Sci-fi is a genre that continues to evolve each year in filmmaking. Ever since the mystical release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, many directors have sought to craft films that are otherworldly and fascinating for audiences. Today, the Amazon 3 for $33 sale is still ongoing for select 4K movies, and some of the best sci-fi movies of all time are still available as part of this deal. If you’re a collector and wish to avoid the sci-fi-like digital-only future, this is a great opportunity to score some excellent 4K Blu-rays for your collection.

This sale is part of Amazon’s larger three for $33 4K movie promotion that just started yesterday. There are quite a few other great films in there if you’d prefer to shop the full sale yourself.

Score 3 4K Sci-Fi Blu-rays for $33 at Amazon

One of the best movies included in this sale is Blade Runner: The Final Cut, starring Harrison Ford. This version of the iconic sci-fi film is the definitive way to experience Blade Runner by far, with new VFX cleanups, added scenes, and excellent color and sound quality.

You can also score 4K copies of 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the most inspiration films of all time, and Inception, which is a favorite for many fans of Christopher Nolan. Godzilla Minus One, just fresh off an Oscar Win last year, is also available. Beyond Minus One, you can save on even more Godzilla and monster 4K movies as part of this ongoing promotion.

If you wish to check out all of the movies on sale, you can shop the full sale yourself here.

Noah Hunter is a freelance writer and reviewer with a passion for games and technology. He co-founded Final Weapon, an outlet focused on nonsense-free Japanese gaming (in 2019) and has contributed to various publishers writing about the medium.

If you’re tired of lugging out your full-sized vacuum cleaner or buying cans of compressed air to clean out your desk space, here’s an easier alternative. Amazon is offering the Hoto Handheld Cordless Vacuum Cleaner for just $31.31 after you apply a 55% off coupon code “468DGGLL” during checkout. Amazon’s list price is incorrect (it’s actually $69.99). It has over 700 4.3/5 star reviews on Amazon with a Fakespot “A” rating. This cordless handvac is a quick and easy way to rid your desk area of all the food crumbs and dust bunnies that pile up in and around your keyboard and gaming PC.

55% Off Hoto Cordless Handheld Vacuum

Vinyl has made a huge resurgence over the years, and more soundtracks are being released than ever before. It’s very common nowadays to see game soundtracks receive a vinyl release at launch or at least a while thereafter. Starting today, IGN Store has opened pre-orders for four new vinyl soundtracks. If you’re a fan of The Legend of Zelda, Cuphead, Stray, or Destiny, you do not want to miss these items.

Ocarina of Time, Destiny, Cuphead, and Stray Vinyl Now Available to Pre-Order

First up is the new Hero of Time – Music from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 2xLP Vinyl. This release includes music by the 64-piece Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, with the pressing on green & purple rupee vinyl. There’s also the Cuphead Deluxe Soundtrack, which features 1930s era-specific packaging and almost three hours total of music. This 4xLP set is sure to please any fan of jazz or challenging platformers.

Next, the Destiny 2 Volume 1 Original Game Soundtrack Vinyl is perfect for fans of Bungie’s online game. This 2xLP set contains original music from Destiny 2’s inaugural campaign, “The Red War,” with a code included to redeem an exclusive Destiny 2 Profile Emblem.

Finally, a new release of the Stray Original Soundtrack is available to pre-order! Composer Yann Van Der Cruyssen managed to capture the distinct cyberpunk nature of the BlueTwelve Studios game, with eerie and desolate melodies that are captured with synths. This 2xLP set is pressed on 180g audiophile black vinyl and features a gatefold jacket housed in an elegant slipcase with holofoil spécialité.

If you’re looking for more game vinyl soundtracks, IGN Store also recently opened pre-orders on six different Persona vinyl soundtracks. This includes Persona Q – Shadow of Labyrinth, Persona 4 Arena, Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4, and Persona 5.

Each of these new vinyl releases is part of the new iam8bit 20th Anniversary Collection, so they won’t be here forever. Be sure to head over to IGN Store today so you don’t miss out on these items!

About IGN Store

IGN Store sells high-quality merch, collectibles, and shirts for everything you’re into. It’s a shop built with fans in mind: for all the geek culture and fandom you love most. Whether you’re into comics, movies, anime, games, retro gaming or just want some cute plushies (who doesn’t?), this store is for you!

Anime just keeps getting bigger. It was reported to be a $19+ billion industry in 2023, so we can only imagine where it’s at now. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to watch anime without paying a dime. While you might have to skip out on the occasional Netflix original, there’s something for everyone in the hundreds of anime series and movies out there for free.

If you watch anime, you probably know that there are plenty of what we’ll call “risky” anime sites, most of which ride a legal gray line or head straight into piracy territory. This list is limited to free anime sites we know for sure legally acquired their streaming licenses.

Whether you want to see what the hype’s about with Solo Leveling, are planning a Naruto marathon, or want to dive into classics like Sailor Moon, here are the best sites to watch anime for free.

Crunchyroll

The Elder Scrolls fans are praising Bethesda today after the developer gifted free game keys for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered to the entire team behind popular Oblivion mod, Skyblivion.

In a post on BlueSky today, the Skyblivion team shared news of Bethesda’s outreach with their community. “As massive fans, we’re beyond grateful for the generous gift of Oblivion Remastered game keys for our entire modding team! This means so much to us. Thank you for everything, Bethesda!”

Skyblivion is an upcoming fan remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion made by the TESRenewal volunteer modding group. It uses Bethesda’s Creation Engine to recreate Oblivion in the game’s sequel, Skyrim. The project has technically been in the works for over a decade, beginning as a simple direct port and later expanding to a full remake with a number of improved features and even new content. We interviewed one of the developers behind it way back in 2021. Skyblivion is expected to release this year.

Historically, Bethesda and the Skyblivion team have reportedly been on “very good terms,” but as rumors of an official Oblivion remaster grew, some fans questioned if Bethesda wasn’t trying to head off Skyblivion with its own version due to the suspiciously close release timing. A few days ago, anticipating today’s showcase, the Skyblivion team issued a statement addressing these concerns. In it, the team said that Bethesda has “always been supportive of community projects like ours” and that “there is no need for comparisons or a sense of competition” between the two games.

Notably, Oblivision Remastered does not have official mod support, though fans have already been cooking up an array of unofficial mods for the game within hours of its release. Additionally, both versions of Oblivion have unique aspects: Skyblivion, for instance, isn’t available on console at all. Oblivision Remastered, on the other hand, does not include the new and refurbished content that Skyblivion has promised, but does have horse armor DLC at launch for Deluxe Edition buyers. Both versions have different looks and feels, with different interpretations on how much Skyrim-ness should be incorporated into a retread of Oblivion. And of course, you can play Oblivision Remastered today, but those looking forward to Skyblivion will have to wait just a little bit longer.

While we wait, you can read up on why some players think today’s release is more remake than remaster and why Bethesda opted to give it that “Remastered” name in the first place.

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, and much more.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

The Star Wars franchise is chock full of exciting animated projects that do an excellent job of expanding the vast and beloved live-action universe established by George Lucas back in 1977 with Star Wars: A New Hope. But it looks like fans can anticipate at least one more animated series to add to the mix in Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, which was just announced at Star Wars Celebration Japan. Voice actor Sam Witwer, who has voiced Maul in all of his animated appearances over the years, opened up to IGN about developing the project during an exclusive interview out of the festival.

Witwer, who will star as Darth Maul in this new series, revealed to IGN not only where Shadow Lord falls in the overall Star Wars timeline, but also Maul’s headspace at this point in the story.

“It takes place a year after the Clone Wars have ended, and Maul is in a very challenging place, because the people that he had around him, a lot of them scattered or betrayed him during the Clone Wars. So we’re dealing with a guy who is trying to figure out well, my God, what is my purpose? Maul, you have to remember, is a classically trained force user, a classically trained Sith,” Witwer explained.

“He comes from a time of magic, knights, passion, enthusiasm, aggression, fire – magic. Now he is seeing an empire that he knew was coming, and the magic and the color is being sucked out of the universe. How does he feel about that? Did he see that that was going to be the way that it was? Is this different than what he expected and how does he feel that affects him? What does he wanna do about it? Can he do anything about it? He’s not very equipped right now. So this is a guy who’s trying to figure out what his destiny is.”

Witwer also noted that Maul’s perspective at this point was shaped by his upbringing. “Something else, he was trained his entire life to hate and kill Jedi, and he killed more Jedi than people were aware of in the Clone Wars. You know, there [were] indications that [he] and Savage Opress went off on a rampage as well. It was worse than you think. And now they’re gone. How does he feel about the Jedi, his sworn enemy – how does he feel about them now that they are gone? You know? All of these things, so we’re challenging this perspective. So what is his destiny? What is who is he without his greatest enemy to fight and destroy? And he learns that perhaps part of his destiny is to inspire a young person; train an apprentice.”

Unfortunately, the only tidbit Witwer would share about the mysterious apprentice is that she is a “very surprising” character. “I can’t tell you that much more,” he teased. “But she’s quite something.”

Witwer, who is also well-known for past roles in Battlestar Galactica and Smallville, has stepped into a development role with this project, and it seems to have proven fruitful to work directly with Lucasfilm CCO Dave Filoni. “Dave has always been very collaborative, wonderfully collaborative in fact, and this one, they were like, well, listen, you’ve been playing this character for 15 years,” the voice actor revealed. “So, you have to be in this deeper than you’ve ever been before, because we need you to weigh in on stuff, we need to have people to debate these things. So it’s been kind of thrilling in that way, having constant phone calls and emails and discussions. and it’s been educational.”

The actor has done a lot of work on Maul’s arc, which he opened up about from his “death” in The Phantom Menace to resurfacing during Clone Wars and his final showdown with Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Rebels. “Well, if we’re developing this chapter it’s important to review all of that information and watch it closer than we ever have, because we must learn new things about this character or it’s not worth too much,” Witwer told IGN in Japan. “Looking at those previous works, I’ve always had a lot of questions about this character. There were things that the audience I haven’t seen them pick up on yet but that I feel are really worth talking about. For example, why did Maul never give up Palpatine?”

And why didn’t he, then? Witwer made it a point to delve into the realities of this question. “You have a show where the Jedi are like, ‘We know that there is someone named Darth Sidious. We know that he is manipulating things, and we’re trying to figure out who this is, who is the Sith lord. Maul through all those years knows exactly who the Sith lord is; he could go to a phone booth, call up the Jedi and say, ‘It’s Palpatine’ and hang up the phone and really screw Palpatine’s plans. He never does that. Why? Why doesn’t he turn on Palpatine?”

He added, “The only moment he finally decides, OK, I’m gonna turn on Palpatine is at the very end, right before the world ends, Order 66 and the Clone Wars end, he becomes so freaked out that in a desperation he reaches out to Ahsoka Tano. But Palpatine has caused so much suffering for this guy. Palpatine took away Savage Opress. Palpatine killed his family. Palpatine took away his mother. Palpatine showed no loyalty to Maul, and the moment Maul found loyalty in Savage Opress, he took that from him. So what is it? Why did Maul maintain this loyalty? What is it about that character? What is it about Maul that we are learning from things like that?”

For Witwer and the team developing this project, Maul’s past is crucial to who he is in the present. “These are the types of questions that I have been asking for years, and in this show, we get to create stories about them. I mean, not flashbacks – we don’t literally tell these stories, but there are aspects of that character that have not been explored, traits that that character has that people wouldn’t think he has, because he’s different than Palpatine,” the actor explained.

“Palpatine is a 10 out of 10 mythic villain – he’s as bad as you get. Maul is not that. If you watch The Clone Wars very closely, he does not kill unnecessarily. I’m saying too much. He’s a bad, bad guy in this show, but our show is bad guys versus worse guys. So Maul is every bit as bad as he was before, in some ways even worse.”

Bad guys turned worse? Sounds like our cup of tea! This series is obviously still in development, which means we’re far off from a release date at this point — but for now, we can dream about how killer it seems like it will be.

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

Bethesda has confirmed The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered does not feature official mod support, but that hasn’t stopping dedicated fans from already pushing out a few unofficial mods of their own.

A handful of community mods made their way to popular website Nexus Mods just hours after Bethesda and Virtuos’ Oblivion reimagining shadow-dropped for players across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. Although these mostly amount to small customization options, it’s proof that few modding communities are as dedicated as those found in The Elder Scrolls fanbase.

At the time of this story’s publication, a surprising 22 mods are available on the site. The first to cross the finish line simply allows PC players to personalize their desktop by replacing the default Oblivion Remastered shortcut with one of two images of its infamous Adoring Fan. More than a few allow players to skip the introduction Bethesda and Vitruos logo screens, while others, including one that tweaks the Wizard’s Fury spell and another that removes the compass, are already tackling options to customize gameplay.

The wave of early mods arrives as Bethesda, which usually encourages mod support in its games, announced that Oblivion Remastered does not feature official mod support this time around. Confirmation that players would need to turn elsewhere for mods was detailed in an FAQ section on its website.

Meanwhile, Nexus Mods user GodschildGaming uploaded their Iron Longsword damage mod in part to show Oblivion Remastered is still ripe for modding.

“This is just to prove modding is possible,” they said in the mod’s description. “Bethesda says no mod support, I say false. It really is Unreal slapped on top of Oblivion, the data folder is nested in a lot more folders but same concept.”

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered launched today, 19 years after the original, for PC and consoles. As more players get their hands on it in the weeks and months ahead, its pool of mods will only increase and offer more bizarre ways to tailor the experience to your liking. While we wait for more mods to drop, you can read up on why some players think today’s release is more remake than remaster and why Bethesda opted to give it that “Remastered” name in the first place.

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, and much more.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

If you asked ChatGPT to combine all the most popular action-RPG mechanics in the hopes of creating a single game with broad appeal, you might end up with something as regrettably unfocused as Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree. This 2D sidescroller borrows from soulslikes, metroidvanias, platformers, and more, but it only ever achieves a moderate level of success with any of them and is spread woefully thin in the process. You can see a glimmer of potential in its combat, but that’s immediately undermined by one-dimensional, repetitious enemies with easily evaded attacks; The setting and characters start out intriguing, but quickly devolve into a chain of predictable tropes; And initial lure of running back through previous areas with new abilities becomes monotonous once you get about halfway through and realize how shallow this map really is. None of these missteps are so grievously bad that I outright regretted my time dodge-rolling around the world of Faelduum (apart from the combat), and the deep RPG options the six interesting character classes, dense skill trees, and in-depth equipment and crafting systems provide went quite a long way toward keeping me invested, but this still an otherwise underwhelming adventure in most aspects.

Mandragora’s mix of familiar ideas manages to stand out as its own kind of thing, but no matter what general label you decide to put on it, the important part is that you’re going to be swinging melee weapons, dodge rolling away from attacks, slinging spells, and swinging across gaps with a grapple hook. As you do, you’ll get to know this pessimistic and creepy world, which has been overrun by evil creatures who have left humanity cowering behind city walls. You play as an inquisitor who is sent out into the world in search of evils to kill, all while the creepy voice of a creature you sympathy-murdered whispers things in your head (long story). Unfortunately, that interesting starting point evaporates into a series of extremely lame anti-twists and cliches. For example, there’s not one, but two sections where you meet a character who is obviously the person you’ve been hunting down, but your dumb character believes them when they deny it…only for them to completely shockingly reveal they misled you less than an hour later.

It’s really too bad, because in my early hours I was quite intrigued by the bizarre dark fantasy world filled with 10-foot tall witches, dangerous monsters, and a mysterious cosmic energy called Entropy that seemed like it was going to be a really big problem. There are some great characters to meet too, like the completely unhinged jewel collector, Yrsa, who I always enjoyed bantering with. But that writing, not to mention voice acting, is nowhere near consistent, and you spend a lot of your time hearing from various bad guys about how you can’t possibly defeat them as a mere human. Sounds like someone received a word-a-day calendar filled with bad guy cliches for their birthday!

If there’s one thing Mandragora is consistent about, it is its extremely shallow combat, which pits you against sluggish soldiers and skeletons with hilariously obvious windup animations, pushover rats, and flying bats that are there to annoy you more than anything else. All of them have you simply dodging back and forth each time they take a swing, then getting a few hits in before doing so again. Boss fights are even worse, as most only have three or four unique attacks they hopelessly spam, many of which appear five or more times across the 25-hour campaign, making them feel like rank annoyances that completely betray the difficulty they’re clearly going for. Dying in Mandragora therefore usually has more to do with impatience in trying to get through a certain section of samey enemies or repeated bosses than actual challenge. There are moments where the combat’s promise comes through and you get an energizing 2D duel, like when you come across a new minion with a fresh bag of tricks or during a few of the bigger, more unique boss fights. But I mostly found myself starved for those encounters and immediately upset when they passed and I went straight back to fighting bland suits of armor for a couple more hours.

The main things that make combat more bearable are the skill trees and RPG mechanics you build up and customize along the way, which have some pretty neat options that at least offer new ways to defeat that fourth giant poisonous rat boss. I spent most of my time as a fast-moving assassin with poisonous daggers, teleporting in to close the distance with my enemies, but there’s also spell slinging options and tanky sword-and-board builds, plus the option to cross-pollinate into other skill trees to make yourself a little more well-rounded. For example, I ended up leveling my assassin into my two neighboring magical skill trees to diversify the types of damage I could deal, since poison wasn’t always effective when fighting the sixth giant poisonous rat boss (they seriously like reusing that boss). You’re also able to find and craft loot, tweaking its stats with runic enchantments and all that usual RPG goodness, and that level of buildcrafting depth is one of the ways in which Mandragora stands out.

As a sidescroller, there’s also a fair bit of platforming and secret hunting to be done, but these sections have mostly acted as the most minor of breaks in between combat sequences. There aren’t any puzzles to solve, and the handful of sections that have you dodging traps are mostly extremely obvious obstacles where giant blocks slam up and down with basically no chance of actually crushing you unless you straight up aren’t paying attention. In true metroidvania fashion, you’ll find plenty of spots that are just out of reach until you unlock a certain upgrade, but this too is quite shallow – there’s only a grapple hook, a double jump, and a glide, all of which are spread super far apart.

You’ll see about a hundred opportunities to use a double jump before you get it way too late in the adventure, and not in a tempting, “I can’t wait to get up there” sort of way. The glide is particularly hilarious as you don’t get it until the very last hour, by which point you’ve got little incentive to go back through every area looking for extras before heading into the final stretch. I generally enjoy backtracking for secrets in games like this, but after seeing eight-hours worth of new levels before getting the next upgrade, it’s a bit exhausting to consider retracing all of that just to get a few upgrade materials, especially when you’d be subjecting yourself to the same tedious combat encounters you’ve already completed a bunch of times.

Mandragora also suffers from some mild technical issues. Whenever I played for long stretches at a time, the framerate would gradually begin to tank until it was nearly unplayable. It never outright crashed, but I got to the point where resetting my PlayStation was the only real option, and that would reliably fix the problem for the next six-to-eight hours. I don’t imagine going for that long in one sitting will be the way most people play, though, and I only ever encountered the most minor of problems outside of these marathons, so this might not be an issue if you aren’t an absolute goblin like me.

As a prequel series to a prequel movie, I think plenty of us were surprised by the quality of Andor. The Disney+ series followed perhaps the saddest Star Wars movie, focusing on Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as he grows from a small-time thief to the revolutionary figure we see in Rogue One. Even knowing where Andor’s story leads, the compelling intrigue and more human stories featured in the Disney+ series culminated in what we believe is the best live-action Star Wars show yet.

Two and a half years later, the show returns for a second and final season, and it’s looking like the wait may have been well worth it. In his 9/10 review, Clint Gage says Andor Season 2 “builds on nearly everything that worked so well about Season 1, and continues fleshing out the prequel era of Star Wars. Ultimately the tale of the unsung heroes of the rebellion, Andor creates very personal stories at the heart of a much larger struggle.”

Andor Season 2 kicks off tonight on the Disney-owned streaming service with a slightly abnormal episode release schedule. Here’s everything you need to know to tune in.

Where to Watch Andor

In what’s gotta be the worst-kept secret in recent gaming memory, Bethesda has shadow-dropped The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered for Xbox, PS5, and PC. If you’re a PC gamer (or a Steam Deck owner, as it’s verified on Deck) you can save some cash, because it’s already on sale for PC. Right now, both Fanatical and Green Man Gaming are offering deals on the Steam version of Oblivion Remastered that drop the price up to 17%. Not bad on a brand-new version of a classic game.

Oblivion Remastered PC Deal

Oblivion Remastered Digital Deluxe Edition

For about $10 more, you can get the digital deluxe edition (which is also on sale at the above retailers). If you do, here’s what you get, in addition to the base game:

• New quests for unique digital Akatosh and Mehrunes Dagon Armors, Weapons, and Horse Armor Sets
• Digital Artbook and Soundtrack App

What’s New in Oblivion Remastered?

This remaster, made by Virtuos Games while Bethesda keeps plugging away at Elder Scrolls VI, has a number of improvements over the original:

• Overhauled visuals including dynamic lighting, updated character models, and remastered environments
• Improved combat and quality-of-life UI enhancements
• Native widescreen and ultra-widescreen support
• Full controller support and Steam Deck compatibility
• Enhanced modding tools for the community

The remaster preserves the massive open world that helped make Oblivion IGN’s Game of the Year 2006 winner, while bringing it in line with contemporary performance standards on Unreal Engine 5.

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Bluesky @chrislreed.com.