Here’s that original quote from Kirkman two years ago:
“Yeah, he [Yeun] called me, he went in for a costume fitting. I hope I’m not… I don’t think this is a spoiler or anything that will get anybody in trouble. I don’t know, maybe. We’ll see. I don’t care. I don’t work for Marvel. What are they going to do to me?
“Yeah, he called me and he said, ‘I just came back from a costume fitting for The Sentry. I guess I only do superheroes that are yellow and blue.’ He said he was at the costume fitting and was like, ‘Aww, crap. I forgot Invincible was yellow and blue.'”
Fast forward two years, with Thunderbolts* out the door, and we know The Sentry eventually went to Lewis Pullman after Yeun himself dropped out. But at the time, Yeun as The Sentry felt like a sure thing. After all, Kirkman had confirmed it.
“I don’t want to lose any more sleep spoiling Steven Yeun news!” Kirkman said. “I cannot tell you how much that Thunderbolts thing affected me.” Then, Kirkman joked: “Why would you guys bring that up? I’m so angry.”
Kirkman wenton to reveal that he actually does know who Yeun plays in The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender, but this time stopped short of spilling the beans – perhaps with his Thunderbolts / Marvel run-in in mind.
“The best part is he told me who he’s playing in The Last Airbender and I was like, ‘I wish I didn’t know. I wish I didn’t know.’”
Kirkman continued the joke, saying Steven Yeun is set to play Abraham Lincoln in the unconfirmed hit TV show based on Skinbreaker, his new comic book series he’s working on with artist David Finch.
Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Three months after its “surprise” shadowdrop on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered has topped nine million players.
In a social media post today, Bethesda announced that the game had reached 9 million players alongside a humorous graphic featuring everyone’s favorite NPC:
Notably, this count is only a player count, not a sales total. Oblivion Remastered launched on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, meaning there are a lot of subscribers who booted up the game at some point without explicitly paying for it.
However despite that, development studio Virtuos laid off 270 staff earlier this month, citing a “rebelancing of roles across our studios and geographies.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
It only took one match of Wildgate to see the potential in its spacefaring PvPvE mayhem. Now, after just over 20 hours of playtime, I’m also noticing where there is still room for it to build on that compelling concept. The intensely cooperative chaos of managing a spacecraft, delving into PvE dungeons for loot, and fending off rival crews makes for complex and exciting contests of teamwork and communication. Unfortunately, that level of coordination doesn’t always lead to great outcomes when matchmaking with random crewmates, where silent players or, worse yet, insanely toxic personalities can make for a bad time. But when a matchmade crew manages to come together, or you bring your own friends to the party, Wildgate’s simple but solid gunplay and multifaceted ship-to-ship combat give Sea of Thieves a run for its money.
Wildgate is a unique multiplayer sci-fi shooter that sends five teams of four players out into the most dangerous section of the galaxy, called the Reach, to battle it out for loot and glory. Their ultimate goal is to find the all-important Artifact hidden somewhere in space and escape with it out of the Wildgate, but since there’s the little issue of only being one to go around, a clash of crews in tumultuous FPS combat is all but inevitable. To improve your chances of survival (and search for the Artifact along the way), you’ll want to hurriedly touch down to enter as many of the small PvE dungeons as possible, killing enemies and solving simple puzzles to claim whatever loot they’re hiding.
Upgrading your spacecraft with better shields, weapons, defensive measures, and stat improvements (like improved turning speed) can make all the difference when an enemy vessel nears and all hell breaks loose, which make for Wildgate’s tensest moments. If you’re able to find and escape with the Artifact, or simply murder all the enemy crews before they’re able to extract it themselves, then victory is yours, and in matches that can run over 40 minutes each, the taste of triumph is one of the sweetest there is.
There’s no story to be found in Wildgate, or at least not one outside of little snippets you can read from a menu between matches, but the world definitely has a distinct and endearing personality to it. That could be in the baddies you run into like raiders and alien life forms who look like booger people, or the playable characters, called Prospectors, who span from a big dog-looking alien to an aquatic creature in a mecha fishbowl. Each Prospector has their own interesting set of traits and abilities they can use to contribute to the team’s success (or demise). Ion, the four-armed alien can use his brawn to damage the hulls of ships just by smacking them with his fists, while Venture the robot serves as a great starter character since they don’t require oxygen to survive, regenerate health faster, and get warned when enemies are behind them.
I’ve had a lot of fun trying each one out to see which suits my playstyle, with my favorite being Mophs the winged, bird-like humanoid that can turn invisible, which is absolutely invaluable when boarding enemy ships to perform subterfuge. But as is the case with lots of stuff in Wildgate, the biggest issue is simply a scarcity of options, because it doesn’t take long at all to unlock and try each of them out. Seeing the same handful of familiar characters aboard each ship just feels a bit underwhelming in an endless galaxy of possibilities.
It could have some real legs with updates, but I already feel like I’ve seen just about everything right now.
Though matches have been a lot of fun to play repeatedly the past few days, with only one game mode, seven characters, four models of starship, and a handful of weapons to use, it all feels a tad thin at the moment. If developer Moonshot Games comes out the (wild)gate swinging with regular updates that introduce new weapons, enemies, characters, and ships in the fashion of something like Helldivers 2, then I can definitely see Wildgate having some real legs. But, at the moment, it feels like just a taste of what will hopefully be a game with a lot more variety down the road, and I already feel like I’ve seen just about everything that can happen across the matches I’ve played so far. There’s still a ton of fun to be found in getting better at winning, and knowing what I know now about the types of dungeons to be found and loot to be claimed has made me a lot more strategic with how I play, but I stopped being surprised by things I saw out in the Reach pretty quickly.
I’ve got plenty more of Wildgate to play before my final review – I didn’t even talk about ship-to-ship combat yet, for example, since I’m still in the process of trying all of the different vessels out – but so far it’s been a lot of fun to play with friends marred by much less fun matches when on matchmade teams (the amount of slurs I heard shouted over the proximity voice chat on day one was frankly startling). I’m hopeful the Moonshot will be quick to add new content, because there’s the makings of a great live-service game here, and I’m eager to dive back in.
In Quarantine Zone: The Last Check, you play one of the hazmat-sporting goons at a government checkpoint during a zombie apocalypse. Your job is to let refugees through the gate one by one, and appraise them for evidence of infection. You know the kind of thing: hidden bite marks, weird heartbeats, high temperatures, people ripping your face off without showing appropriate documentation, etcetera.
Donkey Kong Bananza is stuffed full of amazing little details and references, and thanks to some chatter online, we’ve discovered yet another incredible detail that takes more than a little soul from… well, Dark Souls.
On social media, we spotted a thread from the donkeykong subreddit being shared which revealed to us that, if you die in DK’s latest adventure — whether it be to an enemy, in the lava, or by taking too much damage in any of the standard layer levels (not the challenges) — DK’s corpse will be left waiting in a mound of gold.
Live the cosy life of a Hobbit in the peaceful corner of Bywater.
Get some tips and guidance on living life at a Hobbit’s peaceful pace.
The pies are cooling on the sill, the garden is being tended, and tea is nearly ready, dearest Hobbits. Our cosy life-sim, Tales of the Shire, launches on July 29 for Xbox Series X|S.
Based on the beloved fantasy books ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ by J.R.R. Tolkien, your time in this peaceful corner of The Shire will quietly unfold between the great epics of Middle-earth, as you arrive in the catchment of Bywater after hitching a ride with a grey-bearded steward. It’s enough to make a Took misty-eyed, and we cannot wait to welcome you to this quaint town to experience everything it has to offer.
We know it can be quite daunting starting off in a new town, so we’ve put together some helpful tips to help you settle in.
Take as Much Time as You Need Transforming Your Hobbit-hole into a Hobbit Home
Beyond your perfectly round door, things could do with, well, some tender loving care. You’ve inherited a Hobbit-hole from a generous relative, who, in her old age, has boarded up many of the rooms to save time on upkeep. As you settle into Bywater and forge deeper bonds with your neighbours, you’ll open new doorways, unlock grand rooms and cosy nooks, and discover undeveloped gardens full of good, tilled earth.
Perhaps you’re a bibliophile who’d like to steadily build your very own library, or maybe you’d like to set up a crafts room with a loom. In Decoration Mode, time holds still, meaning you can take as long as you like making sure everything is just where it should be, with grid-free placement.
Above all, a Hobbit-hole means comfort: artfully panelled walls, floors nicely tiled and carpeted, and an inviting hearth to sit by as you settle into your homestead. Take a short stroll to see Willow Took, Bywater’s local carpenter, who can help with renovating your home into something the whole town would envy.
Tip: Cook your neighbours their favourite meals and they’ll thank you with extra decoration rewards. The more delicious the dish, the sweeter the reward.
Your Garden Awaits! Just Be Sure to Have a Watering Can on Hand
Like your home, your garden is fully customisable. Plant fruits, vegetables, spices and flowers across your garden beds, then watch them grow into a veritable bounty for your home-cooked meals. Plants are precious things and require regular tending, though rainy days will save you a trip with the watering can.
When you haven’t got your hands in the soil, there’s plenty of decorating to be done. You can place many of youritems in your garden, if that’s where you think they’ll look best. Perhaps you’ll set up a daybed for some quiet respite or create a beautiful outdoor table setting for your next dinner party.
Tip: Bywater gardens love companion planting! Your garden will flourish by planting the right flowers and ingredients close to each other.
You Can Buy All Sorts at Bywater’s Village Centre, Though Trading is a Big Part of the Community too
Bywater is well-known for its busy market stalls, where you can buy and trade for fine wares, well-made clothes, fresh produce and more. Hobbits put care and craft into all things, and you’ll find plenty of goods that have been lovingly tooled and are built to last.
Shopkeeper, storyteller and obsessive collector of mathoms (the Hobbit term for trinkets with no use, but you never want to throw away), Nora Smallburrow runs the Bywater Store — the go-to place for stylish attire — with her brother, Fosco, an expert tailor (and perfectionist). Hobson Hornblower, a kindly fellow with a penchant for telling tall tales, sells interesting spices and unusual items like cloves, lemons, raisins and salt. If you’re thinking about dinner, say hullo to Young Tom Cotton at his family’s stall and pick up some mutton for a hearty stew.
Your neighbours might also be on the lookout for particular items. Swap your parsley for a jar of fragrant plum jam or give your milk to Rosie Cotton and she’ll curdle it into cheese.
Tip: Unlock better trades by developing closer bonds with your new friends and neighbours — even the grumpy ones!
The Fields and Forests Are Full of Riches — If You Know Where to Look
Nuts, berries, herbs and mushrooms are free — for those willing to explore a little. Stock up your pantry by foraging for seasonal items like just-ripe peaches dropped from their tree, bright chanterelle, and bunches of hedge mustard which grow along the Great Road and all the way back to Bree.
Collecting some juicy berries for a fresh summer tart or greens to add to a harvest pie? Delphinium Brandybuck, an avid herbalist and healer who lives at the edge of the forest and knows much about its bounties, might be able to help you find what you’re looking for.
Tip: Keen foragers should also keep a close eye on the butterflies fluttering by — when closely followed, they’ll serve as a helpful guide to new discoveries.
Secret Fishing Spots Abound, But You’ll Need to Win Over One of Your Neighbours
Nestled by a tranquil waterway, there’s ample opportunity to hook a tasty catch for your next meal in this corner of The Shire. Watch the bobber closely and carefully reel in your line once you have a bite from the quaint little jetty at Old Ruby’s Pond.
There are several quiet streams and bubbling brooks for you to cast your lure, though you’ll need to befriend Old Noakes, Bywater’s master angler, to unlock those secret fishing spots. He may be cantankerous (given a chance, he’d start an argument with an empty room), but he’ll play a vital role in teaching you how to fish. Become close enough with Old Noakes and he might even make you a trophy of your best catches to sit pride of place in your Hobbit-hole.
Tip: Fishing takes a bit of skill! Reel in your catch by pulling in the opposite direction that the fish is swimming. You’ll need to pause reeling every now and then to ease some of the tension on the line.
Invites for Good Food Go a Long Way
A slice of jam sponge for elevenses, a Sackville pasty for afternoon tea — the way to a Hobbit’s heart is through their stomach, so make sure to invite your neighbours over for second breakfast or a nice spot of lunch.
To begin, you’ll have access to a few cooking stations in your kitchen, where you’ll learn how to properly prepare meals that cover several core tastes: sweet, sour, spicy, salty and bitter.
Of course, hosting Hobbits is no easy task, and your neighbours will be paying close attention as they rate your food. As you develop your culinary skills and gain access to more equipment to chop, boil, fry and pickle, you’ll need to learn about their many likes and dislikes to satisfy their unique cravings. Be it smooth or crunchy,textures make taste even better.
You’ll know if you’ve made a meal to remember if you receive a thoughtful gift or another special reward. Well-mannered Hobbits give gifts, after all, and presents are freely given and accepted in Bywater.
Tip: Hobbits are a sociable bunch. If you forget to invite one of your neighbours over for mealtime, you’ll be sure to hear about it.
This all might sound like a lot to remember when everything is so new and different, but worry not. Bywater’s small, growing community will have you feeling right at home. Each new day brings so much to discover in The Shire — and as you’ll soon find out, there’s plenty more awaiting you. We look forward to seeing you on July 29. We’ll have the kettle ready.
Welcome Home, Hobbit! – From the creative studio, Wētā Workshop, live the cosy life of a Hobbit in the wonderfully serene landscape of the Shire. Discover, decorate, and share in this idyllic corner of Middle-earth. Join friendly Hobbits and familiar faces awaiting your arrival in Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game.
Create your own Hobbit as you set forth in Bywater. Though not yet established as an official village in Hobbiton, play a part in helping the quaint town flourish. Greet comfort at the door as you decorate your own Hobbit hole, tend to your garden, fish at the clear ponds, forage wild fruits and herbs, or trade with townsfolks. Prepare homemade meals to share with fellow Hobbits and foster relationships.
With much to see and lots more to eat, enjoy days of splendor in the picturesque forests, lakes, and pastures.
Unwind in the place where what matters most are all the little things. Help bring the community together to achieve village status in Bywater. Experience delight in Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game.
Key Features:
Welcome Home, Hobbit – Play as a Hobbit, directly out of J.R.R Tolkien’s beloved books! Personalise your appearance and brandish your best Hobbit attire with an array of customisations. Decorate your own Hobbit home and transform the cosy space with grid-free placement to position furniture home décor to your liking. Discover the wonders each new day brings to Bywater as you settle into your serene homestead for much needed rest.
Food Is Love – No Hobbit’s day is complete without food. Fish, garden, and forage to stock up the pantry with the fruits of your labour. Harvest for seasonal crops and flowers as time passes in your homestead. Enjoy the warmth of the kitchen and show off your culinary chops with recipes for mealtimes. Partake in second breakfast or host a dinner party with fellow Hobbits. Share meals with invited guests to create new relationships.
Explore Bywater – Explore the outdoors to discover secret glades and lost treasures of the Shire. Experience the ever-changing weather that affect daily routines and seasonal surprises based on time of year. Gain rewards through your story progression. Meet iconic characters and familiar Hobbit families to trade for upgrades to skills, clothes, home, and more. Join club missions to complete daily activities and help gain official village status in Bywater.
Last week, we asked you to share the friendly and villainous side characters of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
youarerexamshares Neil with his gun raised moving through shadows
EmperorHalshares Tomorrow tossing an apple in the air
carletto0809shares a nightmarish version of Dollman
sorathlunashares Fragile playfully posing for a picture
calisarah1998shares Rainy basking in the nighttime air
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme, or be inspired by other great games featuring Photo Mode. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Vacation SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on August 6, 2025
Over the next two weeks, we’re heading on vacation. Share places and spaces from the game of your choice that you would love to vacation at using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
A planned crossover event between Hitman and MindsEye has been delayed indefinitely, while developer Build a Rocket Boy says future updates “may be less frequent”.
We apologise that the release of the Hitman x MindsEye Mission, originally scheduled for July, has been postponed to a later date. We look forward to delivering this exciting crossover when the time is right and will provide further updates as soon as we’re able.
The update also says “Moving forward, updates may be less frequent, but with the aim for each to bring more meaningful changes.” Updates are still planned for August and September, but the developer says that these are focused on performance improvements and bug fixes rather than content.
Originally, the Hitman crossover was planned to bring Agent 47 to Redrock City, though it’s unclear exactly what that would have entailed. The crossover came about thanks to Hitman publisher IO Interactive also publishing MindsEye, but no details on the content update have been shared since its announcement in June.
MindsEye’s release thus far has been a disaster for Build a Rocket Boy. The game originally came with high expectations thanks to its studio being led by former Rockstar North employees, including GTA co-creator Leslie Benzies. However, the game itself received poor reviews (including a 4/10 from us) and mixed Steam reviews that largely criticized the game’s poor performance, bugs, glitches, and other major issues.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
You ever wake up and think it’ll be a normal day only to discover that literally everything you thought you knew about reality is wrong? That’s what happened to me today when I woke up, sat down to work, and then read a post stating that Mario and Peach are apparently “good friends” as opposed to, I dunno, anything else I might have thought they were to one another.
“Princess Peach and Mario are good friends and help each other out whenever they can.”
This aggravating discovery comes from the Nintendo Today app. The post that originally included this information is now gone due to the app’s regularly updating, but has since been preserved in several spots including by Twitter user @KirPinkFury, who originally surfaced it online. The post, which was a profile on Princess Peach, included the sentence, “Princess Peach and Mario are good friends and help each other out whenever they can.” Good friends, you say? What about all those times they definitely smooched?
“Look,” you might say, “they could be good friends and in a relationship. It’s important to be friends with the person you love also.” Sure, you’re correct. But who’s describing a relationship like that? I don’t go around referring to my husband as my “good friend”. That would probably confuse several people, including him! The only conclusion I can come to here is that Nintendo is trying to distance Mario and Peach from the previous very, very, very direct ways in which it indicated they were, at minimum, romantically interested.
Nintendo admittedly has been deeply inconsistent about this over the years. Peach has been referred to as Mario’s “special someone,” they’ve been shown on multiple occasions to have some level of romantic interest in one another. Nintendo’s Yoshiaki Koizumi has directly said in an interview before that Mario “carries a torch” for Peach. Nintendo celebrated them as a romantic couple, pink hearts and all, for Valentine’s Day at least once. And Mario even tried to propose to her at the end of Super Mario Odyssey. Though she refused at the time, she had also just gone through a wild ordeal with Bowser where he tried to kidnap her and force her into marrying him. If I had just been kidnapped into an attempted forced marriage and then rescued and my boyfriend tried to propose to me the second I was rescued, I’d probably tell him to take a hike too.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Game
