Today, November 5, marks 10 years to the day Battlestate Games unveiled its extraction shooter, Escape from Tarkov. And now, 10 days from its 1.0 release, the developer has revealed preorder and beta rewards.
Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore MMO mixture of first-person shooter / third-person shooter and role-playing gameplay. Players need to find a way out of the isolated Russian city of Tarkov, survive deadly hazards, and unearth the mysteries of the city. It’s been playable in early access form since making its debut in 2016, and it’s finally coming to Steam as part of the 1.0 launch on November 15.
For anyone thinking of preordering the shooter ahead of its November 15 release — or those who’ve already preordered it — players can get following awards:
Clothing set: USEC Legionnaire Olive
Clothing set: Bear Sumrak Reverse
PMC Dogtag: Immortal
Prayer Armband: Head, Eyes
Hideout Style: Echo of Battle
Shooting Target: Hatchling
Mannequin: poses
While those will be available to all who preorder, there’s also a handful of additional goodies for players who have the Unheard and Edge of Darkness (EOD) editions:
Gamma Container: Battle-worn
Hideout Style: Forgotten
Prayer Armband: Loot
Shooting Target: Ace of Spades
Unheard Edition owners also get:
Prayer Armband: SEBU KOMAR
PMC Dogtag: Acolyte
Information about the special PMC dogtag, unique armband, and customization for owners of the Edge of Darkness edition “will be announced later.”
“Today marks 10 years since the release of the very first Escape from Tarkov trailer. As the beta test comes to an end, we want to thank you for your support and for the opportunity to create a universe that has united players all over the world,” the team said. “Countless updates, TarkovTV episodes, and in-game events — none of this would have been possible without you, our players.
“On November 15, we will turn a new page together with you. In the meantime, we invite you to check out the rewards that will be available for preordering and participating in the beta test.”
It’ll be interesting to see how Escape from Tarkov measures up against the current extraction shooter darling, Arc Raiders. It has a peak concurrent player count of 354,836 on Steam, making it one of the biggest extraction shooters ever on Valve’s platform. Another key competitor could be Bungie’s upcoming Marathon.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Valor Mortis, the first-person action game set in an alt-history version of the Napoleonic wars, was announced earlier this year at Gamescom Opening Night Live. In its announcement and subsequent marketing, the developers have been clear about one big element of Valor Mortis: it’s a soulslike.
Sure, it’s a first-person game, which automatically makes it look radically different from any FromSoftware game or even the 2D soulslikes such as Hollow Knight, Nine Sols, and Blasphemous. But speaking to me at the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Wielkopolska, game director Radosław Ratusznik was hyperaware of the expectations that such a bold declaration would immediately attach to Valor Mortis. And he’s determined to do right by players while remaining committed to the perspective shift.
Valor Mortis is being developed by One More Level, the studio behind 2020’s Ghostrunner. Ratusznik tells me that the studio is largely made up of Souls game fans who badly wanted to tackle the genre, but knew they needed more development experience as a group first. This, he says, is what led to Ghostrunner, which is a first-person action game that, at least by our own estimation, was pretty great.
With one success under their belt, One More Level turned to Valor Mortis. Ratusznik says that the idea for gameplay came before the game’s setting – the team wanted something that would let them mix melee combat and firearms with the more magical mutant abilities. It just so happened that the game’s lead concept artist was also an historian with a lot of knowledge on Napoleonic Europe.
Which is how Valor Mortis ended up set during the Napoleonic Wars, featuring a monstrous Napoleon raising an army of undead mutants to rampage across Europe.
“I think, for many players, the Napoleonic era sounds really to be like… I don’t want to say unattractive, but with this silly uniform, something like that, they’re not treating it like something that is maybe attractive for them, and we wanted to change that a little bit,” Ratusznik says. “We think that this is a significant part of our history here in Europe, Napoleon as the emperor, and we want to tell the story, our own version about it. It’s not historically accurate. So we don’t want to educate players, of course, about the history, but we think that it’s something unique, something new for the players to play, to explore.”
You play as William, a British soldier who initially joined Napoleon’s army wooed by promises of a free Europe, but who is gradually coming to the realization that war is far from rosy. Unlike his fellow soldiers, William can control the nephtoglobin, the substance that prompts the undead mutation, and is able to retain his sanity while making use of its powers and fighting his way through the gruesome, warped battlefields left in Napoleon’s wake.
“The theme of horror is very important for us,” Ratusznik explains. “So it’s not even just these monsters that you are fighting. We are also telling the story about the war and how there are no winners, no true winners at war. That we are in the middle of this conflict, we will learn about each side of the conflict. So this is a story about the foreign soldier in the foreign army, in the foreign land, because we are exploring the eastern parts of Europe. We are not telling if it’s Poland or is it some other country. So it’s more like a universal story about soldiers in the war.”
Having played quite a bit of Valor Mortis at GIC, I can confirm that despite how silly the premise seemed to me initially, One More Level has indeed made something pretty unsettling. An image permanently burned into my memory is of a soldier in uniform, on all fours, leaping out at me like a dog from behind a pile of bodies. But instead of looking at me with his face, his head was contorted downward to put his large, ridiculous, fuzzy wig-hat out front, which had opened down the middle into a mouth full of teeth and was snarling at me as it attacked. Weird, startling, and very effective.
But whatever you think of the setting, the gameplay is fundamentally very souls. There’s a stamina meter to manage, poise meters on enemies to break with attacks and well-timed parries. When you die, you of course drop all the currency you’ve collected from enemies as you go and have to fetch it back, or lose it forever. And there are bonfires (in this case, lanterns) that serve as safe spots and checkpoints to restart from with each death. Valor Mortis is also quite difficult. I won’t pretend to be the best Souls player around (I’m decidedly middling) but I spent a good long while running up against the game’s first (I think) boss, which had two phases, summoned smaller enemies, and had an enormous attack radius. I died. A lot.
And yet, Ratusznik is on the defensive about whether his game qualifies as a Soulslike or not, in part because of the first-person perspective, but also because of the high expectations put on any game that purports to hail from that tradition by its many fans.
“I think that the genre is such a demanding thing that if you want to create a good thing for this demanding community, you need to be very well prepared,” Ratusznik says. “And we wanted to communicate it this way. We are telling people, ‘We are a Soulslike. And If you are not sure about it, you can challenge us. You can ask us why we think it’s Soulslike.’ And we are perfectly fine with that. And we know that players after the playtest, after showing the game at Gamescom, at TGS, we were also on PAX in Seattle, and all the players who are playing, they are telling us, ‘I was doubtful about it that you can manage to make a Soulslike in first-person, but after playing it, I believe you. It’s true. It’s a Soulslike in first-person.’ So that’s what’s very cool for me. I mean, personally, as a fan of the genre, that we managed to deliver the game in the genre, it’s something amazing.”
We are a Soulslike. And If you are not sure about it, you can challenge us. You can ask us why we think it’s Soulslike.
So I ask Ratusznik, what does it mean to be a Soulslike? What are the defining characteristics, to him, that Valor Mortis just had to embody?
“Well there is always a debate, how many features from the FromSoft games should game have to be a Soulslike?” he says. “So in our example is, of course, a stamina-based combat system. So that’s the first thing. Then we have the checkpoints that are kind of similar to the bonfires in Soulslike. In our game this is a lantern. So you have to reach the lantern to save, make your checkpoints. When you die, you will start from this place. You can then rest, the enemies will come back to life. So this kind of thing is present. But also the exploration is very important, I think, for the Soulslike in this kind of Metroidvania approach in the level structure.
“In our game we even push it further. So we also have these elements of Metroidvania, such as abilities that you are gathering that you can use on previously visited levels to unlock some alternative paths. Also the shortcuts are very important, so you need to explore to find the shortcuts to get faster to the safe point, to these checkpoints or something. So there is a lot of that. And also, the boss fights as the true challenges, very demanding. So I think, yeah, I mean these elements are there for sure, but it’s not like we are taking all of it blindly. We are thinking about each of this and how it’ll fit our vision for this game and also the first-person perspective, which is kind of tricky.”
The perspective switch really is a difference maker for Valor Mortis, as it transforms how combat plays out, how parries and dodges and swings need to be timed and directed, and how boss mechanics can be tuned for challenge. But given the popularity of the Soulslike genre, I’m surprised that there aren’t more first-person Souls games out there – most people just follow in either the Dark Souls tradition or the Hollow Knight one. Why is that?
“I think it’s not easy to make it happen, to be honest,” Ratusznik says. “I mean we did Ghostrunner, so we learned how to make first-person melee combat. And even for us, it was not easy to make the melee combat in first-person satisfying and not confusing. But in Poland we can do it because we have Dying Light, Cyberpunk is also with first-person combat. And we have our games, so Ghostrunner and now Valor Mortis. So it’s a bit tricky.
“You need to make at least a few tricks to somehow help players to get better feedback from each of the actions that they are taking. So for example, when we attack the enemies, we have some kind of a system that is in the action fighting games where you are snapped to the enemy, pulled to the enemy somehow. So we are attacking and the system is assisting you in getting closer to the enemies. Because it’s hard to tell the distance. Both the collider of your weapon is a little bit bigger than you expect just to feel that you hit it. So we need to set it up properly. There are a lot of small things that you have to add to make this combat feel juicy but also satisfying for the players. Of course on top of that there are proper animations, proper animation of the enemies, of the reactions of the enemies. Sound design is very important. Also…there needs to be some additional assets, like some arrows, some indicators that are telling you that if someone is behind you, these kinds of things.”
When we need to optimize our game for Xbox Series S, then the PC players also get a more optimized game.
Valor Mortis is planned for a 2026 release on PC, PS5, and Xbox. I ask Ratusznik how it’s been developing for consoles this generation, and he gives me a rather surprising take: he really likes the Xbox Series S.
“Each generation is easier, the certification process is easier and also the knowledge of the hardware is bigger among the developers,” he says. “So I think also the fact that you have to optimize for all consoles is beneficial for all the players, right? So when we need to optimize our game for Xbox Series S, then the PC players also get a more optimized game, right?
“I know a lot of players who really love, for example, one genre or one type of game. They are only playing, I don’t know, Call Duty or Gears of War, so they don’t have to buy the newest stuff to play their games. So they have the Series S. And if you try to make a PC for the same cost, for example, it won’t be possible, right? So if we manage to optimize the game for the S, I know that a lot of developers are struggling with it, but I think it’s more like a challenge that you should handle to make the game optimized for players.”
But there is one console conspicuously missing from the lineup. Where’s the Nintendo Switch 2?
“I mean I would love that one day,” Ratusznik says. “So we are considering it. It’s not like that we are announcing anything, but personally I would love to bring this game to Switch 2. I think that it would be nice to see this type of game on this console.”
We also spoke to Ratusznik at GIC about Soulslike difficulty, and why the game might have an easy mode, but won’t have a bunch of other difficulty settings. You can read our conversation right here.
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.
Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition — designed to coincide with the post-apocalyptic role-playing game’s 10th anniversary — contains the six official add-ons and over 150 pieces of Creation Club content. Creations (user created content) arrive in Fallout 4 via a brand new in-game Creations menu, which will make it easy for players to find and download the new content on PC and console.
Now, Bethesda has detailed Fallout 4’s Creation Menu update, due out on November 10 alongside the release of the Anniversary Edition, and it includes more than expected. However, Bethesda issued a warning to mod users. Fallout 4 mods will undergo maintenance November 6-10, and during this time, Fallout 4 mods and Creation Club will be offline. This means you won’t be able to download or upload any new content (you’ll still have access to change your mod load order and play the game).
Bethesda asked players to disable any mods that change the main menu before the November 10 update (which requires changes to the main menu screen). If you don’t, the mods may break with the patch.
“Thank you for your patience as we work to roll these changes out and lay the groundwork for things like additional storage for Creations,” Bethesda said in a post on Steam.
Meanwhile, the Fallout 4 patch notes reveal some surprising but welcome gameplay and performance improvements. VATS Accuracy should now be fixed so hit chances are consistent across platforms and no longer drop to 0% or show incorrect values (this has been a problem for some time). Targeting enemies through walls without the Penetrator perk is no longer possible, too. There’s also improved Ultrawide and Super Ultrawide Support, and Resolution Detection (Autodetect now sets supported display resolutions, preventing crashes on launch).
Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition Creation Club content includes unique weapons, power armor, Pip Boy paint jobs, and more. During Fallout Day, Bethesda teased some of the Creations in the works, including one that will bring a “slice of the Mojave Desert” to the Commonwealth, an escape room experience, and even a mind’s eye version of your spouse voiced by the original actors you can interact with. The six official expansions included are the Far Harbor, Automatron, and Nuka-World story add-ons, and the Contraptions, Vault-Tec, and Wasteland Workshop add-ons.
Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition will be available on Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam and PC. It’s coming to Nintendo Switch 2 at some point in 2026, marking the first time Fallout 4 will be available on a Nintendo console. Patch notes are below.
Fallout 4 – Creations Menu Update November 10 patch notes:
Creations Menu: A new in-game Creations menu has been added, making it easier than ever to discover, download and enjoy content from professional developers and passionate enthusiasts alike.
Gameplay & Performance
VATS Accuracy: VATS hit chances are now consistent across platforms and no longer drop to 0% or show incorrect values. Targeting enemies through walls without the Penetrator perk is no longer possible.
NPC Visual Creations: Fixed stuttering and hitching caused by Creations that edit NPC visuals. Performance is improved when using such Creations.
Stability & Crashes
BNET Connectivity: Better handling when there is a Bethesda.net outage
Crafting Station Crash: Interacting with crafting stations or the workshop on ultrawide monitors no longer causes crashes.
Ultrawide & Super Ultrawide Support
UI & HUD Scaling: UI elements, HUD backgrounds, and item previews now scale correctly for 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratios. Menus, quest updates, tutorials, workshops, and inspected objects are no longer stretched or squished.
Pip-Boy Map: Players can now place markers, fast travel, and pan the map to the right side in the Pip-Boy when using ultrawide resolutions.
Save Preview Images: Save preview images are now letterboxed to avoid looking squished on ultrawide monitors.
Miscellaneous
Resolution Detection: Autodetect now sets supported display resolutions, preventing crashes on launch.
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.
As avid puzzlers know full well, the humble jigsaw puzzle is a thing of beauty in multiple ways. Not only are jigsaws an absorbing time sink, but multiple studies have demonstrated they are good for you both mentally and physically. As you fit the pieces into place, they can be enjoyed alone or as a communal activity, and remain to be a fun hobby for all ages. Plus, when you’re finished, you’re often left with a delightful piece of art and sense of accomplishment.
The only downside to puzzles is they can take up a surprising amount of space, especially puzzles with 1000+ pieces. If you get into working on bigger puzzles, they can eat up your dining room table, coffee table or desk space for long stretches of time. This is why many jigsaw fans have a dedicated puzzle-solving table or board these days, often equipped with useful accessories. You have foldable and portable options, multi-purpose tables (for playing cards and the like), and ones with drawers to organize the pieces as you go. No matter what you’re looking for or what your budget is, we’ve found some viable options for you below.
TL;DR: These Are the Best Puzzle Tables and Boards
If you’ve got the puzzle bug or simply want an easier setup for regular puzzling, below are our top puzzle table and board picks right now to solve your space and storage problems, no matter your budget. Each of our picks represent a different category of table or board to fit different jigsaw puzzle needs. There are a lot of different options to choose from within these categories, so we’ve narrowed it down to one entry for each that we think fits the category best.
1. Bits and Pieces Fold and Go Table
Best for portability
This Bits and Pieces puzzle table has it all in one convenient package that can be easily moved around. It stores completely flat but extends into a good-sized table with fold-out legs and a felt covering to make it easy to pick up and push in pieces. The side arms can be used to arrange pieces you have yet to fit into the main puzzle, giving you plenty of room to work.
Because it stores flat, it also functions as a puzzle protector, allowing you to fold the flaps inward to cover your work in progress. It can then be slid conveniently under furniture until you’re ready to dive in again. And if you like puzzling on the go, this table’s lightweight and has a carry handle. As a bonus, this table is multi-purpose for card games, reading, writing and the like. It’s a great portable puzzle table that is built to handle up to 1500 piece jigsaw puzzles.
2. Vociprooter Puzzle Board
Best for laps
Some puzzlers prefer the comfort of working from their laps on a favorite chair or sofa, but that can be almost impossible with larger puzzles. To solve this problem, consider one of these handy puzzle folders which offer a hard surface you can spread out and balance on your knees.
The wings offer trays to put puzzle pieces on while you’re still working. When you want to finish a session, you can move the trays into the center and zip the wings closed to seal the puzzle. It can then be tucked away out of sight until you’re ready to carry on. This handy design comes in a variety of sizes to suit your puzzling preferences.
3. Jigitz Puzzle Spinner
Best for collaborative puzzling
Having a lazy susan for your jigsaw puzzle is such a great idea it’s surprising more companies haven’t put one on the market. If you’re puzzling with friends it’s much more convenient to reach the piece you’re working on. If you’re puzzling alone, it lets you easily access every side of the puzzle without having to leave your spot, as well as try different angles to see if a new perspective sparks a new idea for a match between possible pieces.
This particular Jigitz spinning table topper comes with a felt backing for convenience, a hardwood rim, and can hold puzzles up to 34” x 34” (which should cover most 1000 piece puzzles). And if you’re into jigsaws of different shapes, there’s a circular option from the same manufacturer, too.
In addition to puzzle use, this spinning board is also excellent for playing board games like Scrabble where rotating the board is quite useful. Though a dedicated board game table is still worthwhile if you are looking to mostly use it for that.
4. Jumbl 1000-Piece Puzzle Board Rack
Best for storing pieces
Here’s another full puzzle table with fold-out legs for your consideration. From Jumbl, this table’s a little bulkier than some others on this list, but that’s because it comes with a hidden benefit: slide-out drawers to store your puzzle pieces. Anything you’re currently clueless about can be hidden away until you’re ready, as can part-finished sections that aren’t quite ready to join the main puzzle.
The table is thoughtfully designed in a number of other respects, from the attractive varnished finish to the two-sided rail that gives you clear access from different angles while keeping the puzzle in place. And if you don’t need it freestanding, it’s thin enough to sit conveniently on a tabletop or other surface.
This particular puzzle table is only meant to handle up to 1000-piece puzzles, but with the addition of the drawers, it should be able to scale up to 1500 pieces or more.
5. Playvibe Puzzle Board
Best table topper
Our previous recommendation will sit atop a table, but it’s a little bulky should that be your primary mode of play. This one, from Playvibe, is a dedicated, slimline table-topper with felt feet to grip surfaces and six handy drawers to help store and organize your pieces.
Fully enclosed edging helps keep your puzzle secure, and the board comes with an acetate cover that fits between the rails to protect half-finished segments when not in use. It’s also made of lightweight wood, so it’s sturdy but still easy to move around from surface to surface as it suits you.
6. All4Jig Tilting Puzzle Table
Best dedicated tilting table
Regular puzzle players will be familiar with the postural problems that can arise from being bent over a surface for a long stretch. If that’s a problem for you, then the answer might be a tilting table like this one from ALL4JIG that leans toward you from different angles, allowing you to sit back and relax in a comfy seat while enjoying your puzzle.
The board has a thick lower lip designed to keep a separate puzzling board in place, but you can play directly on the table’s surface if desired. It’s on wheels, so you can maneuver it into position around your seat, and it comes in a neat wood laminate finish.
7. Becko Angle Puzzle Board
Best table topper that tilts
A table that tilts toward you as you play is obviously useful, but some players don’t want a whole table to do that, only a stand-alone board. This table from Becko offers that convenience in a particularly solid and useful package with a natural pine wood frame.
It’s been thoughtfully designed, with a flannelette (like flannel, but not quite) surface to grip and sort your pieces, while the supplied bracket gives you a choice of angles and can actually be used with other boards. So it’s super useful if you’ve got more than one puzzle on the go at once.
8. Arnsten Puzzle Table with Removable Glass Top
Best coffee table for puzzles
If you’re looking for a more permanent fixture in your living room, this coffee table from Wildon Home is an excellent option. I includes three drawers for all of your extra pieces as well as a nice flast surface for you to actually assemble puzzles. Best of all, there’s a removable glass top that lets you convert your puzzle table into an actual coffee table any time you want. It’s a bit more expensive than the other options on our list, but what you get is a high-quality piece of furniture for your living room that just so happens to be puzzle friendly.
Puzzle Board FAQs
Puzzle Mats vs Puzzle Boards: Which is better?
Puzzle boards and puzzle mats are both tools avid puzzlers can use to organize their workspace and keep track of pieces. If you’re looking to buy either as gift for the puzzler in your life, there are a few things to consider/
Boards are more expensive but offer more features, like pullout trays and other storage options, that help puzzlers organize their projects. The main benefit of a puzzle board is stability, as these boards are typically made from wood and offer a sturdy, flat surface. While they may take up more space, an in-progress or completed puzzle can still be safely moved between locations on a wooden puzzle board.
Puzzle mats are a cheaper and more lightweight alternative to puzzle boards. Mats, usually made with felt, can be rolled up and stowed away. Putting away a mat may be easier than finding a space for a full-blown board, but these mats are also flimsier. Pieces may not stay together as firmly on a softer surface, and there are no additional storage features to keep track of them. While mats help puzzlers establish a clear workspace, they require an existing flat surface for stability.
What is the best size for a puzzle board?
When researching puzzle boards, consider the amount of space available to you as well as the size of puzzles you like to put together. Many boards indicate what size puzzles they work best for, and some even have dimensions for different puzzles drawn out on their surface.
Most puzzle boards range from about 27 to 35 inches in length. A 30″ x 22″ puzzle board can comfortably fit most 1000 piece puzzles, though daring puzzlers who tackle more than 1500 or 2000 pieces at a time may need a board closer to 35 inches long.
You may need to pick a specific space in your home to dedicate to a puzzle board. Alternatively, you may look into puzzle mats or foldable puzzle tables that can be stored when not in use. All in all, the ideal size for a puzzle board is what will support your favorite puzzles without dominating your space.
A new Humble Choice lineup becomes available on the first Tuesday of each month. That means November’s Humble Choice is now available for $14.99. This month, members get eight PC games with a total MSRP of $254, including Total War: Warhammer 3, Etrian Odyssey HD, and more. Read on for the full list and all the details.
Humble Choice November 2025 Game Lineup
All eight PC games are delivered in the form of Steam codes. It’s a solid lineup of titles, representing a wide variety of genres. That means there’s something for everyone, and some off-the-beaten-path games you might not normally buy, but now you get them without having to pay anywhere near full price. Here’s the full list of games included in the November 2025 Humble Choice, with blurbs from the press release.
Total War Warhammer III: A grand-scale strategy game where fantasy armies battle daemonic forces in the Realm of Chaos.
Another Crab’s Treasure: A Soulslike adventure where a hermit crab fights enemies using trash as makeshift shells.
Pharaoh: A New Era: A 4K remake of the classic city-builder where you manage resources, appease gods, and build magnificent monuments in Ancient Egypt.
Etrian Odyssey HD: A first-person dungeon crawler focused on creating a party and mapping a dangerous labyrinth.
No More Heroes 3: A stylish hack-and-slash game where an assassin fights alien superheroes in over-the-top battles.
Synergy: A sci-fi city-builder about building a sustainable human settlement on a harsh alien planet.
Spin Hero: A roguelike RPG where combat and progression are determined by spinning a slot machine.
Paleo Pines: A cozy farming sim where you run a ranch, explore an island, and befriend dinosaurs.
The biggest game in here is probably the strategy game Total War: Warhammer III, which we gave a 9/10 in our review. It’s a huge blockbuster PC game with many dozens of potential hours of play time. Another Crab’s Treasure is a surprisingly accessible Soulslike game that got an 8/10 in our review. And Etrian Odyssey HD is a personal favorite, a remaster of a Nintendo DS dungeon crawler that has you draw the map as you explore.
Anyone interested in relaxing farm sims can try out Paleo Pines, while No More Heroes 3 offers fast-paced action. There’s plenty here to try, and any one of these games is worth the $14.99 asking price all on its own. Getting the whole bundle for that price is a killer deal.
As always with Humble Choice, a membership gets you a month of IGN Plus as an added bonus, as well as access to more than 50 DRM-free games in the Humble Vault. You also get a discount on Humble Store purchases, with bigger discounts the longer you keep your membership active.
Finally, 5% of each Humble Choice membership goes to charity. This month’s charity is No Kid Hungry, which seems like a particularly timely choice. It works to make sure kids across the country have reliable access to healthy meals.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
If you still haven’t yet picked up a Nintendo Switch 2 because it’s too expensive, there is an opportunity to get one at a discounted price. AliExpress is offering a Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World console bundle for just $442.72 (normally $500) after you apply a $100 off coupon code “AEUS100” during checkout. It ships free locally from the United States (which means no tariffs and no obnoxiously long wait times).
Note that the console is a Hong Kong import. All international Switch consoles are region unlocked, meaning they can be used in the US without any problems and without any modification. You’ll also be able to select English as your default language. This specific model will come with a Hong Kong style plug, but a US adapter is included. Imported consoles do not get a US-based Nintendo warranty. Fortunately, Aliexpress offers a generous 90-day free return window.
Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart World for $442.72
Brand new, genuine, imported, region unlocked units
The Switch 2 console was released on June 5. It is backwards compatible with nearly all Switch 2 games as well as the original Joy-Cons and Switch Pro controller, although the new Switch 2 controllers offer more functionality. In his Nintendo Switch 2 review, Tom Marks sums up the Switch 2 as “a vital but unexciting upgrade to a console I already love.”
Three major Switch 2 video games have been released: Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Pokemon Legends: Z-A. Logan Plant reviewed Mario Kart World and wrote that “Mario Kart World may not make the most convincing case that going open-world was the boost the series needed, but excellent multiplayer racing, incredible polish, and the thrilling new Knockout Tour mode still more than live up to its legacy.” Mario Kart World currently sells for $79 if purchased separately.
Not only did we rate Donkey Kong a 10/10, it’s the only game we’ve given a Masterpiece rating so far this year. In his Donkey Kong Bananza review, Logan Plant writes that “The leader of the bunch is finally back to kick some tail in Donkey Kong Bananza, a brilliant successor to Super Mario Odyssey and a smashing return for a classic Nintendo character.”
Pokemon Legends: Z-A is the latest first party release and although it’s also available for the original Switch, it’s clearly Switch 2 optimized. In her Pokemon Legends: Z-A review, Rebekah Valentine wrote that “Pokemon Legends: Z-A finally feels like Game Freak hitting its stride in Pokemon’s 3D era, with a fun setting to explore, a well-written story, and a total battle system overhaul that works surprisingly well.”
Kirby Air Riders Is Out on November 20
Following the Nintendo Direct on August 19, Kirby Air Riders for the Switch 2 went up for preorder on the Nintendo eShop for $69.99, or $10 less than the Mario racing sim. Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco, the same team behind Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, as well as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, has teamed up to make this game, setting expectations high. Besides the obvious graphical improvements, gameplay changes, and track additions compared to the original Kirby Air Ride way back in 2003 for the Gamecube, other updates include an expanded roster that includes Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Chef Kawasaki, and Bandana Waddle Dee, more abilities, and more copy moves.
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.
What if the 1980’s became the jumping off point for the future? Like how this year’s Fantastic Four movie was a ’50’s version of the future? Enter ROUTINE, an upcoming first-person sci-fi horror game set on a lunar base. Like all good horror games, silence and loneliness are your worst enemies, and that’s true in ROUTINE – except for the part where you discover a foe who thinks the primary threat is, in fact, you. Piece together the events that took place prior to your arrival, and try to survive.
ROUTINE is our IGN First “cover story” game for November, ahead of its December 4 release for PC (Steam and Xbox on PC) and Xbox (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Xbox Cloud) – including Xbox Game Pass on day one. This first exclusive video (watch it above) introduces you to the C.A.T. Ultraview Module, a tool you’ll need to make frequent use of as you explore the lunar base. It looks like a camcorder and a radar gun had a baby, and…you’ll have to check out the video to see what it does.
ROUTINE has quite the development story, having originally been announced over a decade ago. It was re-revealed in 2022, and we finally played it for the first time earlier this year. Stay tuned all November long for more exclusive IGN First coverage. In the meantime, you can wishlist ROUTINE on Steam if you’re interested.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
Ball X Pit is the latest obsession to grip gamers, a chaotic roguelite that mashes together the mechanics of games like Peggle, Diablo and Vampire Survivors to make something that’s impossible to characterize, but is dangerously playable. Somehow it’s the work of one man, Kenny Sun, a game developer from Brooklyn, NY who loves games like Vampire Survivors, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor and Blotch Arrow. We spoke to Sun to first of all, confirm how the hell we say the Ball x Pit out loud, and then to talk about how he created this moreish Frankenstein’s monster of a game.
“It’s Ball Pit. Just Ball Pit. There’s no X,” explains Sun. “It’s mostly a tribute to anime like Phantom Hunter. Also, X can mean fusion, which ties into the game’s theme.” He also reveals that when he first had to choose a game name for Steam, it was City of Balls.
“It started when I played a mobile brick-breaker roguelite a few years ago. I got hooked but didn’t like all the free-to-play elements. So I wanted to make a version without that — a buy-once experience. From there, it evolved through tons of iteration,” Sun says, explaining the game’s origin, and why he settled on building a farm as a key part of progressing through the game.
“I wanted something more visual and personal than just menus — something with identity. I liked the idea of little characters bouncing around a base. Plus, I did base-building in my last game, so it wasn’t a huge leap.”
Some ideas didn’t make the cut, but Sun hinted that at least a few could come back with updates to the game.
“I try not to waste work, so most ideas make it in. But one was a magma ball that left lava trails enemies would take damage from — once the game started scrolling, it didn’t make sense visually, so we cut it,” he says, as for something we could see one day.
“I cut a pet system — you could bring pets into levels and they’d gain XP. It was fun but too much on top of character progression. There was even a monkey that jumped on enemies.”
And Sun has already been making updates, listening to feedback from players and tweaking the mechanics to make quality of life improvements. “Hitboxes were misaligned, so I redid them. And I added luck protection for fishing — players didn’t like getting too many bad rolls in a row.”
If you haven’t played Ball X Pit yet (and you really should) we asked Sun for his top tip to give you a head start.
“Aim for the back of the board so the balls ricochet around — that’s key for damage,” he advises. His personal favorite combo? “I like hemorrhage builds — combine it with area-of-effect stuff like lightning or ghost. Flash hits everything on screen.”
His favorite villager? “The one whose balls bounce off the back. I love chaotic screens. Combine him with Cohabitants for double the balls — it’s wild.”
Ball X Pit is out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X and S, with a Nintendo 2 version on its way soon. As for future updates?
“I can say there’s more coming, but not what exactly,” teases Sun. “The game’s done really well, and it feels right to give players a bit more.”
Rachel Weber is the Senior Editorial Director of Games at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, and French Bulldogs. Those extra wrinkles on her face are thanks to going time blind and staying up too late finishing every sidequest in RPGs like Fallout and Witcher 3.
Fortnite developer Epic Games has issued a fresh user survey polling players over its pet-like Sidekicks — and in particular, the need to rebuy each creature to get another version, after your basic design choices are made permanent.
Currently, Fortnite forces fans to lock in their Sidekick’s body color, shape and style upon first use, and warns players that their decision cannot be changed again.
For now, just one Sidekick animal is available — banana dog hybrid Peels, which you get two of within Fortnite’s current The Simpsons battle pass. Upon first equipping the pooch, you must decide from three banana skin colors (yellow, yellow-green, or mottled), an ear shape (pointy, less pointy, flat) and a body style (slender, or thicc).
After this, each Sidekick also comes with its own mini battle pass of cosmetic add-ons (Peels has an emote where it dances with maracas, and also a couple of shirt options it can wear that can be equipped at will). But the creature’s base design choices are indeed no longer changeable, leaving players who want to try other body options seeking a separate Peels incarnation to change from the ground up.
Later this week, on November 7, a selection of additional Sidekicks will be available separately via the Fortnite in-game shop, with upcoming creatures set to include more dog breeds, a dinosaur, and even a Fishstick fish in a bubble. Each will cost either 1,200 or 1,500 V-Bucks (around $10-$14), and each is expected to offer numerous permanent cosmetic options fans will have to buy numerous versions of to own them all.
Amid the backlash to this decision, Epic Games has sent a fresh user survey sent to Fortnite players, including myself, that specifically asks for feedback on Sidekicks’ permanent customization mechanic — offering some fans a glimmer of hope that the whole thing is being reconsidered.
“How do you feel about the Sidekicks cosmetic?” asks one question. “Did you know that Sidekicks have basic features that you can only customize once upon claiming that Sidekick (e.g. its color and shape?” asks another. And then:
“How do you feel about having to purchase an additional copy of the same Sidekick if you want to customize your Sidekick with different basic features?” asks a third query, with various options to reply, from “strongly dislike” to “strongly like.”
Some fans have suggested Epic Games originally envisaged buying Sidekicks to be like adopting a creature from a pet shop — with a specific design you bond with over time (and as you unlock their battle pass). Others have also said that the pricing here, while steep, is little different to Fortnite’s also widely-disliked Kicks (digital shoes), which often cost upwards of 1,000 V-Bucks for licensed designs, and regularly require players to buy multiple copies to access different colors. (Around a dozen near-identical digital pairs of Crocs exist in the game, each of which must be bought separately.)
But others have compared Sidekicks to the highly customizable nature of many character skins — and indeed, the color options available to Fortnite’s more-basic Pets, which launched back during the game’s earlier years, and can be customized at will.
Certainly, it feels like the widespread response to Sidekicks’ design limitations has struck a chord. Far from a fun new cosmetic type — and one that could prove hugely lucrative, when licensed Sidekicks like Grogu and Stitch arrive — launching to positive sentiment, their soft-launch via Peels has only stirred up a backlash, with various reddit threads and social media posts now encouraging other players not to buy more when they do go on sale later this week.
Will Epic Games change course? Time will tell, though answers to that survey (and the sales from this week’s shop update) may play a part.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Microsoft has announced the Xbox Game Pass November 2025 Wave 1 lineup of games, headlined by Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
As a Microsoft-owned video game, Black Ops 7 launches straight into Game Pass day one when it comes out on November 14. That’s across cloud, console, and PC for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers only.
But there are a number of games hitting Game Pass before Treyarch and Raven’s first-person shooter arrives. On November 5, Dead Static Drive (Cloud, Console, and PC) arrives on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as another day one release.
As per Xbox Wire, Dead Static Drive is “Grand Theft Cthulhu.” “An indie survival-horror game following a nightmarish road trip across a 1980s Americana, Dead Static Drive blends weird fiction and uncanny Eldritch themes with a spooky unease underlying this small-town life,” Microsoft said.
Also on November 5 is Rebellion’s Sniper Elite: Resistance (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Premium. Here’s the official blurb:
Offering unparalleled sniping mechanics, stealth and tactical third-person combat, Sniper Elite: Resistance turns the attention of the award-winning series towards a hidden war, far from the front lines, deep within the heart of occupied France. Bring a friend – the full campaign can be experienced in co-op.
On November 6, Egging On (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day one launch. The day one launches continue with Whiskerwood (PC), also on November 6, for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Moving on, November 7 sees Voidtrain (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) launch across Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Premium. November 11 sees Great God Grove (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) across Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Premium. Also on November 11, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (Cloud, Console, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Premium. And, on November 11, Pigeon Simulator (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) is a day one launch on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
November 12 sees Relic Hunters Legend (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Premium. Also on November 12 is the day one release of Winter Burrow (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. And of course, Wave 1 ends with the big one: Black Ops 7 on November 14.
Xbox Game Pass November 2025 Wave 1 lineup:
Dead Static Drive (Cloud, Console, and PC) – November 5 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Blacksmith Master (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Football Manager 2024 (PC)
Football Manager 2024 Console Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Frostpunk (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Spirittea (Cloud, Console, and PC)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chernobyl (Cloud, Console, and PC)
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.
