Category: IGN

The Ascended Heroes expansion is about to kick off the Pokémon TCG’s 2026 run with its 30 January release date fast approaching, and there are only a couple of places where you can reliably buy preorders for ETBs, booster packs, and collections right now.

That’s along with not every product being launched on that 30 January release date.

As expected, the usual drops at MSRP at sites like the Pokémon Center US and UK are already sold out. Preorders at Target are already sold out as well, while Best Buy’s selection is merely marked as “Coming Soon”.

With that, outside of keeping up with deal trackers, you’ll very more than likely have to pay above retail price for the time being.

That said, we’ll give you a full breakdown of the best places to get your buy for Pokémon preorders for whichever Mega Evolution: Ascended Heroes products you’re looking out for.

Ascended Heroes Tech Sticker Collection — Charmander & Ghastly

The release of GTA 6 may still be a long way off, but indie filmmaker Todd Wiseman Jr. has made an ambitious new short film, titled Six Stars, that essentially brings Grand Theft Auto into live-action. The short film is available on YouTube and can also be watched via the embed below.

Wiseman Jr. (The School Duel) wrote and directed Six Stars and also produced it with Christa Boarin. Trevor Gureckis (M. Night Shyamalan’s Old) composed the score.

The short film stars Anatomy of a Fall’s Milo Machado-Graner as a French teenage gamer who, according to the logline provided to IGN, “goes on an ‘American rampage’, spiraling through a world that can’t look away… where violence is packaged, shared, and applauded.“

Watch the entire seven-minute short film Six Stars via the player embedded below.

The logline adds: “Shot against the backdrop of Tampa, Florida, Wiseman Jr.’s hometown, Six Stars questions the representation of masculinity in today’s entertainment while simultaneously confronting the glorification and entertainment value placed on violence, one of The United States’ chief exports.”

Check out the poster and some select still photos from Six Stars by scrolling through the slideshow below.

Plus, watch this behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film here:

For more GTA coverage, read how Rockstar Games granted a terminally ill fan’s wish to play GTA 6 ahead of its November release and get the rundown on all of 2026’s biggest PS5 games.

Reigns: The Witcher has been announced by indie publisher Devolver Digital, in collaboration with CD Projekt Red.

This card-based take on The Witcher features the familiar Reigns gameplay formula where players draw random opportunities and encounters then swipe left or right to choose what to do next (yes, exactly like a dating app).

Today’s reveal trailer features plenty of familiar faces from The Witcher franchise who will be familiar to fans of CD Projekt’s existing trilogy of RPG titles, including Yennefer, Triss, Vesemir, Dandelion, The Bloody Baron, Roach and… Maisy the Cow? We’re less sure about that last one.

Here, Geralt’s quests are retold as plays by Dandelion, who holds the hero’s fate in his hands. Whether sticking to the facts or stretching the truth, you’ll need to keep Geralt’s infamy in balance to ensure your run continues for as long as possible. And while your adventures with Geralt are likely to end in many deaths, each run will reward you with songbooks to perform on ever grander stages in the hope of ultimately reaching narrative immortality.

Reigns: The Witcher is developed by Reigns series developer Nerial, and set for launch on February 25 for PC via Steam and on mobile via Google Play and the iPhone App Store.

The release of Reigns: The Witcher this spring feels well-timed, amid a temporary lull in the launch of CD Projekt’s bestselling series. The Witcher 4 is currently in “full production”, its developer has said, but won’t be ready in time for 2026. When it does arrive, however, CD Projekt has planned an ambitious six-year roadmap in which it will also launch The Witcher 5 and The Witcher 6. And before all of that, whispers abound that there’s one final adventure coming to The Witcher 3 — though nothing, as yet, has been officially announced.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Take a deep dive into the Orks faction in the latest trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4, the upcoming real-time strategy game sequel from King Art Games that’s due out later in 2026 for PC. It’s a mixture of cinematics and gameplay. Check it out above. And if you know anything about this universe, you probably won’t be surprised that the Orks are literally driven by mayhem and sporting a reckless, no-nonsense offensive playstyle. What you may not have been expecting is the scale of the carnage.

In particular, we get a great look at the Ork superunit, the Gorkanaut, which can crumple up dreadnoughts and go toe-to-toe with the likes of an Imperial Knight. Towering over the battlefield at a scale that sets Dawn of War apart from its predecessors, the number of guns on this thing could be described as both bewildering and hilarious. And that’s just what the Orks are about.

Dawn of War 4 has been our IGN First “cover story” all January long. If you missed any of our previous exclusive coverage, don’t miss our exclusive Ork cinematic trailer (watch it below), our hands-on impressions of the Ork faction, a look at how kill-sync animations are being enhanced with the combat director, and an interview with the creative leads behind the project.

We’ve got one more exclusive IGN First bit of coverage coming your way on Dawn of War 4 later this week. In the meantime, you can wishlist the upcoming RTS if you’re interested.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

A UK court has ruled that the unauthorized stealing of in-game currency can be legally classified as criminal theft.

Former Jagex developer Andrew Lakeman was charged with allegedly stealing 705 billion Gold from almost 70 RuneScape players, with a real-world value of over half a million pounds, equivalent to around $750,000. He then sold this currency online for Bitcoin.

Although Lakeman had no access to player accounts in his position at Jagex as a content developer, he allegedly accessed them by “hacking and/or using credentials of members of the account recovery team.” In all, 68 players allegedly lost gold to Lakeman, starting around 2018.

Here comes the science bit: the defendant’s defence claimed that the in-game currency could not be classed as property under the definition of the UK’s Theft Act, and initially, the court agreed, concluding that as RuneScape gold is not real — or “pure information” or “knowledge” as it’s legally defined — it could not technically be stealable.

The judge at the time also deemed RuneScape’s supply of Gold as being infinite, and it wasn’t “rivalrous” given that having a piece of Gold doesn’t deprive another player of getting Gold, too. The Court of Appeal, however, disagreed and last week handed down a judgment while explaining its reasoning.

“We differ from the Judge in his reasoning for reaching the contrary conclusion on rivalrousness. The two reasons which the Judge gave in his ruling do not, with respect, bear analysis,” Judge Popplewell wrote. “The first was that ‘one gold piece is like any other, and their supply is infinite.’ This does not, however, distinguish them from many other forms of rivalrous property. One paper clip from a given manufacturer is like any other; and the manufacture and supply of them infinite, in the sense that is not capped at any finite number. Yet each paper clip constitutes property. The same is equally true of gold pieces.”

“[RuneScape’s gold is] properly described as something which can be stolen as a matter of normal use of language,” the judgment added. “They do not fall within any of the established exceptions. They are not ‘pure knowledge:’ functionally, they exist as identifiable assets distinct from the code which gives rise to them and outside the minds of people. There is no good policy reason for excepting them from the category of property which can be stolen.”

The judgment concluded: “On the contrary, they are assets which have an ascertainable monetary value and which may be traded for that value both in the game and outside the game. Within the rules of the game they represent money’s worth as the product of purchase of a bond. Outside the game they are regularly traded for money’s worth. They are capable of being subject to dishonest dealing which deprives their possessor of their use and value. It would be surprising and unsatisfactory if such dishonest dealing did not amount to the offence of theft.”

It’s a judgment that could have profound implications for the games industry, as up until now, vendors that sell (or re-sell) in-game currency have existed in a grey market wherein technically, no theft has occurred if the digital asset stolen did not meet the definition of an intangible item under the definitions of theft in that country. The dubious line of when ownership of any such in-game currency transfers from the developer to the player — if at all — further compounds an already complex issue, too.

With the issue of whether removing gold from player accounts constituted theft now settled, the case against Lakeman can proceed.

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.

The developer of Highguard has confirmed streamer Dr Disrespect did not attend a preview event after he created a fake badge and pretended to have been invited to play the game early.

On January 24, Dr Disrespect (real name Guy Beahm), tweeted to say: “Last week we took the Lambo to LA to check out #Highguard. Monday, January 26th at 10am PST, we enter another dimension! Yayayaya.”

Last week we took the Lambo to LA to check out #Highguard.

Monday, January 26th at 10am PST, we enter another dimension!

Yayayaya pic.twitter.com/kQ56GEfonB

— Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) January 24, 2026

That comment, which pointed to Highguard’s confirmed release date, came alongside an image of a supposed Highguard event badge, which some have speculated may have been generated by AI.

Following Highguard’s launch, questions were raised about the validity of Dr Disrespect’s post. Then, Wildlight Entertainment creator manager Chin Pua took to X / Twitter to confirm Dr Disrespect had not attended the event, and that the badge was not official. “I can confirm DDR was not invited to any Highguard event past or present,” Pua said, “and the badge was not an official badge.”

So why did Dr Disrespect post the tweet and its image? In a stream playing Highguard yesterday, he laughed the post off as a joke, and expressed disbelief at the social media controversy it had generated.

Highguard launched last night as planned, and met with big Steam concurrents but also a flood of negative user reviews.

The free-to-play “PvP raid shooter” was the big new game reveal at the end of last month’s The Game Awards, but developer Wildlight then went dark until the game’s January 26 release date. Highguard hit a peak of 97,249 concurrent users on Steam — a significant number for any new game launch on Valve’s platform — but Wildlight will be particularly concerned by its “mostly negative” user review rating.

Currently, just 32% of the 14,500 user reviews are positive. While some of the negative reviews revolve around PC performance problems, most criticize Highguard’s game design, and question some of the decisions made by the developers.

Chief among the criticisms is that the size of the map feels too big and empty for a 3v3 competitive shooter. You’re able to summon a mount to get about faster (the mounts are one aspect of Highguard that players seem to universally like), but some players believe a 4v4, 5v5, or even 3v3v3 mode would have been a better fit.

There are complaints about the resource-gathering phase of each map, too, which involves what some are calling boring mining and loot farming. The gist here is there is too much downtime and a lack of excitement, although players seem to be enjoying the raid phase of each match, where combat is concentrated. There is also criticism of the playable characters, which are differentiated only by two abilities each on a cooldown. Some are calling Highguard’s visuals bland, too.

Indeed, the top post on the Highguard subreddit reinforces this sentiment. “I’m sorry but this is boring as f**k,” it reads. “Gathering is boring as f**k, looting is boring as f**k, 3v3 with short TTK is boring as f**k. No PVE is boring as f**k. The only good thing in this game is the f***ing horse mount. What were they thinking?”

The Steam portion of Highguard’s release doesn’t tell the whole story, of course. It also launched as a free download on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, but neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public.

Here’s how Highguard works. You play a Warden in a team of three, and select a base to fortify. You then ride out into the map to loot and harvest resources, upgrading your gear along the way.

Teams end up fighting over what’s called the Shieldbreaker, which can be used to trigger a raid of the enemy base. This phase — certainly the most exciting in the match — forces teams to attack and defend. Usually, one raid isn’t enough to destroy the enemy base, which triggers a new loot phase, a new Shieldbreaker to spawn, and the potential for a new raid to finally end the match. Check out IGN’s Highguard review-in-progress to find out what we think.

Yesterday, Wildlight talked about Highguard’s first year of content already being in the works, and outlined its roadmap for updates. It’s making all the right noises about being in this for the long haul. As a free-to-play game, Highguard’s success will rest on its ability to get as many people as possible to continue to play the game, fueling revenue from its live service. As we’ve seen, live service is a particularly brutal space to be in right now, so it will be interesting to see if Highguard can improve this launch sentiment and maintain interest in the months ahead.

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.

Walmart is advertising Nintendo Switch Online with a poster that includes several GameCube classics yet to be made available via the service.

An image visible now on Walmart.com shows a library of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack titles including the brilliant Pikmin 2 and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, neither of which are currently playable on Switch 2.

Metroid Prime 2 is of particular interest to fans, as some had speculated its release was deliberately being held back so Nintendo could sell a full remake of the game instead. The company launched a full Metroid Prime 1 remake back in 2023, but has since made no comment about continuing to relaunch the rest of the classic trilogy.

The idea of an anime-style soulslike releases plenty of good chemicals in my brain, but the first Code Vein back in 2019 turned out to be just okay in my book. Like a number of Bandai Namco’s original IP, I was intrigued to see that idea get another shot, which made me optimistic for Code Vein 2. However, with a middling execution of its open world and inconsistent gameplay qualities, this sequel doesn’t necessarily improve upon its predecessor, and instead struggles to stand out in a somewhat saturated genre. Its story still compelled me through the 50 hours I spent to finish the main quest and all of the side content at least, but that time came with a lot of ups and downs.

Coming off of From Software’s Elden Ring (which Bandai Namco published) not too long ago, pulling up the map of Code Vein 2 had me intimidated and enticed in equal measure. A few hours past its opening act, I was able to grasp its cadence and scale, which thankfully wasn’t as overwhelming as I initially thought. A big part of what pulled me in was its concept: a time travel story where you repair a post-apocalyptic present by going to the past to change the outcomes of pivotal moments in its history. Having an open world that subtly changes between timelines drives home a sense of place and the feeling that your character’s actions have an impact, even if you’re simply following your quest objectives.

Looking out to the horizon from the tower on Magmell Island (the starting region) as your leader Lady Lavinia lays down some exposition, you see the land itself transform upon completing the prologue’s quest; it’s a strong moment that shows promise for the road ahead. You’re then asked to go back in time to aid the three heroes of the world’s past in their respective regions to alter their fate, and I enjoyed the fact that you get to take part in shifting the conflicts that led to the present day’s destruction.

However, its storytelling style sells itself short at times, with key moments for its major characters relegated to barren dream-like visions – vague dialogue gets overlaid as you stand there waiting for the next set of static character models to appear. It’s hard to get a real gauge of what’s happening or feel the gravity of the situations the story is trying to portray. It’s evident in other dialogue sequences that the writing in Code Vein 2 is rather generic and missing some of the personality that would draw me in to care about the world I’m supposed to be fighting for. In the rare fully animated cutscenes that tee up certain battles, however, Code Vein 2 shows great potential and had me hyped for the moment, but like its many parts, the momentum ends just as quickly as it starts.

I do like a handful of the star characters – for example, Lou being the frail girl who has the time traveling power is an extension of your created silent protagonist, and she carries a convincing sense of sorrow. The three heroes have fitting backgrounds and are nice to team up with, too; Holly is a standout for her story as a gifted doctor put in tragic situations because it’s one of the few times Code Vein 2 hits a genuine emotional note. As a whole, though, I wanted to care more about the broader struggle between revenants and humans, and the dynamics that led to so much conflict and the monsters that roam the land, but the plot threads run shallow and the way they’re delivered feels underdeveloped. As a consequence, I came away from its conclusion fairly underwhelmed even as it tried to pull on my heart strings since I wasn’t quite invested as it seemed to hope I would be.

I do think the open world serves its purpose as a vehicle for giving the story some impact. It struck a chord with me to visit a particular location in the before-times, seeing where people struggled to eke out an existence and then that same place dilapidated in the present. The Undead Forest’s lush greenery turning to a cold barren wasteland is one of the starkest examples of this; the differences aren’t drastic from a gameplay standpoint, but it’s visually effective for showing the lifelessness of the present day.

Navigating the open world is sometimes a pain, though. You get a motorbike to drive around, and it controls like a flimsy RC car – you can glide in the air by deploying its wings, only to be met with a few invisible walls blocking you from entering parts of the map that are clearly accessible (you just have to enter from where you’re supposed to). And certain falls that just don’t seem like a problem result in automatic death. These seem like minor inconveniences, but they compound with several other ways that Code Vein 2 seems sloppy.

Some of the vistas are quite impressive on a macro level, but the closer you get to the details, the more you see how muddy everything looks. It’s quite jarring, especially as nearly every cutscene would constantly load textures in and out every time the camera cuts to a different angle. And even playing on a PS5 Pro with performance priority mode on, the frame rate fluctuates wildly and oftentimes not even when the action gets hot.

There isn’t much mystery or intrinsic reward to exploration, although once you understand what certain landmarks entail, you’ll find critical upgrades to your healing item, materials for weapon upgrades, and persistent stat buffs for specific regions. You’re not left completely empty-handed, just don’t expect to stumble upon interesting dungeons, bosses, or rabbit holes that evoke your curiosity. I am glad that the open world is rather trim rather than being padded out with a bunch of checklist objectives, and important side quests are clearly delineated in the quest log.

Much like my sentiments about the story and open world, Code Vein 2’s combat bounces around wildly in quality. It uses the design principles of the Souls-style games – experience points and currency that disappear upon death (and must be recovered), enemies respawning after hitting save points, and punishing combat that moves at a deliberate pace, among other typical mechanics. While I’ve experienced a bit of fatigue from games in this realm, I still lock in once I pick up what it’s putting down and begin to understand its systems. There were times in Code Vein 2 where I felt close to the highs I got from others in the genre (although I wouldn’t compare them to my favorites like Bloodborne or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice).

A couple of bosses feature creative mechanics that are super tough but fair, conquerable by fully focusing on reading their attack patterns and seizing the rare opportunities you get to attack. But more often, you get bosses who are either pushovers or annoyingly frustrating in ways that bring out the worst in Code Vein 2’s faults. Having played so many soulslikes at this point, I’m familiar with how the best games in the genre really nail the tough-but-fair design philosophy; Code Vein 2 is not one of them. Part of that comes from when it doesn’t play by its own rules, like being hittable while recovering as your invincibility window is just a few frames shorter than when you’re able to actually move again, leading to deaths that felt unfair. Or how a damage-over-time attack sometimes stops if you get hit even when the ability has been fully deployed. Or how the camera just doesn’t know what to do when you’re smothered and shoved into a corner by a boss that’s 10 times your size. Or just hitboxes that don’t really make sense for the space a character model occupies. There are ways around these things as I was eventually able to defeat every optional and main boss I encountered by adjusting my approach, but it’s dejecting when a game betrays the tenets that’ve made its contemporaries great.

While I think some of its systems seem incomprehensible or convoluted upon first impression, it’s much simpler than it presents itself to be. Instead of pumping points into stats, Blood Codes dictate your build and what you’re capable of in combat. Each important character you meet offers an equippable Blood Code, and you can think of these as a way to respec whenever you want as they offer emphasis on certain stats that will then modify the effectiveness of the weapons and gear you use. You’re not locked into a specific build, but the progression path of Blood Codes is tricky since they level up the more you use them – you get pigeon-holed in a way, but with some experimentation, I was quick to understand which ones worked best alongside my favorite weapon types. And using new Blood Codes for long enough will get you back to where you want to be in due time.

You have quite a few tools to work with as well. Through most of the journey, you can summon one of the story characters to join you, and it’s effective for tougher battles since their attacks can draw aggro to give you room to breathe or go for a big hit. You can even fuse with them for some noticeable buffs, with the trade-off of being solo in combat. They also temporarily sacrifice themselves to revive you if you die, which is clutch for alleviating frustrating deaths. Alternatively, Ichor is the mana of Code Vein that lets you cast spells and use abilities that are necessary to diversifying your combat approach. The way Ichor feeds back to you when using your superweapon (called a Jail) forced me into cycling through all my capabilities over the course of harder fights rather than relying on a single tactic or cheese. Once I found a setup that worked for me, and some alternatives in case I needed to switch gears for different kinds of fights, I got into a comfortable groove with Code Vein 2’s own brand of RPG mechanics and action combat.

The foundation for great combat is clearly here, I just don’t think it offers enough interesting opportunities to make the most of its systems. The dungeons throughout the world get woefully repetitive and enemies can be a real cakewalk; you’ll be punished if you’re not careful, of course, but the imbalance is felt when you go for long stretches of mowing through the same fodder mindlessly. You’ll also come across a lot of repeat bosses, which feels like being thrown something harder for the sake of it, and at a certain point, they too can be conquered with ease.

There are at least cases where harder versions of previous bosses show up in the critical sidequests, and a few of those do up the ante, remixing familiar attack patterns and throwing in new, demanding phases. To which I was internally saying, “Hell yeah, this is that good stuff.” However, once I burned through the final dungeon, it was clear to me that it had played the hits a few too many times, reminding me of how the campaign just didn’t have enough tricks up its sleeve to sustain itself in a consistently engaging way.

I come away from Code Vein 2 impressed with the timeline shifting side quests more than anything else, because those are more compelling than large swathes of the main story. As they explore the more interesting parts of the lore, they also take a few more risks and let characters shine a bit brighter. You’re drawn a little closer to the struggle that led them to their fate, and they share a few bittersweet moments with your own character. Not all of it is super inventive, but I saw it breaking away from the predictable cadence at times, and I just wish Code Vein 2 did more of that.

Code Vein as a series has a lot of good ideas I still want to see iterated upon, and this sequel touched on them in several ways. I’ve felt similarly about Scarlet Nexus and God Eater, both of which are clearly plays on established styles of games with an anime-inspired twist – fantastic ideas on paper with great potential that are met with room to grow. This isn’t a genre that’s sacred to From Software’s catalogue, either – Lies of P and Nioh 2 come to mind as fantastic takes on the formula from other developers. I’d hoped Code Vein 2 would join the ranks of them, but it’s missing some of the fundamentals necessary to do so.

Funko Pops: they’re everywhere. And there’s at least one of the vinyl figures made of every single character in the history of pop culture. And while some find these facts annoying, there’s something to be said about a great-looking Funko Pop based on something you personally like. The latest Funkos to go up for preorder are based on Pokémon, and there are some bangers in here: an angry, electricity-summoning Pikachu, an angry, vine-summoning Venusaur, and more. Take a look and see if you want to preorder any from Amazon ahead of release.

Pokémeon Funko Pops Up for Preorder

The two centerpieces of this new batch of Pokémon Funkos are the aforementioned Pikachu and Venusaur. Both are Funko Pop! Premium figures, meaning they’re 4.5 inches tall, rather than the 3.75 inch height of standard Funko Pop figures. They’re also in more dramatic stances, as if sculpted in mid-attack. They look pretty great, even for a seasoned commerce editor like me.

The rest of the upcoming Pokémon Funkos are standard Funko Pops. We have Ivysaur, Zoroark, Electabuzz, Magmar, and the adorable Goomy. Some people don’t like the Funko style, with its lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes, but I think it works perfectly with Pokemon. There’s just less stylization going on between the real thing (as depicted in the games) and the vinyl figures. They’re also made in eye-catching bright colors, so they look great wherever you decide to display them.

If Pokémon isn’t your speed, you can likely find another upcoming Funko Pop that appeals to you more. The company just keeps on pumping out these things, with everything from the Star Wars prequel trilogy and Disney Princesses to Star Trek and even Australian animals represented. Even if you just want to stick to Funkos based on video games, you can find BioShock and Silent Hill ones up for preorder at Amazon. There’s even one based on the Wolverine meme. There’s something for everyone.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.