The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo’s most beloved series, and for good reason. The adventures starring a young hero battling against evil have grown up alongside the gaming industry itself, constantly reinventing itself and having an influence on the direction of video games as a whole in the process. For that reason the Zelda series is easily among the most revered in Nintendo’s library, though some are more memorable than others.

We rounded up all of the major Legend of Zelda releases, putting aside spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors. Then the GameSpot staff came together and agreed on a consensus ranking. Here, from least to most legendary, are the best Zelda games.

If you’d like to play these games, some of them are available on the Nintendo Switch, and the classic NES and SNES entries are available to play through the Switch Online service.

If you’re also a fan of Nintendo’s iconic plumber, check out our list of the best Mario games. For Switch game suggestions, we have roundups of the best Nintendo Switch games and best Switch games for kids.

15. Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link

Before there even was a Zelda mold, Nintendo thoroughly broke it. Zelda 2 gets some credit for completely rethinking what a Zelda game could be, swapping its top-down perspective for a more action-oriented side-scrolling combat system, and placing much more emphasis on RPG elements like exploring and talking to townsfolk. It bore a passing resemblance to its contemporaries like Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest. But for all of its daring experimentation, it was also often frustrating and obtuse. There’s a reason Nintendo chose to make subsequent Zelda games more based on the original than this oddball sequel. Nowadays it’s mostly known for its final battle, which had Link fighting against his own shadow.

14. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

The Nintendo DS got two of its own Zelda games, but to make use of the dual-screen system you controlled Link entirely using the touch screen. The result was a little awkward and halting, but it worked well enough once you got the hang of it. While Spirit Tracks sported some clever dungeon design, the touchscreen functionality wasn’t as novel the second time around, and the limitations of navigating the world via train just didn’t feel as adventurous as riding the wind on a boat.

See our The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks review.

13. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Phantom Hourglass is the predecessor to Spirit Tracks, and it did just about everything better. It got a lot of mileage out of the Wind Waker art style, and sailing around the world was exhilarating. At the end of the day, though, touchscreen Zelda was an experiment. They pulled it off well enough but even subsequent Zelda games on the 3DS didn’t follow in those footsteps, and for good reason.

See our The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass review.

12. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Skyward Sword certainly isn’t a bad Zelda game, but it is the point at which the path charted by several previous 3D Zeldas started to show its age. The pattern of exploring a dungeon to find a new powerup felt a little more rote this time around, and worse yet, the pace was criticized as achingly slow. It took hours just to get out of the opening tutorial island, the game constantly dropped reminders about basic information, and your in-game companion was endlessly chatty. Some of this was addressed in the recent HD remaster for Nintendo Switch, which helps sand off some of the rough edges. The controls were originally designed for the Wii remote, and the remaster makes mostly successful revisions to those. And to its credit, it is canonically the very first Zelda game, making it a must-play for lore lovers.

See our The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD review.

11. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons

The Oracle duology is technically two separate games (and originally three games!), each with their own dungeons and puzzle mechanics. But they’re clearly part of a matched set, having followed the Pokemon formula and released simultaneously, with players intended to use cross-game functionality. You can play either game individually and get a full Zelda game, but providing a linked password to either one treats the other like a sequel and provides the “true” ending. But effectively doubling the playtime (and cost) with two similarly-playing games was an awkward fit compared to simply trading pocket monsters, even if the gameplay was a solid throwback to the Game Boy classic Link’s Awakening.

See our The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages review and Oracle of Seasons review.

10. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

While many Legend of Zelda games take place in their own unique time and place with only loose connections to others–taking advantage of the squishy nature of “legends”–Nintendo has started to more frequently make direct sequels. And just as Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks were sequels to Wind Waker, the 3DS’s A Link Between Worlds was a direct successor to A Link to the Past. The setting was largely similar to LTTP’s Hyrule, with the dark “Lorule” as the dark counterpart like LTTP’s Dark World. That familiar framework served as the backdrop for Nintendo producer Eiji Aonuma to break out of the Zelda mold. Rather than the staid loop of finding equipment in dungeons and taking them on in order, this one let you play the dungeons in any order after purchasing the necessary equipment from a shady shopkeeper. This was overtly an attempt to shake things up after fans and critics alike criticized Skyward Sword for being formulaic, and it arguably helped pave the way for the much more radical change that was to come in Breath of the Wild.

See our The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds review.

9. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

The sole original Game Boy Advance Zelda game wasn’t particularly revolutionary, but it was a very polished version of what a Zelda can be. The hook for this entry was a magical cap that could shrink Link down to the size of the Minish–a tiny sprite-like race who live in the cracks and crevices of Hyrule. That mechanic makes the setting the star, as you see environments in regular size often before transferring to Minish-size to see everything around you grow gigantic by comparison. The cap also happens to be your mouthy companion this time, and the wise-cracking cap sported more personality than previous earnest companions like Navi.

See our The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap review.

8. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Nintendo’s first attempt at a portable Zelda game is still widely regarded as one of its best. The Game Boy release takes Link far from Hyrule to the mysterious Koholint Island. A wise old owl tells him that the monsters have been acting more aggressive since he arrived, because they know he’s there to wake the Windfish, who has been imprisoned by a legion of evil Nightmares. The resulting adventure is unlike any other Zelda game, with notable cameos from Mario enemies, wacky characters like a talking crocodile, and a standalone story that tugs on the heartstrings. It later received a Game Boy Color rerelease called Link’s Awakening DX, which added a color-based dungeon. More recently, a Switch version revised everything from the ground up with an entirely new visual style and new quality-of-life features.

See our The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening review.

7. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

After venturing into a very animated art style for Wind Waker, Nintendo went back to a more realistic take on Hyrule in Twilight Princess. This darker entry in the Zelda series features a shadow world teeming with inky blackness. The eponymous Twilight Princess is Midna, the princess of the shadowy realm, and if that weren’t dark enough, it features segments in which Link turns into a skulking wolf. While it was a somewhat awkward transition between the GameCube and Wii eras for Nintendo, it still has some of the best 3D dungeon design and a world marked with inventive power-ups and areas to explore. It later received an HD re-release on Wii U.

See our The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD review.

6. The Legend of Zelda

The original Legend of Zelda lacks the polish of its successors, but we have to give credit to the one that started it all. The foundation laid here, from unique equipment spread out across eight dungeons to loads of obscure and well-hidden secrets to uncover, would go on to define Zelda from that point on. And while it’s undeniably minimalist, that only makes it stand out that much more. It was meant to evoke the feeling of going on a grand adventure through the wilderness, and the lack of hand-holding that would come to define later Zelda games makes the world feel that much more expansive and mysterious.

5. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

A divisive GameCube game at launch has grown into one of the most revered in hindsight. Wind Waker attempted a new cel-shaded art and more cartoonish characters and environments. More radical than the visual style may have been the world, which was far from the Hyrule we all remember. Instead it took place in a flooded kingdom with sparse islands separating them, and you spent much of your time traversing between them on a small talking boat. The colorful presentation belied ingenious dungeon design and some neat power-ups, including a glider-like leaf that was the precursor to one of Breath of the Wild’s most significant traversal tools. It received an HD remaster on Wii U in 2013.

See our The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker review.

4. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Zelda spin-offs have shown mixed success, but this spin-off from the Ocarina of Time is still revered as one of the best in the series. Young Link goes on a journey outside of Hyrule, discovering the strange Clock Town which is doomed to suffer an apocalyptic event in just three days. To stop the impending doom from a creepy, grinning moon, Link has to employ the use of masks that grant him new abilities or even change his race into fantastical creatures like the Zora or Deku. The masks provided an interesting change from the standard Zelda equipment. In contrast to Ocarina’s broad, sprawling Hyrule, Majora’s Mask was a very focused experience–taking place in a time loop within a town where getting to know the habits and routines of the townsfolk was vital to your success in saving them. Like Ocarina of Time, it received a 3DS port that included some quality-of-life changes.

See our The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D review.

3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

A Link to the Past was only the third Zelda game in existence, but third time’s the charm. This was widely seen as an instant classic and still stands as the pinnacle of the 2D Zelda games. The dungeons and bosses were fine-tuned to near perfection, the overworld was bursting with secrets to uncover and explore, and the new Dark World element let you flip between two very different versions of the same space. In both the light world and dark world, Link to the Past put the focus on the inhabitants of the world, like the Flute Boy, who had their own stories told with minimalistic grace. An impressive achievement for its time and a game that absolutely holds up in modern times, Link to the Past is among the best.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The most recent major Zelda release is also undoubtedly one of the very best. While Nintendo is often a playful and experimental company, it can sometimes take a lot for the company to make major, seismic changes to its core franchises. After the criticism lobbed at Skyward Sword, the company listened. Producer Eiji Aonuma started talking openly about his desire to break with the Zelda formula and try new things, first letting you purchase equipment and mix up the dungeon order in A Link Between Worlds. That was just a taste of things to come, however, because Breath of the Wild was the real radical shift. Nintendo reassessed just about everything, from the structure of dungeons to equipment to how you interact with the world. The result was an incredible open-world experience where players could push themselves to go just about anywhere–including straight to the final boss, if they’d like. It was unlike any Zelda before, and inspired countless imitators already, and marked a new era of The Legend of Zelda.

See our The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild review.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda is such a storied game series that you could mount a good case for multiple games to rank at the top spot, but at the end of the day, we had to give it to Ocarina of Time. The first 3D Zelda set the template for the direction of the series to follow for years, and even Breath of the Wild’s incredible series shake-up was defined by how it riffed on the formula while still being recognizable to longtime fans. But it wasn’t just influential within the context of the Zelda series itself. As a trailblazer in video game design, Nintendo helped to invent and innovate many of the ways that 3D video games would work for years to come. Even today, every time you lock onto an enemy in combat you’re tipping a hat to Ocarina of Time.

For Zelda fans, Ocarina also established some of the most vital and central parts of the legendary lore, including the origins of Ganon, the history of the three Golden Goddesses, the first appearance of races like the Goron and Deku, and a deeply expanded cast of surrounding characters and cultures. It also established an important part of the Zelda mythos–that the primary characters, Link, Zelda, and Ganon represent aspects of the Triforce itself, which is why their fates are tied together through the generations.

As one of the most revered Zelda games, it’s also gotten multiple ports and remasters. It was released as a special GameCube disc along with the Master Quest, an ultra-hard version with reworked dungeons. It also received a 3DS port that included quality-of-life changes, including some revisions to the infamous Water Dungeon.

See our The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time review.

IGN has your exclusive first look at Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which Screen Gems bills not as a reboot or remake of their feature film franchise but rather as the origin story of the original Capcom games. Check out the three exclusive images below to see the new big-screen versions of Claire and Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Leon S. Kennedy, Albert Wesker and more characters gamers will recognize.

The upcoming film — written and directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night) — is based on the first two Resident Evil games. The movie chronicles how Raccoon City went from being a city of industry to a dying Midwestern town that’s become ground zero for the t-Virus outbreak.

In a new exclusive interview with IGN, Roberts elaborated on the differences between his Resident Evil movie, the prior films starring Milla Jovovich, and how his filmmaking approach here draws not only from the Capcom games but also old school genre filmmaking:

“This movie really had nothing to do with the previous franchise. This was all about returning to the games and creating a movie that was much more a horror movie than the sort of sci-fi action of the previous films. I was hugely influenced in particular by the remake of the second game and I really wanted to capture the atmosphere-drenched tone that it had. It was so cinematic. The previous movies were very bright and shiny whereas this movie was dark and grimy, entirely shot at night. It’s constantly raining and the town is shrouded in mist. … I was hugely influenced by movies like The Exorcist (and Exorcist 3!), Don’t Look Now, and The Shining. You can really feel the texture in this movie. Nothing in this town feels hi-tech. It feels dilapidated. I wanted Raccoon City to feel a bit like the town in Deer Hunter; a ghost town forgotten by the rest of the world. And the whole structure of the film was definitely very influenced by Assault on Precinct 13.”

Our first exclusive image from the film reveals the first look at Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield and Avan Jogia as Leon S. Kennedy. You’ll notice Leon is wearing his police uniform, in keeping with what his job was at the time of the Raccoon City Destruction Incident.

In Resident Evil 2, Leon and Claire Redfield, sister of S.T.A.R.S. officer Chris Redfield (played in this film by the Arrowverse’s Robbie Amell), were among the few people who ventured into Raccoon City following the outbreak. They eventually crossed paths with Raccoon City Police Chief Brian Irons, played in this film by Gotham’s Donal Logue.

“The difference with this film as opposed to the previous movies is that it is an ensemble where each of the main characters carries huge importance to the narrative. They are not just cosplay characters who have the exact hair and costume of the characters,” Roberts said. “It was hugely important with the whole casting process to find people who embodied the spirit and energy of the characters I wanted to portray. I think often in game adaptations one of the big flaws can be just casting someone to look visually like the characters – giving them the identical haircut and clothes but not really trying to give the audience the thing that a movie does better than a game – which is to create a three dimensional character that you can really connect with and believe in.”

Roberts recalled the particularly difficult search for the right actor to play Leon S. Kennedy: “We must have seen so many people – it was really quite a tricky role because of the balance of humor and weariness. Then Avan read and I was like he’s the one! He gets it.”

IGN’s second exclusive image from Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City features, from left-to-right, Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), Richard Aiken (Chad Rook), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), and Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell) on the prowl in the Spencer Mansion, which Roberts previously described to us as being “creepy as f*ck” in his film.

“I wanted to go back to the horror of it all. I wanted scares and atmosphere rather than full-on action,” Roberts told IGN when comparing what differentiates Welcome to Raccoon City from the earlier Resident Evil films. “I think fans of the game felt the same. They wanted to see the iconic characters and locations and feel that the movie was more in line with the Resident Evil game world so that’s really why we chose to go in that direction. We worked hand in hand with Capcom on this movie to the point that we actually got blueprints from them on the designs of the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon police station in order to recreate them as perfectly as we could. We even have the exact artwork up on the mansion walls. Capcom saw it for the first time the other day and was so happy and excited.”

The final image we can exclusively reveal from Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City depicts Lisa Trevor, played in the film by Marina Mazepa. In the games, Lisa is the teenage daughter of the architect of the Spencer Mansion in Raccoon Forest who went missing while on a walk. Umbrella scientists working out of the Arklay Laboratory near the Spencer Mansion experimented on Lisa for years, including exposing her to multiple viruses.

These gruesome experiments on Lisa led Umbrella to discover the Nemesis Tyrant and the G-Virus, but they also transformed her into a deranged monstrosity. One of the scientists who experimented on her is Dr. William Birkin, played in Welcome to Raccoon City by Neal McDonough.

“Lisa Trevor is actually quite a pivotal role in the movie. I was always fascinated by her when playing the remake of the first game. I found her character both disturbing and at the same time strangely haunting,” Roberts told IGN. “When we were discussing how to bring this story to life it was one of the elements that I really wanted to feature strongly as she has never been in any of the filmed versions of Resident Evil. I wanted her to be a three-dimensional character, not just some creepy specter. We cast Marina Mazepa, who had just done Malignant for James Wan and really worked hard in bringing this character to life in a way I think the fans are going to love so much. She’s terrifying but also tragic. In the movie, we really connect her to Claire Redfield’s story, starting with the orphanage where Claire grew up.”

Fans of the games should know that Capcom was involved in the film’s development and designs. “We worked very closely with Capcom. Every character and creature is from the game and as such, I wanted to be as faithful as possible. I wanted to create a truly immersive feeling for the fans,” Roberts explained. “But that also became the trickiest part of adapting a piece of IP like this because I didn’t just want to put the game on screen – it had to be its own thing with living breathing characters and creatures (and, of course, zombies!) that felt true to the world.”

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City opens only in theaters on November 24, 2021, in the US, December 3 in the UK, and November 25 in Australia.

(Editor’s note: Our original post incorrectly included Brad Vickers instead of Richard Aiken. We regret the error.)

The upcoming movie Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City tells the origin story of the Capcom games. Written and directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night), this film is based on the first two Resident Evil games and chronicles how Raccoon City went from being a city of industry to a dying Midwestern town that’s now ground zero for the t-Virus outbreak.

In an exclusive e-mail interview with IGN, Roberts elaborated on the differences between his Resident Evil movie and the prior Screen Gems film series starring Milla Jovovich and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson, as well as how his vision for the movie draws not only from the Capcom games but also John Carpenter-era genre filmmaking.

IGN: Resident Evil is one of the most commercially successful video game movie franchises ever. Why reboot it instead of continuing it?

Johannes Roberts: I actually love the first movie so much. I think it’s great. And Milla just created such an iconic character. But it was its own thing. It wasn’t really Resident Evil as I knew it – the previous movies never captured the game and the feelings I got when playing the game (that’s not a criticism I think it just went in a different direction). I wanted to go back to the horror of it all. I wanted scares and atmosphere rather than full-on action. I think fans of the game felt the same – they wanted to see the iconic characters and locations and feel that the movie was more in line with the Resident Evil game world so that’s really why we chose to go in that direction. We worked hand-in-hand with Capcom on this movie… to the point that we actually got blueprints from them on the designs of the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon police station in order to recreate them as perfectly as we could. We even have the exact artwork up on the mansion walls. Capcom saw it for the first time the other day and was so happy and excited. And that – as a nerd – made me so happy and excited!

How do these incarnations of characters such as Jill Valentine and Leon S. Kennedy differ from their versions in the past films?

Johannes Roberts: The difference with this film as opposed to the previous movies is that it is an ensemble where each of the main characters carries huge importance to the narrative. They are not just cosplay characters who have the exact hair and costume of the characters. I think previously everything had been all about the Alice character – which was never in the games – and the game characters that did appear like Jill, Leon, Claire, and Chris did so as kind of supporting cameos. Jill and Leon in this movie are equal leads along with Claire and Chris and Wesker.

Jill was such a fun character to play around with – a sort of live-wire, small-town girl – she’s kick-ass but not in a superhuman way. You really feel scared for her when shit goes down. Hannah John-Kamen really brought her to life! Leon Kennedy was interesting because in many ways he was my way into the movie as a writer – I sort of saw the story through his eyes. I wanted to move away from the buff action hero that Leon has become in the later games and return to the Leon Kennedy of his very first ‘rookie’ incarnation in the Resident Evil 2 game. In this movie he is not at all an action hero – he’s slightly out of his depth, very hungover, and cannot believe the s**t that is going down on his first day. The events of the film help create the ‘hero’ Leon they know from the games.

There is definitely a Carpenter vibe to his character. When I was writing him I had sort of a cross between Jack Burton and MacReady in my mind! It was probably the trickiest role to cast to find someone who could carry that off! Avan Jogia really nailed it. He’s so wonderfully disheveled and out of his depth in the movie.

IGN: Can you define what your visual aesthetic was for this film in terms of differentiating what audiences have seen in past Resident Evil movies?

Johannes Roberts: This movie really had nothing to do with the previous franchise. This was all about returning to the games and creating a movie that was much more a horror movie than the sort of sci-fi action of the previous films. I was hugely influenced in particular by the remake of the second game and I really wanted to capture the atmosphere-drenched tone that it had. It was so cinematic. The previous movies were very bright and shiny whereas this movie was dark and grimy, entirely shot at night. It’s constantly raining and the town is shrouded in mist.

I was very influenced by seventies filmmaking techniques – we shot using zooms a lot! And there are no drone shots in the movie or crazy CGI camera shots that are physically impossible. The movie has a very old-school retro feel to it. I was hugely influenced by movies like The Exorcist (and Exorcist 3!), Don’t Look Now, and The Shining. You can really feel the texture in this movie. Nothing in this town feels hi-tech. It feels dilapidated. I wanted Raccoon City to feel a bit like the town in Deer Hunter; a ghost town forgotten by the rest of the world. And the whole structure of the film was definitely very influenced by Assault on Precinct 13.

IGN: How do the creature and character designs in your film differ from what fans of the games and the preexisting movies know?

Johannes Roberts: We always returned to the game whenever we were looking at the characters and creatures and locations. It was our guiding star. As I said before we worked very closely with Capcom. Every character and creature is from the game and as such, I wanted to be as faithful as possible. I wanted to create a truly immersive feeling for the fans. But that also became the trickiest part of adapting a piece of IP like this because I didn’t just want to put the game on screen – it had to be its own thing with living breathing characters and creatures (and of course zombies!) that felt true to the world. There is some cool s**t in there. I mean some of the creature stuff looks f***ing incredible. It was a mixture of prosthetics, CGI, and creature performers. There’s some wonderfully freaky stuff in there. You’ll immediately recognize the creatures from the game but hopefully, we’ve gone beyond the game in terms of making these terrifying creations feel like they really could exist in real life.

IGN: Can you talk about the casting of the roles of Leo and Jill and what you wanted to achieve with that?

Johannes Roberts: It was hugely important with the whole casting process to find people who embodied the spirit and energy of the characters I wanted to portray. I think often in game adaptations one of the big flaws can be just casting someone to look visually like the characters – giving them the identical haircut and clothes but not really trying to give the audience the thing that a movie does better than a game – which is to create a three-dimensional character that you can really connect with and believe in. I think as I said before one of the traps of falling into game adaptations is to make it feel like a giant cosplay version of the game.

Our cast is obviously much more diverse than the original games but I wanted to resist the trap of just casting because someone just happened to look like their character identically. We actually had a lot of actors who came in and recreated themselves perfectly visually as the character they were reading – it was uncanny at times ha! – but it was not what I felt this story needed. With Jill, I knew Hannah from Ready Player One and this show she was in at the time called The Stranger and I just knew she’d be perfect. Leon was much harder. We must have seen so many people – it was really quite a tricky role because of the balance of humor and weariness. Then Avan read and I was like he’s the one! He gets it.

IGN: What was your overall design philosophy on differentiating this film’s creature designs from both the existing films and games?

Johannes Roberts: There is actually quite a lot that has never been in any previous movie to be honest which is exciting. And even the stuff we have seen before – I won’t give it away but there are some iconic creatures fans will be so happy to see – we have really gone all out in making them feel like characters – we really focus in on each individual creature whether it be zombie, or crow, or Doberman or… (I won’t spoil the rest) – but it’s never huge wide shots of faceless hordes – it’s about detail. It’s about really connecting with that individual creature at that time. Making it feel like a living breathing thing. Feeling our characters’ disbelief at what is unfolding.

John Carpenter is the master of this. Watch The Thing — each creature moment is treated as an artwork — you get to marvel at its entire glory. It’s never just hundreds of things thrown at you. There is real personality and life in each creature set piece. And the character reactions then just feel so honest and real. And the fear is then very real. I very much had this in mind when shooting Resident Evil – especially when recreating moments like the turnaround zombie from the game – as well as when things go REALLY crazy toward the end – I really invite the audience to revel in the creations we have put on screen. I can’t wait for people to see all of them in their full glory!

IGN: How much does the story of Lisa Trevor come into play in this film? And what is the importance of including her here? In this film?

Johannes Roberts: Lisa Trevor is actually quite a pivotal role in the movie. I was always fascinated by her when playing the remake of the first game. I found her character both disturbing and at the same time strangely haunting. When we were discussing how to bring this story to life it was one of the elements that I really wanted to feature strongly as she has never been in any of the filmed versions of Resident Evil. I wanted her to be a three-dimensional character, not just some creepy specter. We cast Marina Mazepa, who had just done Malignant for James Wan and really worked hard in bringing this character to life in a way I think the fans are going to love so much. She’s terrifying but also tragic. In the movie, we really connect her to Claire Redfield’s story, starting with the orphanage where Claire grew up.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City opens only in theaters on November 24, 2021, in the US, December 3 in the UK, and November 25 in Australia.

The power of play makes us heroes in new worlds every day. You can be a hero in real life too by getting vaccinated against COVID-19, protecting yourself & the people around you.
Learn more during our Q&A with the @CDCgov & @CDCFound: https://t.co/8qu2Hqtxtz

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The COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the U.S. are highly effective at preventing severe disease and death, including against the Delta variant. As it stands, unvaccinated people are most at risk to contract and spread the virus. https://t.co/bz9zhZvZKs

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COVID-19 vaccines are free for those who are eligible—people 12 and older in the U.S. https://t.co/3qE18C1UKc is an online resource to find vaccination sites near you, including in-home options for some.

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To dispel some common COVID-19 vaccine myths: the vaccines don’t contain microchips or magnets, they don’t alter your DNA, they don’t give you COVID-19, and there is no evidence they have any impact on pregnancy or fertility. https://t.co/Kh2rg1tt5t

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Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima isn’t just a fan of video game photo modes, he’s a big believer in using them to improve your own skills in the real world.

“If you keep taking pictures, even in-game, your sensitivity and skills will naturally improve. Composition, layout, focus,” Kojima tweeted. “Most importantly, you will know what you want to photograph. After that, the in-game experience will surely come in handy when you shoot with a real camera or smartphone.”

A number of games, especially those of the open-world genre variety, come equipped with a built-in photo mode that allows users to take a perfect snapshot of the moment that they’re in. These modes have gotten more advanced over the years, and these days it’s commonplace to see that function augmented by advanced photographic features such as setting your aperture, tightening your focal distance, or applying a few filters.

Sony’s first-party games in particular have made great strides forward in this area, as everything from Marvel’s Spider-Man to Ratchet Clank: Into the Rift features a photography suite that allows for an incredible amount of customization. Death Stranding is no stranger to these shutterbug systems, as players could document their journey through various snapshots.

After selling 5 million copies on PS4 and PC, Death Stranding’s next chapter kicks off in September with a director’s cut edition that will expand on the Social Strand system introduced in the game. As for Kojima, the 58-year-old developer plans to still keep on producing games while his mind remains sharp enough to do so, and it’s rumored that he may have inked a new deal with Microsoft to bring his next game to Xbox.

Naughty Dog is currently making its first-ever standalone multiplayer game, but what other projects might the studio make in the future? We don’t know for sure just yet, but Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells said fans can look forward to the studio making new IP and also working on established franchises.

“I think the easy answer is: both. I think there’s excitement to develop new IP, but there is still a ton of love for Uncharted and The Last of Us, and I think you’ll see both kinds of projects from us in the future,” Wells said in an interview with Game Informer.

Naughty Dog is known for its big, cinematic single-player story-focused games, and you can expect this to continue in the future.

“Single-player experiences are near and dear to us. It’s what has attracted a lot of people to Naughty Dog, and that’s what inspires them, so I think we’re going to keep at it as long as we can,” Wells said.

Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann is also quoted in the interview, saying Naughty Dog studio owner Sony has never come to the team with a mandate to make a certain type of game.

“There has never been a mandate like, ‘Oh, this is where we see the winds shifting. Can you start making these kind of games instead?’ We know just as they know that when you work on something you’re excited by, something you’re passionate by, you’re going to do great work,” he said.

One of Naughty Dog’s first successful games was Jak and Daxter, and Wells said if the studio had “endless resources and time,” it would be fun to return to making “lighter fare” games like that. “You look at what Insomniac is doing with Ratchet and Clank and it’s exciting. It’s great to see that stuff. We’re just limited with time, you know, I’m 48 years-old and how many more games do you get to make, so you got to pick and choose,” Wells said.

As for Druckmann, he said when Naughty Dog finishes a particular project, the team will spend “quite a bit of time” deciding what to do next and if it should make a new IP or dig back into its catalog for a sequel.

“We really take our time with it, and if you were to see our folders of concept art you’d see unused concepts that are all over the gamut,” Druckmann said. “Then we look at everything and we ask ourselves what are we excited by? What’s something that’s going to challenge us and push us, and push the medium as far as games that can be? Because that inspiration is so important to carry through years of production.”

Beyond the new Last of Us multiplayer game, Naughty Dog has no announced projects. Naughty Dog has already said it will not make more Uncharted games, but the studio is open to having a different developer come in to make Uncharted 5.

This Sunday of deals is full of fun. We’ve got a bunch of different Kindle models discounted today, several gaming laptops and desktops from Lenovo and Newegg, a bunch of webcams from the likes of Razer and Logitech and to top it off, a crazy looking chair that we’re pretty sure you would never want to leave once you sat down in.

Lenovo Intel Gamer Days Sale: Save on Legion Gaming Laptops and Desktop PCs

Lenovo’s “Legion” series of gaming PCs and laptops offer the latest and greatest gaming performance at a very reasonable cost. They’re equipped with the newest RTX 30 series video cards, which offer huge speed gains compared to the previous generation’s RTX 20 series cards, along with new technology like DLSS 2.0 (very useful) and ray tracing (not as much). Alongside these new GPUs are your choice of either AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series or Intel’s Rocket Lake/Tiger Lake processors. Lenovo also offers one of the best customer service experiences compared to other prebuilt PC makers, which is especially important if you haven’t built the PC yourself. Lenovo’s sale events can be hard to navigate, so we’ve conveniently rounded up a list of the best Legion deals going on right now.

Lenovo Legion Gaming Laptops

Lenovo Legion Gaming PCs

Daily Deals for August 29th 2021

In these bizarre times, socialising is important. Don’t do enough of it, and you might become isolated, weird, and playwrighting about St. Swithin’s Day. That being said, I’ve located a bunch of discounted co-op experiences that can help you feel a sense of community and common decency again. Alternatively, there’s a compilation that pools together 30 years of Street Fighting. Go heavy kick the ever-loving pixels out of one another instead. We all cope in different ways.

Oh, and before I forget: Battlefield V can be acquired for nix on PC. You just need to sign up to Amazon Prime’s equally free, 30-day trial.

Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch

Purchase Cheaply for PC

Exciting Offers for XO/XS

Product Savings for PS4/PS5

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Adam’s an Aussie deals wrangler who spends too much of his income on the bargains he finds. You can occasionally find him @Grizwords.

R-rated horror slasher Candyman had a strong opening weekend at the domestic box office, earning $22.3 million in 3,569 theaters.

This news comes by way of Variety, which also reports that the Nia DaCosta-directed and Jordan Peele-produced film brought in an additional $5.2 million overseas across 51 international markets. This brings Candyman’s opening weekend grand total to about $27.5 million.

The movie, which cost MGM $25 million to produce, is due to be quite profitable for the studio, according to Variety. This is especially great news for MGM as other R-rated movies have struggled in the pandemic-era box office. The Suicide Squad opened to just $26.5 million, despite industry expectations that predicted it would pull in around $30 million, for example.

However, unlike Candyman, The Suicide Squad also debuted on a subscription streaming service (HBO Max), following suit with many other movies released this summer. What The Suicide Squad didn’t make at the box office, it might have made up for with new HBO Max subscriptions.

Candyman debuted exclusively to theaters, though, and having already made back the money it cost to make, the upcoming three-day weekend could be big for the horror movie. Variety cites the movie’s nature as a sequel, as well as its 85% on Rotten Tomatoes and “B” CinemaScore, as reasons for its box office success.

The Yahya Abdul-Mateen II-led movie knocked Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy down to second place after the video game-themed movie sat at the number one spot for two weeks straight. Free Guy earned an additional $13.6 million from 3,940 theaters, a decline of 27% from its second weekend to the third, according to Variety’s report. This brings Free Guy’s grand box office total up to $179 million.

The animated PAW Patrol from Paramount took third place this weekend, bringing in $6.6 million from 3,189 theaters. Its grand total in the U.S. and Canada where it was shown sits at $24 million. Disney’s Jungle Cruise came in fourth, bringing in another $5 million for a total of $187 million at the box office (although the movie is also available on Disney+ as a Premiere Access title).

Sony’s Don’t Breathe 2 took fifth place with $2.8 million across 2,703 theaters, bringing the movie’s total at the domestic box office to $24.5 million.

Check out our thoughts on Candyman in IGN’s Candyman review and then read this list of seven things you probably didn’t know about Candyman. Check out this video featuring the movie’s director and cast discussing the legacy and meaning of Candyman after that.

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