Amazon's long-anticipated Mass Effect TV series is reportedly moving forward with casting, and it appears early character details have surfaced online. These leaks have sparked widespread speculation among fans about which iconic characters from BioWare's beloved video game trilogy may be featured, and what kind of storyline the show might explore. The casting call includes roles that closely resemble Commander Shepard and Liara T'Soni, leading some to believe the series may follow the original game's narrative or, at least, a variation of it.

According to insider Daniel Richtman (via IGN), who has previously provided reliable casting details for projects like the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, the show is searching for a male lead in the 30–39 age range described as a "young Colin Farrell" type, as well as a 34–39-year-old female alien character requiring prosthetics. This has led fans to theorize that these roles are for a male Shepard and Liara, respectively. Other notable roles include a female character offering a parallel Earth-based narrative (maybe a gender-swapped Captain Anderson from Mass Effect 3), a villain described as a Doug Jones type aged 40–60, and a soldier-like male character aged 30–49, who evokes comparisons to James Vega.

The character descriptions have fueled intense speculation, particularly around the apparent decision to cast a male lead. Many fans see this as a possible confirmation that the series will make the male version of Shepard canon--a controversial move given how central player choice is to the Mass Effect experience. However, it's worth noting that Amazon has not confirmed whether the show will directly adapt the original trilogy. Given the branching narrative paths and customizable protagonists of the games, a faithful adaptation could be a significant challenge.

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In a world of franchises, sequels, and remasters, it’s refreshing to see a new IP from a new studio delivering its very first title. Bonfire Studios – founded by the lead designer of World of Warcraft, Rob Pardo – is about to deliver an original, PvP isometric free-aim game set in a realm full of otherworldly combat and stunning character designs. Welcome to Arkheron.

The game has been shrouded in mystery for years, but light is finally being shed on the world of Arkheron and its unique approach to top-down gameplay. Here’s Everything To Know about Arkheron.

What is Arkheron about?

Arkheron is a supernatural plane of existence where players each become a nameless, faceless entity called an “Echo.” These ghostly beings are the souls of people who died with unfinished business, and each match starts with the player’s unarmed Echo waking up at the bottom of a mysterious tower, believing that getting to the top of this creepy structure will give them the peace they need to pass on.

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Xbox Game Pass subscribers get "perks" for certain games, and the newly launched Skate is among them.

Game Pass subscribers can grab the Supercharge Pack, which includes one deck art, one set of trucks, one set of wheels, and five stickers. Players must claim this perk by November 14 and redeem it by November 21.

This perk was not mentioned in Microsoft's recent Game Pass blog post, but the Skate perk is viewable n the Xbox app on mobile. Some players are reporting issues accessing the Supercharge Pack, however.

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The Sound of Music Collector's Edition (4K Blu-ray)

$48 | Releases September 23

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The Sound of Music is universally recognized as one of the best musicals of all time. Released 60 years ago in 1965, Robert Wise's emotional film is finally getting a 4K Blu-ray release on September 23, featuring an all-new 4K transger for the film alongside hours of bonus content, exclusive packaging, and three exclusive art prints. Preorders for the The Sound of Music Collector's Edition are available for $48 at Amazon.

The Sound of Music Collector's Edition (4K Blu-ray) $48 | Releases September 23

This Collector's Edition includes a new 4K version of the classic film painstakingly recreated by Disney's restoration team. The entire process took nine months, with the team creating a digital scan of preserved film footage before manually editing out issues caused by warping and debris on the original film. The 4K version also benefits from Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. Standard Blu-ray and digital copies are also included in the set.

Along with the movie, The Sound of Music Collector's Edition also includes three high-quality prints of iconic moments from the movie, and a bonus disc with hours of special features, which we've outlined below.

Preorder at Amazon The Sound of Music Collector's EditionThe Sound of Music Collector's Edition Bonus Features

The Sound of Music Collector's Edition offers several bonus features, including an audio commentary track with actors Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and Charmian Carr, the film's cinematographer Dee Dee Wood, and Johannes von Trapp, whose family served as the inspiration for the events of the film. Here's a look at all the bonus features in the Collector's Edition:

• Sing-Along audio track
• Archival Audio Commentary by actors Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and Charmian Carr, cinematographer Dee Dee Wood, and Johannes von Trapp.
• Archival Audio Commentary by director Robert Wise
• The Sound of a City documentary
• A City of Song behind-the-scenes featurette
• Musical Stages: The songs, the show & the family featurette
• Interviews with the musical theater duo Rodgers and Hammerstein
• Trailers, TV and radio spots, and other promotional materials from the film's marketing

The Sound of Music is an acclaimed musical directed by Robert Wise, for which he won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture in 1965. Set in the Austrian countryside in 1938, the film follows a young woman, Maria (Julie Andrews), who becomes the governess of seven children for widower and retired naval captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). As Maria, Georg, and the children become closer, news arrives that Germany has invaded Austria, and the family must escape to nearby Switzerland.

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Since its launch last week, Borderlands 4 on PC has been criticized for its overly demanding performance and unstable behavior, which Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford has taken exception with. It's a difficult game to get running acceptably on PC even with some cutting-edge hardware, but a few tweaks could drastically change the experience for you.

Built on Unreal Engine 5, which has developed its own negative image over fundamental performance issues, Borderlands 4 utilizes the engine's highest presets, with performance suffering as a result. Hardware Unboxed has stepped through each of the game's settings and identified which ones you can tweak to try to claw back performance. Unsurprisingly, the easiest way to immediately improve performance is to scale down the game's lighting setting, which reduces the performance hit of Unreal Engine 5's ray-traced lighting. As demonstrated in the video, it's difficult to see differences between the games Very High and Medium settings in most scenarios, especially with Borderlands 4's art direction, while performance can increase by over 25% when compared to the game's highest preset.

Several other settings, such as shadow quality, volumetric cloud quality, and more, can help to a lesser degree, but when added up, the results are impressive. With the channel's recommended settings, you can enjoy an improvement of over 50% in average frame rate with a minimal impact on overall visual presentation, which might be the difference between playable and choppy gameplay. It's unlikely that Gearbox is going to solve the fundamental issues that Unreal Engine presents, but there are options for the developer to improve its shader compilation before the game starts to mitigate some stutters, and further fine tune the underlying engine settings it exposes to players to bring average performance back to a more reasonable level.

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It sounds like those present-day, first-person non-Animus sections in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag will be scrapped in the long-rumored remake--if a new report from a French outlet is to be believed.

According to Jeuxvideo, as spotted by IGN, the modern-day sections in Black Flag--you know, the ones where you get out of your pod-like Animus to roam the Abstergo Entertainment offices to make sense of protagonist Edward Kenway's connection to the game's overarching narrative--have been gutted from the remake rumored to drop sometime in 2026.

These sections were pivotal to Black Flag's story structure. Following the events of Assassin's Creed III, Abstergo found new ways to tap into a host's genetic memories and wanted to use you--the unnamed character during these modern-day segments--as a means of gaining intel on Kenway, the late Desmond Miles, and the power the two were after. You and a host of resistors thwart Abstergo's plans for ultimate power by, well, getting out of and hacking multiple Animuses (Animi?) while also shooting and swashbuckling as the pirate-turned-assassin Kenway.

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Tomtoc Hardshell Carrying Case for Nintendo Switch 2

$29.59 (was $37) | Limited-Time Deal

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New Nintendo Switch 2 owners can save on one of the most popular travel cases at Amazon. Tomtoc's form-fitting, hardshell case is on sale for as low as $29.59 (was $37) for a limited time. If you recently purchased a Switch 2 or if you're planning on getting the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Z-A Switch 2 Bundle, Tomtoc's sleek carrying case is consistently one of the top sellers for Nintendo's new console. Take a closer look at Tomtoc's signature case as well as two other Switch 2 travel bags from the accessory manufacturer below.

First-party Nintendo Switch 2 travel cases are almost always sold out, but if you'd prefer an officially licensed option, we'd recommend RDS Industries Game Traveler series. You can get the Game Traveler Deluxe Switch 2 case for $20, and the full system case with room for the dock and multiple accessories is just $40.

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When it first premiered at The Game Awards 2024, Dispatch--a choose-your-own-adventure superhero game from ex-Telltale devs--made an immediate impression due to the pedigrees of both the studio's dev team and the voice talent involved--Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul and Westworld's Jeffrey Wright chief among them. Today, AdHoc Studio has announced that the narrative adventure game will be released on PC and PlayStation 5 in eight episodes--two per week, across four weeks, beginning October 22.

Dispatch follows the story of Robert Robertson, also known as the superhero called Mecha Man, who finds himself washed up after losing his suit to a mysterious villain called Shroud. Robertson takes on the role of a superhero dispatcher, where he assigns superheroes to answer distress calls ranging from burglaries to rescuing a cat from a tree.

The Dispatch release schedule.

Throughout the game's eight episodes, players will control Robertson as he assigns heroes to jobs based on their personalities; the more suited a hero is to a job, the more successful they'll be. Players will also navigate relationships with the heroes through choice-based dialogue sequences, and complete minigames centered around hacking and investigating in order to aid them on the job.

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EA and developer Full Circle's new skateboarding game, Skate, is out now for Xbox and PlayStation consoles. But what about if you want to play on Nintendo Switch or Switch 2?

Switch 2 version not planned "at the moment"

Unfortunately, as of now, the new Skate is not confirmed for Nintendo's consoles. A community manager said in the EA forums that, "There is no Switch 2 version at the moment."

Skate is heading to a new platform beyond where it's available now, though, as the game is leaping to iOS and Android at a later date. For now, Skate is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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Diablo 4 Season 10 is looking to make its addition of Chaos Armor an even bigger deal, stealthily adding an additional Chaos Armor option for each class and making it so players have an even better way to earn guaranteed Chaos Armor drops.

Official patch notes for Diablo 4 Season 10, Infernal Chaos, are out now, and while they are mostly the same as the ones from the season's public test realm build, there are a few noticeable changes coming alongside the Season 10 update on September 24 based on player feedback.

Everything new coming in Diablo 4 Season 10.

Chief among them are improvements to Chaos Armor, an even more powerful type of Unique item being introduced this season that gives players more build options by making it so that certain Unique effects can appear as items for additional armor slots than normal. Chaos Armor is also guaranteed to have at least one greater affix, making them on average stronger than a typical Unique.

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The Quick and the Dead Limited Edition Steelbook (4K Blu-ray)

$41.49 | Releases October 7

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Fill your fist with a few dollars and get ready to draw, because 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Sam Raimi's western The Quick and the Dead. To celebrate, a new limited edition steelbook version of the film is riding onto 4K Blu-ray, and you can preorder it now for $41.49. This release also includes standard and digital streaming copies of the movie, and it'll be out on October 7.

The Quick and the Dead Limited Edition Steelbook (4K Blu-ray) $41.49 | Releases October 7

This isn't the first time that The Quick and the Dead has appeared on 4K Blu-ray, but the steelbook cover for this anniversary edition is brand-new. Designed to look like a Wild West poster, the cover features the main cast in a sepia tone, with Sharon Stone and the late Gene Hackman posing for a showdown on the interior and the rear. The standard Blu-ray release of the movie didn't offer any bonus materials, but this new 4K version has a handful of extras.

Preorder at Amazon The Quick and the Dead 30th Anniversary Steelbook Edition 4K Blu-rayThe Quick and the Dead 30th Anniversary Steelbook Edition 4K Blu-ray special features

This new The Quick and the Dead 30th Anniversary Steelbook Edition of the movie only includes a few special features, but that's still more than the film's previous Blu-ray releases. Here's what's included:

• Six deleted scenes
• Original theatrical trailer

If you've never seen it and you love cowboy movies, then The Quick and the Dead is highly recommended as it turns the genre on its head, and it still looks fantastic 30 years later.

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With two weeks of the 2025 NFL season behind us, Madden NFL 26's ratings are beginning to take shape. Thirty of the league's 32 teams saw at least one player's overall rating change in the game's latest patch, with some teams seeing five or six players moving up or down the ratings scale.

The biggest gains from the latest Madden NFL patch include Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua, who rises to 90 overall from 88 one week ago, and Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson, who now sports at 93 overall rating. Other notable players gaining points including Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts rising to 87 overall, Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert jumping to 88, and Herbert's Charger teammate Derwin James hitting a 94 overall rating.

Madden NFL 26

Among the biggest drops this week is Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who drops four points to 78 overall, and New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson, who dropped two points to 74 overall despite a productive Week 2 game in Dallas. Other drops include Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix also dropping to 78, while Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson slips to 92 overall.

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During the tutorial phase in Skate, you'll learn how to perform simple flip tricks and grinds. While these mechanics are integral to the core gameplay in Skate, they're not the flashiest tricks you can do in San Vansterdam. Grab tricks have always been the bread and butter of any skateboarding game, as they look incredible in the air and showcase your skills with a board. Grab tricks also allow you to rack up huge points with your multiplier in Skate, which is something you'll need as you progress to harder challenges.

However, once you've locked in the best Skate settings and the tutorial phase is over in Skate, you'll mostly be left in the dark when it comes to grab tricks. Fortunately, we have a simple way for you to learn how to perform these flashy tricks.

How to perform grab tricks in Skate

There are dozens of different grab tricks you can do in Skate, and while it might take you a long time to memorize each one, you have a useful tool to help you along the way. This tool is the Skatepedia, otherwise known as the full Skate trick list, which every player has access to after completing the tutorial.

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You ever drop into Helldivers 2 to complete some missions, only to get bodied by the most frustrating enemy over and over again? Developer Arrowhead Game Studios has heard your concerns and, in an effort to alleviate that frustration, will temporarily disable the Rupture Strain subfaction later today.

In a post on the official Helldivers 2 Discord, community manager Katherine Baskin said the Rupture Strain--that subfaction of Terminids from The Gloom--started behaving in unintended ways as a result of the September 16 patch and "other issues" regarding their balance. As such, these insectoids will be pulled offline today so the developers can iron out any of the kinks.

"No other units will be affected," Baskin said. "The improved Rupture Strain will be back online in 5 weeks."

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The first new Skate game in 15 years is out now in early access. It's off to a hot start on Steam, though there are also some issues impacting the experience as it relates to server stability and more. EA and developer Full Circle are addressing those issues now, and updates and improvements will continue, with the game planned to stay in early access for a year.

Skate is a free-to-play game available in early access, meaning the experience is not up to 1.0 as of yet. Every early-access game is different, so here are some key things to know about Skate.

Why early access?

Posting on Steam, developer Full Circle said early access was the right call for Skate because the studio wanted to make the game "in partnership" with players. "Our early access launch will be a starting point from which new features, improvements, live events, and seasonal content will be added over time," the developer said.

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Microsoft recently cut thousands of jobs as part of its latest round of mass layoffs, and as part of the drawback, the company also canceled the new Perfect Dark and closed its developer, The Initiative.

The studio's top boss, Darrell Gallagher, has now written a eulogy of sorts for Perfect Dark and The Initiative, while also confirming his own departure from Microsoft.

"After an incredible journey, my time at Xbox has come to a close with the wind-down of Perfect Dark and The Initiative. I couldn't be prouder of the talented and passionate team I had the privilege assemble and lead," Gallagher said on LinkedIn. "Together, we set out to reimagine an iconic franchise and poured creativity, craft, and dedication into every step of the way. The public reception and excitement for what we were building has been inspiring and deeply appreciated by all of us."

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The newest Skate game is now available for all players in early access, and while it is free-to-play, that doesn't mean every piece of content is unlocked for free. Skate includes an in-game shop, where you can spend two different types of currency to acquire various cosmetics for your skateboard and character.

The in-game shop in Skate isn't set up in the most user-friendly way, so we're here to break down how to navigate the shop with the game's two currencies. Below, you can see what these currencies are, how they're earned in Skate, and what you can unlock with each type.

How to make money in Skate

The two currency types in Skate are: San Van Bucks and Rip Chips. San Van Bucks have a pink bird icon, while Rip Chips have an orange hexagon icon. You can view how much of each currency you have by going to the main menu while in a Skate lobby and tabbing over to the "Store" section, which is the last section on the right in the tab bar at the top of the screen.

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Borderlands 4 boss Randy Pitchford is encouraging people to request refunds if they aren't enjoying the newly launched game, and now one publisher known for being cheeky has weighed in and offered up an alternative.

Devolver Digital said anyone who gets a refund for Borderlands 4 can spend that money on one of its games, Mycopunk, which launched in July and costs $15. The game bears some stylistic resemblances to Borderlands 4, and, like that game, is also a co-op shooter set on an alien planet.

Hey, between you and me - if you do refund Borderlands 4 and "play a different game" please know that Mycopunk is just $15. pic.twitter.com/0Dc7sZFsha

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) September 16, 2025

Devolver is known for capitalizing on wider games industry talking points to promote its own games. For example, the publisher has maintained that it will intentionally launch a game the same day as GTA 6, something the company re-committed to after GTA 6 was delayed to May 2026.

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During last week's Nintendo Direct, Square Enix surprised Dragon Quest fans with Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, a remake of the classic PlayStation RPG from the year 2000. It seems Square Enix was not done with the surprise Dragon Quest reveals, as today the company announced Dragon Quest Smash/Grow, a roguelite RPG for mobile devices that will enter a closed beta test next month.

Dragon Quest Smash/Grow tasks players with fighting hordes of enemies at once, "smashing" through their ranks in order to "grow" their characters with experience and loot. Once powerful enough, players can then unleash powerful Coup de Grace attacks in order to finish the enemy armies off.

The roguelite mechanic in Dragon Quest Smash/Grow is called Blessings, which are chosen from randomly generated options throughout the course of a run. Each run will depend on the Blessings made available to a player throughout the adventure; as is typical with roguelite games, no two runs will feel exactly alike.

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In a surprising twist for fans of the Mario Kart franchise, it turns out that the NPCs in Mario Kart World are engaged in behaviors far more mischievous than expected. A recent video shared by Nintendo content creator and blogger Supper Mario Broth showed that NPCs in the game aren't just walking background characters; they're actually capable of stealing vehicles from one another.

The now-viral footage highlights a moment where a green Shy Guy parks a car and casually walks away. Moments later, a Toad NPC strolls over, hops into the now-abandoned vehicle, and drives off as if nothing unusual had just happened. The Shy Guy, seemingly unaware or unfazed, continues walking down the street.

In Mario Kart World, NPCs will park their cars, exit them, and walk around. However, the game does not actually keep track who each car belongs to. As such, a different NPC than the owner may drive away with a car, seemingly stealing it. pic.twitter.com/KTXsDHXwiL

— Supper Mario Broth (@MarioBrothBlog) September 16, 2025

According to Supper Mario Broth, this behavior isn't just a one-off glitch or scripted event, as they also credit another Mario blogger who captured a similar situation back in June. The video outlines several possible outcomes for NPCs who lose their vehicles. The affected NPC, like the Shy Guy, might continue walking aimlessly until the player moves far enough away for them to despawn. Alternatively, they might enter a nearby building to despawn or, in some cases, find another unattended car to steal for themselves.

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