After the DCEU came to an unceremonious end, we admit to being a tad concerned about another take on the story of the Last Son of Krypton. Thankfully, the iconic character got a movie befitting his own mythos in James Gunn’s 2025 Superman, while also opening the door to a whole new universe.

We gave it an 8 out of 10, saying “Superman is a wonderfully entertaining, heartfelt cinematic reset for the Man of Steel, and a great start for the DCU on the big screen” in our full review.

Now, following the announcement of a sequel, Man of Tomorrow, you can save $5 on the 4K Blu-Ray, which launches later this month at Amazon.

Superman’s 4K Blu-Ray Is Discounted Ahead of Launch

Amazon doesn’t yet have a confirmed price (or stock) for the Steelbook Edition with its fancy Fortress of Solitude design, but it does have the normal 4K version for $29.95, down from $34.98.

For those looking to pick up a new gaming handheld for any fall trips they have planned, Lenovo is here to make your day. The Lenovo Legion Go 2 handhelds are now available to preorder at Best Buy, though they come with some hefty price tags attached. There's the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme model, with 32GB RAM, that's available for $1,349.99 and an AMD Ryzen Z2 model, with 16GB RAM, that's available for $1,099.99.

Both are expected to be released on October 31, so there's just over a month to wait before you can get your hands on them. Head to the links below to secure a preorder for yourself while they're still available.

Preorder Legion Go 2 Gaming Handhelds

Google’s 2025 Pixel lineup of Android smartphones is here, and the Pixel 10 sets the baseline with an $800 price and a shift to the formula that has previously divided the base model and the Pro versions. Packed with a telephoto sensor of its own and an almost identical design and internals to the Pro, the Pixel 10 looks promising. But looks can be deceiving.

Google Pixel 10 – Design and Features

This year, Google has blurred the lines a bit more between the new Pixel 10 and its higher-tier Pixel 10 Pro. The phones already shared similar form factors in the previous generation, but now the Pixel 10 even carries a triple-camera system to match the 10 Pro – even if they are slightly different cameras. That said, the difference in cameras – and pretty much all the differences between the two phones – is subtle.

Your Nintendo Switch 2’s 256GB of storage is probably starting to fill up at this point, and with more big games on the horizon, you’re going to need more space if you want to keep all your games handy. Unfortunately, microSD Express cards – the only kind the Switch 2 will load games from – are still tricky to find, but at least there are a couple of budget options available right now, like PNY’s $46.99 (128GB) or $60.99 (256GB) cards.

The 256GB PNY card I tested isn’t the cheapest microSD Express card, even if you get it for three bucks less on Amazon than from PNY directly; that honor goes to the $35.77, 256GB card from Walmart house brand Onn – when you can find it in stock. But it’s still relatively affordable compared to bigger name brands like Lexar or SanDisk selling $200+ cards, and a little better performing, in most ways, versus to the Onn card. And you get the bonus of knowing who the manufacturer is. (Unsurprisingly, the Onn card appears to be a repackaged product from another company.) When it comes to just loading games, doing so from PNY’s card is close to as quick as from the Switch 2’s UFS 3.1 storage, and it’s got better read performance than the Onn card.

Throughput

Storage manufacturers love to tout their cards’ read and write speed, and will promote them using the highest possible numbers. For the PNY card on paper, that’s up to 890MB/s read and up to 750MB/s, both higher numbers than the cheaper Onn card (800MB/s and 600MB/s, respectively). But those numbers don’t tell the whole story, because they’re referring to sequential data transfers, or moving around large single files. We’re more interested in how well it handles random data reads and writes, since games are made up of lots of smaller files. That slows the data transfer process way down, as it has to constantly stop and restart – it doesn’t have enough time per file to gather speed.

Even with drastically reduced random file transfer thoughput, microSD Express is a huge improvement versus old-school microSD. As a point of comparison, transferring the 17.2GB Super Smash Bros Ultimate from my original Switch to the Samsung Evo microSD card I have in it took more than 21 minutes, and moving it back to the Switch’s internal storage took 9.5 minutes. Whereas on my Switch 2, I only waited just under 6 minutes to transfer the game to the PNY card, and 4 minutes to move it back onto the console.

Performance: Load Times

Load times are really where the card’s performance matters most; sure, you might shuffle games around periodically when some big new title comes out, but if you’re anything like me, you only find yourself doing so every few months or so.

The PNY’s card consistently got from the Switch 2 menu to the main screen of games like Donkey Kong Bananza, No Man’s Sky Switch 2 Edition, and Fast Fusion a fraction of a second slower than loading from internal storage. The only outliers here were Mario Kart World, which took about 2 seconds longer than from the Switch 2, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which loaded ever-so-slightly faster than when loading from internal storage (15.46 seconds versus 15.7 seconds).

Performance: File Transfers

I started running into issues with the PNY card during file transfers. The Switch 2 seemingly couldn’t get a handle on how much time was left in each one, so it might say there was a minute left before jumping to four or five minutes when writing larger files. Transfers seemed to gradually get slower on each subsequent test until finally, my Switch 2 stopped reading it at all. It’s possible that was due to issues I had transferring all my game files to the card in the first place – the hub I was using disconnected mid-transfer. One long reformat with a Windows PC later, and the card was much more well-behaved, although it still slowed down near the end of writing large files to it.

With that fresh reformat complete, the PNY card showed better read throughput than the Onn card, averaging between 80MB/s and 90MB/s when transferring Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza to the Switch 2’s internal storage. Its write performance wasn’t quite as impressive, but still a clear improvement over a standard microSD card – transferring the 24.6GB Mario Kart to the card took 7 minutes and 31 seconds (55MB/s), and the 8.6GB Bananza took two minutes and 22 seconds (61MB/s). I saw similar results with older Switch 1 games.

Those write throughput results are on par with, and sometimes slower than, what I saw using the Onn card, despite the PNY’s advertised write speed being 150MB/s higher. But PNY’s card has clearly better read throughput, leading to better game-loading performance and faster file transfers to the system itself. That could be a bigger deal for you, at least if you’re not constantly shuffling files back and forth.

Is Budget microSD Express Worth It?

As I noted in my review of the Onn microSD Express card, how well your microSD Express card performs will vary depending on the card you pick. Digital Foundry ran some tests when the Switch 2 launched, and found that loading games from microSD Express could actually be slightly faster than doing so from the Switch 2’s ostensibly faster UFS 3.1 internal storage. That’s not quite the case for the two cheaper cards I’ve tested, but they’re good enough that you wouldn’t notice a difference without doing direct, A/B comparisons.

Just like the Walmart house brand, you should consider how confident you are that PNY’s slightly-less-budget microSD Express card will last when deciding if you should buy it. My personal experience with cheaper microSD cards and other portable storage has been that they don’t fail unusually quickly under normal use; I had a PNY USB thumb drive in service as a backup storage medium for my Nintendo Wii for 10 years before I finally switched to a hard drive earlier this year. Meanwhile, a 5TB Toshiba hard drive I bought for computer backup purposes gave up the ghost within three years. You just never know.

The Steam Deck came out more than three years ago now, starting at $399. Even at the time it seemed incredibly affordable for a system that let you play pretty much any PC game you threw at it. But fast forward to 2025, on the eve of a new generation of handheld gaming PCs powered by the AMD Z2 Extreme, and it seems like a downright bargain.

We finally got pricing for one of these new handhelds, the Lenovo Legion Go 2, and that'll start at $1,099. That's already a steep bump from the last-gen version, which started at $699, but it only gets more expensive – if you want it with the Z2 Extreme, you're looking at up to $1,479. That's getting into gaming laptop territory, for a system that almost certainly won't be as fast as a gaming laptop. And while the Legion Go 2 is only a single system, it does signal that the entire category is about to see a massive price bump next month.

The Ally In The Room

We know the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X are coming out October 16, but at the time of writing neither Asus nor Microsoft have revealed the price tag. Hell, you can't even preorder the thing yet, and it comes out in six short weeks. But given that the new Ally's specs line up pretty closely with the $1,049 Legion Go 2, it's really starting to look like the Xbox handheld is going to be a pricey little handheld.

It's possible that Microsoft's involvement means Asus can subsidize the cost of the Xbox Ally a bit, but I don't know if it'll be enough to keep it around the same price as its predecessor, which launched for $599 with the non-extreme AMD Z1. There's a universe where the ROG Xbox Ally costs nearly twice as much as its predecessor.

However, the Legion Go 2 and the ROG Xbox Ally are not the same system. The Legion Go 2 has removable controllers, along with an OLED display – both things that apply a bit of upward pressure on the price. The Xbox Ally, on the other hand, is a single unit with a more traditional LCD screen, even if the weird controller grips make it look quite different. This more traditional design could stop the new Ally X from seeing the same steep price jump as the Legion Go 2 – but only time will tell.

Is It Worth It?

It's easy to look at these new handhelds with their shiny new processors and say the speed justifies the higher price. That's the thing though, we don't actually know how fast the Z2 Extreme will actually end up being. The AMD Z1 Extreme is still a powerful little chip, packing 12 RDNA 3 graphics cores, along with 8 Zen 4 CPU cores. The Z2 Extreme does upgrade that, but only updates the GPU to RDNA 3.5, rather than just going all-in with RDNA 4.

What RDNA 3.5 is especially good at is graphics performance in low-power packages, like, well, the Z2 Extreme. It should greatly improve efficiency, leading to longer battery life, which is definitely something this first generation of Z-powered handhelds has struggled with. However, even though the Z2 Extreme does pack 4 extra graphics cores, it probably won't improve gaming performance that much – at least not enough to justify nearly doubling the price.

I'll ultimately have to wait until I get either the Legion Go 2 or the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X in the lab, but I expect the gen-on-gen difference to be the most pronounced when it comes to battery life. At the end of the day, these handheld gaming systems are probably going to struggle with high-end AAA games in the same way their predecessors did.

Whether the extra battery life is worth the cost is up to you ultimately, but if handheld gaming PCs are going to cost as much as a budget-to-mid-range gaming laptop, it's going to be harder to recommend them to just anyone. I'm definitely still in that niche audience, but the rising price is only going to narrow the appeal.

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

James Gunn is the sort of guy to just casually drop big news midday on social media, which is why we now know that a sequel to this year’s DCU Superman film, titled Man of Tomorrow, is officially on the way. The next film in the “Superman Saga,” this one will apparently feature the return of not just Superman but also his nemesis Lex Luthor, seen sporting his green and purple warsuit from the comics in a piece of promo art drawn by comics legend Jim Lee. It’s not a surprise that we’re getting a Superman follow-up, what with the movie clearing $600 million and garnering strong reviews, but what is a surprise is the release date.

According to Gunn’s post, Man of Tomorrow will be dropping in theaters on July 9, 2027. This two-year gap between sequels might not seem especially notable until you remember just how much sequel turnover has changed for superhero franchises over the past decade or so. With Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II also scheduled for 2027, that will mean a five-year wait between the first film and the second (provided it doesn’t get delayed again), and when we look at the last few years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we haven’t actually seen multiple film installments of any individual subfranchise since the end of the Infinity Saga all the way back in 2019. So let’s take a look at why Man of Tomorrow gives us hope that superhero movies can get back to shorter downtime between sequels.

The Batman Part II and the Widening Sequel Gap

It’s been fascinating to watch more and more talk about alleged “superhero fatigue” dominate pop culture discourse at the same moment in time where the wait between superhero sequels is longer than ever. Closer to the turn of the millennium, when superhero movies were becoming more cemented as a mainstay of yearly release schedules, Sam Raimi could drop an entire Spider-Man trilogy in five years, Fox’s X-Men turned in three movies in six years, and Christopher Nolan managed to get his Dark Knight trilogy out in seven. Two to three years between sequels used to be the norm for superhero cinema, but despite the number of movies in the genre being higher than ever, the wait between sequels has grown to absurd lengths.

We’ve already mentioned the extended wait for Matt Reeves’ follow-up to his first Batman film in 2022, but this phenomenon has hit every currently running superhero series. The third film in Sony’s animated Spider-Verse trilogy, currently titled Beyond the Spider-Verse, was originally intended to drop in 2024 for a relatively quick resolution to Across the Spider-Verse’s cliffhanger ending; instead, the film has been delayed multiple times until its current release date of June 25, 2027. Marvel has it even worse: Although everything is technically part of one megafranchise under the MCU umbrella, no film property has seen multiple entries in the Multiverse Saga, which has already concluded Phases 4 and 5. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, arriving on July 31, 2026, will mark the first time that any particular MCU subseries will receive a second installment since 2019.

This is not all the result of poor planning. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, delays for most movie franchises were inevitable. But even with those caveats, the deluge of superhero movies has simultaneously felt overwhelming and stilted, because we’ve seen so many setups without much of any payoff. Even for audiences eager to follow these ongoing sagas, it’s hard to keep up excitement when it feels like the next entry is always beyond the horizon. Thankfully, fans getting more of the DCU’s Superman so soon after his debut is a strong reversal of this trend.

Stay on Target

A big part of why we’re in this situation is because the movie studios that are adapting superhero IP are trying to do too much at once. During the Infinity Saga, Marvel Studios was mostly focused on the core Avengers instead of trying to launch a massive array of new characters like they are now. The DCEU struggled to cohere for many reasons, but its lack of focus and constant need to change up their plan in response to criticism were key to that series being put out to pasture. As for the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters, that collapsed under its own weight because Sony realized too late that audiences weren’t really all that interested in a slate of spin-offs about Spider-Man villains without Spider-Man…besides maybe a Venom movie or two. If the studios behind these projects were more careful with what they greenlit, perhaps we wouldn’t be in this mess.

That’s not to say that chances shouldn’t be taken on oddball properties like Guardians of the Galaxy or Aquaman, since those movies have turned out to be successful in the past. Rather, it’s that care should be taken to have a strong vision for every film that’s put into production, to build up a solid plan for where these characters are going, and to not overextend your slate with movies that will likely wind up being dead-ends. That’s how you end up with an entire Ant-Man sequel setting up a saga villain who will later be discarded, the Flash throwing in a last-minute ending change for a bizarre George Clooney cameo, or a Joker sequel that feels like nobody involved actually wanted to make it.

Superman was a hit for DC Studios; it was also the first time in a while that it felt like most people actually liked a DC movie not starring Batman (although even that opinion is not unanimous). Even with the Supergirl movie coming next year, leaving audiences starving for more Superman when the appetite is strong would have been a mistake. We’ll see what other projects come next for the DCU, since Man of Tomorrow being fast-tracked is already a big change to Gunn’s announced Chapter One plan, but for now, focusing on Superman appears to be a good bet. Hopefully, all of the other superhero franchises will also learn the value of both keeping things simple and striking when the iron’s hot.

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

Tom Holland has said he left Spider-Man: Brand New Day producers exasperated, as he continued to push for a movie pitch that would truly meet fan expectations.

Speaking to LADBible, Holland says he spent time "sifting through the internet" to discover what fans wanted from his fourth solo outing as Spider-Man, and used what he'd found in pitch meetings for the film, presumably with Sony bosses.

While Holland's take on Spider-Man is beloved among Marvel moviegoers, Sony's other Spider-adjacent offerings have often fallen wide of the mark. Additionally, Holland has also taken something of a break from playing the web-slinging hero in recent years, following the conclusion of his first trilogy as the fan-favorite character.

From 2016 to 2021, Holland played Peter Parker in six big budget Marvel movies in as many years, before taking a break to focus on other projects such as 2022's Uncharted film and Christoper Nolan's upcoming The Odyssey.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day, due to launch July 31, 2026, will see Holland back in spandex for the first time in five years — with many audiences hoping to now see him feature in a more grounded story, following Peter Parker's previous multiversal shenanigans and Avengers-level events.

"Right now what's in front of us is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and focusing on making that movie worthy of the last film," Holland said. "I have been actively sifting through the internet and trying to best understand what it is that the fans want from a Spider-Man movie, and that's been my driving force in these pitch meetings.

"I think the producers, at times were like, absolutely sick of me, but I think it's really important," he continued "because we make these movies for [the fans]."

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has now begun filming, with scenes shot in public that featured Holland riding around the streets of Glasgow (standing in for New York) atop a tank. So far, Brand New Day does appear to be more of a grounded tale, with gritty Marvel TV character Frank Castle, The Punisher, also involved in proceedings, though there's still much about the movie that's being kept under wraps (such as who Stranger Things star Sadie Sink might be playing).

When asked how much further Holland, now 29, would continue playing the character he originally began portraying as a teengaer, the actor — once famous for leaking Marvel secrets — was decidedly more tight-lipped. "In terms of my future in the character beyond this film, I don't know the answer to that," he concluded. (And, as of yet, Holland is also still to be given an Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars call-up.)

IGN recently chatted to Holland about his near-unrecognisable appearance as multiple characters in a new LEGO short film, in which he plays an elderly version of himself, as well as a toddler and an angry executive. The star also recalled how he bonded with his Spider-Man: Homecoming sidekick Jacob Batalon, who plays Peter's classmate Ned, while building a LEGO Death Star.

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

After Sony recently hiked the price of a PlayStation 5 (Disc, Digital, and Pro) by $50, finding a better deal on the best-selling current-gen console seems more imperative than ever. Say the line Bart: "I remember when consoles went down in price across a generation, not up!"

If you still haven’t grabbed a PS5 and don’t feel like coughing up $500–$750, I don’t blame you. I’ve been tracking console deals for six years now, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that waiting for Sony to suddenly knock a big chunk off the price is a fool’s errand, even with Black Friday 2025 on the horizon. The smarter move, and the one I’d recommend every time, is refurbished.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a scary word, and there will be plenty of convincing, but statistically rare, anecdotal evidence on socials or in the comments about how refurbished stuff isn't reliable, will break, and is... dirty? Blah blah blah.

Refurbished is a supremely valid way to buy: it's both economically and environmentally positive, and won't tear a hole in your already depleted wallet. You've just got to know where to buy, and when to lay down the gauntlet when a decent deal finally rears its head.

In my humble opinion, that moment is now, as PS5 consoles are as cheap as $309.99 at Woot for a limited time. That's for the PS5 Slim Digital Edition, while the PS5 Slim Disc Edition is just $30 more at $339.99 (not bad considering the Disc Drive costs $80 standalone), and there's also a "Factory Reconditioned" PS5 Slim Disc Edition.

According to Woot (owned by Amazon), Factory Reconditioned items are "as close to new as you can get without technically being new" and "restored to fully working condition by the original manufacturer or a certified partner." If you want that extra assurance, it'll cost you an extra $30 compared to buying refurbished.

We've already seen plenty of buyers find the benefits in "Refurbished" or "Used - Like New" buys during Amazon Prime Day sales, where the PS5 Slim, Pro, and PlayStation Portal were all some of the best sellers of the event (dropping to as low as $320, $500, and $125 respectively), and IGN audience favorites to boot.

PlayStation themselves have been getting in on the action recently as well, and is selling its own certified refurbished PS5 consoles for $399.99 (albeit these are the standard PS5 console from 2020, not the more recent Slim models that are listed on Woot).

These also aren't the only refurbished deals going right now. Woot's refurbished gaming sale runs until September 12 (or while stock lasts), and also includes Xbox Controllers from $35, PlayStation Edge Controllers for $140, and Meta Quest VR headsets from just $230. Just to note as well, for the uninitiated, Woot is an Amazon-owned company, and you can use your Prime account for delivery etc.

Other top PS5 deals right now (besides Hollow Knight: Silksong's incredible $20 price tag) include physical copes of Resident Evil 4 for $15 and Final Fantasy 16 for $23.49, while the fancy looking Ghost of Yotei PS5 consoles and controllers just went up for preorder at PS Direct and Amazon as well.

Robert Anderson is Senior Commerce Editor and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.

MindsEye developer Build A Rocket Boy has released Update 4 across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, insisting it remains “committed to refining” the game following its disastrous launch.

In July, IGN reported that Edinburgh-based BARB had issued at-risk of redundancy emails to its around 300-strong UK workforce after MindsEye flopped at release.

Soon after MindsEye came out, BARB said it was “heartbroken” over the issues players had faced with the game, and promised to release a series of patches to fix the significant performance problems, glitches, and AI behavior bugs.

All the while, MindsEye’s troubled launch saw the developer cancel sponsored streams, with reports of players securing refunds even from the normally stubborn Sony. Steam concurrent player numbers, which do not tell the whole story of a game’s popularity, were worryingly low.

Story-driven action adventure game MindsEye was initially designed to be a part of Everywhere, the ‘Roblox for adults’ creation platform led by former Grand Theft Auto design chief Leslie Benzies. BARB eventually switched to focus on MindsEye, but it has so-far failed to do the business for the company.

In July, Benzies told staff that the studio would bounce back and relaunch MindsEye, blaming its struggles on internal and external saboteurs, among other things.

In a post to the MindsEye community issued today, September 5, BARB said “we remain committed to refining MindsEye and enhancing the gameplay experience. Ongoing updates will continue to be shared.”

To that end, Update 4 introduces a range of UX improvements, numerous performance enhancements, and tackles bugs. Update 4 is significant in terms of size, weighing in at 15GB on PC, 7.2GB on PS5, and 12.1GB on Xbox Series X and S. Update 5 will deliver a "major" performance, combat and enemy AI system improvement, BARB teased.

This week, the CEO of MindsEye publisher IO Interactive, which is working on 007 First Light, responded to the game’s launch, telling IGN: “that was definitely tough, right?”

The question now is whether BARB can save MindsEye by encouraging players not just to come back to the game, but to actually buy it.

MindsEye Update 4 Patch notes:

IMPROVEMENTS

Environment

• Trailer Tanks in Free Roam now explode when shot at
• Several improvements have been made to architecture and assets to help with performance
• Improved weather change when player leaves the Factory at the start of Robin Hood Mission
• Improved traversal on A New Job and Loose Ends missions where player may get stuck in certain assets

Visual Effects

• Cutscene VFX performance improvements
• Cutscene VFX management changes and Niagara system updates to reduce CPU spikes and overall frame rate
• Disabled ambient rubbish to improve performance

NPC

• Small performance improvement on Robots
• NPCs that are aiming and in-cover now look more natural

Art

• General performance improvements: shaders, assets, collisions

UI

• Resolved inconsistent dropdown menu behaviour in graphics settings, ensuring reliable input response
• Added the ability to skip cinematics

Audio

• Audio Optimisation regarding Mass Vehicles
• Music adjustments throughout MindsEye missions
• Added Destruction SFX on Glass Bottle Props

Missions

• Conditional dialogue now triggers with more natural pacing
• The companion drone torch is now automatically enabled when entering or starting in dark areas

Animation

• Optimised the ambient and civilian animations
• Exit/entry animations no longer play for driverless vehicles

Gameplay

• Aim assist will focus on enemies in vehicle turrets over the driver

BUG FIXES

• Various Mission flow bug fixes
• Fixed pixelated reflection in Rocket Transporter window
• Fixed Industrial vent asset to help with performance
• Resolved an issue where players transitioning from Meeting Marco Silva to Executive Paranoia could drive through objects and fall through the map
• Fixed ambient animation glitches in Welcome to Redrock City
• Fixed an issue where camera rotation was lost after cutscenes
• Several lighting LOD pop issues fixed in cutscenes
• Fixed a bug where burning vehicles wouldn’t transition to destroyed state
• Fixed several traversal issues in world where the player may get stuck
• Fixed an issue in The Ziggurat where a hole in wall allowed players to climb through and trap themselves
• Fixed an issue in Oh Lily! where players could get stuck in Morrison's Silo without a way to get back out
• Fixed collision on glass roof of Silva Factory
• Fixed a number of Character Model issues in cutscenes that made them look deformed and stretched for a few frames
• Resolved Silva’s teeth looking too bright on medium/ lower settings on PC
• NPCs no longer freeze when interacting with certain objects
• Weapon Wheel hover SFX is now triggered correctly, without delays

PC only

• The character Red Sand Male 25 is now available for use in Build.MindsEye
• Fixed a UI issue where backing out of a submenu in 'Build' caused the second-last selected tile to remain highlighted
• Fixed a bug where the ‘effects’ tile would remain highlighted after returning to Build mode from Play mode
• Fixed an issue where the placement header text overlapped UI elements in the asset settings menu when playing in French
• Fixed a bug causing specific Korean characters to appear invisible in vehicle spawner labels
• Fixed a localization issue where the French translation of “Total PI” overlapped with the performance impact number in the top toolbar
• Replaced the incorrect icon used for the MindsEye menu button in Play/ Build with a proper menu icon
• [Min Spec Performance Improvement]: Disabled Nanite compute materials as it has a negative effect on GPU rendering time in our game, especially on older Nvidia Graphics Cards.
• [Min Spec Performance Improvement]: Fixed an issue where our Nanite render pipeline always used the Hardware Rasterizer path rather than correctly splitting between Hardware Rasterizer and Software Rasterizer

Console only - PlayStation and Xbox

• Fixed a UI focus issue where the graphics settings tab failed to auto-focus on the first option when accessed on PS5 and Xbox

BUILD.MINDSEYE PATCH NOTES – PC ONLY

IMPROVEMENTS

Publishing UGC Content

• Added a toggle to enable or disable Logic Nodes from being captured in the thumbnail capture of UGC Content

Logic Nodes

• Timer Nodes improved; you can update or refresh their value at any time through multiple other logic nodes, and can now be refreshed infinitely
• Timer Logic Nodes now support decimal places up to .000
• Custom UI Nodes updated to always be set to “Node Active” = True, by default

Attributes Menu, Catalogue & Versioning

• Minor QoL & screen position improvements to the Creator HUD, Attributes Menu & Tools
• Minor QoL improvements to naming, duplicated items, missing thumbnails or icons in the Assets Catalogue
• Updated the search functionality in Assets Catalogue to take into account both object name and the tags
• Added a warning when the player reaches the maximum number of allowed versions when creating new versions
• Added missing hotkeys to the Controls Panel for Inserting Path Points

Featured Stamps Updates

• Multiple fixes and QoL improvements to existing set of Featured Stamps
• Added more Stamps to the Featured Stamps tile

BUG FIXES

• Removed EVERYWHERE vehicles from Build.MindsEye – those vehicles were made accessible unofficially, and we will bring them to MindsEye when they are ready
• Fixed an issue where the AI Spawner Spawn limits and Performance Scores of spawners were not correctly calculated
• New Performance Score applied to AI Spawners as follows:

1. AI Spawner – Performance Score: 10 / Max Quantity Allowed: 10
2. Individual AI NPC - Performance Score: 6 / Max Quantity Allowed: 100

• Fixed an incorrect controls description for Build Collision Control List Keys; now correctly displayed as (B) instead of (P)
• Improved camera behaviour in Build.MindsEye: your last position is now saved more frequently for a more reliable creation experience
• Fixed an issue with erratic camera behaviour when using the Group Macro Node
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to like Stamps with long names
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from editing Stamp Descriptions that exceed the 220 character limit
• Fixed an issue that caused vehicles to move very slowly, or not at all, when using Custom Speed on the Drive To Node
• Grid snapping is now enabled on the XY Plane by default
• Fixed an issue with Destructible Assets not being selectable
• Fixed issues with Filtering in the Assets Catalogue
• Fixed various issues with the Vehicle Selection UI Node
• Fixed multiple issues with the Transform Variable Node and Advanced Transform Node parsing incorrect values into the Location and Scale Overrides
• Stamp Attributes now display the correct Thumbnail based on the current Version selected
• Fixed various issues with spawn-points and spawning in Build.MindsEye
• Fixed various issues with the Physics Force Node causing objects to disappear
• Fixed an issue where Foliage Assets were not searchable in the Catalogue
• Fixed a crash caused when attempting to ungroup a group within a group
• Fixed a crash caused by undoing creation and deletion of large Stamps
• Fixed an issue with some deprecated assets being displayed in the library – which were discernible by having "DONOTUSE" in their name
• Fixed texture issues on a number of assets in the Build.MindsEye Catalogue
• Fixed an issue with missing Localisations for the Light Effects in Build.MindsEye

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.

Scrubs star John C. McGinley is the latest cast member confirmed as returning for the series' revival.

McGinley played Dr. Perry Cox in every season of Scrubs' original run, from 2001 to 2010, including the show's divisive ninth season which saw the departure of other cast members.

Now, McGinley, 66, is now confirmed as returning for the series' upcoming new season in a recurring role, Entertainment Weekly has reported.

The splash damage caused by Hollow Knight: Silksong’s massive launch impact has spread beyond huge Steam concurrents and struggling storefronts to the parts of the internet where video game pirates hang out — and there something interesting is happening: the pirates are urging each other to buy the game instead of downloading the cracked version.

Team Cherry’s hotly anticipated Hollow Knight sequel finally came out on September 4, 2025 priced $20, six years after it was announced, and instantly crashed storefronts including Steam.

As the storefronts recovered, player numbers swelled to the point where Silksong hit an incredible launch day peak of 535,213 concurrent players on Steam, enough to make it the 18th most-played game ever on Valve’s platform. The true player count across all platforms will be much higher.

Silksong also launched DRM-free on GOG, so it was no surprise to see a cracked version available to download in the hours after launch. What was a surprise was the response from some veteran video game pirates, who urged their peers to support Team Cherry and buy the game instead.

“First game I've bought day of release in a decade probably,” said pyrokzg on the piracy subreddit in response to a thread upvoted 7,000 times. “Not even the decade for me. It's the very first,” added Vamsi-Thopu.

So, why is this happening? Clearly, there is a huge amount of goodwill from across the internet directed at Team Cherry, the small indie developer that saw the original Hollow Knight blow up to such an extent that it was able to take its merry time with this ambitious sequel.

But there’s also a feeling that Team Cherry does things the right way. For a start, there’s a DRM-free version available at launch, but the Australian studio was also keen to honor the promises it made with its original Hollow Knight Kickstarter all those years ago. There’s even a free upgrade for the Nintendo Switch 2 version. In short, Team Cherry are the good guys, and the feeling is they deserve their success.

“It's a 3-4 person team that has done right by their fans at every turn,” said No-Shape6053, also on the piracy subreddit. “Making sure the PC release is DRM free. Making sure all original backers of Hollow Knight get Silksong free on their choice of platform. This is a time where if we can afford to support them, we should.”

“Support the devs if you can, they deserve it,” added iTzNowbie. There’s plenty more where that came from, too. “The only game I will feel bad if I ever pirated it,” said beastfire24. “Hey the game is pretty cheap. This one, we should not pirate,” said Sythrin.

Interestingly, some have expressed surprise at the collective urge not to pirate Silksong, which itself prompted a discussion about why this is happening with Silksong but hasn’t happened with similarly beloved indie games in the past.

“Usually people here claim that the title, price, or the indie status makes no difference to them, but I guess that Silksong is just that respected,” offered MixaLv.

“I’m surprised too,” added ALIIERTx. “Many times people are like, ‘I don’t care if I pirate from indie developer,’ but on this one everyone is pretty defensive against piracy. I’m fascinated.”

Responses to this reinforce the Team Cherry angle. "Team Cherry has built themselves an amazing reputation," suggested Someone_Existing_1. "Because they’re only a three-person studio, they can keep their games super cheap due to far less employees needing pay. Also they aren’t greedy f***s like most companies, so their DLCs are all free and there’s no microtransactions or online-only bulls**t."

Be sure to check out IGN's Silksong coverage, which includes the story of the superfan behind the YouTube Channel Daily Silksong News, who can finally rest after an incredible 1,693 days of videos.

Starting out Silksong? Here's how to unlock and use the map, how to get Rosary Beads, the Achievements and Trophies list, and our ever expanding Silksong Interactive Map. Also, you may need the Bell Beast boss fight guide. It's a hard one!

Be sure to stay up-to-date with all the latest from IGN by clicking here and setting IGN as a preferred source in Google.

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 original lightsaber wielded by Darth Vader has fetched a true bounty at auction this week, after being used by one of cinema's most iconic villains in multiple Star Wars films.

Bidding on the sci-fi blade began at $500,000, ABC News reported, and while the item had been given an estimated sale value of between $1-3 million, it ultimately sold for even higher — just over $3.6 million.

For the original Star Wars movies, two versions of each lightsaber were produced — a version that only featured the hilt, to appear in scenes outside of combat, and another version in which a stunt blade could be attached. This lightsaber is Vader's version of the latter — meaning it was used for the fight sequences in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

James Gunn has once again teased the importance of Peacemaker Season 2 to the overall DCU, describing it as a "prequel" to the just-announced Man of Tomorrow.

Going one step further, Gunn said that Peacemaker Season 2 "directly" builds up to Man of Tomorrow, due out July 9, 2027.

“Watch the Man of Tomorrow Prequel AKA Peacemaker Season 2, airing a new episode tonight on HBOMax at 9pm EST / 6pm PST,” Gunn wrote in a post on Instagram.

Then, responding to one fan who doubted Peacemaker Season 2 would lead directly into Man of Tomorrow given there are other DCU projects set to come out in between, Gunn responded to make it clear, saying: "directly."

It’s an interesting assertion from Gunn, with 2026 set to see Supergirl, Lanterns, and Clayface all come out as part of the continuing DCU, well before Man of Tomorrow a year later. But this isn’t the first time Gunn has stressed Peacemaker Season 2’s key role in the overarching story, with appearances from Justice Gang members who starred in July’s DCU kickstarter Superman already in place.

All eyes will be on Peacemaker Season 2, then, to see how it sets up Man of Tomorrow, which Gunn announced on social media alongside a set of images that have certainly set tongues wagging. Check out IGN’s speculation about what sort of film Man of Tomorrow is for more.

Last month, Gunn revealed the 'Superman Saga’ while discussing his ongoing work on the follow-up to this summer’s Superman. Man of Tomorrow is not called Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Gunn clarified in another recent social media post, simply Man of Tomorrow. But it is the next installment of the Superman Saga, he said. Is Supergirl also part of the Superman Saga? Gunn is yet to say.

The distinction between Superman: Man of Tomorrow and Man of Tomorrow is important, given the speculation around what sort of movie it will be. Based on the teaser images, we'll see Superman and a Power Armor-wearing Lex Luthor potentially joining forces to face a greater threat, while also continuing their bitter rivalry. Could Man of Tomorrow as the name of the film suggest it's actually about Superman and Lex Luthor fighting to assume the title role?

Superman is considered a box office hit and a successful start for Gunn's rebooted DCU. It's made more than $600 million in theaters, making it the first and likely only superhero movie of 2025 to do so. Most of that money was made in North American theaters (Gunn has offered his thoughts on why Superman is doing better domestically than internationally).

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 Lenovo Legion Go 2 was previewed all the way back at CES 2025, at the same time as the AMD Z2 Extreme that will power it. However, Lenovo is finally letting it loose on the world in October 2025 – though we still don't know exactly when.

The new handheld gaming PC will be available in two different configurations, one with the base AMD Z2 APU, and one with the more powerful Z2 Extreme – which will also be powering the Asus Xbox ROG Ally X. Lenovo has shared specs, with the company pairing the Z2 Extreme with 'up to' 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. However, the $1,099 model will come with the base Z2 APU paired with the same 16GB of RAM that the original Legion Go had.

But the most eye-catching improvement this time around is the display. The Lenovo Legion Go 2 has a 1200p OLED display. That is a lower resolution than the original Legion Go, but the upgrade to an OLED panel should make up for that a bit. Plus, one of the biggest complaints I had about the original Legion Go when I reviewed it was that it wasn't quite powerful enough to power a 1600p display, so the downgrade to 1200p will probably make the system run a bit more smoothly.

There will be an element of sticker shock, though, with the Legion Go 2 starting at $1,099. That's just for the regular Z2 model, with the Z2 Extreme version obviously costing more, starting at $1,349. And if you want one that's absolutely maxed out, you're looking at a price of $1,479. To put that in context, the first-generation Legion Go launched at $699 back in October 2023. Thanks to the new chipset, these handhelds should have a sizable bump in gaming performance, but whether or not that'll be worth the price increase is something we'll have to wait and see when we get it in the lab for review.

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

Most of the time, a game based on a successful manga is made after the anime adaptation has been airing for some time, but that wasn’t the case with Kaiju No. 8 The Game. (You can read our hands-on impressions here, by the way.) It tells its own story within creator Naoya Matsumoto’s world, as well as referencing pivotal events from the mainline narrative, and is one of the rare instances in which the game and anime were being developed in parallel.

“When this game began its development, the manga was only getting started,” says Kaiju No. 8 The Game’s Producer Shinya Fujita. “So there was still a lot of information that we didn’t know yet. And also at the same time, the manga was to be adapted into an anime as well. So this made it very difficult.”

The team started working on Kaiju No. 8 The Game more than two years ago, and the anime only started airing in mid-April last year. This meant that the game development team and the anime production effort (which involved both Production I.G and Studio Khara) were both exploring what this world would look like in action and how best to bring the characters – and kaiju – to life.

Akatsuki Games “often referred to the manga for unreleased characters, weapons, and locations,” reflects Fujita. The team also had access to Naoya Matsumoto, the writer and illustrator of the manga, and “his advice and support were crucial,” confirms Fujita, who goes on to say that he was “surprised by his deep knowledge of game development and respect for the process.”

That’s not to say that Akatsuki Games was disconnected from the anime. As its production moved ahead, the team were able to work with both studios on specific things. Fujita says that while his team looked to the manga for their character designs, they received invaluable help for the weapon designs from Production I.G, who “were able to create references that were very detailed and easy to understand”, and leveraged the expertise they’d gleaned from the likes of Ghost in the Shell. The team also received references for kaiju designs from Studio Khara, which had been brought onboard to oversee the kaiju designs in the anime; a natural fit given this is the studio established by Hideki Anno and responsible for the Rebuild of Evangelion films.

The work on background designs also lined up with the anime. “We received a lot of art boards from Production I.G,” says 3D Artist Kazushi Matsumoto. “Every day we’d be checking what the new materials were. In the early stages sometimes we’d find that our 3D design didn’t match the art board so we’d have to remake it. It’s not like we had all the reference material we needed in the first place – we had to work closely with Production I.G. In the case that we had exactly the same location as the anime, we’d have Production I.G review our designs as well.”

One area that was completely separate, however, was the audio side of the game. “I deeply admire the anime's exceptional music,” says Sound Artist Yasuaki Iwata, “and the sound team is inspired by the anime's music and takes a reference [from it] while creating entirely new compositions tailored specifically for the game experience.”

“Since music strongly reflects a composer's individuality,” adds Sound Director Mitsuhiro Hikino, “we carefully structured our team. We were fortunate to have experienced game composers with extensive game experience and theatrical music composers who excel at creating music that complements visuals… We centered our music around genres like Japanese digital rock and used instrumentation familiar to fans of the IP and its culture. We deliberately kept melodies subtle to prevent the music from overpowering the experience, instead allowing it to complement and enhance the impressive visuals.”

Producing work that stands up next to the excellent anime was obviously important to the team, but so too was ensuring that the manga’s author, Naoya Matsumoto, was happy with their vision for his world. And sometimes that meant changing tack. Japanese mobile games often have provocative new outfits for their characters that players can acquire through their gacha system, incentivising them to invest more time and/or money in the game.

“Sexy costumes… [are] pretty common in the Japanese mobile game industry,” says Art Director Yuya Kuroyabu. “When we proposed this plan, Matsumoto-sensei said ‘well, no – this [approach] is not for this IP.’ So we studied the IP concept again and tried to come up with some unique designs for this game.” The upshot is that the character outfits stay true to the fact that they’re all soldiers in the Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force or CLOZER (a specialised military outfit central to the story), keeping this game more closely aligned with the manga and anime, and reworking the concept of ‘fan service’ in the process. “The essence of the design,” concludes Kuroyabu, “is the military style.”

Most important of all, however, was getting Matsumoto’s blessing for Kaiju No. 8 The Game’s original storyline. It takes place at a specific time in the manga and anime’s arc, and features all the main characters. “We, the game developers, proposed ideas [to Matsumoto-sensei],” Producer Shinya Fujita explains. “We wanted to create a unique setting for the game,” so came up with the concept that Kaiju Dimensional Gates were opening up around the globe, triggering an all-in response from anti-kaiju forces. “Then, building on to the Kaiju Dimensional Gate setting,” Fujita continues, “we created the original story and then created the character Sagan Shinomiya.”

There comes a moment when the digital cart hits triple digits and my self-control uninstalls itself. Today's specials made that moment arrive early. Across Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, there's more temptation than sense. In case I don't see you, stay safe, save often, and see you Monday.

Contents

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

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm using the explosion of a Venezuelan fuel depot to light a 17-candle cake for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Back in 2008, nothing felt quite as gleefully lawless as dropping into this war-torn sandbox with an arsenal of over-the-top firepower and the ability to blow up practically anything that stood in your way. The tagline practically wrote itself: "Everybody pays."

I vividly recall the sheer novelty of calling in an airstrike and watching the world crumble in real time, or hijacking a tank just to cause even more mayhem. It wasn't a flawless game, sure, but its nuke 'splosive spectacle made it unforgettable, and it embodied a time when open-world shooters were pushing hard to see just how McStupid they could go.

From now until September 7, you can get three free LEGO Harry Potter gifts with purchase when you buy the LEGO Hogsmeade Collector's Edition set. Gifts with purchase change frequently, as do the requirements for how to actually get them. Supplies are limited, so if you've had your eye on the super detailed Hogsmeade village set, now's the perfect time to pick it up and get some nice freebies as well.

The trio of free gifts include the Hogsmeade Sign, Hogwarts Castle: Room of Requirement, and Quidditch lesson. And remember, you only qualify for these gifts if you purchase from LEGO directly. Alongside this Back to Hogwarts event, LEGO also has some discounts on Harry Potter sets that could qualify you for one or more of these gifts as well.

LEGO Hogsmeade - Collector's Edition Now Available

Let's make this simple: You want to know if there are any post- or mid-credits scenes in The Conjuring: Last Rites. The answer is not in the traditional sense, but along with the usual Conjuring movie use of photos of the real-life people the films are based on accompanying the closing credits, Last Rites does have a bit of a bonus photo and trivia fact it saves for after the closing credits.

Promoted as the final film in the series, The Conjuring: Last Rites is based on the real life Smurl family, and their claims in 1986 that their house was haunted. The film involves an old mirror being brought into the Smurls’ house – the same mirror Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) had a disturbing encounter with decades before – which quickly unlocks all sorts of increasing mayhem, from a light fixture falling to an unseen presence yanking the kitchen phone by the cord.

Even without knowing yet that it’s causing the growing danger around them, and unsettled by the feelings the mirror elicits, Smurl teenage daughters Heather (Kíla Lord Cassidy) and Dawn (Beau Gadsdon) throw it out. But instead of ending the problem, it escalates it.

This sounds like a case for Ed and Lorraine Warren!

Be sure to check back on Friday for a full spoiler breakdown of The Conjuring: Last Rites. But in the meantime...

Does The Conjuring: Last Rites Have a Mid- or Post-Credits Scene?

The Conjuring Universe films have had mid or post-credit scenes in the past, but as a pseudo-finale – it’s the final Ed and Lorraine film, though it feels doubtful the entire larger franchise is done – Last Rites bypasses a traditional extra scene with any actors. But it does still have something after the closing credits. So stick around if you want to see what it is!

And again, come back to this page on Friday where we'll dive into all the details of the film's ending and more.

Halloween is one of the best holidays of the year. It's the perfect excuse to dive into the horror genre, whether through games, movies, or TV shows. Additionally, it is likely the only time of the year when you can enter haunted houses, filled with terrors behind each corner. If there's one ultimate place to celebrate Halloween, it has to be Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. This year, IGN has teamed up with Universal to send one lucky winner on an incredible Universal vacation.

Enter to Win a Trip to Universal Halloween Horror Nights!

Happy Hollow Knight: Silksong launch day to all who celebrate! I’ve only played three hours so far and I’m already overwhelmed in the best possible way. It took no time at all for me to get completely lost in the world of this hotly anticipated sequel, one that shortens the intimidating lead-in area its predecessor had in order to more quickly give you branching paths to pick from and the tools to explore them more confidently. It’s too early to get a real sense of where things will go, how all the changes it makes to stuff like upgrades and abilities will play out, or how big this beautiful new land truly is, but my impression so far is that Silksong is already managing to meet the sky-high expectations that have been set for it.

One of the most immediate differences Hollow Knight fans will notice is that our new hero, Hornet, isn’t the silent type like her pint-sized companion from the original. She has personality and charm, chatting with the bugs you meet across the world of Pharloom. I was initially worried that this might change the quiet tone in an unappealing way, but Hornet is still a fairly stoic character overall – confident and cautiously friendly, happy to speak her mind when she feels she should, but still reclusive in a way that allows others to do most of the talking. So it’s a shift, especially when she explains something a little more directly than Hollow Knight’s vague dialogue ever would, but one I am enjoying for the moment.

It also helps that the writing is top notch once again. It’s often poetic and illusive in a way that never feels overly pompous, leaving plenty of room for serious characters and silly gags alike. An early favorite of mine is a pilgrim singing to a door in an attempt to open it, only for them to claim the credit when you find the lever that actually does so. All the attention to quality and detail that made Hollow Knight a true standout is still alive and well here, with areas I can’t wait to learn more about, characters I am excited to get to know, and stellar music I can already tell I am going to be listening to for a long time to come.

Another aspect I am excited to see evolve are the options for customization. Ability-granting charms are color-coded this time around, meaning you have to pick your priorities if certain items overlap – for example, a lot of the early options I’ve found go into the yellow slot, making me choose if I want enemies to drop more currency or if I want to have it automatically be picked up for me when they do. That choice extends into a secondary attack (the only one I’ve found so far is a quick throwing dagger), and even Crests that more drastically change your attack in a way that feels like you are swapping weapons.

It seems like a huge amount of flexibility, and I’m excited to see if the options I will unlock let me truly start crafting coherent builds in the way I am hoping. This system runs the risk of offering a lot of false choices or leading you down certain paths that are just obviously better than others, but if Team Cherry has figured out the proper tuning, it could also open the door to supporting massively different playstyles based entirely on your own tastes.

I imagine we’ll need to take advantage of those options, too, because Silksong isn’t messing around. It’s not afraid to punish you, such as the way you drop all of a currency called Rosaries when you die and have to do a corpse run to the location you were killed to retrieve them, and enemies can be tough enough to force you to take that walk if you push the limits of your exploration too far. That said, Silksong has a lot of ways to mitigate that punishment, such as letting you pay to stash your extra Rosaries in the form of a consumable item, giving you an early option to lose less of them on death, and not tying every unlockable to that single resource in case the worst does occur. It’s still early, but I think this will result in less frustration overall relative to Hollow Knight.

Similarly, one of the most common reasons people would bounce off the original was the initially sparse map system – the early areas branch in a way that meant you could miss the map for a long while, and then you had to return to town to buy upgrades before it updated or even showed you on it. You still need those upgrades, but the place you get them is now located right on your path before things start to open up, and that happens much earlier, so that’s another rough edge smartly smoothed down. It’s still a dangerous thrill when you are exploring an uncharted area for the first time, trying to push your luck in search of that next resting spot, but that’s no longer a feeling you are forced into before you’ve even found your footing.

I could keep digging into more early observations, but honestly I just can’t wait to stop typing this so I can dive back in. I haven’t even wrapped my head around how big this thing is going to be – and if its achievement for speedrunning 100% completion is any indication it could be quite large, as you now have to do that in under 30 hours compared to Hollow Knight’s 20. But so far Silksong is exactly what I want from a sequel like this: it’s not completely reinventing the wheel or messing with all the things that made the first game so incredible, but it’s also not resting on its laurels. No part of it feels untouched, and as far as I can tell right now, it somehow feels even better for it.

Just like pretty much everything else these days, the prices of gaming monitors have risen significantly, especially if you’re looking at displays with OLED panels, massive screens, and high refresh rates at sharp resolutions. Luckily, there is still an excellent pool of affordable monitors out there that don’t sacrifice image quality and features as much as you’d think. Just look at the Xiaomi G Pro 27i, with its incredible mini-LED, quantum dot screen for well under $400, whichs feels like a minor miracle in the age of tarrifs. It's my top pick for a reason: It competes with monitors that cost hundreds of dollars more and is an object lesson in the kind of quality that's available on a limited budget... if you know where to look.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Budget Gaming Monitors:

The best budget gaming monitors may lack certain technology and features, but they still provide an excellent display to enjoy all the capabilities of your gaming PC. Even mid-range graphics cards and CPUs can be pushed to the extreme, as high refresh and 4K monitors can go for relatively cheap. While there are often tradeoffs, like height-adjustable stands on the low end and value-adds like KVM switches on the high end, by focusing on performance and your personal "must haves," you can find truly great values at every price point.

Now, not all budget gaming monitors are created equal, and if something appears too good to be true, it probably is. A $100 monitor might be a great deal upfront, but chances are good it’ll die quickly and/or strain your eyes as you game, doing more harm than good in the end. Our picks may cost a bit more than $100, but their solid builds, excellent panels, and gaming features make for a better experience. However, just like any other gaming accessory, nicer gaming monitors are available if you’re willing to spend more.

Additional contributions by Danielle Abraham, Matthew S. Smith

1. Xiaomi G Pro 27i Mini-LED Gaming Monitor

Best Overall Budget Gaming Monitor

2. Asus TUF Gaming VG277Q1A

Best Budget 1080p Gaming Monitor

3. LG UltraGear 27GN800-B

Best 1440p Budget Gaming Monitor

4. KTC H27P22D

Best 4K Budget Gaming Monitor

5. Dell S3422DWG

Best Ultrawide Budget Gaming Monitor

How Much Should You Spend on a Gaming Monitor?

If you're looking for a budget gaming monitor, a good sweet spot to aim for is around $200-$300. You can find plenty of gaming monitors that are cheaper than that, but then you start running into issues with quality. You're going to have to make compromises either way, but in general, a gaming monitor should last 3-5 years, and a $100 gaming monitor probably isn't going to do that.

In order to find a gaming monitor that hits that price tag, you'll need to know what to look for in a gaming monitor, and figure out which areas are most important to you, so you can make the right compromise for your needs.

Gamers on a tight budget don’t have to make as many sacrifices as they once did, but there’s still a need for some compromise. In general, you can go for a higher resolution, or you can go for a higher refresh rate, but you sadly won’t be able to snag both in a budget gaming monitor.

1080p remains the standard go-to resolution in budget displays. It certainly lacks the clarity of modern 4K TVs, but on the plus side, the low display resolution means you won’t need high-end hardware to play new games and achieve high frame rates. 1440p resolution is a nice upgrade, and a better overall value if you can stretch your budget. A 1440p monitor with a 27" screen actually has a higher pixel density than a 48" 4K television. However, this means a 240Hz refresh rate will no longer be affordable.

4K is available on a budget but you should expect to pay closer to $400 or to make bigger sacrifices in brightness or screen size. You should also bear in mind the higher system requirements to run 4K resolution at high frame rates. In any case, this is the compromise you must make if you want to play at 4K for as little cash as possible.

The refresh rate of budget gaming monitors is generally 60 to 240Hz, with most landing at 144Hz or 165Hz. A refresh rate of 144Hz is a great all-around choice that can handle most games with ease, but 240Hz is a noticeable upgrade for players who only care about competitive games. 360Hz is also now more in reach for cheaper gaming monitors than it used to be.

It’s important to note that a monitor’s maximum refresh rate may not be supported by every input. For example, many monitors that reach up to 165Hz will only support 144Hz over HDMI. DisplayPort is the best bet if you want to use a high refresh rate.

A monitor’s display panel technology is an important and often overlooked factor. All the monitors we recommend use either an IPS or VA panel. IPS panels are prized for motion clarity, vibrance, and responsiveness, all of which makes them great for competitive gaming. VA panels have a much better contrast ratio and far superior dark scene performance, so they’re better for games with immersive, high-end graphics.

Screen size is less of a limitation than it used to be. Our budget gaming monitor guide focuses on 27" options, alongside a 34" ultrawide. Smaller monitors (24") tend to be less expensive and are also preferred by competitive gamers, who want the entire display to be firmly within their focus. Larger monitors (32" and up) are more immersive, but will start to lose detail if not accompanied by a higher resolution. With that said, it is possible to buy a monitor that’s too large for your desk, so make sure to measure if you’re unsure. If in doubt, a 27" monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio is a safe bet.

It’s wise to buy a monitor with Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync support, depending on whether you have an Nvidia or AMD video card. Many budget gaming monitors support both. My preferred picks all list the standards they support.

Finally, a note about HDR. While HDR is marketed on many affordable monitors, it unfortunately remains unimpressive on most as they only get up to a maximum 400-nits of screen brightness. A maximum brightness of 400 nits is considered "HDR compatible" because it will technically display this content but it will lack the dynamic range required to display more than SDR.

Budget Gaming Monitor FAQs

What is the best type of panel?

Budget gaming monitors typically come with either a VA or IPS panel. One of my picks is an IPS monitor with a mini-LED backlight and trumps both other panel types due to how the technology is implemented. Go with that if your budget and needs allow for it. Otherwise, the choice between VA and IPS comes down to three things: response time, colors, and contrast.

For response time and color accuracy, IPS panels are the way to go, though the former is much less of a concern than it used to be. These days, 1ms panels exist for both types. IPS monitors still tend to offer the most vivid and accurate colors, however.

For contrast, unless the monitor uses a mini-LED backlight like my top pick, VA has a major advantage. Because it doesn't use edge-lighting like IPS panels do, dark colors and blacks look much more rich. Because of this, VA panels can offer a better dynamic range.

While there is no "best," there are certainly better choices depending on what you value most in a gaming monitor.

When are gaming monitors most affordable?

The best time to buy a gaming monitor for a reasonable price (or a budget gaming monitor for even cheaper than usual) is during shopping events like Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday. Gaming monitor deals can also pop up during Back to School sales, and major retailers usually lower the price on older models to make way for new releases.

What size gaming monitor should I get for gaming?

It’s really a matter of personal preference when choosing a gaming monitor, but there are some general rules of thumb to keep in mind. The first is the most obvious: Consider your available space. You don't want to get excited for your new monitor to arrive only to find that it won't fit into your gaming space. Next, consider the resolution of the monitors you're considering and how it relates to pixel density. A 24" monitor is more compact and is a good fit for 1080p gaming. For 1440p, 27-32" is a good fit, offering plenty of detail and a bigger-screen gaming experience. For 4K, I recommend a minimum of 27" to take advantage of its higher pixel count. Also beware of 1080p monitors larger than 27" as each pixel becomes visible at this size, leading to a screen door effect.

Christopher Coke has been a regular contributor to IGN since 2019 and has been covering games and technology since 2013. He has covered tech ranging from gaming controllers to graphics cards, gaming chairs and gaming monitors, headphones, IEMs, and more for sites such as MMORPG.com, Tom’s Hardware, Popular Science, USA Today, and Popular Mechanics. Find Chris on X at @gamebynight.

In many ways, Visual Concepts’ long-running NBA 2K series mirrors the careers of players it works so hard to emulate. Sometimes, it’s a flash of potential: a hotshot rookie catching fire after putting up duds in consecutive games. Others, it’s more comparable to a wily veteran nearing retirement – we see a glimpse of talent, a peek into what it could still be. That’s what keeps me, for better or worse, coming back for more each year. Now, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about being let down again. But unlike the soul-crushingly mediocre Phoenix Suns who I stubbornly root for every season, NBA 2K26 did not disappoint this year. It’s both flashy and old school, like a “how do you do, fellow kids” teacher who wears different Jordans to class every day, and it has enough cool new kicks, fits, and gimmicks to make it a much more interesting and enjoyable experience than last year’s entry.

Of course, “cool” probably isn’t the right word to describe that teacher, let alone NBA 2K26. After all, an annual sports game is obviously not going to be a radically new game, since most of its gameplay and mechanics are fundamentally similar to last year’s iteration, and the one before that, and so on. But in the context of the genre it’s made a good first impression, because several minor improvements cumulatively make such a huge difference to the whole that I’m willing to say it and risk being called a nerd. Yes, I am talking about the new and improved shot meter. As always, one of the smallest components in its vast hardwood floor of dribbling and crisscrossing parts leaves a massive influence on how just about everything else on the court plays out.

Green and Slightly Curved

If you were lucky enough not to have experienced last year’s shot meter, I envy you. In place of that nightmare-inducing dial/arrow/ring design from 2K25, NBA 2K26 features a much more intuitive, easier-to-time, and infinitely better-curved bar shot meter. If you’ve heard that before, it’s because it’s similar to 2K23’s – but this isn’t entirely a reversion to that. Instead of remaining static, the new meter’s green field adjusts based on defensive coverage: if a defender is right up in your face, you’ll have practically no chance of making the shot. But if you’re open, it’ll be much easier to time the release right and make a shot.

Trust me, I’m having so much more fun shooting jumpers now than I was this time last year because I’m actually making them consistently. There is a slight tradeoff, though: because it’s easier to get greens, there’s also less room for imperfection. Meaning if you get a slightly early or slightly late timing, you might as well start running back on defense because the shot will more than likely brick. That said, I’ll take this shot meter any day of the week over a barely improved chance to make mistimed shots.

Now, I’m a big believer in the concept of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” because why ruin a good thing, right? But I’m an even bigger believer that if something is broke – like last year’s janky player movement – you better get to fixin’ quick. Visual Concepts did just that because NBA 2K26 makes running, cutting, and defending so much smoother that it makes NBA 2K25’s motion feel like you were stuck running in quicksand. This is no small change because it permeates every single mode, making the entirety of NBA 2K26 feel less robotic and far more natural and enjoyable.

Plus, it makes one of my favorite new features, Go-To Post Shots, look even more accurate and realistic. Remember in last year’s review how disappointed I was that I couldn’t dominate the paint with Jokic’s or Embiid’s shimmy shake fade-aways? Well, dreams do come true because for the past day I have been spamming the Sombor Shuffle an ungodly amount of times in each match I play. It is a delightfully methodical, bruising alternative to the agile, quick-twitch motions of the typical Go-To Moves, and I will continue using it until the AI learns to stop it. Until then, it’s barbecue chicken alert each time down the floor.

Goodbye, Yellow-Brick Road

Now for the bad news. What, you thought it was going to be all good from here on out? Sorry, Dorothy, but the years haven’t been kind to this yellow brick road. And by “yellow brick road,” I mean NBA 2K26’s offline-only modes. Last year, the so-called improvements to MyNBA were underwhelming, to say the least. This time, dear friends, they are practically non-existent, and, as an offline-mode truther, I am very disappointed.

With 2K25, we at least had the addition of the Steph Era, even though it already felt redundant alongside two other eras in the 2010s (in addition to the LeBron Era). Are you ready to hear what the 2K26 MyNBA modes have in store? Drumroll, ple…you know what, don’t even bother. It’s called Offseason Scenarios for MyGM. These are tailor-made, long-term quests for each franchise that you must fulfill to appease the fanbase and, more importantly, the owner.

These scenarios come in threes and are given out at the beginning of the offseason. But much like my issues with last year’s MyGM mode, these tasks (and many of the features in the mode itself) again feel forced and, at times, unrealistic. The RPG elements, with their perk and attribute point systems, seem out of place and unnecessary because they hardly make a difference in the grand scheme of basketball operations. At the end of the day, it’s still all about winning as many games and championships as you can. Or, if you’re on the other end of the spectrum, losing and tanking as much as possible to get back into playoff contention.

Overall, MyGM is like the bass guitar in a band: Consistent, a steady droning presence, as necessary as all the other pieces in an ensemble. When played right, it stands out and can make any part much more fun (can you imagine the Red Hot Chili Peppers without Flea?). But you shouldn’t mess with it too much. Nobody asks for a bass solo. And right now, this mode is the equivalent of a three-minute-long slap bass riff: people are complaining, and others have already left the show. Sometimes, less is more.

And Say Hello to My Little (Old) Friend

I’ve come to the realization that NBA 2K’s offline modes are a desert, and as much as I’d like to stay in this familiarly comfortable place of habitual sameness (I told you, I’m an offline truther), dying of thirst sounds like an awful way to go. Luckily, this next part is an oasis, a place of revitalizing respite that gives me the energy to go on.

Just to be clear, the oasis I’m talking about is not The City, although it is a massive relief that each location in the typically huge hub is easier to access than ever. The place has been revamped in the best way I could’ve hoped for. Everything, from the arena where you play NBA games to The Rec, is now only a short skate away (some places are even interconnected), so I’ve had more time to enjoy schooling (and being schooled) in the art of green.

Now, gather ‘round, kids, and let me tell you youngins’ a story. Back in my day, before the microtransaction invasion and a mass exodus to The City, MyCareer used to have an excellent single-player plot and an attribute system that wasn’t wholly reliant on Virtual Currency. Sadly, asking to lessen the impact of VC in MyCareer is like asking LeBron to read past the first page of a book: it’s nearly impossible. As long as there are people out there willing to spend cold, hard cash on make-believe money, it’s not going away any time soon. But with 2K26 we, at the very least, got a consolation prize: a much better storyline.

Called Out of Bounds, this year’s MyCareer focuses once again on MP and his journey to the pros. But instead of a depthless series of events where the games you play have practically no bearing on what team you land with or pick you get drafted at, it’s the opposite. You start out as a no-name high school player in middle-of-nowhere Vermont, where your chances of making it to the NBA are as slim as my team’s championship hopes. In other words, you have to show out in every game, whether that’s on the youth team you play for or the European club you join; your performances and the choices you make along the way all have an impact on your NBA future.

And, to me, that’s what it’s all about. A huge part of what made this mode so exciting when it was first introduced in 2K10 (then called MyPlayer) was its ability to capture just how difficult it is to make it into the NBA—a dream millions of kids have but only a few hundred get to turn into reality. Your teammate grades had to be stellar and your performances on point if you wanted a chance at getting drafted in the lottery, let alone in the first round. This latest journey, while it doesn’t quite mirror that path, hits all the right emotional and storytelling notes, making it the best MyCareer story in years.

In fact, I’m already planning on playing through it a second time, if only to see what different career choices, like joining Basquet Madrid over Paris FC Basket in Europe, could potentially lead to. As always, one thing that I wish it did have was an option to play in college instead of overseas. I continue to dream of the day when, after finishing my player’s high school career, I can choose from a bunch of different scholarships, finish a one-and-done season with my alma mater, and get drafted number one overall. But as the great rock n’ roll philosopher Mick Jagger once said: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get an EA college basketball game in a few years.” Of course, that’s a different game for another time. (I might also be paraphrasing that last part.)

There’s No W in Microtransactions

In this economy, I’m trying not to spend too much on stuff I don’t need, and Virtual Currency falls into that category. What I don’t mind, though, is grinding (especially when that means playing a basketball game I enjoy), and getting kitted out with a respectable starting squad in MyTeam is easy. Much like last year, I just had to complete the tutorials and, to my relief, I had a decent-enough starting five that could keep up in the lower ranks. But decent is never enough, is it? The false promise of a shinier veneer, the devilish contract that is microtransactions is always there, peeking its ugly head over your shoulder in each online mode.

They continue to be one of the biggest black marks in what has otherwise been NBA 2K26’s relatively clean sheet. MyCareer, as usual, is especially infected by its thick, suffocating miasma. Oh, you wanted a 99 OVR player? Yeah, that’ll cost you around 500,000 VC (around $120). Want to create another one with a different build? Selling a kidney might help. It’s so easy to tell people just to ignore these because you technically can, but the reality is that they are made to be enticing and undeniably predatory: buy something once and it becomes easier to buy it again, and the cycle goes on with millions of people worldwide. Don’t even get me started on MyTeam or, as I like to call it, microtransaction central. As soon as I opened it up, I was assaulted by Season Pass ads and Virtual Currency “deals.”

It isn’t all bad, though. I love that this year’s addition of WNBA players makes it even easier to get high-rated players. I mean, having an 89-rated Ruby Kelsey Plum on my starting five to kick things off is practically a cheat code. But adding “The W” to MyTeam doesn’t just magically erase the influence of overpriced superstar packs and jewel-themed players. As long as they remain, and they more than likely will, there will never be a W in microtransactions.

The price of the rumored iPhone 17 Air — the thinnest phone in Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 lineup — remains uncertain in the wake of conflicting reports.

There's a lot of buzz around the iPhone 17 Air, which is reportedly set to replace the Plus model of this year's iPhones. But its cost remains a mystery, with different sources offering different expectations of what iPhone users can expect to pay for this ultra-thin device.

Reported leaks from TrendForce say the iPhone 17 Air will launch at $1099, a notable increase over last year's iPhone 16 Plus, which launched at $899. Meanwhile, earlier this week, 9to5 Mac reported on JPMorgan's expectations that the iPhone 17 Air is likely to remain at $899 or, at most, see only a minor price increase to $949.

Despite its 6.6-inch display, the iPhone 17 Air is anticipated to be only 5.5mm thick, making it the slimmest iPhone ever released. Coupled with the fact that it's also likely to be the most lightweight modern iPhone at around 145g, it's clearly aiming to earn its "Air" moniker. Glancing at these features alone, it makes sense that the iPhone 17 Air could see a price increase over last year's Plus model — but things aren't quite that simple.

If all the rumors about the iPhone 17 Air turn out to be true, Apple could be making some notable trade-offs to achieve a thinner form factor, such as a smaller battery and only a single camera on the back of the device. With these things in mind, it's possible the company could opt to maintain the same price as the iPhone 16 Plus to avoid bringing quite as much attention to what many could perceive as drawbacks to this refreshed design.

So, for now, it seems no one can quite nail down what to expect from the iPhone 17 Air's price — but at least we don't have long to wait for answers. We'll learn more about what's in store for the entire iPhone 17 family when Apple announces the devices at its reveal event on Tuesday, September 9 at 10 am PT. If you're eager to see what's in store, you can watch the event on YouTube. If previous release dates for iPhones are anything to go by, you'll be able to preorder the new phones next week.

While Apple’s iPad might be the most well-known tablet out there, it’s not always the best choice if you’re prone to eyestrain, distractions, or just plain prefer a more paper-like reading or writing experience. If that sounds familiar, then an e-ink tablet might be exactly what you’re looking for. With their low-distraction designs, easy readability, and frequently excellent handwriting experience, they’re a standout alternative for students, professionals, and anyone who craves a bit more focus in their life.

E-Ink tablets have been on the rise for years and there’s no shortage of options to choose from these days. I’ve done the testing and am a verified lover of all things e-ink, so if you’re on the hunt for anything from a paper replacement, to a “second brain,” to a simple e-reader, I’ve got something in mind.

TL;DR – These Are the Best E-Ink Tablets

E-Ink first came into the mainstream with the Amazon Kindle. Like many people, it was my first experience with it, and I’ve been a fan ever since. Compared to traditional tablet LCD displays which use bright backlights and quickly flashing images to display motion, e-ink displays don’t have lights behind the screen to shine into your eyes and only refresh the image as much as necessary to display the content – even if that’s only one time to change the page you’re reading.

Modern e-ink tablets have evolved from simple e-readers into feature-rich alternatives to normal tablets. Many run on modified versions of Android for their operating system and some even offer Google Play Store access. Most offer an array of reading, writing, planning, and productivity apps to support your needs through the day, even if you can’t freely download any app you’d like. The handwriting experience is often much better too, as the screens most often utilize Wacom EMR technology and micro-textured surfaces to deliver a more paper-like writing experience.

Even with these advancements, the limited nature of the display technology makes them much less likely to distract you while you read or take notes. While you can browse the web or load a video on some models (not all), the experience isn’t as fast, seamless, or tempting, allowing you to focus and accomplish more.

How to Choose the Best E-Ink Tablet

E-Ink tablets aren’t new anymore and as the technology has advanced, there are more factors to weigh when it comes to best meeting your needs. I’ve done the research and testing to find the best picks for most people, but if you’d rather consider options on your own, these are the things to look out for.

Stylus Support

Just like with traditional tablets and tablet PCs, stylus support can vary between brands and models. The most common stylus technology for e-ink tablets is Wacom EMR (electromagnetic resonance). Wacom styluses are a popular choice for their natural and responsive writing experience and exceptional palm rejection, and they don't actually need to be recharged since they don't run on batteries. Any EMR stylus will work with any EMR tablet, but the same can’t be said for capacitive styluses, which are the second option.

Capacitive styluses are commonly found on traditional tablets. But, just like that world, there are multiple standards applied between brands. You'll need to do research to ensure any aftermarket option you consider is compatible. Right now, the leading options are Bluetooth, USI, and USI 2.0. USI 2.0 is backward compatible with USI, but the opposite isn't true. As you can see, things can get confusing if you’re not careful. In general, however, if the tablet you’re considering offers stylus support, go for Wacom if possible.

Tablet Size

From the smartphone-like Boox Palma to the paper-sized Boox Note Max to middle-ground options like the Viwoods AI Paper at 10.3 inches or the Remarkable Paper Pro at just over 11 inches, there is a wide range of size options. If you're looking for a simple e-reader, a smaller tablet may be a better choice for its increased portability. If you read a lot of large PDFs or want to write on a sheet that's nearly the same as physical paper, a 13.3-inch option would be a good fit. In my experience, if you're not sure, opting for something in the middle is the safest bet, such as one of the 10.3-inch options in this list.

Color or Monochrome

Do you want color on your screen, or will black and white suffice? Color can be an important feature if you read files with color imagery or highlighters, download apps, or spend a lot of time browsing the web. If you'll mainly be using your tablet for reading, writing, or sketching, then monochrome is a fine choice and often comes with benefits, such as a lower price. One important thing to remember is that color e-ink is significantly less vibrant than color on an LCD tablet. Think of it more like color newsprint, and you'll be on the right track.

OS and App Support

As you consider what you would like to do with the tablet, one of the most important aspects to think about is whether you want access to an app store or if you'll be content with the features and functions provided by the manufacturer. While many e-ink tablets are deliberately designed to avoid downloadable apps for their propensity to distract, others, like those from Boox, aim to offer a full Android experience in an e-ink format. Just because a tablet runs on Android doesn’t mean that it will offer Google Play support, though. Be sure to verify that the tablet you’re considering offers access to the tools you’ll need to make it through your day.

Screen and Resolution

As you look into different tablets, you'll surely notice different screens highlights in feature and specification lists. Unless you’re shopping the used market and are considering a tablet more than 2 or 3 years old, you don’t need to get too hung up on this. For e-reading and writing, most displays will work similarly. Instead, I recommend paying closer attention to the resolution of the display and its pixel density (measured in Pixels Per Inch or PPI). As of this writing, the gold standard is 300 PPI, which offers a crisp reading experience with enough resolution to fully enjoy illustrations and photos.

As with most things, doing your research is still important. In the world of color e-ink, panel technology is advancing quickly, so a newer screen may offer more vivid colors and less ghosting. As always, take a gander at user reviews before pulling the trigger if you’re shopping for prior years’ models.

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

I can't stress this enough: Even if you feel totally confident in a certain tablet being a great fit for you, take the time to read and watch different reviews to get a better idea of its strengths and weaknesses. Ghosting performance, app performance, update cadence, and battery life are all qualities with an element of subjectivity to them and aren’t things you can typically clean from product listings. Depending on your preferences, any of these qualities could turn a tablet that’s popular among others into a frustration for you. Do yourself a favor and do your research before pulling the trigger. You'll be glad you did.

1. Boox Tab X C / Boox Note Max

Best E-Ink Tablet

2. Viwoods AI Paper

Best for Students

3. Boox Note Air 4C

Best Color E-Ink Tablet

There is no e-reader as well-known as the Amazon Kindle, and with its latest release, the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft has slid into the top spot for anyone that doesn't mind purchasing their e-books from Amazon's vast library. Of course, if you don’t care about color, the Kindle Paperwhite is the next best, but either way, Amazon continues to have the e-reader market on lock.

The Kindle Colorsoft is the latest version of the Kindle to come to market, and it’s a welcome one. The original Kindle Colorsoft was plagued by yellow banding issues distorting colors along its bottom edge. With this release, it appears that Amazon has officially solved those issues, making it one of the most cost-effective and easy to use e-ink tablets out there.

Unlike most of the other devices in this list, the Colorsoft isn’t trying to be your do-it-all tablet. Instead, this is a purpose-driven device, designed to provide you with easy access to your ebook library anywhere you might be. You’ll need to be in the Amazon ecosystem or use a tool like Calibre to add non-Amazon ebooks, but if you are, you’ll find that this is the hands-down easiest way to access your entire library.

Like the other color tablets on this list, the Colorsoft’s plentiful assortment of hues adds a new dimension to anything with color pictures or illustrations. It makes a strong first impression, too, rendering all of your book covers in full color. As is the case with all e-ink screens right now, they won’t be as vibrant as an LCD reader can produce, but the few other places benefit from a paperlike screen than good, old-fashioned reading.

The new Kindle Colorsoft goes for $250 but tends to go on sale whenever there’s a major shopping event. If you don’t need color, the Kindle Paperwhite is only $160.

The Supernote Manta from Ratta is one of the most popular digital notebooks out there. It has a dedicated fan base, which is true of many options on this list, but few are as enthusiastic as the Manta's. Thanks to an existing customer-first approach to business and a design that emphasizes interconnecting your thoughts in a way that few others do, it's as close to a "second brain" as e-ink tablets have been able to deliver so far.

Here's the thing: While many, if not most, of the leading e-ink tablets on the market allow you to organize your notes and add tags, the Manta allows you to link between ideas more deeply and easily than anything else out there I'm aware of. You can add links to previous notes, categorize them with keywords, and search handwritten text. Notes can be linked to documents, images, and web pages. It’s also smart enough to create outlines for your documents on the fly, so even mid-note, it puts organization at the forefront.

In addition, it highly emphasizes the quality of the writing experience. The Supernote Manta uses a soft surface with a proprietary screen protector to give a gel pen-like writing experience. It comes with lots of purpose-built templates you can use to create your notebooks and allows you to sort everything into your choice of custom or pre-made folders, including subfolders, to really personalize your workflow.

Ratta has also implemented its own dedicated art application called Atelier. While basic note-taking still has a relatively limited pen selection, there are significantly more options built into Atelier, including different pencil hardnesses to shade with just gradients.

It never ceases to impress me what actual artists can create using the Manta. While I would never classify myself as an actual artist, I've still had a lot of fun using it for impromptu drawing and practicing new handwriting techniques. If you’re an art major, though, or just enjoy sketching, the Manta provides a lifelike drawing experience with an easy ability to move your draws off of the device into the cloud or directly to your PC.

While some people will find its lack of Google Play Store support limiting, it's one of the few devices that allows you to create a Wikipedia-like web of connection between your thoughts, which impressed me in my review. It should be on your radar if you’re looking for a digital notebook that can become integral to your day and be genuinely helpful to supplement your memory and planning.

In the e-ink space, Remarkable is probably the most well-known brand out there. The original Remarkable and its successor, the Remarkable 2, were very highly regarded and brought the idea of digital notebooks to a large mainstream audience in a way that shook the industry and made many of these other tablets possible. The Remarkable Paper Pro continues its legacy of delivering a class-leading writing experience and feels the most premium of any e-ink tablet I've used thus far. As far as paper replacements go, it’s great.

One of my hands-down favorite qualities about it is its excellent handwriting experience. Not only does the screen feel great to write on with its subtly textured surface, Remarkable is pulling some software magic behind the scenes to make your handwriting look better than anywhere else. Impressively, the changes are small enough that your handwriting still looks like your own, but looking back at it, it's satisfyingly refined in a way that will leave you wishing other tablets did the same.

There's also something about the way colors render on the screen, initially black and then chased by a colored line that's oddly satisfying. Its color presentation is quite good and is one of the more vibrant options out there today. It's perfect for reading PDFs and color coding within your own notebooks and templates.

Remarkable has never hid the fact that it is a handwriting-first device. Over the years, its "first to the mainstream" bona fides have allowed the company to occupy a somewhat luxurious space. That's evident in the weighty, metallic build of the Paper Pro, and, it must be said, its comparatively high price.

Whether or not this is a good fit for you will depend entirely on whether you are looking for a pure paper replacement. While there are lots of downloadable templates and resources to aid in your writing and organization, there are no outside apps, no dedicated art functions, and there's not even an ability to access Kindle, so your e-reading needs are limited to PDFs and ePubs. You can view Microsoft Word and Powerpoint files, too, so you can still access and review those files.

Overall, the Remarkable Paper Pro is limited in comparison to many other e-ink tablets but is a good example of choosing one thing, replacing paper, and doing it well.