ENTERTAINMENT

The original Tron has a particularly interesting place in pop culture, delivering the first movie about video games and the hidden worlds within computers. So it’s a wonder that the first film and its follow-ups still haven’t made that many forays into video games proper after more than four decades since the 1982 original. Thankfully, recent attempts from developer Bithell Games have done more to push the concept of Tron beyond just the imagery of speeding light cycles and fast-paced identity disc combat to offer more of a look into the inner machinations of the Grid.

With Tron: Catalyst, we have a new action game set within The Grid’s neon, grey-soaked setting to uncover a larger conspiracy involving the impending end of the computer world. There’s so much detail to admire that’s packed into Tron: Catalyst from my recent hands-on time, and with an interesting time-loop twist, it carries on the familiar Tron action from a new perspective.

Set after the events of both Tron: Legacy and Tron: Identity, you play as a courier program named Exo, who navigates the large megacity of the Arq Grid to complete her various routines. After discovering one of their packages was secretly a bomb which detonates while in the city, they’re subsequently framed and imprisoned. As she plans her escape, she discovers glitches in the Grid that allow her to roll back time, letting her take information and skills backward in the timeline to a recent point. With a plan set, she seeks out the real culprit of the attack to clear her name and foil a larger plot that will disrupt the foundations of the Arq Grid.

The previous Tron game that Bithell Games worked on was Tron: Identity, a visual novel-style adventure game. Catalyst carries many concepts from its predecessor, particularly its investigation and character interactions. Exo even rubs shoulders with some notable returning characters from Identity – such as the previous protagonist Query. However, Catalyst moves away from the static presentation of the visual novel and into fully explorable environments populated by programs, making sense of the uneasy presence of security programs patrolling the city.

In a similar vein to games like Death’s Door and Tunic, Tron: Catalyst has a balance between narrative-driven exploration and combat sequences within the larger city. As Exo, you’ll be able to interact with a set of other programs going about their time in the town, and when the investigative element kicks in, she can engage in combat, exploration, and rolling back time to overcome the odds.

The combat style in Catalyst does well to capture the sense of precision and patience when using the iconic identity discs, which double as a close-range melee weapon and a long-range projectile that can depress enemies. The combat mechanics, while fairly simple during this opening chunk of the game, offered some fun when it came to carefully taking out squads of security officers. A particularly fun moment I had was nailing a parry and then unleashing some strikes before throwing the disc to finish them off. That said, I am hoping for the combat to really open up properly as the story goes on, as the action sequences can feel a bit one-note after some time.

While exploring the city, Exo can summon her lightcycle to explore and whizz through the streets freely. But with the increased presence of Grid security, Exo is constantly under watch and can easily catch their attention, which launches a GTA-style manhunt for her. While you do have the run of the city, Catalyst is not an open-world game but rather uses its scale to present the different layers of exploration for its missions. Still, exploring the city on the lightcycle was very satisfying, especially taking in those slick Tron vibes.

Much like Identity, Catalyst is propped up by impressive writing that gives nuance to the various characters living in the Grid. As the investigation escalates, opening up new pathways to complete objectives, you can rewind to an earlier point to take a more optimal approach. These moments gave me the same feeling of being Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, where I could do certain actions to learn some secret motives from characters holding back intel, or gain the upper hand in combat.

Tron: Catalyst certainly nails the look and feel of Tron, and it particularly captures the brighter and more visually alluring style of 2010’s Tron: Legacy. But what I found interesting about Catalyst’s style and storytelling was that its plot and focus on the inner society of the Grid scratch the same itch as the vastly underrated and short-lived series Tron: Uprising, which dealt with a similar storyline about programs within the Grid seeking to overcome an oppressive rule.

So far, Tron: Catalyst is an intriguing step in a different direction from Identity. While the latter game featured strong writing and plot, it lacked a more compelling package to contain its ideas, and I do like this upcoming turn with Tron: Catalyst that Bithell Games has in store. It’s more of a stylish, if modest, action game, but seeing Exo maneuver through the city and fight through the different battles reminded me of some of the more daring moments from the films and animated series. It’s always fun to see Tron showcase its rich and alluring world, which will build up throughout Catalyst’s dive into the world of the Grid.

Amazon has restocked the Pokémon TCG: Journey Together Booster Bundle, and even though it’s up a dollar from its recent drop, it’s still the best value for this set on the market by far.

At $38.95, you get six booster packs from Scarlet & Violet: Journey Together, which, based on my pulls, is easily one of the most exciting expansions we’ve had in a while.

Journey Together Single Card Price Crash

Journey Together single card prices are settling down from their pre-restock panic, making this set very affordable to collect. Don’t fancy spending money on packs for your chase cards? I’ve gathered them all right here so trainers can cherry pick what they need.

I opened 49 packs across all our preview products for my IGN Journey Together preview, and pulled 18 rare cards. Compared to sets like Prismatic Evolutions, feels downright generous. But it’s not just about quantity. The art and theme choices in Journey Together are incredible.

You’ve got illustration rares with full-scene designs that feel like storybook pages, Secret Rares with actual competitive value, and Supporters that do more than just draw cards and pass the turn.

Some of my favorites include the Spiky Energy Hyper Rare, which adds reactive damage every time your Pokémon gets hit, and Iono’s Bellibolt ex, a Lightning-type engine that fuels itself with unlimited Energy.

I also pulled N’s Reshiram and Articuno in gorgeous Illustration Rare formats — two cards that not only look great but bring real utility. Salamence ex is a heavy hitter with 300-damage potential, and Lillie’s Clefairy ex quietly punishes Dragon decks by giving them a surprise Psychic weakness. It’s not every day a booster pack feels like a mini narrative, but this set pulls it off.

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.

With the Alien and Predator franchises now under the Disney umbrella, Marvel Comics has taken full advantage of the crossover opportunities. We’ve already seen bloody crossovers like Predator vs. Wolverine and Predator vs. Spider-Man. Now, IGN can exclusively reveal the latest and most blood-soaked Predator/Marvel crossover yet – Predator Kills the Marvel Universe.

This new series reunites Predator vs. Spider-Man writer Benjamin Percy and artist Marcelo Ferreira. In fact, Predator Kills the Marvel Universe serves as the culmination of Percy’s overarching Predator Vs. saga. Having claimed Wakanda’s vibranium and turned Earth into a hunting preserve, a Predator King will begin hunting Earth’s heroes and villains en masse. Don’t expect them all to survive this bloodbath.

Until Dawn opens in theaters Friday, April 25.

In David F. Sandberg’s lackluster Until Dawn, the horror game of the same name is transformed into an awkward hybrid of Groundhog Day and The Cabin in the Woods. This is far from a “two great tastes that taste great together” miracle: Unlike the source material, this movie doesn’t successfully unite various flavors of onscreen terror as much as it haphazardly smashes them together. That smashing can occasionally be a glorious, bloody, body-exploding blast, and there are plenty of moments where Sandberg, working again with Annabelle: Creation cinematographer Maxime Alexandre, stokes our anticipation for something horrible to leap out of the darkness. It’s nearly everything else – the painfully one-note performances, the clunky dialogue, the increasingly ineffective scares – that drags Until Dawn into a bottomless pit of its own making.

Most notably, this is a strange blend of wholesale reimagining and direct adaptation. The movie lifts some key elements from the game – including Peter Stormare as a menacing figure lurking in the shadows – while jettisoning its snowy setting, array of generically horny teens, and playfully cheeky tone. The loss of this last part is what makes Until Dawn unshakably strange: Without the goofiness, what we have here is a generic horror movie with the high-concept twist of five friends trying to survive endless variations on the same terrifying night. Sure, there are some gags, but none clever enough to cut through the shallow backstory of troubled Clover (Ella Rubin) searching for her missing sister. Where the flawed-yet-fun game gets its kicks from toying with scary-movie clichés, this self-serious adaptation only rarely feels like it’s in on the joke.

That’s not for lack of trying. Early on, as Clover and some superficially written friends drive through the rain and into the mysterious valley where they’ll soon be trapped, one of them points out that the car is the safest place they could be. The rest of the passengers then yell at him – a vehicle full of Randy Meeks types who know such hubris can only lead to a smiting from the horror gods. Maybe they’re right: Until Dawn is plenty mean-spirited and wrathful towards its characters, though these joyously macabre moments are too fleeting to inform the movie the way Randy’s horror-movie “rules” shape Scream.

In lieu of meaningfully skewering the tropes, Until Dawn leans into them, or worse: When the gang realizes they’re in a time loop, they allude, but don’t directly refer, to other movies with similar premises. (Best not to invite a bunch of unflattering comparisons.) As they try to figure out how to escape their predicament, Until Dawn becomes less of a strong horror movie in its own right and more like an amusement-park haunted house. Each room may be themed around a different classic of the genre, but they’re pale imitations of the real things.

Though each night is meant to be different from the last, there are a number of overlaps: A masked killer makes frequent appearances, and there’s a vain attempt at some connective tissue in the form of a flimsy, dead-end supernatural subplot. A shift into found footage clumsily tries to catch us up on some nights we don’t see in full, while the introduction of a psychological-mystery thread over-explains the monsters Until Dawn carries over from the game. But these are mere acts of re-creation, granting no additional insight into all the different methods and techniques filmmakers have dreamed up to give us nightmares. They don’t do much to give us a better sense of Clover’s plight – and do much to give us a better sense of Clover’s plight – and they’re not all that scary, either. You won’t find any brains or a Sadly, you won’t find any brains or a beating heart amid Until Dawn’s abundant goreamid Until Dawn’s abundant gore.

Sandberg is still a solid director, so he’s able to squeeze some fright from the shaky material fellow Conjuring Universe veteran Gary Dauberman and The Invitation screenwriter Blair Butler have handed him. Until Dawn ends with a tease for a sequel that seems closer in spirit to the game, which means he could very well get his very own do-over. Fingers crossed that movie isn’t as timid and indecisive as this one, which always feels like it’s being pulled in two different directions. One involves half-heartedly referring back to the game, reducing it to a collection of Easter eggs. The other points toward an original (albeit highly derivative), unrelated idea that’s coasting on Until Dawn’s name recognition. In the end, neither is the way to safety or horror-movie immortality for poor Clover.