Category: IGN

Rockstar taketh away, but Rockstar also provides. Well, it provides a tiny little bit. Grand Theft Auto 6 may have been delayed to May 2026, but today we finally got a second trailer. It’s a big one, too, with almost three minutes of footage that delves deeper into the world and story that we’ll finally be able to experience next year.

We’ve combed through the whole trailer with the finest of fine toothcombs to collect all the important details, from the biggest story reveals to the tiniest tidbits. So let’s get on with it: here are 89 details from the new GTA 6 trailer.

Every Detail We Found in the New GTA 6 Trailer

1. As revealed in the trailer’s description, GTA 6 will follow the story of Jason and Lucia, a couple who find themselves in the middle of a criminal conspiracy after an easy score goes wrong.

2. Our first protagonist is Jason Duval, a dude just looking for an easy life in a world that keeps making things harder. He had a troubled youth, something he attempted to escape by joining the army, but his dark past keeps catching up with him.

3. These days, it seems like he’s working in sales and services for the Leonida Marine Centre, as seen on this tee-shirt he’s wearing in a couple of scenes. But we also know, thanks to information from the newly-updated GTA website, that he’s working for local drug runners, too.

4. Jason falls in love with Lucia Caminos, our second protagonist. She’s recently served a stint in the Leonida Penitentiary, but now that she’s out she plans to build a better life for herself. A life with Jason. And probably a lot of guns, drugs, and explosions, if prior GTA games are anything to go by.

5. Early in the trailer we’re introduced to Jason’s landlord, an old geezer called Brian. Brian, or Mr. Heder to you, is a longtime drug runner, smuggling product through the Leonida Keys. He does this via his very legitimate boat business, Brian’s Boat Works and Marina, which we see later on in the trailer.

6. The shots-enthusiast spotted at The Rusty Anchor bar is Cal Hampton, friend to Jason and associate to Brian. He’s got something of a paranoia problem, so maybe take everything he says with a grain of salt.

7. The gold chain around this woman’s neck is your first clue to who she is. Bae-Luxe is one half of Real Dimez, a couple of high school friends turned rappers and influencers. Along with Roxy and a new record deal with Only Raw Records, she’s hoping to hit the big time in Vice City.

8. Real Dimez’ manager is Dre’Quan, a hustler more interested in the music business than the city’s criminal underworld. Now he has a potentially big hit on his hands, his days booking acts at the Jack of Hearts strip club.

9. Talking of the strip club, it’s owned by Boobie Ike, a local Vice City legend. Boobie can only be glimpsed on the GTA 6 website, which reveals that he and Dre’Quan are working together, using drug and club money to fund a budding music empire.

10. Finally, the eighth major character we’ve been introduced to in this latest information drop is Raul Bautista. Like Boobie Ike, we don’t actually see Raul in the trailer itself, but the GTA 6 website reveals that he is a charming and cunning bank robber who works with Lucia on a score. He’s a reckless operator, so expect things to go very, very wrong.

11. As the game’s synopsis reveals, Jason and Lucia’s story begins with a score going wrong. We may well be seeing that job in action during this scene in which Jason and Lucia rob the Sinfrontera National Bank.

12. We see Jason goes to pick Lucia up from the Leonida Penitentiary. She’s wearing her electronic ankle tag as she leaves the prison, which we first saw on the game’s key art, and she can be seen wearing it in several other shots.

13. It seems that as a condition of her release, Lucia may have to do several hours of community service. We see her wearing a Leonida Department of Corrections orange hi-vis vest in a couple of scenes, including one where she’s picking up trash.

14. With Lucia now free, the couple are looking forward to a new life. There’s a lot of talk about “new beginnings” and new starts. What could possibly go wrong?

15. While girlfriends have been part of GTA for a long time now, this seems like the first time we’ll be experiencing a relationship with significant depth. Lucia and Jason seem very, very into each other. Yeah, there’s a hell of a lot of “getting to know each other” going on in this trailer.

16. The duo will certainly be getting to know the ins and outs of Vice City’s crime scene, too. That time on the inside certainly doesn’t seem to have put Lucia off a few less-than-legal activities. Here we can see her blowing up a cop car, and that certainly seems like a fast-pass ticket back to jail to me.

17. Talking of cops, it seems like one of GTA 6’s plot threads will follow a group of corrupt police officers. Here we see a group of cops who talk about “protecting each other” – but what could be their dirty secret they want to keep protected?

18. We see that group investigating a filthy building – they could well be the same cops we saw in the bodycam footage from the first trailer, which featured a similarly distressed looking building.

19. If Raul’s involvement didn’t give it away, it seems like robberies and heists will once again be a key part of the story. Later in the trailer we see a truck dragging a massive box, suggesting that there will be some dangerous escapes.

20. While pretty much everything we see in this trailer is taken from cutscenes, there are a few suggestions of things that could be gameplay features. Early on we see Jason stealing from a store, taking money from the register, and so it could mean that holding up stores is back.

21. There seems to be a lot of animals in this trailer – we see a cat in a store, a doberman dog out in the street, and a snake in Jason and Lucia’s home. Could there be a pet system? It would certainly be something to spend all the money we steal on.

22. We also see Lucia taking part in some kind of cage match. Could there be an underground fighting ring activity available somewhere in Vice City?

23. Jason can be seen benchpressing weights down at the beach – is San Andreas’ famous workout system making a return?

24. There’s also a new screenshot that shows Lucia in the gym. With GTA 6 very clearly going all-in on immersion when it comes to graphics, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a lot of old GTA lifestyle minigames return in new guises.

25. Regardless of if you can workout or not, Lucia will want to flex her muscles when this incredibly muscular woman attacks her during what looks like a Mission: Impossible grade setpiece mission.

26. As you’d expect of GTA, it also appears that several sports minigames will be available across Vice City. Revealed in a new selection of screenshots are mini golf,

27. Pool,

28. Fishing,

29. Basket ball,

30. Kayaking,

31. Scuba diving,

32. And dirt bike racing. It seems like there won’t be a shortage of things to do outside of the main missions.

33. It might not be just outside activities, either. In this shot we can clearly see a video games console, complete with PS4-style controller and a PS5-like main unit. Could we hang out at home and play a few games? It would be pretty cool to play GTA: Vice City in Vice City…

34. Of course, we won’t want to stay inside for too long. There’s a huge open world to explore, and we now know more about the key locations we’ll be visiting on the GTA 6 map. Thanks to a bunch of new screenshots and the Rockstar website, we can go into detail about some of these places. First up, of course, we have Vice City itself. The GTA 6 website says, “We’re a long way from the ’80s, but Vice City is still the sun and fun capital of America. The glamour, hustle, and greed of America captured in a single city. Each neighborhood has something to offer, from the pastel art deco hotels and bright white sands of Ocean Beach, to the bustling panaderías of Little Cuba and the bootleg brands of the Tisha-Wocka flea market, out to the VC Port, the cruise ship capital of the world.”

35. We also know a little more about some specific establishments in the city. We get a new look at the Nine1Nine Vice City club, as seen in the last trailer. In trailer 1, there was a plane that had a large banner in tow that read ‘Nine1Nine Vice City – Why Sixty Nine when you can Nine One Nine?’. This is likely a riff on Miami’s real E11ELEVEN nightclub.

36. We also get a look at Vice City’s sports scene, with this man here wearing a Manatees Jersey, undoubtedly a riff on the turquoise of the real-life Miami Dolphins.

37. And we can also just see the bottom of the logo on his cap, which seems to belong to a basketball team. Luckily, a screenshot of Vice City’s Sahara Arena lets us know that they are called the Narcos.

38. The screenshots also give us a look at the modernised Ocean View Hotel, its neighbouring Ocean Beach, and the sign outside of Vice City Airport.

39. Another large area is Leonidas Keys, based on the Florida Keys. The Rockstar website says that, “The dress code is casual, the bars are loaded. Life in this tropical archipelago isn’t flashy but it’s easy. Get your buzz on and pull up a deck chair but look out — you are right on the doorstep of some of the most beautiful and dangerous waters in all of America.

40. This is where we think we’ll find Brian’s Boat Works and Marina, presumably the front for Brian’s drug-running operations.

41. One location we see shown heavily in the trailer is The Rusty Anchor. Alongside this lovely screenshot of its rustic exterior, we see inside the bar as both Lucia and Jason enjoy a few drinks with Cal.

42. Speaking of drinks… quite a few returning beer brands are making their way to GTA 6. These include Pisswasser

43. Stronzo,

44. Pindayho,

45. Patriot,

46. And a big green sign in the top left here for Logger Beer.

47. AND, although it isn’t seen at The Rusty Anchor, we do see a couple of Lavazas Beer here.

48. As Jason and Lucia leave the bar, we catch a glimpse of a concert poster for The Hummers and The Strummers. They’re playing The Rusty Anchor on August 24th. Maybe we’ll get to catch them.

49. And finally in The Rusty Anchor, we see a piece of wood commemorating Hurricane Roxy. Does this hint at extreme weather being a part of GTA 6’s world? It would certainly be the natural evolution of Red Dead Redemption 2’s incredible storm systems.

50. A couple more screenshots of the Leonidas Keys here show us what other wildlife to expect in the area. These include lizards, mobility scooter grannies, and, temptingly, what looks like the ability to scuba dive with turtles.

51. Next up, we have Grassrivers, GTA 6’s wetlands area. Described by Rockstar as “the untamable jewel of Leonida’s crown. You never know what lies beneath the surface of this primordial expanse. The gators may be the most famous attraction, but there are far deadlier predators and weirder discoveries among the mangroves.

52. We get a glimpse of this location at the end of this trailer as Jason pilots a helicopter over the swampland. He appears to be chasing the same hovercraft seen in trailer 1.

53. The new screenshots don’t tell us much more about Grassrivers except really reinforce that promise of alligators in this world. We get not only one, two, but three images of gators, including one here of these delightful-looking residents claiming victory over one.

54. Port Gellhorn is Leonidas’ forgotten coast. Full of “Cheap motels, shut-down attractions, and empty strip malls won’t bring the tourists back, but there’s a new economy in this once-popular vacation spot. It’s fueled by malt liquor, painkillers, and truck stop energy drinks. Jump on a dirt bike and hold onto your wallet.”

55. Gellhorn features quite heavily in the trailer. We see Jason and Lucia in an intense car chase here.

56. As well as Lucia sporting a Gellhorn International shirt. Does this suggest that the GTA 6 map will have more than one airport?

57. We also get a good look at the Starlet Motel, which is situated in Port Gellhorn in both the trailer and this sparkly new screenshot. We think this might play quite a big role in GTA 6’s story, and wouldn’t be surprised if it’s where Lucia and Jason make one of their seemingly many mattress rendezvous.

58. The new batch of screenshots also shows us another Leonidas after-dark spot in the form of Delights Cabaret Club. It looks like we won’t be short of night time entertainment when it comes to GTA 6.

59. Seemingly in the middle of GTA 6’s map is Ambrosia. The Rockstar website says, “In the heart of Leonida, American industry and old-school values still reign supreme — whatever the cost. The Allied Crystal sugar refinery provides the jobs, while the local biker gang provides almost everything else.”

60. We saw plenty of people living in Ambrosia chugging beers and enjoying the mud in trailer 1, but almost nothing this time around. What we do have are a handful of new screenshots that give a good look at the Final Chapter biker gang.

61. We also get a couple of landscape scenes that reinforce that image of industry as fire and smog fill the air.

62. And last up for now on our tour of Leonidas is Mount Kalaga. Found in the northern part of the state, “Mount Kalaga offers prime hunting, fishing, and off-road trails. In the lush surrounding backwoods, hillbilly mystics and paranoid radicals live far from the prying eyes of the government.”

63. Again, we don’t see a ton, if any, of Mount Kalaga in the trailer, but new screenshots do show us some of that wildlife, as big cats appear to be making a return to the series after terrorising so many of us on Mount Chiliad in GTA 5

64. We also see signs throughout the trailer for other locations that haven’t been detailed by Rockstar yet. These include Southside and Peacock Bay and Mariana County and Vice-Dale County.

65. The television in Jason and Lucia’s apartment also gives us a look at somewhere we imagine we’ll be visiting one or two branches of quite a bit in GTA 6: Ammu-Nation. This TV commercial shows us the new version of Phil Cassidy, a character previously seen in the era of GTA 3 and Vice City. Back then he was the owner of Phil Cassidy’s Fully Cocked Gun Shop, but this new version of Phil, finally given a HD makeover, appears to be the owner of GTA’s premier weapons store, Ammu-Nation.

66. Speaking of guns… we also get a sneak peek at the arsenal we might be wielding in the game. These include the return of Shrewsbury Shotguns.

67. And we see Lucia using a grenade launcher to create an explosive pile-up here.

68. And she also has an SMG here. As seen in Phil’s Ammu-Nation commercial, there’ll be many, many guns to fire in GTA 6. But that shouldn’t really come as a surprise, should it?

69. It wouldn’t be GTA without vehicles – it is Grand Theft *Auto*, after all. You can spot several major car brands across the trailer, starting with this blue El Camino-like Vapid. The Vapid brand has been seen all across GTA’s HD universe, but this appears to be a new model.

70. Brian also appears to drive a Vapid, this time a large GMC-like truck. This could be GTA 6’s version of the Caracara.

71. Also parked at Jason’s house is a sky blue car that looks like it dropped straight out of the 1950s. With its rear fins and rounded corners, it has more than a passing resemblance to GTA Vice City’s Oceanic.

72. On a drive through the neighborhood, Jason passes a woman who has a white car with pink paw prints over the hood. The logo in the grille is that of the Maibatsu company, GTA’s equivalent to Mitsubishi. This car actually looks a lot like the Maibatsu Sunrise R, a popular car based on the Mitsubishi Evo that was modded into GTA 5.

73. Out on the docks, we see a Dinka brand boat. This was a brand we previously saw in GTA 5, and it seems like there’s a new version of the Predator boat: the LurePredator.

74. In the background of this shot, we can see a metro train travelling along its rail track. Perhaps this could function as a fast travel system between the game’s major locations?

75. In the sequence where the crew is stealing the massive box, we can see their score is being dragged by a Bravado Bison four-door pickup truck.

76. Parked in front of the Dominion Hotel is what looks like an orange Benefactor Schafter and a bright green Pegassi Tempesta.

77. A Buzzard helicopter can be seen chasing an airboat through the Grassrivers.

78. Here, Jason and Lucia can be seen getting wet and wild on a SeaShark jetski.

79. And here we can see Jason riding what seems to be a new Western Motorcycle Company bike, with a classic Dodo seaplane flying overhead.

80. A more specific detail here, but when zoomed in you can get a good look at a Liberty City licence plate on this truck. These are inspired by the 2020 era Excelsior New York plates, which makes sense, seeing as Liberty City is based on the Big Apple.

81. Finally we have an overhead shot of the car we saw Jason and Lucia using in the previous trailer, which seems likely to be GTA 6’s version of the Sabre Turbo.

82. We can also spot a FlyUS plane high up in the sky, a commercial airline seen throughout the GTA series. Though, we highly doubt we can purchase one like many of the above vehicles, we will no doubt all try to steal one at some point. That is an unwritten rule of GTA.

83. There are a handful of other tiny details we’d also like to give a shout-out to as well. These include the return of the Zesta soft drink in the convenience store here.

84. And the Redwood Cigarettes stick on the door, if you fancy an even more unhealthy option.

85. If a different flavour of smoke is more your vibe, then maybe you’ll have some use for this 420 card seen in a different store.

86. And next to it is the phone number: 305-555-0145. The number doesn’t work (we tried), but it is a fun little reference to a joke dialling code seen in movies.

87. This striking mural of the Haitian flag also features what appears to be a message memorialising the people pictured. Translated from Haitian Creole, it reads “In Memory and Love”.

88. And, the song we’re hearing throughout this second trailer for GTA 6 is Hot Together by The Pointer Sisters, which, incidentally, can also be heard in Mel Brooks’ sci-fi comedy, Spaceballs.

89. Finally, all of this GTA 6 footage was captured on PS5, with the game coming to both PlayStation and Xbox Series X on May 26th, 2026.

And that was everything we managed to find after taking a good, hard look at the latest GTA 6 trailer. What are some of your favourite details, or maybe you have some madcap theories about what we’ll be able to do in the game? Let us know in the comments!

As eagle-eyed fans analyze each frame of the GTA 6 Trailer 2, one moment in particular has raised eyebrows.

In the scene where Lucia arrives home from community service to find Jason snoozing on the sofa, we see various items strewn about the lounge, including what looks like a PlayStation 5 next to the TV and, in the foreground, what looks like a DualSense controller.

While the myths of ancient Greece bubble through the substrate of many board games – take Horrified: Greek Monsters, for example – there are surprisingly few that place them front and center. Narrow the frame to the way many people think about the age, one of conquest, bloodshed and warfare, and there are even fewer. Which might partly explain the success of 2009s Cyclades, a clever marriage of myth, wargame and more subtle strategic mechanisms. Now it’s back in a spanking new edition with some fun tweaks from its original expansions.

What’s in the Box

Rules and How It Plays

The original Cyclades was an early example of a design trying to weave together the chaotic combat that characterized American gaming with the more refined sensibilities found in Germany. You start each round with that more genteel aspect, bidding in an auction for the favor of one of the available gods, which will determine your available actions for the rest of the turn. Some gods are face down, so that there are only as many available as the number of players, meaning someone has to take the weakest – and cheapest – god, Apollo. Each round one of the face-down gods and one of the face-up gods gets flipped, so all of them get cycled through.

Not all the gods are created equal. The war god, Ares, allows you to recruit or move troops, for example, while wise Athena allows you to build universities and recruit philosophers, neither of which have any immediate effect but can, in time, contribute toward victory. To up the ante, the higher bid slots begin to jump in increments of two, then five, while players will still need to consider holding resources to pay for their actions, most of which also cost money. Finally there’s Apollo who, while free, does very little, allowing you merely to up the income from two of your provinces.

All of this means competition in the bidding can be intense, depending on the board situation, with winning or losing a particular god having a huge impact on the game state. It’s a fraught, exciting auction when there’s a lot riding on a turn, with various other considerations feeding into the bids. Sometimes it’s worth trying to outbid an opponent just to keep yourself safe from a land or sea attack. Sometimes it’s worth leaving yourself short-changed in terms of paying for actions just to corner a particular deity. It’s a dynamic phase, with plenty of interaction.

Winning requires you to control three metropolis pieces. You can gain these by swapping four different basic buildings, each of which is granted by a different god, or by cashing in four of Athena’s philosophers. One of the other gods, Hera, allows you to recruit heroes, powerful on-board pieces with special powers that can also be sacrificed for a metropolis. Mighty Ajax, for instance, counts as two armies and can be exchanged for a metropolis if you control seven land spaces. Which brings us neatly onto the last way to gain one: take it off another player via military conquest.

Warfare in Cyclades is short and brutal. In a contested land or sea space you tot up the units on each side together with the value of a dice roll with the loser removing a piece. Repeat until only one side remains. While the dice only goes up to three, this can still be a surprisingly swingy affair. Resources, however, keep a cap on the violence. Each player only has eight army and navy pieces and, of course, winning the bid for Ares is the main way to gain and move troops, all of which limits how many campaigns you can conduct.

In this edition, however, there are sneaky ways round these restrictions. Hera not only allows you to gain heroes but also mercenary troops, meaning you can expand on your paltry tally of eight. And all the gods allow you to make heroic moves, which essentially means you can move and fight with any army that includes a hero. This gives the game a surprising amount of maneuverability, clashing not only over valuable buildings but spaces that provide income, and makes heroes particularly valuable pieces to risk in a fight.

It also means turns that feature Hera or Ares can feel heavily weighted in terms of tilting the game state. And if everyone wants a piece of the action, that can very much be the case. Cyclades, however, is a game about taking the rough with the smooth. You can prosper without violence by taking cheaper bids on weaker gods and building up your infrastructure. But everyone around the table has to be okay with a game where your attempt to play economically can potentially be undermined by a burst of conflict. It’s all about knowing when to change tack, balancing the time to strike out with the time to shepherd resources, but having war and peace so close to one another in the same package can sometimes feel jarring.

Either approach can really benefit from mythological creatures, which you can purchase with any god other than Apollo, but more peaceable players are more likely to be able to afford them. They’re pretty powerful and so work as an effective balance against big bids on warlike gods. Most are one-shot effects, like the Satyr who lets you steal a philosopher from another player, or the Harpy, who destroys an army. Others, however, get a piece on the board which you can keep and move from turn to turn if you’re willing to sacrifice priestesses, gained by winning the auction for Zeus. These include horrors like the kraken, who simply wipes out all fleets in whatever space it enters. Pushing these beasts around the map is enormous fun, so long as you can afford the priestesses to do so.

Where to Buy

• Get it at Amazon
• Get it at Atomic Empire
• Get it at Hachette
• Get it at Kickstarter

With the release of Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2 and a significant update to its official website, all eyes were on the launch platforms accompanying the new release date of May 26, 2026.

At the end of the trailer, we see the release date alongside the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, confirming the consoles remain part of GTA 6’s release. Indeed, Trailer 2 was captured on a PS5 (the trailer specifically mentions PS5, as opposed to PS5 Pro).

So, what does this mean for the inevitable PC launch, or perhaps even a release on the Nintendo Switch 2? Some had wondered, perhaps even hoped, that GTA 6’s push to May 2026 would cause a rethink at Rockstar and parent company Take-Two and spark a simultaneous release on PC. The lack of mention of PC here perhaps suggests otherwise.

It’s an omission in keeping with developer Rockstar’s playbook for its previous games, but in 2025 and certainly in 2026 it feels outdated. And, given the increasing importance of the PC for a multiplatform game’s success, is GTA 6’s no-show on PC a missed opportunity or even a mistake?

IGN put that question to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick in an interview in February, and in his response he teased GTA 6’s eventual release on PC.

“So with Civ 7 it’s available on console and PC and Switch right away,” Zelnick said of Firaxis’ recently launched Civilization 7. “With regard to others in our lineup, we don’t always go across all platforms simultaneously. Historically, Rockstar has started with some platforms and then historically moved to other platforms.”

Lots of Pokémon TCG sets are feeling like gold dust right now, but Amazon UK has just provided a restock of great booster bundles — like those from Temporal Forces and Shrouded Fable — with plenty of others still available as well.

While we’re still waiting to get invites to buy the Prismatic Evolutions Accessory Pouch Special Collection & 151 Blooming Waters Premium Collection at Amazon UK, these will be good enough to keep us going in the meantime.

Temporal Forces is back in two assortments over at Amazon UK: the Booster Display Box with 18 booster packs for £71.82 and the 36-pack version from £159.99. If you’ve yet to add any of the powerful ACE SPEC cards to your collection, here’s the ideal chance to try and pull one or two.

Next, there’s the Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box from the Scarlet & Violet set. For £44.99, you get nine boosters, a Pecharunt foil card, 65 card sleeves, 45 Energy cards, damage counter dice, a coin-flip die, two condition markers, a player’s guide, and a stylish collector’s box where you can keep everything tucked away.

Paradox Pokemon fans will also be pleased to know that the Paradox Fury Premium Collection is back in stock as well. Based on the Paradox versions of Johto’s Legendary Dog trio, the premium collection offers seven Paradox Fury boosters along with the foil cards Walking Wake ex, Raging Bolt ex, and Gouging Fire ex.

In addition to a magnetic three-card holder, the collection even comes with an oversized display version of the Raging Bolt card.

If you’re still after some Journey Together boosters, Amazon UK has those in stock too — selling 36-pack display boxes for £179.99, 14% down from the £209.99 price it was before. Although, the nine-booster Journey Together Elite Trainer box is also available, but for a hefty £74.99, way above RRP of £44.99

For more Paradox Pokemon cards, the retailer also has a handful of the 36-pack display boxes of Paradox Rift left as well for £153.98.

However, if you don’t need as many boosters from that set, Amazon is also selling a handy Paradox Rift Iron Valiant Elite Trainer Box & Arctibax Triple Pack bundle for £57.98.

With it, you’ll get 12 boosters in total, a foil Scream Tail or Iron Bundle promo card, 65 Iron Valiant Sleeves, Energy cards, a player’s guide, and an Arctibax foil promo card.

Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.

Microsoft has confirmed Wave 1 of the Xbox Game Pass May 2025 lineup.

In a post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft revealed 12 games hitting its subscription service, taking us up to May 20. The biggest hitter here is Doom: The Dark Ages, the latest game in id Software’s world-famous first-person shooter series. That is, as a Microsoft-owned game, a day-one Game Pass launch. But it’s not the only day-one Game Pass launch of May 2025.

Available today, May 6, is Dredge (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), which hits Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard. Here’s the official blurb, from Microsoft:

Dredge is a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent. Sell your catch, upgrade your boat, and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets. Explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten.

May 7 is a big day for Game Pass, with a number of additions: Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard; Dungeons of Hinterberg (Console), now on Game Pass Standard; Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (Xbox Series X|S), now on Game Pass Standard; and Metal Slug Tactics (Console), also now on Game Pass Standard.

Here’s a big one: May 8 sees Revenge of the Savage Planet (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hit Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day-one title.

In a future knocked off its axis by corporate greed and stupidity, you have been made redundant and abandoned on the far edge of space with little gear and no safety net. You must explore every nook and cranny, collect dozens of upgrades, and turn over every mysterious alien rock if you want to get revenge on your former employer and return to Earth.

Also on May 8, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed (Cloud, Console, and PC) joins Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard.

Join the legendary Turtle brothers straight from the sewer and slide into this new adventure of shell-shocking proportions. With the help of April’s insightful reports from the streets and Splinter’s sage guidance, gear up to fight crime and unravel an epic saga of justice and chaos!

Moving on to May 13, we’ve got Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (Cloud and Console) on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass Standard.

Making a return to the Game Pass library! Fight together with your friends against the forces of Chaos and Skaven in this epic 4-player co-op game set in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world. Vermintide 2 expands the intense first-person combat with a brand-new enemy faction, 15 new career paths, talent trees, new weapons, an improved loot system, and more.

The main event is of course Doom: The Dark Ages (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), on May 15 when the shooter hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass day-one.

Doom: The Dark Ages is the prequel to the critically acclaimed Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal that tells an epic cinematic story worthy of the Doom Slayer’s legend. In this third installment of the modern Doom series, players will step into the blood-stained boots of the Doom Slayer, in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war against Hell. Get a head start on slaying demons with the Premium Upgrade, including up to 2-Day Early Access, the campaign DLC at launch, and more.

A day later, on May 16, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Cloud, Console, and PC) launches on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as yet another day-one title.

Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo is a papercraft adventure game where you’ll meet the many good and not-so-good folks of Limbo, a place where souls with deep regrets are cursed into repeating the same day on a loop.

Rounding out the May 2025 Wave 1 lineup on May 20 are Firefighting Simulator: The Squad (Cloud, Console, and PC) across Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard, and Police Simulator: Patrol Officers (Cloud, Console, and PC) also across Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard.

Xbox Game Pass May 2025 Wave 1 lineup:

• Dredge (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 6
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 7
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Dungeons of Hinterberg (Console) – May 7
  Now with Game Pass Standard
• Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (Xbox Series X|S) – May 7
  Now with Game Pass Standard
• Metal Slug Tactics (Console) – May 7
  Now with Game Pass Standard
• Revenge of the Savage Planet (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 8
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 8
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (Cloud and Console) – May 13
  Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Standard
• Doom: The Dark Ages (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 15
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 16
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Firefighting Simulator: The Squad (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 20
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Police Simulator: Patrol Officers (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 20
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard

Leaving Xbox Game Pass on May 15:

The following games are leaving the Game Pass library on May 15. As always, you can use your membership discount to save up to 20% to keep them in your library.

• Brothers A Tale of Two Sons (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Chants of Sennaar (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Dune: Spice Wars (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Hauntii (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Big Con (Cloud, Console, and PC)

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.

Put simply, there’s nothing on PlayStation 5 quite like Forza Horizon 5.

The Crew Motorfest? Close. Leaning hard into the philosophy of ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’, its fully fledged festival approach certainly makes Motorfest more like the Forza Horizon series than either of its predecessors.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown? Sadly, no. The Forza Horizon series itself may owe a significant debt to the trendsetting MMO racing of the original Test Drive Unlimited, but Solar Crown went on to fly too close to the sun in this department. An always-online racer with no dedicated solo component? The Horizon series has allowed players to seamlessly slip between offline and online play since 2014’s Forza Horizon 2!

Need for Speed Unbound? Well, there are definitely several areas of Need for Speed’s impressive customisation suite that handily eclipse Horizon, but Unbound’s arcade focus on high speed hot pursuits means it’s not really a like-for-like comparison.

No, the pound-for-pound champ of modern open world racing is Forza Horizon 5 – and now it’s available on PlayStation 5 for the very first time. Its broad and beautiful Mexico map. Its delectably drift-friendly vehicle dynamics. Its mammoth, 900-odd car garage that goes way beyond just featuring the essentials, and is brimming with cult favourite cars that simply aren’t available in any other racing game. The whole box and dice. PlayStation users are being immersed in all of this, many for the very first time.

The reaction has been fun to watch.

This influx of brand new players has been something the team has been particularly looking forward to.

“Yeah, I’m super excited,” confirms Playground Games art director Don Arceta. “Like, brand new people; for many, this will probably be the first Forza Horizon game that they’ve ever played. So it’s super exciting just to think about that, and think about what our first Horizon experiences were.”

Arceta is especially keen to see what kinds of places and races PlayStation 5 players begin creating with Forza Horizon 5’s huge set of customisation tools – the Event Lab.

“We have over 800 props now in the Event Lab, and just seeing what the community’s done with that feature and mode – and the creativity of the community – it’s just mind blowing,” he continues. “I’m super excited, once we get into the PlayStation 5 users, about what they’ll build, and the creativity that will come from that community.”

“You’ll actually get some pretty good Halo content too on the PlayStation, with the event lab props!”

In pleasing news, the port itself is proving to be as technically impeccable as its Xbox and PC counterparts, which is some flex considering the sheer girth of the game – and the fact that the engine that underpins it has never been unleashed on PlayStation before.

“As you can imagine, because the series has been based around the Xbox environment and architecture, there’s a lot of code and engineering that’s worked with that,” says Arceta. “So when we brought it to the PS5, it was no small undertaking. It was quite a huge task.”

“The PlayStation 5 version was developed by Panic Button, in collaboration with Turn 10 and ourselves, but Panic Button did an amazing job. So you get that amazing, quality experience that you get on Xbox and PC – now you get on the PlayStation, and it’s just amazing work that Panic Button has done.”

Personally I’ve never been able to look past the Forza series as a whole as home to the biggest and best bag of Hot Wheels on the block. No other racing series contains more weird and wonderful cars that I want, piled on top of a cavalcade of cars I didn’t even know I wanted. As a car fan, I love the idea of a whole new cohort of players potentially discovering their favourite cars in Forza Horizon 5 – cars their other racing games just haven’t been serving them.

For Playground Games lead game designer David Orton, however, it’s the sheer breadth of Forza Horizon 5 that he’s anticipating will impress new players.

“The breadth of Horizon is quite staggering,” says Orton. “I think what we find is players go in and find what they really enjoy but, because there’s so much freedom, that can really be whatever you want it to be.”

“We always pride ourselves on giving the player that kind of agency and freedom to do whatever they want, and the game will reward them and react in that way. I’m really looking forward to players just discovering the breadth of the content. If you just want to do road racing, or if you’re really into Rivals and track racing, you can totally do that. But if you love taking incredible photos, you can totally do that. If you’re into Event Lab, and you want to create content for other people, you can totally do that. Horizon is the space where really everyone is welcome, and there’s something in it for everyone. I think the feeling of people going in and realising this is more than just a racing game is what’s really exciting for me.”

“For me, a victory would be, like, ‘I can’t believe I’ve never played this game before,’” says Arceta. “I think the surprise.”

“That, for me, is a victory, because once they’re surprised, they’re engaged – and they want to learn more. So I’m really looking for that. The delight from players; just hearing their surprise and hearing their stories.”

Here, Orton is in agreement.

“Yeah, I think it’s that,” he adds. “Players who’ve never tried Horizon before – whether that’s because it’s on a different platform, or they’ve just never had the time to do it – to actually jump into this world and realise that it’s actually a really warm, welcoming place that’s full of fun, and finding a home at Horizon.”

“Players who’ve never played before realising that, ‘Oh my goodness, how have I never played this game before? This is incredible.’ That, to me, is a win. We’re about to target a cohort of players who may have never played a Forza title before. There’s a bit of an unknown to how people react to that, but I think when you look at the history of our titles, we’re continually perfecting our craft. We feel so excited to bring this to PlayStation. I think we’re going to bring in a whole load of new players and that’s really exciting.”

If there’s any hobby that’s more tribal than car culture, it’s those who hinge their identities on their video game console of choice. For racing game fans, however, one big wall has come down.

Let’s hope it’s not the last.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

The creator of Ecco the Dolphin has revealed that not only are there remakes of the original games underway, but a “third” instalment is also in development.

Revealed via a brief post on Xbox Wire, Ed Annunziata — the original creator of the famed, and fiendishly difficult, action-adventure games — was interviewed about raising awareness about ocean conservation, his life as a developer, and, right at the end, dropped this bombshell revelation:

“Me and the entire original team are going to remaster the original Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time games. Then we will make a new, third game with contemporary play and [graphics] sensibilities. Stay tuned.”

There is, of course, already a “third” game. As the last mainline Ecco instalment, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future was released on Dreamcast 25 years ago in 2000. However, creator Annunziata wasn’t involved. A further sequel, Ecco 2: Sentinels of the Universe, which had been written as a direct sequel to Defender of the Future, was cancelled.

“I just want to finally be able to enter my secret password from the end of Tides of Time. I still have it written in the codes section of the game manual,” wrote one fan, while another reminded us: “I wonder how many people know how completely bonkers the plot of the games are.”

Annunziata didn’t provide any additional details as to when we’ll get to be reunited with Ecco, but a countdown on the official Ecco the Dolphin website is set to expire in 8,508 hours’ time — that’s about a year from now.

Ecco the Dolphin originally launched in 1992 on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, and was followed by a sequel, Ecco: The Tides of Time, in 1994. Ecco Jr. and Ecco Jr. and the Great Ocean Treasure Hunt were released in 1995, although they were “edutainment” games and primarily developed as learning tools.

Ecco the Dolphin sees you play as the titular dolphin, as your underwater world has been devastated by a swirling gust of air and water. You must help him navigate back through treacherous tropical reefs and freezing polar ice floes to reunite him with his dolphin pod. We thought the 2000 remake was okay, writing: “Ecco the Dolphin is a classic from SEGA. But sometimes classics should stay in the past.

“For those who have played Ecco before, there’s really no reason to come back to it,” we wrote of the 2007 remake in IGN’s Ecco the Dolphin review. “There are no extras offered and the Achievements are junk. If you’ve never played Ecco, then you may want to give it a go. It really is one of the more innovative titles of its time. But, again, that time has long passed, and Ecco’s gameplay doesn’t stand the test of time like Sonic’s.”

The last Ecco the Dolphin game fared much better, getting a 7.6 score in IGN’s Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future review, saying: “If you thought Flipper had personality, wait until you get a load of Ecco the Dolphin. Experience amazing visuals and an engrossing story, and defend the ocean that is rightfully yours.”

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.

As if impressive Steam concurrent player numbers and Bethesda’s own announcement of 4 million players wasn’t enough to cement it as a hit, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is now the third best-selling game of 2025 in the U.S. after just one week on sale.

Oblivion Remastered, which shadow-dropped on April 22, has a peak concurrent player count of 216,784 on Steam. While impressive, that figure doesn’t tell the whole story, given Oblivion Remastered also launched on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, as well as straight into Game Pass.

Now we have a new milestone: after just one week on sale, Oblivion Remastered became the third best-selling game in the U.S. of 2025 so far by dollar sales. That’s according to Circana’s Mat Piscatella, who took to social media to say Oblivion Remastered trails only Monster Hunter: Wilds and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows at the top of the 2025 sales chart.

It’s worth pointing out that Circana’s sales charts do not include players via subscription services. So, we know that Oblivion Remastered is a sales hit despite also being available on Microsoft’s Game Pass.

With this success, it seems inevitable that more remasters of Bethesda games will follow, with most suggesting either Fallout 3 (it was leaked back in 2023) or Fallout: New Vegas are next.

If either game is indeed next, what should players expect? Bruce Nesmith, one of Fallout 3’s designers, has pointed to Fallout 3’s “not good” gun combat, which he expects Bethesda would improve significantly for a remaster.

Speaking to VideoGamer, Nesmith said Fallout 3 Remastered would have shooting more in-line with that of Fallout 4. “What did you see in Fallout 4? That will tell you what they felt was necessary to change from Fallout 3,” Nesmith said.

“I know in Fallout 4 there was a lot of work done on the gun combat, because Fallout 3 is the first time they ever tried to do a shooter-style game. And, well, I think the work that was done was amazing.”

Oblivion Remastered, developed by remake specialist Virtuos using Unreal Engine 5, has a long list of visual and feature improvements. It runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, as you’d expect, but other changes are more meaningful. Everything from the leveling systems to character creation, and combat animations to in-game menus have been improved. Meanwhile, there’s lots of new dialogue, a proper third-person view, and new lip sync technology. The changes are going down well with fans, some of whom believe Oblivion Remastered would be more accurately described as a remake. Bethesda, however, has explained why it went down the remaster route.

Nesmith said Fallout 3 Remastered would probably include improvements and changes along similar lines to Oblivion Remastered.

“[Fallout 3 combat] didn’t hold up to shooters at the time,” he said. “Also, it’s an RPG shooter, it’s not a run-and-gun shooter. But a lot of work was done on that for Fallout 4. So I anticipate seeing a lot of that work go into it, assuming they’re doing the same thing.”

“Oblivion wasn’t just brought up to the 2011 version of Skyrim,” he added. “It was brought up to something that, at least on the surface, looks like it exceeds the most recent graphics update in Skyrim.” Nesmith has said The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is so impressive it could be called “Oblivion 2.0.”

It’s a busy time for Bethesda, which is working on The Elder Scrolls VI and, maybe, more Starfield. Throw in remasters and ongoing work on Fallout 76 and the Fallout TV show, which is heading to New Vegas for Season 2, and fans are in for a treat in the coming years.

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

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.

A big part of the fun with Star Wars Day each year is seeing a new wave of toys and collectibles revealed by companies like Hasbro, Sideshow, and Hot Toys. This year’s event certainly didn’t disappoint, as we got glimpses of a wide range of upcoming products, ranging from less than $20 to over $1500. What can we say? Being a Star Wars collector is nothing if not an expensive hobby.

From Sideshow’s epic Luke Skywalker Red 5 statue to Hasbro’s nostalgia-heavy Episode III figures to Hot Toys’ mind-bogglingly detailed Jar Jar Binks figure, these were the coolest figures and collectibles revealed during Star Wars Day 2025.

Hot Toys’ Star Wars Figures

Hot Toys revealed quite the impressive lineup of 1:6 scale figures for Star Wars Day, including a couple of major characters who have surprisingly never gotten the Hot Toys treatment before now. The real surprise is definitely the Jar Jar Binks figure. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that this Jar Jar looks like he walked right off the screen. He’s even got seamless arm joints and two swappable face sculpts for recreating all those wacky poses.

Hot Toys is also filling a glaring hole in the Sequel Trilogy lineup by finally releasing a Poe Dameron figure. Fittingly, Poe is wearing his Resistance X-Wing jumpsuit. We’re also getting another of the fan-favorite Republic Commandos in the form of Clone Commando Boss, and the company’s new Star Wars Rebels-inspired line of animated figures is getting a Darth Vader to accompany the previously announced Stormtrooper figures.

Hasbro’s Star Wars Toys

Hasbro revealed a number of new figures in both the 6-inch Black Series line and 3 3/4-inch Vintage Collection line. Hasbro continues to capitalize on the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith by releasing new Black Series figures in packaging based on the classic RotS toy line. Next up are Aayla Secura and a Magnaguard droid. Black Series collectors can also augment their Imperial trooper collections with a Rogue One-themed 2-pack that includes both a Shoretrooper and a Death Trooper.

On the Vintage Collection front, Hasbro has a couple very interesting multi-pack releases in the works. The “Stormtroopers of the Empire 3-Pack” features a Snowtrooper, Scouttrooper and a Sandtrooper. The “Cantina Adventure 4-Pack” includes four aliens from the iconic Mos Eisley sequence, including Hammerhead, Walrus Man, Greedo, and Snaggletooth. It should go great with Hasbro’s crowdfunded Mos Eisley Cantina playset.

Finally, Star Wars prop collectors will be happy to know that a new ForceFX Elite lightsaber based on the weapon used by Rebels’ star Ezra Bridger is in the works.

Sideshow’s Star Wars Figures and Posters

Not to be outdone,. Sideshow Collectibles had a wide lineup of figures, statues, and art prints to reveal. Undoubtedly the showpiece of their Star Wars Day lineup is the Luke Skywalker: Red Five, Standing By Premium Format Figure. This massive 1:4 scale, mixed media statue features Luke decked out in his X-Wing jumpsuit and climbing up the ladder to his trusty ship. What really makes this piece special (and especially expensive) is that Sideshow went to the trouble of actually sculpting a portion of the X-Wing so that it hangs in mid-air.

Sideshow is also continuing to release 1:6 scale figures alongside distributing Hot Toys’ releases. Sideshow is focusing on its “Scum and Villainy” line, which highlights the many aliens and creatures that don’t necessarily receive attention from Hot Toys. The second wave of Scum and Villainy figures is focused on characters from Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi, like Bib Fortuna, Klaatu, and Vizam.

Finally, Sideshow showed off the latest 1:10 statue from Iron Studios, which happens to be a shrunken-down version of their 1:4 scale Darth Vader statue. This Empire Strikes Back-inspired piece still looks mighty cool in the new, smaller scale.

Let us know in the comments below what your favorite Star Wars Day 2025 reveal was, and why it’s Hot Toys Jar Jar.

For more Star Wars collecting fun, check out our ultimate guide to Star Wars figures, and check out the many Star Wars Collectibles available on the IGN Store.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.