The developer shared the final update to his 'Kjun's Concerns' column on the official Inzoi Discord (thanks, PC Gamer) and reflected on the two years since he started work on the game.

"Looking back at myself two years ago, when I first decided to embark on this project, I can't help but smirk knowing how recklessly brave I was to even think about creating a game of this scale," said Kjun. "Now, I understand why so few companies have attempted to develop a life simulation game. The challenge isn't just additive the more you try to build—it's exponential. At a certain point, finding bugs in this vast world we've created feels like playing tag with invisible ghosts."

Kjun recently put some distance between Inzoi and The Sims, saying his game isn't a "competitor" to EA's juggernaut but instead "another option" that has "in-depth customization" and AI-powered tools. Basically, it sounds like Kjun sees Inzoi as an even deeper and more customizable life sim than The Sims, which is saying something indeed.

In his latest Discord musings, Kjun heaped praise on The Sims yet again, writing, "The Sims team deserves endless praise for their incredible achievements. As a longtime game developer, I can only express my deepest respect and admiration for what they accomplished in this genre."

Kjun also said the final development stretch to release "will be the most intense development period for the game," joking, "by the time I return to writing, Kjun's Concerns may have turned into Kjun’s Remorse."

The Sims rival InZoi has 300 people hanging out in each of its in-game cities and they all "interact with each other in real-time."

If this sounds like deja vu to you, it isn't. It's just that that many AAA console games play like crap when they make their way over to PC. Capcom's Monster Hunter Wilds is just now starting to recover from its rough PC launch last month, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 committed a similar offense in January, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 did it in October, I could go on and on. Point is, it's pretty much expected that PC ports of big games are going to be skewered at launch, but unfortunately it's also expected of me to report on stuff like this.

Yes, Rise of the Ronin is taking a beating in Steam reviews, mostly due to poor performance, technical issues, bugs, whatever you feel like calling it. It just doesn't seem to be optimized very well at the moment. Of the 715 reviews currently on Steam, only 44% of them are positive, and almost all of them are either centered on performance issues or make mention of them. The review at the top of Steam's "Most Helpful Reviews" column reads: "Is it really that hard to not make bad PC port? Stuttering on a 4090 is just... no."

"Breaks my heart to do this, but I just can't recommend the game in its current state," reads another user review. "The optimization is as bad as everyone is saying. If you played Wo Long at launch and remember the optimization problems that plagued that title at launch, this is actually worse. It really is a bummer. Likely going to refund and wait for a patch."

"The fact that the game performance is INSANELY bad is unacceptable," reads another.

Obviously, your mileage will vary when it comes to PC performance on any game depending on the hardware you're rocking, but it's pretty damning to hear that some 4090 rigs are struggling, especially considering Rise of the Ronin isn't a particularly graphically intensive game.

It's a shame, because Rise of the Ronin's open world is an underrated gem of last year.

The footage opens with the introduction of Dante as a "top-level threat," before the demon-hunting hero quips he "works better with music" and sticks something on the jukebox. Then a montage of cataclysmic events kicks off, led by White Rabbit, a relatively obscure villain from the franchise serving as one of main baddies here.

We get multiple clips of both White Rabbit and Dante carving and blasting through enemies, hinting at an eventual clash that should be a mighty fireworks display. Ebony and Ivory, Dante’s signature guns, get plenty of screentime, his blade Rebellion only getting a look in towards the end.

The closing shot brings in a familiar face for anyone who knows the video games: Vergil, Dante’s estranged brother and a recurring thorn in his side. This is a surprising inclusion, since Vergil would’ve made such an easy surprise twist, but perhaps what’s in store will be even more gob-smacking.

This is another production from Adi Shankar, the creative mastermind behind Castlevania, Captain Laserhawk and more for Netflix. Each hails from a different games studio, Devil May Cry coming from Capcom while Castlevania is owned by Konami and Captain Laserhawk is an amalgamation of Ubisoft properties. Shankar has become a dab hand at managing these adaptations and delivering results.

An anime show based on Devil May Cry was produced back in 2007, from Madhouse, the company behind Death Note, Cardcaptors and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. It was short-lived, at just one season, so here's hoping this project lasts longer.

Devil May Cry arrives on Netflix April 3, 2025. Have a look at our list of the best horror movies on Netflix for more of what goes bump in the night.

Yasuda's comments are noteworthy in the wake of Rise of the Ronin's PC launch, which is currently being skewered on Steam due to apparent performance and optimization issues primarily. With that in mind, a Rise of the Ronin Switch port seems like a disastrous proposition, but it does sound like Yasuda and co. are at least weighing the audience they could reach on future Nintendo hardware.

"In terms of consoles, there has been a long-standing situation in Japan where there is a significant number of Switch players, and I am closely watching how this will change with the release of Switch 2," Yasuda told RPG Site.

Yasuda also echoed what Monster Hunter lead producer Ryozo Tsujimoto recently said about the growing number of PC gamers in Japan.

"For games like the ones we create, there are many PS5 players, but I also feel that the number of PC players has significantly increased in Japan over the past few years."

To be clear, there really isn't anything we can explicitly infer from Yasuda's words here. Team Ninja has released games on Switch in the past and it'll probably continue to do that, but it is interesting that Yasuda seems to be particularly keen on the upcoming Switch 2 market. Depending on how powerful the console ends up being, it's possible it'll be able to support big AAA open-world games day and date with their PlayStation, Xbox, and PC counterparts. We'll have to wait for the April Switch 2 Direct to learn more.

New Nintendo Switch 2 filing answers my prayers: both USB-C ports can charge, and NFC support suggests those 223 Amiibo are about to have new friends.

"I’m working on 'Castle Village,' which is an entirely new mod," FlashShifter explains in an interview with Nexus Mods. "It was originally supposed to be included in the Stardew Valley Expanded 2.0 update, but I recently decided it was best to split it off. This project is even more ambitious than SVE, featuring a new city, dozens of fully developed NPCs, dungeons inspired by The Legend of Zelda, boss monsters, magical artifacts, new music, and much more."

FlashShifter adds that monster combat will be a big focus on this mod, and that he's designing "unique sprites for everything in this region to give it a distinct feel." There's no ETA yet on when the Castle Village mod might launch, you can at least find a couple of screenshots to peruse at the link above.

Stardew Valley Expanded is arguably the best Stardew Valley mod out there. FlashShifter famously got a job working with ConcernedApe after the success of SVE, and while the idea of a modder parlaying that experience into a proper job isn't wholly unique, it is unusual to see someone continuing to do such excellent mod work in their spare time.

FlashShifter says that while he's very excited for ConcernedApe's next game, he "won’t be making mods for Haunted Chocolatier. My attention is drawn towards my work at ConcernedApe LLC and developing Castle Village." I think that's fair given everything he's already built for Stardew fans.

Stardew Valley creator says he had his reasons to announce Haunted Chocolatier so early, and "if I don't post for a while, it doesn't mean I have abandoned the game."

Public U.S. records reveal that, since Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami directed the Jurassic massacre back in the '90s, Dino Crisis has been getting renewed trademarks; Capcom last filed and was approved to renew the game's original 1999 trademark in 2021, and that renewal will last for another decade.

Then, in 2019, Capcom issued a new trademark filing in Japan for Dino Crisis, just like it did this spring. Because it was fresh, that filing triggered fans' quivering suspicions that they'd soon be blissfully near more homicidal velociraptors and Regina, Dino Crisis' gun-wielding, redhead protagonist. There hasn't been a Dino Crisis installment in over 20 years.

But, aside from Dino Crisis and its 2000 sequel joining GOG's pile of cult classics in a recent bundle deal, Mikami's disaster series has sadly remained untouched.

Mikami expected that to be the case. Actually, he can't understand why anyone would think otherwise.

In 2024, Mikami told Eurogamer that he was "very surprised" to hear that fans wanted more Dino Crisis, dismissing their cravings by saying that the "awesomeness of dinosaurs, and the stuff you can do with dinosaurs – that's been kind of really nailed down by Monster Hunter in recent years."

"So even if I were to decide to make a remake or a new version of Dino Crisis," he continued, "I don't really feel like there's a whole lot of space for that kind of game right now, just since Monster Hunter has become such a big game."

To his point, Monster Hunter Wilds has been enjoying massive success after its recent release, proving that it might really be the popular angel to Dino Crisis' goth, dino devil.

Dino Crisis is finally getting the resurrection it deserves – and it's still a blast.

According to Deadline, Netflix has brokered the deal - but no directors and writers have been attached yet. The 1981 novel (which King allegedly does not remember writing) sees a St. Bernard basically become a murderer after being bitten by a bat and contracting rabies. It's an especially sad tale given that it involves an abusive husband, a kid who has seizures, and well, the whole dog thing.

The book was first adapted into a feature-length film in 1983, starring Dee Wallace as a mother trapped inside a car with her child while a rabid dog tries to get inside. Lewis Teague, who also directed the Stephen King adaptation The Cat's Eye, helmed the film with a screenplay from Don Carlos Dunaway (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and Barbara Turner (Pollock). The film was a modest box office success, but was ultimately panned by critics. Like many lower-rated Stephen King adaptations, Cujo went on to become a cult classic.

King is pretty busy right now what with The Monkey, based on his creepy award-winning short story, hitting theaters in February, and The Life of Chuck, based on a story from a more recent collection, due out later this year. Mike Flanagan is also set to turn The Dark Tower series into a five-season show for Prime Video.

For more, check out our list of the best Netflix movies and the best Netflix shows to stream right now.

Darrah published a nine-minute video to his YouTube channel entirely dedicated to the upsetting topic of game delays, which, these days, come around, more often than not, several times in a major game's development. Darrah advises studios to make the difficult decision to announce one major delay and completely re-evaluate the game they're making so that they aren't under constant pressure to meet deadlines.

"If your game ends up being two years late, but you know it's going to be two years late, that opens up your probability space massively, because you know, 'OK, right, we're not shipping in a month, we're gonna ship in 25 months. Then let's take a step back and re-examine what we've got and potentially undo some of the decisions that we made earlier when we thought we were making a different game, and take a different path,'" Darrah says. "If, instead, your game ends up moving two years, but it does it three months at a time, when does that re-examination occur?

It sounds like Darrah is saying, if a dev's game is in a state that it needs to be delayed several times, it might be worth taking a step back and asking themselves if there's a bigger, more foundational problem that needs to be addressed.

"For two years, you're always three months from ship. Not only were you not able to take a step back and back up and take a different path, as time goes on, you're digging that debt deeper and deeper and deeper. You are laying band-aid on top of band-aid on top of band-aid, and not only do you not feel like you have the ability to back up because you don't have time, you're actualy making it harder and harder to back up, because with each extra band-aid, with each patch, with each thing you do in order to try to make what you have work, you're making it harder to take a different path.

"You are adding to that pile of assets that you might have to abandon. You are making it ever more difficult to do what you probably should have done in the first place, which is burn it down and take the other fork in the road."

Put more succinctly: "Sometimes the right path is to throw the thing in reverse, lose everything you've been working on, and find another way forward."

It's not exactly a counterpoint, but my only comment here is that there are times where game delays don't signify an underlying issue with the game that needs to be addressed, such was the case with Stalker 2 and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Otherwise, I'm picking up with Darrah's putting down, for the most part.

At least, from a consumer perspective, it's easier in the long-run to accept a big delay than to suffer the relentless disappointment of numerous smaller delays, especially if the final product is better for it.

Anywho, here are some upcoming indie games I hope don't get delayed.

How to unlock the Fortnite Outlaw Keycard

To unlock the Common Fortnite Outlaw Keycard, you need to contribute to the Community quest that all players are working towards. This involves robbing vaults and Cases to deplete Fletcher Kane's gold reserves, and there are two main ways to do this:

• Crack the vaults at Crime City, Lonely Lair, Masked Meadows, and Seaport City
• Rob the Smash N' Grab Jewelry Stores in various POIs

The Smash N' Grab Jewelry Stores will be protected by a couple of Alpha Guards, but once they're taken out you should find a safe behind the counter to empty as well as several Cases to interact with and Rob Valuables from. Keep an eye on the Outlaw Keycard section of the Fortnite quests screen to track the Community's progress towards 100% completion.

How to upgrade the Fortnite Outlaw Keycard

Once you've unlocked the Common Outlaw Keycard, you'll then need to complete further Outlaw Keycard quests to earn upgrades for it. Including that initial Community quest, these are the upgrades you can unlock:

• 5 Quests - Uncommon Outlaw Keycard
  Grants access to Black Market backrooms where Exotic items are available to purchase, and some also contain Fortnite characters.
• 10 Quests - Rare Outlaw Keycard
  The Outlaw Chests in backrooms can be opened to get free Bars.
• 15 Quests - Epic Outlaw Keycard
  Premium loadouts are available to purchase from Black Market shopkeepers for a large number of Bars:
  • Joss' Loadout - Holo Twister AR, Pump & Dump, Rocket Drill, Chug Jug, Gold Ammo Boon, and Greed Boon.
  • Keisha's Loadout - Falcon Eye Sniper, Outlaw Shotgun, Gold Splashes, Chug Jug, Gold Ammo Boon, and Greed Boon.
  • Skillet's Loadout - Sticky Grenade Launcher, Mammoth Pistol, Kneecapper, Chug Jug, Gold Ammo Boon, and Greed Boon.
• 20 Quests - Legendary Outlaw Keycard
  Opening Outlaw Chests in backrooms also drops a Legendary item and Dill Bit.

How to use the Fortnite Outlaw Keycard

To use the Fortnite Outlaw Keycard, you simply need to visit one of the Black Markets found near Crime City, Magic Mosses, or Masked Meadow then look for a locked door at the far end, like the one pictured above. Once you have the upgraded Uncommon Outlaw Keycard, interact with the door and it will open for you, granting access to the backroom where you can find additional weapons, characters, Outlaw Chests, and more.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

"How was the DS2 trailer?" Kojima asks on Twitter after Death Stranding 2's SXSW showcase.

"It was good, feels like just yesterday," says the top reply. "Dark Souls 2 is the best Dark Souls."

"I love DS2," retorts another popular comment, tacking on an image of Dark Souls 2's Bearer of the Curse protagonist looking mysterious and war-worn.

Another fan chastises Kojima: "Don't you dare using that acronym for Walking Simulator 2."

In Kojima's defense, Death Stranding 2's most recent trailer – if you're willing to watch past the mechanical baby – demonstrates machine gun fire and kaiju stomping, which you probably wouldn't get involved in on a more typical stroll through the neighborhood.

But Dark Souls 2's trailer from 2012 is, admittedly, more spartan in nature. It doesn't bother with long talks and meaningful kisses like Death Stranding 2; it begins with blood spilling quietly over the Bearer's gauntlets and ends in a sudden blast of dragon's breath to the face.

It's pretty medievally awesome, but, as one fan informs Hideo Kojima, "Dark Souls 2 trailer was nothing like the actual game." Our GamesRadar+ Dark Souls 2 review disagrees, but I'd even say that the FromSoftware game is by far the worst in the Dark Souls trilogy.

So, in this battle for the perfect acronym, may the best DS2 win.

Hideo Kojima is still hung up on his ex, as Death Stranding 2 features a Metal Gear Solid doppelganger the director says is the spitting image of Solid Snake.

"A bit sad to see that the naming 'Minecraft: Pocket Edition' is completely gone nowadays, but understandable," tweets Daniel Kaplan, a founding member of Mojang, co-founder of Coffee Stain, and current CEO of Keepsake Games.

"Why Minecraft was called Pocket Edition and not Mobile Edition on mobiles? Because I’m a Nintendo nerd, and it was a nod to Game Boy Pocket."

I'll be honest, this is the first I'm hearing of the Game Boy Pocket. Turns out it was a refinement of the original Game Boy that was smaller, lighter, and had a better display. I only started with the Game Boy Advance, but I did have a Color too.

Now, Minecraft's mobile version is called the Bedrock Edition, so named because there are two versions of the game; the Java Edition runs on Java while the Bedrock Edition runs C++. This is why some farms work on one version of the game but not the other, the underlying code itself is different.

Nowadays, it's quite common for mobile games to have the Pocket subheading. Pokemon TCG Pocket is the most recent example I can think of, and that game's been consuming a lot of my waking hours this last month or so. I just can't get enough of the card collecting, and now that I have a proper Darkrai and Weaville ex deck, I'm unstoppable in PvP.

If you're looking for something similar to play, check out our list of all the best games like Minecraft you can get stuck into.

Before Monster Hunter Wilds' launch, some hardened action RPG veterans were left concerned that the latest installment in the series might be a bit too easy. While Capcom was quick to reveal that "a new level of challenge" is coming in the game's first title update in April, seeing certain screenshots of hunt times on social media claiming that players have smashed through quests in mere seconds, you'd think that turning up that difficulty ought to be a major priority. However, not all is as it seems, as some have been taking advantage of a handy little trick involving poison damage to get a head start on their hunts.

As reported by VG247, it turns out that hitting monsters with poison ammo doesn't actually start hunt quests, despite them taking damage from the ailment. This is probably because, in general, monsters can be injured by their environment even without you having a hand in it, but this doesn't force quests to start because, let's face it, that'd suck. Anyway, it's probably because of this that you can freely poison your foes without triggering a quest, so long as you don't hit them with actual attacks beyond that.

This is where the magic happens, and an incredibly drawn out process gets translated into what appears to be (to the game itself and your social media followers) a near instant win. By waiting for the poison damage to build up as the monster's health depletes, and then jumping in right at the end to either finish it off for good or swoop in to capture it, you can make it look like you're some kind of Monster Hunter god. Or at least, you will until everyone finds out this is what you've been doing – the magic sort of vanishes from this 1.53-second Tempered Chatacabra capture once you realize it actually takes around nine minutes to do it, for example.

Is it cheesy? Yes. Is it satisfying to see the game proclaim your victory in under two seconds? Also yes. Beyond this and simply showing off, there's not really any reason to do this, but hey, it's good fun.

Be sure to check out our Monster Hunter Wilds review and read our guide to the best Monster Hunter Wilds weapons if you want a hand in hunting monsters the proper way.

Alongside the main story by writers Colin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and artist CF Villa, Giant-Size Age of Apocalypse #1 will include a "Revelations" backup story by writer Jeph Loeb, one of the main writers of the original Age of Apocalypse event, and artist Simone Di Meo.

"Locked in a battle through time against the Omega-Level mutant Legion, Kamala Khan is the only one standing in the way of X-Men history being warped forever! Following GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1 and GIANT-SIZE DARK PHOENIX #1, Kamala finds herself stuck in the darkest future of all in GIANT-SIZE AGE OF APOCALYPSE #1!" reads Marvel's official description of Giant-Size Age of Apocalypse #1. "Worse yet: It’s only hours from its inevitable end; if Kamala can't find what's left of the X-Men, she'll burn in nuclear hellfire. Former enemies must learn to rely on one another as they journey through a land of charred bones and broken promises...but can Legion truly be trusted? And how far will Rogue go to teach Kamala the true meaning of mutant identity? Welcome back to the Age of Apocalypse – where no one survives the experience."

The original Age of Apocalypse actually celebrates its own 30th anniversary in 2025. For those who don't know (or aren't old enough to have been there at the time), the original Age of Apocalypse event was one of the biggest stories ever told in the X-Men franchise, in which Legion goes back in time to kill Professor X, resulting in an alternate timeline ruled by the villain Apocalypse. The story replaced every single X-Men title with a relaunched comic set specifically in the AoA reality, which ended in destruction.

"In 1995, I was extremely lucky to be part of one of the biggest stories to hit the X-Men with Age of Apocalypse, writing both Astonishing X-Men and X-Man," says Loeb in a statement. "Now, thirty years later, join me and the superstar artist of tomorrow – Simone Di Meo – as we return to this doomed timeline with some of the greatest X-Men characters ever!"

Giant-Size Age of Apocalypse #1 goes on sale June 25 with a cover by Adam Kubert, and a variant cover by Simone Di Meo, both seen above.

Stay up to date on all the new X-Men comics Marvel has planned for release.

After requesting "tips for beginners" before hopping into Capcom's latest action RPG, which Gemma actor Kristen McGuire admits is her first-ever foray into the Monster Hunter series, fans provided all sorts of advice. Upon securing the best Monster Hunter Wilds weapons for her play style, however, McGuire has returned to her original thread on Reddit to share her frustrations with the game's notoriously challenging menus.

"The true battle is the menus," comments one fan, to which McGuire agrees. "This is honestly what I'm struggling with the most," writes the actor. "The menu is like looking at something written in a foreign language." Underneath another response, in which a player advises she get "used to the grind," McGuire explains that grinding isn't a problem at all and mentions the game's hard-to-navigate UI once again.

Hi, I’m the English VA for Gemma, and I would love your tips for beginners from r/MHWilds

"I actually like grinding, so that doesn’t bother me, haha," she says. "The overall menu is just kind of confusing." It's a sentiment all us Monster Hunter players share in, I'd argue as a fan myself – but thankfully, players are offering both solidarity and some words of wisdom to help mitigate how painful navigating Wilds' menus can be: "Trust me when I say everyone was confused with the menu for the first few days."

Hopefully, developers hear this sort of feedback and clean things up a bit. Capcom did reveal that it's working on the first free update, after all, cooking to bring fresh content and some behemoth beasts to what our own Monster Hunter Wilds review calls "the new peak of the series." If the past entries offer anything to go by, though, it's likely that Monster Hunter will never lose its infamous menu-related jank.

After you finish playing one of the best Monster Hunter games to date, here are some of the other most exciting new games this year and beyond to keep an eye on.

When talking about the original Death Stranding, Kojima said, "The game was about connection," which we knew. However, Kojima wasn’t the most confident about his future, adding, "I thought I lost everything when I became alone nine years ago," referring to his exit from Konami back in 2015 following the release of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. It may have been a given that people would follow Kojima wherever he went, but I get it. When you’ve been working on one series almost exclusively for almost two decades, I imagine it’s easy to think that’s what people like. Hopefully working on his new Espionage game Physint will help him get things out of his system.

As we know now, Death Stranding was highly anticipated after it was revealed and turned out to be a big success, and Kojima realized that his fans were willing to follow him. "I had something very important, which was [a] connection with people," the director said. Although the new Death Stranding 2 trailer features a screen saying. "We should not have connected," read into that one how you will.

Kojima is clearly very excited to be working with actor Luca Marinelli for Neil (the aforementioned Solid Snake lookalike), as he chose the actor to "surpass" Mads Mikkelsen.

A kiss between the two characters is a particularly notable romantic consummation here, since Sam suffers from aphenphosmphobia, or the fear of being touched. "Sam has this phobia, but finally kisses Fragile," Kojima explained during a SXSW panel. "But this is their first kiss, so it was very difficult to direct in that way."

Asked about his experience performing the scene, Reedus had pretty much the response you'd expect from anybody getting to smooch an attractive film star: "It was niiice." And somehow, the experience reminded him of acting alongside Mads Mikkelsen in the first Death Stranding.

"The first time I had to go face-to-face with anybody, I think it was Mads. I mean, not that same face-to-face, but a different version of that face," Reedus explained, indicating an image of the romantic mocap session being shown on stage. "You see the helmets that we're wearing, they usually have cameras on them," Reedus added, miming two heads bouncing off of each other. "Mads and I were like 'toing! toing!' So we took the cameras off for this."

Reedus noted that he tends to be a "very subtle" actor, which makes performance capture harder. But he was inspired by "this video tape of Benedict Cumberbatch playing the lion in one of the Lion Kings or something, and he's like 'rooooaaaar!' And I was like 'wow, he's really good at this.' So I'm learning, I'm trying to get better." Since Cumberbatch has never been part of a Lion King cast, I suspect Reedus was actually referring to that viral clip of the motion capture for Smaug in the Hobbit films.

The actor says he also took big inspiration from fellow DS2 star Troy Baker, who has plenty of experience with serious performance capture acting in titles like The Last of Us. Baker's take on Higgs is going way over the top this time – Kojima says he'll "apologize beforehand" – so it looks we're getting a pretty wide array of acting styles in this sequel.

Hideo Kojima says he chose Death Stranding 2's Solid Snake lookalike because he needed an actor who "would surpass" Mads Mikkelsen.

"I have to finish the books. That's the one thing I'm completely in control of," Martin told Collider. "There's no budget limitations. There's no other executives on the studio side that I have to please, or other writers with different views. The books are what I'm going to make them. And, I think the one I'm writing is coming pretty well, but I wish it would come faster."

The last installment in the series, A Dance With Dragons, was published back in 2011, and The Winds of Winter was expected to follow in 2016. Eight years later, there's still no sign of it. The books served as the source material for Game of Thrones, which came to an end in 2019.

Martin has had a conflicted relationship with recent adaptations of his work, as alluded to in his comment to Collider. Last year, he blasted planned "toxic changes" in House of the Dragon season 3, the next installment in the adaptation of his book Fire & Blood, in a now-deleted blog post.

The next small-screen take on his work is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a new series based on Martin's Dunk and Egg novellas. Set a century before Game of Thrones, the show will follow unlikely duo Ser Duncan the Tall and his young squire Egg. "It’s as faithful as an adaptation as a reasonable man could hope for (and you all know how incredibly reasonable I am on that particular subject)," the author recently said on his blog.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is expected to arrive on HBO and Max in late 2025. In the meantime, check out our guide to other most exciting new TV shows to add to your watchlist this year.

DC Pride 2025 is a one-shot featuring work from a host of acclaimed creators, including Tim Sheridan, Vita Ayala, Josh Trujillo, Skylar Patridge, A.L. Kaplan, Max Sarin, and more. Where previous editions of the DC Pride series have opted for a traditional anthology format, this year's release will instead tell a "singular story arc of interweaving narratives," according to DC.

In the issue, heroes gather when a Gotham City tavern that has become the center of queer life in the city unexpectedly closes. "It's a huge loss to the community, and generations of patrons return to pay respects to a space they've endowed with entire lifetimes of memories, wishes, and dreams – including Alan Scott, the Green Lantern," reveals DC's press release. "Alan returns, for one last time, to the place he fell for his first love, Johnny Ladd, to touch the wall on which they carved the symbol of their love, to remember the days before everything went to hell for them...and to say goodbye."

You can check out Kris Anka's main cover for DC Pride 2025 in the gallery below, plus a couple of variants by Julia Reck and Jack Hughes.

"DC Pride 2025 is a celebration of life, love and the power of community – even and especially in uncertain times," says Tim Sheridan, writer of the much-loved Alan Scott: The Green Lantern. "The roster of talent shaping this story is as epic as the story itself – so all I can say is buckle up for big action, bigger fun, and the biggest stakes yet. This book, as it has been in years past, is a way to reach out to our community and remind them we're all in this together."

Maw creator Jude Ellison S. Doyle, who is collaborating with artist Alex Moore,  revealed that Blue Snowman, a character originally devised by Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston and artist Harry G. Peter, will play a part in the new book. "It is such a huge honor to be part of the story DC has been telling. And to help Josh Trujillo bring new character Ethan Rivera – along with my own personal soulmate and/or best friend, trans icon Blue Snowman – into this universe. It's also my first chance to work with A.L. Kaplan since Maw, and he's a future legend who continues to awe me with his work. It was just really great, and healing, to hang out with a bunch of queer people and make some comics, and I could not have hoped to meet a more talented group of people."

"What made this project extra special to me," says New Mutants writer Vita Ayala, "was the way that the collaboration of creating the anthology almost mirrors the framework and ultimate solution of the metaphor at the heart of it. We got together in a (virtual) room, each with ideas for our own piece of the narrative, and at the end of the time we had interwoven our stories in ways that make it hard to tell where one person's contribution ends and another begins. We approached the work as collaborators, and ended up creating a community space that (we hope) welcomes everyone in from the cold, no matter what door (or which individual short story) people came through."

Also coming from DC this year is the latest edition of DC Pride: To the Farthest Reaches – a hardcover book in which "DC's beloved queer characters take readers on a raucous tour through the Fourth World, Naltor, A-Town, the Phantom Zone, Portworld, the Oblivion Bar, and more in a volume that celebrates how the LGBTQIA+ community is everywhere and belongs anywhere – even the very farthest reaches of the universe."

The book collects last year's DC Pride 2024, plus additional stories spotlighting queer characters from creators including Phil Jimenez, Al Ewing, Ngozi Ukazu, Nicole Maines, Stephen Byrne, Claire Roe, Giulio Macaione, and more.

DC Pride Box Set, meanwhile, collects the first three hardcover volumes of the DC Pride series, bringing together more than 70 stories in one place. The set features a starry line-up of creators that includes Grant Morrison, James Tynion IV, Mariko Tamaki, Nicole Maines, Trung Le Nguyen, Klaus Janson, Vita Ayala, Zoe Thorogood, and more. Also included is a tribute to the great comics creator Rachel Pollack, as well as Batman: The Animated Series actor Kevin Conroy's autobiographical comic, 'Finding Batman.'

Finally, Pride month will also be celebrated across several of DC's monthly comics throughout June with themed variant covers for Detective Comics #1098 (Stephen Byrne), Harley Quinn #52, Poison Ivy #34 (Betsy Cola), Justice League Unlimited #8 (Hayden Sherman), JSA #6 (Don Aguillo), Superman #27 (Rachael Stott), and Wonder Woman #22 (Kevin Wada).

DC Pride Box Set is published by DC on May 27. DC Pride 2025 follows on June 4, with DC Pride: To the Farthest Reaches landing on June 17.

Read up on some of the most iconic LGBTQIA+ superheroes in comics.

Mat Piscatella, an industry analyst at Circana posts on Bluesky that "it's impossible to selectively 'find' and fund the one next massive viral hit indie game." When a game like Balatro sells over 5 million copies, publishers obviously want to find the next one, but who would have predicted a poker roguelite would be nominated at The Game Awards?

"'Find the next Balatro' – c'mon now," Piscatella adds. "Fund a bunch of new games and hope to stumble upon the next big thing that the dumb money will chase after it's been released." I agree. I'm no CEO, but I think it makes more sense to fund lots of small games and hope one of them hits the big leagues rather than pumping all that money into one game that's just trying to capitalize on a trend.

Indie dev Rami Ismail posts: "All advice is bad, but not meaningless," and claims people can look to others for inspiration, but "treating advice as dogma" isn't the way to succeed.

LocalThunk himself replies: "I really hate when people in my position don't see the absurd bias we have – it's useless for me to give out advice because all I have is one data point. I spoke about this in my first blog post. I'll share what I do/did, not preach that everyone should do it too."

The video game industry moves rapidly, and what worked for one developer or team one year isn't guaranteed to work for somebody else the next year.

The reverse is true too. Some games are ahead of their time. Think about Brink, the multiplayer parkour FPS that launched during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, when online capabilities weren't as good as they are now. It bombed, but I bet it would kill it today.

While you're here, check out all the must-play indie games from 2024 and marvel at how different and wonderful they all are.

The studio moved away from the titular white dog-spirit-thing to create a Diablo-esque action RPG – No Rest for the Wicked – which launched into early access last year. The game was published by 2K Games’ subsidiary Private Division, but after 2K sold the publishing arm (which resulted in the closure of Roll7 and Intercept Games), many were unsure about how things would pan out for the game, especially since the studio went silent for several months. However, it’s good news as Moon Studios has announced it’s now fully independent and has secured the publishing rights for No Rest for the Wicked.

In a brand new episode of the Wicked Inside Showcase, Moon Studios explained that the sale of Private Division spurred the studio to start "months of negotiation" to buy the rights to No Rest for the Wicked. And this isn’t an announcement of intent; Moon Studios’ co-founder Thomas Mahler confirmed that the deal is done and that the studio is now "fully independent."

However, the studio wasn’t just sitting on its hands while negotiations were going on, with co-founder Gennadiy Korol saying, "We’ve used this extra time to create something truly special," before introducing the game’s latest update, ‘The Breach.’ The new update – launching on April 30, 2025 – is set to bring pretty much more of everything to the game. New areas like the Lowland Meadows and Marin Woods, new weapon archetypes with Gauntlets and Wands, as well as some visual and performance upgrades.

However, it’s the refinements and emphasis on replayability that make the update more exciting, giving a ton of quality-of-life updates like being able to teleport directly to your house and an overhauled storage system. On top of that, there’s a new Hardcore mode to give those of you looking for a challenge a new reason to go back to the game.

Alongside the new split from Private Division, Moon Studios is getting back together with Ori and the Blind Forest composer Gareth Coker, who has contributed some new tunes to No Rest for the Wicked’s The Breach update.

Gareth Coker is also contributing music to Dotemu’s recently announced roguelike brawler Absolum, which is set to launch later this year.

Taking to Reddit, anthonystrader18 asked users who they'd add to the lineup if they had a choice, and it turns out that many people had the same suggestions. The most common picks were Emil Blonsky AKA Abomination (Tim Roth), Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl), and Jessica Jones' character Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor), who isn't canonically a part of the MCU currently – with a few others wanting Marc Spector AKA Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac) in the mix.

"Zemo for the sake of having more Zemo, but I think MCU Zemo would be more focused on killing the whole team," wrote one fan. "Trish would be cool. Frank would be overkill. Bullseye is a menace, you can't control him."

"Abomination makes the most MCU sense. Moon Knight would be a fun addition though," said another, as a third agreed: "Abomination. I think he'd fit the 'lost person looking for a purpose' role pretty nicely."

"Trish is a superhuman, has no issue killing people and is also (in the nicest way possible) kinda dumb. So she's perfect for the team," replied a fourth.

"Trish and Blonsky are the ones that I think would make the most sense narratively, they could both be feasibly redeemed to the point where antihero or semi-hero, whatever you want to call that grey area, would be comfortable for their character," another chimed in. "While mixing in Frank or Dex would give potential for awesome sequences, it would make no sense - Frank especially. I cannot imagine a world where Frank is taking orders from anyone in government, given his history and character development in his show and in Daredevil."

Deadpool characters Vanessa Carlysle, though they name-dropped her Marvel Comics persona Hellcat specifically, and Peter were mentioned, too, as was unexpected She-Hulk standout Madisynn.

Check out some more suggestions below...

Comment from r/marvelstudios

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Comment from r/marvelstudios

Comment from r/marvelstudios

Starring the likes of Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, and Florence Pugh, Thunderbolts* sees unlikely do-gooders Yelena Bolova, Bucky Barnes, John Walker, Taskmaster, and Ghost brought together by Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Val to carry out dangerous on behalf of the government. Olga Kurylenko, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman and round out the main cast.

Set to round up Marvel Phase 5, Thunderbolts* arrives in theaters on May 2. While we wait, check out our guide to all the other new superhero movies heading our way.

As the lengthy wait for Patch 8 rolls on, the RPG's cast is making appearances at conventions like Seattle's recent Emerald City Comic Con. While there, Astarion actor Neil Newbon came face to face with a Funko Pop figure of his character – one that's about five feet tall – alongside Shadowheart voice Jennifer English and Lae'zel actor Devora Wilde. The cast can be seen posing beside the Funko masterpiece on Instagram, with Newbon looking to be in awe.

"Wow, it's amazing," laughs Newbon, beholding the massive figure. "It's ridiculous!" The actor then falls into character, leaning against the adorably intimidating Astarion Funko: "Hello, darling. Hi, how are you?"

Before he can continue, the rest of the cast, along with performance director Aliona Baranova, enters to poke fun at the figure. "As if your ego isn't big enough," jests English, holding the Funko's hand.

She proceeds to ask the question all Shadowheart stans are probably asking, too: "Where's Shadowheart?" Wilde chimes in, "Where's Lae'zel?" As a dedicated Baldur's Gate 3 stan myself, I'm inclined to agree – in fact, where's Gale? Wyll? Halsin? Karlach? We need more behemoth figures of characters from Larian Studios' Dungeons & Dragons RPG, stat – and none of the $22,000 sex doll variety, preferably.

The Baldur's Gate 3-arization of Dungeons & Dragons continues as Astarion gets 2 official mentions in the new source books

Directed by Tucker & Dale vs. Evil helmer Eli Craig, the movie is based on the novel of the same name by Adam Cesare and made by the same production company behind the Smile franchise. The film follows teenager Quinn (Katie Douglas), who moves to a small town in Missouri after the death of her mother. Their fresh start is disrupted, however, when the town's mascot Frendo the Clown begins to wreak bloody havoc on its residents.

"#ClownInACornfield was fucking spectacular!" tweeted one viewer. "Paving the way for a new generation of slashers! A new era and I’m here for it. A gruesome, wild and chaotic bloodbath! Amazing cast and a premise that will shock people! A huge win for horror fans! Folks are gonna lose their minds!"

"CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is a movie every horror head out there needs to watch, from the off the wall kills to the laugh out loud self-aware comedy," wrote another. "Katie Douglas is a subtle scream queen but when her moments take center stage, she rocks. Also watch out Terrifier, Frendo is here."

"CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD starts off as a classic slasher, playing into the genre’s time-tested tropes, and does a pretty great job of it. But then, it takes a clever turn into something quite unexpected I haven’t quite seen before, all while still honoring the genre’s traditions," someone else posted.

"CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is one of the best slashers of the decade, full stop," another viewer wrote. Masterfully emulates the key genre gears but also does something I’ve never seen before (holy shit). Ferocious kills, sharp humor, and a powerful message at its core. This one is special."

"#ClownInACornfield is a slasher comedy w/ some really nice surprises in store," said someone else. "It’s a very conventional killer clown movie…UNTIL IT’S NOT! If you enjoyed Tucker & Dale Vs Evil, this is the same director mixing more thrills & scares into his proven comedic chops."

Clown in a Cornfield hits the big screen on May 9. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other biggest upcoming horror movies on the way in 2025.

The movie stars The White Lotus actor Meghann Fahy as Violet, a single mother who goes on a date with Yellowstone actor Brandon Sklenar's Henry. While she's on it, Violet is terrorised with a series of anonymous drops on her phone, threatening her sister and her son. They'll only survive, they tell her, if she follows a series of instructions, including killing her date.

The Hollywood Reporter's Lovia Gyarkye writes: "Landon’s command of suspense, coupled with a compelling romantic thread and delightful performances from Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar, make Drop a solid popcorn movie"

Meanwhile, The Guardian's Adrian Horton gives it four out of five stars, writing: "I have a special place in my heart for a movie that knows what it is, doesn’t mislead and delivers accordingly in a tight 90 minutes. Drop, as indicated by title and trailer, is a one-room thriller for the digital natives."

Collider critic Nate Richard awards it eight out of ten, concluding: "While there are plenty of thrillers that excel at keeping things ambiguous, Drop is not that kind of movie. It's the perfect date-night movie, one that will have your audience gasping, laughing, and interacting with the screen."

Not everyone is convinced though, with The Wrap's Chase Hutchinson writing: "It may be just slick enough in small slivers to win some over, but audiences should raise their standards for what they get out of this date. If you were out for dinner with this movie, you’d likely find yourself wondering when the check would finally arrive so you could go out and have a more fun time elsewhere."

Drop hits theaters on April 11. For more, check out all the upcoming horror movies coming in 2025 and beyond.

Revealed today, Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE is bringing back the beloved, classic gameplay consisting of "roll katamari into objects, create increasingly massive orb" that everyone has loved for over 20 years, except this time there's a modern twist, with the focus being on building the King of All Cosmos's livestreaming career. No, really – an Apple blog post announcing the game reveals that creating stars from rolled up stuff will "energize" his streams. It adds: "As users advance, comments from in-game fans appear, and the longer they play, the larger their audience grows."

You can see this in action in the screenshots on its App Store page – TikTok-esque comments appear down the right side of the screen as you play, which say everything from "roll up more plz" to "I stan the King" and "why was this in my recommendations?" It's very silly, but I honestly love it – the fact that we've been waiting so long for a new game makes it all the more exciting, too. It was late 2017 when the last totally new game – the endless runner mobile title Amazing Katamari Damacy – released worldwide, and since then, we've only had a couple of remasters. However, this all makes the fact that Rolling LIVE is an Apple Arcade exclusive all the more unfortunate.

Apple Arcade subscribers across Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV will be able to play Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE when it launches on April 3, but those on other platforms are all out of luck. With that being said, not all hope is lost. After all, Hello Kitty Island Adventure launched as an Apple Arcade exclusive in 2023 before it eventually made its way to Switch and PC earlier this year (and the lives of Sanrio fans everywhere are much better for it). With that in mind, hopefully the new Katamari game might just be taking a temporary pit stop here before rolling onto different platforms in the future.

Be sure to keep up with everything releasing this year and beyond in our roundup of new games.

The episode, 'Lois C.K.,' centers on Lois becoming a comedian. During one of her sets, a crowd-member stands out among the positive reception, clapping and laughing along. He's a recurring background gag, simply known as the Fat Laughing Clapping Guy, who’s made extremely sporadic appearances over the direction of the TV series.

His first recorded occurrence was back in season 5, where he showed up in episode 6. He did so again the same season, in episodes 10 and 23. He had similar regularity in seasons 6 and 7, making surprise appearances to, well, laugh and clap.

Then he gradually disappeared, being drawn into scenes in season 8 and 13 without his usual boisterous nature. He's been absent ever since, relegated to the vault of Family Guy obscurity, the fodder of aficionados and quiz questions on the minutiae of television in the 2000s and 2010s.

Until now, that is. The Fat Laughing Clapping Guy is back where he belongs, jovially providing applause with his signature guffaw to the occasional scene involving the Griffins in some capacity or another. This season was part of Family Guy's 25th anniversary, perhaps adding to why such a deep-cut got aired out.

Maybe Seth MacFarlane missed him, or maybe someone in the writers room wanted someone in the crowd to add a little heft to the scene, creating the perfect time for this man’s resurgence. Whichever it is, we have one request: Don't make it another 11 years. Peruse our list of new TV shows for more obscure legends in the making.

At The Game Awards last year, Vincke gave a speech addressing the state of the industry, calling out everyone, including publishers. "I've been fighting with publishers my entire life, and I keep on seeing the same mistakes, over and over and over," he said. "It's always the quarterly profits. The only thing that matters is the numbers."

As it would happen, it's not only Vincke who feels that way. Talking to PCGamer, Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley says the story was "very much" familiar to him too. "It cuts across every industry," Kingsley says. "But I am aware a lot of my colleagues get frustrated from time to time by people who are potentially very good managers but aren't specialists in the computer games area.

"There are horror stories of people having external producers saying, 'Look, you just need to make fewer bugs, because then it'll be faster to make.' And everybody's going 'Yeah, you're right, yeah. We really shouldn't have decided to put 1,500 bugs in'."

It is, indeed, a rough climate in which to release games. Vincke's comments came off the back of a year stuffed with studio closures and headcount reductions showing little signs of slowing down. It all comes from a myriad of economic elements, sure, though the chase of infinite growth and short-sightedness among many decision-makers does little to help the situation.

Despite it all, Rebellion's next effort, Atomfall, will be released on March 25.

Playing Atomfall for 90 minutes booted me out of my comfort zone more than any other survival action game, and that's a very good thing.

"For 2026," Blizzard says in a press release, "alongside BlizzCon staples like Opening Ceremony, in-depth panels, the Darkmoon Faire, friendly competition, hands-on gameplay, and more, we aim to meaningfully elevate this iconic celebration and create an unforgettable experience for all who take part in it."

The initial announcement is light on concrete details about what any of that means in practice, but the announcement comes just ahead of a SXSW panel featuring Blizzard president Johanna Faries, which may provide some additional detail on what to expect. You can also expect a sure-to-be exciting dive into "how long-lasting IPs continue to excite audiences and build communities."

BlizzCon was first held back in 2005, and with just a couple of exceptions ran annually through 2019. The event was naturally canceled amid the COVID pandemic in 2020, returning as an online-only event in 2021 – only to be canceled again in 2022. It came back in 2023, got canceled again in 2024, and obviously today's announcement means there will be no BlizzCon 2025, either.

With the likes of World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch, Blizzard still operates some of the most popular games in the world, but somewhere between the debacles of Warcraft 3 Reforged and Diablo Immortal – plus the mediocre response to some of the studio's bigger releases – it's safe to say the shine of that fandom has worn off in recent years.

But hey, nowadays World of Warcraft seems to be on an upswing, recent Diablo 4 updates have been well-received, and Overwatch 2 is clawing its reputation back one Steam review at a time. Here's hoping that momentum continues into 2026.

Diablo 4's second expansion won't come out until 2026.

Without much time to consider your options or really process what's unfolding, you're pushed to act fast. I can remember every instinct in me screaming against it. I felt uncomfortable, torn, and utterly at a loss as to whether I should follow Cerys' instructions, but I was living for it. On the surface, it seems like an unforgivable act, one that no one in their right mind would want to ever commit. But as with all choices in The Witcher 3, you never quite know what will lead to the best outcome, or whether or not you're doing the "right" thing. And that's the crucial point. There are so many scenarios that throw your very notion of right from wrong out of the window, because the choices you can make frequently straddle the line in between.

You're often asked to do what you think is best in a world that's varying moral shades of grey over clear cut black and white. It's those shades of grey that make The Witcher 3 one of the best RPGs around, and I've been reminded of that fact thanks to Avowed and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. While Obsidian and Warhorse's adventures offer up distinctive RPG flavors of their own, they too present questlines and choices that teeter on the edge of moral ambiguity.

Ends justify the means

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, in many ways, is about survival and what you're willing to do in the name of it. Sometimes that means toeing the line between right and wrong in favor of making the best of any given situation. The medieval world is unforgiving, brutal, and will do everything it can to push you to retaliate in kind. Early on, committing crimes is constantly dangled in front of you as a man of no means, but the dubious dealings keep coming your way even when you have groschen to your name. Of course, you have the freedom to choose not to do them, but the world will also toy with your ideals, make you question what you're doing, and sometimes lead you to do things that, in my case, I'm not always completely comfortable with in the hopes of finding a peaceful resolution in the bigger picture – not unlike The Witcher 3.

When it comes to morally grey scenarios that test me, the quest Necessary Evil immediately comes to mind. Just before you go down to a chamber holding prisoners that you're about to interrogate and torture to get information for a lord, Hans says a line to Henry that turns out to be pretty pertinent: "You know how they say, ''The ends justify the means'? That applies exactly to our situation." As it turns out, that statement could arguably be applied to a lot of situations you're faced with in Bohemia, but it's especially true in this questline.

While I try my best to avoid outright torturing the men being held captive, I do get a little rough, threatening and harranging them both until I get what I need. During the whole ordeal, I constantly question what I'm doing, with no way of knowing where this is all leading or if I'm going too far, which immediately reminds me of the questionable choice in Geralt's curse-lifting quest. Just as the outcomes in The Witcher 3 are full of twists and unexpected turns, my actions in the torture chamber – as unpleasant as they are – actually allow me to prevent further bloodshed later on. I'm still not exactly sure "good" really means in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, but I love it all the more for the way it pushes me to examine my choices.

Two sides of the same coin

While there's thankfully no torture to worry about in Avowed, Obsidian's RPG constantly pushes you to think about where your loyalties lie and which side of yourself you want to listen to or lean into more. As both an Envoy of Adeyr who's tasked by the emperor to look into the plague spreading across the Living Lands, you're also trying to piece together more about the mysterious deity who blessed you as a godlike. There's a constant tension between the two sides of yourself, and it really is a role-playing dream to be able to approach situations that can feed into either side, or even in some cases, both aspects of yourself.

But this divide does often mean that I've constantly been questioning if there is a "good side" in the world of Eora. Will Adyr's influence actually benefit the Living Lands or do more harm? Can the god who speaks to me in my dreams be trusted? Or are they actually planning something nefarious? As these questions constantly shape my experience in Avowed, there are also lots of choices that tap into the ethically-ambiguous magic of The Witcher 3, with one major choice pushing me to question if there's even such a thing as the "right choice" in this story, and that's what constantly makes it so compelling.

In fact, my companion Giatta echoed this sentiment to me recently in the wake of one of my choices. "I don't believe there's a right or wrong choice to make here. Just the one you believe in". That idea, right there, is stuff dreams are made of in RPGs. Sometimes your decisions won't always lead to the best outcome, and maybe the outcome was less than ideal, but when you're thrown into morally grey scenarios with no cut and dry answer in terms of good vs evil, you just have to go with your gut. Just as I choose to trust Cerys, I choose to trust that I can help Eora by trusting this mysterious patron god.

I've always been a huge fan of the way The Witcher 3 and its world deals in shades of grey. You may not always know where your decision will lead you, and your own morals will be tested, but everything you do will be far more memorable because of it.

I'm obsessed with Avowed's made-up curse words, which have a surprisingly practical purpose in the world of Eora.

"I believe that she's very involved," Ridley told The Direct. "I think there was reporting that was not true. So yeah, very [involved]."

Kennedy herself has debunked rumors of her imminent retirement. "The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring. I will never retire from movies. I will die making movies. That is the first thing that’s important to say. I am not retiring," she said.

"What's happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with both Bob and Alan about what eventual succession might look like," she continued. "We have an amazing bench of people here, and we have every intention of making an announcement months or a year down the road," she explained. "We are in lockstep as to what that's going to be, and I am continuing. I'm producing the Mandalorian movie right now, and I'm also producing Shawn Levy's movie, which is after that."

As for the Rey movie, it recently gained a new writer following Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight's departure – George Nolfi will now pen the script, while Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is still on board to direct. There's no release date just yet.

Next up for Star Wars is Andor season 2, which arrives this April 23. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows for everything else the galaxy far, far away has in store.

Dino Patti, co-founder of Playdead and an executive producer on both Limbo and Inside writes: "My old partner has threatened me with an IP lawsuit because I used a publicly available picture, in a LinkedIn post three months ago, of the game Limbo that we created at Playdead together. Arnt, last time you tried to bully me, I told you I’d make it public."

The Arnt he's referring to is Arnt Jensen, a former IO Interactive developer who co-founded Playdead with Patti and is the director of Limbo and Inside. Patti addresses him directly and claims the "hard truth" is: "You know I was a significant part of building Playdead from the ground up—I know it too. Those first years were a battle like no other. We fought, built, and pushed through together. Without me, Playdead wouldn’t have existed. That’s not ego. That's a fact [...] You can’t rewrite the past just because of a bad breakup."

Patti is no longer at Playdead. He left in 2016 after the launch of Inside and created his own studio, Jumpship, which released Somerville in 2022. Playdead is working on its third game. Since the split, it seems Patti's role at Playdead has been downplayed, and he writes, "You [Arnt] have a gift. You are a genius. I know you refuse to recognize my role—or anyone else’s. That isn’t just a flaw in leadership. It’s a flaw in character."

Playdead has responded in a statement to Game Developer, writing: "We have found it necessary to take this action to protect our trademarks and copyrights, which are essential to Playdead's business and reputation."

Patti concludes his LinkedIn post with the following plea: "Arnt, please stop the bullying. I will not stop being who I am."

While you're here, check out some of the must-play indie games of 2024 that you may have missed. Hopefully they don't come with as many arguments attached.

This is a truly wild price tag for a board game and so very few people have actually had the opportunity to sit down and experience it. However, the game documentation indicates that it has social deduction elements and sees players use VK monitor readings to suss out which of their party is secretly a replicant.

If your current budget doesn’t quite stretch to you forking out half a grand for a chunk of cinema history but you’d still like a healthy heaping of sci-fi detective vibes at your next game night, there are a couple of worthwhile options to pursue.

If your idea of fun is diving deep into the best tabletop RPGs, the folks at Free League have you covered. As we laid out in our review of the Blade Runner RPG Starter Set, this is one of the most exciting and faithful homages to the Blade Runner series. Set between Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049, this is the best way to live out your neo-noir fantasy. Using the accessible but rewarding Year Zero system, the Blade Runner RPG is suited to everyone from tabletop newbies to die-hard hobbyists. How beautifully serendipitous is it that it’s currently $10 off? If this sounds like your jam, you can get the Blade Runner RPG Starter Set for $39.99 on Amazon.

If you’re just looking for a quick board game that recreates the tense interrogation of Blade Runner’s Voight-Kampff test, Inhuman Conditions should totally be your speed. It’s a free two-player social deduction game from the creators of Secret Hitler, where you take up the role of an Investigator and attempt to discern if your suspect is a human or a robot through strange and subjective roleplay questions. Simply print and play the rules from the designers’ site (or pick up a physical copy on eBay if you really fall in love with it) and begin the careful work of grilling your friends – or are they merely replicants who look like your friends?

For more suggestions on what to add to your shelves, why not check out the best card games or best two player board games?

"Natasha is dead. She is dead. She's dead. Okay?," she told InStyle, leaving no room for argument.

"They just don't want to believe it," Johansson added, talking about Marvel fans. "They're like, 'But she could come back!' Look, I think the balance of the entire universe is held in her hand. We're going to have to let it go. She saved the world. Let her have her hero moment."

Indeed, Natasha Romanoff died as a hero in Avengers: Endgame when she sacrificed herself to obtain the Soul Stone, which was essential to undo the consequences of Thanos' snap.

Zoe Saldaña's Gamora was killed in that same place in Vormir during the events of Avengers: Infinity War, but the character was brought back not long after from an alternate timeline. It doesn't seem like anything like that will ever happen with Natasha, as Scarlett Johansson is clearly not open to the idea of reprising her character.

"I’m done. Chapter is over. I did all that I had to do. Also coming back and playing a character again and again, over a decade of time, is such a unique experience," she told MCU co-star Gwyneth Paltrow on her episode of the Goop Podcast in 2023.

With her MCU era definitely closed, the Oscar-nominated actress is joining another legendary franchise this summer. Johansson stars alongside Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali in Jurassic World: Rebirth, a new instalment in the Jurassic Park saga set five years after Jurassic World Dominion.

Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters on July 2. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025 and beyond, or, check out our complete list of movie release dates.

By freeing the Lenovo Legion Go S from the gimmicky removable controllers and needlessly large screen, the company has created the device I wanted back in 2023. Had I ended up testing the SteamOS version first, I’d likely be about to dive into one of the next best gaming handheld options. Instead, I’m looking at a device that has unbalanced specs, plenty of Windows 11 caveats, and a dreadful $729 price tag. That inflated MSRP is actually tied to a weird specific US decision to only sell the 32GB / 1TB version, as those of you in the UK can pick up the 16GB / 512GB model for £549. Hmm.

Even the base model is more than what I’d want to pay now that I’ve tested the Lenovo Legion Go S. In a nutshell, its new AMD Ryzen Z2 GO chip shares more similarities with the custom chip in the Steam Deck OLED than the Ryzen Z1 Extreme within the OG Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with that, but if I’m being real, you can’t slap a premium price tag on a handheld wrestling within the sub $400 ring.

Design

Let me make one thing clear – the Lenovo Legion Go S gets almost full marks for design. It almost feels like someone listened to me moan about the original’s laptop vibes, as this model packs an 8-inch IPS display into a much sleeker package. Gone are the removable TrueStrike controllers, aggressive angles, and smooth plastics of the OG portable. Instead, we have plenty of ergonomic curves, pleasing grippy texturized sides, and far nicer buttons than last time around.

It’d be weird if the ‘S’ Legion Go didn’t weigh less, but I’m pleased to report it’s 740g (1.63lbs). That’s a noticeable difference compared to the 854g (1.88lbs) weighing down the original, even if it’s still a chonker compared to the 580g Asus ROG Ally. Shifting the heat naturally helps the handheld feel nicer to hold, especially when paired with a slimmer back and more pronounced grips.

The main thing that gave me the ick with the original Legion Go was how hollow the back felt. It’s a design choice that’s often the result of cooling techniques, and while the S model also has big vent grills at the back, there’s far less space between the innards and shell. Perhaps I’m being picky, but I like handhelds to feel pretty compacted, and this new version feels just as solid as the ROG Ally in that regard.

I’d argue that the biggest improvement to be found with the Legion Go S is on the gamepad side of things. Lenovo has gone back to the drawing board with all of its buttons, resulting in more tactile thumbsticks, a drastically improved circular d-pad, a thoughtfully placed set of back toggles, and decent shoulder buttons. The only element that’s still not quite to my liking is the shallower-than-average face buttons, but even those are pretty serviceable and not what I’d call a deal breaker.

You’ll perhaps have noticed that I said the Legion Go S almost gets the design right. That’s largely because I’m a little miffed at the tiny touchpad that’s included for mouse inputs. The sensation of using this thing is a bit like the little keyboard nipple included with classic IBM Thinkpads, and that’s sort of amusing since Lenovo now owns that brand. Simply put, the pad is so small that moving the handheld’s cursor around Windows 11 is more frustrating than convenient, and I’d rather just use the joysticks to click around the OS when needed.

On the aesthetic front, the Legion Go S is rocking a new white shell with contrasting black buttons. The accents prevent it from looking too clinical, but you can bet this handheld will end up pretty grubby and prone to marks. That’s less a criticism of Lenovo’s newfound tastes and more a fact of owning lighter colored devices, and it could be another reason to wait for the “Nebula Violet” SteamOS version.

Features

Gaming handhelds and flamboyant features go hand in hand, and while the Legion Go S cuts back on gimmicks, it comes with a few new tricks. Some of its evolved elements feel a little lacklustre, like that comically small touchpad, but the new all-in-one design has allowed for an adjustable trigger system that adds a nice hint of versatility.

Lenovo isn’t first out the door with adjustable handheld triggers, that accolade goes to the Zotac Zone,but it’s a feature that will help make the system more comfortable for a bunch of players, including myself. Sometimes, clicky hair trigger presses are a much better fit and can save larger handhelds from feeling unbalanced in the hands, whereas I’ve got friends who can’t stand not having full action when playing shooters. I’d personally rather click shots in Cyberpunk 2077 and save full presses for racing games or scenarios that need sustained input, but everyone will have different tastes when it comes to portable play.

On the connectivity front, the Legion Go S is armed with two USB-C ports, which is slowly becoming a standard at this point. The idea here is that you’ll be able to charge up that chonky 55.5Whr battery while hooking up a gaming monitor using DisplayPort 1.4 output. I’m in two minds over whether this is actually useful, as you’re still going to want one of the best Steam Deck docks if you’re aiming for full integration with your desktop accessories, but it will mean you don’t need any add-ons out of the box for quickly hooking up to a gaming TV.

I can take an extra USB-C port, but I’ll absolutely leave features like a dual array built-in mic. Maybe I’m a grump who just has no friends to talk to, or maybe I’m just struggling to see why you’d use something like that over a gaming headset on a handheld. Either way, squeezing audio capture into a device like this feels like it’d impact the end cost, and I’d skip on it even if it only cut Lenovo’s MSRP down by a few dollars. Simply put, don’t stick needless extras in your handheld if it’s already sitting at a risky price point.

Technically, Windows 11 is also a “feature”, even if it’s one I think sours the experience. Perhaps that’s a bit harsh since we’re talking about an OS that’ll allow you to run practically any game your PC can, but it’s still nowhere near being handheld friendly, even with Lenovo’s LegionSpace app attempting to bridge gaps.

It doesn’t help that the version of Microsoft’s operating system installed feels immensely bloated and has some irritating tweaks enabled, like a taskbar that’ll auto-hide no matter what you tell it. Plus, vital elements like sleep mode are janky at best and unusable at worst, with the Legion Go S outright refusing to properly nap when plugged in. These flaws aren’t even just an inherent part of the Windows 11 handheld experience, as rivals like the Ayaneo Flip DS and other similar devices come with far less frustration before launching into games.

That’s not to say Lenovo isn’t trying to enhance its Windows 11 experience, and LegionSpace has come a long way since 2023. It still doesn’t do enough to stop me immediately launching into Steam Big Picture mode, and the side quick settings menu is unsettlingly temperamental and laggy. I’m also not a fan of Lenovo thrusting its digital game store in your face rather than providing a clearer hub. But, it’s pleasant enough to navigate when the itch to change RGB thumbstick colors or play with in-depth power settings arises.

Performance

Price and performance go hand in hand, and oh boy, the Legion Go S doesn’t punch like a $729 handheld. Frankly, launching into a new generation with the Ryzen Z2 Go was pretty foolish of Lenovo, as I knew it wouldn’t come close to matching the Z1 Extreme based on its specs. Now that I’ve taken the handheld for a proper spin, I can confidently say that it should be trading blows with the Steam Deck in the sub-$500 ring, as its benchmarks get bludgeoned to a pulp in the premium pit.

I kicked things off by running a few test games at 800p on the Legion Go S to see how it directly compares to the Steam Deck. The handheld managed at 45fps average while running Cyberpunk 2077 with low settings enabled, which isn’t atrocious at a glance. My issue is that it’s not a huge uplift compared to Valve’s handheld, as the Deck reaches 43fps in the same test scenario. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t smell like a $729 boost.

Hitman 3 still stresses out entry-level PCs to this day, so I always install it on new handhelds. The Legion Go S managed to nudge playable results by sticking to around 41fps at 800p. The Deck isn’t far behind with a 36fps average and, while it’s still a win for Lenovo, it’s not what I’d call a graceful victory.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider manages to fare well on the Legion Go S with a 70fps average – a nice lead compared to 53fps on the Deck. A nicer result, but one that’s worth paying over $300 more for? I don’t even have to say it. Keep in mind that these benchmarks are designed to squeeze the highest frame rates possible out of the handheld, and unplugging the system and using it at lower wattage naturally produces far lower results.

Stepping away from the Steam Deck fight and focusing on the Lenovo Legion Go S vs the original is even more harrowing. If my figures reaffirm anything, it’s that the new handheld is very much a light version of the OG, despite technically using a next-gen Ryzen APU. You’re looking at 25fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1200p versus 38fps on the 2023 model, and Hitman 3 widens the gap further with respective 34fps and 51fps results.

Not to pile on Lenovo’s device, but there is another huge issue with this handheld – it wields next-gen hardware without solving our current battery dilemma. I could look past Steam Deck-level frame rates if I could grab the Legion Go S for $400, but the closer I get to the $1,000 mark, the more I’m going to expect an fps boost with runtime to match. Not only are you not getting the same frame rates as the original Legion Go, but you’re only going to be cutting the cord for the same length of time as Valve’s portable.

In proper gameplay sessions, and with brightness sitting half way, the Legion Go S lasted around 1.5 hours. That was my average when exclusively adventuring around in new releases like Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Avowed, but I managed to keep the portable running for around 3 hours when wrestling with Windows 11. You’ll realistically be looking at that latter figure if you set “Thermal Mode” to Balanced and mix up playing games with general use activities, which is similar to my experience with the Steam Deck OLED.

At this point, I feel like I’m bullying the Legion Go S, so I’ll touch on another con followed up with some praise. The first is that Lenovo’s handheld likes to get noisy, and its fans are noticeably louder than the Steam Deck OLED or the ROG Ally. It’s not as intrusive if you keep your wattage down low, but that’s not going to do the Ryzen Z2 GO APU any favors.

On the other hand, that promised praise relates to the 1200p 120Hz IPS display and its accompanying speakers. The screen’s nice contrast levels, decent brightness, and respectable colors cheered me up during testing, while the surprisingly punchy front-firing speakers helped mask fan noise without remotely sounding tinny.

I found myself pretty absorbed in the Souls-like indie caper FlyKnight while testing the Lenovo Legion Go S, and it's a good example of a scenario where performance, refresh rate, and resolution all feel like a good fit, even if running a game that takes visual queues from old Runescape isn't exactly a feat.

If the device was even just a bit more powerful than the OG Legion Go, I could see myself using it over an OLED handheld even if it meant compromising on vibrancy. I do rank Lenovo's choice of display among the best within the portable PC scene right now, and while not convinced we need to be pairing lower spec Ryzen chips with anything over 1080p, playing lighter romps at 1200p does produce crisp visuals.

Should you buy the Lenovo Legion Go S?

No, you shouldn’t buy the Lenovo Legion Go S right now. Trust me when I say it pains me to say that, as I fully believe that the cheaper SteamOS version will make for a great Steam Deck when it eventually arrives. I actually think the Windows 11 model could have ranked among the top premium handhelds if it wasn’t rocking that underwhelming Ryzen Z2 GO chip. But alas, this specific device isn’t worth $729, and there are countless options you could pick up for a chunk less that pack a more appropriate frame rate punch.

Ultimately, the Lenovo Legion Go S is a contradiction. Its name suggests it’s a light version of the first model, but its price and additional specs point towards it being a successor. My heart aches for this mixed up handheld and, since I truly believe the company is onto a winner with this formfactor, I hope its blueprint helps the eventual SteamOS model thrive soon.

How I tested the Lenovo Legion Go S

I used the Lenovo Legion Go S as my everyday handheld to assess its performance, battery life, visuals, and audio in general use for two weeks. In addition, I also used Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman 3, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider as benchmark games to compare performance to the Steam Deck OLED and Windows 11 alternatives like the Asus ROG Ally and original Legion Go.

For more information on how we test handhelds and other portable gaming devices, swing by our full GamesRadar+ hardware policy.

Looking for add-ons for Valve's handheld? Take a peek at the best Steam Deck accessories. Alternatively, check out the best retro consoles for a portable system that'll run the classics.

"Anyways, I’m an actor now. And I’ve been very diligent about selecting films that can showcase my craft as a serious actor, films such as Joker 2," she said during her appearance on the comedy sketch show. "Apparently people thought it was awesome."

Gaga played Lee Quinzel in the movie, a new take on Harley Quinn. "Joaquin and I even got nominated for a Razzie, which is an award for the worst films of the year," she continued. "We won for worst screen duo. But joke’s on them. I love winning things! And my Razzie brings me one step closer to an EGORT. It’s like an EGOT, but it’s hurtful."

Although 2019's Joker was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and became the first R-rated movie to make $1 billion at the box office, the sequel was less well-received. As well as the Worst Screen Combo win for Gaga and Arthur Fleck actor Joaquin Phoenix at this year's Razzies, Gaga was also nominated for Worst Actress and Joker 2 was up for Worst Screenplay and Worst Picture.

Next up for Gaga, though, is a turn to the small screen, with a mysterious role in Wednesday season 2. "She's the best, definitely one of the most talented individuals I've ever worked with," the show's star Jenna Ortega said of working with her. "It was just a really, really special environment to be there with her and Tim [Burton], two people that I respect and have been inspired by so much."

Wednesday season 2 is arriving on Netflix sometime in 2025. In the meantime, fill out your watchlist with our picks of the other best Netflix shows or our guide to the rest of this year's biggest new TV shows.

Monster Hunter Wilds has been an absolute behemoth for Capcom, selling 8 million copies within the first three days of release and becoming Capcom’s fastest-selling game of all time in the process. While it was bound to do well by virtue of having the words ‘Monster Hunter’ in the title (World and Rise are currently Capcom’s number one and two best-selling games of all time, after all), Monster Hunter World sold 5 million in the same time frame, so Wilds’ success is even more impressive. And the producer of the series, Ryozo Tsujimoto, reckons the increased focus on story has something to do with it.

Speaking to The Nikkei (translated via Google), Tsujimoto – when quizzed on how Monster Hunter Wilds had become such a success – said "we placed emphasis on the story and increased the immersive feeling with the voice actors' voices." Later adding that he believes players were able to "get a feel for the world of Monster Hunter" and that was done by depicting "how the hunters are seen by others in the world of Monster Hunter… and what the hunters are thinking."

While Wilds definitely has the most robust plot in the Monster Hunter series, it hasn’t gone down so well with some of the fanbase. Some players called the game’s story "relentless on-rails handholding," with specific criticism aimed at the walk-and-talk scenes. Meanwhile, others were big fans of the characters – namely Rove and Gemma – although almost everyone can agree that the lead-up to Low Rank’s final boss is peak.

However, the story can’t take all the credit. Tsujimoto also mentions in the interview that another factor of Wilds’ success is because Capcom "made it possible to link play between different game consoles." Not only is this the first time in the series that the PC release (which outdid both PS5 and Xbox Series X in the US) is available at the same time as the console launch, but it’s the first Monster Hunter game with crossplay, which undoubtedly allowed some more squads of hunters to team up for the first time. I personally believe the simultaneous PC release and enduring popularity of Monster Hunter World are likely the biggest reasons for Monster Hunter Wilds doing so well out of the gate, so the crossplay focus rings more true in my eyes.

Gemma is one of the most beloved characters in Monster Hunter Wilds, and her voice actor has been requesting tips for beginners so that she can get into the series.

We got the first episode of Dark Winds season 3 this week, featuring a pair of true ne'er-do-wells in holding. Joe Leaphorn stops by to check on them, revealing a chess game, with Martin on end, thinking of his next mode of attack, and opposite him? Hollywood icon Robert Redford, who delivers a choice dig.

"George, the whole world's waiting, make a move," Redford’s character exclaims. Martin’s prisoner remains tentative, until Joe gives him a winning tactic.

If only finishing the next installment of A Song of Ice and Fire, the inspiration behind Game of Thrones, was so simple. Martin and Redford are both executive producers on Dark Winds, itself an adaptation of another book series by Tony Hillerman about various cases tackled by Joe and his fellow detective Jim Chee, so it's not totally random to see them.

Any public appearance by Martin garners the same response of people wondering when we’ll get to read the sixth part of A Song of Ice and Fire. It's been 14 years since the last book, A Dance With Dragons, and we've had scattered updates since, including from Martin, who says progress is being made.

To be fair, he's had his hands full since 2011, helping with Game of Thrones itself, collaborating with FromSoftware on the game Elden Ring, and all manner of other exploits, including just recently opening his own cocktail bar. Several more of his works have been adapted, with In a Lost Lands starring Milla Jovovich about to arrive in theatres.

Of course, House of the Dragon season 3 will continue the history of Westeros, looking at the Targaryens years before the events of Game of Thrones. Sometimes it really seems like we’re going to get everything except The Winds of Winter. Alas, have a look through our new TV shows and upcoming movies guides for releases you can definitely count on.

WWE 2K25 Store Unlocks

There are 80 wrestlers who you can add to the WWE 2K25 roster using the in-game store. Here’s the full list…

WWE 2K25 MyRise Unlocks

MyRise is great this year, although you’ll need at least two playthroughs to unlock every character. Here’s how to get each of them.

WWE 2K25 MyFaction Unlocks

MyFaction Persona Cards are back. Unlock these characters in that mode and you can use them across the rest of the game, too.

WWE 2K25 The Bloodline Showcase Unlocks

The Bloodline Showcase serves up a selection of characters, attire, arenas and championships. Here’s everything you can unlock, in match order.

Yokozuna vs Hulk Hogan

• Yokozuna
• Hulk Hogan
• Hulk Hogan Wrestlemania 5 Attire
• Hulk Hogan KOTR ’93 Attire
• Mr Fuji (Manager)
• Jimmy Hart (Manager)
• Jimmy Hart KOTR ’93 Attire
• King Of The Ring ’93 (Arena)
• WWE Championship ’93 (Championship)

Headshrinkers vs Steiner Brothers

• Rick Steiner
• Scott Steiner ’93
• Headshrinker Samu
• Headshrinker Fatu
• Afa (Manager)
• WrestleMania IX (Arena)

Rocky Maivia vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley

• Rocky Maivia
• Hunter Hearst Helmsley
• Intercontinental Championship ’97 (Championship)
• Thursday Raw Thursday 1997 (Arena)

“High Chief” Peter Maivia vs George “The Animal” Steele

• George “The Animal” Steele
• “High Chief” Peter Maivia
• MyFaction Sapphire Showcase reward

Nia Jax vs Lyra Valkyria

• Nia Jax
• Lyra Valkryia ’24

Rikishi vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

• Rikishi 
• Stone Cold Steve Austin ’00
• Stone Cold Steve Austin ’00 No Mercy 2000 Attire
• No Mercy 2000 (Arena)

Umaga vs John Cena

• Umaga
• John Cena ’07
• Armando Alejandro Estrada (Manager)
• WWE Championship ’07 (Championship)
• New Year’s Revolution 2007 (Arena)

3 Minute Warning vs AOP

• Jamal
• Rosey
• MyFaction Sapphire Showcase Reward

Tamina vs Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch vs Carmella vs Natalya

• Natalya
• Tamina
• Carmella ’17
• Becky Lynch ’17
• Charlotte Flair ’17
• Money In The Bank 2017 (Arena)

The Usos vs The New Day

• Big E
• Kofi Kingston ’17
• Xavier Woods ’17
• Jimmy Uso ’17
• Jey Uso ’17
• Tag Team Championship ’17 (Championship)
• Hell In A Cell 2017 (Arena)
• MyFaction Emerald Showcase Reward x2

Naomi vs Bayley

• Bayley ’20
• Naomi ’20
• Smackdown Women’s Championship ’20 (Championship)
• Super ShowDown (Arena)

Wild Samoans vs Dudley Boyz

• Afa
• Sika
• Captain Lou Albano (Manager)
• MyFaction Emerald Showcase Reward

Solo Sikoa vs Carmelo Hayes

• Solo Sikoa ’22
• Carmelo Hayes ’22
• Trick Williams ’22 (Manager)
• NXT 2.0 2022 (Arena)

Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins

• Roman Reigns ’22
• Seth Rollins ’22
• Universal Championship ’22 (Championship)
• Royal Rumble 22 (Arena)

The OG Bloodline vs The Rogue Bloodline

• MyFaction Sapphire Showcase Reward
• MyFaction Emerald Showcase Reward

The Islanders vs The Street Profits

• Islander Haku
• Islander Tama
• Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan
• Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan Alternate Attire
• MyFaction Emerald Showcase Reward

The Tribal Gauntlet

• Jey Uso ’10
• Jimmy Uso ’10
• Tamina ’10
• The Tribal Hall Of Acknowledgement (Arena)

For even more wrestlers, check out our WWE 2K25 DLC guide.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

I absolutely adore FTL. It's my Steam game with the most hours pumped into it by far. It never got a sequel though. Instead, developer Subset Games moved onto Into The Breach, which is still good, but it just doesn't give me the same je ne sais quois. I played the free Void War demo and am happy to report back it's basically just FTL with a Warhammer 40K vibe.

Now, it might not be quite as good as FTL, but that still makes it a pretty fun game to play. Just like FTL, Void War sees you taking your ship through various space nodes and fighting a galactic war. There are subsystems that you have to assign power to, various weapons you can equip to your ship, and each node you visit has a random event. It could be good, like some free scrap you can use to upgrade your reactor, or bad, like an ambush.

Unfortunately, Void War doesn't have some of the quality of life features FTL does, like clearly displayed shortcuts for assigning subsystem power, and it's also a lot easier than FTL ever was.

Where the Warhammer 40K comparison comes in is with the story and overall aesthetic of the game. While the HUD and gameplay are essentially copies of FTL, the whole vibe of the game is decidedly Warhammer. There's a dying Imperial empire, a fallen God-King, and several cults that exist throughout the star systems. If you think that sounds like Warhammer's Imperium, God-Emperor, and cults of the Chaos Gods, you'd be right.

There are also mechanical units called Husks, which are "crudely built servants made of flesh and steel," whose "brainstem has been surgically altered for reliability and ease of maintenance." These are just Servitors from 40K. The spaceships you pilot are also described as ancient, just like all the Imperium's technology. It's all dripping with that grim-dark sci-fi style.

All in all, it's a decent little game, and I'm excited for the full thing to come out in Q2 of 2025 – that's sometime between April and June. It may not be quite as good, but Void War feels like the closest thing we'll ever get to an FTL sequel. Check it out on Steam, right here.

While you're here, you should check out all the must-play indies of 2024 that you may have missed out on.

Speed, Balance, and Control are the order of the day, with each of SteelSeries' new gaming mouse pads offering a slightly different feel based on texture, stitch patterns, and fabric weave. I've had all three on my testing deck over the last few weeks, swapping each out for different genres and use-cases to see if they can become the new best mouse pads for gaming.

All of the mouse pads in the SteelSeries QcK Performance line come in either L or XL sizing, featuring the same MSRPs ($39.99 and $49.99 respectively). They're available right now via SteelSeries and select retailers.

SteelSeries QcK Performance: Control

I started my testing with the Control pad. Like most, my gaming setup needs to put on a suit and tie during the day as I work, and between smaller photo editing adjustments and the sheer number of times I accidentally close a tab this felt like the most natural choice for everyday use. The surface is considerably coarser than the Speed model, with a rough feel under the arm during use. That never grew uncomfortable, though - in fact, it provided a pleasant sense of control and grip even before I placed my hand on a gaming mouse.

The Control pad is designed to provide better stopping power, more accurate mouse sweeps, and finer precision in smaller movements thanks to this textured design. It absolutely nails the brief. I'm glad I chose to slap this one on the desk first, because it's easily my favorite.

The rough surface never feels too cumbersome for flashes of faster movement, I was still able to zip through Avowed's more frantic combat moments and keep a solid pace in CS2. However, there's just enough granularity in this surface to keep a high DPI at bay, still keeping clicks tight and controlled during slower moments.

I'm currently using a Razer Basilisk V3 Pro, and combining the mouse's DPI-slowing sniper button with the SteelSeries QcK Control's grainier texture made for particularly precise sniper shots. Ramping up the DPI on something lighter like the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX was also far less manic, allowing for faster sweeps without the jittery over-extension I usually experience when running at sensitivities higher than around 8,000.

There is a little extra drag, that's what this mouse pad has been designed to offer, which does compound the feeling of extra weight in a larger mouse like the Basilisk. If you're using a lightweight speedster but still want access to a greater sense of accuracy this is a fantastic pickup.

SteelSeries QcK Performance: Speed

At the other end of the spectrum we have the Speed pad. This is an almost-slick surface that provides the same kind of glide feel as a hard pad, but with the comfort and malleability of a traditional soft design. That's a potent combination, and while I preferred the Control pad for everyday work and most of my games, faster assaults like Apex Legends and CS2 do benefit from the additional slip of this surface.

I was able to move much quicker across the pad and still maintain some degree of control over my movements, though there was definitely less precision in my gameplay than on the above model. Both the heavier Basilisk V3 Pro and lighter Logitech DEX moved nicely over the finer-weaved surface, though the particularly low-weight Razer Viper V3 Pro was particularly swift on this surface. That sometimes translated into a little more of a flick than I was expecting, and I had to adjust my muscle memory accordingly, minimizing my right-hand movements compared to the wider gestures I would make on the Corsair MM700 Extended (my daily driver).

If you're a particularly fast competitive player this is going to be a massive win. Smaller movements means less time spent actually making your plays, and increasing the tracking specs of your mouse's sensor can get those flicks and twists down to simple twitches. However, I'd recommend the reliability and stopping power of the Control or Balance models for the majority of players out there.

SteelSeries QcK Performance: Balance

Finally, we have the happy medium. The SteelSeries QcK Balance gaming mouse pad aims to provide a better halfway point between controlled movements and faster glides. This is essentially the next generation of the standard SteelSeries QcK mouse pad we've all come to know and love, combining speed, comfort, and control into one Goldilocks mat. It's the model most players are going to gravitate towards first, and the one we should see the most action out of.

Like both the Speed and Control, the new generation is thicker, with edged stitching to better protect against frays in the longer term. The SteelSeries logo has also been darkened into a gray rather than the stark white we saw in the original. The actual feel of the pad sits more on the control side than speed. There's a less effortless glide here, with more attention paid to stopping power and finer movements. Being a fan of the QcK Control, this is a lean I'm happy to support. It's much more comfortable for everyday work tasks and more game genres overall.

There's a much less noticeable drag compared to the full texture of the Control model, which is going to keep those who use a heavier gaming mouse particularly nimble.

Should you buy a SteelSeries QcK Performance mouse pad?

SteelSeries is well known for the durability and glide of its mouse pads, it's why the original QcK has stood at the top of our ranks for a couple of years now. The latest iteration keeps the all-in-one nature of the original with the Balance mat, but also brings new options for speed-focused and more precision-minded players. Of the three, the Control pad is the most refreshing. Very few mouse pads are confident enough to actually add an element of drag to their feel, but the extra accuracy it brings to both gameplay and everyday productivity has been a real benefit in my testing. If you use a heavier mouse, the Balance model still offers a grainier feel than the previous generation but provides a smoother glide for a more comfortable experience overall.

The Speed model is certainly fast, and is going to give competitive players looking to milk high DPI settings an edge. The vast majority, though, should be looking to the two more tactile models for a real sense of control.

Right now, only the square Large and Extra Large models are available, whereas I naturally prefer an XXL or an Extended design. It means that, during testing, I have to keep my keyboard veered slightly too far left to truly be comfortable for day to day typing (lest it overlap with the pad itself). In-game, I tend to angle the keyboard anyway, and there's no swapping my right hand between devices, so there's less of a sizing issue if you're buying for a dedicated gaming setup.

Other than the size, the only feature I found myself missing during testing was the RGB lighting of my Corsair MM700 Extended. It does mean I had fewer wires trailed around my setup, but I did enjoy the extra pzazz brought to my setup, and the relatively simple-looking SteelSeries model didn't bring the same level of flair to my desk top.

How I tested the SteelSeries QcK Performance mouse pads

I used the SteelSeries QcK Performance Speed, Control, and Balance mouse pads over the course of two weeks. I split my time evenly between each pad during that time, while also comparing against the previous generation QcK and QcK Heavy on the desk as well. I used both a heavy (112g) Razer Basilisk V3 Pro gaming mouse and lighter Razer Viper V3 Pro (55g) and Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX (60g) mice in both wired and wireless mode. For more information on how we make our recommendations, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also rounding up all the best wireless gaming mouse models and hunting down the best left-handed mouse for gaming. Or, take a look at the best gaming keyboards for a full setup refresh.

Spider-Man is a duelist who is designed for maximum mobility. Players can swing around entire maps within seconds, which makes Spider-Man a pesky opponent. He can quickly deal damage and find shelter before you even know what's happening. A good Spider-Man will thus have you sounding like J. Jonah Jameson – especially if you have the misfortune of being a fragile character who hangs out in the back lane. Heck, a good Spider-Man can kill you without ever throwing a punch: all he has to do is pull you off the map with a well-placed web.

Web-slinging woes

Spider-Man's deadliness, combined with his mainstream appeal – he's one of the most recognizable heroes of them all – make picking him tempting for nearly anyone trying out Marvel Rivals for the first time. The hero shooter also offers some of the highest number of skins for Spider-Man, which include excellent costumes like the one where he wears a paper bag over his head. This would all be well and good, except Spider-Man also has a high skill ceiling; the game rates him as one of the more difficult characters to master. As a result, people who are nowhere near ready to try Spider-Man are flocking to him, much to the dismay of their teammates.

Spider-Man relies on his close range punching ability to deal damage, which often means getting right in the middle of the fray. Without much health to speak of, however, an unskilled player can die repeatedly at a speed that other heroes can't match. You'd be surprised at how many deaths someone can fit into a single minute if it only takes them two seconds to get to the enemy.

It's gotten so bad that people will quickly take to chat if they spot a Spider-Man on their team. And if that team loses, Spider-Man will get blamed for it.

"I had a couple of games where I'll lock [Spider-Man] in and have people immediately ask me to switch," one bewildered duelist main remarked on Reddit. The top response? "If he's on your team, he sucks. If he's on the enemy team, he's a backline killing god."

Adding insult to injury, Spider-Man also enjoys a team-up with Venom that gives him an extra attack. You know, just in case he didn't immediately kill you with his basic arsenal.

When you can't force a teammate to switch, the next best thing you can do is have a laugh about it. Unsurprisingly, the trials and tribulations of players who have to suffer playing with or against Spider-Man has become a fantastic meme within the community.

@renbito

♬ original sound - DA Francisco

"Healers working a double shift with no break," reads one of the top comments on a TikTok about nonchalant Spider-Men who won't switch even as they've netted 0 kills and 15 deaths. Then again, you could argue that this is merely Spider-Man following his ideals: like Batman, the hero isn't supposed to kill anyone.

Even when your Spider-Man doesn't suck, he's likely still proving the nightmare axiom true. "Had someone get mad I picked Spidey and I proceeded to get MVP with 20 kills 6 deaths," remarked one player on Twitter. Pour one out for the other team. You'd think things would be better in Ranked, but no. People still complain any time Spider-Man appears on their screen. As someone who is currently learning how to play the character, I now begin every Quick Play match by apologizing to my entire team.

"Any time I see him on the enemy team I know I'm going to have a bad time," a Redditor complained in a thread breaking down why it's so awful to go up against a skilled Spider-Man player. "Yes I know I made a post like this before, but this guy is really really getting on my nerves and I can't stand him," they confessed.

But if it's any consolation at all, the new clone Marvel Rivals mode–where everyone plays the same character–is about to give a bunch of Spider-Man mains a taste of their own medicine. For everyone else, clone mode will be one of the few havens safe from the tyranny and disappointment trailing the infamous webslinger.

Check out our Marvel Rivals characters tier list and the best heroes.

Last October, the aforementioned new indie studio Longdue revealed it was working on a psychological RPG billed as a spiritual successor to Disco Elysium. This RPG was later revealed to be called Hopetown, but on the very same day as that initial announcement was made, another new studio (called Dark Math Games), also composed of different former ZA/UM devs, revealed its own spiritual successor called XXX Nightshift. The timing was truly bizarre, but hey, it was a pretty great day for any fans of the award-winning 2019 RPG.

Now, if you can believe it, a very similar situation has surfaced exactly five months on. This time, Longdue is back with a teaser trailer for Hopetown, and while it leaves more questions than answers about the plot, we very excitingly hear the voice of Disco Elysium narrator Lenval Brown, who the trailer confirms is now involved with voice acting, character, and narrative at the studio. You can take a look below.

But wait, there's more. This time, Longdue isn't competing with another studio formed by devs who once worked at ZA/UM, but ZA/UM itself. The Disco Elysium studio has now unveiled Project C4 – an all-new espionage RPG which "blends player introspection, deep character-driven dialogue, and high-stakes encounters steered by dice rolls." Players will step into the shoes of an Operant, "locked in a vicious, clandestine struggle for truth and influence."

Unlike Hopetown, C4 hasn't been explicitly advertised as a Disco Elysium spiritual successor, but obviously, with it coming from the same original studio with some former Disco Elysium devs still on the team, and the fact that it fits into the RPG space, the comparison is inevitable. At the time of writing, it's not been revealed when either game is going to be released, but Hopetown's Kickstarter campaign will begin on March 17.

While you're here, be sure to check out our roundup of the best RPGs you can play now.

The surprise sequel only launched yesterday, currently sitting on Steam with a 10% discount as an introductory offer and "positive" reviews overall so far. Beyond the Ice Palace 2 ticks all of the nostalgia-inducing boxes boasted by genre classics like the old-school Castlevania games, featuring engaging level design, brutal bosses, challenging combat, platform puzzles, pixel-perfect visuals, and, of course, a whip.

While it hasn't been out very long, Metroidvania fans are already praising it for such features. "If you're a fan of Castlevania and Blasphemous, you'll enjoy this," reads one Steam review. Another praises the sequel's "superb graphics and soundtrack," noting that "this one is more in the style of Castlevania" than the first Beyond the Ice Palace title was and "the whip has many fun uses and combat combinations."

It sounds like a solid follow-up to a Commodore 64 gem, and while the original might not be remembered as one of the best retro games of all time, Beyond the Ice Palace 2 sounds as though it's not only bringing the OG back into the limelight but also giving the title a fresh reputation with gameplay enjoyable by both longtime fans and newcomers alike. As one Steam player writes, it's "a great throwback to the SNES action-adventure genre."

If you're interested in platforming your way to victory while whipping some behemoth bosses back into shape yourself, you can snag Beyond the Ice Palace 2 now on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, or on the Nintendo Switch.

Looking for something else to play? Here are some of the best Metroidvania games around.

"It's going to be immersive and very, very scary," he told Variety, while promoting In the Lost Lands. "It'll all play out in real time, so it reflects the experience of playing the video game. The only time it stops is when you beat the game or you die. That's going to be the only way out."

"I'm really going to push the envelope on this one. It's going to be something different for me," Anderson, who's no stranger to adaptations, having helmed Mortal Kombat and six Resident Evil flicks, continued. He then went on to describe the movie as a "full-on terror ride".

While the first The House of the Dead game was released in 1996, Anderson's film is set to start filming in mid-to-late 2025. It'll adapt the events of the third chapter, which became available to players in 2002. Developed by Wow Entertainment and SEGA, the campaign follows Thomas Rogan and his team of commandos as they break into a research facility in search of answers to Earth's collapse.

Anderson's The House of the Dead won't be the first time the franchise has been turned into a feature, with Uwe Boll having adapted the material back in 2003. The prequel received very poor reviews and only made $13.8 million at the box-office, resulting in Michael Hurst's follow-up in 2004 going direct-to-DVD.

For now, Anderson is gearing up to release fantasy action flick In the Lost Lands on March 14, which sees Milla Jovovich's witch Gray Alys hire hunter Boyce (Dave Bautista) to help her track down a powerful artifact. It is based on the short story of the same name by Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin. 

For more, check out our ranked list of the best video game movies of all time, or our In the Lost Lands interview with Anderson.

As reported by TheWrap, the Marvel Phase 5 show secured Disney Plus's biggest premiere of 2025, but its 7.5 million global views (across its first five days streaming) have fallen short of the premieres of both Agatha All Along (9.3 million views, though across an extra two days) and The Acolyte (11.1 million views). It's also lower than Loki season 2, which drew 10.9 million views across its first three days back in 2023.

Still, as Disney Plus's top premiere of the year so far, that means Daredevil: Born Again outperformed the likes of Goosebumps: The Vanishing, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and Pixar's Win or Lose.

Daredevil has brought back Charlie Cox's Man Without Fear, along with Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin, Elden Henson's Foggy Nelson, Deborah Ann Woll's Karen Page, and Jon Bernthal's Punisher.

A Punisher special is also on the way, which Bernthal has teased will be dark. "It's going to be dark; Frank has no interest in breaking out the darkness. It's not going to be easy. I don't know if that's the Netflix tone then that's what it's going to be,” he said recently, adding: "It will not be Punisher-lite, I promise you that."

Daredevil: Born Again continues weekly on Disney Plus, and you can keep up to date with our Daredevil: Born Again release schedule. For our spoiler-free verdict on the entire season, check out our Daredevil: Born Again season 1 review.

The star was seen at the Kings vs Clippers NBA game on March 9 with Novocaine co star Amber Midthunder, but every time The Boys actor appeared on the jumbotron, he seemed to be getting more and more beaten up as the game went on, from having his arm in a sling to bruises materialising on his face. Fans caught the actor’s injuries getting more intense on camera, which has since been turned into a montage and posted on Twitter by Culture Crave.

Of course, this is all a marketing stunt for the star’s next project, Novocaine, which sees Quaid play a man called Nathan Caine who is unable to feel any pain. So when his girlfriend (Midthunder) gets kidnapped, Caine has no problem going after her and getting beaten by her captors in the process. If the star’s recent appearance at the NBA match is anything to go by, it looks like Caine is going to get quite the battering in the new movie.

This isn't the first time movie marketing has infiltrated real life sports games, as horror franchise Smile has previously had actors show up at baseball games and freak out attendees. Quaid on the other hand, is known for getting right into fake gore and prosthetics, as just last month we saw him doused in blood on set of The Boys season 5.

Novocaine is directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. Alongside Quaid and Midthunder, the movie also stars Spider-Man’s Jacob Batalon and Smile 2’s Ray Nicholson.

Novocaine hits theaters on March 14 in the US and March 28 in the UK. For more, check out our list of the best action movies, or keep up with upcoming movies.

The show premiered in November 2024 to mixed reviews, with a score of 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. The original 1999 movie of the same name also received a mixed critical reception upon release, but went on to become a cult classic. No such similar luck for the TV show, though, it seems.

Based on the 1999 movie of the same name (which in turn is based on Dangerous Liaisons, an 18th-century French novel), the series follows two step-siblings, Caroline and Lucien, who are willing to go to any lengths to maintain their power and reputation at their elite Washington DC college after a hazing incident gone wrong – including seducing the daughter of the US vice president.

Catherine Sarah Hook, who's currently starring in The White Lotus season 3, played Caroline, based on Sarah Michelle Gellar's character in the original movie. Boy Swallows World's Zac Burgess played Lucien, based on Ryan Phillippe's character, and Gossip Girl's Savannah Lee Smith was Annie, the VP's daughter, based on Reese Witherspoon's character.

The show had a long journey to the screen: it went into development in 2021 before being ordered to series in April 2023, but other small-screen adaptations had also been attempted in 1999 and 2016 to no avail.

Cruel Intentions season 1 is streaming now on Prime Video. For more, check out our guide to the best new TV shows to add to your watchlist in 2025 and our round-up of the best shows on Prime Video.

Talisman 5th Edition features & design

• Talisman gets a facelift
• Including a techy upgrade to its manual
• Your tabletop will be a beautiful mess

Talisman 5th Edition’s manual is well laid out, aesthetically cohesive, and does a great job grounding the explanation of mechanics through the use of examples and a handy flowchart. Many players won’t see all of that though, given it includes a QR code on the front cover leading to a how-to-play video. Welcome to the future, old man. This is not your dad's copy of Talisman. Personally, I much prefer flicking through the rule booklet at my own pace than watching a demo. However, it's definitely a helpful feature; especially when playing with a larger party who'd usually have to play 'pass the parcel' with the manual or nominate some unfortunate soul to read it aloud.

The stackable cones that represent your life, strength, and craft (a stat similar to wisdom) are a fun and easily discernible way to visualize these metrics across the course of the game. They all fit pretty cleanly around your character card too, reducing the likelihood of accidental cross-pollination between your stats and that of another player. The point at which you start running into problems with this is when you begin to accumulate spells, items, followers, and of course, a talisman. There’s no real designated area for these bits and bobs to sit on your playspace and as a result, you’ll find yourself taking up even more table area than you need to just to keep things tidy and easy to read (this is bad news, considering the game board alone is pretty massive). I've seen some folks design and 3D-print organizers/dashboards and I'd maintain that these are almost essential for anyone who plans to play Talisman 5th Edition even semi-regularly.

Speaking of character cards, each character has differing stats and special abilities that aid players in their journey. These abilities can offer anything from boons in particular areas of the map to perks that can be activated at any time during play. These are somewhat well-balanced but really, I’d recommend playing a full-strength Troll or a full-craft Wizard and committing solidly to solving problems with your particular skill of choice. Alternatively, you can opt for the classic strategy of choosing whichever character looks the coolest. If that’s your deal, you’re in luck with Talisman 5th Edition. Both their character card portraits and their miniatures are jam-packed with character. These are designs that expertly balance high fantasy cliche with something that feels unique and modern.

Across its game pieces, cards, miniatures, and expansive game board, Talisman 5th Edition delivers a level of quality that certainly feels like an upgrade from prior editions. If you’re a diehard Talisman defender, you can pretty much take that as my final verdict.

Gameplay

• An adventure with twists and turns aplenty
• 5th Edition unlocks the secret to eternal life
• Snakes and Ladders but make it D&D

In many respects, Talisman is like high fantasy Monopoly. For the vast majority of your play experience, you'll just be rolling to determine distance traveled across the board, and then populating the board with Adventure cards that alter the outcome of landing on a given space. There are a couple of shifts in this formula depending on exactly what path you take in your journey but fundamentally, it's a board game that is fairly easy to set up and understand.

What drives up the perceived 'weight' of Talisman, at least from my perspective, is the sheer unwieldiness of it. The basics of combat can be understood by even the newest of board gamers (afterall, it's basic arithmetic with extra steps) and there's no room for umm and ahhing about your build like you might find in other dungeon-delving tabletop offerings. Really, what's going to throw a spanner in the works is the cruel hand of fate flicking you in the forehead and demanding to know why you're hitting yourself.

Even in Talisman 5th Edition, randomness plays a massive role in how any session pans out. Secure yourself a streak of blessed rolls and you can find yourself wrecking the Elder Dragon within an hour. Failing that, you could find yourself ping-ponging back and forth across the board in a process not unlike very low-grade torture. While it makes me seem insufferably Gen Z and will one day age this review like milk, I can't resist saying that Talisman is the purest distillation of the It's So Over / We're So Back meme – even at your peak, you're a just dice roll or card draw away from failure.

In line with a more lenient ‘toadification’ system and expanded uses for fate tokens, there’s a key change made in Talisman 5th Edition that helps to ease the blow of mid-game defeat. As if taking a cue from the last 10 to 15 years of video game indies, Talisman 5th Edition implements a kind of roguelite system in response to player death. If your character hits zero life, rather than sitting pouting and looking at your phone, you return them to the Village space with all their items in tow. Renewed life comes at cost though, and if you haven't kept your pockets lined with enough gold to buy back your full health pool, you’ll still be just barely clinging to life.

Even with its changes implemented, Talisman 5th Edition commits another Monopoly-eque sin: it has an obtrusive positive feedback loop. That's to say — in the majority of cases — those who are winning will be fairly sure to keep winning. Sure, everyone’s liable to botch a dice roll or run headfirst into an encounter they're not at all prepared for but once you’ve reaped the stat and inventory benefits of a winning streak, you’re much more equipped to deal with catastrophe. Unfortunately, all that culminates in usually seeing the winning achieve their victory in slow motion. It’s anyone’s game early on but it doesn’t take long to reach a kind of point of no return. It’s here — with no real option to strategize your way out of failure — that most people’s commitment to the game starts to falter.

If you happen to be aimlessly hanging out for a couple of hours, a game of Talisman 5th Edition won’t detract from your good time. You and your friends can ooh and ahh at the various curveballs thrown throughout a playthrough and at times, this is a genuine thrill. All that said, don’t be surprised when the game overstays its welcome and one of you finally dares to ask, “Can we just call it here and play something else?”

Should you buy Talisman 5th Edition?

Talisman 5th Edition goes a long way to provide some aesthetic and quality-of-life improvements to this classic and that's definitely commendable. However, while some board games run like a well-oiled machine, Talisman sort of runs like a push bike you've left out in the shed for a few years. Does an odd part of me love this rusty ol' velocipede? I mean… I couldn't stand to give Talisman 5th Edition a lower score despite its obvious flaws. So, while you might need to oil up the chain with some house rules and you may very well find yourself tempted to throw it into a ditch, there's a weird, contradictory fun to be had here.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Taloi

Our reviewer played Talisman multiple times to get a better sense of its mechanics and longevity. They also tried it with different player-counts to see how the experience varied.

For more on our process, don't miss this guide to how we test board games. To get a broader overview, see the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

For more recommendations, don't miss the best adult board games or the best 2-player board games.

"I watched, I saw it. Yeah, there’s a lot about it that I appreciated," McConaughey told Variety about the 2014 show. "My favorite season – and I feel like I can say this objectively – is Season 1."

The actor added: "I happen to be in that one, so I thought that was incredible, incredible television and a great series. I watched it weekly, like everyone else, on Sunday night, and that was an event for me. And I got to sit back and enjoy that. I loved the water cooler talk on Monday morning. Even though I made it, I sort of forgot what was going to happen next. It was one of the great events in TV."

The original series starred McConaughey as Detective Rustin "Rust" Cohle alongside Woody Harrelson as Detective Martin "Marty" Hart. The series was told across two time periods: when the pair are young detectives brought in to investigate the death of Dora Lange in 1995 and then 17 years later when links to a series of other missing-person cases bring it into the spotlight.

It was widely acclaimed when it first aired and still holds an impressive 92% critics and 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. This is the highest of all seasons of the show, closely followed by True Detective season 4, which also hit over the 90% mark.

For more, check out our guides to all the new TV shows arriving in 2025 and the best HBO shows.

He made the comments to Collider during a discussion on the burgeoning arrival of Andor season 2, comfortably one of the most anticipated releases on Disney Plus this year. When asked about the emotional stakes for the characters coming into these new episodes, Gilroy believes it goes beyond who lives and dies.

“It's not just whether you live or die. It's the damage. It's the sacrifice you've made or the sacrifice you haven't made,” he states. “The five women, what they go through… Cassian is sort of Star Wars Jesus running through there, this messianic character running through the middle. We know that story, and it has its own complexities. But, really, I think the surprising and shocking, emotional punch will come from the collateral damage and triumph of the people all around him.”

He adds that if we’re not crying, he’ll be “very unhappy.” Honestly, knowing where this is all going, there’s very little worry we won’t all be in floods of tears.

His statement is bold, but not without merit. Cassian becomes an inspiring symbol for those around him, someone who can rally others and keep spirits high. Where that leads him and his compatriots bears a quite literal resemblance to Christ, as well.

Andor season 2 has been highly anticipated since the first season blew many viewers away in 2022. The show stands as a Star Wars highlight, up there with The Empire Strikes Back and Vader Down as one of the finest pieces of work to emerge from a galaxy far, far away.

We’d call that pressure, but this is Cassian Andor we’re talking about, he excels in such circumstances. Andor season 2 begins on Disney Plus on April 22, 2025. Keep our guide to all the new Star Wars movies and shows in the works for what else is in the pipeline.