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Nintendo announced Splatoon 3‘s returning SpringFest a few weeks back, but the explosion of Switch 2 news means that the starting date has crept up on us.
As a new piece of SpringFest art from @NintendoUK so rightfully reminded us, the latest Splatfest is almost here, with the three-team competition kicking off on 12th April at 1am BST / 11th April 6pm PT (we’ve specified all the regional times below).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Ubisoft has insisted that buying a game doesn’t give players “unfettered ownership rights” to it, only a “limited license to access the game.”
The megacorp’s comments come as it sought to dismiss a case brought by two unhappy The Crew players who took the company to court for shutting down its original racing game last year.
2014’s The Crew is no longer playable. No version of the game, whether it’s physical or digital or even if it’s owned already, can be bought and played in any capacity, with servers going dark completely at the end of March 2024.
Ubisoft took measures to create offline versions of The Crew 2 and sequel The Crew: Motorfest to enable players to keep playing, but no similar action was taken for the original.
At the end of last year, two gamers took Ubisoft to court, stating they had been “under the impression” they were “paying to own and possess the video game The Crew instead of paying for a limited license to use The Crew.”
“Imagine you buy a pinball machine, and years later, you enter your den to go play it, only to discover that the all the paddles are missing, the pinball and bumpers are gone, and the monitor that proudly displayed your unassailable high score is removed,” the initial lawsuit read.
As spotted by Polygon, the claimants accused Ubisoft of violating California’s False Advertising Law, Unfair Competition Law, and Consumer Legal Remedies Act, as well as “common law fraud and breach of warranty claims.” They also suggest Ubisoft broke California’s state law around gift cards, which are not allowed to expire.
The gamers also provided images that depict the activation code for the racer clearly shows that it does not expire until 2099, which they believe implies “that [The Crew] would remain playable during this time and long thereafter.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ubisoft does not agree.
“Plaintiffs allege that they purchased physical copies of The Crew under the belief that they were obtaining unfettered access to the game in perpetuity. Plaintiffs also take issue with the fact that Ubisoft did not offer to create an ‘offline, single-player option of the Game, otherwise known as a ‘patch’ when it shut down The Crew’s servers in March 2024,” Ubisoft’s lawyers wrote.
“The [essence] of the plaintiffs’ complaint is that Ubisoft allegedly misled purchasers of its video game The Crew into believing they were purchasing unfettered ownership rights in the game, rather than a limited license to access the game. But the reality is that consumers received the benefit of their bargain and were explicitly notified, at the time of purchase, that they were purchasing a license.”
The response further adds that the Xbox and PlayStation packaging contain a “clear and conspicuous notice — in all capital letters — that Ubisoft may cancel access to one or more specific online features upon a 30-day prior notice.”
Ubisoft has now filed a motion to dismiss the case. If that fails and the lawsuit does proceed, the two plaintiffs have demanded a jury trial.
Storefronts including Steam now include an up-front warning to customers that they’re buying a license, not a game. The change to Steam came after California governor Gavin Newsom signed a law forcing digital marketplaces to make it clear to customers that when they buy media, they only buy a license to that media.
It’s worth noting that the new law still doesn’t prevent companies from yanking your content away from you, but at least they’ll have to warn you about the true nature of your purchase before you click that buy button.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
I think this is the best deal I’ve seen on a PC controller in a long time. Lenovo just dropped official Xbox wireless controllers (Series X|S variants) to Black Friday equivalent prices. Pulse Red and Shock Blue are going for $34.99 with the code SPRINGGAMES, while other colors like Carbon Black and Astral Purple are $39.99 with SPRINGBACK. These are some of the best gamepads for gaming on PC, and honestly, for a first-party controller that doesn’t feel like it was pulled from a bargain bin, it’s an absurdly good price as well.
Path of Exile 2 developer Grinding Gear Games has issued more emergency changes to the action role-playing game amid a backlash to the nerf-heavy Dawn of the Hunt update that has caused recent Steam user reviews to plummet to ‘mostly negative.’
Dawn of the Hunt launched earlier this month and quickly sparked a backlash among the Path of Exile community. The expansion added the new Huntress class, a Spear and Buckler user specialising in hybrid melee and ranged combat. Elsewhere, there are five new ascension classes: the Ritualist, Amazon, Smith of Kitava, Tactician, and Lich. And along with all that are mechanical overhauls, over one hundred new unique items as well as significantly expanded crafting options.
What should have been a hugely positive moment for Path of Exile 2, its developers and its players became something else entirely, however, as the community complained that GGG had slowed the pace of the game down to the point where it became a “total slog.”
The ‘most helpful’ review of the last 30 days on Steam is a negative one that outlines the current problems with the game:
Every boss fight is incredibly longer than it needs to be. Most of the skills do little to no damage. I understand they said they wanted to slow gameplay down, but I don’t think I will even make it more than one week in this league at this point. It just feels incredibly awful right now, IF you can even get the game to run and be stable. That is a HUGE if.
“If you’re a masochist who enjoys being punished for little to no reward, this game is for you,” reads another negative review. “If you’re not, it’s likely that you won’t enjoy the game.
“The release version (0.1) already had a lot of issues in relation to the size of the areas (too large), the slow movement (which makes those large areas feel even worse) and forced combo gameplay (which was optional thanks to some “unintended” build options found by players).
“However, in this new version (0.2 – Dawn of the Hunt), just as many other reviewers have mentioned, the game was slowed down considerably.
“The loot, which wasn’t too common in 0.1, but acceptable, was nerfed by quite a lot, to the point where you kill a rare monster or boss and get no rare items or crafting currencies.
“The forced combo gameplay is back in full force, with the developers wanting to pigeonhole us into this type of gameplay, which is in direct contrast to what an ARPG of this kind is supposed to be. You’re supposed to have freedom to make your build how you like to play it and not be forced to play only the way the developers have intended.
“Players keep complaining about the map size and slow movement and the developers largely ignored these comments until the community backlash was too much to keep ignoring.
“I have 5k hours in PoE 1 and it’s my favorite game of all time. I love GGG but honestly, I cannot recommend this game to almost anyone as it is now.
“Hopefully they will be able to fix these issues in the future and make the game more enjoyable.”
In response, GGG had already outlined a list of changes, but it has now revealed more coming as part of the 0.2.0e due out tomorrow, April 11.
The question for Path of Exile 2 players now is, are these changes meaningful enough to stem the tide of complaints and get the game back into a positive setting? It’s worth noting that Path of Exile 2 has been a hugely successful release for GGG, to the point where it struggled to cope with the sheer number of players at launch. But this success has brought with it additional problems that have even impacted the development of Path of Exile 1, which retains a sizeable and loyal audience.
Monster Speed Changes
Many players have been reported being overwhelmed by monsters. The cause of this is a variety of factors and we are addressing them on a case by case basis. We have listed monster changes act by act below, but we also made the following changes more generally.
Many human monsters including the Cultists in Freythorn, the Faridun and the Tribal Humans in Act Three have behaviour where they can interrupt their melee attacks if the player moves too far out of range during the attack, especially for attacks that have multiple hits like a swipe left into swipe right. These interrupt events have been primarily removed especially on things that were attacking very fast as it caused the monsters to be relentlessly able to pursue and attack you giving you no time to engage or use skills between their attacks.
The Haste Aura monster modifier no longer appears on monsters that are already fast.
Act 1
Werewolf Prowlers and Tendril Prowlers now will enter a walking stance (as opposed to running) after performing a melee action, they will only begin running again if you get a certain distance away from them. This behaviour has been applied to many faster monsters.
Hungering Stalkers now have 12% less Life and Damage, they were already relatively weak but we have lowered it a bit further to account for their high movement speed and attack speed. They are intended to engage and attack quickly, but be weak and die fast.
Reduced the number of Bloom Serpents in The Red Vale.
Halved the number of Venomous Crabs in the Hunting Grounds.
The Cultists in Freythorn no longer have interrupt events on their attacks as described above.
The Cultists in Freythorn wielding Axes and Maces in Freythorn now walk after performing a Melee Action, only running again once you exit a certain distance.
Blood Cretins on death Blood Pools have had their duration decreased from 6 seconds to 4 seconds, and fixed the area of effect to match the visual more closely.
Reduced the overall density of more challenging monsters in Ogham Manor.
Act 2
The Boulder Ants in Titan Valley have been replaced by Risen Maraketh, as the area had too many monsters that had irritating movement.
The Faridun have all been modified to remove the interrupt events on their attacks as described above..
Act 3
Diretusk Boar and Antlion Charger’s are now more likely to push you to the side instead of pushing you along with them when they charge you.
The Lost City monster pack composition has been adjusted to result in less ranged monsters
Massively adjusted the Azak Bog, firstly by the aforementioned changes to interrupt events, but also changed the monster composition of the area to have less Ranged and Elite monsters.
Fixed an issue where the Slitherspitter’s poison spray in Venom Crypts was dealing Chaos Damage instead of Physical Damage unintentionally.
We have also identified another issue that affects some areas in which potential monster spawn locations have inconsistent density in different rooms. This leads to situations where some rooms are much denser with monsters than others in an unintended way. We have a fix for this problem but it did not make it into this patch, and will be deployed in a later patch.
These are not the only changes that we will be making to monsters. Further changes will come in later updates. Some changes we didn’t get time to make today, and others require new animations that will take a little longer.
Boss Changes
Viper Napuatzi is one of the more challenging bosses for players, so we made the following change.
Lowered the amount and size of Chaos Rains (the purple ones) in the Viper Napuatzi fight, and cleaned up the visual left afterwards faster to make the following drop locations more obvious.
Uxmal had various quirks that made him somewhat annoying to fight. We have made a few changes.
Reduced the number of times Uxmal changes locations through the fight
Uxmal can no longer recharge Energy Shield while in the air.
Uxmal uses his Flame Breath less often
Xyclucian had some issues with visibility of his effects
The arena of Xyclucian has had its ground foliage removed in order to make his effects more visible
Player Minion Changes
We have changed the way that minion revive timers work. When your first minion dies, it sets the revive timer to 7.5 seconds as before, but each successive minion that dies increases it by less and less (still capped to a max of 7.5 seconds). This should heavily mitigate the situation where most of your minions are dead, but the revive timer keeps resetting to 7.5 seconds over and over.
Disenchanting a Bind Spectre or Tame Beast gem will unbind them, allowing you to use them again.
Tamed beasts can now fit through gaps of the same size that the player can.
Other Player Balance
We don’t have a lot of other player balance changes on top of the ones described yesterday, but we did manage to sneak in the following additional changes:
Rally support is no longer restricted to Strikes or Slams, and can now support any Melee Attack you use yourself.
Glory (Used by Hammer of the Gods and Spear of Solaris) is now no longer consumed if you are interrupted while using the skill.
Fixed a bug where Blood Boils from the Ritualist ascendancy didn’t propagate if the monster exploded on death, such as when using Herald of Blood.
Crafting Changes
We have now finished adding all of the mods to runes for caster weapons. Desert, Glacial, Storm, Iron, Body, Mind, Rebirth, Inspiration, Stone and Vision runes all now work on Wands and Staves, with their own set of modifiers.
Renly’s abandoned shop in the Burning Village now also has a Blank rune which Renly can forge into any elemental rune of your choosing in case you didn’t find any up to that point. As mentioned yesterday, 12 Artificers Orb’s now drop at fixed locations through the campaign in addition to the random drops and salvageable ones.
Performance Improvements
The ground foliage in many areas has had an optimisation pass to improve performance.
0.2.0E Deployment Timeline
And that’s all that made it for 0.2.0E. The patch will be deployed at around 10AM NZT. We have also made some more changes internally, but they didn’t make it in time for the patch.
The following lists the changes that will be deployed after the weekend. These are not the only changes that will be in that patch. These are just the changes that we already have.
Charm Changes
Charms are a system that we never adequately expanded on, and have had several problems that we will finally be addressing. Overall we want charms to be more useful, and for you to be more easily able to use more of them.
First, the changes to charm slots
Charm slots on belts are now granted by implicit mods that are added to belts depending on the level of the area that dropped them. The number of slots is random up to a cap depending on how high level the belt is. You can use a Divine Orb to reroll the number of slots.
Belts have 1 charm slot until level 32, up to 2 until level 64 and up to 3 from level 65 and onwards.
Unique Belts can always have up to 3 charm slots.
For now, Unique Belts with mods that increase the number of charms will still be capped to 3, later on we will remove the cap.
Then changes to the charms themselves.
Several charms were not protecting you from the hit that activated them, these cases have been fixed to work properly.
We have also done a pass on Charm mods to make them more powerful and rewarding.
Stash Tab Affinities
We are adding Stash Tab Affinities for the following categories of items
Socketables
Fragments [Which includes Tablets and Trial Keys]
Breach
Expedition
Ritual
We will also be allowing Charms to go in the Flask stash tab or any tab with the Flask affinity.
Atlas Bookmarks
We have added the ability to bookmark locations on your atlas to find them easily later.
Right clicking a node will allow you create a bookmark by picking an icon and optionally adding a label you can type in.
You can have up to 16 bookmarks at a time.
They will appear as icons around the outside of the screen with a direction allowing you to scroll to them easily, or you can click on them to instantly take you there
You can also view a list of bookmarks under the legend and click them to go there.
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.
Ubisoft’s lawyers have responded to a legal action from players of defunct racing game The Crew by insisting that those players never owned the game in the first place. The players made their lawsuit to complain about the game being made unplayable when servers were shut down last year, but Ubisoft have now responded to argue that the game was only “licensed” to those playing, and players should never have expected the game to be useable in perpetuity.
Mario Kart: Single Dash!!
Sure, Mario Kart World‘s free-roaming and knockout races are something, but do you remember back when you used to be able to squeeze two racers onto one kart? Now that was a hook.
That’s exactly what Mario Kart: Double Dash!! brought to the table in 2003, the first and last time we would see the mechanic crop up in the series. However, the classic GameCube racer was almost a lot more singular, with Nintendo considering parking the dual-driver gameplay for something more in line with what players had seen before — the horror.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The post The Outer Worlds 2: IGN First Kicks Off a Month of Exclusive Coverage appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Nintendo has confirmed that Switch 2 Edition games contain both the game and the upgrade on the cartridge itself.
Confusion arose after conflicting reports based on comments from customer service staff suggested Switch 2 Edition games may not include the game itself.
However, in a statement to Vooks, Nintendo clarified this is not the case, although pointed out that some publishers may release Switch 2 Edition games as download codes in physical packaging with no game card.
Here’s the Nintendo statement:
“Physical versions of Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games will include the original Nintendo Switch game and its upgrade pack all on the same game card (i.e. they are exclusively Nintendo Switch 2 game cards, with no download code). Alternatively, some publishers may release Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games as download codes in physical packaging, with no game card.”
$79.99 Switch 2 Edition games include Kirby and The Forgotten Land – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star Crossed World, Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
These Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games improve upon their original Switch versions in various ways. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, for example, gain additional support for the Zelda Notes service in the Nintendo Switch App that provides game help. They also have achievements on Switch 2.
Nintendo also recently confirmed that several new Switch 2 game cards won’t always carry an actual game, but instead contain a key for a game download.
Switch 2 game-key cards are physical cards that only contain a key to download your chosen game. That means there’s no actual game data on the card you insert into your Switch 2, so you’ll need to download it once the card is inserted. Every game-key card case will be appropriately labeled on the lower portion of the front of the box, so if you’re concerned about what exactly you’re purchasing, you should have a heads-up right away.
Games like Street Fighter 6 and the Bravely Default remaster do indeed feature this game-key card disclaimer. Others, such as Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, do not. The beefy Cyberpunk 2077, which weighs in at 64 GB on Nintendo Switch 2, comes on cart.
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.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is finally on sale, and it’s not a minor token discount either. The Steam Store has knocked 20% off the full price, bringing it down from $59.99 / £49.99 to $47.99 / £39.99 until April 21st. If you’ve been waiting for any excuse to dive into Larian’s massive, sprawling RPG, this is it.
I’m not saying today’s deals are going to ruin your budget, but I wouldn’t open your banking app until tomorrow. Stellar Crown is back in stock (finally), and Amazon also has the Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium Collection if you’re feeling like a true Tera master. Meanwhile, Lenovo quietly dropped Xbox Wireless Controllers to $39.99, and I’m just over here trying to convince myself I don’t need one in every color.
On top of that, there’s a new Humble Bundle that looks like someone dumped every neon-drenched game into one lineup, and somehow Fallout fans are getting a $200 Pip-Boy replica that actually works as a clock. It’s a chaotic mix of gaming greatness, and I’m into it.
I want this box purely for the overkill. Eighteen booster packs, three promo cards, and enough accessories to make a Magic: The Gathering player cry. Terapagos ex, Lapras ex, and Cinderace ex look gorgeous, and the display-worthy gear (card protector, playmat, deck box) makes this feel like more than just another TCG drop. It’s overstuffed, overpriced, over the top and exactly what I want from a premium Pokémon box.
I think the Stellar Crown ETB is one of the best recent Pokémon releases, and not just because it includes a full-art Noctowl. The sleeves featuring Stellar Form Terapagos are slick, and you get nine booster packs — nine! For under $55, that’s a solid entry point into Scarlet & Violet or just a fun rip session waiting to happen. If you missed the last drop, now’s your shot at redemption.
This bundle is like a cyberpunk fever dream. Ghostrunner, Neon Abyss, and The Red Strings Club all in one lineup? I don’t even care that I’ve already played half of these. For $14, I’ll happily double-dip just to have them in one place. I want more game bundles that feel like a hacker curated them at 3 a.m. while jacked into a mainframe.
In my opinion, Xbox controllers never go on sale when you need one — only when your current one starts drifting mid-match and your rage googling leads you here. $39.99 is a no-brainer price, especially with options like Astral Purple and Deep Pink in stock. I already have two, but I want a third just because Microsoft had the audacity to make them this pretty.
Look, I don’t need a $200 Pip-Boy replica with a functioning LCD screen, clock, and radio. But I absolutely want it. It’s absurdly detailed, looks screen-accurate, and would make a great desk flex or cosplay showpiece. I think if you’re the type to own a vault jumpsuit, this is your holy grail.
I think of this as the “no regrets” box. Thirty-six booster packs is a full-on dopamine factory for collectors or anyone building out a Scarlet & Violet deck. You’re getting the Tera Pokémon ex mechanics, fan favorites like Koraidon and Miraidon, and honestly, more chances at pulls than I usually trust myself with. I want this in my cart and hidden from my partner. It’s a big upfront price, but when you break it down, it’s solid value for serious collectors.
I want to believe I drink Monster Zero Ultra for the energy, but deep down I know it’s just my gamer juice of choice. $26.11 for a 15-pack works out to about $1.74 per can, which is cheaper and less effort than running to a 7-Elevan. Bonus points for the Subscribe & Save option, which is where this deal kicks in.
I’ve been tracking the Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet – Surging Sparks Booster Bundle for weeks, and while this $45.02 price on Amazon is still above the original MSRP of $26.94, it’s the most reasonable listing I’ve seen that doesn’t involve a sketchy seller or a mystery warehouse. You get six booster packs from the latest set, which is hard enough to find in stores, and I appreciate not having to overpay a reseller just to get in on the new pulls. For anyone trying to keep up with the expansion, this is as straightforward as it gets.
I think the INIU 140W 27,000mAh Power Bank is the backup battery I actually trust when I know I’ll be away from an outlet for more than a few hours. It’s currently $74.56, which isn’t exactly pocket change, but for something that can charge a MacBook Pro or a Steam Deck without breaking a sweat, I’d say it’s well-priced. The digital display is genuinely useful, and having three ports (two USB-C and one USB-A) makes it easy to keep everything charged without doing the cable shuffle.
I don’t usually get excited about merch, but the Fallout – Lucy’s Vault 33 Backpack from the IGN Store actually feels like something I’d use. It’s $199.99, which sounds steep until you realize it’s a legit replica built from the same patterns used on the show. This isn’t a cheap cosplay throw-in, it’s got a full 20L capacity, a 16-inch laptop pocket, and more compartments than I know what to do with. Plus, it comes with that massive yellow fleece blanket for the full Fallout-core vibe. I’m not planning on trekking across a wasteland anytime soon, but it’s good to know the bag is ready just in case.
INIU 65W 20,000mAh Power Bank is the one I reach for when I need power without the bulk. It’s $39.99 and still strong enough to fast-charge my laptop, but compact enough to throw in a backpack without thinking about it. The extra port flexibility is nice, and the built-in phone stand is one of those small features I didn’t think I’d care about until I started using it constantly. It just does its job well without getting in the way.
Humble Heroines: Rebels, Curses, and Mystery bundle is exactly the kind of thing I buy and then spend the next six months working through. For $12, you get seven games including Control: Ultimate Edition, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Darksiders III, and a few smaller indie gems that deserve the attention. The lineup is solid, the value is obvious, and part of the money goes to Girls Who Code and Girls Make Games, so I don’t even have to justify it to myself. It’s a good excuse to grab some character-driven games that don’t all feel like the same recycled formula.
I picked up the INIU 100W 25,000mAh Power Bank because I wanted one charger that could handle everything without fuss. For $53.98, I get enough power to charge two larger devices at once, thanks to dual USB-C outputs, and it still recharges fast when it’s drained. It’s well-balanced in size and performance, and I haven’t run into overheating or throttling issues even during heavy use. That’s more than I can say for a few others I’ve retired.
Then there’s the INIU Slim 45W 10,000mAh Power Bank with Built-In USB-C Cable It’s currently $22.49, but the real win here is the integrated cable. It charges both the power bank and my phone, which is ideal when I want to carry as little as possible. The compact build doesn’t compromise on speed, and I like that I can toss it in a jacket pocket without it feeling like dead weight. It’s simple, efficient, and takes up no mental space.
I’ve tried more wireless earbuds than I care to admit, but the Cetra lineup actually gets it right for gaming. I want latency low enough that my killshots sync with the sound of glory, not a second later. These deliver that, with the added bonus of active noise cancelation that’s good enough to block out my neighbor’s saxophone practice. The 27-hour battery life doesn’t hurt either, especially for marathon gaming sessions — or, let’s be honest, Netflix binges. Wireless charging is just the lazy cherry on top.
This thing weighs 54 grams. Fifty-four. I’ve had granola bars that were heavier. I think it’s illegal to call something this light a “mouse” without an asterisk. The Harpe’s low-latency tri-mode connection and snappy AimPoint sensor make it feel like an extension of my brain. If you’re the type to tweak DPI mid-match just because you can, this one’s built for you. Also, shout out to ASUS for not naming it something ridiculous like “ShadowFang X69 Ultra.”
Here’s the deal: for less than the price of a mediocre pizza, you get 29 volumes of vampire-fighting, post-apocalyptic drama illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano. I want this bundle just so I can say I finally read the source material instead of quoting the anime like a poser. And since it supports World Central Kitchen, I’ve checked off my good deed for the day whilst reading about bloodthirsty aristocrats. Win-win.
If the Harpe is the Ferrari of gaming mice, the Spatha is a tank with RGB. I mean, 12 programmable buttons, a magnetic charging stand, and enough battery life to outlast the apocalypse? I think this one’s for the MMO players and spreadsheet warriors who want their macros locked and loaded. The hot-swappable switches are a nice bonus for anyone who treats mice like seasonal accessories.
I grew up spamming Hadoukens, and now I can channel that energy into shiny cardboard form. I want the Collector Box because ripping open packs and chasing rare inserts scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. But if you’re a “go big or go home” kind of collector, the Inner Case ($240) or Master Case ($960) options are basically loot crates for adults — minus the digital regret.
I don’t always want a full keyboard taking up half my desk. The Falchion understands that. It’s compact, mechanical, and still manages to squeeze in arrow keys and a weirdly satisfying touch panel for volume and macros. I love that it’s wireless but still offers USB-C when I’m feeling traditional. Bonus points for the cover case—it makes me feel like I’m carrying a fancy typewriter to a LAN party.
This one’s a mouthful in name and a handful in features. I think this keyboard is perfect for anyone who wants their setup to scream “I game and I have taste.” The wrist rest is plush, the switches are fast and precise, and the tri-mode connection lets me hop from work laptop to gaming rig like some sort of digital nomad. It’s absurdly overbuilt, and I kind of respect that.
I think this is one of the smartest ways to get your hands on an RTX 5070 without building from scratch or skimping on quality. MAINGEAR’s setup skips all the common bottlenecks — no mismatched parts, no airflow nightmares, no “good enough” corners cut. For $2,095, you’re getting a clean combo of a Ryzen 5 7600X CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RGB RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD, all assembled by people who care about things like cable management. It’s future-ready, quiet, and fast enough to leave your current rig feeling like a potato in comparison.
This tin is pure Pokémon chaos in the best way. You get one random promo card—Kyogre ex, Xerneas ex, or Dialga ex—and five booster packs; 2 x Surging Sparks, 1 x Stellar Crown, 1 x Temporal Forces and 1 x Obsidian Flames. It’s a fun, low-stakes gamble for collectors or casual players who want a shot at good pulls without needing to take out a second mortgage.
EDF is the kind of game where logic goes out the window and fun takes over, and this $25 Humble Bundle gives you the best of it — EDF 5, EDF 4, World Brothers 2, plus a ton of downloadable content. I think this is worth it just for the laugh-out-loud co-op mayhem alone, and it doesn’t hurt that part of the proceeds go to charity while you blast oversized bugs into space.
If your current microSD card loads like it’s on a coffee break, or if you need to expand your Nintendo Switch 2 storage on launch day, this one’s a serious upgrade. I want this SanDisk Express card purely for the ridiculous transfer speeds — up to 880MB/s read and 650MB/s write. It’s built for 4K video, gaming, and surviving every possible disaster short of lava, and it’ll likely outlive every other accessory in your bag.
The Shining Fates Pikachu V Box is a great grab if you’re chasing shiny cards or just really into oversized electric rodents. You get a Pikachu V promo, a jumbo card version for display, and four Shining Fates booster packs. It’s pricey, but Shining Fates is out of print.
This Skyrim Dragonborn helmet replica isn’t going to protect you in battle, but it will absolutely level up your desk setup. At just under six inches tall, it’s small enough to display but detailed enough to show off. I think it’s a solid collectible if you’re still emotionally tethered to Skyrim and have no shame in displaying that fact proudly.
This Shrouded Fable ETB is the kind of set that makes you feel like you’ve got your TCG life together. It comes with nine booster packs, a Pecharunt promo, energy cards, dice, and a nice little collector’s box to keep your chaos organized. Shrouded Fable is a slept on set, perfect for trainers who are sick of chasing Journey Together and Prismatic Evolutions stock.
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.
