IGN

If you took a Family Feud-style survey of which pro sports simulation video game series people would most want 2K to take a crack at that they’re not already making, a resurrection of NFL 2K would easily be the number-one answer. Heck, pro golf might not even be the second or third answer (hello, MLB and NHL). But the company is nevertheless returning for a third round with PGA Tour 2K25, and after playing for a couple of hours, there’s a lot to like.

In truth, developer HB Studios has been honing its golf game for quite a while now, having made The Golf Club starting a decade ago before signing on with 2K and rebranding to PGA Tour 2K in 2020. The team’s experience and maturity shine through in 2K25, as I had a hard time finding any glaring issues in my hands-on. Is it the best-looking sports game? No. Would it be nice to have more real-life courses? Sure. (2K25 does bring the PGA Championship, US Open, and the Open Championship.) Was the framerate surprisingly choppy on PC when I’d press Y to survey each new hole? Yup. But actually digging into this year’s offering was just fun.

It started with the upgraded EvoSwing mechanic. You have a few different options, and playing with a controller, I preferred the right stick option, in which you pull down to wind up, and press forward to strike the ball and follow through. You can set this to be forgiving, or it can be set to be very much not forgiving with the new Perfect Swing difficulty, whereby an errant flick of your thumb in one direction or another might yield a wicked slice or hook. Conversely, there are also lower difficulty settings for those just looking to have a chill, stress-free time, in which 2K25 isn’t as punitive on missed inputs in an effort to try and keep you moving and advancing. Furthermore, you can tap LB to shape your shots, giving you additional control over where the ball will go. HB Studios also says the ball physics have been improved, and I like that you can also move laterally in the tee box to adjust your tee shot if, say, a tree up ahead gets slightly in the way of your preferred drive. It certainly helped that I started by playing as Tiger Woods, this year’s cover athlete, who as we all know is pretty darn good at this sport.

Meanwhile, MyCareer has been given a boost, implementing narrative mechanics we’ve seen in other sports games to reasonably entertaining effect. I got offered a role in a movie with Christopher “Shooter McGavin” McDonald – who, yes, is in the game, albeit not as his famous Happy Gilmore character for obvious licensing reasons – where I could choose to play a hero or villain, and my choice would affect which MyCareer stats got boosted. Gear earned by cashing in your earned VC will also affect your stats, while your skills are also upgradeable by playing and, naturally, winning. The developers have also added Quests, which are broad goals they can refresh weekly or really whenever, such as getting 10 birdies in a row.

As for MyPlayer, I didn’t want to spend my entire demo time trying to recreate a perfect facsimile of myself, but even noodling around with the player creator for a few minutes was enough to get me reasonably close. You’ve got skill trees to dig into now as well, which is a welcome upgrade. Sadly, I didn’t get to try the multiplayer options, which sound like good casual fun including ranked matchmaking and cross-platform Societies (think: groups or clubs). I have fond memories of shooting the breeze with my friends in Links 2004 for the original Xbox, and what PGA Tour 2K25 promises sounds like it might recreate all of that and more. I appreciate that there are also asynchronous multiplayer options if you and your buddies live in wildly different time zones.

PGA Tour 2K25 is admittedly a bit difficult to preview in that it seems to do everything reasonably well without faceplanting in any one single area. It makes it a bit tough to get excited about, admittedly, but it does seem like a solid bet to be worth picking up for golf fans and/or those looking for a low-stress game. Fortunately, you can check it out for yourself without spending a dime, as a playable demo of PGA Tour 2K25 is available as of today.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

10 beloved films and a $6 billion box-office haul have cemented Fast and Furious as one of Hollywood’s most iconic and longest running movie franchises of all time. Over almost 25 years, the modest street-racing series has evolved into a globetrotting (even spacefaring) saga that doubles as a high-octane soap opera for gearheads. With new projects like a new Fast & Furious Standalone Movie starring Dwayne Johnson and Fast and Furious 11 (also known as Fast X: Part 2) on the way, it looks like the extended Fast universe will continue to expand.

With Fast X now available to stream, we’ve compiled this guide on where you can watch all of the Fast and Furious movies right now.

Where to Watch the Fast and Furious Movies Online

Now that Fast X is on Peacock, many moviegoers are looking for the easiest ways to watch the latest film and the series’ previous nine entries (and one spinoff). Unfortunately, not all of the Fast movies are available to stream with subscription services — the first couple are available on Netflix and various others through Peacock, Max, DirecTV, or FuboTV. However, all ten films can at least be rented or purchased on Amazon or YouTube.

Here’s our full breakdown of how to watch the Fast & Furious movies online in 2025:

Fast and Furious Movies on Blu-ray

Superman has been around for nearly 90 years at this point. The prospect of trying to narrow down his thousands of appearances to the ten greatest Superman stories of all time is a daunting one (it was hard enough for us to limit the list to 25). But that’s exactly what The Folio Society has set out to do with the release of the deluxe hardcover set DC: Superman.

Unsurprisingly, one of the stories featured in this new collection is the first chapter of Alan Moore and Curt Swan’s seminal 1986 tale “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”. IGN can exclusively debut a new preview of this issue, showing how faithfully the original comic has been reproduced in the hardcover. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

The stories included in DC: Superman have been scanned from DC’s archives and are intended to recreate the original artwork as faithfully as possible, coloring and all. The artwork is presented in a 7″ x 10″ slipcase hardcover format.

The full lineup of stories in DC: Superman includes:

• Action Comics #36 (May 1941) – ‘Fifth Columnists’ by writer Jerry Siegel, artists Wayne Boring and Joe Shuster, and cover artist Fred Ray.
• Superman #30 (October 1944) – ‘The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk!’ by writer Jerry Siegel, artist Ira Yarbrough and Stan Kaye, and cover artist Jack Burnley.
• Superman #96 (March 1955) – ‘The Girl Who Didn’t Believe in Superman!’ by writer Bill Finger, artists Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye, and cover artist Al Plastino.
• Superman #149 (November 1961) – ‘The Death of Superman’ by writer Jerry Siegel, artists Curt Swan and George Klein, and cover artists Curt Swan and George Klein.
• Superman #400 (October 1984) – ‘The Living Legends of Superman – Chapter Four’ by writer Elliot S. Maggin, artist Marshall Rodgers and Terry Austin, and cover artists Howard Chaykin and Frank Miller.
• Action Comics # 583 (September 1986) – ‘Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?’ by writer Alan Moore, artists Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, and cover artists Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, and Anthony Tollin.
• Superman Vol. 2 #2 (February 1987) – ‘The Secret Revealed’ by writer John Byrne, artists John Byrne, Terry Austin and Keith Williams, and cover artist John Byrne.
• Superman Annual #2 (August 1988) – ‘Love’s Labors …’ by writer Roger Stern, artists Ron Frenz and Brett Breeding, and cover artist Ron Frenz.
• The Adventures of Superman #462 (January 1990) – ‘Homeless for the Holidays’ by writer Roger Stern, artists Dan Jurgens and Art Thibert, and cover artists Dan Jurgens, Brett Breeding, and Tom Ziuko.
• Superman #75 (January 1993) – ‘Doomsday!’ by writer Dan Jurgens, artists Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding, and cover artists Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding.
• Peace on Earth (January 1999) by writer Paul Dini and artist Alex Ross.

“Symbolizing ‘Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow,’ Superman has been a feature of comics and Western culture for almost ninety years, and where other characters have changed their allegiances and desires Superman has always stood for one thing: Hope. And we could all do with a little hope now and again,” said James Rose, Head of Editorial for the Folio Society, in a statement.

DC: Superman is priced at $100 and is available now exclusively on The Folio Society’s website.

For more on what’s coming up in the comic book world, see what to expect from DC in 2025 and IGN’s most anticipated new comics of 2025.

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

Destiny 2’s next Episode, Heresy, is just around the corner. The “final epilogue entry” for the Light and Darkness Saga will have some unvoiced lines of dialogue though, due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

In the recent This Week In Destiny update, Bungie said its teams have taken care to deliver the narrative and story content, but warned that certain voice lines will be silent due to the ongoing Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike.

Subtitles will be enabled by default so players don’t miss any story, and Bungie outlined a number of accessibility and visibility options for said subtitles. Heresy activities that have missing voice acting will display a warning before launch.

The SAG-AFTRA strike started last July after the union confirmed it had failed to reach an agreement with video companies following a series of negotiations. SAG-AFTRA cited a lack of agreement over regulating generative artificial intelligence (or GenAI) in projects.

Even games not subject to the strike have been affected. Activision, for example, recast several Zombies characters in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 after the voice actors reportedly chose not to sign new contracts in solidarity with striking union members. Some projects and teams have since struck an interim agreement, permitting members to work on those games.

The extent of Destiny 2: Heresy’s lack of voice-acting is unclear, though some fans have noted that it appears Sloane will be one of the silent characters. There’s no note on whether these voice lines could be added in a future update, if the studio and publisher reach a deal with the striking actors.

For more on how the strike has, and will continue to, affect the games you play, check out our feature from last year, What the SAG-AFTRA Video Game Actors Strike Means for Gamers. Destiny 2: Heresy goes live on February 4, 2025.

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.

Microsoft has announced the Xbox Game Pass February 2025 Wave 1 lineup.

Out today, February 4, is Far Cry New Dawn (Cloud, Console, and PC) across Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard. In a post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft described the Ubisoft shooter as follows: “Dive into a transformed, vibrant, post-apocalyptic Hope County, Montana, 17 years after a global nuclear catastrophe. Lead the fight against the Highwaymen as they seek to take over the last remaining resources.”

February 5 is a big day for Game Pass, with a number of additions to the Game Pass Standard tier. Another Crab’s Treasure (Console), Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (Console), and Starfield (Xbox Series X|S) all hit Game Pass Standard then.

And here’s a big one: on February 6, Madden NFL 25 (Cloud, Console, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass via EA Play.

Fast forward to February 13, and Kingdom Two Crowns (Cloud and Console) makes a return to Game Pass via Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass Standard. “In Kingdom Two Crowns, players must work in the brand-new solo or co-op campaign mode to build their kingdom and secure it from the threat of the Greed. Experience new technology, units, enemies, mounts, and secrets in the next evolution of the award-winning micro strategy franchise!”

Then, on February 18, another big one: Obsidian’s Avowed (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) launches as a day-one Game Pass launch across Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. It’s worth noting that Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members can buy the Avowed Premium Upgrade Addon to receive up to five days early access, two sets of premium skins, and access to the Avowed digital artbook and original soundtrack.

Xbox Game Pass February 2025 Wave 1 lineup:

• Far Cry New Dawn (Cloud, Console, and PC) – February 4
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Another Crab’s Treasure (Console) – February 5
  Now with Game Pass Standard
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (Console) – February 5
  Now with Game Pass Standard
• Starfield (Xbox Series X|S) – February 5
  Now with Game Pass Standard
• Madden NFL 25 (Cloud, Console, and PC) EA Play – February 6
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Kingdom Two Crowns (Cloud and Console) – February 13
  Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Standard
• Avowed (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – February 18
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

As always, as new games hit Game Pass, existing games leave the service. You can save up to 20% off your purchase with your membership to keep these games in your library.

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass on February 15:

• A Little to the Left (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Bloodstained Ritual of the Night (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• EA Sports UFC 3 (Console) EA Play
• Indivisible (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Merge and Blade (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Return to Grace (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Tales of Arise (Cloud, Console, and PC)

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.

Hot on the heels of Helldivers 2’s latest update, patch 01.002.101, going live, players have noticed developer Arrowhead used it to secretly add a new tool to the game: a shovel.

Players have discovered the shovel as a POI item dotted about the map, and have found they’re able to actually dig into the ground with it to create makeshift cover.

Redditor The_Fighter03 alerted the community to the find with a video clip, below, showing the new shovel in action.

Arrowhead failed to make any mention in today’s update 01.002.101, nor has it explained why shovels are all of a sudden in the game. But fans had wondered whether the patch had more to it than Arrowhead let on, given it weighed in at over 5GB. Perhaps the terrain deformation / dig system now in the game was a big part of that.

Players are now digging into the detail of this new shovel, trying to work out how deep they can go and whether it has any other use. Can it be used to dig under doors, for example? Can players work together to create trenches? The community is having fun working this out.

Meanwhile, Arrowhead announced Helldivers 2’s next premium warbond, dubbed Servants of Freedom. The battle pass due out February 6 adds a portable Hellbomb stratagem and new armor that come with the Integrated Explosives passive, which means that upon death, your corpse will detonate and take out the enemies around you.

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.

For many years, Samsung has typically been one of the first Android phone makers to deliver a hot new device with the latest Qualcomm chips at the start of the new year. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra ends up in an unenviable position in 2025, though, as it follows on the heels of the OnePlus 13, RedMagic 10 Pro, and Asus ROG Phone 9, all of which have shown solid advancements to their own product lines and just how capable the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset is. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra may be the best that Samsung can do, but it really has to knock it out of the park to stay at the top of the smartphone class, especially when its $1,299 starting price is the highest of these four devices.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Design and Features

Samsung has made some of the most significant design changes for the Ultra line in several years with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and yet it still looks pretty same-y. The new design has curved corners and flat sides – a shift away from the angular corners and rounded sides of predecessors. But the Galaxy S25 Ulta remains a large slab. The back of the phone is largely featureless save for the three large and two small bumps for the camera array and laser auto-focus system.

While I can’t say the color isn’t pretty, it’s not jaw-dropping. OnePlus is out there etching wood grain into the back of its OnePlus 13, RedMagic is doing all sorts of bold craziness (including frost-like geometric patterns and see-through panels), and Samsung just has flat, muted colors. This is coming from the company that launched the S20 with a vibrant back panel that provided a close approximation to a bubble catching the sunlight. Sure, Samsung’s going with supposedly robust Gorilla Armor 2 glass on the front and back and titanium in the frame of the phone, but these lend little to the visual appeal of the device, and to my knowledge, none of them prevent the phone from shattering on concrete like any flagship phone out there.

The camera setup on the back of the S25 Ultra is also a curious and worrying choice. While the layout is familiar, each of the larger bumps now has a small relief at the bottom – think the pipes in Mario games. This might provide ever-so-slightly more visual intrigue, but the ability of these gaps to gather debris is all but guaranteed, and on the off chance something got under there with a little leverage, I’d expect some damage to the camera itself.

The one thing setting the S25 Ultra apart from its competition is the S Pen, which still has a little slot at the bottom edge of the phone. It tucks away conveniently, and springs out with a pleasing little pop. And it provides responsive stylus inputs for handwriting and doodling with far greater accuracy than a finger can manage. This year, Samsung took away the Bluetooth connection to the phone, which enabled some extra features, like the ability for the S Pen to serve as a remote camera shutter button though. I’m reminded of when Samsung dropped the SD card slot from its phones – sure, most people might have not been using it, but that didn’t make it any less convenient to have. And on that note, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Samsung includes just a single SIM card in its tray. It supports two eSIMs, but more is always better in my book, and Samsung could have offered more.

Beyond the stylus and minor aesthetic choices, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is much like all the other flagship smartphones out there. It’s massive (6.41 x 3.06 x 0.32 in), weighty (218 grams), a little hard to use one-handed, and built well. You’ll get IP68-grade water and dust protection, which is about as good as it gets, though OnePlus went above and beyond this year by adding IP69 protection that can hold up against hot water jets as well as submersion.The anti-glare finish does a great job cutting down on reflections without impacting image quality from the display. Beyond that, though, the S25 Ultra’s screen isn’t blowing the competition out of the water.

Samsung fits in an excellent display. The screen stretches 6.9 inches across and has a sharp 1440×3120 resolution. The screen can reach a peak 120Hz refresh rate but can drop down as low as 1Hz to conserve energy. It’s bright and vibrant, making it a joy to watch shows and movies or play games on. The display is paired with potent speakers as well, which provide clear stereo audio and enough volume to listen to podcasts while tackling chores or taking a shower.

Samsung continues to situate a fingerprint scanner underneath the display, and it proves quick and reliable for unlocking the phone. Facial recognition is also supported.

The overall quality of the Galaxy S25 Ultra isn’t surprising. Samsung knows how to make a great phone, and this line is meant to be the cream of the crop. But it feels just a bit less special this year because it hasn’t done much to change from prior years while its competitors have. Sure, it has the S Pen, albeit somewhat neutered this year. Sure, it has Samsung DeX, giving it the ability to work like a portable computer, but that capability may not be far away from seeing broader availability on Android devices. And AI features are rolling out so fast and loose that none of them seem unique to any given phone, no matter how much Samsung hypes their capabilities.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Software

The Galaxy S25 Ultra launches with Android 15, and Samsung continues to promise seven years of Android OS and security updates, which is great to see from a device as expensive as this. Samsung still provides a flexible take on Android with its One UI, giving you plenty of tools to tailor it to the look and feel you prefer. While I haven’t found anything objectionable about Samsung’s approach to the operating system, I continue to be irked by Samsung’s attempts at locking down the ecosystem. Samsung has a handful of default apps that replace typical Google apps you’d find on almost any other Android phone, such as Chrome and Calendar. Samsung then uses its first-party apps to integrate some features, like its AI summarization of web pages or its ability to have AI check your calendar for events. If you want to take advantage of those features, you end up stuck with Samsung’s apps, and that can mean a big ecosystem shift.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Gaming and Performance

While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra may have a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip akin to that in other recent Android flagships, Samsung’s is a special version with souped up cores. It features six cores running at the same 3.53GHz as its competitors but two cores are boosted to 4.47GHz, up from the 4.32GHz you’d see in others like the OnePlus 13. It sounds like a minor difference, but it is enough to give Samsung a slight performance edge. In Geekbench 6’s single-core CPU test and Vulkan GPU test, the Galaxy S25 Ultra offered the fastest speeds I’ve seen from an Android phone. It edged out the OnePlus 13, RedMagic 10 Pro, and Asus ROG Phone 9 in these tests by as much as 6% and only fell to the ROG Phone 9 in the multi-core test by 0.27%.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra also had impressive GPU performance results in 3DMark. But this is also where the cracks started to show. For one thing, it didn’t manage to jump ahead of the Asus, OnePlus, or RedMagic in these tests. In some cases, it was even a good ways behind, especially since RedMagic basically proved itself nearly magical with how much performance it could eke out of the GPU. But the bigger problem for Samsung was its ability to sustain.

Invariably, after one benchmark run, the performance of the S25 Ultra would throttle for subsequent runs, sometimes by upwards of 20%. Of the Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered Android phones I tested recently, the S25 Ultra also performed the worst in the Steel Nomad Light stress test, which runs the benchmark 20 times in a row. In this stress test, the S25 Ultra started with a high of 2611 points but dropped promptly to 2116 points for the second run, then fell into the 1800s and eventually bottomed out at 1279 points. By contrast, the RedMagic 10 Pro and Asus ROG Phone 9 were both able to remain above 2150 points for all 20 runs. The OnePlus 13 also saw its results only sink as low as 1662 points. Samsung may be throttling more aggressively, with performance dipping even before the chipsets internal temps exceed 40 degrees Celsius. Samsung’s phone may stay cooler as a result, but all of these phones are getting uncomfortably hot by the end of the stress test. And I’ve noticed the S25 Ultra warming up simply while I’ve been browsing the web – something I didn’t notice from these other phones.

All this is to say the Galaxy S25 Ultra is an incredibly performant phone, and it feels lightning fast in everyday operation. But it seems to struggle with heat, and its ability to serve as a top-tier gaming phone will be impacted by this. It will be a strong gaming phone for those who want to dip their toes from time to time, but it won’t be the supreme option.

The networking speed of the S25 Ultra at least doesn’t encounter compromises. I could see speeds over 400Mbps on T-Mobile’s networking in testing, and the phone supports Wi-Fi 7 for the latest Wi-Fi networks.

Battery life is solid, easily lasting through a day of heavy use or two days of moderate use. But the 5,000mAh battery isn’t all that impressive when the OnePlus 13 is packing in two 3,000mAh cells and the RedMagic 10 Pro has bumped up to 7,000mAh. Even the charging speeds Samsung offers are on the slow side with just 45W wired charging and 15W wireless charging

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Cameras

Samsung was never going to fail to impress with the sheer specifications of its camera system on the Galaxy 25 Ultra. It packs a powerful array of sensors with a wide range of focal lengths. Here’s what you’ll find:

• 200MP wide, f/1.7, 1.12-micron, 1/1.3”, OIS, EIS
• 50MP ultrawide, f/1.9, 0.7-micron
• 10MP telephoto, 3x optical zoom, f/2.4, 1.12-micron, 1/3.52”, OIS
• 50MP telephoto, 5x optical zoom, f/3.4, 0.7-micron, 1/2.52”, OIS
• 12MP Selfie, f/2.2, 1.12-micron, 1/3.2”

For all of its technical prowess, the Galaxy S25 Ultra camera system manages to still feel a bit bland. Perhaps this is because Samsung has a color filter system akin to Apple’s Photographic Styles. You can apply these while shooting or after the fact, but with the camera running at its defaults, I felt many of the photos I took simply lacked punchy contrast and vibrancy, not to mention the warmth I’d gotten used to on the OnePlus 13. The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s main sensor snaps very sharp, detailed photos, but there’s a difference between that and a photo that looks good.

The ultra-wide camera certainly helps squeeze a lot into the frame, but it does so at the cost of noticeable distortion. Looking at a series of ceiling photos I took, the equilateral hexagon pattern on the ceiling showed all-too-obvious elongation when snapped with the ultra-wide. Some textures exhibit sharpening artifacts that make them look slightly more processed than the main sensor, and this breaks down the consistency between the two sensors. In certain scenarios, such as extreme close ups, the S25 Ultra prompted me to use a focus assistance tool which actually swapped from the main sensor to a cropped view of the ultra-wide, and the result is a drop in quality – not what I’d want from a tool meant to be helpful.

Samsung has some strong zoom prowess here combining both a 10MP 3x sensor and 50MP 5x sensor. The 3x tightens in on subjects well while keeping them plenty sharp. The 3x sensor even proves sharper than cropping in on the 200MP main sensor. I’ve noticed some sudden shifts in how the camera system wants to handle lighting when switching between the main and 3x telephoto, though, and it again hinders the overall camera experience.

I love that Samsung includes a 5x optical sensor on the S25 Ultra. Though I don’t love it as much as the 10x it might have included. Going back to look at photos I took using the 10x sensor that was on the S21 Ultra and S22 Ultra, it doesn’t appear to me that Samsung has made meaningful improvement on its ability to get close to far-off subjects by switching to a 5x optical sensor and then cropping to get closer. The 5x optical sensor on the phone now does a good job getting close to the quality of the old 10x when zoomed in, but it would have just been that much neater to see it start at 10x and then have the potential to reach even farther out.

Now, as it stands, Samsung is still readily winning the telephoto war, as the 5x sensor here plainly beats the Google Pixel 9 Pro’s and the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s own 5x sensor. It’s day and night when comparing their ability to capture accurate detail on a far-off subject. This is perhaps the one edge the Galaxy S25 Ultra is keeping on the OnePlus 13 as well, as the latter phone doesn’t get much actual detail when zoomed in very far beyond 6x. OnePlus still has a knack for making an image that pleases the eye with bolder contrast and color on those super-zoomed photos, but Samsung’s ability to get actual detail is unrivaled here – too bad OnePlus didn’t borrow the Oppo Find X8 Pro’s 6x telephoto sensor.

Marvel Studios VP of production and development has shut down rumors surrounding the recasting of the late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, saying it may happen eventually but not anytime soon.

VP of production and development Nate Moore told ComicBook “there’s no truth to those rumors,” which emerged in the wake of Black Panther 3 being quietly announced by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige in December.

“The truth is, there’s no truth to those rumors,” Moore said. “Never say never to anything; we haven’t really had a lot of creative conversations with [writer and director] Ryan Coogler yet, because he’s finishing his film Sinners, which comes out this year.

“We’ll get into it later this year, but everything you read online is not true, if for no other reason than we just haven’t started [working on it].”

Boseman starred as the original Marvel Cinematic Universe Black Panther before his death in 2020, with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever addressing this with a touching tribute before revealing his character T’Challa’s death too.

T’Challa’s younger sister Shuri, played by Letitia Wright, took over the role of the Black Panther and will likely continue that story in the third film, but with myriad links to the afterlife throughout the franchise, fans have questioned if T’Challa may come back.

Nothing is known about Black Panther 3 so far, however, and seemingly at Marvel too, though Denzel Washington let slip his starring in the film before Feige confirmed it proper.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Bloodborne PSX demake has become the latest Bloodborne-related fan project to be hit with a copyright claim after the Bloodborne 60fps mod was struck last week.

Well-known Bloodborne 60fps mod creator Lance McDonald announced last week that he’d received a takedown notification on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment “asking that I remove links to the patch I posted on the internet, so I’ve now done so.” The DMCA takedown arrived four years after the mod was released.

Now, Lilith Walther, creator of Nightmare Kart, which was previously known as Bloodborne Kart, and the eye-catching Bloodborne PSX demake, tweeted to say a YouTube video of the demake was hit with a copyright claim by a company called MarkScan Enforcement.

McDonald followed up to tweet that MarkScan are a company hired by Sony Interactive Entertainment, and the same company that “DMCAed my page about the Bloodborne 60fps patch.”

“And now they’ve DMCAed an old video about the Bloodborne PSX demake project. That’s pretty wild. What the hell are they doing??”

Bloodborne is of course one of the biggest conundrums in the video game industry. The FromSoftware masterpiece launched on PS4 to critical and commercial acclaim, but since then Sony hasn’t touched it. Fans are desperate for an official next-gen patch that would make the game run at 60fps, up from 30fps, but there are also calls for a remaster and a sequel.

Recently, fans managed to get PS4 emulators to deliver something akin to a remaster on PC. The tech experts at Digital Foundry released a video covering “a breakthrough in PS4 emulation” via ShadPS4, which means Bloodborne is now fully playable start to finish in 60fps. Could this breakthrough have triggered an aggressive response from Sony? IGN has asked Sony for comment, but it has yet to respond.

McDonald offered what he called his “copium theory,” though: that Sony could be working on an official remake.

“My copium theory is that Sony DMCAed the 60fps patch and the video about the Bloodborne demake so that when they announce a 60fps remake, google searching for ‘bloodborne 60fps’ and ‘Bloodborne remake’ won’t have collisions with our fan projects,” McDonald said.

“Let me cope.”

Then: “Like if they plan on trademarking ‘bloodborne 60fps’ and ‘Bloodborne remake’ they need to actually clean up in order to actually file a trademark request. Right??”

Despite these latest aggressive actions by Sony, the company has so far offered no indication that it plans to return to Bloodborne in any way. Last month, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida delivered his Bloodborne no-show theory in an interview with Kinda Funny Games:

“Bloodborne has always been the most asked thing,” Yoshida began. “And people wonder why we haven’t really done anything, even an update or a remaster. Should be easy, right? The company is known for doing so many remasters, right, some people get frustrated.

“I have only my personal theory to that situation. I left first-party so I don’t know what’s going on, but my theory is, you know because I remember, you know, Miyazaki-san really, really loved Bloodborne, you know, what he created. So I think he is interested, but he’s so successful and he’s so busy, so he doesn’t want, he cannot do himself, but he does not want anyone else to touch it. So that’s my theory. And the PlayStation team respect his wish. So that’s my guess, right? Theory. I am not revealing any secret information, to be clear.”

The upshot is Bloodborne remains dormant nearly 10 years after the first game came out. But is there hope? In interviews, Miyazaki often deflects questions about Bloodborne, pointing to the fact FromSoftware does not own the IP. But in February last year, Miyazaki at least admitted the game would benefit from a release on more modern hardware.

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.

The HBO adaptation of The Last of Us Part 2 won’t feature Abby as such a muscly character as her role in Season 2 doesn’t need to emulate certain video game mechanics, showrunner and Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann has said.

Druckmann and fellow showrunner Craig Mazin told Entertainment Weekly that actress Kaitlyn Dever didn’t need to bulk up for the role because Abby didn’t need to feel as distinct mechanically to Ellie.

“We would’ve struggled to find someone as good as Kaitlyn to play this role,” Druckmann said. “In the game, you have to play both [Ellie and Abby] and we need them to play differently. We needed Ellie to feel smaller and kind of maneuver around, and Abby was meant to play more like Joel in that she’s almost like a brute in the way she can physically manhandle certain things.

“That doesn’t play as big of a role in this version of the story because there’s not as much violent action moment to moment. It’s more about the drama. I’m not saying there’s no action here. It’s just, again, different priorities and how you approach it.”

Mazin chimed in too: “I personally think there is an amazing opportunity here to delve into someone who is perhaps physically more vulnerable than the Abby in the game, but whose spirit is stronger. And then the question is: ‘Where does her formidable nature come from and how does it manifest?’ That’s something that will be explored now and later.”

The now and later comment likely refers to HBO’s plans to extend The Last of Us Part 2 beyond a single season, unlike the critically acclaimed Season 1 which covered the entirety of the original game. Mazin has said previously that Part 2 features a lot more story to cover, so while Season 3 isn’t greenlit as of yet, they’ve built Season 2 with a “natural breakpoint” after just seven episodes.

Much toxicity surrounds the character of Abby in particular, with some choosing to voice their frustration at the fictional character’s actions by harassing Naughty Dog employees including Druckmann and actress Laura Bailey. This included threats and abuse targeting her, her parents, and her two-year-old son.

HBO was even wary of this reception while filming Season 2, as Dever was given extra security in case of escalated action. “There’s so many strange people in this world because there are people that actually genuinely hate Abby, who is not a real person. Just a reminder: not a real person,” said actress Isabel Merced, who plays Dina in Season 2.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.