It’s a Minecraft world, folks — we’re just singing in it. A Minecraft Movie continues to hit major milestones a month after debuting in theaters and catapulting its way toward becoming the highest-grossing video game movie ever at the global box office. Now, the movie’s “Steve's Lava Chicken” song, sung by star Jack Black himself, has made its way to the coveted Billboard Hot 100 Chart in the United States. Yeah, you read that right.

At just 34 seconds, the song — which boasts deep lyrics like “la-la-la-lava ch-ch-ch-chicken” — has become the shortest ever to hit the Hot 100. It debuts on the chart dated May 3, 2025 and comes in at No. 78, which is pretty solid for a sub-35 second song. Additionally, the track, which was written by Black and the film’s director Jared Hess, has hit No. 10 on the Hot Rock Songs Chart.

Interestingly enough, this isn’t even the first chart the song has made it onto. Earlier this month, the song debuted at No. 21 on the UK’s official chart — so clearly Black’s solo is really connecting with the movie’s audience. Plus, this isn’t Black’s first time charting for a film either. He hit No. 58 for “Peaches” from The Super Mario Bros. Movie back in 2023 as well.

A Minecraft Movie screenings have been pretty rowdy affairs so far, but it seems as though fans will have an opportunity to meme and scream their way through the “Chicken Lava” song and the rest of the film as the studios are debuting specific screenings meant for audience interaction.

"Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures invite fans back to the theater to experience A Minecraft Movie together in a whole new way! You know the moments. You know the lines. You love the songs,” stated the announcement for the set of Block Party Edition screenings that will take place on May 2 across the United States and select international locations. “Now it's time to get loose, laugh out loud and belt out those lyrics like a true diamond-tier fan.”

We’ve got plenty more on A Minecraft Movie, including how the Minecraft movie team had a private server they played on.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

I remember vividly when I first caught wind of The Outer Worlds back in 2018 – my managing editor at the time talked about his preview of what developer Obsidian was working on; an original first-person RPG with the makings of a Fallout game. As someone who still won’t shut up about Fallout: New Vegas to this day, that was music to my ears. It turned out to be one of my favorite games of 2019, but instead of expecting it to be the next coming of Fallout, I saw it more as a new foundation for Obsidian to work within.

There were certain limitations to what the first Outer Worlds could be in terms of size and scope, and that much was clear in the several conversations I’ve had with the development team when reflecting on it. But after seeing the sequel in action for the first time and interviewing key folks at Obsidian, The Outer Worlds 2 seems like that original vision fully realized. For all the details I’ve been able to dig up about the revamped gameplay systems and worldbuilding, the overarching idea was that The Outer Worlds 2 needed to be a deeper RPG where player choice has more of an impact in nearly all aspects of the experience. And from everything I’ve gathered from our month’s-worth of exclusive coverage, this sequel looks like it’s stepping in the right direction.

What I’ve seen thus far is based on an early build of the game, all of which has been through hands-off demos, and all the footage you’ve seen was provided by Obsidian. So while I haven’t played it yet, The Outer Worlds 2 is so far reminding me of some of the best parts of the studio’s long list of RPGs, where unconventional playstyles are viable and unpredictable choices and outcomes are intrinsic to the roleplaying aspect, asking you to roll with the punches regardless of whether or not it’s deemed “optimal,” and this manifests in several ways.

Attributes, which were stats that you invested in as you leveled up, have been set aside for a heavier focus on Skills – a total of 12 (including staples like Engineering, Explosives, Guns, Hacking, Leadership, and more) now dictate how your character functions. While this may seem like further streamlining, the goal is to make sure the points you put into various Skills have a more noticeable impact throughout the process of leveling up, as opposed to the minute effects you’d feel in the old Attributes system. Of course, I can’t speak to how this comes to fruition in a full playthrough, but there are other systems in place that feed into the idea that these mechanical decisions can affect your character in bigger ways.

That leads to Perks, of which there will be about 90 to choose from. There are specific Skill levels needed to gain access to certain Perks, but these are said to offer significant changes to what you can do in combat, conversations, exploration, and more. One example is a Perk that lets you aim, fire, and reload while sprinting and sliding for those who want to approach enemies with the mentality of a traditional shooter. Or the Serial Killer and Psychopath Perks that grant bonuses for those who try a much more violent playthrough. Or the Space Ranger Perk that lets you convert points in your Speech Skill into damage bonuses in battle. Dialogue branches may vary based on the Skills and Perks you have (more so than the original), or your character may pick up on things in the environment they wouldn’t be able to otherwise, so the results of your build aren't just isolated in combat scenarios. Those are just a few examples of how these systems feed into specific playstyles with the intention of rewarding you for the way in which you’re specialized.

Then there are Traits that stack additional permanent effects that you wouldn’t necessarily get through Perks. The catch is that if you want to take more Positive Traits, you have to also select Negative Traits, and that’s where things can get interesting. I’m actually curious about how I’d play with something like “Dumb” where I’d have to lock myself out from ever putting points into five of the 12 Skills, or “Sickly” where I’d take lower health and toxic resistance. It seems like a trade-off that could be worth it, depending on how I want to build out my character.

But if you want to lean more into unconventional mechanics, accounting for things you usually wouldn’t in other RPGs – enter the new Flaws system. Like in the original, the game is watching your behavior and then offering permanent bonuses at the cost of a permanent detractor depending on how you play. However, The Outer Worlds 2 goes deeper on this idea – you’re not just offered a Perk point if you take a Flaw. Flaws now have bespoke status effects and conditions that can have major ramifications for how you’ll play the game, should you take a Flaw. I only got to see two of them, but they speak to the philosophy behind them. Sungazer offers regenerative health outdoors during the day at the cost of extreme visual lens flare and reduced accuracy, and that’s activated by staring into the sun multiple times. Or if you quickly skip through dialogue choices frequently, Foot-in-Mouth offers a permanent XP bonus while forcing you to make all future dialogue choices in a 15-second window – and if that timer runs out, the game will pick for you, which can lead to some unintended consequences. There’s another Flaw that’ll force you to accept all future Flaws no matter what, and Obsidian hinted at one that will account for those who save scum, but that remains to be seen – it’s bizarre ideas like these that can shake up playthroughs. Obsidian said there are around 30 Flaws in total, and my hope is that the incentives will be worth the trade-off, and that they’re built in a way that it won’t be easy to circumvent their effects, which could diminish their impact.

All that said, it’s clear that Obsidian put a lot of thought into how to rebuild its RPG mechanics with the intention of making something that is more reactive and impactful, or at least purposeful along the progression path. And with no respec beyond the intro mission, you’ll have to build out your character with a little more care. Hands-off demos can only tell me so much, so I’m expecting everything else around The Outer Worlds 2 to bring out the best in those systems and push me to engage with them beyond the surface level.

That sounds all well and good, and the brief gameplay sequences I saw were also promising. While the first game had approachability at the forefront, The Outer Worlds 2 looks like it’s offering more variability with a web of systems that come together for something a bit more sophisticated. For example, we now have actual stealth mechanics with a better detection system, proper stealth kills, and scenarios in which this approach would make sense – and features such as damage bar read-outs tell you whether or not a stealth attack will be worth it. The N-Ray Scanner is one of the new gadgets you’ll use, and this lets you see through walls and detect cloaked enemies or key objects hidden in the environment, but it’ll expend your mana-like energy – it’s a tool that’s conducive to this playstyle, and I’m looking for how this approach can be sustained throughout.

Judging from the brief run of the N-Ray Facility, for example, I saw snippets of that in action, which leans into this particular playstyle I prefer. This level was also ripe for playing it like an immersive sim, and it gave me hints of Deus Ex or Dishonored, especially with how you navigate the level and find different paths. I know the DNA of those games will always find their way into first-person RPGs, but it’s something that wasn’t quite as present in the first Outer Worlds, and very much apparent in this sequel.

And while I’m excited for stealth options and wielding the environment to create paths forward, the punched-up gunplay and addition of gadgets shows an improvement in combat approaches across the board. The aforementioned sprint-slide-firing Perk – along with the returning Tactical Time Dilation (TTD) – looks to be a deadly combo in a firefight, but some wild unique weapons like the crank-powered sniper rifle called the Planet Killer or the advertisement-blasting Pop Gun that’ll distract enemies, widen your toolset. When all hell breaks loose, the triple-barrel shotgun will probably be an old reliable in my playthrough. And I’m sure I’ll be saving those rare shots I’ll find for this game’s version of the BFG for the toughest fights.

But with Obsidian looking to games like Destiny in terms of reworking gunplay, I think it’s a net-positive for how the game feels on a moment-to-moment basis. There’s an emphasis on better mobility, smarter enemy behavior, and varied enemy types, along with that wider, more creative arsenal. But there’s also no more level scaling, and so there’s been more consideration in how difficulty works in The Outer Worlds 2 with tiered enemies and static levels for encounters across the game, letting encounters be designed with more intent, especially with where the designers will funnel players and create friction.

The more intimate details of level design excite me, and seeing interiors like the Zyranium Lab be noticeably bigger and intricate with multiple paths has me thinking about the gameplay possibilities. But its large open zones are also a key point in this sequel. I’ve said in previous coverage that bigger doesn’t always mean better, and Obsidian is aware of that. So, The Outer Worlds 2 has an emphasis on density and rewarding players who poke around its areas with more side stories and useful loot in a way that the first game didn’t. Points of interest out in the distance are built intentionally and are said to be placed for a reason and draw players to those locations and discover quests off the beaten path. This is all based on a brief walkthrough of Golden Ridge, which is the only open zone I saw, and it does seem like there’s a lot more going on at the ground level. And I hope that this design philosophy extends to the rest of The Outer Worlds 2's open regions.

Finally, Obsidian wasn’t ready to share many details on story or companions, but game director Brandon Adler hinted at a world-changing event happening early on when landing on Golden Ridge, and that being indicative of the types of narrative swings they’re going for. Creative director Leonard Boyarsky, who was one of the original Fallout developers, spoke to how the team is thinking about The Outer Worlds 2’s story. He mentioned being sharper with its humorous tone while going deeper on its commentary about how corporations, and those in power, will exert and abuse their power on those seen below them. It seems a major factor in conveying these themes will be through factions – The Protectorate, The Order of the Ascendant, and Auntie’s Choice (a merger between Auntie Cleo and Spacer’s Choice from the first game). While companions are optional, it appears they’ll be an important lens through which you navigate and understand the world. Boyarsky also emphasized the intention of making a story that can stand the test of time with its dissection of the human condition, rather than directly reflect the times in which it was made – and that’s largely been the philosophy that guided the old Fallout games, including New Vegas.

Overall, I get the impression that Obsidian is trying to avoid homogeneity in its gameplay systems, and build worlds with questlines and encounters that tease out the varied options you have this time around. You can have complex and creative systems to toy with, but ultimately, it’s a means for engaging with the captivating stories tucked within where we have a distinct role to play. If the original Outer Worlds was Obsidian building the framework, my hope is that this sequel is the series reaching its full potential. And that’s something we’ll have to see when The Outer Worlds 2 comes out later this year.

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is set to leave early access and launch on May 21, Netmarble and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have announced.

The action-adventure role-playing game based on George R. R. Martin’s much-loved fantasy universe is set for release on all mobile platforms as well as on PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Windows.

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad launched in early access form in March, and has a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam. Most of the negative reviews revolve around its monetization, which some have called “greedy.” “It’s like a mobile game on steroids and kinda not in a good way,” reads the current ‘most helpful’ review on Valve’s platform.

In a release date FAQ posted to Steam, Netmarble addressed the expected gap between the progression of early access and new players. It said that Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is “fundamentally designed with a focus on single-player gameplay,” and that it had worked to “minimize any feelings of imbalance or unfairness that might arise from differences in progression.”

Testing was conducted to improve the game, the development team continued, "to improve the game and make it more enjoyable and accessible for everyone."

“We encourage all players to focus on the inherent fun of progressing through the later stages and reaching the endgame content, rather than comparing progress with other characters,” Netmarble suggested.

Netmarble went on to apologize for its prior communication and patches, which it admitted were “somewhat lacking.”

“Moving forward, we are committed to more frequent and transparent communication through regular AMA sessions and Developer Notes,” it added. “We kindly ask for your continued anticipation and support as we approach the official launch.”

As you’d expect from a game like this, there’s a premium Founder’s Pack that offers Early Access and other exclusive in-game content. Mobile players can pre-register through the App Store and Google Play store on iOS and Android devices ahead of the grand launch.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

When it comes to the Great American Novel, you'll be hard-pressed to find a more quintessential pick than Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage. The book's unflinching depiction of a soldier's life during the Civil War made it unique in the literary world upon release, and it also makes it a natural fit to be adapted into a graphic novel. Abrams ComicArts has done just that.

Ahead of its May release, IGN can exclusively debut a new preview of The Red Badge of Courage. Get a closer look in the slideshow gallery below:

The Red Badge of Courage is adapted from Crane's original prose by writer/artist Steve Cuzor. Here's Abrams' official description of the graphic novel:

Written by Stephen Crane when he was just 24, The Red Badge of Courage is a Civil War story that captured the imaginations of readers worldwide and made its author an overnight literary icon. Now artist Steve Cuzor and Abrams ComicArts are publishing a powerful graphic novel adaptation of the classic and genre-defining war novel. Cuzor’s stark yet detailed artwork in The Red Badge of Courage perfectly captures the realistic prose of the original novel, presenting a lushly illustrated, unflinching depiction of war through the eyes of a young, inexperienced soldier.

A groundbreaking and realistic examination of the psychological effects of war, The Red Badge of Courage draws from firsthand accounts and research and has been continuously in print since its publication in 1894. Crane’s depiction of his main character, Henry Fleming, and his internal monologue, ring so true that many readers mistook Crane for a veteran himself. The realistic prose and visceral descriptions of battle that Crane used marked the first shift away from uncritical patriotism in war literature. It would take until at least the 1920s and the wake of the horror of the First World War for the rest of the genre to catch up. In the years following its publication, The Red Badge of Courage was hailed by Crane scholar Henry Wertheim as “unquestionably the most realistic novel about the American Civil War,” while Ernest Hemingway called the novel an “American classic.”

“By illustrating Crane’s classic story, Cuzor pulls readers into the midst of the action, making Henry Fleming’s experience feel all the more visceral,” said Abrams ComicArts' Publisher Joseph Montagne in a statement. “Literary aficionados and students alike will find another layer of this classic story to appreciate in this new adaptation of Crane’s magnum opus.”

The Red Badge of Courage will be released in bookstores on Tuesday, May 13 and in comic shops on Wednesday, May 14. You can preorder a copy on Amazon.

In other comic book news, iconic TMNT villain Shredder is getting his own solo series, and we've got an exclusive look inside the new Heavy Metal series.

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

The buzz around preordering a Nintendo Switch 2 has also come with its reputation for more expensive new games, but getting to grab the physical version of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition for £60 on the upcoming system is a nice surprise.

Available at Monster Shop's eBay store, the outlet has introduced a "LOOPY20" discount code that, when applied at checkout, will take the titular 20% right off the game's price tag to £59.99.

With The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered out and millions of players enjoying Bethesda's much-loved open-world role-playing game, its army of fans are coming together to issue advice to those who might have missed out on the fun 20 years ago.

Oblivion remastered is a remaster, not a remake, Bethesda has stressed, and so many of the quirks of its ageing design remain. One of those quirks — or frustrations it might be better called — is Oblivion’s level scaling system.

Oblivion’s original designer recently called the game's level scaling a “mistake,” but it made it into Oblivion Remastered anyway. It means loot acquired is tied to the level of your character at the point you acquire it. Similarly, enemies will still spawn according to your level.

It’s this latter point that has sparked a fresh round of advice from Oblivion veterans to newcomers, and it all revolves around Castle Kvatch.

Warning! Spoilers for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered follow.

Breaking the Siege of Kvatch is the fourth main quest, and tasks you with defending the city of Kvatch against the Daedric hordes. It involves going through an Oblivion gate where you’ll face off against multiple high level enemies. Once you've done that and closed the Oblivion gate, you have to clear out the Daedric invasion in the main plaza of Kvatch itself.

If you waited too long and leveled up a lot, you'll find that all of your helping friends are quickly killed because the enemies you're facing are extremely difficult. Due to Oblivion’s level scaling system, the higher level you are, the tougher those enemies will be. At higher levels, Kvatch will throw every variety of Daedra at you, rather than easy-to-kill Scamps. You might encounter a room full of Daedroth (strong crocodile-headed bipedal Daedra), Daedric Princes, or other monstrosities.

Breaking the Siege of Kvatch leads into The Battle for Castle Kvatch, should you take it on. Here you battle to retake the town's castle, defeating the Daedra along the way. Like Breaking the Siege of Kvatch, level scaling can be a real problem here.

Enter helpful Oblivion veterans who are recommending players take on Kvatch before they hit level 10.

“I'm like panicking now…” said redditor IsThatHearsay. “First time playing Oblivion, didn't even know you had to sleep to lvl up until just before I got to this mission.

“Closed the Kvatch Oblivion gate right before this mission still as lvl 1, then read online to sleep and I jumped from lvl 1 to 9 immediately with hour sleep increments. Met Martin there and decided to escort him to the Cloud place to take a break from fighting, followed by deciding to cheese some skills like Conjuration, Acrobatics, Sneak, and whatnot quickly and climbed to lvl 15.

“Now have to go back to do Kvatch at lvl 15+, when I'm hearing I probably should've just done it while still lvl 1…”

“I just tried it at level 20 and let me tell you, that shit is fucking rough,” said frontadmiral.

“Completed at lvl 21 on a mage, god it was tough,” said Ranaki_1967. “Had to in the field recharge my staff, drink potions escape down the ladder, have maximum shield armour, a Dremora champion.

“The framerate was bad.”

“Bro im doing it at 27 rn and im NOT having a good time, Xivali are EVERYWHERE,” Mother_Bid_4294 said.

Even Oblivion experts have been caught by taking on Kvatch at too high a level. “I've oblivioned extensively in the original but I still made the same mistake, went back to Kvatch level 13, just about manageable,” Various-Jellyfish132.

“Make use of sneak for bonus damage and retreat through loading doors to recover if needed, if you have a bit of space, their attacks are easily dodged. The daedroths don't seem to follow you through the doors so you can pick them off one at a time.”

“Oblivion scaling is just wild though because you will level up once and suddenly Scamps transform into Daedroths and Clannfear Runts turn into Daedric Princes,” Groosin1 said.

“Because the scaling cap is only 17-18. And the way leveling works, at 17-20 you could be anywhere from a guy with middling combat skills for what you're using and getting obliterated, to being God.”

Part of the issue here is that players are leveling up faster in Oblivion Remastered than they did in the original Oblivion. That’s because the developers changed the leveling system to modernize it, but kept the level scaling the same.

This has had the knock-on effect of causing some players to be a higher level than they would have been in the original when taking on tough quests such as Kvatch.

For the first time ever I decided to do Kvatch before level 10. It was cool to see it actually functioning as an even battle instead of a horde of overleveled demons one-shotting all the guards. Really makes you wonder if they ever tested it at higher levels. pic.twitter.com/VeQH3xst0b

— Entropy Phi (@entropy_phi) April 27, 2025

As you’d expect, modders have once again come to the rescue. Fresh from tackling PC performance issues in Oblivion Remastered, modders have also released balanced NPC level cap mods and balanced unleveled rewards mods, so if you’re on PC, you can change the way Oblivion Remastered works significantly. If you’re on console, however, you’re stuck with level scaling.

We’ve got plenty more on Oblivion Remastered, including a report on a player who managed to escape the confines of Cyrodiil to explore Valenwood, Skyrim, and even Hammerfell, the rumored setting of The Elder Scrolls VI.

We've also got a comprehensive guide to everything you'll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

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.

We're just over a month away from the much-hyped arrival of Nintendo Switch 2, which means Nintendo has been busy behind the scenes, updating its OG Switch firmware and getting the digital eShop ready for June 5. Part of those changes, however, has evoked a surprisingly strong reaction in fans — the eShop has switched from orange to red.

Not only has the orange background — which has been the shop's primary color since the Nintendo 3DS days of June 2011 – been refreshed to a bright red, but the shop icon on the Home screen's taskbar has also been given a coat of paint. Previously, the red background color had primarily only been used to mark key Nintendo anniversaries.

RIP orange eShop. Lasted from 2011 to 2025 across 3DS, Wii U and Switch 🫡 pic.twitter.com/Gv9bBUKJ2H

— It's-A-Mii, BoTalksGames! (@BoTalksGames) April 30, 2025

That's not all, either. Nintendo has also straightened the 'e' on eShop and removed the little "eyelashes" from it, too, and changed the font, as demonstrated by the 't' in Nintendo.

"Going to be sick…" cried one alarmed Twitter respondent, while others descended into a "It's bread" frenzy, riffing on the viral Silent Hill 3 meme.

"Yeah I miss the orange already, lol," said another commenter on Reddit, to which another joked: "NOW it’s next gen."

THEY KILLED HIM

HES ALL RED NOW pic.twitter.com/4v2QiXboZv

— Nathan (@NSuperGamerGuy) April 30, 2025

Interestingly, though, this is actually not the first time the eShop has been red, as some players have also been reminiscing about. It also aligns the console store with the color palette you see when visiting the Nintendo eShop via your browser.

On the plus side, players are reporting the updated eShop seems to be responding faster since the most recent firmware update.

As IGN reported earlier today, Nintendo Switch Firmware Update Version 20.0.0 makes a number of key changes to the eight-year-old console in preparation of the launch of its successor, the Switch 2, in June, according to the patch notes released on Nintendo's official website. It includes the addition of a system transfer to Nintendo Switch 2, which you’ll now find in System Settings, so you'll be able to transfer from your Switch to Switch 2 using local communication.

This is all leading towards the hotly anticipated release of the Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5. Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders went live on April 24, with the price still fixed at $449.99 — and they went about as well as you'd expect. Meanwhile, Nintendo has issued a warning to U.S. customers who applied for a Switch 2 pre-order from the My Nintendo Store, saying release date delivery is not guaranteed due to very high demand.

Check out IGN's Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order guide for more.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Lost Soul Aside is delayed three months, from May 30 to August 29, 2025, its developer has announced.

After roughly a decade in development, the PC and PlayStation 5 single-player action game was finally scheduled for llaunch next month, but a statement from developer Ultizero Games revealed the delay to late September to add polish.

"We are truly grateful for the positive response we've received from players all over the world since we announced Lost Soul Aside," Ultizero Games said.

"We remain committed to delivering a high-quality game experience. To match the standards Ultizero Games have set for ourselves, we are going to take some additional time to polish the game. Lost Soul Aside will now release on August 29, 2025. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to our fans waiting for the launch."

Originally the passion project of solo developer Yang Bing, Lost Soul Aside has grown to become a major Sony-published title under the company's China Hero Project, with Bing now the founder and CEO of Shanghai-based studio Ultizero Games.

IGN recently had the opportunity to sit down with Yang Bing to discuss the long road to launch. So many years of development went into Lost Soul Aside, escalating from a solo creator's vision to a trailer reveal at Sony's State of Play broadcast. Through it all the hype has built up, with some calling Lost Soul Aside an exciting mix of Final Fantasy characters and Devil May Cry combat — even from the moment Yang Bing's initial reveal video went viral in 2016.

The main character Kesar wields a shape-shifting weapon you can swap between, which changes your playstyle, and you have a dragon-like companion named Arena who can summon abilities to support Kesar.

Like its inspirations, Lost Soul Aside emphasizes aerial dodging, precision timing, combos, and countering along with large-scale boss fights. The game blends its sci-fi premise with a variety of contemporary aesthetics that fit into a campaign that takes you across multiple dimensions. Although it's tough to glean where the story is going based on its trailers, Bing describes Kesar's journey as one of "redemption and discovery."

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.

Regardless of age, every gamer remembers when they suffered their first save game data loss, be it a corrupted console/PC harddrive, or a PS1 memory card suddenly showing blue blocks of damaged data. Japanese gamers were reminded of these painful feelings on April 30, when actor Shinya Okada’s dramatic reaction to losing all his original Pokemon Red save data from 1996 was captured in a YouTube video. The actor’s stunned facial expressions and fans’ outpourings of sympathy even led the incident to be featured on Japanese entertainment news outlets.

A familiar face in Japanese TV dramas, 77-year-old actor Shinya Owada is also a huge Pokemon fan, regularly playing through various games from the series on his YouTube Channel “Shinya Owada’s Hideout.” Often accompanied by his trusty Squirtle plushie (that he recently took on an adorable trip to the aquarium), Owada’s warm-hearted enthusiasm for the games, plus his dramatic narration of the dialogue has earned the veteran gamer over 56.4K subscribers.

Pokémon TCG fans are getting a strong lineup today, with multiple Elite Trainer Boxes on sale. That includes an early discount on the Journey Together set, which is rare this soon after release.

Regardless of being in it for the promos or looking to crack packs, this is a great time to grab sealed product, not ot mention singles dropping in value across the board.

There's also a deal on Iono’s Bellibolt Premium Collection, and the Iron Leaves ETB from the Temporal Forces expansion is holding steady at a fair price.

TL;DR: Deals For Today

Outside the world of cards, AirPods Pro 2 are available for $169, a significant drop from their usual $249 price tag.

If you just picked up a Switch 2, there’s also a quick-install screen protector available for under $10.

Humble has a 17-title XCOM bundle starting at just $10, and the IGN Store is offering a limited Oblivion collectible ingot for pre-order, perfect for Elder Scrolls fans and collectors.

Journey Together Elite Trainer Box

Journey Together Rare Cards

Iono’s Bellibolt ex Premium Collection

Journey Together IRs

Oblivion Gates

Temporal Forces: Elite Trainer Box

Temporal Forces Chase Cards

XCOM Complete Bundle

Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch 2

Apple AirPods Pro 2

id & Friends Humble Game Bundle

Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet - Surging Sparks Booster Bundle

Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—Twilight Masquerade Elite Trainer Box

Twilight Masquerade Single Cards

Surging Sparks Single Cards

Pokémon TCG: Shining Fates Collection Pikachu V Box

Shining Fates Single Cards

The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered Dark Brotherhood Medallion

Pokémon TCG Paldean Fates Booster Bundle

Paldean Fates Single Cards

Pokemon TCG: Azure Legends Tin - 5 Packs

Surging Sparks Single Cards

Lexar Sale

Pokémon Game Sale

MSI Desktops & Components Sale

Samsung Pro Plus 512GB MicroSDXC + Reader

8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard (Xbox Edition)

8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse (Xbox Edition)

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been out little over a week, but you can already grab Sandfall Interactive's critically acclaimed RPG, and potentially an early GOTY shout, up to £10 off on console at Amazon and £8 off on PC.

With these discounts, you can now grab it for just £40.99 on PS5 and £39.99 on Xbox physically, while a digital Steam copy for PC is currently priced at £33.59 during Fanatical's Level Up Sale.

Titanfall fans are reeling from the news EA has canceled another incubation project at Respawn Entertainment, and simultaneously laid off a number of individuals across its incubation, Apex Legends, Star Wars: Jedi, and EA Experience teams.

Bloomberg reported the canceled game, codenamed R7, was an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe. And while that is not the Titanfall 3 sequel fans have been clamoring for, some are devastated that the fan-favorite Titanfall 2 is still without a sequel almost a decade later.

"I just fell to my knees at Walmart," said one player, while another simply wrote: "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE."

"How many more times will this happen before they finally give it up and leave us to our sorrow?" lamented another.

Not all fans are taking it as bad news, however, as some think an extraction shooter based in the Titanfall universe could have failed, killing the franchise for good.

"Best thing that could've happened as far as the continued existence of this franchise is concerned," posited this redditor. "A Titanfall extraction shooter would probably flop and the c-suite executives would say 'see, the people just don't like Titanfall anymore,' instead of the obvious reason being nobody asked for a Titanfall XTS."

"I’m fine with this one being canceled," responded someone else, followed by: "Extraction shooter lmao. Good riddance."

"So sick and tired of 'extraction shooters'. They're so formulaic and boring. I don't want to loot bunch of useless shit and camp in an attic or sit in a bush for 20 minutes or risk getting shot moving thru big open fields. Give me quick matches, wallrunning and titans blastin'," suggested this fan.

"Got sad. Read extraction shooter. Was literally okay," summarized someone else.

The roughly 100 jobs impacted at Respawn included individuals in development, publishing, and QA workers on Apex Legends, as well as smaller groups of individuals working on the Jedi team and two canceled incubation projects, one of which we reported on back in March, and the other thought to have been the aforementioned extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe.

These cuts follow a number of other layoffs over the last few years at EA. Earlier this year, it restructured BioWare, moving developers to other projects and laying off others. It also eliminated 50 jobs at BioWare in 2023 and an unknown number more at Codemasters, and in 2024 a larger restructuring that resulted in 670 workers laid off company-wide, including around two dozen workers at Respawn.

In 2023, it emerged that Respawn Entertainment worked on Titanfall 3 "in earnest" for 10 months before ditching it for Apex Legends.

Mohammad Alavi, who became narrative lead designer on Titanfall 3 before it was cut, told The Burnettwork that much work on the sequel had been done.

“Titanfall 2 came out, did what it did, and we were like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna make Titanfall 3,’ and we worked on Titanfall 3 for about 10 months, right? In earnest, right?

"We had new tech for it, we had multiple missions going, we had a first playable, which was on par to be just as good if not better than whatever we had before, right? But I’ll make this clear: incrementally better, it wasn’t revolutionary. And that’s the key thing, right?

“And we were feeling pretty decent about it, but not the same feeling as Titanfall 2 where we were making something revolutionary, y’know what I mean?”

So, what happened? According to Alavi, it was a combination of the multiplayer team having issues making an experience that didn’t burn players out quickly, and the explosion of the Battle Royale genre with the release of PUBG in 2017.

“The multiplayer team was having a hell of a time trying to fix the multiplayer, because a lot of people love the multiplayer. People love Titanfall 2 multiplayer,” Alavi said.

“But the people who love Titanfall 2 multiplayer is a very small number of people. And most people play Titanfall 2 multiplayer and think it’s really good, but it’s just too much. It’s cranked up to 11, and they burn out a bit fast. And they’re like, ‘That was a great multiplayer, that’s not something I continually play a year, two years,’ right?

“So we were trying to fix that. We were trying to fix that from Titanfall 1 to 2, trying to fix it from Titanfall 2 to 3, the multiplayer team was just dying.

“And then PUBG came out.”

Respawn developers were seemingly more interested in playing a Battle Royale map with Titanfall 3 classes the team had put together, than any of the standard Titanfall multiplayer modes they were working on. This prompted a realisation: ditch Titanfall 3, which may or may not have ended up a better game than its predecessor, to create a Battle Royale that was wonderful.

“And at the time, I had just literally become [the] narrative lead designer on Titanfall 3. I had just pitched the story, the whole game, that me and Manny [Hagopian] had come up with. We made this big presentation and then we went off at break, and came back from break, and we talked about it and we were like, ‘Yeah, we need to pivot. And we need to go make this game.’

“We literally canceled Titanfall 3 ourselves ’cause we were like, ‘We can make this game, and it’s going to be Titanfall 2 plus a little bit better, or we can make this thing, which is clearly amazing.’

“And don’t get me wrong, I will always miss having another Titanfall. I love that game. Titanfall 2 is my most crowning achievement, but it was the right call. That is a crazy cut. Such a crazy cut that EA didn’t even know about it for another six months until we had a prototype up and running that we could show them!”

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford has insisted the decision to release Borderlands 4 earlier than planned had nothing to do with any other game’s release date, amid speculation the shooter might have moved due to games such as Marathon or Grand Theft Auto 6.

Co-op focused FPS Borderlands 4 was due out September 23, but will now release on September 12 across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

This 11-day shift sparked speculation that GTA 6’s release date had come into focus and that parent company Take-Two, which also owns GTA developer Rockstar, had shuffled its pack in a bid to give Borderlands 4 more breathing room. GTA 6 is currently still down to launch in the fall of 2025.

There was also talk that Borderlands 4 might have moved due to a clash with Bungie’s Marathon, a co-op focused extraction shooter. Marathon is a crucial game for Bungie, which is owned by Sony, and was set to go up against Borderlands 4 by releasing on the same day, September 23, 2025. Borderlands 4 is getting its own PlayStation State of Play broadcast today, April 30, at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST.

But in a tweet, Pitchford denied any game’s release date influenced the decision to bring Borderlands 4 forward, insisting it had to do with “confidence” and “development trajectory.”

“Borderlands 4 shipping early is 100% the result of confidence in the game and development trajectory backed by actual tasks and bug find/fix rates,” Pitchford said. “Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date.”

While many games have brought their release dates forward, it remains an unusual occurence (delays are more likely). Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, said that if other games' release dates really did have nothing to do with bringing Borderlands 4 forward, then the decision is "a bit odd."

"They’ve gone out with a date," Dring tweeted. "It’s on calendars, market materials, social assets... Put ‘Borderlands 4 release date’ into Google and it still says Sep 23. There’s surely got to be a good commercial reason to shift a date."

In a video message apparently published early yesterday, Pitchford revealed the surprise Borderlands 4 release date news. “Everything is going great, actually,” he said. “In fact, everything is going kind of the best-case scenario. The game is awesome, the team is cooking, and so the launch date for Borderlands 4 is changing. We’re moving it forward. The launch date is now September 12.”

“What?! This never happens you guys! This never happens! We’re moving the launch date forward! You’re gonna get Borderlands 4 earlier!”

It’s worth noting that Borderlands 4 is published by 2K Games, which is owned by Take-Two. Gearbox itself and the Borderlands IP are also owned by Take-Two. Meanwhile, Take-Two is the parent company of GTA developer Rockstar. At a high enough level, right up to CEO Strauss Zelnick, there will be a knowledge of all the company’s games, where they’re at in development, and a desire to give them all the best chance of success.

In an interview with IGN in February, Zelnick said Take-Two is planning its releases to avoid a risk of cannibalization, insisting launch timing is driven by a desire to “respect the consumer's need to spend a lot of time playing these hit games before they go on to the next.”

“No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem,” Zelnick said. “And what we found is when you're giving consumers hits, they tend to be interested in pursuing other hits. In other words, I've said this many times, even when the hits aren't ours, they're a good thing for the industry. In this case, we hope that the hits will largely be ours. So we feel really good about it and I think that we will time our releases so as to respect the consumer's need to spend a lot of time playing these hit games before they go on to the next.”

Amid all this speculation is of course the prospect that GTA 6 will be delayed either into early winter, or at some point in the first quarter of 2026.

"Look, there's always a risk of slippage and I think as soon as you say words like absolutely, you jinx things," Zelnick responded when IGN asked how confident he was that Rockstar would hit fall 2025 for GTA 6. "So we feel really good about it."

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Nintendo has released a new firmware update for the Switch ahead of the release of the Switch 2.

Nintendo Switch Firmware Update Version 20.0.0 makes a number of key changes to the eight-year-old console in preparation of the launch of its successor, the Switch 2, in June, according to the patch notes released on Nintendo's official website.

Chief among them is the addition of a system transfer to Nintendo Switch 2, which you’ll now find in System Settings. This lets you perform a system transfer from your Switch to Switch 2 using local communication.

If you lose access to your Switch before getting your Switch 2, there is an option to upload system transfer data to a dedicated server which can then be retrieved on your Switch 2.

It’s worth noting that once you’ve done this, the Switch will be initialized to factory settings. Nintendo warned you should only do the transfer if you’ll be able to complete the transfer on Switch 2. Otherwise, just do the system transfer using local communication after you have your Switch 2.

Some Switch owners who intend to sell or trade in their OG console against a Switch 2 are already saying they’ll make use of this system transfer system as they don’t need to hold onto their old consoles to do the transfer. Others are questioning the need for the transfer to trigger a factory reset, and have expressed concern about potentially losing their Switch data on Nintendo’s dedicated server.

Meanwhile, the update changes the appearance of some user icons, which the community has already revealed. Of note here is Donkey Kong’s new icon is the new design from upcoming Switch 2 exclusives Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World.

There's also new icons on the Home menu for Virtual Game Cards and GameShare, both also in anticipation of the launch of Switch 2.

Nintendo Switch Firmware Update Version 20.0.0 patch notes

Ver. 20.0.0 (Released April 29, 2025)

• The following icons for new features have been added to the HOME Menu:
  • Virtual Game Card
    • Purchased Nintendo Switch digital software, DLC, and some free software, are now virtual game cards and displayed in a list in this menu.
    • You can virtually load and eject virtual game cards between up to two Nintendo Switch systems.
    • Virtual game cards can be lent to others in the same Nintendo Account family group. For more information, see Virtual Game Card Guide.
  • GameShare
    • Compatible software can be shared from a Nintendo Switch 2 system to other nearby system(s) to play together.
      • You can only play together via local wireless, and the Nintendo Switch 2 system must initiate GameShare.
      • This feature cannot be used between two Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch – OLED Model and/or Nintendo Switch Lite systems.
• User-Verification Settings has been added under User > User Settings.
  • You can restrict access to the Virtual Game Card menu by requiring entry of a PIN or signing in to your Nintendo Account.
• Online License Settings has been added.
  • When turned on, you can play downloaded software or DLC you've purchased while the system is connected to the internet, even if you don't have the virtual game card loaded.
  • For more information, please refer to the details about the option on the System Settings screen.
• The Nintendo eShop and Nintendo Switch News icon colors on the HOME Menu have been changed.
• Multiple save data can be selected and transferred at once in “Transfer Your Save Data” menu.
• System Transfer to Nintendo Switch 2 has been added under System Settings > System.
  • You can perform a system transfer from your Nintendo Switch to Nintendo Switch 2 using local communication.
    • For users that will lose access to their Nintendo Switch before receiving their Nintendo Switch 2, there is an option to upload system transfer data to a dedicated server which can then be retrieved on their Nintendo Switch 2. After you upload your system transfer data to the dedicated server, the Nintendo Switch system will be initialized to factory settings, so only perform this transfer if you’ll be able to complete the transfer on Nintendo Switch 2.
    • If you want to continue using your Nintendo Switch until you have a Nintendo Switch 2, we recommend completing the system transfer using local communication after you have acquired a Nintendo Switch 2 system.
  • An internet connection and Nintendo Account is required to complete both local and the server-based system transfer service.
  • For more information, see System Transfer from Nintendo Switch to Nintendo Switch 2.
• The appearance of some user icons have been updated.

For detailed information on Nintendo Switch 2, see the Nintendo website.

Note that the use of “Primary Console” has been deprecated with the transition to virtual game cards, and “Pass-enabled console” will be used instead. On a console set as the “Pass-enabled console” for a user, all users on the console can access certain subscriptions or passes for some software. For more information, see How to Set or Change the Pass-Enabled Console for a Nintendo Account.

This is all leading towards the hotly anticipated release of the Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5. Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders went live on April 24, with the price still fixed at $449.99 — and they went about as well as you'd expect. Meanwhile, Nintendo has issued a warning to U.S. customers who applied for a Switch 2 pre-order from the My Nintendo Store, saying release date delivery is not guaranteed due to very high demand.

Check out IGN's Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order guide for more.

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.

Diablo 4 has launched Season 8 and with it kicked off a series of free updates that will, eventually, lead into the action role-playing game’s second expansion, due out at some point in 2026.

But not all is well within Diablo 4’s ravenous core community. It is a player base hungry for significant new features, reworks, and fresh ways to play the near two-year-old game, and it’s not shy about letting Blizzard know how it feels. Yes, Diablo 4 is more than its core community, with a significant number of casual players who just like to blast monsters without too much thought on how they’re doing it. But the foundation of Diablo 4’s community is made up of veteran fans who play week in, week out, fuss over meta builds, and want Blizzard to give them much more to think about.

Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Diablo 4’s recently released 2025 roadmap — the first Blizzard has released for the game — suffered a backlash. In the wake of the roadmap’s release, Diablo 4’s community expressed concern about what's coming up in 2025, including Season 8, and questioned whether there’s enough new content to keep them coming back.

TV these days offers you a choice of freaky apocalypses. Want to see human society collapse due to deadly mushrooms? Watch The Last of Us. Want to see the world end in a blanket of deadly snow? Watch The Eternaut, Netflix’s gritty and moody adaptation of an influential, nearly 70-year-old Argentine comic book. A thoughtful and twisty take on the post-apocalyptic survival genre, this series makes terrific use of its South American locations to tell a story about people too stubborn to die.

The Eternaut’s doomsday begins when a mysterious snow-like substance that kills anyone who touches it starts falling from the sky in Buenos Aires, a place not exactly known for frosty winters. In less than a day, the city’s population is decimated. One of the few survivors is lumpy, gray-haired, middle-aged Juan Salvo (Ricardo Darin) who puts on a gas mask and a heavy coat and ventures out into the fallen capital, searching for people to save.

The basic concept and approach of The Eternaut should be familiar to fans of The Walking Dead and similar shows. The series’s writer-director-producer Bruno Stagnaro begins the story on day one, documenting a society that rapidly collapses and then just as quickly tries to regroup. This season’s pacing can feel slow, as Stagnaro tells a story that, at times, feels like a minute-by-minute recounting of Juan’s adventures. In the first three episodes especially, there are a lot of scenes of people in darkened rooms, talking about their fears and worrying about their futures. These characters are good enough company, but you’ll need to exercise a little patience early on, as the plot gradually develops.

The Eternaut really comes to life whenever the action moves outside. The images of a broken Buenos Aires – filled with crashed cars and corpses, all covered in snow – are visually striking. The tension heightens dramatically too whenever Juan is out in the streets, encountering other explorers with masks and guns, having to figure out which of them he can trust. In one of the most memorable early scenes, he comes across a group of people huddling in one corner of a crashed commuter train, and he is torn between his instinctive feelings of compassion and the realization that there is no way to save all of them from the snow. These are the kinds of moments that you look for in tales of armageddon: the ones where the heroes wrestle with tough choices, and we wrestle along with them.

By the fourth episode, the true nature of this particular apocalypse becomes clearer, and (no spoilers here) The Eternaut becomes more obviously a science-fiction story. There are more sequences involving special effects – all very polished and impressive – as Juan and his band of survivors find themselves racing through the city, scrambling into makeshift shelters and fighting for their lives.

Where The Eternaut takes place matters, for a couple of reasons. This show is about people who, even before their world turned upside-down, sometimes felt isolated and forgotten, in a country with a rickety infrastructure and a complicated political history. The Argentine setting gives a tried-and-true plot a fresh look and feel. But it also provides a reason why some neighbors might look at each other warily (perhaps due to past unrest), and why there is enough analog technology around to mitigate against power outages. The setting also matters because of the source material, which could be considered one of the first serious graphic novels. Its complex and sophisticated story in comic book form influenced artists worldwide, and it especially inspired Argentinians, who had never seen their own country depicted in a science-fiction epic. It remains an astonishing backdrop in this new, televised form.

You don’t have to be Argentine, though, to be awed by The Eternaut’s depiction of an ordinary city, ravaged by disaster. Juan is an everyman for everybody. What gives this show its juice are all the scenes of him venturing into the unknown, step by wary step, trying to stay alive long enough to make a difference.

The following is a non-spoiler review for six (out of eight) episodes of the second season of The Walking Dead: Dead City, which premieres Sunday, May 4.

Dead City is the most conceptually interesting of The Walking Dead's many offshoots: Uneasy allies Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) take Manhattan, getting tangled up in the fallen metropolis' warring factions and post-apocalyptic conflicts along the way. But the first six episodes of its second season prove why this is also the franchise's most forced and clumsy spinoff. After several key players got off the island in season 1, everyone needs to get shuffled back into Dead City now. And it's not just Maggie, mind you, but people who have no business returning – if you can even make the argument that Maggie herself should be returning.

In case you need a reminder, since it's been nearly two years since the first-season finale: Maggie sold out Negan, leaving him a captive figurehead for The Dama (Lisa Emery) and The Croat's (Željko Ivanek) Big Apple machinations, and returned her son Hershel (Logan Kim) to The Bricks community. With all that in mind, I could certainly feel Dead City strains to reunite the gang in the same zip code. There's nothing smooth or natural about it. This is a show that favors plot over character, so it's threats and blackmail, rather than more internal forms of motivation, that get the chess pieces where they need to be.

There are some wise moves that help treat Season 1's bumps and bruises, while also exploring a great new angle on Hershel. But it ultimately fizzles out under action scenes too dark to comprehend or appreciate, characters' kids constantly getting used as leverage or collateral, and an overall fatigue when it comes to Maggie and Negan's complicated relationship. The original Walking Dead series basically said most everything that needed to be said about the duo's uneasy reconciliation, and one of Season 1's big flaws was that it seemed to ignore the emotional work that brought them to that conclusion.

Dead City is still buckling under this particular trauma bond, but it also does a few things to alleviate the heaviness. Maggie and Negan are no longer on an adventure together – they're separated for most parts of the season, dealing with their own turmoil involving mini-tyrants making rash choices. For Maggie, it's the soldiers of New Babylon, which we discover is a rather fiendish outfit. For Negan, it's the eloquent sadism of Ivanek and Emery's methane-powered Midtown monarchs. The charming psy-ops Negan works on his opressors are more fun to watch than Maggie's constant anger and befuddlement at her New Babylon bullies, so putting distance between our two headliners works way better for the story.

Hershel Rhee, meanwhile, remains an angsty apocalypse teen (the worst sub-category of TV teen) who constantly whines and operates on self-serving levels despite larger, urgent things happening around him. And so we get, for the most part, the worst Hershel in season 2: The one who can never live up to his beloved namesake and has been made a worse character by the burden. But there's a hitch, because he isn't all bad. I mean, there are definitely some terrible teen traits, but with Hershel this season, we get a fascinating mix of Stockholm syndrome and the younger TWD generation's disregard for the pre-zombocalypse world.

Everything adults do on these shows is an effort to reclaim past safety, knowledge, and comfort. But what does that mean to the characters too young to ever know "how things were"? Hershel's story this season allows that question to echo through the concrete canyons of a Manhattan that's been returned to nature (give or take a few dozens walkers). Are the things the grownups are doing for their kids really just for them? Hershell will forever be a polarizing character, but there are a few moments in season 2 where he makes a good point.

Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) on the other hand? No such luck. Her journey here, barring whatever happens in the last two episodes (which weren't made available for this review), is just as flat and ill-fitting as it was in season 1. A couple more episodes could save things, but for six episodes all she gets to be is a sullen side teen who's somehow, still, supposed to morph into Negan's surrogate daughter – even though he has a wife and kid elsewhere who love him. (There's an unintentionally hilarious scene in season 2 regarding Negan's family that feels born out of laziness, relying on TV characters' exceedingly poor communication skills. I think I uttered the words "you gotta be f***ing kidding me.")

New faces this year include Orange is the New Black's Dascha Polanco as hardline New Babylon enforcer Narvaez and Sons of Anarchy's Kim Coates as seedy Manhattan merchant Bruegel. The latter grows tiresome quickly; the former slowly becomes more fun and interesting. New Babylon wants The Croat's methane factory, The Croat and the Dama want to protect what's theirs by convincing the New York gangs to form a united front, and most everyone else plots and schemes for their own individual ends. It's all fine, and we get to explore the dangers and secrets of Central Park this year, but humming in the background is Hershel just sort of loving Manhattan the way it is – all ruined and reclaimed by nature. His story's job – which unfortunately sacrifices our enjoyment of him as a character – is to poke at everyone else's motivations and, maybe even, the viewers' need to see this hellscape become colonized. In the tradition of many, many young people who've come before him (in real life and on TV), Hershel looks forward not back.

With sales this good, your pile of shame's about to become a colossal pillar of discounts. This last-gasp-of-April haul packs a punch across all platforms, whether you’re craving tactical drama, nostalgic chaos, or sprawling open worlds. Let’s cut straight to the gems lighting up the digital shelves this week. It's the usual case of grab 'em before they're goneski.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, today's a day of sombre remembrance for two consoles. 28 years ago, we witnessed the discontinuance of Sega's Game Gear, a battery-guzzling beast that sold 10.62M units and I fondly remember for its Sonic games and extravagant TV Tuner attachment. It's also been 23 years since we bade farewell to the Nintendo 64, which delivered phenomenal four-player action, groundbreaking 3D AAAs, and a highscore of 32.93M units sold. I am not shedding a sentimental tear over it. That's just...Control Stick dust in my eye.

• Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (-50%) - A$39
• Monster Hunter Generations Ult. (-80%) - A$15
• Trials of Mana (-60%) - A$31
• Nier: Automata End of Yorha Ed. (-50%) - A$27
• Metal Gear: Master Col. (-30%) - A$63

Expiring Recent Deals

• Octopath Traveler (-60%) - A$35
• Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (-83%) - A$6
• Phoenix Wright Trilogy (-67%) - A$13
• Monster Hunter Generations Ult. (-80%) - A$15
• Neo: The World Ends With You (-60%) - A$33
• Bluey: The Videogame (-22%) - A$47

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

Back to top