We all know that Stellar Blade has already gotten a nude mod (as well as some hot outfit mods). But you know what? It’s time to share a mod that will greatly improve your gaming experience, and it’s a must for everyone. Created by modder ‘Bluality’, this mod aims to fix the game’s walk foot … Continue reading Must-have Stellar Blade Mod fixes EVE’s walk foot sliding issues→
Remedy has just released FBC: Firebreak on PC. Powered by the Northlight Engine, it’s time now to benchmark it and examine its performance on PC. FBC: Firebreak is a first-person shooter game where up to three players can team up and play together. The game takes place in the world of Alan Wake and CONTROL. … Continue reading FBC: Firebreak Path Tracing & DLSS 4 Benchmarks→
The mods looking after the SnyderCut subreddit have deleted a post calling on fans to review bomb the upcoming Superman movie and issued a statement to their community members.
On Monday, DC Universe steward James Gunn responded to the post, which had issued a call to arms to “stand up and fight for SnyderVerse on July 11.”
The user called on fans to “post spoilers everywhere,” “leave bad ratings on review sites,” and “reserve tickets online but don’t complete the purchase.”
“Gunn fired the first shot and killed the Snyderverse and here is our chance to take the fight back to him,” the post ended.
After a Threads user brought the post to Gunn’s attention, he replied to dismiss its impact on Superman’s potential success.
“Lol I think we'll survive,” he said. “I'm not sure the eight people that listen to that guy (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's a guy) are going to impact the course of events.”
Now, the r/SnyderCut mods have explained that they removed the post about two hours after it was posted, and that it had little engagement at that time. Of course, a screenshot of the post was already doing the rounds on social media by that point, and was on its way to Gunn on Threads.
The mods then distanced themselves from the original post and its content in the locked thread:
“Our staff never approved that post and does not endorse what it said. This is a public sub, where posts do not have to be pre-approved. The mere appearance of a post on our sub does not represent any endorsement by us. Our moderators delete posts after they are made if they violate any of our policies or Reddit's policies. There was never any question that this post violated our policies, both explicitly and in spirit, and needed to be immediately removed.
“The post wasn't so much controversial as it was universally disapproved of. We support everyone's right to vote with their wallets by choosing to not see a movie. But we do not support any dishonesty or manipulation aimed at stopping someone else from choosing to see a movie.”
Ayer, whose widely panned Suicide Squad movie formed a part of Snyder's now defunct DCEU, had initially taken to X/Twitter to ask fans not to launch the latest ‘Ayer Cut’ campaign at the same time as the Superman trailer release date. Ayer, clearly exacerbated by what he'd witnessed on social media as a result, announced he was taking a “step back” from the discourse.
Gunn touched briefly on the subject of some within the Snyderverse fandom rooting for Superman and his new DCU to fail, in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.
“I don’t mind it,” he said. “I think it’s good. I think you don’t wanna have everybody root for you. And I have an actor who reads everything online. I won’t say who it is, but he’ll read this article, and he’ll know who it is. It’s one of the top five in Superman. And this actor gets so upset over things that people say. I said, ‘First of all, you realize that the trailer came out and [reaction] was 97, 98% positive. These people help us, because you don’t want everything to seem 100% positive.'
“It’s all right to have an opposing force every once in a while. Some of the things get ridiculous — I just know that every time something comes out, it doesn’t matter how positively received, there’s gonna be something that is of great controversy. It was great controversy that the sun caused Superman pain.”
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.
In an interview with This Is Game, via Genki, Kim admitted that the team had developed a deeper story for Eve and co., but the cost of cutscenes became too high, resulting in them having to skip a lot of the cinematics — and therefore the story itself — to get the game over the finish line. That's why we're left with so many questions about Eve's world, including an official explanation as to why she requires a costume change so often.
While it seems Shift Up considered retrospectively adding in cutscenes to better explain the story, Kim was concerned that may "clash" with what players know and understand of the game thus far. Consequently, it looks like we can expect a "sufficiently rich narrative" when it comes to the sequel.
We probably shouldn't expect a follow-up anytime soon, however; right now, the whole team is reportedly dedicated to the PC port. Kim did say Shift Up would "do our best" to get it out by 2027, though.
The PC version of Stellar Blade only launched on June 11, but it's already Sony's biggest single-player Steam launch ever. Right now, the concurrent player peak is over 192,000. By comparison, Ghost of Tsushima topped out at 77,154 players, God of War peaked at 73,529, and Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered sports a peak of 66,436 players. In fact, the only Sony-published game to have a higher concurrent record than Stellar Blade is Helldivers 2, which is, of course, a multiplayer game.
IGN's Stellar Blade review returned a 7/10. We said: "Stellar Blade is great in all of the most important ways for an action game, but dull characters, a lackluster story, and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics prevent it from soaring along with the best of the genre."
PC-specific features include AI upscaling via Nvidia DLSS 4 and AMD FSR 3, an unlocked framerate, Japanese and Chinese voiceover, ultrawide display support, higher resolution environment textures, and DualSense support for haptic feedback and trigger effects.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
A wave of Nintendo Switch 2 users have reported suddenly being banned from accessing the console's online services, and believe their use of the MIG Switch cartridge is the cause.
The MIG Switch is a flash cartridge that stores and plays copied Nintendo Switch 1 games — something Nintendo itself takes a dim view on, even as many users of the device claim they're just playing backups of their own legally-bought software.
But regardless of its purpose, the outcome for inserting a MIG Switch into your Switch 2 looks to be the same. Impacted users say they've begun receiving online bans on their Switch 2 consoles, blocking them from online play, the console's eShop and access to other Nintendo services. And now, they are hurriedly warning others of the consequences.
"My Switch 2 test has been banned, after using the MIG Switch with perfectly legal dumps of my own cartridges, so it would seem that Nintendo can detect something," one user wrote on social media, linking to a string of similar reports online.
"Similar reports on reddit are starting to come in. I strongly recommend that you do not use the MIG Switch, it was already very risky to use but it is even more so on Switch 2."
My Switch 2 test has been banned, after using the mig switch with perfectly legal dumps of my own cartridges, so it would seem that Nintendo can detect something Similar reports on reddit are starting to come in.https://t.co/nbPMlRWSaPhttps://t.co/3eq6dkbFMi I strongly… pic.twitter.com/btzjQYJzE4
On reddit, another user claimed they had only tried a MIG Switch in their Switch 2 console once, to play a legitimately backed up game they owned, before receiving Nintendo's online ban.
"I tried my MIG Switch in my NS2 once," the user wrote. "It didn't work. It just showed the game title and refused to load. It tried to download a title update for it and that was it. Maybe it downloaded a flag for the console to be banned? This was over a week ago this happened though. I've been playing with a legitimate cartridge ever since though."
Users with an online ban now see the following warning message pop up when trying to use any Switch 2 feature that requires internet connectivity: "Error Code: 2124-4508 The use of online services on this console is currently restricted by Nintendo."
On YouTube, gaming emulation channel Scattered Brain has posted a video showing their now-banned Switch 2 console, and said that simply signing in to another Nintendo account on the device did not lift the ban, which seems to be applied at a console level.
This video shows banned Switch 2 consoles can still be played offline, so Nintendo has not chosen to completely disable, or 'brick', these consoles — for now at least.
Back in May, ahead of Switch 2's launch, Nintendo updated its Nintendo Account Agreement to make clear that any attempt to use "hardware or software that would cause the Nintendo Account Services to operate other than in accordance with its documentation and intended use" risked "the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device [becoming] permanently unusable in whole or in part."
In other words, this new ban wave does not come without warning — even if it is coming as a shock to some.
"My Nintendo Switch 2 has been console banned and I have absolutely no idea why!" one user wrote on reddit last night. When asked if they had used a MIG Switch, they replied: "I haven't been able to use the MIG Switch on my NS2, I just tried it out of curiosity."
IGN has contacted Nintendo for more.
Image credit: Scattered Brain.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Dune: Awakening developer Funcom has said it's "working on" issues that are bugging players when they head out into the Deep Desert, including respawn times.
"We are working on a bunch of changes/fixes to these things. Please bear with us," Bylos wrote.
Bylos was responding to a post by redditor rustypipe7889, who had outlined their issues with Dune: Awakening's PvP and the Deep Desert. Chief among them is the instant respawn timer in the PvP areas ("even when you win a long winded battle the losing team will just re-spawn instantly in the local area").
Meanwhile, other players have reported different issues with Dune: Awakening's endgame, although Bylos is yet to directly respond to those complaints. "End game is a total mess," lamented redditor Darqsat.
"There's nothing else in [Deep Desert] to attract PvE players, so DD usually empty and consists only crazy PvP tryhards. Officially, PvE ends in T5 with Duraluminium. And either they try different builds, or base-building, or they just leave the game. Nothing motivates them to go deep into desert. No legendary storyline quests, no certain PvE items like vehicle parts, or base parts, nothing."
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Elden Ring Nightreign has some pretty sick gear drops. And sometimes, you might even want to let other people try out that gear, even though you want to also use them. Well, a gear duplication glitch makes it easy to share the loot, for as long as it's around.
I first saw this thanks to the folks at PC Gamer, who put together a quick guide on just how to tackle the duplication. It's actually fairly simple to execute; if two players try to pick up the same weapon, at the same time, they both pick it up. So now you have the original, and a duplicate. (Don't ask which is which, it'll freak everyone out.)
Not only is this fairly simple, it's easy to repeat and there isn't really a downside to "failing" it. If the pick-up gets messed up, you can just try again. In fact, the only danger is that you're basically stopping in one place and coordinating this drop-and-pick-up strategy, and in Nightreign, standing still is rarely advisable. The brief respite between days, or the alabaster alcove before the big Nightlord showdown, is probably the best time to do this.
As PC Gamer noted though, they're not the first to stumble onto this trick. Various YouTubers and Reddit users have posted about the easy duplication, too. The proverbial lid is off on this particular exploit.
Whether FromSoftware will take any aim at changing it is anyone's guess. It is somewhat niche-use. There's no voice chat or anything to coordinate with random players online, so it's not exactly feasible to start dropping your best equipment and hope everyone's on the same page.
Even for teamed-up players using Discord or some other method to chat, you'd still want to have equipment that other characters would want. Not only is Elden Ring Nightreign fairly generous in drops, at least in my experience, but each character tends to have their own wants and needs for weaponry. Unless you're rolling three Ironeyes, I suppose.
The duplication glitch is nice for characters who want to double-up on specific weapons, like the Executor, but it's not some instant-win trick. For some fun and maybe sharing the wealth around if someone didn't manage to get any solid weapons by the final day, though, it might not be the worst trick to keep in your back pocket.
Nintendo has included an infamous recurring Easter egg in Nintendo Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World, fans have discovered.
Totaka's Song, a recurring tune that has secretly appeared in countless Nintendo games, has once again been found — and you can hear it on Mario Kart World's character selection screen.
Simply scroll over to Yoshi on your character roster and leave the green dinosaur dancing for a little while. Eventually, he will start humming a familiar tune — yes, this is Yoshi singing Totaka's Song.
"I was idling on the Character Select screen when I noticed Mario began humming after enough time passed," wrote reddit user charizardtelephone. "I thought, 'Huh, they could totally hide hidden tunes like that.' Wait. Hidden music? In a Nintendo game? With Yoshi? It was too good to be true."
You can take a listen to Yoshi humming Totaka's Song below:
Legendary Japanese video game composer Kazumi Totaka has included versions of the melody in various games he has contributed to, both as composer and as the voice/noises of Yoshi himself. From Super Smash Bros. to Wii Sports, Animal Crossing to Pikmin, Totaka's Song is somewhere inside them all.
"After a few seconds, lo and behold, Yoshi begins humming Totaka's Song like the idle Yoshis do in Mario Kart 8," charizardtelephone continued, detailing the song's discovery in Mario Kart World. "Very cool Easter egg. Not sure if anyone else has noticed it yet."
Amazon has officially announced that Prime Day 2025 will run from 8 to 11 July, making it the longest Prime Day event since it began a decade ago. What originally started as a 24-hour sale eventually expanded to 48 hours in recent years, and now stretches to a full four days.
Prime Day remains one of the biggest annual online shopping events, typically second only to Black Friday in terms of scale and consumer interest. The four-day format gives Prime members additional time to browse discounts across a wide range of products.
As in previous years, the offers will be available exclusively to Amazon Prime subscribers, with many deals unlikely to return until the Black Friday sales in November.
But, the better deal is entirely for the young crowd through the "Amazon Prime for Young Adults" scheme, which offers the same benefits, including fast delivery and access to Prime Video, with a few additional features like 5% cashback every day on tech, or 10% during Prime Day, and zero food delivery fees on Grubhub.
This version comes with a six-month free trial, followed by a 50% discount on the standard membership price, reducing the cost to $7.49 per month or $69 per year until the customer turns 25 (or your knees start to ache when you bend down).
These Prime Day 2025 Deals Are Already Live
Alongside the discounts for young folk on Prime memberships, there's a few other top discounts to consider in the run up to Prime Day 2025.
This includes a favorite of ours on Audible, Amazon's in-house audiobook service, with its Audible Premium Plus membership currently$0.99/mo for 3-months for new members. Usually $14.95 a month, those signing up are saving $41.88 in total over the trial period.
From June 17 at 9 AM PT, Prime members can also claim six bonus free games: Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, Saints Row 2, Saints Row IV Re-Elected, Star Wars: Rebellion, TOEM, and Dungeon of the Endless: Definitive Edition.
Beyond Audible and Prime Gaming, you can also find some excellent deals that may not be "Prime Day" exclusive, or branded for that matter, but that are that good that they are worthy of inclusion and discussion.
While it remains unconfirmed whether Amazon will stock the Nintendo Switch 2 during Prime Day, signs suggest the retailer may finally be preparing to offer the console directly.
The product listing for the Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle, previously non-existent, and then dominated by dubious third-party sellers, has now been stripped back and reset to a simple “Currently unavailable” status.
Notably, Amazon has also resumed selling first-party Switch 2 games, a shift that could indicate a broader return of official Nintendo stock to the platform. With Prime Day approaching, it's worth monitoring the listing closely for any movement.
Nintendo Switch 2 consoles are currently sold out at every major retailer. While launch day stock was solid, helping the console shift over 3.5 million units in just four days worldwide, it's been tough to come by ever since. But, there's hope yet with Amazon now almost certainly set to stock the console in the coming weeks.
One possibility is that Amazon could restrict Switch 2 availability to Prime members during the sale, a move that would align with the event's exclusivity model, and give subscribers early access to one of the year’s most in-demand consoles.
Should You Shop Prime Day or July 4th Sales?
Prime Day this year begins just days after the July 4th weekend sales period. While July 4 often sees top discounts on gaming monitors and other tech from major retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target, Amazon’s Prime Day typically ramps up the scale and scope of deals, especially on its own devices and exclusive brand partners.
This close scheduling could lead to more aggressive pricing and plenty of price competition, as retailers try to capture buyer interest before Amazon’s four-day event begins. It also means consumers may be navigating two major discount windows within the same week, one open to all, and one exclusive to Prime members. In summary, it could be worth checking out both.
I went hands-on with MSI's upcoming gaming kit at Computex 2025, sifting through the sleek designs and RGB overload to spotlight what really matters for gamers.
To celebrate the release of Nintendo Switch 2 – and the 19(!) different Zelda games that are now playable on the system – the IGN Guides team has made a few upgrades to ensure you'll have a helping hand when you most need it. Not everyone needs a walkthrough to get to the end, but we hope these new features and upgrades can inspire even the most seasoned Zelda player to return and discover something they may have missed or skipped on a previous playthrough.
Speaking of smooth sailing, we hope you’re as excited as we are to revisit one of GameCube’s best games, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker in its original form. Yes, that means the slow-sailing and long Triforce Chart/Shard quest found in the OG version are back – and you may want to use our guide to make sure you don’t head in the wrong direction. Our Wind Waker guide was originally written in 2002, but we’ve worked on some big upgrades to make it nice and new for Switch 2! Here’s what you can expect:
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker Guide and Map
We have overhauled our guide and walkthrough with new high-resolution screenshots, added in-page tracking, checklists, new videos, and radically upgraded our interactive map. Instead of just showing you a desktop or mobile version of the in-game map, we have redone it from the ground up and you can now zoom in all the way and see every island, enemy platform, and submarine up close. Track which Pieces of Heart, charts, and items you’ve collected and start chasing all 135 Nintendo Gallery images to finally get that 100% completion. If you prefer video, you can even track every Treasure Chart via in-video checklists (or jump to the exact spot in the video from the guide). The guide and videos of course also address the Wii U HD vs GameCube/Switch 2 version differences so that it all works for both versions.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Guide and Map
Nintendo’s biggest-ever series reboot arrived on Switch 2 with upgraded framerate and resolution. If you’re like us and you’re itching to go back and see how it plays after sinking hundreds of hours into Tears of the Kingdom, we’ve got you. As a thank you to our returning IGN Guides users, our tracking experience will be completely free for the next three months, giving you enough time to finally find and check off every Korok Seed. Each seed location comes with brief hints for those who want to figure out things on their own – or you can click through to the guide for detailed tips if you're stumped.
Here are the most popular pages for people trying to 100% the game:
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Guide and Map
We’ve updated our Tears of the Kingdom guide and map to get ready for the Switch 2 re-release as well. While Nintendo hasn’t changed a ton over the original Switch release, there are some updates we’ve detailed in our guide. If you’re jumping back in to finally complete the main quest, you can start with our detailed walkthrough, or embark on the never-ending Korok hunt and track everything on our Interactive Map.
If you’re wondering what changed and need some pointers for the new Switch 2-specific features, check out these links:
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Guide and Map
Surprise! We quietly snuck out an update to our classic A Link to the Past guide a few weeks ago – if you’ve never played or finished this 2D openworld gem, you could do worse than playing it via Nintendo Switch Online on either Switch console. It might not have the hundreds of collectibles of its 3D successors, but there are plenty of things to discover on Link to the Past ’s dual map.
We may be a little LTTP (sorry) – but we figured “better late than never” and rolled out a complete interactive map that lets you track every Piece of Heart and discover every cave and secret hidden in the 1991 classic. We also added checklists and all-new screenshots throughout the guide to make it all shiny and new!
The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening Guide and Map
Launched on Nintendo Switch in 2019, Link's Awakening has finally gotten the update we've all been asking for: a smooth framerate. Play it on Switch 2 and you'll be able to experience Link's most-charming adventure in a dreamy 60fps at 4K resolution. Our guide helps you get to 100% completion, including all Pieces of Heart. If you used our guide way back when, check out this cool upgrade we made to the videos featured in the guide:
You can check off the collectible figures you've collected via the on-screen checklist trackers while watching the video in embed mode.
You can also bring up the in-video checklist by clicking on the button in the lower-right corner.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Guide and Map
Players have made extensive use of our Echoes checklists -- and we can tell you that the Rock, the Table, and the Zol Echo are the most collected Echoes overall. But we were also shocked that so many players who played Echoes of Wisdom outright skipped Dampe's Automaton side quest! With the upgraded resolution and framerate on Switch 2, you may want to take another look and get all six mechanical helpers. We made it easy by providing a handy table that you can sort and filter.
Beyond these select Zelda games and guides that received upgrades this month, there is of course plenty more Zelda to be found on Nintendo Switch 2. Whether it's the Hyrule Warriors spin-offs, Skyward Sword, the NES, Game Boy Color, and Advance classics, or our two 64-bit favorites, IGN Guides has you covered. And if enough people find our Link to the Past and Wind Waker maps helpful, maybe we'll give some of those guides some upgrades as well.
Peer Schneider originally launched IGN Guides in 1999 and is now heading up IGN Entertainment's guides, tools, and game assist teams across IGN, Map Genie, Maxroll, and Gamer Network.
Clear some digital shelf space and maybe cancel a social plan or two, because there's a fresh drop of discounted gaming goodness covering everything from cosy indies to console-pushing blockbusters. Whether you're after a snazzy new controller, a cathartic shooter or a co-op crowd-pleaser, this Tuesday's roundup has something worth grabbing. And if you’re starting to feel the call of the codec, stick around. I'm about to reminisce about a jungle once favoured by a certain bandana-wearing legend.
This Day in Gaming 🎂
In retro news, I'm using this Naked Snake stogy to light a 15-candle cake for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, a PSP must-own. Set ten years after the events of MGS3, Peace Walker tells the story of a decidedly jaded Big Boss and his new mercenary group, Militaires Sans Frontières. Once again, Kojima and co. shook up the standard MGS formula by introducing mission-based gameplay, a style that would set the tone for future games in the series.
Missions and “Extra Ops” worked together to allow Snake to recruit members to his team, customise your personal stronghold, Mother Base, and even pair up with a friend for co-op takedowns of the game’s tougher enemies. I remember this as a triumph in portable gaming and for its freakin' awesome Monster Hunter bonus mission where I fought Rathalos, Tigrex, and Gear REX.
On Nintendo Switch, Outer Wilds is a cosmic loop of mystery and melancholy, originally built as a grad school thesis project before ballooning into a cult classic. Its solar system resets every 22 minutes, but you'll spend countless hours trying to crack its haunting secrets. Also on offer is Batman: Arkham Trilogy, where the late, great Kevin Conroy lends his voice one last time across three of the finest caped crusader outings ever made.
For Xbox Series X users, Remnant II delivers procedurally generated worlds that can produce entire quest lines and bosses unique to your save file. It has been hailed as "Dark Souls with guns", though the developers would argue it’s far stranger than that. Prefer something a little grittier? DOOM: The Dark Ages swaps sci-fi tech for flails and fury in a brutal fantasy twist on the franchise.
Over on PS5, Astro Bot returns with a mascot platformer that is packed with cheeky PlayStation deep cuts. Absolutely adorable stuff that's within striking distance of any Shiggy designed 3D platformer.
Sony's newest flagship wireless noise cancelling headphones - the Sony WH-1000XM6 - was released on May 15 and today I am seeing the first deal for it. Amazon is currently offering a bonus $30 Amazon gift card when you purchase this headphone in Black, Midnight Blue, or Platinum Silver for $448 with free shipping. The WH-1000XM6 builds upon our previous favorite headphone with better sound, but noise cancelation, and better ergonomics.
Buy Sony WH-1000XM6 Headphones, Get $30 Amazon Gift Card
The Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones replaces the WH-1000XM5 that were released way back in 2022. The three year span makes for more significant improvements than you might think. Both sound quality and noise cancelation have been noticeably improved thanks to a new and more powerful QN3 audio processor and a total of 12 microphones (including 6 beam-forming mics) that do a great job of cancelling out unwanted noise. The XM6 is also easier to stow away than the XM5 because the earcups can be folded inwards and fit in a smaller carrying case. The headphone can last up to 30 hours and it also supports fast charging; a quick 3 minute top-up over USB Type-C will give you up to 3 hours of continuous playback. You can save some money by going with an older generation XM5 or even the XM4, but as long as it is within your budget, the XM6's improvements in sound quality, noise cancelation, and ergonomics makes the new model worth it.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
The seasonal Audible deal has returned. Starting now and running through July 31 (including Amazon Prime Day), you can sign up for three months of Audible Premium Plus for just $0.99 per month. Premium Plus is Audible's highest tier plan and normally costs $14.95/mo. As a additional subscription perk, you get a free audiobook of your choice for each of those three months and you get to keep them indefinitely.
Both new and currently expired Audible customers are eligible
Anyone who doesn't currently have an active Audible membership should be eligible. That includes new subscribers as well as existing members whose subscriptions have since expired. There's always a small your-mileage-may-vary disclaimer with these types of promotions, but fortunately it's easy to check if you qualify: log into your account, and if you see the $0.99/mo banner right on Amazon's Audible page then you're eligible for this promotion.
3 Months of Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 per Month
Audible is a subscription service that gives you access to hundreds of thousands of the best audiobooks without ever having to purchase them. There are two paid membership plans: the lower tier Audible Plus ($7.95/mo) and the higher tier Audible Premium Plus ($14.95/mo). The biggest difference between the two is the size of the audiobook library. Whereas Audible Plus only lets you listen to a selection of about 10,000 audiobooks, the Audible Premium Plus plan gives you access to a whopping 500,000 audiobooks.
Although the seriously expanded library is the main draw of the Audible Premium Plus membership, there are some other nice perks as well. Every month Premium Plus members get to pick one audiobook to keep in their library indefinitely, even after the membership expires. Also, Premium Plus members can get 30% off any additional audiobooks they wish to purchase in addition to exclusive limited-time discounts.
If you were already planning to purchase a couple of audiobooks, then it makes more sense to pay less than $3 to get three audiobooks you get to keep indefinitely and enjoy all the benefits of Audible Premium Plus for three months. This deal only pops up a few times per year, so don't waste your "first-time subscriber" eligibility status on a short 30-day trial.
Catch up the the latest novel releases, audiobook style
Several best-selling new and recent releases are available in an audiobook format and part of Audible's Premium Plus subscription plan. Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest Hunger Games novel, is narrated by Jefferson White, who you may already know from Yellowstone where he played Jimmy Hudstrom. The audiobook has a listening time of about 12 hours and 48 minutes. Stephen King released his Never Flinch crime novel in May 27 and it's also available as a nearly 15 hour long audiobook narrated by veteran Jessie Mueller. If you're a fan of Brandon Sanderson, check out Wind and Truth, book five of the popular The Stormlight Archive series. It was released in December of 2024 and runs an epic 63 hours long.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
The price of Borderlands 4 was officially confirmed this morning as preorder listings for the upcoming game went live for the Standard, Deluxe Edition, and Super Deluxe Edition. The initial wave of preorders only included digital versions of the game, but Amazon has jumped in late in the day with the first round of physical copies.
These new Amazon listings are currently only for the PS5 and Xbox versions of the game and only two editions are currently up for preorder: Standard and Super Deluxe. You can check out the preorder pages at the links below. The current release date is set for September 12, 2025 for the console and PC versions of the game. We do not yet have a release date for the Switch 2 version, but it is coming sometime in 2025.
Preorder Borderlands 4 - Physical Copies
Standard Edition - $69.99
The standard edition of the game is exactly what it sounds like, but you do get a preorder bonus if you make your purchase before the game releases. Alongside the game itself you'll receive the Gilded Glory Pack that features a Vault Hunter Skin, a Weapon Skin, and an Echo-4 Drone Skin. The only other bonus you get is Amazon's preorder price guarantee, which is only useful if Amazon ever drops the price before the game ships.
Super Deluxe Edition - $129.99
The super deluxe edition of the game includes the same Gilded Glory Pack as a preorder bonus. In addition to that you'll get the special edition game case and some other additional extra content included. Here's a quick rundown of what you'll get that's different from the standard edition:
Firehawk's Fury Weapon Skin
Bounty Pack Bundle
Ornate Order Pack
Vault Hunter Pack
The Art of Borderlands 4 Is Also Up for Preorder
In addition to the two versions of the game you can now preorder on Amazon, there's also a pretty cool art book that is set to release later in September as well. The Art of Borderlands 4 is currently set to release on September 30, 2025 for $55. The book will feature 224 pages about the art and development of the upcoming game.
What Is Amazon's Preorder Price Guarantee?
If you've never actually preordered anything from Amazon before, it's worth noting that if you purchase this art book ahead of the release date, it includes Amazon's preorder price guarantee. According to Amazon's own help page, this means that if the price decreases between now and when the item ships, you'll pay the lowest price. So in this case, if any of these editions of the game get a discount before they actually start shipping then you'll pay whatever it dropped to rather than the full price.
Although not every preorder gets discounted, physical editions of games especially seem to rarely drop in price compared to other product categories.
Samsung's fastest PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD is on sale today. Right now you can pick up a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe solid state drive (SSD) for just $149.99 on Amazon with free delivery. The Samsung 990 Pro is widely considered one of the best PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the market. It makes for an outstanding drop-in storage expansion for your PlayStation 5 console (although I recommend you add a heatsink) or as a boot drive for your gaming rig.
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB PS5 SSD for $149.99
The 990 Pro is the successor to the venerable 980 Pro and a huge upgrade in speed. Samsung claims a 50% improved performance per watt over its Samsung 980 Pro predecessor. It boasts blazing sequential speeds of 7,450MB/s read and 6,900MB/s write and random speeds of 1400K/1550K IOPS. Unlike most other SSDs, the components are manufactured in-house. The 990 Pro utilizes the new Samsung Pascal controller and 7th gen TLC NAND flash chips. The Samsung 990 Pro has a built-in DRAM cache. Most other SSDs at this price point (including Samsung's own 990 Evo Plus) are DRAM-less and rely on HMB, or system memory, as a cost cutting measure.
Is the Samsung 990 Pro Compatible with the PS5?
The Samsung 990 Pro is an excellent SSD for your PS5. From a purely performance perspective, it's overkill; the stock SSD in your PS5 will be the limiting factor. You'll want to pick up an PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive with a rated 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5's internal drive and the 990 Pro is much faster. However, at the current price point, this SSD is cheaper than many slower options, so you might as well get it anyways. Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD. Fortunately, this particular 990 Pro does include a heatsink, and a nice thick, all-metal one at that. It's also slim enough to fit perfectly in the PS5 SSD.
The SK Hynix Platinum P41 SSD is just as fast and also on sale
Amazon also dropped the price on the 2TB SK Hynix P41 Platinum PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVME solid state drive (SSD) to only $129.99 shipped. That's $20 cheaper than the Samsung 990 Pro, has DRAM cache, and is neck and neck with the 990 Pro in terms of real world performance. SK Hynix might not be as recognizable of a brand as Samsung or Western Digital among consumers, but make no mistake that they are a major player in the flash memory market. SK Hynix is a South Korean DRAM manufacturer and one of the world's largest memory chipmakers and semiconductor companies. They supply components for many reputable brands you've probably heard of, like Corsair and G.Skill.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
One of the biggest problems in fighting games is preservation. It doesn’t matter how good the game is, or how influential it was, or whether it’s a beloved classic or a flash in the pan or anything in-between. It’s just hard to play old fighting games on modern hardware. If you want to play any Tekken earlier than 7, you’d better have an old console hooked up. SoulCalibur? I hope you have a Switch 2 and/or the delisted re-releases or physical discs. The best version of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike? Still trapped on the Xbox 360 and PS3. And on and on and on it goes. Some have done better than others (Capcom, SNK, Arc System Works), but the reality is that a lot of the best, most important fighting games of yesteryear are lost to time or trapped on old hardware or saddled with bad ports that make them essentially unplayable at worst and deeply flawed at best. And that’s the best-case scenario. The ones that burned out or faded away? You probably can’t legally play them at all. Rest in peace, Masters of Teras Kasi fans.
That’s the situation Digital Eclipse is stepping into with Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, a compilation of Mortal Kombat’s glory days from the early days. If Digital Eclipse seems like the right studio for this type of thing, it’s probably because they have a lot of history doing it, having made Tetris Forever, Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection, and, my personal favorite, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, among many, many others. They know what they’re doing here; the only question will be execution.
The most important things, of course, are the games themselves. The classics are all here: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat 4. But it’s not just the arcade games. The console and handheld versions are here, too. If you prefer the sweaty SNES release of the original Mortal Kombat, it’s there for you. If you’re more into the gory Genesis game, that’s here, too. Me, I’m an arcade purist, but it’s nice that there are options here for people who aren’t, or who’d just like to see the different versions of each one.
The weird stuff is here, too.
But we’re not limited to the klassic (sorry) versions that everybody and their mama played. The weird stuff is here, too. That means the Game Boy Advance version of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is included, plus things like the 32X version of Mortal Kombat II and the Game Boy and Game Gear versions of the original Mortal Kombat. I didn’t even know they made a Game Boy version of the original Mortal Kombat, but it’s here for you if you want it.
In addition, every game in the Legacy Kollection will support online multiplayer with rollback netcode powered by GGPO, one of the best rollback solutions in the business. This release will mark the first time most of the games in this collection have online play. That’s meant a lot of extra work for Digital Eclipse (adding online play to fighting games that don’t already have it is a notoriously difficult undertaking), but if they can get it right, it’ll be an enormous accomplishment.
Online play isn’t the only new deal in this package, though. Digital Eclipse is letting you unlock every secret with the touch of a button. That means characters, game settings, hidden developer menus, the whole enchilada. If you’d rather do things like unlock Reptile normally (seriously, go look up the process for that in the original MK just to remember how wild some of MK’s arcade secrets were), you can do that. But if you don’t want the hassle, every secret is at your fingertips.
What I’m most looking forward to, however, is Digital Eclipse’s propensity for archival work, which will appear in the Legacy Kollection. That means interviews with the likes of Ed Boon, John Tobias, Dan Forden, John Vogel, and many, many more – but also archival stuff, like footage of the actors that was scanned into the game and the Mortal Kombat prequel comic book, written and illustrated by Tobias himself, that you could send away for by mail and is, like all collectors items, now prohibitively expensive to acquire. Throw in a timeline of the series that traces each character’s history and the story of MK’s various realms, and it sounds like the Legacy Kollection will have everything an oldhead MK fan (and young guns looking to learn the series history) could want. And as someone who grew up in the arcade with those games, I’m glad that they’ll be available for everyone. I’ll see you online in UMK3.
When the Lenovo Legion Go S first launched earlier this year, the only version available was powered by an AMD Z2 Go chip, and ran Windows 11 – and it was not great. However, it came with a promise that a version natively running SteamOS was on the way, and now it’s finally here. And, well, it’s better in every way, proving once and for all that a great operating system can go a long way.
Lenovo sent us the Legion Go S with the Z1 Extreme this time around, the same chipset that powers the handheld gaming PC heavyweights like the Asus ROG Ally X and the original Legion Go. And while this version of the Legion Go S still has comparable performance to these devices, SteamOS elevates this handheld to another level entirely. What’s more, the Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS should light a fire under Microsoft to make sure the Xbox Ally X is a success – because I could totally see other manufacturers partnering with Valve in the future.
Design and Features
Just like the Windows-based Legion Go S I looked at back in February, this SteamOS-powered version is an all-in-one design, as opposed to the original Legion Go with its removable controllers. The only difference between this and the Windows version, at least before you turn it on, is the colorway – the SteamOS version has a nice ‘Nebula Nocturne’ purple color. It looks awesome.
You still get the same back paddles that are nice and clicky, if you’re into that kind of thing, along with the adjustable triggers that could do with an extra level of control. On the top of the device is the power button and two volume buttons. You’ll also find two USB-C ports right next to each other for charging the device or connecting accessories.
The face buttons are also largely the same as the original Legion Go S, but with one slight difference. The Legion button on the top left corner of the display is now a Steam Button, which will bring up the Steam Menu, just like it does on the Steam Deck. This automatically makes this button much more useful, as it gives you the immediate ability to close your game, or get to chat without having to jump through a bunch of hoops.
Also like the Steam Deck, the quick settings button – located above the start button next to the top-right corner of the display – brings up the same settings panel as on the Steam Deck. This will let you adjust things like brightness, power and notifications in an easy-to-parse display. Most Windows-based handhelds also offer a quick settings panel like this one, but they have a tendency to shove as many different options as possible into the panel, making it a little harder to navigate than the simple menus on the Legion Go S.
Beyond the chipset running the thing, though, the biggest difference between this and the Steam Deck is probably going to be the display. While Valve has released a version of the Steam Deck with a lovely OLED display, it’s still locked at a 1,280 x 800 resolution, compared to the 8-inch 1200p display on the Legion Go S. And while Lenovo’s option is just a lowly LCD panel, it’s still gorgeous, with excellent color accuracy. Plus, it’s fast at 120Hz with Freesync Premium support.
It can be argued that the 800p display on the Steam Deck is a better fit for these low-power mobile chips, but the extra resolution really does help make the larger Legion Go S display an absolute beauty. You just might want to turn down the resolution in some newer games, but more on that later.
With the Legion Go S’s larger screen, though, comes a larger chassis. While the two handhelds have a similar thickness, the Legion Go S is nearly half an inch taller than the Steam Deck and 0.2 lb heavier. Now, 0.2lbs doesn’t sound like a lot, but let me tell you, after holding both for long periods of time, it’s noticeable.
The comedically small touchpad also returns, and while it was a major bugbear with the Windows version of the Go S, I didn’t feel the need to use it once in the two weeks I’ve spent with this handheld. How much this impacts you will largely depend on how much you care about having a usable trackpad. I personally never really used the haptic trackpads in the Steam Deck for anything other than navigating menus and typing on the on-screen keyboard, so the tiny trackpad here doesn’t bother me much. But if you play a lot of games that need that extra level of control, it could definitely be a problem.
SteamOS Changes Everything
The Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS is the first handheld not made by Valve that natively runs SteamOS. And while you can install SteamOS on the ROG Ally X or the original Lenovo Legion Go, having something that comes with the operating system running out of the box is a huge deal for anyone that doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of re-imaging their handheld.
SteamOS was built from the ground up to be usable with a controller, and it really shows. Just as with the Steam Deck itself, it launches straight into a version of Steam Big Picture Mode. You log into your Steam account and you’re good to go. Compare that to the setup process on the Windows version of the Go S where, once you get the system up and running, it’ll open to the Legion Space app where you can choose to download Steam and any other game stores.
However, you’re going to have to go through touch screen hell to actually set up those stores, signing in and even navigating their UIs to install the games you want to play. Once you have games installed you can launch them from the Legion Space app, but you still have to deal with Windows in a huge way. That’s fine with me, to be sure, I’ve been reviewing gaming PCs and laptops for more than a decade, and I have more than enough experience dealing with Windows on a fiddly touch screen. For a lot of people, though, it was a huge turn-off.
The ease of use of SteamOS does have its downsides, though. While you can get some other launchers running on the Linux-based OS, it takes enough effort that a lot of people are going to feel confined to Steam’s library. That’s a huge library, to be fair, but you won’t be able to use things like PC Game Pass unless you’re willing to do some tweaking.
Luckily, you can either just install Windows 11 on this thing if you want to, or just buy the Windows version instead, which Lenovo is thankfully now selling with the same Z1 Extreme APU as the model I reviewed here.
Performance
There are two versions of the Lenovo Legion Go S, one powered by the Z2 Go and one by the Z1 Extreme. And despite what the numbers in those names may suggest, the Z1 Extreme is both more powerful and based on newer silicon. This chip has a CPU based on AMD Zen 4 and a GPU based on RDNA 3, compared to Zen 3 and RDNA 2 for the Z2 Go.
Lenovo sent me the Go S with the Z1 Extreme, which is significantly more powerful than the Steam Deck, despite running the same operating system. The Go S also has double the memory as the Steam Deck with 32GB of LPDDR5X clocked at 6,400MHz. By default, the Go S has 10GB of this system memory reserved for the GPU, compared to just 6GB for the Steam Deck. That makes more demanding games like Monster Hunter Wilds a no-go for the Deck, but much more feasible on the Legion Go S.
So, while Valve waits for hardware good enough to justify making a Steam Deck 2, this little handheld might as well be the Steam Deck 1.5, especially when you look at the performance numbers.
I started with 3DMark, even if it meant going through the slog of installing Windows 11 on the device. In Time Spy, the Lenovo Legion Go S was nearly twice as fast as the Steam Deck, with a score of 3,433, compared to 1,715 from Valve’s handheld. Then, in Fire Strike, the Go S gets another huge lead with 7,865 points to Valve’s 4,322.
These performance leads carry over to actual games, too. For instance, in Cyberpunk 2077, the Legion Go S got 61 fps at 800p on the High Preset with FSR set to performance, compared to 28 fps from the Steam Deck with the same settings. That’s more than double the performance. The Steam Deck held up a little better in Monster Hunter Wilds, scoring 19 fps to 31 fps from the Legion Go S at the same resolution and settings. But that’s just average frame rate – the Steam Deck had moments where its performance dropped down to the single digits, especially when there were a lot of effects on the display.
At its full 1200p resolution, some cracks start to show, especially in Monster Hunter Wilds. While it’s still capable of delivering an average frame rate of 27 fps, the frame drops become extremely obvious, especially in complicated scenes. This is still a handheld after all, and 800p is going to be the resolution you want to stay at if you’re playing more demanding games. However, Hollow Knight gets 120 fps at 1200p, just saying.
None of this should be too surprising. After all, the Z1 Extreme is not only using newer silicon, but it has a much bigger GPU, with 12 graphics cores, compared to just 8 in the Steam Deck. Plus, the Steam Deck has a much more conservative 15W power budget, in the interest of maximising battery life, whereas the Lenovo Legion Go S will pump double that into its SoC. As with any gaming PC, more power means better performance, but it does come with a hit to battery life.
Battery Life
Even in handheld form, battery life for mobile PC gaming is always going to be a challenge. And while handhelds like the ROG Ally X are getting better, you’re still only going to get a couple hours of gaming out of a handheld when you’re really pushing the system.
The Legion Go S is no different. While it lasts 6 hours and 25 minutes in the PCMark10 battery test, it’s a different story when playing games. I booted up Baldur’s Gate 3 and set a timer with the chip going at full power, and the system died after about an hour and a half of playtime. Keep in mind, though, that this was at 1200p with the full 30W TDP. You can get much better battery life by lowering the resolution or limiting the power going to the Z1 Extreme.
The Steam Deck did last longer in PCMark, but that’s to be expected. After all, the ‘custom AMD processor’ is only using half the power, but that only got the Steam Deck an extra 2 hours of battery life.
It really is a game of setting your expectations, then. The lower-power chip in the Steam Deck will get you better battery life most of the time, but you’re getting way better performance from the Z1 Extreme.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
A new PlayStation Portal has never been discounted, even during the PlayStation Days of Play Sale that recently happened, but at least you can save on a used one. Amazon Resale just dropped the price of the Used: Like New PS Portal to below $150. Right now you can pick one up for only $148.81 with free shipping. It retails for $200 new, so that's 26% in savings. A Sony warranty may or may not be included, but Amazon Resale items still get a 30-day return policy.
PlayStation Portal (Used: Like New) for $148.81
Make sure to select the "Save with Used - Like New" option
Note: You'll see the price of a new PS Portal on the product page ($199). Scroll down a bit to see the Like New price.
The PS Portal, Sony's handheld gaming accessory for the PS5 console, looks very much like an extended split-pad DualSense controller with an 8-inch 1080p LCD screen in the middle of it. It turns your PS5 into a gaming handheld by letting you stream games from your console at up to 60fps. The controller mirrors the same features found on the DualSense, including haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and a touchscreen interface that replaces the Dualsense's touchpad. The Portal can stream your games even when you're outside of your home, with the caveat that you have access to very stable, very fast internet connection. Keep in mind that the PS Portal is not a standalone device. This is strictly a remote player for the PlayStation 5, so you will need a PS5 to use it.
You no longer need a PS5 to play games on the PS Portal. Now, rather than being limited to simply streaming games from a $500 console to a $200 handheld, Sony has introduced a feature that lets owners stream games directly from its PlayStation Now cloud streaming service. No PS5 required. Portal owners can either connect the Portal to their PS5 or directly to Sony’s cloud servers (with some new quality of life beta updates that launched in April). Choose the latter and suddenly you have access to a library of more than 120 games, including Ghost of Tsushima, Resident Evil 3 Remake, The Last of Us Part 1 Remastered, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It’s worth noting you must be a subscriber to the highest tier of PlayStation Plus, but $18 a month is much more attractive than paying for every new game.
It should be said that the PlayStation Portal isn’t the only way to stream your PS5 games over Wi-Fi within your home. You can mimic its functionality by downloading the PS Remote Play app on a mobile device, including other gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck. That said, it's more complicated to set up and you'll lose out on some of the Dualsense's features.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Connexion
