Warning: this opinion piece contains spoilers for Resident Evil Requiem.

For three decades, players have been going toe-to-toe with zombies and other monsters in the Resident Evil series. This year’s latest mainline entry, Resident Evil Requiem, marks the beloved franchise’s 30th anniversary by being a love letter to the series’ entire past, from its early days of creepy, puzzle-filled survival horror to its adrenaline-fuelled action horror era. But while this approach has been praised almost unanimously across the board – we awarded Requiem 9/10 and its Metacritic score stands at 89, the highest of any modern, non-remake Resident Evil – I feel that its attempt to mix both of the series’ historic styles together creates a clash, rather than cohesion. Rather than a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, it feels to me like Resident Evil Requiem has a bit of an identity crisis.

Over the past decade, Resident Evil has reformulated itself as a slow-paced survival horror game, returning its mainline entries to the style of the 1996 original where every shot counts and everything around you is a threat. You're not a larger-than-life hero, instead you're an everyday person thrown into a nightmare scenario and you have to somehow find a way out alive. Seemingly inspired by indie hits like Amnesia and Outlast, Capcom opted for a first-person POV for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and its sequel, Village, which anchored you in the terrifying experience of their everyman protagonist, Ethan Winters. This new formula worked well, garnering critical acclaim and reigniting many people’s interest in the franchise, myself included. This was an especially important victory for Capcom because of how poorly 2012’s Resident Evil 6 was received, which almost entirely abandoned the series’ survival horror roots in favor of horror-themed action.

But with the release of Resident Evil Requiem, it feels as if some of the work that Capcom has been doing over the last few years with Biohazard and Village has been thrown out the window. It is, for sure, a great game that’s engaging from start to finish, but its big swings from terrifying survival horror to relentless action set pieces makes it feel as if Capcom couldn't pick a lane for Requiem’s overall tone. While playing through the campaign, I couldn’t help but feel that it was suffering from an identity crisis. And because of that, I found that many key plot points missed the mark for me. A prime example of this occurs towards the campaign’s midpoint, when Grace’s child ward, Emily, transforms into a giant monster. It’s a moment that’s supposed to create a cocktail of emotions – shock and upset over what’s become of your friend, fear for what will happen next – but before any of that really comes into play, Leon rushes in, guns blazing, to save the day.

While playing as Grace, Requiem is a slow-burning survival horror – the exact style of game I've come to expect from the series. Similar to when playing as Ethan Winters, I was forced to think carefully about how I wanted to approach each situation, and I often would ask myself, "Is this fight worth the ammo?" Every time I ran into a creature that would tower over me, I'd often scream out in real life, then proceed to run for my life in-game. The fear was only amplified by the fact that Grace’s sections employ the series’ traditional labyrinthine level design, and so I was often forced to revisit locations I’d previously barely made it out of alive in search of hidden treasure pieces needed to move the plot forward. The puzzles those treasures are used to solve aren’t exactly the hardest, but their presence is appreciated, and it made playing as Grace even more enjoyable.

Ultimately, a lot of Grace's gameplay is grounded in reality – yes, a reality where zombies tear off faces and doors are unlocked by gemstones – but the oppressive atmosphere, overwhelming odds, and vision-limiting first-person perspective makes playing as her truly scary. Even though she is employed by the FBI, she's essentially a pencil pusher who has next to no combat experience in the field. It makes you feel truly vulnerable, and so this was the strongest part of the game for me.

Leon’s sections, meanwhile, feel like a complete 180 from everything you experience as Grace. Replicating the approach of 2005’s Resident Evil 4, Leon’s most famous mission, most, if not all of the horror elements are removed from his sequences and story beats, which undermines much of what you played through as Grace – once again, Leon’s brutal gunning down of the monster Emily transforms into feels like it’s from a completely different story than the one Grace was experiencing. This is where the identity crisis really kicks in. Ammo is not as scarce anymore, and you're encouraged to run headfirst into battle. Rather than search for helpful scraps, Leon has access to a shopping and weapons upgrade system that rewards you with currency based on how many zombies you've killed. The only way to get better gear is by racking up a high kill count, a system that goes against everything the game’s Grace-centric first half was building towards. As Grace, I’d learned to be fearful of pretty much everything coming my way, especially the larger monsters that stalked the corridors of the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. Leon, on the other hand, could solve such issues with a few shotgun shells and a grenade.

Unfortunately, the same can also be said about the puzzles (or lack thereof) Leon has to solve in his portion of the game. A lot of them mostly involve running to site X just to open location Y, which feels a notable step down compared to the more sophisticated problems facing Grace. This huge shift in approach between the two characters means it almost feels like playing an entirely different game during Requiem’s second half. Leon and Grace's parts feel like two sides of a strong coin, but they are underdeveloped because they're so split. Rather than complimentary halves, they feel like mandatory reflections of the series past to honor the series’ 30-year milestone. As I played, I began to wonder if Capcom was trying to directly appease its many generations of fans – those who loved Resident Evil 7 and 8's old school-influenced gameplay and those who liked the more action-packed style of RE 3-6 – rather than finding a new formula that combined elements of both.

It seems strange that Capcom has tried to do this multi-style catering, as such an approach was widely unpopular when the studio first tried it in 2012 with Resident Evil 6. Much like Requiem, that game was split into distinct sections that delivered different gameplay styles. Leon’s storyline, while admittedly still action heavy, was focused on more traditional horror goals, while Chris and Jake’s campaigns were almost Call of Duty-like in their approach to action. Granted, this time around, Capcom has done a much better job of both sides of the coin – Grace’s side of things is genuine survival horror, while Leon’s is a good tribute to the style of RE4 – but it’s nonetheless odd to see it take such a massive swing towards a campaign structure that had already done a lot of damage to the franchise. Towards the end of the game, it almost feels like you're playing a more polished version of Resident Evil 6 rather than the successor to Resident Evil 7 and 8.

What really makes all this frustrating is that Capcom has shown with Resident Evil Village that you can still have these over-the-top action moments without undermining the horror and tension built up throughout the game. A key example can be found at the tail end of the campaign, when the perspective switches from Ethan to Chris Redfield – the classic Resident Evil hero who’s a proficient soldier at this point in the timeline. You play his sequence as an FPS, killing everything that stands in your way. But because this is a single sequence, rather than half of the game, it feels like a refreshing vignette rather than a case of split personality.

With it being the 30th anniversary of Resident Evil, it's clear that Capcom's goal for Requiem was to pay respect to and celebrate the many different things this series has been. And when it’s exploring those things in isolation, it’s undeniably compelling. I loved creeping around Rhodes Hill as Grace, and I loved ripping through the streets of Raccoon City as Leon. Together, though, these elements make for a campaign that feels fractured. Its lack of commitment to one style really hurts Requiem’s overall big picture, and in its worst moments the clash between horror and action undermines much of the tension built up as Grace and inflicts tonal whiplash. There’s a lot I like about Resident Evil Requiem, but I wish the game belonged to either Grace or Leon, not both of them.

Luis Joshua Gutierrez is a freelance writer who loves games. You can reach him at @ImLuisGutierrez on Twitter.

The Witcher franchise has always been a natural fit for the comic book medium (see our review of 2014's The Witcher #1 for more). Now those stories are being brought to an entirely new audience, as WEBTOON reveals it's acquired the rights to Dark Horse's back catalog of The Witcher comics.

This is the latest collaboration between WEBTOON and Dark Horse, with the latter's Cyberpunk 2077, Critical Role, and Avatar: The Last Airbender comics also appearing on the platform. Check out the slideshow gallery below to see how the series will look in the WEBTOON format:

WEBTOON is kicking things off with The Witcher: House of Glass, which was written by Paul Tobin, drawn by Joe Querio, and colored by Carlos Badilla. House of Glass is set in the world of the Witcher games and follows Geralt of Rivia as he makes his way through the titular haunted mansion.

Here's the original logline for The Witcher: House of Glass:

Traveling near the edge of the Black Forest, monster hunter Geralt meets a widowed fisherman whose dead and murderous wife resides in an eerie mansion known as the House of Glass - which seems to have endless rooms, nothing to fill them with, and horror around every corner.

WEBTOON will begin serializing The Witcher on Monday, March 9 at 5pm PT. These stories will be adapted from the original Dark Horse graphic novels and modified for WEBTOON's vertical scrolling format. New installments will be added weekly.

In other The Witcher news, reports suggest that The Witcher 3 could be getting another expansion. You can also check out our comprehensive timeline of all The Witcher books.

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

War Machine premieres Friday, March 6 on Netflix.

Not to be confused with Netflix's 2017 Brad Pitt war satire of the same name, this War Machine stars Reacher's mammoth Alan Ritchson. He's a nearly aged-out Army Ranger hopeful (with a haunted past) whose two-hour Armed Forces commercial gets interrupted by a giant death robot from outer space that's a bulky combination of Aliens-style Power Loader and Tron-esque Recognizer. War Machine is an action/sci-fi mashup in the vein of Predator that stands slightly (on its tippy toes) above most of streaming's unchallenging, disposable rabble, mostly due to a ferocious mass casualty event of a second act.

War Machine's threat of a giant boxy contraption, instead of an alien monster, saves us from possible shoddy CGI, but it also adds to the film's visual dryness. It's mostly a drab, brutalist shoot 'em up that lacks the uniqueness needed for a great sci-fi invasion story. Ritchson's "81" (everyone has a number instead of a name) and his squad are on a final training mission when they're ambushed by a giant intergalactic bot, which tests his mettle while blowing most everyone else to Kingdom Come.

During the death bot's second assault, War Machine ticks upward a bit as the movie flashes its fangs. There's a particular chase scene that stands out due to its mercilessness, and it's here that the movie feels powered by its own engine and not just set on riding the coattails of things that came before it and did it better. It's a shame that the rest of the movie was designed to be a merely adequate affair, unchallenging and dry. Because the sci-fi behemoth element adds a horror movie-style bit of crash therapy in a "the monster is grief" sort of way. War Machine could have been a much deeper, satisfying experience, but they make the choice, in the end, to tease a possible franchise, and that deflates the resolution.

Ritchson is very good in this, providing a nice mix of tortured vulnerability and hulkish heroics. His physical hugeness takes a back seat in War Machine, as he's covered up for most of the movie in combat gear, but just knowing he's swole helps sell 81's unsettling obsession with durability and going the distance. 81 also comes with a tragic, recent past that gets unspooled throughout this crucible. Jai Courtney has a small but important role here as 81's brother, feeding into the redemption arc that helps give 81 layers as a character. Far more layers than the supporting soldiers, who, save for two, only get the barest of focus. They're mostly just faces in the chaos.

The blueprints for War Machine, as an action movie, are solid. The hero has a bone to pick with the universe. The universe sends a bone to pick. But this doesn't save it from moments of feeling like stodgy four-quadrant content. And the way the cosmic blastoid bot gets defeated, its weakness, is super silly. Almost enough to take you out of the story. No, it's not a big red "power off" button on its face but... that's not far off. Ultimately, War Machine -- which also stars Dennis Quaid, Esai Morales, and Stephan James (as one of the soldiers with "more to do") -- will rest comfortably as a medium-fine flick that you'll never watch again.

Some might have thought Bungie’s Marathon was going to be the big launch on Steam this week, but it turns out Slay the Spire 2 has quadrupled Bungie's extraction shooter in terms of concurrent player numbers on Valve's PC gaming platform.

Casey Yano, game developer and co-founder of Slay the Spire maker MegaCrit, took to social media to say he never thought Slay the Spire 2 would pass Marathon in terms of concurrent users. Well, it certainly has. At the time of this article’s publication, Slay the Spire 2 has over 350,000 concurrent players on Valve’s platform — an incredible number that makes it one of the most-played games on Steam, behind only the eternally popular PUBG, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2.

Marathon, meanwhile, hit a peak concurrent player count of 88,337 on the day of launch, a number Bungie will be hoping improves as the game heads into its first weekend.

Why did Yano mention this on social media in the first place? It was as part of an acknowledgement that a tweet from the official MegaCrit account about the launch of Marathon — viewed over half a million times — came off a little meaner than intended.

“Congratulations to the Marathon team on their launch!” MegaCrit tweeted Thursday, March 5. “Don't let small indie passion projects like this pass you by just because Slay the Spire 2 is out.”

Some thought that was throwing shade at Marathon, which is under significant pressure to deliver for Bungie following the torrid time the Sony-owned studio has faced in recent years. So, both the MegaCrit account and Yano himself issued follow-up messages.

“This seems a bit meaner than it was intended,” Yano said. “To be fair I didn't think we'd actually pass Marathon in concurrent users.”

And, in response to one user who called it “A SHADE FOR THE CENTURIES,” MegaCrit said: “it wasn’t supposed to be shade, we were being sarcastic 😭 did not know we’d blow up quite to the degree that we did…” All’s well that ends well. Bungie community manager Cozmo then replied to offer a congratulations of his own.

Slay the Spire 2 isn’t just outpacing Marathon on Steam, it’s rewriting the roguelike record books. It’s shot past Mewgenics to secure the highest ever concurrent player count on Steam for a roguelike, which itself inched ahead of Hades 2 last month.

That's an astonishing and clearly unexpected debut for this long-awaited sequel to the popular deckbuilder roguelike Slay the Spire, which returned a 9/10 review back in 2019. We said: "Slay the Spire takes some of the best parts of deckbuilding games, roguelikes, and dungeon crawlers, and mixes them into a wholly new and extremely satisfying package."

Slay the Spire 2 is currently only available on PC for its early access period, but it seems likely to get console versions once it's fully released.

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.

Saber Interactive’s long-running development of its Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake is confirmed to still be underway.

In a recent interview with IGN, the chief creative officer of Saber, Tim Willits, answered our question regarding the project’s future with a short but simple: “Yes, it is still in development. That's all I can say.”

The news will be of relief to the hordes of loyal fans of the now-classic RPG originally developed by Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio, BioWare. The modern reimagining was first revealed way back in 2021, but nothing has been officially seen or heard of it in the five years since.

A report in December 2025 from Game File revealed that Aspyr was no longer leading development on the remake, but that the reins had reportedly been handed over to Mad Head Games, the team behind the upcoming Hellraiser: Revival.

That same article also claimed that plans are not only in motion for the KOTOR reimagining, but a remake of its sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, had also been discussed.

“Juliet was the codename for a project where we were going to do a full remake of KOTOR II with modern art, modern gameplay, you know, keep the story and the characters and the general — the general content of KOTOR II, but remake it for modern hardware and modern machines with updated graphics and all those kind of things,” said Douglas Reilly, Lucasfilm Games vice president. “It was something we were discussing with Aspyr.”

Whether those full plans for remakes of the Knights of the Old Republic series ever come to fruition is yet to be seen; however, it looks like development is still pressing on when it comes to Saber’s work on the original.

This all comes after the reveal of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic at the 2025 Game Awards, a brand new single-player RPG set in a galaxy far, far away, led by former KOTOR director, Casey Hudson. Do you think we’ll be playing this new game before the Knights of the Old Republic arrives? Let us know in the comments below!

For more from our interview with Saber’s Tim Willits, you can find some new details about the upcoming John Wick game, and the news that extreme horror game Hellraiser: Revival has secured its ESRB rating.

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.

With The Mandalorian And Grogu almost upon us, Star Wars fans are set for the first mainline film in the franchise since Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker, came out in December 2019. It’s a long time coming, and launches into a different world… maybe even a different galaxy compared to the previous set of films. But it also launches without the weight of expectation that comes with introducing a new Star Wars trilogy — and that’s to its benefit, Lucasfilm co-CEO Dave Filoni has said.

The Mandalorian And Grogu, due out on May 22, is one of only two Star Wars movies with confirmed release dates (Ryan Gosling's Star Wars: Starfighter arrives on May 28, 2027). While there is a long list of Star Wars movies announced, there is significant doubt that many of them, if any, will actually be released.

Even the Dave Filoni New Republic team-up movie that was announced is uncertain. Outgoing Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy made no mention of the Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and Boba Fett crossover film when revealing her exit in January, though it's likely her successor, Filoni himself, will be the one to give an update on this as its fate likely rests on the performance of The Mandalorian and Grogu this year.

Either way, The Mandalorian And Grogu feels like the start of a new era of Star Wars, and that’s how Filoni himself made it sound in a recent interview with Empire. “Episode VII was a completely different entity,” he said. “I had dreams of Episode VII since I came out of Return Of The Jedi. You were like, ‘After VI comes VII! Where’s VII?’ We’re in a completely different era of Star Wars now.”

As such, The Mandalorian And Grogu is free to be, simply, “a big celebration” of its two main characters, rather than have to contend with introducing a new trilogy of Star Wars movies. Star Wars: Starfighter, from the sounds of things, will enjoy similar freedom when it comes out next year.

Related, Kathleen Kennedy also failed to mention the previously-announced standalone movie set to feature Rey Skywalker in her exit interview. The project, revealed by Kennedy with fanfare at Star Wars Celebration 2023, was planned to feature the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey Skywalker, and reveal how the character starts a new era of the Jedi Order.

Kennedy announced the project on-stage alongside Ridley and director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who was confirmed to be helming the project. But in the years since — as with so many other Star Wars movies — little more has been said.

"We're pretty far along," Kennedy said of the slate of Star Wars films announced back in 2023. "These are things, as you can imagine, certainly looking at what Dave [Filoni]'s been doing with Ahsoka, that'll be at least six, seven years building to what it is we're going to be doing in a movie. As [for the project being made by] Sharmeen, we've been working on that for a couple years already."

Discussing the standalone Rey movie's plot in more detail, Kennedy described it as set 15 years after Rise of Skywalker. "We're post-war, post-First Order, and the Jedi are in disarray, and there's a lot of discussion around who are the Jedi, what are they doing, what's the state of the galaxy?" Kennedy teased. "[Rey is] attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order based on the books, based on what she promised Luke."

Of course, this isn't the only project expected to feature Rey in the future. Lucasfilm is also incubating a new trilogy of movies from Simon Kinberg, the director behind the widely-panned X-Men movie Dark Phoenix and 2022 spy action flop The 355.

"[Kinberg] wrote something that we read in August, and it was very good, but not there," Kennedy told Deadline. "We've pretty much upended the story, and then spent a great deal of time on the treatment, which he finished literally about four weeks ago. And it's a very detailed treatment, like 70 pages. And so he is expected to give us something in March."

Once again, Kennedy referred to Kinberg's project as a "trilogy," though it still seems far, far away.

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.

Bungie’s Marathon is out now, which means players can finally see how its microtransactions actually work and, crucially, how much everything costs.

The $40 extraction shooter is monetized in a number of ways, including via a premium battle pass and direct microtransactions for cosmetic items, such as playable character skins. As Bungie had signalled before Marathon went live, gameplay-affecting items are not available to buy, only cosmetics.

Still, some players have responded negatively to Marathon’s monetization, criticizing the price of the skins and the digital sales tactics Bungie has in place.

Straight off the bat, on launch day, Marathon has $15 cosmetic packs (they cost 1,500 Lux, Marathon’s premium virtual currency). These packs include a runner skin, a weapon skin, a cosmetic trinket of some type, and a player banner and profile pic. Runner skins are sold separately for around $12’s worth of Lux.

This alone has irked some who believe that Marathon, as a $40 game, should not be monetized in a similar fashion to free-to-play shooters like Fortnite or Apex Legends. Others, however, are unsurprised by these cosmetic packs, and have pointed out that they’re more expensive in other premium games, such as the more expensive mainline Call of Duty games.

But what has caused more of a stink is the denominations of Lux available in the store. A runner skin costs 1,120 Lux, but of course you can’t buy 1,120 Lux exactly from the store. Instead, you have to spend $10 to get 1,100 Lux (just 20 Lux shy of what you need), and then another $5 to get 500 Lux on top, which in total dollar terms matches the same price as the $15 bundle.

This is a common tactic in video games that not only forces you to spend more money than you want to get a particular item, but leaves you with virtual currency spare that may encourage you to buy some more so you can get another item. Call of Duty does this. FIFA does this. And now Marathon does this.

“I'm tired of these Bungie scummy tactics,” one fan said. “Even if I love the game, this store and season pass in 2026 is a shame.”

“Dude I look at the shop to find that if you spend 10 you’ll get 1,100 coins or LUX but these people set every character price to 1,120, so you’ll have to spend another five dollars," said another player. "I hate this type of greed. I love the game but this is shallow.”

“Yea that’s dumb af,” said another. “And after spending $15 you’ll have 1,600 Lux so might as well get the entire bundle for 1,500. (Is what Bungie probably wants you to do) at that point why even sell the skin separately.”

Within the debate are a significant number of people who believe Marathon isn't doing anything particularly outlandish here when it comes to monetization. They point to the fact that only cosmetics are for sale and that no-one is forced to buy anything extra to compete out on the battlefield as evidence that Bungie is doing things well enough for its new shooter. Others say that anyone who played Destiny 2, Bungie's previous release, will find nothing here surprising.

And it doesn't look like Marathon's monetization has impacted the sentiment around the game at launch, either. At the time of this article's publication, Marathon had a 'very positive' user review rating on Steam.

It’s also worth noting that Marathon Reward Passes do not expire, so you can buy a previous season’s Reward Passes if you miss out. You unlock rewards in your Rewards Passes using Silk, which is earned by playing the game. You can also earn cosmetics via the Codex, with others available for purchase.

We’ve got plenty more on Marathon, including one Bungie developer’s commitment to “fontslop,” and Bungie’s words of reassurance on Marathon’s difficulty curve. Check out IGN's Marathon review so far to find out what we think.

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.

Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution's latest expansion, Ascended Heroes, recently released its immensely popular Elite Trainer Box (see in stock here). It's been a hotly sought-after item, and there are only a few spots where you can comfortably bag one online right now.

The Pokémon Company has issued an official objection after the White House used Pokopia for a meme, pushing back against the Trump administration’s repeated use of its intellectual property on social media.

On March 5, the official White House X / Twitter account shared a “Make America Great Again” meme that looks like the recently released spinoff, Pokémon Pokopia. While unconfirmed, it appears that the meme is an AI-generated graphic in the style of Pokopia, which released on the Nintendo Switch 2 this week. The text, “Make America Great Again,” is similar to the Pokopia font. Familiar Pokémon can be seen in the background. At the time of this article's publication, the White House's tweet had been viewed 18.6 million times.

MAGA 🇺🇸⚡️ pic.twitter.com/8QRVP23zGu

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 5, 2026

The Pokémon Company issued a statement in which it stressed that it did not grant the White House permission to use its IP for social content.

“We are aware of recent social content that includes imagery associated with our brand,” a company spokesperson told The New York Times. “We were not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property. Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda.”

In September last year, The Pokémon Company formally responded to the use of Pokémon TV hero Ash Ketchum and the series' theme tune by the Department of Homeland Security, as part of a video showing people being arrested and handcuffed by law enforcement agents.

"We are aware of a recent video posted by the Department of Homeland Security that includes imagery and language associated with our brand," The Pokémon Company International said in a statement shared with IGN at the time. "Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property."

Many fans have suggested The Pokémon Company should defend its intellectual property by launching legal action. However, the corporation's former legal chief told IGN last year that he "wouldn't touch this."

Don McGowan, Pokémon's veteran ex-legal chief, told IGN in September that he believed any such action was highly unlikely. "I don't see them doing anything about this for a few reasons," McGowan, now principal at Extreme Grownup Services, said. "First, think of how little you see [The Pokémon Company International]'s name in the press. They are INSANELY publicity-shy and prefer to let the brand be the brand.

"Second, many of their execs in the USA are on green cards. Even if I was still at the company I wouldn't touch this, and I'm the most trigger-happy CLO [Chief Legal Officer] I've ever met. This will blow over in a couple of days and they'll be happy to let it."

As pointed out by The New York Times, Trump administration spokesperson Abigail Jackson has previously commented on their social media strategy, which shows no sign of backing off the use of entertainment company's IP.

“Through engaging posts and banger memes, we are successfully communicating the president’s extremely popular agenda,” Jackson said. “There’s a reason so many people try to copy our style — our message resonates.”

Indeed, The Pokémon Company isn’t the only gaming firm that has seen its IP used by the Trump administration in political memes. In October, Microsoft remained silent after Donald Trump released an AI image of the U.S. president as Master Chief and the Department of Homeland Security used Halo to promote ICE on social media.

Finishing this fight. pic.twitter.com/6Ezq9NUqMq

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) October 27, 2025

The Trump administration has form when it comes to using AI images to promote the President. In May last year, Trump sparked a backlash from some Catholics after posting an AI-generated image of himself as the Pope. The picture, which was shared by official White House social media accounts, was released as Catholics mourned the death of Pope Francis and prepared to choose the next pontiff.

The White House has also released AI images of Trump as Superman and as a Star Wars Jedi. And when the Department of Homeland Security used South Park to promote ICE, South Park trolled Trump in response, saying: “wait, so we ARE relevant?”

And earlier this week, the White House posted a video on social media that mixed footage from its bombing operations in Iran with Call of Duty gameplay. IGN has asked Activision for comment, but it has yet to respond.

Phot by Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.

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.

Hoppers is in theaters now.

It’s not exactly a new observation to say that Pixar’s once golden reputation is not what it used to be. The 3D animation studio has never disappeared from the cultural conversation, but after revolutionizing the industry in the 1990s and delivering a string of unqualified masterpieces in the 2000s, Pixar has only occasionally reached the level of greatness that was once synonymous with their name. Part of that is because of their overreliance on sequels, but even their newer originals don’t always match the pedigree of all-time greats like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, or Wall-E. Their latest film, the sci-fi animal comedy Hoppers, is not on that level of inspiration, but it still comes out the other side as an entertaining and admirable effort.

Hoppers is about Mabel (Piper Curda), a failing college student and animal lover from the city of Beaverton who is trying to protect a beloved glade from being demolished by a highway construction project. She’s opposed in this effort by Beaverton mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm), who insists he’s received the construction permits because the glade’s animals have already vacated the premises. No points for guessing that the animals didn’t leave purely of their own accord, but Mabel’s investigation into why leads her through a circuitous series of events that result in her mind being placed inside the body of a robotic beaver created by one of her professors. Mabel uses the “hopping” (as in, brain hopping) technology to communicate with the animals and figure out how to get them to move back.

There’s actually a lot more to the plot than this basic premise, with director Daniel Chong and writer Jesse Andrews’ story possessing a certain madcap energy as it moves through numerous big ideas and fresh complications. The frenzied pace ensures it never loses the audience’s attention, but it does feel like Hoppers would succeed better at its emotional moments if it were willing to let the story sit and breathe more often. But what keeps the film anchored is the throughline of Mabel’s desire to make “just one thing” work out at a time when she feels like everything has fallen apart, and why her overeager efforts sometimes make things worse despite her intentions. She’s assisted in this journey by King George (Bobby Moynihan), the friendly monarch of the local mammal kingdom, who tries to see the best in everyone even to a fault.

I really have nothing but good things to say about King George; while Hoppers isn’t one of Pixar’s best movies, King George does deserve a spot among their best characters. He’s a hard character to make work because his main trait is his inherent goodness and basic empathy for literally everyone and everything, which would make for a boring figure in the wrong hands. But Moynihan’s performance and Andrews’ script ensure his somewhat naive worldview makes sense because he wholeheartedly believes it, willing the best out of others by seeing it before they do. The relationship between him and Mabel may hit one or two predictable dramatic beats, but their chemistry still wins out by the film’s final act.

That said, the way King George runs his kingdom and how it relates to the film's world-building is one of Hoppers’ biggest drawbacks. King George’s forest abides by “pond rules,” which can be basically summed up as “we’re all in this together” (literally said out loud in dialogue). This is a nice sentiment, but it doesn’t square logically when you think it through. Similarly to 2024’s The Wild Robot, Hoppers gets a bit cutesy with its talking animal community, showing predator and prey all being friendly with each other, although Hoppers introduces the caveat that it’s okay for the predators to eat “when they’re hungry,” hand-waving the conflict with deaths treated as gags. Sure, it’s amusing when an animal explaining pond rules is inexplicably eaten mid-speech, but it doesn’t change that it’s a band-aid for an irreconcilable problem with the setting’s believability.

Hoppers’ lack of verisimilitude is what keeps it from matching Pixar’s top tier efforts. Pixar films such as Monsters Inc. or The Incredibles created worlds that were entirely separate from our own, which allowed their bizarre rules to still come off as internally consistent. But when Finding Nemo was clearly set in our world (beyond the “animals can talk” conceit), it didn’t move into the fantastical, basically playing fair with our understanding of how animals behave even with their anthropomorphized personalities. Hoppers feels akin to Finding Nemo in terms of what it’s trying to narratively accomplish with its world, but takes on too many extra incongruous elements. That ability to buy into the logic of a film’s setting is what lets the audience also buy into the emotional stakes of the characters, and this is where Hoppers starts to fall apart.

Between a surprise villain whose plan is established and thwarted far too quickly to leave real impact, the confusing detail that Mabel has to be the one to explain to the animal monarchs that humans are encroaching on their territory so they’re pushed into action (wouldn’t they know that already?), and a well-meaning but ultimately disingenuous end to the conflict between Mabel and Jerry, Hoppers has a few too many rough edges to get full marks. But the film still features plenty of humor and sharply directed sequences (of particular note is how it finds a hilarious way for a shark to participate in a car chase). It also goes out on a high note, delivering a sweet conclusion for Mabel and King George that doesn’t undo what was sacrificed in order to get there.

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for The Pitt Season 2, Episode 9!

Considering that The Pitt Season 2 is set on the Fourth of July in a major American metropolis, it’s pretty amazing that we’ve made it this far before seeing a grisly fireworks accident in the ER. But here we have an episode that opens with a firework-induced maiming and closes with the promise of many waterslide-related injuries. Summer is in full swing on The Pitt, and the show definitely isn’t hurting as a result.

Episode 9 is one where the medical cases definitely trump the interpersonal character drama. When it comes to the latter, “3:00 PM” mainly focuses on Mel’s (Taylor Dearden) impending meltdown over her deposition, a situation only intensified by the fact that her sister (Tal Anderson) has shown up out of the blue, complaining of stomach pain. It’s nice to see an increased focus on Mel for a change, especially because I’m assuming she’ll be dropping out of the picture for an episode or two while the deposition plays out.

Other than that, this episode mainly focuses on Santos (Isa Briones) on the character drama front, with the reveal that she appears to be casually dating Garcia (Alexandra Metz). This latest little plot twist (though technically the series hinted as much before) didn’t do a whole lot for me, as it seems like the series already has enough going on vis-à-vis Santos without getting into her love life. But maybe it’ll pay off in the end, as the character clearly seems to be heading toward a bigger emotional meltdown in the hours to come.

It should probably be pointed out that this episode marks the first time Season 2 has tried to show us a somewhat more sympathetic side to Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson). We get a brief scene where it becomes clear he has major daddy issues that are probably tied to his obnoxious overachiever side. It’s something, I suppose, but it’s going to take a lot more effort to drag this frustratingly unlikable character out of the hole Season 2 has dug for him.

Again, this episode keeps the focus mainly on the medical side of things, with the fireworks accident being just one of several intriguing cases playing out. This case is quickly turning into one of the more compelling of the season so far, too. Not only do you have a child struggling with the realization they’ve just maimed themselves for life, but you have the deeper issue of his family situation and the uphill battle his sister (Sasha Compere) is fighting to keep him in a stable home and in the US. It’s nice to see another subplot that digs into the current political climate a bit, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how this storyline plays out.

Also welcome is another appearance of Dr. Abbot (Shawn Hatosy, who also directed this episode) and his patient Howard (Craig Ricci Shaynak). This case takes on a new sense of urgency as it becomes clear that Howard’s options are either imminent death or emergency surgery with a 50% mortality rate. A lot of credit goes to Shaynak for managing such an emotional performance while having tubes attached to his face and only being able to “speak” through a computer assistant. This is another gripping case I’m eager to see unfold over the next several episodes. It’s just a shame that Abbot seems to be bowing out until his inevitable return in the endgame of Season 2.

Through it all, Episode 9 manages to retain some of the humor that’s characterized Season 2 so far. We get a silly little subplot involving Princess (Kristin Villanueva) and other nurses fawning over the X-ray technician (Adam Shaukat). We also see the debut of an entertaining new character in Monica Peters (Rusty Schwimmer), a forcibly retired nurse who’s only too happy to return to the ER in its current, digital-free state. Monica is clearly cut from the same no-nonsense cloth as Dana (Kathryn LaNasa), so she should be a memorable addition to the mix in the coming episodes.

Are you a huge fan of LEGO sets and yet consistently sticker-shocked by their exorbitant prices? Join the club. Fortunately, LEGO isn't the only interlocking brick company. Mould King, for example, is another very popular, highly-rated, and more affordable brand. Their sets use Gobricks, one of the best non-LEGO bricks on the market, similar to LEGO in durability, precision, and usability. Mould King does imitate several of LEGO's most popular sets, and it's also known to have "borrowed" user-created MOC designs (which, justifiably, might turn some away regardless of the deal quality), but they also produce original designs of their own, including some absolutely massive ones.

Most importantly, Mould King sets are much more reasonably priced than LEGO. Whereas a good LEGO "deal" might start at 10 cents per brick, a Mould King deal could cost half that or even less. Although Mould King sets are available on Amazon, AliExpress is actually where you want to look for deals. Mould King has an official AliExpress storefront that carries hundreds of its products at prices 30%-50% cheaper than Amazon. They also ship locally from a US warehouse with no tariffs or obnoxious wait times to worry about. If you're on the fence, I'd suggest picking up a more inexpensive model to try out. There's a good chance you won't be disappointed.

Mould King Sets on AliExpress

The National Videogame Museum (NVM) has announced the acquisition of a wildly rare and strange artifact of video game history: a Nintendo PlayStation.

And not just any Nintendo PlayStation. The oldest one, the "original development system" that was once used to prototype the strange collaboration system that ultimately never made it to release.

BREAKING: The NVM has acquired the mythical Nintendo Playstation! 🤯

This Sony MSF-1 is the OLDEST known existing Nintendo Playstation hardware artifact, and is the original development system for Sony’s planned Super Nintendo CD attachment. It is the ONLY known unit to exist!… pic.twitter.com/9JQyCsFtxc

— National Videogame Museum (@nvmusa) March 4, 2026

This comes from a Twitter/X post shared by the NVM yesterday, which included photos of the machine. "The NVM has acquired the mythical Nintendo Playstation!" it reads. "This Sony MSF-1 is the OLDEST known existing Nintendo Playstation hardware artifact, and is the original development system for Sony’s planned Super Nintendo CD attachment. It is the ONLY known unit to exist! One of the biggest 'What Ifs' of all time now lives here at the NVM!"

The Nintendo PlayStation was the strange product of an early 1990s partnership, led by Sony's Ken Kutaragi, between Sony and Nintendo to develop an attachment for the Super Nintendo that would play CD-ROMs. Only a few hundred prototypes were produced, before Nintendo's ongoing partnership with Phillips for a similar machine around the same time caused tensions, and the two split. Phillips and Nintendo's partnership for a CD-ROM attachment also fell apart sometime after, but Sony's work on the prototype helped spark the company's eventual development of the PlayStation 1.

A handful of the prototypes have popped up in various places over the years, and Kutaragi still has one as well. But this version at the NVM is even more special, as it's the original development system, and the only one of its kind. As a result, it looks quite distinct from the few other Nintendo PlayStations that we've seen – it's all function and no form, well before designers had gotten around to smoothing out those corners.

With the NVM acquiring this strange, rare relic, that hopefully means more people will have access to this bit of video game history. It will, hopefully, end up on display in the museum itself and well-cared for – an improvement after at least one prototype was found stashed and yellowing in a box of random items.

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

Sometimes, you go in blind on a new game. That’s how it was for me with Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad. I’ll be honest with y’all: I’m not a Sword Art Online guy. I haven’t read the manga, seen the anime, theatrical films or live action adaptation, or played any of the games. My only knowledge of Sword Art Online is that the characters are trapped in an MMO, and if you die in the game, you die in real life. Dun dun dun! That’s a pretty compelling basis for a manga or an anime, but it’s particularly interesting as a video game set in a video game. As it turns out, not knowing much about Sword Art Online made me the perfect guy to sit down with Echoes of Aincrad because, well… it's a little different from what’s come before.

Before we dive into that, let’s take a quick step back and establish a few things first. Aside from a short section of the tutorial that we don’t want to spoil, I didn’t really see any of Echoes of Aincrad’s story. Instead, my time with Aincrad was spent doing a quest called The Lost Log. But that doesn’t mean I can’t talk about some of the narrative decisions this single-player action-RPG makes.

Maybe the biggest departure for the series is that, for the first time in its history, you’re not going to play as a pre-existing character who is part of the story. Instead, you’ll make your own. When I asked Sword Art Online Game Series Producer Yosuke Futami why they made the switch, he told me there were a couple reasons. First, most games in the series have been set in the middle of Sword Art Online’s story, which required players to have at least some working knowledge of the series. Echoes of Aincrad doesn’t, and Futami hopes that means that it will be more approachable for folks who aren’t already fans. Second, he’s hoping that by putting the player into the game world as their own character, they’ll be able to experience the story of being trapped in a death game themselves, not vicariously. Neat.

My journey started in The Town of Beginnings. I spent a little time running, getting a feel for the place, and finding some elven statues that taught me some of Aincrad’s lore. The Town of Beginnings feels like, well... a starting town in an MMO. It’s got that dense-yet-artificial feel of a town in a video game, which pulls double duty in a video game set in a video game because NPCs feeling like NPCs here is a feature, not a bug. The town also shows off how utterly gorgeous Echoes of Aincrad is. This is a good-looking video game. Like… damn.

After seeing the town, I teleported to a nearby terminal (you can teleport any time you’re in town), picked up a quest, and then teleported to my chest to change up my loadout and level up. You see, Echoes of Aincrad started me with a sword-and-board build, and I decided immediately that I would not be doing that because it just didn’t feel like me. I opted for a greatsword and some new gear instead, and spent my growth points to maximize what I wanted to do (meaning: hit things with a big sword).

One of the neat things Echoes of Aincrad does is reward you for hitting certain milestones as you level up – generally once you hit five point increments. Getting my Dex to 5, for instance, boosted my sword skill damage by 3%, while hitting 10 bumped that to 5%. It’s easy to play an RPG and feel like individual levels don’t do much to make you stronger, but every time I got a new level or hit a new milestone in my time with Echoes of Aincrad, I felt it – something Futami confirmed was intentional when I asked him about it. And in Echoes of Aincrad, you can reset your parameters whenever you want. That isn’t typical of Sword Art Online as a setting, but it makes Echoes of Aincrad more accessible to newcomers and encourages you to experiment with your build until you find something you like. If you ask me, that rules.

Once I was kitted out good and proper, it was time to go out into the world. Echoes of Aincrad is set in an MMO, but it’s a single-player game. When you go out, though, you’re not alone. You can select a companion to go with you. I had my choice of three: Iori, a healer: the tankier Wyzeman; and Argo, who operates in more of a utility/support role. I went with Wyzeman. Once we were in the field, how we proceeded was up to us. The map would tell us where we needed to go, but I could only see some of it. I’d have to unlock the rest as we traveled.

Our first enemies were wolves, boars, and kobolds, all perfect for getting used to Echoes of Aincrad’s combat system. A lot of what’s here is stuff you’ve seen before. You’ve got a guard, light and heavy attack chains that you can alternate between on the fly, special attacks, and your partner’s abilities (Iori’s, for instance, creates a circle that heals you if you stand in it). You’ll also open up additional attacks if you dodge at the right time or manage to parry, as you do, and some of them are pretty cinematic. Fancy.

What makes Echoes of Aincrad cool is how dangerous everything feels. Standard enemies can and will kill you if you’re not paying attention, especially early on, and they’re not exactly the forgive and forget type: they’ll follow you for a long time if you pick a fight with them. And they’re all different. Kobolds will block your attacks and retreat and try to blind you. If they do, the screen darkens and is filled with static. It’s a great effect that does exactly what it says: makes it a lot harder to see. Wolves, on the other hand, are nimble and aggressive and travel in packs. Boars are bruisers that you probably don’t wanna go toe to toe with directly, and there are these weird plants that attack from range with vines and can burrow under the ground. And that’s not even getting to the elite enemies, which are bigger, faster, and stronger and come with additional attacks.

By far the worst, though, were the wasps. They fly, they shoot poison, they hit pretty hard. Them boys is tough, so much so that I felt like San Andreas’s CJ whenever I saw one: “Aw, s***, here we go again.” Futami knows it, too. When I asked him about the enemies, and specifically mentioned the wasps, he nodded and said “Ah. Wasp” in English (the rest of our interview was conducted via a translator). Those are the words of a man who knows what he’s doing, what horrors he has unleashed on his digital world.

But even then, there are ways to deal with enemies. They can be stunned, opening them up to big damage. In the case of the wasps, I could knock them out of the air, which is where they’re strongest. If I stunned them, I could chop off their wings, preventing them from taking to the air and forcing them to fight on my terms. No matter what enemy I went up against (or how many times I saw them), it was always scary when a fight drew the attention of more baddies and exhilarating when I landed a big hit, nailed a dodge attack, or timed a team-up attack just so.

What I saw of the world was just as intriguing. In most RPGs, the worlds are something you navigate between combat encounters, but in Echoes of Aincrad, getting around is half the battle. Futami told me that they wanted the world itself to be like a dungeon, and I felt it when I was playing. Much of the time, I was figuring out how to get where I wanted to be from where I was, and what paths I’d need to take to get from one floating blue orb – which serve as places to rest and restore your potions, but also respawn enemies – to another, finding chests along the way. By far my favorite thing about the world was finding Arks. Defeating the mini-boss enemies sealed inside the Arks will open other seals scattered around the world, allowing you to get chests and other goodies.

One time, I opened up a cave, but it was too dark for me to see what was inside. Apparently, I didn’t have the right equipment to light the way; I guess I needed a Pokemon with flash or something. That could have been annoying, but I loved navigating Echoes of Aincrad’s world so much that it just made me want to come back later. There’s so much detail here, that even walking through mud is exciting because it would show up on my characters, something Futami said the team put a lot of effort into, and you can really get a sense of that as you play.

Searching for The Lost Log usually meant making the trip in chunks, fighting my way to the next orb, then going back to down to level up, equip new armor and weapons – and upgrade and slap new abilities on them, which sadly I can’t show – switching out my companion (I liked them all, but Iori quickly became my go-to because of her healing prowess), and so on. Each trip into the wild was an expedition, and I loved an excuse to try out new weapons and partner characters, which returning to the city provided.

My demo ended with a boss fight against a couple of the big, scary plants. It was a grand ol’ time, and fitting end to my time with Echoes of Aincrad. I came, I saw, I conquered, recovered The Lost Log, and left many a dead wasp in my wake. I’m still thinking about Echoes of Aincrad more than a week after playing it. About its world, about the characters, about the wasps. Even the metatextual stuff is fun. Remember Iori? She appears as a woman when I met her, but early on, Iori is a man, and Futami is eager to see what players make of that change. It’s particularly fitting for a video game. After all, who amongst us hasn’t played as a member of the opposite sex while exploring a fantasy world?

If Echoes of Aincrad can nail what it’s aiming for, it should be a chance for seasoned vets and newcomers alike to get into the Sword Art Online world. Me? I just wanna go back to that cave. Next time, I’ll make sure to bring a light.

Spoilers follow for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 9.

The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s first season was a big one for many reasons, including that it was directed by Captain William Riker himself, Jonathan Frakes. Ahead of next week’s finale, we were able to talk to Frakes about the big reunion between Caleb (Sandro Rosta) and his mom Anisha (Tatiana Maslany), how he directs such a storied franchise, how he deals with fan community hate, and more.

What a day! We're still bustling through Resident Evil Requiem, Pokopia's out today, and on top of that, Slay the Spire 2 is out in early access. And in the shadows of these giant releases, Slay the Spire 2 is doing particularly well. As I type this, it's reached 177k concurrent players on Steam, and that number is still actively rising. That's a new record for a roguelike on the platform, just weeks after Mewgenics smashed the previous record.

As reported by Eurogamer back in February, previously, Hades 2 held the crown for the highest concurrent player count on Steam for a roguelike at 112k players. The weekend of its launch, Mewgenics managed to surpass it, reaching 115k concurrent players.

Slay the Spire 2 is currently the fourth most-played game on Steam right now, behind Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Arc Raiders, and just ahead of Rust. It's even doing better (at the moment) than Resident Evil: Requiem, which at the time of this piece had around 115k concurrents (though its peak is at 344k, considerably higher). I'm almost tempted to sit here refreshing the page just to see if it can get past 200k before I publish.

That's a fantastic debut for this long-awaited sequel to the popular deckbuilder roguelike Slay the Spire which we called 'Amazing' at the time, and awarded a 9/10, saying: "Slay the Spire takes some of the best parts of deckbuilding games, roguelikes, and dungeon crawlers, and mixes them into a wholly new and extremely satisfying package." Slay the Spire 2 is currently only available on PC for its early access period, but it seems likely to get console versions once it's fully released.

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

It's now been three months since Elden Ring: Nightreign received its paid Forsaken Hollows DLC, which added two new Nightfarers, a new map, two new end bosses and a bundle of other new bosses, enemies, and events. And players are starting to get real antsy, wondering when, if ever, another update will arrive...or at least when they're going to finally get Everdark Heolstor.

Multiple popular Reddit posts this week have expressed frustration at not just no updates, but no news of future updates, coming out of FromSoftware for Nightreign since Forsaken Hollows. As u/Chance_Drive_5906 put it, "It has now been three months since the DLC came out. The last piece of content we got for Nightreign. I think it's safe to say we aren't getting anything else and Fromsoft has moved on. The last patch for this game came out almost two months ago as well, so I'm not sure we'll even see any further balance updates." The comments below are full of individuals expressing wishes for anything: a cheap DLC pack containing a new nightfarer, some new weapons, a boss, just something.

What players seem to want most is Everdark Heolstor. Heolstor is the alternative name for the Nightlord, the effective "final boss" of Nightreign. You can battle him normally, of course, but there's no Everdark variant. Everdark variants are super-powered up versions of existing bosses that become available to challenge three at a time, and rotate in and out every few weeks. So for instance, today is the last day for Gnoster, Caligo, and Libra's Everdark forms, which means that tomorrow three different bosses' Everdark forms will be available to fight. Everdark bosses give more powerful rewards than regular bosses, but they're much harder to beat, with additional phases to their fights and far more punishing attacks. Currently, only Heolstar and the Dreglord, the final boss of the Forsaken Hollows DLC, are missing Everdark forms, leading fans to speculate that they'll eventually be added. One fan wanted to see Everdark Heolstor so much, they took their request to an AEW show.

But apart from Everdark Heolstor, most fans are just hopeful for a crumb of confirmation that more content for Nightreign is on the way. Nightreign is a somewhat unusual game in that it's clearly intended to be played as a long-term, ongoing, cooperative experience. But unlike most other AAA games of that category, it's a premium-priced experience, and doesn't get updates on a weekly or monthly basis to keep free-to-play players spending money on microtransactions. The result is almost certainly a healthier experience for everyone, but it does mean that at a certain point, the adventuring starts to get a bit repetitive. And that's even with the Deep of Night addition, which essentially offers an "endless" mode of increasing difficulty and more powerful rewards.

Elden Ring: Nightreign's most recent update was on January 15, but it was just a balance patch. At the end of those patch notes, Bandai Namco concludes with the line, "Further updates will be distributed in the future for you to continue to enjoy ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN more comfortably." Some fans are so hungry for more Nightreign, they're clinging to that line as a sign there's more to come, even though it's likely nothing more than a promise to keep patching as needed.

Will there eventually be another content update for Nightreign? Truly, no one knows but FromSoftware and Bandai Namco. Nightreign is certainly a game that could take continued updates in the form of new Nightfarers, new bosses, and new maps. But given how weird an experiment Nightreign was to begin with, it wouldn't be shocking for FromSoftware to move on and focus its energies on its next multiplayer project, Duskbloods.

Personally, I'd just settle for some more outfits to spend my Murk on. Can I get a Ranni outfit for the Recluse, please?

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

Frozen Ever After at Walt Disney World just got a major upgrade as the Audio-Animatronics figures of Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff have been given new faces that make them feel as if they jumped off the screen and into EPCOT. To learn more, we spoke with Ken Ricci, Executive Creative Development at Walt Disney Imagineering, about how the team brought this vision to life and why they chose now to update this beloved attraction for the first time in forever.

Ricci and I sat down in a lounge above Frozen Ever After to chat for a few minutes after I had the chance to check out these new upgrades for myself, and I am delighted to report that they do make a huge difference. I still believe the original designs were very impressive in their own right, but these feel so much more true to the films and, in my opinion, will withstand the test of time much better.

For those unfamiliar, Frozen Ever After opened on June 21, 2016, replacing the Maelstrom attraction in the Norway Pavilion at EPCOT's World Showcase. It was a groundbreaking moment in Disney history for many reasons, including being the first attraction to feature all-electric Audio-Animatronics and the first to combine electric motors and 3D printing. They also used rear-projection mapping to bring their faces to life, which was the main item addressed with these new updates.

"We're always looking at smoothing out our Audio-Animatronics figures' profiles, how they move, and how we can make them more human-like and realistic," Ricci told me. "That's something that's very, very much a passion of ours, as our goal is to hide the fact that their robots."

That is obviously easier said than done, but the 10 years since Frozen Ever After first opened provided the team with a unique opportunity to make this change much more quickly than would have been possible for an original project

Since its debut, Frozen Ever After has opened at both Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Furthermore, the fourth Frozen Ever After is about to welcome guests on March 29 when it opens alongside World of Frozen at Disneyland Paris' Disney Adventure World.

And yes, that's where you'll be able to see the way-too-adorable next-generation robotic figure of Olaf, who will literally be walking, talking, and interacting with guests around World of Frozen.

Hot off the zombified heels of Resident Evil Requiem, a brand-new Capcom Spotlight has arrived with updates on Street Fighter 6, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Pragmata, and much more.

We've gathered all the biggest moments and reveals right here to ensure you don't miss a thing, and we'd love to know what your favorite part of the show was!

Onimusha: Way of the Sword Gets an Action-Packed Overview Trailer Filled With Gameplay

While we still don't have a release date beyond 2026, Capcom gave us our best look yet at Onimusha: Way of the Sword in a brand-new overview trailer.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword stars a lone samurai named Miyamoto Musashi, and the game is set in 17th Century Edo-Period Kyoto. Way of the Sword will take us through iconic locales like Kiyomizu-dera Temple as Musashi fights back against the Genma ravaging the land and forges a new fate.

Musashi will run into other characters throughout his journey, including his old rival, Sasaki Ganryu, and he'll need to use all his skills and his Oni Gauntlet if he hopes to succeed.

Street Fighter 6 Welcomes Alex to Its Roster on March 17 and Reveals Outfit 4 for Elena and Dee Jay

Street Fighter 6 is gearing up to welcome Alex to its roster on March 17, and fans will be delighted to know that Kenny Omega provided some of the motion capture for the fighter. It was also revealed that JAMProject had contributed a new BGM track to the game called 'Go! Alex! Hope is Born!'.

Capcom also discussed the Alex Arrives! Fighting Pass and Outfit 4 for Elena and Dee Jay (which will be included in the Swimsuit Series!).

Pragmata Gets a Gameplay Trailer and Moves Its Release Date Up a Week

Capcom kicked off its Capcom Spotlight presentation by sharing a brand-new look at Pragmata. However, the biggest news may be that it moved its release date up from April 24 to April 17, meaning you'll be able to jump into Hugh and Diana's sci-fi adventure a week early!

We also got another look at Pragmata's Deluxe Edition, which includes the Shelter Variety Pack. That pack features additional costumes, rare digital artwork viewable in game, and more. You can also pre-order the game to get Hugh Outfit - Neo Bushido and Diana Outfit - Neo Kunoichi.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection Gets a Launch Trailer and a Ton of Bonuses

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection will be released on March 13, 2026, and Capcom shared its launch trailer again and revealed some new details, as well as an overview of the story of the game.

Twisted Reflection takes place when Azuria and Vemeril are locked in conflict and the Crystal Encroachment is at their door, and there are twin Rathalos for the first time in forever but only one rider.

Capcom also talked about bonus features, including receiving layered armor for those who have saved data from other Monster Hunter games. Monster Hunter Stories save data will get players the Hakum Rider Outfit, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin the Mahana Rider Outfit, Monster Hunter Ride the Kamura Garb, and Monster Hunter Wilds the Hope Layered Armor Set.

Speaking of outfits, linking your platform with a Capcom ID will net you the Catcom Works Outfit for Rudy.

There will also be free DLC that will launch at launch, including the Accessory: Gold Circlet and Layered Armor for Simon: Wind Wyvern's Friend, the latter of which changes his appearance to the Legiana Armor theme.

For a limited bonus, those who pre-order the game or purchase a physical copy will get the Layered Armor for Eleanor: Skyscale Queen

Street Fighter: The Movie Shares Behind-the-Scenes Footage

Street Fighter: The Movie is set to be released in theaters on October 16, 2026, and today's Capcom Spotlight shared some fun behind-the-scenes footage of the film that will be shows at Capcom Cup 12.

How Capcom Is Celebrating 30 Years of Resident Evil

In celebration of 30 years of Resident Evil, Capcom revealed a bit of how it will be celebrating this milestone, in addition to the already released Resident Evil Requiem. These festivities include a new collaboration with Universal Studios Japan that will be inspired by Requiem itself, a new Resident Evil 2 arcade game, Resident Evil 30th Anniversary Concerts -Symphony of Legacy-, and the 30th anniversary set known as Resident Evil Generation Pack (Resident Evil 7, 8, and 9!).

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection Online Features

Capcom gave us a glimpse into the online features of Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection. Players will be able to use saved data to use and edit their decks. Players will also be able to select multiple titles when searching for online matches.

There will be Casual Match, Ranked Match, and Friend Match, along with other features like Trading and Brother List. Speaking of the Brother List, this has been updated to allow players to include 100 Brothers instead of 6.

Mega Man: Dual Override Boss Character Design Contest Winner Revealed

In the lead-up to Mega Man: Dual Override, Capcom held a contest for its community to help design a boss in the upcoming title. There were 10,000 entries, Capcom picked the best 20, and the community chose the six winners with their votes.

The development team noticed that many of the designs were similar to the actual bosses that will be featured in the game, and Capcom took that opportunity to tease the seven bosses with a silhouetted picture of them all together.

As for the winners, they included Cleanser Man, Sweeper Woman, Recycle Man, Cactus Man, Juggle Man, and Valve Man. However, only one will make its way to Mega Man: Dual Override, but we'll have to wait a bit longer to find out who that is.

Capcom Cup 12 & Street Fighter League: World Championship 2025 Schedule Revealed

Capcom Cup 12 & Street Fighter League: World Championship 2025 are nearly here and Capcom revealed what will be happening on each day of the event, and you can check it out below;

• Day 1 (March 11): 48 warriors converge from around the globe - Capcom Cup
• Day 2 (March 12): Only the Survivors Advance - Capcom Cup
• Day 3 (March 13): Elite players and teams battle on the same stage - Capcom Cup and SFL
• Day 4 (March 14): Grand Prize $1,000,000, the 2025 Champion will be crowned - Capcom Cup
• Day 5 (March 15): Only one team stands above all - SFL

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.

Nothing has officially debuted the Nothing Phone 4a Pro and its new over-ear Nothing Headphone A in the US. While the $199 Headphone A, Nothing's second go at over-ear cans, will mostly keep the transparent-ish look that has marked the company's products until now, the $499 Phone 4a Pro is adopting a somewhat more traditional look – as long as you ignore whatever's going on in that camera bump. Nothing also officially released the non-pro Nothing Phone 4a, but unfortunately hasn't launched it in the US.

Nothing Phone 4a Pro

Despite having a mostly solid back and sides – colored silver, black, or pink – the Phone 4a Pro is still very unconventional, thanks to a wild camera bump that looks sort of like a cartoon face with one large eye made of a dotmatrix display – what The Verge notes is a lower resolution take on the "Glyph Matrix" found on the Nothing Phone 3 – and a smaller eye and mouth made up of the phone's cameras. (The area around these features still hints at the former transparent back look of other Nothing products.)

The camera array is comprised of a 50MP main shooter, a periscope-style telephoto with 3.5x optical zoom and 140x digital zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide lens with an unknown megapixel count but a 120-degree field of view. On the other side, there's a 32MP selfie camera embedded in the top of the display, which has a 6.8-inch, 144Hz AMOLED panel with a 1260 x 2800 resolution, 800-nit standard brightness, 1600-nit outdoor brightness, and 5,000-nit peak brightness.

Being aimed more at budget buyers, the Phone 4a Pro still has some decent specs, with some compromises. It's driven by a midrange Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage, depending on how it's configured. That wouldn't put it up there with heavy-hitter flagships, but it could likely still compete with the likes of the Google Pixel 8, IGN's favorite midrange handset. It has a 5,080mAh battery that recharges at up to 50W wired, which is solid, but the phone lacks the wireless charging found in the Nothing Phone 3. It's also limited to Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 on the connectivity front. Pleasantly, the Phone 4a Pro still supports dual physical SIM cards. The Phone 4a Pro will be available later this month – preorders open March 13, with an official release on March 27.

Nothing Headphone A

The Nothing Headphone A will be available a little sooner, with preorders open today and official sales coming March 13. To start, the Headphone A will come in black, white, and pink, but the company will sell a limited edition yellow pair later, starting April 6.

The Headphone A looks similar to the geometric Headphone 1 that preceded them, but with slightly less emphasis on translucence. They don't fold, but the headband does extend and the ear cups twist. Sound-wise, Nothing says the headphones are "engineered for clarity," and will use the LDAC codec for lossless, wireless audio.

Inside the cups are 40mm drivers feature both active noise cancellation and transparency modes, as well as a hybrid noise cancellation mode that tries to balance the two, adjusting on the fly to noises around you. Apart from that, they also support Spatial Audio and have controls that include a power switch, Bluetooth pairing button, roller for volume, rocker buttons for switching tracks and such, and a button that can be used to switch modes, trigger a connected phone's camera, summon ChatGPT, and more.

Nothing says its new wireless headphones will have the "longest battery life of any Nothing product to date," offering up to five days on a charge. And recharging them for just five minutes will net you five hours of wireless listening, according to the company. The Headphone A also feature a 3.5mm audio jack for wired connectivity. The headphones may feel a touch heavy, though. They weigh 310 grams, putting them between the AirPods Max, which are often criticized for their weight and clock in at 386.2 grams, and the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones, which weigh just 254 grams.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

If you're in need of at-home printing but you don't want to deal with the upfront cost of buying a printer or the hassle of purchasing ink cartridges when they run out, then HP is offering a plan that might be perfect for you.

HP's All-In Plan is a convenient service that leases you a printer for a low monthly fee. Never run out of ink or printing supplies. You’re always ready to print with ink and optional paper delivery before you need it. There are several plans to choose from, with each offering a different printer and print allotment depending on your needs. The monthly print allotment is flexible, rolls over and can easily be updated on a monthly basis if needed.

No matter how much time goes by, the gory, loot-filled embrace of Diablo 4 is something I always seem to return to, and with the Lord of Hatred expansion right around the corner it’s only a matter of time before I lose myself for dozens of hours once again. That’s especially true now that I’ve had the chance to check out the second of two new character classes coming alongside the expansion, the Warlock, who uses the power of Hell against itself to become an unstoppable, demonic magic user that even Mephisto himself should have reason to fear. This summoner of satanic sigils and swarms of sinister spawn has numerous distinct builds that make it an interesting option for different types of players, and make it less likely that you’ll end up in a party filled with identical demon summoners when going toe-to-toe with the Lord of Hatred, and I truly cannot wait to see what insane builds people come up with. Combined with the new region of Skovos, an overhauled endgame experience, and a whole bunch of tweaks to skill trees and loot, this finale to Mephisto’s story is looking truly epic so far.

Blizzard was happy to share plenty of news about their upcoming Lord of Hatred expansion for Diablo IV, but the main course was the Warlock character class – a mage who turns the dark powers of hell against itself and uses demons as disposable tools in his battle against their kind. It’s truly the most metal class in Diablo to-date, and after spending some hands-on time messing around with several pre-configured variations, it’s given me another reason to look forward to diving back into one of my favorite ARPGs.

Like the Spiritborn class from last year, the Warlock seems to have a bit more build diversity than the classes found in vanilla Diablo 4. Instead of a ranged magic user like the Sorcerer, who has a handful of elemental options that apply different status effects to enemies, the Warlock has a version that turns him into an aggressive melee monster, leaping around to stomp the enemy flat, or a summoner class that lets his minions do his fighting for him and has much more in common with the Necromancer. No matter which you pick though, they all have the same flavor of using hellish powers, whether that be unholy rituals or imposing your will over enemies on the battlefield to turn them into your meat puppets. And since you can mix and match these options at your discretion, there’s a lot of potential to create a well-rounded fighter that perhaps ends up being a jack of all trades, but master of none, which is both a neat option to have available, and also maybe not advisable (though that won’t keep me from at least giving it a try).

If You Build it, They Will Die

My favorite of the builds I tried was called the Legion, which focused on summoning demons to aid me in battle, then feeding off of their death to do additional damage to my enemies. In this version of the Warlock, absolutely every attack involved using and abusing my infernal servants to deal damage, including my base attack that fired exploding fallen lunatics at my foes. Naturally, the ultimate for this build let me summon an absolutely massive demon called the Fiend of Abaddon, who swung a gigantic claymore at everything in the area, doing huge damage. It’s been a while since I did a playthrough with the Necromancer, but the Warlock felt to me like a much more aggressive version of this type of minion character archetype and I absolutely loved it.

But summoning demons to do your bidding is still a fairly passive strategy, and for a truly aggressive alternative, I tried out the Vanguard build, which focused on turning myself into a hideous, profane hellspawn instead of just summoning them. This version of the Warlock involved unleashing a bunch of fire and lava all over the place, like one ability that let me summon a demonic head that spewed flames from his mouth (hell yeah), and another that caused my enemies to explode upon death, causing a chain reaction of destruction in my wake. The main draw of this variety of Warlock though, was Metamorphosis, an ultimate ability that straight-up turned me into a demon, replacing my existing hotbar with a whole new slew of blasphemous temporary abilities as I ran around tearing my way through Mephisto’s hordes with my razorsharp claws. This build felt like it would definitely take some learning to master, especially since replacing all your skills while in demon form could be fairly jarring at first, but I really liked the idea nonetheless.

Another build that really clicked with me was the Ritualist – a version of the Warlock that focused on creating sigils that impacted whole areas of the map with various status effects, often causing demons to up and explode into pink giblets. Whether I was opening up molten cracks in the earth, using totems to chain enemies in place, or hexed enemies within an area and turned me invisible when killing enemies within them, I was almost always placing lethal traps all over the map that made it impossible for demons to reach me without suffering my wrath first. Naturally, the ultimate ability for this build just summoned an absolutely humongous sigil on the ground (filling nearly the entire screen) that exploded multiple times and just wiped the area clear of any baddies. I probably only scratched the surface with this build, and there were a few sigils I didn’t even get to try, but it already felt super powerful and very different from any of Diablo 4’s other character classes.

Finally, there was the Mastermind Warlock, which was all about mobility, stealth, and applying a bunch of status effects to enemies. I definitely felt the least at home with this build, but the vibe I got from it was that it’s sort of the rogue version of the Warlock, where you’re given lots of ranged attacks and options to dodge around or become invisible, but are also quite squishy. The ultimate ability involved summoning a swarm of hungry Hell bugs that ran around the map eating everything in sight. Overall, this one seems like it requires a fair bit more finesse than some of the other options that were much more straightforward brute force plays, but even in my limited time with it, I could see that the DPS potential on this one was pretty insane. It maybe won’t be the choice for my first playthrough of Lord of Hatred, but I could definitely see myself deep-diving into this option and seeing what interesting combos I could come up with.

After experimenting with these options, I also tried my hand at building my own Warlock that mixed and matched my favorite abilities from each. I can’t say I was very successful at doing so on my first attempt, but the vibes of using Hell against itself and all the different forms that can take definitely sold me on giving this class a try come April.

More to Explore

Though most of my time was spent checking out the Warlock and its various permutations of demonic badassery, I also was given a sneak peek at some of the new systems, like the reworked skill trees that put more emphasis on customizing abilities rather than passive increases, new details on the new endgame progression system called War Paths, some seriously cool changes to itemization, like set bonuses being added, new crafting systems, and a much-needed loot filter (finally), and even a fishing minigame. I didn’t get to go hands-on with most of these, instead just learning about them from developers over the course of several Q&A sessions, but everything I’ve heard so far has me feeling really optimistic about Diablo 4’s chances at consuming my life (again) later this year.

The skill tree changes are easily my favorite tweak, as they’ve done away with all the boring nodes that just make your numbers go up (that’s what the paragon tree is for, after all), and have instead made each skill purchase an interesting decision that augments how your character plays. Some of the examples of this are a skill tree that can turn the Sorcerer’s Hydra fire summon into an ice summon instead, or in the case of the Warlock, a perk that turns a defensive wall of demons into an offensive group of roaming monsters. I really like the idea that now the core skill trees for each character will focus on modifying skills to match your playstyle, instead of just boosting DPS, and am pretty eager to dive in and see what new options are waiting to be exploited.

As for the endgame changes, set bonuses, and the new crafting systems, IGN will have plenty more to share in the future as the Lord of Hatred nears ever closer to ensnaring Sanctuary. For now, I’m sold on the Warlock, and am already noodling on some chaotic summoner builds to let loose later this year.

New Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma, who took over as the head of the Xbox business last week as longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer retired, has confirmed the codename for Xbox's next-generation console – Project Helix – and also confirmed long-swirling rumors that the device will play Xbox and PC games.

"Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox including Project Helix, the code name for our next generation console," Sharma posted on her X account. "Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!"

Rumors about the fifth-generation Xbox console and its ability to play PC games have been making the rounds for some time. Though perhaps it won't be playing any first-party PlayStation games that make their way to PC, since Sony has reportedly pulled back on first-party PC support.

IGN's Xbox podcast crew talked about their advice for Sharma on a recent episode, and our Next-Gen Console Watch crew offered her five changes she could immediately make that would win over Xbox fans.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Pokémon TCG is still red hot as we cross into the official 30th anniversary celebrations for the next 12 months. But there’s one card in particular that’s burning a hole in trainers' pockets right now, and it's driving a reignited interest in Phantasmal Flames.

Released on November 14, 2025, Phantasmal Flames is the second expansion under the Mega Evolution banner. Out of all 130 cards in the set, no other is hotter right now than the elusive Mega Charizard X ex 125/094 SIR (Special Illustration Rare).

The rare card has seen a 20% spike in market value on TCGplayer over the past three months, with prices going as high as $2000 for a graded PSA 10 card on eBay in the US.