Chess is one of the most popular board games in the world, and with good reason. Chess isn't always about winning; it's an art, science, and a sport to continue learning from. Even after an uptick in interest due to the popularity of Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit a few years ago, chess remains a favorite game in and out of these trends. Why? It’s not too hard to grasp the rules, yet it provides such depth of strategy that you can keep learning and improving your whole life. It’s no wonder many people like to have a chess set in their home, even if they only play occasionally (or not at all). A good set is a lovely centerpiece for a sideboard or coffee table, and with it sitting there, it’s a constant, gentle encouragement to grasp the nettle and give it a try.

Buying a good chess set is, however, slightly more involved than you might imagine. You can get a very cheap option from pretty much any toy store, but it won’t necessarily be as satisfying to play on, nor very durable. A good set of chess pieces needs a certain amount of weight to play, so weights are added to better-quality plastic and wood pieces (you ideally want a triple-rated set). The colors should be chosen carefully to get good contrast as, weirdly, plain black and white pieces get lost on a black-and-white board.

Whatever your budget and whatever material or theme you want, we’ve got you covered with our selection of the best chess sets available right now.

Best Basic Chess Set

Weighted Gambit Plastic Set

Basic can mean cheap and cheerful, but if you want the simplest set around without sacrificing quality, this is a trustworthy choice. After all, chess is a game you can focus on for your entire life, so you might as well spend a little extra to get something substantial. This Weighted Gambit set is the classic set of plastic pieces you’ll likely have seen and played with at schools and chess clubs across the country.

Adding weights makes the pieces more stable and makes them smooth and comfortable to play with. The roll-up vinyl board is super convenient to take on the go and to store. Plus, having green and white squares, rather than black and white, offers better visual contrast with the pieces during play. No wonder it’s allegedly the most popular plastic chess set in the world, according to the manufacturer.

Best Wooden Chess Set

High-Quality & Hand-Carved

Wood is the traditional material used for chess sets, so there are a multitude to choose from. If you want a straightforward set, look for one with weighted pieces and a good contrast with the board. But if you really want the best wooden chess set there is, there are a few luxury brands to choose from.

The most astonishing of all is this hand-carved set Dubrovnik II from Slovenia – claimed by the maker to be the “best chessmen ever.” The design is based on that used for pieces in the 1950 Chess Olympiad held in Dubrovnik, which became an instant classic, acclaimed and loved by chess champions including the famous Bobby Fischer. This Dubrovnik II set has a slightly more modern feel but retains the original styling. However, you'd have to wait until the year 2025 for this cream-of-the-crop set, so we've found an alternative that matches the same craftsmanship and quality.

If you'd like a luxurious wooden chess set in this iconic style, there's a more affordable and accessible alternative set available from Royal Chess Mall. The 1950s Reproduction Fischer Dubrovnik Chess Set is made of light boxwood and, like the original, the dark pieces are mahogany-gilded for an authentic feel. The one nod to modernity is a slightly increased weighting in the base to make them slightly more satisfying to move around.

Best Glass Chess Set

For Elegant Design and Decor Appearance

Glass isn’t the most obvious material for a gaming set due to its obvious fragility. But glass sets are popular, nevertheless, because they look fantastic without breaking the bank. They capture the light beautifully, and the common clear and frosted distinction used on squares and pieces look clean and modern. And, of course, so long as you’re careful with it, it’s a pleasure to play on.

This particular set from Gamie is our top pick because it delivers quite a bit extra over its peers for only a little extra cash. The pieces are larger than standard, they’re nicely designed, and the set has extra touches like felt feet to avoid damage and a storage box if you want to put it away. It’s a nice enough display piece, however, that you’re unlikely to need that latter benefit.

Best Marble Chess Set

For a Luxurious Set at a Higher Budget

This stunning set from Italfama is the best top-of-the-line marble chess set to own. Sadly, there’s no availability for the set with the ideal color palette of black and pink for U.S. shoppers at the moment, but rest assured this set is still worth the investment for serious buyers and players alike.

Stone is another frequent material used for chess sets, and marble is particularly popular because it looks and feels so luxurious. However, there are some minor problems with marble sets. Firstly, they’re a little more fragile than they appear, so care is needed. Second, the very qualities that make marble attractive — its rich colors and veining — can be an active distraction in a chess set. They give the pieces a tendency to blend in with the board because the color contrast isn’t enough and the veins disrupt the piece outlines.

Best Option for Those in the U.K.:

If you're based outside of the U.S., you’re in even more luck as our favorite set avoids some of these difficulties by using well-contrasted pink and black stone with thick veins, bringing warm looks while still retaining enough visual distinction for ease of play. U.K. folks can shop the Italfama Black and Pink Marble Chess Set here:

Best Lego Chess Set

Fun for the Whole Family

As one HBO primetime show ends (farewell, The White Lotus), another must rise to take its spot. Two years after The Last of Us first aired on Max, the video game adaptation starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey is returning for a second season.

The Last of Us game and the first season of the show both end with a cliffhanger that has... consequences. Anyone who’s already played The Last of Us Part 2, myself included, is probably feeling as much terror as excitement at the thought of witnessing what comes next on screen. In IGN’s review of Season 2, Simon Cardy acknowledges that it was “always going to be a challenge to adapt The Last of Us Part 2’s sprawling, twisting story into a television show," so it makes sense that the story will continue over a third season.

If you’re planning to tune in for the premiere of The Last of Us Season 2 or still need to catch up on Season 1, check out the details below.

How to Watch The Last of Us Season 2

The first season of The Last of Us show adapted the entirety of the first game with some creative liberties. Season 2 brings us to the storylines of The Last of Us sequel, which will be split up across the next two seasons.

Both Naughty Dog games have been remastered, with new edition of The Last of Us Part 2 arriving on PC just last week. This is Naughty Dog, so a new "Complete" edition of both games has also been announced, with a physical release arriving this summer. Aside from the games themselves, Sony also released a special edition DualSense controller to celebrate the series.

The Last of Us Season 2 Cast and Crew

The Last of Us Season 2 is led by the original game’s creator, Neil Druckmann, and Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), both of whom feature as writers alongside Haley Gross, who co-wrote The Last of Us Part 2 game. Each individual episode has its own director, with the full list including Mark Mylod (Succession, The Menu, Game of Thrones), Peter Hoar (It's a Sin, Daredevil, Doctor Who), and Stephen Williams (Lost).

Here’s the main cast starring in the new season of The Last of Us:

• Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller
• Bella Ramsey as Ellie
• Gabriel Luna as Tommy
• Rutina Wesley as Maria
• Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
• Young Mazino as Jesse
• Isabela Merced as Dina
• Danny Ramirez as Manny
• Ariela Barer as Mel
• Tati Gabrielle as Nora
• Spencer Lord as Owen
• Catherine O'Hara as Gail
• Jeffrey Wright as Isaac Dixon
• Joe Pantoliano as Eugene
• Alanna Ubach as Hanrahan
• Ben Ahlers as Burton
• Hettienne Park as Elise Park
• Robert John Burke as Seth
• Noah Lamanna as Kat

Don't be surprised if you don't recognize some of these names; several original characters are being introduced in the new season. You can check out our full breakdown of which characters are new or returning for more details.

The weekend is officially here, and we've rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for April 12 below:

Save 55% Off The 4K Middle-Earth 6-Film Collection

If Escape From Tarkov is the PUBG of the extraction shooter, boldly striking out into a new genre despite humble origins, then Bungie’s upcoming shooter, Marathon, is the big-budget refinement that could become the emerging category’s Fortnite. Coming from a studio with a pedigree for first-person shooters that’s virtually unmatched, and which wields the resources to take a good idea and reimagine it in a disturbing, beautifully detailed sci-fi universe, it’s easy to see how Bungie just might pull it off. But with a concept that’s so inherently geared towards the hardcore PvP crowd and such a clear departure from what they’ve done in the past, it’s certainly not without risks, even if they do manage to capture the usual FPS magic they’re known for. Even so, after spending the better part of two days sliding and gunning my way through Tau Ceti’s relentless ruins, I was hooked, and can’t wait to group up with my most tryhard friends and ruin people’s day.

Marathon is an extraction shooter where you and two friends are dropped into an extremely unmerciful wasteland to battle deadly enemies, including rival players, all in the name of loot and glory. If you’ve played Escape From Tarkov, then you’ll be familiar with this PvPvE framing, which forces you to ante up any loot you bring along with you, as it’s permanently lost if you fail to exfiltrate before time runs out or your team is killed. Those distressingly high stakes immediately got my blood pumping and made each match feel like the most important one so far. After fighting tooth and nail against surprisingly challenging AI enemies and ruthless fellow Runners to get a high-level rifle that could down most enemies in two hits, I wasn’t about to let my guard down for even a moment and risk losing it all to some unworthy foe.

If, like me, you bemoaned the quiet, undignified death of PvP’s relevance in Destiny 2, then you might share my eagerness to see Bungie focused squarely on a competitive experience here, and everything I played so far indicates they’ve still more than got what it takes to pull it off. Weapons and movement feels crisp, fluid, and incredibly satisfying in that rarified way that few studios can achieve, and the added element of hero shooter-like abilities, like one that lets you blast enemies with kinetic energy, sending them flying away, gives that extra kick you need to feel like a supernaturally powered badass. Marathon almost immediately feels fantastic to play, and as soon as I took out a robot who took a potshot at me from the window of a nearby building and tried out his weapon for myself on a nearby enemy, it was love at first snipe.

This gets even better once you start to familiarize yourself with the class-based Runners available to you (four of which I got to play extensively, out of the six that will be available at launch). Glitch is all about mobility and controlling positioning, and has abilities that help her move fast, jump up to areas others can’t reach, and push enemies away with a blast of kinetic energy. Locus is a tanky soldier who can pull up a shield to block incoming fire and launch a flurry of homing missiles at enemies, while Blackbird is all about intel and using her gadgets to ping any enemies within an area for the whole team, and sending out little robotic drones to seek and destroy nearby enemies. My personal favorite though, was Void: a deft ninja who can turn invisible for a time and deploy massive clouds of smoke to lose and confuse the enemy within. Each of these characters offers a completely different way to play Marathon, and by coordinating with my teammates, we were able to put together a balanced team of Runners who complemented one another’s strengths and helped make up for any weaknesses.

That came in handy as we explored dark and forgotten places throughout Marathon’s maps, which were filled with deadly creatures, like a species of giant ticks who ran at me frantically, and surprisingly accurate robots who were much, much better at surrounding and overwhelming players than the vast majority of AI enemies found in other games. Fighting these foes was no joke, but the loot was well worth it, whether it was finding a backpack that allowed for more storage space, a weapon that gave me better odds against a rival crew, or just some consumable healing items I could rely upon in a pinch. Some of the extremely rare and powerful items, of which my team only found a handful during our matches, changed things up quite significantly, like a backpack that turned the user invisible whenever they interacted with a container while wearing it – extremely useful in a game where you’re being hunted by everyone else on the map.

Marathon’s tensest moments, though, happen when you encounter enemy crews and inevitably clash in a bid to claim one another’s loot. Maybe we’d spot a crew in the distance and stealthily follow them – waiting for the right moment to stage an ambush – or sometimes we’d hear other players in the distance fighting off security forces and decide to go catch them when their guard was down, scooping up whatever goodies they were about to claim. And, of course, sometimes we found ourselves on the receiving end of that ruthless equation and had to scramble as one of us was downed by sudden gunfire from a rival team. These moments are when the PvP magic really shines and leaves you with stories to tell your friends, like the time my group got entangled in a nine-player free-for-all and came out unscathed thanks to some well-timed smoke grenades, or another time where both of my teammates were killed, but we came back to win it thanks to a clutch revive the other team didn’t see coming. Just like the most epic, heart-pounding moments of a battle royale match, Marathon provided me with tons of memorable moments of elation after a narrow victory and the occasionally sour taste of defeat.

Once we’d gotten our spoils or completed an objective or two, it was time to haul ass to the exfiltration beacon and stand near it long enough to be pulled out of the firefight and returned safely back to our base in outer space with our bloody bounty. But lighting that beacon also lets everyone else on the map know you’re trying to make off with your goods, via a giant blue light that shoots up into the sky for a prolonged period of time. This makes your last moments in the area pretty intense, or, if you’re like me, offers some exciting opportunities to kill a group right as they’re preparing to leave and benefit from all of their hard work.

The downside of Marathon’s “to the victors go the spoils” reward system is that in a pretty short amount of time, those with skill will enter fresh matches with gear that easily outmatches less skilled players, making them even less likely to be able to pull off a victory. Bungie’s gone out of its way to try and make it so a poorly geared squad still stands a chance against those with better loot if they play well, and you can always simply employ the strategy of avoiding other players until you’ve got a few extractions and some at least decent loot under your belt, but even so, it seems like it could get pretty demoralizing in short order if you run into a bout of bad luck and start to feel like you’ll never catch a break.

I was lucky enough to win the vast majority of my matches, and after the initial hump of stockpiling some basic equipment in my vault and unlocking a few permanent upgrades to make the going easier, I felt like even if I fell in battle and lost all my best stuff, at least I’d have some adequate backup gear to recover with. But that won’t be the case for everyone, and I wonder how big the chunk of players will be who simply run into a brick wall in their first few hours, log off, and never return. At least in Escape from Tarkov you’ve got your Kappa case to hold your most valuable items and protect them from being lost on the battlefield – Marathon has none of those safety measures, instead opting for a system where you’re given a sort of pity loadout, called a sponsored package, which sets you up with some basic gear after you’ve been quite literally bled dry. This definitely helps ice the wound of a string of bad luck, but might not exactly be the most comforting consolation prize.

To be clear, it very well might be a good thing that Marathon seemingly refuses to compromise on its dedication to ensuring each match has real, keenly felt stakes, even if it turns some folks off from it – I certainly count myself among those who enjoy a bit of sweatiness and quite liked how invested I was forced to be every single time I deployed onto a new map. But they definitely risk a situation where it feels like the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, to the detriment of those who are on the unfortunate side of that brutal equation. Time will tell before we know how that will shake out, but even in my short time with it, I already felt a bit of friction emanating from those on the server who kept dying repeatedly and felt like they were getting outclassed by those with quality loadouts.

One thing that could be the key to preventing people from falling off is Marathon’s ongoing meta progression system, which I found surprisingly engaging in my time with it. Even though your loot is probably destined to be stripped off your still-warm corpse and stuffed into some rude opponent’s backpack, you can at least comfort yourself in the various perk trees and ongoing quests you’ll find in the menus between rounds of play. You might not have made it back alive from your most recent escapade, but maybe you were able to loot some chests from a specific part of the map or complete some other objective in your quest log before you went cold. In that case, you can at least still make your way through the faction questlines and upgrade systems, which unlock new bits of story and improve your reputation with each of the three groups who have taken a marked interest in your progress. Doing so grants you perks that make the going a bit easier, like those that let you buy slightly better gear from the vendor, in case you find all your existing loot confiscated by the enemy.

Elsewhere, despite some clear indications that some kind of plot will be included in Marathon even though multiplayer mayhem is plainly the focus, it’s still unclear to me how much that story will matter or deliver something that makes me want to progress, beyond just finding better weapons to use. As a mercenary called a Runner, your consciousness is repeatedly uploaded to a synthetic body and sent into dangerous territory in search of riches. Beyond this basic premise and some really cool details, like how your artificial bodies are sewn together out of synth silk by robotic caterpillars, there wasn’t a whole lot to go off of, and I could easily see this not being an area of particular focus for Marathon. That said, the world Bungie has built is every bit as beautiful as it is creepy and dystopian, and there are moments where they satisfyingly hint at the events of the Marathon trilogy from the ‘90s. But Bungie also told me that they’re not entirely following the events of the original games, and what little I saw did only slightly more than pay lip service to the world.

Another question is just how much support and longevity we can expect from Marathon. Bungie has earned its reputation for mastering the live-service model over the past decade of Destiny, and shows no signs of letting players down here, as they told me they already have plans to support Marathon with new maps, weapons, characters, and more as they develop it, but as always, there’s the question of whether they’ll do so at a fast enough pace to appease ever-ravenous players. And importantly, Marathon also plans to use the seasonal reset model found in the likes of Diablo 4, where you’ll be stripped of your loot and progress at the end of each season to do so again with new content and a new meta to mix things up. While I could definitely see this working for Marathon, there’s always the question of how they’ll manage to incentivize making that arduous climb from scratch each season.

After playing enough Marathon to get a pretty good feel for it in its alpha state, I’m already fairly confident it’ll scratch the Bungie PvP itch that’s been left unscratched for a number of years now. Here’s hoping they’ll knock it out of the park when it comes to PC and consoles in September.

The Lion King ride headed to Disneyland Paris has received new exciting images, details, and a construction start window of Fall 2025.

As detailed by Disney Parks Blog, the first-ever land and attraction themed to The Lion King will be one of the biggest draws of the reimagined Walt Disney Studios Park that will be known as Disney Adventure World. Alongside this new water ride that will take guests through the biggest moments of the 1994 classic, the land will feature a 120-foot-high Pride Rock and tons of dining, shopping, character meet-and-greets, and more.

Disney shared a new concept image from the ride, which you can see above, that shows Audio-Animatronics of young Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa chowing down on some grubs in a beautiful jungle setting. This will be just one part of the ride that will also send guests down a 52-foot drop, which is two inches taller than Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

While we don't have a date yet, it will be arriving after the grand opening of World of Frozen in 2026. This will also be one piece of the puzzle that is Disney Adventure World, which will be double the current park's footprint.

Alongside World of Frozen, The Lion King ride, and the previously announced Raiponce Tangled Spin ride that will see Mandy Moore returning to voice Rapunzel, guests will get to look forward to the first-ever attraction themed after Up. This ride will be a "spinning carousel" that will offer a "bird's eye view of the park's stunning scenery."

World Premiere will also be one of the stars of Disney Adventure World when it opens on May 15, 2025, as it will be a brand-new park entrance that will aim to recreate a "glamorous premiere in the heart of Hollywood." There will also be World Premiere Plaza, which is inspired by Broadway and the West End district and will have theaters with such shows as TOGETHER: A Pixar Musical Adventure, Mickey and the Magician, and Frozen: A Musical Invitation.

For more in the world of Disney, check out our 30th anniversary retrospective of The Lion King, when you can get your tickets for Destination D23: A Journey Around the World of Disney and our recently updated top 25 Disney animated movies list.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.o

This review contains full spoilers for Doctor Who season 2, episode 1, “The Robot Revolution”

“The Robot Revolution” kicks off Doctor Who’s second season (which is also the 15th of the revived era, and 41st of the series overall) with all the subtlety of a glitter cannon. It’s loud, bright, and begging you to have fun. It opens strong, racing through a pulpy rescue mission filled with bellowing red robots who shout “Behold!” like they’re auditioning for a live-action Thundercats reboot, and introduces a charmingly absurd polishing droid that deserves its own Star Wars-esque merch line. There’s visual invention to spare, and campier instincts that are proudly leaned into. But for all its spectacle and self-aware chaos, this premiere rarely pulls itself together into something emotionally or thematically solid. The pace is frantic, but the plot is hollow, and the initial spark fades quickly, leaving a forgettable story where a flagship return should have been.

Nowhere is that hollowness more obvious than in the central twist: The reveal that Belinda’s ex, Al (with a lowercase “l,” short for Alan), is actually the AI (with an uppercase “I”) Generator controlling the robot horde doesn’t so much twist as it unravels. It’s another of Russell T. Davies’ increasingly worn-out wordplay gambits, a spiritual cousin to last season’s Sue Tech/Sutekh gag and the ongoing parade of Susan Twist cameos. And like those, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Al shows up for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it intro, vanishes for 40 minutes, then returns as the “surprise” villain with all the dramatic impact of a Windows error message. The AI Generator itself looks like it stumbled out of a garish Fallout mod, all cartoon menace and flickering CRT pomp, but even that fizzles once the punchline lands. The problem isn’t just the twist itself, but that it mirrors a larger issue: It’s content to coast on style and quirk without giving the story anything to chew on.

Despite the limp plot and undercooked villainy, “The Robot Revolution” isn’t a total loss. Its best asset, by far, is its character work, which offers a promising glimpse at the season ahead. Belinda Chandra, played with disarming charm and quiet authority by Varada Sethu, isn’t exactly new. She first popped up in “Boom” as Mundy Flynn, a military medic in one of last season’s better standalone episodes. Here, we get a resolution to that setup: Belinda and Mundy are simply related, and separated by thousands of years. It’s not exactly the first time Doctor Who has had to account for an actor cast in multiple roles, and it does add just enough narrative gravity to Belinda’s TARDIS debut.

Better still, she arrives fully formed. Belinda’s got opinions, she pushes back, and she doesn’t let the Doctor get away with his usual verbal sleight of hand. That alone already sets her apart. While I appreciated Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday last season – her energy with Ncuti Gatwa was electric – she sometimes felt more like a tag-along rather than a co-lead. So, it’s refreshing to see someone arrive with momentum and bite. With a Doctor who’s spent the last run veering between whimsy and wistfulness, a companion to properly bounce off in the TARDIS could be exactly what Doctor Who needs.

It also helps that the TARDIS finally starts acting like a character again. It’s not just a glossy teleportation pod: It’s temperamental, tactile, and responsive, and the Doctor doesn’t just pilot it, he negotiates, pleads, and wrestles with the console. “The Robot Revolution” gives Gatwa ample opportunity to showcase his physical performance skills, and he shines in those moments, injecting a raw drive and frustration into the scenes. The increased TARDIS action is a welcome shift, and its lavish, yet sterile, new design is finally made use of. It’s still missing the kind of lived-in charm it had back when Amy and Rory were knocking around in it, but getting to spend more time with its ravishing glowing panels will have to do for now.

Visually speaking “The Robot Revolution” throws everything it’s got at the wall. Time fractures shimmer, transitions snap into gear, and the robots, while one-note, benefit massively from those bulky, theatrical, practical suits. The production’s gunning for cinematic flair: Sometimes it lands, sometimes it looks like the green-screen footage was finalized at the 11th hour. The ambition’s admirable, even if the execution wobbles – which, to be completely fair, isn’t that unusual for Doctor Who sets.

For the most part, “The Robot Revolution” feels like mid-season filler dressed up in premiere clothing. There are flashes of fun, such as the episode’s humor, that occasionally manage to cut through its visual and narrative chaos. The throwaway “planet of the incels” line stands out as one of the few sharp moments that sticks. And while the rest of the plot is rather forgettable, there’s some semblance of narrative direction by its resolution. The Doctor and Belinda are being blocked from reaching Earth in 2025, nudging them toward a longer, stranger road home. It’s a modest hook, but enough to give the season a spine. If Doctor Who leans into that structure and continues building on the sharp chemistry between Gatwa and Sethu, there’s still time and space to grow.

So no, “The Robot Revolution” isn’t a knockout. But it’s a fast, intermittently funny, and mostly empty slice of sci-fi that may just be laying the groundwork for something more. If season 2 manages to focus on its new TARDIS team, and maybe even dial back some of the universe-ending theatrics, that journey back to Earth might be worth taking.

Just like any other gaming PC, gaming laptops are extremely complicated devices. When reviewing a gaming laptop, we need to look at it from every angle to make sure it is actually worth the often exorbitant prices they command. Here at IGN, we do primarily judge gaming laptops by how well they, well, play games, but we also want to know if they’re good laptops in general – whether it’s for doing work or just watching movies in your downtime.

That’s why after we run the system through a suite of benchmarks, we live with the device for a while – usually for around a week. After all, there are so many gaming laptops that absolutely kill it when it comes to benchmarks, but have uncomfortable keyboards, speakers that sound like they’re about to explode or have fans that immediately pull you out of any game you’re playing.

The Setup

Obviously, the first thing we do when getting a new gaming laptop is run it through the Windows 11 setup process. This is almost completely uniform among Windows gaming laptops, but once Microsoft’s process is over, there is room for a gaming laptop to show its flaws. Most laptop manufacturers these days include a suite of software that’s meant to make your life easier, but can seriously complicate the setup process with needless sign-in requests or ads for McAfee.

After everything is set up, we make sure the laptop is fully updated. First, we run Windows Update to make sure the operating system is up to date, then check any bespoke driver utilities provided by the manufacturer to make sure all drivers are current. Then, we check either the Nvidia App or AMD Adrenalin to make sure the GPU drivers are updated. After all updates are in place, we reboot the system to make sure everything is saved properly.

When the laptop is fully updated, it’s important to configure the laptop to make sure it lines up with other comparable devices. The biggest part of this is going into the power settings and setting the power profile to ‘Balanced’. For a lot of laptops this is all you really have to do, but there are some devices – like the Razer Blade 16 – which have their own power profiles in the manufacturer’s software. Because every laptop maker labels their power profiles a little differently, we need to use our best judgement to make sure that we’re not constraining the system with a silent profile or overclocking it with a “turbo” or “performance” mode – at least for comparative testing.

After all the benchmarks are recorded, reviewers are encouraged to test the system on any special performance modes.

There are a couple of things we need to do before running battery tests, too. First, we go into the power options and change when the display turns off and when the system goes to sleep to ‘never’. This is to make sure the battery actually drains down, rather than the system going to sleep randomly and ruining the result. We also set the screen brightness to 50%, the volume to 50% and disable Bluetooth. Then, if the laptop has RGB lighting of any kind, we turn it off for the battery test – those lights are pretty but everyone should have them turned off when using the laptop on battery power.

The Tests And Why We Run Them

When testing gaming laptops, we want to run them through a suite of games that cover a wide gamut of engines and graphics APIs that are relevant right now. The specific games tested might change over time, but in general we try to have a wide variety.

There are three tests we run in 3DMark – Speed Way, Steel Nomad and Night Raid. Speed Way tests DirectX 12 performance with ray tracing, while Steel Nomad tests the same engine, but without ray tracing. We also test Night Raid, which is a DirectX 12 test that’s a bit more lightweight, and geared towards non-gaming laptops. In general, 3DMark gives a good picture of the potential of the laptop, usually getting much better performance than actual games using the same API.

While we all love to play games, gaming laptops need to be, well, good laptops. We run the Procyon Office Productivity benchmark to measure how well the laptop handles office workloads. This benchmark cycles between Microsoft Office apps to measure how well it handles common productivity tasks. Most gaming laptops are way too fast for this to be any kind of challenge, but it does give a good picture of how the system works as a whole. Then, we run the Procyon battery test, which is essentially the same thing, only looped until the battery dies. It’s a varied enough workload that it gives a realistic picture of the battery life you can expect from your gaming laptop.

When it comes to the actual PC games, we advise our laptop reviewers to run each game benchmark at least twice. If the difference between those two runs is significant – i.e. more than 1-2 fps – the benchmark should be run a third time, with the reviewer figuring the average between them. That way we get a clearer picture of the actual performance you can expect from the gaming laptop.

The first gaming benchmark is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. This is an extremely popular online shooter, and while it isn’t the most demanding game in the world, it does give a glimpse into performance in fast-paced online games. Though, this game does tend to favor AMD GPUs, so that should be noted when comparing gaming laptops with GPUs from different manufacturers.

We run three different versions of the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark. The first we run on the RT Ultra preset, with upscaling depending on the resolution of the benchmark. For instance, at 1440p, DLSS, FSR or XeSS will be set to ‘Balanced’, but at 1080p, upscaling should be set to ‘Quality’. This is generally our guidance with upscaling in all of the games we test. Then, we set the game to RT Overdrive, which introduces path tracing to the equation. We run it under those conditions once without frame generation and once with frame generation set to 2x. That gives us both a good idea how this demanding game runs normally, and how much benefit you’ll get from frame generation tech. We only run it at 2x Frame Gen, to keep results comparable between AMD and Nvidia GPUs.

Then there’s Metro Exodus. This is an older game at this point, but an interesting one. The game only supports DLSS, not FSR or XeSS, which means we test the game with no upscaling, just to keep it fair. The byproduct of this approach is that Metro Exodus gives a good representation of what ray tracing performance without upscaling looks like. As such, despite it being an older game, it is still extremely demanding at any resolution.

We run Red Dead Redemption 2, another aging game, because it supports Vulkan and is still demanding on modern hardware. That said, new GPUs are starting to run into bottlenecking issues, even at higher resolutions, so the test also helps us identify if that’s a potential issue.

When it comes to Total War: Warhammer 3, the game doesn’t support any upscaler or ray tracing, which makes it one of the rare PC games that’s purely rasterized these days. It’s also extremely CPU heavy, which will highlight when the CPU is too weak for the GPU.

Assassins Creed Shadows is another game that’s extremely CPU heavy, but it also supports ray tracing and upscaling, which paints an excellent picture of how the entire system contributes to gaming performance. This is another game that we run both with Frame Generation and without it.

Living With the Laptop

After all the benchmarking is done, we encourage our laptop reviewers to live with the system for at least a week. That means using it for work, playing games on it, watching movies and carrying it around while they commute. It’s one thing to put a laptop through a suite of tests and mathematically rank it somewhere, but sometimes a slower laptop is just more comfortable to use, and that means something.

Likewise, there are a lot of extremely fast gaming laptops out there that are so heavy that they’re a pain to move around, whether it’s because of dual charging bricks or just a huge chassis that allows for that extra performance. There are some laptop manufacturers that also shove their laptops so chock-full of bloatware that using the device becomes a major headache until you go in and uninstall all of it. This is becoming less common these days, but it definitely still happens, especially in more affordable laptops that are subsidized by software companies.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

The featherweight title is on the line tonight with the UFC 314 fight happening live down in Miami. Former champion Alexander Volkanovski is looking to reclaim his title by defeating up-and-comer Diego Lopes. The most recent featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria, left the title wide open by deciding to move up to the lightweight division. Will Volkanovski be able to take back the crown after getting KO'd in round two the last time this title was on the line? Or will Lopes surprise us with a KO?

If you're wondering when and where you can watch tonight's main PPV event, we've gathered all of the details below. There's also the prelim rounds starting earlier in the day that you can watch without purchasing the PPV package.

Where to Stream UFC 314 Live Online

After months of intense speculation, rumors, and leaks, Nintendo fully unveiled the Switch 2 with its own Direct. Not only did we receive trailers for new games like Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and even Nintendo GameCube games exclusive to Switch 2 Online, maybe more importantly we also got a good look at the system itself. I’m happy to report that, from an accessibility perspective, the Switch 2 is looking undoubtedly like an upgrade to its predecessor in almost every way.

Several months ago, I explored my accessibility predictions for Nintendo’s latest console. I wanted more robust accessibility offerings, better usage of Joy-Con controllers, and unique inclusive design practices. And to my surprise, Nintendo answered every wish while also giving extras. For this Access Designed, let’s examine the exciting and confirmed accessibility of the Switch 2

New Accessibility Settings

The Direct offered little in terms of tangible accessibility options, aside from fully customizable controls for each virtual GameCube game, respective of the system settings. Instead, Nintendo released an accessibility page detailing a bevy of returning and new features.

Fully customizable controls are back, with the feature performing exactly like the original Switch. Settings to adjust text size to three different variants also return but with the additional capability to also implement High Contrast and change general display colors. Even the Zoom functionality is making a comeback, a necessary inclusion for blind/low vision players. Yet, Nintendo’s biggest surprise comes in the form of a new “Screen Reader” setting.

Blind/low vision individuals often need settings like Text-to-Speech to help navigate menus and settings. While the option is only available for the HOME menu and system settings, this accessibility feature is a necessary tool, allowing disabled players to independently navigate the Switch 2. Options to choose different voices, read speeds, and volume levels accompany the Screen Reader feature. We still don’t know if individual games will support these tools or come equipped with their own accessibility offerings, but Nintendo’s acknowledgment of their disabled audience is a welcome sight, one that absolutely piques my interest regarding the future of accessibility at the company.

Innovative Design

While not within a specific menu, Nintendo did advertise a new inclusive tool that not only adds more depth to a beloved franchise, but also vastly improves the cognitive, physical, and blind/low vision accessibility. Within the renamed Nintendo Switch App, is Zelda Notes, a companion app for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. With the Navigation option in the app, players can choose to locate shops, areas of interest, and even the elusive Korok’s all within the app’s GPS-like UI. The app, which comes with audio cues and voices, will direct players to the exact location of their selected object. While not perfect, as the app does not help with precise navigation or enemies, it helps blind/low vision individuals navigate the overworld while reducing the cognitive overload of having to travel across a vast world.

For cognitive, blind/low vision, and physically disabled players in particular, another feature in the app — the Autobuild Sharing tool — lets players share their custom Zonai tech creations. By scanning a QR code, disabled individuals can automatically build a Zonai machine if they have the corresponding materials. For me, especially, I immensely struggled with the control layout and required buttons to properly build Zonai machinery in Tears of the Kingdom. But thanks to this new tool, I only need to worry about gathering materials, and not the actual building process of Zonai contraptions. And all of this is done with Inclusive design, something I’ve regularly praised Nintendo for in the past.

Finally, disabled individuals can even share items with one another through Item Sharing, a feature identical to Autobuild Sharing. By scanning a QR code, I can immediately access items that my friends send me, reducing physical strain by no longer having to continuously scour the world for weapons and food. Does this make Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom fully accessible? Absolutely not. However, it’s an incredible step forward.

Wheelchair Sports

The biggest surprise for me was by far the announcement of Drag X Drive, a Rocket League-esque game that lets players control characters in manual wheelchairs on a basketball court. Not only is this surprising announcement a fantastic way to show proper disability representation, but it also highlights one of the Switch 2’s few new hardware changes – mouse control.

By flipping the Joy-Con on its side, players can move the controller across any surface, making the device behave similarly to a computer mouse. While we still don’t know how much force is required to move the cursor, – for comparison, my mouse on my ultrawide monitor has a DPI of 6400. But any new way to play will no doubt have accessibility benefits for an array of disabled players. It’s exciting to imagine just how Nintendo will utilize this new feature, but more importantly, it’s yet another tool for disabled individuals. Combine this with the multitude of controller types already available on the Switch and Switch 2, and Nintendo continues to innovate with controller usage.

As a Nintendo fan, I’m beyond excited for the Switch 2. While I’m admittedly hesitant to spend upwards of $450 for the system, my love of gaming began with Nintendo. And with each new system comes exciting accessibility additions that continue to demonstrate Nintendo’s commitment to accessibility and inclusive design. While we still don’t have a first party accessible device like the Xbox Adaptive Controller and PlayStation Access Controller, Nintendo is in its own way innovating with new ways to play for disabled individuals.Combine these innovations with the recent announcement of Nintendo joining other developers to create standardized accessibility tags, and I believe we'll see Nintendo continue to elevate accessibility for the better.

Grant Stoner is a disabled journalist covering accessibility and the disabled perspective in video games. When not writing, he is usually screaming about Pokémon or his cat, Goomba on Twitter.

On the hunt to devour some GHOUL://RE codes? Well, you're in luck. We've put together a list of all the active and working codes you can currently use to earn yourself some Ghoul Points.

Working GHOUL://RE Codes (April 2025)

These are all the active codes we've found that can be redeemed this month:

• 100kFavourites - Rewards (NEW)
• 300kDiscord - Rewards (NEW)
• DelayCompensation - Rewards (NEW)
• TY90K - Rewards (NEW)

All Expired GHOUL://RE Codes

Sadly, these codes no longer work:

• MilestoneReached
• MilestoneReached2
• UpdateOne
• EmergencySD
• TY10K!
• Sorryfordelay
• MACFIX
• WeWantCodes
• OrdinaryPumpkin

How to Redeem GHOUL://RE Codes

1. First, load up the Ghoul://RE experience and hit the Play button
2. If this is your first time playing the game, complete the tutorial, then create your character
3. Once you've loaded into the game, click menu in the top left corner.
4. Look at the icons, then click the </> on the far right for the code bar to appear
5. Enter the code then press confirm to redeem it for your rewards!

Why Isn't My GHOUL://RE Code Working?

If you find your GHOUL://RE codes aren't working, it's usually for one of two reasons. Firstly, lots of codes for Roblox experiences are case-sensitive, so you'll need to make sure you're putting it in correctly. The best way to do this, is just to copy it over directly from this article. Be mindful about including extra spaces accidentally, though!

Alternatively, it might just be the case that a code has expired and it's time the rewards are no longer available. Whether a code has expired, or has just been pasted in incorrectly, it will say "this code does not exist."

How to Get More GHOUL://RE Codes

We're always on the lookout for more codes, so we'd recommend coming here each day to see if there's more GHOUL://RE codes that have dropped. If you'd rather do the searching yourself, you can head over to the dedicted Discord Server for GHOUL://RE and browse for them there.

What is GHOUL://RE in Roblox?

GHOUL://RE is an open-world PVP experience based on the popular anime Tokyo Ghoul. You can choose to join either the CCG or the Ghoul factions, each with their own weapons and abilities. If you choose to join the CCG in this battle of survival, you'll be taking down Ghouls, but if you choose to be one of them, you'll play as a creature able to consume others. It's not all fighting, though, as you'll also need to complete missions, which you can pick up from the Mission Boards. Participate in events, open loot boxes, earn currency, and craft weapons to survive.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

If there’s something Doctor Who is known for besides time travel hijinks, sonic screwdrivers, and regeneration, it’s having a massive catalog of memorable monsters. With a new season of Doctor Who upon us, we’re taking a look back at the Doctor’s rogues gallery to highlight the most vicious monsters our favorite Time Lord has run into.

Before we begin, a couple of notes: We’ve left off villains that we don’t think qualify as “monsters” in the traditional sense, so don’t expect to see the Master on here. Additionally, although some of these creatures date back to the classic show, every entry in this list has made at least one televised appearance since the 2005 revival. We just think the “modern” monsters tend to be more effective (and are more in our wheelhouse anyway). With that settled, let’s get into it. Here are our top 20 Doctor Who monsters.

20. Macra

As all PlayStation fans know, few things are as terrifying as a giant enemy crab. Doctor Who first introduced the alien race known as the Macra during the Second Doctor’s era. Initially large, intelligent crabs, they had an interstellar empire and were referred to by the Doctor as the “scourge of this galaxy.” Millions of years later, the Macra fell on hard times and devolved into mindless beasts that survived on noxious gases and ate whatever fell through the cracks of the planet-wide gridlocked motorway of New Earth. They aren’t the most prominent Doctor Who enemy, but would you want to meet one in a dark alley? I didn’t think so.

19. Clockwork Repair Droids

“The Girl in the Fireplace” is commonly considered one of the quintessential Steven Moffat-penned episodes, and as such features a set of memorable antagonists. Those would be the Clockwork Repair Droids, a group of robots with a penchant for 18th century French fashion and stealing organs from human beings. They want to snatch the brain of Jeanne Antoinette “Reinette” Poisson, also known as Madame de Pompadour, to repair the computer of their 51st century starship. The audacity of their plan contrasts well with the tender romance between the Tenth Doctor and Reinette, making them the perfect villains for this iconic episode.

18. Sontarans

The stocky, dome-headed race of cloned soldiers known as the Sontarans are one of the Doctor’s most recurring foes. Bred for nothing but endless warfare, Sontaran culture is centered purely on the honor of death in combat. But despite their militaristic nature, the Sontarans lose some points by rarely coming off all that threatening because of their goofy appearance and easily outwitted schemes. All that said, the Doctor considers them among the “finest soldiers in the galaxy,” so they are still worth a spot on this list. Plus, they gave us Strax, one of the funnier and more interesting of the many side characters the Doctor has encountered.

17. Vashta Nerada

Why is every species in the universe afraid of the dark? According to Doctor Who, it’s because of the Vashta Nerada, microscopic carnivores that are essentially piranhas living in shadows. These invisible terrors encountered the Tenth Doctor at the Library, a planet that the Vashta Nerada had rendered devoid of life. While the sight of their skeletal victims trapped in their spacesuits is definitely spooky, the Vashta Nerada suffer a bit from how they actually “work” not being as clear as it should. They basically kill whenever the script wants them to, but the Doctor having no plan for them beyond “run” certainly makes them a credible threat.

16. The Vespiform

In what other show could an episode be an Agatha Christie style murder mystery that actually includes Agatha Christie as a character, and also the murderer is an evil alien wasp in disguise? That’s exactly what Doctor Who gave us with “The Unicorn and the Wasp,” one of the most deliriously eccentric episodes of the Tenth Doctor’s tenure. The Vespiform, a giant wasp that can shapeshift into human form, plays the part of a serial murderer at a 1920s dinner party. We won’t spoil the identity of the creature (it’s a mystery, after all), but as one-off Doctor Who villains go, the Vespiform is one of the more memorable for its genre-bending mischief.

15. Ice Warriors

Another longtime foe dating back to the original show, the Ice Warriors are a race of armored reptilian humanoids native to Mars. Originally starting off as enemies of the Second Doctor who wanted to colonize Earth, the Ice Warriors eventually changed their tune and became an ally of the Third Doctor. They returned in the revival era in the episode “Cold War,” where the Eleventh Doctor found himself trapped on a Soviet submarine with a single villainous Ice Warrior who hunts down the crew one by one. They aren’t quite among the most iconic of Doctor Who monsters, but the Ice Warriors deserve credit for their versatility and longevity.

14. The Veil

“Heaven Sent” is widely considered one of the best Doctor Who episodes of all time, and for good reason. The Twelfth Doctor is trapped in a confession dial, where he spends 4.5 billion years trying to find a way to escape and undo the death of beloved companion Clara Oswald. All the while, he’s hunted by the Veil, a being with a burning touch that forces the Doctor to share his darkest secrets. The slow movement and omnipresent nature of the Veil makes it an unsettling presence, but the real star of the show is Peter Capaldi’s performance. Even so, the Veil earns a spot on this list for being a big part of such a great episode.

13. The Flood

A good Doctor Who monster can make the most innocuous things scary, and one of the best examples of that is what the show did to water with the Flood. A virus trapped in a Martian glacier, it infected the water of the first human colony on Mars, turning those who came in contact with it into horrific zombie-like creatures. Their cracked mouths and them constantly spilling water from their skin made the Flood’s victims into the stuff of nightmares. They’ve only had one televised appearance in the Tenth Doctor special “The Waters of Mars,” but pretty much everyone who’s seen it would say the Flood made one hell of a first impression.

12. The Silence

Steven Moffat introduced a long-running mythology arc at the beginning of Season 6 with the Silence, who were hyped up by the creators at the time as the scariest Doctor Who monster ever conceived. These suit and tie wearing aliens had the power to make people forget they existed whenever they weren’t being observed, making it difficult to fight back against the Silence’s machinations. What those machinations actually were and how convoluted their subplot became is why the Silence don’t make the top 10 here, but even then they’re still among the most conceptually interesting and unnerving antagonists in the Doctor’s storied history.

11. The Ood

The Ood are unique on this list because they are far more sympathetic than monstrous. A race of benign and easily manipulated creatures, the Ood were enslaved by humanity but insisted they were okay with it. However, their telepathic abilities led them to become pawns of another, more powerful villain (who we’ll get to later), turning them into red-eyed terrors ready to hunt down the Tenth Doctor and his allies. Thankfully, the Doctor escaped intact. The Doctor later returned alongside Donna Noble to help the Ood in “Planet of the Ood,” where the pair assisted the Ood Brain in freeing all Ood across the galaxy from their enslavement.

10. Autons

For most modern fans of the show, the Autons are the first Doctor Who monster they ever encountered. Resembling walking mannequins, they were animated by their master, the Nestene Consciousness, as plastic foot soldiers in its attempt to conquer Earth. The Autons started off as recurring enemies of the Third Doctor, who thwarted their schemes on two separate occasions. They returned again in “Rose,” the pilot episode of the 2005 revival, where the Ninth Doctor once again put down an invasion attempt. They would also factor into the two-part Season 5 finale, with companion Rory Williams being revived as an Auton.

9. The Foretold

The best one-off monster of the Twelfth Doctor’s tenure, the Foretold is the eponymous mummy in “Mummy on the Orient Express.” This eerie creature is only capable of being perceived by its intended target, who it kills after exactly 66 seconds, no matter how the victim tries to escape. Watching the Doctor and Clara Oswald try to figure out how to stop a monster they can’t see or hear as it picks off its prey makes for one of the most tense episodes of Capaldi’s era. Plus, when the Doctor finally does see it, him figuring out what the Foretold actually is and how to stop it during the time limit makes for one of the Doctor’s finest moments.

8. Sutekh

Most science fiction properties eventually introduce a god-like antagonist, and the Doctor finally received one with Sutekh. Originally an adversary of the Fourth Doctor, the evil Osiran was seemingly defeated in “The Pyramids of Mars,” only to come back decades later in the two-part finale of Season 14 as the leader of the Pantheon of Discord. Sutekh revealing himself to the Fifteenth Doctor and explaining how and why he’s survived turns him from a pretty good one-off foe into one of the Doctor’s all-time greatest enemies. Plus, the Doctor even refers to Sutekh as “the greatest monster I have ever fought,” so that’s got to count for something.

7. The Empty Child

Creepy children are a staple of horror media, and Doctor Who turned in one of the best examples with the Empty Child. Originally a boy named Jamie who died during a WWII air raid on London, he was revived via extraterrestrial means and plagued the streets as a gas mask-wearing menace who turned anyone he touched into zombies similar to him. He and all of his victims would chant “are you my mummy?” over and over again. Luckily, the Ninth Doctor and his companion Rose Tyler were able to figure out what caused the Empty Child’s condition and reverse it, making for one of the most triumphant endings to a Doctor Who episode.

6. The Time Beetle

Season 4 of the revival era, the last season starring the Tenth Doctor, features two of the best one-off monsters in the show’s history. First up is the Time Beetle from “Turn Left,” a sinister insect capable of latching itself to a victim’s back and altering their personal history by creating a parallel timeline. This happens to Donna Noble, who makes a crucial choice that prevents her from ever meeting the Doctor, resulting in the Doctor’s death and numerous cataclysms that he was supposed to prevent. After it’s stopped, the Doctor recognizes the beetle as being affiliated with the Trickster, a villain who should be familiar to viewers of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

5. The Midnight Entity

Our second Season 4-exclusive monster is the Midnight Entity, perhaps the most mysterious Doctor Who monster of all time. It’s never seen, named, or properly understood; it simply is. While on a tour of the diamond planet Midnight, an unseen presence breaks into the tour bus and possesses one of the passengers, repeating every word said to it with perfect accuracy. It eventually takes control of the Doctor, stealing his voice and nearly convincing his fellow passengers to jettison him from the vehicle. Although the Doctor does survive the altercation, it’s still one of the most haunting encounters with the unknown in the show’s history.

4. The Beast

The two-part episode “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” is arguably a better space horror movie than most actual space horror movies. In this story, the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler wind up trapped on Krop Tor, a planet somehow orbiting a black hole, where they come in contact with a being known as the Beast. This demonic monstrosity is implied to be the literal Devil, or at least the inspiration for such a creature in all the mythologies in the universe. Given how much he terrorizes the Doctor and his allies, both by controlling the Ood and possessing Toby, one of the poor souls stranded with them, we’d say he’s more than welcome to the title.

3. Cybermen

When it comes to recurring monsters, there’s only one that can claim to have battled the Doctor more often than the Cybermen. Originally a group of cyborgs created from the bodies of humans native to Earth’s twin planet Mondas, they also developed in a parallel timeline as part of a scheme by John Lumic, head of Cybus Industries. No matter their origin, the Cybermen seek to “upgrade” other humans into more Cybermen, whether the victims want to or not. They are scary not just for their relentlessness and lack of emotion, but because it seems that no matter what universe the Doctor visits, the Cybermen will always rise up eventually.

2. Weeping Angels

For the most terrifying Doctor Who monster of all time, there really can’t be any answer but the Weeping Angels. These fearsome killers look like statues to the uninitiated, but that’s because they’re quantum-locked while observed, meaning they only move when no one is looking at them. Turn your eyes away for a moment, even by blinking, and those statues will be a little bit closer. They kill by sending their victims back in time, meaning if they catch you, you’ll never see your loved ones again. If you somehow haven’t seen their debut episode “Blink,” sometimes cited as the best Doctor Who episode of the revival era, you’re seriously missing out.

1. Daleks

Did you really think number one would be anything else? Of course it’s the Daleks, the Doctor’s most iconic and enduring foes. Not only have they opposed the Doctor ever since the First Doctor’s second story, they are arguably just as responsible as the Doctor for popularizing the franchise. These fascist alien mutants encased in metal shells exist for only one purpose: to “exterminate!” They believe in Dalek supremacy above all else, and have sought universal conquest time and time again. Yet no matter how many times they battle their archnemesis, Doctor Who fans are always looking forward to the next clash between the Doctor and the Daleks. And that’s why they will always be the greatest Doctor Who monster of all time.

What’s your favorite Doctor Who monster? Vote in our poll and let’s discuss in the comments!

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.

Note: This story was updated to be a top 20 in April 2025. It originally ran as a top 10 in 2014.

Want some codes for extra cash to spend on animations, styles, emotes, and more in Azure Latch? Or should that be Delay Latch? Anyway, we've got you covered. In this article, you'll find all the currently working codes for the game, so be quick to redeem them and bag that cash.

Working Azure Latch Codes (April 2025)

• RINRELEASE - 10,000 Cash (NEW!)
• sorryfordelay - 10,000 Cash (NEW!)
• AMMISTHEOWNERNOTLEFTRIGHTTH - 10,000 Cash

All Expired Azure Latch Codes

This codes are now expired:

• RINSOONTRUSTME
• sorryforlatency
• SAEREWORK3TIME
• SorryForRollback

How to Redeem Azure Latch Codes

1. Before you can use Azure Latch codes, you'll need to be a part of the community, so load up Roblox and join the twi game group
2. Then jump into Azure Latch and find the Menu button at the bottom of the screen
3. In the Menu options, go to the far right tab to find Rewards
4. Enter the code and press Redeem to get that cash!

Why Isn't My Azure Latch Code Working?

Codes are often case-sensitive, so to avoid any errors, we'd recommend copying the codes directly from this article into the redemption bar in Azure Latch. We test them all before we upload them here to make sure they're valid for you.

If you have copied them from here, and they're still not working, it could be one of two things. You may have accidentally copied over an extra space, so be sure to check for that first. The other option is the code may have just expired.

How to Get More Azure Latch Codes

We check for codes daily, so you can visit this article to see when new Azure Latch codes are released. There's also a dedicated Discord Server, that you can visit to look for code announcements yourself.

What is Azure Latch in Roblox?

Whether you're a fan of anime or sports games, Azure Latch is likely to be a game you'll want to check out. The 5v5 football game is another Roblox experience that takes inspiration from the popular manga and anime series Blue Lock. For this one, however, you'll get super abilities that you can use to make those tackles, passes, and goal attempts a bit more exciting.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

The Masters is one of the biggest golf events of the year and it's finally arrived for 2025. As one of the four major championships in golf, The Masters has rich a history dating all the way back to 1934 when the Augusta National tournament first began. The event has influenced golf with its traditions over the years, including the idea of the winner getting a special jacket (just like in Happy Gilmore). Now in 2025 those traditions are still going strong, with the added benefit of being able to stream the whole thing online.

The second round of The Masters has wrapped up at Augusta National. The third round is happening today, and it already has all of the tee times and pairings lined up. If you're looking for a way to watch the golf tournament live today, we've got you covered with everything you need to know below.

Where to Stream The Masters Online

UFC is a popular mixed martial arts league that has been entertaining fans for over 20 years. With over 300 pay-per-view events aired since 1993, UFC has exploded in popularity and now features frequent fights, exclusive originals, and more. With so many people ditching cable in favor of streaming services, you may be wondering how and where you can watch UFC fights online. Check out our full rundown below to learn where UFC events are streamed online, information on pay-per-view (PPV) events, as well as the schedule for 2025's biggest upcoming fights.

Where to Watch UFC Fights Online

The best place to catch UFC fights online is with an ESPN+ subscription, as it's currently the exclusive streaming home for UFC. An ESPN+ subscription offers a bit more than what you get with the standard ESPN broadcast channels available on cable as it features access to a variety of live sporting events and a massive archive of UFC content.

ESPN+ can be purchased as a standalone subscription for for $11.99 per month, or you can opt for the ESPN+ Annual Plan which will run you $119.99 per year, saving you 15% off the monthly price. Additionally, you can bundle ESPN+ (With Ads) with Disney+ (With Ads) and Hulu (With Ads) for $14.99 per month. You can also get access to the service via a Hulu + Live TV subscription, which is a great overall option for live TV streaming in 2025.

With an ESPN+ subscription, you'll gain access to a plethora of UFC content including all pay-per-view fights after they air, UFC Fight Night events, as well as an archive featuring more than two decades of modern and classic fights from across UFC's storied history. You'll also be able to stream every season of The Ultimate Fighter, as well as other exclusive originals such as UFC Embedded, Dana White's Contender Series, Rowdy's Places, and more.

Additionally, every UFC pay-per-view event is added to ESPN+ 16 days after it airs, allowing subscribers to catch up on the event if they happened to miss it live.

You can watch ESPN+ on a variety of devices in HD with support for up to three simultaneous streams through the ESPN app on your mobile device, streaming devices such as Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, and Google Chromecast, select smart TVs, as well as consoles such as PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.

UFC Pay-Per-View Explained

UFC's numbered events have traditionally been pay-per-view (PPV) events, and that hasn't changed since the move to ESPN+ in 2019. The only difference is you'll need to have an active ESPN+ subscription in order to view the current and upcoming PPV events. The next big event is UFC 314 happening on April 12.

Looking for SpongeBob Tower Defense codes? This is where we'll serve them up! You won't find any Krabby Patties here, but you will find working codes you can redeem for rewards. These include chests, Magic Conches for summoning exclusive units, gems, and more.

Working SpongeBob Tower Defense Codes (April 2025)

Below are all the active codes we've found for SpongeBob TD as of this month:

• AChallenge2Open - 2x Challenge Crate (NEW)
• FUNonaTuesday - 10x Rare+ Chest, 1x Challenge Crate, 2x Double Faction Points (1 Hour), 2x Double Challenge Tokens (1 Hour) (NEW)
• 500KFeelingOkay - 2,000 Gems, 10x Rare+ Chests, 1x Magic Conch

Expired SpongeBob Tower Defense Codes

Unfortunately, you've missed the chance to use the codes below, as they've now expired:

• OnlytheBest
• UnitRefinement
• FactionGrind4Real
• CrateOfPossibilities
• StreamLoyalist
• OnlytheBest
• DelayisOkay
• FoolMeTwice
• OPCode4RealReal
• OPCodeVeryOP
• 200MILLIPLAYSWOAH
• AcceptingTheChallenge
• WStreamChat
• XMarksTheSpot
• SummonMeASecretPLS
• EDUCATEDCHALLENGER
• BugCrushers
• THANKSFORSUPPORTING
• DoubleIt
• TheHuntBegins
• 1MillionLikesOP
• LetsRide
• PiratesLife4Me
• StacksonStacks
• WPatchChat

How to Redeem SpongeBob TD Codes

1. Log in to the SpongeBob Tower Defense experience on Roblox
2. You'll need to play the game until you reach Level 10 before you can unlock the codes feature
3. On the left side of the screen, you'll see several colorful boxes
4. The purple box with the clam icon on the bottom left corner is for codes
5. Click Codes and then copy and paste your code into the box
6. Redeem it and enjoy the rewards!

Why Isn't My SpongeBob TD Code Working?

There are two main reasons why your code might not be working when you submit it. Some codes are for Roblox are case-sensitive, so you'll want to make sure you're copying it directly from this article and pasting it in. We test each and every one of the codes before adding them here, to make sure they're working. Just be sure when you are copying them from here, that you're not accidentally including any extra spaces. If one has snuck in there, just remove them and try the code again.

If you're taking them directly from the article, and they're still not working, the other possibility is they're expired. When a code is expired, it will say this as soon as you hit redeem. But if the code has been entered incorrectly, it will say "invalid" instead.

How to Get More SpongeBob Tower Defense Codes

We check daily for new Roblox codes, so be sure to come back here regularly to see if new SpongeBob TD codes have dropped. Alternatively, you can drop by the Krabby Krew Discord server and scan for codes yourself.

What is SpongeBob Tower Defense in Roblox?

Roblox has its fair share of Tower Defense games, and even SpongeBob is included in the action. Whether you choose to initially recruit SpongeBob, Patrick, or Squidward, you'll need to protect Bikini Bottom at all costs.

Just like other TD games, the aim is to position units carefully along a set route, where they'll automatically attack and wipe out a constant stream of enemies. With careful strategy, you'll complete a series of waves for each location, and prevent enemies from ever reaching your base. Unlock new units, pick your favorites to take into battle, and unleash them when the time is right.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

Looking to dominate the court with Basketball: Zero codes? Well, you're in luck! We've searched for all active working codes for the Roblox experience, so you don't have to. Redeem these for a range of bonuses that include Lucky Spins and cash, helping you swish your way to victory.

Working Basketball: Zero Codes (April 2025)

Below, you'll find a list of all the currently active Basketball: Zero codes we've found as of this month:

• 100KINTERESTED - 2x Lucky Spins, 3x Zone Color Rerolls (NEW)
• SRRYFORCRASH: 2x Lucky Style Spins, 1x Zone Color Spin, 1x Lucky Zone Spin
• JACKPOT: 3x Lucky Style Spins, 2x Zone Color Spins, 3x Lucky Zone Spins
• 10KLIKES: 1x Lucky Style Spin, 1x Zone Color Spin, 1x Lucky Zone Spin

All Expired Basketball: Zero Codes

Time's up on these codes, unfortunately. As of this month, the following codes no longer work:

• JACKPOTTOMORROW
• CHROLLOFORGOT
• CHROLLOMVP
• TATLISCODE
• 150kevent
• WOW100K
• 1MLIKES
• 400KWOW
• 100KW
• WCHROLLO

How to Redeem Basketball: Zero Codes

1. First, you'll need to like and join the Basketball: Zero group on Roblox to be able to use codes
2. Then, load up the Basketball: Zero Roblox experience
3. In the bottom right corner of the screen, you'll find the codes button. It's purple with a gift box icon.
4. Copy your code and paste it into the box
5. Press redeem and claim your bonuses!

Why Isn't My Basketball: Zero Code Working?

Typically, when a code stops working, it's just because it's expired. However, plenty of codes for Roblox experiences are also case-sensitive. So, it might be that you've typed it incorrectly. Whether a code has been entered incorrectly in Basketball: Zero, or it's expired, you'll see a pop-up saying "code doesn't exist."

To avoid using an incorrect code, we'd recommend copying them directly from this article and pasting them into the code box. We test them all before we add them to the article, so you can be certain that if it's on here, it's a valid code. Just be sure to check you haven't added a sneaky extra space in there when copying it over.

How to Get More Basketball: Zero Codes

We check for codes on a daily basis, so if there's a new code, you'll be able to find it in this article. If you want to search for them yourself, however, you can head over to the Basketball: Zero Discord server.

What is Basketball: Zero in Roblox?

It's no surprise that in Basketball Zero, you'll be playing... basketball. The fast-paced 5v5 game will see you dribbling the ball across the court to face opponents and try to score as many points as possible. By unlocking new styles and zones, you'll earn a range of atheles and bonuses that will give you special advantages. The Flash, for example, has excellent speed and agility, while the Star athelete can leap like no other. Redeeming the codes above will give you chances at Lucky Spins, which unlock the Styles and Zones, while the cash will enable you to unlock emotes and goal effects, to really celebrate the wins.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

Looking for Anime Card Clash codes so you can build your deck and battle bosses effortlessly? You're in the right place. We've searched high and low to find all the new and active codes for Anime Card Clash in April 2025, so you won't miss out on everything from Large Luck Potions to Boss Potions and Instant Rolls.

Working Codes for Anime Card Clash (April 2025)

Here are the newest codes we've found for Anime Card Clash this month, as well as information on the rewards you'll get for redeeming them:

• NOTTHEUPDATE - 5x Large Luck Potion, 5x Large Cooldown Reduction Potion, 2x Boss Chance Potion, x3 Moon Cycle Reroll Potion, x2 Border Chance Potion, x2 Trait Reroll, 3x 1,000 Instant Roll (NEW!)
• HOTFIX6 - 5x Large Luck Potion, 5x Large Cooldown Reduction Potion, 2x Boss Chance Potion, 3x Moon Cycle Reroll Potion, 2x Border Chance Potion, 2x Trait Reroll, 3x 1,000 Instant Roll
• 100KLIKES - 5x Large Luck Potion, 5x Large Cooldown Reduction Potion, 2x Boss Chance Potion, 3x Moon Cycle Reroll Potion, 2x Border Chance Potion, 2x Trait Reroll, 1x 5,000 Instant Roll
• Hotfix 5 - 5x Large Luck Potion, 5x Large Cooldown Reduction Potion, 2x Boss Chance Potion, 3x Moon Cycle Reroll Potion, 2x Border Chance Potion, 2x Trait Reroll, 1x 5,000 Instant Roll
• Hotfix 4 - 5x Large Luck Potion, 5x Large Cooldown Reduction Potion, 2x Boss Chance Potion, 3x Moon Cycle Reroll Potion, 2x Border Chance Potion, 2x Trait Reroll, 3x 1,000 Instant Roll
• Hotfix 3 - 5x Large Luck Potion, 5x Large Cooldown Reduction Potion, 2x Boss Chance Potion, 3x Moon Cycle Reroll Potion, 2x Border Chance Potion, 2x Trait Reroll, 3x 1,000 Instant Roll
• HOTFIX2 - 5x Large Luck Potions, 5x Large Cooldown Potions, 3x Boss Potions, 4x Moon Cycle Reroll Potions, 3x Border Chance Potions, 3x Trait Rerolls, 2,000 Instant Rolls
• HOTFIX1 - 5x Large Luck Potions, 5x Large Cooldown Potions, 2x Boss Potions, 3x Moon Cycle Reroll, Potions, 2x Border Chance Potions, 2x Trait Rerolls, 3,000 Instant Rolls
• 10MILLION - 5x Large Luck Potions, 5x Large Cooldown Potions, 2x Boss Potions, 3x Moon Cycle, Reroll Potions, 2x Border Chance Potions, 6x Trait Rerolls, 1,000 Instant Rolls

Expired Anime Card Clash Codes

Unfortunately, these codes are now expired:

• 5MILLIONVISITS
• 3MILLIONVISITS
• 1MILLIONVISITS
• STPATRICKSDAY2025
• 500KVISITS
• 100KVISITS
• SORRYFORSHUTDOWN
• YAYCODES
• RELEASE

How to Redeem Anime Card Clash Codes

1. Log in to the Anime Card Clash experience on Roblox
2. Look for the colored squares on the left side of the screen
3. On the bottom right, you'll find the codes box with a document icon
4. Click on Codes and paste one of the above codes in
5. Hit Redeem and reap your rewards!

Why Isn't My Anime Card Clash Code Working?

We usually find that when codes aren't working, it's for one of two reasons. Most Roblox experiences have codes that are case-sensitive, so if you're not putting the code in exactly as it's written, you'll find it won't work. To make it easier for you to avoid this issue, we'd recommend copying the code directly from this article. We test each and every one before we add them, so just be sure you don't copy an extra space before or after the code accidentally!

If your code still isn't working, it might be that it's expired. For reference, in Anime Card Clash, whenever you put in a code incorrectly, it says "Code not found!".

How to Get More Anime Card Clash Codes

We check for Roblox codes daily, so when a new Anime Card Clash code drops, you can be sure you'll find it here! If you want to track down codes yourself, the Anime Card Clash Discord server is the place to hunt for them.

What is Anime Card Clash in Roblox?

In Anime Card Clash the goal is to build the best deck to battle against bosses and other players. You'll start by rolling for cards to craft a unique deck, and we'd recommend taking some time to roll as many times as possible and creating your perfect pack before you jump over to story mode. When you're ready to tackle story mode, you'll engage in turn-based combat against a series of tough bosses. With each defeat, you'll unlock new worlds, so you can put your deck to the ultimate test.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

Whether you're looking for extra Spins, potions, or Crates, these Attack on Titan Revolution codes will have you covered. Here you can find a list of all the currently active and working AoT Revolution codes in Roblox to give you a little helping hand on tackling those Titans.

Active Attack on Titan Revolution Codes (April 2025)

As of December 2024, it was announced that newly released AoT Revolution codes are only active for one week, so check back regularly to avoid missing out. Here are all the currently active Attack on Titan Revolution codes in April 2025, and the rewards you'll get for redeeming them:

• There are currently no active Attack on Titan Revolution codes.

All Expired Attack on Titan Revolution Codes

The following codes can no longer be redeemed as of April 2025:

• LIKES500K
• LIKES475K
• UPDATE3SOON
• LIKES450K
• FREESPINS2
• SUB2EK
• BIGPATCH
• LIKES425K
• UPDATE2POINT5
• NEWYEARS2024
• HOLIDAYS2024
• VISITS200M
• LIKES400K
• ENDOFHALLOWEENEVENT
• 500kCommunityMembers
• Thanksgiving
• ENDERSPINS
• COLESPINS
• UPDATE2HALLOWEEN
• UPDATE2FATE
• UPDATE2DEMON
• UPDATE2SPINS
• CODESEXPIREAFTER1WEEK
• UPDATE2PATCH
• LIKES350K
• ARMOREDTITANSOON
• SOSORRY4DELAY
• WELOVEBRASIL
• ROBLOXFIX
• LIKES325K
• DEVCODE3
• MYBAD
• UPDATESOON2
• SORRY4DELAY3
• LIKES300K
• RANDOMCODE1
• RANDOMCODE2

How to Redeem Attack on Titan Revolution Codes

1. Reach Level 15 in Attack on Titan Revolution
2. Launch AoT Revolution
3. Find Codes on the Main Menu as you load up the experience
4. Click on Codes and the box will appear on the bottom right corner
5. Paste in your code and press enter to get your goods

Why Isn't My Attack on Titan Revolution Code Working?

If you find your AoT Revolution code isn't working, it could be for a few reasons. Firstly, you'll need to be Level 15+ before codes will work, so spend some time leveling up before attempting to use them.

If you're Level 15+ and your code isn't working, it's either because there's a typo in the code or it's expired. If a code has run out, it will say "Expired" when you press enter. If there's a typo, or the code is very old, it will say "Invalid." If you don't meet the level requirement to use the code, it will say "Error."

To avoid typos, we'd recommend copying the code directly from this article. Then, paste it into the Codes bar on the Main Menu of the AoT Revolution screen. Just be sure to check that there's no extra space at the beginning or the end of the code.

How to Get More Attack on Titan Revolution Codes

We update this article daily with any new Attack on Titan Revolution codes. But if you want to get AOTR codes the moment they drop, it's best to follow the AoT Revolution Discord. Codes are posted in the #Announcements channel.

What is Attack on Titan Revolution in Roblox?

Attack on Titan Revolution is a Roblox experience inspired by the AoT Japanese manga. In an attempt to save humanity and lead the revolution against giant creatures, you'll be tasked with slaying the Titans and reclaiming freedom. Customize your fighting style with Gear, Upgrades, Perks, and more, to take on tougher challenges as you level up.

Lauren Harper is a freelance writer and editor who has covered news, reviews, and features for over a decade in various industries. She has contributed to guides at IGN for games including Elden Ring, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Starfield, Pikmin 4, and more. With an MA in Victorian Gothic History and Culture, she loves anything that falls under that category. She's also a huge fan of point-and-click adventures, horror games and films. You can talk to her about your favourites over at @prettyheartache.bsky.social.

Disney has a secret Star Wars horror project in the works, according to Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy.

The mind behind the latest critical hit from a galaxy far, far away commented on Lucasfilm’s behind-the-scenes activities during a recent conversation with Business Insider. When asked how he might tackle a more sinister Star Wars project, he teased that the idea is one that Disney is already working on.

“They're doing that. I think they're doing that,” Gilroy said of the Star Wars horror project. “I think that's in the works, yeah.”

If accurate, it would mean fans could finally see Star Wars explore the Dark Side in a way that’s never been seen on the screen before, though what exactly the project is remains shrouded in mystery. It could materialize as a TV series, movie, or even something else entirely, and there’s no word on who exactly is leading the charge creatively. It could be years before we hear more about what Lucasfilm is cooking up when it comes to a horror Star Wars project, but Gilroy’s comments at least suggest someone at Disney is listening.

"The right creator, and the right moment, and the right vibe … you can do anything,” Gilroy added, referencing his time with Andor. “So, my hope is that the show connects, and then we can pass along the favor that we were given from 'Mandalorian,' and we can pass along a good healthy backwind to someone else who wants to do something else cool."

A no-holds-barred Star Wars horror movie has been the pie-in-the-sky dream for thousands of fans – and even Mark Hamill – for years. While the vast universe has spent decades exploring the Skywalkers and the many, many side characters that surround them, there is still plenty of room to see what some of its darker corners are hiding. It’s true that some spinoffs have looked at Star Wars through a scarier lens, but when it comes to big-budget productions, most projects tend to stick to stories that appeal to audiences of all ages.

Andor is one offshoot that has made a name for itself not only as one of the more mature Star Wars stories but one of the better ones, too. It made a splash with Season 1 in 2022 and remains a beloved slice of that universe today (we gave it a 9/10 in our review).

Gilroy and the rest of the team behind the show will bring an end to the wait for more when Andor Season 2 premieres its first three episodes April 22. For more, you can read up on how the success of Season 1 helped pave the way for Season 2. While we wait for those first episodes to drop later this month, you can check out our breakdown of some of the Star Wars projects coming in 2025.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

There are a lot of different places where you can buy LEGO sets, but Barnes & Noble probably isn't the first store you think of for such a thing. Nevertheless, there's a big Barnes & Noble spring sale going on right now and there are some surprisingly good LEGO discounts within. One such deal is on the LEGO Dune Ornithopter, and the price is so good that not even Amazon has gone this low before.

The sale is a blanket 25% off select LEGO sets. This includes builds from franchises like Super Mario and Disney. But the overall best deal is the Ornithopter. It is the only LEGO Dune set that currently exists and it's actually really awesome. You can also purchase it from Amazon for $8 more, but why would you?

LEGO Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter Deal at Barnes & Noble

Entertainment has hit critical mass over the last decade, with more shows and movies being produced and released than ever before. It’s impossible to keep up with everything hitting the digital space, whether it be Premium Video on Demand (PVOD) or a traditional streaming network. With that in mind, we figured it was well past time for us to whip up a little something to help you keep up (and catch up) with all there is to watch in the big, wide world of digital viewing. And thus, the Streaming Rewind was born!

We’ll update this list at the end of each week so you can check out what you may have missed, and what’s coming up on the weekend. We’ll keep it a mix of popular releases and noteworthy lesser-known titles to help you find what’s worth taking the risk on as well as dive into a few things that we loved and why we loved ‘em, or just break down a show or movie that left us with some opinions. Sometimes, we’ll even have guest entries from other members of the IGN staff. If you’re not interested in all that and just want to see a bulleted list of what’s out there, pop on down to the New and Noteworthy and ICYMI sections.

Novocaine (Digital and Demand)

If you don’t get enough of Jack Quaid getting beat to hell in Prime Video’s The Boys, you can now see even more of it in Novocaine. Quaid stars alongside Prey’s Amber Midthunder as Nate, a boy in love and completely immune to physical pain. Imagine the chagrin of Sherry’s (Midthunder) captors when they realize they’ve kidnapped the wrong girl and found themselves face to face with a seemingly unstoppable force. Of course, the audience knows that while Nate can’t feel pain, he can, in fact, die (it’s in the trailer and everything). While it’s mostly just a tool to add to the suspense, it adds a level of stakes to this otherwise silly and heartfelt flick.

The Last of Us Season 2 (Max)

Joel and Ellie are back, and they’re joined by The Last of Us Part 2 favorites Dina, Jesse, Abby and more in The Last of Us Season 2. Catherine O’Hara (Gail), Isabela Merced (Dina), Kaitlyn Dever (Abby) and Beef breakout star Young Mazino (Jesse) join the already stellar cast as we head back to Jackson for another season of drama.

Yellowjackets Season 3 Finale (Showtime)

Yellowjackets Season 3 has been crazier than ever, leading to a mixed reception from fans and critics alike. But, if you enjoy women’s rights and women’s wrongs, this unhinged psychological thriller remains worth the watch. The Season 3 finale will bring this year’s arcs to a close, with the Yellowjackets getting gradually more and more, uh, eccentric, as time passes in both the past and the present.

New and Noteworthy This Week:

• Novacaine, April 8 — Digital and demand
• Mickey 17, April 8 — Digital and demand
• The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6, April 8 — Hulu
• Black Mirror Season 7, April 10 — Netflix
• Hacks, April 10 — Netflix
• Yellowjackets Season 3 Finale, April 10 — Showtime
• Doctor Who Season 2, April 12 — Disney+
• The Last of Us Season 2, April 13 — Max

ICYMI:

If you had too much going on last week, here are some of the notable things that premiered or debuted on streaming and digital that you may have missed.

• Paddington in Peru, April 1 — Digital and demand
• Opus, April 1 — Digital and demand
• Black Bag, April 1 — Digital and demand
• The Bondsman, April 3 — Prime Video
• Devil May Cry, April 3 — Netflix
• Jurassic World Chaos Theory Season 3, April 3 — Netflix
• Dying for Sex, April 4 — Hulu
• The Monkey, April 4 — Digital and demand
• Lazarus, April 4 — Netflix
• The White Lotus Season Finale, April 6 — Max

Your Friends & Neighbors begins with a tight shot of Jon Hamm slowly returning to consciousness in the middle of a million-dollar foyer, where he mysteriously lies in a large puddle of a dead man’s blood. Terrified and confused – and after a failed attempt to clean up the mess, likely out of panic – he tries to flee the scene only to trip and fall into the pool, where he ponders just how things took such a dire turn. If your instinct is to process this image as a metaphor, don’t worry – the former Mad Men star himself validates that assumption directly in a voiceover promising an unlikely story of a charmed life gone awry. It’s a sequence of events clearly designed to shock and seduce us. Instead, it plays like a scene you hazily remember seeing a few dozen times before, but can’t pinpoint exactly where.

By the end of the series opener, it’s clear that Apple TV+’s newest high-end drama wants to offer a tale that both titillates and shirks convention. After all, it’s not every day that you see a well-off man really question the affluence he’s spent his whole life chasing, nor do we plebeians often get a less-than-glossy glimpse into the lives of the One Percent. But beyond a handful of solid performances and some lo-fi larceny sprinkled throughout the seven episodes made available for review, Your Friends & Neighbors reads more like a concept that took all the wrong lessons from Robin Hood and Breaking Bad and leans perhaps too heavily on the assumption that the predictably messy lives of the rich are inherently must-watch.

Hamm stars as Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a once-successful hedge fund manager who is unceremoniously fired after a tryst with a lower-level employee. Between his abrupt ouster and a contract that prevents him from immediately accepting a role at a competing firm, he’s left with a few undesirable options. Rather than accept a too-junior position elsewhere or simply downsize from his multiple luxury homes, he decides to steal from his similarly affluent neighbors. It is a brash idea that Coop adopts with startling ease.

If there’s a reason behind that, creator Jonathan Tropper doesn’t really explore it in these first episodes. It’s partly why Your Friends & Neighbors’ pacing feels tricky. Things move slowly here, which would be totally fine if more of the journey was dedicated towards really digging into the stickier parts of Coop or building a somewhat cohesive case to support his bold pivot. But we’re not offered much beyond a rich man supporting the sometimes frivolous whims of his family and his desperation to keep up appearances. Not enough to totally tank a premise, but definitely not enough to build any real empathy towards our leading man.

Between robberies, Coop occasionally hints at a desire to engage in some much-needed introspection. But for every slight indictment of his sort-of former lifestyle, there’s even more evidence of his desperation to maintain it. Rather than interrogate the tension between judging the lives of his neighbors and literally risking freedom just to keep up, Tropper quickly ushers us towards the next scandal before we ask too many questions or even begin to grasp the motivation behind any of Coop’s choices.

These scandals, by the way, are fairly standard fare for the The Rich Are Messier Than You Think subgenre: adultery and occasional drug use, mainly. They maintain the show’s watchability, but are hardly worth any watercooler chat. Even the robberies themselves – you know, the show’s main attraction – are few and forgettable. As Coop lifts a stack of bills here and a too-expensive watch there, he provides us with insight on his peers’conspicuous consumption: owning pieces of jewelry worth enough to feed an entire midsized village or the perplexing, uber-exclusive process of procuring a $50,000 Hermès bag. It’s an excuse to employ some interesting, magazine-spread-worthy background on the things he’s stealing, which are coupled with some glossy-magazine-sleek visuals. But the details aren’t surprising if you’ve ever encountered a rich person in real life or in fiction. Perhaps that’s the occupational hazard of a baby criminal in his first season. But if you’re going to tease some heists, for the love of all things spicy, give us some real heists – or, at the very least, juicer secrets.

The speed at which the story progresses could be due to the buffet of side plots courtesy of Coop’s family and friends/victims. When he’s not an amateur thief, Coop is a bitter divorcé still reeling from the infidelity of his ex-wife, Mel (Amanda Peet), and a father to two vaguely contemptuous teens (Isabel Gravitt and Donovan Colan). Again, we’re only offered bits and pieces of the lore behind the family dynamic, which largely revolves around Mel’s choice to cheat with one of Cooper’s close friends, ex-NBA player Nick Brandes (Mark Tallman). We’re largely left in the dark as to why things fell apart, aside from a few fairly useless idioms from Coop: who admits to taking his “eyes off the ball” at some point during their union. We’re also not clear on what made him such a terrible father or why Mel, a therapist by trade, appears oddly apathetic about her betrayal. Still, there’s an undeniable allure to Peet, who leans into Mel’s complexities and finds moments to inject some humanity, all the while standing absolutely toe-to-toe with Hamm in both moments of peace and chaos.

This is where the show picks up in strength and potential: with its cast, who deliver despite their middling material rather than because of it. Hamm, as expected, is charming and knows how to deliver a line with darkly comedic flair. Olivia Munn, who shines as Coop’s soon-to-be-divorced neighbor and occasional fling, Samantha Levitt, avoids coming off as a cliched vixen thanks to her sharp wit and emotional depth. Her chemistry with Hamm is bested only by her chemistry with Peet as friends and unknowing (at least for Mel) love triangle rivals. In fact, the women of Your Friends & Neighbors, though largely underwritten as little more than sexy, sexy messes, are still far more compelling when given more to do than worry about Coop. This includes Lena Hall, who plays the younger sister who’s forced to move in with him, and Aimee Carrerro as Elena Benavides, a savvy, observant maid who inserts herself into his double life. While the heft of the its premise is seemingly placed on Hamm’s shoulders, much of the ensemble are still afforded private battles that, if the writers decide to dig a little deeper in future episodes and seasons (which are already partially guaranteed, given the show’s early renewal prior to debut) can provide some distraction from Coop’s undercooked insights.

To be clear, Your Friends & Neighbors is perfectly watchable if you still harbor some curiosity over the opulent lives of the rich. It’s stylish, occasionally humorous (sometimes unintentionally so, like in its almost cartoonish portrayal of coke usage), and yes, teeming with sexy moments thanks to its sexy, capable cast. But this isn’t quite the sneaky fish-out-of-water romp it purports itself to be, nor is its main character nearly as complex as his long stretches of self-indulgent banter suggest. If you’re looking for more, much like Coop’s decision to dabble in crime in the first place, there are better choices.

Chec kout Best Buy's best gaming laptop deal of the week. Right now the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 RTX 4060 gaming laptop is on sale for just $1,199.99 shipped after a $400 off instant discount. This is a great price for a 14" gaming laptop that weighs in at about 3 pounds, boasts a gorgeous high-resolution OLED display, and features premium build quality.

$400 Off Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 RTX 4060 Gaming Laptop

Here's your best opportunity to sign up for an Audible membership at a stellar price. Starting now and running through April 30, you can sign up for three months of Audible Premium Plus for just $0.99 per month. Premium Plus is Audible's highest tier plan and normally costs $14.95/mo. As a additional subscription perk, you get a free audiobook of your choice for each of those three months and you get to keep them indefinitely.

Both new and currently expired Audible customers are eligible

Anyone who doesn't currently have an active Audible membership should be eligible. That includes new subscribers as well as existing members whose subscriptions have since expired. There's always a small your-mileage-may-vary disclaimer with these types of promotions, but fortunately it's easy to check if you qualify: log into your account, and if you see the $0.99/mo banner right on Amazon's Audible page then you're eligible for this promotion.

3 Months of Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 per Month

Questing through dangerous dungeons in search of loot and magical artifacts goes together with board games like peanut butter and chocolate, and the Talisman: The Magical Quest Game series was one of the first to make that combination so compelling. The first edition of Talisman was released back in 1983 by Games Workshop – now best known for their Warhammer and Lord of the Rings tabletop war games – introducing players to its various regions and the Crown of Command. Now, more than 40 years later, Avalon Hill has released the fifth edition of Talisman, and once more, you will be able to test your mettle against the dragon and see if you can claim the crown for yourself.

In Talisman, you and up to five friends select from 12 possible characters in this contest for the Crown of Command. These include a nimble thief, an arcane wizard, and a mighty warrior, among others. This latest edition of Talisman maintains a similar flow to previous iterations – roll dice, move to a space where you may draw an adventure card that could spawn a monster, grant you a magic item, or send you to a tavern where a dice roll determines your fate. Then it's the next player's turn, and this cycle repeats until a character who has managed to claim one of the titular Talisman relics passes through the Valley of Fire and defeats the powerful Elder Dragon, claiming the Crown of Command and winning the game.

This rather simplistic – or perhaps aged – approach to adventure board games is not a detriment but rather a point in Talisman’s favor. Right now, there is no shortage of campaign-style board games that feature grand adventures, like Elden Ring or Divinity: Original Sin, and even Avalon Hill’s other Games Workshop revival, HeroQuest, feeling like evolved extensions of Talisman. However, many modern examples can be intimidating and expensive for younger players or those new to the hobby. While it may not be a game I reach for with my seasoned group of gaming friends, I can see it being a great choice when hanging out with my nephews or a group of friends who are less experienced with board games but open to trying something new.

While the actions you take on your turn may seem mundane compared to more modern adventure games, much of Talisman’s appeal lies in the balancing act of Do I try to get stronger, or do I move ahead? This tug-of-war – needing to grow powerful enough to defeat the final dragon without falling too far behind – adds a layer of second-guessing to every turn. How much of a risk do you take by not going after that next enemy for its rewards in favor of getting a jump on the others by heading to the next area?

For all your planning, Talisman is highly luck-dependent, with nearly every aspect determined by a die roll. Calling it "Adventure Monopoly" wouldn’t be entirely off base, though fortunately, Talisman is far more fun (and much quicker to play). You roll a die to determine movement, with your only decision being whether to move clockwise or counterclockwise. The outcomes of different spaces are dictated by another die roll or a random draw from a deck of cards, and combat is yet another roll of the dice. This heavy reliance on chance won’t be for everyone, and the fifth edition includes a Fate resource which allows you to reroll dice or move up to six spaces on your turn, it doesn’t quite go for enough and I would have loved new mechanics that further mitigate the luck element and reward strategy more.

This latest edition makes some changes that help speed up the game and make it less punishing for players. One example is the iconic Toad transformation, which turns a player into a toad, reducing their strength, craft (magic), and movement. Previously, this effect lasted three turns, but now it only lasts one. Character death has also been significantly adjusted. In past editions, when a character died, all items, followers, gold, and other trinkets they had accumulated were dropped on the space where they fell, and the player had to start fresh with a brand-new character. In the fifth edition, you retain all your items and simply move to the Village space, where you can pay for additional lives at the start of your next turn.

While this change makes the experience "nicer" and more forgiving, I feel it also removes some of the tension and sense of danger in confrontations. As a smart inclusion, the rulebook features many of the old rules in the back as "Alternate Rules," with all new fifth-edition changes marked for easy reference by returning Talisman fans.

Alongside the gorgeous redone artwork featured all over the game, much of the rest of Talisman Fifth Edition’s design and aesthetic feels dated and could use some updates to help with accessibility. Text on the board and cards is very small, and the fact that all text is always facing outwards means that no one, regardless of where they are seated, will ever be able to read all of the spaces on the board.

Inside the rule book, there are descriptions of all of the spaces, but a player aid – a fairly common component in modern games – that has them listed instead would have been a great help, and is honestly something I plan to print out and keep in my game box. Even the stat tracking cones – a hallmark of the Talisman series – feel like they could have benefitted from a bit of a refresh too.

Besides from a colorblind standpoint, being able to tell the difference between the ever so slightly large cones and the smaller ones was troublesome even up close on your own board, let alone across the table to gauge the other player’s stats. I get that it’s part of the game’s identity, but perhaps having each stat be a different shape, add some sort of stylized texture, or even just making the difference in size more easily distinguishable, would have gone a long way. Maybe a premium component add-on will come out one day that tweaks this and gives us some good coins too; worst case, there’s always 3D printing and the fan community.

Speaking of add-ons, the Talisman games are known for their plethora of expansions (see our Talisman buying guide), and while it's still early in this edition’s lifecycle, its first expansion does something no other Talisman expansion has done – introduce a co-op mode. Talisman Alliances (see at Amazon) transforms the base game into a campaign/legacy-light experience, featuring five Trials that players work together to overcome, earning rewards they can carry forward.

With envelopes and small boxes to open, my friends and I enjoyed this tweak to the formula, as it nudges the game slightly toward strategy. We could plan how to tackle objectives, trade amongst ourselves to optimize our chances, and watch as the Doom Track made the game progressively more challenging. I wasn’t as fond of swapping out cards from the main Talisman deck before playing, but it's a small inconvenience, and Alliances’ rulebook provides clear instructions on how to reset your game to stock Talisman when you’re done.

Despite releasing in 2024, Talisman Fifth Edition feels very much rooted in the past – for better and for worse. Some may find its mechanics outdated, while others may view them as faithful adaptations of what has kept Talisman alive for over 40 years. I land somewhere in the middle, wishing the game relied less on dumb luck and rewarded strategic play more, while also appreciating the new fifth-edition rules that make it a kinder, faster experience. The Alliances expansion also makes Talisman a fine gateway game into the adventure board game genre – made even more appealing by its reasonable retail price.

Earlier this year, Dell rebooted the legendary Alienware Area-51 lineup of prebuilt gaming PCs, but until recently you could only configure it with one graphics card option - the RTX 5080. That's no longer the case. Starting now, you can choose to equip your Alienware Area-51 with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU and - finally - an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU starting at $5,499.99. Better yet, you won't have to wait months for your system to arrive; Dell estimates an early April ship date.

Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Prebuilt Gaming PCs Are Available

Starting today, Dell is offering an Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC equipped with the new GeForce RTX 5080 GPU for just $2,399.99 shipped. This is one of the best prices you can get right now for an RTX 5080 equipped prebuilt, especially since most other brands seem to be jacking up prices steadily since the RTX 50 series launch in January. The only other prebuilt you can get at Dell with an RTX 5080 GPU costs over $4,000. Good luck trying to find a standalone GPU to build out your own DIY PC; you'll probably spend as much for the GPU as you would this entire system.

Update: Just like everyone else, Dell has also been hit by tariffs. WIth the stock situation of the Blackwell cards not looking any better, prices on Alienware gaming desktops with RTX 50 series GPUs are expected to go up in the near future.

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $2,400

Here's a rare standalone GPU offer you don't want to miss out on if you're currently building yourself a high-end gaming PC. Woot!, which is owned by Amazon, is offering the Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X Gaming Graphics Card for $999.99. Amazon Prime members get free shipping, the rest of us pay just $6. This is currently the best price you'll find for the best RX 7900 XTX on the market. The Nitro+ boasts an outrageously overbuilt cooling system, impeccable build quality, and as a result, high overclocking headroom. This GPU comes with a 90-day Woot! warranty.

Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU for $999.99

USB Type-C has become the standard for charging and data cables alike, so it's good to have extra on hand. Here's a deal where you can get a bunch of cables for pennies on the dollar. Amazon is offering a five-pack of Lisen USB Type-C cables in varying sizes for only $7.96 after a 50% off promo code "478NN6HT" is applied during checkout. That averages out to about $1.59 per cable. USB Type-C cables typically go for about $5-$10 per cable at your local big box store.

5-Pack of USB Type-C Cables for $7.96

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has only been out since February, but you can already grab the Day One Edition of Warhorse Studios' hit sequel for as low as £39.95 at The Game Collection on both PS5 & Xbox Series X. Previously £54.95, that's a massive £15 saving for a critically well-received RPG that will take you at least 40 to 60 hours just to complete the main story.

If you've been distracted by all the other huge games that have come out in the last few months— like Civilization 7, Avowed, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, or Monster Hunter Wilds, just to name a few—this is the perfect chance to return to the Kingdom of Bohemia with a massive bargain.

There are a few other UK retailers who have followed suit, with Argos, Currys, and Smyths bringing the price down to £39.99. TGC is still the cheapest by 4p, but if stock runs out on PS5, we'd recommend going to Currys next since it does free next day delivery and is also the Day One Edition, containing the pre-order bonus quest— "The Lion's Crest".

Argos can do free shipping as well, but only if you collect from a store or place an online order over £100, otherwise costing you at least an extra £3.95 for home delivery. Plus, while Argos is selling the Day One Edition on Xbox Series X, it's only selling the standard version without the bonus quest on PS5.

Smyths is only selling the standard version on both platforms, neither without the pre-order bonus quest. That said, it still makes a better price than those currently at other retailers. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II on PS5 at Amazon UK, for example, currently costs £57.77 at the lowest. ShopTo has cut its prices on the game slightly, but not as much, only going as low as £47.85 for the game on Xbox Series X|S.

While you can get Kingdom Come: Deliverance II for as low as £38.49 on PC through sites like CDKeys, deals like The Games Collection's are the cheapest ways to play the game on console. KCD2 is still priced much higher on each system's digital platforms—£59.99 on both the PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store. If you have either console with a disc drive, The Game Collection, Currys, or Smyths are your best options.

Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.

The GeForce RTX 4090 is a generation older than the new Blackwell 50 series GPUs, but this doesn't change the fact that it's still one of the most powerful cards out there, eclipsing the GeForce RTX 5080 or RTX 4080 Super or the Radeon RX 9070 XT or RX 7900 XTX. Only one GPU performs better - the RTX 5090 - and you'll need to use up a lifetime of luck to find one that isn't marked up by hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

Because the RTX 4090 has been discontinued, it's getting harder to source as well. Fortunately, Dell still sells a Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC configuration that can be equipped with a 4090 GPU. Not only is it one of the few RTX 4090 prebuilts still available - Lenovo and HP no longer carry them - it's also one of the more reasonably priced ones.

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 4090 Gaming PC for $2,999.99

No matter which platform you prefer, there's an excellent variety of video game deals to check out right now. Whether you're gaming on PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC, we've rounded up the best offers to help you get more for your money. This includes the excellent PS5 Slim and Astro Bot bundle for PlayStation fans, and PC players can score a nice little discount on Elden Ring Nightreign preorders right now at Fanatical.

While not on sale, we've also included where you can preorder a physical copy of Elden Ring Nightreign if you're a console player so you can secure your next journey to The Lands Between. A nice bonus is that Best Buy's offering a free $10 gift card with your purchase on that one, so you can enjoy a little treat alongside the game itself. Outside of preorders and the previously mentioned deals, you can see more of our favorite video game deals below.

PS5 Slim + Astro Bot Bundle

Preorder Elden Ring Nightreign

Best PC Game Deals

Humble Choice April 2025

Best Physical Video Game Deals

If you're looking to save on physical games right now, there are plenty of deals worth checking out across PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. We've included just a few of our favorites above, but if you'd like to see more game deals for each platform, check out our individual roundups for these consoles: the best PlayStation deals, the best Xbox deals, and the best Nintendo Switch deals.

Best PlayStation VR 2 Deals

Best Xbox Accessory Deals

Best PS5 SSD Deals

Best Gaming PC Deals

Do you prefer to play on a dedicated PC tower? Navigating the options online can be quite the ordeal. Desk space, portability, and price point are often factors in the decision. However, there are some great PC deals that pop up every now and again that are worth jumping on. One of our favorite deals at the moment is on the Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $2399.99. To see even more PC deals, check out our roundup of the best gaming PC deals.

Super Hero Worship is a regular opinion column by IGN’s Senior Staff Writer Jesse Schedeen. Check out the previous Super Hero Worship entry, Robert Pattinson's Batman Has No Business Being in James Gunn's DCU.

Doctor Doom has well and truly cemented his status as Marvel’s greatest villain by now. What’s not to love? He’s got boundless ambition and an even bigger ego. He’s successfully taken over the world more than once. He had a brief stint as the self-proclaimed God Emperor of all reality. And none of that can fully disguise the fact that he’s a deeply flawed and self-loathing man who can’t get over his decades-old feud with his intellectual rival and former roommate.

Strangely enough, Doom has also emerged as Marvel’s most compelling hero over the past two years. Not the traditional Doom, who’s currently reigning over the Marvel Universe yet again in Marvel’s One World Under Doom crossover. Rather, the Doom of the new Ultimate Universe. He represents a very different yet still utterly fascinating take on this iconic Marvel character.

The Ultimate Universe’s Rebirth

To understand why this version of Doom is so compelling, you first need to wrap your head around the concept of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe imprint. The original Ultimate line, which ran from 2000-2015, was dedicated to giving readers updated and streamlined versions of characters like Spider-Man, the Avengers (rebranded as The Ultimates), and the X-Men, all reimagined to suit the 21st Century and the age of the War on Terror. It was great stuff… up until Marvel lost the plot after a few years.

The new Ultimate line, which kicked off in 2023, is more purposeful and directed in how it changes the traditional Marvel formula. This world, Earth-6160, was meant to be a close copy of the regular Marvel Universe, Earth-616. But thanks to the time-traveling machinations of The Maker (the twisted version of Reed Richards from the original Ultimate Universe), Earth-6160 has gone badly astray. The Maker worked to systematically suppress the emergence of Earth’s superheroes. Most of those superhumans that do exist serve on The Maker’s Council, a shadowy, autocratic cabal that secretly rules this dystopian world.

Plenty of actors can be plugged into the time-honored tradition of knocking off Die Hard. But it takes a particular gravity to be convincing in the subcategory of presidential-themed Die Hard knockoffs, popularized by Harrison Ford in Air Force One and franchised by the Has Fallen movies and TV shows. Like Ford, G20 star Viola Davis is a physically capable actor whose presence is nonetheless more important than her action-hero chops; it’s not so much that they can both issue convincing beatdowns (though they can) so much as the implicit threat behind their glowering looks.

G20 struggles mightily to give Davis a platform for those looks and beatdowns. She plays President Danielle Sutton, seemingly still early in her first term and on shaky ground with the sniping, backbiting press. (Even in terms of wish-fulfillment, apparently treating journalists like anything more than gullible antagonists is a fantasy too far for the script’s four credited writers.) While attending the G20 economic summit in Cape Town, South Africa, she finds herself in the crosshairs of a terrorist named Rutledge (Antony Starr), who takes the world leaders as hostages and uses deep-fake videos to crash the world’s markets while enriching himself. This isn’t one of those movies where the bad guy is meant to be empathetic, but given that President Sutton’s big initiative for solving world hunger sounds suspiciously like a crypto scam, maybe Rutledge has a point about not trusting any of these people.

Regardless, President Dutton doesn’t take this attack lying down, especially knowing that her husband Derek (Anthony Anderson, trying to banish his comic-actor rep with some scowls of his own), rebellious daughter Serena (Marsai Martin; yes, the president has apparently commandeered part of the family from Black-ish), and nondescript son Demetrius (Christopher Farrar) are also in danger. She uses her old military training, and her close partnership with her loyal Secret Service agent Manny (Ramón Rodríguez), to evade capture while punching, kicking, or shooting any terrorists who get in her way. In one of G20’s best details, Sutton has already surreptitiously swapped her red heels for red sneakers underneath the elegant, matching gown she’s wearing – which itself gets torn and used as a makeshift resource along the way.

There’s a bald attempt to enshrine these moments as instantly iconic, as if director Patricia Riggen is trying to reverse engineer a bunch of “Get off my plane!”s. This makes G20 seem painfully self-conscious, yet simultaneously not self-aware enough to be genuinely funny. Once every 10 or 15 minutes, it will stumble into a state of dopey throwback bliss: a hulking henchman approaches Davis and menacingly intones “Let’s dance, Madame President” before they fight, or the classic, ‘90s-thriller touch of making teenage Serena an ace hacker. But these moments fade fast, with followthrough that rarely matches the campy setup.

The actual action scenes, meanwhile, are often choppy. At one point, director Riggen cuts to a wide overhead shot of a skirmish, and pivots the camera 90 degrees, seemingly aware that this is a popular move in action cinema without necessarily knowing why. (Typically, that kind of camera move follows a flipping body, rather than spinning its wheels from above).

G20 isn’t just another streaming movie that feels designed to be half-watched; at times, it only feels half-made, too. Clark Gregg, for example, has a pointless role as Sutton’s VP – like Anderson, he seems to be there to reassure the audience that men can be good at their jobs, too. Back at the White House, Gregg reacts so generically to various developments in Cape Town that it feels like anything could be playing on the screens he’s monitoring. All but the least demanding audiences may react the same way to G20 itself.

After months of little to no availability, Pokémon TCG: Journey Together Elite Trainer Boxes have been restocked at Amazon, and are actually staying in stock. No doubt shipping times might increase as time goes on, but it's now finally possible to buy one of these bad boys off digital store shelves.

Amazon US: Pokémon TCG: Journey Together Elite Trainer Box

Larian has confirmed the hotly anticipated Patch 8 update for Baldur’s Gate 3 finally launches on Tuesday, April 15.

Patch 8 has been available in stress test form for some time now, but Larian has announced it is finally ready to be released to all players next week.

There’s a huge amount of new content coming to the record-breaking Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game with Patch 8, including 12 new subclasses. Elsewhere, there’s photo mode, cross-play, and Xbox Series S split screen. Check out the Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 8 patch notes for more.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 8 new subclasses:

Bard - College of Glamour
As a College of Glamour Bard, you’ll find you have the power to heal friends and command enemies in equal measure. Cast Mantle of Inspiration to bestow your allies with 5 temporary hit points. And should an enemy attack while it is cast, they’ll find themselves Charmed. Play your hand correctly and you’ll be able to use this to your advantage with Mantle of Majesty. Target Charmed enemies and you can command them to flee, move closer, freeze, drop to the ground, or drop their weapon.

Barbarian - Path of Giants

Opt for the Path of Giants, and your newfound giant strength will make it easier for you to yeet friend and foe alike. Forget chugging potions to pump those muscles, these Barbarians benefit from the Giant’s Rage passive that grants both strength and size - allowing you to deal additional damage with Throw attacks. Pockets weighing you down? Not for you and your increased carry capacity!

Cleric - Death Domain

As a cleric of death, you’ll find a few dark new tricks up your sleeves - from spells that specialise in necrotic damage to three new necromancy cantrips. This includes Toll The Dead, a cantrip that causes 1~8 damage when your cleric rings the bell of impending doom - a number that scales if your target has already been damaged. We’ve also added the homebrewed ability to explode nearby corpses, damaging enemies.

Druid - Circle of Stars

These Druids look to the stars for answers, accessing powers beyond those offered through the classic wildshapes. Taking on one of three Starry Forms for their power - the constellations of the Archer, Chalice, and Dragon. Each one favours a different play style and strategy - the Archer dealing radiant damage with astral arrows, the life-giving Chalice restoring hitpoints to you and others nearby, and the wise Dragon, allowing you to deal damage with an added bonus to constitution rolls. The Starry Forms offer not just a celestial aesthetic, but practical, powerful options to enhance your role as a healer, fighter, or strategist.

Paladin - Oath of the Crown

You’ve been sworn to uphold the principles of law. Stay true to your oath and you'll be rewarded with the power to aid your allies and disrupt your foes. Guide your companions in battle with Righteous Clarity, taunt enemies with strategic interrupts, and keep your party standing strong with Divine Allegiance, absorbing their damage while restoring their health.

Fighter - Arcane Archer

Mastering the dual arts of magic and marksmanship, the Arcane Archer subclass offers unique skills on top of new shooting animations. Banish foes to the Feywild, removing them from the battlefield for a turn, or unleash Psychic damage that forces enemies to make a Wisdom saving throw or be blinded until the start of their next turn.

Monk - Drunken Master

Putting the brew in homebrew, as the Drunken Master, you have the ability to consume alcohol straight from your inventory, as well as drink from bottles you see around the Sword Coast, in order to recover Ki. By sharing the bottle with your enemies using Intoxicating Strike, you’ll generate a buff towards your Armour Class and your Chance to hit Drunk targets. Drunk enemies are also susceptible to the Drunken Masters' other abilities, like Sobering Realisation - which sobers up drunk targets, dealing physical and Psychic damage.

Ranger - Swarmkeeper

The Swarmkeeper subclass provides Rangers with three kinds of deadly swarms to assist them in combat. The Cloud of Jellyfish deals extra lightning damage - potentially shocking your enemy. The Flurry of Moths deals Psychic damage, giving you the potential to Blind your enemy. The Legion of Bees deals piercing damage and forces the enemy to make a strength-saving throw or be knocked back 15ft. Each swarm also has the ability to provide you with teleportation capabilities!

Rogue - Swashbuckler

This Rogue subclass introduces a range of new actions fit for the piratical life. Play dirty by tossing sand at enemies to Blind them. Flick your weapon at a target to Disarm them. Or use your new Fancy Footwork passive while meleeing your enemy to ensure they can’t make opportunity attacks against you for the rest of your turn.

Sorcerer - Shadow Magic

As a Shadow Magic Sorcerer, you deal in a form of magic that makes you deadliest in darkness. This subclass gives its sorcerer Superior Darkvision, as well as the ability to Shadow Walk between places of dim light or darkness. It also lets you call forth the perfectly homebrewed Hound of Ill Omen to harass your foes, and use Strength of the Grave to prevent you from being downed - ideal for those attempting Honour Mode runs.

Warlock - Hexblade

Hexblade Warlocks make a pact with an entity from the Shadowfell that manifests in the form of magical weapons. Curse your enemies and force their souls to do your bidding. Slay any enemy that isn’t generally an element of nature, construct, giant blob, or already dead, and you’ll be able to raise their spirit from their corpse for ten turns. This new summon can deal necrotic damage and will rip away a chunk of your enemy’s soul to provide your Hexblade Warlock with healing.

Wizard - Bladesinging

The Bladesinging subclass merges swordplay with wizardry. Expect new spellcasting animations when casting spells with your weapon, a new Bladesong ability to grant you supernatural speed, agility, and focus, plus gives you a bonus to any Constitution saving throw you make.

Patch 8, as Larian has signalled, is the final major update for the game and draws a line under what has been a remarkable time for the developer. Baldur’s Gate 3 launched to critical acclaim and enormous commercial success back in 2023, and has continued to sell strongly throughout 2024 and into 2025.

Larian shocked the gaming world by confirming its intention to leave Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dungeons & Dragons behind to work on a brand new game, which it teased at various points before announcing a media blackout to focus on the new mystery project.

D&D owner Hasbro. however, has teased plans to continue with the series. Speaking to IGN at the Game Developers Conference last month, SVP of digital games at Hasbro, Dan Ayoub, let on that with Larian moving on, Hasbro has "a lot of people very interested in Baldur's Gate."

"We're kind of working out our plans for the future and what we're going to be doing with that. And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that."

Ayoub didn't offer any further information about whether this "stuff" would be a full-blown new Baldur's Gate in the works, or some sort of crossover like the characters had with Magic: The Gathering previously. However, he did acknowledge that he eventually wants a Baldur's Gate 4, but that making one will likely take a while.

"It's somewhat of an unenviable position," he said. "I mean, we're not in a hurry. Right? That's the thing, we're going to take a very measured approach... We've got a lot of plans, a lot of different ways to go about it. We're starting to think about, okay, yeah, we're ready to start dipping toes a little bit and talking about a few things. And I think, in really short order, like I said, again, not to over-tease that point, we're going to have some other things to talk about around that."

Meanwhile, Larian will celebrate the release of Patch 8 with a Twitch livestream in which senior systems designer, Ross Stephens, will run through the changes and additions.

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

If you’re prepping for the Nintendo Switch 2, or just looking for a fast, future-proof memory card, this is one deal to pay attention to. The Lexar 512GB Play PRO MicroSD Express Card is finally back in stock and has dropped to $89.92 on Amazon, down from its usual $99.99.

This is one of the few MicroSD Express cards currently available in larger capacities, and it’s officially compatible with the upcoming Switch 2. That matters, because Nintendo confirmed its next-gen console will only support MicroSD Express for expandable storage. That rules out all your older cards from the original Switch, no matter how much space they had left.

For a limited time, Amazon is offering a Hoto 3.6V Electric Screwdriver for $35.99 after 40% off coupon code "40SZOFEK". Make sure not to clip any of the coupons on the product page, otherwise this code will not apply and you'll be stuck with a lesser discount. This is a great, compact screwdriver for anyone who tinkers with small electronics and deals with dozens of tiny screws, but wants something stronger than one of those "mini precision" screwdrivers.

40% Off Hoto 3.6V 4Nm Electric Driver for $35.99

When building a collection of board games, it's helpful to find good options on sale to pick up. Thankfully we've come across some great deals recently, including this discount on Fireball Island. If you're looking for an adventurous addition into your game night lineup, this one is worth picking up. Especially since it's 20% off at Amazon, which has dropped its price from $22.49 to $17.95. Pick it up for your collection at the link below.

The Game Collection has been an occasional good source of decent deals for some time now, but the retailer has especially come through today with making Elden Ring available for just £21.95 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and PC.

That's a huge maximum price drop of £18 from the previous £39.95 price of the current-gen versions. Among the other retailers selling physical copies of FromSoftware's critically acclaimed and best-selling RPG, that's the best price you can get by far.

The only other in the UK that comes close is Argos, selling most of the same versions for £21.99, but you have to pay at least £3.95 extra for home delivery—making the actual total £25.98 if you don't fancy the free store collection option.

With Elden Rings' Shadow of the Erdtree DLC still being enjoyed by plenty of players in the FromSoft community, even being a GOTY nominee at the Game Awards 2024, there's never been a better time for newcomers to get on board and become a Tarnished in the Lands Between for themselves.

If you're a PlayStation player who still uses both a PS4 and PS5, we'd recommend buying the PS4 version, since Elden Ring is one of those early-gen games that still has a free upgrade to the PS5 included, while the base PlayStation 5 version in the white case does not.

In the event you were planning to double-dip and play Shadow of the Erdtree whilst diving into base Elden Ring, the titular Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Edition has its own deals with different retailers—the PS5 & Xbox Series X|S editions are £39.99 at HMV while the latter is available for a mere £37.99 at Smyths. The PS5 version was also £37.99 at Smyths, but, at the time of writing, was out of stock.

On the PlayStation Store & Xbox Games Store, the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is still £32.99 and £34.99 respectively. So, by purchasing this complete edition of Elden Ring for just under £40, you'll save up to an extra £18.95 compared to buying the base version from The Game Collection and purchasing the DLC later.

Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.