Marvel Studios has released a new The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer packed with fresh footage.

The trailer shows off The Thing sporting a rock beard while Human Torch carries him through the air. We also get a glimpse at Mister Fantastic being a little stretchy, Invisible Woman using more of her powers, and ever so slightly more of Galactus, although a proper reveal for the character remains out of reach.

Elsewhere, we see the Silver Surfer to a greater extent than we have done before, and hear her metallic voice heralding the arrival of Galactus himself. The Thing refusing to say "It's clobberin' time!" is a running joke throughout the trailer.

The revelation that The Thing wears a beard in The Fantastic Four movie, given we have seen the superhero clean shaven up to this point suggests it doesn't grow out until the third act. But then, why wouldn't Ben Grimm shave? Over what period of time do the events of The Fantastic Four take place? Is there a significant time jump? Can The Thing shave? If so, how? We have a lot of questions about the rock beard.

Fans had clocked on to the idea that The Fantastic Four takes place over the course of months rather than days, given we see Sue Storm before and after she gives birth to Franklin Richards.

While the trailer includes lots of new footage, Marvel Studios is clearly holding plenty back. Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards, complete with a moustache Pascal is aware has caused quite the debate, is seen stretching his arm and leg as he leaps onto a platform, and again when he appears to stick something in Galactus' leg, but the full extent of his powers remain under wraps.

Similarly, Galactus' face has yet to be shown in live-action form, although we've had a look at the character through other means. We do see his chest as Galactus appears to awaken, and of course stomping around this universe's alternate history New York City.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set to kick off Phase Six of the MCU, and bring Marvel's first family into contact with the likes of Captain America, Thor, and the X-Men with next year's Avengers: Doomsday. Earlier this month, The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman commented on the big question of whether Robert Downey Jr's Doctor Doom will make an appearance in the upcoming movie, and seemingly confirmed the character will be absent. But Shakman's awkwardly phrased response left fans doubting the director's words. What we do know is the events of The Fantastic Four: First Steps lead directly into Avengers: Doomsday, which is set for December 2026.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The wait continues for Season 2 of X-Men '97, as it looks like fans will have to wait until 2026 for the series to make its return on Disney+. But there is one ray of light on the immediate horizon. Abrams Books is set to release X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series, a new coffee table art book that provides an in-depth look at the making of the series. And now IGN can exclusively debut a new excerpt of the book.

Check out the slideshow gallery below to see two spreads from X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series, including one focused on Gambit and another showcasing storyboards from the dramatic showdown with the Master Mold Sentinel on Genosha:

X-Men ’97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series is written by James Fields, with forewords by producer Brad Winderbaum and X-Men: The Animated Series showrunners Eric and Julia Lewald and an afterword by producer Jake Castorena.

The book aims to provide a very comprehensive look at the development of Season 1 of the animated series. It features a wealth of concept art, sketches, storyboards, animation cels, and other behind-the-scenes material. The book clocks in at 224 pages in length.

X-Men ’97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series is priced at $50 and will be released on July 1, 2025. You can currently preorder the book on Amazon. If its the classic X-Men: The Animated Series you're interested in, you can also order X-Men: The Art and Making of The Animated Series.

In IGN's X-Men '97 Season 1 review, we wrote, "X-Men ’97 faced a tall order in recapturing the appeal of a beloved animated series, and it succeeds better than anyone could have expected. The new series is lovingly faithful to both the original cartoon and the comics that inspired it, yet also completely unafraid to blaze its own trail. It’s relentlessly fast-paced and action-packed, yet only rarely does that speed create any storytelling problems. After one season, it’s no stretch to say that X-Men ’97 is one of the best adaptations of the X-Men franchise ever, animated or live-action. The bar is set very high for Season 2."

Excerpt from X-Men ’97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series (Abrams) by James Field

© 2025 MARVEL

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

Prime Day officially kicks off on July 8, but Amazon’s not waiting to drop some tidy early deals, and a few of them are perfect if you're heading out on a summer trip.

Whether you're boarding a long-haul flight, braving the heat abroad, or just trying to keep your phone alive between tourist stops, these early Prime Day offers are well worth locking in before the big rush in a couple of weeks.

Block Out the Plane, Not Your Wallet: $4 Sleep Mask Deal

UK Games Expo, Britain’s biggest tabletop gaming convention, is a delicious smorgasbord of every kind of physical game imaginable. But if there’s one thing that’s dominating this year’s event, it’s Star Wars. And no wonder: it’s a hugely popular franchise that’s currently enjoying a gaming renaissance with multiple titles getting ongoing support.

Expo is showcasing the newest and upcoming releases for three Star Wars board games and card games: the collectible card game Star Wars: Unlimited, the miniature skirmish game Star Wars: Shatterpoint, and cooperative board game The Mandalorian: Adventures.

Featured in this article

The Mandalorian: Adventures has a new expansion, Clan of Two, based on season two of the TV show that inspired the game. “As big Star Wars fans, we wanted to make sure players feel like they're experiencing the episodes right on your tabletop,” said Josh Beppler, who co-created the game alongside veteran designer Corey Konieczka. “An expansion was something we always had hoped to accomplish because there is such lovely source material to pull from. Season two of the show was such a massive success, we were eager to get to work on the new characters that were just immense fan favorites.”

Clan of Two adds some new playable characters from the wider Star Wars universe such as Ahsoka Tano and Fennec Shand alongside legendary foes like the Krayt Dragon. But of course, that’s one of the joys of the franchise: there’s so much of it to draw on for inspiration. “What we choose to add is based on a lot of different factors,” Shatterpoint’s lead designer Will Shick explained. “Sometimes it's just a character that we really love in the office and have a great idea for. Sometimes it's based on inspiration for a sculpt. A lot of times it's based on whatever’s really popular among fans.”

If you’ve looked at the release schedule for the game, you might have noticed that diversity has led them to some slightly surprising places. “We’re going to do a shark man from space,” Shick grins. “It’s so cool.” He’s talking about Riff Tamson the Karkarodon, who’s included in the upcoming Terror from Below set. It’s also an opportunity for the team to introduce a new keyword to the game, 'Aquatic,' unlocking new possible builds. Shatterpoint is noteworthy for nudging players toward taking thematic teams by using these shared keywords to create powerful combos, and this is no exception.

“That’s a totally deliberate design,” Shick continues. “We found the best way to develop games is to bake in soft bonuses. Or little guideposts that say, hey, this character does something really cool, but if you take this character with another thematically paired character, they both do something even better. It doesn't force the player's hand. It’s just that if you play thematically, those bonuses might be more valuable than you taking a min-max approach.

Keywords are also a part of collectible card game Star Wars Unlimited. But as a system that needs a lot of new cards dropped with each new set, they’re used differently. There was already an existing “Force” keyword for Jedi and Sith, but for the newest set, Legends of the Force, the designers built on that by making the Force use a distinct mechanic. Some of the game’s starting bases allow you to gain a Force token which you can spend to unlock powerful abilities on particular cards, while others give you the chance to regain the token.

It’s a mechanically interesting system, although not necessarily that well tied-in with Star Wars lore, but the designers are open about wanting fun to come first. “We tried a lot of different iterations of this mechanic,” designer Joe O’Neill explained. “Some that required you to use your deck to draw cards that gained you the Force, but that often felt very inconsistent. One piece of gameplay that is always in play is your base. So using that allowed us to create this as an opt-in decision that didn't require any re-writing of rules, didn’t require you to draw specific cards, and then feel like you’re missing out by not drawing the right thing.”

Using the base also leans into what many collectible game players love most about their systems: deck-building. “If you're choosing to run a heavy Force deck that means you don't get access to energy conversion bases,” O’Neill continued. “So you have to choose between some of the strongest abilities in the game. You don't get to run everything and we think that choice is really meaningful and an interesting deck-building decision.” His co-designer John Leto finished up by pointing out that “there are other ways to gain the Force throughout the set which feel thematic. A lot of the bases we chose were places that were important to the Force, like the crystal caves.”

While collectible games like Star Wars Unlimited want to cram as much variety into new material as possible, less malleable formats often use expansions as a way to respond to player feedback from the original game. The Mandalorian, which some fans felt was too short in only offering four missions, is no exception. “The expansion adds four more, so it doubles the amount of maps,” says Beppler. “All the missions can be played on the new maps. It’s all interchangeable. You can take any of the new characters, team them up with base game characters, finding new synergies and combos. I think exploring old missions with these new abilities will give the game a lot of new life.”

He’s hopeful that other tweaks might win over some gamers who passed on the original. “The biggest example is probably the duel deck,” he offered. “It's such a cinematic way to experience a fight. And it really helps make the theme of these characters stand out.” He’s also included new options that substantially increase the challenge if you found the base game too easy. “We've added conditional ongoing events which sit in an action slot and give you a negative consequence until you clear it,” he continues. “We also created deadlier versions of some of the weaker events from the first game. It’s all optional – you can stay in novice mode, and you’re going to have a great time but you will miss some of the deep strategy that emerges from the gameplay.”

Similarly, some of the upcoming Shatterpoint material helps answer a common gripe that the scenarios aren’t varied enough. “We’ve just had a brand new key operation drop, they add a thematic campaign mode that you can play,” explained Ross Thompson, the director of marketing at Atomic Mass Games. “And we're getting ready to release new tournament kits, too, which will include promo cards, posters and that kind of stuff. Then we’ll have galactic legends coming later this year where you can play as one character that you really want to get into.”

Shick fills in with more detail on this new play mode. “One player will get to control a super-powered main character,” he explains. “So Darth Vader as we see him on screen, not balanced for the game. Then two other players take squads of primary or secondary and supporting characters. It's a really interesting narrative because one player gets to feel super powerful, while the other player gets that experience of being like, oh my gosh, I'm going against the big guy, how do we come out on top?”

Most ongoing miniatures games encounter the need to tweak and rebalance characters as the game goes on, and Shatterpoint is no exception. However, in the age of online material and army-building apps they’ve taken the unusual step of releasing updated cards and encouraging players to print out the updates. “Print and play offers the flexibility to make those changes and offer them to players widely, ensuring that they're free and not behind a paywall,” said Shick.

This feels like a remarkably forward-thinking attitude in a sector that’s dominated by power creep and “fear of missing out” marketing. “We're not too proud to admit the fact that, like game development, design is a craft,” says Shick. “Once a game goes out into the wild, players might do different things to what you anticipated. So we want to make sure that we’re honoring people’s collections, that we’re bringing that value and making the best game possible, both going forward and looking back. If a player picks up a starter box and gets massively appealing characters like Anakin and Ahsoka, they better feel good. We want to ensure they play just as well as they did when the game came out."

Talk like this is undeniably inspiring. It’s refreshing to talk to designers and feel like they’re truly invested in what they’re doing. It’s true of all the creatives on these games: their enthusiasm for their work and from Star Wars radiates off them as we speak. The Star Wars Unlimited team even collects their own product from booster packs. “We have an entire Teams channel at work just for trading within the studio,” O’Neil laughed. “People post their wants list and when the set comes out we all sit down and all crack our boxes, then set up trades.” And you know that a game design team is doing good work when they’re eagerly looking forward to finishing the day and going on to eat their own dog food.

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

With the first three episodes of Ironheart now available, fans are more certain than ever that Marvel will finally introduce a long-awaited character before the series is done.

After fan speculation that classic Marvel villain Mephisto might appear in previous magical MCU projects such as Wandavision and Agatha: All Along, his arrival in Ironheart now seems all but assured.

Ironheart's street-level villain The Hood, played by Hamilton's Anthony Ramos, is currently shown to be gathering supernatural powers from an unknown source, at the cost of his body slowly decaying. "It's the price I've got to pay for what he did to me," The Hood says at one point — which fans are taking as a clear nod to some kind of deal with the devil.

Making devilish deals is kind of Mephisto's thing, and if the show needed to spell it out even clearer, look no further than the scene towards the end of the show's second episode, where heroine Riri Williams stands in front of a wall covered in posters for Faust.

Faust, or Doctor Faustus, is a legendary German story of a man who makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for temporary pleasures, at the cost of ultimately becoming enslaved. The man interacts with the Devil via a character named Mephistopheles, or in some later adaptations, simply Mephisto.

As hints go, it's about as blatant as it gets — and it has not gone over the heads of MCU fans.

MEPHISTO is DEFINITELY being officially introduced to the MCU…. “Faust” is a German poem about a Doctor who makes a pact with the Devil 😈 #Ironheart #MCU #MarvelStudios pic.twitter.com/TvNTj1Bt5Z

— I Post What I Want 🪬 (@Sye_Lokata) June 25, 2025

Mephisto Confirmed in “Ironheart” 👀 That poster in the BTS shot? Way too revealing.
For those who don’t know:
In the story of Faust, the character makes a deal with Mephistopheles, a demon, to sell his soul in exchange for knowledge and power.#Faust #Mephisto #Ironheart pic.twitter.com/zKLaYTfkYs

— Gabi MG (@GabiMG_News) June 13, 2025

There have long been reports that Ironheart secretly stars Mephisto, with Deadline previously pegging Borat actor Sacha Baron Cohen as playing the character's MCU version, via a mix of live-action performance and CGI.

While not part of Ironheart's officially-announced cast, Deadline reported in late 2022 that Baron Cohen had filmed scenes for Ironheart in a secret role, believed to be that of Mephisto. To date, Disney has kept quiet about the actor's involvement — though recently left a cheeky hint within the series' episode guide that pointed to when fans should expect his arrival.

Earlier this week, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler linked Ironheart's story with that of Marvel's next mega blockbuster Avengers: Doomsday, even though the series was filmed before Robert Downey Jr.'s incarnation of Doctor Doom was publicly confirmed.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Death Stranding 2 has a dialogue option at the beginning of the game that fans are getting a kick out of, but while it looks like a scary choice at first, it’s just a harmless Easter egg.

Warning! Spoilers for Death Stranding 2 follow:

Death Stranding 2 kicks off with a Far Cry-esque option at the beginning of the game where Fragile (Léa Seydoux) recruits Sam (Norman Reedus) to Drawbridge, but you get the option to refuse. Death Stranding 2 then does a Groundhog Day thing where the game keeps showing the intro over and over, and you can keep selecting "I wont do it,” but eventually the game forces you to accept the offer.

This first major dialogue choice doesn’t stop you from progressing the story, nor does it do that thing some games do by rolling credits early. It’s a perfectly safe Easter egg that’s in keeping with the Hideo Kojima style, and a fun distraction before you get stuck into the game.

Check out the video below, where we show you exactly what happens when you refuse Fragile’s plea to join Drawbridge.

IGN’s Death Stranding 2 review returned a 9/10. We called it “a triumphant sequel that emphatically delivers on the promise of its original.”

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Bandai Namco went big on little things last night — specifically, Little Nightmares 3, confirming it'll release on October 10. And if that seems very far away, I have good news: anyone who pre-orders a digital version of Little Nightmares 3 will get to revisit the game that started it all with Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition as an early access title between now and launch day.

There's also an all-new season of the Little Nightmares themed podcast series on the way, The Sounds of Nightmares, and a comic book — Little Nightmares: Descent to Nowhere — also kicking off in October. Before then, however, a young adult book called Little Nightmares: The Lonely Ones is out in September. Phew. Got all that?

The comic book? Published by Titan Comics, Little Nightmares: Descent to Nowhere, follows two parallel stories. Hush, a timid mute girl wakes up in a jail cell. Desperate to escape, she befriends another prisoner, Mono, who understands this world far better than her, they will have to find a way out of a very dark Dungeon.

The novel Little Nightmares: The Lonely Ones, on the other hand, is written by E.C. Myers and published by Scholastic. It follows Ruse, a young child, who awakens in an unfamiliar, shaking room with two other kids she doesn't know — a small girl with a frayed rope dangling from her neck and a starved-looking boy wearing a tattered mask over his mouth and nose.

And there's another surprise: Bandai Namco also revealed a teaser for a stop motion project developed in collaboration with studio Taller del Chucho. We didn't get much more information, but Bandai says more information will be "unveiled" at a later date.

Little Nightmares 3 — the first Little Nightmares game from Supermassive — is scheduled to release on to PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X and S, and last-gen systems, including Nintendo Switch. All bar the Switch versions are available to pre-order now (the latter are coming at a "later date") — here's what you get in each edition of Little Nightmares 3 are available for pre-order:

All Little Nightmares 3 Editions

• Standard Edition — base game
• Digital Deluxe Edition, base game and the Secrets of The Spiral - Expansion Pass, and the Residents Costumes Pack
• Collector Mirror Edition, which adds to the Deluxe edition content, a figurine, a metal case, a physical artbook, the OST in digital and physical format, and some stickers
• Premium Collector Spiral Edition, exclusive to the Bandai Namco Store which, contains the Collector Mirror Edition figurine, enhanced with a music box base, a Nome controller/phone holder and a double-sided coin of Low and Alone.

Squid Game Season 3 is being billed as the series' big finale, featuring a final showdown between Player 456 and Front Man. But is this really the end of Netflix's biggest hit ever? Or could we see more from the Squid Game universe down the line?

Earlier this month, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk suggested that while Season 3 would be a conclusion for the story he initially envisioned, there was the potential for a spin-off focusing on the "three years gap between Season 1 and 2."

Now, Squid Game star Lee Byung-hun, who plays the masked master of the games, Front Man, has also suggested the show's third season may not be the last we see of the franchise.

"Director Hwang keeps saying it's a finale. But when I first read it [the script], I felt it could be a finale, but at the same time, it could be a new start," Byung-hun teased, as reported by The Gamer.

Is Byung-hun suggesting the games might continue, beyond the end of the series' story? Or that there's more story to tell for any surviving players? Fans have pointed to a teaser for the third season which appeared to show a version of the Squid Games being played elsewhere. Could the Squid Game played in South Korea be just one arm of a larger, international Squid Game enterprise — something ripe for a spin-off?

"It's my personal opinion," Byung-hun said, "but if the audience's love and support increase, we'll never know what happens."

For now, however, Squid Game creator Hwang has suggested he's keen to take a breather, after losing teeth due to the stress of making the show, and filming its second and third seasons back-to-back.

"It's the finale for the whole series. The whole show,” said Hwang. "It's time to say goodbye."

But will Netflix agree? Amid huge viewing figures, it's easy to see a world in which the streamer tries to make more from the Squid Games universe happen. Of course, much may rest on the reaction to Squid Game's third season, which finally debuts this week, on June 27, 2025.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Rapper Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, has seemingly rubber-stamped a report that indicated he is in talks to play Balrog in the upcoming Street Fighter movie.

Nexus Point News first reported that Jackson was in talks to play Balrog, and soon after 50 Cent took to social media to promote the story.

“No Days off, Let’s work all roads lead to Shreveport 💣Boom💨” 50 Cent posted.

Balrog is Street Fighter’s famous boxer character (he was called M. Bison in the original Japanese version, but was switched in the western version due to concerns over similarities to Mike Tyson). Balrog was one of the four non-playable bosses in Street Fighter 2 alongside Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison, but became playable with the release of Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition. He’s been a mainstay in Street Fighter ever since.

Things are certainly ramping up for the Street Fighter movie. This week we learned that Legendary Pictures had gone for Callina Liang to portray Chun-Li. She’ll be joined by other previously reported on co-stars, including Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Jason Momoa, Roman Reigns, and Orville Peck. Additional plot details and information on who exactly will be playing some of the other Street Fighter icons have yet to be announced. The movie itself is set for launch on March 20, 2026.

Hollywood’s pursuit of video game adaptations has seen enormous success, with the likes of A Minecraft Movie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. Legendary will be hoping this new Street Fighter movie carves out some box office success for itself after 1994’s live-action Street Fighter movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel Guile went down as one of the worst video game adaptations ever made.

Photo by Johnny Louis/WireImage.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Star Wars fans rejoice: Lucasfilm has relaunched its vast project to map the sci-fi saga's galaxy, and published a hugely-detailed map with more than 500 planets.

Ever wondered how far it is from Tatooine to Hoth? How hidden Yoda really was, poked away in his swamp on Dagobah? Or how far away from the galactic center Jakku really is? Now you can find out.

More of the galaxy's mysterious Unknown Regions have been mapped — and look, there's Exegol, the Sith planet from Rise of Skywalker that Rey had to hold an old dagger up to the horizon and infiltrate the old Death Star in order to find. If only she had this map, that film might have made more sense.

Exegol isn't the map's farthest planet, however, despite how difficult that film suggested the journey would be to get there (and despite half of the galaxy apparently then being able to turn up anyway). Notably, the Unknown Regions also contain Csilla, homeworld of the secretive blue-skinned Chiss race, whose most famous member is Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Not every Star Wars planet you may have heard of is shown. Key omissions from the map include "extragalactic" locations housed outside the main Star Wars galaxy, such as clone factory planet Kamino, and Peridea, the world visited in Ahsoka after the show moves to an entirely different galaxy altogether.

Lucasfilm has said it will keep the map updated over time with periodic revisions, and will also release more detailed regional maps for high-density areas, such as the Inner Rim, Colonies, Core and Deep Core.

Microsoft is reportedly planning significant layoffs in its gaming business that could come as early as next week.

Bloomberg said Microsoft plans “major” job cuts across the Xbox division. The Verge said managers at Microsoft had been briefed about the Xbox layoffs as well as wider cuts at the company, which are expected to hit sales teams in particular.

For the gaming business, The Verge said Microsoft plans to make the cuts ahead of the release of its next generation of consoles. Last week, Microsoft announced a partnership with AMD to power the next generation of Xbox, including its first-party future Xbox consoles. Microsoft has yet to say when it plans to launch the new devices.

The Verge also reported that Microsoft is restructuring its central Europe Xbox distribution, and that Xbox will cease operating in some regions.

Microsoft staff who wish to remain anonymous to protect their careers told IGN that employees are bracing themselves for layoffs, and that it feels like a matter of when, not if at the company.

And you can see why. Microsoft has made a huge number of cuts to its gaming business since acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. It laid off 1,900 staff in January 2024, then made further cuts just a few months later when it closed Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks. In September 2024, Microsoft cut a further 650 staff from its gaming business. And in May this year, Microsoft cut an eye-watering 6,000 staff, or 3% of its entire workforce.

Speaking to IGN in June 2024, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said: "I have to run a sustainable business inside the company and grow, and that means sometimes I have to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make."

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

With Superman’s release just around the corner, and a number of trailers and promotional images behind us, we have a decent idea of what to expect from the film and the many characters set to appear within it.

However, one character has remained shrouded in mystery ever since he popped up in the debut Superman trailer: Ultraman.

Writer and director James Gunn’s Ultraman is a very different take on the character made famous in the DC comics. In the comics, Ultraman is an evil, alternate-universe mirror of Superman himself. He looks a lot like Superman, just… evil.

Ultraman in James Gunn’s Superman doesn’t look like Superman at all. His suit, including his mask, has a more military fatigues feel, although the large U emblem on his chest as seen in trailers is unmistakable. But Ultraman’s power set looks consistent with Superman’s, at least based on what we’ve seen of the character in trailers.

Now, Gunn has released a new image of Ultraman that gives us a good look at the character up close. We can see the mask in plenty of detail, complete with dusty goggles. But who is underneath?

Ultraman. pic.twitter.com/KvdcMYL3XZ

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) June 24, 2025

Fans have already spent a great deal of time speculating about the true identity of this film’s Ultraman, with theories ranging from the plausible (a clone of David Corenswet’s Superman, the Hammer of Boravia in disguise, Martian Manhunter / J’onn J’onzz) to the outlandish (Henry Cavill!). Some are joking it’s Chris Pratt. IGN’s own comic book expert Jesse Schedeen has speculated that Ultraman is more akin to Nuclear Man from 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, or some versions of Bizarro from the comics.

So it's confirmed this is ultraman but who's playing him. pic.twitter.com/1TanQAGBJv

— sonci4536 (@AtikChafik) June 24, 2025

But this new image has sparked a fresh round of speculation, with some likening the character’s look to Doomsday, given the vague similarities between the two suits and goggles. Doomsday appeared in monstrous form in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but his first full appearance, on the cover of Superman: The Man of Steel #18 (December 1992), is more humanoid.

pic.twitter.com/e97jbFv9yG

— Daniel Guerra (@guerra_daniel) June 24, 2025

There’s a reason this Ultraman is covered from head to toe. The character’s true identity is meant to be a mystery as audiences head into theaters, so the eventual reveal will be quite the moment.

Gunn recently teased the origins of this Ultraman, although he kept things super detailed. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the DC Universe steward was asked whether Ultraman was Lex Luthor's attempt to create a "Superman kind of figure." He replied: "It's close. Yeah, I think that's close. Ultraman is sort of Lex's thug and is pretty powerful."

We’ll finally find out when Superman launches July 11.

In other Superman news, Gunn recently dismissed concerns that Superman could be confusing with so many superheroes and villains already established in its world, saying: “Oppenheimer has three times as many speaking roles as we do.”

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The Palworld x Terraria update has launched, bringing fishing, salvaging, bigger towns, a Pal trust mechanic and more in one of the biggest patches the game has seen since its early access release last year.

Update v0.6.0 adds the collaboration with Terraria, Re-Logic’s hugely popular sandbox game. It includes a unique dungeon featuring enemies from Terraria, and the ability to collect materials in the dungeon to create equipment from the world of the game. The Moon Lord, a boss from Terraria, is now a raid boss in Palworld.

But the Terraria content is just one part of the update itself. Not only are there PlayStation 5 dedicated servers, but a number of new features. These include fishing, a salvage system, three new types of islands, a Pal trust mechanic, and the level cap raising from 60 to 65. All that and more is detailed in the patch notes, below.

Palworld developer Pocketpair continues to release major updates to the game even as it battles Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s patent lawsuit. And the lawsuit has affected the game. Last month, Pocketpair admitted that recent patches made changes to the game that were forced upon it as a result of the ongoing litigation. As you’d perhaps expect, modders stepped in.

Palworld launched on Steam priced $30 and straight into Game Pass on Xbox and PC early 2024, breaking sales and concurrent player number records in the process. Pocketpair boss Takuro Mizobe has said Palworld's launch was so big that the developer couldn’t handle the massive profits the game generated. Still, Pocketpair acted swiftly to capitalize on Palworld’s breakout success, signing a deal with Sony to form a new business called Palworld Entertainment that’s tasked with expanding the IP. It later launched the game on PS5.

After Palworld’s huge launch, comparisons were made between Palworld’s Pals and Pokémon, with some accusing Pocketpair of "ripping off" Pokémon designs. But rather than file a copyright infringement lawsuit, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company went down the patent route. The companies want 5 million yen (approx $32,846) each plus late payment damages, as well as an injunction against Palworld that would block its release.

At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March, IGN sat down for an extended conversation with John “Bucky” Buckley, communications director and publishing manager for Palworld developer Pocketpair. We spoke following his talk at the conference, 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.' During that talk, Buckley went into candid detail about Palworld’s struggles, especially the accusation it used generative AI (which Pocketpair has since debunked) and stealing Pokemon’s models for its own Pals. He even commented on Nintendo’s patent infringement lawsuit against the studio, saying it “came as a shock” and was “something that no one even considered.”

Palworld: Tides of Terraria update 0.6.0 patch notes:

▼Terraria Collab!
・Terraria Dungeon
⤷ A unique dungeon featuring enemies from Terraria has been added! Collect materials in the dungeon to create equipment from the world of Terraria!

・Terraria Equipment
⤷ 6 new weapons and 7 new armour pieces from Terraria have been added!

・The terrifying "Moon Lord" raid boss has appeared!
⤷ The Moon Lord has invaded Palworld! Work together with your friends and Pals to defeat the greatest threat the islands have faced!

▼New Content
・PS5 Dedicated Servers!

・Fishing!
⤷ Craft a fishing rod and bait to catch new Pals! To start fishing, cast your rod in water where you can see fish shadows.

・Salvage System!
⤷ Ride on water Pals and use the fishing rod to salvage supplies at sea! Collect new ores salvaged from the ocean floor to strengthen your weapons.

・New Islands!
⤷ Three new types of islands have been added to the world: Tropical Islands, Iceberg Island, and Shipwreck Island! Find new Pals that live on each of these new islands!

・Mission System!
⤷ You can now find and accept missions around the Palpagos Islands. Help the islanders and get rewards!

・Zoe's Special Mission!
⤷ By completing missions for Zoe, you can earn her trust and recruit her as an ally!

・Pal Trust Mechanic!
⤷ The more time you spend with your Pal, the more trust you will gain, and stats will be increased. The weaker a Pal's original stats are, the greater the trust adjustment will be, so even weaker Pals will be able to shine!

・Sleep together with your Pals!
⤷ After a hard day of farming and battling bosses, you and your Pals can take a hard-earned rest together!

・Treasure Maps!
⤷ Use treasure maps to find the location of the hidden treasure and obtain valuable items!

・Enemy Bases?!
⤷ Enemy factions now build bases just like players! They are on high alert and will defend it with their lives, but if you manage to raid them successfully, you can obtain new blueprints for buildings related to that faction.

・Settlement Overhaul!
⤷ We've made the settlements larger and feel more lived-in! There are also many mission NPCs now to meet.

・Player level cap raised from 60 to 65!

・New Buildings!
⤷ Pal Surgery Table - By using various implants, you can overwrite your Pal’s passives! You can also change the gender of your Pals here!
⤷ Fishing Pond - Relax and catch some fish in the comfort of your base.
⤷ Hexolite Quartz Mine - Well, you knew we would add this one eventually!
⤷ Large Incubator - Hatch multiple eggs at the same time!
⤷ Palbox Control Device - A terminal that allows you to access your Pal Box from anywhere in the base. It makes Pal swapping during raid battles more efficient.

・ New Building Material - [Clean]
⤷ Decorate your base with futuristic floors and walls with this new building set!

・New Mechanic - Turbulence
⤷ Find unusual air turbulence around the world and use it to jump high into the sky!

・New Weapons!
⤷ Charge Rifle
⤷ Energy Shotgun
⤷ Overheat Rifle

⤷ Boost Gun
⤷ Pal Recovery Grenade
(These two are weapons for tamers who want to support their Pal!)

・New Item Types!
⤷ Whistles and Growth Acceleration Bell have been added!
⤷ New food recipes.

▼Arena
・A single-player challenge mode has been added!
⤷ Raise your rank by facing off against the fierce warriors of Palpagos Island! Get various rewards with the battle tickets you receive when you win!

・You can now set rules in the arena, such as banning certain pals.
・A public Pal Box has been added at the entrance to the arena that all players can use.
・An arena spectator function has been added in multiplayer!

▼Mechanic Adjustments
・Added equipment durability to the game settings.
・When a cooling Pal is assigned to the flea market, food spoilage rate is now reduced.
・Lyleen’s ability “Bountiful Protection” now recovers HP for all allies within range.

▼Balance Adjustments
・Some aggressive enemies have been made friendly.
・Pal skill cooldowns will tick down even if they are not summoned.
・The speed and stamina of Pals that can be mounted have been adjusted, and the speed of some Pals that were too slow has been improved.
・The lineup of bounty hunters has been expanded.
・With the implementation of the mission system, the rewards obtained from NPCs have been adjusted. To maintain fairness, conversation logs with all NPCs have been reset so that rewards can be received again.
・Pal Condensation is considered end-game content, so the strength of Axel, Marcus, and Victor on normal difficulty has been reduced to reduce its necessity.
・The power of some active skills, such as Pal Blast, has been increased.
・The probability of getting books that enhance Pal's work aptitude from attribute treasure chests has been increased.

▼Pals
・New Skins!!
The results of the 1st year anniversary popularity poll have been decided, and three new skins have been added to celebrate these results!
(※You must own the Pal to equip the skin)
⤷ Crown Chillet
⤷ Cyber Jetragon
⤷ Desert King Anubis

・Pals can now swim!
⤷ Swimming motions and animations have been added for Pals, and their speed in the water has been adjusted.

・New Water Skills
⤷ Geyser Gush
⤷ Aqua Surge
⤷ Torrential Blast
⤷ Hydro Slicer

・New Grass Skills
⤷ Crosswind
⤷ Reflect Leaf

・New Ice Skill
⤷ Freeze Wall

・New Unique Skills
⤷ Hydro Spin
⤷ Thalasonic Laser
⤷ High Breach
⤷ Lantern Sweep
⤷ Scorching Lantern Sweep
⤷ Smoke Jet
⤷ Trigger Happy
⤷ Chaotic Spray
⤷ Konoha Flip
⤷ Deep Breath
⤷ Dash Kick
⤷ Thunderslide

・New passive skills have been added!

▼UI
・Implemented "Easy Bulk Storage" feature! Conveniently store all materials in any chest around your base with the click of one button!
・Changed specifications to automatically select materials in bulk in the Pal Condensation UI.
・You can now set and quickly select your current Pal presets from the Pal Box UI.
・All neutral enemies now have green HP gauges, and only aggressive or hostile enemies have red HP gauges.

▼Multiplayer
・Fixed a bug where the option to display servers with matching versions was not working.

▼World
・Added more patterns to random dungeons.
・Fishing spots where fish shadows appear have been placed all around the world.
・Salvage spots have been placed out at sea.

▼Achievements
・Several new achievements have been added.

▼Bug fixes
・Fixed a bug where Jetragon would jump too high when jumping.
・Many many other minor issues have been fixed.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for Ironheart’s first three episodes! If you haven't already, be sure to check out IGN's Ironheart review.

Marvel’s Ironheart series puts the solo spotlight on Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, building on her debut in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The series also introduces several new villains to the MCU, not the least of which being Anthony Ramos’ ambitious supernatural gangster The Hood. But that’s not all. The series also introduces one of the most significant Iron Man villains of the 21st Century in Alden Ehrenreich’s Ezekiel “Zeke” Stane.

There’s just one catch. Zeke (or Joe, as he prefers to be called) isn’t much of a villain. He’s a surprisingly nice guy for being the son of Tony Stark’s original arch-nemesis, to the point where he’s a bit of a pushover. Will that change as the series progresses?

While we wait for the second half of the series to drop on Disney+, let’s take a look at Ezekiel Stane’s comic book roots and why Ironheart is going in such a different direction with the character.

Ezekiel Stane in the Iron Man Comics

Ezekiel Stane’s roots as a character go back to 1985’s Iron Man #200, which depicts the final battle between Iron Man in his upgraded Silver Centurion armor and Obadiah Stane’s Iron Monger. Their rivalry ends when Stane commits suicide rather than face imprisonment and public humiliation. However, that act would inspire a deep grudge in Obadiah’s son Ezekiel, a character who didn’t actually make his debut until 2008’s The Order #8.

Following his debut in The Order, Zeke quickly became one of the main antagonists of writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca’s Invincible Iron Man series. The series is all about Tony’s struggle to evolve as both a businessman and a superhero and confront the rapidly shifting landscape of the 21st Century, and Zeke plays right into that struggle. As Fraction told CBR, Zeke represents a new, more advanced, and more anarchic fusion of man and machine.

“Zeke is a post-national business man and kind of an open source ideological terrorist, he has absolutely no loyalty to any sort of law, creed, or credo,” Fraction said. “He doesn't want to beat Tony Stark, he wants to make him obsolete. Windows wants to be on every computer desktop in the world, but Linux and Stane want to destroy the desktop. He's the open source to Stark's closed source oppressiveness. He has no headquarters, no base, and no bank account. He's a true ghost in the machine; completely off the grid, flexible, and mobile.”

Starting today, Amazon is slashing the price of the coveted The Hobbit Deluxe Illustrated Edition to the lowest price I've seen this year. This hardcover book set normally retails for $195, but right now you can get it for $85.18, a savings of 56%. This beats the previous price low of $97.50 back in January.

56% Off The Hobbit Deluxe Illustrated Edition

Whether it was the anime, the video games, or the card game itself, Yu-Gi-Oh has been a pop culture staple for over 25 years.

Today, it remains one of the most popular and enduring trading card games on the planet, and whether you're chasing meta-defining staples or just looking to fill out your binder with something flashy, the high-value cards always demand attention.

2025 has taken a breather compared to last year’s chaos. Prices are down, panic-buying has cooled, and both duelists and collectors are feeling the benefits.

But make no mistake, there are still plenty of premium pulls hidden in Yu-Gi-Oh's 2025 releases. Between Supreme Darkness and Alliance Insight, we've seen the final wave of Quarter Century Secret Rares. And just this past week, Starlight Rares officially returned to the TCG, turning heads and inflating wishlists overnight.

So, since we're halfway through 2025, I've been busy taking stock of the most valuable cards you can still pull from Yu-Gi-Oh's 2025 boosters. It's time to d-d-d-duel!

10. Mulcharmy Purulia

The first three episodes of Ironheart are now streaming on Disney+. The remaining three episodes premiere Tuesday, July 1.

Across centuries and cultures, innumerable stories have followed the same basic structure: Answering the call of adventure, a character breaks out of their everyday existence, venturing into the unknown to face untold trials and great peril, triumphing over adversity and returning to where it all began a changed person. This so-called “hero's journey" has shaped much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and others have embarked on high-octane escapades where they must save the world while confronting a variety of identity crises. Ironheart, the MCU’s 14th live-action Disney + series, certainly begins with similar intentions. But the magical powers intruding on Riri “Ironheart” Williams’ (Dominique Thorne) six-episode scientific crusade fail to transform her in any meaningful way. By the finale, we're left with a disappointing hero who seemingly hasn’t learned any lessons.

Though Riri was previously introduced as the tech prodigy whose vibranium detector kicks off the plot of 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ironheart is her origin story. It starts well enough: A genius MIT student with dreams of being bigger than "Gates, Jobs, Pym, and Stark combined," she's continuing her efforts to create an advanced Iron Man-like armored suit – until she's sent packing for helping her peers cheat on their assignments and causing too much destruction in the school labs. With Thorne establishing her character’s confident, often arrogant, and quite selfish nature in quick order, Riri steals the prototype suit and flies home to Chicago, where the story proper begins.

That's a rich place to start any hero’s journey – and one that mimics Tony Stark's in Iron Man. It’s refreshing to see a female character act as reckless and self-determined as Tony, but there’s a key difference in how far that recklessness and self-determination can take them: the endless resources of a rich white man like Tony aren’t available to a poor black woman like Riri. Enter Parker Robbins, a.k.a. The Hood, played with cool charisma by Anthony Ramos. He offers Riri the first of Ironheart’s many Faustian bargains: She can get all the money she needs to complete her suit in exchange for joining his gang of criminal misfits.

As Parker’s pseudonym and band of merry accomplices imply, he's a Robin Hood figure – but unlike the British legend, The Hood's gang of hackers, knife throwers, pyromaniacs, and bare-knuckle fighters steal from the rich to give to themselves. Armed with a magical cape that gives him the ability to become invisible and bend bullets Matrix-style, Parker supplies one of Ironheart’s central tensions: An existential tug-of-war between magic and science that recalls WandaVision. This exploration of energy, human consciousness, and mysticism is aided by some fun new witches who teach Riri that she can’t defeat The Hood's dark powers with calculations and machines alone. So maybe she learns one lesson; sadly, she doesn't heed the witch's warning that magic comes with a cost.

By episode three, Riri is forced to reckon with the compromises she’s making in pursuit of genius when the jobs get increasingly violent and the cape's devilish influence emboldens Parker's darkest ambitions. Their heists, which include shutting down an underground transport system and breaking into a Fort Knox-like greenhouse facility, hark back to the gritty, quippy early ’00s capers of Gone in 60 Seconds and the first few Fast and Furious films. Unfortunately, the fight sequences where Riri suits up aren’t as flashy. They’re low-stakes, and don't have quite the ambition or scale of previous armored battles in the MCU.

Parker and his gang have each been marginalized by society in some way, but it’s hard to root for their revenge mission against that society – with what little backstory Ironheart gives them, we have no reason to sympathize with their selfishness. Are they really any better than the people they steal from? Series creator Chinaka Hodge's answer seems to be a cynical one that sees Riri not just turn to crime to solve her problems, but to trigger malevolence in others. Specifically, Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich), a self-effacing and fearful black-market inventor striving not to follow in the footsteps of his crooked dad. Initially, this has all the makings of an intriguing, subversive sins-of-the-father storyline with Ehrenreich perfectly selling Joe's earnest pursuits. Instead, it reverts to convention by having him turn to the dark side (Palpatine-esque lightning powers included) when Riri lands him in trouble and biological upgrades turn him into a weapon of mass destruction.

There are a lot of daddy issues flying around Ironheart, but Riri's are the only ones with a loving foundation. Through flashbacks, we see the drive-by shooting that killed her mechanic stepfather, Gary (LaRoyce Hawkins), as well as her best friend, Natalie (Lyric Ross). Like many MCU heroes, Riri finds poignant, grief-stricken motivation in her loved ones’ deaths. She wants to protect the people closest to her, but never in Ironheart do we really see her do so. She just uses the suit to commit crimes and fix problems of her own making.

To Ironheart's credit, it does offer a stirring relationship dynamic between Riri and Natalie. It just requires the resurrection of the latter in the form of Neuroautonomous Technical Assistant and Laboratory Intelligence Entity – N.A.T.A.L.I.E. for short. An artificial intelligence created by a glitch in Riri's brain-mapping-assisted suit programming, N.A.T.A.L.I.E. has all the same mannerisms, memories, and personality traits as her namesake. This causes initial friction as Riri contends with this personification of her dead best friend. It’s yet another Iron Man parallel: The transformation of Tony’s digital assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. into Vision is something everyone in the MCU accepts but few can explain; it’s only when Riri accepts the uncertainty of how N.A.T.A.L.I.E. came to be that they can emotionally connect (and Thorne and Ross can resume infusing that connection with humour and heart).

Alas, by the series' end, Riri is back to her selfish and reckless ways. In an anticlimactic final scene, she’s propositioned by "another magical asshole," and makes an infuriatingly bad decision, one that undoes her entire journey. It's a defeatist ending that makes a cynical argument: No matter what soul-wrenching odyssey they’ve been on, any hero, villain, or average Joe would make a deal with the devil to get what they truly desire.

Puzzling has become one of my favorite hobbies recently. There's just something way too relaxing about just letting your mind wander as you slowly try to put a cool picture together. I've also found it's way cheaper to buy puzzles than LEGO sets, so this is the direction my adult life has gone.

Because of my proclivity for puzzling, I'm always on the lookout for good deals on jigsaw puzzles. While I usually try to stick to the more trusted puzzle brands, sometimes there is just a really good deal on an awesome image I can't pass up. Amazon is having one such sale right now in the form of stacked coupons.

The puzzles in this sale are from Blueforest, which isn't a brand I'm familiar with. However, they seem to have some really cool options on sale right now. There is also a 10% off coupon you can clip on each individual puzzle as well as various tiers of additional discounts you can receive if you buy more than just one. Here are some of the coolest 1,000-piece options I could find where both of these coupons applied.

1,000 Piece Puzzles on Sale at Amazon

I did a little bit of digging into Blueforest storefront on Amazon and they seem like a reputable enough brand. Digging into the comments revealed that most customers were satisfied with the overall quality and design of the puzzles, which is mostly what you're looking for. So all-in-all, the puzzles that are in the sale seem safe enough to recommend.

The sale itself is where it starts to get a bit confusing. There are multiple coupons you'll need to select to take advantage of all of the savings. First there's a 10% off coupon on each of these products that you'll need to click to receive an additional 10% on just that item. After that you can get a 6% discount for buying three, a 7% discount for buying four, and an additional 10% discount for buying five Blueforest puzzles all at once.

To maximize your savings you'll need to make sure you've clipped both coupons before adding all of these products to your cart. You should only have to apply each coupon once for it to go into effect for all of them. This is overall a great deal you can take advantage of ahead of Prime Day.

General Tips for Buying 1,000-Piece Puzzles

Buying a 1,000-piece puzzle is a commitment. It's one that you can easily just put on a shelf and forget about, but actually starting and finishing it takes time. Unless you are a world champion puzzler, it's going to take you more than one day to put one together. If you're new to puzzling or are just looking for a few tips for buying a puzzle with 1,000 pieces or more, we've got you covered.

Make sure you have enough space

The first thing you should consider before buying a puzzle is whether or not you have a place to put it together. Given the amount of pieces, it can be hard to keep track of all of them at any given time. You'll need ample space to both sort through and organize pieces and be able to leave or store it and come back to it later. If you don't already have a table that is ideal for puzzling, there are quite a few puzzle boards and tables you can buy to remedy that. There are also jigsaw puzzle mats to roll up your puzzle and put it away without undoing all of your progress.

Make sure you actually like the image

Perhaps the more obvious tip for buying a large puzzle is to make sure you actually like the image you're putting together before you make a purchase. A lot of puzzles feature a ton of tiny intricate details to keep you interested as you put it together, but some feature large swaths of single colors that could get tedious to put together. If you're already investing a bunch of your time into finishing a 1,000-piece puzzle, pick something that you'll be happy to see finished.

Invest in some puzzle glue

While most people put together puzzles just for the enjoyment of it all, it can also be fun to display the finished product once you're done. This is especially true if the puzzle is depicting a work of art, rather than just a photograph. It is, after all, a cardboard poster that you've put together yourself. If you plan on displaying your puzzle after you finish, you'll want to get yourself some puzzle glue to ensure the finished product actually stays together when you frame it.

Techland is taking players back to Harran after 10 years with a surprise free content release for the original Dying Light that it’s calling the Retouched update.

Come June 26, 2025, the thousands of players who haven’t been able to let go of the 2015 zombie parkour hit will be treated to improvements that should improve the experience across the board. The Dying Light: Retouched update includes visual enhancements, a remastered soundtrack, and more for players across PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S. IGN has asked Techland about a potential Nintendo Switch version of the Retouched update.

It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the original Dying Light, but Techland wants to make one thing clear: Retouched is not a remaster. Franchise director Tymon Smektała said this update is more about improving the original experience without altering its system requirements.

“When I looked online the day after [the update was announced], my heart skipped a beat. Quite a few of you were expecting a full remaster of some sort,” Smektała explained in a new blog post. “So, let's set the record straight: the Retouched Update is about squeezing out even more from the Dying Light you already love. It’s not a complete overhaul or remaster.”

Some of the visual enhancements players can expect include improved textures, lighting, and shadows. You might notice a wooden fence has a bit more detail or that certain metal surfaces will reflect light more realistically, for example. Techland is especially proud of how some floors and cement walls look in Dying Light: Retouched, sharing images of stone paths that feature more depth than before.

In the audio department, original Dying Light composer Paweł Blaszczak returned to remaster the soundtrack. The entire soundtrack has been re-recorded on tape for Retouched, with new tracks, ambient sounds, and even hit reaction audio also remastered for this week’s update.

“A lot of you have been asking in the last few months about the Retouched Update — where it was, why it was taking so long,” the post continued. “The honest answer is this: we were working with 10+ year old technology. Even with all the new experience we've gained over the years, figuring out how to apply those learnings to the original Dying Light engine while keeping everything stable was a challenge.”

The Dying Light: Retouched update is less Techland reanimating a long-forgotten corpse and more of an example of that team delivering a surprise for a game that has somehow managed to stand the test of time. Despite SteamDB listing a player peak of only 45,876, the original Dying Light has hovered around the 12,000-player mark for the last year. Those are impressive numbers for a zombie game that mostly leans on its single-player offerings, and it’s even more impressive considering Dying Light 2: Stay Human, which launched just three years ago, usually struggles to break 10,000 players.

The original Dying Light story will continue with the launch of Dying Light: The Beast, which recently pinned down a release date of August 22, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. It follows original protagonist Kyle Crane in a new story, and you check out our preview of how it looks so far here. Finally, you can read up on our original Dying Light review, where we gave the parkour zombie video game an 8.5/10.

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).

In BitCraft Online, a new Sandbox MMORPG developed by Clockwork Labs, the world is shaped by adventurers, with a player-driven economy on a unified server, and in-depth systems for professions, crafting, and building. Each player can claim their very own plot of land, expand it into a Settlement, and even create empires with the help of others. Maxroll put together an extensive BitCraft Online guide to help you get started.

Maxroll's BitCraft Beginner's Guide

Maxroll’s BitCraft Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the game's essential systems and mechanics, from setting your first Home and earning Hex Coins, to working with fellow players to build thriving communities. The guide will teach you learn how to navigate early quests, choose and level up Professions, manage resources efficiently, and interact with core systems like Trading, Skills, Settlements, and Empires.

Maxroll's BitCraft Professions Guide

Professions are the backbone of progress in BitCraft Online, shaping your journey through gathering, crafting, and refining. Every activity—whether it’s mining ore, smithing armor, or brewing potions—is tied to a profession that defines your role in the game’s evolving world.

Maxroll’s Profession Guide offers a comprehensive overview of each profession, detailing the tools you need, the stations you'll use, and how your efforts contribute to unlocking recipes, gaining experience, and supporting other professions.

Check out these guides from Maxroll to dive deeper into the specifics of each profession:

• Smithing Guide
• Tailoring Guide
• Leatherworking Guide
• Farming Guide

Maxroll's BitCraft Currency and Travelers Guides

Hex Coins are the cornerstone of BitCraft’s player-driven economy. They're the main currency used for trading vital materials and progressing through the game’s various Professions. Especially in the early stages, managing your Hex Coin income efficiently can speed up your progression.

Maxroll’s How to Get Hex Coins Early in BitCraft Guide walks you through a reliable method to earn Hex Coins early by completing Traveler Tasks and crafting in-demand resources like Rough Planks and Rough Timber.

Plus, for a deeper dive into individual Traveler preferences and task rewards, check out Maxroll’s Travelers Guide.

Maxroll's BitCraft Compendium Guide

The Compendium in BitCraft Online is the ultimate tool for mastering the world around you: tracking resource nodes to highlight them on the map and organizing your knowledge of unlocked recipes. Helpfully, it also displays the materials required to craft the selected item and how it can be used.
Check out Maxroll's Compendium Guide for more information.

Written by IGN Staff with the help of the Maxroll BitCraft Team.

If you’ve had a Steam account long enough, your library is probably so stuffed to the gills with games you have barely touched or never even played that you’d do anything to find a way to start digging into that backlog. You might even ponder options some consider to be unnatural — like playing Steam games on your phone. Well, if the Steam Deck proved anything, it’s that plenty of people are happy to play Steam games on a compact, portable device, and your phone is just as up to the task. In fact, you’ve got a bunch of options for playing Steam games on your phone. We’ll dig into the simpler and more popular options, and give you a rundown of how to get playing.

Requirements

Steam Link: If you want to play games using Steam’s own service Steam Link, you’ll need a PC with Steam set up to serve as the host and a fast internet connection. Whatever games you want to play via Steam Link will need to be installed on the host PC, but you can install these before or after connecting to the host PC from your phone. You can use on-screen controls, but a controller will make the experience much better.

Nvidia GeForce Now: To use Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service, you don't need your own gaming PC, but you will still need a Steam account with supported Steam games since GeForce Now will tap into these. You’ll also need the GeForce Now app and an Nvidia account. On your phone, you’ll need at least a 15Mbps internet connection. Most modern Android phones are supported, but if you’re rocking an older device, you’ll need at least 1GB of available memory, Android 7.0 or later, and support for OpenGL ES2.0 or above. For iPhones, you’ll need iOS 15.4 or later. GeForce Now also has on-screen touch controls available, but a mobile controller is still recommended.

How to Play Steam Games on Your Phone with Steam Link

On your PC, open Steam and go to Settings > Remote Play and select Enable Remote Play. Stay at your computer and leave Steam open and running. With your phone on the same network, let the Steam Link app scan for your computer. If you have several computers, you may see multiple options, but it’s also possible you’ll only see one. Select your desired computer on your phone. A PIN will appear on your phone; type the PIN in on your computer.

After the above steps, the Steam Link app will perform a network test to confirm you have a reliable connection to the computer and dial in the stream quality. Once complete. You can select Start Playing from the app. This will launch Steam Big Picture mode and send the video feed to your phone. You can navigate normally with touch controls or a game controller, select games you want to play, and launch them. After the initial setup, you’ll be able to skip some of the steps to get playing and jump straight into selecting your PC to connect.

How to Play Steam Games on Your Phone with GeForce Now

GeForce Now is simple to set up and doesn’t require a PC. You’ll need to launch the GeForce Now app, and sign in to your Nvidia account. From there, you’ll have an opportunity to link your various game libraries with GeForce Now. To link your Steam account, tap the Menu icon and scroll down to find the Connections menu. Look for the Steam option and select Connect. This will open a separate browser window. Log into your Steam account. You’ll then be prompted to grant permission to “Sign into www.nvidia.com using your Steam account.” Accept this prompt. You may need to sync your Steam library, but the app will prompt you to do so if needed. From here, you can browse the games available in GeForce Now or view your library. Select any game you want to play, then press the green Play button. If you have a free membership, you may need to wait in a queue before you can play and have a limited session length, but a paid membership isn’t required to play.

More options available

This only scratches the surface of available options for accessing your Steam games from your phone. Steam Link may be the most direct, but there are other ways to gain remote access to your computer. GeForce Now is also not the only name in cloud gaming. Boosteroid and Shadow (see PCMag’s review) allow you to fire up a remote gaming rig, sign into your Steam account there, and then stream the games to your phone. Amazon’s Luna won’t let you access your Steam games, but it will let you access your GOG, Ubisoft, Epic Games, and EA libraries.

And with any luck, someone will figure out how to stably run SteamOS or Windows for ARM on recent smartphones to take advantage of the rapidly improving performance available at the high-end of the market.

Mark Knapp is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything electronics and gaming hardware. He has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry with bylines at PCMag, Reviewed, CNET, and more. Find Mark on Twitter @Techn0Mark or BlueSky at @Techn0Mark.

Sony has really delivered with the PlayStation family. It not only offers substantial gaming power, but it’s also home to some of the best exclusive games around. While it’s always a joy to tap into those games on a big screen TV or quality gaming monitor, there’s no denying the convenience of being able to play your favorite games when you’re on the go. Though there hasn’t been a true portable PlayStation in some years, your phone can actually serve as something of a stand-in, as long as you’ve got the console set up at home and a strong enough internet connection. Here’s what you’ll need and how to get started playing PlayStation games from your phone.

Requirements

Unfortunately, there’s no PlayStation cloud gaming option for your phone. You’ll need a PS4 or PS5 console set up, as it will run your games and stream them to your phone. You’ll need a PlayStation Network account on that console and at least a 5Mbps broadband internet connection for the console.

On your phone, you’ll need the PS Remote Play app (Android 9 or later / iPhone with iOS 14.5 or later). While touch controls are supported to some extent, it’s recommended you also have a Dualshock 4, DualSense, or DualSense Edge controller paired with the phone, though some phone controllers may work. (Here’s a quick guide on pairing the DualSense with various devices.) Your phone will also need a fast and stable internet connection.

You will also need compatible games installed on your PlayStation. VR games, games that require special accessories, or games that stream from PS Plus Premium will not work here.

How to Play PS5 Games on Your Phone

Before you can start playing, you’ll need to prepare your PlayStation console for game streaming. Power it on, and go to Settings > System > Remote Play and then Enable the feature for the desired users. If you’d like to be able to access your console even when it’s asleep, you’ll also want to go to Settings > System > Power Saving > Features Available in Rest Mode and select Stay Connected to the Internet and Enable Turning on PS5 from Network.

Next, ensure your PlayStation console and phone’s PS Remote Play app are signed into the same PSN account. Then, from the PS Remote Play app on your phone, select the PS5 option. The app will begin to automatically search for your console and establish a connection (if it fails to automatically connect, it may require a PIN, which you can find by going to Settings > System > Remote Play > Pair Device on your console). Once connected, you can continue on your phone. With a PlayStation controller connected, you can operate your PlayStation 5 normally, and your phone will simply serve as your display.

If you are trying to stream games from a PlayStation 4, the setup is quite similar. Enable Remote Play from Settings > Remote Play Connection Settings, then select your primary console in Settings > Account Management > Activate as Your Primary PS4. You’ll need to select the PS4 option in the PS Remote Play app and enter a PIN from your console to establish an initial link.

Mark Knapp is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything electronics and gaming hardware. He has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry with bylines at PCMag, Reviewed, CNET, and more. Find Mark on Twitter @Techn0Mark or BlueSky at @Techn0Mark.

There’s a whole world of games available for smartphones, and it can make sense to grab a powerful gaming phone to enjoy those in their best forms. But with fast internet connections making it possible to stream games as well, you don’t have to rely on the power of your smartphone and the still-limited pool of games made for it. Microsoft has made it simple to tap into many Xbox games on your phone, whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone. Here’s a rundown on what you’ll need and how to get set up.

Requirements

You’ll need to confirm Xbox Cloud Gaming is available in your region (it is in the U.S.). You will also need to have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription (sorry, the base Game Pass tier won’t do it). Notably, you don’t need to own an Xbox of any kind or any games to take advantage of this method, though it will also allow you to stream some owned games if you’re already an Xbox-haver.

While Xbox Cloud Gaming supports a wide array of devices, you will need slightly recent software. Android phones have to be on Android 12 or later and should use either Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome (version 85 or later) as a browser. iPhones need to be on iOS14.4 or later and will work with Safari 14.0 or later or Google Chrome (version 85 or later).

Since Xbox Cloud Gaming runs over the internet, you’ll also need a fast connection. Microsoft requires a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection running with at least 10Mbps of down-link speed, with 20Mbps recommended.

Some games will work with touchscreen controls on your phone, but Microsoft recommends a compatible controller as well — some of these phone controllers and PC controllers should do the job.

How to Play Xbox Games on Your Phone with Xbox Cloud Streaming

Funnily enough, this service doesn’t rely on an app. Instead, you just open your browser on your phone and go to https://www.xbox.com/en-US/play.

From there, you’ll need to sign into your Microsoft/Xbox account that is subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate. Optionally, connect your controller and then select the game you want to play.

That’s really all there is to it. The site will fire up the game you want to play on a remote server and stream its video feed to your phone and send your controls to the server.

How to Play Xbox Games on Your Phone with Xbox Remote Play

While Xbox Cloud Gaming relies on a Game Pass Ultimate subscription and remote servers to stream the games to your phone, you can also stream games to your phone from your own Xbox console.

This requires an Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One console with remote features enabled. To enable these, press your console controller’s Xbox button and go to Profile & system > Settings > Devices & connections > Remote features and enable them. Return to the Settings page, then go to General > Power options and select Sleep.

On your phone, open your browser and go to https://www.xbox.com/remoteplay. Sign into the same Microsoft/Xbox account that is signed in on your console. Connect your controller to your phone. Then choose your Xbox console from the options and select Remote play on this device. Your phone will then stream the feed from your console and let you operate normally.

Mark Knapp is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything electronics and gaming hardware. He has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry with bylines at PCMag, Reviewed, CNET, and more. Find Mark on Twitter @Techn0Mark or BlueSky at @Techn0Mark.

Anyone can make a B movie. Not everyone can make an enjoyable, let alone halfway decent B movie. Take The Jurassic Games: Extinction, for example. In this sequel to 2018's The Jurassic Games (but you definitely already knew that), director Ryan Bellgardt essentially rewrites Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race remake, swapping vehicular manslaughter for prehistoric carnage. Or think The Condemned, but instead of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin punching Vinnie Jones, he's zipping away from T. rexes on hover scooters. The script is bananas and skimps on exposition because that's not what you're watching The Jurassic Games for, but in terms of delivering what's promised by its title and trailer? Bellgardt earns points for pushing the concept of a dystopian reality show where death-row inmates participate in VR dino bloodsport as far as possible, taking it from Romanesque gladiatorial stages to Capture the Flag-versus-raptors and beyond.

Just don’t expect anything more than unintentional late-night-cable laughs. Nine times out of ten, title-first genre films like Clownado (Sharknado with clowns, but worse) or The VelociPastor (a cheapo “kick-ass pastor turns into velociraptor” dud) can’t deliver what’s on the label, but The Jurassic Games: Extinction is fearless by comparison. Bellgardt doesn’t cheat us out of dino time, and that earns his movie a valuable dose of goodwill.

Of course, Extinction’s dinosaurs aren't trying to outdo their counterparts in the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth. (Surely it’s a coincidence that this movie and its predecessor were released within days of new Jurassic World movies.) Don't expect anything practical – there's no Stan Winston magic here – but it's passable enough for an indie science-fiction thriller that animates entire alternate realities filled with Carnotauruses, Stegosauruses, and many other creatures of the Mesozoic Era. There's a video game touch to much of The Jurassic Games: Extinction that can't match the graphics of current PlayStation or Xbox processors, and yet I've seen far worse effects flipping past Syfy after midnight. When he’s not directing, Bellgardt is a VFX artist, and what he and the team he supervised for Extinction may have lacked in resources, they more than make up for in the volume of dinosaurs onscreen.

The Jurassic Games: Extinction is a direct continuation of The Jurassic Games, so you may want to plan a double feature if Extinction tickles your fancy. The hero and the villain carry over from the first movie: Tucker (Adam Hampton) is a Jurassic Games survivor turned cyber-mercenary bent on destroying the games – which are now under the control of his rival, Jo LaFort (Katie Burgess) – from within. They’re thrust into a tangle of wishy-washy storylines involving a rogue AI, the beta testers it “kidnaps” and forces to compete in The Jurassic Games, and LaFort’s maniacal quest to deliver another memorable broadcast in spite of these mishaps and Tucker’s sabotage.

It’s about how the pursuit of fame or virality can short-circuit anyone’s ethics and morals, but The Jurassic Games: Extinction doesn’t have anything prophetic or profound to say on the subject. Staging live executions for TV ratings is bad, and AI can’t be trusted – yup, I knew that long before I pressed “play.” Surprise guests are pulled into the games, but touches like holding Tucker’s son hostage to keep his dad in line hardly translate into an emotional tour de force. Meanwhile, Bellgardt recycles stock material about artificial intelligence turning against its creators and a future society that hungers for murdertainment. Everything else is a messy grab bag: a shoehorned-in character has tamed a pack of velociraptors and rides them like he’s Mario and they’re Yoshi; deaths and "shocking" reveals land with a thud.

But all of this is secondary to the human-on-dino (and dino-on-dino) action, and that’s another area where Bellgardt doesn't let a small budget bring him down. Powerups are introduced that allow players to transform into dinosaurs, and these virtual Animorphs moments are visualized with the help of an Iron Man-esque heads-up display. The battlegrounds include coliseum arenas, Endor-like forests, and geometric realms that call to mind a laser-guided-raptor-infested version of Tron. Bellgardt gets creative and chaotic with his superpowered games and, most of all, lets there be plenty of combat. It’s trash, but at least it’s trash where a hotshot swordsman parries and slices through pixelated raptors while trying to navigate an ’80s retro-futurist maze.

The seasonal Audible deal has returned. Starting now and running through July 31 (including Amazon Prime Day), you can sign up for three months of Audible Premium Plus for just $0.99 per month. Premium Plus is Audible's highest tier plan and normally costs $14.95/mo. As a additional subscription perk, you get a free audiobook of your choice for each of those three months and you get to keep them indefinitely.

Both new and currently expired Audible customers are eligible

Anyone who doesn't currently have an active Audible membership should be eligible. That includes new subscribers as well as existing members whose subscriptions have since expired. There's always a small your-mileage-may-vary disclaimer with these types of promotions, but fortunately it's easy to check if you qualify: log into your account, and if you see the $0.99/mo banner right on Amazon's Audible page then you're eligible for this promotion.

3 Months of Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 per Month

Nautilus’ two-episode premiere airs Sunday, June 29 on AMC at 10pm ET. New episodes air Sundays through August 17.

Some skepticism about AMC’s Nautilus is warranted. Has modern entertainment’s zeal for brand extensions and updating stories in the public domain reached the point where we’re making a TV series about how Captain Nemo came into possession of the fantastical submarine at the center of Jules Verne’s pioneering science-fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? No need for such exasperation, however, because Nautilus knows exactly the type of show it needs to be: visually extravagant, a little dumb, and a whole lot of fun.

It starts with a combination of quite thrilling sequences in which Nemo – played by Star Trek: Discovery’s Shazad Latif as an Indian prince exacting revenge against the East India Company for imprisoning him – assembles his crew. The first comes as we witness the sinking of an EIC ship, during which Company men Director Crawley (Damien Garvey) and Captain Youngblood (Jacob Collins-Levy) come into focus as the antagonists, and Nemo takes as hostages high-society woman Humility Lucas (Georgia Flood), her no-nonsense maid Loti (Céline Menville), and powder boy Blaster (Kayden Price). There’s the sense that this kidnapping is not a terrible interruption for Humility – journeying, as she was, to an arranged marriage with the rather pompous Lord Pitt (Cameron Cuffe). And to the show’s (and Flood’s) credit, she comes across as rather delightful and curious about her new, submersible quarters. It’s maybe too good of a job: While Nautilus doesn’t quite drag it out, its middle episodes do indulge with some will-she/won’t-she about Humility staying on permanently that feel like fake suspense. More successful are the sparks between her character and Nemo: Flood and Latif have great chemistry as they push and pull against each other, perfect for the kind of swashbuckler Nautilus is at heart.

The rest of the team is introduced in the premiere’s flashback jailbreak. Its members largely stand out as distinct personalities – a wannabe revolutionary, a Maori cook, a large and mysterious man who speaks an unknown language – but they're kept as archetypes for much of the season. It’s justified in Nemo’s own single-minded focus on revenge, and they’re never shunted to the side, but I still wish wish characters like all-around fighter Suyin (Ling Cooper Tang) or first mate Boniface (Pacharo Mzembe) got their own spotlight episodes – or at least had more chances earlier to establish more of who they are and what’s driving them.

Nautilus’ best self emerges in the front half of the season, when it cruises in a more episodic mode. This being Twenty Thousand Leagues there’s the giant squid fight, but there are also detours to remote islands or sketchy palaces, mixed with the occasional mechanical danger. Hints of this also present itself in guest spots from actors like Richard E. Grant, Anna Torv, and Shabana Azeez (based on how little she appears, you can tell this was shot before she broke out on The Pitt). It’s the kind of fun you’d find in Syfy shows like Warehouse 13 or Sanctuary, maybe even Xena: Warrior Princess. The writing isn’t always the best – sometimes corny, sometimes laying the themes on a bit thick – but the actors do good by it, and it’s directed and edited with aplomb. Visually, Nautilus often looks extravagant; the interiors of the ship itself are something to behold, and the VFX hold together slightly better than those aforementioned Syfy shows, give or take a couple instances of noticeably flimsy CGI.

It’s less interesting to follow Company business through the introduction of army Captain Millais (Luke Arnold), who holds some mysterious connection to Nemo. Some of his arc is compelling and complicated enough to garner our sympathy, but it’s given more screentime than it needs. It’s also hard to really care at all about Lord Pitt, who’s both fittingly annoying and slightly boring.

It’s this focus that leads to some stumbles in later episodes. The adventures of the week take less precedence, and the desire to tie up loose ends leads to things feeling somewhat rushed. Fortunately, even these lesser passages are floated along by some very freaky sea life and dastardly plotting, and Nautilus manages to right the ship by the end. It even manages to take a dive (albeit a shallow one) into the complexities of revolt, imperialism, and exploitation.

If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further. Dell has just dropped the price of its flagship Alienware Area-51 prebuilt gaming PC, equipped with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card to $4,899.99 with free shipping. This is a competitive price - especially for an Alienware computer - compared to the similar off-the-shelf prebuilts on Amazon. The RTX 5090 is undisputedly the most powerful graphics card on the market and is pretty much impossible to find for under $3,000 by itself.

Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Gaming PC for $4,899.99

Frontier Developments is walking back the use of generative AI in Jurassic World Evolution 3 following backlash from fans.

Jurassic World Evolution 3 finally sprouted legs when its official reveal trailer was published as part of Summer Game Fest 2025 earlier this month. Its existence marked the end of a four-year wait for a third game in the dinosaur strategy simulation franchise, but much of the excitement was quickly soured when fans discovered that Frontier had used controversial generative AI technology to create certain scientist portraits in-game.

Shortly after this realization, fans gathered to campaign against the use of AI in Jurassic World Evolution 3 in hopes that Frontier would reverse its decision in favor of content created by actual human beings. It’s a movement that seems to have achieved the desired results, as the team behind the Jurassic Park video game now replied to a popular Steam post to confirm that generative AI portraits will be removed.

“Thanks for your feedback on this topic,” the post says. “We have opted to remove the use of generative AI for scientist portraits within Jurassic World Evolution 3.”

Those who visit the Jurassic World Evolution 3 Steam page will now find that Steam’s AI Generated Content Disclosure can no longer be found above the list of its system requirements. It’s a move that’s already being celebrated by the Jurassic World Evolution 3 community as they look forward to seeing art that wasn’t created by artificial intelligence.

“Thank you. As a dev myself, this was wholly unnecessary from the start and such an own goal that I'm happy to see the pivot, and to be able to wish the team the best for a successful launch,” one Steam user said. “Been such a fan of JWE1+2 (and PC/PZ), so this change takes me from a never-buy to a buy-at-launch!”

Frontier W

Jurassic World Evolution 3 will not use any generative AI!

I repeat: Jurassic World Evolution 3 will NOT USE ANY GENERATIVE AI!

💯 pic.twitter.com/x3O0y9VJpP

— Evolution Square (@EvoSquareYT) June 24, 2025

Well, it looks like it's the perfect frontier game now. They removed the Generative AI from #jurassicworld evolution 3. pic.twitter.com/K0YCkQpias

— Herald Of Geese (Stealer of geese) (@GeeseHerald) June 24, 2025

Frontier confirmed in a statement to GameWatcher that Jurassic World Evolution 3 still has a release date of October 21, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. In the meantime, you can read up on how other companies, such as Epic Games, Microsoft, and Capcom, are using AI in their video games.

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).

If you're looking for an OLED gaming monitor with a 4K native resolution and a 40" or greater screen size, your options are limited. Fortunately, this rare deal just popped up today and might be right up your alley. Amazon Best Buy is currently offering the 42" LG Evo C4 4K OLED Smart TV for just $699.99 with free shipping. This is the best price I've seen for this particular size model. Although it's technically a TV, the 42" Evo C4 also doubles as an excellent gaming PC monitor.

Update: The price has gone back up on Amazon, but Best Buy is now offering the same deal.

42" LG Evo C4 4K OLED Gaming TV or PC Monitor for $699.99

Sony has given PlayStation VR2 (PSVR 2) owners some much-needed love by showing off four new VR games coming to fans within the next year.

The company detailed some of the PSVR 2 games players can look forward to in a PlayStation Blog post. The four titles are Dreams of Another, Grit and Valor – 1949, Hotel Infinity, and Meteora, with each offering a completely different virtual-reality experience from the last.

Dreams of Another

Topping the list of new PSVR 2 games is Q-Games’ latest entry in the PixelJunk series, Dreams of Another. This is one VR game that players already knew about, but its appearance today still comes with a new look at its mesmerizing gameplay and how virtual reality will allow players to thoroughly explore dreamlike worlds in both first- and third-person. It’s currently set to come to PC, PlayStation 5, and PSVR 2 later this year.

Grit and Valor – 1949

If you’re looking for something less serene and more action-y, then Milky Tea Studios’ Grit and Valor – 1949 might be for you. This is a real-time tactics rogue-lite from earlier this year that will soon allow PSVR 2 players to control alternate history battlefields in World War II. That means navigating through menus with the tips of your fingers and even picking up and placing units as if they’re real-life models when it launches August 21, 2025.

Hotel Infinity

Manifold Garden developer Studio Chyr is bringing its puzzle expertise to PSVR 2 with Hotel Infinity, a mind-bending experience that looks to twist player perspectives in more ways than one. Its gameplay trailer shows the slightly creepy hotel — and puzzles — VR fans can get lost in when it arrives later this year.

Meteora

Rounding out the list of Sony’s new PSVR 2 games is Meteora, a space racing game where players step into the rocky shoes of a flaming meteor in what is described as a “combat racing” game. This one is about rising to the top of leaderboards in what looks like a colorful and explosive experience, and it’s coming to PSVR 2 in 2026.

Sony unleashed the PSVR 2 as its VR peripheral sequel device in February 2023. Despite introducing a slew of new features and upgraded tech, reports signaled PSVR 2 suffered from an underwhelming launch. It was mostly doom and gloom for the headset until Sony eventually revealed that the PSVR 2 had actually managed to outperform the launch of the original PSVR, coming in at just below 600,000 units sold six weeks post-launch.

However, one year later, in March 2024, Bloomberg reported that Sony would be pausing PSVR 2 production in order to ensure its backlog of unsold units would be sold. Just last week, it was announced that action-rhythm mega-hit Beat Saber would be ending support for VR devices on PS4 and PS5 starting immediately. Although four games are now on the way, many have wondered if Sony still actually cares about PSVR 2 for quite some time.

Today’s announcements at least show that Sony has a bit more gas in the tank when it comes to PSVR 2. For more, you can check out our original PSVR 2 review, where we gave the device a 9/10.

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).

Games would be nothing without the incredible art that goes into the worlds, characters and icons you see on your screens, and every year the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), iam8bit, and fortyseven communications celebrate that fact with the Game Maker’s Sketchbook. It's a selection of some of the best work of the past year from the games you love.

“The artistic skill and creativity on display in this year’s Game Maker’s Sketchbook entries were truly inspiring,” said Meggan Scavio, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

“We’re deeply grateful to our jurors for their time and thoughtful evaluation of such an outstanding body of work. Congratulations to all of this year’s finalists! We’re honored to present their artwork both online and in person at this year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days.”

The images are selected by a jury panel made up of people from the worlds of game, animation, movies and fine art.

You can see a full list of the entries below, and you can purchase prints of your favorites until July 7 from the iam8bit store. All the proceeds from your purchases will go to the AIAS Foundation.

Character Art Category

• Concept Art
  • Game - Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  • Artist(s) - Per Gullarp (Principal Concept Artist)
  • Developer - MachineGames
  • Publisher - Bethesda Softworks
• Hero Design
  • Game - Marvel Rivals
  • Artist(s) - Dino, Yuzhen Zhang, Peilin Zhong
  • Developer - NetEase Games
  • Publisher - NetEase Games
• Michelle - Character Sheet
  • Game - Sorry We're Closed
  • Artist(s) - C. Bedford
  • Developer - à la mode games
  • Publisher - Akupara Games

Curiosities

• The Craftsman’s Heart puppet theatre set
  • Game - The Midnight Walk
  • Artist(s) - Klaus Lyngeled, Olov Redmalm, Victor Becker
  • Developer - MoonHood
  • Publisher - Fast Travel Games
• Merch
  • Game - Bang Bang Barrage
  • Artist(s) - zhudaoyu
  • Developer - Monkey Bread
  • Publisher - Spiral Up Games
• Personality Test Shareables
  • Game - Black Mirror: Thronglets
  • Artist(s) - Beverly Chen, Ena Kim, Hannah Nicklin
  • Developer - Night School Studio
  • Publisher - Netflix

Environment Art

• The Great Gold Dome
  • Game - Riven
  • Artist(s) - Jeremiah Castro, Lance VerMeer
  • Developer - Cyan Worlds, Inc.
  • Publisher - Cyan Worlds, Inc.
• Sailing
  • Game - IKUMA The Frozen Compass
  • Artist(s) - Matthias Oberprieler
  • Developer - Mooneye Studios
  • Publisher - Mooneye Studios
• Scene Concept Design
  • Game - Marvel Rivals
  • Artist(s) - Dino, Kaidi Lv, Xufeng Xie, Pengxian Wang
  • Developer - NetEase Games
  • Publisher - NetEase Games

Iconography

• Ability Icons
  • Game - Eighth Era
  • Artist(s) - Evgeny Kobylkin
  • Developer - Perfect Day Games
  • Publisher - Nice Gang
• Codex Icons
  • Game - Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina)
  • Artist(s) - Tara Miller, Laurent Gaumer
  • Developer - Unreliable Narrators
  • Publisher - Unreliable Narrators
• Gui Design
  • Game - Marvel Rivals
  • Artist(s) - Dino, Tian Zhang, Ciyin Weng, Jingji Xie
  • Developer - NetEase Games
  • Publisher - NetEase Games

Impact

• Maxine - PvP Arena Mode
  • Game - Eighth Era
  • Artist(s) - Emanuele Pavarotti
  • Developer - Perfect Day Games
  • Publisher - Nice Gang
• Key Art
  • Game - One Move Away
  • Artist(s) - Remi Gourrierec, Michel Donzé, Alex Flynn
  • Developer - Ramage Games
  • Publisher - Playstack
• “Dinner” Key Art
  • Game - Goodbye Universe
  • Artist(s) - Daniel Beaulieu
  • Developer - Nice Dream
  • Publisher - Skybound Games

Storyboard

• Reveal trailer storyboard
  • Game - The Midnight Walk
  • Artist(s) - Olov Redmalm
  • Developer - MoonHood
  • Publisher - Fast Travel Games
• Chapter 2 visual script storyboard
  • Game - The Midnight Walk
  • Artist(s) - Olov Redmalm
  • Developer - MoonHood
  • Publisher - Fast Travel Games
• THE HEX - Beatboards
  • Game - Warframe: 1999
  • Artist(s) - Production Company: THE LINE, Director: Venla Linna, Producer: Tom Kay, Beatboards: Julien Perron
  • Developer - Digital Extremes
  • Publisher - Digital Extremes

Rachel Weber is the Senior Editorial Director of Games at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, and French Bulldogs. Those extra wrinkles on her face are thanks to going time blind and staying up too late finishing every sidequest in RPGs like Fallout and Witcher 3.

A film adaptation of the classic British comic Rogue Trooper is on the way — and the first look images for the film have officially arrived, featuring What We Do in the Shadows stars Jemaine Clement and Matt Berry.

Rogue Trooper is written, directed, and produced by Duncan Jones, whose last movie, Mute, came out in 2018. Jones also directed the 2016 Warcraft movie, 2011's Source Code, and 2009's Moon.

The batch of images gives fans a nice glimpse into the world of the animated film, which used facial capture tech to bring some characters to life. Dunkirk star Aneurin Barnard debuts as the Rogue Trooper, while Clement and Berry can be seen as Mr. Brass and Mr. Bland, two battleground looters who will undoubtedly be a big dose of comic relief.

Fans also get to see a large war vehicle traveling across Nu Earth, the planet where the brutal war between the Norts and Southers, two different societies, takes place. The final first look image shows two Souther soldiers lost on the battlefield.

“We are so excited to share a first look of the film and show the amazing fidelity with which the team have used our actors on set performances to drive the animated characters,” producer Stuart Fenegan said in a statement. “That level of detail and nuance was a priority from day one.”

Director Duncan Jones’ comments were simple: “AHHHHHHHHHHHH! WE’RE ALMOST FINISHED! SEE YOU AT SDCC!!” The director will appear at the festival on July 25.

Rogue Trooper “tells the story of 19, a ‘Genetic Infantryman,’ who finds himself the sole-survivor of an invasion force. Desperate to track down the traitor who sold him and his comrades out, the super soldier is accompanied by three killed-in-action squad mates, whose personalities have been stored in his gun, helmet and backpack.”

Alongside Barnard, Clement, and Berry, the movie boasts an awesome ensemble cast that includes Hayley Atwell, Jack Lowden, Daryl McCormack, Reece Shearsmith, Diane Morgan, Alice Lowe, Asa Butterfield, and Sean Bean.

Despite getting closer to release with these first look images, the film has yet to set a release date.

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

Here's a rare chance to pick up an OLED TV at an absolutely bargain price. Starting today, Buydig has discounted the 55" Panasonic Z85 4K OLED Smart TV with Amazon Fire TV to just $699.99 with free delivery after you apply coupon code "HEAT". The price is reflected at the final step of checkout (before you actually place your order). This is the least expensive 55" OLED TV I've seen this year. Buydig is a reputable, established online retailer; I've personally placed several high-dollar orders from this vendor - both from their storefront and through their eBay seller page - without any problems.

55" Panasonic Z85 4K OLED Fire TV for $699.99

Pedro Pascal has admitted he’s well aware of some of the complaints around his casting as Reed Richards in upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but said Iron Man and Doctor Doom actor Robert Downey Jr. has provided reassurance.

The 50-year-old Pedro Pascal is set to make his MCU debut in July as one of the stars of The Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios and parent company Disney will be hoping it succeeds at a level this year's other MCU movies (Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*) have not, and so there is heightened scrutiny on what is expected to be one of the biggest movies of 2025.

In a Vanity Fair profile, Pascal revealed he is more aware of what he called “disgruntlement” around his casting as Mister Fantastic than any other role he has taken on. So, that’s more disgruntlement that he saw with his casting as Joel in HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation, Oberyn Martell in HBO’s Game of Thrones, and the title role in Star Wars show The Mandalorian.

“I’m getting an inkling of excitement because it seems to reflect what our common goal was, and what we want to share, which is all of our f***ing hearts on a platter within this genre,” he said. “You just never know if people are going to be disgusted by your heart or not.”

“I’m more aware of disgruntlement around my casting than anything I’ve ever done,” Pascal added. “‘He’s too old. He’s not right. He needs to shave.’”

Ever since Pascal was revealed as the actor behind Reed Richards, there has been a debate on whether he has the right look for the character. While some have complained about, yes, his version of Reed Richards wearing a moustache, others have said we’ve only seen a glimpse of Pascal as Mister Fantastic in action, and point out that there is of course much more to a performance than appearances.

Still, Pascal revealed he has an ally in Robert Downey Jr. The former Iron Man actor, now Doctor Doom actor, is set to star alongside Pascal in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday, although Pascal, predictably, wouldn’t say much of anything about the secretive film.

“He’s just so immediately generous and inviting that you feel like you can be afraid, you can be hungry, you can be ambivalent,” Pascal said of RDJ.

Marvel Studios already sounds confident in this version of The Fantastic Four, at least. Last week, Marvel was said to be already planning a sequel, despite the upcoming blockbuster still being more than a month from launch.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Bambu Lab is widely considered one of the better consumer 3D printer brands on the market. It offers a few different models that cater to a wide audience, from the fledgling first-timer testing out a new hobby to the seasoned professonal looking to produce en masse. Normally, you would have to order these printers from Bambu Lab directly, which is based in the UK and ships overseas to the United States. However, Best Buy just started carrying Bambu products this year. Even better, there's currently an Anniversary Sale going on right now at Bambu Lab, and the discounted pricing is showing up at Best Buy as well. Now is the time to pick up one of the best 3D printers at a reduced price, and with domestic shipping.

Bambu Lab 3D Printers on Sale at Best Buy

The Best Deal: Bambu P1S Combo for $699.99

Max (soon to be HBO Max again sometime this summer) is home to some incredibly high-quality films and shows, including House of the Dragon, Succession, The Penguin, The White Lotus, and The Last of Us, which just wrapped up season 2. You can read our spoiler-free The Last of Us season 2 review to see our thoughts.

If you've been hoping to start up an account to dig into that library, we're here to help. We're keeping track of the best price right now for Max subscriptions, along with any deals as they appear. This includes bundle deals like the Max, Hulu, and Disney+ bundle, which is one you absolutely don't want to miss out on. This mega bundle starts at just $16.99/month, which is an astonishing price to have three very popular streaming services right in the palm of your hand. You can learn more about that bundle deal and Max's subscription plans below.

How to Get the Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max Streaming Bundle

The Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle can be purchased on any of the three streaming services and starts at $16.99/month for the ad-supported tier or $29.99/month for ad-free access across all three platforms. If you're looking to cut down on streaming costs and currently own all three of these, this is an excellent bundle to invest in. It'll save you quite a bit compared to what you'd pay for the three of them separately per month – 43% on the ad-supported plan and 42% on the ad-free plan.

To learn more about how to get started with this bundle as a new or existing subscriber, head to our guide on how to get (or switch over to) the Disney+/Hulu/Max streaming bundle.

Students Get 50% off Max Basic With Ads

The Final Fantasy Universes Beyond crossover is already proving to be a massive hit. After breaking preorder records, the set is now flying off shelves and selling out everywhere, with collectors and Commander fans alike scrambling to pick up iconic characters in card form.

Whether you're opening boosters, sorting through prerelease pulls, or keeping tabs on the market for trade value, it's clear this set is drawing serious attention.

If you're curious which cards are in highest demand right now, either to cash in or just to see what the hype is all about, we've broken down the top 12 best-selling Final Fantasy cards based on data from trusted marketplace TCGPlayer.

We’ve simplified the list for clarity, grouping some variants, like Borderless and Surge Foils, with their base versions, while also noting the specific card number that’s proving most popular (i.e, Aerith Gainsborough - 519). Not every slot is a Mythic Rare either. This list includes a bit of variety to reflect what’s actually trending, while still focusing on the standout cards from the set. Let’s dive in.

12. Aerith Gainsborough - 519

Aerith Gainsborough is a deceptively powerful engine for life gain and +1/+1 counter strategies. With lifelink built in, she can start growing immediately,every time you gain life, Aerith picks up a +1/+1 counter.

And when she dies, she passes that strength on, putting X +1/+1 counters on each legendary creature you control, where X is the number of counters she had. In the right deck, that can be a game-ending swing.

The card’s popularity is reflected in its pricing. The standard print is just $1.83, while the foil version goes for $16.81. For collectors or premium deckbuilders, the borderless version is around $39, but the rare borderless surge foil sits at a much steeper $140+.

11. Starting Town - 289

Starting Town is an early-game powerhouse, especially in multicolor decks. If you can play it on turn one, two, or three, it enters untapped, giving you immediate access to mana without slowing your tempo. Beyond that, it taps for colorless, or you can pay 1 life to generate one mana of any color, making it a flexible piece in almost any deck.

That versatility comes at a price. The regular version is currently going for around $14, while the foil will set you back just under $17. Still, for decks that care about fast, reliable mana across multiple colors, it's proving to be well worth the cost.

10. Summon: Knights of Round - 359

Summon: Knights of the Round is one of the hottest cards from the Final Fantasy crossover right now, and it’s not hard to see why. For just five mana, you create three 2/2 white Knight creature tokens, instantly building a board.

But it gets even better with its [V] ability, Ultimate End, which gives all your other creatures +2/+2 until end of turn and puts an indestructible counter on each of them. Combined with the card’s own indestructible keyword, it turns even a modest board into a nearly unstoppable force.

The borderless version is currently going for $35.99, which marks a 25% drop in market price this month. The standard print is more budget-friendly at $21.88. Either way, it’s a powerful pickup for Knight, token, or white-based Commander decks, and one that’s likely to remain popular.

9. Traveling Chocobo - 210

The chase card of all chase cards, there are just 77 gold foil Traveling Chocobos out there, available. There are other versions, including Neon Ink versions going for well over $1000, but if you manage to find the gold foil, it is the one you’ll want to find when you’re cracking open Collector Boosters.

Considering how much the ink versions are already going for, I can't imagine how much the Gold Foil variant would actually be valued at, maybe you just win at money and never have to pay for Magic cards again, now that would be nice. But, that being said, one did recently sell for around $30K on eBay.

8. Summon: Bahamut - 1

I love a big ol’ dragon in my Magic collection, and Bahamut certainly fits that bill.

Not only does this Summon create a 9/9, but it can remove permanents, trigger card draw, and use Mega Flare to essentially finish a game of Commander.

All yours for around $93 in the borderless variant, or around $30 for the standard print right now at TCGPlayer.

7. Lightning, Army of One - 545

How many card variants do you NEED? Apparently, Final Fantasy 13’s protagonist, Lightning, needs at least five. To be fair, that makes sense considering how many spin off games she got.

Army of One is all about the Stagger mechanic, teeing your foes up for double damage while also offering lifelink, first strike, and trample in a three-cost card.

Market price is already up to around $256.50 for the most popular Borderless Surge Foil version, while my personal favorite is seemingly the cheapest (but still just as popular), normal print for $20.58.

6. Yuna, Hope of Spira - 549

Yuna's an interesting one, as it's just her 549 Borderless Surge Foil that have drawn the most interest from eager buyers in the secondary market.

Yet, her standard variant is also going through much more of geniune surge in value over the past couple of weeks, rising +143.65% in value, jumping from a low of $5.68 to around $20.15 most recently. It's a big jump in such a short space of time.

5. Tifa Lockhart - 536

Tifa Lockhart continues to be a main stay of the best selling Final Fantasy cards, and even featured as one of the most popular during the presale period just before the Universes Beyond set launched.

Tifa has a Landfall trigger that doubles her power alongside her existing Trample keyword. As TCGPlayer points out, you can grow her attack power with something like Titanic Growth and then use Fabled Passage to double it again.

She’ll set you back between $9.10 for the standard version, and all the way up to $187.60 for the Borderless Surge Foil variant. Otherwise, and quite surprisingly, the non-foil Borderless version is pretty good value for money at around $25.

4. Buster Sword - 255

What’s Cloud without the Buster Sword? Thankfully, this iconic weapon gets the treatment it deserves in Magic’s Final Fantasy set, with a stunning borderless version illustrated by Karuta Shiki. It’s more than just a collector’s piece too, it’s a powerful piece of equipment in its own right.

Buster Sword gives the equipped creature +3/+2, making it a serious threat in combat. But the real payoff comes when that creature connects with a player. Not only do you draw a card, but you can immediately cast a spell from your hand with mana value equal to or less than the damage dealt, without paying its cost.

Of course, a card this flashy doesn’t come cheap. While current listings on TCGPlayer hover around $66 for the standard issue, it has already sold for as much as $208.30 this month for its fantastic borderless version.

If you're a fan of Cloud or just love flashy, high-impact equipment, this is one to watch, and anything under triple digits is looking like a bargain right now.

3. Vivi Ornitier - 248

Final Fantasy 9 spellcaster Vivi Ornitier, by Toshiyuki Itahana (character designer on the game), might just be one of the best cards in the game right now. So, it's hardly surprising that it's standard card is up there as the third most popular in the set currently. Market price isn't too bad either (at least compared to the rest of this list), if you're looking to buy one standalone.

The Borderless version is also the absolute definition of a collector’s item if I've ever seen one, and proving to have plenty of interest as well. Both of these can also be considered a top 10 card for collectors, also demanding a rather mighty price at around $72.13 for the former, and $232.71 for the later in the market right now.

2. Cloud, Midgar Mercenary - 520

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is, unsurprisingly, by far one of the most popular cards from the Final Fantasy x MTG Universes Beyond set. Low mana cost and double equipment triggers make Cloud very close to Stoneforge Mystic, but with some striking new anime art from Kazto Furuya.

Not only is the Borderless Surge Foil variant one of the priciest cards from the new set (sitting at around $466 market), the Borderless, Extended Art, and Normal print all also fetch a pretty penny right now.

In terms of popularity, the Borderless Surge Foil is shoulders above the rest, but the Normal print is also exceedingly popular right now according to TCGPlayer, and still one of the top 20 cards players have been chasing since the new set released. Finding any of these, or deciding to buy them out right standalone, are good reasons to get excited.

1. Sephiroth, Fabled Soldier - 527

Sephiroth, Fabled Soldier - 0527 (Borderless) (Surge Foil) is the most popular card in the game right now, and has surged to a market price of $701.55 this week, up +74.09% just this month.

But it's not the only version that's proving popular either, with the 382 and 317 Borderless, alongside the 115 Normal print also proving to increasingly sought after right now, which is unsurprisingly reflected in the market prices right now as well.

Where to Buy Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy Cards

I'm going to give it to you straight right from the off. It's painfully hard to get hold of any of these sets from major retailers right now. While we saw some big restocks over the past month, pretty much everywhere is sold out of Final Fantasy MTG at the time of writing.

I can provide some handy links to bookmark so you can check back in, but for now, your best chance of securing anything will be via the most trusted third-party resellers like TCGPlayer.

Or perhaps, collectors will instead be most interested in the new Final Fantasy x Secret Lair drops, instead. It’s been a busy year for Wizards of the Coast’s limited-time mini-sets, and while the company sold out of all three Final Fantasy drops in record time (leaving many disappointed), you can still get them via third-party sellers... if you're willing to pay the inflated costs, that is.

There are a trio of Final Fantasy Secret Lair sets, Weapons, Grimoire, and Game Over, each offering unique art and names for Magic: The Gathering cards. Everything is available in standard and foil, alongside the Japanese variants as well.

But, since they've sold out, you won’t find Secret Lair drops at the same price as you’d find them directly from Wizards of the Coast (standard $30 nonfoil, $40 rainbow foil), with most being listed anywhere between $80-$150 or above.

This is a huge markup, so if you're looking to buy, be sure you're 100% informed of what you're paying for. You can buy them from eBay, but we’ve always found TCGPlayer, while still eBay-owned, to be the most secure and trustworthy way to nab Secret Lair drops post-release.

Lloyd Coombes is Gaming Editor @ Daily Star. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay. He's also a tech, gaming, and fitness freelancer seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, IGN, and more.

This article also includes contributions from Lloyd Coombes. Thanks to TCGPlayer for the data and information that informed this article.

We're still a few weeks away from Amazon's big four-day-long Prime Day sale event this year, but that doesn't mean there aren't still some great deals to check out at the retailer. For physical media collectors in particular, Marvel fans - we've found an excellent discount on Moon Knight's 4K steelbook that's worth picking up.

Moon Knight 4K Steelbook for $36

Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts could have featured Scott Pilgrim and Superbad star Michael Cera — until the actor turned down the opportunity to avoid getting "too famous."

As revealed by Cera himself in a new episode of Louis Theroux's podcast (thanks, Variety), Fantastic Beasts' casting directors were keen for him to play a major part in the franchise that would have given the star years of work.

Ultimately, however, Cera said the time commitment and the high-profile nature of the franchise gave him "fear" — though he didn't rule out joining another blockbuster series, such as Marvel, at some point in the future.

"I don't even know if I was offered, I think I just declined to engage with it because I think it would be like probably six years commitment or something," Cera said. "But also, I did sort of make a conscientious choice to limit my exposure a little bit, or just try and be a little more in control of it. And I felt like doing, especially little kids' movies, I had a big fear of doing things that I would get too famous."

It's interesting to consider who Cera might have played, had he been a part of the Fantastic Beasts series — and presumably a major part, if he was asked to potentially sign up for six years.

Could he have been in contention for its lead role of Newt Scamander, which ultimately went to Eddie Redmayne? The two actors share some similarities, with both actors known for playing introverted or awkward characters, though its hard to imagine an American landing the particularly British main role.

Potentially, Cera could have been considered for Scamander's down-to-earth American pal Jacob Kowalski, a more light-hearted role that would have fitted Cera's background in comedy. Alas, Cera did not go into further detail.

"I think I've outgrown that particular feeling, but I think that's what that was at that time," Cera continued, suggesting he would now consider a role in a big movie franchise. "If a franchise came along now and seemed interesting, I don't think on the grounds of it being a franchise I would storm out of the office or anything."

After a trilogy of movies, Fantastic Beasts now looks to have been paused for the forseeable future, while Warner Bros. turns its attention to remaking the original Harry Potter books as a big-budget HBO TV show. Numerous actors have now been cast, including John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore and Nick Frost as Hagrid, alongside the series' core trio of kids. No word yet on Cera joining that cast, either.

Image credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Hulu has been around for a while and, for our money, it's one of the absolute best streaming services available. From great movies like Anora and Predator: Killer of Killers to excellent television series like Shogun, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Bear (which returns with season four on June 25), there is always something awesome to watch. We've also got the highly-anticipated Alien: Earth series on our radar this year, which premieres its first two episodes on August 12 on Hulu at 8pm ET, and on FX and Disney+ at 8pm PT / ET.

Below, we've detailed all of the best Hulu deals and bundles so you can get started on your streaming adventures with its library right away. This includes the Hulu, Disney+, and Max streaming bundle, which starts at just $16.99/month and is currently the best value available for the streaming services following the Disney Plus and Hulu price hikes. To see even more streaming deals, make sure to check out our roundups of the best Disney Plus deals and the best Max deals.

How to Get The Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max Streaming Bundle

The Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle can be purchased on any of the three streaming services and starts at $16.99/month for the ad-supported tier or $29.99/month for ad-free access across all three platforms. If you're looking to cut down on streaming costs and currently own all three of these, this is an excellent bundle to invest in. It'll save you quite a bit compared to what you'd pay for the three of them separately per month - 43% on the ad-supported plan and 42% on the ad-free plan.

Hulu deal for students — Get Hulu (With Ads) for just $1.99/month

If you're a student enrolled in a university (a US Title IV accredited college or university, per Hulu's website), you can sign up for Hulu (With Ads) for $1.99 a month. That's an excellent deal if you're a student, saving you $8 on the usual monthly price.

Hulu subscription tiers

Hulu: Bundle to Best

If you want a more affordable option when it comes to a Hulu subscription, you can't go wrong with a bundle, and Hulu has several to choose from:

• Hulu + Live TV (With Ads) — Hulu + Live TV (With Ads) is $82.99/month and includes Disney+ and ESPN+. It also gives you access to more than 75 channels with live TV and unlimited DVR functionality. The Hulu + Live TV plan also has a three-day free trial to test out the service.
• Hulu + Live TV (Ad-Free) — The ad-free version of Hulu+Live TV is $95.99/month and comes with ad-free versions of Hulu and Disney Plus, although ESPN still shows ads.
• Disney+, Hulu Bundle Basic — This is the most economic bundle. It will set you back $10.99/month and comes with subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu. It lets you stream on multiple devices at once and comes with ad-supported versions of both Disney+ and Hulu.
• Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Basic — This bundle adds ESPN+ into the mix alongside Disney+ and Hulu, bumping up the price to $16.99/month. You can also download and watch select content on ESPN+ at this level.
• Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Premium — This bundle is $26.99/month and comes with ESPN+ (with ads) and ad-free versions of Disney+ and Hulu. You can also download select content across all three streaming services.

What can you watch on Hulu?

There is a bonkers amount of shows and movies you can watch on Hulu. Let's start at the top and simply talk about the verticals on offer with the base subscription, because if we also talk about what is available via Disney+, ESPN+, or live TV, we'll be here forever. (You can also sync up Hulu with Max to gain access to things like The Last of Us and House of the Dragon.)

Here's what you get:

• Network and Hulu Original television shows (AMC, Adult Swim, ABC, A&E, FX, etc.)
• Movies (HBO, Hulu Originals, anime films, etc.)
• Sports (NHL, Soccer, MLB, Auto Racing, NFL, College Football, PGA, Tennis, etc.)
• News (ABC News Live, Good Morning America, World News Tonight, 20/20, The View, etc.)

Hulu television

Hulu has some amazing shows, both those that are finished and many which are ongoing. For comedy, there are plenty of options to choose from, including New Girl, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, What We Do In The Shadows, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Broad City, Abbott Elementary, and so much more.

There are also some big Hulu originals to watch, including The Bear, The Old Man, The Handmaid's Tale, and Only Murders In The Building. With an FX partnership, Hulu is also home to those shows, including Shogun and the upcoming Alien: Earth series.

As far as animated fare, there are modern adult classics like Rick and Morty and Bob's Burgers, as well as Futurama, Family Guy, and King of the Hill. Anime staples like Cowboy Bebop are also available. And if you want to bring more youth-friendly fun, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Adventure Time, and Curious George are just a small sample of what Hulu has available.

The future of Hulu

Hulu isn't going anywhere. Beyond it being awarded the best streaming service by us, it also received a 9/10 in our updated Hulu review. Writer Rosie Knight said, "Hulu's ease of use, solid UI, and ever- expanding catalog has moved it ahead of top competitor Netflix to secure our highest score for a streaming service."

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

Original story from Brian Barnett.