Daily Deals: Pokemon TCG: Sword & Shield Charizard Collection, 4K Gaming TVs, Dell Gaming Laptops, Apple Studio Monitor, and More

Today’s daily deals include the Pokemon TCG Sword & Shield Charizard Collection, a magnificent Apple Studio Display, the gargantuan 85″ Sony X85K TV bundled with an Atmos ready soundbar, a powerful Dell G15 laptop with an RTX 3070 TI GPU, and more below.

Pokemon TCG Sword & Shield Ultra-Premium Collection Charizard for $99.99

The set includes three etched foil promo cards: Charizard V, Charizard VMAX, and Charizard VSTAR, sixteen Pokemon TCG booster packs from the Sword & Shield series, a playmat, 65 card sleeves, metal coin, six metal damage-counter dice, 2 metal condition markers, an acrylic VSTAR marker, a player’s guide to the entire Sword & Shield series, and a code card for Pokemon TCG Live.

Dell G15 15″ QHD Intel Core i9 RTX 3070 Ti Gaming Laptop for Only $1367.09

Dell has been going all out with their gaming deals lately. Right now you can get a Dell G15 gaming laptop equipped with a 15″ QHD (2560×1440) display, 12th gen Intel Core i9-12900H 14-core Alder Lake CPU, and a powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU for a mere $1367.09 after $300 in instant savings and stackable coupon codes “AWSMITE09” and “ARMMPPS“. Pair that with 16GB of DDR5-4800MHz RAM and a 1TB SSD and you have yourself a lean, mean gaming machine out of the box at a really good price.

85″ Sony X85K 4K TV with Sony HT-A7000 Soundbar Bundle for $1698

Normally the TV itself costs $1698 (check it out for yourself), but Amazon is essentially throwing in the soundbar for free. The HT-A7000 is actually a really nice soundbar; it actually retails for $1400. The X85X is a great gaming TV. It has a 120Hz native refresh rate, which means it supports 4K @ 120Hz over HDMI 2.1 when connected to the PS5 or Xbox Series X consoles. The HT-A7000 soundbar features a near 7.1.2 channel setup for Dolby Atmos support.

27″ Apple Studio Display with Higher-Than-4K Resolution for $1299

When it comes to color fidelity, Apple Studio monitors are the cream of the crop. Unfortunately, they’re also very expensive. Today, you can get the 27″ variant for $1299.99 thanks to a rare $300 price drop from its original $1600 MSRP. The Apple display features a higher-than-4K resolution of 5120×2880, 600 nits of brightness, support for one billion colors, and P3 wide color. It also has a built-in webcam and mic as well as a Thunderbolt 3 port with up to 96W of Power Delivery. If you connect a MacBook to this monitor, it can be used as an external display AND charge your laptop at the same time.

Dell G15 15″ Core i7 RTX 3060 Gaming Laptop for $1058

Dell is also offering this Dell G15 gaming laptop equipped with a 12th gen Intel Core i7-12700H 14-core Alder Lake CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU for only $1058.39 after $150 in instant savings and stackable coupon codes “AWSMITE09” and “ARMMPPS“. The RTX 3060 is more powerful than the previous generation’s RTX 2070 and will be able to power through any game on the laptop’s 1080p display.

75″ Hisense U7H 4K QLED ULED Google TV for $948

The U7H is Hisense’s lowest priced TV model with a native 120Hz refresh rate. That’s right, this TV supports 4K @ 120Hz for PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles. That, along with VRR and ALLM makes this an excellent gaming TV. The U7H boasts a quantum dot panel with full-array LED backlighting (120 local dimming zones) and wide color gamut. It also pumps out an impressive 1000nits of peak brightness so you can easily use this TV in rooms where light control might normally be an issue.

Alienware m17 17″ 4K AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX Radeon RX 6850M XT Gaming Laptop for Only $1675.79

Equivalent to Intel Core i9-12900H with RTX 3080

Expiring today, Dell is offering its Alienware m17 17″ gaming laptop equipped with AMD’s most powerful CPU and GPU for $1675.79 after $700 in instant savings and stackable coupon codes “AWSMITE09” and “ARMMPPS“. That’s a phenomenal price for one of the most powerful gaming laptops available at the moment. Please note that dual stacking coupon codes are extremely rare at Dell.

This Alienware m17 config spares absolutely no expense to make the perfect gaming laptop. The newest 6000-series CPU is designed to compete with Intel’s latest Alder Lake CPUs. The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX is the most powerful CPU in the 6000-series lineup, and it performs almost as well as Intel’s own Core i9-12900H. That is to say, it’s a monster of a processor in terms of both workstation and gaming performance.

Likewise, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT is currently AMD’s most powerful mobile GPU and its performance is comparable to NVIDIA’s mobile RTX 3080/Ti. It will hold its own in any game you throw at it, and you’ll certainly need the power in order to run games smoothly on the laptop’s native 4K display.

Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 RTX 3080 Ti Gaming PC for Only $1587.59

Dell is offering the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 gaming PC equipped with a powerful GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU for under $1600. That’s right, you can get it for $1587.59 after $580 in instant savings and stackable coupon codes “AWSMITE09” and “ARMMPPS“. There are newer (and far pricier) 4000 series of GeForce cards out, nevertheless this is still a very powerful and very relevant gaming rig.

This Alienware gaming PC is equipped with a liquid cooled AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core CPU, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU, 8GB of DDR4-3200MHz RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The RTX 3080 Ti is one of the most powerful cards in the RTX 30 series linup, features DLSS and ray tracing, and is an excellent GPU for 4K gaming. It’s about 10% more powerful than the RTX 3080 at 4K. It’s on par with the RTX 3090 in gaming prowess (the RTX 3090 has more VRAM which is better for graphics workstation builds but not for gaming). This PC will be able to push just about any game at 60fps+ speeds, even at 4K resolution. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU is an excellent all-around processor and won’t bottleneck your gaming.

48″ LG 48GP900-B 4K OLED Gaming Monitor

The 48GP900-B is the first Ultragear gaming monitor that uses an OLED panel. This is a simliar WOLED panel to the one that you find in the 48″ LG C1 OLED TV but there are a few key differences. Instead of the semi glossy coating found on the OLED TV, the 48GP900 features an anti-glare low reflective coating that is undoubtedly a better fit for close up monitor usage. It also has DisplayPort connectivity and lacks the built-in Smart TV interface. It does carry over the HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K @ 120Hz compatiblity for PS5 and Xbox Series X owners, as well as VRR and G-SYNC support. Additionally, the 120Hz refresh rate can be overclocked to 138Hz when used as a PC monitor. Lastly, if aesthetics matter for you, there is subtle RGB backlighting on the rear of the monitor that isn’t present on the OLED TVs.

The Best Deals of the Week

These deals are definitely worth your attention.

The Day Before Devs Say Delay Was Planned Before Trademark Dispute

The Day Before developer Fntastic has said it was planning a delay even before a trademark dispute pushed the game back eight months.

Speaking to IGN, Fntastic co-founders Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev decried any allegations of scamming after several The Day Before community members grew concerned that the game was delayed for so long just a few weeks ahead of its planned launch date on March 1.

Fntastic released a statement on January 25 (below) claiming that a trademark dispute had forced the delay of both the game and its first major gameplay trailer in over a year.

“We planned to move the game’s release before and plan to announce it with [publisher] Mytona in a 10-minute gameplay video,” Fntastic told IGN. “And then you all know what happened. So to be on the safe side, to ensure there are no more transfers, we, along with the publisher, chose November 10. That is a safe date, given the trademark dispute.”

Despite having now been delayed twice (with the first caused by a switch to Unreal Engine 5), Fntastic is still confident it will have its trademark dispute solved by the new release date, and plans to use the extra time for improving the game in the meantime.

“We’re very confident that this issue will be resolved since we have strong legal partners,” it said. “The extra time will allow us to better prepare for the release and make the overall improvements for the game. It will become even more polished, optimized, and content-filled.”

As for complaints and allegations that The Day Before isn’t actually in development – which have been erupting on its Reddit page and Discord sever – Fntastic maintained that its game will definitely be released despite the chaotic conversation at the moment.

“The storm will calm down eventually, and time will put everything in its place. When the game comes out, people will finally see the truth,” it said. “But while we’re here, we’re grateful for such a fantastic journey and for you being with us.”

Fntastic also provided the following statement regarding current conversations and the state of the game: “For us and millions of people, The Day Before is a childhood dream come true. It’s a game with zombies and other people in a huge postapocalyptic skyscraper city.

“We understand that some players, not seeing the whole picture, might have doubts about the game. Our whole focus has always been on the product itself. We’ve been creating the game for four years. All these years have been full of sweat and blood to make this game, and for many members of our team, it is unpleasant to hear such accusations.

“We didn’t take a penny from people: no crowdfunding, no pre-orders, no donations. The game is fully funded by Mytona, one of the largest mobile publishers in the world, who checked the game’s build at every milestone per our contract.

“We made a real inner breakthrough when we decided to go for big challenges from the bottom—so big that some people would consider them impossible.

“Making a fantastic journey from the very ends of the earth, we feel like that simple guy from 90s action movies. You probably remember him as the hero who breaks through the veil of disbelief when no one believes in him, but he finds the inner strength to win and prove to everyone what he is worth in the end.

“We only believe in the final product. No matter what anyone says, you’ll see for yourself on November 10 this year. We hope that after the game’s success, we’ll give people faith that in this life, if you persevere toward a dream, it will come true, despite all the obstacles and doubts.”

The Day Before is an open world zombie MMO that was first announced in January 2021. This isn’t the first time the game has faced controversy in the past three years, however, as Fntastic was also forced to defend its use of unpaid workers in June last year.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok, Stray Lead Finalists for Game Developers Choice Awards

Elden Ring, God of War: Ragnarok, Stray, and Pentiment are leading the finalists for 2023’s Game Developers Choice Awards, the video game awards voted for by developers.

All four of these games feature in the Game of the Year category, alongside Sam Barlow’s Immortality and Tunic. Elden Ring and Stray have a total of six nominations each while God of War: Ragnarok has five.

The results of the awards will be announced at 2023’s Game Developers Conference on March 22, held alongside the Independent Games Festival Awards – the nominations for which were announced yesterday.

The full list of nominees can be seen below:

Best Audio

  • Elden Ring
  • God of War Ragnarok
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Metal: Hellsinger
  • Stray

Best Debut

  • Neon White
  • Norco
  • Stray
  • Tunic
  • Vampire Survivors

Best Design

  • Elden Ring
  • Marvel Snap
  • Neon White
  • Stray
  • Tunic

Innovation Award

  • Elden Ring
  • Immortality
  • Neon White
  • Pentiment
  • Stray

Best Narrative

  • God of War Ragnarok
  • I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
  • Immortality
  • Pentiment
  • Return to Monkey Island

Social Impact Award

  • As Dusk Falls
  • Citizen Sleeper
  • Endling – Extinction Is Forever
  • I Was A Teenage Exocolonist
  • OlliOlli World
  • We Are OFK

Best Technology

  • A Plague Tale: Requiem
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
  • Elden Ring
  • God of War: Ragnarok
  • Horizon Forbidden West

Best Visual Art

  • Elden Ring
  • God of War: Ragnarok
  • Horizon: Forbidden West
  • Pentiment
  • Stray

Game of the Year

  • Elden Ring
  • God of War: Ragnarok
  • Immortality
  • Pentiment
  • Stray
  • Tunic

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Redemption Reapers Hands-On Preview: Tactical Medieval Warfare

Imagine Fire Emblem went through kind of a moody, emo phase and started reading a lot of dark fantasy novels and you’ll have some idea what to expect from Redemption Reapers. This turn-based tactical RPG, from the developers of the excellent and unsung side-scrolling 2021 Soulslike Ender Lilies, puts you in command of the moody Ashen Hawk Brigade. Your task is to fight back against the Mort, an army of mysterious and murderous humanoid fiends who seem to care for nothing but the constant slaughter of innocent people. So, you know, you should probably do something about that.

Admittedly, I didn’t get too much of a sense for the shape of the world or what the larger arc of the story is going to be after playing through the first seven chapters. We still don’t know where the Mort came from or if there is any greater purpose to their terrifying rampage. That served as an interesting question that pushed me to seek answers, but it can also lead to the plot feeling a bit aimless. My band of beleaguered fighters was simply traveling from village to village trying to solve smaller problems in the wake of a seemingly all-consuming invasion, which left me asking if we were really making a difference at all. And maybe that’s intentional. But I longed for some clearer, long-term goals.

The characters mostly come across like anime archetypes who rarely showed any hidden facets or surprised me by playing against their surface-level traits. Lugh is an edgy spear-wielder who enjoys the thrill of battle and bloodshed. Urs is a beefy barbarian type with a stony demeanor. We do get a few hints that our protagonist, Sarah, blames herself for some past failure in the war against the Mort that still haunts her. But in this small slice, it’s merely alluded to.

All of these characters are elevated by a great English voice cast.

All of these characters are elevated, however, by a great English voice cast. Allegra Clark (aka Dorothea from Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Bloodhound from Apex Legends) voices the plucky archer Karren, and David Lodge (Three Houses’ Jeralt and Persona 5’s Igor) lends his gruff tone to the aforementioned big boi, Urs. The direction is pretty strong across the board as well. It sounds like a well-done, big budget anime dub, even when some of the lines are so tortured and melodramatic that they read as almost goofy.

Road to Redemption

The tactical combat takes a while to come together, but I ended up really enjoying it once the proper pieces were in place. Melee attacks, whether against you or an enemy, almost always provoke the risk of a counterattack. Thus, maximizing the chances you’ll be able to strike back and preventing your enemies from doing the same is a major concern. Party members in range of an enemy you just attacked also have a chance to perform a follow-up attack, which can be chained together if you have the foe completely surrounded. These are triggered by a timed button prompt, which adds just a dash of reflex-based tension to the normally methodical battles. I honestly enjoyed that.

In addition, characters can gain Determination from certain situations, such as taking damage, that gives them extra action points on their turn. Putting this all together, Redemption Reapers really rewards thinking carefully through each turn and figuring out how you can do the most damage while taking little or none yourself. Attacking with characters who are immune to counter attacks first, then finishing off the enemy with a chain of follow-up attacks is far more effective than simply trying to grind out a win. And all of the Ashen Hawks are quite fragile, so reckless tactics can lead to a full party wipe. This bleak world is somewhat forgiving in those situations, though. There is no perma-death, and as long as you can get to the end of a mission with one Reaper standing, it still counts as a win.

Art of War

In between missions, you can stock up on and upgrade gear, and spend skill points. The weapon system is fairly similar to Fire Emblem: every sword, bow, and spear has a durability rating, and repairs can get expensive, so you’ll feel the squeeze of keeping up your equipment even if you’re acing every mission. Starter weapons tend to have high accuracy and high durability, but low damage. The more advanced a weapon is, it will gain damage while losing accuracy and durability. So progression mainly follows a routine of upgrading someone’s weapon when they level up enough to use it without missing all the time. But even then, you’re signing up for higher repair costs if you want everyone wielding the deadliest gear available. It’s a simple but effective layer of strategic trade-offs that adds just the right amount of pressure.

Each character’s skill tree is specialized toward filling a specific role in combat, which often plays off one or more other characters to create deadly combos. Urs is an incredible tank who can shrug off blows and punish aggressive enemies, while Sarah’s talents focus on getting lots of hits in without risking counterattacks. It took me some time to really get a grasp on how all of these characters can be used together to overcome the most difficult challenges, but it felt awesome when I did.

Each character’s skill tree is specialized toward filling a specific role in combat, which often plays off one or more other characters to create deadly combos.

While I may not be entirely sold on Redemption Reapers’ fairly generic dark fantasy setting or brooding stock characters yet, the interesting and challenging tactical combat speaks for itself. I’ve only scratched the surface of the unfolding story, and I’m intrigued enough to want to know what else lies below the grimy surface. And the superb voice cast goes a long way toward selling the overall mood and vibe, when it would have been easy to slip into edgelord territory. We’ll all be able to catch up with the Ashen Hawks and continue their journey next month.

AEW Wrestler Kenny Omega Gets a Cameo in Like a Dragon: Ishin! as the One-Winged Angel

If you somehow thought the Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) series wasn’t over-the-top enough already, a new addition to the upcoming remake of Like a Dragon: Ishin! might just turn the tables…or flip them. Developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has revealed that wrestler Kenny Omega will be making a cameo appearance in Ishin as a summonable character to aid in battle, complete with a wondrous crossover of a move: One-Winged Angel. He’ll be joined by Midnight Mass star Rahul Kohli.

Omega and Kohli’s appearances will take the form of a “Trooper Card,” effectively a summon similar to the Poundmates used in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Trooper Cards are a feature new to the remake that allows players to summon other characters to aid them in battle with special abilities, attacks, or temporary stat boosts, and will include both celebrity cameos as well as visits from other characters across the Like a Dragon series.

Kohli’s Trooper Card is titled “Essence of Firestorm” and its in-game description reads as follows: “A chivalrous man who’s traveled through space, time, and reality to serve the Shinsengumi. Draws upon his experience in law enforcement to keep the peace.”

Meanwhile, Omega’s Trooper Card is called “Essence of the One-Winged Angel” and bears the description: “A strapping fighter who’s traveled through space, time, and reality to serve the Shinsengumi. It’s said that his elite skills can summon the stars themselves.” It’s a reference both to Final Fantasy 7 as well as Omega’s in-ring wrestling finisher, One-Winged Angel.

That said, wrestling fans shouldn’t expect it to look anything like his actual in-ring move, as he told IGN ahead of this announcement.

“It’s completely different,” Omega says. “It’s not a wrestling hold. It takes into account that we are heavily influenced by swordplay, magic, and gunplay. I thought it was a chance to do something a little different. As much as I do want, hopefully someday, to have some of my actual wrestling maneuvers in a game, for now I’m more than happy and thrilled to have a very unique and original attack that feels like it belongs in the universe.”

The AEW World Trios Champion is a known gamer and RPG fan, and has been a massive fan of the Like a Dragon series since he was a kid. He’s played every entry so far except for two: Kurohyō, a PSP game that was only released in Japan, and the original Ishin.

His favorite? Omega loves Yakuza: Like a Dragon because it’s an RPG, but he also wanted to shout out Yakuza 2.

“I feel like there’s a nostalgia factor, and I feel like that captured my imagination the most,” he says. “I knew so much about Tokyo and the sights and sounds, so to take the adventure to Osaka and then see just how quirky and cool and fun Osaka was without ever having a hope of going there. Yeah, it always has a special place in my heart.”

It was Omega’s love of the series that netted him the cameo, too. He was initially just helping out with advertisements for Ishin, but that opportunity eventually evolved into a Trooper Card. His appearance in a Like a Dragon game has been rumored since last fall, when Omega shared on Instagram that he had his likeness scanned into the engine. And the wrestler is clearly stoked, comparing his love of Like a Dragon to Yakuza: Like a Dragon protagonist Ichiban’s love of Dragon Quest.

The more time that goes by and the more installments we get, the more honed to our reality that the games become.

“That caught me off guard,” he says of the cameo. “Huge surprise. Very, very, very happy about that news. Looking very forward for people to get their hands on the card, and I’m happy to report that even if you’re not a wrestling fan, even if you’re not a Kenny Omega fan — I know, geez, wow, boy, would that ever be sad if you weren’t? — but if you’re not, totally understandable, because I’ve helped design a card that I think will be useful across the board, and just make your time in Ishin a little more fun and a little more overpowered.”

Omega isn’t just thrilled about his own inclusion in Ishin, but about what it means for the franchise. While past Like a Dragon games have had occasional cameos of popular Japanese celebrities and even wrestlers, his appearance coincides with ongoing growth in popularity for the series in the West. That means we might see more cameos from Western celebrities in Ishin or future games…and maybe even more of Omega.

“I do feel like the more time that goes by and the more installments we get, the more honed to our reality that the games become,” Omega says. “We’re starting to see more real-life people. More real-life restaurants, intellectual properties, landmarks. It’s getting to become very similar to the world that we live in, or at least the Japan that we have in our world.

“And who knows? Who knows where their travels will take them? Maybe they’ll end up somewhere else one day. But yeah, for now, the world is starting to feel more and more familiar, and also more and more relatable. So if there’s any sort of collaborative effort, I’m definitely throwing my name in the hat, and hopefully this will not be the end of Kenny Omega in the RGG universe.”

I close our conversation by asking Omega if he thinks he could take the protagonist of Like a Dragon: Ishin!, Ryoma, in a fight, and the champion is surprisingly humble…perhaps even a bit villainous?

“No, of course not,” he says. “I don’t know what kind of answer anyone was expecting. No, I’m just a showman. I’m a bad guy, too. I’m the guy that needs to get his butt whipped, I think.”

Like a Dragon: Ishin! is planned for release on February 21, 2023 for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

The Xbox Direct Delivered the Optimism Xbox Fans Have Waited For

I went at Microsoft pretty hard for the company’s baffling no-show at December’s massive Game Awards event. As such, it’s only fair I give them credit where credit is due: its first-ever Developer_Direct – aka Xbox Direct for those of us who don’t have the patience to type that damn underscore every single time – was a success. The 40-minute broadcast wisely mimicked the hostless format that Nintendo pioneered and Sony smartly stole, and as a result we saw five games, got four release dates, and perhaps most of all, took away some optimism for the months to come.

Microsoft managed to pleasantly surprise everyone by dropping a new Tango Gameworks rhythm-action game on us called Hi-Fi Rush. It immediately looked like a delightful mashup of Sunset Overdrive, Ninja Gaiden, and Guitar Hero. Even better, Tango released it right after the Direct ended, making this one of the first same-day announcement+release combos in quite some time. It’s not a stretch to say that such a surprise would not have been possible without Xbox Game Pass, where word-of-mouth can build up over time, and a game’s success is not as heavily dependent on a pre-order campaign and months of marketing hype.

Meanwhile, Redfall was the headliner, closing things out with a deeper look at Arkane’s vampire-themed FPS. It still clearly retains Arkane DNA, but it’s also decidedly different from the studio’s previous emergent-gameplay offerings like Dishonored and Prey. Instead, you’ll do a lot of shooting with a lot of cool weapons and against a lot of wild enemies, from vampires that shroud the battle arena in darkness to huge bosses that almost resemble Strikes from Destiny. It’ll be out on May 2 – which should be just enough of a head start before multi-decade-old franchise juggernauts like Zelda, Diablo, Street Fighter, and Final Fantasy clog up the Summer (not to mention Rocksteady’s long-awaited Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League).

We saw five games, got four release dates, and took away some optimism for the months to come

In fact, the only real disappointment of the day was from Forza Motorsport. Not the game, mind you. Once again, it looks incredible. The Forza series has never been lacking visually and the rebuilt-for-next-gen-only reboot (i.e. there will not be an Xbox One version) wowed us with its paint reflections, dynamic day/night cycle, and realistic dirt accumulations on its 500 cars. And that was just in the compressed 1080p livestream. It’ll look even more glorious in its native 4K/60fps. Instead, the letdown took the form of Forza Motorsport’s release date, or, more accurately, the lack of one. Given that Microsoft made it clear up front it would be focusing on four games for this Direct, and that all four of them were expected in the first half of the year as per the company’s decree at last Summer’s Xbox Showcase, it was fair play to expect to learn exactly when we’d get to play each of them. But unfortunately we didn’t even get a season to expect Forza in – a generic “2023” was all we got, all but confirming that the next-gen racer will slip to the second half of the year.

In summary, if Microsoft takes away anything from its first Direct, it should be these two things:

1) Keep using this format for non-E3 showcases. It works. Never break out the overproduced, overly long Inside Xbox format again.

2) Keep underpromising and overdelivering. It was made clear that Starfield would get its own Direct later and not be a part of this one. That helped calibrate audience expectations going in, and those expectations were exceeded when Hi-Fi Rush hit the screen, and then again when it released on the same day.

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.

Xbox Direct Reactions and Analysis – Unlocked 579

We recorded Unlocked immediately after Microsoft’s Xbox Developer Direct presentation this week, so these are our in-the-moment reactions to the excellent presentation, from the deep-dive on Redfall (including a May 2 release date to look forward to) to another look at the gorgeous Forza Motorsport (though it came without any release date attached) to the surprise new game from Tango Gameworks, Hi-Fi Rush, that’s available right now! And in our final segment, we spent some time discussing the current uncertain state of Halo in the wake of the layoffs at 343 Industries.

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out our interview with Todd Howard, who answered all of our Starfield questions after the big reveal at the Xbox Showcase:

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

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.

Forspoken PS5 Performance Review

What do you get when you cross Alice in Wonderland with Iron Man? Square Enix’s latest action-RPG Forspoken aims to answer that question, with a fish out of water plot as the protagonist Frey is thrown into a world of dragons and sorcery. Built on the same Luminous Engine that powered the team’s last game, Final Fantasy XV, it has a similar open world design, with animation, art, creature design and more that will feel familiar.

Resolution Modes

The game has three resolution modes, Quality, Ray Tracing, and Performance, each of which also has a 120Hz mode. Quality targets 3840x2160p with dynamic resolution scaling (DRS) engaged, which can scale by 75% in total down to a low of 1920×1080. Ray Tracing mode reduces the ceiling to 2880x1620p and scales to a low of 1440×810. Both these modes use FSR2 reconstruction to get back to a 4K output when not at that level, which is always the case in the Ray Tracing mode and often in Quality. Finally, Performance targets 2560x1440p both in ceiling and FSR2 reconstruction, and can dip down 75% also to a low of 1280×720. This mode boosts performance to 60fps over the previous two, which are capped at 30fps.

The image quality impact in Performance mode is noticeable, but small enough compared to the gains it offers. That said, there’s a perfect compromise in that 120Hz mode, in theory at least, if you have such a screen. With 120Hz mode enabled, both Ray Tracing and Quality mode run at 40fps, meaning effects and setting are identical to the non-120Hz modes, but DRS is often lower down the range in heavy sequences due to the 25% reduction in frametime. In reality this makes a minor impact to image for an improvement to the fluidity and control, which can be vital with such a fast-paced action-centric game.

The engine has high input latency, and running it at 30fps means we get median times of 225ms with the Quality mode and 221ms in Ray Tracing mode, whereas the 60fps Performance mode offers a significantly faster median of 115ms. This is where having a 120Hz screen offers the biggest boost, knocking around 30% off those Quality and Ray Tracing mode times, down to 163ms and 154ms respectively. This is due to the 25% smaller frame-time as well as the fact it can now flip into the next 8ms refresh when a frame is dropped, bringing the median input time down by some 60ms. The 60fps Performance mode does gain some from 120Hz mode, but only the expected 8ms frame-time peak, giving a small 7.2% improvement in fluidity.

As such, without even getting to framerates, I suggest using the 120Hz mode for all modes if possible. If not, I recommend using the Performance mode, as the camera, movement, and combat are all severely hindered in the 30fps modes as demonstrated here.

Performance

In theory, these settings should cover all our bases. Sadly, in practice all of the targets are missed – and not just on occasion but often enough to be sub par. Starting with the Performance mode, we “target” 60fps, but in bandwidth-heavy sections with foliage, the opaque or partial translucent alpha effects can all cause a 25-30% frame rate reduction, causing long sections in the mid to low 40s. The game does support Variable Rate Refresh (VRR), but these rates are below the active range for VRR on PS5, and you can still see and feel the dips.

Turning the 120Hz option on, the Performance mode is still capped at 60fps, but when drops happen you can at least flip into 8ms, meaning this is still the fastest and most responsive mode to play. The Ray Tracing mode is next with it being between 8-14% faster than the Quality mode when running on a 120Hz screen, but even then it can dip back into the low 30s often enough to feel the same. This does not mean all the time, with many sections of quiet exploration or cutscenes hitting the 40fps high, but assume that heavy combat will play out somewhere in the middle ground.

The game doesn’t feel like it is utilising some of the key aspects of current generation consoles, instead feeling far more like a cross-generation game.

You might ask why not run an unlocked option for 60Hz screens, but this causes frame-times to leap between 16ms and 33ms when forced into a 60Hz container. On a 120Hz screen, however, they align to that 40fps rate at 25ms, which is why it feels smoother as the frame times are closer together and even. Sadly, the Quality mode is worse than the Ray Tracing mode, and at 40fps it is more often below that and can even dip into the mid 20s – again dense opaque pixel fill-rate seems to be the main cause. As such, the 40fps mode is great in theory but in practice the Quality mode suffers most to not be worth it and the Ray Tracing mode, although better, is still not close enough to that target to be called a true middle ground option.

Image quality and effects

Visually, the game is a mixture of new and old: world geometry, lighting, shadows, global illumination, specular, and more do look good with high polygon count on characters, good materials, and general facial and skeletal animation. Compared to Final Fantasy XV it is superior, specifically in resolution and image stability, even compared to that game’s PS4 Pro version, but not to any generational-looking degree aside from improved assets and resolution. It does offer some current generation increases though, with Quality offering a full 4K output and Ray Tracing adding in hybrid shadows with a soft penumbra, with accurate contact hardening enhanced by more objects casting shadows.

Quality mode increases LoD over Performance and the Ray Tracing mode, with further shadow cascades and increased debris in certain areas. Ray Tracing has the best quality, with shadow cascades mixed with ray traced shadows within the first cascade, as in closest to the camera. These give softer shadows and better ambient occlusion, but outside of a side-by-side comparison are not significant enough to stand out to most players. Quality mode is a little sharper, helped by the contrast-adaptive sharpening pass within the engine, but in reality both modes look similar enough that you can’t tell much of a difference after a few minutes of play. The Ray Tracing mode improves most on the self shadowing of characters in cutscenes, which are quite plentiful throughout the game.

Character models are well constructed and realised, but suffer often in the cutscenes due to lower bone rigs than many modern games, especially in the mouth, eyes and nose. The game relies on a mixture of performance capture and keyframe animation. This, along with the leap in some cinematics over others means you can have big gaps in model quality, lighting, materials and animation between scenes and even from model to model. Textures are certainly one aspect, with mip-maps often running sub-par assets in cutscenes, which highlights that the engine/game still needs some refinement here, as textures can be quite late loading in, leaving you with some blurry and last-generation looking details on the PS5.

Loading

Loading highlights the game’s cross-generation roots, despite it being a PS5 and PC only game. Continuing a game takes less than 2 seconds, making excellent use of the SSD and I/O design of the PS5. Loading into a game is slower, at just over 5 seconds. The main issue though is the constant fade to black and loading you will see during your play. Admittedly most are 2 to 3 seconds at most, but the constant fade out-in, stop-start nature of opening a door, leaving a fort, battling an enemy or even within a cutscene can create a disconnect from the game. This is compounded by many sections locking you in place until the UI, dialogue, or prompts have loaded. This was frustrating as it felt unnecessary and restrictive, meaning that the game doesn’t feel like it is utilising some of the key aspects of current generation consoles, instead feeling far more like a cross-generation game.

Sound Production and Mixing

Effects are okay, with decent mixing and production. Music, although far from bad, is repetitive and terribly mixed, with music clumsily fading out or just stopping and new tunes starting at certain points in gameplay or cinematics. This is compounded by some poor mixing which can leave voices fighting with music, and the dialogue is far from top tier.

Summary

The Luminous Engine was a revelation only seven years ago with FFXV, offering character models, cloth physics and hair that rivaled the best in the industry. Forspoken betters that game in almost all aspects, but the gaming industry has moved on since then, and the engine has not kept pace. What it offers is a wide open land, high graphical quality, and a wide range of modes. Sadly, none of those hit the expected mark both in quality and consistency, and I hope that patches can resolve some of the performance and quality issues noted here.

The Best PS5 SSD Deals for 2023

2023 might finally be the year where 2TB PS5 SSDs might actually be worth the upgrade. Last year, prices for 1TB PS5 SSDs averaged around $150, whereas 2TB SSDs hovered closer to $300. This year, we’re seeing 1TB SSDs trickle below the $100 price point and 2TB SSDs are under $200. The reason PS5 SSD upgrades are pricey is that you can’t use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You’ll want to pick up an PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive with a rated 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive. That means, for better or for worse, picking a top-shelf SSD.

Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD. Not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we’ll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don’t, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (we recommend this one for $10) and install it yourself. It’s very easy.

Adata Premium 1TB M.2 SSD for PS5 for $76.49

Includes Heatsink

This is an Amazon Lighting Deal that expires today 1/25. This could be the lowest price we’ve seen so far for a 1TB PS5-compatible SSD, and it even includes a heatspreader. The Adata Premium SSD boasts transfer speeds of up to 6,100MB/s, which is more than fast enough to surpass the PS5’s recommended minimum speed threshold of 5,500MB/s. Yes there are faster SSDs out there, but if your intention is to put this in your PS5, then that extra speed is worthless because you’re bottlenecked by the stock PS5 SSD. Better to save that money and put it to better use.

Crucial P5 Plus 2TB M.2 SSD for $161.99

Crucial’s newest M.2 SSD meets all the requirements for your PS5 SSD upgrade. It supports transfer speeds of up to 6,660MB/s which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. Yes there are faster SSDs out there, but if your intention is to put this in your PS5, then that extra speed is worthless because you’re bottlenecked by the original PS5 SSD. If you’re worried about opening up your PS5 case, don’t worry it’s very easy. Crucial has an official YouTube PS5 SSD install guide to see you through the process.

Samsung 980 Pro 2TB M.2 SSD for $179.99

Samsung SSDs need no introduction. They’ve made some of the most popular and reliable PS5 SSDs on the market. The 980 Pro has been out for a while now, and it’s still Samsung’s fastest M.2 PCIe SSD. It is fully PS5 compatible in terms of form factor and performance, with blistering speeds of up to 7,100MB/s. It goes toe to toe with other well-known options like the WD Black SN850 and the Seagate Firecuda 530.

WD Black SN850X 2TB PS5 SSD for $199.99

Preinstalled Heatsink

Amazon has the newest WD Black Series SN850X M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD for the best price we’ve seen. The SN850X is the successor to the SN850 SSD. It has newer flash chips (BiCS5 vs BiCS4) and an updated firmware, which combined offer improved sequential and random read/write speeds. For PC gamers, there’s also an updated Game Mode 2.0 utility that’s designed to tune the SSD for better performance during gaming sessions.

More PS5 SSD Deals

There may be other SSD deals out there, but these are the PS5 SSDs we’ve tried ourselves and highly recommend. They also double up as outstanding boot drives for your gaming PC, in case you don’t need additional storage for your PS5 console.

How easy is it to install the SSD?

It’s extremely easy! Removing the case cover is completely toolless. In fact, the only screw you have to remove is the one that keeps the cover for the SSD bay in place. You don’t even put it back when you’re done. Sony has a quick and easy YouTube video guide.

What if the SSD I bought doesn’t have a heatsink?

Sony recommends you install an SSD that has an attached heatsink. If the SSD you purchase doesn’t include one, it’s simple enough to buy one for about $10 on Amazon and add it yourself. Most of these heatsinks are just attached using an adhesive like thermal tape.

For more deals, take a look at our daily deals for today.

Xbox Game Pass in January 2023: Hi-Fi Rush, GoldenEye 007 and More

If you tuned into Xbox’s Developer Direct on January 25, you’ll already know about Hi-Fi Rush shadow-dropping on Xbox Game Pass after the presentation ended. But, that’s not all, as Xbox has also now confirmed every game hitting the service before the end of the month, and a few more for the start of February as well including Hot Wheels Unleashed, GoldenEye 007, Age of Empires 2, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R, Grid Legends, and more.

Games to already hit Game Pass this month include Persona 3 and 4, alongside Monster Hunter Rise and Stranded Deep. For now, here’s everything coming to Xbox Game Pass in January 2023.

Hi-Fi Rush is Available on Xbox Game Pass Right Now

Tango Gameworks’ next game is Hi-Fi Rush, a rhythm adventure game under development exclusively for the Xbox Series X|S, and it’s coming out tonight. Announced during the Xbox Developer_Direct showcase, the trailer revealed a bombastic comic-like art style, original tunes and rhythm-based movement and combat. Tango Gameworks has already released the game, including on Xbox Game Pass, and you can install it right now if you want to.

Everything Coming to Xbox Game Pass in January 2023

  • Stranded Deep – January 3 (Console, PC, Cloud)
  • Persona 3 Portable – January 19 (Console, PC, Cloud)
  • Persona 4 Golden – January 19 (Console, PC, Cloud)
  • Monster Hunter Rise – January 20 (Console, PC)
  • Hi-Fi Rush – January 25 (Console, PC)
  • GoldenEye 007 – January 27 (Console)
  • Roboquest (Game Preview) – January 30 (Console)
  • Age Of Empires 2: Definitive Edition – January 31 (Console, Cloud)
  • Inkulinati – January 31 (Console, PC)
  • JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 31

Bonus Games We Now Know About for February on Game Pass

  • Darkest Dungeon (Cloud, Console, and PC) – February 2
  • Grid Legends (Cloud) EA Play – February 2
  • Hot Wheels Unleashed – Game of the Year Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC) – February 7

Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden on Xbox Game Pass

After January 19, Persona 3, 4, and 5 will all be available for Xbox Game Pass members on console, PC, and cloud gaming. This was initially announced back at Xbox’s summer showcase, and we have since seen Persona 5 Royal enter the service in October 2022.

Everything Leaving Xbox Game Pass in January 2023

  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Nobody Saves The World (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Pupperazzi (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • The Anacrusis (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • We Happy Few (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Windjammers 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Donut County (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master (Console and PC)
  • Telling Lies (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Worms WMD (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Xbox and Bethesda Developer Direct January 2023

The Xbox and Bethesda Developer Direct for January 2023 aired earlier today, as Microsoft and its partners shared updates on games including Redfall, The Elder Scrolls Online, Forza Motorsport, Minecraft Legends, and more. Read more here to learn about everything announced at today’s event, including brand new release dates for Minecraft Legends (April 18, 2023), Redfall (May 2, 2023), and more.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.