Game publishers have been cooking for charity! As part of gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show 2025, the first ever Charity Cook-Off was held in Bangkok on October 13, with 10 contestants from the game industry flexing their kitchen skills for Chef Willment Leong, the hot-tempered celebrity chef who hosts Hell’s Kitchen Thailand.

Ever thought of replacing your gaming headset with a pair of earbuds? Amazon has dropped the price of the Steelseries Arctis Gamebuds from $199.99 all the way down to $127.99 shipped after a hefty 36% off instant discount. This is by far the best deal I've seen (the previous lowest price being $160) and this earbud is our front-runner for the best dedicated gaming earbuds of 2025. This particular model is compatible with PlayStation 5 and PC.

Steelseries Arctis Gamebuds Down to $127.99 (was $200)

Gearbox has said the hotly anticipated Borderlands 4 patch that will finally dull crit knife builds is delayed again and will now launch alongside the Horrors of Kairos mini-event.

Borderlands 4’s 'Day 30 Update' was set to launch last week but was delayed to early this week. Fans had wondered when it would turn up after another no-show today, prompting developer Gearbox to say it’s now due out alongside Horrors of Kairos, which runs from October 23 to November 6.

“Glad you’re excited for the update!” Gearbox is posting on social media in response to questions about the patch. “We have a few things we're tidying up right now, and it’ll be rolling out with the Horrors of Kairos mini-event. We can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been brewing.”

The question now is when exactly the patch will be released. Horrors of Kairos is down to start on October 23, but it may end up releasing at some point between then and November 6.

Last week, Gearbox developers addressed disgruntled Borderlands 4 players who questioned the need to nerf overpowered builds in the mostly single-player looter shooter, saying it was necessary to preserve the challenge and encourage build “diversity.”

Players have been bracing themselves for the end of builds that rely on what the community has dubbed 'the crit knife,' an "unintended interaction” Gearbox has said will be nerfed with this upcoming patch.

Borderlands 4 is rife with overpowered builds that cause massive damage, even to the game’s toughest bosses on the hardest difficulties. The most infamous of these is the crit knife, which Gearbox has said it’s aware of. But there are many others.

The nerf sweep set to hit Borderlands 4 has sparked a debate within the game’s community about the rights and wrongs of balance changes such as these in single-player games. With no PvP component, Borderlands 4 is mostly about solo players — and occasional groups of co-op players — farming bosses for loot that makes their build ever so slightly better each time.

(IGN recently interviewed a Borderlands 4 player who spent 150 hours on over 3,000 boss kills to find out the game’s true drop rate.)

Builds based on the crit knife, for example, can essentially delete bosses even on Borderlands 4’s toughest difficulty, making farming for loot a trivial endeavor. Some believe there’s nothing wrong with such overpowered play because players aren't competing with others in any way. Others argue it’s bad for the game.

Borderlands 4 creative director Graeme Timmins has responded to the complaints, pointing to the game’s upcoming Invincible boss, which the developers want to present a challenge.

“We have future content like the upcoming Invincible that we want players to find challenge/accomplishment in,” Timmins explained. “If we balanced that content around bad gear, it would remove build diversity, forcing players into specific builds using said gear.”

Specifically on the crit knife, associate creative director Grant Kao said this particular, hugely popular build “diminishes playstyle variety,” and confirmed changes are planned.

“We will be adjusting it,” Kao said. “The crit knife’s potential output diminishes playstyle variety. The gun builds that use the crit knife have other options and will have more options coming soon.”

Timmins then chimed in on the crit knife, saying: “Our intent is always to expand the number of builds, so any adjustment we make is in service of that goal.”

All eyes are now on Gearbox to see what changes it has in store for not just Borderlands 4’s crit knife build, but any build it believes relies on an “unintended interaction.”

Earlier this month, Gearbox revealed Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, the first seasonal mini-event for the game, the aforementioned Invincible boss, and more. Last month, Gearbox revealed Borderlands 4’s first of two new Vault Hunters coming to the game as part of the paid Story Pack DLCs. C4SH, due out during the first quarter of 2026, is a playable character whose luck-based powers can make him either the best or worst character in the game.

We’ve got plenty more on Borderlands 4. Last month, a Borderlands 4 dataminer unearthed evidence to suggest that one of the most hated characters from Borderlands 3 was cut and replaced relatively late in development. 2K Games and Gearbox declined to comment when contacted by IGN.

And we recently reported on comments from Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford, who said if more developers better understood why gamers love making decisions about loot, "We'd have good competitors."

If you are delving into Borderlands 4, don't go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We've also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players' choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).

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.

Gothic first-person shooter Painkiller first graced our screens in 2004, and it built a cult following thanks to its fast pace, dark atmosphere, weapon arsenal, and intense combat. Now it’s back with a modern reimagining with the same name from developer Anshar Studios and publisher 3D Realms that’s out now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

If you’re not familiar with Painkiller, the central concept is you play as someone trapped in Purgatory because of your previous transgressions, but you get a mission to redeem yourself and earn your way into Heaven. In this reimagined version, that mission is simple: stop the fallen angel Azazel and his three children, the Nephilim.

While that’s the explanation for the setting, this isn’t a narrative-focused game. It’s all about action, all the time. So really, your mission can be summed up in even simpler terms: kill as many demons and horrors as you can, in whatever brutal way you choose.

You’ll always have a three-person team, which you can form by teaming up with people in online co-op or by playing offline with bot teammates. Between missions (called raids here) you’ll return to a hub area called Purgatory’s Crossing, where you’ll choose your loadout before jumping into the next raid. That starts with picking one of four characters: Ink, Void, Sol, or Roch, each of whom has a unique perk. Ink has better health restoration, Void does more weapon damage, Sol has higher ammo capacity, and Roch has increased max health.

Regardless of who you choose, speed, agility, and weaponry are the primary focus of combat. You’ll start the game with the classic Painkiller weapon, which will be a permanent part of your loadout on every raid. Its alt fire mode, called the Shredder, can shred enemies (hence the name) and also acts as a grappling hook. You can use it on designated grappling points to traverse biomes quickly, or you can use it directly on enemies. Be careful of using it on tougher enemies though, they’ll retaliate if they’re not stunned first.

In addition to the permanent Painkiller weapon, you can take two other weapons with you on every raid, which you can switch out in the hub area. You’ll get your first two weapons automatically during the prologue, while the rest can be unlocked in the order you choose. There are six selectable weapons in total (not counting the Painkiller), each of which has a main firing mode and two alt fire modes that you can swap between before each raid.

So that’s 18 firing modes, and you can unlock upgrades for each weapon that modify how it works, bringing that total up to 72 different attack types. You unlock things by gathering ancient souls from finishing raids, which can then be spent in the hub area. You can use them to unlock new weapons, alternate shots, or upgrades, so your loadout will consistently evolve as the game goes on.

The Painkiller weapon isn’t the only one that fans of the series will recognize. The Stakegun and Electrodriver also make their return, and they’re the two starting weapons you’ll unlock in the prologue.

The Stakegun can impale enemies and launch different types of grenades as alternate shots, and just like in the original game, you can combine these two capabilities if you’re skilled enough to pull it off. The range of the primary stake shot is longer than the grenades, so you can fire a grenade and then hit it with the stake in mid-air to carry the grenade farther.

The Electrodriver is for dealing with larger groups. It has electric shock attacks that stun enemies, and it can fire a set of bouncing shuriken that can ricochet around corners or past enemy shields. Combo those two together, and you have a recipe for clearing out hordes of enemies quickly.

Not all of the weapons are returning classics. The new Handcannon is a powerful handgun focused on hitscan precision. If your aim is on point, it has very high DPS potential. You can also modify it with a scope to turn it into a sniper-style weapon if you so choose.

On top of weapon modifications and alt fire options, you can also customize gameplay with tarot cards that enhance your abilities. You use gold collected in raids to unlock new cards in the Tarot Lottery in the hub area, and you can select cards to activate before you start a new raid. That card’s benefits will stay active for the entire next raid, then be used up, but you can use ancient souls to replenish one if you want to reuse it.

There are currently 44 tarot cards, and they can have a wide range of effects. Some are passive and always active, others react to particular enemies, and others require certain conditions to activate. For example, Angel’s Torment allows you to one-shot kill any regular enemy that’s thrown in the air. Demon’s Payload spawns explosive barrels when you kill a large demon. Crimson Cadence gradually heals you as long as you keep your combo count above a certain threshold.

Other tarot cards affect your teammates, so you and your allies can try to find synergies that combine together well. For example, Harmonic Torment allows you to share your health with allies and Revenant’s Veil causes enemies to ignore you while you’re reviving downed teammates.

This is just a taste of the different types of weapons, modifications, and tarot cards available. The rest you’ll have to discover for yourself. Painkiller is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. If you want to learn more, you can check out the game’s official website or follow it on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Apple TV — no, not Apple TV+, remember the rebrand — finally announced the premiere date for season 3 of its beloved dramedy Shrinking. It feels great to have a date on the books… but make no mistake, fans will still have to wait a bit for their next appointment.

The show is set to return on January 28 with a super-sized one hour premiere episode. From there, episodes will air on a weekly basis every Wednesday through April 8, which will be the season finale.

Jason Segel and Harrison Ford lead the show’s cast, which also includes Christa Miller, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell and Ted McGinley. This season, series cocreator and former Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein will return to the show in a guest star role. Damon Wayans Jr, Cobie Smulders, and Wendie Malick will also guest star this season, in addition to Jeff Daniels and Michael J. Fox.

Interestingly enough, it seems as though Fox is playing a man with Parkinson's disease on the show, something he deals with in his personal life.

“I said, ‘You did a show about Parkinson’s, and you didn’t call me?’” Fox explained of talking with Ford about getting on the series in a recent interview with People. “And he said, ‘Oh, you want to do it?’ And I said, ‘I’d love to do it.’ So he said, ‘Let me think about it, see what I can do.’ So he went to work on it and came up with this concept, it’s really good.”

Needless to say, it was a great opportunity for the Back to the Future actor to be unapologetically himself on set considering the limitations placed upon him by his illness. “It was the first time ever I got to show up on-set, and I didn’t have to worry about am I too tired or coughing or anything,” Fox told the outlet. “I just do it. It was really good, because for the moments when I say, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this,’ then I say, ‘Well, I’ll just deal with how I can’t do it in the scene.’ And you get through it.”

Ford was also particularly excited to have the iconic actor guest star this season and show the world he’s still got it.

“Michael’s courage, his fortitude and his grace, more than anything else, is on full display. He’s very smart, very brave, noble, generous, passionate guy, and an example to all of us, whether we’re facing Parkinson’s or not,” Ford told People. “You cannot help but recognize how amazing it is to have such grace… Parkinson’s is not funny. And I want to get it right. It’s necessary to be correct with what we do in respect of the challenge that Parkinson’s represents, and that we don’t use it for its entertainment value.”

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

Netflix is making various films and TV series based on Catan, the world-renowned multiplayer board game.

In Catan, players take on the roles of settlers who try to build and develop holdings while trading and acquiring resources. It carries the tagline: “Trade. Build. Settle.”

According to Variety, Netflix has secured the global rights to Catan, and plans to release various projects in both live-action and animation. There’s talk of film and scripted and unscripted TV. All projects will be produced by Darren Kyman from Asmodee (which recently split from Embracer), Pete Fenlon of Catan Studios, and Guido and Benjamin Teuber, the sons of Catan inventor Klaus Teuber.

Teuber first published The Settlers of Catan in Germany in 1995. It would go on to become one of the biggest board games ever, selling over 40 million copies. He died aged 70 in 2023.

It’s been a big year for Stephen King adaptations, with the release of Oz Perkin’s The Monkey back in February and Edgar Wright’s take on The Running Man hitting theaters next month. In between those two releases, we got Francis Lawrence's adaptation of one of the most bleak Stephen King stories out there: The Long Walk.

Starring David Jonsson and Cooper Hoffman, The Long Walk follows a group of teenage boys who must continuously walk across the United States, or else risk execution. If you’ve been interested in checking out the particularly gruesome movie in the comfort of your own home, I’m happy to report that The Long Walk is now available online through PVOD platforms like Prime Video.

The Long Walk Is Now Available on Digital

Marvel star Elizabeth Olsen has said she’d “jump at” the opportunity to play Scarlet Witch again.

Olsen last played Scarlet Witch in live-action form in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She subsequently reprised the role for this year’s animated series Marvel Zombies, but that was voice work only, and she recorded her lines some years ago.

Ever since Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ release, fans have speculated about Scarlet Witch’s potential return, particularly with Avengers: Doomsday set to come out next year, and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars, set to follow in 2027.

There’s plenty going on in Crimson Desert’s open world. From puzzles to castle sieges to blowing up enemies with a battle robot, there’s a wide range of activities to get stuck into. But from what we’ve seen so far, the real show stoppers are the boss battles. As part of this month’s IGN First, we’ve already shown you two new ones: the Golden Star mechanical dragon, and Fortain, The Cursed Knight. But there’s still more to see. Today, we’re showcasing three brand new bosses: Muskan, Walter Lanford, and Kearush the Slayer. You can see protagonist Kliff duke it out with all three in the video above.

The trio demonstrates a chunk of Crimson Desert’s enemy scale – Walter Lanford and Muskan are both human, but the former is pretty regular in size, while the latter is an eight-foot powerhouse. And then there’s Kearush, a massive, gorilla-like beast who's actually one of Crimson Desert’s smaller monsters.

Those “weight categories” help distinguish each boss, but each is defined by their ability set. Muskan is a fierce pugilist, only providing you a few seconds of reprieve while he charges up his powerful punches and dive kicks. He’s not afraid to fight a little dirty, with sweeping kicks knocking your legs from under you, and choke slams sending you sputtering to the floor. When his fury meter maxes out, he’s able to unleash a chain of blows that repeatedly launch you into the air, so learning how to avoid his lighting-fast fists is the name of the game.

Walter Lanford may be no bigger than you are, but he’s arguably the most sophisticated of the three bosses we’re showing today. Armed with a shotgun, he’s able to fight effectively at range. Dodging the wide-spread projectiles is key, but get your timing right and you can actually deflect his blasts back at him. Should your reflexes not be quite that sharp, you can spin up a magic barrier that collects incoming bullets and fires them back where they came from. Walter’s weak to grapples, so getting in close is vital – thankfully you can use the “deflect light” skill, typically used to find hidden items, to temporarily blind him and close the distance. You’ll need to act fast, though, as Walter’s armed with smoke grenades that can help conceal his rapid getaways.

Finally, Kearush the Slayer is a monster with no less than three health bars - a fight-extending trick that multiple foes across Crimson Desert’s campaign can pull. There’s a Hulk-like intensity to this fight, with Kearush being able to climb the walls and unleash clumsy-but-destructive leaps in his attempt to turn every bone in your body to dust. As a larger creature, you’re able to clamber onto his back and stab away, Dragon’s Dogma-style, but be careful - he’s more than happy to fall back-first from a great height, so let go of those shoulders before you’re forced to cushion his landing.

All three of these fights only reinforce my feeling that the bosses are going to be the real stars of the show in Crimson Desert. Every one I’ve faced so far across multiple hands-on opportunities has had a unique twist, a clever mechanic, or simply an exciting moveset that kept me on my toes. I’ve fought a powerful knight who I crushed with fallen masonry columns. I’ve faced off against an antlered snow beast who could cause avalanches that froze me in my tracks. And I’ve clambered up the side of a giant walking mountain, Shadow of the Colossus-style, seeking out its weak points in a battle of endurance. And I hope these are only just the start. I can’t wait to see what Crimson Desert’s most ambitious showdowns are made of.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.

For me, I don't think I've ever been more excited about Magic: The Gathering since Wizards of the Coast brought out the Lord of the Rings expansion. Not only are we currently enjoying Marvel's Spider-Man, but we've got Avatar: The Last Airbender next month and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in March next year.

TL;DR: Deals for Today

Hasbro and co. haven't forgotton about it's core audience either. Aswell as bringing in new faces to the massive TCG, Lorwyn Eclipsed is releasing in January, and will have players reminicing about Shadowmoor. MagicCon: Atlanta revealed some cards and new mechanics, with Planeswalker letting players in on the lore behind the new set.

It's all very exciting, but the main worry for players new and returning is the price of entry. Don't worry, ive got that covered below. Here's where to get upcoming, new and legacy Magic: The Gathering sealed products at the best prices:

MTG: Cheapest at Amazon

There's a handful of booster boxes available for slightly less at Amazon this week, but it's a bit of a poor turnout for Magic: The Gathering players. Most of the listing on Amazon are above MSRP and higher than secondary market values, but the carosel above are good deals when compared to TCGPlayer.

MTG: Cheapest at TCGPlayer

TCGPlayer's sellers are keeping away from the sneaker-heads and crypo bro mentality that's hit Magic and Pokémon TCG is 2025 and is keeping prices down. Market value for MTG sealed product goes off what people are willing to pay, and it shows. There's so much here that's at a lower price than big box retailers it's embarassing. But, it's great for your pocket!

Blaziken ex & Volcanion ex Premium Collection

Poké Price Check: Mega Evolution In Stock

Mega Evolution seems to be a well-printed start to the next era of Pokémon TCG. I'm seeing boosters in convienience stores and some products on physical shelves, not to mention the Booster Bundle ($52.89), Gardevoir ETB ($88.81) and Three Booster Blister ($28.90) available on Amazon. Like the rest of the products in this carousel though, the cheapest is TCGplayer right now.

I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but Hallmark has been killing it with ornaments in recent years. Like LEGO, Hallmark has ventured into licenses and partnerships with companies that make fun things: video games, movies, TV shows, etc. One of the latest new Hallmark Keepsake ornaments for 2025 is one that will have Xbox fans (both current and lapsed) excited to put up their Christmas trees this year. It’s a small, yet intricately detailed, re-creation of the Xbox 360 console. It even plays the Halo theme song when you press the button. It’s available now, for $28.99 (see it at Amazon).

Xbox 360 Console with Light and Sound - Hallmark Keepsake Christmas Ornament 2025

Nnedi Okorafor's The Binti Trilogy is widely regarded as a true classic of the modern sci-fi scene. It's perfect material for The Folio Society treatment, in other words. Now these books are being given a gorgeous visual overhaul as The Folio Society reveals a new illustrated edition of The Binti Trilogy.

IGN can exclusively debut some of the gorgeous painted artwork featured in this new edition. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

The Binto Trilogy is written by Okorafor, and this edition features new painted covers and interior art by David Palumbo (Magic: The Gathering). The book features seven full-color illustrations as well as black and white part-title pages and metallic blue endpapers. Here's the official logline for the book:

'I am Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka of Namib.' So begins this groundbreaking tale of a young Himba woman as she leaves Planet Earth to attend a prestigious intergalactic university. Despite her family's concerns, Binti's talent for mathematics and her aptitude with astrolabes make her a prime candidate to undertake this interstellar journey. But everything changes when the jellyfish-like Medusae attack Binti's spaceship, leaving her the only survivor. Now, Binti must fend for herself, alone on a ship full of the beings who murdered her crew, with five days until she reaches her destination. But there is more to the history of the Medusae—and their war with the Khoush—than first meets the eye. If Binti is to survive this voyage and save the inhabitants of the unsuspecting planet that houses Oomza Uni, it will take all of her knowledge and talents to broker the peace. A vibrant space opera slash bildungsroman, THE BINTI TRILOGY traces the pains of coming of age against the very real threats of deep-rooted interspecies tensions. But this is also a story of rich human—and alien—experience: friendship, family, first love, and the quest for identity.

“With its fierce and imaginative blend of sci-fi and Africanfuturism—a term coined by Nnedi Okorafor herself, which aims to centre African culture and perspectives—the multi-award-winning BINTI TRILOGY is unique from any of the science fiction books that Folio Society has published in the past,” said Folio Society Editor Sophia Schoepfer in a statement. “Coupled with the mesmerising art by David Palumbo and vibrant design throughout, this Folio edition will be a stunning celebration of identity, conflict and connection across the stars. It’s a must-have for fans of Nnedi Okorafor, readers of space operas and intergalactic science fiction, and anyone who enjoys bildungsromans or has an interest in Afrofuturism.”

The illustrated edition of The Binti Trilogy is priced at £85.00 / US $120 and is available to preorder now exclusively on The Folio Society's webste.

Previously, The Folio Society revealed illustrated editions of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 and Stephen King's It.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

As we get closer to November, it means Black Friday sales are right around the corner. That doesn't mean there aren't any offers worth taking advantage of in the lead-up to it, though. If you've got a Switch that you're hoping to fill up with some new games ahead of the holidays, the Nintendo eShop is actually having a nice little sale right now that's filled with some exciting digital game discounts.

This sale includes 40% off Sonic X Shadow Generations, 80% off LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Deluxe Edition, 60% off The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, and so many more. Below we've listed out just a few of our favorites from the sale, but you can see the full list of available deals on the Nintendo eShop here.

Nintendo eShop Digital Game Sale

There's plenty more deals sure to come as we get closer to November and Black Friday sales start kicking off. The actual sale day lands on November 28 this year, but the good news is shoppers don't actually have to wait until then for good offers to pop up. Retailers start dropping deals as early as the start of the month, so if you're on the hunt for even more Nintendo Switch deals you may not have to wait too long.

Alongside game deals, Black Friday is also a time when some console offers appear. If you're waiting it out to see whether or not something happens to the Switch 2 during that sale event, we've written up a breakdown on whether or not it's worth it to wait or buy the Switch 2 now to aid you in that decision. The countdown's on for the next big sale event this year, and we're keeping our eyes out for more game deals as they appear.

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

Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed it is now officially considering buyout offers amid reported interest from Paramount Skydance.

While Warner Bros. Discovery said it is still working towards separating into two distinct media companies (Warner Bros. and Discovery) by mid-2026, it had now triggered the acquisition consideration following “unsolicited interest from multiple parties” for the entire company and Warner Bros.

In an investor-focused note issued on Tuesday, October 21, the company said it had initiated a “review of potential alternatives to maximize shareholder value," and was now evaluating a transaction for the entire company, or separate transactions for its Warner Bros. and/or Discovery Global businesses.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the Jurassic Park movies, it’s that running a dinosaur theme park isn’t easy. It’s a constant balancing act of keeping your employees satisfied, making your park profitable, and meeting your guests’ needs, whether that means having enough bathrooms or just not getting eaten by a velociraptor. Jurassic World Evolution 3 once again puts you in the role of park manager, giving you a chance to do what the John Hammonds and Simon Masranis of the world could not: run a thriving, lucrative theme park with attention-grabbing dinosaur attractions and minimal violent deaths. With a complex set of management and customization tools, Evolution 3 gives you more control over your park than ever before. The result is an incredibly engaging management sim that’s a high point in an already satisfying series.

Like the first two, Jurassic World Evolution 3 shares a lot of DNA with other theme park sims. You’re responsible for laying down paths and electrical infrastructure, building amenities that appeal to your clientele, and creating experiences that get more guests through your gates. Rather than roller coasters and haunted houses, though, the attractions are all about the dinosaurs. Just about any species will garner business, but having a variety is the key to long-term success — and thankfully, you’ll have a wealth of different dino types to choose from. There’s always a bit of a thrill in seeing these legendary creatures come to life, especially when you unlock the more recognizable species from the films.

Of course, when you go to Disneyland, there’s almost no chance that Mickey and the princesses will escape their enclosures and maul the park-goers. That adds an extra layer of danger to Evolution 3, and park managers will have to maintain a high safety rating to continue to pull in money. Think of it as a chill, cozy management sim punctuated by moments of panic and terror. You’ll have to keep your dinosaurs happy by meeting their food, environmental, and cohabitation needs. Some need room to roam or prefer to live in packs, while others can thrive in small areas with only a bit of pasture to nibble on. Carnivores require either fresh meat or live prey, while herbivores need greenery, fruit, and nuts. Flying and swimming dinosaurs need special enclosures, since fencing in a pteranodon is about as useful as hiding from a T-Rex in a bathroom stall. It’s really satisfying to get into a loop of researching dig sites, sending expeditions to those sites, extracting DNA, and finally, finding the perfect spot to incubate your newly discovered species.

If that seems like a lot to manage, it is — but the campaign does a great job of walking you through the increasingly complex mechanics. Head of PR Cabot Finch, who you might remember from the previous Jurassic World Evolution games, returns as your guide as you visit existing parks in progress around the world and restore them to greatness. In a nod to the original Jurassic Park, the campaign begins in the Montana badlands and eventually takes you to Las Vegas, Hawaii, and throughout Europe and Asia, adding a lot of variety to the local scenery. Finch is accompanied by a team of scientists and dinosaur experts, but the real star is Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm pops up from time to time to remind everyone that trying to control nature inevitably leads to disaster.

Even if you’re already familiar with the series, the campaign mode is an effective way of familiarizing yourself with Evolution 3’s new features. The biggest addition is the introduction of in-park breeding. Previously, you could only synthesize dinosaurs based on how much of their DNA you extracted from fossils found on expeditions. Now, once you’ve synthesized compatible males and females of the same species, you can set up a cozy nesting area and wait for them to get busy.

This mechanic adds a few interesting new wrinkles to the tried-and-true Jurassic World Evolution formula. You can work with your scientists to create a breeding plan, or preferably just wait and see if nature takes its course. Who knew it would be so fun to play matchmaker to a bunch of prehistoric creatures? Once the next generation hatches, juveniles might have different needs than their parents. For example, while grown carnivores prefer to hunt their own prey, baby raptors and T-rexes will need stores of prepared meat in their pens. The tallest dinosaurs can reach the foliage on treetops, but their offspring will need nourishment closer to the ground. If you let breeding go on unchecked, pens can get overcrowded, which leads to breakouts and general panic among your guests.

While you’re managing these dinosaur family units, you’ll also have to curry favor with the entertainment, security, and conservation factions, another new feature. You can gain reputation by completing certain contracts, which are basically well-paid side missions, and improving the quality of your parks. Gaining a positive reputation with all three factions becomes very important in the last few chapters of the story, but they don’t necessarily want the same things. Pleasing them becomes yet another balancing act that adds more depth to the gameplay.

The campaign in Jurassic World Evolution 2 felt more like an extended tutorial, but this time around, you have more breathing room to find your own management style. Its objectives serve as a backbone to the overall story in which an activist group called Extinction Now! regularly hacks into your communications and sabotages your parks. As you make your way around the globe, you’ll also need to put a stop to Extinction Now!’s histrionics. The first few parks are heavily guided, but once the map opens up and you go international, you have a lot of welcome freedom to meet your objectives in whatever way you see fit.

Part of the fun of the management sim genre is being able to create something entirely from scratch, which you can do in sandbox mode. This mode has been a staple of the Jurassic World Evolution games, and Evolution 3 offers even more customization options. To start, you can choose any of the locations from the campaign, generate an island with its own unique topography, or use the square maps for a perfectly flat, obstacle-free mass of land.

You have control over almost every aspect in the sandbox, including your starting funds, certain dinosaur behaviors, and beyond. You can make it more challenging for yourself with a shoestring budget or choose unlimited funding to remove all cost barriers to creating the dinosaur theme park of your dreams depending on what you are in the mood for. You can take on contracts to make extra money, but for the most part, sandbox mode is an unguided experience. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re making sure your paths are perfectly aligned or setting up an unforgettable park tour with maximum dinosaur visibility. And unlike in the campaign, where Cabot, Malcolm, and the rest of the cast are frequently chattering at you, the sandbox is quiet and zen. Well, at least until the indoraptors get loose.

The third gameplay mode, scenarios, was my least favorite of the three. These timed challenges, which can take anywhere from 12 minutes to a couple of hours, have specific objectives and restrictions. In one, you’ll have to take manual control of one of your ranger teams and take photos of wild dinosaurs; in another, you might be barred from editing the existing dinosaur pens regardless of the well-being of those inside. I couldn’t get on board with this time-trial approach to park management; for me, it was antithetical to the zen-like experience I’m looking for in a sim, and the objectives weren’t interesting enough to make them worth the effort. I found myself missing Jurassic World Evolution 2’s Chaos Theory mode, which sadly appears to be extinct.

But even though I didn’t personally vibe with the Scenarios, it’s impressive that Evolution 3 offers options for just about every kind of management sim fan. If you need a story to guide you through the gameplay, the campaign has you covered. If you want to build something that’s entirely your own, you can do so in the sandbox. And if you actually like high-pressure time trials, you’ll probably find Scenario mode more satisfying than I did.

I’m even more impressed with the quality-of-life updates Evolution 3 brings to the series. With the right infrastructure, you can automate maintenance and medical care, saving you from having to manually track down those units every time there’s a crisis. Aspects that were convoluted or confusing in the previous games, like creating park tours, are far more straightforward. There are more tours to choose from beyond the standard Jeep rides and gyroscopes from the movies; you can set up a hot air balloon tour or build a Cretaceous Cruise that allows guests to canoe through rivers and lakes. Boosting your transportation score by setting up monorail stations and tracks throughout the park feels much more intuitive this time around. As you expand, you can easily edit the existing tracks to expand their reach — or just set up an underground hyperloop to make traversing the park even simpler. A lot of rough edges have been smoothed out.

I ran into a few technical issues while playing, though most of them have already been addressed by a patch. Most notably, the “continue” and “load” options were missing from the menu every time I started it up, so I had to begin a new game and load manually from there every time I wanted to get back into my ongoing campaign. This meant more long load screens and hearing the opening voiceover over a dozen times, which isn’t ideal. Again, that thankfully appears to have been fixed, but I also experienced a few crashes when trying to revisit my Indonesia park, which meant going through that same loop of starting a new game and loading all over again.

Another drawback of playing Evolution 3 before release is that I didn’t get to check out the community creations. Because it has so many more customization options than its predecessors, it makes sense that players would want to share their creations with the world. It’s a fun idea on paper, though I can’t say for certain whether it works in execution since there was an extremely limited player pool before launch.

Warner Bros. has hiked the price of subscriptions to its streaming service HBO Max.

Effective immediately, the price rises hit all tiers for new subscriptions. According to Variety, HBO Max Basic With Ads has increased by $1 a month to $10.99, or an extra $10 a year to $109.99 annually. HBO Max Standard, meanwhile, is up $1.50 a month to $18.49, or an extra $15 a year to $184.99. And finally, HBO Max Premium has increased by $2 a month to $22.99, or an extra $20 a year to $229.99.

Existing monthly subscribers will get 30 days in advance of their plan changes, which means the price increases from your next billing date on or after November 20, 2025. Current yearly subscribers will not see an increase until renewal and will be notified 30 days in advance of their plan renewing.

Nintendo has announced the second Kirby Air Riders Direct with director Masahiro Sakurai. It’s set for October 23 at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm UK time.

This one's even longer than the 45-minute Kirby Air Riders Direct we saw in August. Expect roughly 60 minutes of information on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, Nintendo said.

August’s showcase divulged a release date for Sakurai’s new game, offered a first look at gameplay, and saw the legendary developer compare Kirby Air Riders to Mario Kart in what was a Smash Bros.-style Direct.

"You might be asking yourself if it's basically Mario Kart," Sakurai said. "You race and battle with familiar characters around courses with different features, or so they say. Ok, so it basically is like Mario Kart. I even mentioned this when I received the request to make the game. I asked them if they still wanted to do it. But as fans of the original know...the appeal of the game is not actually the races!"

Kirby Air Riders is out on November 20, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch 2 and features a wide roster of Kirby characters including Waddle Dee, King Dedede, Gooey, Chef Kawasaki, Metaknight, and more. Catch up on everything announced at the first Kirby Air Riders Nintendo Direct right here.

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 1962 escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary is perhaps the most infamous and fascinating jailbreak in American history. But what if that was just the beginning of the story? That's a question fueling Out of Alcatraz, easily one of the best new comics of 2025.

With the full Out of Alcatraz graphic novel now in bookstores, IGN can exclusively offer the entire first issue of the series for your reading pleasure. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below, though beware of some NSFW language ahead!

Out of Alcatraz is a limited series written by Christopher Cantwell (Iron Man) and drawn by Tyler Crook (Harrow County). The first issue features cover art by Crook, Oliver Dominguez (Electrical Wizard), Valeria Burzo (Castle Full of Blackbirds), Massimo Carnevale (Y: The Last Man), and Hayden Sherman (Absolute Wonder Woman).

Here's Oni's official description of the series:

Convicts Frank Morris and Clarence Anglin have washed ashore in San Francisco after surviving their infamous escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in June 1962. They soon meet their gruff and disappointed handler, a mysterious young woman who’s also running from something, and hope to quickly get their way north to the border – if they can even make it out of Modesto alive. As a dogged federal manhunt and chance encounters threaten the desperate convicts, everyone involved is about to discover the same bloodstained truth: life on the run is an even more hellish prison than Alcatraz could have ever been.

Out of Alcatraz is available in bookstores and comic shops now. You can order a copy on Amazon.

In other comics news, check out our exclusive excerpt of the Batman 1989 sequel Batman: Revolution and see why Marvel seems serious about ending the new Ultimate Universe.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

Nier series director Yoko Taro has warned fans to be wary that "nearly half" of the items purporting to be autographed by him include fake signatures.

Responding to a fan on Twitter / X who shared a snap of a signed soundtrack from Nier: Automata on sale for €200 (around $232), Taro revealed that he includes "small, unknown features" in real autographs to prevent precisely this kind of reselling.

"This autograph is a fake. I include small, unknown features in my real autographs to prevent reselling, so I can tell when one isn’t genuine," he explained. "I've confirmed that nearly half of the autographs being resold are actually fake, so please don't buy them."

This autograph is a fake. I include small unknown features in my real autographs to prevent reselling, so I can tell when one isn’t genuine. I've confirmed that nearly half of the autographs being resold are actually fake, so please don't buy them.
（◎血◎） https://t.co/yQVeoYQcfo

— yokotaro (@yokotaro) October 20, 2025

What, exactly, those "features" are will likely not be known — at least not from Yoko Taro directly, I'd wager — but fans in the comments are trying to compare their autographs nonetheless, cross-referencing their cherished signatures with those known to have been signed by the revered game developer.

What's Yoko Taro up to these days when he's not signing things? Last year, Square Enix executive officer and Nier series producer Yosuke Saito teased an upcoming project but refused to say whether it was Nier 3.

"I’ve been talking about wanting to do something with [series director Yoko Taro] and [series composer Keiichi Okabe] for some time now," Saito said. "I’ll have something a bit more put together to say in the not too distant future, so please stay tuned." He than laughed: "It might be Nier, it might not be Nier. That’s about all I can say for now.”

PlayStation Plus Extra will lose seven games in November 2025, Sony has confirmed.

As reported by Push Square, the seven games set to exit the subscription tier include 2018's Battlefield 5, Digimon Survive, and Like a Dragon Ishin. Battlefield 5 leaves PS Plus Extra hot on the heels of Battlefield 6’s record-breaking launch.

The list of titles is expected to make way on November 18, when Sony will release the next PS Plus Extra update. As Push Square points out, it's worth noting that games in PS Plus Extra can no longer be played once they’re rotated out of the catalog, even if you continue to subscribe. So make the most of these games while you still can.

The games set to leave PlayStation Plus Extra in November 2025:

• Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus The Awakening of Golden Jazz (PS4)
• Battlefield 5 (PS4)
• Digimon Survive (PS4)
• Football Manager 2024 Console (PS5)
• Like a Dragon Ishin (PS5, PS4)
• Synapse (PSVR2)
• Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (PS4)

As for October, Extra subscribers can expect Bloober’s Silent Hill 2 remake, Until Dawn, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, among others.

PlayStation Plus October 2025 games:

• Extra
  • Silent Hill 2 (PS5)
  • Until Dawn (PS5)
  • As Dusk Falls (PS4, PS5)
  • V Rising (PS5)
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS4, PS5)
  • Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1 (PS4, PS5)
  • Wizard with a Gun (PS5)
• Premium
  • Tekken 3 (PS4, PS5)

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 Arc Raiders design director has said it's been fortuitous timing to have its extraction shooter launch a playtest around the same time as Bungie's Marathon, calling it "a great A/B test for us."

With Marathon offering some features that Arc Raiders does not — and vice-versa — Embark Studios' Virgil Watkins said it's been useful to compare the feedback from not just Arc Raiders' community but also Marathon's to "compare and contrast how some of those things shook out."

Talking to PC Gamer, Watkins said: "It was very coincidental that they had their test around the time we did. To my knowledge, I don't think any of us knew that was going to happen. It was a very great A/B test for us, because obviously, they made decisions that we didn't, and vice versa. So we could kind of compare and contrast how some of those things shook out.

"[It] was quite interesting to follow what players thought about those certain things, or what did work in their context and didn't, and what may have worked in ours," he added.

While Marathon playtests were available to just a select few, Watkin did say he'd seen enough to find the art style "very evocative," adding he was "personally curious to see how that ends up. I hope to see more of that in the future."

Arc Raiders ended its 'Server Slam' playtest over the weekend with big player numbers on Steam, suggesting a strong launch ahead of its October 30 release date. It hit a peak concurrent player count of 189,668, making it one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform over the weekend and the biggest extraction shooter ever on Steam.

As for Marathon? The sci-fi extraction shooter is running another invite-only technical test for players in North America and Europe on PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam from October 22-28.

"This is an important checkpoint for us as we test our improvements since Alpha, including three maps, five runner shells, prox chat, re-tuned combat pacing, solo queue, deeper environmental storytelling, and more," the Sony-owned studio wrote. "That said, the Technical Test build is a work in progress and will only include a portion of what’s planned for Marathon’s full release, focused on the early player experience."

A public update — one of the first since Marathon's high-profile delay to an unspecified date — on the shooter's development will be released "after the closed technical test."

Marathon's previously planned September 23, 2025 release date was scrapped following "varied" feedback from players. “Through every comment and real-time conversation on social media and Discord, your voice has been strong and clear,” Bungie said at the time. “We've taken this to heart, and we know we need more time to craft Marathon into the game that truly reflects your passion. After much discussion within our Dev team, we’ve made the decision to delay the September 23 release.”

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.

The decision to bring South Park Season 27 to an end after just five episodes and kick off Season 28 has gone without an official explanation from either Comedy Central, Paramount, or series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. But a recent article has suggested there was misreporting around how many episodes Season 27 would include before it even began, and that the showrunners always planned for Season 27 and Season 28 to have five episodes each.

Last week, South Park shocked fans by kicking off Season 28 with a new episode dubbed Twisted Christian. Season 28, Episode 1 — the sixth episode of South Park broadcast this year — hit Comedy Central on October 15.

Season 27 had enjoyed big ratings and sparked much debate, but it also suffered an erratic release schedule. The first two episodes arrived on the standard weekly schedule, but then the series switched to a biweekly schedule before the delayed fifth episode, which now goes down as the series finale, aired three weeks later on September 25.

Three weeks after that and without explanation, South Park returned with Season 28. Fans had expected that Season 27 would have 10 episodes — but we now know it will be five for Season 27 and five for Season 28. The final four episodes of Season 28 will now air every two weeks through December 10 (October 29, November 12, November 26, and December 10).

So, what happened? Parker and Stone have yet to comment in an official capacity, but The Hollywood Reporter said that a representative of South Park suggested there was misreporting over how many episodes Season 27 was meant to contain, and that the showrunners planned all along for Seasons 27 and 28 to feature just five episodes each. Comedy Central told THR that no announcement was made regarding the number of episodes in season 27 at the time it debuted.

THR suggests there’s more to this story, and we're left with plenty of questions. Fans are speculating that the decision has something to do with Parker and Stone’s reported $1.5 billion contract to make 50 episodes of South Park over five years for Paramount, but that remains unconfirmed for now. And it's worth noting that Season 27 did not end as you'd expect a season of TV to with a wrap up of its various storylines. Indeed Season 28 kicked off with an episode that seamlessly continued the overarching storyline of Donal Trump and Satan having a baby. If the fifth and sixth episodes weren't labeled Season 27 and Season 28, you'd never know South Park had ended one season and began another.

Comedy Central had delayed the Season 27 ender just hours before it was due to air, with Parker and Stone insisting the blame lay at their door. “Apparently when you do everything at the last minute sometimes you don’t get it done,” the pair told Variety. “This one’s on us. We didn’t get it done in time. Thanks to Comedy Central and South Park fans for being so understanding. Tune in next week!”

Parker and Stone create each episode week-by-week, which makes for a chaotic production but topical shows. But they had switched to a biweekly schedule for Season 27, with the elongated production time allowing the pair more room to work on each episode, something Paramount was reportedly happy with.

It’s worth noting that during their San Diego Comic-Con 2025 panel, which took place the day after the Donald Trump-skewering Season 27 opener aired, Parker said the pair were unsure what the next episode would be, revealing the decision was “super stressful.”

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.

Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto has expressed his disappointment that former staff of the now shuttered Ridgeline Games were not "properly" credited in Battlefield 6, despite building the "foundation" of the game.

Ridgeline Games, the studio co-founded by Lehto, was tasked with developing the narrative campaign in Battlefield 6. The studio was closed in February 2024 following Lehto’s departure — less than two years after it was set up — as part of a broader restructuring that saw EA lay off some 670 employees and shift away from future licensed IPs. At the time, EA said the work that was begun on the Battlefield single-player campaign would continue.

Fast forward to Battlefield 6’s record-breaking release, and Lehto has taken to LinkedIn to recognize the work done by his former staff at Ridgeline on the game.

“I’m disappointed to see that many of my former teammates from Ridgeline Games were not properly credited in the recent release of Battlefield 6,” he said in a post that included a list of names under the Ridgeline Games banner.

“These talented developers worked tirelessly for 1 to 2.5 years, building the foundation of the game, before I left voluntarily and the studio was subsequently shuttered. Despite their significant contributions, most who were laid off were relegated to a ‘Special Thanks’ section at the very end of the credits — and several were omitted entirely, including myself.

“Out of respect for my colleagues and the awesome work they poured into this project, I want to take a moment to properly recognize them — listing their names and roles as I would have preferred them to appear in the credits.

“Game development is a team effort, and every contributor deserves fair acknowledgment.”

IGN has asked EA for comment.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has addressed last weekend's public assault of prolific streamer Emiru, saying he is "looking very closely at everything that happened there" and insisting creator safety is his "top priority."

At TwitchCon 2025, Emiru was assaulted by a man who crossed multiple barriers in San Diego Convention Center to grab the 27-year-old streamer and cosplayer's face and forcibly kiss her during a meet and greet. Emiru, real name Emily-Beth Schunk, has since urged fellow creators to "seriously consider not attending" future TwitchCon events, and confirmed she was pressing charges against the assailant. A viral video caught the interaction.

So some freak just assaulted Emiru at @TwitchCon . This behavior is fucking disgusting. I’m amazed that she still came back to finish the Meet and Greet line, honestly she deserves the utmost of respect. THIS HAS TO STOP!!!@EmiruUpdatess @emiru pic.twitter.com/pyO2QHQ9Pv

— BaconCrumbz 🥓 @TwitchCon SD (@BaconCrumbz) October 18, 2025

Emiru was shocked not only that the man was able to reach her without Twitch security intervening, but also disappointed in both Twitch's support of her immediately after the incident, and its statement that it quickly intervened and removed the assailant, which she called "a blatant lie."

Now, in an interview with journalist Taylor Lorenz, Clancy reflected on safety for creators and fans susceptible to parasocial relationships, saying: "The safety of our creators is our top priority. The challenge we face is a challenge in today’s society. It’s not limited to Twitch, it extends throughout our society.

"I do think that when you’re livestreaming, in many ways, since you control your community and you can ban people, you can make it so that those people that you don’t want engaging with you and participating with you, aren’t there," he added. "When I use other short-form content and people say all sorts of stuff, well I can't stop that. But when I livestream, they basically don't bother me.

"Now, what happened yesterday, obviously, was something that we care deeply about securing this environment. We’re looking very closely at everything that happened there, and I care deeply about Emi. She’s a friend of mine, and so I want to see how we can support her. This is just something we have to keep working on. I think everyone identifies our tools in terms of trust and safety as the leaders in the industry about helping creators, but that means there's always more work to be done, because that's the world we live in now."