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Tag: Gaming

  • Gizmodo’s Best Tech Gifts of 2025 list

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    The holidays are here, and that only means one thing: gifting season!

    Skip the gift cards, ugly sweaters you found at Goodwill, or slapped-together macaroni photo frame, and get your friends and family some tech that they’ll actually appreciate. We’ve looked far and wide for gifts we hope will truly delight. From budgets under $50 all the way up to over $1,000 (if you’ve got the money to splurge), Gizmodo has you covered.

    At the very least, we hope our selection of gifts will inspire you to be thoughtful about gifting. Remember: you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a gadget. You just need to find the right gift for the right person!

    Gifts Under $50

    Oda SD Card Holder for Wallet

    Whenever your camera’s memory card fills up or becomes corrupted, you’ll always have a few spare ones tucked in your wallet with this slim sleeve from Oda.

    Anker Soundsync

    Anker SoundSync

    As great as wired audio is, sometimes you can’t beat the convenience of Bluetooth. Anker’s dongle, with a 3.5mm jack, can connect to old monitors and imbue them with the power of wireless audio.

    Maclock

    Maclock

    When it comes to desk clocks, the Maclock has a lot of charm. Shaped like the original Macintosh, the alarm clock can display the time, date, day, and temperature, and also comes with a tiny floppy disk that boots it up.

    Satechi Findall Card

    Satechi FindAll Card

    Losing your wallet sucks. But if Satechi’s FindAll Card is inside it, your iPhone’s Find My app can aid the search effort.

    Nekojita Fufu

    Nékojita FuFu

    Whether you’re drinking a steaming hot chocolate or a hot toddy, this little bear with a built-in fan will cool your cup with little blasts from its windpipe. The Nékojita Fufu sits on any mug or bowl to chill your beverage or soup, and it looks cute doing it.

    Gifts Under $100

    Jbl Grip

    JBL Grip

    Portability might not be everyone’s top priority in a Bluetooth speaker, but if it’s yours, JBL’s Grip is your buy. It may be small, but it’s mighty in volume.

    Retroid Pocket Classic

    Retroid Pocket Classic

    The Retroid Pocket Classic offers a return to retro gaming with a better AMOLED screen than the classic Game Boy offers. You can go with a six-button layout for classic Sega games or the traditional four-button model.

    Genki Shadowcast 2 Pro

    Genki Shadowcast 2 Pro

    For any loved ones with dreams of becoming streamers, the light and portable Genki Shadowcast 2 Pro is a great place to start. The 4K capture card can record or stream your activities on any console (including the Switch 2) or PC.

    Oneplus Buds 4

    OnePlus Buds 4

    There are lots of great wireless earbuds in this price range, but the OnePlus Buds 4 nail the essentials, sporting a healthy dose of bass, solid active noise cancellation, and a great personalized audio feature that EQs the device to your hearing.

    Lego Game Boy

    Lego Game Boy

    This nearly 1:1 replica of the 1989 Game Boy is guaranteed to make any weekend more fun. Lego went to great lengths to make the buttons pressable, include swappable Game Paks, and offer interchangeable lenticular game screens.

    Buy at Amazon
    Buy at Lego

    Gifts Under $300

    Casio G Shock Nano Dw 5600

    Casio G-Shock Nano DW-5600

    Smart rings may be all the rage, but may we introduce you to a watch ring? This G-Shock device, resembling Casio’s classic DW-5600, is sure to catch people’s eyes.

    Govee Rgbicww Floor Lamp Pro

    Govee RGBICWW Floor Lamp Pro

    Govee is known for delivering incredible value when it comes to smart lights, and this floor lamp is no exception. The Floor Lamp Pro is slim and sleek, with 300 degrees of rotation to light large swaths of your living room.

    Nomad Stratos Band

    Nomad Stratos Band

    Metal smartwatch bands are stylish but not the most comfortable, especially while working out. The titanium Stratos band pairs perfectly with the Apple Watch Ultra and provides flexibility during exercise.

    Teenage Engineering Ep 133 K.o. Ii

    Teenage Engineering EP-133 K.O. II

    Nothing will delight the hipster in your life more than a gadget from Teenage Engineering. This multipurpose sampler and sequencer does it all and is perfect for musicians in your life (especially electronic ones) with a soft spot for hardware.

    Buy at Teenage Engineering

    Razer Iskur V2 X

    Razer Iskur V2 X

    When it comes to ergonomics, there are few better-value gaming chairs than Razer’s Iskur V2 X. You don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy Iskur’s smooth-rolling action and back support.

    Gifts Under $500

    Ray Ban Meta Gen 2

    Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2

    The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 may lack a display, but they improve on the previous screenless generation in almost every way, bringing doubled battery life and the ability to record 3K video.

    Gopro Max 2

    GoPro Max2

    If you can’t be bothered to rig up several GoPros for multiple angles, the Max2 is the one-stop-shop 360 camera you need. Shoot in 8K and recompose shots from any POV after capture.

    Lomography Mc A

    Lomography MC-A

    Shooting film isn’t a cheap hobby, but if you want to get into 35mm, the Lomo MC-A is an easy way to start. The camera has a 32mm lens, apertures from f/2.8 up to f/16, and a built-in flash.

    Nothing Phone 3

    Nothing Phone 3

    Some people think it’s ugly. Others see the Nothing Phone 3 as challenging the status quo of boring mobile designs. Gimmick or not, the round Glyph Matrix screen on the back is a fun feature that competitors don’t have.

    Roli Keyboard

    Roli Piano

    Learning to play music is hard, but Roli’s light-up keyboard uses color coding to make the process just a little bit easier. Even if you’re not a beginner, the RGB still looks pretty rad.

    Gifts Over $500

    Macbook Air (13 Inch, M4)

    MacBook Air (13-Inch, M4)

    Apple’s entry-level MacBook is easily one of its best deals for those who want tons of performance in a thin and light clamshell design. The MacBook Air is fast enough for regular browsing as well as more intense activities like photo and video editing.

    Lego Death Star

    Lego Death Star

    The Lego Game Boy not enough of a challenge? Maybe this massive set with 9,023 pieces will give you enough blisters to appreciate the process of connecting plastic bricks.

    Framework 13

    Framework Laptop 13

    A Framework laptop is a gift that keeps on giving, so long as the recipient is willing to open it up and learn what makes it tick. The Framework Laptop 13 can come as both a prebuilt system and a DIY kit, so anybody who’s good with their hands can enjoy putting this laptop together.

    Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7

    Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7

    Book-style foldables have been thick and heavy—until now. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 is as thin and light as a regular flagship and brings a freshly slim vibe to its maturing category.

    Buy at Amazon
    Buy at Samsung

    Sony Bravia 9

    Sony Bravia 9

    Sony’s Bravia 9 4K TV is still pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with an ultra-high-end screen. The company’s flagship mini LED display offers brilliant picture quality and easy access to your favorite apps through Google TV.

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    Gizmodo Staff

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  • Cloudflare resolves outage that impacted thousands, ChatGPT, X and more

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    A widely used Internet infrastructure company said that it has resolved an issue that led to outages impacting users of everything from ChatGPT and the online game, “League of Legends,” to the New Jersey Transit system early Tuesday.

    At 12:44 p.m. EST, Cloudflare said its engineers no longer saw some of the issues plaguing its customers, but that they were continuing to monitor for any further problems.

    Others platforms that experienced outages Tuesday included the social media site X, Shopify, Dropbox, Coinbase, and the Moody’s credit ratings service. Moody’s website displayed an Error Code 500 and instructed individuals to visit Cloudflare’s website for more information.

    New Jersey Transit said parts of its digital services including njtransit.com, may be temporarily unavailable or slow to load. And New York City Emergency Management said there are reports city services being impacted by the outage. The city is continuing to monitor for disruptions.

    In France, national railway company SNCF’s website has been affected. The company warned customers that “some information and schedules may not be available or up to date. Our teams are working to restore these services as quickly as possible.”

    Cloudflare, based in San Francisco, works behind the scenes to make the internet faster and safer, but when problems flare up “it results in massive digital gridlock” for internet users, cybersecurity expert Mike Chapple said.

    While most people think there’s a direct line between their digital device and a website, what actually happens is that companies like Cloudflare sits in the middle of those connections, he said.

    Cloudflare is a “content delivery network” that takes content from 20% of the world’s websites and mirrors them on thousands of servers worldwide, said Chapple, an information technology professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.

    “When you access a website protected by Cloudflare, your computer doesn’t connect directly to that site,” Chapple said. “Instead, it connects to the nearest Cloudflare server, which might be very close to your home. That protects the website from a flood of traffic, and it provides you with a faster response. It’s a win-win for everyone, until it fails, and 20% of the internet goes down at the same time.”

    Last month Microsoft had to deploy a fix to address an outage of their Azure cloud portal that left users unable to access Office 365, Minecraft and other services. The tech company wrote on its Azure status page that a configuration change to its Azure infrastructure caused the outage.

    And Amazon experienced a massive outage of its cloud computing service in October. The company resolved the issue, but the outage took down a broad range of online services, including social media, gaming, food delivery, streaming and financial platforms.

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    Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan in London and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

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  • Roblox steps up age checks and groups younger users into age-based chats

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    Roblox is stepping up its age verification system for users who want to privately message other players and implementing age-based chats so kids, teens and adults will only be able to message people around their own age.

    The moves come as the popular gaming platform continues to face criticism and lawsuits over child safety and a growing number of states and countries are implementing age verification laws.

    The company had previously announced the age estimation tool, which is provided by a company called Persona, in July. It requires players to take a video selfie that will be used to estimate their age. Roblox says the videos are deleted after the age check is processed. Users are not required to submit a face scan to use the platform, only if they want to chat with other users.

    Roblox doesn’t allow kids under 13 to chat with other users outside of games unless they have explicit parental permission — and unlike different platforms, it does not encrypt private chat conversations, so it can monitor and moderate them.

    While some experts have expressed caution about the reliability of facial age estimation tools, Matt Kaufman, chief safety officer at Roblox, said that between the ages of about five to 25, the system can accurately estimate a person’s age within one or two years.

    “But of course, there’s always people who may be well outside of a traditional bell curve. And in those cases, if you disagree with the estimate that comes back, then you can provide an ID or use parental consent in order to correct that,” he said.

    After users go through the age checks, they will be assigned to age groups ranging from under nine, nine to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20 and over 21. Users will then be able to chat with their age group or similar age groups, depending on their age and the type of chat.

    Roblox said it will start enforcing age checks in Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands in the first week of December and the rest of the world in early January.

    A growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories. Instagram is testing an AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages.

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  • Razer’s Cobra HyperSpeed Is Not Your Standard Gaming Mouse

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    Breaking open the mouse requires only four screws: two covered by one of the mouse’s adhesive feet, and two underneath the removable puck. Covering two of the screws with an adhesive panel limits repairability, since it will slowly lose stickiness over time. After removing the screws, there are two plastic clips up front and two in the back that need to be released. Like any plastic clip, you risk breaking them during disassembly.

    Inside the mouse is a single-sided printed circuit board that houses the sensor, micro switches, and the mouse wheel. The overall design is simple; with replacement parts and some soldering skills, repair should be straightforward. The battery is attached to a removable section on the top shell of the mouse using a rubbery adhesive. This adhesive panel stretches and sticks to itself when removed, making it nearly impossible to reuse with a new battery, but it leaves no residue on the actual plastic of the mouse. A new battery should be easy to install using double-sided tape.

    The Cobra HyperSpeed’s simple internal design has nothing unnecessary, and no added confusion or failure points. While some other models, like the Logitech MX Master 4 or the Razer Basilisk 35K, boast a lot of premium features (with added complexity), it’s always refreshing to see something only as complex as it needs to be.

    Alongside the $100 Cobra HyperSpeed, Razer also offers the $35 Cobra and the $130 Cobra Pro. Compared to the Pro model, the HyperSpeed’s slightly less responsive sensor and scaled-back RGB aren’t huge hits to performance or usability, and the HyperSpeed’s lower weight is a distinct advantage. Compared to the standard wired model, the addition of wireless is a major benefit to both performance and usability. The HyperSpeed’s optical scroll wheel is a definitive improvement over its siblings.

    Overall, this mouse is a solid workhorse for gaming and general browsing. It’s fast, comfortable, and compact. The simple yet robust build will stand up to normal day-to-day use. While it doesn’t push the limits of performance or functionality like some of the more expensive esports-focused mice available today, the Cobra HyperSpeed is a great option for someone who doesn’t need cutting-edge specs but wants a mouse that gets things done.

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    Henri Robbins

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  • 5 Years Later, the PS5 Has Destroyed Xbox. But the PS6 Faces a Bigger Threat

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    Nobody could have predicted the turbulent state that console gaming is in right now.

    Five years ago, Sony and Microsoft both launched next-gen consoles with very similar PC-based architectures. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (and its less-powerful sibling, the Series S) promised even bigger and more realistic gaming experiences with near PC-quality graphics and responsiveness. We were told that ray tracing—the recreation of realistic lighting, reflections, and shadows in games—would be worth spending $500 for a new box to plug into our 4K TVs.

    On the fifth birthday of both consoles, I can tell you we were sold a lie. Jaw-dropping as ray tracing is, few games even support the graphics enhancement. Out of the more than 1,050 games in the PS5’s library, only 60-something games support ray tracing—that’s a measly 6%. As disappointing as that is, the PS5 has emerged as the winner against the Xbox Series X, outselling Microsoft’s game console by a huge margin. As of November 2025, the PS5’s crossed 84 million units shipped globally since 2020, versus the estimated 30 million that the Xbox Series X/S in the same amount of time.

    Where Microsoft has fumbled again and again—trying to turn Xbox into the “Netflix of gaming” with Game Pass, pivoting to a larger publisher by buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and hiking hardware prices multiple times because of an internal mandate to turn a 30% profit—Sony has expertly navigated the same industry challenges with smart expansions for its PlayStation brand.

    There’s no telling what will happen in the future, but looking back at the past five years of PS5, it’s clear that Sony did good by gamers. Really f*cking good, for the most part.

    Designed for gamer needs

    © CFOTO / Contributor / Getty Images

    I’ll admit that when I first saw the PS5, I was not into its curved panels or its massive size. Consoles are supposed to get smaller and more powerful, not larger—shrinkage is an easy and visible marker of technological progress. The original Xbox was disliked (especially in Japan) because it was such a behemoth. But it seems the PS5 design was just right, at least compared to the Xbox Series X, which is literally just a plain-looking black box. So out of the gate, Sony shipped hardware that looked like it was from the future—people really love gadgets that look materially new and different.

    As the games (and exclusives like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Final Fantasy VII: Remake) rolled in, it became more certain to me that the PS5 was the better hardware for the long run. Though my launch-day PS5 only had 825GB of built-in SSD storage, it could easily be expanded with a standard M.2 NVMe SSD. The Xbox Series X has a proprietary storage expansion slot on the back, but for many years, only Seagate sold them, and they were really expensive. Sony chose the less evil path, and gamers like me appreciate that openness.

    Even better than an affordable way to add storage to install the ballooning size of games were two hardware features I didn’t think would leave any long-lasting impression on me: the adaptive triggers in the DualSense controller and the “Tempest 3D audio.” Adaptive triggers provide more nuanced haptic feedback, like the ability to feel the resistance of a car gear pedal in Gran Turismo 7, the tension when pulling back a bow in Horizon: Forbidden West or switching a weapon in Resident Evil Village, or even the different surface materials in Astro Bot. Adaptive triggers add another layer of sensory immersion. Tempest 3D audio is less known, but almost every PS5 game supports it. Using a compatible headset, you can hear subtle sound effects like footsteps, gunfire, and rain (to name a few) coming from different directions. It works so well and is so underrated, but it really heightens things in the thick of a game. I never used a gaming headset with my consoles before, but on PS5, I almost always do.

    Trying things

    PlayStation VR 2
    © Bloomberg / Contributor / Getty Images

    The evolving nature of gaming also means it’s not enough for Sony (or anybody) to launch a console and just get as many games on it as possible. Those days are long gone. So Sony tried things; weird things that didn’t necessarily become big hits, but I’m still glad it took a stab at them because it’s kept the PS5 from aging out.

    Peripherals like the PlayStation VR2, a second-generation version of the PSVR for PS4, opened up the console to more VR games and a 2D virtual screen to play PlayStation titles on. The PlayStation Portal, while not a standalone handheld on its own, let players stream their PS5 to it over Wi-Fi for remote play away from the console. A free software update has expanded the Portal’s functionality to allow streaming PlayStation games directly from the cloud instead of from a PS5. Sure, the PSVR 2 is largely a failure and the Portal doesn’t really compete with the Switch 2 or any handheld PC, but they gave the PS5 a moat. The Xbox Series X had no such thing.

    The full-on hardware refresh with the slimmer PS5 and the more powerful PS5 Pro in 2024 has no doubt helped prop up the console as it enters its midlife. Does it suck that Sony hiked up prices for the PS5 and PS5 Pro a year later because of Trump’s nonsensical tariffs? Absolutely, but that doesn’t seem to have hurt PS5 sales as much as it has hurt Xbox Series X sales.

    Expanding to PC

    Sony InZone H9 II Gaming Headphones for PC and PS5 review
    The Inzone H9 II gaming headset works for PS5 and PC. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    I’ll get to Sony bringing its PS5 exclusives to PC and what that means for PlayStation’s future in a second, but the one thing the company deserves more credit for is expanding the PlayStation brand beyond the console hardware.

    A PlayStation will always primarily be a console that sits under your TV first, but it’s now also a family of devices that orbit it and any gaming PCs that can play its exclusive titles. Unlike Microsoft, which has leaned into Xbox being a service that can be played on any device, Sony sees PlayStation as an ecosystem and lifestyle gaming brand. In that way, it’s becoming more like Razer, which sells its own Blade gaming laptops, but also sells the peripherals designed for them.

    When Sony announced its Inzone PC gaming brand of gaming headsets and monitors, which also worked with PS5, I knew it was only a matter of time before we got more. You didn’t need 20/20 vision to see that the Inzone products were heavily inspired by the PS5’s white and black design language.

    Inzone and PlayStation are still separate gaming brands today, and they’re serving both PlayStation and PC gamers. The PlayStation Pulse Elite headset and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds are made for PS5, but they’re also compatible with PC gaming. Same goes for the 27-inch PlayStation Gaming Monitor with DualSense Charging Hook, FlexStrike wireless fighting stick, and the Pulse Elevate portable desktop speakers, which are all coming out in 2026.

    This vast and growing ecosystem of PlayStation hardware only deepens and entrenches the platform as a place worth buying into. Like a sports team, consumers root for the companies and platforms they feel the general managers are growing. Sony is winning physical and psychological mindshare with PS5- and PC-compatible hardware, while Microsoft is… apparently trying to compete with TikTok and movies. In trying to make every device an Xbox, Microsoft has lost its focus on what console gamers crave—new consoles and the accompanying peripherals to make games more enjoyable—whereas Sony has only doubled down on core gamers.

    PlayStation first, PC second

    It’s such a strange thing to see once-exclusive Xbox games like Forza Horizon 5 and Gears of War: Reloaded on PS5, and Halo coming to Sony’s console in 2026. These franchises used to be fodder for taking sides, but not anymore. Now that Microsoft has prioritized publishing its games on as many platforms as possible, there’s almost no reason to be loyal to Xbox.

    Time will tell whether chasing profits from games was worth sacrificing Xbox consoles at the altar, but Sony is facing the same challenge of rising game development costs. Bigger AAA games with more detailed graphics cost more money to make than ever before—hundreds of millions of dollars. So it only makes sense that publishing a game on as many platforms—even a competitor’s—is a more sustainable business model.

    The difference is that Sony is not handing out its games to PC before it has milked them out on PS5 first. Well-reviewed games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 released on PS5 in October 2023, but only on PC in January 2025, and Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut came out on PS5 in 2021, but on PC in May 2024. Even remastered versions of old titles like the PS4’s God of War, launched first on PS5 in May 2021 before arriving a year later on PC in January 2022.

    This friendliness for publishing its games for PC and even making so much PC/PS5-compatible hardware has many thinking that Sony’s taking steps to follow Microsoft and become an all-platform publisher, but that’s just not going to happen. In case all the PS5 peripherals didn’t make it clear, the first and main platform that Sony wants gamers playing its games is on its own PlayStation consoles. PC is not an equal citizen; it’s second-class. Sony is only publishing its games on PC to recoup losses (if a game bombs) or gain additional revenue later (once PS5 sales have tapered off). Remember that most of the work of porting a game from PS5 to PC has already been done, thanks to the similarities in x86 system architecture for both platforms, so it’s more cost-efficient than it would have been pre-PS4 era.

    Positioned for PS6, but the Steam Machine looms

    Steam Machine Console
    © Valve

    Looking ahead, Sony is in a good position to launch its next-gen PlayStation—let’s just call it the PlayStation 6—in a few years and cruise to victory. Rumors suggest that the PS6 could launch in 2027 or 2028, which would be in line with past console lifecycles; the PS5 launched seven years after the PS4. Microsoft says it’s committed to premium Xbox hardware, which is expected to launch around the same time, but with all the missteps it’s made, the Xbox faithful may not pull up.

    It also doesn’t help that Sony’s PS6 could resemble the Nintendo Switch 2 with a hybrid design that can go from console to handheld and vice versa. Or if the PS6 is a traditional console and a separate handheld, that could be concerning, too. Such a hardware departure could leave whatever Microsoft has planned for its Xbox Series X successor looking outdated if it also doesn’t have some handheld component.

    Sony’s biggest threat isn’t a new Xbox or the Switch 2—it’s Valve’s newly announced Steam Machine that’s launching in early 2026. The 6 x 6-inch console is basically a tiny gaming PC that runs SteamOS, which means it can play your full library of Steam games. Tech specs and first impressions from the media show the Steam Machine is a capable enough 1080p and 1440p gaming box, but it may fall short of the performance from the PS5 Pro. Specs-wise, Sony has the edge now, and will for sure eclipse the Steam Machine with the PS6, but it’s not just Valve’s box that it will have to compete with. The same way the Steam Deck opened the door to bigger and more powerful handheld PCs to the point where the market quickly became saturated, the Steam Machine will be a blueprint for third-party companies, big and small, to launch their own SteamOS-based consoles. When—not if—that happens, Sony will face assault from more directions than it ever has.

    Game exclusives and an expanding hardware ecosystem helped catapult the PS5 to the top and leave Xbox maimed and confused. It’s also something that Sony shouldn’t lose sight of for the PS6 and beyond. A steady stream of exclusives always sells new hardware. It’s always been this way and always will be. Just look at Nintendo. Mario, Zelda, and Pokémon carried the Switch to over 150 million units shipped worldwide, and it’s going to do the same thing for the Switch 2, which is already breaking records. If the PS6 isn’t as successful as the PS5, it’ll be because there aren’t enough exclusive games.

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    Raymond Wong

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  • A medley of tech gifts for everyone on your holiday shopping list

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    NEW YORK (AP) — It’s the most wonderful time of the year, unless you want to find the perfect gifts for tech lovers.

    There’s a lot of slop to sift through as we get closer to the holidays, many interests to appeal to and a whole bunch of deals-that-aren’t-deals flashing before our screens. So here’s a guide — and some sales — to help you get started on your gift shopping journey.

    For your gamers

    The Nintendo Switch 2 was the biggest and most anticipated console launch of 2025, and if history is any indication, it will be increasingly harder to find as Christmas approaches. But for the gamers in your life — both young and adult — this is the gift to get.

    Nintendo’s Black Friday deals for the console and games have been announced but the best bang for your buck may be the console bundles. The Switch 2 is still available as just the console only for $449 or bundled with Mario Kart World for $499. A new $499 bundle is now available where the console is packaged with Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Games retail for about $70 a piece, so you do save a little with bundles.

    Need a new iPhone?

    The iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Max captured the headlines this year when the new lineup launched, but the base iPhone 17 received an upgraded camera (telephoto lens), more base storage and a longer battery life. Given the price for this model hasn’t changed, you’re straight up getting more tech for the same price. If your gift recipient’s current iPhone is a few generations behind, this is a good time to consider an upgrade.

    What about AI? The iPhone 17 doesn’t make as many leaps into the technology as its predecessor, but the new iOS and processer prepares the phone for any advancements that may come in 2026. The iPhone 17 retails at $800.

    Or maybe you’d like a foldable phone?

    If you or someone in your life has ever been curious about a foldable phone, consider Samsung’s newest Galaxy Z Fold 7 model. This phone solves many of the issues users have been concerned about since fold phones hit the market: It’s much thinner and lighter than its predecessors — 0.17 inches thick when unfolded and less than half an inch folded — and it weighs slightly less than half a pound, impressive considering they boosted the size of all the screens.

    But the price of a fold phone remains steep compared to the flagship iPhone and Galaxy devices. The Z Fold 7 currently is running a sale on its site but normally retails starting at $1,999.

    Planning to shoot more video or pictures?

    For anyone interested in doing more filming or photography with their mobile device, this supremely portable tripod by SelfieShow offers solid stability even when extended to its max height of 71 inches. The mounting arm also offers a wide array of positioning for shooters on the go. And the rig can collapse into a retractable selfie stick for even more functionality and portability.

    This portable tripod retails for $19.99.

    Recording clearer audio

    For aspiring influencers, podcasters or vloggers in your life, try these wireless microphones by Hollyland. The Lark M2 Wireless Microphone mics are easy to use, have good range and do well in filtering out background noise. You can easily attach these to clothes for interviews or even hold them for the tiny mic lifestyle. Best of all, it comes with two mics per order.

    These mics are currently on sale for $76.

    There’s always someone who wants a TV

    For those TV lovers who just want a little more for their gaming or cinematic experience, consider Samsung’s S90F OLED TV. This higher-end TV offers excellent contrast, colors and Ethernet performance. It also can act as a giant monitor if you want to plug your PC/gaming console into it, offering VRR support up to 144Hz on all four of its HDMI ports. For those who like to add sound systems or other peripherals to their TV, it also offers an additional three USB-A ports and one USB-C port.

    Normally this TV retails around $1,800, but an ongoing holiday promo (until Dec. 1) puts it, at 55 inches, at $1,199.99.

    Typing on the go

    Portability is core to the Logitech Pebble 2 wireless keyboard and mouse combo. This minimalist and highly functional offering by Logitech will satisfy on-the-go users who are looking for a silent, but still tactile, Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. It also offers a one-tap, multi-device switching option if you’ve already paired it with said devices — which include Android tablets and Apple iPads in addition to laptops — a great feature if you’re multitasking.

    The combo comes in several colors and retails for $49.99. If you’re OK with black, Walmart has a deal for $42.

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    For more AP gift guides and holiday coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/gift-guide and https://apnews.com/hub/holidays.

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  • How Looking Outside Your Industry Can Give You Better Game Design Ideas

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    When you sit down with your dev team and talk inspiration, the go‑to examples tend to be from gaming itself, “look at Elden Ring,” “study Mario,” or “check what Fortnite is doing.” But inspiration taken from other sectors can unlock fresh angles inside development workflows, art direction, monetization, narrative and systems thinking.

    Game creators who learn from, say, architecture, hospitality, film, or even banking often find unexpected sparks. 

    Fintech Thinking Can Shape Smarter Game Mechanics

    Fintech’s biggest lesson for game designers is in how it handles complexity. From banking apps, virtual wallets to trading platforms, the goal is always the same, make high-stakes, multi-step interactions feel seamless and intuitive. 

    In the crypto space, wallets have become more than just storage tools. Wallets now have full-service interfaces that manage access, verify ownership, and facilitate early participation. For developers, wallets that enable presales for 2025 reflect how thoughtful fintech design can streamline even the most intricate systems. These wallets offer instant asset delivery, transparent purchase history, and multi-platform access, all traits that enable quick and efficient participation in presale events, but also worth mirroring in in-game systems. Whether it’s designing item shops, reward loops, or user onboarding, there’s a lot to learn from how fintech simplifies complexity without removing control. In that sense, wallet infrastructure becomes a kind of blueprint for future-ready game design.

    Architecture and Urban Planning Influence Level Design

    Architects don’t just draw buildings; they guide movement, sightlines, circulation, and transitions between spaces. These same concerns matter in level design, how does a player move, what do they see first, where do paths converge?

    A good example of this crossover is how Bjarke Ingels Group once turned their project portfolio into an 8‑bit arcade game, layering vehicle motion, obstacle evasion, and spatial transitions to reflect their real buildings. In doing so, they treated their real‑world designs as “game spaces,” thinking in zones, thresholds, and player (visitor) sightlines rather than just facades.

    In games, that kind of design thinking translates to emerging vistas, visual “teasers” of upcoming zones, or how a hallway opens into a wide arena. Borrowing architectural principles of hierarchy, focal points, and circulation helps tighten level layouts.

    Hospitality and Retail Improve Engagement Loops

    Hotels and retail environments drive loyalty by staging moments. Check‑in is a ritual, the lobby signals identity, corridors guide discovery, and amenities surprise the user. These principles can be useful in games as well.

    Take mobile games with daily login bonuses styled like a hotel wake-up. The interface opens softly, a greeting appears, then options unfurl. The “lobby” becomes your game’s hub, framed in a way that borrows hospitality’s script of comfort and anticipation.

    Zynga once used restaurant design in FarmVille: the way farm plots are revealed one by one mimics how restaurants guide guests from the greeter zone into deeper dining rooms. That sense of unfolding keeps the discovery alive.

    Storyboarding from Film Enhances Pacing

    Film has taught decades worth of lessons about pacing, tension, framing, and reveal. Narrative games already use cinematic tools, but even non-narrative systems benefit from storyboarding and editing logic.

    Celeste is a good example. The pacing of dialogue and platforming alternates carefully. There’s a moment of rest, a reveal, then escalation. That rhythm borrows from a film’s beat structure: setup, conflict, reveal.

    In Return of the Obra Dinn, visual transitions signal timelines or memory shifts, borrowing straight from cinematic editing. These transitions help the player subconsciously understand they are moving between narrative modes.

    Even outside cinematic games, designers can sketch quests like scenes. Mark the moment of tension, the reward, the turning point. Then match gameplay delivery to that rhythm.

    Financial Thinking Refines Game Economies

    Game economies can borrow a lot from banking and fintech. These sectors specialize in trust, transaction friction, incentives, and risk modeling.

    Staking is one clear crossover. Some games now let players lock in-game currency for a set period to earn rewards, borrowing the concept of fixed deposits. It creates commitment through delayed gratification.

    Insurance is another inspiration point. Some live service games offer revival tokens or mitigation items that mimic insurance policies. Pricing these items can be informed by actuarial models, using odds of failure and expected costs.

    Even loyalty tiers and discount models used in fintech can inform in-game shops or season pass structures. That kind of economic tuning benefits from the analytical lens finance brings.

    What Fashion Can Teach Game Developers About Systems and Identity

    Just like limited-edition drops create urgency in streetwear, time-limited skins or event-based rewards in games can drive engagement without feeling forced. 

    The fashion industry also understands how small variations (a colorway, a trim, a brand mark) can radically change perception, which mirrors how players assign value to cosmetic changes. More importantly, fashion handles identity fluidity, it lets people reinvent how they show up. 

    Games that allow layered customization, social display, or evolving personal style tap into the same psychological loop. By studying how fashion collections are rolled out, how brands build anticipation, and how users mix elements, developers can learn to build systems that are not only expressive but also commercially and culturally responsive.

    Automotive and Simulation Tech Drive Feedback Design

    Automotive engineering is built around feedback. How a car responds to driver input, how suspension reacts, how warnings engage, all of that translates easily to responsive game design.

    Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo have both relied on car engineers to shape how vehicles handle, drift, and respond. But even outside driving games, the lessons apply.

    Inertia in platformers can reflect racing dynamics. Jumping, sliding, or rebounding off surfaces can be tuned to carry momentum and feel tactile. Assist modes, inspired by real-world driver aids, can shape game difficulty and onboarding.

    Kerbal Space Program used real aerospace physics to create meaningful error and correction.

    Adapting Ideas Without Overcomplication

    Not every concept needs a 1:1 translation. The value lies in thinking differently. You can sketch a feature like a hotel experience or tune an economic mechanic like a savings account.

    Other teams prototype one microfeature from an adjacent field, test its friction and see how it affects engagement or retention. Storyboarding even non-narrative content can surface pacing issues or reveal hidden UX gaps.

    Conclusion

    Game creation thrives on synthesis. Architects shape spatial flow, hospitality designers stage emotional moments, filmmakers craft rhythm, financiers model transactions, and engineers tune feedback.

    By giving dev teams permission to explore outside gaming, studios unlock surprising design solutions. Whether you draw from banking to structure a presales offer or from hotel design to improve onboarding, outside ideas fuel creative clarity.

    BurCal Apartments8715

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  • A Free Update Just Made the PlayStation Portal a Much Better Handheld

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    Sony’s PlayStation Portal didn’t excite the senses the way the words “PlayStation handheld” should. Released in 2023, Sony’s “remote player” was designed to stream your games from a PS5 to its 8-inch screen for play in another room. It’s not exactly the kind of device you would want to take on the go. But now, after a free software update, the Portal is its own handheld beast capable of playing games streamed directly from the cloud, no PS5 required.

    Sony has been promising this cloud streaming update since November 2024. After a year of testing, Sony’s odd device—literally a DualSense controller flanking an LCD tablet screen—can stream games at 1080p and connect to compatible wireless headsets and earbuds for spatial audio.

    Access to cloud streaming will still mandate a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription worth $18 a month or $160 a year. Yes, that’s far less than the $30 per month that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate now costs, though Sony’s service doesn’t grant you immediate access to major games on release date. The cost of Premium isn’t a small chunk of change, though now there are more streamable games available on the platform than before. Recent titles like Astro Bot, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Borderlands 4, and Ghost of Yōtei are available to stream if you already own them and they exist in your digital games library. Older titles on the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Classics Catalog are also available for streaming, such as The Last of Us Part II Remastered and Silent Hill 2. The full list of available titles is pretty beefy compared to where the service was just a year ago.

    The update also enables a new UI to access all these titles. When you update the PlayStation Portal, you’ll now see three tabs at the top of the screen for remote play, cloud streaming, and searching for titles. The streaming page will open up to all your available games ready to stream. There’s another page where you can browse all the available games not currently in your library. You can also go in and purchase games in these menus without having to jump to your PS5 or phone. Hitting the PS button on the Portal will also open up a window to change your streaming settings. That includes the ability to change text size for some games that may not be legible on a miniaturized display.

    Sure, the PlayStation Portal can now operate completely independent of any PlayStation 5, but you should still only get one if you happen to own any of the console models. In the long run, the streamlined UI could be the most significant update to PlayStation’s hardware considering what may be in store in the future. Sony’s head designer of PlayStation hardware, Mark Cerny, recently confirmed the company is working on a next-gen device. Current and future consoles will likely support novel AI upscaling technology—specifically AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 4. What the company hasn’t been forthcoming on is how it may be working on both a gaming handheld and a traditional console at the same time.

    Leaked specs from reliable AMD beans-spiller Moore’s Law is Dead proposes this handheld could connect to a TV with a dock for slightly enhanced performance thanks to more fans for better thermals, akin to the Nintendo Switch 2. This console will likely be more like a Steam Deck than the classic PlayStation Vita, with a larger display and gamepad-like controls. However, I suspect Sony is using the Portal as a testbed for how to design a small-scale handheld UI. It’s putting the games front and center. Xbox is behind on the usability front with its recent handheld adventures.

    Sony’s Portal UI is far better suited for a small 8-inch, 1080p display than what you get with Windows-based handheld PCs. Case in point: the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. The handheld shipped with the “full screen experience,” or FSE, a version of Windows that makes it easier to navigate multiple apps on such a small screen. Unfortunately, it’s not yet fully baked. Whereas the FSE is better than Windows 11 by itself, it still lacks console-like quality-of-life features, like navigating some Xbox app menus with the bumper buttons. Xbox and Asus are still trying to work out the kinks that cause the device to repeatedly turn on or become unresponsive after it is put to sleep.

    Devices like the $350 Logitech G Cloud proved that streaming isn’t enough to sell a handheld on its own. If anything, the PlayStation Portal can be an amuse-bouche for Sony’s next gaming ambitions.

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    Kyle Barr

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  • The Razer Blade 14 Is Still One of the Best Compact Gaming Laptops

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    The OLED looks great, but one of the benefits of OLED is HDR in gaming, thanks to the incredible contrast from being able to turn off individual pixels. OLED isn’t known for being bright, but lately, that’s improved on laptops and external monitors. The OLED display on the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10, for example, can be cranked up to over 1,000 nits, creating an impressive HDR effect. The Razer Blade 14, however, only maxes out at 620 nits in HDR and 377 nits in SDR. Because of that, I could hardly tell HDR was even turned on. It’s still a pretty screen, and OLED has other benefits over IPS panels, including faster response times, less motion blur, and higher contrast.

    Unfortunately, the Razer Blade 14’s OLED panel is not as colorful as the one I tested on the Razer Blade 16, with a color accuracy of 1.3 and 86 percent coverage of the AdobeRGB color space. Also, the 120-Hz refresh rate is standard for OLED laptops, but you can get 240-Hz speeds on laptops that use IPS, like the Alienware 16X Aurora, which happens to be a much cheaper device.

    The Razer Blade 14’s biggest competition is the ROG Zephyrus G14. I haven’t tested the latest model yet, but it’s a laptop we’ve liked for years now, and it’s on sale often enough for less than the Blade 14. The only real difference is that the Blade 14 uses a more powerful AMD processor, the Ryzen AI 9 365. Not only does it perform better in anything CPU-intensive, such as certain games and creative applications, but it’s also a more efficient chip.

    That leads to some improved battery life—at least, better than your average gaming laptop. I got 10 hours and 19 minutes in a local video playback test, which is about the most you can expect to get from the device. On the other hand, Asus offers higher-powered configurations of the Zephyrus G14, including one that includes the more powerful Ryzen AI 9 HX.

    The RTX 5070 Takes Charge

    Photograph: Luke Larsen

    Bad news: The RAM is no longer user-upgradeable on the Razer Blade 14, so you’ll have to configure it up front with what you need. My review unit had 32 GB, but you can also choose either 16 GB or 64 GB. Because it’s soldered, the memory speeds are faster. As for internal storage, you still get one open M.2 slot to expand space if you need it, supporting up to 4 TB.

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    Luke Larsen

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  • The Switch 2 Is Unstoppable

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    Despite its proven popularity, everybody—even Nintendo itself—seemed to underestimate the Switch 2. The sequel handheld console hybrid is now on pace to be the company’s fastest-selling device ever. Okay, you may be asking, so what if a multi-billion-dollar company makes more money? Nintendo is proving to the entire video game industry that the old ways still work and that developers who want to succeed need to design games with the Switch 2’s limited hardware in mind.

    In its latest quarterly earnings report, Nintendo told investors it now expects to ship 19 million units before the end of March 2026, which is the end of its fiscal year. Before, the company promised to ship 15 million units worldwide. The company also expects to sell 48 million units of its software offerings, 3 million more than previous estimates. That’s indicative of how well the Switch 2 has done since launch back in June. Nintendo says it has sold a total of 10.36 million units up through Sept. 30.

    There’s a small portion of gamers who buy Nintendo’s consoles to exclusively play the company’s first-party titles. Nintendo claims it sold 9.57 million copies of Mario Kart World. That game shipped alongside the Switch 2, so 8.1 million of those sales were for the $500 bundle that saved players from paying the full $80 for the game individually. Meanwhile, Donkey Kong Bananza, the company’s first major post-launch success, notched up an impressive 3.49 million total sales since July. We don’t know what the total sales were for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, which launched in October, though that game seems to have already made its mark with 5.8 million units sold in its first week.

    Gamers prefer physical games on Switch 2

    © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

    Nintendo said that if you also accounted for third-party games, then the total software sales number equaled 20.62 million. Nintendo isn’t releasing specific numbers for how many gamers bought the Switch 2 editions of original Switch titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, or if it counts Switch 2 upgrade packs for games like Super Mario Party Jamboree in those figures. That makes it more difficult to judge the overall scale of third-party game sales on Switch 2.

    However, Nintendo dropped an interesting tidbit regarding physical games versus software sales. Digital sales for the first half of its fiscal year declined by 2.8% compared to the previous year. It seems players are more interested in buying true physical games they can actually own. Data from analyst firm Circana showed that more than 75% of the sales for Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2 were for the version with a physical game card. Developers CD Projekt Red previously said the game had ranked as one of the top-selling third-party games since launch.

    Judging these sales numbers compared to the competition, it’s not even a fair game. Xbox’s hardware sales have been on a steady decline over the past year, and it likely won’t change until we finally have a next-gen Xbox console in hand. Xbox raised the price of its consoles twice this year. Now, a standard Series X console with an optical disc drive costs $650, $150 more than at launch. Sony also hiked PlayStation 5 prices up to $550 for its base console. Like Nintendo, Sony’s sales numbers have been on the rise, increasing by about 2% year over year. However, the PS5 sold around 19 million units by its first anniversary in 2021 and only reached around 7.8 million units shipped after the first five months. The Switch 2 is now set to outsell the PS5, and it doesn’t even need a pandemic to keep people indoors to play its games.

    Developers have a good reason to get their games on Switch 2

    Star Wars Outlaws Switch 2 4
    © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    Compared to consoles that cost over $500, Nintendo’s Switch 2 has been explosive. Developers can’t ignore the smaller console despite its specs seeming weaker than the competition. Those who worked on the ports for Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Outlaws took the time to remove extraneous environmental detail and format their games to run well on Switch 2 despite the handheld’s low power draw. The fact that the console has access to AI upscaling through Nvidia’s DLSS has also proved a surprising boon. This allows the games to run at a lower resolution, then software recreates the scene at the native 1080p—or more when docked—while maintaining the performance.

    The Switch 2 is giving the current landscape of gaming a reality check. Gearbox’s Borderlands 4, a game that ran poorly on practically every system at launch, has been indefinitely delayed on Switch 2 in order to “deliver the best possible experience.” FromSoftware also delayed Elden Ring Tarnished Edition until 2026 to “allow for performance adjustments.” That’s notable, considering that game ran poorly on handheld PCs like the Steam Deck until multiple updates made it more playable. Players don’t necessarily want the best graphics possible. They just want to play their games at a stable frame rate. If that means redesigning a game to fit the power-sipping system, then so be it.

    While Xbox and PlayStation are moving toward an open landscape where exclusive titles are nothing but a memory, Nintendo is undercutting everybody with a cheaper console and games you can’t get anywhere else. Sure, Microsoft is willing to make the case that the console wars are over, but there’s a fair argument to say Nintendo is winning the battle—and may just win the war as well.

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    Kyle Barr

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  • Japanese game maker Nintendo reports zooming sales, profit on its Switch 2 machine

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    TOKYO — Japanese video-game maker Nintendo’s net profit jumped 85% in April-September from the year before, as its sales more than doubled following the launch of its hit Switch 2 console in June, the company said Tuesday.

    Nintendo, based in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, said its profit for the half-year totaled 198.9 billion yen, or $1.3 billion, up from 108.6 billion yen the year before.

    Sales for the first half of this fiscal year rose to nearly 1.1 trillion yen ($7.1 billion) from 523 billion yen in the same period of 2024.

    Nintendo, which makes Super Mario and Pokemon games, did not provide a break down of quarterly data.

    Nintendo’s video game sales were solid, although with no new movies revenue from its content business slowed.

    Nintendo raised its profit forecast for the full fiscal year through March 2026 to 350 billion yen ($2.3 billion). Previously, it had expected a 300 billion yen ($1.9 billion) profit.

    It also raised its forecast for Switch 2 machine sales to 19 million units from the earlier 15 million.

    Nintendo says it had sold more than 10 million Switch 2s by the end of September. Popular Switch 2 game software include “Mario Kart World” and “Donkey Kong Bananza.”

    Sales of the older Nintendo Switch have fallen, but Switch game sales are still going strong because they can be played on Switch 2 machines.

    Analysts expect Nintendo’s earnings to stay strong with the upcoming holiday season, when it tends to do well. They also expect key new games in the Pokemon and Kirby franchises.

    Nintendo stocks, which have been rising relatively steadily over the past year, fell 0.8% on Tuesday.

    ___

    Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

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  • ‘Call of Duty’ movie in the works with Peter Berg, Taylor Sheridan

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    “Call of Duty,” one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, is becoming a feature film with Peter Berg and Taylor Sheridan spearheading the adaptation, Paramount Pictures and Activision said Thursday.

    Berg and Sheridan will co-write the script and produce together, with Berg directing. The longtime friends previously collaborated on “Hell or High Water,” which received four Oscar nominations, and “Wind River.”

    The film will be live action, but no other details about the “Call of Duty” movie were immediately available. The first-person shooter game, which debuted in 2003 as a World War II simulation, has sold over 500 million copies globally. Subsequent versions have delved into modern warfare as well.

    The news of Sheridan’s involvement in a new Paramount project came as a bit of a surprise to the industry. Earlier this week, reports said that the “Yellowstone” creator was leaving Paramount for an overall film and television deal at NBCUniversal valued at some $1 billion across five years. Representatives for NBCUniversal declined to comment.

    The announcement also comes on the heels of mass layoffs at Paramount, just months after completing its $8 billion merger with Skydance. Paramount initiated roughly 1,000 of a planned 2,000 layoffs company-wide on Wednesday.

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  • What Social Media Is Telling Our Boys About Masculinity

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    Common Sense Media’s recent study of over 1,000 adolescent boys (ages 11-17) across the United States revealed important information about how their identity is impacted by online exposure. The study found that their identity around masculinity, their emotional well being and their self esteem are significantly influenced by social media platforms and gaming communities. Here are some of the key findings:

    • 94% of adolescent boys use social media or play online games daily
    • 60% of them find influencers “inspirational.”
    • ¾ of them regularly see masculinity-related posts about building muscle, making money, fighting, dating and relationships, or weapons.
    • Almost 1/2 of boys believe they must follow “unwritten rules” (like not crying or showing fear) to avoid being picked on

    What is happening in teen brains

    During adolescence, boys experience a powerful surge of brain development. The prefrontal cortex—the area responsible for decision-making, impulse control, and planning—develops gradually and remains under construction into the mid-twenties, which can make emotional regulation and long-term thinking challenging. Meanwhile, the limbic system, which drives emotion, reward, and motivation, matures earlier and becomes highly sensitive to stimulation, leading boys to seek excitement, novelty, and peer approval. At the same time, the brain undergoes synaptic pruning, trimming away unused neural connections while strengthening those that are active, making habits and experiences during these years especially influential. Heightened dopamine activity amplifies pleasure from risk and reward, while fluctuating hormones intensify emotions and stress reactivity.

    Together, these changes make the adolescent boy’s brain uniquely impressionable and primed for learning—but also more vulnerable to stress, impulsivity, and social pressure—underscoring the importance of supportive relationships, consistent boundaries, and emotional guidance.

    That’s what makes exposure to this content so concerning—it’s reaching boys at such a sensitive time, when their sense of self and emotional world are forming, and it can influence how they think, act, and relate to others for years to come.

    Masculinity and showing emotion

    From early childhood, boys often hear messages like “don’t cry,” “man up,” or “toughen up,” which teach that vulnerability and emotion equal weakness. These societal norms of men not crying or showing emotion are further enforced by what social media is telling our boys. But men and boys don’t actually experience fewer emotions or less intense emotions than women. So what do they do with the emotions they experience?

    Often times males show anger since that is a “safe” emotion to show publicly. Many adolescent boys intentionally push feelings away in what we call suppression. They decide not to show their feelings because they fear:  

    • Being teased 
    • Getting picked on
    • Rejection by family or friends
    • Being seen as weak and not masculine

    Over time this can turn into repression of emotions which is an unconscious pushing down of feelings. Emotional repression can have a very negative impact on mental health and well being. What starts to happen is that the range of emotions they experience narrows, limiting emotional intelligence, a critical characteristic of a healthy relationship. This emotional restriction can limit self-understanding and make adulthood more confusing. When men can’t express their emotions, those emotions don’t vanish—they turn inward, often manifesting as stress, anger, or disconnection. The result can be loneliness, health problems, and strained relationships.

    What Can Parents Do?

    There was some good news that came out of the research study and that is that parents are adolescent boys’ first choice of support. It also showed that boys with real world relationships have better self esteem and experience less loneliness. There are specific strategies you can use to continue to support your boys and their healthy emotional development. Even if you are met with disinterest or even disdain, don’t stop doing it. They are absorbing it all.

    Emotion Coaching

    Emotion coaching is a Gottman strategy more often applied to younger children but can be adapted and used with teens. The process consists of 5 steps: 

    • Awareness of your child’s emotions
    • Recognizing your child’s expression of emotion as an opportunity for teaching and connection
    • Listening with empathy and validate your child’s feelings
    • Helping your child learn to label their emotions with words
    • Setting limits 

    While this process might look a little different with a teenager, the basic concepts hold true. Being aware of their emotions without judgment is important. Teens may not express feelings in the same way as a younger child. In fact, how teen boys express their emotions may not make any sense to us. The expression may look different than the actual emotion (for reasons previously explained). Helping teens acknowledge and label their feelings is still important. An exchange might look like this. 

    Teen son:  ‘My math teacher doesn’t explain anything, and now we’re getting tested on things I don’t understand!’

    Parent: ‘You seem really upset/frustrated by this.’ 

    Teen son: ‘Whatever’ or’ It’s fine’

    Parent: It sounds like a tough situation.

    Maybe your teen continues to engage, or maybe they don’t. These small interactions matter. You’re not taking the teacher’s side; you are empathizing with your son and validating his feelings. This matters and whether or not it’s obvious in the moment, you are being supportive and helping him develop some emotional awareness. 

    So now when big things happen, maybe someone at their high school commits suicide or there is a school shooting or he gets dumped by a girlfriend, you don’t feel completely at a loss as to how to talk about it because you employ the same strategy as when you talk about more mundane topics.

    Modeling Behavior You Want to See

    It becomes less and less effective as kids get older to tell them how to act or how to behave. What becomes exponentially more important is modeling the behavior that you want to see in them. This means showing them healthy, equitable intimate relationships. Some important components are:

    • Showing empathy
    • Sharing emotions
    • Apologizing to loved ones

    Social media sends our boys the “masculinity message”, outdated ideas about gender roles — that women belong in domestic roles, and that men’s value lies in being tall, strong, or dominant. Much of this content isn’t sought out; it’s delivered to them through algorithms that feed reinforcing messages about identity and worth. As parents we should be concerned that our sons’ developing senses of self-esteem, identity, and mental health are being shaped by these harmful narratives.

    Accepting influence

    Dr. John Gottman discovered that one of the key predictors of a successful relationship is a partner’s ability to accept influence from the other. In his research, he found that marriages were significantly more likely to succeed when husbands accepted influence from their wives — that is, when they respected their partner’s opinions, feelings, and perspectives rather than resisting or dismissing them.

    This concept becomes even more important in the context of dads raising adolescent boys. Not only will accepting influence help men have better relationships, but it will teach their sons an important skill. It will counteract the idea that ‘being a man’ is about always exerting power and control in relationships. When they can take in other people’s perspectives and opinions, it can offer them a broader view of the world. This can be incredibly helpful when it comes to their mental health and ultimately their ability to succeed in a loving relationship.

    Rituals of Connection

    Schedule built in times to talk so that there is a regular time to check in. This can serve multiple purposes. 

    1. You always have a time to connect regardless of what’s going on
    2. It becomes part of your routine and models good communication
    3. It helps reduce stress for your teen
    4. It strengthens your relationship with your child
    5. When something comes up, you might be able to avoid the  foreboding “we need to talk”

    Some ideas are:

    • Meal times
    • In the car (they’re trapped!)
    • As they are winding down for bed (sometimes it helps to talk in a dark room)

    Talk about real life situations

    There is so much going on in the world that can serve as conversation points for you and your son. Use these situations to talk to your son and help understand them better. Choose something they are already either talking about or seeing on social feeds. The idea is to be curious about how they view it and what their opinions are. Here are some starter questions:

    • What do you think about it
    • What are your friends saying
    • Are they talking about it in school
    • What kind of content are you seeing about it

    Remember: the goal is NOT to convince them or change their ideas. In fact you may want to refrain from sharing your thoughts unless you are asked. Keep in mind the teenage brain is naturally self-focused. If a teen feels that you’re trying to persuade or control their thinking, they’ll likely shut down or disengage from the conversation.

    Learn about their gaming

    For most parents gaming was not a part of their childhoods in the same way it is for many kids now. The Common Sense Media study found that ⅔ of adolescent boys are gaming on a daily basis. While there are positives related to it (feeling accepted and socially connected through these gaming interactions), there are still dangers and risks.

    Much of the potential harm is related to online multiplayer gaming especially when you are interacting with people you don’t know and may not be who they say they are. It is reasonable to not allow this aspect of gaming for your adolescent son until they are young adults and in a less vulnerable position. Additionally not all games are created equally; games with pervasive violence are going to have more potential harm. 

    Parents play a vital role in addressing these issues and making informed choices. Talk openly with your teen and include them in the process—it helps them feel seen, respected, and responsible.

    Turn Issues Into Opportunities

    There are countless opportunities to connect with our teens, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. It’s easy to hesitate when interactions don’t bring immediate positive feedback, but our presence and guidance remain essential. We play a critical role in supporting our sons’ mental health and helping them build healthy relationships. Let’s make sure our boys learn what it truly means to be a man from their loved ones—rather than letting those lessons be shaped by AI, algorithms, or social media.

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    Kendra Han

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  • Razer Clio Review: Headphones Are Still Better Than This Headrest Speaker

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    Razer’s $230 Clio headrest speaker did not appreciate the shape of my home gaming chair. I own a cheap chair—technically a hand-me-down from my father—and the speaker likely fetches more than the chair itself. But the Clio didn’t reject the bum support. It simply did not fit around the back of the chair. The device would sit too far down, and sound literally blasted into my upper back, rather than my ears—which is where you want the sound to go.

    I’ve used plenty of odd speaker setups, including neck speakers like Sony’s Bravia Theater U that promises to offer personalized audio without the need to sandwich your head between two cans. There’s certainly an audience that is looking for high-quality, room-filling audio that doesn’t actually fill the room—further incentivizing angry neighbors to knock down your door.

    Razer Clio

    The Razer Clio is awkward to attach to your chair, and even when you get it on, it won’t provide the sound you expect from these large speakers.

    • Balanced sound quality
    • Smart dongle design
    • Easy hookup for surround sound
    • Comfortable
    • Won’t fit on some chairs
    • Poor strap design
    • Won’t work with some surround sound
    • Limited battery life
    • Not the quality you expect for $230

    In that way, the Clio fits the bill. Even though I work in an open office, I wasn’t annoying my deskmates too much as I tested out my chair speaker on the other side of the room. They could hear me, certainly, but the “near-field” directional speakers on either side of the headrest kept the sound contained. Of course, what would be even less distracting is a quality pair of headphones with solid active noise cancellation to avoid any ambient sound bleeding.

    The Clio nearly makes a case for itself—especially if you’re looking for a device to perfect your Razer surround sound setup. It’s also brought down by its attempts to keep you from developing tinnitus, protecting your ears from the might of two speakers with large drivers. It likely offers the personalized surround sound experience you want; it won’t if you’re used to high-end gaming headsets. Those headsets won’t reject you just because you tend to slump forward, nor poorly fit your chair just because it doesn’t have the right headrest circumferance.

    Doesn’t fit chairs very well

    Razer’s Clio headrest speaker rejected my home gaming chair. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    I already mentioned my problems getting the Clio to accept the curves of my home gaming chair. Razer cites that any chair with a headrest circumference of  47 to 65 cm (18.5 to 25.5 inches) should be compatible, but how often are people measuring the tops of their chairs? To aid me in my predicament, Razer sent me a loaner of its own expensive and excessively ergonomic Iskur V2 X gaming chair so I could position the device correctly, just behind my ears. The Iskur is the kind of chair that reminds you of all your poor sitting habits. It’s comfortable and curves to the shape of your spine. Even though it’s made with Razer’s products in mind, the $300 gaming chair isn’t designed perfectly for the Clio.

    The speaker uses two horizontal bands with adjustable buckles that are supposed to tighten against the chair’s back. You would imagine Razer would opt for stretchy bands to offer a snug fit. Instead, you end up doing your best to angle and tighten the Clio so the speakers sit to the left and right of your head. On Razer’s Iskur chair, that meant I couldn’t wrap the bottom strap all the way around the chair back, leaving the ends dangling.

    Razer Clio Headset Speaker Review 02
    The Razer Clio doesn’t even fit perfectly on the the company’s Iskur V2 X gaming chair. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    The headrest itself is comfortable enough if you decide to lean your head back into it. The two wings are made of stiffer material you won’t want to rest your head on. The thing is, I don’t know many people who normally lean back far enough that they will keep their head and neck straight. If you’re a PC gamer, you’re more keen to lean toward your keyboard and mouse. When in this position, you won’t get the prime experience the Clio is trying to offer. If you’re a console gamer, get ready to sit straight-backed, like a soldier on parade, if you want the best quality audio listening with Razer’s 2.4GHz “Hyperspeed” dongle.

    The Clio, like nearly every other Razer product, needs to connect through Razer Synapse PC software for firmware updates and to control the EQ, or equalization options. You only have three settings to chose from: Game, Movie, and Music. You can customize your options based on your preferences, but I found the Game option felt more flat than the Movie preset, no matter if I was watching Netflix, YouTube, or hearing the rattle of gunshots in Battlefield 6.

    Razer Clio Headset Speaker Review 11
    Razer’s 2.4GHz “Hyperspeed” dongle gives you the best quality audio. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    On the top of the speaker are controls for on and off, volume up and down, and another switch for toggling between Bluetooth and a 2.4GHz dongle connection. The dongle itself uses USB-C, and sticks out in an “L” shape, which thankfully helps you avoid taking up too much space on your desktop. There’s a single USB-C port on the headrest for charging, though you’ll also have to use it if Synapse forces you to update the firmware.

    You need to sit like an army soldier on parade

    Razer Clio Headset Speaker Review 08
    You can get the best audio with your cranium on the headrest and gaming with a controller in front of a TV. PC players will tend to lean over on the desk. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    The Clio speaker looks enormous; big enough you may assume its twin full-range drivers would somehow offer the full soundbar plus subwoofer experience behind your head. But no, it’s actually more closely aligned to the many, many headphones you may go out and buy right now—just larger. And despite the size, the sound really doesn’t feel “large” in the way you would expect for a separate, $230 full-range speaker.

    The Clio makes use of 43mm drivers with an aluminum core. If you assumed that would create some head-pounding bass, you may be dissapointed. The sound is more subtle than that. Even when I maxed out it and my PC’s volume, I didn’t feel ratttled by it. Then, if you tend to lean over at all in your chair, you’ll start to miss out on the best audio quality. Sorry, but I don’t have an English gentleman’s sense of perfect posture. I grew up playing games on my basement couch. My spine is a permanent letter “C.”

    On completely balanced EQ settings, I felt I was getting the most out of the speaker’s sound suite. Gunfire in some games could sound slightly muffled, but it wasn’t so toned down I couldn’t hear small differences in various weapons in a game like Cyberpunk 2077. I tried to put on a number of games with more overt or subtle audio. As I played through Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, there was a part of me that knew I could be feeling the horns on the soundtrack deeper in my chest.

    The Clio’s sound was balanced and clear without any sense of “wow” factor in anything I played. Audio when playing any shooter game needs to be punctuated with the hard staccato of a machine gun, but sitting in my chair I felt like I was peppering my environment by loose gravel. The subtle lutes and lyres of Baldur’s Gate III need more of a twang to help sell the fantasy than what the Clio can fully provide. Audio quality felt better-tuned to a game like Ninja Gaiden 4, where the sound of your slicing and dicing has the satisfying quality of being on the right side of a butcher’s block.

    The headrrest speaker also felt better situated for listening to music. My usual slate of indie folk rock felt tuned for this device. Andrew Bird could swoon and fiddle, and I felt right at home. Heavier music that you want to feel deep in your spine will offer a slight tingle instead. Again, the audio felt about right for the price for passive listening, especially with your back pressed up against the chair. It’s what I would want from a relatively cheap speaker setup but without needing to stick multiple speaker units around your desk. However, in that case, it wouldn’t matter how you sit if you were hoping to get the full effect.

    Surround what?

    Razer Clio Headset Speaker Review 07
    For their size, Clio’s 43mm drivers on the Clio’s speakers seem like they could put out much louder audio. It’s a good thing they don’t. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    The one unique feature of the Clio is that it can act as the driver seat for a kind of 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setup. More specifically, the Clio can work as a rear speaker while another device can perform as front speakers. You could use your monitor or laptop’s built-in speakers to do the job, though that clearly isn’t the best use case. You’ll want an actual speaker setup in front of you. However Razer’s Synapse software failed to recognize separate speakers like a BlueAnt Soundblade soundbar. It’s just another quirk of Razer’s software, of which there are many. You will have a much better time if you plug in other Razer speaker or soundbars, like the company’s Leviathan V2.

    If your content doesn’t support full surround sound, hitting the setting for audio mirroring will provide a better full-sound experience. In this mode, you don’t need to worry about your head’s position for the best audio experience. If you have any type of desktop speaker setup, the Clio may actually be a great addition if you don’t want to bother with placing speakers on the other side of your gaming room. That would also defeat the purpose of the “near-field” speakers if you were hoping to let your roommates sleep in.

    One of the big selling points behind this speaker is the promise of THX immersive audio. In Synapse, you can get a demo of the spatial audio sensation as sound moves around the room. Again, in games, the “spatial” sensibility is less distinctive. I could get a better spatial sense out of Razer’s own Kraken V4 Pro headset. If you were hoping these drivers could offer enough bass that it would run from your spine to the tips of your toes, you’d also come away disappointed.

    Why not just buy a gaming headset?

    Razer Clio Headset Speaker Review 05
    You’re gonna have a hard time reaching behind your head to access Clio’s controls. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    Clio promises a battery life of up to 14 hours, which is considerably less than many of the big name wireless headsets out there which promise at least 30 or more hours of listening time. In my days using it, I didn’t have to worry about that much considering I can barely get in a few hours of gaming a week, at most. Charging the device isn’t all that difficult if you have an extra-long USB-C cable. Otherwise, you’ll need to take the Clio off your chair to bring it somewhere to give it that extra juice.

    My mind kept going back to the various headsets I’ve used all throughout 2025. For the same price, you can grab a pair of headphones that will offer personalized audio with improved bass. An Alienware Pro Wireless headset is notably light on bass compared to similarly priced devices, and I would still prefer it over the Clio to make my spine tingle. A HyperX Cloud III Wireless at $180 also provides meaty sounds without pitching over into annoying highs or lows.

    For anything better quality, you end up spending closer to $300 or even more. The cream of this year’s crop of headsets is still the Sony Inzone H9 II. It’s the moment when “balanced” audio transforms into something more meaningful. Razer’s own BlackShark V3 Pro, built for competiive gamers, will cost you $250. A Razer Kraken V4 Pro will set you back $400 when not on sale, but I can confirm it offers truly immersive audio. Yes, all these options involve earcups. The Clio may be that extra piece of kit you needed for your surround sound (if Razer likes your device). Otherwise, most people are better off sticking with what works.

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    Kyle Barr

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  • You Want an Audiophile Gaming Headset, but Just Not This One

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    Boy, gaming headsets sure are getting expensive these days. There’s Sony’s Inzone H9 II, which costs $350, a sum that’s more than half the cost of a 1TB PlayStation with a disc drive. Then there are even more expensive options, like SteelSeries’ Arctis Nova Elite, which costs more than the aforementioned console at $600, though it does come with a separate hub. I’m not saying those gaming headsets don’t sound good—I tried the Inzone H9 II for myself and was impressed—but if you’re spending a several-hundred-dollar sum on a gaming headset (just a headset for Pete’s sake), it better be game-changing.

    That’s a high bar for a peripheral, to be sure, but one that I think resonates with most gamers willing to tread into the ultra-premium category. That being said, it’s a bar that can be met, as evidenced by Sony’s Inzone H9 II. Still, rising to the level of game-changing is no easy task, which is why I went into testing VZR’s Model One MKII Audiophile gaming headset with a raised eyebrow. With a $360 price tag, can the Model One MKII really deliver the goods at a level that makes the premium feel justified? The answer… is complicated.

    VZR Model One MKII

    The Model One MKII is an expensive headset that sounds good in moments but lacks modern conveniences.

    • Sounds good when set up the right way
    • Comfy
    • Feels sturdy
    • No option for Bluetooth or a 2.4GHz dongle
    • No active noise cancellation
    • Sounds mediocre when plugging into a Bluetooth controller

    An “audiophile game headset”

    Right out of the gate, VZR positions its Model One MKII as a gaming headset geared toward audiophiles. To back that claim up, it’s using something called CrossWave, the same technology in its previous headset, the MK One. CrossWave is a proprietary tech that is meant to more closely mimic the way sound naturally enters your ears. The idea here is that with precise acoustic tuning, it delivers more “natural” spatial audio that makes the headset ideal for first-person shooters, where hearing footfalls and other environmental noise can be make or break.

    © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    To augment that acoustic experience even further, VZR has included a “Talisman” in the Model One MKII, which is a patent-pending bass diffuser that, in VZR’s words, “brings tighter, harder-hitting lows that make every scenario feel massive.” That bass diffuser should also give you an indication as to where VZR intended to improve the sound in this iteration, which is to say, in the midrange frequencies. With less overpowering bass, you should be able to hear midranges and treble more easily.

    See VZR Model One MKII at Amazon

    So, that’s what VZR meant to do with the Model One MKII. The question is, does it actually achieve those goals? The answer? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. In my experience, the level of satisfaction with the Model One MKII depended largely on how I was using the headset. Using it the lazy way, which in my case is plugging directly into an Xbox controller (sometimes wired and sometimes not) and calling it a day, the gaming headset feels… lackluster. While I get a touch more spatiality while playing games like Fortnite, I wouldn’t describe the sound experience as groundbreaking. Footfalls and gunshots are perceptible, but not quite “wow, I’m right in the action” levels of sound.

    Similarly, plugging into a PlayStation 5 DualSense controller and playing Gears of War is a fine experience, but it didn’t quite leave me feeling like spending $360 would be a good idea.

    But this method isn’t the hi-fi way. If you’re buying this headset (spending nearly 400 freaking dollars to do so), you should think like an audiophile, and audiophiles don’t use Bluetooth like some regular-ass noob. Audiophiles take advantage of wires and the lossless audio they provide, in addition to the low latency. So, to test the headset like an audiophile would, I plugged the Model One MKII into Steel Series’ Arctis Nova Elite gaming hub, which is basically a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that is meant to maximize sound quality and precision. The result was a marked improvement in sound quality and overall satisfaction with VZR’s hardware. Gears of War: Reloaded sounded a hell of a lot more immersive, with more spatiality and much higher fidelity sound—rock crumbling felt proximate, and enemies felt like they were in the room.

    Is it cheating to use a DAC? I don’t know; you tell me. Maybe it is, but I also imagine most people spending nearly $400 on a headset will have a proper setup at home to use said hi-fi headset, so in some ways, this feels like the better way to actually assess the Model One MKII’s audio chops. Ultimately, whether you feel satisfied with the Model One MKII’s sound quality will depend largely on your setup at home. If you’re taking the lazy approach and plugging this thing into a Bluetooth controller and calling it a day, beware. If you have the right interface to make the hardware sing, then it might be worth the investment.

    Quality, but not always convenience

    VZR’s Model One MKII brings quality in a lot of ways, and one of the areas you’ll notice immediately is the build. The Model One MKII feels sturdy, with a metal headstrap and a comfortable pleather band underneath that connects earcups made from heavy plastic. There’s a weight to the headset, but it doesn’t feel burdensome on your head, which means that it’s balanced well. Earcups, which contain memory foam, are also well-padded and comfortable in longer gaming sessions, though they don’t necessarily allow for the best heat dissipation.

    Overall, the Model One MKII looks and feels like it’s worth several hundred dollars, which is good because it costs (checks notes)… several hundred dollars.

    Vzr Model One Mk2 Review 06
    © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    The mic quality also holds its own, according to people I gamed with, and is detachable, which is great if you’re storing the Model One MKII between gaming sessions or if you want to toss the headset in its included carrying case without crunching the mic. The mic also picks up my voice well, even when it’s not ideally positioned, which is good if you happen to bump your mic mid-game and don’t have time to fix it. The mic positioning also holds up well compared to cheaper gaming headsets with less rigidity.

    There is one area that I have to take exception with, which is the fact that the headset is wired-only. For some people, that will be fine, and there’s no denying that wires provide unparalleled low latency and lossless audio, but I can’t help but feel like an option to use the headset with Bluetooth would be nice. I still think, despite the superiority of wires, that I prefer a dongle solution like Sony’s Inzone H9 II, which uses a 2.4GHz signal to transmit more audio information and cut down drastically on latency compared to regular Bluetooth connections. Sure, having to plug a dongle in and keep track of it isn’t ideal, but frankly, neither are wires, and the former solution looks a hell of a lot cleaner than dealing with all that black spaghetti on your desk.

    Vzr Model One Mk2 Review 04
    © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    Speaking of wires, the Model One MKII comes with revamped cables for more stability and better audio quality. I haven’t used the Model One that came before the MKII, so I don’t have much of a comparison, but I can tell you that the signal felt stable for the most part, though I did have some hiccups while plugged into my aging Xbox controller at home via Bluetooth. I’m going to give VZR the benefit of the doubt and say the signal instability was the controller’s fault, given the fact that the gaming headset operated fine when plugged into other controllers with less wear and tear.

    Is this thing really worth $400?

    Vzr Model One Mk2 Review 10
    © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    So, back to the original question: should you really spend $360 on a gaming headset? It’s hard for me to answer that since I don’t have access to your last bank statement, but I think if you are going to spend that much, there are gaming headsets that I would spring for before the Model One MKII. Sony’s Inzone H9 II, for example, has quality sound in a dongle solution that feels a hell of a lot more convenient, and while it may not have the same premium build, it gives you even more features like active noise cancellation (ANC), which the Model One MKII lacks.

    Also, Sony’s Inzone H9 II can be used wired via a 3.5mm cable if you really want to, so is there any real advantage to buying VZR’s Model One MKII? I’ll let you be the decider there, but if it were me spending almost $400 on a gaming peripheral, I’d want to have options. As high-quality as the Model One MKII can sound with the right setup, I find it a little too confining and not as full-featured as competitors that offer custom sound profiles, ANC, and options for wired/Bluetooth, while still bringing the A-game in the sound department. My advice? If you really feel like you need a premium headset, do yourself a favor and get one that does it all.

    See VZR Model One MKII at Amazon

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    James Pero

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  • This Upgraded SteelSeries Gaming Headset Is $80 Off

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    In the world of high-end gaming headsets, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless (8/10, WIRED Recommends) stands out with an impressive feature set and excellent audio. Right now, you can pick up the wireless model for just $300 from Amazon, an $80 discount off the usual price. That might sound like a lot for gaming headphones, but these offer quite a lot for the price.

    Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

    SteelSeries

    Arctis Nova Pro Wired/Wireless Headset

    This luxurious gaming headset is a great pick for daily gamers who want excellent sound quality and high-end comfort. They have big drivers that make sounds in-game pop, and an excellent mic with noise-canceling so good your friends won’t even know you have a dog. They’re super comfortable, with the SteelSeries signature ski-goggle strap to take the pressure off your head.

    While they’re built for gaming, they also sound great listening to music or watching movies. They have a nice, punchy sound profile and spatial audio support for a more immersive experience. If you’re on a PC, the SteelSeries GG software gives you a ton of options for balancing your audio across multiple sources, and you can even set individual EQ profiles for different applications.

    By including a USB DAC for wireless connectivity, the Arctis Nova Pro can achieve some unique and compelling features not found on other headsets. The range is impressive, thanks to more room for the antenna and power than you’d find in a smaller USB dongle. You can adjust the volume and audio mix from a generous knob on the front, and it has multiple audio inputs for switching between consoles.

    Best of all, the hub can charge a spare battery for the headset, giving you essentially infinite run time as long as you’re seated at the computer. When you run down the 25 or so hours on one charge, just swap out the battery and the headset will reconnect and pick up where you left off. It’s the perfect feature for anyone with battery concerns, but don’t worry, you can also charge the headset via USB-C directly.

    At $300, these aren’t cheap, and there are better gaming headsets for single-console or casual gamers, as well as an even more expensive model, but I think these are a great middle ground for anyone with a budget and a Steam backlog.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • New interactive gaming experience now open in Loudoun County – WTOP News

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    From dodging lasers to solving puzzles, a new high-tech playground in Virginia offers over 70 games that challenge your mind and body.

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    New interactive gaming experience comes to Loudoun!

    Dodging lasers, shooting hoops, destroying meteors, and solving neon puzzles.

    All these activities and more are at your fingertips when you visit Activate, a new interactive gaming experience where you are the player, now open in Loudoun County, Virginia.

    In today’s episode of “Matt About Town,” we’re heading to Sterling to test out this new spot, where anyone ages 6 and up is welcome.

    Evolved from the escape room concept, Activate is a unique experience that blends immersive technology with the physical and mental, testing your ability to navigate various obstacles both individually and with a team.

    Activate has more than 70 different games, with different variations and difficulty levels, so it’s designed for replayability. It even have a global league, where adults from around the world can log in weekly to play and compete for prizes (and worldwide bragging rights).

    Trust us — it gets competitive!

    To learn more about Activate, visit their website.

    Hear “Matt About Town” first every Tuesday and Thursday on 103.5 FM!

    If you have a story idea you’d like Matt to cover, email him, or chat with him on Instagram and TikTok.

    Check out all “Matt About Town” episodes here!

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Matt Kaufax

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  • What to Stream: Brandi Carlile, ‘A House of Dynamite,’ Demi Lovato and ‘Nobody Wants This’

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    Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear fallout thriller “A House of Dynamite” and albums from Brandi Carlile and Demi Lovato are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

    Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Season 2 of “Nobody Wants This” sees things get more serious between Adam Brody’s rabbi and Kristen Bell’s agnostic podcast host, Ninja Gaiden 4 asks gamers to fight their way through cyber soldiers and other malevolent creatures, and director Ben Stiller pays tribute to his comedian parents with “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.”

    — An old genre — the hypothetical nuclear fallout thriller — returns in Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” (Friday, Oct. 24 on Netflix), a minute-by-minute White House drama in which a mystery missile is bearing down on Chicago. The film tells the 18-minute run-up to impact from three different perspectives, with an ensemble including Rebecca Ferguson, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos and Idris Elba, as the president. In my review, I wrote: “With riveting efficiency, Bigelow constructs a taut, real-time thriller that opens explosively but dissipates with each progressive iteration.”

    — In “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost,” director Ben Stiller pays tribute to his comedian parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, while reflecting on how their show business lives influenced those of his own family. The film, premiering Friday, Oct. 24 on Apple TV, is a distinctly family affair, that culls from the extensive archives of Meara and Stiller, who recorded as much in their private lives as they did in film and television.

    — Ron Howard’s “Eden” (Wednesday on Prime Video) is based on a true story about a group of disillusioned Europeans who in 1929 sought to create a utopia on an island in the Galápagos. It didn’t go so well. Howard’s film struggled mightily at the box office despite a starry cast including Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney. In her AP review, Itzel Luna wrote that the ensemble, “isn’t always enough to make up for the overambitious plot of a film that drags in the middle.”

    — AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

    — On Thursday, the contemporary R&B talent Miguel returns with his first full-length in nearly a decade. The bilingual “Caos” (the Spanish word for “Chaos”) is the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s “War & Leisure,” and marks a conceptual pivot for the musician. “To rebuild, I had to destroy myself. That is the core confrontation of ‘Caos,’” Miguel said in a press statement. “Through my personal evolution, I learned that transformation is violent. ‘Caos’ is the sonic iteration of me bending that violence into something universally felt.”

    — Who is busier than Brandi Carlile? Just a few months ago, the musician known for melding folk, alt-country, rock and Americana partnered with the great Elton John for a charming collaborative album, “Who Believes In Angels?” Now, on Friday, she’s gearing up to release a new solo album, “Returning to Myself,” her first since 2021’s “In These Silent Days.” If you need any reconfirmation of her timeless talent, cue up “A War with Time,” written by Carlile and frequent Taylor Swift collaborator, Aaron Dessner of The National. And on piano/background vocals? That’s Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.

    — It’s a “BRAT” autumn for Demi Lovato, whose ninth studio album, “It’s Not That Deep,” embraces club-dance rhythms in addictive pop songs. That’s a noted departure from her last two records, 2022’s “Holy Fvck” and 2023’s “Revamped,” which leaned more traditionally rock ‘n’ roll. Both modes work for Lovato: give her space to belt with some edge, and she’ll fashion an earworm.

    — AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

    — As we get closer to Halloween, a number of new horror shows debut this month. Sam Claflin (“Daisy Jones & the Six”) stars in a new Prime Video mystery from bestselling author Harlan Coben. He plays a forensic psychiatrist who finds himself connecting the dots between a number of cold cases after his father’s death. “Harlan Coben’s Lazarus” debuts Wednesday.

    — The delightful TV romance between Adam Brody’s rabbi, Noah, and Kristen Bell’s agnostic podcast host named Joanne carries on Thursday in Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This.” Season 2 picks up shortly after the first season ended with the two characters attempting to blend their lives as they get more serious. Joanne is also still grappling with the idea of committing to Judaism because it’s a non-negotiable for Noah. In a world that seems to have just gotten more complex in the past year, investing in these two fictional characters’ relationship is a great distraction. Team Joah!

    — AMC continues to adapt and draw from the works of Anne Rice (known as the Immortal Universe), with “Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order.” Debuting Sunday, Oct. 26 on AMC+, it’s about a secret society that tracks immortals like witches, vampires and the like. “Talamasca” stars Nicholas Denton and Elizabeth McGovern and has cameos from “Interview with the Vampire” cast members, Eric Bogosian and Justin Kirk.

    — A prequel series to the “It” films called “It — Welcome to Derry” (thankfully not titled “Stephen King’s: It — Welcome to Derry” and therefore less of a tongue twister), arrives on HBO Max also on Sunday, Oct. 26. Set in 1962, Taylour Paige and Jovan Adepo star as Charlotte and Leroy Hanlon, couple who moves to Derry, Maine, with their son and begin to recognize the town is pretty creepy. “It” fans will recognize the Hanlon name and its lore. Also, Bill Skarsgård reprises his Pennywise the Clown role from the films.

    — Alicia Rancilio

    — Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 puts you in the cape of a bloodsucker named Phyre who has been asleep for a century and has somehow woken up in Seattle. But you are not alone — a “vampire detective” named Fabian has infected your blood and will update you on grunge, that “Twilight” nonsense and 21st century goth culture. That includes six competing vampire clans, some brutal, some sneaky and some just outright seductive. It’s all based on a popular tabletop role-playing game that has had difficulty translating to video games, but publisher Paradox Interactive has had some success with RPGs like Pillars of Eternity and Crusader Kings. Take a bite Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.

    — If you don’t want to be a vampire for Halloween, why not try on Ninja Gaiden 4? In a near-future Tokyo, a prodigy named Yakumo must fight his way through cyber soldiers and other malevolent creatures as he tries to lift a curse from his neon-drenched city. He soon crosses paths with Ryu Hayabusa, the legendary hero of the previous Gaiden games. The latest chapter is a collaboration between two esteemed Japanese studios: Team Ninja, which has been handling this franchise for 20 years, and Platinum Games, best known for the loopy hack-and-slash favorite Bayonetta. The swords start swinging Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.

    — Lou Kesten

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  • Microsoft Thinks Gamers Don’t Actually Want to Play Their Games

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    Windows 10 is no more (though you may still use the old OS for a bit longer with a free year of security updates). Microsoft’s Copilot AI is growing like a weed on the old operating system’s grave, infecting all of Windows 11 and beyond. While Microsoft is trying to get users talking to AI chatbots on their PCs, the tech giant wants you to do the same while you’re gaming. The end result is a bot that’s so good at stating the obvious it could actually make the gaming experience worse.

    In multiple demos, Microsoft showcased its AI guiding a player in the direction of their objective in Final Fantasy XVI from 2023. “Looks like the quest is right down the stairs, literally right in front of you,” the AI stated in one such demonstration with the obtuse confidence of a child pointing to a toy in a shop window. The player asked, “Hey, how do I get to the blacksmith?” as they looked at their world map and ignored the store icon blaring on the screen.

    In other words: Copilot seems to think gamers are dense dupes who can’t follow instructions and don’t actually want to play their games.

    Gaming Copilot will confidently lie to you (in a British accent)

    The Gaming Copilot Beta is one of the defining features of the ROG Xbox Ally. It’s just not all it’s cracked up to be. © Microsoft

    I tried the Gaming Copilot (still labeled “beta”) on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. The AI is built directly into the new Xbox Game Bar as part of the so-called full-screen experience. You can set Copilot to use multiple voice types, though “wise” comes out more lethargic and bored than philosophical, and “heroic” is literally just a British accent. If you hold down the Armoury Crate button (that toggle at the top left of the device), you can bring up options to either speak to or use the on-screen keyboard to type questions at the chatbot.

    In Hades II, I asked Copilot how I could get the “Kudos” resources you can use to upgrade your camp’s aesthetics. It told me I needed to complete more runs to get them. That’s true, and it deserves a single Kudos for knowing the name of the resource, but it also ignored the fact that players can sell loose items to the Wretched Broker to obtain the material.

    Asus ROG Xbox Ally X handheld hands-on
    Gaming Copilot is also accessible through the menu button. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    Discovery is one of those intrinsic features in games that doesn’t exist in any other artistic medium. Sacrificing it for the sake of expedience could effectively ruin some games. It’s the job of game designers to make navigating their worlds feel organic. Players need to feel like they’re making choices without that belittling sense of hand-holding when they are being shepherded toward their goal like the lost sheep they are. A great example of this is in Naughty Dog’s 2017 action-adventure game Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. On one level, players race after a convoy in a truck while being hunted by an armored vehicle with a machine gun. The player can take multiple paths as long as they keep heading downhill. Every player will eventually end up in the same place at the bottom, but the fun is in the creativity.

    Now, imagine if I paused the action for a second to ask an AI, “How do I get to the bottom?” Not only does doing so break the flow of the game, but it also ignores the work the developers put into their design.

    Using Copilot on an acclaimed title like Hades is one thing, but a tool like this applied to poorly designed games also risk becoming something more problematic: a band-aid over legitimate issues. But it also may not even be a great bandage, considering how often it gets things wrong.

    Copilot may offer bad advice to new players

    Gaming Copilot 1 Rog Xbox Ally X
    Holding the start button brings up the Gaming Copilot talking interface. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

    As is constantly the case with AI, Gaming Copilot is great at confidently lying to you, and that’s made all the worse when it’s done with an authoritative British accent.

    I asked the Copilot how I could swap or unequip weapons in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and it told me to use an “item wheel” when I hit the bumper button. That’s just incorrect. The game uses the d-pad to swap weapons. Copilot also told me I need to “nudge the thumbstick” to lean around corners, but you actually need to click to the left or right to lean.

    Gaming Copilot also cannot change your settings for you, at least not yet. I had a lengthy conversation with the AI about what I needed to tweak to achieve the best balance of frame rate and graphics quality in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on the Xbox handheld. Its end advice was simply to turn the graphics to medium and move the TDP to its “Turbo” setting. It also suggested I bump the resolution down to 720p, which seemed odd since I could nail around 40 fps at 1080p on the $1,000 handheld. That’s just bad advice.

    On the bright side, this program is still described as a “beta.” There’s a chance it could eventually grow into something useful. Microsoft has already kicked off its beta test of a Copilot Actions app that can complete tasks on the PC on your behalf. If Microsoft wants to make PC gaming as console-like as possible, having an AI that can actually change device settings to enable the best possible performance would be a nice change of pace. That’s what I really want an AI for: Not to do my gaming for me, but to alleviate the tedious parts of getting into a game on PC in the first place. Before it can do that, though, it needs to learn what the d-pad is.

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    Kyle Barr

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  • Microsoft Made the Perfect Feature for Gaming Handhelds—but Good Luck Trying To Install It

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    There’s nothing worse than FOMO, the dreaded fear of missing out, to set gamers’ teeth on edge. The $1,000 Asus ROG Xbox Ally X—which launches Oct. 16—sports a new version of Windows all its own. The greedy little handheld PC will be the first in its category to run a version of Microsoft’s OS built customized to make it easier to access games. Oh, and your titles may run better than they did on previous versions of Windows.

    The new version of Windows built for handhelds sports the FSE, a boring initialism for an even duller name, the “full screen experience.” What this does is position all your windows as separate apps you can spool through with a long press of the Xbox Ally’s special Xbox button. It means you no longer have to use a touchscreen in desktop mode to access all your various game launchers. It works well enough at this early stage; I wish it were available to all Windows PCs, akin to Steam’s Big Picture Mode.

    For the moment, however, the feature is limited to the Xbox Ally. In the last few months, we’ve heard different things at different times from both Asus and Microsoft about whether other handhelds could soon receive it. Lenovo has claimed to The Verge that its devices will receive the update in spring of next year. But that’s not what Microsoft is saying. In an email statement, Xbox told Gizmodo, “We’re focused on launching the full-screen experience on the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds for Oct. 16. We have nothing more to share at this time.”

    The Xbox app on the new Windows FSE acts as a hub where you can access your installed games and most (but not all) of your favorite launchers. © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

    The FSE is still early in the crib. It’s better to think of it as a beta, even though Asus and Microsoft are keen to launch it exclusively with the Xbox Ally on Thursday. I’m one of multiple reviewers who have experienced glitches where waking the handheld from sleep results in a black screen. The software also eats up battery, even when the device is ostensibly asleep. Asus has confirmed that these are known issues, reassuring me Thursday that fixing the glitch is “definitely high in the priority list.”

    But even before all its kinks are ironed out, the FSE would still make devices like the Legion Go 2 infinitely more accessible. So I fired up a unit and tried to make it happen.

    PC gamers are well used to digging through Windows for hidden or beta features. You can find several guides online detailing the process to install the 25H2 Windows 11 update, though you’ll need to sign up for the Windows Insider beta program. There’s already a detailed guide on Reddit available for those who dare to try. However, you may end up using a third-party program called ViVeTool to manually force the update onto the handheld, which is likely enough of a hindrance to give less-dedicated PC gamers pause. Changing your settings may even break controller-first menu navigation, as IGN detailed in a report last month.

    So rather than force a nonstandard version of the FSE onto the Lenovo Legion Go 2, I tried loading the 24H2 update (KB50657089). No dice—even with that installed, the handheld was displaying the regular Windows desktop with no option to swipe through full-screen apps.

    Interestingly, though, I still saw improved performance. In Cyberpunk 2077 benchmarks, I experienced an average of 5 more frames per second after the update than I did when I first reviewed the Legion last month on the stable Windows channel. Shadow of the Tomb Raider performance also improved by an average of 3 fps.

    When I asked Microsoft whether the promised performance uptick was due to the FSE or a general update, the company told me, “While the Windows Update may include general Windows improvements, the Xbox full-screen experience offers the memory and performance improvements, including minimizing background tasks to give more power back to your games.”

    Lenovo Legion Go 2 Review 19
    Windows desktop is still the worst way to navigate a handheld, even on a large display like the Legion Go 2. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

    In 3DMark benchmark tests on the Legion Go 2, I could nail between 100 and 200 points better in Time Spy and Steel Nomad Light tests. That may not seem like a lot, but 3 or 5 fps may be enough to let you boost graphics settings or make a previously unplayable game playable.

    I then tried porting the same update onto the original ROG Ally X from 2024. I also ended up tied to the traditional desktop on that device. I could, unlike with the Legion, access the new Game Bar with the left menu button. But the performance bump on this model was underwhelming: Though the device is now running a bit better than it was at launch last year, it didn’t display nearly the same boost in performance that the Legion Go 2 did post-update. Long story short, there doesn’t appear to be a clean way for folks who don’t own the Xbox Ally, specifically, to experience the full benefits of the FSE.

    That’s not the biggest problem—yet. The FSE-equipped ROG Xbox Ally X still can’t run all the latest AAA titles at 60 fps on their highest settings. You can net 30 fps in most intense games when you push down the graphics and sacrifice any hope of ray tracing. That said, the frame rate gains here are similar to the delta I’ve seen between the Windows-powered Legion Go S and the Legion Go S with Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS. Which means that if Microsoft finds it in its heart to give more people this update, maybe some gamers won’t feel as strong a desire to hop over to Linux and avoid the slow decline of Windows 11 as a gaming platform. Microsoft still has to fix some bugs first, though.

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    Kyle Barr

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