Spoilers follow for Paradise through the end of Season 1. Paradise Season 2 will debut on February 23.

Paradise, the wildest post-apocalypse series on TV, is back on Hulu for a second season this week. Starring Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson, and James Marsden, the Dan Fogelman-created series was a huge hit in Season 1, and it looks like it won’t let up in the second season either. But even with a short-for-streaming gap between seasons (a year instead of the now default two- to three-year hiatus), you might be a little confused about the timeline as you jump into Season 2…

…And that’s because the timeline is confusing. Like other flashback shows such as Lost – or more to the point of the whole Fogelman of it all, This Is Us – while there’s plenty of action happening in the “present,” there’s also a lot of jumping back into different points in the past. So with that in mind, particularly given some plot points coming up in Season 2 (no spoilers here), you’re probably going to want to check and recheck the timeline of Paradise to make sure you know who was where, when.

While we won’t hit every single plot point from the first season, we are going to break down major events – and some seemingly minor ones that may have ramifications as the series moves forward. So let’s get into it, starting back in… the ’90s?

The Paradise Timeline

1997

Actually, before we even explain why we’re in 1997, aka the year Titanic took over the box office, it’s also important to note that this timeline is gonna ditch the dates pretty soon. The reason for that? Most of Paradise takes place in the “present day,” all centered around the before and after of a future (for us, the viewers) event that’s referred to as “The Day.” Again, we’ll get there in a second, but for the moment we’re starting with a real year, when Bill Clinton started his second term as President.

We got this specific year in Season 1, Episode 5, "In the Palaces of Crowned Kings," when future President Cal Bradford (Marsden) told his dad that he wants to be a teacher. Instead, the overpowering father Kane (Gerald McRaney) forces him into politics, kicking off a series of events that leads to Cal’s murder at the beginning of Season 1.

The legendary voice behind God of War's recent iteration of Kratos, Christopher Judge, has teased that we'll likely get more news about the franchise in "late summer."

According to a recording from streamer and YouTuber Fuzhpuzy at Canada's Fan Expo, Judge, who may not have known he was being recorded at the time, confirmed that while he would not be "playing in the remake" — that role is for Kratos' original voice actor, TC Carson — "you'll be hearing about what we're doing probably late summer."

The suggestion here is that Judge is back working with Sony Santa Monica on a separate God of War project unrelated to the studio's early work beginning to remake the franchise's original trilogy (and the new side-scrolling spin-off Sons of Sparta, which was largely made elsewhere).

Interestingly, Judge also explained that the recently announcement remake starring TC Carson will boast "all the new technology in it, add more stuff, a new fighting system."

It's our biggest clue yet that an all-new Sony Santa Monica God of War game is on the way. It's been pretty quiet ever since 2022's God of War: Ragnarök in which Kratos and Atreus set out on a mythic journey for answers before Ragnarök arrives, visiting each of the Nine Realms in the brutal and epic sequel.

There had been a live-service multiplayer game in the works, but at the beginning of 2025, Sony canceled two unannounced live-service projects that had been in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, with the latter thought to be a multiplayer God of War game. Then, towards the end of the year, details and images of the canceled game leaked online, confirming the rumors had been true.

As for Amazon's upcoming adaptation of Sony Santa Monica's God of War series? The live-action Prime Video TV series based on the popular ancient mythology-themed video game is picking up speed. Ryan Hurst will play Kratos, Callum Vinson will play Kratos’ son, Atreus, and Teresa Palmer, Max Parker, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Alastair Duncan, and Mandy Patinkin join as Sif, Heimdall, Thor, Mimir, and Odin, respectively.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Invincible creators Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker are reuniting for a new story set in this popular superhero universe. The two are working to tell the origin story of Ella Mental, a new character making her debut in the fighting game Invincible VS.

This origin story will be published as a recurring backup feature in the pages of Capes, a Skybound series also set in the Invincible Universe. Currently, Skybound is republishing the original six issues of Kirkman and Mark Englehert's Capes as a remastered series. Beginning in Capes #7, co-writer Benito Cereno will join the series as it begins exploring new storylines, and Kirkman and Walker will kick off their Ella Mental backup story.

Hershel Wilk awakes in a small, dirty apartment in the city of Portofiro. Why she’s here, she does not know. Her mission objectives were supposed to be provided by her partner, codename “Pseudopod”, but he’s unresponsive – he just sits there in his underwear, staring at nothing, his senses on lockdown. In his pockets are an invoice for socks and a lipstick-printed business card that simply reads “All you need is miracle.”

It’s not just Hershel who needs a miracle. Developer ZA/UM needs one, too. Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is an espionage RPG that follows the playbook of the studio’s previous game, Disco Elysium, incredibly closely, right down to opening on a confused protagonist in a run-down room. It’s another high-concept, combatless, dialogue-driven game about following threads and investigating leads. But capturing lightning twice is no easy feat, and simply repeating Disco Elysium’s triumphs is no guaranteed road to success. Thankfully, there are fresh ideas here that expand and evolve ZA/UM’s formula, making for what appears to be, on the surface, a more traditionally accomplished video game, but potentially at the cost of crafting a less interesting artistic creation.

I recently spent around six hours with Zero Parades, playing through the entire upcoming Steam Next Fest demo, plus a significant amount beyond it. That meant exploring a wide section of Portofiro, a vibrant hub of criss-crossing cultures, painted in shades of Central America and Southern Europe. It’s made up of six districts, stretching from docklands, through a central marketplace and winding back alleys, and up to a hillside housing project. While perhaps small by traditional RPG standards, this is a much larger playspace than we saw in Disco Elysium, and that’s not just reflected in your step count.

The city is alive. Rather than a decaying echo of times gone by like Revachol was, Portofiro is active. Every street is home to an oddball with their own strange perspective and, often, their own weird problem in need of solving. In the “Bootleg Bazaar” you’ll find two children transfixed by Sixty-Six Wolves, a cartoon that seems suspiciously like foreign propaganda. A few stalls down there’s Petre, a “Format Fetishist” obsessed with a type of vinyl record that wipes itself clean after a single play. Further up the road, you’ll bump into Kurt, a man so consumed by the need to follow imported fashion trends that he’s landed himself in crippling debt. Each is a window into a place where personal obsessions are the tools through which sinister powers manipulate the world.

I will, of course, need to play Zero Parades to completion to judge if its writing around this and other topics can match the unbelievably lofty heights of its celebrated predecessor. And I understand if you’re skeptical – ZA/UM’s controversial firing of key Disco Elysium creatives in 2022 has left many fans wary of both the studio’s management and the current team’s ability to craft something as meaningful. Based on my experience of this demo, though, I feel positive about the writing’s quality, with the odd caveat.

The skills, for instance, which once again form the pieces of your fractured psyche and comment on your choices and the world around you, lack defined voices and feel largely interchangeable (with the exception of Statehood, which bellows your home country’s party line in all-caps). But when it comes to the city’s collection of strangers, it appears the current writing team has successfully penned a cast possessed of a similar blend of literary prose, otherworldly Lynchian vibes, and off-kilter political humour. And, as I cross-referenced their tales with those of others, I began to paint a picture of this deeply troubled world, where techno-fascist superpowers, communist republics, and investment banks battle for power, using secret police forces as knives and pop culture as rifles.

Finding my place among all that initially felt overwhelming. As a spy, it’s my job to be a disruptor, to exploit those tensions for the gain of my home state. But, as previously mentioned, Hershel has no idea what her mission is. You simply need to talk and talk and talk until you find the threads relevant to your objectives, and there is no shortage of people to pull them from. But soon I began to see the connections. A representative of EMTERR, the world’s super bank, could be the starting point for solving Kurt the fashionista’s financial woes. A group of grizzled veterans impatiently waiting for their turn to dial into the “Miracle” sex line suddenly makes that business card I discovered make sense. And the suicidal Dr. Gonza’s medical know-how could diagnose Pseudopod’s condition… but first I’ll have to bring him the teeth of a medical board “narc” to halt his hanging attempt. As you collect these leads, Portofiro begins to feel like a Venn diagram of multiple overlapping quests, much like the cities of Baldur’s Gate and Athkatla did in BioWare’s seminal Infinity Engine RPGs.

While Disco Elysium certainly shared some DNA with the classics, it held many traditional RPG ideas at arm’s length. Zero Parades is less shy about being a video game. That feeling starts with the increased size and scope of its city, but is cemented in its more wholehearted embrace of regular skill checks and, importantly, building a gameplay system around failing them. You have a trio of pseudo health bars – Fatigue, Anxiety, and Delirium – which fill when you stumble through conversations and interactions in their respective field. For example, elongating an early phone call by asking all of the wrong questions will cause your anxiety levels to soar. Fail too often, or keep digging down into a dark memory hole that you shouldn’t, and you’ll take a permanent penalty to one of your stats.

There are interesting mechanical wrinkles to this system. Skill checks typically involve rolling two dice, but you can choose to "exert" yourself, adding an extra die to increase your chances at the cost of damaging one of those pressure bars. It’s vital to learn how to manage your stressors, then, to keep the bars balanced. Smoking, for instance, will reduce your anxiety, which in turn gives you another opportunity to exert yourself.

Another example of this more crunchy, systemic approach can be found in “Dramatic Encounters”, which turn moments of peril into a series of turn-based decisions, creating a sense of life-or-death drama in a game devoid of combat. It’s essentially Disco Elysium’s late-game tribunal sequence transformed into a defined mechanic. The example in my demo saw me attempt to evade an enemy agent through a busy marketplace, and the branching decisions offered classic spy fiction options: Do I pause to analyse, or act on gut feeling? Try to flee, or hide in plain sight? A skill check on my “Nerve” stat – a test of how cool I can stay under pressure – succeeds, and I walk straight past my hunter, confidently blending into the crowd.

While this example is fairly low stakes, at every junction I nonetheless held my breath as I picked my next move, anxiously waiting to see if my choice paid off. I’m very interested to see how this approach will be applied to other spycraft staples – perhaps tailing, deploying bugs, or even straight-up assassination – as success here will likely be the thing that helps Zero Parades feel distinct from its predecessor and truly cement it as an espionage RPG, rather than Disco Elysium with a 00 license in its wallet.

Zero Parade’s most interesting push into more traditional video game territory, though, is how it uses the city’s physical space to structure its branching quests. My final few hours were spent completing tasks that await beyond the Steam Next Fest demo, and the majority of that time saw me searching for a hidden jail, inside of which awaited a prisoner with vital information. The way you find this jail is determined by a number of different factors; there’s your personal method of investigation, of course, but your character’s stat build and your own ability to interpret the world’s clues also come into play. From what I can tell, this results in at least two completely different routes to the jail: breaking into a subterranean tunnel, or via poetry. Yes, poetry.

It was that second, more artistic path that I took. After quizzing a reluctant boatman who clearly knew about the jail but refused to talk, I was able to use my “Blueprints” skill to track his involuntary eye movements and approximate the prison’s location. Poking around the region he kept gazing at led me to the offices of a poetry magazine, the Noscorrentes Review, which featured a suspicious locked gate that only contributing writers were permitted to pass through. So, how do you convince a pretentious editor that you’re a genuine, publish-worthy poet? Well, dumpster diving through the publication’s trash will secure you a poem, but it’s in the garbage for a reason. And so the only option is to literally write a verse yourself, digging deep into your own soul to increase the chance modifiers on your “Poetics” skill check. The task provides an insight into Hershel’s painful past, but also – most importantly – creates a composition worthy of the magazine’s pages. The editor lets me past the locked gate, and there, in the basement of the Noscorrentes Review, is the secret jail. It’s real. And it’s a path to even more trouble… but I won’t spoil that here.

This branching path, effectively creating two entirely separate questlines that take place in entirely separate locations, reminds me more of RPGs like The Witcher and Baldur’s Gate than it does the almost immersive theatre approach of Disco Elysium. That’s not to say that Zero Parades is a traditional role-playing game. Far from it. But it’s clear that ZA/UM’s attempt to build on its established formula has taken it down a path that makes this project more recognisably a video game than the parameter-defying art experiment that was Disco Elysium. It’s a feeling only reinforced by the espionage genre and the more global approach to its story. There are factions, and one of them is an evil empire! That’s video game stuff.

Although on the surface they run the risk of appearing as less experimental design decisions, I don’t think these are poor choices. In fact, they are what I think make Zero Parades interesting. I left the studio feeling as if I’d just played a fascinating RPG with a strongly defined, richly realised setting, spearheaded by a protagonist who could navigate that world’s obstacles in a myriad of compelling ways. And yet, despite this, Zero Parades still feels beholden to Disco Elysium, as if its ambitions are caged by the reluctance, or refusal, to stray too far from the safety of beloved ideas. Elements like the sentient skills feel like they are template, rather than tradition. In many ways, it feels willing to risk being an imitation in the hope of capturing lightning twice. I doubt that was a risk worth taking, and yet I still think the odd chimera of old and new that ZA/UM has produced may prove to have merit in its own right.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.

Director Steven Soderbergh has branded Disney's decision to scrap plans for his Star Wars movie The Hunt for Ben Solo as "insane", after more than two years of "free work" from himself and actor Adam Driver.

The revelation that Lucasfilm had been developing a Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker sequel starring Kylo Ren/Ben Solo was first discussed last year by Driver, to excitement but then immediate dismay from fans who couldn't believe the idea had been abandoned. It is the only completed script to date that Disney has turned down for a Lucasfilm project.

Last month, the outgoing Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy also aired her frustrations with the project's demise, and said the movie's script had been "great." In a comment that some took as a swipe at Disney management's hesitation, Kennedy also said: "Anything's a possibility if somebody's willing to take a risk."

Now, Soderbergh — the director of Ocean's Eleven and Contagion — has commented further on the project's cancellation, and told BKMag that "it was no surprise that she [Kennedy] was frustrated."

"We were all frustrated," Soderbergh said. "You know, that was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam and [screenwriter] Rebecca Blunt. When Adam and I discussed him talking about it publicly, I said, 'Look, do not editorialize or speculate about the why. Just say what happened, because all we know is what happened.'

"The stated reason was 'We don't think Ben Solo could be alive,'" he continued. "And that was all we were told. And so there's nothing to do about it, you know, except move on.

"And as I posted, I'd kind of made the movie in my head, and just felt bad that nobody else was going to get to see it. I thought the conversation was strictly going to be a practical one — where they go, what is this going to cost? And I had a really good answer for that. But it never even got to that point. It's insane. We're all very disappointed."

Ever since the project's death has been made public, superfans of the Star Wars sequels have come out in full force, desperate to see the story of Han and Leia's son come to life, even going as far as to fly "Save The Hunt for Ben Solo" banners over Walt Disney Studios in California.

Driver played Ben Solo/Kylo Ren throughout Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy, with his final appearance in 2019's divisive The Rise of Skywalker. "I always was interested in doing another Star Wars," Driver said previously. "I always said: with a great director and a great story, I'd be there in a second. I loved that character and loved playing him."

But while Lucasfilm "loved the idea," according to Driver, and "totally understood our angle and why we were doing it," it's believed that both Disney CEO Bob Iger and co-chairman Alan Bergman were against the pitch moving forward. Still, with Iger now following Kennedy out the door, perhaps there's a new hope in fresh leadership?

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 next major Destiny 2 update, Shadow and Order, has been delayed by three months, until June 2026.

In a series of messages posted to Bluesky, developer Bungie admitted the expansion was "undergoing large revisions," and "will be delayed" from its original March release.

"This update is being changed and expanded to include sizable quality-of-life updates and as a result, will also be renamed. This update will now launch on June 9, 2026," the studio said. "We will provide exact details closer to release covering previously announced Weapon Tier Upgrading, but also additions like expanding Tiered Gear to all Raid and Dungeon activities, Pantheon 2.0, Tier 5 stats for Exotic Armors, and more."

The studio is, of course, preoccupied getting Marathon out of the door after last week's State of Play reaffirmed its March 5 release date. Nonetheless, the delay intimates the studio may be struggling to juggle everything on its plate, particularly as it alludes to "sizeable quality-of-life updates."

"Through June, we will continue to have routine bug fixes and stability improvements, continued portal modifiers, Guardian Games (March), and the return of a more frequent Iron Banner cadence (April)," Bungie added. "In terms of communications, we will be focusing on providing you with updates about our live game content, community activations, and general upkeep through the TWID and our Destiny social channels."

The statement closed on thanking players for their "continued patience and support," and said there'll be more information on the next major update and future plans for Destiny 2 "closer to launch."

"Raids and dungeons getting tiers and pantheon 2.0 is great, but will there even be anyone left playing by then?" asked one player on the Destiny 2 subreddit. "I still log on every week and play a little bit, but nobody can deny that renegades was not meant to last six months."

"Not to be a total downer, but that really gives me age of triumph 'final update' style vibes of making all the endgame viable," added another fan. "Not to mention this is just a major update in the end. It isn’t gonna have expansion level content, but its now releasing right around when the next expansion was supposed to, which I assume is also delayed at least three months. Even with way more content in this update, renegades being the expansion for nine months at least now is very bad."

"Until June is rough. The population is going to be absolutely dire by then…," one player commented, to which someone replied: "Dire[?] It's dire right now. Falling off a cliff."

At the time of writing (when, admittedly, much of the U.S. is asleep), there are 10,463 players online right now on Steam. Once Human, eFootball, and single-player Hollow Knight: Silksong all have higher concurrent counts.

It’s undoubtedly a tough time for Bungie and Destiny 2, with parent company Sony recently saying the studio has failed to meet its sales and user engagement expectations. In its latest financial report, Sony said it had recorded a 31.5 billion yen (approx. $204.2 million) impairment charge as a result of Destiny 2’s underperformance. That was significant enough to drag down profits at Sony’s Game & Network Services Segment, which includes Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Following the launch of The Edge of Fate expansion in July, Destiny 2 saw a slump in player activity, and Bungie's team is feeling the pressure. "For years now, Destiny has been on this steady hardening of the core [audience],” game director Tyson Green told IGN back in November. “More and more core players are staying and playing the game, but relatively few [new] people come into the game. There's a tightening and contraction, and this presents problems for a game that you're trying to maintain as a live service, especially when you want to keep serving those core players with great, compelling expansions."

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

A new Game of Thrones prequel is set to dramatize the events of Robert's Rebellion, and debut on the UK stage this summer.

Game of Thrones: The Mad King is a new collaboration between franchise creator George R.R. Martin and the UK's Royal Shakespeare Company, written by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke. Tickets are set to go on sale in April.

The play will tell the story of a crucial period in Westeros history, around 15 years before the original Game of Thrones book and TV series, when King Aerys II Targaryen was overthrown and Robert Baratheon took over, backed by the Starks and Lannisters.

The events of Robert's Rebellion will be familiar to A Song of Ice and Fire fans, as the brief civil war is frequently referenced, and indeed acts as essentially the catalyst for the events of the main Game of Thrones narrative.

Key participants include Robert and Stannis Baratheon, Ned Stark and Tywin Lannister, who take arms against King Aerys and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. It is of course Jaime Lannister who eventually kills Aerys, earning himself the nickname of Kingslayer. Notably, the time period ends with the birth of both Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow — the latter of whom has his true parentage hidden.

"A long winter thaws in Harrenhal, and spring is promised," reads an official blurb. "At a lavish banquet on the eve of a jousting tournament, lovers meet and revelers speculate about who will contend. But in the shadows, amid growing unease at the bloodthirsty actions of the realm’s merciless Mad King, dissenters from his inner circle anxiously advance a treasonous plot. Far away, the drums of battle sound.

"Family bonds, ancient prophecies, and the sacred line of succession will be tested in a dangerous campaign for power. Who will survive? Who will rise? 'Wars aren’t won by those with most cause, but whose story’s best told.'"

The announcement of a Game of Thrones prequel stage show — with events and characters that will also be familiar to existing fans — follows the successful launch of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which offers a similar concept. That is now playing in both London and New York, and includes a handful of extra plot details that TV viewers will likely find interesting. A filmed version for Netflix is also on the way.

"When I first wrote Game of Thrones, I never imagined that it would be anything other than a book," George R.R. Martin said in an accompanying statement. "It was a place for my imagination to exist without limits. To my great surprise, it was adapted for a series and viewers have been able to enter the world of my imagination through the medium of television. For my work to now be adapted for the stage is something I did not expect but welcome with great enthusiasm and excitement. Theater offers something unique. A place for mine and the audience’s imagination to meet and hopefully create something magical."

While the main Game of Thrones TV series has now long since ended, its wider franchise is continuing on with gusto. The very well received prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is wrapping up the end of its first season with a second already confirmed. Meanwhile, HBO has begun teasing the upcoming third season of its other prequel series House of the Dragon.

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

Key details setting up the plot of Spider-Man: Brand New Day have popped up online, and now fans know exactly how long it has been for Tom Holland's hero since the events of No Way Home.

A description of Brand New Day's setting is included in a product page for the movie's art book, which is now available to view via publisher Penguin Random House's website.

Essentially, this synopsis sets up where the movie begins — so there are no major spoilers here. Regardless, the confirmation that Brand New Day takes place a full four years after No Way Home is new information — as is the tease for what happens next.

"Four years have gone by since we last caught up with our friendly neighborhood hero," the description reads. "Peter Parker is no more, but Spider-Man is at the top of his game keeping New York City safe. Things are going well for our anonymous hero until an unusual trail of crimes pulls him into a web of mystery larger than he's ever faced before.

"In order to take on what's ahead, Spider-Man not only needs to be at the top of his physical and mental game, but he must also be prepared to face the repercussions of his past! As Spider-Man: Brand New Day wows moviegoers the world over, discover the behind-the-scenes magic of the film's visual development — from early concept sketches to final character designs. Explore environments, costumes, and exclusive insights from the next chapter for Marvel's neighborhood hero!"

Alas, the book itself isn't available until August 4, after the movie's arrival. Still, though, there's some interesting things to consider here.

A four-year gap is a lengthy period of time for Peter to have grown apart from his former girlfriend and best friend, MJ and Ned. Both of them will also now be close to finishing, or indeed fully finished with studying at MIT.

"Are they actually going to start with a 4+ year jump from where we last saw him at the end of No Way Home?" wrote Marvel fan Vladmerius on reddit. "Are we potentially going to completely skip the college years? Full on adult Spider-Man would be pretty sick, as much as I enjoy the college years."

That time gap would also leave ample room for Spider-Man to have taken done the many, many villains expected to appear within the film — such as Michael Mando's returning Scorpion and Marvin Jones III's Tombstone — alongside a rogues gallery that is rumored to also include Tarantula and Boomerang.

Mention of an "unusual trail of crimes" pitches the movie as street level — something fans have been keen to see after Tom Holland's previous multiversal and indeed outer space shenanigans in past appearances. As for Peter Parker being "no more," it's clear there's been no quick reversal of Doctor Strange's spell to make the world forget the man behind Spidey's mask.

In terms of where this places the movie within the broader MCU, it's now expected that the film's events will take place in 2028, just before those of the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Finally, Peter himself will now be aged 21 or 22 — something fans have noted means he can finally have a beer.

"Pretty big plot implications," wrote Marvel fan CrumblingSaturn. "Just drunk Spider-Man, drinking and swinging around on his webs." Added mctaylo89: "I'm picturing an office worker watching a drunk Spider-Man sloppily bumping into the window as he thwips about."

Last month, Cretton described Tom Holland's return in Spider-Man: Brand New Day as a "tonal shift" from the actors' first trilogy, and a "new chapter" of Peter Parker's story. Fans are still waiting for the film's first full trailer, though what appeared to be grainy footage of an upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day teaser hit the internet just before Christmas, featuring dialogue that positioned Sadie Sink's mysterious character as a villain — initially, at least. "You're a mess, Spider-Man," Sink's 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."

Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters on July 31.

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 Company International is supposedly set to reveal the fourth English Mega Evolution set soon, as leaked production schedules suggest that it will be called Chaos Rising - rumored to be the Western release of Japan’s Ninja Spinner set.

If true, Mega Greninja ex will be officially stepping into the spotlight for the next expansion. Here’s everything we know so far, including the release date, expected card lists, and when preorders should go live.

Pokémon TCG Chaos Rising Release Date

Supposedly, Pokémon TCG's next Mega Evolution expansion, Chaos Rising, will release on May 22, 2026. According to the report at Pokébeach, this also means that pre-releases will take place from 9th to 17th May.

This means that if you attend a local tournament during this window, you can get an early access "Build & Battle Box". This includes a 40-card ready-to-play deck and four Chaos Rising booster packs. This pre-release window would be the first time we’ll see Mega Greninja ex in the wild as well.

Chaos Rising Card List Expectations

Serebii claims that Ninja Spinner has 83 cards in its main set. While it still doesn’t have an official card list in Japan, we can guess, based on previous sets, it’ll have about 40 secret rares, totalling about 120 cards.

We expect the Ninja Spinner card list to be officially revealed in the next few weeks, which will give us a hint as to what we can expect in the Western release.

We do know that the set includes all the Kalos starter Pokémon - Chespin, Fennekin and Froakie. Unsurprising, given its cover star!

What Impact Will This Have on Pokémon TCG's Meta?

A Japanese translation of Mega Greninja ex from Bulbapedia talks about a "Mortal Shuriken" ability - “Once per turn, if this Pokémon is Active, you can discard a Water Energy to place 6 damage counters on any 1 of your opponent's Pokémon.”

This pairs perfectly with its "Ninja Spinner" attack (120+ damage). The card states: “You may return a Water Energy from this Pokémon to your hand to do 80 more damage.”

That’s a total of 260 damage, including the 60 from its ability. Very ninja-like of it.

I’m a little scared about the impact the rumored Supporter card AZ’s Tranquility will have on the meta. This card lets you switch your Active Pokémon and heal 80 damage - a potential life-saver for high-HP Mega Evolutions. It just so happens that Mega Greninja ex has 350 HP, making it one of the highest HP Pokémon cards ever released.

Early rumors from the Japanese printing suggest the artwork features Greninja riding its own water shuriken. Considering the popularity of Greninja and its ridiculous stats, it wouldn’t surprise me to see this chase card reach $500+ on the secondary market.

When Will Chaos Rising Preorders Go Live?

At the moment, preorders for Chaos Rising are not available, as we're still waiting for an official announcement from The Pokémon Company.

But, once they are available, you’ll be able to find them in all your usual retailers - if you’re quick! We don’t expect these to stick around for long, especially at MSRP.

If you’re in the US, set your alerts for Pokémon Center US, Amazon, Target, Best Buy and Walmart. If you’re in the UK, keep your eyes on Pokémon Center UK, Smyths and Amazon.

There’s also dedicated TCG resellers like TCGPlayer or Magic Madhouse, but, as third party sellers, we can’t predict the prices we’ll see. We expect to learn more information about Chaos Rising in the next few weeks, so check back to see the latest updates, and follow IGN Deals for live stock information.

What's Next for Pokemon TCG?

Before Chaos Rising lands on May 22, there's plenty more for fans to get excited about. For starters, Pokémon’s 30th anniversary celebrations are on February 27, but you’ll be able to celebrate early as the commemorative Pokémon Day 2026 Collection dropped on January 30, alongside Ascended Heroes.

Announced back in December 2025, this is a very small release with one confirmed card: a unique stamped foil promo card of Pikachu looking cute as standard, along with a logo’d metallic coin, and a trio of TCG booster packs from different sets.

Pokémon TCG: 2026 Release Calendar – At a Glance

• Ascended Heroes – Jan. 30, 2026 (Out Now)
• Pokémon Day 2026 Collection – Jan. 30, 2026 (Out Now)
• Perfect Order – Mar. 27, 2026 (Preorders Live)
• Chaos Rising – May. 22, 2026

Looking ahead, as Ascended Heroes has already set the foundation of what the Mega Evolution set’s expansions are going to look like, Perfect Order’s going to kick things up a notch.

Just announced earlier this year, and arriving on March 27, 2026, Perfect Order is going to be honing in on many of the Pokémon featured in the Legends: Z-A game.

Among the cards announced from the 120-card set so far, we know we’re going to be seeing many of the game’s starring Mega Pokémon; Mega Zygarde ex, Mega Starmie ex, and Mega Clefable ex; but also some surprising extra additions like Meowth ex.

For the moment, the only place to preorder Perfect Order is via TCGplayer and other resale markets.

For more on celebrating Pokémon's 30th anniversary this year, I'd also highly recommend checking out the TIME magazine exclusive celebration covers, all of which feature in the top of the best seller Amazon charts this week, and can be bought for just $14.99 each.

Sara Heritage is a freelance contributor at IGN.

Bethesda boss Todd Howard has confirmed that Starfield is not getting a huge 2.0-type update.

At the end of last year, a cluster of Starfield fans said they'd gained an early glimpse at improvements coming to Bethesda's sci-fi role-player. One saying they were "stoked" by what they saw, while another suggested they were "excited for the future of Starfield."

However, another fan tempered expectation by stressing that the changes are relatively modest in scope, adding that this "probably isn't a Cyberpunk 2.0-scale update," referencing the major additions that helped improved CD Projekt's RPG.

And now Howard, too, is dampening anticipation by similarly stressing this is "not Starfield 2.0."

“Obviously, we’ve been working on a lot of Starfield content. I can tell everybody we are going to be talking about [the new content] really soon,” Howard told Kinda Funny, as transcribed by Kotaku. “We’re moving into a phase where we’re ready to talk about Starfield. And really show that in the right way, and what’s coming to the game. We’ve been doing a lot of work that we like a lot.”

Howard added: "You know, I’ve seen some of that, so for expectation-setting, I think it’s the kind of thing where if you love Starfield, we think you’re going to love this. It’s updates and things that change the game, not in an isolated way, but sort of meta. Using outer space and things in ways that we haven’t."

Interestingly, he also candidly stressed that ​​"if Starfield is something that didn’t connect with you right away, or you bounced off it, or found it boring in places, I don’t think this is going to change that fundamentally."

Though Howard was coy about timelines, he did say we may find out more "soonish."

In August it was reported that Bethesda had delayed Starfield's second expansion due to "weak sales" of its first, Shattered Space, which launched in September 2024 to a 'Mostly Negative' Steam user rating. Todd Howard had previously talked of Starfield expansions releasing annually. Another reported reason for the delay was Bethesda's plans to launch Starfield on PS5, with both the second expansion and the game's multiplatform rollout potentially happening simultaneously.

Fast-forward to earlier this month, and a new Microsoft report suggested Starfield was getting new content soon, and it looks like we’ll shortly hear about that heavily rumored PlayStation 5 version, too.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Another weekday, another excuse to pretend my backlog does not exist. I have sunk hours into most of these, paid for more than a few at full price, and none of them are here by accident. When discounts line up like this, it is less about hype and more about timing. Acquire before they expire.

Contents

• Retro
• Nintendo
• Xbox
• PlayStation
• PC

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm celebrating the 17th birthday of House of the Dead: Overkill which (at 189 f-bombs dropped) is one of the sweariest video games ever made. Hilariously, it was released first on the more family-friendly Nintendo Wii console and eventually morphed into a kick arse edutainment game that taught you typing... via profanity! Bravo, Sega. Bra-#$%ing-vo.

Magic: The Gathering packs come in a few shapes and sizes (we covered the excellent Jumpstart Boosters for the Avatar: The Last Airbender set recently), but Collector Boosters are the most expensive.

Now, though, Amazon not only has Avatar Collector Boosters in stock, but it’s selling a box of 12 at a discount with a 16% saving off the list price.

Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment has confirmed a new patch is in the works after issues related to its official website sparked fears that a full shutdown was imminent.

The already troubled multiplayer shooter’s first month in players’ hands took a turn for the worse earlier this week when fans noticed access to its official website had been closed off without warning. With all that remained of playhighguard.com being a “site unavailable” message and social media links, many believed the full experience, which launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S just weeks ago, would soon be taken offline for good.

As concerns that Highguard could soon go the way of Concord boiled, Wildlight finally stepped in (via CharlieIntel). Discord server admin and moderator WL_Coronach replied to one fan’s question about the website’s status earlier today, assuring them and others it would eventually come back online – even if it’s currently a “low priority” issue. Instead, the developer has put most of its focus on “updates and content.”

“Not sure on the timeframe, but basically needs to be transferred and simplified,” the full message says. “Low priority [at the moment] ( reputational damage already done ). Now we just need to focus on delivering updates and content to improve.”

Wildlight had teased its first full year of content was already “deep in development” when Highguard launched January 26. While an early February content update proved that work on post-launch features was indeed underway, layoffs affecting much of the studio’s staff immediately called both its future, as well as the future of its new game, into question.

With Wildlight facing drastic changes in the last week alone, it’s unclear what a new Highguard update would look like. Still, those who have stuck by the free-to-play game seem to be satisfied with any additional content at all.

“Once we lock in the patch date I’ll see if we can get a patch preview up for you guys a bit beforehand,” WL_Coronach added in a follow-up reply.

Highguard’s woes began the moment Geoff Keighley showed it as the one-last-thing announcement at The Game Awards 2025. Confusion about its place at the show turned into concern in the weeks that followed, as players took Wildlight’s silence as a sign the game could be in trouble. Although it eventually launched to high player counts on Steam, a wave of negative user reviews quickly helped tank its reputation online.

Highguard reached more than 97,000 concurrent players on the PC platform on its release date but is struggling to crack more than 1,000 today (according to SteamDB). A Game File report recently suggested that Chinese megacorporation Tencent quietly funded its development, though the extent of its potential involvement remains unclear.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer 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).

The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to be a return to Bethesda's "classic style" of games, according to Bethesda director Todd Howard.

This comes from an interview done by Howard with KindaFunny today, in which he talked about why he can't really provide too much of an update on The Elder Scrolls 6, and admits he would have preferred not to have announced it so early (in 2018).

However, he says players can expect it to be a return to Bethesda's classic form, after the studio took "creative detour[s]" with both Starfield and Fallout 76. Here's the full quote from Howard:

"We do have a certain style that we like and that our fans like that we want to get better and better at. I think in some ways Fallout 76 and Starfield are a little bit of a creative detour from that classic Elder Scrolls, Fallout, a Skyrim or a Fallout 3 or a Fallout 4, Oblivion, where you're exploring a world in a certain way. And as we come back to Elder Scrolls 6 that we're doing now, we're coming back to that classic style that we've missed, that we know really really well."

Howard goes on, confirming that the studio has spent the last several years improving on Creation Engine 2, which is the game engine behind Starfield, and bringing it up to Creation Engine 3, which will power "Elder Scrolls 6 and beyond."

Later in the interview, he adds that "the majority of people who made Skyrim are still here," while new faces have also joined the studio, bringing experiences from other studios to lend to The Elder Scrolls 6.

It's been a long, agonizing wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 since it was first announced – wow, okay, almost eight years ago. It has in fact been longer between the announcement and now than it was between The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and the announcement of The Elder Scrolls 6. Howard has warned eager fans as recently as last November that the game is "still a long way off" and has even teased that he may just shadow drop it, something he alluded to again today with KindaFunny. He reiterated today that "it's gonna be a while yet," and confirmed that, "We're able to play it, we're about to pass a big milestone internally, the majority of the studio is on the game and some of our partners."

But Howard also claims all this waiting is necessary for the game to be great.

“What do fans really want?” he said in December of last year. “Do they want a game that comes out before it should and doesn’t meet their expectations? Or do they want the turkey that is in the oven for long enough to be delicious when it finally comes out of the oven, you know? That’s what I think people are going to want. So, we’re going to take our time and as long as it needs to be great.”

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

Every car needs both a jump starter and tire inflator as part of its emergency kit, so why not just get both in one package. Starting today, Amazon is offering the AstroAI S8 Air 3000A Cordless Jump Starter with Air Compressor (Tire Inflator) for just $34.80 after you apply coupon code "OXOVKD4Y". AstroAI is a well-known brand and its products are higher quality than other similarly priced jump starters and air compressors you'll find on Amazon. I myself use an AstroAI S8 series jump starter; I've used it more than once on my 2018 Toyota Rav 4 and it has worked perfectly every time.

AstroAI S8 Air Jump Starter and Air Compressor for $35

There’s nothing better than a Magic: The Gathering Commander night with friends, and Wizards of the Coast keeps releasing plenty of preconstructed decks so you can jump right in with friends or start to build around a choice card.

They’re pretty regularly discounted, too, which is always appreciated, but right now Amazon has some fantastic deals on Lorwyn Eclipsed’s duo of decks and a huge bundle of Tarkir Dragonstorm decks, too. Here’s why they’re worth a look.

With so many exciting sporting events happening year-round, it can be tough to know where to stream each one. Thankfully, Fubo should have all your bases covered, no pun intended. Fubo is a live TV streaming service that features over 200 live channels, including 35 regional sports channels and ESPN Unlimited—more than any other streaming service. So, you can bet that Fubo will probably have the game you're looking for.

Not ready to dive in just yet? No problem! Like many other streaming services, Fubo offers a free trial so you can test it out. Check out our full rundown below, including how to activate the free trial, what channels are included in the service, where to watch Fubo, and more.

Does Fubo Have a Free Trial?

The Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise has finally landed on its Amy Rose, and it's a heck of a choice. Kristen Bell has been confirmed to voice the pink hedgehog pal (and possible love interest) for Sonic the Hedgehog 4, as reported by THR.

We've known that Amy Rose was coming to Sonic's world since the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, when a mid-credits scene revealed both Metal Sonic and Sonic's ally, Amy Rose, arriving to save him with a massive hammer in tow.

But it's been over a year since that reveal, and it's only just now that we're learning who's destined to lend their voice to arguably the last remaining super-famous Sonic companion to join the team. Ben Schwartz has been voicing the blue blur since the first movie, with Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, and Colleen O'Shaughnessey reprising her video game role as Tails. Idris Elba joined the group in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as Knuckles, and Keanu Reeves stepped in as Shadow the Hedgehog in the third movie. It remains unclear who will be voicing Metal Sonic (if anyone – Metal Sonic notoriously doesn't really speak in most appearances). And we also don't know if other fan-favorite Sonic characters (Blaze? Silver? Cream and Cheese? Big the Cat?) will show up.

As for Bell, you've almost certainly seen or heard her in something before. She's perhaps best known as the voice of Anna in the Frozen films, but has also starred in TV series such as The Good Place, Gossip Girl, Veronica Mars, and Nobody Wants This, as well as films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Couples Retreat. She's appeared in a few video games too, including as the voice and likeness of Lucy in Assassin's Creed 1, 2, and Brotherhood, and, of course, as Anna in the Disney Infinity games and Kingdom Hearts 3.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is currently expected to zip into theaters on March 19, 2027. There's a spin-off movie coming as well in 2028, and fans are speculating that it will star Shadow the Hedgehog.

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

Blogroll photo by Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic

RoboCop 2 and Manhunter star Tom Noonan has died at 74.

The actor, writer, and director’s death was shared with a Facebook post from The Monster Squad director Fred Dekker, who says he died Valentine’s Day 2026. A cause of death has not been confirmed at this time.

Crimson Desert is an open-world action-adventure game that’s set to release on PS5, Xbox, and PC on March 19. Developed by Pearl Abyss, the company behind Black Desert Online, it looks seriously ambitious in all the best ways. It’s available for preorder now (see it at Amazon) in two editions and includes a preorder bonus, the contents of which are detailed below. Let’s take a look.

Crimson Desert Standard Edition

Crimson Desert Deluxe Edition (Physical)

PS5

• Get it at Amazon - $89.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $89.99
• Get it at GameStop - $89.99
• Get it at Walmart - $89.99

Xbox

• Get it at Amazon - $89.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $89.99
• Get it at GameStop - $89.99
• Get it at Walmart - $89.99

Physical copies of the deluxe edition of Crimson Desert come with the game, the preorder bonus, as well as the following items:

Physical Items

• Deluxe Edition Box
• Deluxe Edition Limited Edition Steelbook
• Letter from the Developer
• Greymane Brooch Pin
• 3 Character Photo Cards
• 3 Patches
• Map of Pywel

Digital Items

• Kairos Plate Set: Kairos Plate Helm, Kairos Plate Gloves, Kairos Plate Boots, Kairos Cloak, Kairos Plate Armor
• Balgran Shield
• Exclaire Horse Set: Exclaire Champron, Exclaire Barding, Exclaire Saddle, Exclaire Stirrups

Crimson Desert Deluxe Edition (Digital)

Digital Copy - $79.99

• PS5: PS Store
• Xbox: Xbox Store
• PC: Fanatical ($67.99) | GMG ($67.99) | Steam | Epic

The digital deluxe edition of the game costs $10 less than the physical version, but it lacks the physical goodies. Fanatical and GMG have the Steam PC version on sale as well. Here are the digital items it includes:

• Kairos Plate Set: Kairos Plate Helm, Kairos Plate Gloves, Kairos Plate Boots, Kairos Cloak, Kairos Plate Armor
• Balgran Shield
• Exclaire Horse Set: Exclaire Champron, Exclaire Barding, Exclaire Saddle, Exclaire Stirrups

Crimson Desert Preorder Bonus

Preorder the game on any platform and in any edition, and you’ll receive the following digital item:

• Khaled Shield

Preorder the PS5 version, and you’ll get the following digital items:

• Grotevant Plate Set: Grotevan Plate Helm, Grotevan Plate Armor, along with Grotevan cloak, gloves, and boots

What Is Crimson Desert?

Crimson Desert is a medieval fantasy-themed game set in the land of Pywel, where you play as Kliff, captain of the Greymanes, as the ruthless Black Bear army executes a brutal attack that leaves the Greymane forces scattered. Your job is to explore the world to reunite with your comrades and rebuild what’s been lost. As you do so, you’ll forge new alliances and discover even more dangerous threats looming over the land.

The journey takes you through all sorts of environments, from plains to deserts to mountains. You can ride mounts ranging from horses to wolves and dragons. You even have a Zelda-style glider that lets you leap from mountain peaks and soar over the land.

Although there’s some debate on social media about whether Crimson Desert is an RPG, developer Pearl Abyss doesn’t label it as such. It calls Crimson Desert “an open-world action-adventure game.” That’s because it doesn’t have character leveling or experience points. You do expand your capabilities, but you do so by finding items in the open world, like in an action-adventure game like Zelda or a Metroid.

Based on the trailers, it does look like a hodgepodge of popular game elements. It has an extensive combat system, an explorable open world, puzzles, giant monsters to fight, and more. Here’s hoping the game is not too good to be true.

Other Preorder Guides

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

If you’ve been waiting to get the latest iPad Pro M5, you’re in luck, as it’s seeing its biggest discount ever today. That’s not all, as the gorgeous PC city-building game Anno 117 is only $35.99, or you can grab Assassin’s Creed Shadows for $30. Also, don’t forget to grab your MTG X TMNT preorders ahead of the release on March 6. Below are all the top deals worth checking out today:

TL;DR - The Best Deals Today

Save 40% on Anno 117 for PC

iPad Pro M5 Hits New Low Price

Alienware AW3423DWF Gaming Monitor Is $200 Off

MTG x TMNT Draft Night Is Discounted

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Is $30

Save Big on Adjustable Dumbbells

25% Off Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC

$110 Off the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD Is Only $39.88

Pokémon’s Mega Evolutions Phantasmal Flames Booster Bundle Is Still $43.13

Save $11 on Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2

Save $10 on Donkey Kong Bananza for Switch 2

Gaming monitors have almost universally supported variable refresh rate for a few years now, and it’s even become a standard feature in most TVs. But the MSI MPG 272QRF X36, along with G-Sync Pulsar, might just be the new benchmark for VRR technology. That’d be cool by itself, but the 272QRF X36 is also reasonably affordable, making this early adopter tech that doesn’t have an early adopter price tag.

Even without Pulsar, this is a 1440p monitor with a 360Hz refresh rate, and it supports HDR. That would be worth the $649 by itself, Pulsar is just the rapidly blinking icing on the top.

Design and Features

In order to keep the price at $649, there are obviously going to be some compromises, but the most immediate seems to be the packaging. The box that this monitor comes in is a pretty standard rectangular box, but once I opened it to take the display out, I was greeted by some of the flimsiest corrugated cardboard I’ve ever seen. I had to gingerly take the monitor out of the box, worried that the packaging was going to tear. But, hey, once I got the display out, it was free of any kind of aesthetic damage, so that thin cardboard did its job.

Once I got the actual display out, I was impressed by the quality of the stand. Not only does it easily attach to the screen without any tools, but the base can rotate in any direction, and the mount itself will let the display also rotate in any direction. The point here, according to MSI, is to let people have a bit more power over their space, manipulating the stand to fit their setup.

That did make the process of actually attaching the stand a bit more laborious, as it was moving around as I was trying to set it up. But now that it’s on my desk, I’m a huge fan of how easy it is to move around, even if I just move it to get easier access to the ports on the back, which is huge, because they’re all facing down.

As for which ports you get, there’s one DisplayPort 1.4a and two HDMI 2.1 for video in. Then, there is a USB Type-B to allow USB passthrough for the 3 USB Type-A ports on the back. There’s also something I haven’t seen in a long time – a USB Micro port, which is just used to update the firmware.

While the tech powering the display is new, the monitor doesn’t actually look all that new, and that mostly comes down to how thick it is. The display itself is nearly three inches thick, which is much thicker than most high-end monitors. A lot of this thickness is populated with vents, though, which is likely necessary to cool the added processor required for G-Sync Pulsar.

The bezels are reasonable, measuring in at about 0.7 inches by my own measurements, though there is a larger bezel on the bottom where you’ll find the logo. Turn the monitor around, however, and it’s very clear that this is a capital-G gaming monitor. Just like many other MSI devices, this monitor is emblazoned by a dragon on the back, and has a surprisingly modest RGB light strip on the opposite end.

On the bottom-left corner on the back, you’ll also find a little joystick that’ll let you interact with the OSD. By default, pushing it to the left will let you adjust the display mode, and pushing it to the right will swap inputs. Then, it’s up for brightness and down for volume – even though there is no built-in speaker.

Up on the top of the display is what looks like a webcam protruding from the monitor – but it’s no webcam. Instead, it’s a light sensor, which can track ambient light and color temperature to adjust the display accordingly.

When I used these features, it frequently made the display dim, but luckily it’s an opt-in feature. You just have to go into the OSD and go to “Ambient Adaptive Luminance” or “Ambient Adaptive Color” and enable them to have the MPG X27QRF X36 automatically adjust brightness or color, respectively.

Performance and Gaming

Without Pulsar, the MSI MPG 272QRFX36 would be a pretty standard high-refresh 1440p monitor. This is a decent IPS panel with a 360Hz refresh rate and 0.5ms GTG latency. However, my first impressions weren’t exactly glowing.

Right out of the box, the monitor was set to its “Eco” preset, which is great for conserving power, but also delivered an incredibly dim picture. Luckily, I was able to go into the OSD and set it to “Standard” which looks much better, and actually allowed me to do my tests.

Even though the 272QRF X36 is only rated for 500 nits of peak brightness, I tested the display with a colorimeter and found that it actually peaked at 530 nits, which is not bad for a gaming monitor this fast. The display does struggle with color, though, only hitting 100% of the sRGB color gamut and 88% of the P3 gamut. That means it’s probably not going to be used for design work any time soon, but that’s really not what it’s meant for.

What actually matters is that the display looks pretty good in games, while also being incredibly fast. Pairing it with an RTX 5080, I was able to crank the settings in Black Ops 7, while also getting north of 360 fps, thanks to frame generation. Frame generation does limit some of the benefits of a high refresh display, namely latency, but it does look incredibly smooth when that many frames are being sent to the display.

The MPG 272QRF does compromise a little bit on image quality and color to get there, but even when I was playing Cyberpunk 2077, it was colorful enough to keep me engrossed in the game. However, when I swapped back to my usual OLED display, I immediately noticed the difference again.

G-Sync Pulsar: Is It Worth It?

But while the MSI MPG 272QRF X36 doesn’t have the best image quality in the world, the appeal is in the new G-Sync Pulsar tech that’s being debuted here.

Essentially, this technology uses a strobing backlight that’s tied to your current refresh rate to mitigate motion blur, making for a much smoother image when playing games at a high refresh rate. What makes this tech different from other backlight strobing or BFI (black frame insertion) methods in the past, is that it’s tied to a variable refresh rate, rather than the maximum refresh rate.

That means you get the benefits of VRR while also getting much less blur. Nvidia claims that playing on a Pulsar monitor is similar to playing at 1,000Hz, and while I wouldn’t go that far, I did feel a substantial difference, especially when playing competitive games.

For background, I mostly stick to turn-based RPGs or MMOs like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV. But over the weekend I spent some time playing Black Ops 7 and the Halo Master Chief Collection, and performed much better than I usually would. In the former, I went three matches in a row with a 3:1 ratio, where usually I’d be feeding the enemy team.

This isn’t exactly a scientific method of measuring the effect Pulsar had on my performance, as I could have just been lucky. But still, the games felt much smoother than they did before, and it did feel like it was making a difference, particularly to my ability to aim while moving.

Even with the lackluster image quality, if I didn’t need to have a 4K display for work, I’d buy this monitor to use as my daily driver. As long as you have a graphics card that’s powerful enough to run a 1440p display at 360Hz, this Pulsar display is worth your attention, especially if you play a lot of competitive games.

It’s also important to keep in mind that this isn’t the only G-Sync Pulsar Monitor out there right now. The Asus ROG Strix XG27AQNGV and the AOC Agon Pro AG276QSG2 also support the new technology. And while I haven’t tested those monitors quite yet, if the Pulsar implementation is anything like it is on the MPG 272QRF X36, they’re worth a look. I’ll definitely be trying to get them in the lab to see what they can do.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Magic: The Gathering is on the verge of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set next month, but don’t forget Lorwyn Eclipsed, a fantastic set that deserves plenty of love.

Now, the current set’s Play Booster Box has been discounted again, reaching ever-so-slightly lower than the deal we spotted a few weeks ago. Amazon is currently offering a 22% discount on the box, bringing it to $128.94. That’s close to its lowest-ever price of $125.

Cloud and friends are making the jump to a new platform this year, as preorders are now officially live for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on Nintendo Switch 2. It's available to preorder at a variety of retailers for $49.99 (see it here at Amazon) and is set to be released in a few months time, on June 3. But there's even more in store for fans: those who preorder this version of the game also get an exclusive Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy promo card as a bonus. That's quite a nice surprise alongside the game itself.

If you can't wait to grab the Switch 2 version (and an extra Magic: The Gathering card), head to the links below to get your preorders in.

Preorder Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (Nintendo Switch 2)

• See at Amazon
• See at GameStop
• See at Best Buy
• See at Walmart

What's included in the box is, unfortunately, a Game-Key Card, meaning the actual game isn't loaded onto the cartridge. However, putting the cart in your Switch 2 does let you download the game and is required when you want to play it. It also lets you sell the game when you're done with it, which you can't do with a digital game code.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Preorder Bonuses

As far as preorder bonuses go, the Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy promo card is the most exciting one of the bunch. It features variant art of Zack Fair, drawn by Tetsuya Nomura, which you can see in the image above, and has identical abilities to the Zack Fair card found in the Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy set. This card is only available while supplies last, though, so it's well worth preordering the game now to make sure you get your hands on it.

Alongside the card, there's also a reversible inlay that comes with the physical edition of the game, and in-game items of a Posh Chocobo Summoning Materia, Armor: Shinra Bangle Mk. II, and Armor: Midgar Bangle Mk. II.

What Is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth?

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the second game in the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy, following Final Fantasy 7 Remake. It's a game we adored, with our review from IGN's Michael Higham saying it, "impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion as both a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenge and depth, and as an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long." While no release date is known for it yet, the third installment in the remake trilogy is underway as well.

Other Preorder Guides

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.