Fortnite fans have gainded a first look at how The Office characters Michael Scott and Dwight Scrute will appear in the game, when they become available later tonight.

The pair of new Fortnite skins include the likenesses of actors Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson, and come with a range of alternate styles and accessories. The Michael Scott skin includes the option to wear sunglasses, or unbutton his shirt and wear a backwards cap for his "Date Mike" look.

Dwight Scrute, meanwhile, comes with the option to wear his suit jacket or not — and without, the skin can be seen with a holster strapped to his uncovered belt (complete with banana, as seen in the show). Another reference comes in the shape of Dwight's skin mask option for his face, as worn by the character after he memorably cut it off of a CPR dummy.

ALL THE OFFICE SKIN STYLES IN FORTNITE pic.twitter.com/PlIZgNB7rQ

— Shiina (@ShiinaBR) January 23, 2026

THE OFFICE FORTNITE EMOTES 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/Nd4OLJbyuC

— Shiina (@ShiinaBR) January 23, 2026

Said CPR dummy (without face) is appropriately Dwight's backbling. Michael's backwear, meanwhile, is a giant World's Best Boss mug, as used by the character throughout the show. Further accessories include Dwight's Broom-Stake and Michael's Dundee award statue, both used as pickaxes.

There's even a Megadesk glider, and emotes for Dwight's convertible (which he leans out of yelling in his megaphone), and Michael's Scarn dance. Both feature original dialogue from the show.

Fortnite developer Epic Games first teased an The Office crossover earlier this week, after simply posting on social media: "Build. Beets. Battle Royale." Immediately, fans got the reference, and have been anticipating a first look at how the characters will appear in-game.

Today, the collaboration has been decrypted within Fortnite's files, ahead of the items going on sale via the game's shop at its next reset. This has allowed the game's usual leakers such as ShinaBR, whose posts are embedded above, to show off the content early.

Fortnite launched into its Chapter 7 era in November with an Avengers Endgame-style team-up event. Crossovers added since then have included skins for Kim Kardashian, Bleach, and South Park. Next week will bring a skin for Ed from Ed, Edd n Eddy. Today also sees the launch of Fortnite's 3v3 Fall Guys basketball mode Crown Jam, which is available for a limited time. Take a first look at that just below.

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

The Corsair Katar Pro XT's silhouette is alien. At first glance, its bulging middle resembles the wider egg shape popularized by great gaming mice like Logitech's G305, but as soon as I held it, something felt weird.

It's two things: first, everything in front of its hump – about two-thirds of the way along the mouse – is essentially a dead straight slope down. The middle and front of most mice curve to fit the shape of your hand, but not here. It's like a shelf for your index and middle fingers. Second, the sides slope sharply inwards. Most mice fall straight down and some slope outwards to give your ring and pinky fingers somewhere to rest, but the idea of the Katar Pro XT is that your fingers wrap around it, giving you full control.

That's the theory, at least. In practice I found a comfy position, but only after lots of trial and error. It feels like an exaggerated version of the Logitech egg, with a flatter top and slopier sides: I ended up liking the shape, but felt like I had to work to get there.

And that's the story all over with this mouse: at $35/£35, there's plenty to like – the left and mouse clicks are particularly rapid — but you'll have to contend with some missteps, too.

Rapid-Fire Mouse Buttons and a Solid Sensor

Corsair has packed plenty of impressive tech into the Katar Pro XT.

The left and right clicks are excellent: Corsair's "Quickstrike" tech sounds gimmicky, but lives up to the name. The switches for the clicks sit right below the buttons, so as soon as you push down even slightly, it detects an input. The result is rapid-fire spamming that sounds clean and bouncy. I was at first worried I'd inadvertently click when I didn't mean to, but that never happened.

I've reviewed plenty of budget gaming mice recently and this PMW3391 sensor, with a maximum DPI of 18,000, is slightly better on paper than some of the others I've tested. Combined with the 1,000Hz polling rate (the number of times per second it reports its position to your PC), it's certainly good enough for most gamers in whatever genre you want to play.

I tested it in Arc Raiders, Counter-Strike 2, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and whether I was flick-shotting or lazily swinging a sword, it reacted to my hand movements with no noticeable stuttering or inconsistencies. It felt precise, and any issues I faced were more down to the mouse feet than the sensor.

Itchy Feet and Mushy Side Clicks

Those feet felt ever-so-slightly inconsistent in-game. I couldn't work out what it was, so I did some testing. If I pushed the mouse sideways and let go, it slid a short distance, but if I pushed it up and let go, it stopped instantly. Basically, there's more friction on vertical movements than horizontal ones. What's more, the top feet produce more friction than the bottom ones. When I pushed sideways and let go, the bottom travelled further than the top, meaning the mouse tilted sideways. The third offense: left and right swipes are much louder than top to bottom swipes, which rings alarm bells.

Those problems sound worse than they actually are, and replacement mice feet are pretty cheap. In-game, these quirks didn't seem to affect performance and I felt I could land all my shots accurately, but it just wasn't the smoothest ride – and I could feel every bit of its 74g weight. I've tested other budget mice that glide more gracefully.

Pressing the side buttons isn't particularly enjoyable, either. They barely protrude from the body of the mouse, so when you click them you touch the edges of the shell, while the actual clicks feel soft and mushy. And I don't love the scroll wheel, which feels stiff. It also rattles if you shake the mouse: the overall build quality of the Katar Pro XT is solid, and its body won't bend or creak even if you squeeze it really hard, but the rattling scroll wheel is the one sore spot.

You can expect some good, some bad with any budget gaming mouse, and that's what you get here. Whether the Katar Pro XT is good for you, then, might come down to its shape.

Comfortable Shape That Requires Trial and Error

I like that Corsair have at least tried something different: so many mice sport the same shape, and that might not suit everybody.

I can immediately rule out palm grip, where your whole palm rests on the body of the mouse. The inward-sloping sides won't accommodate your pinky and ring fingers, plus the angle of the bulge leaves awkward gaps: this is very much a fingertip grip and claw grip mouse.

I actually really like the shape for fingertip grip. Minimal contact with the mouse surface means the lack of curves really doesn't matter, and the straight, flat mouse buttons give you maximum clicking space. The inward sloping sides fit my thumb, index, and pinky finger well, and I feel fully in control of the mouse. The subtle mesh texture on the mouse sides give you ever more grip, and it feels nimble and agile in my hands. That said, this is a wide mouse. My hands are slightly larger than average, and people with narrower palms might struggle to find a comfortable spot for their ring and pinky fingers.

As for claw grip, I simply couldn't find a comfy position. The width of the mouse means you really have to curl your ring and pink fingers onto the sides, and my hand just felt cramped and contorted.

That was until I tried a variation of the claw grip with three fingers on the top of the mouse: index finger for left click, middle finger for the scroll wheel, and ring finger for the right click, with my pink on the side of the mouse. This felt very comfortable, and I was fully in control of the mouse. It's not my natural claw grip – I prefer two fingers on top – but I know some people favor this version. If you're one of them, this mouse will work for you.

So if you like fingertip grip or a modified claw grip, and you don't have small hands, the Katar Pro XT is tempting, especially if you see it on sale. But if not, there are plenty of better options on our list of best budget mice that will feel more comfortable.

Samuel is a freelance reporter and editor specializing in longform journalism and hardware reviews. You can read his work at his website.

One of the most popular sets from the Scarlet and Violet era, Pokémon TCG: 151, continues to be immensely popular even now in the Mega Evolution era. Market price on its selection of sealed products remains high on resale marketplaces like TCGplayer, so it's always good news to find boosters at a better price from major retailers.

The creator of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod CD Projekt recently hit with a DMCA strike has paused his Patreon page and pulled access to all his mods after receiving another strike from a different publisher.

Luke Ross, creator of the R.E.A.L. VR mods for games such as Elden Ring, Days Gone, and Far Cry, reportedly earns $20,000 a month through Patreon, which acts as a paywall for his work.

He ditched work on his Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod following CD Projekt’s DMCA strike, and has now said he received another strike from publisher 505 Games for his VR conversion of 2020 first-person cyberpunk action game Ghostrunner. IGN has asked 505 Games for comment. Ross declined to comment further when contacted by IGN.

Ross’ Patreon page now carries a warning, telling potential subscribers that “for the moment there will be no benefits available.” That means that even if you subscribe to his Patreon, you won’t get access to any of the more than 40 mods he has locked behind it. Ross said he’ll keep his Patreon locked down “until the legal situation clears out.” Existing subscriptions will have their access extended for one month without further payments, Ross said.

Ross hit the headlines this month when Jan Rosner, VP, Business Development at CD Projekt Red, tweeted to say the company issued its DMCA strike because the Cyberpunk VR was a paid mod, which violates its fan content guidelines.

“We never allow monetization of our IP without our direct permission and/or an agreement in place,” Rosner said. “We were in touch with Luke last week and informed him that he needs to make it free for everyone (with optional donations) or remove it.

“We are big fans of mods to our games — some of the work out there has been nothing short of amazing, including Luke’s mod for Cyberpunk 2077. We’d be happy to see it return as a free release. However, making a profit from our IP, in any form, always requires permission from CD Projekt Red.”

Ross responded to Rosner’s tweet to take issue with his work being characterized as fan content. Rather, Ross insisted, it is independent software and thus does not infringe on CD Projekt’s IP rights.

“I'm sorry but I don't believe you are within your rights in demanding that my software needs to be free,” Ross said. “It is not ‘derivative work’ or ‘fan content’: it supports a large number of games which were built upon different engines, and it contains absolutely zero code or assets from your IP. Saying that it infringes your IP rights is equivalent to maintaining for example that RivaTuner violates game publishers' copyrights because it intercepts the images the game is drawing on screen and it processes them in order to overlay its statistics.”

Earlier this week, Ross told IGN that people were now pirating his Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod to “punish” him for breaking CD Projekt's terms of service.

In a new post to subscribers, Ross said Patreon automatically complied with 505 Games’ alleged DMCA takedown notice for his Ghostrunner mod.

“I don't blame them,” he continued. “DMCA law is carefully worded to give infinite power to big companies, who only need to write on a slip of paper that they ‘believe’ their copyright has been infringed in order to nuke from the sky anything they don't like — and to give infinite headaches to creators like me, who instead have the only recourse of going to court, sustaining huge costs to get through the legal process.”

Ross said his Patreon is now under threat of termination because of repeated DMCA strikes, and must “avoid posting material that will subject your account to further claims of copyright infringement."

“In light of the above facts, I'm being forced to take immediate action,” Ross explained. “I'm making unavailable all versions of the mods and also all the posts related to the wonderful work we have done here together for years, so that there will be no ground for further claims. And since I cannot stop people from subscribing without closing down the account altogether, I'm making it clear on the About and Welcome pages that new subscriptions will have the only effect of supporting me and that no access to the 40+ conversions can or will be provided at this time.”

IGN had asked Ross if he planned to make the Cyberpunk VR mod free, thus complying with CD Projekt’s terms of service. Responding, Ross said that while he wouldn’t rule out doing so, it would be a lot of work.

“I do not rule out releasing the mod free for everyone,” he said. “But it would take time, because my software supports 40+ games and various completely different engines, which makes creating a version that specifically supports only Cyberpunk 2077 a non-trivial task. Also, the people who have voluntarily given their money to me in order to support my development efforts for the framework might not be happy about seeing the mod being given away all of a sudden to everyone just because I've been bullied into it.”

Ross told subscribers that “people on the web are thirsty for blood because back in the GTA 5 and RDR 2 era, an article came out stating that I was raising $20,000 a month.”

He continued: “Is that ‘reasonable’? Assuming that overall the work I poured into making my software support Cyberpunk, turning it into the ‘most immersive gaming experience’ some people had in their lives, amounted to a few months, say $50,000: is that ‘reasonable’ according to the arbitrary criteria of Cyberpunk's publisher? Something tells me it wouldn't be considered reasonable, despite being a tiny fraction of the many millions they would have to invest for porting CP2077 to VR themselves, and despite the fact that the cost was entirely financed by passionate gamers and none of it was incurred by CD Projekt.

“Hopefully we'll find a way together, in the next few weeks. But if we can't, we'll always have the memories of the wonderful times we spent in those beautiful virtual worlds. Oh and by the way: if you have existing copies of the mods that you downloaded here before all this drama, you will of course be able to use them indefinitely and without restrictions, just like people have been doing for years with the RDR2 mod, as long as the games do not get breaking updates from the publishers.”

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

Here's hoping you didn't have anything else planned for your weekend, as Nintendo has announced a surprise Super Mario Galaxy Movie Nintendo Direct for this coming Sunday.

A weekend Nintendo Direct is pretty much unheard of, but the company will hold one this Sunday, January 25 at 6am Pacific time / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK time, to reveal new details of its upcoming animated movie sequel.

Back in November, the movie was the focus of another dedicated Nintendo Direct that confirmed the film will introduce Rosalina to the big screen, voiced by Marvel star Brie Larson. Another new addition to the animated ensemble will be Bowser Jr., here voiced by Benny Safdie.

That Direct opened with the first-ever full trailer for the film, which you can watch just above. The movie was revealed to begin with Bowser still trapped by the Mario brothers, as seen in the previous Super Mario Bros. Movie. However, Bowser Jr. soon appears — keen to set his beloved papa free.

Safdie and Larson will be joined by the returning cast from the first movie: Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek.

Previously, we've heard word that the movie will feature some Nintendo characters that "are really deep cuts", and fans have speculated that its plot may finally confirm a long-held theory around Peach and Rosalina's origins. Lastly, back in November, Minions animation studio Illumination said it was just "weeks away" from completing its work on the film, ahead of its theatrical release on April 3, 2026 in the US and April 24 in Japan.

What else does Nintendo have left to reveal? Join us on Sunday to find out.

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

Ark Nova, a long, complex and richly strategic game of zoo-building and conservation, took board gaming by storm after its release in 2021. When a game gets that popular, while having big barriers to new players, a simplified spin-off is almost guaranteed – and now we have Sanctuary from the same designer. It has the same widely appealing theme and keeps some of the innovative mechanisms of its parent, but how much of its strategic clout can it retain?

What’s in the Box

Rules and How It Plays

You can get some sense of how much more simple Sanctuary is than Ark Nova simply by comparing rulebooks, which otherwise have similar layouts and fonts. Ark Nova weighs in at 20 pages: Sanctuary a modest eight, with plenty of examples. It jettisons the bigger game’s separation of animals and enclosures, making everything a single tile that you lay onto the hex board representing your zoo.

One thing it keeps, however, is the notion of action card strength. You have four different actions arranged beneath your zoo board in a ranking from weakest to strongest. When you use one, it operates at a “level” equal to its current position in the queue. Then it moves into the weakest slot and the other cards all slide up one rank. All the actions allow you to place tiles into your zoo: three of them are for animals of different habitats while the fourth is for “projects”, which include things like specialist researchers, conservation efforts and the like. All the matching tiles have a strength requirement and the action card you use to lay it must be at that level or higher.

Many tiles have additional requirements. The most common is for arrows on the tile edge to line up with empty spaces: you start with a couple in your zoo map but you can add more by playing tiles from your hand face-down. Others need to be adjacent to tiles already in your zoo that carry certain icons. All have at least one icon representing an animal type, a habitat or a continent. Most tiles improve the appeal of your zoo, which is essentially your victory point tally. For many that’s a fixed value, while others depend on how many of a particular icon you have adjacent to that tile or on your map as a whole.

You can get bonus appeal by satisfying conservation objectives. Five are drawn randomly for each game, matching particular animal type and continent icons. To claim one you must simply have the matching number of icons in your zoo; the more icons, the more points. You can also spend conservation markers, in place of a missing icon, making these tokens very powerful. They can be obtained by getting matching male and female animal tiles of the same species next to each other on your map, or from certain project tiles.

These are the parameters of the puzzle that Sanctuary lays before you, fiendishly pulling you in multiple directions at once. Many tiles reward you for specializing in particular icons. Conservation bonuses, meanwhile, reward you for diversity. Your challenge is to try and decide how, given the limitation of what tiles you pick up and the actions at your disposal, you’re going to balance this problem to eke out the highest score.

To complicate matters, each level of conservation bonus can only be claimed once. So if you claim one with two bird icons, say, and then get more birds in your zoo later, you can’t then go back and claim the bigger-scoring four- or five-icon rewards via birds later on. You need to have four or five of a different animal type or make up the difference with those precious conservation tokens. The whole thing is a mess of competing priorities that can make the game surprisingly tense for what is essentially an un-interactive game where you’re focused on building out your own map.

Because you’re being asked to do so many different things at once, how you pick up and hold tiles is very important. At the start of your turn you have to take one tile from the six in the display. However, you can only take that tile from the queue position up to the current level of your projects action card, making this one particularly important. After that you take an “official” action which involves either using a card to play tiles or you can take more tiles. Animal actions used this way give you two random tiles, while the projects action lets you take one tile of your choice from the display.

Again, given that the game is essentially a race, this results in surprising tension. Play ends when someone either fills their map or collects all five conservation bonuses, both of which are reliant on playing tiles. So missing a turn to take more tiles feels like you’re falling behind. But it’s always so tempting! There are often hexes available that you desperately want because their icons fit with the conservation objectives, or others in your zoo, or even male-female animal pairs but the more you collect them in hope of making combos, the further you risk getting behind in the race for points. The fact you can only hold six tiles at once adds a delightfully frustrating element to these decisions.

Your action order is the final plank in the game’s puzzle. Often, you’ll want to play a given tile and you won’t have the requisite action at a high enough level. So you have to muddle through potentially laying and taking less interesting tiles to get where you want to be. Forward planning your action chains to get cards to the required levels becomes a hallmark of experience when you’re selecting tiles from the display, muddied by the desire to keep projects high to maximize your choices. Cards can also be levelled up to get higher action levels by fulfilling four different criteria, such as claiming your first spot on the conservation track. As is typical for the game’s circular approach to strategy, fulfilling these is yet another competing priority to juggle.

There are times when all the different things going on become an active problem for the game, however. The need for tiles to support each other, and particularly the reward for animal gender pairs, can be frustratingly hard to fulfill if the tiles you want are simply not in the display when it’s your turn. As such, it works better at lower player counts: with five, especially, it feels overlong. The mechanisms also feel very abstract, especially compared to Ark Nova which at least presents an illusion of running a real zoo.

Once the game is finished, everyone has to tally up their points, which is an annoyingly time-consuming process. With the score offered by many tiles being dependent on many other tiles it takes a while to tot them up, and it’s very easy to make errors in what is often quite a tight game. While everyone is raring to know who won, the time and effort it takes to chalk up the scores has the unfortunate effect of deflating whatever excitement has built up during play, leading to the final result arriving as a bit of an anticlimax.

Where to Buy

• Get it at Amazon
• Get it at Capstone Games
• Get it at Game Nerdz

This article contains spoilers for various Ryan Murphy shows, including FX and Hulu’s new series, The Beauty.

Can anyone stop Ryan Murphy? Whatever you think qualitatively of the mega-producer’s creations, there was a time that he was at least reliably churning out hit after hit – controversial series that captured the zeitgeist like Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story. But as his output has increased over time, the accompanying reaction has varied, both in terms of viewers as well as critical – and more importantly, fan – response. Basically, the hitmaker has started turning in more misses than hits, and given the goopy mess of FX and Hulu’s new comic book adaptation, The Beauty, it’s time for Murphy to take a step back, assess what he’s doing, and figure out once again how to make, if not good TV, at least watchable TV.

First, a word about Ryan Murphy shows…because they’re not all created equal. There was a time when Murphy was the man behind everything – creator, producer, writer, and director. He may have worked with partners, but his voice came through clear and true, starting with the 1999-2001 WB critical fave but short-lived Popular, to 2003-2010’s controversy-drawing FX plastic surgery drama, Nip/Tuck, co-starring the late, great Julian McMahon.

But it really wasn’t until 2009 that Murphy created what would elevate him to the lofty heights of TV greats like Shonda Rhimes, Norman Lear, and others. Fox’s Glee was a massive, culture-shifting hit that defined a generation of young TV viewers, created massive stars, and launched a world tour. Love it or hate it – it was impossible to avoid Glee. Murphy did it again in 2011 with American Horror Story, which was a bunch of insane nonsense that nevertheless hit like a lightning bolt with its dark turns for faves like Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott, an unhinged performance by Jessica Lange, and most importantly for the Glee crowd, relatively fresh-faced young performers to become obsessed with in Evan Peters and Taissa Farmiga.

That’s all Early Murphy™; a little over a decade into his storied career, things started to change. There were misses like the 2012 sitcom, The New Normal (which was canceled after one season), and Fox’s Scream Queens in 2015, although the horror comedy has seen a reappraisal in recent years thanks to performances by Glen Powell and Ariana Grande. And there were shows that worked, but could arguably be more attributed to Murphy’s collaborators than the man himself: American Crime Story, Feud, and Pose all counted Ryan Murphy as part of the team, but other voices came through, with Murphy clearly not the loudest one in the room.

At the same time, Murphy created the long-running Fox hit, 9-1-1, which launched in 2018 and later spun off into another hit, 9-1-1: Lone Star (2020-2025). From the outside, both shows felt Murphy’s influence, but seemed like the sort of procedurals that run themselves…even if the emergency crews sometimes deal with getting stuck in space or bee tornadoes, two Murphy touches if there ever were ones.

The biggest shift, and in some aspects the biggest mistake in Murphy’s career, was his 2018 deal with Netflix. It wasn’t perhaps a monetary mistake – Murphy netted $300 million from the deal – but going from weekly programming to the binge model not only changed the rhythm of his shows, but also stretched him too thin. To wit: In 2018 when the deal kicked off, Murphy had American Horror Story, American Crime Story, Feud, 9-1-1, and Pose, and was prepping more down the road. In the first decade of his career, he ran three shows that only briefly overlapped, but in the past decade, running up to this year’s The Beauty? 21 TV series, with at least two more on the way. Even for a super-producer like Murphy, one cannot sustain a consistent level of quality at that pace, particularly when one is pulling double, triple, and sometimes even quadruple duty on a series. That’s not even taking into account the movies, reality shows, and many public appearances Murphy has been involved in. There are high performers, and then there are people who are constantly on the brink of burnout; Murphy’s more recent output indicates the latter.

While not by any stretch of the imagination a complete picture of a career, take a look at the Rotten Tomatoes scores for Murphy’s shows. Other than The New Normal, in that pre-2018 period, all Ryan Murphy shows were in the “Fresh” portion, with Glee hitting a low of 70% and Pose a high of 98%. After 2018? The Politician came in rotten with 51%, Hollywood also rotten at 58%, with Ratched, Halston, and American Horror Story barely scraping by with 62-67% fresh. We won’t list every show Murphy has done, but at least on the inexact scale of Rotten Tomatoes, Murphy went from a pretty good hit ratio in his first decade to nearly 50/50 fresh versus rotten post-2018. On Rotten Tomatoes’ scale? That’s rotten. (The lone exception is Hulu’s Mid-Century Modern, which Murphy produced but did not create, write, or direct).

On Metacritic, which has a more focused critic base than Rotten Tomatoes’ wide berth and breaks things down more granularly, Murphy has a lifetime average career score of 62 out of 100. Earlier Murphy is almost exclusively in the green (aka positive), but since 2018, he’s mixed to negative, leading up to last year’s critical failure – the Kim Kardashian-starring Hulu series, All’s Fair.

That’s all well and good, but what about viewers? There, Murphy has been more successful. On Nielsen’s independent rankings of streaming numbers, Netflix’s The Watcher hit number one, as did the One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest prequel, Ratched, as well as both iterations of the controversial serial killer series, Monster, focusing on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez Brothers. All’s Fair, meanwhile, matched its critical drubbing by not hitting the Nielsen Top 10, although it did hit in the Top 15 on Luminate’s rankings, and was picked up for a second season.

The fact of the matter is that Murphy does still know how to produce hits and cause debates – check out the furious arguments over Monster – but where fans and critics were often aligned on his past projects, more recent reactions have been all over the place, particularly when it comes to the abysmal response to All’s Fair. Murphy’s flair for pulp fun seems to have turned into a parade of “hey, I know that guy” as he combs through his rolodex for friends to hang out with. That has worked less and less on American Horror Story, with later seasons barely hitting the way earlier ones did, and the American Horror Stories anthology spin-off coming and going with hardly any discussion.

Steve Downes, the actor behind Master chief’s iconic voice, has said deceptive AI reproductions of his voice “cross a line that gets into an area I am uncomfortable with” — and he wants it to stop.

Speaking in an AMA on his YouTube channel, Downes acknowledged the inevitability of AI, and even described some fan-made projects as “really cool,” but hit out at unauthorized use of his voice.

“One of the things that can be overwhelming when it comes to attention from fans is when AI gets involved,” he said. “A lot of it is harmless I suppose, but some of it cannot be harmless. I've been very vocal about my feelings about the use of artificial intelligence, which on the one hand is inevitable and has many positive effects on not only show business but humanity in general, but it can also be a detriment. It can also be something that deprives the actor of his work.

“I've heard some things online in terms of AI and the reproduction of my voice that sounds like my voice that… like I said, most of the stuff I've seen is pretty harmless, but it can be not that way real quick. So, I'm not a proponent. I don't like it. I would prefer that it not be done.

“There's a lot of fan-made projects out there that are really cool, that are done just from the heart. But when you get to the AI part and deceiving somebody into thinking, in my case, that these are lines that I actually spoke when they're not, that's when we cross a line that gets into an area that I am uncomfortable with. I'll go on the record with that.”

In the absence of significant law reform, AI deepfakes have exploded alongside the emergence of generative AI and its increasing accuracy and availability. And Downes is certainly not alone in complaining about how deceptive it can be for video game voice actors.

BioWare is slowly beginning to build itself back up following the downsizing it experienced in the wake of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, with hiring now underway for a new senior role on Mass Effect 5.

The veteran RPG studio saw numerous staff members depart following the launch of its most recent Dragon Age game, which failed to meet publisher EA's sales expectations. This process came after the decision was made not to develop any further content for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and while Mass Effect 5 officially remains in the pre-production phase.

Now, as work on Mass Effect 5 quietly continues, BioWare is hiring a Production Director for the game who will report directly into the project's overall boss, BioWare and Mass Effect franchise veteran Mike Gamble.

"Hi, I'm hiring a very important senior leadership role," Gamble wrote on social media. "They'll report to me and it's gonna be awesome." A job description notes that the role will involve partnering with Mass Effect 5's "creative leadership, studio teams, and internal and external partners to champion the game's vision and ensure its execution at the highest quality bar."

"Since 1995, BioWare has been dedicated to creating games defined by rich storytelling, unforgettable characters, and expansive worlds," the job description continues. "Over the years, the studio has earned recognition for developing some of the industry's most critically acclaimed titles. Today, BioWare is building on that legacy with the development of the next Mass Effect game, continuing one of the highest-rated and most celebrated series in video game history."

BioWare first announced plans to make Mass Effect 5 back in 2020 — a date that now feels a lifetime ago — in part to simply reassure fans that it remained committed to the franchise. In reality, though, the company was still busy devoting most of its development efforts into getting Dragon Age: The Veilguard done and out the door.

During this time, BioWare is believed to have had only a small team working on its next Mass Effect game concept, while the bulk of the studio was busy elsewhere. With The Veilguard finally launched in late 2024, Mass Effect 5 became the sole focus of the studio — albeit in its newly-slimmed down form.

Gamble previously confirmed that Mass Effect 5 was being led by a team of fellow Mass Effect veterans who served key roles on the franchise's original three games, including art director Derek Watts, creative director Parrish Ley, senior level designer and Normandy programmer Dusty Everman, and game director Preston Watmaniuk.

The leadership team behind Dragon Age: The Veilguard, including its lead writer, senior systems designer, various editors, producer and both its co-directors, Corinne Busche and John Epler, are all no longer at the company following the studio's downsizing, meanwhile.

Consecutive years have seen BioWare release snippets of concept art and other brief teasers for the game, which is expected to be set hundreds of years after the end of the original Mass Effect trilogy and feature at least one returning character. At the same time, pre-production has also begun on Amazon Prime's Mass Effect TV series that will also be set after the events of the trilogy.

"Let's start by setting the record straight: the next Mass Effect game is in development, and EA and BioWare remain committed to telling more stories in this universe," Gamble wrote in a blog post last November. "The truth is, the last few years have been an incredibly busy time at BioWare," Gamble continued today. "But currently, the team is heads-down and focused exclusively on Mass Effect. We have a lot of universe to cover, lots of features to build, and lots of romances to figure out."

BioWare has given no indication of when Mass Effect 5 will arrive, though here's hoping 2026 brings a better sense of the company's progress as development ramps up.

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

Remember those mockumentary-style interview sections in the original reveal trailer for Fable? Well, those will actually be in the game, and they’re inspired by an unlikely source — The Office.

Fable is a distinctly British video game series, and one where comedy has always been allowed to thrive. Both deadpan and absurdist British humor were at the centre of Lionhead’s original trilogy, and it's great to see that ethos carrying forward into Playground Games’ 2026 reboot, which we recently got an extended look at during January’s Xbox Developer Direct.

Speaking to Xbox Wire, Playground founder and general manager Ralph Fulton mentioned a handful of classic 21st-century British sitcoms as touchstones for Fable’s tone. “We were inspired by the incredibly rich variety of British comedies that have been around over the last 20 years, like Peep Show, The IT Crowd and so many others," Fulton revealed. “We started with The Office, which again started out as quintessentially British, but also travels really, really well.”

“Not just that IP, but a lot of the techniques and the devices that it’s popularised, you know. It’s that really grounded, awkward style of humour which really appeals to us. And the actors who have been in a lot of these shows — and indeed some of whom are in our game — they’re known all over the world.”

It isn’t just the style of humor from these comedies that Playground is taking inspiration from, but filmmaking techniques, too. “The other cool thing about The Office is something we’ve kind of nicked," Fulton revealed. “You’ve maybe seen in our trailers that we have a sort of mockumentary interview style. I think a lot of people assume we just did that for those trailers, but it’s actually a device we use throughout the game.”

“I’ve never seen it in games before," Fulton continued. "But it allows you a way to really neatly tell a joke or drop a little bit of character detail in a way that would feel really clunky in a dialogue, but suddenly feels entirely natural when you do it to ‘camera’.”

This can be seen in the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase trailer for Fable, above, in which Peep Show’s Matt King speaks to us straight down the lens as Humphrey the Golden, Guildmaster of Albion. It’s a sitcom technique pioneered by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in the original BBC version of The Office, before, obviously, making its way overseas for the likes of Pam and Jim to take full advantage of with their knowing looks to camera in its U.S. edition. This mockumentary-style has spawned dozens of similar TV shows since, but, as Fulton said, it's something we’ve never really seen in a game before, which makes for an intriguing proposition.

You can check out our own big interview with Ralph Fulton about Fable here, as well as learning about how you can marry each and every one of its 1,000 NPCs.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

Tom Holland's return in Spider-Man: Brand New Day will feature a "tonal shift" from the actors' first trilogy, director Destin Daniel Cretton has said.

This year's long-awaited new Spider-Man film, Holland's fourth, will pick up some time after the events of 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, with Peter Parker's secret identity forgotten by the wider world — separating him from past girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon). At the same time, Holland will have to deal with a new threat and team up with gun-toting Marvel TV action hero Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal).

Discussing the movie with ComicBook this week, Cretton said he had been "really excited" to take on this next chapter of Tom Holland's Spider-Man story as there was agreement among Marvel boss Kevin Feige, Sony exec Amy Pascal, and Holland himself "to do something different."

"Of course it's still the Spider-Man that everybody loves," Cretton said. "But this is a new chapter in his life, and that tonal shift was something that was really exciting to me and felt really different. It was an extremely gratifying experience."

In the past, Feige has mentioned that Brand New Day will retain the franchise's usual film rating — there's no suggestion that Tom Holland's Spider-Man is suddenly getting the R-movie treatment akin to Deadpool & Wolverine — meaning that Frank Castle's lethal antics would have to fit in.

Still, Cretton seems to be suggesting here that Brand New Day will feature a more mature tone — perhaps by the very nature of Holland's Spider-Man no longer being a student, and forced to fend for himself without his Aunt May.

Officially, little is known of Spider-Man: Brand New Day's story, which Marvel and Sony have attempted to keep under wraps as much as possible. Indeed, Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink has said she's been kept wrapped up in a large coat "like a penguin" to hide her costume from fans during shooting, so mysterious is her role.

That said, we do know that Mark Ruffalo will be back as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the movie, while Better Call Saul's Michael Mando will reprise his role as Scorpion. A big action sequence was previously filmed in the Scottish city of Glasgow, standing in for New York, which saw Holland riding around on top of a tank.

With four trailers (that aren't actually trailers) already released for this December's Avengers: Doomsday, fans are hoping to see something more of Spider-Man: Brand New Day soon — ahead of its launch in theaters on July 31. Just before Christmas, what appeared to be grainy footage of an upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer hit the internet, featuring dialogue that positioned Sink's character as a villain — initially, at least.

"You're a mess, Spider-Man," Sink's unnamed character can be heard to say. "Don't get in my way. Otherwise, it won't just be your friends who don't remember who Peter Parker is." Plenty of speculation exists around who Sink may be playing, though perhaps our biggest clue is the report that her character will be returning for Avengers: Secret Wars, something that rules out her being a one-and-done villain.

Image credit: MEGA/GC Images.

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

Battlefield 6 ended 2025 as the best-selling game in the U.S., beating its first-person shooter rival Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which ended down in fifth place. Black Ops 6, which also launched day one on Game Pass, was 2024’s number one best-selling game in the U.S.

According to sales data from Circana, EA’s Battlefield 6 finished as 2025’s best-selling video game in tracked full game dollar sales. It's the first time a Battlefield game has outsold a Call of Duty game. Meanwhile, Battlefield 6 ranked first on both Xbox and the aggregated PC storefronts for the year while placing second on PlayStation behind only NBA 2K26.

Battlefield 6 had a massive launch in October 2025, breaking franchise records by selling over 7 million copies in its first three days and becoming the best-selling game of 2025 by revenue. This launch, coupled with the release of the hugely popular extraction shooter, Arc Raiders, put enormous pressure on Black Ops 7, which has disappointed in sales terms. Indeed, Black Ops 7’s fifth place finish is the lowest for a mainline Call of Duty game since Call of Duty: World at War ended up at number six in 2008.

There are, however, a number of factors we should take into consideration when analyzing Black Ops 7’s performance. The number one is that Microsoft, which owns Activision Blizzard, has yet to announce any sales number for the game, in the U.S. or globally, so we’re lacking that important data point.

We do know that Black Ops 7 (November 14) launched after Battlefield 6 (October 10), so had fewer days to count sales for the year. And then there’s the Game Pass factor. As a Microsoft game, Black Ops 7 launched day one on Game Pass, where it has trended high in terms of engagement since release. It is thought that Call of Duty’s day one release on Microsoft’s subscription service impacts sales, at the least on Xbox consoles, and perhaps also on PC.

And Black Ops 7 finished the year relatively strong. It was December’s best-selling game across physical and tracked digital spending, Circana said. 2025 marked the seventh consecutive year a Call of Duty game has been December’s best seller, with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate topping the chart in December 2018.

But there can be no doubting Black Ops 7’s sales struggle compared to 2024’s Black Ops 6, a fact that's reflected in everything from European sales figures to Activision's own admissions. Following the release of Black Ops 7, Activision announced significant changes to the Call of Duty franchise, including promising never to release back to back games in the same sub-brand (Modern Warfare, Black Ops). Activision released Modern Warfare 2 in 2022, Modern Warfare 3 in 2023, Black Ops 6 in 2024, and Black Ops 7 in 2025.

And then, earlier this month, former Activision boss Bobby Kotick claimed Call of Duty sales were down 60% year-on-year — although he provided no evidence to back up his claim and neither Microsoft nor Activision Blizzard have commented in response.

As for Battlefield 6, it's had struggles of its own since its explosive launch, with Season 2 delayed and an apparent loss of moment on Steam.

Whatever your take on the Call of Duty vs Battlefield sales war, Epic’s Fortnite led the year in total active users across both PlayStation and Xbox platforms, according to Circana’s Player

Engagement Tracker, with over half of all active users of the two ecosystems engaging with Fortnite at least once.

Roblox was 2025’s leading publisher in digital at retail spending (including gift cards, code on receipts, etc.) for both December and the 2025 year. Digital at retail spending on Roblox during 2025 increased by 16% compared to 2024.

Activision is expected to unveil this year’s Call of Duty game in the summer. Unlike last year, it will have the behemoth that is GTA 6 to contend with.

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

Magic: The Gathering has kicked off 2026 with a return to Lorwyn, and Lorwyn Eclipsed might be the most excited I've seen the community since, well, Edge of Eternities (the last Universes Within set).

It's a trip back to a simpler time, without bagels (Spider-Man), bending (Avatar), or the Buster Sword (Final Fantasy) - just fantasy creatures throwing spells at each other all day long.

Not only is it the first set of a packed year, but it marks big changes to the product lineup. Theme decks are back for Standard play, while a new Draft Night boxed product encourages players to, well, draft cards to build their decks. Then there's our first Commander decks since Edge of Eternities, and both look pretty great, actually.

Here’s everything on offer (including some brand new discounts to consider), and where you can find it now that the new set is regularly available. Just be warned that prices are still all over the place, and many products are running very low on stock even on release day.

Play Boosters

Bundle

Commander Decks

After no Commander Decks for Marvel’s Spider-Man or Avatar: The Last Airbender, they’re back with Lorwyn Eclipsed.

Collector Boosters

Draft Night Box

Theme Decks

UK Preorders

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.

Remedy Entertainment has spoken out to defend its publishing deal for Alan Wake 2, which saw the game launch on PC exclusively via the Epic Games Store. More than two years later, there's still no sign of it coming to rival storefront Steam.

Released in October 2023, Alan Wake 2 took a year to eventually begin generating royalties for Remedy, after ticking over the 2 million sales mark. Now, a debate has been sparked over its sales — which would undoubtedly be higher if it had also arrived on Steam, even if the game only exists because of Epic Games cash — as well as the benefits of storefront exclusives.

Discussion was sparked on social media by a lengthy thread from Michael Douse, director of publishing at Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity studio Larian. "I understand Epic entirely funded Alan Wake 2 but this altruistic pro-developer talk doesn't sit well when Remedy seemingly went into financial crisis because they couldn't tap Steam for AW2 sales suffering potentially hundreds of millions in lost revenue," Douse wrote.

"Not that they need the money but a % take to Epic could've recouped dev costs + more. Competition is good, and important, but it is difficult to buy the message when there are demonstrable cases of games underperforming as a result of the tactic."

Initially, Douse had been replying to a post by Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney, who noted that "Epic and Steam compete for each customer and each sale." Sweeney continued: "On some transactions, Epic wins. On more, Steam wins. But one thing is constant on every transaction: gamers and developers win by having more options and better deals."

Continuing his response, Douse characterized the Epic Games' ambitions for its PC storefront as resting on "their ability to convert hundreds of millions of Fortnite players into mid-hardcore premium gamers," tempted by giveaways of free PC titles. "I don't see the Fortnite brand attempting to do that," Douse continued. "So it's like 🤷‍♀️ Maybe if there was a shit-hot Untreal Tournament.

"The Apple & Google stores spent a decade devaluing games & apps to a point where it is largely impossible to sell a premium game there in a way that doesn't massively devalue it on other systems. Giving everyone everything for free might bump numbers but doesn't create a viable storefront from which to sell premium experiences."

Douse's thread caught the attention of Remedy itself, who then replied with the following statement:

"Hi. There would be no Alan Wake 2 without Epic Publishing. The publishing deal with Epic was very fair to Remedy. While these complex deals can often take even a year to reach their conclusion, and may not always be fair to the developer, this one was. And it only took months to get done. Epic Games was, and is, an excellent partner to us. Steam or no Steam."

For its next game, Control Resonant, Remedy has entered into a partnership with Annapurna Pictures that will see the company fund 50% of the development of the Control sequel, while Annapurna creates film and TV spin-offs of Control and Alan Wake.

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

The Pokémon TCG: Pokémon Day 2026 Collection is back in stock at Amazon right now for $26.99, a steep drop from its $49.99 list price and easily the best price seen for this release so far (especially since market price is around $60 right now).

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 ended with a clear message: Star-Lord / Peter Quill will return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But how, and when? Actor Chris Pratt has revealed he has pitched Marvel on his vision for the future of the character — and he certainly sounds confident in it.

Pratt was conspicuous by his absence from Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal, which he has joked about in the past. Pratt has also spoken positively about Star-Lord’s return (and Marvel has of course promised he will do so). So the question is how and when will it happen? If not Doomsday, perhaps next year’s Secret Wars? If not then, perhaps a new Guardians of the Galaxy movie?

Speaking to Josh Horowitz for the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Pratt was asked if he “definitively” knows how Marvel will use him as the MCU moves forward. “Yes and no,” he replied, clearly keeping his cards close to his chest. Pratt was then asked if he could see Star-Lord leading a new Guardians team in a movie directed by someone other than James Gunn, who is of course now co-CEO of DC Studios (and has his own superhero cinematic universe to contend with).

“Everything is all liquid, right?” Pratt responded, again in a guarded fashion. “And they kind of take things a step at a time at Marvel. I'm happy to do anything they want me to do, and will.”

But then, Pratt confirmed he has made his pitch to Marvel for the future of Star-Lord: “I personally have a really strong vision of what I would want him to do. And I think it's f***ing great.”

“I'm down to contribute any way I can to them setting up the next 10 years of storytelling. And also I have a pretty strong idea of how I think I could contribute to that," he continued.

“When we did Avengers with the Russos, it was an amazing experience, but also a slightly different experience than doing it with James [Gunn]. So in a dream world it would be somehow James, but I don't think that's likely to happen. So, I'd have to think about who would be the right director. There are amazing directors out there. I’m sure we’d find the right guy.”

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 ended with Zoe Saldaña’s Gamora joining the Ravagers, putting to bed any hope Star-Lord had of having a romantic relationship with the character after Thanos killed the original Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War.

Pratt spoke in favor of this resolution, saying it sets up Star-Lord to continue his story in a more interesting place.

“The conflict is probably more interesting,” he said. “It's more sad and it also sets you up to tell more stories,” Pratt said.

“But now there's more opportunities to tell stories about Peter Quill because that's a trauma he has in his life and it didn't end happily. And so now he would be — wherever we should find him — he would be in a real position to try to define himself. He doesn’t have a life, he doesn't have the obligations of a family and a wife and all that stuff.”

For now, the Avengers: Doomsday hype train is very much in full flow, with four don’t call them teaser trailers online that give us an idea of what to expect from this next crucial juncture in the MCU. Will Peter Quill make a surprise appearance in Doomsday? We don’t know. But we do know of three Marvel stars who say they’ve been left out.

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

If you're in Melbourne Australia this holiday long weekend, you'll get the chance to step into the world of Azeroth's prime real estate. Ahead of the launch of the next World of Warcraft expansion, Midnight, Blizzard have constructed an impressive interactive display, appropriately called the "Midnight House & Lounge" in Federation Square.

Just in time for a certain racquet-swinging international sports event in town, this interactive slice of Atherothian lifestyles of the rich and orcish allows fans to experience a so-called "home away from home... a sanctuary crafted for heroes of Azeroth to relax and unwind and explore what’s next for World of Warcraft."

Plus, Blizzard will be giving away exclusive gifts at the venue until they run out - so be quick if you want to get your gauntlets on them, adventurer.

Check out a peek below:

This is a spoiler-free advance review of the first episode of Wonder Man, which debuts on Disney+ on January 27.

Marvel’s latest live-action Disney+ series, Wonder Man, shares an awful lot in common with 2024’s Echo. Like that show, it’s a smaller, character-driven series that carries the “Marvel Spotlight” banner. It’s being unceremoniously dumped on the platform all at once, just as Echo was two years ago. And most importantly, it’s a project that Marvel probably should have shown more faith in. The first episode isn’t going to magically cure the larger MCU of its current woes, but on its own merits, it’s an entertaining detour through Marvel’s version of Hollywood.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II crosses over from the DCEU (and the Watchmen universe as well) to the MCU for this miniseries, playing the role of struggling actor Simon Williams. Don’t expect a 1:1 translation of the source material in this case. Simon isn’t juggling twin responsibilities as an actor and an Avenger, nor is he hobnobbing with heroes like his BFF Beast or becoming entangled in a love triangle with Vision and Scarlet Witch.

Marvel has gone in a much more grounded and meta direction with this series. The first episode introduces Simon as a hungry but not particularly successful thespian who might be best described as “aggressively overprepared” for his auditions. Simon sees his potential big break when a Hollywood studio decides to remake the ‘70s cult classic Wonder Man. In the process, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with another down-on-his-luck Hollywood actor in Ben Kingsley’s Trevor “I Played the Mandarin Once” Slattery.

Whether you can run with this very different spin on Wonder Man will determine how well the series resonates. This show isn’t necessarily about introducing the next great MCU leading man. Considering how many characters the Multiverse Saga has introduced and failed to properly develop, that would be a frustrating approach, frankly. This is simply a lighthearted character drama that happens to take place in the MCU. Were it not for the presence of Kingsley’s Trevor, there would be almost nothing to tie Wonder Man to the larger universe in its first episode.

But that’s just fine, mostly because Abdul-Mateen delivers such a bang-up performance. His Simon is immensely likable in spite of his flaws. Abdul-Mateen brings a real energy to the role, as well as a gravitas that manages to gel nicely with the overall light and floaty tone of the series. He’s overzealous and a bit self-absorbed, sure, but we also get a great sense of Simon as a film buff with a true passion for his work. He’s a true believer in a town full of cynics.

Kingsley remains his manic, nebbish, entertaining self in his fourth go-round as Trevor Slattery. Who in 2013 could have predicted the arc this character would take in the MCU? Trevor makes for a fun mentor/foil to Simon, and the first episode gives just enough of a hint of Trevor’s larger story that I’m fully invested in the series for his sake, too.

It’s also fun spending some time in the MCU version of Los Angeles. As you’d expect, there’s a heaping helping of self-aware humor to the scenes of Simon auditioning and butting heads with his exasperated agent (X Mayo). There’s nothing Hollywood loves more than making films and shows about Hollywood. But for now, at least, the navel-gazing and meta commentary are amusing rather than aggravating. It doesn’t hurt that director Destin Daniel Cretton brings such a fun sense of energy to Episode 1, particularly in the scenes where Simon is frantically driving to an audition and grappling with a hallway crammed full of rival actors.

All told, this is a very solid start to the new series. But does the initial premise carry enough weight to justify an eight-episode show? Not necessarily, which is why it’s just as well that this episode throws a late-game curveball that casts everything in a different light. By the end, we get a slightly better idea of where Wonder Man is actually headed and what Simon’s place in a world full of superhumans truly is. If the promise of a more character-driven MCU show isn’t enough on its own, that tease might just seal the deal.

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for The Pitt Season 2, Episode 3!

My big takeaway from last week's episode of The Pitt is that the series has acquired an enhanced sense of humor in Season 2. There's definitely a more lighthearted quality to the goings-on in the emergency ward right now. That doesn't necessarily change in Episode 3, though this one veers a little more in the direction of heartwarming character moments. As before, the takeaway isn't so much, "Gee, this series has lost its edge," as "Crap, they're buttering us up before things really take a turn, aren't they?"

Episode 3 chronicles what appears to be the last (relatively) calm and peaceful hour of the day shift before chaos breaks out. As such, it's able to devote a lot of time to furthering the handful of key medical cases that have cropped up so far. If anything, my one complaint about this episode is that it emphasizes the patients over the doctors a bit too much.

That's especially frustrating when it comes to Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), a character I really feel isn't getting the full attention he deserves so far in Season 2. It's also a bit weird to see so little of Mel (Taylor Dearden), given how much emphasis the previous two episodes placed on her malpractice suit and generally frazzled mental state. But, to be fair, I wonder how much the weekly format plays into that problem. Will it be as noticeable to anyone who binges the whole season later on? Probably not.

In any case, what we do get out of Episode 3 is a lot of scenes that emphasize the compassion these doctors show for their patients. That continues to be the theme of the scenes with unhoused patient Troy Digby (Charles Baker), and with the Louie (Ernest Harden Jr.) subplot. And it comes across in various other storylines, such as the husband and wife who reconnect after a terrible motorcycle accident, or the terrific scenes between Robby and the Jewish burn victim. Her references to the tragic real-world Pittsburgh synagogue shooting of 2018 are haunting.

As much as the show does a great job of conveying the agonizing, soul-sucking nature of working in a major American hospital ER, it's also nice to see the flip side. These doctors and nurses genuinely care about their work and about bettering the lives they come into contact with. These patients are real people with real pain and suffering, not names on a spreadsheet. These scenes don't come across as hokey or maudlin, but they do serve to inject a much-needed dose of optimism into a series full of pain and suffering.

Another highlight of Episode 3 is seeing the Kylie Conners (Annabelle Toomey) case play out and reach its dramatic crescendo. After Dr. Santos nearly pushes Kylie's father to physical violence, it turns out there's a much more benign explanation for the girl's many injuries. The series really needed to knock Santos down a peg and remind us that she can't be right about every personal crusade she undertakes, and that's what we get here. It'll be interesting to see how and if this defeat weighs on her going forward.

As much as this is a heart-warming and oddly soothing installment of the series, the final moments make it clear that it won't last. The Pitt is about to get a huge influx of new patients. I wouldn’t say the new season is off to a slow start by any means, but it will be a nice change of pace seeing the tone darken and the tension in the ER start to ramp up in Episode 4. Just how bad can it get? Considering how early in the day we still are, I'd guess pretty bad.

There isn't really a better way I could describe Hytale, the new survival crafter from some former Minecraft modders, than to say it's basically Minecraft 2. From the block-by-block breaking and building, to the stylized environments and enemies, to the procedural world generation, this feels like the, "What would we change if we had the chance to start over again?" version of the now legendary 2009 classic. Many games have been influenced by Mojang's trendsetter, but this one is more of a cover song than a subgenre. And while developer Hypixel Studios’ lawyers might not love hearing me say that, I honestly don't think it's a bad thing. Even in Early Access, it's a good cover!

All of this will be pretty familiar if you've put any time at all into Minecraft, but with some streamlining here and there. You no longer have to begin your journey punching trees, for instance, since basic tools are made with sticks and rubble that can be collected easily with your bare hands. Also, breaking the trunk of a tree will cause everything above it to collapse and drop its resources, which was almost enough to win me over on its own. I still to this day hate having to chop upwards to hollow out a tree in Minecraft!

Movement is also a lot more modern and fluid. You can jump up to three blocks high and pull yourself up, which feels like such a huge quality-of-life improvement over the one-block jump limit in Minecraft. It's even possible to take a running leap at a ledge, hit the side, and pull yourself up. We've got proper parkour now, and I don't know that I would ever want to give it up.

Building has some welcome additions as well. There are actual roof pieces, for instance, so you don't need to repurpose stairs. Most block types can be rotated using the R key before placing them. Half slabs can even be placed vertically to create thinner, interior walls. However, the way they're aligned on the grid and the lack of corner pieces mean you either end up with oddly offset layouts or missing corners, which is a bit of a shame. I wish they could dynamically snap together the way fences do.

It also just runs better than Minecraft on my Ryzen 7 3700X, 32GB RAM, and RTX 4070 Ti-powered system. Even with the draw distance cranked up, my framerates sit comfortably above 60. I haven't had time to stress test it with anything as elaborate as a 1:1 recreation of Minas Tirith or whatever, but for now it's like butter.

Combat is fine. There are a handful of different weapon types, from swift-slashing double daggers to a classic sword and shield setup with more defensive options. Each one has its own unique charge attack and a special meter that can be filled up to release a devastating finisher. Archery can be exciting, but I feel like arrows drop off too quickly to allow for really impressive long-range shots. And I suspect this has to do with the fact that enemies shot from even the current max range often have a really hard time figuring out where the shot came from, which makes it a bit too exploitable.

I'm quite impressed with the enemy variety already, with everything from goblin bomb-throwers to really terrifying lava toads that can catch you with their tongues and pull you in for a very painful bite attack. There are a handful of new creatures to fight in every biome, like yetis in the cold mountains and flying insects in the desert. The way they spawn can feel strange and off-putting though. Especially when exploring underground, it seems like they'll tend to clump up just on the edge of the small safe zone around a player, so I often turn back to leave the way I came only to find an almost literal wall of enemies behind me.

The biomes themselves have a pretty good variety as well, ranging from a chill fairy tale forest all the way up to intimidating basalt islands that can only be accessed with some intense mountaineering. What's even cooler is that every surface biome has its own associated subterranean environments that can spawn below it. Underneath the desert, you might run into harrowing hives for giant insects. Deeper underground are scorching lava tunnels filled with fire-themed enemies.

As someone who usually plays Minecraft on Large Biomes mode, though, they do feel a bit cramped, and this can't be adjusted yet. If you're standing in the desert and you can see a swamp and a lava island just over the next hill, it gives the impression that the world is more of a theme park patchwork than a real place. Hytale also doesn't support the kinds of extremely deep caverns and monumental mountains that came to Minecraft in the last couple years when they raised both the floor and ceiling for world generation significantly, which contributes to that diorama feeling.

That said, the generated structures scattered around enhance exploration quite a bit. Trork strongholds full of hidden loot chests, often guarded by about a dozen minions and a stronger chieftain, offer exciting targets with worthwhile rewards, at least the first time through. There are even villages of neutral Kweebec, though at this point they only have a limited selection of items to sell. And some of them, like recipes and new seeds for farming, feel a little bit pointless at the moment since there isn't much difference between the dishes you can cook other than the broad tiers of quality.

There's very little direction in the Early Access launch version of Hytale, either. The main hub area, the Forgotten Temple, is a rotunda of literal Under Construction signs. I even stumbled into some dungeons out in the world where I'd be excited to throw the doors open only to find one of these barriers promising there will be something here, some day. It's not clear what the larger, overarching goal is supposed to be. You can progress through the different tiers of materials that are found in increasingly dangerous biomes, but I quickly ran out of things to do after that.

I'm not sure if there will eventually be a story or bigger bosses to find or anything like that. I haven't run into them yet if they exist already. The only really specific endgame activity revolves around craftable Fragment Keys, which teleport you to a smaller challenge map to collect rare resources within a strict time limit. I found the whole system a bit underbaked so far, though they are one of the only efficient ways to acquire certain late game materials.

After watching Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’s gorgeous opening cutscene on Switch 2, I instinctively reached for the PlayStation 5 controller sitting on my coffee table instead of my Switch 2 Pro Controller. That’s not to say VII Remake looks exactly as good on Switch 2 as it does on the beefier PS5, but this is an impressive port that’s easily up there with the best third-party games we’ve seen so far in the Switch 2’s first year, and I’m still not used to games looking this beautiful on my Nintendo console.

That strong first impression held up as I blasted through the familiar first hours of Cloud’s adventure in Midgar – which remains one of my favorite RPGs of the decade – with solid performance both handheld and docked. Digging through the menus also revealed tons of options to streamline progression for newcomers looking to see what all the hype is, or for returning fans who just want to blast through the epic adventure at a quicker pace on the go. No matter your experience with prior editions of VII Remake, the new Switch 2 version checks pretty much every box you could ask for from a portable version. If you’re a Nintendo-only gamer who’s been waiting for this one for a while, you shouldn’t hesitate to dive in.

FFVII Remake on Switch 2 Looks Great When Docked

When playing on my TV, VII Remake on Switch 2 impressed across all aspects: cutscenes, exploration, and most crucially, its fast-paced combat. It’s a small shame that it runs at 30 fps both handheld and docked, but I didn’t notice a single dropped frame during gameplay. It might’ve occasionally hiccupped during cutscenes, but I only noticed while examining it with a hypercritical eye for the purposes of this evaluation. It’s pretty safe to say that when docked, you can expect extremely consistent performance. It may not be 60 fps like on the other consoles, but it felt perfectly playable and responsive at all times.

I’m impressed with the little details I remember loving in VII Remake back in 2020 that have carried over here: the way the light reflects off Cloud’s Buster Sword as you run around still looks really nice. It targets 1080p while docked, missing out on the Switch 2’s highest capabilities but still looking really good nonetheless, with detailed character models and environments. Some NPCs popped in the distance when I was exploring the Sector 7 slums, but to my memory, that’s how it was on PS4 as well. And whether I was fighting a swarm of Shinra security officers or the hulking Scorpion Sentinel within a Mako reactor, VII Remake always kept up with the action, even when swapping between Cloud, Barrett, and Tifa to perform flashy abilities and Limit Breaks. Pro tip for Pro Controller users: I mapped the left and right d-pad to the GL and GR backpaddles on my controller, using them to conveniently swap between characters in combat.

Handheld Is a Totally Reasonable Way to Play

Playing in handheld is similarly impressive, but all of the minor complaints I noted about docked mode are slightly magnified. It’s still a solid 30 fps for the most part, but I noticed more dips during cutscenes specifically. But that doesn’t impact the combat, which always felt really smooth and totally fun. The resolution also takes a hit as you’d expect, and I noticed certain details like Cloud’s hair looked a lot blurrier. But when everything is in motion, VII Remake still looks nice on the Switch 2’s small screen, and it’s a completely viable way to play through it. It’s eye-catching to see modern AAA games run this well on a handheld device, and I think this era of games that originally came out on PS4 are the best fit for really solid ports to Switch 2. Final Fantasy VII Remake, as well as things like Street Fighter 6 that we saw last year, are third-party games that have dedicated versions on both PS4 and PS5, which have generally seemed to scale well to Switch 2.

Intergrade’s DLC Expansion Is Here, Too

Unlike Nintendo, which is still selling Breath of the Wild’s nine-year-old DLC content separately from its new Nintendo Sw itch 2 Edition, Square Enix has included everything in the Intergrade package for $40. That means you also get Episode INTERmission, an additional bite-sized campaign starring Yuffie, an optional party member from the original Final Fantasy VII who is now a central part of the Remake project. It takes about five hours to reach INTERmission’s credits, and it’s a really solid followup to the main campaign.

Streamlined Options for Casual Players or Double Dippers

There’s a lot here that makes a full replay pretty enticing. First, you can fast-forward through cutscenes at either 1.5- or 2-times speed, making it a snappier revisit for those who already know everything that happens but still want to see it play out. And, the brand-new Streamlined Progression menu adds options you’re probably used to seeing in modern remakes and remasters of old-school RPGs, like the HD-2D Dragon Quest games or even the most recent version of the original Final Fantasy VII itself. Having access to things like constant maximum health and magic points, an infinitely full Limit gauge, or the ability to deal 9999 damage on every hit lets you tailor your playthrough however you’d like, and it’s really cool to see those options come to a modern game. There’s also a nifty Head Start mode that hands you high-level characters and plenty of money, equipment, and abilities right from the beginning. I’d never recommend someone plays with these activated for their first playthrough, but it’s definitely fun to revisit old favorites by way of a frictionless power trip that lets you see all the sights again. It’s worth noting these features aren’t exclusive to Switch 2, Square Enix also updated the PS5 and PC versions with the same options, and everything is included in the new Xbox Series X|S release as well.

This Isn’t the Final Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy VII Remake is just part one of Square Enix’s currently unfinished Remake trilogy, with 2024’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth representing the middle chapter, and a third and final entry yet to be formally revealed. If you’re worried about starting the series with just one entry on the platform so far, Square Enix has already committed to bringing Rebirth to Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S, as well as the in-development third game. So you can jump in worry-free: the full story will eventually make it to Switch 2, and this first port is a great way to get things started.

Secretlab just launched preorders for its highly anticipated lineup of Pokémon gaming chairs and, not surprisingly, they're selling out quickly. These themed Titan Evo chairs - decked out in your choice of Gengar, Eevee, and Pikachu regalia - have all pretty much sold out of their first wave of preorders and have moved onto their second or third waves. I have no clue how many "waves" there will be for this initial batch, but if you want your chair to arrive within the first half of 2026, you should probably put in your preorder as soon as you can.

Preorder the New Secretlab Pokemon Gaming Chairs

Paramount+ has just gone through its first price increase since 2024, and the change is happening just ahead of UFC 324 coming to the platform. If you're new to the streaming service or looking to return, you're probably wondering if there's a way to save some money on a subscription right now.

Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any promo codes or coupon offers going on today. That's not to say there isn't any way to get a discounted subscription, but the usual special promotions for any of the Paramount+ plans are non-existent right now. What's more, the long-standing Paramount+ free trial has officially been removed alongside the price increase. With those things in mind, here are the options available right now.

Paramount+ Deals for January 2026

There are currently only two ways to save on a subscription: Signing up as a student or opting for an annual plan.

Students Get 50% Off

The Nintendo Switch 2 was the best-selling console of 2025 in the U.S., both in unit sales and dollar sales, selling a total of 4.4 million units in the U.S, and continuing its streak of selling faster than the original Nintendo Switch over the same period.

This comes from Circana's full-year reporting on the U.S. games market courtesy of analyst Mat Piscatella, and shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. The Switch 2 has been at the top consistently since it launched earlier in the year, amid a period of decline for the steadily aging PS5 and Xbox Series consoles.

Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game of last year, and the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller was the best-selling accessory.

Overall, the U.S. games market reached $60.7 billion in sales for all of 2025, and $7.8 billion in December alone. That's up 1% and 3% year-over-year, respectively.

In hardware, spending was up 9% year-over-year to $5.4 billion for the year, and up 6% year-over-year to $1.2 billion in December. The Nintendo Switch 2, as the best-selling console of the year, managed to sell 4.4 million units, 94% higher than the original Switch at the same amount of time after its own launch, and 35% ahead of the PlayStation 4. It also continues its reign as the fastest-selling video game console hardware platform, with Piscatella pointing out on Bluesky that the Game boy Advance remains the fastest-selling hardware platform overall after seven months on sale.

Over in software, December spending was up 3% to $5.9 billion, with subscription services seeing the biggest increase of 24% year-over-year. Overall full-year spending was only up 1% year-over-year, with subscription spending increasing 20% offsetting declines in everything else except mobile spending.

While Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game of the whole year, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 took the crown in December, despite its precense on Game Pass making its impact on Xbox much harder to tally. Fortnite saw the highest total active users across PlayStation and Xbox in 2025 of any game, with over half of all active users on the two platforms playing Fortnite at least once.

As for other games, the top five sellers for the full year should shock no one who's been watching the numbers all month: after Battlefield 6 was NBA 2K26, Borderlands 4, Monster Hunter: Wilds, and Call of Duty Black Ops 7, again noting that Call of Duty was a Game Pass Day 1 title. The rest of the list was populated by a series of expected sellers, with some standouts such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Remastered coming in at No.9, Elden Ring: Nightreign at No.14, Pokemon Legends: Z-A at No.17 (though Nintendo doesn't report digital sales, so it's possible this would have been higher), and Split Fiction at No.19. Grand Theft Auto V clocked in at No.20 as players await the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, probably this year.

And finally, just looking at December, standout games including Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which launched into No.7 overall for the month, and Flight Simulator 2024, which released on PlayStation in December and shot from No.114 in November to No.16 last month. Over on PC for December, both Elden Ring and Elden Ring: Nightreign saw jumps likely due to the new Nightreign DLC.

December 2025 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
2. NBA 2K26
3. Battlefield 6
4. Madden NFL 26
5. EA Sports FC 26
6. Pokemon Legends: Z-A*
7. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (NEW)*
8. Minecraft*
9. Donkey Kong Bananza*
10. Ghost of Yotei
11. EA Sports College Football 26
12. Grand Theft Auto V
13. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
14. Forza Horizon 5
15. Red Dead Redemption II
16. Flight Simulator 2024
17. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
18. Kirby Air Riders*
19. Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2*
20. Marvel's Spider-Man 2

Full Year 2025 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:

1. Battlefield 6
2. NBA 2K26
3. Borderlands 4
4. Monster Hunter: Wilds
5. Call of Duty Black Ops 7
6. Madden NFL 26
7. EA Sports College Football 26
8. EA Sports FC 26
9. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Remastered
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
11. Ghost of Yotei
12. MLB: The Show 25*
13. Minecraft*
14. Elden Ring: Nightreign
15. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
16. Forza Horizon 5
17. Pokemon Legends: Z-A*
18. WWE 2K25
19. Split Fiction
20. Grand Theft Auto V

* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana's data. Some publishers, including Nintendo, do not share certain digital data for this report.

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