LG has announced a partnership with Nvidia that will make it the first TV manufacturer to develop a Smart TV app for the company's cloud game streaming service, GeForce Now.

As announced in a press release from LG (and spotted by PC Mag), an LG Smart TV app for GeForce Now will be made available on the LG Content Store beginning this week.

The TV manufacturer says in its press release that the app will begin life on the store as a beta, though it also notes that it should be "fully functional with no restrictions in features or services." While LG has indicated that a full list of TVs compatible with the GeForce Now app will be revealed at a later date, the company has so far confirmed that the beta will be available on "select 2021 LG 4K OLED, QNED Mini LED and NanoCell TV models in 80 markets."

Upon release, LG states that its GeForce Now TV app will feature an array of different games including the likes of Rocket League, Destiny 2, and the recent release of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. In addition, the company has also said that access to those games through the app should be playable at resolutions up to 1080p and with framerates maxing out at 60FPS depending upon which GeForce membership you choose.

Interestingly, LG has confirmed those with compatible TVs will be able to jump into over 35 free-to-play games when using the app with a compatible controller and no other additional hardware. This list is significantly smaller than the list of free-to-play games available on GeForce Now cited by Nvidia, which it says includes almost 100 different titles. Whether the difference between the number of games reported on those lists is due to the TV app itself or rather a factor relating to options regarding compatible controllers for LG TVs isn't yet clear.

Although LG will become the first company to launch an Nvidia GeForce Now app on Smart TVs, it's far from the first platform to be able to host the streaming service. The Smart TV app will join a long list of GeForce Now providers including Nvidia Shield, Windows PC, macOS, Android, Chrome OS, and Safari's browser for both iPhone and iPad.

For more on Nvidia, make sure to check out this piece detailing the new membership tier that Nvidia added to GeForce Now that allows subscribers to experience gaming with an RTX 3080 graphics card without actually having to physically own one.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

The Great: Season 2 arrives Friday, November 19 on Hulu.

The miraculous tonal twistings of Hulu's The Great return triumphantly, with 10 new episodes of historical hilarity, jarring lewdness, and surprising sentiment. Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult once again dazzle in this "occasionally true story" of Russian Empress Catherine the Great and conquered husband Peter III in a season that draws in more complexity and nuance to their tumultuous, but ultimately loving, relationship.

Similar to the stylings of British Netflix series Sex Education — and not just because Sex Ed star Gillian Anderson guests this season on The Great as Catherine's mother, Johanna — The Great is able to mix together disparate genres and vibes in a way that feels seamless. At times, it's a clever farce, and then in other moments it can floor you with a heavy hand of emotional reckoning and resonance.

It can also be unabashedly raunchy, full of unapologetic sexual appetites both honorable and horrific. Creator Tony McNamara (The Favourite) purposefully tramples genre conventions with an anti-period piece, anti-stuffiness tone, and biting wit that makes The Great a very hard series to describe to someone who hasn't experienced it. It's flat-out funny but with a bold, nonchalant mean streak. It's all meant to evoke the brutality of the era and the harshness of existence while also relaying things in a way that makes sense for 2021.

Season 2 tracks Catherine's coup, pregnancy with baby Paul, and devilish dealings with not only trying to rule Russia, but change Russia. Only her loyalists see the positives in her progressive ideals, while the uninitiated fear change and can't envision any tweaks to tradition garnering positive results, so it all becomes a sly game of almost tricking folks into seeing things her way.

Of course, none of this comes without stumbles (some painfully dire) but The Great keeps Catherine as a wonderfully complex character who's capable of both victory and defeat. She's a romantic optimist who can be downright stubborn, and impulsive, with her desire to move the needle – and while her motives are usually pure, her methods might be in need of refining.

Elle Fanning, who terrifically delivers a righteously layered Catherine, has a little more meat to chew on this year as the new head of the table. She faces opposition from her court, her country, and, at times, Peter, who is given such a blessedly funny and labyrinthine role this year as a man imprisoned by a woman he truly loves and must now figure out a path forward for himself. Does he actually want to secretly undermine her in an attempt to see her fail? Does he even want to rule Russia? Or does he actually care the most about winning her heart and being a kind, doting dad to their child? Together, Fanning and Hoult craft a crazy, tender cycle of love and betrayal. Their post-coup "love story" here not only rambunctiously rips up the pages of history, but provides a spectacular spine for Season 2.

There are so many glorious (and harrowing) things in Season 2, from science expos to servant uprisings to crocodiles on the loose to a visit from Catherine's domineering, disapproving mother (Gillian Anderson in a fun role that allows Catherine to act the backpedaling fool). Meanwhile, Catherine's supporters — Sacha Dhawan's Orlo, Douglas Hodge's Velementov, and Belinda Bromilow's Elizabeth – struggle finding a full voice among the new regime as their understanding of practical methods often get pushed aside by their Empress' action-oriented eagerness.

At the same time, Adam Godley's Archie and Phoebe Fox's Marial race to find favor with Catherine, having seemingly been on the wrong side of the takeover. It all boils down to bawdy, hilarious politics, where those on the direct outskirts of Catherine and Peter must always straddle a certain line, as the winds of change are capable of blowing in any direction, at any moment. The Great never fails to provide characters who you simultaneously resent and admire and who, even in their worst moments, are understandable.

Hasbro's HasLab crowdfunding platform has been a great source for action figures that are simply too big, too expensive or too impractical for a mass market release. The latest HasLab campaign focuses on one of the largest creatures in the Star Wars universe – the mighty Rancor – and it's a doozy.

Hasbro already launched the Star Wars: The Black Series Rancor campaign, but up till now collectors only had images of the unpainted prototype to judge. Now IGN can exclusively debut images of the painted version, which should offer a much better idea of what this enormous figure will look like in-hand. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

With the Black Series line focusing on 1:12 scale, 6-inch figures, it goes without saying this Rancor is a mighty beast. The figure measures as much as 27 inches tall and 41 inches wide with arms fully extended. Hasbro's designers have painstakingly recreated the iconic monster using the original Lucasfilm prop as reference. That includes details like the broken shackle and chain on the Rancor's arm and those disgusting jaws. The designers have also put a lot of work into making sure the figure is fully articulated without taking away from the screen accurate look.

Similar to previous HasLab offerings like the Marvel Legends Sentinel, the Rancor may come with additional accessories in the form of stretch goals. Hasbro has revealed two of those potential four bonuses so far – a Gamorrean Guard in vintage-style Kenner packaging and a diorama display with various bones and skulls. Fingers crossed Malakili the Rancor Keeper is one of the other stretch goals.

For now, it remains to be seen how many, if any, of those stretch goals will be unlocked. As of publish time, the campaign is a little over halfway toward its minimum goal of 9000 backers. The Gamorrean Guard will unlock at 11,000 backers, with the diorama accessories unlocking at 13,500.

The Rancor is priced at $349.99. The campaign wraps on December 6, and assuming the set is successfully funded, preorders are expected to ship in Spring 2023.

If you're in the market for some Star Wars swag a little sooner than then, check out the Star Wars collection on the IGN Store.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Microsoft surprised us all with the launch of Halo Infinite's multiplayer this week, and Cardy, Jesse, and Matt have been getting into the Spartan groove by spanking as many people as possible. But not content with just giving opinions on the likes of Slayer and Capture the Flag, we've also got thoughts on the Halo Infinite campaign, which Matt has played the first chunk of.

Beyond Halo chat, we've also got a few bones to pick with the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, which hasn't exactly revitalised our nostalgia for the PS2-era of GTA. Balancing that out, we've got chat about Ghostbusters: Afterlife and the new Radiohead Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, a strange musical museum on PC and PS5.

Want to submit your own Endless Search, food opinion, or a bit of other nonsense? Feel free to get in touch with the podcast at: [email protected].

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Microsoft has confirmed that Forza Horizon 5 has seen the biggest launch of any Xbox title in the history of the company, with 10 million players jumping into Playground Games' beautifully reimagined Mexican landscape within its first week.

In a tweet from the official Forza Horizon Twitter account (below), the company confirmed that it was the biggest launch for a game in Xbox history, obviously meaning it's broken those records for Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Studios games, too.

Thank you to the more than 10M #ForzaHorizon5 fans for the biggest first week in @Xbox history and @XboxGamePass EVER. GG! pic.twitter.com/WXZawEvBkO

— Forza Horizon (@ForzaHorizon) November 19, 2021

Prior to the announcement, Xbox boss Phil Spencer also recently revealed that the game had experienced the largest launch day of any Xbox Game Studios game ever. The open-world racing game amassed over 4.5 million players in its launch week where it also featured peak concurrent player count heights over three times the size of its predecessor Forza Horizon 4.

As with all Xbox Game Studios games, Forza Horizon 5 was released into Xbox's popular subscription service Xbox Game Pass, meaning that subscribers could gain access to the game at no additional cost from day one.

While some have questioned the financial viability of a service like Game Pass, Spencer recently explained that the platform is proving to be "very, very sustainable." That news will likely please those currently signed up to the service – especially if that proves to be the case in a year where Microsoft itself announced that subscriber growth has slowed down.

As Horizon 5 continues to break new records moving forward, Playground Games also recently announced that it is continuing to add elements into the game that will increase inclusivity and make the game more accessible to a wider range of players. On top of its base accessibility features that can currently be found within the racing sim, Horizon 5 is also set to add an on-screen sign language interpreter to the game in a future update.

IGN recently reviewed Forza Horizon 5 where we awarded it a rare score of 10/10 and dubbed it "the best open-world racing game available." For more from the series, make sure to check out our dedicated Forza Horizon 5 IGN page.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.