Category: Video Gaming

We’re now only a few weeks away from release, and if you haven’t yet secured your Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom preorder, then you’re in luck. All preorders for the highly anticipated Switch exclusive are currently down to £44.99 at Currys, just use code ZELDA25 at checkout. This is the absolute best deal on Tears of the Kingdom preorders in the UK.

This is a £15 saving compared to the Amazon listing, and £5 better than the previous best deal ShopTo. This is well worth considering if you don’t have any leftover extra credit at Amazon, or you won’t be trying for the Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition (that’s out of stock right now as well). We’ve left some handy links to the preorder deal just below, and make sure you’re following @IGNUKDeals on Twitter for more updates.

TL;DR – Best UK Deals Right Now

Best Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Preorder Deal (Use Code ZELDA25)

Bonus: Where to Preorder Tears of the Kingdom – Switch OLED Model

If you’re looking to add the special Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED model to your collection, then look no further. Preorders for this special edition console are still available and will launch on April 28, just a few weeks before the new game.

Preorders Now Live

Nintendo Switch (OLED Model) Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Limited Edition

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3-Months of Audible for 99p (was £23.97)

This is a great deal on Audible. For 99p you’re essentially getting three audiobooks of your choosing (one per month), alongside the whole Audible podcast catalogue. Some of my favourites I’ve listened to on Audible this year include Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino, Strong Female Character by Fern Brady, and I Am Not Nicholas by Jane MacSorley.

But there’s plenty else to choose from as well, such as The Sandman, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Dune, Lord of the Rings, and more. For 99p, you’re getting plenty of value out of Audible, so I defintiely recommened giving it a go. (This is for new and returning subscribers only)

Limited Time Deal

Audible – 3-Month Membership

1 free Book Credit per month + access to all Audible Podcasts.

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Latest 4K UHD Preorders and Deals: Mario Movie, The Last of Us and More

There’s some pretty awesome 4K UHD and Blu-ray preorders that the IGN UK audience have been loving recently. At the top of these is The Last of Us Season 1 steelbook, but we’ve had a couple of new popular preorders announced recently as well. Both John Wick 4 and the Mario movie are getting the special edition or steelbook treatment, and you can check out the preorders for both just below as well.

The Matrix: Titans of Cult 4K Steelbook [4K Ultra-HD]

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4K UHD + Blu-ray

John Wick Chapter 4 – Lenticular Edition (Amazon Exclusive)

3-disc edition includes an extra 20-mins of behind the scenes footage.

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4K UHD + Blu-ray

The Last of Us: Season 1 (Steelbook)

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Incredible LEGO Discounts on Amazon

Whether you’re looking to build your collection or buying a gift for someone else, Amazon has plenty of LEGO deals that are worth checking out. From new sets like the Star Wars BD-1 Posable Droid to even more obsecure sets like the Harry Potter Hungarian Horntail Dragon, there’s something for everyone.

LEGO 75335 Star Wars BD-1 Posable Droid Figure Model Building Kit

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LEGO 75325 Star Wars The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter

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Latest UK Random Deals: My Top Picks Right Now

It’s a roll of the dice. These are my absolute favourite deals that are available right now, but don’t necessarily fit anywhere else, making them a little bit more random compared to everything else in Daily Deals.

Great Deal

Ninja Foodi Air Fryer [AF300UK], Dual Zone, 7.6 Litre

These deals usually sell out quickly.

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Check Out These PS5 and PlayStation Spring Sale Deals

PlayStation’s Spring Sale has brought with it a number of excellent deals on PS5 consoles and bundles, alongside some wonderful physical and digital PS5 video game deals. This includes the likes of The Last of Us Part 2 for £8.74, Dead Space for £44.99, Hogwarts Legacy for £44.99, Ratchet and Clank for £29.99, and plenty alongside. You can also save even more on digital purchases if you invest in some discounted PlayStation gift cards from ShopTo.

PS5 and PS4 Digital Spring Sale Deals

Save Big on Digital Purchases with These Discounted Gift Cards

If you’re buying anything in the PlayStation Digital sale, then here’s how you can save a little extra money along the way. UK online retailer ShopTo has currently got a brilliant selection of PlayStation Gift Cards at discounted prices; for example a £50 card for £42.85 instead. Not only do these make great gifts, but they’re also perfect for topping up your own PSN account as well.

The only catch with these is that the best value comes from spending £50 or above, so only do this if you’re planning on make lots of digital purchases, or a couple of big ones. For example, if you buy two £50 cards, gaining £100 in total, you’re only paying £85.70, which is a £14.30 saving right out the gate. There’s more gift cards available, so I’ve left some handy links just below. And don’t worry, ShopTo is a trusted seller, and we feature deals from them all the time so you’re absolutely in safe hands when purchasing.

PS5/PS4

PlayStation Store Gift Card – £50

Purchase x2 for Best Value.

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PS5 and PS4 Physical Video Game Sale

PS5

The Last of Us Part 1

Sign up to Argos marketing emails to save another £5.

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PS5

Hogwarts Legacy

Sold by The Game Collection.

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Best PS5 and Xbox Series X Console Deals in the UK

This is the first big PS5 bundle deal we’re getting in the UK, with £40 off the original list price of £540. With PS5 consoles costing £479.99 right now, this essentially means you’re getting God of War Ragnarok for £20. It’s a great deal, but there are a few others to check out below as well.

Limited Time Deal

Xbox Series X with Forza Horizon 5 Premium Edition

Includes Welcome Pack, VIP Membership, Car Pass and Game Expansions.

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Best Blanket Hoodie Deals in The UK Right Now

You love these, we love these. And to be fair, a blanket that you can wear, what’s not to love about that? These usually end up confined to the random deals section but we want to give you a nice selection today. Spring time in the UK means endless rain, get comfy and chill out in front of the telly.

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

Fans of anime writer-director Matoko Shinkai may notice periodic nods to Studio Ghibli’s movies in his newest work — and they’re very much intentional. But those references aren’t just homages to Japan’s most famous animation studio: They serve a very specific purpose.

Unlike Shinkai’s previous two movies, Your Name and Weathering with You, his latest, Suzume focuses on the impact of a real-life disaster: the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. These films’ little nods to Studio Ghibli — cultural touchpoints viewers are likely to recognize — specifically root the world of Suzume closer to our reality, before the movie’s ties to the 2011 disaster are fully revealed.

One of Suzume’s Ghibli nods is overt — someone on social media spots Daijin the keystone cat riding a train on his own, and compares the image to Whisper of the Heart. Another is subtler: Serizawa, a friend of human-turned-chair Sōta, drives protagonist Suzume and her aunt Tamaki to their final destination while playing “Rouge no Dengon” from Kiki’s Delivery Service on his phone. But the movie’s best Ghibli nod is its subtlest. In fact, it might not even really be a full reference — and yet it resonates so much more if you read it as one.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the ending of Suzume — and for Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle.]

Throughout the movie, accidental companions Suzume and Sōta journey across Japan to close magical doorways. It’s not too far of a leap to compare those portals to the magical destination-switching doorway seen in Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle. This feels especially true when Suzume first steps through one of those doors and sees a lush meadow covered in wildflowers — a landscape that could easily fit alongside the gorgeous field that Howl shows Sophie in Miyazaki’s movie.

Viewers learn that this is a doorway to the afterlife, and the reason Suzume can see it through the doorway is because she somehow wandered into the realm as a little girl. Flashbacks reveal that Suzume did indeed enter a mysterious door as a child, and was greeted by a figure she assumed to be her dead mother. Afterward, she found a chair she thought she lost, the one that Sōta eventually gets cursed to become.

Suzume learns she must return to the door she originally entered if she wants to save Sōta, so she returns to the ruins of her hometown. That sequence is reminiscent of the climatic scene in Howl’s Moving Castle, in which, after Howl’s castle is destroyed, Sophie finds its magical door resting on some rocks among the ruins. Opening that door, Sophie stumbles into Howl’s childhood, and a past version of the meadow he showed her, then watches him meet his fire demon Calcifer, and make the deal that costs Howl his heart.

As the scene begins to fade away, Sophie calls out to Howl, “Find me in the future!” and Howl and Calcifer both look her way. It’s heavily implied that this is the reason Howl seeks her out later in his life, and is also the reason that Sophie is ultimately able to save him.

Image: Studio Ghibli

So when Suzume enters her own magical doorway and finds herself in that wildflower meadow, it feels like an echo of Miyazaki’s movie. Suzume enters the afterlife to save Sōta, just as Sophie entered the past to save Howl. Admittedly, Suzume features more giant-earthquake-worm battles, just enough that the immediate comparison fades away. But after Suzume saves Sōta — and in doing so, reclaims her own will to live — she gazes at the field of wildflowers and notices a small figure in the distance. It’s herself, as a child.

In Howl’s Moving Castle, reaching back to the past connects the movie’s two protagonists, weaving together the beginnings of both their stories. But Suzume isn’t the same sort of romantic movie as Howl’s Moving Castle. The focus is on Suzume’s growth, the way she goes from apathy and self-destructiveness to someone who actually wants to live. So, although she steps through the door to save Sōta, she’s actually saving herself. She looks back at the past and sees the younger, despondent version of herself, and tells that crying little girl that it’s all going to be okay. It ties her story together perfectly, bringing the ending back to the beginning — just as Miyazaki’s movie does, in its own way.

Suzume is in theaters now.

FromSoftware’s upcoming Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon has been rated in Korea, which just makes the wait even harder.

As spotted by Gematsu, the sixth entry in FromSoftware’s mech customising series has been rated in Korea. The game has received a 12+ in the region, which sounds a bit on the low end but different territories will rate things differently depending on what each country might view as appropriate or inappropriate for certain age ranges. An age rating does suggest the game is far enough into development to be rated, and it is due to be released this year, so it’s possible we could get a release date soon. A number of games have been accidentally revealed because of being rated in Korea, and typically do receive release dates quite soon after the rating comes through.

We haven’t seen anything of Armored Core 6 since it was revealed at The Game Awards last year. A report last month claimed that the game will be launching some time between September and October, apparently before the Elden Ring DLC revealed in February. Souls fans shouldn’t expect the series to just be Dark Souls with mechs, as Armored Core 6 will be sticking to its roots with mission-based gameplay and customising your mech – though it will have big boss fights for you to take on too.

The last game in the series, Armored Core: Verdict Day (a direct sequel to Armored Core 5) released in 2013, making it a full 10 years since a new title has been released. FromSoftware has been more focused on titles like Dark Souls since finding success with the series, typically offering hard, reaction-based gameplay. Armored Core 6 will hopefully offer a refreshing change of pace from the developer’s usual affair, and it’ll certainly be interesting to see how the series might have changed with a decade more experience under FromSoftware’s belt.

Upon first blush, Lil Gator Game looks like a zoomed-in and smoothed-out version of A Short Hike. While the game does certainly appear to be heavily influenced by the indie darling — from its adorable animal characters to its larger park setting — it was also clearly influenced by another set of games: The Legend of Zelda.

The developers at MegaWobble have packed Lil Gator Game to the brim with Zelda references. The game literally starts off with a conversation between two characters about a “legend of hero” game, and one of the first items you get is a T-shirt turned glider with a design that looks just like Link’s paraglider in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But Lil Gator Game isn’t just a transparent ploy to appeal to longtime Zelda fans through references; it’s the Zelda-like I didn’t know I needed. It combines the exploration elements of Breath of the Wild with a sense of charm and earnestness that reminds me of The Wind Waker, telling an overarching story that’s a joyous ode to those of us who grew up playing Zelda games and wanting to be Link.

Lil Gator Game follows the story of a little gator — I named mine Ham — and their older sister. When you start, you see the two as kids as they decide to make their own version of a “legend of hero” game that they can play outside with two players. Fast-forward a few years, and the older sister has grown up and gone to college. To Ham’s delight, she returns home for fall break, but he’s soon sad to find she’s glued to her computer as she works on a group project. Ham then takes it upon themselves to create a game that’s so cool that their sister can’t help but want to play again, just as the two did as children.

The overall premise of the game is simple. As the little gator, you run around looking for friends and complete their requests as part of your made-up game. There are additional features that I’ll let players discover for themselves, but the bulk of the in-game action involves climbing, gliding, and collecting cardboard scraps from cutout props of enemies to craft new items and outfits. As you explore the forested island park, you’ll venture up and around waterfalls, weave your way through playsets, and take in the fall hues of the yellow, orange, and red trees.

While the gameplay seems to take more influence from Breath of the Wild, what stood out to me, and what I truly love about the game, is how it balances the childlike veneer of the protagonist’s perspective with a poignant emotional core that’s reminiscent of Wind Waker.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker follows a young Link who sets out on a journey to save his kidnapped sister from Ganon. It’s the first Zelda game that made me cry; the clip of Link waving goodbye to his granny against the big blue sky permanently seared itself into my childhood brain. That game, like many Zelda games, has a somber story at its center, but it also features a cartoony, cel-shaded look and markedly whimsical dialogue and world design. Link fights monsters but also meets eccentric characters, like a man who dons an all-white fringe jacket and dances day and night and a group of school children who bully Link but then challenge him to hide-and-seek.

Image: MegaWobble/Playtonic Friends via Polygon

Lil Gator Game contains a similar sense of levity that I miss seeing in modern Zelda games. The game oozes with childlike playfulness; some characters will burst into rainbow confetti to make an exit, and the scrawled text doesn’t have proper capitalization or punctuation. You might turn a corner on a hill and see a monkey wearing a tux and colorful bracelets up to their armpits, or complete an entire quest line to turn on the water for the local splash pad.

But just like in Wind Waker, the childlike nature of the game pairs with its deeper emotional story. As you explore Lil Gator Game’s world, you’ll find that the island is imbued with the memories of adventures past; you’ll occasionally see grayed-out versions of you and your sister that connect to that past. If you interact with these silhouettes, you’ll get to see all the previous memories of your character and their sister — from the two sharing a quiet moment between sheer cliffs to the pair joyfully bounding down a hill.

Image: MegaWobble/Playtonic Friends via Polygon

The stakes of Lil Gator Game are markedly smaller than those in Wind Waker; you aren’t saving your sister from Ganon, but instead from the stress of a group project. Regardless, the emotional drive feels just as important. Whenever you complete a quest, the gator sends a goofy selfie to their sister in a bid to show them how cool everything is. They often double- and triple-text their sister in their excitement, only to receive rather muted responses. The gator’s earnest love for their sister feels almost sad, but also moving, as it neatly captures what a one-sided relationship can look like when people are at different stages of their lives.

It’s a lovely gem of a game that touches on my nostalgia for Zelda but still managed to tell a unique story through the gator and their sister’s relationship. It’s a story about the little gator’s deeper desire to connect with someone again in the present, and how games facilitate that. So if you’re looking for a charming pick-me-up before The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes out, don’t ignore Lil Gator Game.

Donna Burke, voice actor and vocalist behind a couple of Metal Gear Solid vocal tracks, appears to have teased that Snake Eater remake.

Earlier this week Burke shared a photo of herself holding a folder of a cat with an eye patch on it, but more importantly it has the text Snake Eater on it, with the caption “Recording in progress” (thanks, Eurogamer). If you don’t know who Burke is, this might not mean much, but the voice actor and singer was the lead vocalist behind tracks like Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker’s Heavens Divide, and The Phantom Pain’s Sins of theFather. So obviously everyone thinks that she’s recording for the long rumoured Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake.

In a later tweet, Burke shared more photos of herself in the recording studio writing, “nothing beats working with good people. Nothing. Thanks for today Mason Lieberman (director) and Yusuke Mori (engineer) and Tomomi Ura (EA).” Fans were quick to zoom in on one particular photo which clearly shows the lyrics for Snake Eater’s main theme (also called Snake Eater, one of the more popular tracks from the series due to its James Bond theme-like qualities). Which certainly makes it seem like she might be recording the track for this remake we’ve heard about on and off for what seems like forever now.

It would be unusual that she’s just recording it for any other reason – she did perform the track for the official soundtrack Metal Gear Solid ~Vocal Tracks~. Back in February, VGC’s Andy Robinson also reported that a Snake Eater remake and a new Castlevania are set to appear at E3 this year, both of which have been rumoured for a number of years. Konami is obviously pro-remake with the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, so a Snake Eater remake wouldn’t be surprising in the slightest. Guess we’ll see at E3!

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The Best Zelda Dungeons Of All Time

Sundays are for spending your first weekend back in the UK in a while, and feeling a bit disoriented. Before you settle back in, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and game related things).

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In case you missed it, there’s a 4K remaster of Rise of the Triad, the cult first-person shooter where you first-person shoot cultists, due out this year. It’s a collaboration between Apogee Entertainment, Nightdive Studios, and New Blood Interactive, who recently shared some extra details on how they’re updating this classic (opens in new tab). 

Among those details is the addition of new HUD options in both minimalist and classic wide status-bar style. And where the original HUD could display a pixelated version of whichever character you chose from ROTT’s selection of five badasses, the remaster will have an animated version of them that changes as they score power-ups (gaining glowing eyes for God Mode and transforming into a dog for Dog Mode), and becomes a proper Doom ouch face (opens in new tab) when they take damage.

Image 1 of 4

Rockstar’s transformation from DMA Design—the Scottish developer behind the Lemming series as well as Grand Theft Auto—into an international publishing behemoth is a tale that’s been told several times before. For starters, there’s David Kushner’s book Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, and BBC docudrama The Game Changers starring Daniel Radcliffe. There’s even our own feature on how Rockstar made millions selling Scotland’s natural export: dark comedy.

One story that hadn’t been told in full is how the company’s immediately recognizable logo with the R and star against a yellow background came to be. Until now, as Time Extension (opens in new tab) has tracked down former Rockstar designer Karen Scott (then Karen Mui), who explained how she and artist Jeremy Blake created the image that’s become inseparable from the company.

Shardpunk: Verminfall smooshes together a bunch of different ideas you’ll have seen before. It’s got turn-based tactical combat against rats with magic rifles in a steampunk world already in ruins. It’s got the need to keep on moving, lest an approaching rat horde overwhelm you. It’s got bunkers in which your party rests, de-stresses, and tools up before moving on.

Kind of a Fallouty, XCOMy, FTLy, Vermintidey mix, then – which together seems very cool. It’s out now, and there’s a demo.

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I don’t know what the weather is like where you live, but it is a gorgeous 78 degrees here. Many folks are out and about walking thier dogs, playing basketball, jogging, doing yard work, all sorts of things you do outdoors.

Not this gal: she has bronchitis; therefore, she plans to stay in bed and alternate between sleeping and watching Netflix. If she feels up to it, she might play some more Skyrim on Xbox, but probably not.

Guess who else is staying inside to play games this weekend? Connor, James, and Kelsey. Although I doubt it’s because they are feeling like bunk. They just want to play games.

Connor Makar, Staff Writer – Street Fighter 4, Two Worlds

This weekend, I’ll be playing a mix of embargoed stuff, Street Fighter 4, and Two Worlds. Yep, that old RPG from forever ago.

It came up last weekend during a discusssion with Jim, so I’ve got the hunger for it and… it’s actually pretty okay! I hope to finish it before a big game releases at month’s end.

James Billcliffe, Guides Editor – Baldur’s Gate 3

My Steam Deck adventures in the D&D world of Baldur’s Gate 3 continue.

It’s a great game, even in early access, but personal preference means that I find the RNG even more frustrating than the numerous crashes and freezes. It’s just one of those games where a 70% chance to fit feels more like a 10% chance, and the coin-flip charisma checks never seem to go your way.

But, even though it’s a bit of a save-scumming grind, the questing and ambiance in Baldur’s Gate 3 are still brilliant, with many different permutations to investigate.

Here’s hoping it’s even better come August!

Kelsey Raynor, Guides Writer – Fire Emblem games, XDefiant

I will be incredibly lazy this weekend to make up for how non-stop last week was. I’ve got some Pokemon cards to open and will no doubt jump into Pokemon TCG Live again as a result.

Aside from that, I’m probably going to give XDefiant a second chance with some friends to see if it grows on me at all, and I’ve got Fire Emblem Awakening to finish. I’m not too far from the end, though, so I’ll probably go and pick up Fire Emblem Three Houses this weekend too.

Simply put, I’ve plenty of gaming to be on with.

That’s us sorted for the weekend. What about you? What are you playing this weekend?

Occasionally I wonder if the market for wholesome town builders has reached saturation, but then a trailer pops up for another one and I’m never less than intrigued. The latest is Fabledom, which promises the pastoral fields and castle wall construction I adore, then adds a twist by being set within a fairytale kingdom. It’s in early access now.

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Mordhau is about alternately bashing at other players with swords, axes and polearms, and teaming up with other players for playful buffoonery with lutes, emotes, and spontaneous roleplay. It was one of our favourite games of 2019 and it’s currently free to keep from the Epic Games Store.

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The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has gone gold, which means it’s not far from release.

Releasing on May 25, Gollum tells the tale of the twisted Stoor with a split-personality, who searches high and low for his Precious, until he finally finds it and meets his end.

While searching for his beloved ring across dangerous areas of Middle-earth, Gollum will use cunning, stealth, and climbing abilities to avoid enemies. But, he will also have to deal with Smeagol, his true personality, before it was split in half after possessing the One Ring for 500 years. It will be up to you to decide if you want Gollum to have the upper hand when it comes to making important decisions or if Smeagol should take over.

Journeying through the game, you will encounter well-known characters from Tolkien’s books, a few new faces, and plenty of recognizable locations.

Originally slated for fall 2022, the game was pushed into May 2023 and once released, will be available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The Switch version will be released at a later date.

If you are keen to pick it up, there’s an interesting edition of the game to be made available, and it’s called the Precious Edition. Setting you back $69.99, it comes with the game, an Emotes Pack, Lore Compendium, Original Soundtrack, and Art Exhibition.

But the really cool part about this edition? It comes with the Sindarin voice-over pack. This pack can be used to change the game’s language into Grey-Elven, one of the many languages spoken by elves, particularly those in Beleriand. These were elves of the Third Clan who remained behind after the Great Journey. Their language became estranged from that of their kin who sailed over the sea, and derives from an earlier eleven language.

It is a rather lovely language created by Tolkien, and is mainly based on Welsh – one of Tolkien’s favorite languages due to how it sounds when spoken.

The Netflix series Beef is a cataclysmic spiral of existential despair and self-destruction. It starts, however, with little more than a traffic altercation: Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) backs out of an LA parking lot in his crappy red truck and nearly hits a pristine white SUV. Horns are honked, words shouted, middle fingers extended. It’s the sort of conflict where the participants tend to go on with their lives once they’ve let off some steam.

But for Danny and the unseen SUV driver, there’s still quite a lot of steam to let off. Danny gives chase, weaving through red lights and stop signs while his adversary pelts his windshield with garbage. Once the confrontation is over and the SUV speeds away, we see that the driver is another Asian American: Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a harried entrepreneur on the verge of selling her thriving business for a huge payday.

The characters in Beef are not well-intentioned victims of circumstance who learn some sort of lesson by the end. They are allowed to be horrible and selfish and petty in ways that we rarely see outside white-centered stories, and their behavior takes on a fascinating additional layer in the context of the Asian American identity that unites them even across divisions of class and culture.

In essence, the series is an extreme interpretation of something Amy’s touchy-feely husband George (Joseph Lee) says: You never know what the other person is going through. Danny is a struggling handyman living out of the motel his family once owned with his layabout brother Paul (Young Mazino). George is right, in a sense, that Amy and Danny are thinking of the other only as a target for their ire rather than as a distinct person with their own life and feelings. Of course, he’s also ignoring the fact that Danny tracked Amy down in the aftermath, cajoled his way into her home, and maliciously peed all over her bathroom.

Beef gives its Asian Americans room to be anything but reserved and polite. We watch the imperfect coping mechanisms they’ve developed, like masturbating with a gun or inhaling a distressing amount of Burger King. And then we see how, in painting one another as an unambiguous enemy, they find an outlet for the emotions they’ve spent so much of their lives holding in.

When Danny comes home to the cramped room he shares with Paul, he rants about the expectation to take “other people’s shit” with a smile. It’s a quality that, as an actor, Steven Yeun has built a recent career on expressing: the buried hurt of his traumatized ex-child actor in Nope, the simmer of sociopathy in Burning. He conveys something more going on beneath the face he presents to the world. In Beef, Danny can’t be honest even when he’s otherwise being open about how he feels — he lies to his brother that he scared off the white SUV and “won” the confrontation, and he spends much of the series making tiny excuses as if by instinct. (“I did chest yesterday,” by way of explanation for being outlifted by the plainly more athletic Paul.)

Photo: Andrew Cooper/Netflix

In Amy, too, we see the things she must ignore and the performance she must give, which similarly dovetails with Ali Wong’s own career: She’s essentially struggling to keep burying her outspoken comic persona. Her interactions with Jordan (Maria Bello), the prospective buyer for her company, are loaded with casual racism that she smiles through, like when she’s praised for her “zen Buddhist” vibe. Amy sees the sale of her company as an escape from such soul-sucking maintenance, a way for her to cash out and focus on raising her young daughter. But even in her personal life, she goes unheard — George cuts her off before she can even explain the road rage incident.

On some level, the characters can trace repression back to their families. Amy says as much about her quiet Midwestern upbringing, whereas Danny notes that he, as the eldest son, shouldered the bulk of his parents’ demands. As in so many Asian American stories, the protagonists labor beneath a cloud of generational strife. But repression is as much heaped upon them through the societal stereotype of the model minority, the ones who keep their heads down and never make a fuss — the very behavior that Danny rages against in the first episode, and the very expectation that countless Asian Americans are confronted with throughout their lives.

As Beef’s conflict spirals out of control, it places its characters in a pantheon of TV antiheroes. The self-actualizing arc of its characters and the collateral damage they leave behind plays like a sort of low-stakes Breaking Bad, with the pettiness and discontent unobscured by any climactic drug-dealing drama. We understand Amy and Danny, perhaps even rooting for their success on occasion, and Beef accesses that empathy without needing to make them particularly likable or sympathetic. The series dismantles stereotypes by giving its characters such depth, revealing the humanity underneath. And humanity, Beef recognizes, is often messy, angry, and imperfect.

The context of their actions and the legible history of pain that comes with it do not absolve them, and their more unsavory traits never subside. Danny’s interactions with Amy are pervaded by oblivious chauvinism, first imagining that only George could be his adversary and then labeling her a bored housewife leeching off her husband’s “art money.” And Amy, for her part, is hardly deterred by the vast income gap that divides her and Danny — she paints “I AM POOR” on the side of his truck and tanks the reviews for his floundering construction business. When she tracks him to his motel, she gloats that he did not strike her as a homeowner.

For as intense as the specific rivalry is here, there’s also a universal truth to their struggles, in the catharsis of expression. As Beef goes on, it demonstrates that Danny and Amy are far from the only characters beaten down by the weight of expectation. George is the son of a famous sculptor, but his own work displays none of the talent and makes no money, leaving Amy to provide for the family. Paul bemoans the way older generations pass off all their hangups and insecurities onto the next. They, too, are products of neglected emotion; when Amy and Danny manipulate them to their own ends, Paul and George taste some of the validation they’ve never clearly received from their own loved ones.

With the increase in on-screen representation over the years, Asian Americans have anchored previously unthinkable leading roles, as things like love interests and superheroes. It’s Beef, though, that clears a truly pivotal hurdle in that regard: It lets its protagonists and peripheral characters be messy and complex, if not unambiguous assholes.

One of the biggest perks of Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription is ending on May 9. Until then, PlayStation 5 owners who subscribe can claim 18 free PS4 games, some of which are bona fide classics that you ought to play. I’m talking Bloodborne, God of War, and more. And you can continue to play them, so long as you remain subscribed. We’re going to share some favorites.

Sony debuted the PlayStation Plus Collection, as it’s called, during the PS5’s unveiling in 2020 so that gamers would have the best of PS4 to play on launch day, and to bite back against Microsoft’s popular Game Pass subscription that gives Xbox players access to hundreds of games. Since then, Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription has added game trials, access to full games, and free monthly titles to its multi-tier service. But Sony’s efforts so far to add value primarily reward people willing to pay at least $14.99 per month or more. So don’t forget to claim these games on the cheap while you can.

Should you forget, it’s a bit of a mess to figure out how to get them without paying more than you should. For instance, 15 of the 18 games will continue to be available if you have Sony’s $14.99 per month “Extra” tier of PlayStation Plus. The $17.99 per month “Premium” tier is the only way to get access to The Last of Us Remastered without buying it as a stand-alone game. Mortal Kombat X, Ratchet & Clank (2016), and Monster Hunter: World will need to be purchased separately regardless.

Few studios’ portfolios are as consistently great as that of FromSoftware, and for my money, no FromSoftware game is as great as Bloodborne. Its combat is as crunchy as it is slick; its Victorian Gothic world is replete with Lovecraftian horrors and creatures that would make Dracula cry; its story, which is about everything from the danger of knowledge to the perils of organized religion, is equal parts subtle and potent. There’s more character in Bloodborne’s opening village than in most developers’ entire catalog, and somehow, I enjoy it more every time I return. It’s the best game on PlayStation 4, and really, one of the best games I’ve ever played. —Mike Mahardy

Bloodborne is currently available in Sony’s PS Plus game catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers, or $19.99 on its own.

Image: SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment

I harp a lot on God of War Ragnarök. I think it’s bloated, messy, and overwrought. But no matter; I can go back and play its vastly superior predecessor anytime I want.

God of War was Santa Monica Studio’s answer to several loaded questions: How do we humanize Kratos? How do we revive a character-action series that has “early aughts” written all over it? And how do we incorporate that legacy, without glossing over it? God of War balances all of this weight expertly. It’s not perfect — for as good of a “dad game” as it is, it really does moms dirty — but it is fun as hell, as you travel through fantastical realms and gorgeous landscapes, battle mythical enemies in tight over-the-shoulder combat, and witness the blooming relationship between Kratos and his son Atreus. —MM

God of War is available in Sony’s PS Plus game catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers, and for $19.99 on its own.

Image: Capcom via Polygon

Despite all of Resident Evil’s many twists, turns, peaks, and valleys, Resident Evil 7 biohazard may be the most important game in the series. It not only breathed new life into a franchise that had been steadily declining in quality since 2005’s Resident Evil 4 (except for the occasional bright spot), it also sparked one of the most consistently great eras in Resident Evil.

It’s more than just “important,” though. It’s also pretty damn fun. Its blend of environmental puzzles, tense first-person combat, and Metroidvania-esque exploration across the estate of a deranged swamp family kept me hooked throughout the entire playthrough, even though I probably needed to change my pants after Jack or Marguerite or Lucas scared the piss outta me several times over. Resident Evil Village expanded upon this new take on the revered series by dialing the action up to 11 in a foreboding European castle — but 7 remains the better game for how it balances its action with horror, survival, and pitch-perfect pacing. —MM

Resident Evil 7 biohazard is available in Sony’s PS Plus game catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers, and for $19.99 on its own.

Image: Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Before Ghost of Tsushima, developer Sucker Punch Productions made a name for itself in the PS3 era for its fun, Spider-Man-esque Infamous franchise. Infamous: Second Son, the third main entry in the series, was released early in the PS4’s life cycle, yet its 60 fps frame rate, lavish particle effects, and fluid animations have aged nicely. Like the other Infamous games, you play as a relatively average dude (voiced by Troy Baker) who just so happens to be able to fly, zap, and level up other elemental powers in a vast skill tree. Ultimately, the game turns into a power fantasy, and you’ll be able to decide whether you side with good or evil, just like in previous titles. It’s a joy to play and look at, even if some of its trappings — particularly its repetitive quest types — haven’t fared as well over time. —Cameron Faulkner

Infamous: Second Son is currently available in Sony’s PS Plus game catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers, or for $19.99 on its own.

Image: Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Instead of making a new movie tie-in to release alongside Sony’s Ratchet & Clank animated feature in 2016, Insomniac was tasked with giving the original game a gorgeous refinishing for the PS4, and did it ever succeed. If you’re looking to play through Ratchet & Clank from the very beginning, there’s no better place to start than with the 2016 re-release, simply titled Ratchet & Clank.

If you’ve played the newer Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for PS5, it might be a delightful surprise that the debut title is full of well-executed ideas from the start, including character-swapping puzzles, genuinely funny writing, and a notoriously goofy arsenal of weapons. Plus, the PS4 game got a PS5 update to enable 60 fps gameplay. —CF

Sadly, only the older PS3 version of Ratchet & Clank and its many sequels are currently available with the PS Plus Premium tier. The 2016 version is available by itself for $19.99.

Image: Supermassive Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

For some reason or another, Sony’s PlayStation has always been the go-to console for innovative, choose-your-own-destiny games with boundary-pushing graphics. One of the best ones out there is Until Dawn, a survival horror game from Supermassive Games.

It’s a must-play not just because it’s literally not available on other consoles, but also because it’s a silly, gory take on the cliched “teens in a cabin in the woods” premise that manages to squeeze some legitimate terror from it. However, that’s not to say that the game is perfect. It has some pacing issues, and its quick-time events are bound to frustrate you when a character you like gets axed. But its all-star cast of Peter Stormare, Rami Malek, and Hayden Panettiere doesn’t hurt. Even though it was released nearly 8 years ago, it looks great on the PS5 when you’re connected to a 4K TV. —CF

Until Dawn is currently available in Sony’s PS Plus game catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers, and for $19.99 on its own.

Some gaming gems get forgotten over time, some never get the chance to be discovered in the first place. Out of all of the games that instantly impressed me when I first played them and frustratingly faded into obscurity, Split/Second surely takes the pole position. Welcome to the third installment of my ongoing column, Forgotten Gems!

Black Rock Rocked

If you’ve never played Split/Second and you’re into arcade racers, know that it’s not too late. Largely forgotten — or rather, unknown — it may be, but it’s still easy to find and play (see bottom of this article). Split/Second was the brainchild of Black Rock Studio, a company formerly known as Pixel Planet, then Black Rock Studio, then Climax Brighton, then Climax Racing, then… Black Rock Studio again.

And as you may have guessed, the studio’s story doesn’t have a happy ending. Acquired by Disney in 2006, Black Rock had established itself as a racing game specialist with the MotoGP and ATV Offroad Fury series for THQ and Sony, respectively. Added to Disney Interactive’s growing portfolio of developers, Black Rock was going to be a cornerstone of a new Disney gaming initiative that went beyond kids and family entertainment. Disney’s ambitious plans also included bringing Avalanche Studios, Wideload, Propaganda Games, and Warren Spector’s Junction Point Studios into the fold – with Black Rock doing what it’s done best and laser-focused on developing great racing games.

And that it did. While Black Rock was shut down in 2011 and its talented team scattered to other development studios, it managed to create two racing games under Disney that didn’t just impress our reviewers back then, but hold up perfectly well to modern scrutiny. Its first game, Pure, is an excellent ATV racer released in 2008, but it’s the second game, Split/Second, that still holds a special place in my heart today and doesn’t have a worthy successor – actual or spiritual – to date.

Michael Bay Adventure Racing

Released for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in 2010, Split/Second is a rare breed of “disaster racer”. A game where the environment – and its gradual destruction – is every bit as important as the four-wheeled opposition. It’s a bit as if Roland Emmerich made a Need for Speed game, crossed with Michael Bay’s take on Beetle Adventure Racing. Nearly every race is doused in spectacular, perpetual sunsets, only to serve as the backdrop for over-the-top pyrotechnics and Avengers-level urban destruction. Towers topple, dams burst, airplanes crash, and entire railroad bridges buckle under onslaughts of explosions that send train cars flying everywhere. Two console generations later, it’s still visually impressive, even if the entire affair runs at 30 frames per second. Take a look:

The gameplay centers around a TV competition show that has racers square off in 12 seasons of races amidst carefully orchestrated destruction. Cars build up a “power play” meter by drifting and drafting and can then use that precious energy to trigger environmental hazards to take out the other drivers. These range from having helicopters drop bombs, construction equipment swinging into the road, to major chain reactions that can alter the course of the tracks entirely. For example, a toppled tower may become a ramp to rooftop shortcuts, an ocean liner can be knocked off its drydock into the raceway, or an entire city block can be detonated to bury the racing leaders under falling rubble.

Watching this destruction unfold onscreen is a little bit like seeing a kid with overactive imagination play with their favorite toys. Cars will fly.