Sultan’s Game is a dark, fascinating, and irrepressibly horny oddity

I predict I likely won’t have fully gotten to grips with the strategy of Sultan’s Game for several more hours, but since I’m considering investing that time – after a morning spent card shuffling and deciding whomst to bone and whomst to murder in its Steam demo – I’m compelled to spotlight it. It’s deeply imperfect and willfully obtuse, but also absolutely fascinating. I’ll ground you with a slightly wonky and dull allusion to Cultist Simulator, then guide you through in more or less the order I experienced it. As we progress, you may feel steadily more disorientated. It’ll be like a brewery tour I’ve somehow inherited control of by murder-boning the previous owners. Onward!

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Stellar Blade Is Coming to PC in 2025 — and the Dev Expects More Sales on Steam Than on PS5

Stellar Blade developer Shift Up has confirmed plans to release the PS5 action game on PC in 2025.

In a financial report, the South Korean company pointed to Black Myth: Wukong’s incredible success on Steam, adding it expects to see more sales on PC than on PS5.

The Sony Interactive Entertainment-published Stellar Blade launched exclusively on PS5 in April and sold more than one million copies in two months. IGN’s Stellar Blade review returned a 7/10. We said: “Stellar Blade is great in all of the most important ways for an action game, but dull characters, a lackluster story, and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics prevent it from soaring along with the best of the genre.”

Since then, Shift Up has continued to update the game and even added crossover DLC with other video game franchises, most recently Nier: Automata.

In its financial report, Shift Up said that after Stellar Blade’s launch “sales continued at a stabilized level,” although it failed to provide an updated sales figure. It did, however, provide revenue directly attributed to the game: 25.8 billion won (approx $18.5 million) during the quarter Stellar Blade came out (April to June), and 22.5 billion won (approx $16.1 million) during the company’s third quarter (July to September). That’s a total of 48.4 billion won (approx $34.6 million) as of the end of September.

For context, Shift Up’s other game, mobile action RPG Goddess of Victory: Nikke, makes more money than Stellar Blade (approx $51.9 million during the same two quarters).

“To enhance the IP value and maintain momentum, we have been consistently releasing content patches and updates, which has helped sustain the game’s popularity,” it said.

Shift Up plans to keep interest in Stellar Blade on PS5 going until the game launches on PC next year, what it calls the “platform expansion.”

“The release is being considered within 2025,” Shift Up confirmed. “Considering recent trends such as Steam’s expanding market share in the AAA game sector and the global success of Black Myth: Wukong, we expect the performance on PC to exceed that on consoles.”

In July, Shift Up raised 435 billion won ($320 million) in its first day of trade after an initial public offering. According to Bloomberg, that was the largest in the country for a gaming company since 2021, when PUBG maker Krafton Inc. raised $3.8 billion from its own IPO.

Shift Up has an unannounced multiplatform RPF codenamed Project witches in the works. It said it plans to launch it at some point after 2027, with more information due in the first half of next year. Given the success of Stellar Blade, it seems likely Shift Up is also considering a sequel.

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.

Here’s the updated system requirements for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and it looks like a big’un

A stupid inside joke I had with a housemate once was asking each other if we were “born in Chornobyl?” as a play on “were you born in a barn?” whenever either of us left the lights on before leaving the flat. This doesn’t make too much sense now I think about it, but such things rarely do. A more accurate jab, in hindsight, might have been “you been running S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl at full specs or something?”, because based on the upcoming FPS’s new system requirements, you’re going to need a reasonably laissez-faire attitude to literally any other concern in your life that doesn’t involve acquiring a notably juice-guzzling rig.

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The Best Black Friday TV Deals So Far (2024 Edition)

In prior years Black Friday used to be a small window of five days between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday and it would make sense to halt all of your shopping until that time arrived. That’s just not true anymore. Retailers are stretching out this sale event across all of November so that some of the best deals can happen weeks in advance.

Several retailers are advertising early Black Friday deals on TVs. However, I’ve only listed the TVs that I think are worth picking up right now. In other words, I don’t think they will drop in price any further and they will remain competitive with the best deals we’ll find on Black Friday. If there’s a TV deal that isn’t mentioned here, chances are I think you should wait and see if a better deal will pop up. After all, Black Friday is only a few weeks away. If you’re just window shopping and want to hold off on your purchases no matter what, at least keep these deals bookmarked in case they do happen to be the best deals, even on Black Friday proper.

65″ Samsung S90C 4K OLED Smart TV for $999.99

The Best Black Friday High-End TV Deal

Potentially the best Black Friday deal on a high-end OLED gaming TV is already available. Right now, Best Buy, Amazon, and Samsung are offering the 65″ Samsung S90C 4K OLED Smart TV for just $999.99 after an absolutely massive $1,600 price drop. This is an excellent TV to pair up with your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. In fact, some critics rate the S90C as a better gaming TV than the LG C4. RTINGS writes that “the LG (C4) is noticeably dimmer in Game Mode while the Samsung (S90C) isn’t, making the Samsung the better choice for gamers.”

50″ Hisense R6 4K Roku Smart TV for $138

The Best Black Friday Budget TV Deal

For all you budget TV shoppers, one of the best TV deals of 2024 is now live. As part of Walmart’s Early Black Friday Sale, Walmart is currently offering the 50″ Hisense R6 4K Roku TV for just $138. That’s the best price we’ve seen for a 50″ TV with native 4K resolution and a built-in Roku smart TV interface. The Hisense 50R6030N is a new 2024 model. This TV offers pretty much everything you really need at an unbeatable price. There will absolutely be plenty more TVs on sale during Black Friday, and if you’re looking for a different screen size or a specific feature, then you should wait. However, if you want a 50″ TV for the lowest price possible, you won’t find anything much better than this deal.

Note that this TV was extremely popular yesterday when the deal went live and sold out in a matter of hours. Unless you’re located in an obscure zip code, chances are it’s out of stock and unavailable at the moment. We have it listed here because there’s always a chance it will return prior to or on Black Friday. If not, at least you have a good baseline price point that you can use when checking the prices of other affordable 50″ TV deals.

75″ TCL S4 4K Roku TV for $378

The Best Black Friday Big Screen Budget TV Deal

Walmart’s other best budget TV deal is on this 75″ TCL S4 4K Roku TV for only $378. The S4 is TCL’s least expensive 4K TV lineup and even at its everyday retail price of $498 it represents a pretty strong value. At $120 off, it’s practically a steal. Aside from the much larger screen size, the TCL S4 is quite similar to the Hisense R6 mentioned above. It features a native 4K resolution, built-in smart TV interface, Motion Rate 120, and auto low latency mode for gaming.

This TV is also going out of stock quickly, but there are still plenty of zip codes where this TV is in stock for free shipping or in-store pickup. Will we see a cheaper 75″ 4K TV on Black Friday? I don’t think so.

85″ Hisense QD7 4K 144Hz QLED Smart TV for $799.99

The Best Black Friday Gaming TV Deal

Best Buy and Walmart have dropped the price on the new-for-2024 85″ Hisense QD7 4K Smart TV. Right now, you can get it for just $799.99 after a $400 instant discount. This is an excellent deal for a huge TV that can run games in 4K at up to 144Hz on your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X console. It costs hundreds of dollars less than every TV in our roundup of the best TVs for PlayStation 5. For those of you who picked up the new PS5 Pro, perhaps this will help alleviate the sting of spending $700 on a console.

The QD7 is one of Hisense’s newest TV releases and became available for purchase only a few months ago. It’s a gaming-oriented TV that’s a great option for anyone who owns a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X console and wants to be able to play games without compromise at a budget price point. This particular model of the 4K TV boasts an absolutely huge 85″ screen size, full-array LED backlighting, and QLED panel technology for a wider range of colors. It has two HDMI 2.1 ports each capable of up to 144Hz refresh rate. Other gaming-first features include variable refresh rate from 48Hz to 144Hz, auto low latency mode with MEMC, and AMD FreeSync Premium support. For watching movies and shows in HDR, the QD7 supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG formats. It adopts Google TV as its smart interface, which means any Android phone or tablet can be used as a remote control.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Wario Land-Inspired Platformer ‘Antonblast’ Scores A Physical Switch Release In 2025

“You’re gonna want in on this!”.

Following the delay of the Wario Land-style platformer Antonblast in October, Fangamer has now announced it will be releasing a physical Switch edition at some point in 2025.

The final product is subject to licensor approval and may differ from the mockup you can see on display below. You can sign up to Fangamer now to get notified about when this game is made available.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Opinion: No, Zelda: The Minish Cap’s Worst Sidequest Isn’t The Kinstones

Go figure.

I’ve banged the Minish Cap drum so many times by this point that my adoration for Link’s littlest adventure is old news. With today marking 20 years since this GBA gem landed in Europe, it felt too easy to sit down at my desk and gush over the tight six-dungeon structure, the brilliant puzzle design or the somehow still under-discussed soundtrack. I’ve been rambling on about these for the past two decades and a big birthday like this deserves something special.

It’s obvious what we should do, really. Let’s talk about the parts of the game that suuuuuck.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Disney Said to be Considering a Surprising Replacement for Bob Iger: EA CEO Andrew Wilson

Entertainment empire Disney needs a new CEO, and a new report suggests that a familiar face from the world of games could be in the running.

Andrew Wilson, the always impeccably dressed CEO of EA, is reportedly being considered for Disney’s top job. It’s a big move in the entertainment world, with potential ramifications for fans of Pixar and Marvel as well as The Sims, Battlefield, and Dragon Age. Iger’s current contract runs until 2026, so it could be a while before anyone actually needs to get new business cards printed.

IGN has reached out to EA for a comment on the story.

The report came from The Wall Street Journal, which added that Wilson is up against at least two other external candidates for the replacement of current CEO Bob Iger. Iger previously retired in 2020, but he barely had time to take up fishing before he returning in 2022 after his successor, Bob Chapek, was pushed out of the role.

As for Wilson, he’s notched up over 24 years with EA, with 11 of those as CEO. In the latest EA earnings call, Wilson revealed Apex Legends likely wouldn’t be getting a sequel, and that in his eyes, Bioware has returned to its strengths with Dragon Age. If you want to more about him, enjoy this snippet from his corporate biography.

“A native of Australia, Andrew enjoys playing golf and is a life-long surfer, proudly serving as the Chairman of the Board for the World Surf League. He is also a passionate martial artist, holding a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.”

Rachel Weber is IGN’s Managing Editor.