Target are running a “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” sale on board games, many of which are already individually discounted for Cyber Monday. And these deals are stackable, an elite-level deal-hunting move I always appreciate. Let’s take a look at what board games are eligible for the sale.

Buy 2, Get 1 Free at Amazon

The deals include a lot of standards that should be in most people’s game collection, like Ticket to Ride, Catan, and Azul. It’s also a great sale for parents looking to pick up family board games, as tons of classic games are on sale. Games like Scrabble, Operation, Mouse Trap, Guess Who, Twister, and the like are all represented here.

I’d especially recommend Flip 7, a simple card game that only takes a few minutes to teach newcomers, with matches that last just 15 - 20 minutes. That makes it great to whip out with a group of friends when you’re looking to kill some time. Check out our Flip 7 review for more information.

Flamecraft is an excellent strategy game with dragons (see our review here). The latest edition of Talisman brings a classic dungeon-crawler into modern times (review). And The Lord of The Rings Journeys in Middle-Earth Board Game made it on our list of the best fantasy board games.

Those are just a few of the games eligible for the Buy 2, Get 1 Free sale at Amazon. You can click through to the full sale here to see every game available. There are plenty. And remember, you can also check out the same sale at Target, where you may find a handful of different games available.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

LEGO sets are popular this Cyber Monday, and the best LEGO Star Wars deal is the Battle Droid with STAP from the Phantom Menace. It's currently down to $89.99 on Amazon, saving you $50 off of its original price of $139.99. It's not the only LEGO Star Wars set discounted, but it's definitely the biggest bang for your buck. LEGO's Cyber Monday sale ends today, so make sure you look through what they're offering in case there's a set you've had your eye on.

LEGO Star Wars Battle Droid With STAP

Phantasmal Flames has exploded in popularity from release, but the good news is larger print runs are starting to pay off with more stock floating around. We're not out of the woods yet, but prices are coming down for both sealed and single card values, so it's having the right effect on the market.

With TCGPlayer running their Cyber Weekend event until 11PM ET today, this is your last chance to knock an extra 10% off whatever you purchase on there. If you're already a TCGPlayer subscriber, that cashback percentage goes up to 16% depending on how long you've been a subscriber for. If you right up today for $8.99 per month, that flat 10% goes up to 13%, which adds up if you're stocking up.

Phantasmal Flames Booster Packs

The cheapest way to get in on Phantasmal Flames are single booster packs and blister packs. If you're collecting, i'd reccomend going for the sleeved booster packs or the blisters. It just means you'll get better chances of cards being in a gradable condition if you pull something worthwhile.

Phantasmal Flames Boxed Products

Looking to keep some Phantasmal Flames in your sealed collection? This is a great time to catch the Pokémon Cernter Exclusive Elite Trainer Box and The Mega Charizard X ex Ultra Premium Collection. With 10% knocked off, they'll run you $173.70 and $165.59 respectively, which is going to be the best price you're likely to ever find on these products.

If you're planning on ripping booster packs i'd go for the Booster Bundle that contains six boosters for $43.84 after cashback or the Booster Box for $243, which is $12 cheaper than Amazon's cheapest price right now. Just remember, this cashback offer ends today at 11PM ET, so make sure to lock in yuour order today if you're in the market.

Bulk / Case Phantasmal Flames

If you're looking at really bulking up your sealed collection or ripping a high amount of booster packs, buying a case of Phantasmal Flames product is the way forward. It's usually cheaper buying in bulk, and keeping this all sealed is extremely collectable.

For example, buying the case of six Phantasmal Flames booster boxes means you're paying $227.99 per Booster Box after cashback, which is currently a saving of $15.01 per Booster Box, or $90.06 total by comparrison.

Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of "Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior". Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.

It’s Cyber Monday, and possibly the last day to enjoy the best discounts this year. That includes deals on Xbox accessories, like Amazon's 23% discount for the Xbox-approved 2TB Seagate Storage Expansion Card, now available for just $199.99.

Seagate's 2TB Xbox Storage Expansion Card Is $75 Off

Xbox console deals may have been absent from Black Friday sales this year, but Best Buy's not letting the season of savings come to an end without a little treat for Xbox fans. The retailer is throwing in a free $100 Best Buy e-gift card with Xbox Series X purchases for Cyber Monday.

It's not a proper discount, but it's a nice salve for the burn of the console's $649.99 starting price, giving you some extra money to put toward on-sale Xbox games and accessories, or any of the other things Best Buy is discounting for Cyber Monday. The deal also applies to open-box consoles, which can net you extra savings if you happen to find one in stock near you. Alas, the deal doesn't extend to the cheaper Series S.

Buy an Xbox Series X 1TB Console, Get a Free $100 Best Buy E-Gift Card

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are theoretically the best times to buy just about anything, but with ongoing price hikes, I’ll be the first to admit it’s getting harder to figure out what’s an actual deal. Rest assured, there is one certainty: Right now is definitely when you’ll find the lowest prices on streaming subscriptions.

We've seen plenty of Cyber Monday streaming deals go live, but Apple TV is offering one of the best discount on an ad-free subscription. Until midnight tonight, you can grab six months of Apple TV for $5.99/month.

Save Over 50% on Six Months of Apple TV

Woot!, which is owned by Amazon, is offering a rare Cyber Monday deal on one of the new Nvidia RTX 50 series graphics cards. The factory reconditioned MSI Inspire GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB graphics card drops to just $719.99 (normally $850 new). Amazon Prime members get free shipping, otherwise it's a trivial $5 delivery fee. This GPU comes with a 180-day MSI warranty as well as a 30-day Woot return policy. From past experience, these listings have extremely limited inventory, so this deal probably won't last the entirety of Cyber Monday. If you've been waiting for a discount on an RTX 50 series GPU for your upcoming PC upgrade, this is a good opportunity to pick one up at no markup.

MSI Inspire GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU for $719.99 (Retail $850)

Factory reconditioned with 6 month MSI warranty

I've been annoyingly busy lately, and haven't had as much time as I would have liked to dive into World of Warcraft's housing feature, which is now live in the World of Warcraft: Midnight beta. So even though I've now had multiple tours of its features and possibilities at this point, I was blown away when I poked my head into the community and saw this:

And this:

And, holy smokes, this:

Come on. There's no way we're going to be able to make that! Well, okay, maybe no way I, a deeply mediocre interior decorator, will be able to make that.

Nevertheless, early testing for housing in WoW is proving to be quite the success. In fact, amid a lot of controversy around both add-on removal and transmog, it's nice that there's one new feature everyone's just sort of unanimously positive about.

Still, there are still plenty of questions still up in the air about how housing will work once it gets into the full game, and what its long-term future is going to be. I sat down with Jesse Kurlancheek, housing lead and principal game designer, and Joanna Giannullis, senior UX designer, to pepper them with questions specifically about housing: how will it work, what features can we expect down the line, and what the future holds. Here's our full interview below, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

IGN: So in the past we've sometimes seen Blizzard introduce new features and then drop them at the end of the expansion, like Pandaria's Farms, and the Garrisons in Warlordsof Draenor. Can we be reassured that housing is going to continue to be supported with new content and added to with each new expansion?

Jesse Kurlancheek: I will reassure you as much as possible that that is the case. We have a short-term, medium-term, long-term list of features and content that we want to add. We talk about what are we doing in 12.0 and 12.1 and 12.2 and beyond pretty regularly. One of the things that's most exciting about housing is that, if I ask you, "Hey, what are the three things you want most from housing?" Just rattle off, and I ask Jo[anna Giannullis] and I ask Aramis [the PR representative on the call] and I ask 10 players, I will get a dozen different answers ranging the gamut, but chances are 90, 95% of those things totally make sense in housing. It's such a wide, open field that you can't really say no to a lot of stuff, and because of that, it's really exciting to add all of these things. And you can see a through line as we talk about stuff, we want players to have this area to express themselves, to be creative, to build sort of what they want, their ideal home in Azeroth.

But then we also say, "But we want you to be amongst other players. We want you to be with your friends or Guildies. We want to give you a space that is not just yours but is ours." And then from there, where do people get excited? What sort of sparks your joy? What lights your eyes up? What do players do on day one, on month one that they want to keep doing, that they want to build on? So, we have our roadmap. We have the things that we think are really exciting. We have the things that we know players want. We know that, yeah, you want more content, you want more decor, you want more of this culture or that culture or this expansion stuff or that expansion stuff. You want to be able to have access to these types of features and we want more customization.

We want better quality of life. We want to be able to do things together that we can't right now. But then, we have things that you don't necessarily think about. When you say, oh, when we announced neighborhoods back in the spring, you'd see people sort of be like, "Oh, now that we have this sort of collaborative space, what does that mean for us?" And watching people have conversations about the what ifs with housing is very gratifying. Hopefully, that very long-winded answer reassures you that we're thinking about things as not just a single feature release, that this is a very long-running thing.

You were talking about having a space for people to hang out in. So, I log in and I go do dungeons or whatever it is I do and I play, but there's also sort of a home base that I tend to hang out in. And generally in the history of WoW, that's always been a capital city, because there's an auction house and a bank, and a bunch of other people there. And I'm wondering how you're thinking about the tension between, do I want to hang out in my house where there's no bank and no auction house, or do I want to hang out in a capital city? But if I don't hang out in a capital city, is the capital city going to be empty? How are you kind of thinking about that?

Joanna Giannullis: I think we are expecting players to sort of settle into different types. We made sure that a lot of things that you go to the capital city for, that's still where you have to go to do that. You got to go and visit your professions trainers, do your crafting orders, visit the bank, the auction house. A lot of those things are still going to be central in the city. You may still want to go there so you can see the Brutosaur parades or whatnot. There's still going to be a lot there for you. But we also wanted the neighbors to be a space where you could be more social with your friends and your Guildies because that's a little bit harder to do in those hub cities. So, we're hoping that there's a nice balance. We're also not making you choose where to put your Hearthstone, we're going to give you a hearth to your actual home so you'll be able to quickly go to either location to do the things that you need to do while you're waiting for raid or what have you.

Is there any thought to making there be practical benefits to being in the house though? I know you probably don't want to put a bank there because then everyone would just sit in there all the time, but I wonder if there's anything else? I saw this thing where tourist NPCs were coming by and taking pictures, which is really cute. I don't know, could NPCs come visit? Could there be a reason to just sit there and hang out that's practical and gameplay oriented?

Giannullis: Right now, we do have cooking stations in your house. There are a couple small things and I'm sure there's things that will happen in the future, but there are some things that you might find more enjoyable to just do in your home or your plot or your neighborhood, and there's a lot of reasons to keep returning to your neighborhood. We've got endeavors coming up with the launch Midnight and that's something that you're going to be participating in, but then those are also going to send you back out into the world. So, there should be a lot of give and take there.

Kurlancheek: We do a fairly hard line on sort of the player power aspect of stuff not coming into housing. You should never feel that, "I have to go engage in a housing loop because if I don't, I can't attune to a raid, or I won't have a 3% DPS boost or whatever." So, that sort of practical stuff is really not on the table. What you mentioned about NPCs coming by and doing cutesy, neighborly, things like that, I think is very much a part of housing. Feeling like this little part of the world that is yours and your friends is alive is important. Seeing the NPCs put the little umbrellas up when it starts raining, seeing them sort of queue up for the shops and things like that really just gives a life and a vibrancy to this place. But it's not practical, right? It's all just vibes, man.

Is there any thought to eventually doing something where two people could have possession of a house together or you could give other people permission to decorate your house? I feel like there's a budding scene of potential interior decorator professions that could spring up around this.

Kurlancheek: Yeah, one comes up a lot is, "I'm not especially creative or I'm not great with a tool set. Can my friend come over and sort of deck out my apartment or deck out my house?" Yeah, it's certainly on our radar.

Was there anything that you had to leave on the cutting room floor for this initial launch that you really wish you could have gotten in? And are you willing to say what it is?

Giannullis: So much. So much. I mean, one of the things that's known is we were able to get the outdoor rooms in for the testing, but those won't be available to players until we actually launch Midnight, just due to some technical reasons, but we were really excited to get them out. We're glad we got them out early so players could give feedback and test them and see what they like about him. But there's some things like that.

Kurlancheek: There's exterior lighting we had to disable during alpha or beta, I can't remember what, just because of the performance impacts. If everybody in your sight line put 100 lights on their lawn, that was going to cause a problem. So, we had to disable those. We're going to fix it up, get them working post-launch, post Midnight launch. Yeah, I think there've been a number of things that sort of people held near and dear to their hearts that we had to just not cut, but just be like, "That's going to wait a little bit and then we'll get to it."

In the future, there might be more to types of neighborhoods, right? We have an Alliance and a Horde neighborhood look and then there's set places in those, but are you thinking about other environments you might want to do down the line?

Kurlancheek: Yeah, I think there's, letting players make a space that they vibe with. I'm sorry, I say vibe a lot with housing.

It's very vibes-based.

Kurlancheek: It's very vibes-based. But getting players a space that they feel like they can make theirs is really important. In designing the neighborhoods, we are very intentional about trying to hit a very broad spectrum of, here are players, here are houses that are for very hermit players, that they don't want to live next to anybody. Here are houses that are in a little cute cul-de-sac, so there's 2, 3, 4 houses that a small group of friends can live in. Here's houses on the ocean, here's houses in the woods, here's houses sort of in all of these aspects. But that's not going to necessarily hit everybody's thing, and so figuring out what the large missing pieces there are is part of the early post-release sort of conversation.

Giannullis: Another thing to add to that, something that we've made an effort is going out and looking in the world, especially even in old content and finding decor or foliage, things that we could add as props and decor so that the players can make their space into what they want. So, if they've always loved a specific zone in the game, great, let's add some of those trees and some of those flowers as decor that they can buy and then put in their yard. And that's something that we're working really hard, I think, to get a variety of decor that feels like every little part of the game has its place, and you can go back to old content and get those things and then you can put them in your house.

Going back into old content and finding things, from each of you, what is the most surprising or weird or favorite thing that you found that you're like, "Oh, I have to put that in housing."

Kurlancheek: So, there's literally a spreadsheet or a form that people can fill out for, "Oh, this thing was something we should add." It's a little bit unfair being me because I can sort of nudge things a little bit harder to go in and say, "Hey, Jay," Jay's the decor lead. I'm like, "Can you add this for me? Literally just for me. I don't know if anyone else cares about it, but I would like it." And he'll be like, "Yeah, fine, that's fine."

I think the more interesting thing has been, this is a massive game, right, and seeing players pull up props that have long been forgotten about. They're like, "That was a cool prop. We should get that in." Someone posted this, it was a shark, it was a new asset. So, probably from Battle for Azeroth if I had to guess. But it was a shark that had been caught, but that was maybe still alive, I'm not quite sure. But it was a very nice, they wanted to make a fishing village on their lawn. And I was like, "That's great." And so, having people post what they're looking for is really useful for us because stuff like that shows up and we're like, "That is a great asset."

Giannullis: We also have had a lot of, this is oddly internal too. This is, everybody really wants goblin items and then trash items. Those get requested a lot. It's really fun. Yeah, people love them and one of the ones I think we added was the Johnny Trash pile. So, if you get the achievement with him back in Battle for Azeroth, and it's so funny, it's like who wants that? But as soon as you see it, you want it. You are like, "I have to have that. I don't know what for, but I know I need that." And it's so fun to see people get excited about those sort of sort of decor.

Kurlancheek: String lights. Everybody loves the string lights.

Would you ever consider making certain housing items super rare or super secretive? I'm thinking about a decoration equivalent of the Time-Lost Proto-Drake or something that's the reward at the end of a secret quest, like the Hivemind or something?

Kurlancheek: Let's see how I'm going to answer this. So, there's the catalog that shows you all the items in the game, all the decor in the game. There's a flag we can say to hide items until you've earned them. So, yeah, that.

Would you ever lock anything behind world first or make something fairly exclusive?

Kurlancheek: I think depends on your definition of fairly. So, meta achievements for expansions are pretty exclusive. And so, we have decor for meta achievements. I think where it's maybe require more conversation of stuff that's time limited. We try to generally err away from things that if, you're like, "Oh, I just need this green placard or whatever, but it was only available for some weird event or something," that kind of feels bad.

Giannullis: We've also, we talked a while back about what sort of decor would we reward for something like PvP, because we'd like to have, and this is no secret, you can get housing decor from everything in game. If there's a way you can earn something in game, we're going to let you get housing decor that way. So, we wanted to do something for PvP and it was like, okay, well if we do this and then other people that don't PvP want it, is that going to feel bad? And so, the concept of trophies came up and you can see some of that early stuff is showing up on the beta. So, I think there's been real conscious effort to make sure that if it's something that you can get from something very exclusive, it's not something that we expect everybody to want to have a ton of in their house or it's something that you can get a version of another way. But if you see that specific version, you know they did something awesome to get it. It's a balance there.

When I log in on December 2nd and I have access to this feature, I'm just immediately going to have a bunch of decor already, right? Because I have achievements that exist, I have things that I have done before, so I should just have a bunch of stuff?

Kurlancheek: You will, if you've been playing hard for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, you will potentially log into 150, 200 things that you will just get spammed with and showered with and be able to be like, "Oh yeah, I remember when I did that quest in MoP or something and it gave me whatever it gave me." And the meta achievements kick in and you start with this very eclectic mix.

I'm sure whatever I have is totally mismatched and makes no sense.

Giannullis: Well, we also start you with the starter packs, which have some more streamlined modern items. Yeah. So, you'll have a mix of some wild stuff and then some, okay, at least I have a bed and a chair. So, we're going to start you with a good mix of things, I think.

Are you looking into any eventual copy-paste functionality or the ability to save custom item combinations? I know that's something a lot of people have been asking about.

Giannullis: A lot of people have asked about that. Definitely copy-paste. Being able, once you get something just right in advanced mode, not having to do it all over again. We're definitely keeping an eye on everything that people are asking for. There's a lot of things that people want. There's a lot of things we want to do, so it's just trying to decide what's going to help players the most.

Yeah, I mean the next question is basically the same one about export strings. If people want to decorate a house, show people and then have someone else copy it if they have those items.

Kurlancheek: Yeah, I think when we talk about any feature that's sort of in housing, it's what is sort of maximally useful across that spectrum of different players. And so, when you talk about something like importing or exporting strings of stuff, that helps the interior designer type player who wants to sort of provide services. It helps the players that are not necessarily super creative, right, are not really jazzed about the mechanical side of decorating. They have a vision but don't want use the tool set.

It helps the players that they like to browse. You just sort of, I have a room for this and room for that, a room for this and a room for that. And also, I think maybe the most compelling part about it is it helps players have a sense of ownership where you might not already. So, if you're a great decorator and I'm a less good decorator, and you make your little pirate cave and like a great pirate cave, "I'm going to take that pirate cave, but I don't like that she doesn't have sharks in the water," or whatever. And then, I throw a bunch of sharks in the water. Now that's sort of mine in a way that remixing of content in general is sort of a part of the internet. Being able to do that in game is also really valuable.

How are you thinking about things like housing contests and stuff like that? I don't know. I think about Race to World First and how that's a tune-in event, and I feel like I would watch an interior decorating show.

Giannullis: The thing is we've already seen a bunch of creators pop up that are like, "I'm a housing creator, this is what I'm doing." And they're starting to run their own challenges and contests, and so that's really exciting to see. I think we're all kind of watching that to see what sort of activities the players are getting up to.

Kurlancheek: Yeah, and how we can sort of build tools to support whatever that sort of shenanigans of being, right? A Trial of Style kind of thing. What do players need to be able to do that? What sort of functionality makes sense to better enable that?

Giannullis: I remember talking about how many people you can even have in your house at a time, and it was something that we were working really hard to make sure we could get that to a good place because we know people want to have parties, they want to do all these different things and we're trying to make sure that what we're building is supporting that and can handle that.

Is there a limit to how many people can come into your house at a time?

Kurlancheek: There is, there is. We're still figuring out where the line is. We do our stress testing and throw a ton of bots into a very decorated house. What happens? In the neighborhoods, regardless of what the solution or whatever the number is there, everybody who lives in the neighborhood can come into the neighborhood. So, if there's 55 players and the max number of players is 100, say, then we reserve those 55 lots or 55 places for people that live there. So, you can always come into your house.

So I know we can decorate the exteriors of our houses. Is there any thought to stuff like, okay, my guild has our neighborhood together. We can collectively decorate the parts of the outside that are not attached to a house. Can we build a little community center?

Kurlancheek: Yes. The idea of us building together is super compelling, I think. As soon as players can build something themselves, we want to build things together. And so, what that ends up being depends on what people are trying to do or what is interesting for them. If it is just us coming together in the town square and hanging up balloons or whatever, because we're having a birthday party, what does that look like? Versus we want to build a racetrack for our mounts around the outside of a town and what does that look like? Versus we want to do prop hunts and dueling things and all of these different potential pieces of stuff. What's juicy?

It feels really wild to talk about it. It feels like we're almost discussing a completely different game than WoW, like a game within a game. I could very easily just do this all the time and then my raid team would wonder why I'm not there.

Kurlancheek: That's an actual problem, by the way, that there are people that are finding housing really compelling and be like, "I don't know if I can make it to a raid tonight. I'm busy with my house."

I don't know that that's a problem you even need to solve, but you were talking about having creators that just want to do housing. And I don't know, has that changed the team's perspective on how they approach this? Has that changed the perspective of the holistic design of the game?

Giannullis: I think we've already always started wanting to make sure that we were kind of in it for the long haul. This is a feature that we know is going to live in the game for some time to come, and we're going to be adding more to it with every, not just every patch, but in future expansions and we want to keep growing it. And so, when you say like, "Oh, well what about all these things we got?" It's like, yeah, over time, yeah, let's do it. Tell us what you want and let's see what we can do.

This is how we eventually get the dance hall. This is the way.

Kurlancheek:

Oh, dance hall is, that's a real low hanging fruit. People are going to toss that together right quick.

I'm sure they already have.

What is the biggest piece of feedback you're seeing from players right now and what do you plan to do to address it?

Kurlancheek: I'm going to reframe that to critical feedback because the biggest piece of feedback is just, "We want, give us more decor, give us more features, give us more of this, that and the other thing." I think one of the things that gets talked about most frequently is outdoor decor limits are too low. People want to be able to build more stuff outside their house. We're trying. We're going to see where things land and sort of, we want players to be as creative as they want to be. And placing restrictions on folks is never the goal in any of our sort of guiding principles.

Giannullis: I know a lot of players are giving feedback about bits and pieces of the UI and the UX for the actual act of decorating, and there's not a strong one. There's a lot of things and things that we know will help players decorate. I think we're just trying to keep all of those in mind. We're keeping accessibility in mind a lot as well. We know that there's some things that might work for one player but not another. So, we're just keeping in our eyes open to what we're seeing and trying to make sure that's all stuff that we'll be able to address in the future.

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

Black Friday has given way to Cyber Monday, extending gaming and tech deals another day - and Nintendo Switch owners could be in for a treat. That’s because of big discounts on first-party and third-party games for Nintendo's hybrid system, including a Mario and Rabbids double pack for under $15, Just Dance 2026 Edition for 50% off, and even a third off of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.

Check Out The Best Switch Games On Sale For Cyber Monday

Other deals on first-party Nintendo Switch games include a 34% off digital download code for Luigi’s Mansion 3, bringing the spooky, goo-filled adventure down to $39.99. And Mario Party Superstars, a sort of greatest hits of the series’ best minigames, is down to $51.95 at Amazon, while Walmart is selling Splatoon 3 for $30 – that's an almost 50% discount.

HP just unloaded an excellent Cyber Monday deal on one of the most powerful gaming laptops currently available. The OMEN MAX 16 RTX 5080 gaming laptop starts at just $1,799.99 with free shipping after a $1,400 off instant discount and $100 off code "GOBBLE100". This is one of few RTX 5080 equipped laptops I've seen so far priced under $2,000. The RTX 5080 is an absolute monster of a mobile GPU that surpasses the previous generation's top performer, the RTX 4090.

OMEN MAX 16 RTX 5080 Gaming Laptop for $1,799.99

Remember the 2004 The Punisher film? Yeah, these days, that version of the popular character has mostly been relegated to the sidelines since Jon Bernthal took over in 2016. But it turns out the actor who played Frank Castle in the film, Thomas Jane, doesn’t even think he should’ve played the character in the first place.

"I was miscast as Frank Castle," he recently told ComicBookMovie.com. "Frank Castle is an Italian, he's got black hair, he's got a whole different sort of lineage that was born out of [being] the antithesis of the mob in the '70s. I'm not that guy. I had to dye my hair black. I had to become a different guy. I'm happy the part is played by somebody who is more right for that role. I had fun, I did the best I could with it, and I'm very grateful for it, but I'm not that guy."

Jane’s time as the Punisher saw him going up against Howard Saint, played by John Travolta. Their movie garnered a painful 30% on Rotten Tomatoes and only grossed about $54 million on a $33 million budget. IGN's The Punisher review returned a 3/10.

The actor did not reprise his role for the 2008 sequel Punisher: War Zone — duties were passed to Ray Stevenson — but he did return as Punisher for the 2005 PS2 game The Punisher.

Jon Bernthal took over the character in 2016 when he appeared in the second season of Netflix’s short-lived series Daredevil, Bernthal later went on to play Frank Castle in a spinoff series titled simply The Punisher from 2017 to 2019. He also reprised the role in the 2025 Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again.

Cyber Monday is your last chance to secure the best offers of the year before the holidays. If you're on the hunt for some last minute deals, we're actively rounding up the strongest Cyber Monday discounts, and you can all our top picks and price drops in IGN's comprehensive Cyber Monday hub.

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

Cyber Monday has officially landed, and with it a stellar price drop on God of War Ragnarök for PS5. Ragnarök, which is a 10/10 masterpiece by IGN's reckoning, is just $19.99 at Best Buy and Target, a whopping $50 discount from its original list price of $69.99 and one of the best Cyber Monday deals we've seen so far.

God of War Ragnarök (PS5) for $20

Prospective VR gamers, there's no better time to immerse yourself in real next-gen gaming. The best Cyber Monday deal on the popular Meta Quest 3S VR headset has been carried over from Black Friday, which means you have one more day to get in on this deal before it potentially expires at midnight.

Amazon has discounted the Meta Quest 3S 128GB model to $249.99 (normally $300) and is also throwing in a bonus $50 Amazon credit with purchase. That's basically getting a Quest 3S headset for $199. You also get the game Gorilla Tag for free.

Best Buy is offering similar Meta Quest 3S deals to Amazon, but with a $50 Best Buy gift card. The 128GB model also comes with The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners instead of Gorilla Tag. The 256GB model is down to $329.99 (was $400), also includes a $50 Best Buy gift card, and comes with the Batman: Akrham Shadow.

Meta Quest 3S Starting at $249.99 Plus $50 Amazon Credit

Uncut Gems may be the most hectic, viscerally discomforting, anxiety-inducing theater experience of my life. Adam Sandler’s Howard Ratner managed to make wrong decisions faster than I could realize there was even a bad decision to be made. In the process, he became one of the most captivating protagonists of 2010’s cinema. Uncut Gems is an absolute masterpiece, and I’m excited to report that Marty Supreme - which stars Timothée Chalamet and comes from Josh Safdie, one half of the Uncut Gems Safdie brothers directing duo - shares much of the same DNA of that film.

If you’re looking for the spiritual sequel, the Casino to Uncut Gem’s Goodfellas, you’ll probably find it in a ping pong savant played by Timothee Chalamet.

A Quick Overview of Marty Supreme’s Plot

The film follows Marty Mauser, a persuasive shoe salesman stuck working for his uncle who thinks table tennis could be his way out of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Marty’s unassailable self-confidence will obviously be put to the test when it comes to ping pong. But the film’s true impact — its most memorable moments — come from testing Marty’s confidence away from the table, as he’s forced to scheme, hustle, and charm his way into competitions. A lot happens in between all the ping pong. But it happens fast. A lot of the time, it comes out of nowhere. And you don’t want to know about it going in. If you like movies like The Color of Money and Catch Me if You Can, good. Josh Safdie, who in addition to directing, co-wrote with Ronald Bronstein, pulls familiar elements from those films as well as Uncut Gems to paint a portrait of ambition under pressure that is genuinely fun to watch, but doesn’t lose that cinematic brand of stress the filmmaker has become known for.

Marty Supreme is a film that’s doing great work on all fronts, but it starts with Timothée Chalamet, who is a clear contender for all of this year’s best actor awards.

Timothée Chalamet Could Win Best Actor

Chalamet is completely mesmerizing as Marty Mauser. The character’s tendency to use his razor-sharp wit to talk his way out of corners isn’t dissimilar to Uncut Gem’s Howard Ratner. Both are insanely confident and driven to win, and both can be described as narcissistic, exploitative, and manipulative.

Where Howard’s frequent bad decisions drive Uncut Gems’ plot forward at the cost of the audience’s empathy, Marty is a much more sympathetic character. He may not always make the righteous decision, but he does it with an affability reminiscent of Paul Newman or Robert Redford in a ’70s crime movie.

There’s a moment early in the film where the press is interviewing Marty about his opponent in an upcoming match and, when he says, “I’ll do to him what Auschwitz didn’t.” There was a huge gasp in the theater when I saw the film, followed up quickly by, “It’s okay if I say it. I’m Jewish,” which got a big laugh.

That kind of outrageous claim is part of Marty’s charm and is also a testament to Chalamet’s on-screen charisma. It takes a lot of confidence to pull off a line like that, and it isn’t the only time Marty drops that kind of conversational bomb in the film.

But this is a Josh Safdie movie, and his films’ vibes are not those of a George Roy Hill movie. With Marty Mauser, Chalamet puts his own stamp on that Safdie brand of overwhelming turbulence by combining the hectic intensity Al Pacino brought to roles like Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon with the charisma Paul Newman brought to Gondorff, his Depression-era grifter in The Sting. When he needs to talk his way out of a situation, he’s pure Pacino. When he needs to talk his way into something, he’s all Newman. But the best writing and acting in Marty Supreme comes in the scenes where Chalamet code-switches from Pacino to Newman mid-scene.

The Supporting Cast Does More Than Just Support

But as incredible as Chalamet is, he’s also bolstered by a very talented supporting cast.

We're at the end of the seemingly endless saga that is Black Friday season. The Crunchyroll Store has been having sales all month long, discounting its spread of DVDs, figures, and anime merch. However, for Cyber Monday, the service is also offering an incredibly rare deal on what I think most people actually use it for: anime streaming. Until tonight, you can get $20 off annual Mega Fan subscriptions, which already offer some savings over the monthly price.

Get $20 Off 12 Months of Mega Fan Crunchyroll for Cyber Monday

Warning: This article contains spoilers for IT: Welcome to Derry Episodes 1-6!

Fans of Stephen King’s novels will know that these tales of small-town terror and tortured souls aren’t simply standalone stories. They’re all part of a larger storytelling multiverse, and crossovers can and do frequently happen. That’s certainly true for IT: Welcome to Derry – not only is this series a prequel to the It movies, it also includes nods to other King characters and storylines.

With the first six episodes having premiered on HBO Max, we figured now is a great time to break down the key Stephen King easter eggs in Welcome to Derry and explore how the series is taking advantage of the King multiverse. Keep checking back, as we’ll update this piece as more episodes air.

What Is Bill Skarsgård’s Villain Pennywise?

With Welcome to Derry taking place 27 years before the events of 2017’s It, it should come as no surprise that there aren’t many returning actors for this prequel. In fact, the only confirmed veteran of the series is Bill Skarsgård, who is once again playing the demonic, shapeshifting villain, It (whose favorite form is Pennywise the Dancing Clown). We don’t actually see Skarsgård's Pennywise until Episode 5, but the character’s nefarious influence is certainly felt throughout the season. If there’s any takeaway from the series, it’s that Derry was a cursed place long before the Losers Club clashed with Pennywise for the first time.

With Pennywise being such an important part of the series, it’s worth taking a step back to explore what exactly this character is and how he fits into King’s monster multiverse. The It novel establishes that It is an alien entity created in the void outside the universe. It eventually crashed on Earth via an asteroid millions of years ago, at which point it took up residence in the area that would become Derry, Maine. We see this origin story play out during Episode 4's flashback sequence.

Ever since people began to settle in Derry, It has shown a pattern of emerging for a year or two to seek victims and feast on their fear; it is essentially a psychic vampire. After gorging itself, It then goes into hibernation for 27 years before reawakening and starting the cycle all over again. It tends to target children because their fears are more primal and easier to exploit.

It/Pennywise is easily one of the most terrifying creatures in King’s massive library, but it’s not necessarily unique. King’s Dark Tower novels establish that the multiverse was once bathed in a mystical energy source called the Prim. When the Prim receded like an ocean tide, it left behind a great many supernatural creatures embedded in the worlds of creation; Pennywise is just one of many of those monsters. One of the Dark Tower books even introduces a cousin of sorts – a similar psychic vampire who feeds on laughter rather than fear.

The Hanlon Family

Welcome to Derry may not feature many returning characters, but it does feature one family that should be very familiar to fans of the films. The first episode introduces Jovan Adepo’s Leroy Hanlon; Leroy is the grandfather of Mike Hanlon, who was played in the films as a child by Chosen Jacobs and as an adult by Isaiah Mustafa.

Welcome to Derry shows us how the Hanlon family first came to settle in Derry in 1962. Leroy is a decorated and well-respected Air Force major who is recruited by General Shaw (James Remar) to work on a top-secret program. Little by little, Leroy is becoming exposed to the darkness lurking beneath the idyllic facade of Derry and the racism still rampant in the ranks of the military. In Episode 2, Leroy learns that Shaw is working to harness a weapon that can instill absolute fear in America's enemies. Apparently, Shaw wants to weaponize It.

Episode 2 introduces Taylour Paige as Leroy’s wife, Charlotte, and Blake Cameron James as his son, Will, neither of whom seem particularly enamored with their new home. But however bad things get this season, it’s not going to drive this family out of Derry.

The Shining’s Dick Hallorann

Welcome to Derry is going to draw on more than just the It movies and novel; that much has been apparent ever since an earlier trailer included a shot of a Shawshank Prison bus. But in what is easily the most significant King easter egg so far, the series’ cast includes a major character from The Shining: Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk).

Fans of The Shining and its sequel, Doctor Sleep, will remember that Dick is the head chef at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. Because he has the psychic aptitude known as “the shine,” Dick is more sensitive than most to the many ghosts haunting the Overlook’s halls. Dick becomes rightfully concerned when he senses that young Danny Torrance, the son of winter caretaker Jack Torrance, shines especially brightly, and is therefore a ripe target for those ghosts. Eventually, Dick is forced to brave the harsh Colorado winter in order to rescue Danny and his mother from the hotel’s wrath.

Welcome to Derry takes place nearly two decades before The Shining; at this stage, Dick is serving on the same Derry air force base as Leroy Hanlon. We only catch a brief glimpse of Dick in Episode 1, but he seems intently interested in Leroy, as if he can sense something is supernaturally amiss with the major.

Episode 2 provides more context for Dick's presence in Derry and his interest in Leroy. Dick is using his psychic abilities to help the Air Force dig up and harness the slumbering It. Dick seems to sense that Leroy is special in his own way. A bullet to his brain has robbed Leroy of the ability to feel fear, which may make him the only person capable of standing up to It. And by Episode 4, Leroy is starting to come to terms with the fact that Dick truly does have supernatural abilities.

We fully expect Dick to play a central role in battling It in this series. Just as at the Overlook, Dick’s powers will make him more aware than most adults of the danger lurking underneath the town. It may even target Dick specifically, hoping to draw extra sustenance from his psychic abilities, much like the vampires in Doctor Sleep.

That's basically what happens in Episode 5, when It singles out Dick in the sewers and preys on his fear of his late grandfather. As established in Doctor Sleep, Dick had a loving relationship with his grandmother, who shared his shine ability, but he lived in constant terror of his "Black Grandpa," a monstrously cruel and vindictive man. Dick developed a technique of shutting away his fears inside metaphysical lockboxes in his mind. Here, Dick is forced by the spectre of Black Grandpa to open his lockbox, freeing all the ghosts that had been trapped away and causing Dick to once again see dead people.

Click here to learn more about Episode 5 connects to Doctor Sleep.

The Shining's Calumet Baking Powder

Episode 2 incldues another fun The Shining Easter egg, as we see a stack of Calumet Baking Powder cans in the grocery store, all displaying that iconic logo of an Indian chief. These cans were also seen in Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of The Shining, part of the Overlook Hotel's extensive larder.

The exact significance of the cans and the Indian logo has been the source of much debate over the years, with some arguing (like in the documentary Room 237) that Kubrick was trying to include subtle commentary about American imperialism and the genocide of Native Americans. The Indian chief image may also speak to the ancient history of the supernatural terrors in this world. Again, It has been in Derry for a very long time.

Juniper Hill Asylum

Episode 2 also introduces another iconic King landmark in Juniper Hill Asylum. We learn that Susie (Matilda Legault) was previously committed there after the death of her father, and she's forced to return at the end of the episode after suffering through another of It's terrifying hallucinations. That means we'll surely see inside its dark halls as the season unfolds.

Juniper Hill appears in the original IT novel as well as numerous other King works, from Insomnia to Needful Things to The Dark Half. It's a place every bit as twisted as you'd expect from a mental institution in Stephen King's multiverse.

Shawshank State Prison

Alongside Juniper Hill, the series is also introducing another very recognizable facility in the form of Shawshank State Prison. The wrongfully imprisoned Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) looks doomed to be imprisoned there, even as Charlotte fights to clear his name.

Shawshank was most famously featured in King's 1982 novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," which was later adapted into the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption. Both versions of the story follow the pliught of Andy Dufresne, a man imprisoned for decades at the hellish prison after being convicted of murdering his wife. Shashank was also heavily featured in Castle Rock, another series notable for bringing together pieces of the King multiverse.

Project Arrowhead

Episode 4 features a quick shot of a building called the Arrowhead Motel. This may be a reference to the Arrowhead Project, a top-secret government program referenced in King books like The Mist. There, the Arrowhead Project is aimed at creating an interdimensional window allowing the military to peer into other realities. Obviously, General Shaw and his men have a very different goal in mind in Welcome to Derry, but the general theme of the military tampering with otherworldly forces remains in play.

The Real Mrs. Kersh

In Episode 5 we learn a lot more about Madeline Stowe's character, Ingrid Kersh, including that she's the secret lover of Stephen Rider's Hank Grogan. The simple fact that her last name is Kersh is definitely intriguing. That's the name of the old woman who lives in Bev's childhood home in IT: Chapter Two. That woman turns out to be nothing more than another manifestation of It. But it would seem that, at one point, she was a real person, and she did her best to help the children affected by It's evil.

At least, that's what we thought until Episode 6. Now it seems that Ingrid has some real demons of her own. We learn that It's Pennywise form was inspired by her own father's clown persona, and now Ingrid is actively feeding It innocent children as a means of achieving some sort of twisted family reunion.

Salem's Lot

Episode 6 contains a pair of slim but intriguing references to King's iconic vampire novel Salem's Lot. The first is that Mrs. Kersh's and her father Bob apparently vacationed in Cumberland County, the area where the doomed town of Jerusalem's Lot is located. The other comes when the lynch mob references "the Boone brothers," two characters at the center of the 1978 short story "Jerusalem's Lot."

The Importance of the Turtle

Welcome to Derry’s first episode includes another important, albeit more subtle, easter egg in the form of a charm on Susie’s bracelet – a turtle, a creature with deep significance in King lore. We see another turtle reference in Episode 4, when the Indian tribe buries one of the pieces of the meteorite inside a turtle shell.

Getting back to It’s cosmic origins, this demon was created at the same time as a benevolent turtle entity; the Turtle is It’s polar opposite and a sign of strength to the members of the Losers Club. The Turtle is also one of the 12 animals featured in the Dark Tower books who guard “The Beams,” invisible energy forces that lead directly to the titular tower at the center of existence.

We’d expect to see multiple turtle references in this series, all meant to serve as reminders that there are other forces at work in Derry beyond It/Pennywise…and not all of them are so sinister.

The 12 Pillars

Episode 4 reveals a lot about the history of It in Derry and how this demonic entity was clashing with the local Native American tribe long before white settlers came to the area. We even learn that the tribe has a legend about the heroic warrior who imprisoned It centuries ago. According to the story, the tribe buried 13 pieces of the meteorite that originally carried It to Earth. 12 of these pieces form a ring around It's woodland territory, while the 13th is located at the center of the ring. As long as that circle remains unbroken, It's evil is contained to the Derry area.

This circular structure is almost definitely meant to be a reference to King's Dark Tower novels. In Mid-World, the place where heroic gunslinger Roland Deschain carries out his long quest to find the titular tower, there are 12 portals forming a great ring around the planet. The beams mentioned above start at these portals and move inward, converging on the Dark Tower in the center. Each of the 12 portals is protected by a Guardian of the Beam, like Maturin the Turtle and Shardik the Bear. It's prison is clearly mimicking the structure of the Dark Tower itself.

We probably won't see any more overt references to the Dark Tower books than this, as Warner Bros. doesn't hold the rights to those stories. Instead, The Haunting of Hill House's Mike Flanagan is currently developing a Dark Tower TV series for Amazon. Still, it's a fun nod for hardcore King fans.

The Second Hand Rose

Episode 2 establishes a key throwback to 2019's IT: Chapter Two with the scene at the Second Hand Rose thrift shop. In the movie, that shop is run by Stephen King's character (that same character cameos as a younger man here), and it's where Bill Denbrough buys his beloved Schwinn bicycle. Back in 1962, it's where Leroy purchases a telescope for his son Will.

Like the turtle, the rose is an image with special significance in King's work, and it also ties back to the Dark Tower books and their central protagonist, Roland Deschain. The rose is a symbol of goodness and purity, though we definitely get a slightly creepy vibe from the shop in this series. If anything, we can't help but be reminded of Needful Things and its infamous shop of horrors.

On the other hand, the shop's current owner, Kimberly Norris Guerrero's Rose, has become a major focus of the series, and she seems to be one of the few genuinely good people in Derry. We'll see if Rose survives the entire season.

For more on IT: Welcome to Derry, check out our review of the series premiere and see director Andy Muschietti break down the shocking ending to Episode 1.

Note: This article was originally published on 10/27/2025 and updated on 12/1/2025 with the latest information about IT: Welcome to Derry.

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

‘Rage bait’ is the Oxford English Dictionary publisher’s Word of the Year for 2025.

Oxford University Press analysis showed use of the phrase has tripled in the past 12 months. After 'brain rot' took home the 2024 crown, Oxford University Press' 2025 shortlist included three contenders — ‘rage bait,’ ‘aura farming,’ and ‘biohack.’

According to Oxford University Press, rage bait is defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.”

Depending on who you talk to, beat ‘em ups are either repetitive, button-mashy coin munchers or a deceptively simple vehicle for absolute combat mastery. Me? I’m in the latter camp. But how do you get people who aren’t sickos like myself interested? How do you lure them into taking the first steps down Sicko Road? This year’s Absolum tried by merging a mechanically excellent beat ‘em up with a middling roguelite. Marvel Cosmic Invasion developer Tribute Games – the cats behind Shredder’s Revenge, the best TMNT game since Turtles in Time– takes a different approach. It looks to the Marvel vs. Capcom fighting games of old and asks one of the boldest questions I’ve seen a beat ‘em up pose in a New York minute: what if it was a tag game where you controlled multiple heroes? The answer, as it turns it, rules, even if the actual execution of Cosmic Invasion doesn’t quite live up to that concept.

I’ll be real with y’all; I’m not a Marvel guy. My dad’s into comics, and he got me into them, but DC was always his bag (he owns every Wonder Woman comic ever published, and no, that’s not an exaggeration), so I’m a DC kid at heart with a soft spot for indie comics. But I love the weirder parts of Marvel, especially the million conflicting X-men timelines and the cosmic stuff. It’s not the most popular thing Marvel publishes (that is and always will be Spider-Man, though X-men is no slouch), but it’s the most interesting. Give me that over the MCU stuff any day.

If the title didn’t give it away, that’s what Marvel Cosmic Invasion is about. The story here is real simple, almost like it has been ripped straight from the pages of a multi-issue event series. Big Bad Annihilus’s Annihilation Wave (listen, it’s comic books, okay?) is sweeping the galaxy! All life hangs in the balance! So it’s up to a rag-tag assortment of Marvel heroes, whether Earthborn or cosmic in origin, to bring him down. That’s all you gotta know. And you know what? It works.

A lot of it comes down to the team of 15 heroes that Tribute Games has assembled. Yeah, you’ve got the icons, the regulars who absolutely, positively accept-no-substitutes gotta be there. You know the ones: Storm, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain America. Then you’ve got cats that were B-listers before the movies elevated them to prominence: Black Panther, Iron Man, Rocket Raccoon, She-Hulk, Nova, Phoenix, Venom. And then there are the weird and wacky inclusions. Thor isn’t here; instead, you get Beta Ray Bill. Real ones know. How do you feel about Cosmic Ghost Rider? Then there’s my girl Phyla-Vell. Oh, and because this is cosmic Marvel, the Silver Surfer is also here, and he is caked up. To the Silver Surfer degenerate at Tribute Games: I see you, and I appreciate you.

But the reality is that everyone here looks stunning because the pixel art spritework is absolutely gorgeous. Whether it’s Phyla-Vell’s hair blowing gently in the wind, how Wolverine always looks like a coiled spring, or the subtle transformations that sometimes reveal Eddie Brock beneath the symbiote as Venom, Cosmic Invasion captures the essence of these characters, right down to their voices. Go ahead and watch one the videos on this page, tell me that doesn’t sound exactly like the way Wolverine or Storm or Iron Man sound in your head. True believers, the vibe is immaculate.

Structurally, Cosmic Invasion is a pretty standard beat ‘em up. Not counting the tutorial, there are 15 stages, including old Marvel standbys like New York City, Wakanda, the Savage Land, and Genosha, as well as more exotic environs like Fort Galactus, each with a fun little sub-description (Genosha’s is Heavy Metal; the Savage Land’s is Rumble in the Jungle). Stage selection is mostly a straight line, but occasionally the path will split before reconverging and you’ll have to complete both branches before moving on.

Levels themselves are good but unremarkable beat ‘em up fare with the occasional environmental hazard. There is a collectible to find to liven things up, as well as three challenges in each stage – two are hero specific, such as defeating a certain number of enemies with a certain character’s special attack, while the final one is related to the stage itself. All of this is good: the challenges encourage you to use new characters and learn the intricacies of each arena, and stages are well-designed, snappy (each one takes around 10-15 minutes), and visually distinct in cool ways – you’d never mistake Savage Lands for Klyntar or Genosha – but nothing here is going to redefine your expectations for what a beat ‘em up can be.

What makes Cosmic Invasion special is its characters. Up to four people can play Cosmic Invasion at once, each controlling two characters, and it’s impressive how different each character is, even if they might not feel that way at first. Take Nova and Iron Man; sure, both of their unique attacks are ranged energy blasts, but Nova’s can pass through and hit multiple targets at once. Iron Man’s don’t. Nova’s special attack is an energy field that only hits foes at close range, while Iron Man’s giant, Marvel vs. Capcom 2-esque laser can hit anyone standing anywhere on-screen, but it does require you to line up your enemies and aim well.

Meanwhile, Rocket is a ranged powerhouse, but his charged heavy attack does massive damage, while Phyla-Vell’s, who is more melee focused, can stun – and no one else has anything like her sword, which she can throw and then teleport to in order to start combos and then keep them going across the screen. Beta Ray Bill and Cap can both throw their weapons, too, but Cap’s shield returns to him automatically; Bill’s will spin in place, potentially juggling anyone unlucky enough to come into contact with it until you manually call it back. Even She-Hulk and Wolverine, both up-close-and-personal bruisers, play differently. Logan is faster and all about chaining long stabby-stab combos together, while Jen is a powerhouse who focuses on short combos that launch her victims into the air for potential follow-ups. They both have grabs, but they operate in very different ways.

Some characters have dodges, while others can block and parry if they time things right, opening up more defensive options. Characters that fly have a much easier time dealing with winged foes than those who don’t, and it’s easier for them to avoid stampedes. Everyone is a little different, and that can have a massive impact on how they play.

What’s really cool, though, are the tag team elements. You only actively control one character at a time, and you can summon your tag partner for various assists to keep laying on the hurt, opening up cool new offensive possibilities – that could be a launcher, a standard combo, their unique ability, their metered “I want these guys dead” special attack, and so on. Figuring out the best combinations and how movesets interact is a lot of fun, especially since you don’t start with everyone unlocked. It’s possible to lose a character mid-level (they have separate health bars), but even then, all isn’t lost. You continue on with your remaining hero, and if you stumble upon some floor food, a time-honored beat ‘em up tradition, they’ll come back with a little health.

Characters also level up as you use them, gaining more health, passive abilities, and so on, encouraging you to experiment, especially in co-op. I played the whole game with my wife (a single run through the campaign took three hours), and while I think Cosmic Invasion is a good time solo, like basically every beat ‘em up, it’s better with friends.

If this beat ‘em up has any black eyes, it’s the lack of enemy variety. You’ll see the same core cast of baddies a lot in Cosmic Invasion, and while that’s not a huge problem (this happens in most beat ‘em ups), it can get a little old. It’s also hilariously obvious when you’re fighting a boss that will become a playable character later on because it feels like you’re fighting someone you’ll be able to play later. It can lead to some really funny moments, like when we were fighting the Silver Surfer on an elevator and kept knocking him into the abyss. Eventually, he’d levitate back up to us for more, only to get knocked down again. It wasn’t bad, but it was as goofy as Rob Liefeld-drawn feet or pouches.

If you get bored of beating on Annihilus’s minions, you can head to the Vault, where you can see each hero’s progress in the Hero Lab, learn about their history and the history of your foes in the Nova Corps Files, and listen to some of Cosmic Invasion’s excellent tracks. You can also spend Cosmic Cubes you earn to unlock nodes in the Cosmic Matrix for more color palettes, hero profiles, tunes, and Nova Corps Files. It’s a cool little system, and it even doubles as a neat way to make art if you unlock the right nodes in a way that forms a pattern. I made an adorable little bug, and I’ll miss him when I fill everything out and he’s gone.

The release of the new KPop Demon Hunters digital art book that accompanies the hit Netflix film has opened fans eyes to some crucial lore that was once just speculation — but now has become canon thanks to the streamer releasing this inside look at the animated musical.

Warning! Spoilers for KPop Demon Hunters follow:

In the new book titled The Art of KPop Demon Hunters, the nature of Rumi’s mother’s fate is confirmed. A passage early in the book explains that Rumi, the lead vocalist of HUNTR/X, had her life "ripped open when her warrior mother was killed, at a time when Rumi was just a baby." As a result, HUNTR/X brought family and comfort back to her life after such a devastating loss.

How did she die? Well, some early concept art for the film was shared by Kpop Demon Hunters artist Simon Baek via social media back in June, including one enlightening piece in particular. One image of many the artist shared details an early version of the scene where Rumi confronts Celine, the guiding force behind HUNTR/X and her mother’s closest confidant before she died. This happens shortly after Rumi’s demon markings are forcibly revealed to the world for the first time — and in this version of the scene, she even goes as far as to ask Celine, “Why did you kill my mother?”

So, yes, putting those two bits of confirmation together, seemingly means what you think it means. Celine, the former idol who was Rumi’s mother’s greatest ally, appears to be the one who killed her. It’s tragic to think about — especially considering fans had already been speculating that Rumi’s mother was killed. But even worse, Baek previously revealed that Rumi’s mom was killed by accident.

While there are tons of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on just about every product imaginable, if you’ve got a person in your life who is hard to shop for, a gift card will likely end up being your best option for the holidays. Who doesn’t love getting free money to spend at their favorite restaurants and stores, or even for use on online gaming sites, subscription services, or activities?

Well, GiftCards.com has an incredible Cyber Week sale happening right now. With it, you can score up to 15% off a huge selection of gift cards. Be sure to grab your cards now, as this deal only runs until December 7th, but some deals are expiring as early as Cyber Monday (tomorrow).

Score 15% off a Range of Gift Cards

10% Gift Card Deals

In addition to select 15% off deals, there are also tons of 10% off deals across gaming gift cards and beyond. Take a look:

How Do I Redeem These Deals?

To take advantage of this Cyber Monday sale, simply add the qualifying gift card to your cart. In the cart, you can select the relevant promo code, which should already be listed, and apply it before you check out. However, you can only use one promo code at a time. If you choose to purchase two gift cards that have the same promo code, the discount will be applied to both gift cards. However, gift cards with different promo codes must be purchased separately to get the discount. When buying an eGift, you also have the option to add a fun video or upload your own photos for a more personalized email gift message.

What is GiftCards.com?

GiftCards.com has been around since 2008. It’s an online marketplace offering a wide variety of digital and physical gift cards for hundreds of brands, ranging from travel and subscriptions to shopping and restaurants. You can also purchase pre-paid Visa and Mastercard gift cards from GiftCards.com. There’s even a rewards program you can join, which lets you earn 2% Reward Points on gift card purchases that can be redeemed later, similar to a credit card.

Danielle is a Tech freelance writer based in Los Angeles who spends her free time creating videos and geeking out over music history.

If you have a gaming PC or a PC gaming handheld, you'll want to check out this deal at Humble that ends today. Thanks to Cyber Monday, you can save a bunch of cash on a Humble Choice membership, which gets you a bundle of 8 PC games on each month. These bundles are usually worth over $200 each, but you pay only a fraction of that. And right now, you can save even more. There are two deals to choose from, depending on whether you want to pay for a month or for a year.

Humble Choice Deals

Those who are primarily interested in November's games (note: today is the last day to get them), enter promo code CYBER25 at checkout to get them at half price. That means you only pay $7.50 for 8 Steam games, including Total War Warhammer III, Etrian Odyssey HD, and more (see below for the full list).

For those who would like to sign up for a year's worth of Humble Choice, you can save $30 off by entering HOLIDAY25IGN at checkout, and you’ll knock the price down to $124.99.

So what does Humble Choice get you, exactly? The first Tuesday of each month, you’ll get a new curated selection of eight Steam games. These generally offer a healthy range in terms of genre, size, and scope, but there are always a few AAA games and a few indies in there. The games are yours to keep and play forever, regardless of whether you cancel your membership at some point down the road.

Humble Choice Games for November 2025

If you sign up now, the first bundle of games you'll get contains the following (blurbs from Humble's press release).

• Total War Warhammer III: A grand-scale strategy game where fantasy armies battle daemonic forces in the Realm of Chaos.
• Another Crab's Treasure: A Soulslike adventure where a hermit crab fights enemies using trash as makeshift shells.
• Pharaoh: A New Era: A 4K remake of the classic city-builder where you manage resources, appease gods, and build magnificent monuments in Ancient Egypt.
• Etrian Odyssey HD: A first-person dungeon crawler focused on creating a party and mapping a dangerous labyrinth.
• No More Heroes 3: A stylish hack-and-slash game where an assassin fights alien superheroes in over-the-top battles.
• Synergy: A sci-fi city-builder about building a sustainable human settlement on a harsh alien planet.
• Spin Hero: A roguelike RPG where combat and progression are determined by spinning a slot machine.
• Paleo Pines: A cozy farming sim where you run a ranch, explore an island, and befriend dinosaurs.

In addition to a monthly bundle of games, you get up to 20% off games on the Humble Store, including new releases. You also get access to a vault of games you can play for as long as you’re a member. And 5% of your membership goes to charity. The particular charity changes each month, but you can always read up on them.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

IO Interactive is busy working on James Bond video game 007 First Light, but it has said it also has plans to release Hitman 4.

In an interview with Variety, CEO Hakan Abrak said “of course there will be more Hitman.” But it may be some time before Hitman 4 comes out. Abrak said that any talk of a Hitman 4 announcement will have to wait until Hitman co-op arrives in World of Assassination, which continues to enjoy support via DLC from the studio.

“So of course there will be more Hitman,” Abrak said. “But right now, I think we need to get to the other side of this year and next year you’ll get more news about Hitman co-op, because I think co-op is a really, really good extension to the universe, and will introduce very interesting mechanics and combinations in World of Assassination. But we will, after that, be talking about the next Hitman — because, of course, there’s going to be a next Hitman.”

The Hitman franchise kicked off in 2000 with Hitman: Codename 47. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin followed in 2002. Hitman: Blood Money came out in 2006, and served as the third game in the original Hitman trilogy. Hitman: Absolution followed in 2012, before Hitman, which acted as the first installment of the World of Assassination trilogy, came out in 2016. Hitman 2 followed in 2018, then Hitman 3 in 2021.

IOI has three main productions right now: ongoing work on Hitman: World of Assassination, 007 First Light, and a new fantasy IP appropriately codenamed Project Fantasy. “It’s not announced yet, exactly what it is, but it’s a multiplayer fantasy project, which is extremely ambitious and really cool and is something else than a gun in a suit,” Abrak teased. “So that’s also good to have something new within the creative outlook here.”

Will Hitman 4 have to wait until all three projects are wrapped up? Abrak didn’t say, but you can see why the studio would want to return to the franchise with a brand new sequel: overall, Hitman has had more than 85 million players and over 25 million copies sold. Each more, more than a million people play Hitman, Abrak added.

As for 007 First Light, that’s due out March 27, 2026 (a release date that looks all the more lucrative now GTA 6 is delayed to November). In the shorter term, the latest Elusive Target arriving in Hitman World of Assassination is rap star Eminem, who recruits Agent 47 to take down his dangerous alter ego Slim Shady. The mission is live now for free on all platforms.

Cyber Monday is your last chance to secure the best offers of the year before the holidays. If you're on the hunt for some last minute deals, we're actively rounding up the strongest Cyber Monday discounts, and you can all our top picks and price drops in IGN's comprehensive Cyber Monday hub.

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