Running around a big city as you and your buds fight off ninjas, annihilate slices of pizza, and leap from rooftop to rooftop sounds like a perfect premise for a VR game, so it’s a pretty big bummer to see such a radical idea miss the mark in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City. This flawed adventure isn’t without charm – hanging out with friends as anthropomorphic turtles is consistently funny, and the parkour elements that have you dashing across skyscrapers are pretty strong. But, like a pie that’s too light on toppings, Empire City just doesn’t hit the spot in the ways it needs to. With weak combat, thin quests that quickly outstay their welcome, and an impressive amount of bugs, this flimsy six-hour adventure left me disappointingly shell-shocked.

Before we dive into the ways Empire City is often underwhelming, it’s at least worth celebrating one area where it rarely let me down: the writing. True to the shockingly consistent track record of the series, the dialogue in Empire City is quite good, with some very amusing one-liners and loads of punchy banter from our cold-blooded adolescents. That said, you’ll be hearing many of those funny lines a whole lot, and the repetition weighing down so much of this shelled romp applies to its jokes as well. Even the best joke is far less funny the 12th time you hear it.

The story itself is less interesting than the dialogue, too, with a grab bag of TMNT characters doing exactly what you’d expect them to do with zero deviations. Bebop and Rocksteady are altogether unthreatening and goofy partners in crime, Karai serves as a morally gray companion with a murky history, and April O’Neil is just doing her best as she lives out her life as a sewer dweller. Your familiar group of allies conspires to thwart the telegraphed machinations of some tired foes in a forgettable story that is already quickly fading from my memory (and I rolled credits mere minutes before writing this).

When it comes to the fantasy of playing as the Ninja Turtles, the part Empire City gets closest to nailing is the parkour. Though its three open-world areas are quite limited, leaping across rooftops and climbing pipe drains as you hunt down the Foot Clan is definitely a highlight. Jumping, dashing in midair, and grapple hooking are all pretty stellar movement options early on, and you start to feel like even more of a badass once you unlock upgrades like a double jump, making yourself impossible to hit as you pull off daring stunts to get around town. Climbing and leaping through the air are two of the things that VR adventure games are best known for, and while Empire City doesn’t come close to some of the greats like Stride or Blade & Sorcery, it’s still more than serviceable and is certainly one of the best parts of this particular VR package.

Those parkour chops are wasted on the levels, though, which are the least interesting (and often most downright annoying) parts of Empire City. The three miniature hubs (East Side, Chinatown, and the Docks) are barren and charmless cityscapes you’ll revisit over the course of your adventure as you’re encouraged to participate in the same handful of extremely simple activities that pop up over and over again every few minutes. The idea here is that there’s always some minor crime to stop, similar to Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, and that you’ve also got regions to free from the Foot Clan’s control, similar to something like a Far Cry game. But Empire City’s versions of those ideas are incredibly underdeveloped and poorly executed, as you’re repeatedly sent the same small number of side quests ad nauseum with almost no payoff for completing them – and your reward for liberating each part of the city is for absolutely all of them to return to Foot Clan control the second you turn your back for longer than a few minutes. That means you’ll spend a pretty big chunk of the main story doing consistently boring and occasionally irritating chores.

There are a few things that make these open-world hubs slightly more bearable, such as time trials that ask you to do things like sink basketball shots into a hoop, throw ninja stars at moving targets, or collect floating letters Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-style (minus the skateboard, despite how fitting that would have been). While completely unnecessary and devoid of any rewards that I could see, these serve as welcome distractions that inject just the tiniest bit of variety into otherwise incredibly tedious areas. There are also a couple collectibles hidden around to hunt for, some of which are just fun to track down for vanity reasons, like the chess pieces that you’ll need to complete your chess board back at your base, or the items and blueprints that actually have an impact on gameplay. These things go a small way toward making each region less annoying to spend time in, but only just so.

It certainly doesn’t help that you’ll have to do a whole lot of extremely sloppy fights along the way. No matter which of the four turtles you’re playing as, combat is an absurdly one-dimensional process of slashing, dashing out of the way, and repeating. There’s the smallest amount of variety beyond that, like the use of gadgets every now and again or a “Focus Mode” that lets you do a bit more damage, and the latter does help you get through the slog of combat a bit faster. But attacks often sail right through enemies without doing a lick of damage, blocking and parrying is pretty inconsistent, and sometimes a fight will just lock up altogether so you can’t hit anything with your weapons no matter how long you sit there and swing them. It doesn’t really matter all that much when death simply respawns you nearby with no progress lost, but it’s still such a letdown to not be stoked about the fighting in a dang Ninja Turtles game.

You can also sneak around and attack enemies from the cover of darkness like a true ninja, which at least saves you the trouble of having to contend with the combat’s shortcomings, but this method comes with plenty of caveats of its own. It’s much less obnoxious to just bop most enemies on the head from behind and keep on trucking, but you’re allowed to get away with quite a bit – you can almost walk right out in front of people without being detected, and enemies scarcely seem to notice when you incapacitate their friends with ninja stars right in front of them, allowing you to pick them all off in short order. It’s pretty rough, especially when both melee combat and stealth in VR have been done so well in plenty of other games, including fellow hero simulator Batman Arkham VR.

Throughout your adventure, you’ll collect the one thing that makes all Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles more powerful – trash, of course – and use it to level up your character, unlock upgrades, and craft consumables like smoke bombs and healing items. Although the actual means of acquiring this trash involves a whole lot of smashing crates, as well as the repetitive side quests with the lame combat that dominate Empire City, unlocking all the goodies that make your turtle a better warrior is actually pretty gratifying. Giving yourself a double jump, the ability to detect nearby collectibles, or even just more health are all worthy things to invest in.

It’s especially neat that each turtle levels up in different ways according to their personality, like how Raphael gains more health and does more damage by default, while Donatello gains more slots for tech upgrades as the resident “does machines” guy. It’s a bit of a letdown, though, that any resources spent investing in one character don’t carry over to a different turtle if you want to switch. After playing the first hour as Donatello, I wanted to try out some of the others only to find I’d have to start their progression over from scratch, which meant I spent the vast majority of my playtime locked into a single character when I would have preferred to mix it up as I went.

Even when the action let me down, Empire City’s most redeeming quality is that you can play it with up to three friends at once, and watching your buds be silly looking turtles doesn't get old. The fact that the faces match the expressions you’re making and your mouth flops open cartoonishly when you talk is a nice touch, but even just shooting hoops back at the sewer base or seeing who can complete a time trial in the open world faster makes these otherwise forgettable tasks more memorable. In the same way that party games or other recent co-op contenders are only as good as the company you keep, Empire City does at least set itself up to be really entertaining if you’ve brought the right group along for the ride. Plus, you can get through the bland combat quicker by working as a team, and thus spend more time on the worthwhile pursuit of having impromptu dance battles.

Of all the issues Empire City has, the biggest by far is how inconsistently it works on the technical side of things. For a game that takes only six hours to complete, it’s pretty remarkable how many times it broke on me. One time I was unable to pick up any consumable items, while another it stopped letting me interact with the hacking minigame I needed to do to progress, and another still it straight up didn’t check off critical mission objectives after I completed them, forcing me to reboot and start again. Worst of all, if you run into any issues that force you to restart the mission or close the program in any way, you’ll lose all your progress since mission objectives are normally not saved until you’ve completed them. When I was 20 minutes into a quest and ran into a critical bug, I had to start that entire mission from scratch and just about chucked my headset out of the window.

It certainly seems like we’ve entered the era of the Tag Fighter. We’ve got 2XKO repping 2v2 tag action, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls planning to introduce the world to a 4v4 fighter later this year, and now Invincible VS representing a more familiar 3v3 structure. Developed by Quarter Up, a team comprised of much of the core group that developed 2013’s fantastic Killer Instinct reboot, Invincible VS is a fast paced, hard hitting, extremely mechanics-driven successor of sorts to Killer Instinct’s unique style of 2D fighting. That style may be polarizing for many, and its ancillary modes are a bit underwhelming outside of an impressive, but very brief story mode. All of this makes it another tough tag fighting contender, but one that’s far from [Invincible Title Card]

While not immediately apparent just from looking at it, Invincible VS’s fighting system is actually quite unique, with the closest approximation being the aforementioned Killer Instinct. Like KI, combos are a two-way street – a mind game between the attacker and the defender in almost every interaction. The attacker needs to focus on building their combo while keeping an eye on a meter to make sure that it doesn’t fill up all the way, otherwise that combo will drop. The person getting combo’d wants to keep an eye on that meter too, because as it fills up, the other player is going to want to look to reduce it, and the main way to do that is by tagging their teammate in. However, if the defender is able to react to that tag right before they get hit, they can execute a Counter Tag, which will halt the combo and reset the situation back to a neutral state.

But here’s where the mind game comes in. Let’s say I’m comboing my opponent and I think they might use a Counter Tag. I can either delay my tag to try and throw off their timing, or I can do a hard call out by feinting the tag all together, which will leave my opponent wide open if they fell for the bait. On the flipside of that though, if they don’t actually go for the Counter Tag, then I’m the one that gets left completely vulnerable and the tables turn.

When this all works as intended in a match between two players that both know about the existence of this little minigame (meaning, they played the tutorial), it’s awesome. Successfully baiting out that counter tag with a feint is incredibly satisfying, and it’s also nice to feel like you still have a chance to escape a long combo if you’re able to make the right reads.

Counter Tags aren’t the only way to break combos, either. If you’re desperate, or the opponent simply isn’t tagging to even give you the opportunity, you could use an Assist Breaker – but that does come at the steep cost of two bars of meter, a lengthy cool down on your assists, and 50% of one of your assist character’s max health (which will refill as long as they’re not tagged in). To be blunt, I hate this mechanic in its current state. In most fighting games, this kind of get-out-of-jail-free card is only usable once a round, or maybe even once every two rounds, because being able to break out of an opponent’s combo at will is incredibly strong. But here, not only is it uncapped, each character has three bars of meter that are full right from the start.

What that often means is I’ll start a combo, they’ll Assist Break, we’ll fight for a bit while their assists are on cooldown, and maybe I’ll manage to land a snapback to forcibly tag their partner in and permanently remove that life. So far so good. But then, the second that cooldown is up and I start a new combo, they just do another Assist Break because their other characters have been waiting patientily with three full bars of their own. Granted, this likely won’t happen against opponents who understand that they are literally killing their own characters every time they break a combo this way – but whenever I was matched up against someone who didn’t realize this, which was very common throughout both the open beta and the limited pre-launch time I got online with the full game, it just dragged out the match.

Dragging out the match is additionally frustrating because, when the timer runs out, the person with the most combined health among their characters doesn’t just win the match. Instead there’s a sudden death between the two active characters where their health bars are restored based on the life of the remaining inactive fighters and both players are afflicted by constant damage over time. It just feels kind of bad to have the lead when the time runs out and then potentially lose the whole thing based on one interaction.

As far as how that action actually feels, it’s pretty stiff. It’s very much in the same vein as Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct, so you’ll probably feel right at home here if you’re already used to those games. But as someone who prefers the smoother movement and animations of games like Guilty Gear Strive, 2XKO, Granblue Fantasy Versus, and Street Fighter 6, it did take me quite a while to warm up to how characters in Invincible VS get around.

On the plus side, Quarter Up did a really great job making the 18 fighters that are available at launch feel like their TV show counterparts. The ones that are supposed to be fast feel lightning fast, and the ones that are supposed to hit hard hit extremely hard. Then you’ve got wild cards like Cecil, who’s able to teleport around the screen like a mad man and hit from just about every angle thanks to his arsenal of weaponry and army of zombie cyborgs. The sheer amount of armored moves on characters like Monster Girl and Titan can be pretty obnoxious, and getting in on Rex can feel like a nightmare if he’s in the hands of a good player – but, in general, there’s a great spread of distinct and interesting playstyles

Rexposition

If you’re an Invincible fan first and foremost, you’ll be happy to know that there's a full-on story mode here that features an original story co-written by Quarter Up’s narrative director Mike Rogers and Helen Leigh, who’s a writer and producer on the Amazon Prime show, along with involvement from series creator Robert Kirkman. That authenticity goes a long way in making this compact campaign feel a bit like a filler episode of the actual show that was never aired.

A quick warning that I’ll avoid spoilers for this story, but there will be some unavoidable ones from the show for those who haven’t seen at least the first few seasons – but you really need that context to appreciate what’s going on here in general.

It begins with a strange scene: Invincible in the middle of a fight with Omni-Man, only this isn’t a flashback to their season one showdown or anything. Omni-Man is in a traditional Viltrumite uniform, he’s teamed up with Lucan and Thula, and it's hard to shake the feeling that things are just a bit off throughout the entire first third of the story. I won’t say more than that, but it was fun to piece things together on my own as Mark tries to do so himself.

The story mode is only an hour long, and while that is short by any measure, even for a fighting game campaign, it’s at least well paced and the fights between various characters never feel forced. Every fight is well contextualized, makes sense narratively (and isn’t just two friends fighting to the near death under the guise of a “sparring match”), and never drags down the pace of the plot. The cutscenes themselves are excellent as well, utilizing the same “animation on twos” style that the Spiderverse movies employ to great effect. Most of the voice cast from the show is accounted for and do an excellent job, and even the people brought in to cover for the actors who didn’t reprise their roles are fantastic as well.

The biggest issue with the story mode isn’t its length, it’s the fact that it ends without a real conclusion. Again, without going into spoilers, it all wraps on a pretty unsatisfying cliffhanger. Hopefully there is a free DLC continuation in the works, because otherwise this is just an hour long episode of build up with no actual pay off.

The rest of Invincible VS meets the standards of a modern fighting game, but never exceeds them. There’s a traditional arcade mode with short, occasionally amusing character endings, but fighting against the CPU feels uniquely bad in a game that is so built around conditioning and baiting your opponent. There’s a fairly basic training mode, but no combo trials, and no character guides. There’s a replay viewer to watch your own recent and saved matches, but no way to search for replays from other players (nor is there replay takeover to try and lab out a solution to a problem you encountered in a match). At least there are some cool rewards for leveling up each character – there are more than 300 customizable elements for your profile tag, covering badges, titles, backgrounds, and frames, all pulled directly from both the show and the graphic novel.

The rollback netcode is also stellar, and that comes without any caveats. Every match I’ve played so far has been buttery smooth, both in the open beta from a few weeks ago and during the limited amount of pre-release matches that I’ve played against other people during this review period.

All seven episodes of Man on Fire are now available on Netflix.

Netflix’s Man on Fire is a competently executed but often predictable seven-episode action series elevated by the simmering lead performance of the always-compelling Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and several brutal hand-to-hand combat brawls and thrilling action set-pieces (including an early airplane chase sequence directed by Creed II’s Steven Caple Jr.).

Many viewers will be familiar with Man on Fire thanks to the 2004 movie of the same name directed by Tony Scott and starring Denzel Washington. That was actually the second adaptation of A. J. Quinnell’s 1980 novel, the first being a 1987 movie starring Scott Glenn and Joe Pesci. While Netflix’s Man on Fire bears similarities to the ’04 movie, showrunner-writer Kyle Killen has made enough alterations to the story, characters, and setting to distinguish it from past versions.

At the heart of any incarnation of Man on Fire is the relationship between bodyguard John Creasy – who struggles with PTSD, suicidal thoughts, and alcoholism as a result of his time in the military and CIA black ops – and the young person he serves to protect. In Washington’s film, his Creasy bonded with Dakota Fanning’s precocious, wide-eyed Pita Ramos; for the show, Creasy’s protectee has been aged up to teenager Poe Rayburn (Billie Boullet, who thankfully avoids making her teenage character too obnoxious even when the circumstances might allow for it).

After Poe’s family is killed in a terrorist bombing in Brazil, Abdul-Mateen’s Creasy puts his badass skills to use protecting Poe from the nefarious forces out to kill her – a plot involving political corruption in Brazil that also links back to the United States. As a story, it’s too easy to quickly figure out which characters can and cannot be trusted, so waiting for Creasy to catch up can be trying. But Man on Fire keeps you invested in its characters even when the plot and dialogue are often by-the-numbers.

The most welcome new addition to the saga is a community of favela residents in Rio who come to Creasy and Poe’s aid and provide them with, even for a brief respite, a safe haven. Introduced to them through a driver named Valeria (played with grit and warmth by Alice Braga), Creasy’s newfound allies include young men who, although they commit crimes just to survive, prove more honorable and sympathetic than the government officials ostensibly looking for justice in the wake of the terrorist bombing.

When it comes to Man on Fire, though, what you really crave from the experience is seeing Creasy use any means necessary to get answers from the bad guys and mete out justice, and on that front this show definitely delivers. How far Creasy will go (that blasting cap device!) highlights his character’s murky morality, especially in Episode 4’s panic room sequence involving a villain and his young son.

Creasy is a damaged, self-destructive man who has been honed to do one thing – execute the mission, regardless of the cost to himself. Abdul-Mateen excels at showing the wounded vulnerability lurking just underneath the physical confidence Creasy exudes. It’s Creasy’s lingering humanity that keeps you on his side even at his most vicious.

There’s a scene about halfway through The Devil Wears Prada 2 where we see Miranda Priestly – the ruthless, commanding, and visionary Editor-in-Chief of Runway magazine; unapologetic badass and chief antagonist of the first movie – flying coach. The humiliating circumstance is played for laughs but also serves as an emblem for the movie as a whole. Here is an iconic, cunning individual, inordinately famous in both her own world and ours, reduced to a middle seat between her assistant and a man eating a gigantic sandwich.

This bit of relatable humor is hilarious in the moment and also representative of the experience of watching The Devil Wears Prada 2: it may not be exactly what we were expecting, but it’s definitely going to get Miranda, and the rest of us, where we wanted to go.

When we last saw Miranda (Meryl Streep) all the way back in 2006, she was at the height of her powers: supremely in control of her publishing fief and the key voice in the world of high fashion. Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), her erstwhile assistant and aspiring “real journalist,” had enough of Miranda’s abuse – throwing her ringing cell phone into a fountain in Paris and never looking back. But my, how the times have changed.

When we meet up with Andy again 20 years later, she seems to have finally made it. She’s a respected writer at a reputable publication and generally happy with her life. So why, on God’s green Earth, would she ever decide to go back to Runway? Well, the answer is a simple one: Andy needs a job. Andy gets sacked, along with the rest of her team, just as she’s about to receive an award for her work. Soon, Andy finds herself drawn back into the fast-paced world of fashion at the invitation of Runway big boss Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman).

Andy is summoned to be Runway’s new features editor, and bring some gravitas to the flailing operation, after the company becomes embroiled in a scandal – they got into bed with a fast fashion company that was revealed to be a blatant sweatshop operation. Andy’s eagerness to jump back into Miranda’s orbit is a bit of a stretch given the amount of abuse she suffered during the first movie, but at least the conceit gets the gang back together.

From there, The Devil Wears Prada 2 plays the hits. The music, editing, and direction are all reminiscent of the first film. There’s another “Andy frantically phones around to fulfill an impossible task” montage, and cameos abound (hello Lady Gaga, Heidi Klum, and Jon Batiste, just to name a few). Just like the original, there are enough meme-worthy one-liners to fill your group chats for the next decade. “Look what TJ Maxx dragged in,” “Shared carbs have no calories,” and “May the bridges I burn light my way” are sure to roll around in your head long after the credits roll. Once again, the settings (the Hamptons! Milan! A converted New York brownstone!) are immersive and aspirational. Likewise, both the cinematography and the costumes (of course) are a visual feast. There’s even a reimagining of Andy’s now-infamous cerulean sweater.

Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci slip back into their roles as if they’re a pair of luxurious Gucci loafers. Now a high-powered executive for Dior, Blunt’s Emily Charlton is still the same insecure yet caring person from the first film, and still masking that humanity with judgemental, biting wit. As Miranda’s ever-present underboss Nigel, Tucci is once again the beating heart of the film. He expertly guides Andy as she re-enters the world of Runway and serves as both a supportive co-worker and constant reality check. Late in the movie Nigel finally, finally, gets his moment in the sun. But, as is often the case with Tucci, the scene is understated and eloquent.

If you were a fan of the first Devil Wears Prada, there’s a lot here to love. That’s not to say the movie doesn’t bring anything new. While the original film was an investigation of workplace power and what it takes to succeed in an industry that’s essentially a walled garden, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a withering examination of the current publishing landscape. The sequel ponders topics like who’s allowed to be influential and what the media’s place in society at large is.

The scandal that brings Andy back to Runway has sent advertisers fleeing. In an age with declining traffic and fewer eyeballs looking at her work, Miranda finds herself in a familiar position – trying to justify Runway’s existence, albeit this time on a more existential level. Sharks begin circling and budget cuts come down hard (no more private cars or hired jets). As the movie progresses, Runway’s very survival is in question, and various pairings of Emily, Miranda, and Andy scheme to influence what comes next.

Appearances by Lucy Liu and Justin Theroux as billionaire ex-spouses play into the drama as an unobtainable interview subject for Andy and an archetypical tech bro playboy, respectively. BJ Novak shows up giving his best Ryan-from-The-Office-if-he-were-a-nepo-baby impression as Irv's son Jay. Kenneth Branagh is underused as Miranda’s caring musician husband and both Simone Ashley (Bridgerton) and Caleb Hearon (Pizza Movie) show up as Miranda’s latest harried assistants. Newcomer Helen J. Shen joins the cast as Andy's own assistant and Tracie Thoms returns as Andy’s longtime friend Lily to serve as her motivator-in-chief.

But, even with Easter eggs galore and a who’s-who of celebrity appearances, the movie lives and dies with the relationship between Andy and Miranda. These two characters have been household names for most of the 21st century and show flashes of what made them popular in the first place. But they both have definitely changed – for better or worse.

As Andy, Hathaway is as charming and radiant as ever. After two decades, Andy, deep down, is the same girl who lives the contradiction of being obsessed with her work yet not wanting it to define her. She still thinks she can change Runway – and Miranda – for the better. Andy is also a good enough journalist now to be of value to Miranda in ways Andy finds acceptable. Instead of tracking down the latest Harry Potter book, Andy writes stories for the magazine that bring in traffic and boost the company’s image. She has a new love interest, this time an Australian contractor named Peter (Colin from Accounts's Patrick Brammall). But Andy has grown to the extent that a potential relationship doesn’t really affect how she feels about herself or her career. At one point she quickly dismisses Peter’s objections to her work with a “take it or leave it” attitude. This isn’t the same girl left dejected by an upset boyfriend while sullenly holding a cupcake like in the first movie.

Similarly, Miranda has changed, and those changes are the most frustrating aspect of the movie overall. In a word, Miranda has been defanged. She’s still incisive and cunning. But in a world where everyone seems to be watching what she does at every moment (HR included), Miranda has had to learn to adapt. No longer able to dump her coat and bag on her assistant’s desk, Miranda lives in a world where she’s forced - gasp! - to hang up her own clothing, to great comedic effect.

Has Miranda truly softened over the years? Or is it all a calculation? With Streep, perhaps the greatest actor of the past half century, you’re never quite sure. Her performance is (yet again) lights out. But the screenplay doesn’t seem to know what to definitively do with Miranda: keep her villainous or make her likeable.

Like Andy, Emily, or any other person – real or fictional – Miranda Priestly should be allowed to evolve. But the tension between that evolution and what we know and love about the character left me feeling lukewarm. The biggest change is that Miranda is happy. Frequently. Remember how the biggest character moment of the first film was when Miranda cracked a wry smile at the very end of the movie? Here Miranda is smiling all the time. She’s in a functional, caring relationship, which is nice to see. She’s up for a bigger job at Runway’s parent company and she’s downright giddy at the prospect. Despite the scandal, she seems to actually care for at least some of her employees.

Still, there are shades of the old Miranda. She pretends not to remember Andy when she shows back up at the magazine’s office. She’s quick with an insult (“You should get that looked at, that injury that causes you to trudge.”) She delivers the most scathing version of her “That’s all,” catchphrase you could imagine. But while in the first movie Miranda was a bit like Jaws – feared and always lurking – here we get Miranda overload. And much of the plot is told from her perspective, which inherently changes the type of story the movie is trying - and only occasionally succeeding - to tell.

Despite those frustrations, the expanded dynamic between Andy and Miranda is the sequel’s biggest upgrade. As much as neither would admit it, they both have come to the realization that they need each other. They’re two sides of the same coin – equally driven and deceptive, both grasping – in Miranda’s words – for that “last piece of wood floating next to the Titanic.” Miranda realizes that Andy’s focus on hard news and “real' journalism is valuable in a changing media landscape. Likewise, Andy accepts Miranda’s calling out of her selfishness and subtle manipulations of others.

How successful you find the movie to be will depend on what you’re wanting from a Devil Wears Prada sequel. Are you looking to effortlessly slip back into the glossy and charming world of New York high fashion? If so, you’ll be delighted by the familiarity the movie provides. Are you looking for the exact same characters that you met in the first movie nearly 20 years ago? If that’s the case, you might find The Devil Wears Prada 2 a frustrating change of pace. In my book, I appreciated the changes, even if it left me longing for the Devil of old.

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episode 5!

The Boys hasn't enjoyed the strongest track record since returning for its fifth and final season. While the premiere got things off to a solid start, the subsequent three episodes have failed to establish much momentum for the series. It really feels as though The Boys is stalling for time until the final showdown. Episode 5 doesn't necessarily address that fundamental complaint as much as it could, but this latest installment is just so entertaining that it's hard to find too much fault with it.

"One-Shots" shakes up the structural formula in a fun way, opting for an almost "22 Short Films About Springfield" approach and giving us a series of interconnected vignettes focused on a variety of characters. Even Terror gets his moment in the sun, as we learn what exactly he sees when he humps his precious, tattered Homelander doll (kudos to Antony Starr for being such a good sport in this episode). Again, it's not the ideal way of pushing the Season 5 narrative forward, but it allows for some welcome character development on several fronts.

Most notably, we get a surprisingly engaging subplot focused on Valorie Curry's Firecracker, as she reunites with her old pastor (W. Earl Brown) and finds herself torn between her loyalty to her childhood mentor and the needs of the nascent Democratic Church of America. As the aggressively racist mouthpiece of an omnipresent multimedia conglomerate, Firecracker is easily one of the most despicable characters in the series. This episode doesn't necessarily change that, but it does humanize her significantly. We finally get a sense of the real person beneath the character she's constantly playing, and of the profound toll that role takes on her psychologically. Curry is great here, particularly during the scene where she's forced to go on the offensive against Reverend Dupree on live TV.

The Firecracker storyline ultimately pays off very fittingly, as she learns the hard way there's often no reward in debasing oneself for a tyrant. Even after everything she's sacrificed, Homelander doesn't give a second thought to killing her simply for annoying him. The series was overdue for another major death, and this one fits the bill nicely.

The other noteworthy subplot here involves Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and Homelander's little field trip to the home of Mister Marathon (Jared Padalecki). Finally, we get that long-promised reunion between the two Supernatural stars, with Misha Collins' Malchemical thrown in for good measure. The result is an uproariously fun sequence where numerous real-world celebrities meet a grisly, goopy end. Unsurprisingly, Ackles and Padalecki are very effective together here, drawing on those years of finely honed chemistry. It's getting to the point where Soldier Boy's shtick (the bravado, the constant homophobic wisecracks) is starting to wear thin, but at least this episode gives him someone other than Homelander and Firecracker to play off. There's just the nagging frustration that, once again, the series is spinning its wheels on the V1 front.

Elsewhere, Black Noir II (Nathan Mitchell) gets his opportunity to hog the spotlight for a bit, as we learn that he's really just an actor in search of the perfect role to wow the world. He finally finds that role with a little help from disgraced director Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne), only for The Deep to come along and spoil everything in the most graphic way possible. It's an entertaining subplot (despite the somewhat heightened, sappy nature of the scenes between Noir and Bourke), and I'm also happy to see the rivalry between Noir and Deep take a darker turn. The latter has had his chance for redemption in the past, and now he's doubling down on being a backstabbing sycophant. His comeuppance should be satisfying to watch.

Finally, this episode addresses the relative lack of focus on Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) in Season 5. Sage and Ashley (Colby Minifie) wind up making a surprisingly effective pair in their own right, with this episode mining plenty of comedic gold out of their drunken bonding session. Minifie also gets to show off her physical comedy skills when Back Ashley enters the stage. Most importantly, this subplot offers some much-needed insight into what Sage actually wants in Season 5. Having been gilted in love in Gen V Season 2, she's ready to watch the world burn and go back to reading her precious books for all eternity. We'll find out if she's finally overestimated her ability to predict the future.

Full spoilers follow for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 7, "The Hateful Darkness," which is streaming on Disney+ now.

Aww, there’s Matt Murdock, Attorney at Law! I missed that guy! It sure was nice to have Matt walk back into that courtroom again, although I do wish we could have seen the scene where he revealed to his friend and law partner Kirsten that he’d just sort of been hanging out all this time (and how he accounted for where he was), while she had no idea if he was even alive.

The final moments of the episode were very strong, intercutting Matt in church praying for help after being shot in the leg (and then receiving it in the form of Jessica Jones) with the final moments for Daniel Blake, as Buck executed him…

…although it did make me wonder why Jessica’s initial return wasn’t a bit earlier in the season, so we could have had her telling Matt she was going back home happen earlier as well, since it was way less impactful to have her waltz in when we’d literally just seen her in the same episode.

The build-up to Daniel’s death was well done, as he and BB got more honest with each other about who Fisk is and what he does, including killing Ben, and how much Daniel has tried to pretend it wasn’t happening or that he was okay with it. The fact that he was actually going to bring her to Buck, only to change his mind at the last moment when she desperately asks him to, feels believable for a guy who had little backbone but ultimately also wasn’t the kind of person Buck is, who can just coldly go along with all of this.

We got some more tidbits on Luke Cage here (and his name said, confirming what we already assumed) that made the situation with Mr. Charles more complex. Charles saying he’s the only one who can connect her with Luke and that he’s working for the CIA “so you don’t have to” does at least imply there was some sort of scenario where they were told one of them had to work for Charles. But it would still be nice to get the specifics on that and why Luke decided to go along with it rather than them, say, fleeing elsewhere.

Seeing the walls closing in on Fisk has been interesting, even as some of the specifics feel wonky. Does he really think he can just get away with having the governor of New York murdered? What kind of sway does he actually have outside of the city, given we already saw he went too far with Mr. Charles and there have been consequences? Matt fears that if Marge is killed, Fisk will get “one of his puppets” to replace her, but who would that be and why would they do it? And even if they actually answered to Fisk, it feels weird that he’d want that person in a role that outranks him, versus just working to make himself governor (though yes, at this point, that doesn’t feel like an easy sell!).

I feel like maybe just going a more direct route with Fisk still having all those powerful weapons for the AVTF to use for a more physical showdown might be a more effective way to depict him desperately pushing back, even as he likely has no real way out regardless. Yet still, it was a nice payoff to have the “good deed” Matt sent Dex to fulfill turn out to be saving Marge, even leaving the would-be assassin alive so he can spill the beans about who sent him.

It felt out of character for Karen to open that conversation with Heather by essentially mocking her that she was with Matt now. Even if she is pissed at Heather for her recent actions, it seems like she’d have more sympathy towards Heather for what she went through… Of course, she got there eventually, only for Heather to snap and beat the hell out of her.

Hell’s Kitchen Bullet Points:

• Nice callback to the very beginning of the Netflix Daredevil series with Karen once more locked up in jail, wearing an NYPD t-shirt.
• Brett Mahoney! Though never a central character, Brett was a likable recurring presence not just on Daredevil but across the Netflix Marvel series (he also popped up on an episode of Jessica Jones and was in several episodes of The Punisher) and it’s good to see him back.
• Daniel got to heroically stand up to Buck, yet then also believably cower, as he cried out “No!” over and over as he was beaten. I’m pretty sure that’s how it would go for most of us, alas.
• Matt’s line to Dex as he sends him out the door is a great one I’ll have to remember: “Go. Disappear. Die. I don’t care.”

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era’s primary goal is to return to the form and function of the much applauded Heroes of Might and Magic 3. It picks up some tricks from later entries, sure, but you’ll largely do the same things today that old heads like myself did back in 1999 – and this revival makes a good case for why that era is considered the peak of the series. While its Early Access launch is definitely still under construction, Olden Era captures the essence of that one-of-a-kind turn-based strategy that has gone all but missing in the scene for decades.

If you’re not familiar with Heroes of Might and Magic, the basic setup is this: you and your enemies each manage heroes and towns on a top-down map, taking turns sending your warriors out to scour the land for plunder and power, killing anything standing between you and your prize in tactical grid-based battles. That first part happens on the overworld map, dense with exotic looking buildings and monuments, most of which you can interact with. In them are usually resources you need like building materials or gold, troops waiting to be recruited by anyone who can spare some coin, or magic items that don’t hurt to have, especially if you can accumulate big bonuses by equipping sets of them. It can sometimes feel like regions of the map are dense with stuff to vacuum up relentlessly, with an occasional pack of guardians standing watch to create a firebreak for your raging consumption inferno.

I was never disappointed to find a new building to pull up on, but that feeling of “discovery” – where I'm seeing something that looks awesome or with some intriguing long-term strategic potential in an unpredictable way – dries up pretty early on. What remains is a frillless but enjoyable barrage of decisions that always have to be considered. Do I spend gold to recruit troops from outside of my faction that are decent and convenient, or focus on the ones waiting at home several turns away that would benefit from all of my faction-flavored bonuses? If I don’t attempt to fight the guardians of this crypt now, will an opponent swoop in and steal it out from under me while I wait to accumulate power?

Maps can keep you guessing a bit thanks to an element of randomness that shuffles where certain points of interest are every time you start a new game. The strength of enemies on the map is kept purposefully vague, but unlike in past games where the tooltips would hint at the power of an enemy camp by alluding to its size, Olden Era will just straight up tell you if taking a fight is a good idea or not. Sometimes, stronger monsters will be closer to your starting camp, other times not so much. Though it keeps repeated games on one of the dozens of available maps fresh, it can make trying to capitalize on things like the aforementioned equipment set bonuses feel largely out of reach as you can’t guarantee you’d ever be able to find every piece required before a game ends, if they are even on the map at all.

The unique faction units are a vibrant blast of variety and creativity, though. From the lowly tier one grunts to the mighty tier seven juggernauts, every faction’s cast of soldiers is an expressive joy to field and play. Most factions are remixed versions of old favorites: Temple are the Haven knights from back in the day complete with holy warriors and literal angels, for example. The demonic Inferno is replaced by the insectoid Hive, which answers the question “what if Hell was somehow worse?” My favorite is the brand new Schism, the icy cult of elves who went too deep into the water and brought extraplanar horrors back with them.

All six have distinct identities in battle. The Hive’s molten bugs are an overwhelming melee force, and it can be tough to make it out of combat with them without heavy losses. The Dungeon can do a little bit of everything, as their mix of teleporting dark elves, mighty minotaurs, and scaly dragons cover all bases. This also means that not every faction feels great immediately, even when leaning into their strengths. The Grove has expensive units that can become powerful after significant investment. The Schism’s power comes from its ability to increase the size of their armies passively, but that only happens through winning battles. Tuning and balance is often an expected hurdle with Early Access games, and that's no different here. Figuring out what is a playstyle choice versus a legitimate concern is going to be an ongoing conversation.

Every faction has the same amount of units across the same tiers, but they are all balanced so differently that you have to approach each of them with a different gameplan. That may sound obvious, but army composition is really the only time you have to approach Olden Era in this way. That’s partly because units can be so mechanically different from one another from tier to tier – the tier one Hive Parasite actually does extra damage to higher tier creatures, making them more of precision instrument versus the tier one Necropolis Skeleton, which is just a cheap and reliable meat… er, bone shield. Many units also have powerful abilities that you can spend focus points during battle to use, which adds another tactical wrinkle to everything.

On top of that, all of these units can be upgraded into two possible alternative options, each with their own potential nuances and changes. I wish these upgrades felt more consistently different across the board, though. While the bow-wielding Sylvan Fauns can upgrade into either a more powerful archer or trade the bow for a sword to become a light-footed menace in melee, relatively few units present a choice that feels so obviously stark. I'm sure the differences between the 80+ options will become second nature when I hit my 100th game, but I wish there was a more illuminating way to see the consequences of these choices in the meantime.

Heroes act as the leaders of your warbands that can influence units with passive abilities or change the balance of battle with big spells. The six factions have a good amount of heroes to choose from when starting, each with their own novel skill, like giving a bonus to a specific unit or having an advantage when casting spells from a certain school of magic. They also get a more generic subclass that can be evolved into a powerful version of itself if you have the right collection of skills. This can be truly obnoxious because the new skills you get are chosen from a random pool every time a hero levels up. Some subclasses can tilt the RNG scales so you’ll see certain options more often, but you can only gain eight unique skills total, so it's possible that you’ll never actually find the five needed to improve your subclass. I’ve probably only done it twice in the 25 hours I’ve played so far.

Heroes are also sort of bland in general. Their portrait art is great across the board, really evoking a sense of personality that does not actually come out during play. The spells they can cast all come from a wider pool and are learned semi-randomly, which makes magic feel generic. This isn’t to say spells aren’t powerful – some of my best games came from magic-focused heroes devastating battlefields with lightning bolts or powerful disruption and debuffs. But being able to have a spell-based gameplan is completely up to the luck of the draw when you build your magic generating buildings and how many extra resources you’re willing to spend to buy more. Spellbooks rarely reflect the themes or characteristics of the characters casting them.

Settlements serve as your bases of operations out in the field and can also suffer from similar identity issues. Every day (each turn) you’ll be able to build a new structure that either provides new or upgraded units, more spells to your spell book, fortifications against invaders, or general economic benefits. They’re rendered beautifully and at least appear starkly different from faction to faction, but they all provide largely the same functions. You’ll likely build them up mostly the same way regardless of if your home is a temple to the sun god or a demonic beehive.

Factions usually have a unique building or two, but they are not created equal. The Temple’s Scouting Skyship that increases the vision range around the city is nice to have, but pales in comparison to the Grove’s Mycelium Roots that allow heroes to travel to any city you control instantly. Even the new Law system – essentially a research tree where you spend points accumulated passively and by spreading your influence across the map – feels a little copy-paste from faction to faction, with keywords swapped for faction specific details (unit growth buffs and signature stat boosts, to be specific).

When it's time to dive into combat, things will seem straightforward at first, but these battles really are the main draw. You move units across a hex grid, avoiding the occasional trap and terrain feature in order to reach the best positioning to get enemies gone. Units are either melee, long-reach (can attack from a space away), or ranged, so there isn’t much fuss when determining how to attack, and every creature will retaliate against a melee attack with one of their own. I love the simplicity of your attack options, though it can be hard not to just lean into ranged army compositions instinctively since melee is such a high-risk endeavor. This doesn’t negate melee units at all, but I did feel naked if I ran a squad of just face-checking bruisers, especially in the early game.

Flanking and backstabbing aren't a thing here, so much of the depth and nuance of combat comes from initiative, which determines which units act in what order and can be manipulated by having units wait and delay their turns to let others act first. It does often cause fights to feel like you and your opponents will spend the first half of every turn making your most valuable units stare at each other before they’re eventually forced to move, but who you have wait becomes an important tactical choice as battles get more intense. Spells that can alter movement speed and initiative like Web and Ice Bolt can help break these stalemates, and they are way more valuable in Olden Era than I remember similar options being Heroes of Might and Magic 2 or 3, where all you ever really had to do was cast Bless and Stoneskin and send your units on their way. It’s a pretty savvy and interesting combat system this time around, though I do wish the battlefield variety did a little more to spice things up from fight to fight.

Of the modes currently available in Olden Era, Campaign is my least favorite right now. It's more story-focused than past campaign modes, and even has some opportunities to make choices that will significantly change how you progress through it – specifically who you as Gunnar, a minotaur scout of the Dungeon faction and lieutenant of The Triumvirate, will ally with as you investigate a looming threat to the world of Jadame. That’s neat in theory, but it comes with lots of small annoyances like unskippable cutscenes. Its also where I encountered the most bugs, from a couple weird crashes to a mission branch that asked me to make nice with a faction in order to find its leader, even after I’d already found them and recruited them to my party. My biggest gripe with it, though, is that it renders a lot of the most interesting systems inert. Many city dwellings are restricted and can't be built, you don’t interact with the advanced subclasses or laws at all, etc. These are obviously so that progression through the more tailored maps can be controlled, but it's the worst way to play this game, especially if you haven't gotten any reps in other modes yet.

On the flip side, I really like the new Arena mode, which is just Olden Era combat between two players. You draft a hero, skills, artifacts, spells, and units almost like a trading card game, then square up with an opponent for a fight to the finish. This means you’re subjected to all the ways randomness can affect these things more than anywhere else, but it's still a great way to learn and test synergies without having to play hours of a full run at a time. I couldn’t try too many Arena matches during the early review window, but im eager to jump in and test my might when the pool of players opens up.

And while Classic mode is the “right” way to play, forgoing story for a pure test against either CPU opponents or other human competitors online, I’ve also been really smitten with the Single-Hero mode, which restricts all teams to just one roaming conqueror who holds all of your army’s strength and the fate of your faction’s survival in its hands. It helps focus the flow, and is perfect for new players who want to learn the ropes without having to think too big at first. But it also appeals to a returning player like myself as someone who is eager to find the line between the creeping grind of faction supremacy and the free time afforded to an adult with a job and a family and friends and…

Hokum hits theaters on May 1.

Damian McCarthy’s Hokum throws a lot at the wall to see what sticks; unfortunately, little of it does. This movie is part Irish folklore, part murder mystery, part Stephen King riff (by way of a troubled writer at a haunted hotel), and a few other things thrown in for good measure. All of these come wrapped in a distant, haphazard aesthetic approach that robs the film of its tension and scares, resulting in too much and too little all at once.

McCarthy generally knows how to build tension, if his 2024 Irish supernatural revenge thriller Oddity is anything to go by. However, Hokum falls victim to stylistic over-familiarity from the moment it begins. Its opening images, removed from time, feature a desperate conquistador and his young ward wandering through the desert in search of water and treasure. They are soon revealed to be part of the writings of secluded American author Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott), who types away at his desk in the darkness. He spots a human shape on the stairwell in the distance, and then much closer to his table, but points his desk lamp at it, so it disappears. It’s a fun little flourish à la David F. Sandberg’s Lights Out, but this tug-of-war between light and dark is neither thematically nor narratively relevant from that point on; it’s just a trick McCarthy employs from time to time, so it loses tension with each successive appearance.

Soon after, Bauman makes the decision to travel to a tiny Irish hotel in a secluded forest in order to scatter his parents’ ashes. They’ve been dead for some time, and he hopes to honor them by returning to the site of their honeymoon. His emotional hardships have followed him there in the form of a figure resembling his mother, whose death he believes he had a hand in. This makes for a potent emotional setup, but would you believe that Bauman’s festering guilt, and this specter from his past, don’t actually have anything to do with the rest of the film?

The hotel staff quickly become key supporting characters, though Bauman’s rankled responses to their polite inquiries make him an enormous asshole. He’s more than just curmudgeonly; he’s downright detestable, to the point of burning the hand of an enthusiastic bellboy who claims to be a fan of his work. There’s complex, and there’s cartoonishly sinister, and Bauman so often crosses over into the latter that it’s hard to care about him as a human being. Before long, the hotel’s bartender, Fiona (Florence Ordesh) – one of the few people to show Bauman kindness – disappears, urging him to investigate the loose ends left by the local police as the hotel closes for the season. Oh, and there’s also a stranger in the woods who speaks of witches and magic mushrooms, a creepy groundskeeper who executes wild goats, and a manager who claims the hotel’s honeymoon suite is haunted and therefore keeps it shuttered.

Again, none of these things have any bearing on Bauman’s character, who enters the story with enough of his own troubles to fill an entire feature. Instead of building on this foundation, McCarthy overcomplicates his plot by introducing unrelated ghostly visions and supernatural elements vaguely tied together, until Bauman ends up in a kind of escape room scenario.

This isn’t inherently unworkable as a premise, but the film’s assembly is often too limp and scattered to adequately transform it into something breathtaking. Cuts between Bauman’s close-ups and POV shots of dark hallways are often confusing in their geography, which doesn’t bode well for a film of such contained physical surroundings, where escaping from one room to the next is so vital to the film’s plot. Memories from Bauman’s past start to manifest in the form of creepy cartoon characters come to life – one in particular is frequently present throughout the marketing – but this, like so many other ideas in Hokum, is but a temporary swerve.

Scott, for his part, has always been a reasonably good dramatic actor despite his many comedic roles, but he’s saddled here with a mechanical saga wherein Bauman’s personal demons are only relevant in theory, and have little bearing on how things play out. He becomes, in the process, a non-presence who you would swap out with a table lamp for pretty much the same result.

As the plot lurches forward – often via conveniences brought on by the clockwork arrival and departure of secondary and tertiary characters at the hotel – it does so without a hint of emotional momentum, ultimately revealing its spookiest elements by straying further and further from its starting point. Neither Bauman’s past nor his work end up meaningfully reflected in (or impacted by) the hotel’s mysterious, witchy tale, which nonetheless becomes increasingly central to the semi-related mystery at hand. Each element feels plucked from an entirely different film, ultimately culminating in a revenge feature with pressing themes of misogynistic violence that McCarthy never really broaches.

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Maul: Shadow Lord Episodes 7 & 8!

Watching Maul: Shadow Lord is certainly an interesting experience relative to the various other Star Wars animated series. It's far more serialized than Rebels, The Bad Batch, and the majority of The Clone Wars, to the point where this entire season has played like one long movie. No doubt some enterprising nerds are already hard at work cutting a fan edit to transform it into a film. However you ultimately choose to consume this particular piece of Star Wars media, there's no denying that Shadow Lord has only gotten steadily better as it's gone along. Episodes 7 and 8 are the best yet, giving us a healthy mix of action, suspense, and a welcome glimpse into Maul's troubled psyche.

If it didn't already feel as though Maul had bitten off more than he could chew on Janix, Episode 7 cements that with the introduction of Eleventh Brother/The Crow. The Crow is part of that proud tradition of Star Wars villains who look cool but don't really do much before being summarily killed off. Luckily, Shadow Lord is taking advantage of this pre-Tales of the Jedi point in the timeline to make use of the character and show us how dangerous he can be.

Having two Sith Inquisitors on board only serves to further ramp up the tension and unease in these episodes. No, The Crow doesn't really show any more personality or individuality than Marrok does (I don't believe they even bothered to bring back voice actor Clancy Brown here), but as a purely physical threat, he more than gets the job done.

Episode 7 culminates in a truly epic showdown between Maul's forces and the Empire. This sequence is easily the most memorable so far when it comes to scale and choreography. It's also a showdown that puts Maul on the back foot in a major way. If he and Devon could barely handle Marrok together last week, how is Maul alone supposed to take on Marrok and The Crow? The answer, it turns out, is by leaning into his more cowardly side and stalling them long enough to drop a cave on top of everyone. Classic Maul...

That defeat leads directly into Episode 8, where our heroes struggle to rescue Rylee (Charlie Bushnell) from the Empire and Maul is left by his lonesome to walk a long, dangerous, and very psychedelic road. Those scenes where Maul pushes forward while grappling with images of his past are terrific. They serve as a reminder of how psychologically complex this character has become over the years, and we get some welcome glimpses of the formative moments of his origin story (being recruited by Sidious as a young Nightbrother, training under his master's cruel gaze, etc.).

Best of all, these scenes wind up paying off by hinting at a larger mission for the series. Originally, we were led to believe that Shadow Lord is nothing more or less than the story of Maul rebuilding his criminal empire in the time of the Empire. That's basically the story the show was telling in its first four episodes, and only once the Empire really entered the main stage did the series start to fulfill its true dramatic potential.

Now, we get hints that rebuilding the Shadow Collective is really all part of Maul's larger plan to punish Sidious. He even vows in Episode 8 that no one else will be made to suffer as he did. I'm very eager to see how Maul attempts to fulfill that promise in future seasons, even if the show may ultimately be limited by the constraints of the Star Wars canon. The very fact that we have a Darth Maul-led show set years after his apparent death in Episode I is a reminder that canon doesn't have to be a prison.

All in all, these two episodes deliver exactly what they need to at this dramatic point in the Season 1 narrative. They deliver a nonstop barrage of beautiful action and suspense, and they usher Maul into the forefront of the series after he spent Episodes 5 and 6 lurking in the shadows. Not that we don't still get some strong scenes centered around the rest of the cast. The drama unfolding among the Mandalorians is a nice added wrinkle. And the droid characters are always reliable for a bit of much-needed comedic relief, whetehr it's the wisecracking Spybot (David W. Collins) or the eternally optimistic Two-Boots (Richard Ayoade). This may be Maul's show, but he's built up a strong supporting cast around himself.

It’s been more than 10 years since the original Steam Controller, Valve’s take on a gamepad designed specifically for PC gaming. That controller only ever found a small cult following. Its most innovative feature – haptic touchpads intended to give more detailed control of a mouse pointer – was also its most polarizing, given that the touchpads took the place of standard thumbsticks, turning off anyone looking for a traditional gamepad experience.

While the original Steam Controller failed, its innovations paved the way for the touchpads found on the excellent Steam Deck (thankfully now in addition to traditional thumbsticks, not instead of them). In turn, the Steam Deck’s success has begat a new batch of Valve hardware: the forthcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame, as well as this new Steam Controller, which after two weeks of testing has quickly become my favorite controller for PC gaming.

The new Steam Controller will look familiar to anyone with a Steam Deck, but odd compared to the default Xbox controller. It has a standard controller shape with a symmetrical dual-thumbstick layout most akin to the base PS5 controller. Its ABXY face buttons and D-pad again mostly mimic the PS5 controller’s layout, though they’re very slightly more in-line with the thumbsticks. The face buttons feel solid: they’re not particularly clicky, but they have a satisfying press without any instability or rattle.

The D-pad is similar. It has a nice bit of travel to it and doesn’t feel mushy, but it lacks the clickiness found on the Xbox core controller. It’s perfectly serviceable for platforming in Hollow Knight: Silksong, but lacks definition on the intercardinals and doesn’t feel like it’d excel at quarter-circles or other fighting game inputs. Of course, for that you’re better off opting for a dedicated fightstick anyway.

On top are the triggers and bumpers. The bumpers feel about the same as the face buttons – neither clicky nor mushy – while the triggers have a comfortable lip and travel distance. There’s no switch or trigger stops to adjust their physical actuation point, but using Steam Input you can change them to activate on a slight pull, or assign separate actions to a soft vs full pull, if you like.

Around back are the rear buttons, which rest exactly under your middle and ring fingers when holding the controller. I found them easy and comfortable to press, though the bottom two – R5 and L5 – occasionally press by accident if I rest my hands on my leg in a certain way while holding the controller. Not a huge issue overall, and only a problem if you happen to cross your legs and rest your controller hands in the exact same way that I do, but something to be aware of nonetheless.

The analog sticks are excellent, with a shallow concave top and a rubberized lip around the ring. They’re comfortable to use, and quickly snap back to the center position when released. Unlike most controllers, though, these have capacitive touch capability, which means that they can detect whether your thumbs are touching them or not, and use this information to toggle advanced features, like gyroscopic controls.

But that’s not the only advanced tech behind the sticks – they use Tunnel Magnetoresistance (TMR) sensors under the hood, which means they use magnets to achieve a higher polling rate, lower power consumption, and greater level of precision than traditional analog or Hall-effect sticks. Most importantly, TMR sensors are virtually immune to stick drift, as there’s no physical component to the sensor that will wear down over time. The Steam Controller should last years before the sticks degrade in any way.

Below the thumbsticks are the Steam Controller’s most unique feature: its pair of large square touchpads, similar to those found on the Steam Deck. Like the sticks, these pads are capacitive, and they offer a pleasing haptic feedback whenever you touch them. The pads themselves don’t click in, but they can be used as buttons in a variety of ways. By default, the whole pad functions as a single input, but you can customize this via Steam Input to mimic four directional buttons, a radial wheel, or a variety of more complex control schemes that you can customize or just download from the thousands of available profiles built by the Steam community.

All that said, while I adore my Steam Deck, I rarely use its touchpads. They are a nice-to-have in the event a game doesn’t offer controller support, but in most cases I’ll just not play those games on my Deck rather than attempting to navigate complicated menus or carry out complex unit control via the touchpad.

My experience with the Steam Controller’s touchpads has been the same. For the sake of testing, I tried playing Crusader Kings 3 and Against the Storm with the Steam Controller, neither of which have built-in controller support. In both cases, the games were playable, but it’s not a very efficient or enjoyable experience, and I gave up in frustration after a few minutes, even when employing one of the community profiles already built for the Steam Deck.

Still, they’re a feature I would rather have than not. If nothing else, they make controlling the Windows (or Mac or Linux) desktop significantly easier if you ever find yourself outside of Big Picture Mode and don’t want to reach for (or haven’t connected) a mouse and keyboard. That’s not a huge need when you’re sitting at a desk, but for couch and TV setups, it’s critical.

Float Like a Console, Sting Like a PC

Rounding out the front of the Steam Controller are its four Start/Select-like buttons: View on the left and Menu on the right, Quick Access Menu down below between the trackpads, and finally the large Steam button dead center. The Steam button has a variety of functions that cascade depending on if the next step is already active or not. In other words, it turns the controller on, then launches or focuses Steam if it’s not already. If you’re already in Steam, then it launches you into Big Picture Mode, achieving its final form, where it simply opens or closes the Steam menu. It’s a useful sequence of controls, meaning that other than turning on your PC, you only need to press the Steam button a handful of times to move from the Windows desktop into the controller-centric Big Picture Mode, upon which it’s easy to select and launch a game. While it can’t boot your PC (if it’s running Windows, at least), it’s the closest the living room PC experience has come yet to mimicking the ease of getting into a game that comes from traditional consoles – and will get even closer once the Steam Machine comes out later this year.

Connectivity is handled by a small puck attached to a 5-foot USB cable, which connects magnetically to the back of the controller. It’s a small detail, but I appreciate the rubber grips on the bottom of the puck, which help keep it anchored on your desk when not in use. Similarly, move the controller nearby and the puck jumps up to attach with a satisfying snap. This made it easy to use the controller “plugged in” when it needed to charge, and the puck’s USB cable is actually a USB-C port that the cable plugs into, which means you can swap it for a longer (or shorter) one if you like. Valve claims a 35 hour battery life, and the ease of connecting to the puck meant I never came close to running dry while testing the controller. In the event you misplace the puck or want to charge or connect without it, there’s also a USB-C port on top of the controller where you’d expect it. You can also connect multiple Steam Controllers to a single puck, if you’re in a multi-controller household.

The controller also supports Bluetooth, though it takes a somewhat complicated button combination (while the controller is powered off, hold the B button and right bumper, then press and hold the Steam button for 5 seconds) to enter Bluetooth pairing mode. I was able to pair to my PC and phone without issue, the latter of which surprised me when I was able to use the touchpad to control a mouse pointer, something I’d never seen before.

You then have to use another button combo (A button plus right bumper and Steam button) to get back to puck mode (the controller remains in Bluetooth mode otherwise, even if you turn it off and back on) and like pairing in the first place, this must be done starting with the controller powered off. Thankfully you can hold the Steam button for 10 seconds to turn the controller off, but it’s overall a fairly cumbersome process if you plan on swapping between devices frequently.

While Steam is integral to the Steam Controller’s identity, and necessary for setup and configuration, it’s not 100% necessary for playing games. Once Steam Controller is set up and connected, it works just fine with PC games from other launchers, though you won’t have access to things like Steam Input’s community profiles. It’s possible some of this is accessible if you add the games to Steam via the “add a non-Steam game to my library” workflow, but my only non-Steam games are on the Epic Games Store, and there’s not an easy way to get those added to Steam, so I wasn’t able to test it myself.

To be clear, the Steam Controller is not compatible with consoles. Just to see, I tried connecting it to my Switch 2, but it neither showed up as an option for pairing via Bluetooth nor was recognized when plugged in via USB. PS5 meanwhile will let you control menus if it’s plugged in via USB, but stops working once you get into a game, and Bluetooth doesn’t work at all. Valve is clear about this, but I was still hoping that the controller’s broad Bluetooth connectivity would allow it to link up with the Switch or PS5 like it did my phone.

The Steam Controller costs $99, which is an excellent price for the level of features you get here. There isn’t a hard definition of what makes a “Pro” controller, but the standard hallmarks found on many include customizable controls of some kind, back buttons, better-than-usual stick or button sensors, swappable parts, and other advanced control options not found on the default console controllers. The Steam Controller checks most of those boxes – with the addition of its unique touchpads – while costing significantly less than high-end controllers like the Xbox Elite or the Dualsense Edge.

While there are cheaper controllers out there with some high-end features, like the $40 PowerA Advantage, they often cut corners elsewhere, typically being wired-only or lacking in rumble. The Steam Controller, meanwhile, is as full-featured as they come. It doesn’t offer every high-end controller option – notably missing are short-throw trigger stops, the ability to swap out parts, and its face buttons are merely perfectly fine rather than being particularly outstanding – but it has top-notch thumbsticks, outstanding haptics, and those touchpads you can’t find anywhere else.

Bo Moore is IGN's Senior Manager of Tech. You can find him online @usebomswisely.

The Sheep Detectives will be released in theaters on May 8.

The Sheep Detectives is the cutest, sweetest movie ever made about accepting death and confronting grief and trauma. Imagine if Babe had to solve the murder of Farmer Hoggett and you’ll get a sense of what this comedy-mystery family film is going for.

Shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) lives on a farm outside a small English village where, every day before nightfall, he reads detective stories to his beloved flock. Although gruff with the townsfolk, George is kind and loving towards his sheep, whom he only raises for their wool. (He’s a vegetarian and is against the slaughter of animals.)

His flock (voiced by Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, and Rhys Darby) are an assortment of different breeds, including a Shetland, a Castlemilk Moorit, two Norfolk Horns, a Merino and so on. George’s favorite sheep, Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), is also the smartest of the flock, who are awed by her ability to figure out the killer in George’s whodunits before he even finishes reading them the story.

(It’s important to note here that the sheep can’t speak to humans, but they can speak to each other and can understand the meaning of what humans say. Also, they have a range of accents, from American to Irish to English, that’s never explained but, really, who cares?)

One morning, they wake up to find George dead outside of his trailer. With the exception of two sheep – Moppie (voiced by Chris O’Dowd) and gruff loner with a past Sebastian (voiced by Bryan Cranston) – don’t know what death even is. They think all sheep just turn into clouds one day and that death only exists in the stories George reads to them. Utilizing their knowledge of how to solve murders from the stories George read them, Lily and her fellow sheep set out to help bring their shepherd’s killer to justice.

The Last of Us’s Craig Mazin screenplay adaptation of Leonie Swann’s 2005 novel Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story is full of truly poignant, heartstring-pulling and profound moments for its sheep characters, particularly Lily and Sebastian. The story also explores the blinders that groups (even flocks of sheep) can willingly adopt, whether it’s a prejudice towards outsiders or superstitions that are passed down. This might all sound very heavy, but there is a lot of heart and warmth (and cute animal antics) here to help take the edge off.

Minions and Despicable Me 3’s Kyle Balda makes his live-action directing debut here. His skill at being able to tell an amusing but still heartfelt story for kids and families is well displayed in all the sheep scenes, but the broad humor inherent in animated kids movies doesn’t translate as seamlessly into live-action when it comes to many of the human characters. Some of those jokes come off as strained and clunky in their delivery.

Nicholas Braun plays Tim Derry, the town’s dim-witted (and only) cop, who finds assistance in his first murder investigation from Nicholas Galitzine’s reporter George, who came to town to cover a cultural festival but found a much bigger story instead. Braun ends up revealing more nuances to Tim as he learns how to become a better cop thanks to Lily, Moppie and Sebastian’s covert interventions, but Galitzine struggles to land some of his character’s goofier moments.

Scene stealer Emma Thompson fares much better in a small role as a hotshot lawyer who rolls into town with some surprising news about George’s will, and is accompanied by a young American woman named Rebecca (The Bear’s Molly Gordon) who harbors secrets of her own.

Look, if you're just going to leave valuable resources lying around in strategically placed caches, of course I'm going to clear them out. I'm trying to save the world, not earn a halo. The next player can just man up and find their own. You see, the big feature that Tides Of Tomorrow is bringing to the party is the ability to see the actions of previous players and experience interactions with the world and NPCs shaped by their behavior. You can see their physical actions in the world using a second sight-style power that lets you watch a ghost version of them for a short time, while NPCs will refer to them by name and help or hinder you depending on their behavior. If they were a picture of virtue and, say, helped a particular faction, you'll find that people are more inclined to return the favor, but if your predecessor committed a crime or started trouble, you'll have to find different ways to complete your objectives.

As someone that has been conned before by the whole "your choices really matter" when it comes to game worlds, I was interested to see if this could live up to the promise beyond a couple of key moments. Ultimately, it did. Sure, some of the more life-or-death type scenarios came with a cheeky little note that the events will only affect my reality, but otherwise the consequences felt real enough to be interesting. To underscore this, at the end of each section of the game you'll get a The Walking Dead-style report outlining your choices and the impact they'd have on the next player, which was satisfying. You also get categorized as you play; I was tagged as tree-hugging survivalist. This became more meaningful as I played; my 'pro-nature' ranking meant I got some extra dialogue options, and some were blocked off because I hadn't earned my chops as a troublemaker.

All of this is happening on a flooded, failing remnant of our world, one where different gangs have taken control of structures that loom out of the sea. There are Marauders, Reclaimers, and Mystics, and you'll need to work with all of them. The storyline does have more than a hint of Captain Planet about it, with plastic ultimately representing the ultimate evil, saving the whales (or whale-like things) being a major plot point, and lots of lines that sound like your Aunty Bethany when she hit menopause and started talking about being in harmony with nature. The cast of characters borrows heavily from gaming's big book of tropes - a badass but ultimately caring woman, religious zealots with opaque motivations, a big old selfish crime lord - but despite that, I did find myself making major decisions using how it would affect them as my north star. All of the characters are dealing with the effects of a disease called plastemia to some extent, a horrifying effect of the state of the world that sees people slowly morph into multicolored mannequins, ultimately leaving behind a plastic corpse. The only cure is a drug called Ozen, which is in short supply. You can buy it, steal it, and find it out in the world if you want to save some lives; the only catch is that you need it, too.

A little meter acts as a ticking timebomb of illness, but unless you're out there like some sort of seafaring saint, it seems in place to give a general air of dread rather than a serious countdown. I was an absolute bastard about chugging Ozen at every opportunity, whatever the moral implications, and I still keeled over at what felt like a pre-ordained moment for the storytelling.

I expected the novelty of the vision power would wear off, but it's been cleverly woven through puzzles and encounters in varying ways. You can see a route through a heavily guarded area, guess someone's preferred moves in Rock, Paper, Scissors, and beat a dodge in a boxing match. In some scenarios you'll want to watch what your predecessor did and do the opposite to avoid a nasty end. All players can also just throw out an emote - pointing, dancing, there's a wheel of choices - so if you want to be extra helpful, you can assist your followers by indicating secrets or puzzle solutions. I occasionally did a little jig just for the hell of it.

Ultimately, some of my favorite moments came from small, satisfying impacts I could have on the world. One character asked me to set a law for their tiny nation; another wanted me to give my people, Tidewalkers, a new name. If someone calls you a Fish Whisperer, that might be my fault. I liked repairing ladders and bridges, knowing that the next player would benefit, but I also had no qualms about buying out a shop's entire stock of Ozen. After one playthrough I felt like I'd experienced the mechanic as far as this story was concerned, and - other than a random jet ski race that made me want to throw myself into the actual sea - I kept being pleasantly surprised by it as the story went on. You could restart the game and follow a different player to see how their choices changed what you encountered, but while I enjoyed my time on the open sea, I wasn't curious enough for a second playthrough. It did make me keen to see what the developer could do with the mechanic next though, because I'll be there day one to try it out.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

Sometimes, against our better judgment, we do the same thing over and over again hoping for a different outcome. Developer Housemarque's new third-person bullet-hell shooter Saros explores this idea in many ways – the roguelite level structure, the repeated combat encounters, and the internal conflicts of its main character, Arjun. It has a familiar gameplay foundation to its predecessor Returnal, too, with fluid gunplay and deft movement. But in trying to be more thematically ambitious, Saros opens itself up to pitfalls Returnal didn't have to manage, leaving some of its more interesting threads unsatisfyingly hanging. Still, its tough-as-nails combat is worth getting good for, even when its repetition can wear you down.

Arjun Devraj is an expeditioner for the space corp Soltari; he sports the voice and likeness of actor Rahul Kohli, who absolutely nails the leading role. His crew is sent out to investigate the disappearance of previous expeditions on Carcosa, a planet riddled with biomechanical imagery and the gothic architecture of a lost alien civilization; the science-fantasy and Giger influence is definitely used effectively here. It's also reminiscent of the modern Doom games, especially when its chaotic combat encounters and pounding soundtrack evoke a similar feeling.

You quickly realize that something is extremely off, with each solar eclipse turning the planet into a hellscape and inducing a deep psychosis that chips away at everyone's well-being as tensions grow increasingly hostile. There are parallels to works like Heart of Darkness or Apocalypse Now here, but Saros is more of an adaptation of the 19th century anthology "The King In Yellow" by Robert Chambers. It pulls names and themes directly from the book itself while brushing up against a little cosmic horror. You see Arjun battling with his own sanity and past decisions as you get further and have to ponder: What is Soltari's real purpose? Does that matter? Why does Arjun keep respawning as few even bat an eye? Is any of this real? Those are all interesting questions as you unpack what Saros is really about.

You do so primarily by blasting through multiple run-based levels that make up Carcosa. The more you familiarize yourself with the unrelenting attack patterns of enemies and learn how to be effectively aggressive with weapons you vibe with, the closer you get to a flow state that speedy shooters like this uniquely tap into. It's strongly rooted in Returnal's design philosophies with a few edges sanded off, and while I don't think Saros is necessarily an evolution, I came away with a sated appetite for Housemarque's house style.

Carcosa's various biomes are broken up into distinct levels, which themselves must be completed in a single run to make progress. It's a different way of packaging a similar idea; levels shift ever so slightly with each run, pulling from a defined set of rooms to generate the path forward. Some rooms emphasize platforming challenges, most throw hordes of biomechanical amalgamations at you, and some are a tough mix of both. Runs do begin to blend together as the cadence doesn't really change that much since the parameters are fairly tight. But in a game like this, death is part of the process, and each failed run is a training ground for what you ultimately need to do – get through the level as healthy as possible and defeat its boss in one fell swoop.

This largely works because, like it has done historically, Housemarque makes damn good shooters – from 2D and top-down shmups such as Resogun and Nex Machina to the third-person bullet-hell of Returnal. Speed and agility are priorities and that's balanced with a generous tracking system for aiming, which makes Saros play a little closer to an arcade shooter. I often relied on the Onslaught Rifle that disables auto-aim altogether for powerful shots, or the Smart Rifle that homes in on targets to let me focus on mobility. Most guns come with a satisfying impact, including pistols that remain relevant throughout and the late-game ripsaws that tear through enemies with damage-over-time, all of which come with different perks and in several variations that drop randomly during runs. Saros makes brilliant use of the DualSense controller's haptic feedback here, mapping its alternate fire modes to a half-trigger pull that you physically feel and the wind-up of your Power ability to a full-trigger pull, both of which are crucial to execute at a moment's notice.

Firepower is only half the battle because the most challenging part of Saros is reacting to the colorful beams that hound you on the battlefield. Enemies fire off a rapid mix of blue shots that can be absorbed to fuel your shield and Power ability, red shots that can be parried but not blocked, and yellow shots that build Corruption to limit your max health (but empower certain weapons). Knowing when to evade and when to take those hits head-on is something you'll constantly have to process, and learn to love. Where fighting through hordes of aliens in combat arenas is about managing the chaos of everything they throw at you, boss fights are more about attention to detail, where swift visual and audio cues tip you off to what's coming, asking you to be quick enough to position yourself and react while still finding windows of opportunity to get your own shots in. This dynamic tapped into a little bit of my rhythm game skills and it's this test of your reflexes that I enjoyed most; even in moments of frustration, I knew coming out the other end of it would be a moment of triumph.

Saros eases the friction of Returnal a bit by putting a bigger focus on permanent resources and upgrades (even giving you a second-chance revive early on). Back at the home base hub area, you'll work through a skill tree that improves your health, shield and power potency, and rate of resource gathering. Certain branches can boost weapon leveling to help pick up better versions in runs or make your clutch ultimate ability stronger. But progress isn't necessarily about deepening your skillset or fundamentally changing your playstyle, rather it's about making its challenges a little more manageable for future runs and, of course, playing smarter. Nodes in the skill tree are incremental upgrades that are important to obtain because things do get very difficult.

This is why Saros can get pretty monotonous at times. Instead of challenging you to think creatively about combat, more weight is put on your ability to survive in a war of attrition. I respect that approach, but when you have to spend 20 to 30 minutes going through the motions in a level just to get another shot at the boss, the repetition begins to settle in. I suppose it comes with the territory for a roguelite shooter of this style, where buildcrafting isn't really a thing outside of the Artifacts that temporarily boost your stats (and come with debuffs to consider) and hopefully plucking out your preferred weapons/powers with a good set of perks. It’s an approach that has its merits, demanding that you stay locked in during a run, but that doesn't stop it from feeling tedious in spots.

As a PlayStation 5 exclusive, Saros seems like it’s trying to align itself more closely with Sony’s other “prestige” single-player games by having a more deliberate, high-concept story. Themes of trying to break harmful cycles, coming to terms with grave mistakes, and even struggles with sexual identity work their way into what initially seemed like something primarily inspired by Hollywood sci-fi. I commend that direction because these are intriguing threads to pull on, but the ways the storytelling comes up short really stick out when there’s a bigger emphasis on it this time around. Saros gets halfway there, but unfortunately leaves many of its stronger plotlines underdeveloped.

Arjun is a compelling lead because while he's deadset on chasing someone important to him on Carcosa, something deeper continually brews inside him. His stubbornness manifests in various ways as he simultaneously tries to make sense of the loop he's stuck in and the vision that haunt him as he wakes up for another run. There are moments when Saros built toward revelations that felt like breakthroughs in the story, which had me engaged – but sometimes those moments would be tee'd up without the follow-through required for them to fully payoff. Flawed, even irredeemable characters can be really interesting, and feeling conflicted about these kinds of stories is a fascinating mental exercise to work through, but you need a deft hand to truly pull that off.

Most supporting characters have arcs that boil down to their descent into madness told in voice notes. And aside from a select few crewmates back at base (and a bossy Soltari computer that has a bit of an identity crisis), there isn't much added depth. Brief conversations in the hub area with the crew feel oddly stilted, but at least serve to feed into the unnerving setting. However, Saros does have some of the strongest use of readable data logs I’ve seen in a while. Beyond just being flavor text, there's some great writing that provides insights in the form of Soltari reports, employee data, or diary-like entries which create a kind of thematic texture that's genuinely effective; and I wish some of this found its way into the main story.

It doesn't help that the storytelling is so abstracted that it obscures your understanding of what is actually happening. I'm not asking for its message to be spoonfed to me or its twisting sequence of events to be laid out in broad daylight, but I do expect a story to create throughlines that lead to something we can define with only the pieces we're given. Some of my favorite stories in games leave things up to interpretation, because there's real power in connecting the threads for yourself, but they still had to lay the groundwork to let us piece it together and form our own perspectives. Saros has flashes of this that'll provoke interesting spoiler discussions, but I get the sense that it relied a little too heavily on its literary inspiration to fill the gaps.

Returnal was impactful because it solely focused on Selene and her time loop fighting through Atropos; it used that format to reflect her personal struggles that were subtle in the early hours then gave you the means to paint a clearer picture the deeper you got. Roguelite as a metaphor worked so well there, and its parallels hit hard when you reached a point where it all started falling into place. Saros bites off more than it can chew, which I can admire, but the actual execution struggles to send the message it thinks it's sending.

Apex debuts on Netflix on April 24.

If there's one thing Charlize Theron knows how to do, it's pack a punch. As Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, she gave Tom Hardy's eponymous lead a run for his money, hot-wheeling across a barren sandscape and taking out several heavies along the way. In Atomic Blonde, her MI6 agent Lorraine proves a formidable spy, brutally dispatching KGB operatives in a 10-minute single-take fight scene even after receiving several pummeling hits. Throw in The Old Guard and Fast and Furious franchises, and Theron has come to epitomize a strong female character not to be messed with – an ultimate fighting force with heart that has been met with uproarious adulation from audiences.

With Apex, her new survival actioner, she's taken a somewhat softer approach to this story of a woman fighting for her life in a game of cat-and-mouse set against the backdrop of the Australian wilderness. That's not to say her character, Sasha, is soft; she's a thrill-seeking outdoorswoman who pushes herself to nature's limit by scaling perilous mountains and kayaking down thrashing rivers. But she's not a highly-trained fighter, or imbued with immortal strength, making the stakes that much higher once she's targeted by a sadistic hunter.

Sasha is introduced three-quarters of the way up Norway's Troll Wall, the tallest vertical rock face in Europe, with her husband Tommy (Eric Bana). The pair have an easy chemistry, offering the sort of lived-in banter of a couple who have been adventuring for years. Tommy is feeling a little less optimistic about reaching the summit; the weather is turning for the worse, Sasha is rushing the climb, and he's lacking confidence. If you've seen Vertical Limit or Cliffhanger, you can guess what happens next – a nail-biting yet devastating scene where director Baltasar Kormákur effectively utilizes the immersive camerawork he honed on 2015's Everest. It's a shame that the film is going straight to Netflix rather than being shared on the big screen, where the extremities of nature versus the fragility of humanity could have been experienced in full force. Such is the dominance of streaming, I guess.

We next meet Sasha in Australia. Theron shifts into a stoic, guarded register, capturing the grief of not just losing someone you love, but a part of yourself. She's on her way to the fictional Wandarra National Park to find solace down a rapid river route, but is warned by a park ranger that people have disappeared out there. Screenwriter Jeremy Robbins doesn't waste time planting seeds of foreboding with a corkboard overflowing with missing persons flyers and a couple of sleazy locals vying for Sasha's attention. However, even after an intensely uncomfortable camp scene where the danger of being a lone woman blocked in by strange men is keenly felt, they're not the ones Sasha really needed to worry about.

It's not often we see Taron Egerton in an antagonistic role; the last time was in the 2015 biopic, Legend, where he played a volatile and violent associate of the infamous gangster Kray twins. Here, as Aussie backwoodsman Ben, he oscillates between sweetness and savagery to unsettling effect. It doesn't take long to work out his ulterior motives. Robbins gives us a clue early on, and he's just that little bit too friendly to Sasha; his "gone native" backstory is a little flimsy too. Still, by the time she works out that he's lured her down a secluded river route so he can hunt her to her death, the plot goes full throttle into an exciting and gripping chase across land and water.

The stuntwork is impeccable with Theron, who did a significant amount of it herself, diving headfirst into every sequence. She kayaks through turbulent river rapids, sometimes plunging into the racing water while handcuffed and trying to escape her foe. She scrambles up and down rock faces and scurries through the lusciously dense forest as Ben sets traps and his crossbow sights on her. It's intensely exhausting to watch Sasha and Ben go head-to-head, but refreshingly believable to comprehend her survival instincts. Sure, she's a natural athlete, but she's up against a psychotic man of the woods in unknown terrain. Brute strength won't save Sasha – her brain will – so it's all the more satisfying to watch a quick-thinking woman survive a deranged predator by flexing that muscle instead.

Cinematographer Lawrence Sher does an admirable job, seamlessly capturing the looming beauty and elemental danger of the Blue Mountain region where it was largely shot. Even in quieter moments of reflection, from shadowy blue night to a grimy cave dwelling and pink-tinged skies, Apex captures the tumultuous emotional journey of its hero and the disturbing proclivities of its villain. It’s a wild ride, with Theron once again cementing herself as one of cinema's most versatile action stars.

Full spoilers follow for For All Mankind Season 5, Episode 5, which is streaming on Apple TV now.

For whatever reason, this season of For All Mankind can’t seem to stop kneecapping itself right when it’s on the verge of being good, and Episode 5 has, sadly, done exactly that once again. We’re right off the heels of wildfire news spreading about the Mars automation agreement leak, and yet we kick things off with… Irina Morozova (Svetlana Efremova), Margo’s old Roscosmos boss and high-ranking KGB handler, getting locked up in a Soviet labor/reeducation camp for 19 months.

It’s not even that this is unimportant. The show needed to reintroduce Irina after she was arrested toward the end of Season 4, especially since we knew (from a picture in the last episode) that she would be part of the Kuragin delegation heading to Mars. But this montage in the Gulag feels stuffed at the front of the episode because there was no other good place to put it, and it just so happens to kick off an episode full of major revelations that mostly land with a thud because of rickety dialogue, wooden performances, or the unfortunate combination of both.

The bright spots are the naive defensive maneuvers Alex (Sean Kaufman) and Lily (Ruby Cruz) pull in light of their whistleblowing. Dev (Edi Gathegi), who sidestepped Aleida for the automation agreement, confronts Alex, calling his behavior the “actions of a fucking child.” In their spat, Alex quits Helios, claiming Dev never understood the long-term vision his grandfather had for Mars and that his plans for building Meru through extensive automation would result in a community that “only a chosen few get to be a part of.” He’s probably not wrong, but turning in his badge as a data-entry specialist — and then complaining to his mom about how he was “finally doing something meaningful” with his life (lol, you’re like 17, kid!) — is ineffectual dissent but spot-on for the character.

Lily, on the other hand, barely seems to comprehend how deep she’s in and the potential very real consequences of her easily trackable actions… beyond losing her acceptance to Tulane, that is. (Nooo!) She gleefully protests with the Marsies against the automation, wondering aloud, “They’re not looking for us, right?” up until her dad tells her she could be looking at 20 years in prison. She’s been talking about being a part of the resistance all season, and she’s finally seeing why Miles (Toby Kebbell) has been the strict parent this whole time.

The clunker of Episode 5 is Celia Boyd’s (Mireille Enos) plot, which is a real shame since she’s finally uncovered the truth behind Yoon Tae-min’s murder and how it’s connected to the automation plans. I will hand it to the show: It’s a fun juxtaposition having Boyd digging around the same conspiracy as Alex and Lily, two rogue outsiders, while working within the system that’s trying to keep it all covered up. But oh my God, the big scene between Boyd and her partner Fred (Tyler Labine), Yoon’s real murderer and Palmer’s puppet, did not have the kind of hissing ire or fear it needed to make the revelation feel like a major betrayal. Putting all that aside, though, the question still becomes: What does Boyd do with this information now? Lee is innocent! The cops are corrupt!

The answer is: Nothing — at least right now. The MPK have been called out to enforce the new curfew on Happy Valley to stop the “Mars is ours” protesters from getting too rowdy. Of course, the police presence only makes things worse and the gathering escalates to full-blown violence, with the protesters about to storm the control center where Governor Polivanov (Costa Ronin) is holed up. Once again, the episode has some motion; it just took 40-or-so minutes to get there. Let’s hope Episode 6 keeps it rolling!

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 debuts on Netflix on April 23.

It’s only been four months since the epic series finale of Netflix’s Stranger Things, but the Hawkins heroes are “baaaaack” in animated form. Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is the first of several promised series spin-offs, with this one entirely animated and nestled inside the Stranger Things mythology between the events of the Season 2 finale and the start of Season 3.

While Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is executive produced by creators Matt and Ross Duffer, it’s creatively led by showrunner Eric Robles (Glitch Techs), and leans into a kid-friendly, upscale, Saturday-morning cartoon aesthetic – think Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! with a lot more visual swag and money. Picking up a month after Eleven closed the gate to the Upside Down and attended the winter Snow Ball with Mike, the main characters of the live-action series – Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max (all voiced by new performers) – discover they still have some dangerous Upside Down creature remnants to clean up in Hawkins.

As a spin-off idea, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is a safe Russian nesting doll of nostalgia. If Stranger Things is nostalgia for all things ’80s, then Tales From ’85 is micro-nostalgia for the portion of the audience who think the earlier seasons of the live action series were “the best.” The 10-episode season unfolds as one overarching mystery that is richly animated by Flying Bark Productions and gorgeously production-designed in ’80s neons and contrasting colors by Benjamin Plouffe. If only the central mystery were as vibrant and complex as the medium in which it's being told, but by season’s end, the five hours of storytelling feels bloated, like it should have been condensed into a less repetitive six episodes or a really tight animated film.

Set in the winter season – a first for the universe – the opening episodes at first benefit from placing the Hawkins gang in a fresh setting of snow and winter woolies. Eleven (Brooklyn Davey Norstedt) is cozy in her forest cabin with a protective but busy Hopper (Brett Gipson) while her friends return to school after winter break. Their new normal disappears, however, as soon as they witness a menacing snow shark monster dragging human victims under snow drifts.

Because Eleven is needed to stop the relentless creatures but can’t be revealed to the general Hawkins populace, Tales From ’85 keeps its character circle tight to the middle schooler set. Older core characters, like Hopper, Nancy Wheeler (Alessandra Antonelli), and Steve Harrington (Jeremy Jordan) pop in and out of the story while the kids take point. That includes a new transfer student, Nikki Baxter (Odessa A’zion), who arrives in Hawkins with her substitute science teacher mom, Anna Baxter (Janeane Garofalo), and slips into the circle of trust after she’s attacked by the snow shark creature.

Animated and portrayed like a beefier, non-psychotic version of Jinx from Arcane, Nikki brings her engineering and science smarts into the mix while also challenging the existing group status quo dynamics in a useful way. She becomes a cheerleader to meek Will and a risk taker alongside Dustin. She’s also just as feisty as Max in defending Eleven, and functions like a younger, cooler Steve to the kids. Nikki is eventually folded into the gang’s newly formed Hawkins Investigators Club (or HIC), where they source leads from their peers about the weird creature sightings in the pumpkin fields, the woods, and the town’s sewers.

As expected, the creature threat stems from something residual left behind from the newly-sealed Upside Down, and that gets corrupted and exacerbated by some other shenanigans relating to the recently defunct Hawkins Lab. As a central mystery and creature generator for the season, it works, but it quickly gets repetitive. And because the season’s story is so tightly constrained to remain within Hawkins’ city limits and avoid messing with the live-action stories, the stakes are rather bland. It’s a given that no one is going to get consequentially hurt by the incessant creature battles or even the Indiana blizzards – where these kids are woefully underdressed! – so the rinse-repeat episodic fight sequences against variants of an organic Demogorgon-esque plant creature all mush together.

While there are some fun jump scares and visually stunning creature encounters peppered throughout the season, the overall action blocking doesn’t have much bite. In comparison, an animated spin-off show like Jurassic World: Chaos Theory feels more unfettered and dangerous because it was allowed to mature with its audience and given room to roam, literally and figuratively, on the fringes of its broader mythology. Tales From ’85 suffers from having to cling so tightly to what came before and what will come after, making it feel less like a vital watch within the universe. However, it’s got plenty of appeal for younger audiences new to the world, or those just aging into the live-action series. The vocal performances are also great, especially Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max and Braxton Quinney as Dustin, who faithfully channel their live-action counterparts to a T. Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is a light watch for families to enjoy together, but it’s missing the spark that makes the live-action series so infinitely rewatchable.

You ever had one of those days when Blackbeard boards your ship, shoots you, leaves you for dead, and you wash up penniless and alone on some uninhabited island having only survived due to mysterious, dark magic? Who hasn't, right? Windrose, a piratical survival crafter that just launched into Early Access, uses that universal experience as a starting point for some in-depth exploration and swashbuckling during a mythical reimagining of the Golden Age of Piracy. And there's enough depth and polish here already to match a lot of full games, even with an unfinished story and some rough edges.

Windrose takes after Valheim in a handful of ways, including the fact that you don't actually need to eat or sleep in order to survive. Rather, food provides stat buffs without which you can easily get one-shot by any wandering wild pig. So it's important, but you're not going to starve to death because you went AFK for a little while. The building system is pretty flexible – my earliest shelters looked very Robinson Crusoe-chic, but I eventually unlocked the parts needed to get a nice Caribbean hacienda going. Decorations even extend the duration of your rested buff, giving you a mechanical reward for taking the time to spruce things up.

From chopping down trees to mining ore, there are a lot of familiar survival game chores to do. But for the most part, I found Windrose to be pretty respectful of my time. If I had to do something repetitive and tedious, I usually didn't need to spend so much time on it that I lost all interest.

You start out in a lush, coastal jungle where the biggest threats are wild boars and your main goal is to get your first ship built so you can get back out on the tides. Moving into the mid-level highlands, human enemies with sabers and guns as well as predators like wolves become more common, and points of interest can feature mini dungeons with clever and challenging puzzles. At the end of the current Early Access journey, you venture into the deadly cursed swamps, where spending too much time in certain areas can cause madness and instant death.

The escalation of mechanical challenges and supernatural elements – oh yeah, Blackbeard is up to some kind of necromancy, by the way – meant the loop of arriving in a new area and working toward the next upgrade tier didn't get too repetitive. With even more biomes planned for the full release, I'm curious to see just how supernatural we can go. The swamps are already pretty wild!

Whether you’re facing off against wildlife or the restless dead, ground combat is probably my favorite part of Windrose. The devs describe it as "Soulslite," which is a label I'm a bit hesitant to use as a big soulsborne fan myself, but it is quite responsive and kinetic. Parrying opponents at just the right time removes shield icons from their health bar, which can eventually stun them and let you really go to town. Pistols are quite powerful, but take a long time to reload. And weapons like sabers, rapiers, and chunky two-handers feel very different to fight with, including their unique special moves.

The end chapter bosses are brutally tough, too. Even with fully upgraded gear, I definitely got some of that Souls feeling in these hectic but satisfying encounters. My one complaint here ties back to how stats are so heavily based on consumables – as a result, dying to the same boss several times while you're learning the fight can require you to leave and go grind for resources if you don't want to face them in a greatly diminished state. And that can get tedious.

There are also some edge cases where the enemy AI causes everything to fall apart. Melee foes have a tendency to completely mob you and shove you into a corner while you get wombo comboed to death from fifty different directions. This can normally be avoided by simply running away and using terrain intelligently. But the two most miserable missions in the entirety of Windrose were these ones that required me to board a pirate ship and fight like a dozen zombies in very close quarters. You can't even stand on the deck of your own ship and shoot at them because they're scripted to respawn if you're not on their vessel. I eventually had to cheese the whole thing by getting them stuck on a railing. This is simply terrible encounter design. But at least stumbles like that are rare.

In comparison to the ground combat, which is generally strong but has some rough patches, naval engagements flip the script by being somewhat unremarkable with occasional moments of greatness. Cannons fire on realistic trajectories that require you to lead targets, so there is a high skill ceiling here. But overall it feels kind of arcadey. There's no mechanic for wind direction, for instance, which I thought was especially odd, and you never have to replenish ammunition or hire more crewmates, either. Co-op partners are better off on their own ships since there's not much they can do on yours that you couldn't do solo, which isn't my preference. Boarding action s can be a great time, though, since your crewmates will help you out in those, preventing the problem of getting mobbed by too many enemies in a tight space.

The wave modeling is dramatic, with large swells making even the current largest pilotable frigates seem small while also providing cover from enemy cannons. But storms at sea can feel a little underwhelming. I don't think it's possible to capsize even in the freebie rowboat, for instance. I also have some small nitpicks about stuff like the way waves hit the shoreline. They seem to spawn a fixed distance away and arrive all at the same time, which doesn't look especially realistic. I do like the stylized realism of Windrose's world all in all, but it can seem a bit gloomy and Baltic out on the open water, with constant clouds and navy blue seas, for a game set in the sun-drenched Caribbean.

I really enjoyed the music and sound design, though. And yes, there are plenty of sea shanties to enjoy on long voyages across the gigantic map recorded by a full chorus – both familiar favorites and more obscure tunes. The sound of waves against the hull or seabirds circling sell the world in a very rich way. I'll just never get tired of cruising the Spanish Main while some crusty old sea dog from Liverpool belts out a melodramatic lament with the lads to a prostitute he's convinced he fell in love with before she was cruelly taken from him. That's what the good life is all about, you know?

As far as character progression, Windrose feels a bit stingy at the moment. That’s especially true of talent points, as I didn't feel like I got that many to play with – which is a shame, because they unlock neat playstyle enhancements like faster reloads or more health recovery from quickly landing counterattacks, à la Bloodborne. But I'm also unsure how much bigger Windrose is supposed to get. Experience points exclusively come from completing quests and exploring points of interest, and there are only so many of those, which means the current level cap is somewhere around 15. Maybe with the full release, it won't seem so restrictive.

Twenty-five years ago, Alienware was basically synonymous with “gaming PCs.” It was really the only company that was making high-end gaming PCs and basically created the kind of RGB-heavy aesthetic that we all know and love (or hate) today. A lot has changed since then, and now that there are dozens of companies out there making high-end gaming towers, Alienware PCs seem a little less out of this world than they used to.

That’s kind of the medal Alienware wants to win back with the Area-51 – a name that evokes the company’s wild past. This new Area-51 tower is certainly more adventurous than some of the conservative designs the company has had in the last few years, and it’s packed with some of the most powerful hardware you can buy right now. But I can’t shake the feeling that this thing was designed in a boardroom to look cool in a post-Jony Ive world.

Design and Build Quality

The new Alienware Area-51 is huge. It’s nearly as tall as my desk, and weighs enough that I was seriously considering hiring someone to carry it up to my third-floor walkup (luckily, I managed). This giant tower measures 22.4 inches tall, 24 inches deep, and 9 inches wide, and can weigh up to 76lbs. I didn’t weigh the unit Alienware sent me, but it was probably close to that max weight.

A lot of that weight is due to the materials. This is a mostly metal PC case with a giant glass side panel and a mechanical system that lets you twist a little dial to unlock the PC, followed by buttons on either side that’ll open it up, rather than arguing with some thumbscrews like a normal PC. This is in service of making upgrades to the system toolless, but that locking dial is secured by a Philips-head screw, so you’re still going to have to break out some tools to open the PC. At least the first time.

I will admit, though, that popping open this PC to get the little foam insert that secures the graphics card for shipping was immensely satisfying, even if I was a little confused about how to get into the system for a few seconds. You simply get rid of the retaining screw, twist the locking dial, and then push one of the buttons on either side to gracefully pop open the glass side panel or the back panel, giving you access to the innards. That’s awesome for anyone that likes to tinker with their system, or even just to clean the thing.

Once you’re inside, Alienware has included little QR codes for pretty much every component, which, when scanned, will lead you to a guide on how to swap out that part. Given that a lot of the people who are going to buy a PC like this probably aren’t familiar with building their own PC, this is a great way to demystify the system.

The top of the chassis has ventilation holes drilled into the case itself in a cool honeycomb-esque design. On the opposite side of these holes is the radiator, which, in the entry-level model I reviewed, hosts a 360mm AIO. There are plenty of other fans on offer too, with two 120mm fans mounted above the power supply and two 240mm fans on the front of the case, all serving as intake.

In front of the ventilation are the front ports. You get two USB-A and two USB-C, along with two 3.5mm audio jacks, one for headphones and the other for a microphone. Of course, because this is a giant gaming PC with a full-sized motherboard, there are also a wealth of ports around the back, so you should have no problem plugging in all your peripherals and devices.

Unlike a lot of traditional PC cases, the front case fans are hidden behind a weird alcove in the front of the PC. This is surrounded by an RGB lighting strip, and it looks cool, but really, it serves the purpose of not letting the metal front panel impede airflow too much. That front panel does look cool, though, with the only decoration being an RGB Alienware logo that doubles as a power button.

Of course, it’s not just the power button and the weird oval-shaped alcove that’s bedecked in RGB lighting. Alienware has strapped rainbow lighting to the fans, the graphics card, and the CPU block as well. Out of the box, these have a nice blue-ish color to them that can’t stop reminding me of Glacier Freeze Gatorade. You can change this in the Alienware Control Center, but the default lighting profile is pretty sweet.

Software and Features

Because Alienware is owned by Dell, the Area-51 comes with some level of pre-installed software that you’re just going to have to make peace with or uninstall on day one. However, they’re not the most bloat-y I’ve seen in a mainstream prebuilt like this.

The Alienware Command Center is quite flashy, but it’s simply there to help you manage performance profiles and lighting configurations. However, this app does throw up notifications constantly, so I’d advise muting them and just manually checking in occasionally to see if there are any updates. This software does also give you access to some library management tools and Alienware Arena, but as long as you have Steam or GOG Galaxy, it’s pretty safe to just pretend these features don’t exist – they’re not very good.

This gaming PC also comes with a RAID configuration tool by default, even though the model I reviewed only came with a single SSD. That’s a nice utility to have, but for most people who are buying an Alienware PC are probably best served by ignoring this or just uninstalling it. Luckily, it does give you a little warning when you open it that it could break shit.

Beyond that, there’s the standard Dell suite of update tools and support programs. These don’t run in the background or anything, so they’re safe to just leave alone. They’re there if you need them.

Performance and Gaming

Alienware sent me an Area-51 with an RTX 5080, 32GB of RAM, and a Ryzen 7 9850X3D, so it’s little surprise that this thing rips. This is absolutely the kind of gaming PC that can play any game on the market at 4K with cranked settings and still clear 60 fps, especially when frame generation and DLSS upscaling are thrown into the equation.

In 3DMark, the Alienware Area-51 performs just as I’d expect out of a rig with an RTX 5080, getting 9,080 points in Speed Way and 8,685 in Steel Nomad. This is actually a little better than what I got out of the Founders Edition when I reviewed it last year, but it’s still within the margin of error.

I tested Black Ops 7 at 4K with the extreme preset, with DLSS set to ‘performance’ and ray tracing disabled, and I was able to get a solid 145 fps. Then, in Cyberpunk, with the Ray Tracing Ultra preset at the same resolution, the Area-51 scored an 88fps average. From there, you can enable frame generation if you have a high-refresh display, which upped the frame rate to 143 and 247 fps for 2x and 4x FG, respectively.

The only game where the Area-51 struggled even a little bit was in Metro Exodus. Here at IGN, we test this game with RT enabled, but with no upscaling, because it only supports DLSS. But even at a native 4K, this Alienware machine was able to squeak by with a 62 fps average at 4K.

Pretty much no matter how you spec it out, the Area-51 is going to be powerful enough to run most AAA games with maxed out settings for a few years. And, even once the RTX 5080 starts to show its age, it’s easy enough to upgrade this system that you won’t feel like you need to go out and spend another $3-4,000. Hell, this machine has enough overhead for creative workloads too, which might help soften the financial blow a bit.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Spoilers follow for Invincible Season 4, Episode 8, “Don’t Leave Me Hanging Here,” which is available on Prime Video now.

Rounding out Invincible’s strongest season yet, the grand finale “Don’t Leave me Hanging Here” follows up last week’s apocalyptic spectacle with a quiet, contemplative climax. It’s a daring swing, but it pays off by remixing the comic series’ conclusion to the Viltrumite War, putting the onus of a devastating emotional calculus entirely on Mark’s shoulders. It’s the show’s most psychologically-driven episode yet, building not only on this season’s split narrative and odd passage of time, but on Mark’s lengthy arc and fragile emotional state.

It begins with a rug pull that, while a little unsatisfying, sets the stage for what’s to come. Images of the remaining Viltrumites invading Earth, and completing their transformation into an all-out doomsday cult (via tsunamis and vicious bloodshed) are quickly revealed to be figments of Mark’s imagination, or what he believes he’ll find when he, Nolan and Zoe finally return home. He even jumps the gun and ignores Nolan’s strategies, charging back into the atmosphere only to find everything as he left it.

Well, more or less. The Viltrumites may not have launched an all-out invasion, but the threat of their arrival looms, and Mark and Oliver’s absence has taken its toll on their mother Debbie and Mark’s girlfriend Eve. Debbie, it turns out, has broken up with Paul in the intervening months, while Eve has torpedoed her lifestyle and fallen into a depressive pattern. The combination of her poor eating habits and — last we heard — her pregnancy have meant that she’s put on weight, which Mark is touchingly gentle about. However, when she finally comes clean to Mark, it’s not to announce that she’s expecting, as was the case when he left, but that she had an abortion, in part because his absence made her believe she couldn’t raise a child on her own.

It turns out 10 months have gone by on Earth (a reveal for the audience, rather than for the characters), and Mark has a lot to catch up on. However, every mundane scene, in which he catches up with friends, family or co-workers, is interrupted by ghastly visions of the remaining Viltrumites hurting those he loves. Unlike the opening scene, these are visually framed as panic attacks resulting from PTSD, with rapid cuts, and images falling in and out of focus as Mark tries to catch his breath. Even normalcy can’t feel normal just yet.

Elsewhere on Earth (or rather, just above it), Zoe reunites with her father as well, whose worry over her absence has — similar to Eve responding to Mark’s departure — resulted in poor health and lifestyle choices. It seems insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but the emotional impact of the ongoing conflict is far-reaching. Even the mundanity of Allen taking over Thragg’s leadership comes with bureaucratic red tape and, eventually, Coalition pushback against trusting Nolan, Mark and Oliver, owing to their Viltrumite blood. While Allen stands firm against the group’s genocidal intent, a message from his predecessor (revealed in a post-credit stinger) lays out the full extent of the new Scourge virus as a weapon that will, if necessary, wipe out not only the remaining Viltrumites, but beings with similar enough DNA — which is to say, everyone on Earth. By the end of the season, Mark isn’t the only one forced to make difficult choices.

Cecil, for instance, is still trying to bring the missing Guardians back from another dimension, even if it means endangering his own soldiers (and to a lesser extent, the supposedly-reformed Sinclair). However, the ruthless operative’s conversation with Nolan — who visits the crater where he first attacked Mark — lets us know that he’s still on his toes when it comes to trusting the former Omni-Man, despite his attempts to make up for his crimes. “Earth isn’t your therapy couch, Nolan,” he spits. It’s a line that pierces Nolan just as much as the echoes of his own words from the end of Season 1, about how 500 years could pass for Mark and he’ll be left with no one. His premonition appears to have come true for himself.

The most surprising choice, however, is arguably made by Debbie. She still resents Nolan and his presence on Earth, but it’s Paul of all people who convinces her that all this outer space hubbub is more a part of her life than she’s willing to admit. So when Nolan finally departs to take care of a recovering Oliver on Talescria, she packs her bags and forces him to take her too. This leaves Mark’s home empty for the first time, a loneliness he tries to stave off by taking a solo flight on Eve’s insistence. As usual, the show’s music supervisors deserve a raise and a round of applause for setting this escape to the haunting sounds of Death Cab for Cutie, but Mark’s attempt at respite is short-lived.

What appears to be a vision of Thragg turns out to be very real indeed when Mark makes contact with a punch, but the ruthless Regent is unmoving. Instead of a physical altercation, he presents Mark with an emotional conundrum. While this conversation and its ensuing revelations took place as soon as Mark and Nolan returned in the comics, building to it through nearly an hour of reflection adds tremendous emotional weight. As it happens, the remaining 37 Viltrumites did, in fact, make their way to Earth, but have begun quietly integrating themselves within human society in the hopes of reproducing and rebuilding their empire in the much, much longer run. Thragg offers an ultimatum in the form of an uneasy truce, and a secret Mark would be forced to keep alone: In order to stop the Viltrumites from unleashing on Earth’s population, all they want is to be left alone.

It would be a haunting return to a version of the status quo from Season 1, which saw Nolan biding his time before revealing himself on Earth, only the stakes are much more heightened. Mark’s traumatic flashes return, more quickly and intensely, but a brief moment of serenity marked by Eve’s face, safe and sound, pushes him to a disquieting moral compromise. He relents, allowing Thragg and his people to live among them, perhaps only delaying the inevitable.

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episode 4!

If you read my original review of The Boys Season 5, Episodes 1-7, you'll know I gave these episodes a 7. At this point, you may also be wondering how the season scored even that high based on how these last couple of installments have played out. It gets better, I promise. But Season 5 definitely reaches its nadir in Episode 4, a very underwhelming and surprisingly inconsequential chapter that further bogs down the series' already flagging momentum.

As I've noted before, the problem with Season 5 in a nutshell is that the show has established the scope of its final conflict between Billy Butcher's (Karl Urban) team and Homelander (Antony Starr), and now it's stuck finding ways to forestall and delay that showdown. This week, characters on both sides of the aisle end up taking a field trip to the mysterious Fort Harmony to search for samples of the elusive V1 formula. Suffice it to say, no one finds what they're looking for, and everyone goes home unhappy.

This premise is used mainly as an excuse to mine as much character drama as possible out of the equation. The presence of a fungus that brings out everyone's most wicked and violent impulses means our heroes spend most of the episode either screaming at or actively trying to kill one another. It all feels very forced and, frankly, unnecessary — more a way of filling space and killing time than because we truly needed to watch these characters have it out with one another. The fact that this episode tries to foreshadow the conflict with that awkward scene between Hughie (Jack Quaid), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Frenchie (Tomer Capone) at the beginning only highlights how forced the drama really is.

Granted, this formula works a little better on the Homelander and Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) side of things. At least there, it feels as though the series does have something genuine it needs to work through. Both characters are nothing if not entertaining as they bicker and squabble. This also leads to what is easily the most memorable scene in an otherwise dull episode, as Butcher confronts an ailing Homelander in the radiation chamber and promises "Before I die, I'll have you." Foreshadowing, or empty threat?

Even so, there's no getting around the fact that the series is bending over backwards to give us another confrontation between the team and Homelander without any lasting consequences for either side. For all that this is the final season and "no one is safe," it sure feels as though everyone is wearing their plot armor at the moment. No deaths, no major revelations, and no V1. This episode could probably be skipped entirely without much impact on the overall Season 5 narrative. As Hughie tells Starlight (Erin Moriarty), it was a good mission to miss.

It's certainly not worth tuning in for the Starlight subplot. We see her reunite with her father, Rick (Tim Daly), and learn that he's moved on with an entirely new family. What follows is a bland and largely predictable B-plot that culimnates with Starlight making peace with her past and realizing how much she loves Hughie. Heartwarming, I suppose, but mostly just an excuse to keep her out of the main conflict for an episode.

Alongside the Homelander/Soldier Boy scenes, this episode is mainly carried by the drama unfolding back home at Vought headquarters. It's fun watching The Deep (Chace Crawford) and Black Noir II (Nathan Mitchell) squabble in a way that it isn't for Hughie and the gang. The "Homelander becomes a golden god" subplot also continues to fascinate, as it all feels a little too real and too ripped from the headlines to dismiss. Plus, Ashley (Colbie Minifie) and Oh Father (Daveed Diggs) make for a surprisingly effective pair. In general, Season 5 is doing a much better job of handling its villains than its heroes right now. That's kind of a problem.