On its 10th birthday, the Apple Watch faces some serious challenges. While it’s still one of the world’s most popular smartwatches and fitness trackers, the wearables market has become flooded with dupes and wannabes. Additionally, there are few good reasons to upgrade to a new Apple Watch, especially since a hand-me-down Series 6 is compatible with the latest updates to watchOS and looks basically the same as a brand-new model. An older Series 6 also has blood oxygen sensing, a now standard health feature that the newest Apple Watches do not have due to a patent dispute with the health-tech company Masimo Corp. Finally, and most devastatingly, the Apple Watch also faces serious competition from the Google Pixel Watch 3.
After a decade spent defining a new market, the Apple Watch is just not the only good-looking smartwatch—or the only smartwatch worth owning—around anymore.
Charged with making this year’s Apple Watch irresistible, the company made a bunch of upgrades. The Series 10 now comes in a polished jet black finish that is indeed very shiny. The watch’s case is also much thinner and lighter, with a new S10 chip that is single-sided to be flatter, and a brighter, bigger, wide-angle display. The Series 10 now tracks your breathing disturbances while you sleep and can tell you if you might have sleep apnea. It charges faster, has a new speaker, a new depth gauge, and a new water temperature sensor. And watchOS 11 is still the best watch OS. It just is.
The Watch Series 10 might not deserve breathless adulation, and I’m pretty sure Beyoncé isn’t going to release pap photos of herself wearing it (unless she does, in which case, my bad), but this is still just the best smartwatch for iPhone users. The absence of blood oxygen sensing is a significant obstacle, but at the end of the day, it’s still the watch that’s the hardest for me to take off.
Big Views
The most unbelievable thing about the Series 10 is that the display on the 46-millimeter model is actually bigger than the display on the 49-mm Watch Ultra 2. This trickery is accomplished through the miracle of geometry. The watch case has curved edges and the display extends down the sides, while the Watch Ultra 2 has a flat display and a titanium case that protects the corners from bumps and bangs.
Photograph: Adrienne So
It’s also much thinner and lighter than previous watches, and it’s especially noticeable when compared to the 45-mm Google Pixel Watch 3; Google’s watch is 14.3 mm deep while the Series 10 is just 9.7 mm deep. I personally don’t have problems wearing big, chunky sports watches—the bigger the better, I always say—but I do know people, including my own husband, who can’t sleep while wearing one because they’re too big.
The back is also now metal, both to incorporate some hardware changes and to improve the hand feel, although I don’t actually see or feel that much of a difference when I compare it to the previous Apple Watch’s ceramic back. I do love the polished aluminum jet black finish, even though it shows my greasy fingertips like whoa.
The curved edges do echo the Pixel Watch 3’s design, but the screens perform differently. I compared the two watch screens and the Series 10’s does have a wider viewing angle; the Pixel Watch 3’s display becomes unreadable much more quickly than the Series 10’s when you twist the watch away from you. I have a hard time finding this change to be that useful—I am a very active working mom of two kids and two dogs, yet somehow even I don’t find flicking my wrist towards my face to be that difficult.
I just had fun riding a Brompton. Actual, smile-inducing, adrenalin-fuelled fun, on a fold up bicycle. I’ve ridden many Bromptons and find them to be ingeniously portable feats of commuter engineering, but never especially fun. But here I am, careering along muddy forest paths, flying up hills and bouncing over tree roots … on a Brompton.
My grin comes courtesy of the new Brompton Electric G Line, the most radical redesign in the brand’s 50 year history. It’s still unmistakably a Brompton; it still folds to a third of its size, can be carried (just), and pushed around train stations and subways with ease. But instead of the usual asphalt-friendly, weight-saving 16-inch tires, the G Line has 20-inch cushy Schwalbe G-One tan wall tires. For all intents and purposes, it’s a big wheel folding all-terrain gravel bike.
A first-person view of the handlebars on the Brompton Electric G Line.
Photograph: Chris Haslam
The handlebars are wide, like a regular hybrid bike, and there are disc brakes (the first time on a Brompton) and a Shimano 4- or 8-speed gear system. It is available in electric and non-electric models, in Forest Green, Adventure Orange and Traildust White, both with and without rack and mudguards. There’s also a choice of small, medium and large sizes. With the standard Brompton you can choose the style and height of handlebars, and adjust the seat height accordingly, but with the G Line, the ergonomics are tweaked to offer better balance depending on your height. Just. Like. A. Regular. Bike.
Smooth Operator
I’ve been riding the Electric G Line for two weeks, and it just doesn’t handle like a Brompton. The wibble-wobble steering has gone, as has the bone-shaking ride over anything but smooth tarmac. London streets are not forgiving, but the G Line soaks up every bump with ease.
That’s only enhanced further by the 250-watt rear-mounted hub motor (15.5-mph limit), which pushes hard when needed and removes any effort on the flat. According to Brompton, the new motor was put through its paces on a 24/7 durability rig, with more than 20 motors going through a combined mileage of over 1,000,000 kilometers (62,137 miles).
I didn’t quite manage those numbers, but in real-world conditions, the motor kicks in smoothly and helps glide you along with minimal effort. There are three levels of power assistance, each impacting on the bike’s range, but for me, the mid-power option offers all the help I need, and makes for a fun ride—both on and off road.
The redesigned battery pack clips neatly into the front bracket, and offers 345 kWh of power and a range of 20–40 miles (30–60 kilometers). It ejects easily, and takes around four hours to fully charge. There’s also an app, and while it wasn’t ready for my pre-launch test, it will include over-the-air updates, power mode controls, distance tracking and battery life information.
On the Electric G Line, a nine-watt front light and one-watt rear light do a good job illuminating the road or trail ahead. There are mounting points on the elongated front set and forks for water bottle cages and packs, while the rear rack has ample space for more luggage. There’s also a range of luggage options, including generous satchels with battery storage built in. It will be interesting to see if this bike can carry enough for a bike packing or touring weekend.
Heavy Lifting
Until now, Brompton built bikes for cities. It has sold over a million since 1975, and the combination of teeny wheels and peerless folding mechanism makes them unbeatable for final-mile commuting. They also fold up small enough to be taken with you wherever you go. And they need to, because a Brompton chained up in London won’t stay chained up for long.
But the G Line isn’t designed for commuters; it’s built for trails, and while the ride off road is assured, well balanced, comfortable and stupid amounts of fun, the bike is heavier as a result. A small-frame eight-speed non-electric G Line Brompton weighs from 30.6 pounds (13.9 kilograms), which is six-and-a-half pounds (three kilos) heavier than a standard model (24.2 pounds / 11 kilograms). The standard electric model weighs from 36.6 pounds (16.6 kilograms), and the design I’ve been testing clocks in at 42.9 pounds (19.5 kilograms), including the battery.
Photograph: Chris Haslam
Photograph: Chris Haslam
That means carrying it for any length of time has the potential to be hernia-inducing, and makes the Electric G Line a chunk to carry up and down stairs. The way the folded frame is engineered means the weight is at least evenly distributed, but there’s no doubt that it’s heavy. Sensing this, Brompton has redesigned the rolling wheels to include bearings, making it significantly smoother to push (or pull) than a standard Brompton. If you are going to be taking your Electric G Line on public transport, be prepared to mix up carrying and wheeling to save your arms.
That said, for a folding electric bike, the Brompton’s weight is in line with the competition. The £2,899 Volt Lite weighs a little less (39.6 pounds / 18 kilograms with battery), as does the £1,299 ADO Air 20, although ADO does have a sensationally light Carbon model that weighs just 27.5 pounds (12.5 kilograms). None of these bikes fold as elegantly as the Brompton though, nor offer the same big bike ride experience.
A Blast to Ride
While still champions of the folding bike sector then, Brompton is playing catch up with the electric market. And while I’m not faulting the performance, the battery pack design feels something of an afterthought. I look forward to a purpose-built electric Brompton (in Titanium) when it happens though.
On first impression I thought the G Line was unacceptably bigger than a traditional Brompton. The tires are larger and wider, and the frame is chunkier, but when placed side-by-side (see photos below) there’s not really a huge amount in it—which is remarkable. I was worried about having to store the bike at home and take the G Line into an office or pub (see earlier comment about London) and while it is heavier to lift, I don’t think anyone will really notice much of a difference in small doses.
Photograph: Chris Haslam
Photograph: Chris Haslam
It is unquestionably the most capable Brompton ever built, and an absolute blast to ride, especially off-road. I’m keen to ride the lightest non-electric version too, and see if the eight-speed gearing and smaller wheels do enough for a serious gravel ride. I suspect it might, but whether it’s enough to tempt serious trail riders is another thing entirely.
Which brings us on to who precisely is the Brompton G Line for? It’s certainly a premium proposition, with pricing from £2,395 (my test version costs £3,495), but it is a Brompton, so many people won’t flinch at these prices. For comparison, the cheapest standard Brompton costs from £950, the lightest Titanium option costs from £4,250 and the flagship electric version, the P Line, costs from £3,695. So it’s in good company.
I suspect the all-terrain fun will tempt many existing fold-up riders off their tiny 16-inch wheels. There might be a compromise on weight, size and transportability, but the ride and handling is beyond comparison.
For the first time a fold-up bike has been as enjoyable to ride as a full-sized design, while still being able to fold down and fit in the trunk, or under the stairs. It’s a superb upgrade and should bring the brand to the attention of a whole new audience.
Dead by Daylight is an enormously popular and successful game. Behaviour Interactive has used that as a springboard for other projects, like Deathgarden: Bloodharvest, Meet Your Maker, and Islands of Insight. But none have proven as successful as the developer’s flagship project, which Behaviour is now using to experiment with other genres, like the cheeky Dead by Daylight dating sim Hooked on You or the upcoming co-op shooter currently codenamed Project T. The most recent attempt in this vein, a spinoff narrative game called The Casting of Frank Stone, shows a lot of promise — but it also reveals the trouble in expanding Dead by Daylight into a big, story-rich franchise.
You may be forgiven for not even knowing that Dead by Daylight has a labyrinth of lore, told through item descriptions, in-game diary entries, short animations, and character biographies. These narratives don’t show up in a normal match of the 1v4 asymmetrical multiplayer game in which Survivors attempt to outwit and escape a nefarious Killer. For those who aren’t tuned in to new character releases, it’s possible to lose the original cast in the shuffle as Behaviour introduces new, licensed tie-ins like Trevor Belmont, Jill Valentine, or Lara Croft.
Enter The Casting of Frank Stone, developed by Supermassive, which also stars a whole new cast of characters involved in the Dead by Daylight mythos. Dead by Daylight is made up of murderous Killers trapped in a realm of torment called the Fog, where they endlessly hunt Survivors in this cyclical kind of hell dimension. But what happens before the Fog rolls in to claim a new Killer and some poor Survivors? That has largely been left up to player imagination, but each new spinoff has explored the nature of the Fog a little more closely.
Image: Supermassive Games/Behaviour Interactive
The Casting of Frank Stone fits nicely in with the rest of Supermassive’s catalog as a five-to-six-hour game; the player must navigate the game’s heroes through a narrative experience, passing quick-time challenges and making choices that will determine their fate. The story plays out across three time periods, and depending on the player’s decisions, characters can meet a whole variety of grisly fates, from a simple stabbing all the way up to rapid aging or death by interdimensional portal.
The game begins in the ’60s, with a showdown against the murderous Frank Stone himself as he prepares to sacrifice an infant to a dark god. Two decades later, a group of young filmmakers decide to create Murder Mill, a B movie based on the local lore around the serial killer Frank Stone and his abandoned steel mill. Finally, in 2024, that movie has become so infamous that it inspires a collector to invite a few guests to her towering manse, each one in possession of a part of Murder Mill. The first half of the game is a slow burn, establishing all this context before really rolling out the scares.
Frank Stone’s dark god, the Entity, looms over all three time periods. The Entity is the antagonist of the Dead by Daylight universe: a distant and uncaring god who wants nothing more than to devour each individual reality of the multiverse. A cult known as the Black Vale is aware of the Entity, and the cult members know that it will notice acts of gruesome murder and heedless slaughter. Frank Stone seems to have caught the Black Vale’s eye, and they begin to prep him as delicious bait for their beloved Entity.
The Black Vale and the Entity are well established in Dead by Daylight canon; the process of someone descending into murder and being claimed by the Entity happens in every single Killer biography. These other characters don’t show up in The Casting of Frank Stone, however; they’re only present in the game through little cameos and Easter eggs.
Image: Supermassive Games/Behaviour Interactive
That non-specificity becomes a big problem in The Casting of Frank Stone — the individual characters hardly seem to matter. Each character feels flat; the narrative has to spend so much time setting up the timelines, the nature of Frank Stone, and the other mysteries of the Dead by Daylight universe that we hardly get to learn more about the game’s other characters, like Madison or Stan in the present day.
The best horror is the kind that speaks to something larger, using the scares to drive toward a greater point. George Romero’s zombies are a critique of consumerism, Jordan Peele’s Us is a story about enjoying privilege off the back of someone else’s suffering, and vampires are deeply tied to themes of wealth, exploitation, and power.
The Casting of Frank Stone gestures at a few interesting avenues, like exploring the impact of our fascination with true crime, or the effect that investigating the Entity might have on one normal man, but ultimately the run time isn’t long enough to commit to any one statement. The end result feels like a story that fills out a fan wiki nicely, but doesn’t stand on its own two feet.
There’s a lot of potential in the Dead by Daylight universe; characters like The Plague or The Doctor have sent chills up my spine. The Casting of Frank Stone is a huge improvement over the lackadaisical Hooked on You, but if I were to recommend a Supermassive game to a friend, I’d be more likely to suggest House of Ashes. Everyone can agree that murder cults are bad; I’d like to see Behaviour use the Dead by Daylight universe to tell a story with some actual teeth.
The Casting of Frank Stone was released Sept. 3 on PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PC using a download code purchased by the author. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
Back in December, I reviewed Square Enix’s monster collecting RPG Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch. I loved my time with it despite its many technical issues. I expected it to hit PC like Dragon Quest Treasures, another Nintendo Switch exclusive, but I didn’t expect a mobile release. Square Enix’s newest release of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on iOS, Android, and Steam brings all prior paid DLC into the game at a lower entry point, but removes one feature. This is the online real-time multiplayer battles. Beyond that, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Steam and mobile is already a massively better experience just on value with its lower price point and the content included, but is the game worth your time in this crowded release period and with its premium price? That’s what I aim to answer with my Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince mobile review also covering the game on Steam Deck.
If you aren’t familiar with Dragon Quest Monsters itself, it is a spin-off series of the main Dragon Quest games featuring turn-based combat, but instead of the main player fighting, you capture, breed, and raise monsters to fight for you. When I played Dragon Quest Treasures, I enjoyed it, but was told that it is a “Monsters-lite” game so when Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince was announced for Switch, I was excited to play it. I ended up loving it as you can see from my review linked above, but I think it is a very strong monster collecting RPG with turn-based combat regardless of if you like Dragon Quest or not. What made Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince more interesting, is in how it feels like a side story and prequel to Dragon Quest IV. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince also had a seasonal feature where the monsters changed depending on the season and area you’re in.
When it comes to the story, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, the bits from IV already made it more interesting than the usual spin-off, but I found myself focusing more on getting my own dream monster party rather than worrying about the narrative. I’m super pleased with how well thought out the mechanics are and how the large zones, hundreds of monsters, and combat made me want to keep playing it more even on Switch when I first beat it let alone now on iPhone, iPad, and Steam Deck. Beyond the normal turn-based battles and recruiting new monsters, Synthesis in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is like Shin Megami Tensei’s fusion, and there is just so much you can do with skills here. The seasons here don’t just change monsters, but also areas you can explore with map changes. This means a water body that you can’t cross will be frozen in one season letting you access a new secret.
Combat in games like this can get monotonous so I’m glad to see the many quality of life features here like the tactics menu that plays out similar to the original Persona 3, direct commands, and more. You aren’t here to just defeat enemies, but also scout them to bring to your party and become stronger. I didn’t end up testing the online multiplayer on Switch much, so I can’t comment on how big a loss that is here, but it is a game mode being cut nonetheless. If you did play it on Switch, keep that in mind as it is the only area the mobile and Steam versions are lacking compared to Switch.
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince already shipped with a lot of content, but the DLC only elevated the experience. This DLC was sold in the Digital Deluxe Edition or as standalone DLC for the base game. Just the DLC was over $25 on Switch, so having the full base game with all DLC included for $24 on mobile makes it an amazing deal, but I’ll get to that in a bit. This DLC included The Mole Hole, Coach Joe’s Dungeon Gym, and Treasure Trunks. The Mole Hole was a dungeon that lets you scout (recruit) monsters you’ve fought before and it made min-maxing a lot easier during the game. The DLC was also good to speed things up since you could also easily scout monsters who only appear during a specific season or through synthesis.
The Coach Joe’s Dungeon Gym DLC has randomly generated maps and they are meant to be postgame challenges rather than experienced while playing the game. The final DLC is just a chest that can be opened once an hour with 10 items in total. This is like a cheat DLC if you may. I didn’t think it was good to have useful game modes or content in paid DLC, but that isn’t a problem anymore with all of it included on iOS, Androidl, and Steam in the base asking price.
Now let’s get to the mobile port features. With Square Enix, you can never be sure what features will make it into the final game. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince does not have controller support. This is beyond disappointing since the game is literally a console title ported to mobile. I tried 6 different controllers without any luck to be sure. Aside from controller support, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on iOS has cloud saves and a few graphics options. The cloud saves work well.
When it comes to controls, I was surprised at how well Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince felt with touch controls. It uses a floating joystick on the left for movement and a jump button mainly while exploring. The one minor issue you might run into is some touch targets being a bit small on the non Plus/Max phones. These aren’t an issue on iPads at all though. The controls feel good, but Square Enix should’ve left full controller support in since this is a console game ported to mobile after all.
One of my only real issues with Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch was on the technical side. The frame rate was rough at launch with visuals not being great either. The former got addressed to some degree unlike Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, but the latter never got fixed. On iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 12, and even iPad Pro, I had no major issues with the visuals or performance. There are some hiccups on iPhone 15 Pro when running at the highest graphics quality setting and moving through some locations, but it isn’t remotely as bad as on Switch. The game feels massively better to play on iOS. Check out the comparison below for the low and high graphics options on iPhone 15 Pro:
There aren’t specific visual or frame rate settings on mobile outside of the resolution option in display settings. This lets you play at low, medium, or high graphical quality options. These presets also affect other settings like the frame rate limit and post-processing. This setting can only be changed from the title screen on mobile while you can adjust it on the fly on PC. I stuck to the high setting on all my iPhones. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince sadly has some minor performance issues even on iPhone 15 Pro as I mentioned above. The low setting seems unusable with how blurry it gets. On my 2020 iPad Pro, the high preset has more regular frame drops than iPhone, and it also seems to be running with some tweaked settings. Overall, even the older iPad Pro runs it well, but not as good as iPhone 15 Pro as expected. Every device I tested on including the iPhone 12 ran it a lot better than Nintendo Switch.
Visually, it looks a lot cleaner than Switch even on older iOS devices when played at high. Square Enix didn’t just do a bare-bones port here. It has fullscreen support during gameplay on my iPhone 15 Pro, and even has a pattern or artwork to fill the screen during areas with pre-rendered or static 16:9 elements. This pattern or artwork is mainly used on my iPad Pro since it doesn’t support fullscreen there for gameplay. This also applies to Steam Deck to make up for that aspect ratio in parts. I’m glad to see Square Enix put in the work here to make sure it still looks good regardless of aspect ratio.
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Steam Deck impressions
On Steam Deck, regardless of my settings, I couldn’t get Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince to run at a locked 90fps even at the low preset when played at 800p. I decided to opt for a 60fps target, and that was a lot easier to achieve. One oddity is the game not letting you adjust resolution when playing on Steam Deck normally. You can do this by forcing the resolution from the game’s properties before launching it. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on PC lets you adjust graphical quality (low, medium, high), anti-aliasing (off, low, medium, high), maximum frame rate (30 to uncapped), toggle v-sync, and adjust display mode (windowed, fullscreen, borderless). If you play at 60fps, I recommend setting your Steam Deck OLED refresh rate to 60 to avoid jitter as well.
Having now played Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on iOS, iPadOS, Steam Deck, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite, there’s no doubt that the Switch version is the worst of the lot despite the online mode being removed from mobile and Steam. The massive increase in performance and better visuals with all DLC included at a much lower asking price only makes it better. One thing to note is that the game is marked as Steam Deck Playable and not Verified because Valve says some in-game text is small and may be difficult to read. I didn’t have any issues with this, and I feel like Valve has marked games with smaller text as Verified before. Either way, you can safely buy this one to play on Steam Deck.
If you skipped Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch, the new mobile and Steam ports are the way to go. While the mobile version lacking controller support is disappointing, it is still a game I see myself playing regularly with its improvements over switch and fantastic core gameplay loop. Having all the DLC included means you will have enough content to last you even longer. If you do value controller support in a game like this, the Steam Deck is the way to go. Hopefully we see Square Enix keep bringing more Dragon Quest games to mobile in the future. Right now, the iOS version of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is easily one of the best mobile releases of the year.
I admire Shark’s ambition. With its latest vacuum (most recently presented at IFA), Shark attempts to solve two major problems. The first is that in many cases, simply lifting the mop pads over the floor often isn’t enough to keep the yucky wet mop pad from dragging on your nice clean carpet. That’s why the newest Shark robot vacuum has a mop plate that automatically detaches when you’re vacuuming.
The second, and more interesting problem, is that robot vacuums tend to get stuck on little ledges or rugs in your house. That’s why the Shark now has what I have been referring to as a “booty hitch,” to hump itself over obstacles in its path. On its face, both of these improvements are very, very cool—and they work. “Is that robot vacuum humping the floor?” my husband asked, as it propelled itself into the living room from the kitchen. However, as if in recompense, the Shark is failing at some basic robot vacuum tasks. If you’re interested in this vacuum, I would suggest waiting for the price to come down and for the company to iron out some basic bugs.
Smell You Later
Setup is very simple. It’s a good-looking robot vacuum, with a docking station that includes a clean water tank, a dirty water tank, a dustbin with a remarkable 0.33-liter capacity, and a refillable odor-neutralizer capsule that prevents the whole thing from stinking to high heaven. It’s compact at less than 18 inches high and less than 15 inches wide, and very easy to set up. I downloaded the app and added the vacuum to it; Shark even provides a list of cute, punny names. (I picked “Steve McClean.”)
Photograph: Adrienne So
The preclean mapping was fast and easy, and the vacuum did not get tripped up at all. The map is kind of bonkers and in no way accurate, but it gets the general orientation of the rooms correct, and the map’s inaccuracy is not reflected in how the robot cleans.
When you start cleaning, you can pick either vacuum or mop (not both), and if you vacuum, you can select either to clean or deep clean. I found this confusing, as you tap the Clean Button before you can select the mode—just a little residual PTSD from starting too many robot vacuums in the wrong cleaning mode and not being able to stop them, nothing to worry about. You can also opt to clean by room or to spot clean (more on that later).
It takes about 90 minutes for the vacuum to do a full vacuum run for 750 square feet, and about 60 percent of the battery, which means I could mop after I vacuumed, if I wanted to. Having a detachable mop pad meant that I didn’t need to plan out my cleaning beforehand—with ones that don’t detach, I have to make sure I vacuum before I mop. You also can’t trace the vacuum’s live progress in the map. It’s an easy way to ensure you got full coverage, or would be with an accurate map.
Three Times, You’re Out
Photograph: Adrienne So
Ostensibly, the Shark vacuum has DirtDetect, which is a feature that first showed up in iRobot’s Roomba line. Sensors on the bottom of the vacuum can locate areas of unusual dirtiness and focus on them. It’s remarkably effective with an iRobot, but not so much with the Shark.
Several years ago, at the launch of its V15 Detect Submarine, Dyson finally dipped its toe in the wet-mop game. The clever, water-filled detachable head and super scrubbing bars gave customers one device with which to vacuum and wet-mop hard floors. It was a quick, premium fix, for those people who want to bring Dyson’s signature efficacy and ease of use to the horrible chore of mopping. And now with the new Dyson WashG1, the company has ditched vacuum suction altogether and designed an all-in-one wet mop that slurps up debris and scrubs your floors.
I’ve spent the past few weeks using the Dyson WashG1 and have been impressed by the cleaner’s ability to embarrass me with just how dirty my floors had become, while also gathering up a surprising amount of pet hair and general detritus.
Photograph: Dyson
Dense Fibers
The secret to the mopping suction of the Dyson WashG1 lies in the two highly absorbent microfiber rollers that rotate counter-clockwise to each other. A pump then distributes water from the 27-ounce tank evenly across 26 pulse-modulated (read: squirty) water outlets, soaking each roller. As the rollers spin, they scrub the floor beneath, while the 64,800 filaments-per-square-centimeter of microfiber soak up spills and cling onto any bits of dust, food, pet hair, and Cheerios.
Traditional wet-and-dry vacuums have been able to suck up all manner of stuff for years, but cleaning them is often disgusting, with hair and dirt matted around wet, grubby brush bars. Here, Dyson has done a superb job separating the solids from the dirty water, making cleaning impressively simple. Fill the water tank, press Go, push around your home, and dirty water is extracted from the rollers and pumped into the dirty water tank. A nylon-bristled inner brush removes dirt and debris from the microfiber rollers, depositing it in the removable debris tray.
Photograph: Chris Haslam
It is a significant upgrade in almost every way from the Dyson Submarine.
The pull-out debris tray has a 500-micron mesh to further separate dirty water from the large debris. The result is dirty, but not gritty, water in the tank—which can be simply poured down the sink—and a tray full of dirt that can be tapped into the bin. It’s worth noting too that, once back charging on the supplied upright dock, it will automatically self-clean to be ready for the next job. Dyson recommends you manually clean the rollers after three washes, which involves running everything under the faucet.
Wait a Minute
The Dyson WashG1 cannot entirely replace the need for a traditional vacuum. Maybe if your home has only hard floors and is hermetically sealed, you might get away with it, but for most people, especially those with pets and kids, you’ll still need to vacuum or have a robot do it for you. Dyson claims it can replace your vacuum, but I’m not yet convinced. Combined with even the cheapest Dyson cordless vacuum, you’ll not get much change from $1,000.
It is great at cleaning hard surfaces though, and I was impressed by how little standing water was left after passing the rollers over the kitchen tiles. When I first tried the WashG1, the color of the water in the dirty tank was shameful. I naturally blame it on the two dogs that had stayed the previous week. I was most impressed by the cleaning performance on tiles. While it won’t bring grout back to life, the tiles were noticeably cleaner.
The first thing I noticed when taking the Lowrider out of the storage bag (which is much nicer than Bote’s older bags, more on that below) was the massive rear fin. It’s much longer than the detachable fin on the Breeze Aero, and by far the deepest fin I’ve seen on a paddleboard. A sailor friend of mine quipped, “That paddleboard has a draft.”
That deep fin makes the Lowrider track straighter, which means you aren’t constantly veering and correcting course as you paddle. Relative to the Breeze Aero and other boards I’ve used, there is far less side-to-side movement when paddling. The larger surface area of the fin also makes the board a bit more stable in rough water, especially when combined with the width of this board.
I’ve long wanted to do some multiday paddleboarding trips, and I’ve gone so far as to load up about three-quarters of my gear, only to decide it just wasn’t going to work. The Lowrider, however, is capable of such feats. I did not have time to actually do a trip, but I did load it up and paddle around. As you might expect, it was heavy, sat lower in the water, and was slow to turn, but it wasn’t that bad, especially if you put the seat on so you can switch back and forth between standing and sitting. It’s probably outside most people’s use cases, but if you’re a weirdo like me, know that this is probably your best bet for paddlepacking.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
The Lowrider Is a Little Higher
Speaking of the seats, they’re quite comfortable and stable. They can be attached in a variety of ways. There are three tie-down points on each side of the board, and the seats themselves have a strap that allows you to adjust the amount you’re lying back. They never get quite as upright as you’d be in a kayak, but I paddled several miles and had no back strain or other pain.
One thing to keep in mind if you’re a seasoned kayaker: You’re much higher on the water than you would be in a kayak. You aren’t going to want to paddle anything technical, but it’s still a stable, comfortable experience, and the board is plenty maneuverable. Cruising flat water, it was surprisingly fast and agile (for something this size), and the Lowrider didn’t blink even when I took it out in a 15-knot wind with pretty good chop. To my mind this is one of the best reasons to get a hybrid. On those rough days when you aren’t going to be standing up, you can still get out on the water.
Tribit’s latest Stormbox Bluetooth speaker is so good for the money, you should probably just buy it. The sound is clear and peppy. The design is hearty and water-resistant, and the big buttons on its front face, heavily “influenced” by Ultimate Ears speakers, offer simple control. Even the battery life is impressive at up to 24 hours per charge.
You can get a sound upgrade and some extra durability by going with pricier rivals from brands like UE or JBL, but the Stormbox 2 is a killer portable sound machine in its own right. If you’re looking to stretch your dollars, it’s among the best Bluetooth speakers you’ll find at this price, and even above.
Rugged Familiarity
I’m not pointing any fingers, but the Stormbox looks eerily like someone put an Ultimate Ears Boom and JBL Flip speaker together into one of Dr. Brundle’s telepods. To be fair, there are a lot of speakers sporting a similar look, but the Stormbox series sure looks familiar.
I’m not complaining, as Tribit’s apparent homage to these two popular portables cleverly blends their best design traits. The JBL-style passive radiators at the Stormbox’s endcaps help produce solid low-end punch, while the large control keys that recall Ultimate Ears speakers make playback commands a cinch. I’d even say Tribit improves on UE’s design, setting a multifunction control key at the center for easy access.
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Under the Stormbox 2’s dimpled acoustic grille are dual 48-mm drivers powered by a claimed 17 watts each, providing an extra 10 watts of total power over its predecessor. At 7 inches tall and just over 1.5 pounds, its size slots in nearly identically to the Flip and a slew of rivals. It’s not quite as portable as the micro-size Sony SRS-XB100 (8/10, WIRED Recommends), but it’s still plenty easy to take along.
The Stormbox 2’s IPX7 certification means it’s waterproof enough for a dunk in the pool but doesn’t offer any dust resistance. That’s a minor disappointment since most new speakers we test offer IP67 certification for “complete protection” against dust. That said, I’ve owned an IPX7 speaker for years with no ill effects—you’ll just want to be careful on sandy beaches.
As for aesthetics, the backside control keys and awkward rubber cover for the USB-C charging port feel a tad cheap, but that’s perfectly in line with the price. The speaker still feels tough and generally well-made, sitting a cut above no-name Amazon options.
Solid Extras
Tribit’s latest is well-armed on the feature front, including modern conveniences like the ability to pair with a second Stormbox 2 and extended wireless range of up to 150 feet via Bluetooth 5.3, doubling the previous model. The latter claim held up well in my line-of-sight testing, providing plenty of range for wandering around your next outdoor get-together. There’s even a 3.5-mm input and onboard microphone for taking calls, options many pricier speakers have dropped.
Do you wish your front door could see you coming? I certainly do, since I’m usually either wrangling a toddler (often in a swimsuit these days, and dragging along a myriad of towels and floatation devices) or coming back from an outdoor power walk that I’d rather not bring my keys on. I’ve enjoyed geofencing features that let my door unlock when it senses my phone is nearby, or reached for the pin pad to quickly unlock my door with my fingerprint—anything in the name of not needing to hunt for my keys.
Now, I don’t even need my phone or a free hand. The Lockly Visage, announced at CES 2024 as part of Lockly’s new Zeno line, uses infrared sensors to see me coming and recognize my face, so that it can unlock my door as I walk up. It also has other common entry options—fingerprint reading, access codes, and brand-new physical keys—if not every member of your house wants their face scanned.
It’s the first time face recognition has been added to a smart lock that any homeowner (or daring renter) can buy. Similar features have been available in smart security cameras and video doorbells, but the locks themselves haven’t been able to recognize you—until now. While I found the setup a little frustrating (more on that below), I was happy to find that the lock itself worked perfectly, always recognizing me as I walked up to my house, whether I was wearing sunglasses or was backlit by an intense afternoon sun.
Ready, Get Set, Set Up
electronic door lock
Successful setup with the Lockly requires speed once the battery is in. The physical setup isn’t too hard, just lengthy, and it does require both a Phillips-head and flathead screwdriver. It took me about an hour of reading instructions, removing every piece of my current lock, and then installing the Lockly Visage. Make sure to charge the battery in advance, or at least while you’re doing all of that physical unboxing and install. Since you have to fully dismember your lock, I don’t recommend the Lockly for renters, unless you trust yourself to put it back so well that your landlord won’t know.
Once physical setup is done, don’t put the battery in right away. This was my mistake. Once the battery is in, the Bluetooth connection opens up and only stays up for a few minutes. I kept getting timed out when I was trying to set up Visage ID (the name for Visage’s face recognition), but Lockly says they’re pushing an app update soon to fix the short-lived Bluetooth situation. Speaking of the app, there’s two of them—an older Lockly app that works with this lock and previous Lockly devices, and a brand-new Lockly Home app (iOS, Android) that currently only works with the new Zeno line. You can choose to use either, but the Lockly Home app is much nicer to look at. Previous Lockly products will be added to that app soon, too.
Either way, before you put in the battery and start the Bluetooth timer, download the app and locate the Activation Card inside of the box, which should be adhered to the interior lid of the box. Don’t lose this card, even after you finish the lock setup—you’ll need it if you ever reset it. Once you have both these things ready, only then insert the battery and start the setup process within the app. You’ll follow steps for creating an account, connecting Wi-Fi, and setting up an unlock code for the door.
Perhaps no organization has as much baroque infrastructure as the Catholic Church, all of its rules and rituals carried out in palaces. The highest and most elaborate rite of them all may be the selection of a new pope, in which the college of cardinals gathers in Rome to seclude themselves for deliberation and define the future of the enterprise. The new film Conclave, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday after a debut in Telluride, understands both the seriousness of this process and the campy ridiculousness of it. It’s a suspense drama that flashes more than a few winks to its audience.
Director Edward Berger and screenwriter Peter Straughan are also aware that many viewers will see the film’s parallels to secular politics, with its ambitious power plays, glum compromises, rapacious egos. At the heart of all that treacherous drama is a decision that will actually affect people’s lives, but it is easy to lose sight of that amid the pomp and circumstance, the gamesmanship and betrayal. Conclave offers a moment of cathartic release for those mired in the nervous mania of an election cycle.
At the start of the film, the pope has died. He was beloved by some as a reformer who helped push the church into the 21st century. (To some extent, anyway.) His detractors now wish to seize on the papal vacancy to push things all the way back to the times before Vatican II. But the late pope’s acolytes are determined to prevent that. Ralph Fiennes plays the even-keeled Cardinal Lawrence, chosen by the deceased pope to oversee the battle of succession. A contemporary-minded American cardinal, Bellini (Stanley Tucci), is the progressives’ top pick, while the moderate Tremblay (John Lithgow) offers the safety choice, and the more conservative Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati) and Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) rally their own support.
Tedesco is the frontrunner Lawrence and Bellini fear most; he’s the one appealing to the reactionary faction of the college, promising a return to the rigid order of yesteryear. At the outset, it looks as though they might have the advantage. However, there are more than a few October surprises lurking in the shadows of the Vatican, waiting to be revealed.
Conclave is something of a mystery, in that way, as Lawrence quietly investigates several of the lead contenders while grappling with his own uneasy status as a top choice. Fiennes plays Lawrence’s stern moral determination, complicated ever more by doubt, with a controlled vigor. He’s nicely offset by Tucci’s more relaxed delivery; it’s a pleasure to watch them plot and bicker together. As it is to watch Isabella Rossellini in a small role as a nun who holds a trove of crucial insider information. Though I wish she had more to do, Rossellini does at least have one brief but effective scene in which she stands up as the voice of, y’know, half the population of the world.
It’s a moment that’s earned applause at festival screenings, not typically the kind of reaction one would expect from a grave drama about religious tradition. But Conclave is designed to provoke visceral responses. As composer Volker Bertelmann’s turgid score roars away, Conclave whips itself up into high melodrama and then cuts through all the sturm und drang with sudden darts of humor. It’s a carefully calibrated thing, touching fingers with prestige greatness while keeping its feet firmly planted in the realm of rollicking entertainment.
Given that this is, at heart, a populist mystery tale, some twists are required. They are mostly modest in scale, revelations of private histories that fell candidates one by one. But one late-arriving twist, the biggest of them all, casts Conclave into an entirely new thematic argument, one I don’t think the movie is really prepared to adequately address. Maybe that’s why it’s saved for the very end; the audience has very little time to process what they’ve learned or to suss out just what the movie is trying to say about it.
Conclave’s final surprise courts controversy in reckless fashion, threatening to ruin the good time. It doesn’t quite, though. We can forgive a last-minute error in judgment because otherwise, Conclave is a literate treat, a movie that stirs the mind just enough to feel substantial. Its depiction of a process foreign to most of us would be compelling perhaps no matter the setting.
Perhaps Berger could next apply the same treatment to, say, a thriller about end-of-the-year critics’ group awards! We do many of the same things as these cassocked weirdos: quietly drumming up support for our cause ahead of the vote, furtively writing on pieces of paper and listening anxiously as names are read aloud. Sure, the stakes are a bit lower—I would guess that slightly less than 1.4 billion people are touched by the outcome. But, still, I think it could work.
For a lot of folks who have been following Capcom’s fighting games over the years, the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics announcement was unbelievable given recent events and the reception of the last Marvel vs Capcom game. As someone who has only played Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, I had always wanted to play the earlier games given the praise a few of them got from competitive and casual players. I’d be lying if I said I also wasn’t just excited to hear the Marvel vs Capcom 2 music officially because it is that good. So here we are months after its announcement, and Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is available on Steam, Switch, and PlayStation with Xbox coming in 2025.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics games included
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics ships with seven games included. They are: X-MEN CHILDREN OF THE ATOM, MARVEL SUPER HEROES, X-MEN VS. STREET FIGHTER, MARVEL SUPER HEROES vs. STREET FIGHTER, MARVEL vs. CAPCOM CLASH OF SUPER HEROES, MARVEL vs. CAPCOM 2 New Age of Heroes, and THE PUNISHER which isn’t a fighting game, but a beat ’em up. These are based on the arcade versions so you don’t need to worry about missing features like some older console ports here. These include the English and Japanese versions so yes, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter does include Norimaro in this collection when you choose the Japanese version for that game.
This review is based on me having played Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for about 15 hours on Steam Deck (both LCD and OLED), 13 hours on PS5 (via backward compatibility), and about 4 hours on Nintendo Switch. I’m not qualified enough to talk about the ins and outs of the games included here because this collection was my first time playing them, but I will say that the fun I’ve had with Marvel vs Capcom 2 pre-release has more than justified the asking price to the point where I want to buy both console physical releases just to own a physical version of it.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics new features
If you played Capcom Fighting Collection, the interface and front-end of Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics will feel familiar. In fact, it even has the same issues that collection has, but I’ll get to that a bit later. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics includes online and local multiplayer support, local wireless support on Switch, rollback netcode for online play, a training mode, customizable options for games, an important option to reduce white flashes or light flickering per game, various display options, and a few wallpaper options.
Outside the games, the training mode included (you can access this per game), includes hitboxes, inputs displayed, and other options making it even better for newcomers. Speaking of newcomers, Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has a new one button super option that you can enable or disable when you play online and search for other players.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics museum and gallery
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics also includes a robust museum and gallery with all the game soundtracks (more than 200 tracks) and more than 500 pieces of artwork. Having played Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics online with a friend who is also covering it, he let me know how a lot of the artwork in this collection has never been public before. For me, it is all new, but I thought that was notable for longtime fans. It is worth noting that things like sketches or design documents don’t have translations on them for any Japanese text.
As for the music, I’m glad we finally have an official way to listen to these soundtracks in 2024, but I hope this is the first step to getting a vinyl release or streaming releases for them.
How is the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics online multiplayer experience with rollback netcode?
Before getting into the online experience, the options menu features its own network settings letting you enable or disable microphone, voice chat volume, input delay, and connection strength on PC. On Switch, you can only adjust input delay. The PS4 version lets you adjust input delay and connection strength with no voice chat options. I assume folks will use the PS5 and PS4 native voice chat options here instead of an in-game one. It is disappointing to see the Switch version lack a connection strength option as of the build I have.
Pre-release, I only managed testing the online on Steam Deck wired and wirelessly with another player who was also on Steam. In our experience, Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics online is similar to Capcom Fighting Collection on Steam, but massively improved over Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. You can adjust input delay and cross region matchmaking as well. We tested most of the games and also did a bit of co-op in The Punisher. It just works despite the distance between us.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics ships with matchmaking support for casual matches, ranked matches, and also leaderboards including a High Score Challenge mode.
I also want to note that when you rematch when playing online, the cursors remain correct so you can pick whoever you were playing as before in games like Marvel vs Capcom 2 instead of having to manually move the cursor each time to select your team. Little things like this add up to make the collection feel like a lot of love went into ensuring the best possible experience for players including ones learning the games for the first time.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics issues
My biggest complaints with Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are with how it has just a single save state (quick save) for the entire collection. This isn’t one single save state per game, but one for the entire collection. I was hoping this issue from Capcom Fighting Collection wouldn’t carry over but here we are. Another minor complaint and settings not being universal or an easy apply or toggle the light reduction or adjust visual filters at once. Having options per game is good, but I would’ve liked to just enable light reduction and turn off the filter for every game at once.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on Steam Deck – Verified already
I first tried Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on Steam Deck and it works perfectly out of the box. Given it is Steam Deck Verified I shouldn’t be surprised, but you can never tell with new games until you try them yourself. When played on the Deck itself, Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics runs at 720p and it supports 4K when docked. I played at 1440p for the most part docked and then 800p handheld. It is still 16:9 though with no 16:10 support.
The Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics PC graphics options are under the PC Settings menu in options. These let you adjust resolution, display mode (fullscreen, borderless, windowed), and toggle v-sync.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on Nintendo Switch
While Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics looks fine on Switch, the biggest downgrade from other platforms is the load times. Going in and out of games on Steam and PS5 is almost instant while the Switch version has loading for basically everything. This adds up and since I’ve been playing it on all three platforms at once, it was very noticeable. I hope the connection strength option is added eventually as well since PlayStation and PC have it. The Switch version does support local wireless while the others do not though.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on PS5
I wish Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics was native on PS5 rather than played via backward compatibility because PS5 Activity Card support would’ve been amazing to get in and out of different games from the dashboard. Barring that, it looks excellent on my 1440p monitor and loads quickly even when played off an external hard drive. You can move it to the SSD for even faster loading. I have no complaints with the PS4 version on PS5.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is one of Capcom’s best collections yet across everything and not just fighting games or arcade games. It offers superb extras, fantastic online play on Steam, and it has been a joy to experience these games for the first time. I just wish there was more than one save slot for the entire collection for save states.
When making a romantic drama, one could take the sweeping melodrama route (like It Ends With Us) or turn the volume down and go for something sparer (like Weekend). Tacking a course between those poles can prove trickier; sappiness and solemnity don’t often mix well. And yet in the new film We Live in Time, which premiered here at the Toronto Film Festival on Friday, director John Crowley and screenwriter Nick Payne manage to find a steady middle ground, achieving a kind of sober sentimentality.
The film opens on a scene of contented domesticity. A woman, Almut (Florence Pugh), gathers cooking supplies—herbs, freshly laid eggs—from the lush garden beside her lovely country cottage. She goes inside to whip up some food and wake up her sleepy husband, Tobias (Andrew Garfield). It’s a hushed, quotidian moment of intimacy, woozily shot by Stuart Bentley and scored dreamily by Bryce Dessner. Here is a happy couple, swaddled inside routine.
Then the film cuts to another time, later it seems, when the pair are seated in a doctor’s office as Almut receives the terrible news that her cancer has returned and her treatment options will be brutal. A hard conversation about quality of life ensues, the film revealing its sharper edges, its interest in complicated conversation. Pugh is pragmatic, blunt; Garfield is the weepier one.
We Live in Time then travels back to tell the story of two great beginnings. There is the requisite meet cute—in this case, Almut, a chef, hits Tobias, an IT guy for Wheatabix, with her car—that blossoms into a heady love affair. The first early speed bump is Tobias and Almut’s differing opinions about having children. A pregnancy does happen, delineated in the film’s most comedic stretches—this is a film with an antic-sweet birth sequence, a hallmark of the genre.
The film is an elegant jumble of these crucial moments in a partnership’s development. Its beats are too specific to be exactly generic, but certainly they hew to a well-tested formula. Were the film told linearly, I wonder if it would seem quite as fresh. A change of structure would at least not dim the charge of Payne’s often clever and piercing dialogue, nor the winsomely naturalistic performances of its two stars.
Garfield, who has perhaps the most enviable hair in the business, uses his still signature appeal—the slight crack in his voice, his watery eyes and crinkled smile—to create a credibly decent guy who is above all else a devotee of love. Pugh gets to play with more mettle and independence, more clearly drawn conflict. She is a marvel in the film, liquidly reactive to each change in emotional weather.
We Live in Time finds much of its insight in Almut’s complex motivation, the tug of war between her duties to family and her own ambition—both terribly compromised by her health. Almut is frightened that if she walks away from her career she will leave no legacy behind, and thus nothing that might help her child understand her mother’s individual life and spirit. It’s an interesting way to approach a common movie tension; self-interest is viewed not as solipsistic distraction but almost as an imparted lesson.
The way the film chews over matters of parenting—or the decision not to parent—may favor the traditional form a bit too heavily. Adoption is never mentioned as a possibility, nor is Almut’s hesitation about having a baby at all treated with quite the same respect as Tobias’s desire to be a father. Payne uses his chopped-up technique to skip over some difficult, life-altering conversations, giving us the idea of a relationship’s rift but not exactly showing the mechanics of how those problems were worked out.
Crowley and Payne’s nonlinear approach also undercuts some of the dramatic impact of the film. We are aware of the existence of a child before we see the argument about having children. The film shows Almut’s second diagnosis well before her first. When developments and conclusions are foregone like that, there is little room for joyful surprise or the crushing thud of new and devastating information (the way diagnoses like this would arrive in real life). I like much of the film’s drifting and darting cadence, but it forces us into a more objective vantage point.
The movie remains broadly appealing nonetheless, endearing us to two people and making us ache for them as life’s inevitable ravages bear down upon them. There is also its nimble humor, its refreshingly frank and positive depictions of sex—perhaps we are finally turning a corner on that whole issue. And there is the remarkable Pugh, doing so much to deeply humanize a story of pretty people in pretty places and ever so slightly contrived circumstances. Through her we feel the movie’s most ardent passion, its most bitter sorrow. She presents a palpable life, wholly realized but fleeting.
It’s not often that something as well-known as the Happy Hacking Keyboard gets reworked from the ground up. And when it does happen, those changes usually draw criticism from long-time fans. Look at Porsche’s switch from air-cooled to water-cooled engines in the 911, or Microsoft’s transition to a more tablet-like interface for Windows 8. If people are used to something, they won’t appreciate seeing it change drastically, regardless of whether these changes are ultimately good or bad.
The latest iteration of the Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB) makes large changes to the model’s nearly 30-year-old legacy, and it can easily be seen in the same light. Besides the layout, almost every aspect of this keyboard has been altered. Thankfully, quite a few of these changes do feel like improvements over previous iterations.
The HHKB Studio is a hot-swappable 60% mechanical keyboard with Bluetooth connectivity, integrated touchpads, a built-in trackpoint, and a unique programmer-oriented layout. The Studio has a PBT plastic case and keycaps, multi-device connectivity, and keymap customization through the company’s proprietary Keymap Tool software. But before we dive into this new iteration, we need to take a look at the legacy.
Decades-Old Legacy
The Happy Hacking Keyboard has been around for decades. It was designed around the idea of a singular, specialized, long-lasting keyboard that could be used across multiple computers and operating systems (back when such an idea was novel and new). It has been regularly upgraded since to further refine its unique layout and multi-device utility.
The first model of HHKB pioneered its unique layout, cutting keys from the bottom corners, moving the backspace/delete key and adding a second key in the top right, and trading the Caps Lock key for a Control key, which was easily accessible to the pinky. In following iterations, the keyboard moved from a traditional rubber-dome layout to Topre electro-capacitive switches, added USB pass-through, and eventually introduced Bluetooth connectivity. However, across every generation, the unique layout has remained a constant. While the latest model has stayed true to the layout, almost every other aspect of the keyboard has been modified.
Photograph: Henri Robbins
One of the most defining factors of the HHKB was the Topre electro-capacitive switch: A soft tactile switch with a rounded bump created by a rubber dome on top of a conical metal spring. The HHKB was one of the only keyboards available with these switches, which was both a blessing and a burden. They were uniquely enjoyable to type on, but at the same time, Topre switches’ rarity and unique construction made modifications to the switches or keycaps far more difficult. Instead of being able to remove and replace individual switches, any modification would involve taking apart the entire keyboard.
Now, the HHKB Studio has adopted the MX-style switch that has become almost ubiquitous in modern mechanical keyboards, bringing it closer to the world of modular keyboard designs. But instead of sticking with an existing mechanical switch, the company has designed its own MX-style switch in collaboration with Kailh, a well-known aftermarket switch manufacturer.
Other noteworthy changes include the new trackpoint in the center of the keyboard, low-profile mouse buttons underneath the spacebar, and touch-sensitive “gesture pads” on the front and sides of the keyboard. The HHKB Studio also maintains the wireless functionality of the previous generation and preserves the extensive use of PBT plastic in the case and keycaps. The Bluetooth functionality is enhanced by an LED bar in the top-left of the keyboard, and the quick-adjustment dip switches on the back are now hidden behind a battery cover.
Typing Feel
The HHKB Studio’s switch from Topre to MX-style switches is a controversial change: One could argue it “sold out” by moving to MX-style switches. However, that would be ignoring an important detail. These switches are fantastic to type on. They blend the unique sound and feel of Topre tactile switches with the smoothness of a modern linear switch, creating a silenced linear that produces a soft, deep, and satisfying bottom-out. I’ve never felt another switch like it. And, for fans of Topre switches, I do think this is the best linear equivalent possible.
Taking apart the switches, they appear to be made from a similar construction as Kailh’s clicky switches. Specifically, the design is reminiscent of Box Navy and Box Jade switches. The only major difference is that the actual clicking mechanism (a small spring called a “click bar” that adds a tactile bump and produces a sound when pressed) has been removed, and a sound-dampening pad has been added to the bottom of the switch housing.
There have been many reports over the years that billionaires have been quietly building survival bunkers around the world—sprawling and well-appointed hideaways where the ruling class plan to spend Armageddon. There they will remain in comfort while the rest of us go to war over resources, contend with the worsening elements, and die off. But won’t they, too, suffer in some way, haunted by who and what they left behind, daunted by a hopeless future, growing sick of one another? That is maybe the argument being made in Joshua Oppenheimer’s peculiar and intermittently affecting The End, a musical drama that, in its strange empathy, condemns the oligarchs of our world in a way that could almost be called satiric.
Michael Shannon plays a former oil baron who has fled environmental catastrophe and taken his family and a few attendants to a facility built deep inside a cavernous salt mine. Their living quarters are lovely and ornate, filled with priceless art and elegant furniture. He and his wife, played by Tilda Swinton, are devoted to the raising of their twentysomething son, a naive and childlike man played by George MacKay. He was born in the bunker and only knows of the outside world in theory—he’s about as home-schooled as any kid could be.
The family and their doctor (Lennie James), butler (Tim McInnerny), and friend/nanny (Bronagh Gallagher) live in a kind of rigorous harmony, going about their chores and safety drills with little mention of what ruin lives above them, nor of the sorry fact that theirs is an inevitably fading ecosystem, too. But they do sing about it, remarking on how surreal it is that MacKay’s character is most likely the end of the line. The film’s musical interludes—spare, lilting compositions by Joshua Schmidt and Marius de Vries—mostly function as poetic internal monologue, representative of the turmoil of feeling lying under all the tightly managed order.
But disorder does eventually arrive, as it tends to do. A stranger, played by Moses Ingram, somehow finds her way down to the cave, barely having survived the ravages of the land above. The bunker dwellers are wary at first—they reference a past incident in which the butler was shot by invaders; it’s why the father insists that his son practice with firearms—and seem poised to expel this untrustworthy outsider. Then again, she is young and a woman, and thus maybe there could be a lineage-extending benefit to keeping her around. MacKay’s interest certainly seems piqued.
The matter of sex and procreation is not stated plainly in the film, but we feel its heavy implication. Some primal part of us sees that outcome as the only right one; life must carry on. But Oppenheimer also allows room for questioning that instinct. What point would there be in bringing another doomed child into this place? It may in fact be nothing but a cruelty. Perhaps this one rich family’s vanity—the notion that they, over all others, must endure—is the vanity of a whole planet, rapacious with personal need at the cost of everything.
Oppenheimer’s film is firmly an environmentalist one, a soft-spoken excoriation of industries and their leaders who hasten the destruction of our climate. We consumers are at fault, too, though those of us without the resources to build underground arks will feel the consequences sooner. The End perhaps most pities the blameless children: those like MacKay’s character, who are taught all the wrong things, and those like Ingram’s, who can do nothing but struggle and scramble to stay breathing through no fault of her own.
The stranger has her own guilt, though. As do most of the characters in this long and elusive film. Perhaps that is Oppenheimer’s ultimate message: you can flee the havoc, but something will always chase after you. There is no true escape from humanity’s reckless failings. Oppenheimer’s documentary The Act of Killing had Indonesian mass murderers confront their misdeeds through re-enactment; maybe The End is meant to be a precautionary tale for any billionaires who happen to be watching it: your selfishness will not save you.
That said, it is difficult to affix any distinct meaning on the film. Captivating as it often is, it is also ponderous and withholding. Patience is tried as The End slowly, solemnly glides across two and a half hours. Loud, bonk-over-the-head Issues Movies are not necessarily preferable—it’s fascinating to encounter such elliptical art about a big, pertinent topic. But The End’s difficult construction risks alienating viewers from its worthy concerns.
What remains engaging throughout are the carefully textured performances—MacKay’s study of repressed energy and Ingram’s mix of wariness and gratitude are particular highlights—and the film’s myriad aesthetic graces. While probably not made on a huge budget, The End looks like it cost a zillion dollars. The landscape of the film is richly realized, captured in chillingly elegant chiaroscuro by cinematographer Mikhail Krichman. Humanity’s final residence is a lovely one, and all the more frightening and contemptible for it.
The original Digitakt sampler and sequencer, despite being seven years old, remains an incredibly capable device beloved by many in the music world. So how does the latest model, which looks nearly identical, hold up to the fan favorite?
Under the hood, the Digitakt II is a significant upgrade in almost every way. Unfortunately, it also comes with a significant price increase to $999, from $799. With used Digitakts going for as little as $400, the choice between the two isn’t as clear cut as you’d expect.
I spent a few weeks putting the latest Digitakt through its paces and comparing it to the older model, and ultimately realized the new version is probably not worth the upgrade for my (and many others’) purposes. That said, if you’re a power user who always wants to try the latest and greatest, it’s a fantastic piece of gear.
Photograph: Terrence O’Brien
Endless Possibilities
Physically, the differences between the first Elektron Digitakt and the new Digitakt II are extremely subtle. The monochrome screen is white instead of yellow. The instrument specific labels under the keys are gone, there are a couple of new buttons, and some labels have changed. Otherwise the two are nearly indistinguishable.
I cannot possibly cover every feature of the original Digitakt. In fact, I’m going to have to gloss over even some of the changes to the newest model. It is an incredibly rich machine that would take tens of thousands of words to comprehensively explain. Instead I’ll be focusing on the most important features and changes.
If there were two major strikes against the original Digitakt it was that it only handled mono samples, and storage was pretty paltry, even by 2017 standards. Personally, I didn’t find the 64 MB of RAM (equaling 14 minutes of mono samples) per project terribly restrictive, but the 1 GB of drive storage did lead to a lot more time wasted actively managing samples. By increasing the RAM to 400 MB (72 minutes of mono or 36 minutes of stereo samples) and the drive to 20 GB on the new model, the storage issue is largely solved.
While having support for stereo samples is nice, I actually find the increased storage to be the main new feature I love. Part of that is down to how I primarily use the Digitakt II, which is as a drum machine. Stereo is just less of a necessity when you’re primarily working with percussion.
The Digitakt II is more than capable of handling melodic parts, and it even comes preloaded with single cycle waveforms so you can play it like a synth. But because the 16 sequencer tracks are monophonic, playing chords requires either using multiple tracks and sequencing the notes individually, or just sampling chords. And even though there are five different “Machines” (Elektron’s term for how a sample is handled, e.g. one-shot, stretch, repitch, etc.) your results will vary greatly depending on the source material.
Nest’s smart thermostats have been an icon of the smart home since they hit the market in late 2011. Nothing said smart like a device that could learn your habits and make your home operate more efficiently without having to fiddle with settings and automations. In the 13 years since, Nest Learning Thermostats have been easy to identify, with the same thick silver bezel and compact circular screen. This design was radical at a time when most smart thermostats looked like boring, rectangular, beige boxes.
Google’s fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat has an entirely new look, transforming what now looks like a basic tech gadget into something of an art piece for your wall. It’s got new smarts too, and includes a temperature sensor to place elsewhere in the home. It’s a refreshing upgrade to a longtime staple, and feels smart without being intrusive or overly complex—an important middle line not all smart devices find.
Slim Setup
Photograph: Nena Farrell
If you’re hoping to pop the fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat onto the backing of a previous Nest thermostat, you’re out of luck. The thermostat base for the new model is a different size, so you’ll have to switch out the old base for the new one.
While the third-generation thermostat itself is smaller, its base is a little larger with larger connectors; the new thermostat base is smaller with positively tiny connector buttons. You’d think with the larger 3.9-inch screen that the base would be larger, but it has a smaller footprint on your wall, which is nice. It comes with an optional plate as with previous generations, but the new version is an oval rather than a rectangle. A 3.9-inch screen might not sound that big, but it looks surprisingly large on the wall if you’re used to the smaller Nest thermostats, or even something like my previous thermostat, the square Honeywell T6.
Photograph: Nena Farrell
Installing the Nest is easy; make sure your system is compatible and that you’ve flipped off the relevant breaker to cut power. The Nest app is no longer at play with this model. Google has been gradually transitioning many of its features and capabilities to the Google Home app, and that’s what you’ll use for this new model. Google Home walks you through the steps of removing your old thermostat, labeling the wires, and installing the new thermostat over it.
Back in April, the Razer Nexus(Free) app on iOS and Android was updated with support added for an unannounced “Razer Kishi Ultra” controller boasting features like analog stick deadzone customization and more. Since then, Razer has announced and released the Razer Kishi Ultra with support for more than just phones. The Razer Kishi Ultra is also the most expensive mobile controller as far as I’m aware, but it offers more features than expected for specific devices. Having used the Razer Kishi and the Backbone One including the new USB-C versions for years now, I didn’t think I needed a new controller, but the Razer Kishi Ultra changed my mind in a way the Hori Split Pad Pro did on Nintendo Switch a few years ago.
Razer Kishi Ultra – what’s in the box
The Razer Kishi Ultra box included the controller itself, a few sets of rubber cushions to use depending on your device, a sheet of stickers, and an instruction booklet. For the price point of $149.99, I expected to have a carrying case or at least a pouch included. Beyond that, the box and casing for the controller in the box are good quality as usual from Razer.
The Razer Kishi Ultra rubber cushions come in pairs that are properly labeled for use with iPhone (Pair A), iPad Mini 6th generation (Pair B), and Android (Pair C). If you use a case, you don’t need to use any of these rubber cushions.
Razer Kishi Ultra compatibility – iPhone, Cases, Android, and iPad Mini
While most mobile controllers, especially the telescopic ones, only support iPhone and Android, the Razer Kishi Ultra also supports tablets like the iPad Mini 6th generation. We’ve also recently had some telescopic controllers ship with bluetooth support, but as for USB-C, this one seems to have some of the best compatibility. For the purpose of this review, I tested the Razer Kishi Ultra on my iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 14 Plus, and wired on my iPad Pro. I didn’t test on Android or Windows, but I did try it on my Steam Deck wired. It is detected as a generic Xbox gamepad, but it did work when I was playing NBA 2K25 on Steam Deck yesterday for review and it also supports decent rumble in games like Bakeru that I tested with.
Razer Kishi Ultra buttons, d-pad, and triggers
Before getting to the new features, how does the Razer Kishi Ultra actually feel and perform? I was a bit worried about the d-pad, but it ended up working great when I played games like Garou: Mark of the Wolves ACA NeoGeo or even newer ones like Hades and Hitman Blood Money Reprisal. Beyond the d-pad, the shoulder buttons and triggers work well just like Razer’s older controller. The analog sticks are comfortable and smooth to use with the face buttons being clicky albeit with more travel distance which I didn’t expect after the original Razer Kishi.
Overall, I have no complaints with the Razer Kishi Ultra d-pad, buttons, or triggers after considerable use including some sessions lasting a few hours where I played Zenless Zone Zero while charging my phone through the passthrough charging here.
In terms of feel, the textured finish isn’t rubbery, but it works well for a grip and remains very comfortable to hold even for a few hours. I don’t usually care for Chroma stuff on controllers, and just like the Razer Kitsune, I would’ve preferred if the lights could somehow match the gameplay on screen.
Razer Kishi Ultra – new features
The main draw of the Razer Kishi Ultra is the full-size form factor. Instead of feeling like a compact mobile controller as we’ve seen with Razer’s prior release or the Backbone One, the Razer Kishi Ultra is a full-size one that feels like you’re holding your phone in the middle of a good quality console controller. This may not be a plus for some looking for a compact solution, but it isn’t meant to be that. The full-size form factor makes this the comfiest mobile controller I’ve used by far.
The other features are the Chroma customization through the app, haptics (for Android and Windows), and virtual controller mode (Android only). The virtual controller mode is good for Android games since we see some notable ones skip adding controller support outside iOS on mobile like Genshin Impact.
Aside from the new features, the Razer Kishi Ultra has a 3.5mm headphone jack, passthrough charging (15W), and the L4 and R4 shoulder buttons.
Razer Kishi Ultra features missing on iOS – haptics and virtual controller mode
The haptics and virtual controller mode are only available on Android (or Windows as well for the former) and not available on iOS. I don’t really care about virtual controller mode, but I hope Razer can work on something to enable the haptics in some way for iOS devices as well. I love haptic feedback on PS5 and HD Rumble on Switch, so having something that tries to do similar things on iOS would be nice.
Razer Kishi Ultra price point – is it worth it?
I already think most folks are better off getting a PS5 or Xbox controller to play wirelessly on iOS as the best possible and cheaper option. If you do want a good controller that has a telescopic form factor and attaches onto your phone, the most popular options are already $99.99 so the Razer Kishi Ultra at $150 is definitely a more premium controller. Is it worth that much more? If you’re ok with the current Razer Kishi and Backbone One price point, this is definitely worth the extra price for the comfort, but the lack of the haptics makes it feel like a lesser experience on iOS compared to Android where you get the fully featured experience.
It remains to be seen if the joysticks on this one don’t drift over time as well.
Razer Kishi Ultra – the best mobile controller in 2024?
If you’ve not read my review of Razer’s older controller, check it out here. Moving from that more compact form factor that I’ve gotten used to for years across Razer and Backbone products to this big one has been interesting. Just like the Hori Split Pad Pro for Nintendo Switch, I find myself wanting both a full-size controller and a more compact one for iPhone.
The Razer Kishi Ultra is easily the comfiest mobile controller I’ve ever used, but I wish it was easier to travel with. I worry about how it might end up in my bag unless I carry it in the big box it ships with. I don’t know if the Razer Kishi Ultra will replace my normal Kishi or Backbone One when I travel, but I’m definitely only using it when I play at home.
At the asking price, I was hoping for hall effect analog sticks though. I’ve had drift issues with multiple controllers over the years and while it hasn’t happened to the Razer Kishi Ultra yet (or the Razer Kishi itself), but I can’t say how things might be in a few more months. This is more of a thing to keep in mind when you buy it.
Having now covered the Backbone One and Razer Kishi models, I definitely want to try out the GameSir lineup as they seem more than worth checking out. Hopefully in the near future.
Razer Kishi Ultra 2 wishlist
When thinking about what I’d like to see in an updated Razer Kishi Ultra, aside from hall effect sticks, I’d like some of the sharper edges like the passthrough charging port to be smoothed out a bit. Beyond that, while I love the L4 and R4 buttons as options, I vastly prefer having paddles on the bottom of the controller since they feel more natural to use. It would be good to have those as options given the premium price. Maybe even L5 and R5 as paddles on the bottom with remapping available in the Razer Nexus app. The final thing I want is a carrying case for this to come with the controller. When looking at the pro level controllers on console, they usually come with a nice hard case. Granted this one doesn’t cost as much as a DualSense Edge or Victrix Pro BFG, but it would be a nice addition to the package that wouldn’t cost too much.
Razer Kishi Ultra review
If you’re used to playing on traditional PS5 or Xbox Series controllers or basically any full-sized controller and don’t enjoy using the compact Joy-Con size buttons and sticks we usually see in mobile controllers, the Razer Kishi Ultra is perfect for you with its comfortable grip, great d-pad, and face buttons. The lack of full feature support on iOS is disappointing, but this is a great addition to the mobile controller space, and I hope Razer can build on this through the years while also offering a carrying case so I don’t have to worry about anything happening to this in my bag when I go out.
If you’re curious about the book in the header image, it is Andy Kelly’s upcoming book titled Perfect Organism: An Alien: Isolation Companion that I’m currently reading for review. You can pre-order it here.
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Annualized sports games are always facing an uphill battle when convincing players to put down the cash for what many see as a roster update with minimal improvements. And often, that is the case, but with NBA 2K25, Visual Concepts and 2K Games have surpassed the subpar efforts of NBA 2K24, and once again becomes championship contenders in the world of video game basketball.
Image Source: 2K Games
This year’s most significant improvements come on the court, powered by ProPLAY, the technology that translates authentic movements from captured footage into actual, immersive gameplay. This means even more dribbling animations, signature shots, and off-ball movement that will make any coach happy. Needless to say, NBA 2K25 delivers the most true-to-life basketball experience you can have without lacing up your shoes.
It isn’t just the drives and the signature shots that catch the eye, the developers have also heeded feedback from the community regarding shooting the ball. The result is the ability to change up the shot timing profile to your liking, ranging from difficulty-based impact on user-timed shots to high-risk, high-reward mechanics, emphasizing the need for perfect timing to truly reflect the challenge in the sport. Similarly, you can adjust the timing for layups and free throws, too, as well as implement custom visual cues to suit your play style.
And if the already extensive shooting control methods weren’t enough, the new Pro Stick Rhythm Shooting option should be added to your consideration. Mimicking the movement of shooting, players using this method can pull down the shot stick to start a shot, and follow through to match the timing and speed of the push motion, making it almost feel like you are the one attempting to sink the basket. It certainly takes some getting used to, but mastering this new way is something the studio says will always beat the traditional method, so there’s food for thought for all the court generals out there.
Image Source: 2K Games
While offense is always something players will look forward to, there is also more meat for defensive players to sink their teeth into as well. A brand-new defensive cutoff system empowers those with good anticipation to be able to control their opponent, making dynamic shifts in directions to prevent an attack from gaining too much momentum. It is always a thrill to shut down the opposition this way, leading to easier steals and stupendous blocks that amp up the atmosphere.
Even contesting shots will feel different in NBA 2K25, with a new dynamic weighting system that tries to reflect the true impact of defense on a shot attempt. Strong defensive performances will now feel more rewarding than ever before, preventing shooters from raining hell on you if you manage to get your coverage right.
As the most obvious calling card, the graphical prowess and visual fidelity on show in NBA 2K25 is second to none, bringing its presentation to yet another level, approaching the authentic product fans can watch with every game. Player models are more detailed than ever before, and the fluid animations made possible by ProPLAY allow the game to ebb and flow naturally. Add to that arenas and courts put together with plenty of attention to detail, and to even the keenest of eyes, a game in action can look like the real deal.
Image Source: 2K Games
All of these can be experienced in a great selection of game modes that may be already familiar, but are nonetheless enjoyable to jump into. MyPLAYER and MyCAREER remain excellent ways of making your journey to the top of the NBA a fun-filled journey, with new bells and whistles to give players the ability to tweak their course and build a dynasty for the ages with or without their created player at the heart of things.
There’s also love for the WNBA in the form of The W, with the game’s rising stars of the likes of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and more being a part of the competition to become the GOAT. The Pursuit of Greatness story mode is undoubtedly one to invest your time in, reflecting the growing status of the women’s game.
If you would rather head things up in the front office, then there are MyGM and MyNBA to look forward to. The former leans much more firmly into the roleplaying aspects, making it possible for a GM to grow in more distinct ways and impact their team accordingly. Become an offensive powerhouse with great offensive coaching, or use your charisma to negotiate better deals and maintain team morale, the choice is yours as you look to grow your organization and unlock even more perks as you level up. It is also nice to have more dynamic and impactful conversations with people who matter, and being able to do so in an actual free-roaming space is a nice touch but not entirely necessary, in my opinion.
Image Source: 2K Games
As for the latter, The Steph Era of the 2017 Golden State Warriors have been added into the mix, giving you the opportunity to either stop them or join them in a period of true NBA superstars leading their teams. Furthermore, flexible league expansion and contraction, the addition of the NBA Cup, and more streamlined MySTAFF management make it easier to play how you want as you shape the league.
Then there are the MyTEAM and The City, modes where you can play solo, but are best enjoyed online with other players. The idea of building a super team is still a sound one, and Visual Concepts continues to iterate on the formula with the return of the Auction House and four new game modes for MyTEAM. Whether that will shift the needle for those not particularly keen on the card-collecting mode remains to be seen, but fans will have more to enjoy regardless.
As for The City, it has been revamped to bring players closer to the game and the community, with more interactive spaces and more ways to show off your skills. The best part of it is the impending return of all four MyPARKS as events in the mode, adding that layer of nostalgia that is hard to match. The sun-drenched Sunset Beach park, the industrial Rivet City, the urban setting of the Old Town, and the upgraded Old Town MyPARK on the aircraft carrier are all being remastered, and it will be a delight to ball on them again.
While the plethora of modes can be overwhelming, NBA 2K25 is also constantly giving players the avenue to improve their understanding of the game and its mechanics. The robust Learn 2K mode covers everything from the basics to the most advanced of moves, and it is a godsend for those who are new to the franchise or just trying to get their hands warmed up again. There are also similar tutorial modes available in MyTEAM and The City too, so make sure you are all caught up first before taking on others.
Image Source: 2K Games
With so much basketball goodness awaiting players, there are still the dreaded microtransactions in NBA 2K25 to be discussed. Naturally, if you are playing offline, there is really little incentive to invest in any of the microtransactions. However, there is a stark difference when competing against other players online; those willing to stump up the cash will have a distinct advantage, not just for their cosmetic looks but also when it comes to players and their ratings. Similar to the likes of EA Sports FC, there appears to be no stopping the profitable momentum of microtransactions for the franchise, so be wary whenever online play is concerned; sometimes, even the best skills don’t guarantee you’ll win.
As an entire basketball package, there is no denying that NBA 2K25 is something to be savored by fans of the sport. With its great selection of game modes and the various improvements made in all areas, this makes it more of an obvious choice compared to last year’s offering, and when Visual Concepts and 2K Games finally cut the cord with the previous generation, there will surely be even more amazing things to look forward to for a championship-calibre franchise.
NBA 2K25
As an entire basketball package, there is no denying that NBA 2K25 is something to be savored by fans of the sport. With its great selection of game modes and the various improvements made in all areas, this makes it more of an obvious choice compared to last year’s offering, and when Visual Concepts and 2K Games finally cut the cord with the previous generation, there will surely be even more amazing things to look forward to for a championship-caliber franchise.
Pros
Visuals and audio presentation is top-notch.
Great customization options.
Plenty of game modes for every fan.
New ProPLAY technology a true revolution.
Cons
Microtransactions are here to stay.
Online play balance remain a question.
A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PlayStation 5.
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Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home has been a very interesting game to follow pre-release. I say this not only because it is a premium mobile-first Harvest Moon game, but also because the reactions from my friends who are longtime fans of the series have gone from apathy to interest with every bit of gameplay shown. Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home launched recently on iOS and Android as a mobile-exclusive entry in Natsume’s Harvest Moon series, and I’ve been playing it for about a week and a half now on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro for review. Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is a very good farming simulation game, but one that is held back by a few issues right now.
A lot of fans of the Harvest Moon series of games from Marvelous have been around since the SNES or N64 days, but I only got into it on 3DS with Story of Season. Back then, I had no idea about the name change and that Marvelous’ releases would be called Story of Seasons while Harvest Moon would be the name used by Natsume going forward. I’m making that clear now because I don’t want people confused about what Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is and also to give you my history with the series before getting into how I feel about Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home($17.99).
If you’re new to farming and life simulation games, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home takes you back from the city to a calming village where you fish, farm, interact with many NPCs, partake in festivals (that need to be unlocked), and even find a companion. The village of Alba, your new home, is dense and cozy (sorry but I had to), and I’m glad it isn’t a big open location because those usually result in a lot of empty spaces when it comes to life simulation games. If you’ve played many in the genre, think of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home as one that focuses more on the characters with a bit less depth when it comes to farming.
After a short tutorial explaining the basics of movement and a bit of farming, you unlock the map and main menu letting you save just about anywhere (this is very important for a mobile game), and this is where you get into the flow of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home where you try and finish quests for NPCs, upgrade your tools, gather, mine (this unlocks a bit later), and of course farm through the game’s main chapters.
The more I played Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home, the more I realized that the developers understood what makes life and farming simulation games great, but fell short in some ways. These may or may not affect newcomers to the genre, but those who have played many recent games will find them lacking. The potential partners are likely the weakest aspect of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home. They just aren’t as interesting as other games in the genre. If you don’t care about that aspect, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is quite a polished entry in the genre.
Approaching Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home from a general life simulation game enthusiast’s perspective feels different though. While other platforms are spoiled for choice with tons of games from big and small developers, we don’t really see much like that on mobile, but that doesn’t make up for some of the flaws here, especially at a much higher price point. I think this is a very solid base that the developers can build on to the point where it would even be a great fit for PC and consoles. The only “mobile” aspect of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home right now is the touch control option.
Visually, aside from the performance and load times that I will cover below, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home looks very good. Some characters look generic, but the interface, farm, building layout, and everything looks good. I also appreciate that Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home supports fullscreen on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro. It really feels like a game properly tailored to mobile with its visuals and controls.
While Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home does look nice visually for the most part, it is lacking when it comes to the character designs. This applies to your own character with customization options that should’ve been more detailed and also the main NPCs in the town. A lot of them feel lifeless even during cut-scenes. Barring that, I like the aesthetic a lot, and Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home looks excellent on my iPhone and iPad. The one disappointment is in performance. Right now, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is capped at 30fps on my iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro. I was expecting above 60fps let alone 60fps, but it isn’t possible to play at a higher frame rate now. The load times are also not as fast as they should be.
On the audio side, I was pleased with the music and sounds in Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home. Nothing stood out to the point where I’d listen to it outside the game, but it sounded good and the music changes were appropriate to the gameplay.
When Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home was announced as a mobile-exclusive game, I was curious how it would control. The developers have done a fantastic job with the touch controls here letting you play by tapping to move, dragging to move, and more. Interacting with objects or characters, farming, and navigating menus all feel good. Some text and touch targets feel a bit too small on iPhone, but they are fine on iPad. I would’ve loved some haptic feedback on iPhone though for using tools and even fishing. Maybe this can be added in a future update.
If you’ve played the two best life simulation games on mobile: Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home feels closer to the former, but it isn’t as polished. I dislike bringing up other games in the same genre to compare, but I’m doing it here specifically for the mobile port. Those two games were built for PC/console and brought over to mobile while Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home was built for mobile and yet it doesn’t feel as tailored to the platform in its features.
Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is a mobile-exclusive game, and while I appreciate the touch control scheme, it has a few issues right now when it comes to features. The lack of cloud saves is beyond disappointing. When I first downloaded Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on my iPhone, I played it for about three hours before picking up my iPad to see how it feels there. I found no way to get the save across, and still haven’t been able to move saves across devices. The lack of controller support is also disappointing for a game like this. The developers did a great job with touch controls, but it would be nice to have controller support for when I play on iPad. I would also like some quality of life features for movement, like we’ve seen in recent games in the genre.
As a newcomer to Natsume’s new Harvest Moon games but a fan of all the recent Story of Seasons and other life simulation games, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home ended up being worth playing, but it needs a few updates and features to be truly essential at full price. I have no issues with developers wanting to charge premium prices on mobile, but Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home lacking basic features like cloud saves and controller support definitely makes it harder to recommend alongside a few other design issues. If the developers continue working on this, it will be one of the best in the genre on mobile, and I’m glad to see them take a chance on a premium mobile life simulation game because that is very rare.
There are some strange omissions on this device compared to the Pixel 9 Pro. The exterior screen (the one you’ll use the most), does not feature LTPO technology, which allows the display to dynamically ratchet from 1 to 120 Hz. This is a more battery-efficient process, but instead, the Fold will only go from 60 to 120 Hz. This is nitpicky, but again, you’re spending $1,800 only to find this flagship feature is not available. (It is available on the inner screen.)
On other Pixel phones, you can top up other devices—like your earbuds’ charging case—wirelessly with a feature called Battery Share. I have never felt the need to use this feature, but it’s not available on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Also, some camera features don’t exist, like Cinematic Blur, which adds a portrait mode effect to your videos. Oh, and don’t forget this device is rated IPX8, so it’s fine to submerge it in a pool, but be careful with dust (avoid the beach!).
The most annoying flub is wireless charging. It’s supported on this device, but it doesn’t work with Google’s very own Pixel Stand Gen 2 wireless charger because the coils do not align. (Google says the Pixel Stand is discontinued but … it’s still selling the charger on its storefront.) Curiously enough, I tried to see if wireless charging worked on a few other charging stands I had lying around and the answer was no. Well, sort of. It works on some if you put the phone in landscape orientation, but not if you place it in portrait on a stand. You’ll be better off using a charging pad that sits flat.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Pixel 9 Pro Fold, 5X optical zoom with Night Sight.
Overall, the camera system is similar but not identical to the Pixel 9 Pro, and while the results are generally great, I have noticed images from the ultrawide and telephoto cameras are noticeably not as sharp in low-light conditions compared to the cheaper sibling. I also don’t like the fact that the selfie camera on this phone doesn’t feature autofocus. It’s nice that you can take selfies with the superior rear cameras, but sometimes you don’t want to unfold the whole thing, and then your photo isn’t as sharp as what you get with the Pixel 9 Pro.
It’s these types of little things that add up to make the Pixel 9 Pro Fold feel a bit … weird. It does its job well if a mini tablet is what you want—I prefer using it over the Galaxy Z Fold 6—but Google needs to work on its feature parity so that you don’t feel like you’re missing out on the latest and greatest when you have the company’s most expensive piece of hardware in your hands.
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