There are some huge games coming out for Xbox and PC this season and there's an easy way to play all of them without spending $60 on each game. Play Forza Horizon 5, Halo: Infinite, and Battlefield 2042 on the cheap and save your hard earned cash for Black Friday deals.

Xbox Game Pass Members (Including PC) Can Play Forza Horizon 5 and Halo: Infinite at Launch

Forza Horizon 5 is out on Friday and its shaping up to be one of the best games of the year. This game is good enough to be worth paying full price, but fortunately you won't have to. Forza Horizon 5 will be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch, which means you could enjoy this spectacular game come Friday for as little as $1. Halo: Infinite comes out on December 8. Your 3 months of Xbox Game Pass for PC will still be active by then.

Xbox Game Pass Members (Including PC) Can Play Battlefield 2042 Early on November 12 for 10 Hours

Battlefield is out on November 19, but Xbox Game Pass members can play the game one week early on November 12 for up to 10 hours. That will give you a chance to test out the release version of the game and decide if you want to preorder it yourself. Note that Battlefield 2042 will NOT be coming to Game Pass at launch, so if you do want to continue playing the game, you'll have to preorder the standalone game.

3 Months of Xbox Game Pass for PC for $1

Available for New AND Existing Members!

Xbox Game Pass for PC is exactly what it sounds like; access to a library of Xbox games that are also playable on PC. There are plenty of top shelf games including Forza Horizon 4, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Destiny 2, Back for Blood, Scarlet Nexus, Cris Tales, Crusader Kings, and much, much more. You'll also get launch day access to huge upcoming games like Halo: Infinite and Forza Horizon 5. And you'll get to test out Battlefield 2042 one week prior to release. The best thing about this deal? Anyone can sign up, even those of you who already have the subscription.

3 Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

The sheer amount of value you get with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is impressive. This membership gives you both Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass for PC. Xbox Live Gold is required for online gaming. Xbox Game Pass gives you access to a huge library of games that is free as long as you maintain your membership. The list includes AAA games that you can play as early as launch day. These include MLB The Show 21, FIFA 21, The Medium, and every Bethesda game ever. If you've also got a great gaming PC, Xbox Game Pass for PC offers games like Crusader Kings 3, Forza Horizon 4, Nier Automata, and more.

WD Black SN750 500GB SSD with Battlefield 2042

Early Access Starts November 12

The WD Black SN750 500GB SSD by itself is currently on sale for $54.99. That means that the copy of Battlefield 2042 for PC that this bundle comes with costs about $35. This is easily the best price you'll find right now. Preordering Battlefield 2042 gets you 1 week of early access; instead of the schmucks out there who start playing on November 19, you'll be on the battlefield starting November 12.

14% Off When You Preorder Battlefield 2042 for PC

Green Man Gaming is offering an 14% discount on all three BF 2042 editions. The Gold and Ultimate editions will also grant you early access to the game itself. You'll be playing starting November 12, unlike all the other poor souls who have to start on November 19.

Cheapest PS5-Compatible SSD with Heatsink: XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD

This is the latest SSD that's specifically designed for your PS5 storage upgrade. It also happens to be the lowest priced PS5-compatible 1TB SSD with heatsink available. In fact, it's even less expensive than most compatible SSDs without heatsink. The S70 Blade boasts transfer rates up to 7,400 MB/s and a PCIe Gen4 interface. It includes a PS5-compatible low-profile aluminum heatsink, but for whatever reason you'll have to put it on the SSD itself (which isn't hard, it's just adhesive).

Xbox Series S|X Core Controller

Save 18% off the official Xbox Core wireless controller for the Xbox Series S and X consoles. This new controller features a redesigned hybrid D-pad, textured grip on the triggers, bumpers, and back, and a battery life of up to 40 hours. It has a universal 3.5mm audio jack for headphones and a USB Type-C input for plug-and-play compatibility for the PC.

Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller

The Xbox Elite Series 2 wireless controller is the most precise and customizable Xbox controller on the market. This professional-grade controller features adjustable tension thumbsticks, shorter hair trigger locks, wraparound textured grips, interchangeable thumbsticks and paddle shapes, custom profiles saved on your controller itself, and included USB Type C cable with charging dock. It boasts up to 40 hours of battery life and is compatible with the Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, and PC.

Early Black Friday Video Game Deals

Alienware Aurora R12 RTX 3060 Ti Gaming PC

Not only is this the best Alienware Black Friday deal right now, it's probably the least expensive prebuilt gaming PC equipped with an RTX 3060 Ti video card you'll find anywhere. With the RTX 3060 Ti video card selling for over $800 on eBay, getting a fully built Alienware system with an 11th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, and 512GB of SDD storage for $1399 seems like an absolute steal.

Alienware Aurora R12 RTX 3080 PC for $2199.99

Need a rig that can run Battlefield 2042 or Forza Horizon 5 in 4K? If you've been on the lookout for the extremely elusive RTX 3080 video card for Black Friday, then check out this ready-to-go prebuilt Alienware Aurora gaming PC from Dell. This PC comes equipped with an 11th gen Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, 512GB SSD, and a separate 1TB hard drive for storage. The RTX 3080 is way more powerful than the previous generation's best video card, the RTX 2080 Ti, and is the best recommended video card for 4K gaming.

Dell S2721DGF 27" 1440p GSYNC Gaming Monitor

This excellent monitor has hit a new price low for Black Friday. It's one of the best 27" gaming monitors you can buy for under $500. The S2721DGF boasts a high quality IPS panel (better than the VA panel found on the popular S3220DGF model). It features wide viewing angles and excellent color rendition including 98% DCI-P3 color coverage, a super fast 1ms response time and up to 165Hz refresh rate through the DisplayPort. It's also FreeSync Premium Pro and G-SYNC compatible.

More Early Black Friday Deals

If you want a complete list of the best early Black Friday deals that are live right now, check out or definitive Black Friday megapost article. We keep it constantly updated with the best early Black Friday deals we've found from Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Dell, and more.

As a part of its second-quarter earnings announcement today, Take-Two Interactive announced that Firaxis' upcoming Marvel strategy game, Marvel's Midnight Suns, is being delayed into the second half of next year.

This isn't a massive bump as the Midnight Suns was previously planned for March 2022. Now, it's looking at somewhere between July and December of that year. In a press release, the company implied that the delay was connected at least in part to increases in the difficulty of making games as technology has improved.

As it becomes possible to make bigger and more technologically interesting games, those games are also tougher and take longer to make.

"While we don’t take delays lightly, we know that our proven success has been rooted firmly in our 'player-first' approach and unwavering commitment to delivering the highest quality entertainment experiences," reads the press release. "We believe it is far better to provide the extra time needed for a product – especially a new IP – to reach its full potential and drive long-term success as a permanent franchise in our industry-leading portfolio."

Firaxis' Twitter account provided a similar statement moments prior:

We have an important development update to share with our fans pic.twitter.com/ycNDCVtbwD

— Marvel's Midnight Suns (@midnightsuns) November 3, 2021

In a conversation with IGN, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick added a bit more detail about why Take-Two, 2K, and Firaxis opted for the delay:

"We think it needs more development time to be everything it can be," he said. "What we're known for doing is supplying the time and the resources so that the creative talent that's taken a big chance by coming to work at our company always has not only the ability to pursue their passions but every possible asset in service of allowing them to pursue their passions, and that's what generates the highest-quality titles in the business, for which we're known.

"We couldn't be more excited about the title. We don't love when we have to slip a title. It's not that common for us; it's been very uncommon in past years. This is a situation where we thought it made sense, and therefore we stand behind it."

Notably, despite Midnight Suns moving out of Take-Two's current fiscal year and into the next one, the company actually raised its projections for this year from between $3.2 billion and $3.3 billion in net bookings to between $3.3 billion and $3.4 billion, in part thanks to its second-quarter net bookings of $985 million – well above its expectations.

Marvel's Midnight Suns was revealed back in August, playing into Firaxis' strategy game strengths as a tactical XCOM-like with a customizable protagonist fighting alongside superpowered heroes like Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Wolverine against large numbers of enemies. It will include destructible environments, but no permadeath like in the XCOM series.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

It's that time of year once again. Time to gather up everyone's shopping lists and figure out what to get your loved ones for the holidays. Board games are a great gift choice as they can be enjoyed by the whole family and provide hours of fun for countless occasions.

Board games have only gotten more popular with everyone spending so much more time indoors, and there's plenty of different genres to experience from strategy games to party games, and everything in between. Many games can be enjoyed solo, while others are intended for group play. There's nothing like bonding over a great board game.

We've assembled a list of some of the most popular board games below from a variety of different genres so you can easily find the perfect gift for your loved ones this holiday season.

Top 3 Must-Have Board Game Gifts

These are some of the most popular board games available that are sure to please any fan of tabletop games.

Best Starter Game Gifts

If you're looking to introduce someone to tabletop games, these are some great options to start with.

Best Party Game Gifts

A handful of great games that are better with a group of people.

Best Horror Game Gifts

For fans of spooky games, these horror board games are sure to tickle their fancy.

Best Legacy Game Gifts

Legacy games feature campaigns that stretch across multiple playthroughs and are great for groups.

Best Strategy Game Gifts

These board games are great for those who like to solve puzzles or outsmart their opponents.

More Great Game Gifts

These additional popular board games span multiple genres and are an overall great choice for anyone.

Matthew Adler is a Commerce, Features, Guides, News, Previews, and Reviews writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.

Insomniac Games' spectacular 2018 game Spider-Man was originally meant to end with the hero and Doctor Octopus fighting all across New York City.

Insomniac CEO Ted Price revealed the original boss fight plans at last week's Develop: Brighton conference per GamesIndustry.biz. But the scope of the finale the studio envisioned couldn't be realized without resorting to crunch, which would clash with the company's goals of increasing employee wellbeing and reducing burnout.

"The temptation is to just brute force it, put our heads down and run through the brick wall," Price said. "But the team took a step back and thought about what was important to the players, and that was the breakdown of the relationship between Peter and his former mentor, Doctor Octavius."

The fight was ultimately a one vs. one battle between Spider-Man and Doc Ock atop a Manhattan building. The team scaled back its ambitions and Price said the decision didn't just help the developers but improved the game itself.

"They rethought the fight and realized they didn't need to destroy half of New York to pay off the relationship," Price said. "In fact, it would have worked against what we were going for. As a result, the final battle is much more up close and personal, and has a far bigger emotional impact than planned — and it fit within the time we had."

Price urged other developers to seriously consider what players want and how they can deliver the best experience with the resources they have rather than pushing employees to their limits.

"In the stress of hectic production, we often feel we can't take our foot off the gas pedal — but that's often what it takes," he said. "The team needs to have permission to pause and come up with a better way, instead of bulldozing through the problems and causing potential health problems."

Insomniac is currently working on Marvel's Spider-Man 2, which the team says will be "darker" than the last two Spider-Man games, including Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Furthermore, Insomniac is also working on a Wolverine game to add to its Marvel bonafide.

Samantha Nelson is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter @samanthanelson1.

Spoilers for Chucky episode 4, “Just Let Go,” which aired on Syfy Nov. 2, follow.

Going into “Just Let Go,” I was concerned Chucky was going to repeat the dynamic of its first two episodes: a wildly eventful mini slasher movie followed by a slower episode to unpack what just happened and fill in gaps in the lore. Last week’s chaotic cliffhanger certainly primed this week’s episode to be another breather… which, given the fact that a kid gets their ventilator unplugged by Chucky this week, was a figurative and literal misprojection on my part. Even as the characters regroup in the hospital, “Just Let Go” wastes no time getting its foot back on the gas, forcing Jake and Lexy to confront their transgressions against each other as Chucky’s motivations become clearer.

With Chucky’s (Brad Dourif) attack on Lexy’s (Alyvia Alyn Lind) party nearly burning the Cross home to the ground, most of the characters find themselves at Hackensack’s hospital, with Devon (Björgvin Arnarson) and Junior (Teo Briones) among several kids being treated for smoke inhalation. Jake (Zackary Arthur) and Devon spend most of the episode dealing with Chucky in the present and past, respectively, so their time together is brief, but impactful. Their mutual crush is an earnest bright spot in a show which so gleefully celebrates mayhem.

Junior’s interaction with dad Logan (Devon Sawa) is a lot less sweet. Just like his dearly departed twin, Luke, Logan has a dark side which comes to the surface as he practically coerces Junior into saying he likes cross-country and doesn’t do it because he’s forced. It’s sinister work from Sawa that sets up Logan as a more villainous figure going forward.

“Just Let Go” finally forces Jake and Lexy to work together as they attempt to put a stop to Chucky. Even in the midst of a truce, the teens have serious problems with one another and Arthur and Lind’s performances keep that disdain just under the surface of their teamwork. Even though some of their arguments veer hard into melodrama, Arthur and Lind’s chemistry smooths out a lot of those rough patches and elevates the clunkier dialogue. Impressive, considering Lexy totally has a point about how messed up it is that Jake kinda sorta sent Chucky her way.

Even with the chaos going on in the modern day, Chucky still finds time for another vignette from Charles Lee Ray’s childhood, which shades in the killer’s attempts to mentor Jake nicely. Devon’s research reveals details of Charles’ stay in an orphanage after the man who invaded his home murdered his father, inspiring him to do the same to his mother. That Charles wanted to pay forward that spark of inspiration from a young age is a smart way to add to Chucky’s backstory in a way that’s still relevant to Jake in the present.

While just that’s enough to make these scenes worthwhile, the identity of the boy Charles takes under his wing will delight longtime Child’s Play fans in a way that’s unobtrusive for newcomers. But “Just Let Go” does cut corners as Devon researches Charles Lee Ray’s early life. Google as a vehicle for exposition is never a satisfying way to keep a story rolling, and basic floating text headlines around Devon’s head only get worse when images of soon-to-return Child’s Play alumna — images that are obviously promo images from previous films — are none-too-subtly left on-screen for longer stretches of time, each in turn captioned blandly as being a “known accomplice” and a “escaped psychiatric patient.”

Chucky — Two-Faced by the fire at the Cross house — spends much of the episode in the shadows, adding tension into an already hostile atmosphere. This week’s showstopper kill, the insufferable Detective Peyton, sets a new bar for Chucky going forward, and deserves a place in the upper echelon of Child’s Play deaths. Start with Chucky managing to sever Peyton’s spinal cord by throwing a scalpel, pepper in Brad Dourif at his pithy best, cap it off with a hilariously inefficient murder weapon: that’s a textbook piece of camp slasher gold.

That energy’s present throughout the episode. As the bad blood between Jake and Lexy boils over and Lexy slips over a bannister, Jake catches her, while a knife-waving Chucky below deviously tries to convince Jake to “just let go.” We all know Jake’s no killer, and as he exclaims it himself, the drama gives way to the farcical competition of what’s funnier: that Lexy’s only three feet off the ground or that Chucky still can’t reach her with his knife. Blending horror and comedy is no easy feat and, with little surprise given its pedigree, Chucky’s tone is a consistent strong suit.