IGN

Starting this week, Dell is offering a Dell Tower Plus gaming PC equipped with a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super graphics card for only $1,649.99 with free shipping. This PC can comfortably run games at up to 4K resolution, and it’s considerably less expensive than a RTX 5070 Ti prebuilt, which would cost you well over $2,000 no matter where you buy it from.

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If you’re looking for a larger capacity power bank at an affordable price, then check out this new deal from Amazon. Right now you can get the Iniu 20,000mAh 22.5W Power Bank for only $11.99 after you clip the 50% off coupon on the product page and apply coupon code “UDC86U7K“. A 20,000mAh power bank at this price is uncommon, especially one that can also deliver up to 22.5W of power over USB Type-C (enough to fast charge a Nintendo Switch). Iniu power banks have solid reviews and are less expensive than equivalent Anker models.

Iniu 20,000mAh Power Bank for $11.99

Anthony Mackie believes Avengers: Doomsday – in which he will reprise his role as Sam Wilson/Captain America – is “going to give the audience that old Marvel feeling that they always had.”

While chatting with Mackie today about the upcoming second season of Peacock’s Twisted Metal, I asked the actor when he starts filming Doomsday. “Yeah, man, we’re kicking on down the road, so everybody’s getting excited and we’re getting the band back together,” said Mackie.

“We’re supposed to go out this week and we’ll be out there doing it. Everybody’s excited. I feel with the script and having the Russo brothers back, it’s going to be great.” Mackie added, “I’m really excited for what this project is going to be. It’s going to give the audience that old Marvel feeling that they always had.”

“That old Marvel feeling” is probably exactly what fans are hoping for from Avengers: Doomsday given the lukewarm reactions from both critics and audiences to the MCU’s Phase Five, including Mackie’s own recent outing, Captain America: Brave New World, which underperformed at the box office.

Mackie is the latest Doomsday cast member to go on the record about the upcoming Marvel epic following Ant-Man’s Paul Rudd and Human Torch’s Joseph Quinn.

In addition to Mackie, Rudd and Quinn, the Avengers: Doomsday cast includes Robert Downey Jr. (Doctor Doom), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Vanessa Kirby (Invisible Woman), Pedro Pascal (Mister Fantastic), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing), Letitia Wright (Shuri / Black Panther), Winston Duke (M’Baku), Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Namor), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres / Falcon), Sebastian Stan (Winter Solder), Wyatt Russell (John Walker / U.S. Agent), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Lewis Pullman (Robert Reynolds / Sentry), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Kelsey Grammer (Beast), Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), and James Marsden (Cyclops).

And while that’s certainly an epic lineup of talent, it’s notable which Avengers and X-Men characters are not in Doomsday (well, at least so far) while also begging the question how many minutes of screen time can each Avenger actually get.

For more on Avengers: Doomsday, check out the fan theories produced by a recent set photo leak and the 75 Marvel comics that Doomsday will pull from.

Streaming has gotten expensive. We’re no longer living in the era of subscribing to a single streaming service and getting almost everything. The biggest streamers like Netflix, Disney+, and Max all have exclusive content that you can only watch by subscribing. Realistically, the only way to cut down the cost of your streaming bill each month while still being able to watch your favorite shows is to bundle your services together.

The overall best streaming bundle right now is the Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle. This option, which starts as low as $16.99 with ads included, combines all three services into one subscription. This saves you quite a bit of money while letting you watch some of the best new shows on streaming: Daredevil: Born Again and The Last of Us Season 2. Here are all of the details you need to know about this bundle in 2025.

How to Get the Disney+/Hulu/Max Bundle

LEGO enthusiasts, here’s a massive Star Wars set to add your collection at its lowest price ever. Amazon is currently offering the massive LEGO UCS Star Wars The Razor Crest 75331 for only $439.99 with free shipping after a 27% off instant discount (it’s normally $600). This is the best deal so for in 2025 on a coveted Ultimate Collector Series set.

$160 Off LEGO UCS Star Wars The Razor Crest

After a small leak last week, EA has confirmed the title of its next Star Wars game, as well as who’s making it. It’s called Star Wars: Zero Company, and it’s being developed by Bit Reactor with support from Lucasfilm Games and Respawn.

The Nintendo Switch 2 versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are getting a few upgrades, and one of them looks to be a way to repair equipment.

As spotted in the recent Nintendo Treehouse Live stream by YouTuber Zeltik, the Zelda Notes app—a mobile companion app exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2 versions of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom—has a Daily Bonus feature. When the user opens this up, they can roll for a number of in-game bonuses, including helpful meal effects, health and stamina recovery, and one labeled Equipment Repairs.

Both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom use durability meters, where weapons, shields, and other items will break after enough uses. It’s been a controversial mechanic, so having a workaround for keeping your favorite Flameblade intact certainly has its appeal.

For those worried about this completely changing the game though, there is at least one notable limitation: chance. The Daily Bonus uses a roulette wheel to randomly select which bonus the player gets, so it’s not guaranteed to always hand you an Equipment Repair. The bonus is also daily, with a built-in timer you’ll have to wait on until your next spin. While this may be extremely effective in a pinch, it’s unlikely to become a massive game-changer.

The Zelda Notes app looks to have many other interesting features alongside some free Equipment Repairs. Both Zelda games are also getting their own form of achievements through the mobile companion program, and special audio memories will add new lore and background to different parts of Hyrule.

These additional upgrades certainly seem like they’ll enhance the open-world Zelda experience, alongside the performance improvements, especially for people who really disliked breaking their favorite weapons.

For more, read up here on how the Nintendo Switch 2 is improving on certain Switch 1 games.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Warner Bros. and HBO have confirmed the first six cast members set to deliver new takes on classic Hogwarts teachers in the upcoming Harry Potter series.

The lineup was officially revealed today following months of theories about how the Wizarding World retelling will offer an updated look at Harry, Hermione, and Ron’s story. This first official look at the cast includes John Lithgow (Conclave, Dexter), who had previously spilled the beans that he’d be playing Albus Dumbledore, along with other names that have either been heavily rumored or speculated about for the last few months.

Two faces that fans shouldn’t be too surprised to see included are Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), who will appear as Rubeus Hagrid, and Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You, Black Mirror), who has been tapped to play Severus Snape. Rounding out the group are Janet McTeer (Me Before You, The Menu) as Minerva McGonagall, Luke Thallon (The Favourite, Present Laughter) as Quirinus Quirrell, and Paul Whitehouse (The Fast Show, Alice Through the Looking Glass) as Argus Filch.

What a year for Nintendo to finally release the Switch 2. While the hardware itself looks to be what anyone could have hoped for in a Switch successor — a more powerful version of the console millions of owners already love — the economic uncertainty gripping the world has made the Switch 2 a much more complicated prospect.

And that’s before we even consider the trade war the United States is currently engaged with China in. The $450 USD console price point and $80 USD sticker on Mario Kart World has made the Switch 2 something of a flashpoint amid the rising cost of games and gaming hardware, both here in the US and abroad.

To get a better idea of how the world is reacting to the Switch 2, I spoke with editors from IGN brands across the world to get a sense of the Switch 2’s impending release.

How the Rest of the World Feels About the Switch 2

After consulting with editors from IGN sites abroad, including those based in Europe, South America, and Asia, the reception to the Switch 2 has been, well, mixed. The hardware improvements like 120hz refresh rate, HDR, and 4K output are praised, but missing features like not having an OLED screen are seen as serious drawbacks.

“As far as reception goes, IGN Italia’s readers are predominantly dissatisfied with the Nintendo Switch 2,” says IGN Italy editor-in-chief, Alessandro Digioia. “Among hundreds of comments across news articles and social media, the main concerns revolve around the price point, the lack of an OLED screen, the absence of a trophy/achievement system, and a modest launch line-up. While some third-party announcements were welcomed, many readers expected more from Nintendo’s first-party titles.”

IGN Portugal’s Pedro Pestana shared similar sentiments from their readers – sentiments they agreed with: “Personally, I’m not that impressed with Switch 2, as it is basically a souped up Switch 1 – better in every sense, but without the novelty factor of the original. That being said, I reckon it’s gonna come down to the games, and Mario Kart World looked damn nice.”

Other regions are seemingly more receptive to the Switch 2’s hardware improvements. IGN Benelux’s Nick Nijiland says the site has been getting mostly positive feedback, despite the price of the console. “We have seen in our region that the console has been received very well. People complain about the price, but at the same time the console sold out within hours. We put up a post on our website stating that we would let our readers know through our Discord server when pre-orders went live and our Discord got so many new members that day, it was insane.”

IGN Turkey’s Ersin Kilic also shared positive views from the region’s readers. “When I look at the comments, it is seen as positive that Nintendo corrected the points criticized on [the first] Switch. Although the console is stylish and uses LCD, the fact that the screen is much better was received positively.” However, Kilic says “the most criticized point was that Hall Effect was not used in Joy-Con 2,” which some gamers hoped could minimize the risk of Joy-Con drift.

IGN China’s Kamui Ye gave both sides of reader reactions to the Switch 2. “The reveal event has been met with widespread disappointment due to its lackluster launch title lineup and perplexing regional pricing strategies,” they explained. Furthermore, Ye says the launch lineup that didn’t include a new Mario, Legend of Zelda, or Animal Crossing was another negative.

“However, optimism persists among core fans regarding Nintendo’s long-term plans,” Ye adds. Along with the belief of a better software lineup down the line, any of the horsepower and battery concerns for the Switch 2 “appear secondary to loyalists prioritizing backward compatibility, hardware refinements like magnetic Joy-Cons, and Nintendo’s legacy of iterative software support.”

“Ultimately, the brand’s entrenched fanbase seems willing to tolerate short-term missteps, betting on Nintendo’s historical ability to refine its platforms through compelling games over time,” Ye says.

Hardware Price and Tariff Fears

The Switch 2 is expected to launch at a $450 USD price point in the United States when it is made available to pre-order some time in the future. The reason pre-orders have yet to happen in the United States and Canada, despite the rest of the world already registering their purchases with retailers, is of course due to an ongoing tariff situation from President Trump. It’s a state of affairs that’s seemingly making Nintendo reconsider how to roll out the console properly in time for its June 5 release date.

Naturally, IGN editors from Europe aren’t particularly impacted by the tariffs in their regions, where pre-orders are already up and running.

“In Germany, nobody is really worrying about the tariff situation regarding the Switch 2,” says IGN Germany’s Antonia Dressler. However, the actual retail price of the Switch 2 is a separate matter.

“There are a lot of complaints about the pricing of the console… and [readers are making] direct comparisons with the pricing of the PS5 [which] is seen as the better console,” explains Dressler. Despite the complaints, though, pre-orders do seem to be coming in for the region.

The pricing of the Switch 2 firmly places it in direct competition with consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X in many regions, making the choice of which console to get even harder for global buyers. “At the moment, Nintendo’s official website is taking pre-orders and the price is R12,499,” says IGN Africa’s Zaid Kriel. “It is not crazy pricing, but it’s now in the same bracket as the PS5 and Xbox Series X. It’s no longer a cheaper alternative, and that could be a problem, especially with the increase in game prices Nintendo has introduced.”

[Note: All footage is from a work-in-progress alpha build.]

Having finally seen The Outer Worlds 2 for myself, it’s clear that leaning into deeper RPG elements was one of the priorities for developer Obsidian. Where the first game was more approachable with streamlined systems and progression for building out your character, the sequel is about avoiding homogeneity, and even egging you on to play in unorthodox fashion. But it’s not entirely about being complex for the sake of it. The Outer Worlds 2 wants players to get creative, become more specialized with the things they spec into, and maybe embrace the oddball choices they may have to make.

“We’re looking for ways to incentivize the player to experiment with different builds, either traditional or non-traditional,” design director Matt Singh told me in a conversation about how the team has revamped its RPG mechanics. When speaking to the broader approach, he said “We really wanted to lean into synergies, looking at how player Skills, Traits, and Perks can all infuse into interesting builds that play off of other systems.” You could see some of these ideas at work in our exclusive 11 minutes of The Outer Worlds 2 gameplay, where the new gunplay, stealth, gadgets, and dialogue were showcased. But for this part of our IGN First for exclusive coverage on The Outer Worlds 2, we’re focusing on the nitty gritty of how all these systems have been reworked and what you can expect from them.

Rethinking the Skill System

“We would often see characters good at everything, which by the end of the game, minimized your personal experience with your character,” lead systems designer Kyle Koenig told me when reflecting on the first game and considering changes for the sequel. Part of how Obsidian is doing that is by moving away from the Skill categories that grouped your stats together in the original and going with individual Skills that have more drastic differences between them. “We wanted to focus on making each individual level-up and investment really important. There’s less confusion on when I should invest in one Skill or the other. If I want to be a player that’s all about guns and using medical devices, I know which Skills I really need to care about. By having them separated and not in groupings, it lets characters be more specialized.”

Singh added, “There’s more than just a traditional stealth-focused build, combat-focused build, or speech-focused build. There’s a lot of blending of concepts, playing with other systems and incorporating those into a pretty broad, but unique range of different player profiles.” He alluded to having certain investments in Skills manifest in other ways such as Observation, which can highlight things in the environment that you wouldn’t be able to identify otherwise like secret doors or objects to interact with that can lead to alternate paths forward.

On the surface, that may seem expected for an RPG – if anything, The Outer Worlds was the outlier with the way it grouped Skills together. However, in the sequel, it’s about using the revised Skill system to create greater distinctions and open more possibilities in character builds, especially as it relates to the revamped Perks system.

The Perks of Getting Experimental

Obsidian seems focused on specificity and offering unique avenues for play. “We’ve significantly increased the number of Perks with over 90 of them – each of those requiring various Skills to unlock. As you invest in Skills, it changes how you can invest in Perks and leads you down many different paths,” Koenig explained. He gave an example with a Perk called Run and Gun for those who prefer using shotguns, SMGs, and rifles which allows you to fire while sprinting or sliding, and combined with Tactical Time Dilation (TTD), bullet-time action can very much be part of your repertoire in The Outer Worlds 2. He also teased Space Ranger, which is a Perk that gives you certain interactions in dialogue while granting you damage boosts based on your Speech stat. “The way we looked at them when designing them was to look at what are all the different modes of gameplay the player has, and what are all the actions they can take and how can we modify them,” he stated.

“We have a lot of Perks that are catered towards non-traditional play styles,” Singh mentioned, giving an example of carving out a build for players who essentially kill every NPC in sight. You can go down that route and lean into it with Perks such as Psychopath and then Serial Killer that’ll grant bonuses, like permanent health boosts, for playing this way. “Especially in an Obsidian game where we allow you to kill anybody – the game’s going to respond, it’s going to roll with it, and you’re going to still be able to complete the game. It’s actually a really fun way to play in a second or third playthrough just to see how far you can take it.”

As for more traditional playstyles, Koenig gave some insight on character builds that take advantage of the elemental aspects of combat by exploiting the different damage types. “Even if you want to mix and match them, you can be a character that’s all about plasma and burning things alive while getting healing from it – or using shock damage to scramble automechs and have them fight for you temporarily while paralyzing creatures and humans – or using corrosive damage to take away all their armor and make it so all your attacks against them are critical hits that deal insane amounts of damage.”

Singh stressed that there are other avenues to get experimental, referencing opportunities to opt into detrimental effects that’ll buff another aspect of your character. He mentioned mechanics that can reward you for putting yourself in harm’s way, positing the question, “How do I construct a build where I’m actually incentivized to get in there and take damage so that I can then do other things effectively? I really like those kinds of creative builds that allow you to play with that idea and convert something that might be negative into a positive aspect of your build.” That design philosophy was part of the original, but now that’s a driving force for The Outer Worlds 2, especially as it relates to Traits and Flaws.

The Positive and Negative Traits

“One of the things in The Outer Worlds that was a key off of Fallout was you could have negative attributes that would be actively detrimental to your character, but you get a few extra points to spend somewhere else,” Koenig mentioned. A way that manifested in the original was through the Flaws system, which gave you the option to take a permanent effect based on your in-game behavior in exchange for an extra Perk point. But from what I’ve seen thus far, this idea is expanding two-fold in The Outer Worlds 2.

The system of Positive Traits and Negative Traits is integral to that give-and-take where you can choose a negative one to be able to select an additional positive. For example, you can take Brilliant that grants you extra Skill points in character creation, or Brawny that lets you knock targets down by sprinting into them. And if you want more positives, you’d have to select a negative such as Dumb that locks you out of ever investing points into five Skills, or Sickly that permanently lowers your base health and tolerance for toxicity. Those are just a few of the options I was able to see in these early stages.

Although I will go into much more depth with the revamped Flaws in another article, I can say that The Outer Worlds 2 is getting much more creative in goofy and clever ways (and sometimes both). I found myself turning down most, if not all, Flaws in the original game since I didn’t have much use for extra Perk points and the compromise often wasn’t worth it. In this sequel, the game itself is still monitoring your behavior and habits, but Flaws are now built with specific conditions that are both positive and negative – it’s as if there’s another layer of the Traits system, but popping up unexpectedly based on how you’re playing. You’ll still have to opt into them, but they will be a permanent part of your character.

Guiding Players and Ditching Respec

There seem to be a lot more moving parts in The Outer Worlds 2, and another focus from Obsidian was to make these aspects digestible and clear, whether it be from in-game explanations or UI elements. “Right from the get-go, from character creation, we really wanted to put in the forefront what are the differences of these skills and what they do,” Koenig told me. It’s not just in the help text, but also in short videos in the menus that show examples of the gameplay impact. The thing that stood out to me was being able to mark Perks as favorites before unlocking them in order to help organize and plan out a certain progression path or build. Mapping them out seems intuitive as well since the requirements are shown off the bat and icons in the menu help signify a Perk’s general playstyle and Skill it applies to.

It’s apparent that Obsidian wants players to carefully consider these choices, however, especially since there is no respec past the introductory sequence – meaning, once you’ve invested in a Skill, Perk, or Trait, your character has to live with that choice throughout your playthrough. Koenig said, “By removing respec, we really incentivize it to be your experience. It is a part of your experience that no one else had, and I think that’s really special about RPGs and something that respec tends to lessen.”

As for Singh, he told me “Philosophy-wise, we really feel all of your choices should matter. They should be meaningful changes to your gameplay experience. And he concluded, “This is just one of those ways where we’re asking you to make a choice, stick to it, and see how that plays out in interesting and fun ways.”

We’re covering so much more of The Outer Worlds 2 in this month’s IGN First. Stay tuned for a breakdown of the new Flaws system, all the wild and wacky weapons, and how expansive its open regions and levels are going to be with our interviews from key developers at Obsidian.

Michael Higham is the tech reviews editor at IGN, but is one of the RPG sickos on staff who still talks about Fallout: New Vegas on a regular basis. You can find him at @brazyazn.bsky.social.