Star Wars fans rejoice: Lucasfilm has relaunched its vast project to map the sci-fi saga's galaxy, and published a hugely-detailed map with more than 500 planets.
Ever wondered how far it is from Tatooine to Hoth? How hidden Yoda really was, poked away in his swamp on Dagobah? Or how far away from the galactic center Jakku really is? Now you can find out.
More of the galaxy's mysterious Unknown Regions have been mapped — and look, there's Exegol, the Sith planet from Rise of Skywalker that Rey had to hold an old dagger up to the horizon and infiltrate the old Death Star in order to find. If only she had this map, that film might have made more sense.
Exegol isn't the map's farthest planet, however, despite how difficult that film suggested the journey would be to get there (and despite half of the galaxy apparently then being able to turn up anyway). Notably, the Unknown Regions also contain Csilla, homeworld of the secretive blue-skinned Chiss race, whose most famous member is Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Not every Star Wars planet you may have heard of is shown. Key omissions from the map include "extragalactic" locations housed outside the main Star Wars galaxy, such as clone factory planet Kamino, and Peridea, the world visited in Ahsoka after the show moves to an entirely different galaxy altogether.
Lucasfilm has said it will keep the map updated over time with periodic revisions, and will also release more detailed regional maps for high-density areas, such as the Inner Rim, Colonies, Core and Deep Core.
You can check out the full map here, and then there's a vast list of every planet featured here that's the best way to track down exactly what you're looking for.
Next up from the Star Wars universe will be a second season of Ahsoka, and a big screen debut for The Mandalorian & Grogu. Ryan Gosling is also heading to the galaxy far, far away in 2027 movie Star Wars: Starfighter.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Microsoft is reportedly planning significant layoffs in its gaming business that could come as early as next week.
Bloomberg said Microsoft plans “major” job cuts across the Xbox division. The Verge said managers at Microsoft had been briefed about the Xbox layoffs as well as wider cuts at the company, which are expected to hit sales teams in particular.
For the gaming business, The Verge said Microsoft plans to make the cuts ahead of the release of its next generation of consoles. Last week, Microsoft announced a partnership with AMD to power the next generation of Xbox, including its first-party future Xbox consoles. Microsoft has yet to say when it plans to launch the new devices.
The Verge also reported that Microsoft is restructuring its central Europe Xbox distribution, and that Xbox will cease operating in some regions.
Microsoft staff who wish to remain anonymous to protect their careers told IGN that employees are bracing themselves for layoffs, and that it feels like a matter of when, not if at the company.
Speaking to IGN in June 2024, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said: "I have to run a sustainable business inside the company and grow, and that means sometimes I have to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make."
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
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.
With Superman’s release just around the corner, and a number of trailers and promotional images behind us, we have a decent idea of what to expect from the film and the many characters set to appear within it.
However, one character has remained shrouded in mystery ever since he popped up in the debut Superman trailer: Ultraman.
Writer and director James Gunn’s Ultraman is a very different take on the character made famous in the DC comics. In the comics, Ultraman is an evil, alternate-universe mirror of Superman himself. He looks a lot like Superman, just… evil.
Ultraman in James Gunn’s Superman doesn’t look like Superman at all. His suit, including his mask, has a more military fatigues feel, although the large U emblem on his chest as seen in trailers is unmistakable. But Ultraman’s power set looks consistent with Superman’s, at least based on what we’ve seen of the character in trailers.
Now, Gunn has released a new image of Ultraman that gives us a good look at the character up close. We can see the mask in plenty of detail, complete with dusty goggles. But who is underneath?
Fans have already spent a great deal of time speculating about the true identity of this film’s Ultraman, with theories ranging from the plausible (a clone of David Corenswet’s Superman, the Hammer of Boravia in disguise, Martian Manhunter / J’onn J’onzz) to the outlandish (Henry Cavill!). Some are joking it’s Chris Pratt. IGN’s own comic book expert Jesse Schedeen has speculated that Ultraman is more akin to Nuclear Man from 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, or some versions of Bizarro from the comics.
But this new image has sparked a fresh round of speculation, with some likening the character’s look to Doomsday, given the vague similarities between the two suits and goggles. Doomsday appeared in monstrous form in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but his first full appearance, on the cover of Superman: The Man of Steel #18 (December 1992), is more humanoid.
There’s a reason this Ultraman is covered from head to toe. The character’s true identity is meant to be a mystery as audiences head into theaters, so the eventual reveal will be quite the moment.
Gunn recently teased the origins of this Ultraman, although he kept things super detailed. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the DC Universe steward was asked whether Ultraman was Lex Luthor's attempt to create a "Superman kind of figure." He replied: "It's close. Yeah, I think that's close. Ultraman is sort of Lex's thug and is pretty powerful."
We’ll finally find out when Superman launches July 11.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The Palworld x Terraria update has launched, bringing fishing, salvaging, bigger towns, a Pal trust mechanic and more in one of the biggest patches the game has seen since its early access release last year.
Update v0.6.0 adds the collaboration with Terraria, Re-Logic’s hugely popular sandbox game. It includes a unique dungeon featuring enemies from Terraria, and the ability to collect materials in the dungeon to create equipment from the world of the game. The Moon Lord, a boss from Terraria, is now a raid boss in Palworld.
But the Terraria content is just one part of the update itself. Not only are there PlayStation 5 dedicated servers, but a number of new features. These include fishing, a salvage system, three new types of islands, a Pal trust mechanic, and the level cap raising from 60 to 65. All that and more is detailed in the patch notes, below.
Palworld launched on Steam priced $30 and straight into Game Pass on Xbox and PC early 2024, breaking sales and concurrent player number records in the process. Pocketpair boss Takuro Mizobe has said Palworld's launch was so big that the developer couldn’t handle the massive profits the game generated. Still, Pocketpair acted swiftly to capitalize on Palworld’s breakout success, signing a deal with Sony to form a new business called Palworld Entertainment that’s tasked with expanding the IP. It later launched the game on PS5.
After Palworld’s huge launch, comparisons were made between Palworld’s Pals and Pokémon, with some accusing Pocketpair of "ripping off" Pokémon designs. But rather than file a copyright infringement lawsuit, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company went down the patent route. The companies want 5 million yen (approx $32,846) each plus late payment damages, as well as an injunction against Palworld that would block its release.
At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March, IGN sat down for an extended conversation with John “Bucky” Buckley, communications director and publishing manager for Palworld developer Pocketpair. We spoke following his talk at the conference, 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.' During that talk, Buckley went into candid detail about Palworld’s struggles, especially the accusation it used generative AI (which Pocketpair has since debunked) and stealing Pokemon’s models for its own Pals. He even commented on Nintendo’s patent infringement lawsuit against the studio, saying it “came as a shock” and was “something that no one even considered.”
Palworld: Tides of Terraria update 0.6.0 patch notes:
▼Terraria Collab! ・Terraria Dungeon ⤷ A unique dungeon featuring enemies from Terraria has been added! Collect materials in the dungeon to create equipment from the world of Terraria!
・Terraria Equipment ⤷ 6 new weapons and 7 new armour pieces from Terraria have been added!
・The terrifying "Moon Lord" raid boss has appeared! ⤷ The Moon Lord has invaded Palworld! Work together with your friends and Pals to defeat the greatest threat the islands have faced!
▼New Content ・PS5 Dedicated Servers!
・Fishing! ⤷ Craft a fishing rod and bait to catch new Pals! To start fishing, cast your rod in water where you can see fish shadows.
・Salvage System! ⤷ Ride on water Pals and use the fishing rod to salvage supplies at sea! Collect new ores salvaged from the ocean floor to strengthen your weapons.
・New Islands! ⤷ Three new types of islands have been added to the world: Tropical Islands, Iceberg Island, and Shipwreck Island! Find new Pals that live on each of these new islands!
・Mission System! ⤷ You can now find and accept missions around the Palpagos Islands. Help the islanders and get rewards!
・Zoe's Special Mission! ⤷ By completing missions for Zoe, you can earn her trust and recruit her as an ally!
・Pal Trust Mechanic! ⤷ The more time you spend with your Pal, the more trust you will gain, and stats will be increased. The weaker a Pal's original stats are, the greater the trust adjustment will be, so even weaker Pals will be able to shine!
・Sleep together with your Pals! ⤷ After a hard day of farming and battling bosses, you and your Pals can take a hard-earned rest together!
・Treasure Maps! ⤷ Use treasure maps to find the location of the hidden treasure and obtain valuable items!
・Enemy Bases?! ⤷ Enemy factions now build bases just like players! They are on high alert and will defend it with their lives, but if you manage to raid them successfully, you can obtain new blueprints for buildings related to that faction.
・Settlement Overhaul! ⤷ We've made the settlements larger and feel more lived-in! There are also many mission NPCs now to meet.
・Player level cap raised from 60 to 65!
・New Buildings! ⤷ Pal Surgery Table - By using various implants, you can overwrite your Pal’s passives! You can also change the gender of your Pals here! ⤷ Fishing Pond - Relax and catch some fish in the comfort of your base. ⤷ Hexolite Quartz Mine - Well, you knew we would add this one eventually! ⤷ Large Incubator - Hatch multiple eggs at the same time! ⤷ Palbox Control Device - A terminal that allows you to access your Pal Box from anywhere in the base. It makes Pal swapping during raid battles more efficient.
・ New Building Material - [Clean] ⤷ Decorate your base with futuristic floors and walls with this new building set!
・New Mechanic - Turbulence ⤷ Find unusual air turbulence around the world and use it to jump high into the sky!
⤷ Boost Gun ⤷ Pal Recovery Grenade (These two are weapons for tamers who want to support their Pal!)
・New Item Types! ⤷ Whistles and Growth Acceleration Bell have been added! ⤷ New food recipes.
▼Arena ・A single-player challenge mode has been added! ⤷ Raise your rank by facing off against the fierce warriors of Palpagos Island! Get various rewards with the battle tickets you receive when you win!
・You can now set rules in the arena, such as banning certain pals. ・A public Pal Box has been added at the entrance to the arena that all players can use. ・An arena spectator function has been added in multiplayer!
▼Mechanic Adjustments ・Added equipment durability to the game settings. ・When a cooling Pal is assigned to the flea market, food spoilage rate is now reduced. ・Lyleen’s ability “Bountiful Protection” now recovers HP for all allies within range.
▼Balance Adjustments ・Some aggressive enemies have been made friendly. ・Pal skill cooldowns will tick down even if they are not summoned. ・The speed and stamina of Pals that can be mounted have been adjusted, and the speed of some Pals that were too slow has been improved. ・The lineup of bounty hunters has been expanded. ・With the implementation of the mission system, the rewards obtained from NPCs have been adjusted. To maintain fairness, conversation logs with all NPCs have been reset so that rewards can be received again. ・Pal Condensation is considered end-game content, so the strength of Axel, Marcus, and Victor on normal difficulty has been reduced to reduce its necessity. ・The power of some active skills, such as Pal Blast, has been increased. ・The probability of getting books that enhance Pal's work aptitude from attribute treasure chests has been increased.
▼Pals ・New Skins!! The results of the 1st year anniversary popularity poll have been decided, and three new skins have been added to celebrate these results! (※You must own the Pal to equip the skin) ⤷ Crown Chillet ⤷ Cyber Jetragon ⤷ Desert King Anubis
・Pals can now swim! ⤷ Swimming motions and animations have been added for Pals, and their speed in the water has been adjusted.
・New Water Skills ⤷ Geyser Gush ⤷ Aqua Surge ⤷ Torrential Blast ⤷ Hydro Slicer
▼UI ・Implemented "Easy Bulk Storage" feature! Conveniently store all materials in any chest around your base with the click of one button! ・Changed specifications to automatically select materials in bulk in the Pal Condensation UI. ・You can now set and quickly select your current Pal presets from the Pal Box UI. ・All neutral enemies now have green HP gauges, and only aggressive or hostile enemies have red HP gauges.
▼Multiplayer ・Fixed a bug where the option to display servers with matching versions was not working.
▼World ・Added more patterns to random dungeons. ・Fishing spots where fish shadows appear have been placed all around the world. ・Salvage spots have been placed out at sea.
▼Achievements ・Several new achievements have been added.
▼Bug fixes ・Fixed a bug where Jetragon would jump too high when jumping. ・Many many other minor issues have been fixed.
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.
Warning: this article contains full spoilers for Ironheart’s first three episodes! If you haven't already, be sure to check out IGN's Ironheart review.
Marvel’s Ironheart series puts the solo spotlight on Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, building on her debut in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The series also introduces several new villains to the MCU, not the least of which being Anthony Ramos’ ambitious supernatural gangster The Hood. But that’s not all. The series also introduces one of the most significant Iron Man villains of the 21st Century in Alden Ehrenreich’s Ezekiel “Zeke” Stane.
There’s just one catch. Zeke (or Joe, as he prefers to be called) isn’t much of a villain. He’s a surprisingly nice guy for being the son of Tony Stark’s original arch-nemesis, to the point where he’s a bit of a pushover. Will that change as the series progresses?
While we wait for the second half of the series to drop on Disney+, let’s take a look at Ezekiel Stane’s comic book roots and why Ironheart is going in such a different direction with the character.
Ezekiel Stane in the Iron Man Comics
Ezekiel Stane’s roots as a character go back to 1985’s Iron Man #200, which depicts the final battle between Iron Man in his upgraded Silver Centurion armor and Obadiah Stane’s Iron Monger. Their rivalry ends when Stane commits suicide rather than face imprisonment and public humiliation. However, that act would inspire a deep grudge in Obadiah’s son Ezekiel, a character who didn’t actually make his debut until 2008’s The Order #8.
Following his debut in The Order, Zeke quickly became one of the main antagonists of writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca’s Invincible Iron Man series. The series is all about Tony’s struggle to evolve as both a businessman and a superhero and confront the rapidly shifting landscape of the 21st Century, and Zeke plays right into that struggle. As Fraction told CBR, Zeke represents a new, more advanced, and more anarchic fusion of man and machine.
“Zeke is a post-national business man and kind of an open source ideological terrorist, he has absolutely no loyalty to any sort of law, creed, or credo,” Fraction said. “He doesn't want to beat Tony Stark, he wants to make him obsolete. Windows wants to be on every computer desktop in the world, but Linux and Stane want to destroy the desktop. He's the open source to Stark's closed source oppressiveness. He has no headquarters, no base, and no bank account. He's a true ghost in the machine; completely off the grid, flexible, and mobile.”
Zeke is meant to highlight Tony Stark’s fundamental weakness as a hero. No matter how advanced his technology, Tony is a man wearing a suit at the end of the day. Separate the man from the armor, and he can be defeated. Zeke is instead a true fusion of biology and technology. He’s augmented his own body with hyper-advanced bionics that allow him to innately wield many of the same powers as Iron Man. He has super-strength and healing. He can fire repulsor blasts from his fingertips. As long as he keeps his accelerated metabolism fed with enough calories, he’s basically the next generation of Iron Man.
Tony eventually defeats Zeke, though not without some major collateral damage (including the near-death of Pepper Potts). Their rivalry inspires Tony to rethink his approach to the Iron Man armor, transforming it from mechanical suit to a bio-organic, liquid metal construct that lives entirely within his own body. This evolved armor, dubbed the Bleeding Edge suit, was the inspiration behind Tony’s Mark L and Mark LXXXV suits in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, respectively.
Zeke has continued to be a thorn in the side of Tony Star and other Marvel heroes in the years since. Later in Fraction and Larroca’s Invincible Iron Man, he’s recruited by The Mandarin to carry out the latter villain’s master plan, creating a true alliance of old and new-school Iron Man villains. These days, Zeke runs the new incarnation of Stane International, making him a peer of fellow supervillain businessmen like Alchemax’s Tiberius Stone and Fisk Industries’ Wilson Fisk.
Why Aldren Ehrenreich’s Ezekiel Stane Is So Different
Given how much Fraction and Larroca’s Invincible Iron Man draws inspiration from the MCU, many fans assumed it would only be a matter of time until Zeke Stane crossed over to make his MCU debut. That’s finally happened, with Alden Ehrenreich portraying the character in Ironheart (though we don’t get confirmation of that fact until Zeke reveals his true identity in Episode 3).
But again, this is a very different take on the character than comic fans might have been expecting. In the comics, Zeke is defined by a ruthless hatred of and disdain for Tony Stark and everything he represents. He blames Tony for his father’s death, even though that death was entirely self-inflicted. He also views Tony as a technological dinosaur wielding an outdated form of power.
Ehrenreich’s Zeke, by comparison, literally couldn’t be a nicer guy. He’s warm and pleasant and endlessly patient with his selfish, uptight neighbors. He doesn’t seem to hold any ill will toward Tony Stark for his father’s death, but rather recognizes that Obadiah was the architect of his own destruction. And rather than moonlight as a terrorist, he’s a mere tinkerer with a day job as a tech ethicist. Apart from being a brilliant scientist with a knack for bionics and the son of Obadiah Stane, Zeke could scarcely be more different from the source material.
That seems to be the entire point. Marvel Studios has never shied away from making profound changes to the villains of the Marvel Universe in the past, whether it’s making Ultron the child of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, redeeming Daniel Brühl’s Helmut Zemo, or literally everything involving The Mandarin. In this case, depicting Zeke as a fanatic with a lifetime grudge against Tony seems pointless when Tony himself is long dead. What is there for Zeke to prove, exactly?
Instead, the idea seems to be to subvert expectations by making Zeke the level-headed voice of reason in the rush to crown the MCU’s Iron Man successor. He recognizes the danger posed by Tony’s technology. He forces Riri to examine her own motivations and question why she’s so hellbent on building her Ironheart suit. One of the key ideas driving the series is that just because you can build a thing doesn’t mean you necessarily should. Riri needs to find her reason for being Ironheart before she can truly become who she’s meant to be.
This isn’t to say Zeke will remain the squeaky clean tech ethicist and understanding neighbor for the entire series. We’re already seeing cracks starting to form, as he realizes he can push back against those trying to take advantage of him. It remains to be seen just how deeply he’ll transform over the course of the second half of the series and if he’’ll become something more akin to the vindictive tech-terrorist of the comics, but we do expect he’ll start to butt heads with Riri more and more. She represents the old approach to Iron Man - a flesh-and-blood human wearing an external suit. He embodies the new Iron Man - a person augmented by bionics to become truly superhuman. It may be that to truly triumph, Riri will have to find a happy medium between the two.
Do you think Zeke Stane will become a villain by the end of the series? Vote in our poll below and let us know what you think in the comments.
Starting today, Amazon is slashing the price of the coveted The Hobbit Deluxe Illustrated Edition to the lowest price I've seen this year. This hardcover book set normally retails for $195, but right now you can get it for $85.18, a savings of 56%. This beats the previous price low of $97.50 back in January.
56% Off The Hobbit Deluxe Illustrated Edition
This premium edition of The Hobbit follows similar editions of Tolkien’s other books featuring the author’s hand-drawn maps and artwork. Unique to this edition are two poster-size, fold-out maps revealing a detailed Thror’s Map and Wilderland, an illustrated 88-page booklet, and a printed art card reproducing Tolkien’s original dustjacket painting. It's also quarterbound in green leather, with raised ribs on the spine, stamped in three foils on black cloth boards, and housed in a custom-built clothbound slipcase. The pages are edged in gold and include a ribbon marker.
Check out the other Deluxe Illustrated Editions (also on sale)
The Hobbit was released back in September of 2023 and is the latest in line to get the illustrated treatment. There’s The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition, which came out in 2021, and The Silmarillion Illustrated Edition, which arrived in 2022. It also features a forward by Christopher Tolkien, with additional notes from Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Whether it was the anime, the video games, or the card game itself, Yu-Gi-Oh has been a pop culture staple for over 25 years.
Today, it remains one of the most popular and enduring trading card games on the planet, and whether you're chasing meta-defining staples or just looking to fill out your binder with something flashy, the high-value cards always demand attention.
2025 has taken a breather compared to last year’s chaos. Prices are down, panic-buying has cooled, and both duelists and collectors are feeling the benefits.
But make no mistake, there are still plenty of premium pulls hidden in Yu-Gi-Oh's 2025 releases. Between Supreme Darkness and Alliance Insight, we've seen the final wave of Quarter Century Secret Rares. And just this past week, Starlight Rares officially returned to the TCG, turning heads and inflating wishlists overnight.
So, since we're halfway through 2025, I've been busy taking stock of the most valuable cards you can still pull from Yu-Gi-Oh's 2025 boosters. It's time to d-d-d-duel!
10. Mulcharmy Purulia
This reprint of Mulcharmy Purulia is pretty pricey these days, reaching around $100 right now after its printing in Maxze of the Master.
It has started to level off, but it was a sharp climb just a couple of months ago.
9. Mitsurugui Ritual
Sitting at around $90 at the time of asking, this spell card is a dream for reptile-focused decks. The Supreme Darkness Quarter Century Super Rare version has recently dropped from $120 to $90, but it’s still expensive.
8. Maiden of White
If you managed to grab the Blue-Eyes White Destiny structure deck, then good news – many of its cards are pretty pricey to get these days.
Maiden of White is going for around $90-100 right now, with first editions climbing to the $120s.
7. Paladins of Bonds and Unity
As TCGPlayer explains, Paladins of Bonds and Unity is perhaps less useful to play with and more of a collector’s edition. That art is gorgeous, and it’s going for around $100 on the secondary market (although some are asking for more).
6. Maliss P March Hare
It never takes long for Yu-Gi-Oh cards to devolve into made-up words and random letters, but this one is worth checking your packs for. In fact, it’s the most valuable Secret Rare from this year’s Alliance Insight set.
5. Dragon Master Lords
A 5000 attack and defense creature that can’t be targeted by card effects? Where do we sign? This XYZ creature is essentially a one-card wincon, but it won’t come cheap.
4. A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow
Remember what we said about words and letters? This link-summoned monster can bring in monsters while disrupting your opponent nicely. Destroy a card and bring in your own? We’re sold.
But we’ll need to get saving – it reaches over $130 at present.
3. Rimite Dragon Ether Beryl
We didn’t expect this badass dragon to be called Beryl, but this isn’t one to be laughed at. It’ll set you back $150 right now for its Monster Mayhem version, and it plays very, very nicely with Blue-Eyes White Dragon decks.
2. Dark Magician Girl the Magician's Apprentice
If you’ve enjoyed anything Yu-Gi-Oh over the years, you’ll know this one.
While Dark Magician Girl the Magician's Apprentice’s core stats are hardly awe-inspiring, collectors love her (I wonder why?) so her Quarter Century Secret Rare from Alliance Insight is fetching up to $170 right now at TCGPlayer and other secondary markets like eBay.
Sorry Dark Magician Girl the Magician's Apprentice, your artwork is no longer the cutest on this list. The most valuable card of 2025 is the truly adorable Mulcharmy Meowls, which is going for upwards of $200.
Honorable Mention: Battles of Legend: Monster Mayhem
It wouldn’t feel right to wrap up without a quick nod to Battles of Legend: Monster Mayhem. While it’s still early days for this set, and prices haven’t fully settled yet, a couple of cards are already standing out.
That said, it’s too soon to draw any hard conclusions for the time being. These early prices are often inflated by hype, and the market tends to shift quickly. We'll be keeping a close eye on where these cards land once the dust settles, and the other eye on Duelist's Advance.
Where to Find Valuable Yu-Gi-Oh Cards in 2025
So your best bet of owning any of the above is simply through the secondary market, and buying individual cards standalone.
But, if you are in it for the love of the game, and fancy fleecing out for some shiny boosters in an attempt to pull some of the rarest cards going, this is where you can buy the latest 2025 Yu-Gi-Oh booster bundles.
We've mentioned the highest price sold as well, alongside the current listing price at the time of publication,so you have a good idea what the market is looking like at the moment.
Lloyd Coombes is Gaming Editor @ Daily Star. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay. He's also a tech, gaming, and fitness freelancer seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, IGN, and more.
This article includes contributions from Robert Anderson. Thanks to the lovely folks at TCGPlayer for information and data that informed this article.
The first three episodes of Ironheart are now streaming on Disney+. The remaining three episodes premiere Tuesday, July 1.
Across centuries and cultures, innumerable stories have followed the same basic structure: Answering the call of adventure, a character breaks out of their everyday existence, venturing into the unknown to face untold trials and great peril, triumphing over adversity and returning to where it all began a changed person. This so-called “hero's journey" has shaped much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and others have embarked on high-octane escapades where they must save the world while confronting a variety of identity crises. Ironheart, the MCU’s 14th live-action Disney + series, certainly begins with similar intentions. But the magical powers intruding on Riri “Ironheart” Williams’ (Dominique Thorne) six-episode scientific crusade fail to transform her in any meaningful way. By the finale, we're left with a disappointing hero who seemingly hasn’t learned any lessons.
Though Riri was previously introduced as the tech prodigy whose vibranium detector kicks off the plot of 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ironheart is her origin story. It starts well enough: A genius MIT student with dreams of being bigger than "Gates, Jobs, Pym, and Stark combined," she's continuing her efforts to create an advanced Iron Man-like armored suit – until she's sent packing for helping her peers cheat on their assignments and causing too much destruction in the school labs. With Thorne establishing her character’s confident, often arrogant, and quite selfish nature in quick order, Riri steals the prototype suit and flies home to Chicago, where the story proper begins.
That's a rich place to start any hero’s journey – and one that mimics Tony Stark's in Iron Man. It’s refreshing to see a female character act as reckless and self-determined as Tony, but there’s a key difference in how far that recklessness and self-determination can take them: the endless resources of a rich white man like Tony aren’t available to a poor black woman like Riri. Enter Parker Robbins, a.k.a. The Hood, played with cool charisma by Anthony Ramos. He offers Riri the first of Ironheart’s many Faustian bargains: She can get all the money she needs to complete her suit in exchange for joining his gang of criminal misfits.
As Parker’s pseudonym and band of merry accomplices imply, he's a Robin Hood figure – but unlike the British legend, The Hood's gang of hackers, knife throwers, pyromaniacs, and bare-knuckle fighters steal from the rich to give to themselves. Armed with a magical cape that gives him the ability to become invisible and bend bullets Matrix-style, Parker supplies one of Ironheart’s central tensions: An existential tug-of-war between magic and science that recalls WandaVision. This exploration of energy, human consciousness, and mysticism is aided by some fun new witches who teach Riri that she can’t defeat The Hood's dark powers with calculations and machines alone. So maybe she learns one lesson; sadly, she doesn't heed the witch's warning that magic comes with a cost.
By episode three, Riri is forced to reckon with the compromises she’s making in pursuit of genius when the jobs get increasingly violent and the cape's devilish influence emboldens Parker's darkest ambitions. Their heists, which include shutting down an underground transport system and breaking into a Fort Knox-like greenhouse facility, hark back to the gritty, quippy early ’00s capers of Gone in 60 Seconds and the first few Fast and Furious films. Unfortunately, the fight sequences where Riri suits up aren’t as flashy. They’re low-stakes, and don't have quite the ambition or scale of previous armored battles in the MCU.
Parker and his gang have each been marginalized by society in some way, but it’s hard to root for their revenge mission against that society – with what little backstory Ironheart gives them, we have no reason to sympathize with their selfishness. Are they really any better than the people they steal from? Series creator Chinaka Hodge's answer seems to be a cynical one that sees Riri not just turn to crime to solve her problems, but to trigger malevolence in others. Specifically, Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich), a self-effacing and fearful black-market inventor striving not to follow in the footsteps of his crooked dad. Initially, this has all the makings of an intriguing, subversive sins-of-the-father storyline with Ehrenreich perfectly selling Joe's earnest pursuits. Instead, it reverts to convention by having him turn to the dark side (Palpatine-esque lightning powers included) when Riri lands him in trouble and biological upgrades turn him into a weapon of mass destruction.
Riri wants to protect the people closest to her, but never in Ironheart do we really see her do so.
There are a lot of daddy issues flying around Ironheart, but Riri's are the only ones with a loving foundation. Through flashbacks, we see the drive-by shooting that killed her mechanic stepfather, Gary (LaRoyce Hawkins), as well as her best friend, Natalie (Lyric Ross). Like many MCU heroes, Riri finds poignant, grief-stricken motivation in her loved ones’ deaths. She wants to protect the people closest to her, but never in Ironheart do we really see her do so. She just uses the suit to commit crimes and fix problems of her own making.
To Ironheart's credit, it does offer a stirring relationship dynamic between Riri and Natalie. It just requires the resurrection of the latter in the form of Neuroautonomous Technical Assistant and Laboratory Intelligence Entity – N.A.T.A.L.I.E. for short. An artificial intelligence created by a glitch in Riri's brain-mapping-assisted suit programming, N.A.T.A.L.I.E. has all the same mannerisms, memories, and personality traits as her namesake. This causes initial friction as Riri contends with this personification of her dead best friend. It’s yet another Iron Man parallel: The transformation of Tony’s digital assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. into Vision is something everyone in the MCU accepts but few can explain; it’s only when Riri accepts the uncertainty of how N.A.T.A.L.I.E. came to be that they can emotionally connect (and Thorne and Ross can resume infusing that connection with humour and heart).
Alas, by the series' end, Riri is back to her selfish and reckless ways. In an anticlimactic final scene, she’s propositioned by "another magical asshole," and makes an infuriatingly bad decision, one that undoes her entire journey. It's a defeatist ending that makes a cynical argument: No matter what soul-wrenching odyssey they’ve been on, any hero, villain, or average Joe would make a deal with the devil to get what they truly desire.
Puzzling has become one of my favorite hobbies recently. There's just something way too relaxing about just letting your mind wander as you slowly try to put a cool picture together. I've also found it's way cheaper to buy puzzles than LEGO sets, so this is the direction my adult life has gone.
Because of my proclivity for puzzling, I'm always on the lookout for good deals on jigsaw puzzles. While I usually try to stick to the more trusted puzzle brands, sometimes there is just a really good deal on an awesome image I can't pass up. Amazon is having one such sale right now in the form of stacked coupons.
The puzzles in this sale are from Blueforest, which isn't a brand I'm familiar with. However, they seem to have some really cool options on sale right now. There is also a 10% off coupon you can clip on each individual puzzle as well as various tiers of additional discounts you can receive if you buy more than just one. Here are some of the coolest 1,000-piece options I could find where both of these coupons applied.
1,000 Piece Puzzles on Sale at Amazon
I did a little bit of digging into Blueforest storefront on Amazon and they seem like a reputable enough brand. Digging into the comments revealed that most customers were satisfied with the overall quality and design of the puzzles, which is mostly what you're looking for. So all-in-all, the puzzles that are in the sale seem safe enough to recommend.
The sale itself is where it starts to get a bit confusing. There are multiple coupons you'll need to select to take advantage of all of the savings. First there's a 10% off coupon on each of these products that you'll need to click to receive an additional 10% on just that item. After that you can get a 6% discount for buying three, a 7% discount for buying four, and an additional 10% discount for buying five Blueforest puzzles all at once.
To maximize your savings you'll need to make sure you've clipped both coupons before adding all of these products to your cart. You should only have to apply each coupon once for it to go into effect for all of them. This is overall a great deal you can take advantage of ahead of Prime Day.
General Tips for Buying 1,000-Piece Puzzles
Buying a 1,000-piece puzzle is a commitment. It's one that you can easily just put on a shelf and forget about, but actually starting and finishing it takes time. Unless you are a world champion puzzler, it's going to take you more than one day to put one together. If you're new to puzzling or are just looking for a few tips for buying a puzzle with 1,000 pieces or more, we've got you covered.
Make sure you have enough space
The first thing you should consider before buying a puzzle is whether or not you have a place to put it together. Given the amount of pieces, it can be hard to keep track of all of them at any given time. You'll need ample space to both sort through and organize pieces and be able to leave or store it and come back to it later. If you don't already have a table that is ideal for puzzling, there are quite a few puzzle boards and tables you can buy to remedy that. There are also jigsaw puzzle mats to roll up your puzzle and put it away without undoing all of your progress.
Make sure you actually like the image
Perhaps the more obvious tip for buying a large puzzle is to make sure you actually like the image you're putting together before you make a purchase. A lot of puzzles feature a ton of tiny intricate details to keep you interested as you put it together, but some feature large swaths of single colors that could get tedious to put together. If you're already investing a bunch of your time into finishing a 1,000-piece puzzle, pick something that you'll be happy to see finished.
Invest in some puzzle glue
While most people put together puzzles just for the enjoyment of it all, it can also be fun to display the finished product once you're done. This is especially true if the puzzle is depicting a work of art, rather than just a photograph. It is, after all, a cardboard poster that you've put together yourself. If you plan on displaying your puzzle after you finish, you'll want to get yourself some puzzle glue to ensure the finished product actually stays together when you frame it.
Techland is taking players back to Harran after 10 years with a surprise free content release for the original Dying Light that it’s calling the Retouched update.
Come June 26, 2025, the thousands of players who haven’t been able to let go of the 2015 zombie parkour hit will be treated to improvements that should improve the experience across the board. The Dying Light: Retouched update includes visual enhancements, a remastered soundtrack, and more for players across PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S. IGN has asked Techland about a potential Nintendo Switch version of the Retouched update.
So, let's set the record straight: the Retouched Update is about squeezing out even more from the Dying Light you already love.
It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the original Dying Light, but Techland wants to make one thing clear: Retouched is not a remaster. Franchise director Tymon Smektała said this update is more about improving the original experience without altering its system requirements.
“When I looked online the day after [the update was announced], my heart skipped a beat. Quite a few of you were expecting a full remaster of some sort,” Smektała explained in a new blog post. “So, let's set the record straight: the Retouched Update is about squeezing out even more from the Dying Light you already love. It’s not a complete overhaul or remaster.”
Some of the visual enhancements players can expect include improved textures, lighting, and shadows. You might notice a wooden fence has a bit more detail or that certain metal surfaces will reflect light more realistically, for example. Techland is especially proud of how some floors and cement walls look in Dying Light: Retouched, sharing images of stone paths that feature more depth than before.
In the audio department, original Dying Light composer Paweł Blaszczak returned to remaster the soundtrack. The entire soundtrack has been re-recorded on tape for Retouched, with new tracks, ambient sounds, and even hit reaction audio also remastered for this week’s update.
“A lot of you have been asking in the last few months about the Retouched Update — where it was, why it was taking so long,” the post continued. “The honest answer is this: we were working with 10+ year old technology. Even with all the new experience we've gained over the years, figuring out how to apply those learnings to the original Dying Light engine while keeping everything stable was a challenge.”
The Dying Light: Retouched update is less Techland reanimating a long-forgotten corpse and more of an example of that team delivering a surprise for a game that has somehow managed to stand the test of time. Despite SteamDB listing a player peak of only 45,876, the original Dying Light has hovered around the 12,000-player mark for the last year. Those are impressive numbers for a zombie game that mostly leans on its single-player offerings, and it’s even more impressive considering Dying Light 2: Stay Human, which launched just three years ago, usually struggles to break 10,000 players.
The original Dying Light story will continue with the launch of Dying Light: The Beast, which recently pinned down a release date of August 22, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. It follows original protagonist Kyle Crane in a new story, and you check out our preview of how it looks so far here. Finally, you can read up on our original Dying Light review, where we gave the parkour zombie video game an 8.5/10.
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).
In BitCraft Online, a new Sandbox MMORPG developed by Clockwork Labs, the world is shaped by adventurers, with a player-driven economy on a unified server, and in-depth systems for professions, crafting, and building. Each player can claim their very own plot of land, expand it into a Settlement, and even create empires with the help of others. Maxroll put together an extensive BitCraft Online guide to help you get started.
Maxroll's BitCraft Beginner's Guide
Maxroll’s BitCraft Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the game's essential systems and mechanics, from setting your first Home and earning Hex Coins, to working with fellow players to build thriving communities. The guide will teach you learn how to navigate early quests, choose and level up Professions, manage resources efficiently, and interact with core systems like Trading, Skills, Settlements, and Empires.
Maxroll's BitCraft Professions Guide
Professions are the backbone of progress in BitCraft Online, shaping your journey through gathering, crafting, and refining. Every activity—whether it’s mining ore, smithing armor, or brewing potions—is tied to a profession that defines your role in the game’s evolving world.
Maxroll’s Profession Guide offers a comprehensive overview of each profession, detailing the tools you need, the stations you'll use, and how your efforts contribute to unlocking recipes, gaining experience, and supporting other professions.
Check out these guides from Maxroll to dive deeper into the specifics of each profession:
Hex Coins are the cornerstone of BitCraft’s player-driven economy. They're the main currency used for trading vital materials and progressing through the game’s various Professions. Especially in the early stages, managing your Hex Coin income efficiently can speed up your progression.
Plus, for a deeper dive into individual Traveler preferences and task rewards, check out Maxroll’s Travelers Guide.
Maxroll's BitCraft Compendium Guide
The Compendium in BitCraft Online is the ultimate tool for mastering the world around you: tracking resource nodes to highlight them on the map and organizing your knowledge of unlocked recipes. Helpfully, it also displays the materials required to craft the selected item and how it can be used. Check out Maxroll's Compendium Guide for more information.
Written by IGN Staff with the help of the Maxroll BitCraft Team.
If you’ve had a Steam account long enough, your library is probably so stuffed to the gills with games you have barely touched or never even played that you’d do anything to find a way to start digging into that backlog. You might even ponder options some consider to be unnatural — like playing Steam games on your phone. Well, if the Steam Deck proved anything, it’s that plenty of people are happy to play Steam games on a compact, portable device, and your phone is just as up to the task. In fact, you’ve got a bunch of options for playing Steam games on your phone. We’ll dig into the simpler and more popular options, and give you a rundown of how to get playing.
Requirements
Steam Link: If you want to play games using Steam’s own service Steam Link, you’ll need a PC with Steam set up to serve as the host and a fast internet connection. Whatever games you want to play via Steam Link will need to be installed on the host PC, but you can install these before or after connecting to the host PC from your phone. You can use on-screen controls, but a controller will make the experience much better.
Nvidia GeForce Now: To use Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service, you don't need your own gaming PC, but you will still need a Steam account with supported Steam games since GeForce Now will tap into these. You’ll also need the GeForce Now app and an Nvidia account. On your phone, you’ll need at least a 15Mbps internet connection. Most modern Android phones are supported, but if you’re rocking an older device, you’ll need at least 1GB of available memory, Android 7.0 or later, and support for OpenGL ES2.0 or above. For iPhones, you’ll need iOS 15.4 or later. GeForce Now also has on-screen touch controls available, but a mobile controller is still recommended.
How to Play Steam Games on Your Phone with Steam Link
On your PC, open Steam and go to Settings > Remote Play and select Enable Remote Play. Stay at your computer and leave Steam open and running. With your phone on the same network, let theSteam Link app scan for your computer. If you have several computers, you may see multiple options, but it’s also possible you’ll only see one. Select your desired computer on your phone. A PIN will appear on your phone; type the PIN in on your computer.
After the above steps, the Steam Link app will perform a network test to confirm you have a reliable connection to the computer and dial in the stream quality. Once complete. You can select Start Playing from the app. This will launch Steam Big Picture mode and send the video feed to your phone. You can navigate normally with touch controls or a game controller, select games you want to play, and launch them. After the initial setup, you’ll be able to skip some of the steps to get playing and jump straight into selecting your PC to connect.
How to Play Steam Games on Your Phone with GeForce Now
GeForce Now is simple to set up and doesn’t require a PC. You’ll need to launch the GeForce Now app, and sign in to your Nvidia account. From there, you’ll have an opportunity to link your various game libraries with GeForce Now. To link your Steam account, tap the Menu icon and scroll down to find the Connections menu. Look for the Steam option and select Connect. This will open a separate browser window. Log into your Steam account. You’ll then be prompted to grant permission to “Sign into www.nvidia.com using your Steam account.” Accept this prompt. You may need to sync your Steam library, but the app will prompt you to do so if needed. From here, you can browse the games available in GeForce Now or view your library. Select any game you want to play, then press the green Play button. If you have a free membership, you may need to wait in a queue before you can play and have a limited session length, but a paid membership isn’t required to play.
More options available
This only scratches the surface of available options for accessing your Steam games from your phone. Steam Link may be the most direct, but there are other ways to gain remote access to your computer. GeForce Now is also not the only name in cloud gaming. Boosteroid and Shadow (see PCMag’s review) allow you to fire up a remote gaming rig, sign into your Steam account there, and then stream the games to your phone. Amazon’s Luna won’t let you access your Steam games, but it will let you access your GOG, Ubisoft, Epic Games, and EA libraries.
And with any luck, someone will figure out how to stably run SteamOS or Windows for ARM on recent smartphones to take advantage of the rapidly improving performance available at the high-end of the market.
Mark Knapp is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything electronics and gaming hardware. He has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry with bylines at PCMag, Reviewed, CNET, and more. Find Mark on Twitter @Techn0Mark or BlueSky at @Techn0Mark.
Sony has really delivered with the PlayStation family. It not only offers substantial gaming power, but it’s also home to some of the best exclusive games around. While it’s always a joy to tap into those games on a big screen TV or quality gaming monitor, there’s no denying the convenience of being able to play your favorite games when you’re on the go. Though there hasn’t been a true portable PlayStation in some years, your phone can actually serve as something of a stand-in, as long as you’ve got the console set up at home and a strong enough internet connection. Here’s what you’ll need and how to get started playing PlayStation games from your phone.
Requirements
Unfortunately, there’s no PlayStation cloud gaming option for your phone. You’ll need a PS4 or PS5 console set up, as it will run your games and stream them to your phone. You’ll need a PlayStation Network account on that console and at least a 5Mbps broadband internet connection for the console.
On your phone, you’ll need the PS Remote Play app (Android 9 or later / iPhone with iOS 14.5 or later). While touch controls are supported to some extent, it’s recommended you also have a Dualshock 4, DualSense, or DualSense Edge controller paired with the phone, though some phone controllers may work. (Here’s a quick guide on pairing the DualSense with various devices.) Your phone will also need a fast and stable internet connection.
You will also need compatible games installed on your PlayStation. VR games, games that require special accessories, or games that stream from PS Plus Premium will not work here.
How to Play PS5 Games on Your Phone
Before you can start playing, you’ll need to prepare your PlayStation console for game streaming. Power it on, and go to Settings > System > Remote Play and then Enable the feature for the desired users. If you’d like to be able to access your console even when it’s asleep, you’ll also want to go to Settings > System > Power Saving > Features Available in Rest Mode and select Stay Connected to the Internet and Enable Turning on PS5 from Network.
Next, ensure your PlayStation console and phone’s PS Remote Play app are signed into the same PSN account.Then, from the PS Remote Play app on your phone, select the PS5 option. The app will begin to automatically search for your console and establish a connection (if it fails to automatically connect, it may require a PIN, which you can find by going to Settings > System > Remote Play > Pair Device on your console). Once connected, you can continue on your phone. With a PlayStation controller connected, you can operate your PlayStation 5 normally, and your phone will simply serve as your display.
If you are trying to stream games from a PlayStation 4, the setup is quite similar. Enable Remote Play from Settings > Remote Play Connection Settings, then select your primary console in Settings > Account Management > Activate as Your Primary PS4. You’ll need to select the PS4 option in the PS Remote Play app and enter a PIN from your console to establish an initial link.
Mark Knapp is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything electronics and gaming hardware. He has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry with bylines at PCMag, Reviewed, CNET, and more. Find Mark on Twitter @Techn0Mark or BlueSky at @Techn0Mark.
There’s a whole world of games available for smartphones, and it can make sense to grab a powerful gaming phone to enjoy those in their best forms. But with fast internet connections making it possible to stream games as well, you don’t have to rely on the power of your smartphone and the still-limited pool of games made for it. Microsoft has made it simple to tap into many Xbox games on your phone, whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone. Here’s a rundown on what you’ll need and how to get set up.
Requirements
You’ll need to confirm Xbox Cloud Gaming is available in your region (it is in the U.S.). You will also need to have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription (sorry, the base Game Pass tier won’t do it). Notably, you don’t need to own an Xbox of any kind or any games to take advantage of this method, though it will also allow you to stream some owned games if you’re already an Xbox-haver.
While Xbox Cloud Gaming supports a wide array of devices, you will need slightly recent software. Android phones have to be on Android 12 or later and should use either Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome (version 85 or later) as a browser. iPhones need to be on iOS14.4 or later and will work with Safari 14.0 or later or Google Chrome (version 85 or later).
Since Xbox Cloud Gaming runs over the internet, you’ll also need a fast connection. Microsoft requires a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection running with at least 10Mbps of down-link speed, with 20Mbps recommended.
Some games will work with touchscreen controls on your phone, but Microsoft recommends a compatible controller as well — some of these phone controllers and PC controllers should do the job.
How to Play Xbox Games on Your Phone with Xbox Cloud Streaming
Funnily enough, this service doesn’t rely on an app. Instead, you just open your browser on your phone and go to https://www.xbox.com/en-US/play.
From there, you’ll need to sign into your Microsoft/Xbox account that is subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate. Optionally, connect your controller and then select the game you want to play.
That’s really all there is to it. The site will fire up the game you want to play on a remote server and stream its video feed to your phone and send your controls to the server.
How to Play Xbox Games on Your Phone with Xbox Remote Play
While Xbox Cloud Gaming relies on a Game Pass Ultimate subscription and remote servers to stream the games to your phone, you can also stream games to your phone from your own Xbox console.
This requires an Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One console with remote features enabled. To enable these, press your console controller’s Xbox button and go to Profile & system > Settings > Devices & connections > Remote features and enable them. Return to the Settings page, then go to General > Power options and select Sleep.
On your phone, open your browser and go to https://www.xbox.com/remoteplay. Sign into the same Microsoft/Xbox account that is signed in on your console. Connect your controller to your phone. Then choose your Xbox console from the options and select Remote play on this device. Your phone will then stream the feed from your console and let you operate normally.
Mark Knapp is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything electronics and gaming hardware. He has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry with bylines at PCMag, Reviewed, CNET, and more. Find Mark on Twitter @Techn0Mark or BlueSky at @Techn0Mark.
Anyone can make a B movie. Not everyone can make an enjoyable, let alone halfway decent B movie. Take The Jurassic Games: Extinction, for example. In this sequel to 2018's The Jurassic Games (but you definitely already knew that), director Ryan Bellgardt essentially rewrites Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race remake, swapping vehicular manslaughter for prehistoric carnage. Or think The Condemned, but instead of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin punching Vinnie Jones, he's zipping away from T. rexes on hover scooters. The script is bananas and skimps on exposition because that's not what you're watching The Jurassic Games for, but in terms of delivering what's promised by its title and trailer? Bellgardt earns points for pushing the concept of a dystopian reality show where death-row inmates participate in VR dino bloodsport as far as possible, taking it from Romanesque gladiatorial stages to Capture the Flag-versus-raptors and beyond.
Just don’t expect anything more than unintentional late-night-cable laughs. Nine times out of ten, title-first genre films like Clownado (Sharknado with clowns, but worse) or The VelociPastor (a cheapo “kick-ass pastor turns into velociraptor” dud) can’t deliver what’s on the label, but The Jurassic Games: Extinction is fearless by comparison. Bellgardt doesn’t cheat us out of dino time, and that earns his movie a valuable dose of goodwill.
Of course, Extinction’s dinosaurs aren't trying to outdo their counterparts in the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth. (Surely it’s a coincidence that this movie and its predecessor were released within days of new Jurassic World movies.) Don't expect anything practical – there's no Stan Winston magic here – but it's passable enough for an indie science-fiction thriller that animates entire alternate realities filled with Carnotauruses, Stegosauruses, and many other creatures of the Mesozoic Era. There's a video game touch to much of The Jurassic Games: Extinction that can't match the graphics of current PlayStation or Xbox processors, and yet I've seen far worse effects flipping past Syfy after midnight. When he’s not directing, Bellgardt is a VFX artist, and what he and the team he supervised for Extinction may have lacked in resources, they more than make up for in the volume of dinosaurs onscreen.
The Jurassic Games: Extinction is a direct continuation of The Jurassic Games, so you may want to plan a double feature if Extinction tickles your fancy. The hero and the villain carry over from the first movie: Tucker (Adam Hampton) is a Jurassic Games survivor turned cyber-mercenary bent on destroying the games – which are now under the control of his rival, Jo LaFort (Katie Burgess) – from within. They’re thrust into a tangle of wishy-washy storylines involving a rogue AI, the beta testers it “kidnaps” and forces to compete in The Jurassic Games, and LaFort’s maniacal quest to deliver another memorable broadcast in spite of these mishaps and Tucker’s sabotage.
It’s about how the pursuit of fame or virality can short-circuit anyone’s ethics and morals, but The Jurassic Games: Extinction doesn’t have anything prophetic or profound to say on the subject. Staging live executions for TV ratings is bad, and AI can’t be trusted – yup, I knew that long before I pressed “play.” Surprise guests are pulled into the games, but touches like holding Tucker’s son hostage to keep his dad in line hardly translate into an emotional tour de force. Meanwhile, Bellgardt recycles stock material about artificial intelligence turning against its creators and a future society that hungers for murdertainment. Everything else is a messy grab bag: a shoehorned-in character has tamed a pack of velociraptors and rides them like he’s Mario and they’re Yoshi; deaths and "shocking" reveals land with a thud.
But all of this is secondary to the human-on-dino (and dino-on-dino) action, and that’s another area where Bellgardt doesn't let a small budget bring him down. Powerups are introduced that allow players to transform into dinosaurs, and these virtual Animorphs moments are visualized with the help of an Iron Man-esque heads-up display. The battlegrounds include coliseum arenas, Endor-like forests, and geometric realms that call to mind a laser-guided-raptor-infested version of Tron. Bellgardt gets creative and chaotic with his superpowered games and, most of all, lets there be plenty of combat. It’s trash, but at least it’s trash where a hotshot swordsman parries and slices through pixelated raptors while trying to navigate an ’80s retro-futurist maze.
The seasonal Audible deal has returned. Starting now and running through July 31 (including Amazon Prime Day), you can sign up for three months of Audible Premium Plus for just $0.99 per month. Premium Plus is Audible's highest tier plan and normally costs $14.95/mo. As a additional subscription perk, you get a free audiobook of your choice for each of those three months and you get to keep them indefinitely.
Both new and currently expired Audible customers are eligible
Anyone who doesn't currently have an active Audible membership should be eligible. That includes new subscribers as well as existing members whose subscriptions have since expired. There's always a small your-mileage-may-vary disclaimer with these types of promotions, but fortunately it's easy to check if you qualify: log into your account, and if you see the $0.99/mo banner right on Amazon's Audible page then you're eligible for this promotion.
3 Months of Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 per Month
Audible is a subscription service that gives you access to hundreds of thousands of the best audiobooks without ever having to purchase them. There are two paid membership plans: the lower tier Audible Plus ($7.95/mo) and the higher tier Audible Premium Plus ($14.95/mo). The biggest difference between the two is the size of the audiobook library. Whereas Audible Plus only lets you listen to a selection of about 10,000 audiobooks, the Audible Premium Plus plan gives you access to a whopping 500,000 audiobooks.
Although the seriously expanded library is the main draw of the Audible Premium Plus membership, there are some other nice perks as well. Every month Premium Plus members get to pick one audiobook to keep in their library indefinitely, even after the membership expires. Also, Premium Plus members can get 30% off any additional audiobooks they wish to purchase in addition to exclusive limited-time discounts.
If you were already planning to purchase a couple of audiobooks, then it makes more sense to pay less than $3 to get three audiobooks you get to keep indefinitely and enjoy all the benefits of Audible Premium Plus for three months. This deal only pops up a few times per year, so don't waste your "first-time subscriber" eligibility status on a short 30-day trial.
Catch up the the latest novel releases, audiobook style
Several best-selling new and recent releases are available in an audiobook format and part of Audible's Premium Plus subscription plan. Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest Hunger Games novel, is narrated by Jefferson White, who you may already know from Yellowstone where he played Jimmy Hudstrom. The audiobook has a listening time of about 12 hours and 48 minutes. Stephen King released his Never Flinch crime novel in May 27 and it's also available as a nearly 15 hour long audiobook narrated by veteran Jessie Mueller. If you're a fan of Brandon Sanderson, check out Wind and Truth, book five of the popular The Stormlight Archive series. It was released in December of 2024 and runs an epic 63 hours long.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Nautilus’ two-episode premiere airs Sunday, June 29 on AMC at 10pm ET. New episodes air Sundays through August 17.
Some skepticism about AMC’s Nautilus is warranted. Has modern entertainment’s zeal for brand extensions and updating stories in the public domain reached the point where we’re making a TV series about how Captain Nemo came into possession of the fantastical submarine at the center of Jules Verne’s pioneering science-fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? No need for such exasperation, however, because Nautilus knows exactly the type of show it needs to be: visually extravagant, a little dumb, and a whole lot of fun.
It starts with a combination of quite thrilling sequences in which Nemo – played by Star Trek: Discovery’s Shazad Latif as an Indian prince exacting revenge against the East India Company for imprisoning him – assembles his crew. The first comes as we witness the sinking of an EIC ship, during which Company men Director Crawley (Damien Garvey) and Captain Youngblood (Jacob Collins-Levy) come into focus as the antagonists, and Nemo takes as hostages high-society woman Humility Lucas (Georgia Flood), her no-nonsense maid Loti (Céline Menville), and powder boy Blaster (Kayden Price). There’s the sense that this kidnapping is not a terrible interruption for Humility – journeying, as she was, to an arranged marriage with the rather pompous Lord Pitt (Cameron Cuffe). And to the show’s (and Flood’s) credit, she comes across as rather delightful and curious about her new, submersible quarters. It’s maybe too good of a job: While Nautilus doesn’t quite drag it out, its middle episodes do indulge with some will-she/won’t-she about Humility staying on permanently that feel like fake suspense. More successful are the sparks between her character and Nemo: Flood and Latif have great chemistry as they push and pull against each other, perfect for the kind of swashbuckler Nautilus is at heart.
The rest of the team is introduced in the premiere’s flashback jailbreak. Its members largely stand out as distinct personalities – a wannabe revolutionary, a Maori cook, a large and mysterious man who speaks an unknown language – but they're kept as archetypes for much of the season. It’s justified in Nemo’s own single-minded focus on revenge, and they’re never shunted to the side, but I still wish wish characters like all-around fighter Suyin (Ling Cooper Tang) or first mate Boniface (Pacharo Mzembe) got their own spotlight episodes – or at least had more chances earlier to establish more of who they are and what’s driving them.
Nautilus’ best self emerges in the front half of the season, when it cruises in a more episodic mode. This being Twenty Thousand Leagues there’s the giant squid fight, but there are also detours to remote islands or sketchy palaces, mixed with the occasional mechanical danger. Hints of this also present itself in guest spots from actors like Richard E. Grant, Anna Torv, and Shabana Azeez (based on how little she appears, you can tell this was shot before she broke out on The Pitt). It’s the kind of fun you’d find in Syfy shows like Warehouse 13 or Sanctuary, maybe even Xena: Warrior Princess. The writing isn’t always the best – sometimes corny, sometimes laying the themes on a bit thick – but the actors do good by it, and it’s directed and edited with aplomb. Visually, Nautilus often looks extravagant; the interiors of the ship itself are something to behold, and the VFX hold together slightly better than those aforementioned Syfy shows, give or take a couple instances of noticeably flimsy CGI.
It’s less interesting to follow Company business through the introduction of army Captain Millais (Luke Arnold), who holds some mysterious connection to Nemo. Some of his arc is compelling and complicated enough to garner our sympathy, but it’s given more screentime than it needs. It’s also hard to really care at all about Lord Pitt, who’s both fittingly annoying and slightly boring.
It’s this focus that leads to some stumbles in later episodes. The adventures of the week take less precedence, and the desire to tie up loose ends leads to things feeling somewhat rushed. Fortunately, even these lesser passages are floated along by some very freaky sea life and dastardly plotting, and Nautilus manages to right the ship by the end. It even manages to take a dive (albeit a shallow one) into the complexities of revolt, imperialism, and exploitation.
If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further. Dell has just dropped the price of its flagship Alienware Area-51 prebuilt gaming PC, equipped with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card to $4,899.99 with free shipping. This is a competitive price - especially for an Alienware computer - compared to the similar off-the-shelf prebuilts on Amazon. The RTX 5090 is undisputedly the most powerful graphics card on the market and is pretty much impossible to find for under $3,000 by itself.
Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Gaming PC for $4,899.99
This Alienware Area-51 gaming PC configuration is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor, 32GB of DDR5-6400MHz RAM, and 2TB SSD storage. Optionally, you can double the memory to 64GB for just $100. The Core Ultra 9 285K is Intel's latest flagship CPU and offers stellar workstation and gaming performance. It's not quite the performance uplift we wanted from the i9-14900K, but it's still the best all-around CPU that Intel has on offer. The processor is cooled by a massive 360mm all-in-one liquid cooler, and the system is powered by a 1,500W Platinum power supply.
The RTX 5090 Is the Most Powerful Graphics Card Ever
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 has emerged as the most powerful consumer GPU on the market. Although Nvidia has prioritized software updates, AI features, and DLSS 4 technology to improve gameplay performance, the 5090 still boasts an impressive 25%-30% uplift over the RTX 4090 in terms of pure hardware-based raster performance. The 5090 also has more (32GB vs. 24GB) and faster (GDDR7 vs. GDDR6) VRAM compared to the 4090. This GPU is extremely difficult to find at retail price and is currently selling for $3,500-$4,000 on eBay.
Check out more of the best Alienware deals
Check out our Best Alienware Deals article with all of Dell's currently ongoing deals on gaming laptops and desktop PCs. Not everyone is the DIY type. If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, Dell is one of the best brands we'd recommend. Alienware desktops and laptops feature solid build quality, top-of-the-line gaming performance, excellent cooling (further improved on the newer models), aggressive styling, and pricing that is very competitive with other pre-built options. Best of all, there are plenty of sales that happen throughout the year, so it's not difficult to grab one of these computers at considerably less than their retail price.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Frontier Developments is walking back the use of generative AI in Jurassic World Evolution 3 following backlash from fans.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 finally sprouted legs when its official reveal trailer was published as part of Summer Game Fest 2025 earlier this month. Its existence marked the end of a four-year wait for a third game in the dinosaur strategy simulation franchise, but much of the excitement was quickly soured when fans discovered that Frontier had used controversial generative AI technology to create certain scientist portraits in-game.
Shortly after this realization, fans gathered to campaign against the use of AI in Jurassic World Evolution 3 in hopes that Frontier would reverse its decision in favor of content created by actual human beings. It’s a movement that seems to have achieved the desired results, as the team behind the Jurassic Park video game now replied to a popular Steam post to confirm that generative AI portraits will be removed.
“Thanks for your feedback on this topic,” the post says. “We have opted to remove the use of generative AI for scientist portraits within Jurassic World Evolution 3.”
Those who visit the Jurassic World Evolution 3 Steam page will now find that Steam’s AI Generated Content Disclosure can no longer be found above the list of its system requirements. It’s a move that’s already being celebrated by the Jurassic World Evolution 3 community as they look forward to seeing art that wasn’t created by artificial intelligence.
“Thank you. As a dev myself, this was wholly unnecessary from the start and such an own goal that I'm happy to see the pivot, and to be able to wish the team the best for a successful launch,” one Steam user said. “Been such a fan of JWE1+2 (and PC/PZ), so this change takes me from a never-buy to a buy-at-launch!”
Frontier W
Jurassic World Evolution 3 will not use any generative AI!
I repeat: Jurassic World Evolution 3 will NOT USE ANY GENERATIVE AI!
Frontier confirmed in a statement to GameWatcher that Jurassic World Evolution 3 still has a release date of October 21, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. In the meantime, you can read up on how other companies, such as Epic Games, Microsoft, and Capcom, are using AI in their video games.
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).
If you're looking for an OLED gaming monitor with a 4K native resolution and a 40" or greater screen size, your options are limited. Fortunately, this rare deal just popped up today and might be right up your alley. Amazon Best Buy is currently offering the 42" LG Evo C4 4K OLED Smart TV for just $699.99 with free shipping. This is the best price I've seen for this particular size model. Although it's technically a TV, the 42" Evo C4 also doubles as an excellent gaming PC monitor.
Update: The price has gone back up on Amazon, but Best Buy is now offering the same deal.
42" LG Evo C4 4K OLED Gaming TV or PC Monitor for $699.99
The 42" is LG's smallest OLED TV. It performs just as well as its larger sized siblings as a gaming TV, but where it really shines is as a gaming monitor for your PC. Whereas most TVs are simply too big for your desk, the 42" is a perfectly manageable size; the smaller screen size combined with the native 4K resolution offers up a respectable 104ppi pixel density. It has four HDMI 2.1 ports that support refresh rates up to 144Hz at 4K. Other gaming features include variable refresh rate, 0.03ms response time, and G-Sync compatiblity, and 4:4:4 chroma sampling for clear, sharp text.
The C4 is the 2024 model in LG's mid-range C-series OLED lineup. Compared to non-OLED TVs, an OLED TV offers superior image quality, near-infinite blacks, near-infinite contrast ratio, and near-instantaneous response times. Because of these advantages, the Evo OLED TV excels at displaying 4K HDR content in all of its intended glory. The C4 uses LG's proprietary Evo panel, which offers higher brightness level and contrast ratio compared to traditional W-OLED TVs (similar to QD OLED panels on Samsung TVs). The LG brand is especially popular because LG OLED TVs have been out for years and benefit from several generations of updates and optimizations.
Looking for more options? Check out all of the best TVs of 2025.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Sony has given PlayStation VR2 (PSVR 2) owners some much-needed love by showing off four new VR games coming to fans within the next year.
The company detailed some of the PSVR 2 games players can look forward to in a PlayStation Blog post. The four titles are Dreams of Another, Grit and Valor – 1949, Hotel Infinity, and Meteora, with each offering a completely different virtual-reality experience from the last.
Dreams of Another
Topping the list of new PSVR 2 games is Q-Games’ latest entry in the PixelJunk series, Dreams of Another. This is one VR game that players already knew about, but its appearance today still comes with a new look at its mesmerizing gameplay and how virtual reality will allow players to thoroughly explore dreamlike worlds in both first- and third-person. It’s currently set to come to PC, PlayStation 5, and PSVR 2 later this year.
Grit and Valor – 1949
If you’re looking for something less serene and more action-y, then Milky Tea Studios’ Grit and Valor – 1949 might be for you. This is a real-time tactics rogue-lite from earlier this year that will soon allow PSVR 2 players to control alternate history battlefields in World War II. That means navigating through menus with the tips of your fingers and even picking up and placing units as if they’re real-life models when it launches August 21, 2025.
Hotel Infinity
Manifold Garden developer Studio Chyr is bringing its puzzle expertise to PSVR 2 with Hotel Infinity, a mind-bending experience that looks to twist player perspectives in more ways than one. Its gameplay trailer shows the slightly creepy hotel — and puzzles — VR fans can get lost in when it arrives later this year.
Meteora
Rounding out the list of Sony’s new PSVR 2 games is Meteora, a space racing game where players step into the rocky shoes of a flaming meteor in what is described as a “combat racing” game. This one is about rising to the top of leaderboards in what looks like a colorful and explosive experience, and it’s coming to PSVR 2 in 2026.
Today’s announcements at least show that Sony has a bit more gas in the tank when it comes to PSVR 2. For more, you can check out our original PSVR 2 review, where we gave the device a 9/10.
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).
Games would be nothing without the incredible art that goes into the worlds, characters and icons you see on your screens, and every year the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), iam8bit, and fortyseven communications celebrate that fact with the Game Maker’s Sketchbook. It's a selection of some of the best work of the past year from the games you love.
“The artistic skill and creativity on display in this year’s Game Maker’s Sketchbook entries were truly inspiring,” said Meggan Scavio, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
“We’re deeply grateful to our jurors for their time and thoughtful evaluation of such an outstanding body of work. Congratulations to all of this year’s finalists! We’re honored to present their artwork both online and in person at this year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days.”
The images are selected by a jury panel made up of people from the worlds of game, animation, movies and fine art.
You can see a full list of the entries below, and you can purchase prints of your favorites until July 7 from the iam8bit store. All the proceeds from your purchases will go to the AIAS Foundation.
Character Art Category
Concept Art
Game - Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Artist(s) -Per Gullarp (Principal Concept Artist)
Developer - MachineGames
Publisher - Bethesda Softworks
Hero Design
Game - Marvel Rivals
Artist(s) - Dino, Yuzhen Zhang, Peilin Zhong
Developer - NetEase Games
Publisher - NetEase Games
Michelle - Character Sheet
Game - Sorry We're Closed
Artist(s) - C. Bedford
Developer - à la mode games
Publisher - Akupara Games
Curiosities
The Craftsman’s Heart puppet theatre set
Game - The Midnight Walk
Artist(s) -Klaus Lyngeled, Olov Redmalm, Victor Becker
Developer - MoonHood
Publisher - Fast Travel Games
Merch
Game - Bang Bang Barrage
Artist(s) -zhudaoyu
Developer - Monkey Bread
Publisher - Spiral Up Games
Personality Test Shareables
Game - Black Mirror: Thronglets
Artist(s) -Beverly Chen, Ena Kim, Hannah Nicklin
Developer - Night School Studio
Publisher - Netflix
Environment Art
The Great Gold Dome
Game - Riven
Artist(s) -Jeremiah Castro, Lance VerMeer
Developer - Cyan Worlds, Inc.
Publisher - Cyan Worlds, Inc.
Sailing
Game - IKUMA The Frozen Compass
Artist(s) -Matthias Oberprieler
Developer - Mooneye Studios
Publisher - Mooneye Studios
Scene Concept Design
Game - Marvel Rivals
Artist(s) -Dino, Kaidi Lv, Xufeng Xie, Pengxian Wang
Artist(s) - Remi Gourrierec, Michel Donzé, Alex Flynn
Developer - Ramage Games
Publisher - Playstack
“Dinner” Key Art
Game - Goodbye Universe
Artist(s) - Daniel Beaulieu
Developer - Nice Dream
Publisher - Skybound Games
Storyboard
Reveal trailer storyboard
Game - The Midnight Walk
Artist(s) - Olov Redmalm
Developer - MoonHood
Publisher - Fast Travel Games
Chapter 2 visual script storyboard
Game - The Midnight Walk
Artist(s) - Olov Redmalm
Developer - MoonHood
Publisher - Fast Travel Games
THE HEX - Beatboards
Game - Warframe: 1999
Artist(s) - Production Company: THE LINE, Director: Venla Linna, Producer: Tom Kay, Beatboards: Julien Perron
Developer - Digital Extremes
Publisher - Digital Extremes
Rachel Weber is the Senior Editorial Director of Games at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, and French Bulldogs. Those extra wrinkles on her face are thanks to going time blind and staying up too late finishing every sidequest in RPGs like Fallout and Witcher 3.
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