Dynasty Warriors: Origins comes out for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on January 14 – but only if you buy the more expensive digital deluxe edition. The standard edition is out January 17 (see it at Amazon). The latest is a series that dates back to the 1990s, Dynasty Warrior: Origins is a good starting point for newcomers, because it effectively reboots the series. It’s also terrific – see our 9/10 Dynasty Warriors: Origins review for details. The game is available to preorder now in two editions, complete with different preorder bonuses. Read on for the breakdown of what comes with each edition.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins – Standard Edition

Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian has said it’s now fully focused on its next game, promising a “media blackout” for the foreseeable future.

While the hotly anticipated Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 8 is due out this year for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Larian has said its “full attention” is on the next big thing.

Last week, Larian boss Swen Vincke tweeted to briefly reflect on the studio’s journey so far, which has seen Baldur’s Gate 3 receive tremendous critical and commercial success. “But the story ain’t over yet,” Vincke added.

Got me all nostalgic – it really has been a incredible journey so far. But the story ain’t over yet. Stay tuned. Going to try to skip the dark night of the soul moment though if you don’t mind. https://t.co/eLSTv3CXb4

— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) January 10, 2025

In a follow-up statement issued to VideoGamer, Larian said: “Swen and the team[‘s]… full attention is focused on crafting their next title,” with Larian moving to a “media blackout.”

We know more about what Larian’s next game isn’t than what it is. We know it’s not a sequel to Baldur’s Gate 3, nor a D&D game of any kind. Rather, it’s a brand new game, something Larian was keen to move on to after trying and failing to spark enthusiasm internally for a Baldur’s Gate follow-up.

In November 2023, Vincke spoke in vague terms about the studio’s next project. “I wish I could tell you about our next big game but this is really encouraging us to ensure it pushes many boundaries,” Vincke teased in response to Baldur’s Gate 3’s many The Game Awards nominations. “I’m very excited about it.”

In July 2023, ahead of Baldur’s Gate 3’s explosive launch, Vincke told IGN a sequel to Larian’s own Divinity: Original Sin series is on the cards too, although fans shouldn’t hold their breath.

“It’s our own universe we built, so we’re definitely gonna get back there at some point,” Vincke said. “We will get back there at some point. We’ll first finish [Baldur’s Gate 3], and then take a break, because we will need to refresh ourselves creatively also. You’re seeing 400 developers putting their heart and souls into this. You’re getting the best of them and their craft into this game. And so I can tell you, it’s quite a thing.”

If Divinity isn’t next, perhaps a brand new game set in a completely different universe? Larian has created fantasy RPGs for some time now. Could it branch out into science fiction? Or a modern day setting? Or maybe even try a new genre?

It feels like it may be some time — years even — before we find out.

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.

Sonic The Hedgehog 3’s box office success has sped past another milestone to become the second highest-grossing video game movie adaptation of all time in North America.

The film, which sees Keanu Reeves join the cast as Shadow the Hedgehog, is now over $204 million domestically after weekend four earned $11 million across 3,582 locations. The global tally is an impressive $384.8 million.

Sonic 3 has overtaken its predecessor, Sonic 2, in the domestic box office race, but it is way off the number one record holder: The Super Mario Bros. Movie. In fact, the gap is insurmountable. The Nintendo adaptation earned an incredible $574,934,330 domestically, with an eye-watering $1,359,146,628 box office. These are figures that may never be beaten when it comes to video game adaptations, although the upcoming Minecraft movie and the Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel may run it close.

The people behind Sonic The Hedgehog 3 won’t be too bothered, however. The movie is a certified hit for Paramount, which has already announced Sonic 4.

Oh, and if you were wondering about other hugely successful video game movie adaptations, 2022’s Uncharted is in fourth with $148,648,820 domestically, and the first Sonic movie is in fifth with $146,066,470.

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.

Image Comics’ Bug Wars was one of the many titles featured in our Most Anticipated Comics of 2025 roundup, and for good reason. Not only does it feature a simple, winning premise, it reunites the Conan the Barbarian creative team of writer Jason Aaron and artist Mahmud Asrar. Now IGN can exclusively debut a new preview of the first issue.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at Bug Wars #1:

The Bug Wars creative team also includes colorist Matt Wilson and letterer Becca Carey. Issue #1 features cover art by Asrar, Pepe Larraz, Peach Momoko, Matías Bergara, and Tony Daniel.

Here’s Image’s official description of Bug Wars:

Slade Slaymaker is a kid from Alabama suddenly lost in a vicious world beyond his imagining, a world of marauding ant armies, spellcasting spider witches, and beetle-riding barbarians. A kingdom of tiny but deadly warriors hidden in his own backyard. The same world that saw his father eaten alive by insects now plunges young Slade into the middle of a brutal Bug War to decide the fate of his family.

From the superstar team of writer JASON AARON (SOUTHERN BASTARDS, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Absolute Superman) and artist MAHMUD ASRAR (Conan the Barbarian, X-Men, Batman & Robin) comes the over-sized debut of BUG WARS: BOOK ONE, the first adventure in a sprawling new dark fantasy epic.

“I’ve literally been dreaming this world into existence since I was nine years old,” Aaron tells IGN. “The Yard of the Mytes, of the Beetle Clans, the Ant Imperium, and the Witches of Wyrdweb, is the exact same yard from my childhood, the same sacred stretch of grass and weeds where I spent my days playing with action figures and imagining grand adventures. Now young Slade Slaymaker gets to live that adventure, as he finds himself lost in his own backyard, fighting to save his family from entire kingdoms of brutal, bug-riding warriors. It’s a world imagined with childlike wonder, but a story told in dark and unforgiving terms. And this is just Book One. The Yard of Bug Wars is a massive fantasy world that Mahmud and I plan to explore for many stories and many years to come.”

“This is the biggest story I’ve ever illustrated, with so much research and detail going into each panel,” Asrar says. “It really is huge in scope, which is funny as we’re operating in a decidedly tiny world. The world building and epic fantasy story we’re telling is something I’ve always wanted to do and I hope it shows in the work that I’m putting into the pages. Yet, I do have to say, what’s most important for me is that a story has heart… and I believe ours has so much of it.”

Bug Wars #1 will be released on February 12, 2025.

For more on what’s coming up in the comic book world, check out what to expect from Marvel in 2025 and what to expect from DC in 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.

Alien: Romulus was a hit with critics and fans, and its box office success has already spawned a sequel. But there’s one part of the movie that was universally panned: the Ian Holm CGI.

Holm, who died in 2020, famously played android Ash in Ridley Scott’s seminal sci fi horror Alien, and controversially returned for ‘interquel’ Alien: Romulus via CGI that was slammed for being distracting and unrealistic by moviegoers. It was so bad that a popular fan-edit removed Holm’s Alien: Romulus character from the narrative completely.

However, director Fede Alvarez “fixed” the Ian Holm CGI for the Alien: Romulus home release. In an interview with Empire, he admitted: “We just ran out of time in post-production to get it right. I wasn’t 100% happy with some of the shots, where you could feel a bit more the CG intervention. So, for people that react negatively, I don’t blame them.”

For the home release, Alvarez insisted: “We fixed it. We made it better for the release right now. I convinced the studio we need to spend the money and make sure we give the companies that were involved in making it the proper time to finish it and do it right. It’s so much better.”

As a result, the home release Ian Holm leans more into puppet work than CGI. But is it actually better? Now fans have seen the results, they’re having their say on this new and improved Ian Holm. And for many, while there’s a slight improvement, Holm still looks distracting, and some are still questioning the need for Holm’s return in the first place.

“Better, but still awfully uncanny… and for no sound reason,” said Kwtwo1983 in a thread on reddit. “Should’ve messed his face up much more,” added thelastcupoftea. “It looked awful in theaters and it looked awful when I rewatched it on Blu-ray.” “Still such a needless and distracting part of the movie…” commented Smug_amoeba. “Both look bad and one is a bit darker lol,” said Worried_Bowl_9489.

What’s clear from the comparison is that the home release pulls the shot of Ian Holm so viewers see more of the practical puppet Alvarez mentioned, and the CGI face is less… in your face.

“Let’s be real, it’s still awful and garish to resurrect a dead man so needlessly,” TheUrPigeon commented. “They can only improve upon it so much because the initial effort was so poor.”

Still, Alien Romulus revitalized the franchise when it debuted this past summer, with an impressive $350 million at the global box office. And in October, 20th Century Studios said it was working on an idea for Alien: Romulus 2 that would continue the story of the first movie, with Fede Alvarez potentially returning to direct.

Photo by Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images.

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.

Universal Pictures has delayed Shrek 5 by a few months to December 23, 2026 while putting Despicable 3 spin-off Minions 3 in its original slot.

As reported by Variety, Minions 3 will therefore now arrive on July 1, 2026, keeping up the tradition of Despicable Me films enjoying the Independence Day box office. Shrek 5, meanwhile, will target the 2026 holiday period for its first mainline release in 16 years.

The sequel was originally announced in 2016 but went quiet for years until Chris Meledandri, CEO of animation studio Illumination, announced its active development in 2023 alongside hopes for a Donkey spin-off.

Donkey actor Eddie Murphy confirmed the film was still moving ahead a year later and breathed more life into the Donkey spin-off. “We started doing [Shrek 5] months ago,” he said. “I did this, I recorded the first act, and we’ll be doing it this year. We’ll finish it up. Shrek is coming out, and Donkey’s gonna have his own movie. We’re gonna do Donkey as well.”

The Shrek franchise will celebrate its 25th anniversary when Shrek 5 arrives, as the original came out in 2001. It was followed by sequels Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, and Shrek Forever After in 2004, 2007, and 2010 respectively.

Puss in Boots has enjoyed two spin-offs itself too, with the first arriving in 2011 and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish arriving in 2022. This latter film arrived to stellar reviews, earning a 9/10 from IGN. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish mixes stunning animation with a poignant, surprisingly mature story to deliver the Shrek franchise’s answer to Logan we didn’t know we needed,” we said.

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

A new patent filed by Sony has detailed how the company may plan to cut down on latency in future hardware by using an AI model aided by additional sensors.

Sony introduced its first official upscaler, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), with the PlayStation 5 Pro. While the upscaler can upscale smaller resolutions to 4K, newer graphics technology such as frame generation can come at the cost of additional latency. This means that while you are getting additional frames, your games may not feel quite as responsive as a result.

GPU manufacturers AMD and Nvidia have sought to resolve this through Radeon Anti-Lag and Nvidia Reflex respectively, and now it appears Sony may develop a solution of its own.

The Flash director Andy Muschietti has said his DC Extended Universe film failed at the box office because “a lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character.”

Speaking to Radio Tu and translated by Variety, Muschietti said the superhero film failed to appeal to “the four quadrants” — a movie industry term meaning to appeal to everyone — enough to justify its $200 million budget.

“The Flash failed, among all the other reasons, because it wasn’t a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that,” Muschietti said. “When you spend $200 million making a movie, [Warner Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters.

“I’ve found in private conversations that a lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film I’ve learned.”

The four quadrants, as defined by Hollywood, are males under 25, males over 25, females under 25, and females over 25.

Muschietti’s mention of “all the other reasons” The Flash failed likely refer to its poor critical reception, criticism of its reliance on computer generated imagery (CGI) including to recreate deceased actors without consulting their family, its placement towards the end of a now defunct film universe, and more.

This seemingly hasn’t stopped DC from keeping Muschietti around, however, as he is reportedly set to direct The Brave and the Bold, the first Batman film in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Universe.

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