It's actually happened! After months of worrying speculation, we finally got a release date for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond during the recent Nintendo Direct. It's confirmed for December 4, 2025 (phew!), and already up for preorder at Amazon.

But if you tuned into the Nintendo Direct, you may have noticed a couple of extra key details. Firstly, Samus on a bike (huh?), and secondly, Samus on a bike as an amiibo that you can buy (no way!).

After a preview session where I was able to play the first half an hour of LEGO Voyagers, the mandatory-two-player, what-if-Hazelight-made-a-LEGO-game adventure from developer Light Brick Studios and arthouse publisher Annapurna Interactive, I wrote, “LEGO Voyagers might already be my favorite LEGO game ever.”

Keyword: might.

One less-than-ideal thing happened between my initial preview and my 14-year-old daughter and I completing the full version of LEGO Voyagers – where we tumbled, built, and played our way through to the end credits in same-screen co-op: it ended all too quickly. Though we enjoyed it the whole way through – it left us disappointingly unfulfilled because it ended just as it seemed like it should be hitting its stride.

Short But Sweet

You see, we rolled credits after just three and a half hours – even less than the slim five hours the publisher told us to expect. I’ve never been one to knock a game just for being short. Heck, Playdead’s Inside is still probably the greatest game I’ve ever personally reviewed at IGN, and it, like LEGO Voyagers, is a dialogue-free adventure that ended in less than four hours.

But while Inside left my jaw on the floor in astonishment at the incredible masterpiece I’d just experienced, LEGO Voyagers left both my and my daughter’s jaws on the floor for an entirely different reason: We both said, “Wait, that’s it?” To be fair, this is a $25 game and not everything has to be a Silksong. But it did leave both of us wanting more in a, “No really, we actually thought there’d be more than this,” kind of way.

I’m getting that gripe out of the way up front to set expectations, because outside of the all-too-soon end of the campaign, I love almost everything else about LEGO Voyagers. I’ll start with the tone, which is quite different from Traveller’s Tales’ more whimsical licensed LEGO games and the slapstick-with-heart LEGO movies. Voyagers is instead playfully curious – delightfully so – right down to who you play as and how you move. You and your co-op partner are just nameless, voiceless 1x1 bricks – one red and one blue, both with a single, mildly expressive eyeball attached to one side – and you simply roll your way around the LEGO-built world with fairly believable physics bouncing you around the play spaces. And though it obviously makes no logical sense, you can jump by pressing A (on an Xbox controller) and snap yourself onto any nearby peg with B. Pressing Y rotates your orientation by 90 degrees when you’re in that B-button snap mode.

Actually, though, your avatars are not entirely voiceless. Your 1x1 bricks can make adorable little noises if you press the X button, which can occasionally be used to harmonize in certain spots but is more likely intended to get your co-op partner’s attention when playing online. (On that note, kudos to Annapurna for following Hazelight’s lead and offering a Friend’s Pass that allows you to play with a friend online using only one copy of Voyagers.)

Our adorable 1x1 bricks instantly make for likeable protagonists in an almost Pixar-ish kind of way. I appreciate the little touches, like how the blue one starts with a beach bucket on its “head.” The music – which doesn’t always play but makes an impact when it does – plays a big part in establishing Voyagers’s playful vibe, too. It’s mellow but varied, humming along in the background in a way that’s additive rather than just being forgettable noise. Most, if not all of it, would go on your “Chill” or yoga playlist and not anywhere else, but it totally works here.

Bricks That Shine

I also want to commend the authentic art direction and visual identity of Voyagers, which is decidedly less cartoony compared to the licensed LEGO games. It goes for a sort-of realism, with every piece in the diorama-like worlds looking like the shiny plastic its real-life counterpart is – complete with the LEGO wordmark stamped into every brick. The soft daytime lighting baked into many scenes has a warmth and serenity to it that gives it a relaxing, mellow, and playfully curious tone, and the use of light and shadow helped draw me in immediately. That these sets sometimes have water flowing through them or surrounding them only adds to the believability of these being actually constructed LEGO sets that you’re observing from above as an omniscient participant.

Furthering that easy-going atmosphere is the complete and total lack of any penalty for death whatsoever; when – not if – you tumble off the edge of a scene or miss a jump and plunge off the side, you’ll instantly reappear right where you last were prior to your mistake. It’s completely low stakes and encourages goofing off, so when you snap yourself onto your co-op partner and roll both of you off a ledge, or fling them off a bridge you’re supposed to be holding down for them to cross, they can’t even be too mad about it until the fifth or sixth time you pull the same trick.

There’s never any direction given, but intuitively we immediately understood that your goal in a game like this is to get from point A to point B. In the early part of the campaign, that’s accomplished by simply picking up loose bricks from around the scene and working together to assemble them into makeshift bridges to cross gaps. In true LEGO spirit, there’s no single right way to build your path forward: You could build a super-clean structure that a civil engineer would approve of, or cobble together a hodgepodge of pieces with no regard for aesthetics or efficiency but which gets the job done nonetheless. We tended toward the latter, and had a great time doing it. (Side note: a Photo Mode would’ve been a nice addition as a way to capture the digital memory of what you create and share it with friends and family – and the act of working together to solve whatever obstacle is in front of you is really enjoyable. But simple screenshots sufficed.)

Those puzzles ramp up a bit as the campaign progresses, though as I mentioned it felt like there’s a lot more room for it to grow into that it leaves unexplored. A favorite scene of ours had us driving a big dump truck of sorts around an industrial yard where train tracks are made. The locomotive we rode in on had to stop due to a gap in the tracks, so we got out, hopped in the truck with one of us steering while the other (effectively) worked the pedals. We roamed around, collecting raw materials into the truck bed before taking them to the foundry to be forged into usable track pieces, then satisfyingly snapped the new track into place and continued onwards. It’s still simple, but with a few more steps involved than just assembling a bridge or stairway.

We also had fun with a series of minigames near the end of the story that I won’t spoil here, except to note that they’re particularly finicky physics-based challenges that might be quite tricky for younger gamers that are likely to be drawn to Voyagers and its E-for-Everyone ESRB rating. Fortunately, none of these tricky tasks are required in order to progress – but we did have fun earning the Achievements that came along with completing them.

Play Time

Though puzzles make up the meat of the gameplay, there’s also a bit of freedom to play around in many scenes. My daughter and I found ourselves racing to be the first to “pop” every flower we came across by rolling over it (and there are a ton of them throughout the entire campaign) even though there are no actual rewards for doing so. There are also fun little “breaks” you can take, such as by each hopping on a teeter-totter or sitting next to each other on a bench. They’re absolutely not required, but they make for fun little pit stops along the golden path (and another idea that those of us who played Split Fiction earlier this year might recognize).

If I were to levy one more complaint against LEGO Voyagers, it’s that neither my daughter nor myself quite got what the meaning of the completely wordless story was supposed to be. In the opening moments, the 1x1 brick avatars watch a rocket launch go awry. They spend the next handful of hours trying to get to the rocket facility…and I suppose you’ll see what happens. But if there was a moral to the tale here in the way you might expect from watching Wall-E or playing a game like Tunic, both of us missed it.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has now sold 4.4 million copies, staff at developer Sandfall Interactive have confirmed.

Although official figures still stand at 3.3 million copies sold in just 33 days, marketing and release producer Benjamin Dimanche, hair and technical character artist Amandine Marest, and senior gameplay programmer Florian Torres revealed in a conversation with French streamer Antoine Daniel that sales have now surpassed 4.4 million.

In the video interview, when asked by Daniel for an update on sales so far, Torres and Marest answered at the same time. And though Torres said "Officially…", Marest jumped right in with: "4.4 million." The trio then looked at each other, laughed, and Torres added: "Officially, 3.3 million, but it's 4.4 million" (thanks, Gamereactor).

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launched on April 24 across PC and console, but also straight into Xbox Game Pass as a day-one title. It also launched against Bethesda’s RPG behemoth The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, making this a stunning milestone for the first game from Sandfall.

In IGN's 9/10 review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, we described it as a "modern RPG classic," adding: "In so many ways, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 reminded me of numerous classic and contemporary RPGs I love, but developer Sandfall truly understood why those games are special and made the pieces it borrowed its own."

If that's convinced you to give it a go, be sure to check out our tips for the important things to know before going into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The studio recently published update 1.4.0, adding key features like a Battle Retry option alongside a host of quality-of-life changes, visual improvements, and bug fixes.

We recently learned that Clair Obscur is not just the shortened name for Sandfall's blockbuster debut RPG — it's also the name for an entire franchise.

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

Randy Pitchford is on the offensive when it comes to Borderlands 4 PC performance, responding directly to complaints on social media to Claptrap back at disgruntled fans.

Fresh from his confusing comments about the reason why the console version of Borderlands 4 lacks a field of view (FOV) slider, and his declaration that it would have been impossible to break the Borderlands 4 servers through sheer weight of player numbers alone at launch, the outspoken Gearbox chief spent time this weekend addressing the complaints about Borderlands 4 performance on PC. At various points on social media, Pitchford told people to “code your own engine and show us how it’s done, please,” and declare Borderlands 4 “a premium game made for premium gamers.” He also suggested people put their irrational distrust of video game graphics tech such as DLSS aside and use it if available to them.

There’s plenty to dig into here, but ultimately what Pitchford is saying is that PC gamers should manage their expectations when it comes to the performance of Borderlands 4 in the context of their own rigs.

“Every PC gamer must accept the reality of the relationship between their hardware and what the software they are running is doing,” he said, kicking off a thread clearly designed to address the performance issues that have sparked so much early discourse around Borderlands 4.

“We have made an amazing and fun and huge looter shooter campaign game. The game is pretty damn optimal — which means that the software is doing what we want without wasteful cycles on bad processes.”

Pitchford went on to insist that PC gamers have tools that help them balance their preferences between FPS, resolution, and rendering features, and they should make use of them. “If you aren’t happy with the balance between these things you are experiencing, please tune to your preferences using the tools available to you,” he said.

Acknowledging everyone is entitled to an opinion, Pitchford insisted it was right for Gearbox to have focused on Borderlands 4’s default settings hitting 30fps on minimum specs, and 60fps on recommended specs.

“Some of you would prefer more fps, or more features, or higher resolution. We have provided many tools to help you make those trade offs,” he continued.

Then, in typical Randy Pitchford on the front foot fashion: “It is a mistake to believe or expect that PCs between minimum specification and recommended specification can achieve all of extremely high framerate, maximum/ultra features, and extremely high resolution.

“If that last post makes you have a negative reaction, I bet you have emotions and expectations that you feel aren’t sufficiently attended to. I’m sorry.

“But please accept that the game is doing a lot and running pretty optimally and that you may have to either accept some trade offs between fps, features and resolution as your preference or you will continue to be disappointed.”

There’s more. Pitchford went on to advise PC gamers should make use of DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), Nvidia’s AI-powered image enhancement and rendering technology for GeForce RTX GPUs, downplaying concern about input lag.

“Use DLSS. It’s great,” he said. “The game was built to take advantage of it. This is not a competitive FPS. And, I have been led to believe that in a blind test that humans cannot detect any input lag. In my own demonstrates and experiments, I believe this is true.

“Everyone has the freedom to believe what they want to believe and I know on the internet it’s easy to find rage and passionate people who are convinced of all kinds of things, whether they are true or not.

“If you are so attached to the idea that DLSS is bad for your game experience because of something you saw or read on the internet, I am sorry. I hope instead you would use the technology designed to give you the experience you want.”

Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy Movie announcement has sent fans rushing back to the first Mario film, and a teasing scene that appears to set up the freshly-announced sequel.

This scene, coupled with the fact Nintendo looks likely to adapt the plot of the Mario Galaxy video game, has prompted fan speculation that we're about to see a major piece of Super Mario lore confirmed, following decades of debate.

Super Mario Galaxy centers on the character of Rosalina, a space princess that Nintendo itself has said shares similarities with Princess Peach. Within the first Galaxy game, Rosalina's backstory is revealed through pages of a storybook, with her journey through the stars explained as her searching for her long-lost parents.

Rosalina's parentage is kept vague, with her mother pictured but kept largely obscured. But Nintendo is said to have once planned a more concrete backstory that linked Rosalina and the Mushroom Kingdom, with her being related to Princess Peach in some way.

Years later, eagle-eyed fans spotted a mysterious tease within 2023's Super Mario Bros. Movie, in a scene which sees Peach discuss her origins, and reveal how she first arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom.

"You don't seem like you're from here," Mario says.

"I don't know where I'm from," Peach replies. "My earliest memory is arriving," she continues, as a flashback shows her, aged as a toddler, turning up in the Mushroom Kingdom via a warp pipe. Dressed in a skirt decorated with stars and moons, she is quickly found by a group of Toads. "I was so lucky they found me. They took me in, raised me like one of their own, and when I was ready they made me their princess."

Gearbox has confirmed it’s “exploring” how to add a field of view (FOV) slider to Borderlands 4 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S after complaints from console players.

When Borderlands 4 launched last week, console players were shocked to discover not only a lack of a FOV slider in-game, but no motion blur toggle, either. The PC version of Borderlands 4 has settings for both.

The lack of a FOV slider is the biggest issue right now with Borderlands 4 on console, if anecdotal evidence across the internet is anything to go by, with some complaining that not being able to tweak the FOV value is causing them to experience motion sickness.

Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford responded to the complaints to suggest fairness might have something to do with the lack of a FOV slider, although all that comment did was confuse fans given the PC version has it and there’s crossplay at launch.

Now, Gearbox has confirmed it’s working on the problem, saying in a statement published on social media:

“Vault Hunters! We have heard your feedback on FOV (Field of View) sliders on console. The team is currently exploring how to bring these sliders to both Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions. We will continue to read your feedback and prioritize game updates with your experience in mind. Thanks all!”

There are suggestions the console version of Borderlands 4 lacks a FOV slider in order to maintain certain performance levels. By increasing the FOV, you’re putting the hardware under more strain and potentially impacting things like framerate.

Whatever the issue, Borderlands 4 got off to a big start on Steam, where it hit just over 300,000 concurrent player numbers on Sunday. No other Borderlands game has come close to that in terms of concurrent player numbers on Valve’s platform. The true number will of course be much higher when you add console players.

While Borderlands 4 got off to a big start in terms of player numbers, it’s not entirely plain sailing for Gearbox. The release was marred by complaints about PC performance that have resulted in a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam. Gearbox has issued an update to address the PC version of Borderlands 4 specifically, although without patch notes.

If you are delving into Borderlands 4 don't go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We've also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players' choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).

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

The creative director of Hell is Us has opened up about how it felt to unexpectedly share a release date with Hollow Knight: Silksong, calling Team Cherry's last-minute release "a little callous."

The shadow-dropped announcement of Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release date of September 4, 2025, was a less-than-celebratory day for the developers of around 10 other video games with existing marketing plans to launch around that same time.

As we summarized at the time, it impacted the release of a number of games like Demonschool, Aeterna Lucis, Little Witch in the Woods, CloverPit, Megabonk, Baby Steps, Faeland, Starbirds, and Moros Protocol. Even Stomp and the Sword of Miracles, an indie game with no release date plans anywhere in sight, elected to delay its Kickstarter launch and demo release due to Silksong.

Now, in an episode of Friends Per Second, as spotted by This Week in Videogames, Hell is Us' Jonathan Jacques-Belletête said of Team Cherry: "When you know you're that big, I think a shadow drop is a bit like... wow."

"As the 'GTA 6 of indie'… to shadow drop something like this is a little callous," Jacques-Belletête added, but while he admitted there was a flurry of "emails and texts and messages back and forth between a lot of people, between us and our publisher — it was a real thing — we decided to keep the date, and I’m happy that we did."

"We’re still much bigger than some of the smaller ones who would have gotten a lot more affected and who decided to change their dates — changing the date of Hell Is Us would have been a pretty big endeavour," he explained.

"The real pain in the ass is that you have to refund your pre-orders when you do that, right? That’s the real, ‘How you gonna do this?’ — now you need to rebuild them. We didn’t say, ‘Oh my god, we have to do it, but we can’t because of that.' We were like, ‘No, I think we can get through the storm’.

"Honestly, it’s not just Silksong, there was Cronos [The New Dawn], it was a busy time. That’s the thing nowadays, honestly — getting a window where you’re pretty much alone is almost impossible. 15 years ago, the mid-end of the summer was always a dead period. But there’s no such thing anymore. It’s just constant madness."

Interestingly, some developers who are also changing their release windows are going out of the way to say the change in their schedules isn't anything to do with Silksong, too. For example, Slay the Spire 2 was recently delayed to March 2026, but the team proactively refuted any suggestion it was because of Silksong.

Hell is Us is out now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S. We awarded it 7/10, writing: "Hell is Us has a blend of exploration, puzzles, and combat that, while familiar, pushes you to really pay attention to the world around you in a way that’s both compelling and occasionally frustrating."

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

Super Mario Bros. Wonder's upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 Edition was announced last week — but now fans believe Nintendo may have accidentally revealed more than intended.

Pause the Switch 2 Edition's trailer at the 2:01 mark and a mini-game icon can clearly be seen featuring the character of Rosalina, Nintendo's space princess originally introduced in the Super Mario Galaxy games.

Rosalina is not present in the original Super Mario Bros. Wonder, available on Switch, but her presence in the game's upcoming Switch 2 Edition would make sense considering the huge push for Galaxy content that Nintendo is currently prepping for next year.

Officially titled Super Mario Bros Wonder: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park, the upgraded version of Nintendo's platformer will contain a suite of additional multiplayer games. Indeed, it's this Bellabel Park plaza that can be seen in the trailer, showcasing a challenge with Rosalina and Yoshi on its icon (as spotted on social media by Nintendo fan DynamoSuperX).

During the trailer, Nintendo also teased further additions coming to the Switch 2 version of Wonder, but said it would detail these at a later date. Could this include a new selection of levels with a Galaxy theme, to tie into Rosalina's apparent inclusion? Time will tell.

The Final Fantasy series’ iconic victory fanfare has been a staple feature for the majority of the long-running RPG franchise since the very first entry in 1987. However, series composer Nobuo Uematsu recently revealed that a music programmer’s accidental discovery was what enabled him to give Final Fantasy’s battle themes and fanfare a truly punchy, driving drumbeat for the very first time.

At a recent sold-out event reported on by GameWatch, Uematsu talked in detail about Final Fantasy III's score and its development. With a soundtrack that incorporated a wider variety of tunes including comical pieces, Uematsu credits Final Fantasy III as a turning point in which he established his approach to composing music for RPGs.

Uematsu emphasized that there was a stark difference in Final Fantasy III’s music quality compared to Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II, even though they were composed using the same equipment and for the same console (the Famicom / NES). Although most games only used four of the NES’s audio channels, Uematsu revealed that Final Fantasy III made heavy use of a particular drum sound on the fifth channel, which was discovered completely by accident during development.

Nintendo's decision to announce costly DLC for Pokémon Legends: Z-A and lock three Mega Evolutions behind an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription has prompted fan complaints over the amount of money required to unlock every creature.

Last Friday's Nintendo Direct included the announcement of Mega Dimension, a $30 DLC that includes additional story content and allows fans to encounter two new Mega Evolutions: Mega Raichu X and Mega Raichu Y.

Three other Mega Evolutions were also confirmed, for Kalos Starter Pokémon Delphox, Chesnaught and Greninja, with small print revealing these will only be available post-launch as rewards for competing in online ranked battles — which require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

With Pokémon Legends Z-A already $70 on Switch 2 (or $60 on the original Switch), fans were quick to note that the $30 Mega Dimension DLC — announced weeks before the game's launch, and available to pre-order already — pushes the price of owning every new Mega Evolution to $100.

On top of that, the need to have an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription only adds to the costs involved. And with each of the three granted over subsequent in-game seasons, players will need to keep their Switch Online active for multiple months (and win ranked battles) to unlock the lot.

"Why lock something like this behind a paywall and ranked battles, did they not think at all?" wrote one fan, footboy1996. "Because money," replied another fan.

"This paired with the literal day one $30 DLC is like beyond bonkers," wrote AshStash, "lame as hell. Like, if you wanna experience the whole of this game day 1, you gotta cough up (minimum) $20 for online, $70 for base game, and $30 for dlc. Is that not insane."

"Pokemon Heart Gold was $34 when I was 8," wrote SStonerag. "Adjusted for inflation that's $50. Which is like $70 cheaper than all dat. Wtf is this."

"This should not be the damn norm," TreasureHnt9696 concluded. "It's disgusting and money hungry. I'm getting the switch 2 version and not getting the DLC. I'll watch others play."

Other fans pointed to the recent $20 cost of beloved Hollow Knight: Silksong, or $50 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, or $30 Hades 2, to highlight how much the DLC cost.

"For 100 of this currency you can play three Game of the Year contenders or one Pokémon game," Thedeaddiety wrote.

Raichu, Chesnaught, Delphox and Greninja join a growing list of additional Mega Pokémon species getting their debuts in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, following recently announced Mega Evolutions for Dragonite, Malamar and Victreebell. You can read about them in our recap of every new Mega Evolution announced for Pokémon Legends: Z-A so far.

Last week brought a huge amount of Nintendo news on everything from Mario to Zelda, Yoshi and Fire Emblem. We also got a first look at Pokémon Pokopia, an Animal Crossing-esque life simulation spin-off. For everything else, check out everything announced at the Nintendo Direct September 2025.

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

Deltarune Chapter 5 will release in the second half of 2026, developer Toby Fox has said on Undertale's 10-year anniversary.

In mid-June — after a three-year wait between previous chapter releases of Deltarune — Fox promised a faster turnaround on the next episode of the saga, and revealed Chapter 5 was set for a 2026 release.

Now, in a new update to celebrate Undertale's 10th birthday, Fox has admitted that after "factoring [in] the localization and testing," he "doesn't think that the game will be released in the first half of 2026."

"That's not a surprise, right?" Fox wrote. "From last time's updates, you guys have access to exactly how long each step of the development took. Anyway, we don't have any external factors surrounding the release date this time. We'll release it when it's done, and we will continue to update you guys on the progress of its completion. Thanks!"

Fox also took the opportunity to describe exactly where in the development cycle Deltarune Chapter 5 is, revealing that the "early parts" are complete, albeit needing a little polish. The last "40%-or-so" is in a "rough first pass state, and the last 10% is in a prototyping state."

"Probably around 85% of cutscenes have been created up to a first draft state, however, of those at least 20% or so will require more polish," Fox said, adding that regular enemies are mostly done, with at least one programmer already working on the regular enemy bullet patterns of Chapter 6. The "direction of the boss battles" has been decided, and boss attacks have already been planned and completed. The next step is to "arrange the attacks and make adjustments to them if necessary to fit the atmosphere of the battle."

"With Chapter 3 & 4, there were some creative 'hurdles' which made developing parts of the game difficult. How to do the Boards of Chapter 3, how to design the events in Noelle's house, etc.," Fox added. "Once we got past those hurdles and expanded the team, everything went much more smoothly. Chapter 5 was not without hurdles! But... we already passed all of the obvious ones, so there's little to get in our way now! We just need to keep making the game." Only one "main deadline" has been outlined for the rest of 2025, and that's to kick off translation by the end of the year.

The good news is that anyone new to Deltarune still has time to catch up. We thought what we've played thus far is 'Amazing,' awarding it 9/10, writing: "Even though the journey is only halfway to completion, Deltarune's incredible story is already bursting with hilarious charm, unforgettable characters, and an iconic soundtrack that make it worth investing your time in." A "sequel" of sorts to beloved indie RPG Undertale, it has released chapter by chapter starting in 2018, with Chapter 2 releasing in 2021 and the two most recent chapters dropping alongside the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 earlier this year.

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

Gearbox has released a new update for Borderlands 4 “to help improve stability for a wide range of PCs.” However, the developer failed to provide patch notes for the update, leading to confusion about what it actually does.

Borderlands 4 launched last week and hit a peak of over 300,000 concurrent players on Steam alone — a figure significantly higher than any Borderlands game released on Valve’s platform. However, Steam reviews are ‘mixed,’ with most of the complaints revolving around PC performance.

In response, Gearbox posted a Borderlands 4 Nvidia Optimization guide on Steam, advising players how to optimize their graphics settings for “better performance and framerates” on PC with the Nvidia app.

Gearbox then issued a piece of advice to PC gamers that to me reads like an effort to prevent players from making knee-jerk reactions to the game's performance as soon as they’ve changed their settings: “Please note that any time you change any of your graphics settings, your shaders will need to recompile. Please keep playing for at least 15 minutes to see how your PC's performance has changed.”

Over the weekend, Gearbox posted on Steam to signal the release of a new game update in frustratingly vague terms and with no patch notes, leaving players to try to work out what it did, and if their performance had improved. As the Steam user review rating suggests, results are mixed, but that’s anecdotal evidence at best.

“We hope you're having a blast in Borderlands 4. The team is loving seeing you all shooting and looting your way through Kairos,” Gearbox said. “Today we're releasing a new update to help improve stability for a wide range of PCs.”

"There is no patch notes. Is this really just a blog post for an unhelpful optimization guide?" wondered redditor wtfwasthatdave. "The patch did not fix my crashing issues," added PBKrunch. "Game runs horribly, still runs horribly after the patch and the people saying it runs fine are using both frame gen and super sampling to achieve their 'frames,'" said drummerdude41.

Gearbox went on to repeat its advice to wait 15 minutes before making any performance calls after tweaking settings, saying: “Please note that any time you change any of your graphics settings, your shaders will need to recompile; it may take up to 15 minutes for this process to fully complete.”

“Thanks again for joining us on this journey, Vault Hunters — we're just getting started,” Gearbox continued. “We’re continuing to read your feedback, planning additional updates and will have more details to come.”

If you are delving into Borderlands 4, don't go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We've also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players' choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).

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

While the Pokémon Trading Card Game’s White Flare & Black Bolt Elite Trainer Boxes are unfortunately subject to huge price increases due to market conditions, Amazon & TCGplayer have had some price drops from their usual rates — along with Walmart offering you some value for money in bulk.

For individual boxes, Walmart, which were previously selling some of these Pokémon Elite Trainer Boxes for over $110, are now listing White Flare ETBs $77.88 and Black Bolt ETBs for $79.88, respectively. If you’ve been aiming to pull some of the most valuable cards in Black Bolt or the highest-value chase cards in White Flare, this is the best opportunity currently available.

At Amazon, Pokémon TCG White Flare ETBs, previously listed for $104.49, are now as low as $89.43 on Amazon. To that extent, the Pokémon TCG’s Black Bolt ETB has had price drops on certain listings too, going from $95.49 to $89.87.

TCGplayer, whose listings usually fluctuate in price more rapidly, have listings around the same price tag — with a White Flare ETB going for $80.89 when shipping is taken into account. Meanwhile, the cheapest Black Bolt ETB listing is now going for $88.88.

Yes, these are still almost twice the MSRP of $49.99, the high demand vs short supply has usually resulted in marked prices going past $100 — making this a good deal by comparison.

You can still check other retailers like Best Buy, which are the main retailers we’ve seen sticking to the $49.99 price tag, but any stock usually goes within a matter of minutes due to scalpers and the auto-buying bots at their disposal.

Gaming chairs are one of the best investments a gamer can make. After all, during those long gaming sessions, where are you going to sit? While gaming keyboards and gaming monitors can really lift your gaming experience to the next level, none of it really matters if you don't have a comfortable chair to sit in. Our top entry, the Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen, is a perfect example: It's a chair big enough for pretty much any body, and it's comfortable and sturdy enough to sit for hours.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Gaming Chairs:

I've been reviewing gaming chairs for years, and the overall best ones you can buy provide a place to sink into for hours of gaming without fatigue or pain. Including features like customizable lumbar support, adjustable armrests, and a movable headrest to beef up the ergnomics only adds to a more comfortable, distraction-free space to focus on your favorite PC games.

However, there are an excess of options to choose from. To help you out, I've cut this list down to six tested and researched chairs offering solid frames, high-quality material, and all the creature comforts you could want.

1. Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen

Best Gaming Chair

The original Secretlab Titan Evo I reviewed reigned supreme as my top pick since its release in 2022. With the release of the Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen edition, that has officially changed as the new model officially slides into the top spot, and by quite a bit too. Though it might look similar from afar, all it takes is a touch to realize how much better its new leatherette and seat cushion actually are.

In the two years since the release of the original Evo, Secretlab has been hard at work developing its brand new Nanogen Hybrid Leatherette. This new material is much softer and instantly makes the chair more comfortable just by virtue of how nice it is to sit on. In my review, I noted that the only similar material I've felt is Brisa, an "ultrafabric" that's typically found on luxury products. The only gaming chair I've encountered with such a fabric, or that even comes close to the Titan Evo Nanogen and its sweet, sweet suppleness, is the LF Gaming Stealth, a luxury bucket seat that starts at $1,700.

Secretlab also took gamers' feedback to heart about the firmness of its signature cold cure foam. This new model now features a Nanofoam Composite cushion on the seat, providing a layer of softness right out of the box while still providing adequate support for long gaming sessions.

The armrests also see a major upgrade. While they still feature hot-swappable top cushions thanks to their magnetic attachment system, the Nanogen comes with velour-wrapped PlushCell foam arm toppers by default. If you've ever experienced sore elbows from leaning on the arms of your gaming chair, you'll know how important this softness is. Paired with its PlushCell magnetic neck pillow, it's easily one of the most cozy gaming chairs out there. With the optional Ergonomic Recliner add-on, it's the only gaming chair I've ever taken a nap in.

This new model does come at a premium over the original, but it's worth every penny. It's class-leading in every way.

2. Razer Iskur V2 X

Best Budget Gaming Chair

3. Haworth Fern

Best Ergonomic Gaming Chair

4. Hinomi H1 Pro

Best Mesh Gaming Chair

5. Razer Iskur V2

Best Fabric Gaming Chair

6. Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen XL

Best Big and Tall Gaming Chair

The Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen XL is a clear winner for the best big and tall gaming chair. I've been recommending the Titan Evo since its original launch several years ago, but with the Nanogen Edition, the company has taken comfort to the next level (which is also why it's my No. 1 pick for overall gaming chair). The XL version just upsizes that to deliver its comfort to a wider audience.

This version takes everything from the normal-sized version and carries it through. That means you'll get the exceptionally soft, Brisa-like fabric and extra seat cushion, as well as those gloriously plush yet still somehow supportive armrests. If you're a larger person, then you know how important proper back support is, and this delivers that too with its adjustable lumbar support.

It also features full compatibility with the company's different magnetic accessories for the standard Titan Evo XL. There are magnetic pillows and different armrest covers and, though not magnetic, you can also attach the company's new recliner accessory to put your feet up and kick back with the controller.

This chair doesn't come cheap, but believe me when I say that it's worth every penny when stacked up against other gaming chairs attempting similar levels of support and comfort. Secretlab has been an industry leader for a reason, and the Nanogen line is easily the best it has ever produced.

7. Respawn 900 Gaming Recliner

Best Gaming Chair with a Footrest

8. Secretlab Titan Evo (Small)

Best Gaming Chair for Shorter Gamers

How to Choose the Best Gaming Chair for You

• Price: This will probably be the biggest determining factor. Going out with a set budget is helpful, as you’ll find chairs ranging from under $50 to more than $1,000. Cheaper gaming chairs, like the Corsair TC100 Relaxed, still deliver the comfort of more expensive ones. You just need to be prepared to sacrifice features, like 4D armrests or adjustable lumbar support. I’d stay away from anything under $100, especially if the chair makes promises that appear too good to be true.
• Design: Comfort is king; nobody wants to spend hours in a seat that causes back or neck pain. Finding a chair that’s the right size for you is essential for preventing discomfort. Luckily, most chairs list their dimensions. You’ll want a wide, well-cushioned seat, a long backrest, and a good range of height adjustability. All that should sit on a sturdy metal frame capable of holding your full body weight. If you’re looking into a racing-style chair with bucket seats, like the AndaSeat Kaiser 3, pay special mind to the bolsters, as they can dig into your thighs.
• Materials: For the most part, gaming chairs offer PU leather, fabric, or mesh. PU leather is easy to clean but may not always be super durable, and it gets hot when wearing shorts. Fabric, which is used on the E-Win Champion, won’t be as easy to clean, though it’s less of a heat magnet. Mesh is the most breathable option. However, you’ll lose the cushioned seat and backrest in favor of a suspension system, which can be a hit or miss. The Razer Fujin Pro is one chair that gets mesh right.
• Ergonomics: After locking those in, a movable headrest, adjustable armrests, and customizable lumbar support can enhance the chair’s ergonomic, but these features often make the chair more expensive. Other quality-of-life additions, like a tilting or rocking mechanism, also help with relaxation between heated gaming sessions.

Keep all this in mind so you know how to pick the perfect gaming chair for your needs.

Gaming Chair FAQ

What's the point of a gaming chair?

Because gaming chairs are glorified office chairs, their main selling points are, frankly, aesthetic. Gaming chairs are often a bit more expensive than comparable office chairs and don't have the same comfort features as seats designed for working in all day. Still, if you love the way that gaming chairs look and you're going for a certain vibe in your gaming den, the best gaming chairs do truly shine. You just might want to look at the best ergonomic chairs if you want something that's truly going to take care of your aching back.

How much should you spend on a a gaming chair?

While you can buy a gaming chair for $80 or less, doing so is just asking for eventual pain. Something inexpensive is usually nothing more than a cheap plastic frame (versus steel) with some thin fabric or pleather upholstery on top.

You can get a quality chair for as little as $200, and that’s the absolute bottom floor of affordability we’d go for. Spending $300 or more will get you access to better options. If your budget allows you to soar a bit higher, more expensive gaming chairs start to come with built-in lumbar support, cooling gel layers, and even more adjustable ergonomics, not to mention RGB LED Kits and more. It all depends on what matters most to you in the long term.

Television’s biggest night has arrived once again, and with it comes a chance to celebrate the best and brightest talents of the past year’s small screen offerings at the 2025 Emmy Awards — and the most awarded shows of the night are a great example of the excellence in acting, writing, directing, and producing that the television landscape is full of.

The overall TV slate is so good lately that a few shows ended up breaking some awards records during the ceremony. Seth Rogan’s hit new comedy The Studio won a whopping 12 awards this year, including nine at the Creative Arts Emmys last weekend — which allowed it to break the record for most wins in a single season. The record was previously held by The Bear, which won 11 awards for its second season during last year’s ceremony.

The new Apple TV+ comedy also surpassed The Bear’s record for most wins in a show’s first season. The FX dramedy won 10 Emmys during its first season, while The Studio blew past that number between both ceremonies.

Another week, another avalanche of discounts tempting me to ruin my already sketchy bank balance. I promised myself I’d be strong, but scrolling through these cuts reminded me why I keep caving. There’s just too much quality here to ignore. Scroll and see for yourself...

Contents

• Retro
• Nintendo
• Xbox
• PlayStation
• PC
• LEGO

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm using Brighton the sun's blazing rays to light a 20-candle cake for Mario Party 6, the entry that brought voice control to the GameCube. Along with the bundled microphone that had us yelling at our TV like maniacs, noughties-era-me was also impressed with a dynamic day-night cycle that strategically transformed entire boards every three turns.

Twenty years later, I still remember the chaos of four people gathered around a single microphone, and honestly, that's the kind of couch co-op magic that defined the GameCube era. Just an absolute box of joy (with a convenient handle to boot).

Aussie birthdays for notable games.

- Speed Freaks (PS) 1999. eBay

- Messiah (PC) 2000. Get

- Mario Party 6 (GC) 2005. eBay

- Mario Party Advance (GBA) 2005. eBay

- Star Fox 64 3D (3DS) 2011. eBay

- Pac-Man Championship Ed. 2 (PC,PS4,XO) 2016. Get

Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch

• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (-25%) - A$59.90 An inventive twist on Hyrule's legend, this entry plays with perspective and puzzles in ways that keep the series fresh without losing its magic.
• Super Mario RPG (-25%) - A$59.90 Square and Nintendo’s classic collab shines again. A playful blend of platforming and turn-based battles with a goofy cast that still charms decades later.
• Sonic Frontiers (-40%) - A$59.60 Sonic goes open-world, sprinting across islands with speed, puzzles, and titanic bosses. A bold, divisive experiment, but one fans should try at this discount.
• Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (-34%) - A$46.30 Still the sharpest alternative to Mario Kart. Beautifully remade, with deep drifting mechanics and an outrageous lineup of characters to keep the chaos flowing.
• Civilization VII (-24%) - A$68.00 Sid Meier’s long-running empire builder returns with refinements, new leaders, and endless late-night “one more turn” temptations.

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

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Exciting Bargains for Xbox

• 1TB Expansion Card (-30%) - A$215.60 Plug-and-play storage that matches Xbox velocity architecture. Pricey, but essential if you bounce between Game Pass monsters like Starfield and Call of Duty.
• WWE 2K25 (-54%) - A$55.00 The squared circle gets flashier each year. A solid roster, career content, and creative tools make this worth grappling with at a heavy discount.
• EA Sports FC 25 (-26%) - A$29.00 The artist formerly known as FIFA keeps evolving with better dribbling, presentation, and modes. For under thirty bucks, it’s a golden goal for football fans.
• Dead Island 2 (-70%) - A$20.90 Sun-soaked zombie slicing across LA, packed with gore, humour, and drop-in co-op. A guilty pleasure at a fraction of launch price.
• Cyberpunk 2077 (-65%) - A$31.40 CDPR’s redemption arc. With Phantom Liberty, patches, and next-gen polish, Night City is now the RPG paradise it always promised to be.

Xbox One

• Dying Light 2 Del. (-42%) - A$69.00 Parkour, undead chaos, and branching storylines. Deluxe content sweetens the deal for those keen to survive the night.
• Assassin's Creed Mirage (-70%) - A$23.80 A stripped-back AC returning to stealth roots in Baghdad. Sleek, short, and a steal for fans of old-school Assassin’s Creed.
• Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (-60%) - A$27.90 Three platforming classics remade with gorgeous polish. Still brutally tricky, still satisfying when you nail those tricky jumps.

Or just invest in an Xbox Card.

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Pure Scores for PlayStation

• Split Fiction (-37%) - A$44.00 A stylish narrative adventure that toys with dual perspectives, weaving puzzles and emotional beats into its experimental structure.
• Ghost of Yotei (-21%) - A$99.00 A gorgeous new samurai epic with breathtaking visuals, tight combat, and a moving tale. Pricey, but prestige experiences rarely come cheap.
• Star Wars Outlaws (-67%) - A$36.00 Finally, a scoundrel-focused Star Wars tale. Explore planets, dodge the Empire, and live the outlaw fantasy at a massive markdown.
• EA Sports WRC (-68%) - A$24.00 Dirt Rally devs take the official license for a hardcore sim that nails every muddy drift and hairpin.
• Octopath Traveler (-60%) - A$36.30 Square Enix’s HD-2D darling, now on PS5. Turn-based storytelling with eight heroes, beautiful pixel art, and excellent music.

PS4

• Batman: Arkham Col. (-59%) - A$34.90 Rocksteady’s trilogy of Batman greatness. Tight combat, iconic villains, and a moody Gotham to glide through.
• Mega Man Battle NL Col. (-34%) - A$25.30 Nostalgic grid-based battling from the GBA era. A huge anthology of quirky digital duels.
• Katamari Damacy Reroll (-75%) - A$11.20 Still delightfully weird. Roll up the world to rebuild stars, all to a funky soundtrack. A cult gem at a bargain.

PS+ Monthly Freebies
Yours to keep from Sep 2 with this subscription

• Psychonauts 2 (PS4)
• Stardew Valley (PS4)
• Viewfinder (PS5/PS4)

Or purchase a PS Store Card.

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Purchase Cheap for PC

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (-65%) - A$34.90 [Use code: AUTUMN ] AC finally heads to feudal Japan. Two protagonists, stealthy intrigue, and samurai drama deliver a dream setting for fans.
• Pico Park (-100%) - A$0 Cooperative chaos where teamwork makes the dream work. Free is the perfect price for falling out with friends.
• Titanfall 2: Ult. (-85%) - A$5.90 Wall-running, mechs, and one of the best FPS campaigns ever made. Criminally cheap.
• A Plague Tale Bndl (-65%) - A$19.40 Two rat-infested adventures, beautifully grim storytelling, and stealth survival gameplay. Sobering, heartfelt, and worth the plunge.
• Outward Def. (-88%) - A$7.10 A cult RPG that values survival, co-op, and consequences. Brutal, but rewarding.

Or just get a Steam Wallet Card

Legit LEGO Deals

• City Go-Karts and Race Drivers (-47%) - A$8
• Captain America vs. Red Hulk (-37%) - A$57
• Botanicals Lotus Flowers (-35%) - A$15
• Statue of Liberty (-33%) - A$99.90

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The whole world may have been waiting for Hollow Knight: Silksong’s cocoon to finally crack open, but it sure doesn’t seem to have been burdened by that pressure. This excellent sequel to an all-time great has more than managed to live up to the high expectations I had set for it, standing as both a smart continuation of the original Hollow Knight and a fantastic game of its own. It stays close to the formula that made its predecessor so impressive, but still reshapes, refines, and revamps just about every aspect of it in ways both big and small. Silksong is unapologetically challenging, endlessly creative, and impressively thoughtful across both its gorgeous world and the stories that are told there. The metamorphosis may have taken almost a decade, but this butterfly has emerged as one of the biggest and boldest around.

If you never played Hollow Knight, the main thing you need to know is that you seriously missed out, and may want to go back and do that first. It’s a masterpiece of a 2D platformer, filled to the brim with action, exploration, and oodles of interesting lore. Silksong follows in its footsteps but doesn’t require you to have played the original, though it is certainly enhanced by having done so – both because the story has plenty of great little callbacks and references to catch, but also because it feels like an evolution of what Hollow Knight was doing mechanically. It sticks so close to the original’s style and structure, in fact, that a little bit of the sheer surprise has admittedly worn away. But that doesn’t stop it from hiding mysteries, delights, and unexpected twists all over the place that a Hollow Knight fan like myself treasured discovering.

Regardless, your journey across the brand-new world of Pharloom as the wise and confident Hornet stands on its own merits. Hornet is an excellent hero, taken to this land against her will at the start and then driven to do the right thing for its people once she finds out why. I don’t want to spend this whole review comparing what’s changed from Hollow Knight line by line (we’d be here all day), but the difference in tone with her in the driver’s seat, as opposed to your silent Knight, is a big one, and a decision that largely works to Silksong’s benefit.

Hornet is polite but stern, reserved but not cold, and the top-notch writing throughout lets you get to know her through conversations with a charming cast of bug-based characters I grew to love. They range from adorable to goofy to genuinely touching, with standouts like the singing pilgrim Sherma running that whole gamut over the course of their own personal arcs. The larger story is made more explicit as a result of Hornet being able to talk, clearly spelling out the “why” of this journey and certain key events in a way that really worked for me. I found I was more engaged from the jump here than I am in most games where you have to spend hours in a wiki to understand what’s really happening – though there are still plenty of subtle mysteries hiding in the corners of this world for you to piece together yourself. As with so much of Silksong, it strikes a fantastic balance here.

Pharloom is a fascinating place as well: a dying land where hopeful bugs go on a pilgrimage from its lower levels all the way up to the shining peak of a spectacular cogwork city called The Citadel in blind service of their faith – though few actually survive the trek you now inadvertently find yourself on. One of the greatest strengths of games as a creative medium is how they can tie themes and actions together. For example, part of the reason I gave Celeste a 10 back in 2018 was because of how it made you experience Madeline’s struggle to overcome her own personal mountain by making you climb a literal one. Silksong pulls off a similar trick: it’s about being tested and overcoming, about leaving the world a better place than you found it even when that’s hard to do, and about persevering while still making time to give yourself grace in the face of defeat. You don’t need to read a single line of dialogue to feel those themes through the actions you are taking alone.

That’s because, just like Hollow Knight, Silksong will test you. This game is Tough with a capital T – although, the specific word I prefer to use is “challenging,” because it doesn’t just punch you in the face and kick you to the curb for the sake of being hard. It challenges you to overcome obstacles that routinely feel insurmountable at first but are finely tuned to be conquered as your skill, knowledge, and toolset of earned abilities improves. Perhaps an extreme example of this is an area like Bilewater, which has very few respawn benches to rest at and includes some of the most punishing poison water I’ve seen in any game, forcing you to cleanse yourself after falling in it by wasting your precious healing ability while also draining the resource that fuels that ability – a double whammy. I thought this area was unreasonably difficult to navigate when I first tried to force my way through it – but then I took a break, explored elsewhere, and returned hours later with new combat options, items to help mitigate that poison, and a better gameplan that made it a cakewalk.

Pharloom has so many branching paths and optional areas that its roadblocks were able to feel substantial without killing my momentum. If something was too challenging to take down with my current items, upgrades, or skillset, the knowledge that I’d almost always be rewarded for trying another path stopped me from ever getting too frustrated. Rather than slamming your head against every wall you come across, Silksong is best approached by letting it come to you as you move methodically and flow down the most appealing paths you find. Having the map pin system available at launch (as opposed to Hollow Knight, which added it in after the fact) is also a godsend that allows you to keep track of all those out-of-reach ledges and the roads you don’t immediately go down as you explore – and you’re never wasting time by picking the paths that call to you.

I was also routinely lifting my jaw off the floor every time I entered some visually stunning new area, almost all of which had incredible music to match. A vibrant coral canyon filled with flying bugs that look like fish; a blustering snowy peak that had me huddling for warmth; the golden halls of The Citadel itself; and the clockwork innards that power it. Silksong does the thing every great sequel should do: it looks how you remember Hollow Knight looking, but actually makes its predecessor seem flat by comparison. Every dial has been turned up to 11 – there’s more color, more sparkle, and more variety. And whenever I thought I had found the limits of this map, I’d stumble into another new area with its own ecosystem, secrets, and hostile bugs.

Those aggressive enemies and brutal boss fights follow the same “go with the flow” philosophy as the areas around them: if you face them like this is one of the more typical 3D action games Hollow Knight clearly takes some inspiration from, you might find yourself having a rough time. But if you treat Silksong as the platformer it really is, staying patient enough to focus on positioning while dodging and getting damage in where you can, then even its most savage enemies will start to melt. It has become a cliche to call combat a “dance” nowadays, but it truly is the best way to describe some of these encounters. Silksong isn’t the most mechanically nuanced action game in the world, but learning an enemy’s patterns as you fall into a rhythm of dodging a swing, dashing in for a hit, hopping to safety, and then repeating really does feel like a bit of blade-based choreography that rewards spatial awareness over button timings alone.

Another reason the haymakers Silksong throws do more to motivate than frustrate is because, in the grand scheme of difficult action games, this one is actually pretty dang forgiving. A lot of credit for that goes to the healing system, which lets you spend Silk (a resource you earn by hitting enemies) to recover a big chunk of health all at once. This might seem like it would incentivize aggression to gather more Silk, but it actually had me playing it safe and prioritizing precision above all else. If I was ever falling behind in a fight, it was always encouraging to know that I could potentially heal back up to full like nothing had gone wrong if I just stayed alive long enough to get a few pokes in. (Of course, that is sometimes easier said than done.)

Silksong’s big fights and the paths between them don’t mess around, but they generally make sure to put this lifeline within grabbing distance as well, leaving it to you to figure out how to reach out and seize it. Bosses have reliable windows to safely heal in, and platforming areas frequently throws weaker enemies at you that are designed to do little more than stock up your Silk, which gives you a reason to fight even these smaller foes – and to do so thoughtfully, because they may not threaten to kill you outright, but taking a reckless hit limits the relief they provide before some stronger foe lurking up ahead. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the areas with that poison water are pretty much the only ones where their more common enemies can respawn while you are still on the screen next to them – developer Team Cherry might test you with tall orders, but the means to meet them are always available somewhere.

As much as I love the way Silksong challenges me, there are some aspects of how Team Cherry has balanced the difficulty that can leave a sour taste in my mouth from time to time. To be clear, I think the tuning is impressively dialed in overall: outside of a couple late-game fights, I beat nearly every boss in a half dozen attempts or fewer, usually taking just two or three tries, which felt like a sweet spot in terms of providing pushback without ever making me want to throw down my controller. That said, it is a little jarring how many enemies and environmental hazards deal damage in chunks of two instead of one compared to the original Hollow Knight, often emphasized by two distinct hit sounds that make it seem like you’ve done something wrong to cause that extra pain. That can result in feel-bad moments even if the “difficulty” isn’t technically out of whack. Health upgrades also arrive so slowly that it’s a little discouraging when your life total is functionally cut in half by a boss that only deals damage in pairs (including just accidentally bumping into them sometimes).

A similarly rough feeling can be caused by a few areas that put their respawn benches extremely far apart, even turning a handful into “gotcha” traps that savagely pull the rug out from under you when you think you’ve finally found relief. I actually think those traps are hilarious, but desperately searching for a checkpoint when you are first exploring a new area teeters on the line between thrilling danger in uncharted territory and a “what am I doing wrong here?” sense of dread. However, this bench placement isn’t some mistake done without regard; just like a boss has to be learned and overcome, the challenge of the areas that use benches more sparingly is surviving to find one, and finally doing so is as satisfying as taking down any big bug. Silksong is a true-blue platformer at its heart, and mastering its precise movement options across devious, spike-covered obstacle courses was a real treat.

Reaching that mastery is supported by Silksong’s customization options, which expand on the original Hollow Knight and give you more ways to tune your playstyle to your liking. Here you can unlock Crests that change your basic attacks as if you were wielding an entirely new weapon – that might mean swapping the default diagonal downslash for the more vertically direct option provided by the Wanderer Crest, changing to the Beast Crest for a claw-based attack that turns your burst heal into temporary lifesteal, or – my personal favorite – using the Reaper Crest to gain access to wide-arcing attacks that knock extra Silk out of your foes after a heal. There’s not much incentive to swap between these Crests once you’ve found the one you are most comfortable with, but they all feel different enough to provide some genuine playstyle decisions.

The new Tool system that slots into these Crests is also flexible in a way I appreciated. In addition to equipable abilities that cost some Silk to use, all the Tools you find are split into three color-coded categories. Red Tools give you an additional, ammo-limited attack like a throwing knife or mid-air spike trap; blue Tools usually provide some sort of defensive effect like expanded Silk storage or fire resistance; and yellow Tools offer more general support options like making dropped money fly to you automatically or marking Hornet’s current location on your map. This separation is a notable improvement over Hollow Knight’s single-slot system because support effects and combat buffs are no longer fighting for the same limited space, and I was more freely swapping Tools in and out depending on the area or boss I was taking on as a result.

Each Crest has a different balance of the color-coded slots your Tools go into as well, letting you get pretty creative with weird builds that mix and match certain abilities or deprioritize stuff you don’t find yourself using. For example, I often saved my Silk for heals rather than those special abilities, so the drawback of the Architect Crest, which swaps the Silk slot out for a third red Tool, ended up fitting my playstyle nicely for a bit. That said, I do wish the “weapon” styles weren’t permanently tied to a Crest’s Tool slots and passive effects like they are – I would have happily kept using the Architect for its Tool options and unique ability to turn Silk into ammo while away from a bench, but the more rigid, drill-like basic attacks that came with that (while cool) had me returning to the Reaper eventually.

Of course, you have to find all of these different options first, and the laundry list of things waiting to be discovered across Pharloom is extensive. I always try to complete as many side tasks as I can before heading down the “correct” path in games like this, letting myself get distracted by friendly NPCs and the quests they post on boards in the small handful of towns you’ll come across. When I finally reached the end, my in-game timer was at just over 44 hours played and 96% completion. Was that enough Silksong for me? No – I’m still hungry to dive back in and clear off that last 4% (and I already know where most of it is).

There is a bit of a strange bump in the middle of that road, however, as you can “beat” Silksong much faster than what I just laid out. I am going to avoid specifics and spoilers here as much as possible, and if you don’t want to read anything about what “finishing” this game means then you can skip the next three paragraphs, but know this is a big enough deal that it really does feel worth discussing in broad strokes. That’s because the main path is actually fairly achievable if you’re only interested in following the primary quest objective, and the first time I reached the credits was before I even hit the 30-hour mark (and it could have happened sooner than that if I wanted it to). But that initial ending is… mediocre, with an abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion to the story that left me more confused than fulfilled.

Based on my experience with the first Hollow Knight, I barely even took this finale seriously, but the trouble is that there’s very little indication you could reach a different one this time around… and you can. In vague terms, doing so requires you to complete a lot of entirely unrelated activities that are framed as completely optional when you run across them. That includes some pretty uninspiring fetch quests that ask you to grind pointless items from specific enemies, as well as one particularly lame one where the required items just randomly spawn in some nearby caves, which is an addition that feels like an uncharacteristic step backwards. You will probably do everything you need to eventually if you are trying to complete all the side stuff anyway, but there is a huge amount of additional content and a stellar alternate ending waiting behind these opaque unlock requirements, and it’s wild someone might miss that because they couldn’t be bothered to complete some boring fetch quest.

This is a similar-ish structure to unlocking the “true” ending of the original Hollow Knight, but the big difference is that the requirements for doing so there were directly tied into your character’s journey of discovery, and the path you had to take was a little more intuitive as a result – here, I was essentially left floundering for a bit as I tried to figure out which checkboxes still needed to be arbitrarily ticked off. Hollow Knight’s alternate ending also only changed the final fight, whereas Silksong conceals what feels like roughly 15-20% of its content behind this false ending. The writing of that conclusion is also great, probably some of the best in the entire story, and it shakes things up gameplay-wise in a pretty delightful way I won’t spoil. I recognize this weird structural decision won’t be a huge deal in the grand scheme of things – all of Silksong’s secrets will be common knowledge soon enough – but it still feels like an odd choice.

That all being said, it is legitimately cool how any two people could take wildly different paths on the way there. It took me 35 hours to find an area a friend of mine found in less than 10, and I unknowingly took such an unusual route to reach Act 2 that I solved a special puzzle area and beat an incredibly fun boss way before I was “supposed” to, giving me access to an entirely different part of The Citadel than I expect most people will initially see. Splintering paths like this are all over the place, and it’s genuinely incredible that Silksong can be approached from so many directions without ever feeling like you are doing something wrong or have gone somewhere you shouldn’t (apart from a punch to the face feeling a little harder than normal).

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Madden NFL 26 for $42.99

Last week, we saw Apple TV’s The Studio and HBO Max’s The Penguin coming out as big winners during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Tonight, the winners will be announced for major categories in the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony. Severance and The White Lotus lead the way in nominations, though The Penguin, The Last of Us, and Andor are also predicted to take home a bunch of statuettes.

If you’re hoping to tune in, here’s how you can watch tonight’s awards ceremony live.

When Are the Emmys?

The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards officially start at 8pm ET / 5pm PT on Sunday, September 14. The red carpet begins at 6pm ET / 3pm PT, with pre-shows kicking off throughout the day. The event is scheduled for three hours, lasting until around 11pm ET (though it almost always runs a tad long).

Where to Stream the Emmys Live

World 1-1. We’ve all run, jumped, and brick-bashed our way through that familiar first stage. It seems so simple and second-nature to us now, but in this modern age of iterative entertainment, it is almost impossible to convey the magnitude of the leap Super Mario Bros. represented compared to everything that came before it. That cabinet, that game, might as well have descended from outer space. Its art, music, smoothness, and most of all, its level design were light-years beyond.

World 1-1 introduced game design principles and a geometry of motion so perfectly calculated that it endures as one of the great works of the art form to this very day. But how was this miracle performed? Well, let us tell you, with the help of its creator, Shigeru Miyamoto.

The closest things to the opening level of the plumber’s first solo adventure up to that point were the stiff-but-serviceable screen-flipping Pitfall! and the gorgeous but terrible side-scrolling Pac-Land. Both were early essays on game design: Pitfall! presented a two-layered jungle with plenty of enemies and obstacles to jump over, but its flip-screen progression, huge non-linear map, strict time limit, and unintuitive treasure placement made it feel more like a puzzle to solve than a world to explore. Pac-Land was simply beautiful to behold and scrolled fairly cleanly in one direction, but the layout of the levels was haphazard and frustrating, and the controls felt maddening.

In comparison, Mario was like exploring a realized, unified, and diverse world. Every step revealed new threats and sights. Leap over enemies or land on them? What’s in those question blocks? There’s a Starman?! Wait, hidden lives? A secret underground treasure room with its own music?! Wait, there’s a FIRE FLOWER?! You can hold B to run or blast turtles with pyrotechnics?! What even is this game????? But in order for all of this madness to be built, it first needed solid foundations, and that’s where World 1-1 really comes into its own — teaching you the basics in the most elegant manner possible.

Super Mario Bros. isn’t nearly as big as it feels. In fact, World 1-1 measures only about 15 screens, including the underground room. It feels much bigger because over two or three screens, the tone of the terrain changes, from the intro section to leaping over pipes to platforming to pits. And yet within that tiny space, you have every power-up in the game, a hidden multi-coin block, a pair of traversable pipes, an invisible 1-UP, two enemy varieties, and a secret fireworks display.

But perhaps the biggest secret of 1-1 is that it’s a school. And the course is Mario 101. In a 2015 interview with Eurogamer, Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka talked about the extraordinary degree of thought that went into the design, beginning with World 1-1’s iconic opening: a tiny Mario facing an empty plane. Then the team considered how to teach the player several skills at once: how to avoid enemies, how to destroy enemies, how question blocks work, and how to tell an enemy Goomba from a helpful mushroom. All three are accomplished within the first steps of this opening level.

“If a suspicious enemy appears,” states Miyamoto, “the player will need to jump over it.” Running forward into the first Goomba just kills you, a lesson a player need only learn once before discovering they’re much safer in the air. Then moving forward, the player discovers some low bricks and question blocks.

“If we have a question block, they might just try to tap that as well,” continues Miyamoto. “If they see a coin, it will make them happy and they’ll want to try again.” Tapping the second block releases a mushroom that slides away, then bounces off a pipe to come hurtling at the character. The low ceiling makes it very hard to avoid, and the mushroom hits Mario, but instead of damaging him, it transforms him into Super Mario. In a matter of seconds, you’ve learned how both rewards and dangers work through the rest of Super Mario Bros.

“We kept simulating what the player would do”, Miyamoto explains. “So even within that one section, the player would understand the general concept of what Mario is supposed to be and what the game is about.” Even small details mattered. The opening screen’s first enemy was supposed to be a Koopa Troopa, but teaching the player the jump and kick movement necessary to overcome one worked less well at the beginning than they’d hoped. So they invented the simple-to-stomp Goomba (late in the game design process, according to Tetzuka) to help players understand the basics first.

Another valuable lesson, holding B to run before a long jump, is taught safely by two gaps later in 1-1. Pointing at this area, Miyamoto says, “Here we are preparing the player for the B-Dash”. He notes that the first gap is a pit with a filled-in bottom, a safe place to experiment and learn about long jumps without risking lives. This jump is followed immediately by a nearly-identical variant, a pit where, if the player falls, they will die, but by applying the skills they’ve just learned, they will easily survive. “By doing that, we wanted the player to naturally and gradually understand what they’re doing”, he continues. “The first course was designed for that purpose: so they can learn what the game is all about.”

Miyamoto further explains that the tutorial nature of early stages usually comes only after the team has crafted more sophisticated levels, so the creators know what skills the players need to develop. “Usually when we have a really fun course, they tend to be the later levels”, Miyamoto confirms. “World 2-1, World 2-2, we create those first and then afterwards come back and create World 1-1. There’s a lot of testing whilst the game is being built. I don’t give them (players) any explanation and just watch them play and see how they do it, and most of the time I think they’ll play a certain way or enjoy a certain part, and they end up not doing that. I think ‘That's not what I intended!’ So I have to go back and use that as feedback”.

The intricately crafted layout creates a satisfying illusion of choice and a constant curve of advancement. Miyamoto sums it up perfectly: “Once the player realizes what they need to do, it becomes their game.”

The level layout is tuned to match Mario’s famous momentum, allowing a skilled player to perform precise jumps, slides, and combinations. An experienced Mario jockey can run forward at the beginning 1-1, squash a Goomba while hitting the first mushroom block, sprint forward, hit a coin block, reverse direction, jump up, catch the mushroom before it hits the ground, and hit the other coin. The team wisely mapped run and fireball to the same button, creating a slight degree of real-world physical dexterity challenge to trading momentum for projectiles. Likewise, the need to hold B to run and press A to jump made long jumps just slightly and satisfyingly more difficult.

Then there’s the music. Unlike most software development teams, the Mario team’s composer, Koji Kondo, was embedded with the developers. The famous Mario theme was composed and edited over and over as the level layout changed to match the pace of the design, and from then on, those few bars of digitized score would never leave our brains again.

And all of this magic was achieved using only the most limited of tools back in 1985. To really understand why Super Mario Bros. works so well, you first need to understand how the NES renders graphics. The animated characters that move around the screen, such as Mario, are sprites, detailed and mobile clusters of pixels. The NES can only handle a few sprites onscreen at a time, so most of the rest of the world, including the ground, platforms, hills, and backgrounds, is made up of tiles and 8x8 blocks. Most of the objects you see in Super Mario Bros. are composed of these chunks. The question blocks, walls, and bricks are all made up of four combined 8x8 tiles, creating distinct 16x16 squares. It’s similar to the process used to build levels in Mario Maker, only more granular. These little tiles were the tools that Shigeru Miyamoto and team worked with to build a masterpiece.

Super Mario Bros is an early NES game, created before advanced memory map chips stretched its graphical capabilities. That meant that to achieve their vision, the Mario team had to push the hardware to the absolute limits of its capabilities. The entirety of Super Mario Bros.’ source code is 40K. That means the entire game, including graphics, fits on about thirteen closely-typed pages. Crammed into that space are 32 distinct worlds, eight boss battles, a second quest, myriad secrets, and a memorable cast of characters.

That restriction meant the design team had to make every bit count, and that led to all kinds of clever tricks to save space. Ever noticed the clouds and the bushes are just the same palette-swapped tiles? Or that the blocks in 1-2 are just recolored blocks from 1-1? Both tricks (and many others) were used to compress space and make room for more features.

Add together the level design, gorgeous visuals, perfect controls, and iconic music, and you have a game that transcends the tropes of older action games. Super Mario Bros. took levels and made them worlds. And Mario just went on from there. World 1-1 to 1-2. An underground kingdom. Then later, forests. Castles. Bridges. Under oceans. Worlds upon worlds.

But none would exist without that very first. Hell, it's arguable that video games as they exist now wouldn’t be a thing if it weren’t for World 1-1. From the most meagre of pixelated tools, Miyamoto and the team at Nintendo crafted a miracle, and one that’s still as fun to play today as it was 40 years ago.

Jared Petty likes writing about how wonderful and silly video games are. You can find him at Bluesky as Bluesky as pettycommajared.

The Witcher: Season 4 will premiere on Netflix on October 30, the streamer announced Saturday during the Canelo vs. Crawford fight. New key art, photos and the first clip featuring Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia were also released.

The action-packed clip shows Geralt battling a nightwraith. The new photos, which can be seen in the slideshow below, give us our first official look at Laurence Fishburne as Regis.

The Continent awaits. Here’s your exclusive first clip of Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher Season 4. Returns 30th October, only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/CTvryeUmRd

— The Witcher (@witchernetflix) September 14, 2025

Liam Hemsworth, of course, replaced Henry Cavill, who left the show at the end of Season 3. Cavill’s Geralt was last seen walking off into the woods with sidekicks Jaskier (Joey Batey) and Milva (Meng’er Zhang).

“This is the beginning of a two-season journey for our family to finally reunite and be together — hopefully forever,” The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt told Tudum.com about Season 4.

The season’s official plot synopsis reads: “After the Continent-altering events of Season Three, Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri find themselves separated by a raging war and countless enemies. As their paths diverge, and their goals sharpen, they stumble on unexpected allies eager to join their journeys. And if they can accept these found families, they just might have a chance at reuniting for good…”

The Witcher’s penultimate season is composed of eight episodes that run 50 minutes each. The series will end with Season 5.

In addition to the aforementioned Liam Hemsworth and Laurence Fishburne, the cast of The Witcher’s fourth season includes Anya Chalotra (Yennefer of Vengerberg), Freya Allan (Princess Cirilla of Cintra), Joey Batey (Jaskier), Eamon Farren (Cahir), Anna Shaffer (Triss Merigold), Mimî M Khayisa (Fringilla), Cassie Clare (Philippa), Mahesh Jadu (Vilgefortz), Meng’er Zhang (Milva), Graham McTavish (Dijkstra), Royce Pierreson (Istredd), Mecia Simson (Francesca), Sharlto Copley (Leo Bonhart), Danny Woodburn (Zoltan) Jeremy Crawford (Yarpen), Bart Edwards (Emhyr), Hugh Skinner (Radovid), James Purefoy (Skellen), Christelle Elwin (Mistle), Fabian McCallum (Kayleigh), Juliette Alexandra (Reef), Ben Radcliffe (Giselher), Connor Crawford (Asse), Aggy K. Adams (Iskra), Linden Porco (Percival Schuttenbach), Therica Wilson-Read (Sabrina), Rochelle Rose (Margarita), and Safiyya Ingar (Keira).

For more Witcher coverage, find out how to read The Witcher books in order and watch the teaser trailer for The Witcher: Season 4. And be sure to read our The Witcher Season Volume 1 review and The Witcher Season Volume 2 review before watching Season 4 next month.

If you want a gaming PC that can follow wherever you may roam, a gaming laptop is likely your best bet. While desktop parts will usually still beat out a gaming laptop, the best of them offer excellent performance in the latest games. Best of all, some models are able to offer peak performance while still remaining thin and light, like the Razer Blade 16, which is my pick for the all-around best gaming laptop of 2025 so far. As of April 15, these are back in stock after Razer had briefly taken down the direct link to buy the Razer Blade 16 and other laptops, replaced with "Notify Me" buttons, ahead of when tariffs were supposed to kick in.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Gaming Laptops:

The first thing I always recommend to people hunting for a new gaming laptop is to consider is what PC games they actually hope to play. The second is what settings they hope to play them at. These two questions can guide your purchase to higher- or lower-end hardware and what trade-offs you're willing to make. Now more than ever, gaming laptops come in every shape and size, from thin and light devices to moderately heavy powerhouses like the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16. Larger performance-driven laptops (like the ones that come with a 4K display) achieve their enhanced performance with more powerful, and power-hungry, components, which means sacrificing on portability, battery life, and fan noise.

There are countless to choose from a ton of different gaming laptop brands, and finding the best for you can be more than a little daunting. I've tested dozens over the years, and I have a deep understanding of what it takes for a laptop to ascend to greatness for different types of gamers and can confidently say: These are the best gaming laptops of 2025 so far.

Looking for discounts on laptops like these? Check out our guide to the best gaming laptop deals.

1. Razer Blade 16 (2025)

Best Overall Gaming Laptop

Let's get this out of the way: The Razer Blade 16 isn't the most powerful RTX 50-series laptop. Instead, this notebook earns my top pick because of sum of its parts. See, the team at Razer understood that a huge crosssection of laptop gamers carry their machines with them every day, and flat-out making it nicer to use while also being powerful can dramatically enhance the use experience. And, as an extra, if you're willing to invest in Razer's laptop cooling pad, you can unlock the full wattage for performance that goes toe-to-toe with other RTX 5090 laptops.

Make no mistake: The Razer Blade 16 is still a gaming beast. In my review, I threw everything and the kitchen sink at it and there was nothing it couldn't run well on its crisp 1600p OLED screen. While running those games and benchmarks, the system stayed surprisingly quiet. This is a gaming laptop you could use in a school library without attracting attention.

It's true that a high-powered RTX 5080 like the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 also recommended in this guide will get you similar, if not better, performance. What most other laptops can't offer, though, is the Blade 16's level of portability and noise.

Measuring just 0.59 inches at its thinnest point, it's a marked improvement from its predecessor and, well, most gaming laptops with such powerful hardware. It also weighs only 4.7lbs; you won't forget it's there, but it won't leave your back and shoulders sore from lugging it around every day. That portabilty makes it more appealing as a daily carry, so I didn't second guess taking it with me every day even when I might not actually need it.

The Blade 16 does a great job of feeling like the premium product it is. The chassis is milled from a single block of aluminum and feels solid and robust. It also helps with heat dissipation, but solid engineering ensures that the keyboard never gets more than warm while gaming. Its screen is also excellent with impressive factory calibration and multiple professional color modes that allow it to be used for creative applications straight out of the box. It's per-key RGB keyboard is completely programmable, complete with SOCD (Snap Tap) and macro support to better emulate a dedicated gaming keyboard.

On top of that, it also offers great battery life while gaming. Thanks to the new advancements in how the RTX 50-series handles power management, you can play games for around two hours instead of one or less like last generation.

The Razer Blade 16 is an excellent laptop that, while pricey, is something special in this space. If you want a great gaming laptop that will impress you with its portability, look no further.

2. MSI Thin A15 AI

Best Budget Gaming Laptop

3. Gigabyte Aorus Master 16

Best High-End Gaming Laptop

4. Asus Zenbook S 16

Best Work/Gaming Laptop

5. Asus TUF Gaming A14

Best Gaming Laptop for Students

How to Pick the Best Gaming Laptop

Gaming laptops have come a long way in relatively little time. Power, portability, and price have all seen dramatic improvements in just the last five years, and somehow gaming laptops are getting thinner and adding even more features.

Portability and Form Factor

Where will you be taking this gaming laptop? If you'll be taking it out every day, you’ll want something portable, such as a 15-incher or even smaller. Users who just want a laptop to live at home as more of a desktop replacement should go for a 17-inch rig or bigger for the larger screen size and greater power.

Weight is another consideration if you'll be carrying the laptop around all day. Anything more than 5lbs is going to be very noticeable. This can be an issue because gaming laptops have a tendency to be a bit bigger than competing options that don't need larger and more advanced cooling solutions. It's not impossible to find thin and light gaming laptops with great performance, but you should definitely take the time to consider what you're comfortable with and if you're willing to trade performance for portability.

With integrated GPUs, with the integrated graphics on modern processors getting to be so good, it's also possible to find gaming laptops in form factors that just didn't work before. The ROG Flow Z13 is a prime example; it is essentially a 2-in-1 gaming laptop that can double as a tablet for artists and students, but offers impressive gaming performance thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI MAX processor.

The point is, you don't need to limit yourself to bulky clamshell designs in the same way you used to. Depending on your budget and performance needs, there are more options than ever out there.

Power

The newest gaming laptops come equipped with the latest Nvidia RTX or Radeon RX graphics chips. These mobile chips are nearly as capable as their desktop version, plus they support the latest ray tracing, DLSS, and frame generation technologies.

On that front, it can also be important to consider what games you plan on playing, their minimum and recommended specifications, and what advanced features they might support. If the game is equipped with the latest version of Nvidia's DLSS, for example, and supports frame generation, you can probably get away with a lower-powered, lower-cost graphics card since the tech will improve your frame rate even on a cheaper card. As you get into higher tiers of laptop GPUs, prices skyrocket quickly.

Choosing the latest processor isn't quite as necessary, but it's nice to have and can help ensure that it doesn't bottleneck the potential performance of your GPU. If you're looking at a laptop with an Intel processor, be sure that the processor isn't more than a couple generations behind. Both Intel and AMD offer gaming processors with built-in neural processing units for enhanced AI performance. For Intel, these are referred to as Core Ultra processors while AMD dubs its lines AI and AI MAX. Both can offer great gaming performance.

If you only plan to take part in light gaming, a recent Core Ultra or AI Max processor can also take the place of a dedicated graphics card and save you hundreds in the process. Both of these chips feature powerful integrated graphics, and so long as you're willing to adjust settings and resolutions, can deliver playable frame rates. They're also great if you plan on streaming your games through the cloud through services like Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce Now.

Price

If you're set on a gaming laptop and just need to decide which one to get under a certain price point, then your choices will be narrowed down based on your maximum budget. If that's you, you'll probably want to explore our full list of cheap gaming laptops we'd recommend instead, but here's our top budget pick right now:

Most gaming laptops are only as portable as the nearest electrical outlet. All that power comes at a price, though. The general rule of thumb about gaming laptops is that their battery life stinks. In general, you should plan on plugging in your laptop before loading a game. Playing on battery power typically lasts an hour or less and also delivers worse performance due to the power limits the laptop imposes on the graphics card and processor. It's just not ideal, but may still be better than lugging around a heavy power brick, depending on what you're playing.

One recent exception to this is Nvidia's RTX 50-series laptop GPUs. These new chips feature enhanced power management features, so you can count on closer to two hours instead of one.

Another consideration when choosing a gaming laptop versus a gaming desktop is its price. It costs quite a bit more to stuff all those components (i.e. the built-in trackpad, keyboard, speakers, and display) into an easy-to-carry shell.

Depending on how tech-savvy you are, You can save some money by choosing a laptop with less memory and storage at checkout and upgrading these components yourself. It's usually much cheaper to do so. However, you'll want to research carefully to ensure that both are upgradable at all and, if so, are easily accessible. Some laptops hide components inside, beneath others, making them especially difficult, if not impossible, for anyone other than an expert to access. Bear in mind, however, that a laptop in general is much less upgradable than a desktop gaming PC. Outside of memory and storage, changing out other components likely means buying a whole new PC.

Gaming Laptop FAQ

Should you buy a gaming laptop or a gaming PC?

When considering a gaming laptop over a gaming desktop, ask yourself: Is the premium price worth it for the luxury of portability? In virtually every case, you'll pay more for a gaming laptop with similar on-paper specs to a well-matched gaming desktop. It doesn't stop with the cost: Just because two graphics cards have the same name doesn't mean that they're the same in all circumstances. Laptop versions of same-name GPUs usually offer reduced performance due to their thermal and power limitations. Gaming desktops provide more bang for your buck, are less expensive to upgrade and repair, and last longer before they go obsolete. See our guide to gaming PCs vs. gaming laptops for a deeper comparison.

Is the CPU or GPU more important in a gaming laptop?

Both are important, but you should consider the graphics card more than the processor. Even though a slow processor can throttle the graphics card and lower your fps, usually this is much less of a concern than simply having an underpowered GPU. Remember, it's the graphics card that renders your games and is the single most influential component to gaming performance.

Do I need a dedicated graphics card in my gaming laptop?

Not always. This depends on what you're hoping to achieve. If you're interested in running the latest games at high graphics settings and resolutions, you definitely need to invest in a laptop with a great graphics card. If you only plan to do light gaming, enjoy older games that aren't very demanding or stream your games from the cloud. A modern processor with integrated graphics can also be a good way to save some money. With that in mind, relying on an integrated graphics card hasn't always been as possible as it is today. As such, I would recommend this only for gaming laptops with AMD Ryzen 7000-series or Intel Core Ultra processors.

Do you need a laptop cooling pad?

Many modern gaming laptops come with ample cooling solutions baked into the chassis. But given their much smaller form factor than traditional desktop gaming PCs, thermal throttling can occasionally be an issue. If you are experiencing a downgrade in performance or your device seems a little too hot to the touch, a laptop cooling pad could be a simple, affordable solution. Laptop cooling pads often feature fans and ventilation slots or mesh for better airflow than when your laptop rests on a gaming desk or your lap, helping to ensure your device is working to its full potential and can even increase its longevity. If you're looking to keep your gaming laptop cool on the cheap, the Havit HV-2056 is an excellent option.

Christopher Coke has been a contributor to IGN since 2019 and has been covering games and technology for more than a decade. He has covered tech ranging from gaming controllers to graphics cards, gaming chairs to gaming monitors, headphones, IEMs, and more for sites such as MMORPG.com, Tom’s Hardware, Popular Science, USA Today’s Reviewed, and Popular Mechanics. Find Chris on Twitter @gamebynight.

Image Credit: Annalee Tsujino is a multi disciplinary designer and illustrator. Check them out on Instagram @antsu_illustrations.

Randy Pitchford has responded to complaints about the console version of Borderlands 4 lacking a field of view (FOV) slider, suggesting fairness may have something to do with it.

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S players of Borderlands 4 were shocked to discover not only a lack of a FOV slider in-game, but no motion blur toggle, either. The PC version of Borderlands 4 has settings for both — in the case of FOV you can increase the value in degrees up to 110 for both first-person play and vehicle use, and for motion blur you can change the amount and the quality.

The lack of a FOV slider is the biggest issue right now with Borderlands 4 on console, if anecdotal evidence across the internet is anything to go by, with some complaining that not being able to tweak the FOV value is causing them motion sickness.

“Man, I've tried to play it twice today,” said redditor xInsaneAbilityx. “Both times I get that ‘car-sick’ feel after about 15 minutes and have to stop.” “Yeah I’m pretty sensitive to motion sickness and a narrow FOV in first-person makes me really dizzy. Combining that with motion blur just churns my stomach,” added Dallywack3r. “This game feels almost zoomed in, it‘s really not pleasant to play,” said christophlieber.

There are also suggestions the console version of Borderlands 4 lacks a FOV slider in order to maintain certain performance levels. By increasing the FOV, you’re putting the hardware under more strain and potentially impacting things like framerate.

But social media posts from Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford suggest one of the considerations is fairness.

“Quickie for console friends: FOV settings,” Pitchford began. “There's some dreams I have where an FOV setting might affect fairness. I can't really talk about it yet, but I see this is important to you so we're looking at it.”

Pitchford included a vote in his social media post, which, after nearly 25,000 votes, reveals just how important a FOV slider is to his followers. At the time of this article’s publication, the option “FOV slider or GTFO!” had 72% of the vote.

The outspoken Gearbox boss went on to say players “have no idea what the team and I were planning and how FOV slider might affect fairness with such a thing.”

He added: “That said, I've always want to commit to and prioritize what Borderlands should be versus try to turn it into something it should. My hope is for my/our ambitions to be additive, not subtractive.”

Quickie for console friends: FOV settings: There's some dreams I have where an FOV setting might affect fairness. I can't really talk about it yet, but I see this is important to you so we're looking at it. Vote here:

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 12, 2025

So, what is Pitchford actually saying here? The “fairness” quote has caused some confusion. Could it relate to an upcoming PvP mode? If so, why would the PC version have it? Right now, Borderlands 4 is a PvE co-op game, so the line about “fairness” has raised more than a few eyebrows.

Some are wondering if Pitchford is talking about fairness in terms of the performance of the game giving some players an advantage. The higher the FOV, the more the player can see, versus the lower the FOV the more stable the frames are. Perhaps both give some level of advantage?

“What does ‘fairness’ even mean?’ asked redditor buddachickentml. “Basically being impartial to all players without favoritism. Fairness to all,” suggested Wolf-O7. “Funny enough it's completely backwards though. Because console players aren't being treated fairly compared to their counterpart on PC. (Especially since this sort of sounds like a PVP mode the way he makes it seem).” Then, from Airaen: “Yeah, how is it fair that PC players can change the FoV and console players can't?” “Fairness in a PvE game? Will you ban ultrawide monitors?” said on social media user.

Borderlands 4 supports crossplay between all platforms at launch, so Pitchford’s comments are doubly confusing.

As for motion blur, in another social media post Pitchford told console players "we aren't down with motion blur and do not support it." He continued: “If you're seeing what seems to be motion blur, maybe check your television settings for whatever automatic BS it might be doing to your image? It's not us.”

But again, that comment is confusing given there are motion blur settings in Borderlands 4 on PC.

Super Mario’s 40 year history is a testament to all the different ways you can make a little guy run from left to right across a screen. Nintendo’s line of 2D Mario platformers has gone through three distinct eras since 1985 – the original game revived the video game industry and, for a while, the series was a pioneer in side-scrolling platforming. After laying dormant for a few years, the series returned in the 2000s with the New Super Mario Bros. series, games that were steady and safe but soon turned stale. Thankfully the triumphant age of the Switch brought with it Mario Wonder, where Nintendo reinvented what these games could be. Once again, side-scrolling Mario feels genuinely magical.

2D Mario games, when executed well, perfectly balance the limitations of Mario's moveset with building your confidence to make increasingly ambitious jumps. They also introduce power-ups that are difficult to master while still being fun to play around with. The very best ones are those that can completely change your approach to platforming without trivialising the challenge. But the most important aspect of a Mario platformer is the process of dying and trying again – the strongest games perfect this loop, ensuring you develop lifelong muscle memory and, by that final flag, feel like a true platforming god.

With the original Super Mario Bros. game turning 40 this year, it’s time to look back on which games nail those core tenants and which struggle to make it past the first goomba. Here’s every 2D Super Mario Bros. game, ranked.

13. Super Mario Bros. : The Lost Levels

Platformers are at their best when they strike a perfect balance between challenge and fun. With The Lost Levels, Nintendo frustratingly forgot about that second part. The sequel to Super Mario Bros. is straight up mean – so mean, in fact, that it was not released in the West until Super Mario All Stars on the SNES seven years later. Its poison mushrooms and spitefully placed enemies only serve to build frustration, never giving you the satisfying relief of finally beating a level, and making you want to lock your controller in a safe and throw it to the bottom of the ocean.

Video games from the NES era are known for their difficulty, as increasing the challenge somewhat artificially extracted hours and hours of play from games that were inherently limited in scope because of the technology of the time. And there is merit to the idea of a Mario sequel that picks up the difficulty of the first game’s final levels and only ramps up from there, especially compared to today’s relatively easy Mario projects. If you squint hard enough, this is a fun novelty in the Mario library… but one that nobody ever wants to play, unless you really want to be ragebaited by Miyamoto.

12. New Super Mario Bros. 2

If the main gimmick in each Mario game is supposed to aid or increase the difficulty of the platforming, then New Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of the series’ biggest failures. The oddly named third entry in the New Super Mario Bros. franchise marks the moment when the series became dull. Lacking ideas and unwilling to take any big risks, Nintendo landed upon coins as the big gimmick for this one. The coins themselves are no different from the coins we’ve had in Mario since 1985, there’s just a lot of them this time. And that’s it.

Putting so many coins into a level trivialises their single use. If you collect 100 coins, you get a life, and losing all your lives means you get kicked back to the start of a level and your checkpoints disappear. By making 100 coins so easy to collect, New Super Mario Bros. 2 removes that vital bit of jeopardy and adds little else to make up for it, with the only new power-up being the coin-farming Golden Flower. Then there’s the overall goal to collect a million coins, which is just tedious. Mario controls beautifully, as is standard for these games, but the feel of the platforming is no different to any other game in the series. So why chase that frustrating goal when you could get what New Super Mario Bros. 2 is good at in any of the game’s better siblings?

11. Super Mario Land

If this was a list of the ugliest Mario games, Super Mario Land would be first with a bullet. The characters, the items, the backgrounds... they’re all so unpleasant. Even modern emulation technology that can elevate the scruffy visuals of the GameBoy can’t quite rescue Mario Land from its ugliness. And this isn’t just a retro tech thing – just compare Mario Land to its sequel on the same console, a game where mushrooms look like mushrooms, Koopas look like Koopas, and Mario doesn’t look like a weird little alien.

Despite those visual blemishes, the gameplay is still pretty solid and fairly recognisable as what a Mario game should feel like. You don’t get the same sense of speed you can achieve when you master the levels of stronger Mario games, but there’s still a good sense of flow when you hit the highest gear the GameBoy is capable of. Mario Land is a serviceable platformer if you’re really in a pinch, but everything it does is done better elsewhere.

10. New Super Luigi U

The Year of Luigi ended up being a financial disaster for Nintendo, but at least we got a fun little Luigi game out of it. This is a stripped down version of New Super Mario Bros. U starring Luigi, complete with his trademark slippier running style and higher jumping abilities. It’s super cool to experience the game through a character with a slightly different moveset, and redesigned levels that provide a bigger challenge.

The fact that the game is more streamlined also has appeal, balancing out the higher difficulty and giving you the satisfaction of making quick progress through the levels. There’s not much else to Luigi U, though. There’s little spectacular about it, nor is there anything it does gravely wrong. It’s a fun addition to an era of Mario platformers that were growing stale and a bit dull, and this doesn’t do quite enough to differentiate itself from that unfortunate trend.

9. Super Mario Bros. 2

Even if you come to it with no knowledge of its background, Mario 2 feels like an odd sequel to the original game. Deeming the actual Mario 2 too difficult for Western audiences, Nintendo basically reskinned the game Doki Doki Panic with Mushroom Kingdom paraphernalia, and the North American and European version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was born. While Mario 1 focuses on sidescrolling platforming, Mario 2 introduces more verticality – a great idea that doesn’t always hold up in execution. Having to find a way to climb and fall through levels means you don’t develop that smooth, flowing muscle memory which makes the best Mario games so great.

Another mechanic introduced in this odd sequel is being able to pull plants out of the ground and throw them at enemies. Some enemies can even be picked up and thrown themselves, rather than the classic Mario move of squishing them. This works really well to make the world feel less like a flat background you’re running through and more like a living ecosystem, but again it just doesn’t feel very Mario. There are great ideas here, but they work against the core of what the first game established. It is, however, a preferable experience to the original, super-difficult version of Mario 2, which finally arrived in the West as the aforementioned Lost Levels.

8. New Super Mario Bros. Wii

You can look at the second entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series in two ways. On one hand, it was a solid evolution of what the first game did, introducing multiplayer and a couple of neat power-ups. On the other hand, later games in the series would do that exact thing better, leaving this one without a unique flavour among the 2D Mario catalogue.

To its credit, there was no better console to introduce four-person multiplayer to the franchise than the Wii, a system that captured the imagination of the whole family. NSMB Wii also introduced the Propeller Mushroom power-up that added some more strategy to the platforming, as well as the Penguin Suit whose sliding ability made the timing of jumps even more important. There’s more here to appreciate today than with New Super Mario Bros. 2, but the latest release in the series (more on that later) overwrites a lot of what the previous entries contributed with better ideas.

7. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Compared to its predecessor, Super Mario Land 2 feels like a miracle. Graphically, it’s way beyond anything you’d expect the original GameBoy to muster, with character sprites that appear enjoyably cartoonish and expressive despite very minimal animations. The structure of the game also gives it a sense of scope that handheld titles typically lacked at the time. Instead of travelling from one world to the next, all levels are located on the overworld, which feels like a single town. Whether you’re at the Tree Zone, the Space Zone or the Pumpkin Zone, their individual themes are expressed so well by the limited graphics available to them. On top of that, the fact that you can tackle these zones in any order just makes the world feel a bit more of a genuine place that you can explore.

In terms of the actual platforming, it's a definite improvement on its predecessor in terms of flow and speed, with far more interesting level design to boot, but it just doesn’t feel quite as good as the main console games of the time, or future handheld titles. The new Carrot power up is fun, but is really just an alternate Tanuki suit from Mario 3. Still, the spirit of what makes Mario great is definitely present here, and it more than justifies itself as a unique entry in the series.

6. Super Mario Bros.

The original game in Nintendo’s most important series still holds up after 40 years for one simple reason: because every Super Mario Bros. game since has been built off its back. The series hasn’t deviated from this basic structure because it still feels incredible to play. Mario is so dynamic as a character right from the off, even with the limited skillset of running, jumping and throwing the odd fireball. His ability to build momentum opens up the game beyond just being about getting from one end of a level to the other. A lot of joy can be found in discovering all the secret passages through the Mushroom Kingdom that can both lead you to the Princess in seconds, or make you prove your skills by dropping you head first into the toughest levels without a steady build up.

Over time, Mario’s movement has gotten significantly smoother and his arsenal of platforming tools has expanded, making it hard to place the original higher on this list. Also, being one of the first NES games ever made means it's not the prettiest thing you’ll ever lay your eyes on. However, Super Mario Bros. stands up as more than just a museum exhibit. It's a fun game that will always be worth booting up.

5. New Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros. had the task of reintroducing the world to 2D Mario after over a decade of focus on the 3D games. And despite kicking off an era of the franchise that's not always looked fondly upon, it does a great job of maintaining the core of what Mario was while making modernising additions. Mario can now triple jump, a move ripped from the 3D games that works so well even with one less dimension. It's the kind of evolution that brings out the best of what made Mario great to begin with, giving you a new tool to make more ambitious jumps and allowing the developers to make more well-hidden secrets and more expansive level designs.

New Super Mario Bros. also introduces the Blue Shell power up, which is sneakily one of the series’ best. It serves as both a tool for destroying blocks and enemies and is the only way to access secret passages which test your ability to control a very erratic power up. The other new additions, like the Mega Mushroom and the Mini Mushroom, aren’t so effective, even if the former made for some iconic box art. They both feel like gimmicks rather than offering a new skill to master.

4. New Super Mario Bros. U

New Super Mario Bros. U is sort of the inverse of New Super Mario Bros. Wii – a game that was harder to appreciate at the time of its release than it is now. The final game in the New Super Mario Bros. franchise carried the baggage of the three previous entries looking and playing almost identically, something that made Nintendo fans exhausted by anything with the word “New” attached to it. New Super Mario Bros. U doesn’t reinvent the formula, but exemplifies the best version of it.

Taken in isolation, it’s much easier to appreciate the game’s polish and its moments of genius level design. Its most famous level, Painted Swampland, inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, is the exact kind of form-breaking inventiveness fans were crying out for (and eventually got more of through Mario Wonder.) With some really lovely visuals, smooth gameplay, and a couple of fun power ups, this is the definitive New Super Mario Bros. title.

3. Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Bros. 3 is a miracle of a game. It has no right looking as good as it does, especially when compared to the first Mario on the NES. Mario 3 is a textbook example of squeezing a console for every ounce of power it has, and is one of the great achievements of sprite art in gaming history. It also helps that it's heaps of fun to play, despite being really hard.

There are so many moments in Mario 3 where you’ll run into an enemy placed specifically to make you mad, but instead of throwing your controller at the wall, you’re only motivated to go again – to run through the level faster, to make that jump even cleaner, to get more air time in the Tanuki suit and sail right over that Boomerang Bro who killed you 20 times before. It's the true successor to Mario 1 on the NES, finding that perfect balance between frustration and satisfaction.

2. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Everything about Mario Wonder is so darn joyful. The animation of Mario forgetting his hat as he jumps through a warp pipe is just one example of how much this game pops with personality. The exclamation of “wowie zowie!” when you transform into an elephant, the singing chorus of Piranha Plants... everything is so silly and so cartoonish, perfectly representing the inherent absurdity of Mario’s existence as a plumber beefing with a giant turtle. It’s impossible to play this without a smile on your face.

But it’s not just personality that Wonder boasts. There is a treasure trove of mechanics that are constantly thrown at you. Through the Wonder Flowers, the level design takes on a dynamism no existing Mario game can match, feeding you increasingly insane 2D platforming challenges built around a unique theme every time. The Badge system means Wonder has the biggest library of power-ups in a Mario game ever, allowing you to platform in a way that suits you, or equip something that purposefully hinders your abilities for that extra bit of challenge. Mario Wonder is a sugar rush of a platformer, and one of Nintendo’s crowning 2D achievements.

1. Super Mario World

Super Mario World is the best 2D Mario has ever felt to play. It inherits some of Mario 3’s difficulty, but instead of making it near impossible to beat a level on the first go, it eases up slightly, giving you enough room to fly through a level at top speed while still having the chance to dodge that final enemy. That’s why Mario World is the most satisfying game in the series – you’ll die again and again and again, until you hit that one level you nail on the first go and think to yourself “Wow, I’m really good at Mario.” The Cape power up is so difficult to master but stands as the best power up the series has ever had because the reward for getting it right is such a high. It’s something the modern games have yet to capture, thanks to the difficulty of these games having decreased over time.

Another thing World captures beautifully is the vibrancy and personality of Dinosaur Land, squeezing the SNES’ sprite-rendering abilities for everything it's got to produce astoundingly expressive characters. There’s still a strong case for World being the best looking Mario, as the game feels like running through a Saturday morning cartoon. Super Mario World is the peak of the Mario formula – challenge, fun, platforming flow, and personality all in perfect harmony.

What do you think of our ranking of 2D Mario platformers? Did your favourite rank highly? Let us know in the comments. And for more, check out our ranking of Nintendo's 3D platformers.