IGN

While Daredevil: Born Again is a continuation of the classic Netflix series that rekindles the rivalry between Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, there’s also a new player on the board. Even as the series explores the struggles both men face in trying to reinvent themselves, it also pits them against a sadistic serial killer with a penchant for artistic expression. That killer is none other than Muse.

Who is Muse, and why does this superhuman murderer have the ability to make even bitter rivals like Daredevil and Kingpin work together? Here’s what you need to know about this twisted Marvel villain.

Who Is Muse?

Muse is one of the more recent additions to Daredevil’s rogues gallery. The character was created by Charles Soule and Ron Garney and debuted in 2016’s Daredevil #11. And in case there was any doubt, Soule himself confirmed that Muse can be seen in the original D23 Born Again trailer.

Muse is a villain who wouldn’t be out of place in the Hannibal TV series. He’s a prolific serial killer who sees murder as the highest form of artistic expression. In his first appearance, Muse paints a mural using the blood of a hundred missing persons. He later composes a piece by arranging the corpses of six Inhumans in various poses.

Part of what makes Muse so dangerous to Daredevil specifically is that his body acts as a sort of sensory black hole, pulling in stimuli and effectively scrambling Matt Murdock’s radar sense. Coupled with superhuman strength and speed and a true knack for murder, Muse is among Daredevil’s deadliest enemies.

Looking for the least expensive PlayStation 5 console you can your hands on? As part of its US Anniversary Sale, AliExpress is offering an imported Sony PlayStation 5 Slim Disc Edition gaming console for $367.94 shipped after $80 off coupon code “MAYUE008“. This is a brand new and retail boxed product that is stocked in a US warehouse and qualifies for local delivery, which means it ships free and arrives within about 1-2 weeks.

This genuine PlayStation console is imported from another country, however it will play in the US without any modifications. That’s because region locking is determined by your PlayStation account, not by your system hardware. You’ll also be able to select English as your default language just like any console you buy here. Note that imported consoles have an overseas warranty that won’t be honored here in the United States. Fortunately, AliExpress has a 15-day free return policy and guarantees a refund if your order doesn’t arrive within 20 days.

PlayStation Slim Disc Edition (Import) for $367.94

The Last of Us Season 2 introduces a new character into the TV show that has yet to appear in the video games: Joel’s therapist.

Played by Schitt’s Creek star Catherine O’Hara, the character Gail is a therapist living in Jackson.

Warning! Potential spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 follow:

Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has confirmed that Gail is in fact Eugene’s wife, which marks a departure from the games. Eugene, who is mentioned in The Last of Us 2 but doesn’t appear in person, is played by The Sopranos and The Matrix star Joe Pantoliano.

But why does Joel need therapy in the first place?

Speaking to IGN on the red carpet ahead of The Last of Us Season 2 premiere, Druckmann offered an explanation.

“The reason he goes to therapy is because he’s trying to figure out why Ellie is icing him out,” Druckmann said. “And he’s quite a bit in denial about the real reason what’s happening there.”

IGN had asked Druckmann if he thought Joel went to therapy “off screen” in the video games, and Druckmann agreed he certainly would have done so if he thought it would have helped reconnect with Ellie.

“Well, I think if he had the opportunity, not for himself,” Druckmann said. “I think if he had the opportunity and if there was a way for him to reconnect with Ellie — because that’s his biggest motivation, everything that drives him is Ellie — then he would.”

There’s an additional reason for having a therapist character in The Last of Us Season 2: because the showrunners wanted to expand on Jackson.

Here’s Druckmann again:

“Someone like Eugene, we had a take on that character to say, ‘okay, well how does that expand Joel and Ellie’s relationship? How does it expand the town of Jackson? How does that expand what the story’s about, which is this idea of love and the extremes that love can take you to?’

“And then likewise, we also wanted to introduce this idea of a therapist that exists within Jackson, also to allow us to expand on Jackson to try to get into characters’ minds. But it was such a compelling character. Like, ‘hey, how do we ground this new character? Oh, let’s tie her to someone that’s really associated with the lore of The Last of Us: Eugene.’ And now these two characters are tied to Joel. If you’ve watched the first episode, they talk about Eugene and why that’s important. And you’ll see even more of why that’s important as the season goes on.”

Meanwhile, we asked Druckmann if he’s willing to keep the TV show going past the games if there’s no The Last of Us 3, and for a tease on Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

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

Amazon is really jacking up the gaming deals in their Spring Deal Days sale, giving you the limited-time chance to buy a new wireless Xbox controller from just £35.99. While some of the other selections are £4.50 more, the whole selection of colours available for these Series X|S controllers has had a price reduction, so you’re getting at least 33% off whichever one you like most.

As a second or spare controller for your Xbox Series X or S console, along with supported games on PC, all those on sale at Amazon right now include the following colours:

• Astral Purple
• Carbon Black
• Deep Pink
• Electric Volt
• Pulse Red
• Robot White
• Shock Blue
• Velocity Green

Although the standard Carbon Black and Robot White—those bundled with the Xbox Series X & S consoles respectively—have been reduced to the lowest price of £35.99, all of the alternative colors have been dropped to a slightly higher yet still impressive £40.49. If you’re in need of a new controller to play the newest games, like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 which is on sale now as well, this is a fantastic opportunity.

You have to flaunt Amazon a little bit more of your cash to add a splash of style to your setup with one of these vivid color schemes like Astral Purple, but it does seem worth it. What’s more, these other models include the controller’s updated design, featuring the X, A, B, and Y buttons being switched from their respective blue, green, red, and yellow colours to match that of their controllers’ body.

The original button colours are still shown as tiny dots next to each one, but this update overall gives the controllers a more modest, sleeker appeal that arguably justifies the slightly larger price investment.

Nintendo has announced a Nintendo Direct focused on the Nintendo Switch.

The direct is set for 7am PT tomorrow, March 27, and will feature around 30 minutes of upcoming games for the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo made a point of clarifying that there will be no updates about Nintendo Switch 2 during this presentation. Nintendo’s Switch 2 Direct is set for 6am PT on April 2.

Tune in tomorrow, March 27th, at 7 a.m. PT for a livestreamed #NintendoDirect, featuring around 30 minutes of upcoming games for Nintendo Switch. There will be no updates about Nintendo Switch 2 during this presentation.

Watch it here: https://t.co/sJFoxe0mq0 pic.twitter.com/1XeAuff5o1

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 26, 2025

So, what should fans expect from this Nintendo Direct? Nintendo still has a number of upcoming Nintendo Switch games in the works even as it prepares to release the Switch 2. It’s worth remembering the Switch has sold an incredible 150.86 million units to date. That’s an enormous audience video game publishers, developers, and Nintendo itself will find it hard to ignore even with so much attention on its successor.

To that end, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is still down as a 2025 Switch game, as is Professor Layton and the New World of Steam. We know Pokemon Legends: Z-A is coming to the Switch at some point this year. When the hotly anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced six years ago, Team Cherry confirmed the launch platforms as Windows, Mac, Linux, and Nintendo Switch. Switch 2 is backwards compatible, so the expectation is all these games will work on the next-gen console as well as the OG Switch.

This week’s Nintendo Direct may act as a last hurrah for the Switch eight years after it came out, outlining Nintendo’s final slate of exclusives as it moves on to Switch 2. But perhaps Nintendo has a few surprises up its sleeve yet.

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

If you didn’t already know it, Honor of Kings is one of the most played games in the world. Taking the number one spot in the Chinese MOBA charts, the TiMi Group is taking its free-to-play characters – and world – in a new direction with Honor of Kings: World. While its scale and monetization screech in dissonance, its flashy combat, diverse roster of playable classes, and multiplayer-flexible modes do carry some promise.

During my half-hour-long hands-on with Honor of Kings: World at Tencent’s GDC booth, I took some time to toy around with a couple of World’s different classes, take on a boss inspired by Chinese folklore, and see a brief glimpse of the story.

Although it boasts many of the same characters as its mobile MOBA predecessor, Honor of Kings: World is no MOBA. Instead, it’s a class-driven action game – for PC as well as mobile, by the way – with the kind of over-the-shoulder, action-driven combat you might expect from something like Genshin Impact. But rather than locking mechanics or gameplay behind randomized drops like in MiHoYo’s game, Honor of Kings offers players different classes to choose from. And while the same overall control scheme unifies each class – a dodge, three standard abilities, and an ultimate of sorts – the roster of different classes struck me as fairly diverse, each with its own abilities and special perks.

Usually, you’ll be able to play with two separate classes, though sometimes you might need to stick with just one for story purposes. It seems like TiMi’s put a lot of effort into the dual-class system, allowing you to switch between the two during combat. The most interesting example they showed during my demo was starting a long, multiple-attack combo and switching characters once the target was launched into the air to extend a combo. It kind of reminded me of a tag system in a fighting game.

With 11 different classes in the demo I played, I’m certain there are tons of different combinations and ways to style on your opponent. But since this was my first time playing, I looked for balance above all else: I stuck with an even-keeled loadout, using a sword-wielding class for my primary role and a ranged gunner for the second. The two nicely filled in gaps left by the other during my attempt at a boss fight: I’d lay down fire using the gunner’s active reload mechanic to improve my damage and rate of fire when the boss was spitting out attacks in a frenzy, making sure to dodge the occasional flaming projectile and then rush him down with my sword, laying on the damage with a vengeance.

This swapping was easily my favorite part of the demo. I enjoyed hammering away at the boss’s stance meter, breaking his stance, and shooting the gunner’s R ability as I closed the distance, swapping to my sword class, and unleashing a devastating ultimate attack of sorts to juice every second from the boss’ temporarily weakened state.

Taking the boss down to a certain point also revealed an interesting story beat that eventually led to me playing as a completely separate character from the pre-built avatar provided for the demo. TiMi didn’t offer much information on how frequently to expect this kind of change, only that it would happen from time to time. The demo took place somewhere closer to halfway through Honor of Kings: World’s runtime, opening up my two classes’ skill trees just enough for me to have some fun with them without overcomplicating its combat.

The boss itself was a giant monkey character with various different masks, with a personality and attacking style for each. According to the developer leading my demo, this mechanic has its roots in a traditional style of Chinese theater called Bian lian. One mask might see him spitting fire in a massive area of effect on the map, while another might see him throw around a few melee attacks. I loved this melding of culture, history, and story with a gameplay mechanic.

Aside from briefly seeing another journalist in my demo in a hub area before the tutorial, I didn’t have a chance to check out any of World’s multiplayer offerings. TiMi showed a few clips of four-person squads crawling dungeons and taking on bosses before our demo, but teased something that sounded more like an MMO. That part is still a work in progress, so they didn’t share much beyond acknowledging that there would be a bigger scale multiplayer mode in the full game, so I’m curious to see what that looks like given my demo’s single-player scope.

Before the demo, one of TiMi’s developers walked me through some of World’s premise and setup, saying that Honor of Kings: World was a gift of sorts to the MOBA’s loyal fanbase that’s propelled it to massive success in the ten years since its launch. True as that may be, I left the demo concerned about monetization.

When another journalist asked about how TiMi plans to make money with Honor of Kings: World, the developer leading our session gave a concerning answer. “The game’s gonna be based around social, so outfits and stuff,” they said.

On its own, funding a free-to-play game with cosmetics isn’t necessarily a problem – especially since the developers made it clear that there wouldn’t be any pay-to-win – but given Honor of Kings: World’s scale, with flashy cutscenes, tons of playable characters, and epic boss fights, I can’t help but feel concerned about whether or not World’s model is financially sustainable, regardless of whether or not it’s based on one of the most successful games of the century.

Honor of Kings: World undoubtedly has a bright future ahead of it, provided TiMi can stick to its promise of giving fans of its MOBA hit a celebration worthy of its success. Even though I’m still a little worried about the amount of microtransactions that Honor of Kings: World could potentially need to fund its high production value, I still had a ton of fun dodging the big primate’s swings.

The world of OLED gaming monitors is ever expanding, and it’s becoming harder and harder for new models to stand out. But that’s exactly what the Acer Predator X34 OLED does thanks to its deep-dish curve and immersive gaming experience. Coming in at $1,199 MSRP but frequently available for far less (I found it available at multiple retailers for $850 or under), it’s a premium gaming monitor that’s able to deliver an exceptionally immersive gaming experience that many gamers are sure to enjoy. Just prepare for an adjustment period if you plan to use it for productivity.

Acer Predator X34 OLED – Design and Features

The Acer Predator X34 OLED is a 34-inch ultra-wide gaming monitor designed to act as the flagship model for the brand. It comes with premium specs to deliver a fantastic gaming experience and is designed with a gaming-first ethos. It features a deep and immersive curve to create a gaming experience that seems to draw you in. This same quality makes it more challenging to use for productivity, so it won’t be a good fit for everyone, but for pure gaming it promises an exciting and engaging experience.

The monitor’s on-paper specs are fantastic. Since it uses an OLED panel, it promises deep midnight blacks and a wide dynamic range that’s able to reveal detail even in deep shadows. OLED currently offers the best image quality available in gaming monitors, and this most recent generation of panels, as is used here in this display, is less susceptible to burn-in and other drawbacks like text clarity. What you’re left with is fantastic contrast, incredible colors, and high peak brightness rated at an impressive 1,300 nits.

Breaking that down a bit further, the X34 OLED is rated to cover 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 100% of sRGB. It features a dedicated sRGB mode for creators, as well DCI-P3 and Rec.709 modes to act as a reference for color-critical work. OLED monitors are well regarded for the richness and vibrancy of their colors, and the X34 is no exception. It comes well-calibrated out of the box, and its colors, while not oversaturated, appear very vivid.

Its brightness, while rated for 1300 nits, will only hit this in very, very small portions of the screen when running in HDR mode for standard definition content such as normal web browsing. It instead averages around 250 nits, which is relatively dim compared to an equally matched LCD monitor but typical of OLEDs due to power draw and heat. Generally, this is bright enough to use in a well-lit room comfortably, but the monitor should not be placed in direct sunlight.

The monitor has an ultra-wide design and measures 34 inches diagonally with a 21:9 aspect ratio. It has the wide equivalent of 1440p resolution, and due to the extra width, requires more GPU power to run effectively. It has a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 pixels, which puts it in between a traditional 16:9 1440p monitor and 4K in terms of how difficult it is to run. To reach its maximum frame rate, you’ll need a beefy GPU or be willing to lower graphics settings in demanding games. Even so, it’s a great resolution for a screen of this size and results in a very crisp and detailed picture.

The Predator X34 OLED is fantastically responsive. OLED panels are naturally very fast, and Acer rates the monitor with a 0.01ms response time. I lack the tools to accurately test at such a low latency; however, it’s typical for OLED panels to measure at 0.03ms, while other gaming monitors might top out at 0.5ms (more commonly, 1ms). This leads to bottomed out input latency, so, in a shooter for example, the clicks of your mouse appear on screen as gunshots measurably faster than IPS, VA, or TN based gaming monitors.

The X34 pairs this with a 240Hz refresh rate, meaning that it refreshes the screen 240 times every second. As I alluded to above, it would be very difficult to achieve such a high frame rate in any kind of demanding game, even with the top of the line GPU, unless you are running DLSS and frame generation. Even if you don’t always hit this (it’s typically only feasible in esports and very non-demanding games), setting that high refresh rate results in lower input latency overall, so there’s still benefit to leaving that setting enabled. The higher your actual frame rate goes, motion clarity gets progressively better. For competitive games, this monitor is quite good.

The X34’s most defining feature is its deep 800R curve. The vast majority of curved gaming monitors come in at 1800R or 1500R, both of which are fairly gentle. An 800R curvature is very pronounced and wraps into your peripheral vision to improve your immersion at the same time, but causes noticeable warping of text and images along its curve. For gaming, this doesn’t matter since the wraparound effect is appealing, but for productivity, it definitely takes some getting used to. While some people don’t mind it, many find it distracting compared to a shallower curve or even a flat panel.

The monitor supports a generous array of connectivity options. There are two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4, and one USB Type-C with DisplayPort that’s also able to supply up to 90 watts of power. There’s also a built-in USB hub that offers two USB Type-A ports and an additional USB Type-C. This hub also acts as a KVM, so you can take connected accessories between hosts with the push of a button. The X34 also includes a headphone jack and sports two 5-watt speakers that get relatively loud and, while not as full-bodied as a separate pair of speakers, are better than most others you’ll find built into a gaming monitor.

The monitor also comes with a decent stand that is relatively thin, though it does have two long legs that protrude out to increase its overall footprint on your desk. It offers the ability to adjust height up and down a bit over four inches, tilt from -5 to +15 degrees, and pivot with a range of 15 degrees as well. The assembly is tool-less and easy to do, even if you’ve never set up your own monitor before. I recommend having an extra set of hands if at all possible to avoid needing to lay the monitor down on its face or risking putting pressure on its very fragile panel.

The OSD is straightforward and navigated using a joystick built into the display. It’s fairly standard fare at this point with a number of different picture presets based on the genre, as well as the ability to adjust the gamma and saturation settings. It offers a sharpness setting as well as an OLED Care menu to toggle its different protective features on and off. There’s also a uniform brightness setting, which limits overall brightness and reduces the fluctuations that occur when expanding full screen content. I didn’t find this to be very noticeable, so I left it turned off, but if you’re sensitive, the option is there.

It’s also worth noting that Acer has an installable software suite to control many of these settings called Acer Display Widget. In truth, there are few monitor brands where the configuration software feels like more than an afterthought, and this isn’t an exception. Still, you’ll find most of your most used options here, so it’s an effective alternative if you hate fiddling around with the actual OSD.

Acer Predator X34 OLED – Performance

The Acer Predator X34 OLED is a gaming monitor first and foremost. That works to its benefit, but it can also be a detriment in other areas, like the aforementioned productivity concerns I outlined in the previous section. You also see that manifest in some other ways.

For pure gaming, it’s great, but you should be prepared to either put a little work in or make a handful of concessions if you plan on using this as your daily driver for both work and play.

For starters, though its calibration isn’t bad, it’s not the most color accurate out-of-the-box, and would benefit from calibration for creative work. Grayscale accuracy measured a Delta E average of 4.78, tending toward the green end of the spectrum. Color accuracy was a bit better with a Delta E average of 3.12. With a calibration run using my SpyderPro colorimeter, I was able to dial that in to an average of 1.21, so it’s possible to get very good results (generally, anything under an average of 2.0 is considered well-calibrated).

Response time is excellent with no ghosting whatsoever. I would expect nothing less from an OLED gaming monitor, and particularly one that runs at 240Hz. Testing in the BlurBuster’s TestUFO Ghosting Test, there was no ghosting whatsoever. In-game, it’s equally crisp with motion clarity that’s on par with the competition, which is to say: as good as any monitor can be at this point. Now, your skill will need to be equally matched to this level of clarity. Making a headshot mid-spin is still a skill that takes equally matched reaction time, but this removes one more glass ceiling for pro-level play.

The experience of daily driving the monitor is going to vary from person to person. As I mentioned before, for productivity, that text warping can be distracting. I tried using it for a bit of everything during my test window, and it’s not a monitor I would choose if I was going to be writing or reading. Most of the time I was at my PC for creative work and video editing in particular, it was much better.

I especially liked it for video editing. The ability to see more of the timeline and have it wrap around visually a bit more made editing more efficient. Though I would be remiss to leave out that this would also be true if the curve wasn’t there at all. Simply being able to view more of the timeline at any given point allows that efficiency. The curve just enhances the experience… if it’s to your taste.

And that right there is the crux of this monitor. You have to love the curve, and it’s not a given that you will, even if you enjoy other less-curved monitors. 800R is deep. It’s made to simulate having two curved monitors in surround mode without a bezel in between. If you’ve been a PC gamer for a long time and have tried this yourself, then you’re likely to feel right at home. If the idea sounds ludicrous, then it’s probably best to stick to a shallower curve.

I fall into that camp, having tried this setup myself only a few years ago. Regretfully, I only had 32-inch curved monitors to try it with, and it dominated not just my desk but what felt like half of my office, and since they were each 1440p, it was extremely difficult to run. It just wasn’t practical. But for driving games, flight sims, and even many first-person games like Doom Eternal, it was quite immersive. It can also be pretty darn enrapturing.

So I like it. I really like it. It’s a perfect fit for games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, but as someone drawn to this type of curvature in the first place, I also find a lot to enjoy with it in other genres too. I found myself scooting closer to the screen than I usually sit in Baldur’s Gate 3, so it would occupy more of my peripheral vision. In Battlefield 2042, it felt a bit strange at first, but soon I was immersed in the game, feeling like I had my own wraparound view of the furious fray before me.

At least for me. That’s the thing. This type of display is so subjective that I could only recommend picking it up blind if you have a return policy you can rely on. The quality of the monitor itself is excellent, but the experience of using it is something you really can’t know without trying it or another that’s similar for yourself. If you like it, you’ll probably come to downright love it in time. If you don’t, you may just find that your expensive new gaming monitor is just plain untenable.

Wouldn’t we all like to know what our future looks like? Well, I decided to take a sneak peek at mine and walk in the shoes of 50-year-old me for a day via InZoi, the new life sim competitor out of Korea looking to take The Sims on at its own game.

Join me as I get accustomed to a new city, try new foods, attempt to make new friends, and even chart a new career. Fair warning, though, things may get dark quickly. It’s far less interesting for me to describe the video, though, so I think you should just watch is instead. You can do that below!

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editorial Producer who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

Amid question marks about the future of The Last of Us video game series, fans are wondering where the story might go next after the HBO series Season 2 and 3 cover off the second video game. Earlier this month, series creator Neil Druckmann cast doubt on the prospect of The Last of Us 3, saying: “I guess the only thing I would say is don’t bet on there being more of ‘Last of Us.’ This could be it.”

But if there’s no The Last of Us 3, would Naughty Dog and Druckmann keep the TV show going past the games?

That’s the question IGN put to Druckmann himself in a recent interview, and he replies to say that while he has an ending of The Last of Us story in mind, because he’s not sure if he’ll get the chance to make The Last of Us 3, he’s leaving nothing on the line.

“I have to have an ending,” Druckmann said. “When I made The Last of Us 1, I didn’t know if there was going to be a sequel, so that had to be a definitive ending. When I worked on Uncharted 4, I don’t know if we’ll ever get to do it again. I need it to be a definitive ending. Last of Us 2, same way. All these things have to line up.

“I don’t know how long I’ll keep doing this or whether I’ll be given another opportunity. So I leave nothing on the line.

“Right now it’s like, we have an ending in mind. And that ending will be it. That ending will be it for this story.”

One question hanging over Druckmann is if he will even have the time to make The Last of Us 3, were it to be green lit for production. That’s because he has his hands full with The Last of Us TV show, which is set to round-out the events of The Last of Us 2 video game with Season 2 and Season 3, and the recently announced PlayStation game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

“As far as everything else, and you’re asking me about future games, my time so much is, we have to finish this season,” Druckmann continued. “We’re not quite done. We’re almost there. Knock on wood we get to do it again. Season 3, there’s a lot more story we have to cover, as you know with game two.

“And then my hands are pretty full with Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.”

In February 2024, Druckmann teased a “concept” for a potential The Last of Us 3 at the end of Grounded 2: Making The Last of Us Part 2, noting that there’s “probably one more chapter to this story.”

“The first game had such a clean concept of like, the unconditional love a parent feels for their child,” he said. “The second one, once we landed on this idea of the pursuit of justice at any cost, justice for the ones you love, we felt like, ‘there’s a clean concept here and there’s a throughline from the first game, about love.’ If we never get to do it again, this is a fine ending point. Last bite of the apple, the story’s done.”

“The great thing about working at Naughty Dog is that we don’t have to,” he added. “It’s always like, ‘we would love another Last of Us, but if you guys feel you’re passionate about something else, we’ll support this other thing.’ Very privileged position to be in, I never take that for granted. I’ve been just thinking about it, ‘is there a concept there?’ And for now years, I haven’t been able to find that concept. But recently, that’s changed, and I don’t have a story, but I do have that concept that to me is as exciting as 1, as exciting as 2, is its own thing, and yet has this throughline for all three. So it does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”

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

I wasn’t planning to buy more Pokémon cards this week. Then I saw that Scarlet & Violet – Surging Sparks Booster Bundle was somehow still in stock on Amazon for $45.02 following its massive Pokémon TCG restock. The restock has come at a great time, with the Amazon Spring Sale in full swing, there are plenty of hot sets to pick up while stock lasts. Suddenly, my willpower crumbled like a 60 HP Basic tackling a 390-damage Hydreigon ex.

My favorite? This Surging Sparks set is chaos in the best way. You’ve got chase cards that deserve to be slabbed, like the $432 Pikachu ex Special Illustration Rare. That’s not a typo. The little electric mouse is putting in work as both a collectible and a monster in battle. Topaz Bolt deletes nearly anything from the board, and Resolute Heart makes it annoyingly hard to knock out.

Then there’s the Latias ex and Latios combo, pulling a full-on romance movie moment with matching connected artwork. Latias is the rarer and, apparently, the more expensive twin at over $200. I guess big sibling energy costs more. Meanwhile, Milotic ex is out here channeling its inner supermodel with light and shadow drama, and somehow also counters Tera Pokémon like it moonlights as a meta card.

My personal favorite? Ceruledge. It’s giving neon fever dreams, and I mean that as a compliment. This is the first time its card has actually been valuable, and I think illustrator Rond deserves a standing ovation. Or at least a coffee. Ceruledge isn’t even a top-tier Pokémon competitively, but with this art, I don’t care.

If you’re a collector, the value potential is real. If you’re a player, some of these cards slap on the battlefield. And if you just like shiny things and the thrill of gambling $45 on cardboard, welcome to the club. I already cracked one box and I’m convincing myself I “need” another for science.

The bundle includes six booster packs, so you’re not guaranteed any heavy hitters, but at the rate people are snapping these up, I wouldn’t wait too long. Pikachu isn’t going to pull itself.

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