Call of Duty Franchise Surpasses $40 Billion Lifetime Revenue Following Launch of Modern Warfare 4

The Call of Duty franchise has now surpassed $40 billion in lifetime franchise revenue in the wake of the launch of its 23rd mainline entry, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which launched last Friday.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma made the announcement on her X account, posting a graphic showing a bunch of favorable review scores for Modern Warfare 4 with the caption, "One of the most celebrated Call of Duty games in its 24-year history, and now $40B in lifetime franchise revenue. An incredible milestone. Congrats to the Activision team. And to the players, thank you for being with us."

The staying power of the franchise has been remarkably impressive, even if some years' releases are more liked by critics and players than other years. The brand-new Modern Warfare 4 seems to be well-received so far; IGN hasn't finalized its review yet, but reviewer Simon Cardy says, "Modern Warfare 4’s campaign made me feel something for the series again" and "its expansive behind-enemy-lines mission that borrows most of its ideas from the DMZ mode is a real highlight."

For context, Grand Theft Auto 5 alone has pulled in over $10 billion over the past 13 years, and the imminent GTA 6 is estimated to clear $5.2 billion by the end of its first week on sale.

Call of Duty will soon expand beyond just games, however, as Peter Berg's Call of Duty movie is due out in theaters on June 30, 2028 and will explore "the cost of war" for its characters.

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Phantom Blade Zero Global Release Times and Preload Details

S-Game has finally revealed exactly when you can play Phantom Blade Zero, its upcoming action game with graceful, beautiful combat.

Phantom Blade Zero, which features martial arts movie star Donnie Yen, is scheduled for release on October 29, 2026, for PC and PS5, and here’s exactly when you can get your combos in, no matter what platform you play on.

In the meantime, check out the IGN Phantom Blade Zero review. Our 9/10 review called it “an unbelievably smooth action game filled with memorable boss fights, compelling combat, and limitless swagger.”

Phantom Blade Zero global release times:

As I said above, Phantom Blade Zero officially comes out on October 29, but what time you’ll get access depends on where you live.

Here are the release times by city:

• Los Angeles: 7pm PDT (October 28)
• Mexico City: 8pm CST (October 28)
• Bogota: 9pm COT (October 28)
• New York: 10pm EDT (October 28)
• Brasilia: 11pm BRT (October 28)
• Accra: 2am GMT (October 29)
• London: 2am BST (October 29)
• Warsaw: 3am CEST (October 29)
• Cape Town: 4am SAST (October 29)
• Kyiv: 4am EEST (October 29)
• Beijing: 10am CST (October 29)
• Seoul: 11am KST (October 29)
• Tokyo: 11am JST (October 29)
• Melbourne: 1pm AEST (October 29)
• Auckland: 3pm NZDT (October 29)

Phantom Blade Zero preload date and times:

If you want to get your game ready, here’s what time Phantom Blade Zero is available to preload onto your PS5 or PC, starting on October 26:

• Los Angeles: 7pm PDT (October 26)
• Mexico City: 8pm CST (October 26)
• Bogota: 9pm COT (October 26)
• New York: 10pm EDT (October 26)
• Brasilia: 11pm BRT (October 26)
• Accra: 2am GMT (October 27)
• London: 2am BST (October 27)
• Warsaw: 3am CEST (October 27)
• Cape Town: 4am SAST (October 27)
• Kyiv: 4am EEST (October 27)
• Beijing: 10am CST (October 27)
• Seoul: 11am KST (October 27)
• Tokyo: 11am JST (October 27)
• Melbourne: 1pm AEST (October 27)
• Auckland: 3pm NZDT (October 27)

Phantom Blade Zero install size and PC specs

Phantom Blade Zero clocks in at a hefty 145GB and you’ll need a reasonably powerful PC to run it. Here are the official specs:

Minimum:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10/11 (64bit required)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
• DirectX: Version 12
• Additional Notes: 1080p / 30 FPS with upscaling enabled. SSD installation required.

Recommended:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10/11 (64bit required)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-10600K / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB / AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB
• DirectX: Version 12
• Additional Notes: 1440p / 60 FPS with upscaling enabled. SSD installation required.

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Phantom Blade Zero Review

Phantom Blade Zero has spent years looking almost too good to be true, especially coming from a studio that's best known for its mobile games. That’s why it's just about the biggest compliment I can pay it that after 50 hours performing picture-perfect kung fu, it's exactly as fun to play as it looks. This effortlessly smooth action game has some of the most satisfying and well-tuned combat I’ve played in a long time, a surprising number of secrets to discover and quests to complete in each of its beautiful levels, and a neverending supply of clever encounters full of unbelievably awesome moments. Its convoluted story and occasional performance issues may not live up to that incredible action, but it nails just about everything else, and there were only a handful of moments where I wasn’t absolutely thrilled to be slicing my way through the ranks of the Wulin.

Phantom Blade Zero plays like something straight out of a wuxia epic. As a metal-as-hell martial artist of mysterious origins with only 66 days left alive to exact your revenge, you set out on an odyssey across the ruined lands of the Phantom World, facing off against all manner of beast and badass along the way. The story here isn’t Phantom Blade Zero’s strong suit as it tries to do a bit too much, shoving in a whole bunch of mystical jargon, dozens of characters, and a needlessly complex timeline, very little of which ultimately pays off anyway. In the first couple hours alone, so much time is spent toggling back and forth between present day, several years ago, several months ago, and several days ago that I was exhausted by all the exposition before I’d even faced my first real boss fight. That said, there are enough likeable characters along the way, especially your unflappable hero named Soul, that I was usually able to forgive it for occasionally wasting my time with unnecessary flashbacks and lengthy explanations.

Besides, you’ll be spending most of your time exploring the world and squaring off against enemies big and small, and it’s pretty clear that Phantom Blade Zero wants you to spend most of your attention on this part of the adventure. And that’s a good thing, too, because by God is it good. It only took a couple minutes for the precise parry and dodge mechanics to feel natural, and the nuanced but not-overly-complex system of weapons, combos, special abilities, and upgrades are rolled out at an extremely smart pace, all of which are easy enough to slip into like a tailored set of flowing wuxia robes. I’m a complete snob when it comes to the feel and pacing of combat in these types of games, so the fact that this immediately felt like reuniting with an old friend made it instantly compelling, and it’s one of those intangible things that’s very hard to get right.

Even more impressive is that not only does the combat feel good right away, it does so across dozens of weapons, each with their own unique moveset. This game that doesn’t just encourage you to change up your weapon loadout at regular intervals, it actually requires you to mix things up since swapping your active melee weapon is one of the ways you can restore your posture meter with a single button press. And since many enemies, particularly bosses, can instantly drain your posture with certain attacks, you’ll be swapping between different options with regularity, forcing you to commit multiple movesets and special abilities to memory. Conveniently, Phantom Blade Zero makes it extremely easy for you to reclaim and reallocate points invested in leveling up weapons, so there’s rarely any reason to stick with a set loadout anyway – especially since you always seem to find the exact tool you need right before entering an area or encountering a boss where it would come in handy. For example, I noticed that I found a water cannon weapon only a few feet away from an area that led to a fire-based boss. Nice.

Combat feels good right away, even across dozens of unique weapons.

Beyond that, you’ll unlock a bunch of additional tools like grappling hooks and bows, which have utility both in combat encounters and outside of them since you can use them to reach certain parts of the map or break through barriers that are otherwise impassable. There are also trinkets that offer interesting buffs, like a significant damage increase when you’re at full health, and a skill tree with perks that let you do things like execute a dodge while in mid-air or increase the number of healing items you can carry. There’s a surprising amount of depth to the things you can upgrade and the ways to customize exactly how your Wulin warrior does his thing, and I spent much more time than I typically do in these kinds of games just testing out different weapons and swapping my equipment around as a result. At the very least, it’s worth doing so just to see the unique execution animations when you finish off trash enemies.

You’ll have plenty of time to try them all out as you get your steps in across Phantom Blade Zero’s eight maps, too. Each one is filled with foes to take down, side quests to complete, chests to loot, and secrets to discover. A surprising amount of the places to go and people to meet are completely missable, including the entirety of a very cool questline that sees you getting trained by none other than Donnie Yen as the mysterious gold-masked man (which is actually one of PBZ’s strongest subplots). While most of the side quests are pretty straightforward missions to go somewhere and collect some stuff for a small reward, they gave me more reasons to spend time exploring every nook and cranny, which I was happy to do. And unlike lots of modern games filled with icons on the screen telling you exactly where to go and what to do, Phantom Blade Zero instead makes use of hand-drawn maps that only give you a vague idea of your location in relation to key landmarks, allowing you to explore and fill in the gaps on your own.

If there’s one thing that consistently mucks up this journey, it’s that Phantom Blade Zero suffers from some pretty bad geometry. Soul gets caught on surfaces all the time, and even the tiniest bumps in the road can stop him dead in his tracks, which is pretty hilarious for a guy who can jump 40 feet in the air while doing 19 backflips. Not only that, there are invisible borders all over the place that make exploration janky at times, especially when platforming sections ask you to get to a specific ledge, only for you to discover there’s an invisible wall and you fall to your death. I died nearly 200 times over the course of my playthrough, and roughly half of those deaths were me falling into a pit or getting caught in the environment until I was able to get myself killed or reload my save file. In one case, I even lost about 20 minutes of progress when my supposed martial master couldn’t escape from some bushes. Oh, and enemies occasionally get stuck in the environment too, which just makes fights where it happens feel so lame.

Despite that, Phantom Blade Zero’s superpower – the magic trick it performs time and time again – is its way of making you feel like you’re the only person in the world badass enough to withstand its utterly insane flurry of swords against godlike monsters like it’s nothing. The truth is that the melee dance of combat encounters is just so finely tuned, with every attack telegraphed just enough to give you exactly the time you need to react, aided by an almost imperceptible musical rhythm that grants you a certain level of precognition for what’s going to happen next. Once I synced up with its tempo, I started anticipating attacks before I consciously registered them, leading me to perfectly block some lightning-quick attack I hadn’t seen before. There’s nothing specifically special about my reaction time or skill with action games – rather it's a testament to how incredibly well-balanced and smartly designed these unbelievably sick fights are. It’s without question the thing Phantom Blade Zero does best, and it’s an illusion I fell for repeatedly, from the opening sequence all the way to the final battle.

I played on the hardest difficulty, and the tuning consistently felt exactly right.

Something I admire about Phantom Blade Zero’s difficulty is how consistently it feels exactly right – not too unforgiving, but it rarely lets you feel like you aren’t in danger of getting your butt kicked. I’m typically someone who relishes a challenge from games like this and so played Phantom Blade Zero on its hardest difficulty exclusively, but found myself beating just about every major boss fight in two or three tries, plus a good chunk that I cleared in one go – and I didn’t mind that one bit! It meant that I rarely saw enough of a boss to know every tool in their murder belt, and refreshingly made me feel like the one to be feared rather than the other way around. It’s pretty damn cool to enter a room and watch a 10-foot-tall badass with an eight-pack swing around a blade and think, “oh, man. This guy’s totally screwed.”

Part of the way this Goldilocks level of difficulty is achieved is due to the interesting decision to not make you repeat phases of a boss fight that you’ve already cleared. If you get through a first phase that just makes the bad guy mad and then get killed after he turns into an even more hulked-out psycho, you’ll pick back up at the top of that second phase. I’ve been known to get annoyed at having to replay the first phase of a boss fight a dozen times just to get another run at the more challenging part, to the point where multi-phase boss fights in general can get on my nerves these days. By removing this annoyance entirely, it got rid of a lot of potential friction with some of these encounters

It also allows for more freedom in how these encounters are designed, like moments where a boss uses a cheap move that one-shots you instantly if you get hit by it. Normally, including insta-kill moves like that is a good way to send me into a rage, but because my progress was almost never set back far enough to bother getting mad about, I felt a lot more lenient toward that kind of thing. I mean, let’s face it, that crazy attack where you get impaled on a giant spear, then set on fire and smashed face-first into the floor probably should kill you right away, so it’s pretty neat that Phantom Blade Zero found a way to make a devastating moment like that exciting rather than irritating.

It’s also incredibly impressive that throughout the 50 hours it took me to reach credits, as I fought dozens and dozens of bosses, I was continually surprised by the creative enemies it threw at me. Sure, there’s the occasional big-guy-with-a-big-axe or dude-with-sword-you-swear-you-fought-already, but these are by far the exception, not the rule. At one point I found myself wearing a lion dancer mask, jumping around on poles to collect heads of lettuce to power up my fire blast, and in another section I fought a posse of warriors who worked together as one unit to throw preposterously intricate attacks my way – the main threat to my life there was getting caught with my guard down because I was too busy cackling. The boss fights are so consistently interesting, memorable, and numerous that I felt utterly compelled to seek out each and every one of them, which led me to turn this first playthrough into a full-on completionist run to avoid FOMO.

When I previewed Phantom Blade Zero a little over a month ago, one of my primary concerns was how it would perform, and thankfully the version I played for this review had a far more consistent performance. The framerate was much steadier, with only a few times I can recall ever noticing issues during combat. That said, there’s one map in particular where the framerate was consistently pretty terrible, specifically on a part of the map where something seems to not be working right. This feels like the type of thing that could pretty easily be identified and fixed, so I’d be surprised if a patch doesn’t arrive at or shortly after launch, but it’s worth shouting out since I suspect there are other lingering issues hiding about.

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Magic: The Gathering's Top 12 Most Powerful Commander Precons Of All Time

Magic: The Gathering is a fantastic card game, but the Commander format has given it even more legs.

It revolves around a central Commander that helms your deck, giving it a ton of personality as players gravitate towards their favorite legendary creatures to build around.

Wizards of the Coast finally recognized the format in 2011, beginning a deluge of preconstructed decks that are playable right out of the box. We’ve got a full list of them, but for now, we’ve narrowed down our top 12.

These aren’t presented in any real order, but let us know which ones you’ve played!

The Most Powerful Magic: The Gathering Commander Precons

Draconic Domination - Commander 2017

The Ur-Dragon still commands a high fee, and the 10/10 standard-bearer of this five-color precon is a beneficiary of the Eminence keyword. It drops the cost of Dragon spells by 1 mana, and then, when it is on the field, your dragons essentially multiply as they attack.

It’s far and away the most powerful preconstructed Dragon deck, but if you’re looking for cheaper alternatives, my first deck was Draconic Destruction from the Commander starter decks, and Temur Roar is a great three-color dragon deck with upgrade potential, too.

Counter Blitz - Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy

All the Final Fantasy decks were great, but Counter Blitz stands ahead of the others for the counter-switching shenanigans it could lead to.

Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian, lets you move counters around, but the type of counter isn’t specified. There are four Summon creatures in the deck that you could essentially keep around forever with the right counter shuffling.

The deck also contains some great reprints, like Three Visits and Farewell, while Yuna is a great Commander in her own right.

Necron Dynasties - Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40K

This mono-black Warhammer deck costs a pretty penny these days, with its Commander, Szarekh, able to mill cards to put more creatures into your hand.

Personally, I prefer to use Imotekh the Stormlord as my Commander, though, letting you create token creatures as you use recursion and power up a creature during combat.

Out of the Tombs is awesome, too. It lets you risk milling yourself out, but can give you a whole host of board presence in the late game. Better yet, this deck is expected to be reprinted soon.

Mutant Menace - Universes Beyond: Fallout

I hate this deck. It’s a pain to deal with, causing plenty of mill and life loss for the whole table, but there’s no denying it’s effective.

The Wise Mothman, its Commander, dishes out rad counters and then grows in power as those counters mill cards and wound your opponents.

Strong, the Brutish Thespian, can even add life from radiation, making a great mechanic (at least for you), even more useful.

Endless Punishment - Duskmourn

A deck that’s so effective at dealing damage it can make Commander matches take half as long to complete, Endless Punishment is a great deck that gets even better if you swap out Valgavoth with Master of Pain.

This 5/5 stops opponents from gaining life, has Menace, and turns the mana cost of every first spell of a player’s turn into damage against another player. Given how expensive spells get as the match wears on, that can be a big, big hit.

Reprints of Vial Smasher the Fierce and Witch’s Clinic were welcome, too. You can also score Endless Punishment as part of the Duskmourn Commander Deck bundle at Amazon, which is currently down to $189.20 for four decks (dropping from $242.97).

Sliver Swarm - Commander Masters

Sliver Swarm, as the name suggests, is a deck that’s all about Slivers, a creature type that’s relatively minor on its own but buffs every other ally with the same type.

This five-color precon is a problem for everyone at the table, helmed by the Sliver Gravemother that can help bring cards back from the graveyard as attacking tokens. Oh, and it means you can have multiple copies of Legendary creatures, too.

The deck had fewer reprints than some, but it’s powerful - and ripe for upgrades if you can find some extra Slivers.

Eldrazi Unbound - Commander Masters

A colorless Eldrazi deck, this one puts Zhulodok, Void Gorger as your Commander and lets you enjoy double Cacade on spells with mana value 7 or higher - ouch.

Kozilek, the Great Distortion, is another Legendary Creature you can pick as your Commander. It costs a lot, but acts as a 12/12 with Menace and facilitates card draw.

It That Betrays was an awesome reprint, and I recently managed to find one myself to put in my Eldrazi Incursion upgrade (more on that later).

Vampiric Bloodlust - Commander 2017

There’s a reason that Edgar Markov remains the de facto vampire-type Commander in Magic: The Gathering. His Eminence ability, which triggers even if he’s in the Command Zone, means this 4/4 with First Strike and haste can create Vampire tokens as you cast spells of that type, and he empowers them with +1/+1 when he attacks.

Teferi’s Protection is here, too, with this being the kind of deck with no real weaknesses that’s easy to pilot as well.

Food and Fellowship - Universes Beyond: Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings Commander Decks were all solid, but Food and Fellowship wins out for its strength in just about every aspect. Sam generates Food tokens to gain life, then Frodo is tempted by the Ring as you consume them, with each of the Partner cards feeding into a cycle.

It’s not all Shire-friendly, either, with some true wrath coming in the form of Toxic Deluge, spot removal like Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares, and cards like The Gaffer to turn that lifegain into more card draw. A great, well-constructed deck.

Veloci-Ramp-Tor - Lost Caverns of Ixalan

The kind of deck that steamrolls many of the precons in recent years, Pantlaza, Sun-Favored helms this dinosaur offering and helps you bring more and more creatures into play with the Discover ability.

With cards like Wakening Sun’s Avatar being a non-dino board wipe and comically large beasts like Apex Altisaur, this deck is wild right out of the box.

Party Time - Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate

This Baldur’s Gate-flavored deck’s commander, Nalia de-Arnise, is a low-cost 3/3 that lets you case Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard spells from the top of your library.

It really doesn’t take long to build up a formidable force in early turns, letting you get a head start while your opponents are scrambling to find blockers. The deck is pretty expensive now, though.

Multiverse Reforged - Reality Fracture

A chaotic deck that can be built in multiple ways, Multiverse Reforged is helmed by Jace, Multiverse Architect. The ideal scenario here is to build up a bunch of tokens and then polymorph them into some of the deck's bigger threats, like the Ur-Sphinx, Ob Nixilis, the Ascended, and Darksteel Angel.

One of the best parts of this deck is that it includes a bunch of alternate versions of some of Magic's most iconic cards, like the exceptionally powerful Dack Fayden, Helping Hand and Avacyn, Angel of Horror.

Other Fun Decks To Check Out

The following might not be the most powerful, but I’ve enjoyed playing with them.

Heavenly Inferno - Commander 2011

Heavenly Inferno is one of the first Commander precons, and its strength lies in its flexibility. The Commander, Kaalia of the Vast, helps you bring creatures into play, whether they’re Angels, Demons, or Dragons.

Because of that, you can easily swap out a bunch of Angels and Demons for Dragons, or lean into two of them if you’d prefer. As with some others on this list, it can get out of hand pretty swiftly, and while there are a bunch of cards in here that can be swiftly removed because they don't fall into the relevant types, Kaalia remains fun to build around.

Eldrazi Incursion - Modern Horizons 3

An Eldrazi deck with five colors and a Commander that can copy spells and activated abilities for two generic mana, Eldrazi Incursion is great off the bat, but becomes positively vile with the right upgrades.

It’s probably not a deck for newcomers, though, because the sheer volume of triggers can feel overwhelming.

Tyranid Swarm - Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40K

I’ve had games that have been won because my Haruspex has gained so much power that it deals huge damage to opponents, or converted its power to mana for a big late-game push.

Magus Lucea Kane’s doubling up of X-cost spells, and the Swarmlord turning your creatures with counters into card draw, means there are some really fun strategies here - Tyranid Swarm is a deck that truly does feel like a ‘swarm’, and can give you big creatures to attack with, and plenty of tokens back to defend if you’re smart.

Riders of Rohan - Universes Beyond: Lord of The Rings

It might not be the flashiest deck since it relies on an awful lot of Human Knights in battles between Eldrazi monstrosities, Dragons, and spellcasters, but Riders of Rohan is a precon that’s very well put together.

Aside from a weakness against flying, it’s able to mobilize an army with frightening speed, and it grows with your aggression. I’ve seen it pop off many, many times, and it’s always something to behold.

Explorers of the Deep - Lost Caverns of Ixalan

This Simic (Blue/Green) deck is helmed by Hakbal of the Surging Soul, and uses the Explore mechanic to great effect, either ramping your lands, netting you creatures, or getting card draw.

It’s a Commander with a ton of value (I’m looking to squeeze him into another underwater-themed deck as we speak), but there’s also Kindred Discovery in the deck as well to get even more card draw from your Merfolk.

Jump Scare! - Duskmourn

There’s something about flipping cards face-up to surprise an opponent that feels very Yu-Gi-Oh, and I love Jump Scare (!) for that very reason.

Being able to flip a 15/15 Worldspine Wurm up is a great party trick, but there are other great cards in here like Ashaya, Soul of the Wild, and Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait. Just like Endless Punishment, Jump Scare! is also discounted as part of the Duskmourn Commander Deck bundle at Amazon, which is currently down to $189.20 for four decks (dropping from $242.97).

Great Commander Decks From 2026

Many of these decks are tricky to get your hands on thanks to limited printings, but there are some solid entrants from the Class of 2026.

Will these be remembered as fondly in the years to come? It's hard to say, but here are four decks we can recommend right now.

Dance of the Elements

A five-color precon all about Elemental creatures, Dance of the Elements isn't ideal for newcomers because it's all centered around ETB triggers and those can get out of hand swiftly.

Ashling, the Limitless, uses evoke to get big creatures out cheaper, and when they're sacrificed because of it, you can create a copy that costs you mana to keep around. If you'd prefer, Mass of Mysteries is a fun backup Commander that gives a lot of your creatures the myriad keyword so they attack around the table.

Lorehold Spirit

Secrets of Strixhaven came with five really fun precons, but Lorehold Spirit is arguably the best, incentivizing you to remove cards from your graveyard to build a spirit army.

Amassing all of those apparitions is particularly useful with the face Commander, Quintorius, History Chaser. This Planeswalker can give them all double strike and vigilance, meaning a big, game-ending swing.

Witherbloom Pestilence

Another offering from Secrets of Strixhaven, Witherbloom Pestilence is all about sacrificng cards to power up other creatures, and in Dina, Essence Brewer, it has a one-card engine to do both with relative ease.

Gyome, Master Chef is a nice inclusion as a sought-after reprint, as is Nether Traitor, and there are essentially a bunch of great cards to slot into any deck with access to green, black, or both.

Avengers Assemble

Universes Beyond continues to divide the Magic: The Gathering community, but this Avengers-themed deck is pretty solid.

It plays off of hero synergies, whether you've got Captain America being buffed as they enter, or Nick Fury reducing their cost, and is remarkably easy to play with.

Counter Intelligence/World Shaper - Edge of Eternities

OK, I’m cheating a little here, but both Edge of Eternities decks were great. Counter Intelligence is helmed by Kilo, Apogee Mind, and ramps up counters swiftly by proliferating every time it’s turned sideways.

World Shaper, on the other hand, is a deck I’ve had a lot of fun with. Szarel, Genesis Shepherd lets you play lands from your graveyard, and there are a ton of landfall effects that play into that, too.

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.

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The Best Deals Today: Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Persona 3 Reload, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, and More

A new weekend has arrived, and today, you can save big on Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Persona 3 Reload, Pikmin 4, The Adventures of Elliot, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Star Wars Zero Company, and more. Check out our top picks for Sunday, October 25, below.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 + Expansion Pass Bundle for $39.94

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. The expansive world, gripping narrative, incredible cast, and spectacular soundtrack are just a few of the things you can look forward to in this adventure. Walmart has a digital bundle of both the base game and the Expansion Pass (which includes Torna: The Golden Country) on sale for $39.94. If you have a Switch 2, you can then upgrade your copy to the Switch 2 Edition for $10, which adds 4K and 60 FPS support. I cannot recommend this one enough, especially if you're a fan of JRPGs.

Persona 3 Reload (Switch 2) for $24.99

Persona 3 Reload Switch 2 copies are available at Amazon for $24.99 this weekend. This is a pretty great price for an expansive RPG that you can easily sink 100 hours into. The Switch 2 version had a rocky launch with frame pacing issues, but those have been resolved. Atlus also did add support for 60 FPS in docked mode.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales On Sale for the First Time

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales was released this June, and for the first time, you can pick up a copy of the game on sale! Amazon has copies for all platforms discounted to $44.99 today, which is a great price for this action-based HD-2D game. In our 8/10 review, we wrote, "The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales isn’t without blemishes, but it’s still a great action-adventure game that continues to prove why the HD-2D art style is among the best around."

Pikmin 4 for $39.88

Walmart has digital copies of Pikmin 4 for Nintendo Switch on sale for $39.88 today. This is just in time before next month's release of Pikmin 4 – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Dandori Academy. If you grab a copy today, you'll be able to score the Switch 2 upgrade pack for $9.99. That beats paying $70 for a copy any day.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake for $19.99

Maybe I'm just a fan of classic JRPGs, but Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is still one of my favorite RPGs released in the last few years. Square Enix beautifully remade this classic with the HD-2D art style that breathes new life into the adventure of Erdrick. Numerous quality-of-life features make this a game that's much more digestible than ever for genre newcomers, and the orchestrated soundtrack is a treat, too. Pick up a PS5 copy today for just $19.99.

Star Wars Zero Company for $47.97

Star Wars Zero Company is one of the biggest sleeper hits of the year, and you can save $12 off a physical copy today at Amazon. In our 9/10 review, we wrote, "Star Wars Zero Company is an excellent tactical game that does a fantastic job of slathering on the same cinematic look and feel we saw in Respawn's Star Wars Jedi games, incorporating strong characters and a storyline that's refreshingly centered on non-Force users and a non-traditional villain."

Clayface Steelbook Up for Pre-Order

The Clayface Limited Edition 4K Steelbook is now up for pre-order at Walmart. We gave the latest DC Studios film a 7/10 in our review, writing, "The film largely employs old school practical makeup effects to cleverly and gruesomely depict Matt Hagen’s transformations, with Tom Rhys Harries’ desperate, driven performance further selling the illusion of a man becoming a monster."

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Switch 2 Copies on Sale for $34.96

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for Nintendo Switch 2 is on sale today for $34.99 at Walmart. This physical version of the game includes an exclusive Zack Fair Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy card, which is perfect for fans and collectors alike. If you've yet to experience this massive RPG, take a chance and pick up a copy this weekend at a discount. It's pretty great exploring beyond Midgar on the Switch 2, just saying.

007 The Daniel Craig Collection 4K Blu-ray for $30.81

If you've been looking for a fantastic new 4K Blu-ray to add to your collection, look no further than 007 The Daniel Craig Collection. You're getting Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre all for $30.81. The unrated and extended version of Casino Royale is even included.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter for $39.99

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is the first entry in the beloved Trails series, and last year's remake brought new life to the original game. With 2nd Chapter out now, today is a great time to dive into this wonderful RPG series.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete for $15.39

It's been 21 years since the original release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. This 4K Remaster of the Complete edition packs in multiple bonus features, in addition to the revised cuts and over 25 minutes of added content throughout the movie. Advent Children is a critical piece in the Final Fantasy VII Remake project, and there's never been a better time to check it out.

Save on Mouse: P.I. For Hire Physical Copies

Amazon has Mouse: P.I. For Hire copies on sale for $24.99 this weekend. This was one of the most anticipated games of the year, with its 1930s cartoon-aesthetic very eye-catching. In our review, we wrote, "Mouse: P.I. for Hire nails the aesthetics of both the 1930s cartoons and the detective stories that inspired it, and it’s also an amusing boomer shooter that largely feels good as you’re playing it."

Save $10 off Ocarina of Time Remake Physical Copies

Similar to previous Nintendo Switch 2 physical releases, Amazon has The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time available for $59.99 right now. This deal will end on release date, which is quickly approaching with us now in October. If you've yet to experience this masterpiece or are diving back into Hyrule, the Ocarina of Time remake is sure to be one of the most talked-about games of 2026.

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Mass Effect Leaks Reveal Canceled BioWare Game's Story Would Have Accounted for 'All' Choices From Previous Games

Additional details about BioWare's canceled Mass Effect game have leaked online, revealing a story that would have taken choices from the Commander Shepard trilogy into account if EA hadn't shut down the studio.

The long-awaited and currently canned follow-up for the sci-fi RPG franchise, which was working under the title Mass Effect: Universe, was built around decisions made in the original games, according to comments shared by former technical director Romain Toutain during a recent livestream (via Kotaku). As more details about the project leak, there's no telling exactly how thorough this system would have been, but he did his best to give fans an idea.

"All the choices made in the first Mass Effect games were taken into account," Toutain said (translation via Bluesky user @loustica-lucia.bsky.social). "One of the reasons why it was called 'Mass Effect: Universe' is that you had so many choices. That you could plug your saves together to create parallel universes, to keep it simple. It's not exactly how it worked. You had different timelines, basically."

Mass Effect fans know how crucial the series' overarching story is, especially when it comes to Commander Shepard's first three installments in his/her fight against the Reapers. Outside of the ill-fated Andromeda follow-up that launched in 2017, players were able to carry major choices from each entry over to the next, resulting in a trilogy of games with a highly personalized story.

Relationships, major character deaths, and even the fate of an entire species are just a few of the ways Shepard can be steered to shape the galaxy, and although whether it was all worth it in the end is still up for debate, it seems Mass Effect: Universe would have offered an opportunity to right some wrongs. Toutain said they had plans for those who just prefer to experiment with the story and its many, many branches, too. He likened the freedom to "generate timelines" to Spike Chunsoft's 2016 video game, Zero Time Dilemma.

"You have no f**king idea just how great it was," he continued. Then, responding to a fan asking whether Mass Effect: Universe would have featured systems similar to what was found in Dragon Age: Inquisition and the series' lore-tailoring Keep application, he said, "kinda, yeah."

"It's more like, you can make decisions that might contradict things you've already done or thing you have to do, and so it would create plot 'points' in the timeline. I mean, that was the theory. It worked, in practice. I'll tell you about the tech one day because it was really exciting.

"We got worked up, f**k. Everything in the game. Everything was stateful, and at any time, you could stop the game – I mean you could pause it – and ask a system that solved logical equations, 'Is this valid?' And if it isn't valid, what conditions must be met for it to be valid?"

The ideas Toutain teased sound ambitious and complex, and unfortunately, they will likely never see the light of day. EA announced last week that it had shuttered the long-running RPG developer and canceled what would likely have been called Mass Effect: Universe, with additional plans for the franchise's future in games on hold, too. Fans have already erected a #SaveMassEffect movement in the aftermath, with a petition garnering an unreal 185,000 signatures at the time of this story's publication.

Other highlights from Toutain's stream include the revelation that the Reaper-like hand featured in recently leaked footage was named Billy, as well as the idea that the developers were hoping to craft a story that gave each player a completely unique experience. More information about what Mass Effect 5 would have been have also leaked in the days after BioWare's demise. Those details include a full trailer, as well as gameplay details that promised missions with "Hitman-style freedom." The Prime Video show, meanwhile, is said to still be in the works.

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Rumored Lucia Actress Goes Viral After Dodging Swarm of GTA 6 Comments During Livestream

Manni L. Perez, the actress long rumored to be playing Lucia in GTA 6, has gone viral after dodging a swarm of comments from Grand Theft Auto fans during a recent livestream.

Rockstar Games has refrained from confirming the vast majority of the cast of next month's new GTA game, but as if there was ever any doubt, that hasn't stopped ravenous fans from piecing a list together themselves. Perez is one name theorists have talked about for years, so she took a few minutes to let thousands of viewers get to know her while masterfully dodging a swarm of GTA 6 comments along the way.

Reaching a peak of more than 2,100 viewers on a six-month-old Instagram account with just nine posts, Perez spent her 12-minute livestream just talking about her life growing up in a "small, rural, redneck-y" town. She lives in a studio apartment with a dog, loves to cook, grew up driving trucks, and as far as everyone else is officially concerned, she definitely will not be the star of the so-called biggest video game of all time in a little less than a month.

Lucia aka Manni Perez went live on Instagram
by u/DMONEYDelano in GTA6unmoderated

"But yeah, no, I'm not rich. I'm a regular person," Perez said when responding to fans who assumed she was wealthy. "I live in a small studio apartment, which I love. I have my tiny, little itty-bitty kitchen, and it's just me and my dog. I do everything on my own, and I've done everything on my own for a very long time, and I love it, and I'm very grateful. I have a family that loves me, and I'm just feeling like I'm in a really good place, where I am in my life."

"I want a green truck," she said with a smile while ignoring the horde comments mentioning "Lucia" and "GTA 6." Some responded that, no, actually, she doesn't live alone, because she has Jason to keep her company. Others were subtler, asking if she'll be playing Rockstar's latest or if she's just "ready for next month." Despite the steady flow of responses begging her to confirm her alleged role – which would be guarded under a strict non-disclosure agreement, even if it were real – Perez only acknowledged users commenting about anything else.

Keep in mind that this all comes from years of clues gathered by fans, but Rockstar's lack of confirmation doesn't mean there's nothing to suggest Perez is playing Lucia in GTA 6. As others have highlighted, the actress has a history of live-action and voice roles. She has credits for single episodes of shows like Jessica Jones, The Blacklist, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Funnily enough, she also played a blackjack dealer in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Yeah ok bud
by u/sabertoothshock in GTA6unmoderated

Does she know
by u/Donkey_Don in GTA6unmoderated

Her place in Rockstar history may be given a bump when GTA 6 launches for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S next month, November 19. If you're wondering who might be playing Lucia's partner in crime, Jason, fans have long speculated that Modern Family and Grey's Anatomy actor Dylan Rourke filled the role, but he, too, has yet to be confirmed.

Who has been confirmed, whether Rockstar and any likely NDAs like it or not, is Stephen Root, who said he will be seen playing drug trafficker Brian Heder. Otherwise, we might need to wait until launch to see the full cast, so don't go sending messages to any actors just yet.

Fans may have tracked down the voice actors behind one of the biggest game launches of all time, but it's par for the course when it comes to Grand Theft Auto players. One fan spent three months charting planetary positions just to try and learn when trailer 3 would premiere (they were wrong). Another fan measured oxygen levels to try and achieve the same feat (they, too, were wrong).

Either way, GTA 6 marketing is continuing to ramp up. While we wait these last few precious weeks, you can see why some fans are expecting a sweep at The Game Awards 2026. You can also learn more about the love and care Rockstar put into its new video game, but don't forget to read up on IGN's interview.

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