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IGN's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 map is here! Our interactive map tracks essential locations across The Continent, including collectibles, Bosses, and Pictos, so you always know where to go for your next objective.
The available map filters for our Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 interactive map include:
The Continent hides a lot to do in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, whether it's completing Side Quests or finding and defeating Mimes. IGN's Game Help is here to assist you on your adventure with informative walkthroughs and guides, which include checklists to help you track your progress.
Our coverage includes:
Visit our Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wiki for more Game Help.
Meg Koepp is a Guides Editor on the IGN Guides team, with a focus on trends. When she's not working, you can find her playing an RPG or spending time with her corgi.
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Fantagraphics is kicking off a new series of "Lost Marvels" hardcovers that aim to reprint some of the lesser-known and forgotten titles in Marvel's vast back catalog. This new line debuts with Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows, collecting the entire horror anthology series in one handsome volume.
With the book in stores now, IGN can exclusively debut a new preview of Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows, featuring a classic tale from Stan Lee and John Buscema. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:
Tower of Shadows is a short-lived anthology series from 1969, notable for being Marvel's first attempt at an EC Comics-style horror project since the advent of the Comics Code Authority. The series featured work from a number of Marvel luminaries, including Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Wally Wood, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, John Romita, Johnny Craig, Marie Severin, Gerry Conway, and Bernie Wrightson.
Fantagraphics has so far revealed two more volumes in the Lost Marvels series. Lost Marvels No. 2: Howard Chaykin Vol. 1: Dominic Fortune, Monark Starstalker, and Phantom Eagle will collect many of Chaykin's military and sci-fi stories ranging from 1975 to 2008. Lost Marvels No. 3: Savage Tales will collect the entire pulp anthology series, which was notable for featuring Conan the Barbarian stories and the first appearance of Man-Thing.
“Marvel published a surprising amount of work that fell outside its superhero purview in the '60s and '70s and '80s, most of it never before reprinted, much of it "lost" except in the fading memories of fans who bought it and read it for the first time back then when it was originally published,” said Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth in a statement. “Exceptional craftsmen and artists were often featured — Barry Windsor-Smith, Steranko, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, and others— and one of the goals of this project is to create a carefully curated record of this somewhat more obscure work that so many comics readers have forgotten or are unfamiliar with. Lost Marvels complements our Atlas reprints which features so many of the best craftsmen from the 1950s.”
Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows is now available bookstores and comic shops. Lost Marvels No. 2: Howard Chaykin Vol. 1: Dominic Fortune, Monark Starstalker, and Phantom Eagle will be released on July 8, followed by Lost Marvels No. 3: Savage Tales in November 2025.
In other comic book news, iconic TMNT villain Shredder is getting his own solo series, and we've got an exclusive look inside the new Heavy Metal series.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
Ahh… so that’s what the asterisk is for. Thunderbolts* is a worthy outing for some of the MCU’s unsung heroes but, just like the film's sort-of-not-really antagonist, The Sentry, it has both a dark half and a light half. One of them is actually pretty great.
I had a lot of hope for Thunderbolts* going into it. Something’s been in the air this last year, from the Dr. Doom and Fantastic Four of it all, to the sense that we’re through phase 4’s strange aimlessness, and it’s all got me more intrigued. There’s been a sense lately, something Anthony Mackie has even said out loud, that Marvel is set to recapture some of its magic. Thunderbolts*, for the most part, is moving in the right direction, with a solid, fairly unexpected ride for its band of antiheroes.
But first, there’s a lot of exposition and for a not insignificant amount of the runtime, the movie belongs to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) hanging on the periphery of her plotting, in his new role as a politician. More than anything, this section of the movie had me wondering at what point it was decided to make The Winter Soldier a congressman, and if it was just because one of the titular Thunderbolts* should be around for all the early shoe-leather.
Once it gets properly moving though, one of the things I liked most about Thunderbolts* is actually one of the things I liked most about Infinity War and Endgame: Combinations of characters who’ve never met, but make for an interesting dynamic. Think a whole movie built around moments like War Machine and Nebula bonding over the fact that they’ve both been put back together with mechanical appendages. The moments where Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Bucky idly chat about super soldier serum are very charming. Yelena (Florence Pugh) and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) gang up on Agent Walker (Wyatt Russell) to make fun of his “hat” – which is to say his beat-up, valor-stealing Captain America helmet – and not only is it really fun, it’s used at the right spot in the film to the exact right effect. An MCU movie really gets a chance to stand out if it can bolster its more workmanlike components with this kind of endearing material – and the parts of Thunderbolts’ lighter half that work do just that.
But it’s an established relationship in Thunderbolts* that shines the brightest. Florence Pugh and David Harbour were a blast as Yelena Belova and Red Guardian in 2021's Black Widow, and they’re just as much fun here. The pair’s father-daughter dynamic ranges from a “real emotional need” to “embarrassing me in front of my friends” – they so clearly and so sweetly depend on each other, it’s difficult not to love them. And it doesn’t hurt that Harbour chews every piece of scenery he can get his metal teeth on.
For all these quality interactions between two or three Thunderbolts, the team never quite gels as a whole, though. Director Jake Schreier and screenwriters Eric Pearson and and Joanna Calo are aiming for a non-stop, snappy back-and-forth in the Guardians of the Galaxy mold, but their main characters don’t live in that energy for nearly as long as they’re meant to – or more, importantly, as long as they need to. Because while Yelena and pals are cracking wise, Thunderbolts*' gloomier half is lurking just out of sight and ready to effectively bum you out.
Lewis Pullman’s Bob, and his journey to becoming The Sentry, is a story about mental health and extreme loneliness. There are days when Bob feels every bit the invincible Sentry, and days when he can’t help but let The Void take over and wreak havoc. He's the exact right opposition for a character like Yelena, who’s constantly questioning the things she’s done and how she should feel about herself. As Bob forces the members of the Thunderbolts to face the darkest times in their lives, the movie makes its most potent statements about how broken these people really are.
And this is, again, where Thunderbolts* is really at its best. It’s where the craft of the filmmaking team is on full display: Schreier has a bunch of darkly funny stuff on his resume – some of which even leans darker than funny – but my favorite member of the behind-the-scenes team is cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo. He shot both The Green Knight and A Ghost Story, two movies with very specific visuals speaking to a character's weaknesses and fears. Just look at how he shoots the one-against-many hallway fight in the film’s opening sequence: This is one of the most basic staples of superhero fight choreography, but this time we see it from overhead, with stark black and white shadows stretched all the way across the frame. Even bearing in mind that Marvel films can only modulate their style of action and never completely reinvent it, this is some gorgeous imagery, and it speaks to the isolation Yelena is dealing with throughout the film.
This is all to say that Thunderbolts* truly excels with its darker, more upsetting subject matter and themes. Because these lows work so well, the highs that don’t quite have the energy they’re aiming for seem that much less high by comparison. And for me, it made the movie overall feel like kind of a bummer. A compelling and moving bummer at times, but I wasn’t really feeling up for a silly round of petty bickering by the time the home stretch rolled around.
Yelena has always been a little anti-Marvel, going back to how she made fun of her sister for being a “poser.” So it’s fitting that at one point in Thunderbolts*, she actually asks “what’s the point?” This is a movie that is low-key wondering “is the MCU too big for a whole two hours dedicated to a collection of side characters like the Thunderbolts?” And the answer is, “actually, yeah.” They are alone. They are the side characters that have to stick up for each other. And they are not The Avengers.
Even though the climax – which we’ve seen in the trailers – takes place in and around Avengers Tower. Even though a lot of the visuals in that action sequence are pretty clearly meant to evoke the Battle of New York. Even though it references The Avengers’ fakeout working title, Group Hug –this team is not The Avengers. Not yet, at least. And even with bigger MCU events on the horizon, I hope we don’t collectively hold that against them.
© Future
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 season 2 of Andor (you can read our Andor season 2 spoiler-free review here), you'll want to find a plan that best suits you. We're here to help.
At the moment, one of the best Disney Plus bundle deals available is the massive Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle. This starts at $16.99/month to get you all three streaming services with ads. It's one of the best bundles available at the moment, but we've included more Disney Plus bundle deals worth exploring below. If you're looking for more streaming deals from other services, check out the best Hulu deals and bundles and the best Max deals.
The Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle can be purchased through any of the three streaming services and starts at $16.99/month for the ad-supported tier or $29.99/month for ad-free access across the three platforms.
If you currently own all three and want to cut down on costs, this is a great way to bundle them together and save big on what you'd pay for them separately per month – 43% on the ad-supported plan and 42% on the ad-free plan.
In an effort to crack down on password sharing, Disney has unveiled a paid sharing plan for individuals outside of your household. Basically, anyone using your account that's not within your household will have to be added as an "Extra Member" to your account. This costs an additional $6.99/month for the ad-supported Basic subscription and $9.99/month for the Premium ad-free plan, and only one Extra Member slot is available per account. You can learn more from Disney's paid sharing explainer here.
Disney+ is available in a couple of different tiers. You can get the least expensive option (called Disney+ Basic) for $9.99/month, which gives you access to everything except the ability to download select shows to watch on the go. This tier is ad supported. If you want to get rid of ads and be able to download certain shows, you can spring for the $15.99/month or $159.99/year Disney+ Premium package.
Want a way to save on your Disney+ membership? Bundles are a great, affordable way to go. As far as bundles go, there are two ad-supported bundles and two ad-free bundles. Here's the breakdown:
If you want to help someone out and give them a gift that will keep on giving, gifting a one-year Disney+ card is a great way to go. It provides all the great things Disney+ offers and it costs a fraction of what it would take to buy even a small sampling of those movies physically.
There is a bonkers array of shows and movies you can watch on Disney+. Let's start at the top and simply talk about the verticals on offer here with the base subscription.
Here's what you get:
On the Disney front, you have awesome classic movies like The Sword In The Stone, Robin Hood, 101 Dalmations, Hercules, and Sleeping Beauty, modern classics like The Princess & The Frog, Tangled, and Frozen, and a wide range of animated shows, including Phineas & Ferb.
You also gain access to a ton of vintage content like Escape to Witch Mountain, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Love Bug, and a whole lot more. The Disney Junior section is home to absolutely top tier animated shows like Bluey (which, for my money, is worth the price of admission on its own).
There's way more on offer, too, including a ton of Muppet movies, new live-action films and adaptions, nature programs, documentaries, Pirates of the Caribbean, and musical programs featuring Taylor Swift (like her wildly popular The Eras Tour), Elton John, Ed Sheeran, and more.
When it comes to computer generated films, Pixar stands alone. Kicking off the revolution with Toy Story, Pixar has consistently put out fantastic films, and they are all here. From the Toy Story series to Finding Nemo, Cars, and more recent hits like Inside Out 2, there is a ton to love.
Beyond even that, there are incredible shorts like Bao and Party Central, as well as a wide range of originals and series based on major films, such as Dory's Reef Cam, Forky Asks A Question, Cars On The Road, and more.
The MCU has become a true juggernaut, and there are many viewers who subscribe to Disney+ purely for access to nearly the entire MCU lineup of films and shows.
Whether you are a fan of the blockbuster action films, you are an appreciator of the classic 90s runs of "Saturday morning" cartoons like X-Men, or you are currently vibing to the funky theme of the 1981 Spider-Man series, there is a ton of Marvel to enjoy on Disney+. And with new movies and shows being added to the MCU all the time, including most recently Deadpool & Wolverine and Your Friendly Neigborhood Spider-Man, there is always more coming.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a film that changed everything. The original Star Wars is a seminal sci-fi fantasy work that inspired generations of creators, but there is still nothing quite like that far away galaxy. Disney+ grants access to all things Star Wars, including the remastered versions of the original trilogy (hopefully some day they'll add the theatrical cuts, too), as well as the prequels and sequels.
You can also stay up-to-date on all the latest shows, including The Mandalorian and the critically-lauded Andor, which some viewers say is "the best Star Wars has ever been." There are also fantastic short series like Star Wars Visions, and longer-form series like The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, Young Jedi Adventures, and a whole lot more.
Take a look at our list of Disney+ alernatives for additional streaming services. To play while you watch, see our roundup of the best LEGO Disney sets. For more deals, dive into our Daily Deals page.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
Original story from Brian Barnett.
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Grant Kirkhope, the composer behind many classic games including Donkey Kong 64, has explained why he wasn't credited in The Super Mario Bros. Movie for the use of the infamous DK Rap.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Kirkhope said he spoke with Nintendo after the film's release, and the company had made the decision to not credit any music it owns, which includes the DK Rap.
"They said we decided that any music that was quoted from the games that we owned, we wouldn't credit the composers - apart from Koji Kondo," said Kirkhope. "Then they decided anything with a vocal would get credited, so the DK Rap scores there. But then they decided if we also own it, we won't credit the composers. And that was the final nail in the coffin.
"I said I appreciate you've got your policies and all the rest of it, but by the time the credits roll in the movie to show the songs, the theatre's completely empty, everyone's gone, it's only me and my wife and my two kids sat there going 'look daddy's name!'. I said 'for the sake of a couple of lines of text…', but that was that," explained Kirkhope.
In 2023, Kirkhope expressed frustration over his name not appearing in the credits of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, posting: "I was really looking forward to see my name in the credits for the DK Rap, but alas as expected it's not there ........ fml"
I was really looking forward to see my name in the credits for the DK Rap, but alas as expected it's not there ........ fml
— Grant Kirkhope (@grantkirkhope) April 5, 2023
While Bowser's Fury, another Nintendo-owned song in the film, was also not credited, licensed tracks were given credits for their composers and performers.
Kirkhope went on, telling Eurogamer the sampling of the DK Rap was "bizarre," like they "just plugged in the N64 and sampled it and looped it." Kirkhope played guitar on the track, while the "lads from Rare" did the "D-K" part, and all were uncredited.
Eurogamer asked if, because Nintendo owns the right to the DK Rap, it could make its way to the Nintendo Music App. The outlet got an interesting answer.
"I wonder," said Kirkhope. "They have put some of [David Wise]'s stuff on it. They do own it all so it's up to them. I don't think they ever really liked [Donkey Kong 64] that much. That's a rumour we got back through the cycle of whispers from Nintendo when we were at Rare. I don't know if that's true or not."
As Eurogamer noted, Donkey Kong 64 is not included in the N64 Switch Online lineup, though the theme for Rambi does seem like it's set to appear in Donkey Kong Bananza. Who knows?
You can check out more discussion with Kirkhope in the full interview over on Eurogamer, where the DK composer talked about the odds on a new Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong Bananza, and the sound of nostalgia.
As for Mario's movie franchise, development is underway on a new Super Mario Bros. movie, which is planned to arrive in April 2026.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
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I may have dabbled with Xbox in the early days, but at some point I made the full switch over to PC gaming. The high frequency of Steam sales has usually been enough to tide me over on newer releases. So while I knew Game Pass was out there and did occasionally offer some big name games, there was never a moment where it felt like it would be worth it for me, personally. Well, until now.
Bethesda and Virtuos shadow-dropping Oblivion Remastered straight onto Game Pass? A badly kept secret, but still an insane reveal. Two days later, the gaming subscription got Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the stylish debut from Sandfall Interactive that takes inspiration from the JRPG greats. I have to admit, as a die-hard RPG fan: Microsoft, you finally got me.
Even better? Newegg is currently offering a sale on three-month Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions, letting you stock up so you can spend as much time as you want exploring these worlds.
Newegg's limited-time promotion gets you $11 off three months of Game Pass Ultimate, which usually cost $59.99. You can apply the promo code (SSER2859) on up to five items, meaning, in theory, you could grab 15 months of Game Pass with the discount. All you'll need is to register or sign in to a Newegg account.
Outside of the above deal, Game Pass Ultimate starts at $19.99/month and gives you access to the full Game Pass library across console and PC as well as cloud gaming. The exclusive-to-PC Game Pass lowers that cost to $11.99/month. The last Game Pass price hike was in July 2024, and with these types of game launches, I wouldn’t be surprised if those prices go up again some time this year.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was revealed and released on PC, consoles, and Game Pass on April 22. Like most people, I spent most of that day downloading the game and most of that night basking in the music. Highlights from the borderline-remake include new character models, combat interactions, and remastered VFX. And while they did enlist more than five new voice actors, it seems Virtuos kept the best of the original's janky dialogue. The base edition of the remaster launched at a price of $49.99, which includes both the original DLCs, with a deluxe edition available for $10 more.
Meanwhile, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the long-awaited debut game from Sandfall Interactive, launched on the service on April 24. The game holds a 92 rating on Metacritic with an incredible user score at 9.7, with IGN’s 9/10 review praising the story design and describing it "as a true modern throwback.” The game’s stylish UI reminds me of the Persona series, and gameplay footage shows off one of the coolest turn-based combat systems I’ve ever seen. The base edition launched at the same price as the Bethesda remaster: $49.99.
While Expedition 33 was marketed as the headline of April’s Game Pass lineup, the surprise release of Oblivion Remastered has led to some concern of a "shadow" over the indie game's release. That said, my perspective is that we're getting two incredible cakes, and Game Pass makes enjoying both a little easier on the wallet.
Plenty more of 2025's biggest games have recently made it onto the service, including Blue Prince, South of Midnight, and Avowed, which join mainstay classics like GTA V and, of course, the full spread of Call of Duty. It really does seem like there's something for everyone.
Blythe (she/her) is an SEO Coordinator at IGN who spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.
With PS5 games getting bigger each year and SSD prices rising, we want to make sure you can find the best storage for the lowest price possible. Here, we'll point you in the direction of some of the greatest 2TB SSD deals we can find. At the moment, Amazon has a great sale on Lexar SSDs right now, including the Lexar 2TB NM790 SSD with Heatsink which is down to $129.49 (22% off).
It's worth noting that you can't use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You'll want to pick up a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid-state drive with at least a 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5's internal drive. We've gathered up SSDs that match or exceed these specs in the list below to make your search easier.
Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD and not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we'll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don't, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (like this one for $10) and install it yourself. For our top recommended picks for 2025, check out our full breakdown for the Best PS5 SSDs.
For a limited time, Amazon's throwing a little sale on a variety of Lexar SSDs. This includes a discount on the 2TB NM790 SSD with a heatsink. This has received a 22% discount, dropping its price from $164.99 to $129.49. It also boasts great performance, with up to 7400MB/s read speeds and 6500MB/s write.
We've also included Lexar's 4TB NM790 SSD deal below, which is worth checking out if you've been hoping for even more storage. This SSD is 18% off at the moment, which has dropped its price from $304.99 to $249.49. It also has read speeds up to 7400MB/s and write speeds up to 6500MB/s.
Another great deal from Lexar's sale at Amazon is this discount on the Lexar 2TB Play SSD with heatsink. This has received a 29% discount, which has dropped its price from $209.99 to $149.49. This SSD will work quickly and efficiently as well, with read speeds up to 7400MB/s and up to 6500MB/s write speeds.
Another one of our favorite discounts at the moment is on the SAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus 2TB SSD, which has received a very nice price drop down to $138.30. Boasting sequential read/write speeds up to 7,250/6,300MB/s, this SSD is a powerful pickup. Also, because it is a single-sided SSD, it is power efficient and doesn't generate much heat, so you probably don't need to stick a heatsink on it, although you certainly could for peace of mind.
This is another excellent SSD deal that comes complete with a heatsink. Corsair's MP600 PRO LPX 2TB SSD with heatsink is discounted to $169.99 at Amazon, 15% off its list price of $199.99. It boasts 7,100MB/s sequential read and 6,800MB/s sequential write speeds. We even rank it as the best PS5 SSD to buy in 2025.
If you don't mind spending a little extra cash, Samsung's 990 PRO 2TB SSD with Heatsink is worth every cent. This PS5-ready SSD is currently marked down to $179.99 at Amazon, a 32% discount from its $264.99 list price. It's absolutely worth taking advantage of if you've had your eye on a SSD from Samsung.
Sony recommends you install an SSD that has an attached heatsink. If the SSD you purchase doesn't include one, it's simple enough to buy one for $10 on Amazon and add it yourself. Most of these heatsinks are just attached using an adhesive like thermal tape.
There may be other SSD deals out there, but these are the PS5 SSDs we've tried ourselves and highly recommend. They also double up as outstanding boot drives for your gaming PC, so they're useful for more than just those who need additional storage for their PS5 console.
It's extremely easy! Removing the case cover is completely toolless. In fact, the only screw you have to remove is the one that keeps the cover for the SSD bay in place. You don't even put it back when you're done. Sony has a quick and easy YouTube video guide.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
Original article by Eric Song.
© Sunblink Entertainment
The Alexander Skarsgård-led series Murderbot is set to hit Apple TV+ on May 16, but if you've been hoping to dig into the book series by Martha Wells ahead of the show, we have good news. All seven books are on sale right now at Amazon. You can score the entire sci-fi series at a discount for your library.
All seven books in The Murderbot Diaries series have been discounted at Amazon up to 46% off. If you've been looking for a new series to stock up your library with, you can secure all of these in hardcover for $90.94.
As with most book series, you'll want to read them in order. Below is the publication order for the Murderbot series.
Alternatively, most of the books are included with Kindle Unlimited as well, which we've included a link to below if you're interested in signing up as a Kindle user. No matter if you enjoy a physical book in your hands or the convenience of reading from an e-reader, you'll be ready to embark on a new adventure with this deal on The Murderbot Diaries series.
Most of the Murderbot books are on Kindle Unlimited as well, which is definitely worth signing up for if you're a Kindle user. For $11.99/month, and with a 30-day free trial if it's your first time using it, you'll gain access to millions of digital titles, magazine subscriptions, and even audiobooks. When it comes to the Murderbot series, you'll be able to access the first six books in the series for free through this service.
These aren't the only deals for avid readers to check out right now. If you've had a Kindle on your radar, you can actually still save on the new Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition at Amazon for a limited time. A selection of Kindle bundles also have some nice discounts right now, which you can learn more about in our overall breakdown of the best Kindle deals today.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Every superhero story has its villain, and for Captain America: Brave New World, fans were treated to The Leader. Actor Tim Blake Nelson was enhanced via practical effects and makeup for the character, who is visibly mutated, but the design ended up being somewhat different from how he looked in the comics.
Now, Blue Whale Studios, who worked on the character's design and effects for the MCU film, has opened up about its original take on Sam Sterns’ alter ego, one that is much closer to the comics.
The Atlanta-based special effects company originally decided to play into a very sickly look for the character. The effects artists revealed the design on their Instagram, which included an engorged head and pale green skin. However, it’s a pretty straightforward design and doesn’t include any of the finer mutation details they added for the final version. They also included a video of prosthetics being applied to Nelson in their post, which is a really cool peek behind the curtain for this character.
"We were originally brought on to design and apply the practical makeup for The Leader on the incomparable Tim Blake Nelson in Captain America: Brave New World," Blue Whale Studios said. "As often happens in film, the story evolved, and during reshoots, the creative direction shifted. Our version was ultimately not used in the final cut. Still, we remain incredibly proud of the work we created.
"Drawing inspiration from the original comic book art, we developed a look that felt both grounded and iconic — true to the source while achieving a refined, natural realism. Technically, we were thrilled with how lightweight and comfortable the final makeup was for the actor — an achievement made possible by the dedication of an extraordinary team."
This original design actually bears a big resemblance to the character’s first appearance in the Marvel comic universe. The Leader was first introduced in 1964’s Tales to Astonish #62, but interestingly enough, his final design also has a comic connection. As he appears in Brave New World, The Leader looks closer to the more recent appearances from the character in 2018's Immortal Hulk.
The Leader was first hinted at as a potential MCU villain all the way back in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Sam Sterns is exposed to Bruce Bannon’s blood in that film, which is filled with Gamma radiation. At the time, he was still a normal human being — but time clearly made him what he is at the start of Brave New World.
In May last year, reports indicated Captain America: Brave New World was undergoing reshoots to help introduce Breaking Bad, Star Wars, and The Boys actor Giancarlo Esposito’s new villainous character into the fold. Esposito plays Sidewinder, leader of the Serpent Society, in the film.
Ahead of the film's revease, five-time WWE world champion Seth Rollins confirmed his role was cut following extensive rewrites of the script and subsequent reshoots.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
© Bethesda
© Nintendo / Illumination
Gearbox’s upcoming first-person shooter Borderlands 4 will release 11 days earlier than planned, as confirmed by development chief Randy Pitchford in a video that appears to have gone live early.
Borderlands 4 was due out September 23, but will now release on September 12 across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
In the video, Pitchford said: “Everything is going great, actually. In fact, everything is going kind of the best-case scenario. The game is awesome, the team is cooking, and so the launch date for Borderlands 4 is changing. We’re moving it forward. The launch date is now September 12.”
“What?! This never happens you guys! This never happens! We’re moving the launch date forward! You’re gonna get Borderlands 4 earlier!”
Pitchford added that the promised PlayStation State of Play focused on Borderlands 4 is due out imminently (Sony just announced it for tomorrow, April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST).
Of course, there will be questions asked about whether the unexpected decision to bring Borderlands 4 forward has anything to do with the looming behemoth that is Grand Theft Auto 6. GTA 6 is currently still set for release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S at some point in the fall of 2025. That’s a vague release window that could end up consuming the likes of Borderlands 4, among other games. Has Borderlands 4 moved to give it more breathing room?
It’s worth noting that Borderlands 4 is published by 2K Games, which is owned by Take-Two. Take-Two is also the parent company of GTA developer Rockstar. At a high enough level, right up to CEO Strauss Zelnick, there will be a knowledge of all the company’s games, where they’re at in development, and a desire to give them all the best chance of success. Perhaps GTA 6’s release date recently came into focus, and it was felt that for the good of Borderlands 4, it should come out nearly two weeks earlier than planned.
If Borderlands 4 comes out September 12, we can perhaps rule out a GTA 6 release date during the same month and August. Could it come out in October? November? December 2025? All seem up for grabs now for GTA 6. The risk of course is that Take-Two ends up cannibalizing its big 2025 games by releasing them too close together. And let’s not forget Mafia: The Old Country, another 2K game, launches at some point summer 2025.
Could Take-Two’s big games, and by that we really mean GTA 6, end up doing more harm to each other than good by releasing too close to each other? That’s a question we put to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in an interview conducted in February.
As you’d expect, Zelnick said Take-Two is planning its releases to avoid a risk of cannibalization, insisting the timing is driven by a desire to “respect the consumer's need to spend a lot of time playing these hit games before they go on to the next.”
“No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem,” Zelnick said. “And what we found is when you're giving consumers hits, they tend to be interested in pursuing other hits. In other words, I've said this many times, even when the hits aren't ours, they're a good thing for the industry. In this case, we hope that the hits will largely be ours. So we feel really good about it and I think that we will time our releases so as to respect the consumer's need to spend a lot of time playing these hit games before they go on to the next.”
Amid all this speculation is of course the prospect that GTA 6 will be delayed either into early winter, or at some point in the first quarter of 2026.
"Look, there's always a risk of slippage and I think as soon as you say words like absolutely, you jinx things," Zelnick responded when IGN asked how confident he was that Rockstar would hit fall 2025 for GTA 6. "So we feel really good about it."
Alternatively, 2K and Gearbox may have brought Borderlands 4 forward to avoid clashing with Bungie's online co-op extraction shooter Marathon, which is currently set for release on Sep 23, 2025. As a Bungie game, Marathon is published by Sony. Borderlands 4 has its very own PlayStation State of Play set for this week.
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.
© Bethesda
While it can be tempting to go with a cheaper variety of portable charger, the Anker 313 Power Bank — now available for only £6.99 — makes a strong case for sticking with the signature brand.
Originally £22.99, this slimline portable charger has had an initial discount of 39% by bringing the price down to £13.99.
However, Amazon UK have also added a limited-time voucher running until Sunday, the May 4 — letting you take off an extra 50%, so you'll only have to pay £6.99 at checkout.
If you're on the market for a sleek and effective charger to take with you for a bonus charge for commutes or on a long day out, you can't go wrong with this Anker power bank's "slim size, big power" design.
Packing a 10,000 mAh battery and weighing only 213g, this makes for one of the lightest portable chargers you can get with that much power.
This means you can put it in your pocket alongside your iPhone 16 (3561 mAh), Samsung S25 (3385 mAh), or Google Pixel 9 (4700 mAh), and have two extra full charges ready to go. Those will be fast as well, with the Anker 313 being able to provide up to 12W charging.
With added quality features like fireproof casing, advanced temperature control, and a high-density polymer cell, you'll be getting a premium battery pack that's built to last—so you won't need to pay for a replacement anytime soon.
For any players taking their system with them on a flight or a hefty commute, the Anker 313 power bank guarantees you'll be able to play all the way to your destination without taking up too much space.
Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.
ARC Raiders is blisteringly, aggressively archetypical, the extraction-est extraction shooter that ever extracted. It’s one of the least surprising games I’ve ever played, holding so much in common with its inspirations that they’re almost comically indistinguishable. For preview purposes, this is a very good thing: If you enjoy other games about scavenging goods while avoiding PvE foes and robbing PvP humans, you’re probably going to like ARC Raiders. If you don’t, then there’s likely nothing new here to tempt you.
This is a game so unabashedly tied to its progenitors that the hero’s default melee weapon is a pickaxe, the same weapon Fortnite metaverse heroes dropping off the Battle Bus lug into combat. That’s a cute enough homage, but it's only the tip of the iceberg for the ways ARC Raiders will be instantly comprehensible to those who play Battle Royale, tree-punching survival games, or extraction. There’s very little that feels truly original, but the components bolted together from other successful live service games click together predictably and produce a satisfying result.
The goal each round is simple: go to the surface and then get back underground alive with better loot than you started with. Two forces stand in the way of that goal. The first are the ARC, AI-controlled battle robots that wander the map searching for any sign of organic life. The ARC are no trifling threat. Even the smallest bots can prove surprisingly dangerous, especially in groups. The little spider-like scurriers are downright upsetting for an arachnophobe like me, and the large crawlers do not mess around. ARC wander the map listening for the sounds of search or battle and swarm any humans they find.
The ARC are especially dangerous in numbers, and there are plenty of subtle little traps set where clusters of different ARC with complementary abilities are placed near one another, sometimes hidden in indoor areas where one can literally trip into them. I met my fate more than once when I got overconfident around ARC. One crawling monstrosity literally spun into the air with its legs like some cyclops spider helicopter. Take down an ARC, though, and the rewards can be worth your trouble. They generally contain ammo and weapon components.
The second and more deadly threat are your fellow raiders. If you choose to play ARC Raiders, you’d best enjoy watching your back, because to quote Casablanca, “this place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere.” It’s often more efficient to fall upon a fully-loaded player who isn’t paying attention than to risk a half hour of bracing open doors in a nearby warehouse, or to lurk near an extraction point and cut down somebody when they’re about to escape. Of course, every other raider is likely looking to do the same to you.
Combat is competent enough to be satisfying. Your third-person avatar moves and controls like most other third-person avatars in modern shooters, with no real irregularities or surprises in the controls. Bullets mostly go where you want them to, depending on the capabilities of your chosen weapon, and melee attack power is substantial. Firearms feel right: SMGs are springy and difficult to control, assault rifles steady and heavy, sniper rifles punch like artillery.
Playing in teams of three adds a bit of depth to the battle, as you and your companions can search and cover for each other much more systematically than is possible with a single raider. Firefights between teams develop a sense of strategy, as coordinating squads deploy flanking tactics and ambushes against groups of foes. Whether calling out directions, overhearing sounds, covering all windows in a room, your three-person squad will find plenty of tension waiting in most buildings.
Cleverly-designed maps draw the characters in. The most lucrative resource hubs are clearly marked, and players flock to the richest areas looking for loot, or hover between the treasures and the extraction areas, waiting to dispossess the luckiest foragers of their well-won gains.
The environments are passable, with the usual collection of rusty warehouses, abandoned apartment buildings, and overgrown vacant lots you’ll find in a lot of post-apocalyptic shooters. Everything is serviceable, but it all kinda feels like they gave Fortnite a coat of Day Z grime and moved on. It’s a boring enough world that it certainly took me out of any chance of getting into the lore. But I don’t really think lore is the big draw here anyway. ARC Raiders is meat loaf without much plate presentation, but the meat loaf is tasty if a little cold.
Every drawer and cabinet is a potential source of wealth: crafting components, ammunition, shields, healing items, and weapons. Ammunition is properly segmented enough to keep you hungry as you scavenge and construct guns. Light, medium, heavy, and shotgun ammo variants are available early on to locate in the overworld, craft in your lair, or purchase underground. Materials have the usual, predictable levels of rarity corresponding to color, with certain colors granting the ability to develop more useful or rare items. A single special pocket in your inventory allows you to keep one special discovered item safe even in the event of your death, so that you can haul your rarest finds home even when you die.
Some containers take time to open and generate quite a bit of noise when manipulated, which is a delightful tension-raising mechanic that I really appreciated. Opening one of these was especially harrowing when playing solo... you can really feel the vulnerability with your camera locked forward, not knowing what passing robot or player might discover you as you make an ugly racket jimmying a door.
You spend your time between rounds underground, where you convert your ill-gotten gains into an ever-escalating series of crafting tables allowing for the creation of ever-more-elaborate gear. You can also choose to straight liquidate materials and finds for cash, and purchase fully-created items at in-game stores. There’s also some part of crafting that involves a live rooster. I never figured that out.
As you explore the world above, you gain experience which opens up access to a series of Skill Trees. Selecting various branches can help you optimize your avatar to your playstyle, increasing combat ability, mobility, or stealth. The different abilities are clearly labeled, and most are useful enough that every step feels like real progress.
Character design with default options is pretty rough, but a number of better textures and outfits open up when you apply premium currency. I deliberately made my guy look as bleak and sad as possible using only default options, but my multiplayer partner had this whole ZZ Top Man With No Name vibe going on... I was envious.
ARC Raiders previews pretty well, perhaps because its design conservatism makes it so instantly familiar. There’s absolutely nothing here to challenge what came before, but sometimes, that’s okay. Overall, the ARC Raiders loop seems pretty well tuned to satisfy: make it to the surface to loot and kill, bring your goods and experience back underground to improve your abilities, head back up stronger to find stronger gear, and repeat. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.
Jared Petty is a former IGN editor who likes writing about how wonderful and silly video games are. You can find him at Bluesky as Bluesky as pettycommajared.
Heavy Metal is easily one of the most popular and influential anthology magazines ever published, so we're pretty excited to see the series making its grand return to comic book shops. Following a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign, the new volume of Heavy Metal kicks off on Wednesday, April 30.
Ahead of that release, IGN can exclusively debut a new preview of Heavy Metal #1. Head to the slideshow gallery below to see pages from a number of stories featured in the first issue, along with all the previously revealed covers:
The new volume of Heavy Metal features a mix of classic, returning creators and Heavy Metal newcomers. And yes, that includes new stories featuring Heavy Metal icon Taarna. Here's the full list of stories and creators featured in the first issue:
Heavy Metal #1 boasts a print run of 73,000 copies, mking it the most heavily printed issue of the series in several decades. This issue is priced at $14.99 and clocks in at 232 pages.
Heavy Metal #1 is set to hit comic shops on April 30 and newstands on May 13. Future issues will be published quarterly, though the publisher notes that there's room for a more frequent release schedule if the demand is there.
In other comic book news, Mike Mignola is returning to the Hellboy universe this summer, and we chatted with the creative team behind Spider-Man & Wolverine.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
Amazon has once again restocked with some cool Pokémon TCG products, such as Surging Sparks Booster Bundles and Twilight Masquerade ETBs.
While some of the new listings are over-priced, I've also gone the extra mile to share some of the best deals on single Pokémon Cards from the relevant sets like TCGPlayer, so trainers can save just by grabbing their chase cards.
Whilst I'm not going to be able to sort out a Surging Sparks Booster Bundle and Pikachu ex SIR for under $50, I've given trainers a few options to add to their collections and decks. Let's get straight into it.
Surging Sparks card prices have plummeted in April for the most part, with the aforementioned Pikachu ex SIR dropping from a lofty $400+ price point to under $300.
Another favorite of mine is Latias ex SIR, which has finally slipped under $200, so it's a great time to get into Surging Sparks. The Booster Bundles are here if you want to rip packs, but you'll save a small fortune buying single cards.
Twilight Masquerade is an overlooked yet, with many trainers only focusing on Greninja ex SIR. Whilst I can't blame them, this is a cracking set.
The ETB isn't too far off MSRP considering it ships from the UK, and is especially worth it if you need the exclusive promo, sleeves and dice.
But chase cards such as Eevee IR and Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex AR have crashed to around $30, so it's a bit daft not to check out the single card market for this set.
So this set is out of print, so naturally the price for sealed product is above MSRP, but the pricing isn't as competitive as the secondary market.
TCG Player has them for almost $20 less right now, or trainers can cough up a few extra bucks for Charizard VMAX 107/122 at $65. Looking at single cards for Shining Fates at this point is going to save trainers a fortune.
Once again Amazon are charging way to much for their Pokémon TCG products, which is just a shame. TCG Player has these unopened for $52, need I say more?
Gardevior ex 233/091 and Charizard ex 234/091 have dropped significantly this month too, currently sitting at $83.98 and $179.18 respectively. My favorite chase cards from this set are just below, please buy me a Bubble Mew?
Whilst this tin contains Obsidian Flames and Temporal Forces boosters in it, the main chase for this tin right now are the two included Surging Sparks boosters.
Amazon wins here, with TCG Player rocking up around $3 more. The art rare's in Surging Sparks are stunning, and they've dropped significantly. Less than $5 for Braviary 214/191 or Vivillon 193/191? Yes please.
Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of "Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior". Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.
© Future
Of the topics in constant rotation in role-playing discussions and forums, few have come up as often as turn-based games. The classic gameplay style of many RPGs has contended with more action-oriented systems for some time, and now Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is restarting discussion over the direction of some genre titans.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 went live last week and is, by both IGN's and many other accounts, an excellent RPG. It is unabashedly clear about its inspirations. There's a turn order, Pictos to equip and master, zoned-out "dungeons" to crawl, and even an overworld map.
In an interview with RPGsite, producer Francois Meurisse said Clair Obscur was conceived as a turn-based game from the start, and pointed to Final Fantasy VIII, IX, and X in particular. Of course, there's also Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which is where Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's turn-based action takes after both FromSoftware's games and the likes of Mario & Luigi: using quick-time events on attacks, and parrying / dodging on defense.
The result is a turn-based game that feels like a traditional turn-based game when you're inputting attacks and crafting your strategy each turn, then like a more action-oriented game when you're doing damage or defending against it. It's a fascinating system that has, predictably, stirred up discourse.
Namely, social media users have taken the opportunity to point out Clair Obscur's success as a counter-argument to long-held grudges over positions on turn-based games; namely, from the Final Fantasy series.
An easy example: Naoki Yoshida, while on the media tour for Final Fantasy XVI, talked about why Final Fantasy and RPGs have taken on more action-based mechanics over the years.
"I’m from a generation that grew up with command and turn-based RPGs," Yoshida told Famitsu (via VGC). “I think I understand how interesting and immersive it can be. On the other hand, for the past decade or so, I’ve seen quite a number of opinions saying 'I don’t understand the attraction of selecting commands in video games.'
“This opinion is only increasing, particularly with younger audiences who do not typically play RPGs."
This thinking is reflected in the series, as Final Fantasy XV, XVI, and the VII remake series have all opted for more action-driven systems. Each has garnered their own share of fans and detractors.
And comments about turn-based games, and whether they connect with players, often come up in those moments. It's easy to see how stalwarts might read Yoshida's comments and hold a grudge, and now feel vindicated by Clair Obscur's status as the hottest game on the block. Here is a turn-based RPG, inspired by the greats, wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, and thriving.
Any truth is, as always, a little more nuanced than just that. It's certainly a little more nuanced than just, "Final Fantasy should do this."
For one, Square Enix might have seen its Final Fantasy series head in a more action-oriented direction, but it certainly hasn't dumped turn-based games wholesale. Octopath Traveler 2 was, in this writer's opinion, one of the better role-playing games in the last few years, and the publisher has continued to roll out more turn-based RPGs, including SaGa Emerald Beyond and the upcoming Bravely Default remaster for Switch 2. While Final Fantasy may not be as turn-based as its SNES or PlayStation 1 days, it's not like Square has done away with the format.
And if the question is whether Final Fantasy should imitate Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, or whether this is "Final Fantasy if it was good" or not, well, I'd have to agree with everyone replying with a resolute "nope." Final Fantasy has its own aesthetic drives and iconography that a simple "replace X with Y" can't really account for. While some comparisons between Clair Obscur and Final Fantasy are obvious, it's also easy to note the differences. Reducing Clair Obscur down to "Final France-tasy" is fun wordplay, but it does a disservice to both what's made Final Fantasy an enduring series, and what Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has done to elevate itself above mere imitation.
This is, funny enough, not the first time we've done this. Those with some tingling soreness in their lower backs might recall discussions about Lost Odyssey and whether it was the "true" successor to Final Fantasy, over the series' direction going into Final Fantasy XIII. Go back even further, and you can probably dig up conversations about whether Final Fantasy VII is truly better than Final Fantasy VI or not. As long as there have been two Final Fantasy fans on the internet, there have been arguments about Final Fantasy on the internet.
None of this is accounting for sales either, which were a driver for Yoshida's aforementioned comments to Famitsu on Final Fantasy XVI's direction.
"As I said, I believe I know the fun of command system RPGs, and I want to continue developing them, but I thought about the expected sales of Final Fantasy XVI and the impact that we have to deliver," said Yoshida. The Final Fantasy XVI producer did not even rule out the possibility that the next Final Fantasy could use a command system; just that, at the time of the studio making it, Final Fantasy XVI was going to be the game it became.
And that's an interesting point to watch, as time goes on. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has certainly been a breakout success for Sandfall Interactive and Kepler, garnering 1 million sales over three days. It's a strong start, but Square Enix's expectations for Final Fantasy are usually a bit higher.
The most tired part, still worth noting, is the idea that turn-based games might struggle to see success. We have seen breakout hits in the space; notably, Baldur's Gate 3 and Metaphor: ReFantazio. While it's easy to point at the tip of the iceberg to make a point, it is worth noting that we've seen these RPGs — which each take after classic role-playing elements in their own way — have garnered both acclaim and financial success.
So, ultimately, Clair Obscur's success means a lot for the team behind it. It's an encouraging project that, even as we get into discussions on its team size compared to what you expect, feels like a return of the scoped, scaled, mid-budget RPG alongside the likes of Visions of Mana or Ruined King. Whether its momentum carries it on higher, to the heights of something like a Baldur's Gate 3 or Disco Elysium, is yet to be seen, but you can't ask for a better start.
As for whether it signals some radical shift is necessary for Final Fantasy, I'm less confident. While Square Enix has said recent entries like Final Fantasy XVI and FF7 Rebirth's profits did not meet expectations, that feels like a struggle shaped as much by broad shifts in the gaming landscape, as the cost of making major entries in huge franchises has not been a cheap endeavor. They're taking a long time to make, too.
If anything, the lesson to take away is to be unapologetically authentic. Projects that imitate can struggle to break out from the shadows. It's why I stressed earlier that for all the ways Clair Obscur wears its inspirations on its sleeve, it's not wholly defined by its predecessors; its clever combat systems, incredible soundtrack, thoughtful world-building and scene direction all come from within, from the studio's drives. To put it better, here's Larian CEO Swen Vincke, recently discussing the "single-player games are dead" discourse that also pops up quite often:
"I think we've proven with [Baldur's Gate 3] that you can put in a pretty high budget and expect pretty high results," Vincke told GameSpot. As Vincke has stated several times over, you just have to make a good game, one that your creative team is excited to make. That seems like a constructive way forward for everyone, and one that doesn't feel like reheating the leftovers of old internet discourse all over again.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
As I wrote in my PC Performance Analysis, the biggest problem with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is the stuttering while moving around the world. Just like the original game, it can freeze or pause for a moment while you’re exploring. Luckily, there’s a mod that can really help reduce these stutters. And no, … Continue reading This Oblivion Remastered Mod will GREATLY reduce its stutters →
The post This Oblivion Remastered Mod will GREATLY reduce its stutters appeared first on DSOGaming.
Straight4 has just shared the first official trailer for the spiritual successor to GTR, Project Motor Racing. This trailer packs some pre-alpha gameplay scenes, so it can give you a first look at what the devs aim to create. For those unaware, Project Motor Racing was previously known as GTRevival. The game is headed by … Continue reading Project Motor Racing, spiritual successor to GTR, gets official trailer →
The post Project Motor Racing, spiritual successor to GTR, gets official trailer appeared first on DSOGaming.
My first ritual was ended by a large man with two morningstars swinging around him in a circle. Think the hands of a clock — one short, one long — but spikier and much, much more deadly, and equally inevitable as time, at least to the novice. I was playing a Barbarian that run; I didn’t understand what I was doing yet, or how to avoid them. My dodges weren’t dodging. I’d done pretty well up until that point, but he chewed through my lives like a dog with a bone, and then I was dead, my ritual incomplete. But I’d gotten somewhere, earned some upgrades, had a better idea of what I was doing. Time to try again.
Conquest Dark is a strange beast. It clearly owes a lot to Vampire Survivors, but its inspirations don’t quit there. It’s also pulling from stuff like Conan the Barbarian — your characters look like they can bench press a car but start with little more than a loincloth — and some cosmic horror, as a treat. There isn’t much story in Conquest Dark, but the actual setup is cool. After the arrival of something called The Black Planet 237 years ago, humanity stands on the brink of annihilation. Undead armies have laid waste to the great human kingdoms. The Cosmic Gods have fallen. The Primordial Ones have awoken from their long slumber. Only Kharathia, The City of Legends, still stands, one last hope for humanity. In a last, desperate effort, people of all stripes — heroes, criminals, devotees of old gods, those seeking glory — complete Dark Rituals to summon the undead hordes and fallen heroes to gain power, hoping to use it to uncover the secrets of the Black Planet and reclaim what they can.
It’s a cool conceit, but Conquest Dark isn’t one for exposition. Most of this is delivered as text, and it’s up to you to stitch things together. You see it in the little details. The named bosses, like Lord Commander Urien, who appears outside Kharathia. Who was he before? A protector of the city, now turned against it in undeath? What about Witch Smeller Mzawi in the Shifting Sands? How do you smell witches, and what do you do if you catch a whiff of one? What happened at The Chasm of Fallen Heroes? Who was S’hes, why did she hunt Titans, and what specifically did she do to have an order of hunters named after her? What is the Black Planet? Where did it come from? I don’t know how interested in answering these questions Conquest Dark is, but every time I went to a new place, saw what was there, or learned a little bit more from a description, I was intrigued.
In practice, Conquest Dark is pretty simple: you go to an area on the map to start a Dark Ritual. Once you’ve selected where you want to be, it’s time to figure out who. You’ve got a trio of characters to select from, and you can reroll those options as many times as you like. You only have one race (Human) and two classes (Hunter and Barbarian) from the jump, though you’ll quickly get more. I won’t spoil the additional races, but the new classes like the agile Thief, paladin-esque Oathkeeper, and the spellcaster-flavored Acolyte of Kuu, all do exactly what they sound like.
But let’s start from, well, the start. The Hunter is faster and more nimble and naturally inclined towards bows and ranged attacks, while the Barbarian has more health and bleed resistance, and thrives up close and personal with melee weapons, but what might be more interesting are the randomly generated proficiencies they get right from the jump. An extra 5% critical hit damage, 2.5% bonus health, or 5% reduced bleed rate may not seem like a big deal, but it can define who you want your character to be, and how you upgrade later. I particularly like that you can reroll your three starting choices as much as you want, for free, or leave an area entirely at no cost if you decide this isn’t where you wanna be.
Once you’ve got your guy (or gal), the fun begins. First, you select an origin. Veteran of the War gives you Heavy Armor, Shields, and 25% Bonus Health, while Hunter’s Apprentice adds Short Bow proficiency, Survival, and 0.5 Projectile Pierce. It’s important to note that you can double-up here. If you’re playing as a Hunter, you probably shouldn’t take Hunter’s Apprentice, for instance, because you already have two of those proficiencies, but it would be great for a Barbarian that wants to play the ranged game. If you play things, right, you can essentially multi-class: Oathkeepers are already hard to kill, but it’s even more difficult when you take the Stargazer origin, which gives you the Acolyte of Kuu’s barrier. Once you’ve got an origin, the games begin. No matter who you pick, your character starts with nothing more than a loincloth and their fists. That doesn’t last long, though.
After you smack your first undead back to the afterlife, you get your first major choice: your weapon. Some of your options might not seem all that important. Take a Hunter’s opening choices. Shortbow versus longbow’s not really that crucial, right? Wrong. Shortbows shoot faster, but do less damage per shot and have less range, while longbows take a little more time to fire, but hit harder and farther. Once you’re got your killing instrument of choice, things escalate. The first few waves are small, just so you have enough time to get used to things. Like Vampire Survivors, you don’t actually control much in Conquest Dark; just where you move and when you dodge. Attacking happens automatically. Instead, your focus is almost entirely on positioning. Where to be, when to dodge, keeping track of when abilities will activate, and being in a position to capitalize on that big shot or big swing.
As you level up, you’ll make more choices. What to equip, what abilities to upgrade, when to re-roll a selection you don’t like or skip it entirely for more currency for re-rolls later. There’s a ton of build variety here. I gravitated to builds with huge critical hit damage and high crit chance with the Hunter, but the Barbarian works well with AoE damage and by increasing the chance for enemies to drop health. Picking early and specializing seems to be key.
Your real goal, aside from putting together a build that works, is staying alive as long as you can. See, you get 10 lives on each run. If you lose one, you start bleeding. The more lives you lose, the more you bleed. The first time you die, you start losing 1% of your health every second. The second time, that jumps to 2%. The third time makes it 3% and so on. There’s no way to stop bleeding once you start, but you can reduce it by speccing into health regeneration, reduced bleed rate, and how likely enemies are to drop health. Surviving long enough to complete a Ritual means staying alive after enemies cover every inch of the screen, and you start dying. The longer you can stave it off, the better, but the difference between a failed run and a successful one is how long you can hang on once things go sideways and the bosses start showing up. Like you, they have a lot of lives, and they can get pretty nasty, swinging morningstars or not. They’re tough, but if it bleeds, you can kill it. I’ve had the most success as a Hunter, Oathkeeper, and the Acolyte of Kuu (I like standing far away from things and shooting them), but I admire how different each class feels and how they forced me to approach fights in unique ways that played to their strengths.
Whether you succeed or fail (and by the way, you die regardless; even if you succeed, an army of unkillable ghosts sweeps in to ruin your day. Oops), you’re going to unlock rewards, and then it’s back to the map to spend them to help future runs. Maybe that means heading to the Stygian Archive in Kharathia, where you can not only see everything you’ve unlocked, but also upgrade individual skills, weapon sets, abilities, and so on with the Soul Coins you get on each run. Or maybe you’re off to the Altar of Power to spend crystals for increased damage, or the Altar of Toughness to take a chunk out of that pesky bleed damage, or the Altar of Souls to make sure you can collect souls (experience) from farther away. And then there’s the Factions, like the aforementioned Order of S’hes, which rewards you with buffs for all classes for slaying things as a Hunter. And then there’s the Obelisk of the Moon, where you can ramp up the difficulty of performing Rituals for increased rewards by offering up Shards of the Black Planet. Then it’s back to a Ritual. Live, die, upgrade, repeat.
Conquest Dark doesn’t stop and explain how all of this works off the bat, though there is a detailed game guide there if you want to do some light reading before you set off. Mostly, you learn by doing, and I like that. Put me in, coach, I’m ready to play, win or lose. And once you start unlocking more stuff, the wheels start turning. ‘What can I do with this class? How do I build around this thing? What if I tried taking this origin with this class? What can I do?” And once they start, they don’t really stop.
This preview’s written, Lord Commander Urien (the dude with the morningstars) has been sent on his way, and I’ve seen several hours of Conquest Dark at this point. But I also can’t stop thinking about it, either. What I might try next, how I might upgrade certain things, what classes I want to explore. The moment-to-moment gameplay here is remarkably simple. You just move and dodge (or use dodge-based abilities that can double as attacks), but there’s an elegance to it that I appreciate, and it kept me coming back with new ideas. Upgrades may be what put you over the top, but the magic happens when you step into the arena, in the moments between life and death. You’re going to die; that’s a given. The question is how far you can get (and how many horrors you can vanquish) before you do.
The biggest moment of an actor’s career doesn’t have to be the best role they ever played — it can be a hilarious biting commentary included on the special features section of the DVD release of a movie. For Ben Affleck, a storied actor known for his work in films like Gone Girl and Argo, he considers that fact to be true, as he recently cited his well-known Armageddon commentary as his potential best work ever.
"In retrospect, now, I feel like maybe my best work in my career is the commentary on this disc," he said of the 1998 Michael Bay classic during his recent Criterion's Closet video. "People approach me to talk about the commentary in this disc as much as they do movies that I've been in. And it's because I didn't know any better than to be really honest. But I won't spoil it for those of you who are interested. It is an achievement I'm proud of and didn't intend to be as good as I now think it is."
Affleck didn’t spoil it, but we will (a little bit), so be forewarned. The actor’s commentary is perhaps best known for his argument that it's illogical to train oil drillers to be astronauts instead of the other way around, poking fun at the film despite being in it. "How hard can it be?” he asked during the commentary. “You just aim the drill at the ground and turn it on.”
This isn’t the first time the actor has discussed the commentary — and its immense impact — recently. "That is one of the achievements of my career on which I'm willing to pat myself on the back,” he told GQ in March. “I believe that may be at least top five all-time DVD commentaries.”
Affleck is currently starring in The Accountant 2, sequel to the 2016 hit The Accountant. The Punisher himself Jon Bernthal stars alongside him in the film, which is in theaters now.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
The Smashing Machine has its debut trailer and with it provides a first look at Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as legendary former UFC star Mark Kerr.
The trailer, below, reveals Johnson’s portrayal of the life and career of Mark Kerr, a former wrestler and UFC star who struggled with substance abuse. Emily Blunt plays Kerr’s then-wife, Dawn Staples. Uncut Gems co-director Benny Safdie is the writer and director of the A24 film, which hits theaters October 3, 2025.
Johnson is almost unrecognizable as Kerr. He does not have his tattoos, but he does have hair. You can see how Johnson compares to Kerr below.
This film is being adapted from the 2002 documentary called The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr, and will dive deep into the former wrestler and MMA athlete's life in the UFC and beyond, including his "struggles with addiction, winning, love, and friendship in the year 2000."
The Smashing Machine may mark a big moment in Johnson's career, as it looks to be his grand entrance into the world of dramatic acting.
"I'm at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I've not pushed myself in the past," Johnson told Variety. "I'm at a point in my career where I want to make films that matter, that explore a humanity, and explore struggle [and] pain."
Johnson is of course best known for his big budget action movie roles, including Black Adam, the Jumanji films, and the Fast & Furious films.
"I want to be clear not to say that this is an abandonment of big, four-quadrant movies,” Johnson added. “I love making them, and there is tremendous value and importance in [them]… but there's a time and a place for them.
"I'm at this point in my career where I want more. And I don't mean I want more box office. I mean, I want more humanity. And that is why Benny Safdie is the perfect, collaborative, hungry partner for me."
Johnson is set to reprise his animated Disney role as Maui in the live-action Moana film, due out next year.
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.
Today feels like a choose-your-own-adventure for deals. Lexar's Amazon sale is throwing up to 54 percent discounts across SSDs, RAM, and memory cards, which is a polite way of saying it is a good time to stop hoarding files on a 2016 laptop. Humble Bundle is handing out a pile of id Software classics for less than the cost of lunch, and Pokémon TCG fans have a few new bundles to eye, assuming you are ok with the fact that card prices are quietly crashing behind the scenes.
In my opinion, if you have been looking for an excuse to upgrade your storage, stack your gaming backlog even higher, or justify another Pokémon impulse buy, today's list is a decent place to start. It is not Black Friday, but I will take a solid sale when it shows up.
I think calling this a bundle is almost underselling it. You are getting DOOM, Wolfenstein, DOOM Eternal, and a coupon toward DOOM: The Dark Ages, just to name a few. It is a lot of chaos and a lot of catharsis for not a lot of money. Steam ratings are strong across the board if you care about that kind of thing, but honestly, DOOM 1993 still sells itself.
Six booster packs in one bundle sounds good on paper, but in my opinion, the smarter move right now is to look at singles. Prices for this set are dropping fast, and if you are chasing specific cards, buying them outright is probably cheaper and less soul crushing than another box full of commons.
Greninja ex SIR, that is all. In all seriousness, this is a brilliant set that's often overlooked. Whilst the price is a little over MSRP, it's worth getting just for the booster packs included. Plus the promo, sleeves and dice look great in this particular ETB. Following the trend, Twilight Masquerade single cards are also crashing in price, so make sure to check if you can just buy the cards you're after for less.
kachu gets a lot of oversized cardboard love in this box with a promo card, a giant version, and four Shining Fates booster packs. It is a decent pickup if you like opening packs, but single card prices are slipping hard right now. I think it makes more sense to hunt down the exact cards you want unless you are feeling reckless.
In my opinion, this is one of those collectibles that you either want immediately or not at all. It is an officially licensed Dark Brotherhood medallion, limited to 5000 pieces, finished in black and gold, and somehow still cheaper than most novelty keychains. Ships later this year, assuming you survive the wait
Paldean Fates brings back shiny Pokémon in a big way, and this bundle gives you six booster packs to chase them. I want to be excited about it, but again, single card prices for Paldean Fates are not holding up well. If you just want a shiny Charizard ex SIR without the suspense, the singles market is sitting there quietly judging your pack opening addiction.
I like a good tin, especially one with five booster packs packed inside, but getting a random Kyogre, Xerneas, or Dialga promo card feels a little like gambling with slightly better odds. It is a solid pickup for the price if you do not mind leaving your promo fate to the RNG gods. If you are only after one specific chase card though outside of the included two Surging Sparks boosters, it might save your blood pressure to just buy it separately.
Lexar is finally giving some breathing room on pricing with this Amazon sale, and the Armor 700 is a standout. You are getting 4TB of rugged storage with serious transfer speeds for about 100 dollars off the typical price. It is water resistant, dust resistant, and a lot more durable than whatever junk is sitting at the bottom of your backpack right now.
Woot is offering a solid spread of Pokémon games today, and I want at least three of them. Brilliant Diamond, Legends: Arceus, Let’s Go, Eevee!, and a few others are sitting between $39.99 and $44.99, which feels right for anyone catching up before Switch 2 changes the landscape again. In my opinion, it is a smart time to grab them while prices are behaving themselves. Everything here is fully playable now and will likely get performance bumps once Nintendo's next system arrives.
MSI’s factory-reconditioned gaming desktops are quietly one of the best parts of today's sale. Machines like the AEGIS R 13NUE-448US are going for $1,129.99, and RTX 4060 GPUs are under $300. I want to be responsible, but this pricing makes it harder than it should be. If you have been thinking about rebuilding your setup, this is exactly the kind of deal you hope not to miss.
The Master Sword Proplica from Tamashii Nations is $200 at the IGN Store, and it feels like one of those collectibles you either get immediately or spend months regretting. It plays eight songs from across Zelda games, has sound effects, vibrates when you swing it, and looks good enough to make it feel slightly less ridiculous to own. Slightly.
Amazon has the Samsung PRO Plus 512GB microSD card with a USB reader for $29.99. I think it is a good fit if you are adding games to your Switch, Steam Deck, ROG Ally, or anything else still using microSD storage. It is fast enough for quick transfers, big enough for most libraries, and cheap enough that you do not have to think too hard about it. Just know it is not built for Switch 2, in case you're planning ahead.
Humble’s Play for Miracles Bundle is giving away 31 games for $20, which is more titles than I will realistically finish this year. That said, games like Terraforming Mars and Survival: Fountain of Youth are strong enough that even grabbing two or three makes the bundle worth it. Plus, the money goes to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, which makes ignoring the other 28 games feel slightly less irresponsible.
The 8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard is down to $99.99 at Amazon. I think it is one of the best-looking keyboards out right now if you want something that works and does not scream “boring office equipment.” It has Kailh Jellyfish X switches, a top-mount design, fast response, and Xbox-inspired styling that actually looks good on a gaming desk. I probably do not need another keyboard. I am thinking about it anyway.
Amazon also has the 8BitDo Retro R8 Wireless Mouse on sale for $58.68. It feels like the natural companion to the Retro 87 Keyboard, but it also stands fine on its own. It packs a PAW 3395 sensor, programmable buttons, a 4K polling rate, and a charging dock that doubles as a signal booster. I want one for a low-key gaming setup that does not look like it is held together with RGB lighting and prayer.
Streaming Wars is a weekly opinion column by IGN’s Streaming Editor, Amelia Emberwing. Check out the last entry Mythic Quest Just Changed Its Series Finale and Now You Can't Even Watch the Original Version
Despite Yoda’s advice (“Only Siths yadda yadda…”), media commentary has become a culture of absolutes. It’s common that people insist a film, show or game is always the best or worst ever, when the reality is that the vast majority of art is just OK (and, perhaps more importantly, it’s OK that most art is just OK). It’s that acknowledgement that makes Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos’ commentary on whether or not he believed Netflix was killing Hollywood all the more funny. His response to the question was a very simple “no, we’re saving Hollywood,” followed by an interesting tidbit about theaters.
I’m going to give you a moment to pause and take that quote in before I get rolling because phew… much to unpack here. (And yeah, we're gonna get to the theater shenanigans in a bit.)
Let’s set aside the fact that it was a silly question to begin with. Sarandos was never going to agree that he was killing his own industry. The best that you can hope for is the “maybe the industry needs breaking,” that so many self-labeled “disruptors” such as Netflix, Uber and AirBnB like to lean into. The overused and often trite sentiment of “move fast and break things” would have ultimately been closer to the truth than either the question presented or the answer given, because there are certainly plenty of things about Hollywood that need fixin’. But Netflix isn’t the sole problem and it could not be further from the solution.
Right now, Netflix has two key problems: competition and ego. So much of Netflix’s strategy still operates as if they are the only streamer in town, something that hasn’t been true for years at this point. Once they started competing with streaming originals from studios with more experience in creating original works, their name started coming up less and less in conversation. They’ve succeeded from time to time with savvy acquisitions like Cobra Kai and the Fear Street trilogy, and for a time had a remarkable original series output that included heavy-hitters like Ozark, Narcos, Orange Is the New Black, Mindhunter and more. But the last remaining vestiges of that heyday — shows like Stranger Things and Bridgerton — are right on the cusp of ending or far enough into their runs that it’s well past time that Netflix should be sweating about their next move. That’s the competition part covered, but the ego aspect of it goes hand in hand.
With so many players in the streaming landscape, most of which are lapping Netflix on series quality (with a few noteworthy exceptions like the first seasons of Squid Game and The Sandman), the way for Netflix to return to being a meaningful service for its customer base is also the very last thing it’s ever going to do. It needs to scale back its original production significantly (and get smarter about its spend on the films and shows that it does move forward with) and go back to being the primary destination to watch films missed in theater and shows for folks who broke up with cable. Why is that never going to happen? About 30% business acumen and 70% hubris.
The legitimate concern of going back to its roots and returning to being the premier watch-from-home destination for cord cutters and folks who missed movies in theater is that you never want your business model to be reliant on someone else’s. Of course, there’s less risk to that when your business model is reliant on an entire industry vs. one or two companies. Still, it’s a risk. But that whole ego thing takes us back to Sarandos’ follow-up comment to his “hollywood saving” nonsense.
“I believe it is an outmoded idea, for most people — not for everybody,” Sarandos said of the theatrical experience after admitting that he himself quite enjoyed going.
There’s an ocean-sized can of worms to be opened with this statement alone, but for the sake of this column I’m going to boil it down to two truths that exist in tandem: movie theaters are too damn expensive, making it difficult for the average American to enjoy theatrical releases in the way we used to, and people still love going to the movies.
The theatrical experience isn’t an outmoded (which means unfashionable or unusable for those who don’t speak old rich guy) idea. It’s just an un-economic one when the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 and the average movie ticket is $11.31. Theaters large and small alike have tried to find ways around this problem in the post-quarantine era to varying degrees of success, but the model still needs a drastic shift if it’s going to survive. Meanwhile, Netflix has raised prices consistently since 2014 when its service has actively gotten worse according to 1 out of 4 users. Movie theaters aren’t a perfect experience currently either, with so many people treating them like their personal living rooms, but there’s a glass house aspect to be had there when no matter which industry or corporation is on top, it’s the average American that continues to lose out.
Streaming’s existential threat to the theatrical experience may not rest solely on Netflix’s shoulders, but if Netflix was “a very consumer-focused company” that “deliver[s] the program to you in a way you want to watch it,” as Sarandos said at the event, it would be thinking of their customers rather than their algorithms, constant price hikes, and consistently lighting money on fire to make borderline unwatchable nonsense like The Electric State, Red Notice, Rebel Moon and The Gray Man (even if I have been laughing about Chris Evans’ delivery of “I was shot in the ass, Susanne!” since 2022).
Amid the heightened interest in all things The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion brought on by Bethesda’s popular remaster, its original designer has admitted the game's level scaling system was a “mistake.”
Oblivion’s level scaling system is perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of the 20-year-old open-world role-playing game. It means loot acquired is tied to the level of your character at the point you acquire it. So, if you complete a quest for a coveted sword at level one, you’ll get that sword locked at level one power. If you complete the same quest at level 25, you’ll get the sword at level 25. This, frustratingly, locks that cool sword you got at level one to level one power for your entire playthrough, no matter how much you level up. In effect players could, through no fault of their own, complete quests too early, renedering unique items useless later in the game.
Similarly, enemies will still spawn according to your level. While this allows the foes you face to always provide a challenge, it does present a problem if you aren’t focusing on certain skills.
Fast forward to 2025 and some fans were shocked to find that Oblivion’s original level scaling system reappeared in Oblivion Remastered, when other parts of the game’s mechanics were modernized.
“This is very disappointing, especially when they said they went out of their way to fix the leveling system, which, to be fair, they did fix for player attributes,” redditor minifat commented.
Original Oblivion designer Bruce Nesmith told VideoGamer the game’s level scaling, or “world scaling” system was a “mistake.” Bethesda ended up changing the level scaling for 2011’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which most fans believe was for the better.
“I had a very substantial hand and voice in both levelling systems,” Nesmith said. “The nuts and bolts work, the mathematical mechanics, that was my work and I’m intimately familiar with how both of those things work.
“I think the world leveling with you was a mistake and that’s proven out by the fact it did not happen the same way in Skryim. That we came up with a much, much better way to continue to provide the player challenge without making it feel like, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter that I went up in levels, the dungeon went up in levels with me.’ "
One area Oblivion Remastered did improve on was leveling up your character. In Oblivion Remastered, increasing both Minor and Major Skills now all contributes towards your next level, instead of only Major Skills providing any progress (Major Skills increase at a much faster rate, giving them a larger impact).
Upon resting in bed to begin the Level-up Screen, you're now presented with the list of Attributes and 12 Virtue Points. These points can be distributed among your Attributes (which cannot exceed 3, just like in the original), with a maximum of +5 points in any one Attribute (which was also the cap in the original).
Since the points can be allocated regardless of which skills you improved, you can now align your Attribute increases during each level up without fear of becoming underpowered by allocating points to Attributes that your character may not use as much. The only exception to this is Luck: It requires 4 Virtue Points for every point added to the Luck Attribute.
There have also been a few changes to how certain skills increase. Mercantile, for example, increases at rates that align with how expensive the item bought or sold is, and Magick Skills increase faster when using spells with a higher magick cost, making spamming low-level spells to increase skills faster a less effective method.
As you’d expect, modders have once again come to the rescue. Fresh from tackling PC performance issues in Oblivion Remastered, modders have also released balanced NPC level cap mods and balanced unleveled rewards mods.
We’ve got plenty more on Oblivion Remastered, including a report on a player who managed to escape the confines of Cyrodiil to explore Valenwood, Skyrim, and even Hammerfell, the rumored setting of The Elder Scrolls VI.
We've also got a comprehensive guide to everything you'll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much 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.
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