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PlayStation’s Summer Sale Has Officially Started and These Are The Best Deals

Now that PS5 consoles are regularly available to buy, it’s an excellent time to start picking up games, accessories, and hardware for it. What’s even better is when you can find all of those things at a discounted price, especially during PlayStation’s new Summer Sale providing up to 75% off plenty of awesome games. We’ve given the sale a good rundown and found our favorite deals going, but be sure to check out everything on sale right now, as there is a lot to consider.

TL;DR – Best PS5 Deals Right Now

Plus, below, you can also find a variety of different sales on everything from games to SSDs and even information on where to buy a PS5 now. And, though not a sale but still exciting to keep on your radar, if you’re looking to preorder Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for PS5, we’ve even included links to those preorders so you won’t miss out on the web-slinging action.

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PlayStation Summer Sale: Save on Elden Ring, Dead Island 2 & More

PlayStation’s Summer Sale features some great games that are definitely worth adding to your collection, especially at a discounted price. The sale includes 30% off Elden Ring, 25% off Dead Island 2, 50% off Cyberpunk 2077 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and so much more. To see the full list of available games, click here.

More PlayStation Summer Sale Game Deals:

PS5 God of War Ragnarok Bundle with Extra Camouflage DualSense Controller for $549.99 at Walmart

Walmart (through Antonline) has the PS5 God of War Ragnarok bundle available with a bonus camouflage DualSense controller for $549.99. Usually, this runs for $699.99, so jump on this deal quickly before it goes back up!

Silicon Power 1TB XS70 PS5 SSD for Just $53.97

Could your PS5 use more storage? Prices have been plummeting since Sony started letting people upgrade their SSDs. Right now you can get a Silicon Power 1TB XS70 for $53.97 or the 2TB for $89.07. It’s hard to beat the recent Prime Day we had, and we won’t like this doesn’t match the best 1TB deal at $50 during that sale, but it’s pretty close at about $4 more. Now’s a great time, in general, to pick up a PS5-compatible SSD.

More PS5 SSD Deals:

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Get $5 off Diablo IV for PS5 – Its First Price Drop

If you wish to join the hunt to defeat Lilith and save Sanctuary, why not do it at a discounted price? This is the first time we’ve seen a price drop on Blizzard’s latest, and even though it’s a small drop, it’s still worth picking up. We gave it a 9 in our review, calling it “a stunning sequel with near perfect endgame and progression design,” and as someone who’s also spent plenty of time in Sanctuary, I can also confirm it’s worth getting for your PlayStation collection.

More PS5 Video Game Deals:

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PlayStation Deals: Budget to Best

It doesn’t need to have a massive discount to be a good deal, so we thought it would be a great idea to pick out our absolute favorite PS5 and PlayStation offerings that would be relevant to buy no matter the time of year, or the sales going on. From the latest DualSense controllers, to the very best PS5 SSDs on the market, we’ve got it all right here.

More PS5 Budget to Best Picks

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Preorder Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for PS5

For those who can’t wait until October 20 to get their hands on this highly-anticipated sequel, have no fear, you can preorder the game right now at a variety of different retailers. It also comes with some fun preorder bonuses when you do, which you can learn more about in our Spider-Man 2 preorder guide.

Anyone who preorders Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, regardless of version, will get the following in-game extras as well: Arachknight Suit for Peter Parker “with 3 additional color variants”, Shadow Spider Suit for Miles Morales “with 3 additional color variants”, Web Grabber gadget and 3 skill points.

Where to Preorder Spider-Man 2

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Get 30% Off the SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless Gaming Headset

There’s no shortage of PS5-compatible headsets. If you’re constantly having to turn down the volume when you play, you might want to pick up one of these, then you can listen to your games as loud as you darn well please. And if you’d like to see even more options that are worth buying, check out our collection of the best gaming headsets.

More PS5 Gaming Headset Deals:

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Pick Up the Thrustmaster T248P Racing Wheel and Magnetic Pedals for $296.34

There’s a terrific deal going on for the Thrustmaster T248P racing wheel and magnetic pedals, bringing the price down 26% from $399.99 to $296.34. This wheel is also included in our collection of the best racing wheels, which makes picking it up even more worth it right now.

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When Should I Buy a PS5?

Availability has significantly improved for PS5 consoles this year. This means you no longer need to wait for specific sale events like Black Friday to make your purchase, as retailers such as Amazon are likely to offer the same console bundles during various sales throughout the year. Therefore, if you are in need of a PS5, there’s no real reason to delay your purchase and you can take advantage of any available sale.

If you’re desperate to pick up a console before the likes of Spider-Man 2, go ahead and buy one as they’re now regularly available. However, it’s worth noting that during sales Black Friday, there may be new unique bundles and promotions for the PS5 that are not offered at any other time of the year, such as the God of War Ragnarok bundle for $499 that is now out of stock and not available at the time of writing.

With how expensive gaming is getting in 2023, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.

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Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

High on Life Seemingly Coming to PlayStation

Squanch Games’ High on Life seemingly won’t be an Xbox console exclusive much longer as the game has been found in the PlayStation 4 backend.

As reported by VGC, Twitter user Knoebel spotted that a PS4 version of the game was listed on Orbis Patches, a website that tracks PS4 game updates. This suggests a version of the game exists on Sony platforms despite no official announcements as of yet.

High on Life, a bizarre first person shooter where players take on the role of an intergalactic bounty hunter that uses living, foul-mouthed guns to fight aliens, launched on Xbox and PC in December 2022.

It quickly proved popular, immediately breaking three Xbox Game Pass records for the biggest launch of 2022, the biggest third-party game launch ever, and the biggest single-player launch of all time.

An expansion for the game called High on Knife was announced during the 2023 Xbox Extended Showcase, which takes place two years after the events of the base game and includes a handful of new guns in a darker, spooky setting.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: “High on Life is a laugh-out-loud funny space odyssey that’s chaotic, bizarre, and a ton of fun.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Trailer Ends Debate Over Who Venom Really Is

This article features spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man and speculation for Spider-Man 2 based on information revealed in the Comic-Con 2023 trailer.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will introduce Venom to Insomniac Games’ world and fans have, until now, been locked in hot debate over the villain’s true identity.

Thanks to a new trailer released during Comic-Con 2023, the man behind the mask (or goo) is all but confirmed to be Harry Osborn, which is who Insomniac set up as Venom at the end of the first game by literally showing the symbiote attach itself to him.

Some fans didn’t love that theory though so tricked themselves into thinking it was a red herring. “Harry is too easy of a choice so I’m hoping it’s a misdirect,” said one Reddit user earlier this year. “If Harry dies as Venom then Goblin will just have revenge as his motive, which is kinda lame and generic.”

Unless the trailer is a second red herring, however, it’s fairly obvious Harry is in fact Venom. The trailer opens with Spidey’s bestie promising, “I’m gonna heal the world,” and closes with the gruff voice of Venom saying: “We’re gonna heal the world.”

HearTheEkko on Reddit was relieved the matter is now settled. “This should finally clear the confusion whenever Harry is Venom or not,” they said. “As if it wasn’t clear enough already.”

Another post, headlined by “Harry is Venom confirmed”, saw similar comments. “This was all but confirmed for the past two games, yet people on this sub wanted to die on the ‘it’s not Harry’ hill,” said Shujinky.

“I honestly don’t get how people thought it was a mystery,” added ItsYaBoy-Moe. “We saw him in the tank with black goo around him twice.”

Official final confirmation will likely only come when Spider-Man 2 launches on October 20, of course, though Insomniac is revealing more and more about the game after saying virtually nothing for a year after its reveal.

Insomniac announced a limited edition PlayStation 5 alongside the new trailer, revealed a chunky collector’s edition back in June, and even released new gameplay, bizarrely, in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Diablo 4 Review-Bombing Is in Full Effect but Season 1 Still Sparks Long Queue Times

This week’s controversial Diablo 4 patch has sparked a new wave of review-bombing from disgruntled players but the launch of Season 1 still caused long queue times.

Diablo 4’s long-awaited pre-Season 1 patch, 1.1.0, led to vociferous complaints from the game’s community, who accused Blizzard of turning the action role-playing game into a “slog” with a slew of heavy-handed nerfs to all classes, experience point gain, endgame progression, and more.

Blizzard said it will address the furore in a livestream on July 21 but that didn’t stop angry fans hitting out at the changes across social media, the game’s forums, subreddits and, crucially, its Metacritic page.

Diablo 4’s user score plummeted to 2.4, with the vast majority of recent reviews complaining about changes made to the game with the patch.

Despite the dissatisfaction expressed online and claims from some players that they’d stop playing entirely, July 20’s launch of Season 1 seemingly still brought in plenty of players as indicated by long queue times, with a launcher message displaying a warning to those logging in.

Some players also reported increased lag while playing the always-online game.

Many Diablo 4 players now hope Blizzard rolls back the changes in response to the backlash. Game director Joe Shely, associate game director Joseph Piepiora, and associate director of community Adam Fletcher host the Campfire Chat livestream on July 21 at 11am Pacific.

Meanwhile, Blizzard moved quickly to revert one unannounced Diablo 4 patch change ahead of the launch of Season 1. The undocumented tweak added level requirements for World Tier 3 and 4. Post-patch, players discovered they needed to be level 40 to unlock World Tier 3, and level 60 to unlock World Tier 4.

This change increased the difficulty of progressing through Diablo 4’s various difficulty tiers, and further fuelled the furore around the patch’s heavy-handed nerfs that some said turned the game into a “slog”.

In response, a new patch, which brings Diablo 4 up to version 1.1.0b, was released yesterday that removes this requirement entirely.

Despite various issues, Diablo 4 enjoyed an enormous launch that saw over 10 million people play in June. Diablo 4 is Blizzard’s fastest-selling game of all time, and has fuelled record revenue and profits for the company. If you’re still playing, check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.

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.

EA Sports FC 24: 13 Things to Know After Our First Hands-On

EA Sports has pulled the curtain back on FC 24, its first post-FIFA football video game. You can check out IGN’s FC 24 hands-on preview to get an idea of how it feels to play, but there’s plenty more to discuss, including a raft of smaller changes and additions that combine to make a positive impression. Read on for 13 cool new details we noticed after our extended time with the game.

There’s a first-person ref perspective

This is an odd one! Sometimes, during an in-match cutscene that involves the referee, the camera will switch to showing a first-person perspective from inside the ref’s head. It’s a little jarring at first, and it looks a little like football Skyrim, but it’s a nice new visual touch. And it’s quite funny to see the ref’s outstretched arm give a bemused player a card for some horrendous tackle. Be warned, though! During our hands-on we saw the inside of the ref’s teeth at one point, with the camera doing that video game clipping thing.

You can do Erling Haaland karate kick goal

As you’d expect of a new FIFA game, FC 24 includes loads of new animations to help keep things feeling fresh. The headline, though, is the addition of Erling Haaland’s stunning karate kick goal for Man City against previous club Borussia Dortmund in last season’s Champions League. There are new unique running animations, too, so you should be able to tell the famous players a mile off. As you’d expect, Haaland has his unique running style in the game, his long arms waving about behind his arched back.

PlayStyles give players a power boost – and they’re “optimised” by Opta

FC 24 has a long list of PlayStyles that give specific stats a massive boost. EA Sports is using real-world player data from Opta to inform these PlayStyles, so you they should make sense relative to the performance of real-world footballers. For example, Haaland, who is known for his powerful shots, has the Power Shot PlayStyle. FC 24 has 34 PlayStyles, with a more powerful PlayStyle+ available for each, making for 68 in total. Expect PlayStyles in Ultimate Team, too. Team of the Week Haaland, for example, may include the Power Header PlayStyle if he scores a bullet header in real-life (let’s be honest, this is going to happen!). In-game, these PlayStyles pop up as a diamond symbol above a player’s head, so you’ll always know what power-up you’re playing with.

New Precision Passing unlocks Kevin De Bruyne-style through balls

FC 24 has three Precision Pass styles (we’re using PlayStation controls here): the Precision Pass (R1 + Through ball); the Precision Lob (R1 + Lob); and the Swerved Precision Pass (L2 + R1 + Through ball). Each type paints a line on the pitch that shows the direction of the pass you’re about to attempt. Expect the most skilled players to master these passes for unexpected through balls.

AcceleRATE 2.0 adds four new acceleration archetypes

FIFA 23 players will be familiar with the infamous “lengthy” acceleration archetype some felt was overpowered. EA Sports is doubling down on this feature, adding four new archetypes for a total of seven. There are now three lengthy acceleration types alone: Controlled Lengthy; Mostly Lengthy; and Lengthy (Pure). EA Sports hopes the addition of new acceleration archetypes will make for more variety in the meta.

FC 24 has “GPU cloth”

All this really means is FC 24 has better-looking clothes that move more realistically as players move. You’ll notice this more in cutscenes, alongside the new “AI Hands”, which hopefully means FC 24’s fingers will be present and correct.

The menus have been overhauled and now include live video

FIFA fans will immediately notice FC 24’s menus are completely different. EA Sports has gone for a new vertical orientation style that should mean you get to what you want quicker. You’ll also see live video in the menus. So, if you pause the game, you might see a replay of a goal you just scored to the right of the menu options. It’s a neat new feature.

Stats pop up on the pitch all the time

FC 24 goes big on “insight overlays”, which display various stats on the pitch as you play in an augmented reality fashion. For example, while you wait for a goal kick the game may show the spots where the last five shots were taken from. You might also get a win probability display on the pitch, or an indication of shots on target. Perhaps most usefully, you might see your five most-fatigued players highlighted as you wait to take a throw-in. This should mean you’ll need to spend less time fussing about in menus and more time playing an actual match.

There’s a secondary commentary team

FC 24 has a secondary commentary team of Guy Mowbray, who you’ve probably heard on BBC and BT Sport, and former England international Sue Smith. Smith is the first female co-commentator ever in an EA Sports football game. Ex-England international Alex Scott also returns pitch-side.

Ultimate Team has a new Evolutions card mechanic

FC 24’s Ultimate Team adds a new way to upgrade cards. The Evolutions feature lets you increase the stats of a player who fits into a certain objective. You’ll then need to complete in-game challenges with this player to evolve them. These time-limited challenges are designed to help a card remain relevant throughout the season, although not all cards will apply. Expect promos such as Team of the Week to also play a part in Evolutions challenges.

Ultimate Team has new, better chemistry options

With the addition of women into Ultimate Team, you’re now able to draw chemistry if you have a male and female player from the same club in your team. Chelsea’s Lauren and Reece James seem like a fun option. Meanwhile, Icons now give chemistry to every league, which makes them more useful. Sticking with helpful quality of life changes for Ultimate Team, you can now freely move a player to their secondary position without the need for a consumable. Finally!

Player career now has a Ballon d’Or cutscene

EA Sports made a big deal of the new cutscene that plays out if you win the Ballon d’Or in player career mode. It looks like a suitably glitzy affair, although it will be funny to see unlikely players pick up the gong, watched by proud managers who would never get a look-in in real life. Career mode also has a new cutscene for a victory parade. In it, players and the manager dance energetically to generic celebration dance music, while fans on the street take pictures with their phones. It’s quite odd!

And finally… Pro Clubs is now Clubs, and it’s got crossplay

Pro Clubs fans have long-called for crossplay to boost the playerbase of the mode, and with FC 24 it’s finally here. As with crossplay across the game, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC players are all in the same crossplay pool, leaving PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players to match together. This addition to Pro Clubs, now simply called Clubs, means you can finally play with a friend who’s on another platform.

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.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 New Trailer Gives Closer Look at Venom

Today at San Diego Comic Con, we got a look at a brand new trailer for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that focused on our first in-depth look at Venom, as well as showed Harry Osborn, Mister Negative, and more.

The trailer opens on a conversation between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn, the latter of whom talks about being given a second chance and how Peter will “heal the world.” Peter then introduced Harry to some friends, including Mary Jane and Miles Morales, who questions whether or not Peter will have time for “tutoring” (you know, being Spider-Man) now that he has a new job as a teacher.

From there, we get looks at Kraven the Hunter as he chases the Spider-Men around New York, and Miles confronting Mister Negative, who we know from the previous games killed his father. And then, there’s a lot of Venom, the symbiote, and its growing negative impacts on Peter Parker and his relationships with his friends and family (which we also heard about during today’s panel). We then hear Venom’s voice: “We’re going to heal the world,” echoing Harry’s words from the start of the trailer. Could Harry Osborn be Venom’s host in this story?

A PlayStation blog post elaborates a bit more on some of this, talking about how Miles is trying to apply for colleges but is too focused on being Spider-Man to get it done, and Peter is short on cash to make payments on Aunt May’s house. And as we heard at the panel, J. Jonah Jameson is back at the Daily Bugle and bossing around MJ.

Today’s panel revealed the existance of a brand new Spider-Man 2-themed PS5 and DualSense controller bundle as well, which will be up for pre-order next week. You can also read about everything else coming out of Comic-Con in our roundup of everything announced.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: J. Jonah Jameson Returns to The Daily Bugle And Other New Details From SDCC

In the lead up to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 this October, a panel at San Diego Comic-Con today gave an in-depth look at new details about the game, including an exclusive (thus far) trailer that focused on Venom and the news that one J. Jonah Jameson is back at the Daily Bugle where he belongs.

The panel itself included a number of development team members from Insomniac as well as several key voice actors. Following the trailer, kicking off the panel was Peter Parker actor Yuri Lowenthal, who opened by stating the group stands “in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the strike.”

“The WGA and SAG, we’re able to be here because we’re under contract for games… but that might not last forever.”

Then, the group got into details Spider-Man 2, starting with what all the heroes of the first game are up to when the game opens. It takes place roughly 9-10 months after the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, with Miles applying for college, eventually confronting Mister Negative, the villain who killed his father.

And yes, J. Jonah Jameson is back at the Daily Bugle. Previously, Jameson was a radio host of a show called “Just the Facts” where he talked crap on both Parker and Morales as Spider-Man. Now, it looks like he’s been restored to glory (or something) and is Mary Jane’s boss.

The panel then moved on to discussing some of the new landmarks and gameplay features. Previously, we’d been told that new areas such as Queens and Brooklyn will be included in Spider-Man 2. Today, we learned that will include Aunt May’s house along with other known Marvel landmarks. And around the city, new features are added such as Web Wings, which can help either Spider-Man gain speed and height as they weave their way around the city.

Then, the group got into discussion of characters, starting with the symbiote. Lowenthal quips that the symbiote impacts Peter Parker by letting him “say anything I want and blame it on the symbiote,” but then adds with a laugh that it makes him a better Spider-Man. It’s power, but with little responsibility, indicating that things will get complicated with Peter and his interpersonal relationships as a result.

Meanwhile, Miles Morales is coming into his own according to voice actor Nadij Jeter. “Miles would not be anywhere without Pete,” he says, noting that Miles still looks up to him even after time has passed.

Finally, we hear from Laura Bailey about Mary Jane, who’s a reporter for the Daily Bugle under Jameson. Her relationship with Peter is more comfortable by the start of the game, and she’s more comfortable with Miles as well and present in their work.

And then there’s Venom, played by Tony Todd. Todd reiterates that much of the story of Venom, as a symbiote, is about the darkness inside of all of us, and the ways that darkness impacts relationships when allowed to fester or thrive. Insomniac senior art director Jacinda Chew talks about Venom’s design and its visual contrasts to Spider-Man’s design, and the team’s goal to make him “look semi-liquid.” He’s buff, but also nimble, sometimes huge and sometimes skinny.

“Our Venom was inspired by the comics, but there have been so many interpretations that it was fun to pick and choose what fits the game,” said Chew in a PlayStation blog post about the panel. “He has a unique take on the white spider icon and has the anatomy of a human. He also has powerful tendril attacks that can take many forms. It was challenging to find the right balance between liquid and solid in Venom’s materials as going too watery makes him look weak and going too solid can quickly turn him into a tentacle monster. Venom must look both powerful and semi liquid at the same time.”

Venom’s influence was only highlighted further as the panel revealed a brand new Spider-Man 2 PS5 and DualSense controller that shows the symbiote’s power threatening to overtake Spider-Man’s. We have more details on both items right here, and they’ll be up for pre-order next week.

You can also read more about the new trailers shown at the panel, and everything else coming out of ComicCon in our roundup of everything announced.

The Most Popular iPhone Games to Play Right Now (July 2023)

When you have the latest and best iPhone, then that means you can play just about any mobile game with ease—thanks to the smartphone’s sheer power and buttery smoothness. In fact, even if your iPhone is a few years old, you’ll still get a great experience gaming on the go.

And while there are millions of them on the Apple App Store and Apple Arcade, there’s a very useful list of the most popular mobile games—divided by the most popular free games and paid games available for the iPhone in July 2023 (most of these titles are available as iPad games as well).

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From simple match-three games to powerful MMORPGs, we rounded up the top 10 from the top free and top paid games (20 games in total) to help you navigate the App Store easily. There are a lot of winners, below:

TL;DR – These are the Most Popular Apple iPhone games

Free iPhone Games

  1. Monopoly Go! (Free)
  2. Pokemon Sleep (Free)
  3. Royal Match (Free)
  4. Happy Hospital: ASMR Doctor (Free)
  5. Roblox (Free)
  6. Subway Surfers (Free)
  7. Fishdom (Free)
  8. Call of Duty: Mobile (Free)
  9. Wordscapes (Free)
  10. Among Us (Free)

Paid iPhone Games

  1. Minecraft ($7)
  2. Heads Up! ($2)
  3. Monopoly – Classic Board Game ($5)
  4. Geometry Dash ($2)
  5. Bloons TD 6 ($7)
  6. Plague Inc. ($1)
  7. Papa’s Freezeria To Go! ($1)
  8. Five Nights at Freddy’s ($3)
  9. Stardew Valley ($5)
  10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ($7)

Most Popular Free Games

1. Monopoly Go!

Everyone’s favorite board game Monopoly is available to play on the Apple iPhone with Monopoly Go!. It features the same gameplay as the original, but faster, wilder, and more ruthless. Play with your friends and family from around the world, while the object of the game is to buy property, build houses and hotels, collect Monopoly Money, bankrupt everyone, and destroy their properties.

2. Pokemon Sleep

A sleep tracker mixed with Pokemon Go? Sign us up. By setting Pokemon Sleep up before you go to bed, and letting it track your sleep, you’ll bring in Pokemon overnight with similar sleeping patterns to yours. And in the morning, you can add those Pokemon to the Sleep Style Dex. Snorlax is your main companion in the app as well, which makes it even better.

3. Royal Match

Royal Match is a match-three puzzle game where you help King Robert restore his kingdom back to glory. The more you match, the more levels you complete, and the more you restore the kingdom. Meanwhile, you can unlock bonus levels and rooms to collect coins to stay alive.

4. Happy Hospital: ASMR Doctor

Happy Hospital: ASMR Doctor has you working in and/or managing a hospital. In it, you can play as a doctor, nurse, or even take on the role of a hospital administrator if you want to build, maintain, and manage your own hospital.

5. Roblox

Immerse yourself in an entirely virtual experience in Roblox, a cross platform game that’s available on Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and Xbox. The app is part-gaming and part-social media where you can play games, create your own game, or just chat with friends from all around the world with thousands of experiences—think of it as Club Penguin, but for Gen Z.

6. Subway Surfers

Set in Windy Chicago, Subway Surfer is an endless running game where you play as Jake, a graffiti artist, as he runs through subways and train yards to escape the inspector and his dog. You must dodge moving subways, poles, tunnel walls, barriers, and more to gain items and power-ups to increase your speed and upgrade your special abilities.

7. Fishdom

In Fishdom, you can build and decorate your own aquarium, interact with your fish inside of it and take care of them, and even play a variety of minigames. According to the game’s App Store description page, there are “hundreds of challenging and fun match-3 levels,” to keep you busy.

8. Call of Duty: Mobile

A few years ago, Activision created a mobile version of their hit video game called Call of Duty: Mobile. This is the fourth season of the first-person shooter with various multiplayer modes, including Team Deathmatch, Domination, Battle Royale, and more. This is a cross-platform game for iOS and Android devices.

9. Wordscapes

Puzzle games are always great to have on your phone, and word-based puzzle games are even better. In Wordscapes, you need to connect letters from the center circle to find as many hidden words as you can to fill out the crossword puzzle above it.

10. Among Us

Who’s the Imposter? In this mobile version of Among Us, you can team up with some crewmates to track down who the killer is among you! You can play online with up to 15 people as you journey into space. It even supports cross-play, so you can play with friends on PC and console, too.

1. Minecraft ($7)

Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world and it’s available to play on Apple iPhone for just $7. It’s a sandbox game where players are free to create and explore the world to climb mountains, unearth caves, and mine precious ore to build homes, weapons, villages, and more.

You can also see our guide to how to play Minecraft for free.

2. Heads Up! ($2)

It’s the game “Who Am I?,” but for the digital age. Created by Ellen DeGeneres, Head Up! is charades with a twist. You place your iPhone (screen out) on your forehead, then a name or title appears on the display, your friends or family have to act out the clues, and then you have to guess the name of the character, movie title, animal, superhero, and more within 60 seconds. You can even play via Apple Facetime or Zoom. Not bad for just $2.

3. Monopoly – Classic Board Game ($5)

Now play Monopoly with your Apple mobile device. This is the classic version of the board game with new graphics and fun animations in a fully immersive mobile experience. Roll the dice and travel around the board to buy up properties, build houses and hotels, collect Monopoly Money, and bankrupt friends and family.

You can even play as classic game pieces, including the scottie, cat, T-Rex, rubber duck, and others. And since this is the paid version at only $5, it’s ad-free with no interruptions or distracting pop-ups.

4. Geometry Dash ($2)

Geometry Dash is a rhythm-based platformer where players control shapes to jump from point-A to point-B with unique soundtracks for each level. The game even features a level editor where you can create and share your own levels. The app is just $2 and doesn’t include any in-app purchases, so unlocking new icons and characters is completely based on your skills throughout the game.

5. Bloons TD 6 ($7)

At $7, Bloons TD 6 is a top-down tower defense where players create defenses made up of hero monkeys, structures, towers, bridges, and traps to stop “Bloons,” balloon-like objects, from exiting each map. Players collect coins to upgrade their defenses.

6. Plague Inc. ($1)

Why live through a pandemic in reality when you can play with one on your iPhone? At $1, Plague Inc. is a strategy game where you must end humanity with a deadly pathogen during a global plague. However, the people around the world are more adaptive than you think, so you have to create and evolve more and more deadly viruses to wipe away all of the people on Earth.

7. Papa’s Freezeria To Go! ($1)

Make the ultimate ice cream sundae with Papa’s Freezeria To Go!. At just $1, play as a worker at a beachfront ice cream shop, as more and more customers come in for a sweet treat during the hectic and hot summer season. Take ice cream orders and build and serve treats, while you earn points and tips for upgrades around the shop.

8. Five Nights at Freddy’s ($3)

With the new film from Blumhouse releasing this October, there’s no better time than now to play Five Nights at Freddy’s. For just $3, you’ll step into the shoes of a security guard working the night shift at a place called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. However, the animatronics here have been getting up to trouble at night, so you’ll have to keep a close eye on them through the monitors in your office… and try to survive five nights. See our guide to the FNAF games in order to see the full series.

9. Stardew Valley ($5)

Stardew Valley sets your character up in Pelican Town, which is located in Stardew Valley, where you inherit a small house and plot of land from your grandfather. From there, you need to clear the land and build up your own farm, with plenty of livestock and crops. It offers over 50+ hours of gameplay, too, so it’ll keep you busy.

10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ($7)

For $7, you can play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on your iOS device. This version offers remastered graphics “including lighting enhancements, an enriched color palette and improved character models,” according to its App Store description page, dual analog stick controls, and more. Explore the open world of San Andreas and its three major cities — Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas — as you unfold the main character, CJ’s, story. See our guide to the GTA games in order to see the full series.

How to Choose Which iPhone Games to Play

There are millions upon millions of apps and games on the Apple App Store, so it might be intimidating to start with just one to play. While the most popular game lists—either free or paid—are a good place to start, there are some other factors you should consider before you tap download. Here’s what to look for in Apple iPhone games.

First of all, if you have a very old iPhone, you should check if it’s compatible with the mobile game. Most games require your iPhone to run, at least, iOS 8 or higher—which is compatible with the Apple iPhone 4S or higher. This iPhone model was released in October 2011, so any iPhone release beforehand will not be compatible with these games.

You should also be aware of how much space you have on your iPhone. The file size for mobile games can go from a few hundred megabytes all the way up to about 20GB, so if you don’t have enough space on your smartphone, then it won’t be able to download completely on your hardware. If that’s the case, you should consider deleting a few apps to free up some space, get a new iPhone with a larger storage capacity, or think about downloading a new game altogether.

Then, you should consider the price. While there are a lot of free games available, free doesn’t necessarily mean completely free. A lot of these free games offer in-app purchases for upgrades. For example, in the game Royal Match, you have a limited number of lives to play, once you lose a life, you have to wait 30 minutes to regain it. However, if you pay, you can unlock the app to get more lives.

Unfortunately, the same thing can be said for a paid game too. Just because you have to pay for an app at first, it doesn’t mean there aren’t additional in-app purchases available. But, if a mobile game is on the pricey side, then it’s likely that the unlocked version will download to your iPhone.

Additionally, you can also get a subscription to Apple Arcade for $5/mo. to unlock all of the iOS games available with no in-app purchases to play on iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple TV. If you’re an avid mobile gamer, then this is the way to go.

The final thing you should look out for in an Apple iPhone game is if it looks fun to play. If a game looks like a lot of fun or a challenge, then tap download and immerse yourself in a whole new universe and experience.

Upcoming iPhone Games

Wondering what new iPhone games are coming down the pipeline? Take a look at our guide to all of the biggest upcoming iPhone games to see what’s coming in 2023 and beyond.

Rudie Obias is a contributing freelance Tech writer and editor for IGN with a speciality in all things Apple products.

Exoprimal Review

For a game with “Dino Forecasts” that warn the populace of thousands of dinosaurs about to rain out of portals in the sky, what’s surprising about Exoprimal is that it’s somehow even stranger than that premise would suggest. It’s a hero shooter that pits two teams of five against each other in dino-hunting war games, where they compete indirectly – but also occasionally directly – in separate parallel universes to see who can complete a grab bag of objectives faster. And sometimes they cooperate! It takes a lot of familiar elements from team-based multiplayer games like Overwatch and Team Fortress 2, and combines them with wave-based survival to create an experience that feels like its own thing, and a lot of fun if you’re able to find a well-balanced squad.

If it wasn’t already abundantly clear, Exoprimal multiplayer-only, but boldly, it’s a multiplayer-only game with the story and progression of a single-player game. The general set up of it all is the exact kind of silly sci-fi you’d expect: you and your squadmates are all trapped on a mysterious island where a catastrophe leaked dinosaurs into a near-future world. While your three squadmates collect data and try to figure out what the heck happened, you are whisked away by a malevolent AI called Leviathan to endlessly compete in a Dinosaur vs Exosuit themed war game, all for the sake of gathering combat data. It’s pretty clear this is where ChatGPT is headed, folks.

And it’s these war games that make up Exoprimal’s PvEvP (player-vs-environment-vs-player) multiplayer gameplay. You and another team rush to complete a series of fun, but initially limited objectives that range from simply killing X number of dinos, to capturing control points, to defeating an extra-beefy dino that tries to run away from you, forcing you to carve a way through hordes of velociraptors as you try to hunt it down. Much like in Capcom’s own Dead Rising, there’s a certain unique charm when it comes to decimating literally hundreds and sometimes even thousands of dinos in just one objective. The team that gets through their objectives the fastest gets a head start in the final round, which will either just be more PvE-style objectives, or will converge the two universes into one and have the teams directly competing to push their payload to the goal in a mode straight out of Overwatch.

There’s a certain unique charm when it comes to decimating literally thousands of dinos.

I really like this twist where the majority of each match of Exoprimal is an indirect race against the other team rather than slugging it out the whole time. Instead of focusing on hyper-precise accuracy, twitch reflexes, and map knowledge, you get to kick back and concentrate on efficiency for a bit. Things like making sure you’re staying on top of your cooldowns, using your special techniques so that they deal the most damage to the biggest number of enemies, and supporting your teammates so that they’re able to do their jobs as well scratch a uniquely satisfying itch in the usually directly confrontational space. It also makes the final round feel extra special, especially when it’s a PvP match – where the final team is essentially like the final boss. Here you have a totally different set of considerations to balance, like whether to stick with your team to try and push the payload faster or to break away and attempt to harass the other team to slow their progress down.

At certain points throughout the match, Leviathan will also allocate a ‘dominator’ to one of the teams, giving one player the ability to transform into a giant carnotaurus or triceratops and wreak havoc on the opposing team for a limited period of time. Does that make any sense? No, not really! Does it add even more layers of strategy to the match? You bet it does! Does your team use the dominator immediately and try to build a lead or make up ground? Or do you risk saving it for when you’re closer to the end and your opponents’ ultimate abilities are more likely going to be on cooldown, letting you run amok? Who on your team should be the one taking the dominator in the first place? Can your team make do without you while you’re harassing the other team as a dinosaur? All of these are the kinds of quick on-the-fly decisions that make Exoprimal’s multiplayer battles quickly expand to feel much deeper than they might seem after the first round or two.

Exo-Evoultion

If this was all Exoprimal was it would be little more than a fun but ultimately forgettable twist on the hero shooter genre that’s worth a weekend of play, but not much more. But after playing a set number of matches, something interesting happens: The story that’s been going on in the background suddenly takes the wheel and introduces new elements that reflect what’s happening in the world outside the war games, and those become permanent fixtures in every future match you play. As a result, hour 10 of Exoprimal is dramatically different than hours one through five, and hour 20 is dramatically different than hour 10. It’s full of surprises.

These curveballs range from new, more dangerous dinosaurs to fight, new objectives, new final rounds and, in the best moments, Leviathan will even straight-up cancel the standard 5v5 War Game and put both teams together to fight cooperatively in a 10-person boss fight or raid-like challenge with limited respawns. I don’t want to spoil their specifics, but these sequences are incredible surprises and are absolutely worth pushing through the repetitive early hours of fighting through the same handful of dinosaur types, objectives, and maps to get to them. The only negative thing I can say about them is that there’s no way to queue into the exact kind of match you want to play specifically – you just have to keep on grinding through matchmaking until Leviathan decides it’s time for another 10-person raid event. Though in a way, that makes it more special when you get to play one.

Hour 10 of Exoprimal is dramatically different than hour one, and hour 20 is dramatically different than hour 10.

Each match you complete unlocks nodes on the Analysis Map, an enormous chart that chronicles Exoprimal’s story. The idea is that the more matches you play, the more data your squad receives, and the more they’re able to learn about the various mysteries. These mysteries include: what happened on the island, why is Leviathan running these war games, why are there even dinosaurs raining from the sky in the first place, and the central plot point: how to escape the island. It took a while for Exoprimal’s story to sink its claws into me, and I don’t know if I would’ve seen it all the way through had it not been for a reviewer’s sense of diligence, but I’m glad that I did because eventually it does get fairly interesting once the mysteries of the island start to unravel. That said, don’t expect your party to be happy about you taking 20 minutes to view the next handful of cutscenes and video logs before queueing up for the next match.

Tyrannosaurus Rexosuits

This is a hero shooter, and that means it comes with a set of classes to choose from, and they’re divided into the usual three categories. There are no surprises here: Assault suits tend to focus on maximum damage, Supports are naturally the ones you’ll look to for heals and crowd control, and Tanks soak up damage and aggro. Within those classes, though, there’s a great variety of playstyles. My favorite exosuit ended up being Barrage, who focuses almost entirely on area-of-effect damage, which is great considering the fact that almost every match of Exoprimal has you dealing with hordes upon hordes of tightly grouped velociraptors. Barrage can equip a grenade launcher, remote mines, and stun grenades, and his ultimate turns him into a human missile that you can guide and manually explode for massive damage.

If Barrage sounds a lot like Junkrat from Overwatch, well, you’re right. There are a lot of parallels with Overwatch characters, some a little more brazen than others. And while I wish there was a little more originality in some of Exoprimal’s exosuit designs, they are generally different enough from their clear inspirations to never feel like straight up carbon copies.

The other roles are fun to play, too. Krieger’s bubble shield feels like a must in certain situations and you’ll always feel instrumental in your team’s success if you pick him; Roadblock is capable of holding the attention of big threats like the carnosaurus and triceratops to let the rest of your team focus on dealing damage; and Muramasa is a great blend of tank and assault classes by increasing his damage when he’s able to successfully block attacks. On the support side, Witch Doctor is a fun and easy-to-play Exosuit that just needs to focus on staying alive, dropping healing fields, and zapping dinos to paralyze them briefly; Skywave is capable of taking to the skies to get away from the action while using primary fire to heal allies; and Nimbus is another hybrid assault class that’s able to switch between healing and damage dealing bullets.

It’s a blast when you’ve got a communicative and well-balanced team, and frustrating when you don’t.

The teamwork-focused design of Exoprimal matches also leads to the very familiar issue of it being a blast when you’ve got a communicative and well-balanced team, and a very frustrating experience when you don’t. It’s an issue that’s exacerbated by the progression system, which encourages you to stick to a single exosuit by assigning each one its own level progression. The more you play with an exosuit, the quicker you’ll unlock the advanced modules that can dramatically affect its power, but this feels at odds with the hot-swappable nature of the actual mode. If I want to focus on unlocking modules for Zephyr, but my team already has three other assault characters, I’m then put in the uncomfortable position of either having to beg someone else to change, change myself and slow down my progression with Zephyr, or stubbornly refuse to budge and just play the match with a poor team composition. It’s not an ideal situation at all, and I wish there was a system that allowed me to continue progress on an exosuit’s level without being forced to play as that exosuit.

The good news is that the modules offer satisfying and very noticeable bonuses that reward skillful play and allow you to cater an exosuit to your playstyle. As an example, with Barrage I could either opt for a module that increases my blast radius and increases my ammo by four, or one that deals 15% more base damage when I land a direct hit with my grenade launcher. I took the second option, paired it with a module that let me reload by dodging, and now my Barrage feels like a damage machine when it comes to the large dinosaurs – as long as I stay on top of how much ammo I have left and make sure to dodge whenever I run out.

San Diego Comic-Con 2023: Everything Announced

San Diego Comic-Con 2023 is back, and with it came a ton of news from the world of entertainment.

If you were unable to attend SDCC this year, no worries. IGN covered SDCC 2023 live and in-person, bringing you all the biggest news coming out of the convention. If you want to learn more about the collectibles and figurines announced at SDCC, check out our separate roundup on the topic.

Here’s a quick recap of everything announced during San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

Invincible: Season 2 Exclusive Poster Revealed

A day prior to SDCC starting, IGN exclusively revealed a poster for the highly anticipated second season of Prime Video’s adult animated series Invincible. We still do not have a premiere date other than “coming soon,” but series creator Robert Kirman will be at SDCC to promote the second season, with a panel scheduled for July 21 starting at 5:45pm PT.

The Walking Dead: Betrayal is a New Survival and Social Deception Game from Skybound

Another piece of news coming a day before SDCC was from Skybound Games, where the developer unveiled that it is working on a new multiplayer social deception survival game set in The Walking Dead universe. The Walking Dead: Betrayl will have players trying to survive the undead outbreak, where you will craft, cook, survive and communicate with party memebers, and maybe do a little bit of decieving along the way.

The Walking Dead: Betrayal is out later this year and wil release exlcusively on PC via Steam. A closed beta test is set for August 10.

The Boys Spinoff Gen V Premieres September 29

Leading up to San Diego Comic-Con 2023, Amazon Studios teased a September release window for its college-themed TV series. But on the first day of the convention, the studio revealed that Gen V will premiere on September 29 with three episodes with the first season finale scheduled for November 3.

Blizzard Unveils Some New Changes and Plans Coming to Diablo IV

During an interview with us, Diablo IV associate game director Joe Piepiora addressed the disconnect deaths that hardcore players have been experiencing while playing the game. Piepiora suggested that the Scroll of Escape could circumvent the issue. But Piepiora also explained that Blizzard is making a number of performance adjustments in Diablo IV’s first season that will help improve the connectivity.

Piepiora also elaborated more on Blizzard’s thought process around the controversial drop rate for Diablo 4’s coveted Uber Unique items.

The Borderlands Movie Hits Theatres Next Year

Lionsgate Films announced that its upcoming live-action adaptation of Borderlands will arrive on August 9, 2024. The film was announced back in 2015 and is being directed and written by Eli Roth.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.