Olive, the beloved pet cat of an Assassin's Creed fan, can now be found and unlocked as a digital companion in Ubisoft's feudal Japan-set Shadows.

Yesterday's big Assassin's Creed Shadows update predominantly added support for the game's first expansion, Claws of Awaji. But for one fan, something even more important was added too.

Olive is the pet cat of Ropotopolous, an Assassin's Creed YouTuber whose channel icon shows his faithful feline dressed in Renaissance Assassin robes. Now, Olive can be found within Shadows itself, dressed in a similar costume — and good grief, it's one of the best things I've ever seen.

Disney Lorcana’s latest set, Fabled, is here, and while some cards are already reaching high prices, there has been a bit of a price drop on prior sets - specifically, Ursula’s Return.

The set, which is over a year old now, was the fourth released, and contains 204 cards. Why am I mentioning this in 2025? Because Amazon has reduced a booster box considerably, netting you 24 packs for just $78.99 right now.

Save Big On This Lorcana Booster Box

The Elder Scrolls Online has been going for 11 years now, which is a huge achievement for any video game. But the developers at ZeniMax Online Studios have an ambition for it to last for at least another 20 years, and are openly talking about ESO being a 30+ year game. Can they manage it? After a recent shakeup at the Microsoft owned studio — and big layoffs that hit Bethesda hard — players are wondering what the future holds for their beloved game.

It was with all this in mind that I sat down to chat with Nick Giacomini, who has taken over the ESO game director role from Rich Lambert, and Lambert himself, who is now studio-wide director, to discuss the past, present, and future of The Elder Scrolls Online. Rich is a true Elder Scrolls veteran, having joined Bethesda Game Studios in 2004 to work on Oblivion. He’s been working on ESO for an eye-watering 18 years, when you factor in the start of development. In fact, he was the second employee brought on the team after Matt Firor, the prior boss of ZeniMax Online Studios who stepped down amid the cancellation of the studio's unannounced MMO.

Now Nick is leading ESO, and there are big plans for change. At gamescom 2025, Nick and Rich told me they have a significant overhaul in mind, one that would not only modernize the visuals but its mechanics. Read on for all the details.

IGN: It'd be great to get both your takes on where ESO is at as we see it today, more than 10 years later. What is the health of the game? I'm sure you have a number of metrics to decide what that actually means.

Rich Lambert: I think we're in a really good spot overall in terms of health and players. But one of the bits of feedback that we've gotten over the years — and we've felt this internally as well — is we're a little formulaic, a little too predictable. Kind of with the chapter model that we're doing, it's one big thing every June and then there's smaller updates over time. And that has been very successful for us, very, very successful for us. But we needed to change. We needed to do something a little different. And that's what the whole idea of this seasonal model, this content pass model is, is to give the team a little bit more time to do different things, to react to player feedback more.

When we were doing the chapter model, it took 18 months to build a chapter. We were locked into that cycle and maybe we could get some things in. And now under this new model that Nick and team are working on, it gives the team a little bit more flexibility to do more of the smaller things, more of the quality of life things. And they're looking at things like, what does a zone even mean now? What does PVP look like now? Really going back in excruciating detail, looking over all of the things. What does progression look like? What does rewards look like? It's all to make sure that we are setting ourselves up for the future and continuing to build on the game.

Jo Burba, who's the new studio head, he sat the team down and was like, ‘this is a 30 year MMO.’ And we were like, ‘Okay.’ We get this, right? And that is a huge commitment, but it is something that's important to us because it's also important to the community.

Nick Giacomini: The game is 11-years-old now, which is just crazy. And the gaming industry, it's hard right now. It's always hard, but now more than ever. Competition is significant where the number of great games out there is so high. We are in a great place because we have an extremely passionate community and group of players, and that hasn't changed. But, player expectations have changed as new games have come out. We're looking to honor that legacy, honor the roots, because there is a lot that makes ESO so great that has resulted in the success that we've had for the last 11 years. So we want to stay true to that, but we're a little too formulaic and we're looking to evolve and change over the course of the next decade.

Rich Lambert: And change is also scary. Just in general, change is scary, but I think we've proven over the years we're not afraid to make big changes, big leaps, right? That's what ESO is over the years. The PC launch wasn't awesome. We worked on things. We released One Tamriel, which changed how everything worked and a lot of games started mimicking what we were doing. I think we've shown we can do that and we want to do that and it's time to do that again.

IGN: I'm a lapsed ESO player, which I imagine is part of your thinking about the future. Maybe ESO is starting to look a little bit dated from a visual point of view. Your game is 11 years old — are you having conversations about a potential graphical overhaul or mechanics overhaul to address how the game plays mechanically so it feels more modern?

Rich Lambert: Yes! All of the above! That's what I mean by painstakingly going through. And you've seen some of that in, what was it… 45, 46, we did the starter island revamp where we went through and we swapped out a bunch of assets in those older zones for newer ones that we had built over time. We changed the water. Our water has gone through a bunch of different iterations over time as we got better with the tools and technology. The renderer has been updated a few times.

But yeah, we're looking at all of those things. Look and feel of combat, that's been a big thing since launch, like combat feels floaty, it doesn't feel impactful. All of those things are going into what the team is looking at right now. And you'll start to see some of the fruits of that come out more and more over the next three or four updates, hopefully. Spoilers, sorry!

IGN: Are you looking to improve how you talk to your community, making sure they understand what's happening?

Rich Lambert: We've always done that, but there's room to improve and that's one of the things that Nick is really interested in doing. It's really hard. It's funny, we were actually just talking about this as we were walking over this morning. Because Nick is new to this and being in the public, and he was like, ‘How do you handle the haters? I've already got the haters. How do you handle that?’ I'm like, ‘It's really hard.’ There's all kinds of memes on the internet where a dev opens the box to interact with the community and the community shuts them down and they go back in the box and say 'never again'. So it takes a really thick skin to do that, but it is really important, and that's something that Nick is really interested in doing.

Nick Giacomini: This is as much the players’ game as it's ours, and we do care deeply about what players say, what they think, how they interact. Without the players ESO is nothing. It's always been an important part of the development process and we want to make it even more so going forward. And we do want to communicate and let the players know that we are listening. We do care, because it's true. They're so important to us and they play an incredible part in this. And that is, again, one of the reasons that we are trying to shift to this new model, is to allow more of that, more opportunities to communicate, more opportunities to iterate and try things, get feedback and try to provide the game experience that players love and want and need from us.

This has never been about one person. I mean, while I'm here talking with you, happy to continue doing this of course, this isn’t my game. We have an incredibly talented team, an incredibly passionate team. And part of what's hopefully going to be changing over the course of the next year is our community is going to get to know certainly me, but more of the developers just generally and their areas of expertise, how they're thinking about things, and have that back and forth that's so important to creating a good game. So yeah, I expect there's going to be a lot of changes to come.

IGN: Do you have any idea when the community might get a roadmap? I know that they're clamoring for that, or is it too early to say at this point?

Rich Lambert: It’s probably a little bit too early. We do have a roadmap that we release at least once a quarter that's like, here's what is up now, here's the next two or three that are coming. And the two or three that are coming are a little bit less detailed. But that's one of the things that we're looking at. How do we make that a little bit better? I think a lot of that starts to get much easier in the new model because it's shorter development cycles, so you're a lot more sure of when something's going to hit. Whereas when it was the 18 month cycle, it's like, well, we're on track right now, but it's game development and something could happen.

The philosophy in the older days was we try not to share things with players until we are confident when they're going to land, because we don't want to promise something and people get excited and then by the way, that's delayed because ‘unforeseen circumstances.’ So it's that tightrope to walk. But we do want to try to improve that.

IGN: I love Elder Scrolls generally, and for me ESO would scratch that Elder Scrolls itch between mainline releases. Am I in isolation there?

Rich Lambert: I don’t think you are. We hear that a lot. It's really interesting over the years going to the various shows and community events, you hear that a lot, right? I can't tell you how many times I've answered the, ‘When's TES 6 coming?’ ‘What’s TES 6?’ ‘Tell me!’ And it’s like… That’s a different studio, right? But yes, people are super passionate about Elder Scrolls. For a lot of people, this has been their home because they love Elder Scrolls and they just want to play more of it, and we're able to provide that.

And actually, a lot of players play ESO like a single-player game. In the early days, at launch, we tried to walk this kind of tightrope where it was MMO and Elder Scrolls, and we didn't really hit either one particularly well. And when we decided we were going to make it Elder Scrolls first and then MMO second, that helped solve a lot of the problems. And we started to see the players coming in and saying, ‘Oh, you mean I can solo all of this stuff? Oh, I don't have to play with other players. They just happen to be there.’ And then you have these organic things that happen.

But there's a lot of people that play the game that way. And then there's a lot of people that just do housing or just PVP or just play the card game. We built on more systems to that over time, but at its core, a lot of players do play it like a single-player game.

IGN: I suppose you're benefiting from the absurd wait for The Elder Scrolls 6, aren't you?

Rich Lambert: And the Oblivion Remaster was another big thing. That came out and we were like, ‘Okay, that's going to hit our numbers for a while.’ And there was a small blip and then the numbers went up. Kind of like the Fallout show. We were like, ‘Wow, this is cool. Right?’ So yeah, it's interesting.

IGN: What do you put that down to? People getting back into Elder Scrolls with Oblivion Remastered and then…

Rich Lambert: … and then going, ‘Oh yeah, Elder Scrolls Online. Yeah! Let's go continue the Elder Scrolls thing. That was a great game, let’s go do this.’ I think! I don’t know for sure.

Nick Giacomini: We don’t know for sure, but we saw a lot of new and lapsed players come back very quickly after, and it continued actually for quite some time. It was pretty exciting.

IGN: How do you approach building on the Elder Scrolls canon in the context of the time period in which ESO is set, but also having to be mindful of other studios who are also building on the canon? In my mind it’s like that meme with the guy with all the string on the board.

Rich Lambert: You’re not far off! Seriously.

IGN: ESO is canon, which is part of the appeal. Internally is it a nightmare, or a lot of fun? Or a bit of both?

Rich Lambert: It's a bit of both. It's controlled chaos. Trying to dig through all of the different games and all of the lore and just all of the lore books, right? There are so, so many. It's fun. We actually have a person, a lore master. Their sole job is to do a lot of that stuff and try to make sure we're all on the same page.

But we also work really closely with Todd's BGS [Todd Howard, Bethesda Game Studios]. So whenever we're pitching new lore things, new story things, I sit down with them and I talk them through it. There's a negotiation that goes on. Perfect example, when we were doing Dark Brotherhood DLC, I worked on Oblivion with them in the way back days. And so I thought that I totally understood the Dark Brotherhood and all its ins and outs, and so we were really confident.

I went down to BGS, sat with Emil [Pagliarulo, Studio Design Director at Bethesda Game Studios] for a bit. I had a three page pitch, a story doc, like here's the things. And he was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, this is kind of cool. Let me think on this. There's a lot to digest.’ So the next day he gave me 10 pages of feedback on like, here's what you got, right, here's what you got wrong, here's how things could be improved. And so that's how it works.

When we were doing Elsweyr with dragons, there were no dragons in the Second Age. I was like, ‘Well, what if we did it like this?’ And they're like, ‘Okay, I can see that.’ And so it's just kind of that talking back and forth. They're really good about, ‘This can work in your game. You can do whatever you want mechanically and whatnot because your game is your game, but the lore, we need to kind of work through it and talk through it.’ And they've been really good about it over the years, and now they super trust us, which is great.

Nick Giacomini: The cool thing about the time period ESO is in is that it's not very well established in the lore, and so there are stories for us to flesh out. There's a lot that we get to create and explore. You asked if it was stressful or fun. It's fun to talk these things through and try to figure out what stories we want to tell and show our players. So it's a lot of fun.

Rich Lambert: We get that in ESO all the time. Like, ‘The map should be this way or the map should be that way, this game said the map was like this.’ And the beauty of Elder Scrolls and just the lore in general is it's told from multiple perspectives, right? There's no one major DM or omnipotent being that says this is the single source of truth. So there's lots of fudge factor in there, and lots of ways to play, and it's a really fun IP to dig into and play with.

IGN: You’ve talked about the idea of ESO being a 30+ year game, which would be incredible. What can you do to make that happen? How do you even begin to try and plan in a tangible way to set ESO up for that sort of longevity given how things change so quickly and so dramatically almost every month?

Rich Lambert: I think part of it is you just have to be willing to change and evolve, adapt. And that's Nick's mantra: iterate, go fast, don't be afraid to change, listen to players. But time goes really fast. When I think about it, 18 years has gone by in a blink. I would totally be lying to you today if I said I knew I would still be working on this game 18 years from when I started. That's kind of a hope. You're like, I want to work on this thing. I want to do this thing. I want it to be successful. But you don't ever go 18 years, 20 years successful.

And so I don't think it's much of a stretch for the game to go 30 years. If the fan base is passionate and if the developers are humble enough, I guess is the word I'm looking for, but want to support the community and want to interact with the community and deal with the community and understand that community is first, I think there's nothing stopping us from doing any of that stuff. I don't think it's a ridiculous statement personally.

Nick Giacomini: 11 years is already pretty incredible, that the game has achieved the level of success that it has for this amount of time. And to go another 20, that would be exactly like you said. It's a very short list of games that ever stayed relevant so long. So it's something that is mind boggling. You asked about tangible, it's hard because as you said, 11 years, the game is what used to be cutting edge in 2014. Player expectations have changed and a lot of great games have come out. And we have limited resources ourselves, so it's difficult.

We recently redid the tutorial zones to try to make onboarding better for players. To your point about lapsed players, we recently did the Hero's Return to ensure that lapsed players have a better onboarding experience because it can be overwhelming. We are updating things — we can’t get into super detail about that — but we're updating visuals that are going to make the game feel more modern. And we have to balance that against creating new and exciting things and trying to ensure that we're changing things. And we're doing all of that right now. We're taking a hard look at zones. Traditionally, the zones looked more similar this last few years. And that's a point of feedback we hear often.

So what can we change? What can we do that's more exciting? Let's stay true to our roots, because we have a core group of players that love this game. But what can we do that they will love too? And that is going to be exciting and new. PVP Vengeance is a good example of that. We're looking at that really across the board.

It comes back to the players and ensuring that we continue to do the best that we can listen to the players. And a lot of it ultimately comes down to trust. When there's so many different games, so many different things that players can invest their precious free time, that's the most valuable thing that anyone can get. And there's so many different ways. It comes down to trust. And a lot of that comes down to can we do right by the players? Are we listening to them? Are we providing them what we need? And since we have such a diverse group of players, how do we hit all these different layer types to ensure that ESO continues to be a home for them and a place they want to return to.

Rich Lambert: All that and make sure the technology's up to date. We made a lot of decisions in 2007 when we started building the game that, looking back on, maybe we shouldn't have done that. Hindsight's always… and I wouldn't change any of that. We wouldn't be where we are today if we didn't have all those stumbles and learnings. But technology has to change as well. We're updating the game, modernizing it, but there's also all of the technologies on the backend that have to be updated and changed as well. So yeah, it's a huge, huge undertaking.

IGN: Well, you’re nearly halfway to 30!

Rich Lambert: I know, right? It's crazy!

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

As the long, long wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 goes on, the developers of MMO The Elder Scrolls Online have seen players take to their game to scratch their Elder Scrolls itch. In fact, they even saw a player bump following the release of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered.

Remarkably, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came out nearly 14 years ago, in November 2011. Its sequel, Skyrim, was officially announced with a teaser trailer at E3 2018 an eye-watering eight years ago. Yes, Skyrim has released on multiple platforms in the years in-between (so many in fact that it’s become a Bethesda meme), but there’s a tangible clamouring for a fresh Elder Scrolls experience.

Enter, The Elder Scrolls Online.

ESO launched in 2014 and struggled at first, but 11 years later it’s still here and continues to receive updates. The development team at ZeniMax Online Studios have survived multiple rounds of Microsoft layoffs, game shutdowns and studio closures, and recently reshuffled the game’s leadership team to help it survive another 20 years. A significant overhaul is planned.

In an interview with IGN at gamescom 2025, ESO game director Nick Giacomini and studio-wide director Rich Lambert said they’ve seen plenty of anecdotal evidence that suggests Elder Scrolls fans are playing ESO as a single-player game to help fill the void while they wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 to come out.

“We hear that a lot,” Lambert said. “It's really interesting over the years going to the various shows and community events, you hear that a lot, right? I can't tell you how many times I've answered the, ‘When's TES 6 coming?’ ‘What’s TES 6?’ ‘Tell me!’ And it’s like… That’s a different studio, right? But yes, people are super passionate about Elder Scrolls. For a lot of people, this has been their home because they love Elder Scrolls and they just want to play more of it, and we're able to provide that.”

According to Lambert, a lot of ESO players play the MMO like a single-player game, which it is well suited to after the developer tweaked how the game worked following its troubled launch.

“In the early days, at launch, we tried to walk this kind of tightrope where it was MMO and Elder Scrolls, and we didn't really hit either one particularly well,” Lambert explained.

“And when we decided we were going to make it Elder Scrolls first and then MMO second, that helped solve a lot of the problems. And we started to see the players coming in and saying, ‘Oh, you mean I can solo all of this stuff? Oh, I don't have to play with other players. They just happen to be there.’ And then you have these organic things that happen.

"There's a lot of people that play the game that way. And then there's a lot of people that just do housing or just PVP or just play the card game. We built on more systems to that over time, but at its core, a lot of players do play it like a single-player game.”

Bethesda released Oblivion Remastered earlier this year and it proved to be hugely popular. You’d think, then, that its release would have negatively impacted ESO’s player numbers. It did, for a while, Lambert revealed, but then player numbers were boosted after those who finished Oblivion Remastered were left hungry for more Elder Scrolls.

“The Oblivion Remaster was another big thing,” Lambert said. “That came out and we were like, ‘Okay, that's going to hit our numbers for a while.’ And there was a small blip and then the numbers went up. Kind of like the Fallout show. We were like, ‘Wow, this is cool. Right?’ So yeah, it's interesting."

Nick Giacomini added: “we saw a lot of new and lapsed players come back very quickly after [Oblivion Remastered], and it continued actually for quite some time. It was pretty exciting.”

So, ESO continues to benefit from the wait for The Elder Scrolls 6, but what’s the latest on the hugely anticipated game? The studio confirmed The Elder Scrolls 6 had entered "early development" in August 2023, and "early builds" were available in March 2024. The six year anniversary of the announcement arrived in June last year and even Bethesda development chief Todd Howard paused to say, "oh wow, that has been a while."

In January this year, The Elder Scrolls 6’s June 10, 2018 announcement became as old as predecessor Skyrim was when The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced.

The Elder Scrolls 6 was thought to be set for 2028 at the earliest, presumably on the next-generation of consoles as well as PC. If it does launch then, it’ll do so an incredible 17 years after Skyrim.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

X-Men star Alan Cumming is once again teasing details of Avengers: Doomsday, including a potential return for Halle Berry's Storm.

During an Entertainment Tonight interview, the Traitors host was asked whether Berry was also returning for Marvel's upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, alongside Cumming and a swathe of other actors from past X-Men films.

"Well... maybe she does," Cumming teased, laughing. "But honestly, I'm the last person to ask," he quickly added.

This isn't the first (or second) time that Cumming has teased Avengers: Doomsday details that Marvel might have otherwise kept under wraps. Last month, the actor revealed he shot "the entire film in isolation" and said he had now wrapped up his scenes early to go off and film the next season of The Traitors.

Back in May, the ever-chatty Cumming sparked speculation around Doomsday's plot by saying he had filmed a fight sequence battling Reed Richards actor Pedro Pascal — something he later attempted to walk back by suggesting he was now unsure. ("I broke the internet by mentioning something once," Cumming said last month, "but honestly, I might have got it wrong.")

Alan Cumming when asked if Halle Berry will be reprising her role as Storm for ‘AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY’

“Well… maybe she does.”

(via @etnow) pic.twitter.com/IGjf4IsHMx

— Avengers Updates (@AvengersUpdated) September 16, 2025

Avengers: Doomsday will see the return of numerous X-Men actors from 20th Century Fox's older mutant movies. Cumming is expected to share screen time with Patrick Stewart's Professor X, Kelsey Grammer's Beast, James Marsden's Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn's Mystique, Ian McKellen's Magneto — and potentially other cast members that Cumming is yet to tease.

Berry played Ororo Munroe, better known as Storm, in 2000's X-Men, before returning for X2, X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Berry herself has previously cast doubt on her return in Doomsday, and addressed whether should be part of a second big chair reveal. "Well, keep waiting," she told a reporter, when asked if her name would be shown. "It's not gonna be there."

Doomsday is expected to offer fans a final farewell for the old X-Men cast, ahead of Marvel's own upcoming reboot. Following the events of Avengers: Secret Wars, MCU boss Kevin Feige has said that a semi-rebooted timeline will see a new, younger X-Men team come to the fore, in a fresh X-Men movie set to be directed by Thunderbolts*/The New Avengers' Jake Schreier. Here's hoping Cumming gets invited back for that to tell us all more.

Image credit: Raymond Hall/GC Images.

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

Amazon's Mass Effect TV series has begun casting, and details of its characters have leaked online. From these, fans have begun trying to work out which of BioWare's beloved characters might appear in the show — and what story it might adapt.

The series is reportedly looking for a male star aged 30-39 described as a "young Colin Farrell" type, with a female co-lead aged 34-39 that is an alien character requiring prosthetics. Seeing these descriptions, many fans have suggested these could be for a male Shepard and Liara.

Other roles include a female character (aged 30-49) who will provide a parallel narrative from Earth — something which sounds similar to the role of Anderson in Mass Effect 3. A role described as the lead male villain asks for a Doug Jones-like actor aged 40-60, while a fifth character will be a male aged 30-49, described as a wrestler-like soldier — someone who sounds akin to James Vega.

These casting details have been posted online by insider Daniel Richtman, who previously also reported accurate casting details of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot.

Naturally, the vague character information has prompted plenty of speculation among Mass Effect fans — not least the choice of a male lead for the series, something many are taking as a sign that Male Shepard has been made canon.

It's important to note, however, that Amazon has said nothing concrete about the story arc planned for the series, and this show may not be the direct adaptation of BioWare's Mass Effect trilogy that many are expecting. Indeed, such an adaptation would be fraught with difficulty, as fans' love of the series is wrapped up in the individual story choices they made — from picking either male or female Shepard, down to which races survived the trilogy's finale.

BioWare itself is busy developing a new Mass Effect game, one which features some familiar elements (such as the return of Liara) but which also moves the franchise forward, with the expectation being that it will be set so long after the trilogy that all of its possible endings can be acknowledged without the need to show their specific effects.

Perhaps Amazon will take a similar route, something that would also mean it avoids the pitfalls of a Mass Effect adaptation that rehashes the trilogy without fans seeing their own choices represented.

An earlier attempt at a Mass Effect show featuring Henry Cavill was teased back in 2021 — something that looked like it would have been a straight trilogy adaptation — though work on that incarnation of the project later stalled.

Amazon formally announced its Mass Effect series in November 2024, and subsequently indicated it would begin filming next year. As previously announced, Fast & Furious 9 scribe Daniel Casey is attached as a writer, while Star Trek Beyond and Mindhunter writer Doug Jung is set to serve as showrunner. Jessica Jones executive producer Karim Zreik, BioWare's Mass Effect boss Mike Gamble and legendary former Marvel Studios producer Ari Arad are all overseeing production.

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

Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds has dropped a new vlog.

Offering a behind-the-scenes look at the all-new deep-sea predator, and "how the team has used Unreal Engine 5 AI for lifelike behavior, real-time reactions and tense encounters for players," the 10-minute vlog is one of the first development updates we've had since the studio's entire leadership was fired amid a messy public falling out over a $250 million bonus from parent company, Krafton.

The update claims new giant squid-like predator Collector Leviathan represents "the next step in the franchise’s evolution with a creature that is both visually striking and powered by advanced AI to create tense, dynamic encounters." The video shows off the "aggressive" first encounter players will endure when they meet the enemy in Subnautica 2.

Here's the official blurb on the Collector Leviathan from Unknown Worlds:

The latest developer vlog provides a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Collector Leviathan, from early concept art by Visual Development Lead Cory Strader to insights from the Unknown Worlds development team. This creature was designed to push boundaries of immersion and threat in Subnautica 2.

• Aggressive First Encounter: The Collector Leviathan is the first hostile leviathan players will meet in Subnautica 2.
• Responsive AI: Powered by Unreal Engine 5 behavior trees and stimulus systems, it reacts to light, sound, and player actions in real time.
• Lifelike Movement: Fully simulated tentacle animation creates more natural and unpredictable interactions.
• Immersive Combat Design: A terrifying roar and powerful shockwave attacks amplify the sense of danger.

Antonio Muñoz Gallego, AI designer for the creature, said: “The Collector Leviathan is not just a monster that blindly attacks players. It is an intelligent and highly threatening deep-sea lifeform that actively reacts to player behavior and pursues them.” He added: “Our main goal with our creatures was to make them feel reactive, so the Leviathan is constantly re-evaluating the situation in real time. To achieve that, we use Unreal Engine 5 behavior trees and our AI stimulus system.”

The vlog will be a welcome update for Subnautica fans. For months now, most coverage about the game has concerned the painful breakdown between Unknown Worlds' founders and Krafton, which acquired Unknown Worlds in October 2021. Over the summer, reports came to light that Subnautica 2's early access release was delayed to 2026 just months before Krafton was due to pay a $250 million bonus to the development team "against the wishes of the studio’s former leadership."

Most recently, Krafton issued a response to the lawsuit filed by former leads of Subnautica 2, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, offering rebuttals to the developers' claims and alleging they "resorted to litigation to demand a multimillion-dollar payout they haven't earned."

Then, last month, Unknown Worlds itself sued Cleveland, former CEO Ted Gill, and studio co-founder Max McGuire for allegedly stealing game design files shortly before they were fired.

It's worth noting that now Hollow Knight: Silksong has come out, Subnautica 2 is the most wishlisted game on Steam, which suggests that despite all the legal drama surrounding the game, there's huge interest in it. That's perhaps little surprise given how big a hit Subnautica was, but it will be interesting to see how fan reception evolves as the sequel gets closer to launch.

Subnautica 2’s Early Access release was recently delayed to 2026.

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

Escape from Tarkov fans have criticized Battlestate Games after the developer confirmed players will be required to repurchase the full game if they want to play it on Steam.

The tactical extraction shooter released in early access back in 2017 and recently confirmed it's finally moving to version 1.0 on November 15, 2025. Alongside side the 1.0 launch, Escape from Tarkov is finally coming to Steam.

However, a quick study of Escape from Tarkov's FAQs reveals that even those who've been playing the shooter through its bespoke launcher for years "must purchase" the game again if they'd like to add it to their Steam libraries.

"To play Escape from Tarkov through Steam, you must purchase any edition of the game on Steam," the FAQ explains. "You can then link your existing Battlestate Games account with an active copy of the game to your Steam profile. If the editions differ, it will automatically use the higher edition of the two when launching the game through Steam."

While players will continue to be able to play via Battlestate's own launcher, some fans have slammed the developer for not providing free Steam keys, particularly as both Steam and launcher players will share the same servers, and all players, regardless of platform, require a Battlestate account.

"There are no excuses for buying an extra Steam copy just to play from an existing account," said one player. "The developer has the tools to hand out Steam keys to players who already own the game outside Steam as the developers of Path of Exile 2 did etc."

"This is pretty scummy," one player wrote, while another said: "Holy s**t. BSG has absolutely zero respect for their fans."

One comment that has had hundreds of upvotes said: "it might be reasonable if there WASN'T account linking that took place, [or] if you bought on Steam, you had to register as a brand new account with whatever version you purchased. The fact that you can link an existing account and it automatically upgrades to the higher version is what doesn't sit right with me. You drop $30 for the Standard Edition just to link and upgrade to your $120 [Edge of Darkness edition]? You're just buying in to play your account on Steam at that point."

"There's droves of people who have been waiting for years to have a place to put their grievances where it might actually matter to do so," suggested one player. "No doubt, the moment that players have the opportunity to leave a Steam review, they're going to. However, you can't leave a Steam review on a game you don't own. Therefore, any of the many long-time players that have been repeatedly burned by [the developer] are not likely to spend any more money on his dogs**t. Therefore, the only reviews will be from new players that get the full 1.0 experience, without all the years of disappointment behind it."

"I don't get why people act surprised all of a sudden," said someone else. "And knowing how toxic and hateful this community has become over the years, if they handed free keys to everyone, the reviews would instantly get thrown into a s**tstorm of hate even from people who haven't played in a few years."

Others are reminding those upset players that anyone can add non-Steam games to their Steam library, although, obviously, this is just a shortcut and doesn't unlock any Steam features like achievements. The developer has yet to respond publicly to the backlash.

Players were similarly unhappy when July's Hardcore Wipe introduced big changes to the game, buffing the challenge and removing quests and maps. This wipe was particularly brutal as Tarkov also now boasts slower progression and tougher difficulty, making it harder for players to recover their pre-wipe status and inventory.

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

Assassin's Creed fans are reacting with disappointment after a new report on Ubisoft's long-expected Black Flag remake has stated that the game will no longer contain any modern day gameplay.

The report, published by French outlet Jeuxvideo, states that all of Black Flag's modern day sections have been removed from the upcoming piratical remake, which is currently set to launch in 2026.

In the original Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, players occasionally pop out of the Animus to explore the offices of Abstergo Entertainment, unlocking clues to how the story of pirate Edward Kenway is tied to the series' overarching modern day narrative.

Ubisoft is reportedly adding extra content from Kenway's pirate era to make up the lost gameplay hours (including additional story for his fellow pirate Mary Read that never made into the base game, which would indeed be welcome).

Other changes for the remake include overhauled combat and gear systems that act closer to other more modern Assassin's Creed games.

Overall, though, the excision of Black Flag's modern day portions looks to be the most noteworthy change — and one that is not going down well with some fans, especially after the threadbare modern day storyline in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

"I hope it's not true that they removed the modern day sections," wrote havewelost6388, in a long reddit thread discussing the report. "Without the modern day storyline and ancient aliens sci-fi stuff, modern AC games are just Witcher 3 clones with stealth mechanics."

"They need to stop removing modern day content," added ZeroZelath. "It's honestly one of my favorite parts and that stems from the earlier games. I was actually looking forward to it in Shadows after how Valhalla ended but then... Shadows had literally nothing. It was such a big disappointment on that front. Like genuinely, the modern day stuff is part of how the franchise works so it should always be present in some form and be telling an overarching story."

"Omg, Ubisoft! STOP REMOVING THE MODERN DAY SEGMENTS!!!" added kamuigui. "The best of the series is the fact that was very clear that we were in a simulation!"

As well as adding to Assassin's Creed's overarching story, the modern day sections in Black Flag tie closely into the narrative of Kenway's historical quest — leading some fans to question how Ubisoft will handle the lack of wider context.

"Wouldn’t removing the modern day scenes remove a pretty big part of the story regarding the sage?" questioned Ari441.

"I don’t see how you can do the story without the modern day stuff tying it all together," Pizzaplanet420 added. "The ending of the game [in the modern day] is literally the bookend to the entire story..."

Of course, delving back into the series' previous modern day storyline featuring long-term antagonist Juno would require a bit of re-explaining at this point — but considering how that storyline ended up being dropped and concluded in a spin-off comic, this could have been a good opportunity to do more there.

Ubisoft is yet to formally announce its highly-anticipated Black Flag remake, though its existence is an open secret after years of leaks — including from the voice actor behind Edward Kenway himself, as well as a company making collectible figurines for the game. IGN has contacted Ubisoft for more.

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

In Episode 7 of Alien: Earth, things get violent in a hurry. “Emergence” is all about damage control in all corners of Neverland, as the aftermath of Isaac’s death and Arthur’s hugged face lead to sprint-to-the-finish energy in the season’s penultimate episode.

Spoilers for Episode 7 of Alien: Earth

At 41 minutes, “Emergence” is the shortest episode so far, and by a wide margin. It’s a full ten minutes shorter than Episode 3, giving one the impression that this is actually half a finale episode that was a little too long, so they split it in two. But the pace isn’t without reason, or the better way to say it might be that there’s no reason not to sprint.

One of the things that made last week's episode so good is how cleanly it wrapped up the stakes. After six episodes of table setting, the eggs are ready to hatch and the chests are ready to burst, so just get on with it.

Morrow’s plan to smuggle a xenomorph off the island by manipulating Slightly is well underway and absolutely wrecking the psyche of the poor kid. Opening the episode to find that he’s hidden Arthur and the facehugger under his bed, the only natural place for a child (which he very clearly is) to hide something they know will get them in trouble, is heartbreaking. Smee going along for the ride like a good best friend makes it even more impactful, and while Slightly’s fear through his journey with Arthur’s body is played just right, it’s the details – like Smee holding Arthur’s hand toward the end – that never let you forget what the Lost Boys really are.

But the real treat in “Emergence” is the return to form for H.R. Giger’s nightmare fuel. The xenomorph grown in Prodigy’s lab, now late-adolescent if not fully grown, is back and ready for its closeup, but it all starts with Wendy. The uncertainty she’s felt about Prodigy and the Boy Genius on Neverland has been clear each time anybody has asked her about it. When Joe first floats the idea to her of getting off the island, she responds with, “What if I like it here?”

But after seeing Isaac (fka Tootles) dead due to unsafe scientific pursuits, she makes up her mind in an instant. And it’s not her brother or her synthetic siblings that she turns to for support; it’s the xenomorph. That she’s willing to set the thing loose on the unsuspecting clean-up crew in the lab, directly bringing about their deaths, is a dark and sudden turn, even for a franchise built on acid blood and Man’s greed.

The best moment in the entire episode, however, is after the xeno takes out a batch of Yutani special forces (or whatever kind of forces they are), when it shares an almost tender How to Train Your Dragon moment with Wendy. She reaches out and wipes some of the blood off the xenomorph’s snout. Forehead? Front part? You know, above the teeth where it seems like eyes should be. The point is that Wendy is actively putting blood on her hands. While the bloodbath was unfolding in front of her, Wendy’s reaction was calm, seemingly satisfied with her decision to let the alien out; putting the blood on her hand shows she doesn’t regret it. Usually this trope presents as a Shakespearean “out damn spot” kind of freak-out, when a fit of rage or passion leads to violence, after which the perpetrator looks down, shocked to find the crimson metaphor for guilt. Here though, Wendy is saying, “Nope, I did that, and I’ll take some of the credit, please.”

But the episode title earns its meaning in the final showdown on the boat. “Emergence” is an episode full of characters moving into their final form. For Nibs, that form is of a total and complete psychopath. She’s a kid who’s been through unknowable trauma, completely unable to handle it and unequipped to value human life, as evidenced by when she crushes that dude’s jaw and rips the goopy tendons out of his throat. That was…well, it’s hard to look at. But for Wendy, she’s also emerging, but can’t yet entertain the subtlety that Joe, while very much on her team, might also not want his friends to die.

It’s a distinction that is difficult for kids to grasp; looking past the immediate consequences of your actions is very much a learned skill. It’s also been a few episodes since I’ve mentioned Sydney Chandler’s performance, but her screams at the end of this episode are equal parts angry and confused. It’s the perfect combination to head into, not only the finale next week, but this week’s…

Credit Roll Needle Drop Check-In

“Emergence” cuts to the credits to the beat of “Song for the Dead” by Queens of the Stone Age, from their 2002 album, Songs for the Deaf. It’s a grungy, repetitive track, one that sits at the base of your skull if you let it. It’s the rock version of nails on a chalkboard, but, I don’t know…cool? The chugging intro riff gives way to a slower verse, like it can’t make up its mind what kind of song it’s going to be.

Lyrically, “Song for the Dead” works perfectly for Wendy. The first section…

It's late enough to go drivin’

And see what's mine

Life's the study of dyin’

How to do it right

…is about her coming into her own, realizing what she deserves and what she’s capable of. In this episode, it’s that she deserves to be safe, and she’s capable of telling an alien to fuck up anybody standing in her way. It’s a powerful thing to realize something like this, and it’s a cocktail that might be getting Wendy a little drunk; Nibs certainly has.

But the next section of lyrics, for me, is more about Joe, or at least directed at Joe:

You're a holy roller

If you’re bettin' to lose

If you're hangin’ around

I'm holdin’ the noose

While Joe is trying to keep it together and mitigate the death around him, Wendy knows that’s not possible. We, the audience, also know that’s not going to work out because of the carnage that inevitably comes in the Alien franchise. If only we could warn him; ah well, that’s dramatic irony for you.

Mario Tennis Fever is set to release exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on February 12, 2026. Announced during the Mario 40th anniversary portion of the September Nintendo Direct, the game features a new Fever Shot mechanic, 30 Fever Rackets, and 38 playable characters – the most of any game in the series to date. It’s now available to preorder for $69.99 at all the usual retailers (see it at Amazon). Read on to see what this game is, where you can buy it, and more.

Preorder Mario Tennis Fever

Mario Tennis Fever Preorder Bonus?

So far, no preorder bonuses have been announced for Mario Tennis Fever. If that changes, I’ll update this section.

What Is Mario Tennis Fever?

Mario Tennis Fever is the latest in a series of Mario-themed tennis games dating back to the Game Boy era, and the first since Mario Tennis Aces arrived on the original Switch in 2018. Fever brings back familiar shots like topspins, slices, and lobs, but introduces some new defensive maneuvers like slides and dives to help you whack the ball back across the court.

Keeping rallies going builds up your Fever Gauge. Once full, you can unleash a powerful Fever Shot with an augmented effect based on the Fever Racket you have equipped. You can create an icy spot under your opponent with an Ice Racket, shrink your opponent with the Mini Mushroom Racket, and create a shadow self to play beside with the Shadow Racket.

The game has numerous modes to play, including a competitive Tournament mode and a Trial Towers mode that has you complete various objectives during matches. Then there’s Mix-It-Up mode, which introduces new rules as you play. That mode also includes Wonder Flowers you can touch to get some trippy additions to the court. There’s also an elaborate-looking Adventure mode that involves the baby versions of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, and Waluigi re-learning how to play the game. It looks pretty silly, in a fun way.

Online, you can play casual matches against opponents in the Online Room, or you can choose to play in Ranked Matches. And if you’re feeling nostalgic for the Wii era, you can also swing your Joy-Con 2 to hit the ball.

Other Preorder Guides

Looking for what games are now available to buy? Check out our guide to all of the Switch 2 game preorders now live after the September Nintendo Direct.

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

AliExpress is known for being one of the best online shops to pick up a 3D printer at the lowest possible price. I'm not talking about obscure, unvetted models. Some of the most popular 3D printer brands, including Creality (arguably the most well-known), Anycubic, and Flashforge, have official storefronts that carry some or all of their product lineup.

Below, I've picked out the best deals on 3D printers that are well-reviewed; the entry-level models are a great choice for anyone just starting out and not ready to invest a ton of money, and the higher-end models have all the features a seasoned professional could ask for, but without the exorbitant price tag. With coupons applied, you can pick up a fully-assembled 3D printer for as low as $170. All of the printers I've recommended below are sold by the manufacturer and ship locally for free from the United States. Plus, most orders will arrive within one to two weeks.

3D Printer Deals on AliExpress

Flashforge Adventurer 5M 3D Printer for $166.68