Daily Deals: The Perfect XPS Laptop for Back to School

$50 Back on $200 Accessory Purchase at Verizon (includes AirPods), Switch with Zelda and Mario Kart in stock at Kohls, Sony Bluetooth Party Speaker, and more

By Eric Song

Welcome to IGN's Daily Deals, your source for the best deals on the stuff you actually want to buy. If you buy something through this post, IGN may get a share of the sale. For more, read our Terms of Use.

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If you're looking for hot items such as the SNES Classic or Xbox One X, follow me at IGN Deals. I update that page immediately when they come in stock.

Today's Best Deals

2.9lb Dell XPS 13" Intel Core i7 256GB SSD Laptop for $1080

Weighs only 2.9lbs and features an aluminum and carbon fiber chassis, 13.3" 1080p IPS display, 7th gen Core i7-7560U dual-core CPU, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD. The Iris Plus graphics probably won't push games to the max but it's a capable onboard GPU solution for Photoshop, Premiere, and more.

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$50 Visa Prepaid Card w/ Accessory Orders of $200 at Verizon

Get a $50 Visa prepaid card when you spend at least $200 on accessories. Visit the Promotion Center with code GET50BACK for submission form. You can find some great deals on rarely discounted and sale items.

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Nintendo Switch w/ Zelda & Mario Kart 8 for $420

This time the bundle is at Kohl's. Includes 2 games that you should own for the Switch anyways, and with no price markup.

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BeatsX Wireless In-Ear Headphones w/ Mic for $100

Features up to 8hr battery life, Fast Fuel charging (5min charge gives you 2hrs of playtime), built-in mic for hands-free calling, and inline remote.

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YI Home Camera 720p Wireless IP Security Surveillance System for $29

This is the lowest price I've seen for an HD WiFi IP camera. The reviews aren't even bad either - 2,400 user reviews on Amazon with 80% rating. Great way of knowing when the UPS guy drops a package off without ringing.

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Sony GTK-XB5 Bluetooth High Power Home Audio System for $135

Includes a 1yr Sony warranty. This speaker gives you both wireless (Bluetooth and NFC) and wired connectivity, extra bass, and lighting effects that sync to your music.

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Cowin E-7 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones for $38

Normally sells for $70. Features 40mm large aperture drivers, wireless Bluetooth connectivity, active (not passive) noise cancellation, 30hrs of battery life, built-in mic, and foldable earcups for portability.

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Out 8/22 - 8Bitdo NES30 Arcade Stick for Nintendo Switch for $80

Also compatible with PC, Mac, and Android. Connects via Bluetooth or USB.

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Out Tomorrow! Nintendo Switch Pro Controller Splatoon 2 Edition for $75

Add $5.99 shipping cost.

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50" Vizio E50-E1 4K Smart HDTV + $200 Dell Gift Card for $470

The gift card can be used on anything sold at Dell, including PCs, TVs, peripherals, gaming consoles, video games, and more. Gift card is shipped to you within 20 days and expires in 90 days from date of issue.

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Bias (Accent) Lighting for your TV or Monitor for only $8.83

This 79" long 60-LED light strip affixes to the rear of the monitor or TV to cast a soft and pleasing backglow. Includes an inline remote and features 20 different colors and 20 different color changing modes.

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New Release - Nintendo 2DS XL for $150

The 2DS XL is a 3DSL XL without the 3D functionality (who uses 3D anyways). Lots of places have it right now, so get while the getting's good.

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Playstation 4 DualShock 4 Wireless Controller for $39.99

Back down to the price I saw on Prime Day.

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New Week, New Sales on Samsung/LG/Vizio 4K HDTVs at Dell

Use the gift card to buy a PS4 Pro, Slim, Xbox One S, or anything else. Gift card carries a 90-day expiration from the date of issuance.

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Dell XPS 8910 Intel i5-6400 Quad-Core Desktop PC for $479

Throw in a powerful video card and you have yourself a well-equipped gaming rig. Intel Core i5-6400 quad-core processor, 8GB RAM and 1TB HDD.

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$10 RedBox Gift Card for $6.50 ($20 for $12)

That's basically 35%-40% off your RedBox rentals up to $10.

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Buy an $8 Optimum Nutrition Sample Box, get $8 Amazon Credit

The credit is good towards your next Sports Nutrition purchase on Amazon.

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$10 Online Game Design and Development Courses at Udemy

This updated code (automatically applied) should work for everyone. For only $10 per course, you can train yourself in tools, software, and programming languages specific to the gaming industry. I have used Udemy and definitely recommend it myself.

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LEGO Batman Movie (Blu-ray) for $10

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Up to 80% off during Green Man Gaming's PC Summer Sale

Use code "SUMMER2017" to get the prices below. You must be logged into your (free) GMG VIP account to use the code.

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Gamestop Capcom Video Game Sale

Make sure to select the digital download versions to get these prices.

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Amazon's Discounted Video Games

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12-Month Xbox Live Gold Membership for $46 or Less

If you "like" CDKeys on Facebook, you get an instant one-time-use 5% off coupon code that drops the price to $43.70.

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Zinus Memory Foam Mattresses for sale on Amazon

12" Memory Foam Mattresses:

10" Memory Foam Mattresses:

8" Foam Mattresses:

Cheap bed frame options:

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8lbs of Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein for $68 ($8.50/lb)

Use code "NEWBIE17" to drop the price from $85 to $68 for 8lbs of Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein. Available in two yummy flavors - Double Rich Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream.

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Alienware Aurora Intel i7 Quad-Core GeForce GTX 1070 Desktop $1260

Specs include the newest gen Intel Core i7-7700 Quad-Corer Kaby Lake processor, 16GB RAM, 2TB HDD, and GeForce GTX 1070 8GB graphics.

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Alienware Aurora Intel i5 Quad-Core GeForce GTX 1060 Desktop $900

Specs include the newest gen Intel Core i5-7400 Quad-Corer Kaby Lake processor, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics.

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Dell Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad-Core 15" Laptop w/ 512GB SSD $950

Features a 15.6" 1080p display, 7th gen Intel Core i7 quad-core processor, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and GeForce GTX 1050 4GB graphics.

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Dell Inspiron 15 Intel Core i5-7300HQ 15" Laptop w/ GTX1050 for $700

5000-series. Features a 15.6" 1080p display, latest generation Intel Core i5-7300HQ quad-core processor, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD and GTX 1050 graphics card. The GTX 1050 is a capable gaming card and can play games comfortably at 1080p.

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SanDisk SSD PLUS 240GB SATAIII Solid State Drive for $72.90

Make sure you clip the $11.90 coupon on the product page. A great boot drive for your gaming PC and will shorten loading times when installed inside your PS4 (use an external drive to tack on more storage).

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The Best USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Deals

These drives are compatible with both your Xbox One and PS4. We like portables because they are entirely USB powered - no AC adapter required.

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New Nintendo 3DS XL Galaxy-Style for $175

Often unavailable and selling for more from scalpers.

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Out 9/6 - Playstation 4 Pro 1TB Limited Edition Destiny Bundle for $450

Now available for preorder on Amazon and at Gamestop. Not only do you save a little compared to buying the PS4 Pro and Destiny 2 separately, you get the PS4 in limited edition white.

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Oculus Rift VR Headset + Touch Controllers for $399

Ships 8/7. Pretty insane deal since the Rift/Touch bundle was price dropped from $699.99 to $599.99 earlier this year. Includes 7 free games.

Amazon Prime Day Deals

You might be eligible for these Amazon Gift Card deals

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2nd Free Month of Amazon Music Unlimited after 30-Day Free Trial

Use code "SUMMERMUSIC" (new customers only)

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40% off 6 Months of Audible + Free Audiobooks w/ Amazon Prime

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Students get a Free 6-Month Trial AND 50% off Amazon Prime

You can be as happy as the woman in Amazon's promotional image with this half-off deal for students on Amazon Prime. Enjoy all the benefits of Prime, including movie and music streaming, free shipping, and more.

20% off Upcoming and New Release Games with Amazon Prime or Best Buy GCU

Out 8/15 - 20% off Agents of Mayhem (PS4, Xbox One)

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Out 8/22 - 20% off Uncharted: Lost Legacy + Jak & Daxter (PS4) for $32

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Out 8/29 - 20% off Mario+Rabbids Kindom Battle (Switch)

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Out 11/17 - 20% off Pokémon Ultra Sun Ultra Moon Steelbook (3DS)

The Best Deals on These Subscriptions

New Fallout Loot Crate for $40 Shipped

The Vault-Tec Consumer Product Department has put together the Fallout Crate, packed with exclusive apparel and collectibles. The first delivery comes with a figure, hoodie, and a piece of a Power Armor build-a-figure that combines with pieces from the subsequent crates.

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10% of New August Loot Gaming Crate ft Zelda & Witcher

This month's theme is "Fortress" and includes items from Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Middler Earth: Shadow of War, Witcher III, and Dragon Age.

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New August Loot Crate ft Zelda, Adventure Time, LotR for $19

August's Loot Crate theme is "Kingdom" and includes authentic, licensed, or exclusive items from The Legend of Zelda, Adventure Time, and Lord of the Rings. Contents won't be revealed until your crate ships on 8/19.

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New Humble Monthly PC Bundle (NBA 2K17, Pillars of Eternity) for $12

You get NBA 2K17 and Pillars of Eternity to play instantly and unlock more games on August 5. Get 10% off any other Humble purchase.

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New Coupon - NordVPN Anonymous VPN 1-Year for $45 ($3.75/mo)

NordVPN is rated among PCMag's top VPN services of 2017.

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Verizon FIOS 940Mbps/880Mbps Internet w/ Phone & TV for $80/mo

If you are lucky enough to have Verizion FIOS (fiber optic high-speed internet) coverage, there is a really great deal going on for 1yr of Triple Play service - 940Mbps downstream/880Mbps upstream internet, phone, and TV for $79.99/mo. After your 1yr is up, downgrade to internet only for $70/mo. Just as a comparison, Comcast Internet has up to 250Mbps downstream/12Mbps upstream with Blast... pretty huge difference.

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How About Two Months of Gamefly for $10?

Gamefly is normally $15 a month, but you right now you can get your first two months for only $10. Watch out for that auto-renew, as the third month will be $15, but you can always set a calendar reminder to cancel in time.

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Thirty Days of Free Streaming Anime with Crunchyroll Premium

Crunchyroll is Netflix for anime. Crunchyroll Premium gives you unlimited streaming access to brand new anime, ad-free, as well as tons of classics like Re:Zero, One Piece, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Gintama, and Fate/Stay Night. A Crunchyroll Premium free trial is normal 15 days, but we can hook you up with a 30-day trial, so sign up before this offer gets deleted.

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Lost Sphear Is Retro RPG Fun, a la I Am Setsuna

I am (still) Setsuna.

By Meghan Sullivan

When JRPG kingmaker Square Enix unveiled their new development studio Tokyo RPG Factory back in 2015, many fans were hopeful for a return to the company’s early RPG roots. Sure enough, the outfit’s first foray into nostalgia -- I Am Setsuna -- received a warm reception for its loving homage to '90s classics like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. This past week the developer released a short demo for its sophomore title, Lost Sphear. Will it be as welcomed as its spiritual predecessor? It’s tough to say considering the demo is only about 30 minutes long. But even in that short time, I feel like Lost Sphear is off to a promising start.

Let’s start with the visuals. Lost Sphear isn’t a stunner by any means, but it’s also not designed to be. Instead, there's a melancholic beauty about it that I found quite charming. The starting town of Elgarthe --with it's stately homes and quaintly dressed townfolk--is in the gentle grip of autumn, its grass and trees just starting to take on a golden hue. Exceptional light and shading effects add depth and dimension to the little town and its inhabitants; there's something lovely about the way light gleams off a lock of hair or the way shadows drape over dusty bookshelves. I also want to take a quick moment to celebrate the fact that Elgarthe is dog friendly; there are adorable doggies everywhere! 

Elgarthe is dog friendly; there are adorable doggies everywhere!

The layout of Elgarthe itself isn't particularly remarkable. It's a typical starting village with only a handful of buildings to poke around in, including an inn where you can buy stat-boosting meals, an elder's house for story exposition needs, a bell that warns citizens of impending monster attacks, a sauna (for some reason), and a weapons and magic shop. I was a bit disappointed there wasn't much to do aside from pick up shiny objects and watch amusing interactions between the main protagonist Kanata and his companions Lumina and Locke.  But hey, like I said, this is a small town and a short, short demo.

Things got more interesting once the trio of friends skipped town to partake in a fishing expedition.  (Yup. The main objective is to go fish for your dinner). The overworld map is semi-open and blessedly devoid of monsters, which meant I could explore the countryside without have to deal with pesky random encounters. (Like in Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana, monsters generally inhabit dungeons and are visible to the player.) I admit I wasn't able to go very far -- most areas were off limits past their entry point -- but it was worth a little detour to check out a cool-looking cave in the southwest and a mysterious glen to the east.  Plus, by going off the beaten path I came across a treasure chest full of health potions that can be used in battle.

Speaking of which, there were only two battles in the entire demo. The first focused on strategically placing my characters around the battlefield in order to expand their area of attack. From what I can tell, it’s a fun if fairly basic component that seems to work particularly well when using Locke's long-range crossbow, which can hit multiple enemies with minimal field positioning. The next encounter introduced the Setsuna system (plucked straight from I Am Setsuna), whereby properly timed attacks dole out extra damage once a special gauge is filled. It took a bit of effort to get completely comfortable with the timing of these attacks, but once I did I was able to bring down the enemy with relative ease.

Both encounters are meant to showcase Lost Sphear's spin on the longstanding Active Time Battle System, but the battles were so short it was hard for me to fully assess the efficacy of either feature. Will my heroes' combat mobility prove to be the deciding factor during more challenging enemy encounters?  Only time will tell, but the more active elements of Lost Sphear's battle design point to what could be an engaging combat experience.

There was one other interesting combat feature teased in the demo, and I wish I could have tried it out. At the Magic Consortium back in town, there's a set of magic skills known as Spritnites you can purchase (another feature lifted from I Am Setsuna).  Some of these skill sets are job-specific and all require a quantifiable amount of “memories” to access them, but they definitely sound useful: Aerial Blade allows a character to jump into the air and release a null-type attack that bypasses enemy defense, Snipe raises critical attack rates, and Potentiate allows an item to benefit the group instead of just one ally.

the twisty cliffhanger makes me want to learn more about the story.

The demo doesn't reveal much of the story, but the twisty cliffhanger at the end definitely made me want to learn more about the fate of the three young heroes...as well as the puppies of Elgarthe! With that said, player be warned: the story translation can be just a tiny bit clunky at times, with awkward syntax and minor typos popping up. ("Kanata, let's go after Kanata as fast as we can!" is one example.) It's not the end of the world by any means, but I hope this issue is resolved before the game's release.

Short on time and long on charm, this demo gave me a tapa-sized taste of what to expect from Lost Sphear. The battle system shows promise and the graphics and music are quite fetching. I just wish this demo had been longer and a little more robust. It would have been nice to dive into each characters particular set of combat skills and make more use out of the Setsuna system, which I barely got to use. Hopefully another demo will drop between now and the game's release in early January. After all, I don't want to see this charming throwback "lost" in the shadow of larger, flashier titles.

Meghan Sullivan is IGN's foremost JRPG expert. Talk JRPGs and WWE with her on Twitter at @Meghan_IGN.

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Mario + Rabbids Is Really Weird, and That’s the Point

It's-a-me! Micromanagement!

By Joe Skrebels

I move an injured Peach into tiara-high cover. On the one hand, it obscures her line of sight, turning at least two Rabbids with springs attached to their feet into unreachable targets. On the other, I now hold the high ground over a third enemy - and I only need one more kill to complete the mission. My gumption is rewarded - it’s a 100% hit chance. A celebratory animation kicks in once I hit the fire button, zooming into the steely face of the Mushroom Kingdom’s de facto leader as she levels a shotgun the size of a French horn at her target. An enormous boom, and a cone of flame engulfs the creature and he scurries away, his arse now on fire (Peach currently has a 50% chance of adding a burn status effect). He phases out of existence, and I win. The Princess gives a demure twirl of happiness at having slaughtered those who would invade her country.

Mario + Rabbids is really weird.

That seems to be the point. When Ubisoft’s collaborative project leaked in May, it was hard to imagine anything more than a ‘Mario & Sonic Spoil the Olympics for Everyone’-style cash-grab, and the internet responded as you might expect. But when Shigeru Miyamoto himself appeared on an E3 stage to reveal that it was, in fact, an XCOM-indebted squad tactics game, it saw one of gaming’s more dramatic turnarounds in public opinion in recent years. Mario, his mates, and some Rabbids playing dress-up, all using huge guns in turn-based battles is, indeed, really weird. Weird enough that you really want to see more.

Mario + Rabbids' local co-op mode ups the squad size to four and lets two players take on a series of increasingly difficult challenge battles. Watch a full battle using two Joy-Con below:

Having seen (and played) more - several hours of both single player and co-op modes - I’m happy to say that the concept is as successful as it is weird. On the whole, it’s totally fair to mark this as a somewhat streamlined XCOM. The bulk of the game sees you choosing a three-person squad (always Mario with two others), taking them into cordoned-off combat zones, then using a combination of movement, stat-heavy combat and special abilities to fight off an opposing force. Anyone with even a base knowledge of Firaxis’ alien-offing series will feel at home here, and the simplified style (there’s little out-of-combat management to deal with, and characters’ abilities and skill trees overlap frequently) should help draw in and educate those who aren’t.

“Simplified”, however, does not equate to “easy”. The delight of a Mario game is in how it takes a single button press - Jumpman’s jump - and turns the simplest possible action into an ever-changing art, eventually asking you to press that button perfectly, every time, to overcome any number of hazards. You can feel Ubisoft aiming to replicate that philosophy here, except “jumping” is replaced by “playing a virtual board game”.

Thrust into a late-game battle, I was dispatched embarrassingly easily by the AI when I didn’t pay due care and attention to setting up combos, movement distances or areas of effect. The interactions may be simple - move, shoot, ability - but how and when you use them is paramount. Playing with seven of the game’s eight characters, there doesn’t appear to be any ability to revive a downed squadmate - and even XCOM has that - meaning constant attention needs to be paid to health bars, and good team composition is a must.

M+R also comes with some pleasant changes to the XCOM formula. The game’s combat areas aren’t just disconnected maps, but part of distinct worlds (as far as we know, a lush garden, an ice-covered desert, a ghostly-themed area, and a volcano’s innards), each a single, seamless set of challenges.

That includes combat missions with different objectives (I’ve had to clean out whole enemy forces, or simply reach an end-zone), puzzle areas that require no combat, and boss battles that require bespoke tactics to beat. While I didn’t get to play through a full world, I was told the first would take 2-3 hours to complete, with each following world taking longer. Every combat area is also turned into a more difficult challenge objective once completed, extending how long you can spend pottering about each world before moving on.

The most apparent difference from XCOM, however, is in combat: appropriately for a game based on a platforming franchise, M+R puts a huge premium on movement, particularly as a team. Characters can technically only move once a turn, but by using both friends and enemies, that single move can be almost absurdly prolonged. Running into an enemy performs a Dash melee attack that offers an extra spurt of movement afterwards - some characters can Dash multiple times, meaning you could attack three enemies, run through a Warp Pipe (another extra burst), run up to a squadmate, Team Jump (an extra-long bonus move) into cover, then fire again at the enemies you already hit.

It quickly becomes an enticing extra challenge not just to destroy Rabbid hordes, but do it in the most efficient, stylish manner possible. Character special abilities are designed to intersect too. For instance, Luigi has the Steely Glare ability (wonderfully, an open reference to the famous ‘Luigi Death Stare’ in Mario Kart 8) which allows him to take extra sniper shots at any enemy moving past him. Rabbid Yoshi, meanwhile, has a move that scares enemies into moving during your turn, setting up Luigi to take extra shots, sometimes accompanied by an animation that seems closest to Sniper Elite in its delight at watching projectiles fly into bodies in slow motion. It’s great.

Animation is wonderful across the board. The game’s designers have already talked about Nintendo’s almost forensic attention to detail when it comes to its characters, and it shows. They move beautifully, each hero reacting differently to different situations, right down to how they take cover. Every one brims with character - the Rabbid versions of our heroes (and no, Ubisoft still won’t say how they got that way) most of all, emphasising and distorting the originals’ traits - Rabbid Mario’s got a toothpick-chewing swagger, Rabbid Luigi is clumsy, Rabbid Peach has pathological sass, and Rabbid Yoshi is… well, I don’t know how to describe Rabbid Yoshi politely. I never expected to enjoy any Rabbids’ company, but here we are.

The Snowdrop engine (originally built for The Division, no less) is a good fit for all of this, seemingly dealing with the game’s sprawling worlds with few problems, while nicely aping Nintendo’s own in-house work. The camera regularly zooms in and out, by turns picking out cinematic little details, then swooping up to turn the whole stage into a tilt-shift toybox. In TV mode, there’s some murkiness around the edges, and things noticeably chug when there are a few too many particle effects in close-up, but that was a rare occurrence in my time with the game. I haven’t seen the game in handheld mode but, barring any extra performance dips, I can imagine that being the way to play, making full use of the Switch’s lovely screen sheen.

There’s a serendipity to this game coming out on Switch specifically - both the game and the console are stuck halfway between two seemingly opposing ideas: handheld and home, Mario’s welcoming charm and XCOM’s hardcore appeal. And, like the Switch, Mario + Rabbids feels as though it’s balancing both sides surprisingly well. While its tactical intrigue may end up a little on the slim side for dyed-in-the-wool strategists, the unexpected joy of these two worlds colliding might well be enough to keep players watching Peach incinerate her opponents through to the end - it’s weird, but it works.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and he wants Rabbid Peach in the next Smash Bros. Follow him on Twitter.

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Resident Evil: Revelations 1 and 2 Coming to Nintendo Switch

Back on a portable.

By Hope Corrigan

The 2012 and 2015 survival horror games, Resident Evil: Revelations 1 and 2 are coming to the Nintendo Switch late this year.

Capcom has announced that in addition to the re-release of Resident Evil: Revelations on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on August 29, both Revelations and its sequel will be also be coming to Nintendo Switch before the end of 2017.

These revisions will see the iterations of the popular series running an increased frame rate at 1080p as well as add improvements to animations and details within the games.

Fans of the series will also be able to play the familiar Raid Mode with an added twist in The Ghost Ship: Chaos. This version of the popular mode will see players being able to access more powerful weapons and upgrades, but have to deal with shaken up enemy placements for an additional challenge.

This isn't the first time Revelations has had the HD treatment. Last time Capcom moved the 3DS original to a higher resolution, it didn't do the game any favours.

Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance news writer for IGN . You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Daily Deals: Oculus Rift and Touch Bundle for Under £400

PS4 copy of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition for £11.99, save over £170 on Logitech Z-906 speakers, plus two incredible Xbox One S deals

By IGN Staff

IGN Deals Facebook/Twitter

Help us get to 5000 likes! Like our pages on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest deals straight to your news feed and also to find exclusive codes that we provide for our readers.

The Best Deals Today

Save £180 on Oculus Rift and Touch Bundle at Amazon

Absolutely incredible price drop on this from Amazon: The Oculus Rift with Oculus Touch Controllers was previously £579 just one month ago. You can now snag the same bundle for under £400!

Read IGN's 9.0/10 review on Oculus Rift

Snag a Physical PS4 Copy of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition for Under £12

Bulletstorm: Full Clip has been reduced to £11.99 at Amazon making it the cheapest it has been since its release.

Save Over 50% on Logitech Z-906 Speakers

Hear every detail, all around you, in theatre-quality sound. 500 W (RMS) of thunderous audio turns any night into opening night.

Two Incredible Xbox One S Bundle Deals

Take advantage of these two incredible Xbox One S bundle deals that Tesco have released. Deals end 3rd August 2017.

Preorder Uncharted: The Lost Legacy + Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy for £22.85

Released on 23rd August, 2017, ShopTo are the cheapest retailer.

Get 3 for 2 on Selected Bethesda Games

Including A-list titles such as Fallout 4, Skyrim, Prey, and many more. What makes this deal from GAME even better is that £1 from every game sold will be donated to raising funds for Special Effect; The Gamers' Charity. Read more information here.

Nintendo Switch Pro Controller Splatoon 2 Edition for Under £60

The Splatoon 2 edition of the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller has just released and it is available from £59.99

Tekken 7 Deluxe PS4 Bundle for Under £230

This incredible Tekken 7 Deluxe Edition PS4 (500GB) bundle includes Dishonored 2, Fallout 4, DOOM and Now TV 3 Month Entertainment

Alternatively, you can get a Silver Edition PS4 (500GB) which includes Dishonored 2, Fallout 4, DOOM and Now TV 3 Month Entertainment from GAME for £249.99

Save £45 on a Sekonda Watch

It may be cheap, but it certainly doesn't look it. Amazon have reduced Sekonda Gents Brown Dial Date Strap WR Watch 3882 from £60 to £15.68

2TB Portable Hard Drive for PC, Xbox One and PS4 for Under £65

Buy the Seagate 2TB Expansion Portable Hard Drive for just £64.99, an ideal add-on storage for your PC, Xbox One or PS4. For perspective, the 1TB version is only £15 less!

Xbox Wireless Controller With Rocket League and 3 Months Xbox Live for Under £55

GAME have just released this amazing bundle:

Mobile Phones on Sale

Get Amazon's #1 Best Selling Printer for Under £100

The Brother HL3140CW A4 Colour Laser Wireless Printer has savings of over £70!

PS4 Pro 1TB Bundle With inFAMOUS: Second Son and Now TV

With advanced 4k technology, HDR content and high resolution display with 8 million pixels providing extraordinary depth and detail, witness gaming like you never have before. Bundle includes inFAMOUS: Second Son and Now TV 2 Month Sky Cinema Pass.

AOC Vesa I2369VM 23-inch IPS Monitor - £104.97(was £110.93)

Lenovo Yoga 14" Laptop - £349.98 at Currys (was £499.99)

Hyper X Cloud II Pro 7.1 Gaming Headset - £49.99 at Currys (was £74.99)

Samsung UE50MU6100 50" Smart 4K Ultra HD HDR LED TV - £599.00 at Currys (was £749.00)

B&O PLAY by Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H3 ANC In-Ear Headphones  - £89.00 at Amazon (was £199.00) 

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Tacoma Review

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Uncover details of a tense space mystery through cool AR recordings.

By Miranda Sanchez

Witnessing six absent strangers’ private moments aboard an empty space station left me feeling a little gross. Oddly enough, that’s a good thing. My mild discomfort at invading their intimate privacy is a testament to how well Tacoma’s characters are written and acted. I dug through their belongings, watched arguments and embraces, and discovered what happened when a dwindling oxygen supply forced the group to make rash decisions. Though I wish I’d had more time to get to know the crew better, Tacoma builds an intriguing and disturbing future world that’s surprisingly well-developed even within its short playtime of three to four hours.

Playing as a contracted AI communications specialist, I boarded the Lunar Transfer Station Tacoma after the emergency had been resolved. I wandered around its three well-designed sections and watched ghost-like augmented-reality (AR) recordings that reveal what happened there while my Nintendo 3DS-like device downloaded the station’s AI data. It was refreshing to be on an abandoned station without fretting over whether or not something was going to attack me. Instead, I got to take my time as I examined the station’s futuristic objects (like cup ramen and beer), played basketball in zero gravity, and of course watched the recordings.

Owned by space-travel and hospitality corporation Venturis, the entire Tacoma station and its crew are monitored and recorded at all times through the AR system. It’s a disturbing future (the company’s tag is “Venturis is There, No Matter Where You Are,” and that includes showers), but it turns out that one benefit of people living in a surveillance state makes things interesting for future archeologists. Developer Fullbright’s vision of the future space travel is impressive, especially with its depiction of a grotesque evolution of capitalism. In 2088, your loyalty to a brand is worth money, and it can even shape your family’s future. This feudalistic concept and other futuristic problems are explored in detail throughout Tacoma.

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The voice actors put on an excellent performance, so emotions are conveyed clearly.

The AR recordings are the meat of Tacoma’s storytelling. Upon finding and loading a recording, I followed the crash-test-dummy-looking projections of each of the six crew members throughout various rooms and listened to their conversations. Even though the crew is represented in such a peculiar way, and I was happy to see they have a shred of privacy by obscuring their real faces, and I didn't have a hard time believing they're depicted this way for security reasons. It wasn't difficult to connect with the projections, either; I almost involuntarily turned away from them once or twice during more intimate moments and sympathized greatly with one of the crewmembers when she left the group and immediately had a panic attack. The voice actors put on an excellent performance, so emotions are conveyed clearly.

All or most crewmembers are usually present in every scene, so I was encouraged to experience each recording in different ways as I followed members to hear their part. This is made easy with the rewind, fast-forward, and pause functions that manipulate the timeline which shows the length of the recording. The timeline was also helpful in showing when a crewmember opened their AR desktop, which can also be accessed during the recordings. Interacting with the desktops and notes left throughout the station is optional, but they’re important resources for gathering more context about each crew member’s issues, interests, and relationships.

Adding some nuance to the storytelling, most of the AR recordings are presented out of chronological order. The most important, revealing scenes are of course at the end, but it’s easy to piece together the timeline. The older, more corrupted recordings found in crewmember’s quarters also provided good insight into how they spend their time alone. I wish there had been more of this – though each of the three areas focuses a little more on the personal issues of two or three people, it would have been nice to see more isolated interactions to get a better sense of their day-to-day life in this interesting space. Fullbright has written a fascinating world and I wanted to learn more about it, even if those scenes didn’t tie directly into the main mystery.

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Sareh's interactions with the station’s AI, ODIN, were my favorites.

Generally, though, I came out of Tacoma feeling like I knew the crew pretty well. I greatly enjoyed learning about their issues and how those affected their relationships with everyone else on the station. Each member felt genuine and unique. I particularly liked getting to know Sareh Hadmadi, the station’s medic. She's one of two characters that aren’t in an on-station romance, and her backstory and interactions with the station’s AI, ODIN, were my favorites. The crew relationships are great, too. The two couples on board provided very different perspectives on the toll living together in space for a year takes on a relationship. And then of course, how they function when that station begins to fail. Without spoiling anything, the evolution of the crew’s problems and their resolution is greatly satisfying.

Exploring the Tacoma station itself was rather fun too. The zero-gravity hub was fun for basketball and tossing drones, but I was relieved that Tacoma mostly takes place in artificial gravity since the station is rather small, excluding the beautiful botany area. I did enjoy that nearly every room had plenty of windows to allow the sunlight to tumble in as the station rotates. The first area had the most to do and explore (including darts and a pool table I played with for far too long), but as I progressed there were fewer locks, key codes, and things to play with. The story is interesting enough to let Tacoma stand on its own, but the few tastes of activities I got made me hungry for more.

Tacoma

Tacoma is the next project from the makers of Gone Home, and takes place in a futuristic setting.

The Verdict

Tacoma successfully overcomes the challenge of featuring eight characters and making them all interesting in a relatively short game. Using the out-of-sequence AR recordings to learn about the exciting events on Tacoma is a unique way to see every side of a conversation, and it’s one I hope to see catch on. I would have appreciated more time and events that'd have given me a reason to explore more of the beautiful station, but the time I did have in this fascinating hypothetical future was great.

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The Best Esports Clips From The Last Week

A helping of highlights from the best esports showdowns of the week.

By Joab Gilroy

A bit of a lighter week as the Aussie esports scene gets back to its regularly scheduled broadcast — League of Legends and Counter-Strike! We've been keeping an eye on the Throwdown Rocket League season as well, and in the Hearthstone we spotted a new card that will almost 100% never see competitive play, but it's a wonderful thing regardless.

We're still updating our calendar and if your Aussie event isn't on it we want to know! This week we're obviously getting ready for Dota 2's The International — if you're looking for Aussie players, keep an eye on Newbee and OG who have kpii and Ana respectively. Remember you can email tips to me esportsau@ign.com or you can just click to send me an email. If you want, you can tweet suggestions at me as well, my twitter is down the bottom of this article. Make sure you check out the rest of the esports hub, as well!

CSGO - WCA APAC Qualifiers

The Asia Pacific Qualifiers for World Cyber Arena 2017 are in full swing, and the Chiefs have a firm grasp on their lead heading into Finals. BOOT-dS from Singapore, Signature from Thailand and TheMongolz from Mongolia make up the rest of the Final Four as Grayhound Gaming couldn't quite secure a place in the Finals. Which is a shame, because they had some great games — check out MoeycQ as he scores an Ace against TheMongolz below.

League of Legends - OPL Week 6

Some upsets in the OPL this week with the Chiefs falling to SIN and Legacy taking down the Dire Wolves. Maybe it's tough to call LGC v DW an upset, because Lost has been on a tear recently, really beginning to come into his own. This marks the end of the extra long weeks of OPL action I'm afraid, as the schedule returns to weekends only as we approach the end of the season. Watch Legacy put together the teamfight win which would swing momentum in their favour and hand them the 2-1 victory over the Dire Wolves below.

Rocket League - Throwdown Esports ANZ Challenge Week 3

JAM Gaming continue to dominate in Season 3 of the Throwdown Rocket League Series, snagging another victory over Pale Horse this week passed. Billy Fan Club snagged a win over Scylla, and Legacy fell to "The Other Team". Taking into account the games for and against, Scylla needs Billy Fan Club or The Other Team to fall to bits next week to have a shot at the top 4 — and they need to hope Legacy don't refind their week 1 form. Watch JAM secure their first round victory in overtime against Pale Horse thanks to a great one-two by Shadey and Express.

Hearthstone - Knights of the Frozen Throne Card Reveal

Aussie Senior Editor Cam Shea got his hands on one of the new Hearthstone expansions cards a little ahead of time, and he talked us through what the card has in store for us. The long and short of it is that I will absolutely dust every Rogue card I have to get this card, but its competitive potential outside of really frustrating certain fatigue focused decks is extremely limited. Watch the full reveal for all the card details below!

If there are any fantastic highlights from the AU scene you think we missed above, drop me a line on twitter or tell us in the comments below. I'm all over the good stuff though, so we'll see you next week for more!

Joab Gilroy is an Australian-based freelancer that specialises in competitive online games and esports. You can tweet at him here.

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