I want fewer cables in my life: Fewer plugs, fewer dongles, and definitely fewer moments spent wondering why something isn’t charging. That’s why I own the ASUS ROG 65W Charger Dock. And for thirty big ones, it can also save you from the cable spaghetti and gives your ROG Ally X or Steam Deck some actual desktop or TV stand respect. It’s down to $29.99 at Best Buy, or £39.99 at Amazon in the UK.
A Lunar landing.
Love and miracles. These are two words that get thrown around a lot when talking about video games, particularly our childhood favourites. But with the Lunar Remastered Collection, these are two words that feel more than appropriate.
A combination of rights disagreements between co-developers Studio Alex and Game Arts and the passing of Game Arts co-founder Takeshi Miyaji in 2011 meant that many thought the Lunar series was lost to time, aside from a PSP and mobile port of the first. But GungHo, of which Game Arts is a subsidiary, has made possible the miraculous.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The first episode of Don’t Nod’s narrative adventure, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, ended with a hell of a cliffhanger: a massive discovery of something unknown, possibly malevolent, and a devastating revelation about one of the story’s central figures. As the second episode, or tape, of this player-choice-driven, nostalgia-powered story aims to draw things to their conclusion when Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2 launches April 15 day one into the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog, players have been left wondering what to expect.
To dig deeper into the game’s ambitions and get some further insight on what to expect from Swann, Nora, Autumn, and Kat’s next escapade, we sat down for a chat with Michel Koch, Creative Director at Don’t Nod’s Montreal studio.
Koch was eager to tell us how this experience would differ from the first. “The first Tape, ‘Bloom’, is the nice and sunny part of the beginning of the summer, of you meeting and bonding with those girls. The second half is called ‘Rage’, which is mostly the aftermath of the cliffhanger at the end of Tape 1. We wanted Tape 1 to let the player find their own space within the group of friends, getting a feeling of a summer where you meet friends, but also giving hints of weird things. They’re finding the clearing. They’re finding the abyss. It’s a very natural story of four girls having a fun summer together before Swann moves away.”
“But Tape 2 will focus more on this weirder part of the story. We know what happened at the end of the summer. We still don’t know why, but we know that they promise not to see each other again. We know about the weird box, we know about Kat, but we don’t know the consequences of this revelation. How do you continue to have a normal summer with your friends? And, of course, the continuation of what’s happening with those weird things they found in the forest.
Those supernatural elements will be more important. Personally, I love trying to blend supernatural things and surrealism revolving around the story of our characters. You can create a darker, weirder mood while still focusing on the characters and then adding the characters. We create this vibe, and it will get stronger and play a huge part of the story’s resolution.”
The pacing in this follow-up will be more brisk, as well. “Tape 2 definitely picks up the pace,” he continues. “We saw what happened with Kat and the end of the concert, and Tape 2 will start the next day with Swann having to face kind of the guilt, even if it’s not our fault, of putting friends in danger. We’ll advance through the month of August up to the end events. So yes, it’s faster paced, with higher stakes.”
Koch also emphasized that players will see more of how their choices in tape one affect the overall narrative. “We had a lot of choices. Who you are talking to, who you are getting closest to, all those interpersonal relationships with the girls, and so on. What was the choice you made during the ritual? What did you do at the abyss? How did you react to Corey and Dylan in the times you were with them? Are you behaving in a more violent or unlawful way, or are you sometimes taking the route to be cautious? A lot of those will change the course of what’s happening in Tape 2.”
One of the most interesting features of tape one was the camcorder, which protagonist Swann carries with her everywhere to chronicle her life in Velvet Cove, Michigan. Players could tape objects of interest as in-game collectibles or just film whatever and edit it together to make mini-movies. However, the camcorder becomes a crucial plot and gameplay element at several points.
We asked Koch about the role the camcorder will play in Tape 2. “We are expanding it a bit. We wanted to give you a tool that’s Swann’s ‘weapon’ or ‘shield.’ She’s filming people, but she’s also hiding behind the camcorder. We wanted to make it fun in a way that’s engaging like it was to film things in the 90s. We wanted to use these mechanics to link a lot of other mechanics of the game.
So, in Tape 2, there will be a few more exotic moments: unlocking a puzzle or finding a solution to a clue or something you have to do. There is a twist with the camcorder and your videos that I don’t want to spoil, that hopefully will resonate with players. It will be the way you film the game that will be important at a point story-wise, and hopefully, there will be a strong connection between those pictures and your own journey.”
Will Tape 2 also include more puzzles than the handful seen in the first half? Koch says yes. “There are puzzles that I really like in Tape 2. One is more like a narrative puzzle that’s still a blend of interaction, moving around, and dialogue. I think it’s very interesting because it uses all our narrative design elements, dialog options, and your knowledge about the characters to unlock situations, not just by finding objects but also by really knowing someone and using your main tools of dialogue and the camcorder.”
What about the other half of the narrative, the friends reuniting in a bar again 27 years later? “That part will still take place mostly in the bar,” says Koch. “We still need to finish remembering the past. We need to open the box, which will be an important scene. We have four different main endings at the end of the present-day portion, with variations on those endings based on your choices. During those endings, we will get out of the bar. You might discover a bit more of how the town is today, 27 years later.”
The bar, he explains, is what the game’s whole concept was built around originally. “Our pitch was a story where we were trying to convey the feeling of meeting again with old friends you haven’t seen for a long time, having a discussion with them, where you would be remembering your past and seeing if you can reconnect with them today. I thought of having a moment in a bar, in a restaurant, or a room where you start to connect again, and sometimes you reconnect perfectly. Sometimes, it’s iffy, and you don’t know if you can still be friends. That was the interesting part for me, the narrative aspect. Within these walls, you’re forced to talk. You’re facing each other, so you are obliged to remember the past.”
We asked Koch if he had any closing comments for fans. “I would say to the players, thanks for playing Tape 1, and I hope that Tape 2 will fulfill their hope of where the game goes. I also hope that Tape 2 will surprise them where the game goes, and that they enjoy seeing how relationship choice and morality choices they made in tape one play out. What will happen in Tape 2 will surprise, but also hopefully satisfy them, and they will love the end of the journey. For new players, I hope that they will love the characters, interacting with those girls, and engaging with this story, with us, with the summer.”
I rarely need an excuse to grab more Pokémon cards, but every so often, something especially good comes along. Right now, a few premium boxes are actually worth it. Not because they’re stacked with guaranteed hits (they’re not), but because the sets inside are finally seeing a drop in single-card prices.
That opens two solid options: rip the packs and hope for something great, or skip the gamble and grab your chase cards while they’re cheaper. Either way, it’s one of those rare moments where buying in doesn’t feel like lighting your wallet on fire. With decent promos, good pack variety, and a few worthwhile extras, these boxes are the ones to watch.
Yes, it’s one of the pricier premium collections out there. And yes, you get a Bellibolt ex promo, which is about as subtle as a battery-powered frog can get. But the real draw here is the 2 x Journey Together, Surging Sparks, Obsidian Flames, Twilight Masquerade and Paradox Rift packs.
Single prices from Journey Together are already coming down, which is great if you’ve been waiting to scoop up stuff like Perrin or Pecharunt ex without giving your credit card a stress headache. You also get an acrylic standee display and photo stickers, which is either a cute bonus or something you’ll shove in a drawer forever. I’m choosing to see it as décor. Don’t ruin this for me.
This is probably the easiest yes on the list. It’s cheap, it’s on sale, and it includes packs from Fusion Strike and Lost Origin. That’s a decent combo if you like old sets with some high highs and very, very low lows.
If you’re thinking of chasing Gengar VMAX or Giratina V, just know those prices are finally starting to cool off. So you can skip the suspense and buy singles now, or you can open these and pretend you’re immune to regret. Either way, the Infernape and Empoleon promos make nice binder filler, and the oversized card will make a great bookmark for someone who doesn’t read.
This one’s for anyone who actually plays the game or just likes pretending they might. You get six Twilight Masquerade packs, a Teal Mask Ogerpon ex promo, and sleeves that don’t suck. Twilight Masquerade’s singles are already starting to slide in price, including cards like Carmine, Bloodmoon Ursaluna, and Dragapult ex.
So if there’s a card you’ve been eyeing, now’s the time to grab it without going through a box’s worth of filler. Still, if you do want to roll the dice, this is probably the best pack selection of the bunch. Plus, the magnetic card protector almost tricks me into thinking I own something valuable. Almost.
Is it weird that this is the one I’m most tempted by? You get three booster packs from three solid sets: Stellar Crown, Surging Sparks, and Temporal Forces. That gives you a shot at everything from Pikachu ex to Hydreigon ex to Iron Crown ex. Or nothing.
That’s also on the table. But with single prices dropping in all three of those sets, this is a decent way to gamble without spending too much. You also get two sheets of stickers, which is exactly the kind of freebie that tricks me into thinking I made a responsible decision.
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.
Primarily, Lushfoil Photography Sim is – spoilers – a photography sim. Then it’s a walking sim. Then it’s a photography sim again. Then more walking. Then it’s a photography teacher, and a very calm and cool one at that; the kind that would lay down in liquid mud to shoot a daffodil at just the right angle, then get back up and say “Ahhh, that’s lovely” in a gentle New Zealand accent.
This specific quality accounted for much of my initial interest, being someone who owns a DSLR yet has no clue what half the buttons are for. Lushfoil Photography Sim is a pretty effective instructor, though by choosing a series of stonkingly gorgeous natural beauty spots as its classrooms, it’s even more effective at provoking a general wanderlust that has – repeatedly but quite happily – derailed my studies.
Much coverage of Sid Meier’s Civilization VII has compared the Firaxis 4X to Amplitude‘s 2021 release Humankind. As our dirty turncoat strategy game columnist Sin Vega briefly explores in her review for Eurogamer, the game’s Age structure, which hands you a new culture at intervals in each campaign, is reminiscent of Humankind’s Era transitions.
Developers Firaxis have elsewhere observed that the impression of Civ cribbing notes from Humankind is an unfortunate coincidence. According to an interview with executive producer Dennis Shirk last year, the Civ 7 team came up with the concept on their own, pitching it to parent company 2K Games mere days after Amplitude unveiled Humankind. It’s also, of course, worth reiterating that as a historical 4X, Humankind takes plenty of cues from older Civilizations. Still, Amplitude co-founder Romain de Waubert de Genlis was tickled pink when he saw Humankind cited in Civ 7 reviews. “That was probably the best compliment I ever got when I read some of these articles on Civ 7,” he told me during an interview about Amplitude’s forthcoming Endless Legend 2, adding “I did not see that coming, to be frank.”
The Last of Us is back for a second season, and – naturally – this time we’re seeing an adaptation of the second game in the series. However, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have taken a different approach this time around. Where the first season was largely a one-to-one recreation of the game, with a huge chunk of the runtime dedicated to replicating the original cutscenes in live action, this second season appears to be making more changes to the game’s story. Events are restructured, reordered, and recontextualised with the addition of new characters and story ideas.
That’s not to say that the scenes we know and love have been scrapped, though – far from it. It’s just that they might not always be exactly how you remember them. And so we’ve taken the key moments from episode one that recreate the game and compared them against the source material, analysing what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. You can see both versions in the video above, or read on below for our written explanations.
Due to the show having been re-arranged to tell the story in a more linear fashion, the sequence in which Tommy teaches Ellie how to shoot across long distances is now one of the earliest scenes of The Last of Us season 2. In the game, this was told in flashback as part of the Finding Strings chapter, which occurs during day two of Ellie’s time in Seattle – many hours into the campaign.
That’s not the only change. As you can see from the thick blanket of snow, the time of year is completely different. While Ellie and Tommy trek through the sun-kissed Wyoming mountains in the game, they’re lying prone in a freezing winter landscape in the show. There is a connection, though; in the game, Tommy mentions that hordes of infected move through this region in the winter. Since it’s currently winter in the show, perhaps such a horde will turn up in the next few episodes?
Despite the changes to timeline and climate, the fundamentals remain the same. Show Ellie uses the same Springfield Armory M1A rifle as game Ellie does, while Tommy provides advice about how to snipe at shambling infected. He suggests she compensate her aim for distance, which is what you must do during this sequence in the game, as bullets drop over very long distances due to gravity.
The midpoint of the season two premiere sees Ellie and Dina head out on a patrol. This is one of the earliest sequences from the game, and is replicated quite closely. In both the game and show, Ellie takes Shimmer from the stables, gears up to head out, and is scolded by Jesse for being late. The most significant change here is that, where in the game Jesse lists off all the things that must be achieved on a patrol, in the show Dina sarcastically explains their goals before Jesse can instruct them. This helps construct the show’s version of Dina, who is more brash than her game counterpart.
The conflict between Jesse and Dina helps set up the horseback conversation between the two women. This same chat, about Dina’s breakup with Jesse, also happens in the game, but Dina’s attitude to her former boyfriend is softer, discussing how Jesse’s parents will always feel like her family. In the show, the pair’s relationship is somewhat brushed off as more of an on/off thing.
Both the show and game’s patrol is interrupted by the discovery of the gory corpse of an animal – in the game it’s a moose, while in the show it’s a bear. This encourages Ellie and Dina to search out the infected who killed it. The key difference here is that in the show Ellie and Dina are just two of a larger patrol that doesn’t want to get into any unwarranted danger. In the game, Ellie and Dina are patrolling on their own.
Ellie and Dina’s search for infected brings them to the same place in both the game and the show: the Greenpeace Market. In both versions they climb over the store’s truck to enter via the upstairs window and proceed to search inside. From here the events diverge – in the show, the pair take down a clicker and then Ellie falls through the floor alone. In the game, both Ellie and Dina fall through the collapsing floor, and Dina saves them both from a clicker by shooting it several times.
In the show, it’s not a clicker in the main store area but a stalker, a new, more intelligent infected type that doesn’t appear until much later in the game. Ellie must face this foe alone, and the resulting fight sees the stalker bite her stomach, something that doesn’t happen in the game. Dina arrives too late to help, but by that point Ellie has already shot her attacker. This somewhat echoes an earlier scene from the game, in which Dina arrives to help a runner that’s attacking Ellie outside of the supermarket – in that instance Dina shoots the infected to save her partner.
One of the most famous scenes from The Last of Us Part 2 is recreated in almost perfect detail for the show, but once again it comes at a very different time thanks to the reordering of the story. The barn dance, during which Dina and Ellie kiss for the first time, was originally shown as a flashback and occurred just before the game’s final act, but in the show it’s the last major scene of the season two premiere.
Despite the shift to show this scene in chronological order, everything else about it remains largely the same, even down to the music, dance choreography, and camera direction. The dialogue between Ellie, Jesse, and Dina is almost word-for-word the same as the game’s original script, including Dina’s “I think they should be terrified of you.”
The pair’s dance is once again interrupted by Seth, but Joel’s reaction to his bigotry is much more violent. In the game, Joel only shoves Seth to indicate his anger, but the show’s version of events sees Seth thrown to the floor.
The episode’s final scene is a recreation of The Overlook section of the game’s first chapter. We see Abby and Owen climb up to an outcrop that overlooks the town of Jackson. In the game, Abby and Owen are talking, expressing relief of finding their goal and surprise at how large it is – “it’s a fucking city!” The show instead opts to keep the characters in total silence, building an ominous tension as they survey the town where their target lives.
For more from The Last of Us, check out our spoiler-free season two review and our spoiler-filled review of the season premiere. We’ve also asked the show’s creators whether Joel was right to save Ellie, and spoken to them about the terrifying stalkers who appear in this episode.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.
Thunderbird 4 vibes.
The Nintendo Switch 2 hands-on experience is already in full swing, giving those lucky enough to attend the chance to play through a handful of new games coming to the system. As you might expect, Mario Kart World is one such title and, while seeing what the racer has to offer, fans are already uncovering some of its secrets (thanks for the heads up, VGC).
For example, those who watched the game’s reveal trailer with an eagle eye might have seen Birdo drive into the back of a huge truck and seemingly take command of it for a section of the course, but did you know that there are other vehicles in the world where a similar process can happen? We didn’t!
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
I think we can all agree the Pokémon TCG is a wallet-endangering hobby, but that doesn’t mean we have to overpay for cardboard. Amazon clearly got the memo because a bunch of solid bundles just dropped , including Surging Sparks, Journey Together and Paldean Fates. If you’ve been telling yourself you’re just buying “a few packs for the kids,” this is your moment to stock up and pretend it’s not for you. I’m not judging. I’m doing the same thing.
I also want to point out the Mass Effect statues in the IGN Store, because apparently my bookshelf wasn’t crowded enough with plastic space heroes. Commander Shepard and crew are up for pre-order, and yes, I already added Jack to my cart because I enjoy chaos. There’s also a Humble Bundle packed with narrative indies that scream “you have emotions, deal with them.” All in all, it’s a good day to make impulsive but justifiable purchases.
I picked up Surging Sparks because six booster packs under $50 is lower than what Amazon has been charging recently (It’s still above MSRP though) Honestly, I wanted something new to crack open. It’s part of the latest Scarlet & Violet expansion, so if you’re trying to keep up with current sets or just enjoy the chaos of pulling a good card, this one’s a smart grab.
This one’s for the collectors who care as much about presentation as they do the pulls. Iono’s Bellibolt ex Premium Collection comes with six packs, a full-art promo, and a display sheet that’s more elaborate than it needs to be — in a good way. It’s also a cool way to snag Journey Together packs with a fantastic promo card.
I think anyone who’s replayed Mass Effect more than once knows exactly why these statues are tempting. I pre-ordered Jack immediately because, well, it felt necessary. The line includes Shepard, Tali, Legion, and others, and they look good enough that I’ve already made space for them on the shelf. If you’re still quoting Garrus unironically, these are for you.
Paldean Fates is priced a double MSRP, but it’s also very hard to come by in 2025. I grabbed it because the baby shiny sub-set is awesome, but if you just want to grab the single cards from this set, it might actually save you money.
This bundle has some of the better narrative indies from the last few years. I paid the $12, added the games to my backlog like I always do, and immediately booted up The Pale Beyond. It’s a strong lineup if you like character-driven games and don’t mind occasionally being emotionally wrecked by minimalist storytelling.
I think of this one as the all-in-one box for when you want cards and a bunch of gear you probably won’t use but still want around. Nine booster packs, a promo, sleeves, dice, and enough extras to make you feel like you’re doing more than just opening packs. It’s a solid option if you like having a little structure with your chaos.
I hesitated on this one, then immediately remembered it includes 18 booster packs and a playmat. It’s definitely a big spend, but if you’ve been waiting for a premium bundle that actually justifies the price, this checks out. I picked it up more for the experience than the individual cards, and that’s the right way to approach it.
I grabbed Shining Fates Pikachu V mostly because I never actually opened it when it first dropped, and now seemed like a good excuse. Four booster packs, a Pikachu promo, and the oversized card that ends up somewhere near your desk — standard stuff, but still a nice throwback if you missed it the first time around.
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.
