Category: Games

The nominations for the 2021 Primetime Emmys have been unveiled, with The Mandalorian and The Crown leading the pack with 24 nominations apiece.

Father-daughter duo Ron Cephas Jones and Jasmine Cephas Jones joined Television Academy chairman and CEO Frank Scherma to announce the nominees for the 73rd Emmy Awards on July 13. The Mandalorian and The Crown landed the most nominations, receiving 24 each, with Marvel’s WandaVision following closely behind on 23 nominations.

The Handmaid’s Tale and Saturday Night Live also emerged as frontrunners with 21 nominations apiece, and Ted Lasso wasn’t far behind on 20. Lovecraft Country and The Queen’s Gambit scored 18 nominations each whilst Mare of Easttown earned 16 nominations across the various categories.

HBO Max was the biggest winner for a TV platform with 130 nominations in total, and Netflix followed with 129. Disney+ also made it into the top three with 71 nominations.

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You can see a selected list of major nominations below, with a full list available on the Emmys website.

Drama Series

• The Boys
• Bridgerton
• The Crown
• The Handmaid’s Tale
• Lovecraft Country
• The Mandalorian
• Pose
• This Is Us

Comedy Series

• Black-ish
• Cobra Kai
• Emily in Paris
• Hacks
• The Flight Attendant
• The Kominsky Method
• Pen15
• Ted Lasso

Limited Series

• I May Destroy You
• Mare of Easttown
• The Queen’s Gambit
• The Underground Railroad
• WandaVision

TV Movie

• Uncle Frank
• Sylvie’s Love
• Oslo
• Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia
• Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square

Lead Actress in a Drama Series

• Uzo Aduba, In Treatment
• Olivia Colman, The Crown
• Emma Corrin, The Crown
• Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Mj Rodriguez, Pose
• Jurnee Smollett, Lovecraft Country

Lead Actor in a Drama Series

• Sterling K Brown, This Is Us
• Jonathan Majors, Lovecraft Country
• Josh O’Connor, The Crown
• Regé-Jean Page, Bridgerton
• Billie Porter, Pose
• Matthew Rhys, Perry Mason

Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

• Aidy Bryant, Shrill
• Kaley Cuoco, The Flight Attendant
• Allison Janey, Mom
• Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-Ish
• Jean Smart, Hacks

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

• Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
• Michael Douglas, The Komsinky Method
• William H Macy, Shameless
• Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso
• Kenan Thompson, Kenan

Lead Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie

• Michaela Coel, I May Destroy You
• Cynthia Erivo, Genius: Aretha
• Elizabeth Olsen, WandaVision
• Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen’s Gambit
• Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown

Lead Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie

• Paul Bettany, WandaVision
• Hugh Grant, The Undoing
• Ewan McGregor, Halston
• Lin Manuel-Miranda, Hamilton
• Leslie Odon Jr, Hamilton

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

• Gillian Anderson, The Crown
• Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown
• Emerald Fennell, The Crown
• Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Yvonne Strahovski, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Samira Wiley, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Madeline Brewer, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Aunjanue Ellis, Lovecraft Country

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

• Michael K. Williams, Lovecraft Country
• Bradley Whitford, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Max Minghella, The Handmaid’s Tale
• O-T Fagbenle, The Handmaid’s Tale
• John Lithgow, Perry Mason
• Tobias Menzies, The Crown
• Giancarlo Esposito, The Mandalorian
• Chris Sullivan, This Is Us

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

• Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live
• Cecily Strong, Saturday Night Live
• Aidy Bryant, Saturday Night Live
• Rosie Perez, The Flight Attendant
• Hannah Einbinder, Hacks
• Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso
• Juno Temple, Ted Lasso

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

• Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live
• Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live
• Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso
• Brendan Hunt, Ted Lasso
• Nick Mohammed, Ted Lasso
• Jeremy Swift, Ted Lasso
• Paul Reiser, The Kominsky Method
• Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Hacks

Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie

• Jean Smart, Mare of Easttown
• Julianne Nicholson, Mare of Easttown
• Kathryn Hahn, WandaVision
• Phillipa Soo, Hamilton
• Renee Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton
• Moses Ingram, The Queen’s Gambit

Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie

• Daveed Diigs, Hamilton
• Jonathan Groff, Hamilton
• Anthony Ramos, Hamilton
• Thomas Brodie-Sangster, The Queen’s Gambit
• Evan Peters, Mare of Easttown
• Paapa Essiedu, I May Destroy You

Guest Actress in a Drama Series

• Alexis Bledel, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Mckenna Grace, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Claire Foy, The Crown
• Phylicia Rashad, This Is Us
• Sophie Okonedo, Ratched

Guest Actor in a Drama Series

• Courtney B. Vance, Lovecraft Country
• Charles Dance, The Crown
• Don Cheadle, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
• Timothy Olyphant, The Mandalorian
• Carl Weathers, The Mandalorian

Guest Actress in a Comedy Series

• Maya Rudolph, Saturday Night Live
• Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live
• Issa Rae, A Black Lady Sketch Show
• Jane Adams, Hacks
• Bernadette Peters, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
• Yvette Nicole Brown, A Black Lady Sketch Show

Guest Actor in a Comedy Series

• Chris Rock, Saturday Night Live
• Dave Chappelle, Saturday Night Live
• Daniel Kaluuya, Saturday Night Live
• Dan Levy, Saturday Night Live
• Morgan Freeman, The Kominsky Method

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The 73rd Emmy Awards will be hosted by Cedric the Entertainer and it will air on Sunday, September 19, 2021, on CBS. The ceremony will also be available via streaming for Paramount+ subscribers. Stay tuned to IGN for coverage of the awards.

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Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

All month long, IGN Premiere is spotlighting some of the biggest upcoming releases in entertainment. Today, we have an exclusive Mondo poster for Gunpowder Milkshake, Netflix’s new action-thriller starring Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, and Paul Giamatti.

Gunpowder Milkshake is directed by Navot Papushado (Rabies) from a script by Papushado and Ehud Lavski. The film will be released on Netflix on July 14 in the US and distributed internationally through STX Films and Studio Canal.

In a recent exclusive chat with Papushado and Gillan, IGN was able to get a better sense of the plot of the film and its over-the-top approach to action scenes. While the trailer evokes the John Wick franchise in some ways – hinting at a secret society of assassins with their own rules and customs – Papushado tells IGN that Gunpowder Milkshake is inspired by a great many action films dating all the way back to the silent film era of Buster Keaton.

Check out this exclusive Mondo poster for Gunpowder Milkshake. Artwork by Greg Ruth. Edition of 145. 24″x36″ Screenprint. Follow @MondoNews for poster availability:

“Maybe it will be easier to mention a few of the filmmakers whose movies inspired Gunpowder. Filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa, Jean Pierre Melville, Alfred Hitchcock, Sergio Leone, Buster Keaton, Michael Mann, Sam Peckinpah, Jackie Chan, John Woo, Ang Lee, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Jacques Demy, Luc Besson, Robert Zemeckis and many, many others. I guess you can say that Gunpowder is the fusion between the classics I adore so much and the movies I grew up watching as a kid in the ’80s and ’90s.”

Similarly, Gillan told IGN the film shares more in common with the work of Quentin Tarantino than the John Wick series, pointing to the Kill Bill movies as a particularly apt comparison.

“It sort of exists in a fairly similar world to John Wick. They’re going to pick up their weapons from a place and using code words,” Gillain said. “I would say the film is pretty different tonally. It’s definitely slightly weirder. It’s more bonkers. It’s really stylized. So I would say that there’s like a level of Tarantino feel to it. Maybe like Kill Bill more so than John Wick.”

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One thing separating Gunpowder Milkshake from the likes of John Wick and Kill Bill is that it’s not a film with revenge as its primary plot catalyst. It’s actually a story about motherhood in its various forms. Over the course of the film, Sam finds herself becoming the unlikely protector of Chloe Coleman’s character Emily. That, in turn, forces her to reunite with her estranged mother Scarlet (Lena Headey) a fellow assassin who was forced to abandon her daughter at a young age.

“It’s the big emotional anchor, absolutely,” teases Papushado. “The sins of the estranged mother come to haunt the daughter in a way that forces them to confront their past and determine their future.”

Gunpowder MIlkshake debuts on Netflix on Wednesday, July 14.

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“More people are playing games than ever before in the United States,” Entertainment Software Association president Stanley Pierre-Louis tells me in an introduction I feel I’ve heard a few times before, admittedly for very good reason.

We’re speaking about The ESA’s Essential Facts report, an annual survey of the video game playing habits of 4,000 Americans.. The 2021 rendition has nearly 227 million Americans playing video games, up from 214 million in 2020. If you’re just counting adults over 18, the number is around 182 million and has also been steadily increasing, year after year.

In combing through the report each year and looking for trends, I’m consistently struck by how consistent the rest of the numbers seem to be. Roughly the same number of men play games as women (55% to 45%), a relatively even balance that’s held steady for years now. The age breakdown — 20% of players are under 18, seven percent over the age of 65, and the average age of 31 — is also about the same as it’s been for a while, give or take a few minor fluctuations. Casual games are still far and away the most popular genre, and nearly half of all games (49%) get an E for Everyone ESRB rating — a rating system regularly used by 86% of parents.

This year’s key difference isn’t how many people are playing or who they are, but how they are playing. As Pierre-Louis points out to me, in the 2021 report, 74% of parents said they played games with their kids at least once a week. That’s up from 55% who said the same last year — a massive jump.

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“What I like about that is it mirrors some of the recommendations that ESRB makes to parents about understanding games and gameplay,” he says. “And one of those pieces of advice is to play games with your children, both to understand what they’re playing, but also as a form of connection. And knowing that in the past year that number went from 55% to 74%, means that a lot of parents took the time to really connect and the pandemic gave us time to reassess our priorities and to change our schedules. And it was heartwarming to see that gameplay was something that brought joy to families and connection to families.”

The impact of the pandemic is felt in other places in this year’s report. For instance, more than three-quarters of players said they play games with others online or in person at least weekly, up from two-thirds last year. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said they played more games during the pandemic than they had prior. Seventy-seven percent said they play games with others online or in person at least weekly, up from 65% last year. They played online with others around seven and a half hours per week, well up from 6.6 hours a week last year.

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And critically, 90% of those surveyed said that games brought them joy, with 87% saying games provide stress relief — both critical qualities under normal circumstances, much more so during a global pandemic.

What’s the ESA doing with all these numbers? Though best-known by the player community for running E3 each year, the ESA is a trade association representing the interests of the video game industry to policy makers in the US government. It uses the data it gathers each year to spread positive awareness of the demographics, interests, and concerns of players in the United States — which Pierre-Louis tells me is still critical even as people who play games make up 68% of all Americans. Policy-makers, he says, don’t always have the right context for who a “player” is.

“People think ‘gamer’ and they’ve got an image in their heads. And then you say, ‘Do you play games? Does anyone in your family play games?’ And there’ll be a grandfather who will say, ‘Well, I don’t, except with my grandchild.’ Or, ‘I don’t, but my wife plays every night before she goes to bed, but she’s not a gamer.’

Hence, why the ESA’s survey asks people questions about if, when, where, and how they play games — not if they call themselves “gamers” or not.

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“We found that by posing it in that way, we got a fuller answer than, ‘Are you a gamer?’ Because people have a perception of what is a gamer versus, ‘No, it’s just Candy Crush.’ Or, ‘It’s just Bridge with friends online.’ …For us, a lot of this is providing context and humanizing the narrative. Because once we talk about it and they share their personal experience with either playing or someone in their family playing games, it opens up the conversation in different ways. And that allows us to provide better context for the policy positions that we have, whether it’s on the intellectual property laws or on tech issues, on immigration and trade. That it has real impact on something that is homegrown here in the U.S. that we export and provide jobs within the country.

“With some policy makers who haven’t been engaged in policy areas involving games, sometimes they have a misperception of who a gamer is. That’s where these reports help and that’s where we’re able to use it as a jumping off point to have a conversation about where games are. The other thing we’ve done in the past, and it’s on our website, is provide information about games in various districts or game companies in various districts. And when you humanize it and talk about the economic impact, not only as a nation, but as a state or as a district, it creates more of an affinity around what games mean because they also mean economic opportunity.”

What kind of policy, then, would the ESA like to put forth, apart from a more positive and accurate recognition of people who play games? Pierre-Louis specifically mentions immigration law, referencing the need for the gaming industry to be able to attract diverse talent from all around the world and then retain them. Connected to that is the importance of STEM and STEAM education, he adds later, ensuring the games industry can also grow that talent at home and continue to build strong, talented games studios, with the ESA website also mentioning the importance of the DREAM Act toward the same goal.

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There are plenty of others, of course. The ESA website outlines a number of policy positions, including right-to-repair, IP rights, subscription services, and free speech protections. I ask Pierre-Louis about the recent push from the Biden administration to reinstate net neutrality laws, to which he says the ESA still needs to look at the actual contents of what’s proposed, but that its primary concern “is making sure that video game players have the access and technology they need to be able to play in the ways that they want to play.”

I also ask about the ESA’s stance on blockchain ethics, especially given the recent addition of Mythical Games — a company that’s raised millions recently to build blockchain-based games — as a member company.

“I think one of the things we’re seeing within our members are efforts to provide consumers with different ways to engage in games and that’s yet another opportunity that consumers have to engage with games,” he replies. “I think what they’re doing is really interesting. I think they’re still working through exactly how they’re going to deploy the technology, but it’s an exciting time to be in games. And I think it’s great to see the experimentation going on with lots of companies, including what Mythical is doing to reach audiences in different ways.”

The ESA’s policy interests may very well become increasingly interesting to people who play games as their numbers grow. This year’s report says that 77% of people who play games voted in the 2020 election, a considerable spike from the 59% who said they were “likely to vote” in 2019’s report. Pierre-Louis attributes this to “a general surge in interest in the election cycle” and says the numbers track with increased interest in the general population. But he does think the increase in voting among players matters.

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“I think with respect to the political data, what that allows us to do is to talk to government officials about the fact that the video game population is one they should pay attention to,” he says. “That we are a group that represents all of America and that the policies that impact video games impact the 77% of gamers who said that they voted. And that’s an important revelation. 

“I don’t have the breakdown, but [that increase] spans political parties, because everyone is playing games. And I think that’s what it really does. It crystallizes the fact that the video game population and the video game industry is one that they should pay close attention to because we’re an industry that votes and that cares about civic responsibility and civic engagement.”

Ultimately, Pierre-Louis wants to celebrate the ways in which games are not only making people feel happy and connected, but are proving resilient and necessary during a difficult time for the world. He points out the numerous gaming companies that saw their revenues spike in 2020 as a result of people playing more games, different games, and lots of them. He compares the growth of gaming in recent years to something like a Renaissance in which everyone — creators and players of all stripes — is benefitting.

“We’re excited about the numbers that we’re seeing and the connections that they mean people are having,” he concludes. “And really to be able to provide a fuller context to all of our audiences around what games are doing for society. That includes government officials, the media, the video game industry itself. This is who we are. We should be proud of it.”

You can read the entirety of the ESA’s 2021 Essential Facts Report here.

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

PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch players can now grab Civilization VI Anthology, a bundle that includes the base game and all of its DLC. In addition, it’s currently on a launch-week discount of 30% off.

For seasoned vets and newcomers alike, Civilization games can often have overwhelming amounts of DLC. Civilization VI is no exception: with two big expansions and six additional content packs, there’s a lot to keep up on. The Anthology edition bundles together the base game, the Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions, and all six packs from the New Frontier pass. It’s worth noting, however, that Red Death, a battle royale-style multiplayer mode, remains PC only.

The game’s normal price on consoles is $70, but for the next week you can grab it for an $11 discount on Switch or if you’re a PS Plus member or Xbox Live Gold member. The Anthology bundle launched on PC earlier this year and is available on Steam currently for $98.70.

Although it’s over four years old now, publisher Firaxis continues to support the game with updates and new content. While the Frontier Pass’s content is now all available, the game has received balance updates and gotten new units in the past few months.

Sony Interactive Entertainment may be working on a new system that makes online tournaments more seamless to organize and host.

According to a patent published on the US Patent and Trademark website, Sony is proposing online tournament integration that would include “a plurality of game titles each associated with at least one tournament may be hosted on a gaming network platform,” meaning it would allow players, developers, or even third-party organizers to create online tournaments on a big or small scale.

The patent notes it would use a “gaming network platform” that players are required to have an account for to register for these online tournaments, but whether it is referring to the PlayStation Network or an entirely new service from Sony has yet to be confirmed.

The proposed system also notes that an organizer of the tournament may send invitations out to players based on numerous factors including rankings. The patent also covers what viewers may be presented during an online tournament such as additional information on tournament streams that involve a player they may watching or other information pertaining to the tournament they are viewing.

Sony originally filed this patent in 2018, but it is a continuation of the original application published last week. Yet, the publication of this patent is not surprising from Sony as the company now has joint ownership of Evo, the largest fighting game tournament in the world.

PlayStation is seemingly expanding into the competitive gaming and esports market as in May, in addition to purchasing Evo, Sony also filed a patent for a betting service that would allow users to bet on esports events using physical currency, bitcoin, or even in-game items when placing bets.

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Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Lucasfilm will release a special episode of Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian that will dive behind the scenes of one of the biggest surprises from the season 2 finale.

Spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 2 below.

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A special episode of Disney Gallery will premiere on August 25 that will go in-depth on just how the makers of the show brought Luke Skywalker back for the season finale. This includes a look at the technology that was used to recreate Luke Skywalker, plus how Mark Hamill worked with The Mandalorian team for the surprise.

Disney gallery is an eight-episode documentary series that goes into the making of Disney Plus’ popular Star Wars series.

The series finale of The Mandalorian season 2 was chock full of surprises, but the biggest was Luke Skywalker’s return. Hamill was digitally de-aged and reprised his role in Chapter 16: The Rescue.

As Din Djarin (aka The Mandalorian) continued his mission to deliver The Child, the lingering question all season was who would take Grogu and train him in the Force? A surprise Ahsoka Tano appearance mid-season was a nice red herring before it was ultimately revealed that none other than Luke Skywalker would train Grogu.

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As The Mandalorian gears up for a third season, the Star Wars universe on Disney Plus continues to grow. This winter Disney Plus will premiere the spinoff series The Book of Boba Fett, and an Ahsoka solo series is also in the works.

The Mandalorian was recently nominated for 24 Emmy award nominations including for Best Drama series.

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Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.

Sacha Baron Cohen is suing a Massachusetts marijuana dispensary for using his character, Borat, in a billboard advertisement without his permission.

This news comes by way of AP, which reports that Cohen has filed the lawsuit in a Boston U.S. District Court. The billboard in question could be found on the side of a Massachusetts highway depicting Borat in his now-famous two-thumbs-up pose beside the words “It’s nice” earlier this year (before it was removed).

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The billboard was advertising the Somerset-based Solar Therapeutics Inc. marijuana dispensary and court documents reveal Cohen’s team believes that by using the Borat character in the ad, the company is falsely conveying that Borat and Cohen endorse it.

“By use of the billboard, the defendants falsely have conveyed to the public that Mr. Baron Cohen has endorsed their products and is affiliated with their business,” according to a complaint filed by Cohen’s legal team. “To the contrary, Mr. Baron Cohen never has used cannabis in his life. He never would participate in an advertising campaign for cannabis, for any amount of money.”

The Solar Therapeutics Inc. billboard was taken down in April, “three days after Baron Cohen’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist order to the dispensary,” according to AP’s report.

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“Mr. Baron Cohen is highly protective of his image and persona, and those of his characters,” the complaint reads. “Mr. Baron Cohen is very careful with the manner in which he uses his persona and his characters to interact with his fans and the general public.”

Cohen is seeking $9 million in damages for what he claims is a wrongful use of his Borat character. The court case is ongoing at the time.

To see something that Cohen does endorse, check out Borat, which IGN gave an 8 out of 10, and then check out the subsequent movie film, Borat 2. Read about how Rudy Giuliani won two Razzie Awards for his wild appearance in Borat 2 after that.

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Having already released pro-grade controllers for both PlayStation and Xbox, PowerA has finally released a customizable pro controller for Nintendo Switch. The PowerA Fusion Pro Wireless Controller features four customizable rear paddles, a comfortable, rubberized grip, and over 20 hours of battery life on a single charge. But, with a console that generally skews towards a more casual audience, are the added “Pro” features really necessary?

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PowerA Fusion Pro Wireless Controller – Design and Features

Right off the bat, PowerA has outdone itself with the presentation of the Fusion Pro controller. Upon opening the zippered hardshell case, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the Xbox Elite Controller. Inside the case is the controller itself, with its customizable Pro Pack preinstalled, an interchangeable magnetic white faceplate, two different-sized thumbsticks, and a nearly 10-foot-long braided USB-C cable. For under $100, this truly feels like a bargain.

The first thing to note is that this controller is hefty. Not only is it heavier than Nintendo’s official Pro Controller, but it’s also noticeably thicker – something to keep in mind for younger players. The layout is nearly identical to Nintendo’s controller as well, with offset thumbsticks and the Switch’s Home and Screenshot buttons front and center. It connects via Bluetooth and is compatible with the Nintendo Switch in all modes, including the Nintendo Switch Lite.

Looking at what makes this controller a “Pro” option, the first thing to point out is the removable Pro Pack on the back. It includes four metal paddle-style buttons, each of which attach using a clever magnetic system that holds them in place. They don’t have much travel when pressed and definitely take some getting used to. Each paddle ends in a satisfying click, providing some tactile feedback to let you know it’s registered the button press. The Pro Pack can easily be removed and replaced with a flush back if you opt to play without the additional inputs, as well as the ability to remove individual paddles, providing you a truly customizable experience.

Another feature worth calling out is the anti-friction rings installed on each faceplate. These provide a buttery smooth experience when rotating the analog sticks and allow you to move them incredibly fast without getting stuck on the edges. There are also two additional analog sticks that you can swap between – a taller concave stick and a regular-sized convex stick. To replace any of the analog sticks, simply remove the faceplate and swap out the stick. It’s not as elegant of a solution as Microsoft has created with magnetic thumbstick attachments, but it works nonetheless.

The final component that sets this controller apart from others is the rubberized grips. While many controllers opt for smooth grips or subtle plastic textured grips, this grip is a noticeable step-up. Even during extended play sessions, I never felt like the controller was slipping and was very easy to hold.

Other notable features include a 3.5mm auxiliary port, allowing you to connect a pair of headphones directly to the Fusion Pro controller for audio out. As welcome as this feature is (especially for Switch owners), it only works in wired mode, which is a bit of a bummer. The Fusion Pro also features a USB-C port for charging and playing in wired mode. Its built-in rechargeable battery lasts for 20 hours on a single charge, which is a great battery life given the added components.

The four primary face buttons feel very similar to Nintendo’s Pro Controller. They feature a slightly convex shape with a very little wiggle in each slot, combined with a satisfying, clicky press. The D-Pad is also extremely well-designed. It’s very firm and extremely precise, and will be a welcome addition for fighting game fanatics or retro game enthusiasts. On the top of the controller are the L and R shoulder buttons as well as digital ZL and ZR triggers. Given their digital nature, the triggers don’t have much travel, but this is par for the course for most Nintendo Switch controllers.

Despite its added size and weight, the Fusion Pro controller does not include any rumble. For a “Pro” controller, this seems like a bit of an oversight, as the additional feedback in FPS games is extremely helpful.

PowerA Fusion Pro Wireless Controller – Software

Instead of using software to customize and map the rear paddles, PowerA has created an intuitive system on the back of the controller that allows you to assign paddles on the fly. Simply press and hold the program button followed by the desired input before selecting the paddle you’d like to use. The simplicity of this system makes it extremely accessible and opens up “Pro” features for everyone to use. The best part is that you can change the controls for each game you play, or even mid-match if something isn’t working well. The only thing that would’ve been welcome is the option for saving a couple presets for easy switching, but given how quickly you can remap the controls it may have been overkill.

PowerA Fusion Pro Wireless Controller – Gaming

The idea of a pro-level controller is always exciting, as the added paddles allow you to cut down on unnecessary finger movement and stay locked into the action, theoretically giving you the edge over most players. However, this controller seems at odds with the system it’s designed for as the Nintendo Switch isn’t known for its pro gaming scene.

That being said, I booted up Apex Legends and took the Pro Fusion controller for a spin. As previously mentioned, mapping the controls to the rear paddles was a breeze, and after taking some time to retrain my brain, I was ready for showtime. Movement on the anti-friction analog sticks was smooth and responsive, and the addition of the rear paddles meant I could reload, swap weapons, heal, and chuck grenades, all without taking my fingers off the sticks. Using the paddles was easy enough and each one responded exactly as intended. 

But, even with the minuscule advantage over other players, I’m sad to report that I did not perform much better than I would’ve without the paddles. As it turns out, using a “Pro” controller doesn’t instantly make you a pro. But, if this is your only console and you’re into competitive games like Apex Legends, Overwatch, or Fortnite, having customizable paddles is never a bad thing. All things considered, I still find it hard to recommend this over Nintendo’s own Pro Controller, as the lack of rumble and added heft seem to detract from the experience more than enhance it.

Rainbow Six Extraction, the one-to-three player co-op shooter, will launch with full cross-play and cross-progression across all platforms. Players will be able to also play their save on any platform using Ubisoft Connect.

You will be able to hunt down aliens and save missing operations will friends regardless of what platform they are on, for both current-gen and last-gen consoles. Anyone who plays both Rainbow Six Siege and Rainbow Six Extraction will unlock the United Front bundle in both games, unlocking skins for four different operators in both games. In addition to that, anyone who plays both games will unlock all 18 Rainbow Six Extraction operators in Rainbow Six Siege permanently.

Rainbow Six Extraction sees the Rainbow Six team take on an alien threat in repeatable missions where teams of one to three players must infiltrate alien-controlled zones to complete different objectives. If you fail the mission the operator you took on the mission will become unavailable until they are rescued. This mechanic is being used to punish quitters, if you quit a match your operator will also go MIA and be unavailable.

Rainbow Six Extraction releases on September 16 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, PC, and Stadia. Anyone who preorders Rainbow Six Extraction will also unlock the Orbital Decay bundle, which includes a weapon skin, a charm, and a skin for both Lion and Finka.