• 4K UHD (non-steelbook): Amazon | Walmart | Target
• Blu-ray: Amazon | Walmart | Target

The steelbook case for Predator: Badlands boasts quite the action shot on the front and comes with a 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and digital copy of the film. The 4K and Blu-ray covers are a bit busier and mainly feature the characters front and center, but the former also comes with a 4K, Blu-ray, and digital copy of the film. The Blu-ray release just comes with a Blu-ray and digital copy.

The Spiel des Jahres is the most coveted prize in board gaming, but it had never been won by a 2-player only title until 2024, when Sky Team scooped the gong. Its secret is giving two players the thrill of a fistful of dice to roll and the challenge of an instrument board that requires all sorts of different values and combos to satisfy as they try to land a plane, but then limiting communication, making for an incredibly tense time as you try not to accidentally step on each other's toes. Add in a slew of different scenarios of increasing challenge in different conditions at different airports and you've got the ultimate two-player cooperative experience.

f you've every played the video game on which this is based, you'll realise that it's only a short hop to take its insanely addictive deck-building formula and port it to tabletop. And, as we explained in our Slay the Spire: The Board Game review that's exactly what this does, and it's just as insanely additictive as you remember except now you have the added joy of getting to play it alongside friends which, as it turns out, is the big step-up that the game never knew it needed, allowing you to celebrate your triumphs, plot your strategies and bemoan your luck to enrich every tower run.

The trick-taking concept is so baked into traditional competative playing card games like Hearts that it comes as quite a surprise to find it can be repurposed for cooperative games. But that's exactly what happens here and not only is it just as challenging, exciting and fun as it is when playing head-to-head, but this box of delights also adds a narrative layer that sees you playing through the first book of Tolkein's masterwork via a series of missions, as we broke down in our Fellowship of the Ring: Trick Taking Game review. As a bonus, the production is absolutely lovely, especially at such a reasonable price point.

Lots of board games have tried to replicate the success of the Alien franchise, but it took this unlicensed homage to perfect it. Players must work together to survive a terrifying incursion of hostile lifeforms into a Martian base. You're on a constant high wire between staying slow and quiet or getting things done fast but attracting alien attention. It’s full of detailed mechanics that can spin the game out in crazy directions, from literal firefighting to a gung-ho battle against the extraterrestrial foe. The challenge is tough, the narrative detailed and the tension always escalating. But the real kicker is that it's possible for your friends not to be friends at all thanks to hidden goal cards that could be supportive or could be murderous, or the corporate military wing could be coming to take you all out to ensure your silence.

Check out our guide to all of the Nemesis board game expansions for more information about the game.

Narrative-heavy board games have always faced a content problem: there’s only so much variety you can achieve with boards and cards. Sleeping Gods belongs to a family of adventure games that bypassed this problem by putting everything into a huge flip-book, featuring a mix of maps for different quests. Sleeping Gods stands head and shoulders above its peers thanks to two things. First, it’s outstandingly rich storytelling, as you run through a rich mixture of encounters, characters and side-quests as you attempt to guide the lost ship, The Manticore, and her crew home from the strange dimension in which it finds itself. Second, is the detail with which the ship is brought to life, both in terms of strategic resource management to keep her going and her presence in the game world. Such is the wealth of content available that you can easily see a whole different story on a second play through, and such is the fun of doing so that you’ll surely want to try.

This is a “Living Card Game,” which means it’s kind of collectable, like Magic: The Gathering, but there’s no random element. You just buy sets and expansions knowing what cards are in each. And unlike a lot of LCG's, deck building is easy because it’s modular, seeing players pick fixed sets of cards to create decks for their hero and the villain you’re all working against. The meat of play features some classic concepts like dual-use cards alongside novel ideas like each player being able to flip from their hero to their alter-ego, with different abilities and hand sizes. This sets up some really interesting combo-based play where you pull off cinematic moves as you work together to thwart the villain’s schemes and save the day.

To call Gloomhaven a fantasy adventure game is technically accurate, but a bit reductive. It tells the story of mercenaries chasing different goals in a changing world, and the legacy they leave behind. Gloomhaven takes the legacy system from Pandemic Legacy and weaves it into an epic fantasy campaign that takes place over generations. Each hero comes with a personal goal that, when completed, sends the hero into retirement and unlocks new classes and story elements. Upon retiring a hero, you will take control of another, which results in an impressive sense of time progression. The game includes several sealed boxes that are only opened upon reaching certain milestones, which makes Gloomhaven a game with a grand scale that is unmatched in the board game medium.

This epic game is out of print, but now has a sequel, Frosthaven, with an all-new narrative and fresh subsystems which see you expending and guarding the titular town.

At first glance, this game of Stone Age survival doesn’t look anything special. You create a deck of cards for the scenario you want to play and distribute them between the players. Then you take it in turns to flip a card from your pile and face the challenges thereon with the skills and stone tools available to your tiny tribe. The magic happens when tribes come together, pooling their resources to overcome one tough encounter, but doing so loses them the chance to interact with the other tribe’s card. All at once, this mirrors a real slice of stone-age life, agonizing over passing up opportunities in order to secure an important prize, while giving players real emergent cooperation in how much they choose to aid each other. The survival narrative and variety of scenarios are just the icing on the rock cake.

Pandemic put cooperative games on the map, and for good reason. Much of the genre’s hallmark mechanics originated here, from action point allocation to player roles with unique abilities. It also spawned a bevy of expansions and spinoffs, but Pandemic Legacy is the best and more revolutionary take on the virus-eradicating co-op game.

It takes the core rules of Pandemic and stretches them into a campaign-length adventure played out over several sessions as you race to cure disease and prevent epidemics. This version introduces permanence as a mechanic, as the rules force you to rip up cards, sticker the board and alter the physical components in other ways as things (inevitably) don’t go your way. The only potential drawback is that you must play with the same players each session, but because the game is so good everyone will be eager to jump back in.

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is a daunting and dark game, but players willing to wade through the sea of iconography, hefty rulebook and stifling theme will be rewarded with a satisfying survival simulation that rewards communication and teamwork. Based on the 1719 novel, players take on the role of survivors of a shipwreck that are must work together to gather food, build shelters, stave off attacks and explore the island. The combination of different scenarios and player characters ensure good replayability, while the survival mechanics do a fantastic job of selling the theme.

Check out our gudie do all of the Robinson Crusoe board game expansions for more info.

A lot of games on this list are, to a greater or lesser extent, strategy affairs. But cooperation is a great mechanic to use in party games too, and Just One tops the list. All the players bar one get to see a clue, and they have to write down a word related to that clue. Then all the clues get revealed to the remaining player who has to guess the original word. Sounds too simple, except the catch is that if any of the clues are the same they get wiped, leaving the guesser far less to work with. It’s an ingenious idea that leaves players caught in an uncertain vice over just how obscure they cant get away with being, while still being worried they might be the victim of doublethink.

You likely know trick-taking games from long time classics like Whist and Bridge. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea cleverly repurposes the concept into a cooperative game through the use of missions, demanding that certain players win tricks of particular types. So you might have to win a trick containing a yellow one, for example, or two consecutive tricks or even no tricks at all. This would be easy if you could show each other your cards, so your communication is limited to one card for the entire hand, recasting the game as a strategic puzzle with plenty of tension as you wait to see whether having to follow suit will tease out a critical card or fail the mission. Fast, fun and with fifty varied undersea missions, this is a pearl of a design. This game earned a spot on our best family board games list as well.

Some of you may have childhood memories of the original Dark Tower, an extraordinary 1981 fantasy board game powered by an electronic gizmo that gave it a real sense of magic and wonder. Most copies of that original no longer work, but it’s been resurrected and revamped in this new edition, which features an all-new, all-tech tower that connects to a mobile app via bluetooth. It allows you to select from a far wider variety of characters and quests, villains and monsters than the original. The board layout and major concepts of the original, such as collecting warriors, are retained, but between the app and a raft of new mechanics, the game is transformed into a narratively rich, strategic challenge where you must prioritise and deal with a series of ever-growing threats: it can also be played cooperatively as well as the competitive setup of the original. The app provides detail such as dungeon exploration, while the tower lights up and rotates of its own accord, spilling deadly skulls out into the kingdoms below.

If your co-op group could use an eldritch touch, get Arkham Horror: The Card Game to the table. In this cooperative card game, players take on the role of detectives who are investigating various supernatural occurrences within HP Lovecraft’s world of cosmic horror. It’s a scenario-based experience with each mission at the mercy of an arcane Mythos, a set of conditions that must be met lest the investigators succumb to insanity.

Arkham Horror features customizable decks that are built around each investigator’s special abilities, and most scenarios can play out over a handful of sessions, lending a feeling of progression to the game. As you investigate new location cards, gather clues, and fight monsters, your detective will amass weaknesses that can hinder future games which, thematically, illustrate the mental toll of dealing with arcane horrors. It's a great horror board game you can play with loved ones.

Protect your island from a vicious mob of colonizers in this heavy co-op experience. Players are spirits of the land, and must use their unique powers to fend off settlers. Every turn, you’ll play a card from your deck of powers. Matching a card’s element with the element of the spirit usually grants a bonus effect, meaning that careful planning is necessary.

As the game goes on, the colonists will inevitably spread and ravage the land, making Spirit Island a race against the clock. They’re predictable, though, and if you plan efficiently you can head them off before they do too much damage. Players’ cards combo off of each other nicely, too, and there are few things in tabletop gaming as satisfying as eliminating a host of settlers in one fell swoop. Spirit Island is substantially more complex than other games of this style (Pandemic, Forbidden Island, etc.), making it an ideal choice for those seeking a meatier co-op experience.

For more ideas, check out our roundups of the best board games for adults and the best trivia board games.

Matt Thrower is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in tabletop games. You can reach him on BlueSky at @mattthr.bsky.social.

After the incredible success of her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, former Nickelodeon child star, Jennette McCurdy brings us her first work of fiction - Half His Age - to start the year off with a bang. And it’s easily one of our most anticipated reads of 2026.

Seventeen-year-old Waldo is a creature of want. But what is at the top of her list, you might ask. It’s not the latest fashion trend or the boy in her class, it’s her creative writing teacher, Mr Korgy. An insightful commentary on teenage girlhood - the Britney Spears song ‘I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman’ comes to mind - Waldo doesn’t know why she wants him, only that she will stop at nothing to do so. We’re really looking forward to seeing Jennette’s take on what could be some rather difficult subject matter.

My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney

Release date: January 20 (US) and January 27 (UK)

We can always rely on Alice Feeney to keep us on the edge of our seats. And with the adaptation of her bestselling novel, His & Hers, hitting Netflix this month, you might have found yourself wanting more. That’s where her latest release, My Husband’s Wife comes in.

After moving into Spyglass, an old seaside house with her husband, Eden gets back from a run only to discover that her key no longer fits in the lock and a woman, who looks uncannily similar to her, is opening the door. Her husband assures her that this stranger is, in fact, his wife. Yet, just six months earlier, Birdy inherits Spyglass and upon moving in, she finds herself drawn to an alluring clinic that claims to be able to predict the exact day each person will die, including Birdie. We can’t wait to see what twists and turns are in store with this.

Bookish Deal Alert: 3 Months of Audible for $0.99/Month

Audible's has brought back one of its best deals of last year, offering three months of its Premium Plus plan for just $0.99/month / £0.99 in the UK, which is a massive New Year treat for audiobook fans.

This offer is set to last until January 21 in the US, and January 29 in the UK, but if you're a big audiobook user it's a deal that's absolutely worth taking advantage of while it's available.

It's also worth noting that, after your first three months, the plan will auto-renew at a monthly cost. However, this is a great opportunity to give the service a test before commiting to it.

Dragon Cursed by Elise Kova

Release date: January 6

From the bestselling author of last year’s smash hit, Arcana Academy, Elise Kova returns with a new YA tale, Dragon Cursed. And, as you might be able to tell from the title, this could be the new January book to grab if you continue to be drawn to all things dragons.

After the dragons take over, only one human city remains, however, even if someone has survived until now, being Dragon Cursed is the worst fate possible and something that could happen to anyone at any time. Turning humans into mindless beasts who destroy everything and everyone that they love, as soon as someone turns eighteen, they are subject to a series of brutal tests to separate the Dragon Cursed from the dragon hunters. And that’s exactly where Isola finds herself. It’s also worth mentioning that this is the start of a new series from the author, one that we can’t wait to sink our teeth into, dragon-style.

Twelve Months (The Dresden Files, #18) by Jim Butcher

Release date: January 20 (UK) and January 27 (US)

If you’re not already familiar with the enigmatic wizard, Harry Dresden is back for its eighteenth outing this January. And the latest story drops us straight in at the deep end, following the events of the last book. After barely managing to save Chicago from being destroyed, it will take time for the city to begin to recover and rebuild. Yet, that’s something that Harry doesn’t have a lot of.

With Ghouls prowling the streets and killing innocent civilians, alongside his own brother dying, there’s also the small issue of Harry being promised to a vampire to help build a new alliance. Will he be able to save the city once more? There’s only one way to find out.

Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet

Release date: January 6 (US) and January 15 (UK)

If you’re looking for a fun and contemporary twist on a literary classic, Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet reimagines Little Women, but with the intriguing angle that - as the title suggests - Beth March has been found dead after a New Year’s Eve party.

With plenty of suspects, from Amy’s flirtatious mentor and Meg’s manipulative best friend, to the surviving March sisters themselves, Jo, Meg and Amy must band together to work out who could have possibly murdered their beloved sister. Given that it is new year and we’ve been known to give the original Little Women story a reread at this time of year, January is the perfect time to pick this one up.

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao

Release date: January 20

With such a great line-up of fantasy series to get swept up into these days, we always appreciate a good standalone story, and that’s exactly what The Poet Empress is. With comparisons already being made to R.F. Kuang’s epic The Poppy War trilogy, this has quickly climbed to the top of our TBR (to be read) list for the start of 2026.

In a world where it is forbidden for women to learn and practice magic, and the once-great Azalea Dynasty is heading towards a civil war, Wei Yin knows the importance of words and poetry. Used correctly, words can be weapons and poetry can unlock an ancient magic. So, with nothing to lose, after being torn from her family to become a concubine to the cruel Prince Terren, her choices prove that the future can actually be rewritten. All she has to do is compose the perfect poem - one so powerful, it can kill any man, even the next emperor.

Inside Man: A Head Cases Novel by John McMahon

Release date: January 13

If you’re already a fan of Criminal Minds or the FBI franchise of shows, we have a feeling that John McMahon’s Head Cases books will be right up your street. And January sees the release of the second story in the series.

Focusing once more on the PAR (Patterns and Recognition) unit, their latest case pertains to a militia group who appear to be stockpiling weapons. But all isn’t as it seems when their CI (confidential informant) is killed and it becomes clear that the militia weren’t the ones to off him. It’s only when they discover an unidentified man, who could be connected to a series of serial murders, was one of the last people to see the CI alive. How will a team normally tasked with decoding puzzles and riddles, be able to solve the two cases and bring the killer - or killers - to justice? You’ll need to pick up a copy to find out.

Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez

Release date: January 13 (US) and January 15 (UK)

We know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but there’s just something so enchanting and magical about the latest release from Isabel Ibañez. Transporting us back to Renaissance age Italy, and a city where - again - magic is forbidden, Ravenna’s revelation of a rare mystical talent sees her kidnapped by the powerful Luni family. If she fails her task then it will almost certainly mean death at the hands of their heir, yet as she starts to get closer to him, could all that change?

With a slow-burn, forbidden, enemies-to-lovers romance at its core alongside a captivating historical tale, Ravenna is seen as a potential weapon by some of the higher ups, including The Pope. But how will she navigate what she has to do? And what will the impact be, not just on her own life, but on Florence as a whole?

Vigil by George Saunders

Release date: January 27

From the previous Booker Prize winner, George Saunders, comes a tale about the end of life, but not quite as we know it. With plenty of dark humour throughout, it follows Jill ‘Doll’ Blaine who is tasked with accompanying her latest charge to the afterlife. Despite having completed this task well over 300 times, oil tycoon K.J. Boone, isn’t like the other individuals that she’s ferried from one life into another.

Even on his deathbed, he feels assured that he lived his life without any regrets and left the world better than it was when he entered it, but as his final moments tick down, he finds himself being visited by an array of both worldly and otherworldly visitors as they assemble for his reckoning. This certainly sounds like a compelling read, and we have a feeling it might make it onto many top books of 2026 lists.

Most Eligible: A Novel by Isabelle Engel

Release date: January 13 (US) and January 16 (UK)

And if you want to ease yourself back into reading this year, or are looking for a great new romance to pick up, Most Eligible by Isabelle Engel blends the likes of Love Island, The Bachelor and one of our favourite TV shows - UnREAL - into an unputdownable rom-com.

Instead of going on the hit reality dating show, Love Shack, to find love, Georgia has finagled her way in to write an exposé on the producers. The only kink in her plan - the new host just so happens to be country singer Rhett Auburn, the man she had a somewhat memorable one-night stand with a year ago. If it wasn’t already going to be tricky enough keeping her identity and reason for being there a secret, this history with Rhett could threaten everything. What is more important, taking down the show or risking everything for a second chance with Rhett?

Ellis is a freelance journalist, based in the UK, with a love of all things books. She also routinely chairs bookish events up and down the country, getting the scoop from some of the biggest and bestselling authors to keep you in the know.

This makes for a huge 50% discount from its usual list price of $69.99, which is an excellent offer to make a move on. This limited edition Amazon Exclusive copy also comes with the Sekiryu Character Pack, which gets you a gear and weapon set for Naoe, the Sekiryu Beast​, and a Dragon Tooth trinket alongside the base game.

We think it's a game well worth picking up, too. Our review gave it an 8/10 score, with writer Jarrett Green saying it, "takes a flashing blade to the series’ established norms, trimming them to a more precise form in lieu of chopping them down outright."

The review continues on to say that, "Combat is aggressive and requires more intentional parrying and skill management than in the past, and exploring the gorgeous provinces of Sengoku-period Japan is encouraged thanks to the revamped map that deemphasizes collecting icons and checking off lists." Not to mention, "Naoe and Yasuke are well-realized and memorable protagonists, even though most of the story they drive follows pretty predictable paths."

If it's been on your radar, now is a great time to grab it while Amazon still has it on sale. Looking for even more options that are discounted right now? Amazon's also offering deals on Astro Bot and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. And outside of Amazon, you can save on Battlefield 6 right now at Walmart, too.

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