Finding the best gifts for everyone in your life can be tricky. If you're on the hunt for the best gifts for readers, however, it's a little easier. People who love books love book gifts, plain and simple.

Personally, I'm what you may consider a binge reader. I usually go through about three to five books per month, and if I find a new series I really like, that number will shoot up quickly. All of this reading means I can never have too many books and book accessories and I have a decent idea of what gifts readers will love. Below, I've outlined some of the most enticing book gift ideas I've found for 2025, including but not limited to the Kindle Paperwhite, bookends, book lights, and of course, a few books. As a dad myself I can honestly say any of these options would make a good Father's Day gift I would cherish.

Collectible Illustrated Editions

LEGO Book Nook Sets

LEGO just recently released a three new book nook sets that make for wonderful gifts. The concept of the book nook isn't exactly new, but it's a first for LEGO and they are actually really cool builds. So far there is a Lord of the Rings set, a Harry Potter set, and a Sherlock Holmes set available. Each one offers a glimpse into something iconic from those franchises and is specifically made to sit on your shelf among your books. My personal favorite out of all of these is the Hogwarts Express set because it can function as book nook or really cool set of bookends, but all three of them are wonderful in their own ways.

Popular Book Box Sets

A Good E-Reader

A Cool Set of Bookends

Must-Have Book Accessories

Looking for more gift ideas? We've gathered a ton of cool book acessories below. This includes things like bookmarks, reading lights, and other things that can improve the reading experience.

Jacob Kienlen is a Senior SEO Strategist and Writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has considered the Northwest his home for his entire life. His expertise is spread across a variety of different topics -- from TV series to indie games and popular book series.

This year Father's Day lands on June 15. There's still plenty of time to shop around for a great gift for dad, and what better gift than a brand new iPad. Amazon has dropped the prices on a couple of the newest models ahead of this momentous of occasions. The Apple iPad, a March 2025 release, is down to $299 after a $50 off instant discount. Both 11" and 13" Apple iPad Air, also March 2025 releases, are down to $499 and $699, respectively, after a $100 off instant discount. Sizeable discounts on currently model iPads are relatively uncommon, so get in on this deal while it lasts.

$50 Off New 2025 Apple iPad 10.9" (A16) Tablet

For most people, the iPad (not the Air, Mini, or Pro) is the best model to get because it offers all the benefits of iOS as well as snappy performance at an affordable price. The current generation model was released on March 12, 2025, over two years after the previous generation (October 2022). The upgrades include a more powerful processor (A16 vs A14), more RAM (6GB vs 4GB), and more storage (128GB vs 64GB), all. Best of all, the launch price of $349 is actually lower than when the previous generation model was released, which was $399.

The specs that have carried over are the 10.9" Liquid Retina 2360x1640 (264ppi) display, USB Type-C charging, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and the same camera. It's also compatible with the Magic Folio keyboard so you can convert it into a mini laptop for better workflow, making it one of the best iPads for students, and the newer Apple Pencil with USB-C.

$100 Off the 2025 iPad Air M3 Tablet

Amazon is offering the 7th generation Apple iPad Air M3 tablets at the lowest prices I've seen so far. The 11" model is down to $499 and the 13" model is down to $699, both after a $100 off instant discount. That's the best price we've seen for this 2025 model with the M3 chip. The 7th gen iPad Pro Air was released in March and is the current generation model. It's only one year newer than the 6th gen model and the only major upgrade is the jump from the M2 to the M3 chip.

A Magnificent Life will open in theaters at a date TBD. This review is based on a screening at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Despite clocking in at a mere 90 minutes, the animated biopic A Magnificent Life captures a lifetime of personal and artistic struggles. Its story of French playwright and film innovator Marcel Pagnol bucks convention not only by taking delightful, hand-drawn form but by producing a pitch-perfect marriage between filmmaker and subject. It’s as much about its director, four-time Oscar nominee Sylvain Chomet, as it is Pagnol – two kindred spirits cutting a winding path back and forth across the decades.

Chomet’s thoughtful framing device introduces us to a 60-year-old Pagnol in 1955, hastily attempting to write an autobiographical essay whose deadline has long passed. Throughout A Magnificent Life, Pagnol is plagued by a challenge familiar to great artists and ordinary people alike: figuring out what he has to say. Fortunately, there’s another great artist in the director’s chair here. The plot Chomet comes up with feels like his own, satisfying answer to this dilemma, which initially takes shape as Pagnol speaking to a ghostly vision of his younger self.

As both Chomet and Pagnol search for ways to fit a rich portrait of a life into a relatively small frame, the young Marcel takes us back to the early 20th century. After the death of his mother, Pagnol leaves his rural hometown near Marseille to pursue his creative dreams in Paris. Chomet shows the bustling metropolis testing both his subject’s artistic mettle and his ability to stay true to his cultural roots, a tug-of-war that takes shape in dialogue about the bumbling hayseed caricatures in Pagnol’s plays retaining or losing their native Marseille accents. At times, Pagnol struggles with his accent too, while trying to fit in with the city’s artistic upper crust.

This might not mean much to non-French speakers, or those unfamiliar with regional French dialects, but the distinction is part of what makes A Magnificent Life unique. Some movies teach you how to watch them, but this one teaches you how to listen to it: Enough of the dialogue focuses on the specific nuances of how people in France speak – for instance, the “springiness” of the Marseille dialect – that your ear might eventually pick up on them. The difference can be heard in the English dub, too, where the Parisian characters speak with posh London accents, while characters from Marseille speak with a more sing-song, Welsh tonality. But even this localization seemingly has some consideration behind it: In the 1980s, Chomet moved from the French suburbs to London to start his animation career. It might be a small thing, but it makes the director’s personal connection to his tale of a transplanted artist even more apparent.

Pagnol’s story makes for a perfect mirror to Chomet’s: The former sought reality and emotional truth through exaggerations of speech and behavior, while the latter does so by exaggerating bodies and gestures. Chomet is perhaps best known for his dazzling 2003 animated feature The Triplets of Belleville, which established his signature, distorted sendups of the human form (including secret agents that would eventually influence the look of the Kingpin in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). A Magnificent Life is composed of incredibly detailed backdrops painted with light and shadow, a true-to-life environment populated by larger-than-life characters with distinctly-shaped noses – Pagnol’s profile, for instance, is immediately recognizable – and wide, expressive eyes that betray a deep exhaustion and longing. Various locations within the film draw on the imagery of magazines and political cartoons from the time period, and footage from Pagnol’s live-action films play for eager animated audiences – brilliant traces of an unfamiliar world (and unfamiliar proportions) bleeding into the frame.

This contrast yields an intriguing magical realism at times, like when Pagnol reads letters from his late mother – a force of encouragement, long missing from his daily life – and imagines her physical presence within the paper. A Magnificent Life exists along the border separating fact from fiction and Chomet’s life from Pagnol’s, a line as fragile as the one the movie walks by imagining Marcel as the unseen hand behind coincidental, perhaps even fated meetings that influence his older self’s success. The impish, Peter Pan-like figure’s significance diminishes as A Magnificent Life goes on; dismissing this glowing metaphor for pure artistry as a product of naivete is its one major slip-up. Fortunately, none of that detracts from the deeply imaginative and incandescent way Chomet has captured the enduring quest for inspiration.

I don’t think I’ve hungered for a game this year as much as Holstin. This survival-horror immediately caught my eye with its gorgeous pixel art, perspective-shifting gameplay, and eerie Polish setting.

So I felt super lucky to get hands-on with an all-new, two-hour PC demo, sliced right out of Holstin’s ominous beginnings. While the previous Steam demo captured Holstin’s “feel” through mocked-up puzzles and a firing-range weapons tutorial, this new build puts it all together with a meaty (pun intended) story.

My friends, you’ve gotta keep an eye on Holstin – here are a few reasons why.

#1: “Disgusting” Has Never Looked So Good

It’s the first thing you’ll notice – Holstin is really, really good-looking, right from your sudden drop into a dilapidated train station overgrown with some weird, pulsing yellow substance. The art looks already great in screenshots, but you need to see and feel Holstin in motion to truly understand what an accomplishment these graphics are. Even the title screen is amazing.

What looks like 2D top-down pixel art becomes truly impressive 3D once you learn that you can move the camera around, with slick, seamless transitions through eight different angles. Even if you’re aware of this before you begin playing, swinging around for the first time is honestly one of Holstin’s most surprising moments – yes, right up there with enemy encounters!

(As a side note, the top-down movement in Holstin lends itself really well to twin-stick action on a controller, but it plays perfectly on mouse and keyboard as well.)

While most players won't necessarily be choosing Holstin because of its technical proficiency, it’s what really makes this aesthetic work. There’s a reason why graphics like this aren’t manifold in the industry – it’s built on the studio’s custom in-house technology, which makes it likely to cement Holstin as a standout game graphically.

#2: Mind-Blowing Perspectives

Okay, so you can spin that third-person, top-down camera around and view the world from multiple angles – but that’s not just an awesome-looking gimmick. Those angles go hand-in-hand with Holstin’s environmental puzzles. If you’re not looking behind boxes or checking around corners to find alleys, you may – and probably will – miss things that will help you find your path forward in Holstin’s strange world.

But wait! There’s more!

There are aggressive mutated people everywhere. That means you need to shoot them. But unlike other twin-stick shooters, you won’t be staying in that fixed-camera view to ready your sights. Entering aim mode transitions you into an over-the-shoulder third-person view, freeing your camera to enable pinpoint precision for your headshots.

These two very different views really add to the suspense – for instance, while in top-down view, you might miss the enemy lurking quietly around a corner. I found myself constantly on my guard, switching between both viewpoints even out of combat. (And sometimes even that didn’t save me from being pounced on and grappled down by some grisly horror of a human.) The only part of combat that initially confused me was melee, as that isn’t in aim mode – but I got used to it quickly.

Holstin plays with other camera perspectives too, though more for atmosphere than for gameplay reasons. Think: a god’s-eye view in an eerily silent, unpopulated area. Your cursor disappears, suddenly removing your primary sense of defense. You might not be switching into aim mode here, but you’ll sure feel like some ominous force is watching your every move.

#3: Meat, Tentacles, and Gore Galore

Survival horror fans will want to know how gruesome the strange environment can get, but don’t worry – the squelchy mainstays of the genre are definitely represented in Holstin. The overall goal in this demo is to find your way to a slaughterhouse, after all.

The town’s dissolution into its kind of otherworld first emerges in the form of “Plasmodium,” the aforementioned yellow substance. At first, it looks like someone went wild with foam spray – but when you approach, tentacles will rise and wiggle at you. Are they saying hi or taunting you? Either way, it’s suitably icky and adds to a pervading sense of unease.

And then there are the mutant enemies. Imagine glowing orange orbs taking over your body, their tendrils taking the place of your tendons. Imagine those same orbs buried in the Plasmodium, which slowly spreads through streets and parks like an aggressive, menacing fungus.

Something I also found unsettling was the implied gore. While you don’t see the actual slaughterhouse in this demo, you will learn how it figures into the overall narrative through conversational dialogue and scribbled scraps scattered through the world. Something wicked is going on in that place, and you know it’s not going to be pretty when you finally get there.

#4: Adventure Gaming Puzzles That Don’t Suck

As a gamer who grew up with classic point-and-click adventures, I was very impressed by Holstin’s approach to its puzzles. Maybe I’m getting old and crotchety, but I’ve been disappointed in recent years with how linear puzzling has become in adventure-adjacent games. Receive an objective, figure out how to solve the objective, then receive the next objective.

Though Holstin is strongly narrative-driven, it never feels like a linear story with disparate puzzles slapped on top. In fact, I’d almost forgotten how challenging a well-designed puzzle tree can be. In Holstin, you won’t be completing objectives in the order they’re listed. You can work on multiple objectives at once, and figuring out which are solvable in any given moment is almost a puzzle in itself. You might have to retrace your steps, which feels realistic (like searching your house thrice for your car keys).

And as for the puzzles themselves – they make sense (well, as much as something can make sense in this mad world). Survival horror fans are all familiar with some of the genre’s most inane challenges – ranging from the dreaded sliding puzzle through to needing an intimate knowledge of Shakespeare to shelve books correctly in order to obtain a door code (*cough* Silent Hill *cough*).

None of that nonsense here. Holstin’s asks of you are simple: How are you going to get this trapdoor open? What twisting path through town will you need to forge in order to reach the playground? How you solve these problems feels organic, and really encourages you to explore your environs thoroughly.

#5: 1990s Poland Is a Trip

The Polish setting forms the bones of quite a specific – and unique – narrative. It’s not exactly a great tourism ad for Poland, but even covered with the weird tentacled Plasmodium, the town of Jeziorne-Kolonia still feels like a distinctly foreign experience compared to other games set in more vague locations.

This demo only has Polish voiceover, and as an English speaker myself, I found that this added to the believability and atmosphere – like watching a foreign flick. Though I don’t have the context of how the Polish language is structured, the voice acting sounded dead-on.

There’s the suicidal woman, her voice filled with defeat as she hands her gun over to you. The large, childlike man, squealing, talking in riddles, and just one plot twist away from losing it entirely. The cast of weirdos here is a lot wider than your usual survival-horror game – but their convincing creepiness doesn’t detract from the suspense at all. (I sure wished they would help me out in combat, though.)

And while Holstin set in the 1990s, it’s not exactly boy bands and GeoCities. For instance, your save checkpoints are decrepit-looking phone booths – and you’ll need to find physical telephone cards to actually make your save (just like the real-life anachronism of digging for change to do your laundry). Our hero Tomasz definitely does not have a cell phone for tracking objectives. Expect all the inconveniences in the pre-internet era – yet another stumbling block in your strange journey through this horrifying town.

All in all, this demo honestly blew me away – and I say that very rarely of any game. If the rest of Holstin is as polished and carefully crafted, it will be considered a survival horror classic in a decade’s time. I’m that impressed by what I’ve seen and played of it so far.

For a very limited time, HP is offering its newest and most powerful gaming laptop at a pretty hefty discount. The Omen Max 16 GeForce RTX 5090 Gaming Laptop drops to just $2,879.99 with free shipping when you apply 20% off coupon code "LEVELUP20". That's the best price for an RTX 5090 gaming laptop anywhere by at least $700. The RTX 5090 is currently the most powerful mobile GPU available with tons of VRAM and DLSS 4 support.

HP Omen Max 16" RTX 5090 Gaming Laptop for $2,880

Friends, loved ones, and fellow actors have gathered to remember actor Jonathan Joss after he was fatally shot June 1, 2025.

Social media users were sent into shock when it was announced that Joss had been killed Sunday, June 1, following a violent altercation with a neighbor. TMZ reported at the time that a heated argument eventually resulted in the neighbor pulling out a gun and shooting the King of the Hill and True Grit actor several times, resulting in his death. He was 59.

Hermano im hurting bad right now…but to see how much you were loved is 🥲❤️ I’ll always cherish our memories together. I pray you’re at peace. You’ll forever be in my heart Jonathan. I love you man always. I’ll catch up to you on that side later 🫂 #JonathanJoss #JohnRedcorn pic.twitter.com/QR2GMmwSRY

— Frankie (@Frankieee_SVT) June 2, 2025

Cast members from NBC’s Parks and Recreation, a show Joss appeared in multiple episodes of throughout the 2010s, are among those mourning. Included are Chris Pratt and Nick Offerman, who both shared statements regarding the actor’s passing, with Pratt posting his message on Instagram.

“Damn. RIP Jonathan,” Pratt said. “Always such a kind dude. He played Ken Hotate in Parks and was also in [The Magnificent Seven]. Sad to see. Prayers up. Hug your loved ones.”

Offerman, meanwhile, touched on how the Parks and Recreation cast has reacted to the news with a statement sent to People. He says losing Joss was a topic on their minds all day yesterday, June 2.

“The cast has been texting together about it all day and we’re just heartbroken,” Offerman said in his statement. “Jonathan was such a sweet guy and we loved having him as our Chief Ken Hotate. A terrible tragedy.”

Rest in peace, Jonathan Joss pic.twitter.com/ii9JgjKjHZ

— kingofthehill (@kingofthehill) June 3, 2025

Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, shared a statement on Facebook regarding the incident that led to the actor’s murder. He says he and Joss had been victims of homophobic harassment for two years and that these threats were followed by their former home being burned down. Gonzales says the threats were reported to law enforcement “multiple times and nothing was done.” He adds that the act was carried out by a man who was “yelling violent homophobic slurs” at the couple while they were checking the mail at their former home.

"To everyone who supported him, his fans, his friends, know that he valued you deeply," Gonzales said. "He saw you as family. My focus now is on protecting Jonathan’s legacy and honoring the life we built together."

A suspect in the investigation, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, was taken into custody and charged with murder following the altercation. The San Antonio Police Department X/Twitter account has since shared it “has found no evidence to indicate that the Mr. Joss’s murder was related to his sexual orientation.” An investigation is ongoing.

Tributes to Joss continue to fill social media feeds following his passing. While some share memories of brief interactions with the movie and TV star, others are telling stories of his kindness.

Jonathan Joss and I were mutuals (still are) back when he was active here, he was a very kind man! He sent me a signed sexy John Redcorn pic, and threw in a signed Ken Hotate pic just cause that's the kind of cool-loving, giving person he was. A true light in this dark world. 🕯 https://t.co/TfRhsOoGen pic.twitter.com/YX6abiU4wt

— Ghost Host (@TheGhostHost) June 2, 2025

RIP Jonathan Joss pic.twitter.com/QxaVQA43pm

— adult swim (@adultswim) June 2, 2025

The murder of Jonathan Joss is so deeply sad and infuriating, such a wonderful actor cut down just because of who he was. Impossible to deny that the most hateful have been emboldened to do the very worst, terrible country we have built

— Mr. Chau (@Srirachachau) June 2, 2025

Photo by Ben Cohen/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images.

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

Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Doctor Who Season 15.

With the latest season of Doctor Who now complete, we can look back and examine the entirety of the Fifteenth Doctor’s era. You didn’t read that wrong, by the way. Ncuti Gatwa’s time as the Doctor is officially over. Despite earlier comments from Gatwa that indicated he was intending to continue on for a third season, the Season 15 finale, “The Reality War,” ended on Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor regenerating into none other than Billie Piper, best known to franchise fans as Rose Tyler, the first companion of the modern era. It was a shocking moment for longtime viewers, but perhaps not in the way the show’s production team intended.

While it’s not entirely clear yet if Piper is actually playing the Sixteenth Doctor–the fact that the end credits don’t refer to Piper as “The Doctor” in accordance with convention has raised many an eyebrow–the reveal has landed with a thud for critics and audiences. In his review of the finale, IGN’s Robert Anderson said Piper’s appearance is a “hastily thrown-together pause button while the future of Doctor Who gets quietly reshuffled.” But it also speaks to how the show ended Gatwa’s tenure far before his time, in what appears to be a knee-jerk response to fandom backlash. Let’s take a look at why Doctor Who gave up on the Fifteenth Doctor too soon.

Lost in Space and Time

To say the last several years of Doctor Who have been a roller coaster would be something of an understatement. Chris Chibnall taking over as the third modern-era showrunner (after Steven Moffat) followed up a divisive run with a total travesty, despite the best efforts of Thirteenth Doctor actress Jodie Whittaker. Russell T. Davies, who launched the modern era, was recruited to return to the role of showrunner after Chibnall, and Ncuti Gatwa was announced as Whittaker’s successor, only for Thirteen to regenerate into yet another incarnation played by David Tennant. Three specials and one lore-questionable bi-generation later, and we finally received the Fifteenth Doctor, only for his run to meet with mixed reception from fans, some of whom felt the new era didn’t live up to Davies’ first tenure.

Opinions on Season 14 vary, but at least for me, I found it to be the return to form the series had desperately needed for years. Gatwa’s take on the Doctor and his dynamic with companion Ruby Sunday led to a mostly solid string of episodes, culminating in climactic fashion with the return of Sutekh, one of the Doctor’s all-time greatest enemies. Sadly, the series’ renewed creative spark rapidly drained away in Season 15, which is largely a collection of ill-conceived adventures missing a sense of focus. This is rather strange since the season has two main throughlines: the Doctor trying to get new companion Belinda Chandra back to an Earth he doesn’t know is destroyed, and the mystery identity of the recurring character Mrs. Flood.

The two wind up being connected, with Mrs. Flood being an incarnation of Classic Who villain The Rani, who is behind the destruction of Earth. Yet although these subplots are threaded through the whole season, the payoff still doesn’t feel like it has enough foundation. The Rani is poorly defined in her appearances here, and is defeated so quickly as to come off utterly ineffectual. Tying in another Classic Who antagonist in Omega also falls flat because he has so little screentime and doesn’t look anything like his old self. Everything about the two-part final story is just off, with every element somehow rushed or shortchanged, adding up to a confused mess of ideas with no fixed point of reference. That goes double for the regeneration, which lacks the gravity such a supposedly giant moment deserves.

A Rushed Regeneration

As it stands, “The Reality War” doesn’t feel like a regeneration story. Although the stakes are appropriately high with the Rani threatening the entire planet, the episode shifts focus in the back half to the Doctor trying to save Poppy, the child of the Doctor and Belinda who was wished into existence as a side effect of the Rani’s plan. Setting aside the weirdness of a familial connection between the Doctor and Belinda (even if it turned out to be fake), setting so much narrative weight on Poppy fails because the audience hasn’t spent enough time with her to be invested in her fate. Poppy is an abstraction, something the story assumes we care about because she’s a kid. So the Doctor shifts reality to save her, at the cost of his own life.

This change in what the episode is about makes the finale feel like two episodes in one. The villains are defeated ridiculously quickly to make room for an excuse for the Doctor to regenerate. Given Gatwa’s previously mentioned comments hinting at a third season, it appears parts of “The Reality War” were reshot to accommodate the regeneration. There’s simply not enough build-up to it, and what felt like the story of the Doctor trying to set Belinda’s life right across the season by getting her home was swept away at the last second for the Doctor trying to rescue Poppy. Belinda barely registers in the finale, with her entire motivation and personality changing into an all-consuming devotion to Poppy, to the point of the Doctor altering reality with his regeneration energy to make Poppy her biological daughter.

The regeneration doesn’t feel motivated either in-universe or out. It’s contrived as a story device, but it also feels unpleasant as a production one. Ncuti Gatwa, the first actor of color to play the Doctor as the show’s lead, is also the first one since Christopher Eccleston to not receive at least three seasons. These are shorter seasons on top of it, with eight episodes and one special apiece, meaning Gatwa’s entire tenure is a mere 18 episodes. Him being rushed out the door so quickly and being replaced by a blonde white woman who has already been extensively featured on the show would come across as comical if the optics weren’t also so cynical. If Billie Piper is indeed our Sixteenth Doctor, then not only is the show engaging in Disney Star Wars-level nostalgia bait, it’s also one foot into some rather murky ethical waters.

Paying the Piper

I say this with nothing but love for Billie Piper and her work as Rose Tyler: her time as part of Doctor Who should have stayed in the past. Rose is a great character, but she had a fairly definitive ending in the Season 2 finale, “Doomsday.” Her forced separation from the Doctor and arrival in an alternate reality where her father is alive but she can’t be with her true love was tragic and emotional in all the right ways. It’s still one of the best season finales the show has ever done. Yet Rose has slipped back into the show several times, from recurring guest appearances in Season 4 that led to her getting a consolation prize in the Meta-Crisis Doctor, her playing The Moment in “The Day of the Doctor,” and now potentially being the Sixteenth Doctor.

Quite frankly, it’s too much. Every subsequent Rose appearance after “Doomsday” dilutes that episode’s power, all for the sake of trying to please fans. And at a moment in time where the fandom is incredibly divided on Davies’ second era as showrunner, having Piper return feels like hitting an emergency button. Davies was already entering questionable territory with the return of David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, although that was largely smoothed over by finally giving his Doctor and Donna Noble the happy ending they deserved in “The Giggle” after the unsatisfying conclusion to their relationship in “Journey’s End.” Bringing back Piper is a clear attempt to recapture the love the audience had for Davies’ first tenure, rather than building something new audiences could love about his current one.

Ncuti Gatwa was an excellent Doctor. He and Jodie Whittaker both gave great performances that elevated some of the shaky scripts they were handed, which is what made their scene together in “The Reality War” such a joy to watch. It’s also a reminder that there was no good reason to not try to rally and give Gatwa a solid third season so he could go out on a high note. Even with all the missed opportunities this season like the dropped idea of Belinda as a hesitant companion, the return of the Rani and Omega, the underuse of Ruby Sunday, and the Fifteenth Doctor never battling the Daleks, Davies and company should have stuck to their guns.

Instead, our next Doctor (barring a massive swerve) looks to be a hollow echo of a great character from decades ago. It’s a crystallization of the existential crisis the show has been in since the Moffat era, which felt like the last time Doctor Who knew what it wanted to be. The future of Doctor Who should always be an exciting new path. Instead, this feels far more like a surrender.

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

The newest Apple Watch has dropped down to the lowest price we've seen. Well ahead of Father's Day, which lands on June 15 this year, you can pick up a 42mm Apple Watch Series 10 for only $299 - 25% off its $399 list price - or the bigger 46mm model for $329 - 23% off its $429 list price. If you own an iPhone, the Apple Watch is indisputably the best smartwatch for you. It's stylish, boasts excellent build quality, excels as both a fitness tracker and smartwatch, and seamlessly integrates with your iPhone.

Apple Watch Series 10 From $299

PlayStation is gearing up for an over 40-minute State of Play tomorrow, June 4, and it promises to give a glimpse of the future of PS5.

We here at IGN will be carrying the stream, and this guide will fill you in on everything you need to know about the State of Play and what to expect to ensure you don't miss a thing.

PlayStation State of Play June 2025 Start Time

This new State of Play will take place on June 4 at 2pm PT/5pm ET/11pm CEST and will run for over 40 minutes.

We here at IGN will be hosting both a pre-show 30 minutes before the State of Play (1:30pm PT/4:30pm ET/10:30pm CEST) and a post-show following the presentation to recap all the big news, trailers, reveals, and more.

Where to Watch the PlayStation State of Play June 2025

If you’re interested in watching the upcoming PlayStation State of Play, we’ll host the stream here and across our many channels like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Here’s the full list of places you can watch the show with us:

• IGN.com (homepage)
• IGN's Facebook Channel
• IGN’s Twitter
• IGN's Twitch Channel
• IGN’s Youtube Channel
• IGN's iOS App
• IGN's Android App
• IGN's PlayStation 4 App
• IGN's Xbox One App
• Roku
• IGN App for Android TV
• IGN for Amazon Fire TV
• Apple TV
• IGN 1 on Samsung TV Plus
• Pluto TV
• Plex Live TV

What to Expect from the PlayStation State of Play 2025

Beyond saying we'll be getting "news and updates on must-play games coming to PS5" from "creators across the globe," Sony has given us no hint as to which titles will be featured in this State of Play. If we look at the upcoming schedule for PS5, however, we can guess as to what big names just may show up.

In 2025, PS5 owners have plenty of games to look forward to, including Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, ARC Raiders, Ghost of Yōtei, Hell Is Us, Lost Soul Aside, Ninja Gaiden 4, Little Nightmares III, Where Winds Meet, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, Borderlands 4, Directive 8020, Forever Skies, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, MindsEye, Mafia: The Old Country, and many more.

There are also plenty of chances for new games to surprise us or little-known about games to reappear, including Insomniac's Wolverine game, what's next from God of War's Sony Santa Monica, Days Gone's Bend studio, Horizon Forbidden West's Guerrilla Games, and maybe even the third part of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Anything is possible, but it's also important to keep expectations in check. While you wait, you can also check out our recap of February's State of Play to potentially get an idea of what to expect, as that show featured the big reveal of Housemarq's Saros, release dates for Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater and Borderlands 4, a look at Onimusha: Way of the Sword's protagonist, and more.

For more, check out everything else you can expect from this Summer of Gaming that is just getting underway and all the details on IGN Live, which is set to kick off on June 7!

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.

For the past two years, LEGO has been furthering its most ambitious project to date: a minifigure-scaled depiction of Hogwarts Castle, made famous by the Harry Potter franchise. The castle is still a work in progress, and will be made up of a bunch of other stand-alone sets that are sold separately. The first major set, the Great Hall, came out in Fall 2024.

The Main Tower, out now, is the second major set in this interlocking system, which also includes an assortment of ancillary buildings and classrooms sold separately, such as Hogwarts Castle: Potions Class (Set #76431), Hogwarts Castle Owlery (Set #76430), Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons (Set #76447), and Hogwarts Castle Boathouse (Set #76426).

But the Main Tower also works as an independent playset, especially if you're a fan of the first book and its movie adaptation, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

The Main Tower, like the Great Hall before it, opens in the back to reveal a number of rooms and dioramas that depict the movies' events. The bottom-most rooms, which you build first, are underground chambers that lead to the Sorcerer's Stone. From left to right, you have the Devil's Snare room, then the Flying Keys room, and then the massive Chess Set room.

Each room has interactive, movable elements. The Devil's Snare flips up or down from the room's ceiling via a cleverly disguised switch that's built into the rock facade. The Flying Keys rotate on a pedestal to create the impression of flight. And the giant pieces on the Chess Set are independent and movable.

You get LEGO minifigures for Harry, Hermione, and Ron, which is good – these rooms look their best when the trio is directly interacting with them. LEGO did not design this part of the castle with functionality and facility in mind; each room depicts a specific book scene, rather than functioning as a neutral roleplay area for new scenarios. In addition to the trio, the set contains nine more LEGO minifigures for a total of 12: Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Marcus Flint, Percy Weasley, Ernie Macmillan, Lisa Turpin, Professor Dumbledore, Professor Kettleburn, and Nearly Headless Nick.

Directly above the Devil's Snare room is Fluffy, Hagrid's three-headed dog. He's lying on top of a trap door, which opens to reveal the underground chambers. In the back-right corner of Fluffy's room is a harp, which Professor Quirrel plays to put Fluffy to sleep. The harp's design is especially creative; two separate builds come together on hinges to create the instrument's signature shape. A door opens on the right-hand side, which leads into a narrow hallway, which in turn leads to a balcony/vista on the building's exterior.

Above Fluffy's room is the Gryffindor common room, decked out in its signature red and gold trimmings. It includes a bedroom with two beds, and to the right of it, two easy chairs and a fireplace. The floor is uneven, so that the living room appears sunken into a well in the floor, which gives the room a more intimate, cozy feeling.

All of these individual rooms are separate builds with separate instruction booklets, which means that if you want to build with a partner, or a friend, or as one half of a father-son team (as I did), you can easily merge and stack your seperate elements together after they're complete. The rooms are mounted on one another via a handful of connection points, which means they are easily separable from one another. If you need more room to pose scenes or individually play with the set's different components, this gives you easier access. Typically, sets of this complexity and magnitude are 18+ in age range. But the Main Tower and all the other Hogwarts Castle sets are 10+, which means they straddle the line between play and display a bit more evenly.

You build a roof over these elements, and then you build the actual Main Tower. It stacks five rooms. one on top of the other. The first three rooms contain the iconic Hogwarts moving staircases, designed by Rowena Ravenclaw herself. Two of them are mounted onto rotating platforms, allowing them to pivot. Portraits hang on the walls. On the third floor is a gargoyle, which guards the secret entryway to Professor Dumbledore's office.

The aforementioned office is on the fourth floor. It's covered with portraits of former Headmasters, and it's stuffed with the various magical knick knacks that make it so interesting to read about and watch on screen. To the right of Dumbledore's desk is the sword of Godric Gryffindor and the Pensieve. To the left of the desk is the Sorting Hat, complete with a mouth near its brim. Dumbledore's office is probably my favorite part of the set. It's furnished beautifully and it provides an excellent place for Harry and Dumbledore to have their evening lessons together.

Lastly, you build the massive spire that caps the tower, and inside the spire is the fifth and final room containing the Mirror of Erised. The mirror mounts on a rotating platform, which allows you to swap two different images. On one side is Harry with his mother and father. On the other side is Harry holding the Sorcerer's Stone.

The Main Tower's size is impressive; it's over two feet in height, from the bottom of the rock facade to the peak of the tower itself. And when you merge it with the Great Hall, it's even more impressive; the two sets combine to form a seamless exterior facade. The interiors, taken together, are even more impressive – it's a sensory overload to see all these iconic Hogwarts scenes in such a small amount of space.

There's not much more to say, other than this: I want to see more. The last time LEGO created a massive Hogwarts Castle, it felt a bit cobbled together after the fact. There was no "official" way to put it all together, and fans resorted to squinting at promotional materials to figure out the best way to assemble all the sets together.

But this go-around? It feels like there's a master plan; I strongly suspect there's a "complete" Hogwarts Castle somewhere in LEGO headquarters, whether in physical form or on a hard drive. The designers are not 'winging it' – they have a final result, however rough, that they're working towards.

It's going to take them years to get there. But if the LEGO designers maintain this level of detail and see it all the way through? It's going to be an unparalleled achievement. To be continued.

LEGO Hogwarts Castle: The Main Tower, Set #76454, retails for $259.99, and it is composed of 2135 pieces. It is available now.

Interested in more LEGO? Check out our roundup of the best Harry Potter sets. And stay tuned – we'll be publishing a completist's buying guide for the modular LEGO Hogwarts Castle later this week.

Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.

Ryan Coogler just doesn’t miss. As Eric Goldman’s review for IGN explains: “After proving he’s one of the best there is at directing a boxing film and a superhero movie, Coogler tries his hand at horror with the vampire period piece Sinners. And guess what? It turns out he’s great at that genre too.” Sinners released in theaters on April 18, and has since achieved the killer combination of box-office success and critical acclaim.

While I highly recommend watching Sinners on the largest screen you can find – let Coogler himself explain why – a full trip to the theaters isn’t always in the cards. For those who’ve been waiting to watch the vampire movie in the comfort of their own home, Sinners is now available to rent or buy on digital.

Sinners Arrives on Digital

If you've got a Switch 2 preorder coming in hot and you want to expand the storage capacity right off the bat, then Walmart has a deal that you don't want to miss. For a very limited time, the Onn 256GB Micro SDXC Express Card is back in stock at a rock bottom price of $35.99. This listing went up in May, but I haven't seen it in stock for shipping until today. As a comparison, the official Samsung 256GB MicroSDXC Express card is currently listed for $59.99 at Target.

Update: This deal might not be available for delivery for all zip codes. You can still choose in-store pickup.

Onn 256GB MicroSDXC Express Memory Card for $35.99

Nintendo Switch 2 Compatible

Resolution Games has revealed a debut gameplay trailer for Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked, and confirmed a late 2025 release window and launch platforms.

Resolution Games, best known for digital fantasy tabletop adventure Demeo, is working with Wizards of the Coast on the first virtual reality game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, called Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked. It’s due out on PC via Steam, and PlayStation 5, with a VR version available on PlayStation VR2, Steam VR, and Meta Quest 3.

Battlemarked adapts D&D classes, actions, and lore to Resolution Games’ Demeo action role-playing system, which is DM-less and focuses on social strategy rather than social roleplay. This, Resolution Games said, encourages group tabletalk focused on tactics and decision-making.

“While the world of Demeo is rich with lore, our previous titles focus primarily on tactical action over motivation and narrative,” said Tommy Palm, founder and CEO of Resolution Games.

Resolution Games is working with story designer Matt Sernett as the project’s narrative lead. Sernett previously worked as a designer of the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game and contributed to Dungeons & Dragons video games including Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2, and Icewind Dale.

“When Dungeons & Dragons launched fifth edition back in 2014, the first adventure that many players went on ventured into Neverwinter Wood, and I can think of no place better for Battlemarked players to begin their journey,” said Sernett.

“The first adventure in Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked will take players to familiar locations including Cragmaw Castle and Mount Hotenow. The world of D&D is just as much a part of the story as its characters, and we can’t wait for players to immerse themselves in its dangers and delights.”

Battlemarked’s second adventure, which will be included at launch, will be revealed later this year.

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.

IGN can exclusively reveal that WOW - Women of Wrestling is gearing up to release its first-ever collectible card game, and it will feature such fan-favorite WOW Superheroes as Chainsaw, The Beast, Penelope Pink, Kandi Krush, Gloria Glitter, Tormenta, Ariel Sky, Americana, Princess Aussie, Jessie Jones, and Abilene Maverick.

WOW: The Card Game, which can be pre-ordered now, promises to bring “strategic gameplay, character customization, and head-to-head competition to the tabletop for those who love mind games, big combos, and bold personalities.”

WOW: The Card Game will initially feature over 141 unique cards, which will all be brought to life with custom art and “action-packed scenarios.” Alongside the 11 WOW Superheroes mentioned above, there will also be cards that will serve as Power-Ups, Finishing Moves, and Signature Taunts.

As for the game itself, it is designed for 2-4 players and is intended for players over the age of nine. It aims to recreate the feeling of WOW with “dynamic gameplay mechanics that mirror the drama of the ring - from high-flying comebacks to stunning upsets.”

“Now, fans can feel the thrill of the ring and build their own rivalries right at home,” said David McLane, co-founder of WOW. “This card game celebrates the strength, spirit, and spectacle that our Superheroes bring to the ring every week.”

WOW - Women of Wrestling was started in 2000 and is owned by McLane and Los Angeles Lakers owner/president Jeanie Buss. WOW has live events and is in weekly syndication across the U.S. and on VICE TV. Pluto TV has a dedicated channel with all episodes from the first three seasons. The mission of WOW is “centered 24/7 around empowering and uplifting women and fans around the world.”

Also, If you're a fan of WOW - Women of Wrestling, see some of your favorite wrestlers in person at IGN Live June 7-8 in Los Angeles.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.

Elden Ring Nightreign shares quite a bit with its predecessor Elden Ring, from its gameplay to its lore and history. It also seems to carry some of its technical nuances, according to a new breakdown from the tech experts at Digital Foundry.

Digital Foundry published an analysis of the tech details behind FromSoftware's latest, and while Nightreign remixes a lot of what Elden Ring was into something new, it sounds like the state of Nightreign's technology is fairly reminiscent of Elden Ring's.

"This is really nothing new to those familiar with FromSoftware's Elden Ring engine, and how it operates on consoles," wrote Digital Foundry's Thomas Morgan.

Digital Foundry characterized the optimization for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles as "disappointing," as Nightreign continues to "often fall short of a target 60 frames per second while exploring." Additionally, the tech analyst noted there's no listed support for PlayStation 5 Pro, which bore out in tests, meaning the PS5 Pro is just running the base PS5 code with no additional modes or optimizations.

I recommend visiting Digital Foundry for the full numbers breakdown, as there's quite a bit to go through, but all of it is best summed-up by Morgan here: "Ultimately, using the quality mode makes no practical sense on any console." The base PS5 typically hovers in a lower 30-45 frames per second range in this mode, compared to a 40-60 range on the framerate mode, and the Xbox consoles mirroring similar gaps.

While the PS5 Pro seems to benefit from having a little extra horsepower to run Nightreign, there are still "lurches" while exploring the world that stuck out to Digital Foundry. The article concludes by saying there's "so much left to be desired on the technical front" when it comes to Elden Ring Nightreign, as 60 frames per second performance on consoles is "all too often out of reach."

In other Elden Ring Nightreign news, FromSoftware has confirmed further updates in the pipeline for the co-op exprience, including tougher versions of existing Nightlords and a Duos mode somewhere down the line. This news arrives alongside confirmation that Elden Ring Nightreign has cleared the 3.5 million sales mark.

We’ve got plenty of Nightreign tips and tricks to help you take down all the eight Nightlord Bosses, and if you’re wondering how to unlock the two locked Nightfarer Classes, check out How to Unlock the Revenant and How to Unlock the Duchess, plus How to Change Characters.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Marvel had no choice but to spoil the appearance of Red Hulk in trailers for Captain America: Brave New World, the film's director has insisted — despite many fans believing the villain should have been kept under wraps.

Red Hulk, the angry alter ego of Harrison Ford's character President Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, only appears late in the film's final act, following a lengthy build-up and moments where it feels like Ross will keep his gamma radiation-fueled temper under control.

Among plenty of other criticsm for Brave New World — widely-considered a pretty bland MCU entry — fans have said Red Hulk's inclusion within trailers not only spoiled the surprise of his appearance, but also oversold the character's presence in the film.

Now, however, Brave New World director Julius Onah said Marvel had to show Red Hulk ahead of the film's release, as the villain's appearance would have leaked regardless.

"When you're making a movie like this, an announcement goes out that Harrison Ford is going to play Thaddeus Ross, and you have a fandom as massive and as passionate as the MCU fandom is, you're toast at that point, you know?" Onah told Empire.

"In a perfect-case scenario, it would have been awesome [if ] that [had been] an in-theatre surprise, but I think it would have been very difficult," he continued. "Somewhere along the way, a toy would have been found, or somebody would have leaked a trailer. It's just so hard to keep anything secret in today’s day and age."

While it's true that Marvel film productions face constant pressure around leaks, and merchandise such as toys have been the source of story spoilers in the past, the reasoning here around the decision to show Red Hulk doesn't necessarily tally with how other Marvel movies have teased villains in the past.

Take, for instance, the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps. We know from trailers that giant-sized baddie Galactus will appear in the film at some point, but Marvel has been cautious to only show a glimpse at the villain, teasing his appearance while keeping the full reveal back for the film itself.

Of course, the full look at Galactus still leaked — via a Snapple promotion, of all things — while another character completely absent from trailers so far has appeared as a Funko Pop toy. But these spoilers will only be seen by a fraction of the film's overall audience. What matters to most fans is what's in official trailers — and what's not.

There's a definite sense among Marvel fans that too much of Red Hulk was shown, perhaps to ramp up excitement around a film that otherwise felt underwhelming.

Next up for Captain America will be an appearance in Avengers: Doomsday, after Thunderbolts*/New Avengers confirmed Sam Wilson had begun rebuilding his own version of Marvel's big team.

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

Amid excitement and disbelief at the quality of The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, developer CD Projekt has issued a statement insisting it is not a gameplay showcase and therefore does not represent actual The Witcher 4 gameplay footage.

The tech demo, captured on a PlayStation 5 and running at 60 frames per second, follows Ciri as she explores the never-before-seen region of Kovir in the midst of a monster contract (CD Projekt confirmed Kovir is a playable area in The Witcher 4).

There is a stunning amount of detail in the tech demo, with incredibly fluid animations on a level we have yet to see on the current generation of consoles. Ciri and her horse Kelpie have particularly impressive movement and interactions with each other, NPCs, and the game world as they make their way through the mountains of Kovir to the bustling port town of Valdrest. At one point in the demo, CD Projekt upped the NPC count in the market scene to 300 individually animated characters. The showcase ended with a first look at Lan Exeter, the winter capital and a major port city in Kovir.

The “standalone” tech demo was built to showcase Unreal Engine 5 features, CD Projekt said, and tools it’s using to develop the game’s open world. It is not gameplay footage, the developer stressed.

So, does the tech demo reflect what players can expect from The Witcher 4? CD Projekt said the visuals “reflect the direction we’re taking with The Witcher 4 — but it doesn’t fully represent the final game.”

CD Projekt continued: “Production is still underway, and we have a great deal of work ahead. That said, our goal is ambitious: to create one of the most visually advanced role-playing games to date.”

The developer also explained why it chose PS5 over a high-end PC for the tech demo: “Because optimizing for consoles early helps us future-proof performance across all platforms. Consoles come with tighter constraints, and meeting them pushes us to make smarter, more efficient tech choices — the kind that benefit every version of the game.”

One of the big questions about The Witcher 4 is target launch platforms. With this tech demo on PS5, the suggestion is it will be a cross-gen game that also runs on the next-gen consoles (PS6 and the next-gen Xbox). But if it’s due out on current-gen, does that also mean it will be available on the underpowered Xbox Series S?

It’s worth remembring that Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI is, as it stands, also due out on current-gen consoles including the Xbox Series S. So if GTA 6 is possible on Microsoft’s cheaper console, perhaps The Witcher 4 is, too.

CD Projekt has indicated The Witcher 4 won’t be out until 2027 at the earliest, so it may be some time before we find out.

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.

If you've been hoping to add them to your physical media collection, all six The Karate Kid films are releasing in a massive 4K collection set, complete with collectibles. The Karate Kid Ultimate Six-Movie Collection is available exclusively at Amazon for $219.99 and includes each film on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and as a digital copy, including the latest release, Karate Kid: Legends.

The release date is still to be announced, but if you want it, it's worth preordering now just in case it sells out. Head to the link below to get your preorders in for this awesome collection.

Preorder The Karate Kid Ultimate Six-Movie Collection

Alongside the movies, there's plenty for Karate Kid fans to enjoy from this collection. The box itself has a great design, opening up to reveal a pop-up display from the first film with the movies slotted on each side of it.

You'll also get a collection of character cards, three patches, and a Miyagi-Do headband. Bonus features are yet to be announced for it, but we'll be sure to add them in once they're revealed.

Movies Included in the Box Set

Here's a breakdown of what films are included in the set as well:

• The Karate Kid (1984)
• The Karate Kid II (1986)
• The Karate Kid III (1989)
• The Next Karate Kid (1994)
• The Karate Kid (2010)
• Karate Kid Legends

If you're looking for even more movies or shows to add to your physical media collection, there are quite a few releasing over the next few months that are worth keeping on your radar. In our breakdown of upcoming 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases you can see what's coming out soon to start planning ahead. Some of our most-anticipated at the moment include Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning on 4K and a 4K steelbook for season two of The Last of Us.

More Upcoming Physical Releases

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

Walt Disney World's upcoming Cars land will be called Piston Peak National Park and will be part of the "largest expansion in the history of Magic Kingdom," Disney has announced.

As detailed by the Disney Parks Blog, work on Piston Peak National Park begins this summer, which means the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, and the Liberty Square Riverboat will close beginning July 7.

As for what will be in this new part of Magic Kingdom's Frontierland, Disney has shared more of its vision and what fans can expect.

"Imagine an awe-inspiring wilderness filled with towering trees, snowcapped mountains, breathtaking waterfalls, roaring rivers and impressive geysers," Disney said. "While fictional, Piston Peak is inspired by the Rocky Mountain area and the history and iconic sights of the American Frontier and its national parks."

Piston Peak also includes places to visit inspired by Disney and Pixar's Cars, including a visitor lodge, Ranger HQ, and trails. In keeping with the theme of being a National Park, Imagineers uses a style of architecture called "Parkitecture," which was actually developed by the National Park Service to "create structures that harmonize with the natural environment."

There are also plenty of trees that provide a natural cover between Piston Peak and the rest of Frontierland and Liberty Square, and "rugged mountains with dramatic peaks will be nestled along a calming waterway across from Grizzly Hall and soaring geysers from the famed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will stretch into the trails of our off-road rally."

This Cars-themed area was first announced at D23 2024, where it was also revealed it would feature two new attractions. The first is a rally race through the mountains. As Disney puts it: "take on wild terrain as you race across the landscape climbing mountain trails, dodging geysers, and — Mater's favorite — splashing through mudholes." The second ride is geared more towards kids, but it is meant to be "fun for the whole family."

At SXSW 2025, Disney Parks shared a look at the new type of ride vehicle being made for the rally race attraction, noting it needed to invent something new as these cars are meant to convey a "feeling when you ride in it." In line with Cars, each vehicle comes with its own personality, name, and number.

Piston Peak National Park is one part of the big new plan for Magic Kingdom, as it will one day be joined by the first-ever land inspired by the Disney Villains. In the shorter term, guests will be able to look forward to the opening of the Disney Starlight nighttime parade on July 20 as part of Disney World's Cool Kid Summer and the Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired tavern called The Beak and Barrel later this year.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.

Warner Bros. reportedly wanted Transformers director Michael Bay to make a Man of Steel sequel starring Henry Cavill before the DC Universe was overhauled and James Gunn set about rebooting Superman.

According to TheWrap, execs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy attempted to pull together a "standalone Henry Cavill-led Superman film going in 2022, with Michael Bay eyed to possibly direct.” This effort was made prior to bringing James Gunn and Peter Safran in as the new co-heads of DC Studios, which was announced in October of the same year Warner Bros.' reported attempt to give Cavill back the cape.

That said, those attempts clearly fell through, which gave way to bringing Gunn and Safran in to reimagine the DCU — which, in turn, quickly led to Cavill’s exit from the Superman franchise in December 2022, just two months after the co-heads were instated.

Obviously, since then, Superman has gone in a completely different direction from the days of Cavill past. David Corenswet, who is perhaps best known at this point for his roles in Ti West’s Pearl and the Ryan Murphy Netflix series Hollywood, is taking over the coveted role in James Gunn’s reinvention of the franchise, with Marvelous Mrs. Masel star Rachel Brosnahan starring as Lois Lane alongside him. Plus, Nicholas Hoult rounds out the core three as Lex Luthor. That said: it’s hard not to imagine what Bay and Cavill would’ve done with one more shot into the sky.

For their parts, though, those two are plenty busy. Cavill is set to appear in several upcoming projects, including a live-action Voltron movie and a live-action reboot of Highlander, while Bay recently put out a parkour documentary called We Are Storror. He’s also said to be doing the Skibidi Toilet movie that we’re all trying to forget was announced, but he took to social media to deny directing that, uh, thing last month.

James Gunn’s Superman arrives in theaters on July 11, 2025.

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

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has praised Nintendo Switch 2, and said the upcoming console realises the vision of the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who worked on the concept for the original Switch platform before he passed away in 2015.

Speaking as part of a Nintendo-published Creator's Voice video, Huang said he had worked personally with Iwata on Nintendo's then-audacious plans for a hybrid console capable of playing home console-quality games while on the go.

Now, after working with Nintendo again on the chip that powers Switch 2, Huang said the new console boasted the "most advanced graphics ever in a mobile device", and offered "a new chapter worthy of Iwata-san's vision."

"We've worked with Nintendo for more than a decade, drawn together by a shared belief — that technology should serve creativity, and that joy is worth engineering for," Huang began.

"I still remember the day Iwata-san shared his dream with us. He wanted to create something no-one had seen before: a console powerful enough for big cinematic games, but small enough to take anywhere. It sounded impossible, but that vision became the original Nintendo Switch.

"We lost Iwata-san before the launch, but his clarity, his purpose, it still inspires our work everyday," Huang continued. "Together, we poured everything into that system. The Nintendo Switch took over 500 engineer years at Nvidia. We rethought the entire stack, chip architecture, OS, APIs, game engines, so the magic could travel with you. The results speak for themselves: over 150 million consoles sold."

With Switch 2, Huang added, Nvidia and Nintendo not only offered the best visuals ever found in a portable gaming device, but hardware that also enabled support for ray tracing and HDR, while maintaining backwards compatibility for most Switch 1 games.

Nintendo is yet to reveal the Switch 2's final technical specifications itself, though our friends at Digital Foundry recently did the job for them. One particular point of interest remains the impact to Switch 2's hardware capability gobbled up by GameChat, which Digital Foundry reported had a "significant impact" on system resources to the point where some developers are said to be concerned.

"Switch 2 is more than a new console," Huang concluded. "It's a new chapter worthy of Iwata-san's vision. To our friends at Nintendo, congratulations. We're honoured to be on this journey with you."

Nintendo Switch 2 launches this week, on Thursday June 5, and is expected to sell out upon launch. Indeed, Nintendo is already shipping 'Out of Stock' signs to some stores to advertise the console's lack of availability amid high demand.

IGN has been hands-on with Switch 2 and reported back today that Mario Kart World's open world isn't what you think it is — so don't go in expecting a Nintendo version of Forza Horizon. We've also played the $10 mini-game collection Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, and while enjoyable, it should probably have been free.

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

The challenge of playing Elden Ring Nightreign solo has been a hot-button issue since the game's launch, but director Junya Ishizaki has confirmed solo clears are quite doable. He knows, because he's cleared every boss in Nightreign already, by himself.

Speaking to CNET in a recent interview, Ishizaki was asked whether he has beaten every boss, including the final one, himself.

"Yes. I can hopefully give you reassurance to know that I have beaten all of the game's bosses," said Ishizaki. "I've seen everything it has to offer, both in multiplayer and as a solo player. So I want you and players to know that this is very possible, and I want you to have the confidence to give it a try yourself."

CNET followed to clarify that Ishizaki was saying he had soloed every boss in the game. "Yes," Ishizaki confirmed. "And without relics."

While that's a pretty dang impressive accomplishment in and of itself, I do like the notion that Ishizaki's clears are also meant to be encouraging for other players. If he can do it, essentially, then you might be able to as well. I don't know about the "without relics" part, though. You can give yourself a little bit of leeway on that.

There have been other players who have been clearing both individual bosses and the full roster of Nightlords solo as well. Still, the solo experience of Nightreign has been under scrutiny, and not just for its difficulty, but also for how some mechanics (like revival) feel more oriented around teamplay than solo.

It's clear FromSoftware is both hearing and addressing those concerns, too. The most recent patch, 1.01.1, arrived days after Elden Ring Nightreign's launch and took aim directly at the solo mode, increasing the runes gained by lone players and adding one free automatic revival for night bosses.

Even if the difficulty is getting tuned down, though, Ishizaki's clears can still be inspiring for those struggling against the Nightlords in their own runs. When the rains pick up and the storm closes in, you can know someone else has already done it, and so can you.

We’ve got plenty of Nightreign tips and tricks to help you take down all the eight Nightlord Bosses, and if you’re wondering how to unlock the two locked Nightfarer Classes, check out How to Unlock the Revenant and How to Unlock the Duchess, plus How to Change Characters.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.