It's impossible to overstate how much of a love letter to the Dune series this game is. Iconic moments, from painful encounters with Bene Gesserit truthsayers to cruising above the desert in wildly flapping ornithopters – it's all here and waiting for you to take the stage. Your created character must ve𒁏nture ever-deeper into the planet, using spice, completing missions, undergoing spiritꦜual trials, and, eventually, taking part in the Landsraad. At least, that's the case if you're willing to play through a fairly plodding tutorial.

Without rhythm

You see, the game has inherited one othe🌄r aspect of Dune: ponderousness. It's a slow burn of a game and the first few hours, where you'd hope that 🍨it would hook you, are overwhelmingly tedious.

After being freed from captivity, your protagonist is let loose in the sandy, windblown wastes. You havᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚe no tools, and you must build: get ready to mine some granite! So, you build a little shelter, but then you need to wander off into the desert to go to a trading post, or raid a downed ship for valuable components. So you need to walk across miles of featureless desert, hoping that a sandworm doesn't hear you and snatch you up for dinner. As in the wider franchise, sandworms detect rhythmic sounds, like steps, but you'r💯e not able to walk without rhythm. You have two options available to you: walk normally and pray to your particular Dune deity that you'll make it across the sand in time, or inch your way across, offering a negligible advantage but taking far longer.

The scope of the world is very impressive – each section of the map is enormous, but on foot, it's just not fun to explore. Worse still, if a sandworm eats you, you can't retrieve your gear – it's just gone. This led, in one arresting incident, to me running around the world in my pants shivving scavengers for any components that they had, which leads us into another problem: the combat. It's just not particularly engaging. Enemies are frequently equipped with Holtzmann shields, which block projectiles and fast melee attacks. So instead, youꦚ just need to hold your mouse click to do a slow attack. That's the high drama inherent in taking on a shielded enemy. They're often paired with unshielded enemies, too, who you typically want to take out with firearms, so you need to do some ungainly weapon swapping on the fly, swapping floaty melee for unsatisfying guns.

The enemies all look like, well, Dune characters – flowi🗹ng robes and stillsuits. There's very little to distinguish between different enemy types, which makes quests that task you with killing a specific enemy more of a guessing game than anything else. I essentially never knew that I'd killed my target until I got a little quest pop-up. This, combined with the tedious nature of combat and AI that is almost terminally stupid means that it just feels like a chore. Instead of mining granite, you're now mining human souls directly out of a body, and your cutter ray is now a gun. Enjoy.

While walking across the desert may be dull, there's a level of verticality to Dune: Awakening that feels unmatched by any other MMO. When you're in the middle of a canyon, sheer rock walls looming atop you, you can, at any point, climb directly up the walls like a sandy Spider-Man. I even got an a🌟chievement for climbing a particularly large rockfac🌳e, and the sense of height is fantastic – you really do feel like you're on top of the world. If you have a suspensor equipped, you can bowl yourself merrily into the yawning chasm below, safe in the knowledge that you won't take fall damage.

Once you build a sandbike, the world opens up considerably. You'll need it to cross into the second zone, and despite some clunky handling, it makes jetting across the desert extremely satisfying. You're fast 🌊enough to avoid sandworms for the most part, which takes the pressure off, letting you really savor the differences between each area.

Moving out of the starter area was where Dune: Awakening really started to get its hooks into me. Here, you gain access to iron, and more and better tools to help you survive. It's where the game started to feel like it understoo﷽d the survival game rhythm, one where you should always be either gathering or rꦅefining resources and where there's always something you need to be doing to help you stay alive.

Tooled Up

Let's✅ talk about the game's deep and almost fetishistic love of tools. You may think that each tool could serve several purposes, and sure, there do tend to be multiple modes, but you're still going to be carrying around enough tools to make Home Depot turn green with envy. You've only got eight hotkeys, too, and one hotbar. You will, after a handful of hours, need to decide whether to leave some at home or fill up your inventory with items that you might not use. Some items, like the handheld resource scanner, feel distinctly useless, destined to sit in storage forever like a half-forgotten pepper at the back of the fridge.

You may be wondering why, as I'm sure you're aware thanks to your eagle-eyed observation of the review score, I still quite like this game. I've not done much but complain about it s🐷o far, and it's true, there are a lot of annoyances. But when the game comes together, it nails a sense of scale and place better than most other games could dream of. The map is gigantic, but all of that would be for naught if it weren't for the fact that the baking heat and shifting sands are palpable. You must manage hydration and keep out of the sun during the day, while avoiding Sardaukar patrols at night. It's a dangerous, deadly place, and it feels every bit of it.

There are tons of small hideouts to explore, and the survival game treadmill of learning new recipes, crafting items, then using them to craft ever more, is incredibly compulsive. It doesn't always work, and there are times where you effectively are just doing hydration admin, which feels pretty dull, but the majority of my time, after the first area, was very absorbing. It's certainly true that some recipes require an absurd amount of various 🦋materials. The Ornithopter, for instance, needs vast amounts of aluminum, and you need that to access the Deep Desert, where the game's politics and PvP pop. It feels like there's two dif🗹ferent games here, one that is more like EvE Online and another that is more like a gentler Rust.

I can't speak much to the late-game politicking, for two reasons: firstly, I was playing solo, and secondly, I had a deadline to hit, and this is a game that is gigantic and, as mentioned, ponderous. However, if you make it into the Deep Desert, you'll find a system that entrusts you with serving either House Harkonnen or House Atriedes and doing various missions to gain points. The top five 🌃guilds of the house with the most points then vo🌳te on which reward to take, called decrees, which change the shape of the world. These range from increasing melee or ranged damage to making the Deep Desert even more dangerous, with the Right of Salvage decree making you drop all items when killed in the Deep Desert. However, the survival-crafting is mostly strong, even when hindered by obtuse menus that make finding various projects on the tech trees and placeables an exercise in frustration.

It's interesting to note that, as with all things in life, the Deep Desert is ever-shifting. Monstrous sandstorms, called Coriolis Storms, wreak win๊dy vengeance on the map once per week. These wipe out any player-made structures in the area and refresh resources and dungeons, etc. This essentially means that any well-armed and suitably motivated group will be able to make out like bandits and use the Deep Desert to its fullest, rather than having larger groups simply squat in an area.

Scraping an existence in Arrakis can feel both extremely compelling and extraordinarily boring, sometimes at the same time. Building your own fiefdom from a single room into a multi-level fortress is a deliciously promising prospect, and it is good fun to stroll around your palatial halls, noting ornamentation that can range from terraria to statues. The process to get there, specifically, isn't a problem – building a new wing is cheap and easy to achieve, it's the rest of the crafting that gets trickier, especially when you start needing water to refine your resources. The treadmill that you run on throughout the game oscillates between a good pace and a sloth-like crawl. It's no wonder, then, that the game's progression feels artificially-infᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚlated, like the game has a pace in mind and wants you to run through it at that exact speed, revealing, all too often, that you are effectively just running through logistical mazes.

The yin and yang of Dune: Awakening are charm and frustration, both in balance with neither overwhelming the other. If you are a huge fan of Dune, it's going to be easy for you to overlook those issues. If you're not, or just have a pa🎐ssing interest in the lore, you may find it's just too difficult to get into. It's a game that is capable of fantastic moments, marred by irritations and a feeling of bloat that ultimately holds it back from being truly great.

Dune: Awakening w꧅as reviewed 🦄on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.

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Much of the conversation about Welcome Tour even before release has been about whether it's worth the $10 it costs digitally or if Nintendo should have just packed the thing in with the Switch 2 console in the first place. When I first got my hands on the title at the initial Switch 2 reveal event back in April, I spent a surprising amount of time with it (in part because the demo stations were regularly open) and came away calling it "a baffli🔯ng, fascinating toy that still makes no sense to me."

That's mostly still the case, though Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour does make a bit more sense now that I've seen all it has to offer. It makes for an impressive tech demo to learn all about the new Nintendo console, but it's hard to shake the feeling every step of the way that it would have perhaps on🥀ce made for an excellent E3 booth presentation or even a startup tutorial, as opposed to charging a nominal fee to play it.

Nintendo's calls it, 🐭in part, "an interactive exhibit of sorts," and that's largely accurate. There's a real sense that you're exploring a giant interactive science and technology museum devoted entirely to the Nintendo Switch 2, which is overall impressive if somewhat boring. For example, 🍰I know way more about how the Joy-Con 2 controllers connect to the Switch 2 as a result of playing this game, and now have a solid handle on the whys and hows of mouse control. As a piece of educational software, if that was the goal, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is certainly successful.

Between the stamp rally requiring me to get familiar with every physical inch of the Nintendo Switch 2 console and its accessories – including the official Pro controller, camera, and even the Joy-Con 2🎀 steering wheel – and the variety of quizzes, demos, and minigames, it's not that there's nothing to do in Welcome Tour.✨ The problem is that everything is so brief and breezy and disconnected that none of it actually feels meaningful.

Many minigames

That didn't stop me from playing the little golf minigame that ostensibly teaches you about mouse controls until I earned all the medals, nor did it stop me from making sure I'd dodged falling spiked balls for long enough. But, on t൲he other side of those experiences, it's not like I found them particularly engaging, and there's no version of this world where I could imagine myself actually recommending people seek either out.

That's the strange predicament that Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour falls into. It's not bad, nor is it exactly good, and I certainly enjoyed myself more than I thought I would, but not enough that I'm positive that I would have droppe𒅌d money on the game myself. If the value proposition is Welcome Tour or two or so packs of Magic: The Gathering's new Final Fantasy set, my heart probably skews towards the Magic cards.

And that's the most damning thing about Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. As one of the two first-party Nintendo Switch 2 launch titles, "fine, I guess, but I'd prefer Magic cards" as my impulse is… not good. And it is fine! It's fine. But "fine" alone is not enough to make somethiℱng worth bothering with when there are 🅘so many different ways to spend your time that are much, much more worthwhile.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2, with a cဣode and console provided by the publisher.

Unfortunately, that's where the praise ends, because rather than riding on the wave of AA's comeback, MindsEye feels like a hollow shell of a game. After all, it was initially envisionꦡed as a showcase for the studio's more ambitious game creation platform Everywhere, which itself seems to have been scaled back so that this is now a headlining standalone release published by IOI Partners (the game creation aspect, currently in beta, is also limited to PC, so PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players are essentially just buying MindsEye for that campaign, which is the focus of this review).

As a point of comparison, you might say that MindsEye is supposed to be for Everywhere what Art's Dreams was for Media Molecules' Dreams, an introductory and inspiring springboard of what its game creation tools can achieve. The𒐪 former is how♋ever powered by Unreal 5 rather than a bespoke engine, and rather than inspire, the art direction has all the shallowness of a cyberpunk tech demo that may boast photorealism but lacks any imaginative rocket fuel to make it stand out on its own.

High fidelity visuals also don't mean much if a game is rife with bugs🐻 that result in hilariously cursed glitches, as has been widely reported sinc💞e the game's launch. I personally didn't encoun꧑ter the most egregious graphical issues on PC, although I experienced annoying screen tearing that nothing in the settings of the game or my monitor could rectify. But eve🍌n without these getting in the way, they're the least of MindsEye's problems.

What happens in Redrock

Set in the fictional Redrock City, a desert city that's reminiscent of Las Vegas albeit in a futuᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚre where gambling has been outlawed, you play as Jacob Diaz, a former soldier suffering from memory loss who takes up an entry-level security job at the tech giant Silva Corp.

The job is however just an excuse for him to snoop around the company as he tries to uncover the secrets of a strange neural implant, the titular MindsEye, that he came to have during a military operation three years ago. It's the central mystery that t꧟he game opens with, and which we're treated to occasional flashbacks of, which also causes Diaz to black out. That goes in tandem with a plot where big tech clashes with government and zeitgeisty themes on AI and robots and what happens if something or someone were to use them against us.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Black Mirror however this is not, even though it does feature a moody pulsing score from Rival Consoles, who previously scored that dystopian anthology's excellent 'Striking Vipers' episode. Instead, MindsEye has all the energy of a forgettable Netflix film that you put in the background while scrolling🦩 on your phone. From a generic best friend who's also sporting the dreadedly overused Killmonger cut to an obnoxious tech bro billionaire that you're actually supposed to help, there's little to the cast to engage you on an emotional level – the closest we get is a strained attempt at flirty banter with a hacker known as Robin Hood.

A weak plot could perhaps be overlooked if there was something juicier in the premise to sink your teeth into, but the MindsEye itself is largely a macguffin that occasionally causes weird things to happen rather than a gameplay mechanic. The main piece of tec൲h you make use of is a Lenz, essentially a futuristic c🐓omms device that fits on your eye like a single contact lens.

In execution, it's no𒉰thing more than a diegetic explanation for bog-standard game UI like a mini-map🦋 that includes objective markers, and of course making calls to other characters, with off-screen dialogue the preferred method of delivering narrative over cinematic cutscenes.

But aside from being able to scan for nearby enemies, it's disappointing that your Lenz does nothing more to aid you in combat. Whether you're up against militia gangs or killer robots, MindsEye plays like a barebones third-person cover shooter that's perhaps mildly better than GTA's worst moments, if only because GTA's gunplay has never been especially outstanding. It's passable but with no extra sauce that you'd expect a futuristic sci-🗹fi setting would afford you. I would've taken x-ray vision or even bullet time.

You do at least eventually have access to a diminutive drone companion that gives you a few more tools, such as a shock charge that can open some security-locked doors and also stun (but not fully incapacitate) nearby enemies. When taken out, it hovers near you a bit like a cute BD-1 from 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and can even be manually controlled in first-person, which comes in useful for a couple of stealth infiltration missions that does add a bit of flavor. It also unlocks a few more functions as the s﷽tory develops, such as being able to hack other robots to fight for you or even launch grenades.

BARB wire

While there are also attempts to insert some minigame sequences to add some variety, the majority of your missions are either spent as a cover shooter or driving from A to B (more often than not then driving back from B to A). It's not too different from the most rote of GTA missions where the time on the road is an excuse𒁃 for characters to dump exposition, with the occasional car chase sequence, including one car that would just speed away so impossibly far that the slightest error would result in a mission failure, a reminder of the worst GTA missions from the PS2 era.

Unlike GTA however, Redrock City is a 'faux-pen' world that is meant to be no more than set dressing. But even after the dialogue has played out, there's still a long way to reach your destination, with little in this lifeless desert city to help pass the time. It's telling that you only have a 🌞mini-map but no ability to bring up a whole map of the city, while taking the slightest shortcut or driving on the wrong lane results in your sat-nav going absolutely haywire.

Naturally, I can't help but see what happens when I encounter pedestrians and decide to plough into them. Do this a few times and you'll simply insta-fail and have to restart from your last checkpoint, but it's still hilarious that you can get away with at least one murder in broad daylight and ge🐼t little more than a mild rebuke from your boss. I may not have⭕ been expecting a full simulation with a wanted system, but even then the mechanics still feel so basic and limited.

If you're being shot at, you can't fire back while driving, you can't exit a vehicle until it comes to a complete stop, and you can't even get into any vehicle that's not yours until much later (on the bright side, no matter how banged up your company car gets, they do at least magic up one as good as new next time you need it). That same restriction is 🐽felt in combat when at one point I tried to sneak up on an enemy with their back to me, only to realize melee or 🥃takedowns don't exist and I'd just have to use my loud guns that alert everyone else.

The lack of a compelling hook and the incessant to-ing and fro-ing around the city that largely꧒ retreads the same few locations means that even as a 8-10 hour campaign, MindsEye feels longer than it needs to be. That it doꩲesn't even end on a satisfying note makes the journey even less worthwhile, as it teases a cliffhanger that I'm not sure BARB has any intention of following through with.

That's because the game is still meant as a starting point for players to fill with user-generated content, and so Redrock could be seen as this empty canvas for you to craft your own experiences with. Some of this is demonstrated through the official developer-created side missions you can jump into, a few showin𝔍g up as weird unexplained portals during the campaign, but which can also be accesseཧd in the menu screen, confusingly named 'Play', while you continue the campaign with 'Resume'.

The first of these hint that these missions could act as a way to flesh out the world, such as a mission where you play as Diaz in a counter-terrorist op back from his military days, while some other shooting scenarios actually cast you as different enemy factions. Others meanwhile are checkpoint races or drone races, and while this is content that everyone can access, PC players will also be able to build their own. From the examples BARB has created so far, it's more like superfluous activities that feel divorced from the campaign, apart from the same ropey mechanics. If anything, it just takes you out of MindsEye even more as you realize there's nothing here to really invest yourself in because at the end of the day it's all just content for you to mindlessly consume, soꦅ you can take it or leave it.

MindsEye was reviewed on PC.

Want a futuristic adventure? Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best sci-fi games recommendations!

These decks don't need 🙈to be the fastest on the market, or offer the m✃ost robust mechanical switches. In fact, they're better if they swerve these temptations in favor of a lower weight and slimmer form factor.

Sure, we're dropping the 2.4GHz connection featured by most of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming keyboards here, but the Bluetooth Razer Joro more than makes up for it in its super skinny form factor, gorgeous RGB lighting, and satisfying s▨cissor switchesও.

I've been building an on-the-go Asus ROG Ally setup since I first got my hands on the device. It's certainly pricier than a generic Amazon-brand portable🃏 deck, and it's by no means fast or comfortable enough to replace my daily driver. The Razer Joro is staying in my backpack for the foreseeable future, though - and here's why.

Design

Straight out the box, this is a nicඣe looking keyboard. Flick those RGB lights on and the Razer Joro transforms into something strangely mesmerizing. Between the soft feel and those vibrant LEDs, the Joro is a particularly clean piece of ki🌜t, a surprise considering compact decks like this often feel much cheaper than their fully fledged siblings. Unfortunately, though, there's only one zone of RGB lighting in here. That's a little odd considering just how slick these LEDs are. If you're after per-key illumination you'll need to check out Cherry's competitor.

Razer has developed the Joro for on-the-go play, which means it weighs just 374g and measures in at 16.5mm thin. That's just over half the thickness of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Cherry MX-LP 2.1, my previous go-to for a compact, backpack-friendly deck. The Joro achie🅷ves this low weight without feelꦅing cheap, though.

Up top we've got a sturdy aluminum top plate constructed from 5052 aluminum alloy, and even the plastic underside feels strong enough to withstand the trials of the outside world. There's 𝓡absolutely no flex to this deck, a real feat considering so many of the portable gaming keyboards I've tried often curve under heavier typing motions.

There's just one problem. Razer hasn't included any method of elevation on the underside. I can see why, this is a portable keyboard designed to be pulled out for quick play sessions while you're away from you﷽r main setup. However, Cherry's reversible rubber feet provide a little extra height that goes a long way without adding to the bulk of the final design. The deck is wedged to provide some ergonomic comfort, but it's still a very flat experience that can get tiresome after a while.

The brand also doesn't include a case in the box, which hurts a little considering the $140 price tag. By contrast, the larger (but still portability-minded) 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Asus ROG Falchion RX Low Profile comes p🥂ackaged with a plastic topper to keep everything safely in place during transit.

Keycaps

These plastic toppers are UV-coated to maintain resistance to those in-bag scratches, though I'd still feel concerned keeping my keys in the same pouch. That coating is also more resistant to oily shines in my experience, though I'll need to spend more time wi𝓡th the Joro to know for sure if the same is true here. So far, everything is still looking as matte as the day I pulled it out the box. Legends are laser-etched, so not quite as durable as doubleshot models but will stand the test of time much better than a simple print job.

The caps themselves are smooth and soft to the touch, dropping the more textured feel of a full-sized (or even just regular low-profile) PBT keycap in favor of a more chiclet-style design. That means this feels more like the keyboard of one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming laptops than the thoc🅺cy mechanical beast you'd want to keep in your main setup.

Personally, I prefer a little more grit in my caps. The Asus ROG Falchion RX Low Profile,൲ for example, keeps things a little thicker but provides are far more satisfying texture up top a🐟s a result. I'm not exactly sliding across the deck here, but if you're used to a rougher topper things can feel a little clammy.

Razer has managed൩ to keep a 75% form factor in this ultra-compact design, and we've still got full-sized keycaps across most of the deck. The function row has taken the hit for us here, with half-keys taking up the top line of caps 𓆏to keep everything else comfortably sized.

They're still easy enough to reach both in-game and during typing, and I never found myself mis-pressing. I did need to take my eyes off the screen a little more at the start to find the correct button, though this e🧸ased over time.

Switches

This is what I was most worried about when I started testing the Razer Joro, but thankfully my fears of a mushy, lethargic switch-feel have been allayed. The Joro uses the same scissor switches as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:2025 Razer Blade 16, though this time with a slightly larger 1.6mm travel dis🐓tance (the Blade taps out at 1.5mm).

That means this isn't your everyday laptop-style keyboard, it takes after the best deck I've used in a gaming rig so far. These switches have a solid sens🥂e of resistance behind them, but feel far lighter under the fingertips than the heavier clacks of the Cherry MX-LP 2.1 a𝔍nd its Low Profile Speeds. That makes for a nippy experience, but one that's still satisfying, tactile, and resistant to accidental presses.

Software

When wired in, the Razer Joro is fully customizableജ within the brand's Synapse software, a nicely presented program that provides access to additional keybinding features as well as power saving and RGB contrওols.

The Joro also takes full advantage of the Snap Tap feature shared by the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Razer keyboards on the market. You'll need to keep this one away from competitive online endeavors, but it essentially makes switching between two keys much faster by immediately cancelling input fr♛om one as soon as another is detected.

Overall the Joro makes good use of Synapse 4. You've got everything you need here, minus some of the fancier actuation features reserved for the brand's analog systems like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Mini, and everything's laid out intuitively to boot.

Controls

I didꦦn't even clock that this was a 75% keyboard until time came to write up my thoughts - and that's after using it for two weeks. That's how well Razer has squeezed all these controls onto a compact deck, even if some are relegated to half key presses and dual-function nav buttons. The Razer Joro packs the full functionality of a larger keyboard into a tiny package.

Media playback mic mute controls are mapped to a function layer on the𓂃 nav keys on the right, while colume, brightness, and Bluetooth connection options are relegated to the function row. Everything is still eไasily reachable, though, making for a particularly versatile experience.

If you don't want to hook up to Synapse, RGB effects can be cycled with Fn, CTRL, and 1,2,3, or 4, while your three connected Bl💜uetooth devices are all just a tap away as well. The only thing missing from beefier gaming keyboards is on-the-fly macro recording, which would hꦉave been helpful considering there's less of a reliance on that software in this more portable design.

All th𒈔at puts the Razer Joro in step with the Asus ROG Falchion RX Low Profile and well above the Cherry MX-LP 2.1, which drops the function row entirely but still maintains dual-function media controls and ﷽easy Bluetooth switching.

Connection

There's no 2.4GHz connection available here, which is understandable - Razer is targeting a mobile audience who will likely prefer to keep the precious ports on their 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gaming handheld free.

Still, the brand is bringing Hyperspeed multi-device pairing (a way of connecting both the Joro and the Razer Basilisk Mobile mouse to one USB receiver), so the tech is there for a more stable connection. It would have been nice to get this option from the get-go, with a dongle in the box, for more versatility. Both the Asus ROG Falchiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤🐈⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚon and Cherry MX-LP 2.1 offer this faster connection method.

As it stands, we've got space for three Bluetooth connections and 🔥a USB-C cable supplied in the box for charging and wired play. The deck is also compatible with Windows Swift Pair and Google Fast Pair, and I never had any issue with reliability during my day to day use. Setup is quick as easy and moving between different devices is pretty much instant as well.

I did notice 🌱that the Joro takes much longer to wake from slee🐓p than its 2.4GHz siblings, though.

Battery

Razer rates the Joro at 1,800 hours total battery with with its Power Saving Mode on - that's with no RGB, no Synapse, no device switching, and no fun. I've been testing it with 50% lighting brightness and it took just over 17.5 hours to fully dra⭕in to 0%, a solid result for a deck with lighting this strong and vibrant.

Ramping that brightness♉ all the way up to 10 does swamp that battery much quicker, but considering you'll still get fantastic RGBs at half way there's still plenty of room to drop down.

Typing

This is a very different feel to the mechanical clickers you'll fin൲d among more traditional builds, and the result isn't quite as tactile. For a laptop keyboard, these scissor switches are fantastic - but whether you want to pay $139.99 for that feel in a separate deck is another matter.

The typing experience is slick for its construction, but it's not going to rival a set of mechanical clicker🍸s. The Asus ROG Falchion RX Low Profile is far more textured in its feel overall, providing more satisfying feedback, greater precision, and a super soft, cushioned landing that stays comfortable over longer periods. While it's not as heavy as theꦏ Cherry MX-LP 2.1, the Razer Joro's harsher landing and slightly higher resistance means fatigue does set in fairly quickly. I can feel that strain after about ten minutes of solid typing time, and around six hours of more casual use.

My typing speed test tells a simi🍰lar story. The lighter switches mean I'm signif🌳icantly faster on the Razer Joro compared to Cherry's portable deck, but at the expense of accuracy.

Still, if you'd prefer to prioritize the much slimmer design of Razer's device there's some nice action to these keys. Th𒈔at sturdy top plate makes for a particularly energetic b🦄ounce with a rigid backbone keeping everything snapping beautifully both in and out of each keypress.

Gaming

The shorter switches (especially combined with Snap Tap) maꦫke for a speedy gaming experience overall, even if that Bluetooth latency isn't going to keep up with more competitive decks. While I did miss the extra depth and tactile feel of a mechanical switch, I've spent enough time with gaming laptops to have a muscle memory fo🐈r these chiclet designs.

I maintained my usual laptop speed and accuracy on the Razer Joro, zipping across Doom෴: The Dark Ages maps and keeping all my regular keybindings in tow as well.

Unfortunately, that Bluetooth connection does introduce a little input lag that will be more noticeable to ultra-competitive players. I'm not one of those players, but I have spent most of my PC gaming life on a 2.4GHz receiver and the d༒ifference is noticeable. Until that Hyperspeed update this isn't one for the speed-conscious.

Should you buy the Razer Joro?

For its $139.99 / £129.99 price tag, the Razer Joro looks and feels much better than the only-slightly cheaper ($129.99) Cherry MX-LP 2.1. That was previously my favorite portable gaming keyboard, but with a thicker chassis, higher weight, and h🌳eavier typing feel, Cherry has lost its position here. The Razer Joro doesn't fare quite so well in its matchup against Asus in the wider low profile category, though.

If you're not too fussed about physical portability, the improved typing feel, extra connectivity options, and extra cover of the Asusꩵ ROG Falchion RX Low Profile offer a more accurate and satisfying experience overall. You're paying slightly more, at $169.99 / £169.99, and the RGB doesn't look quite so pretty, but it's impossiꦜble to deny those soft, pillowy switches.

I'd recommend the Razer Joro to anyone hunting down the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Steam Deck accessories or kitting out an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Asus ROG Ally with its own portable setup. The brand's scissor switches are certainly snappier than may appear at first glance, and with a sturdy battery life, super vivid lighting, and easy Bluetooth connectivi𒀰ty this is a fantastic handheld companion.

How I tested the Razer Joro

I used the Razer Joro as my main keyboard for both work and play over the course of two weeks, while also taking it on the road alongside my Asus ROG Ally and iPad Air. I primarily tested gameplay in Doom: The Dark Ages, whi🔴le completing more esports-focused runs in Apex Legends and CS2. I performed a ful🗹l battery test from 100% to 0% with RGB lighting set to 50% and examined typing speed and accuracy using three typing tests.

For more information on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test gaming keyboards, check out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also rounding up all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best hot-swappable keyboards for a more customizable deck, or check out more of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best wireless gaming keyboards and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best membrane gaming keyboards on the market.

Ra🐲zer is now back for more of the portable market, conveniently timed to upset the Backbone P🐷ro and the launch excitement of the Switch 2. But how much could have really changed in a year?

No, I’m actually asking you: How much could have changed since the launch of the Razer Kishi Ultra? Besides a few updated design flourishes and an expanded range of size options, I’m having trouble w🗹orking it out.

The new Razer Kishi V3 Pro I’m testing has made tiny adjustments over last 🍃year’s Kishi Ultra, and even though I’m a big fan of the physical improvements, the biggest issue was always its $149 price. For context, my favorite mobile controller on the shelves right now is still the GameSir G8 Galileo, because it outguns the Kishi Ultra, the Backbone, and all the others in terms of value for money at just $79.99.

Thankfully, pricing isn’t all doom and gloom. The Kishi V3 line includes a standard model, which onl🐓y costs $99.99 - a real thorn in the paw of the original Backbone One and the Scuf Nomad. It’s bigger than the Kishi V2, it has back buttons, and it feels like the best option in the bunch. The V3 Pro is the one I’m testing, however, and althou🍸gh it has more functionality, I can’t pretend the small improvements remedy the $149 price we know from last year. Then there’s the Kishi V3 Pro XL for larger tablet devices, and its $199 price is just as unwieldy as the large tablets it’s designed for.

Design

If you missed the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Kishi Ultra from last year, allow me to fill you in on the broad design strokes. The Kishi V3 line takes a much larger approach to the mobile controller market, essentially givi📖ng you full-sized controller grips and a less portable form factor, but a lot more comfort. I’m yet to try anything designed for mobile play that replicates a full-sized controller more than the Kishi Ultra, and now the Kishi V3 Pro.

The differences between last y꧟ear’s model and this new one, though, aren’t exactly numerous. Tꦿhe two back buttons are an immediately noticeable addition, a broader spine to help cradle your phone feels more stable, and the RGB strips that framed the Ultra’s facial features are no more. Besides those, the dimensions, weight, and feel of the two controllers are virtually identical.

The Kishi V3 will fit and work with any Android or iPhone using a UCB-C connection. The V3 Pro will fit those devices, plus the iPad Mini, and any other USB-C ga𒁏dget up to 8 inches. The XL model will only be for full-sized iPads and Android tablets up to 13 inches.

As great as the extra size of the Kishi V3 Pro is compared to other mobile pads, there’s a design flaw that totally undermines it. When you take a look at a regular, full-sized gamepad, you’ll notice that, regardless of whether it has asymmetrical or symmetrical thumbsticks, its face buttons and thumbsticks are positioned diagonally from one another. In other words, the buttons aren’t directly under the thumbsticks, like they are on one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch 2’s Joy-Cons, for example. Mobile controllers can often give you thumb cramp and discomfort because their facial components are vertically set. Y𝔍ou have to completely flex your thumb and move it too far down to be comfortable for longer periods.

Symmetrical thumbsticks can go a long way to remedying that issue. With those, you’re not spending the majority of time playing with your thumb in that position; you’re onl♎y tapping buttons before moving it back to the stick. The Kishi V3 Pro, being larger, does use bigger buttons and thumbsticks than most typical mobile controll𝕴ers do, but it doesn’t use its extra size to move that vertical separation far enough into a diagonal. The X button is still positioned directly above the thumbstick where, ideally, it’d be a little further over to the side. While your hands have a more natural hold on the Kishi V3 Pro thanks to girthy grips, it can feel just as annoying to use in longer sessions as smaller controllers, particularly if you’re playing aim-heavy games like FPS titles.

In my mind, a Kishi V3 Pro that improves upon the Kishi Ultra should have been screaming out for symmetrical thumbsticks like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Scuff Nomad has, like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Steam Deck OLED has, or like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nitro Deck+ has. As it is, the Kishi V3 feels like it’s catering to playe👍rs, like me, who have larger hands, but it doesn’t stick the landing because it doesn’t use the space where it counts.

Features

Perhaps the biggest win for tꦯhe Kishi V3 line, in my opinion, is the inclusion of TMR thumbsticks. These are slowly emerging as the controller market continues into 2025, but for those who aren’t aware, they’re an advancement over the Hall sensor technology we’ve been seeing in recent years. They can chart even more coordinates on a grid, and do so at much faster 🐠speeds. In FPS games, that means more accurate aim, less latency, and an ongoing immunity to stick drift.

The tops of these thumbsticks can be pulled off and replaced with the two replacements in the box, which is a nice touch, and calls back to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GameSir X3 for those mobile players who still want a mod🃏ular controller.

The Kishi V3 Pro sports the same additional bumper buttons as the Kishi Ultra and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, but🥀 it now also has two back button🍰s, which I felt the Ultra from 2024 was screaming out for. That makes the Kishi V3 Pro one of, if not the only, mobile pad out there with four extra buttons to make use of. That’s a big win for competitive players who don’t want to lose out on functionality when they’re away from home.

Like the 2024 model, the Kishi V3 controllers also act as a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:PC controller thanks to USB-C connectivity. Plugging in works seamlessly with PC games, and this is actually how I did a big chunk of my testing. The same USB socket also has passthrough charging capabilities when in mobile play. Behind that, there’♉s room for a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Along for the ride is Razer’s own Nexus launcher, wౠhich is its answer to the Backbone app. This has some benefits to it, like the ability to record gameplay and share it, Virtual Controller mode, which lets you use the V3 for touchscreen-only titles on mobile, and remote play from a PC. All that, and it’s free to use, unlike Backbo⭕ne’s app.

Razer Sensa HD Haptics feature in the V3 Pro and XL models, but not in the regular V3. Razer also pulled in its mechanical mouse click switches for the buttons, and everything from the back buttons to the bumpers, to the face buttons all have a satisfying, speedy click to them. Inside the box, you’ll find three sets of rubberized feet that provide compatibility with various i🎐Phone and Android devices with or without cases.

Performance

I had a real feeling of déjà vu when testing the Kishi V3 Pro, and that’s how I know this new model doesn’t change enough from last year’s outing. The good news is that last year’s outing was pretty darn good. Its thicker, longer grips do a lot to make mobile play more comfortable during longer sessions than the Kishi V2. Its clicky buttons feel speedy a♛nd responsive, but it doesn’t miss out on feedback thanks to the Sensa HD Haptics. It is, as it stands, one of the best ways to enjoy mobile games in this day a🅘nd age, especially if you have larger hands.

I’d like to give a special mention to the TMR thumbsticks. They do an amazing job of making this feel like a full-sized pro controller I’d be happy to use in competitive, sweaty Hunt: Showdown sessions. I’ve said it before, but the micro-adjustments, the sensitivity, it all feels so much better than any other stick module I’ve used in FPS games. The shape of ൩the triggers is more slimline than a lot of full-sized controllers, which gives it a really distinct feeling.

The crunchy haptics are excellent in games like Celeste, and give me all the immersive feedback I need. I still think the floaty D-Pad Razer uses is a little odd. It feels more like it’s sliding into the direction you’re pushing, and it’s th🅺e only part of the V3 Pro that feels spongy as opposed to immediately clicky and responsive.

I also enjoy that you don’t need to download an app to map the V3 Pro’s back buttons; the Nexus button doubles as a function button for this, and it streamlines your abilꦉity to play on the go.

Comfort is a big win here if you do lean on back buttons as heavily as I do. They remove a lot of the need for your thumbs to sit in that uncomfortable position I talked about earlier for long stretches of time. The well-rounded grips are exactly what some portable gaming devices are missing these days, and if you aren’t a fan of the flat back on the Switch 2, you’ll find this a lot easier to hold safely. On🌠 the other hand, using it as a PC controller will never not feel odd to me because its spine can’t shrink down or be removed. I still really enjoyed using it in this way, and there aren’t many mobile pads I’d be willing to actually spend time with on a stay-at-home device when I have other full-sized pro controllers at my disp🅺osal.

Should you buy the Razer Kishi V3 Pro?

The Razer Kishi Ul🌞tra has been dropping in price for the last six months or so. I’ve noticed more and more regularly that it’s been getting discount after discount, which to me signals that the brand could be struggling to shift units in a market where it’s charging $50 more than the majority of the competition. Then, just as Backbone launches a pro model that’s slightly larger and has back buttons for $169.99, Razer launches three new mobile controllers of its own. The regular V3 priced at $99.99 will no doubt be an excellent investment, but the inflated price of the two larger models is not suddenly justified because another brand decides to charge a🦋s much. If I were you, I’d wait until the V3 Pro inevitably comes down in price, because these big brands are soon going to realise (again) that they’re still charging far too much for what most people can afford to spend on a mobile controller.

Let me be clear: The Kishi V3 Pro is great - it improves upon the Kishi Ultra, which was already a brilliant mobile controller. That’s why this review is difficult. It feels worthy of a slightly higher score than the Kishi Ultra, but Razer’s stubborn pricing throws a big green spanner in ꦜthe works. It just doesn’t do enough to really feel like a new product. As a result, it seems like an excuse for Razer to slowly phase out the Kishi Ultra, once again charge a premium of $149, and now seem like the more affordable alternative to the Backbone Pro.

I had as comfortable a hold on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GameSir G8 Galileo as I do here. You also get a more intuitive USB-C connector that pivots, and shoving it in your bag is so much easier due to its smaller form factor. That best-of-the-best option can even Remote Play PS5 games, which is something I never managed with Razer’s. Oh, and did I mention that you still geღt two back buttons and save $70 versus the Kishi V3 Pro? If you really want the biggest and baddest mobile controller, pay for Razer’s, but I think the G8 still wins the all-rounder battle.

How I tested the Razer Kishi V3 Pro?

I put the Razer Kishi V3 Pro to work over a matter of weeks of testing. In that time, I used it for all my mobile gaming needs, as well as a big chunk of my PC play time. Naturally, I compared my experience closely to the Kis🐓hi Ultra controller, and used my experience of tracking its price for the last year to give an analysis in this review.

I played games across multiple genres for this rev🦄iew, including Hunt: Showdown 1896, Clair Obscur, Celeste, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, and the Hell is Us Demo.

For more on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test controllers, check out the full澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

If you're looking for a controller for your dedicated platform, why not check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PS5 controllers, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X controllers, or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Nintendo Switch controllers?

This trio of games centers on base building and resource gathering as a top priority for survival, but the best thing about these games is that you never lose sight of what's important – the people. 11 Bit Studios ♓always finds the humanity in the brutal fight for survival, and the studio's newest game is no different. The Alters is a sci-fi base building sim set on a distant planet where you need to create alternate versions of yourself to survive. On the surface, it may seem like a retelling of a classic sci-fi cloning story, but in reality, this copy couldn't be more different.

The Alters begins with the cinematic drama and thrill of a sci-fi blockbuster 🐠movie. Jan Dolski has crash-landed on a hostile planet to find that the rest of the crew have all died in the landing process. After scrambling past lava rivers, radiation spots, and rocky terrain, he arrives at the mi♈ssion base – a giant wheel-shaped ship. But the bad news doesn't stop there. Jan soon realizes that unless he gets the base moving, the entire station will be engulfed in an intense radiation wave emitted from the sun, and he'll be fried to a crisp. He can't pilot the ship without a crew; there's just too much to do for just one person. He needs more people. Faced with the threat of total annihilation, he makes a life-altering choice and decides to clone himself. For Jan, it's death or rebirth.

Using a valuable resource mined from the planet named rapidium, Jan can use a quantum computer in the base to create bodies and implant fabricated memories into them, birthing more Jans from alternative realities with different skillsets. With a whole team of specialists dead, Jan needs to rebuജild that knowledge base, and with the promised rescue team (being sent by the big bad corporation that sent you here in the first place) taking their sweet time, you need to focus your attention on maintaining distance between you and the deadly sun, so getting this hulking base up and running is a priority. It's time to get to work.

It's a dramatic an🐟d gripping start to the game, and it's a high that never lapses. The Alters is more story-focused than 11 Bit's pr🧜evious work, but the fight for survival is just as fierce.

Copy and Paste

Just like in 11 Bit's previous games, survival begins and ends with your shelt🌃er, and in The Alters, your base is situated in the middle of a great, hulking wheel. Gathering resources means actually going out onto the planet's harsh landscape and mining directly into its surface. My shopping list includes organics to feed us and the ship, minerals and metals to craft supplies, materials to fund my 💟research, and rapidium to create more alters.

With various bits of gadgetry, you need to find the 🌳right location (often signified by environmental clues), then scan the surface to find an ore vein, plonk your mining machine down and then place enough te🧸thers back the way you came to link it back to the ship. Finding a mining spot always feels like a journey, as you have to navigate the planet's surface, climbing up to ledges and blasting rocks to create pathways. It all feels super tactile.

It's a landscape of dramatic rock formations, caverns, and canyons, but this is no time to take holiday snaps. The planet is home to strange anomalies, translucent floating globules 🌳of nasty radiation that will eat through your suit, and the planet is prone to hours of intense radioactivity. You'll research and eventually craft a means to minimize these threats, but their presence gives exploring a thrilling edge.

Mining these resources is not automatic; you need someone to physically be there to work the machines. And so, in classic survival-sim fashion, with only a certain number of hours in a day, you need to decide which resources you need to prioritize. With more bodies, this becomes less of an issue, incentivizing you to clone away. But as your crew keeps growing, you'll also need to♎ start expanding the base, building more rooms like a dormitory, a kitchen, a greenhouse, social rooms, extra storage, a laboratory, and the like. There's always a steady stream of new gadgets, base equipment, and rooms to build. Expansion means survival, but at what cost?

It wouldn't be an 11 Bit Studios game without the team throwing a crisis or two (or ten) your way. Your base is often at the mercy of magnetic storms, which will make rooms inoperable until you fix it (or assign an alter to fix it for you). These storms come with strong radiation spikes, which will test your base's shield and make it difficult to mine for resources. Thankfully, you can rise to the challenge of surviving these encounters with all the systems you have at your fingertips. Everything from managin🍰g alter job assignments, to ✱crafting production lines, to the research tech tree, can all be accessed via a quick access menu, which acts as an all-in-one terminal for your ship.

There's also a life-saving 'uphold production' option where you can set an item to a minimum number, and it will automatically add that item to 𓆏the production queue when it falls below that number. This is a God-send for resource management sickos like myself, and saves you from having to micromanage everything. Your ship is also entirely modular, so as you build more rooms, you can keep rearranging them for peak efficiency with no extra cost, another lovely perk for those of us who get a delicious dopamine boost from efficient organization but hate it when survival sims have to make us pay resource🅠s for it. These systems are perfect for when you need to act fast, and when a crisis does hit, you're ready and prepared, using all the tools and systems available right at your fingertips.

There's a lot to juggle, but e🍎verything is introduced in a way that doesn't overwhelm you. 11 Bit Studios understands how to challenge the player without drowning you in reams of tutorials, text boxes, and management systems. If you're not one for a challenge and prefer to focus on the story, you can switch up the difficulty options anytime from a menu. I bet Jan wishes he had that option on the ship.

Me, Myself and I

And then there are the alters, your diligent crew of 'you'. You can assign them tasks – mining, cooking, base maintenance – whatever you need, they'll do it. This labꦗor pool isn't something you create instantly, but slowly over time. You can🗹 assign the alters different tasks seamlessly in the game's job menu, and when they're done with their production line, they'll ask you if you want them to hop onto something else. They're essentially the perfect workforce.

However, making copies of yourself isn't as simple as pressing 'go' and watching a machine whirl to life. It's a mind-bending process, complete with lavish visuals and music for added extra drama. Using the ship's quantum computer, you can revisit core events from Jan's life visualized as a neuron, brain-core timeline. There are branches in the timeline, visually representing times when Jan made a choice, and following each bran💯ch takes you to a different Jan 'variant'. And here's the trippy bit. You can e🔜xamine big life events and choose a Jan who made different choices than Jan Prime. These life choices lead to a different Jan with different life experiences and a different skillset.

Need a scientist? Search through the timeline where Jan went to university and comp𒈔leted a PhD. How about a Botanist? Choose a timeline where Jan decided to follow his partner to another country and took up gardening. You can essentially craft t🌞he perfect crew, who all have a wide range of skills for you to utilize.

These alters may share the same DNA as Jan, but similarities essentially end there. Props to 11 Bit's visual design team and to Jan's actor Alex Jordan for making each Jan distinguished but also still Jan-like. The way they look, how they speak, and the words they use all contribute to their character and personality, and there are some big characters on the ship.

Managing the clones and their different personalities becomes part of ship life, assigning them jobs that use their skills, making sure they're happy by feeding them cooked meals instead of cheap sludge, and making sure they all have their own beds are some of the ways to keep them happy. You can even watch movies with them and play beer pong to keep their spirits up. In a menu, you can see their inner thoughts and feelings, like what's making them anxജious or what they want. If they bicker with each other, you can break up the argument.

If alter management just ended here, it would be like playing God with a group of Sims, or making sure your Neopet gets watered and fed.ꦬ But this is 11 Bit Studios, so of course, there's going to be human complications.

No I in Team Work

In The Alters, the moral implications of cloning yourself aren't lost in all the resource and base management systems. The emotional and ethical implications are felt from creating your very first Jan. The first Alter I make is Jan Technician, an alter with proficiency in base maintenance, technology, and tinkering. 𒆙When he wakes up, he's understandably confused, so I♛ explain the situation to him. The conversation quickly turns tense as he realises he's nothing more than a tool, a means for you, Jan Prime, to survive – and he's right. He's pissed, and his anger is absolutely justified.

This isn't a story beat that slowly gets revealed over time as the alters realize why they were created, but a head-on breach of the topic. You are immediately confronted with the reality of your decision. The g🐻ame wants you to understand that the a✨lters are more than just your labor force, they're people with experiences and memories – even if they're simulated. Jan Technician decided to stand up to his abusive father, whereas Jan Prime left for university and never looked back. There's tension between the two men upon realizing this, and it quickly becomes apparent how someone so close to you can also simultaneously feel so far away.

Jan Prime and Jan Technician eventually find common ground, but this underlying tension remains as more moral and ethical dilemmas keep revealing themselves. Another Alter – Jan Botanist – misses his wife, and it turns out he's from a timeline where Jan managed to work things out with his ex, Lena.⭕ Jan Prime and she are still in contact (she works for the big bad evil corp), and when Jan Botanist finds out, he encourages Jan to get in touch with his emotions and to reconnect with her, and even asks that he could pretend to be 𒆙Jan Prime and speak to her in his behalf. Uhhh, should I let him speak with her? Is it a good idea to try and rekindle what Jan Prime and Lena lost?

You help them, but they also help you in return. These alters have needs and desires, making them constantly part of your story. During my first playthrough, I created five different alters, all of whom I got to know pretty well. They're not just empty shells, but people with their own traumas from their lives, like addiction, family deaths, and financial struggles. Each person is a collection of choices and different life paths. Making connections with each of them is more than just keeping them happy, so they work better – they're fascinating reflections of your different life choices. Chatting with them makes you reflect on your own decisions. I can't help thinking: What would my alters look like?

Many of the game's choices aren't just about survival, they're also about making decisions that affect you and your crew. This War of Mine and Frostpunk, and now The Alters demand that you make tough choices, the scrappy need to survive outweighing the needs of those around you. But in The Alters, all these people are different versions of you. What are you willing to sacrifice then?

The Alters reaffirms what 11 Bit Stu𝔉dios has been communicating for years, that human nature can be used to tell a meaningful story and ask meaningful questions. Instead of looking at the bigger picture, 11 Bit instead asks you to look smaller. The Alters is a fantastic base builder and survival sim, but what makes it truly brilliant is how these systems are underlined with emotional moments, a branching stღory, difficult choices, and thrilling challenges. It's an introspective story about self-discovery and self-actualization, a gooey, beating heart inside a brilliant machine.

T꧃he Alters was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.

Still looking to make it? Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best survival games list!

Essentially, this is a water pistol by way of sci-fi. With that in mind, the SpyraThree is undoubtedly one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best water guns ever made, a phenomenal premium option, and easily the best c🥀hoice for adults. That does make it overkill if you're buying for your little ones, of course, and there's a price to match… but there'𒐪s no denying how impressive this blaster is.

SpyraThree features & design

• Multiple fire modes & digital display
• Self-reload function
• Powerful shots thanks to 34.6 PSI

The SpyraThree takes the nuclear approach to water fights.🔜 Pump-action? Multi-nozzles? How cute. No – this one sucks up water automatically at the press of a button when you dunk it into a bucket, allowing you to leap back into action fully loaded with no effort on your part. Then you're ready to unleash H20 hell on the opposition.

You'll need all the juice you can get, because the SpyraThree doesn't fire paltry jets of ꦰwater. Oh no. Instead, it hurls out high-pressure 'pellets' of H20 thanks to a PSI of 34.6. When combined with its multiple fire settings (Tournament, Burst, and Open/auto), this is a toy that means business.

You might not get that impress🤡ion from the bright blue and red colorways, but trust me – hefting the SpyraThree will convince yౠou otherwise. This isn't a cheap plastic novelty; it's well-engineered, and its handle is fitted with grooved rubber for added comfort.

The blaster also tells you how much ammo you have via a little display that's reminiscent of the Aliens Colonial Ma😼rines rifle, meaning you won't ever be caught short. The same readout lets you know how much power the toy (which is charged by a USB-C cable) has left too, so there's no guesswork involved in when you need to duck out.

Performance

• Incredibly accurate
• Very decent range
• Quite heavy

If you break this bad boy out in your average water battle, you'll feel incredibly over-equipped; the SpyraThree makes all other water guns look ridiculous. While the likes of Super Soaker are trying to catch up with their own alternatives, none can match the force or features in this꧋ premium option.

To kick off, you just need to dip the end of the blaster into a bucket, tub, or sink full of water, hit a button, and wait for the SpyraThree to reload – it'll do the rest. While the process is d𓃲istractingly noisy (secrecy isn't an option here), it's refreshingly quick. Remember how annoying it is to wait while your water gun gradually fills at a tap? That's not a problem anymore.

Then the world's your oyster. Although the capacity isn't enough to keep you fighting for ages, especially when you use the thirsty automatic or burst modes, itꦯ's much better than competing blasters.

Speaking of those alternate modes, they do make enough of a difference to be worth switching between. While Tournament is a more accurate single-shot solution that allows you to prioritize your aim, Burst lets loose a short barrage for when multiple foes are crowded together or you're pinned down. Open is all about laying down a coꦯnstant stream of fire, on the other hand. (Just be aware that you'll run out of ammo very quickly with this selected.)

I preferred Tournament mode, for the most part. The SpyraThree is shockingly accurate (a water gun actually hitting your target every time? Outrageous), and it boasts a decent range as well. For example, I was able to hit the fourth-floor windows of our multi-storey office building with the Spyra. It does tickle a bit more than your average Super Soaker as a result, but no more so than the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nerf Pro Gelfire Mythic.

The only downside? This thing is pretty heavy, especially when hopped up on water, so take that into consideration before diving in. Its shots may also be too much for y෴ounger kids to handle, especially compared to your average Super Soaker.

Should you buy the SpyraThree?

If you want the ultimate instrument of water warfare, yes – yo🦩u should buy the SpyraThree. It's the ideal choice no matter whether you're an adult looking to spice up the backyard barbecues of summer, or if you like to play competitively. However, by the same token, it won't✱ be suitable for younger children or for buying on a whim; this is quite expensive compared to average blasters.

Want something cheaper or for a younger audience? Su🍎per Soaker offers the Power Drench XL, and while it's noᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚt as powerful, it's a similar concept that's far more child-friendly.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested the SpyraThree

This review was conducted using a copy of the product provided by th🎐e publisher.

I took this blaster into my garden and outside the office for numerous test-firings (I was even asked to clean our office security cameras using the SpyraThree, as seen above), target practice, and general use. ꦍI also used other, competing blasters as a comparison and focused on range, accuracy, and ease of use.

For more on our testing process, see the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ hardware policy.

Looking for more backyard fun? Don't miss the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Nerf blasters.

If you're not familiar with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Splitgate, the big twist comes down to one word: portals. Portals can be projected onto designated surfaces, and each player can have one pair of portals active at a time. Anybody can pass (or shoot) through any portal, but you can only see through your own. Therefore, the standard idea of strangers shooting one a🧔nother in a virtual environmꦓent remains, but with a new dimension of ambush, escape, sniping, and travel possibilities.

I'll start with some positives, of which – to be fair – there are many. It's free, for one, and there isn't so much as a sniff of pay to win to be found anywhere. If you don't want to pay anything, or if you're unable to, you also get to enjoy a complete game, with no maps or modes locked away. You'll also find that, from your very first match, this is a game that feels good.

Feel Collins

Movement is fast without being intimidatingly so, and the lengthy slides you can performဣ can be as useful as they are satisfying. The real star of the movement show, though, is 🍌your jetpack. The rapidly-recharging fuel is quite limited, but opens up traversal possibilities that most FPS games don't offer. You can use it to simulate a simple double jump, but it also allows you to cross otherwise impassable gaps, or quickly reach higher platforms. Controlled bursts keep you in the air longer, and the inertia you retain from the right landing can be used to your advantage.

Some match types – such as Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Firecracker (essentially Search and Destroy with respawns) – will be instantly familiar. The dynamic movement already injects a new kineticism into these, and the portal mechanic helps Splitgate 2 distinguish itself further. Take Domination, for example. One o🅷f my favorite tactics is to place each of my portals at a different objective (and hope my teammates take care of the third). This way, I defend two objectives at once, and ambushing an enemy across the map by shooting or stepping through my portal is never anything less than wickedly satisfying.

There are currently three character types – called factions – to choose from, each wearing a figure-hugging outfit so snug around the crotch, it threatens to split your gate. Your choice of character determines which passive (also given to the team) and ultimate (dependent on a cooldown) you get for the match. Meridian provides faster health regen and an ability to briefly see nearby enemies through walls, Aeros allows for faster ability recharge and an ultimate that greatly increases s📖peed, while Sabrask enjoys faster equipment recharge and the ability to summon a shield your team can shoot through but the enemy can't. While you (oddly) can't switch factions in the middle of a match, you can swap loadouts on respawn.

Going, going, gun

A lot of what drives the Splitgate games is innovation and variety, which makes the weapons on offer largely disappointing. It's mostly familiar looking assault rifles, carbines, shotguns, pistols, and SMGs. There are a few exceptions – my favℱorite being the Splitstream, dual🌌-wielded weapons that merge into one when going aim-down-sights – but not many. That's a little disappointing, but familiar from the first game, and it's nowhere near to being the biggest problem.

Splitgate 2's biggest ꦉproblem is… well, really, it's the first Splitgate. Almost everything that's done well here was done much better in the first game. Damningly, this very much includes the implementation of the portal mechanic. In part, it's due 🌜to the fact that the first game – unlike the sequel – allows you to dispel an enemy portal without sacrificing one of your own (there used to be an anti-portal grenade). That pales next to the much larger issue of map design.

The maps are consistently well designed… if you have no interest in using the portals. And if you have no interest in using the portals, why would you be playing a Splitgate game? While it's still very much possible to use portals to instantly travel great distances and perform long-range ambushes, particularly on the more open maps, opportunities such as this simply don't p🐷resent themselves as often as they should (indeed, far less often than they did in the first game). There are too many portal walls with no visibility of open spaces; too many tucked away in corners, nooks, and crannies. Opportunistic aggression via portals is discouraged, and it feels like the emphasis is now on using portals for quick escapes.

Portal potty

More generally, there's been a shift away from the simplicity that initially drew people to 𒉰Splitgate. There were no character classes or attachments in the first game. Matches started with everybody on even footing, and success relied on scavenging weapons, clever use of portals, and good ol' FPS skills. By embracing elements you and I have already seen in a thousand other shooters, Splitgate is diluting its identity,🌸 and starts to melt into the background as a result. And speaking of things we've already seen a thousand times…

Splitgate battle royale is actually a concept with a lot of potential - but this ain't it. It's not bad; in fact, it's quite good, if something that's u🅺nlikely to hold your attention for long periods at a time. I can only assume that it 💃was a relatively late addition during the development process, as it's very poorly optimized. The game struggles with the large map, and the frame rate stutters like a lovestruck teen as a result. I've also recently started to hit a bug where, on my team's death, quitting before any and all remaining teams have finished is treated as quitting a match early. This is hopefully something 1047 Games will fix quite quickly.

15 teams of four go head-to-head-to-head-to-head-to-(okay, you get the idea). There's the usual diving out of a ship, the usual looting crates and fallen enemies for weapons and equipment, and you start off with just your chosen class's pistol. Unless you're unlucky enough to get picked ꦦoff within seconds of landing, it's actually fairly easy to quickly get hold of a decent weapon and a few useful bits of loot. You can respawn so long as at least one member of your team is still alive and not in combat, too, so it's more forgiving than battle royales tend to be.

For all the talk of different biomes though, the map – technically it's four connected ones, but in effect it's one – looks uninspiring, and feels unfinished. It does the job perfectly well, but it's basically just a bunch of boxes, walls, and towers with portal surfaces surrounded by half-hearted decoration. It feels like a collection of standard arena maps stapled together rather than a carefully curated battle royale world. Random evenꦕts such as double damage and extra speed keep things interesting, but it's far from the revolutionary take on the genre that we were promised.

Royale family

If you think you could do a better job of designing multiplayer maps, you've got a chance to prove it, as there's a map editor (like everything else, available f🐈or free). You can host or join custom games using your or anybody else's map, though in my experience so far, custom games attracting the maximum eight players are pretty rare.

It also amused me to see, after Ian Proulx's public railing against the staleness of Call of Duty, that the most popular custom maps are facsimiles of Nuketown and Shipment; which themselves have been reused multiple times within that franchise. Irony upon irony (one of the Nuketown copies is very impressive, though)💦.

Splitgate 2 is free, it has high production values, and there's a lot of fun to🐈 be had with it. All that considered, it's definitely worth your time. Nonetheless, it's incredibly frustrating to know that it isn't as good as it could have been, and by spending more time looking back, the team could have taken the Splitgate name several leaps forward.

Splitgate 2 was reviewed on PS5.

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best online multiplayer games list for more to play!

This is a productivity machine, so it's not going to be threatening the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming mouse models on the mar🔥ket. However, Razer's pedigree in creating high-quality peripherals that balance speedy sensors with additional functionality is certainly on show here. The Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition is too cumbersome to be a true threat on the battlefi🌼eld, but it's certainly a beast in a spreadsheet.

Design

The Razer Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition doesn't look like most of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:wireless gaming mice I test, and the clue's in the name. This is an upright pointer with a large, heavy base and some serious heft to its waistline. That mඣeans it's not going to be zipping across any Apex Legends arenas any time soon, and it's certainly taking a backseat in ranked play.

Razer's Pro♉ line has never been in step with the brand's wider gaming motivations, though. First and foremost, this is a productivity machine.

That means comfort is a top priority here, and thankfully Razer has delivered. I felt too much of a strain to truly relax when wielding the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Keychron M5 earlier this year, but the Razer Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition makes some key changes to that form factor. Instead of placing the thumb all the way at the bottom of the device (the design Keychron takes, as well as Logitech), there's a large dent in the top left side. Here, the thumb sits comfortably atop the mouse, rather than straining to control🐼 it from the bottom.

That, plus the super grippy texture covering this side of the device, makes for a far more accurate and infinitely more pleasant experience. Instead of working overtime to keep a lumbering pointer in check, my thumb is reඣsting neatly in the small groove while the rest of the work is balanced across three fingers on the top and my wrist. The difference is night and day.

At 150g this is still a solid piece of kit, but I never felt like I was dragging it across my mouse pad. There's a fairly sophisticated set of large skates on the underside that, while not as slick as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse, k🌱eep that glide smooth anℱd lighten the load a little.

Build quality feels sturdy, though there's a little more ♛creaking when squeezing from the sides than I would have expected from a Razer device. It's by no means enough to have me worried about long-term durabilꦍity, though.

Controls

The Razer Pro Click V2 line has a number of AI features built into Synapse and, in the case of the Vertical Edition, it's all accessible via a small button right on the very top of the device. By default, this small silver clicker cycles DPI settings but a long press brings up your AI Prompt Master. Connec🔥t to an AI Engine like ChatGPT and you've got quick access to a pre-set prompt of your choosing. You'll need Synapse installed and running to use this feature, though, and for now it's largely based around summarizing or writing text rather than running more complicated analysis prompts.

Then you've got your classic two side buttons, framing that thumb groove on the side. The curved side means Razer can't fit these two clickers side by side as🅺 Keychron does. Instead, they're positioned above and below the thumb. Knocking upwards or downwards to actuate each button is a new feeling, but one I quickly merged into muscle memory.

These buttons are slightly more shallow than you might expect, but that's perfect consider♓ing they're being hit by the side of the thumb instead of the top. There's ample space 🐓on the button itself so I never missed a click but there's still enough room around the thumb to avoid accidental presses.

You do sacrifice some scroll wheel action by opting for the Vertical Edition over the standard Razer Pro Click V2. While the traditional ♎design offers both smooth and notched scrolling, this wheel is locked to notched in the taller shape. Everything still feels responsive and there's a strong sense of presence to each notch, but scrolling through longer pages does grow tiresome after a while (which is where that free-spin mode comes in).

Software

The Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition runs on Razer Synapse 4, the latest iteration of the brand's software. Things are a little slimmer here than I normally see in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Razer mice, with no ꦅfancy sensor features or li♍ft-off distance customizations on offer. Instead, we've got more of a focus on keybindings and the aforementioned AI Prompt Master.

The latter is basically a back door into ChatGPT, allowing you to bring up a Razer-skinned version of the softwar🀅e (with ༺the addition of a few handy drop downs and preset prompt parameters) to either rephrase, summarize, or create text or images. It's basically an alternative to hitting alt-space to bring up the app itself, with the addition of a few quick settings.

Individual prompts can't be mapped to any buttons, which is a shame. If you regularly find yourself using🌄 one or two of the e🌺xact same prompts, it would be much easier to simply assign the full task to a keybinding.

Elsewhere, Razer's software can be used to set DPI presඣets (either along a simple slider or using five stages saved to the mouse itself), set the polling rate from 125Hz to 1,000Hz, and configure sleep mode timings. RGB lighting can be toggled on and 🔜off, with Razer's standard range of effects on offer.

Everything is laid out well, with intuitive m🔯enus (though some keybinding options can be a pain to find in the smaller dropdown that appears) and easy sliders for your main controls. Synapse 4 is also far less CPU intensive than its predecessors, though it does constantly run in the tray in Windows, which has slowed my system in the past.

Connection

The Pro Cli♛ck V2 Vertical Edition can connect via the supplied USB-C cable as well as both Bluetooth and its 2.4GHz receiver. That's par for the course at this price range, with most other $100+ gaming mice offering the same connection options.

Switching between connections is pretty simple, as is swapping between Bluetooth devices (there are three slots, which is handy for multi-tasking between different laptops and tablets). Interestingly, the toggle on the underside is used simply to swap bet♔ween wired and wireless mode, with a separate button on the other side used to configure either a 2.4GHz or Bluetooth connection.

Both Bluetooth and 2.4GHz connections remained resilient in my t🐻esting, with very little additional input lag introduced when usin𒊎g Bluetooth instead of Razer's speedy receiver.

Battery

Razer advertises mammoth six-month battery life, which is likely a best-case Bluetooth scenario with no RGB. So no, you probably won't get six months of juice out of th🏅is device if you're using it at a 1,000Hz polling rate over 2.4GHz with some fancy light shows - but you're still goin♋g to run for a long time.

I charged the Razer Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition to 100% twelve days ago and I've just hit 50%. It sees runtime for eight hours per day during the work week,ꦿ with a few extra hours in the evening for gaming, and around two to four hours each day on weekends. That's connected via a 2.4GHz receiver, without RGB switched on, set to a 1,000Hz ജpolling rate.

I've done the math, and that's roughly 102 hours for 50% of the battery to dꦅrain, putting us firmly into the 200-hour territory overall. I spent 112 hours testing the Keychron M5 and it was down to 45%, so both mice are offering particularꦛly strong battery lives.

For reference, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX (my favorite gaming mouse at the moment) gets about 95 hours for a full charge, while the next-sturdiest (after the M5) 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Cougar Revenger Pro 4K taps out at 150 hours on its lowest polling r༺ate.

Sensor

We've got Razer's Focus Pro Optical Sensor at the helm here, the same eye featured in the cheaper 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Viper V3 Hyperspeed and slightly older 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Basilisk V3 Pro. That means tracking is smooth♛ and accurate while keeping up with faster movements admirably, despite the lower-than-average 550 IPS. A gaming-focused mouse will generally start off with 650 inches-per-second of tracking speed, but the sacrifice doesn't make too much of a difference here considering the weight and shape of the pointer itself. You're not going to be able to zip this across a mouse pad in the same way you would a lightweight esports mouse.

For its productivity sensibilities, this is a fantastic piece of kit. Not many users are going𝓰 to stretch to the full 30,000 DPI unless you're particularly nimble and using a much larger display. Overall, tracking is reliable and accurate, while maintaining a smooth curve at higher settings as well.

There are no lift-off distance settings to customize, but I can see why. The larger form factor means actually readjusting positioning during wider movements is far too cumbersome. I'm not knocking it, the Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition was never designed as a gaming-first device, but iꦐt's certainly something to remember if you're looking for an all-in-one pointer.

Switches

This is a ful⭕ly mechanical mouse, with no optical clickers in either the main clicks or the side buttons. That makes sense, Razer doesn't need to focus on pure speed here and instead the Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition offers a deep, precise actuation on its main buttons. That's a little lighter when it comes to the side clackers, but it still works in Razer's favor - they're easy to hit and still offer a robust sense of feedback when knocked with the thumb.

Should you buy the Razer Pro Click V2?

The Razer Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition is a little too awkward to truly mak𓆏e sense as a gaming mouse, but it's not designed for that. This is a productivity tool that will serve anyone looking for a more relaxed hold particularly well.

It's far more comfortable than cheaper alternatives from Keychron and serves its higher price tag well with a textured grip, excellent sensor performance, and easily accessible extra buttons. 🌸AI features feel like a slight gimmick at the moment considering it's basically just another shortcut for ChatGPT, but could come in handy for the power user, and that battery life is second to none at the moment.

If you've decided to invest a little more in a more ergonomic shape for work or content creation🎐, this is an easy recommendation from me. Just be aware of the extra wei🅺ght that inevitably comes with this chunkier design.

How I tested the Razer Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition

I used the Razer Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition for two weeks, running the pointer as my daily driver for all work and play during that time. My work primarily centers around writing and researching, but I made good use of additional productivity fღunctions in image editing and across data-heavy spreadsheets as well. I primarily testing the Pro Click's gaming chops in Doom The Dark Ages, while also running my usual competitive tests in Apex Legends and CS2.

For more information on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test gaming mice, check out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also rounding up all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Logitech gaming mouse models as well as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best left-handed gaming mice for more options. Or, take a look at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best mouse pads for gaming if you're truly looking to finesse that setup.

There are some surprises in here. The mobile RTX 5070 inside my test device gave me some real gen-on-gen performance upgrades (something missing slightly from the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 rigs I've tested so far), and battery life in a productivity scenario is certainly impressive. The G16 doesn't quite excel in any one area enough to be considered one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming laptops on the market right now, but it is a ja✤ck of all trades worth checking ꦅout.

Configurations

The Asus ROG Strix G16 comes with a whole wad of different configuration options. Right at the top of the pile, though, I'm delighted to see the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D in the mix. Sadly the red-team's giant CPU isn't inside the test unit I've received (I'm working with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX), but considering it topped the charts when I used it in inside the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:MSI Raider A18 HX it's certainly ready to rev some engines here.

I'ওm also glad that Asus hasn't stuck only with Intel's Ultra range of CPUs. We've gཧot options for the almost-timeless Intel Core i9-14900HX in here, a gaming-focused processor that often out-performs the brand's newer releases.

Graphics are limited to the mid-range with the choice between an RTX 5060, RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti GPU. Overall, this is an impressive spec sheet. The Asus ROG Strix G16 doesn't want to 💃alienate regular players with flashy configurations that cost thousands of dollars, but it doesn't want to be seen as weedy. With enough choice to balance a range of different use-cases and budgets, this is a particularly flexible option.

That variety is a double-edged sword, though. Actually finding the configuration ꧟you're after is a little tricky. Intel builds are easier to chase down in the UK, while US retailers like Best Buy seem to have gone all out on AMD.

Design

I was surprised by just how understated the Asus ROG Strix G16's design is. I've come from the Scar line, a range that previously wenꦚt all-out with translucent plastic designs and blazing RGB. Here, though, we've got an almost Zephyrus-like subtlety - with some added RGB flair.

The underside features a particularly vi♛brant strip of LED lighting, which creates a strong underglow effect on whichever surface you're using. Colors are bold and uniform, but can easily be switched off if you want to maintain a more professional vibe (or save battery life).

A light gray aesthetic keeps things looking streamlined, keeping its cool against black keycౠaps and macro buttons. There isn't a lick of garish iconography on this rig, with a simple ROG logo stamped🥃 onto the lid offering a peaceful nod to branding.

Just like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9, the Asus ROG Strix G16 manages to hide its thicker form factor. A tapered lip and severe gradient running down to the bottom of the main chassis means this form factor looks and feels much thinner than it actually is. That's not going t🔜o help when transporting the device, though at 2.65kg it's one of the lighter 16-inch rigs on the market, b⛄ut it certainly looks less imposing on a desk.

There's a little fle꧂x to the main deck, but nothing noticeable in the keyboard area when used in casual typing. That chass🧸is does bow a little under heavier stamps but it never causes the deck to feel spongey or cheap.

Display

Asus hasn't outfitted the ROG Strix G16 with the Mi🐈niLED display gracing its more premium Scar models, but this is still a well-defined panel. Running at a crisp QHD+ resolution with a zippy 240Hz refresh rate, Asus is keeping things in the upper✱ mid-range heree, but adding an extra flair with its Dolby Vision integration and new ACR film.

The latter is a two-layer addition to the screen itself, ultimately aiming to keep glare to a minimum and pump extra contrast int𓆉o those colors. It's a workaround for the kind of vibrancy you might see from a more expensive OLED device, but still works particularly well. Red and orange hues maintain a striking degree of precision, even if blues are warmed a little too much to my naked eye.

There's no conventional HDR here, but I was still able to make out all the necessary details in darker Doom The Dark Ages caves and caverns, while also spotting a good amount of variation in lighter moments as well. Colors also pop particularly well🍌 considering this display is a step behind some of the more premium builds I've been testing lately - I'd still be just as happy if this was my daily driver going forwards.

Ports

The Asus ROG Strix G16 I'm testing is an Intel model, which means I've got a Thunderbolt 4 instead of AMD's preferred USB 4. Most 2025 gaming laptops are making the move to Thunderbolt 5 for its faster speeds, but this is still a more-than capable port for everyday connections. This is a trend among the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Asus gaming laptops, with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 also sticking with Thunderbolt 4. However, the far more premium 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:2025 Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 throws in not one but two of thes✱e updated ports.

You'll only notice this relative dow❀ngrade if you regularly transfer large files to and from your system or you're looking to connect mul🦋tiple high-speed 4K monitors. Otherwise, you're still getting support for two 4K monitors and power delivery as well.

Elsewhere, the Strix G16 is stacked with three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ꦇports (one more than you'll find on the Zephyrus), one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C connection, as well as your standard HDMI 2.1 and 3.5mm audio jacks. There's also a handy ไEthernet port included as well, something you won't find on slimmer models.

These connections are split across the left and right flanks of the laptop, which is more common in 16-inch devices. Larger 18-inch models often keep som♊e permanent ports to the rear of the chassis to keep cables tidy and stay out of the way. I was able to get everything connected to the left side of the Strix G16 in testing, which kept my mouse-hand free from obstructions. However, if you have wired accessories (both of which require a USB-A port) you may find yourself battling some cables.

Keyboard and trackpad

This is a slick chiclet-style keyboard with plenty of action under those caps and a s🎐turdy, energetic feel to both typing and gaming. That's not something you find everyday in gaming laptops - and even the most expe🐈nsive machines can still fall down with mushier decks.

Those keys looked a little higher than usual when I first opened the lid, but they're actually just very well spaced. Still, that extra breathing room keeps everything nicely accurate - even ✤when I'm spamming between E and R in Doom The Dark Ages. Repeat presses also feel snappy, though - as with most gaming laptop keyboards - the bottom-out is still a little too soft𓆉 to truly be reliable in the heat of battle.

The trackpad is spacious and comfortable, with a smooth glide and responsive tap-action. I did notice that a forced physical press comes with an extra clack o🥀🍌f feedback sound that doesn't feel intentional. It's a slight drawback, as it cheapens the feel overall, even if it doesn't feel like too much of a durability concern.

Performance

The Asus ROG Strix G16 is middling in its performance, but it still represents a good step up from previous-generation RTX 4070 machines (which isn't something I've been able to say about all RTX 50-Series rigs so far). 3D Mark performance puts it suitably below the RTX 5080-toting Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 and the RTX 5090 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Blade 16 2025, ൲even though it's running in a larger chassis than both.

Still, synthetic benchmarks suggest an average 23% increase in performance in 3D Mark Time Spy and Fire Strike compared with the similarly-built (but RTX 4070) 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:HP Omen 17, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alienware M16 R2, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Acer Nitro 16. That's worth shouting about, many of the mobile RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 machines I've tested ♎so far have only offered marginal improvements in native♏ performance compared to previous generations.

In the real world, that means framerate perforꦯmance is just nudging that of the slimmer RTX 5080 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 in easier runs, though the Strix G16 doe꧑s fall away from more powerful graphics cards in more demanding titles.

At QHD resolution, the system struggles to stay above 60fps in Cyberpunk 2077 when on Turbo mode without any🍷 DLSS support, and only just manages to average 61fps in Horizon Zero Dawn: Remastered's highest settings. Black Myth Wukong represents a significant challenge as well, tapping out at around 50fps in its top graphical settings - though I did manage to bump that up to 80fps with DLSS Frame Generation switched on. You'll need to configure Nvidia's frame generation settings to truly get competitive framerates out of bulkier titles, but the fact that it's even available is worth a nod.

Lighter games can run just fine without these tweaks, with Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War: Three Kingdoms keeping their heads well above water in both High and Highest settings. In fact, lighter title⛎s like these show a much🏅 smaller gap in performance between the RTX 5070 and more expensive RTX 5080 configurations.

Yes, the Asus ROG Strix G16 is configurable with AMD's blockbuster Ryzen 9 9955HX3D processor,𒀰 but I've got the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX on the test bench here. It's not quite got the headroom of the larger Scar 18 to bump it up the rankings, but it's still holding out quite well - beating the previous generation Intel Core Ultra 9 185H by a mile and holding the fort against the super-slick AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 as well.

PC Mark 10's productivity benchmark puts this implementation of the latest Intel CPU at a score of 8,315 - just a l⛄ittle sh🧔y of the same processor inside the Scar's larger form factor.

Battery

I was surprised by the Asus ROG Strix G16's battery life in productivity scenarios. I was able to run it all day (without RGB lighting) without needing a plug, and even managed 6.6 hours of juice with those LEDs set to 25%. That is, of course, running a few C🍸hrome tabs while the system was set to conserve power in its Silent Mode.

Gameplay battery life averages out at around ജan hour wheꦇn running in Performance mode with the display as bright as the system would allow me (though still not at full) and RGB on. Perhaps more impressive, though, my Doom The Dark Ages gameplay remained silky smooth even when running on battery alone.

No, textures weren't as crisp as they would have been in full Turbo mode at full brightness, but I never experience🌸d a noticeable stutter or framerate drop. That's surprising considering on-the-go play was a nightmare only a few years ago.

Should you buy the Asus ROG Strix G16?

The Asus ROG Strix G16 is one of the cheaper gaming laptops I've tested from the RTX 50-Series generation, but we are only just starting to see these RTX 5070 builds on the shelves. Those looking to play older titles (or 🌺are happy to bump up DLSS settings in more demanding releases) with a high-end screen, slick chassis, and solid productivity battery life will be well served here, though. The performance of the RTX 5070 inside this machine is within touching distance of slimmer RTX 5080 conf🍷igurations in some easier runs, and that's worth a lot to anyone catching up on releases from the last five years or so.

Does it beat the Lenovo Legion P🌱ro 7i Gen 9? No, the Asus ROG Strix G16 may be cheaper than Lenovo's previous-generation powerhouse but its RTX 5070 can't out-perform an RTX 4080 and its display is about the same quality. It's a nicer design overall, but until I get my hands on an RTX 5080 build it's still behind Lenovo.

Value is definitely strong for those after an upper mid-ra🍎nge machine with a few extra b🍒ells and whistles, though, so if you prioritize look, feel, and display quality over high-end native rendering you're still going to have a great time here.

How I tested the Asus ROG Strix G16

I used the Asus ROG Strix G16 as my daily driver for work and play across two weeks. I performed synthetic 𓆏graphical benchmark tests in 3DMark's Time Spy, Fire Strike, and Steel Nomad and pushed the CPU in PC Mark 10's dedicated software suite as well. I also benched native rendering performance across both 1080p and 1600p resolution, in high and highest settings, on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, and Black Myth: Wukong. These tests were carried out in the system's Turbo mode with no DLSS feature𝕴s applied unless actively stated above.

I performed each ♔test three times, taking an average of each score as my final result.

I also completed two battery rundown tests, running the device in both Silent and Performance Mode for productivity and gaming respectively. During this ꧑time, battery was charged to 100% before use, with screen brightness set at 50% and RGB settings at 25%.

For more information on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test gaming laptops, check out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also hunting down all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Alienware laptops and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Razer laptops for more on the competition, or take a look at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming PCs for even more power.

Here, players strive toward deeply personal dreams and goals as they meander their way across the fractured nation of Pacifica (prev. California), in the wake of a nine-year civil war. Unlike 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Electric State movie, which pits humanity against robot kind, the tabletop game reflects the aftermath of devastating human infighting that paved the way for one megacorporation's rise to dominance. It's a story that pokes at humanity's flaws, while navigating wild tales of ghosts in the machine. In other words, it's exactly what the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best tabletop RPGs should be.

The Elec𝓀tric State Roleplaying Game features & design

• Quick and easy to kick off, but a little more prep than you might expect
• Roleplay-based mechanics and minimal tracking lighten load on GM
• Vague rulebook can be frustrating

The Electric State Roleplaying Game is the quintessential road trip movie turned TTPRG, and set in an alternative '90s post-apocalyptia. While that means the character archetypes can fee൲l a little played out, with cookie-cutter reskinned Veteran and investigator characters both featuring, there's plenty of room for creative types to subvert more harmful tropes that might emerge, and make a character their own.

Based on the Year Zero tabletop system – the same as Free League's own 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alien RPG – The Electric State takes cues from Storypath and Powered By The Apocalypse systems. It zeroes in on a 🐽player character's dreams and goals, and causes oodles of interpersonal drama which plays out without much input from the GM. In order to recover a player character's hope stat, players can set a scene to work things through. These pivotal moments reduce tension between characters and replenish hope, which is crucial to avoid break-downs and potential rolls on the ment🔜al trauma table (an optional rule).

With its minimal-stat playbooks, standard six-sided dic💙e pools, and roleplay-dependent character advancement, it focuses more on thematic engagement than numbers, making it a supremely easy system to learn and play. What that does mean, is that sticklers for the rules may find all the "GM has the last say" hand-waving a little frustrating. And while the rulebook is vague enough to allow the 'rule of cool' to reign, the single-six-success dice pool system means it can be a little difficult to keep pacing and cinematics with an always-visible difficulty class pinned to every roll. That said, everyone knowing the stakes takes a lot of the weight off the Game Master, which is really where the system sh💖ines.

There are plenty of roll tables to support play, and I was often flipping back and forth between pages since the book can be hard to reference in ꧋a frenzied moment. It's well-laid out and in an order that doesn't feel front-loaded, but I was a fool to think the starter scenarios would detail everything I needed. There's a l💫ittle more prep needed than you might expect if you don't want to be rolling on random tables every five minutes.

Gameplay

• Tension and hope loop is fascinating
• Well balanced with easy to mod values
• Countdowns are a fantastic way to keep things moving

The Electric State puts a real emphasis on the ebb and flow of tension between player characters. Once players get a handle on their trajectory, it's beautiful to witness the heroes in constant flux with one another. With mechanics that encourage roleplay to the max, every session is a cacophony of interpersonal conflict, which really works to support the theme and underlyi𓃲ng message The Electric State tries to deliver. And when the players are doing most of the work for you it's far easier to allow things to unfold organically than a lot of systems I've played. Just be ready to wrangle your players and skip the boring bits if you want to actual🐟ly get what the book calls a 'oneshot' into a single session.

Still, with small values and little to track other than unseen countdowns for each scenario and🐻 player character, the GM can kick back as the drama unfolds, interjecting only to propel the timeline or spotlight a quiet player's take.

There are also some📖 fantastic attem﷽pts to balance the game, especially for those rolling badly. These include failed stat improvement rolls that wield new talents instead, and the ability to push a roll at the expense of hope. Both make the low success rate far more palatable, and while it's still a high-stakes system that can be brutal at times, there are plenty of ways for players to spring back into action.

Shou𒈔ld you bꩲuy The Electric State Roleplaying Game?

Packed with drama and catharsis, The Electric State is one for the roleplay-inclined, as opposed to the number crunchers. All those action-packed moments in which you're face-to-face with a ten-foot robot 🌃in all its uncanny gloryꦗ are interspersed with intimate moments of growth and redemption that would be diminished by a numbers-heavy system. If you want to get ahead, you have to lean into your character's dreams and act for your supper.

Since the system hinges on players' willingness to engage with one anoth🌸er's characters on a meaningful level – causing and relieving drama ad nauseum between fights – it's not a TTRPG that's meant for your average killbilly. Those with a penchant for social ping-pong will have a great time playing… as long as they don't mind facing the inevitable heat of failure, or a depression spiraꩲl from too much Neurocasting.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested The Electric State Roleplaying Game

This review was conducted using a copy of the game providꦡed by the publisher.

After reading the core rulebook in full and examining the included adventures, our reviewer played a session of the game as Game Master to see it in action. They then compared th༒e eꦿxperience to other tabletop RPGs in their collection.

For a broader overview of our process, see the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Looking to try something new? Be sure to check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best board games or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best adult board games.

The entire lineup was effectively a massive shake-up in how Intel designed and created its chips up until that point. Processor designs that had been touted as some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best CPUs out there were wantonly abandoned and thrown aside in search of a new design that would give Team Blue an advantage over AMD🐷's recent success with the subsequent 7000 series, particularly its X3D lineup. In essence, the first-generation Ultra series, the 100 line, was confined to laptops only as a hyper-efficient, low-power alternative to Arm and Qualcomm's Snapdragon line. It was a minor success and inevitably became the blueprint for the Core Ultra 200 range on desktop.

After seven months, the question the🔯n has to be, "Is Intel's Core Ultra 7 265K a good bargain today?", particularly given everything that went on. It's certainly seen price drops since then, that's for sure (the Ultra 7 is now just $299/£239, down from its launch price of $400/£339), and both BIOS and Windows are now more mature, fully capable of taking advantage of Intel's new architecture. But given how poo﷽r that initial launch was, it's fair to say we're all still a little skeptical of Intel's redesign, and with good reason.

Specs & Features

If you’re someone who invested in an Intel motherboard and processor in the last three or four years, you might be asking why the brand chose to uproot its existing CPU socket for its latest generation. Well, by the end of 2023, Intel had kinda pushed its Performance/Efficient design to its limits. The style that was found in the 12th, 13th, and 14th gen chips. You could see it too; the 14th gen, itself really more of a refresh of the 13 series, the 14900K nothing more than a ramped-up 13900K, regularly ran at 100 degr𝔉ees under load, no matter the cooling or the chip, pushingᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ subsequent clock speeds all the way up to 6GHz and above as a result. All in an attempt to compete with AMD.

It wasn't without fault, howeverᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ, and after numerous stability issues and motherboard manufacturer shenanigans came to light, in an effort to quell the (rightly justified) media and consumer uproar, Intel enforced a bevy of BIOS upda☂tes and microcode changes to reduce the amount of power being drawn by the chips. This quelled most of the issues, as it prevented the Raptor Lake products from permanently damaging themselves when in operation. That not only reduced temps (mildly) and increased stability, but it came at the cost of that top-tier launch performance, effectively invalidating most of those early reviews (my own included) and experiences in the process. In short, Intel was in the doghouse.

Then we got the Core Ultra lineup, and oh boy, the number of changes here was intense. We lost hyper-threading; Intel handed off the manufacturing to Taiwan Semiconductor Manu🐻facturing Company (TSMC) and its 3nm process, it introduced an integrated NPU (neural processing unit used to accelerate AI calculations), and how it managed power delivery and clock speeds was wildly different compared to its predecessors. It's a chip that really should have🅰 been launched about 3-4 months later than it was, once the bugs had been ironed out, its BIOS had been developed, and Windows had been optimized for it. Sticking to release timelines and shareholder demands sometimes isn't the best play.

Although the CPU architecture has seen the biggest amount of change from a generational standpoint, the top-line specs aren't that radically different between the two generations. If you compare the 14700K to the Core Ultra 7 265K,👍 they're impressively similar.

Both feature eight Performance cores, and 12 Efficiency cores. Both have remarkably similar clock speeds (5.5 GHz for the Ultra 7 265K and 5.6 GHz for the 14700K), and both feature rather tight L3 cache siz𓄧ing as well (or smart caching), with the 7 265K touting 30 MB versus the 14700K's 33 MB.

The biggest and most notable difference is that lack of hyper-threading or simultaneous multi-threading across the range. Something that for th𒊎e longesꦅt time has been a staple of Intel's Performance cores, even pre-dating the P/E split.the

In essence, you can think of hyperthreading like an arm. Each core is a mouth that needs feeding, and by default, it has one arm or thread that can gᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚrab that food from the relev💃ant resources. What hyperthreading does is add an extra arm into the equation; it effectively simulates a virtual core to the operating system. Although it doesn't necessarily equate to a direct doubling of performance, it generally ensures that the physical core, or mouth, can continually be fed with instructions rather than sitting there idly, waiting for that next resource or instruction to come to it.

It does, however, require more power to operate like that, and the Core Ultra architecture is designed first and foremost around efficiency and reduced latency above all else. On the surface, that looks incredibly bad, as the 14700K🙈 touts a whopping 28 threads, versus the Ultra 7's meager 20, but not all is as it first appears. Certainly, in regard to perfor𝕴mance.

Launch pricing between the two remained fairly consistent as well, despite inflationary pressures (or because of), with the 14700K sitting pretty at $410 / £400 back in October of 2023 and the 265K arriving at $400 / £340 in October 2024. There's a catch there, though, and that's the socket. Namely, if you want one of the latest Core Ultra lines, you inevitably have to invest in a new motherboard as we♋ll, as it is only compatible with LGA 1851 sockets, not the older LGA 1700 sockets common across the 12th, 13th, and 14th gen chips.

Intel really has struggled to shift these CPUs since their launch, though, and the debut RRP prices have fallen dramatically as a result, as it tries to encourage consumers away from its 14th-gen lineup onto the newer chips. You can currently pick up an Ultra 7 265K (at time of writing) for a staggeringly low $299 or £239, whereas the 14700K is only available at $336 or £297, as it approaches💮 end of life.

Performance

So then, the ﷽good news is I've spent the last few weeks re-benchmarking and testing as many modern CPUs as I can get my hands on in a fairly hefty testbed, including the Core Ultra 7 265K. The situation for Intel and this new lineup, certainly since I first used it back i♑n October, has improved dramatically. Although there are some caveats to that statement.

As for rendering performance, Cinebench multi-core and single-core ꧃scores are far, far, far better than they were way back when. I still have the results from when I initially tested the Core Ultra 9 in Cinebench 2024, an▨d that was clocking in numbers of 98 points in the single-core and 2,252 in multi-core. Comparatively, the Ultra 7 265K today managed 1,938 points in multi-core and 128 in the single-core test. Albeit with four fewer cores and a 200 MHz drop in clock speed. Not too shabby.

Compared to last gen, those numbers are admittedly less impressive, however. The 14700K managed 124 points in single-core and 1,834 in multi-core. That's a 3% improvement on single-core and 6% on multi-c🧔ore, which is less than stellar. General c𒆙lock speed was far lower too, with the 14700K tapping out at 5,586 MHz and the Ultra 7 at exactly 5,500MHz. Although it's worth noting that clock speed alone (particularly when transitioning architectures and manufacturing size) often isn't a good indicator of performance. Plus, the Ultra 7 doesn't have hyperthreading either, so performance per thread here is kinda through the roof in a lot of ways.

In Blender, however, the results were far less ♌impressive, with the 14700K winning out by two points in the CPU test and 33 points in the GPU test utilizing Junkyard.

And then we get to gaming, and oh꧑ boy, is there a lot to cover here. For my gaming tests, I ran a total of three different mainstream high-end titles across the three key resolutions: 1080p, 1440p, and 4K,♋ on the Ultra preset with a few tweaks here and there. The games being, Total War: Warhammer 3 with the Mirror of Madness benchmark, Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS "Quality" and MFG x2 enabled, and Final Fantasy XIV's Dawntrail benchmark with FSR enabled.

Traditionally, the high𝔉er the frame rate, the more CPU-bound the game becomes as it has to process more frames that the graphics card generates, and as such, 1080p generally tends to be where you'll find the greatest difference in CPU performance. If you're big into esports titles or high-fps games like that and game in a competitive environment, then a good CPU can make or break your championship runs.

The bad news is that the Core Ultra 7 kinda underperformed at that resolution compared to🐈 its predecessor. In fact, even the Core i5-14600K outperformed it here, under the same conditions. On average across all three titles at 1080p, the Ultra 7 landed a total average of 157.14 fps, the 14700K 162.42, and the Core i5-14600K 160 exactly. Final Fantasy in particular suffered under the Core Ultra line more so than Total War or Cyberpunk, and that's a real issue, given how old these chips are.

Still, if I'm honest, although it is objectively "worse" than those two chips, it's only by a relatively small margin, 3% to be exact. The likelihood of that being noticeable in-game to absolutely everyone is going to be slim, particularly at lower frame rates. Where this will be more pronounced, however, is for those dabbling in games at the 200-300 fps range. If you've got one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming monitors 🐎out there and can handle and generate those kinds of numbers, plus esports titles are on🐓 the horizon for you, you're going to want to steer clear.

What is more noticeable, though, is just how much more efficient the Ultra 7 is. Side-by-side with the 14700K, we're talking about a drop in power draw of anywhere between 60 to 95 W, dependent on the workload. Equally, average temperatures are ridiculously low by comparison. In-game, this chip happily sits around the 50-degree mark versus 60-70 for the 14700K, and similarly, under computational load, those temp drops were 15 or 16 degrees lower as well. It's seriously efficient, and although power draw isn't often a deal breaker when looking at CPUs these days, those lower temps do help out a ton when it comes to maintaining hig🦂her clock speeds for longer in rendering tasks, especially compared to the thermal control of the Raptor Lake chips.

I'd also be remiss for not mentioning AMD here; both its X3D chips and standard X line produce some phenomenal competition right now. The 9900X in particular goes toe-to-toe with the Core Ultra 7 across the gaming spectrum, beating it on average frame rate♒s everywhere but at 4K. It does require a bit more juice, and temps are around 10 °C higher, but that's a tantalizing alternative if you're fed up with Intel.

Should you buy the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K?

This is inevitably a tricky question to answer. On the surface, in isolation, the Core Ultra 7 265K is a good chip. It just is. With that price drop, access to a better chipset with more connectivity, lower power draw and temperatures, plus comparable performance to last gen in-game and out, it's well worth considering for your next 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gaming PC. Compared ꧑to the likes🐼 of the Core Ultra 9, that price drop makes it incredibly tantalizing.

Still, if you're after finding a chip that represents the best bang for the buck both for gaming and computational work, nothing, 🍎and I mean nothing, beats the Intel Core i5-14600K right now. Pe🦩r frame-generated and score produced in Cinebench, it absolutely annihilates the competition on both sides of the aisle, particularly as you can grab it for just $200 or £191. It's perfect for those dabbling in creative pursuits on the side and focusing predominantly on gaming - especially if you're on a budget.

Monstrous little i5s aside, the Core Ultra 7 has come a long way since its inception, and if you are looking for a modern-day🥃 CPU, it's a comfortable pick. It's perhaps not the best, but a lot b🌃etter than when it launched. Realistically, though, I'd highly recommend waiting for Intel's 300 series (which, at a guess, will likely launch in October of 2025). With that, we should see a far more refined variant on the Ultra line, hopefully one that's had the remaining bugs ironed out, with higher clock speeds, and if we're lucky, hyper-threading thrown back into the mix as well.

Hunting for more upgrades? Check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best graphics cards, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RAM for gaming, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best computer speakers.

Just how are you doing so much dating in a single household? Simple – they are, for the most part, the objects around your✅ house made real. After losing your job to AI, you're sent the company's latest in-development wearable tech: the Dateviators – sunglasses that allow you to DATE (Directly Acknowledge a Thing's Existence) anything you see. From objects themselves – chairs, fridges, shelves – to more abstract concepts – water, air, dread – you can meet and grow closer to these characters to strike up friendships… and maybe more.

House bound

With a freeform structure, your goal is mostly what you want to make it, revolving around exploring your house in three-dimensions and getting to better know whatever catches your eye. Each character has a little storyline to follow as you get to know them, bestowing you SPEC stat points (think 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Persona 5) once you've reached a relationship milestone with them, which in turn allow you to choose new dialogue branches and even, later on, help resolve characters' problems and enable them to have closure with their own end🅺ing sequences.

Friendship, Love, or Hate – all the options will net you those sweet, sweet points. It's mostly up to you what you gun for, though as satisfying as it is to end up hated by your extremely suspect dishwasher who refuses to stop pestering you about connecting to the internet to unlock more features, Hate can also be a sort of 'lose' condition if you rub a character the wrong way. It'll stop you from being abl꧙e to resolve their ending, though a limited candy resource you can nab later on does allow you some wriggle room in getting 🌸to turn hatred back into friendship.

With 100 characters to juggle, a game like Date Everything is only going tജo be able to get so deep with some of them. Each player is bound to have their ow💝n favorites, but I enjoyed the stories the most that lean into the community aspect of the household at large, lapping up the surprising drama that comes from the interactions all these seemingly mundane elements have with one another. It makes the world feel alive.

The washer and dryer, Washford a﷽nd Drysdale, used to be an item, but their relationship has been on the rocks, for instance. Or Friar Errol, the air fryer who drives the rest of the kitchen up the wall (sorry, Wall, the stoic wall) preaching the good word of the oil-free kitchen appliance. Or the on-again-off-again lovers Harper, the clothes hamper, and Dirk, your dirty clothes who scurries away once cleaned. For me, Date Everything is at its best when it makes the world of the Dateables feel like a hidden second world that already has its own dynamics you're only now privy to.

I also like how some storylines lean into the fact you're walking around a house – Bobby Pin, a, well, gangster loving bobbypin, searches the house for new places to run scam🅺s, meaning you have to track them down each time you want to talk again. But Date Everything really steals my heart when൲ the storytelling leans into the abstract nature of the world beyond what you can see. Each visit to Eddie and Volt, the pair in charge of your house's electricity, sees you enter the Breaker Box Club where other Dateables gather to watch talent shows and sip on cocktails. It requires some use of my own imagination – the player is otherwise just staring into a cupboard – but I'm used to battle scenes playing out with the same handful of sword strike .gifs again and again in Fate/Stay Night so believe me I can manage. The idea of shoving yourself inexplicably into a nightclub in your closet is just wonderful.

But, as I mentioned, with so many characters some are just going to feel like they have more lightweight storylines. While some play out over the course of many interactions, others will only have one or two before they basically straight up ask if you want to bang or just be friends. While there are a few that seem to have more stringent Love conditions, a lot of the time you just follow through their story and then it's presented on a pl💝ate for you to choose.

There are other times where that lack of nuance can also frustrate. Make one ill-advised click or even misread the tone of a comment and you may be thrust onto the path of Hate with very little warning and no way to apolo🧜gize, inelegantly off-ramped aft𓃲er feeling like you did nothing wrong. In at least one case too, where character storylines collided, I first met a character only to have them Hate me within seconds.

That compounds with the sense that though you constantly have a lot of choices of what to say in conversation, it often doesn't feel like what you say matters all too much. At one point a comment I tho🦋ught would be jokey actually turned out to be very mean, but then I only received two equally mean options to respon📖d with to follow up – railroaded on the path of Hate.

When you do have more of an actual choice, it's often between just being extremely nice or rude (or answering some trivia questions). With so many characters, it often feels like you talk to them the sa🔯me way to get the same results – which may be why I prefer the extra depth that comes from the interpersonal drama. Date Everything is filled to the brim with content (yes, bring the hammers on me for using the c-word), easily taking at least 20 hours to see everything, but reflecting on the interaction, it can feel a bit shallow.

Where the heart is

At times in🥃teractions can also feel a bit fiddly. Some Dateables require you to talk to them again at specific times of day, but leave it too long and forget when and they'll refuse to chat. They'll remind you of the conditions, at least, but this uses up one of your chances to talk to them a day (you can have five conversations a day, and can only use one per Dateable) meaning you have to wait a full day to try🔴 again.

The same can be true on scavenger hunts –༺ one having me track💙 down missing animals but refusing to receive them until a day had passed. Or times where an object that has multiple conversation-starting points (every window, for instance, is one character) keeps asking me to try to talk to them in different areas, meaning I go through days just trying to find where the next proper event is. There's no time limit, so it's no big deal, but it can create situations that feel more like housework than a stay at home holiday.

It'd be easier to ꧃handle if there were some more quality of life perks to the UI. I wish it was clearer what Dateable you were looking at when aiming down sights to strike up a conversation, and it's always a bit of a pet peeve of mine when text-heavy games don't have text logs or the ability to auto-play – common features in most visual novels.

Yet, even though not all storylines𝔉 are equal and the writing is hit and miss – the characters themselves are where Date Everything really shines. From flourishes to the character design to how they speak and what they're called, almost every Dateable in the hundred strong lineup (and there's more via DLC) is a hit, expertly riffing off the concept they're based on. I could spend paragraphs pointing out my favorites – some of whom I've already discussed – but every time you meet one it's impossible not to be smiling. The designs are just that charming.

There's Abel the table embodying the quiet strength of wood, with his old-timey cowboy-like mannerisms! Freddy the fridge Yeti who takes food safety very seriously and opens himself up to give you late night snacks! Your computer, Mac, who knows all your fanfic secrets and is desperate for an upgrade! Date Everything is a masterclass in character design, from the artwork to character motivations to the voice talent (just about everyone you've heard in something else is present here), it's always a delight to see hꦓow a household object or concept is brought to life.

Date Everything's characters might not always go too far beyond that initial wonder, though. Hugely ambitious though it is, how could many of the 100 characters feel like more than quick-if-delightful sketches? But it's also a testament to the strength of those designs that still, many do, and many of them will stick with yoꦛu. Date Everything is far from perfect, but its cast of characters are well worth meeting at least once. And who knows? Sparks may fly.

Date Everything was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the 🌺publisher

Want more gaming stories? Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best visual novels ranking!

But creator Toby Fox has spent that time well, rewarding us with not just one but two new chapters for the Nintendo Switch 2 launch – in a package that also serves as the full-priced singularly titled release, with subsequent chapters included as⛦ free updates. Deltarune is re𝔍ally here, even if we're only currently able to play four of its chapters.

It's also one of the few indie titles from Nintendo Switch 2's launch line-up, which is perhaps indicative of Fox's star power – as a composer, he has also contributed to the soundtracks of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. It's also a perfect fit as, despite Deltarune's PC origins, the game wears its heart on its sleeve as a love let🌠ter to the classic SNES RPG adventur༒es of Nintendo's yesteryear. But more than homage, it carves its own path with memorable characters and systems that also means it's not simply a retread of Undertale.

It's not completely essential to have played the 2015 game, since Deltarune isn't a sequel but rather set in a parallel universe to Undertale's, with some familiar characters and references but in a different context. ಌIn a subversion to many RPGs where your protagoꦫnist is a vessel for the player, you play a canonical character called Kris, a human child living in an idyllic town, complete with a church, diner, library and school, almost reminiscent of Earthbound. The difference is that rather than being set in fictionalized Americana, this world is populated by diverse monster races living harmoniously among each other, including Kris' mother Toriel, the same-but-not-the-same version of Toriel from Undertale.

Its strength fortunately 🍸doesn't lie in references to its parallel predecessor but rather in the new characters Kris encounters as they stumble from their normal school day into the Dark World. This includes Susie, the scary school bully who literally threatens to bite your face off, and a mysterious prince named Ralsei. Together, you become an unlikely trio, ꧙the Lightners tasked with sealing dark fountains that have started springing up, in order to save both the worlds of the light and the dark. That may sound like your boilerplate JRPG set-up, but Deltarune's delight comes from setting up these conventions before knocking them down.

Acts of kindness

What felt revolutionary about Undertale was ꧂that it was an RPG where you were encouraged not to kill enemies but find non-violent solutions to win a battle. That's a philosophy which carries over to Deltarune, and while it may not feel as refreshing as it might have a decade ago, it still has some new twists. For starters, rather than fighting alone, you have a party, which also gives the battles the side-on view of classic Final Fantasy turn-based battles. Initially however, you have limited control over the hotheaded Susie, who would rather go in swinging her axe. For Undertale ⭕fans, it sets up a fascinating conundrum of trying to win a battle non-violently by showing mercy to your enemies, but also trying to prevent your reluctant ally from harming anyone (at least in the first chapter).

As someone who had played Undertale's pacifist route, I naturally went with a playthrough with the 💃intent of non-violence and never chose to 'fight'. Where some games that engage with these kinds of morality choices can often present pacifism as the boring way to play, Deltarune comes up with so many ideas to make this the preferable option.

❀Defense still plays a pivotal role, which, like♔ in Undertale, takes the form of a bullet hell minigame as you move a heart inside a board while dodging enemy projectiles. But what becomes more important is getting your fellow party members to 'act'. That however requires a kind of magic gauge called TP that builds up during battles (it also resets after every encounter so you don't have to hoard it). You can increase this by choosing to defend during your turns but also by narrowly evading incoming projectiles, adding a risk/reward element to the bullet hell sections.

What makes these encounters unique is that both acts and bullet boards are often bespoke and contextual to the bizarre enemies, such as lowering a water cooler's guard by having your party chat while gathered around it. Sometimes, acts can affect an enemy's attack pattern to be easier or harder, but often it's just the ♒excuse for a gag that earns a good belly laugh. The board itself can also function in some unpredictable ways, becoming a minigame within the minigame or a novel way to further the plot. Given this was a mechanic seen in Undertale, it's a delight how Fox finds numerous ways to make the act of evading projectiles different for virtually every enemy encounter.

It's perhaps because of the novelty and gags that means these encounters are also often only impactful on the first go, and so if you're not engaging in these battles to gain XP, any repeat encounters tend to feel more repetitive than your typical RPG grind, and fleeing is not an option. There's still an incentive, as once you've spared an enemy enough times, you'll also recruit them, 💧which will see them showing up in your castletown hub in the Dark World. More significant enemies meanwhile will actively help you in your quest to seal the dark fountains.

Occasionally, it feels as if Fox is throwing a bunch of ideas against the wall to see what sticks. A stealth section mostly exists to poke fun at stealth mechanics but remains underwhelming. While you also eventually get to scale some environments, with the ability to leap across gaps, you're still constricted by the frustrating limitations of tile-based traversal. Nonetheless, these are minor quibbles since these only take up a tiny portion of a chapter, while most mechanics are there t𒉰o serve the narrative, which is really what you're here for.

Character building

While I shan't be spoiling Deltarune's story, and there's plenty that happens that will no doubt have you searching fan forums for answers, it's less the grand narrative of the lore that compels me than it is the characters. Susie is, for me, the real heart and soul – a proper diamond in the rough. She might 🐷be someone I'd normally cross the street to avoid, but over the course of theꦕse four chapters, her arc is one of the best as you learn of her vulnerabilities beneath that tough persona and her capacity for kindness, even if she shows it in her own unapologetically brash way.

That's also largely true about each chapter's villain of the week, such as Lancer in the first chapter who tries to foil the Lightners from time to time to prevent you reaching his father the tyrant king, or Teꦉnna in the third chapter who wants to keep your party playing their game show forever. It helps that these characters are all memorable, goofy and flawed in their own way, to the point that you come to empathize with them even as you'll eventually have to battle over conflicting goals rather than because they're evil.

Deltarune is just stuffed with personality, which is testament to Fox's laugh-out-loud hilarious writing that's not only conveyed in the text itself but through its delivery of comically timed scrolls and awkward pauses. It's also in the art direction, which retains the crude but charming pixel art established in Undertale but is given a broader palette by main artist and animator Temmie Chang. Even while sticking to a primitive retro look, there's definitely richer use of sprites, color and animations, such as how Kris and Susie change appearances when jumping into the Dark World, which reminds me of crossing into the Metaverse in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Persona 5.

The benefit of Deltarune's episodic structure means each chapter allows the game to explore very different themes on a larger scale than Undertale, all while still being far more digestible than a bloated 3D AAA equivalent (澳洲幸运5开奖号🍬码历史查询:looking at you🌳, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth). Chapter Two's Cyber City offers more vibrant environments than Chapter One's Card Kingdom, while later chapters take the surprising approach of emulating the kind of pseudo-3D effects popular in the latter half of the 16-bit era. Once your party is sitting down playing a NES-style Zelda clone game within a game while your prerendered-CG host observes, you're past tryiꦇng to fit Deltarune's influences into any neat category and just enjoying all the broad tapestry of references Fox is pulling together.

Speaking o♛f themes, the catchy chiptune soundtrack is nothing short of incredible, from the battle theme to the main theme that's now permanently stuck in my head. As much as they're enjoyable on loop, some also evolve across chapters, giving a new twist and freshness that also fits with how the narrative develops.

At just over the halfway point, Deltarune has already eclipsed Undertale in length and scope. Even while it remains an unapologetically weird old-school pixelated JRPG, each chapter is a new canvas to stretch the meaning of a retro-inspired game, which doesn't have to conform to any rigid rules, style, or logi൩c. The good news is we only have to wait until 2026 for Chapter 5, which is one mystery I'm glad to have resolved before I hop back online to pore over all the possibilities of where Toby Fox w💫ill take this epic tale next.

Deltarune chapters 1-4 were reviewed on Nintendo♓ Switch 2, with a code provided by the publisher.

Want another adventure? Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPG games list!

That big ol' X is a nod to the fact that the game is now 10 years old. With 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Rainbow Six Siege marking the anniversary by going free-to-play, there will be a lot of people playing for the first time. The use of the word 'siege' in the title hints at the nature of the core modes that they'll find – both attack and defense centered around an objective or two (an area to defend, a pair of bombs, or a hostage) within a building. A prep phase sees the attacker team sending in ground drones to find the objective and identify defenders, while the defenders can reinforce (or blow holes in) walls, set traps, and choose their positions. Then, the siege beginsꦡ.

The game has seen a lot of changes over the years even before Rainbow Six Siege X, but some fundamentals remain the same. For one thing, each character – or, rather, Op💙erator – has a unique ability or gadget, and is permanently assigned to attack or defense. Fuze has a device that can shoot explosives through breakable surfaces, for example, while Castle can block doorways and windows with bullet🌞proof barricades rather than the standard, flimsier, wooden ones. It's also important to note that, a decade on, your bullets and explosives are still just as deadly to your teammates as they are to your enemies.

X Education

Now, could you do me a favor, and play a record scratch sound effect in your head? Thanks. We really need to take some time out to focus on the friendly fire element. The Rainbow Six Siege X refresh will see returning players as well as new ones. Perhaps you, like me, abandoned the original a number of years ago due to the omnipresent toxicity rampaging t﷽hrough the community. One of the most visible elements of this toxicity was intentional teamkills, which would be seen on one or both teams – in my experience, at least – in almost every single match. I'm pleased to repo💦rt, therefore, that this behavior now seems to be relatively rare.

Although put into place long before the X refresh, the reputation system will be a powerful reason for many lapsed players to return. It's a transparent system that issues positive or negative points depending on behavior, with rewards and punishments doled out according to your current reputation status (Dishonorable, Disruptive, Respectable, Esteemed, and Exemplary). Don't worry about being punished for the occasional (and inevitable) accidental teamkill, or friendly gadget destruction. It's annoying to pick up negative points for an accident, but the way the system is set up, in order to be demoted you'll have to be going really heavy on the teamkills and na🦋sty chat. It's an imperfect system, but its positive impact is self-evid🐟ent and very, very important.

There are still, um, enthusiastic members of the community to be encountered, but so far I've found it's just edgy trash talk that can be fixed with muting and hitting the off switch on text chat. The addition of a long-needed communication wheel ensures that you'll still be able to help and warn your team if chat isn't your thing, too. The core experience blossoms as a result. Now, you're free to concentrate on the fact that caution is key, as it's no exaggeration to say that yo🎉u can sometimes plummet from maximum health to death within a single second (maybe two if the opponent's aim is a little off). Every match is tense, each kill a thrill. No longer do I fear my teammates as much as (or more than) the players on the opposing team.

Maps get a subtle overhaul too, with tweaked versions of Bank, Clubhouse, Border, Chalet, and Kafe available at launch. Not only do they look a little prettier, new destructible elements have been added. Gas pipes will spit flame before🥂 eventually exploding, while damaged fire extinguishers can block visibility. Some pipes are strategically placed so that the jet of flame will ဣtemporarily block a window or doorway, though you can simply wait it out. A more impactful change is that Operators now clearly cast shadows, a new element to keep in mind when sneaking around those tight corners.

Make it rainbow

Clash – the only defender armed with a shield – sees a rework with the launch of Rainbow Six Siege X. Previously, her body-height electro shield was armed with a shock pulse that would slow and damage opponents, and switching to a weapon took a few seconds that could feel like a few minutes. Most of this is still true, wi♐th two significant changes. Firstly, she now has the option of setting the shield down like a portable barricade (which can be charged through), leaving her free to move and shoot behind it, while the shock blast can be activated remotely. The second change is that while the shock still slows enemies, it no longer damages them. This is indicative of a wider change to how electriciဣty works.

Now, electricity treats all players the same. It deals no damage to either team regardless of the 🍒source, meaning that electrified barbed wire (for example) can no longer be used to chip away at opponent health. Electrified reinforced walls will still destroy any breaching gadgets applied to them, and electrified barbed wire will still destroy incoming drones that pass through it, but it's no longer an element that can support bullets and explosions for player damage.

The major addition that Rainbow Six Siege X brings is a brand new mode, Dual Front. This is 6v6 rather than 5v5,🍒 takes place in the biggest map to date (District), and – although it's an attack and defense mode – there are respawns. The twist here is that both teams are attacking and defending simultaneously, with victory handed to the side that c꧒aptures all three opposing sectors in sequence first. The hope seems to be that this new mode will snare players attracted by the free-to-play nature of the X update. In addition to the inclusion of respawns, equipment supplies will slowly regenerate over time, available Operators are a rotating selection of 35 – everybody has the same pool of defenders and attackers – and, while dead, you can spawn a temporary drone on a teammate you're spectating to support with recon.

When in drone

District is an excellent map. T🎶he multi-level buildings have the imposing corridors, threatening corners, and destructible walls, floors, and ceilings that you'll find in the core modes. The outside areas offer some limited cover, but are infused with a sense of vulnerability as you ma🅘ke your way from one building to the next. As outside areas are now important to both teams, sniping spots have been scattered around. There's even a roof you can get on top of; but, this being Rainbow Six Siege, there are multiple angles you could be attacked from yourself up there.

Althoug𒈔h each Operator has been deliberately calibrated for play in a claustrophobic environment, they all work excellently in Dual Front. In part, this is due to the fact that the primary task – capturing each of the enemy's three zones in turn while defending your own – still follows the rule of 'static objective within a building'. The ability to select a new Operator on respawn, meanwhile, allows you to adapt to any specific enemy Operator giving you a hard time, or change tactics when it becomes clear that your team needs more emphasis on attack or defense.

It's a carefully designed experience that mostly works well, but I do think that new players looking for a casual free-to-play experience will bounce off Dual Front with record-breaking velocity. For one thing, the 30 second wait to respawn can be agonizing. The temporary drone gimmick is a great idea t𒉰hat softens the blow,🦹 but the speed with which you can be killed can be pretty dispiriting when you've just spent 30 seconds jogging to your objective.

Movement is another thing. It's fairly slow and h🐼eavy, but that's by no means a bad thing; it's an important part of Rainbow Six's identity. So too, however, is the fact that it has The Loudest Footsteps In Gaming. Everybody stomps around like an angry teenager storming up the stairs to their bedroom to play My Chemical Romance at maximum volume. As a result, if you don't have the patience to slowly sneak the greater-than-usual distance to your destination, an enemy lying in wait will hear you coming long before they see you. This is something Rainbow Six veterans will know and accept, but it'll be much harder for new players to spend the time adapting to.

Regardless of th꧙e mode, the sheer volume of Operators Rainbow Six Siege X now includes means ෴that new players will have a lot of learning to do. Questions may include "How did they know where I was?", "Why did that window explode?", "Why isn't my device working?", and of course, the classic "What the [expletive removed] just happened?".

Nonetheless, with Rainbow Six Siege X, the game now finds itself in the best position it's ever been in for player onboarding. In addition to challenges to unlock Operators and modes, there are modes to familiarise yourself with the man🅘y maps and weapons outside of PvP, and each Operator now has a page with simple, easy to understand tutorials explaining their unique features to help you decide whether to spend your hard-earned Renown (or hard-purchased Credits) on them. And, of course, now you can start playing for free.

Rainbow Six Siege X manages to provide something for everyone. Existing players get a new mode, a character ꦏrework, and multiple small but meaningful improvements. Lapsed players will find an experience that's instantly familiar, yet noticeably improved in some important ways. New players get the benefit of 10 years worth of development for free… so long as they have the patience for the more hardcore elements, and a willingness to slowly learn what over 70 Operators can do and how they interact with one another. WIth a refined experience and the promise of an expanded playerbase, Rainbow Six Siege X just might keep going for another 10 years.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege X was reviewed on PC with a code p𒅌rovided by the publisher

Looking for more games to play without dropping any cash? Check out our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best free games you can jump into right now!

So Nintendo didn't.

The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch 2 takes its lead from its predecessor, offering (broadly) the same f𝔍unctionality and form factor. At its core, this is an easily recognizable experience, the same docking system, same control scheme, same feel. But it's so much more than that on top.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is capable of running games that made the PS4 sweat, while still feeling like a slimline handheld. Sure, it pays for that performance in battery life, and it's not going to outgun a PS5 for a similar price. But, if you're looking for a portable device, though, it offers the confidence of a pick-up-and-play experience that even some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming handhelds running Windows can't replicate.

The larger screen, boosted resolution, speedy refresh rate, and impꦏroved Joy-Con make Nintendo's handheld range feel relevant again, aಌnd not just for hardcore fans of the brand.

Design

The Nintendo Switch 2 looks distinct enough to stand on its own from the original de💛vice, without flipping the rulebook in any immediately noticeable manner. The more time I've spent with the handheld, though, the more obvious those differences become.

This is a real upgrade in both look and feel. The sleek matte black finish across the main tablet and Joy-Con is far more comfortable than the cheaper plastic of the classic device. It's smoother, softer, and far more premium in the hands - even if it does pick up minor scratches and dents a little easier. This is the exact same thickness as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch OLED I've been teღsting ag🧸ainst, but the whole device feels far more sophisticated.

The Nintendo Switch 2's aesthetic design makes it clear that Ninty wants its system to grow up. The all-black look is certainly sleeker than the ౠcolorful original, but this is Nintendo, and we've still got a dash of fun here and there.

Hints of the ori🙈ginal’s iconic red and blue aesthetic are present around the thumbsticks and in the internal connection between the Joy-Con and tablet. In keeping with the 🐟more mature ethos of the handhelds as a whole, these are more muted than shiny and bold.

The system is taller to make way for the bigger screen, and that means the Joy-Con are too. While I was hopeful for larger controllers this time around, we've only got a small increase on the width. That's a shame, I always felt the original gamepads were too skinny to truly feel comfortable for longer sessions and the same is still true here. Without the built-in grips of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Asus ROG Ally or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Steam Deck OLED, the flat back of the Nintendo Switch 2 is🔯 💫difficult to truly relax around.

I do feel that strain after a couple of hours gameplay, needing to pause and stretch out my hand before continuing. That's a symptom of the lack of space, but also the weight. The Nintendo Switch 2 comes in at 1.18lbs (535g) with the Joy-Con connected, that's 0.26lbs (115g) heavier than the Switch OLED. It's nowhe🐽re near the 1.34lbs weight of the Ally, but with that sheer drop around the rear it's still a little harder to hold in the air.

That's nothing new, though. The Switch has always had these comfort shortcomings and the increaseꩵd width does help to mitigate some of them. The additional height on the Joy-Con feels great 90% of the time, but I have noticed some drawbacks.

The first one I noticed during my preview testing. During a co-op 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mario Kart World session I was lumped with the right J🌜oy-Con, the one that has you stretch a little further to reach the thumbstick. The problem seems to be amplified now, with an uncomfortably large gap between the top of the controller and the stick itself. The second issue is relatively minor, though may prove more troublesome for younger players with sma𒀰ller hands. The +/- buttons are a significant reach now, which can make quick pauses slightly more cumbersome.

It's odd, however, that t꧅he magnets on the Joy-Con sides allow the co♏ntrollers to be connected both upside down and back to front. The two times I've picked up the handheld (without the screen on) to connect the Joy-Con so far, I've popped them on the wrong way around.

Whichever way you connect them, this is a significantly improved system. The rails🌳 on the Nintendo Switch 2's predecessor started showing their age fairly quickly, and the strength of the magnet as well as the easy quick-release button on the side, makes this a super slick experience overall.

The Joy-Con use a set of pins protruding from the tablet itself as a lock-on mechanism, something that initially spooked me when I first saw them. Having these sticking out the side of the device felt like a recipe for disaster, even if they are sheltered by the edges of the tablet itself. There's a little flex to these pins - but that could be a good thing. I've also been using the Genki Attack Vector grip, which does put a little more pressure on each side of the console during play. If those pins were rigid, I'd be worried about snapping them straight off, but the extra flexibility does give me a little more peace of mind. Time will tell whether that flexibility becꦛomes a problem in itself, though.

The rear hinge has been extended out across, almost, the full length of the tablet but I was surprised to see how skinny it is in real life. The Nintendo Switch OLED improved the stability of th🗹is hinge with its own wider implementation, but still remained durable with a whole plate of plastic to work with. Here, we’ve got a slimline strip that sits on a particularly thin base.

There's a little too much jiggle in this hinge for it to feel completely bomb-proof, but the strong tension in its movement gives me hope that it's sturdier than it looks. Pushing the Sw🥂itch 2 onto its back while the hinge is extended doesn't cause it to buckle, for example, and there's no flex to the actual plastic itself.

I also noticed that tabletop mode still puts pressure on the lower port if you want something plugged in while using it. This was the case back in the day of the original Switch as well, and even though you've now got another charging option in the top port I wasn't particularly comfortable plugging the 2.4GHz receiver for my 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:SteelSeries Arctis Game Buds underneath when that hinge was in play. As it is, the tablet's weight is currently being supported on the reꦯceiver itself - which is a recipe for port worry.

I have, however, noticed a few design upgrades 𒁃that weren't on show before. The game card hinge has had a serious glow-up, with extra supports in the main connector and a metallic plug that seals the gap in the console. That's a far sturdier solution to the often-mashed OLED version.

Overall, I’m a fan of the new Nintendo Switch 2 design. It looks like everything a second-generation handheld should, refined but still nodding back to its iconic mainstays, and feels like a major upgrade. Yes, it weighs a little more than the original, but that’s good weight, it’s the same thickness but it’s far more streamlined in the hand. It’s the difference between an ill-fitting and a well-tailored suit, cinched in all the right places to ☂look much better without ౠchanging the core form factor.

Display

I'll get it out o✤f the way now, the jump from an OLED screen to an LED is noticeable, but this is stillꩵ a good-looking panel.

In side-by-side comparisons of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Pokemon Violet, the OLED presented brighterဣ yellows and greens much better, with a more vivid picture overall and a punchier feel. By comparison, the Nintendo Switch 2 darkens these tones slightly. Its blacks aren't as deep as those of the Nintendo Switch OLED, but it's still vibrant when it counts.

The vividness of Mario Kart World’s sh💖one bright in testing, and I was impressed by how clean finer details like the pockets and stitching around Mario’s overalls appeared even in FHD. The 120Hz refresh rate stretched across the larger 7.9-inch display is the cherry on top.

Of course, Mario Kart World is the best way to truly put this screen’s speed to the test. Actual gameplay is much smoother - but that’s a combination of the upgraded internals as well as the screen. Where that refresh rate comes into play is the smaller mo𓆏ments, the lack of motion blur around fast corners, the effortless glide of a Bullet Bill ride. Does it fundamentally change gameplay? No, and it likely won’t outside of the hardcore FPS crowd, but it’s a tangible improvement to the experience as a whole.

HDR is a slightly more complicated beast. The system does seem to be a little off in its implementation in certain games. I've noticed that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Cyberpunk 2077 and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the❀ Wil🔯d appear washed out with the HDR setting enabled. Switching the feature off reveals a far more punchy picture, with rich colors and greater iཧmpact overall💮.

Calibration seems to be the issue here, so I'm hopeful for future updates to iron ouꦑt the k𒆙inks.

With HDR switched off (awaiting Nintendo's patches) a💯nd that scꦉreen running at full brightness (switch auto-brightness off), this is a real delight. Smoother motion, a bigger panel, and 1080p resolution make for real tangible upgrades over the previous generation and I'd certainly take them over a higher-contrast OLED experience.

Controls

The improvements to the Nintendo Switch 2's face buttons and thumbsticks may be slight, but they mak💛e a world of difference in everyday use.

The original Joy-Con thumbsticks were never my favorite, but the Switch 2 iteration is tighter, smoother, and significantly larger. The biggest difference I've felt between the two is right at the edge of that extension. I can feel the original gamepad's individual notches around the outer edge of the stick itself, whereas everything's buttery smooth here. There's an extra layer of cushioned padding in here, which means absolutely no grind around the edge of the stick itself. That said, these aren't the Hall effect sticks used by the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Nintendo Switch controllers on the 𝕴market, so drift is still a very real possꦏibility.

Up top, the Joy-Con 2 use a larger, thicker rubber thumbstick topper with a wider perimeter that makes for far greater precision. I've been able to maintain much b🐟etter control over the stick when fully extended, with better leverage during larger movements as well. The face buttons are also larger and feel deeper in their actuation than the originals.

That's𒉰 before we eveওn get into the new kid on the block; the mouse sensor.

This is the Switch 2’s big reveal, the added feature that makes the next-generation handheld a true Ninty successor - that is, it does somet𒉰hing new and cool that could eitheဣr define the console as a whole or fade into obscurity.

I test the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming mice from all corners of the market every day and, while the skinny Joy-Con side means it’s not going to compete with true competitive rodents, I did have a better time than I thought I would. I was surprised evꦇen when I first tested the mouse sensor in my own home. I'd used it on tables at Nintendo preview events - but that's a very different environment to some late-night Cyberpunk on the couch.

Propping the Switch 2 up on the side and using my leg as a mouse pad, the experience was pretty slick. The sensor maintains tracking across fabric folds in my trousers, and even maneuvers fairly smoothly without its skates (the toppers in the box feature a smoother gliding surface). It's not going to have you trading in an esports gaming mouse😼 any time soon, and I did need to stretch my hand out after some more intense aiming moments, but it's certainly🃏 workable in everyday play.

I tested it in a reaction-focused minigame housed within Welcome Tour: avoid the sp🌳iky balls falling down the ♊screen by gliding your spaceship around with the mouse. Tracking is nippy, acceleration felt well-balanced, and response is consistent. The slimmer form factor of a Joy-Con under your hand doesn’t feel nearly as comfortable as a full mouse during longer play sessions, and the skinnier R button has a particularly short stop that’s a little vulnerable to accidental presses, but the actual sensor part? That’s good to go.

The role the mouse sen🥂sor will play in the Nintendo Switch 2’s success will be determined by its support. If enough games use it for central mechanics, it’s certainly got the grunt to be an immeasurable asset. If it’s relegated to toggle-able mini-games and the odd shovelware escapade💎, it’s an expensive mistake.

Thankfully, it looks like we're pretty safe here so far. Cyberpunk 2077 not only has mouse controls baked in from the start, it also intelligently connects to a separate wireless mouse when a 2.4GHz receiver is plugged in. I tested it with a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX and Asus gaming keyboard f🌸or a full PC-like setup and everything was instantly availa🅠ble.

It's not the best Switch 2 experience, though.

While things do vary slightly by mouse and game, all the wireless pointers I've tested so far carry a little m💖ore jitter and a much slower response time than the official Joy-Con.

That's not to say Nintendo has produ⛄ced a better mouse than Logitech. Put them side by side on a PC and it would be laughable, but there seems to be some limitations of Ninty's dock or handheld that keep these rodents from performing at their best. My best guess is a considerably restricted amount of power / bandwidth running from these USB-A ports compared to a PC, paired with Nintendo's hardware having to do a lot more work to recognize the input than Windows would.

I was surprised to find out that both gamepads need to be disconnected from the system for one to work as a pointer, though it makes sense considering a🌱ctually holding the tablet in one hand and moving a mouse with the other feels pretty unbalanced. While tracking was impressively sharp across my legs, I can't help but feel a more versatile approach would make sense for games where mouse controls are only preferable e♓very so often.

The refinement of the HD Rumble system was actually one of the first things I noticed about the Nintendo Switch 2 when I first held it. Swapping back and forth between the original controllers and the new generation, it’s obvious that some serious work has gone into fine-tuning these motors. There’s more nuance to these vibrations that feels less bold and more precise. While the original bursts to life with a big loud judder, there’s an air of 💞subtlety here.

Dock

The dock is a chunkier than that of the Switch and Switch OLED, with a larger curved panel that completely detaches from the main body to allow for wires. That leaves a smaller space for the fan than I initially expected. It's also slightly more finnicky than the OLED version I've been using for years. There are a number of pins to properly align in order to fully close it back up, which is a particularly fiddly process - especially if you're setting up your Switch in a smaller, enclosed ꦑspace.

The hard, squat corners of the original are loꦡng gone now, and while the Switch 2 dock keeps the softer edges of the OLED release, it also extends into a rounded hump at the back as well. This is to house those new fans and adds a considerable amount of heft to the final footprint. It’s not large enough to lose its spot next to most TV setups, but this is a much more subs🍎tantial piece of kit overall.

Those extra fans don't add too much extra noise to the experience, though. I never noticed them whirring up during my time playing Cyberpunk 2077 or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of🥂 the Wild, even in a quieter room.

Games

Onto the good stuff, the games. At launch the Nintendo Switch 2 has 24 confirmed titles, though only two are new first-party Nintendo releases built directly for the Switch 2 system; Mario Kart World and Welcome Tour. There’s only one third party exclusive on the docket, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fast Fusion, alongside a host of remasters, ports, and re-releases for everything from the Zeldas to Cyberpunk 2077 and 🌱Hitman.

Right now, there's aren't many new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch 2 games to experience - especially if you don’t like racing. However, there are a few titles in this roster that give us an indication of where Ni🅰ntendo wants its system to be positioned. Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t have a hope in hell of running on the original handheld, and a few generations ago CD Projekt Red would have had similar꧃ chances of publishing it on a Nintendo console.

Nintendo hasn’t been opposed to less-than-family-friendly games being on its systems for some time now, but it’sಞ taken the Switch 2’s performance upgrades for enthusiasts to truly take note. I’ve had a Switch OLED since it launched, but I’ve also had a PS5 and a gaming laptop. Besides Stardew Valley, Oxenfree, and Dragon Quest titles, I haven’t played anything on the Switch that I can’t play on another platform; it’s more expensive and it doesn’t run as well.

I’m in a lucky position. Most players will pick a device and stick with it - this time around, it looks like Nintendo wants to be that platform for enthusiasts as well as families. It’s undeniably impressive that giants like Cyberpunk 2077 can kee๊p their cool on a device as slimline and portable as the Nintendo Switch 2, especially running in🌸 4K when docked.

If Nintendo can keep up with upcoming blockbuster releases, the Switch 2 could w♋ell be in with a shot at becoming a primary driver for a lot more players.

This is just one sub-section of the library, though. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch🌃 2 𝐆backwards compatibility is strong, with a few original Switch games being left off the roster (likely due to Joy-Con limitations). Then there’s the remaster carousel, a ride we’ve all been on for a good few years now. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are the biggest Switch 2 games to receive their upgrade patches on day one🦂, but it’s likely we’ll see more re-releases in the futuꩲre as well.

UI

෴This is pretty much the exact same UI and home screen we've come to recognize on the original console, just with a few additions, tweaks, and primps.

Smaller updates are noticeable - game covers feature rounded corners now, with a blue and purple outline highlighting each one, as opposed to the teal color we saw in the pr♕evious UI. The home screen also now features dedicated buttons for GameChat and Game Sharing, though the lat🔯ter is also packaged in with the Switch and Switch OLED thanks to a recent update.

I've also noticed that individual clicks sound a little deeper and the tone changes when moving between the three horizontal menus now rise in a far more satisfying manner. The Joy-Con mouseꩲ function can be used on the ho🅠me screen as well as the now much-improved eShop as well.

I have found that it takes longer for the Nintendo Switch 2 to wake into its home screen than it did the previous generation. I've found myself repeatedly pressing the A button before the system actually registers it when waking up from sleep mode. I've tried again on the Switch OLED and the issue doesn't seem to be historical, I can immediately dive into the previous ge𒁏neration while the Switch 2 take a second or so. Hopefully this can be patched out with future updates, though.

Performance

The Nintendo Switch started showing its age long before it was eventually put out to pasture, so it’s the internal performance upgrades that will make or break the Switch 2.ඣ With a mysterious new chip and an unknown RAM amount, Ninty has maintained its silence around the actual innards of its new handheld.

The new model holds its own in a more modern world, with enough grunt under the hood to keep larger titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Legend of Z๊elda: Tears of the Kingdom running smoothly where older systems may falter. I've tested the system with titles old and new and one thing is obvious; we’re miles away from where the Switch ꦏdropped us off.

No, you're not getting next-gen graphics a🌞s we know them. The PS5 still holds the upper hand against the Nintendo Switch when it comes to textures and distance rendering in docked mode, while the Asus ROG Ally has the bandwidth for finer details to shine through a little better.

There's some pop-in, I noticed consideജrable blurring for a few seconds before new objects and images could render their focus, and that upscaler has brought its own ghost-lines to the party. However, Cyberpunk 2077 runs remarkably smoothly on a slimline handheld - with commendable ray tracing to boot. We’re not running an RTX 5090 here, I did notice a drop in that responsive high-fps feel around busier events - but it’s nowhere near the jaggedy levels of the previous generation console, I’d still more than happily sail on past without a second thought.

The Nintendo Switch 2's motion handling performs far better than the🌠 Ally's in Cyberpunk 2077. The latter suffers from far more screen tears and framerate drops and it's far more pronounced when flying through initial Nomad street scenes or driving around Night C🃏ity proper.

Upgrades to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild reveal an impressive amount of detaꦐil in smaller objects and a far more polished experience overall. Between sharper character models and clearer rendering in the distance, things are looking pretty sweet in both handheld and docked mode. Nothing's stuttered so far, and those load times have been reduced dramatically.

The most noticeable difference I've seen, though, is the grass. At a lower resolution, the blades under Link's feet feel more like a green blobby mass. Here, 𝕴I can easily see the ground parting itself beneath our her꧃o's feet, with far greater detail overall. Even smaller particle effects are running better - rain feels more full-bodied and natural than the tiny flecks of white floating across the screen of the original.

Mario Kart World was my first introduction to the Nintendo Switch 2, though, and it’s not the game’s increased 24-racer capabilities, its expansive open free roam mode, or the smooth glide of the action on-screen that impressed me the most, though. The biggest indicator that we’re now playing with a whole load mor🅘e power came from the water.

There are a number of tracks that have you sloshing through canals and rivers, and a whole ocean can be e❀xplored in free roam mode. The way these waves picked up and carried light while maintaining their smooth motion and fluid textures was a real eye-opener during my time with the Switch 2. Yes, splash effects are sparse still, and ray-traced effects aren’t going to rival t♉hose of high-end PCs, but even the rain looks better, and that’s pretty telling.

Watching it run next to a Nintendo Switch OLED ꩲreveals a palpable difference in smoothness and detail - supporters hold actually-waving flags in the distance, each corner and turn feels incredibly responsive, and fast-moving onscreen elements (even down to the fire erupting from your exhaust with a boost) are all much clearer.

Side by side with the PS5's 4K performꩵance, it's obvious this isn't a miracle worker. Everything lacks that final touch of sharpness in docked mode compared to the PS5. Faces, textures, and longer-distance details are slightly less deta💦iled. But this isn't the full story. This is still all very impressive. We're talking about the difference between a slimline handheld that has far more functionality than the PS5 and measures in at a fraction of the size to boot.

I'm still impressed with the overall fidelity on even a mid-range 4K display. Lighting maintains its definition and reflections are well balanced, even if they can't quite keep up with the nuances of the PS5 or PS5 Pro. Ray tracing is far less sophisticated than you'll find on a PC or PS5, murkier than both and sli꧅ghtly less responsive with distance - but it still looks pretty damn slick.

There is some bad news for ꩵthose with a hefty Switch 1 🀅library. We're still at 720p handheld mode here.

Most of the games that actua𒆙lly made the most of the Nintendo Switch's 1080p docking capabilities have received patch updates ahead of the Switch 2's release. Many were hopeful that these updates would unlock full 1080p gameplay (previously reserved for docking) in handheld mode.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is one such game, but I'm sorry to say it doesn't look like we've got 1080p performance on the device's own screen here. This is a 720p image that, actually, looks a little worse when stretched out across the Nintendo Switch 2's larger FHD panel. S🍬ide by side in real life, the Switch OLED's 720🐻p panel keeps things a little crisper whereas those edges are somewhat blurred on the new release.

Sound

The Nintendo Switch 2 offers a far more powerful set of speakers🔯 than its predecessor. I was surprised by the robust texture of this audio, not just in a direction♒ally sensitive setting, but in larger cut-scenes and soundtrack swells as well.

The system's new 3D spatial audio is surprisingly realistic as well. While testing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I physically looked down to my right to investigate a strange clicking noise, only to realize it was an enemy on a slightly lower platform to me in-game. Spinning the camera around a burning lantern reveals just how sophisticated this audio tech is. It's not going to beat one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming headsets for ꦯprecision, but it's certainly a wort💞hwhile upgrade.

In qu💖ieter moments, however, a small whine did creep into that soundscape. I could only hear it late at night when it was quieter, but there was a definite high-pitched ring to the system when I was playing Breath of the Wild NS2 Edition. It's not there during less demanding processes, on the home screen and playing original Nintendo Switch games for example, but it is loud enough to be noticeable when everything else is silent.

Battery

At the system's most demanding, I managed two hours and 40 minutes of battery life. That was a test from 100%, playing Breath of the Wild: NS2 Edition at full display brightness. That's a downgrade from the far more power-efficient OLED and a fairly short battery life even compared to the original device. This is box-fꦡresh as well, so it's li🐲kely those numbers will degrade even further with time. While it's certainly lasting a lot longer than more power-hungry devices like the Asus ROG Ally Nintendo has produced more battery-efficient handhelds in the past.

Interestingly, screen🐬 brightness doesn't seem to have that much of an e🉐ffect on overall battery life. I tested again at 50% brightness and only managed an extra nine minutes of juice - it's worth going all in.

Charging times are longer than I've grown used to with fast-charging mobile devices. The top and bottom ports charge at roughly the same speed, though the bottom measured in a little quicker at two hours and nine minutes (compared to two hours twenty minutes). If you'r🔜e playing demanding games, you're charging for almost as much time as you're playing.

Lighter titles fared well. I was able to get just over four hours out of older releases like Doom and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, but we're still not competing at Switch OLED battery🌠 level here.

There's no getting around i🎉t though, that charge is disappointing.

Should you buy the Nintendo Switch 2?

The Nintendo Switch 2 isn't without 🀅competition. The cheaper OLED version runs with better battery life and the Asus ROG Ally and Steam Deck OLED offer better grip, a wider choice of games, more storage, and a larger set of controls.

Ninty's device is threatening these handheld PCs for the first ဣtime, though. It's smoother in some scenarios, comes with its own set of exclusive titles, and is far more portable than chunkier models. You'll even find a similar ༺battery runtime between them, with Nintendo just pushing out ahead when it comes to beefier titles.

Ultimately, the decision comes down𝓀 to what and how you want to play. If you'r❀e after one system to give you access to the highest number of games (and you're willing to work to get them running smoothly), a handheld PC is going to be the way to go. If you're after an easier plug-and-play device that can still take on new releases but remove some of that versatility, the Nintendo Switch 2 is your go-to.

Compared to the Nintendo Switch OLED it's a no-brainer. While you're dropping some♌ punch in that display, and sacrificing your battery, the improved resolution, larger display, and tighter controls are wel🔜l worth the leap to the new generation.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has a lot to prove. That $449.99 / £395.99 launch rate has come under fire, not as much as its game prices, but enough to shine a spotlight on exactly what the system does differently to its predecess🍒or. It would be easy to look at the similar form factor and decry the Switch 2 for playing too close to its established rulebook and yes, this is an evolution rather than a whole new device. It’s a desperately needed iteration, and one that Nintendo has taken its time about delivering, but it's an evolution nonetheless.

That's no bad thing.

The Nintendo Switch may have captured lightninℱg in a bottle, but the Switch 2 is cranking u⛄p the generators and putting that electricity to work. The potency of new features like GameChat and the mouse sensors depends entirely on games to support them. For now, the hardware’s all there - Nintendo just needs to make sure there’s enough software to give these elements some runway.

I've also been refereeing the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch 2 vs Asus ROG Ally and Nintendo Switch 2 vs Nintendo Switch OLED battles. We're also rounding up all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Nintendo Switch 2 cameras and the best MicroSD Express cards for Nintendo Switch 2 if you're keen to kit out with accessories as well.

Sequels can be tricky, but in general you'll either get a self-contained story – fully accessibl༒e to newcomers, but offering an enriching experience for existing fans – or an exploration of themes and characters that only really make sense to those who have engaged with the original material. Lost in Random: The Eternal Die's storyline falls fairly solidly into the latter category, all while the gameplay gets a big refresh more in-keeping with the former. You don't have to be a roguelike fanatic to enjoy – and complete – The Eternal Die, it's a gentle intro to the genre with flexible difficulty settings. But to truly appreciate, or extrapolate much of use from the storyline, you'll need to have played the first game.

Rogue roll

The introductory cutscene is a quick succession of still-ish images and a voice-over that tells you a great deal of information with very little context. If you've ever sat, fully dissociating your mind from your body, as a friend explains the rules to their favorite board game, you'll𝔉 understand༺ a little of how this feels to a newcomer. Here's the Queen, here's her sister. She's dead. There was a war. There's a massive Black Dice and it's evil. This smaller die is your mate. You're the Queen now and you've fallen "into" the Black Dice. For some reason you now look like a child. That's your introductory 30 seconds, now fight.

As such, there's no time to feel anything for either the protagonist, or her late sister. This brief catch-up just isn't enough to entice new players fully into this world, it doesn't explain why they should care about Aleksandra and where they sit in the narrative. It's a fundamental rule of gaming – your players need to know what the stakes are before they roll the die. As satisfying as the combat is, the decision to return specifically to a story-r🌺ich world only to ignore that potential is some🌺thing I can't quite make peace with.

For those wh🍷o battled through the first game – in contrast, a game packed with nuggets of story in an interactive world – Lost in Random: The Eternal Die's initial narrative can at least be pieced together. In terms of additional story, you get the occasional room which reminds Aleksandra of a few sentences of a memory, or you might bump into some familiar faces who provide a crumb of lore here and there, but in the hunt for depth or emotional heft, you'll still come up short.

Reviews for the first game often pointed out issues with the combat, but raved about its wonderful, whimsical, Tim Burton-esque world with its rich story and interesting characters. There were hints of secrets yet to be uncovered and stories to be unearthed, only for Lost in Random: The Eternal Die to give us… nothing. The sequel, curiously, seems to have done a complete U-turn. Now we have crunchy, quick, tactil🍎e combat that feels varied and rewarding, but the story – the very thing that will draw many players back to the series – lands with a half-hearted thump. It leaves me wondering who the decision to move away from story-first writing serves.

It's frustrating. You feel tantalized, like something of substance might just be out of reach. For players who spent hours in Random the first time around, facing Aleksandra as the Big Bad, there's not enough here to put you firmly on her side, you're just plonked into her shoes and asked to care. I just wanted a bit more, something akin to Hades 2, or even 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Inscryption, where story and gamepla﷽y sit comfortably next to each other, each weighted with the same importance. That's what Random deserved.

At a certain point you have to put the story aside, though, and accept that it isn't forthcoming. It's a shame. But there i𝓀s still a lot to love about Lost in Random𒉰: The Eternal Die. Combining four gorgeously gothic biomes, intelligent enemy patterns, satisfying combat, and responsive, flexible weapons – as a roguelike it ticks all the boxes.

The original game's combat was divisive, but The Eternal Die's gameplay feels like such a perfect fit for the environments and enemies dreamt up for this 💮world. Poison-spewing frog-like creatures rise out of swamps and limping knights prod you with spears tipped with fire, bosses cycle attacks with variation and rhythm, but still provide a solid challenge. The dark atmosphere is a little watered down in the isometric view, but it still ༒feels thematically consistent with Random's aesthetic.

Aside from a few lagging or momentarily confused foes in the more populated areas, you can't fault the combaཧt. It's rewarding, responsive, and allows you to be creative in your approach. Alongside traditional fighting, you can employ your trusty die, Fortune, to spice up gameplay with a randomized twist. Throwing him at enemies deals damage dependent on the number rolled, and some relics imbue specific numbers with additional powers, like fireworks or poison shots.

These relics have a chance to pop up in every cleared room, or in shops fronted by the gregarious traveling saleswoman, Mannie Dex. They change various elements of the game, strengthening your abilities, granting boosts, or increasing loot drops from enemies. The maps are randomly generated, so you'll find some packed to the rafters with bad guys, while others host shops, NPCs, memories, healing fountains, games of chance, etc. Relics have colors 💯that benefit you even further if they match in your inventory, and any lore collected is held within a journal so you don't lose your way.

There are four key weapons to choose from, each offering different playstyles, from a heavy-handed hammer that deals great clangs of damage, to the nimble bow that allows you to deftly pick off foes from afar. When you die, you are returned to the discard pile, a place where allies await your triumphant return, and offer you boons and upgrades between runs. You can enhance your weapon of choice with❀ different perks, and earn Blessings for yourself that boost your health, abilities, and damage dealing.

Roll up, roll up

Over time you become stronger and better prepared for the games and fights that await you. One by one, you'll take down the bosses and open the way for an unspec🔜ified but assuredly positive future. It is exactly what you expect from a roguelike. Nothing majorly unique, but crafted down to the smallest detail.

There are many such little details that show how much potential The Eternal Die has. Sprites and locati𝔉ons are beautifully drawn, the voice acting and sound design is exceptionally good quality, and – stripped of any story-related expectation – the gameplay compels you to jump right back in for one more run. However much I may have been disappointed in the narrative, I can't deny I played it until the early hours on multiple occasions just to beat that one boss or advance one more level.

There is so much to explore in Random, a world with whispered history, brutal class divides, brewing generation🧜al tensions, a൩nd wondrous occurrences fuelled by magic. The decision to skirt over much of this in favor of revealing a few snippets of information between combat-only sequences seems odd, even when those combat periods are of good quality.

Fans want more of this world, for its secrets and mysteries to reveal themselves, and newcomers could have been equally hooked by a rich story. Were this another generic roguelike with no narrative promise, perhaps I'd have been less harsh, but to pick a world so ripe for storytelling and squander it seems an unnecessary gamble over an 𒐪easy win.

Lost in Random: The Et♔ernal Die was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the puಞblisher.

Craving more runs? Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best rougelikes ranking!

Levels are presented as a series of islands, which you keep rather clumsily crashing your raft into. The fundamental objective on each is to reach the top of the island, where your ruined raft is consistently waiting for you to gather the required parts and materials to repair it. Along the way you'll have climbing nets to build, bridges to ꧙construct, food to cook, tools to make and use, and shenanigans to engage in.

Isle be there

The survival aspect very much leans on construction rather than death. The Kids, like the Highlander, are immortal. Unlike the Highlander, there can be more than one, with two player split-screen, three player Game Share, or four players online (private code-based lobbies only). Two or more players working together can carry heavy objects more quickly, harvest materials faster, and there are occasional opportunities to engage in two tasks at once on diffಌerent parts of the island. A solo player can easily play the entire game from start to finish, but some tasks will take a little longer.

The recipe for anything you need to build hovers over the place it'll appear, showing how many planks, vines, etc are still required. This makes it easy to identify and bring the materials over, but it doesn't mean that things are patronizingly simple. It's only a few islands in that you'll start to find transporting those materials isn't always st🦩raightforward; you can't climb while carrying anything for example, and a few construction spots you can't reach at all. You're encouraged to ge💛t creative. Sometimes you can hurl the ingredients in from a slight distance, other times you'll find that fishing rod you made is useful for hooking more than just fish…

There's no hunger meter, but you'll still need to cook and eat food to build up your stamina, the maximum for which is slowly reduced over time. This determines how long you can keep your grip on a climbing net, how long you can carry something before slowing down (though stamina recharges with pleasing speed), and whether or not you can uꦓnearth something buried in the ground. I'm fine with this. It's an i♏nfinitely preferable system to a traditional one that sees you dying of starvation because you went five minutes without a sandwich.

Star power

As you progress, action platformer elements are gently introduced. There are simple puzzles, "ancient turrets" that spit mysterious purple goo to be avoided, and it's not too long before an umbrella that allows you to glide short distances and ride updrafts makes an appearance. It all melts together well, and prevents things from becoming repetitive. The turrets produce a few sections that make me grit my teeth and/or say ve♋ry naughty words, but these parts are very much the exception rather than the rule.

I played the penultimate island solo, and found some of the backtracking and dragging of objects to be a bit of a slog. I also wasn't particularly happy to find that the final island requires a minimum number of stars to unlock, and I was a little short🐓. You need 25 of the 48 (up until that point) available.

That meant I only needed to revisit a few islands, but I kind of resented not being given any ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚwarning beforehand. Each island can award up to six stars. There are a maximum of three based on completion time, and another three for each of the hidden 'treasure stones' you find and drag back to camp. Getting all six in one ru💛n is incredibly unlikely, both in solo and co-op. I give this gift to you: be aware those stars aren't just there to encourage replays.

Still, that final island? It was worth it. Without spoiling too much, I was pleasantly surprised at the ambition on display, ambition that – to be honest – theᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ rest of the game could do with a taste of. It also serves as a reminder of the pros and cons of solo and co-op♋ play.

One of my favorite things about playing alone is that I can pretend the unnervingly positive narrator with a sharp edge of optimism in his voice is an invention of my character's overly stressed mind, an indication that they're close to breaking point after finding themselves marooned on an island with sentient turrets. Another positive is that I can hoard all the food I cook for myself, making keeping stamina high pretty easy. Conversely, when playing with one or more other people, resource harvesting can be super fast,༒ but splitting the food to keep everybody's stamina up can be a new chꦿallenge.

You're not patronized with instant solutions and unrelenting hand-holding, but there's plenty of guidance, such as an on-screen arrow pointing to objectives (and the occasional hint delivered via a൩ bad pun). The experience is usually pretty smooth as a result,💎 but that also means challenge is kept to a minimum. It's an experience with very few highs, but also almost no lows, and as such is perfect for playing with a young relative – or, if you prefer, to play as a relaxing low-stakes adventure by yourself.

Surv💛ival Kids was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2꧑, with a code provided by the publisher.

Looking for a deeper experience? Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best survival games list!

After my time with it, however, I wish that were all true. What I’ve found is a solid controller with four back buttons that’s absolutely usable, but doesn’t fulfill some of the most exciting promises it makes. In a world where the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PC controllers can cost upwards of $200, is th꧂at enough for the super-affordable PXN P5? That’ll probably be up to you to decide.

At just $29 / £29, it’s hard to argue that this controller is feature-rich and offers a lot of (hypothetical) value, no matter what you’re playing on. Switch, PC, Android, and even a Tesla all fall under the banner of things the P5 can control. I haven’t tested it with the latter, mainly because I’m not 💯made of money, but also because I don’t care for anything that comes out of Elon Musk’s mouth, let alone his factories. In any case, a multiplatform controller for that price is a really tempting prospect, but don’t set your expectations too high.

Design

From an initial look and hold, the PXN P5 has played it pretty safe by going down the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox controller imitatorﷺ avenue. It has the same thumbstick layout, similarly shaped sticks and triggers, but a flatter grip shape on its back so that finding its four b🦂ack buttons is a bit easier.

The overriding thought for me when I hold this controller, however, boils down to a single word, and that’s plastic. I grant you, this is a $30 controller; it’s not going to feel as premium as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:DualSense Edge or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Elite Series 2, but it does feel noticeably more Hasbro than GameSir’s controllers t꧅hat on𒁃ly cost $30 more.

The back of the P5 has a dotted texture to it🙈 that’s indented as opposed to embossed. This gives it a grippy feeling without irritating your skin, and it also creates a cooling effect if, like me, your palms can be a bit ꦕclammy when gaming.

The face of the controller doesn’t have too much to write home about. There’s a small, circular, 8-way D-pad, ABXY buttons, a function button, and four LEDs to help you work out connection types, as well as a couple of standard pause buttons. The typical Switch screenshot, homeꦉ, pause, and menu buttons are here, but I found they were never consistent in each game I played. Sometimes, the pause (options) button would do nothing, the screenshot button would bring up the pause menu, and no two games had the same response.

The face buttons are pretty basic membranes, so if you prefer something clicky, you’re not going to be satisfied here. The tops of the thumbsticks areꦬn’t swappable either, but their indented shape and fairly standard rubber material meant I never had trouble gripping them during gameplay.

Flip the P5 over and you’ll find four back buttons set out horizontally. They’re all plastic too, but I like that their exaggerated shapes mean you can easily distinguish them with your middle fingers, and it’s difficult to press them accidentally. For a controller ⛦this cheap, I dꦐo actually really like the back buttons. You can also find a connection switcher on the back of the pad for use with different platforms, as well as some trigger stop switches.

Features

For a budget controller, the list of features on offer here is a bit silly. There’s wireless support, Android and Bluetooth connectivity, Switch compatibility, Gyro, four back buttons, Hall sensor sticks, an Air Mouse mode, asymmetrical rumble motors, Turbo modes, and Macro functions. You can see why I was interested in reviewing this controller in the first place, because it sports excellent value for money by being feature-rich, all the while costing about as much as an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:EasySMX X10.

You’ll likely know what most of those features mean if you’re shopping for a pro controller, but let’s unpack a few of the most obscure ones. Air 𒅌Mouse mode lets you use the left analog stick as a mouse, and the A and B buttons as right and left clickers. Gyro allows for some motion support, or, if you’re playing FPS games, you can aim with it - at least in theory. Turbo modes, if you don’t know already, automatically tap a button for you with a single press, which can be useful in games that use Quick Time Events. Wireless connectivity comes by way of a Wireless USB dongle, and battery life is courtesy of a 1,000mAh cell inside the controller’s chassis.

There isn’t a companion app for customizing settings 𓆏on PC, but there is a mobile app for iOS and Android devices that lets you swap around deadzone graphs and percentages, as well as save macros and back button assignments.

Performance

Except, in practice, a lot of these features just straight-up didn’t work for me - and not without a lack of trying. Wireless connectivity, first and foremost, was the biggest question mark. I followed the included user manual’s instructions to the letter and I couldn’t get it to connect wirelessly on multiple 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gaming PCs, or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Asus ROG Ally X. In truth, I actually don’t care that much about quirky features like turbo mode or “Air Mouse Mode”, but someone buying a controller like this ꦓwill almost certainly care that🥂 wireless connectivity doesn’t work seamlessly.

Air Mouse functionality didn’t work either, though. The user manual says this only works in wired mode, and since that’s the only way I could use this controller on PC, I knew I certainly wasn’t the issue here. Every time I 💞used the combination of function buttons to get it to switch into Air Mouse mode, I’d be greeted with a rumble, but no mouse functionality. I’ve tested tons of controllers at this point, so many of which use function button combinations to change their aspects. I’ve never run into the issues I had here, even with ones that were more confusing to use out of the box.

My problems worsened when, even while using a wired connection on PC, the controller sometimes wouldn’t register in a lot of PC and Xbox games. Sometimes Windows 11 can be a🏅 little quirky with recognizing gamepadsꦬ when they’re wired or wireless, but the PXN P5 was particularly janky in this regard.

I do accept that maybe my review sample could have been an early unit, and therefore, a bit buggy, but I was using the PXN 🍸Nexus app to ensure I was using the correct firmware. I know expectations might not be so high with a cheap controller, but I’d be wary🎃 that a lot of the features you do pay for here might not be as set in stone as with other budget gamepads.

When I did get things working, I enjoyed my time with this controller, especially with its $30 price in the back of my head. In FPS games, the sticks felt nice and responsive, and being able to tune🔴 the deadzones using the mobile app was a nice bonus for a controller of this price. ♕My usual Hunt: Showdown sniping and movement tests felt solid, especially for a controller with no swappable thumbstick tops.

The best thing I found about this controller was its comfort level. I found I cou꧑ld happily play in longer chunks without any🐭 awkward stretching, cramping, or discomfort in third-person games like Clair Obscur and Rooftops and Alleys. That Xbox design lineage definitely comes into play in this regard. Similarly, its deep, rumbling feedback felt excellent in games like Celeste.

Fo❀r a non-microswitch controller, I also liked the responsiveness I got from the PXN P5. Quick button presses and solid reaction times are vital in Clair Obscur, if, like me, you refuse to pass up a parry attempt. I expected the chunky and relatively cheap-feeling plastics of this controller to bring up a slower feel, but the bumpers and the general speediness of the face buttons’ actuation mean it performed exactly as needed. In fact, I nailed about 90% of the parry attempts I went for with this controller in my hands, so it’s definitelඣy got some snappy capabilities.

I found the same thing in the button-mashing-heavy Dragon Ball Sparking Zero. Whether I was trying to string together a combo, time a parry, or nail the timing in those teleporting dodge battles, the P5 felt nice and speedy for a gamepad of this price. It’s still nothing on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, but it doesn’t exactly feel slow.

The four back buttons are a real standout, and they’re some of the best horizontally-placed ones I’ve come across since the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra. For this price, they really make the PXN P5 stand out, especially when bigger brands in the peripheral market refuse to make pads with four back buttons (looking at you, GameSir), or put them behind a $150 paywall (looking at you, Po📖werA).

Should you buy the PXN P5?

The PXN P5 finds itself in a tough spot. It’s an excellent, feature-rich pro controller on paper, ཧespecially for this price. But its lack of reliability in some of those features do make me more hesitant to recommend it. The EasySMX X10 is around the same price tag, and although it only has two back buttons, it has those clicky buttons a lot of folks enjoy, as well as plenty of other features that aren’t as buggy.

While I am hesitant to recommend this controller to you, it’s hard to ignore that if you want something with four back buttons, you can really struggle to find it for this sort of price. My advice would honestly be to seek out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Manba One, which is only a bit more expensive and also has a slew of features that are so much easier to control thanks to its big ol’ scrꩲeen.

Do you really need wireless mode, the Air Mouse mode, or any of this controller’s other bells and whistles? If not - if you just want a solid, comfortable controller with four back buttons that isn’t going to ꧟break the bank, maybe you’ll get on quite well with it. If you want more than that, however,♔ buying cheap might mean buying twice.

For more on controllers, take a look at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PS5 controllers, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Nintendo Switch controllers, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best racing wheels for PC.

Fast Fusion is a futuristic racing game from the same mould as Wipeout and F-Zero, though it feels more like the former with its vehicles hovering higher above the track and getting some serious air too. Unlike Wipeout, there’s a jump button that allows you to spring into the air at any time, giving the track designers opportunity to add shortcuts and tricky-to-reach boost orbs, rewarding skilful play in style, though thankfully the shortcut element isn’t overplayed. It’s a relatively straightforward experience for the most part, and much less punishing than F-Ze🌠ro GX (which is also available on Switch 2 via the Online Membership and very much worth playi꧑ng too).

Well it ain't slow

And the title ‘FAST’ is no misnomer; it really is incredibly fast. On the initial tier it’s speꦰedy enough, but on later levels your vehicle absolutely scintillates as it rockets past gorgeous scenery at hundreds of miles per hour. By the time you get to these races, you’ll be so ‘in the zone’, the speed will just sort of dissolve into a blur – a very good-looking blur – as you look for boost orbs, track on which to safely land after a jump, and the two-colored boost pads.

As with Fast RMX, you need to switch color of your ship with a t🐠ap of the X button in order to use the appropriately-colored boost pad, otherwise it will sap your speed instead. If anything, the boost pad switching is oddly underplayed, the pads being spaced apart far enough that you’ll very rarely find yourself without time to switch to the correct꧅ color. Adding a third color might have been welcome, but at least this is intense without being overwhelming.

You get several modes of play, all of which are engrossing. Championship mode༺ sees you completing sets of three races, earning points from each as you try to top a table against 9 CPU-controlled opponents. Then there's Time Attack where you can race against the dev team’s times, which is always fun, but the best mode by far is Super Hero.

Here, instead of having a boost bar, you have a single bar representing your shields. Boosting and jumping use up some of the bar, but you can replenish it with either boost orbs or travelling over boost pads while switched to the correct color. Instead of gingerly trying not to use up your bar, success comes from aggressively boosting into enemies and trying to stay ahead of the pack. You have to finish first to complete the level,😼 and any crash ends your run. It’s ultra-hardcore, and brilliantly playable.

The difficulty level is ౠhigh, but not so much in terms of navigating the circuits. There are actually far fewer moments of being lost in mid-air than in the previous game. Rather, the AI pilots are very quick, sometimes overtaking you even when you’re flat out and boosting. There does appear to be s𓆉ome element of rubber-banding going on, but that doesn't seem to be the culprit as you begin to struggle to finish higher than fourth with the initial group of ships no matter how well you fly.

This is where the ‘Fusion’ part of the name comeꦯs in. By fusing two ships together, you can create a faster, better hybrid. Each hybrid has a letter rating, and combining the two most expensive ships will give you an A-rated machine (or higher) that can suddenly win races again. It's not a perfect system, and feels a bit convoluted. Good old careful balancing with the stock craft would have been better and certainly more fun,🌠 though it is rewarding to make a good one and start to win again.

Lo♚ngtime fans should also note the new game is very similar in its gameplay and presentation to Fast RMX, to the point that – having not played RMX much at all for 8 years - I did have to just dip back to the Switch 2’s dashboard to make suಞre I was playing the new one. It’s that familiar. However, having since gone back and played Fast RMX to compare the two, the new game is significantly visually richer than the old game. They're just demonstrably iterations of essentially the same thing.

What magic is this?

But one of the biggest reasons to pick this up is the fact that, somehow, Fast Fusion is running at 4K and 60fps, from a tiny tab🍬le✱t. It’s unreal just how powerful Switch 2 appears to be, all coming from this diminutive form factor that makes a Steam Deck look like it's made of cereal packets. That said, there is some disappointing blurriness to the rendering that might be caused by some kind of nVidia DLSS upscaling going on, which hopefully won’t become a trademark of Switch 2’s graphics at 4K.

That said, on the third of the four graphics settings, it frequently looks sensational, especially when there are tornadoes whirling around ahead of you. There’s even some vehicular destruction with some pieces falling off your craft as you crash and burn. There is an ultra-quality 4K mode that renders at 30fps, but that sho♉uld be avoided at all costs. After the sheer joyous fluidity, 30fps just doesn't cut it. Not anymore.

It's very easy to lose hours to Fast Fusion because it's just so damn playable. It's an imperfectly formed gem, but a gem nonetheless. Finally, it sounds absolutely wonderful with fantastic music featuring some superb electric guitar work. It sounds li⛄ke the future, looks like the future, but plays like the past. Nothing wrong with that.

Fast Fusion was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2, with a code p꧒rovided by the publisher

Want to go fast? Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best racing games ranking!

More specifically, one match is never enough. Even if I just had my arse handed to me, I'm always keen to reset and go again when the final totals are tallied; Jaipur is that kind of game. I'd go so far as to say it's lightning in a bottle, actually. It has enough depth to keep you invested over the course of countless sessions, bu🐽t is easy-going enough not to take up much brain-space.

I hadn't expected to fall so hard for it. Jaipur was never on my radar despite the years I've spent reviewing the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best card games, and it was only recommended as an afterthought when Iꦯ visited a board game café many moons ag🐻o. I was hooked enough to sling it straight onto my wishlist then and there, which rarely happens.

So, should you buy Jaipur today even though it's been kicking around since 2009? Abso-bloody-lutely. If you ask me, it deserves a spot in every collection and is one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best board games overall.

Jaipur features & design

• 2-player trading game
• Collect and trade goods for points
• Hard-wearing components make it great for travel

Players step into the shoes of rival businesspeople from the Indian city of Jaipur, and your aim is to become the best 𒁏– thus earning the privilege of becoming your maharaja's personal trader. Put simply: earn the mo🍷st points to win.

How you do that is your choice. There are a wealth of goods available for purchase at the market, and you'll sell those on for a profit. The trouble is, these items lose their value as more of them are sold… so you'll have to be quick if you want to make a killing. Once three stac♊ks of goods are gone, the round ends and you count up your earnings. Whoever has the most is awarded a 'seal of excellence,' and victory is yours if you collect two of these.

Jaipur has an elegance to match such straightforward mechanics. Its cards are vibrant and the artwork (displaying piles of luxurious items from gold to silk) is as sumptuous as the open-air market of your dreams. The tok♑e💜ns are equally stylish, and they're sturdy enough to survive plenty of use.

Thankfully, these are stored in dedicated slots within the box. Unlike other g𒐪ame♏s I could name, they won't be rattling loose when not in use.

Gameplay

• Easy to learn, but versatile in play
• Constantly evolving strategies
• You can't add extra players, unfortunately

The central premise of Jaipur is selling, but how you do that will define whether you win or lose. Do you buy cheap item♏s like shoes and sell them off quickly? Or should you wait for more expensive items and pawn them at a huge profit, with the risk your opponent will beat you to the punch? It's a balancing act with no right answer, and that pressure keeps you investedꦉ from start to finish.

Yes, Jaipur is mechanically simple. But that doesn't mean it's boring. As an example, you can collect a single goods card each turn or draw all of the camels lying face up in the market. Besides giving you bonus points at the end of every round if you gather the most of them, these act as jokers and can be used to claim multiple goods at once. However, grabbing them refreshes the market with new cards… which potentia🔯l gives your rival exactly what they need on their next go𓂃.

This is Jaipur all over; it's a danc🎀e with your opponent where you're reacting to the other's strategy moment by moment. Flexibility is your most valuable tool as a result, particularly because there's no guarantee they won't see what you're doing and scupper your efforts.

My one criticism is that you can't increase the player-count. Jaipur is designed with two people in mind, and it just won't work if you crowbar in extra players (this is a shame, because it'd be a blast with more people). Still, this laser-focus means it's a great 2-player option – one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best 2-player board games, in fact.

Should you buy Jaipur?

I think Jaipur is one of those games everyone should own. It's incredibly compelling despite being so straightforward, can be replayed endlessly, and isn'tꦛ going to get boring any🔴time soon.

There are deeper games with similar mechanics, like Splendor, but few can match Jaipur's tantalizing blend of speed, immediacy, and replayability. Plus, its short run-time and portability make it ideal for e꧟verything from a lazy night in to vacation play.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Jaipur

This review sample was purchased by the writer.

I've been playing Jaipur avidly for years now, and have battled against different people in that time across a variety of environments from home to vacation – you couldꦍ say I've well and truly lived with it.

For more on our process, check this guide on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test board games. As for the site at large, be sure to visit the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GameRadar+ reviews policy.

Want more recommendations? Don't miss the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best cooperative board games or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best family board games.

I think we were all itching for something more when the 9000 series finally arrived with us in August of last year. Intel was on the back foot, sওcrambling to resolve its Raptor Lake stability issues, and AMD had time and time again proven to us that its Zen architecture was second to none. Certainly over the last seven years, its dramatic IPC advancements and serious improvements in gaming performance and efficiency have had Intel on the ropes every single time. It was like the blue team was constantly scrambling to keep up and, in its haste, had let in one too many bugs in the process.

In fact, it's that architectural dominance, the introduction of chiplets, and scalable designs that are the reason so many Zen chips grace those 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best CPU for gaming lists out there, because, time and time again, they've consistently delivered, with massive improvements on the lineup year on year. That is, until these🐽 wee beauties here.

Behind the scenes

The 9000 series, compared to its 7000 kindred, is unabashedly rather underwhelming. Sure, there are some AI advancements and latency improvements, and yes, AMD has signꦆificantly rebuilt the branch predictors and bumped up the heftiness of those information ports and reorder buffers. And yes, that has led to improvements in more complex, deeper workloads, but for the vast majority of us, that's just technical jargon and hardware that doesn't particularly bolster the applications that we most commonly use.

For standard gaming, for rendering, and for streaming, the effect these tweaks and twists, and turns have had is, well, minor to say the least. More suited for high-end data crunching and server work rather than the humble gamer. And you can understand why, as these 9000 series chips are entirely based on that new Zen 5 architecture, and to be blunt, it's an architectural design whose scope encompasses far more than just your standard run-of-the-mill home-grown 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gaming PC. AMD is aggressivel⛦y targeting the server market right now, as that's where the big money is, and ♔so designing its latest chips to leverage that is a matter of urgency.

And then, of course, once the dust had settle🎃d and AMD's full product stack finally hit the shelves, Intel launched the carnage that was the Core Ultra 200 series, and all hell ensued. AMD was a dull upgrade on the 7th generation chips, sure, but at least it wasn't a downgrade compared to the previous platform, something only Intel had managed to achieve at that point.

Still, times have changed, and well over half a year later, Intel's Core Ultra 200 series is finally starting to come together. Combined with some seriously aggressive price drops and the more fervent arrival of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:AMD's newest X3D lineup, it got me thinking. Are these X series chips still worth the while? Can this 12-core chip still run ꦺwith the ♈pack, or is it just too darn expensive for its own good?

Specs & Features

If I'm hone🌃st, compared to the Ryzen 9 7900X, the 9900X is, w💃ell, quite dull. If you were playing Top Trumps with these things, you'd be hard-pressed to spot the difference. Both feature the same 12 cores, the same 24 threads, both come with 64 MB of L3 cache, and both tout a 5.6 GHz clock speed. From a pure hardcore performance perspective, the numerical advantages are basically nonexistent.

Effectively, the way AMD's Ryzen processors work is that they are modular by design. Each CPU has a number of "core complexes" on it that house the cores in question, and AMD can add or subtract them from each chip design, incr♛easing or decreasing the total number of cores on the unit. The problem is that these complexes need to talk to each other and transfer informatiജon between themselves. This is done thanks to what AMD calls its "Infinity Fabric".

Unlike Intel's approach to year-on-year multiplication, though, there are no additional cores or threads he🔯re, and AMD seems content maxing out those chiplet designs at 6-8 cores per core complex die. At least for the time being.

That's not to say everything is the same, mind you; AMD has reworked those finer details to improve latency between the cache memory and the core complexes themselves, and that in turn has led to 𒉰significant improvements in computational and rendering workloads (just don't expect that to carry over quite so readily to gaming).

Also, thanks to AMD shifting some of its manufacturing processes and adding a number of efficiency improvements with its new Zen 5 architecture, total power draw has been cut down by 50W on the last gen, which is a serious w🤪in for both temperature management and your electricity bill.

As for ♌pure I/O and compatibility, fortunately, the 9900X is still based on the AM5 socket, compatible with any motherboard that supports that, and it continues to have DDR5 and expanded support for PCIe 5.0 as well. Unlike Intel's latest chips, which require a whole new board.

There's also an iGPU thrown in for good measure based on the RDNA2 architecture, although to be absolutely clear, that's not something I'd recommend you use for gaming (that's a crown entirely reserved for the likes of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ryzen 7 8700G and 8600G, respectively).

The real Achilles’ heel, though, is the pricing. Particularly how the 9900X competes with both the p🥃revious gen and Intel's now operational Core Ultra series too. On the surface, it initially looked like a good deal compared to the 7900X. At launch, it debuted at just $500 or £460 total, about $50 less than what the 7900X launched at. Since then, pri☂cing has fallen further, and you can now pick one up for just shy of $380 or £390.

The only problem with that is what it's up against. Namely, Intel's Core Ultra 7 265K. Now, yes, Intel has been on the back foot, and it has taken its sweet time getting the Core Ultra 200 series fully operational, but recent price shuffles on its lineup have made the Ultra 7 in particular ridiculously aggressive in comparison. In fact, you can pick one of those up right now for $80 or £160 less than the 9900X, and that's a re𝓡al problem for Team Red right there.

Performance

The metrics, though, they're kinda where you'd expect for a chip of this caliber. I'🍷ve spent these last few weeks aggressively testing all of the CPUs I have at my disposal, across al𒀰l manner of different benchmarks and workloads, on a consistent test bed. The Ryzen 9 9900X is also what I consider my primary CPU for testbeds in general as well, at least for the time being. I use it both here and for a few other brands I write for, as it's a nice middle-of-the-road chip for testing graphics cards and SSDs as well, particularly when combined with any of the X870E boards out there.

The good news is that, pound for pound, the 9900X puts in a seriously strong showing against Intel. Particularly if you can pair it with one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best memory kits out ther🥀e. Ideal𒐪ly, you're looking for a kit that's around the 6,400 MT/s mark to better take advantage of that Infinity Fabric scaling.

Infinity Fabric is effectively a PCIe-like interconnect woven between the core complexes. The unique thing about it is that its speed is directly tied to your RAM speed up to a certain point. So the faster your memory kit, the better the performance of your CPU. That said, it is very much a case of diminishing returns, and past a certain point, you'll no longer see improvements. That's why it's pivotal as a Ryzen ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚuser that your memory profile is always enabled in your motherboard BIOS.

We're not talking a huge amount of performance, no, it's not double or anything insane like that (DDR5 defaults to 4,800 MT/s after all) but it's enough to have a significant impact both in-game and in computational workloads. In some cases, it can bring improvements upwards of 10% or more. With that♊, I'm actually using a 64GB kit of Team Group T-Create at 6,000 MT/s, as it featureꦜs both Intel XMP and AMD EXPO profiles, to keep timings tight and consistent across both platforms. You may see slightly better performance from a 6,400 - 7,000 MT/s kit and above.

RAM speeds aside, the 9900X did incredibly well in Cinebench 2024, putting in a strong showing of 1,767 in the multi-core test and 128 in single-core. Decent enough numbers, yet although the single core matched the Core Ultra 7, it did fall short somewhat on the multi-core, with a 9% diffeꦺrence between the two. Blender similarly saw a win when utilizing CPU only on Junkyard, by 7 samples, but again fell short when utilizing the graphics card. And then we get to the gaming…

So I test all the CPUs I get in with three separate titles at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. The games in question are designed to stress the CPU as best they can, either through entity loading, simulation, or frame-generation management. I use Total War: Warhammer 3 with its Mirrors of Madness benchmark, Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS on Quality and MFG on x2, and Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail with 🅺FSR enabled as well. All on the Ultra preset.

Because 1080p typically produces higher frame rates, you usually see larger performance jumps between chips, as they become the bottleneck for the graphics card at those higher frame-rate levels. That might not sound that important to the average Joe, but if you're a competitive esports player dabbling in the 200-300 fps range, and you've got a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gaming monitor that can support it, it can be a big deal.

So, 1080p, then, is really interesting. The 9900X absolutely tanked in Total War compared to the Core Ultra👍 7, landing an abysmally poor 96.5 fps (admittedly better than the Ryzen 7 7700X, which only managed 89.9). Compare that to the Core Ultra 7, and it managed 109.8 fps. That's a 12% drop in comparable performance. Jump over to Final Fantasy, though, and the tables turn with Intel falling foul and AMD clawing back a win, with an 8% bump in average frꦓame rates.

Why that's fascinating is that these differences dissipate at different resolutions. At 1440p, that Total War delta fades into nothing, yet AMD still has the edge over Intel in Final Fantasy with a 10fps difference on average frame rate. Jump up to 4K, and it's almost level pegging across all three titles with both chips, and if you take the averages a𝓰cross all three resolutions and average those, the t💟wo chips basically end up identical.

As for the old T&Ps, that too provided an interesting mixed bag of results. AMD's 9900🌼X was marginally more efficient in heavy computational workloads than the Core Ultra 7 was, with 316W of draw in Cinebench versus 330W and 302W in Blender versus 315W for the Ultra 7. Temperatures ranged from 2 to 8 °C higher here as well, despite the lower power draw, but nothing too crazy to make me worry.

In-game, however, once more the coin flipped the other way, and AMD drew significantly more power than its Intel counterpart. Even at 4K, when CPU load should be diminished, there was a 25W difference in d🍰raw between the two. At a guess, I suspect that's down to AMD's idle states being significantly more hungry than Intel's.

Should you buy the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X?

Straight up answer here? Probably not. The issue right now is that it's just far too expensive for the improvements it gives you over the previous version of this processor. At $380, 9 months on, it's just not a tantalizing proposition. If you want pure gaming performance and are keen to stick with AMD, then you'll go for something like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ryzen 7 7800X3D or its modern counterpart. If you want to go with pure multi-core grunt and something that's equally as gifted in gaming but for $80 less than, you'd go with Intel's Core Ultra 7 265K. If you want the absolute best bang for the buck, then Intel's last-generation Cꦇore i5-14600K is a far better pick across the board, no matter what.

That puts the Ryzen 9 9900X in a tricky position. On the surface, it's a well-balanced, nicely configured, new-generation chip that🐼's efficient, decently optimized, and just works, particularly if you've got the supporting motherboard and RAM already. Yet, the sad reality is, even compared to AMD's own product stack with the likes of its X3D chips and more, it's just kinda dull. It doesn't stand out, and that's a real problem. When the CPU market is so heated right now, going for literally anything else will inevitably net you a better deal, and that ain't good.

How we tested the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X

Like all of the CPUs that I get in for review, I tested the 9900X in its own dedicated testbed with hardware that could be utilized across all of the other chips to eliminate any variables. No🦄t only did I utilize a wide range of benchmarks and tests with the 9900X, mixing gaming and rendering, I also use this predominantly as my permanent test-bed CPU when benchmarking both SSDs and graphics cards as well, giving me an incredibly deep understanding of how it operates in Windows.

Additionally, throughout testing, I monitor average and maximum temperatures i𝄹n each load segment and maximum power draw too. I also utilize a generated index that I create that averages performance out per dollar spent at its current pricing at the time of review.

For more on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test gaming PC🅘s and components, check out our full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

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These are the questions I've struggled with while playing Mario Kart World. After an hour or so of existential dread and self-reflective navel-gazing, my conclusion is that a good kart racing game (and by extension, a good Mario Kart game) feels good in that races are hectic and slick with responsive controls♕. A good kart racing game is also never actually unfair, despite sometimes feeling like it is out to get you, with mechanics designed to keep you in the thick of things even if you've fallen behind.

By these metrics, Mario Kart World is certainly good. Zooming through the various tracks at 150cc is a 🐟colorful blast with plenty of shortcuts and surprises, and more than once I found myself man🀅aging a mad dash from 24th to 1st thanks to a combination of clutch items and clever handling. The core Mario Kart experience of goofy racing punctuated by diabolical shells of varying colors is alive and well.

Tour the world

Mario Kart World isn't purely content to sit on its laurels by simply repeating past successes. As the name implies there's a whole vast world out there to explore that the new Nintendo S🍸witch 2 game takes every opportunity to enjoy. You can largely ignore the game's larger world in favor of just plain old racing if that's what you really want to do, but you'd be missing out – both because certain parts of the game will remain locked and because it's a blast, actually.

In Grand Prix mode, for exam🃏ple, you can do the usual four-map race as a continuous course by traveling from one race to the next. Knockout Tour i🍒s a somewhat similar concept with one single long race featuring checkpoints where players are – you guessed it – knocked out if they don't place high enough. And then there's Free Roam, which, well, allows you to freely roam around Mario Kart World's vast map.

I have drifted across all Mario Kart World has to offer, including Battle Mode and Time Trials and even a local co-op GameChat session with three players where the single camera superimposed three different live cropped images above our respective karts – but it is Free Roam that I keep finding myself cruising back to. In part, this is absolutely by design, as basically every single moment of downtime between races or while rules are being decided lets me wander about, but it's also because of just how tempti𓆏ng Free Roam is.

Free as a Birdo

It's hard to emphasize the sheer scope of Mario Kart World's, well, world to anyone that hasn't been able to experience it for themself. The sprawling race courses are stitched together with connective tissue that bridges them into related groups which are then also stitched together. The end result is a massive map you can kart arou❀nd in, explore with pals, and discover ways to unlock a vast array of collectibles from stickers to outfits and more.

This "world", as the game's name implies, is the big differenc☂e between Mario Kart World and everything that's come before it. Everything from collectibles to courses to letting 24 players into a race to Knockout Tour's entire existence is driven by this major mutation from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the game is all the better for it.

It would have been easy enough to just ma🦩ke more courses and call it a day. Maybe add a new item, the ne🦄w racing techniques, and that's it. But it's hard to imagine that any of this truly succeeds at crafting anything better than what's come before. It would have just been that, but more. Instead, if Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the pinnacle of that specific brand of kart racing design, Mario Kart World feels like a fork in the road that not everyone's going to be interested in.

That doesn't mean there aren't drawbacks. The biggest weakness in Mario Kart World is honestly its map. There's no good way of tracking collectibles, the minimap is effectively useless with how little it actually shows, and good luck trying to make any sort of detailed, informed decisions about where to go or how to get there based on looking at the larger map in the menu itself. It's frustrating,🌄 and holds Mario Kart World back from true greatness.

Gotta switch 'em all

I am not one to spend much time searching out cosmetics, especially given new karts and racers typically unlocked for me by simply racing around, and yet I find myself absolutely compelled by Mario Kart World's P-Switch missions. The cla♎ssic blue switch can be found all over the map during Free Roam, and activating them initiates a mission with various objectives. Maybe you have to dodge enemies, maybe it's following a series of rails, or maybe it's something else entirely, and what awaits you for completing these trials is a sticker for your efforts.

For most games, these sorts of missions are only worthwhile if the reward is meaningful. And stꦑickers, while appreciated, aren't really what I'd consider meaningful. Mario Kart World's P-Switch missions are fun and interesting specifically because they are otherwise largely brief, meaningless diversions in a big open world that dangles some kind of goal in front of the player through use of an important skill that transfers to traditional races.

For example, Mario Kart World lets players grind on rails and jump onto and off of walls. If you're not at least familiar♚ with both, you're immediately at a disadvantage during races a✅s your opponents will happily and regularly use anything to get ahead. More than one P-Switch mission I encounter is in some way a tutorial to get more accustomed to grinding, riding on walls, and sometimes both. With how brief they are, and how easy each is to restart, it's hard to ever get too frustrated with any of them despite the inevitable serious skill tests that sneak in from time to time.

A whole new world

Any one of these major additions – Grand Prix, Knockout Tour, and Fr♈ee Roam – would feel like a significant enough change to warrant a new franchise entry, and all three at once (on top of many, many other changes) makes for an almost overwhelming departure. Arguably, perhaps that alone fully justifies what Mario Kart World is and does.

But it certainly fundamentally changes the core Mario Kart experience. If all you're looking for out of Mario Kart World is going around some fun courses over and over again, it's not exactly simply laid out for you. The intermissions and world outside of the traditional tracks are directly integrated, and attempting to ignore them or circumvent their existence creates a 🙈haphazard, partial experience at best.

Taken on its own terms, howev🅰er, Mario Kart World is a glorious road trip that embraces the open road. It's easy to imagine playing this latest entry for a decade in much the same way as Mario Kart 8, and my relatively minor frustrations all slip away in the breeze of a good drift followed by an exceptionally well-shot Green ♊Shell.

Mario Kart World was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2, wit🐼h a code and console provided by the publisher.

Queen by Midnight features & design

• Play as a princess fighting for the throne
• Each princess has unique abilities...
• ...but everyone starts with the same deck

Queen by Midnight puts 3 - 6 players (or 2 - 6, if y♍ou're using the expansion 'Quarter Past') in the heels of princesses vying for control of the court, with each princess having access to their own suites of powerful spells and abilities, in addition to a basic stash available from the communal bazaar.

At its core, Queen is a deck-building game (a format favored by many of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best card games) where each princess starts with a nearly identical starter deck and will have to improve it over the course of the game by purchasing new cards, with the end goal being to dish out enough damage to take out the other players and keep 🍬themselves alive. The deck-building fundamentals that the game uses as♓ its foundations are solid, and Queen brings some really interesting and fun twists to the classic formula.

In a bit of asymꦏmetric flair, each of the princess characters not only can purchase cards from the shared bazaar pool, but also a special reserve of their own known as their Vault.

Another one of the unique mechanics to Queen, and where the game gets the "by Midnight" in its title from, is the ever-present clock face that ticks closer to Midnight with each passing round. This constant reminder of the endgame will adjust and tweak the game as it gets closer to that fated hour, changing the game in some impactful ways, like increasing everyone's hand sizes, unlocking that pr🦄incess' most powerful cards from their War Chest, and even creating a secondary win condition, allowing each player to secretly declare their loyalty for another player. This allows them to serve as an advisor to that player if they're eliminated.

Sound like a lot? It is. This all extends not just to the gameplay but to the produc🔯tion itself and can be felt t𒀰he moment you open the base game's box for the first time. You are greeted by a bag containing the components to a dice tower, which also serves as the clock face that tracks the game time, and a working lazy Susan to play on in addition. I will admit, these large set pieces in board games have never done much for me, particularly when they exist more for the "wow factor" or as a talking piece. (An example being Everdell's tree.)

Luckily, the Quarter Past expansio🍸n includes a perfectly usable flat tabletop clock of sturdy quality, and I opted to use that and leave the fancy clock tower in its packaging and unmade.

Gameplay

• Features neat twists, like Inner Circle
• Characters all play differently
• Just too much going on

Although every character starts ♛with the same deck, getting access to each princess' special cards jazzes things up. These decks really do a great job to further define and separate one character from another, creating an almost fighting game meta situation which I really dug. This ranges from Boss No’s focus on subtlety and sabotage (having your opponents choose to hurt themselves and help you, or choosing their preferred pain as you force them to choose whether they pay you, heal you, or get rid of one of their cards) in contrast to Hephesta, whose deck specializes in healing and reducing oncoming damage whil🅺e she bides her time until she can challenge you to a duel and potentially deal a big hit of damage.

With six princesses to pick from in the base game and another four in the Quarter Past standalone expansion, it adds to the complexity of the game, requiring players to keep track of and remember what threats the other decks can bring, but also offers up a greater amount of flexibility𝔍 and possible matchups from one game to the next, compared to other games in the genre.

The fun doesn't end if you're bested by these special abilities, though. Should a princess be reduced to zero healt🐬h before Midnight, they can reveal their secret loyalty to another p✱layer and become a member of that princess' Inner Circle as an Advisor, allowing you to help them in ways that only your fallen princess can, such as allowing you to heal them or look through their deck and give them a card. Then, if the princess you are declared for wins, you also win.

I really found this system to be an imaginat๊ive and fun way to keep players who are eliminated still in the game and contributing. It's never fun to be the first person out of a game and be forced to simply watch until a new game starts, and this Inner Circle system is a smart way to avoid that issue.

If that was where the game left things, Queen by Midnight would be an easy recommendation for fans of deck-building games, but unfortunately, the game piles on so much other stuff that it leaves the game feeling bloated and overproduced. As I touched on earlier with the individual Vault decks that each princess brings with them, there are a variety of different classes of cards and princesses, with each princess being composed of two classes. Two classes that each have a Major and Minor value, with each impacting different cards, sometimes determining the number of dice you roll in a check, or just straight-up damage. Oh yeah, and there is some dice rolling mixed in, and some princesses have special tokens or counters they use. Attacks can deal different types of damage, which can be blocked or negated by some effects, or some cards can only negate specific damage, and then there are cards that aren't attack cards. Still, part of their effects can be negated by cards that negate attack cards but not the whole card, and then… well, simply listing out some of the situations is making me dizzy. All of this is not to mention that t🍰he bazaar shop being composed of three different de𝓰cks that get swapped out depending on the time on the clock.

It all just makes the game feel like it was the victim of scope-creep and adding another mechanic or idea because it would be "cool" a𝐆nd not necessarily because it adds to the experience of the game overall, leading to that feeling of being overproduced.

Should you buy Queen by Midnight?

Despite my qualms with the game, Queen by Midnight and Quarter Past are fun enough that 🐎if one of my friends wanted to play, I would say sure, but those same issues are what keep it from being a game I would actively reach for on my shelf. When I am in the mood for a complex and heavy game, I would reach for other titles that manage their complexity a bit better, and when I am in the mood for a deck-building game, I tend to reach for quicker and tighter experiences like Star Realms or Lost Ruins of Arnak. I hope that Queen by Midnight finds its fans, as it is a gorgeous game to look at, with stellar production values, but for me, this is going to be one game I may go to bed early for.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Queen by Midnight

This review was conducted using a sample prov𝓰ided by the publisher.

Our reviꦫewer played Queen by♕ Midnight multiple times with other players whilst using different characters, all to get a feel for the game as a whole. They also used the expansion, Quarter To, to compare and contrast with the original title.

If you want to learn more about our process, be sure to drop in on our guide to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test board games. You can also visit the complete 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

If you're in the mood for something new, why not check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best 2-player board games? It's worth taking a look at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best adult board games too.

Battle for the Deep features & design

• Underwater fantasy wargame
• Uses Axis & Allies mechanics
• Board and tokens are Risk-esque

For those unfamiliar with Axis & Allies, gameplay takes place over a series of rounds, each divided into a series of Phases: Purchase Reinforcements, Combat Move (moving any units that will take part in combat that turn), Conduct Combat, Noncombat Move (moving units that did NOT take part in any combat), Check Stacking Limits (each region can only hold so many units), Deploy Reinforcements, and Set Victory Points. Once a player has taken their turn, it passes to the next, and this continues until either one team reaches 30 combined victory points, if a team controls an enemy's base zone,꧑ or after seven rounds of play, at which point whichever group has the most points wins. Much of the core gameplay loop and syst🐲ems will be familiar to anyone who has played previous editions of the series, allowing you to quickly transition into this latest theater of war.

As the name implies, Battle for the Deep takes the fighting from the land, air, and sea, and puts it far under the waves where brand-new and fantastical factions are waging war. This time around, instead of forces like Italy, Germany, America, or the Soviet Union, players can pick from asymmetric factions such as the Undersea Kingdom, the Leviathans, the war turtles of The Protectors, or the Lovecraftian Denizens of the Deep – ea🌠ch army with unique troops with unique powers and abilities. This alone would greatly set BftD apart from its other A&A peers, but that is just one of a few. Neither the Axis nor the Allies exist under the sea, and alliances are chosen instead by the players, meaning that the team-ups can change from game to game – a feature that wouldn't quite be historically possible in the other titles but makes such a difference here.

On the component side of things, Battle for the Deep is your pretty standard A&A fare – paper rulebook, solid minis, a large game board, and cardboard tokens that leave a bit to be desired. Each of the factions' minis has a distinct look, and it's fun to see little dolphin riders swimming around the board in contrast to large whales and turtles. You certainly won't have any issue telling them apart, which is a plus with games like this that field a bunch of units, and you need to know what you are fighting against before sending your troops into the fray. The included reference cards, one for each player, help with denoting what unit is what and show the progression of turns on the back, but overall, I found them to be a letdown thanks to the lack of descriptions of what the various unit abilities do. Not having this info🐲rmation - information that would be helpful to new and returning A&A players alike - on the reference cards means players will have to keep consulting the rulebook instead. There is plenty of space on the back of the card where they could have put this information, and its omission is a bit of a head-scratcher.

Gameplay

• Unique units add welcome complexity
• Lack of units overall
• Feels more like a race than classic A&A

Each of the four factions has a unique roster of four units that they can take with them into fights. While the stats from one group to the next are nearly identical across the board, featuring a typical "grunt" and heavy units, the additional two units all feel largely unique to that army. This is on top of most units also having unique abilities they can utilize too. These can range from the Undersea Kingdom's Dolphin Rider units that let them move after attack, or, my personal favorite, the Denizens' Tentacles that grab enemy units instead of dealing damage to them. These grabbed units can be used in place of hits on their own forces, turning enemies into cannon f༒odder against their own army. Seeing how these all played out against one another was a blast, and their accompanying miniatures were a standout highlight of the game for me. More of this in the future, please!

Instead of set areas that each faction starts in, players ge♋t to instead choose from a handful of possible options, marking a first for Axis & Allies. The ൩asymmetrical nature of the factions combined with this open-ended deployment direction gives Battle for the Deep an added degree of replayability that the other mainline games lack.

I like the dice-rolling-focused nature of Axis & Allies, and Battle for the Deep captures that feeling splendidly, but if I have one main complaint with this release, it's that I wish the team at Renegade had pushed the new aspects this game offers just a little bit further. I wish that we had more than just four factions, allowing for more flexibility in matchups. I would have been fine keeping it at 2v2 (though I would love 1 faction vs. 1 faction variant rules), requiring players to pick from a larger pool, meaning every faction wouldn't always be on the board. This could additionally be addressed if each faction didn't have only four units they could bring out and instead either had ꦰmore options available to them (normal A&A games have far more unit options), or perhaps had an either-or situation where you would still only have four options, but two of those slots would have a choice between a couple of options to fill the spot with – decided at the start of the game. Still, as only the second of these "Powered by A&A" experiences, I think Battle for the Deep is a compelling and fun offering whose foundation lends itself well to the side series' future.

If you are coming at Battle for the Deep with previous experience from other Axis & Allies titles, some aspects may take a bit of time to get used to here. Perhaps the biggest adjustment will be that in this game, you won’t be able to carry over unspent resources from one round to the next. In the mainline games, while you may not be able to carry over all of your unspent money, you could bring over some, which isn’t the case here. This is an easy enough thing to homerule in if you and your game crew want to, so go for it. The other difference I felt was that this game came off a bit more aggressive than the mainline titles, with a heavier focus on attacking, thanks to that base capture win condition. Perhaps it’s more just on how my gaming group plays in general, but ꦑthe whole experience felt more like a race than a traditional A&A game, which some players may prefer and others may be put off by. I enjoyed it and thought it made the game feel more exciting and quicker.

Should you buy Battle for the Deep?

The aesthetic and theme for Battle for the Deep may not be quite my cup of tea, but it has gotten my imagination running wild for what could be. The foundations set up here, I would love to see taken into the science fiction realm with spaceships and a galactic conflict or in a high fantasy realm where factions of orcs and elves and more do battle – slinging spells and shooting arrows. As someone who also spent time checking out Renegade's first "Powered by Axis & Allies" title, G.I. Joe: Battle for the Arctic, this second entry feels far more like a solid wargame and less a novelty focused on nostalgia. Battle for the Deep is a fun and engaging entry point into the Axis & Allies ecosystem, or as an option 🏅if you aren't particularly attracted to the real-world war setting of their flagship entries.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Battle for the Deep - Pow⛎ered by Axis & Allies

Thi൩s review was conduct๊ed using a sample provided by the publisher.

Our reviewer played Battle for the Deep multiple times and with other gamers to get a better sense of how it performed under diffe𒊎rent circumstances. They also used their experience with the Axis & Allies franchise to compare and contrast.

To find out more about our process, don't miss this guide to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test board games. You can also check out the complete 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Looking for another recommendation? It's worth dropping in on our guide to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best 2-player board games, or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best adult board games.

Given that there is an army of dedicated Twihards out there, it's no surprise that this Lego Ideas set🦹 was given the stamp of approval, bringing to life the Cullens' stunning family home from the popular films. This is the setting for so many iconic scenes, from the Cullen family cooking Bella pasta upon assuming that she is Italian to Edward beautifully playing the piano (for the record, we are Team Edward forever), all of which can now be recreated in Lego form here.

Whilst the✤ attention to detail on display will delight any fan, the build sadly isn't imaginative enough to catch the eye of those unfamiliar with author Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster franchise (it's not a candidate for our list of the best Lego sets, anyway). But let's be honest – if you don't have the skin o🎀f a killer, what are you doing here?

Lego Twilight The Cullen House features

• Sparkly minifigures
• An incomplete cast
• Some interactive elements

Given that this is the Cullen family home, you would naturally expect the complete clan to be present in adorable minifigure form. However, certain key characters 🅷including matriarch Esme and big brother Emmett are missing, which is a shame. Of course, they had to make room for Bella, her dad Charlie Swan, and wജolf boy Jacob, but surely there was room to include these crucial Cullen clan members too?

Thankfully though the🌺 minifigures included are all very cute, with the Cullens each having a glittery face, paying tribute to the fact they sparkle in both t🧜he films and the books. Bella even comes complete with the little plant she brings with her from Phoenix whilst Jacob is also created in wolf form, just in case there is a full moon.

You can place these minifigures around the house to faithfully recreate legendary scenes – admittedly we instantly had Jacob running after Bella yelling 'where the hell have you been, loca?' However, there is a lack of interactive elements meaning it's not really a set you can truly 'play' with. Sure, you can attach Edward and Bella to a tree to have them flying through the woods, but aside from that all you c🔴an really do is open some windows. However, as an 18+ set, 🥃it was never really designed for kids.

Build

• The house is neatly split into three layers
• General build feels repetitive
• Takes a few hours

The build all starts with Bella's iconic red truck, which she rather clu💞msily drove in the movies. Putting together the pick-up truck is a satisfying way to begin, but sadly it is mostly downhill fro♊m there.

Given that the Cullen family home is made up of windows, wood, and grey building blocks, building the house itself does feel repetitive, especially when so many of the pieces are very similar. Thankfully the instructions for the most part do a good job of walking you through it, but more specificity would have been nice at♏ times with several pieces looking nearly identical and some difficult moments too.

Cleverly though, given that the house consists of a trio of floors overall the build is split into three layers, which does help break it all down. That's very much needed given that it qui🌱𒀰ckly became monotonous – let's just say, I was glad I split the build over a few days.

Although the very final stages sees you building the more decorative elements, such as the trees that surround the house, one of the last steps sees you putting together the three 🔯layers, finally putting the house together. Sure, it is a bit fiddly getting everything aligned but when it all clicks into place, it's incredibly satisfying. I like to think of it as putting together a multi-tiered cake, with the icing on top being the surrounding elements such as the trees.

Design

• Sleek design
• Filled with Easter eggs
• A tad sparse

Everything does come together rather neatly, with the end result being appropriately slick and stylish. Just like the movie location it's based on, the design is minimalistic which may be a faithful recreation but leaves the set a tad sparse. And talking of accuracy, the colors are brighter when compared to the original house but that was arguably needed to ensure that it doesn't just disappear into the background. This is a display piece after all, so it need🌃s to be vivid.

Where the design really shines is with the Easter eggs which are lovingly weaved into this set, ready for fans to uncover. I won't spoil them all here as part of the joy of building this house is discovering these for yourself, but there are nods to🌠 that iconic baseball game and the many, many graduations the Cullen family have gone through.

There clearly is a lot of love that has gone into this Lego Ideas set, with these smaller details easily being the most endearing parts. Some further e💜xtras wouldn't have gone a miss though, especially when features like Bella's truck are so lovingly brought to life in brick form.

Should you buy Lego Twilight The Cullen House?

If you a✨re a Twilight fan with the money to splurge on this somewhat pricey set, then it is a must have making for an impressive display piece that will look sleek on any shelf, easily standing out. The detailed Easter eggs means that there is plenty to uncover but some elements are disappointingly overlooked, such as the missing Cullen famil⛎y members in the minifigure line-up.

Meanwhile if you aren't a Twihard there is little you can enjoy here, thanks to aཧ lack of imagination with the main build that does get very repetitive. This set really is just one for the fans!

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested the Lego Twilight The Cullen House

This review sample was provided by Lego.

Over the course of a few days, I completed this build🌟 by working on it an hour or two at a time after work. During the construction, I ensured that I made notes every time I encountered something I either really enjoyed or found frustrating. I've built plenty of Lego sets before, so I also took into account how this one compares to others.

For more, don't miss our guide to how we test Lego or the broader澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Looking to save a little cash on your collection? Be sure to check out the latest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lego deals.

But how do these things compete against the likes of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史𝔍查询:best microphones for str💙eaming and gaming? Are these tiny wirel🍸ess solutions something that content creators in the gaming space should invest in when there are already so many moving parts to a streaming setup? Usually, I’d say the answer is no. Certainly, in years gone by, the mic quality just hasn’t really lived up to a mainstay XLR or USB alternative, but the Wireless Go Gen 3’s sound quality would give the very best of them a run for their money.

Mind you, it’ll also give you a run for your money, because even a starter set of these mics is going to set you back $299 / £279.99. That gets you a set of two microphones and one receiver, and while you 🍸can accessorise, anything to help you with versatility is going to set you back even more. With the market exploding with cheaper options, is that going to be worth it for you and the content you want to create? I’m confident that no other wireless mic is going to give you the ridiculous quality𒆙 Rode can offer here, but are you willing to pay for it?

Design

The Rode Wireless Go Gen 3 mimics the small-form-factor design of the previous lapel mics from this brand. At a first glance, they’re a bit strange. They’re tiny, square things that don’t exactly look like microphones, and there are certainly smaller options out there. I think there is an argument to be made for Rode making its 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best streaming gear a bit more distinct to stand out, and that’s certainly what it’s done here. As I’ve already mentioned, your money gets you one receiver and a set of two microphones. These come in a practical pouch that comfortably holds 𓂃them and their fluffy wind socks, an assortment of small USB-C, 3.5mm, TRS, and other cables 🐬that help you connect to a camera, PC, or mobile device. You also get a handy charging cradle that connects all three parts into one convenient strip.

So what’s the difference versus the Rode Wireless Pro? In shorꦬt, not very much. The pro version gets you two mics and a receiver - and they’re the exact same as the ones found in the Gen 3, but you also get a smart charging case for them. Is that worth the bump in price of up to $379 / £369? I’ll let you decide.

In fac💟t, with the cheaper Wireless Go Gen 3, you get to personalise a bit more for the smaller price of entry. You can choose between loads of different, vivid colors, which is perfect for a content creation market that’s despera෴te to show off so many different personalities. The Wireless Pro, interestingly, is only available in black.

All three parts of the Wireless Go are the exact same in terms of their design and physical dimensions, which makes them so easy to take on the go, albeit a tad confusing at a glance to tell which one is whichꦚ. The wireless receiver, which we’ll call the brains of the operation, has a small display on it that shows you which mic is connected to it, and what its gain level is picking up. On top, it has a small Rode logo button which acts as it🌄s power and record start/stop button, and on its left-hand side, it has a USB-C port and a small TRRS port for plugging it into a camera. On the bottom, you’ll find two small navigation buttons.

The Transmitters have a more centralised l👍ogo on their faces since there aren’t displays to fit into the equation. You can also distinguish them thanks to their indicator LEDs, one of which indicates battery level, one of them indicates recording status, and the other, a connection to the receiver. Transmitters have their catch-all power and recording button too, a locking TRS input, and a specialised recording button. Last but not least is a metal grate which, as you might guess, is where the microphone ෴is.

On the back of all three devices is a small clip to let you attach them to your🌞 clothes, a lapel on a jacket, or whatever works for you and your recording needs. If you’re up to date on your TikTok trends, you’ll probably look more flashy just pinching and holding it in front of your face. The Rode Wireless Go Gen 3 might not be so suited to that, however, since their reflective surface🦂s are a magnet for finger smudges and oils from your skin.

Features

Rode’s clever wireless mics feature a solid 2.4GHz digital transmission with 128-bit encryption. This means you can record audio on one of the wireless transmitters and have the receiver up to 260m away, so long as it has a clear line of sight and nothing is blocking the signal. On board, you have loads - and I mean loads of space for recordings. Up to 40 hours of 32-bit float recording ensures you won’t lose interviews or important moments, and Intelligent GainAssist means you can tweak sound levels if you’re recording with someone who speaks louder or quieter than you. A battery life of up to 7 hours is pretty impressive and is likely mo💃re than enough for a day out at an event, capturing all sorts of on-the-go footage.

If you’re already bought into the Rode ecosystem, the Wireless Go Gen 3 has full compatibility with other Series IV devices like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:RodeCaster Duo, for example. This will be a useful benefit for podcasters who occasionally have more than one or two guests and still want to channel recordings through the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best streaming mixer. If you’re not an owner of the RodeCaster devices, you can still easily connect these mics to your smartphone 🉐or computer, and the newly streamlined Rode Central app makes๊ configuring sound settings, recording formats, and file transfers super easy.

🌠But what about the actual microphone bits? The Wireless Go Gen 3 harnesses an omnidirectional polar pattern and a condenser capsule, and from testing, I can say it’s all fairly generous for a lapel mic, but it manages to focus on the sound you actually want. There’s a frequency range of between 20Hz and 20KHz, and a signal-to-noise ratio of 72dB. If all of that sounds like jargon to you, essentially, the Wireless Go Gen 3 mics can capture sound from all sorts of directions within a small bubble of proximity, and their sound quality and clarity are up there with a lot of the stay-at-home microphones you’ll see on a streamer’s desk.

Then, of course, t💙here are the accessories and various ways to buy one of these mics. The Interview GO has to be my favorite, as it’s a sleek handheld anchor for one of the transmitters to clip onto before you slip over a wind sock. This lets you present like a broadcast news correspondent, and if you’re like me, that’s a really fun way to channel your personality into a camera. If you’re a bit short of cash, you could always opt for the Wireless Me, which just gives you one receiver in your bundle - this might suit creators who don’t plan on interviewing folks or capturing more than one voice. You can also buy the Charging Case I mentioned from the Wireless Pro if you have more budget to spend.

Performance

I have to say, as someone who has always been super sceptical about the quality of wireless mics - particularly in the last few years, as so many cheap and cheerful solutions have arrived on Amazon, I’m blown away by the sound quality of the Rode Wireless Go Gen 3. For the YouTube videos I make, I’m so protective over the sound quality in particular, mainly because I think it’s one of the things that can make or break your audience retention. I can’t count how many times I’ve watched a reel or YouTube Short with someone🥂 using a tiny wireless microphone in the last couple of years and been appalled by 💫the lack of quality, and the fact that speaking normally into one is enough to blow out the recording. When I wanted to test out a wireless mic for myself, I knew I wanted to avoid that.

On the other hand, I knew that quality was achievable. Having used all sorts of radio mics for theatre performances and interviews, I’ve experienced excellent tiny microphones, but I still wasn’t expecting the sort of quality I found with the Wireless Go Gen 3. It gave the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Shure SM7dB a ru🥃n for its money, and that’s saying something.

If you don’t believe that claim, you can compare , in which I use the Shure flagship mic, with where I present to camera using the Wireless Go. As a handheld option goes for creators who usually stay at home, this worked so much better for me than , for which I decided to hold the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:SteelSeries Alias in front of my face. Tha♕t resulted in a lot of cable noise I had to edit out, and the less I talk about the extra annoyance that added, the better. Besides my moving the mic around in front of my face as I gesture, the sound quality is crystal clear and really consistent. I’ve added the same dynamics processing setting to each of those videos’ voice-over tracks, and you can hear that the results are pretty even.

It is a bit of a shame that there isn’t much of a digital popper stopper here, which Rode’s biggest rival managed to get into its cheapest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Shure MV6 mic recently. There were a few times when I thought an extra form of pop filter, and even sometimes a De-Esser, could have done a lot of work for me. With Rode Central now being a dedicated hub for these mics, I hope they find a way to add it to the Wireless Go’s settings menu. Even so, this is hardly going to ruin a recording, and since you can ad🔴d this sort of thing in post, it’s hardly a big issue.

For an omnidirecti🅺onal microphone, I was pleasantly surprised by the pattern of this mic. Recording the audio for my recent Supermarket Together video, I was worried ෴that both an echoy quality, and the noise from my building’s rather loud stairway might leak its way into my recording, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear back when it came to editing that the noise I had stopped speaking for wasn’t picked up to begin with.

As you’ll hear in the test audio sample recording, these mics are actually brilliant at levelling out background noise. The A Short Hike soundtrack I played there to talk over was actually really loud, probably to the annoyance of my neighbours.🥃 💝The transmitter didn’t seem to care at all, and it was concentrating solely on what I was saying.

Practicality-wise, Rode’s little wireless solution does earn a win in my book. It’s amazing how many scenarios you could use these in, and for me, they oꦡpen up a world of recording possibilities I previously didn’t have access to. It is a bit 🐻of a shame that the new version of Rode Central can be a bit buggy at times. On a few occasions, when transferring audio files or just connecting to the transmitters and receivers, the app has stalled. Who knows, though, this could easily be a Windows 11 problem.

Should you buy the Rode Wireless Go Gen 3?

If you’re in need of a wireless microphone system for creating all sorts of content, there are few more versatile, and even fewer that will offer the kind of sound quality that Rode’s do. As someone who has been a stay-at-home mic purist for years now, I never thought ꧙a wireless mic like this would win me over, but if any brand could do it, it’d be this one.

Annoyingly, this isn’t going to be the most affordable option, even if there are various bundles and options available. Similarly, if you’re not planning on creating content on the g🥀o, delivering pieces to camera in interesting places, or straying at all from your at-home setup, there isn’t much needᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ for a wireless mic. Your average Twitch streamer may not find much use, but I do think something like the Wireless Go is a versatile tool to have in your back pocket for those times when you want to do a bonus stream that involves anything other than you at a desk, playing games.

If you need a wireless microphone and don’t want to compromise on sound quality, this is the one to get, but it is going to run you back a considerable amount of your budget, so cheaper options are undoubtedly going to steal some of Rode’s market here. If you’re not a professional and you’re looking for a quick fix while you build your audience, look elsewhere, but if you’re sparing no cost and want the absolute best, this is what to g𒀰o for.

How I tested the Rode Wireless Go Gen 3

I put the Rode Wireless Go Gen 3 mics to the test over a few weeks before writing this review. In that time, I spent a good while setting them up, using them in a few different sc𝓰enarios, and of course, speaking into them. I also g🐈ot to grips with the new version of Rode Central to customize their quality and retrieve audio files from them.

I used the Wireless Go Gen 3 for creating my own video content for YouTube, and compared both the quality they offered me and their 🏅practicality with the stationary, wired mics I’m used to using.

For more on how we test, check out the full澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

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There’s no shortage of choice when it comes to picking a new gaming chair. From size and shape to feature set and perhaps most importantly, budget, there’s seemingly a combo for everyone. Our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming chairs i﷽s proof of that, but AndaSeat is following the path of Razer in 2025 in trying to cater to the more affordable end of the pricing scale.

I’ve sat on plenty of gaming chairs lately that cos🃏t twice as much as the AndaSeat Novis, so the question I’m asking myself is a simple one. Are gaming chairs getting too complicated and too expensive, and is there value in keeping things simple?

Assembly

The AndaSeat Novis might be a budget offering, but the unboxing experience was almost identical to the far more expensive 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:AndaSeat Kaiser 4. It’s a far cry from the impressively slick 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Secretlab Titan Evo’s packaging and build, but its no-frills box with plenty of plain packing materials gets the job done well enough. All the parts and tools you’ll need are included, along with a simple instruction booklet, but realistically, there are feꦍw enough parts here that you probably shouldn’t need to look at that anyway. Wheels on the🐼 bottom, seat on the top - you’ve got this.

I tackled the build solo and went from boxed to seated in around 15 minutes without any major hiccups. Unsurprisingly, the slot-in side support bracket is notably absent, and while this does make things a little fiddlier, if it meant trimming a little more off the price, then I can live without it for the one-time use it offered. Also ♊missing is either a head or separate back cushion. Again, this isn’t a surprise, and for me personally, it’s not a huge loss either, ♛but it’s something to be aware of.

Design & Features

With it put together, it’s safe to say the vibe of the AndaSeat Novis is about as quintessentially “gaming chair” as you can get. It’s almost like the starter mold that all other gaming seats are formed from. Available in two sizes and just two🅷 colours, the Novis features a wide, flat bucket seat with a slightly contoured back cushion, and honestly, that’s about it on the design front. Like the Razer Iskur V2 X, you miss out on adjustable lumbar support because of the lower price, and the armrests simply go up and down instead of playing hokey pokey like so many you see these days.

Interestingly, despite being nearly a third of the price, there are a lot of shared components between the AndaSeat Novis and the Kaiser 4. I’ve been testing both the linen fabric and PVC leather variants of the Novis, and both upholstery materials are the same as the brand’s more expensive chairs. The wheels are the same too, as are the gas lift and tilt mechanisms. This chair may be missing a few aforementioned features, but you aren’t being skimped on when it comes to the basics, which is rat♛her nice to see.

Little changes in the overall shape of the AndaSeat Novis between the L and XL variants; there are minor sculpting differences, but not enough to notice unless they’re placed side by side. The size change is also not too drastic. Primarily, you gain width with the XL variant as the backrest and ground-to-seat measurements increase by just a couple of cm ไeach. Interestingly, the L variant’s five-point star base is a thick molded plastic, while the XL variant is given the same metal base as other AndaSeat chairs. ꦬBoth are black and appear similar from a distance. I also didn’t notice a difference in stability or manoeuvrability when using the two chairs day to day, though that nylon base does make the Novis L a couple of kilos lighter.

Performance

If I’m being honest, I didn’t come into this review with the highest of hopes or expectations. My experience with the (apparently) more premium AndaSeat Kaiser 4 wasn’t a brilliant one, so before jumping into the Novis, I was a little nervous about what the brand’s budget offering would be like. These concerns quickly faded because AndaSeat’s least expensive chair m𒆙ay well be i💧ts most comfortable.

The AndaSeat Novis is the chair equivalent of the KISS philosophy: get the basics right and you’re most of the way to a winner. For a chair, that’s comfort, stability, and support, and fair play to the Novis because it does a wonderful job of the lot. Comfort was an immediate tick. The cold-cure foam seat cushion is considerably softer and welcoming than both the main seat cushion of AndaSeat’s other chairs, but also their main rivals’ offerings too. Premium options like the Secretlab Titan Evo or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Boulies Master Series, for example, have aggressi🐼vely firm seats that take a fair bit of ad💖justment to learn to love. I felt like I sat ‘on’ those other chairs, but I sat ‘in’ the AndaSeat Novis and I far preferred it. Whether this softer cushion is as good for my spine, I don’t know. I’m a writer, not a chiropractor. But as an experienced fan of sitting comfortably, I can tell you I wish the Titan Evo’s seat cushion was more like the Novis’.

The large back cushion may lack any adjustability, and you’ll need to pay an extra $39 for a lumbar pillow add-on, but I found it was nicely shaped and felt just right for extended use. I’ve never been one for aggressive lumbar support bulges, so the gentle curves of the AndaSeat Novis struck a nice balance between comfort and ergonomics. This was the first area I noticed what felt like a slight drop in build quality, however. While the fabric L-size Novis I was testing wasꦅ fine, the PVC leather upholstery of the XL variant felt like it was wrongly sized. It didn’t tightly hug the contour of the back cushion and instead seemed to be stretched across the main face of the chair. It lඣeft me feeling almost like I was leaning back into a shallow trampoline, and although this may have just been a quirk of my particular unit, it was definitely a little less comfortable as a result.

Beyond this oddity, the rest of the AndaSeat Novis’ hardware did exactly what I needed it to without flare or fuss. The steel frame across both sizes felt robust and never creaked. The gas lift was exactly what you’d expect, with a slightly modest but decent enough 10cm of adjustment. Afte꧑r a few recent disastrous experiences (I’m looking at you, Kaiser 4), the Novis’ armrests are mercifully only single-D. I just don’t need my armrests to be 18D or whatever ridiculous number brands are itching to climb to. Instead, the AndaSeat Novis’ generously sized, slightly squishy rubber armrests go up and down; that’s it. To be honest, that’s all I needed them to do. They’re comfortable, stable, stay firmly in place under load, and can be adjusted in quite fine increments up to 7cm. They do everything I need and they do it well.

While the AndaSeat Novis does offer the same standard tilt and lean co𓂃ntrols as every other gaming chair I’ve tested, they were a little too resistant for my liking. The chair came out of the box with the under-seat knob set to its firmest setting, but even after spending the best part of probably 30 seconds twisting this to its minimum level, I still felt I had to push back pretty hard into the Novis to be able to lean. I’m a man who enjoys a frequent recline to ponder the many meanings of life, or indeed how to best word a sentence about 6D armrests, so this quickly became an irritation and a source of disappointment. It seems like a minor thing to get hung up on, but realistically, this is probably what’s stopping me ꦿfrom sticking with the Novis as my daily driver over other far more expensive options. Admittedly, it may loosen up over time, but after a couple of weeks of testing things didn’t seem to change much, if at all, and I’m not sure they’d ever get to where I’d like them.

Should you buy the AndaSeat Novis?

I can see the AndaSeat Novis being a total crowd pleaser. This is a gaming chair that ticks so many boxes and covers all the important bases. The cushion is softer and more comfortable than many others, the upholstery and frame hardw🌺are are still just as good as more premium chairs, and its price is eye-catchingly accessible. AndaSeat has stripped things back, stopped trying to show off with features nobody really needs or wants, and has nailed it as a result.

Obviously, it’s not perfect, and there are a few figurative rough edges here and there. You’re also missing out on some of the more detailed posture and positioning features (and a few Dimensions of armrest adjustment). But if all you need is a comfortable place to park yourself for a🅷 few hours of work or gaming,💛 then the AndaSeat Novis is going to be hard to beat for this price. As far as competition goes, this might be the best budget gaming chair on the market in 2025.

How we tested the AndaSeat Novis

I used the AndaSeat Novis gaming chair as my daily driver for both gaming and general office productivity for a couple of weeks. In this time, I tested both the L and XL variants, in the fabric and PVC leather upholstery, respectively. Throughout testing, I occasionally switched back to the B🔜oulies Master Series and Secretlab Titan Evo to compare experiences.

For more on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test gaming chairs, take a look at the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

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The Rival 3 has always been a classic go-to for a no-frills, wallet-friendly wireless pointer. Sure, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming mouse models can run DPIs of up to 40,000 with polling rates that boggle the mind. But if you don't want to p𒆙art with more than three-figures, this has always been a solid companio🅷n.

This budget-friendly rodent has had a glow up for 2025, with the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2 hitting the shelves at $59.99 / £54.99 and promising an improved battery life, reduced click latency, upgraded PTFE feet, and extra software features. There are far more players in this arena compared to the original's launch, though, and with nam🌺es like Razer and NZXT vying against ch💮eaper brands like Keychron and Cougar, the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2 has its work cut out for it.

Design

One of the biggest new changes to this year's Gen 2 series is the increase in color options. The SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless now comes in both black and white as well as Aqua and Lavender. I've had them all on the test bench, though the white version has been out and about the most.🥀 The blue and purple options appear just a little brighter in SteelSeries' photography than they do in real life. I love the Aqua model in particular, but it is slightly darker than the sky-blue on the website.

Still, both the blue and purple versions have a slightly more satisfying underside than the white model. This is a courtesy nod to the past, with a translucent desiജgn that provides a glimpse into the guts of the rodent itself. The white version still features this panel, but it doesn't quite show the insides off as well. If you're chasing that retro ae🦩sthetic, even subtly, I'd certainly recommend a colored model.

All versions sharꦏe the same foundations, though. A 120.6mm long, 67mm wide, and 38mm chassis keeps things easily flickable during faster moments, while still providing enough space for a comfortable claw grip or even🐼 a palm grip if you've got slightly smaller hands.

This is an ever-so-slightly flat design compared to the 41.3mm tall 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Viper V3 Hyperspeed (39.1mm), both of which use more of a humped dome to stay comfortable. That means it's better suited 🦂to faster twitch-reflex motions, though doesn't quite fit a more relaxed posture. I've got relatively small hands and play with a claw grip most of the time, and stayed comfortable during longer sessions.

Underneath, the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2 has been outfitted with 100% PTFE feet for improved glide over the previous generation. Itꦡ's not exactly light on those feet, though, and the additional weight of the battery means it's a little more cumbersome than alternatives.

The battery compartment underneath the main hump works hard to keep things balanced, but there's still a noticeable drag from the rear. It wasn't enough to slow me down during even fast-paced single-player adventures like Doom: The Dark Ages, but it did feel a little woolly in competitive FPS arenas. The max weight (with both batteries inserted) is 106g, hefty by today's standards. For only $10 more, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Keychron M7 8K is fully rechargeable and weighs only 63g.

SteelSeries ꦇmakes up for this weight increase in its build quality. This is a sturdy mouse indeed, without even a creak when squeezed on the sides or top and bottom. That's incredibly impressive for a $59.99 gaming mouse built out of solid plastic, especially considering it's a hurdle Keychron's cheaper mice sometimes fall at.

That dense build is complimented by a slightly textured surface up top, a design feature I've come to miss in this era of slightly clammy matte finishes. The slightly bumpy plastic provides excellent grip and avoids that sweaty feeling during longer play sessions. It reminds me of the surface of the far more expensive 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Viper V2 Pro, and it w▨as the feel of that particular mouse th❀at had me running back to it time and time again.

Controls

SteelSeries isn't looking to do anything particularly new with its control scheme here. Instead, you're getting🌃 everything you need from a modern gaming mouse without paying for any unnecessary extras. Two side buttons and a DPI shifter but༒ton in the center of the main clicks are all fully remappable, and function as expected.

Those side buttons aren't as easy to hit on this pointer, though. The front clicker tapers out into a particularly thin front-half, which doesn't hold up particularly well under faster movements. I've come to keep my🦩 shield throw🍎 bound to this button for Doom: The Dark Ages and I never felt like I could reliably hit it fast enough. The skinny button isn't particularly intuitive in the heat of battle, and the heavier force required to actuate can slow things down as well.

The scroll wheel is nicely notched and provides a defined step between each rotation that makes cycling through weapons part🌠icularly responsive without feeling heavy.

Software

The SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2 is fully compatible with the brand's GG software, which houses all your keybindings, DPI settings, battery saving features, and sensor adjustments. This has never been my favorite program, Razer's Synapse feels more intuitively laid out, and the NZXT CAM program used to run the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lift Elite Wireless mouse is mu🦩ch cleaner as well. 🎐It's better than iCue, though.

The Engine tab is where you'll find all your devices, with one page of settings to manage for the Rival 3. Keybindings are simple to set up, though the menu system for finding individual function🍎s isn't particularly appealing and sometimes nestles commands in uniꦏntuitive spots. An easy macro editor sits at the top of this menu, though, so setting your own keyboard inputs is particularly speedy.

Handy sliders allow for easy adjustment across polling rate, acceleration and deceleration, as well as the strength of your angle snapping, while toggles take care of the mouse's "High-Efficiency Mode", a super-low pow𝔉er setting, "Bluetooth Smoothing", which reduces jitter when using the slower connection, and "Wireless Stability Enhancement", for those using the device with a lot of other wireless connections around.

That's a co🍒nsiderable wad of controls for a cheaper gaming mouse, slightly extending past similarly priced options from𒊎 NZXT and Razer.

Connection

While some cheaper 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:wireless gaming mice will keep your connection limited to either Bluetooth or 2.4GHz, the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2 is far more versatile. Both modes are available for speedy pairing, enabled via a toggle on the underside of the device. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Cougar Revenger Pro 4K, NZXT Lift Elite Wireless, and Razer Viper V3 Hyperspeed all stick to 2.4GHz only - even the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed drops the Blueto﷽oth c👍onnection, and that's $40 more.

This is an excellent turnout compared to the competition, though, and considering the Rival 3 still featured dedicated connection features like Bluetooth smoothing and wireless stability enhancements there's some serious value packed in. I 🌱noticed fa🎃r greater benefits from the latter, however.

Bluetooth smoothing didn't add any noticeable improvements over the stock experience in my t🅘esting, but I was experiencing a notable amount of connection dropouts and jittering when using a 2.4GHz dongle connected to a busy USB-4 hub. There's no receiver extender included in the box, though I did see a dramatic reduction in this interference when using the dongle directly plugged into a laptop.

More competitive players may be interested in moving up to the Keychron M7 8K or NZXT Lift Elite Wireless for their 8,000Hz polling mode꧑s. However, the vast majority of users will be well served by the 1,000Hz cap on the Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2.

Battery

This is a replaceable battery affair, with two AAA charges supplied in the box. The SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2 can run with either both installed (parallel, underneath the main dome) or one, for a lighter experience. I opted for the latter to keep things speedy in-game, and noticed battery draining at a rate of around 4% every five hours. Extrapolated out for constant use, that translates at around 8🧜0 hours of battery total.

SteelSeries suggests that running both batteries under the hood will provide 200 hours, so it m﷽akes sense that halving that power will further reduce your lifespan. It's also understandable that a single battery will feel the▨ strain a little more by itself, which explains the drop to 80 hours here, instead of 100.

The Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2 also accepts rechargeable AAA batteries as well, which will keep🐼 those recurring costs down and prove more environmentally friendly as well. For $10 more, both the Keychron M7 8K and Cougar ꦍRevenger Pro 4K come with rechargeable batteries built in, lasting 140 hours for the former and 150 hours on the latter.

Sensor

The second-generation SteelSeries R🐟ival 3 Wireless uses the same TrueMove Air sensor as the older model. This is a modified Pixart 3335 and it's a little older than most of the gaming mice in my comparison pool. That 18,000 DPI is still going to serve the vast majority of players well, though the 400 IPS could make for less accurate faster movements if you're particularly speedy.

Everything is still nicely responsive, with tracking holding up across a variety of surfaces and genres. I never noticed any inconsistencies in my usual 3,200 DPI setting, and only a slight amount of jitter once I started moving closer to 6,500 territory. For $59.99, this real🥃ly is all you need though you are losing out on adjustable lift-off distances.

Newer sensors, like the Pixart PAW 3390 and 3950 (often found in gaming mice at around $60 - $90) allow you to personalize the point at which your mouse stops tracking when it's lifted from the desk, which can make for more accurate positioning when shifting the device to ext𝔍end the cursor position on screen. A shorter lift-off distance means better precision, with newer models extending to 0.7mm or 1mm. The Rival 3 ๊Wireless is kept firmly at 2.4mm.

Switches

SteelSeries doesn't give us any names when it comes to the switches used in the Rival 3 Wireless. They feel fairly short, though, with a lighter actuation force than the Keychron M7 8K but less energy than the NZXT Lift Elite. There's a dampened feel to them that makes for a satisfyingly quiet response, but doesn't provide the same kind of protection against accidental presses that I enjoy in more expensive mice like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX.

Still, they hit when the moment needs it and I managed to sail through my usual roster of Apex Legends and CS2 runs without misfiring enough to become ꦗa problem, and all while still hitting twitch-reflex reꦜactions. Would I prefer a crisper response? Absolutely. For $60, though, these are still fine clackers.

Should you buy the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2?

The SteelSeries Rival 3 𝐆Wireless Gen 2 is among the cheapest gaming mice I've tested recently, but it still holds out thanks to its versatile wireless connections, comfortable form factor, solid-value sensor, and impressive build quality. For $10 more, you can pick up the improved sensor, lower weight, and upgraded battery of the Keychron M7 8K, but you are sacrificing overall durability to do so. Or,꧙ you can take a gamble on the fantastic battery life and better side buttons of the Cougar Revenger Pro (though just don't trust that 4,000Hz polling rate too often).

Ultimately, if you're after a💝 budget pointer it's well worth keeping an eye on this device's sale prices. At $60 it's too close to more sophisticated models' price points to be worthwhile, but as soon as it nears $40 or even $45, this is going to🌜 be a steal.

How I tested the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2

I used the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gen 2 for two weeks, solo-ing the device for one week and testing directly against alternatives from NZXT, Razer, Keychron, and Cougar for another week. It saw action in Doom: The Dark Ages, Planet Coaster, and Fallout 4, with additional testing completed in Apex Legends and CS2. For more information on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test gaming mice, check out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also hunting down all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best left-handed gaming mouse models and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Razer mice and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Logitech gaming mice in the business.

If you're a millennial like me who grew up working out which Hogwarts House weꩲ'd be꧑long to, this stuff is goddamn catnip. Using sound-bites from the first Harry Potter movie, it'll 'sort' you into Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, or Hufflepuff at the push of a button. That makes the Lego Talking Sorting Hat an absolute delight if you have friends round.

Even as a mute model, it'd be cool. But as one that actually yaps away when interacted with? It becomes an instant contender for the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Lego sets.

Features

• Actually talks
• 561 pieces
• Comes with stand and minifig Harry

This kit is pure magic, so let's get the bad news out of the way first: it isn't to-scale. Rather than being a full-size version of the hat, this is only 9.5ꦦin (24cm) tall and 561 pieces strong.

It's all on the up-and-up from there, though. Lego Talking Sorting Hat features a pressable top that you can push down like a lever, causing it to cycle through a random series of quotes which end with the kit bellowing ꧃the Hogwarts House you belong in.

It comes on a sleek black and gold stand as well, so won't just be laying about. This features the icons of Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw, along with a minifigure of Harry himself wearing the Sorting H🍰at.

Build

• Takes roughly 1-2hrs
• An easy-going build
• A couple of prominent stickers

As a smaller build with just over 500 pieces, the Lego Talking Sorting Hat isn't going to take you long to finish. Indeed, I smashed through it in a🦂bout 𝓀an hour – it would take two at most.

It'll be a pleasant experience. The⛦ project isn't particularly taxing, and despite a few tricky moments where you may accidentally drop a piece inside the half-built model (which leads to you rattling it upside down like a salt shaker), it's easygoing on the whole. There are only a couple of stickers too, which are prominent – and thus anxiety-inducing – but satisfying when placed correctly.

Design

• Expressive, despite not being 1-to-1
• Doesn't take up much space on display
• Some stickers, but not many

Lego can verge into the uncanny valley with its larger character models (such as Chewbacca), and that's why droids, helmets, or obj𓄧ects like the Talking Sorting Hat work so well when turned into bricks. This kit may have doorstop eyes and a big hole for a mouth, but it's surprisingly expressive nonetheless. That mouth moves when the lever is pushed, for example.

Even though the kit can't capture its inspirat🥂ion's exact look due to tꦦhe many folds and curves, it also does a great job selling you on this being the Sorting Hat despite any differences. Take one glance at that face and I suspect you'll know exactly what it's supposed to be. That's impressive.

The stand is classy too with its mix of black, gold, and printed house banners. I'm particularly fond of the mini Harry wearing an even smaller Sorting Hat, because it perfectly captures that moment from the film and provides a quick hit of nost♊algia. Speaking of which, a hidden Sword of Gryffindor is a nice to𝔍uch…

There's some clever planning here as well. Aside from technical pieces that let some of its pieces move, there's an easil🍎y accessible compartment that lets y💎ou get at the battery without any fuss.

Is it disappointing that the set used stickers rather than printed-on pi🔯eces in some cases? Yes. And when they're as prominent as they are here, applying them can be tense. However, they're mercifully few in number and look pretty great when added; they provide some much-needed wear and tear via patches.

Should you buy the Lego Talking Sorting Hat?

If you're looking for a Harry Potter set you can have on display without taking up masses of space and one that serves as a (literal) conversation starter for your guests, the Lego Talking Sorting Hat is worth its weight in gold Galleons. It's perfect as a gift t🧔oo, not to mention a relaxing project for grown-ups who don't want taxing builds.

The model ꦬnot being full-size might disappoint some, and it isn't a playset so won't appeal much to kids (who are better off with the many classroom kits). However, it'll delight the intended adult audience… all witho❀ut breaking the bank.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested the Lego Talking Sorting Hat

This review sample was provided by the publisher.

I spent a few hours casually putting this set together while dꦫoing other tasks at the same time. And yes, I was humming the Harry Potter theme tune for most of t✅hat time.

For more on our process, don't miss this guide to how we test Lego. It's also worth checking out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ review policy.

For more brick-related shenanigans, don't miss this roundup of the month's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Lego deals.

Most importantly, they're actually good. While these might not be as flashy as some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Nerf blasters (nor do they carry as many darts), they're surprisingly adept considering how little you're paying. The Nerꦕf N-Series Duo Pack toys are easy to use, quick to load, and have all the accuracy I've come to expect from this range. They're a great choice for younger Nerf warriors too thanks to b🌱eing smaller and more manageable.

Nerf N-Series Duo Pack features & design

• Two compact, identical blasters
• Ring-pull mechanism with two darts
• Pretty simplistic

Of all the N-Series toys I've seen, these are amongst the most simple – yet that's not necessarily a bad thing. They're compact, single-handed blasters with a pull ring to prime the mechanism and a trigger to fire, loaded with u🐼p to two darts at once. An accessory rail also runs along the top of the barrel.

Don't assume you'll be able to dual-wield them like an '80s action hero, though. The ring pull system requires two hands, so arming both at once is impossible and definitely not as cool.

Still, these toys l🍌ook amazing. They're sleek and subtle by Nerf standards, but that's♎ in their favor. They're a bit 'Blade Runner' in design thanks to the chunky barrel. The molded logo on the rear cylinder of the blaster is stylish too, as is the blue/red splash of paint to differentiate the two from one another.

🔯Feel like this looks familiar? That's because it is, from what I can tell, exactly the same as the Nerf N-Series Ward... only, you're getting two here.

Performance

• Reliably accurate at short to mid-range
• Great as a secondary or for siblings
• Pull-ring may be hard for young kids

Seeing as𝓰 the Nerf N-Series Duo Pack uses N1 darts, it's no surprise thꦬat this one is just as accurate and punchy as we've come to expect. If you're new to the range, this ammo is specially designed to fly further, faster, and more on-target than any darts before them. From my experience testing many of the N-Series toys, it works.

Will the Duo Pack keep up with something like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nerf N-Series Pinpoint, or even the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nerf N-Series Agility? No. This is only accurate up to mid-range and is best up close, as your shots will consistently go wide of the mark if you aim at targets far away (༒I hit my mark maybe onc𒈔e out of every four shots when firing toward the other end of my garden).

But honestly, I don't think it has to do much more. It's accurate and punchy at short to mid-range, making this ideal as a secondary blaster to break out for those tense moments where you're out of ammo and don't have time to reload, or for siblings to use toꦿgether in a head-to-head battle.

The one downside is that it may be tricky for younger children to prime. Although I wouldn't say it's hard to prime, the pull-ring mechanism is stiff enough that little kids may struggle. If you're hoping to get something for your smallest Nerf warriors, I'd recommend the Nerf Elite Jr. range as a result (specifically the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nerf Elite Jr. Flyer).

Should you buy the Nerf N-Series Duo Pack?

If you'd like to keep costs down, want toys for siblings who are pro💯ne to argue, or are hunting down a good secondary blaster, the Nerf N-Series Duo Pack will do the trick. It's incredibly good value for money considering how little you pay, and two identical blasters are included to sidestep any arguments over who gets the 'best' one.

Sure, it's not necessarily my favorite from N-Series or at this price 🐓point (that honor would go to the Agility). It won't be as easy to use for younger kids as the Elite Jr. range, either. But it's still an excellent choice nonetheless if you'd like a backup or simply want your children to be on a level playing field when waging foam dart war.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested the Nerf N-Series Duo Pack

This review sample was provided by the manu꧋facturer.

I spent a few weeks testing this pai🎀r of Nerf blasters in my backyard, firing at targets, seeing how far thꦍe darts would fly, and judging accuracy compared to other blasters in the range.

For more on our testing process, see the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ hardware policy.

For more outdoor fun, don't miss our guide to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best water guns.

And yet, as late as the 9100 Pro is in arriving, it still feels premature. It’s so silly that even in 2025, I still hesitate to call them the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best SSDs for gaming, simply because their practical uses don’t live up to their sky-high prices. And at the same time, it’s im💙possible to deny that devices like the 9100 Pro are feats of engineering. Samsung’s new flagship doubles what the standard SSD speed has been for the la♍st five or six years now.

That sounds impressive on paper, but arguably, we’ve reached a point with loading times where returns are starting to diminish. These SSDs a🦩re always way more expensive than their Gen 4 counterparts, with the Samsung 9100 Pro’s 1TB model alone wearing a $199 / £171 price tag at the time of writing. When that equates to about 5 seconds more spent in a loading screen, is it going to be worth the extra money?

Design & Availability

Alongside that 1TB version, the 9100 Pro has 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB capacity options as well. The 8TB model is yet to arrive on the shelves, but the 4TB costs enough to know that the incoming large-capacity one will be a remortgaging job. 4TB in the US will set you back $549 and £409.79 in the UK. I usually say 2TB is a happy medium, but an MSRP of $299.99 / £223.79 makes it the same price as a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Meta Quest 3S if you’re stateside. The Samsung 9100 Pro is available with an integrated heatsink as well if you want to show it off in your 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming PC, but those he༺atsink models will add even more to the price.

That heatsink is aꦰt least designed in a friendly way, with 8.8mmT supposedly doing a more efficient job of preventing overheating while not taking up too much real estate. As some💛one who has had plenty of trouble trying to fit obnoxious Gen 5 SSD heatsinks into a gaming PC, I can tell you that’s a welcome architectural change, and definitely a benefit of Samsung sitting the first batch of this generation’s drives out.

The 9100 Pro is compatible with gaming PCs and laptops, and it’s nice that this has been thought of, considering most Gen 5 products so far haven’t tried to cater to a more portable market. My colleague Tabitha just reviewed the first gaming laptop with a Gen 5 SSD in it, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:MSI Raider A18 HX A9W, so support is definitely on the way for the laptop crowd. The press materials I’m seeing also say the 9100 Pro is compatible with game consoles, but I wouldn’t use this as an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:SSD for PS5 since it doesn’t have Gen 5 support.

Features

The Samsung 9100 Pro features an on-the-box sequential read speed of 14,800MB/s and a write speed of 13,400MB/s. Compared to the Samsung 990 Pro, which currently holds the gold medal for any Gen 4 drive in terms of speed, that’s a marked 99% cl🌼aimed increase in performance - essentially doubling the potential speeds you’ll be able to harness. So what is it about the🦋 9100 Pro that allows it to just about break the sound barrier?

Well, for starters, this drive utilizes the PCIe 5.0 interface, like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Crucial T700 Pro does. Unlike Crucial, there’s not as much sharing of internal controllers with other brands here, since Samsung makes its own. The 9100 Pro uses the homemade Presto controller, which is aptly named. There’s also 8th-generation V-NAND cache tech on board. F🔥or those thinking about longevity, the 2TB model has an endurance of 1,200TB, but if that i🌱sn’t good enough for you, there’s a 5-year warranty. Going through that amount of space in a 5-year period sounds like a fun challenge, don’t you think?

Despite all of this fancy architecture, the 9100 Pro still fits a regular M.2, 2280 port. But with all of those gre🥀at claims made, how does the 4TB model perform in real-world tests?

Performance

As you might expect, the answer is “fast”. I always start my SSD testing with some sequential read and write benchmarks in CrystalDiskMark, and the Samsung 9100 Pro pulled🔥 in even faster numbers than the Crucial T700 Pro. After averaging the results of three tests, the 9100 Pro comes just shy♉ of its on-the-box read speed promises, but it’s still the fastest drive we’ve ever tested by some margin. It does, however, exceed its write speed promises.

But how do these synthetic tests equate to practical uses in the real world? With video game support and DirectStorage waning, the best use for these next-gen SSDs at the moment is zipping massive files from one place on 🅘your computer to another. I first transferred 77GB of game files and data from one drive to another using Steam and set a stopwatch on how lꦛong it took. Moving the game files from Samsung’s slightly older 990 Evo drive to the new 9100 Pro took just 20 seconds, and transferring them back again took a similar 22 seconds. Similarly, in Windows, transferring 107GB of 4K gameplay footage was similarly speedy. Moving from the 990 Evo to the 9100 Pro took 28 seconds, and moving it back took 32 seconds. For a 3-hour-plus chunk of 4K video, that’s a pretty slick transfer, and it gives you a sense of how the 9100 Pro is going to interact with Gen 4 drives you might already own.

When Gen 5 drives started appearing, it was clear that there were teething issues. Perhaps the biggest one was thermal control, and Samsung had certainly found the solution before launching its first proper Gen 5 product. I put the 9100 Pro under my motherboard’s regular heatsink, and it did a great job of keeping its temperature control - no massive heatsink needed, no air-cooling system necessary (looking at you, Adata), and no special thermal pad, either. The 9100 Pro had an ambient temperature of just 43 degrees, and it only rose to a 46-degree peak when I was doing all of those file transfer tests. That’s not too dissimilar from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:T-Force A440 Lite Gen 4 SSD, which has some of the best thermal performance of any drive we’ve tested lately. Samsung has clearly done wo🐭rk to ensure that its blazing-fast flagship is fully grown into its teeth before launching it to the public.

Then we come to gaming tests. I’ll reiterate once again that the tests I’m about to share with you aren’t perfect measurements by any means. Loading up various games and stopwatching how long they take is an imperfect science, and I accept that, but I do so to give you a broad idea of the types of gaming performance you can expect from a drive like this. For comparison with the previous fastest drive I’ve used, I went back to the Crucial T700 Pro and got some refreshed benchmarks. For comparisons with “slower” Gen 4 options, I also retested the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:WD Blue SN500 4TB. While I will compare them for the sake of this review, the Crucial and WD Blue SSDs were tested in a different computer, s♍o keep that in mind.

Across the board, the Samsung 9100 Pro has produced better gaming result🍨s than the Crucial T700 Pro, and that’s a welcome surprise. It’s hardly by much, but it’s a noticeable trend in each game (except Outer Wilds, which loads so fast that this could very easily be human error). I’m honestly happy to see these kinds of improvements, even if they’re not exactly going to be noticeable if you’re not sitting with a stopwatch on each loading screen, like me. Baldur’s Gate 3 did net the biggest performance leap on the 9100 Pro, which is nice if you’re a big ol’ save scummer like me.

As you can likely see for yourself, though, the leap from the Gen 4 WD Blue SN500 is a matter of about 5-7 ꧒seconds in most titles. If you’re buying to mainly play multiplayer games, like Hunt Showdown, you’re still going to need to wait for the other players loading on older drives before you can start playing anyway, and depending on things like servers, connection speeds, and all the rest of it, that slick loading speed will probably balance out with other players anyway. In jam-packed city builders and management games like Planet Zoo, are you really going to notice a few seconds m⛦ore when loading in? I doubt it, but you might notice that larger dent in your bank balance after spending big on the 9100 Pro.

Windows DirectStorage was supposed to be a widely adopted feature in a lot of games by this point but, o𝓰ver the last few years, it’s become this obscure, hooded figure lurking in the back corner of the pub. There are rumours around the game dev patrons tꦛhat talking to this guy can improve your loading times, but hardly anyone ever does.

DirectStorage ess꧒entially allows a Gen 5 SSD to bypass sending information to your CPU, and diverts it right to your GPU, allowing for faster loading and rendering. The problem is, the software is still imperfect and, right now, barely makes a difference - certainly not one that’s worth the inevitable extra coding and busywork it takes to integrate it into in-progress games. The list of supported titles right now is woefully small and, honestly, even if your favorite game is found on it, I wouldn’t say spending the extra money on a Gen 5 drive is going to be worth itﷺ.

For this review, I checked DirectStora🧸ge games at the door because I wanted to see how the performance of regular titles could be improved through the latest sta🗹ndard of Gen 5 SSD tech. In all honesty, I expected worse results, but the improvements I saw over Crucial’s flagship from just a year or so ago fill me with hope that we are going to see better improvements in loading times as the technology increases in terms of raw performance. That said, loading times are already pretty minuscule, so until a few massive games come along and use this tech to have no loading screens whatsoever, it’s going to be hard to argue these things are worth their additional costs.

Should you buy the Samsung 9100 Pro?

The Samsung 9100 Pro is easily the best SSD I’ve ever tested, and the fastest across the board. It is nothing short of a feat of engineering, but o💞ne you probably don’t need, and won’t for quite some time yet.

Yes, if you’re looking to build the most futureproofed gaming PC imaginable, then this, or the brand new WD Black SN1800 (the equivalent from SanDisk), is going to be the drive to pick. If you’re a full-time 🍒content creator, video editor, or someone who churns 𓃲through digital storage with ease, the Samsung 9100 Pro is going to offer you the best performance possible. Having seen some improvements over previous Gen 5 options, I can recommend this as the product to go for if you’re married to the idea of a next-gen device.

If it’s just for gaming, the numbers can’t lie. Y🎶ou are going to get extremely slick loading times across the board with the 9100 Pro. The question you have to answer is whether or not the few seconds' worth of quicker loading times are going to be worth it for you compared to a Gen 4 option that’s potentially hundreds cheaper. Until there’s widely adopted support within every game, I’d still recommend that most gamers stick with Gen 4.

How I tested the Samsung 9100 Pro

I put the Samsung 9100 Pro to work by runn🐭ing it through our usual gauntlet of sto✤rage benchmarks. Firstly, I used CrystalDiskMark to give me some synthetic benchmarking scores to broadly test its sequential read and write speeds. After three of these benchmarks at different points of the testing process, I averaged out the results and presented them in a table.

ꦿI then used both Steam and Windows 11 to transfer various bits of data from one drive to another, timing how long it took. I kept🎶 an eye on temperatures while doing so to assess thermal control.

For gaming, I loaded into various games, some with typically slower loading speeds and some with faster ones. I used a stopwatch to track these loading times, and performed the same tests on two competing drives🐼 to come to a verdict on the results, and the Samsung 9100 Pro’s value for money.

For more on how we test, check out the full澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

Happy with an external storage device for now? Check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best external hard drives for gaming, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PS5 external hard drives, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X hard drive.

Key Specs

Design

The Nacon RIG 900 Max HS may come with that all-black colorway that is pretty common amongst the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best wireless headsets, but its unique headband aesthetic makes it stand out amongst the sea of PS5 headsets I’ve tested throughout the years. Instead of just a plain, curved band, Nacon has designed a futuristic-looking product.

It’s not dripped out in bright colors or RGB lighting, but the main band is a thin steel sheet, with ‘RIG’ proudly plastered on top in a shiny, silver typeface. On either side,🐠 there are three cylindrical cutout shapes which can be snapped onto either cup to keep them attached. There are three of these cut-out sections in total, giving you different levels of adjustment. The metal band is also supported by a leather and fabric-coated stretchy second band, which isn’t densely padded, yet still manages to provide a light and comfortable fit.

While the headband is missing some extra padding, the cups aren’t. There’s plenty of cushion for the pushing, which, when combined with the reasonable clamping force, never felt uncomfortable even as a glasses wearer. The padding also makes use of both leather and fabric-coated mesh, and its large oval shape even managed to fit nicely around my Dumbo-sized ears.

The outer edge of the left cup is where you’ll find the majority of the headset’s onboard controls. That includes the mode button, multi-function button, volume control dial, power button, and the flip-to-use microphone which sits flush with the 900 Max when not in use. Begrudgingly, each button has the same glossy plastic texture, so it's hard to differentiate them from each other. That can be a pain when you’ve set up the dual wireless and have a phone call coming through, but the volume dial and its soft rubber texture are at least easy to find at a moment’s notice.

Arguably, my favorite aspect of the headset, the charging stand, also sports an all-black, sleek look. During my time with the 900 Max HS, it sat proudly underneath my smart TV, and became not just convenient for charging, but an ideal way to store and display the PS5 headset when I wasn’t racking up my trophies. My typical go-to pair of cups for my Sony pixel pushing beast, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5P, sits at the edge of my Star Wars coffee table when charging, which puts them at risk of being𝔉 attacked by my cat. But the accompanying charging stand he💝lped keep the 900 Max HS safe, charged, and lent itself to its futuristic and funky aesthetic.

Features

Other gaming headsets like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Logitech G Astro A50 X, which also come with a charging stand (albeit, it’s also an HDMI switchꦅer), don’t include everything you need to get set up, despite its premium price tag - but the Nacon RIG 900 Max HS has you covered. Straight out of the box, you get everything you need, from the headset, charging stand, 2.4GHz dongle, and even the USB-A to USB-C cable required to hook it up to your PS5 console.

Getting set up with the 900 Max was pretty easy. It took a matter of minutes to slot the wireless dongle into the charging stand, and then all I had left was to plug the USB cable into one of the free ports on my PS5. Instead of using one of the ports on the front-facing side of the console (mine lies horizontally), I made sure to use a back port and fed the cable through the back. Not only did this mean my P﷽S5 gaming setup was less busy looking, but it also meant the front ports were free for quick and easy access for accessories like the PDP Riffmaster guitar controller, which I use on a day-to-day basis.

After everything was set up, I was able to make use of one of the headset’s best features, its dual wireless connectivity. With the 900 Max HS, I was able to connect the headset to my PS5 via a 2.4GHz dongle (that’s attached to the stand) and connect to my Samsung S24 phone via Bluetooth siꦗmultaneously. This dual-wireless feature means you can talk on the phone to friends in between Marvel Rivals matches, or just switch to your phone’s audio to scroll mindlessly through TikTok (an embarrassingly favorite pastime of mine) while waiting for your friends to pop on Discord. Resentfully, as a millennial, I don’t get too many phone calls on any given day, so I did have to ask my partner to give me a quick call to see just how easily I could switch between modes with the onboard controls, and it turned out to be pretty straightforward. Like briefly touched on before, it will just take a mo🥃ment to remember what button does what, as they all have the same glossy, plastic touch.

Performance

I wasn’t initially blown away by the sound on the Nacon RIG 900 Max HS headset. Don’t get me wrong, the drivers didn’t sound bad by any means, and in the early days of testing the bass, mid, and treble frequencies of the 40mm audio drivers sounded pretty balanced as I took to learning my new main in Marvel Rivals, Scarlet Witch. However, it didn’t quite have that bassy gut-punching drive that the hero shooter needed to make the end of matches feel truly nerve-wracking. That was, until I pulled out the Nacon app.

With the dual wireless connectivity, I was able to connect the headset to my PS5 via the wireless dongle (as it was plugged into the charging stand) and have my Android-based phone connected via Bluetooth. This gave me access to the app, which provides a battery life rundown, access to updates, settings, and the best part, customization. I always appreciate when a gaming brand has an app for their headsets, as it means I don’t have to run back and forth to my PC in order to get the best sound, and the Nacon app lets me do just that.

There are three profiles you can save to the headset, and a range of audio presets from an FPS audio setting, Bass Boost, Voice Boost, clarity, and a custom option. Annoyingly, the ‘Bass Boost’ option actually made the lower frequencies a tad overwhelming, with tracks like ‘Burning’ by the band Hitsujibungaku (that I’ve had been listening to on repeat) sounding distorted, and not in a good way. However, with some tinkering, I was able to not only get that reverberating bassy sound that you can feel deep in your bones, but the app and tꦏhe convenience of having all that customization at my fingertips cemented the RIG 900 Max HS as a contender for one of my all-time favorite PS5 headsets.

Much to my chagrin, the 900 Max doesn’t have Dolby Atmos or any other spatial audio support. So it was missing that extra immersive soundscape I’ve grown accustomed to when using headsets like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Corsair Virtuoso Max wireless. That being said, whether I was returning to my sea-faring pirate adventures or powering up generators in Dead by Daylight, the 900 Max MS gave justice to everything I threw its way - especially with the app in play.

I’m 🧜still slowly making my way through Clair Obscur Expedition 33, and its gorgeous, pseudo-classical score by composer Lorien Testard sounded impeccable through these PS5-designated cups. There’s no active noise canceling found with them, yet I was still able to get totally lost in the game’s hypnotic sound and atmosphere as the large ov🃏al padded cups were still able to eclipse my ears and keep everything contained. When not attempting to make my way through the RPG, I was chatting way to friends using the flip-to-use built-in microphone as we grinded through our Marvel Rival daily and weekly challenges.

As you can hear from the above sample, the microphone is the biggest letdown for the 900 Max HS. Any and all outside noise seeps into the mic despite its “noise canceling” claims, making my voice sound crackly and overall unpleasant. I was still audible during Marvel Rivals sessions, but when I got a bit too heated, which is easy to do when you main a healer like Cloak and Dagger, my voice became almost inaudible. This is unfortunate, as there are plenty of headsets with an MSRP half that of the 900 Max HS that manage to give you a high-quality mic, like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Corsair Void Wireless V2, which has an MSRP of $119.99 / £99.99.

At least the handy charging stand almost made up for the disappointing mic quality. When I had had enough matching up with bizarrely named strangers on Marvel Rivals, I hung up the headset on the stand, and it would conveniently charge overnight. I’m not a fan of just l🅷eaving my headsets out in the open, especially when I have a cat that believes everything in its path is a toy, so this was a treat. Not only that, I didn’t have to remember to give it a charge, and so never had to deal with its up to 50 hours worth of battery as it was constantly ready to go.

Another neat aspect of the charging stand is that you can pop the 2.4GHz dongle out of it, plug that directly into your PS5, and keep the charging stand stored in another room entirely. This made the PS5 licensed cups extra handy for muꩵlti-platform gaming, as I was able to move the stand to my bedroom nightstand or my desk without having to disconnect the low-latency 2.4GHz connection from my Sony console. Setting up the 900🔯 Max HS with my OLED Steam Deck and my OLED Nintendo Switch was easy as pie via Bluetooth, and running through the latest Wonderland Whimsy Disney Dreamlight Valley update on the go sounded exceptional. As did the vibrant scores of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Sunshine via Super Mario 3D All-Stars.

Should you buy the📖 Nacon R♈IG 900 Max HS gaming headset?

If you’re fed up of charging your gaming headset and want an alternative battery solution without having to fork out the full cost of the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, the $249.99 / £209.35 Nacon RIG 900 Max HS is an ideal alternative. Sure, you won’t be getting the crystal clear microphone quality that SteelSeries and its audio tech is known for, or anywhere close, but the accompanying charging stand of the Nacon headset adds an extra level of convenience that almost makes up for its gaps in quality.

Similarly to SteelSeries, Nacon has a💧 free-to-download accompanying app for the 900 Max HS headset, which takes the average sound produced by its 40mm audio drivers and elevates it to new, sublime-sounding heights. There isn’t a list of dedicated gaming pres🐻ets to choose from, but with the app, you can tailor the audio just to your liking and save your settings as profiles to switch between the next time you want to get stuck into your latest PS5 gaming obsession.

Had the built-in mic’s quality been up to scratch, the Nacon RIG 900 Max HS would have easily earned a spot as one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PS5 accessories I’ve ever gotten my hands on. Yet, even with i𒆙ts lack of quality, its high-tier sound, transformative customizable audio settings, dual wireless connectivity, and user-friendly charging stand still jꦉustify its high-end price, and place as one of the most convenient PS5 gadgets I’ve used to date.

How I tested the Nacon RIG 900 Max HS gami🙈ng headset

During the over two-week testing period, the Nacon RIG 900 Max HS wireless gaming headset rarely left my side. Whether I was gaming on my PS5, answering phone calls, or chatting to co-workers during important meetings, the 900 Max HS remained on my head. As a headset designed with the PS5 in mind, my main games of choice during the testing process were Clair Obscur Expedition 33, and Marvel Rivals. I also made sure to dig out Dead by Daylight and Sea of Thieves, to see how they measured up on the PS5 and PC versions. The 900 Max HS was also put through its paces on the Steam Deck when playing the brand-new Wonderland Whimsy update in Disney Dreamlight Valley, and to play our Switch testing game of choice, Super Mario 3D All-Stars on a Nintendo Switch OLED handheld.

When not racking up my hours in Marvel Rivals, I used the headset while catching up with the anime series Oshi No Ko, and the last season of You on Netflix. I also tested the headset while listening to Spotify across a wide range of genres, from Irish rappers Kneecap, to the relaxing dance tunes of ODESZA. For more information on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test gaming headsets, check out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

If the Nacon RIG 900 Max HS doesn’t sound like the right fit, our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X headsets, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Nintendo Switch headsets, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PC headsets for gaming guides are full to the brim with

Even in my first couple of hours playing, I wasn't completely sure of Elden Ring Nightreign's premise: team up with two other players, pick from one of eight Nightfarer characters, then run through a three-day Expedition, killing enemies to collect runes, weapons, and boons to help you overcome one big bad boss🔯 at the end. But after eventually beating the game's first Night Lord, the three-headed hell-wolf Gladius, by quite literally snatching victory from three sets of jaws of defeat, I was eager to take on the rest.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Elden Ring Nightreign is certainly an odd game, and one that will mainly appeal to only the most hardcore of Elden Ring fans. It's an uncharacteristically frantic and fast-paced ride that boils down and livens up the core 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Elden Ring experience, still scratching the same itch of narrowly overpowering almighty beasts with swords and sorcery. And the best part is you get to do it ꦚall with friends﷽ for a definitive soulslike co-op experience.

Heavy reign

Let me get this out there early: Elden Ring Nightreign is hard. It's a soulsborne game after all, but it's tough in ways that you probably weren't expecting. Elden Ring, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, and any of its predecessors for that matter let you play a🅺t your 👍own pace. You can take your time exploring and power leveling before taking on something big. And if you fail, you can quickly try again or level up some more. To use an overused metaphor, these games are marathons, not sprints.

However, Nightreign literally is a sprint and time is a luxury you do not have. Since you're on the clock against the encroaching tide of Night – a Fortnite-li🦋ke storm that shrinks the safe area of the Limveld map – every Expedition must be completed at a breakneck pace. To stand any chance of success, you must act like you've supped from the strongest stuff in the Roundtable Hold's secret coffee stash in a mad dash around the map, hoovering up loot and clobbering what you can before the end of each in-game day. It certainly takes some getting used to, but this comparatively speedy, bitesize roguelike "run" format is a surprisingly thrilling and fresh take on the Soulsbornꦕe formula. It forces you to improvise and deal with what you're given, which is almost the complete opposite of Elden Ring's relative freedom when it comes to builds.

Moreover, the fact that you get to do it with friends makes it all the sweeter. Foes of all sizes crumble under barrages of coordinated attacks, and it's immensely satisfying when everyone is on the same page about the best locations to hit, charging together to take on the Nigh🧔t. As a result, the most adaptable, efficient, and daring teams that can weather this uncertain storm are often handsomely rewarded, and it's really exciting when those𝓡 stars align leaving you feeling unstoppable.

But the lightning-fast pace, luck aspects, and jolly co-operation aren't going to be to eve𒆙ryone's taste. Nightreign's Expeditions can be upwards of 45-minutes of brutally relentless, heart-pounding hunting with an incredibly narrow margin for error – after some particularly testing runs, I genuinely needed to walk around for a few minutes to shake off failure or come down from the victory high. Recklessness and indecision are the true enemies in Elden Ring Nightreign, making it a vicious place for new players. Those who can't keep up won't stand a chance of taking on the game's menagerie of monstrous bosses.

Night clubbing

It wouldn't be a FromSoftware party without a whole array of brutal bosses and Nightreign obliges with eight terrifying Nightlords waiting for you at the end of their own Expeditions. The first of these, the aforementioned Gladius, is a terrifying intro to what lies ahead in other Expeditions, using sweeping, fla😼ming sword blows, fireball attacks, and the ability to split into three separate wolves to dominate beginner Nightfarers.

Beyond Gladius, you'll have to face the likes of the Gaping Jaw and Darkdrift Knight. The former is a malformed draconic creature with its mouth on all wrong and the latter is a hulking but wounded centaur, but don't let their looks deceive you. Both are unbelievably strong and frustratingly mobile, capable of killing you in one or two blows that you barely have time to re🍷act to – both make Gladiuꦇs look like a pushover.

Outside of the new Nightlords, series devotees will recognize many of the other bosses ready to send them back to the Roundtable Hold broken and bruised from Elden Ring and even the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dark Souls trilogy. It's a genius form of a♌sset re-use that has allowed FromSoftware to make a sandbox that feels like three Avengers fighting He-Man on the first day, a Bionicle on the next, and a Transformer on the third.

However, like these act൲ion figures with🍷 their worn joints, the older Dark Souls-era bosses haven't aged well, seemingly not receiving the tune-up that I expected. As an example, I was pleasantly surprised to see Dark Souls' Gaping Dragon materialize to cap off Day 2 of a solo run, mainly because I remembered this boss being quite easy to fight, and the same is certainly the case in Nightreign – it wandered awkwardly around the arena, crashing into the arena perimeter, acting like I wasn't there, but was frustratingly arduous to fight because of its boosted health pool.

Broadly, all the end-of-day bosses in Nightreign can be a slog to take down due to their robustness. And when they employ attacks that can tear chunks out of your health bar or even one-shot you, they can🅠 start to feel unfair. Failing to kill a Nightlord after spending over half an hour fighting for your life to get there can be crushing.

But when you do beat them, there is almost no greater feeling. The Nightlords are arguably some of the mightiest bosses ever seen in a FromSoftware game, and getting to revel in victory with other players is unmatched. Whether its coming in clutch to defeat Gladius with both teammates down, overcoming the watery Augur with just one other player, or spending 10-minutes chipping away at the frosty Fissure in the Fog with a flaming sword in an epic clash of fire and ice, Nightreign might be the best game in FromSof🅰tware's repertoire for spectacle.

Nocturnal hunters

As I've hopefully made clear, reaching any of the Nightlords is difficult, and beating any of them is even tougher. While each one has a cl🅺early signposted weakness to a particular damage type – fire, poison, or holy, for example – success can also hinge massively on the characters you and your ꦍteammates choose and how you outfit them.

Each of the eight Nightfarer characters feel exceptionally unique, even in the context of Elden Ring's entire sandbox – FromSoftware has crafted each character with some truly novel abilities that cater to a range of common playstyles, from melee might and defensive approaches to summoners and spell snipers. Duchess and Wylder are without a doubt my favorites – the former being extremely nimble and optimized for Dexterity weapons, and the latter being 𒈔an all-rounder swordsman with a fun grappling hook and punc🔯hy explosive crossbow.

While adding sets of hero-shooter-like powers to a series renowned for its build flexibility seems highly restrictive, I think it's a necessary sacrifice to accommodate the roguelike format. The game taking key leve𒊎ling and gear decisions out of your hands means you can ﷽get on with facing the Night, otherwise an Expedition would grind to a halt every time you needed to assign attributes.

Besides, it's not like the game has no answer to build-crafting. Every Nightfarer can equip a few Relics, each granting one to three minor or major upgrades to your character. Defeating Nightlords and completing Remembrances (the personal quests of each Nightfarer) lead you to some of the best Relics too, so you'll only become more powerful the deeper you take Elden Ring Nightreign. It's still quite a limited permanent upgrade system, but it's enough to help you feel like you're min-maxing your characters🎃 for certain scenarios.

Although, while Elden Rin෴g Nightreign is an excellent co-op experience where co-ordination is encouraged and rewarded, solo play is an option. The reason I've mentioned it once in passing is because the solo experience is, frankly, miserable. There is apparently some level of solo scaling, but it certainly didn't feel like it from my attempts. Going alone necessitates a more methodical ap🐬proach that severely limits how much ground can be covered. Some players will relish this challenge, but I found myself often massively underleveled for every boss fight, making true progress almost impossible – solo players will be far better off sticking to New Game+ in Elden Ring.

It's also disappointing that the game's matchmaking system restricts you to playing alone or as part of✨ a trio. Skipping a two-player option feels like a bizarre oversight, and game director . The even more disappointing aspect is that there is no crossplay – something which really 🐈should be standard for multiplayer games that are looking to stick around in 2025 and beyond. While I don't doubt that Elden Ring Nightreign will be a success at launch, I can't help but feel like these scaling and multiplayer blunders will impact the game's long-term health, though I hope to be proven wrong with future updates.

Despite gutting a lot of elements that are core to soulslike games and its questionable longevity, Elden Ring Nightreign is truly for the sickos. The gaps left by what has been cut out have been filled carefully with surprisingly competent roguelike components, making it feel both familiar and refreshingly new. After that initial hump, it proves to be a relentless sprint that can be both exhilarating and excruciating an𒁏d, depending on your skill and ability to persevere, you may find it swings more so in one direction than the other. Nightreign is Elden Ring at arguably its most brutal but at least you can suffer with friends.

Elden Ring Nightreig🍬n was reviewed on PS5, with a code provided by t🌺he publisher.

Ready to suffer? Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best FromSoftware games!

Instead, To a T is about 🌄asking serious questions in a silly voice. What does it mean to be perfect? What does perfect even mean? These are questions raised in the game's first minutes (through a song-and-dance routine that also includes barking humans, no less) and explored over the course of five hours. After those hours are up, you may haveꦿ some answers to those questions. You may instead leave only with mastery over diagonal sandwich speed-eating, or a lingering impression that trains are very cool. They are.

Take a walk on the wide side

To a T follows a 13-year-old – their default name Teen – as they navigate small-town life in the '90s. Teen's condition means there are light puzzle elements for even the most r⛎outine tasks. While eating cereal, you control each arm and each hand individually, pouring both milk and King Pig cereal before navigating spoon to mouth. Tilt🌱ing to fit through doors quickly becomes second-nature.

Later, you're asked to handle slightly more complex tasks – like outrunning a train on a busy station platform – but To a T never really tries (or wants to be) challenging in that sense. Sure, school is hard when science lessons demand mixing an exact formula and P.E. risks clattering into goalposts, but Teen is largely used to living with outstretched hands. The condition's nov𒀰elty is intentionally buffed out quite quickly, and your expectations of the game – perhaps one where you're strung from one ludicrous situation to the next, forced to make do with uncooperative arms – soon fall apart, leaving you to lurch in the unknown.

To a T is less focused on giving you something to do with your arms, and more intent on telling a story. Teen is different, and coming to terms with that is part of the tale. But even then, it's a T-shaped piece of a much larger puzzle. There's something weird going on in town, a꧂nd the game isn't afraid to step outside of Teen's perspective to explore that. One episode follows Teen's dog investigating a gut feeling that something isn't right, his interview subjects ranging from a ladybug journalist to a weight-lifting penguin. I'm loath to say even that much (this is one of those games where it's in your best interest to read as little about it as possible), but To a T only truly takes off when it moves past the initial premise and into the absurd.

Given the whole thing can be completed in a tight four hours – five if you take your t꧋ime exploring, longer with a post-credits free-roam – it takes too long to find its groove, and the opening ꦆhour is deceptively simplistic and straightforward. To a T never quite gets a handle on whether it wants to show or tell, and later episodes are spectacularly surreal yet lean heavily on cutscenes.

Stand by T

By that point, developer Uvula will have already worked its magic on you. 🐠Playing To a T is like standing in a warm spill of sunbeams and eating your favorite home-cooked meal all at once. Richer and more life-affirming than anything I've played in years, it's hard to describe the potency of joy that makes this so worth playing – though one scene, with a group of children struggling to explain how a beautiful sunset is making them feel, captures even that.

Much of the credit goes to To a T's seaside town setting, which is home to a mix of (mostly) regular humans and talking animals. A giraffe called Giraffe runs a food stand, while the local hairdresser is managed by one particularly inspired crab. Some birds can speak, while others are… just pigeons. It's closest in tone to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in which friendship comes easy and you can play for an hour and leave on first-name terms with everyone you've met. The only tripping point is the camera, which is often locked to one angle. This is great when you're being fed picturesque mushroom forests, but less so while trying to cross a road with limited depth perception. It's extra-finicky during platforming sections, which, while infrequent, are incredibly clunky due to the constant wrangling it takes to keep your cam💯era in check.

Yet even the camera is subject to Uvula's wonderfully weird, often meta, humor. During a shot of Teen's house, their mother speaks in jumbled symbols until she opens a window for you to hear. One turtle complains because a dog is blocking him from view in the cutscene. Elsewhere, some animations last just long enough for you to realize they're being deliberately stretched out – like the seeming✃ly-endless spew of vomit from downing a gross drink.

To a T is weird to its bones, and it's clear Uvula takes great pride in that. The whole thing is nebulous by design, and isn't so much a grand gesture of positivity as it is an ode to the little quirks you love almost without realizing. I love, for instance, the way Teen's umbrella is slightly wider than his mother's to account for being held at arm's reach. I love rain in gaming, and✱ To a T has the very best. That might not sound like the sort of profundity a recommendation could hinge upon, but if you like rain for the same reason I do – the warmth and contentment it brings when you're on the inside looking out – then perhaps you'll get it.

꧃To a T was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher

What to play next? Take a look at our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games for 2025 highlights!

This is ♋a Raider through and through, with a plastic chassis that doesn't match up to its price tag in quality, though with the price tag of a Titan. The test unit I've received currently goes for $5,609.99 via MSI's own channels - $300 more than last year's aluminum monster. Still, with a 4K display that truly will knock your socks off - and a blindingly speedy AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D / RTX 5090 pairing - this is certainly a single-player's dream machine.

Configurations

♍The MSI Raider A18 HX is the only mainstream gaming laptop model pairing the AMD Ryzen 9955HX3D processor with an RTX 5090 GPU. That's a potent combination, and considering I've found that AMD's processors are generally going a bit further than Intel's this generation, it could well be the gold standard for chunkier, performance-driven rigs.

That RTX 5090 is supported by the full 175W (and I've got the power brick to prove it), with 260W total power up for grabs across the GPU and CPU. That's the same as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:2025 Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 from a GPU perspective, though the MSI Raider can give the CPU 8൲5W of ღdedicated power compared to 80W on Asus's model.

In short, there's a hell of a lot ♌of power going intꦫo this machine.

Configurations are limited to that AMD processor, though there's a cheaper RTX 5080 version on the shelves as well. There's also an A♛2X model, which drops you down to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX GPU.

You're certainly paying for all that juice. Like all MSI Raider A18 HX models currently available, the configuration I've been testing comes stacked with 64GB DDR5 RAM and a 2TB PCIe Gen 5 SSD (yep, this is the first gaming laptop I've tested with new-generation storage), and costs $5,609.99 at checkout. That's pretty much as expensive as you 🙈can get in today's market and a considerable price increase from last year.

The RTX 4090 / Intel Core i9-14900HX 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:MSI Raider 18 HX I tested previously came in at $3,999.99 with the same RAM an🀅d storage amount, though an older Gen4 drive. For reference, the AMD💎 Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 / Nvidia RTX 5080 Scar model I reviewed earlier this month sits at $3,169.99.

Design

Just like last year's model, the 2025 MSI Raider A18 HX🎶 is chunky. Thiꦡs is still a cumbersome 18-inch behemoth with no time for portability, it's designed to sit on your desk and stay there for most of its life.

This is the same 1.26-inch thickness as the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, though it doesn't benefit from the same slanted front lip, making it appear stockier sitting on the𓃲 desk in front of me.

The RGB lighting strip along the front has been slimmed down compared to the previous generation, but its placement above an extra ridge o🔯f plastic means that the light🌺 show doesn't shine onto the desk below in the same way. Asus's RGB extends all the way around the perimeter of the laptop, giving the equally large machine a lighter feel, as if it's floating slightly above the surface on which it stands.

The main deck still features the angular cut-outs around the keyboard and trackpad area, nodding to the Raider's gamerfied design past but staying slightly more subtl♉e than previous models. It's not the mo♊st business-forward design on the market - the Razer Blade 18 does a fantastic job of keeping its insides slick and suave. Instead, it's just toeing the line before becoming gaudy.

Like last year's model, there's still flex to the main chassis area, and considering 2025's release comes in at nearly $6,000, that's pretty disappointing. The whole corner of the lower deck bends significantly when manipulated or picked up and creaks slightly in the process. It's not enough to concern me in the short term, though it's not what I'd expect to see from a gaming laptop at this price point. After all, we're now paying 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:MSI Titan 18 HX prices for a Raider, and🌟 that rig had a far sturdier build quality.

The underside also remains largely unchanged from the previous release, with additional rubber grips on each corner further elevating the chassis and providing extra space for airflow below. This is st൲ill a plastic construction (unlike the aluminum used in the Titan last year) all over, which is a little disappointing considering ꦬthe final price.

There is, however, noticeably less screen wobble on the 2025 ღmodel compared to last year's. I found that the 2024 version would jiggle with heavier typing, whereas the hinge on the newer release feels a little sturdier.

Display

MSI's 4K Mini LED panel is here to stay f🍸or another year, offering gorgeous color contrast and a super detailed handling of both HDR and SDR content. The panel itself covers 100% of the DCI-P3 spectrum, offering 1,000 nits of brightness, alongside a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio and local dimming features. That's a high-end Mini LE♔D display.

Like last year, MSI has gone a different route compared to most of the competition, though. This is a 4K (well, UHD+ if you want to get technical about the aspect ratio) 120Hz panel, boosting the resolution but lowering the refresh rate compared to most QHD+, 240Hz devices (like the Scar 18). That makes sense if you're running all your games in full 4K resolution - you'll rarely need more than a 120Hz ref🌄resh rate to keep your games looking smooth.

However, things get a bit tricky when you take lower resolutions into account, alongside that premium price tag. Lowering game resolution to take advantage of higher refresh rates (and therefore more responsiv꧋e in🍸puts) is often imperative in competitive scenarios, but 4K panels that prioritize immersion often neglect this market.

Razer's gone all in on its own 2025 Blade 18, using a dual-mode display that can run at UHD+, 240Hz, or FHD+ 440Hz. A like-for-like configuration of that machine (albeit with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor) comes in at $5,199.99, just over $400 less than the MSI Raider A18 HX. It's a wonder, then, why MSI isn't going down this dual-mode route with i🍃ts own high-end rig, it would have certainly gone a lot further to justifying such a lofty MSRP.

This screen isn't about pure speed, though; it's about immersion, and it nails the brief. 18-inch panels are already going to lock you into your game worlds much better than smaller 16-inch or 14-inch gaming laptops, but when colors are this vivid and details this sharp, single-player adventures pack a serious punch. If you're a solo adventurer, investing more in a high-powered processor than aꦍ dual-mode screen is going to be the way to go.

Ports

The biggest upgrade to this year's port selection is MSI's move to Thun🍷derbolt 5. While last year's model offered two Thunderbolt 4 connections, we've got the new generation ports whirring away under the hood of 2025's iteration.

That means fast🦹er transfer speeds with an increased 80 Gbps bandwidth (compared to 40 Gbps) and an increased pow🐠er delivery of up to 240W, more than double that of the 100W Thunderbolt 4. It also means you'll be able to connect a higher refresh-rate monitor (up to 540Hz).

These USB-A and Thunderbolt connections are split across each side of the laptop, with two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2s on the left, and another on the right alongside both Thunderbolꦦt options. The right side also houses the system's 3.5mm audio jack, while the left benefits from a full-sized SD card reader.

All you𒀰r permanent connections are located around the rear, which makes for a far tidier setup overall. It means that the massive power connector stays out of the way, alongside the HDMI 2.1 and Ethernet ports. It's a shame there isn't a Thunderbolt 5 to the rear - this would have been handy for dock users, and would keep the sides free for your mouse hand.

As it stands, the MSI Raider A18 HX still suffers from a little cable sprawl, but if you're using wireless accessories, the 2.4GHz receiversℱ shouldn't get in the way too much, and꧂ you're larger connections are all tucked away out of sight.

Keyboard and trackpad

SteelSeries has provided the keybo🦹ard for the MSI Raider A18 HX once again this year, but this isn't the snappy mechanical deck you might expect. Under the fingertips, this deck borders on mushy with a particularly soft landing position and very little travel. It's not a pleasant experience.

I was taken aback by the keyboard. This is a nearly $6,000 gaming laptop, and there's more flex in the main deck than the budget 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Asus TUF A15. It's a full-sized design, with a good-sized number pad, arrow keys, and function row, but I still felt cramped. Doom: The Dark Ages requires fast muscle memory between the E and R keys, and I never fe🍷lt like I had enough space to accurately hit either without mashing both.

There's a good amount of spacing, so it's 🌞not like the keys are necessarily too close together, but I expect the softer landing and low travel make them particularly easy to mis-hit when working through faster moments.

The trackpad is incredibly sᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚmall for a gaming laptop of this size, and I'm constantly hitting the lower lip when zipping through Chrome tabs and spreadsheets. There's a decent snap to a harder press here, if a little heavier than I've used in the past, and my finger glides smoothly across the surface.

Performance

I keep saying this, and then another gaming laptop comes along and changes things, but as of this review, the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is the most powe🤪rful gaming laptop I've tested. That means I now need to go back to my Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review and update a few things.

The Raider outperforms the Scar 18 in RTX 5090 gaming across the majority of games (though there are some drops) in botꦚh FHD and QHD resolutions, and steps things up when compare𒉰d against last year's Titan and Raider models as well. Would I have liked to see a better gen-on-gen performance increase from the RTX 4090? Absolutely, but it's clear Nvidia isn't giving us that this generation.

The 2025 iteration is on top compared to the RTX 4090 MSI Raider 18 HX, but the size of the leap is much, much smaller than I saw in the move from the RTX 30-Series. All of the benchmarks below were recorded with dedicated GPU power in the device's top performance setting without frame generation. It should also be noted that Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmarks are slightly anomalous. I've run and re-run these tests and confirmed that no extra features are switched on - it seems this rig is just r🏅eally good at running Lara Croft at FHD.

Increases in natively rendered framerates between generations remain only slightly raised across the majority of FH🥂D and QHD+ benchmark runs. Interestingly, the 2025 MSI Raider A18 actually performs significantly worse in 4K S⛄hadow of the Tomb Raider tests, even if it inches ahead with 86fps / 63fps in Total War: Three Kingdoms. This is the first 4K MSI gaming laptop to run into 60fps+ territory in Ultra settings on this title, but we're only just over that threshold.

These are still excellent results, proving the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W can handle pretty much anything you want to throw at it. I'm going to keep ღdigging on those strange Tomb Raider numbers, though, and will update this review if I find any evidence of a missfire.

Nvidia's DLSS tricks are less of a concern for an 18-inch powerhouse. In a slimline gaming laptop like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:2025 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:2025 Razer Blade 16, this focus on frame generation features makes sense. There's only so mucಞh power you can throw into a gaming laptop and still fit it (and its charging brick) into a backpack. Looking at the size of the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W's power supply and the thickness ofไ this chassis, we don't need so many AI tricks in here.

Still, without frame generation switched on, I was only able to scrape around 59fps out of Cyberpunk 2077 in 4K RT Ultra. At full 4x MFG whack, things were hovering around 𒈔a far more comfortable 86, with minimal intrusion to the play space itself. DLSS isn't the power feature Nvidia thinks it is in this chassis, but it's certainly a neat trick if you want to run demanding titles at full UHD whack.

Synthetic benchmarks show a 34% improvement between the RTX 4090 2024 model and this year's RTX 5090 iteration in easier Fire Strike tests, with that ra꧋te falling to 4.7ﷺ% in Time Spy. More impressively, though, the harshest test of the suite, Steel Nomad, yielded a 22.23% performance increase between generations.

That's not particularly reflected in-ꦫgame, but it does provide a little extra hope for future-proofing against more demanding titl🏅es to come.

Onto the CPU, and what a CPU this is. The AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D doesn't make its way into many gaming laptops, but it certainly tops the charts when it can. With a 9,077 PC Mark 10 score, it flies well over the head of the Intel Core i9-14900HX I tested in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9, as well as the newer Intel Core𝓰 Ultra 9 275HX inside this year's Asus ROG Strix Scar 18.

Not only do we have a turbo-charged processor in here, but that Gen5 SSD absolutely sings as well. This is a big step up from the🐎 previous generation drives found in the rest of the market. MSI quotes up to 12,000MB/s read speeds, but I repeatedly benched just over 14,300MB/s in Crystal Disk Mark. Granted, that's a synthetic run with a relatively small amount of that 2TB drive taken up, but it's still well above the usual rates.

Battery

Battery life is certainly not usually a strong suit of larger 18-inch gaming laptops. The size of the power brick can certainly attest to that. However, in the system's most power-efficient settings, running a few Chrome tabs for producti🅰vity, the MSI Raider A18 HX managed to run for well over three hours in my tests (three hours and 20 minutes to be precise). You'll lose that 20 minutes if you opt for Balanced mode in the same use case, with my test running short at just a hair over three hours.

I just🧸 about managed to scrape over the hour mark while gaming. This rig isn't built for on-the-go sessions, so you won't get the same kind of juice as the Asus ROG Flow Z13, for example. My Doom: The Dark 🎃Ages visual settings did have to slide down a little to accommodate, and there was a little stuttering - though not nearly as much as a weaker gaming laptop would have produced just a couple of years ago.

Should you buy the MSI Raider A18 HX (2025)

The 2025 MSI Raider A18 HX is an extremely impressive gaming laptop on the whole, but I wouldn't recommend it easily. It's certainly among the top rigs I've tested so far, but its Titan-esque price point despite🦋 its lower build quality is a major sticking point. The RTX 5090 under the hood does take us further towards 4K gaming at max settings, but not enough to warrant the additional cost if your sole intention is to chase the highest framerates possible at UHD levels. As long as there are cheaper RTX 4090 MSI Titan machines on the shelves, this is a tough sell indeed.

That's not to take away from what the MSI Raider A18 HX does right. I'm going to have a hard time saying goodbye to ripping and tearing through Doom on this fantastic panel, and the processor is an absolute blinder. Those benefits aren't quite potent enough to offset th🔴e increased cost we're seeing from this generation of machi𝐆nes, though they're certainly worthy of an investor's (and future-proofer's) attention.

How I tested the MSI Raider A18 HX (2025)

I used the MSI Raider A18 HX as my sole laptop for both work and p🐼lay over the course of two weeks. I started off by running my usual suite of in-game benchmarks, testing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Horizon Zero Dawn: Remastered, Cyberpunk 2077, and Black Myth: Wukong without DLSS frame generation. These tests were run across high and highest settings in 1080p, 1600p, and 4K resolution, repeated three times each with the final score taken as an average. Cyberpunk 2077 was tested with Super Resolution set to Balanced and Black Myth: Wukong's Super Resolution was at 60.

I then further tested the RTX 5090's Multi-Frame Generation features in Cyberpunk 2077, runn𒅌ing the game with full ray-tracing in 4K﷽ with Super Resolution set to Quality.

Synthetic benchmar๊ks were taken from 3D Mark's Time Spy, Fire Strike, and Steel Nomad runs, while the CPU was directly tested across PC Mark 10. I then tested the sequential read and write speed of the SSD using Crystal Disk Mark. Again, each test was com♊pleted three times, with the final score reflecting an average of all data.

I tested the battery in everyday conditions, measuring over the course of multiple work sessions and gaming sessions across a🃏ll available power modes, though with display brightness always set at 50%.

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What I will say immediately is that Honor is really changing the game in terms of what a non-flagship phone can be. This brand’s “Magic” product line is its star attraction, with the new 400 series taking more of a niche approach in the affordable market. Having always used Samsung’s flagship devices, I’ve always been a little hesitant to step down into this area of the smartphone landscape, but after three weeks or so of testing it every day, and comparing it to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming phones, it doesn’♏t feel 🐻like anything less than a flagship product.

For £699 for the Pro model, you’re ge🌟tting an awful lot of pocket power. A 200MP camera, a 5300mAh silicon-carbon AI Battery, a 120Hz OLED display, and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor are all standout features, and they amount to a great all-round package. It’s no slouch when it comes to gaming either, but I think content creators areꦬ really going to be the market this phone hits home with.

Design

Giant camera arrays seem to be an inescapable part of smartphone design in 2025, with everything from the latest iPhone to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Poco F7 Pro sporting rather inelegant lenses on their backs. The Honor 400 Pro might be the mo🗹st guilty of all of them, and although this has been an issue in the market for years now, it is getting a bit silly that a smartphone can’t lie even close to flat on its back thanks to these massive cameras.

If any modern smartphone feels like it needs a case, it’s t⛦his one. A giant 200MP camera is very in your face both when you look at the device and when you hold it in your hand. I’ve been sent the black model to test, which has a really velvety, muted back panel on its back. The glossy, shiny camera lenses then totally juxtapose that, giving the phone a very flashy “extra” aesthetic. It’s hard to really complain about a camera that overexerts itself if that’s what you’re coming to it for. I’ll talk more about the camera capabilities on offer here in a bit, but as amazing as they are, I do think to be considered as anything more than a camera phone, Honor should try and downsize a bit.

Maybe the camera feels so in your face because the rest of the phone’s design is shockingly slim. Honor has opted for a silicon-carbon battery to really enhance the thin design of this phone, and it’s seriously paid off. The sleek edges of the display and subtle curvature o𒐪f the back plate lean into that too, creating an impressively pow🐈erful yet very slight product at just 8.1mm.

The Honor 400 Pro is available in Midnight Black, Lunar Grey, and Tidal Blue, meaning you can personalize slightly. The Pro model I’ve tested is flanked by the 400 ෴Lite, which arrived on the shelves a few months ago, and the mid-range Honor 400, which launches alongside the Pro SKU.

Features

For those who aren’t in the know, Honor is known for mak𓆏ing Android devices that align themselves as an alternative to Apple’s iPhones. At least, Honor’s version of Android, MagicOS, can certainly feel that way if you want it to. I think that comp🦋arison is a little dishonest, though, because although MagicOS isn’t as open-ended as Samsung, it does have plenty of ways for you to customize it to your liking. Honor’s last outing, the 400 Lite, definitely caught a lot of attention for offering similar camera specs and software features as Apple’s latest iPhones.

Like any phone launching in 2025, though, this thing is crammed full of AI gubbins that’s impossible to ignore. There are AI editing tools for photos and videos, there are AI camera features, there’s AI in the 5,300mAh battery, and there’s integration with HonorAI, Gemini, and Bixby. In fact, Google Assistant is actually buried by all of this to the point where an “Ok Google” does nothing. If you hold down the power button, you don’t even get a turn off or restartꦕ option come up - you get a Gemini bubble asking you “what’s up”. This was even the case after I removed th🐻e Gemini app from the phone entirely, so it’s been annoyingly baked into the experience from the word go.

I do find it a real shame that Honor felt obliged to follow the 𝔉AI pied piper that’s whistling its way through the phone market right now. As someone who has always been loyal to one of the biggest brands in the space, part of the reason I was now open to switching camps was because I saw where the AI obsession was taking Samsung. I completely understand that AI features are where the big tech companies are placing their bets just now, but smaller brands like Honor would be a much more appealing alternative for me if they’d just offer me the smartphone experience I’ve had up until this point, and check all of the additional, compulsory, and quite suspicious AI fluff at the door.

Thankfully, it’s not all AI doom and gloom. The Honor 400 Pro features a 6.7-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate - which is perfect for gaming and watching content on the go. With a 2800 x 1280 resolution and 500 nits worth of brightness, there’s a great screen to enjoy on this phone. I particularly like the sunlight display enhancement feature, which has been particularly useful during the sunny Spring weather we🦂’ve been enjoying in the UK this year. Powering that impressive light show is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile processor and a Qualcomm Adreno 750 GPU, which allows this phone t🍒o be a pretty great gaming competitor.

The 400 Pro runs on MagicOS 9.0, and Honor has committed just before launch to supporting it with six years of Android updates at a minimum. If you plan to use this phone for 🅺that long, you might want to opt for the Pro model, since it comes with a rather massive 512GB of storage. This is yet another reason I think the 400 Pro is going to hit home, and hit hard with content creators, because that’s so much room for high-definition filming and photographing. The regular 400 version comes with 256GB, which is still going to be plenty for a couple of years of use.

Performance

As much as I’d love to just review the Honor 400 Pro just in terms of its gaming prowess, it’s hard to do so. That camera array really does overplay its hand, so much so that it feels like a statement of intent from Honor. This is absolutely a camera phone that can play games. This isn’t a gaming phone like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro is, for example. Still, that’s not actually a bad thing, because it’s very difficult to find anyone these days who only uses a phone for one select purpose. Su🔥re, you might specialize in one task over another, but the Honor 400 Pro lets you save a bit of cash versus an enthusiast-grade gaming phone (The Asus one I mentioned costs well over a grand), and get a bit of everything.

So, who does the Honor 400 Pro suit best, if not mobile gaming enthusiasts? For my money, content creators are the ones who need to know about this device when looking for their next upgrade. If, by that, you think I mean TikTok makers and Instagram influencers, you’re not too far off pace, but as a gaming content creator for YouTube, I’m bloody impressed with the package on offer for the money here. For reference, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best webcams, like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra, for example, are 4K beasts with that Razer flagship offering the largest sensor ever put inside a webcam. It captures images at 8.3 megapixels even when recording at 4K 30fps. Short of going for a very pricey DSLR camera, you’re going to be very hard pressed to find anything that outshoots the Honor 400 Pro’s camera system. For the next video essay I make, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I swapped out the Kiyo Pro Ultra that’s currently residing in my 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Elgato Prompter to exchange it for this phone.

The camera꧙ is just ludicrously extra for what most everyday users and mobile gamers need, but at a lower price point than a lot of flagship camera-first phones, it’s hard not to recommend it. It doesn’t matter if I was pointing right at my Dad’s cat’s face, or if I was taking a massively wide﷽ landscape shot. It didn’t make a difference to the quality if I zoomed in x3, and my shaky hands were disrupting things. The Honor 400 Pro produces excellent photos every time I ask it to, and I’m not even that good a photographer. I have to say, I’m not a big fan of AI features, even if being able to remove and replace things within images comes in handy. But when playing around with the camera both in videos and photos, I felt like I had enough control and that AI wasn’t getting in my way. Still, if you want a pure, non-AI-diluted camera experience, maybe a DSLR is the way to go.

The battery life of the Honor 400 Pro is impressive. Coming from a three-year-old Samsung Galaxy S22+, it was hard to ignore such a strong battery life that lasted me well over a day when I began testing the 400 Pro. I do think there’s more etiquette to be wary🐎 of here, though, because Honor has opted for the type of battery it has. This isn’t one to leave on charge at 100% for longer than you need to. To begin with, I was getting down to only 60% at the end of a full day of use💫, but now, a few weeks on, I get down to about 40% at the end of one day. Fortunately, some AI features learn from your usage and charging habits to optimize things for you, so take a look at these things if you get one for yourself. Either way, I’d argue that a phone this powerful that can last well over 24 hours is a good thing.

Although I still think there are more quality of life wins and a couple more convenient features in Samsung’s OS, MagicOS has impressed me. As someone who has never enjoyed Apple’s iOS, I was a tad worried that this version of Android was going to feel a bit too close to Tim Cook’s door. I was happy to see plenty of options and layout settings at my fingertips, though, and although it took a little while to find things and adjust, I’m happy with the way my phone is now set up and how it all runs. I do think there’s room for improvement, though. The feature where you swipe down the way on your homescreen is needlessly complicated compared to Samsung’s phones, for example. It sort of feels like it’s being different for the sake of ꦅit. Swipe down on the right-hand side of your screen, and you’ll get your phone’s settings and quick functions like device connections, brightness, torch, and aeroplane mode. To see your notifications and other reminders, you swipe down on the left. With Samsung, wherever you swipe down, you get a consolidated menu where you can access everything. This is a small example, but there are a few things like that with MagicOS that I don’t feel really provide enough help to really warrant being rooted in.

Gaming benchmarks via 3DMark are pretty impressive for a phone that isn’t trying to make this its go-to use case. As you’ll see from the graph, the Honor 400 Pro slots above the Poco F7, but below the more specialist𒁃 range of gaming-oriented phones. For an all-rounder that really puts an emphasis on its camera, that’s great value for money for anyone who spends a lot of time playing games natively on their mobile device. In Call of Duty Mobile, I was pleased to see a pretty smooth gameplay experience, and Honor’s gaming bar let me give it an FPS boost that didn’t seem to kill too much clarity.

In cloud streaming games, the bright and vibrant display was perfect for portable gaming on a smaller device. If anything, I actually felt as though the Cloud Streaming services I was using weren’t giving me enough juice to make the most of this phone’s smooth clarity. Both in nostalgic 2D platformers like Celeste, and in more graphically dense games like Far Cry and Hunt: Showdown, the Honor 400 Pro conveyed every detail with ease. It sounds strange to say, but I like the USB-C port on the bottom of this phone, too. Compared to my older Samsung phone, it was so easy to slot the 400 Pro into the best mobile controllers and have them feel secure. Although I do wish the sound quality from the speakeꩵrs was a little better. They’re plenty powerful, but they really feel lacking in detail when at lower volumes, and when you do boost them up, the higher frequencies really pierce through and can feel a bit uncomfortable on the ol’ eardrums.

Should you buy the Honor 400 Pro?

I think that if you’re coming to your next phone upgrade looking⛎ for a decent camera, you’re going to be missing out if you don’t consider the Honor 400 Pro. This is easily a camera phone first and foremost, but it’s not one that will be an extravagant waste of money for those users who might not need such a solid quality camera.

There’s great versatility and solid gaming performance to be had here which I think any🦹one who plays on the go will appreciate. The innards and display both ꦫlend themselves to mobile gaming.

That said, ꦍI think it’s streamers, content creators, and gaming video makers who will get the most bang for their buck here. With such an excellent camera in their pocket, they’ll be consolidating costs of other parts of their setup, and as someone who reviews the best gear for streaming, that’s always going to be a win in my book.

How I tested the Honor 400 Pro

I used the Hon🅘or 400 Pro as my pho𒈔ne for close to a month before this review was written. In that time, I used it for everything from work, to general scrolling, to photography, to voice and video calls. I also used it for plenty of gaming, both natively and streamed from the cloud. I also put it through some formal benchmarking in 3DMark.

I compared my experience closely to my d𒁃ecades of using Samsung phones, and to the gaming phone reviews my colleagues have done recently.

For more on how we test the latest tech, check out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ hardware policy.

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The brawls in TMNT: Tactical Takedown, the latest from indie punk dev Strange Scaffold, are so action-packed and slick you almos♓t forget they༒'re turn-based at all, even though they take place on a tactical grid. You're encouraged to keep your turtle on the move as each turn more of the evil Foot Clan swarm in, and as the levels slowly remove and add new bits of stage. Turtle and foe alike are represented almost like tabletop miniature figures, but alter key poses based on the last action they take – or strike they receive – so you still feel plenty of momentum in how they move. (Yes, ollie with Mikey and that's the pose you get⭕, suspended in mid-air. Tubular.).

Cowabunga hunger

Strange Scaffold's take on the turtles is its own, taking a lot of cues from the bright colors of the '80s cartoon, combined with menus that have a distinctly comic book-inspired look. Picking up after both their sworn enemy and leader of the Foot Clan, Shredder, is killed, as well as their own mentor and father Master Splinter, the teenaged team have gone their own ways. Until chaos strikes, and the Foot Clan attacks New York Cit🐈y en masse with a new leader, and they need to come togethe♔r.

With that said, you're only ever controlling one turtle at a time. While you can envision a version of the pitch that has you controlling all four, I think it's a smart choice to keep things focused. TMNT: Tactical Takedown really tries to avoid overcomplication, and keeping ꧟you dialled in specifically to how your single hero can attack and move means mopping up a wave of enemies can take literal secoﷺnds before you move on from your turn.

Each turtle feels radically different to play as, even before you start swapping in alternate loadouts (which you can earn by spending currency rewarded for doing well). Michelangelo, as mentioned, is geared towards staying on the move, peeling through foes and leaving them hanging. Donatello, on the other hand, is about keeping foes at bay and controlling their movement using his tech traps like shock panels. Raphael, more hot-headed, can push and pull enemies to debuff them to take even more damage and hit them in groups. Leonardo, as the leader, uses his swords ♈to duel – building stacks of damage-boosting and evasion buffs to stand his ground.

Learning how to best use these loadouts, and customizing some of the moves on the margins (essentially, two core abilities always come as a set, with two bonus moves that can be switched out more freely) is tremendous fun. And necessary, too. When you're on a roll, tearing through The Foot and seeing their miniatures literally scatter about the screen, you feel tဣremendously powerful. But with more enemies spawning in each turn it's easy to fall behind the curve as hordes pile up – and your shell will only protect you so much.

There are no real purely defens🍸ive options, so the only ways to avoid taking damage is to take out enemies on the map or stop them from being able to hit you (either by s🌜tunning or getting out of the way). The play space is often quite tight by design, so there are only so many options once loads of enemies are present, and only so much damage you can output with the action points available each turn.

Somewhat addressing this is level mutation. Essentially, as action progresses, chunks of the stage behind yꦬou fall away, and new chunks appear. A 'GO' sign even appears, nodding towards TMNT's long history of beat 'em up brawlers, which TMNT: Tactical Takedown seriousl𒁃y draws from, even if the form of play input is ostensibly different.

Enemies caught up in the red zone will fall away, so some clumps can be left in the dust – though they are often speedy enough to stay. Other stage hazards can be used to your advantage, such as pushing foes into falling debris or getting them to stand in the way of oncoming traffic. There's some leeway if it all gets too much with a life system allowing you to respawn, giving you three chances each stage.⛦ There's a score counter and a challenge to reach a 'rad' amount for each, which is quite fun to chase on replays, which gives you ample reason to avoid respawns unless you really need them.

Street level heroes

Across its 20 levels, there's only a handful of level environment types, often associated more closely with each turtle – the story has you bouncing between them, fixed for each stage. Mikey, for instance, skates through the streets above while Donatello tracks the Foot Clan's movements through the sewers. These inherently come with their own quirks. The streets have traffic, but also friendly hot dog vendo𝕴rs who throw delicious, healing sausage treats, while the sewer's waters can poison turtles and foe alike should they stand within.

But there's not that much variation in how the stages progress or what they get you to do. Often they revolve around moving forward before stopping briefly to either holdout for a certain number of turns or dispatch X amount of a particular highlighted enemy type. Each level is p🌌retty snappy, never taking more than 15 minutes and often much less – but each excursion to, say, the rooftops, functionally feels like the last. Only one stage, Algorithm Assessment, really mixes it up, forcing Donatello to defend a single larger-than-usual room in the sewers, an excellent way to play around with his defensive combat style.

Though the rooftops and subway system theoretꦑically lend themselves to more opportunities to knock enemies off the map for instant kills, in practice – with every area a small arena – this is a valid strategy almost constantly. Big kicks are the not-so-secret weapon that sort of undermines TMNT: Tactical Takedown. As long as an enemy gets knocked off a map, they will instantly be KO'd, and the action point cost of push moves are always relatively l🃏ow. A lot of other skill options can be unnecessary compared to just punting – which is pretty satisfying, don't get me wrong – stopping other inventive skills from really shining.

With the sheer number of enemies constantly swarming, if you don't leverage the likes of big kicks you'll just get stomped to death. Nothing feels as rough as being surrounded by six enemies all piling on the damage while a spinning full-heal pizza lies just out of reach. You get to grips with optimal play quite quickly out of necessity, learning how to simply use moves to take out most enemies at a total cost of 2 AP or less. The whole game only took me around five hours on a first playthrough, but I was seeing the wireframe by the sec🦂ond half.

There are some other issues that undermine the joy of expressive play – a shame as that's where TMNT: Tactical Takedown is at its most tubular. A final sequence that intriguingly smushes together narrative and mechanics completely alters your loadout and restricts your play a bit too much, making me just wish I was back playing the turtles as they were in earlier levels. Some mechanical oversights also frustrate, like a preview line showing which enemies areꦛ able to attack a turtle on which grid square not always being accurate, or a level mutation appearing under my turtle during a boss fight the second I spend my final action point forcing me to instantly lose a life.

I love the way Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown feels to play as you run circles around legions of goons. There's an exciting inventiveness here that makes learning how it 🉐works a real thrill. But as a whole, it isn't quite able to capitalize on that vibe enough. I can appreciate a shorter game, but TMNT: Tactical Takedown's core ideas hold enough promise where I can't help but feel there's missed opportunities for more mission variety and depth. But while it lasts, it's a shell of a good time.

Teenage Muta🔯nt Ninja Turtles: Tact🍬ical Takedown was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.

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Yet, while Monster Train 2 certainly deserves that gloriously curved sequel number, this followup is really more of a Super Monster Train in the tradition of retro classics. Everything I loved about the original Monster Train is intact while feeling incredibly evolved. This is the kind of sequel that supersedes the original to the point where I'm not sure there's any point in returning – that first excursion now feels like it was merely laying down the tracks for this well-forged locomotive.

All aboard

The fundamentals are still much the same. Your task is to escort the pyre – the last embers of Hell – on your eponymous locomotive to its destination intact. Whereas the first game had you riding the tracks down to Hell, this time you're moving up the screen towards Heaven, in order to use the fire's powers to purge the encroaching Titan threat th🍬at threatens to throw both sides of the divine coin into chaos. The remaining champions from Heaven, Hell, and somewhere in between must join forces to see it done, each successful mission getting them closer to liberation.

Each segment of the map is divided by battles – some of them boss-level fights – with stop-offs to upgrade your deck and therefore your monstrous powers on the way. After each cloudy dust-up, you always get a left or right choice with a handful of distinct upgrade stations each. Will you use some pyre shards to heal your fire back to full health or nab some possibly overpowered equipment? Veer towards upgrades for your battle units, or for your spells? Duplicate a top performing card, or permanently discard two that are holding you back? Monster Train 2 is 🌠always൩ presenting you with choices, and teasing you with other equally valid upgꦍrade paths൩ you could have taken.

The battles themselves are – again – fundam🐟entally the same as in the first game. Your train is made up of four floors. The top houses your pyre, while the three below are where you can place your own monsters to fend off invaders who board from the bottom and ascend each turn (whether you've units alive on a floor or not). Things get chaotic as more foes, often beefier, board the further you get into a run, and it's up to you to bash them silly before your pyre can sustain much damage. After you play your cards each round, damage is exchanged automatically before the next begins.

Each run's deck starts off relatively similar to one another, with base train steward units and the like, but depending on your clans of choice you'll quickly end up specializing to take advantage of each one's decks. Note the plural 'clans', too – one of the best aspects of Monster Train 2 is that while you only have one clan's champion with you, you never just pick one deck to set out with, you always have to pick two. Synergy is the steamy lifeblood of Monster Train 2, you've no choice but to const⛎antly think about strategy in that way. Even trying to downplay the impact, say, the P♓yreborne's Pyregel debuffs has on your Valor-focused Banished deck is still a decision.

It's a great way of getting you to think about how cards interact – effects often play off one another whether you like it or not. Understanding how these combos work and nudging your deck to take advantage of them is how you'll pull into the station of your first wins, and is crucial for mastering covenant runs that increase complexity by making runs♛ more difficult while also stuffing your conductor's cabin with more toys to play with.

Compared to the first Monster Train, each of the starting clans in Monster Train 2 are immediately more complex, which may make those used to some of the first game's simpler methods anxious – but it's weighted this way for a reason (past tactics do return, however). Whether it's the Luna Coven's powers that boast different effects depending on the constantly changing moon phase, or the way Pyreborne builds up a stack of dragon's hoard treasure to cas❀h-in for big rewards, there's a lot to juggle.

Having no choice but to grapple with all these status effects early on helped me get to grips with how I was expected to get them to play off each other. Once I got used to them, I really didn't want ✅to return to simple hack-and-slash decks with big numbers, knowing my digits could dial much higher with some devious adjustments to the formula. Even so, I'm still getting to figuring out some clans' mechanics well into double digit hours of pla👍ytime.

Making Monster Train 2's mechanics even more complex are the addition of entirely new card types and customization options. Equipment can be attached to units in additi💦on to upgrade tokens, and Rooms can also be applied to give, well, room-enhancing effects ranging from flat stat boosts to ones that allow you to accumulate extra attack points or even money.

If that's not enough, the Pyre Heart that encases your pyre can be switched out to allow for additional effects ranging from the option to pay to du🔴plicate cards at stores to giving some cards you stumble upon a starting upgrade token (w𝓰hich, for me, can hinder as much as it helps – but I bet if you get lucky this one really goes hard).

Naturally, as a roguelike, your deck starts modest each time you pull on that train whistle for another stab at, well, stabbing (and burning, and crushing, and…). The beauty is seeing the many, many combinations combine into something that you feel verges on gamebreaking – until the next boss crushes you and puts you in your place. But, usually, not without the wince-worthy feeling of being so close.

Pick a card

There are so many possibilities and diversions you'll rarely chase the exact same synergies twice, even setting out with the same clans. Stumbling upon a new game plan always feels great. Simple early combinations may see you using the Pyreborne's Pyregel with the Luna Coven's spell-boosting Conduit buffs to rack up the damage, or using the Banished's Valor alongside Mageblade and Conduit to turn your units🍎 iওnto spellslinging tanks.

Soon enough you'll be racking up upgrade tokens to sand off the edges of top-tier spells. One run saw me forcing a damage boosting and damage shielding card to repeat back into my hand on each use for a low cost making my units near untouchable. Another had me using a smidgestone in c🅺oncert with overgrowth equipment I'd graft🗹ed onto my units to have them beef up every turn with literally no limit to how big they could grow (because they would simultaneously always be tiny – Schrodinger's size).

All of these wonderful synergies do have one slight downside – enemy units also come with stacks of their own๊ special abilities you need to be aware of. Often you can tell at a glance with damage previews what you're dealing with, but as units get more complicated it can sometimes feel like a chore to parse out exactly what you're up against, constantly having to hit the 'see more' b🎃utton to expand the list of effects. Or, more often than not, chancing it.

At the very least, vital boss effects are indicated in the pre-battle splash screen, so you're never not aware of anything big. Monste🌳r Train 2's bulging suitcase of special powers is to its benefit more often than not, but it can be overwhelming in terms of the sheer amount of data.

Beyond just throwing yourself back onto the tracks for repeat runs there's plenty to chase as well, from a legion of unlocks, to playing with mutators, escalating covenant difficulties, and even dimensional challenges. I really love these challenge runs, as they're great wa🐷ys of forcing you to play with particular set-ups and special rules that can make you feel overpowered as much as they can be tricky – and do a great job at introducing you to combinations you might no🧔t have thought of.

Monster Train 2 also features a greater emphasis on story than the original Monster Train which is to say, still not much. The visual novel style presentation is particularly basic, and the writing itself is not all that engaging. It's enough to remind you that the repeating set-up could in theory lend itself to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a structure similar to Hades while not really being anything like it.

Oddly, story progression is tied to unlocking Pyre Hearts, done by achieving milestones like holding Frozen cards in your hand for long enough, or applying a certain total amount of debuffs. It's not a particularly thrilling way of progressing, as much fun as the Pyre Hearts themselves are to play around with – and feels like needless padding, especially when you have to slog through a couple that just don't fit your playstyle at all (debuffs feel like they progress so slowly).

With that said, swiping my pass for another trip on Monster Train 2 isn't something I need much excuse to do other than the simple pleasure of playing the game itself. With so many options in each run, I'm never quite sure what to expect – runs where I'm certain I'm off to a bad start turning into crackling storms of synergy, and sometimes the overconfidence of a solid beginning becoming a nightmare. This journey's quick enough to have me reaching my destination, dusting myself off, and jumping right bac🐎k on board for another – even if that means leaving my luggage behind.

Monster Train 2 was reviewed on PC, with a code🐓 provided by the publisher.

Check out our calendar of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games of 2025 for what to play next. Want more like this? We have a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best roguelikes list for you too!

But as with any of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Lego sets, the Lego Walt Disney Tribute Camera isn’t just designed to look the part; you’ll find several additional features, including the interior of the large-format camera, doubling as Walt’𝓰s studio. Just don’t expect too much playability (this is an 18+ set after all), meaning it’s designed predominantly for display.

So, wi🌠thout further ado, let’s take a peek behind the magic…

Lego Walt Disney Tribute Camera features

• 18+ set for display
• Five fantastic minifigures
• Multiplane camera/clapperboard side build

Most Disney films might be aimed at families and children, but there are plenty of adult Disney fans out there (mysel꧙f included). Lego has tapped into this lucrative demographic with a rather formidable 18+ range of Lego Disney sets, which includes the Lego Walt Disney Tribute Camera. And while younger brick builders will no doubt be enamoured by the set’s minifigures, play sets such as Encanto’s The Magical Madrigal House (43245) and Moana 2’s Kakamora Barge (43258) will likely be much more appealing to little Disney fanatics than a vintage, large-format film camera. This is a set to display on a shelf. Indeed, I’ve put it next to my collection of Disney Classics Blu-Rays and it looks great.

Build

• 811 pieces
• No stickers
• Enjoyable build

The first bag contains the multiplane 𒐪camera and clapperboard base. Major kudos to Lego for printing all three of the multiplane slides, which could have so easily been stickers. In fact, there are no stickers at all, which is mighty unusual for a larger set. I then moved onto the top of the tripod, which predominantly comprises Technic pieces and is the hardest part of the build to put together. I had a little trouble placing the l😼arge cog on top of the arrangement and was thankful for the top-down diagram in the instruction manual, which enabled me to figure things out relatively quickly.

I tackled the tripod legs next, which largely use traꦏditional Lego pieces. Although putting together each Lego block is repetitive, they come together quickly, and before you know it, you’re moving onto the body of the large-format camera and Walt’s studio. Repetition is par for the course in almost all Lego sets, but as far as 18+ sets go, the Lego Walt Disney Tribute Camera is less repetitive than most.

Adding the interior details to the large-format camera’s body kept the build feeling fresh and the crank mechanism was a nice, mid📖point distraction from build🅘ing up all four sides of the rectangular structure. I then moved on to the lens arrangement at the front of the camera and the sliding matte box, before piecing together the swivelling viewfinder.

Attaching the length of film was simple enough, thanks to another great instructional diagram, and once finished, it was the point where the set really beg🍌an to look the part, with only the film reels left to go. The '1' on the end of the reels that makes up the '100' to coincide with Disney’s centenary was slightly fiddly to attach and is the most delicate part of the model (prone to popping off in transit).

Overall, the most challenging part of the ⛄build is the top of the tripod and its Technic construction. And while this certainly isn’t a difficult set to put together, it is a littl♚e fiddly and delicate at times. I could certainly see younger builders becoming frustrated with it, so the 18+ rating seems fair.

Lego Walt Disney Tribute Camera design

• Working crank
• Walt's office interior
• Printed film reel displays Disney's greatest hits

This is a lovely set that’s going to look fantastic on a shelf, alongside a Disney DVD or Blu-Ray collection. The large-format camera is the star of the show and is aesthetically spot on. I love how the designers have incorporated the ‘100’ logo into the film reels atop the camera, and how the working crank faithfully simulates the clacking sound of an opening and closing shutter mechanism. You can also move the matte box for𓄧ward to reveal the lens arrangement – although it’ll slide back into place. The lens disc spins so you can switch lenses, and the viewfinder can be swivelled upwards or downwards so you can o♉pen the hatch to reveal Walt’s studio.

There you’ll find a desk on which to place the sketch of Mickey Mouse and a chair for Walt to sit on. Unfortunately, the door isn’t able to close fully 🦂with Walt sitting in the chair, without unseating the minifigure inside. This can prove a little frustratingꦺ, but as you’ll likely want to display the set with Walt standing on the clapperboard, it’s not the end of the world. What I do think is a shame is that you cannot pan and/or tilt the camera. This is perpetuated by the presence of a panning and tilting arm, which invites you to move the camera, only to find that you can’t.

As a display piece, though, I cannot fault the camera. My favorite part is easily the roll of film, which features 20 film cells, each with an image from a famous Disney film, but in Lego form. It’s a real joy looking at each cell, with classics such as The Lion King, The Jungle Book, and Pinocchio, as we💟ll as cult gems such as The Rescuers and The Sword in the Stone. And while I mentioned that the ‘1’ is prone to popping off, the camera and tripod are surprisingly sturdy, overall. Despite its height, you’d have to really knock the model to force it over.

Moving on to the multiplane camera side build. This is a great little Easter egg for Disney buffs and an ingenious base in which to house the minifigures. Speaking of Easter eggs, the multiplane camera displays an image of a farmhouse beneath the moon. This is the sam꧂e scene the real Walt Disney used to explain the wo💧rkings of the multiplane camera in a 1957 documentary called Tricks of Our Trade.

However, I can’t help but feel the side build is a little bit of a missed opportunity. I’m aware that a fully working multiplane model would have to be much bigger and wouldn’t garner nearly as much appeal as a vintage film camera, but if the planes could have moved up and down independently, I think it would ha♕ve elevated this little model to the next level. However, that shouldn’t detract from what is ultimately an extremely neat side build.

This set comes with five minifigures, which is a great haul for an 18+ display set that could have easily been released with none at all. You get Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Dumbo, Bambi, and Walt Disney himself. Youngsters will no doubt delight in seeing their favorite Disney characters, but my pick of the bunch is Walt. We’ve never seen Disney’s head honcho in minifigure form and considering he’s just a man in a suit, L🔥ego has done a great job. You get two head sculpts that nail Walt’s trademark moustached look, the suit printing looks the part, and you even get a little pen and sketch of Mickey from Steamboat Willie for him to hold.

Mickey is very similar to the Steamboat Willie incarnations we’ve𝓡 seen before, but without the hat. His torso and arms are completel🌠y black, but he features dual-molded legs with nice printing. And his head sculpt, which we’ve seen before, still looks marvelous. Again, Minnie is much like her Steamboat Willie counterpart but she does feature different eyelash printing, which I consider to be an improvement.

Dumbo and Bambi aren’t technically Minifigures in the traditional sen𝔉se, with no points of articulation, but they’re roughly Minifigure size, look like their respective characters, and feature nice printing.

At / , this set provides a price per piece rat☂io of 12ꦺ.3c/11.1p, which puts it roughly around Lego’s average. And although it’s not the best-value set out there on the face of it, it is a licensed set, and I think the five minifigures, the absence of any stickers, and that beautiful roll of film make it worth the price of admission.

Should you buy the Lego Wal🔥t Disney Tribute Camera?

You need look no further than thꩲe box art to know that the Lego Walt Disney Tribute Camera is a magnificent-looking set. It's perfect as a more subtle display piece for fans of any era, and 🥂it won't dominate a space as much as the (excellent) castle kit.

It's a wonderfully geeky deep cut too, which makes for a thoughtful conversation starter. While most people will no doubt gravitate towards the large-format camera, I was most interested in the multiplane camera side build. Now, I’m a self-confessed camera nerd, but if you’re a hardcore Disney fan, I think you’ll be enamoured by this interesting little build as well. Disney used the multiplane camera to split background artwork into multiple planes. 🐽This meant that each plane could be moved back, forth, and side to side independently, allowing for a more realistic perspective when zooming in and out, and simulating the parallax effect when tracking.

Suffice to say, there’s plenty here ꧅to keep Disney adults, House of Mouse super fans, and filmmaဣking nerds happy.

However, all this means the Tribute Camera is definitely meant for grown-ups - it won't suit children because it lacks that all-important playability. If you’re buying for a younger builder, then you’ll want to take a look at a playset, such as the 🌳Lego Animal Crossing Fly with Dodo Airlines (7705🌠1) or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lego Fortnite Battle Bus (77073).

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested the Lego Walt Disney Tribute Camera

This review sample was provided by Lego.

It took me just over two hours to put together the Lego Walt Disney Tribute Camera. I built the model in one sitting and displayed it in my living room for a couple of weeks to get a feel for it as an ornament. I spent plenty of time moving the model around and testing out its various playability feature🍌s when I photographed it. And it sat on my desk while I was writing this article, so I could refer to it constantly. I’ve been collecting Le♋go since the early ‘90s and have built models intended for all ages and across a huge variety of themes. So, rest assured, I’m a brick-building superfan!

For more information on our procedure, take a look at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test products.

For more brick-based goodness, don't miss our guides to the best 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lego deals.

Blades of Fire finally solves these problems by being the type of brutal parent that'd literally snap my toys in two – perhaps less 'in conversation' than a stern talking to. Every weapon you forge he💝re will break sooner or later, and I can see this being the most controversial it's been in a game since 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wil🦩d. But this tough love was exactly what I needed. Breaking my weapons broke me out of my combat comfort zone. I c🎐ouldn't even tell you what it feels like to swing a claymore in Dark Souls, whereas in Blades of Fire I've had to learn to fight with claymores, sabers, polearms, axes, dagger✨s, spears, oh my!

You're Aran De Lira, a blacksmith living in isolation in the woods who one day gets a visit from an old friend. Unfortunately, that old friend immediately gets his throat slit. So Aran goes on a quest of revenge against the tyrannical queen who's to blame for this, as well as the generally m꧒iserable state of this brutal fantasy world.

Ah, but it doesn't stay miserable for long, and Blades of Fire's first pleasant surprise is the upbeat tone that blossoms shortly after that initial, er, throat-slitting. Aran is joined on his quest by Adso, a pacifist type steadily putting together a 🍃bestiary of everything that's repeatedly smacking you in the face. Aran takes a shine to Adso immediately and their friendly dynamic is hugely refreshing in what too often is gaming's most grimdark genre.

There's still darkness aplenty. The game is practically drowning in blood, you face creatures that are pure nightmare-fuel, and I'd hate to meet the interior designer who thought chandel🃏iers would be improved by looking like they have human finge🀅rs. But there's a pulpiness to the tone, a joy of adventuring, that's delightfully infectious. Adso will tell Aran about how he's drawn pictures of the enemy you're fighting, while it's still very much trying to kill you. "That's great lad!" says Aran, desperately trying to stop his face getting sliced off "I'll take a look when I get a minute!"

Creature discomforts

Forests, deserts, icy areas, and castles have been done to death, ജeven if they are particularly pretty here. Far more inspired are the creatures you meet in them. There's the master forger who lives in a giant flying ant. A purple ogre 'king' who seems nice enough, but would almost definitely like to eat you. As for what you're fighting, there's the usual soldiers in armor, sure. But there's also little enemies who use their swords as pogo sticks to bounce out of reach of your attacks.

Significantly less adorable are the warriors who slit their own throats and in the process somehow turn themselves into lethal spinning Crash Bandicoot-types in their final bloody moments. There's a gleefull💙y nasty imagination at work here that makes you want to keep playing just to see what the game will throw at you next. How did something so full of bizarre id🍸eas end up with a title as woefully generic as Blades of Fire?

Kill a set amount of an enemy and you'll be able to craft the weapon they've been using against you. It's a great incentive to properly engage with combat. A cave ✱full of morlocks that are instant death if you let the lights go out is absolutely horrifying. But the trident forge scroll I got for knuckling down aꦗnd slaying sixty of them was well worth it.

Forging is an elaborate process, complete with loving cutscenes of the process that even 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Monster Hunter Wilds fans might consider over the top. You have to choose what wood and steel you use, affecting things like durability, stamina cost, and the all important damage output. There's no shields here, but use the right material and you'll be able to block a few blows with your weapon. And tempti🐓ng as it is to use all your rarest ingredients to make a ferocious monster-slayer, that could really screw ♍you over when it comes time to repair it.

I imagine some of you read that last paragraph and decided th🐻ere and then that you'll never play Blades of Fire. A pity, because weapon degradation is just the most obviously frustrating of the many clever ways it gets you to experiment with a wide range of weaponry. The game's UI makes it crystal clear whether an enemy is weak to your chosen weapon, will block a lot of its damage, or if you might as well be hitting it with a wet newspaper.

Sometimes I'd stubbornly try to brute-force my way through with a couple of weapons I'd grown overly fond of. But there's far more satisfaction to be had here when you take the time to engage with weapon-forging properly. It can slow the pace when you have to make yet another trip to the forge, or go o𓆏n a t🐈edious backtrack for crafting materials. But finally forging the right tool for the job and then introducing said tool to the correct monster's face usually made it all worth it.

Crushing it

It certainly helps that nearly every weapon is a joy to use, smacking foes with a hugely satisfying screen-shaking wallop, or slicing bits off them and watching their blood spray everywhere. Choosing which direction you attack from is far more important here than in the avera🔴ge soulslike, as is whether you swing your sword or thrust it. Tapping dodge once will move Aran, but you'll have to double tap for a dodge roll. That roll is more evasive, but also eats up time you could've spent on a counter-attack if only you'd been a bit braver. Despite blocking being a highly-limited last resort, parrying is still immensely rewarding, though I'd expect no less from the studio that taught Samus Aran how to parry in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Metroid Dread. It's a really rewarding combat system to get to grips wi🃏th.

And then there are the heavy attacks. Oh, the heavy attacks! Executing them is where Blades of Fire starts to feel like consistently winning the lottery. L꧅anding these killer blows feels tremendous, and watching a massive chunk of a boss' health bar plummet is basically why we play video games.

These attacks can be interrupted, and some of the heftier weapons take longer to wind up their heavy attack than 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valve is taking with Half Life 3. But when the impact is as o🌜h-so-sweet as this, it's worth it. Besides, all the swiftest weapons have heavy attacks too. Landing several charged strikes with a pair of axes while a gigantic troll fails to get even a single hit on me feels incredible. That's another weapon I wouldn't have bothere🌸d trying if my tool of choice hadn't broken on me and forced my hand. Now I use my beloved axes all the time.

There's no levelling up, so combat is rewarded with enemies dropping crafting materials. Exploration is incentivised with hidden health upgrades, stamina upgrades, more crafting options for your weaponry, etc. All helpful stuff, and it doesn't hurt that scavenging every inch of Blad𓆉es of Fires' maps for secrets is a treat.

You don't make a couple of Metroid games for Nintendo without learning a thing or two about Metroidvania design, and Mercu🌃r🉐ySteam prove once again highly accomplished at keeping secrets. They're constantly rewarding you for paying attention and thinking outside the box. Fall damage is a little ruthless, considering several discoveries involve guiding Aran off a ledge, but death is only punished with dropping your held weapon wherever you died anyway, and you can go pick it up whenever you like (it actually makes for quite a handy, if slightly ghoulish, waypoint marker).

The story's a fairly standard revenge tale, but entertainingly told with fun characters and a series of gloriously shit-eating villains worthy of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Yakuza games. Aran and Adso make for a great double act, too, though I did star♐t to grate with Adso's repeated lines after a while. I should be dreading shimmying across a narrow ledge because of the deadly drop below, not because Adso is about to repeat the same 'hilarious' quip yet again.

Say no more

That's a mild irritant compared to one area which is almost ruined by a ghost who insists on coming along for the journey. "I'm more nervous than a ghost at an exorcism!" he exclaims. "I'm more nervous than a ghost at an exorcism!" he repeats a few minutes later. "I'm more nervous than a gho–" Oh good god shut up! Didn't we pass some sort of law against repeateꦅd NPC barks years ago?

He earns a full two paragraphs of whinging in this review because he's one of the game's very few tonal missteps. Otherwise, I love how the tone jumps effortlessly between 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gory Game of Thrones nastiness one second, and ✅Indiana-Jones-esq💖ue excitement of being on an adventure the next. The cuteꩲ little skeleton lad that you escort in one chapter is a particular highlight, especially because that bony boy is thankfully missing a larynx.

I started Blades of Fire skeptical that a dark fantasy soulslike had anything new to show me. But not since Sekiro snatched away my shield and made me learn to parry has one of these games so successfully forced me to entertain a different playstyle. It's got the Metroidvania chops of their Nintendo Switch high-point Metroid Dread, the fantasy-horror imagination of their 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 𝄹games, and a fantastic combat system that smashes them both. A 𒉰great adventure that'll make you want to try every weapon it hits you with. Outstanding.

Blades of Fire was reviewed on PS5, with a code provi♏ded by the p🌟ublisher

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games of 2025 list for what to play next!

I could understand the appeal of building and displaying the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lego Fortnite Battle Bus (77073), 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lego Fortnite Supply Llama (77071), and even the miniature (by comparison) Lego Fortnite Durrr Burger (77070), as they are all iconic parts of the game. While Peely is clearly a popular character,⛎ with over 20 different versions of his outfit available, focusing on the Halloween-themed Peely Bone variant felt like an odd choice to me, especially as it was unlikely to have the same universal charm as his more conventional look.

So, could this banana bandit win me over? I can tell you that yes, against the odds he ultimately did! While the Lego Fortnite Peely Bone (77072) won't be to everybody's taste, if you're looking for a visually striking (and slightly gruesome) model to display then this may be one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Lego sets you can pick up.

Lego Fortnite Peely Bone (77072) features

• Quite expensive
• Impressively hefty
• Peely has guts!

Lego Fortnite Peely Bone will cost you around a hundred bucks, which means it's definitely considered to be in the premium price territory – if you're considering purchasing it as a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gift for gamers, then make sure it's going to be suitable for them first. While this price tag matches that of the Lego Fortnite Battle Bus, you are getting almost 🌟500 additional pieces he𓆉re, though no minifigs which balances things out somewhat.

The first thing you notice with the Lego Fortnite Peely Bone set is the heft of it, with the box weighing in at an impressively heavy 3.75lb (1.7kg) when it arrives, and once fully assembled the model still clocks in at over 2lb (almost 1kg). It also stands at over 14in (36cm) tall and at least 6.ꦐ5i🦹n (17cm) wide depending on how you pose the arms, which means you'll need a sturdy shelf with a reasonable amount of space around it for your display.

Those poseable arms are one of the key features of the Lego Fortnite Peely Bone model, and thanks to some subtly integrated clips in the hands, they maintain⛄ a solid grip on the detailed Peely Pick Pickaxe and Paint Launcher accessories. They ofꦺfer segmented bi-directional movement at the shoulders as well as bending at the wrists, which opens up a wide variety of stances.

Build

• A longer build that you may need to divide up
• Clear instructions throughout
• Some of the later steps can be tricky

It shouldn't come as a surprise that a build featuring over 1,400 pieces will take a decent amount of time to complete, but it's definitely something to consider. It took me around nine hours to assemꦑble Lego Fortnite Peely Bone, working methodically and carefully though the stages that involved lots of small parts. There are a total of 15 paper bags containing all of those pieces, which provides plenty of opportunities to take a break along the way.

The weighty tome of an instruction booklet includes more than 200 pages with almost 500 steps in total to run through, and although there are some fairly complicated building techniques used to keep the model standing, these were never difficult to follow. It was really inte෴resting seeing it come together over time, as after constructing the base and legs the body began as a nondescript, colorful chunk of b🥂locks, then was gradually built up in layers until it took on a recognizable banana form.

While the majority of the build was quite straightforward, things do get a bit tr🦩icky when you have to initially connect the heavy main body to the narrow legs to make the model freestanding. This results in the structure being a bit wobbly at first, which feels somewhat dicey when you have to then attach ওadditional pieces to it, though you do eventually shore everything up to become considerably more stable. There were also a couple of fiddly steps installing lots of small parts, such as the ribs of the skeleton and the guts, but thankfully they were few and far between.

If you don't enjoy the stress of applying stickers to your Lego sets, then I have great news! From the mouth and bruised patches on the banana skin to the detailing on the side of the Paint Launcher and the nameplate on the display stand, all of those are printed pieces that look great. There is just a single solitary deca🏅l included – a banana sticker to go on Peely's back – which is actually a f💞unny little touch.

Design

• Clever building techniques add interesting angles
• Sturdy despite the size and weight
• Lots of little details to spot

It's clear that a lot of thought has been put into the design of the Lego Fortnite Peely Bone model, to make it as interesting as possible. Having the two legs starting at different heights and angles but still connecting solidly to the body is an incredibly impressive feat of engineering,🤡 and you'll discover some really interesting building techniques as you assemble the set that make this possible.

There are a number of Easter eggs tucked away during the build that only you will know about, such as a hidden heart and brain for Peely in contrast to his other, more visible internal workings. The𝔉re are also some fun uses of unexpected pieces if you look closely, such as white boomerang🎉s and sausages employed as bones, and a yellow telephone forming a heel.

As well as the fun sticker I mentioned earlier, Peely also has the Banana Bag Back Bling strapped on behind him, complete with several additional bunches of bananas hanging off it. This is not only a cool accessory, but it also cleverly acts as a counterweight to the model, increasing its stability and allowing for ওmore poseable positions of the arms.

Should you buy the Lego Fortnite Peely 🔥Bone (77072)?

The Lego Fortnite Peely Bone is a highly detailed model, but it won't appeal to everybody, so the answer to whether you should buy it or not comes down to personal taste. If you're not going to have fun looking at a half-banana, half-skeleton figure with its guts out, then clearly this isn't for you, but if you enjoy the quirꦦkiness and have a soft spot for ol' Peely himself then this would be a great addition to your collection.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How weꩲ tested the Lego Fortnite Peely Bone (77072)

This review was ﷽made using a sample provided by the publisher.

I built the Lego Fortnite Peely Bone (77072) set over the course of a day in three s🧔eparate sessions, which totalled around nine hours overall. Having done this, I would personally recommend dividing it up over a couple of days to avoid building fatigue, and with 15 bags of parts in total there are plenty of easy points to take a 💟break until the next session.

For more, check out our guide to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test products.

Looking for the perfect present for fans of a galaxy far, far away? Don't miss these 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars gifts or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Star Wars board games.

Unfortunately, it proved to be a disappointing experience for me and the Elden Ring players I shared it with. Elden Ring: The Board Game – Realm of the Grafted King may look the part, but it's unlikely to earn a spot on lists of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best board games.

Elden Rinꦉg: The Board Game - Realm of the Grafted King features & design

• Level up your weapon and attribute decks
• Great-looking, imposing miniatures
• Rulebook quickly fell apart

Elden Ring: The Board Game - Realm of the Grafted ♛King is one of three huge standalone games that can also be joined together for a longer campaign, and it takes us to the forests of Limgrave for 30 replayable scenarios. Characters grow𝐆 more powerful over time as they unlock better equipment, discover new crafting recipes, and improve their attributes. The larger campaign is divided into numerous bite-sized scenarios where players battle bosses, fight waves of enemies, make decisions in choose-your-own adventure-style narrative sequences, and explore the world by flipping over tiles.

One to four players share the adventure as Tarnished with different specialties, with the tough Vagabond protecting the team while the Prophet provides healing and the Samurai moves around the board to engage with enemies and avoid attacks. Their combat prowess is represented by building a pair of decks, one representing their weapons and one tied to their attributes. When they take an action in a fight, they choose a card from theiꩵr hand for a power or basic attack and then randomly reveal an attribute card to determine how powerful the effect is. Each scenario awards players with runes they can spend to upgrade theꦆir equipment — unlocking more powerful attack cards — and buy improved attribute cards. This creates a satisfying feeling of progress after every session.

Whil𓄧e the miniatures representing the game’s many t🐼ypes of foes look great, the other components leave a lot to be desired. Although it could obviously have been an one-off with my review copy, the binding on my rulebook started falling apart during our first session as we flipped back and forth trying to make sense of some of the more confusing rules. The game is complex, and player aids would have been greatly appreciated to provide reminders during combat and exploration. There also weren’t enough cards representing runes, which made it hard to keep track of how many you had if you wanted to save some between scenarios or cash out some of your cards for a big upgrade.

The color scheme is mostly gray, dark green, and brown, which isn’t very visually interesting and makes it hard to determine which symbols are shown on a tile you’re exploring since most of them look pretty similar. One of the worst offenders is flasks used to heal and refresh your focus points. They’re mostly gold with just a tiny splas෴h of green꧑ or red, meaning you have to squint to check which is which.

The text on cards is also too small.

Gameplay

• Tactical grid fights
• Gather resources by flipping tiles
• Quests and narrative don’t do enough

The Elden Ring video game lets players explore a big, open world, and different areas are represented in the board game by stacks of tiles that are revealed as your character moves. These can have resources you're able to pick up, hardships you need to bypass to advance, or foes that are fought by moving your character to a battle that takes place on a grid in an encounter book. During boss fights, several of th🐻e books are lined up to produce a larger field of battle.

Initiative is one of the most important parts of a fight, with cards representing the players and their foes shuffled together and then dealt out to determine the turn order. Enemy attacks can be devastating, so when possible you want to make sure that they hit a character with a strong defense or that you can position yourselv🦹es so that the enemies don’t have a valid target. Some abilities also can stagger opponentsꦍ, making them skip their turn.

Characters positioned in the middle of the grid have a limited ability to manipulate the initiative order sಞo that’s probably where you’re going to live if you’re playing solo or prefer a cautious strategy. The back row makes your character more defensive, while the front makes it easier for them to unleash a devastating attack. Moving between requires balancing risk and rewards and ꧙understanding your class role.

While boss battles involve everyone, each fight in the more common exploration scenarios has a set number of initiative cards that can be inv🅘olved, representing the number of players and summoned creatures. It works well for scaling if someone in a multiplayer game misses a session, but it’s a bit awkward when two players are taking their turns on the more complex combat and the 🔯others are just wandering around picking up herbs.

This division would feel better if the game had more of a time crunch that encouraged players to split their focus. Instead Elden Ring rewards grinding by exploring every tꦦile and using a Site of Grace to refres🌌h material nodes and gather more. Time is tracked by a weather deck that occasionally prompts players to draw challenging events but mostly does nothing.

Narrative chapters are underwhelming too, just boiling down to rea🌳ding blocks of text and making some decisions on how you approach things that can cause you to lose health or maybe gain a good card that could come up in a future scenario. Each class has a series of quests they move through by performing certain activities in the course of normal gameplay like overcoming hardships or attacking enemies, but most of the time completing a quest just leads to picking up a new quest without even a tiny intermediate reward. The tasks also aren’t created equal between classes which meant that my Vanguard hadn’t even completed the first quest by the time the Samurai had finished five and unlocked a new weapon.

Sh🎀ould you buy Elden Ring: The Board Game🅰 - Realm of the Grafted King?

I certainly don’t think Elden Ring: The Board Game – Realm of the Grafted King is worth its very☂ high price tag, and everyone I’ve played it with — from fans of the video game to general dungeon-crawling enthusiasts — agreed. While the game offers many scenarios to play through with impressive boꦛsses you’ll want to tailor your deck to face, the overall gameplay quickly grew tedious.

I wanted a new cooperative game to challenge my friends, but Elden Ring’s shoddy components, unimpressive narrative, and bland challenges has left us continuing our search. If you’re a board game player, I’d recommend you pick up the Descent series or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gloomhaven instead. If you’re a big Elden Ring fan, you’re better off ju🦂st grabbing Nightr꧃eign.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Elden Ring: Th𓂃e Board Ga𝔍me - Realm of the Grafted King

This review was conducted usꦑing a sample provided by the publisher.

Our reviewer played this game over multiple sessions with a variety of people that included board game regulars and Elden Ring fans to provide a broader overview of how the system works, along with how it'd be received by different audiences. Samantha has been writing about tabletop games for more than a decade, so has plenty of examples to compare this agaiꦓnst.

To find out more, see this guide to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test board games or check the complete 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Want something else to try? Be sure to check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best 2-player board games, or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best adult board games.

The value on offer here is particularly strong. While the build construction and plastic material isn't the most comfortable or tactile on the market, the shape is fantastic, the sensor is speedy, and the controls are well-placed. If 𒁃you're on the hunt for a tail-free rodent but don't want to break the bank, you'll find very few sacrifices compared to𒁃 the flagships here.

Design

The Keychron M7 8K doesn't b♒reak the rulebook in its design, but it does add to it. The soft curve of the main chassis is supported by a generous thumb rest on the left flank and finished off with a soft-touch matte surface that feels fantastic under the hands. That means this is a comfort-first design, but one with a standard width and height for more nimble maneuvers.

It carries a larger footprint than many of the gaming mice in this mid-range, lightweight category but still manages to feel pliable under the fingertips. A total width of 77.1mm takes the thumb rest into account, which means it looks much larger than alternatives from Razer, Glorious, and Endgame Gear on paper. In reality, the actual grippable dome is far more streamlined. The Keychron M7 8K measures 124mm in length, which is again a touch larger than the 113mm 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Glorious Model O 2 Mini and 122mm 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed.

Much of that extra space, however, has been pushed towards the front of the device, with longer main clic🥃ks. That means the rear curve still easily slots in underneath the palm with space to spare, and I was still able to pivot the device from side to side in a claw grip.

That's an impressive combination of comfort and freedom of movement that I rarely see in mice that verge towards the top end of the size scale. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Turtle Beach Kone II Air, for example, goes all in on its wider base at the expense of flickability. The low 63g weight isn't quite as nimble as the 55g 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Cougar Revenger Pro 4K or Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed, but it's light enough to stay fast while still providing a nꦺice sense of grounding to eaꦺch movement. In my opinion, it's just a few grams heavier than the sweet spot.

The actual ﷺconstruction feels fairly solid, though I did noti💯ce some considerable creaking when pressure is applied to the sides. There's also a slight flex from the bottom panel (though absolutely nothing from the top of the main dome) when pushed in the other direction as well. This is a cheaper all-plastic build, so it's easy to forgive.

The skates planted on the underside of the Keychron M7 8K aren't going to give the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse anything to worry about, and don't provide the super-smooth glide you'd expect from a more expensive pointer. They do, however, keep things moving along nicely with minimal sticking. I did require a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:mouse pad for a better experience.

The Keychron M7 8K comes in black or white, both benefiting𒁏 from the same matte finish and glossy side buttons. The white model I received is nice and crisp, though grime and dust do show up far quicker and take a little work to remove fully.

Controls

The Keychron M7 8K packs all the standard controls you'd expect fܫrom a gaming mouse, though removes any side-to-side action on the scroll wheel that you'll see in some other models. Instead, the M7 comes with an addi﷽tional clicker on the left flank, an angled third button that can be set up as a temporary DPI slower or simply configured to any other keybinding you choose.

I take as many buttons as I can on the side of my gaming mice, for both productivit꧃y and gameplay, so I'm always happy to see extras added. This third button could be difficult to hit if you have particularly small hands, ဣdue to its placement fairly high up the length of the chassis.

However, I have relatively little grabbers and was able to hook🌳 my thum🉐b onto the angled portion of the button with ease. It doesn't take too much pressure to actuate either, which keeps it flexible for lighter touches without having to shift grip too far. The two main side buttons are perfectly positioned for speedy access without the threat of misfiring.

It's rare to find a third side button in gaming m♏ice at this pr𓃲ice point - none of the other models in this $69.99 - $99.99 comparison pool go beyond the traditional two-button array.

Underneath, you'll find dedicated shifters for DPI and polling rate settings (as well as LED indicators for each). That's a feature I loved in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Keychron M5. Again, it's rare to have on-the-fly acces𝔍s to polling rates no matter how much you're paying for your pointer.

Software

Keychron doesn't rely on a download for its configuration software, instead keeping things light with an in-browser setup. That means no additional CPU usage and no annoying software updates and notifications. Everything is saved directly onto the M7𒆙's onboard storage and can be adjus♔ted from session to session, simply by running the .

The interface itself is neatly intuitive as well. Each of your configurable buttons are displayed on a graphic of the mouse, with keybinding options available on the lower half of the screen. Unlike the software packaged with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Razer mice or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Logitech gaming mouse models, your customized inputs aren't reflected directly on the mouse's grไaphic, which can make things a little more confusing, but they're displayed neatly in a table below instead.

DPI settings can be configured in five stages, and adjusted in increments of 50. That's not as fine a level of control as you'll see in more expensive mice, but it's certainly everything an everyday player will need. Each preset is assigned a color which is represented via an LED on the underside of the 🅠mouse as well.

Overall, ✅everything is easy to find and I never ran into any issues setting up different profiles and presets, even when leaving the Launcher website and reloading at a later date. It could be pretti💃er, but I'll certainly take streamlined functionality over CPU-heavy graphics and ads any day.

Connection

Packing all three connection methods (2.4GHz, Bluetooth, and wired) as well as an 8,000Hz polling rate means the Keychron M7 8K beats the rest of its competition in this price range. The Cougar Revenger Pro 4K drops Bluetooth functionality and taps out at 4,000Hz for the same $69.99 price point and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Viper V3 Hyperspeed only uses a 2.4GHz connection for the same rate. Even at the $99.99 position, the Glorious Model O 2 Mini drops you down to a 1,000Hz polling rate while �൩�keeping all three connection options and the Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed kills Bluetooth and requires an additional dongle for super-fast polling.

That means the Keychron M7 8K is set up particularly well within its price bracket and, while the higher polling rate will only make sense for particularly competitive players, the versatility of those connection options is a win for everyone. I can keep the 2.4GHz receiver plugged into my 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gaming laptop and run the pointer off Bluetooth⛦ on ⭕my handheld (where ports are far more limited) or iPad, for example.

I never noticed any stuttering or lag༒ging over either Bluetooth or 2.4GHz, even when battery levels started to run down.

Battery

Keychron s🉐tates that the M7 8K can run for up to 140🐼 hours on a single charge, a considerable improvement over the 70-hour lifespan of the previous M7 model. It still keeps the M7 8K from the top of the testing pool, though it does beat a number of $99.99 options out there. The Cougar Revenger Pro 4K taps out after 150 hours and the Razer Viper V3 Hyperspeed can run for up to 280 hours (though that is on a replaceable AA battery).

Still, I haven't had to charge this pointer once in my testing, which is more than I can say for some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best wireless gaming mouse models I've had my hands on.

Sensor

The Keychron M7 8K comes with a Pixart PAW 3950 sensor under the hood, capable of tracking at up to 750 inches-per-second across up to 30,000 dots-per-inch. That's a solid mid-range spec sheet, and far more than you'll usually see from a mid-range model. The Cougar Revenger Pro 4K taps out at 26,000 DPI / 650 IPS, as do the more expensive Glorious Model O 2 Mini, Razer Viper V3 Hyperspeed, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Endgame Gear OP1 8K.

Keychron makes this sensor a little confusing on its site. There is another M7 model available without the 8,000Hz polling and a weaker PAW 3395 sensor (26,000 DPI and 650 IPS) and, confusingly, some of that model's specs have been pulled through to the 8K's listing. If you are looking at additional retailers, it's well worth double checking the listed specifications to make sure you're picking up the 3950 model. It will give you access to that faster polling sure, but also a lower 0.7mm lift-off distance option and better power handling. You can read more about the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:PAW 3395 vs PAW 3950 and what it realistically means for each mouse as w💝ell.

The PAW 3950 runs beautifully sitting inside the Keychron M7 8K. Faster in-game mouse movements are tracked perfectly༒, representing as close to 1:1 movement as you can ask for beneath the $100 threshold. Ramping things up beyond my usual 3,200 DPI, action is still s🍷mooth thanks to the ripple control feature and even motion sync doesn't feel too woolly here.

Switches

Huano 80M Micro Switches sit inside t𒐪he main clicks of the Keychron𒈔 M7 8K, delivering a crisp clack with a robust feel behind it. They're slightly heavier than the shorter stops I'm used to in more competitive mice, but repeat presses are still swift and easy for the most part.

That extra heft does make itself 🐲known in faster moments - I often found myself staying stuck to the bottom of a press for a little longer than I would expect to in particularly competitive scenarios. They're far from mushy, though, and have a satisfying thunk to them overall.

Should you buy the Keychron M7 8K?

The Keychron M7 8K is a relatively affordable gaming mo🌱use that doesn't shy away from the features more mainstream gaming brands will sell you at a premium. While its switches won't keep up with the competitive needs of its 8,000Hz polling rate, there's plenty of headroom for faster players and a lightweight body to accommodate faster movements and twitch-reflex shots as well. The additional ergonomics in the thumb rest play beautifully into slower moments and productivity use-cases, while still keeping the main body of the mouse skinny enough to remain nimble in a claw and fingertip grip.

At $69.99, the K7 8K has some considerable competition. It's the same price as, though much more widely available than, the Cougar Revenger P꧃ro 4K and the Razer Viper Hyperspeed. If you're stuck at this $70 budget, the Keychron M7 8K wins the battle. It's better for more competitive players thanks to its lower weight and higher polling rate, while still catering to more c🐽asual markets better with its ergonomic design, extra side button, and versatile Bluetooth connection option.

The Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed is the gaming mouse that threatens the ꧑M7 8K the most, though. Before Keychron came along, this was the best value wireless poi𒉰nter I'd tested. With its lower battery life, weaker sensor, lack of Bluetooth, and $30 higher price, that might be about to change. I'd stick to Razer if you're after extra sensor functionality, there are some neat Synapse tricks in here. However, if you're going for sheer value while cutting the cord, Keychron is the new name to beat.

How I tested the Keychron M7 8K

I used the Keychron M7 8K for all my daily work and play over the course of two weeks, testing specifically for competitive advantage in CS2 and Apex Legends and otherwise using the device across the tail end of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and South of Midnight. For more information on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test gaming mice, check out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also hunting down all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best left-handed gaming mouse models available now, as well as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming keyboards and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming headsets for a full setup refresh.

This is a game that makes no assumptions about moral alignment based on a character's physiology or choice of magic, and it presents itself with TTRPG newbies in mind. Break!! lends itself to a cinematic tabletop RPG experience as a result, and although the roll-under mechanic blunts that a little, it's a fantastic modern adaptation of old-school pen and paper RP – one that'll see players monologuing and fanservice-fumbling their way through epic journeys built around connection, heroism, and the power of friendship.

Break!! features & design

• Explore a rich, dynamic world of anime tropes
• Homebrew to your heart's content
• Hilarious descriptions and simple systems

Presented in a visually clean, beautifully illustrated, and easy to reference tome, the Break!! Core Rulebook kicks off with character creation. While there are no pre-generated player-characters, randomizing the process knocks it down to about an hour. Here, cleverly inserted lore helps situate players, teasing some culture and ushering newbies in without heaps of exposition front-loading the experience. That's something the book excels at, too, with intriguing bitesize snippets littered throughout to lure yo𒀰u into the weeds. Plus, the descriptions are primed to give us weebs a good chuckle while still being mechanically interesting.

There's a host of familiar archetypes to draw in anime fiends, too – the Esakai-like Dimensional Stray and fun-size Chib both feature as Species, for example. Next to your standard sneaky, tanky, and spell-slinging Callings (similar to D&D classes), the Heretic and Murder Princess sit alongside mundane-but-just-as-important options like the Factotum, whose superpower is basically having a massive backpack. With the addition of quirks, spells, and abilities, every character lends their own unique flair to the table. It's in no way as comprehensive as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Pathfinder 2e's character options, but it's far🌞 easier for new players to digest. The handful of Callings and Species are enough to en𓆏sure the party is varied, while offering some interesting combos.

Character advancement wields some exciting abilities to get players raring to level up, and the process is simple enough. It's only outlined up to level ten, but smaller numbers make it eaܫsier for the mathematically disinclined to calculate past that. There's also plenty of opportunity for players to take ownership over their advancement by crafting and imbuing better gear, using their Downtime to train one another, or building a reputation for themselves.

Included is a varied collection of pre-gen adversaries, but the meat of the prep comes in the ten-page rundown for creating your own compelling, recurring rivals. GMs are♒ encouraged to customize and reskin premade adversaries, with easy-to-parse instructions that let you hack the game in minutes. That said, you could easily get a full campaign out of 🍎the characters outlined in the core book.

There are far fewer adven♕ture maps and sites included than adversaries, with only one starter adventure outlined in detail. But again, there are enough roll tables for adventure hooks, hazards, po𒁃ints of interest, encounters, and map features, as well as a whole spread on how to invent a Saga to keep players invested across multiple sessions. Break!! isn't ideal if you want premade campaigns, but all the tools are there to facilitate wild and wonderful homebrew adventure creation.

Gameplay

• Big focus on cooperation and out-of-the-box thinking
• Roll-under and wagers mean everyone knows the score
• Mechanics don't explicitly encourage personal goals

The Break!! RPG system pushes players to cooperate and think outside the box, both inside and out of combat. In battle, Attack and Tactical Assist actions let you work together to defeat foes in interesting ways, combining powers as each side acts together, rather than rolling initiative individually. It means players can position themselves as a cohesive unit, and draws them away from the basic "I hit it until it dies" into the much more exciting territory of enviro-kills. Killing is entirely optional, too, with mechanics that allow you to spare the life of your foe at the last moment and instead knock them unconscious. All this works to make the game far more family friendly than something like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mork Borg, and 🌠since forming connections and social bonds can add some mighty boons in battle, there's a lot of incentive to roleplaꦬy within the party. The Wagers mechanic also makes for a fun GM-player dynamic in battle.

Aptitude Checks are simple enough to grasp, with players rolling equal to or under their own Aptitude scores to bag a success, though a lack of saving values (such as that of D&D 5th Edition) means contests are a little more complex to ✨handle. Nothing too unhinged, but it's potentially a little🌄 convoluted for veteran TTRPG players. The roll-under mechanic is my major gripe with the system, and may seem counterintuitive for anyone used to Dungeons & Dragons. I can see the thinking behind it: With the goalposts constantly visible, players always know exactly what they're up against. It serves to lighten the load on the GM, too, but in the process this core mechanic drains a little of the cinematic anticipation that comes with an unknown DC variable. It also means 20 is a fail and 1 is a success, which takes some getting used to.

Should you buy Break!!?

There's a real nostalgic charm to Break!!, from re-invisioned throwbacks to old-school pen-and-paper mechanics to the familiar, starry-eyed edge of beloved anime. Practical infographics and well-linked references make it easy to generate content for Break!! on the fly aᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs well, while the vagueness of the lore means there's loads of opportunity for emergent narratives.

Sure, some of the system's intricacies are a little underwhelming, but when it's all couched in such a vast and versatile passion project, it's hard to fault. Break!! is entire🍷ly forgiving, f🅺amily friendly anime fun, but you can just as easily twist a campaign into nightmare fuel with some messed-up reskins and unholy cinematics.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Break!!

This review was conducted by a sample p✃rovided by the publisher.

Our reviewer is an experienced GM and tabletop RPG player with years of experience co🐻vering the industry. Besides reading through and critiquing the book as they went, they created an adventure for their playtest group of multiple players𒈔 to see how Break!! works in action.

To get a better idea of our process, see the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

With this the eighth Mission: Impossible movie, this franchise has, curiously, followed the Harry Potter pattern. Same number of films. A director – in this case Christopher McQuarrie – who has helmed the final four movies. And a last chapter that, in fact, is the second film of a two-part story. Except that here, Dead Reckoning – P🦋art Two, as it was originally called, is now The Final Rജeckoning, emphasising that this really is it for Ethan Hunt and his fellow IMF spies.

The story picks up from Dead Reckoning in traditional Mission: Impossible style, with Hunt watching a VHS tape (how old school!) with a message from Angela Bassett's U.S. President Erika Sloane. "You never let us down," she intones. "You were always the best of men in the worst of times." Accompanied by a montage of clips from the earlier episodes, it serves as ✱a solid reminder that Hunt is the heart of Mission: Impossible, however much he likes to big up his team.

High stakes

As Dead Reckoning devotees w🦄ill recall, Hunt and his pals are facing their deadliest enemy yet, an AI program called the Entity, which if let loose will corrupt the world's digital systems, infiltrating law and order, crashing economies and bringing civilization to its knees. Already, a doomsday cult has sprung up around the Entity, as rioters look to rebuild a world that's on the verge of collapse. Of course, only Hunt has the key to saving🌟 us, quite literally.

Having obtained the gold cruciform key in the last outing, Hunt must now get to the depths of the Russian submarine, the Sevastopol, that was t🤪ricked by the Entity into sinking itself with a torpedo fired from its own arsenal. Inside that sunken wreck is the Entity's source code, the one chance🍸 he has to control this AI monster. Help is also at hand from old IMF buddy Luther (Ving Rhames), who has built a "poison pill" to infiltrate the source code and "deceive the lord of lies."

Also back is IMF techie Benji (Simon Pegg), increasingly involved with the action with every passing movie, and Degas (⛄Greg Tarzan Davis), who seไems mainly on screen to fire off rounds of ammo. Pickpocket Grace (Haley Atwell) is also on hand (with her thieving hands). But before they can continue, Hunt determines they must retrieve stone-cold assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff) from the Austrian prison she's now languishing in, to help get them to Gabriel (Esai Morales), the villain hoping to control the Entity for his own nefarious gain.

In a story both sombre and sometimes ponderous, there are a lot o꧑f throwbacks to earlier films, including the bio-weapon known as the Rabbit's Foot, from Missꦯion: Impossible III, that may not be quite the MacGuffin we all thought. In a very nice touch, a minor character from the 1996 original movie also makes a return. Trying to turn what were solo movies into an overarching story is a little tenuous but forgivable (Cruise, it seems, wants his own MCU: the Mission Cinematic Universe).

Cruise control

If there's an issue with The Final Reckoning, aside from sluggish pacing, it might be that the Entity – not being human – 🅺is shorn of any real terror. There is a weird, disconcerting moment where Hunt goes inside a coffin-shaped box to commune with this digital beast. But for the most part, he's dealing with Gabriel; and Morales' silver-haired killer isn't anywhere near as chilling as, say, Sean Harris' Solomon Lane from the fifth and sixth instalments, Rogue Nation and Fallout.

Yet, in a way, The Final Reckoning is more about Hunt battling insane odds rather than a villain. And, yes, you still buy Cruise as the ultimate hero. McQuarrie doesn't miss a🐼 trick when it comes to showing the 62-year-old actor still looking in his prime; one lovely-looking scene sees him running at full pelt, in the way only Cruise can, across Westminster Bridge and past Big Ben.

Much of the action centres around two major set pieces; the penetration of the Russian sub and an old-fashioned biplane dogfight, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:already glimpsed in the trailers. As insane as they are, neither quite takes your breath in the way scaling the Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol or clinging to an A400 Airbus in Rogue Nation did. But perhaps that's simply because Cruise has set the bar so high. Nevertheless, theꦐy're still top-notch.

McQuarrie ensures this (presumably) closing chapter is directed with suitable scale, with Austria, the Arctic, and South Africa all on the map. He also packs out scenes with some wonderful char𝄹acter actors (Nick Offerman, Holt McCallany and Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddingham to name but three). But in th🍌e end, it's all about Cruise. Bringing us his own rival to James Bond was always his plan, should he choose to accept it. Mission very much accomplished.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is out on May 21 in UK cinemas and May 23 in US theatres. For more, see our guide to all the most exciting 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming movies of 2025.

And yet, coming to this chip so long after release doesn’t actually make much of a difference, because despite being a top dog in the market for a while now, it’s got some incredible staying power. Is it still the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best CPU for gaming? Very possibly for most gamers. Even compared to the 🐟Ryzen 7 option from the 8000G range, which I’ve already reviewed, it performs impeccably well in gaming tasks, and since it exists in the same motherboard ecosy🎃stem as AMD’s more recent efforts, it’s probably going to be a better investment than an Intel product.

Price, however, is the sword by which this processor will continue to live and die. Launching to the tune of $449.99 / £449.99 made it more expensive than Intel’s i5-13600K, and an interesting match-up on a spec sheet against the i7-13700K. Now, however, with an average price of below $400 / £400, it’s a much easier investment. Compared against some of the pricier Ryzen 9000 X3D options, it might be all that most gamers really need. Besides all t♌he price and spec comparisons, though, I think its performance speaks for it.

Specs & Features

As usual with an AMD processor, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D has fewer co⛎res and threads than the direct comparisons from Intel. That isn’t as bad as it seems though, especially due to the fact that ꦚthis is one of AMD’s supercharged X3D models.

These processors set themselves apart with 3D V-Cache technology, but just what is that anyway? Well, modern processors found in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming PCs have an L3 cache - a sort of quick access library for your computer’s CPU. It provides an organised and easy way for your chip to access frequently used data - which comes in particularly handy when playing games or creating content. AMD’s X3D 🥃products essentially pack more cache into the die of this particular part of the processor, meaning that they can access more data faster.

So while 8 cores and 16 threads might not seem like much compared to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Intel Core i7-13700K, which has 16 cores and 24 threads, AMD can actually do more with less, at least in theory. The 13th gen i7 has a base clock of 3.4GHz and🍃 a boost clock of 5.4Ghz. The base clock 🅰aboard the CPU I’m testing is higher, while the boost clock comes up just shy of Intel’s mark. Thankfully, some streamlined overclocking capabilities mean that it’s capable of surpassing that, although I haven’t tested that for myself. Either way, AMD trounces the 13700K’s L3 cache of 30MB, allowing for a lot of talent for gaming in a direct shootout. The updated 14700K doesn’t even come close to the 3D V-cache tech here either, with only 33MB.

While Intel’s 13th and even 14th generation i7 processors might feel like the most natural comparison in terms of raw specs, I think it’s also important to view this CPU in full context of the rest of the market too. Compared to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Intel Core i5-13600K, which has long held the top spot on our CPU leaderboard thanks to its excellent price-to-performance ratio, the 7800X3D makes a very good case for itself. That chip only has a 24MB L3 cache and a base clock speed of 3.5GHz. Of course, the elephant in the room, if you’re still trying to decide whether to build an AMD or Intel machine in 2025, is that motherboard support for LGA1700 (Intel’s 12th, 13th, and 14th) generations is almost certainly finished wit🎃h. The💧 AM5 platform for AMD’s chips is likely to continue well into the future, though, so even if you have to spend more here than you would on a 13600K, you’re going to be futureproofed in terms of Ryzen 9000X3D to graduate to without switching motherboard.

To tell the truth, the comparison I’m most interested in is the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:AMD Ryzen 7 8700G, the first Ryzen 7 to arrive on the shelves after this. The two have the same number of cores and threads, the same base clock speed, but a few subtle differences. The Ryzen 8000G option actually has an ever-so-slightly higher boost clock speed of 5.1GHz, but loses out in terms of cache with only 16MB. That leaves room for similar performance, but for either to impress in different ways. With the Ryzen 7 8700G only costing $229 / £218 at launch compared to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D’s $449 price tag, th♕e X3D product has everything to lose.

Performance

Certainly in gaming, I think the results speak for themselves, and I’ll explain why in a moment, because content creation wasn’t quite so simple. In fact, than🌞ks to its superb single-core performance and slightly higher boo🦩st clock, the 8700G actually outperformed its X3D cousin. Depending on the type of creation you do, you may save yourself a small fortune by opting for the 8700G after all.

Rather disappointingly, t📖he Ryzen 7 7800X3D turned in lower Cinebench scores than the Ryzen 7 8700G. I’d say this is down to the excellent single core performance and slightly higher boost clock. On the other hand, the X3D model did pull its weight with three consistently higher scores in Blender’s benchmarks, so it’s not all doom and gloom for content creators.

I tested both CPUs in the same system, with the same thermal paste and the same cooler, and although the Ryzen 8700G had absolutely no problems staying cool under pressure, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D struggled a bit more. Now, all things in context, the Intel Raptor Lake (13th, 14th generation) chips are far, far hotter. The 13700K especially has proven to🌱 be a total hot head whenever I’ve tested it, so compared toꦗ the blue team, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D actually has pretty decent thermals. Still, you’d have no trouble at all keeping the 8700G cool, but the 7800X3D might call for a more intense AIO.

After completing the software benchmarks, I was honestly a little concerned that this processor wasn’t going to live up to its reputation, but in gaming, there were honestly some inexplicable boosts in performance I really didn’t expect. Based on specs, you can usually expect a small 10-20fps boost in your favorite games when you upgrade from one processor to an updated model. Comparing again to the Ryzen 8700G (again, let me emphasize that it came out after the CPU we’re testing here), I expected very similar results when gaming, but I was so shocked at the differen♉ces I had to have a double take to make sure I was still using the same GPꦅU.

In Planet Zoo, for example, I was scraping to try and get 4K60fps in our AMD testing rig when benchmarking the Ryzen 5 and 7 from the 8000G generation. I thought for sure graduating from 59fps with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ryzen 5 8600G, to a smoother 60fps with the 8700G, I’d maybe get 65 or 70fps with the 7800X3D from the previous year. At 4K, max settings, playing the same scenario as those other reviews, I w🌜as met with 95fps when zooming into the busiest sections of the park. When not fast forwarding time and zooming out, I was seeing well over 100fps, which is an extraordinary boost. All the while, temperature control was so much more manageable than it appeared in software benchmarking, with the CPU only peaking at a contextually chilly 32 degrees.

Sadly, Planet Zoo was the most dramatic leap up in performance I saw for the remainder of benchmarking, although the Cities Skylines results do come close to it. Compared to the 8700🎉G, I found similar temperatures with sometimes 30-40fps leaps in frame rates. That’s undeniably a massive jump up in gaming performance, which goes to show the work a 3D V-Cache is doing. That sort of performance boost is what you’d expect from playing around with upscaling, and 🐬I love that AMD has crafted that through hardware innovation alone, rather than a software trick you never really have ownership over.

Just like Nvidia’s DLSS tricks, though, it seems like the 3D V-cache makes more of a difference in some games than others. Benchmarking results in Total W💝ar Warhammer 3 (as seen above) are virtually identical to the tests I ran with the more affordable 8700G. I did see a slight improvement in Homeworld 3’s benchmark though. I saw a clean 4K60 score with maxed out settings in this game, which is something the Ryzen 5 and 7 processors from the newer 8000G family failed to do.

Consistently higher gaming performance can be seen in each of our benchmarking tests, with temperatures that are well within the healthy range, although not quite as solid as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:NZXT Player Three with its Ryzen 7 9800X3D. I do have to say though, in more general use tests, I’ve really enjoyed working with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Since it was inside the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Maingear Zero Ruby I reviewed, I’ve had plenty of hands-on time with it. It’s one of those PC components I can turn to for any gaming task and just know that it’s going to be relia🏅ble. I’m a stickler for high frame rate, 4K gaming on PC, even with parts that might not lend themselves to that resolution organically. With the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, I feel I have loads of room to gallop at those higher resolutions to get the🦂 smooth frame rates I want, and that’s the marker of a great mid-range processor in this day and age.

Should you buy the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D?

Wi♊th its reputation preceding it, it should come as no surprise that the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is still one of the best CPUs on the market when it comes to gaming. I do think that as the market has shaped itself around these processors as the be-all, end-all, there are now super viable alternatives depending on your usage. For example, if you don’t quite have the budget for even the discounted price of $380, a Ryzen 7 8700G really isn’t too far off in terms of performance in gaming and content creation - with some scenarios actually performing better.

But for those PC builders looking for a serious gaming processor that can handle 4K resolution🎶s and demanding content creation tasks, this is going to wipe the floor with 90% of the options on the shelves. I can understand the temptation 🤡to go for an even more recent Ryzen 9000 equivalent, but honestly, for the extra money you pay, this might be a better alternative at the moment, and it’ll give you an upgrade path further down the line. In fairness, this processor is really popular, so it’s likely to hold its price for longer than other options, but I’d say it’s still better value than Intel.

If there’s one thing that’s sure in my mind at the moment, it’s that the majority of computer buil🍃ders right now should be considering this chip over the Intel equivalents from the 13th and 14th genera🌠tion. An Arrow Lake processor will require an even more up-to-date motherboard, which, if rumours are true, might not even survive Intel’s next wave of processors. With AMD showing it can do exceptional things with older motherboard sockets, fewer cores and threads, and at a lower cost, I think a chip like this is going to be a much better investment going forward.

For more on PC components, check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RAM for gaming, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best graphics cards, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PC cases.

If the new Claw 8 AI+ iℱs indeed a reincarnated white wizard, then that probably makes the original MSI Claw Gandalf the Grey. I could get even more unbearably metaphorical by saying it died battling the Balrog (an industry filled with fierce Ryzen Z1 Extreme rivals) so that the latest revision could enter the scene with a bang. It’s simply a more refined version that packs the right punch and wears a new 8-inch display, and that helps better justify its $900 / £899 price tag.

At the same time, I still think MSI’s premium asking price is a bit of an issue. You’re at least getting something that places a decent performance gap between the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Steam Deck OLED and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Asus ROG Ally, sure, but the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming handheld battlefield will get a little bloody once the Nintendo Switch 2 drop𝔍s. I’m not saying you should🅰 be comparing a pricey portable PC to a mainstream console, but it certainly makes the conversation spicier.

Design

As the name implies, the Claw 8 AI+ is larger than its predecessor since it weilds an 8-inch 1200p 120Hz display. So, it’s not quite as large as the Lenovo Legion Go, but this has ultimately helped MSI stick to sensible design principles and protect impo🎐rtant ergonomic factors. In other words, this devic🐭e still feels like a handheld while offering up more screen space, and that’s quite an impressive feat.

MSI’s new handheld also has a new getup to match its size, which in turn helps it beat the “just a goth Asus ROG Ally” allegations. New “Sandstorm” coverings at the front that give it a two-tone effect, making for a nice change from most black and while options out there. Other than that, most of the other differences apply to the back, with some slightly different ventilatio♋n grills and tweaked back buttons that ditch the weird point angles in the name of flatter comfort.

The face buttons, D-pad, menu toggles, and RGB-accented sticks are all pretty much the same as last time. That’s not necessarily a good thing since the directional pad is a bit of a nightmare and features very little pivot that’s further hindered by its convex cross-shape. The A and B buttons are also precariously close to the curvature of the body, which results in a bit of a slippery feel. But the rest of the ไcontrols are pretty serviceable, and they’re not 𝓀much of a departure from the standards set by the Steam Deck and ROG Ally.

I’m pretty surprised at just how similar the Claw 8 AI+ is to the original design-wise, especially since it’s rocking that larger screen. Scaling devices up without adding way more bᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚulk or placing things differently is a skill, one that MSI has made sure to fully le🌺verage when reimagining its first concept.

Features

As the handheld gaming PC scene matures, there are a few staple features that are becoming commonplace. Just like the new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lenovo Legion Go S, the Claw 8 AI+ has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports at t🔴he top for charging and connecting other peripherals. Having a spare connector will potentially save you from messing with Steam Deck docks, depending on your setup, as you’ll still be able to connect the 65W charger and output to an external display.

Under the hood, you’re getting a few premium extras too. Hardly surprising given that this handheld costs $900 / £899, but that does at least translate to anti-drift hall-effect joysticks, a fingerprint sensor for extra security. What I will say is that the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Zotac Zone is starting to look a bit mo൲re like a lavish buy since it comes armed with pro-controller elements like adjustable triggers and customizable thumbstick dials, and it does feel a bit like you’re paying a premium for specs rather than features her🌼e.

Not that I’m mad about the Claw 8 AI+ boasting a 32GB LPDDR5x RAM and a 1TB SSD alongside its new Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chip. In fact, I’d rather pay more for raw performance than portable parlor tricks, especially since in this instance they result in a handhelܫd worth buying. It also proves that there wasn’t much wrong with the original Claw beyond underwhelming performance levels, and it should be a sign to portable PC makers to be more careful ওabout specs pairings.

That said, the caveat currently haunting every handheld PC like this is Windows 11. Sure, the plus is that you’re getting the verℱsatility of a full-blown rig and can j🌸ump into virtually any storefront you like from the get-go, whether that means downloading Game Pass newbies, grabbing Epic Game Store freebies, or tackling your Steam backlog. However, the optimization just isn’t there, and until Microsoft decides to finally throw us a handheld-friendly version of its operating system, the experience is going to feel like an awkwardly shaped tablet.

MSI, like every other handheld maker out there, includes management software to 🌺soothe Windows 11 wounds. The included Centre M app isn’t terrible by any means, and I’ve certainly experienced worse alternatives to SteamOS. What I will say is that it does feel as much like a middleman as every other variant out there, and it actu⛄ally just uses the Xbox overlay for quick settings rather than its own tailored menu. This approach means you’re missing out on a streamlined way to access settings in a console-like way.

Performance

2025 isꦺ actually off to a weird start when it comes to handheld performance. The Lenovo Legion Go S was technically the first “next-gen” portable to arrive on the scene, but rather than pushing frame rates to new heights, it instead offers up an fps range comparable to the Steam Deck OLED. So, you can imagine my delight when I discovered that the MSI Claw 8 AI+ actually provides the sort of boost I’m craving from new devices, which is surprising since we’re talking about an Intel chipset.

Starting off with my usual trip to Night City, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ handles Cyberpunk 2077 respectably. Again, I was looking for performance that outpaces the Ryzen Z1 Extreme since that chip represents top-end mainstream handheld performance. Thankfully, Intel’s APU doesn’t remotely disappoint when paired with 32GB LPDDR5 RAM, as the handheld hits a 40fps average at 1080p with low settings enabled. That’s before we even get to upscaling assistance, as you’ll gain more frames by leveraging XeSS💧 or even FSR where available.

Hitman 3 paints a similar performance picture, as the Claw 8 AI+ hits✤ around 43fps at 1080p. It certainly feels like there’s some headroom to play around with settings and even crank resolutions up to 1200p here, and that’s novel if you’re currently using something like the Steam Deck. At the same time, 800p is going to꧙ scale nicely on a screen at this resolution, and that’ll mean hitting even higher frame rates

In my go-to test games, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ sits behind the Zotac Zone, but there’s not too wide a gap between the two handhelds. It’s certainly not as big a difference as with the first Claw, as that seemed to stand in the same ring as the Steam Deck. Although at 1080p, the Zone’s Ryzen 7 8840U APU stilᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚl sits a bit ahead of the Ultra 7 258V, so Intel hasn’t quite managed to beat AMD.

It's also worth noting that while the Zone packs a slightly harder punch thanks to the Ryzen 7 8840U, it's not really available to buy in the US. It's easy enough to find in💎 the UK, but the fact that the Claw 8 AI+ is readily available works in its favor, especially when your other option is t💝he Asus ROG Ally X.

I find that with handheld PCs, even marginal frame boosts can make all the difference. Getting big new releases to feel smooth on portable devices takes a lot of sacrifice, and when you’re paying nex🌸t to a grand for a premium machine, there’s an expectation that there will be fewer trade-offs. That’s exactly what I was looking for in the MSI Claw 8 AI+, and it thankfully (and perhaps surprisingly) rises to the challenge in even new shooters like DOOM: The Dark Ages.

The Doomslayer’s third outing makes for quite a nice test scenario, and I had a 🌞lovely time smashing through hordes of hell ꧋using the Claw 8 AI+. In terms of feel, the handheld provides a nice set of controls that are easy on the palms over longer sessions and aren’t cumbersome despite framing an 8-inch screen. The triggers handle as nicely as a regular gamepad, and the travel is just right for preventing weird off-balance presses.

Running The Dark Ages on a handheld is ambitious, no matter what you’re using. That is to say you won’t be hitting near 60fps most of the time. What you will get, though, is a perfectly playable 30fps experience with some dips here and there. XeSS in performance mode helps the Intel chip keep frame ▨rates relatively stable without damaging the visual experience too muౠch, as does FSR, and you’re ultimately getting a portable that can run a 2025 shooter with heavy-duty visual effects built in.

Of course, pushing a handheld in this manner is going to give battery life a kicking. Under load, the 80Wh battery was able to keep ticking for over two hours, which is largely in line with devices like the ROG Ally X. Of course, if you play something a little less demanding, or just scoot around Windows 11 in bet🌺ween sessions, you’ll run for much longer.

Should you buy the MSI Claw 8 AI+?

The Claw 8 AI+ is a high-spec handheld second wind for MSI, and the 8-inch portable is one of the best premium handhelds out there right now. The portable’s new I🧜ntel chip packs the sort of punch I’m looking for in 2025 compared to existing Ryzen Z1 Extreme options, and while it could end up being outpaced by proper next-gen contenders when they eventually arrive, nice extras like an 8-inch 🌟1200p screen, hall effect joysticks, and beefier specs make this a fierce alternative to the Asus ROG Ally X.

That said, $900 / £899 is a pretty big ask, especially since the Nintendo Switch 2 is inbound with Nvidia DLSS tricks th♌at make playing Cyberpunk 2077 possible. Naturally, the 𒆙MSI Claw 8 AI+ is for players who care more about proper native performance and elevated visual settings, but it does hammer home the fact that portable PCs can be an expensive niche that aren’t priced to take on mainstream handheld consoles or offer up better value.

I also want to stress that if the Zotac Zone were available iꦐn the US, I'd be tempted to recommend it to premium players instead. That AMD Ryzen 7 8840U chipset goes the extra mile in terms of raw frame rates, and extras like the adjustable triggers and an OLED display make it a nice pick for near $1,000. But alas, it's only seemingly available in Europe and the UK, so unless you reside there, I'd look to the MSI Claw 8 AI+ for the same kind of cash.

How I tested the MSI Claw 8 AI+

For two wꦰeeks, I put the MSI Claw 8 AI+ through its paces in several test scenarios involving games like Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman 3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Doom: The Dark Ages. Throughout testing, I also assessed the controller's features like integrated controls and connectivity, as well as took note of aspects like battery life and average frame rates to compare performance to similar portables.

For more information on how we test gaming handhelds, take a peek at our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ hardware policy.

The device's priorities align it with the world of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming phones more so than everyday flagship handsets. There are some noticeable sacrifices in cam🌟era quality and other quality-of-life features like wireless ✃charging, but that's traded out for impressive battery life, a slick display, and a solid (if slightly older) chipset chugging away under the hood.

There's power, grace,꧙ and style in this device, and while it lacks gaming-specific software and hardware features it could well giv💧e Nubia something to think about in the value department.

That said, this isn't a US phജone. It's possible to have🌌 one shipped to the states, but there's no guarantee that it will run on major carriers.

Design

The Poco F7 Pro keeps things streamlined with a sophist🃏icated monotone design that keeps things interesting by varying texture rather than color. That's in stark contrast to the bold yellow aesthetics of previous releases, but one that sits inline with the move towards more understated gaming form factors in recent years. I received the black model, though a crisp silver and striking blue are also available, which also comes with a dark gray silicone case in the box.

This is a flat-backed phone but it's certainly not harsh. In contrast to the similarly-proportioned 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:RedMagic 9S Pro's hard angular corners, the Poco F7 Pro has a neatly roundꦆed design that saves the palms and keeps aesthetics soft. Turning it over, the glossy section towards the top also features a circular pattern running underneath the glass cover, adding an extra level of dimensionality.

That glass only extends down slightly past the camera bump, with the rest being covered in a soft-touch matte finish. That saves fingerprints from completely ruining the experience (they will clog up the top panel) but also gives tꦕhe phone a comfortable base to grip onto. It's a little too smooth to provide high-quality grip (I certainly wouldn't hold it over the toilet), but it's easily cleaned and keeps the rear panel from feeling clammy during longer sessions.

The perimeter is constructed from aluﷺminum but it's not the shiny, scratch-likely casing you might expect. Instead, the matte finish from the back extends around the edges, providing a soft feel that resists scuffs and fingerprints nicely.

Poco has also refreshed its durability with the F7 Pro. It now features a solid IP68 dust and water resistance rating, keeping it safe at depths of up to 1.5m for up to 30 minutes. That's a rarity in the worl🐼d of gaming phones, where brand usually prefer to keep exhausts open for enhanced cooling (which removes any 🐽chance of a seal). On top of that, the display and back glass are both Corning Gorilla Glass 7i.

Display

Up top we've got an incredibly crisp 3,200 x 1440 resolution OLED panel, with all the HDR functionality and high-speed refresh rates y๊ou could ask for. This is a particularly vibrant ♛screen, offering rich colors and allowing for more muted tones with striking detail and precision.

That's a QHD+ resolution that punches with the best of them, matching only high-end flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Xiaomi's own 15 Ultra. Considering those are both four-figure models, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro that sits🦋 at the top of our gaming phone rankings only clocks in at 2,400 x 1,080, that's excellent value for mo🅷ney.

It's also incredibly bright - too bright to use at full blast in anything other than direct sun. I'd take that ꦗover a dim display, especially considering it still manages to maintain both brightness and uniformity at a solid price point. Throw in full HDR support from Dolby Vision and more and you've got yourself an impressive screꦿen.

That's without taking the 120Hz refresh rate into account, a feature you'll pay top dollar for in other models. This is a variable refresh rate, but it's not quite as smart as other installations. There's an adaptive mode, but it basically cycles between idle 60Hz settings and more power-hungry 120Hz gaming applic🐟ations. You can, however, customize exactly which apps ramp things up to 100, which keeps things battery-friendly.

Cameras

The Poco F7 Pro doesn't push its cameras as hard as more mainstream flagships, but your In🧜stagram isn't going to suffer for it. The main 50MP wide camera captures impressive detail with a particularly strong color range on display. In good light, there's a fantastic dynamic range to these shots, with finer details of more complex subjects shining through accurately and withoꦏut a processing fuzz on top.

Darker shots hold their own as well, managing to pick out an impressive le🌠vel of detail from shadowy areas, and balancing saturation and black levels well.

The ultrawide gets a little spicier, introducing slightly more fuzz around the edges and 🐻losing some of the finer details of subjects. Keeping your shots clear is a little tricky without the autofocus, though it's pretty easy to adjust most framing on the fly.

Software

The Poco F7 Pro runs on Android 15 and HyperOS 2, the same as Xiaomi🦩's more premium flagships. The interface is nice and cl🌺ean, it's pretty much the same as any other Android home screen and menu system, with only a few pre-installed apps occupying the second page. One is a simple Poco news feed, another is a dedicated Xiaomi Mi store app, and the Opera browser is installed as well. Then there's your usual roster of pre-installed capers, from Amazon to Booking.com.

Everything is where I would 🐻expect it to be, with plenty of wallpaper, layout, and drawer customizations available. That all runs nice and smoothly as well, I never noticed any jittering on the screen when moving between menus and apps, there were no translation issues, and del⛦eting the bloatware apps was quick and painless.

You're also get🔯ting access to Xiaomi Hy൲perAI's software tools, including image editing, speech recognition, and interpreting functionality. On top of that, though the phone also comes with Google Gemini pre-installed, which functions as it does anywhere else.

💖I didn't find any quirks or bugs with the software or AI features in my day to day testing, and everything remained reliable and solid throughout the period.

Unlike Asus or Nubia's gaming phones, the Poco F7 Pro doesn't come with any gaming-specific software features. The former devices ship with dedicated apps to manage your game libraries, settings, and screenshots, while also providing finer controls over fans and performance. If you're looking ♔to get the most out of that Snapdragon chip, that kind of flexibility can take you pretty far.

Gaming

The Poco F7 Pro uses an older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, which means it's always going to be outpaced by the likes of the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro with its Snapdragon 8 Elite. Its 3D Mark benchmark numbers also put it below the previous generation Asus phone and, more notably, the RedMagic 9S Pro. This latter device uses an overclocked 'Leading Version' of the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip to edge ahead in the numbers game, while only costing s𝔉lightly more than the Poco F7 Pro.

That's not to say this is a slouch, in fact I'm pleased with this v𓄧alue proposition overall. The Poco F7 Pro handles more demanding moments of high-performance games well, never stuttering during my PUBG and Call of Duty Mobile tests and handling large board states in MTG Arena particularly smoothly.

While it scores lowest out of this particularly competitive pool of phones (Asus sits among the top contenders on the market, and you're certainly paying for that power), those numbers still translate into perfectly playable framerates. Sure, you c🐓an push the limits of newer, bigger releases with a more expensive 🌞phone, but the Poco F7 Pro can handle all your usual thumb tappers and then some for far less cash.

There are some hardware features missing from more dedicated gaming phones. With no touch capacitive or physical triggers at the top, Call of Duty shots are a little slower and less comfortable here than on the Asus ROG Phone series. A centered USB-C port means this phone is far friendlier to some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best mobile controllers, though, a ma𒀰ssive benefit over Asus's bizarrely placed connection.

Battery

Powering all that is a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, an impressive leap from the Poco 6 Pro and a larger battery than the 5,300mAh Ultra model. It translates to solid all-day usage, though does so at the expense of wireless charging functionality. When using the phone casually day-to-day I could easily get through all my usual YouTube viewing, gaming, emails, and doom-scrolling - sometimes without having to charg🌌e until the next day. Running the phone with its screen on for more dedicated testing also didn't disappoint.

The device ran non-stop video for around 15 hours and lasted between eight and nine hours when gaming (different tests completed on different games kept these results more varied). That's impressive considering some dedicated gam🎶ing phones can rinse through their batteries in just a few hours.

Should you buy the Poco F7 Pro?

If you're in a territory that supports it, the Poco F7 Pro offers exc♚ellent value as an all-in-one gaming phone. You're not paying flagship prices here, and𓆏 while there are some hardware and software sacrifices compared to high-end gaming phones, the Poco F7 Pro ticks all the boxes as far as everyday stability and gameplay goes.

Withಞ a gorgeous OLED screen that punches well above its price tag, a battery life to be jealous of, and a streamlined, subtle form factor, the F7 Pro can easily slot into your daily life while still giving your games a little more grunt than they may see from similarly priced Samಌsung Galaxy A-Series devices or Apple's older releases.

How I tested the Poco F7 Pro

I used the Poco F7 Pro as my daily driver for two weeks, using it alongside the RedMagic 9S Pro and iPhone 15 Plus for an additional two weeks after that. I used the device as I normally would any phone for both of those two dedicated weeks of testing, noting battery life, any OS glitches or stutters, charge times, temperatures, and camera quality. On top of that, I performed more demanding battery tests running the phone with its screen at 50% brightness. I primarily played Magic: The Gathering Arena and PUBG during my gaminღg tests, but also stress-tested in Call of Duty Mobile and performed synthetic benchmarks across 3D Mark's suite of tools.

For more information on how we make our recommendations, check out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

We're also rounding up all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming tablets and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming earbuds if you're after more mobile play, or check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming handhelds for extra portable options.

A replacement for the popular Dune: Imperium – Rise of Ix expansion, Bloodlines bolsters some of the weaker spaces on the board and in turn reduces the dominance of the sandworm♑s unleashed by Uprising. Players who prefer aggressive strategies will find new opportunities by hiring Sarduakar commanders with powers that can change the course of battles or give you resources just for fighting. Those who focus on accumulating Persuasion needed to get the most expensive cards will find fresh rewards from a new Command mechanic that provides benefits for players who accumulate six or more in a round.

You ca꧂n also largely ignore some of these new mechanics and still play with strategies and leaders you mastered in previous games of Uprising. Or you can just engage a bit, opportunistically picking up a key technology or placing a deep cover spy to ensure access to a board space you want to go to. T🉐he result is that Bloodlines adds plenty more depth for those seeking to test new leaders and tactics without requiring mastery of too many more concepts for less experienced players.

Dune: Imperium - Bloodlines features & design

• Bolster your army with Sarduakar commanders
• Spend spice on technologies that will help you throughout the game
• Try out new leaders with very different abilities

Bloodlines brings back the concept of technology from Rise of Ix, tiles that can be purchased with spice for powerful effects you can enjoy throughout the game – like having the signet ring in a player’s base deck provide access to any space on the board or providing extra protection against having your intrigue cards stolen. While there is a small Ixian embassy area that indicates which of these tiles are available to purchase, Bloodlines doesn’t actually replace or change any of the existing spaces on the board. Instead, any time you go to a greeꦐn space you can buyꦐ a technology in addition to its regular effect.

While Rise of Ix spiced up combat with dreadnoughts, which returned after most battles, Bloodlines introduces Sarduakar commanders. Impressive plastic miniatures representing the Emperor’s elite troops are scattered around board places rarely visited in the early game, setting off a race🔯 to recruit them by going there and spending extra Solari. Beyond being troops that can be hired into any conflict, Sarduakar also come with special tiles representing abilities that trigger when they’re fighting. At the most basic level, this increases the force their players bring to bear, but they can also fundamentally reshape strategy by rewarding players with extra troops, s🥀pice, or Persuasion.

The two new sets of tiles take up more space on the table, so plan accordingly. Beyond that, the other new features are more subtle but can still have a dramatic impact on winning s💟trategies. Spies were one of the best elements introduced in Uprising, breaking the typical rules of a worker placement game by allowing players to visit spaces they’re spying on even if another player was already there. But since the spaces for spies are limited, the board could still get locked down if multiple players were deploying them. Deep cover spies change that by ignoring opponent spies when placed, making the game even more dynamic.

Bloodlines also resurrects a mechanic from the Immortality e✃xpansion that makes it easier to deploy troops into the conflict, with some cards and technologies allowing players to treat any spot on the board as a combat space. This tends to make fights bigger as players have additional opportunities to add troops, and it also makes them more unpredictable since conflicts can be bolstered even if all the combat spaces on the board are full.

The expansion doesn’t just reward aggressive strategies, offering new perks for players whജo focus on building up Persuasion to purchase the most expensive cards in the Imperium row and the endgame point card The Spice Must Flow. Players who get their High Council seat receive a discount on buying technology ꦗas well as cards from the Imperium row, making the investment even more valuable. A new Command mechanic offers kickers if you reveal six or more Persuasion in a turn, which can be huge benefits like more troops or Solari.

Gameplay

• Sandworms are no longer the dominant strategy
• Spend your resources carefully
• Make the most of the cards available as you sculpt your deck

Dune: Imperium – Uprising had gotten a bit predictable for competitive players, who mostly raced to be the first to improve their Fremen reputation enough to start bringing sandworms into conflict in order to maximize their rewards. Bloodlines dramatically shakes that up through Sarduakar who provide a different combat strategy based on building up Solari rather than water and spending early turns visiting previously overlooked spaces to gather up the best abil♏ities.

Also shaking up the metagame is the addition of powerful new leaders like Liet-Kynes, who can’t use sandworms and doesn’t need Fremen influence but is excellent at sculpting her deck and gaining intrigue cards. Esmar Tuek adds a new board space that can be used to gather spice and draw cards and he can steal spice from other spaces, making him one of the absolute best leaders for quickly accumulating resources. Count Hasimir Fenring is great at gathering Solari and sculpting his deck, providing a new option for fans🌜 of Uprising’s Princess Irulan.

As is always the case, not all of the leaders are created equal. Steersman Y’rkoon can be quite power🌳ful if you can use his navigation cards to their maximum effect, but that’s very complicated and at the mercy of other player actions. Gaius Helen Mohiam’s ability to always go to a place she’s spying on is incredibly powerful, but only if she can get the right cards to put plenty of spies on the board. Duncan Idaho’s ability to jump into battle himself can provide an edge in conflicts, but leaving spaces unoccupied often makes it easier for otܫher players to improve their position.

The new mechanics tend to support more build up and deck sculpting, meaning Bloodlines games often take a bit longer than ones with just Uprising.ꩵ While they don’t add too much complexity, the new tiles bring enough that players might also take more time trying to assess all the options. It’s hard to blame them since Bloodlines make conflicts especially volatile and you’ll want to try to have a good read of the board before overinvesting resources.

Should you buy Dune: Imperium - Bloodlines?

If you enjoy Dune: Imperium, you should definitely add Bloodlines to your collection and make it a default part of your games. Its new mechanics and leaders shake up the tactics for every type of playstyle, making games more dynamic. The expansion offers even more replayability to an already excellent g༒ame by providing new strategies to try shaped by the various technologies, Sardaukar abilities, and cards that appear in each game.

Ratings