More Intellimouse than eXtreme gamer, Cherry's new wireless gaming mice give understated office chic in the best possible way
© Cherry
© Cherry
Codemasters has confirmed that no further expansions will be released for 2023’s EA Sports WRC, and that the team has “reached the end of the road” working on the game. Unfortunately, alongside this news comes the additional confirmation that Codemasters is also “pausing development plans on future rally titles.”
The veteran UK racing studio published the announcement via EA.com.
“Our WRC partnership was a culmination of sorts for our Codemasters journey with off-road racing, spanning decades through titles like Colin McRae Rally, and Dirt,” reads the studio’s statement. “We’ve provided a home for every rally enthusiast, striving tirelessly to push the boundaries and deliver the exhilarating thrill of driving on the ragged edge. We’ve brought together incredibly talented racing developers, worked with some of the sport’s icons, and had the opportunity to share our love of rallying.”
The World Rally Championship itself has acknowledged the news on social media, with a largely vague comment noting the “WRC gaming franchise is going in an ambitious new direction with more news coming in the near future.”
EA pulling the pin on Codemasters rally games will be a bitter pill to swallow for motorsports fans following EA’s acquisition of the storied British racing studio back in 2020.
The news comes in wake of reports of over 300 layoffs at EA, including roughly 100 at Respawn Entertainment.
Codemasters has been at the spearhead of rallying video games for almost three decades, dating back to 1998’s iconic Colin McRae Rally. The pioneering rally simulation kicked off a series of successful and highly esteemed racing games. Following the death of Colin McRae in 2007, the series retired McRae’s name and continued its evolution as Dirt. 2009’s Dirt 2 (known as Colin McRae: Dirt 2 in Europe and other PAL game territories) marked a transitional point for the series, which was reinvented again as a hardcore simulation in 2015’s Dirt Rally.
2023’s EA Sports WRC was the first Codemasters rally game to hold an official WRC license since 2002’s Colin McRae Rally 3. IGN’s review notes EA Sports WRC took the class-leading feel of 2019’s Dirt Rally 2.0 and stuffed it into an officially licensed World Rally Championship experience, like a steel rod in Timo Rautiainen’s backside, but its technical gremlins left it feeling like a “great racing game trying to fight its way out of an unfinished one.” Subsequent updates sought to improve its screen tearing issues.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
Guy Ritchie is on deck to direct the sequel to Amazon MGM’s 2024 Road House remake, reports Variety. The follow-up will see Jake Gyllenhaal return to the lead role as ex-UFC fighter-turned-bouncer Elwood Dalton.
A Gyllenhaal-led sequel was previously confirmed in May last year, with the announcement coming quickly in the wake of the remake’s successful March 2024 release. Road House accumulated over 50 million views during its first two weekends on Prime, which made it Amazon MGM Studios’ most-watched produced film debut ever on a worldwide basis at that time.
2024’s Road House was directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow, Swingers), but Liman immediately appeared unlikely to return for a sequel after criticising the film’s streaming release.
“My issue on Road House is that we made the movie for MGM to be in theaters, everyone was paid as if it was going to be in theaters, and then Amazon switched it on us and nobody got compensated,” said Liman at the time. “Forget about the effect on the industry — 50 million people saw Road House — I didn’t get a cent, Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t get a cent, [producer] Joel Silver didn’t get a cent. That’s wrong.”
According to Gyllenhaal, however, Amazon had been clear Road House was destined for streaming.
Road House 2 will complete a trifecta of collaborations between Ritchie and Gyllenhaal, and will mark their second project for Amazon MGM following the awkwardly titled but well received 2023 war film Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant. They’ve also paired up for the upcoming action thriller In the Grey, which additionally stars Henry Cavill, but that film has no current release date.
Further details about Road House 2 are scant, but it’s being written by Will Beall (Gangster Squad, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F).
As it stands, there’s little rest for Guy Ritchie. The director helmed multiple episodes of the just-launched Paramount+ series MobLand (starring Tom Hardy) and his next film, Fountain of Youth, lands on Apple TV+ later this month.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
May the binge be with you this month, thanks to our comprehensive guide on what's actually worth watching. Because, let's face it, there simply aren't enough hours in the day to watch 95% of the content on the six major networks available. So let’s get to maximising your hard-fought free time with the best award-winning films, social calendar-destroying TV series, and original content available.
Below are the litter picks from thousands of hours of content from Australia's six major streaming networks. Click your provider from the list below, grab some popcorn, and kick back into some sweet, sweet escapism.
Table of Contents
TV litter pick: Strife: S02 – 8 May :A continuing comedic drama that follows Evelyn Jones (Asher Keddie), a modern, imperfect woman and publisher, on her journey from lounge room blogger to the big leagues.
Movie litter pick: Transformers One – 6 May : Transformers One is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.
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TV litter pick: Love, Death & Robots: Volume 4 – 15 May : A clever collection of animated short stories that span the science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy genres.
Movie litter pick: The Northman – 7 May : An epic revenge thriller that explores how far a Viking prince will go to seek justice for his murdered father.
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TV litter pick: Andor: S02 – Wednesdays : Builds on nearly everything that worked so well about season 1, and continues fleshing out the prequel era of Star Wars.
TV litter pick: Long Way Home – 9 May : Long Way Home, formerly Long Way Up, follows Ewan and Charley as they ride refurbished vintage motorbikes from Ewan’s home in Scotland to Charley’s in England — but rather than take the shortest route, they go the long way.
Movie litter pick: Fountain of Youth – 1 May : Follows two estranged siblings (John Krasinski and Natalie Portman) who partner on a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth.
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TV litter pick: Clarkson’s Farm: S04 – 23 May : This time around, Jeremy Clarkson and team—including Kaleb Cooper, Lisa Hogan, and Charlie Ireland—navigate new challenges, ambitious projects, and hilarious moments at Diddly Squat Farm.
Movie litter pick: Another Simple Favour – 1 May : Takes its tongue-in-cheek momcore satire to new visual heights by moving the action to coastal Italy. All the best parts of the original are also present here, including Lively and Kendrick’s sparkling chemistry and killer costume design.
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TV litter pick: The Walking Dead: Dead City: S02 – 5 May : Dead City's second season puts some good distance between our main characters, despite also having to figure out contrived reasons for half of them to head back to the cursed isle of Manhattan.
Movie litter pick: Sing Sing – 31 May : A touching drama and an inspiring reminder of how community and an outlet for self-discovery can positively shape someone's outlook.
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IGN is now on Flash, live and on demand. Stream the latest and trending news for video games, interviews, videos, and wikis. Check it out here.
Adam Mathew is our Aussie streaming savant. He also games on YouTube.
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Gaming deals are dropping faster than a Blue Shell on your head in Mario Kart, and my roundup for today has something for every platform. Whether you’re looking to burn rubber in a racing sim, cast spells in a wizarding world, or just roll crap up into a giant ball of joy, a bargain exists for you here. With discounts slashing up to 83% off, now’s the perfect time to plug in, power up, and grab some polygon-or pixel-packed treasures before they vanish.
In retro news, I'm celebrating the 28th birthday of Soul Blade, a PS1 fighter I adored back in the day. Forbearer of Namco's SoulCalibur series, 'Soul Edge,' as it was called in NTSC regions, wowed us early with its absolutely phenomenal pre-rendered intro movie (upscaled here). I have vivid memories of booting the game purely to watch it while saying to myself and my best mate, "In-game graphics will n-e-v-e-r get this good!"
Beyond sinking serious hours into the mini-RPG mode, which unlocked unique weapons, I recall having a 2P Verus rivalry with said friend. He was a nunchaku Li Long exponent while I was a katana-slinging Mitsurugi. When I defeated him in the most embarrassing way possible—punching him to death after he shattered my blade—he refused to speak to me for a week. Goodie, if you're reading this, you were a massive sook.
- Saturn Bomberman (SAT) 1997. Sequel
- Soul Blade (PS) 1997. eBay
- Comanche 3 (PC) 1997. eBay
- Namco Museum Remix (Wii) 2008. Sequel
- Bit.Trip Beat (Wii) 2009. Get
- Mortal Kombat [9] (PS3, X360) 2013. eBay
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Editor's note: La Quimera was originally set to fully release on April 25, but it was unexpectedly delayed that same day. A developer update on April 29 didn't provide a new release date, but did say La Quimera would now be launching in Early Access whenever it did arrive. This announcement came well after our review of what we were initially told would be the full game was largely complete – however, the update post indicates that the content at its new launch will be the same as what we played, so we have decided to publish this as a review of the Early Access version.
I have to admit, I’m a sucker for direct-to-video sequels. There’s something about being five Tremors movies deep where all pretense is abandoned, and we all know what we are there for: To watch some ridiculous action and give our brains a break for a bit. La Quimera reminds me a lot of popcorn flicks like that. This FPS is not particularly good-looking, well-written, or innovative. The action doesn’t do anything memorable, and its acting ranges from mediocre to terrible. There is admittedly a certain charm to be found here, especially if you bring a friend or two along to share this rocky ride in co-op. But by nearly every metric, La Quimera is about as good a game as Tremors 5: Bloodlines is a movie. Which is to say it’s not.
Set in the fictional South American city of Nuevo Caracas, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Outside the city walls, some sort of robot apocalypse that’s never really explained is taking place. Inside, there are warring corporations and extreme poverty. That setup isn’t a socio-political commentary so much as a throwback to 80s sci-fi, complete with Power Loader-esque rigs that would look right at home on Ellen Ripley in Aliens. As a new PMC recruit, you and your squad get stuck in the middle of some nonspecific and uninteresting power struggle between corporations, leaving an equal mix of broken bodies and bots in your wake.
There is some legitimately cool environmental storytelling here. My favorite by far is the Bone Wall, a literal wall filled with what must be thousands of skeletons, that you get to see when one mission takes you deep through it. A voice in your ear describes the desperation that went into building the wall as all hell was breaking loose, and it’s neat to piece together how there was no time to slow down and help anyone who fell, whether that was due to exhaustion, injury, or dying from whatever encroaching threat drove the frantic construction.
In fact, La Quimera would have been better off if it let the environments do all the talking, because once its characters open their mouths, it is rough. The dialogue is awful, with obscenity-laced tirades that sound like someone watched a Quentin Tarantino movie once, and tried to mimic it without knowing how to make any of the lines land. The acting also ranges from a normal kind of bad to so awkward I can’t tell if it’s being purposefully campy or potentially using some sort of poorly implemented AI. Characters are very chatty too, and I found myself actively cringing on several occasions as allies shout out things like, “Oh perfect, robot dogs!”.
The story itself doesn’t make much sense, either. Apparently, saving a billionaire’s daughter gets your PMC conscripted because… you are afraid he will sue? Which, naturally, means the people in the PMC all have to get experimental and highly dangerous augmentations, too. I wouldn’t mind the nonsense, it’s fine enough as a vehicle to make me want to go shoot robots – but the story is so clearly unfinished, ending abruptly after just a few hours without resolving anything. Developer Reburn unexpectedly decided to delay La Quimera on the day it was supposed to launch, and then later announced its eventual release would have the Early Access label on it. Given development is largely based out of Kyiv in Ukraine, the fact that it’s still coming out at all feels like something of an achievement worth applauding. But while this campaign is planned to grow over time, the version that's here now doesn't have any semblance of a complete story.
La Quimera isn’t exactly shy about the influence Crysis has had on it. Early on, you and your crew gain access to exosuits, complete with energy-powered armor, cloaking, and scanning. That last bit is especially important – one quick ping allows you and your teammates to see any nearby enemies, even behind cover. That’s huge when your weapons operate like a poor man’s version of the FarSight from Perfect Dark, able to lethally penetrate shockingly thick obstacles. It’s extremely satisfying to drop a bunch of orange silhouettes in rapid succession from sight unseen.
That said, where Crysis tended to be more of an inverted funnel that pushed you toward open areas, La Quimera is decidedly about straight lines. Its levels are very linear, and your objective is almost always to clear enemies as you walk from point A to point B. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as a bit of a throwback like this can be a welcome palate cleanser in a time when wide-open gameplay is increasingly the norm, but it does all start to become a bland blur. That’s because so many areas repeat the same cycle of kill the enemies, open the heavy door, kill the next enemies, open the next heavy door, and so on. There are a handful of encounters that break that trend, most notably an extended gunfight on a slowly rising elevator in a corporate office building, but they are few and far between.
The gunplay itself is extremely basic, with your weapons effectively limited to a sidearm, shotgun, or rifle. You can’t change guns mid-mission, nor pick up any temporary options like a limited-use power weapon. You are given the choice between conventional firearms and electromagnetic weapons – the former works better against humans, while the latter tears through shields and robots more quickly – but you’ll be required to bring one of each into your missions anyway. Which one gets to be the more powerful primary weapon and which is relegated to your sidearm could have added a small strategic wrinkle, but the conventional arms are so poor against bots that there’s only one right choice, which is too bad.
The thing I like best about the fights themselves is the ammo economy. Bullets can become scarce, especially in later missions, which means you can’t just sit in one spot and pick off every enemy by shooting through walls the whole time. I had to keep moving to either scavenge rounds off of corpses or find more ammo boxes, which was just enough to create some badly needed forward momentum during otherwise slow fights.
As a PMC, you are, of course, paid for completing missions – but while there are things to buy between them, the progression is badly underbaked at this point. There aren’t enough items or upgrades for sale in the first place, and the stuff that is here isn’t very interesting. You could buy one of a very small number of generic guns, or invest in either of the two alternate versions of your exosuit’s head, arms, torso, and legs, each of which have differences like improved cooldowns or increased med kit capacity. But those effects are all so small that it’s hard to feel a need for any of them.
The way you get money is a little weird, too. In addition to completing missions, cash can also be found in containers mid-level – but you have very shallow pockets for some odd reason, hitting “max money” far too quickly (which is a problem I can say with all honesty I have never experienced in my life). That's too bad, because collecting more would have given me a real incentive to go off the beaten path. There are some of the obligatory voice memos people seem to leave behind in every video game, but I can’t bring myself to opt into hearing more of this dialogue than I absolutely need to.
For as down as I am on La Quimera (and, believe me, I am), I did still have a strangely fun time with it. That’s due primarily to two things: First, you can play the entire campaign (minus the tutorial) in online co-op with up to two other people. A couple of buddies is the exact thing you need to transform cringey dialogue from something you’ll roll your eyes at into a hilarious shared experience. Having another gun or two covering your back makes the combat more exciting as well, and the ability to do things like alternate who is doing scans so that you are never waiting on that ability’s cooldown keeps the fights moving at a faster pace.
The other quality that keeps its many issues from becoming downright infuriating is how short La Quimera is. It took me right around four hours to complete my first playthrough. That could certainly be a negative if you put a lot of weight on “hours played per dollar spent” or whatever, but it does make a stronger case for going in with some friends, having a ridiculous time, and then getting out in a way that lets you enjoy the handful of high points while minimizing the impact of the lows. Of course, one of the reasons for this brief length is that La Quimera is outright incomplete in parts, and it would need to be significantly fleshed out to justify spending any more time than this in Nuevo Caracas anyway.
The Viwoods AI Paper isn’t your average tablet. Instead of a bright AMOLED or LCD screen, it comes with an eye-friendly e-ink touch display and stylus, turning it into an Android-powered digital notebook. It’s compatible with the Google Play Store, so you can access your favorite apps (like Kindle) and use it for much more, however, and comes with its own built-in AI assistant. It won’t be for everyone, and that’s by design, but if you’re looking for a reading tablet alternative to the Remarkable or Kindle Scribe, it’s a great option.
Viwoods is a new company, completing its first Kickstarter only late last year. Despite being fresh to the world of consumer electronics, it has debuted with a very strong first product. The Viwoods AI Paper is intuitive, innovative, and surprisingly versatile for an e-ink tablet, and, even while the company is regularly updating it to incorporate new features, it’s already competing with the most popular competitors that have, in some cases, a multi-year head start.
The AI Paper comes in two forms, the full-size 10.65-inch version I was sent for testing and the more compact AI Paper Mini, which has an 8.2-inch screen and comes with a backlight the larger version lacks. For this review, I’ll be focusing on the larger version, but if you’re looking for something smaller, those are the most important differences to be aware of.
The AI Paper falls into a tablet category that’s better categorized as a Digital Notebook. You’re probably familiar with the Remarkable, which really pushed this category into the mainstream. Digital Notebook tablets don’t claim to be do-everything devices. Instead, they emphasize note-taking, writing, reading, and organization. They’re less prone to cause distraction and, when used properly, can become a pivotal organization and thought-management tool.
Like its key competitors in this space, the AI Paper uses a paper-like e-ink display. In this case, the company has implemented the Carta 1300, which offers improved contrast compared to older e-ink screens and, theoretically, should be one of the best out there. Viwoods has done an excellent job of making the “paper” of the screen look bright, but the same can’t be said for most of the alternatives out there, like the Boox Max, which is noticeably darker grey. The screen has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,920, giving it 300 pixels per inch (PPI) of clarity. It’s a high resolution for an e-ink device and allows text and images to appear crisp and readable.
Unlike OLED or LCD displays, e-ink works on an entirely different principle. It's best thought of a bit like an Etch-a-Sketch, where the Etch-a-Sketch has a layer of magnetic filings beneath the screen that are then pulled upwards to create its lines. E-ink displays have a layer of black ink beneath the display that is then pulled into place with the application of electricity. Once the image has been formed, it doesn't need to reset, which means that, in theory, if you are reading a book, each page can be presented as a static image, dramatically increasing battery life and reducing eye strain. This quality, in combination with the matte texture used for the screen, works to make the display look much more like a sheet of paper. Amazon popularized this tech with the original Kindle and it has been a hit for e-readers ever since.
This is true of all e-ink tablets, but the AI Paper takes its capabilities further with Google Play Store access. It doesn't come with installed by default but allows you to add it as an app, giving you access to a whole ecosystem of apps, including Google Drive, Microsoft 365, Obsidian, and more. This functionality inherently takes away from its distraction-free nature, but the slow refresh rate of its e-ink screen means that it's unappealing to use the device for things like YouTube or social media, so it evens out.
AI comes into play prominently, but can also be completely ignored if you choose to. There are three touch buttons on the bottom, similar to a normal Android device, but the right right button is dedicated to summoning your AI agent. When held, you can speak a prompt which is then sent to ChatGPT. This functionality is also built into its different reading and writing applications with quick commands to analyze what's on the page, generate a new article based on it, convert handwriting to text, or just to summon an AI assistant. It also allows you to come up with your own custom commands so you don't need to retype a prompt every time.
Other tablets also feature AI assistance, such as those from Boox, which are also based on Android and have access to the Google Play Store. After all, if you can download any Android app, that also means you can download any Android-compatible LLM. What makes this different, however, is that Viwoods has given it the ability to see and interpret anything on your screen versus just answering text prompts.
This is especially useful functionality for students. For example, if your professor has assigned you an article to read, you can generate summaries and study aids quickly and easily simply by creating a prompt for it. You can also take handwritten notes in class and then have the AI transcribe these into written text that can then be accessed on a computer. The transcription process isn't perfect, especially if you have messier handwriting, but it's seen improvements since the tablet launched and is usually close enough that I can understand what I was attempting to write anyway.
Its traditional notebook and organizational features are exceptional. The homepage is broken into different sections for writing, organization, drawing, and apps. For writing, there are 31 different templates you can choose from, including everything from normal lined paper to graphic organizers to music notation and even body diagrams for clothing design. Templates are essentially backgrounds that you can write on and take the place of having a paper version of the sheet or organizer.
When you’re ready to write, you can choose from seven different implements, including a calligraphy pen, pencil, highlight, and a “thinker” which looks like a dry erase marker. The stylus uses the Wacom standard EMR (electro-magnetic resonance) stylus, which is battery-free, has 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and is able to detect when the stylus is tilted. This is incredibly useful when drawing as it allows you to shade with the pencil tool.
The tablet has a bundle of neat features that go along with this. Each “note” can be tagged for easy organization and searching them up later. Notepads allow you to create layers, similar to a photo editor, so you can add to drawings and note pages without marring anything you’ve written underneath. If you’re drawing a shape, simply holding the stylus in place at the end of your stroke transforms it into a perfect version of that shape with straight lines and curves for circles.
And, of course, it can be used as a reader. It natively supports PDFs and EPUB ebooks, but downloading the Kindle app from the Play Store gives you full access to your Kindle Library as well. Reading on e-ink is as close as you can get to paper without it actually being paper, and thanks to its 300 PPI screen, letters are just as crisp as a Kindle Paperwhite.
Getting documents onto and off of the device can be done in several different ways. You can upload your documents to the AI Paper management site and they’ll automatically sync to the device the next time it’s online or you can connect it to your PC with a USB Type-C cable and move files on or off like any other mass storage device. You can also email documents or sync them to the cloud.
Finally, the AI Paper comes with a 4,100mAh battery that can last around a week when writing two hours a day. This necessitates turning the WiFi off, however, and actually left me a bit disappointed. One of the downsides of running Android and having these additional functions is that they drain the battery significantly faster. A week isn’t bad, but if you’re taking it to several classes a day and then using it for assignments, it won’t even last that long. Viwoods rates it for a month in standby, which does hold true, so if you’re off on vacation or seasonal break, it should still have juice left when you return.
I’ve tested the AI Paper alongside three other leading e-ink tablets (part of an upcoming feature), and all of these devices are after similar things: a paper-like writing experience, fewer distractions, supporting your education and work life, and improving your organization. That side-by-side comparison has highlighted just how much the Viwoods AI Paper has been able to stand out despite the company being so new.
For starters, this is the best implementation of the Carta 1300 display yet. One of the most disappointing qualities of it, as implemented in other tablets like the Boox Max, is that the screen is unusually dark. Whites tend to look dark gray, which can impact readability. The Al Paper is the whitest implementation I've seen so far, offering very good contrast and clarity.
The writing experience is also great. I wouldn't say it's like paper exactly, but the screen has a minute texture that creates a bit of scratchiness when writing. It feels good if you've never written on an e-ink tablet before; it takes a little getting used to, but I found it much easier than learning to write with a stylus on my Android tablet and its smooth, glassy surface (I eventually gave up on that). The display also uses a soft surface instead of hard glass, which helps it to feel a bit more natural too.
The AI Paper was my first e-ink tablet, so I had to go through that learning curve transitioning from paper and typing exclusively. I found it fairly easy to adapt to. It does take a minute to learn its different tools, but it's very smartly designed with intuitive features like lassoing to erase large bits of text or drawing.
Sketching on the tablet was also surprisingly good. In fact, it's one of the best. This is largely because of its variety of writing implements. I especially liked the pencil. It just felt so natural to use, much more so than I would have expected any digital writing instrument to feel. You can naturally tilt and angle it for shading with full pressure sensitivity to dial in gradients. This honestly makes a huge difference and works very well with the pressure settings hidden in the tablet's menu system. Between the two, you can really dial in the feeling to make advanced sketches truly possible on this tablet.
I like the stylus, though I do think it could feel a bit more premium. It's simple, slim, and plastic. At the same time, it feels like a normal pencil and has a flat section to rest your thumb and keep it oriented correctly. There's a button on this section that can be used for erasing, or you can flip it over and use the backside as an eraser. It's no Lamy, but it feels good to use. It also made me wish other brands started making spring-loaded nibs. If you push hard enough, the nib provides some resistance that almost feels like you're digging into the page.
The AI Paper is at its best when you actively make it a daily companion. I'm finding that to be true of all of these tablets, and perhaps it goes without saying. Even so, I've made a point to carry it in situations when I wouldn't normally carry a notebook. Doing so, and using the keyword system, I’ve found that I’m more organized and less forgetful. I work across multiple organizations, and simply using the AI Paper so regularly has inspired me to keep a daily organizer and to-do list. As an adult with ADHD, I’ve come up with a lot of systems to manage, but never stepped into a daily planner with such regularity.
Running on Android also has benefits if you prefer to work in apps that don't come preloaded or to use peripherals like a Bluetooth keyboard. This was also something I was highly interested in, as I have been a fan of the Astrohaus Freewrite for quite some time, a device that uses an e-ink screen as part of its attempt to be a modern typewriter. Since I do most of my writing in Google Docs, I downloaded the app, connected a wireless mechanical keyboard, and was off to the races. It worked exceptionally well.
Despite feeling quite fully featured, the Viwoods Al Paper is still a work in progress. The company has been releasing updates regularly, adding features like the aforementioned tap-and-hold auto-shapes. It also still needs some features to give it parity with competitors like the Supernote, such as the ability to add multiple keywords to a document for more advanced sorting and connecting ideas.
The biggest issue I personally encountered, however, was ghosting. Because of the way the display technology works, all e-ink displays have some form of image retention when changing screens. It's not permanent like it is with OLED gaming monitors, but it can be distracting. While it's not terrible, it is definitely noticeable. More noticeable than I expected. Thankfully, you can easily refresh the screen by dragging down from the top left corner, which wipes these away.
You can also set the screen to different refresh speeds which reduces this. That comes with a trade-off, however. You can choose from Best Display, Fast Mode, and Ultra Fast Mode. Each of the two steps up softens the image. So while it’s possible to make the ghosts less visible, it’s also not something I usually wanted to do when a simple swipe would eliminate them entirely.
He's been praised, applauded, mocked, and maligned, but no matter what, Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage has given his everything; pouring his heart and soul into each movie role he's had. Occasionally his go-for-broke creative choices have led him into the heart of Meme Country, but there's no denying Cage's vigorous, explosive talent.
He's been in acclaimed rom-coms, soul-crushing dramas, and of course, some of the biggest and best action hits of the 1990s. Nic Cage's resume is so dense in fact, that we've allowed this "Best Of" to go to 15, rather than the usual top 10. He's worked with powerhouse directors like David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Michael Bay, Ridley Scott, and his own uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, turning in some of the most memorable performances in movie history. (Speaking of memorable, be sure to also see the 40 best Nicolas Cage moments written by a Cage superfan who has seen every Nic Cage film.)
Having tackled every genre there is in his four decades of acting; whether it's saving San Francisco from a chemical gas attack or heading to Las Vegas for a lethal bender to—well, play himself—in a meta-adventure about his own career, these are our picks for Nicolas Cage's best movies ever.
After an impressive debut run in the '80s, Nic Cage's '90s were an eclectic mix of blockbusters, rom-com chaos, and gritty crime dramas—much like Red Rock West, from neo-noir notable John Dahl. Cage played a down-on-his-luck discharged Marine whose search for honest work in Wyoming plunges him into a murder-for-hire mess between Dennis Hopper, J.T. Walsh, and Lara Flynn Boyle. This suspenseful gem featured more of a subdued "everyman" performance from Cage, leading him into bigger action hero roles down the line.
Cage wasn't the headlining star of Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass, a full-throttle adaptation of the Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. comic series, but he stood out in a super-duper supporting role as Big Daddy, the Batman-style vigilante who raised his daughter, Hit-Girl, to be just as violently unforgiving of crime as he was. Cage got to pass his action hero torch to a new crew of young in this pre-MCU hero-verse of Rated R mayhem.
Read our Kick-Ass review.
Nicolas Cage seemed to embrace all his crazed passions and eccentricities at once, unleashing an unhinged transformation as a satanic doll maker in Osgood Perkins' surprise hit Longlegs. The story of a haunted FBI agent (Maika Monroe) tracking a series of connected-yet-unexplainable murders was ambitiously accentuated by Cage's performance, which was inspired by everything from Heath Ledger's Joker to falsetto ukulele player Tiny Tim to his own mother. Cage rolled every manic, memed movie scene of his cinematic catalogue into one package for this portrayal of a madman hiding in plain sight.
Read our Longlegs review.
Nicolas Cage found himself in a bit of a career resurgence in 2022 as recent critical indifference sort of spun full circle into a newfound appreciation as the loopy, delightful film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent hit theaters and Cage delighted audiences as a pompously sweet version of himself, getting caught up in an comedic espionage adventure after accepting a million bucks to attend a wealthy super-fan’s birthday bash. The film works as an absurdly fun and winking bookend for Cage's career (which isn't over yet, of course).
Read our The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Review.
Cage garnered some of the best reviews of his career, and even some Oscar buzz, for 2021's Pig, the surprisingly moving story about an isolated Oregon truffle-hunter whose beloved pig gets kidnapped. It's a mesmerizing odyssey about love and loss that deftly plays against expectations, reminding us how completely captivating Nic Cage can be in sad, subtle roles.
Read our Pig review.
Con-Air is an absolutely preposterous joy ride from start to finish. As a fast-moving blast-em-up, Con Air keeps its tongue firmly in its cheek as Cage, and his wind blown hair, embody Cameron Poe, an Army Ranger who gets convicted of manslaughter and must hitch a ride aboard a prison transport plane full of the worst criminals imaginable. When John Malkovich's psycho mastermind Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom takes over the flight, it puts Poe's plans to reunite with his wife and daughter in danger, causing this terse Terminator to fight back. It's a rambunctious, over-the-top classic.
Cage and co-star Laura Dern sizzled and steamed as Sailor and Lula in David Lynch's unbridled romance, Wild at Heart. It's a sultry love-on-the-run dark comedy that allowed Cage and Dern to tap into their craziness while also bringing Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" into heavy rotation on MTV. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, Wild at Heart is an insane must-see, as polarizing as a Lynch film can get.
The first of Cage's two mini-franchises (the other being Ghost Rider), National Treasure was Indiana Jones with United States history. Cage leads as treasure hunter and cryptographer while Benjamin Gates must steal the Declaration of Independence in order to keep hidden gold out of the hands of a crime boss. It's a strong, delightfully dorky family adventure outing for Cage, who dedicated most of his career to the offbeat and outlandish.
Read our National Treasure review.
The Rock is one of the purest, most perfect '90s Michael Bay extravaganzas, with Cage and Sean Connery teaming up to thwart domestic terrorists' plans to annihilate the Bay Area. Cage got to mix his quirky indie film comedy chops into an underdog action hero as Stanley Goodspeed, a biochemist in over his head. He's surrounded by actual soldiers meant to protect him and rises to the occasion by becoming a full champion. The Rock, as awesome and grandiose as it was, solidified Cage as a viable player in the realm of mega-movies.
Cage's superior, standout film from 2018—that wasn't a voice role in either Teen Titans Go! To the Movies or Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse—was the psychedelic madhouse Mandy. The film is about a peaceful logger, Red, living in the woods of the Pacific Northwest in the '80s, whose life gets horrifically upended by a deranged cult. Red then spirals into surreal rampage of vengeance, armed with with a crossbow and axe. Mandy is artful gonzo violence mixed with feral performances and altered states. It's one of Cage's most triumphant modern flicks.
Read our Mandy review.
One of Cage's first starring roles came in one of the Coen Brothers' first feature films, Raising Arizona. As perpetual convict H.I. McDunnough, Cage emanated cartoonish sweetness as he and Holly Hunter's Edwina helped themselves to one of a local couples' newborn pentuplets (Nathan Jr., we think) because the paper said "they got more than they can handle." What follows is the most joyful, rollicking, absurd movie about—er—child kidnapping ever, that both solidified Cage as a formidably funny performer and the Coens as cockeyed craftsmen.
Read our Raising Arizona review.
In Nic Cage's second-ever movie, he landed his first starring role as one half of a star-crossed rom-com duo. 1983's Valley Girl was key in introducing "valley" culture (and "valleyspeak") to the rest of America, as Deborah Foreman plays picture-perfect Julie of the materialistic, mall-obsessed San Fernando Valley. You can guess what comes next as Julie falls for the brooding Hollywood punk, Randy (Cage). It's an adorable, amiable, young love story that showcased Cage's charisma and locked him into wonderful romantic lead roles for years following.
Nicolas Cage became one of the few, elite performers in the business to win a Best Actor Oscar. Cage was awarded this for Mike Figgis' Leaving Las Vegas, a powerful piece of '90s grime about a man with a sad, singular plan: go to Las Vegas and drink yourself to death. Co-starring Elisabeth Shue (who received a Best Actress nomination), Leaving Las Vegas is a hard, heavy watch, but also a crucial, excellent example of yesteryear indie cinema. It's riveting and dark portrait of self-destruction.
At only 22 years old, Nic Cage made a huge, hilarious splash opposite Cher in the Oscar-nominated box office hit, Moonstruck. This instant classic rom-com features Cher as a widow, Loretta, who thinks her love life is cursed, while Cage plays the wily, resentful brother of Loretta's new fiancé. Loretta learns to believe in impulsive, passionate love in this winning, endearing love story that gave us one of Cage's earliest, and best, over-the-top line deliveries. Moonstruck, like Cage himself, is timeless.
Face/Off is considered by many to be the "ultimate John Woo movie" for several reasons. Firstly, it employs all of the director’s Hong Kong cinema hallmarks (double guns, doves, guns drawn on each other, etc.) but it also fully engages in its preposterous premise to the point where you're in, baby. You don't question it for a second and just go along for the insane ride. On top of this, Nic Cage, and co-star John Travolta, were two of the biggest movie stars in the world at the time, and this film squeezes them for all the dopamine delivery they’re worth. These two got to play both hero and villain in the same movie, even unleashing slight impersonations of each other in the process; and for Cage, it was a chance to showcase every operatic ability he brings to the table as an actor.
Nicolas Cage's acting career continues on in earnest with multiple upcoming films. Below, you can see what's coming up next for the actor this year and in the years ahead:
What is your #1 Nic Cage film? Let us know in the comments and vote in our poll.
Matt Fowler is a freelance entertainment writer/critic, covering TV news, reviews, interviews and features on IGN for 13+ years.
© Devolver
© Rusty Lake
© Gearbox Software
Gearbox Software just wrapped up its Borderlands 4 State of Play, revealing 20 minutes of new gameplay and details from its highly anticipated looter shooter.
The presentation hops right into the action with the promise that the 2025 Borderlands entry is the studio’s best and most grounded outing yet, promising major gameplay changes that range from new traversal abilities to loot drop formula changes. Gearbox managed to fill the 20-minute showcase with reveals about how Borderlands 4 ups the ante with new mechanics and refreshed existing features, and we’ve got all the highlights right here.
Every Borderlands title updates its traversal mechanics in new ways, and Borderlands 4 looks to be no different. We’ve seen hints of some of the new looter-shooter tools players will have at their disposal when its release date rolls around this September, but today’s gameplay footage gave us a clearer look at what’s to come.
Vault hunters can take advantage of a very Destiny-like midair hover this time around, giving players the freedom to shoot while airborne or reach faraway ledges. There’s also a grappling hook that can be used for both combat and exploration, as well as a dash for those last-second dodges. Vehicles, of course, continue to be a major component in Borderlands 4, too, and this time around, it appears we’ll have the freedom to spawn our rides, including the new Digirunner, wherever we please.
We’ve gotten a taste of the new Vault Hunter traversal mechanics in previous showcases, but today’s State of Play really put the gun manufacturers in the spotlight. There’s a total of eight companies supplying players’ adventure this time around, meaning three new ones – Order, Ripper, and Daedalus – will be behind some of Borderlands 4’s new toys.
Like the other returning manufacturers, each newcomer features unique weapon designs and abilities. Borderlands 4 is taking things one step further, however, by introducing a new spin on its existing gun mechanics: the Licensed Parts System. Gun can now be comprised of a variety of different parts from different manufacturers, meaning you can find an assault rifle with elemental components developed by Maliwan, an ammo clip made by Torgue, and a shield from Hyperion. Higher rarity weapons come with more parts, making that quest for big loot drops more crucial than ever.
The Borderlands 4 State of Play follows two Vault Hunters: Vex the Siren and an exosuit-wearing former Tediore soldier named Rafa. The former playable character uses Siren abilities to conjure beings to help in battle, while the latter builds tools like Ark Knives to tear enemies apart on the fly. Today’s gameplay sees the duo fighting through cold, open arenas throughout the Terminus Range, one of four zones to explore on the planet Kairos.
Borderlands 4 will follow the series’ trend of running into old faces while introducing new ones. Some familiar names that showed up during today’s State of Play include Moxxi, Zane, Amara, and, of course, Claptrap, though there were also a few hints that we might learn more about Lilith, too. New characters include a towering, armored individual named Rush and a helpful robot named Echo 4. The handy robot companion will follow players for the duration of Borderlands 4, aiding with exploration by scanning environments, hacking, and leading lost Vault Hunters to their next objective.
Borderlands 4 players will be happy to hear Gearbox has made an attempt to streamline the co-op process this time around. In addition to what it calls “an improved lobby system,” it should be easier to join up with friends at a moment’s notice. Crossplay will be available at launch, too, with all loot instanced for each player and dynamic level scaling meaning you’ll have freedom with friends on any platform.
Customization within your parties goes even further, as Gearbox has implemented a feature that allows everyone to have their own difficulty settings separate from one another. Making the journey with friends easier is split screen couch co-op, which will be available at launch, as well as an addition that allows players to fast travel to their buddies if someone gets lost.
Borderlands 4 also features a lower chance for Legendary loot drops, dense new skill trees, and so much more. Rep Kit gear will have players choosing between a quick revive and temporary combat buff, while Ordnances give fans the option to fill a cooldown weapons slot with either grenades or unique heavy weapons. There’s also Enhancements, which replace Artifacts in favor of gifting bonuses to guns from specific manufacturers.
Borderlands 4 recently moved up its PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S release date 11 days from September 23 to September 12. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is due out at an unspecified point later in the year, too.
Despite speculation from fans, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford says the scheduled shake up has nothing to do with the long-awaited release date of Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto 6. Expect to learn more about Borderlands 4 as we wait for Gearbox to reveal more about its upcoming hands-on gameplay event in June.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
© Bethesda
Video games and cooking go together more than you might think. Tons of RPGs and simulation games have some form of cooking mechanic or, at the very least, delicious-looking food. From the cozy familiarity of meals from Stardew Valley to fantastical feasts in The Witcher, I can personally say I've encountered tons of animated food I wish was real. Well, turns out it can be.
Gaming cookbooks offer an opportunity to learn unique recipes while immersing yourself in the lore of a world you love. Getting the materials you need might not be as fun as in-game adventuring or farming, but the end result is more than worth it. Whether you're passionate about a specific game, are looking for gift ideas, or just love some themed recipes, here's our list of the best gaming cookbooks in 2025.
One of our top picks for gaming cookbooks is The Official Stardew Valley cookbook, which features 50 recipes written in the voice of various characters as well as some adorable art. The recipes are naturally based on the meals you can make in-game, including Pink Cake, Strange Buns, and even a full Autumn's Bounty to help you power through the mines.
A great gift to inspire young chefs (especially those who particularly enjoyed A Minecraft Movie), the Minecraft cookbook includes 40+ recipes inspired by the game's various mobs and biomes. The same goes for The Pokémon Cookbook, which focuses more on cute snacks and quick meals.
Outside of crafting-based games, themed cookbooks are also a great way to immerse yourself in fantasy worlds. The official Witcher cookbook takes inspiration from the games as well as The Witcher books, with 80 recipes covering everything from a refreshing drink to an exquisite banquet. The Elder Scrolls cookbook hones in on the world of Skyrim (as opposed to the rest of the Elder Scrolls games) while the Fallout cookbook is great for anyone who's particularly curious about the taste of Nuka-Cola.
On the tabletop side of gaming, the Heroes' Feast Dungeons & Dragons cookbook is the crème de la crème for anyone trying to impress their party. Across the board, these cookbooks feature great recipes as well as interesting new bits of lore and art for dedicated fans.
The trend of gaming cookbooks isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Some upcoming gaming cookbooks include one inspired by Pac-Man, which, to be completely honest, is a mystery to me, as well as Borderlands, presumably part of the promotions for Borderlands 4. As someone who's long been curious about Sojiro's curry from Persona 5, I'm particularly excited about the cookbook inspired by the Persona games coming out later this year.
Blythe (she/her) is an SEO Coordinator at IGN who spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.
Apple’s iPad is pretty much the default tablet to recommend. It set the bar for what the best tablets ought to be, and many devices have tried to follow in its footsteps to varying degrees of success. Now, Apple has grown the iPad lineup to quite an extensive range with big and small, super-charged and surprisingly modest devices all making up the Apple lineup. With so many devices to choose from, and often multiple generations of the same model to weigh against one another, it can be hard to suss out the right one. Plus, Apple just released the new iPad (A16) and new M3 iPad Air models, bringing additional choice options and price drops to older generations of the tablets.
We’ve tested Apple’s tablets over the years and have a good sense of what sets each apart. You can get advanced displays and powerful M-series chipsets in Apple’s latest iPad Pro models. For portability, Apple has packed quite a lot into its iPad Mini, enough to make it practically a larger iPhone at a price that’s surprisingly lower than its phone counterparts. And when your needs are simple, like for an e-reader replacement, Apple’s base iPads still provide impressive performance and heaps of value.
Of course, Apple’s not the only tablet maker on the market, and if you’re not locked into Apple’s ecosystem, you may want to look at some alternatives which may be able to give you some quality upgrades for a better price. Alternatively, if you're dead-set on an iPad, you should look into some great iPad accessories, like a keyboard, to make the most of it.
Additional contributions by Mark Knapp and Danielle Abraham
Apple’s base tier iPad was already the best option all-around with the 10th generation model. And now the 11th Gen iPad has swooped in to basically slap a few upgrades into place while keeping the $349 price tag intact. While this new model isn’t exactly an exciting reinvention of the product like the jump from the 9th to the 10th generation was, it’s still an improvement, and all that much nicer to see with no increase in price.
The 11th Gen iPad swaps out the 10.9-inch display of its predecessor for a marginally bigger 11-inch display. The rest of its screen is unchanged, though. It’s still a 2360x1640 Liquid Retina with a 500-nit peak brightness and 60Hz display. And it still supports the Apple Pencil (both USB-C and 1st Gen versions), so you can get creative on it. The rest of the exterior is unchanged, right down to the dimensions of the tablet. That should help with finding affordable accessories like cases, screen protectors, and keyboard covers.
The internal upgrades are perhaps the bigger appeal here. The A14 Bionic chip has been swapped out for a slightly more recent and performant A16 chip, though that still lags behind the A18 found in the 2024 iPhones. The difference most people will experience is in the storage, which has bumped up from 64GB to a base of 128GB. All that extra space means room for more apps and games and a much easier time keeping photos and videos saved on the tablet without needing to tap into iCloud storage space.
If your needs are modest and you really want to pinch pennies, then the iPad (9th Generation) is our budget pick thanks to its very solid performance, crisp and clear 10.2-inch Retina (backlit) display, and low starting price under $300. However, it’s getting a bit old and has been replaced by a considerably better model in the iPad 11th Gen. That said, this 9th Gen model is still sometimes on sale for nearly $250, and at that price it can still be a viable bargain next to the $350 iPad 11 Gen. But it won’t always be available at that lower price, especially with stock shrinking, and the 11th Gen iPad gets discounted from time to time, too. So this recommendation comes with some reservations. If this model is more than $250 at the time you’re trying to buy, consider going with the 11th Gen iPad instead, especially if it’s on sale too.
This iPad is currently running the latest version of iPadOS to optimize performance and speed, even though its processor is a few years old. While it doesn’t have the same bells and whistles as the iPad Air, iPad Mini, or iPad Pro like a faster processor, thinner bezels, or a more modern design, it’s still an iPad that gets the same access to the same apps as any other Apple tablet. Some of the more intensive ones just won't work as well.
If you’re only planning on using it for consuming media, catching up on the news, playing basic iOS games, or reading e-books, the 9th Gen iPad will get the job done at an affordable price. It also makes for a great iPad for kids since it’s so inexpensive. Just wrap a durable iPad case around it to avoid damage.
The iPad Pro has always been a beautiful piece of tech, but Apple took the tried-and-true design and thinned it down, making it the thinnest iPad ever, beating even the iPad Air. Even though the chassis got some thickness cut off from it, Apple stuffed it with the Apple M4 chip, making it more powerful than the most recent MacBook Air. This makes an already great iPad for creative professionals even better.
The 7th Generation iPad Pro also introduces a new OLED display, another first for an iPad, and it is absolutely gorgeous. When we reviewed this 7th Gen iPad Pro, Jacqueline Thomas noted how it quickly became her favorite device to watch or read anything on. Colors are bright and contrast nicely with darker elements of any scene, adding vibrancy to pretty much anything displayed on the tablet.
The M4 makes sure the beautiful display is put to good use, too. With the 8-core GPU, the iPad Pro makes easy work of any game run natively on the device, and we could see this becoming the de-facto gaming tablet (at least if you're not counting the best handheld gaming PCs). The processor also makes it excel at the creative workloads the tablet is designed for. With the new Apple Pencil Pro, which you will have to pay extra for, the powerful hardware and gorgeous display combine to make this an excellent choice for artists and photo editors that need a touch screen to get their job done.
If you want this to become your default workstation, though, you're going to have to fork over a ton of cash to make it happen. For the official model, the Magic Keyboard costs nearly $300 on its own, and the Apple Pencil is going to add an extra $129, too. There are Apple Pencil alternatives, and you can pair it with basically any keyboard, but it's something to be aware of going in.
Read the review: Apple iPad Pro (7th Generation)
When the best iPhones are just a little too small and the other 10-inch or larger iPads are more screen real estate than needed, the iPad Mini is the perfect in-between option for reading. With a stunning 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display and 10.4oz heft, this iPad’s compact design makes for a great option that’s easy to tuck away in a bag or even a jacket pocket on the go.
Readers will gravitate towards this tiny tablet since it can be comfortably held with one hand, and the Apple App Store is chock full of reading apps, such as Apple Books, Amazon Kindle, comiXology, Libby, Scribd, and more. It’s one of IGN’s favorite reading tablets for a reason. Compatibility with the Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C) even make the iPad Mini a viable option for notetaking or sketching too.
Like most iPads, the Mini’s high-quality build leaves many of the best Android tablets at a similar price in the dust. For under $500, the sturdy recycled aluminum body looks great and holds up well against wear and tear. Its design remains pretty much unchanged from previous generations, so it’s one of the few iPads that still offers Touch ID.
Under the hood, the 7th Generation Mini model got a major boost in performance. Although the Mini’s A17 Pro processor, the same silicon found in the iPhone 15 Pro, can’t compete with the M4 and M3 chips found in the Air and Pro models, it is still plenty zippy for the compact device. Stuff like watching YouTube or scrolling TikTok will be breezy. Gaming is even viable, and the Mini is compatible with some of the best phone controllers for added convenience.
Samsung isn’t the only brand making great Android tablets. The OnePlus Pad 2 launched with quite a smash. It may not get much mainstream attention, but it absolutely deserves it. It started at $549 but has since seen discounts to $449, and that’s a solid deal for a tablet doing as much as this.
The OnePlus Pad 2 is basically the iPad Pro of the Android tablet market. It features a 12.1-inch display that’s quite something. It’s an IPS panel, but it offers 10-bit color depth, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and a 900-nit peak brightness. It also runs at a buttery 144Hz refresh rate, making it all the smoother while gaming, scrolling web pages, or inking up your artwork with the optional stylus. The tablet supports the OnePlus Stylo 2, which is pressure-sensitive, has haptic feedback, and can charge over a magnetic connection to the tablet. The display is also surrounded by not two, not four, but six speakers for impressive spatial audio.
Inside, the OnePlus Pad 2 is powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip that powered many of 2024’s flagship Android smartphones, and that gives it plenty of juice to run the latest apps and games. With a default of 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage, it’s also got plenty of room for big games and multiple apps running at the same time.
In our testing of the OnePlus Pad 2, we also found that it had incredible battery life. It has a 9,510mAh battery tucked away inside, and that proved up to the task of providing about 12 hours of heavy use – plenty for long flights. When it comes to charge, it supports 80W charging – faster than a lot of laptops – to juice back up completely in a little over an hour.
OnePlus doesn’t plan on leaving this tablet behind any time soon either. It launched with Android 14, and the company promised three years of OS updates and four years of security updates.
Read the full review: OnePlus Pad 2
If you're on the edge of your seat waiting for a brand-new Apple tablet, you're in luck. An 11th-Gen iPad with an A16 processor and new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models running on an M3 chip just came out. We also recently got an update to the iPad Mini, as the compact tablet now features an A17 Pro processor.
Ever since it was introduced in 2010, the iPad originally served to fill in a digital gap. For some people, it's meant to be that in-between mobile device that’s more portable than a laptop but more powerful than a smartphone, while for others, it can actually serve as a wholesale laptop replacement.
If you’re looking to buy your first iPad, or you’re looking to upgrade from an older model, then we put this useful buyer’s guide on what to look for in an iPad in 2025, below:
Currently, there are six iPad models with five different screen sizes for various uses. The smallest in the family is the iPad Mini with a 8.3-inch Liquid Retina (LCD) display, which is ideal for reading e-books, magazines, comic books, articles, and more. It’s also very portable and super lightweight at just 10oz (or 293g), and best for one-handed casual use.
For something bigger, both baseline iPad models, 9th and 10th generations, feature a 10.2-inch Retina (backlit) and a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina displays. The 11th Gen model features an 11-inch screen. Meanwhile, the M3 iPad Air features a 11-inch or 13-inch Liquid Retina display too, but it’s more powerful with that M-processor than the standard models, which feature the A13, A14, A16, A17 Pro Bionic chips, respectively.
In fact, 11 inches in size is considered the “sweet spot” for iPad models because it's large enough to consume media, but compact enough for portability. These models are best for most people who want to watch videos, play games, and browse the web, while taking on productivity tasks.
The largest iPad you can pick up is the iPad Pro, which comes in two models: the smaller 11-inch Liquid Retina display and the granddaddy 13-inch Ultra Retina XDR OLED display. Both Pro models feature the same Apple M4 processor, so the iPad Pro is best for creatives and professionals who might want a laptop replacement.
When it comes to on-board storage space, most iPad models start at 64GB and go all the way up to a whopping 2TB with the iPad Pro. For most people 64GB is plenty of space for apps, games, video downloads, and more.
However, if you plan on taking a lot of high-resolution photos and videos, then you might want to consider getting a higher capacity iPad. For creatives and professionals, it’s best to pick up a model with at least 1TB of storage – especially for photographers or video editors. Additionally, if you want more than 2TB of storage, then you have to connect an external hard drive to the iPad via its USB-C port.
Speaking of which, all iPad models (except the 9th Generation iPad, which still uses the old fashioned Lightning port) have a USB-C port for charging and peripherals, including external hard drives. However, it’s best to connect solid-state hard drives since they don’t require much power from the iPad itself to operate. Since iPadOS has the Files app built-in, you can easily access files from within the iPad or an external hard drive.
Bluetooth is still the best way to connect the many of the best iPad accessories — like the Apple Pencil, Apple Smart Keyboard Folio, Apple Magic Keyboard, Apple AirPods, even an Xbox or PS5 gaming controller, and more — to the iPad wirelessly. Just make sure the peripheral you’d like to connect is compatible with the iPad. One of IGN's experts reviewed the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC, giving the headphones high praise and an 8/10 rating. These earbuds work seamlessy with iPads and cost less than the AirPods Pro 2 while delivering similar performance in several catagories.
There are two versions for each iPad model: Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi + cellular. The first version can only connect to the internet via Wi-Fi, so it’s best to use at home, at the office, or just about anywhere with a steady Wi-Fi connection like a coffee shop or airport.
The second can connect to Wi-Fi and cellular networks via 4G LTE mobile data like an Apple iPhone. This means you’ll have to get a mobile data plan from a cellular carrier like T-Mobile or AT&T if you want to connect to the internet without a Wi-Fi connection. These models also have GPS, so they’re ideal to use as an entertainment display in a car.
Of course, Wi-Fi + cellular versions are more expensive than Wi-Fi-only iPad models because there are more antennas and sensors inside.
The iPad starts at $269 for the 10th Generation model. In fact, you can pick up this model for even cheaper during big shopping events like Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday. At the high end, a maxed out iPad Pro can go for upwards of $2,000. This is an iPad Pro with all the bells and whistles, such as a 13-inch Ultra Retina XDR display, 2TB of storage space, and Wi-Fi + cellular connectivity. If you want the best of the best, this iPad Pro is for you.
Our top pick right now for kids and younger family members is the iPad Air M2, as found in our top iPads for kids list. If you're heading off to school, we've also included a comprehensive guide to the best iPads for students.
Rudie Obias is a tech freelance writer and editor who is also interested in cinema, pop culture, music, the NBA, and science fiction. His work can be found at Fandom, TV Guide, Metacritic, Yahoo!, Mashable, Mental Floss, and of course, IGN. Follow him @RudieObias on Twitter & IG.
While just about every phone you can get your hands on nowadays will be able to play some games, several key features distinguish a fine gaming phone from a great one. Powerful processing is one piece of the puzzle. Being able to sustain high performance levels is also a must – you don’t want to deal with a phone that can only run smoothly for a few minutes before it slows down and scorches your hands. Extra memory and storage are also clutch for gaming phones, providing a means for multitasking even while you have a game running and giving you plenty of space for games. Some gaming phones, like the RedMagic 10 Pro, even offer extra upgrades for gaming, like additional shoulder buttons and enhanced touch sampling rates.
Of course, the display is also a big piece of the puzzle. If you can’t see your games, you’re going to have a hard time playing them. A bigger, brighter display helps, as does a boost in refresh rate for smooth motion. An added benefit of a bigger phone is that your thumbs won’t cover as much of the display when you’re using touch controls. With all these details in mind, here’s a look at the best smartphones that also excel when it comes to gaming on the go.
Check out our guide to the best phone controllers for accessory options.
Contributions by Georgie Peru and Danielle Abraham
Gaming demands a lot from a phone, and over all others, the RedMagic 10 Pro has what it takes, as I found when I reviewed it. The beating heart of the RedMagic 10 Pro is an actively cooled Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. I’d already seen this chip do wonders performance-wise in phones like the Asus ROG Phone 9 and OnePlus 13, but the RedMagic 10 Pro turns it up a notch with a cooling fan that lets the chip run all the more effectively for the kind of long-haul sessions that gaming requires. Any time the RedMagic 10 Pro wasn’t at the head of the pack in benchmarks, it was still very near the front, and it absolutely led the way where sustain was concerned. All that performance is only further backed by an astoundingly large 7,050mAh battery.
Naturally, the RedMagic 10 Pro has a few extras specifically for gamers. It includes two shoulder buttons, providing a way to get your index fingers in on the action. You can simply map these shoulder buttons to on-screen controls, good for pretty much any game. The display also has a fast touch-sampling rate, so it’ll detect inputs quickly. Depending on the game, you can also tap into supersampling and frame interpolation to sharpen visuals and smooth out the action.
RedMagic packs all of this capability into a good-looking phone, too. It’s not gaudy, but it still has style. There are a handful of looks, including clear backs, that give a peek at the layout of components. The display is also a winner. It has tiny bezels and stretches 6.85-inches across – and we’re talking a proper 6.85 inches, as the display is rectangular without large areas being cropped by corner curves. RedMagic even effectively hides the selfie camera beneath the display so that it doesn’t interrupt your view of games. The display is a brilliant AMOLED panel offering a 144Hz refresh rate, high peak brightness, and ample sharpness.
Truly, this phone is wonderfully geared up for gaming, and even with a commanding performance lead, it doesn’t cost as much as its competitors. The RedMagic 10 Pro starts at $649, which is almost absurd considering the price of competitors like the Asus ROG Phone 9 at $999.
If you’ve seen some of the ostentatious designs that come with “gamer” gear, you can be forgiven for wanting to steer clear of the typical gaming phones. Fortunately, you still have an excellent option available to you with the OnePlus 13. You’ll find plenty to love when it comes time to game, but for the rest of the time, you’ll get a much more tame-looking phone.
Inside the OnePlus 13 is a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. This pairs a blazing fast CPU and potent GPU that make for exceptional everyday performance and potent gaming speeds. In benchmarks, the OnePlus 13 readily rivaled the iPhone 16 Pro Max in CPU speeds and outstripped it in 3DMark’s graphics tests. The phone could even offer a decent amount of sustain. And when put to the test with Wuthering Waves at max settings, it didn’t struggle to keep up with the action. The phone’s 6,000mAh battery also helps out for those long gaming sessions.
OnePlus packs that speed into an elegant chassis. There are three designs, and each is more than a simple color swap, giving you a little more selection than you typically get from new phones. The design also has impressive water protections against submersion and hot water jets. The display on the OnePlus 13 is also excellent, providing a large, vibrant, and searingly bright platform for everyday use, movies, and gaming. And unlike most gaming phones, the OnePlus 13 doesn’t force you to sacrifice camera quality. You’ll find brilliant shooters on the back and front of the phone that capture great photos and video.
The OnePlus 13 comes in at $899 for a configuration with 256GB of storage and 12GB of memory, but if you want plenty of room for games, you can bump up to 512GB of storage and get 16GB of memory for $999.
I reviewed the iPhone 16 Pro Max and can safely say that it will get the job done when it comes time for gaming. The A18 Pro chip inside has an extra graphics core over the A18 chip inside the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, and that gives it a considerable boost in performance for graphics applications (i.e., games!). Then there’s the fact that the iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with a huge, 6.9-inch display that provides a much bigger surface for enjoying your games and using controls than the smaller iPhone 16 Pro.
You’re not only getting great gaming performance from the iPhone 16 Pro Max, though. It also has an excellent design, with a titanium frame and glass construction. It’s great to look at whether it’s on or off. The camera system is powerful, offering stunning photos from the main sensor and zoom capabilities to get closer to subjects. Plus, if you want to take video, the processing on the iPhone 16 Pro Max goes high resolution, recording in Dolby Vision, and capturing serious slow-mo.
Apple has also made inroads into a more serious tier of gaming. For instance, Ubisoft released Assassin’s Creed Mirage onto iOS and a number of Resident Evil games have come the platform as well. Access to more and better games goes a long way to making a device great for gaming.
While Apple did launch the new iPhone 16e in 2025 with budget-minded consumers in consideration, it didn’t provide as affordable a new model as it had with earlier iPhone SE devices. The $599 iPhone 16e has some advantages though. This new model runs on the A18 chip that powers the iPhone 16, and that’s a serious piece of hardware. Unfortunately, the iPhone 16e gets a trimmed-down GPU with 4 cores instead of 5. Fortunately, the A18 has performance to spare, so I don’t see that holding the iPhone 16e back from being a solid gaming phone for even demanding titles. Even though I haven’t had a chance to test the iPhone 16e yet, I think it’s safe to say it’ll still rip through everyday operation and games alike, and my colleague over at PCMag saw excellent performance from the phone in his review.
While it's a shame the iPhone 16e couldn’t get a $429 price tag like the prior iPhone SE, it doesn’t make the same sacrifices that phone did. The iPhone 16e gets a more modern design in line with what Apple’s been pushing since as early as the iPhone 12. The best part of this upgrade for gamers is the much greater screen size. The iPhone 16e has a 6.1-inch display without the beefy bezels of the iPhone SE. That’s more real estate to see games and use your thumbs for controls. Plus, the display is an OLED panel, which provides better image quality and contrast. The iPhone 16e also starts with more base storage at 128GB, which is huge compared to the 64GB Apple provided in the prior iPhone SE.
All of that sets up the iPhone 16e nicely for gamers. But I’ll caveat that it may not be the perfect choice for folks who just want a value-focused iPhone. It may be the cheapest Apple offers at the moment, but it does sacrifice quite a bit. For instance, you won’t get access to mmWave or UWB 5G networking, which tends to offer the fastest speeds. That lack of mmWave also means precise device tracking for items like AirTags won’t work. The iPhone 16e also lacks MagSafe support, so you’ll have to either go without it or rely on a case to enable compatibility with MagSafe accessories. The camera system is also rather limited with just one sensor. I’d recommend the iPhone 14 for most people, but the updated chip in the iPhone 16e will make more sense for gamers who can forgo the extra mentioned here.
See our guide to the best cheap smartphones.
We already liked the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 for gaming, but the Galaxy Z Fold 6 improves on a great thing. One of the best upgrades is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip inside, which takes the performance up a notch. In our testing, it bumped speeds up by as much as 22%. When it comes time to grind monsters in Zenless Zone Zero or Wurthering Waves, that extra performance makes it that much easier to keep up with the action and see all the detail creators put into the games.
The Z Fold 6 keeps a similar internal screen, stretching 7.6 inches across and offering a 2160x1856 resolution. With the AMOLED panel, you’ll get to enjoy your games in vivid color and striking contrast. If you prefer an ultra-wide aspect ratio, you can also game on the exterior screen, which sits at 6.2". Either way, you get to enjoy a smooth, responsive gaming experience.
And when you’re not gaming, you’ll have a serious piece of tech on your hands. Open, the Z Fold 6 is a small tablet with potential for multi-tasking and more. Closed, the Z Fold 6 blends in as a regular smartphone. It also gets a powerful camera system with all the knack Samsung offers for the technology. And though the Z Fold 6 is a considerable investment, it’s backed by long-term software support from Samsung.
The OnePlus 12 is a compelling value, offering top-tier qualities at the price of most base-tier flagships (think S24 Ultra at the price of an S24). But OnePlus wanted to make an even more budget-friendly option with the OnePlus 12R. This model offers the look and feel of the OnePlus 12, but it comes in at just $499. The star of the show is the 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display, which boasts a 1264x2780 and 120Hz refresh rate. It’s a stunner and a great platform for gaming. Put this next to the iPhone SE, and it’s no contest which has the better display.
Internally, the OnePlus 12R isn’t swinging for the fences. It packs 2023’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, but for most gaming, it still offers plenty of horsepower. With a 5,500mAh battery inside, the OnePlus 12R is also ready to stretch your gaming sessions out.
The OnePlus 12R did have to make some sacrifices, and its camera system is one area where it trimmed things. It doesn't have a setup that matches the OnePlus 12, but the camera system has little bearing on the phone’s ability to run games. So if you’re out here shopping for a cheaper gaming phone, the iPhone 12R is a great, value-focused option.
While the best smartphones on the market tend to have some of what it takes to be a decent gaming phone, proper gaming phones tend to have some considerable advantages. You’ll find unseen benefits under the hood, upgrades to the screen and battery, and even extra controls to help give you the edge while gaming.
Deciding on a portable gaming device truly depends on your lifestyle, the type of games you want to play, and how you want to play them.
A gaming phone is ultra-portable and easily pocketed. However, it’s still a highly capable machine that does more than game, offering all your typical smartphone features, including quality cameras, navigation, and communication. Many gaming phones even have cooling solutions to prevent thermal throttling and some handy triggers. If you’re not a fan of touch controls, you can always grab a phone controller and get an experience much closer to a gaming handheld.
Gaming handhelds, like the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch, are substantially bulkier but still easy to toss in a bag and take on the go. Unlike gaming phones, they are pretty much used solely for gaming, so you get responsive joysticks, triggers, and buttons with these options.
As for actual games, there’s a considerable rift. Android and iOS get plenty of games, and it’s becoming increasingly common to find the same titles on mobile and PC, though the mobile versions are often scaled back in some ways. Gaming handhelds get access to pretty much all of the PC games out there because they are, in fact, gaming PCs (except the Nintendo Switch, of course). Some PC games won’t run well (or run at all) on the low-powered hardware of the gaming handheld, though.
Both gaming handhelds and gaming phones can tap into cloud gaming platforms like Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass. In these, the performance of the phone and handheld don’t matter nearly as much as the quality of their internet connection. In that sense, phones can get an advantage as they offer both Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity (though a very good 5G connection is all but essential to try game streaming).
Battery life can be a tossup. Gaming phones tend to have sizable batteries, run efficiently, and can easily last through the day even with a bit of gaming sprinkled in – otherwise, what use is it as a phone? Gaming handhelds tend to last just a few hours, with the Steam Deck offering pretty poor battery life as an example. And topping up the battery on the go will be easier for the phone, which won’t require a high-wattage charger.
Cost is a big question. The Steam Deck starts at $400 and the original Nintendo Switch is even less than that. Most gaming phones cost more. But some gaming handhelds are landing with prices closer to $1,000, and that far outpaces some of our favorite gaming phones. Plus, most of us need a phone whether we get a gaming handheld or not. The fact a gaming phone can pull double duty should weigh into its value.
The limited access to games may be the deciding factor, as even with cloud gaming as an option, some games simply won’t be available for gaming phones. If everything you want to play is available on mobile or cloud gaming, then it’s worth testing the waters of cloud gaming with your current phone and then, if you like the experience, considering a gaming phone as your next device. If you can’t play the games you want the way you want, then a handheld may fit the bill.
Mark Knapp is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything electronics and gaming hardware. He has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry with bylines at PCMag, Reviewed, CNET, and more. Find Mark on Twitter @Techn0Mark or BlueSky at @Techn0Mark.
With the so many different reasons to celebrate Star Wars sprinkled throughout the year, there's never a wrong time to shop for Star Wars merch. If you're a fan of the franchise or know someone else that is, we’re here to make your Star Wars gift shopping a lot easier.
We’ve assembled a list of some of the best Star Wars gifts we’ve found online, from books and Blu-rays to video games, shirts, and LEGO gift sets. So, without further ado, here are some of the best ways to bring a galaxy far, far away into your home.
There’s an absolute ton of great Star Wars video games available right now on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC, whether that’s Star Wars Jedi Survivor or LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. But if you’re looking to get a friend or family member the most recent major Star Wars game on the market, you’ll want to look into Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws. Offering a sprawling open-world adventure with hours of content, It’s a gift that’s sure to give any Star Wars fan plenty to do over the holiday break. There are also quite a few great Star Wars games for the Nintendo Switch if you're looking to play there.
When it comes to Star Wars novels, there are plenty of great choices out there, both from the current canon continuity and the non-canon Star Wars Legends books timeline. If you’re buying for a current fan wanting to keep up with the latest Star Wars lore though, there’s no better place to look than the High Republic series, which has been a key focus for Disney as they establish the latest new notch on the franchise’s timeline. If you’re gifting for a reader who’s new to the High Republic era, check out the High Republic: Light of the Jedi trilogy boxed set, which contains all three novels from the first phase of the series. If you don't mind placing a preorder, there's also a Revenge of the Sith deluxe edition coming out in October that's worth checking out.
Classic recommendations for Star Wars comics include the following (as found in our best Star Wars comics shopping list).
Want to grab the cinephiles in your life a shiny new Star Wars collection? There are a lot of good options out there, with the most premium of the bunch being the Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Complete Collection. This absolute unit of a boxset comes with all nine movies in Blu-ray format as well as 26 hours of bonus content and special features. In short, it's the collection to end all collections, and a great pick-up for any diehard fans of the Star Wars movies.
You can also pick up more recent seasons of the live-action Star Wars TV shows in 4K and Blu-ray. With Andor season 2 picking up on Disney+ right now, picking up the first season in 4K is an excellent option.
When it comes to buying a Star Wars LEGO set, you’re absolutely spoiled for choice, with this last year alone bringing us incredibly popular builds like Jabba’s Barge and the TIE Interceptor. However, if you’re looking for a fun set to pick up without breaking into the much pricier line of UCS builds that LEGO dropped last year a great option is the Imperial Star Destroyer play set. Retailing at $159.99, it offers a full star destroyer with a buildable interior, as well as the very first official Cal Kestis mini-figure, making it a great choice for young and veteran LEGO fans alike.
Alongside these older sets, LEGO is also releasing new Star Wars sets for May the Fourth in 2025.
For those on the hunt for a fun Star Wars board game, you can’t go wrong with Star Wars: Outer Rim. Casting you and three other players as intergalactic outlaws, your mission is to venture across the galaxy and strategically build your reputation by smuggling cargo, hunting bounties and meeting various iconic Star Wars characters. If you reckon your friends or family would jump at the chance to become a legendary scoundrel, Outer Rim is a safe bet. But it’s far from the only option on offer, with other great board games like Star Wars Rebellion and Star Wars Imperial Assault sure to bring hours of intergalactic entertainment.
If you or someone you know just so happens to be a chronic puzzler on top of being a Star Wars fan, there are quite a few options. Our overall top pick for the best Star Wars puzzle for adults is this 2,000-piece jigsaw we've featured above. It depicts numerous different characters from episodes 1-6 along with a variety of machines, ships, and the Death Star looming in the background. It is a pretty big puzzle, however, so you may want to sure whoever you're giving it to has a decent puzzle table or board that can hold it.
Alongside this puzzle, there are quite a few other options. There are ven model kits that act as 3D puzzles you can check out,
If you’re looking for clothing-related gifts, Star Wars has a nigh-on endless range of wearable merch that make for great presents. Whether you’re searching for Star-Wars-inspired Hawaiian shirts, tees sporting iconic poster graphics or a funny festive jumper that will stand out from the crowd, here are some of our favorites.
Much like with shirts, Star Wars has plenty of novelty homeware that make for great gifts. Whether you’re on the hunt for a Darth Vader Waffle Maker or an R2-D2 lava lamp, we’ve assembled some fun kitchenware, lights, mugs, and other homeware that are sure to put a smile on any Star Wars fan’s face.
Callum Williams is an IGN freelancer covering features and guides. When he's away from his desk, you can usually find him obsessing over the lore of the latest obscure indie horror game or bashing his head against a boss in the newest soulslike. You can catch him over on Twitter at @CaIIumWilliams.
id Software has shared the first comparison screenshot between the vanilla and the path-traced versions of Doom: The Dark Ages. This comparison will give you an idea of what you can expect from the Full Ray Tracing/Path Tracing. The vanilla screenshot is on the left, whereas the path-traced screenshot is on the right. As we … Continue reading Doom: The Dark Ages – First Path Tracing Graphics Comparison →
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It’s the end of the fight for Sgt. Rock, the DC Studios World War 2 film that might have starred Penguin actor Colin Farrell as the titular character with director Luca Guadagnino at the helm and a script from Challengers and Queer scribe Justin Kuritzkes.
The movie was in pre-production, with filming set to take place in the UK, but according to The Hollywood Reporter the project will no longer be moving forward as part of the upcoming DCU slate.
The outlet also claimed DC Studios was in the middle of building out the cast for the project, with Challengers star Mike Faist in talks for a part, and an undisclosed actress cast in the role of a French resistance fighter. The World War 2 film would have seen combat unit Easy Company battle Nazi forces in Europe.
THR touched on a potential story for the film, which would have seen Sgt. Rock join forces with the female French resistance fighter character in a bid to find the Spear of Destiny before the Nazis. In DC lore, the Spear of Destiny was used to pierce the side of Christ while he was on the cross and has supernatural properties.
The reason for giving this project the axe? Well, it’s unclear. One source at THR said it was the project’s requirements for shooting outside that have put it in this position, while another claimed that despite Guadagnino’s resume, his lack of superhero movie experience had execs wary of his ability to produce results.
According to the first source, the film isn’t entirely dead and would be “re-assessed at the end of the year for a possible summer shoot in 2026,” but whether or not that actually comes to pass obviously remains to be seen.
The first news of the project came back in November 2024, when Daniel Craig was reportedly set to star. Sgt. Rock was created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert and had his comic debut in 1959.
James Gunn's rebooted DCU kicks off proper with this July's Superman, and is followed by Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in 2026, with a cameo from Jason Momoa's Lobo. The DCU Clayface movie is set for September 2026.
Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
Apple releases a new MacBook Air nearly every year, and really only changes the SoC (system on a chip) running the thing. 2025 is no different, with the new MacBook Air 15 yet again being a chic little laptop that’s good for powering you through office work with incredible battery life and a gorgeous display.
Now, it’s not exactly going to handle PC games well, but it doesn’t need to. The new MacBook Air, as always, is the kind of MacBook you carry around everywhere to simply get stuff done. And that’s all it needs to be.
In a lot of ways, the MacBook Air has become what many people think of when they hear “laptop”. It’s not hard to see why, even when the new MacBook Air looks identical to its last few predecessors. This is an extremely thin and light laptop, weighing in at just 3.3 pounds – basically nothing for a 15-inch laptop.
The low weight is thanks to the incredibly thin unibody aluminum chassis, which is less than half an inch thick. An extremely thin chassis isn’t new for the MacBook Air – it’s part of why the laptop has become so ubiquitous – but it is still a nice change to use such a thin device, especially when you consider I’m usually hauling a thick gaming laptop everywhere I go. But the MacBook Air is more than just thin – it’s an incredibly clean design, with even the speakers disappearing behind the aluminum.
Unlike the MacBook Pro, which has a speaker grille on each side of the keyboard, the Macbook Air instead has its speakers hidden away in the hinge, firing towards the display. On paper, this sounds like a terrible idea, and a good way to get muted and ugly sound, but Apple found a way to make it work. And it kind of makes sense; because the MacBook Air uses a fanless configuration of the M4, it doesn’t need to reserve that space for airflow. That speaker configuration also allows the lid of the laptop to serve as a sort of natural amplifier, which makes the speakers sound a lot louder than they otherwise would.
The fanless design also allows for a much cleaner design than many other laptops. Instead of needing multiple areas of the laptop to have holes to blast air into the machine, this is a completely closed off device, and it looks incredible. On the bottom of the laptop, all that you really see is the four little rubber feet, and those are just there so that the aluminum on the bottom doesn’t get scratched.
Back on the top of the device, the new MacBook Air is still using the same wonderful keyboard that it has for the last few years. It has remarkably deep travel, considering how thin the laptop is, and the days of Mac keyboards repeating keys seem to be truly over. Plus, in the top right corner of the keyboard there’s a TouchID sensor, which is fast and accurate, and usually lets me into the laptop within a second of placing my finger on it.
The touchpad is also excellent. It’s incredibly wide, covering the space between both ‘Command’ keys, but has good enough palm rejection that I never had to deal with the cursor doing weird things, even during long writing sessions. Apple has become known for making some of the best touchpads in laptops, and well, it’s keeping the crown for now, at least.
The sides of the laptops have the ports, and that’s where the MacBook Air’s winning streak comes to an end. On the left side of the laptop, you get two USB-C ports and the MagSafe connector, then on the right side you just get a headphone jack. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice that Apple still includes a headphone jack – if only it would do that for its phones and tablets – but it would have been nice to get an SD card reader or at least a USB-C port on the right side. Apple’s reasoning for this spartan array of ports is likely that it’s a thin laptop and there just isn’t room for the extra ports, but I’ve seen the MacBook Pro, and it’s not that much thicker.
While the MacBook Air doesn’t need to have the same creative bonafides as the MacBook Pro, it still has a great display. It’s bright, colorful, and does a decent job at resisting glare – at least to a point. It’s not quite on the same level as the MacBook Pro, but it’s much better than many Windows laptops in the same price range.
In my testing, I found the 15.3-inch, 1880p display hits 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and 100% of sRGB, which is incredible for a jack-of-all-trades laptop. It gets bright, too, reaching a peak of 426 nits. That’s a little short of the advertised 500 nits, but it still gets bright enough to be visible in a bright environment – though it does a lot better indoors.
It’s not quite as nice as an OLED display or anything, but the MacBook Air’s display is still more than enough for most people. I definitely binged quite a few shows on the laptop in the two weeks or so I’ve spent with it, and let me tell you, the excellent color performance has been doing wonders for my rewatch of The Clone Wars.
Benchmarking a MacBook is always a fraught experience. Most of the tests we here at IGN use to test laptops simply don’t work on MacOS, so it’s hard to get a really good grasp on how it actually performs. However, because this laptop is running on a fanless version of the Apple M4, it probably wouldn’t hold up very well against the gaming laptops we usually review here anyways.
Even in the games that do support macOS, the MacBook Air seriously struggles at 1080p. In Total War: Warhammer 3, the MacBook Air struggled to hit 18 fps at Ultra settings. That is a little ambitious for this thin and light laptop, and you can get up to 34 fps if you turn the settings down to medium, but I wouldn’t even recommend doing that.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows fared even worse, getting just 10 fps at 1080p with the Ultra preset. Changing it to medium settings almost doubled that performance, but even then I got 19 fps, which isn’t exactly ideal for any game. But at the end of the day, the MacBook Air isn’t a gaming laptop, and it just doesn’t need to be. Instead, this is a light productivity machine, and it kicks ass at that.
I carried this laptop around for a while, and it’s the perfect device for bringing to the little coffee shop down the road and getting some focused work done. Due to the nature of what I do for a living, I usually have something like 50 Safari tabs open, while listening to Apple Music in the background, and the MacBook Air has no problem keeping up with that.
That’s thanks in large part to the configuration Apple sent me for review, with its 32GB of RAM. Even with some heavy multitasking, I didn’t feel the system hiccup once, and that was on battery power most of the time.
The MacBook Air was also able to keep up with some light Photoshop work, though it did struggle when I tried to run a noise filter in Lightroom – something even my company-issued MacBook Pro runs into trouble with. It’s important to consider what to expect from this kind of laptop, no matter who makes it. The fact that something this thin and light can handle all my day-to-day work without breaking a sweat is huge, and so is its ability to last all day on battery.
Apple makes some serious claims about the MacBook Air battery, saying it’ll last up to 18 hours while streaming video and 15 hours browsing the internet. Now, the battery test I usually use doesn’t exactly run on macOS, but I was able to loop some video in VLC Media Player to get a rough feeling of how long this laptop can last. In that test, the MacBook Air lasted a whopping 19 hours and 15 minutes, breaking past Apple’s 18-hour video streaming claim.
There is a caveat though: this was based on local video playback, which puts a bit less strain on the battery than streaming does, though not by much. And even though I wasn’t able to run it through a specific office-based battery test like I usually would, I can attest that I was able to run this thing for multiple days without needing to plug it in, based on several 4-5 hour work sessions.
This is the exact type of laptop that’s perfect if you travel a lot – there aren’t many flights that last longer than 15 hours, after all. Plus, while the charger included in the box is tiny, it’s nice to be able to carry around a laptop that doesn’t need to be tethered to a wall when you’re just trying to check your email.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
Warning: this article contains spoilers for TMNT: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution #5!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin has always been a particularly dark and tragic take on the TMNT franchise. After all, this saga started in a futuristic world where Michelangelo was the sole surviving member of the Turtle family, a lone hero pursuing one final quest of revenge. The original series ended on a hopeful note, with the birth of a new generation of Turtles, but even that birth was countered by Michelangelo’s death.
As the sequel, TMNT: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution, comes to a close, it’s clear that darkness and tragedy are still at the forefront of this universe. No sooner do the new Turtles come out of hiding to save their city than they’re forced to grapple with the death of a beloved mentor and grandmother figure. That’s right, the series ends with the death of the one and only April O’Neil.
It’s pretty clear from reading The Last Ronin II finale that this story isn’t done yet. To find out more about the tragic but heroic sacrifice of April and what might lie in store in The Last Ronin III, IGN spoke with writers Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz. Read on to learn more about the grim new direction for this popular TMNT spinoff.
Before we get to issue #5’s big death, it’s worth taking a step back to look at The Last Ronin II as a whole. There’s been a noticeable tonal and stylistic shift in this sequel. The original series depicted its futuristic version of New York as a classic cyberpunk dystopia straight out of Blade Runner or Akira. But with the death of Oroku Hiroto and the dawn of a more hopeful era, the series has shifted to a more grounded take on the Big Apple. The Last Ronin II shows us more of what it’s like to actually live in this uneasy future environment, and that was definitely intentional.
“I thought it was a little Star Wars-esque, in the sense that if you go from the New Hope era to the Abrams era, this idea that at the end of Return of the Jedi we feel like there's been a victory. And to a certain extent there was a victory. But if you don't take care of things, things can fall out of control again,” Waltz tells IGN. “And I think that was kind of our story here. Yeah, they had beaten the Foot Clan and they had beaten Hiroto, but what was the plan after that? It almost felt like things will go back to normal, but what is normal? The police were corrupt before, they're going to be probably corrupt now. There were three gangs before, now they're probably going to feel more empowered, the Foot Clan's out of the way.”
And I always think, power, when there's nobody in charge that invites, it creates a vacuum of power. Somebody's going to fill that vacuum. And that was kind of the overarching story we were trying to tell was, who was going to be the first one to take control of the city?
“When we designed The Last Ronin I, it was the end,” Eastmas says. “It was like, the final triumph, the final battle, the blood feud has ended, all these things that have been accomplished through these incredibly insurmountable epic terms that's like, ‘Okay, here is an ending, boom.’ Tom and I both loved the Ronin-verse, so when it came time people said, ‘Well, what would you do with a continuation of the series?’ And so we had a lot of conversations. And we dug deep and said, ‘Well, alright, we need to find, most importantly, what is that purpose?’ And that was the driving force for Last Ronin Re-Evolution, for sure, finding that purpose.”
There’s an obvious question many fans ask themselves when reading The Last Ronin - in what universe is this story taking place? Is The Last Ronin meant to be a continuation of the original Mirage Comics TMNT universe, or maybe the current IDW TMNT-verse? Is it a sequel to the cartoon series?
The Last Ronin II only further highlights that question because one issue delivers a specific callback to an issue from the original Mirage run, as April recounts her ordeal when she and the original Turtles fled New York for the safety of her father’s country house. Should fans take that as confirmation that The Last Ronin is a Mirage-verse story? Not necessarily. Waltz and Eastman make it clear that the Ronin-verse is still its own thing, and it’s intentionally left up to the reader as far as how the continuity works.
“When we approached Last Ronin, we both said, ‘Look, we have all these Turtle universes, let's make this our Dark Knight universe. Let's touch on a few of the other universes, but mainly lean heavily into the Mirage universe.’” Eastman says. “So we dismissed Bebop, and Rocksteady, and Mutants, and that kind of stuff. So this story was one unto itself, and it created a happy space that we didn't have to stick with storylines, or logic, or history, or just different things that Tom had set up. Again, we're talking about, when he wrote a hundred issues, that's like 10 years, almost 11 years of stuff.”
“Yeah, I call it Mirage-adjacent. It's the dimension right next door to the project,” Waltz adds. “I think what Kevin and I realized early on, I think early on we were looking at Mirage, specifically. And we knew we were veering off that course when Karai became Shredder's daughter, as part of this story. But it worked better for the story. And so in the Mirage universe, that wasn't the case. And so we said, ‘Well, that's different. That's a little bit of a retcon right here.’"
Waltz continues, “And then at that point, we started saying the term Ronin-verse. I think we're creating our own universe here, but I call it very Mirage-adjacent. The Dark Knight Returns, for me, works so well, because if somebody really wants to say, ‘It's Adam West's future,’ it could be Adam West's future, because all the basic elements are there for a Batman story… I think it works so well in a generic sense, because there's just certain elements of Turtles that you have to hit, and everybody knows those things by now. Most people know what those things are, where they come from, that you can write this kind of story and let people fill in the blanks as they want.”
The Last Ronin II has certainly added new layers to April O’Neil as a character. She’s become the figurehead of an underground resistance movement and a grandmother figure to the new Turtles. At the same time, the series has cast April in a somewhat darker light, revealing her hidden intentions in creating the new generation of Turtles and how she effectively played god by giving them each superhuman abilities.
Ultimately, though, April is given a heroic death in issue #5, as she goes out in a blaze of glory fighting the Purple Dragons gang. As Eastman and Waltz explain, April’s whirlwind journey in the sequel was all about serving their larger goals with The Last Ronin saga. This series needed to end with the last bastion of the original TMNT generation handing the baton to the new generation.
“What we wanted to say in The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution covered almost this very important, I want to say chaotic, but also very trying time for the family,” Eastmas says. “April's decision to create these characters, was it necessary? Was it important? Was it specific? Was it something that she missed about the original Turtles? Was something that she was trying to create something that was the potential future protectors of New York City? As the foundation of the superhero concept that we love so much, not only with the original Turtles, but then finding their purpose.”
Eastman continues, “So what happens in The Last Ronin II is, of course, the unfortunate, but very critical, story concept of April passing. It really is handing the torch to a new generation that we wanted to make very specific. So she's kind of the last of the original series, last of Casey, last of Turtles, last of Splinter, last of everything. So that is officially handing the torch to the new Turtles, much like we did with Last Ronin I, which was having each of the Turtles have a specific, and very significant, and very important demise in that series, that transitions into a much bigger picture.”
“It's not only the end of the family side of things, when you think of Casey, and April, and Michelangelo, and the rest of the Turtles, and Splinter, but it's also end of the old enemies, because that's really the demise of the Purple Dragons,” Waltz says. “And so I felt like April settled some unfinished business, in a sense, in her final act, by taking out a threat that, all the way back to The Lost Years, she knew was posed to her family with Jigsaw and the Purple Dragons.”
Waltz continues, “This moment became even bigger than I thought it would be, before we got to it, because all the pieces were there, and it came together, and it was just a matter of putting words in their mouths and actions in their hands. And I had a hard time writing it. It was hard to write that with April. I like April, as a character across all iterations, very much. She's one of my favorite characters. But like Kevin said, it was time. All this work she's done, and the Turtles before, now what is the payoff? Will these kids be able to continue forward successfully? Was it worth it or wasn't it? And that's the story that's yet to be told.”
As Waltz alludes above, this clearly isn’t the end of the overarching Last Ronin storyline, given that this series effectively ends on a cliffhanger. No sooner do the Turtles and Casey Marie mourn April’s death than we learn the Resistance was betrayed by one of its own. Their ally Jiro is secretly allied with the Foot Clan, an organization that has survived the deaths of both Shredder and his grandson and is now seeking to reclaim its hold on New York.
IGN can confirm that another The Last Ronin sequel is in early development, with more to be revealed down the road. But Eastman and Waltz clearly have ideas about where their story is headed from here.
“What you see, the revelation of their powers in Re-Evolution, is a stepping stone towards what we want to do in Part 3. I said to [Tom] from the very beginning, ‘This is going to be our Empire Strikes Back/The Two Towers.’ This is the middle stage of where they're going. And those two were very important movies.”
Eastman continues, “So we lean probably very heavily towards The Empire Strikes Back, in that there is a darkness of the ending, there is a specific ending to the ending. But it very also, specifically says, this is going to continue, there's more to be told here. And that was with a great purpose. But that was with Part 2, we said, ‘We don't want to seem like it's a full cliffhanger, but we also made it as a cliffhanger.’ It is a complete story, it has a finale, and we wanted it to continue to a Part 3.”
“Kevin said, ‘Let Lucas and Tolkien be our guides, as far as structure is concerned.’ So it was definitely The Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers,” Waltz says. “And it was funny, because when we were done, I said, ‘Some fans are going to be ecstatic that we're continuing, and other fans are going to come after us with pitchforks and torches because they had to come back for some more.’ But hopefully, it's something that people will look forward to. And we've got a big story planned for the third volume. And maybe some other surprises in between.”
Waltz continues, “But it felt right. It felt like this was the story we needed to tell for this centerpiece, and the bookends will be bombastic. We got the centerpiece that really just sets the tables for a lot of things that need to be said. And again, it kind of tells its own story sometimes, we're just following along, these characters have minds of their own.”
With The Last Ronin III shaping up to deliver a new take on the seemingly never-ending feud between Clan Hamato and the Foot Clan, it’s clear that the more things change in this universe, the more they stay the same. As Eastman explains, as much as the original Last Ronin series was about ending the blood feud between the Turtles and Shredder once and for all, the reality is that these feuds have a way of persisting.
“At the end of The Last Ronin I, we wanted the blood feud to end, with Michelangelo killing the, quote unquote, the last of Shredder's bloodline, ending his own life in the same time,” Eastman says. “So we wanted that end, but it's like, you'd like to think that should be the end. But if you've read anything about Japanese history, certainly feudal Japan, there were always different warlords, and shoguns, and different things that would rise up and create different situations.”
Eastman continues, “We came up with a global picture. And something we'll explore more in Part 3 is there's part of a dynasty and corporate business infrastructure in Japan, and Europe, mainly England, with our characters and New York City, that's creating this triad that could control the world economic powers, and create a very different universe. But what wasn't expected was having people that would stop the control of some of those things that would affect... It's like having a rebel base stand up against the powers that be, to affect the change that everybody thought would be.”
In the end, the goal with The Last Ronin II was to introduce a clear set of Resistance characters who can oppose the Foot Clan, the Crusader Knights, and the other global powers in The Last Ronin III. The new Turtles and their sensei have been tested, but the real challenge is still ahead of them.
“This is going to be very personal for our heroes, whereas, it's business for the powers that be right now. And I also think, a character that I really look forward to exploring more is Jiro, because he has had a relationship with Casey. And maybe that was more genuine right now than it appears to be,” Waltz says. “And so that's a dynamic I look forward to exploring. But I also think, when it comes to the family aspect, it's time for Casey Marie to step up and be that family leader. And we've thrown elements of the Hamato Clan into the mix too. So there's cool things happening behind the scenes that I think are going to make for some really, really exciting drama in the third volume.”
Finally, we couldn’t talk to Eastman and Waltz without bringing up the various adaptations of The Last Ronin that have been announced in recent years. We know that both a live-action Last Ronin movie and a Last Ronin video game are in development right now, though there have been few updates about either project lately. But Eastman wants to reassure fans that this isn’t necessarily because work has stalled on the projects.
“The video game was something that has been developed early on. Tom and I were brought in initially for looking at some of the concepts, looking at some of the development issues, and the things that were potentially happening there,” Eastman says. “There was a resting period, I think, or restructuring period. With the major developer, but I understand that, the last I heard from Nickelodeon, it's back on track. So we hope to all share news in the future. We've got nothing definitive. We hope to all share news on the progress on the video game.”
As for the movie, Eastman notes that the desire is to get the story right rather than rush something out to seize on the hype of the comic.
“I have had conversations and shared some details with Tom on the discussions on a Last Ronin movie,” Eastman says. “Hollywood is a very magical, confusing, challenging place as things develop. But some of the conversations I've had early on have been wonderfully positive, and they love what Tom and I have done. And I feel like, to quote the writer that I talked to a couple of times, he just loved what we did in The Last Ronin I, and said, ‘I just don't want to be the guy that messes it up.’”
Eastman continues, “So they're very sincere. They're paying attention to what's been done before, but we've got nothing specifically we could share. I wish we could. And I think we'll hear stuff more in the future as things go along, but there is definitely a desire from Nickelodeon and Paramount to do, not only a video game, but a live-action movie, and I've been told in the R-rated space.”
TMNT: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution #5 is in stores now. You can also preorder the collected The Last Ronin II hardcover on Amazon.
For more on the TMNT franchise, see what TMNT writer Jason Aaron had to say about the future of his series, and learn more about the newly announced TMNT: Shredder spinoff.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
“When we say John Wick is pain, it’s kind of like a ‘fuck yeah.’” So declares Keanu Reeves in Wick is Pain, an upcoming documentary about the John Wick franchise that will be available on dgital on May 9.
IGN can exclusively reveal the trailer for the film, which features new interviews with Reeves, director Chad Stahelski, and more cast and crew who have worked on the four films. (You can watch the trailer via the player above or the embed below.)
Directed by Jeffrey Doe, Wick is Pain utilizes never-before-seen footage shot over a decade both on and off the set of the Wick films. The doc also chronicles the travails of the very first John Wick movie from 2014, a small indie film plagued by financier problems that got shut down at one point.
“We were panicked. This is Keanu fuckin’ Reeves. You do not wanna let him down,” Stahelski recalled in the trailer about the dire straits the first movie found itself in.
“I don’t know how you find six and a half million dollars by Monday,” producer David Leitch said. Fellow producer Basil Iwanyk was even more blunt: “I took money out of my house. We are doomed. We are completely fucked.”
(John Wick’s savior turned out to be actress Eva Longoria, who invested the $6 million necessary to resume production.)
And yet despite all that turmoil and pain, John Wick ultimately spawned a billion-dollar franchise.
IGN has been with the series since the very beginning. We visited the set of the original film in New York City where we chatted with Keanu Reeves and co-star Adrianne Palicki, and we even exclusively debuted the first movie’s trailer back in 2014.
Beyond Wick is Pain, fans of the franchise have the upcoming spinoff Ballerina to look forward to as well as the recently announced John Wick 5 and an anime prequel film.
Steve Jackson Games' Munchkin Presents Batman is at the lowest price we've ever seen on Amazon for the board game. For $31.46 (30% off), you can pick up the Batman themed version of the hit board game now, and its a perfect strategy game for when you want to destroy your friends. Check out our full Munchkin buying guide for a breakdown of all the different versions and expansions, and for more Batman you can read about the best DC board games.
Munchkin is an easy-to-pick-up three to six player board game where you navigate dungeons, level up, find rare and ridiculous loot, fight monsters, and compete against other players to emerge victorious. In Munchkin Presents Batman, the mechanics are relatively the same. You pick from eight classic Batman villains: The Joker, Mr. Freeze, the Riddler, the Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, or Poison Ivy and use various gadgets from Batman's arsenal to win. You'll also encounter other members of the Caped Crusader's rogue's gallery throughout the game like Scarecrow and Solomon Grundy.
The full color game board and over 200 cards with Steve Jackson's signature art style are a great way to get the real Munchkin experience with a DC comics twist. For more info about gameplay, you can check out the rules to the game in the image below.
If you like the idea of a Batman board game, but don't have enough people around to consistently play board games with, you may want to try Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - The Game. It's a huge game that can be played solo or with one other person.
Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.
The Secretlab Easter Sale is happening now with savings of up to $119 off the popular Titan line of gaming chairs, Magnus gaming desks (including the Magnus Pro electric standing desk model), and accessories like the Secretlab Skins upholstery covers, desk mats, cable management, and more.
It's no secret that we love our Secretlab gaming chairs. Two of the six chairs in our best gaming chair roundup are Secretlab models. Of all the gaming chairs we covered in our "Budget to Best" roundup video earlier this year, my colleague Akeem Lawanson considered the Secretlab Titan Evo to be the most comfortable. No good chair comes cheap and Secretlab chairs definitely cost a premium, but we think the craftsmanship, materials, and customizability are worth it.
You can quickly browse through all of the listed products on sale above. For more information on each product and why they are worth your consideration, read through below.
The Titan Evo starts at $519 during the sale. This is Secretlab's flagship chair and it's available in small, medium, and large sizes. Upholstery options include Neo Hybrid leatherette, SoftWeave Plus fabric, or premium Napa leather. The chair features cold-cure foam upholstery for the seat, a supportive four-way lumbar system, full length backrest with 165 degrees of recline, full metal 4D armrests with magnetically attached PU cushions, and a memory foam headrest pillow.
Aside from the build quality, the Titan Evo also stands out thanks to the sheer number of officially licensed designs from popular video games, TV shows, and more. Some of the more popular examples include The Witcher, Overwatch, Attack on Titan, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, and Game of Thrones. They generally cost more than the standard colors, but they're worth it if you're looking for that extra personal touch.
In our Secretlab Titan Evo review, Chris Coke wrote that "after two years of daily use, the Secretlab Titan Evo has proven that it can stand the test of time and still be one of the best gaming chairs you can buy. Meaningful ergonomics paired with Secretlab’s wide selection of designs, it remains a fantastic option, especially for fans of bright colors or designs."
The prior model Titan 2020 gaming chair is available for $474, which is $45 less than the base model Titan Evo. The Titan 2020 is still an excellent chair and not much different than the current Evo model. In fact, outside of an upholstery change (the PU leather has been updated with Neo Hybrid Leatherette), the changes are mostly cosmetic. You are limited to fewer design options, so if you want to build out something that's truly unique, you might want to splurge a bit extra for the current generation Titan Evo model.
Among the Titan chairs, the Evo Lite is definitely the best value with its starting price tag of $419, or a full $100 less than the base model Titan Evo. It's built upon the same frame as the Titan Evo and has the same core features like the cold-cure foam cushioning, lumbar, 165 degrees of recline, and 4D armrests. What it compromises on is customization, with "only" two upholstery options, two sizes, and five colors, a non-adjustable lumbar system, simpler arm rests, and no included head rest. If none of these tradeoffs bother you, then you'll be saving quite a bit of money.
Although the Titan Evo Nanogen Edition isn't on sale, it deserves mention simply because this is our top pick for the best gaming chair. In our Titan Evo Nanogen Edition review, Chris Coke wrote that "the Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen Edition deserves every bit of the overwhelming praise I’ve given. Granted, at $799 it’s significantly more expensive than the original and not far off from an entry-level Herman-Miller. But the return it offers in comfortable, supportive gaming is well worth the extra cost thanks to dramatically improved materials in both the fabric and multi-layered padding. The Titan Evo Nanogen Edition is class-leading, and is hands-down the most comfortable gaming chair I’ve ever used."
Secretlab's new recliner add-on is available for anyone who already owns the Titan Evo chair. In our recliner add-on review, Chris Coke wrote that "while both comfort and value are subjective things, the recliner is able to take the Titan Evo and transform it from one of the best racing style gaming chairs to standing head and shoulders above the competition at its price point. It’s novel enough that I wouldn’t be surprised to see other brands following suit in the near future. If you don’t mind paying for it, it’s an absolutely killer upgrade for your gaming chair."
The Magnus and Magnus Pro are also on sale during Cyber Monday. The Magnus is a traditional fixed-frame gaming desk while the Magnus Pro ups the ante with a custom designed electric standing desk frame for an additional $250. Both desks feature an all-metal desktop surface, solid steel legs and cleverly thought out areas for cable management, but the Magnus Pro has some really unique features including a power cable that runs internally inside one of the telescoping legs and an in-line control panel that you won't bump into.
In our Secretlab Magnus Pro review. Mark Knapp writes that "the Secretlab Magnus Pro is a fantastic desk, bringing the brilliant cable management solutions of the original Magnus to a fast, quiet, and wide-ranging motorized standing desk. The desk is built well and proves an excellent platform for work and play alike. It’s an expensive desk though, and for the money, it would have been nice to see a smarter safety mechanism for the motors and the desk mat included. Still, the overall quality you get is a big step up from cheaper standing desks, and the optional accessories truly enhance the experience. Anyone who’s not committed to a standing desk should save their money and go for the standard Magnus if everything else about this model sounds good, but for gamers who love a tidy desk and want the flexibility of a standing desk, the Magnus Pro should be the first they consider."
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Ubisoft has outlined its plans for the first year of post-launch content for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, including promises to add features like new game+, more difficulty settings, additional story content, and more.
The Assassin’s Creed company detailed all of its plans for 2025 in a four-and-a-half-minute roadmap update video published today. It’s a brief but enlightening video with a specific schedule for May and June as the team behind the latest stealth-action entry plots out how it will keep fans coming back with free updates throughout the year.
The drops begin soon with The Works of Luis Frois, the first of a few free story add-ons, which is set to drop in early May. It’ll be accompanied by a Codex update and a few quality-of-life improvements, with relatively substantial parkour additions and a photo mode update also set to arrive next month. These adjustments and more are part of what Ubisoft says is a continued effort to listen to its community and take their feedback into consideration for future Assassin’s Creed Shadows updates.
“Your feedback has been a core focus of the team throughout development, and that’s not stopping now that Shadows is released,” community developer Daniel St. Germain explained in today’s video. “Regular title updates are coming, each with impactful additions – and changes – based on your feedback and requests, with some bug fixes to continue refining the experience across all platforms.”
The next free Assassin’s Creed Shadows story drop will follow in June, as will more challenging difficulty settings, gameplay immersion options, an open-world alarm system, and an option to keep headgear on or off during cutscenes. These are worthwhile changes that players are already looking to see included, but more features, such as new game+ support, additional story drops, special collaborations, and more, are expected to arrive before the year is out.
The biggest item on the post-launch roadmap is the first proper Assassin’s Creed Shadows DLC expansion, Claws of Awaji, which drops at an unspecified point later in the year. It’s said to include new content, such as the Bo staff weapon and a new region for Naoe and Yasuke to explore, across its 10-hour journey. Pricing details have yet to be revealed, though it will at least be free for those who pre-ordered Assassin’s Creed Shadows before its launch last month.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows arrived for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S on March 20 and finally takes Ubisoft’s long-running stealth series to Feudal Japan. Its leap of faith managed to land it among our list of the best games of 2025 so far while also emerging as the best-selling game of last month.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
Nintendo's new Virtual Game Card system is live now with the latest Switch update. For those looking to hide their game cards away from prying eyes, they'll have the option to do just that.
As evidenced by a user on X/Twitter, Virtual Game Cards can be hidden from your acquired list on Nintendo's VGC portal. This makes it so anyone looking at your list of Virtual Game Cards won't see any games you have on there, for whatever reasons you might have.
I tested this out myself, and was able to hide games like the Suikoden I&II HD Remaster and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. While the games would still appear in my list on my OLED Switch if I had them installed or loaded, they would be removed from the list once uninstalled.
At this point, you can go into your games list through "Redownload Software" and view the lineup, but you would need to head to the "Can't Find Software?" section and log into your Nintendo account to see the list of hidden games. The same goes for the site too, which will tuck your hidden games away behind the "Can't Find Software?" option in a separate folder.
So, if you have any particular games that you wouldn't like noticed by other people using your system, you could tuck them away into your folder. It's certainly a cumbersome method, as you'd need to unhide and reload games to make them playable again. It also still marked my account as playing Suikoden I&II HD Remaster when I booted it up, and marked it in Play Activity too.
But I suppose if you're sharing consoles and want to keep, say, Mortal Kombat or Doom inaccessible, this might have some use as a parental control feature. Or maybe if you just have some salacious titles in your Switch catalog that you'd rather not see pop up when you bring your Switch to the next rooftop party, there's some use there too.
Either way, your Virtual Game Cards can be hidden away now. The latest update also redesigned icons, added the system transfer feature for the upcoming Switch 2, and mostly shut off a well-liked loophole for game sharing. You can read up more on the new Nintendo Switch firmware update here.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
Blizzard is preparing to add a new feature to World of Warcraft that might sound strange at first: an option to have the game tell you what spell you should optimally cast next in combat, with an additional option to simply let the game cast the ideal next spell for you.
Today, in a lengthy video interview between game director Ion Hazzikostas, Team Liquid raid leader Maximum, and content creator Dratnos, it was announced that the upcoming World of Warcraft patch 11.1.7 a new feature will be added called Rotation Assist. Rotation Assist, when turned on, will highlight in combat the recommended next ability for your character to use based on class, specialization, and the combat situation.
Additionally, the feature will come with an optional “one button” option that will allow a player to simply press one button to automatically cast whichever spell the game is recommending cast next. However, there’s a penalty for using the one-button option - it will add an additional small amount of time to the global cooldown, meaning players using the single button option will overall cast spells slower and deal less damage than someone playing manually.
In the video, Hazzikostas explains that the new feature is based on the popular add-on Hekili, which similarly recommends optional next spells to cast but does not provide a one-button rotation. As Hazzikostas explains:
“Add-ons are amazing. The things that the community has done over the last 20 years to allow people to experience different aesthetics, different functionality, have information available at their fingertips like that is a huge part of WoW’s success. And we don’t question or want to undermine that for a moment. At the same time, ideally…if you ask people you know, ‘hey, how can I get better? I’m really struggling at this.’ The first answer shouldn’t be, ‘Well download this add-on, this add-on, this add-on. Otherwise you’re doing it wrong.’ Because that’s starting to get into that mandatory place, whether we like it or not.”
Hazzikostas goes on to explain that long-term, Blizzard is thinking more deeply about the role of add-ons in World of Warcraft and how for players wanting to participate in competitive content, many of them have essentially become mandatory. The team, he says, wants to move away from that philosophy, and is thinking down the line about improvements that can be made to World of Warcraft’s class design, boss encounter design, and UI that will ensure the functions players feel are necessary from add-ons are built-in natively.
And though Hazzikostas says they’re never going to simply ban add-ons outright, once the team feels their objectives around reducing the necessity of add-ons are accomplished, he wants to “rein in” some of the functionality of add-ons around “real time in combat problem solving, specifically where like automating, coordination, communication, in ways that are always going to be better than anything the UI could natively provide you, as long as they remain possible.”
If you’re not sure what Hazzikostas is talking about, these changes likely won’t impact you. But as he, Maximum, and Dratnos discuss in the video, high-level raiders have frequently felt the need to rely on add-ons such as WeakAuras that allow players to essentially build custom tools to solve difficult raid encounters in real-time, such as telling them where exactly to stand or assigning them groups on the fly. And while this might feel like cheating if you’ve never experienced it firsthand, Hazzikostas is candid in the video that some of the team’s raid encounter design decisions may have pushed players in that direction by being a bit too difficult to figure out sans add-ons. “The way we design encounters has been influenced in significant ways, by the way players use add-ons,” he says. “I know you know the community sometimes speculates that [certain encounters were] built clearly to require an add on. I can’t say that’s never the case.”
Hazzikostas goes on to explain that while encounter designers are never specifically designing mechanics with the intent for players to create add-ons to solve them, when players inevitably do so in testing, they have historically seen feedback from playtesters using add-ons complaining that the fight was too easy. But instead of redesigning the encounter to make the add-ons unusable and reinstate the intended difficulty, they have simply added more mechanics. “I think that’s not a great place for things to land,” he says.
You can watch the full 45-minute video here, but we also spoke directly to Hazzikostas to ask him questions about both the upcoming new Rotation Helper feature and the developers’ intentions for future add-on restrictions and interactions. Our full interview is posted below, lightly edited for brevity and clarity:
IGN: I think you talked around this a little bit in the video. But is it your opinion that it's essentially become mandatory to have add-ons to play WoW at anything above a basic questing level at this stage?
Ion Hazzikostas: I don't know that I would go that far, but certainly it's been something that's been part of community trends over time, where players are clever. When you give them a very versatile toolbox, they will make more and more clever and more and more powerful things. And when it gets to competitive content, trying to defeat challenging raid bosses, trying to clear the highest Mythic+ keys that you can or PvP at a competitive level, every advantage helps. And while certainly people can and do play the game without using add-ons and succeed, I think most players at a high level, including Max[imum] and Dratnos, and I was talking to them in this [video], agree that you are at a disadvantage if you're not using some of these tools.
And in social content, if you're in a raid group, if you're part of a group that's running Mythic+, there's an expectation that it doesn't matter how you personally want to play. If everyone requires that you use this tool, then you feel like you have to. And on the one hand, while the legacy of add-ons over the course of 20 years of World of Warcraft is an amazing part of how the game has grown and evolved, I think looking at a world where someone is told that they need to use an external third-party tool if they want to play the game the way that they prefer, that's not healthy, we think.
And so, that's the question of, how do we tackle that really has begun with us trying to look at building up the native functionality of the game's UI, of the game's systems, of how we're presenting information, not just through the user interface, but also things like visual effects and how we're telegraphing the clarity of different boss mechanics or class mechanics or the like.
I know this is something you've probably thought about for a very long time, but was there any moment or any particular raid boss or something that made you go, "Okay, we actually need to address this."?
Hazzikostas: Honestly, I don't know that I can pick out a single thing. I mean, I think there have definitely been occasions over the years. This is not the first time that the World of Warcraft team has waded into this space. I mean, even before I worked on the team going way, way, way back, like 20 years ago, literally in vanilla World of Warcraft, add-ons could do very powerful things like automating targeting. People who raided in the early days of Molten Core, right? If you played back then, you probably had Decursive if you were a healer. And you would just push a button, and it would automatically, intelligently dispel someone in your group who needed dispelling.
And the team looked at this at the time and was like, "This feels like it's actually kind of undermining some of the core gameplay of the game. Let's restrict this functionality. But also, let's continue to improve our built-in raid frames. Let's continue to improve these things." And so, I think there's been an ebb and flow there over the years. But I think increasingly, when I'm just reading through community discussions on our official forums, on Reddit, wherever, and it's very common to see people ask like, "Hey, I need help improving. I'm trying to play Mage really well. I'm trying to play Rogue well and it feels like I just can't compete with other people." The first question that they get asked is, "Well, what add-ons are you using? What's your weak core configuration?" Not, "What is your rotation? What is your talent build? What decisions are you making?" It's like, "What tools do you have?" That's not healthy. It's a barrier to approachability.
And so, again, the path here is not to... Really, just to try to narrow that gap by improving the baseline functionality that our game is providing, and really focus in any long-term efforts in terms of what we might limit or restrict on just that narrow sliver of combat functionality stuff.
And that's why we've tried to make it super clear here. We have no intent of touching anyone's RP add-ons, world informational helpers, accessibility tools, gathering assist. Any of that stuff is great. It really is just a question of like, how do we improve the information that our default UIs giving combat-wise? And then once we've gotten 90% of the way there, what do we do about that last mile or so that includes functionality that feels like it wouldn't really make sense to come from our UI? Like things that are solving a raid mechanic for you and telling players where to run, that's kind of the point of the gameplay itself.
We want to provide information, make it clear how you're supposed to tackle the problem. But at the end of the day, it should be up to the raid group to figure that out for themselves.
Obviously you always want to improve your UI and improve your boss encounters. But as far as adding stuff like a WoW internal version of Hekili. You talked in the video a little bit about looking at maybe doing in-house damage meters at some point or other things like that that are currently solved by add-ons. Why not just continue letting the community handle that level of stuff? Is there any concern that if you try to start doing the job of modders, you're going to need a lot more time and resources when currently you've got basically crowdsourced problem solving?
Hazzikostas: To some extent, so I think, yes, it's taking on more responsibility for the team. But I'd argue that this is responsibility that we really should've been shouldering for a while now. And I think the community at times has said that add-ons are solving problems in our games design, and I think sometimes they're right. Sometimes there are places where a class mechanic or a talent really is asking a player to do something that the game isn't natively giving them the tools to do correctly, like tracking stacks of a buff and making decisions on the fly based on how many stacks you happen to have based on some proc that triggered.
That's not a reasonable in-the-moment computation for a human, but add-ons streamline and simplify that. Similarly, when something isn't clear in an encounter, when a visual effect is not clear, but someone has an air horn that's telling them when they're standing in something to make up for a lack of clarity in our VFX, that's a completely reasonable criticism. And if some of this means that we need to do extra work to fix issues, honestly I think that's in players' interest and something we should've been doing all along.
And again, to be clear, we're not looking to, in any way, marginalize or push aside our wonderful add-on author community. Step one here and step two and step three involve nothing about restricting any sort of add-on functionality. They're just continuing to build up our alternative solutions, give players a chance to give us feedback on those, understand what more they would need to do, what more would need to change for those to feel like they're sufficient.
And then when we get to the end of that road, eventually restrict some things. Because again, that part is required, I think, in order to solve the problem of joining a group and being told you have to download this or use this week or whatever. Again, when there's an open-ended toolbox, players are always going to try to computationally solve the challenges we put in front of them. And of course, people are going to use every advantage that's at their disposal. That's just the nature of competitive players
…Another aspect is there are tons and tons of players, even setting aside accessibility concerns that may limit someone's ability to do a mechanically intensive rotation. There are many people who, honestly, combat is not what they enjoy most about WoW. Mastering and optimizing how to use all 20 of their abilities in sequence to maximize their damage is not what's fun. It's immersion, exploring, collecting, doing all these other things. And the mechanics of the game are sometimes an obstacle to enjoying the parts that many players want to embrace. And so, I think offering just a baseline way of opting out of that complexity is something that, I think, will be welcome to many players. It's the same way, when we changed our talent system in Dragon Flight. We offered just a default starter spec.
If you didn't want to deal with optimizing and placing all your points, you could just use our preset loadout for yourself and focus on the parts of the game you enjoy. At the end of the day, this is about giving players more options and more customization. It's also an example of how, in some of our sort of built-in solutions, we can do things that add-ons couldn't. Hekili obviously can highlight the next buttons for you, but it can't actually automatically pick which ability to cast based on a single key bind, whereas our solution is able to do that.
Have you spoken to the Hekili folks at all? Do they have an opinion on this?
Hazzikostas: Personally, not yet. I know that our UI team, and particularly the engineers on our UI team, have close communications with our add-on author community. A lot of bug reports and updates and things go back and forth. They're usually trying to keep them up-to-date on any changes we're making to the APIs, so they're not caught off guard. So I think that's going to be part of this conversation going forward for sure. And I think we understand that when we offer a solution ourselves, it's not going to be as deeply and fully customizable as add-ons for power users are.
And so, our goal is not to kind of subsume, like take over a space entirely, but rather offer a strong baseline solution to something while still leaving add-ons as a space for people who want cosmetic customization. They want to tweak the display of the information even more than what the base UI allows. And also, again, it's a chance for us to get feedback on the nature of those gaps, so we can try to offer as much of what our players want as possible.
As far as the functionality of this thing goes, how reactive is it to different types of builds? When I play, I have set up builds for a single target spec, a single target with cleave, a multi-target Mythic dungeon, a Delve loadout. And with Undermine right now, there are a lot of fights where I'm using my single target raidng build mainly, but there are also moments in the same fight where I have to switch to cleave damage or something like that. And so, I'm curious how adaptive this tool is going to be towards what sort of build you're running and what sort of things you might want to do in the moment in a fight.
Hazzikostas: So I think that's going to vary a little bit by specialization. I'd love to say that we have every possible permutation that someone might spec into accounted for, but we don't. And we're going to get feedback on that. Some of that will simply be a bug or something we overlooked. But the system itself is designed to be very versatile and something that our team can continue to update over time. It is looking at what talents you currently have, but it's also making recommendations situationally based on your current available resources, whether there's one enemy in front of you or four enemies in front of you, so you don't need a separate preset loadout of dungeon versus raid.
It will recommend an AOE ability if it's going to hit five targets or a single target ability if there's only one boss in front of you. And again, the goal here is, not absolute perfection. There's certainly all sorts of little sneaky min-max tricks that players have optimizing for movement and things that the system can't know about. But the goal is really to be something that helps if you're trying to learn a new spec or if you're just trying to, like you're trying to learn an encounter and you don't want to put too much of your bandwidth into thinking about your rotation for a bit. The same way people use many of these add-ons, we think this will be a very helpful tool for just approachability of spec gameplay and just trying to raise the skill floor in the game.
Especially with the one button option, is there any worry that it might inadvertently have the opposite effect where you've got people joining up into a normal or heroic group through Group Finder, and then just sort of closing their eyes and hitting the button, and then pissing off a raid leader or something. I can hear the comments coming in now.
Hazzikostas: I mean, honestly, frankly, for some folks who may struggle with their rotations currently who haven't really kind of grasped how they're supposed to build, spend their resources, and use their different tools situationally, I think even the one-button rotation will be an improvement. Certainly, it will allow them to focus on mechanics and focus on other parts of something that they're doing. I think we've crafted that. It has a small penalty that's incurred to the global cooldown when you use it, to make sure that... It's never the best way to play.
We definitely don't want a world where a raid group is failing to meet some damage check, and the raid leader tells all other players, "Stop trying to play your class. Just turn on this one button thing and that's going to be the right way." But as just a simple baseline, that should be adequate for solo gameplay, for outdoor questing, for raid finder, things along those lines, this should be more than sufficient and allow people to just focus their attention on other parts of the game that they find more engaging.
Do you think that raiding has gotten harder over the years?
Hazzikostas: Yes. I think that it has gotten more involved, more complex. I think that our targets for how many attempts we wanted to take to defeat a certain raid boss at a certain difficulty haven't changed, right? In that sense, we may think, "Okay. On heroic mode, the final boss should take 20 or 30 attempts. It should take a few hours for a group to beat for the first time." That's true today. That was true 10 years ago. Now the thing is, players on average have gotten better, as is the case in any game, right? Whether it's a PvP game, otherwise. I mean, it's easiest to see in PvP games where someone maybe has stepped away from their favorite MOBA, or Overwatch, or whatever and they used to be a platinum player. Then, they come back and they're like, "Oh, wow. Everyone is so much better now."
And that's the same phenomenon that we've been working through in our dungeon and raid gameplay. We do have to offer novel looks at things. We have to throw a couple more mechanics in the mix to provide the same level of relative challenge that we used to be able to do with less, right? Going all the way back to Classic, you could see clearest-cut example of bosses that seemed impossible, that took groups literally months to defeat that now look simpler than a common dungeon boss, and that modern players without prior knowledge go in and steamroll in classic versions of the game. That's just how the player base has evolved.
You've also designed things differently too in that regard, right? Raiding with 40 people was much harder just purely on a communications level. If you want to provide challenge when we have fewer people, you have to make things harder in different ways.
Hazzikostas: I think that's certainly part of it. I think another factor is... I think this is something that was touched on in the conversation with Max and Dratnos. We never design things with the intent that add-ons are going to solve them, but we also can't be ignorant of what add-ons are capable of doing. And if we have a fun idea for something that might be a fun mechanic, that might've been done years and years ago in terms of a raid-wide coordination challenge, the puzzle that you have to solve as part of your group, we know that someone's just going to make a WeakAura that solves it for you. The raid leader's going to pre-type everyone's name into it before they've even pulled the boss once, and that mechanic is not going to play out the way we wanted it to.
And so we're probably just not going to make that mechanic period. And so instead, I think we have probably over time skewed more and more towards testing skills in players that add-ons can't trivialize, things like just reaction time, getting out of a lot of stuff that's under your feet, rapid movement, twitch reactions, things on that level. And I think while that's a niche that should exist in WoW encounters, I don't think it's healthy for the game. And I think players agree for all encounters to be like that. I think if you're a raider in the World of Warcraft today, here's a challenge. Try to count the number of bosses that aren't at some point putting a swirly under your feet that you have a couple seconds to move out of. Good luck. It's basically all of them. I would love for the game to just have more variety in the challenges that it's posing to players. And I think that eventually when we get there, being able to restrict a couple of aspects of what add-ons can do today, I think will open up a very fertile design space and allow for encounters that are equally challenging in terms of how many hours they're going to take your group to learn and to beat, but that put that challenge in different places that are, hopefully, a bit simpler and more engaging.
Is this something you have already been slowly trying to implement as far as Undermine goes? Are we already subtly seeing changes to encounters to move in the direction of that philosophy?
Hazzikostas: A bit. Yes. I think that we've gotten feedback from the community on Liberation of Undermine. But I think there are fewer fights in this tier than in previous tiers that feel like they were solved by an add-on, that they really almost required one. There were encounters in past tiers like Broodtwister or the like that made people feel like, "Okay, we don't know how to do this without using an external tool." And we are consciously trying to steer away from that. Another example of a way that we've continued to improve things in our Undermine update earlier this year, one of the changes we made was really revamping a lot of our spell visuals for increased clarity.
Ultimately, I think philosophically for years we had often said, "Okay, we want these things not to feel too gamey." We want them to feel a little bit like chaotic fire or whatever. And ultimately, just kind of accepted that that's not in the best interests of gameplay and readability. And let's get some hard edges on things and let's make it really clear cut when you are or aren't standing in something. And even things like that can instantly help players to be able to just jump into an encounter and feel like they know what they should be doing as opposed to needing assistance to let them know what's safe versus what isn't.
Long-term, how soon should we expect some of these bigger changes to what types of add-ons you will and won't allow? Is this a next raid tier kind of thing, a next expansion kind of thing?
Hazzikostas: Yeah, so I think there's no specific date in mind. It's more kind of kicking off a conversation and signaling a general trajectory, a heading. I think we know we have a bunch of work to do. I wanted to kind of put into context some of the changes that players have seen that feel like probably like a departure from past practice, like the cooldown manager that we added as a first iteration of helping to track your own abilities and cooldowns in our most recent 11.1.5 update.
Of course, this combat assist coming in 11.1.7, and more things that will follow. I think we know that before we reach an eventual endpoint of limiting the ability of add-ons specifically to parse real-time combat events, we'll need to have our own solution for a customizable damage meter for things like encounter boss timers, letting you know when an ability is coming next and how far away it is. Things that players have relied on add-ons based on real-time combat information for a long time.
Our intent is not to suddenly just break things and leave players in the lurch. We want to build up a solid foundation. And then, when the community feels and we all collectively feel like we're ready for that next step, we think it's one that the community will hopefully embrace and be for the good of the game in the long run, making things more approachable while keeping the full array of informational and cosmetic customization that add-ons have always offered.
Do you expect that long-term, your changes to design are going to dramatically change the flavor of any classes or specs? I know you were talking in the video a little bit about Outlaw Rogue - I don’t play Rogue, but you suggested it was maybe perhaps a little too complex.
Hazzikostas: Honestly, I don't think it will dramatically change the flavor. No. I think there are certain mechanics that will need to be revisited. Outlaw Rogue is a fun spec, but it's one that I pick on for these purposes. Because if you go look up a guide for playing Outlaw Rogue, you'll see that there's some situations where it's like, if you have more than 60 energy, and the cooldown of this ability is less than 12 seconds, then do this. And it's like, "Come on." There's no way that anyone is going to parse that in real time without just having a way forward that pops up and tells you, "Okay, push this button now." And those are the sorts of things where it's like, "Is that fun? Is that part of the flavor of the spec really?" What could an alternative implementation of that sort of general vibe based around the idea of re-entering stealth and unleashing your attacks and combat as a rogue? How can we realize that without leaning on something so intricate and mechanically intensive?
Have you looked at all at what Final Fantasy 14 has done in terms of how much they restrict add-ons? They restrict them pretty heavily and always have. How do you look at what they've done and how it's impacted the flavor and the type of game that they have over there?
Hazzikostas: I think it's their decisions made at the start that inevitably affects how things evolve. There's certainly a lot more control that you have as a designer of understanding exactly what information your players are going to have at their disposal, what tools they have at their disposal to overcome an encounter? And so, you can design in that world for everybody in a more level playing field, or as we have to accept that people will have a bunch of different ways of looking at or processing things.
But that's part of how World of Warcraft has evolved. I think that we want to be very narrow and surgical in these restrictions, and they're not terribly different from things we've done over the years in the past. Years ago, add-ons could draw things in the 3D game space, and that was something the team looked at and was like, "No, this is clearly too far." That's not a thing that add-ons should be able to do, and that functionality was restricted, and players evolved, and the game moved on. There's an alternate world where if the team had never done that, if 15 years ago the team in Wrath had said, "Yeah, this seems fine." Today, every encounter you go into would be full of these virtual 3D markers that are telling you exactly where to run and stand, and that would be how people played the game. And so, it's like having this powerful ecosystem.
It's tremendously empowering to players, but it also requires vigilance on our part as developers to ensure that we're kind of preserving the integrity of the game and giving people a level playing field. Where if you just install World of Warcraft and you want to play the game and experience what it has to offer, it really it is our obligation that the out-of-the-box experience should be sufficient. And if it's not, that's a problem we need to work on solving.
Is there any concern that it's sort of a one button rotation is going to lead to people doing annoying exploits? Going into LFR or basically AFKing or something like really causing issues with it?
Hazzikostas: I hope not. Honestly, you've been able to go in and try to fly under the radar and just auto attack. Those are situations that have happened in groups for a long time, whether it's non-participation in Battlegrounds or just trying to coast and leech off a group. But I think most players when they're sitting down to play World of Warcraft or looking to play World of Warcraft and accomplish some goals, and I think that's always going to be, we want to design in the interest of the majority. And we have tools, whether it's reporting or other measures to make sure that people aren't disrupting other people's gameplay or being toxic.
So you said that you're not looking to mess around with people's quest add-ons and stuff. But you'd also talked about wanting to build in-house tools like damage meters and stuff like that. Would you ever consider doing more internal stuff that is based off add-ons that people use for stuff that is outside of combat? Pet battling, auction house stuff, professions, anything like that?
Hazzikostas: I mean, I think absolutely and that's stuff that we continue... We're definitely inspired by the sorts of tools that the players turn to for outdoor world game plan for convenience as we look to continue to just make the game more approachable. I mean, things like, this has been several years now, but in the world of 3D navigational marker when you have a quest tracked or some objective tracked is something that in the past people would use an add-on to do for them to add kind of wayfinding support. That just felt like a more modern way of doing it than asking you to constantly pop open your 2D map to see where you were headed. So we added something like that. We're going to continue improving all of that functionality. I don't think there's any world though where we're going to restrict what add-ons can do in that space, because I think there's a big difference between convenience and competitive advantage.
Someone might say, "Oh, having this gathering add-on or having this World Quest tracker or whatever, it's convenient. Or someone with a Quest add-on maybe saves themselves a couple of alt tabs to look something up. But I don't think anyone would seriously claim like, "Oh, no. You have to use that add-on if you want to succeed in World of Warcraft." And that really is the difference. It's us looking at add-ons where someone is pretty reasonably, incredibly able to say to a new player or to their group mates, "Really, you pretty much need to use this if you want to succeed." And our goal is in this blue sky idealized world, that we can say that there isn't a competitive advantage to using add-ons in World of Warcraft, that they're a powerful tool for customizing your aesthetics, for customizing your information, and for kind of add an extra layer of self-expression in your game experience, but not a competitive advantage.
Is there any concern as you think about what sorts of things to add and how to add them, that the UI might become too heavy or too complex or actively work against the player in becoming unapproachable? Right now, opening World of Warcraft for the first time, there's already a lot of things on screen. And we've all seen that sort of joke screenshot of someone's UI with all the add-ons on it.
Hazzikostas: Always. I mean, I think we're always mindful of trying to strike a balance between serving our engaged core players who've been with us for years and making sure that the game stays approachable to someone who's coming back to it or picking it up for the first time. Because if we're not hitting both of those, really, we're not going to be able to continue to serve our audience and grow our audience. And so when we talk about these things, we have a lot of customization built into the UI. Some things are going to default off, some things are going to default on.
We're talking about how we want to introduce some of these new elements to players in their new player experience, kind like if you're level three on Exile's Reach and you only have two abilities, do you need to know about a one button rotation? No. We're actually like, "Press frostbolt. You'll be fine." At some point, maybe when you're level 40 and you just spent your 30th talent point and you have a couple dozen abilities, might that be a great time to introduce something like this and make sure you were aware that exists? Yes. And so, I think that's how we want to continue to think about and iterate on our onboarding experience as we add more customization built into the game.
Well, thank you so much, Ion. I really appreciate you taking the time. This has been really interesting. I'm very curious to see what my guild thinks of this announcement.
Hazzikostas: Me too. And truly, the goal here is really just to kick off a conversation. I know it's a scary looking 45-minute video that's really just announcing two minutes of new stuff at the start. Then, the rest is like, "Let's talk philosophy and let's get a sense of how open players are to us walking down this long path."
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Batman celebrated his 80th anniversary in 2019, but you can celebrate right now with the Batman 80th Anniversary Collection, a Blu-ray compilation of some of the best Dark Knight animated movies from the last couple of decades. It's currently at the lowest price in 2025 for a limited time, and you can pick this up for $44.96 (36% off)
Want to learn about the movies' source material before diving into the movies? Check out our guide on the best way to read the Batman comics online.
This awesome collection is made up of 18 different feature length animated films dating back to the late 1990's. There are a handful of classic entries, like 2016's Batman: The Killing Joke, based on Alan Moore's classic graphic novel that Warner Bros. took some liberties with when it comes to the story. In our review, we gave it a 6.1, saying "[t]here's probably a way to expand on the events of The Killing Joke and craft a story that doesn't elevate Batman and Joker at the expense of Batgirl. Sadly, this movie doesn't find the answer. As an adaptation, The Killing Joke succeeds only when it sticks closely to the source material. Its attempts to embellish the original story end in disaster."
This collection has some notable omissions, namely Batman: Hush and Batman: Death in the Family, which has an interactive element where your actions can affect the outcome of the story, much like the 1988 original comic arc did when deciding the fate of Jason Todd.
If you're in the market for other Batman and comic book movies, Amazon is currently running a massive 4K Blu-ray sale. You can pick any three movies and get them for $33. This promotion applies to several Batman films as well as other comic book movies.
Looking for more of the Dark Knight? Check out our guide to all of the Batman movies as well as the upcoming Batman comics still coming in 2025.
Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.
Sony has announced the PlayStation Plus monthly games for May 2025.
As revealed in a post on the PlayStation Blog, PS Plus members can download Ark: Survival Ascended, Balatro, and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun for free from May 6 to June 2.
It’s worth noting that Until Dawn, which was rumored to be a May PS Plus game, is not on the list.
Here’s the official blurb on each game, courtesy of Sony:
Are you ready to form a tribe, tame and breed hundreds of species of dinosaurs and other primeval creatures, explore, craft, build, and fight your way to the top of the food-chain? Your new world awaits in this survival sim, reimagined from the ground-up with Unreal Engine 5, with high-end graphic features, advanced physics systems and quality of life revamps in every area. Ark: Survival Ascended includes access to all of Ark’s worlds, including Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, Ark Genesis Part 1, Ark Genesis Part 2, and more. The game supports public online multiplayer for up to 70 players, private-session multiplayer for up to 8 players, and local split-screen for 2 players.
In this poker-inspired roguelike deck builder, it’s all creating powerful synergies and winning big. Play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers and trigger outrageous combos in this roguelike strategy experience. Combine valid poker hands with unique joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds. Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncovering hidden bonus hands and decks as you progress. You’re going to need every edge you can get in order to reach the boss blind, beat the final ante and secure victory.
Load up your Boltgun and plunge into battle headfirst! Experience a perfect blend of Warhammer 40,000, classic, frenetic FPS gameplay and the stylish visuals of your favourite 90’s retro shooters. Play a battle-hardened Space Marine on a perilous mission across the galaxy, as they battle against the Chaos Space Marines and daemons of Chaos. In glorious boomer shooter style, unleash your devastating Space Marine arsenal as you blast through an explosion of sprites, pixels and blood. Run, jump and charge across huge levels to shoot, shred and slice the worst heretics across the galaxy!
Meanwhile, 22 games are set to be pulled from the PlayStation Plus library next month, including Grand Theft Auto 5, Payday 2: Crimewave Edition, and the last playable versions of first-party titles Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2. As a result, Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 will now completely disappear for modern consoles.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Whether you're looking to save on games, storage, or accessories, there are plenty of Nintendo Switch deals to check out right now. We've gathered up some of the best Switch deals currently available, including discounts on Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and Super Mario RPG. You can see these deals and even more of our favorites at the moment below. For more updates on the latest discounts, follow @IGNDeals on Twitter/X.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is currently out of stock at numerous retailers right now, but don't let that get you down. If you're still hoping to get your hands on Nintendo's new console, bookmark our Nintendo Switch 2 preorder guide to stay up to date on restocks. For instant updates on what's going on, it's also worth following @IGNDeals on Twitter/X and Bluesky.
While Woot's Spring Sale is still going strong - with great deals on Super Mario RPG, Princess Peach: Showtime, and more - Amazon's also offering some great discounts at the moment. This includes deals on Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and Monster Hunter Stories Collection. You can see those deals and many more of our favorites above.
This is a fantastic bundle deal to take advantage of if you've had your eye on the Switch OLED. Alongside the console you'll also get a three-month Nintendo Switch Online Individual Membership and the Super Mario Bros. Wonder game, which IGN's Ryan McCaffrey said in our review, "establishes a new standard for what 2D Mario platformers should look like."
While not a deal, the Mario Kart LEGO set that dropped on MAR10 Day this year is up for preorder, priced at $169.99 and releasing on May 15. Complete with 1,972 pieces, this set features the man himself in his Standard Kart. It also comes with a display stand to show it speeding off among your collectibles.
The best Switch SD card should be fast and reliable. Therefore, you're going to want to opt for a micro SDXC UHS-I U3 A2 V30 memory card. That's a lot of random letters, so to save you a bit of time we've left our top suggestions and deals below for your convenience. We've also included a selection of Switch 2 compatible MicroSD express cards if you're planning on picking up the brand new console.
Whether you're looking for a new controller or case for your Switch, there are quite a few different accessory deals that are worth checking out. Here, we've listed just a few of our favorite discounts at the moment, including a deal on a two-pack of amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protectors for $9.99 for the Nintendo Switch 2. This is a great deal to take advantage of to pick up a little bit of added protection for the new console.
More Accessory Deals:
Looking for a new power bank to keep your Switch charged up? Thankfully, there are some nice deals to check out at the moment. Our favorite picks right now are over at Amazon, where the INIU power bank has gotten a great discount down to just $15.99 and the Anker 737 has dropped down to $109.99.
The short answer is that you should buy a Nintendo Switch whenever there’s any kind of sale, regardless of the time of year. Amazon will likely offer the same console bundles on any other sale as it will on Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day, so there’s no real reason to wait if you’re in need of a Nintendo Switch.
That being said, there are sometimes some unique bundles and promotions during Black Friday that you won’t find any other time of the year. They usually include additional games (like the famous Mario Kart 8 bundle) or Switch accessories for free, but quantities tend to be limited. As always, do your research into the seller before you make a purchase and keep in mind that the Nintendo Switch 2 is coming soon.
Where to Buy a Nintendo Switch in 2025
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There's certainly been no shortage of games in the last month or so, and it's easy for games to get lost in the proverbial avalanche. In a show of mutual admiration, though, two leads behind two RPGs, both of which launched in the same week, are promoting each others' games to fans.
As spotted by GamesRadar, Kazutaka Kodaka — creator of Danganronpa and co-director behind the recently released The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy — shouted out players reaching a milestone in his own game. Then, he went on to shout out another current RPG in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. "Even after you finish Expedition 33, this Japanese cult game will still be here, waiting for you!" said Kodaka.
He went on to praise Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in a follow-up post, drawing a comparison between the two games' unique takes on their respective genres. "Expedition 33 is an amazing tribute to classic JRPG, while Hundred Line is a cult Japanese VN & SRPG," said Kodaka. "Hundred Line has its own unique charm too, so why not play!!!"
Sandfall Interactive seemed to notice the shout-outs, and the official Expedition 33 account posted a message from creative director Guillaume Broche:
"After your Expedition, check out The Hundred Line, another great turn-based RPG that was also released last week, and made with love by an awesome team. There's too many good RPGs coming out at the same time, these days!"
A note from Guillaume Broche, @SandfallGames Creative Director:
— Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (@expedition33) April 30, 2025
After your Expedition, check out The Hundred Line, another great turn-based RPG that was also released last week, and made with love by an awesome team.
There's too many good RPGs coming out at the same time, these… https://t.co/AmGExVxXUp
Kodaka followed up, with more praise for Expedition 33:
"Thank you!!!! And for those of you who finished your school life first—it’s time to head out on an expedition! Expedition 33 is the future of RPGs. With unique RPGs like these coming out at the same time, now’s the perfect time to dive in and enjoy everything the genre has to offer"
There are, frankly, a lot of games coming out every year. Per SteamDB, over 6,000 games have hit Valve's PC platform in 2025 as of this writing. Over 18,000 released on Steam last year alone. By any metric, that's a baffling number, and even games with newsworthy creators may struggle to reach audiences in the massive flood of new things to play. Factor in ever-evolving live-service games and their content update schedules, and everything, everywhere is fighting for your time and attention.
In light of that, it's heartwarming to not only see two creators acknowledging and promoting each others' games, but encouraging fans to go play them afterwards. In the never-ending battle for eyes and attach rates, encouraging players to roll credits and move on to other experiences is noteworthy.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is out now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is also out now, for PC and Nintendo Switch. If you're close to finishing one, it sounds like you might want to check out the other, too.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.