The developer of Bulletstorm and co-developer of Gears of War: E-Day, People Can Fly, has signed a deal with Sony Interactive Entertainment to develop a new game, codenamed Project Delta.

This comes from a report published by People Can Fly describing the agreement, which stipulates Project Delta will be made as a work-for-hire game, but does not provide further description of the project.

People Can Fly is currently developing a large number of projects with similar codenames, including Project Gemini with Square Enix (which saw 30 developers laid off last year), Project Echo with Krafton, Project Red (also seemingly with Sony), and the VR Project Bison, which People Can Fly announced just yesterday would be its final VR project.

Just last December, the studio announced it was suspending work on its in-progress Project Victoria, and scaling down another in-development game, Project Bifrost. Prior to that in April, it announced it would be cancelling Project Dagger, which was supposed to be an action-adventure title in partnership with Take-Two interactive.

That still leaves People Can Fly with eight total projects in the works that we know of, including the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day in partnership with The Coalition. We don't have a release date on that one yet, though the Square Enix partnership game, Project Gemini, was last known to be due out in 2026.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

The LG UltraGear 27GX790A-B gaming monitor was released at the tail end of 2024. This was LG's first ever OLED monitor with an incredible 480Hz refresh rate. It launched at a starting price of $999.99, which hadn't been discounted at all - until now. For a few days only, the LG online store is offering a 25% off coupon code "SAVE25" that drops the price by to $749.99 shipped. This is one of the best 27" QHD gaming monitors you can get right now, especially if you're aiming for the highest frame rates possible in your FPS games.

$250 Off 27" LG UltraGear 480Hz OLED Gaming Monitor

Here are the best deals for Friday, March 14. Highlights include Sony Bravia OLED TVs at surprisingly affordable prices, a weekend only discount on a recently released LG OLED gaming monitor with a blistering 480Hz refresh rate, 50% off a cordless car jump starter that would be a great addition to your emergency kit, a cheap precision electric screwdriver, the best Hulu and Disney+ streaming bundle deal we'll see this year, and more.

55" Sony OLED 4K Smart TV for $999.99, 65" for $1,299.99

When you’re setting out to build a gaming PC, the most consequential decision you’re going to make is choosing the best graphics card for your build. There are a lot of options out there, but picking an AMD graphics card makes a lot of sense, especially if you don’t want to fork over a lot of extra money for gimmicky extras. All of AMD’s current-generation graphics cards support ray tracing and feature support for FSR, or FidelityFX Super Resolution, an upscaling method supported by most major PC games.

While there are more powerful graphics cards out there, AMD graphics cards like the Radeon RX 9070 XT provide excellent 4K performance, but without a price tag that regularly sneaks into the $2,000 range. And if you’re in the market for a mid-range graphics card for 1440p, Team Red particularly shines, delivering excellent performance for the money you’re spending.

TL;DR: These Are the Best AMD Graphics Cards

Plus, it has to be said that AMD’s graphics architecture powers both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, which makes it easier on developers to optimize for AMD’s hardware when console games make their way over to PC. This by no means guarantees perfect optimization on PC games when you’re running an AMD graphics card, but it does help. Of course, AMD isn’t the only GPU maker in town, so if you’re more interested in Team Green’s offerings, head over to my guide to the best Nvidia graphics cards.

Like with any other graphics card, picking the best AMD GPU isn’t just about getting the fastest card on the market and calling it a day. Instead, you need to decide what resolution you want to play your PC games at and, more importantly, how much you’re willing to spend on a graphics card.

Graphics Card Basics

Graphics cards are, by their very nature, incredibly complex devices. While you don’t need to know everything about them to find a great GPU, there are a few things you should know ahead of time. For AMD graphics cards, the first thing you should keep an eye out for is whether or not it's a current-generation part.

Unfortuantely AMD just completely changed its naming convention. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT just launched as Team Red's top-end graphics card, succeeding the RX 7900 XTX. Not only did AMD skip the 8, but it swapped some of the numbers around. The most important thing to know is that any AMD card with a '9' as the first digit is a current-generation card, with '7' and '6' being the preceding generations.

Some AMD graphics card model numbers will be followed by an “XT” or an “XTX.” This just means that the graphics card is a step up, but without quite being in the next performance class.

This naming convention is relatively new, starting with the Radeon RX 5700 XT in 2019. Before that, the common naming convention for AMD graphics cards was three digits instead of four, like the AMD Radeon RX 580 or RX 480. These graphics cards are old news at this point, so you should avoid buying one, unless you find it for $100 or less.

As a general rule, you can follow a general rule of “higher number = better performance,” but there are specs you can drill down into to further determine performance.

The easiest spec to understand is the VRAM, short for video memory. Typically, having more VRAM is better, especially when you’re playing at a higher resolution. If you play at 1080p, 8GB is going to be more than enough for the majority of PC games. At 1440p, though, you’re going to want to aim for 12GB–16GB of VRAM, especially for more graphically intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Black Myth: Wukong. If you want to play at 4K, though, you should get as much VRAM as you can afford. At this resolution, you really can’t get too much memory, which is why the Radeon RX 9070 XT comes with 16GB.

You can also look at how many compute units a graphics card has. Every graphics card will have multiple compute units, each of which will have dozens of streaming multiprocessors. These are commonly referred to as shaders, or CUDA cores for Nvidia graphics cards. For the latest AMD graphics cards, each compute unit will have 64 Streaming Multiprocessors. So, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which has 96 Compute Units, has a total of 6,144 SMs.

The last few generations of AMD graphics cards have also included dedicated hardware for ray tracing in each Compute Unit. In the latest cards, each CU has 1 RT Core, totalling 96 for the 7900 XTX. As a general rule, the more RT Cores a card has, the better it’ll be at handling ray tracing.

Once you know what graphics card you want, you need to make sure your PC can actually handle it. Measure your case to make sure it has space for it, especially if you’re going for a high-end GPU. Also take a look at the power supply – as graphics cards get more powerful, they need more power, so you’ll want to make sure your PSU has enough wattage. Each graphics card will have a recommended power supply listed, so just make sure yours is beefy enough.

If You Just Want the Best: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

Best For 4K: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Best for 1440p: AMD Radeon RX 9070

Best for 1080p: AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT

Best on a Budget: AMD Radeon RX 6600

What is FSR?

FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR, is AMD’s solution to upscaling tech on PC. This is a software upscaler that takes information from recent frames, as well as motion vector information provided by the game engine, and upscales a lower resolution frame to your native resolution.

Before FSR 4, this was a software-based solution, the brunt of the work is done in the same streaming multiprocessors that the rest of the frame is rendered on. This means there’s less of a performance uplift than an AI-based model that uses dedicated hardware (like Nvidia’s DLSS), but FSR definitely improves your framerate over rendering at a higher resolution natively.

This is simply because running the FSR algorithm as a post-process effect after rendering a game at 1080p still takes much less compute power than rendering a game natively at 4K. However, because FSR is essentially a post-process effect, it does leave some room for fuzziness in some frames. Luckily, AMD has worked around this, and implemented features like contrast-adaptive sharpening, or CAS, to sharpen up images.

However, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, AMD has updated FidelityFX Super Resolution to FSR 4, which now uses AI accelerators in the GPU to upscale, instead of a software-based temporal solution. This does come with a performance cost, but its much more accurate, and produces a much cleaner image. You can swap between both versions of FSR if you choose, opting for FSR 3 if you want the absolute maximum framerate, or FSR 4 if you just want a cleaner image.

FSR has also implemented a frame generation method to further improve performance. FSR frame generation takes the same information from previous frames, along with motion vector information and UI data provided by the developer to add extra frames between each ‘real’ frame. This also drastically improves frame rate, but can introduce latency if you turn it on at a lower frame rate. Instead, you should only turn on FSR frame generation if you’re already getting 50–60fps.

What is Ray Tracing?

Ray tracing is a method of realistically rendering light in 3D scenes. Instead of having a static light source that projects light only where the developers have specifically directed it, ray tracing allows light sources to project light naturally, tracing each ray of light as it bounces around the scene. Naturally, this adds a lot more work for the GPU, especially when it has to be done in real time.

For a few years, this was addressed by ray tracing being limited in games. Early ray tracing games like Battlefield 1 limited ray tracing to just reflections or shadows. This drastically improved these elements, but every other aspect of the game’s lighting was using the same indirect lighting methods games have been using for decades.

More recently, as RT cores in graphics cards have advanced, games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Black Myth: Wukong have started implementing full ray tracing, or path tracing, to their lighting engines. This completely replaces all light sources with ray traced lighting, transforming the game’s presentation. This is only possible because of the RT Cores in AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, and still demands an upscaling method like FSR for playable performance.

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

Sony and game developer Santa Monica Studio have revealed the Dark Odyssey collection, a God of War Ragnarök update coming to players next week that features in-game equipment themed after one of the franchise's most iconic outfits.

Sony detailed all of the goodies included in its God of War 20th anniversary plans in a PlayStation.Blog post. Dark Odyssey is the real headline here, as it includes a war chest of cosmetic treats for all God of War Ragnarök owners across PlayStation 5 and PC. It’ll arrive as a free update March 20.

Everything included in Dark Odyssey features a clean, black-and-gold look that will no doubt have Kratos and co looking better than ever as they tear their way through Norse mythology. Atreus and Freya both receive their own cosmetic sets as part of the patch, too, as do a variety of the player’s shields and weapons.

The show-stealer, though, is a Dark Odyssey appearance and armor set for Kratos that hearkens back to a skin originally only rewarded to players who managed to beat God of War 2 on God Mode difficulty. Players can claim the content in any Lost Items chest in the base game or immediately in God of War Ragnarök’s roguelike Valhalla mode after the update drops. The patch will also finally introduce the option to customize the appearance of Kratos’ weapons without sacrificing each weapon’s respective ability.

Dark Odyssey Armor & Appearance for Kratos

• Dark Odyssey Kratos Appearance
• Dark Odyssey Armor Set for Kratos (Dark Odyssey Breastplate, Dark Odyssey Bracers, Dark Odyssey Belt)

Dark Odyssey Companion Armor

• Dark Odyssey Vestment for Atreus
• Dark Odyssey Witch Frock for Freya

Dark Odyssey Weapon Appearances & Attachments

• Dark Odyssey Leviathan Axe [Appearance] & Dark Odyssey Knob [Attachment]
• Dark Odyssey Blades of Chaos [Appearance] & Dark Odyssey Handles [Attachment]
• Dark Odyssey Draupnir Spear [Appearance] & Dark Odyssey Hind [Attachment]

Dark Odyssey Shield Appearances & Rönd

• Dark Odyssey Guardian Shield [Appearance]
• Dark Odyssey Dauntless Shield [Appearance]
• Dark Odyssey Stone Wall Shield [Appearance]
• Dark Odyssey Shatter Start Shield [Appearance]
• Dark Odyssey Onslaught Shield [Appearance]
• Dark Odyssey Spartan Aspis Shield [Appearance]
• Dark Odyssey Rönd

God of War Ragnarök released in late 2022, so one simple update was never going to do the series’ 20-year history justice. Also included in Sony’s plans to celebrate God of War is a long list of other activities and offers for those who have stuck with Kratos’ story since the beginning. Highlights include a collection of some snazzy social media assets (that you can download here), an art showcase coming as part of a collaboration with Los Angeles’ Gallery Nucleus, new merch, sales, multiple vinyl releases covering the franchise’s history, and more.

“On behalf of everyone at Santa Monica Studio, we are immeasurably grateful to have had the chance to build the legacy of this series with and for you, the fans of God of War,” the studio said.

For more on how you can celebrate 20 years of God of War, you can check out an upcoming PlayStation symphony world tour that kicks off next month. You can also read up on why we think the next God of War title needs to be just as creative as the ones that came before it.

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

The first two episodes of Dope Thief are now streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes debut Fridays through April 25.

Based on the 2009 novel by Dennis Tafoya, Dope Thief does an amazing job depicting the aftermath of a heist gone wrong. When best friends Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura) decide to rob a large-scale drug lab, they can’t anticipate their plan (and the lab) going up in smoke. The signs are there though, and this captivating, often thrilling Apple TV+ drama does a great job of laying them out: This isn’t Ray and Manny’s first time posing as DEA agents in order to “confiscate” illegal goods, but they’ve never worked with an unvetted third party before as they do here. With a doped-up new recruit, itchy trigger fingers, and some highly volatile substances in the mix, the fiery outcome is predictable to a fault. And yet, the chaos that follows this explosive blunder still manages to deliver some exciting twists and turns across Dope Thief’s eight episodes – the first of which is directed by legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott.

Being pursued by real DEA agents as well as the gang they stole from constantly places Ray and Manny in dangerous situations. A vehicle with tinted windows slowly patrolling Ray’s neighborhood adds some suspense, but it’s the menacing voice over a two-way radio threatening his family and friends that’s truly nerve-racking. The same is true when Manny discovers the remains of a torture victim, with evidence suggesting that their killer is still at large and in the vicinity. As the stakes escalate, so do the duo’s worries. The mounting tension never becomes exhausting though: The uneasy atmosphere usually leads to a surprising reveal or some violent encounter or other. At one point, a thrilling foot chase ends with a character trying to sidestep a truck, only to be ground up as they’re repeatedly spun against a nearby wall.

Within Dope Thief’s fresh spin on crime-drama conventions, Brian Tyree Henry delivers an outstanding portrayal of a two-bit criminal. Burdened by his troubled past, Ray struggles to keep it together while dealing with the ramifications of his actions. As much as he’d like to give up – on his sobriety, his dreams, and at times his life – he knows that there are people counting on him. So he puts on a tough façade as he tries to fix everyone’s problems. Henry captures this inner turmoil with convincing displays of emotion, like his heart-wrenching line delivery upon learning about the death of a loved one. It’s one of the acclaimed actor’s best performances to date.

The rest of the cast doesn’t lag far behind him. Moura does a great job as Manny, his sullen demeanor and gaunt appearance conveying both the guilt of a lifelong Catholic-turned-brief-criminal and the character’s heavy drug use. It’s when Moura plays opposite Henry, however, that he’s most convincing. He’s always engaged and seemingly willing to match Henry’s energy in a way that makes Ray and Manny’s friendship feel genuine. Marin Ireland and Nesta Cooper’s portrayals of, respectively, an undercover agent and defense attorney are similarly elevated by Henry – Dope Thief’s most moving scenes are the ones carried by their collective talents. And Kate Mulgrew charms as Ray’s adoptive mother Theresa, giving her a blunt way of speaking and a harsh, but well-meaning tone that helps to establish how Theresa’s style of caring for her son might also tip into overbearing.

Despite all the nail-biting it inspires and the stellar acting it boasts, Dope Thief does have some sticking points. A few plot holes hinder what’s otherwise a decent story; some of the final twists don’t make complete sense because some characters' actions aren’t aligned with their motives. And while its ending is fitting – considering the show only covers the first half of Tafoya's book – it’s also abrupt, building to a pseudo cliffhanger that would take this limited series into a second season that may or may not happen.

Hulu has been around for a while and, for our money, it's one of the absolute best streaming services available. From great movies like Anatomy of a Fall and Prey to excellent television series like the Golden Globe-winning Shogun, Abbott Elementary, and The Bear there is always something awesome to watch. Oscar Best Picture winner Anora is also set to drop on the streaming service on March 17, so there's no better time than now to get set up with a plan.

Below, we've detailed all of the best Hulu deals and bundles so you can get started on your streaming adventures with its library right away. This includes the brand-new Hulu, Disney+, and Max streaming bundle, which starts at just $16.99/month and is currently the best value available for the streaming services following the Disney Plus and Hulu price hikes. To see even more streaming deals, make sure to check out our roundups of the best Disney Plus deals and the best Max deals.

Get Disney+, Hulu Bundle Basic for $2.99/Month for Four Months

Easter eggs and secret messages are old hat for many ongoing games, and Helldivers 2 is no stranger to them either. So it's little surprise that amid an ongoing, calamitous conflict with the Illuminate, players are poring over the messages for hidden details.

If you're not caught up with the running narrative in Helldivers 2, here's a quick catch-up: developer Arrowhead has the Illuminate back and pushing the lines of galactic warfare as the latest threat to Super Earth. The eerie foe is using a massive black hole to slowly consume entire planets, pushing it to Angel's Venture and, now, Moradesh.

Ironically, the black hole was initially created on Meridian by Super Earth, in an effort to wipe out a Terminid Super Colony. Arrowhead's got a particular penchant for "yes, and"-ing the outcomes of the galactic campaigns. The slow build to right now, with the Illuminate pretty much pushing a black hole slowly towards Super Earth, is the latest in a long line of dominoes.

MORADESH EVACUATION WARNING
EVACUATE PLANET
MORADESH EVACUATION WARNING

MORADESH EVACUATION WARNING
EVACUATE PLANET
MORADESH EVACUATION WARNING

MORADESH EVACUATION WARNING
EVACUATE PLANET
MORADESH EVACUATION WARNING pic.twitter.com/G4vpaIgLpz

— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) March 14, 2025

So, now we're here: Moradesh is evacuating, and Helldivers are anticipating the next step of this cataclysmic campaign. Yet some are digging into the evacuation orders, trying to suss out a hidden meaning from the messages Arrowhead is broadcasting.

Reddit user Pinglyadya shared an image of what looks like an egg, hidden in the Moradesh videos. In the comments, they go further, breaking down the potential morse code strings into dots and dashes, surmising that it all results in a few different codes: "045a5, 06efbc, e1b5f0 then 21232. We don't know what this is the code to but have fun."

The "06EFBC" code caught attention in another thread, as it could correspond with the hex code for a shade of teal called Last Straw. Sounds ominous! Nothing concrete has surfaced beyond that, but at least a few fans are convinced there's something hidden in these messages.

It wouldn't be the first time players have gone diving for secrets in Arrowhead's updates. With the Meridian Singularity slowly approaching Super Earth, though, I do wonder whether Helldivers have time to spare for this.

Arrowhead has, since the destruction of Moradesh, issued a new Major Order for players, tasking them with defending planets so Super Earth can construct a Penrose Energy Siphon and effect a "one-time reduction" in Dark Energy Accumulation.

MAJOR ORDER: Following days of diligent resource collection and repurposing of enemy combatants, the Helldivers have enabled the construction of a partial blockade of the Meridian Singularity. The blockade is porous, but still moderately effective, and has slightly reduced the… pic.twitter.com/ye33V6VKa6

— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) March 14, 2025

Hopefully, this can put a stop to the giant tear in space that's slowly encroaching on everything the Helldivers hold dear. And, possibly, put a few more secret messages out into the ether.

This is all part of Helldivers 2's ongoing, community driven Galactic War, which has captured the attention of the game's community for over a year now. The Illuminate invaded in December with an initial alien force that added new enemies to fight against as well as brand new Super Earth colonies to fight on. These colonies introduced Helldivers 2’s first urban environments, with city streets packed with innocent civilians mind-controlled by the Illuminate. The Voteless, as they’re called by Super Earth, are little more than zombies who want nothing more than to team players limb from limb.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Today in weird news, recent Oscars host Conan O’Brien revealed that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences refused to allow him and his team to clothe an Oscar statue or lay it horizontally for promotional ads they pitched for the ceremony. Uh, who knew the Academy was so stuffy?

Speaking on his Oscars head writer Mike Sweeney’s podcast Conan Needs a Friend, O’Brien set the scene: he pitched a series of ads in which he and a 9-foot tall Oscar statue were in a domestic partnership, but the Academy wasn’t exactly receptive to how he wanted to utilize the statue specifically.

Considering what it offers, Disney Plus is one of the best streaming services on the block. From classic Disney animated films to the latest Marvel shows and Star Wars movies, excellent kids' programming like Bluey, and so much more, Disney Plus puts an incredible range of high-quality viewing options at your fingertips. And with so much to check out, including Moana 2, you'll want to find a plan that best suits you. We're here to help.

If you want to go all-in, it's worth considering the Disney+, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle, which starts at just $16.99/month. This bundle is the best value available for the streaming service considering it's the only plan that wasn't hit by the recent Disney+ price hike. If you're looking for more streaming deals from other services, check out the best Hulu deals and bundles and the best Max deals.

Get Disney+, Hulu Bundle Basic for $2.99/Month for Four Months

This article contains spoilers for Severance Season 2’s penultimate episode. Yes, it is actually the penultimate episode this week, we triple checked.

It’s always impressive when an episode tailor-made to make viewers ask “what comes next” has something in it, a singular moment that makes you stop and revel in a singular moment. Theorizing about Severance is, of course, half of the fun of the series, especially as the mystery gets deeper and richer with time. But, as we head into the Season 2 finale, Dylan G. managed to stop me in my tracks.

It was a hard episode for Dylan (Zach Cherry) both in Lumon and outside of it. His wife Gretchen (Merritt Wever) revealed to his outie that she kissed his innie, admitting that she saw the spark there that Dylan used to have when they were first married. Dylan takes this information poorly, noting that maybe he’ll just quit, before storming out of the house. At first it seems like an innocuous threat from a man who’s learned that he’s been cheated on — even if the logistics of the infidelity are a bit complicated — but it quickly becomes more after Gretchen ignores his wishes and goes to see his innie one last time.

During her visit, Gretchen tells Dylan G. that she can’t see him anymore and that she needs to save their marriage. Little does she know that her husband’s innie had been prepared to propose to her before he knew anything of what transpired outside of Lumon earlier that day. She declines his proposal and his handmade paper ring, apologizing as she runs out of the room and leaves her severed husband for good.

That “for good” isn’t because Gretchen is stalwart in her decision, though. It’s much, much worse than that.

After a brief and slightly hostile conversation with Helly R. (Britt Lower) — who is, by the way, the only person staying on mission when it comes to sticking it to Lumon and finding Gemma despite losing more of her autonomy than anyone on the team after what happened between Helena and Mark (Adam Scott) in the forest — Dylan G. marches to Mr. Milchick’s (Tramell Tillman) office and quits on the spot.

It’s such an innocuous thing to say, that Dylan G. quit. But for the purposes of the show and most certainly from Dylan G’s perspective, he didn’t just quit his job. He chose death by suicide, with the doors of the severed floor elevator closing decisively in Dylan G's final moment in the episode.

He watched his best friend be fired (murdered), and was, in his eyes, spurned by the woman he wanted to be his wife, but ultimately was his wife… but also really wasn’t. He had the mystery Irving (John Turturro) left behind still waiting to be solved, but it wasn’t enough to keep him going. Nor was Helly’s friendship, as Dylan G. made it clear that he would never be able to trust that it wasn’t Helena walking among them. It feels unlikely that Mark’s presence (who is currently on a side quest) would have made much of a difference, either.

Dylan G’s choice feels like a crescendo in Severance’s song about autonomy. This season has approached the idea of multiple souls, expanded on Season 1’s question of consent between innies and outies and featured the deaths of multiple characters (Irving's innie this season and Burt's innie before him). The show is constantly forcing us to grapple with questions not just surrounding its central mystery, but of what autonomy really means if part of you doesn’t have it at all. It’s often compelling and sometimes, like this week, deeply sad. On his last day, Dylan G. simply decided that enough was enough. Work is nothing to live for, so he chose removing himself from existence instead.

Having fundamentally transformed the X-Men franchise and debuted a brand new incarnation of the Ultimate Universe, writer Jonathan Hickman is gearing up for his next great Marvel epic. Today Marvel Comics revealed new details about Imperial, a four-issue event series that promises to reshape the fabric of the wider Marvel Universe.

Similar to how 2023's Ultimate Invasion paved the way for the ongoing Ultimate Universe line, Imperial is designed to shake up the status quo for Marvel's cosmic characters and lay the foundation for a new line of comics. In this series, many of the traditional power players in the Marvel Universe will be destroyed or overthrown, leaving room for new empires to rise in their place. The series will specifically center around the Hulk family, Black Panther, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Nova Corps, and other cosmic kings and queens.

Imperial will be written by Hickman and drawn by Federico Vicentini (Miles Morales: Spider-Man) and Iban Coello (Venom). Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man collaborator Marco Checchetto is drawing the covers for the series.

"I'm very excited about this project as I’m obviously a huge fan of all things Marvel Cosmic," Hickman said in a statement. "The goal here is to kind of do what we did with the recent Ultimate line for all of our space titles, except having the setup book (Imperial) be more of an event than a world-building exercise (like Ultimate Invasion). The art team is killing it, and we’re all just very excited for what’s happening in this special corner of the Marvel Universe."

Based on the cover and concept art revealed so far, we can infer certain things about the big changes coming in Imperial. It seems the Nova Corps will be decimated (again), while Star-Lord looks to play a central role in the conflict. It also appears that an entire family of Hulks will take control of the bloody world of Sakaar. And given Black Panther's presence in the story, it's a safe bet that the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda has a part to play in this conflict.

Imperial #1 will be released on June 4, 2025. Let us know your theories about the book in the comments below.

In other upcoming Marvel news, we're getting a new Thunderbolts team that includes Wolverine, Hulk, and Carnage, and we got an exclusive look at Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell.

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

If you're on the hunt for some great PS5 deals, we're here to help. Here we've gathered up some of the best PlayStation deals available at the moment, including the fantastic new PlayStation 5 Slim Astro Bot bundle. With this you're getting Astro Bot for free alongside a new PS5 Slim console, what could be better than that? You can see that deal and so many more below. Here are IGN's top picks for the best PlayStation deals today.

PS5 Slim + Astro Bot Bundle

Sony PS5 DualSense Controller for $54

Best PS5 Video Game Deals

If you've been looking to pick up some new PS5 games, now's a great time to do it with some excellent discounts available. From Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to Sonic X Shadow Generations, there are plenty of great deals worth checking out at both Amazon and Woot. The latter's deals only last for a limited time, though. So if something catches your eye, act fast to pick it up at that price.

PlayStation Portal (Used: Like New) for $161

Best PlayStation VR 2 Deals

Best PS5 SSD Deals

Where to Buy: PS5 Pro

Where to Buy: PlayStation Portal

How to Trade in Your Old PlayStation Consoles

If you're looking to trade in your old PlayStation consoles, you can do so at select retailers in-store and online. Often, the most widely available retailers are GameStop and Best Buy. However, you can also trade your used devices online at retailers such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Some retailers will offer you cash for your used goods, while others may provide you with a gift card that can be used in-store and online. This is a great way to offload your old gaming gear and get some money that you can put towards a newer console and games.

While trading devices in at retailers will often net you the lowest amount for your used consoles, there are also online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp that may fetch higher prices, but you'll often be responsible for packing and shipping costs, or be required to meet someone in person for the transaction. The latter of which poses its own risks.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are back for more body-swapping antics in the first trailer for Freakier Friday ahead of its theatrical premiere later this summer.

The long-time-coming sequel to Disney's Freaky Friday original brings the supernatural comedy to the present day with, of course, a few twists that should keep it feeling fresh after the 22-year wait. As we’ve known for quite some time, Curtis and Lohan are back, but today’s trailer also teases that they’ll also be swapping bodies with at least two new other faces: Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons.

This solid look at how the mother-daughter duo of Anna and Tess will blossom begins when the two meet with a fortune teller who warns that a past lesson may soon become relevant once again. What follows is a montage of new hurdles to creatively leap over, and it’s all set to Chappell Roan’s HOT TO GO!. You can get a taste of some of the antics that will ensue with the first Freakier Friday trailer below.

“The story picks up years after Tess (Curtis) and Anna (Lohan) endured an identity crisis,” an official plot synopsis says. “Anna now has a daughter of her own and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover that lightning might indeed strike twice.”

Freakier Friday comes to theaters August 8, 2025. For more on Disney’s long-awaited sequel, you can see how Curtis and Lohan celebrated after the film secured You Me Her Director Nisha Ganatra.

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

So, you might’ve heard this little tidbit of news lately: Stranger Things star Sadie Sink is officially joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the next Spider-Man. But now comes the speculation: who, exactly, will she play in Spider-Man 4?

You’ve got theories, I’ve got theories, and we’re not alone — the whole internet’s got theories. Needless to say, fans' minds are racing. So what do they think? Well, let’s go over the most distinct possibilities (and, for that matter, impossibilities).

It seems as though most folks find the idea of Sink ending up being the, quote unquote, real Mary Jane Watson due to her red hair to be a bit silly. “Michelle Jones is the MCU’s real MJ,” one fan wrote on Reddit — and most fans in the thread agreed. Though another Redditor noted the studio might cast Sink in the role as a “bold attempt to win back those who prefer classic Spider-Man.” The obvious choice is not always the best one, folks.

Zendaya has played the MCU’s new MJ since 2017’s Spider-Man Homecoming, and despite not being the standard red-haired Mary Jane fans know from the comics and Sam Raimi’s previous trilogy, modern day Spidey lovers have generally accepted her as their MJ. So it seems as though they’ll keep her around, especially considering she is said to be, at minimum, coming back for a cameo for this yet untitled sequel to No Way Home.

Some fans think Sink may end up playing one of Peter Parker’s other love interests, Gwen Stacey. After all, wigs do exist. “Much to the surprise (and potentially dismay) of everyone,” one user said about Sink in the role previously played by Emma Stone in Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man duo. “I absolutely would not want to see [that] since we’ve already gotten a Gwen Stacy/Peter Parker love story and I definitely have no interest in seeing Spider-Gwen right now,” another Redditor added.

Spider-Gwen is a distinct part of the animated Spider-Verse, where she is voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, so it seems like fans prefer to follow her story there for the time being. Considering how major the Peter and Gwen love story was in Webb’s Spider-Man films — it did give way to a lengthy real-life relationship between Stone and Andrew Garfield, who played Parker/Spider-Man — it makes sense that fans wouldn’t really want to see that rehashed. There’s a ton of Spidey territory to cover between his many comic adventures and appearances, so giving Sink something different to do is most likely the key to making her inclusion a success.

Another theory folks have been throwing around is the idea that Sink might end up playing another famous MCU redhead: X-Men’s Jean Grey, also known as the Phoenix. She was played as an adult by Famke Janssen in five films in Fox’s X-Men franchise. Later, she was portrayed as a teenager by Sophie Turner in 2019’s Dark Phoenix.

One user on Reddit considered that idea “too obvious,” while another agreed and added: “Weird to intro [her] in SM4.” That said, a third fan noted that there could always be more castings in the future that could lead to more mutants joining the fold for Spider-Man 4. Others have doubts about a mutant showing up with true relevance in a Spider-Man focused film. “I just don't see one of the core X-Men getting introduced in a Spider-Man movie,” a fan wrote.

But it seems as though the most popular guess — and potentially the best guess as well — is a lesser known character called Firestar, a redhead mutant named Angelica Jones who is a mainstay in the X-Men, as well as the 1981 animated series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends where she debuted. She could definitely be that “something different” I was talking about — and lots of fans seem excited about the prospect of bringing her into the story as it stands within the MCU.

Indeed, fans seem particularly excited at the idea of bringing those Amazing Friends back together. “She'll be a college student alongside Peter and their friend/partner Bobby Drake. They'll all live in the same apartment too,” one user commented. “This will be the adaptation of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends we've all been waiting for, lol.” Another agreed, “I would love a Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends team-up!” while a third added: “If they did the Amazing Friends lineup, people would lose their minds.”

Firestar started as a Spider-Man character, but eventually broke off and expanded into her own story that included alliances with the New Mutants, Hellions, and the Avengers themselves. So considering her origins, it might just be the perfect character to introduce. However, one fan did mention, “If Firestar, why not Jean?” and to be fair, they have a point. But right now, it’s anyone’s guess who Sink will end up making her MCU debut as. Only time will tell.

Photo by Arturo Holmes/WireImage.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

Spring is right around the corner, and with the changing of the seasons comes more sale events to check out. For PC gamers, this means some big discounts can be found across Steam, Fanatical, and Green Man Gaming in their respective Spring Sales. If you've been waiting for another sale event after the holidays to fill up your library with PC games, now is a great time to start stocking up. There are some excellent options on sale as well, including Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and much more.

Steam Spring Sale

In case you missed the news, Bruce Wayne is getting a new look when DC Comics relaunches its flagship Batman series this September. Artist Jorge Jiménez has designed a new Batsuit that brings the classic blue cape and cowl back into the spotlight. After almost 90 years on the stands, DC is still tweaking the Dark Knight’s iconic costume.

But how does the new Batsuit measure up to the classics? What are the greatest Batman costumes of all time? We’ve handpicked our 10 favorite Batsuits from the comics, ranging from the original Golden Age costume to more modern reinterpretations like Batman Incorporated and Batman Rebirth. Scroll down to see them all.

And if Batman movies are more your speed, make sure you check out our ranked list of all the movie Batsuits.

10. ‘90s Batman

1989’s Batman movie introduced a radically different, all-black Batsuit that remains one of the Dark Knight’s most iconic suits in any medium. DC never fully committed to porting that costume over to the comics (outside of actual Burton-Verse tie-ins like Batman ‘89), but they did introduce a Batsuit inspired by the movies in the 1995 storyline “Troika.”

This new Batsuit adopted the all-black approach to Batman’s body but retained a more traditional blue cape and cowl. It even added more extreme elements like spikes on Batman’s boots, although those elements were toned down after the suit’s initial introduction. Regardless, the result was a more intimidating and stealthy Batsuit that became the default look for the Caped Crusader for the remainder of the ‘90s.

9. Batman Incorporated

When Bruce Wayne returned following his apparent death in 2008’s Final Crisis, DC celebrated with the launch of a new series, Batman Incorporated, and a new costume designed by David Finch. That Batman Inc. suit is notable both for bringing back the classic yellow oval around the Bat emblem and for ditching the black trunks.

In many ways, the Batman Inc. suit feels like a more successful and visually cohesive version of what DC tried to accomplish with Batman’s New 52 suit a couple of years later. It introduced a more functional quality to Batman’s look, creating the impression that the Batsuit was less spandex than a true suit of armor, yet it avoided mucking up the design with too many stray lines. It also helped create some much-needed visual distinction between Bruce and Dick Grayson, who was also serving as Batman at the time.

The only element that slightly holds back the Batman Inc. look is the slightly goofy-looking armored codpiece. We’re not sure what the thinking was there.

8. Absolute Batman

The most recent creation on this list, there’s a reason the Absolute Batman Batsuit makes such a strong first impression. This is Batman at his most imposing.

Absolute Batman takes place in a rebooted DCU where Bruce Wayne lacks many of the advantages of his traditional counterpart, like a mansion and billions of dollars. Still, he manages to create quite an impressive crimefighting arsenal. Nearly every inch of this Batsuit is a weapon, from the razor-sharp ear daggers to the removable Bat emblem that doubles as a battle axe. Even the cape is completely redesigned, consisting of several flexible, arm-like tendrils.

Ultimately, though, it’s the sheer size of this Batman that makes the Absolute suit stand out. Writer Scott Snyder jokingly referred to Absolute Batman as “the Batman who lifts,” and you can see why.

7. Flashpoint Batman

In the alternate timeline of Flashpoint, Joe Chill killed a young Bruce Wayne, leading to a grieving Thomas Wayne becoming Batman instead. This darker, very different Batman needs a darker, very different Batsuit, and he got one in the form of a costume that drops the traditional yellow elements in favor of bold red accents. The Bat emblem, utility belt, and leg holsters are all a deep crimson, creating a unique and cool look. Couple that with the dramatic shoulder spikes on the cape and the fact that this Batman is known to wield guns and a sword, and you have one of the most visually arresting takes on an alternate universe Batman.

6. Lee Bermejo’s Armored Batman

Artist Lee Bermejo has drawn and painted Batman a lot over the years, from the Batman/Deathblow crossover to the Joker graphic novel to the infamous Batman: Damned. In that time, Bermejo has established a distinctive and very striking take on the iconic Batsuit, one unlike any other at DC Comics.

Bermejo’s Batsuit is about as far from the typical spandex look as you can get. This is armor, pure and simple,and the artist’s Batman is as much about function as he is form. But the goal isn’t necessarily realism here. Bermejo’s Batman is also a haunting figure, one mired in dirt and grime and a certain Gothic quality. This Batsuit, as much as any other, inspired the look of Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight in 2022’s The Batman.

5. Gotham by Gaslight Batman

The DC multiverse is a vast place, and we’ve seen countless variations of the Batsuit appear on numerous worlds. That being said, none can truly measure up to Gotham by Gaslight’s Batman. It’s as if the character was made for this steampunk Victorian setting. The Batsuit perfectly translates into this bold revamp that trades skintight spandex for stitched leather and a billowing cloak.

Of course, it helps that the original Gotham by Gaslight series was illustrated by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. Mignola’s Batman is truly iconic, bathed in shadow and looking as if he were chiseled out of raw granite. And even though Mignola’s DC days are long behind him, this incarnation of the character lives on through follow-up stories like Gotham by Gaslight: The Kryptonian Age.

4. Golden Age Batman

It says a lot about the original Bob Kane/Bill Finger-designed Batsuit that the design has survived with only modest changes for the better part of 90 years. All the right ingredients for a truly iconic superhero look were there from the start.

But in addition to serving as the basis for every Batsuit since, the Golden Age design is also notable for boasting some interesting features you don’t normally see elsewhere. The curved ears on Batman’s cowl give him an even more menacing vibe, while the purple gloves add a welcome pop of color. Even the cape is different in a fun way, being more akin to actual bat wings than a traditional superhero cape. It’s always exciting to see modern artists revisit this design.

3. Batman Rebirth

For the majority of their hugely popular run on DC’s flagship Batman series, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo focused on the New 52 costume. As we’ve already covered, that suit served as a notable attempt at updating the Caped Crusader’s look with a more modern, tactical bent, but that approach has been done better elsewhere. Case in point, Capullo’s own redesign that debuted just in time for the DC Rebirth relaunch.

Batman’s Rebirth costume is an upgrade on the New 52 suit in pretty much every way. It retains the tactical look while also downplaying some of the extraneous lines and details. It brings some much-needed color back into Batman’s look both with the yellow outline around the Bat emblem and the distinctive purple inner lining of the cape (a throwback to Batman’s Golden Age roots). It’s a bit of a shame that DC phased out this Batsuit after only a couple of years. As far as modern redesigns go, this is the one to beat.

2. Bronze Age Batman

The late ‘60s and ‘70s were a very transformational time for DC’s Batman comics. The books veered away from the camp that defined Batman’s Silver Age adventures and the live-action TV series toward more serious action/adventure and detective stories. Three artists really came to define Batman’s look in this period - Neal Adams, Jim Aparo, and José Luis García-López.

It’s not that these artists dramatically changed the makeup of Batman’s costume. This is the same blue cape and cowl and Bat emblem with yellow oval that was popularized by the TV series. But what unites Adams, Aparo, and Garcia-López’s work is the physicality they brought to the character. Gone was the burly brawler of the Silver Age, replaced by a leaner and more lithe Batman. Batman is basically a ninja superhero, so it makes sense that he be built more like a gymnast than a bodybuilder.

For many fans, this is still the standard by which all other Batman costumes are judged. That’s especially thanks to Garcia-López, whose art has adorned bedsheets, lunchboxes, T-shirts, and countless other Batman merch over the years.

1. Batman: Hush

Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s Hush storyline is often regarded as the start of the modern era of Batman comics. That’s thanks to Lee’s instantly iconic redesign of the Batsuit as much as anything else.

With the Hush costume, Lee brought a new level of elegant simplicity to the Batsuit. Gone is the yellow oval that persisted for decades, to be replaced by a sleek, black emblem. Lee’s knack for rendering dynamic, detailed, and very powerful superhero physiques is on full display in his Batman. Readers needed to believe that this Dark Knight could face down a gauntlet of his greatest foes – and Superman for good measure, and they certainly did.

The Hush redesign immediately became the default look for Batman going forward. Lee created a clear model that subsequent artists like Andy Kubert and Tony Daniel followed closely. While individual artists varied in whether they chose the blue or black cape and cowl, the rest of the details remained consistent. It’s telling that, after a period of focusing on more armored Batman costumes in the New 52 and DC Rebirth eras, DC eventually threw in the towel and went back to the Hush costume. It just plain works.

How the New Batsuit Compares

Artist Jorge Jiménez is no stranger to Batman at this point, but he’ll be debuting a new Batsuit when he and writer Matt Fraction kick off DC’s relaunched Batman series in September 2025.

The newest Batsuit isn’t a massive deviation from the now-standard Hush costume, though it does have a few interesting embellishments all its own. Where most artists in recent years have gravitated toward the black cape and cowl, Jiménez is bringing back the blue. Not only that, the cape is now heavily shaded, creating a stark contrast between the inner and older folds and bringing to mind Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Animated Series look. Even the Bat emblem is blue now, as well as sporting a bigger and more angular shape.

After all this time, it’s great to see Batman still trying out new looks. But will the latest redesign have the staying power of Batman’s most iconic suits? Only time will tell.

For more Batman fun, check out IGN's top 27 Batman comics and graphic novels.

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

Reacher Season 3 is a massive hit for Amazon — it’s the most-watched returning season ever on Prime Video, and the most-watched season on Prime Video since Fallout across its first 19 days.

Reacher, played by Alan Ritchson, is about a former major in the U.S. Army's military police who roams the United States getting into all sorts of trouble through no fault of his own. Reacher spends a lot of time beating up bad guys and solving mysteries; he’s not only the most dangerous man around, but the smartest.

In Season 3, however, Reacher meets his match in the form of Dutch giant Olivier Richters, who towers over Alan Ritchson with an incredible height of 7 ft 2 in.

According to Variety, Reacher Season 3 saw a huge 54.6 million viewers globally in its first 19 days. That’s almost a big enough number to fit across Reacher actor Alan Ritchson’s back.

It’s also a 0.5% increase on Season 2’s figure across the same time period, which suggests Reacher, already a massive hit for Prime Video, is growing in popularity. And it’s not just big in the U.S., either. More than half of Reacher’s audience is international, with “outsized performance” in the U.K., Germany and Brazil.

For context, Fallout brought in 65 million viewers over its first 16 days in April 2024. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 had 40 million viewers in 11 days after its August 2024 premiere.

IGN’s Reacher Season 3 review returned an 8/10. We said: “Reacher season 3 diverges more from the book upon which it’s based than previous seasons, but Reacher himself is more ruthless than ever and it remains a righteous good time.”

As you’d expect, Reacher Season 4 is confirmed. It was greenlit before Season 3 even began.

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

After a small delay from its original release date, The Day the Earth Blew Up is officially the first fully animated Looney Tunes movie to get a theatrical release. IGN had the chance to review this film and called it "one of the funniest movies of the year." It's a gag-filled animated feature that works as a perfect family movie for both kids and adults. If you grew up watching the Looney Tunes and are looking for a delightful hit of nostalgia, this is a must-see film.

To help you find when and where you can watch The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, we've gathered all of the information about showtimes below. If you're hoping to watch the film at home, we've also included streaming and digital release details.

How to Watch the New Looney Tunes Movie

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is now available in theaters everywhere. You can find showtimes at your local theaters using the links below:

• Fandango
• AMC Theaters
• Cinemark Theaters
• Regal Theaters

When Will It Come to Streaming?

The Day the Earth Blew Up will most likely land on Max, where the rest of the Looney Tunes currently live. The movie does not yet have a streaming release date, but if we look at other movies released by Ketchup Entertainment, we can get a decent idea of when you can expect the film to come to a streaming service. While it depends on how well the movie is doing in theaters, you can likely expect it to be available to stream one or two months after its theatrical release.

What about the digital release?

We don't yet have a digital release for the new Looney Tunes movie, but we know that it will be sometime before it arrives on streaming. It's possible it could become available to rent or buy online as early as the end of March or early April. We'll update this page as soon as we have more details.

Where to Watch More Looney Tunes

After 26 years of adventuring in the Pokémon anime, protagonist Ash Ketchum finally called it a day at the tender age of perpetually 10-years-old. But after adamantly refusing to age up its hero for most of the anime's run, The Pokemon Company appears to finally be doing the unthinkable in Pokémon Horizons and letting its new protagonists, Liko and Roy, grow up a bit.

The news comes from the recent CoroCoro reveal of the next arc in Pokemon Horizons, Mega Voltage, which confirmed that this new arc include a "time skip" that will age up Liko and Roy by about three years. This includes new designs for the main cast that shows Liko, Roy, and Dot looking noticeably taller and more mature than before:

What's more, these kids exist in the same universe as Ash Ketchum, even if he's not in the anime at the moment. So this means that, off-screen somewhere, Ash has also aged three years with them, as have the rest of the gang of Misty, Brock, May, Dawn, Serena, and everyone else. Will we see the grown up Ash Ketchum in this arc, or ever? Who knows? But fans are already speculating that things may be headed in that direction either now or in a future season.

Mega Voltage will also feature the return of Mega Evolutions, likely to coincide with Mega Evolution returning as a mechanic in the game Pokémon Legends: Z-A. We can also see that Liko's Floragato evolved at some point into Meowscarada, and Roy's got a shiny mega Lucario.

One notable absence in the reveal is Friede, captain of the Rising Volt Tacklers. His partner, Pikachu, is present and seems to have Friede's goggles, and fans seem to think they've spotted cracks running across the sides of the goggles, perhaps suggesting that something not-so-great has happened to Friede — uh oh.

The Mega Voltage arc will begin airing in Japan on April 11 of this year, though it won't show up in the United states for a bit, as the English dub is significantly behind. We've been a bit cool on the anime series since it aired, giving Pokémon Horizons Season 2 a 5/10 for "refusing time and again to commit to its strengths." Here's hoping the time skip infuses some new energy into the Rising Volt Tacklers.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Saber Interactive has insisted all its previously announced games are still in development, despite the radio silence around high-profile titles such as the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake.

Hot on the heels of the announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3, Saber Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits tweeted to reassure the studio’s fans that everything it’s announced is still in the works.

“Saber Interactive is one of the largest independent developers in the world,” Willits said. “We are working on numerous games across many different genres. Everything that we have talked about is still in development. We will share information on upcoming games when we have something cool to share.”

The most obvious subject of Willits’ statement is the KOTOR remake, which remains one of gaming’s most elusive projects. Announced in 2021, the long-awaited remake has changed hands multiple times, seemingly stopped development and restarted again, and after four years has failed to materialize.

In April 2024, Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch confirmed the company took KOTOR with it during its split from Embracer Group, and that the game was still in active development.

"It's clear and it's obvious that we're working on this," he said at the time. "It's been in the press numerous times. What I will say is that the game is alive and well, and we're dedicated to making sure we exceed consumer expectations."

Willits’ statement, which comes nearly 12 months later, reaffirms Karch’s quote. But still, even now, we have seen nothing of the KOTOR remake beyond its initial announcement video.

Saber also has other games in the works, including a number due out this year. John Carpenter's Toxic Commando and Jurassic Park Survival are still down for 2025, but neither has a release date. Saber is also working on a brand new Turok game and an untitled Avatar: The Last Airbender title.

Now, you can add Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 to the list. Be sure to check out IGN’s article on which chapters and enemy factions Space Marine 3 could feature for more.

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

In the broadest strokes, it's pretty hilarious how much of Opus feels like a case of movie déjà vu. If you've been exposed to the kind of arty horror popularized by today’s biggest independent movie studio and distributor, A24, you've seen this kind of movie many times over: An eccentric figure lures unsuspecting guests (like in Heretic or Ex Machina) to a remote location where things aren't as they seem (X, Men) revealing something about the shallow nature of those present (Bodies Bodies Bodies, Midsommar). It would be fair to dismiss it for that degree of recycling alone. More is not always better, and Opus doesn’t offer enough variation on its A24 predecessors to make things feel fresh. What it does have is a unique perspective – a perspective that's fun to think about, but extremely narrow.

Opus pretends to be about pop stars and celebrity, setting up a story in which the extremely reclusive, wildly popular musician Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich) is about to release his first album in 30 years. To mark the occasion, he invites a select few to his private compound for a lavish weekend listening party. No one knows why junior reporter Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri) is among them, and through her eyes the viewer gets to be an outsider among insiders as Opus goes about not just being a horror movie but a satirical look of people accustomed to VIP treatment.

Because this is what Opus is actually about: Not celebrity, but the people who cover it. First time writer-director Mark Anthony Green comes from the magazine world, having worked at GQ for over a decade. (Full disclosure: I freelanced for GQ for several years, but never had any interaction with Green during that time or after.) He employs that experience to put the viewer in the mindset of a magazine writer, specifically, a marginalized one: Ariel has been on staff for three years but still gets overlooked, and her ideas often result in assignments for other writers. Her boss, Stan (Murray Bartlett), tells her to stick to taking notes while he accompanies her to Moretti’s compound, and shuts down any chance of her writing her own article.

There's a good amount to chew on here if you are someone predisposed to thinking about magazine journalism and the ways it interacts with celebrity. Early on, Ariel outlines a career plan that starts with interviewing interesting people so that others will find her interesting enough to interview, effectively giving away the game: A big part of doing Ariel's kind of magazine writing is keeping your ego in check enough to at least appear as if your goal is never to become a story yourself. Over the course of 104 minutes, she learns this lesson, which can make Opus feel more like shoptalk than a movie. I find what it has to say interesting because I'm a journalist who’s written for magazines and thinks about them a lot. The job, particularly when it involves following celebrities around, can lead to blurry lines between observing and participating; as well as coming to grips with how elusive the truth can be when your subject is always performing, even when they are trying to convince you they're not. There's good drama in this, but it's also the kind of inside baseball that can be profoundly alienating to anyone who isn't already in this business or interested in it.

Unfortunately for those people, all Opus has on the horror side of the equation is a pile of cliché. It isn't necessarily a bad thing that it sticks to the kind of well-worn formula embraced by many of its labelmates, but it does mean that how it executes on that formula really matters. But instead of being spectacular, Opus is dutiful, dropping clues and bodies at a steady pace like the twisted Willy Wonka experience it is – just without much weird stuff to look at, because Moretti's compound is in the middle of the desert and mostly consists of tents and luxe bungalows. The kills, with one notable exception, are mundane or obscured. (Perhaps the most A24-style trick of all is a scene where a door shuts on a violent struggle, with only the sounds of the scuffle to clue us in on who gets the upper hand.) A bizarre puppet show in the final act hints at the kind of memorable weirdness that would've gone a long way if there were more of it in Opus.

For what it's worth, the movie's gestures toward a thriller built around the mania over a musical idol (think Smile 2 or Trap) are a ton of fun: John Malkovich is not the kind of person you'd expect to play a pop icon with a cult following, and his portrayal of Alfred Moretti (also not a very pop star name) is a great mix of goofy and sinister. His music, when we’re given a taste, is a strange mix of David Bowie-style anthems and dance-pop struts, and there are moments when it seems like Opus is designed to make the viewer feel alienated. Like you're not supposed to be into Moretti's music, and you're supposed to be a little uncomfortable that every character here is. Are they sucking up? Or does fame always eventually produce a cult?

The moments that bring up questions like this are Opus' strongest, but they are brief and few, and they don't contrast strongly enough with the easily parodied A24 brand of horror. In the end, Opus does do a little more than merely play the hits, but it's not quite daring enough to keep the record spinning.

We recently saw a good look at Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the next entry in Game Freak's Legends series set to take place in X and Y's Lumiose City. It's also apparently garnered an E10+ rating from the ESRB, and fans are both curious and wildly, sometimes jokingly, speculating about what's going to happen in this new entry.

Attentive fans noticed that on the Nintendo Switch store page, Pokémon Legends: Z-A has earned an E10+ age rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, listing 'Fantasy Violence.' While it might not normally draw feverish speculation for most other series, it's an oddity for Pokémon, whose mainline games have consistently been 'E for Everyone.'

The rating has, of course, drawn wild speculation, some serious and some less-than-serious. It is genuinely entertaining to think about what strange choices Game Freak could possibly have made to bump up the rating, whether that be dialogue about Pokémon killing people or trying to add a gunplay mechanic. As several Redditors (jokingly) suggest, maybe the hordes come back, but it involves a group of Scrafty jumping you in one of Lumiose's alleys.

"Ohhhh boy, Game Freak is taking off the little kiddie gloves," Reddit user RynnHamHam said. "This ain’t your kindergartener’s Pokémon game."

Several gags have also been made about AZ, a character with quite a history set to appear in Pokémon Legends: Z-A and who plays a central role in some of the darker elements of Pokémon X and Y's story and the history of the Kalos region.

As for more plausible speculation, there are a few theories, including a few more "craps" than usual, or the appearance of a Game Center-style minigame. Even the darker elements of Lumiose could be more front-and-center.

My personal take is that this probably lies in the 'Fantasy Violence' the ESRB highlighted. While the rating is an oddity for your typical Pokémon game, it does line up with the pocket monster fighting game Pokkén Tournament DX, which also received an E10+ and noted 'Fantasy Violence.' The real-time elements showcased for Pokémon Legends: Z-A could have elicited the slightly stronger rating, as the monsters more clearly make contact.

There's no listing, as of this writing, for Pokémon Legends: Z-A on the ESRB site, so we can't learn much more at this time. Still, it's fun to speculate a bit, at least until we know more about Z-A's ultimate plans and how it will earn that bump-up in the E range.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is slated for a late 2025 launch on Nintendo Switch.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

The developers of Pokémon TCG Pocket have finally offered specific details on major improvements coming to the game's much-loathed trading function, which has been an absolute mess since launch. And the improvements sound genuinely great, but it's going to take forever for them to be implemented.

In a post to the Pokémon community forums, the developers explained the upcoming changes. We're listing them here as written:

The biggest change here is that TCG Pocket will remove the currency that's currently being used for trading: Trade Tokens. Trade Tokens were added to the game specifically to be used with trading, and frankly, they suck. They're absolutely necessary in order to trade at all, but the only way to get them is by effectively vaporizing cards you already own.

We explained it in more detail here, but the tl;dr is that as things currently stand, if you want to trade one ex Pokémon for a friend's ex Pokémon, you need to throw five other ex cards in the bin first to get enough trade tokens to trade the one you want. And your friend has to do the same. While there have been a few other ways to get bonus trade tokens since then, the system overall has remained extremely discouraging for anyone who actually wants to use it.

The new system, on paper, is much better. Shinedust is a currency that already exists in game and is currently used to purchase "flairs" for cards — little animations to make them sparkle in specific ways when you use them in matches. You collect shinedust automatically whenever you get duplicates of cards you already have, and more shinedust is available from events and other methods. Unless you're big on flairs, you probably have a lot of it just sitting around already, and the TCG Pocket devs say they're looking into ways to give you even more to ensure trades can happen.

And for what it's worth, it is important for TCG Pocket to impose some cost to trading. Otherwise players could game the system by making tons of new accounts, opening the numerous packs handed out to players early in the game, and just trade all their new rares to their main accounts. Then rinse and repeat. Imposing a cost ensures that people are trading thoughtfully — the trade token system was just way, way too expensive for your average player to ever bother.

There's one more big change listed here that will make a massive difference: the feature that will allow players to share cards they're interested in trading. As things currently stand, you can put a card up for trade, but there's no way to tell anyone what cards you might want for it unless you call up your friends outside of the game and tell them. Everyone else just has to guess. As a result, most players aren't even bothering to try and trade with strangers. But if we can offer some clue as to what an acceptable trade would be, players can make reasonable offers and actually use the system.

All in all, the community seems pretty happy with these changes, and early responses are positive. There is one massive drawback, which is that players have already thrown away tons of rare cards just to collect the existing trading currency, and there's really no way to get that back. Even though existing trade tokens will be converting to shinedust, the cards are still gone.

And there's one other issue: we're going to have to wait months before any of this takes effect. The blog post suggests these changes won't be implemented until fall of this year. In the meantime, it's likely that trading will grind to a total halt, since the current system is terrible and no one is going to want to nuke their rare cards to do it if a better solution is on the way. We're likely to go through several more expansions before the "trading" in "Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket" really takes off.

Save that shinedust, I guess!

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.