Category:

Game Reviews

This Dell 16″ Laptop (2TB SSD, 64GB RAM, Core 7) Is $3,400 Off, Amazon Is Selling Out All Laptops

by admin October 5, 2025

The laptop market has become impossibly crowded with dozens of brands and hundreds of models, which makes it very difficult to know where to start. If you want a safe bet backed by decades of reliability and support infrastructure, Dell remains one of the smartest choices you can make.

Within Dell’s lineup, there’s something for every budget and every use case. Right now, if you want maximum performance at the absolute lowest price, Amazon has dropped a deal that borders on absurd: The Dell Inspiron 16 with upgraded specs (Intel Core 7, 64GB DDR5 RAM, 2TB SSD) has plummeted to $1,195 from its typical $4,599 price, which is a 74 percent discount that requires a double-take to believe.

See at Amazon

The Intel Core 7 150U processor boasts 10 cores and 12 threads with a turbo frequency of up to 5.4GHz and provides processing capability that tackles high-end workloads without pause. The 150U is part of Intel’s newest family of mobile processors using their power-efficient architecture, optimizing performance and battery life through smart power management.

Huge Upgrades That Transform Daily Computing

The memory and storage configuration makes it stand apart from bread-and-butter retail models. With 64GB of DDR5 RAM, you can have a bunch of browser tabs open, virtual machines and background processes simultaneously without any system slowdown. DDR5 is a generation improvement over DDR4 with exponentially greater data transfer rates, improved power efficiency and greater performance under heavy multitasking loads.

The 2TB SSD has enough space for your whole digital life without constant file management anxiety. You can have your whole software suite installed, store years of photos and video, download enormous game collections and store local backups without even approaching capacity limits. SSD technology means all loading nearly at the same instant, from system booting to application launching to file copying.

The 16-inch FHD+ touchscreen uses a 1920×1200 resolution with a 16:10 aspect ratio that gives you more vertical space than typical 16:9 screens. It comes in handy while working with documents, spreadsheets, or code when you’d rather see more content without scrolling. The 300-nit brightness delivers clarity in light rooms and the touchscreen feature (no need to use it if you don’t want to) delivers convenience for faster interactions when the keyboard gets too formal.

Windows 11 Pro includes enterprise-grade features like BitLocker encryption, remote desktop, and domain join functionality that are not included in Home versions. The Copilot key provides direct access to Microsoft’s AI assistant.

Connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E for extremely fast wireless speeds on supporting networks, Bluetooth for peripherals, USB-C and USB-A ports for legacy and newer devices, HDMI output for external monitors, and an SD card reader for photographers transferring files from cameras.

Battery life is 80 percent after just 60 minutes of charging, minimizing downtime when you simply need to have power ready at an instant between classes or meetings.

For $1,195, you’re getting technology that would otherwise cost three or four times that much.

See at Amazon

Source link

October 5, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Dyson Silently Offloads V11 Inventory on Amazon, Now 40% Off at a Record-Low Price

by admin October 4, 2025

Dyson is the ultimate luxury in vacuum cleaners and it sets standards that competitors try to copy but never quite match. The brand’s combination of advanced performance and sleek design remains unrivaled in the industry. If you’ve been looking for a new-generation cordless stick vacuum without dropping $1,500 on the latest Dyson flagship model, the V11 Origin is a great breakthrough moment in Dyson’s evolution.

This was the first model to truly enter the “new gen” era of cordless cleaning power and seeing it drop to $399 from $629 on Amazon is unprecedented (nearly 40% off right now). The British company seems to be clearing inventory on earlier models, possibly to push consumers toward their premium $1,000+ options later.

See at Amazon

The Dyson V11 Origin delivers 185AW of suction, 60% more cleaning power than previous Dyson models. We’re talking about the difference between surface-level dust removal and deep extraction of embedded dirt from carpet fibers and hard floor crevices. The motor spins at up to 125,000 revolutions per minute, and it generates the kind of cyclonic force that pulls allergens, pet dander, and fine particles from every surface in your home.

Three Intelligent Modes That Actually Make Sense

The V11 has three different power modes that respond to real-world cleaning conditions. Auto mode takes advantage of sensors integrated into the vacuum to detect floor type and change suction automatically, balancing cleaning performance with battery life. Eco mode gets the most out of battery life for quick maintenance cleaning sessions, allowing you up to 60 minutes of steady use when you’re just doing a few quick touch-ups around the house. Boost mode lets out all the suction power for tough messes like ground-in cereal crumbs or tracked-in mud, but it does drain the battery faster.

The LCD display informs you of the mode you’re in, total amount of runtime remaining to the last second, and maintenance alerts when the filters must be cleaned or clogs form.

The Motorbar cleaner bar head itself is worth an accolade because it solves one of the greatest annoyances of vacuum ownership: Normal brush rolls become tangles of hairballs of mess within minutes of operation and you have to stop and snip away the mess with scissors. Dyson created this head on a spiral brush bar that actively untangles snarled hair and petting fur while you clean. The cleaner head automatically adjusts between carpets and hard floors, which makes a tight seal that doesn’t let dirt seep underneath.

Converting the V11 into handheld mode is a matter of seconds by letting go of the wand which turns it into an all-around cleaning device for cleaning above floors. The whole-machine filtration system captures 99.99% of particles with a diameter of 0.3 microns or smaller such as most common allergens, bacteria, and mold spores.

This deal is unprecedented and it’s one of our favorite Prime Day deals right now.

See at Amazon

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

This 40″ Full HD Smart LED TV Costs Less Than Your 20yo One, and Amazon Is Practically Giving It Away

by admin October 4, 2025

Television technology has flipped completely over the past two decades. A 40-inch TV in 2005 would have cost you well over $1,000, featured a bulky CRT or early plasma design that weighed a ton, and offered basic cable input with no smart features whatsoever. Fast forward to today, and Amazon is offering this Insignia 40-inch Smart Fire TV for just $99, down from its already reasonable $149 price. You’re getting a sleek, wall-mountable display with full HD resolution, built-in streaming capabilities, voice control, and modern connectivity options for less than the cost of a nice dinner out.

See at Amazon

The 1080p Full HD resolution delivers 1920×1080 pixels to the 40-inch display, providing clear, razor-sharp images for movies, TV programs, and games. Full HD is the perfect balance for screens this size, and offers excellent picture quality without the bandwidth and processing for which 4K plays its stratospheric tune. You’ll enjoy clear text in menus, crisp character and object edges and smooth action sequences. The screen size is great for bedrooms where you’re viewing from 6 to 10 feet, or in tiny living rooms where a massive 65-inch screen would overwhelm the room.

Fire TV Integration Eliminates Extra Devices

Fire TV OS lives within this TV itself and removes the need for separate streaming sticks or boxes. You have instant access to more than 1.5 million movies and TV shows on more than a thousand channels and apps. Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, YouTube, Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, Sling TV and Paramount Plus all operate natively without the added hardware cluttering your entertainment unit or taking up HDMI ports.

The included Alexa voice remote changes everything about how you interact with your TV. Press and hold the voice button and simply say what you want to watch, what input to switch to, or what you want to know. Alexa can be used to find specific movies, launch apps, adjust volume, pause a movie, or even control compatible smart home devices without ever leaving your couch.

Connectivity choices give you everything you need for an entire entertainment system: Two HDMI inputs are available for game consoles, Blu-ray machines, or cable boxes. Older DVD players or vintage game consoles are handled by composite AV jacks. Digital optical out is utilized to hook up to audio systems and a USB port is available to play back media files from flash drives.

For $99, this Insignia Fire TV is less expensive than most standalone streaming devices but includes an entire 40-inch screen.

See at Amazon

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Sam’s Club 1-Year Membership Is Practically Free With 70% Off, the Cheapest Costco Alternative Yet

by admin October 4, 2025

We’re sure you’re already aware of this, but the next three months are basically one huge shopageddon. Halloween candy, costumes, and decorations lead straight into the biggest food shopping week of the year before Thanksgiving, following immediately by Black Friday and Cyber Week. Normally that would mean either a long, grueling trek of in-person shopping, or online shopping with so many tabs open your laptop cries uncle.

Or, you could do it all in one location, either online or in any of over 600 location nationwide, when you get a Sam’s Club membership. Getting access to the all-in-one warehouse giant should come at a premium cost just for the convenience and amazing prices, but right now at StackSocial you can get a one-year Club membership for just $15. That even less than the usual discounted price offered by StackSocial, and you’ll easily recoup that $15 just in the gas you’d burn through hitting all those shopping stops if you weren’t a Sam’s Club member.

See at StackSocial

It’s All at Sam’s

Run down that three-month shopping marathon we just discussed. Halloween candy, costumes, and decoration? Check — Sam’s Club has it. Everything you need for a Thanksgiving feast, from the turkey to the fresh vegetables, desserts, and beverages? Check — Sam’s Club has it. Everything on your Black Friday and Cyber Week lists — the latest tech gear, home goods, clothes, toys, even the tree and decorations? Again, check. All you need is a membership to have in-person or online access to it all, and that’s just $15 right now at StackSocial.

You would think that was a comprehensive enough list to get anyone to sign up, but it’s just scratching the surface of what a Sam’s Club membership gives you access to. Sam’s Club has amazing services like auto tire replacement, pharmacy, vision and hearing services, travel, custom cakes and cupcakes, even home installations and warranties, and all at amazing members-only prices.

Rewards Await

Sam’s Club pricing and utterly incredible inventory and range of goods and services create the ultimate one-stop shopping destination, and the more you use your membership, the more you get back in the form of Sam’s Cash. Each Sam’s Club purchase earns you 2% back in Sam’s Cash, which adds up quickly to cut down on your next shopping excursion or membership renewal in a big way.

This $15 offer for a year of Club membership at Sam’s Club is good for new members and anyone who has joined within the past 6 months, and there is a 1 membership purchase limit per person. You also sign up to auto-renew your membership at regular price. But once you see for yourself the incredible range of groceries, goods, tools, clothes, services, and more that this $15 StackSocial deal gets you, you’ll be happy to keep your Sam’s Club membership for years to come.

See at StackSocial

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Kingmakers delayed indefinitely as developer needs “more time before we feel good about charging money for it”

by admin October 4, 2025

Redemption Road’s time-travelling bring-an-assault-rifle-to-a-medieval-sword-fight shooter and strategy game, Kingmakers, has been indefinitely delayed.

Redemption stated it pushed the release to ensure it does not “cut any planned features for the sake of getting it out of the door earlier” and apologised for “letting [players] down”.

Kingmakers – Early Access Release Date Trailer.Watch on YouTube

“After much contemplation, we realise that the scheduled Kingmakers launch on October 8 will no longer be possible. We want to apologise to all of the fans who are eagerly anticipating this game. We are sorry for letting you down,” the studio said in a statement posted to social media.

“Why is Kingmakers being delayed? In short, it’s an incredibly ambitious, uncompromising game, and we don’t want to cut any planned features, for the sake of getting it out the door earlier. Our goal, from the start, has been to create something that’s nothing like anything else on the market, in terms of gameplay, scale, scope, and interactivity.”

Manage cookie settings

The statement goes on to say that Redemption Road “pushed the Unreal Engine 4 codebase to its absolute limits”, while still providing “true 60fps to mid-range PCs, without the need for fake frames”.

“We are an 80% engineering team, who got into this business to push technological barriers,” the team added, before describing how the game has “tens of thousands of soldiers” each with AI and pathfinding that “rivals what you’d expect from a AAA person shooter” and how players can enter every room in its six-story castles.

“Every mission takes place in a giant, massive map that each player on the server is free to explore – with or without their own personal army of thousands,” Redemption added. “We set out to do all of this, with full drop-in/drop-out four-player multiplayer support, and we have. We just need a little bit more time on content polish before we feel good about charging money for it.”

The statement closed on promising that the studio would shortly present a half-hour-long deep dive on Kingmaker’s gameplay, “with a comprehensive overview of everything we’ve been working on”.

Donlan was certainly impressed when Kingsmakers memorable teaser dropped, writing: “Over the last decade or so, alongside the bigger, fewer bets publishers have made – which has also often led to formula, to conservatism – an onward march in graphical fidelity means that a certain kind of game has become obsessed with the details. I love details, and I love that games do this.”

Kingmakers may not be out yet, but it’s already secured a movie adaptation. The studio said it was “absolutely thrilled” that the unreleased game was “making its way to the big screen” in partnership with publisher tinyBuild and Story Kitchen.

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments

Russell Adler walks in front of an oil fire.

Game Reviews

Black Ops 6 On Game Pass Cost Microsoft $300 Million In Lost Sales

by admin October 4, 2025

Last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the first entry in the hit multiplayer military shooter to launch day-one on Game Pass in what reportedly turned out to be an expensive experiment for Microsoft. According to Bloomberg, making the game available for free to paid subscribers on console and PC cost the tech giant $300 million in lost sales of the 2024 best-seller. That data point adds some interesting context to Microsoft’s controversial decision to hike the price of Game Pass Ultimate by 50 percent this week.

A defining feature of Game Pass was the decision early on to release first-party games like Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite on the service day-and-date. Bloomberg reports that this move was “controversial internally” due to the likelihood of cannibalizing sales of big games that take a lot of time and money to develop. The Verge reported last year that a similar debate arose around the decision of whether to put Call of Duty on Game Pass or not.

The former long-time head of Activision, Bobby Kotick, went on record during the 2023 FTC trial over Microsoft’s acquisition of the company saying that he didn’t think adding games like Call of Duty to subscription services made “commercial sense.” “I have a general aversion to the idea of multi-game subscription services,” he said at the time. “Maybe part of it is being in Los Angeles and having large, big media companies move their content to these subscription streaming services and the business results have suffered.”

But following the acquisition, Microsoft did exactly that. According to Circana’s U.S. market data, sales of 2024’s Black Ops 6 were 23 percent higher than Modern Warfare 3 sales over the same period, but 82 percent of those sales were on PlayStation compared to Xbox and PC. Subscription gaming services also saw a 16 percent jump year-over-year following the release of Black Ops 6.

If the move cost the company $300 million in lost sales, Microsoft would have needed around 15 million players to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate for one month to make that up, or just 1.25 million over the course of an entire year. The numbers would be more dramatic for the even cheaper Game Pass PC tier where Call of Duty is also now available day-and-date. The price hikes this week change that math. Now, even if Black Ops 7 saw a similar drop in sales, Microsoft would need only 10 million new sign-ups for Ultimate in November to fill the gap, or just 834,000 over the length of a year.

This week’s Game Pass overhaul shows Microsoft is essentially continuing to back off its original day-one commitment. Game Pass Premium is the same price Game Pass Ultimate was a few years ago, but will only get first-party Xbox games a year after they’re out and it’s not guaranteed to get Call of Duty games at all. This might not be the last major change we see to the service in the near future, either. The company is reportedly testing a “free” ad-supported tier that will be exclusively cloud gaming and could keep raising prices on the higher tiers if it thinks a core audience will stick around.

Bloomberg reports that Microsoft CFO Amy Hood has “asked Xbox to find other ways to increase profit.” Instead of growing its share of the gaming market, the company now seems content to extract more from those already paying it.

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

In Case of Emergency, This 1500W Portable Power Station Is a Lifesaver and It’s Now Selling for Pennies

by admin October 4, 2025

Power outages during storms, camping trips without reliable electricity, tailgating events that need a blender for frozen drinks, remote work setups in RVs, or simply keeping your essential devices running during emergency situations… These scenarios share one common frustration: being disconnected from power when you need it most.

A portable power station solves this problem by providing reliable electricity anywhere and gives you the freedom to charge laptops, run small appliances, or keep medical devices operational during blackouts. If you’ve found yourself in any of these situations wishing you had backup power, the Jackery Explorer 1000 is currently at a record low of $429, down from $799. This 46% discount makes one of the most capable portable power stations accessible for people who need reliable energy independence.

See at Amazon

The Explorer 1000 holds 1,070 watt-hours of capacity in an incredibly light 23.8-pound package. This held energy translates to usable use like powering a mini-fridge for roughly 10 hours, charging a laptop over multiple work sessions, or keeping your phone charged dozens of times through. The unit can output 1,500 continuous watts via its three pure sine wave AC receptacles and can surge a maximum of 3,000 watts momentarily as appliances come online.

Charges Faster Than You’d Ever Imagine

Jackery designed this power station using ChargeShield 2.0 technology which enables full recharge in one hour when you activate emergency mode via the accompanying app. That’s due to intelligent charging algorithms that push maximum current safely into the lithium iron phosphate battery cells. The standard charge time stands at 1.7 hours which strikes a balance between fast charging and maintaining long-term battery health by minimizing heat gain during charging. For perspective, most other power stations you’ll find take four to six hours for a full charge.

LiFePO4 battery chemistry delivers outstanding longevity over conventional lithium-ion cells. This battery retains over 70% of its capacity after 4,000 full charge cycles, or over a decade of moderate use if you’re cycling the battery every week. Lithium iron phosphate cells also handle extreme temperatures more robustly and represent less fire hazard than traditional lithium-ion batteries.

The port choice caters to modern charging needs with two USB-C ports offering 100 watts of power delivery, a USB-A port, a 12-volt automotive port, and the usual three AC ports. A 100-watt USB-C port can charge new MacBook Pros, iPads and high-end Android phones at maximum speed without requiring separate power bricks.

At $429, this power station is practically half its regular price but provides the capacity and functionality that makes portable power stations really useful and not novelty items.

See at Amazon

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

After Selling Out, Amazon Brings Back 50-Pack Pokemon Cards at a New Record Low

by admin October 4, 2025

Building a Pokemon card collection from the ground up involves that you focus on quantity before hunting down specialty holographic Charizards or first edition old cards. The smart thing to do is to get a few inexpensive bulk packs like this and accumulate a solid base of cards that can be traded, sorted and used to build decks. You will have some duplicates in a bunch of packs but that is exactly what you want when you are just starting out: Duplicates become currency amongst friends and fellow collectors, and having the ability to have multiple copies of useful cards allows you to build functional decks without decreasing your collection.

There’s a 50-card miscellaneous lot that has dropped to an all-time low of $5 on Amazon from its usual $10 price point, and it just came back in stock after selling out last week. You’re going to want to move quick because these bulk lots are short-lived.

See at Amazon

The appeal here is simple value. For $5 for 50 cards, you’re paying 10 cents per card which is effectively floor price on Pokemon cards no matter what format. The individual booster packs cost $4 to $5 and contain only 10 to 11 cards, so you’d be paying $20 to $25 to get the same quantity through the traditional retailing method. This bulk approach bypasses the thrill of opening the sealed pack and the very low chance of obtaining ultra-rare cards but it provides you with maximum number of cards for minimum amount of money.

Random Draw Gives Diverse Sets

The pack includes random cards of all Pokemon series that represent the entire history of the trading card game from the very beginning Base Set to the most recent issues. You’ll receive a mix of core Pokemon cards with basic, Stage 1, and Stage 2 Pokemon from various generations and energy cards to power up attacks while playing. Randomization guarantees each lot acts as a surprise grab bag. You might receive popular Pokemon like Pikachu, evolutions of Eevee or starting Pokemon, or you might receive under-the-radar creatures from later generations.

Energy cards within such lots serve important gameplay functions. Energy cards on your Pokemon need to be played in order for the Pokemon Trading Card Game to use their attacks, with different Pokemon types requiring such energy types as Fire, Water, Grass, Lightning, Psychic, Fighting, Darkness, Metal, or Fairy. Possessing a solid base of energy cards enables you to actually build playable decks rather than simply gathering cards for their visual reasons.

Duplicates are to be expected even in one 50-card lot. This is part of bulk card collections where the packaging process is more about speed than making each card unique. In reality, duplicates are less important than you’d imagine. Basic Pokemon cards and energy cards are intended to show up in multiples throughout your deck because competitive decks would have multiple copies of the same card.

The set is Amazon’s top-selling collectible card game set and deck, with over 20,000 sales in the past month alone. For $5, you’re getting the best value way to start a Pokemon collection or build upon one. The record-low price and recent stock shortages mean this won’t last long. If you’re even remotely interested in Pokemon cards, buying four or five of these lots puts you at 200 to 250 cards for $20 to $25, an immediate collection with high trading value.

See at Amazon

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – mud slides, 9-0 wins, retro difficulty anguish, and space hoppers

by admin October 4, 2025

4th October

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, Kelsey digs out the DS to play The Urbz, for some reason; Tom inadvisably asks Jim for some help in Baby Steps; Marie leaps over a wall on a space hopper; Ed is determined to learn Final Fantasy Tactics, which keeps kicking his ass; Connor buys Persona 5 Royal in a Steam Sale; Chris gives a potted review of EA Sports FC 26; and Bertie tries to work out if he likes Steam sensation Megabonk.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Manage cookie settings

The Urbz: Sims in the City, DS

I recently had the urge to revisit all of The Sims games on Nintendo DS and started with The Urbz, which is an absolute nightmare in terms of balancing your Sims’ needs and their relationships, but it’s all worthwhile to see the story of Daddy Bigbucks’ downfall unfold. Unapologetically goofy, they just don’t make Sims games like this anymore, though I’d sure as hell love to see more story-based console iterations of Sim adventures.

-Kelsey

Baby Steps, PS5 Pro

Watch on YouTube

20 minutes into Baby Steps and I’m texting Eurogamer video’s Jim Trinca with a screenshot asking if I’ve gone wrong. I felt the game was pointing me in one direction and I deliberately looked around to go off in another, and well, I regret it. I’m stood at the bottom of a large mudslide of a hill, seemingly only able to get about half way up. Jim replies, stubbornly: “The only right way is up.”

Thanks, Jim.

-Tom O

Wobbly Life, Xbox Series X

I did not expect to get sucked in by Wobbly Life, but after a week of wobbling around the various different islands, I dare to say I’m hooked. And I first realised this game had me in its clutches when I stole my neighbour’s space hopper and used it to hop over the raised bridge into the city.

Wobbly Life is fabulously unserious, which is why I’ve found it becoming my evening entertainment this week. There’s no real time investment needed for it either. You can spend a few moments to a few hours wobbling around doing various jobs, or simply causing chaos by parking your helicopter in the road – the choice is yours.

Is Wobbly Life silly? Yes. Was this something I didn’t realise I needed? Absolutely.

-Marie

Final Fantasy Tactics, Switch 2

Honestly, I’ve really struggled with Tactics. As a fan of the series who missed its previous releases, I am absolutely the target market for this and expectations are sky high. Yet the early hours have proven rough. It’s a notoriously tricky game, but even with the overall lower difficulty of this re-release and its tweaks, I’ve repeatedly lost battles. In large part that’s due to the game not really explaining itself very well: there are so many intricacies to its wonderful Job system, but it demands a huge amount of time spent tinkering away in menus, only to fail yet another battle partway through.

I’m determined to stick with it, though. I already adore the tone of the game (I see where Final Fantasy 16 stole from now), the hand-drawn intro is simply gorgeous, and now I’m a chapter in, its political storyline absolutely has its hooks in me. At the least, I’m happy to be finally ticking this classic off my list.

-Ed

Persona 5 Royal, PC

Watch on YouTube

The Steam sale has hit me like Gabriel Agbonlahor was hit by his thirties: hard. Typically a good saver, my bank account has been ravaged by a variety of games because I have no kids and therefore no one relying on my frugality. Persona 5 Royale will be my child for the foreseeable future.

It turns out that Metaphor Refantazio has acted as a bridge to the wider Atlus catalogue, and I will happily take my place as the 2,342,857th person to say online that I think the game is pretty good. People say it’s slow and I’m not feeling it yet, though I suppose one doesn’t grasp how tall Everest is when you’re lounging around Dingboche.

So far Morgana is okay. I initially thought Ryuji was a wasteman but he’s grown on me with his tale of physical injury, and I’ve just met a girl who’s a total narc and who wants to keep me and the gang off the school roof where we do crimes. Pharmacy punk girl best character.

-Connor

EA Sports FC 26, PS5

Been gallantly suffering through this one for our review this year (coming soon!) and, you know what, actually I’m being harsh there. This year it’s alright? Well, sort of. Ultimate Team is comically arcadey this year, with stamina removed entirely so you can run around holding R2 the entire time like a 12-year-old. Offline modes, by contrast, are stodgy as all hell, with an equally comical leap between difficulties (on Professional I win 9-0, on World Class, which is one tier up, it’s a load of agonising 0-0 draws where I hardly touch the ball). An upside though is how incredibly customisable FC is these days, which deserves genuine praise. Look forward to me saying exactly this but in about 2000 more words of waffle, some time in the coming week.

-Chris

Megabonk, PC

It’s taken me a while to work out whether I like Megabonk or not, and I think I’m probably on the side of “like”, but it took some convincing. Megabonk is like a 3D Vampire Survivors, and it looks a bit like it’s been made in Visual Basic (hey I did computer science for a few months before dropping out) so it’s quite scruffy, which is sort of its charm, sort of not. And herein lies my dilemma actually: is this a rip-off or is it something more? It takes a while to distinguish itself.

But actually there is something unique here. WASD platforming and running and jumping and sliding bring a lot, and as you get into the loop of unlocking things after each run, it starts to feel more like there’s a generous amount of content here, albeit metered in the way it gives it to you, rather than the game Scroogily withholding things from you, sort of like a mobile game would.

More to come!

-Bertie

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

EA’s takeover, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, and “vanity mega projects”: Human Rights Watch assesses the impact of gaming’s latest controversy

by admin October 4, 2025

Earlier this week, history was made in both the world of video games and private equity. The trio of Affinity Partners, Silver Lake, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced a plan to take EA private for $55bn. This leveraged buyout would be the largest in history and, if approved, will mean the industry giant would be a private company in 2027.

This immediately raised concerns throughout the industry. Despite a statement by EA CEO Andrew Wilson saying the company’s values would remain the same, many were concerned at the $20bn of debt the company would be saddled with. Would EA still support studios like Bioware to make the games it wants to make? Among all this, there were also concerns of a moral nature, due to the involvement of Saudi Arabia’s government in the deal.

Eurogamer spoke to Human Rights Watch’s Saudi Arabia researcher, Joey Shea, to discuss the ethical dilemma at the heart of the buyout. Human Rights Watch – which has yet to issue a comment on the deal – has comprehensively covered the ongoing human rights abuses taking place in Saudi Arabia, and how the Public Investment Fund is directly tied to such abuses.

Watch the Battlefield 6 multiplayer trailer here.Watch on YouTube

“We have found that the public investment fund has contributed to, and is responsible for, human rights abuses” states Shea. “This is a trillion dollars in Saudi state wealth that should be invested to realise the economic and social rights of Saudi citizens. We’ve found it’s been invested in vanity mega projects inside and outside of the country.

“We see this as a deliberate attempt to distract from the country’s human rights abuses […] MBS himself wields enormous power over what is effectively public funds, and he wields this power in a highly arbitrary and personalised manner, rather than the benefit of the Saudi people more broadly. Effectively, Saudi Arabia’s vast fossil fuel-derived state wealth is controlled by one person, which isn’t good for human rights, or business either.”

Saudi Arabian investment through the Public Investment fund is generally broken into two categories: investments to improve the standing of Saudi Arabia worldwide, and investments to bring foreign business and investment to Saudi Arabia itself. According to Shea, video games fall inside the former category as sports entertainment.

“Vision 2030 (a major Saudi government investment plan) is the core economic diversification plan for Saudi Arabia, and within the earliest versions of this plan it explicitly stated that these large investments in sports entertainment options was part of a strategy to enhance the reputation of the country nationally.”

After SNK was bought by Saudi Arabia, Fatal Fury City of the Wolves was used to help promote the state and its other investments. | Image credit: SNK

Some have argued that accepting Saudi Arabian investment through the PIF can be separated from the actions of its government, that no country is innocent and everything is tainted. However, according to Shea, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund is directly linked to its human rights abuses. The money used for the EA buyout may itself be attached to these acts.

Shea explains: “In a report we released last year, we documented how the PIF itself has benefited from Human Rights abuses. For example, if we go back to 2017 and the notorious corruption crackdown and the Ritz Carlton, we found that assets that were seized outside of any recognisable legal process wound up in the PIF. Your investment vehicle contains assets that were stolen – that’s a problem!

“We also found that one of those assets that were seized illegally was a company called Sky Prime aviation. This is the company that owned the planes that transferred the hit squad to Istanbul where they murdered Jamal Khashoggi. So if one of the assets your investment fund owns is committing transnational murder in a consulate… that’s pretty outrageous.

“Our call is never ‘don’t invest in Saudi Arabia, don’t invest in Saudi Arabia’. We don’t have a standing boycott. But businesses have a responsibility under the UN guiding principles of Business and Human Rights to do due diligence assessments before engaging in a business relationship, to assess whether that relationship will lead to human rights harm. If it does you should, of course, not engage in that relationship.”

Once the deal goes through, all of EA’s games will be connected to the Saudi state and its human rights abuses. | Image credit: EA

One important detail within the announcement of EA’s leveraged buyout is that it’s pending regulatory approval, which some experts believe won’t be much of a hurdle due to US president Donald Trump’s son-in-law’s involvement with Affinity Partners. When asked whether a deal like this has any chance of being stopped by US regulators, Shea had little hope due to the current political climate in the region and America’s strategic partners there, Saudi Arabia included.

“I don’t see it coming under scrutiny. I think there was a moment in 2023 before October 7th, when there was some political will from some senators in the US to scrutinise Saudi investments through the PIF in the USA. There was some hope that these investments would come under greater scrutiny rather than just for national security impacts – that’s basically the only standard to which foreign investments will be scrutinised, mostly foreign investments from China.”

“We had hoped this could be broadened to include human rights concerns, but at this point, globally, I don’t personally have that much hope.”

Eurogamer contacted EA for comment on matters regarding the private buyout from Affinity Partners, Silver Lake, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments