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A Bunch Of Awesome Shooters Are Cheap Right Now On Steam
Game Updates

A Bunch Of Awesome Shooters Are Cheap Right Now On Steam

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Boom! Bang! Kablam! Etc. and so on. There will be a lot of that happening today as a big new event on Steam has a whole host of fantastic retro-inspired first-person shooters on sale for the rest of the week.

On September 23, Boomstock 2025 started on Steam. The event celebrates “all boomer shooters and retro-inspired” FPS games and features a ton of new trailers, demos, and of course, a load of games on sale. This includes some genuine bangers, like Dusk, Mullet Madjack, Project Warlock, Selaco, and Sulfur.  But don’t wait too long, as the event wraps up on September 27, which is just a few days away. If you need help picking out a new shooter to buy, here are some of the best and biggest deals we spotted from the event:

  • Nightmare Reaper – $15 ($25)
  • Brutal John 2 – $9 ($13)
  • Selaco – $19 ($25)
  • Forgive Me Father – $10 ($20)
  • Forgive Me Father 2 – $15 ($25)
  • Wizordum – $15 ($20)
  • Dusk – $7 ($20)
  • Sulfur – $16 ($22)
  • Zero Protocol – $7 ($12)
  • Project Warlock 1+2 – $12 ($27)
  • Mullet Madjack – $15 ($20)
  • Warhammer 40K Boltgun – $11 ($22)
  • Blood West – $9 ($25)
  • Heavy Bullets – $2 ($10)
  • Viscerafest – $10 ($20)
  • Supplice – $15 ($22)
  • Wild Bastards – $9 ($35)
  • Shadow Warrior (2013) – $3 ($30)
  • Shadow Warrior 2 – $3 ($30)
  • HROT – $10 ($20)
  • Gravelord – $15 ($20)
  • Quatermain and the Cult of Cthulu – $2.50 ($3)
  • Hard Reset – $1.50 ($15)
  • Hard Reset Redux – $2 ($20)
  • Serious Sam 2 – $2.50
  • Mycopunk – $11 ($14)
  • Graven – $5 ($23)

I’d also like to shout out some demos for upcoming games that you can play for free right now. You totally should check out these games if you love classic shooters. Or Tetris. You’ll see what I mean. Anyway, here are some Boomstock demos worth playing:

  • Sportal – A boomer shooter all about using sports equipment like bats and tennis rackets.
  • Blocks for Babies – Tetris meets Doom. It mixes 2D and 3D gameplay. It’s an odd one, but worth checking out.
  • Slyders – This one is part Serious Sam and part roguelike, which is already a great pitch, but then you add in a cool cartoon fox protagonist, and you’ve got something special.
  • The Last Exterminator – This is the Duke Nukem 3D sequel we deserved. This isn’t a new demo; I covered it last year, but it’s a part of the event and still worth checking out.



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Sony LinkBuds Open buds next to charging case
Product Reviews

Sony LinkBuds Open review: plenty of bass and awesome features, but at quite some cost

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Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Sony LinkBuds Open: two-minute review

The Sony LinkBuds Open are yet another contender in the trendy and ever-expanding world of open earbuds – but they still stand out from the crowd.

This model succeeds Sony’s first attempt at open earbuds, which launched three years ago now, and combines a slightly unorthodox design with a broad feature-set, tuneable audio, and modern controls. With a price of $199 / £149 / AU$249.95, though, there’s a lot of expectation on Sony’s latest open buds – so, can they hit all of the right notes?

Well, I’ll start by talking about my first impressions out of the box. As soon as I unboxed the Sony LinkBuds Open, I was struck by their unusual yet enticing looks. Unlike a lot of the best open earbuds, these adopt neither the clip-on nor the hooked designs that most of their competitors adopt. Instead, each bud has a ring-shaped driver, which lets ambient sound in easily. The batteries are housed in an orb-shaped casing, and wings are attached to these for a more secure in-ear fit.

I’m a fan of the ring-shaped in-ear components – these fit nicely and let in ambient noises without a hitch. Admittedly though, the spherical exterior looks a bit clunky, and although the wings ensure a pretty secure fit, they felt a little peculiar in my ear, which took comfort levels down a bit for me personally. Overall, these should still feel fine in-ear for a few hours, but there are comfier alternatives out there, like the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC, for instance.

Something I loved was the charging case. The white color variant has a glossy, marble-like appearance and I appreciate the attention to detail here. It’s worth noting that you can also grab these buds in Black or Violet – the latter being a special edition produced in collaboration with singer Olivia Rodrigo.

Another thing that really impresses me about these buds is their feature-set, which is bursting at the seams with user-friendly goodness. There’s multi-point connectivity, 360 Reality Audio support, voice assistant integration, and services such as Spotify Tap – all accessible via Sony’s Sound Connect app.

But there’s more! There’s customizable, and surprisingly effective touch controls, DSEE upscaling for lower-quality music files (still looking at you, Spotify), and depth-filled EQ options. There’s Find Your Equalizer – a gamified way to uncover the best tuning for you – as well as presets and a five-band custom option. Combine that with Scene-based listening, head gesture controls, and a wearing condition check-up, and you’re looking at a highly talented pair of buds.

Still, it’s worth flagging that some competitors offer features that have been omitted here. There’s no active noise cancellation – something you’ll spot on a model like the Edifier LolliClip or Honor Earbuds Open – though you probably want to hear your surroundings clearly if you’re buying open-style earbuds. There’s also no LDAC, Sony’s ‘hi-res’ Bluetooth audio codec, but again, the open design here does limit audio capabilities.

Finally, there aren’t any health monitoring options – think a heart rate or blood oxygen tracker (you’d need to look to the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 for that). But still, you have plenty to play with on the LinkBuds Open, and the companion app is super easy to use.

(Image credit: Future)

  • Sony LinkBuds Open (White) at Amazon for $119.99

A quick note

When I started testing the Sony LinkBuds Open, I encountered some issues, such as a rattling noise in one bud and connectivity issues. Thankfully, we were swiftly presented with a fresh, fully functional unit, but for transparency’s sake, I wanted to flag such quirks. These issues have not influenced my final scoring of the model.

By now, then, you must be wondering how the LinkBuds Open sound. Well, I have mixed feelings about this model. Firstly, it’s worth pre-empting this by emphasizing that an open design means a likely hit to audio fidelity, and typically weaker bass response than you’d expect from earbuds with a seal or over-ear headphones, for example.

Still, I was relatively impressed with the low-end performance of the LinkBuds Open. I tried listening to AAAAA by Kiefer with EQ set to ‘Off’ (flat), and found that the bass rippling through the track was meatier than what the impressive SoundCore AeroClip could offer with default tuning. Was it the cleanest low-end replication I’ve heard? Well no.

In Stepping Out (feat. $Ha Hef) by Jay Worthy and LNDN DRGS, the funky bassline clashed slightly with vocals, which didn’t have quite enough space to breathe. Meanwhile, the palpable sub-bass is pretty understated in The Boys Are Back In Town by Yung Gravy – though that’s almost to be expected from a pair of open-ears given their technical limitations.

Elsewhere, highs sounded pretty prominent out of the box – but perhaps a little too prominent at times. On occasion, sounds in the treble-frequency edged towards the harsh side of things – though this can be remedied with EQ adjustment in the Sound Connect app.

It’s in tracks more focused around vocal performances, then, where the LinkBuds Open truly shine. For instance, when tuning into Déchire la Toile by Lorien Testard and Alice Duport-Percier, gliding keys and emotive vocals sounded clear and controlled, with a pleasing openness to the sound creating a decently immersive listen. Even at higher volumes, there was a solid level of detail on display, though my colleague did note significant sound leakage – not ideal if you’re in the office or on public transport.

All in all, you won’t get that perfectly balanced, beautifully layered audio – and you might want to tinker with that out-of-the-box sound profile. But for a pair of open earbuds, the LinkBuds Open are certainly solid in the audio department, with generally clear, weighty sound.

A few final notes on this open-ear option from Sony. Firstly, you get a pretty standard serving of playtime. You should get around 8 hours from the buds alone, plus an additional 14 with the charging case. During my testing, I found this to be about right – putting them about on-par with modes like the aforementioned Soundcore AeroClip.

And one more thing: there are optional fittings that you can purchase to customize the LinkBuds Open to your liking. These include multi-colored covers for both the buds themselves and the charging case, if you really wanna jazz things up. This level of customizability is admirable, but you’ll have to spend extra to access it.

In the end, then, can we say that the LinkBuds open hit all of the right notes? Not quite – but they still put on a good show. I’m not totally sold on their design and sonically, they’re not as strong as some wireless buds in the same price-range. But still, commendable mid-range performance, fairly meaty bass given the design and lots of EQ options kept me satisfied overall.

Unfortunately, there’s one area where these buds fall down for me: their cost. They’re very pricey for open ears, which already come with some compromises in terms of audio. So, even though they have a deep feature-set and secure in-ear fit, this model’s not quite a slam dunk. If you’ve got a good amount of cash to splash on some open earbuds, these may well be worth checking out, but otherwise, I’d suggest taking a peek at my other recommendations in the ‘Also consider’ section.

Sony LinkBuds Open review: specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Waterproof rating

“IPX4 equivalent”

Battery life

8 hours (earbuds); 22 hours (with charging case)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

5.1g (per bud); 30g (charging case)

Frequency range

20Hz-20kHz

(Image credit: Future)

Sony LinkBuds Open review: price and release date

  • $199 / £149 / AU$249.95
  • Launched in October 2024

The Sony LinkBuds Open – or Sony LinkBuds Open WF-L910 as they’re sometimes listed – released at the end of 2024. They have a list price of $199 / £149 / AU$249, which is by no means cheap for a pair of open-ears, though nowhere near as steep as the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, which launched at $299 / £299 / AU$449.95.

On top of that, I’ve already spotted these on sale in some territories. For instance, they’ve dropped to under £130 / AU$250 on Amazon at the time of writing. You can pick the LinkBuds Open up in a variety of colors, including Black, White, or Violet. The latter is a collaboration with singer Olivia Rodrigo, and includes custom EQ options which were tuned by the artist and her producer.

(Image credit: Future)

Should you buy the Sony LinkBuds Open?

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

Wide suite of features and awesome in-app experience.

4.5/5

Sound quality

Generally solid for open ear sound, imperfect yet fairly meaty bass, clear mids.

3.5/5

Design

Not the most elegant looking, just OK comfort, but secure fit and appealing case.

3.5/5

Value

Despite good overall performance, these are expensive against similar quality rivals.

3/5

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Sony LinkBuds Open: also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontallyHeader Cell – Column 0

Sony LinkBuds Open

Anker Soundcore AeroClip

Huawei FreeArc

Price

$199 / £149 / AU$249.95

$129.99 / £129.99 (about AU$210)

£99.99 (about $130 / AU$210)

Waterproof rating

“IPX4 equivalent”

IPX4

IP57

Battery life

8 hours (earbuds); 22 hours (with charging case)

8 hours (earbuds); 24 hours (with charging case)

7 hours (earbuds); 23 hours (with charging case)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.2

Weight

5.1g (per bud); 30g (charging case)

6g (per bud); 42g (charging case)

8.9g (per bud); 67g (charging case)

Frequency range

20Hz-20kHz

20Hz-20kHz

20Hz-20kHz

How I tested the Sony LinkBuds Open

(Image credit: Future)

  • Tested across the course of multiple weeks
  • Used in the office and while out and about
  • Predominantly tested using Tidal

I tested the Sony LinkBuds Open over the course of multiple weeks while in the office, at home, and out on walks.

For the most part, I listened to music with the buds via Tidal, though I occasionally dipped into a few tracks on Spotify. During testing, I made sure to run through the TechRadar testing playlist, which features tracks from a range of genres. I also listened to songs from my personal library.

Where appropriate, I compared the LinkBuds Open against rival models, such as the Anker Soundcore AeroClip, which helped me to assess aspects like audio performance and comfort.

  • First reviewed: September 2025
  • Read more about how we test

Sony LinkBuds Open: Price Comparison



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Crime-solving sheep? It might sound like a Worms game spinoff but it’s actually an awesome novel with a bit of existential angst sprinkled in
Game Reviews

Crime-solving sheep? It might sound like a Worms game spinoff but it’s actually an awesome novel with a bit of existential angst sprinkled in

by admin


Fun takes on genre fiction can be simply delightful. Fantasy but X, sci-fi but Y: pairings like this offer unique settings and rulesets for author and reader to get entangled in. So is the case with Three Bags Full, a crime story focusing on a flock of sheep who try to figure out who is responsible for the death of their shepherd.

Fluffy mysteries all around

In a sleepy Irish village, lonely shepherd George Glenn tends to a very unusual flock. From smartypants to philosophers, raging rams with mysterious pasts and cloud-loving thinkers, these are the perfect sheep to have if you want to figure out a human homicide.

With the first chapter, titled Othello Boldly Grazes Past, the story begins thus:

“‘He was healthy yesterday,’ said Maude. Her ears twitched nervously.

‘That doesn’t mean anything,’ pointed out Sir Ritchfield, the oldest ram in the flock. ‘He didn’t die of an illness. Spades are not an illness.’”

And with this astute observation, the story sets off in earnest.

Of course, the village is not as sleepy as it looks. Armed with a very limited understanding of human nature and psychology, the sheep embark on a hilarious adventure where they hop from misunderstanding to misunderstanding, still inadvertently pushing the plot along. Around them, the human cast tells a story of an almost Scandinavian crime-like slow burner of a saga with surprisingly high stakes considering the sleepy setting. As the sheep have no idea what is truly going on, the humans also can’t fathom (or expect) that the flock is an active participant in the events that transpire. It’s a comedy of errors, full of dramatic irony, and a delightful bit of fun.

It is also an impressive authorial tightrope walk, layering the story in a way where no one is working with full information until the very end, and it’s the reader who actually has the most of the cards throughout—though not enough to fully piece together what was going on until the very end.

Baa-nal? Not at all

That said, if you are looking for action in your fiction, you have come to the wrong place. (It is a book about sheep solving their shepherd’s murder, so what were you expecting?) But if you enjoy the classic “small town where everyone has secrets” setting, especially featuring the British countryside—think Broadchurch but fun—then this slow burn of a bleat comes highly, highly recommended.

Anthea Bell’s translation does a great job of maintaining the tone, despite the obvious differences in linguistic function between the original German prose and its English reimagining. The change of the original title—Glennkill, which is perhaps a bit too on the nose, even though it also refers to the name of the village where the story takes place—is an acceptable sacrifice, too, considering how it lines up better with the follow-up book’s variant on the theme.

Photo by Destructoid

Yes, if you want a second helping, you’re in luck: The book’s sequel, titled Big Bad Wool in English, has finally been translated this summer, sixteen years after the original. While it’s more on the thriller side of things rather than mystery, it is still advertised as “a sheep detective story,” so caveat emptor on that one. That one is on my to-read list right now, so expect me to revisit Miss Maple and co. at some point later in the year.

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