There’s something about Sonic games where I kind of let my guard down and just enjoy them for what they are. And I’m happy to say that I’ve genuinely enjoyed my time with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, which I played an hour of during Summer Game Fest. It’s a kart racer that, in my short time with, nails the core tenets of a good kart racer – fast and intense races, powerups that turn the tide and leave you salty, and a good vibe that celebrates the characters from its source material. I can’t really ask for much more than that, yet there’s still more to chew on that we haven’t seen in previous Sonic racing games.

Let’s start with the CrossWorld mechanic, which varies up each race – the first lap starts on the selected track, then whoever’s in first place in the moment chooses where the entire race warps to for the second lap. This can range from an icy world with aurora borealis in the skybox, to a storming sea among a ship’s wreckage, or a volcanic zone with laser grids as obstacles. And then the third lap returns to the normal track. It’s a novelty that you may get used to over time, but it does provide some level of dynamism from race to race and adds a bit of unpredictability to keep things fresh.

In those crossing worlds, you’ll be flying, hovering, and surfing depending on where you warp to, and so there’s a great sense of variety to your vehicles since you’re not just on the ground drifting with your karts. I quite like the flying sections since your aircraft controls well and brings a certain verticality that’s surprising for a kart racer. If anything, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is blasting your eyeballs with chaos happening on screen, and maybe overdoing it. Not that it’s a major complaint I hold against it, but this is a very visually busy game to the point where it’s sometimes hard to tell what’s really going on – and I think these moments are more in service of the spectacle rather than being a serious competitive racer.

However, it does have that competitive edge with how you outfit your kart. You can customize parts like the body, tires, and boosters to tweak stats such as top speed, acceleration, and handling. What’s more is that you can attach perks to your kart as if it’s a loadout. You get six slots for attachments, and some attachments take up more than one slot – for example, I used a three-slot acceleration booster and a two-slot perk that improved my recovery time after getting hit by an item. And these things actually affected my performance in a meaningful way. I got hit with a rocket in lap three alongside another racer, but was able to pull ahead of them significantly after getting hit because of both of those perks I equipped. So, if you’re really serious about kart racing, I think there’s room for being a real sicko about it.

I only had access to the Grand Prix modes, which pits you in a series of four races, awarding points for your position and determining a winner by the end of the series. It’s pretty standard stuff with a few quirks along the way. I’m not sure if this is embedded in Sonic lore, but one racer will be declared a rival mid-Grand Prix and will act more aggressive toward you and stay more competitive throughout the series. The fourth and final race will also reward more points for first place, so you can turn the tide at the last minute if you’re a few points behind. However, I’m curious about how the other game modes in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will play out, because as fun and dynamic as normal races are, longevity will rely on Sonic Team being able to capitalize on its potential in other creative ways.

Perhaps some of that will come from its crossover characters – not only is this about Sonic as a whole, it’s a celebration of Sega’s recent history as well. During Summer Game Fest, Sega revealed that characters like my precious boy Kasuga Ichiban from Yakuza / Like A Dragon, Joker from Persona 5, and my vocaloid queen Hatsune Miku will all be part of the roster. Seeing Ichiban relive his days of Dragon Kart from the 2020 RPG is adorable and a welcome extension of his character, while seeing Miku on a hovering board racing through Sonic worlds is enough to get me bought in (and we should have Miku in more games, to be honest, shout out to Fortnite). It’s not like crossover characters are a new thing for a Sonic racing game – I mean, look at the wild lineup for Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. But Sega’s catalog has grown a lot since then, so perhaps this new era of characters can spice things up in a way that makes more sense.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds doesn’t have to revolutionize the kart racing genre, and I think it’s staking its claim on being a fun and carefree racer that celebrates Sonic and the larger Sega pantheon. It’s a vibe, and one that I’ve enjoyed and will look forward to drifting through when it launches on September 25 of this year on the last two PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles, as well as PC.

Capcom has been firing on all cylinders with its marquee franchises – Monster Hunter is seeing increasing success, the Resident Evil train is continuing to roll, and Street Fighter continues to be a staple in the fighting game community. It has a new Onimusha on the way, and the last time we saw Devil May Cry was on a high note. But every now and then, Capcom experiments with something new, to varying degrees of success. And that latest experiment is in Pragmata, a sci-fi third-person shooter that stole the show for me at Summer Game Fest 2025 – even after just a brief 15-minute hands-on demo.

Another sci-fi third-person shooter may not sound too enticing on the surface, but Pragmata is an example of how a single idea can go a long way in distinguishing a game from the rest of the pack. Here’s the thing – in Pragmata you don’t just damage your enemies by shooting them, you have to hack them to open up their weaknesses. The way this works is by aiming down sights and engaging in a hacking minigame where you navigate a five-by-five grid using the face buttons to draw a path that connects specific nodes together. And you have to do this in real-time. Along that path, you can hit additional nodes to inflict status effects or open up weak spots, which can be risky when you’re locked in a room of multiple menacing robots chasing you down.

If you’re nimble enough with your rocket-boosted dodge and smart with your positioning, you can pull this off unscathed, and it is so damn satisfying when it all comes together. When you’re mostly fighting in tight spaces, creating space to hack and shoot can be challenging. Pragmata isn’t exactly a fast-paced game in the same way as Vanquish or Returnal, and it moves more like a Dead Space or Gears of War, and I enjoy that chunky, heavy feel. You’re also not outfitted with a ton of weapons – while you have a six-shot pistol with unlimited magazines, you pick up disposable weapons like a slow, powerful heavy rifle and a Bola gun to temporarily immobilize enemies. These effective, limited-use weapons push you to be more resourceful and make combat more interesting.

Since you’re not blasting through waves of robots and drones, the combat encounters feel more deliberate – and I think that’s important for not overdoing it with the hacking minigame. My worry for now is that the novelty of the hacking minigame will wear off the deeper you get into Pragmata, but that’ll be determined by how the gameplay mechanics evolve and the way further combat encounters present new challenges. I’m actually bummed that the demo ends right when you approached a huge mech for what appeared to be a boss fight because it could’ve been an opportunity to showcase more of Pragmata’s potential.

Hacking is also integrated in environmental puzzles and exploration, presenting you with different styles of sequential button prompts to deactivate security locks or access terminals. Little things like this to break up the pace are important in a fairly linear game where you’re chomping at the bit for the next big fight. You need that variety to balance out even the best parts of a campaign, and I at least enjoy the fact that engaging with levels still revolves around the hacking premise in some form.

Whether it be in combat or in exploration, I find a lot of fun in games that give you a more active element to engage with in its core gameplay. Although completely different genres, the timing-based mechanics of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 made its turn-based RPG combat feel fresh, and even the gesture-based inputs for abilities in Scarlet Nexus were a fun way to distinguish itself from other action-RPGs, which I still praise to this day. If Pragmata can build on its best ideas in smart ways, it might be able to wedge itself into this conversation.

The demo didn’t have much in terms of story (and I’m glad it focused on its enticing gameplay hook instead), but it does leave me curious as to what the hell is going on in Pragmata. The basic premise is that you’re stuck on a high-tech space station on the moon, and you control a man named Hugh who dons a mech suit and uses a small arsenal of high-powered firearms, all while a mysterious little girl named Diana, who’s the hacking genius, sits on your shoulders to hack enemies. But even if the story is simply a vehicle to take you through its uniquely thrilling combat scenarios, I’m inclined to believe that’s all it has to be.

I had no idea what Pragmata was when it was first revealed in 2020, and after years of silence and delays, we know that it's real and on its way in 2026. I’m not expecting it to be the next greatest game or become a pillar of Capcom’s catalog, necessarily, but I’m all for new and well-executed ideas – especially at a time when AAA releases sometimes blend with each other.

Cuphead did something in 2017 that we'd arguably never seen before in a video game, or at least nowhere near the degree Cuphead went to: it built an entire game around completely hand-drawn art and animation a la a 1930's cartoon. We haven't seen it since probably since doing all of that painstaking visual work by hand is incredibly difficult, time-intensive, and laborious. But now, a new hand-drawn and hand-animated project is getting ready to grace our PCs and consoles. It's called Mouse: P.I. for Hire, and fully handcrafted art is about the only thing it's got in common with Cuphead. Mouse is its own, equally gorgeous game, and after getting a look at a hands-off demo, I'm just as interested in it as I was when I first saw Cuphead. Which is to say, I’m very interested.

As you can obviously see, Mouse is in black and white. It's reminiscent of the Steamboat Willy era of early animation, complete with guns that are always wobbling even when they aren't in use, as if they're made of rubber. (More on the guns in a bit.) As you can also plainly see, Mouse is a first-person shooter. In it, you play as Jack Pepper, who in-demand video game voice actor Troy Baker plays with a stereotypical-on-purpose New York accent. He's an early-20th-century gumshoe, after all, see? He's got to sound like one.

What I really liked about the demo I saw of Mouse was that it wasn't just a mindless run-and-gun first-person shooter (not that there's anything wrong with that). Instead, the mission I saw part of was set at an opera house, where Pepper had to find and question the stage designer. We started at the back door, where we spoke to a waiter and asked about Roland, the aforementioned stage designer. He hasn’t seen him, so in we go to investigate for ourselves.

Inside, the kitchen gives you a better look at the visual aesthetic at play here. Notice how the characters are 2D within the 3D space, not unlike the monsters in the original Doom. A peek through the porthole window of the kitchen door shows off one of Mouse’s detective-y features: reconnaissance, as Jack takes a photo and sees some members of the Big Mouse Party – aka not guys we want anything to do with.

Moving to the back of the kitchen, we meet up with a slick waiter who’s happy to help sneak us upstairs to where we need to go quietly – for $30. We decline the bribe and instead find a vent we can sneak through. A bonus stash of cash hiding in the vent is appreciated, but the bottom falling out of the vent, crash-landing us back outside where we started, is very much not appreciated.

Attempt number two takes us back through the kitchen and into the same vent, carefully crawling around the newly made hole in the floor and taking us to the dressing room, where a Thompson machine gun and some ammo await. You’re not supposed to be in here, of course, and the Big Mouse Party members don’t take kindly to your presence. It’s here that we get our first look at the first-person shooter combat, including one of the gorgeous reload animations.

We hear a muffled voice that might be Roland, but first a safe gives us a chance to see the lockpicking minigame in action, along with what the safe was hiding: a cup of coffee? Then things get really loud, as the wall in front of us blows up and we have to snuff out the bad guy that emerges from the smoke before using TNT ourselves to make a hole in the floor so we can make our way down into the bowels of the opera house.

Finally, we’ve found Roland. He’s been beaten up by the extras, who Jack deduces aren’t extras at all, and learns the Big Mouse Party’s real plan: to assassinate mayoral candidate Stilton, who’s sitting in the balcony for that evening’s show, during intermission, using the cannon on stage that is both full of live ammo and pointed directly at him.

Fast-forward to more combat, including the shotgun, which looks like it packs a nice wallop – and also has a pretty awesome reload animation of its own. Plus a look at explosive barrels that leave the bad guys burning in the most cartoonish way possible. There’s even an ice barrel – liquid nitrogen, perhaps? – that freezes nearby foes when detonated, allowing you to kick them so they shatter into a thousand pieces, Terminator 2-style. Moments later we also got a look at the third weapon featured in the demo: the turpentine gun, which melts these cartoon characters who are literally made of paint, not unlike the Dip from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

After a bit of platforming and fighting a new helicopter-tailed enemy type, we found our way back upstairs…only to have a trap door below our feet open up, dumping us back into the basement. It’s here we meet the Old Rat Stuntman, who teaches Jack the double-jump maneuver. After testing it out and discovering a secret – a baseball trading card of “Brie” Ruth (get it, because they’re mice and love cheese?) – we find our way back on stage to sabotage the cannon and save Stilton, which triggers a boss battle with a raging opera performer. The turpentine gun finishes him off, and we get a look at its reload animation, which if you ask me is even cooler than the others we’ve already seen.

The fire from the stage has spread to the rest of the opera house, and we’ve gotta get out of here. But we’re going to have to shoot our way out using every weapon at our disposal. No problem for Jack Pepper. Let’s watch some combat now, uninterrupted.

Finally escaping the building, we meet up with the stage designer, who coughs up what he knows about the performer who’s vanished. Something about a secret lab underneath his mansion? No, that doesn’t sound suspicious at all… And with that, we exit the level and the demo ends.

And so, though I haven’t yet played it myself, from what I’ve seen of Mouse – and you just saw most of what I saw – I’m really eager to give it a try. It seems like it’s got the right lighthearted, somewhat comedic tone while also being self-aware but offering a solid first-person shooter at the core of it. After all, as gorgeous and admirable as its hand-drawn art and animation are, if the gameplay can’t back it up and also maintain my interest in it over the course of its campaign, then it won’t really matter how pretty it is. But at this point, I’m extremely optimistic.

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

Take it from me: as an avid reader, being busy with work and life can often make it difficult to sit down and get lost in a good book. I love physical media and displaying books on my shelves, but I hardly have the time to actually read them. Audible helps mitigate this roadblock with audiobooks, and as someone who lives in Los Angeles, the service helps me kill two birds with one stone: I get to experience the books and stories I'm interested in and it helps long commutes and bumper-to-bumper traffic feel like a breeze.

Here, I'll be breaking down the various prices and plans Audible has to offer, and if you're gung-ho about sticking with physical books, check out Amazon's buy one, get one 50% sale that includes dozens of books and graphic novels.

Does Audible Have a Free Trial?

Audible Subscriptions and Credits Broken Down

Here's how the different subscription and credit options shake out. Once you're a subscriber, you'll earn credits when as part of your plan. Credits are used to purchase anything from their catalog regardless of price.

Audible Plus - $7.95 per month

This is the subscription. You'll have acces to thousands of different audiobooks and podcasts from the Plus Catalog.

Audible Premium Plus - $14.95 per month

This is what I would subscribe to if you see yourself using the service a lot over time. You get all the perks form the Plus plan, and you'll get one credit per month to purchase a book, which you get to keep even if you cancel your plan. You also have access to exclusive sales and discounts.

2 Credits - $22.95 per month

You'll get two additional credits to spend however you'd like. Part of Audible Premium Plus.

12 Credits - $149.50 per year

You'll get 12 additional credits to spend however you'd like. Part of Audible Premium Plus.

24 Credits - $229.50 per year

You'll get 24 additional credits to spend however you'd like. Part of Audible Premium Plus.

Where to Use Audible - Available Platforms

I remember the first time a boy made me a mixtape (okay, mix CD, same diff). It wasn't even a romantic gesture - he made them for all our friends. Mine had a now-embarassing mix of Morrowind music, Naruto OPs, Queen and Kansas (inexplicably), and uh, this song. It was a wild mix of nerd stuff and absolute bangers that made no sense together at all.

So I can appreciate a really, really good mixtape, one that makes you feel big feelings and think big thoughts. Sure, I make my own Spotify playlists now for myself, but there's something tangibly retro about someone handing you a physical item of songs, perfectly selected and ordered, that they curated for a person, a moment, a space and time.

So what if that, in video game form? That's the entire premise of the aptly named game Mixtape that I previewed at Play Days last week. Mixtape follows three teens: Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra, though it's told from the perspective of Rockford and their final mixtape of the summer: a collection of musical hits to encapsulate their last night together with their best friends. See, Rockford has big dreams, and is headed to New York in the morning to take a huge, ridiculous swing on a future career that's incredibly, appropriately teenager of them and unlikely to pay off (though Rockford's plenty confident). So Rockford has assembled a pretentious lineup of perfect songs, each backing a different vignette from the crew's final night of mischief (and, occasionally interrupted by a flashback or a song they didn't necessarily intend to include).

Look, even if Rockford's whole schtick is being a music elitist, they're right about one thing: they do compile an excellent mixtape. The whole game opens on "That's Good" by Devo, and the segment I played proceeds through Jesus and Mary Chain, Alice Coltrain...I don't want to spoil it too much, because the songs themselves are such a fundamental part of each moment and do a lot of heavy lifting to play into Mixtape's overall aura of nostalgia.

In fact, I think one thing I appreciate most about Mixtape is that aside from the music, this isn't a game jam-packed with specific pop culture references like so many other nostalgia plays love to do. The songs have got it covered. I'm not stopping every few seconds, pointing at an artifact or a joke and going, "I recognize that!" And yet, Mixtape manages to effectively capture a very specific flavor of reminisence for one's youth, and that feeling is injected into everything from Rockford's room decor to how the characters speak to the gentle, golden, almost-autumnal light permeating everything in the opening.

Here's another thing that struck me: the three main characters are, frankly, pretty annoying! And I love it! They're such teens. Older teens, sure, on the cusp of adulthood, but teens! I'm 34! I can't take them remotely seriously, and I'm not supposed to. The trio, while distinct in their personalities, all carry a slightly exaggerated self-obsession, that feeling I remember well from being 17, 18, 19, and thinking my concerns were at the center of the universe. Obnoxious quirks and all, I'll be happy to spend a full evening with all three in the full game.

The actual meanest thing I can say about Mixtape is that at least in the snippet I played, you're not doing very much. There's some skateboarding, and a sequence where you careen through the town on a shopping cart, and in both situations you steer, but I'm not sure there's really any consequences for doing either activity well or poorly, or any reason to try very hard. You can headbang to music played loud in a car. Mostly, from what I saw, you walk around a room and look at things while talking to your friends. The most interesting gameplay was an extended section where you simulate two awkward teenage tongues making out in a simultaneously hilarious and disgusting interchange. I get the sense that the wider game will likely play out more as a series of minigame vignettes that one specific flavor of video game, but as it stands I'm hard-pressed to explain to you what it is you're going to be doing, mostly, throughout the rest of Mixtape.

The thing is, whether the rest of the game turns out to be action-packed or not, I'm not really sure it matters for what Mixtape is going for. This is a vibes game through-and-through, and Mixtape's vibes are impeccable. I'm happy to let Rockford take me along on whatever journey they and their friends are about to head out on, one song at a time.

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.

Father's Day is only a few days away, but fortunately there are plenty of great deals available that can still arrive by June 15. Your odds are even higher if you've signed up for a subscription that offers expedited shipping, like Amazon Prime. Some of the most popular deals this week include discounts on the Apple AirPods Pro earbuds and iPad tablets, Sonos speakers, PlayStation Portal, and Switch 2 accessories. You also don't want to miss the BOGO 50% off books, movies, and puzzles promotion currently going on at Amazon.

Best Wishes to All is now streaming on Shudder.

A child with paper wadded into his bleeding eye sockets like they’re plugging a bloody nose. A human pyramid serving as a makeshift delivery table for a pregnant woman. A man flailing on the ground in his underwear, unable to see or speak because his eyes and mouth are sewn shut. With his feature-length directorial debut, Best Wishes to All, Yûta Shimotsu establishes a talent for eerie and indelible imagery, all wrapped up in a disturbing satire of what humans are willing to ignore in order to live their contented lives. But those unsettling images may be better suited to a trailer than the full-on movie that Shimotsu has made, whose story occasionally struggles to put them in context.

We’re in the realm of fables and allegory here, so Best Wishes to All is populated by fittingly unnamed characters who are more symbols than people. Our audience surrogate is a young woman (Kotone Furukawa) working her way through nursing school in Tokyo, reluctantly returning to the rural Anytown, Japan where she grew up. That’s where her grandfather (Masashi Arifuku) and grandmother (Yoshiko Inuyama) still live, and as the woman learns her parents’ arrival has been delayed, she seems distressed to be left alone with grandma and grandpa. We don’t quite know why, though we’re able to glean a vague sense of unease from an opening flashback that’s all unnerving slow zooms and ominous music cues.

The interactions start out awkward, in a banal sort of way, with the camera boxing the woman between her grandparents while they share a meal. But their behavior only grows stranger the longer she stays, like grandpa standing vacantly in the hallway, mouth agape as though his brain is tuned to the static of some occult radio station. They try to get their granddaughter to rub their eyeballs, and over dinner, they break into a fit of oinking while remarking that pigs want to be slaughtered. You know, the sort of freaky old folks imagery that leads a character to float “maybe it’s dementia” over the phone when, of course, it’s something much more sinister.

These scenes sound hackneyed, and they are to a point, but Shimotsu is at least drawing on relevant social context. We’re clearly meant to think about Japan’s disproportionately aged populace, even without characters saying things like “I’m sorry young people are sacrificed for old folks like me.” Best Wishes for All is certainly never subtle, but it does come into its own once its scope expands from spooky grandparents to the rot beneath society at large. With the most upsetting material broken up by a few scenes that play as dark comedy, conventional horror isn’t the aim here. Instead, Shimotsu synthesizes an atmosphere of wrongness from these oscillating tones – the sense of a world out of joint as its people embrace evil with a smile.

In a broad sense, that atmosphere is an expression of the granddaughter waking up to the true nature of her reality. The insulation of her youth falls away as she’s confronted with an immovable foundation of pain and horror. Best Wishes to All revolves around shocking supernatural practices, and by resisting the urge to cleanly lay out rules for a coherent mythology, it retains a captivating aura of mystery. The root of its discomfort is in a lack of understanding; the woman becomes unmoored from the world she thought she knew, all while loved ones tell her that everything has been this way all along. Here, society conducts itself like a ghastly mixture of the dinner table scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Ursula K. LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” with one person comparing the granddaughter’s obliviousness to still believing in Santa Claus.

Best Wishes to All is an oppressive, emotionally draining experience, offering little reprieve from its misanthropy. A friend (Kôya Matsudai) of the main character’s who otherwise seems like an oasis of sanity muses that “the world couldn’t go on if everyone chased their dreams.” But even accounting for the larger goal of simply keeping the audience off balance, a few scenes (particularly ones involving the grandparents) indulge in bizarre and disquieting imagery seemingly for its own sake. These moments may look great in isolation, but within Best Wishes to All, they feel only tenuously related to what’s trying to be said, amounting to the dread-laden equivalent of a cheap jump scare.

Call it a symptom of Shimotsu stretching what’s roughly a Twilight Zone episode’s worth of story to feature length. Best Wishes to All was, indeed, a short film first, and it’s one of those films that can immediately be identified as such, because once its allegory comes into focus, it doesn’t have anywhere left to go. It can’t deepen our investment in the characters because they’re all metaphors, and it can’t explore their society because its foundation matters less than the message it’s built to convey.

Diablo is now playing in select theaters and available on demand and on digitial.

How best to describe the way Scott Adkins moves? The way he hangs in the air, twists mid-strike, and executes a kick to some dude's face, you'd swear he's a cobra that learned ballet – graceful, lethal, and awesome to watch. Diablo finds the 48-year-old action star (and one-time member of John Wick's High Table) in reliably nimble form, even if his latest character seems to be throwing those fists of fury with newfound restraint. Adkins plays Kris, a reformed bank robber smuggled into Colombia to rescue the tempestuous teen Elisa (Alana De La Rossa) from the clutches of her father, Vicente (Lucho Velasco) – who also happens to be Kris' sworn enemy and one-time partner-in-crime. (These things tend to overlap.) While Kris is willing to beat some serious ass in the process, it's fun to see a dash of reluctance added to Adkins' repertoire of endlessly thrilling VOD donnybrooks.

And, it seems, age. Diablo kicks off with Kris at an impasse with armed mules demanding extra cash for getting him across the border. Kris obliges, but his punches don't land with the finality he expects. You can see frustration and exhaustion on Adkins' face; Kris is giving his all, but these guys just keep getting up. Don't worry: He still walks away the victor, off to find redemption and retribution in equal doses. Adkins, who shares story credit on Diablo, is clearly in on the joke of a veteran martial artist coming to grips with his own mortality.

Kris' mission is a tricky enough endeavor without the added complication that Elisa doesn't seem to want saving. Though De la Rossa offers glimmers of caution whenever she's in a room with her movie dad, her character has long grown accustomed to the spoils of Vicente’s cartel life. From the jump, and after a few wild kicks to Kris’s head, it's clear Elisa has zero intention of being anyone's hostage – not this stoic lunatic decked out in Rambo’s jacket from First Blood, and certainly not anyone else's.

Diablo is directed and edited by Chilean filmmaker Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, who has a clear knack for grindhouse brutality even if his quieter moments lack the grit and atmosphere that his rowdier sequences have in abundance. Still, he doesn't come up short in terms of pulp silliness. With screenwriter Mat Sansom, Espinoza conjures a formidable and memorable adversary for our world-weary hero: El Corvo (Marko Zaror, who previously starred in Espinoza's martial arts thriller Redeemer), an ice-cold serial killer/hired heavy straight out of the Cannon stable of baddies. Equipped with a wicked prosthetic fist/razor-sharp dagger combo, El Corvo shares and even surpasses Kris' ability to walk away from every fight, regardless of the odds. One mid-film melee sees the heavy entering a club and flooring everyone in his path; in another stunning moment, he dispatches an opponent so forcefully that the baseball bat his quarry was wielding spins in mid-air like a ceiling fan.

Naturally, El Corvo's objective is also to retrieve Elisa, and he, like Kris, has reasons for taking the job that hearken back to Vicente's darker days. As a typical movie maniac, El Corvo is not infallible; his tendency to woo his victims-to-be with treats (adopting a Dale Cooper philosophy of giving yourself a present once a day) can blunt his sinister effectiveness. And he conveniently loses his immaculate John Wick marksmanship whenever his crosshairs are trained on Kris. He also takes a page from the diabolical supervillain book, assembling an excruciatingly protracted death-trap finale where Adkins and Zaror tear into each other, unstoppable-force meets-immovable-object style, seemingly oblivious that Elisa is dangling nearby in mortal danger.

If Diablo has another flaw, it's the one found in some of Adkins' lesser outings: the script barrels through the particulars, with characters and motivations only sketched out enough to justify the next fight scene. That's hardly anything to gripe about, given how solid those fights turn out to be. And there's something awesome about how the personal stakes (which only grow more personal as Diablo goes on) of the story free Adkins to modulate his action-man brawniness for something slightly more restrained and mature. While Diablo remains eminently watchable martial arts schlock and may not offer as blistering a role for the actor as, say, 2019’s Avengement, it gives him a chance to display the many dimensions of his onscreen prowess, revealing hints of regret, guilt, and even more subtly, the wear and tear of age. Adkins still piles up KO after KO in Diablo, but after years of cutting through bad guys like a finely honed blade, it’s nice to see him portray the rust that’s built up under the sheath.

I play a lot of competitive shooters – and I mean a lot of competitive shooters. Whether it’s being an unfortunate son in Grey Zone Warfare, flipping cards in FragPunk, or smashing and grabbing in The Finals, this has been my default “gaming night with the friends” genre since I was in school many, many (many) years ago. And even after many thousands of hours spread across Destiny, Call of Duty, Halo Infinite, and Valorant, there is something about the action on the Rainbow Six series that stands out and just feels right. Now that Rainbow Six Siege is celebrating its tenth year with a massive new update in the form of Rainbow Six Siege X, it seems like a perfect time to reevaluate how this popular tactical shooter stands among its peers after a decade of tweaks, updates, and additions.

The fundamentals of Siege are as strong as ever, which is great to see. Bomb is the headliner mode: Two teams take turns on offense and defense trying to either fortify position and protect a bomb, or battle their way in to defuse it. That setup has been around for decades (and is also the core mode of games like Counter-Strike) but Siege’s distinctive entrenchment and destruction mechanics make its version stand out, and both sides of that coin are extremely fun. I love throwing down a bunch of temporary walls, setting up razor wire or other boobie traps, and getting ready to ambush attackers. And it’s just as satisfying on offense, knowing the other team has set up similar defenses, and blowing a wall open with some thermite to bypass all of it and get the drop on the enemy. The fast time-to-kill rewards position over twitch skill, and I appreciate the way the relatively slow aim-down-sites animation forces you to decide before a fight how you want to engage. This is a thinking man’s shooter, through and through.

The cast of playable characters is an impressive 75 Operators. Each has a different loadout and slightly unique playstyle, with half reserved for Attackers and the other playable only when you are on Defense. They do a great job catering to different playstyles, whether you want to smash through walls with your big hammer as Sledge, or dash around at high speed as Oryx. It is surprising that the Siege X update didn’t add anyone new to the roster, though we did get Rauora just a few months ago.

In addition to Bomb, Siege X adds a new 6v6 mode called Dual Front, but that one hasn’t yet grown on me in the time I’ve spent with it so far. Here, both teams have an area to attack and another to defend simultaneously. There are no restrictions on what type of character you can use, though only 37 of the 75 operators are eligible selections. The single available map is enormous, which, combined with the fast time-to-kill of Siege, means you tend to spend just a very small fraction of the match duration involved in actual action. Unlike in Bomb you can respawn after you die, which seems like it would make this a good mode for onboarding new players, but so far I feel like it really just takes away the pulse-pounding stakes that make Siege what it is.

Siege X is built around a limited free-to-play model. I say limited because, while you can absolutely play Siege X for free, it locks some key modes, like Ranked and Siege Cup, behind a paywall. You’ll need to spend around $20 USD if you want access to those. That seems like an odd choice for something that already has a robust shop and battle pass system for generating money, particularly when other popular games, like Marvel Rivals, don’t do any such segmentation between paid and unpaid players. The community has long been a bit weary of how slow progression and a protracted Operator unlock pace push people towards the paid battle pass, but with the revamps in Siege X I still need to spend more time unlocking things to get a feel for how much better or worse that has gotten.

One of the hallmarks of Siege has always been the way you can punch through walls, breach barriers, or come crashing down through the ceiling into your assault, but that feels like it could’ve used an update for this relaunch. For all the walls you can Kool-Aid Man through, there are still a surprising amount of invincible barriers, like thick walls, certain window coverings, and any sort of furniture that make its destruction system less flexible than a more modern game might be. This is especially true on rooftop maps, which limit your options for a vertical breach to the small number of predetermined access points. Those limitations really stand out when other games that’ve come along since Siege first paved the way let you smash through almost anything. I’m not saying Siege needs to let you literally bring down the house, but the fact that I can’t throw some thermite under the bomb and drop it through the floor like I can with the bank in The Finals really sticks out.

A decent audio system, especially headphones, has always been an advantage in Siege thanks to its outstanding sound design, and Siege X has noticeably improved it. Explosions and gunfire sound as great as ever, but it’s the ability to locate the general direction of sounds really impresses me. It’s always been handy for finding enemies trying to get the drop on you, but the revamped soundscape now feeds a lot more detail into it. The most significant difference I’ve heard is in footsteps above and below you – once you learn to recognize the difference between the boomy noise above versus the more hollowed-out sounds below you can start to close your eyes and pinpoint exactly where threats will come from, which is such a cool gameplay-based reward for paying attention to the details.

There are a few other extremely situational upgrades I quite like. Rappelling is one of the most fun offensive options in Siege X: Hanging upside down like a tactical Spider-Man and getting the drop on enemies watching stairways and doors is supremely satisfying, though until now the actual usefulness in combat has always been somewhat limited. That’s because the rope has tended to leave you a sitting duck – or a pinata – if the enemy sees you. But new options to sprint along the wall or jump around corners means getting spotted isn’t instant death, and I’ve found myself using it a lot more as a result. On top of that, new destructible objects like gas pipes and fire extinguishers can be shot to create jets of flame or smoke. It’s extremely rare for that to matter in a fight, but it does have a very cool cinematic flair with just a touch of area control that I really appreciate.

All that said, I’m still early enough in my return to Siege that I’m not quite ready to render a final verdict on its new iteration. I can certainly say that Siege X is a lot of fun to play, and mastering every Operator will be enough to keep me busy for the long haul. I’m a big fan of most of the new additions like the improved sound design, more mobile rappelling, and destructible elements, though at this point I don’t know if Dual Front will be a destination mode – I need to give it more time to gel before I write it off. Overall, I think this a solid step forward that I’m eager to keep playing and evaluating, so stay tuned for the full review next week.

The 2021 relaunch of Splitgate solidified that Valve-style portals and old-school arena shooters are two great tastes that taste great together. Splitgate 2 carries that same great melding of run-and-gun action and tactical trickery that helped the original plant its flag in the genre, so it’s starting from a good place. However, even though the addition of character classes and a wider range of weapons help bring Splitgate 2 through a new threshold of promise, some of the other shots it takes through the looking glass come back to bite it and have made me a bit less optimistic about the time I’ve spent with this free-to-play followup so far.

Visually, quite a bit has changed relative to the original. Gone is the muted, more industrial look of the battle venues, replaced by lots of vibrant colors and brighter lighting, making it look less distinctive and more like the many games trying to catch the eye of Fortnite players. In the trade up from the grubby metal walls to the cleaner, sleeker surfaces, Splitgate 2 is also absent of the more interesting features that made the original’s maps interesting and memorable. Features like deserts and trees that would be smack-dab in the middle of a map (like in one of my favorites, Oasis) are now relegated to background decorations, and every surface you’ll actually run and gun across feels samey across the 15 map options.

The returning map creator mode, now called The Lab, is powerful enough that it’s already filled with dozens and dozens of fan-made recreations of famous PvP maps from bigger games, alongside some more interesting and original user creations that serve as great side shows to the main action. But they are often too gimmicky to be considered good replacements for the developer-made maps as far as having consistent and competitive rounds of the standard modes (to the extent that's possible considering there’s no ranked mode currently available). I had a pretty hard time getting strangers to queue for some of the wackier-looking options, often sitting in lobbies alone for long periods of time in hopes some other curious Splitgaters would stumble in. I was often disappointed.

Splitgate 2’s biggest win, though, is in gameplay tweaks that have a huge impact on pacing from match to match. The signature portals are still the X-factor, allowing you to create paths between two points on the map on the fly. They are the perfect tools for setting up ambushes, tricky getaways, and even manipulating physics to slingshot you across the map. I mostly use them here like I did in 2021, pulling off one-man flanks on jerks attempting to take my team's objectives. This time, though, it only takes one button to create both ends of your personal wormhole when shot in succession, making them much more convenient to use. It comes at a slight cost, in that opening one of your portals on top of an enemy’s is the only way to close theirs, and that can force you to close off your own routes. But after logging 10 hours this week, I much prefer this minor drawback over the anti-portal grenades of yesteryear.

Movement always felt smooth, quick, and controlled in Splitgate thanks to its fast (but not too fast) sprinting and the limited jetpacks. In Splitgate 2, both of these things combine with a new slide mechanic to make getting around the maps feel like I remember my best rounds of Titanfall. The jetpack seems more powerful, with more lift before cooldown than the original’s version. Being able to stay aloft for longer means firefights more often begin or end in the air, adding a level of dynamism that makes every skirmish a challenge at every angle.

The arsenal isn’t much different than the original, though, which is a shame because it’s not very imaginative. Most weapons have slick futuristic curves and color schemes but function exactly like the assault rifles, SMGs, and carbines you’ve wielded in other games, and I wasn’t motivated to do much exploration of the options or customization of loadout presets because of it. They really just make me want to sprint to grab power weapons, which spawn with some fanfare on neutral points during matches, as soon as possible. These returning super guns have gotten a couple of notable additions to their lineup, including my favorite: a pair of machine pistols that can be combined to form a longer machine gun when aiming down the sights. These are all awesome, game-changing weapons that are worth the effort to secure every time they’re available.

Mechanically, the biggest change to the way Splitgate 2 plays is the addition of three character classes, avatars of competing corporate entities who settle their differences in this futuristic sport of gun-toting portal slipping. Sabrask, Meridian, and Aeros all have their own unique active abilities, like Sabrask’s Smart Wall, which plops a one-way bullet shield that protects anyone standing behind it while being free to shoot through it at the enemy (much like non-portable version of Reinhardt’s shield in Overwatch). They each also have passive effects that they can grant their whole team simply by being present, incentivizing teams to have at least one of each in play. That means actives are more obviously impactful than the passives, largely because I’ve yet to play a game where every team involved wasn’t receiving boosted health regen from Meridian and faster ability and equipment recharges from Aeros and Sabrask, respectively. Is it really a “boost” if it’s basically the standard?

I think there’s an argument to be made that the choice to forgo class-based, hero shooter-y design was a keystone of the monument to the past’s simpler shooters that the original Splitgate was building. It meant every player started from the same base capabilities and had to earn every advantage during a match. I am sympathetic to this old-school Halo-style mentality, but I've come to prefer the diversity of these three new classes, which add just enough tactical expression to give old people like me a chance against fast-twitch no-scoping youth so long as I can out-think them.

Matches, regardless of which of the suite of returning modes you’re playing, are almost always more fun on smaller maps, which may not be as interesting as they were in Splitgate but at least are built to take the most advantage of portaling in a way that ensures you’re never too far from the action. Larger maps, like the ones found in the new three team, 24-player Onslaught game types that supersize Team Deathmatch and Hotzone, can feel almost lonely because you have to run a fair distance to find some other players exchanging fire before plotting your portal game. It’s a bummer then that all of these new modes rely on increasingly isolatingly large play spaces.

Across the board, it strikes me as odd that maps seem to deemphasize the advantage that using portals would have – so many objectives sit in places completely hidden from a portal wall, and it felt much more difficult to use portals for aggressive pushes. Fortunately for me, someone who mostly uses portals to set traps and for escapes, and I felt like Splitgate 2’s layouts firmly establish that my more passive approach is the right way to play. Firstly, thank you so much 1047 Games, but secondly, this means that offensive strikes on objectives, especially the ones you have to hunker down on like in Firecracker or Domination, happen with the kinds of jetpack assaults and high-energy flanks that you could do anywhere else. Even modes that require lots of movement or rotating objectives, like Splitball and Hotzone, don’t afford many more opportunities to use the feature in a way that couldn’t be done without it. The most damning realization of this came when I was playing one of the No Portals limited-time playlist maps and realizing my games didn’t feel all that different without them.

Finally, the big new marquee feature of Splitgate 2 is the battle royale mode, which at the time of this writing, I haven’t spent too much time with (hence why this review is still in progress). But from what I have played, it operates mostly as expected: many teams of four drop into a semi-random zone on the map and fight each other to be the last squad standing. The wrinkle it adds to the genre (besides portals) is that the greater map is made up of four smaller maps connected to one another by jump paths and tunnels. Splitgate 2’s version of the storm closing in around you is shutting down one of these regions, forcing all surviving squads toward each other in a shrinking set of rooms. These maps are styled as different environments – there's a snowy zone and a lava zone, for instance – so it’s easy to communicate which one you’re talking about when planning with your team. I haven’t noticed if these zones have too many differences from one another outside of how they look, though. Does the lava burn you? Does the ice make you slide uncontrollably? I’ll report back when I wrap up this review next week.

On June 13th, the new Mercenaries of Trarthus league launches alongside the Secrets of the Atlas Expansion. To help you tackle the new content, Maxroll has released a major update including their new PoEPlanner tool, new and updated league starters, PoB import/export, and much more!

Mercenaries of Trarthus

In the Mercenaries of Trathus Challenge League, players encounter one special Mercenary per zone, each with their own personalities, different skills, items, and builds. You may also find "Infamous" Mercenaries, which are far less common but carry far better items. Mercenaries have a lot of interesting buildcraft implications that we look forward to exploring more after the league launches.

Defeat Mercenaries to gain different rewards based on which option you picked before the duel:

• Hire
  • Players pay an upfront gold cost before the duel begins
  • Upon defeat, the Mercenary joins the player in combat
  • Freely change their items once they join your team or dismiss them
  • Only one Mercenary can accompany you at a time, with up to 2 more waiting in Town to swap between them
  • Their level is locked to the area level you find them in so frequently upgrading them is recommended
  • Revive fallen Mercenaries in Town for a Gold fee
    • They do not lose items upon death
• Take Item
  • Select one of the Mercenary’s items to drop on death, including currency items they're holding
  • Mercenaries can spawn with special "Of Trathus" versions of Skill Gems, which are similar to Transfigured Gems
    • These can be selected as a reward
  • "Infamous" Mercenaries may wear special Rares with the "Infamous" item modifier, granting brand new exclusive effects
• Exile
  • An exiled Mercenaries archetype is blocked from appearing for the next ten encounters
  • Up to two Mercenary attribute types (STR/INT/DEX) can be exiled at once

Learn more about Mercenaries of Trarthus and Secrets of the Atlas with Maxroll’s reveal overview post! Or take a deeper dive by reading the PoE 3.26 patch notes.

Build Guides

Here are all of the new and updated league starters for the 3.26 Mercenaries of Trarthus and Secrets of the Atlas update, straight from the experts at Maxroll.

New League Starters

Volcanic Fissure of Snaking is shaping up to be one of the most popular league starter picks for Mercenaries of Trarthus. Maxroll has 2 guides for this: a Berserker setup from Crouching_Tuna which is focused on speed and damage, plus the Slayer version from Carn that has continuous leech effects.

Zizaran’s new Earthquake Gladiator is a big bonk bleed build. Earthquake’s Aftershocks hit hard, making them perfect for inflicting a large bleed on tankier enemies. Gladiator provides explosions thanks to Gratuitous Violence, and easy defenses through Block scaling nodes like More than Skill.

The new Rolling Magma Mine Saboteur from Goratha is a hot league starter that unleashes bouncing balls of fiery destruction. This build takes advantage of the new Shrapnel Specialist node from Saboteur to push Rolling Magma and your GPU to the max!

The Glacial Cascade Elementalist from Aer0 takes advantage of all the golemancer buffs to bring a personal support squad to any fight. When you position correctly, Glacial Cascade deals immense damage with its final burst.

The Tornado of Elemental Turbulence Inquisitor from Velyna fills the screen with deadly vortexes that sweep across the battlefield. Thanks to the Inquisitor ascendancy, this build leverages both life and energy shield for a comfortable mapping experience.

Updated League Starters

Explosive Arrow Ballista Ignite has long been a league start staple in Path of Exile. You can play it as a tanky Champion from Zizaran, which excels in both Hardcore and Solo Self Found, or take advantage of the Elementalist buffs to play a higher damage version of the build from Palsteron.

Another ignite setup (more focused on the SSF experience) that benefits from the Elementalist buffs is Zizaran’s Wave of Conviction Ignite Elementalist.

Next up, Goratha’s Eviscerate Bleed Gladiator turns the entire screen into explosions of blood and monster guts. This mapping-focused build is all about going fast and clearing screens.

Maxroll’s Necromancer-in-Chief HelmBreaker has updated all 3 of his minion guides. The classic Poison Summon Raging Spirits is still a great choice in 3.26. Alternatively, if you want to go all in on the minion fantasy, use the Chaos Minion Army Necromancer to roleplay as a battlefield commander while your mindless dead kill everything for you. Last up, if you’re feeling a bit more experimental, check out the Poison Ranged Animate Weapons Necromancer build.

Lightning Arrow Deadeye is an incredibly consistent league start choice for players who enjoy bow builds. This setup from Crouching_Tuna gets you off to a strong start and can later be converted into Elemental Hit of the Spectrum.

If melee is more of your style, check out Carn’s Ground Slam of Earthshaking Slayer, a titanic build designed to shatter foes with ease.

Aer0’s Ice Trap Trickster creates icy doughnuts of destruction, trapping monsters within an icy grave. While a bit less tanky than some of the above builds, Ice Trap is easy to get off the ground and frozen enemies can’t fight back.

If you prefer mines to Traps Aer0’s Ice Shot of Penetration Deadeye is a glass cannon screen-clearing machine. Fire a barrage of icy arrows that explode into smaller projectiles, covering your screen in icy explosions.

Another miner on offer is the Exsanguinate Miner Trickster from CptnGarbage. This build leverages all of Trickster's “don’t get hit” energy and combines it with Exsanguinate, a spell that chains through the entire screen in an instant.

Maxroll's PoE Leveling Builds

Breeze through the campaign with leveling guides set up by the Path of Exile racing legend, Havoc616, to get you to maps quickly and easily.

• Templar
• Ranger
• Witch
• Shadow
• Marauder
• Duelist
• Scion

Maxroll Currency Guide Revamp

In addition to the build guide updates, Maxroll is revamping their currency strategies to cut out the fluff and present more of the meta farming options. Check out the Maxroll Currency section, and keep an eye out for more updates to the currency guides in the future.

For example, Crop Rotation Harvest is a strategy for the Harvest League Mechanic where you play a mini-game of buffing your crops to get the most juice out of a single plot!

Maxroll's PoEPlanner

Maxroll’s new PoEPlanner tool is fresh off the presses for 3.26. This tool works very similarly to their popular PoE2Planner tool, allowing Path of Exile players to theorycraft and share builds with ease while also providing a public build database to browse other people's creations.

Getting started is straightforward; you can either select your ascendancy on the left to begin making a planner from scratch or link your Path of Exile account to import a character directly using the large blue button on the right. The gear on the right side is also where you go to save a profile.

The Maxroll PoEPlanner supports a lot of modules, but you don't need to use all of them. If you leave a section blank, it won't be visible when people browse the build. The exception here is required sections like passives, skills, or gear; don't leave these blank!

1. This is your passive tree; you can set your ascendancy nodes and even create variants. Add Jewels to your tree by left-clicking on the socket.
   • Click the box in the top right to expand.
2. Give the build a rating: red = bad, green = good.
3. Write notes about your build. You can use this section to give people tips or explain the nuances of gearing and playing the build.
4. What is the build good at? Where does it struggle?
5. Include all of the skills and supports you are using. If you want to show build progression, you can do so by creating additional steps.
6. Explain the order in which people should use their skills for optimal DPS.
7. Select a major and minor Pantheon.
8. Select equipment set(s) here. The PoEPlanner supports multiple equipment sets (created via the edit button on the top right) and stat weights for each set.
9. What bandit should players use, or is the plan to kill them all?
10. Link a Lootfilter, or if you want to go above and beyond, link multiple Loot Filters.
11. Like with the Passive Tree, the Atlas Passive Tree supports multiple variants,
12. The build's author (hey, that's you!)
13. Link a build Showcase on Youtube, best practices include clear explanations of the mechanics and showing gameplay.
14. If there's a related build, link the relevant planner here.
15. Changed the build? Update everyone with a changelog entry.

Want even more builds? Then check out more builds from the Maxroll Path of Exile team, or browse the Community Builds section to see what other Exiles are cooking up.

Example Builds

Here are a few planners from the Maxroll Path of Exile Team:

• Rolling Mines Saboteur and Eviscerate Bleed Gladiator by Goratha
• Dual Strike of Ambidexterity Berserker by Zen_M
• Exsanguinate / Reap Mine Trickster by CptnGarbage
• Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Berserker and Lightning Arrow Deadeye by Crouching_Tuna
• Glacial Cascade Golementalist by Aer0
• Poison SRS Necromancer, Chaos & Poison Ranged Animate Weapons, and Chaos Poison Zoomancer by HelmBreaker

More Path of Exile News

PoB Import / Export

In addition to the new tool, Maxroll partnered with the Path of Building team to support importing and exporting directly from this popular community tool. You can see build information, including configuration settings at a glance. You can find this on Maxroll’s PoB page.

PoExchange

C3ntrax has updated the PoExchange tool. The most prominent feature is direct integration to the Maxroll website. This means getting notifications for sales even when you’re browsing build guides or using the planner and seamless switching between PoExchange and the rest of Maxroll.

Written by IGN Staff with the help of the Maxroll Path of Exile Team.

Rick and Morty has been a staple at Oni Press for a decade now (hence the publisher recently collecting the first 100 Rick and Morty comics in one massive set). But now, the publisher is also reaching another Rick and Morty milestone. They're about to kick off the franchise's first crossover event in the form of Rick and Morty vs. The Universe.

Rick and Morty vs. The Universe will unfold as both a core four-issue miniseries and three tie-in one-shots. The main series is written by Daniel Kibblesmith (a veteran of the animated series) and illustrated by Jarrett Williams (Speed Force). The tie-ins feature work by Kibblesmith, Jody Houser (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker), Phil Murphy (Adventure Time), Jake Black (Rick and Morty: Finals Week), Suzi Blake (Aggretsuko: Out To Lunch), Alex Firer (Rick and Morty), and Fred C. Stresing (Invader Zim).

Check out the slideshow gallery below for an exclusive preview of Rick and Morty vs. The Universe:

The title isn't misleading in this case. This crossover literally pits Rick Sanchez and his grandson against entire, anthropomorphized universes. It all starts when Rick and Morty's original home, Universe Prime, decides to get married to the Parmesan Dimension, and things go haywire from there. Here's Oni's official description of the storyline:

Rick’s old buddy Universe Prime (where Rick and Morty Cronenberg’d Earth) has reached his UNIVERSAL HALF-LIFE and is getting MARRIED—to the female-presenting embodiment of the Parmesan Dimension! (Where they currently live!) He’s found true love and wants his old pal Rick to plan his bachelor party! WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Answer: Pretty much everything . . . and it is all Rick’s fault! Now Rick and Morty are on the run from EVERY SINGLE UNIVERSE THEY’VE EVER MESSED WITH—meaning, no matter what dimension they escape to, the universe will literally be against them. And, to survive, Rick will be forced to do something he hoped he would never have to do—a last resort of EPIC PROPORTIONS!

Rick and Morty vs. The Universe #1 launches on July 9, 2025, with the crossover running through October.

For more Rick and Morty fun, check out IGN's spoiler-free review of Season 8 and see the top 20 Rick and Morty episodes.

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

In 2024, LEGO began the most ambitious build project the company has ever attempted: a fully realized, minifigure-scale re-creation of Hogwarts Castle, made famous by the Harry Potter franchise. A single set of this size and scope would be impractically large and prohibitively expensive. So instead, LEGO is releasing numerous smaller sets that, when combined, will form the full castle. It's a truly massive undertaking.

This is an ongoing project; LEGO has not announced the end date for the final set. But based on their current pace, it's going to be years before the project finally wraps.

We've been building the LEGO Hogwarts Castle since it launched, and we will continue building and adding to it until it's complete. If you would like to do the same? it's not too late to start, although LEGO will retire several key sets at the end of the year.

Here is every set released so far that comprises the modular LEGO Hogwarts Castle, currently in progress. We've included a grand piece count and price count at the bottom, which we will update as the castle continues to grow. Lastly, we took and included some photos of the castle as it currently stands, so you can see its current progression.

LEGO Harry Potter: Hogwarts Castle Sets

These are the sets you'll need to buy if you want to create your own enormous LEGO version of Hogwarts Castle. But these are just the sets released to date – more will be added in the future.

Hogwarts Castle: Owlery

The Owlery is the first component of the Hogwarts Castle. If you're looking to cut a corner or two and save on costs, you might start with this one, because it's an independent structure apart from the main building. It has winter-themed, snow-capped spires, so if you're after aesthetic consistency, you might also want to swap out a few pieces to make the Owlery match seasons with the rest of the castle.

Hogwarts Castle: Boathouse

Both the Boathouse and the Owlery share the same gray-colored hue on their spires. Back in 2024, this led many LEGO fans to speculate that these sets marked the beginning of a new Hogwarts Castle, even though it hadn't been officially announced yet. The Boathouse includes two small wooden boats, so you can recreate Harry's first-year arrival at Hogwarts.

Hogwarts Castle: Potions Class

This is the first Hogwarts classroom set, which can swap in to replace another room in the castle. To use an example: The Great Hall comes with the girl's bathroom in the dungeon, where the troll attacks Hermione in the first book/movie. It's nice looking diorama, but it's extremely scene specific, and it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the castle. So, if you want to, you can swap out the troll scene with Professor Snape's Potions Classroom, which is a lot more detailed and colorful, and contains a wider range of roleplay opportunities. If you don't get the Potions Classroom, it's not going to look, at least outwardly, like something's missing. But still, it's hard to imagine Hogwarts without it.

Hogwarts Castle: The Great Hall

The first major 'essential' building block in the Hogwarts Castle, the Great Hall includes the eponymous Hall – where the Sorting Ceremonies and Start and End-of-Term Feasts take place – and three additional rooms: the girl's bathroom where the troll attacked Hermione; a narrow corridor; and the Hufflepuff Common Room. The Great Hall connects to the Boathouse at the bottom of the outer stairwell; connects to the Main Tower at its side; and can swap its bathroom with the Potions Classroom. We built and photographed this one at the time of its launch.

Hogwarts Castle: Dueling Club

This set recreeates the Dueling Club scene from Chamber of Secrets, in which Draco conjures a snake and Harry uses Parseltongue to stop it from attacking Justin Finch-Fletchley. There's a gimmicked floor in the table that makes the minifigures fly backwards off of it. If you want, you can swap out the house tables in the Great Hall with the Dueling Club table. It's a fun alternative, but overall inessential to the larger castle, if that's what you're going for.

Hogwarts Castle: Charms Class

Professor Flitwick's Charms Classroom lets you recreate the Wingardium Leviosa scene from the first book/movie ("It's Levi-O-sa! Not Levio-SA."). The Professor Flitwick minifigure has his original movie appearance, when the filmmakers leaned into his goblin hertitage. The Charms Classroom slots into the Flying Lessons set, and can swap with the Quidditch equipment room.

Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons

On the exterior, this set depicts the scene where Harry rides a broom for the first time (it even includes a minifigure of Madame Hooch). But on the interior, this is a Professor McGonagall-centric set. It includes the aforementioned Quidditch equipment room, but it also contains McGonagall's office and McGonagall's Transfiguration classroom. The Flying Lessons set doesn't connect to any of the current sets; it'll fit in later, once we have more of the Castle completed.

Hogwarts Castle: Herbology Class

The Herbology Classroom includes a rare Professor Sprout minifigure, plus Hermione and Neville in their greenhouse smocks and gloves. The greenhouse feels appropriately overgrown and busy, with three mandrake plants and accompanying earmuff accessories. It is a freestanding structure from the larger Hogwarts Castle, although unlike the Owlery, it'll be in close proximity to it.

Hogwarts Castle: The Main Tower

The second major Hogwarts Castle set, the Main Tower connects directly to the Great Hall on its right side. And taken together (see more photos below), you really get a sense of size and scope. The interior contains three of the rooms from the Sorcerer's Stone trials: the Devil's Snare room, the Flying Keys room, and the Chess Set room. One floor up is Fluffy's room and a narrow corridor. One floor up from that is the Gryffindor Common Room. And then the actual Main Tower contains three staircases (two of them rotate), Dumbledore's office, and a secret room containing the Mirror of Erised. We built and photographed this set at launch.

For photos of the entire Hogwarts Castle build so far, see below.

What's The Current Total Piece Count?

The current total piece count stands at 6,381.

What's The Current Total Price?

The current total price stands at $757.91.

What's Next?

Right prior to releasing the Owlery, LEGO released an architectural build of Hogwarts Castle in miniature form. It has the same grey spires as the modular castle, and because of its timing, my theory is that it is a rough blueprint for how the final castle will look.

Above, I've circled the parts of the modular castle that have been released. So you can see we have quite a bit (close to two-thirds) of the final building to go. Maybe the Viaduct Bridge that leads from the Great Hall to the Central Hall is next? That would be a smaller set. And then, it's likely that the Central Hall would be the next major build after that.

But that's all pure speculation. We'll have to wait and see.

Be sure to check out our lists of the best Star Wars LEGO sets and best Harry Potter LEGO sets. If you prefer superheroes., you can take a look at the best Marvel LEGO sets as well.

Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.

Tons of Magic: The Gathering sealed products are on sale at Amazon right now. From commander decks and bundles to booster boxes and prerelease kits, if you're a MTG player you should definitely check out this sale. Aetherdrift, one of the latest expansions from 2025, is one of the main focuses of the sale, but you can pick up some other sets like the Tarkir: Dragonstorm Jeskai Striker Commander deck.

Be sure to also check out our MTG Father's Day gift guide for the best gifts and accessories for that special Magic player in your life.

Magic: The Gathering Sealed Product Is On Sale

Here's how these products break down, like what's included and how much they cost:

Aetherdrift Collector Booster Box $174.99 (42% off)

Booster boxes are the perfect way to start and bolster your collection. The contents of a single collector booster pack vary by set, but here you can find exclusive foils, Japan Showcase cards, or a special serialized card. The booster box comes with 12 packs each with 15 cards inside and two foil box toppers (special art foil cards).

Aetherdrift Bundle $29.99 (44% off)

Bundles are a more affordabale way to jumpstart your collection. These typically include nine booster packs, a promotional or alternate art card, 40 extra basic land cards (20 foil, 20 regular), and a spindown life counter die. You can also use this as a card storage box.

Aetherdrift Finish Line Bundle $62.50 (22% off)

Aetherdrift's Finish Line bundle is similar to the regular bundle but is a bit more premium. It includes six booster packs, three extended art cards, two foil box toppers, 20 foil basic lands, and special spindown life counter die.

Aetherdrift Prerelease Kit $22.95 (23% off)

Prerelease kits are usually sold the week before a set's wide release and contain a certain color or archetype that ties into the set's mechanic. There are often leftover kits for you to purchase after a prerelease event which contains a spindown life counter die, six booster packs, a foil premium stamped card, and one special promo card.

Aetherdrift Commander Deck - Living Energy $28.99 (36% off)

Commander is easily the most popular casual format among both new and old players. Whenever a new set is released, commander decks (100 card single-copy format) are released alongside it. The Living Energy Commander deck is one of these, which includes the full 100-card deck, two foil borderless Commander creatures, and a deck box.

Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy Cards Are Also Available

The next main set will be the Final Fantasy collaboration. Easily one of the most popular Universe Beyond set, Final Fantasy is bringing newer players on in droves. This set releases in full June 27th. You can pick up a starter kit to learn the game, one of four commander decks, play booster boxes and bundles, or single booster packs. Good luck - these go out of stock fast.

Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.

There are many terrifying foes in Elden Ring Nightreign, from standard enemies all the way up to the imposing Nightlords. But one in particular seems to give many Nightfarers pause, or even cause them to turn and flee. It's the Bell Bearing Hunter.

Now, if you've only started Elden Ring Nightreign, this could be confusing. The standard boss version of the Bell Bearing Hunter is someone you can potentially fight early on, at the conclusion of the first night while hunting the Nightlord Tricephalos. He's also a returning fight from Elden Ring proper, so you'd assume returning players would have him figured out.

But in Elden Ring Nightreign, bosses can spawn both at night's end and in the field, and pack more punch than they previously did in Elden Ring. And this version of Bell Bearing Hunter seems to be doing some real damage.

Players have been putting in hundreds upon hundreds of runs since Elden Ring Nightreign came out, and while there's certainly been discussion over which bosses are the best or most difficult, the Bell Bearing Hunter comes up pretty often. Specifically, when he's in the castle. As one post notes, he seems more powerful when he has a roof over his head? Maybe he got a good night's rest.

Different variants can also cause problems, and the Bell Bearing Hunter can also sometimes appear in other locations, too. The boss is already fairly intimidating, with a sword that he can swing in close range or wield, seemingly telekinetically, at long ranges. But in the castle? He's got some aura.

Not all hope is lost, though. One Redditor has discovered some new tech that most have probably never thought to try, that could thwart the Bell Bearing Hunter in his tracks. Or at least keep him walking in place long enough to wail on him. This user seems to have put the Bell Bearing Hunter into a permanent walk cycle by just, uh, walking at him and guarding. So taunting him into defeat, with some ranged help, might actually work?

We’ve got plenty of Nightreign tips and tricks to help you take down all the eight Nightlord Bosses, and if you’re wondering how to unlock the two locked Nightfarer Classes, check out How to Unlock the Revenant and How to Unlock the Duchess, plus How to Change Characters.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set finally arrives today, and it does so atop a wave of hype. It’s already breaking sales records all over, with a huge set encompassing all sixteen mainline games in Square Enix’s long-running RPG franchise, but not all cards are created equal.

Some cards are already seeing astronomical prices from pre-release, but we imagine they’ll settle down at least a little bit in the coming days and weeks.

Still, with some chase cards currently worth well over a thousand dollars each, you’ll naturally want to know which cards are worth looking out for, and which you might want to pick up standalone rather than ripping over hundreds of sealed boosters.

Thanks to the lovely folks at TCGPlayer, we’ve got a pretty good idea, ranging from protagonists to baddies, to those adorable chocobos.

Here are the big chase cards for Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy on launch day, with prices provided by TCGPlayer. While eBay is also an option (and also owns TCGPlayer), I’ve found TCGPlayer to be the most reliable way to buy single cards, with more knowledgeable (and careful) vendors when it comes to purchasing via a third-party.

The Biggest Chase Cards in Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy

10 - Lightning, Army of One

Dave Bautista and his production company Dogbone Entertainment are set to develop Steve Lerner’s new story Cat Assassin for a new franchise that will include animated series, video games, and steps into the publishing space.

Lerner is the writer behind the beloved Annapurna Interactive game Stray. Bautista, who has enjoyed enormous post-WWE success with the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy, Dune, and Blade Runner 2049, will have creative input on the franchise, which will be developed alongside Titan1Studios.

Need some cash for your Car Dealership Tycoon enterprise? Look no further. We've scoured the web for all of the currently active codes available in Roblox's car-selling sim, so you can keep your business running smoothly with some free cash injections.

Working Car Dealership Tycoon Codes (June 2025)

Below, you'll find all of the currently active and working Car Dealership Tycoon codes in June 2025 that you can redeem for free rewards:

• DRAGRACE - $80,000
• LUCKY7 - $80,000
• AUDIRS7 - $80,000
• MAYLIMITED - $80,000
• SEASON17 - $80,000
• AUDIR8 - $100,000
• Killasfs - $50,000
• Foxzie - $15,000
• Tstingray - $50,000
• IranRan - $50,000

Expired Car Dealership Tycoon Codes (June 2025)

The following Car Dealership Tycoon codes have expired and can no longer be redeemed as of June 2025:

• CUSTOM200
• EASTER2025
• BARNFIND04
• SEASON16
• EVENT03
• ZENVOCOLLECTOR
• UPGRADELAUNCH
• EASTER2
• SAUSAGE
• PAGANISALE
• VOLKSWAGEN
• POLICESEASON
• VWCOLLECTOR
• IMMORTAL
• SCAVENGERHUNT
• COLLECTORCAR
• COPSANDCRIMS
• RETURNINGLIM
• NEWLIMITED
• NEWMAP
• XMASUPDATE

How to Redeem Codes in Car Dealership Tycoon

To redeem Car Dealership Tycoon codes, boot up the game and, once you’re in, follow the steps below:

1. Look at the top of the screen. To the left of the cash counter, you'll see a settings icon. It's represented by the small gear.
2. Click this icon to bring up the settings menu. At the very bottom of the settings menu is the redeem code bar.
3. Input your code into the bar and then press the "+" icon beside it to redeem it.

Why Isn't My Car Dealership Tycoon Code Working?

If your Car Dealership Tycoon code isn’t working, it’s likely due to one of two scenarios. The first is that the code was inputted incorrectly. Check the spelling and that the case is correct, then redeem again. You can even copy and paste the codes directly from this article over to Roblox if you want to make sure you’re inputting them correctly.

The other possibility is the code has expired or you’ve already used it. In this scenario, you should see an error message appear in the codes bar informing you that the code has already been redeemed or is invalid.

How to Get More Car Dealership Tycoon Codes

If you want to hunt down some Car Dealership Tycoon codes on your own, you'll have to scout through several different social accounts for the game. The main spots you should be checking are the CDT update info channel in the game's official Discord server, Foxzie's YouTube channel, and Foxzie's X account. All three will be updated from time to time with codes, so make sure you're subscribed to each to keep up to date with new code drops.

What is Car Dealership Tycoon in Roblox?

Car Dealership Tycoon is exactly what it says on the tin. You're offered the keys to your very own car dealership, and from there, your mission is to build it, customize it, and purchase new cars to display on the show floor. As you grow, you can take part in a variety of activities to increase your cash flow, including taking to the streets to race other players and avoiding police in high speed chases. So, do you have what it takes to cement your dealership as the go-to hub for the most luxurious rides in the city?

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.

If you know anything about gaming, you probably know the name ‘Mario Kart.’ Since 1992, the series has been a pillar of Nintendo’s output and a quintessential example of the company’s “easy to pick up, difficult to master” philosophy. The series has now become so popular that it’s arguably eclipsed the Mario platformers as the principal arena from which people know the red-capped Italian plumber.

The series began back on the SNES with Super Mario Kart, which introduced a formula that fans fawn over to this day. But while the core of that first game has remained intact over the years, many of the components have been completely reinvented with the series’ latest title, Mario Kart World for the Switch 2. With that new game now out in the wild, it's a great time to look back on each game in the series to see how they iterate on the formula, how they reflect the state of Nintendo at the time of their release, and whether or not they hold up to this day. Here’s every Mario Kart game, ranked.

11. Mario Kart: Super Circuit

Despite being one of the handheld’s best-selling games, Super Circuit goes down as one of the least replayable Game Boy Advance titles. Considering the series had gone 3D five years earlier with Mario Kart 64, Super Circuit feels like a significant step backward. The character models and backgrounds have a bit more depth than what’s showcased in the original SNES Mario Kart game, but the courses themselves are tarnished by flat, ugly textures that fall short of the handsome results the GBA proved itself capable of elsewhere.

What Super Circuit did have going for it at the time was being the first handheld game in the series. Its bare-bones approach to character selection and game modes reflects its jump-in/jump-out philosophy, which trades expansiveness for approachability – something that came in clutch when an hour needed to be killed on a car ride. Super Circuit had its place back in 2001 and was never supposed to be in significant competition with the console versions, but that means there’s no real reason to return to it today.

10. Mario Kart Tour

It’s easy to discredit Mario Kart Tour for being a mobile game, but this micro version of the classic formula has genuine merits. Chief amongst them is the visual flare the game boasts, with some simply gorgeous course designs. Being so close to the screen allows you to fully appreciate the details on each unlockable kart, character, and race track, which makes even the slow 50cc races that bit more engaging.

Additionally, the return of character-specific items is very welcome and something fans had been wanting to see in the console games since the days of the GameCube. What Tour misses out on is the feel of the console Mario Kart games. Sliding your finger across the screen is nowhere near as satisfying as pressing physical buttons, even if Mario Kart is just pressing A, R and L most of the time.

9. Super Mario Kart

It's hard not to appreciate what a winning formula 1992’s Super Mario Kart introduced. Over 33 years later, the core of the game remains intact. Grand Prix and Battle Mode aren’t in every subsequent Kart entry for the sake of tradition – they just never stopped being entertaining. The fact that this game not only launched the franchise but also an entire genre of games is nothing to be sniffed at.

However, most of the praise you can heap on Super Mario Kart is because of its legacy rather than its ability to hold up in the modern age. Looking back, it's difficult to get over the simplistic graphics and lack of mechanical depth, even if you can appreciate how cutting edge it was at the time. Still, it provided a platform for one of the biggest brands in gaming, and who knows what Nintendo would look like today without it.

8. Mario Kart 64

The second game in the Mario Kart franchise feels instantly more dynamic than its predecessor. The 3D graphics allow for more interesting course design, shifting camera angles, and an enhanced sense of speed, especially thanks to the boost you can get from drifting. The extra detail in the character animation also goes a long way to immersing you in these races, which feel more like grand and intense sporting events than simple video game laps.

In the modern day, Mario Kart 64 suffers from issues similar to what Super Circuit and Super Mario Kart do; this same thing has simply been done better by subsequent games, and there aren’t enough unique qualities about this one to routinely go back to it (which is perhaps the key issue with a series that remains so faithful to its core – the new one with its minor improvements is so frequently the best). Still, MK 64’s transition to 3D and its capacity for 4-player co-op means it’s cemented in the hearts of many fans, and often nostalgia is worth more than technical progress.

7. Mario Kart 7

Coming in at number seven is — you guessed it — Mario Kart 7. While it may not hold up as a standout today, it did introduce elements that are now difficult to imagine the series without. Hang gliders feel so core to the flow of MK8, as does the ability to drive underwater and customise your kart, but those features all arrived on the 3DS first with Mario Kart 7. The underwater sequences, in particular, are a visual treat that really hammer home the generational gap between the DS and 3DS. Meanwhile, kart customisation adds a level of strategy to a series that revels in chaos, perhaps in response to the outrageous unpredictability of Mario Kart Wii.

However, going back to the game in a post-MK8 Deluxe world makes all these elements less impressive. When a handheld game with better graphics, many of the same gameplay mechanics, and 64 more courses is readily available, the reasons to play Mario Kart 7 in 2025 are few. It’s a vital part of any 3DS library, though, even if it does lose points for not having Waluigi in the game. What was Nintendo thinking??

6. Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart Wii cemented this franchise as a household name. The Wii, of course, vastly expanded the gaming population and Mario Kart had one of the lowest barriers to entry, coming with the Wii Wheel to further accommodate the new motion-controlled gameplay. Though not the preferred way of driving in subsequent entries for a lot of players, there’s a reason why tilt controls are still an option in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and MK World – so many players had their first Nintendo karting experience this way.

Mario Kart Wii has always stood out for being more loose and chaotic than other games in the series, gaining a reputation for rampant blue shells taking out players seconds away from finishing first. But MK Wii has other unique flavours; it includes the series’ first truly robust online play system, improving on MK DS’s slim first iteration, and adds bikes to the list of vehicles. The latter has less concrete impact than the former but does add to the iconic status of the game. It’s impossible to imagine Princess Peach using anything else now.

5. Mario Kart 8

Nintendo’s philosophy during the Wii U era was wrought with overwhelming tones of vanilla, and the company’s most successful franchise was a victim of it. Mario Kart transitioned to HD well, with MK8’s graphics being absolutely gorgeous, and the series’ core gameplay held intact, making for a game that you could never call bad.

But the original version of Mario Kart 8 is, dare we say it, dull. It is too safe. The best Mario Karts put a unique spin on the formula, but MK8’s introduction of anti-gravity is barely noticeable. Instead, the big hitters are the hang gliding and underwater sections, which means it all feels a bit too much like Mario Kart 7, but in HD.

Additionally, Battle Mode is stripped down to almost nothing, which robs gamers of a beloved way to play. All this meant that MK8 didn’t really have its own identity until the improved Deluxe version hit the Switch three years later in 2017. But that Deluxe package would be nothing without a truly solid foundation, and that's what you get in Mario Kart 8.

4. Mario Kart DS

The Mario Kart formula has existed for 33 years, so any game that alters it in any significant way is going to stand out. Mario Kart DS may offer the classic Kart gameplay in Grand Prix Mode, but it experiments wildly in the unique and brilliant Mission Mode. These objective-based activities range from simple time trials to genuine boss battles, and each asks you to master a whole new set of skills beyond just flying through courses and understanding shortcuts. As a result, Mario Kart DS is more enduring than many of its peers as a purely single-player experience.

Mission Mode is just one of the things that helped Mario Kart DS achieve its iconic status, though. Its integration with DS Download Play introduced a social element unseen on a handheld prior, allowing multiple DS consoles to join a race using just one copy of the game. And in addition to introducing original courses like Waluigi Pinball and Peach Gardens, MK DS is the first in the series to feature retro tracks, an idea now at the core of what people look forward to with any new Mario Kart. It was a triumph back in 2005 and Mission Mode makes it a unique and highly replayable entry in the series to this day.

3. Mario Kart World

Despite being the newest entry on this list—like, it’s a week old—Mario Kart World successfully covers a lot of new terrain for a franchise that’s over thirty years old. First off, it is undeniably the best-looking game in the series and an immediate contender for the most graphically impressive game Nintendo has ever developed. Playing on handheld and taking in every detail of MK World’s vast, interconnected courses is a dream. It’s a magical experience when you’re driving along and can spot the outline of a familiar track out in the distance.

But it's what World introduces mechanically that sees it rise so high on our list. The ability to drive on walls and grind on rails feel like what MK8’s anti-gravity should have been: new skills that take a lot of practice to be fully mastered. It’s something that you cannot say for new mechanics introduced in almost any previous entry. These skills add great texture to the new modes, such as Free Roam and Knockout Tour, which are great additions that will hopefully remain important cornerstones of future games. The last-one-standing Knockout Tour ramps up the chaos that we’ve always loved from Mario Kart games, while Free Roam’s open world adds a completely new exploration flavour to the series. There’s also some of MK DS’ Mission Mode to be found in the snackable (and often fiendishly difficult) P-Switch challenges. Throw in all the familiar modes we know and love, as well as an instant classic of a soundtrack, and you have one of the ultimate Mario Kart experiences.

2. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is packed full of personality in a way the majority of the games in the series are not. Having not one, but two exclamation marks in the title makes that clear. The principle feature of having two racers per kart is a stroke of genius, and it's sort of unbelievable that it’s not been a mode in every Mario Kart since. The double driver system, and the unique items each driver is assigned, allows for so many new styles of play and strategy that prove far more interesting than customising the vehicle you’re using – for example, Mario’s special items provide a speed boost that helps balance out the heavier characters who have more destructive items unique to them. The imagery of it all is also so goofy and fun… maybe a little too much fun for Nintendo to have fully committed to it in the games since.

Even with different characters, Mario Kart gameplay can eventually feel a little too similar after several hours of play, and so having Bowser’s giant shells rampage across the tracks definitely helps with that. Mario Kart needs more risk takers and rule benders like Double Dash!! – let's hope the formula-breaking Mario Kart World is a sign of things to come.

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe showcases Nintendo’s ability to take a decent game and turn it into a cultural juggernaut. Fixing the original version’s anaemic Battle Mode and allowing players to hold an extra item were easy wins, but nobody could have expected just how much the game’s scope would increase. When launched alongside the Switch in 2017, there were fun additions to the character roster like King Boo, Bowser Jr. and the Inklings from Splatoon, but it was the Booster Course DLC that would really cement MK8 Deluxe’s superiority amongst other games in the series.

Now boasting 42 characters and an eye-watering 96 courses, MK8 Deluxe has become a fan favourite through sheer variety. If there was a course you loved from Mario Kart past, chances are it's been given a new lease on life in HD. Not every course is a winner, and the mechanics don’t reinvent the wheel in any significant way (again, this is essentially a bigger and better MK7), but 68 million copies sold more than shows the fan appreciation for this brilliant iteration.

Ryan Gaur is a freelance writer who has worked with the likes of RollingStone, Empire, Polygon, IndieWire, Skwigly, CartoonBrew, OkayPlayer, Animation Mag and more.

The long-awaited Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond crossover with Final Fantasy is finally out, blending one of the most iconic RPG franchises with the most legendary trading card game in the world.

Whether you're here for FF6’s Terra, FF7’s Cloud, FF10’s Tidus, or FF14’s Warrior of Light, this set is stacked with heroes and villains from across the series. And that’s just the Commander Decks, the full release runs deep.

If you managed to lock in a preorder before they vanished, congrats. For everyone else, here’s where you can still buy the Final Fantasy MTG cards now that the set has officially launched, such as the highly popular Commander Deck Bundle, which Amazon recently restocked.

Where to Buy Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy Cards

I'm going to give it to you straight right from the off. It's painfully hard to get hold of any of these sets from major retailers right now. While we saw some big restocks over the past month, pretty much everywhere is sold out of Final Fantasy MTG at the time of writing.

I can provide some handy links to bookmark so you can check back in, but for now, your best chance of securing anything will be via the most trusted third-party resellers like TCGPlayer.

Starter Kit

• See at Amazon

This bundle contains 1 Collector Booster, 9 Play Boosters, 2 Traditional Foil Extended-Art cards, 16 Traditional Foil and 16 nonfoil Full-Art Basic Land cards, 1 oversized Spindown life counter, 1 special foil Final Fantasy card storage box, and 2 reference cards. A serialized card may be found in <0.1% of English-language Collector Boosters only.

Best Cards to Chase and Buy Today

With the brand new set already breaking sales records all over, with a huge set encompassing all sixteen mainline games in Square Enix’s long-running RPG franchise, but not all cards are created equal. Some cards are already seeing astronomical prices from pre-release, but we imagine they’ll settle down at least a little bit in the coming days and weeks.

Still, with some chase cards currently worth well over a thousand dollars each, you’ll naturally want to know which cards are worth looking out for, and which you might want to pick up standalone rather than ripping over hundreds of sealed boosters.

Or perhaps, collectors will instead be most interested in the new Final Fantasy x Secret Lair drops, instead. It’s been a busy year for Wizards of the Coast’s limited-time mini-sets, and while the company sold out of all three Final Fantasy drops in record time (leaving many disappointed), you can still get them via third-party sellers... if you're willing to pay the inflated costs, that is.

There are a trio of Final Fantasy Secret Lair sets, Weapons, Grimoire, and Game Over, each offering unique art and names for Magic: The Gathering cards. Everything is available in standard and foil, alongside the Japanese variants as well.

But, since they've sold out, you won’t find Secret Lair drops at the same price as you’d find them directly from Wizards of the Coast (standard $30 nonfoil, $40 rainbow foil), with most being listed anywhere between $80-$150 or above.

This is a huge markup, so if you're looking to buy, be sure you're 100% informed of what you're paying for. You can buy them from eBay, but we’ve always found TCGPlayer, while still eBay-owned, to be the most secure and trustworthy way to nab Secret Lair drops post-release.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Senior Commerce Editor, for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.

The Malcolm in the Middle reboot series is, in fact, happening with the entire original cast returning — that is, with the exception of our favorite TV little brother Dewey. Erik Per Sullivan, who originally played the character, will not be returning to the show, with Caleb Ellsworth-Clark taking over the role for the revival.

The show’s patriarch, Bryan Cranston, recently revealed the news in a conversation on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast. “I talked to Erik and I said, ‘Hey, we got the show! It’s going to come back,’” he explained. “He goes, ‘Oh, that’s fantastic!’ And I go, ‘Yeah, so we’re looking forward to having you back.’ He goes, ‘Oh, no, no, I don’t want to do it. But it’s fantastic.'”

FromSoftware has cryptically teased "enhanced fights" against the big bosses of Elden Ring Nightreign, due to arrive sometime this month. But one modder has found some already real building blocks for the new fights, and made their fights playable in the process.

On June 3, the official Elden Ring account confirmed that, alongside Nightreign's DLC (arriving later this year) and the upcoming Duo Expeditions option, Nightreign would be getting "enhanced fights against existing Nightlords" starting this month. No more details were shared, but it clearly acted as a Bat-signal for people to start digging.

Modder TerraMag (as spotted by PC Gamer) managed to find the boss content currently in the game, and built a mod to make it accessible. Importantly, these are unfinished versions based off the enhanced sets already found in the files.

Notably, what TerraMag found (and documented so far in YouTube videos) seems to be third phases for a number of the Nightlords, including those like Adel, Libra, and Caligo. These can introduce new moves, new models for the bosses, and any number of new ways to annihilate Nightfarers.

Of course, these are unfinished and not officially implemented, so it's only a glimpse at what could be when the enhanced fights arrive sometime this month. For those already getting weary of the existing boss runs, though, this might make for a decent challenge, and a reason to dive back into some more runs in the ever-shifting Lands.

We’ve got plenty of Nightreign tips and tricks to help you take down all the eight Nightlord Bosses, and if you’re wondering how to unlock the two locked Nightfarer Classes, check out How to Unlock the Revenant and How to Unlock the Duchess, plus How to Change Characters.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

In Japan, Nintendo Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World has sold more physical copies in the first three days on sale than Switch 1 launch title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild managed in its first three days.

According to Famitsu, Mario Kart World has sold a huge 782,566 copies in Japan already, making it the top-selling game for the week from June 2 to June 8. It is worth noting, however, that Famitsu’s figures only cover physical, preinstalled-on-console, and Game-Key Card sales from retail outlets. They do not include digital downloads direct from My Nintendo Store, so the total number of Mario Kart World sales is likely far higher.

In contrast, the Switch edition of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold an estimated 193,060 copies in Japan over the first three days after the original Switch’s launch back in 2017, according to Famitsu’s figures. This means that in Japanese retail sales alone, Mario Kart World has sold around four times more copies than Breath of the Wild initially did on Switch 1.

This is hardly surprising, considering the Switch 2 is Nintendo’s fastest selling hardware to date, shifting over 3.5 million units worldwide in the first four days. In fact, Nintendo’s latest console is outselling the original Switch 2-to-1 (no pun intended). The supply-constrained Switch 1 got off to a much slower start, selling 2.74 million units globally in just under a month.

Over the first three days post-launch, physical Switch 2 games saw strong sales in Japan. Switch 2 titles accounted for half of Famitsu’s top 10, with Switch 2 editions of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (No. 6, 10,877 copies), Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (No. 7, 7,992 copies), Zelda: Breath of the Wild (No. 8, 7,529 copies) and Yakuza 0 (No. 9, 7,486 copies) entering the charts. Elden Ring: Nightreign (PS5) was the only non-Switch title at No. 5.

Although Mario Kart World may be racing ahead of Breath of the Wilds’ initial launch figures in Japan, it remains to be seen if it will eventually catch up with the critically acclaimed Zelda game’s total sales. Especially considering that BOTW just got a Switch 2 HD rerelease, which may prompt fans to purchase the game all over again.

Check out our Mario Kart World guide and learn how to unlock every hidden Mario Kart World character, plus how Kamek Unlocks work — you’ll need them to unlock NPC Drivers. We’ve also got a guide to all the Mario Kart World food scattered across the open world and where to find it, which will help you get all the Mario Kart World outfits and costumes permanently.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

The new live-action How to Train Your Dragon may have just opened in theaters, but if you simply can't wait to secure a copy for your physical media collection, we come with good news: the movie's 4K steelbook is already available to preorder. It's currently up at Amazon and Walmart (see here at Amazon, where it's listed for $39.99) and comes with a 4K UHD and Blu-ray copy of the film alongside a collectible magnetic medallion.

How to Train Your Dragon - Steelbook (4K UHD + Digital)

Preorder How to Train Your Dragon 2-Film Collection

Alongside new looks and details about Toy Story 5 and Hoppers, Pixar has announced that Luca director Enrico Casarosa will lead the charge on Gatto, a film set in Venice, Italy, that follows a black cat named Nero who is indebted to a feline mob boss.

The news was revealed at France's Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it was also shared that Nero hates water, which is very unfortunate considering where he calls home. He'll also meet a lonely street musician named Maya and be "forced to forge an unexpected friendship that may finally lead him to his purpose." Gatto will be released in summer 2027.

JUST ANNOUNCED: Coming to theaters in 2027 is Disney and Pixar’s "Gatto.” 🐈‍⬛ From “Luca” director Enrico Casarosa, the film returns to Italy, following a black cat named Nero. Indebted to a feline mob boss, Nero finds himself forced to forge an unexpected friendship that may… pic.twitter.com/gCEUocT8kx

— Pixar (@Pixar) June 13, 2025

As for 2026's Toy Story 5, we got a new look at the much-anticipated sequel and it was confirmed that Joan Cusack will return as Jessie. The concept image shared shows Jessie, Buzz, and Bullseye talking to a tech tablet called Lillypad. Ths iPad-like device looks friendly enough, but we know all won't turn out well as its been previously annouced that Toy Story 5 will be all about "toys going against electronics" and "toy meets tech."

Bonnie, who is now eight-years-old, has finally reached an age where her parents have gifted her a tablet, and Woody, Buzz, and all our favorite toy friends will have to navigate this new world of technology that is taking over the attention of this new generation of kids.

As reported by THR, Pixar also gave a sneak peek at the film's opening scene, in which "a container full of Buzz Lightyears awakens on an isolated desert island and struggled to reconnect with Star Command."