The physical and digital shelves are looking McChockers today, and I’ve done the digging to find the stuff that’s genuinely worth your coin. From cult favourites to fresh spins on old classics, these deals deliver more than just savings. Being something of a gaming almanac myself, I’ve spent time with most of what I'm presenting (so you know you’re getting real picks, not just a price list).

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I’m lighting an 18-candle cake for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword with the fiery blast of a nuclear missile strike. This 2007 expansion supercharged Civ IV’s solid strategy base with fresh scenarios, deep espionage mechanics, and corporations that turned empire-building into a full-on business war.

I was blown away by how Beyond the Sword injected new life into the late game. While earlier Civ entries often slowed after the Renaissance, this expansion kept tension high with random events and colonisation options that demanded constant attention. The "Final Frontier" scenario was a clever nod to Alpha Centauri fans craving more sci-fi strategy. For many veterans, it was the perfect finishing touch on what some consider Mr Meier’s finest creation.

While a desk is important, I'd argue that a good office chair is the most essential part of any setup. This is the one item that makes or breaks the level of comfort you have while working or playing games at a desk, and if you don't choose wisely, it's easy to end up with back pain. As part of Wayfair's Back to School Sale, you can save up to $400 off select office chairs right now. If your chair is on its last legs, this is an excellent time to upgrade your workspace.

This Wayfair Sale only lasts through Sunday, July 20. We likely won't see deals this good again until Labor Day sales at the end of August, so this is a good chance to save on office furniture if you can't wait until then. And with new tariffs potentially arriving in the U.S. on August 1, these could very well be some of the lowest prices we see at Wayfair for the rest of 2025.

Save on Office Chairs at the Wayfair Back to School Sale

Prime Day has come and gone, and while there are still some stragglers from last week's huge sale, Barnes & Noble is currently the place to go for great deals on books and movies. Similar to Amazon's Criterion Collection Blu-ray sale, you can select from a wide catalogue of available movies to bundle and save. Everything included is 50% off, so if you love physical media and classic films this is the sale for you. There are also tons of books currently buy 1, get 1 50% off. You can get the entire Harry Potter saga in paperback, romance books, and even Where's Waldo (if you can find him).

Barnes & Noble Has Tons of Physical Media On Sale

Above is a TL;DR of everything available in this sale. Some of the promotions end this week, while others last into the beginning of August.

50% off the Criterion Collection movies

If you're looking for a laptop to take on the go, size and weight should be at the top of your priority list. A lightweight laptop is able to disappear into your bag and won't leave you with a sore shoulder at the end of the day. And unlike past years, opting for a thin and light design doesn't necessarily mean that you're trading-off on performance. These are the best lightweight laptops of 2025 so far I'd recommend you buy.

TL;DR - The Best Lightweight Laptops:

While it used to be true that opting for a lightweight laptop meant sacrificing performance and limiting the types of tasks you were able to accomplish, laptop hardware has advanced to the point where that just isn't the case anymore. It's still true that if you're working on high-intensity tasks like video editing or gaming, thicker designs can offer better ventilation and overall performance. But thanks to more advanced hardware and assistive technologies like frame generation and neural processing units (NPUs), lightweight laptops are better than ever before.

1. Apple MacBook Air (M4, 2025)

The Best Lightweight Laptop

The Apple MacBook Air might be a familiar pick for this category, but that's because it's so well-rounded and satisying that it soars to the top spot as the best choice for most people. The MacBook Air blends portability with performance and a minimalist sense of style to deliver an excellent all-around experience, whether you're getting work done or binging the latest season of Squid Game with your feet up.

Weighing in at only 2.7lbs, it's one of the lightest laptops in its class. But that doesn't mean it makes sacrifices on performance. While professionals will still want to turn to the MacBook Pro, the M4 processor in this notebook is more than up to the task for everything from productivity to creative apps like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro. While most of its competitors will have audible fan noise, especially when taking on such tasks, the MacBook Air remains blissfully quiet. It uses a completely fanless setup that leverages its metal body to silently dissipate heat. This design also means that there are no vents to break up its elegantly minimalist aesthetic.

I'm mainly a Windows user, but our own Jackie Thomas reviewed the MacBook Air and praised how Apple has refined its classic design. I did spend some time with the MacBook Air and have been tempted to switch ever since this version's release this year. Its blend of fantastic portability and impressive performance are simply hard to match with a Windows laptop.

Its other major selling point is its multi-day battery life. If you're taking on productivity apps, it can easily last upwards of 12 hours depending on your settings. For mixed use that includes video, it can extend well beyond that. If you're only using it for a few hours a day, a single charge has the potential to get you through almost an entire week of use.

Just... don't expect it to be particularly cheap if you venture above the introductory spec. Apple offers a base model with limited storage (256GB) and slightly pared back graphics (8-core instead of 10-core) for $1,000. If you store most of your files with cloud storage, it probably won't matter, but I'd personally go for the 512GB version (which also upgrades the processor) for $1,199 for peace of mind.

No matter which version you choose, the Apple MacBook Air continues a legacy of excellence in lightweight computing and is an even better fit if you already have an iPhone and live in that Apple ecosystem.

2. Acer Aspire 14 AI (2025)

The Best Budget Lightweight Laptop

When I reviewed the larger 16-inch version of this laptop, I was more than a little impressed by how thin and light Razer was able to make it for the level of gaming performance it offered. Now that I've spent time with the Blade 14, I'm happy to say that it continues that trend and offers plenty of power for modern, high-spec gaming and access to all of Nvidia's latest gaming features.

Weighing in at only 3.6lbs and measuring only 16mm thick, the Razer Blade 14 can be equipped with your choice of Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 or 5070 and an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU. Add in up to 64GB of incredibly fast 8,000MHz memory and up to a full 2TB of onboard storage, and you have a recipe for a portable gaming powerhouse.

I was also pleased to find that the Blade 14 features an equally impressive display. It's an OLED – sadly, not a touchscreen – with a crisp 3K (2880x1800) resolution. Simply put, it looks fantastic, and, like the Blade 16, is one of my absolute favorite laptop screens available right now. It also clocks all the way up to 120Hz for ultra-smooth, ultra-responsive gameplay.

This sleek little rig doesn't come cheap with a price that starts at $2,000 and extends to $2,600 fully kitted out. Innovation has a cost, however, and that was definitely necessary to offer this kind of performance in such a thin, light form factor. If you can brace yourself against the inevitable sticker shock, this killer compact packs serious portable gaming power. And it's a great MacBook alternative for gamers looking to play PC games on the go.

If you're looking for a laptop that can double as a tablet, the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 should be at the top of your list. It offers a potent blend of high-spec hardware and a great screen that make this the best Surface Pro yet. You'll need to pick up the Surface Pro Keyboard and Surface Pen separately, but as a full kit, it's a veritable transformer of a lightweight laptop.

I confess, for years I wasn't the biggest fan of Microsoft's Surface 2-in-1 laptops. Their hardware and displays just weren't the best and quickly became outdated. With the Surface Pro 11, however, it's the exact opposite.

With this release, Microsoft has outfitted the Surface Pro 11 with some truly impressive specs. It comes with your choice of Snapdragon X Plus or Snapdragon X Elite processors, up to 64GB of DDR5 memory, and a full terabyte of storage. Even at its lowest hardware configuration, you can count on a usage experience that's fast, responsive, and should remain so for years into the future.

You can also pick either an LCD or OLED display. If your budget can stretch to afford it, I highly recommend going for the OLED display, especially if you plan to use the Surface Pro 11 for entertainment. For movies and streaming games online, it's stunning with deep blacks, vibrant colors, and enjoyable HDR.

There are two important things to know about this generation of Surface Pro. First, the Snapdragon processors are built on a different architecture than either Intel or AMD currently offer with their laptop CPUs, called ARM. Because of this, program support isn't universal (although it is very good and supports the vast majority of popular programs most people will use for productivity, creativity, and entertainment). To be sure your specific apps are supported, I recommend checking out the Windows on ARM compatibility list before pulling the trigger on a purchase.

Second, as I remarked upon in my review, it just doesn't work well for local gaming. In fact, many of the games we use for benchmarking laptops wouldn't run at all. That doesn't mean you can't play games on it, however. Though it may not have the horsepower to run most games locally, it works well with streaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming.

For a versatile all-in-one solution, the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is a great option. It's easily Microsoft's best yet and, at only 1.97lbs, also so light you might even forget you're carrying it!

What should you pick if you need a lightweight laptop that does a little bit of everything? The Asus TUF Gaming A14. At 3.2lbs, this laptop blends excellent portability with impressive performance and quieter-than-average operation, even while running games. It's well-priced and well-equipped to take on all but the most intense tasks.

I reviewed the 2024 version of this laptop, and it's the same design with a couple of component changes worth highlighting. First, the A14 has received a graphics upgrade and now comes equipped with Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics instead of the 40-series. The processor has also been changed, swapping from the AMD Ryzen 9 HX 370 to the Ryzen 7 350. While this is a downgrade, it remains plenty powerful for most tasks you'll take on during the day and should allow the laptop to run cooler and even quieter than last generation's model.

Its RTX 5060 graphics card is enough to drive most games on its 1,600p IPS display at high settings. This is doubly true if you take advantage of performance-enhancing features like DLSS and frame generation, though isn't a requirement. If you do run into an issue where performance isn't where you'd like, stepping down to 1080p provides big gains while still looking great on its 14-inch display.

Whether you're typing a report, playing a game, or watching a movie, the TUF Gaming A14 offers an enjoyable experience. The speakers are surprisingly full and even though it doesn't have an OLED display, it still gets plenty bright. It also runs at a brisk 165Hz refresh rate for smooth motion during games.

The A14 does a little bit of everything and while, yes, there are laptops out there able to do productivity or gaming better, few do it as well as this single fantastic laptop.

Bose kicked off a Summer Sale that takes an extra 25% off its certified refurbished section when you apply coupon code "SUMMER25". One of the best deals currently running is on its flagship Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar, it's biggest and most impressive soundbar speaker with Dolby Atmos and Bose TrueSpace Technology. You can get it on sale for only $524.25 after coupon. That's over 47% less than the original $999 cost of buying it new, and you still get the same warranty.

Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar for $524.25 (was $999)

Certified Refurbished

Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit director Taika Waititi is reportedly attached to direct a new Judge Dredd movie.

Information on a Judge Dredd revival comes from THR, which says the Oscar winner will develop the film with the hopes that it could spawn additional movies and shows should it perform.

Plot details and a release date remain under wraps, but the project is said to pull more from comic book source material with a focus on world-building and dark humor rather than any of the previous movie adaptations have.

Dell is clearing out its inventory of prior year Alienware gaming laptops. This is your opportunity to pick up a sleek Alienware x16 gaming laptop equipped with an Intel Core i9 CPU and RTX 4080 GPU for only $1,999.99 after a hefty $1,200 off instant discount. The Alienware x-series gaming laptop is a thinner and lighter redesign of the traditional m-series laptop without compromising on gaming performance. It compares in build quality and portability to other high-end ultra-thin laptops like the Razer Blade.

Alienware x16 RTX 4080 Slim Gaming Laptop for $1999.99

Humble Bundle has a psycho deal for Borderlands fans. Until next Friday, July 25, you can grab every Borderlands game, as well as Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, for just $16. If you're unfamiliar with how Humble Bundle works, the more you pay, the more you get. So while $16 gets you all eight games, you can choose to pay less to get only some of the games on the list. Conversely, if you pay more than $16, not only do you get all of the games, but you also contribute to charity and video game publishers.

Borderlands x Wonderlands Collection at Humble Bundle

Of the many war-themed board games, Osprey Games’ Undaunted series is arguably one of the best in the current board game generation. These games' unique deck-building mechanics, mixed with historical theaters of war, including Normandy, Stalingrad, or North Africa, have helped grow its fanbase. And the release of last year’s Undaunted 2200: Calisto took the series from the fields of World War II and into space with a futuristic science fiction entry. Now, the team at Osprey has distilled the experience of the series into a solely deck-building experience with the release of Line of Fire: Burnt Moon. And they've done so with a surprising level of success.

Ditching the modular tiles or fold-out boards of the Undaunted games, Line of Fire gives two players a set of five identical location boards, each with an assigned point values. Once all five get randomly placed out for both players, each side deploys forces to the various spots in an effort to hold eight points' worth of locations, or destroy all of the oppositions land-capturing units, claiming victory.

Turns begin with both players drawing four cards, and secretly selecting one of those to offer up in a bid to gain that round’s initiative. Whoever offers the card with a higher value gets to play first. Both of those cards are then discarded and the first player takes their turn placing out their hands of cards, followed by the second player, and once they are finished, new hands are drawn and the the process starts over.

Set on Jupiter’s moon, Io, in the world of Undaunted 2200, Line of Fire has a science fiction motif. So, instead of troops on the ground, you deploy ROVs – Remote Operated Vehicles – into the warzones. ROVs are composed of four different varieties, divided into A and B forces. Each ROV type has special actions it can take. For example, the MOSS units allow you to capture locations, while the DaCU units can build fortifications that can only be activated by playing an identical unit card on a previously deployed card. Players also have access to a small selection on personnel cards which provide benefits including adding cards to your deck or disabling an opponents ROVs, further adding strategy elements to Line of Fire.

For players who are familiar with Osprey's Undaunted titles, many of Line of Fire’s mechanics will feel identical, from the initiative bidding to removing casualties. When a unit is destroy in Line of Fire, players first try to remove a copy of that card from their hand. If none are in their hand, they then search their discard, then their deck, then the reserve, and lastly remove the unit on the board that is being attacked. I personally love this approach, as I find searching for hold cards and seeing your supply slowly dwindling away to be far more of a tense experience than simply removing the card that was attacked. It's also through this method that if ever all of you or your opponent’s MOSS ROVs (the only unit type that can capture) are gone from the deployed regions, you lose.

Despite the box’s small footprint, Line of Fire provides a riveting strategic experience in a fairly short time frame. The matches I played rarely took even a half hour to complete, with games taking even less time the more experience both players have, as you can quickly play your three cards and be done.

The matches I played rarely took even a half hour to complete.

Even with both choices of cards being identical, there is still a good bit of strategy required in Line of Fire. Knowing what cards to add to your deck, where to deploy them, and when to retreat when a battlefield is lost are all key decisions you have to make. Being a deck-building game, there is still some aspect of luck involved, as the cards you have in hand dictate what actions you can take on your turn – but I never found that luck overpowered solid tactics and decision making. That said, I did find that some of Line’s design direction made it harder to get into than I feel it really needed to be, with much of that coming down to the card designs and naming.

Admittedly, I have not yet played Undaunted 2200: Callisto, so this may be less of an issue for some folks, but the naming of the ROVs threw my friends for a loop and never made sense. Terms like “infantry”, “tank”, and “sniper” I can grasp at a glance, but if you were to ask someone which of “MOSS”, “TIR”, “xED”, or “DaCU” was your heavy artillery unit, they would probably look at you and walk away.

Between the random names and various symbols that make almost as little sense as the names, it just makes the cards harder to decipher than they need to be, even with the handy reference cards that both players have. I get that Line is set in the future and leans into the science fiction element, but sometimes it’s just easier to say “my tank is attacking your plane”.

From a visual and component standpoint, Line of Fire is a striking game, with artwork and designs that evoke classic science fiction book covers with blocky-square robots. Both players also have unique artwork for their units, that are also clearly denoted by heavy use of either redish-pink colors or blues for their respective side. This extends even into the storage solution with each player’s cards, fortifications and location tiles all fitting snuggly into a color-coordinated box, that both then are carried in a magnetically sealed box roughly the size of a VHS tape. I’m a sucker for games with good storage solutions, and Line of Fire’s does it’s job splendidly, making it quick and easy to set up and break down, and small enough to fit in your bag to take with you.

“Rihanna is Smurfette” bellow the posters and trailers for the new Smurfs movie. As it turns out, what you see is what you get from Hollywood’s most recent attempt at transforming the diminutive blue forest-dwellers into big-screen stars: The “Umbrella” singer and Fenty mastermind does, indeed, voice the one and only female Smurf, following in the footsteps of fellow pop stars Katy Perry and Demi Lovato. She even sings on occasion – a combination of in-world musical numbers, new toe-tappers on the soundtrack, and one of her own club classics – making Smurfs the closest thing to a new Rihanna album since 2016. The rest is secondary, and assuming your local multiplex has air conditioning, Paramount Animation’s offer to keep your preschooler occupied for 90 minutes makes for an unobjectionable escape from the sweltering heat.

Despite a half-century history dating all the way back to their origins in the comics of Belgian writer and artist Peyo, The Smurfs have never really had a distinct identity – at least, not one that’s stuck in peoples’ minds the way current-day family-movie critters like the Minions have. If you have any notion of what or who the Smurfs are, it was probably formed by Hanna-Barbera’s long-running Saturday-morning cartoon: Names determined by a defining trait (Brainy Smurf, Hefty Smurf) or occupation (Baker Smurf, Doctor Smurf), a knack for infectious melodies, and a tendency to use the word “Smurf” as all manner of nouns, adjectives, and adverbs (“Smurf that!”). The new movie approaches this indistinctness head on, focusing its hybrid of animation and live-action on No Name Smurf (James Corden), whose quest to find his place in the Smurfs’ tiny village makes up the movie’s first act, and plays out with the broad delivery of kids’ TV (think Dora the Explorer).

But it isn’t long before Smurfs takes on an almost stream-of-consciousness bent. Without warning, it introduces a D&D-like fantasy lore about ancient magic, books of spells, and noble protectors, which the Smurfs get roped into when one of their own is kidnapped by an old adversary: the evil wizard Razamell, the brother of long-time Smurf nemesis Gargamel (both voiced by JP Karliak). In order to track down their missing brethren, the Smurfs begin teleporting from place to place – fantastical animated realms as well as real-world cities like Paris and Berlin – by way of portals opened up by gramophones and musical instruments. You’d think the talents of Rihanna and the many Indian artists on the soundtrack (and Corden’s attempts at belting) would come in handy here, but the rules are usually random, and can be circumvented with some good old fashioned spell-casting. You see, No Name is considering taking up the title of Magic Smurf, and the sudden appearance of these abilities turns Smurfs into a kind of superhero coming-of-age tale, as he tries to wield his powers responsibly.

At the same time, No Name and his fellow Smurfs learn about the secret history of their kindly leader, Papa Smurf (John Goodman), and his estranged brothers who live in the human world. These long lost uncles go by mundane monikers like Ken (Nick Offerman) and Ron (Kurt Russell), which calls into question everything we know about Smurf naming conventions (and, by extension, No Name’s whole arc). Of course, it’s a waste of time to poke logic holes in a movie meant for the daycare set – though this one also features plenty of jokes to keep adults entertained, between extended references to Zoom calls and, inexplicably, recurring gags about advanced mathematics. Interspersed with these are occasional Broadway-style numbers where Smurfette convinces No Name to believe in himself (albeit after expressing the same sentiment more succinctly in dialogue). None of the songs are particularly bad, though it’ll come as a relief to parents that their kids will be unlikely to recall them in the coming weeks.

Even at a scant 90 minutes, Smurfs overstays its welcome a tad, if only because it does little to maintain the attention of its youngest viewers the longer it goes on. It can be eye-popping at times; the 2D details like action lines rendered in a 3D world are delightful to look at. However, the story zigs and zags, and slows down before accelerating at breakneck speed, and swerves in too many directions for a 3-year-old to count. The dialogue can also be hard to catch. Voice actors on children’s shows over-enunciate for a reason, but this movie’s celebrity cast – a stunt that Hollywood really needs to kill, because screen and voice acting are different skillsets! – speaks with rapid-fire naturalism, as though mumbling their way through a guest appearance on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

There are enough colors and sparkles to keep kids occupied for a time, though it’s just as easy to see them getting restless (as was the case at my press screening) when Smurfs begins repeating itself and relying too heavily on laughs from the grown-ups in the room. No Name's saga is really a fable worthy of a single TV episode. However, with its numerous segues – each built from flashes of imaginative sparks, translated haphazardly to the screen – and upbeat soundtrack, you could do a whole lot worse for your kid.

If you're looking for a budget graphics card for 1080p gaming, the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti should be one of your top choices. Right now Amazon is offering the PNY GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB OC Graphics Card for only $429.99 with free delivery. This is the 16GB variant, which is the one you should be getting (avoid the 8GB). Prices on Nvidia GPUs have finally started trending downwards, and it's great to see entry level cards hitting the price that was originally intended.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU for $429.99

As much as I love a good "heavy" game, one that fills my tabletop with decks of cards, a sprawling board, and colorful assortment of components, I also appreciate a small games that I can bust out at a moment's notice, that I can teach in just a minute or two, and have a great time with. The newest game in my collection that fits that role spectacularly is Flip 7, a card game we've featured as one of the best cheap games you can buy. It was also nominated for the prestigious Spiel des Jahres, and won Board Game Geek’s Party Game of the Year during their Golden Geek Awards 2024. It’s very good.

Designed by Eric Olsen and published by the OP Games, Flip 7 at its core is a push-your-luck game where players race to be the first to reach 200 points by playing cards blindly from a deck of cards that range from 0 to 12. For all the numbered cards (except zero), each card has as many copies as its value – there's a single 1-value card, two 2s, etc. A player's turn immediately ends if they ever pull a duplicate value card, they choose to pass their turn and take the points they have earned in that round, or if they manage to flip seven value cards, which also earns the player bonus points. Rounds continue until one player has reached those 200 points.

Despite being a simple game, Flip 7 is visually striking with an Art Deco aesthetic and cards featuring bright colors and large numbers. Each number has its own color, with the modifier cards a bright honey-yellow that contrasts with the more tan-centric backgrounds of the number cards to avoid confusion. As a pleasant added touch, some of the frills and decorations on the cards connect seamlessly to one another, allowing you to create a lovely, rainbow-like collage of cards with each one you pull.

Flip 7 has such a low barrier of entry, really only requiring at least one of the players to be able to do simple math (even that you can mitigate somewhat thanks to the free tracking app), and with games only taking maybe 15 minutes, it makes it an easy recommendation for basically anyone. It’s a game that I could just as easily recommend for my friends I play heavy board games with, or my mom, who is more comfortable in the land of solitaire, and know that both audiences would have fun with it. The fact that this game scales up incredibly well, too, for parties is just an added cherry on top.

Where Flip 7 may be a bit of a turn off for some folks comes from the fact that this game is, at its core, a game of pure luck, with the only strategy coming from whether or not you'll risk drawing another card to try for more points. Ideally, I would have loved if there was a smidge of a hint of an element that lends itself to strategy in here. Flip 7 fills very much the same spot as, say, an UNO or Skip-Bo, simpler games that appeal to a far broader market – but in those games, players have more choices they can make, as opposed to Flip 7’s only real choices it provides players is to either to draw a card or not play.

Among my collection, I have a very elite selection of games, my Glove Box Collective. These are games I like to keep in my car’s glovebox so that I always have them on hand when I go places. These are games that I can bust out at a moment’s notice, when I have a few minutes to kill, when I’m meeting friends at a local brewery, or am simply visiting family. Flip 7, thanks largely to its quick-to-teach and easy-to-play nature, has earned its spot among this most prestigious collection of mine.

I do wish that there was a bit more player choice involved but the tense “should I or shouldn’t I” nature of the game has led to some great moments of celebration where taking that risk has resulted in me winning a game, and those of frustration where I blew through all of my extra chance safety cards back-to-back only to still lose. But such is life in games of luck.

Where to Buy

• Get it at Amazon
• Get it at Walmart

If you’re reading this, you already know the importance of good audio when it comes to gaming, but it’s tough to find out which is the best gaming headset for you among the sea of options. As is the case when you're looking for the best gaming mouse or best gaming keyboard, there are several factors to consider. When looking for the right headset, you'll want to account for your budget and seek out the best sound quality and comfort, as well as the kinds of features most important to you. The easiest way to find that personalized experience is to know exactly what you’re getting into and rely on those who have first-hand knowledge.

I’ve reviewed plenty of headphones and gaming headsets in my time, so I’m familiar with what makes them great, and I’ve put my expertise and ears-on experience to use here. Each pick was made with careful consideration for what each headset offers as a whole, but also for the aspects they excel in most based on their category. With that in mind, I’ve included options for the best budget headset like the HyperX Cloud III and the best high-end option in the Audeze Maxwell, for example. But more sophisticated features like virtual surround, active noise cancelation, or customizable EQ profiles can be defining for certain wireless headsets like the Razer Kraken V4, Alienware Pro, or Logitech G Pro X 2.

TL;DR: These Are the Best Gaming Headsets:

This guide is intended to be a comprehensive look at the best options based on specific categories in which certain headsets prioritize or do better than the competition. This doesn’t mean there aren’t amazing headsets outside of the ones I’m recommending, but these are all headsets I can vouch for based upon the first-hand testing done by me and my colleagues. These are also great options whether you play games on PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch 2, or any mix of consoles (just be sure to get the right model when picking something out). I will also be updating my picks as new ones come out and I test more of what’s out there, so be sure to check back periodically, or whenever you need some advice on choosing a new gaming headset.

This guide contains contributions by Danielle Abraham and Adam Matthew.

1. SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless

Best Gaming Headset

2. HyperX Cloud III

Best Budget Gaming Headset

3. Audeze Maxwell

Best High-End Gaming Headset

4. Turtle Beach Atlas Air

Best Wireless Gaming Headset

5. Turtle Beach Stealth 500

Best Budget Wireless Gaming Headset

6. Beyerdynamic MMX 300 Pro and MMX 330 Pro

Best Wired Gaming Headset

7. Sennheiser HD 620S

Best Audiophile Gaming Headset/Headphones

8. Razer Kraken V4

Best Surround Sound Gaming Headset

9. Logitech G Pro X 2

Best Esports Gaming Headset

10. Alienware Pro Headset

Best Noise-Cancelling Gaming Headset

11. SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds

Best Gaming Earbuds

How to Pick the Best Gaming Headset

First thing’s first: How much are you willing to spend? Next thing to ask yourself is, what are your biggest priorities when looking for a gaming headset? Is it overall sound quality, comfort, microphone clarity, durability, or something else? And if you want to go wireless, you have to consider battery life and what a headset’s software suite is capable of. You’ll likely want some mix of all those things, but while you don’t have to pick one particular feature or strength to seek out among a wide array of options, some headsets simply do certain things better than others.

For me, sound quality is the primary factor to look for regardless of price range (it’s rather a matter of managing expectations with more budget-friendly options). While the size of the drivers – the actual hardware in each earcup that produces sound – is an easy shorthand for determining a headset’s potential, it’s certainly not the be-all-end-all. How the headset is tuned, the material and physical construction of the drivers, and how it sounds in specific scenarios are things you can only learn about through reviews and first-hand accounts, if you can’t test it for yourself. Pay attention to what reviewers say about frequencies like bass/lows, mids, and highs and the ways they describe their experience. Sometimes bass drowns out other frequencies, mids might be distorted in hectic gameplay, or the highs are harsh at loud volumes – these are the types of things we say when describing audio shortcomings. Some folks like deep bass even if it’s overpowering, so some detractors may not matter as much to some, for example.

Positional or spatial audio is also crucial for competitive gamers. The best headsets are able to express the details and nuances of sound effects, not just produce clear frequencies. This helps you judge direction and distance of footsteps or gunshots in games like Counter-Strike 2 and Valorant, for example, and can also result in a more immersive experience in single-player games or even movies. Some of this can be simulated through software but things like Turtle Beach’s Superhuman Hearing tend to sound too artificial, so be wary.

Comfort is another thing that can be challenging to understand without trying on a headset first. However, you can pay attention to descriptors such as clamp force (how hard a headset latches onto one’s head), the density of the earpads, the type of material used to wrap the earpads, or how the headband rests above the user’s head. Materials like leatherette, sports mesh, and velour all have their pros and cons with the former being better for sound isolation but not as great as the latter for airflow and mitigating sweat around the ears.

When it comes to durability, many premium-level headsets use an aluminum frame, which may be heavier but can withstand much more contortion and mishandling. Some budget-friendly headsets opt for a flexible rubber-like plastic headband that offers a similar level of flexibility, so it doesn’t feel like you’re going to break the thing when putting it on or taking it off. Any gaming headset worth its salt shouldn’t have durability issues, but it is something to consider.

I typically find the built-in microphones on gaming headsets to be an afterthought, mainly because you can get much better sound quality from a standalone external microphone – that’s what I use most of the time. But that doesn’t mean I overlook microphone clarity altogether. It’s rare to find a headset outside of the premium price range with a great mic, but it’s something we as reviewers always test because it’s certainly nice to have. Something like the HyperX Cloud III was truly impressive for a mic on a $100 gaming headset, and the Beyerdynamic MMX 300 Pro is close to approaching mid-range standalone mics – and those who often use voice for communication or some sort of content creation can get a lot out of a good headset mic. Noise isolation is worth paying attention to, as well as how well it picks up your voice – software-side features like controlling the noise gate can also be useful. And don’t overlook the importance of sidetone, which is a rare feature that automatically feeds your voice back to you.

Wireless gaming headsets have evolved to the point where battery life is either a non-issue or manageable with good habits of charging them whenever you can. But for headsets you’re planning on using for multiple purposes (like ones with simultaneous Bluetooth connectivity for music on mobile devices, for example), total battery life can be a more important factor. Many should last in the 40-hour range from a full charge and higher-end ones can last upwards of 80 hours, although several variables feed into how long they last in actuality.

The last thing I’ll mention is customizability, at least through software. Every gaming peripheral manufacturer has its own software suite it wants you to download, and they tend to be all-encompassing apps for all its gaming gear. But good software lets you get granular with your headset, such as Turtle Beach’s Swarm app. You can fiddle with equalization, make your own EQ presets, use premade profiles, control certain aspects of your microphone, and so much more. While it’s not as important as the essentials like sound quality and comfort, a proper software suite can help you get the most out of your purchase.

Gaming Headset FAQ

How do you determine sound quality on a gaming headset?

There are ways to extract audio data from a headset to get a look at how they handle various frequencies, like artificial ear and audio analyzing software, but that alone won’t be able to tell you what the actual audio experience is like. Admittedly, it can be quite abstract to have someone describe what games, music, or movies sound like. Paying attention to descriptors like distortion, drowning, cleanliness, or balance when talking about frequencies are common ways to explain the sound quality of a device, and at some point you need to trust the reviewer’s trained ear.

There’s also the factor of driver size, the actual hardware that delivers the audio. Generally, bigger drivers means better potential for cleaner and bolder sound, but again, that alone isn’t going to determine whether or not a headset sounds good. Quality can also come down to spatial or positional audio which gives the impression of sound effects having distance and direction – it’s important for competitive settings but can make for more immersive experiences outside of trying to get an advantage over your opponents.

What makes gaming headsets different from headphones?

Gaming headsets tend to pack additional features that support the actual gaming experience, some of which may be gimmicky, but many that I would call essential. Not everyone wants to have a standalone microphone, for example, but the key feature that separates a headset from headphones, is a built-in microphone. While most headset mics are passable in terms of clarity that can suffice for in-game communication, some go the extra mile to provide better clarity or mitigate ambient noise spilling through.

Good gaming headsets are generally tuned to pick up on certain sound effects and have a more intimate sound profile since you’re an active participant in the experience rather than a passive observer (especially in competitive games). When it comes to wireless capabilities, most gaming headsets come with 2.4GHz USB dongles for the lowest latency possible – something that wireless headphones rarely include. As you’ll see in the next section, software suites for USB-based headsets (wireless or otherwise) have gotten sophisticated as well and sometimes offer a level of customization for specific gaming scenarios.

Should I go wired or wireless for a gaming headset?

Of course, it depends on your needs. I still gravitate towards wired headsets and headphones since I tend to prefer the sound profiles of a properly-tuned analog audio device (I also tend to forget about charging devices until it’s too late, but that’s a me-problem). However, battery life and latency of modern gaming headsets have come so far that you rarely, if ever, see them being issues on the latest releases. Good software suites and apps can also help you get more out of your headset by letting you customize EQ settings or swap sound profiles for certain games.

Wireless headsets are also sometimes capable of multi-device connectivity and simultaneous Bluetooth, which makes them versatile and opens them up to more use-cases (especially swapping to a mobile connection within seconds). Even though they tend to be more expensive, there’s a lot of upside to going with a wireless gaming headset, just be sure you know what you’ll be getting out of it.

Is virtual surround sound worth seeking out?

Virtual surround sound had been a bit of a gimmick when high-end headphones started simulating the experience of a 7.1 speaker setup. But I will admit that the technology has come a long way. It’s not always best suited for gaming, especially in the competitive scene – there’s some artificiality with virtual surround that can lead to misjudging audio cues. But damn does something like DTS Headphone:X or Dolby Atmos sound impressive when done right – especially in action games or movies.

Some virtual surround sound software requires you to purchase a license, and personally I find the overall applicability of them fairly niche, but that doesn’t take away from how they simulate theater-like qualities. Just because a headset is compatible with features like Dolby Atmos or DTS Headphone:X, it doesn’t mean you’ll get an equal virtual surround experience – the headset itself has to be equipped to express a level of nuance in its sound quality for it to work well.

Michael Higham is the tech reviews editor at IGN and has a passion for good audio, which often drives him nuts when picking out headsets, headphones, earbuds, and speakers. He graduated from downloading low bitrate music to seeking lossless versions of his favorite songs at an early age. Having grown up playing Counter-Strike 1.6, and now keeping up with the Valorant competitive scene, he finds positional audio to be just as important as sound quality. But he actually just wants the best and most immersive audio for all the RPGs he plays, especially the ones with banging soundtracks.

For a limited time, Amazon has brought back the best AirPods 4 deal that we saw during Prime Day. Right now you can pick up Apple AirPods 4 Earbuds with Active Noise Cancelation for just $119.99 with free shipping. Currently the AirPods Pro retails for $169, or $50 more. Both earbuds offer active noise cancelation and seamless synching with your iPhone, but they wear, feel, and sound very differently.

AirPods 4 Earbuds with Noise Canceling for $119.99

As glimpsed at the end of the new Mortal Kombat II trailer, Scorpion will confront Noob Saibot, aka Bi-Han, in the highly anticipated sequel. As Sub-Zero, Bi-Han (played by Joe Taslim) was slain by Scorpion/Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada) at the end of the 2021 movie reboot. But Mortal Kombat fans always knew they hadn’t really seen the last of Bi-Han, especially since Taslim had previously confirmed he’d signed a multi-picture deal to play the character.

Considering that Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage is the main protagonist of Mortal Kombat II, just how much will the Scorpion-Noob Saibot subplot figure into the sequel, especially since Hiroyuki Sanada has become an even more in-demand (and award-winning) actor since the first film thanks to the success of Shogun?

“Without giving any plot points away, they have a very strong history that was unresolved in the first movie that probably needs to be resolved at some point and may or may not be resolved in the second movie,” Mortal Kombat II producer Todd Garner recently told IGN. “But their storylines are instrumental in the plot of the movie, which overall, does involve a tournament.”

Director Simon McQuoid confirmed that Scorpion “plays a pivotal role in this movie,” but added during his interview with us that “it's really just about giving every character a strong reason to exist in the world and giving them a way that each of them can start in one place and end in another. So we did that with Scorpion as well. He does an amazing job, Hiro again, and there's some pretty wild stuff he does with Noob, and it's very satisfying. It's exciting to know that the fans have got them waiting for them this wonderful epic fight that plays out.”

Garner cautioned that Scorpion is in the movie as much as Hiroyuki Sanada’s busy schedule allowed: “We would love to have had him even way more than we had him [in the sequel], but he has a huge career. He's a legend, and so we understand the importance of his character and wanted to give him his due, but also understand that this is for the most part in this movie Johnny Cage's journey, and that therefore, then we had to use Scorpion in the smartest way we possibly could think of to have the most impact on the story, which we hopefully have done, and give him his due in the fighting and the actual turns and twists of the story.”

“Making movies involves physics, it involves real life, it involves actors, it involves schedules, and it's not like we can just pick and choose the schedules of people and get them as much as we would hope,” the producer added.

While Johnny Cage is the biggest of the games characters introduced in Mortal Kombat II, he’s not the only fan favorite making their debut in the rebooted movie franchise. Kitana is played by Adeline Rudolph in the sequel, while Tati Gabrielle plays her best friend and bodyguard Jade.

“Kitana is the ‘daughter’ in inverted quotes of Shao Kahn and Sindel. We tell that story,” McQuoid said of his movie’s incarnation. “So we play out her journey and from very early on to what that then means for our story we have.”

“Then we have Jade,” McQuoid continued, “and they're just bringing a new feeling and a new tonal ingredients to the story and to the atmosphere of what we're creating. And it just made it feel more exotic and beautiful and interesting and brutal. Not to say that our existing characters, I really wanted to respect them throughout it as well. So it's just about fitting it all in and calibrating and balancing up all their stories.”

Given that the first film teased Johnny Cage’s character would be in the sequel, should fans expect a post-credits scene in Mortal Kombat II that could set-up another iconic games character that could be in a third film?

“No, it's not that kind of movie. There is a coda, but again, what we're very aware of, and this really comes to a real theory of New Line and why they're so great, is they don't expect to make a sequel. We have to earn that right,” Garner said.

“So we don't assume that we're going to get another shot at this because who knows, right? If we've done our jobs like we hope we have given the, again, restraints of physics and budget and everything else, and the audience tells us they enjoyed it enough to support it and give us the opportunity to make the sequel, then we will. But we're not going to give you some post-sequence to be like, ‘Oh, this is going to happen in the sequel.’

Because hopefully, look, I will say in the same way that the first movie said, ‘Hey, we got to go find Johnny Cage,’ there is that idea at the end of this movie that this could continue. It's not like we're peeling off all the characters and saying, ‘Okay, we're done.’ Obviously we could do more and we obviously have plans to do more and know what we would want to do if we're given the opportunity to do more, and so if we're given that opportunity, then we will, but we don't want to assume that we can.”

Read our exclusive Mortal Kombat II cover story for more revelations from the filmmakers and star Karl Urban.

Mortal Kombat II opens in theaters October 24, 2025.

70 years ago today, Walt Disney woke up in his now-iconic apartment above Main Street, U.S.A.'s Town Square Fire Station and, after accidentally locking himself in his bedroom, he welcomed the world into Disneyland. Just a few days ago, I had the immense honor of sitting in that exact same apartment to exclusively speak with Disneyland President Thomas Mazloum for his first national interview about the past, present, and great big beautiful DisneylandForward of the only Disney park Walt ever stepped foot in.

While Mazloum first joined the company in 1998 as a hotel director for Disney Cruise Line and was most recently the president of Disney Signature Experiences, he's only been at the helm of Disneyland for the past few months. Still, he more than understands the weight of guiding over 36,000 employees, two theme parks, hotels, Downtown Disney, and the ambitious DisneylandForward development plan, and he couldn't stop smiling as he told me, "when you lead Disneyland, it's not a job. It's a real privilege."

"Just think about that, right? 36,000 people come to work here every day," Mazloum continued. "Beyond that, think of the impact that it has on Orange County and Southern California. We recently did another study with Tourism Economics, which found that we directly and indirectly support more than 102,000 jobs in the region and annually generate $16.1 billion in economic impact in Southern California. So, Disneyland has changed so many things economically, and it has changed the way people look at family entertainment."

To All Who Come to This Happy Place: Welcome

And just think, it was all started by a mouse. I obviously had to throw that line in there, but the truth of the matter is it all began back on a park bench in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, where Walt Disney was sitting one day and had a very important dream that would change everything.

"It came about when my daughters were very young, and Saturday was always Daddy’s day,” Walt said, as presented in The Official Walt Disney Quote Book. “I took them to different places and as I’d sit while they rode the Merry-Go-Round and did all these things – sit on a bench, you know, eating peanuts – I felt that there should be something built where the parents and the children could have fun together. So that’s how Disneyland started.”

We’re now used to outlandish popcorn buckets for Hollywood movies. Who can forget the Deadpool & Wolverine popcorn bucket from last year, which let people eat out of Wolverine's head? Speaking of popcorn bucket heads, The Fantastic Four: First Steps’s Galactus head is a gargantuan $80.

Now it’s time for video games to get in on the act. Upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive Ghost of Yotei is getting its own official popcorn bucket as the video game crosses the divide into blockbuster movie territory.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is working with Sony to showcase five classic samurai films inspired by Ghost of Yotei on the big screen in a programming series called Way of the Samurai, and as part of that it will launch a custom Ghost of Yotei-themed menu featuring appetizers, desserts, and cocktails “crafted to complement the mood and mythology of the films.”

But the big draw is the exclusive, 100-ounce Ghost of Yotei popcorn bucket modeled after a traditional Japanese rice bucket. The popcorn bucket launches today, July 17, at AlamoMart.com and will be available in theaters from August 2 to September 4.

The special Ghost of Yotei menu will be available at Alamo locations nationwide during the Way of the Samurai screenings.

The movies are:

• LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973, dir. Toshiya Fujita) – A blood-soaked tale of revenge that
• influenced KILL BILL and countless others.
• LONE WOLF AND CUB: SWORD OF VENGEANCE (1972, dir. Kenji Misumi) – A
• brutal, beautiful saga of a disgraced samurai and his infant son on a path of vengeance.
• THE TALE OF ZATOICHI (1962, dir. Kenji Misumi) – The first installment of the
• legendary blind swordsman series.
• 13 ASSASSINS (2011, dir. Takashi Miike) – A modern epic of strategy and sacrifice that
• redefined large-scale action.
• RAN (1985, dir. Akira Kurosawa) – The master's sweeping tragedy of power, madness,
• and betrayal.

As for Ghost of Yotei, Sony recently revealed more information on the game during a dedicated State of Play. Ghost of Yotei launches October 2, 2025 on PS5.

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

Eyes up, Zelda fans, because The Legend of Zelda movie has its stars. Shigeru Miyamoto officially announced that Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth will be taking up the iconic roles of Princess Zelda and Link respectively in director Wes Ball’s live-action Legend of Zelda film, currently set for release on May 7, 2027. It’s the first major update we’ve received on the film in quite a while, and the news plus the images provided by the studio of the pair are sure to stir up plenty of excitement from fans.

That said, the casting of young and relatively unknown performers in such iconic parts has raised some eyebrows. Still, it might actually be the best possible sign for the movie’s prospects.

Let’s take a look at why going this route is exactly what the Zelda movie needed.

Character Over Celebrity

Although both Bragason and Ainsworth are not making their debut here (Netflix viewers may recognize them from Renegade Nell and The Haunting of Bly Manor respectively), neither of them would at this point be classified as household names. This is a sharp contrast to Nintendo’s last theatrical franchise offering, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which filled its animated voice cast with known quantities like Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jack Black. Going for big names worked perfectly well for that entry, to the tune of over $1.3 billion at the box office, but Zelda needs a different touch, especially because this film will be live-action and not animated. Although IGN’s Logan Plant previously made the case that the Zelda film should have been animated, Nintendo obviously felt differently.

There's no shortage of variety in today’s deals. You’ve got Berserk’s original 1997 anime series on Blu-ray for under $36, which is about as cheap as it gets for a proper high-def release of that run. All 25 episodes, English dub and subs included. If you’ve been meaning to revisit it or watch for the first time, now’s not a bad moment.

TL;DR: Deals For Today

Beyond that there’s some surprisingly hefty discounts on proper desk gear. Anker Nano charging station is down to $35.99, which is decent considering it handles up to seven devices at once. And if you’re chasing a gaming monitor upgrade, LG’s 39-inch UltraGear OLED is sitting $550 off. 240Hz, G-Sync support, webOS built in. Let's get into it:

Destined Rivals Elite Trainer Box

Where To Buy Japanese Pokémon Cards

Japanese Pokémon TCG booster boxes have far better odds at pulling chase cards, have far less bulk and are often half the price of English booster boxes. This also mean said chase cards are worth significantly less, but Japanese cards are far easier to get perfect grades in given they're always busting out of booster packs in perfect condition. Want a Pokémon card collection on a budget? Go for Japanese cards.

Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution Preorders

This is it, the beggining of a new expansion for Pokémon TCG. Best Buy have gone live with their preorder allocation for Mega Evolutions today, which mean Target and Walmart won't be far behind. Here's all the links you need and good luck trainers!

Pokémon TCG Price Updates

I can't believe I'm writing this, but Amazon has quite a bit of sealed Pokémon TCG product for under market value. Whilst that unfortunately means it's still way above MSRP, some of these sets are at the best prices they've been in the last month.

This Weeks Crashers and Climbers

Scarlet and Violet base set prices have been shifting noticeably ahead of the final sets Black Bolt and White Flare, with Psychic-type Illustration Rares like Ralts 211/198 and Kirlia 212/198 each climbing 28 percent this month while Gardevoir ex 245/198 now sits at $54.99 after a 25 percent jump. Miraidon ex and Koraidon ex are both trending upward as well, holding value around $23.99 each. At the same time several cards are sliding down as Fidough 213/198 dropped 15 percent, Armarouge 203/198 is down 11 percent, and Pachirisu 208/198 fell 19 percent. The steepest dips hit Dondozo 207/198 and Starly 221/198, now around $9.99 each after dropping 30 percent and 37 percent respectively, reflecting a market that is narrowing in on long-term playability and collector interest.

Last Weeks Crashers and Climbers

As newer Pokémon TCG sets grab the spotlight, Paradox Rift is seeing its high-rarity SIR ex cards drop in value while several Illustration Rares quietly climb due to shifting collector interest and low inventory. Cards like Altaria ex, Gholdengo ex, and Steelix have dropped between 16% and 25%, while Illustration Rares including Morpeko, Plusle, Minun, Groudon, and Iron Valiant ex are climbing fast, with Morpeko leading at a 43% increase. This mirrors earlier trends where less flashy cards gain traction as availability tightens.

MTG Edge of Eternities Preorders

Magic: The Gathering’s next set, Edge of Eternities, officially launches August 1 with preorders now live on Amazon for bundles including Play Booster Boxes, Commander Decks, and Collector Booster Boxes. Blending Magic’s iconic gameplay with science fantasy themes such as flying space whales and alien races, Edge of Eternities introduces four new mechanics: Void, Warp, Station, and Lander Tokens. Fan-favorite tribes like Eldrazi and Slivers return alongside reprints of coveted Shock Lands. Wizards of the Coast is gradually revealing more details, with a full card gallery arriving July 18 and prerelease events happening July 25 through 31, so now is the time to lock in your preorder if you want first access.

MTG Pricing Updates

It's a bit of a mixed back for Magic: The Gathering prices this week, so it's always worth double checking eBay before TCG Player and Amazon for a last minute bargain. Also, whoever thinks a Theros Beyond Death booster is worth north of $700 needs to have a word with themselves.

Berserk Complete 1997 TV Series Blu Ray

Anker Nano Charging Station(100W Max)

JBL Xtreme 3

39 Inch UltraGear OLED

Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD 2TB

Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle

SanDisk® 512GB GamePLAY microSD Express Card

Superman (2025) (4K Ultra HD Steelbook)

USB Type-C to A Cable 5 pack

INIU Portable Charger 10000mAh 45W

TCL - 55" QM6K Series

INIU 140W Power Bank

Fitbit Charge 6 Fitness Tracker

Personal Fan with LED Display

9-Outlet Anker 332 USB C Power Strip Surge Protector

INIU USB C Charger Block x 2

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection (Switch)

Superman (Blu-ray + Digital)

Split Fiction (PS5)

Apple AirPods Pro 2 Wireless Earbuds

DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake (Switch)

The Lord of the Rings Illustrated (Tolkien Illustrated Editions)

Suikoden I & II HD Remastered (Switch)

Julian LeFay, former chief engineer at Bethesda and co-founder of OnceLost Games, is stepping back from game development due to his ongoing battle with cancer, the company announced yesterday.

In a video from OnceLost Games, producer Victor Villareal announced the news. "Our technical producer Julian LeFay, who I'm sure needs no introduction, has been fighting a battle with cancer for the last several years," said Villareal. "He's fought bravely and strongly, but it seems he doesn't have very much time left. He has stepped away from the project to spend that remaining time with his family and loved ones."

LeFay is often referred to as the "father of the Elder Scrolls" series, as he joined Bethesda Softworks after its founding in 1987 and led the company as Chief Engineer through games like The Elders Scrolls: Arena, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, and Battlespire. Julianos, the God of Wisdom and Logic, and one of the Nine Divines in The Elder Scrolls, is named after LeFay.

Dabbling in various projects over the years, LeFay co-founded the studio OnceLost Games in 2019 with former Bethesda colleagues Ted Peterson and Vijay Lakshman, to work on a Daggerfall spiritual successor called The Wayward Realms.

Peterson penned a statement, released in the description of the announcement video from OnceLost games, tracing his history with LeFay.

"I could talk stories about our friendship and how we’ve worked together recently with our team on Wayward Realms as creative and technical directors, but I need to come to the point of this," wrote Peterson. "Julian has been courageously battling cancer. His doctors have informed us that his time with us is limited, and we are preparing to say goodbye to a true legend of the industry."

Peterson invited fans to share thoughts, prayers, well-wishes, memories, or simply the impact LeFay's life and work has had on them.

"To me, this is deeply personal, and I regret every second I didn’t spend with one of the most charming, smart, funny, and interesting people I’ve ever met," wrote Peterson. "It’s also a spur to action for me: I will not let down his legacy.

"That said, a final quote from the eminently quotable Julian LeFay," he continued. "He said this at our last team meeting, and I believe it represents him and his beliefs well. 'It is personal. And if it’s not personal, then you’re just doing work for hire and you’ll never have the motivation to accomplish a significant goal.'"

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Jeopardy’s got one of us, folks. Current reigning champion Scott Riccardi just completed an insane 10-day streak on the beloved game show — and it turns out he’s an active Super Smash Bros. competitor online. Can we get a W in the chat for Scott, please?

Riccardi has amassed a whopping $262,101 over the course of his streak so far, and it seems he isn’t showing any signs of hitting the breaks in the competition. He beat the record for the most wins in season 41 back on July 15 when he hit his 9-day streak, so he’s really giving his other competitors a run for their money at this point.

The Epic Games Store is giving away Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 Platinum Edition away for free on PC for an entire week starting today.

The latest addition to the Fortnite maker’s free game offerings is no doubt one of the biggest deals of 2025, giving players a chance to pick up 2K and Firaxis Games’ 2016 strategy title at no extra cost from July 17 – 24. It’s an $80 value that nets players the base experience along with a whopping six DLC packs and two premium expansions, all free to own even after the offer expires. You can click here to claim the offer for yourself.

Everything Included in Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 Platinum Edition

• Sid Meier’s Civilization 6
• Civilization VI: Rise and Fall expansion
• Civilization VI: Gathering Storm expansion
• Civilization VI – Vikings Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Poland Civilization & Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Australia Civilization & Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Persia and Macedon Civilization & Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Nubia Civilization & Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Khmer and Indonesia Civilization & Scenario Pack

Firaxis launched Civilization 6 nearly 10 years ago, with the historically based 4X strategy game now available to play across PC, mobile devices, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It’s an experience we gave a 9.4/10 in our review upon its release, saying at the time that it was “fully loaded with features and makes some very smart changes to its winning 4X strategy formula.”

The project was the primary way for fans to enjoy the Civilization franchise all the way up to February of this year, which saw Firaxis release its long-awaited follow-up, Sid Meier’s Civilization 7. Although the 2025 iteration adds new features, updated visuals, and more tools from across history to play with, it’s still got a few scratches to buff out. We gave it a 7/10, and in May, Take-Two addressed its “Mixed” Steam reviews (which have now dropped to the “Mostly Negative” for recent reviews), promising that Firaxis' work will result in a better game in the future.

Civilization 6, meanwhile, remains a complete experience, boasting “Very Positive” overall Steam reviews and a 4.7/5 stars from players on the Epic Games Store. If you play your PC games through the latter – or even if you don’t – there’s no reason not to pick up the Platinum Edition for free now that the deal is live.

While you wait for Civilization 6 to download, you can read up on how the first human Neuralink patient and how he used the experimental technology to stay up playing Firaxis’ 2016 video game. You can also check out its Android update trailer, which premiered just last month.

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).

IGN is excited to share with you the brand new trailer for Mortal Kombat II, which you can watch via the player embedded below. The trailer debuted during a live stream Thursday morning between IGN, Warner Bros. Pictures, and IMAX. Ahead of the trailer’s global online debut, I was able to chat exclusively with actor Karl Urban – who brings the iconic Johnny Cage to life in Mortal Kombat II – as well as director Simon McQuoid and producer Todd Garner in their first extensive interviews about the highly anticipated sequel.

The 2021 reboot of Mortal Kombat, also directed by McQuoid, was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max during the COVID-19 pandemic, where it became the streamer’s most successful movie launch ever.

“When we made the [first] movie, Warner Bros. didn't know how people were going to react. They didn't know. We didn't have a huge budget to do whatever we wanted to do,” Garner recalled. “We certainly couldn't compete with the huge superhero movies by any stretch of the imagination, so we were limited by the scale and scope of that movie because they didn't really know what they had.”

“The fact that the movie did so well on HBO Max, and obviously now that we have Mike De Luca at Warner Bros. and Pam Abdy, they really knew not only what they had from the numbers from HBO Max, but they also knew, Mike knew because he has such a fondness for the series. They gave us more scale, more scope to do the fights, more fighting, which is expensive quite frankly.” (De Luca, it should be noted, was a young executive at New Line Cinema in the 1990s where the original Mortal Kombat movies were produced.)

Watch the new red band Mortal Kombat II trailer:

"Most franchises don't start with the prequel. Most franchises start with the movie and then you do the prequel, because we have a movie that sets up the rules and sets up the world. It doesn't have a tournament, and now we wanted to make sure that we did the tournament and what people expect from the Mortal Kombat franchise," Garner explained. "And so coming into the movie with Johnny Cage being new to the tournament, [it's] not hard to follow."

Director McQuoid said a very large percentage of the film was shot in IMAX, which allowed for the scale of not just the fight scenes but the world of Mortal Kombat itself to level up.

“We've got some new characters coming in and some of those new characters are wild and otherworldly, like Shao Kahn. And when you've got characters like that, you have to swing for the fences, really,” McQuoid said. “I wanted to use what Mortal Kombat had by going to new realms and giving it a bigger, more wild [feel], more scope, and use the material that's just sitting there ready to be used. And so, in pushing into those new realms, and we go to Edenia and we spend a lot of time there, and that was exciting because it hasn't really been portrayed all that much… It was great to bring massive scale to that. And also some of the levels from the game, we were able to take those things and scale them up to a big and beautiful place.”

The director added that “there's some things in the IMAX version, some little story moments and little gems for the super fans that, if you see the IMAX version, you'll see something in that version that you won't see in the regular theatrical version. I just wanted to try and innovate and use the format in a way that really makes it a rewarding experience for the audience.”

With McQuoid back in the director’s chair and a script by Moon Knight’s Jeremy Slater, the next step was finding the right actor to play Johnny Cage, a fan favorite character from the games who was only teased at the end of the first film but is the main protagonist of the sequel.

“We didn't know if the general audience would buy an arrogant actor as the lead of the first movie, or would it be strange that it would be this arrogant actor in this basically martial arts movie? Did it feel weird?,” Garner said.

“For people who didn't know the game and didn't know the franchise, would it just feel like, ‘Wait, you have these guys with these superpowers that are doing incredible martial arts and this arrogant actor from the nineties? What is this?" It just felt like it was all over the place. So Liu was used in the first movie as the sage, the teacher, the wise one, which he is, and we knew we had to ultimately get to Johnny Cage because he's such a big presence in the franchise.”

Garner was candid about the challenges of casting Johnny Cage while also keeping fans happy. “I get it. Everybody comes to the franchise with their own love of it and their own feeling of what it should be,” the producer admits. “I'd have to make a hundred thousand different movies to please everybody.”

Garner specifically cites the factions of fans who lobbied for wrestler-actor The Miz, martial artist-actor Scott Adkins, or movie stars like Ryan Reynolds and Glen Powell. “Those two gentlemen have massive careers and schedules and they make untold lots and lots of money that probably wouldn't have necessarily fit into our budget, let alone our schedule,” Garner said.

“What we tried to do with this movie in the casting from the get-go is not have celebrity casting of like, oh, it's so-and-so playing Liu Kang. We wanted it to be Liu Kang, we wanted it to be Scorpion, we wanted it to be Sub-Zero, Jax, and so forth. So it wasn't like we were going for the biggest star. We wanted to try to bring the best to the characters, and Karl, he's an incredible actor. I'll put him up against anybody, and for this journey of this movie, we needed somebody to embody Johnny Cage, and he did that.”

The Johnny Cage of Mortal Kombat II, however, is not quite the same blowhard typically depicted in the Mortal Kombat games or past film and TV adaptations. Not initially, anyway. “When we first discover Johnny, he is sort of lacking a lot of that quintessential spark that I think fans of the game will know,” Urban told IGN.

“We start him at a very low point. His career is completely in the dumps. He has no self-confidence. He has neglected his martial arts training. And at his lowest point, he gets called up to, essentially, be a warrior that represents the Earthrealm and fight for the very future of humanity. And as I read the script, I found it just such a compelling, interesting, dynamic journey. We start this character in one place, and as an audience, we get to see him evolve and grow.”

“A wonderful facet of the writing is they really humanize the character of Johnny and he's not some [two-dimensional] character, not that he ever was, but he has room to grow. And he certainly does that as he gains his confidence and gains his belief in his self, [and] some of that sort of cockiness and swagger starts to come through.”

While Urban has long known of Mortal Kombat, he credits playing the game with his kids – and losing soundly to them – with making him fall in love with the franchise. “When Mortal Kombat first came out, and I think it was around '92, I was so broke, I couldn't even afford a PlayStation, let alone the game, so I sort of missed out on the initial wave in it,” the Star Trek and The Boys actor recalled.

“When I heard that they were doing a second installment of the film and that Johnny Cage was going to be a huge part of it, we were very proactive about seeking out the director and the producers and getting a hold of the script, which was fantastic,” said Urban. “Jeremy Slater wrote an amazing script. And yeah, I just couldn't be more thrilled, not only to portray this version of Johnny Cage, but just to be a part of the Mortal Kombat world.”

To prepare for the role, Urban consumed everything he could about his iconic character and the Mortal Kombat franchise and he also underwent training that he described as “the most difficult fighting that I have ever done in my career.” But while the physical aspects were “a huge challenge,” Urban said his main objective as an actor was making Johnny Cage feel like a real person.

“For me, the challenge, really, was to ground the character in a reality and to give him a backstory. And my research, apart from absorbing everything I could about Mortal Kombat and what had been done with Johnny Cage previously and what had been done with him in the games, was to then really formulate a backstory,” Urban said.

“Part of my research is I went along to a bunch of karate tournaments and looked at young kids coming through and just absorbing myself in the culture and imagining young Johnny before he was plucked out of that into movie stardom, what that was like. And I found that just a really wonderful and fascinating experience and a real eye-opener.”

Urban assured me that “fans of Johnny Cage are going to be super delighted by the signature moves and all the nods and elements that we've worked so hard to infuse into the movie.” While Urban spoke of the reverence and fan service the filmmakers have put into Mortal Kombat II, he also acknowledged that “the objective is also to make it accessible to a new audience. We are making this film also, not only for fans of Mortal Kombat, but for fans of cinema and for fans of fun, action, adventure, martial art movies. And you don't have to have even played Mortal Kombat or even seen the first film to jump straight into this.”

Urban then paid the film one of the highest compliments an action movie could receive: “I think Mortal Kombat II is to Mortal Kombat what The Road Warrior is to Mad Max. I think that everybody across the board has leveled up in a significant way right across the entire production. And I think this representation of this world and these characters is the best we've seen. And I'm super excited for an audience to see it. As you've seen from the trailer itself … it looks like a significant level-up.”

Mortal Kombat II opens in theaters October 24, 2025. Look for more from IGN’s exclusive interviews with the filmmakers soon.

We hope you’ve been testing your might and practicing your combo moves and animalities, because Mortal Kombat 2 is nearly upon us. This sequel to the 2021 reboot features many returning characters, like Lewis Tan’s Cole Young and Hiroyuki Sanada’s Scorpion, but it also introduces a brand new kast of kombatants. That includes Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage, who looks to be the star of the show this time around. That’s judging from the first Mortal Kombat 2 trailer, which features a lot of Urban’s Cage along with several other new players.

Are you a little rusty on your MK mythology? Are you having trouble making sense of the many colorful characters in this new footage? Not to worry. Let’s break down the characters we see in the new Mortal Kombat 2 trailer, along with the others confirmed to appear in this sequel.

New Characters in Mortal Kombat 2

Karl Urban as Johnny Cage

Johnny Cage was probably the most significant MK character not to appear in the 2021 movie. Fortunately, the sequel looks to be making up for lost time. All signs point to Karl Urban’s Cage being the central protagonist of Mortal Kombat 2, perhaps even pushing Tan’s Cole Young into a secondary role (we’ll get to him in a minute).

Urban’s Cage is introduced in a way that will be familiar to fans of the franchise. He’s played as a middle-aged, washed-up action hero long past his moviemaking prime and the days of box office hits like Uncaged Fury. (Warner Bros. even released a fake trailer for Uncaged Fury this week too.) But unlike most Hollywood action stars, Johnny actually has the moves to back up his bravado. That’ll come in handy as he’s reluctantly drawn into the conflict between Earthrealm and Outworld.

“We start him at a very low point,” Urban told IGN. “His career is completely in the dumps. He has no self-confidence. He has neglected his martial arts training. And at his lowest point, he gets called up to, essentially, be a warrior that represents the Earthrealm and fight for the very future of humanity. And as I read the script, I found it just such a compelling, interesting, dynamic journey. We start this character in one place, and as an audience, we get to see him evolve and grow.”

We also see a shot of Cage flirting with Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade in the trailer. That’s significant, as in the games their romance eventually results in a daughter named Cassie Cage, a very formidable fighter in her own right.

Cage was first played by Linden Ashby in the 1995 movie. The character also appeared in the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, played by Matt Mullins in Season 1 and Starship Troopers' Casper Van Dien in Season 2.

Adeline Rudolph as Kitana

Another fan-favorite hero is joining the cast in MK2, as Adeline Rudolph plays the steel fan-wielding Kitana. In the games, Kitana is the princess of Edenia, the daughter of Queen Sindel, and a love interest for Liu Kang. She’s also one of the most important figures in the fight to stop Outworld from conquering all of reality. We don’t get the impression any of that will be changing for Mortal Kombat 2, though with a cast this large, we’ll see if there’s much room to build a romance between Kitana and Liu.

Kitana was originally played by Talisa Soto in the 1995 movie, while Samantha Jo played Kitana on both seasons of Mortal Kombat: Legacy.

Tati Gabrielle as Jade

The masked bo staff expert Jade will now be portrayed by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Tati Gabrielle. In the games, Jade is Kitana’s bodyguard and best friend, meaning she’s got her work cut out for her.

Jade was originally played by Irina Pantaeva in 1997's Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

Damon Herriman as Quan Chi