Hardware Unboxed cites conversations it's had with Asus over the EoL status it has applied to the RTX 5070 Ti. What's on the shelves now is all there is.
The Lord of the Rings has already earned more than $5 million in ticket pre-sales ahead of the trilogy's new theatrical re-release this weekend.
Peter Jackson's classic fantasy films will return to theaters from tomorrow, with showings of Fellowship of the Ring's Extended Edition — originally released on home media. Subsequent days this weekend will see The Two Towers and Return of the King's Extended Editions shown in theaters nationwide, before the trilogy's standard editions are shown over a similar schedule next weekend.
Fan interest in reconnecting with the Fellowship has been high, with ticket pre-sales up 65% on those for Lord of the Rings' last theatrical outings, back in 2024. But perhaps this is to be expected, as the movies have likely benefited from a big 25th anniversary marketing push — and word of new introductions to each film from Jackon himself.
Earlier this week, Warner Bros. and re-release production company Fathom Entertainment revealed that Jackson has recorded new messages to fans set to be played ahead of each of the trilogy's titles. In one clip posted online by Entertainment Weekly, Jackson recalled filming the cave troll battle sequence in Fellowship, and having to hide the fact that Aragorn actor Viggo Mortensen had gained a black eye over the weekend.
"The Lord of the Rings trilogy re-release is off to record start for the franchise at Fathom," said the company's CEO Ray Nutt. "We could not be more pleased that the large Lord of the Rings fanbase will have the benefit of hearing in-depth and exclusively in theatre from Peter Jackson himself prior to each of these three remarkable films."
Variety has reported that roughly 407,000 tickets have been sold so far, which will add on to the $3 billion in worldwide revenue earned by the trilogy to date.
And, of course, the Middle-earth movie franchise is far from over. Jackson is currently working as a producer on the upcoming The Lord of the Rings prequel The Hunt for Gollum, due for release next year on December 17, 2027. Frodo actor Elijah Wood — who looks likely to reprise his role on the project — previously praised the movie for reuniting Jackson Jackson with his Middle-earth scriptwriting team Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, as well as Gollum actor Andy Serkis, who is set to both star in and direct the film.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
It's official: "several" new Ecco the Dolphin games are in development.
Last summer, the creator of Ecco the Dolphin pleased many fans by announcing that not only were remakes of the original games underway, but a "third" instalment was also in development. Ed Annunziata — the original creator of the famed and fiendishly difficult action-adventure games — was interviewed about raising awareness of ocean conservation, his life as a developer, and, right at the end, he dropped his bombshell revelation.
California-based developer A&R Atelier, at which Annunziata works, revealed in a press release that it is remastering Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time, as well as that all-important third game.
“It has been years in the making, and we’re honored to bring Ecco back,” Annunziata said (thanks, Gematsu). “Ecco has always been more than a game about a dolphin — he’s a bridge between worlds.” Sadly, that's essentially where the details stop, but the developer said to keep an eye on both its website and the official Discord for more information.
Ecco the Dolphin originally launched in 1992 on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, and was followed by a sequel, Ecco: The Tides of Time, in 1994. Ecco Jr. and Ecco Jr. and the Great Ocean Treasure Hunt were released in 1995, although they were "edutainment" games and primarily developed as learning tools.
You play as the titular dolphin, your underwater world now devastated by a swirling gust of air and water. You must help him navigate back through treacherous tropical reefs and freezing polar ice floes to reunite him with his dolphin pod. There have been a few remasters since: we thought the 2000 remake was okay, writing: "Ecco the Dolphin is a classic from SEGA, but sometimes classics should stay in the past," and of the 2007 remake, we wrote: "For those who have played Ecco before, there's really no reason to come back to it."
The last Ecco the Dolphin game — ostensibly the "third" game, although Annunziata wasn't involved — fared much better, however, getting a 7.6 in IGN's Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future review. A further sequel, Ecco 2: Sentinels of the Universe, which had been written as a direct sequel to Defender of the Future, was cancelled.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Fallout Season 2 Episode 5 contained a number of revelations for the ongoing storyline of Amazon’s adaptation of the post-apocalyptic video games — some of which have ramifications for what we understand of the overarching Fallout lore. And, as you’d expect, fans have a number of theories about what it all means.
Warning! Spoilers for Fallout Season 2 follow:
Episode 5, called The Wrangler, features a flashback to pre-war Las Vegas, where Cooper Howard meets the real Mr. House. This scene has got the Fallout community talking for a number of reasons, chief among them the suggestion that there is a secret player at the table, a variable pulling the strings that Mr. House can’t quite figure out, much to his annoyance.
The Fallout TV show has highlighted the influence and power of pre-war corporations in determining the fate of the world, and a meetup between them in Vegas provides the backdrop to Episode 5’s flashback scenes. Mr. House is aware of his role via his company, RobCo, of course. He knows about Vault-Tec, West-Tek, and Big MT. That’s four megacorps meeting secretly to plot the end of the world. But Mr. House believes there is an unknown organization at play, one that is also behind the Deathclaw seen in the flashback to the Battle of Anchorage. Mr. House believes this mystery player will trigger the nuclear war he himself is preparing for.
Fallout’s nuclear apocalypse was thought to have been triggered by China dropping the bombs first. Tim Cain, co-creator of Fallout, has said this was the developers’ original intention. The Fallout TV show, however, had heavily suggested that Vault-Tec, the evil corporate manufacturer of Fallout’s famous vaults, triggered the nuclear war by dropping bombs of its own — essentially for profit. But Mr. House casts doubt on this possibility. He knows Cooper Howard will end up having something to do with the end of the world, but exactly how… well, he’s clueless.
“The bombs will not be dropped by me or any of the idiots in that meeting,” Mr. House insists, referencing the representatives of the big four megacorps. “I believe there is another player at the table. The same unknown entity responsible for your demon in the snow.”
So who, or what, is this “unknown entity?” The theory picking up the most traction right now is that it is The Enclave. For the uninitiated, The Enclave is the secretive faction from the video games that was formed by pre-war members of the U.S. elite. It claims to be the true successor of the United States government across the wasteland, displaying the same fascist tendencies pretty much all the factions in Fallout do.
The Enclave actually appeared in the Fallout TV show at the beginning of Season 1, when Doctor Siggi Wilzig defects from the organization and sets the plot in motion. And in Fallout lore, The Enclave are thought to have played a part in the creation of some of the Deathclaws, which Mr. House ties to this “unknown entity.” It’s not confirmed, but fans believe The Enclave fits the bill.
Either that, or there’s a brand new faction that’s never been seen in the video games, one that was secretly in charge of world events but known by no-one. The introduction of a brand new faction seems a bit much for the Fallout TV show, and would call into question pretty much everything fans have come to understand about the history of the world.
If it is The Enclave, then which characters are involved with them? Some believe Hank to be secretly working for The Enclave, rather than Vault-Tec, and his work in the Vegas vault for management to be about continuing the group’s secretive work. Indeed, some believe Hank’s message to an unknown recipient earlier in the season was directed at someone at The Enclave, not Mr. House.
How does the revelation that FEV is part of the tri-vault experiment factor into all this? It’s unclear. In Fallout lore, The Enclave is not revealed to be behind the supermutant-creating virus, but perhaps the show will confirm that they were.
“I could buy the Enclave being the overall antagonist of this show,” said one fan, “the ones who ended it all and are attempting to control the wasteland for their idealized America.”
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.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor James Marsters has said there's been "interest" in him reprising his iconic role as Spike in the upcoming Hulu continuation series Buffy: New Sunnydale.
Speaking on Charisma Carpenter's The Bitch is Back podcast, Marsters revealed he had recently rewatched the classic Buffy series to try and "get back" into the headspace of playing beloved British vampire Spike — though cautioned that any on-screen return as the character would likely still not be for some time.
Buffy: New Sunnydale — the franchise's upcoming continuation series that's being worked on by Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar — is still finalizing plans for its first season having shot its pilot episode last summer. Now, Marsters has said that while he expects to return, he would be "surprised" if it was before the show's first season finale.
"I didn't rewatch for a long time. And I recently did, just because of this whole reboot issue," Marsters said. "I had to go back and watch it just to ask myself, 'Can you play that character again?' Never mind the externals, can you internally get back to that psychology?"
At this point, Carpenter asks Marsters exactly what he is implying with returning to the character of Spike, and whether he was confirming that Spike would indeed appear in New Sunnydale.
"I am not, I have no idea... let's see, what can I say..." Marsters replied. "There is interest in having me back."
But this is the first time any other actor from the classic Buffy era has indicated that they may be involved — even if Marsters himself believes he won't appear for some time.
"If I was producing the reboot, I wouldn't call me yet," he continued. "I would have to do the origin story of the new slayer, I would have to introduce all of her friends, I would have to set up the new world, and I would have to get them into at least one new adventure together before I dropped in any other characters — whether it's other new characters that I imagine, or whether it's characters from the original show. So I wouldn't imagine I would be called until, at the earliest, the end of season one, possibly into season two. That's when I'd do it.
"I guess I would be surprised if I was not called," he concluded, "and I'd be surprised if I was called now."
James Marsters' character originally began his life (or death) in the classic Buffy series as a villain, with initial plans simply for Spike to appear briefly within the show's second season. But the character's popularity led to Spike later becoming a series regular and a core part of the show — even transferring over to Buffy spin-off Angel when the former series finished.
Spike's later relationship with Buffy herself remains one of the series' hotly-debated storylines, while his fate in Angel — alongside the rest of that show's cast — was left on a cliffhanger due to that series' untimely cancelation. If Spike does indeed return in New Sunnydale, fans will no doubt be fascinated to see where the past 20 years has taken him.
For now, though, there's no clearer word on when New Sunnydale will continue production on its first season — or when it will be released. "I know we live in a society where we want binging, we want it now," Gellar said earlier this month, discussing the fact that work was still continuing behind the scenes. "I know this seems like it's taking a long time, and that's because unless we're sure it's exactly what we set out to do and that it makes sense to do it, we don't want to sully the legacy. When I know it's perfect, then it will be out there. But I won't do it unless I know it can be that."
Earlier this month, IO Interactive released the official PC requirements for 007 First Light, which raised a lot of questions. However, the team has now released an update in which it lowered the CPU, VRAM, and RAM requirements. So, let’s take a look at the revised PC requirements. In 007 First Light, players will follow … Continue reading IO Interactive has lowered the CPU, VRAM & RAM requirements for 007 First Light→
Cast your mind back to the end of last year, and you may remember we reported that a group of volunteer modders had united to develop an online mode for Rockstar's Bully (also known as Canis Canem Edit in some parts of the world). Fast-forward just a few short months later, however, and now the Bully online project is "shutting down forever."
Bully was a humorous action game that put players in the role of high school outcast Jimmy while attending a pretentious private school. Fans have long called for a sequel, which was once in development at Rockstar’s New England studio in the late 2000s, and while Bully 2 was obviously never released, some of its ideas made it into other Rockstar games like Red Dead Redemption 2.
Though the game was developed to be a single-player experience, the mod, which has been in development for years and fully released only last month, allowed players to team up for minigames, roleplay, compete in racing, and face off against NPCs, instantly drawing the attention of fans… and IP owner Rockstar, it seems.
"Coming with sad news today," wrote one of the Fat Pigeon Development team on the project's Discord. "The Bully Online project is shutting down forever, which unfortunately means all the following is going to happen in 24 hours."
The post reported that the Bully Online server would shut down, development of Bully Online scripts would stop, the source code would disappear, and all webpages referencing it would be removed, along with the launcher (which has seemingly already happened). All Bully Online account data will also be "permanently deleted" and even Discord channels related to the mod are getting nuked.
The team held off on detailing why this was happening, only confirming that lead dev SWEGTA hopes to upload an explanatory video to his YouTube channel. "For now, though, know this was not something we wanted," the statement added.
"I think we all know the reason, it's got everything to do with Rockstar's new CFX launch mod site where they make more greedy profit for [publisher] Take-Two Interactive by putting pay-walls on mods," posited one unhappy player. "I expect more mods to be shut down as the months go on with this new CFX marketplace."
That said, as this commenter points out, Bully Online was already effectively paywalled to donors of the project, which is widely frowned upon across the modding space. "Not surprising at all," they said. "Dude was pretty much asking to get shutdown the moment he paywalled early access to this."
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Days after Avengers: Doomsday's directors issued a cryptic tease regarding the movie's recent teasers, one fan believes they've "cracked the code" hidden in their countdown clocks.
The past month has seen Marvel unveil four Avengers: Doomsday teaser trailers, focusing on Steve Rogers, Thor, the X-Men and then Wakanda. Along the way we've seen our first look at the former Captain America and his newborn baby, an elderly Charles Xavier and Magneto, and The Fantastic Four's The Thing meeting the new Wakandan king.
But after the last trailer released, Joe and Anthony Russo teased there was more to these clips than met the eye. "What you've been watching for the last four weeks... are not teasers. Or trailers," the pair insisted. "They are stories. They are clues... Pay attention." Just days later, a theory has arisen arounds what these clues could be — and it's now gaining popularity among fans.
So, here's what Marvel fans think is going on. At the end of each teaser, a countdown clock shows the remaining months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds to Avengers: Doomsday's theatrical release (set from the moment the trailer was first available).
But each clock doesn't start immediately — instead, the numbers appear in stages, so there's a moment where a shorter timestamp is visible. And now, in a search for answers, fans have been cross-referencing these shorter timestamps with Avengers: Endgame — looking to see which scenes or snippets of dialogue they correspond with.
In a reddit post collating fans' findings, Marvel aficionado Fear_Itself has listed out each timestamp and their respective moment in Endgame, beginning with the Steve Rogers trailer that features a timestamp of 1:24:20. This matches with the scene where Tilda Swinton's Ancient One warns Hulk about removing Infinity Stones during the Time Heist, which will create branched realities — something that seems crucial if Doomsday, as is expected, explores the multiversal fallout of the Avengers' past actions.
"This confirms that Steve’s mission to return the stones (and his subsequent decision to stay in the past) is central to the conflict," Fear_Itself wrote. "It suggests his actions may have inadvertently triggered an incursion."
The timestamp in Thor's trailer points to 1:17:20, which corresponds to the moment Loki steals the Tesseract and escapes, creating the variant seen in the Loki series. Again, this highlights a multiversal shenanigan which created a branched reality.
Next up, the X-Men trailer's timestamp, which corresponds to 1:11:20. This is the scene in Asgard where Rocket asks Thor: "Are you crying?" Fear_Itself suggests this could be a pointer to Thor's mental state, but I really like a second suggestion by elbatcarter, who links this line with Deadpool's potential flashforward seen in Deadpool & Wolverine. "Why is Thor crying?" Deadpool says in that movie, looking at what appears to be an event from the future. It's a loose plot thread that fans expect Avengers: Doomsday to wrap up.
Finally, the timestamp in the Wakanda trailer is for 1:04:20, which is the scene where the Avengers plan and test the Time Heist. Again, this could be a pointer to when the team first test out the technology that's set to meddle with the multiverse.
"The Russo Brothers have told fans to 'pay attention' because these aren't just trailers; they are 'stories.' The code tells us that Doomsday is the direct consequence of the Time Heist," Fear_Itself wrote. "Every timestamp points to a moment where the Avengers meddled with time, creating the fractured multiverse that Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) will likely seek to repair or rule."
While it's a fine theory, it is just that — and other fans have suggested the timestamps could apply to other Marvel films, or simply point to relevant moments in Endgame out of sheer luck.
And why Endgame? It does make sense to try this movie first, as Doomsday increasingly feels like a sequel to that film's story — picking up Steve Rogers' life in the past, and likely exploring the ramifications of the Avengers' dabbling in the multiverse, something which has only increased over the course of the recent MCU saga. (Also, making a movie that's essentially an Endgame sequel also helps reintroduce the MCU to lapsed Marvel fans, who may have checked out of the franchise in the years since.)
So, what's next? Well, this week Marvel began a live countdown clock to the release of Avengers: Doomsday that's set to run for more than 11 months. So far, fans haven't seen any further clues there, but hundreds are still watching at the time of writing. Fans had hoped for a fifth trailer to arrive in theaters this week, though it now looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for that — until the Super Bowl on February 8, perhaps.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
In an excitable post, Re-Logic's Loki confirmed that while the team "did have to resubmit a few things, which pushed us back a bit further than expected," the release date is now locked in and will include "things that got left out of 1.4.4" plus crossover events with Dead Cells and a second collab with Pocketpair's Palworld, this time for Terraria players.
While we're on the topic of "cross," no, unfortunately crossplay will not be a part of this update. The team does hope it'll be "made available some time after 1.4.5," but didn't hint at a timescale for that.
"The ReLogic team has ALWAYS went above and beyond for the Terraria community," writes one happy player. "For well over a decade, you guys have given us update after update for free. You guys even created a comic book AND a board game for us. On top of that, you've held tons of contests for us and have always kept us well-informed and up to date on everything relating to Terraria. What's crazy is that's not even close to all the amazing things that you guys do for us. That's why the Terraria community is the greatest gaming community on Earth."
To get an idea of just how long ago Terraria released, IGN reviewed it in 2011. Even then, though, we thought it was amazing, scoring it 9/10 and writing: "Though on the surface it looks like just another "me too" indie game seeking to ride the coattails of Minecraft's success, Terraria expands on the familiar sandbox gameplay with a greater emphasis on combat and adventure that proves very satisfying. That's rare indeed."
Here's the full update. Brace yourself — there's a lot to read!
Terraria Update 1.4.5 — January 27, 2026
New items
Items from Dead Cells, including:
A vanity outfit of the Beheaded, the protagonist of Dead Cells.
Hanging flasks that can display items in a similar way to Item Frames.
Weapons for all damage types, including:
The Flint, a melee weapon.
The Killing Deck.
The Mushroom Staff, which summons a Mushroom Boi minion and is crafted with some combination of Glowing Mushrooms. The minion's eyes are visible in the dark.
A Barnacle sentry.
The Swarm.
The Ram Rune.
The Wings of the Crow.
A Health Fountain furniture item that gives the player a buff when interacted with.
A summonable Digtoise from Palworld that can mine through blocks. It is unknown whether or not it is a pet.
Several whips, including:
A whip dropped by the Moon Lord.
A Stardust-themed whip.
A Corruption-themed whip called the Soulscourge.
A Crimson-themed whip called the Vasculash.
A Duke Fishron-themed whip.
A Meteorite-themed whip called the Starcrash.
A Plantera-themed whip that releases homing petal projectiles after hitting an enemy.
A white whip.
An early-game whip called the Slime Whip. It is crafted from Gel and inflicts the Slime debuff.
An early-game spear called the Slime Spear. It is crafted from Gel and inflicts the Slime debuff.
Several furniture sets, including:
A Hallow-themed set inspired by the look of Hallowed armor.
An Aetherium-themed set.
A Fallen Star-themed set.
A Feywood-themed set inspired by Fairies and the Fallen Logs they can spawn at
A Corruption-themed set.
A Crimson-themed set.
A Gothic-themed set.
A Stone-themed set.
A modern-looking set.
A Moon-themed set.
A Snow-themed set.
A Flinx-themed set.
A complete Pine set.
Fallen Star Bricks and Walls.
Music Blocks that play notes.
Several Boulder-related items or features, including:
A type of Boulder that "falls" upwards.
Boulder Rain, where Boulders fall from the sky during a Thunderstorm.
A Rainbow Boulder (initially teased as "🌈🪨") found in secret seeds combined with Celebrationmk10. When activated it will bounce between ores and chests while passing through blocks and not hurting the player.
A Poo Boulder.
A Shimmer Water Gun that allows the player to transform an NPC into their Shimmered form without submerging them in Shimmer.
A potion or food item whose crafting recipe involves Bottled Water.
Several transformation mounts (similar to the Wolf mount summoned by Lilith's Necklace), including:
A transformation mount that resembles a velociraptor. The mount can be dyed and displays vanity items equipped in the head slot.When the player is flying, the velociraptor is carried by a pterodactyl. The mount-summoning item is crafted with some combination of Sturdy Fossils.
A transformation mount that resembles a bat
A transformation mount that resembles a Rat.
A transformation mount that resembles a Fairy.
A roller skate mount which allows the player to scoot on surfaces and grind on Minecart Tracks.
Paintings made by several members of the Terraria community, including:
GreyL1me
KirbyTG
Artyrian (previously Timburr471)
Orange Dude
Shadouette
Lady Forestia
JzBoy
BionicBandit
Runic Pixels
Waasephi
A painting of the r/place 2023 art created by the Terraria community.
An axe fairy pet harvesting wood from a tree.
An Axe Fairy pet that looks like Cenx's avatar and can harvest wood from trees.
A pufferfish pet.
A frog-themed accessory.
An accessory resembling a Tamagotchi on a chain.
A Silly Balloon-themed accessory.
An item resembling a blue ribbon with a heart on it.
A Stress Ball accessory that makes the player automatically attack when not moving and their inventory is closed. It has some type of interaction with the Extractinator.
A Magic String accessory that causes yoyos to fly off the string and deal damage. It can be combined with the Yoyo Bag to make the Magic Yoyo Bag.
Several vanity accessories that change the sound the player makes when hurt. These include:
The "Goat's Tuft" which makes the player sound like a goat and can be found in Gold Chests. Its tooltip is 'Quite the gruff tuft'.
An accessory that makes the player sound like a Zombie.
An accessory that makes the player sound like a turkey.
An accessory that makes the player sound like a chicken.
An accessory that makes the player sound like an arcade machine.
A chest piece to complete the set of the Moon Lord Mask and Moon Lord Legs.
An item whose sprite resembles the Cobweb's with added sparkles.
Cloud platforms.
A variant of the Living Wood Wall that allows placing an unsafe wall (similar to the Forbidden Lihzahrd Brick Wall, Cursed Dungeon Brick Walls, etc.).
An "Axearang" (a combination of axe and boomerang) that is capable of chopping down trees when thrown.
A pink crafted banner.
Throwable mud balls that place a Mud Block when they land. These deal 8 classless damage, inflict "Average" knockback (4–6), and have a "Very fast" use time (9–20).
Placeable versions of background objects, including:
Demon Altar. It only drops "in the most extreme of circumstances and is not going to be easily obtained/readily available".
Fallen Log.
Life Fruit.
Shadow Orb.
An item that resembles a clay furnace.
A placeable CRT Television that applies a visual filter when turned on like Monoliths.
A developer set for Chicken Bones.
An item called the "Mitey-Titey" that can place stalactite and stalagmite ambient objects in a similar way to the Rubblemaker.
Hoppers that can pick up dropped items and store them in Chests.
A stick-like item that kites can be attached to and flown from.
A Freeze Bomb which turns water in its blast radius into Ice Blocks.
A Bomb that can destroy Hardmode ore.
Beach wear vanity sets.
The Heroicis vanity set.
Upgraded versions of Mining armor and Angler armor.
Another headpiece option for Chlorophyte armor.
Jungle Juice, a recovery potion which restores 180 health upon use. A stack of 3 Jungle Juices is crafted from 3 Greater Healing Potions and 1 Life Fruit.
Infused Fertilizer, an upgraded version of Fertilizer which can be used to grow tall trees. Its tooltip is 'It's got what plants crave!'
An "Acorn Slingshot" that shoots Acorns. When the acorn projectile lands on soil it turns into a tree sapling, in a similar way to how the Sandgun places sand.
Rock Candy, a food item that can be crafted from Gem Bunnies or Gem Squirrels.
A pylon.
An RC Car that can be remote-controlled by the player, similar to the Kwad Racer Drone. It can move on both blocks and background walls.
Other new content
Entities, including:
Several slime variants that carry items. The item inside the slime's body changes its behavior. They are also more common in the new skyblock seed. These slime variants include:
"Cloud Slime", a slime variant that jumps extra high and carries a Cloud Block.
"Dirt Slime", a slime variant that carries a Dirt Block.
"Granite Slime", a slime variant that spawns underground and carries a Granite Block.
"Slush Slime", a spiked slime variant that glows in the dark, spawns in the Ice biome, and carries a Slush Block.
A slime carrying Moonglow that emits light and plants herbs.
A slime carrying a Dart Trap that can shoot darts at the player.
A pufferfish enemy/critter.
The Orca returning from the Old-gen console version Old-gen console version and Nintendo Nintendo 3DS version version, with updated sprites.
A Seeds Menu that allows players to mix different secret world seeds together. Some seed combinations will trigger additional changes. Some examples include:
The player becoming a vampire, spawning underground, and burning under sunlight. The player can prevent burning under sunlight by holding an Umbrella or wearing a hat.
The water in the Ocean being replaced with Shimmer.
Flooding whenever there is heavy rain.
A functional use for Stink Potions.
Slimes change their color when standing over painted blocks.
A "skyblock" secret world seed, where the player spawns on a customized Floating Island in an empty world with very limited resources available to them.
Meteor showers that cause Meteorite to fall from the sky. This may or may not be exclusive to the new skyblock seed.
Players with bad luck will be pooped on by Birds and attacked by Squirrels.
At least one hairstyle.A minion count underneath the buff icon that displays how many minions the player has summoned.
An ambience effect of small cosmetic insects flying through wild grass plants.
An effect that converts placed Torches to their biome variant.
New boss music for the Eater of Worlds.
New boss music for The Twins.
At least 10 music tracks, including new themes for The Twins, the Eater of Worlds, the Torch God, King Slime, Skeletron, and Skeletron Prime.
Achievements.
A status message in multiplayer that tells how much damage each player did during a boss fight and how long the fight lasted.
Content for the thunderstorm weather event. This includes lightning that strikes enemies and the tops of trees.
A shader inspired by the "film noir" style.
The ability to place critters as a small furniture item with the ⚷ Open / Activate button. The placed critter will stay near the furniture item.
When reforging the best weapon modifiers like Legendary cannot be accidentally skipped. This is accompanied by a rainbow text effect and rainbow particles.
More biome backgrounds.
Modifiers for summon weapons, such as Eager, Focused, Loyal, Worthy, Rabid, Ballistic, and Fabled.
Two Dungeon entrance variations that have a chance to replace the original Dungeon entrance during world generation.
Miscellaneous changes
Localization for Japanese, Korean, and potentially Traditional Chinese.
Possible improvements to localizations.
Pumps in item form no longer burn in lava.
Updated sprites for:
Multiple banners.
Multiple trophies.
Weapon Rack.
Demon Altar.
Slime Staff along with the Baby Slime it summons and buff icon.
Crimson Heart light pet.
Shadow Orb light pet along with its buff icon.
Shadow Orb background object.
Imp Staff along with the Imp it summons and buff icon.
Moon Lord.
Bewitching Table.
Alchemy Table.
Bar.
Bar Stool.
Banquet Table.
Jim's set.
Lihzahrd Brick.
Lihzahrd.
Dungeon, Lihzahrd and Tundra Pots.
Mini Minotaur pet.
Pine Door, Pine Table, Pine Chair, and Pine Tree Block.
More inclusive and customizable character creation that allows players to mix and match different character styles and voices. A third new voice type and the ability to change the voice's pitch are also being added.
Improvements to the Smart Cursor to relieve frustration when placing platforms.
New graphical effects for the sun and clouds.
Characters and worlds in the main menu are sorted by when they were last played, with the most recently played ones at the top. Additionally, all worlds that the selected character has visited before are marked with a small flag icon.
A glitch was fixed which allowed creating almost any item. It involved the de-syncing of door tiles in multiplayer and placement of a Bast Statue.
Liquid being stored inside Bubbles.
Liquids can be stored inside Bubbles.
The Rubblemaker and Echo Coating are available in pre-Hardmode.
The different types of Planter Boxes are no longer unlocked by defeating specific bosses.
Wormhole Potions and Potions of Return are easier to obtain.
Moon Lord Boulders are in For the worthy.
Flairon can be swung like thrown flails. It can still be used as a launched flail as well.
Phaseblades can be thrown and stick to the ground where they land, dealing damage to any enemies that walk into them. They can be called back by the player.
Zombie Arm creates Zombie gore when swung.
Changes to the Harpoon.
Several changes to town NPCs and their houses:
The Classy Cane can hit NPCs, which causes them to drop coins.
NPC houses no longer require a solid block for the NPC to stand on.
NPCs no longer require a house in order to appear. However, NPCs without a house will leave temporarily during the night.
The dialogue window of NPCs has a "Housing" option which includes hints on how a house can be built.
It is more transparent how a house is scanned.
Slimes have a chance to drop Grass Seeds, Jungle Grass Seeds, and Acorns.
Dungeon Bricks can be crafted with Hardmode ore.
Stackable weapons, tools, and Clothier Voodoo Dolls.
Multiple items cannot be reforged at once, however.
Increased Rainbow Slime spawn rate.
Changes to yoyos.
Changes to the Paladin's Hammer.
Fish will appear in the water while fishing.
In multiplayer, players can spectate other players while waiting to respawn after dying.
The style of Party Presents and Presents can be manually set before placing, instead of being determined randomly when placed.
Cannons and Snowball Launchers can deal damage when activated by Wires.
Cannons also no longer require Cannonballs to be fired.
Cannonballs can be placed as tiles. They can also be hammered to different shapes.
Conveyor Belts can move enemies. They also can move items vertically.
Earned banners no longer drop from their respective enemies. Instead, they can be claimed via a new menu in the inventory.
Jungle Grass can be planted on Lihzahrd Brick.
Improved Control Banners (the areas showing button mappings) for controllers on Console version Console and Mobile version Mobile, which display related buttons near their respective UI elements instead of displaying all buttons at the bottom of the screen.
New graphical effect for when the Paladin's Shield activates.
New visual effect for pop-up texts when obtaining new items.
New visual effect for pop-up text when crafting weapons and armor.
Improvements to the Mobile version Mobile touch control editor:
Instead of placing buttons with a fixed size then editing their function, the user now places a type of button on the screen, then edits its function and size.
Control configurations can now be copied and pasted across loadouts.
New default presets.
New optional control scheme which removes the right virtual joystick.
New option of toggling "multi-touch" for a button, which has the following effects when turned on:
The button will remain pressed if the player drags their finger away from it, and will only be released when their finger leaves the screen.
If the player drags their finger onto another button that also has multi-touch enabled, that button is also pressed down. Dragging the finger away from this button will stop pressing it.
Armor pieces now display their set bonus in gray text when not active.
Hooks now mention their keybind in their tooltips.
Mannequins (and Womannequins) can have their posture changed (e.g. sit down), hold items, and ride on mounts.
The Slime debuff increases the damage of fire related debuffs, such as On Fire!.
The defense icon shows how much damage is reduced by the player's defense stat when hovered on, and has different sprites in Expert and Master Mode.
Updated crafting features:
New UI screen for the Guide's "Crafting" option and regular crafting, similar to the duplication menu in Journey Mode: listing all craftable items while having category tabs to show items by types, and a search bar to search for individual items.
Pressing ⚷ Open / Activate on a crafting station also opens the crafting UI.
Items in all nearby storage items can be used in crafting, instead of only a single opened one.
New animation for the Barrel when a player interacts with it, indicating if it is open or closed, similar to Chests.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Avatar writer and director James Cameron has discussed the possibility of moving forward with Avatar 4 and 5 following the release of the third film, Fire and Ash, saying he must find a cheaper way to produce the movies in order to continue.
The special effects-heavy Avatar films cost a huge amount of money to produce, but they have historically made billions of dollars at the box office. 2009's Avatar 1 remains the highest-grossing movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation), and has earned a staggering $2.9 billion across several theatrical runs. 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water has earned $2.3 billion, meanwhile, cementing its place as the third-highest grossing film of all time.
Latest figures indicate Avatar: Fire and Ash has now grossed $1.231 billion globally after four weekends in theaters. It is trailing both its predecessors at this point in its run. After weekend four, Avatar: The Way of Water had made $1.713 billion, and Avatar had made $1.335 billion. It looks increasingly unlikely that Fire and Ash will end up matching Avatar 1 or 2 by the end of its theatrical run. But the bigger question is whether it will end up doing well enough to convince Disney to greenlight Avatar 4 and 5. Disney has given both sequels release dates already: Avatar 4 currently has a December 21, 2029 release date, with Avatar 5 due out December 19, 2031. Cameron, now 71, would be close to 80 years old by the time it all wraps up.
In a new interview with Taiwanese outlet TVBS News, Cameron stopped short of confirming whether Avatar 4 and 5 would definitely happen. But he did say Avatar 3 will need to make a lot of money, and he’ll need to figure out a way to make Avatar 4 and 5 for less money, in order to get the thumbs up from Disney.
Cameron was asked about the chances of Everything Everywhere All at Once star Michelle Yeoh appearing in future Avatar movies, which is where talk of 4 and 5 came up.
“Michelle [Yeoh] is definitely going to be in 4, if we make 4,” Cameron began. “Here’s the thing: the movie industry is depressed right now. Avatar 3 cost a lot of money. We have to do well in order to continue. We have to do well and we need to figure out how to make Avatar movies more inexpensively in order to continue.
“If we continue and we do 4, we also do 4 and 5 together. So we made 2 and 3 together, one big story. And then 4 and 5 is another big story. And Michelle will be in 4 and 5. And she will play a performance capture character. Her character name is Paktu’eylat. She will be a Na’vi.”
Cameron’s comments here echo those he made in the run up to Fire and Ash’s release, where he admitted he was feeling nervous about the film’s box office performance and expressed concern about the “forces” working against theatrical releases in 2025. Speaking on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Cameron said there was potential for “sequelitis.”
"People tend to dismiss sequels unless it’s the third Lord of the Rings film and you want to see what happens to everybody, which in my mind this is — this is the culmination of a story arc, but that may not be how the public sees it,” he said. And there’s the “one-two punch” of streaming and Covid, which means fewer people are going to the movies — 75% of the number in 2019, Cameron suggested.
When pressed on how much Avatar: Fire and Ash cost to make, Cameron wouldn’t be drawn into divulging a figure, only suggesting it was a lot of money, and so the movie will have to make a lot of money to turn a profit.
“It is one metric f**k ton of money, which means we have to make two metric f**k tons of money to make a profit,” he said. “I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?”
And on that point, Cameron admitted he was “absolutely” ready to walk away from Avatar if Fire and Ash flops. “I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years,” he said. “Actually 30 years because I wrote it in ‘95, but I wasn’t working continuously on it for those first 10 years. Yeah, absolutely, sure. If this is where it ends, cool.” But what about open story threads? “There’s one open thread. I’ll write a book!” Cameron responded.
The future of cinemagoing is top of mind as 2026 kicks off, with Netflix, which is buying Warner Bros. for $72 billion, reportedly interested in a 17-day window for theatrical releases before they hit the streaming platform. Meanwhile, box office revenue is struggling, with even Marvel movies — previously guaranteed hits — having trouble getting fans into theaters. The big question right now is, are we witnessing the beginning of the end of going to the cinema?
Hollywood legend Leonardo DiCaprio recently expressed concern about the future of cinemagoing, wondering whether it will become a niche pursuit. In an interview with The Sunday Times, the Titanic, Inception, and The Wolf of Wall Street star wondered whether “people still have the appetite” for theaters, and, if not, whether they might “become silos — like jazz bars.”
Photo by VCG/VCG 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.
After the mildly disappointing Spider-Man set, though, we’re hoping the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collab will be a little more tubular.
And, if you’re already sold on meeting up with cardboard versions of the Heroes in a Half Shell, their friends, and their foes, then good news - Amazon is once again discounting boxes of Play Boosters, now down to their lowest ever price.
In December, the price dropped to $159.99, bringing the Universes Beyond box of Play Boosters to around the standard price of a Universes Within box, but this now drops even further to $148.20 - the lowest we’ve seen at Amazon.
With 30 packs, that’s less than five bucks per one ($4.94, to be precise), which is a couple of bucks off what you’d usually pay when buying them individually.
We saw similar drops for Spider-Man, which would be a little worrisome if Avatar hadn’t got the same treatment - and that set was great.
For more on Magic: The Gathering, check out the wild ride that is the game’s 2026 set lineup, as well as our guide to preordering the first set of the year, Lorwyn Eclipsed.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
Monster Hunter Wilds was one of the worst-optimized games of 2025. Now, while Capcom released a big update last month (and promised two more updates for next year), the game still runs poorly on pretty much all platforms. However, it appears that a modder was able to almost double the game’s performance. According to Redditor ‘de_Tylmarande‘, … Continue reading One Modder Almost Doubled Monster Hunter Wilds’ Performance→
I went into this deals sweep with the best intentions. A quick look, maybe one recommendation, definitely no reinstalling. Two hours later I was deep into patch notes, storage management, and that familiar internal lie of “I’ll just sample it”. These discounts are not subtle. They are the kind that turn sensible adults into backlog hoarders with the confidence of someone who absolutely will find the time later.
In retro news, I'm celebrating the twin 38 year birthdays of some NES greats. The original Metroid needs very little introduction, as it's a franchise that continues to kick goals and acquire new fans today. Conversely, the bodaciousness of Rad Racer might be lost on many of you. It was basically one of the best racers on the system and featured prominently in a 1989 film—Nintendo's 1h 40m advertisement called The Wizard.
- Assassin's Creed III: Liberation HD (PS3) 2014. eBay
- Dr. Luigi (WiiU) 2014.
Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch
Batman: Arkham Trilogy (-57%) A$39 Rocksteady's trilogy remains the gold standard for superhero games, and Arkham City still embarrasses half the genre.
Sonic Origins Plus (-48%) A$32.90 The cleanest way to replay classic Sonic without digging out ancient hardware or excuses.
Red Dead Redemption (-50%) A$29 Rockstar storytelling at its peak, now playable wherever you feel like ignoring responsibilities.
Katamari Damacy Reroll (-75%) A$7.40 Joyful nonsense elevated into art, and still one of the best vibes per dollar deals around.
GTA Trilogy (-63%) A$29 Three cultural touchstones with rough edges, but the freedom still hits like nothing else.
Adam Mathew is a passionate connoisseur, a lifelong game critic, and an Aussie deals wrangler who genuinely wants to hook you up with stuff that's worth playing (but also cheap). He plays practically everything, sometimes on YouTube.
Another year is over, which means a ton of LEGO sets were just retired as of December 2025. One of the best times of the year to buy LEGO is right before the sets are officially retired, but one of the worst times is after. Once a set is retired, it becomes increasingly difficult to find it available at MSRP anywhere. This is especially true for popular themed-sets like the Harry Potter line.
There were quite a few LEGO Harry Potter sets that got the axe at the end of 2025, but many of them are still in stock at or below MSRP at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Multiple sets that are part of the massive Hogwarts Castle build are included here for the first time, so now is your last chance to pick them up for your collection before they are only available at resellers.
Recently Retired LEGO Harry Potter Sets in Stock
Of the LEGO Harry Potter sets that were recently retired, I was only able to find eight of them still available at a major retailer at regular prices. Surprisingly, Barnes & Noble seemed to have the most retired sets still in stock. Most notably, the Hogwarts Express & Hogsmeade Station set is only available at the online bookstore. Amazon seems to be a more reliable place to find the cheaper sets, though.
If you're looking for a full list of all of the recently retired LEGO sets, I'd suggest checking out the list over at Brick Economy. The website also keeps track of price increases on sets that are no longer in circulation.
New LEGO Sets for 2026
With older sets getting retired, newer sets are arriving to take their place. We saw a ton of new LEGO sets get released for January 2026 and there's plenty more to expect throughout the rest of the year. The upcoming LEGO Pokémon sets have recently gone up for preorder (out February 27) and the Star Wars Smart Brick sets are up as well (out March 1). For a full look at all of the new LEGO sets already available for 2026, check out the carousel below:
Connexion
