“Weird spiderwebs appearing at odd hours of the night in Rockstar’s open world game Red Dead Redemption 2?” you chortle. “That sounds like the testimony of crazy old Edwin Evans-Thirlwell, the guy who writes about new Molyneux projects like a pauper child returning from market with a handful of magic beans”. Mates, I promise I haven’t fallen victim to a scam of some kind. There are weird spiderwebs in RDR2. I read about it on the internet!
The spiderwebs appear to be part of a huge Easter egg puzzle the community (aka Youtubers, Xitter users and redditors) are now attempting to solve – an Easter egg that has allegedly lain uncracked since the game’s initial release in 2018. Spoilers to follow, of course.
Southern California police are investigating a wave of similar burglaries involving trading card businesses in a bid to establish whether they are linked.
Thieves made off with thousands of dollars’ worth of trading cards over the weekend, targeting a trading card store in Simi Valley, California, in the early hours of Sunday morning, January 4.
As reported by KTLA, the thieves targeted rare Pokémon and sports trading cards at Simi Sports Cards, making off with “almost every card” in just three minutes. You can see the robbery take place in the Instagram footage, below.
Owner Jake Miller said: “They took single cards from our show cases [after] busting them open. We have five display cases in here, and they were all full — almost every card was stolen. It’s several hundred cards, as well as some sealed boxes.”
The store isn’t certain of the exact amount taken, but Miller estimates it’ll cost around $50,000 to put things right and upgrade the store’s security systems.
“Card stores in greater Los Angeles and Ventura County are being hit RELENTLESSLY and we were once again victim this weekend,” reads the Instagram post. “Sunday morning at 3:30am we were broken into by a group of 5 thieves who stole most of our singles inventory. Simi Valley was once known for law and order, what is happening?”
The Simi Valley Police Department said it was aware of similar burglaries involving trading card businesses that occurred over the weekend in surrounding communities. “SVPD Property Crimes Detectives are working closely with neighboring law enforcement agencies to determine whether these incidents may be connected,” it said in a statement published online.
That’s a reference to a man who reportedly purchased a rare Pokémon card “worth six figures” from a store in LA’s Sawtelle neighborhood and, that same day, was tracked to his vehicle and robbed at gunpoint. It’s unclear whether the two incidents are related, or indeed if either crime is connected to the same thieves who targeted a different store in Burbank just last month, stealing $100,000 in merchandise.
NEW: Burglars ransack card shop and steal $100,000 worth of rare Pokémon and sports cards
The owner believes the thieves knew exactly where the merchandise was and planned the job ahead of time
Anyone who may have information related to the burglary or who observed suspicious activity in the area is encouraged to contact the Simi Valley Police Department: 805-583-6950.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Fallout 3‘s at its best during your first trip into the war-torn ruins of downtown DC. Rather than an open and desolate expanse, you’re navigating tight underground passageways by Pip-Boy light, occasionally emerging into the daylight to fight through patches of ruined city often littered with battered landmarks. Bethesda had initially envisioned this urban jungle to be even more of an expansive labyrinth, and a group of modders have now had a crack at resurrecting the cut areas to create their own version of that more expansive DC.
Accessory manufacturers GameSir and Hyperkin have joined forces to produce a fully modular controller that’s compatible with the Switch and Switch 2: the GameSir x Hyperkin X5 Alteron.
Ignoring the terrible name for a moment, this thing actually looks pretty neat. Utilising an extendable telescopic arm design, you can clip it onto your Switch, Switch 2, iPhone, iPad, or Android devices for instant handheld play. It also comes with Bluetooth technology to allow for PC gaming, if you wish.
There is a mysterious countdown timer on Amazon’s official website for its Fallout TV series that is set to unlock when the Season 2 finale comes out — but fans think it might also signal the shadowdrop of a Fallout 3 or New Vegas remaster.
The countdown is live now on a website designed to look like a Fallout map. On it are locations in the Fallout map style which, when accessed, lead you to behind-the-scenes information on the show. For example, The Vault 33 outer door, from which Lucy first steps foot into the wasteland, is on the south of the map. The Caswennan, the airship that serves as a soaring fortress for the Brotherhood of Steel, is to the east. And up there in the top right is the locked point of interest alongside the timer, which points to February 4.
That’s the day the Season 2 finale airs. So, it could just be pointing to a behind-the-scenes hub for the final episode. Perhaps it will reveal a teaser for Season 3, which is already confirmed. Or, as some Fallout fans hope, it will point to a Fallout video game remaster release.
Could Bethesda follow The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and release a remaster of Fallout 3 or New Vegas? In a recent interview with IGN, Howard remained coy on the possibility.
We asked Howard if the success of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which has seen over 4 million players since it shadowdropped last year, was a repeatable trick for a Fallout 3 Remastered. Howard kept his cards close to his chest, and reiterated a point he’s been making a lot in interviews lately.
“I will just say that the Oblivion Remaster, we’re really, really pleased with how well it did, it was a very long project too, and not just in how it was received, the ability to shadowdrop it, and the response to doing that,” he said. “I like to do that with games as much as possible. I love the moment that you find out about a game.”
But there are all sorts of rumors floating around about potential Fallout remakes now that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is out the door (Fallout 3 Remastered was leaked back in 2023, but those plans may have changed). And we know Bethesda wants to eventually get to Fallout 5, albeit after The Elder Scrolls 6.
“There’s nothing to tease / preview they haven’t even begun filming yet,” one fan said, discounting a Season 3 reveal for the countdown. “I know you guys are being cynical to avoid getting let down but there’s a chance this is actually something.”
“Please be at least a Fallout 3 remaster as beautiful as Oblivion,” added another fan. “Give us something please. I know it will be 20 years before we see another new Fallout.”
The last mainline Fallout game was Fallout 4, which was released in 2015. DLC content for the entry was steadily released for PC and consoles over the next year, and in 2018, Bethesda launched its multiplayer-centered offshoot, Fallout 76. While fans flocked to the West Virginia-set open-world RPG over time (and after a rocky launch), it wasn’t until the premiere of Prime Video’s Fallout TV show that the Bethesda series leveled up in terms of attention.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
While it hasn’t taken as commanding a stranglehold over the world’s collective consciousness as its debut series did, the second helping of Amazon’s Fallout TV show is succeeding in helping drive a number of extra Steam players back to the wasteland. That said, a number of said wastelands being heavily discounted as part of the platform’s recently concluded winter sale likely hasn’t hindered those efforts.
With Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Season 1 Reloaded just around the corner, we’re starting to get a better idea of what to expect when the new update goes live on January 8.
Although we don’t yet have all the details, we should expect four multiplayer maps for Black Ops 7 at launch, plus new POIs on Haven’s Hollow Resurgence and Verdansk maps in Warzone. There’s also some updates for Zombies, including the Astra Malorum Round-Based Zombies map and Exit 115 Survival map, plus “reward-filled weekly challenges,” new weapons, modes, camos, events, and more.
While pre-load is not live yet across all platforms, it is available for players on Battle.net, where it looks like it’s a 175GB download (redownloading the game), although that will depend on what game modes you have/want installed. On Xbox, the download looks to be around 170GB, so whatever you’re playing on, it may be worth double-checking how much space you have ahead of time.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Season 1 Reloaded start times:
Depending on where you are in the world, Season 1 Reloaded is set to go live on:
Thursday, January 8, 2026:
PST (San Francisco):
9am
CST (Mexico City):
11am
EST (New York):
12pm
GMT (London):
5pm
CET (Paris):
6pm
Friday, January 9, 2026
JST (Tokyo):
1am
CST (Beijing):
1am
AEST (Sydney):
4am
NZST (Wellington):
6am
Maps
Players will fight across a suite of new core Multiplayer maps with Season 1 Reloaded, including the high-rise, neon-soaked rooftops of Yakei alongside the return of two of the most iconic maps in Black Ops history: Meltdown and Fringe.
Zombies, on the other hand, will see the Zarya Cosmodrome location from Ashes of the Damned become a Survival map, and a Directed mode has been added to the Astra Malorum map, so buddies can now jump and help each other complete the main story quest.
Campaign
Two new world events have been confirmed, but we only have details of one: the Wraith Wing world event. This advanced Guild aircraft appears to have cloning capabilities with lethal consequences as this squadron seems hell bent on eliminating as many JSOC Operators as it can. Disable it, fire at the exposed aircraft, and down that bird.
Weapons
So far, we only know of two new weapons unlocking in Season 1 Reloaded:
Yes, it’s true — Microsoft is bringing two of its hottest gaming franchises together for a Fallout Season 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7crossover event. While details remain sparse, we’ve seen a brief video teaser which shows silhouettes of Fallout TV series characters The Ghoul, Lucy, and Maximus in the smoke of war, with bullets whizzing by in the background.
“Okie dokie — stay focused, stay alive,” the text on the post reads. “[Fallout TV show] is coming to Call of Duty in Season 01 Reloaded.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Resident Evil Requiem arrives on the Switch 2 and multiple other platforms next month, and ahead of the anticipated release, new footage has surfaced at CES 2026 this week.
During Nvidia’s PC showcase of the title featuring path tracing and DLSS 4 with multi frame generation, a new setting in the series has reportedly been revealed. As highlighted by VGC, it’s a glimpse at a “new city environment” and what’s believed to be the fictional location Wrenwood, where the game unfolds.
Looking for a fun game to jump into this January? Both Amazon and Walmart have dropped the wonderful Astro Bot for PS5 back to its lowest price yet of $39.97, which is the same price we saw during Black Friday sales. That’s an excellent little treat for PlayStation users to start 2026 off with, saving you 33% off its full price of $59.99.
Score Astro Bot for $40
If you enjoyed playing Astro’s Playroom, which came pre-installed on PS5 consoles, this full-length adventure is sure to put a smile on your face during these winter months. It’s one we absolutely adored, with IGN’s Simon Cardy saying in his review that it’s, “A collection of endlessly inventive levels and fantastically fun abilities, it delivers joy in spades, never once becoming even remotely dull or repetitive.”
Our reviewer wasn’t the only one who had high praise for this game, though. Astro Bot actually took home Game of the Year back in 2024 at the Game Awards, won Best Game at the BAFTA Game Awards, and even took home one of IGN’s top prizes as the best PlayStation game of 2024. See? It’s absolutely worth adding to your collection, especially while it’s still on sale. And it may not stay this low for much longer, so now is a great time to scoop it up.
Astro Bot isn’t the only game to receive a nice discount to kick off the new year, either. If you’re stocking up after the holidays, we’ve also spied some great deals on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Battlefield 6 recently. To see even more gaming deals available right now, check out our breakdown of the best deals of the day for other options that have caught our eye recently.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Hot on the animated heels of The Simpsons, which enjoyed its own Fortnite mini-season throughout November last year, it’s been confirmed South Park has its own collaboration with the battle royale juggernaut set to arrive this week.
The only official information related to South Park’s upcoming Fortnite crossover is an image of Butters playing the game, which notes the date January 9, alongside a caption that reads, “Chaos, loading…”, shared via Fortnite’s official social media.
There’s no further confirmed information regarding how extensive the South Park content will be, but clarity on this appears to be just a couple of days away.
Rumours of a South Park/Fortnite crossover have been in circulation since late last year.
