Everybody stay calm. You’re about to read about landlords and the prospect of paying rent. Don’t worry, there probably aren’t any landlords in the room right now. There are, however, new landlords in Cyberpunk 2077, should you choose to install this mod that introduces a whole bunch of expanded mechanics and details when it comes to cyberflats.
It’s called Eviction Notice, and it’s a substantial overhaul of how housing works in the futuristic RPG. Gone are the days of just living for free in Megabuilding H10, or walking up to one of the newer pads added in by the 1.5 update and paying a one-time fee for permanent access. Clearly these options are too idealistic, and your merc with a toaster transplanted into their face needs to battle their most terrifing foe yet: fiscal responsibility.
Turtle Beach is one of the more well-known brands that’s already got an entry on our current list of best gaming headsets for Switch 2, and it looks like it may well be sniffing after another with its latest, rather snazzy-looking budget offering.
Turtle Beach’s Airlite Fir for Switch 2 is a little less expensive than the wireless Atlas Air headset that we’ve got placed on our best-of-list, though, to the tune of over £100, in fact. Yes, this brand new wired headset comes in at a very reasonable £19.99/€24.99, making it a hugely affordable bit of kit.
We’re now half a year since the troubled launch of Civilization 7, which has fewer players on Steam than both Civilization 6 and the 15-year-old Civilization 5. But according to the boss of Take-Two, Civ 7 is projected to meet the company’s initial internal expectations over the course of its lifetime.
Civilization 7 has had a rough launch on Steam and has struggled for players on Valve’s platform ever since its launch in February. Reaction is ‘mixed,’ according to Steam user reviews. Civ 7’s Steam performance does not paint the entire picture, of course. The strategy game also launched on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch (the Nintendo Switch 2 version and a VR version recently launched, too). But Civilization’s bread and butter is PC, and there Civ 7 is clearly struggling.
In an interview with IGN to discuss Take-Two’s hugely positive financial results for the latest 2025 quarter, CEO Strauss Zelnick admitted Civ 7 had got off to a “slow start,” but he insisted that the company’s internal projections for what he called the “lifetime value” of Civ 7 still match its initial expectations.
“It’s definitely improving,” Zelnick said of Civ 7 (Take-Two has yet to announce a sales figure for the game).
“I think the key thing is that Civ has always been a slow burn. It’s always been a title that had — I’m not really a big believer in the long tail theory of the entertainment business — but Civ is an example of that theory. And right now our projections for the lifetime value of the title are very consistent with our initial expectations for the title.
“So while we were off to a slow start and while we have had to make changes — and there are more changes coming — I feel like consumer uptake is better and better and we feel really good about the title. I think over time it’s going to take its place in its civilization pantheon in a very successful, credible way.”
When Civ 7 launched, players highlighted issues with the user interface, a lack of map variety, and expressed a feeling that the game launched without a number of features they’d come to expect from the franchise. But some veteran Civ fans also didn’t get on well with the dramatic changes developer Firaxis made to the game.
A full campaign in Civilization 7 is one that goes through all three Ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern. Once the Age is completed, all players (and any AI opponents) experience an Age Transition simultaneously. During an Age Transition, three things happen: you select a new civilization from the new Age to represent your empire, you choose which Legacies you want to retain in the new Age, and the game world evolves.
The Civilization games have never had such a system, and it has proven divisive. But Firaxis has launched a number of key updates to Civ 7 since launch, most recently patch 1.2.3, which made Age Transition improvements.
The question now is, can Firaxis turn Civilization 7 sentiment around from its current ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam, and get more people to make the jump from past Civ games to the latest effort?
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.
We’ve rounded up the best deals for Sunday, August 10, below, so don’t miss out on these limited-time offers.
The Best Deals for August 10, 2025
Silent Hill 2 for $29.99
Bloober Team’s remake of Silent Hill 2 is on sale at Target this weekend for $29.99. Recreating one of Konami’s most beloved titles was never going to be easy, but the Silent Hill 2 remake delivers an immersive horror experience that preserves almost everything that made the original so great. In our 8/10 review, we said the game “smoothly polishes down the rough edges of the original game’s combat while taking a piece of heavy grit sandpaper to scuff up every rust and mold-covered surface of its nightmarish environments, successfully making them appear far more abrasive and menacing to explore.”
Score Raidou Remastered on Switch for $39.99
Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army launched in mid June, and you can save $10 off a Nintendo Switch copy for the first time this weekend at Amazon. This action RPG is a remaster of the 2006 PS2 game, and there are many improvements and new features to discover. For one, UI, visuals, and voice acting have all been tweaked to refine the experience, but you can also discover more than 120 different demons.
Doom: The Dark Ages for $44.99
Doom: The Dark Ages is on a major sale for the first time, and you can save $25 off a PlayStation 5 copy at Best Buy this weekend! This game takes the Doom Slayer back to the medieval ages, acting as a prequel to both Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal. The latest update was just released this week as well, so really, there has never been a better time to hop in.
Stellar Blade Complete Edition for $59.99
Stellar Blade made the jump to PC in June, and just a few months later, you can save 25% off the Complete Edition at Amazon. This package includes the base game plus the two packs of cosmetic DLC. Crossovers include both NieR: Automata and Goddess of Victory: Nikke, so you can encounter Emil’s Shop and pick up an A2 outfit if you wish.
Super Mario Odyssey for $39
Super Mario Odyssey is one of the best games of all time, and it’s well worth it even at $39. We rarely see this game go on sale, so it’s an easy recommendation each time it does. With Nintendo Switch 2 enhancements already live, now is the time to jump in and explore various Kingdoms with Cappy if you haven’t already.
Pre-Order Evangelion 1.11 & 2.22 on Blu-ray
Following the release of Evangelion: 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon a Time, GKIDS is rereleasing and reprinting both Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. Both of these Blu-rays will feature the original Japanese dub and the latest English dub, in addition to bonus features on the disc. If you’re a fan of Eva, these are two items you don’t want to miss out on adding to your collection.
M4 MacBook Air for $799
This weekend at Amazon, you can save $200 off an M4 MacBook Air. This 13-inch model includes 16GB of Unified Memory and 256GB of SSD storage, making it ideal for multitasking and running intense applications. All 2025 models support Apple Intelligence features as well.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe for $39
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is one of the biggest content packages available on Switch. There are over 160 courses available to choose from in the game, which makes for dozens of hours of fun to be had. While the premier Nintendo Switch 2D Mario title is Super Mario Bros. Wonder, this package is an excellent pickup worth adding to any Switch collection.
Star Ocean The Second Story R for $29.99
Star Ocean The Second Story R was a fantastic remake when it released in 2023, and the same still remains true today. As Square Enix’s first HD-2.5D game, this remake brings a new twist on the HD-2D formula seen from Team Asano. Action combat is the star here, with numerous sci-fi locations to discover. This weekend, you can pick up a Nintendo Switch copy at Amazon for $29.99, allowing you to take this adventure with you anywhere you go.
A2 Statue Up for Pre-Order at Amazon
Amazon has opened pre-orders for the Bandai Spirits Ichibansho A2 statue. Featuring her for The Glory of Mankind outfit, A2 stands at roughly eight inches tall, featuring her iconic blade in hand. If you’re a fan on NieR: Automata and have yet to add an A2 statue to your collection, now is an excellent time!
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for $39
You can score Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for just $39 this weekend at Walmart. This classic RPG is perfect for anyone, even if you’ve never played an RPG before. The Thousand-Year Door features a loveable cast of characters, a fun combat system, and, overall, a refreshing take on the classic Mario formula.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition for $46.99
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition launched earlier this year, and it’s still one of the biggest RPGs you can jump into on any platform. The remaster introduced numerous quality-of-life updates that were much needed, in addition to a brand-new epilogue chapter. We gave the game a 9/10 in our review, stating, “Xenoblade Chronicles X was already one of the Wii U’s best games, and this Definitive Edition does more than enough to justify another trip to planet Mira.”
Here I am, tapping out once again to the Zebra Bananza theme. It’s a song fit for Carnival, a blend of styles from all across Latin America — the Brazilian Samba, the Cuban Salsa, the Argentinian Tango. Every time DK beats his chest and transforms into the buffest Zebra you’ve ever seen, I attempt to sing along with Pauline, even though I don’t understand the Kong language.
Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! I’m obviously using regular in the metafictional sense here but my intentions are pure, I promise.
I’m the type of introvert who’s made an art of choosing the right seat in public places. With such honed skills, I assumed a puzzler like Is This Seat Taken? would be second nature, and I was mostly right. This adorable indie might not bring anything radical to the table, but it’s a perfectly pleasant pick-up-and-play experience, that will undoubtedly scratch any low-stakes puzzle itches.
Strung together by a loose story about a rhombus with dreams of treading the boards (yes, really), Is This Seat Taken is about organising people into the right spots so that everyone’s preferences are satisfied. This might be at the cinema or museum, a taxi or a boat, but each person (well, “shape” might be more accurate) has their own conditions to meet, and they can be rather fussy.
Welcome, cover fans, to another edition of Box Art Brawl!
Before we head into this week’s match-up, let’s have a quick reminder of what went down last weekend. It was a one-on-one face-off for the GBA’s The Hobbit, which saw the gloomy North American/European cover go up against the colourful Japanese variant. Somewhat surprisingly to us, it was the latter that walked away with a comfortable win, taking 68% of the vote and leaving the NA/EU cover with the remaining 32% — an unexpected journey indeed!
I recently started playing Metroid II: Return of Samus for the first time. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was a way of staving off my intense cravings for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which as of writing still doesn’t have a launch date more concrete than the vague ‘2025’ window Nintendo revealed over a year ago. In any case, Metroid II impressed me almost immediately, but it wasn’t until I saw heroine Samus Aran die that I realised just how unique it is in relation to the rest of the series.
While the video game industry places a lot of importance on the benefits of more powerful hardware, developers can also do incredible things when presented with limitations. Metroid II, released in North America in late 1991 before making its way to Japan and Europe the following year, is a great example of this phenomenon. The changes made to ensure the nascent Metroid formula was readable on the Game Boy’s small, colourless screen resulted in a handheld adventure still praised today for its austere atmosphere.
We’ve rounded up the best deals for Saturday, August 9, below, so don’t miss out on these limited-time offers.
The Best Deals for August 9, 2025
Doom: The Dark Ages for $44.99
Doom: The Dark Ages is on a major sale for the first time, and you can save $25 off a PlayStation 5 copy at Best Buy this weekend! This game takes the Doom Slayer back to the medieval ages, acting as a prequel to both Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal. The latest update was just released this week as well, so really, there has never been a better time to hop in.
Stellar Blade Complete Edition for $59.99
Stellar Blade made the jump to PC in June, and just a few months later, you can save 25% off the Complete Edition at Amazon. This package includes the base game plus the two packs of cosmetic DLC. Crossovers include both NieR: Automata and Goddess of Victory: Nikke, so you can encounter Emil’s Shop and pick up an A2 outfit if you wish.
Pre-Order Evangelion 1.11 & 2.22 on Blu-ray
Following the release of Evangelion: 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon a Time, GKIDS is rereleasing and reprinting both Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. Both of these Blu-rays will feature the original Japanese dub and the latest English dub, in addition to bonus features on the disc. If you’re a fan of Eva, these are two items you don’t want to miss out on adding to your collection.
M4 MacBook Air for $799
This weekend at Amazon, you can save $200 off an M4 MacBook Air. This 13-inch model includes 16GB of Unified Memory and 256GB of SSD storage, making it ideal for multitasking and running intense applications. All 2025 models support Apple Intelligence features as well.
Star Ocean The Second Story R for $29.99
Star Ocean The Second Story R was a fantastic remake when it released in 2023, and the same still remains true today. As Square Enix’s first HD-2.5D game, this remake brings a new twist on the HD-2D formula seen from Team Asano. Action combat is the star here, with numerous sci-fi locations to discover. This weekend, you can pick up a Nintendo Switch copy at Amazon for $29.99, allowing you to take this adventure with you anywhere you go.
A2 Statue Up for Pre-Order at Amazon
Amazon has opened pre-orders for the Bandai Spirits Ichibansho A2 statue. Featuring her for The Glory of Mankind outfit, A2 stands at roughly eight inches tall, featuring her iconic blade in hand. If you’re a fan on NieR: Automata and have yet to add an A2 statue to your collection, now is an excellent time!
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition for $46.99
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition launched earlier this year, and it’s still one of the biggest RPGs you can jump into on any platform. The remaster introduced numerous quality-of-life updates that were much needed, in addition to a brand-new epilogue chapter. We gave the game a 9/10 in our review, stating, “Xenoblade Chronicles X was already one of the Wii U’s best games, and this Definitive Edition does more than enough to justify another trip to planet Mira.”
