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Note: This is an advanced, spoiler-free review for Netflix’s Locke & Key, which is set to premiere on Friday, February 7. If you would like to jump straight to our verdict, check out our condensed Season 1 review in the video above. While we touch upon certain basic plot points that have already been established in the trailers and marketing, we are avoiding discussing any major revelations here.

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After nearly a decade of failed attempts to bring a live-action version of Locke & Key to life, Netflix has finally delivered the goods, but was it worth the wait? Based on the graphic novel of the same name written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez, the series centers on the Locke children, Tyler (Connor Jessup), Kinsey (Emilia Jones), and Bode (Jackson Robert Scott), and their mother Nina (Darby Stanchfield), who move to their ancestral home of “Keyhouse” after the family’s patriarch, Rendell (Bill Heck), is murdered.

Fans of the comic book’s graphic violence and creepy visuals may be a bit disappointed that Netflix’s version leans more into the whimsical aspects of Hill’s narrative and less on the terror and bloodshed. Having read the comics myself, it is difficult to ignore the changes in tone and lack of adult content, however, if the streaming giant’s goal is to appeal to a larger audience, then I think the series succeeds with some terrific set-pieces, aesthetics, and performances from the leading cast that make Season 1’s 10-episode arc a worthy binge.

One of the standout characters in Locke & Key is not an actual person, but the house itself. Big props to the production designers (Rory Cheyne and David Blass) for creating a location that truly feels alive. Every room is meticulously detailed with fascinating little trinkets and decor that add a layer of mystery to the story, and may even cause you to pause on particular scenes just take in all of the details. Keyhouse is home to several magical keys, each with their own unique abilities.

For a better look at Locke & Key, check out the trailer below:

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While siblings Tyler and Kinsey do have their own adventures with the keys, it’s their younger brother Bode who has the most fascinating encounters with their magic in Season 1. Since this version of Locke & Key is a little more family-friendly than the comics, Bode’s youthful exuberance after discovering each key is palpable and honestly infectious. Scott portrays Bode with just the right amount of innocence and wonder without ever making him too precocious.

Tyler and Kinsey’s adventures in the first half of the season (when they’re not teaming up with Bode) are less pivotal to the overall story and are usually relegated to high school dramaaaa like using the keys to get revenge on “mean girls” or trying to impress a potential love interest. These high school hijinks occasionally make the show feel more like a CW teen drama than an ambitious mystery, and Locke & Key feels far more engaging when it leans into its fantastical elements.

One particular standout on that front is the “Head Key,” which enables the series to get creative with its visuals, while also playing with body horror. The key is inserted into the back of someone’s neck to literally open the door to their mind, which then allows a person to relive important memories, or add bits of information they might want to remember at a later date. Everyone’s mind palace looks different depending on their life experiences; Bode’s is like a large playground/arcade, while Kinsey’s is a giant shopping mall. Even better, the Head Key gives the viewer insightful glimpses into the history of the Locke family.

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One of the most emotionally stirring aspects of the series is its effective use of flashbacks, which allows the audience to see the kids interacting with their father, adding believable weight and grief to those relationships. These scenes are great character-building moments for the kids and are so well-realized, it’s easy to forget this is all happening because of a magical key. This confident blend of fantasy and real-world drama is Locke & Key’s greatest strength. Where the series gets into trouble is when it tries to tackle too many narratives at once.

The series is simultaneously attempting to be a compelling family drama, supernatural thriller, murder mystery, and high school dramedy throughout Season 1, and by attempting to serve several masters, it never completely feels like a cohesive whole. While the family storyline and the fantasy elements involving the keys work well, other aspects of the plot aren’t quite as memorable. One example of this is Season 1’s villain, Laysla De Oliveira’s Dodge, a mysterious figure who torments the Locke family in the hopes of taking possession of their keys. The Canadian-born actress has an incredible on-screen presence that can be alternately charming or menacing, and Oliveira can flip that switch in an instant, giving the character a welcome sense of unpredictability. Her performance isn’t the problem, but the character’s progression suffers from the way the story has been changed from the graphic novel to appeal to a broader audience.

As the central villain, you’d expect Dodge to be a truly terrifying figure, but even when she kills someone in a way that should be shocking in any other situation, the show often leans into the absurd humor of her actions rather than ramping up the tension, undercutting some of the show’s biggest scares. As much trouble as the Locke kids get into, it’s difficult to imagine something horrible happening to them, even with an antagonist like Dodge lurking in the shadows.

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To celebrate Anime Month, the Microsoft Store is running a huge sale on anime games, movies, and shows. The collection of more than 20 Xbox One game deals are available through March 2, but select movie and TV deals are only available for a few days.

Notably, the first seasons of three anime series–My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball Super, and Black Clover–are currently free to claim for a limited time. You can snag the first seasons of Dragon Ball Super and Black Clover for free until February 3, while Dragon Ball Super’s first season is free until February 6. As part of a limited-time flash sale, later seasons of each series are also discounted to $6 each, with both subbed and dubbed versions available. You’ll also find discounts on select anime movies, like Dragon Ball Super: Broly and My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, as part of the flash sale.

The larger sale that’s running for a full month includes deals on games like Mega Man 11, One Piece World Seeker, My Hero One’s Justice, and Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy. You can also take advantage of discounts on some fantastic anime films like A Silent Voice, A Letter to Momo, Perfect Blue, and more. Many anime TV series are cheaper to buy and rent right now as well.

Check out some of the highlights from the Anime Month sale below, or check out the full collection of anime games, movies, and TV shows on sale at Xbox.

Limited-time anime deals

Free anime series

Available until February 3

Available until February 6

Anime movie and TV discounts

Available until February 3

Movies

TV series

Anime Month deals (available until March 2)

Games

Movies

TV series

February is officially upon us, and Pokemon Go developer Niantic has outlined all of the events it has lined up for its hit mobile game this month. In addition to the latest Community Day, which takes place February 22 and will feature a Pokemon voted on by players, this month will see the debut of new Gen 5 Pokemon, a new Legendary, and more.

First, Niantic will roll out another new Special Research questline revolving around Team Rocket. As with the previous Special Research quests, this will culminate in a battle with Giovanni, and if you can defeat him, you’ll earn a chance to capture a new Shadow Legendary Pokemon: Shadow Raikou.

Niantic is also offering a new set of Field Research tasks in February, along with a new Research Breakthrough reward. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough this month, you’ll earn a chance to catch the new Gen 5 Pokemon Woobat. Additionally, the Gen 5 Legendary Tornadus will make its debut in Raid Battles starting February 4.

From February 7-10, Niantic is holding a Sinnoh celebration event. During that time, Pokemon originally from the Sinnoh region will appear in the wild much more frequently, and any 7 km eggs you obtain during the event will exclusively hatch into certain Sinnoh Pokemon such as Budew, Gible, Riolu, Hippopotas, and Mantyke. You’ll also have your first chance to encounter Shiny versions of Riolu and Hippopotas during the event, and there will be special Field Research tasks that may reward you with Sinnoh Stones.

The following week, Pokemon Go’s annual Valentine’s Day event will return. The event will run from February 14-17, during which pink-colored Pokemon will appear much more often in the wild and Raids. The Gen 5 Pokemon Audino and Alomomola will also make their debut during the Valentine’s event, and you’ll have a chance to hatch a Shiny Happiny or encounter a Shiny Chansey in the wild.

During the Valentine’s event, Niantic will host a special Raid Day on Saturday, February 15, featuring Lickitung. The developer will also hold a friendship weekend event from February 21-24. During that time, friendship levels will increase more quickly, and you’ll earn twice the normal amount of Candy for trading. Trades will also cost half as much Stardust to perform, and the number of gifts you’ll be able to open each day will be increased to 40.

Last but not least, Niantic will hold two new kinds of events in February. First will be a Pokemon Spotlight Hour, which will take place on February 4. From 6-7 PM local time, a “surprise Pokemon” will appear more frequently in the wild than usual. Then, on February 6, Niantic will host a Mystery Bonus Hour event, which will offer a surprise bonus from 6-7 PM local time. You can read more about Pokemon Go’s February events on the game’s website.

The first trailer for F9 delivers a big shock for Fast and Furious fans: Han is back. Even though his supposed death in a fiery car crash has been shown three times on-screen — in Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious 6, and Furious 7 — the final moments of the trailer show Han walking into the Toretto family’s base of operations, casually quipping and eating a snack like it’s no big deal that he’s back and looking better than ever.

Check out the trailer below:

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Han Lue, played by Sung Kang, was a fan-favorite character who became one of the franchise’s most tragic and controversial figures due to a series of topsy turvy plot twists. The sixth installment revealed that Jason Statham’s villainous Deckard Shaw was the one responsible for Han’s death, but then fans recoiled in horror when Fate of the Furious pivoted Shaw to a redeemable hero. To pour salt in the wound, even though Shaw murdered Han, he was forgiven by Dominic Toretto and invited to enjoy a Corona with the family, which saw fans revolt with the #JusticeForHan hashtag on social media. Fan anger only swelled when Han’s murderer was featured in the franchise spin-off movie Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

Now, it seems, franchise vet and director Justin Lin is looking to address all of that by showing what really happened to Han.

A set of character posters for the F9 cast was revealed a few days ago when the trailer was first teased, and now a new poster featuring Han has been added:

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Kang made a surprise appearance at the pre-Super Bowl trailer premiere and concert event in Miami, and there he told the Los Angeles Times a bit about what this version of Han is like.

“[Director Justin Lin and I] know who and what Han is,” Kang said. “And we’re older now. This Han is older. The things that we learned as men in our personal lives, I hope it can transcend on-screen.”

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Kang wouldn’t reveal precisely how Han comes back, but he did say that everything ties back into the franchise’s theme of “family,” adding, “I hope we do it justice.” Kang acknowledged that he’s aware of the surge of fan support for his character, and the trailer seems equally aware of the #JusticeForHan movement with its closing promise, “Justice is coming.”

It may seem unbelievable for Han to have survived that explosion, but remember this is a franchise that has no qualms about playing fast and loose with its continuity. In Fast and Furious, Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty seemingly died in similar fashion to Han — a fiery car crash — but that didn’t stop her from making a return (with amnesia!) in Fast & Furious 6. Han doesn’t seem to have amnesia given how he embraces Dom in a brotherly hug, so we’ll have to wait and see what his deal is when Fast 9 hits on May 22.

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Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

Acer’s gaming monitors run the gamut: whether you’re on a budget or simply need the best the market has to offer, there’s a good chance the company has an option for you to consider. The XFA240 is one of the former, retailing for $199 but offering a full HD 24-inch TN panel clocked to run at 144 Hz and with a 1 ms response time. On paper, it sounds like a great bang for the buck, but we’ve gone hands-on to see it performs under pressure.

Should the Acer XFA240 be the next display on your shopping list? Let’s dig in and find out.

Design and Features

The Acer XFA240 is simply designed. You won’t find the usual gamer flair found on displays twice its cost – the name of the game appears to be minimizing the extras that add little to your gaming experience and instead bringing gaming-grade, high refresh rate performance to the masses. As such, there’s no RGB or stylized etching; what you’ll see in the pictures is from separate backlights, not the monitor itself.

What you get instead is a straightforward display that’s easy to set up and get gaming with. The stand has a red ring around the base as the lone splash of color, and attaches to the arm with a single thumb screw. From there, the monitor clicks into place on the mounting plate and you’re ready to connect cables. I like how simple and quick it is. The stand is also quite good, offering nearly six inches of height adjustment, plentiful tilt to use the display while standing, and even the ability to pivot it 90-degrees for portrait orientation. The only downside is that it doesn’t rotate, though the base isn’t too heavy to manually turn when the need arises. The display is also VESA compatible for aftermarket mounts.

The bezels are fairly thick compared to many gaming monitors at about a half-inch per side. This is roughly double what you’ll find on more expensive “frameless” monitors, but for the price, it’s hard to be too critical. It does tend to make the 24-inches feel a bit more cramped than I would like, however. This design also allowed Acer to keep the controls right on the face of the monitor, which is eminently better than having to grope blindly along the back.

Coming from a larger display, I found the size of the XFA240 to be “just enough” for a good gameplay experience. The size allowed me to make out details clearly when the brightness or calibration wasn’t getting in the way – and it sometimes did, even after a good 20 minutes calibrating it.

Out of the box, the colors were very washed out – the blacks for example were closer to dark gray. TN panels are known for having worse colors and blacks than either VA or IPS displays but even compared against other TNs I’ve reviewed, this out-of-box picture was one of the worst I’ve encountered. The OSD features six-color hue and saturation adjustments (CMYRGB), so I was able to improve the image but never completely got it to where I was happy. Even though it’s capable of 350-nits of brightness, tuning the colors and blacks forces you to turn that down. It’s a Catch-22 – do you want a bright screen with bad colors and blacks or a dimmer screen with an improved picture?

The brightness also feels slightly uneven. In the picture above, taken in the lobby of The Blackout Club, you can clearly see how dark areas can appear to swallow details. This seems to be related to viewing angle because when I looked at this same scene from a downward angle, I could make out some of what was previously missing. This was also true on the Black Level test in Lagom’s LCD Test Pages, where the blacks in the darkest three boxes appeared crushed until I looked downward at the screen. As a result, I found myself fidgeting with the height of the display more than any other monitor I’ve used.

That isn’t to say gaming on the monitor was bad. At 1080p, my RTX 2080 was able to stay locked at 144 FPS in most games. If you’ve never used a high refresh rate monitor before, you’re in for a treat. Not only is everything smoother but your inputs feel almost instantaneous, which is also supported by the display’s 1 ms response time. This is the biggest benefit of a TN panel and why they’re so popular in esports.

True to what I experienced, the Response Time and Ghosting tests in Lagom’s test suite provided some of the best results I’ve seen. In the Response Time test, the flickering boxes had nearly imperceptible color shifting and the Ghosting Test revealed no ghosts whatsoever. In shifts from light to dark and vice versa, the XFA240 is outstanding.

The display also supports AMD FreeSync and is compatible with Nvidia G-Sync between 48 and 144 FPS. It worked well with G-Sync and my RTX card, the sole exception being Apex Legends, which became very hitchy with G-Sync enabled. The monitor also supports Low Framerate Compensation, so if your framerate drops outside of the FreeSync range, the monitor will automatically increase its refresh rate to provide a smoother gaming experience.

Other gaming features include a Black Level adjustment, an AimPoint on-screen reticle, and FlickerFree technology to ward off eye strain. The first feature is practically useful if you also find it difficult to see into dark areas. The only thing I wish is that it had a keyboard shortcut or controller to quickly make adjustments on the fly. The reticle is also a boon for shooters that don’t offer one, giving you a one-up on accuracy when hip-firing.

The display has built-in speakers, as well as input/output jacks for routing PC audio to your headset. The speakers are only 2-watts each and lack both bass and volume. They’re good for watching the occasional YouTube video but with a normal box fan running in my room, I had trouble hearing in-game details, so you’ll want to find a better option long-term.

Finally, for connectivity we have a single HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI-D connection. The DVI-D port is going the way of the Dodo on many displays but it’s fitting to find it on a more budget oriented option like this. Both HDMI and DisplayPort are capable of carrying audio to route to the headphone jack, but if you’re using DVI-D, you’ll also need to connect the included auxiliary cord to your motherboard.

Performance

I played a handful of games on the XFA240 over my week of testing and it performed very well. Full HD is an easier resolution than ever to run, so keeping games in triple-digit frame rates is an option even for gamers on hardware that’s a couple years old. With my RTX 2080, it remained virtually pegged in most games I tried.

Gaming at this refresh rate in a shooter is ideal. In PUBG, that smoothness better allowed me to smoothly track enemies and pull off shots without any perceptible lag. I turned up the Black Level a touch, which let me keep the monitor at a comfortable eye level but also washed out the colors a bit more, which isn’t good when you’re trying to pick out far away enemies. Again, that Catch-22.

In Apex and Overwatch, the XFA240 performed remarkably well. The smoothness was easily on par with my more-than-twice-as-expensive 144 Hz monitor from Pixio. Using the on-screen reticle gave a definite advantage in Overwatch but I quickly turned this off because it felt unfair. I was also able to play both games for a couple hours each without ever feeling eye strain.

The Blackout Club gave me a harder time. There are simply too many deep darks and the brightness issues made the game feel more claustrophobic than it should; like I couldn’t see everything I was meant to. I tried adjusting the monitor to a lower position which helped, but it was frankly frustrating to have to play with my monitor lower than where I wanted it to be. I settled for turning up the Black Level adjustment but precisely because so much of the game is dark, everything again looked washed out. It was unsatisfying.

Purchasing Guide

The Acer XFA240 gaming monitor is available on Amazon with an MSRP of $199.

Vague spoilers follow for Star Trek: Picard Episode 2.

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Star Trek: Picard is taking its time rolling out its main cast members, but by the end of Episode 2 we got to meet Michelle Hurd’s character Raffi Musiker. Not much has been said about her in the show yet, though it’s clear from the way she reacts to seeing Picard that she isn’t too happy with him these days. But the prequel comic Picard: Countdown fills in some of that backstory.

Raffi used to be Admiral Picard’s First Officer aboard the USS Verity, which was Picard’s command during the Romulan emergency which saw the planet being threatened by a supernova. We know from the events of Star Trek: Picard that the rescue mission Picard had planned never fully moved forward after a group of synths (androids) attacked Mars, where Starfleet was constructing a fleet of ferries to evacuate the Romulans. According to the comic, Lt. Commander Raffi Musiker was an expert in Romulan affairs, and thus a natural to serve as Picard’s Number One during that mission.

Hurd explained to IGN recently that her character’s feelings towards Picard are… complicated.

“It’s funny because the comic books, I’m literally like [reading them], ‘Oh, OK. Good to know. I didn’t know. Oh, OK!,'” she laughed. “I think like any relationship that you have with someone who you work with, and you honor, and you almost think is your mentor, it becomes all of the above, right? It becomes your best friend, your enemy, your lover, your… It becomes all of those things. So I think she has a very complicated, layered relationship with Picard from her past.”

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Hurd also said that the Picard show continues to do what Star Trek has always done, which is to reflect back on the viewer a dialogue about the issues that are currently facing us.

“Because our writers are so amazing and we can’t help but be influenced by life, we are diving into the reality of the disillusion of what you thought was law,” she said. “That questioning things that don’t seem correct anymore — immigration, inclusion, exclusion, diversity, humanity, life, the preciousness of it. Hope.”

Hurd’s co-star Evan Evagora, who plays the Romulan Elnor, chimed in as well, saying that, in considering the year 2020 while creating this show, the hope is to maintain the vision of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

“It’s able to show the worst of humanity, but also what we could be, the possibilities, the greatness that we could achieve if we all come together,” he said. “That’s always been like Gene Roddenberry’s vision. It’s always to hold a mirror to our world today and the possibilities of what our future could be.”

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For more on Star Trek: Picard, check out what’s going on with Jean-Luc’s parietal lobe (!), find out why Seven of Nine has turned against Starfleet, and catch up on all the different versions of Data out there.

Spoilers follow for Star Trek: Picard Episode 2.

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In “Maps and Legends,” the second episode of Star Trek: Picard, our stalwart title character has a conversation with one Dr. Moritz Benayoun (played by reliable character actor David Paymer), an old friend from Picard’s days aboard the USS Stargazer (his first command). Picard, thanks to the machinations of the series so far, wants to lead an off-world mission aboard a starship, and requires a doctor’s medical clearance in order for Starfleet to give him any sort of command. Dr. Benayoun, however, sadly breaks the news to Picard that there might be something medically suspicious happening with the parietal lobe of his brain.

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This mention likely set off alarm bells in the heads of Trekkies everywhere. Picard’s parietal lobe, you see, was actually a major plot point in “All Good Things…,” the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In that episode, Picard – very much in the vein of Slaughterhouse-Five – found himself “unstuck” in time, experiencing the present, the past (when he first took command of the Enterprise) and the future (as a retired admiral on his vineyard. Hm…) seemingly at random. In the “present” of “All Good Things…,” Dr. Crusher met with Picard in his ready room to announce that she, thanks to a specialized scan, located potential evidence of a rare and incurable brain disease called Irumodic syndrome inside Picard’s parietal lobe.

By the “future” of that episode – which falls in with the actual chronology of Star Trek: Picard – Jean-Luc had indeed been diagnosed, and his peers, Data and Geordi, were suspicious of his potentially disease-inspired raving about an “anti-time well” near the border of the Neutral Zone.

Irumodic syndrome, we learn, causes the degradation of synaptic pathways, causing confusion, hallucinations, and eventually death. The first mention of Irumodic syndrome on Star Trek was in “All Good Things…,” and Picard says to Dr. Benayoun – when Benayoun brings up Picard’s unnamed brain issues – that “I was told a long time ago that it might cause a problem eventually,” making a direct allusion to the scene where Dr. Crusher gave Picard his diagnosis. Benayoun says the issue could lead to one of a variety of syndromes.

Picard’s future in “All Good Things…” was, of course, merely speculative (it could have even been a fantasy concocted by Q), and the events of Star Trek: Picard have now directly contradicted it regardless. But that “I was told” line obviously refers to when Dr. Crusher gave Picard a diagnosis of an ailment in his parietal lobe that could lead to full-blown Irumodic syndrome somewhere down the line. And Dr. Benayoun has now confirmed it, mentioning that whatever crazy journey he plans on making should perhaps kill him before the brain ailment does.

One of the symptoms of Irumodic syndrome, as mentioned above, was hallucinations. In “All Good Things…” Picard had occasional visions of jeering jurors that leaked into his brain from Q’s kangaroo courtroom fantasy (Trekkies know the fantasy well). Back in 1994, I personally operated on the assumption that the “All Good Things…” hallucinations were inserted into Picard’s brain by Q. But they could have easily been actual hallucinations Picard was having right there in his vineyard.

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The fact that Picard may actually have Irumodic syndrome (or something similar) in the continuity of Star Trek: Picard means that some of what we may be seeing is – dare we contemplate? – hallucination. Picard, usually a steely and clear-thinking leader may now be an unreliable narrator, and we, as viewers, now need to be vigilant in eyeballing cues as to what may or may not be real in Picard’s eye. This would, of course, lead to an all-too-familiar narrative can of worms that we may or may not want to open. Are certain characters real? Is ANY of Star Trek: Picard real? Are we witnessing a fantasy/hallucination that Picard is having in his château? While these sorts of gotcha-just-kidding narrative tricks are usually cheaply employed (call it Tyler Durden syndrome), it could – could – be an ultimate nuclear-option-style “out” for the show’s writers in case they end up clashing too much with established Trek canon (à la Discovery). That doesn’t match with what came before? Uh… It was all a hallucination from Picard’s Irumodic syndrome!

At the very least, we now know that we need to be keeping an eye on Jean-Luc’s brain health.

For more on Star Trek: Picard, check out our history of the Borg, find out why Seven of Nine blames Picard, and get confirmation on which timeline Picard takes place in.