Return to Silent Hill may have only released in theaters last week, but director Christophe Gans has already confirmed that a longer Director’s Cut exists.
According to a fan who attended a premiere and Q&A with the filmmaker last week and shared some highlights on Reddit, Gans described the alternate version "as longer and allowing [the story] more room to breathe." This includes the death scene of a prominent character from the game that only briefly appeared in the movie.
"Gans said he struggled to find the right place for it in the edit," the fan wrote. "It is unclear whether [the scene] would appear in the Director’s Cut, though he expressed a desire for audiences to see it someday." He also told attendees that he had been instructed by the producers to keep the movie under two hours long. There is no indication, however, that this Return to Silent Hill Director's Cut will ever be released.
Return to Silent Hill debuted to a dreadful reception last week, with just $3.2 million coming in from North American theaters. Despite Konami resurrecting its horror franchise with two well-received games, Silent Hill 2 Remake and Silent Hill f (as well as the divisive Silent Hill: Ascension and upcoming Silent Hill Townfall), the third Silent Hill movie had the lowest domestic box office opening of all three Silent Hill films; 2006's Silent Hill generated $20.2 million, and the painfully poor follow-up Silent Hill: Revelation just $8 million — which is still more than twice Return to Silent Hill's domestic opening.
IGN's Return to Silent Hill review returned a 5/10. We said: "Return to Silent Hill isn’t completely without merit. It’s certainly a better follow-up to Cristophe Gans’ original 2006 film than 2012’s Silent Hill: Revelation, one that finds some success drawing on the creepy imagery and sound design of the games. But it’s ultimately an adaptation that fails to improve upon the source material or do anything particularly new and interesting. Those craving a truly great psychological horror experience are better off booting up a version of Silent Hill 2."
Gans recently said that despite receiving death threats over adapting the horror series for the big screen, he would be open to bringing another instalment to life, insisting: "I will adapt another chapter because there are some that are extremely good, something very different from the first film, and now Return to Silent Hill. I like this world, and I can see that plenty of people are thinking I’m doing a pretty good job."
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.
James Gunn has defended The Brave and the Bold screenwriter Christina Hodson amid fan concern following news she will write the DC Universe’s Batman movie.
Last week, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Christina Hodson was writing The Brave and the Bold, which will be the first Batman movie in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe. Hodson is best known for writing 2018’s Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, 2020 DCEU movie Birds of Prey, and 2023’s ill-fated The Flash. She also wrote the infamous Batgirl movie Warner Bros. canceled after it was ready for release.
The backlash has a number of components to it, one of which is The Flash itself. 2023 superhero movie The Flash, starring Ezra Miller, was a critical and commercial flop, pulling in just $271 million worldwide during its theatrical run. Both it and the entire DCEU are now defunct.
Gunn responded to one person on social media who said Hodson was getting “unjust hatred,” suggesting The Flash fans saw in theaters wasn’t The Flash Hodson outlined in her screenplay.
“I will only say anyone maligning Christina Hodson's screenwriting skills has almost certainly never read an actual screenplay by Christina Hodson — she's one of the writers who was with us early in the DCU planning stages,” Gunn said. “I don't think you can judge my writing based on films others directed, as massive liberties are sometimes taken.”
In October, The Flash director Andy Muschietti defended his box office bomb, insisting people “like to talk s***” about films they haven’t seen. In an interview with The Playlist to promote IT prequel series Welcome To Derry, Muschietti insisted The Flash was a good movie, and some of the criticism it suffered came from people who hadn’t even seen it.
“A lot of people did not see it,” he said. “But you know how things are these days — people don’t see things, but they like to talk s*** about it, and they like to jump on bandwagons. They don’t really know. People are angry for reasons that are unrelated to these things.”
Muschietti then acknowledged the impact of Ezra Miller’s off-screen controversies on the movie. “Of course, we had a publicity crisis with Ezra that is undeniable,” he said. “And I’m not questioning that. But yeah, we love the movie. And actually, we really recommend it.”
He continued: “And again, we love the movie. We, you know, we gave it our blood, sweat, and tears all the way to the end. And I watched it, like a week ago, and loved it again.”
Muschietti said the film failed to appeal to "the four quadrants" — a movie industry term meaning to appeal to everyone — enough to justify its $200 million budget.
"The Flash failed, among all the other reasons, because it wasn’t a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that," Muschietti said. "When you spend $200 million making a movie, [Warner Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters.
"I’ve found in private conversations that a lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film I’ve learned."
The four quadrants, as defined by Hollywood, are males under 25, males over 25, females under 25, and females over 25.
As for The Brave and the Bold, Hodson may be set to reunite with Muschietti, who THR said remains on board the film but whose involvement is not set in stone given his commitments to Welcome to Derry Season 2. Either way, it sounds like The Brave and the Bold is some way away. THR said “it would be some time before a definitive draft comes in as the studio is taking a measured approach to its development.”
Gunn must navigate next year’s release of The Batman 2 and potentially The Batman 3. The Batman 2, starring Robert Pattinson in the title role, is set to launch five-and-a-half years after The Batman, on October 1, 2027. Writer-director Matt Reeves has said he set out to make a trilogy of Batman films as part of his Batman Epic Crime Saga, and as of 2024 that plan was still on. The Batman films exist in a universe separate to the ongoing DCU, and given Gunn has ruled out Pattinson’s Batman crossing over, we’re set for a new actor to play the Caped Crusader for The Brave and the Bold.
Gunn then committed to never releasing two Batman movies in the same year. “I think both Batman and WW [Wonder Woman] are incredibly important,” he said in response to another fan. “But I'm also not going to have two Batman movies come out in the same year.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Woot has plenty to offer right now in its latest 'Video Game Mega Sale!', which is back with some truly excellent discounts, including on a wide variety of Nintendo Switch games.
Nintendo recently confirmed a release date for Super Mario Bros. Wonder's expanded Switch 2 Edition, which makes it my top pick in the sale right now. The Switch 2 Edition will be available to purchase separately, or existing Switch owners of the game can alternatively purchase an upgrade pack, which costs $19.99.
So with the $46.99 cost, plus that extra $19.99 to upgrade, you're looking at $66.98 instead of $79.99, so around $13 savings in total, if you don't already own the game. This is the best and most affordable way to play on Switch 2 with the full upgrades and additional content.
Arriving on March 26, the upgraded release will include a suite of new minigames and the ability to play as Rosalina, ahead of her big screen debut in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
An important thing to keep in mind is that all Nintendo Switch games are region-free, so if you come across a game deal from Woot's sale that says it's the 'International Version', it will still work just fine on your console.
What's especially nice about these deals is that certain games, such as Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Breath of the Wild, can be upgraded to their Switch 2 versions for a small fee.
At these prices, you can buy the Switch 1 version and upgrade to the next-gen version for less than it costs to buy their Switch 2 editions. Even a game like Animal Crossing: New Horizons is worth buying now at this price, with its $5 upgrade pack now available, compared to dropping the $64.99 on its boxed Switch 2 edition.
Robert Anderson, Senior Commerce Editor, and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.
This article contains contributions from Hannah Hoolihan.
Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has assured fans that he is "not going to abandon Haunted Chocolatier," saying: "it's taking a while to finish the game," and "that's okay."
In a new blog posted to the official Haunted Chocolatier website, Barone dispelled a number of myths and rumors that have popped up about him and his work on the upcoming game, admitting: "I know, I know, I shouldn't have announced the game so early. But I had my reasons." He added that Haunted Chocolatier will release "when it's done."
Responding to reports that the game will be abandoned entirely and possibly folded into Stardew Valley, Barone shut that down completely, writing: "No. First, I am not going to abandon Haunted Chocolatier. But even if I did, I am not going to add it to Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley and Haunted Chocolatier are separate games. It doesn’t even make sense from a technical perspective, as Haunted Chocolatier is written from scratch, it’s not the same 'engine' as Stardew Valley. You can’t just copy and paste Haunted Chocolatier into Stardew Valley."
Last summer, Barone admitted that he "didn't want to just be the Stardew Valley guy," explaining that was why he's currently working on Haunted Chocolatier. He's been clear that we shouldn't expect a release date anytime soon, though — there's "still a lot to be done," particularly as he feels it's "got to be better" than Stardew Valley. But that doesn't mean he's using Stardew to test ideas for Haunted Chocolatier, or vice-versa.
"When working on Stardew Valley, I’m not thinking about Haunted Chocolatier, and vice versa. I wouldn’t 'test something out' in Stardew Valley because that would be unfair to Stardew Valley, and also I don’t want to spoil ideas for Haunted Chocolatier by adding them first to Stardew Valley. Also, Stardew Valley is a different game, so you can’t really 'test something' for Haunted Chocolatier in it in an accurate way."
Barone also insisted that at no point did he intimate that the new game wouldn't be out until 2030, writing: "I was asked in 2025 if it would come out within the next five years, and I said 'I hope so.' This is very different than saying 'it’s coming out in 2030.' The bottom line is, I don’t want to give a release date. The game will come out when it’s done. Anyway, the only thing that really matters is that I keep making progress on the game and release it. So I’m gonna get back to doing that now.
"TLDR: I’m alive, the game is still in development, and it will come out when it’s ready. Thank you for your patience."
As for why Barone's working on a Stardew Valley update at the same time as Haunted Chocolatier? "I’m working on a new Stardew update because it’s a very popular game with a large, ever-growing playerbase, and I still have additional ideas for how to improve it."
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.
Nintendo has added health bars to Splatoon 3 more than three years after the game's release, prompting a mixed reaction from fans.
This week, Nintendo dropped an unexpected update to its inky shooter threequel, which originally launched for the original Switch back in September 2022. Alongside a new "Aura Flow" feature and other tweaks, the patch has notably added health bars — something which has come as a huge surprise to fans of the franchise.
In patch notes published alongside the game's 11.0.0 update, Nintendo announced that it would now be possible "to see an opponent's remaining health when they've been hit. Previously, you could only see how damaged an enemy was by looking closely at how much ink they were covered in – not so easy to do in the heat of battle!"
Apart from the surprise of such a major change being made so late in Splatoon 3's life, it's that latter sentence that has left fans with confusion. Splatoon has always featured a visual representation of damage without the need for health bars — how splattered in ink a character is — and health pools in general are typically quite low, with most weapons splatting foes in three or four hits.
Combat is an important part of Splatoon gameplay, of course, but only one component — as matches revolve around coating maps with ink to establish territory control.
"You'll also be able to see the health bars of your teammates if they've taken damage," Nintendo continued. "Keeping an eye on these health bars is a great way to support your allies or chase down weakened foes – even if you've teamed up with Inklings and Octolings you're not familiar with."
"Health bars are even funnier when you consider Splatoon came up with a unique way to have health bars diegetically - by having the enemy getting covered in ink, that's the stuff that makes the game special," wrote one fan, EIectroDev. "Correct me if I'm wrong but it really took the Splatoon developers three games and over ten years to add visible health bars," noted Thinginator90. "The minds of Nintendo devs never cease to amaze."
"This health bar is so ugly im so sorry i hope we can toggle it off," added candy_draws_o_o, one of many fans to complain about how basic the health bar looks. (And no, you can't toggle it off.)
This week's update also added "Aura Flow," a gameplay feature that rewards competitive play — splatting multiple enemies in quick succession — with a burst of area-covering ink, plus a 30-second buff to speed and other stats.
"I hates this and the health bar update," said KidaToAsobou. "It just makes Splatoon a more aggressive/competitive game. [Splatoon 3] already did that by making the maps smaller forcing players to fight more but this only further incentivizes people to attack the enemy team rather then inking."
It's perhaps unsurprising to see a negative reaction to such changes from fans who have become used to playing Splatoon 3 a certain way for so long. But this only further begs the question of why Nintendo is adding these features now, years after launch. By way of an answer, several fans have suggested the possibility that Nintendo is now testing ideas it is experimenting with ahead of a new iteration of Splatoon, examining feedback and using Splatoon 3 as live gameplay environment to see how player behavior is impacted. "Testing splatoon 4 features I reckon," wrote pejic839, "like when they added online to Super Mario party as a test for Superstars."
Next up for the Splatoon franchise will be Switch 2 single-player spin-off Splatoon Raiders, which will expand the series with a more story-orientated entry. As for Splatoon 4, while another game in the franchise feels inevitable, there's no word on that yet.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Amazon is releasing Fallout Season 1 for free on YouTube ahead of next week’s Season 2 finale.
Fallout Season 1 episodes are dropping on the Prime Video YouTube channel daily, with Episode 1, called The End, and Episode 2, called The Target, live now.
It’s a welcome addition for non-Amazon Prime subscribers and a move that will surely build even more interest in the show, with Season 2, Episode 8 set for broadcast next week.
As someone who is up to date with the Fallout show, it was interesting to put Season 1, Episode 1 on YouTube for a few minutes, given recent comments from Cooper Howard / The Ghoul actor Walton Goggins.
Warning! Spoilers for Fallout follow:
In a recent interview, Goggins teased that Episode 8 will finally resolve one of the burning questions fans have had since Fallout hit Prime video back in 2024: how did his pre-war character, Cooper Howard, come to be at that birthday party with his daughter, right as the bombs fell?
"I mean, the whole first seven minutes of this experience in Season 1 was about [Cooper being] a guy at a birthday party,” Goggins told Entertainment Weekly. “Well, how did he get to that birthday party? What happened? It's all leading somewhere."
Rewatching Episode 1, I also picked up on something that passed me by before: during the party we hear a radio news bulletin that tells us the White House still has no comment on the whereabouts of the U.S. president.
Why is that of interest now? This week’s episode revealed the President of the United States, played by Clancy Brown, in a Fallout franchise first (he’s been talked about in the video games before, briefly, but never turned up in the flesh until now). In Fallout lore, ‘The Last President of the United States’ is working for The Enclave, the faction fans suspect to be pulling the strings in the TV show’s overarching storyline. He ditches the White House and relocates to Control Station Enclave off of the coast of San Francisco (we see this in Fallout 2). Based on how things go in Season 2, Episode 7, Cooper Howard is about to find out just how dastardly the U.S. president is for himself.
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.
In December 2025, I informed you about a mod that aimed to make The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim look like a Studio Ghibli-style game. And a couple of days ago, its creator released a new add-on for it. So, let’s take a look at it. The mod we shared in December only changed the look … Continue reading Skyrim’s Studio Ghibli-Style Overhaul Mod Just Got Even Better→
One of the showrunners of the Fallout TV series has discussed the fate of Mr. House as we approach the Season 2 finale, and explained how the show has still managed to avoid making a New Vegas ending canon.
Depending on the choices the player, aka The Courier, makes throughout the course of the game, New Vegas can end with victory for the player during the Battle of Hoover Dam, which drives out all factions including Mr. House himself, a victory for Mr. House in which he remains in control of New Vegas and takes over Hoover Dam, a victory for Caesar's Legion, or a victory for the New California Republic.
In Episode 7 of Season 2, The Ghoul meets Maximus, and he uses the Cold Fusion diode that Maximus stole from the Brotherhood to power up the machine we saw back when Cooper met House in a flashback on the top floor of Lucky 38. The big terminal boots up, House appears on screen and says: "Well hello, old chum."
This led to a theory that New Vegas’ "The House Always Wins" ending was canon because that’s the only ending House survives. But in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet said that’s not the case because what we’re seeing here is yet another version of House that needed the diode to exist.
"It did seem to us like a version of himself powered by cold fusion would be sort of the ultimate possible incarnation of Robert House," Robertson-Dworet explained. "And as someone who is interested in robotics and artificial non-biological versions of selves, it made a lot of sense to us that this would've been something that he would've developed and sort of be the ultimate version of him. I've always seen it as something that allows for many players' experiences to have happened, but still Robert House had this other version of himself, that he was always ready to create and what he needed was the diode."
Entertainment Weekly then asked if this is in fact House's final final form, and Robertson-Dworet declined to properly answer. "That's an interesting question,” she said, keeping her cards close to her chest. “I'm not answering that, but I'm very intrigued by the question.”
Robertson-Dworet did go on to tease The Ghoul’s bargain with House, which Episode 7 sets up, and its impact on the much-loved character’s future. "He's just given House what he wanted after 200 years,” she said. “He's finally given him the thing that he's most desired. And the question, of course, is what will he get in exchange? He obviously is looking for his wife and daughter, and what will he find?"
Meanwhile, Walton Goggins teased that Episode 8 will finally resolve one of the burning questions fans have had since Season 1, Episode 1: how did his pre-war character, Cooper Howard, come to be at that birthday party with his daughter, right as the bombs fell?
"I mean, the whole first seven minutes of this experience in Season 1 was about [Cooper being] a guy at a birthday party,” he said. “Well, how did he get to that birthday party? What happened? It's all leading somewhere."
All eyes are now on the final episode of Fallout Season 2, which, given Season 3 is already confirmed, will no doubt pose just as many questions as it answers. While you wait, be sure to check out IGN’s Fallout Season 2, Episode 7 review.
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.
DRM-free PC storefront GOG.com has come under fire for promoting a sale with a 'fully AI' image, sparking a backlash from customers and even a member of the company's staff.
A few days back, an eagle-eyed GOG user noticed that an image on the front page of the site's storefront contained many telltale signs of generative AI, including a weirdly old-fashioned TV and what appears to be something like a Super Nintendo console system melting onto a table, which is a strange image indeed for a website selling PC games. As one Redditor joked, "[This is] me after I blast my NES with a heat gun for six hours and settle in to look at the side profile of my 50 year-old-TV."
"Using AI art like this feels directly at odds with the whole reason I buy things from their storefront to begin with," wrote one unhappy commenter. "Deeply disappointing, and will probably hold off on buying from GOG for the foreseeable future because of it." Another added: "As long as GOG is using generative AI images or coding I will never buy another game from their site. This is extremely disappointing. It goes completely against my values and the value of human art preservation I care about GOG for. I'm not budging on this."
Not everyone cares, though. "Downvote as much as you want. I don't care they used AI generated images," wrote one player. "This crusade against AI will achieve nothing. Sooner or later AI will shrink the job markets for people who works at a desk (like myself). Most of us will have to find other sources of income."
Another person who does seem to have an issue with it, however, is a member of GOG's own design team. Tagged as an official member of staff on GOG's own forum (thanks, GamingonLinux), senior graphic designer "Kosmiczna Pluskwa" commented on the banner image, and confirmed that the "current sale banner is fully AI."
Before giving their thoughts on the drama, they took great pains to emphasize that they were "not a company spokesperson," that they were commenting "because I personally want to, not because it's my obligation or anyone asks me to do that," stressing: "That also means I have no PR training and also what I say it's my opinion not company's stance or anything."
"My team is much smaller now than it used to be, and the requirements for the role are completely different than it used to be," they explained, appending a job description from around five years ago.
"I have a lot of strong feelings on AI in marketing art — and in general of course, but marketing art [is] the closest to my heart," they added. "Just 5ish [years] ago everything you'd see was something someone has spent time on, even if it wasn't the best, so it was worth being looked at — for me at least.
"Maybe it doesn't matter some store put out sloppy work on promo banner — in the end everyone is just there to buy the product — but I know I enjoy seeing cool new artworks out there, when I'm out to buy new products as well. When I buy a new cool figure I like to keep the box around if it's pretty — this is kind of the same, but on digital level. More cool art to see on top of buying art (video games in our case here) is always more cool art in the world and this is what I'm happy to have. So with everyone also feeling strongly in this thread — I'm with you. And continue speaking up — in the face of future we don't like to see, complacency is not the way."
At the time of writing, the banner is still live on GOG.com. IGN has asked GOG for comment.
The use of generative AI in game development is one of the hottest topics in the industry, and it has sparked a number of controversies. Following the reveal of Divinity at the 2025 The Game Awards, Swen Vincke, boss of developer Larian, met with a backlash after he said the studio was using genAI in various capacities. Larian ended up having to address AI concerns in a reddit AMA in which the studio confirmed a U-turn on some aspects of its use.
And this week, RuneScape maker Jagex insisted it would never use generative AI to make content players actually see in-game, in one of the hardest stances on AI yet seen from a video game developer.
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.
Writing on Twitter / X, Ubisoft used its official Assassin's Creed account to respond to the original post that shared photos of said statue, replying with the classic GTA San Andreas meme showing that game's protagonist Carl Johnson wearily stating: "Ah s***, here we go again."
The statue's appearance online follows a hint by collectible company Pure Arts last year suggesting it had something in the works for Black Flag which would surface in the not-too-distant future as "there is something going on." Its Vinted listing gave no clue to its origins, though stated that it was due for release in 2026. A detailed close-up of the statue's base shown in photos displayed logos for Ubisoft and Pure Arts, with a copyright mark registered for 2026.
With this now out there, alongside everything else that has leaked about the game, it's perhaps unsurprising that Ubisoft has now given up pretending there's nothing going on. While clearly a humorous response, this also marks the first time Ubisoft has ever commented on anything to do with the Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake, despite a long, long string of reports and leaks surrounding its existance.
Perhaps the most notable confirmation of the project came from Edward Kenway's own voice actor, who initially teased the project before later suggesting he'd been told by Ubisoft in no uncertain terms to stop talking. Finally, last month, the game popped up on the PEGI European ratings board website revealing what looks to be its final title: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.
Officially, Ubisoft has only referred to the game's impending launch by acknowledging it had an unannounced game due to arrive before the end of its current financial year on March 31. Last week, however, this game was then delayed into the coming financial year (ending March 31, 2027) due to the company's major recent reshuffle of teams, projects and studios.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Ascended Heroes is the latest Pokémon TCG set from the new Mega Evolution series. But, with the latest delay, this means that just a single sealed product will now be available to fans during its release week.
The new set is already getting a fairly staggered release, with the majority of products now releasing between February 20 and April 24. That includes some of the most popular items from a new Pokémon card set, such as the Elite Trainer Box, Booster Bundles, and more.
The delayed booster set features a promo card with either Erika’s Tangela or Larry’s Komala, a metallic coin featuring the chosen Gym Leader, and two booster packs from the Mega Evolution - Ascended Heroes expansion.
The only new booster set available in release week will be the Ascended Heroes Tech Sticker Collection, featuring Charmander and Ghastly as a foil promo card, plus a sheet of tech stickers featuring Mega Charizard Y and Mega Gengar, plus three Ascended Heroes boosters.
It's already been hard to come by Ascended Heroes preorders, and undoubtedly this delay won't make it any easier for fans after release day. Ascended Heroes ETBs, for example, are currently averaging around $115-120 on resale markets - around a 135% markup from its MSRP of $49.99.
Ascended Heroes' Booster Bundles are also looking a little steep right now, and sit at $79.10 market price. That's a fair lot more than its $26.94 list price, roughly a 194% markup, and almost triple the cost for what accounts for just six boosters.
It's a similar story across the board, with fans likely to find it tough to find boosters from the new expansion outside of retailers like TCGplayer. That's also consistent with the follow up expansion for Mega Evolution, Perfect Order.
Ascended Heroes being hard to come by won't be surprising for most fans. The scarcity of the Mega Evolution series isn't exactly an outlier for Pokémon TCG, with stock issues, lack of common availibility, and delays plaguing the world's most popular trading card game for the past couple of years, at least, and stretches back through its Scarlet and Violet series as well.
Robert Anderson, Senior Commerce Editor, and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.
There Will Be Blood and The Batman actor Paul Dano has expressed his gratitude for the support he received after Quentin Tarantino insulted him on a podcast.
Tarantino, who became a household name for writing and directing the likes of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast last year to reveal his 20 favorite films of the 21st century. He picked Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down at number one, but his comments around his number five pick, There Will Be Blood, set the internet on fire. Tarantino said There Will Be Blood might have been his top pick if it weren’t for Paul Dano, who he described as the film’s “giant flaw.” Dano was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for playing identical twins Paul and Eli Sunday in Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 period drama.
Here’s Tarantino’s quote in full:
“Daniel Day-Lewis. The old-style craftsmanship quality to the film. It had an old Hollywood craftsmanship without trying to be like that. It was the only film he’s ever done, and I brought it up to him, that doesn’t have a set piece. The fire is the closest to a set piece. This was about dealing with the narrative, dealing with the story, and he did it f***ing amazingly. There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being number one or number two if it didn’t have a big, giant flaw in it … and the flaw is Paul Dano. Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, but it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest f***ing actor in SAG [laughs].”
Bret Easton Ellis, who wrote 1991 novel American Psycho, suggested Dano faced an impossible task keeping up with Daniel Day-Lewis' Oscar-winning performance. "Daniel Day-Lewis also makes it impossible to make it a two-hander because there are aspects of that performance that are so gargantuan," he offered.
Tarantino countered: "So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG? The limpest dick in the world?" Later, he clarified his position, insisting: "I'm not saying he's giving a terrible performance. I'm saying he's giving a non-entity performance." But Tarantino’s feelings on Dano were made clear: "I don't care for him," he said. "I don't care for him, I don't care for Owen Wilson, and I don't care for Matthew Lillard."
This week, Variety asked Dano about Tarantino’s comments at a 20th anniversary screening of Little Miss Sunshine at the Sundance Film Festival. “That was really nice,” Dano said of the support he received. “I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.”
Variety reported that Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris also commented, with Dayton calling Tarantino’s remarks an “embarrassment.” He added: “I can only think that his rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable. He couldn’t be easily filed.”
After Tarantino’s comments hit the internet, fans moved to defend Dano’s performance in There Will Be Blood, pointing out the context surrounding his role. Dano, who was only 23 years old when he was cast in the film, was originally only set to play the brother Paul, but took over both the twin roles two weeks after filming began when the actor originally cast as Eli, Kel O’Neill, was fired because Paul Thomas Anderson decided he “wasn’t the right fit.”
After There Will Be Blood came out, Dano spoke about the difficulty he faced adding this extra role with very little time to prepare. "On There Will Be Blood I was cast at the last minute," he said in an interview with Indiewire. "I had 3 1/2 to 4 days to get ready for the first day. That was just guts and instinct, not a lot of preparation." Dano went on to receive critical acclaim for his roles in 12 Years a Slave and Prisoners, and won plaudits for his portrayal of supervillain Riddler in 2022’s The Batman.
Meanwhile, Matthew Lillard also commented on his experience, having been the subject of Tarantino’s criticism alongside Dano. The Scream and Five Nights at Freddy's star told Entertainment Weekly that receiving tributes from his peers on social media “was like living through your own wake.”
He continued: “All those R.I.P. emails or tweets and Instagram posts and TikToks, all of the things we see after somebody passes are so sweet. And the reality is I just got to live through all of it firsthand — alive and kicking! I can't imagine a more lovely reaction to what happened.”
"Quentin Tarantino this week said he didn't like me as an actor," Lillard said. "Eh, whatever. Who gives a s**t?"
Lillard went on to reveal that Tarantino’s words had affected him. "The point is, is that, it hurts your feelings. It f***ing sucks. And he wouldn't say that to Tom Cruise. He wouldn't say that to somebody who's a top-line actor in Hollywood. I'm very popular in this room. I am not very popular in Hollywood. Two totally different microcosms, right? And so, you know, it's humbling, and it hurts."
At that point, someone from the crowd shouted out “we love you!” which sparked cheers from the audience.
Tarantino, meanwhile, is coming off the back of a Kill Bill collaboration with Fortnite. He directed and wrote The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge, an anime adaptation of a cut scene from Kill Bill that premiered in the battle royale.
Photo by Arturo Holmes/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.
The next set will get its own Draft Night boxed set for players to enjoy right out of the box, and it’s now back in stock at Amazon for the first time in a good while. Here’s what’s included, and how you can save almost $30 as well.
Designed for up to four players, the Draft Night contains 12 Play Boosters and 90 Lands, letting players build decks from, say, three packs each and put them head-to-head.
For context, a Play Booster Box includes 30 packs and is $5 more, but you don’t get the lands or a Collector Booster. Sadly, the Collector Booster is the real value proposition here, because they’re like gold dust.
Collector Boosters include cards that are functionally the same as the cards you’d get from a Play Booster pack, but since they feature foils and alternative art treatments, they’re where you’re much, much more likely to find pricier cards.
The product listing suggests players use the Collector Booster as a prize for whoever wins Draft Night, but I can see scalpers pulling it out and selling it on to make money on the secondary market.
Also in stock, however, is the new Turtle Team-Up. This is a bit of an unknown quantity, offering four 60-card Magic decks, an enemy deck, event cards, and four Play Boosters. It’s a co-operative experience, which is something a little unique, and is selling for $49.99.
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.
If you have a Nintendo Switch 2 and are looking to shake up your library with a little something new to play this year, why not take this time to journey to a galaxy far, far away? The Gold Edition of Star Wars Outlaws for Switch 2 has dropped to $30 at Amazon (a return to its lowest price so far, according to price tracker camelcamelcamel). This is a 50% drop from its usual price of $59.99, so no better time to swoop in and grab it.
Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition for Switch 2 Down to $30
This Gold Edition will keep you plenty busy over the months to come, too. Alongside the base game, you'll also be set up with the season pass, which includes the Wild Card story pack and A Pirate's Fortune story pack, Jabba's Gambit exclusive mission, The Kessel Runner character pack, The Hunter's Legacy bundle, and The Cartel Ronin bundle.
While IGN's Tristan Ogilvie said in his review of Star Wars Outlaws that "there’s actually not a whole lot of ideas in Star Wars Outlaws that haven’t been done before in other action and open-world adventures" he remarked that "at its best it’s more than capable of jolting your pleasure centres into Star Wars fan hyperspace." If you've been on the hunt for a new adventure to be absorbed in during these early months of the year, it's a game well worth considering while it's down to this low price.
If you're curious what new releases are coming out on Nintendo Switch 2 this year instead, it's worth having a look through our breakdown of video game release dates. Here, we have a list of what we're expecting to see (so far) in 2026 across each platform, so you can plan ahead on more options worth adding to your digital Switch 2 library this year.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Nintendo is giving UK Mario fans plenty to get excited about this week. Not only are pre-orders now live for Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, but the full collection has dropped and is now available to pre-order My Nintendo Store with a fresh wave of brand-new amiibo.
Physical copies are available for £66.99, but a physical version or download code of the original Nintendo Switch version is available for £49.99. Then, if you already own the original game, there’s also a Switch 2 Upgrade Pack priced at £16.99, which is also great if you plan on upgrading to the new Nintendo console when the new version of the game releases on March 26. 2026.
What’s more, though, Nintendo has rolled out a full lineup of Super Mario Bros. Wonder amiibo, all priced at £16.99 each. That includes Elephant Mario, Captain Toad, and Poplin & Prince Florian. There’s also a standalone Talking Flower figure that literally talks, available for £24.99, perfect if you want one of Wonder’s most memorable characters on your shelf.
By ordering anything from this Super Mario Bros. Wonder range from My Nintendo Store, the site has mentioned you’ll get a free bonus item, which appears to be the Super Mario Bros. Wonder Pin Set: including three pins: of the Wonder Flower, Elephant Fruit, and Talking Flower.
Connexion
