With the build-up to the next big Amazon Prime exclusive sale (Prime Big Deal Days, or October Prime Day, as it's better known) well underway, we're already starting to see some notable early discounts that you should absolutely consider snapping up ASAP.

That now includes a handful of new Nintendo Switch 2 games down to record low prices at Amazon, including Donkey Kong Bananza, down to $53.54 (previously $69.99). Other discounted games include Cyberpunk 2077, Mario Kart World, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Breath of the Wild, with the additional discount automatically applied during checkout.

So what's the catch? These are technically sold under Amazon Resale. Now hold your eye rolls, as we've seen deals like this before, and these discounts are some of the IGN Deals team's most anticipated offers going into the biggest sale period of the year.

Most of the games I'm recommending in the sale are classified as "Used - Like New," and sold directly by Amazon, so you're not losing anything, or buying a game that looks like it's been recently run over.

We've also already noted some PlayStation deals at Amazon Resale, with the PS Portal dropping to around $140 (but now sold out), and the DualSense Edge controller, also down to around $140 right now (also likely to sell out soon). In case you hadn't already realised, the main with kind of deals is stock tends to be extremely limited, so be fast to the trigger if you don't want the disappointment of missing out.

This is one of the best ways to buy into some of the most expensive new games available, and find rare discounts where you normally wouldn't (I'm looking at you, Nintendo). Plus, you still get the 30-day Amazon return policy, so it's still a much safer option than just buying a used game off some random on Facebook Marketplace.

Plus, if you're looking for more Switch 2 game deals, we also recently covered discounts on other games sold by Amazon this week (not resale either), including Split Fiction, Sonic x Shadow Generations, Madden NFL 26, and more.

Robert Anderson is Senior Commerce Editor and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.

Borderlands 4 developer Gearbox has said improving the performance of the game on PC is its “top priority,” with a patch due out today, September 18.

In a statement issued on social media, the developer said it was aware of the feedback from players on Borderlands 4 across PC and console, with patches coming to improve matters.

Meanwhile, Gearbox said a field of view (FOV) slider for consoles is in testing.

All eyes are on Gearbox right now to see how it deals with an internet backlash to the performance of Borderlands 4 — which has come despite huge player numbers on Steam. The studio released an update for the game on PC over the weekend — without patch notes — that didn’t seem to fix much of anything, so hopefully this new patch is meaningful.

Borderlands 4 is still on a mixed Steam review rating, with most of the negative comments revolving around performance. The tech experts at Digital Foundry have said their initial analysis of Borderlands 4 on PC shows significant stutter problems, and have advised against running the game on its ‘Badass’ graphics setting, which suggests there are indeed problems with the Unreal Engine 5 title.

Meanwhile, IGN has reported that console players have seen Borderlands 4 performance get worse the longer they play, particularly on the more powerful PS5 Pro. Some have said this is the result of a memory leak. Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford has suggested quitting and restarting the game as a workaround.

pic.twitter.com/nR8veTbStq

— Borderlands (@Borderlands) September 17, 2025

Gearbox has posted a Borderlands 4 Nvidia Optimization guide on Steam, advising players how to optimize their graphics settings for “better performance and framerates” on PC with the Nvidia app, although users report mixed results.

Gearbox has also issued a piece of advice to PC gamers that to me reads like an effort to prevent players from making knee-jerk reactions to the game's performance as soon as they’ve changed their settings: “Please note that any time you change any of your graphics settings, your shaders will need to recompile. Please keep playing for at least 15 minutes to see how your PC's performance has changed.”

Pitchford has hit the headlines for his determination to address player complaints about Borderlands 4 on social media this week. Since Borderlands 4’s huge Steam launch, the outspoken developer has issued confusing comments on why the console version of Borderlands 4 lacks a field of view (FOV) slider, promised that it would have been impossible to break the Borderlands 4 servers through sheer weight of player numbers alone, told people to “code your own engine and show us how it’s done, please,” and declared Borderlands 4 “a premium game made for premium gamers.” He's even started telling Borderlands 4 players to refund the game on Steam if they're that upset.

If you are delving into Borderlands 4, don't go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We've also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players' choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).

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.

Tencent has hit back at Sony's lawsuit that claimed upcoming game Light of Motiram was nothing more than a "slavish clone" of Horizon Zero Dawn — and highlighted concerns within the PlayStation maker that its own game was too similar to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

In a fresh response to Sony's legal action, Chinese tech giant Tencent branded the lawsuit as an "impermissible" attempt to claim ownership of "well-trodden" tropes — such as a red-headed heroine fighting robot dinosaurs — and a bid by Sony to gain a monopoly over an entire genre.

In addition, Tencent highlighted past comments made by Horizon Zero Dawn developer Jan-Bart Van Beek, where the art director admitted concerns within Guerrilla that its concept was too similar to Ninja Theory's 2013 game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West — another example of a red-headed heroine fighting robot beasts.

In a legal filing reported by The Game Post, Tencent described Sony's move as an overreach, and highlighted other game franchises with similar elements to Horizon Zero Dawn such as The Legend of Zelda and Far Cry. It was "startling," Tencent said, that Sony was now attempting to claim Horizon's concept was original, rather than an idea based on "ubiquitous genre ingredients."

"By suing over an unreleased project that merely employs the same time-honored tropes embraced by scores of other games released both before and after Horizon — like Enslaved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, Outer Wilds, Biomutant, and many more — Sony seeks an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions," Tencent wrote.

Sony's claim that Horizon was an original PlayStation concept was also "flatly contradicted" by remarks made in a behind-the-scenes documentary by Van Beek, Tencent stated, claiming that Guerrilla had briefly shelved work on Horizon Zero Dawn due to internal concerns it shared too many similarities with Enslaved.

"Long before this lawsuit was filed, the developers of Horizon Zero Dawn publicly acknowledged that the very same game elements that, today, Sony claims to own exclusively, were in fact borrowed from an earlier game," Tencent argued.

"Mr. Van Beek warned, 'I don’t think we should do this; it touches too much of these other points,' referring to prominent elements of Enslaved. Sony shelved the project — only to revive it later with full awareness that the idea was far from novel. When Horizon Zero Dawn finally launched in 2017, the gaming community noted its striking resemblance to Enslaved and other genre staples."

Tencent's rebuttal attempts to dismiss other elements of Sony's lawsuit, too, by stating that its work on Light of Motiram was unconnected to a failed pitch meeting with Sony for a Horizon spin-off. Tencent has also claimed that Sony's entire lawsuit is invalid because the company had named the wrong parts of Tencent in its initial complaint.

Still, while attempting to defend itself from Sony's legal action, it is notable that Tencent has also seemingly made adjustments to the work-in-progress Light of Motiram itself. A glance at the game's Steam page shows it has been scrubbed of screenshots and logos that depicted its redheaded star and those robot dinosaurs. The suggestion here is that Tencent plans to ultimately release Light of Motiram without the elements Sony has deemed most similar to Horizon. It'll be interesting to see how Sony responds to these apparent alterations when it issues its rebuttal.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Matt Reeves has explained his thinking behind which villain to go with for the hotly anticipated The Batman 2, teasing it’s “never really been done in a movie before.”

The Batman 2, which starts filming early next year, currently has a release date of October 1, 2027. If it makes that date, the sequel will arrive five-and-a-half years after The Batman. We know Robert Pattinson will reprise his role as the moody Caped Crusader, and Colin Farrell will once again play crime boss Penguin, although it sounds like it's a minor role.

But who will play the main villain this time around, and which character from Batman’s rogues' gallery has Reeves plucked from the comics to bring to live action?

In an interview with Josh Horowitz, Reeves kept his cards close to his chest, but did explain his thinking on the new villain, and issued a tease that has sparked all sorts of speculation among the fandom.

“I had a lot of ideas, and then Mattson Tomlin, who's my writing partner, we began the process of this by doing another deep dive into the comics, exploring the ideas that I had had,” Reeves began.

“He gave me some ideas that he had had. And we sat together and we watched a lot of movies, honestly, and not all movies that are from the realm of Gotham, just to explore where this story… because I knew that the way the movie ended it was leaving us on the precipice, and also the way events sort of happen within the show [The Penguin], that there is an exploration to be had. And one of the explorations for me was to do something that pushes even further into the character of Bruce Wayne, because the first story is so much about the Batman.

“Let’s say we get to make 3 — I have no idea — but if we get to make 3, I always wanted the movies to be focused on his character. Once you get past the origin tale, which we didn't quite do but we did something that referred to his origins, then you start telling the rogues' gallery story and that character's arc. And I never wanted to lose Rob at the center of these stories. And so that is really what we set our aim on.

“And so picking the right villain that digs into what that does, that goes into his past and his life, that was what drove that discussion. I won't tell you where we ended up, but we're super excited about it. And I will say it's never really been done in a movie before. So we're excited.”

Fans are coming up with all sorts of obscure Batman villains in response to Reeves’ comments, but it’s worth pointing out that he isn’t necessarily saying it’s a villain we’ve not seen in live-action form before, rather he may be making the point that we’ve never seen them realized in this way before. So, perhaps we’ll see a different take on Mr. Freeze, or Bane, or Poison Ivy, or Hugo Strange, or Scarecrow, or Two-Face. Will Barry Keoghan return as Joker in The Batman 2, after his cameo at the end of the first film? It really is hard to say at this stage.

Here’s what we do know: Cristin Milioti, who won an Emmy for her role as Sofia Falcone in The Penguin, is not in The Batman 2. “We were so far along in the story, it might upset the apple cart given where the story goes and what we’re exploring,” Reeves explained.

Clearly, it’s been quite the struggle for Reeves to get The Batman 2’s script into a place he was happy with. “It’s been a journey that is taking longer than I would’ve wanted for a lot of reasons, a lot of personal reasons,” Reeves recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “But [the] most important reason is getting it to a place where I just felt like it was the best script we could possibly write.”

Reeves also spoke about where the HBO spinoff series The Penguin stands in terms of Season 2. “We’re in discussions. [Showrunner] Lauren [Lefranc] is thinking hard and we’re talking, so we’ll see,” he told Variety. “We love the show, and we think our cast is so incredible. The work that Lauren and the writers did was incredible. Our passion was in it, but never in our wildest dreams could we imagine it would have been received in the way that it was.”

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.

A U.S. House committee has called on the CEOs of a number of online platforms to testify at Congress following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer asked the bosses of Discord, Steam, Twitch, and Reddit to testify at a hearing scheduled for October 8, citing the "radicalization of online forum users."

Kirk, an ally of President Trump, was fatally shot at a Utah university on Wednesday, September 10. His alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, 22, appeared to take responsibility for the shooting on Discord, a company spokesperson confirmed to the BBC.

Star Wars: Starfighter director Shawn Levy has shared a fresh production photo featuring the upcoming film's stars Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray, standing on some kind of sci-fi boat.

Gosling is pictured leaning against one set of controls, sporting tousled hair and a bruised cheek. He's dressed in a loose-fitting shirt that looks like it could have come from Harrison Ford's wardrobe, and thick gloves.

Gray's character sports a similar look, with scruffy clothes and gloves. The two certainly look the parts of uncle and nephew, though the finer details of who either actor is playing remain under wraps.

Put Jordan Peele’s name on the poster as a producer and you’re guaranteed butts in seats. However, Justin Tipping’s Him doesn’t have nearly the thematic ambition of the Peele-directed Nope and Get Out. The sports-centric thriller occasionally verges on horror territory, but it never tips over into the eerie (let alone the terrifying) despite numerous attempts. While it has a few fun visual flourishes, it’s a barely-competent movie, held together only by its lead performers who function less like MVPs and more like an injured athlete’s sports tape.

The film is at its most intriguing in its opening prologue, when tethered to reality, as it introduces legendary quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) and his fictitious team, the San Antonio Saviors. During a high-stakes game, White suffers a horrific injury as a young Cam Cade watches eagerly on TV, surrounded by Saviors merchandise. The boy’s military father points to White’s dangling leg and tells his son: “That’s what a real man looks like.” This no-pain-no-gain philosophy carries over into Cade’s adulthood, when he’s played by Tyriq Withers, as he rises to the rank of college prodigy. White, in the meantime, has not only recovered, but has become one of the most revered sportsmen of all time, setting up an impending rivalry between the young graduate and his hero.

As the prospect of Cade being drafted to the big leagues looms — which is to say, the notoriously litigious NFL, which is never mentioned by name — the film introduces a handful of strange, phantasmagorical happenings, like a rattling goalpost and an infinitely spinning ball. Cade, distracted by these oddities, is attacked one evening by a mascot figure, leaving him with scalp staples that resemble a football’s stitches. In spite of his injury and concussion (not to mention infinite pressure from the media), he perseveres, to the point that White handpicks him to train at his isolated ranch for a week-long bootcamp, even as rumors of Cade replacing the legend swirl.

It's here that the movie starts to break down. Cade’s arrival at White’s museum to himself reveals, at worst, an idiosyncratic celebrity ego. About two eerie things happen throughout the runtime, between a Saw-like scenario where Cade’s failures on an indoor field lead to a teammate gladly accepting physical punishment, and a White super-fan sneaking in to berate Cade for potentially replacing her idol. Everything in between smacks of half-baked conception. The hallways of White’s sprawling bunker are awash in shadow, but lurking in the darkness is only ever the occasional vision of a paparazzo, a likely outcome of Cade’s brain trauma.

As viewers, we’re left at an arm’s distance from Cade, so his visions aren’t so much dangerous as they are amusing, as they force anticipation for something more effective. The movie is filled with disconnected symbols of Christian and pagan significance, but apart from gestures towards the cult-like nature of American football fans, these don’t amount to much beyond fleeting texture. What’s most disturbing about Him is the actual football, which Tipping shoots like a visceral and uncomfortable display of aggression, emphasizing contact with disturbing “crunches” as he occasionally cuts to imaginative X-ray footage of what each hit does to the body and brain. However, despite Wayans’ pseudo-religious sermonizing, these hits never amount to much by way of Cade’s own sacrifice to be deemed worthy of the coveted “GOAT” (or “Greatest of All Time”) label.

The dangers of blinkered masculinity hover in the backdrop, as Wayans delivers a powerful performance as a kindly mentor overcome by the thrill of violence, and Withers searches for sure footing amidst a confusing scenario, to say the least. However, the movie’s themes are seldom expressed through anything more lucid than stray words and background symbols. Some dialogue gestures towards a playfully alluring homoeroticism, but the images are too bland to feature any kind of flavor (let alone something subtextually queer). The movie’s highlight may very well be Australian comedian Jim Jeffries in a small but creepy part as White’s health specialist, who injects Withers with a mystery fuel, but his role also ends up more lightly symbolic than tangibly meaningful.

Amazon is offering a great discount on one of the best budget headphones you can find. The JLab JBuds Lux Over-Ear Headphones drops to just $48.99 after a 40% off discount, but it offers a wealth of features that you'd typically find in a headphone that costs hundreds of dollars. Most importantly, sound quality is well above the standard for its price.

JLab JBuds Lux Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones for $49

If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further. Alienware has just dropped the price of its flagship Alienware Area-51 prebuilt gaming PC equipped with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card starting at $4,299.99 with free shipping. This is the lowest price I've seen for an Alienware 5090 gaming PC and is reasonably competitive compared to other boutique PC builders. The GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card is currently the most powerful GPU on the market, and by a wide margin.

Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Gaming PC From $4,299.99

The RTX 5090 Is the Most Powerful Graphics Card Ever

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 has emerged as the most powerful consumer GPU on the market. Although Nvidia has prioritized software updates, AI features, and DLSS 4 technology to improve gameplay performance, the 5090 still boasts an impressive 25%-30% uplift over the RTX 4090 in terms of pure hardware-based raster performance. The 5090 also has more (32GB vs. 24GB) and faster (GDDR7 vs. GDDR6) VRAM compared to the 4090.

Check out more of the best Alienware deals

Check out our Best Alienware Deals article with all of Dell's currently ongoing deals on gaming laptops and desktop PCs. Not everyone is the DIY type. If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, Dell is one of the best brands we'd recommend. Alienware desktops and laptops feature solid build quality, top-of-the-line gaming performance, excellent cooling (further improved on the newer models), aggressive styling, and pricing that is very competitive with other pre-built options. Best of all, there are plenty of sales that happen throughout the year, so it's not difficult to grab one of these computers at considerably less than their retail price.

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.

Meta held its annual Meta Connect event keynote today, hosted by Meta CEO and standard human Mark Zuckerberg. Included in its event were new smartglasses, including the new Meta Ray-Ban Display smartglasses that actually feature a built-in display, along with a pair of Oakley-branded “Meta Vanguard” smartglasses that wrap around your face and feature a dead-center camera.

The Ray-Ban Display features a heads-up-display embedded within the right-hand lens. The company teased them at the start of the presentation, seemingly livestreaming a video from Zuckerberg’s point of view as he walked to the event stage, with overlays showing things like his currently playing music and people sending text messages and images to him. Describing them later, he said they're the first smartglasses with a high-resolution display – they show images at 42 pixels per degree, a measure of pixel density in VR headsets – and that it's large enough to watch a video or read messages. Things like text messages will appear for a few seconds before disappearing, and you can look at pictures you've just taken with them. Naturally, they're AI-powered, so you can chat with Meta AI through them. They’re not full-on AR, so you won’t see the words on street signs morph or peoples’ names appear above their heads, Cyberpunk 2077-style, but they’re a step in that direction.

Fair warning: There is something deeply dangerous about opening up my deal pages with a full wallet and an empty weekend. Every time I tell myself I am just browsing, my cart ends up looking like a collector's backlog starter pack. Today's list is especially spicy, stacked with cult classics, fresh hits and a few games that gave me late night obsessions I still regret nothing about. End warning.

Contents

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

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm using a rolling Katamari that accidentally scooped up a campfire to light 16 candles on a cake for Katamari Forever, the PS3's wonderfully weird puzzler. At the time it felt like proof that video games didn't always need grit and guns to hook you in. Sometimes all you need is a booger sticky sphere and a bloody awesome soundtrack.

I remember firing this up and thinking it was basically a "best of" mixtape for the series, with old levels remixed, new cel-shaded flair, and the King of All Cosmos still being his gloriously unhinged self. The joy was still in the nonsense. One minute you're hoovering up erasers and pigeons, the next you're big enough to snatch skyscrapers. Timelessly entertaining stuff.

Aussie birthdays for notable games.

- Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee (PS) 1997. Redux

- Resident Evil 5 (PC) 2009. Get

- Katamari Forever (PS3) 2009. Sequel

- Crysis Remastered (PC,PS4,XO) 2020. Get

Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch

• Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 (-12%) - A$79 Two classic 3D Mario adventures bundled for Switch. Still worth it for fans of Galaxy's inventive platforming and gravity-defying levels. Nintendo magic never ages.
• Hades (-75%) - A$9.30 Superb roguelike dungeon crawler with addictive combat and Greek mythology flair. A steal at this price, especially if you enjoy replayable action games with style.
• Persona 5 Tactica (-71%) - A$27.80 Turn-based tactics spin-off from Atlus' beloved series. Vibrant visuals and quirky Persona flavour make this a fun detour from the usual RPG grind.
• BioShock: The Col. (-61%) - A$35 Three groundbreaking narrative shooters in one package. Explore Rapture and Columbia at their atmospheric best. A great way to experience the full saga.
• Ori and the Blind Forest: Def. (-75%) - A$7.40 Stunning hand-painted visuals and tight platforming. Ori’s first outing is equal parts emotional and challenging. A beautiful must-play indie.
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (-75%) - A$11.20 A refined sequel that builds on its predecessor with fluid movement and deeper combat. Gorgeous and heartfelt, one of the best metroidvanias around.

Expiring Recent Deals

• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (-25%) - A$59.90
• Super Mario RPG (-25%) - A$59.90
• Sonic Frontiers (-40%) - A$59.60
• Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (-34%) - A$46.30
• Civilization VII (-24%) - A$68

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

Back to top

Exciting Bargains for Xbox

• Hogwarts Legacy: Del. Ed. (-80%) - A$23.90 Open-world wizarding adventure packed with spells and secrets. The deluxe extras add flair, though the main draw is exploring Hogwarts and beyond.
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (-43%) - A$57.20 A tough but rewarding platformer that respects the series' roots while innovating. Expect challenging levels and cheeky marsupial antics.
• Tiny Tina's Wonderlands: Next-Level Ed. (-91%) - A$9.90 Borderlands-style looter shooter with a D&D fantasy twist. Over-the-top humour, chaotic combat, and lots of loot at a bargain.
• Doom Eternal (-27%) - A$39.90 Rip and tear through hordes of demons in id’s frenetic shooter. Fast-paced, heavy metal action that rewards aggression.
• EA Sports FC 24 (-88%) - A$12.90 Rebranded FIFA entry with the same addictive football gameplay. Huge roster of clubs and modes, great value for soccer fans.

Xbox One

• Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (-53%) - A$27 Retro-inspired platformer bundle including all expansions. Polished controls and charming pixel art make this a modern classic.
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 (-65%) - A$24.50 Faithful remakes of the iconic skateboarding sims. Nostalgia meets slick new visuals and gameplay refinements.
• Kingdom Hearts III (-79%) - A$20.60 Disney meets Final Fantasy in this flashy RPG conclusion. Big worlds, bigger keyblades, and plenty of heart.

Expiring Recent Deals

• 1TB Expansion Card (-30%) - A$215.60
• WWE 2K25 (-54%) - A$55
• EA Sports FC 25 (-26%) - A$29
• Dead Island 2 (-70%) - A$20.90
• Cyberpunk 2077 (-65%) - A$31.40

Or just invest in an Xbox Card.

Back to top

Pure Scores for PlayStation

• Star Wars Outlaws (-67%) - A$36 Open-world Star Wars adventure focusing on smugglers and scoundrels. A fresh angle on the galaxy far, far away.
• Borderlands 4 (-17%) - A$99 Chaotic looter shooter returns with more mayhem, bigger guns, and over-the-top humour.
• Dead Space (-78%) - A$24 Remake of the survival horror classic. Chilling atmosphere, grotesque necromorphs, and tense gameplay.
• Stranger of Paradise FF Origin (-70%) - A$30.30 Dark, action-focused spin on Final Fantasy lore. A divisive oddity with brutal combat and meme-worthy dialogue.
• One Piece Odyssey (-72%) - A$28 JRPG based on the legendary anime. Great for One Piece fans keen to explore a fresh island story with the Straw Hats.

PS4

• Persona 5 Royal (-46%) - A$54.40 Expanded edition of the stylish JRPG. School life meets dungeon crawling with unmatched flair.
• Red Dead Redemption (-53%) - A$34.90 Rockstar’s Western masterpiece finally on modern consoles. Slow-paced but immersive tale of loyalty and betrayal.
• Far Cry 5 (-66%) - A$34.10 Open-world shooter set in rural America. Explosive action and cult takedowns in Ubisoft’s sandbox formula.

Expiring Recent Deals

• Split Fiction (-37%) - A$44
• Ghost of Yotei (-21%) - A$99
• Star Wars Outlaws (-67%) - A$36
• EA Sports WRC (-68%) - A$24
• Octopath Traveler (-60%) - A$36.30

PS+ Monthly Freebies
Yours to keep from Sep 2 with this subscription

• Psychonauts 2 (PS4)
• Stardew Valley (PS4)
• Viewfinder (PS5/PS4)

Or purchase a PS Store Card.

Back to top

Purchase Cheap for PC

• Ni no Kuni: WotWW (-85%) - A$11.20 Charming JRPG with Studio Ghibli visuals. Heartfelt story and whimsical adventure.
• Children of Morta (-85%) - A$5.30 Family-driven roguelike about legacy and sacrifice. Gorgeous pixel art and cooperative gameplay make it special.
• Street Fighter 30th Ann. Col. (-72%) - A$12.50 12 classic fighting games in one collection. Perfect for old-school arcade fans.
• Hades (-75%) - A$9.10 Addictive action roguelike with sharp writing and evolving gameplay. Replayability is unmatched.
• Civilization VI (-95%) - A$4 Legendary turn-based strategy game. Build an empire, outwit rivals, and shape history.

Expiring Recent Deals

• Assassin's Creed Shadows (-65%) - A$34.90
• Pico Park (-100%) - A$0
• Titanfall 2: Ult. (-85%) - A$5.90
• A Plague Tale Bndl (-65%) - A$19.40
• Outward Def. (-88%) - A$7.10

Or just get a Steam Wallet Card

Legit LEGO Deals

• The Mandalorian Ambush (-50%) - A$17.60
• Minecraft The Creeper (-44%) - A$39
• City 3in1 Helicopter (-37%) - A$63.20
• Star Wars Home One Starcruiser (-35%) - A$71

Expiring Recent Deals

• City Go-Karts and Race Drivers (-47%) - A$8
• Captain America vs. Red Hulk (-37%) - A$57
• Botanicals Lotus Flowers (-35%) - A$15
• Statue of Liberty (-33%) - A$99.90

Back to top

The Tomtoc Slim is one of the best compact Nintendo Switch 2 cases you can get and it's on sale today. Amazon is offering the Tomtoc Slim in Black for just $29.59 after a 20% off instant discount. Several other colors are also on sale, including the rarely discounted dazzling color fade models like Matcha Green, Ocean Blue, Iris Purple, and Cherry Blossom. This is a much better deal than the official Nintendo Switch 2 case which currently sells for $39.99.

Tomtoc Slim Nintendo Switch 2 Carrying Case From $29.59

ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! following comments its titular host made during his Monday night monologue about the death of conservative activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last week in Utah during a public debate appearance.

The network has pre-empted Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” after Nexstar, which owns 28 ABC affiliate stations across the United States, “said it will pre-empt the series for the immediate future,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

THR adds that there were rumblings that other TV groups were taking issue with Kimmel’s comments and that ABC feared “an affiliate revolt.”

In his monologue during Monday's episode, Kimmel said: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

Andrew Alford, President of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, issued the following statement Wednesday to announce the company’s decision to pre-empt Jimmy Kimmel Live!:

“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located. …

Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”

Kimmel’s comments also sparked the ire of Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr, a Trump Administration appointee who suggested on a podcast that the broadcast licenses of ABC and its affiliates could potentially be revoked over the matter.

THR points out that Nexstar’s move to pre-empt Kimmel’s show “comes as the broadcast station is seeking FCC approval for its $6.2 billion mega deal to acquire TEGNA.”

The Kimmel show’s suspension comes on the heels of Comedy Central pulling a planned repeat of a recent South Park episode that parodied Charlie Kirk but that aired before his murder.

Editor's note: The original version of this article mistakenly said Kimmel's comments were made on the Tuesday broadcast. They were made during Monday's episode. We regret the error.

Nintendo recently raised the price of the new Nintendo Switch 2 Pro controller from $85 to $90, but here's an opportunity to get one for less than either price. AliExpress is currently offering import model Switch 2 Pro controllers for $80.06 after you apply $20 off coupon code "AEUS20" during checkout. Your order ships free locally from the United States.

This is a brand new, genuine model, most likely from Hong Kong, China, or Japan. All Switch hardware (including the Pro 2 controller) is region unlocked, meaning you can use the controller with any US-based Nintendo Switch console without any additional steps. The only caveat is that imported peripherals don't come with a Nintendo warranty but AliExpress offers a 15-day free returns window in case you get a lemon.

Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller for $80.06

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for the first three episodes of Gen V Season 2. You can also check out IGN’s spoiler-free review of the entire season.

As has become tradition for The Boys and its spinoff, Gen V Season 2 returns to Prime Video with a three-episode block. It’s just as well the streamer opted for that approach with Season 2. As entertaining as the series still is, there’s a certain loss of momentum early on as the new season walks back some of the consequences of the Season 1 finale and reverts to the traditional superhero college formula. Fortunately, there’s still plenty to love here regardless.

The Season 1 finale certainly teased a very different tone, ending with Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Andre (Chance Perdomo), Jordan (London Thor and Derek Luh), and Emma (Lizze Broadway) imprisoned inside a Vought facility while Sam (Asa Germann) and Cate (Maddie Phillips) emerged as the undeserving heroes of the Godolkin U. campus massacre. Season 2’s first order of business is to put the toys back in the basket, as it were. No sooner are Jordan and Emma released than they find themselves returning to God U. to rematriculate. Even Marie, whom we learned already escaped beforehand, undergoes a short detour in these episodes before also finding herself back at school.

Was this shift back to the status quo inevitable? Probably. Did it need to happen? Hard to say, but either way, there is a bit of an adjustment here. The return to the college format robs the series of its early narrative momentum, and it takes a while to rebuild in these early episodes. Season 1 promised one thing by making Marie and her friends prisoners of Vought, and Season 2 - at this stage, anyway - doesn’t seem fully intent on delivering. There are certainly worse ways to justify Marie’s return to school than a brief team-up with Erin Moriarty’s Starlight, but even so, I would have liked to see the series focus more on her fugitive phase.

There is a huge ray of light in all of this, however. Returning to God U allows the series to focus a great deal on the school’s new dean, Hamish Linklater’s Cipher. With his predecessor exposed and brutally slain in Season 1, Cipher arrives to inaugurate a new era for the school, one in which humans are treated as second-class citizens. The Boys and Gen V both have never been shy about satirizing the current political climate, but here Gen V actually seems slightly ahead of the curve. With real-world American universities currently capitulating to the Trump administration and tamping down on free speech, it’s a little eerie watching a series where a college dean puts his school on lockdown and declares #MakeAmericaSuperAgain.

Cipher himself is simply a blast to watch. As I said in my full Season 2 review, he’s easily the best villain the franchise has produced this side of Homelander. That much is readily apparent even in this early batch of episodes. Linklater brings a unique combination of charm and outright menace to the role. It’s clear from the outset that Cipher is not all right in the head (is anyone in this world?), and that becomes even more apparent in the tense, thrilling scene where he nearly liquifies Cate’s sole remaining hand. It doesn’t hurt that Cipher, true to his name, is a real enigma. We know so little about his background, powers, and true goals, leaving plenty of room for Season 2 to drop some big reveals as it moves along.

The narrative momentum may be sluggish in these early episodes, but you can’t fault the main cast. Broadway’s Emma is easily the standout here, as she brings both a vivacious charm and a sense of pathos to the screen, but most of the main crew get their chance to shine. Phillips also deserves plenty of credit as Cate. Given where the character ended Season 1, it would be easy to loathe her, but Phillips helps ensure we still sympathize with Cate and what is clearly a very delicate situation for her. If this is Cate winning, I’d hate to see what losing looks like. Only Germann’s Sam feels a bit short-changed here, as he doesn’t enjoy as much screen time as the rest of the gang.

Finally, it’s worth taking a moment to acknowledge how Season 2 handles the Chance Perdomo situation. Perdomo died in 2024 while travelling to shoot Season 2, forcing the Gen V crew to halt production and write Andre out of the series. Their solution is to reveal that Andre died heroically during an earlier escape attempt at the Vought facility. That’s about as elegant a solution as could be hoped for, given the circumstances. I’d rather see Andre respectfully written out rather than a recasting, and this at least gels with the ongoing subplot involving Andre and his father Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas) struggling with the lethal nature of their powers.

Speaking of which, Andre’s death allows Polarity to step forward and play a bigger role in Season 2. Polarity is now a grieving father who wants revenge against God U and its ruthless new dean. Thomas delivers a compelling portrait of a father mourning his son, but there’s also room for some levity as he finds himself reluctantly paired with a drugged-out Emma for a high-stakes heist mission. Who knew that pairing would work so well?

I've posted plenty of power bank deals, but today's deal is easily one of the best I've seen all year. Amazon is offering the high-capacity, high-output Iniu 25,000mAh 100W power bank for just $27.49 after you apply coupon code "IP3GGX8A". This power bank is ideal for long flights or trips where you might not have an available outlet for extended periods of time. It's powerful enough to charge just about every phone or gaming handheld PC - including the Asus ROG Ally X and upcoming Lenovo Legion Go 2 - even while you're playing games, as well as most non-gaming laptops.

Iniu 25,000mAh 100W Power Bank for $27.49

With prices on Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards dropping back down to retail levels, prices on prebuilt gaming desktop computers have also been following suit. If you're still rocking an RTX 30 series GPU or older, now would be a good time to upgrade. For example, Dell is offering an Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC equipped with a powerful GeForce RTX 5080 GPU for just $2,099.99 with free delivery. Such a system would have cost closer to $3,000 earlier this year.

Alienware Aurora RTX 5080 Gaming PC From $2,099.99

The Witcher 3 is one of the best-selling and most acclaimed video games of all time, yet for all the countless play-hours that have been poured into its narratives and subsystems, there’s one in particular that stands out: Gwent. This is a mini-game within the game which sees the player collecting cards from diverse sources, building a deck and seeking out opponents, sometimes for money, often just for fun. Players loved it, swapped tips on where to get the best cards, how to beat the hardest foes, spent entire sessions just playing Gwent instead of furthering the game’s main plot and innumerable side-quests. Perhaps inevitably, it has now arrived in a stand-alone, physical version.

For clarity, there are actually two different versions of Gwent. There’s the one from The Witcher 3 game and a separate video game called Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, which is run by the gaming platform GOG and differs considerably from the original, leveraging online matchup play to let players go head to head. This physical card game is a faithful replication of the original Witcher 3 version, not the GOG version.

What’s in the Box

Just as the protagonist, Geralt, collects cards to play Gwent in the video game, so Gwent: The Legendary Card Game, is a box full of cards. It’s important to note that it contains versions of all the cards from the video game, plus its downloadable content, which amounts to almost 450 cards in total. They’re also very similar to the ones you’ll see on-screen, using the same layout, artwork and iconography.

While this is a little frustrating – some cards have explanatory text, which is very helpful, while others just have icons even though there’s room on them for a description – it does allow you to admire the art. Among the gorgeous polygons on the video game, it’s easy to overlook how good and how varied the card art for Gwent is. Here, it’s front and center, and it’s delightful, full of life and detail, and every card is different, even if they’re functionally identical copies.

Aside from the cards, there’s a tiny punchboard of tokens and a paper play mat to organize your cards during the game. These are both terribly disappointing, flimsy and prone to wear and tear. The play mat doesn’t lie flat easily, and the creases make the cards slide. Among the tokens is a score tracker and it’s often easier just to use that and organize the cards during play yourself.

Rules and How It Plays

Gwent is actually a pretty weird game, although you might not immediately pick that up from scanning the rulebook, which is overly terse and offers little in the way of examples. It’s played over three rounds and the first player to win two wins the whole match. At the start of the first round, you draw 10 cards and – this is the odd and critical bit – that’s all you get for the entire game. You don’t draw any more cards in rounds two or three. Your initial 10 has to last you the whole match, and learning when to dole them out and when to retain them is a central plank of the game’s strategy.

Gwent is actually a pretty weird game, although you might not immediately pick that up from scanning the rulebook.

Your play area is divided into three rows, for melee, missile, and siege units. Most cards have a symbol indicating which row they’re played into. Playing a card is often as simple as placing it into its marked row. Such cards generally have a strength value, and you’ll add that value to your growing total of strength in play. This continues until one player passes instead of playing a card, whereupon their opponent can carry on playing cards until they, too, pass. Then, the player with the highest strength total wins the round.

While this sounds simple, it immediately throws down some challenges for the players. In the first round, either player can likely win if they just keep on playing cards, but doing so leaves them less likely to win the other two rounds and thus the game. So, you’re trying to read each other, considering the cards in your hand and deciding when to pass and when to push. There’s a Poker-like element to this, muddied by the fact that there’s no statistics to rely on in terms of predicting what your opponent is holding, which means there’s no real bluff element. In fact, if they’ve built the deck themselves, you might have no information at all. There’s a definite thrill of venturing into the unknown with each decision, but your choices to pass or play are being made in a frustrating vacuum.

To combat this, the game offers various cards with special abilities, which are denoted by an icon on the card rather than text, a minor speedbump to overcome while learning the game. They’re mostly very simple. Tight Bond multiplies the strength of the card by the number of other cards on your side with the same name. Cards with the Spy ability are played into your opponent’s half of the field, adding their strength to their side, but allowing you to draw two new cards in return. A Medic lets you retrieve and play a card from your discard, and so on.

These muddy the waters somewhat. You won’t want to play a Medic on the opening turn, for a simple example, as there probably won’t be any discards available.

In addition to unit cards are various categories of special cards. The easiest to handle are heroes, which behave largely as units do but are immune to special abilities, making them harder to destroy or nullify. Weather cards are played to the side of the board and affect both sides, reducing the strength of all cards (except heroes) in one of the three areas to one. These can produce huge swings, as can some other special cards like Commander’s Horn, which doubles the strength of all cards on its row, or Scorch, which sends the highest-strength cards in the game to the discard pile. These add to the excitement and anticipation of the pass-or-play mechanic and also give some tactical structure to play around. If your opponent is laying down ranged combat cards and you’re holding a Fog weather card that’ll reduce that row to strength 1, you can save your own ranged cards for next round and hope to spring a nasty surprise.

While the full span of card types and powers do make your turn to turn decision making more interesting, and up the stakes considerably given that some of them can be game changing, you’re still very much making decisions in the dark. That Fog card, for instance: the strategy is pretty basic, and isn’t actually all that useful if your opponent only has one ranged card in hand and it’s useless if they also have a Clear Weather card to counter it. You have no way of knowing what’s in their hand or deck. Gwent is an exciting game, but it’s not a particularly strategic one.

It is, however, a deck construction game, and deck construction games mostly draw their strategy from deciding which cards you’re going to include in your deck before you play. There are various rules about what you can include. A legal deck includes a single leader, who offers a special ability you can use one time during play, at least 22 unit cards, and up to 10 special cards like heroes and weather. There are five factions included in the game, each of which has a particular play style and set of powers, and you can only build with cards from your own faction. Nilfgaard, for example, specializes in card draw while the Skellige deck includes berserkers that can be triggered and replaced with much more powerful alternatives. And since you have all the cards from the video game at your disposal, you have a lot of deck-building options.

The trouble is that, however you choose to construct your deck, the game is eternally held back by that sense of randomness. You can put all the work you want into your carefully-curated cards but if your opponent just happens to have a card that counters your best abilities, you’re probably screwed. Or not, if they just happen to play it at the wrong time because they’re as clueless about what you’re holding as you are about their hand. Worse, it seems fairly clear that some cards and factions are better than others. That 10-card limit over the entire game is so brutal that the two extra cards drawn by a spy can be absolutely game-changing. Thus, factions that are good at generating card draws – Northern Realms, Nilfgaard, and Monsters – are better than those that don’t. And within those factions, you’ll generally want to include abilities that draw cards over those that don’t.

In addition, there’s a considerable frustration around tracking the game state. You’re given counters to mark your strength total in tens and ones, which is fiddly to start with. But as soon as you get effects like commander’s horn and tight bond, strength totals can rise and fall explosively, and there’s no way to mark this other than recalculating your total strength with each and every card play. In the original video game this was all done automatically, making it easy, but here’s it’s a right royal pain, especially given the way card effects can pile on card effects, making it easy to miss something and calculate a wrong total.

Where to Buy

• Get it at Amazon
• Get it at IGN Store
• Get it at Hachette Boardgames
• Get it at No Loading Games

The PlayStation Portal was released back in November of 2023, but I still haven't ever seen a discount on a brand new unit, even during Sony's Days of Play Sale back in June. Fortunately, there is a way to get a used one at a huge discount. Amazon Resale just dropped the price of the "Used: Like New" PS Portal to $140.41 after a 25% off coupon that's automatically applied during checkout. Amazon Resale is Amazon's official outlet for used items. "Like New" items are usually brand new and never used with damage to the packaging but not to the contents themselves. You still get the 30-day Amazon return policy so it's a much safer option than buying a used controller off Facebook Marketplace.

PlayStation Portal (Used: Like New) for $140.41

I don’t think there’s ever been a fighting game that I have played more of so long before release than 2XKO. Between three Evo demos and two “alpha lab” tests, Riot’s exciting League of Legends-themed 2v2 tag fighter has repeatedly popped into my life for a couple days, then faded from existence until the next time I get to throw down with my buddies Ekko and Ahri. But finally, with the recent closed beta, 2XKO is here to stay (if not fully available to everybody yet), which means it's time for some extended thoughts on why I’ve been looking forward to this exciting tag fighter.

There’s a whole lot to unpack, so let’s start with the focus on simple controls. Unlike most fighting games that offer at least the option of using traditional command inputs for special moves (like those dating back to the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat’s arcade cabinet days), 2XKO simplifies all of its special and super moves to single or simultaneous two-button presses. So instead of doing a quarter circle forward motion for a fireball, all you have to do is press the S1 button; If you wanna do a super, you press an attack button and one of the special buttons at the same time; and if you want to do your ultimate attack, you press both special buttons at the same time.

This is a double-edged sword, because while it does make it a little easier for a complete newcomer who has trouble with quarter-circle or Dragon-Punch inputs, it also turns what should be a four-button game – with light, medium, and heavy attack buttons, plus a tag button – into a six-button game, at minimum. Most people will be using a dash and parry macro as well, putting every single button on a standard controller to work.

As a result, I’ve felt my hands getting lost on my controller in 2XKO moreso than any other fighting game I’ve played because my brain has to parse which special move is tied to which special button, and which direction I had to hold for it. Ultimately, it’s just easier for me – someone who has committed thousands of hours to train my muscle memory on how fighting games have always worked – to compartmentalize a punch or kick related special move input to the punch or kick button than it is to try and remember whether they’re arbitrarily placed on S1 or S2. It’s a learning curve that I was eventually able to overcome, but one that nonetheless made me yearn for a classic/modern control scheme split like what Street Fighter 6 uses.

The second big thing is that 2XKO uses an active tag system much like what’s been used in games like BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle and Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid. The idea is that every character has two assist moves that they can be called in to execute, and once they finish the attack they’ll remain in a pose for a few seconds before retreating back off screen. At any point while the assist character is on screen, you can press the tag button to swap control to them. This opens the door for potential tricky mix-up opportunities, especially when you’re able to sandwich your target between your assist and point characters.

That system works incredibly well here in 2XKO, especially since so many of the characters have special moves that seemed designed specifically around it. Vi and Ekko for instance, both have specials that allow them to cross to the other side of their opponent, with the downside being that they are typically punishable. But if you cover them with an assist, not only do you make the crossover safe, but you get a free left/right mix-up opportunity by swapping to the other character. This is just a basic example and, once you start digging deep into the tech of some of these characters, you can find some absolutely dirty stuff that you can do to your opponent.

And all of that is before even bringing fuses into the mix. Much like Grooves in the Capcom vs SNK series, Fuses are an extra little bonus that you take with you into a match that allow you to break one of the established rules. For example, typically, once you use your super, your combo is over. But with Double Down you can do a super, then tag in your partner character for them to do their super to add on extra damage, and switch characters in the deal. You normally are only allowed one active tag per assist call, but with the Freestyle fuse you can call in your assist, active tag to them, do a couple of hits, and then active tag again back to the point character. These Fuses can totally change your approach to how you use your team and spend your meter, and experimenting with each to try and find which one fits my playstyle and my team best has been a lot of fun.

If you don’t want to learn two characters and instead just want to focus on one, there are also two Fuses that allow you to do just that. Juggernaut and Sidekick both have you playing as only one character with just one life bar, but to make up for that they have increased health, higher defense, start with two bars of super instead of one, and can have a maximum of five bars of super instead of three.

Juggernaut also has the added advantage of being able to forcibly swap an opponent’s character to focus on the one with less health and prevent them from regaining gray life, while Sidekick gives you the ability to reduce the amount of damage you take by timing button presses with enemy attacks. You can also charge up your assist moves by holdingthe tag button, letting them travel a distance before actually committing to their attack. You do lose the ability to do active tags, which is one of the most fun aspects of 2XKO, but nonetheless, I love it when tag fighters find ways to let us just focus on mastering a single character instead of having to be equally good with two or three.

Perhaps the best unique feature of 2XKO, though, is the fact that it’s a fighting game that can be played cooperatively with a friend. In Duos mode, each person controls their own character, with the off-screen player being the one that can call the assist, and the other being the one that has to do the active tag to give up control to their partner. It works both as a fun way to experience a fighting game with a similarly skilled friend that doesn’t involve having to beat each other up, and also as a way to introduce someone new to the genre and be able to give them real time feedback.

If there’s one glaring weakness of 2XKO right now, it is its slim roster size. There are currently only nine characters, and Riot has promised just one more to be added for launch. Ten isn’t even a lot even for a 1v1 fighter, but even worse for a tag fighter where you need to find two characters that fit your playstyle (unless, again, you decide to go with Juggernaut or Sidekick as your Fuses). And while that does suck, and leads to a lot of repetition where you’re fighting against the same characters and the same teams over and over again, it is a blow that is at least softened by the excellent design of that handful of characters. Whether it’s Ekko and his tricky clone mind games, Yasuo’s wild combo routes that have him stance-cancelling his way into bouncing his opponent all over the screen, Vi’s insane movement and whiff-punishing ability, or Illaoi’s tentacle set ups, these are some of the most fun fighting game characters I’ve ever played around with. And the beauty of it is that due to the flexibility of 2XKO’s combo and Fuse systems, rarely do I ever see any of these characters being played exactly the same way by two different people.

All that said, It’s still too early to call this a proper review of 2XKO because of all that we haven’t seen yet. There’s ranked mode, for instance, and that final tenth character on the launch roster – and I’ll definitely want to see how the free-to-play progression feels once the shops are more fully populated with cosmetics to purchase with in-game currency. But for now, 2XKO is shaping up to be one of the most exciting fighters on the horizon, during a time when there are a lot of exciting fighters on the horizon.

Mitchell Saltzman is a senior guides producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit

Paramount+ has had a pretty significant sale on its annual plans this month. Until September 18 (tomorrow, by the way), both new and existing subscribers can save 50% on a full year of the plan of their choosing. You can either grab the Paramount+ Essential annual plan for $29.99 (regularly priced at $59.99), or the Paramount+ Premium annual plan for $59.99 (regularly priced at $119.99).

50% Off Annual Paramount+ Subscriptions for New and Returning Subscribers

Unlike most streaming deals these days, the discounts apply to both new and returning subscribers. So, if you do happen to be enjoying the monthly plan and have some extra cash, it’s well worth considering grabbing the annual discount as an upfront cost.

What’s on Paramount+?

Paramount has a bit of a unique library compared to the likes of Disney+ or Netflix, but I’d like to think there’s a little something for everyone in there. Right now, it’s where you’ll find new episodes of South Park the day after they air (and cause whatever controversy) as well as the new season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

The list of Paramount movies is pretty much endless, but some highlights there include Gladiator, the Transformers movies, and the Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy. The studio will also be developing the live-action Call of Duty movie.

Paramount has been slowly expanding its live sports offerings. It's where you can watch the NFL on CBS as well as the UEFA Champions League. Most recently, the service signed a deal to acquire the streaming rights to the UFC franchise, which will be moving away from the PPV model used by ESPN starting in 2026. In other words, if you subscribe with the deal now, you’ll get to watch all the fights your heart desires next year.

Blythe (she/her) is an SEO Coordinator at IGN who, when she isn't following streaming news, spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.

F1 and Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski’s big screen reboot of Miami Vice is revving up with Universal Pictures announcing an August 6, 2027 release date for the film version of the iconic 1980s undercover cop TV series.

Casting is currently underway for a 2026 production start. Miami Vice will be shot in IMAX.

The film is produced by Dylan Clark (The Batman) and Kosinski and written by Dan Gilroy and Eric Singer, based on characters created by Anthony Yerkovich from the series executive produced by Yerkovich and Michael Mann.

Unlike the 2006 feature film adaptation directed by Michael Mann and starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell, this Miami Vice movie will be a period piece that Universal says “explores the glamour and corruption of mid-80’s Miami,” the decade when the original NBC TV series aired.

Although Mann’s movie opened well, the costly production ultimately proved a commercial disappointment. Reviews were largely negative at the time, but the film has found newfound appreciation online in the last few years. Rumors of a Miami Vice reboot have been circling since 2014.

Kosinski’s movie is particularly inspired by the series pilot and first season (1984-85). In the pilot, New York City cop Ricardo Tubbs travels down to Miami in search of his brother’s killer and eventually teams up with local undercover detective James “Sonny” Crockett, who’s also after the same drug dealers since they killed his partner.

A recurring villain in the first season was Columbian cartel lord Esteban Calderone, whose drug trafficking operations stretched from New York City to Miami and into the Bahamas. He first appeared in the pilot episode, “Brother’s Keeper”, and returned later in the season when an undercover Crockett and Tubbs went to the Bahamas to finally stop Calderone. John Leguizamo later appeared on the series as Calderone’s vengeful son.

Although the show was episodic, the hunt for Calderone was a main throughline of the first season so it stands to reason that might also serve as the spine of Kosinski’s film. Even Mann’s film borrowed a good portion of its plot from the show’s first season, particularly the “Smuggler’s Blues” episode.

“The big-screen version of Miami Vice is in a no-win scenario. Purists will decry its variations from the 1980's TV series that inspired it,” I wrote in my Miami Vice review from 2006. “Those wanting a nostalgia trip will be denied it. Viewers expecting a big, bombastic Bad Boys or Fast and the Furious-style romp will also come away disappointed. Fans of writer-director Michael Mann, as well as those who love their cop movies dark and gritty, will respond favorably to the movie, which is nothing short of a di-Vice-ive affair. You will either love it or loathe it.”

Who do you want to see play Crockett and Tubbs in Kosinski’s Miami Vice movie? Let us know in the comments.

Gen V has returned for its second season on Prime Video. The Boys spin-off aired its first season in 2023, introducing us to a particularly hormonal new generation of supes attending their first year at God U. Now we follow the gang as they head into their sophomore year, which, from personal experience, is when you can really start doing things for the plot.

If you’re tuning into the new season, here’s when you can expect new episodes.

Everything You Need to Know to Watch Gen V Season 2

The professional grade PlayStation DualSense Edge wireless controller is rarely discounted from its list price of $200. Fortunately, here's a way to get it for a much lower price. Amazon Resale currently has "Used: Like New" DualSense Edge controllers in Midnight for $145.73 after a 25% off coupon that's automatically applied during checkout. Amazon Resale is Amazon's official outlet for used items. "Like New" items are usually brand new and never used with damage to the packaging but not to the contents themselves. You still get the 30-day Amazon return policy so it's a much safer option than buying a used controller off Facebook Marketplace.

Update: I just fixed the link (it was originally going to the PlayStation Portal).

PS5 DualSense Edge Controller (Used: Like New) for $145