Based on the already-popular game series, the Pokémon anime became a cultural phenomenon almost immediately after it was first released in the '90s. A quarter-century later, the franchise is about as long as legendary anime like One Piece.

Unlike something like One Piece or Dragon Ball, which have a continuous, serialized story, Pokémon is more of an episodic narrative with mostly standalone episodes. Even though there is a progression from series to series, you could theoretically skip around and watch the ones that interest you the most without being completely lost.

Still, the era of streaming splitting everything up between multiple platforms makes finding (let alone watching) the entirety of Pokémon a mighty task. That's why we're here: to round up where you can watch every Pokémon season and movie online.

How Long Is the Pokémon Series?

The Pokémon series so far includes over 1300 episodes across 27 seasons. There are also 23 animated Pokémon movies and the live-action Detective Pikachu film. In addition to the streaming links listed below, most of the Pokémon series is available on DVD.

How to Watch Pokémon Online (in Order)

For American audiences, the Pokémon series is split across quite a few streaming services. The original series as well as the most recent seasons can be found on U.S. Netflix, while some seasons can be found on free streaming sites like Tubi. Hoopla, which requires a library card but is otherwise free, has a "Pokémon Bingepass" that includes Seasons 6-13 of the anime series and is the only way to stream seasons 6-10 online.

Otherwise, Prime Video has a Pokémon channel add-on for $2.99/month that lets you stream a decent chunk of the series that isn't available elsewhere. Prime Video subscriptions, including the Pokémon channel, offer a seven-day free trial for those trying to watch a specific movie or series for free. Just remember to cancel your subscription before it auto-renews.

1. Pokémon Indigo League (1997)

Pokémon the Series: Season 1

The season that started it all! This one is full of exciting moments, but also rather emotional ones — including a final heartbreak that sets the stage for Pokémon's approach to winning and losing.

Where to Stream: Netflix

2. Pokémon: The First Movie (1998)

One of the best Pokémon movies, this is as big a '90s time capsule as they come, with a bangin' soundtrack and some big tear-jerking sequences ("Brother My Brother" never fails to hit hard).

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

3. Pokémon Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution (2019)

A CGI remake of the first movie, it notoriously removes what made the original so endearing, namely, the soundtrack. But it does have more Mewtwo than the U.S. version of the original.

Where to Stream: Netflix

4. Pokémon Adventures in Orange Islands (1999)

Pokémon the Series: Season 2

A downgrade from the first season, but nevertheless an exciting Pokémon adventure. Here we meet a new companion in Tracy, and the Orange League tournament is one of the show's best.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokémon add-on) or YouTube

5. Pokémon The Movie 2000 — The Power of One (1999)

A fascinating villain, world-ending stakes, and some cool visuals make this one of the best Pokémon movies. Plus, it gives Team Rocket arguably their best arc in the whole franchise.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

6. Pokémon The Johto Journeys (1999)

Pokémon the Series: Season 3

The start of the Gold and Silver series, this one has a very underrated opening song, and a whole new set of Pokémon! It can't be understated how cool it was to see this in 1999, before it became an obvious and expected tradition.

Where to Stream: Prime Video

7. Pokémon 3: The Movie - Spell of the Unown (2000)

Aside from some very dated CGI, this film has an interesting WandaVision-esque cosmic story that's more introspective than the previous two. The relationship between Entei and Molly makes the movie work.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokémon add-on)

8. Pokémon Johto League Champions (2000)

Pokémon the Series: Season 4

The finale of the Johto adventures, this season sees Ash reach the Johto League tournament aka the Silver Conference, with expected results.

Where to Stream: Prime Video

9. Pokémon 4Ever: Celebi- Voice of the Forest (2001)

Time-travel shenanigans in Pokémon! The movies were already weird before, but this one turns it up to 11 and paves the way for the extremely weird stories to come.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

10. Pokémon Master Quest (2001)

Pokémon the Series: Season 5

The end of the original Pokémon franchise, and the first one to be animated digitally, the season features a thrilling fight with Gary.

Where to Stream: Prime Video

11. Pokémon Heroes: Latias and Latios (2002)

This movie has a gorgeous Venice-inspired location, an exciting Pokémon race, and a rather bizarre final twist involving shapeshifting.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

12. Pokémon Advanced (2002)

Pokémon the Series: Season 6

Ash moves to a new region, meets new friends in May and Max, and meets even more new Pokémon after abandoning all his friends (except Pikachu).

Where to Stream: Hoopla

13. Pokémon: Jirachi, Wish Maker (2003)

This is where Pokémon start getting terrifying when you stop to think about them. An ancient Pokémon awakens and a kaiju Pokémon is resurrected to cause devastation.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

14. Pokémon Advanced Challenge (2003)

Pokémon the Series: Season 7

May's quest to become a Pokémon Coordinator makes for an interesting parallel to Ash's story, putting 10-year-old Ash in a sort of mentor role. At the same time, the Team Magma and Team Aqua subplots are quite entertaining.

Where to Stream: Hoopla

15. Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (2004)

The one where they go to a city based on Vancouver, this movie features an alien Pokémon coming from space to conquer the Earth. This is the kaiju era of the franchise, and it rules.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

16. Pokémon Advanced Battle (2004)

Pokémon the Series: Season 8

The adventure continues with Ash trying to gather enough medals to enter the Battle Frontier tournament.

Where to Stream: Hoopla

17. Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (2005)

Mew is back! And we get one of the best Pokémon of them all in Lucario (fight me). This movie has one of the most emotional climaxes in the franchise.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

18. Pokémon Battle Frontier (2005)

Pokémon the Series: Season 9

The final part of the Advanced seasons is all about the big tournament, with plenty of cool battles and the return of fan-favorite Pokémon.

Where to stream: Hoopla

19. Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea (2006)

What if Pokémon did Atlantis: The Lost Empire? Or, more accurately, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water? The result is a movie full of pirates, environmental themes, and water-themed fun.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

20. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (2006)

Pokémon the Series: Season 10

A vast improvement over the previous season, this time Ash's new Pokémon Coordinator companion, Dawn, is much more developed than May, and we get a fascinating new rival trainer in Paul.

Where to Stream: The Roku Channel or Prime Video

21. Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai (2007)

The first part of a fantastic trilogy, this movie is close to being a full-on cosmic horror film. The titular Darkrai is quite Lovecraftian in nature, making for a darker, more sinister movie.

Where to Stream: Hulu or Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

22. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Battle Dimension (2007)

Pokémon the Series: Season 11

This is where the dynamic between Ash and Dawn pays off as we see them being challenged in unique ways. Plus, the emergence of Team Galactic raises the stakes and stands apart from previous evil teams.

Where to Stream: The Roku Channel

23. Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior (2008)

The second chapter in the trilogy ups the trippy ante, trapping Ash and his friends in a bizarre mirror dimension. Giratina is a terrifying creature, a kaiju-like god of chaos whose ability to manipulate reality elevates it above other Pokémon villains.

Where to Stream: Hulu or Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

24. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Galactic Battles (2008)

Pokémon the Series: Season 12

Team Galactic is on the offensive and they threaten to wreak havoc on the Pokémon world. Meanwhile, Ash fights Paul in a thrilling duel that's not just about their skills, but their opposing philosophies about Pokémon.

Where to Stream: The Roku Channel

25. Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life (2009)

The end of the movie trilogy goes takes the franchise to a theological place, with Arceus presenting itself as an actual PokéGod. This is a very wild movie, essentially a biblical epic, but with Pokémon, plus there is a lot of time-travel.

Where to Stream: Hulu or Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

26. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors (2010)

Pokémon the Series: Season 13

Team Rocket is back! And they are up to no good. Meanwhile, Ash tries to qualify for the Sinnoh League while Dawn trains to compete in the Grand Festival.

Where to Stream: The Roku Channel

27. Pokémon Zoroark – Master of Illusions (2010)

Another movie about trying to control a powerful Pokémon and upsetting the balance of nature, leading to widespread destruction. It's not the most original of the movies.

Where to Stream: Hulu or Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

28. Pokémon Black and White (2010)

Pokémon the Series: Season 14

We have a new land, new Pokémon, and two new companions! Iris and Cilan join Ash on their new adventure as he also encounters Team Plasma — who actually oppose Team Rocket and want to free Pokémon!

Where to Stream: Tubi

29. Pokémon the Movie: Black – Victini and Reshiram (2011)

Now, this is an interesting experiment. Two parts of the same story, the "Reshiram/Zekrom" movies, much like the game, feature virtually the same story only swapping out the central Pokémon.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

30. Pokémon the Movie: White – Victini and Zekrom (2011)

Virtually the same movie, but rather than Ash encountering Reshiram, he sees the legendary Pokémon Zekrom. There's an island on the verge of destruction, an angry Pokémon, and a world to save.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

31. Pokémon Black and White: Rival Destinies (2011)

Pokémon the Series: Season 15

Much like the Black and White games served as a soft reboot of the game series, so is this season also a reboot of sorts. Sadly, this means Ash is no longer a veteran with a bad track record, but a rookie once again.

Where to Stream: Tubi

32. Pokémon the Movie: Kyurem vs the Sword of Justice (2012)

A rare Pokémon movie that focuses not on the humans, but a critter named Keldeo who wishes to join a Pokémon supersquad. It's a heartfelt story about Pokémon and their goals and dreams.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

33. Pokémon Black and White: Adventures in Unova and Beyond (2012)

Pokémon the Series: Season 16

Though they have foiled Team Rocket, there is new danger lurking in the shadows. Meanwhile, Ash is ready to face the Unova League while Iris heads to a Village of Dragons to help inspire her Dragonite.

Where to Stream: Tubi

34. Pokémon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened (2013)

The one where Pokémon becomes Jurassic Park. An ancient Pokémon species is resurrected and they immediately start wreaking havoc — until a familiar face arrives to save the day.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

35. Pokémon XY (2013)

Pokémon the Series: Season 17

Ash once again trades his companions, this time being joined by the inventor Clemond, his little sister Bonnie, and the Pokémon performer Serena. Together they venture through the Kalos region and encounter numerous new Pokémon.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

36. Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction (2014)

Greedy collectors try to capture a gem-based Pokémon princess, and only Ash can stop them. It's another movie with a rather basic plot that's been repeated better elsewhere on this list.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

37. Pokémon XY: Kalos Quest (2013)

Pokémon the Series: Season 18

There is a reason this series is considered peak Pokémon. It has a rather heroic portrayal of Ash, some of the best battles in the entire anime, and quite a lot of excitement when it comes to the new Mega Evolutions.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

38. Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages (2015)

An imp-like Pokémon imprisoned in a bottle is released and starts playing pranks, but his shadow starts growing into a giant evil version of itself. This is one of the most fun Pokémon deities, and reason enough to watch this movie.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

39. Pokémon XYZ (2013)

Pokémon the Series: Season 19

Team Flare makes its move against the legendary Zygarde which is prophesied to destroy all of Kalos. Meanwhile Ash finally competes in the Kalos League Conference.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

40. Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel (2016)

A steampunk location gives this movie a unique look that matches the more mechanical Pokémon that are the stars of the show. It also features a villain on a flying fortress war machine, making one cool fantasy movie.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

41. Pokémon Sun and Moon (2016)

Pokémon the Series: Season 20

A big departure from the seasons that preceded it, this season boasts a unique art style and a more emotional journey for Ash than we've seen before. This is considered either the pinnacle of the series or a huge letdown, depending on who you ask.

Where to Stream: Hulu or The Roku Channel

42. Pokémon Sun and Moon: Ultra Adventures (2017)

Pokémon the Series: Season 21

After 20 years, Pokémon remembers Ash is still a 10-year-old, so he finally goes to school rather than live in the wilderness. Meanwhile, an organization all about Pokémon conservation turns out to be quite shady, and Ash also has visions of legendary Pokémon.

Where to Stream: Hulu

43. Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! (2017)

A loose reboot of the anime's pilot episode, this movie is good for those who want to relive the most iconic moments from the show's early days and those who want to enter the franchise. Also, this is the movie where Pikachu talks, and it is absolutely terrifying.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

44. Pokémon Sun and Moon: Ultra Legends (2018)

Pokémon the Series: Season 22

It's tournament time! But that's not Ash has on his mind, because the Alola region is in danger and it is up to Ash and his friends to save it from destruction.

Where to Stream: Hulu

45. Pokémon The Power of Us (2018)

A continuation of the reboot timeline of I Choose You, this movie is a loose remake of Pokémon: The Movie 2000, just never as good as the original.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

46. Pokémon Journeys (2019)

Pokémon the Series: Season 23

The beginning of the end, with Ash becoming an official Pokémon researcher exploring the wide world of Pokémon.

Where to Stream: Netflix

47. Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)

Though not at all part of the official Pokémon order, this is the single best movie in the franchise. The first live-action/animation hybrid, the movie is a hugely entertaining adventure filled with Easter Eggs, and a clear love letter to the franchise.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

48. Pokémon Master Journeys (2020)

Pokémon the Series: Season 24

This is where things get very interesting. While Ash is climbing the rankings of the World Coronation Series, he and his friends discover strange occurrences happening in the Galar region, including clones and Pokémon devolving. Stakes don't get higher than literal gods intervening.

Where to Stream: Netflix or Prime Video

49. Pokémon Secrets of the Jungle (2020)

Small stakes, a more intimate movie, and a Tarzan-like story make this a standout Pokémon movie. In short, it rules.

Where to Stream: Netflix

50. Pokémon Ultimate Journeys (2021)

Pokémon the Series: Season 25

This is it. The moment of truth. At this point, there's no hiding it, if you aren't aware that Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town becomes the Pokémon World Champion, you've been living under a rock. This is the culmination of nearly a quarter-century's worth of Pokémon, a highly emotional season that reintroduces old friends like Misty and Brock, has some spectacular action animation, the return of a fan-favorite song, and a perfect end to the story of Ash and Pikachu.

Where to Stream: Netflix or Prime Video

51. Pokémon Horizons (2023)

Pokémon the Series: Season 26

After saying goodbye to Ash and Pikachu, we meet two new protagonists — Liko and Roy, who are joined by Frede and his companion Captain Pikachu. It's a brand new Pokémon adventure!

Where to Stream: Netflix

52. Pokémon Concierge (2023)

One of the best Pokémon series ever isn't even part of the main story, or even in traditional animation. Instead, this stop-motion show follows Haru as she arrives to work at a Pokémon resort and encounters all kinds of Pokéguests and Pokéemployees.

Where to Stream: Netflix

53. Pokémon Horizons – The Search for Laqua (2024)

Pokémon the Series: Season 27

Part of the appeal of Horizons is that it's a more traditional anime, with an arc-based structure and a bigger focus on adventure. There are mysteries to solve, new challenges, battles, and enemies.

Where to Stream: Netflix

What’s Next for the Pokémon Series?

The second season of Pokémon Horizons, The Search for Laqua, arrived on Netflix this past February. It continues the more recent trend of Pokémon seasons being distinct from the ongoing game generations. We'll likely see a third Horizons season (or even a new series) at some point in 2026.

More Pokémon Updates

A lot’s been happening in the world of Pokémon. The next mainline game, Pokémon Legends Z-A, is arriving later this year for Switch and Switch 2. The Pokémon trading card game is bigger than ever, for better or worse. The next TCG expansion, Destined Rivals, releases in just a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, the digital version of the trading card game, Pokémon TCG Pocket, continues to release frequent updates, most recently the Celestial Guardians expansion based on the Sun and Moon generation.

Rafael Motamayor is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything anime and animation.

Thunderbolts* has the longest post-credits scene of any film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While we won’t be divulging the contents of that scene here – looking for our Thunderbolts Ending Explained once the film opens – we can confirm that the post-credits scene runs 2 minutes and 54 seconds.

That makes it longer than even Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s five end credits scenes combined. Most MCU mid- and post-credits scenes run in the range of 60-90 seconds.

This is only counting the MCU films, mind you, not the Disney+ series. Hawkeye’s finale had a mid-credits scene that showed a full performance of “Save the City” from the in-world Broadway show Rogers: The Musical, which ran over four minutes long.

For more on Thunderbolts*, find out what Florence Pugh told us about jumping off the second tallest building in the world and what Wyatt Russell had to say to haters.

Not among the film’s haters was IGN’s Clint Gage, who awarded Thunderbolts* a 7 out of 10.

In his Thunderbolts* review, Gage called the film “the most solid the sacred timeline has felt in a little while, providing an adventure befitting its overlooked title characters.”

Marvel’s Thunderbolts* opens in theaters this weekend.

It may seem like everything is getting more expensive right now, but for Tolkien fans, prices seem to be in a sweet spot. The massive Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Edition has just dropped in price once more on Amazon to a new low. We covered the last sale back in March when this huge tome got a discount, but this time around, the deal is even better.

This special edition of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books has dropped to $103, which is a significant 59% off the usual price. Still, $250 may be a bit too steep for a cool Lord of the Rings gift, but when you cut that price in half, it starts to seem a little more reasonable.

The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition Has Its Best Deal at Amazon

Don’t Worry Darling star Florence Pugh didn’t want the darlings in her life to worry about her jumping off the second tallest building in the world while shooting Marvel’s Thunderbolts*.

Pugh chatted with IGN’s Jeffrey Vega about performing the spectacular stunt, which has been highlighted in the MCU film’s trailers and marketing promos. The sequence, which opens the film, sees Pugh’s Yelena Belova BASE jump off the Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“I didn’t tell people the day that it was happening. I didn't want people to be worrying because obviously, you know, I knew that we were going to be doing it as safe as possible,” Pugh said.

Florence Pugh didn't tell people when she was going to jump off the 2nd tallest building in the world for Thunderbolts* : pic.twitter.com/lIFq4B9l1i

— IGN (@IGN) April 29, 2025

“It’s just not helpful for people to be like well I’m not getting a message from her. Does that mean this? And I just thought that it was best for maybe people to not know the exact day that it was happening, which I’m glad about.”

Only two of Pugh’s loved ones knew the exact day she was going to jump off the Merdeka – because they were there to see it for themselves.

“I had my sister and my best friend out there with me and they were on the top of the building and they got to witness the whole thing,” Pugh recalled.

“And they were just like, ‘Yeah, I wasn’t nervous because you weren’t really nervous. Every now and then I would just catch you in the car looking at it, transfixed by it. And those were the only moments where I knew that where I obviously knew you were thinking about it.’”

Marvel’s Thunderbolts* opens in theaters May 2nd. In his Thunderbolts review, IGN’s Clint Gage called the film “the most solid the sacred timeline has felt in a little while, providing an adventure befitting its overlooked title characters.”

The newest Apple Watch has dropped down to the lowest price we've seen. Well ahead of Mother's Day, which lands on May 11 this year, you can pick up a 42mm Apple Watch Series 10 for only $299 - 25% off its $399 list price - or the bigger 46mm model for $329 - 23% off its $429 list price. If you own an iPhone, the Apple Watch is indisputably the best smartwatch for you. It's stylish, boasts excellent build quality, excels as both a fitness tracker and smartwatch, and seamlessly integrates with your iPhone.

Apple Watch Series 10 From $299

Looking for codes for the newly released Project Egoist? You've come to the right place. By using the codes we've found, you can boost your cash and spend it on Gacha for Emotes, MVP Animations, Goal Effects, and more.

Working Project Egoist Codes (May 2025)

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• ThanksFor5kFollowEvent - 2,500 Cash
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• ProjectEgoist - 1,000 Cash

All Expired Project Egoist Codes

For now, there are no expired Project Egoist codes so make the most of the ones above before they're gone for good!

How to Redeem Project Egoist Codes

Before you can use codes in Project Egoist, you'l need to join the community. You can do this by clicking on the name cool group for big cool people, who are the developers of the game in Roblox. Once you've done this, follow the steps below:

1. Load up the Project Egoist Roblox experience
2. Find the Codes button on the left side of the screen with a ticket icon
3. Enter the code in the Redeem Here box
4. Press Redeem and enjoy

Why Isn't My Project Egoist Code Working?

Typically, when a code stops working, it's just because it's expired. However, plenty of codes for Roblox experiences are also case-sensitive so, it might be that you've typed it incorrectly. Whether a code has been entered incorrectly in Project Egoist, it'll say "code invalid."

To avoid using an incorrect code, we'd recommend copying them directly from this article and pasting them into the code box. We test them all before we add them to the article, so you can be certain that if it's on here, it's a valid code. Just be sure to check you haven't added a sneaky extra space in there when copying it over.

How to Get More Project Egoist Codes

We are always on the lookout for more codes and keep our pages updated, so if you want to stay up to date with the latest Project Egoist codes, save this page! If you're interested in hunting them down yourself, you can always pop over to the Project Egoist Discord Server.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

May has arrived, and that means it's time for another Free Comic Book Day. Every year, comic shops across the world take part in the event by giving away free books on the first Saturday of May. Many of these books serve as primers for major upcoming storylines or best-selling series, meaning it's usually worth heading out and braving the crowds to try and snag the most important comics.

2025 is no exception. From DC's DC All in 2025 Special Edition to Marvel's Fantastic Four/X-Men and The Amazing Spider-Man/Ultimate Universe books to the latest Energon Universe special, these are the books you should keep an eye out for during this year's event.

The Amazing Spider-Man/Ultimate Universe #1

Publisher: Marvel

The first of several specials from Marvel, this issue offers two original stories in one. The first from writer Joe Kelly and artist John Romita, Jr. serves as a primer of sorts to the recently relaunched Amazing Spider-Man series. The second story from writers Deniz Camp and Cody Ziglar and artist Jonas Scharf is a prologue to the upcoming Ultimate Universe crossover event, which sees Miles Morales drawn into the new Ultimate U.

Blood Type #0

Publisher: Oni Press

Oni Press is expanding its EC Comics imprint this summer with several new series, including Corinna Bechko and Andrea Sorrentino's vampire title Blood Type. If you want an early glimpse of that new series, Blood Type #0 is just the book for you. This issue reprints the short story from the anthology series Epitaphs From the Abyss that kicked off the Blood Type saga.

Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #1

Publisher: Titan

Titan Comics is developing a habit of using FCBD to debut its annual Conan crossover events. That trend holds true with Conan: Scourge of the Serpent. This issue incldues three interconnected tales that set the stage for a grand conflict between Conan and the serpent god Set.

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins/Black Hammer #1

Publisher: Dark Horse

Dark Horse's FCBD special spotlights two of the publisher's biggest franchises. This issue includes one tale set in the Critical Role universe, as Beau and Caleb get a little too caught up in an evening of dinner theater fun. There's also a Black Hammer story focused on Colonel Weird, one that highlights both the past and future of the Back Hammer universe.

DC All In: 2025 Special Edition #1

Publisher: DC

Similar to last year's DC All In Special, DC is releasing a flipbook that reveals the future of both the core DC Universe and the new Absolute Universe. On one hand, this issue serves as an introduction to the upcoming Superman Unlimited series from Dan Slott and Rafael Albuquerque. On the other, it features a new Absolute Universe story from Jeff Lemire and Giuseppe Camuncoli.

Energon Universe 2025 Special #1

Publisher: Skybound

Skybound really made some waves with the surprise reveal thaat Void Rivals was actually the launching point for a new shared universe involving Transformers and G.I. Joe. All three pillars of the Energon universe are featured in this issue, which features three new short stories and a twist so big they had to censor the cover.

Fantastic Four/X-Men #1

Publisher: Marvel

Marvel is pairing the X-Men and Fantastic Four for their second big FCBD release. This issue should be on everyone's radar, if for no other reason than it features a new FF tale from Ryan North and Humberto Ramos. On the X-Men side, Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing are revisiting the fateful day Charles Xavier first assembled the All-New, All-Different X-Men and revealing the one mutant who turned him down.

Gargoyles: Demona #1

Publisher: Dynamite

Disney may not be giving Gargoyles fans the animated revival they've all been craving, but Dymanite is certainly making up for that on the comic book side. The Gargoyles line expands with this new special that sets up the Gargoyles: Demona series. Best of all, it's even written by creator Greg Weisman.

Godzilla: The New Heroes #1

Publisher: IDW

In case you missed the news, IDW is launching an entire new shared universe of Godilla comics this summer. This issue serves as a primer for that universe, with a ten-page prelude story accompanied by previews of the forthcoming ongoing Godilla books.

Power Rangers/VR Troopers #1

Publisher: BOOM! Studios

IGN recently broke the news that BOOM! Studios is debuting a VR Troopers series spinning out of the pages of the Power Rangers Prime reboot. This issue gives fans a sneak preview of the new series along with a look back at some of the VR Troopers comics of yesteryear.

Star Wars #1

Publisher: Marvel

Marvel's third and final FCBD release is focused on their recently revamped Star Wars line, which now consists of Charles Soule and Luke Ross' Star Wars: Legacy of Vader, Marc Guggenheim and Madibek Musabekov's Star Wars: Jedi Knights, and Alex Segura and Phil Noto's Star Wars. Fittingly, this issue features three new tales, each tied to one of those three books.

Thundercats/The Powerpuff Girls #1

Publisher: Dynamite

This might just be the pick of the FCBD 2025 crop, purely for how weird and intriguing the premise is. Dynamite is highlighting its Thundercats and Powerpuff Girls comics, not by releasing an issue with one story geared toward each, but by combining the two into one wacky crossover. What happens when Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles travel to Third Earth? We're about to find out.

Let us know in the comments below what books you're excited to pick up on Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Need some ideas for great comics to pick up along with your FCBD stack? Why not check out the top 27 Batman graphic novels and the top 25 Spider-Man graphic novels?

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

The Nintendo Switch 2 Direct finally revealed exactly what the Nintendo Switch 2 can do and what it costs. But alongside the hype came the burden of realization: Consoles are getting expensive.

Nintendo Switch 2’s price has breached into the realm of what I’d expect from handheld gaming PCs, which cost anywhere from $400 to $900. But it’s not just the hardware that’s more expensive – the games are getting more expensive too, making the affordability of the original Switch a distant dream.

Compared to the Steam Deck, which was once far more expensive than the Switch, Valve’s handheld gaming PC and the Nintendo Switch 2 are in a similar lane. So if you’re looking to get into the handheld gaming scene, which is better? Nintendo Switch 2 or Steam Deck?

Nintendo Switch 2 vs Steam Deck: Price

Price has been a hot topic for the Nintendo Switch 2. The company plans to launch the console at $449.99, which is 50% more expensive than the original $299.99 Switch. That in of itself is a drastic price leap, but there’s the added possibility of it getting even higher with the threat of tariffs on the horizon.

Pre-orders for Switch 2 were delayed from their original April 9 date in the U.S., with Nintendo telling us that it was in order to “assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.” The 90-day tariff pause put a temporary stop to that, with pre-orders now going live on April 24, but there’s no saying what happens when tariffs return in July. It’s hard to make definitive statements on value as a result, but let’s move forward with the prices we know.

The Steam Deck is built on much older tech, though. It features an AMD Radeon APU with 8 RDNA 2 CUs, and a Zen 2 CPU with 4 cores and 8 threads. Because these two GPUs are built on different architectures by different companies, it’s incredibly hard to draw comparisons between the two. But because the Nintendo Switch 2 features hardware that the Steam Deck simply doesn’t – namely Tensor Cores to power DLSS – the Switch 2 is theoretically more powerful.

“Theoretical” is the key word here. These are different machines in operating system, power output, and display resolution. And with some form of DLSS coming to the Switch 2, I won’t know how it truly performs until it’s in my hands. For now though, Switch 2 seems likely to pull ahead.

Winner: Nintendo Switch 2

Nintendo Switch 2 vs Steam Deck: Software and Features

Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch 2 are intended for different audiences, so directly comparing features can be confusing. If you’re primarily a PC gamer with a large Steam library, or have a penchant for emulation, the Steam Deck is a fantastic option. Switch 2 is best for fans of Nintendo exclusives, or those willing to leap into a new console ecosystem. Thankfully, if you did own the original Switch, your game library is backward compatible, both digitally and physically.

Nintendo Switch 2’s most exciting new feature is that its Joy-Con function as mice. As seen in Drag x Drive, players glide the bottom of their Joy-Con against a surface to move forwards, backwards, and even turn. Mouse functionality extends beyond just games that require it, with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond featuring mouse functionality while aiming, as if playing on PC.

Steam Deck does something similar with its two trackpads, but they don’t emulate the mouse experience quite as well – if you know anything about first-person shooters, trying to play them on a trackpad is a nightmare.

While not new to the Switch 2, its detachable Joy-Con, docking station, and backstand offers handheld, tabletop, and docked modes. It’s easy to take that versatility for granted, but the Steam Deck isn’t capable of this. An official Steam Deck Docking Station does exist, but it’s sold separately, and the console does not have a backstand or detachable controllers. It’s primarily a handheld device.

I can’t talk about Switch 2’s features without bringing up GameChat, Nintendo’s solution to online communication with its own dedicated “C” button. Not only can you video chat with friends while playing games, but the console has a built-in microphone. Players can even stream their gameplay to one another. Certain games have built-in functionality for a Nintendo Switch 2 Camera peripheral, where games like Super Mario Party Jamboree can place an image of your face next to your character. However, a Nintendo Switch Online membership will be required to use GameChat after March 31, 2026.

Comparatively, Steam Deck is feature-lite. It’s a dedicated handheld machine primarily focused on playing games available on Steam. However, it gains the additional benefit of an enormous software library. Whereas Switch 2 titles will need direct ports, Steam Deck owners will have access to a wider range of games.

Switch is the champion of form-factor versatility, and the new features coming to the Switch 2 solidify that. Steam Deck pulls ahead with software diversity, but the inventiveness of the Switch 2 is impressive.

Winner: Nintendo Switch 2

The Winner Is… the Nintendo Switch 2

Is it premature to award the crown to a console that isn’t out yet? Maybe, but the Switch 2 is shaping up to be a phenomenal machine surpassing the Steam Deck in versatility of features and graphics performance. In Steam Deck’s defense, there’s no telling what a successor could be capable of, especially with the AMD Z2 Extreme APU yearning desperately for implementation.

There is one element that the current Steam Deck is ahead in: Value. Switch 2 is expensive, and its software, even moreso. If you’re concerned about game prices in the future, Steam Deck is likely your best bet.

Otherwise, Switch 2 has awesome new features like Joy-Con that can act as mice and a powerful Nvidia SoC with DLSS support. On top of everything that already made Switch fantastic, it’s shaping up to be the stronger choice.

It’s a new month (May, for those without a calendar nearby), so of course you can find a new batch of LEGO sets waiting to be exchanged for your hard-earned cash. The majority of this month’s new releases fall in the LEGO Star Wars category, in celebration of May the Fourth. But a handful of other notable sets are also coming out this month, plus a number of new preorders have gone live for sets releasing later this year. Let’s take a look.

LEGO Mario Kart Releases May 15

New LEGO Star Wars Sets Are Out

A new batch of LEGO Star Wars sets is now available in celebration of Star Wars Day, which as always, lands on May the Fourth. The headliner here is Jango Fett’s starship, but the rest of the sets are equally cool.

LEGO Avengers: Endgame Final Battle Is Now Available

LEGO Botanicals: Petite Sunny Bouquet Is Now Available

LEGO Art: Keith Haring – Dancing Figures Is Out May 15

LEGO Formula 1 Race Cars Are Now Available

New LEGO Sets Up for Preorder

In addition to this month’s new releases, a handful of upcoming LEGO sets have gone up for preorder lately as well. It’s unclear why the good people at LEGO didn’t release the Andor K-2SO Security Droid set this month, seeing it’s May the Fourth and Andor is in the process of airing on Disney+, but you’ll have to wait until August to piece that one together. The Sherlock Holmes Book Nooks is absolutely delightful, as it's a detailed take on Baker Street, but you can also fold it up and put between books on your bookshelf.

The Iron Spider-Man bust and Fortnite Mecha Team Leader are cool too, as are the two new LEGO Technic car sets. And for anyone looking to add some class to their abode or workplace, the new LEGO Bontanicals bonsai tree set is great as well.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

LEGO enthusiasts, here's a massive Star Wars set to add your collection at its lowest price ever. Starting now and running through "May the 4th" or Star Wars Day, the Lego Shop is offering the massive LEGO Star Wars The Razor Crest 75331 Ultimate Collector Series Set for just $479.99 with free shipping after a 20% off instant discount (it's normally $600). You'll need to sign up for a (free) LEGO Insiders membership to get this discount.

20% Off LEGO Star Wars The Razor Crest (Ulimate Collector Series)

Scopely has partnered with Disney for a Star Wars collaboration that brings characters and locations from across The Skywalker Saga and The Mandalorian to Monopoly Go!.

The two media giants detailed their crossover event further with a trailer this morning, explaining that Monopoly Go! players can unlock and enjoy Star Wars content for the next two months starting today. Scopely says the event is “rooted in a deep and compelling narrative” that follows local robot Peg-E after she visits Mr. Monopoly’s movie theater.

“Captivated by the cinematic magic of Star Wars, her daydreams take flight, reimagining the MONOPOLY GO! universe within the Star Wars galaxy,” an official description says. “In the ensuing adventure, players will be transported into timeless tales of good and evil, Jedi and Sith, and the light and dark side — kickstarting a series of action-packed in-game events, collectibles and surprises.”

With the Monopoly Go! Star Wars crossover comes a limited-time 22-sticker album that ties to the Star Wars universe. May the 4th, specifically, will see players gifted an exclusive token, with a variety of other themed additions available to nab throughout the duration of the collaboration. You can see a list of highlights included, as outlined by Scopely, below.

Monopoly Go! x Star Wars Crossover Event

• ‘Pod’ and ‘Rebel’ Racers: Race iconic Star Wars vehicles through the Mos Espa Grand Arena and the frozen wasteland of Hoth in a twist on MONOPOLY GO!’s high-stakes multiplayer event, Tycoon Racers.
• ‘Star Wars’, ‘Jedi’ and ‘Hyperspace’ Partners Events: Team up with friends to construct larger-than-life Star Wars-themed statues of iconic characters and starships from the Star Wars galaxy, and reap fantastic rewards together.
• ‘Tatooine’, ‘Jawa’ and ‘Tusken’ Treasures: Journey to the Outer Rim planet Tatooine in three special dig-themed events, uncovering relics and treasures inspired by the Star Wars canon.
• Exclusive Collectibles: Collect themed tokens, emojis, signature dice, and shields by completing sticker albums and event challenges, bringing galactic flair to the MONOPOLY GO! experience.

The launch of the Monopoly Go! and Star Wars crossover follows its official reveal as the latest Scopely collaboration last month. Its full debut today gives players until July 2 to enjoy what it has to offer. For more, you can read up on how Scopely made headlines in March when it confirmed it would purchase Pokémon Go-maker Niantic Inc. for $3.5 billion.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

The Nintendo Switch 2 is approaching, and for at least some of its launch catalog, companies are opting for Game-Key Cards rather than fully on-cart physical games. This has understandably not been thrilling for people trying to collect physical game collections, and that includes those trying to preserve games in the long-term.

When Nintendo pulled back the curtain on Switch 2, it confirmed that several new Switch 2 game cards won’t always carry an actual game, but instead contain a key for a game download. Nintendo later clarified that Switch 2 Edition games contain both the game and the upgrade on the cartridge itself.

Switch 2 Game-Key Cards are physical cards that only contain a key to download your chosen game. That means there’s no actual game data on the card you insert into your Switch 2, so you’ll need to download it once the card is inserted. Every Game-Key Card case is appropriately labeled on the lower portion of the front of the box, so if you’re concerned about what exactly you’re purchasing, you should have a heads-up right away.

Games like Street Fighter 6 and the Bravely Default remaster do indeed feature this game-key card disclaimer. Others, such as Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, do not. The beefy Cyberpunk 2077, which weighs in at 64 GB on Nintendo Switch 2, comes on a cart.

In a feature over on GamesIndustry.biz, the outlet spoke with several games preservationists about Nintendo's Game-Key Cards, and what a digital, download-focused approach does for their work. Nightdive Studios CEO Stephen Kick addressed the issue fairly head-on.

"Seeing Nintendo do this is a little disheartening," said Kick. "You would hope that a company that big, that has such a storied history, would take preservation a little more seriously."

As pointed out later in the piece by John-Paul Dyson, director of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games at The Strong Museum, some games are difficult to document due to the volatility of online distribution. He highlighted mobile games as one particular challenge, as their versions change with time. The Strong Museum's solution, it sounds like, is to preserve several versions of a game throughout its lifetime.

Storing and accessing games also becomes an issue, as does any DRM checks on the software. Moving everything onto digital downloads could have an impact on archiving, regardless of whether physical or digital is more popular for sales.

I've put way too many hours into Stardew Valley building my own cozy little farm. And although taking care of a farm is its own full-time job, I always try to find time to make every character's favorite foods. The recipes in Stardew Valley can be pretty simple but the final pixelated result always looks appetizing to me. I've definitely imagined what each dish tastes like as I whip it up in the game, but I never really thought about making the recipes in real life until I came across the Stardew Valley cookbook.

The official cookbook for the game was written in collaboration with the game's creator ConcernedApe (Eric Barone). As someone who loves Stardew Valley and cooking, I've put this video game cookbook at the top of my gift wishlist for 2025.

The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook - On Sale Now

Despite several ongoing Spider-Man movie franchises, the Spider-Verse movies still managed to take the world by storm. They're perhaps best known for the animation itself, which features a mix of art styles and hand-crafted visual textures. The Spider-Verse movies also feature solid writing, particularly surrounding Miles and his family, as well as great soundtracks. Across the Spider-Verse in particular is a movie I can pretty much watch on a loop without getting bored.

The only bad thing I have to say about these movies? They’ve been a pain in the butt to find on streaming. As someone who canceled my Netflix subscription for the new Disney+ and Hulu bundle, I ended up getting both of these movies on Blu-ray. Well, turns out I could have just waited a little longer.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse left Netflix on April 26, and starting today, May 1, it has a new streaming home on Disney+.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Now Streaming on Disney+

Update 3:20pm ET: These consoles at yesterday's prices are selling out. The standard Xbox Series X is currently not available from any major retailer for yesterday's price. If you want any of the Xboxes that haven't had their price hikes yet, I'd click that buy button sooner than later.

Microsoft has announced a price hike for Xbox consoles, controllers, and eventually games. The recommended retail price on hardware goes into effect immediately, while the $79.99 price on new first-party games is set to hit this holiday season. That means if you’ve been thinking of picking up a new Xbox Series X|S or controller, you’ll want to do it sooner than later. The new, higher prices are already live from Xbox’s official store. However, you can still get the old prices at some retailers – at least for now.

Xbox Series X

Xbox Series S

Xbox Wireless Controllers

In celebration of its 50th anniversary this year, Steven Spielberg's Jaws is getting a fancy 4K steelbook that's full of exciting bonus features for fans to dig into. The steelbook is currently available to preorder at Amazon and Walmart with a release date of June 17. The former currently has it listed at $34.99 while the latter is down to $29.96, but these prices could shift as we get closer to the release date. If you're not interested in the steelbook, there's also a standard 4K 50th Anniversary Edition (see here at Amazon for $29.98) releasing on the same day.

Below we've broken down where you can purchase each version of the Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition release, alongside what bonus features come packaged inside.

Preorder Jaws 50th Anniversary Limited Edition 4K Steelbook

The Jaws 50th Anniversary 4K steelbook features excellent artwork that highlights the film's characters, some iconic Amity Island landmarks, The Orca boat, and of course, the shark at the center. This edition comes with a 4K, Blu-ray, and digital copy of the film alongside a sweet selection of bonus features which we've detailed further down.

The main difference between this steelbook edition and the standard edition is, of course the steelbook, which folds out and has some cool art that's pulled right from the movie itself. The slipcase art is a little more dynamic than the standard one as well (though the standard edition art is awesome in a classic way in its own right).

Preorder Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition 4K

Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition Bonus Features

There's a treasure trove of bonus features available with the Jaws 50th Anniversary 4K release, including an all-new documentary called Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story. Here's everything you'll get to sink your teeth into, per the press release:

• Deleted Scenes and Outtakes – Over 13 minutes of content
• The Making of JAWS - An insider look into the making of this classic film, this original full-length documentary is filled with exhaustive cast and crew interviews, archival footage, outtakes, and much more!
• JAWS: The Restoration - An in-depth look at the intricate process of restoring the movie.
• The Shark is Still Working: The Impact and Legacy of JAWS - A fan-made documentary that focuses on the many ways JAWS has helped shape elements of pop culture and influence a generation of filmmakers.
• JAWS Archives
  • Storyboards
  • Production Photos
  • Marketing JAWS
  • JAWS Phenomenon
• From the Set – Available on Disc only
• Theatrical Trailer
• JAWS @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story - Steven Spielberg shares an authorized look inside the story of JAWS in this documentary. From Peter Benchley’s epic novel to Spielberg’s film, JAWS continues to influence pop culture, cinema and shark conservation. With interviews from Hollywood’s most influential directors and shark scientists, the legend of JAWS is endless.

Looking for more great 4Ks to stock up on? You're in luck as Amazon's massive 3 for $33 sale is still going on. This features some real gems, too, including Blade Runner, The Batman, E.T., and tons of sci-fi movies. And if you're curious to see what's coming out in the months ahead, have a look at our breakdown of upcoming 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases.

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

IGN can exclusively reveal that Revival, a TV series adaptation of the Image Comics title of the same name, will premiere Thursday, June 12 at 10 p.m. on SYFY. Episodes will then be available on Peacock one week after they air.

You can watch the brand new trailer for Revival via the player above or the embed below. We also have the new poster for the show below.

Based on the bestselling Image Comics series from Tim Seeley and Mike Norton, Revival stars Melanie Scrofano, Romy Weltman, David James Elliott, and Andy McQueen.

The series’ recurring guest stars include Steven Ogg, CM Punk, Gia Sandhu, Katherine King So, Maia Jae Bastidas, Nathan Dales, Mark Little, Glen Gould, Lara Jean Chorostecki, and Conrad Coates.

“On one miraculous day in rural Wisconsin, the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves. But this is no zombie story as the ‘revived’ appear and act just like they once were,” according to the official plot synopsis.

“When local Officer and single mother Dana Cypress is unexpectedly thrown into the center of a brutal murder mystery of her own, she’s left to make sense of the chaos amidst a town gripped by fear and confusion where everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect.”

Series creators Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce serve as showrunners and executive producers. Lance Samuels, Daniel Iron, Samantha Levine, Neil Tabatznik, Daniel March, Melanie Scrofano, Greg Hemmings, Stephen Foster & Amanda Row also serve as executive producers.

Revival is produced by Blue Ice Pictures and Hemmings Films.

For more TV coverage, check out our recent cover story on Peacock’s Twisted Metal, see the latest teasers for Alien: Earth, and watch our in-depth interview with the cast of Andor, Season 2.

Helldivers 2 is gearing up for some news, and developer Arrowhead Game Studios seems confident it will impress. Or, as Arrowhead's CEO is framing it, you might want to prepare yourself.

As spotted by VideoGamer, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani was discussing Helldivers 2 in the game's Discord when a user asked him if he could "offer up anything, however small, of what's coming down the pipe." His response?

"You'll shit your pants."

While not specific about what's in store, it does at least give us an idea of the impact of what's in store. And the possible consequences to our britches, too.

Jorjani took a few other questions, with some notable mentions of wanting to add more bladed weapons and some thoughtful responses to worries about content droughts. There's some open transparency about the technical debt of something like Helldivers 2, and how the team handles it over time, that's really cool to see alongside funny quotes about distressing your jeans.

There's already been some tease about what's to come, involving a flag with both a pointy end and a grippy section. Currently, Arrowhead said it is aiming for May 8 to announce its next Warbond, and there will be "more exciting news to come not long after."

In a recent interview with IGN, Arrowhead's production director Alex Bolle said the studio wants to be around for "years and years and years to come," and that it's continuing to work on developing Helldivers 2 while staying true to what the team wants to do.

"The more we figure out how to thrive in a live environment, and we still have a way to go to figure out a lot of things around that, the more we can let creativity loose on new systems that we would've never thought about a year ago when we released," Bolle told IGN. "I've worked on live games before and it's where you feel like you have something you can figure out: what if I would do this cool thing I've seen in other games and adapt it to our sauce, that still makes it true to ourselves? I'm looking forward to this moment."

We'll start to find out what cool things Arrowhead has in store for Helldivers 2 next week. You might want to bring some extra pants.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

If you're looking for Infinity Nikki codes, IGN has you covered! In this article, you'll find a list of active and working Infinity Nikki codes that you can redeem for free rewards and bonuses in May 2025, including Diamonds and Energy Crystals.

Active Infinity Nikki Codes (May 2025)

Below, you'll find all the active and working Infinity Nikki codes in May 2025, the free rewards you get for redeeming them, and their expiry date (if known):

• POCKETMONEYFORNIKKI - 200x Diamonds, 18.8k Bling (NEW!)
• Handinhand - 10x Revelation Crystal
• DREAM&REBIRTH - 100x Diamonds, 100x Shiny Bubbles, 50x Thread of Purity
• SEAOFSTARS - 100x Diamonds, 50x Shiny Bubbles, 30k Bling
• BUBBLESEASON - 100x Diamonds, 50x Thread of Purity, 20k Bling
• Sidebyside - 10x Revelation Crystals
• INFINITYNIKKISteam - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
• RevelrySeasonRe - 50x Thread of Purity, 30k Bling
• RevelrySeasonGroup - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 30k Bling
• 1.2VERDISCORD - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
• 1.2VERREDDIT - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
• 1.2VERGLOBALGROUP - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
• ハイキングDISCORD - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
• PEARFECTGUIDES - 10x Shining Particles, 15k Bling
• NIKKIXWEBTOON - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
• ニキプレゼント1205 - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
• おめでとう - 50x Threads of Purity, 15k Bling
• リリース - 10x Shining Particles, 15k Bling
• インフィニティニキ - 15x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
• 無限暖暖公測開啟 - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
• 無限暖暖公測FB社團限定 - 10x Shining Particles, 15k Bling
• インフィニキDISCORD - 50x Threads of Purity, 15k Bling
• INGIFT1205 - 50x Threads of Purity, 15k Bling
• GROUPSTYLIST - 50x Threads of Purity, 15k Bling (expires December 5, 2025)
• REDDITSTYLIST - 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling (expires December 5, 2025)
• DISCORDSTYLIST - 10x Shining Particles, 15k Bling (expires December 5, 2025)

Expired Infinity Nikki Codes

The Infinity Nikki codes listed below have expired and are no longer working as of May 2025:

• NOSTRANGELINKS
• WARMSPRINGBONUS
• RevelrySeasonDC
• GIRLPOWER25
• 100THDAYCELEBRATION
• MAYEVERYGIRLHAPPINESS
• Newstoryawaits
• Newyearbliss
• NIKKIFIREWORKS
• NIKKIEXCURSIONTIME
• NIKKINEWBLOOM2025
• HEARTFELTGIFTS
• NIKKIBEWITHYOU
• NIKKIRELEASE
• dreamweavernikki
• NIKKI20241022
• infinitynikki1205
• BDAYSURPRISE
• GIFTFROMMOMO
• GIFTTONIKKI
• nikkihappybirthday2024
• NIKKITHEBEST
• QUACKQUACK
• AAbNxRNMmSm
• AAbQjjYKwbH
• AAb7xf6hWuS
• AAbtWkna3V7
• AAbaEyDU4EX
• AAbMNJX8hxF
• AAb5S3RSK8M
• AAbUfWnYUtd
• AAbUa8e2U3a
• AAbtk9jmpnV

How to Redeem Infinity Nikki Codes

To redeem Infinity Nikki codes, follow the steps below:

1. Unlock your Pear-Pal during the Chapter 1: Wishes Without Wings - Land of Wishes main quest. It's about 20 minutes into your Infinity Nikki adventure.
2. Open the Pear-Pal menu by pressing ESC on PC (or the Menu button when using an Xbox controller on PC), the Menu button on PlayStation, or by tapping the Pear-Pal icon in the top-left corner on mobile.
3. Click on the gear icon to open the Settings menu.
4. Scroll over to the Other tab.
5. You’ll see a “Redeem Code” option here. Click on “Apply” and a Redeem Rewards pop-up menu will appear.
6. Input your code into the “Enter the redeem code” field and tap “Apply.”
7. If successful, a pop-up will appear showing your free rewards.

Why Isn't My Infinity Nikki Code Working?

If the Infinity Nikki code that you're trying to redeem isn't working, it's likely due to one of the following reasons:

• There's a typo in the code.
• The Infinity Nikki code is expired.

When inputting a code into Infinity Nikki, make sure there are no typos (Os instead of zeroes, capital Is instead of lowercase Ls, etc.) and that there are no accidental spaces before or after the code. If your Infinity Nikki code still doesn't work, it's probably expired and can no longer be redeemed. You'll get a message informing you that the code is wrong if it's expired.

How to Get More Infinity Nikki Codes

The best way to get more Infinity Nikki codes is to join the official Infinity Nikki Discord server. Once you're in, head to the #self-assign-roles channel and opt-in for the Redeem Code role. You'll receive a notification when a new code is released so you can receive your free rewards ASAP!

Alternatively, bookmark this Infinity Nikki Codes article, as we update it each time a new code comes out. The Discord server has missed a couple of codes posted to other channels, so we'd recommend checking our article every so often.

What is Infinity Nikki?

Developed by Infold Games, Infinity Nikki is a cozy, open-world RPG. You play as Nikki, as she's whisked away to the world of Miraland, a place where people make Wishes with the help of Stylists. You'll find and create a plethora of outfits and accessories, take on quests, and gather many types of collectibles with the help of Momo, Nikki's adorable feline companion. As you play, you earn Diamonds, which can be spent on Revelation and Resonite Crystals, which are used to pull on the limited time and permanent outfit banners for 5-star and 4-star clothing.

Meg Koepp is a Guides Editor on the IGN Guides team, with a focus on trends. When she's not working, you can find her playing an RPG or spending time with her corgi.

Amazon UK is back with one of the only means that general Pokémon TCG fans can get packs from the Scarlet & Violet Prismatic Evolutions and 151 sets: an invite system.

While booster packs alone aren't available, the retailer has added the Prismatic Evolutions Accessory Pouch Special Collection and the 151 Blooming Waters Premium Collection to its stock. The only way to have a chance at getting either is by requesting an invite to purchase on each collection's product page.

IGN can reveal the Hollow Knight: Silksong will be playable in an Australian museum in September 2025.

Team Cherry’s long in development game is one of the most anticipated in the world, and has topped the Steam wishlist chart for years. The studio, which is based in Adelaide, South Australia, has yet to say when Silksong will be released beyond a vague 2025 window, but we at least know it will be playable for those who can be at Australia’s national museum of screen culture, ACMI, from September 18.

Silksong will be playable at the Melbourne museum as part of a video game exhibition called Game Worlds, which will also include displays that delve into the game’s design and artistic direction.

ACMI co-curators Bethan Johnson and Jini Maxwell commented: “Since Hollow Knight: Silksong's initial announcement in 2019, it has been one of the most anticipated indie games on the planet – and we are thrilled to celebrate the design of this South Australian-made game as a centrepiece of Game Worlds in September.

"From the hundreds of sprites that animate Hornet’s different movements and attacks, to the logic behind the game’s most challenging boss fights – and of course, having the game playable in-gallery – our Silksong displays delve deeply into the details of the game's artistic direction and design. We’re so grateful to Team Cherry for trusting us with their work, and so excited to share that work with you!"

As part of the announcement, ACMI shared a sprite sheet from Silksong, below, one of several design elements from the game that will be on display in the Game Worlds exhibition. The image was provided to IGN with permission.

Xbox returns to IGN Live in 2025, marking the second time the studio will participate in the in-person fan event that also streams across IGN’s global platforms. On June 8, ticket holders can screen the Xbox Showcase and The Outer Worlds 2 Direct at IGN Live’s official Xbox Showcase watch party. Afterward, studio heads and developers from multiple Xbox brands will be on hand to break down all the big announcements.

Tickets for IGN Live are on sale now including VIP and single day passes. All the excitement happens at The Magic Box @ The Reef in Los Angeles June 7 and 8, as well as online across IGN channels including IGN.com, YouTube, Facebook, twitch, and X. In addition to Xbox, confirmed partners include Netflix, 2K Sports, SEGA, Ubisoft, IDW Publishing, Lenovo, Arcade1Up, and more.

IGN Live will feature an epic live stage show with new trailers, gameplay, exclusive clips, major interviews, and a live DJ making IGN Live a wall-to-wall party you won't forget.

Last year, Phil Spencer stopped by to chat about Xbox’s upcoming handheld, the Activision Blizzard merger and more. Spencer was later joined on stage by Blizzard’s Tiffany Wat, Activision’s Miles Leslie, and id Software’s Hugo Martin to talk about major franchises including Doom, Diablo, and Call of Duty.

This year, fans in attendance can expect to hear from developers behind some of the biggest games featured in the summer Xbox Summer Showcase. IGN Live will also present tons of exclusive reveals, celebrity panels, game demos, photo ops, exclusive merch, gaming stations, screenings, lounges, live episodes of IGN shows, food trucks, gaming tournaments, prizes and giveaways, and much more.

In the wake of the Japanese My Nintendo Store’s massively oversubscribed first lottery for the Switch 2 that received a staggering 2.2 million applicants, all of Japan’s major electronics retailers have been holding their own pre-order lotteries for the popular next-gen console. However, with high demand expected for an extremely limited number of units at launch, every store has placed strict restrictions on who can apply. These measures also aim to prevent scalpers and resellers profiting from the Switch 2.

Conditions vary by store and lottery but almost all require the applicant to be a member of said store and to have spent a certain amount over the last year or two. For example, major electronics retailer Bic Camera limited its in-store lottery to Bic Camera credit card holders who had spent over 30,000 yen (approx. $207 USD based on current exchange rates) between April 2023 and March 2025, with its online lottery limited to those who had spent over 50,000 yen ($345).

Similarly, competitor Joshin has been restricting its Switch 2 lotteries to Platinum and VIP members of its Smile point program. For context, to reach Platinum level, customers must have made a single purchase worth over 150,000 yen ($1,030) within the last year, or made purchases at Joshin on over five separate calendar days (as highlighted by Japanese news site game8). ID checks and limiting entries to one per person are also common measures employed by Japanese retailers to limit applicants and safeguard against scalpers.

Covering these restrictions, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun asked Hideki Yasuda, a senior analyst at Toyo Securities and expert on the game industry about the availability of the Switch 2. Yasuda predicts that Nintendo has around 800,000 to 1 million units ready for the Japanese market upon launch, but it’s likely that demand has since ballooned up to around 5 million units in Japan alone.

“I think the maximum amount of units they (Nintendo) can prepare in 2025 is probably around 4 million, but this will not be enough for the console to meet demand even after one year. There will likely continue to be a shortage overseas as well.”

One thing’s for sure, it's not going to be easy to score a launch day Switch 2, but if you are based in the U.S. it might be worth checking out IGN’s preorder tips, if you haven’t already.

Photo by Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Bethesda games are known for their sometimes lengthy loading screens. At a time when developers are aiming for as little loading as possible, it remains a big part of the Bethesda game experience. Just look at Starfield, Bethesda’s first brand new IP in years, and of course the recently released The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which is going down very well with fans.

With the advent of SSDs and improvements in technology, spending a lot of time waiting for a loading screen to do its business in a video game can feel archaic in 2025. But one former Bethesda developer has cautioned that they will probably always be a part of Bethesda games because of the way Bethesda games are designed.

As fans of the studio’s work will know, Bethesda games are open-world RPGs that involve opening lots and lots of doors. Want to go into that house over there? You’ll probably need to trigger a loading screen to open the door. Fast travel is always a loading screen, although it can be made faster with more powerful hardware. Sometimes just leaving one area and going to another area in a Bethesda game triggers loading.

Bruce Nesmith, who worked at Bethesda on everything from Oblivion to Starfield, told VideoGamer that segmentation is an important part of Bethesda game design, and so using zone loading is too.

A totally seamless open-world isn’t feasible for the type of RPGs Bethesda makes, Nesmith continued, because segmented areas backed by loading lets the games keep track of item placement and physics states after the player leaves an area, which helps create the sense of leaving a permanent mark on the virtual world.

“Everybody who complains about them assumes that it’s done because we’re lazy or we don’t want to follow the modern thinking on stuff,” Nesmith said. “The reality is the Bethesda games are so detailed and so graphics intensive… you just can't have both present at the same time.”

“I can’t have the interiors of all these places loaded at the same time as the exteriors,” Nesmith continued. “That’s just not an option. And all the fancy tricks for streaming and loading and all that, you end up with hitching. So you’re actually better off stopping the game briefly, doing a loading screen and then continuing on.

“If you make a game that has less going on, it’s a tighter experience and not a [true] open-world experience. So it’s just one of those necessary evils, as it were, it’s not that anybody at Bethesda ever wanted to do it. We just didn’t have a choice, really, if the game was going to have the experience we wanted it to have.”

Nesmith said the use of loading screens in Bethesda’s RPGs have been “a necessary bane of the existence of Bethesda since time immemorial."

Despite this, when Starfield launched in 2023, fans were surprised by just how often you’d trigger loading, from on-foot traversal to simply heading into city buildings. Players said Starfield’s loading broke immersion and added frustrating pauses to gameplay, and modders worked to remove as much of it as possible in the years since.

The city of Neon was a focus of the loading complaints. This cyberpunk-style urban area would often trigger a loading screen just for opening doors, some near to each other, which made questing annoying.

But did it have to be this way? Last year, Nate Purkeypile, who worked at Bethesda Game Studios from 2007 before leaving in 2021, expressed his surprise at the sheer amount of loading the game ended up launching with, particularly in the city of Neon.

“It could have existed without those [loading zones],” Purkeypile said. “Like, some of those were not there when I had been working on it and so it was a surprise to me that there was as many as there were.”

So, why did Starfield launch with so many loading screens? Purkeypile said part of the segmentation of the game has to do with the way the Creation Engine, which Bethesda uses to make its games, works, and that has a lot to do with performance.

“A lot of it is gating stuff off for performance in Neon,” Purkeypile confirmed.

Ahead of Starfield’s launch, Bethesda development chief Todd Howard revealed that the game would release locked at 30 frames per second on both Xbox Series X and S to ensure “consistency” of performance.

“I think it'll come as no surprise, given our previous games, what we go for,” Howard said at the time. “Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper detail where anything can happen. And we do want to do that. It's 4K in the X. It's 1440 on the S. We do lock it at 30, because we want that fidelity, we want all that stuff. We don't want to sacrifice any of it.

“Fortunately in this one, we've got it running great. It's often running way above that. Sometimes it's 60. But on the consoles, we do lock it because we prefer the consistency, where you're not even thinking about it.

“And we don't ever want to sacrifice that experience that makes our games feel really, really special. So it feels great. We're really happy with how it feels even in the heat of battle. And we need that headroom because in our games, really anything can happen.”

Since launch, Bethesda has worked to improve the game, with 60fps now possible as part of performance mode.

The question will be whether Bethesda can make meaningful improvements to loading screens for The Elder Scrolls VI, which fans hope will mark a significant level up for the studio’s technology.

While you wait to find out, we’ve got plenty more on Oblivion Remastered, including a report on a player who managed to escape the confines of Cyrodiil to explore Valenwood, Skyrim, and even Hammerfell, the rumored setting of The Elder Scrolls VI.

We've also got a comprehensive guide to everything you'll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

May is here, gamers. That means a new batch of PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC, and even VR games is heading our way. This month we'll get to rip and tear through the hordes of hell in Doom: The Dark Ages, get to get killed a lot in a new online multiplayer-focused Elden Ring Nightreign, and a lot more. Below, you'll find release dates for all the biggest games and expansions coming out in May and beyond. Let's have a look.

If you're someone who likes to preorder your games, you can click the links on the platform of your choice to make sure it arrives on launch day.

May 2025 - Video Game Release Dates

One of the biggest, bloodiest, most fast-paced action games of the year is out this month in the form of Doom: The Dark Ages. It's the third in the newest series of games starring Doom Guy, and it looks like a whole lot of hellish fun. If you're an Xbox player, you can even pick up a seriously cool Doom-themed Xbox controller to go along with the game. Other games out this month are Elden Ring Nightreign, Capcom Fighting Collection 2, Dune: Awakening, Fantasy Life i: the Girl Who Steals Time, and a bunch more.

• Despelote - May 1 - (PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC)
• Dig VR - May 1 - (PSVR, PC VR)
• Vellum - May 2 - (PC)
• Drop Duchy - May 5 - (PC)
• Captain Blood - May 6 - (PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC)
• High on Life - May 6 - (Switch)
• Metal Eden - May 6 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Bahamut and the Waqwaq Tree - May 8 - (PC)
• Cash Cleaner Simulator - May 8 - (PC)
• Empyreal - May 8 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• The Midnight Walk - May 8 - (PS5, PC)
• Pixelshire - May 8 - (PC)
• Revenge of the Savage Planet - May 8 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Project Mist - May 12 - (PC)
• Doom: The Dark Ages - May 15 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Into the Restless Ruins - May 15 - (PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC)
• Tunnels - May 15 - (Meta Quest)
• Capcom Fighting Collection 2 - May 16 - (PS4, Switch, Xbox, PC)
• Dune: Awakening - May 20 - (PC)
• Roadcraft - May 20 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Fantasy Life i: the Girl Who Steals Time - May 21 - (PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC)
• JDM: Japanese Drive Master - May 21 - (PC)
• Monster Train 2 - May 21 - (PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC)
• Blades of Fire - May 22 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Bloodshed - May 22 - (PC)
• City Tales: Medieval Era - May 22 - (PC)
• Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Destiny Remastered - May 22 - (Switch, PC)
• TMNT: Tactical Takedown - May 22 - (PC)
• Zombie Army VR - May 22 - (PSVR2, PC VR, Meta Quest)
• Onimusa 2: Samurai's Destiny - May 23 - (PS4, Switch, Xbox, PC)
• To a T - May 28 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3 - May 28 - (PC)
• Bitcraft Online - May 29 - (PC)
• Elden Ring: Nightreign - May 30 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• My Father Lied - May 30 - (PC)
• Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma - May 30 - (Switch, PC)

June 2025 - Video Game Release Dates

• Nintendo Switch 2 (Hardware) - June 5 - Buy It
• Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Civilization VII - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Deltarune Ch 1-4 - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Hitman: World of Assassination - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Hogwarts Legacy - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Mario Kart World - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Sonic x Shadow Generations - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Split Fiction - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Street Fighter 6: Years 1-2 Fighters Edition - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Survival Kids - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Yakuza 0 Director's Cut - June 5 - (Switch 2)
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic - June 13 - (PS5)
• Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army - June 19 - (PS5, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox, PC)
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach - June 26 - (PS5)
• Tamagotchi Plaza - June 27 - (Switch, Switch 2)

July 2025 - Video Game Release Dates

• College Football 26 - July 7 - 10 (depending on edition) - (PS5, XSX)
• Patapon 1+2 Replay - July 11 - (PS5, Switch, PC)
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 - July 11 - (PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC)
• Donkey Kong Bonanza - July 17 - (Switch 2)
• Shadow Labyrinth - July 18 - (PS5, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox, PC)
• Super Mario Party Jamboree Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV - July 24 - (Switch 2)
• No Sleep for Kaname Date - July 25 - (Switch, PC)
• Wild Heats S - July 25 - (Switch 2)
• Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game - July 29 - (PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC)

August 2025 - Video Game Release Dates

• Gradius Origins - August 7 - (PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC)
• Madden NFL 25 - August 11 or 14 (depending on edition) - (PS5, Xbox, Switch 2)
• Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar - August 27 - (Switch, Switch 2, PC)
• Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - August 28 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Lost Soul Aside - August 29 - (PS5, PC)
• Shinobi: Art of Vengeance - August 29 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)

September 2025 - Video Game Release Dates

• Hell Is Us - September 4 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Daemon x Machina: Titanic Scion - September 5 - (Switch 2)
• Terminator 2D: No Fate - September 5 - (PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC)
• Borderlands 4 - September 12 - (PS5, Xbox, Switch 2, PC)
• Marathon - September 23 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter - September 25 - (PS5, Switch, PC)

October 2025 - Video Game Release Dates

• Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game - October 2 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Ghost of Yotei - October 2 - (PS5)
• Double Dragon Revive - October 23 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)

Upcoming Video Games - Release Date TBA

• 33 Immortals - 2025 - (Xbox, PC)
• The Alters - 2025 - (Xbox, PC)
• Anno 117: Pax Romana - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Arc Raiders - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• ArcheAge Chronicles - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Ark 2 - TBA - (PC)
• Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian - 2025 - (PS5, Switch, PC)
• Ballad of Antara - 2025 - (PS5)
• Blackfrost: The Long Dark II - TBA
• Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Clockwork Revolution - TBA - (Xbox, PC)
• Coffee Talk Tokyo - 2025 - (Switch)
• Contraband - TBA - (Xbox, PC)
• Crimson Desert - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game - 2025 - (PS5)
• Drag & Drive - Summer 2025 - (Switch 2)
• Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (PS5, Switch, Xbox)
• Dreams of Another - 2025 - (PS5)
• Dune: Awakening - TBA - (PS5, Xbox)
• The Duskbloods - 2026 - (Switch 2)
• Dying Light: The Beast - Summer 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition - 2025 - (Switch 2)
• The Eternal Life of Goldman - Holiday 2025 - (PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC)
• Everwild - TBA - (Xbox, PC)
• Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots - 2025 - (PS5, Switch, PC)
• Fable - 2026 - (Xbox, PC)
• Front Mission 3 Remake - TBA - (Switch)
• Frostpunk 1886 - 2027 - (PC)
• Game of Thrones: Kingsroad - 2025
• Gears of War: E-Day - TBA - (Xbox, PC)
• Gex Trilogy - Summer 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC)
• Grand Theft Auto 6 - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox)
• Hail Macbeth - Q1 2026 - (PC)
• Hello Kitty: Island Adventure - 2025 - (Switch)
• Hollow Knight: Silksong - 2025 - (PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC)
• The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy - Early 2025 - (Switch)
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment - Winter 2025-2026 - (Switch 2)
• Hyper Light Breaker - Early Access Early 2025 - (PC)
• Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet - TBA - (PS5)
• John Carpenter's Toxic Commando - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Judas - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Jurassic Park: Survival - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)

• Killing Floor 3 - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Kirby Air Riders - 2025 - (Switch 2)
• Lies of P: Overture (DLC) - Summer 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Little Devil Inside - TBA - (PS5, Switch, Xbox)
• Little Nightmares 3 - 2025 - (PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC)
• Mafia: The Old Country - Summer 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Marathon - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion - 2025 - (PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC)
• Marvel's Blade - TBA - (Xbox, PC)
• Mecha Break - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - 2025 - (Switch, Switch 2)
• MindsEye - Summer 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Mio: Memories in Orbit - 2025 - (Switch)
• Mixtape - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Monument Valley 3 - Summer 2025 - (Switch)
• Moth Kubit - Spring 2025 - (Switch)
• Ninja Gaiden 4 - Fall 2025 - (Xbox, PC)
• OD - TBA - (Xbox)
• Okami 2 - TBA
• Onimusha: Way of the Sword - 2026 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• The Outer Worlds 2 - 2025 - (Xbox, PC)
• Perfect Dark - TBA - (Xbox, PC)
• Phantom Blade 0 - TBA - (PS5)
• Phantom Hellcat - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero - 2025 - (Switch)
• Pokemon Champions - TBA - (Switch, mobile)
• Pokemon Legends: Z-A - Late 2025 - (Switch)
• PowerWash Simulator 2 - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• The Precinct - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake - 2026 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Prison Architect 2 - TBA (Xbox, PC)
• Professor Layton and the New World of Steam - 2025 - (Switch, Switch 2)
• Replaced - 2025 - (Xbox, PC)
• Rhythm Heaven Groove - 2026 - (Switch)
• Rift of the Necrodancer - 2025 - (Switch)
• Saros - 2026 - (PS5)
• Screamer - 2026 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX - 2025 - (Switch)
• The Sinking City 2 - 2025 - (Xbox, PC)
• Slay the Spire 2 - early access in 2025 - (PC)
• Sleight of Hand - 2025 - (Xbox, PC)
• Sonic Racing CrossWorlds - TBA - (PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC)

• Star Overdrive - 2025 - (Switch)
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake - TBA - (PS5)
• Star Wars Outlaws - 2025 - (Switch 2)
• State of Decay 3 - TBA (Xbox, PC)
• Styx: Blades of Greed - Fall 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Terminator: Survivors - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Tides of Annihilation - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream - 2026 - (Switch)
• Turok Origins - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 - H1 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Venus Vacation Prism - early 2025 - (PS5, PC)
• Winter Burrow - Early 2025 - (Xbox, PC)
• Witchbrook Winter - 2025 - (Switch, Xbox, PC)
• The Witcher 4 - TBA
• The Wolf Among Us 2 - TBA - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Wolverine - TBA - (PS5)
• Wuchang: Fallen Feathers - 2025 - (PS5, Xbox, PC)
• Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall - TBA - (Switch, Xbox, PC)

For more release date fun, check out our ongoing list of 4K UHD and Blu-ray release dates.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

Microsoft is raising prices on Xbox. By a lot.

In an announcement today, the company said it will be raising prices on Xbox consoles, controllers, headsets, and some games. The price hike for consoles and accessories kicks in today, May 1, and while game prices will stay the same for now, we should expect to see Xbox charging $79.99 for new, first-party games around the holiday season.

Price increases are taking effect globally, with the exception of headset prices, which are only going up in the U.S. and Canada.

Going forward, here are the expected prices on various Xbox consoles and accessories in the U.S.:

• Xbox Series S 512 - $379.99 (up from $299.99)
• Xbox Series S 1TB - $429.99 (up from $349.99)
• Xbox Series X Digital - $549.99 (up from $449.99)
• Xbox Series X - $599.99 (up from $499.99)
• Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Special Edition $729.99 (up from $599.99)

• Xbox Wireless Controller (Core) - $64.99
• Xbox Wireless Controller (Color) - $69.99
• Xbox Wireless Controller - Special Edition - $79.99
• Xbox Wireless Controller - Limited Edition - $89.99 (up from $79.99)
• Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 (Core) - $149.99 (up from $139.99)
• Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 (Full) - $199.99 (up from $179.99)
• Xbox Stereo Headset -$64.99
• Xbox Wireless Headset - $119.99 (up from $109.99)

You can see other price changes by region on the official Xbox announcement page here.

Microsoft issued IGN with the following statement as to why the price increases were taking place:

“We understand that these changes are challenging, and they were made with careful consideration given market conditions and the rising cost of development. Looking ahead, we continue to focus on offering more ways to play more games across any screen and ensuring value for Xbox players.”

Though we don't know yet which first-party Microsoft games will cost $80, we can guess the line-up may include the next mainline Call of Duty, the new Fable, which was recently delayed to 2026, the Perfect Dark reboot, inXile’s Clockwork Revolution, Rare's Everwild, which Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer recently checked out, The Coalition's Gears of War: E-Day, Hideo Kojima’s OD, or Undead Labs' State of Decay 3. Psychonauts developer Double Fine is also working on a new game.

Microsoft has an Xbox Games Showcase 2025 as well as an The Outer Worlds 2 Direct planned for June, where fans will no doubt find out more.

This is the first time we've seen a price hike on Xbox Series S consoles since it launched in 2020, with the company committing to maintaining existing prices back in 2022 when PlayStation raised prices on the PS5. However, Xbox raised the price on the Xbox Series X in 2023 in most countries, but not the U.S. And it has raised prices globally on Xbox Game Pass multiple times now.

Astonishing as the amount these prices are increasing might be, Microsoft raising prices in the first place isn't exactly surprising. PlayStation did this exact thing in the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand just last week, for the second time in three years.

And the entire industry has been discussing and gradually implementing price increases over the last few years, with AAA game prices jumping from $60 to $70 in just the last five years, and Nintendo going with $80 for upcoming Switch 2 exclusive Mario Kart World and some other Switch 2 Edition games. The Switch 2 itself was recently revealed to be launching at $450, a price that drew criticism from Nintendo fans even as analysts admitted such a high price was likely inevitable amid current economic conditions.

That was all before Nintendo was forced to reevaluate its console pricing in the wake of newly announced and repeatedly fluctuating tariffs in the U.S. Though the console ended up sticking at $450, accessory prices were not so lucky. Analysts suspect Nintendo may raise prices again post-launch, and the Entertainment Software Association warned that Nintendo would not be alone:

“You know what? It's been interesting with media coverage around video games and tariffs because just unfortunate coincidental timing that the Switch [2 reveal] was the same day as President Trump's announcement. There are so many devices we play video games on. There are other consoles, but as I was saying, VR headsets, our smartphones, people who love PC games, if we think it's just the Switch, then we aren't taking it seriously. This is going to have an impact.

“And even American-based companies, they're getting products that need to cross into American borders to make those consoles, to make those games. And so there's going to be a real impact regardless of company. This is company-agnostic, this is an entire industry. There's going to be an impact on the entire industry.”

It seems these are expensive times to be a gamer regardless of your platform of choice.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Of all the LEGO partnerships over the years, the one with Star Wars might be the most fruitful. And for May the fourth, the partnership is bearing a whole lot more fruit. Ten new LEGO Star Wars sets are now available to celebrate Star Wars Day in 2025. The biggest one is Jango Fett’s Firespray-Class Starship, a new entry in the Ultimate Collector Series (UCS), but the other ones are also very cool – and less pricy. Let’s take a look at the new LEGO Star Wars sets for May the fourth, 2025.

New Star Wars LEGO Sets

Don't need blurbs? Here are all the new Star Wars LEGO sets for May the fourth, 2025. If you do enjoy basking in a paragraph about each of the new sets, read on to be richly rewarded on that front.

LEGO Star Wars Chopper (C1-10P) Astromech Droid

LEGO Star Wars Jango Fett's Firespray-Class Starship

LEGO Brick-Built Star Wars Logo

LEGO Star Wars Kylo Ren Helmet

LEGO Star Wars Jango Fett Helmet

LEGO Star Wars AT-AT Driver Helmet

LEGO Star Wars Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle

LEGO Star Wars Rebel U-Wing Starfighter

New LEGO Star Wars BrickHeadz

It’s rare that a developer becomes synonymous with a single genre, but Bethesda has its signature style so locked down it’s a wonder we don’t just call the entire field of first-person open-world Western RPGs “Skyrimlikes” or “Oblivionvanias.” In the three decades since The Elder Scrolls: Arena debuted, Bethesda Game Studios has emerged as a juggernaut in the triple-A space, earning a rabid fanbase, massive sales, and a $7.5 billion acquisition from Microsoft, solely on the strength of its tried and true design principles.

Bethesda’s been responsible for some big hits and even bigger misses over the years, and since the shocking (but not really) release of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remaster has us all rethinking our long-calcified tier-lists, we thought it was time to take a fresh look at ranking the studio’s output. It’s gonna be a long, long time before The Elder Scrolls VI is anything more than a dramatically and perhaps prematurely revealed logo, and while that’s a bummer for everyone dying to play it, at least it means this list won’t be obsolete anytime soon.

Before we start, we should clarify that we’re strictly talking about Bethesda’s trademark RPGs on this list. The extremely mid Elder Scrolls spinoffs, like the co-op focused Battlespire and swashbuckling action-adventure Redguard, need not apply here. Nor do mobile games like The Elder Scrolls Blades and Fallout Shelter, although I’ve definitely got a soft spot for the latter game’s dark humor and infinite armies of cartoon dwellers captured in the charming Vault Boy style.

No, this list is for the heavy hitters, the sprawling, prestige sandboxes that immediately come to mind when one thinks of a capital B, capital G “Bethesda Game,” though admittedly we’re starting out on a rather humble foot with…

9: Elder Scrolls: Arena

The first entry in the franchise isn’t last because it’s a bad game, it’s last because nobody knew what they were doing. The Bethesda of 1994 had basically only made sports and Terminator games, and Arena was kind of a mix of both. Originally, you traveled the world competing in medieval gladiator battles, doing the odd sidequest on the side. The developers quickly realised it would be a cool idea if your fighters could walk around the cities, talk to the people who live there, and dive into incredibly difficult dungeons on their behalf.

The result is an impressive little first-person RPG that’s very much of its era, a “where-the-hell-do-I-go-em-up” in the vein of Ultima Underworld and Might and Magic. Arena has loads of arcane systems and randomized loot, meandering, maddening, sidequests, and extremely clunky movement that will make you forget everything you’ve ever learned about using a mouse.

And given how bad the combat is, the kind of stats-based melee that sees you visually landing hit after hit on rampaging skeletons only to deal no damage thanks to a dice roll, maybe it’s a good thing the developers dropped the whole “gladiator” concept for Arena. Less fortunately, they didn’t drop it fast enough to change the title, since all the marketing materials were already printed up. The best they could do was tack on a “chapter one” and make it seem like the game was part of a larger saga about all-knowing Elder Scrolls.

Declaring your debut the start of a new franchise is a gutsy move that more often than not ends in failure, but the extremely flawed Arena was still successful enough to set Bethesda on a path that would fulfill its prediction, and boldly go beyond.

8: Starfield

With every new BGS game comes rumors and discourse on whether this will be the one that finally ditches their aging “Gamebryo” engine, or at least updates the notoriously inefficient cell-based framework beyond its well-known limits. Starfield did not. “Creation Engine 2.0” might have a fancy new name and a pretty new animation pipeline, but at the end of the day you’re still staring at a loading screen every time you step into a store.

The NASApunk sci-fi setting was a welcome departure from the low-tech locales of Tamriel and the Wasteland, even though it’s starting to wear out its welcome, but it’s ill-suited for Bethesda’s style. They’re great at creating one big connected world, full of discoveries, nooks and crannies, and intricately staged skeletons with nearby flavor notes. Instead, Starfield boasts 1,000 procedurally generated planets with what feels like a dozen different points of interest repeated between them.

Now, we've solved more than a few dragon claw puzzles in our day, but somehow that never felt as aggravating as landing on a new planet and stumbling across another abandoned cryo lab or mine. Dear god, the mines. If you’re bored in a samey Draugr dungeon, you can just walk to something cool around the corner. But in Starfield you’re just kinda stuck dejectedly wiping out the pirates, hoofing it back to your spaceship, and blasting off with a sigh.

It might seem harsh to place Starfield so close to something as primitive as Arena, but it’s easier to forgive the shortcomings of a gallant first effort from an inexperienced team than those of a $200 million triple-A behemoth that promised the moon and failed to deliver.

7: Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall

One reason the procedural generation in Starfield is such a bummer is that Bethesda has so much experience with it going way, way back. In fact, its second RPG ever is one of the most impressive feats of algorithmic open world creation that ever existed, and it came out in 1997.

The map in Skyrim translates to about 15 square miles, and that’s actually on the smaller side compared to games that came out in its wake. Breath of the Wild and Grand Theft Auto 5’s are both around 30 square miles, give or take. The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall is 80,000 square miles, roughly the size of Great Britain. It’ll take you 69 hours to walk across the entire thing, though it’ll go slightly quicker if you’re okay with staring at the back of this horse's head for days on end as your precious time on Earth slowly whittles away.

The world is vast, sparse, and kind of ugly, but it’s definitely not empty. The Iliac Bay area contains nine distinct climates, 44 different political regions, and 15,000 points of interest scattered throughout. We’re talking 4,000 dungeons and 5,000 cities or towns populated with hundreds of quests and non-player-characters. Needless to say, there’s a touch of wonky proc-gen involved.

But what good is a huge world if it’s a slog to move around in? The dungeon-crawling combat is only slightly improved, though the debut of the series’ trademark “improve your stats as you use their skills” progression system is definitely appreciated. In Daggerfall, it’s the experience above ground that made the biggest leap in quality. You can buy houses and boats, join guilds, steal and murder to your heart's content and deal with the consequences. While it’s all relatively simple and extremely opaque, the opportunities for immersion within Daggerfall almost make you wish you could explore it with a friend or two. Almost.

6: Fallout 76

You might be confused as to why Fallout 76 is on this list at all, given that it’s more of a live service, multiplayer looter-shooter than an epic, story-driven RPG experience, and if you haven’t played it for a while that’s totally fair. The game was a straight-up disaster at launch, omitting hand-crafted dialogue and non-player characters in the hopes that griefing online randos would be able to provide the flavor that makes Fallout’s wastelands so worthwhile. This was a mistake, to put it mildly, and just one of many. From aggravating loot limits and endless crafting to questionable pricing practices, Fallout 76 was a dud when it debuted in 2018, thanks in no small part to a grueling development cycle that plagued the project from the start.

Things have changed, however. The Wastelanders update added voiced NPCs to the experience, so many in fact that technically it has the most characters of any game in the whole series. Whether they have anything worthwhile to say is still up for debate but they’re there, along with tweaks to the loot system and overall experience that make it less of a slog and more of a passable RPG to play with friends. The game has developed a healthy following, especially in the wake of Amazon’s hit Fallout TV series, but even so, it’s hard to rank Fallout 76 very high given the existence of the superior Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda’s long-running MMO that only failed to make the cut here because it was developed out of house by Zenimax Online Studios.

Fallout 76’s pivot towards live-service, revenue-generating, trend-chasing slop gave fans grave doubts about Bethesda’s stewardship of the Fallout franchise, but they didn’t exist in a vacuum. Discontent had been brewing for a long time, even as sales skyrocketed.

5: Fallout 4

At 25 million copies sold, Fallout 4 is the most successful game in the series by a wide, wide margin, beyond the wildest dreams of Tim Cain and the rest of the Interplay/Black Isle crew that created the original isometric RPGs in the ’90s, though that success comes with a cost. Streamlined gameplay and welcome quality-of-life features can turn a niche cult classic into a mainstream blockbuster, but balancing that accessibility without sacrificing depth and complexity is no easy task. Fallout 4 fails in that regard.

First, the good: Fallout 4 feels great. The movement and shooting feels crisp and responsive compared to its clunky predecessors, and the Commonwealth is more than a worthy environment to explore. A new system that allows you to design and build your own settlements is an impressive addition to Bethesda’s aging tech, though it’s a coin flip as to whether you’ll find it fun or a complete waste of time. The game looks and sounds spectacular, and was arguably the most polished launch product Bethesda produced since… ever. Some of its expansions, particularly Far Harbor, seemed to capture that old Fallout feeling, and there’s at least one all-time classic character to emerge out of the crowd of Bostonian blandness and micromanaging Minutemen in the form of android private eye Nick Valentine.

The storyline, revolving around high-tech synthetic humans teleporting from a crisp and clean underground lab, is at odds with the grungy atompunk flavor of the Fallout universe, and the bizarre twist involving the identity of your character’s missing son was both blindingly obvious and incredibly dumb. The whole experience feels like a Fallout-flavored theme park ride, plopping you in power armor to face off with a deathclaw within the first hour of gameplay. From there, the game parades you through a series of shallow choices and uninteresting factions until you pick who you’re going to side with and watch the uninspired endings play out.

The biggest detriment to the game has to be the dialogue system. The first Fallout, famously, allows for all sorts of freedom in how the Vault Dweller interacts with the world around them, from monosyllabic grunts to talking the super mutant Master into unaliving himself in the final boss battle. Fallout 4, on the other hand, made the dubious decision to voice all of our protagonist’s interaction, severely limiting their options. Even worse, the four choices offered in response to any situation usually boil down to nice, rude, neutral, and “tell me more.” It’s a disappointing devolution of the RPG formula, but not entirely unsurprising given Bethesda’s first Fallout game.

4: Fallout 3

When Bethesda announced it had purchased the rights to the dormant Fallout franchise in 2004, fans went nuclear. For some, Fallout seemed like a perfect fit for the devs that wrote the book on systemic open world sandboxes, but there was a sizeable contingent of gatekeeping grognards who were a little more wary, warning that the Bethesda crew would tone done the anarchic spirit of the first two games for a more bland experience in hopes of capturing a more casual audience. The end result was a little bit of both.

The revival starts out extremely strong, with an opening sequence that begins with your character exiting the womb and then gives a quick crash course in all that life inside Vault 101 has to offer, from bullies to birthday parties. The intro also serves as a tutorial for the V.A.T.S. system, maybe Bethesda’s most brilliant addition to the franchise. The isometric, turn-based Fallout games allowed your character to target individual body parts in combat, allowing for agonizing and often hilarious precision shots. In the leap to first person, BSG compensates for their somewhat muddy controls by letting us freeze time and select precisely where we’d like our strikes to land in one of the most elegant translations of a game mechanic from 2D to 3D ever.

Not everything in Fallout 3 is as successful as V.A.T.S., however. The Capital Wasteland is a fantastic map filled with recognizably ruined national landmarks, but it’s also stuffed with repetitive encounters in subways and sewers awash in a hideous green filter that was all the rage in the early aughts. There are meaningful choices with megaton consequences that ultimately railroad you into an utterly ludicrous ending scenario that requires you to sacrifice your life to radiation while your radiation-immune supermutant friend watches from a safe distance A conclusion that was so derided, Bethesda would eventually patch it by way of the Broken Steel DLC.

It’s the very best and very worst of Bethesda’s instincts laid bare, and the awkward friction integrating BGS’s environmental storytelling with Fallout’s anarchic RPG flavor makes vanilla Fallout 3 a rather unpleasant experience today. An excellent alternative is theTale of Two Wastelands mod that fuses Fallout 3 together with Obsidian Entertainment’s fan-favorite Fallout: New Vegas to create a single massive game. Or if that’s too much of a hassle, you could just wait for the all-but-confirmed remake that’s coming in the wake of Oblivion Remastered. Speaking of which…

3: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

This was a tough call. Many of Oblivion’s adoring fans might find it blasphemous to be placed before Skyrim, while haters might contest that some of the Fallouts are superior. The truth, as always, is subjective, except for on ranking lists like this, which are infallible, definitive, scientifically determined and legally binding so let’s see how it stacks up.

Oblivion is the foundation of modern Bethesda games. Morrowind, obviously, came before, but it’s notable that Fallout, Starfield, and every Bethesda game (and Bethesda wannabe) since 2006 have used Oblivion as the template rather than its predecessor. The awkward pause and zoom in to start a conversation, the OP dominance of stealth archery, the ramping-up power fantasy designed to make a lowly prisoner feel like the most important being in all of Tamriel… It’s all here in pretty much its final form, though with lots of room for improvement.

The main plot sees you fending off a demonic Daedric invasion alongside a Sean Bean-voiced bastard in a cinematic saga that borrows bigtime vibes from Peter Jackson’s wildly popular Lord of the Rings trilogy. But it’s the sidequests, particularly those involving the guilds, that really elevate Oblivion. They’re all really solid in Skyrim, too, but Oblivion’s individual missions have a lot more going for them.

Instead of Skyrim’s fairly rote assassinations on behalf of the Dark Mother, your devotion to the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion is tested by specific kill conditions that make you feel like an Argonian Agent 47. Meanwhile, while Skyrim’s introduction to the Thieves Guild effectively amounts to getting approached by a recruiter, in Oblivion, it only exists as shadows and rumors, the only clues to their existence are scattered posters and urban legends. You have to work to seek them out.

So why did we rank Oblivion below Skyrim? Maybe it’s the eye-searing ugly bloom of the XBox 360 era, or the dorky potato-faced characters stumbling through their lines. It could be the ill-conceived progression system that forces you to grind minor skills for fear of losing precious stat points when you level up, or the repetitive trudging through endless Oblivion gates. Of course, all of that can change with a remake.

The Oblivion Remaster goes a long way towards modernizing the game, with a slick UI, gorgeous new graphics, a more forgiving level-up system, and a deeply appreciated sprint button. Gone is the blinding haze of the seventh console generation, replaced with a solid Unreal Engine sheen. Unlike a lot of remasters, Oblivion maintains its awkward charms, for better or for worse.

The enemy scaling is sadly still intact, meaning you’ll find yourself running into gangs of filthy bandits bearing glass and Daedric gear. Most of the frustrating minigames have been retained, and the combat still feels strange by modern standards. But would Oblivion really be Oblivion without the jank? Without expensive horse armor and actors flubbing their lines?

The Oblivion Remaster is still the same game. It might be a little too early to tell if the remaster will be worthy of a higher spot than Skyrim, but there’s a fundamental difference between the two games that’s more than just skin deep.

2: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

For all of its triumphs, Skyrim loses a lot of what makes the older Elder Scroll games so special. The quests are more shallow, your character build isn’t as customizable, and your choices matter even less. You can quickly become the leader of every single guild, and the biggest decision of the game is who you want to back in the Skyrim Civil War, which culminates in an epic battle of about 40 dudes clipping into each other outside of Whiterun.

In exchange for the simplification, Skyrim received massive, undeniable improvements to the moment-to-moment gameplay. You can dash across the landscape and glitch hop your way up mountains. Additions like dual wielding and weapon crafting finally make the kinetic act of combat enjoyable in itself, and the brilliant addition of shouts allows you to drop dragons out of the sky and blast guards into the horizon with a single squeeze of a shoulder button. Clearly, the game was designed with controllers in mind, as a glance at the oft-maligned default interface will tell you, but that brings with it a tactile and responsive game feel that Skyrim’s PC-first counterparts lack. Skyrim simply feels better.

But the real secret that separates Skyrim from Oblivion is its space. In past lore, Oblivion’s setting of Cyrodiil was an endless jungle of East Asian and Mesoamerican-influenced aesthetics. In the game itself, it’s basically England. Green forests, grassy fields, and the odd Ayleid Ruin dot a landscape that fails to leave much of an impression compared to Skyrim’s frozen tundra. The mechanical depths of the Dwemer ruins, the hazy valleys of the Rift, and the glaciers of Winterhold, all feel like part of a cohesive whole. Skyrim’s geography becomes second nature as you climb enormous mountains and explore endless caves, all the while knowing that the warm glow of Whiterun at night is just a cozy walk away.

Frankly, it’s a place you wouldn’t mind settling down and living out your days in a comfy Lakeview Manor, raising honey bees with your werewolf wife at your side. It’s no wonder so many people found themselves lost in Skyrim over the years, compelled to purchase the game over and over again with each slightly-improved release. For many, Skyrim and its suite of mods are the first thing to install on any new computer, just so you know it’s there – a true “forever game.”

Skyrim is the game that turned the Elder Scrolls from a successful but nerdy RPG franchise into a blockbuster AAA giant. It’s like comparing Dark Souls to Elden Ring. Similar to Oblivion, Dark Souls is probably the better game on paper, but in terms of impact, the refinement that led to Elden Ring and Skyrim allowed the games to simultaneously expand in scope and reach the widest audience possible. Skyrim isn’t a game you have to recommend with huge caveats to your friend who mostly plays Warzone, it sacrificed just enough of its systems to smooth out its friction points and in the process became an all-time best seller.

This isn’t to say that it should be ranked highly just because it made a ton of money, but rather that it made a ton of money because of how well it struck a balance between accessibility and depth, allowing players of all kinds to immerse themselves in an intricately crafted world and live out that timeless, universal fantasy of slaying dragons. But with all due respect to Skyrim’s successful efforts to make the game accessible to the mainstream, our number one spot goes to the game that achieved the exact opposite.

But first...

Honorable Mention: Fallout: New Vegas

We couldn’t in good faith leave this list without mentioning the best Fallout game ever made. Even if it was developed by Obsidian, it’s built on Bethesda’s bugs-and-all engine and wouldn’t exist without the other games on this list, even though it’s better than all of them. A near-perfect marriage of old-school sensibility and BGS open-world quirkiness, you don’t want to miss this one, especially if you plan on watching season 2 of the show.

Which brings us to the greatest Bethesda game of all time, coming in hot from the isle of Vvardenfell, it simply must be…

1: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

For a game that we’re definitively calling the greatest Elder Scrolls game of all time, it’s far from the most polished or accessible. The combat retains much of the RNG aggravation of earlier games, and The UI, cluttered with resizable windows and long lists of dialogue choices to scroll through, borders on utter madness. It’s almost impossible to believe that people once navigated this monstrosity with nothing but a giant Xbox Duke controller, but indeed they did.

And yet, despite the at-times overwhelming encumbrances of age and complexity, Morrowind is unparalleled when it comes to pure freedom. There are no quest markers or floating arrows on a compass to guide your way, just clues in a dense journal filled with vast amounts of text to click through with hyperlinks. Its spellmaking system, nerfed and eventually eliminated over the years, allows for utterly broken combinations that let you leap between cities and blast across the sky on Boots of Blinding Speed. Characters have seemingly endless amounts of dialogue, spewing forth on screen in massive paragraphs – though if you get tired of reading, you can always end their worthless life. Always.

No NPC is unkillable in Morrowind, not even the essential ones. In most Bethesda games, if you bludgeon a story-integral character to death with the Mace of Molag Bal, they just take a wee nap and rise again to move the story along. Morrowind instead presents you with the haunting yet somehow liberating message: “the thread of prophecy is severed… restore the weave of fate or persist in the doomed world you have created.”

And what a doomed world it is. Vvardenfell is an ashen wonderland where giant insects float among towering fungi and dark elves set up shop in hollowed-out exoskeletons. It borrows more from The Dark Crystal and Dune than it does from Tolkien, a bold, experimental, and organic departure from tropes and tradition. There’s just something magical about Morrowind. Even when later games like ESO return to the region, it never quite hits the same as the original’s rough graphics and smeary textures that render the world as a trippy fusion of Cruelty Squad and Xavier: Renegade Angel.

But that individuality comes at a cost. For every person enamored by riding giant bugs as public transit or reading 36 volumes of a Dunmer god’s wisdom, someone else decided to play Halo 2 instead. Bethesda made a very conscious decision to make Oblivion more inviting, and its investment obviously paid off. Still, it’s hard not to ponder what could have been.

Reflecting on Morrowind, one can’t help but think of Baldur’s Gate 3 – a modernized, uncompromised take on the classic CRPG genre that took the video game world by storm when it was released. BG3 isn’t a retro novelty throwback, nor is it a dumbed-down trend-chasing crowd pleaser. It’s simply what fans of the first two games could have envisioned a long-delayed followup would look like, which begs the question: How would an actual sequel to Morrowind work? And would today’s audience accept it?

Truthfully, the top three Bethesda games are almost entirely interchangeable. You can make a solid argument for them in any order, based on your own personal preferences and, let’s face it, more than a little nostalgia. For us, Morrowind is at the top of this list because there will never, ever be another Bethesda game like it –- but as always, your own personal ranking may vary. So, commence dragonshouting your favorites in the comments below!

A new TMNT graphic novel written by The Last Ronin team and TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman with a cheeky preorder discount? Yes please. Pokémon fans have three great options up for grabs, too.

Amazon has Temporal Forces ETBs back in stock and a Poké Ball tin bundle packed with Scarlet and Violet booster packs. Then Sam's Club has the Pokémon TCG Premium Classic Box $200 below retail.

These are solid picks for anyone expanding their collection or looking for a high-quality gift. Oh, and did I mention a Pokémon TCG 2004 trick or trade pack for over half off?

TL;DR: Deals For Today

For collectors and gamers, there's more to like. The IGN Store is taking pre-orders on a limited-edition Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Akatosh ingot, and Amazon has a fully loaded Corsair gaming PC for 10% off featuring the new RTX 5070 and a free copy of Doom: The Dark Ages when it drops. There's also a fresh Humble Bundle filled with top-rated tycoon sims supporting No Kid Hungry. Here’s a closer look at today’s best offers.

TMNT: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution

Temporal Forces Elite Trainer Box

Temporal Forces Chase Cards

Apple AirPods Pro 2

Oblivion Remastered Akatosh

Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch 2

Poké Ball Tin Bundle 2024

Corsair Vengeance i7500 Gaming PC

Tycoon Titans Bundle

2024 Trick or Trade BOOster Bundle

Pokemon TCG Classic Box

Iono’s Bellibolt ex Premium Collection

Journey Together IRs

Oblivion Gates

XCOM Bundle

id & Friends Humble Game Bundle

Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet - Surging Sparks Booster Bundle

Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—Twilight Masquerade Elite Trainer Box

Twilight Masquerade Single Cards

Surging Sparks Single Cards

Pokémon TCG: Shining Fates Collection Pikachu V Box

Shining Fates Single Cards

The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered Dark Brotherhood Medallion

Pokémon TCG Paldean Fates Booster Bundle

Paldean Fates Single Cards

Pokemon TCG: Azure Legends Tin - 5 Packs

Surging Sparks Single Cards

Lexar Sale

Pokémon Game Sale

MSI Desktops & Components Sale

Samsung Pro Plus 512GB MicroSDXC + Reader

8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard (Xbox Edition)

Italian studio 3DClouds has revealed Formula Legends, an Art of Rally-inspired take on arcade-style, open-wheel racing that pays (unlicensed) tribute to over 50 years of Formula 1 racing.

3DClouds gave IGN an early look at how the game is shaping up and, while elements like AI behaviour are still being honed, the level of commitment to recreating a variety of eras of F1 is already very impressive.

Formula Legends will feature 16 car models, each with seven different liveries. The cars may be chunky, toy-style caricatures of the real things but, clad in their off-brand odes to some of the most iconic racecar designs in history, the inspiration behind each one is very clear. Sound has been a big focus for the team, which is good to hear considering how crucial that is to the identity of older F1 cars especially. Formula Legends will also feature modding support – from liveries to helmets and trackside sponsors – which has the potential to be quite a boost.

Speaking of tracks, each of the 14 circuits will have multiple variations to reflect how they’ve evolved over the years, from the ’70s to the 2020s. These too are inspired by real-life locations.

Formula Legends’ story mode sounds particularly promising, with era-based championships set to take us on a tour through the defining moments of F1’s high-speed history.

There sounds like there’ll be quite a bit of nuance to the racing, too. Not only will each of the 200 drivers in Formula Legends (including the cheekily-named Mike Shoemaker and current championship leader Osvald Pastry) have skill perks to consider, but tyre wear, fuel consumption, rubbered-in racing lines, damage, and dynamic weather will also all be factors. How 3DClouds ultimately blends these deeper elements with an otherwise accessible arcade approach will be interesting to learn.

Producer Francesco Mantovani explained that the team took inspiration from 2023’s New Star GP (which itself is an F1-themed throwback to early 3D racing games) but wanted something that was a little less outright arcade-oriented for Formula Legends.

“We tried to move it in line between New Star GP and Art of Rally, in terms of gameplay,” said Mantovani. “Art of Rally was the main inspiration we took for this game. We appreciate how they worked on the camera and on the tracks.”

3DClouds’ history of racing games has admittedly trended towards licensed racing games for a far younger audience (including games like Paw Patrol Grand Prix, Fast & Furious: Spy Racers, and Hot Wheels Monster Trucks: Stunt Mayhem) but Formula Legends is described as a true passion project for the studio, which it has created entirely independently.

“I think it’s a game that they’ve been wanting to make for a really, really long time, and finally we have the resources to do it,” confirmed executive producer Roberta Migliori, noting the studio’s work-for-hire history has set it up just as F1’s popularity continues to soar. “With the increasing popularity of the sport and the strong passion, it just seemed like the right moment. The game is completely self-funded thanks to other games we’ve worked on.”

3DClouds being located in Milan, just a short drive from Monza (Formula 1’s legendary Temple of Speed and the third purpose-built race track ever built) probably hasn’t hurt, either.

Formula Legends will launch on Xbox One and Series X|S, PS4 and PS5, PC, and Switch later this year. The team does not currently have Switch 2 kits, but Migliori confirmed they will “look into that opportunity as soon as we are ready.”

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

Fortnite will return to the U.S. iOS App Store and iPhones next week after a significant court ruling, Epic boss Tim Sweeney has said.

Yesterday, April 30, a U.S. Federal District Court in California found that Apple wilfully violated a court order in the Epic Games v. Apple case that required Apple to enable developers to offer their customers alternative ways to make purchases outside apps.

In a tweet, Sweeney put forward a “peace proposal” to Apple, which Epic has battled against in the courts for years now. “If Apple extends the court's friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we'll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic,” Sweeney said.

In January, IGN reported on how Sweeney had spent billions of dollars fighting Apple and Google over the way the companies run their app stores. Sweeney told IGN at the time that he considered it a long-term investment in Epic and Fortnite’s future, insisting Epic could afford to keep up the fight for decades to come.

Sweeney’s ongoing battle to get Fortnite back on iPhones and Android phones while avoiding paying store fees is well-documented. The gist is this: Epic doesn’t want to pay the now standard 30% store fees on revenue made on mobile games. Instead, it wants to run the likes of Fortnite through its own mobile store, the Epic Games Store, without Apple and Google getting in the way and gobbling up its profit. Back in 2020, this dispute ended up with Fortnite blocked from release on iOS.

Now, in the U.S., nearly five years later Fortnite is finally set to return.

Evil Dead: The Game is no longer available to buy after its publisher began pulling it from digital storefronts.

The asymmetric multiplayer game based on the much-loved action horror franchise launched in 2022 across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. IGN’s Evil Dead: The Game review returned an 8/10. We said: “Evil Dead: The Game is an asymmetric multiplayer game of cat and mouse that’s compelling and exhilarating, despite being rough around the edges - much like the horror/comedies that inspired it.”

A Game of the Year Edition launched a year later, but clearly failed to have the desired impact on player numbers. In September 2023 the Nintendo Switch version was canceled and content development was halted.

Now, three years after launch, Evil Dead: The Game is gone for good, but its servers will remain online for existing owners to continue playing.

In a statement published to the game’s Steam page, developer and publisher Saber Interactive confirmed the change:

We can confirm we've begun the process of removing the game from digital storefronts. Anyone who has purchased the game will still be able to play it as we plan to keep our servers online for everyone.

We want to extend a sincere thank you to our community, to those who have been part of the game from the very beginning, and those who have recently joined us. We appreciate all of your support.

There are a number of negative reviews left on Evil Dead: The Game’s Steam page lamenting the decision to pull it from sale, with most saying it’s effectively dead now. It retains a ‘mixed’ Steam user review rating overall.

“The end is nigh,” reads one recent positive review from a player with over 380 hours in-game. “It was fun while it lasted, lads. I mean that.”

Saber Interactive, which developed last year’s breakout hit Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, has a number of licensed movie games in the works, including John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, Jurassic Park Survival, and an untitled Avatar: The Last Airbender game. Turok: Origins and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 are also in development.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Pokémon TCG’s next big release, Destined Rivals, is out this month, and preorders are starting to appear again at retailers like Target and Walmart.

We've collected all the retailers where you can buy the new expansion at, just below. Keep an eye on the listings for new restocks, and follow @IGNDeals for the latest updates.

Destined Rivals US Preorders

Destined Rivals Brings Back Classic Villains and Stunning New Cards

Team Rocket returns to stir up trouble once again, Trainers' signature Pokémon are back in the spotlight, and the card art? Some of the slickest in years.

Whether you're chasing eye-catching collectibles or just addicted to the thrill of cracking a fresh pack, Destined Rivals is engineered to tempt you.

When Does Destined Rivals Release?

Mark your calendar: the full set launches on May 30, 2025. That’s when sealed products officially hit shelves—stock willing. The Pokémon Company seems to be improving on shortages, but if history’s any guide, don’t count on leftovers.

Between May 17–25, pre-release events will pop up at select stores, offering early access via Build & Battle boxes and small-scale tournaments. Want in? Talk to your local league store yesterday. And maybe bring snacks—you’re negotiating with gatekeepers now.

What’s in the Destined Rivals Lineup?

We all tell ourselves we’ll buy just one item. That’s adorable. Here’s everything that’ll test your willpower on launch day:

• Booster Packs
• Booster Boxes (36 packs)
• Elite Trainer Box
• Pokémon Center Exclusive Elite Trainer Box
• Booster Bundle (6 packs)
• Triple-Pack Blisters
• Build & Battle Box
• Build & Battle Stadium

Expect premium collection boxes too—likely with alternate art promos starring fan-favorites like Misty, Cynthia, Ethan, or Marnie. You technically don’t need them. You’ll get them anyway.

Alert: Amazon Massive TCG Restock Now Live

There's been a massive restock of Pokémon TCG thanks to Amazon pooling it's stock levels internationally.

You won't find sets like Prismatic Evolutions, but previous Scarlet and Violet / Sword and Shield sets are in stock right now.

Cards That Should Be In Destined Rivals

Here’s the full expected card list by Japanese set origin.

Heat Wave Arena

• Ethan’s Ho-Oh ex
• Cynthia’s Garchomp ex
• Cynthia’s Roserade
• Misty’s Psyduck, Staryu, Starmie, Magikarp, Gyarados, Lapras
• Ethan’s Cyndaquil, Quilava, Typhlosion
• Ethan’s Slugma, Magcargo
• Hydrapple line
• Yanmega ex
• Zeraora, Electivire ex, Rotom, Manectric
• Steven’s Metang (alt print)
• Arven’s Mabostiff ex
• Marnie’s Impidimp (alt print)
• Applin, Dipplin
• Ogerpon (Teal Mask, Hearthflame Mask, Wellspring Mask, Cornerstone Mask variants)
• Cynthia’s Milotic, Feebas
• Buizel, Floatzel, Dondozo ex
• Dwebble, Crustle
• Shaymin
• Ponyta, Rapidash
• Arven’s Toedscool, Toedscruel
• Arven’s Maschiff, Skwovet, Greedent
• Mudbray, Mudsdale
• Electabuzz
• Ethan’s Pinsir, Ethan’s Pichu
• Trainer Cards: Judge, Ethan’s Adventure, Cynthia’s Power Weight, Sacred Ash, MC’s Hype Up, Spikemuth Gym

The Glory of Team Rocket

• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex
• Team Rocket’s Spidops
• Team Rocket’s Meowth, Persian ex
• Team Rocket’s Porygon, Porygon2, Porygon-Z
• Team Rocket’s Tarountula
• Trainer Cards: Team Rocket’s Giovanni, Archer, Ariana, Receiver
• Special Energy: Team Rocket Energy

Steven’s Starter Deck

• Steven’s Metagross ex
• Steven’s Skarmory, Beldum, Metang
• Steven’s Carbink
• Steven’s Claydol, Baltoy
• Trainer Card: Granite Cave

Marnie’s Starter Deck

• Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex
• Marnie’s Impidimp, Morgrem, Liepard, Scrafty
• Marnie’s Purrloin, Scraggy
• Trainer Cards: Energy Recycler (reprint), Spikemuth Gym

Destined Origins Cards I’ve Got My Eye On

There’s a good chance I’ll end up with multiple binders full of these, but a few cards have already secured a permanent place in my mental wishlist.

• Cynthia’s Garchomp ex is a power move in every sense. Big damage, hand draw, and the smug energy of someone who always gets her turn one setup. This is peak Champion energy and I want three.
• Ethan’s Ho-Oh ex is what happens when utility and sparkle collide. The ability accelerates Fire Energy like it’s no big deal, and Shining Feather heals your whole team while smacking for 160. It’s absurd, and I’m obsessed.
• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex is pure drama. It refuses to attack unless you’ve built an entire Rocket-themed deck around it, but when it does, it throws energy around like a caffeinated Gengar. It’s also incredibly extra, which I respect.
• Misty’s Psyduck is here to make you laugh and then probably lose a game in the most lovable way possible. It has an ability that lets you discard it to the top of your deck, for... reasons. I don’t care. It’s perfect.
• Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex brings the villain vibes with an aggressive Dark-type build that thrives on energy acceleration and being just annoying enough to work. It’s a disruption deck’s dream, and I plan to run it like it’s 2020 all over again.

Pokémon TCG Single Card Deals

That's right, I'm hunting down single card deals now too. Hype it as an all time high right now, so that means prices are at their peak. That also means they're ready to bottom out at any moment, as ridiculous pricing turns buyers away eventually.

The Pokémon TCG bubble is set to burst this year, either by scalpers getting too greedy or by massive reprints. Some prices are already dropping, with Journey Together slowly calming down:

Surging Sparks Single Cards

Journey Together Single Cards

Shrouded Fable Single Cards

Temporal Forces Single Cards

Stellar Crown Single Cards

Scarlet and Violet Base Single Cards

Twilight Masquerade Single Cards

Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of "Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior". Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.

Codemasters has confirmed that no further expansions will be released for 2023’s EA Sports WRC, and that the team has “reached the end of the road” working on the game. Unfortunately, alongside this news comes the additional confirmation that Codemasters is also “pausing development plans on future rally titles.”

The veteran UK racing studio published the announcement via EA.com.

“Our WRC partnership was a culmination of sorts for our Codemasters journey with off-road racing, spanning decades through titles like Colin McRae Rally, and Dirt,” reads the studio’s statement. “We’ve provided a home for every rally enthusiast, striving tirelessly to push the boundaries and deliver the exhilarating thrill of driving on the ragged edge. We’ve brought together incredibly talented racing developers, worked with some of the sport’s icons, and had the opportunity to share our love of rallying.”

The World Rally Championship itself has acknowledged the news on social media, with a largely vague comment noting the “WRC gaming franchise is going in an ambitious new direction with more news coming in the near future.”

EA pulling the pin on Codemasters rally games will be a bitter pill to swallow for motorsports fans following EA’s acquisition of the storied British racing studio back in 2020.

The news comes in wake of reports of over 300 layoffs at EA, including roughly 100 at Respawn Entertainment.

Codemasters has been at the spearhead of rallying video games for almost three decades, dating back to 1998’s iconic Colin McRae Rally. The pioneering rally simulation kicked off a series of successful and highly esteemed racing games. Following the death of Colin McRae in 2007, the series retired McRae’s name and continued its evolution as Dirt. 2009’s Dirt 2 (known as Colin McRae: Dirt 2 in Europe and other PAL game territories) marked a transitional point for the series, which was reinvented again as a hardcore simulation in 2015’s Dirt Rally.

2023’s EA Sports WRC was the first Codemasters rally game to hold an official WRC license since 2002’s Colin McRae Rally 3. IGN’s review notes EA Sports WRC took the class-leading feel of 2019’s Dirt Rally 2.0 and stuffed it into an officially licensed World Rally Championship experience, like a steel rod in Timo Rautiainen’s backside, but its technical gremlins left it feeling like a “great racing game trying to fight its way out of an unfinished one.” Subsequent updates sought to improve its screen tearing issues.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

Guy Ritchie is on deck to direct the sequel to Amazon MGM’s 2024 Road House remake, reports Variety. The follow-up will see Jake Gyllenhaal return to the lead role as ex-UFC fighter-turned-bouncer Elwood Dalton.

A Gyllenhaal-led sequel was previously confirmed in May last year, with the announcement coming quickly in the wake of the remake’s successful March 2024 release. Road House accumulated over 50 million views during its first two weekends on Prime, which made it Amazon MGM Studios’ most-watched produced film debut ever on a worldwide basis at that time.

2024’s Road House was directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow, Swingers), but Liman immediately appeared unlikely to return for a sequel after criticising the film’s streaming release.

“My issue on Road House is that we made the movie for MGM to be in theaters, everyone was paid as if it was going to be in theaters, and then Amazon switched it on us and nobody got compensated,” said Liman at the time. “Forget about the effect on the industry — 50 million people saw Road House — I didn’t get a cent, Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t get a cent, [producer] Joel Silver didn’t get a cent. That’s wrong.”

According to Gyllenhaal, however, Amazon had been clear Road House was destined for streaming.

Road House 2 will complete a trifecta of collaborations between Ritchie and Gyllenhaal, and will mark their second project for Amazon MGM following the awkwardly titled but well received 2023 war film Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant. They’ve also paired up for the upcoming action thriller In the Grey, which additionally stars Henry Cavill, but that film has no current release date.

Further details about Road House 2 are scant, but it’s being written by Will Beall (Gangster Squad, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F).

As it stands, there’s little rest for Guy Ritchie. The director helmed multiple episodes of the just-launched Paramount+ series MobLand (starring Tom Hardy) and his next film, Fountain of Youth, lands on Apple TV+ later this month.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

May the binge be with you this month, thanks to our comprehensive guide on what's actually worth watching. Because, let's face it, there simply aren't enough hours in the day to watch 95% of the content on the six major networks available. So let’s get to maximising your hard-fought free time with the best award-winning films, social calendar-destroying TV series, and original content available.

Below are the litter picks from thousands of hours of content from Australia's six major streaming networks. Click your provider from the list below, grab some popcorn, and kick back into some sweet, sweet escapism.

Table of Contents

• Foxtel/Binge
• Netflix
• Disney+
• Apple TV+
• Amazon Prime Video
• Stan

New in May on Foxtel and Binge

TV litter pick: Strife: S02 – 8 May :A continuing comedic drama that follows Evelyn Jones (Asher Keddie), a modern, imperfect woman and publisher, on her journey from lounge room blogger to the big leagues.

Movie litter pick: Transformers One – 6 May : Transformers One is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.

What notable movies are coming to Binge?

• Ghost Cat Anzu – 5 May
• Transformers One – 6 May
• BAFTA TV Awards – 12 May
• Saturday Night – 19 May
• Spit – 30 May

What notable series are coming to Binge?

• Taskmaster UK: S19 – 2 May
• Gen Well: S01 – 5 May
• Strife: S02 – 8 May
• Billion Dollar Playground: S01 – 13 May
• Honest Renovations: S01 – 26 May

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New in May on Netflix

TV litter pick: Love, Death & Robots: Volume 4 – 15 May : A clever collection of animated short stories that span the science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy genres.

Movie litter pick: The Northman – 7 May : An epic revenge thriller that explores how far a Viking prince will go to seek justice for his murdered father.

What notable movies are coming to Netflix?

• Past Lives – 1 May
• The Northman – 7 May
• Cuckoo – 8 May
• Nonnas – 9 May
• The Expendables 4 – 13 May
• The Quilters – 16 May
• Untold: The Fall of Favre – 20 May
• Red, White & Brass – 12 May
• Fear Street: Prom Queen – 23 May

What notable series are coming to Netflix?

• The Four Seasons – 1 May
• Unseen: S02 – 2 May
• Full Speed: S02 – 7 May
• Blood of Zeus: S03 – 8 May
• Love, Death & Robots: Volume 4 – 15 May
• Bet – 15 May
• Sirens – 22 May
• Big Mouth: S08 – 23 May
• CoComelon: S13 – 26 May
• F1: The Academy – 28 May
• Dept. Q – 29 May

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New in May on Disney+

TV litter pick: Andor: S02 – Wednesdays : Builds on nearly everything that worked so well about season 1, and continues fleshing out the prequel era of Star Wars.

What notable series are coming to Disney+?

• Andor: S02 – Wednesdays
• Doctor Who: S02 – Saturdays
• Grey's Anatomy: S21 – Saturdays
• Doctor Odyssey – Saturdays
• Vanderpump Villa: S02 – Thursdays
• Suspicious Partner – Wednesdays
• The Simpsons: S36 – Tuesdays
• Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld – 4 May
• Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – 4 May
• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – 4 May
• Welcome to Wrexham: S04 – 16 May
• Tracker: S02 – 28 May

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New in May on Apple TV+

TV litter pick: Long Way Home – 9 May : Long Way Home, formerly Long Way Up, follows Ewan and Charley as they ride refurbished vintage motorbikes from Ewan’s home in Scotland to Charley’s in England — but rather than take the shortest route, they go the long way.

Movie litter pick: Fountain of Youth – 1 May : Follows two estranged siblings (John Krasinski and Natalie Portman) who partner on a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth.

What notable movies are coming to Apple TV+?

• Fountain of Youth – 1 May
• Bono: Story of Surrender – 30 May

What notable series are coming to Apple TV+?

• Long Way Home – 9 May
• Deaf President Now! – 16 May
• Murderbot – 16 May
• Lulu is a Rhinoceros – 30 May

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New in May on Amazon Prime Video

TV litter pick: Clarkson’s Farm: S04 – 23 May : This time around, Jeremy Clarkson and team—including Kaleb Cooper, Lisa Hogan, and Charlie Ireland—navigate new challenges, ambitious projects, and hilarious moments at Diddly Squat Farm.

Movie litter pick: Another Simple Favour – 1 May : Takes its tongue-in-cheek momcore satire to new visual heights by moving the action to coastal Italy. All the best parts of the original are also present here, including Lively and Kendrick’s sparkling chemistry and killer costume design.

What notable movies are coming to Prime Video?

• Another Simple Favour – 1 May
• David Spade: Dandelion – 6 May
• Octopus! – 8 May
• Molly Mae: Behind It All Part 2 – 9 May
• Kraven the Hunter – 12 May
• Overcompensating – 15 May

What notable series are coming to Prime Video?

• Motorheads: S01 – 20 May
• Nine Perfect Strangers: S02 – 22 May
• Clarkson’s Farm: S04 – 23 May

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New in May on Stan

TV litter pick: The Walking Dead: Dead City: S02 – 5 May : Dead City's second season puts some good distance between our main characters, despite also having to figure out contrived reasons for half of them to head back to the cursed isle of Manhattan.

Movie litter pick: Sing Sing – 31 May : A touching drama and an inspiring reminder of how community and an outlet for self-discovery can positively shape someone's outlook.

What notable movies are coming to Stan?

• Jojo Rabbit – 4 May
• The Downfall of Diddy: His Defence – 4 May
• Thirteen Lives – 10 May
• Expend4bles – 13 May
• Titanic – 17 May
• The Imitation Game – 20 May
• Borat – 24 May
• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – 24 May
• Behind The Candelabra – 29 May
• The Greatest Showman – 31 May
• Sing Sing – 31 May

What notable series are coming to Stan?

• The Walking Dead: Dead City: S02 – 5 May
• Poker Face: S02 – 8 May
• Scandal: S01 – S07 – 8 May
• Godfather of Harlem: S04 – 11 May
• Station 19: S01 – S07 – 14 May
• Love Triangle UK: S02 – 18 May
• Mayans M.C.: S01 – S05 – 25 May
• Kevin Costner's The West: S01 – 28 May

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Gaming deals are dropping faster than a Blue Shell on your head in Mario Kart, and my roundup for today has something for every platform. Whether you’re looking to burn rubber in a racing sim, cast spells in a wizarding world, or just roll crap up into a giant ball of joy, a bargain exists for you here. With discounts slashing up to 83% off, now’s the perfect time to plug in, power up, and grab some polygon-or pixel-packed treasures before they vanish.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm celebrating the 28th birthday of Soul Blade, a PS1 fighter I adored back in the day. Forbearer of Namco's SoulCalibur series, 'Soul Edge,' as it was called in NTSC regions, wowed us early with its absolutely phenomenal pre-rendered intro movie (upscaled here). I have vivid memories of booting the game purely to watch it while saying to myself and my best mate, "In-game graphics will n-e-v-e-r get this good!"

Beyond sinking serious hours into the mini-RPG mode, which unlocked unique weapons, I recall having a 2P Verus rivalry with said friend. He was a nunchaku Li Long exponent while I was a katana-slinging Mitsurugi. When I defeated him in the most embarrassing way possible—punching him to death after he shattered my blade—he refused to speak to me for a week. Goodie, if you're reading this, you were a massive sook.

• Hogwarts Legacy (-46%) - A$49
• Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble (-59%) - A$29
• Star Wars: KOTOR Bndl (-65%) - A$13
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (-60%) - A$12
• Unmetal (-75%) - A$7

Expiring Recent Deals

• Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (-50%) - A$39
• Monster Hunter Generations Ult. (-80%) - A$15
• Trials of Mana (-60%) - A$31
• Nier: Automata End of Yorha Ed. (-50%) - A$27
• Metal Gear: Master Col. (-30%) - A$63

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

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Editor's note: La Quimera was originally set to fully release on April 25, but it was unexpectedly delayed that same day. A developer update on April 29 didn't provide a new release date, but did say La Quimera would now be launching in Early Access whenever it did arrive. This announcement came well after our review of what we were initially told would be the full game was largely complete – however, the update post indicates that the content at its new launch will be the same as what we played, so we have decided to publish this as a review of the Early Access version.

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for direct-to-video sequels. There’s something about being five Tremors movies deep where all pretense is abandoned, and we all know what we are there for: To watch some ridiculous action and give our brains a break for a bit. La Quimera reminds me a lot of popcorn flicks like that. This FPS is not particularly good-looking, well-written, or innovative. The action doesn’t do anything memorable, and its acting ranges from mediocre to terrible. There is admittedly a certain charm to be found here, especially if you bring a friend or two along to share this rocky ride in co-op. But by nearly every metric, La Quimera is about as good a game as Tremors 5: Bloodlines is a movie. Which is to say it’s not.

Set in the fictional South American city of Nuevo Caracas, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Outside the city walls, some sort of robot apocalypse that’s never really explained is taking place. Inside, there are warring corporations and extreme poverty. That setup isn’t a socio-political commentary so much as a throwback to 80s sci-fi, complete with Power Loader-esque rigs that would look right at home on Ellen Ripley in Aliens. As a new PMC recruit, you and your squad get stuck in the middle of some nonspecific and uninteresting power struggle between corporations, leaving an equal mix of broken bodies and bots in your wake.

There is some legitimately cool environmental storytelling here. My favorite by far is the Bone Wall, a literal wall filled with what must be thousands of skeletons, that you get to see when one mission takes you deep through it. A voice in your ear describes the desperation that went into building the wall as all hell was breaking loose, and it’s neat to piece together how there was no time to slow down and help anyone who fell, whether that was due to exhaustion, injury, or dying from whatever encroaching threat drove the frantic construction.

In fact, La Quimera would have been better off if it let the environments do all the talking, because once its characters open their mouths, it is rough. The dialogue is awful, with obscenity-laced tirades that sound like someone watched a Quentin Tarantino movie once, and tried to mimic it without knowing how to make any of the lines land. The acting also ranges from a normal kind of bad to so awkward I can’t tell if it’s being purposefully campy or potentially using some sort of poorly implemented AI. Characters are very chatty too, and I found myself actively cringing on several occasions as allies shout out things like, “Oh perfect, robot dogs!”.

The story itself doesn’t make much sense, either. Apparently, saving a billionaire’s daughter gets your PMC conscripted because… you are afraid he will sue? Which, naturally, means the people in the PMC all have to get experimental and highly dangerous augmentations, too. I wouldn’t mind the nonsense, it’s fine enough as a vehicle to make me want to go shoot robots – but the story is so clearly unfinished, ending abruptly after just a few hours without resolving anything. Developer Reburn unexpectedly decided to delay La Quimera on the day it was supposed to launch, and then later announced its eventual release would have the Early Access label on it. Given development is largely based out of Kyiv in Ukraine, the fact that it’s still coming out at all feels like something of an achievement worth applauding. But while this campaign is planned to grow over time, the version that's here now doesn't have any semblance of a complete story.

Identity Crysis

La Quimera isn’t exactly shy about the influence Crysis has had on it. Early on, you and your crew gain access to exosuits, complete with energy-powered armor, cloaking, and scanning. That last bit is especially important – one quick ping allows you and your teammates to see any nearby enemies, even behind cover. That’s huge when your weapons operate like a poor man’s version of the FarSight from Perfect Dark, able to lethally penetrate shockingly thick obstacles. It’s extremely satisfying to drop a bunch of orange silhouettes in rapid succession from sight unseen.

That said, where Crysis tended to be more of an inverted funnel that pushed you toward open areas, La Quimera is decidedly about straight lines. Its levels are very linear, and your objective is almost always to clear enemies as you walk from point A to point B. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as a bit of a throwback like this can be a welcome palate cleanser in a time when wide-open gameplay is increasingly the norm, but it does all start to become a bland blur. That’s because so many areas repeat the same cycle of kill the enemies, open the heavy door, kill the next enemies, open the next heavy door, and so on. There are a handful of encounters that break that trend, most notably an extended gunfight on a slowly rising elevator in a corporate office building, but they are few and far between.

The gunplay itself is extremely basic, with your weapons effectively limited to a sidearm, shotgun, or rifle. You can’t change guns mid-mission, nor pick up any temporary options like a limited-use power weapon. You are given the choice between conventional firearms and electromagnetic weapons – the former works better against humans, while the latter tears through shields and robots more quickly – but you’ll be required to bring one of each into your missions anyway. Which one gets to be the more powerful primary weapon and which is relegated to your sidearm could have added a small strategic wrinkle, but the conventional arms are so poor against bots that there’s only one right choice, which is too bad.

The thing I like best about the fights themselves is the ammo economy. Bullets can become scarce, especially in later missions, which means you can’t just sit in one spot and pick off every enemy by shooting through walls the whole time. I had to keep moving to either scavenge rounds off of corpses or find more ammo boxes, which was just enough to create some badly needed forward momentum during otherwise slow fights.

Time is Money

As a PMC, you are, of course, paid for completing missions – but while there are things to buy between them, the progression is badly underbaked at this point. There aren’t enough items or upgrades for sale in the first place, and the stuff that is here isn’t very interesting. You could buy one of a very small number of generic guns, or invest in either of the two alternate versions of your exosuit’s head, arms, torso, and legs, each of which have differences like improved cooldowns or increased med kit capacity. But those effects are all so small that it’s hard to feel a need for any of them.

The way you get money is a little weird, too. In addition to completing missions, cash can also be found in containers mid-level – but you have very shallow pockets for some odd reason, hitting “max money” far too quickly (which is a problem I can say with all honesty I have never experienced in my life). That's too bad, because collecting more would have given me a real incentive to go off the beaten path. There are some of the obligatory voice memos people seem to leave behind in every video game, but I can’t bring myself to opt into hearing more of this dialogue than I absolutely need to.

For as down as I am on La Quimera (and, believe me, I am), I did still have a strangely fun time with it. That’s due primarily to two things: First, you can play the entire campaign (minus the tutorial) in online co-op with up to two other people. A couple of buddies is the exact thing you need to transform cringey dialogue from something you’ll roll your eyes at into a hilarious shared experience. Having another gun or two covering your back makes the combat more exciting as well, and the ability to do things like alternate who is doing scans so that you are never waiting on that ability’s cooldown keeps the fights moving at a faster pace.

The other quality that keeps its many issues from becoming downright infuriating is how short La Quimera is. It took me right around four hours to complete my first playthrough. That could certainly be a negative if you put a lot of weight on “hours played per dollar spent” or whatever, but it does make a stronger case for going in with some friends, having a ridiculous time, and then getting out in a way that lets you enjoy the handful of high points while minimizing the impact of the lows. Of course, one of the reasons for this brief length is that La Quimera is outright incomplete in parts, and it would need to be significantly fleshed out to justify spending any more time than this in Nuevo Caracas anyway.

The Viwoods AI Paper isn’t your average tablet. Instead of a bright AMOLED or LCD screen, it comes with an eye-friendly e-ink touch display and stylus, turning it into an Android-powered digital notebook. It’s compatible with the Google Play Store, so you can access your favorite apps (like Kindle) and use it for much more, however, and comes with its own built-in AI assistant. It won’t be for everyone, and that’s by design, but if you’re looking for a reading tablet alternative to the Remarkable or Kindle Scribe, it’s a great option.

Viwoods AI Paper – Design and Features

Viwoods is a new company, completing its first Kickstarter only late last year. Despite being fresh to the world of consumer electronics, it has debuted with a very strong first product. The Viwoods AI Paper is intuitive, innovative, and surprisingly versatile for an e-ink tablet, and, even while the company is regularly updating it to incorporate new features, it’s already competing with the most popular competitors that have, in some cases, a multi-year head start.

The AI Paper comes in two forms, the full-size 10.65-inch version I was sent for testing and the more compact AI Paper Mini, which has an 8.2-inch screen and comes with a backlight the larger version lacks. For this review, I’ll be focusing on the larger version, but if you’re looking for something smaller, those are the most important differences to be aware of.

The AI Paper falls into a tablet category that’s better categorized as a Digital Notebook. You’re probably familiar with the Remarkable, which really pushed this category into the mainstream. Digital Notebook tablets don’t claim to be do-everything devices. Instead, they emphasize note-taking, writing, reading, and organization. They’re less prone to cause distraction and, when used properly, can become a pivotal organization and thought-management tool.

Like its key competitors in this space, the AI Paper uses a paper-like e-ink display. In this case, the company has implemented the Carta 1300, which offers improved contrast compared to older e-ink screens and, theoretically, should be one of the best out there. Viwoods has done an excellent job of making the “paper” of the screen look bright, but the same can’t be said for most of the alternatives out there, like the Boox Max, which is noticeably darker grey. The screen has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,920, giving it 300 pixels per inch (PPI) of clarity. It’s a high resolution for an e-ink device and allows text and images to appear crisp and readable.

Unlike OLED or LCD displays, e-ink works on an entirely different principle. It's best thought of a bit like an Etch-a-Sketch, where the Etch-a-Sketch has a layer of magnetic filings beneath the screen that are then pulled upwards to create its lines. E-ink displays have a layer of black ink beneath the display that is then pulled into place with the application of electricity. Once the image has been formed, it doesn't need to reset, which means that, in theory, if you are reading a book, each page can be presented as a static image, dramatically increasing battery life and reducing eye strain. This quality, in combination with the matte texture used for the screen, works to make the display look much more like a sheet of paper. Amazon popularized this tech with the original Kindle and it has been a hit for e-readers ever since.

This is true of all e-ink tablets, but the AI Paper takes its capabilities further with Google Play Store access. It doesn't come with installed by default but allows you to add it as an app, giving you access to a whole ecosystem of apps, including Google Drive, Microsoft 365, Obsidian, and more. This functionality inherently takes away from its distraction-free nature, but the slow refresh rate of its e-ink screen means that it's unappealing to use the device for things like YouTube or social media, so it evens out.

AI comes into play prominently, but can also be completely ignored if you choose to. There are three touch buttons on the bottom, similar to a normal Android device, but the right right button is dedicated to summoning your AI agent. When held, you can speak a prompt which is then sent to ChatGPT. This functionality is also built into its different reading and writing applications with quick commands to analyze what's on the page, generate a new article based on it, convert handwriting to text, or just to summon an AI assistant. It also allows you to come up with your own custom commands so you don't need to retype a prompt every time.

Other tablets also feature AI assistance, such as those from Boox, which are also based on Android and have access to the Google Play Store. After all, if you can download any Android app, that also means you can download any Android-compatible LLM. What makes this different, however, is that Viwoods has given it the ability to see and interpret anything on your screen versus just answering text prompts.

This is especially useful functionality for students. For example, if your professor has assigned you an article to read, you can generate summaries and study aids quickly and easily simply by creating a prompt for it. You can also take handwritten notes in class and then have the AI transcribe these into written text that can then be accessed on a computer. The transcription process isn't perfect, especially if you have messier handwriting, but it's seen improvements since the tablet launched and is usually close enough that I can understand what I was attempting to write anyway.

Its traditional notebook and organizational features are exceptional. The homepage is broken into different sections for writing, organization, drawing, and apps. For writing, there are 31 different templates you can choose from, including everything from normal lined paper to graphic organizers to music notation and even body diagrams for clothing design. Templates are essentially backgrounds that you can write on and take the place of having a paper version of the sheet or organizer.

When you’re ready to write, you can choose from seven different implements, including a calligraphy pen, pencil, highlight, and a “thinker” which looks like a dry erase marker. The stylus uses the Wacom standard EMR (electro-magnetic resonance) stylus, which is battery-free, has 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and is able to detect when the stylus is tilted. This is incredibly useful when drawing as it allows you to shade with the pencil tool.

The tablet has a bundle of neat features that go along with this. Each “note” can be tagged for easy organization and searching them up later. Notepads allow you to create layers, similar to a photo editor, so you can add to drawings and note pages without marring anything you’ve written underneath. If you’re drawing a shape, simply holding the stylus in place at the end of your stroke transforms it into a perfect version of that shape with straight lines and curves for circles.

And, of course, it can be used as a reader. It natively supports PDFs and EPUB ebooks, but downloading the Kindle app from the Play Store gives you full access to your Kindle Library as well. Reading on e-ink is as close as you can get to paper without it actually being paper, and thanks to its 300 PPI screen, letters are just as crisp as a Kindle Paperwhite.

Getting documents onto and off of the device can be done in several different ways. You can upload your documents to the AI Paper management site and they’ll automatically sync to the device the next time it’s online or you can connect it to your PC with a USB Type-C cable and move files on or off like any other mass storage device. You can also email documents or sync them to the cloud.

Finally, the AI Paper comes with a 4,100mAh battery that can last around a week when writing two hours a day. This necessitates turning the WiFi off, however, and actually left me a bit disappointed. One of the downsides of running Android and having these additional functions is that they drain the battery significantly faster. A week isn’t bad, but if you’re taking it to several classes a day and then using it for assignments, it won’t even last that long. Viwoods rates it for a month in standby, which does hold true, so if you’re off on vacation or seasonal break, it should still have juice left when you return.

Viwoods AI Paper – Performance

I’ve tested the AI Paper alongside three other leading e-ink tablets (part of an upcoming feature), and all of these devices are after similar things: a paper-like writing experience, fewer distractions, supporting your education and work life, and improving your organization. That side-by-side comparison has highlighted just how much the Viwoods AI Paper has been able to stand out despite the company being so new.

For starters, this is the best implementation of the Carta 1300 display yet. One of the most disappointing qualities of it, as implemented in other tablets like the Boox Max, is that the screen is unusually dark. Whites tend to look dark gray, which can impact readability. The Al Paper is the whitest implementation I've seen so far, offering very good contrast and clarity.

The writing experience is also great. I wouldn't say it's like paper exactly, but the screen has a minute texture that creates a bit of scratchiness when writing. It feels good if you've never written on an e-ink tablet before; it takes a little getting used to, but I found it much easier than learning to write with a stylus on my Android tablet and its smooth, glassy surface (I eventually gave up on that). The display also uses a soft surface instead of hard glass, which helps it to feel a bit more natural too.

The AI Paper was my first e-ink tablet, so I had to go through that learning curve transitioning from paper and typing exclusively. I found it fairly easy to adapt to. It does take a minute to learn its different tools, but it's very smartly designed with intuitive features like lassoing to erase large bits of text or drawing.

Sketching on the tablet was also surprisingly good. In fact, it's one of the best. This is largely because of its variety of writing implements. I especially liked the pencil. It just felt so natural to use, much more so than I would have expected any digital writing instrument to feel. You can naturally tilt and angle it for shading with full pressure sensitivity to dial in gradients. This honestly makes a huge difference and works very well with the pressure settings hidden in the tablet's menu system. Between the two, you can really dial in the feeling to make advanced sketches truly possible on this tablet.

I like the stylus, though I do think it could feel a bit more premium. It's simple, slim, and plastic. At the same time, it feels like a normal pencil and has a flat section to rest your thumb and keep it oriented correctly. There's a button on this section that can be used for erasing, or you can flip it over and use the backside as an eraser. It's no Lamy, but it feels good to use. It also made me wish other brands started making spring-loaded nibs. If you push hard enough, the nib provides some resistance that almost feels like you're digging into the page.

The AI Paper is at its best when you actively make it a daily companion. I'm finding that to be true of all of these tablets, and perhaps it goes without saying. Even so, I've made a point to carry it in situations when I wouldn't normally carry a notebook. Doing so, and using the keyword system, I’ve found that I’m more organized and less forgetful. I work across multiple organizations, and simply using the AI Paper so regularly has inspired me to keep a daily organizer and to-do list. As an adult with ADHD, I’ve come up with a lot of systems to manage, but never stepped into a daily planner with such regularity.

Running on Android also has benefits if you prefer to work in apps that don't come preloaded or to use peripherals like a Bluetooth keyboard. This was also something I was highly interested in, as I have been a fan of the Astrohaus Freewrite for quite some time, a device that uses an e-ink screen as part of its attempt to be a modern typewriter. Since I do most of my writing in Google Docs, I downloaded the app, connected a wireless mechanical keyboard, and was off to the races. It worked exceptionally well.

Despite feeling quite fully featured, the Viwoods Al Paper is still a work in progress. The company has been releasing updates regularly, adding features like the aforementioned tap-and-hold auto-shapes. It also still needs some features to give it parity with competitors like the Supernote, such as the ability to add multiple keywords to a document for more advanced sorting and connecting ideas.

The biggest issue I personally encountered, however, was ghosting. Because of the way the display technology works, all e-ink displays have some form of image retention when changing screens. It's not permanent like it is with OLED gaming monitors, but it can be distracting. While it's not terrible, it is definitely noticeable. More noticeable than I expected. Thankfully, you can easily refresh the screen by dragging down from the top left corner, which wipes these away.

You can also set the screen to different refresh speeds which reduces this. That comes with a trade-off, however. You can choose from Best Display, Fast Mode, and Ultra Fast Mode. Each of the two steps up softens the image. So while it’s possible to make the ghosts less visible, it’s also not something I usually wanted to do when a simple swipe would eliminate them entirely.

He's been praised, applauded, mocked, and maligned, but no matter what, Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage has given his everything; pouring his heart and soul into each movie role he's had. Occasionally his go-for-broke creative choices have led him into the heart of Meme Country, but there's no denying Cage's vigorous, explosive talent.

He's been in acclaimed rom-coms, soul-crushing dramas, and of course, some of the biggest and best action hits of the 1990s. Nic Cage's resume is so dense in fact, that we've allowed this "Best Of" to go to 15, rather than the usual top 10. He's worked with powerhouse directors like David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Michael Bay, Ridley Scott, and his own uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, turning in some of the most memorable performances in movie history. (Speaking of memorable, be sure to also see the 40 best Nicolas Cage moments written by a Cage superfan who has seen every Nic Cage film.)

Having tackled every genre there is in his four decades of acting; whether it's saving San Francisco from a chemical gas attack or heading to Las Vegas for a lethal bender to—well, play himself—in a meta-adventure about his own career, these are our picks for Nicolas Cage's best movies ever.

15. Red Rock West (1993)