MCU fans are known for analyzing footage to within an inch of its life as they hunt for plot clues. Now, they have turned their inquisitive gaze upon Robert Downey Jr’s hair.
The Iron Man actor recently sent out a Doctor Doom-themed invitation for this 60th birthday party, and as you'd expect it popped up online. It shows the MCU star with slightly longer curly hair; this is not the haircut of Tony Stark, that’s for sure.
Photos of RDJ at the party itself show the actor sporting a similar curly hairdo, sparking speculation about how his version of Victor Von Doom will look in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
Robert Downey Jr.'s Doom-themed birthday invitation featured him sporting a new curly hairstyle, a look he was also seen wearing two days ago.
Could this be an early glimpse at his portrayal of Victor Von Doom in ‘AVENGERS: DOOMSDAYʼ? pic.twitter.com/MltjPLCkoE
“He has this exact hairstyle right now in pictures,” redditor Overall_Affect_2782 said. “People are going to absolutely freak when it turns out this is his Doomsday look.”
“This is likely a fun little unofficial prototype version of the eventual look that we will see in Avengers: Doomsday,” added PhanStr.
Erik Voss of the New Rockstars YouTube channel suggested Marvel and RDJ may be taking Doctor Doom in an Oppenheimer-style direction, but from another universe.
Others are unconvinced. “Based on this and the recent photos, I feel like Marvel just wanted Oscar Issac's hair from Moonknight to play Doctor Doom,” joked NerdyDadOnline.
“I’m laughing so hard that people think this is the legit design,” declared FewWatermelonlesson0.
Of course, this may all be nothing. It seems unlikely that RDJ would spoil Doctor Doom’s look in the MCU via a birthday party invitation. But now production on Avengers: Doomsday has begun in London, all eyes are on Marvel for secrets.
Last month's Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal was heavy on veteran X-Men actors. Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden are all now set to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, confirming the X-Men are in the film in a big way. Grammer famously played Beast in the Fox X-Men franchise before making his MCU debut via The Marvels' post-credits scene. Stewart played Charles Xavier/Professor X in the X-Men films before appearing briefly in the MCU via Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as a member of the Illuminati. McKellen, who played Magneto, has yet to appear in the MCU. Neither has Cumming, who played Nightcrawler, Romijn, who played Mystique, nor Marsden, who played Cyclops. It begs the question: is Avengers: Doomsday secretly an Avengers vs. X-Men movie?
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
It looks like Nintendo Korea's website briefly gave away what sidekick may be joining Kong in the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza.
Though the image was quickly switched out with a less revealing one, it wasn't quite quick enough for ResetEra, which managed to grab a screenshot before the website was changed.
In most key art associated with the game, we see Kong smashing a fist into the ground, throwing up a shower of rocks and rubble, with the purple, rock-like Odd Rock behind him. The image on the Korean website essentially showed the same, but with one key difference: Odd Rock is missing, and a young Pauline is holding on for dear life to Kong's necktie.
This is the first time Pauline's been acknowledged in any of the images, teaser trailers, or hands-on previews shown thus far, suggesting Nintendo was perhaps hoping to keep her appearance a surprise. Whoops!
More intriguingly still, Pauline's young age suggests Donkey Kong Bananza could be a prequel of some sort — although again, Nintendo's tight-lipped on that for now.
"I think Bananza is on track to be one of the most gorgeous Nintendo games I’ve seen," we wrote in our Donkey Kong Bananza first hands-on preview. "It really does take advantage of Switch 2's hardware — the environments are beautiful and DK’s animations are wonderfully expressive, and I left feeling like the next generation of first-party Nintendo games had truly arrived."
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Are you tired of stressing about keeping up with the latest board games, the hottest new expansions, or being on the outside looking in when wanting to start a new hobby? We’ve all been there. The barrier to entry for many tabletop, card, and board games can sometimes be high, with some games’ starter kits starting well over $100. It can be intimidating to get into certain board games due to budget, and that’s a shame.
Whether you’re getting that special gamer in your life a birthday gift or hosting a casual game night with close friends, plenty of budget options exist that are sure to scratch that itch. And we’ve compiled some of our favorites right here!
Qwirkle is one of a tiny handful of games that have won the biggest trophy in the scene, the Spiel des Jahres, and gone on to become a mainstream hit in its own right. And what’s more, you can now pick up a copy for under $30. Its success is down to a combination of intuitive gameplay and addictive tactical smarts. The game pieces are tiles with differently coloured shapes on them, and on your turn you can play any number that share a colour or shape, into a line or column that shares the same colour or shape. You then score a point for each tile in the sequence, plus a bonus if you complete a set of six shapes or colours. The result combines the familiar spatial strategies of Scrabble with all sorts of head-spinning opportunities to set up future plays or block opponents.
Boss Monster 10th Anniversary Edition
A personal favorite of mine, Boss Monster is a love-letter to a bygone era of early pixel art RPG video games, filled to the brim with heroes, dungeons, spells, and of course, boss monsters. In it, you are the boss monster, building your dungeon and setting various traps to kill the heroes before they slay you first. Each Boss card has unique abilities that will inform your dungeon-building strategy, and you can even disrupt your opponents’ dungeons by buffing heroes adventuring through them. Boss Monster is designed for 2-4 players, and the 10th Anniversary edition of this replayable classic also comes with 15 brand new cards.
The Chameleon
The Chameleon is an easy to pick up, quick-to-play social deduction game. At the beginning of the round, players are dealt face down cards, one of them being the Chameleon. Players not dealt this card are then issued a secret code word, unbeknownst to the Chameleon, and must use tricky wordplay and conversation to oust the Chameleon, all while that player tries their best to blend in. This is great for quick rounds, parties, or the local brewery.
Decrypto
Decrypto is another clever wordplay game -- make sure you have plenty of extra paper and pencils ready to go just in case. Each round consists of two teams, with one player from either team working to decipher a secret code and pass it onto their team. The other team has the opportunity to steal if you fail to pass along the code. Set up is quick and easy, and the secret code pieces are plentiful enough that you won’t have much overlap for multiple games. Highly team-oriented and fast-paced rounds make Decrypto a must-play for larger gaming groups.
Say Anything
If you want to thrill a big group of players with a brilliant party game you can pick up on the cheap, you won’t do better than Say Anything. Players take turns drawing a question card and picking one to ask: everyone else then writes and reveals their answer. Once they’re all public, everyone secretly bets on which answer the question-asker will like the best before the big reveal, when you’ll find out who’s hit the jackpot and who’s going empty-handed into the next round. Like all the best party games, it’s a very simple formula that’s likely to inspire some big laughs and some spicy table chat, and at this price it’s entirely worth adding to your after dinner party repertoire.
Board Games Under $20
Flip 7
Flip 7 is a hideously addictive push your luck game, built on an incredibly simple premise. The deck has number cards running from zero to twelve, with the equivalent number of copies of each card - so there are ten cards of ten value. On your turn, like Blackjack, you either stick with the total you've drawn so far or hit for an extra card, but if you get a duplicate value, you loose that round's score and your out. First over two hundred wins. Sounds simple, but the temptation of just one more pull is ruinous, and there are some tweaks to make it even more compulsive such as special effect cards to slap on other players and the golden lure of a fat bonus if you can make it to seven different numbers.
Codenames
A breakthrough hit that's enthralled players from dedicated hobbyists to casual partygoers, Codenames is such a phenomenon that it's spawned enough spinoffs to need its own buying guide. The core conceit is that you lay out a grid of cards, each containing a single word. A player on each team - or just one, playing cooperatively - has a key to the grid, showing which cards your team mates must identify to win. It's up to the clue-giver to find one-word clues to try and link as many of the target words together as they can in one go. A fascinating game that touches on both personal insight and the wide ambiguities of language to succeed, it's a guaranteed hit with any group.
Targi
Sometimes cheap games are fairly light affairs, great for family time, but less so for long-term investments that grow on you over time. Targi is a rare exception, a two-player only title that comes in at around 20 dollars, but which can last a lifetime of exploration. Play involves a grid of randomly placed cards around which you place pieces against a row or column, locking that position up from your opponent, and you’ll eventually gain the cards at the intersections where your placements meet. Some give you resources, while the point-scoring cards you’ll need to win cost them, but there are severe limits on how much of either you can collect. Combining tense tactical placement with head-scratching hand and resource management, this is a gem you can pick up for a bargain price.
Hand Games 21
Games don’t come much cheaper than those you can play with your hands alone, like Rock, Paper, Scissors. And for the modest entry fee of fifteen bucks, you can add 21 new hand games to your repertoire, all of which are much better and more creative than that hoary old chestnut. Your hands will be transformed into those of a wizard, hurling spells at your opponents, or those of a banker, grabbing and counting wads of cash at lightning speed. If you want something a little less action-oriented, there are puzzle games involving hidden fingers and social deduction games that eschew the traditional cards and dice. It’s an impressive feat of design chops, and it doesn’t involve your feet at all. And of course, once someone’s invested the price of the book, you can spread the games to your friends for free.
You're Getting Old
Best enjoyed by skinny-jean-wearing, avocado-toast-eating, will-never-be-able-to-afford-a-house Millennials, You’re Getting Old is a classic “never have I ever” style card game that tells you that yes, you are in fact getting old. To start the round, each player draws a card with prompts that make them old and ones that redeem them. If you can answer what “deadass” means, you’re redeemed and move down a space using your avocado token. The player who gets to the highest space first by being old ends the game, and whoever has the lowest position wins. Quick and easy set up, and great for making fun of your friends.
Coup Card Game
Looking to test out your lying abilities? Coup is the game for you. In it, players fight over gaining or losing influence as they struggle to be the last one standing. Take actions to steal currency from another player, or counteractions to block foreign aid or stealing. Subterfuge is at the forefront here, as you’ll often have the opportunity to use character card abilities you may not actually control, but be warned: other players can challenge you, and if you’re caught, you lose influence. When you lose your two influence cards, you’re out of the game and the next round begins until one player is left.
Couch Skeletons
Super quick and easy set up and short play time makes Couch Skeletons a great pick for a small gift or travel game. You and another player take turns placing numbered skeletons on one of five couches, with the card you play being either one number higher or lower than the skeletons in play. If you have no cards to play, you then discard your hand, and the next round starts by drawing three cards. The goal is to get rid of all your cards from both your hands and empty the draw decks, and you win when you’ve played all your cards and aren’t able to draw.
Board Games Under $10
Betrayal Deck of Lost Souls Card Game
A Tarot card-inspired horror-themed board game, Betrayal: Deck of Lost Souls is a cooperative strategy game in which players must work together to defeat the numerous monsters and horrors they’ll face. The catch: one player is secretly a traitor, trying to bring about the one true Curse. Highly stylized and macabre art makes this a great gift for horror fans. This standalone card game consists of over 90 Item, Curse, Character, and Omen cards, creating endless potential for a fresh and exciting experience each time you play. Also check out our Betrayal at House on the Hill buyer's guide.
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
A quick, easy, and insanely addictive card game, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is perfect for families and will put your reflexes to the test. The goal is to get rid of all the cards in your hand, and doing so requires focus and concentration. Players take turns in a clockwise order, and you say aloud either taco, cat, goat, cheese, or pizza in that order while playing your card. If the word you say and the face-up card match, players must slap the card and the last player to do so adds the face-up pile to their deck. This makes for great laughs and all-around competitive silliness that is well worth its price.
Poop The Game
Similar to Uno, Poop the Game is a numbers-based strategy card game where the goal is to dump (no pun intended) your hand to win. Each round has players take turns pooping but be wary not to clog the toilet: if you play the card that makes the poop pile exceed the number on the toilet card, you take all of those cards, and the round starts over. There are also special cards that reverse turn order and color-based strategies to “flush” the toilet. Thankfully, Poop the Game has no scratch and sniff components.
I’ve got today’s top deals lined up and honestly, it’s a bit of a vibe. There’s a handcrafted MainGear rig that looks like it belongs in a design museum and crushes modern games, a Pokémon TCG tin that leaves your pulls up to fate, and a Humble Bundle full of giant alien bugs and unapologetic chaos.
MainGear Custom RTX 5070 PC, Pokémon TCG, and a Skyrim Dragonborn Helmet
Waiting on Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders? I've found a great deal on a Sandisk 256gb Micro SD Express card too . Oh, and if you’ve ever wanted to cosplay as a Dovahkiin desk ornament, the IGN Store has something special. I think it’s a solid haul; useful stuff, actual value, no sketchy third-party sellers in sight (Although Amazon is getting a bit cheeky with their Pokémon TCG mark-ups). Let’s break it down.
MainGear North RTX 5070
I think this is one of the smartest ways to get your hands on an RTX 5070 without building from scratch or skimping on quality. MAINGEAR’s setup skips all the common bottlenecks — no mismatched parts, no airflow nightmares, no “good enough” corners cut. For $2,095, you’re getting a clean combo of a Ryzen 5 7600X CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RGB RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD, all assembled by people who care about things like cable management. It’s future-ready, quiet, and fast enough to leave your current rig feeling like a potato in comparison.
Pokemon TCG: Azure Legends Tin - 5 Packs
This tin is pure Pokémon chaos in the best way. You get one random promo card—Kyogre ex, Xerneas ex, or Dialga ex—and five booster packs; 2 x Surging Sparks, 1 x Stellar Crown, 1 x Temporal Forces and 1 x Obsidian Flames. It’s a fun, low-stakes gamble for collectors or casual players who want a shot at good pulls without needing to take out a second mortgage.
Humble Bundle: Earth Defense Force Collection
EDF is the kind of game where logic goes out the window and fun takes over, and this $25 Humble Bundle gives you the best of it — EDF 5, EDF 4, World Brothers 2, plus a ton of downloadable content. I think this is worth it just for the laugh-out-loud co-op mayhem alone, and it doesn’t hurt that part of the proceeds go to charity while you blast oversized bugs into space.
SanDisk 256GB microSD Express microSD Card
If your current microSD card loads like it's on a coffee break, or if you need to expand your Nintendo Switch 2 storage on launch day, this one’s a serious upgrade. I want this SanDisk Express card purely for the ridiculous transfer speeds — up to 880MB/s read and 650MB/s write. It’s built for 4K video, gaming, and surviving every possible disaster short of lava, and it’ll likely outlive every other accessory in your bag.
Pokémon TCG: Shining Fates Collection Pikachu V Box
The Shining Fates Pikachu V Box is a great grab if you’re chasing shiny cards or just really into oversized electric rodents. You get a Pikachu V promo, a jumbo card version for display, and four Shining Fates booster packs. It's pricey, but Shining Fates is out of print.
The Elder Scrolls Skyrim - Dragonborn Helmet - Replica
This Skyrim Dragonborn helmet replica isn’t going to protect you in battle, but it will absolutely level up your desk setup. At just under six inches tall, it’s small enough to display but detailed enough to show off. I think it’s a solid collectible if you’re still emotionally tethered to Skyrim and have no shame in displaying that fact proudly.
Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box
This Shrouded Fable ETB is the kind of set that makes you feel like you’ve got your TCG life together. It comes with nine booster packs, a Pecharunt promo, energy cards, dice, and a nice little collector’s box to keep your chaos organized. Shrouded Fable is a slept on set, perfect for trainers who are sick of chasing Journey Together and Prismatic Evolutions stock.
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.
DC Studios boss James Gunn has confirmed an August 21 release date for Peacemaker Season 2 on Max alongside a few seconds of new footage.
In a tweet, Gunn said the Season 2 premiere is “one of my favorite things ever.” The new footage shows John Cena in action, at one point smirking to the camera as a fire rages in the background. Peacemaker is “a superhero now,” he’s told.
Counting the days until Peace on Earth. I just finished the DI & Mix on the Season Premiere yesterday and wow it’s one of my favorite things ever. DC Studios’ #Peacemaker Season 2 coming soon only on @StreamOnMax August 21. pic.twitter.com/df3yOcCsdn
Peacemaker Season 2 arrives after the July 11 release of Superman, the big movie kick-off for Gunn’s rebooted DCU. It will actually be the third entry in the DCU, coming after last year's Creature Commandos TV series and this summer's Superman.
The revamped cinematic universe from Gunn and co-CEO Peter Safran moves away from the widely panned DC Extended Universe, headlined by Justice League, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Man of Steel, but some elements will remain.
Peacemaker is a key example of this, as Season 1 of the show arrived in the scrapped DCEU, while Season 2 arrives in the new DCU.
Gunn has said previously that "many strands will remain consistent as far as Peacemaker's story goes," though it remains unclear what will and won't make the jump from DCEU to DCU. He has confirmed all of Team Peacemaker return with the same actors, meaning John Cena in the leading role will be joined by the likes of Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase, and Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Bungie is finally ready to show us more of its upcoming PvP extraction shooter, Marathon, with an all-new gameplay livestream slated for this Saturday, April 12 (or 13, depending where you are in the world).
Last week, the Destiny developer dropped a mysterious tweet that included a bizarre 15-second video that immediately set fans sleuthing as part of an "extensive alternative reality game."
Players realized that within the ASCII art was "a snippet of footage from the initial trailer," and if they looked closely, they "notice[d] it's the runner sprinting down a hall from the trailer."
Another added: "WHEN WILL HE RETURN ERROR ERROR ERROR HAS OCCURRED THE ENEMY RETURNED SYSTEM WARNING: PROTOCOL BREACH EVACUATE THE BASE IMMEDIATELY ALL UNITS REPORT TO STATION INITIATE EMERGENCY PROTOCOL 7 DATA LOSS IMMINENT GOOD LUCK, COMMANDER."
"Thousands of community members across the world worked together to unlock the gameplay reveal date for Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter Marathon," Bungie said in a statement, before revealing this weekend's livestream is set for 10 am PDT (San Francisco) / 1 pm EDT (New York) / 6 pm BST (London) / 7 pm CEST (Berlin/Paris) / 9 pm GST (Dubai) pr Sunday, April 13 at 2 am JST (Tokyo) / 3 am AEST (Sydney) / 5 pm NZST (Auckland).
Marathon was revealed in May 2023 as a reboot of the classic Bungie franchise, but with all its themes of "mysteries, eeriness, and psychological creepiness." Set on the mysterious planet of Tau Ceti IV, Marathon will see players inhabit the bodies of Runners, cybernetic mercenaries who have been designed to survive the planet’s harsh environments. While exploring the lost colony that once inhabited the surface, players will search for valuable loot, including new weapons and gear.
Since the initial reveal, however, we've seen very little else. We did get a development update video in October that shed light on Marathon's mechanics, but the studio stressed how early in development the game was.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Drug dealer simulator Schedule I has continued its astonishing overnight success as one of Steam’s most-played games, and now it has its first "proper" post-launch update alongside patch notes revealed by its developer.
Schedule I version 0.3.4 is available to test on the beta branch, developer Tyler announced on the game’s Steam page. He said it will sit on the beta branch for a day or two before being released fully, but anyone can opt into the beta branch to test it.
“This beta doesn't quite contain 100% of the features coming in the full release,” Tyler explained. “I'll be adding a few more decorative objects tomorrow [April 8]. I wanted to get this beta out ASAP so that the new wall-mounted objects and pawn shop interface can be thoroughly trialled.”
Schedule I version 0.3.4 patch notes:
Additions
Added Bleuballs Boutique interior and functionality.
Added Pawn Shop interior and functionality. You can now sell pretty much anything (excluding product) to Mick at the pawn shop.
Added wooden sign.
Added metal sign.
Added wall-mounted shelf.
Added safe.
Added antique wall lamp.
Added modern wall lamp.
Added grandfather clock.
Added Ol' Man Jimmy's.
Added Château La Peepee.
Added Brut du Gloop.
Added silver watch.
Added gold watch.
Added silver chain.
Added gold chain.
Added gold bar.
Tweaks/Improvements
Improved phrasing for customer recommendation dialogue.
Added some extra null checks and validity checks.
Bug fixes
Fixed delivery destination dropdown overflowing outside of phone screen.
Fixed player lists sometimes not clearing properly when exiting to menu.
Fixed non-host clients sometimes not receiving 'on day pass' and 'on week pass' events.
Schedule I was the top-selling game on Steam upon launch, with more players than big hitters such as Monster Hunter Wilds, GTA 5, and Marvel Rivals after going viral across social media, Twitch, and YouTube. In the game you go from being a small-time dope pusher to kingpin, manufacturing and distributing a range of drugs throughout the grungy city of Hyland Point. You can expand your empire with properties, businesses, employees, and more.
It’s developed and published by TVGS, aka Australian indie developer Tyler, who has called Schedule I’s explosive launch “amazing but pretty overwhelming.”
“I never expected this kind of response!" Tyler said in a post on reddit. "At the moment I’m just trying to stay focussed and get patches out ASAP. Also looking forward to getting started on content updates as soon as all major bugs are patched.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Video game companies across Japan have suffered a dramatic stock market plunge sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.
White House officials signalled what they describe as specific reciprocal tariffs on roughly 60 of the "worst offenders" to go into effect on 9 April. Japan is one of the countries subject to these customised tariff rates, at 24%.
Trump's officials say these countries charge higher tariffs on U.S. goods, impose "non-tariff" barriers to U.S. trade, or have otherwise acted in ways they feel undermine American economic goals.
Tariffs are essentially taxes placed on the cost of importing certain goods. While it's possible for companies in the supply chain to simply eat these costs, more often than not these taxes are passed onto consumers. And unfortunately for gamers, rising prices are very likely to impact tech and gaming goods.
Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark index closed down 7.8%, the ASX 200 in Australia lost 4.2%, and the Kospi in South Korea ended 5.6% lower. The Shanghai Composite closed 7.3% lower and Taiwan Weighted Index lost 9.7%. The Hang Seng was down by 12.5% in afternoon trading.
Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, rounded up the decline in video game stocks based in Japan as the market opening in the morning of April 7. Nintendo was down 7.35%, Sony 10.16%, Capcom 7.13%, and Sega 6.57%.
It's Monday 10am in Japan where Japanese game stocks currently react to these insultingly dumb tariffs like so:
Nintendo -7.35% Sony -10.16% Bandai Namco -7.03% Konami -3.93% Sega -6.57% Koei Tecmo -5.83% Capcom -7.13% Square Enix -5.23%
Last week Nintendo shocked the video game world by announcing a delay to pre-orders of the Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S., blaming tariffs and the uncertainty they have caused across the world. The pre-orders were set to go live on April 9, but in the U.S. specifically they were postponed, with the June 5 release date said to be on-track. Pre-orders go live elsewhere on April 9 as planned.
Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad had warned that Trump's surprise tariffs on countries such as Vietnam, where Nintendo had shifted some of its Switch 2 manufacturing in anticipation of U.S. tariffs on China, might have caused a rethink.
"While the company has shifted some of its manufacturing to Vietnam to offset U.S. tariffs on China, the looming threat of reciprocal tariffs prior to the Switch 2 showcase will have also forced Nintendo to consider a higher price for the rest of the world," Ahmad said. "The reciprocal tariffs on Vietnam and Japan have come in higher than expected, and Nintendo will feel the impact of this if the tariffs go into full effect."
There are question marks over Sony, too, which manufactures PlayStation consoles, including the $700 PlayStation 5 Pro. IGN has asked the company if it has any comment on the prospect of increased prices in the U.S.
Goldman Sachs now forecasts there is a 45% chance the U.S. will fall into recession in the next 12 months, up from a previous estimate of 35%. JPMorgan now sees a 60% chance of a U.S. and global economic downturn.
According to a report by the BBC, Trump has defended the tariffs, saying "sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something."
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
LEGO announced earlier this year that we'd be getting new Minecraft Movie sets, and March 2025 was finally the time for them to be released into the world. There are four new Minecraft sets that you can now buy, with two of them featuring scenes from the new film. These new sets are added to an ever-growing list of LEGO Minecraft sets that have been accumulating over the years.
Each of the new Minecraft sets features minifigure mobs, but only two of the sets offer up a tiny Jack Black as Steve. You can currently purchase all of these sets from Amazon, LEGO direct, or any of the other best places to buy LEGO.
New LEGO Minecraft Sets Available Now
Although there are four new LEGO Minecraft sets coming out, the two that are associated with the movie are The Ghast Balloon Village Attack and Woodland Mansion Fighting Ring. Both sets give us an idea of what to expect from the upcoming film. The Woodland Mansion Fighting Ring depicts some sort of gladiator style battle with Jason Momoa fighting a baby zombie on a chicken. Meanwhile the Ghast Balloon Village Attack set reveals a marshamallow-like villain from the Nether.
The other two Minecraft sets that are releasing are The Parrot Houses and The Trial Chamber. For more like these, you can check out more of our favorite LEGO Minecraft sets.
When Does the New Minecraft Movie Come Out?
LEGO tends to release new sets tied to movie releases about a month before the actual release of the film. The new Minecraft sets are following the same timeline by coming out on March 1 seeing as A Minecraft movie is now in theaters this April.
Will There Be More Minecraft Movie Sets?
So far the two sets we've featured above are the only ones set to release alongside the film. It's possible this could change now that the live-action Minecraft movie is headed for success. Either way, there are new LEGO Minecraft sets released fairly consistently and we can likely expect more to release later this year, even if it isn't directly tied to the movie.
The gaming gods are smiling on us this week, with wallet-friendly wonders across all platforms (and even the chance to preorder a whole new one). Collected below is a pixel-and-polygon-packed parade of discounts, and whether you're into high fantasy, interstellar chaos, or cowboy epics, these price drops are hard to ignore.
This Day in Gaming 🎂
In retro news, I'm using a Flame Lantern to light a 20-candle cake for The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. This Game Boy Advance must-own was technically a prequel to Four Swords (GBA, 2002) and Four Swords Adventures (GC, 2004), and you can reexperience it on a Switch today.
First up on Nintendo Switch, Bravely Default II (A$52) brings classic turn-based JRPG magic with a modern polish and an IGN 8/10. Meanwhile, Persona 5 Royal (A$66) adds new confidants and endings to the Phantom Thieves' stylish rebellion, and even has a cheeky nod to Lupin III hidden in its animation sequences.
Over on Xbox Series X, Red Dead Redemption 2 (A$20) is an epic so detailed that horse testicles shrink in the snow (amazing), while the mind-bending Metaphor: ReFantazio (A$77) channels the team behind Persona into a high-fantasy setting.
On PS5, Epic Mickey: Rebrushed (A$39) revives the concept of forgotten House of Mouse characters. Also, Helldivers 2 (A$49) serves up frenetic co-op mayhem with a wink and a satirical nod to Starship Troopers.
On PC, XCOM 2 (A$5!) is still the gold standard for tactical chaos. My favourite factoid about it: the “missed 95% shot” meme was so prolific, Firaxis tweaked the RNG under the hood just to appease Reddit. For story-rich space mischief, Guardians of the Galaxy (A$14) delivers, and yes, Cosmo the dog actually has more dialogue lines than Groot.
A Minecraft Movie had a massive opening weekend at the box office and sparked pandemonium inside theaters, with popcorn being thrown, wild "CHICKEN JOCKEY!" screams, and even reports of police being called. But some are saying their experience was ruined by the chaos.
Social media was flooded with videos showing overly enthusiastic cinemagoers screaming lines from the movie, openly filming with their phones, throwing popcorn, and clapping rowdily.
One phrase in particular has risen to the top of the social media pile: "CHICKEN JOCKEY!" Jack Black, who plays Minecraft's famous playable character, Steve, says the line in the movie, and videos of screenings that took place over the weekend show it is sending teens delirious.
The line is said during a scene in which Black and Jason Momoa face a cuboid Minecraft chicken who is ridden by a baby zombie in a boxing ring. Black’s Steve declares "CHICKEN JOCKEY!" after the baby zombie falls from a crate onto the chicken; a reference to the video game itself, where certain baby zombie characters are sometimes found riding a chicken.
Given these fans had already seen the chicken jockey scene via a Minecraft trailer released in February, they were primed for release when they saw the movie in the cinema. And now, the chicken jockey line has taken on a life of its own, going viral on social media which in turn is fueling even more intense reaction.
the minecraft movie is truly one of the worst movies i’ve ever seen but the universal reaction to “chicken jockey” im seeing made it all worth it. pic.twitter.com/0mxgliSYEp
One person who filmed the reaction, X / Twitter user @ollie_twt, described the scenes: "the people behind me took their shirts off as well as the ones in the front that were standing. That was by far the loudest theater I’ve ever been in and it was awesome."
One TikTok video viewed by IGN shows a person carrying another on their shoulders, mimicking the chicken jockey itself. Another video, below, shows a teen standing ready to throw two popcorn buckets' worth of popcorn over the audience during the chicken jockey scene.
There are even reports of police being called to eject members of the audience, and complaints from theater employees who have taken to social media and online forums to say people throwing drinks and popcorn makes their jobs even harder.
While it’s clear a significant portion of the Minecraft movie audience is loving all the chaos, there are a number of fans who have expressed frustration that their experience was ruined by all the shouting and clapping.
I need to know, are there people who actually enjoy watching a movie like this? pic.twitter.com/v9NSSe0sqd
Then there are the bemused audience members who aren't in on the joke. Parents taking their young children, friends and family members who aren't as... online as the rest of us.
Warner Bros. will no doubt be delighted by the virality of A Minecraft Movie, of course, as it heads into its second weekend. It’s already secured an incredible $301 million during opening weekend. Could it eventually beat The super Mario Bros. Movie as the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time?
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The weekend is officially here, and we've rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for April 6 below:
Save on LEGO Super Mario
You can save on these two LEGO Super Mario sets right now at Amazon. The first is DK Jumbo, featuring Donkey Kong riding in a unique kart, and the second is Baby Mario vs. Baby Luigi, with two karts included! If you're a Mario fan, don't miss out on adding these two amazing LEGO sets to your collection.
Pre-Order the Dan Da Dan Season 1 Blu-ray for $24.49
Dan Da Dan was one of my favorite anime series of 2024, and the fact that you can take home all of Season 1 for just $24.49 is an absolute steal. Following Momo Ayase and Ken Takakura, Dan Da Dan is a comedic adventure that throws together aliens, spirits, and so much more.
Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed for $33.99
Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed brought the Epic Mickey series back for the first time in years, offering new visuals and retooled combat to the original game. Right now, you can save on this memorable 2024 game, with the Nintendo Switch version priced at $33.99.
This weekend, you can save over $100 off the Logitech G915 TKL Lightspeed Keyboard. This wireless mechanical keyboard is perfect for any setup, with a wide variety of customization options available. You can expect around 40 hours of battery with one full charge, with low profile mechanical switches to deliver faster speed and accuracy with each key press.
Pre-Orders Are Live for Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter has officially opened pre-orders at Amazon, with both PS5 and Nintendo Switch copies available for $59.99. If you're unfamiliar with the Trails series, this is a remake of the very first Trails game, making 2025 the perfect time to jump into the series for the very first time. NIS America is set to bring the latest game in the series, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon, to North America and Europe later this year, which is the first time ever the series will be caught up worldwide.
SanDisk 1TB Extreme M.2 NVMe SSD for $59.99
If you're in the market for a new SSD, this SanDisk 1TB Extreme Gen 4 SSD is on sale this weekend for just $59.99. It's perfect for media storage, games, or anything you need!
Pre-Order A Minecraft Movie Steelbook
A Minecraft Movie is taking over the internet right now, whether for one of Jack Black's lines or the sold-out cinemas across the world. As the movie is out now, you can now pre-order this limited edition Steelbook from Amazon. Don't miss your chance to lock in your pre-order for A Minecraft Movie!
Save on LEGO Animal Crossing
You can also save on LEGO Animal Crossing this weekend. These two sets are very high quality with a lot to offer! First, there's the Dodo Airlines set, which includes the iconic airport found in Animal Crossing New Horizons, plane and all. You can also save on the K.K.'s Concert in The Plaza Set, which includes town hall, a vehicle, and figures of K.K. Slider, Isabelle, and more!
Apple AirTag 4 Pack
Why buy one AirTag when you can get four for just $69.99, down from $99? Throw one in your luggage, attach one to your keys, slap one in your backpack, and hand one to a forgetful friend. With Ultra Wideband Precision Finding and the Find My network, losing your stuff is basically impossible. This 4-pack is one of the best deals Apple offers, so grab it while it’s discounted.
$40 Off This LEGO Back to The Future Time Machine Set
You can also save $40 off the LEGO Icons Back to The Future Time Machine set. If you're a fan of the beloved sci-fi trilogy, this is the perfect set to add some out of this world decor to your collection.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $32.99
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is $32.99 at Woot right now, making this the lowest we've ever seen the RPG. The massive adventure across the planet to track Sephiroth was one of the biggest games of 2024, and it's absolutely a must-play game. A 40+ hour main story awaits, with over 35 side quests available after you clear the story.
College Football 25 for $9.99
College Football 25 is only $9.99 at Best Buy right now for Xbox Series X. The world of college football is ever-expanding, and this is by far the biggest celebration ever made in a video game. Every FBS team is playable, totaling up to 134 different teams to choose from, with all unique traditions, songs, and chants implemented as well.
Sonic Prime Season 1 Blu-ray for $11.33
Sonic fans, you can take home season 1 of Sonic Prime today for only $11.33 at Amazon. All eight episodes of the first season are available in this set, which is perfect for starting your Blu-ray collection.
Deck-building games are among the newer innovations in the ages-old hobby of playing card and board games. Like many fresh ideas, the concept of a deck-building game is startling in its simplicity. Card games where you build a custom deck before you play have been around a while. In a deck-building game, though, you build the deck while you play. Starting with a hand of currency cards, you cash them in for other, more interesting cards, and make a deck on-the-fly you think is good enough to win.
It wasn't just gamers who got bowled over by the brilliance of the concept: It was designers, too. Gaming was soon awash in copycat games, many of limited interest. Since then, the mechanic has seen redeployment into other genres of game with mixed results, but there are loads of awesome examples. These are the best deck-building board games out there right now.
While deck-building originated as a board game mechanic, it's become more and more popular as a part of video games, in part thanks to the extraordinary success of Slay the Spire. So it's entirely appropriate that there's now a board game version of that game to close the circle. Rules-wise it's very close to its source material as you choose an adventurer and refine their combat deck through a series of tough encounters and merchant visits, climbing the titular spire to fight a terrifying boss. However the parent game is solo only, and a lot of the fun in Slay the Spire: The Board Game comes from the fact that you get to venture into the unknown and battle the gribblies with friends along for the ride.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal
In Heat: Pedal to the Metal, your deck represents the engine of your car, with most cards showing a number of spaces to move. On your turn you can switch gears and then must play the corresponding gear number of cards from your hand, trying to avoid taking corners too fast and spinning off, in a nail-biting race to the finish on your choice of included tracks. Deck building in the basic game is limited to managing heat cards that you take in exchange for extra actions but which clog up your deck, however there's an advanced variant that lets you tinker with your engine deck in all sorts of other satisfying ways for a deeper strategic experience.
Lost Ruins of Arnak
Given the ongoing popularity of the Indiana Jones series, it's perhaps surprising that more board games haven't riffed on the adventurous archeaologist, but at least this one that does is an absolute cracker. Players race to gather equipment and companions to make expeditions deeper and deeper into the jungle, braving strange guardians and plundering ruins before feeding their gains back into the next expedition in a cool interplay of daring and forward-planning that's surprisingly strategic once you peel back its interlocking mechanics. One of those is your trusty deck of cards that you'll get to add to by spending your loot, before playing as you plan and execute your expeditions.
Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game
At first sight, Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game looks like a typical example of the genre where you start with a few cards that give you resources, which you spend to buy more cards to beef up your deck. In this instance, you’re looking for offensive cards that damage your opponent’s base as a route to victory. But there are some really fun tweaks to the formula beyond the appealing theme. For starters, you can attack cards before your opponent buys them, denying them good options and earning you a reward. There’s also a very deep well of card variety, with tons of interesting combos between their effects you can explore. Finally, destroying one base isn’t enough: you need three, and you get to pick which ones you use, with their special effects adding another layer to the game’s strategy.
Dune Imperium
In Dune: Imperium your deck represents resources that your noble house can draw on as you seek power and influence in the universe of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic. It’s married to another classic mechanic, worker placement, as each card play sends one of your agents to a board space, either courting influence with a faction like The Guild or The Fremen, or to the planet’s surface, to harvest spice or do battle for territory. It’s a clever melange of thematic and abstract concepts that mesh to create a fascinating whole with many parts to master. There’s also a whole new concept for deckbuilding called reveal turns where you discard your remaining cards to get a secondary effect, meaning you’re building and playing your deck on two different levels at once.
The Quest for El Dorado
This is what you get when Reiner Knizia, possibly the most prolific and talented game designer of all time, turns his considerable skills onto deck-building. The result is a seamless blend of deck management and race game as players compete to be the first to make it across the map, matching cards from their deck to terrain hexes on the board in order to move. But of course that’s only half the story: there are hidden surprises in many spaces to upend your strategy and powerful one-shot cards in the market that can make or break your game if timed correctly. Easy to learn, fun to play, but full of interaction and challenge: all the hallmarks of yet another Knizia classic that’s worth its weight in gold.
Cubitos
Since Dominion spawned the whole deck-building subgenre, various games have switched from a deck to a bag of cubes, but Cubitostakes things one step further and allows you to build a collection of actual dice. Your aim is to propel a running racer across the finish line first, but it’s the dice that do the propulsion when you roll the appropriate symbols to move. Other symbols let you buy more dice, thin your collection, even attack and defend with other players. But best of all are the blank faces, which do nothing except let you re-roll them unless you roll all blanks, in which case it’s turn over. With the thrill of rolling huge buckets of dice, the strategy of combining dice types to suit the action, and the addictive terror of push your luck, you’ll be winning with Cubitos even when you lose.
The Quacks of Quedlinburg
Each turn of this game (which you may also find re-branded as just plain Quacks), you’ll get the opportunity to add new ingredients to your secret bag, from which you’ll then draw counters to mix in your cauldron in a quest to create the most powerful potion. But watch out: Draw too many bomb counters and your mixture for the round will explode, ending your turn early. This simple premise is set into flight by the fact that you can change the effects of the other counters each game, choosing from a palette of different abilities that dovetail in new and interesting ways, adding more power to your potion and your purchasing ability as you race with your opponents to make the best brew. Add in a slew of other strategic levers to manage, and you’ve got the makings of a modern classic. And once you've mastered the contents of the base game there are all sorts of expansions to mix in, as we explain in our Quacks of Quedlinburg buyer's guide.
Tyrants of the Underdark
Tyrants of the Underdark is another game where your deck corresponds to assets belonging to a noble house, only this time they’re minions in the employ of Dungeons & Dragons’ fiendish dark elves. Card play spreads your troops, assassins and influence from your starting city over a network of Underdark locations from the well-known fantasy novel trilogy The Legend of Drizzt. There’s a real sense of struggle as you tussle for territory with other players, card and counter-card adding and removing pieces from the board. Many of the cards represent iconic characters and monsters from the role-playing game with art to match. And there are multiple card sets to combine for new and interesting strategic and tactical options with every play.
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
Legendary does a couple of interesting things with the deck-building formula. For starters, it’s cooperative, with all the players working together to defeat a supervillain, although if you defeat them you can tally points and declare a top, legendary, player. Second, the villain has a deck too, which functions as a game engine and a scenario which dictates the win and loss conditions. You’re not, as you might expect, playing as individual Marvel heroes but rather controlling them as a group with your card plays, recruiting new cards and attacking the villain’s henchmen. It’s a riot of replayability with so many different combinations out of the box, plus it’s fast and smooth with lots of options to fine-tune the challenge level to your group’s needs. There’s a whole series of Legendary games built on the same mechanical engine, including the excellent Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game.
Dominion: 2nd Edition
Or you could start with the deck building game that started it all. Dominion wasn't only novel: It was also simple, with quick, three-step turns. All the complexity is on the cards themselves. The goal is to use the starting copper cards to buy better cards, allowing for more money and actions, working up to buying victory point cards. Strategy comes down to honing your deck into the leanest card-buying machine you can manage. With 25 card options, of which 10 got chosen for use in each game, it also has impressive replay value. Yet it's popular enough to have spawned a slew of expansions, of which Dominion: Intrigue is often considered the best, but we have a full Dominion buyer's guide if you want to shop around.
Aeon's End
Aeon's End takes deck-building into the popular category of cooperative games. It's a smart move: deck-based games are often low on interaction, and having players work together is a solid solution. Here, you're all wizards working together to save a fantasy city from a marauding evil. And there are plenty of cards to heal and buff your fellow players, so there's plenty to think about. Its particular genius, though, is that you flip your discard pile over rather than shuffling when it's empty. This makes the order of card play critical, allowing you to set up combos for the next time you run through your deck. With other timing-based innovations and a tense random turn order, it's thrilling and challenging in equal measure. You can now choose from a variety of sets as we run down in our Aeon's End buyer's guide, from facing off against demons in the original box to taking on the undead in a longer, more complex campaign with the new Legacy of Gravehold.
Clank! Catacombs
Numbers are at the heart of what makes deck-building work, and they're at the heart of what makes the Clank! series special. Players are adventurers seeking to loot a dungeon and escape before a dragon wakes up. The engine of each hero is their deck, which lets them move and fight, open doors and spend gold. These are just abstract numbers that you use to overcome challenges: The real game is the frantic race in and out of the dungeon. That's where all the themes and thrills are. By separating the strategy from the theme, Clank! manages to satisfy fans of both camps with a winning combination. Clank! Catacombs is the latest and greatest iteration of this series, adding more deck control, more variety and a dungeon built of randomly-drawn tiles to re-create the thrill of exploring the unknown.
Undaunted: Normandy
Deck-building has proved a surprising proxy for warfare in several games. Undaunted is the best of them, using the flow of cards from your deck as a way to simulate casualties and command confusion on the battlefield. It's a great fit, giving players a real sense of running an infantry platoon from simple rules. Atop the deck-building strategy, there's the extra dimension of moving pieces on the map. This isn't so realistic, but it's still a ton of fun as you tussle over tiles using tactics and dice. A selection of scenarios and troop types ensures there's plenty of replay puzzling as you work the game's layers to gain the upper hand. There are multiple editions of the game to choose from. Undaunted: Normandy focuses on squad-level combat in France while Undaunted: North Africa moves the action to single-soldier special forces and adds rules for vehicles, and for those who'd prefer to avoid the military theme Undaunted 2200: Callisto is set in a far-future mining colony.
Deck-Building vs Deckbuilding
Deck-building is a confusing term because it applies to both a genre and a gaming activity, and it means slightly different things in each case. The term originates in collectible card games, the best known of which is Magic: The Gathering. In this realm, deck-building means the process of deciding what cards from your collection you’re going to use in a deck with which to play the game. In the very earliest days of collectible games, before access to the internet was widespread, this was a key part of the strategic appeal of these titles as you had to decide which cards would work well together. Nowadays, it’s increasingly common for players to get deck-building suggestions from the internet.
In 2008 there was a minor revolution in game design with Dominion, which invented deck-building as a genre. It took inspiration from deck-building as an activity but instead of building a deck before you play from a collection, in these games you build your deck while you play, from a market of cards. In many such games, like Dominion itself or Star Wars The Deckbuilding Game, your starting cards include currencies with which to buy new cards. It’s increasingly common to link deck-building to other game mechanics, as Dune: Imperium does, in which case the resource to buy cards may come from one of those other game elements. Either way you’ll get more and more powerful cards as the game progresses and, often, there will be ways to get rid of your weaker starting cards, too, linking the strategy and tactics of deck construction in new and interesting ways.
If you’re a fan of deck-building in both senses, you might also want to check out Millennium Blades, which uses the deck-building genre to simulate the process of building a collectible card game collection and using it to build decks. It works surprisingly well, is full of fun pop culture references, and features literal wads of paper money to spend.
A Minecraft Movie has enjoyed a record-breaking start at the box office, leapfrogging The Super Mario Bros. Movie to secure the biggest domestic debut in history for a video game adaptation.
The Xbox game adaptation starring Jason Momoa and Jack Black, the latter of whom also starred in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, smashed box office expectations with an enormous $157 million at North American theaters. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which for now remains the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time, enjoyed $146 million domestically during its opening weekend in April 2023.
A Minecraft Movie added $144 million via the international box office for a global opening weekend total of $301 million. A Minecraft Movie reportedly cost $150 million to produce before global marketing costs, so it may already be profitable for Warner Bros.
A Minecraft Movie is of course based on Mojang's Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time. The Microsoft-owned sandbox remains one of the most popular video games in the world, and has movie tie-in DLC to capitalize on the film’s launch.
IGN’s A Minecraft Movie review returned a 6/10. We said: “Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess puts a surprisingly specific and funny comic spin on A Minecraft Movie’s kid-friendly adventure, especially in its less antic first half.”
Meanwhile, Disney’s live-action Snow White looks set for disaster status after a disappointing opening weekend box office. It’s now up to $168.4 million globally ($77.5 million domestic and $90.9 million international), and with a reported $250 million production budget, a Mufasa: The Lion King-style sleeper hit comeback may be beyond it.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
New video game hardware announcements can become somewhat predictable. With each new generation of consoles you can expect to see near-certain staples like better graphics, faster load times, and new takes on beloved, plumber-and-turtle-oriented franchises.
Even Nintendo, which has done this consistently across several generations, from the N64 analog controller, tiny GameCube discs, wacky Wii motion controls and Virtual Console, the Wii U tablet screen, and the Switch’s built-in portability, has delivered these improvements with the Switch 2.
But being Nintendo, the company again unveiled a few genuine shockers during the Switch 2 Direct.
It's 2025 and we finally get online play.
When I was four years old in 1983, my babysitter used to roll footballs at me like Donkey Kong rolling barrels at Mario. I would jump over them, making a Donkey Kong sound effect in the air, then grab a toy hammer and smash them like Mario. That’s how long I’ve been a Nintendo fan. So I say this from a place of long-suffering experience: it’s going to be impossible to talk about this awesome reveal without revealing a little loving bitterness.
Nintendo, as we all know, does not really play online well. Satellaview and Metroid Prime: Hunters aside, Nintendo has barely scraped the surface of what’s possible with a unified multiplayer platform like those created by Sony and Xbox. It’s never as easy to find and talk with friends on a Nintendo platform. Even the Switch required a separate app for voice chat.
Shockingly, change appears to be here now. During the Direct, Nintendo unveiled GameChat, and it looks... really neat?! It's a four-player chat that supports noise suppression, video cameras for showing friends’ faces, and screen sharing across consoles, allowing you to keep an eye on up to four different displays inside a single screen. We know from the new Switch 2 accessibility features page that GameChat also supports text-to-voice and voice-to-text, allowing players to communicate multiple ways.
Now we haven’t seen what, if any, unified matchmaking interface might tie into this just yet. But it’s already a big step, and I’m hoping it means the last nail in the coffin for the abominable friend code forever.
Miyazaki is bringing new blood exclusively to Nintendo
When I saw the first frames of this trailer, I thought I was seeing Bloodborne 2. The ambiance, the character design, and the environments all screamed the FROM Software house style. Thanks to Eric Van Allen at IGN, I now know that I was watching footage from The Duskbloods, a multiplayer PvPvE game designed by the softly-smiling monarch of video game masochism, Hidetaka Miyazaki.
I do not know where this man found time to direct a Nintendo-exclusive game. I’m starting to think that he may never leave his office nor sleep, much like one of his own confused, hollowed characters wasting away in the high tower of some gothic prison. But I’m grateful. FROM doesn’t really miss anymore, so I’m anticipating a tasty treat.
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
Speaking of people who need a vacation, apparently Super Smash Bros. director Masuhiro Sakurai has moved on from Smash to a new Kirby game? Did not see that coming. Get that man a nap!
The original Kirby's Air Ride was, to put it bluntly, a pleasant-looking but aggressively unfun Kirby racer for GameCube. But Sakurai has made no secret of his deep affinity for Nintendo’s round, pink elder god, and it’s practically a certainty that a Sakurai-helmed take on the franchise will be a far more refined and enjoyable experience.
Control issues
It was almost a throwaway moment, but the Pro Controller 2 sounds genuinely Pro this time around when Nintendo announced the Pro Controller 2 has an audio jack now, which is another feature that’s welcome about a decade later. More importantly, they’ve added two mappable extra buttons. I LOVE customizable buttons, so this tiny surprise actually tickled me pink.
No Mario?!
This one genuinely shocked me. Near as I can tell, a lot of Nintendo’s Mario makers have been locked up in a secret bunker for years working on his next 3D adventure, which I assumed would be the big summer game for Switch. I was very wrong. Turns out the Odyssey team is the force behind Donkey Kong Bananza, the captivating new 3D platformer with a focus on destructible environments. Nintendo is once again playing against expectations as it so often does, trusting hardcore fans to flock to Donkey Kong’s biggest game in generations and saving Mario for another day.
Switch will also launch with extensive third party support and Mario Kart World. While World looks like a system-seller, I figured it would be timed as a Christmas-window family game. Nintendo usually leans on Mario, Zelda, or both to sell to their biggest fans during a console’s first year. But Nintendo is looking at Mario Kart 8’s record sales with confidence, betting their most popular party game, alongside Bananza, will help move enough Switch 2 units to make launch a success.
Forza Horizon x Nintendo was not on my bingo card
Open-world Mario Kart is here, whether it be for good or for ill. I’m betting on good, as the zany physics, weird vehicles, and combat mechanics of Mario Kart should lend themselves well to navigating between and across tracks battling friends and sewing chaos. The short look we got seems to indicate a continuous world a la Bowser’s Fury, but much larger and supporting myriad drivers.
It’s very expensive
The Switch 2 costs too much. I get that everything is expensive right now, as tariffs go up, the yen goes down, and American inflation reignites. But $449.99 USD is a hefty price by any standard, and Switch 2 is the most expensive launch in Nintendo’s 40-plus US sales history. In fact, Switch 2 costs $150 dollars more than its predecessor’s launch price, and is $100 dollars more than the next-most-expensive Wii U. Successful Nintendo consoles and handhelds have often relied on lower prices as a differentiator, but Switch 2 will be looking to succeed without a price advantage.
Jared Petty is a former IGN editor who likes writing about how wonderful and silly video games are. You can find him at Bluesky as pettycommajared.
Moza’s R3 PC Wheel and Pedals bundle is a competitively priced and compelling pit stop for any newcomer looking to dip a leaden foot into simming. Also, it’s an ideal, ready-to-race package that will rev the engines of anybody who dreams less of shaving PBs on a track and more about shredding POS cars in Wreckfest 2.
That’s pretty much what I decided to throw my Moza R3 at. I took a lovely, metal-twisting holiday away from my usual MO of testing Direct Drive wheels with hypercars and perfect lines. Was that an unorthodox test bed? Kinda. But I maintain that the Wreckfest series is a low-barrier gateway racer that can create serious rally addicts eventually.
Better than that, though, it’s just big gobs of fun with physics a-go-go and punchy force feedback aplenty.
While the 3.9Nm thrumming in this wheelbase doesn’t exactly redline with its peak power, it’s still a solid and stylish DD unit that hums along like a finely tuned machine. Unlike its clunkier, noisier gear-and-belt-driven rivals at the entry level, the R3 is whisper-quiet and ridiculously compact in comparison. Better yet, the bundle is extremely mod-friendly, so upgrading your ride down the road is a cinch—no need to swap out the whole chassis.
Moza R3 – Design and Features
The Moza R3 Racing Wheel and Pedals bundle is a full-throttle, plug-and-play racing system. Inside the box, you’ll find Moza’s new 3.9 Nm R3 wheelbase, a 280mm PC-compatible steering wheel, a set of SR-P Lite pedals, and a separate table clamp is also included. Believe you me, you’re going to need that last bit of kit once the FFB gets going. Nothing jerry-rigged or half-arsed is going to hold this sucker down when the cars start cartwheeling.
Said clamp is made entirely of steel and is rigid as hell—quite sturdier than the plastic alternatives, and it has a generous 50mm of clamp space. Via the chaos of Wreckfest 2, I certainly gave that rigidity a run for its money. Thanks to a beefy desk and a straightforward system of four mount holes to secure the R3 wheelbase, this setup holds up well under the stresses of force feedback.
Via the chaos of Wreckfest 2, I certainly gave that rigidity a run for its money.
Weighing in at just 2.29 kilos and measuring a compact 120mm high, 135mm wide, and only 93mm long (excluding the steering shaft), the R3 is a pocket rocket of a wheelbase. Its boxy, industrial design gives it a serious motorsport aesthetic—far more race-ready-looking than some of the older, plastic clamshells that are out there competing.
I also like that the ports on the back are neatly arranged for easy access, with slots for pedals, a dash display, a shifter, a handbrake, and even an emergency stop device. Out of the box, the only one you’ll need is the pedal port, but expansion is as easy as adding aftermarket mods to a project car. There are also two threaded holes up top for mounting Moza’s dash display.
Wheel-wise, the one you’re getting default here is a comfy D-shape affair with a grippy polyurethane wrapping. I like the feel of the clicky, short-throw paddle shifters that are crafted from sturdy black metal. And I dig that Moza allows for some customisation here—the brushed metal wheel rim is removable, and alternative rims are available to better serve your race discipline of choice.
Heading below the equator, we have the R3’s pedal set, which is only an accelerator and a brake. If you’re searching for a clutch experience—and that’d make perfect sense for OG muscle cars in Wreckfest 2—you can make an extra pit lane purchase of a third pedal. Prices seem to be reasonable for that, and I know from experience that Moza’s ecosystem is all about easy installation.
Beyond that, these metal pedals feel a heck of a lot more robust than some of the plastic-heavy alternatives on the market. Resistance comes from springs rather than a load cell, so while they’re not championship-grade, they should be more than enough for entry-level sim racers. There’s also a surprising degree of adjustability, with pedal pads that can be repositioned higher or lower, and the entire pedal units can be moved left or right.
Moza R3 x Wreckfest 2: Performance
With 3.9 Nm of peak torque, the R3 isn’t exactly a torque monster, but it’s right in the slipstream of other entry-level contenders with similar price pricepoints. It’s also perfect for some low-stakes, throw-around fun in a physics-heavy (yet nonetheless arcade-y) title like Wreckfest 2.
I’m not going to lie to you, though; I did need to do some tinkering to make Wreckfest 2 speak correctly with the R3, at least initially. However, thanks to the ever-changing landscape of Early Access, a few hotfixes meant I no longer had to constantly rebind/reverse my pedals in Moza’s (usually quite capable) Pit House software. Everything works pretty much as it should now, and, obviously, support will only get better as yet more fixes roll out.
The R3’s FFB feels wonderful when you laterally thunk into other cars—typically when you’re using “dodgem cars” cornering logic to pinball past an apex while pinging some competitor off into a tree. Likewise, the feelings you get through the wheel when you’re on the receiving end of such tactics and are forced to shred through some random fence or tyre pile are nice and visceral.
Car-nage collisions aside, I’d also be remiss if I didn’t highlight how satisfying a stretch of clean racing can be—that basic yet intimate FFB conversation between balding tyres and terra firma. Obviously, with Wreckfest 2 having closer DNA to a rally experience than a staid, single-surface track racer, every lap can (literally) feel like a series of plot twists. You’d better believe your hands will notice the difference when you drift in and out of bitumen to gravel to mud and back again.
Oh, and it goes without saying that any time there’s a momentary lull in any and all force feedback followed by a wrist-rattling jolt, that is just…well, a chef’s kiss experience. I can furnish you with two memorable examples of this. One, whenever you get some sick Dukes of Hazzard air and land on something you shouldn't have. And two, reversing from a bad corner upset, flicking into neutral, and then getting utterly and unexpectedly blindsided by some AI trying to break the land speedbump record through you.
Incidentally, I would like to say that POV racing in Wreckfest 2 with a decent FFB wheel such as this is the rough racing equivalent of a mini horror game. With your peripherals increasingly blinkered by the cabin of a crumpling car, every race is basically a series of untelegraphed jump scares that reach out and grab you through this wheel. Obviously this “driving on eggshells” sensation becomes more pronounced when you’re engaged in an actual demolition derby event, and some bastard has just bent your bonnet up over 80% of your windscreen.
I honestly shudder to think what those unexpected crashes will feel like for any gamer gripping a Moza R12 or higher. Those impacts you’ll get with 12 or 16 Nm worth of grunt will surely be the stuff of warning label justification. Hell, even a surprise bash through the 3.9 Nm force of the R3 delivers a respectable hand rattle. As unthinkable as it may sound, you may actually find yourself turning it down.
All that being said, multiplying the Moza R3 Bundle with the Early Access antics of Wreckfest 2 is one of the funnest things I’ve done all year thus far. Even as a proud owner of a Moza R12 wheelbase and pretty much every fancy add-on that comes with it, I was impressed by the performance and value proposition of this younger brother bundle. If you have budget aspirations of joining the simming scene—or you just wanna feel stuff crash harder than a stock market after tariffs—I say turn the key on an R3.
Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.
Lazarus brings together some of the most celebrated names in not just anime but all of entertainment. The completely original sci-fi series is helmed by none other than Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichirō Watanabe, though critic Ryan Guar's review of the first five episodes states that Lazarus is far from a Cowboy Bebop revival. The animation was led by Mappa Studio (Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen) alongside Sola Entertainment (Tower of God), while Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick movies, designed the action sequences.
With so much hype (and a little bit of mystery), it isn't surprising that Adult Swim picked up the anime to air new episodes in the U.S. at the same time as Japan. If you’re wondering how to watch new episodes of Lazarus online, check out the details below.
Where to Stream Lazarus
New episodes of Lazarus will be available to stream on Max (instead of Crunchyroll or Netflix) the day after they broadcast on Adult Swim. That means new episodes of Lazarus will arrive on Max every Sunday. Max subscriptions start at $9.99 and can be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu.
According to a Warner Bros. press release, subbed versions of Lazarus episodes will air and arrive on Max 30 days after the dubbed episodes.
How to Watch New Episodes Live
Lazarus is airing simultaneously in Japan and the United States. In the States, you can watch new dubbed episodes of Lazarus live on Adult Swim during its Toonami block on Saturday nights. Aside from cable, Adult Swim is included in live TV subscriptions like Hulu + Live TV (which offers a three-day free trial).
Lazarus Episode Release Dates
The first season of Lazarus will include 13 episodes total. Each episode will air live on Adult Swim before arriving on Max. Note that episodes air at midnight (technically Sunday), but are part of Adult Swim's Saturday block, which is why that date is used. Think of it as you'll be staying up, not waking up, to watch new episodes.
Assuming it won't have a mid-season break, here's what I predict the episode release schedule will look like for Lazarus Season 1:
Episode 2: "Life in the Fast Lane" - April 12 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: April 13
Episode 3: "Long Way from Home" - April 19 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: April 20
Episode 4 - April 26 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: April 27
Episode 5 - May 3 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: May 4
Episode 6 - May 10 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: May 11
Episode 7 - May 17 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: May 18
Episode 8 - May 24 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: May 25
Episode 9 - May 31 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: June 1
Episode 10 - June 7 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: June 8
Episode 11 - June 14 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: June 15
Episode 12 - June 21 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: June 22
Episode 13 - June 28 (12am EST/9pm PST)
Streaming: June 29
What Is Lazarus About?
In a rare move for the anime industry, Lazarus is entirely original. No manga inspiration here, so no reading ahead to find out what happens. Here’s the official plot synopsis from the Lazarus website:
Lazarus Voice Cast and Characters
Lazarus was created by Shinichirō Watanabe. Here's the main voice cast in Japanese and English:
Mamoru Miyano (Japanese) and Jack Stansbury (English) as Axel
Makoto Furukawa (Japanese) and Jovan Jackson (English) as Doug
Maaya Uchida (Japanese) and Luci Christian (English) as Christine
Yuma Uchida (Japanese) and Bryson Baugus (English) as Leland
Manaka Iwami (Japanese) and Annie Wild (English) as Eleina
Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese) and Jade Kelly (English) as Hersch
Akio Otsuka (Japanese) and Sean Patrick Judge (English) as Abel
Koichi Yamadera (Japanese); David Matranga (English) as Dr. Skinner
We’re nearing the end of the 2025 Men’s March Madness Tournament. In perhaps one of the least interesting outcomes of all time, all four top seeds made it to the semi-finals. So, if you happened to base your entire bracket on the number 1, congratulations!
With the rest of the tournament playing out over the next couple of days, it might not be worth picking up a new subscription or cable plan. But that shouldn’t mean you have to miss out on the fun. With the magic of free trials, here’s how you can watch the March Madness Final Four games online for free.
How to Watch the Final Four Games for Free
The rest of the Men’s March Madness tournament takes place today and Monday. That means you only need three days of a streaming service to watch the semi-finals and the National Championship. All three games will be airing live on CBS and simultaneously streamed on Paramount+, which happens to offer a 7-day free trial. In other words, if you sign up for Paramount+ right now, you can watch the Final Four games as well as the National Championship before your trial ends. Alternatively, you could use an HDTV antenna to watch the games live via your local CBS channel.
Other Free Trials That Let You Watch March Madness
There's only three games left in the March Madness tournament, all of which are being played in San Antonio at the Alamodome. See the full tournament schedule at the NCAA website.
Final Four (Semi-Finals) - Saturday, April 5
(1) Florida vs. (1) Auburn - 6:09pm (CBS, Paramount+)
(1) Duke vs. (1) Houston - 8:49pm (CBS, Paramount+)
National Championship - Monday, April 7
TBA - 8:50pm (CBS, Paramount+)
All Top Seeds, But a Range of Experience in the Final Four
Every one of these top-seeded teams has something to prove. This is Duke's first time reaching the Final Four since Coach K retired back in 2022, and the Blue Devils lead predictions for taking the crown. Florida won back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007, though the last time they made it to the Final Four was in 2014. Meanwhile, this is only Auburn's second time ever making it to this stage. Houston actually holds the record for the most Final Four appearances without any Championship wins (seven total), most recently reaching the semi-finals in 2021.
Blythe (she/her) is an SEO Coordinator at IGN who spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.
The weekend is officially here, and we've rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for April 5 below:
Pre-Order the Dan Da Dan Season 1 Blu-ray for $24.49
Dan Da Dan was one of my favorite anime series of 2024, and the fact that you can take home all of Season 1 for just $24.49 is an absolute steal. Following Momo Ayase and Ken Takakura, Dan Da Dan is a comedic adventure that throws together aliens, spirits, and so much more.
Super Mario RPG for $19.99
The remake of Super Mario RPG is $19.99 at GameStop right now, which is a great price for this classic title. If you've yet to either play the original or check out the remake, this is the perfect time to do so. Composer Yoko Shimimura returned to compose the remake's original soundtrack, and each boss and environment has been expertly recrafted for the Nintendo Switch.
This weekend, you can save over $100 off the Logitech G915 TKL Lightspeed Keyboard. This wireless mechanical keyboard is perfect for any setup, with a wide variety of customization options available. You can expect around 40 hours of battery with one full charge, with low profile mechanical switches to deliver faster speed and accuracy with each key press.
Pre-Orders Are Live for Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter has officially opened pre-orders at Amazon, with both PS5 and Nintendo Switch copies available for $59.99. If you're unfamiliar with the Trails series, this is a remake of the very first Trails game, making 2025 the perfect time to jump into the series for the very first time. NIS America is set to bring the latest game in the series, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon, to North America and Europe later this year, which is the first time ever the series will be caught up worldwide.
SanDisk 1TB Extreme M.2 NVMe SSD for $59.99
If you're in the market for a new SSD, this SanDisk 1TB Extreme Gen 4 SSD is on sale this weekend for just $59.99. It's perfect for media storage, games, or anything you need!
Pre-Order A Minecraft Movie Steelbook
A Minecraft Movie is taking over the internet right now, whether for one of Jack Black's lines or the sold-out cinemas across the world. As the movie is out now, you can now pre-order this limited edition Steelbook from Amazon. Don't miss your chance to lock in your pre-order for A Minecraft Movie!
Apple AirTag 4 Pack
Why buy one AirTag when you can get four for just $69.99, down from $99? Throw one in your luggage, attach one to your keys, slap one in your backpack, and hand one to a forgetful friend. With Ultra Wideband Precision Finding and the Find My network, losing your stuff is basically impossible. This 4-pack is one of the best deals Apple offers, so grab it while it’s discounted.
$40 Off This LEGO Back to The Future Time Machine Set
You can also save $40 off the LEGO Icons Back to The Future Time Machine set. If you're a fan of the beloved sci-fi trilogy, this is the perfect set to add some out of this world decor to your collection.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $32.99
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is $32.99 at Woot right now, making this the lowest we've ever seen the RPG. The massive adventure across the planet to track Sephiroth was one of the biggest games of 2024, and it's absolutely a must-play game. A 40+ hour main story awaits, with over 35 side quests available after you clear the story.
Sonic Prime Season 1 Blu-ray for $11.33
Sonic fans, you can take home season 1 of Sonic Prime today for only $11.33 at Amazon. All eight episodes of the first season are available in this set, which is perfect for starting your Blu-ray collection.
Streaming has gone from being a cheaper alternative to cable, to an actually worse version of cable. The price of streaming services has skyrocketed since the early days, and content has been haphazardly strewn across different subscriptions. Not only that, each of the streaming services are continually raising prices on consumers. If you find yourself subscribed to Netflix, Max, Hulu, Paramount+, and Disney+ all at once you're probably paying way too much for streaming right now.
Thankfully there are some options to cut down on your budget without just canceling your access to everything. There are ways to bundle services together, free trials, and streaming alternatives out there you can take advantage of. Below I've gathered a quick list of ways I've found to save money and still watch an endless stream of quality entertainment on the daily.
Bundle Services Where You Can
The overall best way to save money on streaming is to take advantage of streaming bundle options. The first and most obvious bundle worth mentioning is the Disney+, Hulu, Max combo that puts all three of the popular streamers in a single monthly charge that is pretty good discount. This is the overall best deal in streaming right now and something I myself have taken advantage of. If you're currently paying for all three of those services separately, you are spending way too much money for no reason. Bundle it up while you still can.
Outside of this bundle, there are also various live TV streaming services that bundle a cable-like experience with streaming. There's the Hulu + Live TV subscription that includes ESPN+ and Disney+ all in one bill. This is a great option if you want an all-in-one service that includes regular channels.
Take Advantage of Free Trials
Another great option for saving money is to utilize free trials. Although some a major streaming service like Netflix does not have a free trial, there are plenty of other options available. Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV+ all include a free streaming trial you can test drive for seven days or more. It's entirely possible to grab a free trial of Apple TV+ and binge both seasons of Severance within that seven-day period. You just need to remember to cancel the service before you start getting charged a monthly fee.
Free trials can also be helpful if you're trying to catch a live sporting event. Many of the popular sports streaming services offer some sort of free trial for new subscribers that work in a pinch. Some of the best choices in this regard are the Hulu + Live TV free trial and the Fubo free trial, which get you access to a great variety of channels.
Utilize Free Streaming Sites
With even some paid subscriptions now including ads, there are many free streaming sites out there that don't cost a penny. Sure, they have ads, but if you're already paying for the basic tier of a site like Hulu just so you can watch TV and movies that are available for free, you might as well not be paying at all. One great option I've used occasionally is Sling Freestream, which offers a ton of free channels and the option of free DVR when you create a free account. There's also Kanopy, which allows you to stream movies for free with the use of a library card.
If you're looking for a place to more specifically stream anime for free, there are actually quite a few places with episodes available for free. Though the overall best option is the Crunchyroll free tier. You can also upgrade to premium with a free trial of the paid tiers if you want to test a full subscription.
Get Yourself an HD TV Antenna
The last suggestion I have for anyone who specifically wants to watch live channels without having to log in somewhere online is to get yourself a good TV antenna. Some TVs come with a way to access live TV channels, but if yours doesn't then you just need to pick up an antenna and plug it in for free channels straight from the air. This will automatically get you access to major networks as well as local channels. I have one myself that I've used to watch live sporting events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics last year. It's also great for shows like The Bachelor, which tend to air live before they hit streaming anyway.
A good indoor TV antenna costs around $50 or more, but it's a one time purchase you shouldn't need to make again. There's no recurring monthly payment involved, you just get some good old-fashioned live TV with ads.
Find Free Movies on YouTube
Similar to the free streaming sites we've mentioned above, YouTube offers quite a few free movies you can stream at any given time. There are literally hundreds of movies you can watch for free at any given time. In addition to those, there's also seemingly endless videos about every other topic available on YouTube. There are usually a lot of ads on videos if you don't have a premium subscription, but if you can get past that it's a pretty good free alternative to major streamers.
For students who want to avoid the ads altogether, there's also a discount available that makes the service pretty cheap.
Jacob Kienlen is a Senior SEO Strategist and Writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has considered the Northwest his home for his entire life. With a bachelor's degree in communication and over 8 years of professional writing experience, his expertise is spread across a variety of different topics -- from TV series to indie games and popular book series.
Rejoice, fellow Nintendo fans. On Wednesday, the clouds parted, the sun rose, and the divine spectra; hand of Miyamoto reached down from the sky to grace us with Nintendo’s newest handheld carnival of joy, the Switch 2. After years of speculation, we finally have a clear look at the mysterious console hybrid.
Sadly, while sleek, compact, and powerful, the rumours are untrue. The Switch 2 does not in fact pack a tiny little Reggie into every GPU. But after we spent an hour during the Direct glued to every word: dissecting it, screenshotting every image, poring over captured video for tiny clues to its form and function, we can finally apply something besides guesswork and give you some solid facts, including all the ways it leaves its beloved predecessor in the dust.
1. Switch 2 packs in a lot more raw graphical power than Switch
This is probably the least-surprising revelation as practically every next-gen Nintendo console has been significantly improved over its predecessor (yes, even the Wii). Still, when released in 2017, Switch was hardly a cutting-edge powerhouse in comparison to Sony and Xbox consoles, and eight years later it noticeably struggles under demanding games. Nintendo and its partners were increasingly running up against the limitations of the hardware.
This week we saw elements on display promising us a vastly improved experience: handheld resolutions up to 1080p, docked up to 4K, both with HDR, and framerates extending up to 120 fps. It’s a welcome upgrade that should allow a wider variety of games to come to Switch 2. We may already see some of the fruit in EA’s decision to host soccer and football games on Switch 2, and 2K’s intention to do the same with wrestling and basketball.
Third parties revealed all manner of current-gen games to give us some idea of the Switch 2’s increased capabilities, and what we saw was encouraging: a console/handheld capable of handling Elden Ring, Street Fighter 6, and other demanding software. And what Nintendo showed of their new first-party offerings was simply gorgeous.
2. Switch plays GameCube games. Switch doesn’t
The little purple lunchbox that could finally comes to Nintendo Switch Online, exclusively available on Switch 2. Nintendo has effectively drawn a fence between online experiences on Switch and Switch 2, and that means that from this point forward those who want to play some of Nintendo’s best retro games are going to have to shell out for better hardware. Sure, it’s only three games right now, but those three games are absolute bangers: The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, and, holy crap, Soul Calibur 2, complete with Link.
Okay, seriously. Soul Calibur 2 is incredible. If you’ve never played it with a friend you are in for such a treat.
3. Switch 2 recognizes the existence of the Internet
When humanity later reviews and catalogues the glorious day in video game history, the opening chapter won’t be about how Mario Kart is now like Forza Horizon, or about Donkey Kong’s return in Bananza, or even about the announcement of the until-now secret project called Duskblood. Instead, the book will open and perhaps also close with the most significantly un-Nintendo thing to happen this week: easy integration of online features commonly available on other platforms.
The company that brought us Friend Codes now graces us with GameChat, a feature-rich communication and visual sharing feature set for Switch 2. A noise-cancelling mic picks up your voice and shares it with friends. An optional desktop camera allows you to share your face, both in window-corners and in compatible games like Mario Party. You can also share screens across consoles remotely. It’s much of what we gave up on asking Nintendo for years ago... a simple, straightforward tool for playing with friends. I’m looking forward to seeing how it actually plays out.
So much potential awaits with this feature. Where my mind keeps going is Monster Hunter, with teams of four benefitting from shared screens as they pursue and trap their prey. It’s simply become unthinkable for Nintendo to voluntarily offer fans such a useful array of online features, but here we are living in the future at last.
4. Magnetic Joy Cons
Okay, we’d already guessed this but it’s still really cool. Joy-Cons now magnetically snap to the Switch 2 body rather than slotting in. Nintendo showed off how the steel shoulder buttons on each controller attract to the magnetic facing along the sides of the screen, locking them together. A press of a button releases the magnetic grip.
This is a pretty great feature for my home setup, where a shelf top obstructs removing the Joy-Cons without removing the entire Switch from the dock, which sometimes leads to knocking the whole thing down. I’m a fan.
5. A bigger screen
Bigger isn’t always better with handhelds, but given the sharper resolution of the 1080p portable screen and the nature of most Switch games, the slight increase in size to 7.9 inches should be a net gain for most players. The first Switch sacrificed screen real estate for portability but I think Nintendo is making the right call in giving these elaborate, feature -rich games more space to shine.
6. Mouse controls
Nintendo was weirdly excited to show off its innovative Joy-Con mouse features. A Switch 2 Joy-Con laid on its side can be scooted across a tabletop, and its telemetry tracked to provide precise pointing and rotation. It looks to be heavily-supported at launch by games like Drag x Drive, Civ 7, and Metroid Prime 4.
I do love wacky Nintendo. My guess is the mouse feature won’t see much use past launch window (much like the microphone on the old DS) but I’m actually 1000% in on playing Metroid Prime 4 with a mouse. As a PC gamer, I rarely enjoy FPS games that force me to use a controller, so this surprising option feels a bit liberating. Hopefully we get Mario Paint 2.
7. More storage
This one is more of a double-edged sword. Nintendo crammed the Switch 2 with 256GB of external storage, much more than the original Switch. But with all the Switch 2’s extra graphics capacity, those asset-rich game files are going to be much bigger too, so it may be close to a wash. The memory is quicker as well to deal with larger game files, which means you’ll need a new, faster memory card for your supplemental storage.
8. Quality of life improvements are no small deal on Switch 2
Nintendo tweaked the Switch hardware in response to nearly a decade of feedback. Switch 2 now features two USB-C ports, with one added on top to assist in charging while playing in kickstand mode. Nintendo added a fan to the doc to aid in cooling consistency. Sticks are larger and sound capabilities are improved.
Even the Switch 2 Pro Controller is a step up, with an audio jack (at last!) and assignable buttons. No telling yet if the new controller contains the same miniaturized star that exists at the core of every Switch Pro Controller, giving it near-unlimited battery life.
And one of the most subtle features might be most useful. I do a fair bit of Switch playing on my tabletop. The fact that the Switch 2 screen angle is adjustable in kickstand mode is a huge deal for me. Too often, ambient light at an airport or the angle of a tight airplane tray table make playing in kickstand seem like an exercise in futility. But with the ability to subtly shift angles, coupled with the new mouse feature, leads me to believe I might actually be able to enjoy a serious game of Civilization 7 on the go.
9. Switch 2 gives you more choices
So first off, Switch 2 is backward compatible. That’s always good. Microsoft has already blazed a pretty amazing trail toward optimized backward compatibility on Xbox, and Nintendo has also wisely taken a note from its own Gamecube to Wii to WiiU history, making most Switch games a snap to play on new hardware. Backward capacity helps sell consoles their first year.
While the Nintendo Switch 2 is backward compatible with Switch games, it also supports special new Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of certain Switch titles like Metroid Prime 4. These enhanced titles offer new features including a selection between a higher-res Quality Mode or a faster frame rate in Performance Mode.
One really cool feature of these Nintendo Switch 2 Editions is that if you already own the original game on Switch, you will be able to purchase a simple Switch 2 Edition upgrade and enjoy all the new features on your new hardware. Let's hope it's not too expensive.
It’s also possible that Switch 2 Editions of Switch’s notoriously-janky Pokemon games could be improved by these features. Let's hope so. Throwing hardware at things can’t solve every problem but sometimes it really helps.
10. You need Switch 2 to play the newest games by the best developers on earth
Mario Kart World does everything we expect of Mario Kart and adds two key elements. The first is the ability to traverse a continuous world Forza Horizon-style, racing from course to course, free mode exploring, fooling around, and so on. The second is the swelling of the field size to 24 carts, which is, well, a lot to get one’s head around when the shells start flying. It sounds like absolute bedlam. I can’t wait.
Nintendo took its time showing off new games but toward the end of the show we bought about a minute tease of a new Kirby’s Air Ride game, Kirby’s Air Riders, an announcement that would likely have resulted in a thunderous snooze were it not for the surprising involvement of one Mr. Sakurai, known equally for his self-immolating work ethic and his status as god of Smash Bros. I love Kirby, but Air Ride sucked... BUT it’s Sakurai so I’m now 100% in.
Then there was The Duskbloods, a trailer that produced some hysterics in me. At first I thought it was Bloodborne 2, then I thought it was a licensed FROM Software take on Castlevania, and then finally I accepted that what I was seeing was an entirely original Miyazaki game exclusive to Switch. My friends, remember: FROM Software does not miss. Probably you will die. Probably you will dodge roll. Certainly you will have a blast.
And of course; the real King of Kong makes his triumphant return to 3D with Donkey Kong Bananza. It’s a moment of absolution for Nintendo: 26 years after dropping the barbequed turd Donkey Kong 64 on an unsuspecting planet, a wiser, more skilled Nintendo has returned to the drawing board with what’s sure to be a landmark adventure.
Nintendo devs have been absolutely murdering 3D platforming on the Switch, not just with Odyssey and Bowser’s Fury, but also with Kirby’s incredible journey to the shores of the Forgotten Lands. Bananza was constructed to showcase far more capable hardware than these modern-day classics, which means that the devs had opportunities to iterate on ideas that wouldn’t have been possible on a basic Switch.
Jared Petty is a former IGN editor who likes writing about how wonderful and silly video games are. You can find him at Bluesky as pettycommajared.
If you have a Nintendo Switch (or plan to get a Nintendo Switch 2), you’re probably familiar with Nintendo Switch Online. Beyond being essential for accessing multiplayer features and playing online with friends in popular games, it’s also one of the best ways to enjoy over four decades of classic Nintendo games, including titles from the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, and (with the upcoming launch of the Nintendo Switch 2) the new GameCube libraries.
If you haven't tried Nintendo Switch Online yet, don't worry—we've got you covered. Below, we’ll walk you through how to activate the free trial, explain the different subscription tiers, share pricing details, and more.
Does Nintendo Switch Online Have a Free Trial?
Yes, Nintendo offers a seven-day free trial for Nintendo Switch Online, giving you access to online play for your Nintendo Switch (and eventually Nintendo Switch 2 games), cloud backup for your save data, select game soundtracks on Nintendo Music, and a library of over 100 NES, SNES, and Game Boy games.
Click the link above to sign up for the free trial. After your trial period ends, you'll be automatically charged for your subscription if it's not canceled.
What Is Nintendo Switch Online?
Nintendo Switch Online is a subscription-based service offered by Nintendo for use with Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 consoles. As the name suggests, it lets you enjoy online multiplayer and additional features for supported games, along with automatically backing up your save data to the cloud.
But online play isn’t the only benefit. With a subscription, you’ll also gain access to a growing catalog of Nintendo Classics spanning over 40 years. The standard subscription includes a curated collection of NES, SNES, and Game Boy games, while the Expansion Pack adds Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and Sega Genesis games. For Nintendo Switch 2 owners, you'll also be able to play select GameCube games at launch with the Expansion Pack subscription tier.
Along with the retro game catalog, Nintendo launched the new Nintendo Music app in late 2024. It allows you to stream and download your favorite tracks from a wide range of franchises, including Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Metroid, and many more.
How Much Does Nintendo Switch Online Cost?
Nintendo Switch Online is available as an individual plan or a family plan that supports up to eight accounts. Individual plans will run you $3.99 per month, $7.99 for three months, or $19.99 per year. Family plans are only available annually, priced at $34.99 per year.
The Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription, which adds additional Nintendo Classics and specific game DLC packs, is available as an annual subscription only. It costs $49.99 per year for individual subscribers and $79.99 per year for family memberships.
How to Use Nintendo Switch Online - Available Platforms
Nintendo Switch Online is primarily available on the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 systems. However, with the recent addition of the Nintendo Music app, its benefits are now technically accessible on mobile devices as well.
Matthew Adler is a Commerce, Features, Guides, News, Previews, and Reviews writer for IGN. You can follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.
Writer and director Stephen Cognetti is ready to be known as more than the “Hell House LLC Guy.” Unfortunately, his latest movie won’t help him accomplish that goal. 825 Forest Road ditches the found-footage Halloween scares of Cognetti’s directorial debut and its sequels for a more traditional approach to horror. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near as engaging or inventive as those four (and counting) trips to the cursed Abaddon Hotel. 825 Forest Road is a tangle of feeble lore, jumbled storytelling jumps, and an upsetting mannequin who’s scary, but can’t quite escape the shadow of the terrifyingly mobile clown dummies that stalk the Hell House movies.
The ingredients of his past success are all in place: 825 Forest Road brings a malevolent force and unsuspecting victims to the central location of the title. Chuck Wilson (Joe Falcone), his seamstress wife Maria (Elizabeth Vermilyea), and his artistic younger sister Isabelle (Kathryn Miller) leave tragedy behind to make a fresh start in the small town of Ashland Falls. But Ashland's darkest supernatural secret eventrually comes a-knocking at Chuck's front door: Her name is Helen Foster (Diomira Keane), and untimely deaths are her calling card. Cue the stock possession-horror thrills as the trio’s spacious yet surprisingly affordable home is infested by a vengeful spirit that Helen eventually channels into Maria's disturbing antique mannequin, "Martha."
There’s no visual imagination to be found in 825 Forest Road. Ashland Falls is portrayed like any other humble American community, no different from the settings of the 50 other scrappy little haunted-house movies you’ll see this year. The character Cognetti brought to Hell House LLC's monstrous attraction doesn’t extend to 825 Forest Road, either – with its architectural stuffiness and generic production design, the house might as well be an unoccupied model in the middle of a new housing development. And without the found-footage hook, the filmmaking lacks pop, sucking the life out of Chuck's residential nightmare.
Cognetti also miscalculates the durability of his storytelling, splitting 825 Forest Road into three repetitive chapters focused on a different member of the family. We follow Chuck, Irene, and Maria as they interact with Helen throughout the same sorta-spooky events, but the momentum is choppy at best – nothing revealed along the way is thunderous enough to be rewound multiple times. Cognetti struggles to bring his concept to life, whether it's Helen's underbaked backstory or the counterintuitive motivations that peg Chuck's crew as mindless cannon fodder. A few valiant efforts are made to prop up the exposition – like introducing the town's underground paranormal discussion group – but if the devil's in the details, he's on vacation.
I'll admit: Martha the mannequin – with her crackly, papier-mâché complexion and habit of turning up where you least expect her – makes an effective antagonist. As Helen taunts the befuddled residents of 825 Forest Road by puppeting Martha around the house, Cognetti calls back to his nerve-shredding usage of Hell House LLC's bald-and-painted clown prop. The ghastly figure makes a good jump scare (when she’s not a shoddy digital effect), but 825 Forest Road is never scarier than when Martha gains mobility, scampering about like one of Donna Beneviento's Resident Evil Village minions. So much of 825 Forest Road is a struggle, but not when Cognetti reminds us why Hell House LLC garnered a ravenous following addicted to blood-pumping terrors. If only the Martha material had a more powerful, lingering effect.
The rest of 825 Forest Road stumbles through the motions. The performances are a serviceable crop, but the cast doesn’t give you anything that'll stay seared in your memory. Cognetti recycles a few tricks from his Hell House LLC experiences, but they're less impactful without the intimacy found-footage can provide. Then there's the death blow of the final act, an anticlimax that fades to black at the worst possible moment. The kernel of an idea in 825 Forest Road never puffs into something tastier – it’s the hardened shell at the bottom of Cognetti’s bowl of savory found-footage frights. Perhaps the upcoming Hell House LLC: Lineage will prove a better method of closing the door on this chapter of his career.
LEGO has been rolling out new LEGO Lord of the Rings sets at a leisurely, hobbit-like pace of late. In 2023 we got a stunning Rivendell set. Last year, LEGO released a huge set of the Sauron’s iconic Dark Tower, aka Barad-dûr. And now, finally available for anyone to buy (exclusively at the LEGO Store), is a lovely, peaceful set based on The Shire – specifically, the hillside residence of Bilbo and Frodo in Bag-End.
LEGO The Lord of the Rings: The Shire
The Shire is a bucolic build based on a peaceful, down-to-earth setting. In fact, the house depicted in the set is carved right into the earth of a hillside. It’s comprised of three rooms that are filled with all sorts of details and Easter eggs from the stories. It also comes with Gandalf’s cart, the tent that gets blasted into the air by a dragon firework (also included), as well as the stage on which Bilbo disappears during his eleventy-first birthday celebration.
The set comes with nine minifigures:
Bilbo Baggins
Frodo
Mrs. Proudfoot
Farmer Proudfoot
Merry
Pippin
Rosie Cotton
Samwise Gamgee
Gandalf the Grey
The main complaint I’ve seen about this set is the price – and it’s a fair complaint, to be sure. This set costs 34% more than it “should” based on the traditional math of LEGO sets costing roughly 10 cents per brick. Surely there’s an IP tax for the Lord of the Rings branding, but even still it’s a lot. If it’s out of your range, that’s fair enough. It will likely be discounted at some point down the line, probably after it loses its LEGO Store exclusivity and comes to other retailers like Amazon or Target.
However, it’s still a very cool LEGO set for adults that would be a great addition for any fans of the Lord of the Rings books, movies, or any other medium they’ve landed in over the years.
You'd think pulling together a "best video game movies" list would be fairly easy given the meager amount of qualifying flicks... so we made it a bit more challenging with a Top 10! The question you should have now isn't "Oooh, which movies made the cut?" but instead "Wow, there are actually 10 decent movies based on video games?"
Yes, effectively translating games to film has always been one of Hollywood's biggest challenges, even as games became more and more story-focused, acting like long-form movies in their own right. It's understandable why old school cabinet games and platformers, with scant narratives, would be tough to adapt but modern games come almost automatically assembled for the big screen. How hard is it to make an Uncharted movie when the Uncharted games feel like movies? As it turns out? Super gd difficult.
So games-to-movies is still a heck of a nut to crack, apparently, but in recent years we've been seeing some marked improvement. (And we didn't even cheat by including all three Sonic the Hedgehog movies... though maybe we should have!)
And a note: This list is made up of movies that are based on real games. It does not include movies that are about video games (The Wizard, Pixels) or the many movies that feature a made-up game (Free Guy, Ready Player One, Wreck-It Ralph, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, etc.).
With A Minecraft Movie landing on our doorstep this week, here's our Top 10 Video Game Movies of All Time!
10. Street Fighter (1994)
Our official crap entry here, since we have to admit that some video game movies are brilliant schlock, is the goofy guilty pleasure of 1994’s Street Fighter. Look, most video games at the time were either platformers or fighting games so… not a lot of narrative was unfolding. And Street Fighter was kind of exactly what you wanted from a Street Fighter movie.
Popping up right toward the end of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s heyday (he’d still have the underrated Peter Hyams’ movies Timecop and Sudden Death to unleash), Street Fighter has now meandered over into beloved cult movie territory, with a crazed cast that included Ming-Na Wen, Kylie Minogue, Wes Studi, and the late great Raul Julia (in what would be his final film role). Written and directed by screenwriter Steven E. de Souza (Die Hard, The Running Man, Richochet), Street Fighter was transformed into a Van Damme vehicle, making Colonel Guile the central character and guaranteeing a ton of roundhouse spin kicks.
9. Rampage (2018)
This is most definitely the best movie you could have whipped up based on the 1986 arcade game featuring Godzilla and Kong-esque monsters, and their best pal -- a giant Werewolf -- climbing buildings, eating people, swatting planes, and then reducing said buildings to rubble. For 2018's Rampage, however, the battle lines were a little different. It was Lizard and Wolf vs. Ape and... Rock.
Yes, Dwayne Johnson re-teamed with director Brad Peyton (following Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and San Andreas) for a smash-em-up disaster flick all about mutant beasts tussling in, and subsequently leveling, Chicago.
8. Uncharted (2022)
Asked in the intro: How hard could it be to make a good Uncharted movie? Putting aside, of course, how hard it is to make any movie, in general.
The Uncharted games not only play like action movies, with eye-popping interactive cutscenes that are basically stunt spectaculars (one of which even wound up kinda/sorta in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning), but the games themselves were also influenced by classic action-adventure flicks like the Indiana Jones films.
The choice to have stars Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg played aged-down versions (that's Hollywood, baby!) of hero Nathan Drake and mentor Victor "Sully" Sullivan soured some fans of the game franchise while also robbing the film of Uncharted's heart and lived-in appeal, but the action was decent (particularly the third act set piece) and there was enough charisma on set to allow this mixtape of Uncharted characters and lore to persevere.
7. Resident Evil (2002)
With overall quality up for spirited debate, the single most resilient video game movie franchise is the Paul W. S. Anderson Resident Evil series. Spanning two decades, with six movies, Resident Evil became the little Umbrella Corporation engine that could with its own brand of cheese-tastic action and horror.
Representing the entire run -- and even the more recent Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City reboot in 2021 and the separate Netflix series in 2022 -- is the 2002 original, featuring The Fifth Element's Milla Jovovich as amnesiac heroine Alice, who joins up with a band of warriors to battle the sinister Umbrella Corporation and the scourge of the zombie-creating T-virus.
Mixing up various parts of the first two Resident Evil games, this first movie nicely set the stage for 25 more years of RE films. With 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead reboot helping popularize zombie horror at the start of this century, Resident Evil found itself in a sweet spot being able to pull from games filled with undead monsters and tons of dystopian lore.
Oh, and the franchise isn't done reinventing itself either, as a brand new version from Barbarian's Zach Cregger is slated for 2026.
6. Mortal Kombat (2021)
With this list we're trying to strike a balance between old and new when it comes to video game movies, honoring old adaptation attempts and previous big swings while also saluting the newer grittier and grounded reboots. 2021's Mortal Kombat, which gets a much-buzzed-about sequel in 2025, hit all the right notes when it came to world building, bone-crunching action, and occasional wit. It took the iconic, pivotal fighting game and gave it a new sheen, showcasing our heroes' quest to save Earth from Outworld hostiles while using the revenge story between Scorpion and Sub-Zero as the film's... er, spine.
But we'll also throw some love to Paul W. S. Anderson's original 1995 adaptation. Yes, before he cracked the Resident Evil code, Anderson had a nice '90s hit with the first Mortal Kombat movie - a fun, campy crash course in throwing a fighting game up on the big screen.
5. Tomb Raider (2018)
And here's another legendary game franchise that has been running for so long we've gotten into reboot territory. So much so that the Tomb Raider movie from 2018 was based on an entirely different rebooted game series -- the Survivor Trilogy -- than the previous two Angelina Jolie films, which had big action directors at the helm in the form of Simon West and Jan de Bont.
The new Tomb Raider, starring Ex Machina's Alicia Vikander, was a thoughtful, exciting reworking of the 2013 game, the first of the new trilogy, and included the island of Yamatai adventure that helps transform young Lara Croft from an aimless heiress into globe-trotting adventurer. Or, survivor, if you will, as this origin story portrays Lara as a scrappy, skin-of-her-teeth type more than a confident action hero.
A sequel was in the works for a while until COVID delays stalled everything up so much that MGM wound up losing the film rights to the game franchise in 2022. Such a pity. Trinity's definitely behind this.
4. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
The less said about the original Super Mario Bros. film from 1993 the better, though it is a fascinating study from a blockbuster disaster standpoint. And the film's now wandered into "so bad it's good... but it's still bad" territory. Overall, it was a live-action miscalculation of epic proportions.
That first attempt to bring Mario and Luigi was so abysmal that it basically stamped out all future tries. Nintendo essentially stopped licensing its characters for movies. Almost 30 years later, the Super Mario curse was broken with a vibrant, delightful animated film that basically printed money at the box office. The Mario Bros. world was just too ridiculous and disjointed -- plumbers, princesses, mushrooms, Bowsers -- for live-action and needed to thrive in a cartoon environment. This fantastical story needed a fantastical presentation. And while the casting of Chris Pratt as Mario became a sticking point for the internet, no one ultimately gave a s***. Everything worked here.
3. Detective Pikachu (2019)
The live-action/animation hybrid Detective Pikachu was a clever, heartfelt dive into the vast world of Pokemon, with Ryan Reynolds voicing a smart, sleuthing Pikachu who teams with Justice Smith's forlorn former Pokemon trainer, Tim, who's the only person who can hear this particular Pikachu talk. Together they investigate the death of Tim's estranged father in Ryme City. This energetic, offbeat take on the unique game world led to box office gold, making Detective Pikachu the highest-grossing video game movie of all time (at the time). Great character arcs, surprising story twists -- the film clearly understood the assignment. As of now, a sequel is supposedly still "in the works."
2. Werewolves Within (2021)
The least-watched film on this list for sure, and based on the least-known game on the list (a VR game for Oculus Rift from 2016), Josh Ruben's Werewolves Within is a hilarious, freaky monster mystery starring Sam Richardson (Veep, The Detroiters) as a new park ranger in a small town full of feuding citizens who are either being bumped off by their own neighborly rivals or... a gruesome beast stalking from the woods. Filled with funny, accentuated by co-stars Milana Vayntrub (our lost Squirrel Girl), Michaela Watkins (Heart Eyes), and George Basil (Severance), Werewolves Within is a great watch and a must-add to all Spooky Seasons marathons.
1. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
We already told you that the Sonic movies weren't taking up three spots, so here stands Sonic the Hedgehog 3 -- the best of the three movies to date and also the rep for the new Sonic franchise as a whole. The Sonic the Hedgehog movies have gotten better with each installment, with the series as a whole having truly perfected the way to bring Sega's bonkers console-launching speedy platformer to life with animation and live-action.
It's high-octane family fun that managed to find the perfect voice for Sonic in Ben Schwartz, balancing snarky and sweet. It's also responsible for bringing Jim Carrey out of blockbuster retirement, gifting a whole new generation with his incomparable comedic antics. It feels like a modern cinematic miracle that we've now managed to get Sonic and Mario up in movie theaters in big, successful ways. And Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was the deepest, most effective movie so far. The chemistry between Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in the film is spot-on and Keanu Reeves voicing Shadow was impeccable casting.
So what are your favorite video game movies? What would you have liked to have seen represented here? Vote in our poll and let us know below!
There’s a purely primal pleasure in stacking things up and then watching them fall down: witness how it’s one of the earliest activities children learn to play by themselves. And however much we might grow up and think of ourselves as mature, sober citizens, you can still get a frisson of that pleasure by organizing a closet, or watching a tower block demolished. So why not go the whole hog and indulge that secret pleasure with one of the very best dexterity games on the market?
Why pick one best dexterity game when you can have them all in a single box? That’s essentially what Junk Art is. The box contains four colored sets of oddly-shaped pieces and a deck of matching cards, alongside another set of cards to determine what mini-games you’re going to play with them. They range from traditional stacking affairs, to co-operative piling, to passing the most awkward pieces to your neighbor and even playing a trick-taking game to get the best pieces. There are additional blank cards to make your own, and an internet full of suggestions. With no two games ever likely to be the same and a range of dexterity and strategic challenges, this could be the only activity game you ever need.
Catapult Feud
Sometimes, you just want to watch the world burn. And now there's a game to scratch that itch, in which you grab a tiny catapult and use it to hurly tiny boulders at a tiny castle until it's reduced to even tinier rubble blocks. For more discerning gamers there are a few additional rules about knocking soliders off the battlements and an optional deck of strategy cards to incorporate for a bit more heft to the descision making, but for the most part this is all about the pure, primal joy of building things up and knocking them down again. Only with a catapult.
Nekojima
If you want a stacking game that retains the simple, accessible delights of piling things on top of each other, but want it to look better and play more peculiarly than Jenga, look no further than Nekojima. Here, you’re piling pairs of poles rather than blocks, but the big catch is that each couplet is connected by a length of stiff cord, which mustn’t touch any other cords or poles once placed. That gives the game a fascinating edge when it comes to calculating how you can help or hinder the following plays. There are also cardboard cats you must occasionally hang from the growing network, following the same no-touch rule. Easily learned, and just as fun whether you’re playing solo, competitively or cooperatively, this is a modern classic for all ages.
Catacombs and Castles
Dexterity games tend to be about stacking things, or balancing things or - as in the case of Catacombs and Castles - flicking things. But here those simple, accessible delights are used as a base layer on which to paste the additional mechanics of a fantasy adventure game. The board becomes a dungeon room, the heroes and monsters discs that can be flicked for movement, while attacks, spells and missiles are smaller projectiles to bounce around the arena. It’s a brilliant combination, and includes two game modes, either as a head to head fight between two team of heroes, or as a plucky band of adventuters against a boss monster and its minions, allowing for huge replay value atop the huge fun of flicking discs around.
Klask
Klask is one of those absurdly simple ideas that makes you wonder why no-one thought of it before. Each player controls a piece on the board using a magnet underneath, which they push around to hit a tiny plastic ball careening around the tray-like playing surface. There’s an indent in each end which counts as a goal, and the – ahem – goal is to push that ball into the opponent’s indent while defending your own. There’s a lot of speed and skill to this pursuit, far more than it may initially seem, and that would be enough to win it a space on this list. But the kicker is that the field is also littered with magnetic obstacles that will stick to your paddle if you get too close, upping both the skills and thrills in one fell swoop.
Barbecubes
The joy of Barbecubes is its tiny mint-tin scale. Within is a simple yet devious stacking game where you manoeuvre awkwardly shaped food pieces onto a grill using a pair of supplied tongs. When it’s your turn, the items you need to add to the pile are dictated by a card draw. Sometimes the card will throw up an additional challenge like telling you to swap hands, or place food across two grill rungs. It’s the stacking game reduced to its absolute bare essentials, put in a super-portable package that you can take anywhere on the off-chance of players, and with bright colors and funky wooden food bits that make it look great on the table even in miniature. Its ongoing appeal is a testament to the basal satisfaction of trying to put things in a nice, even pile.
Jenga
This is a game that pretty much everyone is familiar with, but there are a few fascinating facts about Jenga that might make a more interesting pick than you realize. First, despite its ubiquity, this isn’t any kind of ancient classic – it was invented in 1983 by Leslie Scott. Second, her particular innovation, which is common to all branded versions of this venerable stacking game, is that all the blocks are made to be slightly different from each other, creating imperfections that make the behavior of the stack far harder to predict. Factoids that are not only great for dinner parties, but also for getting an edge in the after-dinner games when the stacking blocks come out.
You can also choose to go with giant Jenga, which is a jumbo-sized version of the original that makes for a great yard game.
Crokinole
If you want a genuinely old dexterity game that still has teeth, look no further than Crokinole. It dates back to at least the mid-1800’s in Canada and is quite possibly older as a folk game. Most boards nowadays are mass-produced, but it’s still possible to buy handmade ones, which will set you back a pretty penny. It’s a flicking game where you’re trying to score by getting your discs as far into the board as possible, particularly the central region which is ringed by pegs. But in order to be valid, your shot must cause at least one opposing disc to move, otherwise it’s removed. This gives the game a strategic edge on top of the considerable flicking chops that it demands, as you’re always trying to clog up your opponent’s opportunities to hit your discs while freeing up your own.
Dungeon Fighter
There’s a surprising amount of dexterity games that weave in a fantasy or a sci-fi themes, and Dungeon Fighter is the current king of the pile. It’s a cooperative game where players each have a character in an adventuring party seeking to loot a dangerous dungeon. Whenever you encounter one of the game’s frequent monsters you fight it by throwing dice, as you might expect, but the twist is that you’re rolling onto a target board which will do damage depending on where the dice stops. If it rolls off, or falls into one of the gaps on the board, it’s a duff blow. With plenty of variety in character, dungeon and monster cards and a high skill ceiling, increased by the various bizarre throwing methods mandated by certain monsters, such as flicking dice off the back of your hand, it’s a delightful mix of challenge, narrative and tomfoolery.
Jungle Speed
If you’ve ever felt that the beloved children’s classic card game snap was missing a vicious and sometimes bloody edge, then do we have a game for you. The core of the game is just like snap: players turn over cards one at a time and look for matches. But sat in the middle of the table is the sinister, brooding totem, and players with matching cards are instantly catapulted into a race to grab it first. The looser has to take all the played cards so far and, quite probably, nurse any number of bruises, scratches and sprains gained in the struggle for supremacy. Add in a few special-effect cards, including one that has all players grabbing for the totem, and you’ve got a modern classic. Just make sure all the players trim their fingernails first.
Kabuto Sumo: Bug Wrestling
There’s a general tendency for dexterity games to revolve around stacking things, or grabbing things or throwing things. But Kabuto Sumo has a whole new take on the genre, inspired by penny waterfall arcade machines. The player’s beetle pieces square off on a platform, surrounded by wooden discs. Then you take turns pushing oddly-shaped objects onto the platform, trying to nudge your opponents off the edge and collecting any non-player shapes that fall. It’s simple yet skilful and wholly engrossing as you try and work out all the angles and impacts required for maximum movement. A slew of different wrestlers with their own push-on shapes and special powers further increases the game’s staying power.
Drop It
There’s a very obvious bridge between video games and dexterity board games, but it’s rarely been so direct as it is in Drop It. Players take turns selecting from a variety of colored shapes and dropping them into the playfield, which is two upright transparent sheets with a thin space between them to hold the shapes in place. The higher your shape is atop the stack of existing pieces when it lands, the more you will score. But be careful: if you touch any other pieces of the same shape or color, you get nothing. This gives piece selection a frisson of strategy, dropping them a frisson of skill and the sheer unpredictable way all those shapes shift and roll off each other give it a whole lot of fun and excitement.
Hamster Roll
Hamster Roll – often known by its original German name Hamsterrolle – is a balancing game with a unique twist. Rather than trying to balance your blocks atop each other in a tower, everyone is placing their pieces into slots on a giant wheel, trying to keep it as balanced as possible. If your placement causes the wheel to shift and pieces fall off, then you have to collect them and add them to your stash. First player to get rid of all their pieces wins. The sheer unfamiliarity of this is a big draw and, once you’re in, you’ll discover there’s a surprising amount of strategy to it as well, as you try to anticipate where following players might try and slot their pieces and torpedo those moves by blocking slots or throwing the balance off-whack. But watch out: get too tricksy, and it’ll end up being you picking up the pieces instead.
Looping Louie
While this was very obviously designed and marketed as a children’s game, it’s found a surprising fan base among older players as well. Thanks to an electronic gizmo, Louie pilots his little aeroplane in a circle above each player’s chicken coop, trying to knock their chicken discs off their perches. Loose them all and you’re out of the game. But you have a secret weapon: in front of your coop, there’s a paddle you can use to try and lift Louie above and save a chicken. It’s about as simple and fast as it’s possible for a game to be, but it also happens to be hilarious to play as Louie spins and dives about at unpredictable angles. And for the truly accomplished, there’s the perfect shot to practice and aim for, lifting Louie just the right height to clear an opponent’s paddle and dive straight into their coop.
Rhino Hero
Another children’s game that turns out to have a lot of appeal for adults, Rhino Hero, and its big buddy Rhino Hero Super Battle, bring a load of super-powered character to the pleasure of stacking things high. In this original version of the game, players get a random stack of roof cards which they must add to the growing tower, supported by two right-angled wall cards. Stack carefully: although this is a fairly stable construct, you’ll be out of the game if you cause it to fall. The real fun is in the hidden powers of the roof cards that are revealed when you play them, which range from weirdly-angled walls to placing and moving the titular hero up the tower with great care, lest his pachyderm might cause the cards to fall!
Originally launched as a free service to rival Xbox Live in 2010, PlayStation Plus has evolved significantly since its humble beginnings in 2010. The current iteration of PlayStation Plus is a subscription-based service for PS5 and PS4 users that is mandatory for online play, but also features additional tiers that add benefits such as a catalog of downloadable games, cloud streaming, and more.
While Sony used to offer free trials for new users to its online service, PlayStation Plus does not currently offer any free trials.
Can You Get PS Plus For Free in Other Ways?
Although PlayStation Plus doesn't offer free trials to everyone, certain countries or regions may occasionally have access to a limited-time free trial according to Sony's website. Unfortunately, Sony doesn't reveal exactly who these free trials are for or when they are available, so you'll need to keep your eyes peeled. PlayStation also occasionally has free multiplayer events with no PS Plus subscription required, although these are often unpredictable.
There really isn't a direct replacement for PS Plus as it's required for online play on PS5 and PS4, but there are some alternatives with free (or close to free) trials that offer a catalog of games to stream, if you so desire. However, most (if not all) of these alternatives require either a different console, a PC, or a mobile device to use the service.
4. Apple Arcade (1-Month Free Trial) - $6.99/month
Access a growing library of over 200 ad-free games
Available across all your Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro)
Share your subscription with up to five family members
Other services like Ubisoft+ and EA Play feature publisher-specific catalogs of games to stream, but they don't currently offer any free trials.
Matthew Adler is a Commerce, Features, Guides, News, Previews, and Reviews writer for IGN. You can follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.
Many of the best gaming keyboards I’ve reviewed in recent years are tenkeyless – ones that lop off the number pad to save desk space that also deliver high performance and fancy features. But I still want full-sized functionality on my keyboard, which is why I love the 96% layout where you still get all of the essentials with all of it crammed into a slightly more compact board with no gaps between keys or wasted space. They are tougher to find, however. And for that, I rode out the original Keychron K4 as my main until I spilled a drink over it and destroyed its mechanical switches. It was a solid keyboard that had everything I wanted at the time, but now it’s been updated with Hall Effect magnetic switches, and the results are fantastic.
The Keychron K4 HE has been outfitted with Gateron double-rail magnetic Nebula switches and the frame has a slightly different trim, but it’s still the simple and sleek keyboard I’ve always loved. While it doesn’t have anything like an OLED control screen on the likes of a SteelSeries Apex Pro or Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75, I don’t mind because sometimes it’s about getting the basics right, and offering that at a reasonable price.
Keychron K4 HE – Design and Features
I received the special edition of the Keychron K4 HE that comes in a cream white color scheme with wood grain along the side of the aluminum frame and a couple of gold keycaps for a pleasing accent. The OSA profile double-shot PBT keycaps are nice to the touch and have rounded edges for a softer overall look. There is RGB backlighting and a dedicated RGB key at the top-right to cycle through built-in RGB effects like breathing, waves, ripples, wheel, or just a single static color. But since the keycaps on the special edition don’t have transparent legends, it only really seeps through between the keys (the standard edition does have transparent keycaps so I would recommend going with that model if it matters to you). It’s bright enough to come through vividly even if it doesn’t light up the key lettering.
The 96% layout tickles a certain part of my brain and I like how neat everything looks despite being crammed together. There’s no wasted space, but that does mean I reach for the wrong key sometimes, like hitting home key instead of delete when working. Because it’s truncated in the way it is, you save a lot of deskspace without sacrificing the full suite of keys – side-by-side with my tenkeyless SteelSeries Apex Pro, there’s only a one-inch difference in width. The functionality I get back in return is very much worth it, and I find myself using the number pad often again for work or mapping additional actions/macros in games like the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV.
The Keychron K4 HE executes on the important parts extremely well with a rare layout that makes it all the more special.
There aren't going to be groundbreaking high-tech features here, or even simple things like easily accessible dedicated media keys, which are things I find useful, but at least you don’t necessarily lose that functionality since those are combined with other keys via the FN key. It is nice, however, to have 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity to give it a little extra versatility. The connection toggle is on the left side of the frame along with a Windows/Android-MacOS input toggle – the buttons are smaller than I would prefer, but it’s one of those set-it-and-forget-it kind of situations.
Keychron K4 HE – Software and Customization
There's still a decent amount of customization on account of having magnetic switches, and they’re very easy to tinker with. Boutique manufacturers like Keychron have moved toward having web-based configurators as opposed to downloadable suites that bigger manufacturers use. (I get that Razer, Logitech, Asus, etc. do that to get you in their ecosystems.) You simply go to the Keychron launcher site, select your keyboard from the Connect menu, and you immediately have access to a full set of customization options.
From here, you can set the actuation point on a per-key basis anywhere between 0.2mm and 3.8mm and in increments of 0.1mm – and having a short actuation point is crucial for competitive gaming performance. You also have more nuanced features like one-key multi-command, which lets you map different inputs to various distances along the keystroke. And there’s the analog gamepad feature that allows you to simulate specific sensitivities of controller inputs on a keystroke. Hall Effect switches are great for performance alone, but it’s this kind of versatility enabled by magnetic technology.
It’s pretty much expected for magnetic keyboards to have features like Rapid Trigger and LKP (last keystroke prioritization), the latter of which is the contentious SOCD (simultaneous opposite cardinal direction) input. We cover this with each magnetic keyboard since it’s becoming more commonplace and different companies call it something different. It certainly has its uses cases, but if you’re not aware, SOCD (or LKP in this case) lets you hold one key and register an opposite direction every time you hit it, and re-register the key you're holding every time you let go of the other. You can counter-strafe (or jiggle strafe) at inhuman speed, making you a much harder target. Be aware that you will get kicked from Counter-Strike 2 matches, for example, if you exploit SOCD like LKP.
The extensiveness of options don’t stop there, though – Keychron has a fairly robust macro tool to map input sequences and set the timing of each input. You can also remap any key easily in the online configurator and set your RGB patterns and colors however you want. And it’s all neatly laid out and easy to understand, which several software suites can’t exactly say.
Keychron K4 HE – Performance
For gaming, the Keychron K4 HE and the magnetic Nebula switches are as good as any other experience I’ve had with Hall Effect keyboards. However, the one thing I’ll note is that it’s rated at a 40g initial actuation force and a 60g bottom-out force – while that’s fairly standard, it does feel more firm on the touch than most other magnetic keyboards I’ve used recently. It may wear you down a bit more over time, but there are advantages to this.
When it comes to playing FFXIV, where I’m constantly cycling through my attack rotation on close-by keys or trying to hit specific actions at important moments, having magnetic switches that are both firm on the actuation force but set to a shorter actuation point is incredible. I won’t “fat-finger” a key because of the stiffer resistance and I’ll register the input fast since the keystroke will be recognized much quicker. It’s the best of both worlds in a game like FFXIV, especially as someone who has a heavy resting hand over his keyboard.
In games like Counter-Strike 2 or Valorant, the short actuation points also come in clutch for jiggle-strafing, quick movements, switching weapons, or activating abilities on a dime. I went with 0.5mm with the K4 HE, which is much shorter than I would use on other keyboards, and that was the sweet spot. I played my usual batch of ranked matches to determine if this was suited for competitive game and it certainly passed muster for me. Although I may want to go with something lighter on the actuation force for competitive shooters, I certainly enjoyed using the K4 HE for them.
Such is the case with most Hall Effect keyboards I’ve used, but the smooth linear keystrokes of a magnetic switch are quite satisfying, especially as someone who always used linear mechanical switches like the Cherry MX Reds for nearly a decade. As I'm typing this right now, I get a kick out of the creamy "thock" of each keystroke and the clean feel of the magnetic switch, which you can also attribute to the different types of foam and padding tucked under the keyboard's plating.
There can be no doubt that The Hunger Games is one of the best young adult series' out there, and one I have personally invested a lot of time into. There have been a total of four Hunger Games books so far and all of them have been made into movies. Not only that, the latest book, Sunrise on the Reaping, just released and it is already an instant best seller. Suzanne Collins doesn't miss.
Similar to other popular young adult novels, The Hunger Games has been slowly getting the illustrated treatment. Just last year the first illustrated edition was launched featuring art from Nico Delort. The illustrations themselves are gorgeous and detailed, making the first illustrated edition a worthy collectors item for any fan of the series. There is also already an illustrated edition of the second book, Catching Fire, in the works and both of them are currently on sale on Amazon at their lowest-ever prices. The first book has dropped all the way down to under $20.
The Hunger Games Illustrated Editions Deals on Amazon
The Hunger Games: Illustrated Edition was released at the beginning of October 2024, but April of 2025 is the first time we've seen the price drop under $20. The illustrations are in black and white, but are brought to life with some incredible detail and shading work. The success of the first book propelled the project forward and earlier this year, the Catching Fire: Illustrated Editions was announced. The next collectible edition in the Hunger Games series will be released on October 7, 2025.
With the way the project is currently going, we can likely expect an illustrated edition of the third book in the series to arrive in October 2026, but we don't have any details yet.
See more Hunger Games books:
What Is Amazon's Preorder Price Guarantee?
If you've never actually preordered anything from Amazon before, it's worth noting that if you purchase the illustrated edition of Catching Fire, it includes Amazon's preorder price guarantee. According to Amazon's own help page, this means that if the price decreases between now and when the item ships, you'll pay the lowest price. So in this case, if there ends up being an even bigger discount than the one we're seeing right now, that's what you'll pay. This is likely to happen considering we saw the Hunger Games: Illustrated edition drop in price several times over the course of its preorder period.
I feel like we've earned a reprieve today from the news chaos of tariffs and Nintendo Switch 2 pricing, so here's something fun (?) for your Friday: IGN played Mario Kart World at a Nintendo event in New York this week, and confirmed that yes, the new Cow character can in fact eat burgers and steak (and many others things as well).
If you're wondering what on earth we could possibly be talking about, allow me to point you to the recent announcement of Mario Kart World, which included the introduction of the Moo Moo Meadows Cow as a playable racer. The Internet, of course, is thrilled about this, already coming up with dozens of memes and fanart of the adorable Cow that, until recently, was nothing more prominent than a fun background character in a single Mario Kart track.
However, as news of Cow spread throughout the land, fans began pointing out a potential, erm, problem, with another element of the Mario Kart World reveal. In the Nintendo Direct 2 trailer from Wednesday, Mario eats a burger. Burgers are (typically) made of beef. Would Cow, whose people are ostensibly a source of beef, consume beef herself? Fans really wanted to know.
Well at the Nintendo preview event, we found out. You see, the food items we saw in the trailer are obtainable in Mario Kart World at Yoshi's diner locations scattered across courses. They function like a drive-thru, allowing racers to drive up and grab a bag of take-out just like they would an item box. There are a lot of different food items that can be inside, including burgers, steak kebabs, pizza, and donuts.
During our session we also saw Cow eat a number of other items, including the burger. We're still a little hazy on what these items are actually doing for Cow — other racers change costumes when consuming them, but Cow doesn't seem to experience any effects. Could she be eating beef just because she enjoys it? Is there a secret power-up she gets from burger consumption that we just don't know about yet because Nintendo hasn't revealed it? Or perhaps are these veggie burgers and Beyond meat kebabs?
IGN reached out to Nintendo to try and clear all this up, but we haven't heard back yet. I'm sure it's because they're busy at their New York event, and not because this is an unhinged question to ask their PR about. Yeah, that's probably it.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Gaming fans are feeling the heat after Nintendo announced its Switch 2 U.S. pre-order date was delayed as a direct result of the newly announced tariffs posed by the Trump Administration.
Wednesday morning, Nintendo fully unveiled its hybrid console sequel alongside plans to open pre-orders come April 9 — news that Donald Trump would soon implement sweeping tariffs across the globe arrived just hours later. It was a moment of whiplash that the industry is still struggling to come to grips with, and now, two days later, the average gaming fan is already feeling the impact.
“Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,” Nintendo said in a statement shared with IGN. “Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.”
I really hate being right. I kept telling folks that things can literally change tomorrow. People kept yelling at me that the tariffs won't affect us...aight man 😒
“Wait a minute… are you saying we have to pay the tariffs??” one Reddit user commented. “Who could have possibly foreseen this?!”
While pre-order timing for other territories, including the UK, remains unchanged, Nintendo didn’t mince words when it came to how tariffs will affect those in the United States. However, changes to a release schedule, even when it comes to something as simple as pre-order timing, signal that Nintendo has more on its mind than it has revealed thus far.
There were fears that Nintendo’s proposed $450 Switch 2 price and $80 games might be too big of an ask pre-tariffs — a movement aiming to get Nintendo to lower its price plans already began shortly after that initial reveal — but the struggle for affordable games is just getting started. While some analysts had suggested Switch 2 prices were calculated with potential tariffs in mind, Nintendo’s announcement today suggests those numbers have room to increase.
So then
Those WERE the pre tariff prices
Yeah the Switch and Mario Kart bout to be 650 after taxes
Nintendo hasn’t announced when or if its Switch 2 prices will change, but there is plenty of reason to worry they will shift in a more expensive direction. What began as a wave of frustration aimed at the current Switch 2 price has now evolved into an ocean of people who, of course, are still angry, but now they are just hoping they’ll be able to afford the new console.
I shouldn’t as an average person be priced out of this, yet I probably will be.
“This unironically frustrates me so much,” another Reddit user added. “The switch 2 was already going to be quite expensive (compared to the OG) but I was still okay with paying the extra money for it. The games were another blow. Was too expensive already but whatever. But this? Huge tariffs Plus Sales tax Plus tariffs on the games???
“I don’t want to pay 130$ for a damn copy of a game or 600$ for the new Switch. I genuinely (think) this will impact the amount of people able to buy into all of this. I shouldn’t as an average person be priced out of this, yet I probably will be. Augh…”
I feel bad for all my US followers. If you thought the Switch 2 price was expensive before. It looks like its going to get even worse due to new tariffs.
We've spoken to other industry analysts who acknowledge that these unprecedented tariffs have gamers and game-makers walking into uncharted territory and that there's no telling what exactly will happen with the Switch 2. While some believe we could soon see a price increase, others aren't so sure, but all agree that the industry will no doubt feel the impact of the Trump Administration's wide-reaching tariff plans.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
At CinemaCon this week, Amazon MGM had a notable array of star-driven upcoming films to tout that are opening in theaters (before streaming) over the course of 2025 and 2026, including Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson in Mercy and Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry in Crime 101. And while it might take awhile before we see James Bond again – though executives promised newly-hired producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman are hard at work developing the next film – it was clear the studio has especially high hopes for Project Hail Mary.
Despite opening a full year from now, in March 2026, Project Hail Mary was the film Amazon MGM opened their presentation with, showing an extended preview for the film. Based on Andy Weir’s book of the same name, Project Hail Mary stars Ryan Gosling, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directing, all of whom were in attendance (it was Lord’s second appearance of the week, since he’d also been at Sony’s CinemaCon presentation to announce Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse’s new 2027 release date).
Lord and Miller are known for funny and eclectic projects like 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie and the Spider-Verse films (the latter of which they write and produce, with others directing), but the footage indicates Project Hail Mary has a different vibe to it from their previous work. The story follows Gosling’s mild-mannered school teacher turned astronaut, Ryland Grace, whose knowledge and skill leads him to be sent into space on a mission to save humanity, when it’s discovered that the Earth’s sun is one of many stars that are dying.
There was certainly a good amount of humor to be found in the footage, as Ryland panics over what he’s being asked to do, declaring at one point: “You have the right stuff! I have the wrong stuff!” But overall, it felt more subdued than their broader comedies, or even the heartfelt yet frequently very funny Spider-Verse movies, appearing to have a more poignant and awestruck overall feeling, as Ryland goes on his incredible mission to the far reaches of space - leaving Gosling at one point sporting long hair and a bushy beard.
The big added element here is screenwriter Drew Goddard, whose credits include projects like Cloverfield and Cabin in the Woods. But most notably, when it comes to this film, Goddard wrote the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for The Martian, which was also adapted from a book written by Andy Weir. And there’s definitely a similar feel between that film and Project Hail Mary, with its science-friendly, warm-hearted and witty look at a man alone in space…
…well, alone at first. Because as the footage teased at the end via a quick shot of a strange hand reaching out, Ryland comes to encounter an alien he names Rocky, who Miller noted “is trying to solve the same problem” in order to save his people. The footage concludes with Ryland sending a message back to Earth in which he declares “So… I met an alien! He’s kind of growing on me. Not growing in me. …Which was a concern for a while.”
Miller described Project Hail Mary as “the biggest challenge we’ve taken on,” with Gosling saying “It’s an insanely ambitious story that’s massive in scope. It seemed really hard to make and that’s kind of our bag.”
CinemaCon is an event aimed at movie theaters, and as the group were touting the big screen visuals of the film – despite them stressing none of the effects were final, what we saw looked quite good even this early – Miller remarked: “Movies are meant to be seen on the biggest screen possible with the weirdest-looking novelty popcorn bucket possible!”
Also starring Sandra Hüller and Milana Vayntrub, Project Hail Mary opens March 20, 2026.
The GeForce RTX 4090 is a generation older than the new Blackwell 50 series GPUs, but this doesn't change the fact that it's still one of the most powerful cards out there, eclipsing the GeForce RTX 5080 or RTX 4080 Super or the Radeon RX 9070 XT or RX 7900 XTX. Only one GPU performs better - the RTX 5090 - and you'll need to use up a lifetime of luck to find one that isn't marked up by hundreds, even thousands of dollars.
Because the RTX 4090 has been discontinued, it's getting harder to source as well. Fortunately, Dell has two prebuilt gaming PC models that can be equipped with a 4090 GPU, and at reasonable prices. The base model costs $2,999.99. The upgraded model with a more powerful processor, more RAM, and more storage costs $3,599.99. These are currently the best prices we see for an RTX 4090 equipped gaming PC, and many other manufacturers - including Lenovo and HP - no longer carry RTX 4090 prebuilt gaming PCs at all.
Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 4090 Gaming PC for $2,999.99
This Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F CPU, GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, 16GB of DDR5-5200MHz RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. The processor can also be upgraded up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K. If you're getting system with a focus on gaming, then the upgrade is unnecessary. Gaming at higher resolutions is almost always GPU bound, and besides, the default Intel Core Ultra 7 265F is a solid processor with a max turbo frequency of 5.3GHz and a total of 20 cores. It's cooled by a robust 240mm all-in-one liquid cooler and the entire system is powered by an 1,000W 80PLUS Platinum power supply.
Get an Upgraded Model for $3,599.99
Dell just dropped the price on this upgraded RTX 4090 model to $3,599.99 after a $400 instant discount. It's $600 more than the base model Alienware 4090 gaming PC, but that's because the processor has been upgraded to a much more powerful Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU. You also get quadruple the RAM and double the storage.
How does the RTX 4090 stack up against current cards?
The RTX 4090 is the most powerful RTX 40 series GPU on the market. Compared to the new Blackwell cards, only the $2,000 MSRP RTX 5090 is superior in performance. This card will run every game comfortably at 4K resolution; you should be hitting 60+fps even with all settings turned to the max and ray tracing enabled, doubly so if DLSS is supported. The only setting that the 4090 (as well as every other GPU) struggles with is path tracing, but no one really ever turns this on except during benchmark tests or social media flexing. The RTX 5090 might be faster, but for the vast majority of people out there, it's just wasted power since the 4090 already excels at pretty much all things gaming.
Alternative: Alienware RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $2,500
Dell is offering an Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC equipped with the new GeForce RTX 5080 GPU for $2,499.99 shipped. The RTX 5080 is one of three new Blackwell graphics cards that are out (and impossible to find). In our Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 FE review, Jackie writes that "If you already have a high-end graphics card from the last couple of years, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 doesn’t make a lot of sense – it just doesn’t have much of a performance lead over the RTX 4080, though the extra frames from DLSS 4 Multi-Frame Generation do make things look better in games that support it. However, for gamers with an older graphics card who want a significant performance boost, the RTX 5080 absolutely provides – doubly so if you’re comfortable with Nvidia’s AI goodies."
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.
It’s been a wild news roller coaster for U.S. gamers this week. It began with the celebratory full reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2 in all its glory and games, followed closely by audience dismay over its $450 price tag and $80 for Mario Kart Tour, only for everyone to reel once again this morning as Nintendo announced it would hold off on pre-orders for the system until it could assess the impact of the Trump Administration’s sudden, sweeping, unprecedented tariffs on just about every nation in the world.
Normally, when there are questions to the tune of “what is going to happen with video games?”, I go ask a panel of expert industry analysts. While they can’t literally predict the future, most of the time, they have a pretty solid consensus understanding, backed by evidence and data, of what’s most likely to happen, and I turn around and write about that. I’ve already done it twice this week.
But for the first time since I started interviewing analysts on such topics, every single analyst I spoke to was effectively stumped. Several had guesses one way or another: Nintendo will raise the price, or won’t. But every single one of them heavily caveated their response with an emphasis on the chaos of the moment. This has never happened before, it’s all happening very fast, and absolutely no one can accurately predict what Nintendo, Trump, or anyone will do tomorrow, next week, or months down the road.
So with that rather astonishing disclaimer in mind, here’s what all the analysts I spoke to did say:
Sky-High Switch
With everyone I spoke to taking their best wild guesses on what was going to happen, I ended up with a pretty divided panel. On the side of “Nintendo will raise prices” was Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games. Though he says he at first thought it was too late for Nintendo to raise prices after it had announced them, this delay has changed his mind. At this stage, he doesn’t think Nintendo has much of a choice.
“It is very difficult to predict, but Nintendo will likely take a few days to run simulations and then announce hikes, not only for the system itself but also games and accessories,” he said. “I hope I am wrong but if sustained, these sky-high tariffs leave them no choice. Would you be surprised now to see Switch 2 hit US$500 for the base model? I wouldn't.
“What I also want to add is this: Why on earth did Nintendo not wait for the US to fix their tariffs first and then decide on pricing during a Direct a few days later? This made no sense.”
Mat Piscatella, senior analyst at Circana, heavily caveated his opinion (as did basically everyone else) with a reminder that this is all unprecedented and unpredictable. But ultimately, he too came down on the side of games prices generally, including Nintendo prices, likely going up. But how much, and on what is anyone’s guess. “Based on the conversations I'm having, the breadth and depth of the tariffs surprised everyone, not just consumers,” he said.
Piscatella told me that Nintendo likely had some assumptions in mind about what the tariffs would be when it set the price originally. But when the actual tariffs came in on Wednesday, it was probably much higher than Nintendo, or anyone, anticipated.
“Every reasonable and responsible business that relies on international supply chains will be reevaluating its US consumer pricing at this point. They have to.
“Some territories and regions globally have historically been subject to higher pricing than other parts of the world when it comes to video games. The US could certainly be joining that group because of these tariffs. The haphazard and chaotic nature of the tariffs and their announcement obviously has many scrambling to navigate the fallout.”
Every reasonable and responsible business that relies on international supply chains will be reevaluating its US consumer pricing.
Manu Rosier, director of market analysis at Newzoo, also predicts that hardware prices will increase, though he suggests software will likely not be impacted in the same way.
“While physical versions might be subject to tariffs, the growing dominance and lower cost of digital distribution would likely limit any broader effect,” he said.
“Regarding hardware, however, the situation is more sensitive. If a 20% tariff—or any substantial increase—were to be introduced, it’s unlikely that companies like Nintendo would absorb the additional cost by cutting into their margins. In such cases, the burden could shift to consumers in the form of higher retail prices.”
Holding the Line
On the other side of speculation, again with a heavy dose of telling me how unprecedented this is and how no one really knows what will happen, I find Joost van Dreunen, NYU Stern professor and author of SuperJoost Playlist. He acknowledges that a price increase on the Nintendo Switch 2 is possible, especially given the high tariffs on Vietnam. But he thinks the company will try very, very hard to avoid that.
"I believe the volatility from the Trump tariffs was already considered in the Switch 2's $449.99 pricing,” he said. “Given the first Trump administration's impact, Nintendo, like other manufacturers, has since restructured its supply chain to mitigate such geopolitical risks. Historically, Nintendo has aimed for a launch price around the $400 mark, adjusted for inflation, suggesting that the current price already reflects an anticipation of potential economic challenges stemming from ongoing trade disputes.
“Nevertheless, the unpredictable nature of these tariff decisions—exemplified by the recent situation in Vietnam—injects a significant amount of uncertainty into the market. This could compel Nintendo to find ways to absorb or offset additional costs, especially when initial product margins are typically narrower. While I expect Nintendo will strive to maintain the $449.99 price point, the external economic pressures may eventually force a reassessment if the trade landscape deteriorates further."
Nintendo will not want to change the price having announced it, but I think everything is on the table now.
Piers Harding-Rolls, games researcher at Ampere Analysis, agrees, saying that Nintendo runs the risk of consumer backlash if it raises prices further:
“The extent of the tariffs and its impact on Vietnamese exports are really bad news for Nintendo,” he says. “The company is now in between a rock and a hard place, having already announced the launch price. I have already suggested that the pricing would stay as announced until 2026 at the earliest but then might be adjusted if the tariffs stay in place. This delay in pre-orders is to give the company more time and it will be hoping some sort of solution will be found over the next few weeks. This is a pretty fluid situation after all. Nintendo will not want to change the price having announced it, but I think everything is on the table now. If the pricing does change, it will impact the brand and the US consumer’s view of the product at launch. I don’t think that will put off loyal fans, but it might put off broader consumers who will take a wait a see approach. That’s particularly important during its first holiday season.”
Living in Unhinged Times
Finally, I spoke to Rhys Elliott, games analyst at Alinea Analytics. Elliott joined the first camp of analysts in predicting higher prices on both Nintendo hardware and software due to Trump’s tariffs. He also pointed back to his comments in my previous analyst piece, where he spoke on Nintendo announcing cheaper digital editions of Nintendo Switch 2 games in certain markets. “It seems the lower prices in other markets were to nudge Switch 2 buyers to digital, as I mentioned my comments to IGN about Mario Kart World’s pricing. Nintendo might have wanted to do something similar in the US, but the tariff situation is so chaotic that Nintendo was in ‘wait and see’ mode — and decided to hedge its bets to see if it needed to offset the tariffs.”
Elliott went on to project a rather grim picture of what will happen to the games industry more broadly as a result of the tariffs, with his predictions in line with what a spokesperson from the Entertainment Software Association warned me of earlier this morning on the same topic. He says that the tariffs will result in a “weaker, poorer nation”, with consumers ultimately paying the price. Here’s the rest of Elliott’s take on this:
“Some manufacturers – Nintendo included – have been shifting their manufacturing to non-tariff-impacted markets,” Elliott says. “And even if companies can afford to switch up (no pun intended!) their supply chains, who knows which markets will get tariffs next – as recent news supports. Companies cannot just lift up their whole supply chain and move everything to the US. It’s just not logistically possible. Under current law (I can’t believe I have to qualify this, but here we are), Trump would not be in power anymore by the time such a move would be completed – for Nintendo and other manufacturers. We are living in … there’s no other word for it .. unhinged times driven by an unhinged man (and other forces).
We are living in…there’s no other word for it...unhinged times driven by an unhinged man (and other forces).
“These extreme tariffs will also be bad for consumers in the US but are positive for the US administration’s populist façade. Policies that lead to higher prices for everyday people amid a cost-of-living crisis are deplorable. They're bad for gamers and the games business. I won’t comment on the real reason for the US tariffs, but ‘a much stronger, much richer nation’ is not it.
What’s more, time and time again, data has shown that tariffs harm the economy. Comparative advantage is a core principle of international trade theory. Basically, consumption and economic well-being are stronger when countries focus on producing goods they can efficiently produce (at the lowest cost compared to other goods) – and trade for goods they are less efficient at producing. The trade war flies in the face of these core economic principles.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
FragPunk is a 5v5 tactical hero shooter featuring 13 unique playable characters, known as Lancers. Each Lancer is equipped with at least three otherworldly Abilities, so whether you want to slide around the map with an electric guitar modified into a shotgun, teleport your entire team to quickly rotate to another site, or heal your allies after a narrowly won gunfight, there's a Lancer for you.
FragPunk's hero roster is mostly well-balanced at the moment, allowing all Lancers to thrive in optimal situations or when handled by players who recognize a character's weaknesses and leverage their strengths. But that doesn't mean all Lancers are created equal. While some may flourish on Attack or Defense, or when combined with specific team compositions or Shard Cards, others stand above the rest and provide consistent value no matter the circumstances.
Determining the best characters in the current meta is especially important in FragPunk because many of the game's Lancers must be unlocked using Gold, FragPunk Coins, or Lancer Trophies. So before you spend your hard-earned Gold on the worst character in the game, this FragPunk tier list will break down every Lancer and place them in a tier from S to B based on their ease of use, versatility, and consistency of value:
Nitro is a Lancer limited only by your imagination, and her lack of mobility options. Nitro’s Chug Chug deploys a remotely-controlled combat drone that can dish out 20 damage per projectile, but the drone's greatest strength is its ability to gain intel while Nitro hides in relative safety. Nitro's The Wall ability enables you to create unique and unexpected sightlines, climb onto otherwise inaccessible areas, block incoming damage, and force enemies to reveal their location as they spray to destroy these surprisingly sturdy shields.
Nitro’s Mr. Pewpew sentry turrets can monitor most doorways and entry points, and they can also be used as a sneaky offensive tool. Use them to guard flanks, or when you know an enemy is expecting your advance, toss a turret in line of sight of your foe. This will force them to either accept the incoming damage from the turret, or they'll turn to destroy it, opening up a brief window for you to peek and gun them down.
S-Tier: Hollowpoint
Hollowpoint is a gifted sniper that provides players with a supercharged railgun that can one-shot enemies to the body in medium-range duels, or one-tap enemies to the head from just about anywhere. Hollowpoint's Meteora railgun is also a great recon tool because aiming down sights detects enemies in the field of view, even if they're an invisible Zephyr. The value of Hollowpoint's Meteora simply cannot be overstated because it essentially acts as a second primary weapon, and as a free sniper rifle that disregards the Shard Clash rule that prevents you from selecting a weapon type after two deaths using them.
Hollowpoint's Smoke Screen is among the best vision control abilities in FragPunk because it's forward-moving, goes through walls, pings all enemies hit by the screen, and can be stopped at will to block off sightlines. Lastly, her Paparazzi trap is especially useful because it attaches to enemies and exposes them until they remove it by holding their interact key for a brief time.
S-Tier: Pathojen
Since this tier list is focused on highlighting the Lancers that provide consistent value regardless of your team composition, weapon, or Shard Cards, Pathojen's AOE healing field all but automatically places her in S-Tier because it's the only healing ability in FragPunk. While many Shard Cards can grant healing, increase your team's Max HP, or reduce incoming damage, Pathojen's Emotional Rescue ability bypasses the RNG Gods and ensures your team can restore their HP no matter what.
On top of that, her Shroom Wall is a respectable defensive tool that grants cover, creates blockades in narrow chokepoints, and completely blocks off doorways. Finally, Pathojen's Killer Queen ability forges a triggered or manually activated trap. Killer Queen is perfect for slowing enemy advances, it can be used offensively by tossing it toward unsuspecting enemies, and don't forget to place one on planted Converters to ensure enemies can’t defuse for free.
S-Tier: Spider
Spider may be the most controversial S-Tier pick on this list because his strongest ability, Teleporter, relies heavily on team coordination to extract maximum value. But because the Teleporter facilitates creative plays, safe disengages and full team site rotations, Spider’s potential is simply too high for a lower ranking. Meanwhile, Spider’s Spirited Away trap is a demoralizing ability that teleports enemies to the spot where the skill was initially cast. Catching an enemy with Spirited Away almost guarantees an easy charged knife kill or one-tap, but be sure to communicate with your team when teleporting more than a single target because you’ll likely require the follow-up.
Spider Trap is also an excellent defensive gadget that nearly covers an affected enemy’s entire screen for roughly three seconds while slowing them. Hide Spider Traps near choke points leading to your teleporters to prevent enemies from camping your TP.
S-Tier: Kismet
Kismet is an elite offensive Lancer in large part because of her Walk on the Wild Side ability that makes her invisible and invulnerable for a brief period. Walk on the Wild Side is the only movement ability in FragPunk that provides both invisibility and invulnerability, but you won’t be able to see enemies for its duration. Still, it allows you to sneakily cross wide-open sightlines or long corridors, before getting to cover. Walk on the Wild Side can also be used as a get-out-of-jail-free card, when cornered or low on HP.
Hello, Goodbye provides a short-range scan that penetrates walls, and though you may be unimpressed by this ability’s range initially, its effectiveness increases as you familiarize yourself with maps and common enemy angles. Kismet’s final ability, Misery Angel, is a complimentary one that can damage enemies regardless of intervening barricades. Misery Angel is a surprisingly lethal threat that deals close to 100 damage and has a large blast radius.
A-Tier: Serket
Serket is an all-around offensive threat that provides intel, can teleport, has a forward moving smoke, and an AOE crowd control tool. Serket’s movement ability, Station to Station, casts a controllable beacon that you can teleport to for a limited time, or cancel to remain in the cast location. When controlling the beacon, any enemies in your line of sight will appear as sandstorms. On paper, this ability may seem broken, but the beacon has a low health pool and can quickly be destroyed. So while the area Serket can cover will decrease as you climb the ranks, even spotting a single enemy’s location is incredibly advantageous.
Serket’s Gold Dust Woman releases a dust tornado that moves forward and slows enemies caught in it. The tornado can also be manually stopped to temporarily block a sightline. Serket is also equipped with a projectile that pulls enemies toward the center. When caught, it’s very difficult for enemies to escape the pull, but landing it consistently has a bit of a learning curve. Outside of throwing it toward enemies you know are pushing through a corridor, Dilemma can also be used to pull enemies from behind cover before quickly lining up a shot. Though Serket may be a few steps behind her S-Tier castmates, she’s just one beacon HP or speed buff away from joining the elite Lancers.
A-Tier: Broker
Like Serket, Broker is another Lancer on the cusp of reaching the S-Tier ranking because of his excellent area denial, smoke, and explosive abilities. Broker’s Goddard’s Vengeance ability allows him to wield a rocket launcher that instantly kills enemies hit directly. While hitting a target dead-on may become more inconsistent in high-rank lobbies, it’s almost guaranteed to inflict a staggering amount of damage and the rocket can also be used to swiftly dismantle a defensive setup. So even if you don’t get your one before being eliminated, Goddard’s Vengeance will ensure one of your enemies leaves the gunfight battered and bruised.
Broker’s Smokestack Lightning is inarguably one of the most versatile smokes in FragPunk because it’s thrown and casts smokes along the flight trajectory, even after bouncing off walls. Though Smokestack Lightning is an insanely useful ability that can be used to cover or obscure just about any area of the map, the prevalence of recon abilities can quickly detect your push. Broker’s final ability, Cherry Bomb, is great for denying space, and though the bombs are easily destroyed and avoided, the info gained when enemies fire at or run through the bombs makes it worthwhile.
A-Tier: Zephyr
Were it not for the pervasiveness of traps and recon abilities in FragPunk, Zephyr and her stealthy kit would undoubtedly be S-Tier. Zephyr is an elusive Lancer whose Midnight Rambler ability grants temporary invisibility, at the cost of becoming unable to fire weapons without decloaking. Her second ability, Fade Away, casts a large zone that allows Zephyr to remain invisible indefinitely, so long as she doesn’t exit the zone or shoot her firearm. These two abilities used in concert can be incredibly lethal on sites, but her loud footsteps and traps remain a constant liability.
Thankfully, Zephyr has a built-in escape strategy in the form of her Get Back teleport beacon. Place a beacon before going for a stealthy backstab or aggressing on a site, and if your invisibility is running out, teleport back to quickly disengage.
A-Tier: Sonar
Sonar’s character design is deeply rooted in gathering information for you and your squad, but we’ve bumped her down to A-Tier because of her lack of mobility and reliance on team follow-up. Sonar’s Echolocation deploys a sensor that scans for moving enemies every few seconds. Though Echolocation is an undoubtedly powerful recon ability, it can be gamed by walking between the sensor’s scans. Nevertheless, at a minimum, Echolocation will slow enemy pushes and make their movements easier to predict.
Sonar’s Sonic Surge is another recon tool that launches a charged-up sonic wave that exposes all enemies hit and knocks them back. Because Sonic Surge can travel through walls, it’s amazing at gathering intel on enemy setups. Finally, Sound of Silence dampens your footsteps and the steps of surrounding teammates for a very brief period. The shortness of this ability’s timer makes it near useless in solo queue, but when on a coordinated squad, the silent pushes can be fight winning.
A-Tier: Corona
Corona’s kit is arguably one of the most harmonious in FragPunk because all of his abilities are meant to be used in concert. Corona’s Fast Lane is a quick dash that allows you to swiftly reposition between cover, but it’ll often be deployed just after casting Hothead. Hothead transforms Corona into a flash that briefly blinds all enemies looking at this Lancer. Corona players will time their Hothead flash, dash into line of sight, and blind all nearby enemies.
While this combo can be round winning, it tragically leaves Corona in no man’s land unless he has team follow-up. Corona’s last ability is Ashes to Ashes which creates a spell field that damages enemies, and grants Corona damage reduction and increased movement speed while in the zone. Though Corona sits in the A-Tier, he’s one of the best 1v1 duelers in FragPunk, making him a major asset in overtime matches.
B-Tier: Jaguar
Despite receiving a buff in a recent balance patch, Jaguar remains a B-Tier Lancer simply because there are Lancers that outmatch each of his abilities. Jaguar’s Live Wire trap deals an impressive amount of damage but not enough to secure kills, and it doesn’t reveal enemies unless you also use his I Can See for Miles skill. I Can See for Miles detects the number of enemies directly ahead, enemies on critical HP, or opponents affected by Live Wire or Electric Avenue.
Electric Avenue summons a cage around enemies scanned by the cast ability, but again, you’ll only be able to see the enemy inside if you use I Can See for Miles. Electric Avenue also lacks agency because it’ll automatically surround the nearest enemy in range. This isn’t always advantageous as teams can strategically bait your push before entering or exiting the cage.
B-Tier: Axon
Axon is one of the most aggressive Lancers in FragPunk, but like Zephyr, his kit is heavily reliant on the enemy team being distracted or lacking recon traps. Axon’s Electric Guitar deals a hefty, yet inconsistent amount of damage, but you’ll need to get into close-range engagements for it to be effective. Sticky Fingers are Axon’s grenades which can stick to targets or bounce off the environment, making them decent when you know an enemy’s precise location, but they rarely get value otherwise.
Axon’s final ability, Super Freak, is unquestionably the most niche in FragPunk because it makes him immune to flashes. While many believe Super Freak becomes near useless when facing off against a squad with no blinds, that isn’t necessarily the case. Super Freak can still get value if you throw flashes and quickly swing toward your enemy to blind them without getting flashed yourself. Despite Axon being one of the more fun and high-octane Lancers in the cast, a skilled marksman like Hollowpoint will decimate him on maps with long sightlines, so stick to running him on maps with tight flank routes.
B-Tier: Chum
To be clear, Chum is still a perfectly viable pick in B-Tier, but his reliance on his bestie Chomper places him at the bottom of the list because Chomper can be destroyed relatively quickly. Chomper is a deployable friend who can patrol a given area, enter Explosive Mode to chase down enemies, or enter Smoke Mode to release a controllable stream of smoke.
Chomper enters Explosive Mode when fed Chum’s Explosive Bait trap, and enters Smoke Mode when fed Smoke Bait. Smoke Bait can also be thrown to create a smoke cloud when the projectile hits the ground. Smoke Mode Chomper can be rather effective, but you’ll become vulnerable while controlling him, so be sure to get coverage from your teammates. Lastly, Chum’s lack of mobility options make him one of the easiest Lancers to isolate unless you keep Chomper by your side and limit your playmaking.
Anyone familiar with the Fantastic Four comics will know that this is a big deal for the team. Marvel Studios is about to introduce arguably the most powerful mutant in existence. And maybe his super-genius sister for good measure? Let’s take a closer look at why Sue’s pregnancy has major implications for the MCU and the Marvel movie multiverse.
The Children of the Fantastic Four: Who Are Franklin and Valeria Richards?
There’s a reason the FF are known as “Marvel’s First Family.” They’re a loving (if somewhat dysfunctional) family first and a superhero team second. That family element only becomes all the more pronounced once Reed Richards and Susan Storm become parents. In the comics, Reed and Sue currently have two children. Their elder son Franklin was introduced in 1968’s Fantastic Four Annual #6. Franklin’s younger sister Valeria followed in 2002's Fantastic Four #54.
As you might expect from parents whose bodies were inundated with cosmic radiation, Franklin and Valeria are both far from ordinary children. Franklin is easily one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. He has the ability to warp reality and matter at will, a power that even allows him to create entire pocket dimensions out of nothing. This power also manifests in other ways, giving Franklin everything from telepathy and telekinesis to the ability to project his consciousness across the astral plane.
Essentially, Franklin is the one being on Earth whose power is so great it rivals that of cosmic entities like the Celestials and Galactus. And he’s destined to only grow more powerful with age. The FF have met multiple adult versions of Franklin from the future, suggesting that he’ll one day grow to become an immortal defender of the entire Marvel Universe.
That’s a tough act to follow, but Valeria has never had much trouble holding her own in the Richards clan. She doesn’t have any superhuman abilities (not yet, at least), but her mind more than makes up for that. Despite her young age, Valeria is every bit as brilliant a scientist as her father. She’s a skilled inventor and an integral member of the Future Foundation, a team spearheaded by Reed that brings together the most brilliant young minds in the Marvel Universe.
As they’ve grown older, Franklin and Valeria have begun to take a more active role in the Fantastic Four’s adventures. They even have their own superhero codenames (Franklin is Powerhouse and Valeria is Brainstorm). Whatever the future holds for the Marvel Universe, Franklin and Valeria will be there to shape it.
Doctor Doom’s Relationship With Valeria
One of the more interesting elements when it comes to Valeria Richards involves her connection to Doctor Doom. As much as Doom hates the Fantastic Four in general and Reed in particular, he’s actually pretty fond of Valeria. She may be the one person on Earth the incredibly self-absorbed Doom genuinely loves.
In fact, Doom is Valeria’s godfather. When Sue went into labor, complications from her cosmic ray exposure caused Valeria’s birth to be extremely difficult. Her brother Johnny was forced to call on Doom’s aid to deliver the baby. Doom’s price was to choose Valeria’s name, and he named the baby after his former lover.
Ever since that day, Doom has shown a peculiar affection for Valeria. That bond has only grown as Valeria’s brilliant mind has begun to assert itself. Much to her father’s chagrin, Valeria reciprocates Doom’s love, even referring to him as “Uncle Doom.” Doom will never bring himself to acknowledge Reed as the superior scientist, but he has no such hang-ups when it comes to Valeria.
As much as Doom hates Reed, he also covets what his nemesis has - a warm, loving family and the respect and adulation of the entire planet. That’s why when Doom remakes reality into Battleworld in 2015’s Secret Wars, he steals Reed’s family for his own. Susan becomes God Emperor Doom’s consort, and Franklin and Valeria his adopted children. Naturally, Sue was none too thrilled to realize what happened when her memories returned. But despite all that, the bond between Uncle Doom and Valeria Richards endures.
Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman’s Children in the MCU
One thing is clear following Marvel’s CinemaCon presentation. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is going to introduce Franklin Richards to the Marvel multiverse, if not Valeria as well. The footage screened during the Marvel panel confirms that Kirby’s Sue Storm is pregnant. As many suspected, the “First Steps” portion of the title does indeed have multiple meanings.
We assume that First Steps will take place over a long enough period of time that Sue eventually gives birth to Franklin (or twins?) during the course of the film. And just as in the comics, Sue and Pedro Pascal’s Reed will discover that their son is far from an ordinary child. He’s essentially a god in the body of a young boy.
It remains to be seen what exact role Franklin will have in the conflict of First Steps, though it’s probably no coincidence that Ralph Ineson’s Galactus is paying a call just as Reed and Sue are confronting parenthood. Does Galactus see Earth as just another snack in his never-ending cosmic feast? Or is he specifically interested in Franklin Richards? We could easily see a scenario where Galactus craves Franklin’s power specifically. If you can conjure entire universes out of thin air, then even Galactus need never go hungry again.
It’s also enough to wonder how Reed and Sue’s children might factor into the larger Multiverse Saga. We know from films like 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and 2023’s The Marvels that the multiverse is facing an increasing threat from Incursions - that phenomenon where two parallel universes begin to collide. Is Franklin somehow connected to the Incursions? Is he the catalyst that brings the FF from their universe into the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday?
And what about Robert Downey, Jr. 's Doctor Doom? It remains to be seen what, if any, role Doom will play in First Steps. We don’t even know that he hails from the First Steps universe. But we do have to wonder if First Steps will introduce Valeria alongside her brother and set up that crucial bond between the youngest member of the Richards family and Uncle Doom. Will Avengers: Secret Wars follow the comics and see Doom steal Reed’s family for his own?
Whatever happens, it’s safe to say that the children of the Fantastic Four have a big part to play in the future of the MCU. One of them is among the most powerful beings in existence. The other is one of the smartest. Together, they have the potential to reshape the climax of the Multiverse Saga and whatever comes next for the MCU.
LEGO has recently released a brand new set to its LEGO Disney line for 2025. Unlike many of the other LEGO Disney sets we've seen from this collaboration, the newest addition is targeted more at adults than kids. The massive LEGO Beauty and the Beast Castle is a whopping 2,916 pieces of pure Disney magic filled with little scenes from the classic film.
This isn't the first adult LEGO set from Disney, but it certainly is a break from the norm when it comes to LEGO castles. Usually these types of sets come with a lot fewer pieces and more play-friendly elements, but the Beauty and the Beast Castle was meant to be displayed in all its glory. If you're an adult fan of the animated movie and LEGO, this set was meant for you.
The LEGO Beauty and the Beast Castle Is Now Available
The LEGO Beauty and the Beast Castle is only available for purchase at the LEGO store and the Disney Store. Listings have not yet started cropping up at the other usual places for buying LEGO sets, like Amazon and Target, so you'll have to wait if you want to buy this elsewhere. If you buy this set at the LEGO Store, you'll have the option to get a free gift – currently a small Lord of the Rings set or an Easter Egg Chick painting an egg – with your purchase. The Disney Store does not offer any addtional benefits, but you can use Rewards Dollars if you happen to have them from a Disney Visa Card.
The set itself is massive and filled with fun features you'll discover as you build. Most importantly, this set comes with a total of 10 minifigures from the classic Disney animated movie. The full list includes Maurice, Belle, Cogsworth, Chip and Mrs. Potts, Lumière, Fifi, the enchanted rose in a case, the Beast, Gaston, and LeFou. Priced at $279.99 for the set, it's definitely an expensive purchase, but one well worth your time if you love Beauty and the Beast. We actually had the chance to build this set ourselves and loved putting it together.
Are There Any Other Upcoming LEGO Disney Sets?
This latest Disney set came along quite a few other new LEGO sets for April 2025. This was the only new Disney set from those new releases, however. After this one the next "Disney" set is an Avengers: Endgame Final Battle set that will be releasing on May 1.
In terms of other LEGO Disney sets targeted at adults specifically, while we don't have any info on what's to come, we for sure know that there will be more. LEGO started putting more of a focused on adult Disney sets last year with the Snow White Cottage and continues to push further into the market of Disney and AFOL (Adult Fans of LEGO).
The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally been revealed, and while it brings huge improvements over the original console, it doesn’t exist in the same vacuum that the original handheld did. With the introduction of devices like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X, a ton of handheld gaming systems out there can play AAA PC games on the go.
So, while the Switch 2 will automatically have a niche carved out for being a system that plays, well, Nintendo games like Mario Kart World, anyone that’s buying a Switch 2 to play multiplatform games will have to reckon with devices like the Steam Deck – especially with the Switch 2’s $449 price tag.
Now that Nintendo has given a sneak peek into the hardware that’s running its new console, we can take a look at how exactly it will run, and whether or not its 4K promises are more than empty words.
Nvidia’s Custom Chip
The SoC (System on a Chip) that runs the Nintendo Switch 2 is probably the most important part of the console, but it’s the thing we know the least about. We do know that it’s a “custom Nvidia processor” that supports DLSS and ray tracing, but beyond that, neither Nintendo nor Nvidia have revealed any specifics. Luckily, there are a ton of leaks that suggest the Nintendo Switch 2 is using the aging Ampere graphics architecture behind the RTX 3080.
Going all the way back to 2023, there were leaks suggesting that the Nintendo Switch 2 would be using the Nvidia Tegra T239 SoC. This APU uses 8 ARM A78C cores, combined with an Nvidia Ampere GPU with 1,536 CUDA cores. Napkin math puts that at 12 Streaming Multiprocessors, which would be significantly smaller than even the smallest Ampere GPU – the RTX 3050 for laptops. However, assuming Nvidia didn’t nerf the Ampere SMs in the T239, each SM would have four Tensor Cores and an RT core, making for a total of 48 and 12, respectively.
To be fair, the Steam Deck is using a custom AMD APU that’s built on 8 AMD RDNA 2 GPU cores, which is smaller than what Nintendo is offering here. But, you have to keep in mind that the Steam Deck has a lower resolution display, and pumps more power into it. Plus, AMD Z2 processors are coming out over the next year, with the Z2 Extreme featuring 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, which will be a huge upgrade. Though, systems with that chipset are going to be much more expensive than the Switch 2.
That small of a GPU basically makes 4K gaming an impossibility natively, but because the Tensor Cores are there, DLSS is going to be a major factor in how the Nintendo Switch performs when docked – assuming this is the SoC that’s actually in the system. However, with so few Tensor Cores, even upscaling to 4K is going to be a stretch in everything but the most lightweight games.
Instead, most games are likely going to target 1080p, even if they don’t natively render at that resolution. There are games like Donkey Kong Bananza that do seem to be rendering at a native 1080p resolution, according to Digital Foundry’s hands-on demos. However, third-party games like Cyberpunk 2077 seem to be relying heavily on upscaling, with native resolutions as low as 540p. I wouldn’t expect the Nintendo Switch 2 to ever be able to handle Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K, even with DLSS, though Nintendo will definitely have better luck with any game it can get running natively at 1080p.
The Ampere cores in the rumored T239 also have RT cores, which should theoretically allow for ray tracing in Nintendo Switch 2 games. Though, again, this will be heavily constrained by the processor’s 12 RT cores. Ray tracing will be possible, but don’t expect any jaw-dropping implementations of the technology, and especially don’t expect it in games like Cyberpunk 2077.
Even with RT cores, ray tracing is an extremely expensive workload for the GPU, and the T239 is limited by more than just its small SM count – power is a huge limiting factor, too. I spoke with Richard Leadbetter over at Digital Foundry, who told me that the entire system likely consumes as little as 10W, including the display, the SoC, and the mainboard. We won’t know exactly what the T239’s actual TDP (thermal design power) is until someone finds a way to measure it, but it likely leaves only 5-6W for the SoC itself – a third of the power of the Steam Deck’s AMD APU.
However, while the Nintendo Switch 2 might not be able to produce the same amount of power as a handheld gaming PC like the Asus ROG Ally X, that doesn’t mean there won’t be gorgeous games running on the system. After all, games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza look stunning, and it goes to show how clever Nintendo developers are at getting the most out of the hardware in the Switch.
After all, the original Nintendo Switch was powered by the Nvidia Tegra X1, which was built on the now-ancient Maxwell graphics architecture and only packed 256 CUDA cores. Ampere is orders of magnitude more efficient than Maxwell even on its best days, and there are six times more cores in the Switch 2’s GPU. The Nintendo Switch 2 should be way faster than the original console, which bodes well for cross-generation ports like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Battery Life
While a total system power budget of 10W means the system isn’t quite as fast as it could be, it does mean the battery will have a much better time keeping up. Nintendo has come out and said it should last around 2 hours at a minimum. That’s less than was quoted for the original Switch, but that shouldn’t be too surprising, due to its higher-resolution display and more powerful processor.
The Nintendo Switch 2 has a 5,220mAh battery, a large step up from the 4,310mAh battery in the original console. That’s a sizable jump, and if its battery has the same voltage of the original Switch, that would equate to around 19Whr. That’s a smaller battery than the Steam Deck, which is probably why Nintendo quotes a similar battery life to the Steam Deck, despite its less power-hungry processor.
Nintendo probably could have put a more powerful battery in the Switch 2, but its decision likely came down to size constraints. There’s only so much battery that’ll fit while retaining the same thickness as the original Nintendo Switch, after all.
The Display
The most striking difference at first glance between the Switch and Switch 2 is probably going to be the display. While it doesn’t have the OLED screen that made the Switch OLED such a marvel, the display is bigger and has a higher resolution. The Nintendo Switch 2 sports a 7.9-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1920x1080 with HDR 10 support. The display is also fast, supporting variable refresh rate up to 120Hz. That’s honestly a bit overkill considering the silicon powering the thing, but it does mean that older games or indie titles will feel extremely smooth – assuming they have unlocked frame rates. 120Hz is also a useful refresh rate for games that target 40fps since that makes for a clean ratio that won’t result in excessive stuttering.
Nintendo hasn’t released any information about the brightness of the display, but the HDR 10 certification means it needs to at least have a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, so it’s going to be a bright screen. We don’t know exactly how color performance will turn out either, but Nintendo does claim that it supports WCG, or Wide Color Gamut.
The display is probably going to be the thing that lifts the Nintendo Switch 2 above its competitors. The Steam Deck LCD has an 800p display with a peak brightness of 400 nits, and it doesn’t support WCG. The Steam Deck OLED does offer a much nicer display, but it’s still an 800p display. The Nintendo Switch 2 screen is also a huge upgrade over the original, which had a 6.2-inch, 720p LCD display.
Is the Nintendo Switch 2 a Worthy Upgrade?
In a vacuum, the Nintendo Switch 2 is massively better than the original Nintendo Switch. It’s leagues faster, has a screen that’s bigger, brighter and sharper, and has Joy-Con that you don’t have to wrestle with to disconnect. The only problem is that the Switch doesn’t exist in a vacuum anymore.
There are a ton of handheld gaming systems out there now, and while most of them are more expensive than the $449 Nintendo Switch 2, they likely offer a better gameplay experience in multi-platform games. The real appeal of the Switch 2 is going to be Nintendo’s catalog of first-party games, just like with the original console. Nintendo is known for making great games that make the most of its – relatively – weak hardware. If you’re the type of gamer that falls in love with Nintendo games, then the Nintendo Switch 2 makes a lot of sense. However, if you’re just going to get this thing to play Cyberpunk or Elden Ring on the train, there are better gaming handheld options out there.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
For seven years, Metroid Prime 4 was just a logo. Fans obsessively tuned into every Nintendo presentation hoping for an update on the game to no avail until 2024 when a trailer was finally released and footage of the game in motion was actually revealed. This year, not only is Metroid Prime 4: Beyond getting released but it’s also getting some really interesting visual and gameplay upgrades on Nintendo Switch 2. We’ve played Retro Studio’s latest installment in the classic sci-fi action adventure series on Switch 2 and we have lots to tell you about. Read on to find out more.
Beyond Beautiful
The first thing we noticed with Metroid Prime 4 was how gorgeous it was. It’s got an incredibly clean and stylish aesthetic and Nintendo was advertising it as running in 120 frames per second on Switch 2. This won’t be the case on Switch 1 and it’s tough to track how much Nintendo will be able to stick to that number on the full game, but it’s an ambitious goal either way. So far, Prime 4 has a really great sense of scale. We fought a bunch of grunt-like enemies, saw a massive, hulking mech strut into the battle, and then took down a large boss that featured several different attack phases. The area we demoed was just a small glimpse at what the full game might offer so we’re hoping we see some grander setpieces and large, open environments, some of which have been teased already in trailers.
But Metroid games are also about cramped tunnels and dark corridors and we got to see a few of those, too. Like previous Prime games, a quick button press instantly pops Samus from first-person aiming into third-person morph ball mode, allowing her to traverse some areas she can’t reach otherwise. We got to test this out a bit and it works great so we can’t wait to search around every nook and cranny of this game looking for missile upgrades, energy tanks, shortcuts, and more. This is the most detailed Metroid game yet and these sections are no different, giving us a glimpse of battles happening between warring factions happening beneath you as you roll around in tunnels above them. But wait, how does it all play?
Samouse Aran (Or, Of Mice and Metroids)
One of the most fascinating additions to Metroid Prime 4 on Switch 2 is the optional mouse controls. Looking back, the Prime series has experimented a ton with unique control options across various games. The first two Metroid Prime games were built around the fairly traditional Nintendo GameCube controller (although there was nothing traditional about turning a historically 2D sidescrolling game into a first person action adventure game with third person ball rolling mechanics) but after that, all bets were off. Metroid Prime: Hunters on Nintendo DS had touch screen controls. Metroid Prime 3 on Nintendo Wii had pointer and motion controls. Metroid Prime Pinball on DS shipped with a Game Boy Advance cartridge shaped rumble pack. We don’t talk about Metroid Prime: Blast Ball on Nintendo 3DS.
And now, Metroid Prime 4 on Switch 2 lets you turn your right Joy-Con 2 sideways, place it on a flat surface, and control Samus’ aiming with a snappy and precise mouse pointer complete with haptic feedback for every shot. Even neater, the game seamlessly allows you to switch from traditional stick controls to mouse controls on a whim, with no need to pause to go into the settings. We could see plenty of people deciding this is their preferred way to play Metroid Prime 4, and the ease of which you can swap back and forth between mouse and pointer controls makes it so you can choose to only plop the Joy-Con 2 on the table when it’s time for a serious combat sequence, and use traditional controls for the more chill exploration segments Prime 4 will surely deliver. Or maybe you’ll want to play the whole game in handheld mode or with a Pro Controller. Either way, you’ve got options.
The "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" Upgrade Path
One thing Nintendo isn’t being totally clear on just yet is where Prime 4 sits in their awkward transitional Switch 1 to Switch 2 titles list. While some original Switch games like Echoes of Wisdom and Link’s Awakening are getting free upgrade patches for Switch 2, others like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are charging $10 for visual upgrades (and a few bells and whistles) while some games like Kirby and the Forgotten Land will receive $20 upgrades that improve visuals and add new content. Which of these categories will Metroid Prime 4’s mouse controls and 120FPS options be in when they come to Switch 2?
Well, like its release date and base game price, we just don’t know yet. You’ll be able to buy the base game and the “Switch 2 edition upgrade pack” individually or as a bundle in a bright red Switch 2 branded box but as of now, we have no idea how much any of those will cost you. Our best guess is that it will be $10 more for the Switch 2 version given that it’s not coming with an expansion like Mario Party’s “+ Jamboree TV” and Kirby’s “+ Star-Crossed World”, but we’re not 100% sure yet. Samus has unlockable psychic powers in Prime 4 so we might just have to ask her. She’s usually not very talkative, though.
Metroid Prime 4 doesn’t have a release date just yet but it’s coming to Switch 1 and Switch 2 in 2025 so hey, at least we won’t have to wait seven years again to find out more. Keep it locked to IGN for all things Metroid, and be sure to read up on our hands-on coverage of the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Mario Kart World.
Brian Altano and Logan Plant love Metroid and talk about it frequently on Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN's weekly Nintendo podcast. Check it out on Fridays on IGN.com, YouTube, and podcast services.
It’d be difficult for any TV series, let alone an anime series, to be greeted with higher expectations than Lazarus. And, as Lazarus proves, it’d be equally difficult to live up to those expectations. The series comes from Shinichirō Watanabe, creator of the undisputed anime masterpiece Cowboy Bebop. With action overseen by John Wick director Chad Stahelski and a soundtrack featuring original compositions by the tantalizing trio of Kamasi Washington, Floating Points, and Bonobos, it would seem Lazarus promises nothing but slick and exciting visuals, storytelling, and atmosphere. In the first five episodes, only some of those promises are fulfilled. The opening chapters of Watanabe’s mildly compelling mystery anime remain watchable not because of the style on display or how much we care about the characters, but because of its heightened, apocalyptic stakes.
The beginning of Lazarus gives you no time to breathe: It instantly hits you with bucket loads of context and double-exposed imagery that define its vision of the future. The year is 2052, and a miracle painkiller called Hapna has exploded in popularity across the globe, ending humanity’s relationship to pain and putting a large chunk of the population in a perpetual sleepwalk. Believing this was a mistake, the drug’s creator, Dr. Skinner, announces that within 30 days, everyone who has ever taken Hapna will die. The sensory overload and intrigue surrounding this information is almost enough to paper over the clunky dialogue and poor acting (in the English version, anyway) that relays it.
Dropping such a nuclear event in the first episode is a bold decision. My brain was flooded with curiosity as to how the world would react and questions of how this was even possible, and why someone would decide that genocide on this level was the answer. It’s completely ridiculous, but Dr. Skinner’s speech announcing his intentions is packed with enough shock, intrigue, and mystery that it propelled me through the next four episodes – despite some of the less interesting turns they take.
Watanabe opts for a cold visual approach with Lazarus, with desaturated colors and metallic production design. That chilliness – also reflected in the steely, detached members of the Suicide Squad-like team looking to get a cure from Dr. Skinner – means that the plot and action need to deliver in order for the show to remain engaging. On this front, the results are mixed.
The style of action on display is apparent from the scene that introduces Axel, an inmate being recruited for the dangerous mission at the center of Lazarus. Taking advantage of the situation, Axel uses his almost superhuman kung fu and parkour skills to escape, something he apparently has done over 100 times. The 2D animation is slightly aided by CG in these fight scenes, to great effect. It puts us extremely close to the action – with punches flying right past us – while still letting us understand what’s happening on screen, thanks to the added mobility of the camera in CG. Even when the combat on Lazarus feels a little familiar – Stahelski’s blessing and curse, having now reshaped action filmmaking twice over as a stunt performer and coordinator in The Matrix movies and the architect of the John Wick franchise – the way it’s presented still feels intense and spectacular.
Yet there’s still room for Lazarus’ action to improve in future episodes. Axel and his colleagues are so capable at hand-to-hand combat that there’s no tension or peril in these scenes – despite the unerringly good soundtrack’s best efforts to establish those feelings. As such, I’m thankful for the one thrilling sequence that bucks this trend, involving a helicopter and a Green Goblin-esque glider.
There’s still room for Lazarus’ action to improve in future episodes.
A bigger problem is just how functional the characters are. They’re a group of hyper-competent spies who are too aloof to seem like they care about their assignment – which is, as a reminder, to prevent the deaths of billions of people. Lazarus frustratingly shies away from emotion in the middle of this doomsday scenario in favor of a cool factor that never actually feels that cool. Axel is meant to be the character we see this new world through, but he seems to find everything so easy, like he knows he’s going to survive no matter the challenge. I want to feel the effect of each hour passing, bringing us closer to doom. I want to understand the exhaustion and panic that must come with being tasked to save the world. Instead, Axel treats everything like a game – which could make for an interesting character arc past these five episodes, if Lazarus hadn’t sacrificed my investment in him as a person from the get-go. (A similar constraint affects the side characters as well.)
Watanabe has something to say through Lazarus, but it’s watered down and held back in these five episodes. The message about the way modern society sees and deals with pain is limited to monologues at the start of each episode, in which various characters detail their first encounters with Hapna. In a short span of time, a lot is said about how people desire numbness, and how readily available and monetized it is. But these first passages of Lazarus only touch on these topics briefly, leaving the big questions posed in the premiere – about Skinner’s motivations and how the world at large might react to its impending doom – to be answered (or not) by the episodes to follow.
If you are planning a PC build and have been waiting patiently to get ahold of one of the new Nvidia Blackwell graphics cards, here's an opportunity that's as good as you're going to get. Right now Amazon has Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC graphics cards in stock starting at $899.99 shipped. Inventory is reserved for Amazon Prime members only.
TLDR; Here's a quick list of the GPUs that we've found in stock:
Although the MSRP for these cards range from $899.99 to $999.99, a reference GeForce RTX 5070 Ti card is actually supposed to sell for $750. More advanced cooling designs, a more uncommon colorway, or overclocking out of the box add to the cost, but even then, admittedly, these cards are still priced higher than AMD originally intended.
The reality is that even third party manufacturers like Gigabyte, MSI, Asus (and pretty much everyone else) are also taking advantage of the high demand by marking prices up from the get-go. Unfortunately, you'd be hard pressed to find another RTX 5070 Ti GPU for this price or less. RTX 5070 Ti GPUs are generally selling for over $1,000 on eBay.
The RTX 5070 Ti GPU Has Excellent 4K Gaming Performance
Of all the Blackwell cards released thus far, the RTX 5070 Ti offers the best bang for your buck, especially when pitted against the previous generation GPUs. It performs neck-and-neck with the RTX 4080 Super and already marginalizes the RTX 5080, which is only about 10%-15% faster but costs 33% more. This GPU is capable of high framerates in nearly all games, even at 4K resolution with ray tracing enabled. Heck, even if you plan on using this card for AI, the RTX 5070 Ti might be the better value than the RTX 50870 since both are equipped with the same 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM.
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.
Spider-Man and Wolverine are undoubtedly the two biggest characters at Marvel Comics, but it’s not often that their paths directly cross. Even during that very brief period when Peter Parker was a teacher at the Jean Grey Institute, Logan was enjoying the sweet embrace of death. So it’s a pretty big deal that Marvel has revealed a new monthly team-up series called Spider-Man & Wolverine.
Why are these two iconic heroes joining forces? What threat is so great that it requires both Spidey and Wolverine to fight it? And can these two fiery personalities put aside their differences long enough to get the job done? IGN spoke with writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Kaare Andrews via email to learn more about the new series. First, check out an exclusive preview of Spider-Man & Wolverine #1 below, and then read on to see what they had to say.
The Legacy of Spider-Man vs. Wolverine
Apart from the occasional big crossover like 1984’s Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, Spider-Man and Wolverine didn’t have a long track record of teaming up in the first several decades of their Marvel careers. That only really changed with 1987’s Spider-Man vs. Wolverine, a dark crossover special that ends on a particularly bleak note for Peter Parker. That issue set the tone for every Spider-Man/Wolverine team-up that followed.
Given its lofty status, we were curious if Guggenheim and Andrews felt at all intimidated in taking on this assignment. How long a shadow does Spider-Man vs. Wolverine cast over this new series?
“I’m a huge fan of the 1987 one-shot,” Guggenheim tells IGN. “I loved it as a kid and it really left an impression on me. I wouldn’t say, however, that I’ve found myself intimidated by it. It may set a bar in terms of quality, but it’s very tonally different from what I’m trying to do. (Though issue #2 features a pretty bonkers fight between Peter and Logan.)”
“You know, I just don’t look at life as a series of intimidations,” Andrews says. “I look at everything as opportunity and risk—and the bigger the opportunity, the bigger the risk that is required. And I’m constantly betting the bank on whatever I’m doing. Not every endeavor works with that sort of instinct, but comics does. And this is why comics can be the greatest job in the world. You create your own risks, are rarely held back from leaping off of tall objects, and the crashing and tumbling to the floor is the energy it takes to draw the work—to tell the stories.”
Andrews continues, “I loved that first book and was always haunted by the small panel sequence at the end of the story, the same images that haunted Peter Parker. A repeated panel that lingers with Peter after the job is done. That’s pure comics language. You can’t replicate it in any other medium. If anything, I’m looking to be inspired by that sense memory, that residue. I’m looking for new ways to leave our readers with that same haunting. Maybe not in the same way—but in some way. Thank God I loved that comic so much. It makes it a joy to take on these pages and real benchmark to not just hit—but at some opportunity to better. Nothing would be worse than not being inspired, than not having risks, than not measuring yourself up against everything you love. Working to exhaustion on projects with high risk/rewards is a gift that comics gives me. I love this thing. This medium. This language.”
Neither creator is a stranger to Spider-Man or Wolverine at this point. For his part, Guggenheim worked on both the ongoing Wolverine and Amazing Spider-Man comics in the ‘00s, including serving as one of the rotating writers on Marvel’s controversial Spider-Man Brand New Day initiative (the inspiration behind the next MCU Spider-Man movie). Is it difficult to settle back in with these characters after some time away? Has either Peter or Logan really changed in that time? As Guggenheim reveals, he’s the one that’s really changed over the years.
“I don’t think Peter and Logan have changed all that much since I first wrote them,” Guggenheim says. “What’s truly different is how much I’ve changed as a writer. I wrote Spider-Man and Wolverine very early in my writing career and I feel like I’ve evolved immeasurably since those early days. One of the appeals of this project for me is the chance to revisit these two icons as, quite frankly, a better writer.”
Whether or not Andrews is a better artist than he was two decades ago, he’s certainly a different one. One of the hallmarks of Andrews’ art style is that he has no set style. His work evolves and shifts with each new project. But as Andrews explains, Spider-Man & Wolverine is a case of him revisiting an earlier era of Marvel, drawing inspiration from the comics he loved as a young reader.
“You know, my favorite martial artist was Bruce Lee,” Andrews says. “And what Bruce did to revolutionize martial arts was to both abandon and combine styles. To create ‘All Styles Combat’. And that’s how I view artmaking. One time it’s Judo, one time it’s Greco-American Wrestling, one time it’s Kung-Fu or Boxing. And at the same time I know it’s the ‘wrong way’ to do this job. How do you build a fanbase by constantly changing? But I’ve never really been interested in building fanbases. I’m interested in ART. I’m interested in IDEAS. I’m interested in THE NEW. And sometimes the ‘new’ is a revitalization of the ‘old.’ A loop back. You know, I’ve always been experimental—wanting to zig while the world zags. And for a while, that meant my comic art became pretty out there. But now every comic seems a little out there. And I’ve found the most subversive, the most exciting pocket for me is this return to the kinds of comic art I grew up reading. A sort of ‘retro-nouveau’.”
Andrews continues, “At the moment, I’m interested in the kind of comic art that used to hit me right in the middle. Not a recreation of anything in particular but an inspiration of how I remembered those books. And it’s not nostalgia. It’s not homage. It’s life. It’s taking chances and doing the wrong thing because it feels right. If you’ve been following some of my covers for the past couple of years, it’s in line with those. And you know, those covers—I started doing them as a sort of exploration of the past. Of my past. Comics. Fandom. And I found so much joy, so much energy, so much ‘taboo’ that that energy has sort of taken over my body and I’m just radiating with it. For now. Because everything changes. Everything grows. And eventually dies. But until then—you go to LIVE, baby. Whatever that means to you. LIVE.”
Spider-Man and Wolverine’s Dynamic
Peter Parker and Logan have certainly had a rocky relationship over the years. They’ve been at each other’s throats, they’ve been fellow Avengers, and they even went on a cross-dimensional caper together in Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert’s Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine. But where do things stand these days? How is the dynamic between these heroes in 2025?
“Well, the beauty part of teaming up Wolverine and Spider-Man is that even when they’re allies, there’s friction. It’s like a buddy action comedy,” Guggenheim says. “That being said, there’s something that causes more than friction between Peter and Logan. It’s actually rather combustible. Expect a lot of fireworks.”
“You know there’ll be some friction. You know they’ll be allies, they’ll be foes, they’ll be a team-up and against,” Andrews adds. “But why this time? Why this book? How many times can we team up Wolverine and Spider-Man and make it meaningful? I will tell you this. These are my two favorite Marvel heroes in existence. I have never drawn them together before. Never told stories with them before. And this one will be special. We are telling stories I didn’t think they’d allow us to tell. This is the new. This is the real. If you love comics or have loved comics you NEED to pick up this book.”
As far as what brings the two characters together again, Guggenheim teases, “The narrative gets kickstarted by something called ‘the Janus Directory’ — a comprehensive database of the true identities of every undercover operative in the world going back decades. Without spoiling things, I can say that Peter and Logan both have very good reasons to want to keep the Directory out of enemy hands.”
Wolverine is practically the poster child for superheroes with shadowy pasts, and even the Parker family has a few skeletons in its closet at this point. Marvel has teased that the new series will delve into both characters’ respective pasts, but Guggenheim confirms that readers needn’t worry about being well-versed in the history of either hero. Spider-Man & Wolverine will be exploring new revelations surrounding these characters, not returning to the Weapon X well.
“[It’s] not really anything I can go into too much detail about at the moment,” Guggenheim says. That being said, my approach to continuity — Peter and Logan’s respective pasts, specifically — is designed to be completely new reader-friendly. Whenever we reference the past, we’ll do more than reference it — we’ll show it. No homework required.”
In general, Spider-Man & Wolverine is designed to be as accessible as possible to Marvel newcomers. While the series will reflect each character’s current status quo, as established in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man relaunch and Marvel’s X-Men: From the Ashes initiative, it’s telling a standalone story that only requires a basic familiarity with Spider-Man and Wolverine.
“We’ll definitely be referencing what’s happening in the parent titles — Peter’s current girlfriend shows up in Issue 1, for example — but this series is really designed to be enjoyed on its own,” Guggenheim says. “It’s not entirely an ‘evergreen’ but that’s the general approach we’re taking with it. We really want this series to be able to stand on its own and stand the test of time. No pressure, obviously.”
Spider-Man & Wolverine #1 will be released on May 7, 2025.
A Minecraft Movie just hit theaters, but fans are already able to preorder the limited edition steelbook of the new film. Starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, the new Minecraft movie is a fun comedy for the entire family. Whether you've played the best-selling video game or are an armchair observer of the Minecraft phenomenon, this new steelbook is potentially worth adding to any video game movie collection.
The new limited-edition steelbook is priced at $37.99 and does not currently have a release date. Standard Blu-ray and DVD copies of the movie are up for preorder too, but these are less likely to sell out.
A Minecraft Movie 4K Steelbook Is Up for Preorder
This new steelbook is priced fairly resonably considering some major movies will start upward of $60 for limited edtions. The steelbook itself features a ton of minecraft mobs, items, and animals across the cover. The indside also includes high-res Creepers in all their glory. You'll get both the 4K and Blu-ray disc with your purchase, and special features are included within.
This preorder also comes with Amazon's preorder price guarantee. This basically means that if you preorder now at full retail price, you won't necessarily have to pay that full price. Amazon will often offer discounts on preorders before the actual release date and you'll pay the lowest price the steelbook reaches before it gets shipped to you.
It’s been a wild 48-hour news cycle if you follow economics at all, and wilder still if you’re a Nintendo fan.
On Wednesday, we learned that the Nintendo Switch 2 would cost $450 in the United States, a painfully high price that analysts say was partly due to expectation of tariffs, and partly due to other factors like inflation, competition, and component costs.
Then, last night, the Trump Administration announced wide-reaching 10% tariffs on essentially every country, with much higher tariffs on numerous nations such as China, the EU, Japan, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, and many, many others. In response, China announced this morning a 34% reciprocal tariff on all U.S. goods. And just hours ago, in the wake of all this, Nintendo announced it would be postponing Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders in the U.S. while it evaluated the impact of tariffs on its console plans.
It’s an unprecedented situation for everyone, both within and outside of gaming, and one that analysts, experts, and the general public are still trying to make sense of. Which is why just a short 30 minutes before Nintendo dropped its shocking pre-order news, I was on the phone with Aubrey Quinn, a spokesperson for the Entertainment Software Association, to discuss the impact these tariffs would have on the industry writ large.
The ESA, like everyone else, is still trying to figure out how all this is going to play out. Broadly, she says, they have some expectations. They knew tariffs of some sort were coming – both due to Trump’s past actions in his first administration and his repeated discussion of them on the campaign trail. And, once implemented, Quinn says they expected there would be risk of retaliation from other countries like China, as well as even more future tariffs and levies from the U.S. But the jury is still out on how this will ultimately play out.
What the ESA does feel confident saying, though, is that these tariffs will have a negative impact on video games:
“We really are, at this point, just watching and trying not to have knee-jerk reactions, because we don't think that what President Trump announced this week is the end of the story, but what was announced this week and the tariffs as outlined, we do expect these tariffs will have a real and detrimental impact on the industry and the hundreds of millions of Americans who love to play games,” Quinn says. “And so our goal is to work with the administration, to work with other elected officials to try to find a solution that doesn't damage U.S. industries, U.S. business, but also American gamers and families.”
We do expect these tariffs will have a real and detrimental impact on the industry.
When Quinn says there will be a detrimental impact, she doesn’t just mean the cost of systems, though she says it’s “hard to imagine a world where tariffs like these don’t impact pricing.” She says consumer spending will also be impacted, which will in turn impact company revenue. If companies see their profits drop, that will in turn impact jobs, as well as investment in research and development, and even what the next generation of consoles looks like. “The entire consumer ecosystem is connected,” she says.
So what’s the ESA doing about it? Well, a few things so far, but Quinn acknowledges it’s been difficult to get started. Even though the tariffs didn’t come as a surprise to anyone, she says the Trump Administration hasn’t been back in office for long – really just two months. Trump’s cabinet and administration is almost entirely made up of new people, too, so the ESA hasn’t been able to leverage relationships from his last term in office. And some of them were only appointed weeks ago.
“But yes, the short answer is we know who the conversations need to be happening with, and we are working on making connections and making sure that they understand that we are eager to work with them to find solutions that this is about public, private sector conversations happening, so we can understand and make sure that they see the impact and the risk of impact to business, to consumers, and really everything that's happening within the US borders,” she concludes.
I think the more members of government...who hear that their constituents are concerned, the more likely we are to be heard.
Quinn points to the recent news that the ESA had already joined a coalition of trade associations to reach out to U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer and express their concerns prior to the tariff news earlier this week. And they’re asking for meetings with a number of legislations and members of the administration to discuss similar topics.
Is it working, I ask? Are they being heard?
“Yes. I can tell you conversations are happening with... I don't want to say every level,” she responds. “I've not met with Trump, right? So I don't want to say every level of government, but certainly we've met with members of the administration. We've met with employees at the White House, we've met with employees at USTR [the office of the United States Trade Representative], so yes, we are having conversations and we're also doing that in partnership with other associations to make sure that... This isn't a video game issue. I represent the video game industry, so I'm very aware of the impact on the video game industry, the potential impact, but it's not a video game industry. This is going to affect all consumer products from food to fashion to electronics.”
So what can consumers do about it if they’re concerned? Reach out to their representatives, Quinn responds. Write letters, call, send emails, tweets, whatever it looks like to let their elected leaders know they’re concerned. “I think the more members of government, elected officials, and their staff who hear that their constituents are concerned, the more likely we are to be heard and to potentially make an impact.”
Nintendo announced its hold on Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders due to the tariffs just minutes after our conversation had concluded. When I reached out to Quinn for further comment on that, she said the ESA doesn’t comment on what individual companies will do. But I did mention the Nintendo Switch 2’s already-high pricing at the end of our conversation, and Quinn had this to say:
“You know what? It's been interesting with media coverage around video games and tariffs because just unfortunate coincidental timing that the Switch [2 reveal] was the same day as President Trump's announcement. There are so many devices we play video games on. There are other consoles, but as I was saying, VR headsets, our smartphones, people who love PC games, if we think it's just the Switch, then we aren't taking it seriously. This is going to have an impact.
“And even American-based companies, they're getting products that need to cross into American borders to make those consoles, to make those games. And so there's going to be a real impact regardless of company. This is company-agnostic, this is an entire industry. There's going to be an impact on the entire industry.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Blogroll image credit: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
FromSoftware unveiled a new exclusive for Nintendo's new console during this week's Switch 2 Direct. The Duskbloods had an ominous trailer, showing lots of action, horrors, and magic. In a new interview, we're now learning much more about FromSoft's plans for this multiplayer experience.
Nintendo posted a three-part interview series with The Duskbloods director Hidetaka Miyazaki, going over what The Duskbloods is, and how it's different from other FromSoftware games.
Here are some of the major takeaways we've learned about The Duskbloods from this new set of interviews.
The meaning of 'The Duskbloods'
While the name, aesthetic, and constant mention of blood might bring to mind another FromSoftware title, Miyazaki said The Duskbloods refers to the Bloodsworn themselves. These Bloodsworn—the characters players control—are people who have achieved superhuman abilities through special blood, similar to vampires.
"We tried to extract the sort of romantic aspects we found interesting from concepts such as vampires and 'blood' and reinterpreted them as the Bloodsworn," Miyazaki said.
The Duskblood is a collective term for these characters, who all partake in a bid for First Blood, which flows during an event known as the "Twilight of Humanity."
There's no set time or place for The Duskbloods
Because the Twilight of Humanity takes place across different times and locales, there is no "fixed era or location" to pin down when or where The Duskbloods takes place.
"There are more traditional Gothic- or Victorian-style maps as well as those depicting the closing years of the early modern period, like the one glimpsed in the trailer with the train running through it," Miyazaki said.
You can choose between different characters
In a manner that sounds similar to the upcoming Elden Ring Nightreign, players can choose from "over a dozen" characters in The Duskbloods. Each character can also be customized, and you'll swap between those options in a main hub area.
While characters will each have their own abilities, it sounds like some skills are universal. The Bloodsworn fighters are essentially superhuman, so they can sprint, super jump, and double jump. Additionally, every character is equipped with "some means of attacking from a distance," which Miyazaki said he feels is one of The Duskblood's "unique aspects" when compared with previous FromSoftware games.
Progression doesn't rely solely on victory
A key component of The Duskbloods is the PvPvE set-up. Online matches support up to eight players, vying for a win. Miyazaki said online matches are "generally" last player standing, but there are "certain cases where victory conditions differ." He gave the example of players being tasked with teaming up to take down a powerful boss, or "other special circumstances."
"Regardless of whether it’s PvP or PvE, the idea is to provide players with an experience that allows them to learn and hone their skills as they play," Miyazaki said. "We’ve therefore designed the PvE boss encounters to present a tough challenge and a sense of accomplishment upon defeating them."
Obtaining "Victory Points," which ultimately decide the outcome of a match, can happen in a few different ways. Direct combat is one, but engaging in more "opportunistic behavior" is also an option. And Miyazaki noted that when players return to the hub after a match, they receive a reward whether they won or lost.
Events can shake up the match
There will be world events through the event system, which has the potential to shake up a match. This can range from special enemy spawns to additional objectives, all with bonus rewards offered.
Miyazaki drew attention to a portion of The Duskbloods trailer, where a giant stone face loomed in the sky. "This is one example of the events that can occur in a match," Miyazaki said. "In this case, the appearance of this stone face affects the environment and changes match rewards, which can have an immediate impact on player motivations and objectives."
Players will have personal objectives and roles, too
While First Blood is something worth chasing, Miyazaki said there will also be "personal objectives" to provide separate rewards for players.
It's unclear whether these fully tie into another system Miyazaki also mentioned, called "roles." While online, roles offer players unique circumstances and opportunities to interact with each other. He outlined a few examples, like the "Destined Rival," which tasks a player with finding and defeating another player. Doing this will count as a personal goal, separate from the overall victory conditions.
Roles can be assigned to characters through customization, so players can roleplay a bit and, as Miyazaki said, add to the "drama" of these engagements.
Lore will be delived through customization
FromSoftware is no stranger to putting some deep lore in its games. And there will, of course, be lore in The Duskbloods.
"One thing I love doing in any game I direct is leaving fragments of lore and worldbuilding details, allowing the player the fun of using their imagination to make connections," Miyazaki said. "The Duskbloods is no exception to this."
However, for The Duskbloods, Miyazaki said the team is going about it a little differently from previous games. Fragments are found in character customization items, the "blood history and fate." Customizing characters, analyzing and altering their blood history and fate, will reveal more information about the world and its story.
"Focusing these elements on the concept of 'blood' or 'blood history and fate' allowed for a deeper exploration of customization and is another reason we placed the Bloodsworn as the protagonists," Miyazaki said.
FromSoftware is certainly painting an interesting picture, but we'll have to wait a little bit to see the image fully realized, as The Duskbloods is currently planned to be a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive sometime in 2026.
If there’s one actor we’d like to see return for the Matrix 5, it’s Laurence Fishburne. But unfortunately, it seems as though that might not be in the cards for the legendary actor. He recently revealed that he made himself available for the fourth film, The Matrix Resurrections, but was turned down to reprise his role as Morpheus — so being in the next one isn’t looking so promising.
During a recent appearance on The View, Fishburne explained that his experience with Resurrections didn’t exactly go as hoped, so it’s anyone’s guess what will happen in the future.
“It depends on the circumstances, who is involved, how well the script has been written. If they offer [it to] me,” the actor said of Matrix 5. “I offered my services to the fourth Matrix, and they didn’t respond well to that. It’s not like I didn’t say, ‘I’d like to offer my services.’ I did. And for whatever reason, that didn’t happen.”
Morpheus is regarded as one of science fiction's best characters, so it’s interesting that the creatives behind the upcoming film wouldn’t have wanted him to return for The Matrix Resurrections, especially considering he appeared in all three original installments.
However, there could be a fairly simple explanation there: Morpheus dies in the MMO game The Matrix Online. That specific event in the game is considered canon because the writer-directors, the Wachowskis, gave their approval to the game.
That said, because his death was part of an in-game event, it could very well have been retconned. Instead, Resurrections features Yahya Abdul-Mateen II portraying a version of the character that is actually a hybrid program with Agent Smith created by Neo himself — and also alludes to the fact that the real Morpheus, played by Fishburne, died in the 60 years between the second film The Matrix Revolutions and Resurrections.
A fifth Matrix film is currently in development with Drew Goddard attached to write and direct.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
Considering what it offers, Disney Plus is one of the best streaming services on the block. From classic Disney animated films to the latest Marvel shows and Star Wars movies, excellent kids' programming like Bluey, and so much more, Disney Plus puts an incredible range of high-quality viewing options at your fingertips. And with so much to check out, including season 2 of Andor on April 22, you'll want to find a plan that best suits you. We're here to help.
At the moment, one of the best Disney Plus bundle deals available is the massive Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle. This starts at $16.99/month to get you all three streaming services with ads. It's one of the best bundles available at the moment, but we've included more Disney Plus bundle deals worth exploring below. If you're looking for more streaming deals from other services, check out the best Hulu deals and bundles and the best Max deals.
How to Get the Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max Streaming Bundle
The Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle can be purchased through any of the three streaming services and starts at $16.99/month for the ad-supported tier or $29.99/month for ad-free access across the three platforms.
If you currently own all three and want to cut down on costs, this is a great way to bundle them together and save big on what you'd pay for them separately per month – 43% on the ad-supported plan and 42% on the ad-free plan.
What Is the New Paid Sharing Plan on Disney Plus?
In an effort to crack down on password sharing, Disney has unveiled a paid sharing plan for individuals outside of your household. Basically, anyone using your account that's not within your household will have to be added as an "Extra Member" to your account. This costs an additional $6.99/month for the ad-supported Basic subscription and $9.99/month for the Premium ad-free plan, and only one Extra Member slot is available per account. You can learn more from Disney's paid sharing explainer here.
What Are the Different Disney+ Subscription Tiers?
Disney+ is available in a couple of different tiers. You can get the least expensive option (called Disney+ Basic) for $9.99/month, which gives you access to everything except the ability to download select shows to watch on the go. This tier is ad supported. If you want to get rid of ads and be able to download certain shows, you can spring for the $15.99/month or $159.99/year Disney+ Premium package.
What Are the Different Disney+ Bundles?
Want a way to save on your Disney+ membership? Bundles are a great, affordable way to go. As far as bundles go, there are two ad-supported bundles and two ad-free bundles. Here's the breakdown:
Disney+, Hulu Bundle Basic is $10.99/month and comes with subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu. This plan lets you stream on multiple devices at once and comes with ad-supported versions of both services.
Disney+, Hulu Bundle Premium is $19.99/month and comes with Hulu and Disney+ with no ads. It also includes Disney+ Premium features like the ability to download shows to watch on the go.
Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Basic adds ESPN+ (With Ads) to the mix alongside Disney+ (With Ads) and Hulu (With Ads), bumping up the price to $16.99/month. You can also download and watch select content on ESPN+ at this level.
Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Premium is $26.99/month and comes with ESPN+ (With Ads) and ad-free versions of Disney+ and Hulu. You can also download select content across all three streaming services.
Disney+ Gift Cards
If you want to help someone out and give them a gift that will keep on giving, gifting a one-year Disney+ card is a great way to go. It provides all the great things Disney+ offers and it costs a fraction of what it would take to buy even a small sampling of those movies physically.
What Can You Watch on Disney+?
There is a bonkers array of shows and movies you can watch on Disney+. Let's start at the top and simply talk about the verticals on offer here with the base subscription.
Here's what you get:
Disney
Pixar
Marvel
Star Wars
National Geographic
Disney on Disney+
On the Disney front, you have awesome classic movies like The Sword In The Stone, Robin Hood, 101 Dalmations, Hercules, and Sleeping Beauty, modern classics like The Princess & The Frog, Tangled, and Frozen, and a wide range of animated shows, including Phineas & Ferb.
You also gain access to a ton of vintage content like Escape to Witch Mountain, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Love Bug, and a whole lot more. The Disney Junior section is home to absolutely top tier animated shows like Bluey (which, for my money, is worth the price of admission on its own).
There's way more on offer, too, including a ton of Muppet movies, new live-action films and adaptions, nature programs, documentaries, Pirates of the Caribbean, and musical programs featuring Taylor Swift (like her wildly popular The Eras Tour), Elton John, Ed Sheeran, and more.
Pixar on Disney+
When it comes to computer generated films, Pixar stands alone. Kicking off the revolution with Toy Story, Pixar has consistently put out fantastic films, and they are all here. From the Toy Story series to Finding Nemo, Cars, and more recent hits like Inside Out 2, there is a ton to love.
Beyond even that, there are incredible shorts like Bao and Party Central, as well as a wide range of originals and series based on major films, such as Dory's Reef Cam, Forky Asks A Question, Cars On The Road, and more.
Marvel on Disney+
The MCU has become a true juggernaut, and there are many viewers who subscribe to Disney+ purely for access to nearly the entire MCU lineup of films and shows.
Whether you are a fan of the blockbuster action films, you are an appreciator of the classic 90s runs of "Saturday morning" cartoons like X-Men, or you are currently vibing to the funky theme of the 1981 Spider-Man series, there is a ton of Marvel to enjoy on Disney+. And with new movies and shows being added to the MCU all the time, including most recently Deadpool & Wolverine and Your Friendly Neigborhood Spider-Man, there is always more coming.
Star Wars on Disney+
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a film that changed everything. The original Star Wars is a seminal sci-fi fantasy work that inspired generations of creators, but there is still nothing quite like that far away galaxy. Disney+ grants access to all things Star Wars, including the remastered versions of the original trilogy (hopefully some day they'll add the theatrical cuts, too), as well as the prequels and sequels.
You can also stay up-to-date on all the latest shows, including The Mandalorian and the critically-lauded Andor, which some viewers say is "the best Star Wars has ever been." There are also fantastic short series like Star Wars Visions, and longer-form series like The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, Young Jedi Adventures, and a whole lot more.
No matter which platform you prefer, there's an excellent variety of video game deals to check out right now. Whether you're gaming on PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC, we've rounded up the best offers to help you get more for your money, including the excellent new PS5 Slim and Astro Bot bundle. And while not a deal, we've also included where you can preorder Elden Ring Nightreign, in case you're itching to return to The Lands Between. Best Buy's also offering a free $10 gift card with your purchase on that one -- what can be better than that?
PS5 Slim + Astro Bot Bundle
The PS5 Slim and Astro Bot bundle is one of the best PlayStation deals available at the moment. You can choose between the PS5 Slim Disc Edition console or the Digital Edition, which will set you back $449.99 and $399.99, respectively.
Astro Bot is a really enjoyable addition to a PlayStation library, too. IGN's Simon Cardy said in his review that it's, "A collection of endlessly inventive levels and fantastically fun abilities, it delivers joy in spades, never once becoming even remotely dull or repetitive."
Preorder Elden Ring Nightreign
FromSoftware isn't done with Elden Ring yet. Elden Ring Nightreign is now available to preorder, and as a nice little treat Best Buy's also offering a free $10 gift card with your purchase. By preordering any version of the game you'll also get the “It’s Raining” gesture, which you can show off with your co-op buddies on your adventure in The Lands Between.
Best PC Game Deals
There are some excellent PC game deals available right now. Fanatical's had quite a few of our favorites, including a discount on pre-orders for DOOM: The Dark Ages, a deal on the newly-released The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PC players, and a discount on Atomfall, which is absolutely worth your time and money to pick up. You can see more of our favorite game deals right now below.
A new month means new PC games in the Humble Choice lineup and April has a great variety available. Some of the games featured in the lineup include Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered, Aliens Dark Descent, and Dredge. There are 8 in total that you can keep forever for $11.99 when you become a member. Here are all of the games included in this month's lineup:
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered
Dredge
Aliens Dark Descent
1000xRESIST
Nova Lands
Diplomacy is Not an Option
Distant Worlds 2
Nomad Survival
Best Physical Video Game Deals
If you're looking to save on physical games right now, there are plenty of deals worth checking out across PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. We've included just a few of our favorites above, but if you'd like to see more game deals for each platform, check out our individual roundups for these consoles: the best PlayStation deals, the best Xbox deals, and the best Nintendo Switch deals.
Best PlayStation VR 2 Deals
The PSVR2 Horizon: Call of the Mountain bundle has gotten a price drop down to $399.99, $200 off its original list price of$599.99. This package is a great value for everything you're getting (the PSVR2 headset and controllers alongside the Horizon Call of The Mountain game), and pushes the PSVR2 as a strong contender against budget-friendly VR options like the Meta Quest, delivering a premium virtual reality experience without the eye-watering cost.
Sony also recently gave the PSVR2 a new lease of life by adding PC VR support, allowing owners of the second-generation headset to play PC VR games like Half-Life: Alyx, provided they have the new Sony-made adapter.
Best Xbox Accessory Deals
Outside of games, there are plenty of Xbox accessory deals that are worth your time and money as well. At the moment, some of our favorites are on the HyperX CloudX Flight Wireless Gaming Headset, which has gotten a 40% discount at Woot, and if you're looking for more storage, the WD Black C50 1TB Expansion Card is 18% off right now at Amazon.
Best PS5 SSD Deals
PS5 games continue to grow in size, and with SSD prices climbing, finding the right storage at a great price is more important than ever. We've listed our favorite deals just here, but you should ensure you're checking back here for more updates as often as possible, as new SSD deals pop up all the time.
Keep in mind that not all SSDs are compatible with the PS5. To ensure optimal performance on the best PS5 SSD, you'll need a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 drive with a minimum read speed of 5,500MB/s to match the console's internal storage.
Best Gaming PC Deals
Do you prefer to play on a dedicated PC tower? Navigating the options online can be quite the ordeal. Desk space, portability, and price point are often factors in the decision. However, there are some great PC deals that pop up every now and again that are worth jumping on. One of our favorite deals at the moment is on the Alienware Area-51 RTX 5080 PC for $4,649.99. To see even more PC deals, check out our roundup of the best gaming PC deals.
More PC Deals:
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Today’s deals are all about keeping your game library full and your storage problems in check. We’ve got serious discounts on recent releases like College Football 25 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, a clearance price on Advance Wars 1+2, and rare price drops on official storage for Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Humble’s Spring Shonen manga bundle is also still going strong, and if you like high-stakes demon battles and beautifully absurd haircuts, you’re going to want in on that.
Gaming And Manga Deals for Today
I think what makes today’s lineup so solid is how much value you’re getting without compromising on quality. These are recent titles and brand-name accessories — not knockoffs or old stock. Catch up on campaigns, back up your growing digital backlog, or read your way through Kodansha’s finest chaos backwards, there’s something here that earns the cart space.
College Football 25 Standard Edition - Xbox Series X
I still can’t believe this is real: College Football 25 is down to $9.99. This is a full, post-launch version with everything intact — no catch, no subscription. It features all 134 FBS schools, dynamic gameplay, and that sweet, chaotic pageantry you only get from college ball. If you’ve been on the fence, or just waiting for a reason to grab it, this is it.
Seagate - Game Drive for PlayStation Consoles 2TB External USB 3.2 Gen 1 Portable Hard Drive
This is one of the few storage options that plays nicely with both PS4 and PS5. I like that it’s officially licensed, so there’s no guessing game about compatibility, and the added LED lighting gives it a nice visual boost. You can’t run PS5 games directly off it, but you can stash them for later — and PS4 titles run without issue. It’s not a flashy deal, but it’s a smart one.
Humble Spring Shonen Special By Kodansha
I’m a sucker for a complete series bundle, and this one delivers. You’re getting full runs of Shaman King, Fire Force, Noragami, and others — no missing volumes, no waiting for new chapters. Nearly 100 volumes for $30 is an absurd value, and since it’s digital, you won’t have to explain to anyone why your bookshelf now belongs entirely to anime dads and sword-wielding teenagers.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp - Nintendo Switch
This remake stayed full price for a long time, so seeing it under $45 feels like a minor miracle. You’re getting two full campaigns, a sleek visual update, and plenty of multiplayer maps to test your tactical brain. It’s great handheld, great docked, and dangerously easy to lose an entire weekend to.
Atomfall Merchandise
The IGN Store’s Atomfall merch drop is decent, going for edgy designs rather than playing it safe. I’m not usually a “video game hoodie” person, but the designs here are low-key cool. The BARD zip-ups and minimalist logo shirts look more like indie streetwear than branded promo gear. If you’re already excited about Atomfall, or just want something with a little post-apocalyptic style, this lineup’s worth scrolling through. That P word mug is fantastic.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Standard Edition - PlayStation 5
This one brings the Cold War spy game drama back in full force, with a cinematic campaign, classic round-based Zombies, and a huge multiplayer loadout. It’s one of the first real markdowns we’ve seen since launch, and I think $49.99 feels like the sweet spot for what you’re getting. If you missed it at release, this is a good excuse to jump in now.
Seagate - 1TB Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S Internal NVMe SSD - Black
Xbox storage doesn’t go on sale often, so this is one of those “buy it now or regret it later” situations. It’s the official Seagate expansion card, which means you just plug it in and keep playing — no formatting, no weird workarounds. I’ve run out of space enough times to know that paying a little less for this now beats uninstalling Halo again later.
Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet - Prismatic Evolutions Booster Bundle
This one’s a bit of a reality check. The actual MSRP for six of these packs is around $27, so Amazon is being bold by doubling that and calling it a deal. Still, given how hard Prismatic Evolutions is to find at retail without hunting down individual packs like a Pokédex-obsessed raccoon, this is sadly one of the better options right now. I wouldn’t call it a bargain, but if you’re just itching to crack open some fresh packs without resorting to third-party sellers, it gets the job done.
Pokemon TCG: Stacking Tin (Q1 2025)
This is one of the few Pokémon TCG products still hovering close to MSRP, which basically qualifies it as a miracle in 2025. You get three solid booster packs, some stickers to slap on your laptop or emotional baggage, and a stackable tin that may or may not match the others in your accidental collection. It’s not flashy, but it’s a solid option if you just want some new packs to rip without playing the “Is this seller legit?” game.
Humble Choice April 2025
This month’s Humble Choice doesn’t feel like a clearance rack, and that’s saying something. Tomb Raider is doing the nostalgia thing in the best way, and Dredge is that weird horror-fishing crossover I didn’t know I needed. Aliens: Dark Descent rounds it out if you like your sci-fi chaotic and stressful. Honestly, I’d pay the $12 just for those three — and still walk away feeling smug.
Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet - Paldean Fates Booster Bundle
This bundle is a case of “available at a premium or not at all.” MSRP should be closer to $27, but good luck finding that price in the wild. The return of Shiny Pokémon is the big hook here, and that’s probably what’s driving the markup. I think it’s steep, but if you’ve been chasing the set and want to avoid eBay roulette, this is probably your safest play.
PureArts Assassin's Creed Preorders
This is the kind of collectible that makes you pause and consider rearranging your entire shelf, your priorities, and your bank account. Some of these statues are genuinely beautiful. Others are so expensive they make me nervous just looking at them. But if you’ve got deep franchise loyalty and shallow impulse control, this is your moment.
Pokemon TCG: Scarlet and Violet Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box
Elite Trainer Boxes are rarely good dollar-per-pack deals, and this one’s no exception. But what you’re really paying for is the full kit: sleeves, promo card, storage box, and a mildly delusional sense of organization. I actually like this set for collectors who want more than just cards. It feels like a full-on project, and for $55, it’s one of the few Pokémon bundles that still comes close to feeling like it's worth the money.
INIU Portable Charger, Slimmest 10000mAh 5V/3A Power Bank
This is the one I’d keep in my bag daily. It’s half an inch thick and can charge an iPhone 8 about 3.6 times or a Galaxy S22 almost twice. The USB-C port handles both input and output (a rarity at this price), and the dual USB-A ports mean you can charge multiple devices without carrying five bricks. It’s cheap, sleek, and has a literal paw print on it. Adorable and useful? Yes, please.
INIU Power Bank, 20000mAh 65W USB C Laptop Portable Charger
I think this is the sweet spot if you bounce between devices. You get three outputs, including one that’ll fast-charge a MacBook Pro 14" or your Steam Deck while you’re multitasking. There’s even a pop-out phone stand built in. It’s like if your power bank also respected your time and your binge-watching habits. At under $40, it feels like a steal.
Great On The Go Humble Sale
I picked up Death’s Door for five bucks and didn’t even hesitate. The Humble Store’s latest sale is packed with portable-friendly gems, perfect for a Steam Deck or travel laptop situation. Highlights include Dead Cells: Road to the Sea Bundle for $16.49 (50% off), Detroit: Become Human for just $11.99, and Dying Light Definitive Edition at $14.99. If your backlog needs more chaos, this is how you feed it on a budget.
INIU Portable Charger, 22.5W 20000mAh
This is my pick for weekend trips or carry-on duty. It’s got solid charging speed, a clean LED display that shows exactly how much juice is left, and enough capacity to last through a few full phone charges. It even handles smaller accessories like AirPods or smartwatches without flinching, which is more than I can say for some people.
Metaphor ReFantazio - Gallica - Statue
This Gallica statue is up for preorder at $129.99, and yes, I want it just for the wings. It's 8.9 inches tall with glossy clear parts and Magla particles swirling on the base. The sculpt is absurdly detailed, which probably explains why I’ve already mentally cleared shelf space despite the fact it doesn't ship until November 2025. Patience is hard, but preorder now, panic later.
INIU Power Bank, 25000mAh 100W USB C Laptop Portable Charger
If I’m packing a laptop, a tablet, a phone, and something else probably unnecessary but still USB-powered, this is what I’m bringing. It hits 100W output, recharges itself fast via USB-C, and can handle charging multiple high-power devices at once. It’s a bit of a tank, but in the way you want when you're relying on it to keep everything alive.
INIU Portable Charger, Smallest 22.5W 10000mAh Power Bank
If I had to pick a favorite just for everyday carry, it might be this one. It’s compact, fast, and charges three devices at once. I love the built-in phone stand, especially for killing time in waiting rooms or pretending I’m not watching TikTok in public. For $20, it’s a little charger that does a lot.
Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet - Surging Sparks Booster Bundle
I don’t need six booster packs, but these are usually in and out of stock. This Surging Sparks Booster Bundle has some fantastic chase cards, we're talking $400+ chase cards that could be in this Booster Bundle. It’s under $50, which in Pokémon terms is basically a clearance sticker. I'm not saying it'll change your life, but it might improve your afternoon.
Insignia - 55" Class F30 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Fire TV
This is the TV I’d buy if I wanted something that works without having to pretend I care about specs. It turns on, the picture’s 4K, it has Alexa so I don’t have to get off the couch, and it costs less than my last grocery run. Honestly, that’s more than enough.
Outright Games Game On! Bundle
I don’t usually gravitate toward games based on cartoons, but this bundle is stacked if you’ve got kids or just want a break from games that scream at you. Bluey, PAW Patrol, My Little Pony — the whole crew’s here, and honestly, they’re better made than half the AAA titles I’ve rage-quit. Pay $20 or more, get a pile of games, and support charity. Seems like a win for everyone except your free time.
Insignia - 65" Class F50 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Fire TV
I like this one because it feels unnecessarily large in the best way. You get Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and it still costs less than a concert ticket and a hoodie. If you want to make movie night feel intentional without spending your life savings, this does the job.
Death Stranding 2 - DHV Magellan - Model Kit
I want this on my shelf mostly so people ask what it is and I can pretend I understand Death Stranding 2. It’s a 1/350 scale model of a massive mobile base from a game that hasn’t even released yet, and I respect the level of commitment required to care this much. It’s $69.99, which is fair for something this weirdly specific and detailed — and yes, the railgun is included.
LG - 65” Class UT70 Series LED 4K UHD Smart webOS TV (2024)
This is the kind of TV I’d get if I wanted it to last longer than my attention span. It’s a 2024 model, has LG’s updated processor, and handles all the streaming stuff without having to download three extra apps just to log in. Feels like someone at LG actually thought it through.
I think this is what happens when Samsung realizes not everyone wants to spend $650 to track their steps. The titanium build is overkill in a good way, and the battery life means I don’t have to charge it every time I blink. It finally dropped to a price where it makes sense to buy one without feeling like I’m auditioning for a tech influencer role.
Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together Elite Trainer Box
i’ve been watching the Journey Together Elite Trainer Box like a hawk, and somehow it’s actually in stock at Amazon for $70.31. That’s 30% off apparantly, but it's not at all. It includes nine booster packs, a full-art N’s Zorua promo, sleeves, and the usual accessories, Most people just want the packs and the promo. If it’s gone when you check, keep trying. I’ve seen stock randomly reappear in the mornings and lunch time, just like Target's Journey Together stock.
Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—Paldean Fates Booster Bundle
Then there’s the Paldean Fates Booster Bundle at $69.77. Six packs inside, and the draw here is the return of shiny Pokémon. I like that it cuts straight to the good stuff — no sleeves, no dice, no cardboard fluff, just a clean bundle of packs ready to be cracked open. If you’re chasing shinies, this is where the hunt begins.
Best of Boomer Shooters 4: Badda Bing Badda Boom
Humble Bundle’s “Best of Boomer Shooters 4” is live right now, and I love how chaotic it is. For $16, you get $174 worth of retro-inspired FPS games like Turbo Overkill and Forgive Me Father 2. I think of it as therapy, just with more blood and less talking about my feelings. You also support some good causes, so now your nostalgia trip is technically altruism. You're welcome.
Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box
Shrouded Fable ETB is holding steady at $54.96, and I think it’s slept on. It has nine packs, a Pecharunt foil, some sharp sleeves, and a player’s guide that you’ll absolutely ignore until you pull something weird and have to look it up. This set's all about the Legendary trio—Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti—and if you’re into building themed decks or hoarding off-meta cards, this one hits.
Street Fighter TCG Alpha Warriors Dreams Preorder
Finally, if your card obsession extends beyond Pikachu, the Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams trading cards are now up for pre-order on the IGN Store, starting at $20. I already pre-ordered a box because the idea of serial-numbered Chun-Li cards is somehow more exciting to me than it should be. Rare pulls, killer art, and a chance to relive the 90s one Hadouken at a time — I’m in.
Pokémon TCG: Paradox Clash tin: Iron Leaves ex or Walking Wake ex
I picked up one of the Paradox Clash tins just for fun and honestly, no regrets. For $39.96, you get five booster packs and either a Walking Wake EX or Iron Leaves EX promo, chosen completely at random. It’s a bit of a gamble, but opening tins is half the fun anyway. The promos are clean, the packaging is slick, and I think it makes a solid gift for anyone getting into the game
Pokémon TCG: 3 Booster Packs & 1 Random Foil
For a cheaper fix, I’d go for the $12.25 blister pack with three random boosters and a foil promo. It’s 39% off, which is honestly kind of wild, and it’s one of those no-risk purchases you can talk yourself into without too much guilt. The listing shows Silver Tempest Boosters, so there's a good chance of pulling some Sword and Shield chase cards here.
This one’s for the people who want it all: QLED, anti-reflection, studio-calibrated modes, and picture quality so good I paused a show just to stare at a lamp. I think my eyes are spoiled now.
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.
Nintendo has taken the unprecedented decision to delay Switch 2 pre-orders in the U.S., blaming the impact of Trump’s tariffs and “evolving market conditions.”
Pre-orders were set to go live in the U.S. on April 9. Nintendo did not share an updated kick-off date, but did promise that the June 5, 2025 release date of the Switch 2 itself remains intact.
Nintendo issued IGN the following statement:
Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.
Nintendo has confirmed the pre-order delay is specific to the U.S. In the UK, for example, Nintendo's pre-order delay remains unchanged.
“I don’t want to blow things out of proportion, but this does feel like a true crisis moment for Nintendo,” Ellis said.
U.S. markets tumbled today after China hit back against Donald Trump's raft of tariffs. China, which faces a 54% import tax, has retaliated with an additional 34% tax on U.S. goods from next week.
Moments before the U.S. markets opened, Trump said "China played it wrong, they panicked," and insisted his policies would "never change."
The world is now left facing economic uncertainty, with some mainstream news media declaring the era of cheap goods now over for the American consumer as higher tariffs are automatically passed through to inflation and higher prices.
Tariffs are essentially taxes placed on the cost of importing certain goods. While it's possible for companies in the supply chain to simply eat these costs, more often than not these taxes are passed onto consumers. And unfortunately for gamers, rising prices are very likely to impact tech and gaming goods.
Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad had warned that Trump's surprise tariffs on countries such as Vietnam, where Nintendo had shifted some of its Switch 2 manufacturing in anticipation of U.S. tariffs on China, might have caused a rethink.
"While the company has shifted some of its manufacturing to Vietnam to offset U.S. tariffs on China, the looming threat of reciprocal tariffs prior to the Switch 2 showcase will have also forced Nintendo to consider a higher price for the rest of the world," Ahmad said. "The reciprocal tariffs on Vietnam and Japan have come in higher than expected, and Nintendo will feel the impact of this if the tariffs go into full effect."
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
FromSoftware has shared some more info about its recently announced Switch 2 exclusive, The Duskbloods. The partnership with Nintendo seemed to affect not just the style of game FromSoft is making, but even the design of the keeper of The Duskbloods' hub area into something different — something... cute.
The trailer shown during the Switch 2 Direct this week closed on a shot of a winged rat character, with glowing glyphs drawn all over it, looking at the camera. Curious fans might have wondered what this rat's deal was. As it turns out, this is our new hub companion.
"That character shares a similar role with the fire keepers from the Dark Souls series. They remain in the hub area, providing the player with advice and guidance," director Hidetaka Miyazaki said in an interview with Nintendo.
"I suppose you could say we tried doing something a little Nintendo-esque in the spirit of the partnership."
When asked what Miyazaki means by that, he added: "We tried something cute for a change. Although I will say this character is actually an elderly gentleman (laughter)."
FromSoftware's shrine keepers have been central figures for player's journeys through their worlds. Familiar faces like Melina, the Maiden in Black, the Doll, and others are characters you return to over and over on your trip, often offering power to help you move forward.
With a PvPvE game like The Duskbloods, though, it remains to be seen what kind of advice and guidance the winged rat will offer. Miyazaki said the team at FromSoft has tried its hands at introducing "a lot of new and interesting ideas," so expect the unexpected when it hits Nintendo Switch 2 sometime in 2026.
Quite a few of these cards have already started to sell out, but there's a shining light at the end of the tunnel coming from GameStop. The retailer has created its own line of microSD Express cards that are available to preorder and come in varying capacities, from 256GB ($49.99) to 512GB ($84.99) to 1TB ($149.99). These are set to release on June 5, the same day as the console. You can preorder these cards below, but to stay up to date on more cards as they come back in stock keep our hub page for microSD Express cards bookmarked.
The microSD Express cards have been disappearing fast from online retailers, so if you've been hoping to secure a storage upgrade ahead of the Switch 2's release you'll want to be quick to get your preorders in. If you're unsure if you'll need the extra space, it's worth noting that the Switch 2 is set to come with 256GB of internal storage, which is quite a bit more than the original Switch's 32GB. If you have an ever-expanding library of Switch games, it's always worth it to pick up some extra storage.
Outside of the additional storage, if you're curious when preorders will pop up for the console itself, make sure to mark your calendar for April 9. It's worth keeping our Switch 2 preorder guide bookmarked as well so you can stay up to date on when it drops and where it's available to purchase on the day. We've also put together a list full of tips to help increase your chances of getting a Switch 2. The countdown has begun, and we're here to help you secure a Switch 2 on day one.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
One of the biggest surprises of the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct this week was its exclusive FromSoftware reveal, The Duskbloods. It's a PvPvE game developed by the Soulsborne studio, but director Hidetaka Miyazaki said this doesn't mean the company has shifted direction moving forward.
In a new interview with Nintendo, Miyazaki spoke about the decision to make The Duskbloods a PvPvE game. The director said he's "always found" the structure interesting, as it allows for a broad range of game-design ideas while also letting FromSoftware leverage its experience in designing challenging enemy encounters.
"As a side note, please allow me to address one thing," Miyazaki said. "As we previously mentioned, this is an online multiplayer title at its core, but this doesn't mean that we as a company have decided to shift to a more multiplayer-focused direction with titles going forward."
He continued: "The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Elden Ring was also announced, and we still intend to actively develop single-player focused games such as this that embrace our more traditional style."
Since the release of Elden Ring in February 2022, FromSoftware has certainly experimented a bit. Its DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, tried out some interesting new power scaling methods in the form of Scadutree Blessings. There's also Elden Ring: Nightreign, an upcoming co-op survival action game that blends the usual Souls style with an encroaching storm, loot, and character archetypes. The studio even went back to its mecha days with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon.
So with The Duskbloods, FromSoftware is trying something a little different again. In the interview, Miyazaki said the company's outline for The Duskbloods was "still very bare-bones" when the team presented it to Nintendo — "more a loose string of ideas than a proper presentation," and the concept was "different from anything [FromSoftware] had done before."
Nintendo was interested in making it happen though, and while a small team started the project for the original Switch, Nintendo approached FromSoft with the idea of moving to the Switch 2 instead. "The new hardware's focus on online features allowed us to stay as true to the original vision as possible, which was very good news for us," Miyazaki said.
So while The Duskbloods might be a little different from the usual FromSoftware game, it sounds like the studio isn't completely leaving the "traditional" style you'd expect behind. Put differently: let FromSoft cook on this one.
It turns out our favorite Hell's Kitchen villain Wilson Fisk is off limits for the big screen — according to Daredevil: Born Again star Vincent D’Onofrio himself.
"The only thing I know is not positive," D’Onofrio explained to Josh Horowitz on the podcast Happy Sad Confused recently. "It's a very hard thing to do, for Marvel to use my character. It's a very hard thing to do, because of ownership and stuff."
He continued: “I’m only usable for television shows. Not even a one-off Wilson Fisk movie. It’s all caught up in rights and stuff. I don’t know when that would work out — or if it ever would work out at all.”
That appears to rule out D’Onofrio's take on Fisk making an appearance in any Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, thus also ruling D’Onofrio out of appearing in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday (I guess we won't be seeing D’Onofrio's name on a director's chair in the future). Could this also throw a spanner in the works of any potential standalone Charlie Cox Daredevil movie, where you'd reasonably expect D’Onofrio to appear as a villain?
D’Onofrio first appeared as Fisk, New York City’s most powerful crimelord and future mayor also known as Kingpin, in Marvel’s Daredevil. The 2015 Netflix original had three seasons and ended with just shy of 40 episodes in 2018. D’Onofrio’s portrayal has been praised up and down by fans and critics alike over the years, so it should come as no surprise that he puts a lot of thought into how he wants Fisk to be perceived — especially when it comes to the influences he pulls from.
“Anytime they were in a fight, or they were holding a gun, they looked nervous,” D’Onofrio explained to IGN last month about the everyman performances of the likes of Harrison Ford and other older greats that inspired his own multifaceted villain.
“They carried their own humility into the action scenes with them. And I always thought that that was the way to go. That made it look real to me. Gary Cooper in Sergeant York, when he takes aim, when he becomes the sniper, it's the humility in his eyes that you see. It's amazing. I think that helps action stuff a lot. We're all very conscious of that.”
Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again is currently airing week-to-week on Disney+ and will premiere its finale on April 15, 2025.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
The expensive price tag on its new games is one of the drawbacks of the Nintendo Switch 2, of which preorders have already been going live early (Amazon included). Luckily, ShopTo is taking the sting off for UK customers by allowing you to get Donkey Kong Bananza for only £63.50.
While this is still more than the £58.99 RRP for digital copies, it's the best price possible right now for those who want to actually own their games, and hold them in their hands like a newborn bab. This handy bargain comes as the result of using ShopTo's "SPRING" coupon code, which allows you and other future Nintendo Switch 2 players to knock 5% off various games, consoles, gift cards, and more across your order on the website.
Once you use the code at checkout, £3.35 will be taken off so you'll only have to pay £63.50 instead of £66.85. There is a catch, however. While you can preorder Donkey Kong Bananza to pay at dispatch normally, you'll only be allowed to use the discount code if you pay right away.
So, if you currently don't have the funds and weren't planning to pay until DK Bananza's 17th of July 2025 release date, this preorder deal sadly won't be ideal for you.
That said, if you manage to free up some cash, you can use the "SPRING" discount code also works for Mario Kart World, which is also for sale at ShopTo. Currently at £74.85, you can get £3.34 knocked off so you'll only have to pay £71.10.
We know that the Nintendo Switch 2 bundled with a code for Mario Kart World is a great deal, essentially getting you a digital version of the game for around half the price, but any discounts on the game from retailers is also great for you physical collectors out there.
The discount also works for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller over at ShopTo, but is currently sold out at the time of writing.
Nevertheless, we'll be keeping an eye on it incase the retailer happens to add any more stock, so you can take advantage while the coupon's still active.
Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.
Amid the ongoing backlash to Nintendo’s shock pricing for the Switch 2 and Mario Kart World, two former Nintendo PR managers have described the situation as “a true crisis moment for Nintendo.”
Ellis and Yang were particularly critical of the way Nintendo revealed the price of the Switch 2 and its games. They pointed to the lack of a price in the Direct itself as a "deliberate" omission that caused confusion and misinformation as fans scrambled to find out pricing confirmation elsewhere.
The Switch 2 and Mario Kart World pricing was “intentionally omitted from the Direct for a reason,” Yang claimed, “but handled poorly in terms of the information being in all these different places and you’re expecting the fans or the consumer to piece it all together.”
Ellis added: “It just shows some disrespect to the consumer, where, ‘oh, you just saw the Direct you’re so excited, you’re just gonna throw your money at us blindly, you’re not going to even ask the question of how much it cost because you’re so excited, aren’t you?’ "
“It’s a little bit degrading almost to the intelligence of the consumer,” Yang said.
The former NOA communications staff then went on to discuss Nintendo’s failure to address the pricing concern, either with a public statement or in interviews with the press. This, they said, was causing rampant speculation to fill the void with misinformation.
“They are enabling the story to get out of hand, out of control,” Yang said. “They have lost control of this,” Ellis added.
Nintendo’s communications team will now be recommending the company release an official statement, Yang said, but the approval process will be painful, with many people involved before it even gets to current Nintendo boss Shuntaro Furukawa.
Nintendo will also be out of practice because it hasn’t spoken to its community or press in such a long time, the pair said, nor has it had to deal with this sort of negativity since the Nintendo 3DS price debacle of 2011.
Now there is concern for staff manning demo stations at the public-facing Switch 2 hands-on sessions. Fans will have reasonable questions at these public events and might put those to staff who are manning demo stations. If they respond with any sort of answer, that could end up online and framed as Nintendo’s official response.
What happens next? It remains to be seen, but neither Ellis nor Yang expect a price drop of either the Switch 2 or its games before launch.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The new Minecraft movie has looked interesting from the very virst trailer. With Jack Black and Jason Momoa plopped into the world of Minecraft, it's a video game movie that has the potential to be popular with a massive audience of both kids and adults. Minecraft is one of the best-selling video games of all time that has infiltrated pretty much every medium, so its jump to a feature film was all but a matter of time. In our review of A Minecraft Movie, we found it to be surprisingly funny despite its contraints.
If you're hoping to catch the new live-action Minecraft movie in theaters this weekend, I've gathered all of the details below. For those of you waiting for it to come out on streaming and digital, I've also gathered the latest info I could find about release dates for both.
Where to Watch A Minecraft Movie
A Minecraft Movie, with a wide release date of April 4, is now available in theaters everywhere. To find when and where you can watch the film near you, check the listings featured below for local showtimes.
We don't yet have a streaming release date for A Minecraft Movie, but we know that it will land on Max when it does hit streaming because it's a Warner Bros. project. There is no clear time period when we can expect the movie to make the jump to a streaming service since it depends on how the film does in the box office, but we can make an educated guess based on past Warner Bros. movies. Theatrical windows have shrunk in the last few years, some as short as 14 days before hitting VOD. For a movie with such crossover appeal like this one, we'd bet that it has a longer life in theaters and won't hit streaming for three to four months. That would place the potential streaming release date sometime in June or July 2025.
What about the digital and physical release?
A Minecraft Movie does not currently have a release date for when it will become available to rent or purchase digitally. However, a limited edition steelbook is available for preorder, though without a release date. I'd venture a guess that it will release sometime closer to the end of May 2025.
If you haven't been keeping up with the latest trailers for A Minecraft Movie, here's a quick synopsis of the film directly from the Warner Bros. website:
A Minecraft Movie Cast
A Minecraft Movie is directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) and stars:
Jason Momoa as Garrett
Jack Black as Steve
Sebastian Hansen as Henry
Emma Myers as Natalie
Danielle Brooks as Dawn
Jennifer Coolidge as Vice Principal Marlene
Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, Matt Berry, and YouTubers Valkyrae, DanTDM, Aphmau, Mumbo Jumbo, and LDShadowLady all appear in various cameos or voice roles.
Rating and Runtime
A Minecraft Movie is rated PG for some violence, language, suggestive humor, and occassionally scary images. It has a total runtime of 1 hour and 41 minutes including credits. There is a mid-credits and post-credits scene you'll want to stick around for as well.
Starting today, Dell is offering an Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC equipped with the new GeForce RTX 5080 GPU for just $2,399.99 shipped. This is one of the best prices you can get right now for an RTX 5080 equipped prebuilt, especially since most other brands seem to be jacking up prices steadily since the RTX 50 series launch in January. The only other prebuilt you can get at Dell with an RTX 5080 GPU costs over $4,000. Good luck trying to find a standalone GPU to build out your own DIY PC; you'll probably spend as much for the GPU as you would this entire system.
Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $2,400
This Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F CPU, GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, 16GB of DDR5-5200MHz RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. The current-gen Intel Core Ultra 7 265F Meteor Lake CPU boasts a max turbo frequency of 5.3GHz with 20 cores and a 30MB cache. It's cooled by a robust 240mm all-in-one liquid cooler and the entire system is powered by a generously equipped 1,000W 80PLUS Platinum power supply.
The RTX 5080 is one of three new Blackwell graphics cards that are out (and impossible to find). In our Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 FE review, Jackie writes that "If you already have a high-end graphics card from the last couple of years, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 doesn’t make a lot of sense – it just doesn’t have much of a performance lead over the RTX 4080, though the extra frames from DLSS 4 Multi-Frame Generation do make things look better in games that support it. However, for gamers with an older graphics card who want a significant performance boost, the RTX 5080 absolutely provides – doubly so if you’re comfortable with Nvidia’s AI goodies."
New Release: Alienware Area-51 RTX 5080 PC
Alienware has also released its new-for-2025 Area-51 system and you can order it right now at Dell. This particular config has been upgraded with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor, 64GB of RAM, and a 1TB M.2 SSD for $4.649.99 after a $400 off instant discount. The CPU is cooled by a 360mm all-in-one liquid cooler and the entire system is powered by a massive 1,500W 80PLUS Platinum power supply. Dell estimates this system to arrive at doorin early April.
New for 2025: The Alienware Area-51 Chassis
Dell unveiled the new Alienware Area-51 gaming PC at CES 2025. The chassis looks similar to the 2024 R16 system with some minor aesthetic and cooling redesigns and updated components. The I/O panel is positioned at the top of the case instead of the front, and the tempered glass window now spans the entire side panel instead of just a smaller cutout. As a result, the side panel vents are gone, and instead air intakes are located at the bottom as well as the front of the case. Alienware is now pushing a positive airflow design (more intake than exhaust airflow), which usually means a less dusty interior. The internal components have also all been refreshed, with a new motherboard, faster RAM, and more powerful power supply to accommodate the new generation of CPUs and the RTX 50 series GPUs.
RTX 5080 and 5090 GPUs Are Sold Out Everywhere
The first wave of Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards went up for preorder and sold out within the first hour. First to be released were the two highest-end GPUs in the stack: the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080. The RTX 5070 Ti followed shortly after in February. Sadly, the same is the case with prebuilt gaming PCs equipped with these new GPUs. We saw a number of systems listed at launch, and at this point these are either out of stock, have gone up in price, or are currently experiencing extended delivery delays.
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.
Several of the new 2025 Samsung TVs that were showcased earlier this year at CES are now available for purchase at Samsung's official online store. Select Samsung Neo QLED and OLED TVs are currently in stock and they ship out immediately for as early as April 9-10 delivery. Alternatively, you can pick up select models at your local Best Buy. Not every TV has been released yet, but I expect more models to become available soon.
The 2025 Samsung TVs That Are Available Starting Today
Samsung showcased several of their top models during CES 2025. Here's a quick rundown of the biggest highlights. At the moment, exact pricing for each model is unknown.
2025 Samsung Neo QLED Mini LED TVs
Samsung revealed a total of six Mini-LED TV models for 2025, and three of the models are available for purchase starting today. The Neo QLED QN990F and QN900F are true 8K TVs with some incremental improvements like the new anti-glare tech, the One Connect wireless transmitter box, and access to Samsung's Art Store, which was previously retricted to the Frame TVs. The Neo QLED QN90F, QN85F, QN80F and QN70F are the new 4K Mini-LED models. The highest end model is the QN90F and it will feature the same 165Hz refresh rate, Gen 3 processor, and anti-glare coating as the S95F. The mid-range QN85F will be Samsung's first 100" TV.
2025 Samsung OLED TVs
The new OLED TVs - the S95F, S90F, and S85F - feature several incremental upgrades over its predecessors. The S95F, Samsung's flagship model, boasts a new NQ4 AI Gen 3 processor, a faster 165Hz refresh rate, an improved anti-glare coating, and an upgraded QD OLED panel that promises up to 2,000 nits of brightness. The S90F will also feature the Gen 3 processor, 144Hz refresh rate with VRR, and a QD OLED panel with up to 1,300nits of brightness (for TV models 55" and up). The S85F remains the "budget" OLED TV with a Gen 2 processor and is the only model that's available now.
2025 Samsung The Frame Pro Art TV
Not yet released
The Frame Pro will make its debut this year alongside the standard Frame TV. The Frame Pro finally features the superior Neo QLED Mini-LED panel for richer and brighter colors, a faster 144Hz refresh rate, the new anti-glare tech, and wireless hookups in the form of a "One Connect" box that can be stowed away discreetly. The standard The Frame TV will still be available too, at a significantly lower cost I assume.
AI and Anti-Glare Tech Are the Highlights for Samsung
Like just about everyone else in the industry, Samsung is going all in on AI. Samsung's new tech for 2025 is their "Vision AI", which can recognize the content you're watching, including specifics like the actors or setting, and display relevant personalized commentary in real-time. In addition, more TV models this year will be equipped with AI Upscaling Pro and AI Motion Enhancer Pro which work in tandem to optimize image quality on the fly. Other features include Active Voice Amplier Pro, which uses AI to isolate and enhance voices, AI Optimization, and AI Energy Mode.
Samsung is also decisively moving many of their TV panels to the matte-like anti-glare coating we saw on the S95D in 2024. This anti-glare anti-reflective tech doesn't desaturate like we typically see with anti-glare coatings from other brands, and yet reflections are minimized to the point that you'll never notice them..
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.
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. This page includes all of the best deals that are currently available.
Dell and Alienware Coupons
Dell and Alienware Gaming PC Deals
Dell and Alienware Gaming Laptop Deals
You can quickly browse through all of the listed products on sale above. See below for our favorite picks.
Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Prebuilt Gaming PCs Are Available
Earlier this year, Dell rebooted the legendary Alienware Area-51 lineup of prebuilt gaming PCs, but until recently you could only configure it with one graphics card option - the RTX 5080. That's no longer the case. Starting now, you can choose to equip your Alienware Area-51 with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU and - finally - an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU starting at $5,499.99. Better yet, you won't have to wait months for your system to arrive; Dell estimates an early April ship date.
Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC
Starting today, Dell is offering an Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC equipped with the new GeForce RTX 5080 GPU for just $2,399.99 shipped. This is one of the best prices you can get right now for an RTX 5080 equipped prebuilt, especially since most other brands seem to be jacking up prices steadily since the RTX 50 series launch in January. The only other prebuilt you can get at Dell with an RTX 5080 GPU costs over $4,000. Good luck trying to find a standalone GPU to build out your own DIY PC; you'll probably spend as much for the GPU as you would this entire system.
Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 4090 Gaming PC
This Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F CPU, GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, 16GB of DDR5-5200MHz RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. The processor can also be upgraded up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K. If you're getting system with a focus on gaming, then the upgrade is unnecessary. Gaming at higher resolutions is almost always GPU bound, and besides, the default Intel Core Ultra 7 265F is a solid processor with a max turbo frequency of 5.3GHz and a total of 20 cores. It's cooled by a robust 240mm all-in-one liquid cooler and the entire system is powered by an 1,000W 80PLUS Platinum power supply.
Alternatively, get an upgraded RTX 4090 model for $3,599.99 after a $400 instant discount. It's $600 more than the base model Alienware 4090 gaming PC, but that's because the processor has been upgraded to a much more powerful Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU. You also get quadruple the RAM and double the storage.
New for 2025: The Alienware Area-51 Chassis
Dell unveiled the new Alienware Area-51 gaming PC at CES 2025. The chassis looks similar to the 2024 R16 system with some minor aesthetic and cooling redesigns and updated components. The I/O panel is positioned at the top of the case instead of the front, and the tempered glass window now spans the entire side panel instead of just a smaller cutout. As a result, the side panel vents are gone, and instead air intakes are located at the bottom as well as the front of the case. Alienware is now pushing a positive airflow design (more intake than exhaust airflow), which usually means a less dusty interior. The internal components have also all been refreshed, with a new motherboard, faster RAM, and more powerful power supply to accommodate the new generation of CPUs and the RTX 50 series GPUs.
Alienware Area-51 Gaming Laptop Is Now Available
Dell announced the return of the venerable Alienware Area-51 gaming laptop back in CES 2025, and starting today it is finally available to order. It comes in two size variants: the 16" model starts at $3,199.99 and the 18" model starts at $3,399.99. As expected from Alienware's new flagship laptop, the Area-51 is equipped with current generation components, including the latest and greatest Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU and NVIDIA Blackwell GPU. Orders are expected to ship out starting April 30, so get your reservation in now to prevent any additional delays.
Alienware m16 Gaming Laptops
Dell is offering an Alienware m16 R2 RTX 4060 gaming laptop starting at $1,299.99 shipped after a $400 off instant discount. The m16 R2 is Alienware's most popular gaming laptop, which isn't surprising considering its excellent build quality, top-of-the-line gaming prowess, and reasonable price point. The "R2" is the second generation model that was released in 2024; it's 14% lighter and more compact than its predecessor without compromising on performance.
Alienware x16 R2 Gaming Laptops
The Alienware x16 gaming laptop is a slimmer and lighter redesign of the traditional m-series laptop. It's the thinnest 16" Alienware laptop ever and compares in build quality and performance to other high-end ultra-thin laptops like the Razer Blade. This Alienware x16 R2 laptop is built with premium materials, like a magnesium alloy chassis and palm rest, anodized aluminum lid, stainless steel keyboard tray, and Micro LED RGB accent lighting. It's only 0.73" thin and weighs in at 6 pounds. That's impressive considering the fact that this laptop can be equipped with the most power NVIDIA GPU.
Alienware m18 R2 RTX 4070 Gaming Laptop
The Alienware m18 is the biggest Alienware laptop you can buy with an imposing 18" 2560x1600 display and top-of-the-line components. Currently theres only one model on sale, which is equipped with an Intel Core i7-14700HX CPU, RTX 4070 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a1TB SSD for $1,899.99 after a $400 instant discount.
Dell G-Series Gaming Laptops
Dell has dropped the prices on the G16 16" gaming laptops. Dells G-series laptops are great options for budget gamers. They offer excellent gaming performance equal to a comparably equipped Alienware laptop but at a much lower price point. They also have better build quality than Dell's Inspiron lineup, with nicer materials that include anodized aluminum, and an aggressive cooling design borrowed from Alienware laptops.
Not all laptop GPUs are the same, even if they share the same name.
There are two important tidbits that deserve mention concerning graphics cards found in laptops. First, mobile GPU variants are not as powerful as their desktop counterparts. For example, a mobile RTX 4060 doesn't perform as well as a desktop RTX 4060. The mobile versions are generally about one to two tiers lower in performance. Using the same example, the mobile RTX 4060 performs more similarly to a desktop RTX 4050.
Second, not all laptops feature the same performance out of the same GPU. For example, the RTX 4060 found in the Alienware m16 will be more powerful than the RTX 4060 found in the Alienware x14. In order to roughly tell how good a GPU will be, you can look at the TGP rating. That's basically the amount of power supplied to the GPU. A higher TGP rating means more power will be delivered, equating to stronger performance, however the wattage consumption and heat generated will be higher. Here are the maximum TGP rates for the RTX 40 series graphics cards:
Mobile RTX 4050: 115W
Mobile RTX 4060: 115W
Mobile RTX 4070: 115W
Mobile RTX 4080: 150W
Mobile RTX 4090: 150W
Dell just dropped the price of one of its best gaming monitors to the lowest price ever, better than even Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Right now you can pick up an Alienware AW3423DWF 34" QD-OLED gaming monitor for only $552.49 after 15% off coupon code "MONITORS15". This is one of Alienware's highest end monitors, with a gorgeous QD OLED panel, WQHD resolution, and a respectable 165Hz refresh rate.
Why Pick a Dell or Alienware Gaming PC?
If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, Dell is one of best gaming brands we'd recommend. The Alienware gaming desktops offer a staggering array of options, all built into a custom chassis. Alienware gaming laptops in recent years have been redesigned to be thinner and lighter while still offering the same immense power under the hood. Consistent build quality, available inventory, frequent sales, and solid customer service are the main reasons why Dell is at the top of our buying list for gaming laptops and PCs.
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.
The adventure begins when siblings Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers) are forced to move to Chuglass, Idaho, after the untimely death of their mother. While both struggle to fit in, they're soon sucked into the Overworld along with their real estate agent Dawn (Danielle Brooks), and a one-time fighting game world champion turned local failing business owner, Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison (Jason Momoa). Throughout their adventure they meet the master-builder known as Steve (Jack Black) and battle zombies, pigs, and endermen. But if you're wondering where we leave our characters after they barely survive the evil pig Malgosha (Rachel House) and the Nether or if you should stay after the credits, we've got you covered with a level-up from director Jared Hess and Minecraft head of content Torfi Frans Ólafsson.
A Minecraft Movie Ending Explained
Leading into the release of A Minecraft Movie, the biggest question that fans had was how the filmmakers would adapt something so beloved and instantly recognizable that's also an open world experience. "I think the principle that we had is that we kind of start familiar, and then expand," Torfi Frans Ólafsson tells IGN. "The movie in its first act starts familiar with the first night, this experience that Minecraft players have where they're just in the woods and they have no weapons and no tools, and they're being hunted by zombies and creepers. We wanted to firmly root it and establish it in things that you know."
As the film moves into its second act, all that changes as we meet new characters who represent different aspects of how you can play Minecraft: a modder and a vanilla (unmodified) Minecraft expert. "One of the characters, Henry, he kind of represents the modern new blood that comes in, whereas Jack Black is Steve, who knows everything about vanilla," Ólafsson explains. "He knows everything about how it works today, knows how to make his diamond pickaxe and enchant it, and so on. The movie also kind of talks about how the modder comes in and then adds stuff to the game."
'I've never seen Piglin barbarian dudes that are obsessed with gold, dabble in cannibalism, live in a hot lava hellscape. But how do we bring them to the Overworld?' -Jared Hess
Together the two players take down the evil Nether-dwelling Piglin Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House), her invading War Hogs, and even the kinda chill General Chungus (voiced by Jared Hess). Bringing the Nether to the Overworld might surprise some Minecraft players, but it was something that Jared Hess and the team at Mojang really wanted to bring to the screen. "One of the biggest things when I fell in love with the Piglin characters, it was like, 'Gosh, these are so unique to Minecraft. I've never seen Piglin barbarian dudes that are obsessed with gold, dabble in cannibalism, live in a hot lava hellscape. But how do we bring those dudes to the Overworld?'" Hess recalls. "In the game they'll zombify, right? We spent a ton of time with Torfi and the team at Mojang talking about it."
Luckily the creative team had a plan to explain just how it might work. "It was like, 'Well they could drink some nether wart.' All right, then that's a solution that works within the physics and kind of the lore of the game," Hess continued." It was always kind of problem-solving stuff to make it work for a movie, but honoring the physics and the rules of the game, and then sometimes breaking it, but not really. I don't think we really broke any."
After retrieving the Orb of Dominance and stopping the Nether's encroaching invasion of the Overworld, Henry, Nat, Dawn, and Garrett decide to head back to the real world. And though Steve is loath to join them, Nat suggests that he bring some of his crafting magic back with him, which inspires Steve to return to the world he had once rejected.
Once we return to the real world we see how the Minecraft adventure has changed each of the crew for the better. Dawn and Dennis the wolf — who she met during her time in Overworld — are now running a successful cube-animal zoo. Nat is a professional martial arts teacher, Henry is finally cool at school after finishing his jetpack and showcasing it to his classmates, including the bullies. And Steve and Garrett are now running Game Over World together as the newly renamed Overworld Games, where they have a sick band and we get a great musical moment with the original song "I Feel Alive." Performed by Momoa and Black, the song was also written by Black and features, according to Kerrang, Dave Grohl "on drums, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, Jellyfish’s Roger Manning on keys, pop superstar Mark Ronson on bass and rhythm guitar, and background vocals from co-star Danielle Brooks."
How A Minecraft Movie Pays Homage to a Legendary YouTuber
When it comes to Minecraft YouTubers there are likely none more iconic than Technoblade, aka Alexander. With his millions of followers and instantly recognizable pig in a crown avatar, the streamer took the gaming world by storm, but sadly passed away in 2022 after a battle with cancer. So while it might be a no-brainer that the makers of A Minecraft Movie pay homage to one of the game’s best known players, just how prominent that homage is might come as a surprise to fans.
In their quest for the Earth Crystal, Steve takes the crew to Midport village where they encounter the nightmarishly-nosed villagers and their protectors the Iron Golems. As they wander through the crowded streets, Henry sees a pig wearing a golden crown studded with gems — sound familiar? — and asks whether or not the creature is a king, to which Steve replies, "That's a legend!" It's a fitting tribute to the streamer and one that has already garnered emotional responses from fans and his fellow content creators.
Does A Minecraft Movie Have a Mid- or Post-Credits Scene?
Yes, it has both! The mid-credits scene of A Minecraft Movie wraps up the film’s major B-plot, which features Jennifer Coolidge as Marlene, a human woman and the Vice Principal of Henry and Nat's new school. She falls in love with a Minecraft villager — who escapes from the very same portal which takes Nat, Henry, Dawn, and Garrett into the magical Overworld — after she hits him with her Jeep Grand Cherokee and takes him for dinner to avoid getting sued.
In the mid-credits scene, which comes rather early, the unusual couple face down with Marlene's ex-husband Clemente, who is revealed to be Henry's overworked science and gym teacher. While he rails at his ex-wife, the villager reveals himself to be voiced by none other than Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, Toast of London, etc.), whose velvety tones reveal that Nitwit, as he’s called, and Marlene are in love. And not only can he speak human, but she can now speak villager. Also, while the entire movie has only taken place over one 24-hour period, the pair are in love and are getting married. It's a perfectly silly and satisfying way to tie a romantic ribbon around the most unexpectedly hilarious part of the movie. It was also one that Hess revealed was in his original version of the script.
"First of all, Jennifer Coolidge doing anything ever is hilarious," the director, who previously worked with the actress on Gentlemen Broncos, tells IGN. "Being able to work with her again in Minecraft, it was just a dream come true. She's in one of the funniest scenes in the whole movie with Jason Momoa, but also just having hit rock bottom in her love life, and then having this nitwit come into her world and be a great listener, and something that she's never experienced. Just being able to find love between different dimensions, different types of people, I think is pretty fun and hilarious. Yeah, we knew from the get-go, like, ‘Okay, if we get Jennifer, she's got to fall in love with a nitwit and see where it goes.’"
The nitwit pull is also one that should satisfy longtime Minecraft fans. "When you come to a Minecraft village, every villager has a job, says Ólafsson. “You have the fletcher who makes arrows, or you have the cleric, or the cartographer. We need a cartographer who can sell you some good mods. They come into the world without jobs as children, and then they find a job site and they get a job. There is one villager who's born different. The robes are different, and that is the nitwit. This has been in Minecraft since forever."
If you're more concerned about the future of the burgeoning franchise than the romantic life of fictional Jennifer Coolidge and a nitwit, then make sure to wait until the credits have rolled for a big tease. In the post-credits scene, we watch Steve arrive at his old home, where the Orb and Earth Crystal were originally left before they were auctioned off to Garrett at the beginning of the film. He's returned to claim some belongings that he left behind, and who should answer the door but a ginger-headed woman who introduces herself as Alex… who fans will recognize as a version of the default female skin for Minecraft players that was first introduced in 2014. While we don't see her face, it's clear that the series will be casting for a new female lead if Minecraft gets a sequel.
As for who might have voiced the character in A Minecraft Movie, Hess and Ólafsson are tight-lipped. "It's a mystery," Hess teases. "We're just full of mysteries," Ólafsson replies. "Full of mysteries, but definitely excited," Hess adds. "That character, that's a whole other fun chapter we'd be excited about."
What did you think of A Minecraft Movie? Let's chat in the comments. And for more, check out the best Jack Black movies of all time!
Note: This story was updated on April 4, 2025, with full spoilers. It originally published on April 2.
Earlier this year, Dell rebooted the legendary Alienware Area-51 lineup of prebuilt gaming PCs, but until recently you could only configure it with one graphics card option - the RTX 5080. That's no longer the case. Starting now, you can choose to equip your Alienware Area-51 with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU and - finally - an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU starting at $5,499.99. Better yet, you won't have to wait months for your system to arrive; Dell estimates an early April ship date.
Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Prebuilt Gaming PCs Are Available
The $5,500 config might be the "base" configuration for an Alienware Area-51 gaming PC equipped with a 5090 GPU, but at that price, I would still expect stacked specs, and fortunately, this configuration delivers. It's equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU, 32GB of DDR5-6400MHz RAM, and a 2TB NVMe SSD. The Core Ultra 9 285K is Intel's latest flagship CPU and offers stellar workstation and gaming performance. It's not quite the performance uplift we wanted from the i9-14900K, but right now there's nothing better from the Intel camp. The processor is cooled by a massive 360mm all-in-one liquid cooler, and the system is generously powered by a 1,500W 80Plus Platinum-rated power supply.
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. This GPU is extremely difficult to find at retail price and is currently selling for $3,500-$4000 on eBay.
Amazon listed a couple of Skytech-branded RTX 5090 gaming PCs for an even more attractive price point of $4,799.99 shipped. Note that these don't ship out immediately. They're equipped with capable AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processors, which perform nearly as well in terms of gaming although they do fall behind when it comes to workstation performance.
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.
Here's your best opportunity to sign up for an Audible membership at a stellar price. Starting now and running through April 30, you can sign up for three months of Audible Premium Plus for just $0.99 per month. Premium Plus is Audible's highest tier plan and normally costs $14.95/mo. As a additional subscription perk, you get a free audiobook of your choice for each of those three months and you get to keep them indefinitely.
Both new and currently expired Audible customers are eligible
Anyone who doesn't currently have an active Audible membership should be eligible. That includes new subscribers as well as existing members whose subscriptions have since expired. There's always a small your-mileage-may-vary disclaimer with these types of promotions, but fortunately it's easy to check if you qualify: log into your account, and if you see the $0.99/mo banner right on Amazon's Audible page then you're eligible for this promotion.
3 Months of Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 per Month
Audible is a subscription service that gives you access to hundreds of thousands of the best audiobooks without ever having to purchase them. There are two paid membership plans: the lower tier Audible Plus ($7.95/mo) and the higher tier Audible Premium Plus ($14.95/mo). The biggest difference between the two is the size of the audiobook library. Whereas Audible Plus only lets you listen to a selection of about 10,000 audiobooks, the Audible Premium Plus plan gives you access to a whopping 500,000 audiobooks. These include all-time classics like Frank Herbert's Dune, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire), The Witcher, The Sandman Series,and The Lord of the Rings.
Although the seriously expanded library is the main draw of the Audible Premium Plus membership, there are some other nice perks as well. Every month Premium Plus members get to pick one audiobook to keep in their library indefinitely, even after the membership expires. Also, Premium Plus members can get 30% off any additional audiobooks they wish to purchase in addition to exclusive limited-time discounts.
If you were already planning to purchase a couple of audiobooks, then it makes more sense to pay less than $3 to get three audiobooks you get to keep indefinitely and enjoy all the benefits of Audible Premium Plus for three months. This deal only pops up a few times per year, so don't waste your "first-time subscriber" eligibility status on a short 30-day trial.
The newest Hunger Games audiobook just released
Sunrise on the Reaping is the newest Hunger Games novel, and it's also available as an audiobook. The book will be narrated by Jefferson White, who you may already know from Yellowstone where he played Jimmy Hudstrom. The audiobook has a listening time of about 12 hours and 48 minutes. It's free to listen with an Audible subscription.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
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