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Blink Video Doorbell Gen 2 mounted beside purple door

Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core review: easy installation, and a head-to-toe view of visitors

by admin September 2, 2025

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Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: two-minute review

The days of traditional ‘analog’ doorbells connected via wires to an internal chime are fast coming to an end. Increasingly, people are turning to video doorbells, which will send an alert to your mobile phone when someone comes to the door. They will even act as an intercom so you can talk to whoever is there whether you are in the house, walking the dog or sitting on a beach.

Like its predecessor, the Blink Video Doorbell doesn’t come with its own indoor chime. Instead, you can pair it with a Blink Mini 2 camera (sold separately) or connect via the Alexa app on your phone to a Fire Stick or Amazon Echo Show. This will allow you to see who is at the front door on your TV screen/multimedia display or you can get a voice message via your Amazon Echo Dot when someone presses the doorbell.

Alternatively, it may be possible to connect existing doorbell wiring from the Blink Video Doorbell to a legacy indoor chime providing its rated between 16 and 24 volts. Batteries are required for use whether you use existing doorbell wiring or not.

The Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) uses three AA lithium batteries (Image credit: Chris Price)

What I like about Blink devices is just how easy they are to add to an existing system. I’ve already got several Blink cameras around the house so adding one more was simply a case of scanning the QR code on the back of the device and adding it to the home set up. However, if you’ve never installed a Blink camera before you will need to download the app (Android or iPhone) as well as connect the sync module provided to your broadband router (this acts as a hub for up to 10 Blink security devices).

Blink Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) + Sync Module 2 at Amazon for $39.99

Unfortunately, as the one supplied isn’t compatible with local storage via a connected USB flash drive, you will need to pay a monthly subscription for storing video footage and accessing the latest features – see subscription options below.

When it comes to mounting the video doorbell on the door there are two options. You can either use the standard flat mount or a wedge mount if you are placing it on a door architrave. As I was replacing the previous Blink video doorbell (Gen 1) I was hoping I could re-use the mount from that one to save time on installation. However, that wasn’t possible because this unit is a slightly different size.

Instead I used the black mount provided for the black video doorbell supplied by the manufacturer (a white version with white mount is also available). At least I didn’t have to screw two new holes in the wood as they’re positioned in the same place on the mount as the previous version.

Installing the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) is very straightforward, particularly if you already have other Blink devices at home (Image credit: Chris Price)

Once installed, controlling the camera is simply a case of using the Blink app. One of the main differences between this model and its predecessor is the camera’s lens, in particular the aspect ratio. Whereas the previous model offered a more conventional 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio with 1080p resolution, the new video doorbell boats a square 1:1 aspect ratio with improved 1440p resolution.

It also offers a larger field of vision (150 degrees horizontal and 150 degrees vertical) compared to 135 degrees horizontal and just 80 degrees vertical on the previous model. The result is that not only is it possible to get a head-to-toe image of someone coming to the door, you can also view the ground – handy to see any deliveries that have been left outside your front door.

The in-app setup process is very simple (Image credit: Chris Price)

Certainly the 1:1 aspect ratio does take a little bit of getting used to, especially the square shape on the Blink home page next to all of the other more conventional widescreen cameras. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that, because the field of view is so much bigger than its predecessor you will need to reduce the device’s sensitivity, especially if you are paying for the Blink subscription with AI-powered Smart Detection.

Otherwise, you may well record every person and vehicle that goes past your house as well as those who come to the door. Not only will this severely reduce the lifespan of the batteries, it is also highly annoying to get pointless alerts every few minutes.

Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: subscription options

There are two different subscription plans available depending on the number of Blink devices you own, and which features you require.

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Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: price and availability

List price $69.99 / £59.99 (about AU$110)
Launched August 2025 with Sync Module
Currently available in UK and US (not Australia)

With its second-generation video doorbell, Blink has managed to maintain the same $69.99 / £59.99 price point as the original video doorbell (you can now buy the earlier model for under £30 on Amazon in the UK without the sync module). Really, it’s exceptional value for money, much cheaper than a Ring video doorbell device, despite the two companies sharing Amazon ownership.

However, it’s not available in Australia at the time of writing, and it’s worth bearing in mind that if you want to benefit from the full functionality of the device, including the ability to store video clips, you will need to pay for a subscription costing from $3 / £2.50 a month. That’s because – unlike the first video doorbell which incorporated a sync module with the option of adding local storage – it’s not the case with the second-generation model.

You won’t be able to store videos recorded by the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) on the Sync Module Core (Image credit: Chris Price)

Instead of the Sync Module 2, the second-generation Blink video doorbell features the more basic Sync Module Core. Personally, I find that a little bit cheeky, but then at least the monthly subscription fees are cheaper than most of the rivals (Ring subscription plans start at $4.99 / £4.99 a month).

In addition to unlimited cloud video storage, the Blink subscription package includes Blink Moments which stitches together multiple events from multiple cameras into one video. Then there’s AI-Powered Smart Detection which tells you whether the camera has captured a person coming to the door/walking past your house, or a vehicle in your driveway/driving along the road. To reduce the amount of footage captured, which can be quite overwhelming, we recommend reducing the device’s sensitivity and also editing the ‘motion zones’ (areas of the frame that are active or private).

Today’s best Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module deals

Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: design

Easy-to-install mounting bracket
Chunky design
Available in white or black

Blink cameras are renowned for being some of the most compact and lightweight devices on the market. However, the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) is a little bit of an exception. Tipping the scales at 4oz/113g, it’s both heavier than the first-generation model (3.2oz/91g) and also a little thicker too at 1.44in/36.6mm compared to 1inch/27mm.

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The Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) is a little bulkier than its predecessor(Image credit: Chris Price)The Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) is a little bulkier than its predecessor(Image credit: Chris Price)

The main reason for this, of course, is that the new model incorporates space for three AA lithium batteries whereas the original model featured just two batteries. In turn, this means that battery life is much longer though it’s unlikely to be as long as the two-year lifespan that Blink’s marketing suggests.

Like its predecessor, two colour options are available (white or black) and there are two types of mount – one for placing flat on the door frame and another for mounting on a door architrave. Using the standard mount with the screws provided, it only takes around five minutes to install wirelessly, although if you are connecting to existing doorbell wiring the process is much longer. Since there’s no built-in chime, you’ll need to connect it to Alexa devices or buy a Blink Mini 2 camera to hear the doorbell indoors.

It only took around five minutes to install the doorbell with the included mount (Image credit: Chris Price)

Looks-wise, the second-generation model is a little different from its predecessor with a larger oval shaped button in the middle, compared to the round button on the first generation model. Recording is also more subtle with a small blue light on the top right indicating when video is being captured, rather than the area around the central button becoming illuminated in blue.

When the button in the centre is pushed by a visitor, it illuminates white and a message is sent to the connected phone telling you ‘someone is at the door’. As with the first-generation model, the doorbell sits inside a bracket but can be removed for changing batteries etc. by inserting a small metal ‘key’ in the base. It is also rated IP-65 weather resistant which offers greater protection against the elements than the previous model which was only IP-54 rated.

Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: performance

Good image quality (especially in Best mode)
Stable video connection
Overly sensitive camera

There’s no question that when it comes to performance Blink has upped its game with this second gen model. The first one was certainly OK, but not as good as some of the admittedly more expensive video doorbells from companies such as Ring. However, in nearly every respect, the Gen 2 model offers better performance than its predecessor.

Not only does it have a wider field of horizontal view (150 degrees compared to 135 degrees for the first model), it also offers a 150-degrees vertical field of view for a perfectly square 1:1 aspect ratio image. At first I thought that was a bit odd, but having used it for a little while it’s incredibly useful. Not only can you see an entire head-to-toe image of someone at the door you can also see if a parcel has been left on your doorstep.

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The new square aspect ratio makes it easier to see both visitors and packages(Image credit: Chris Price)The new square aspect ratio makes it easier to see both visitors and packages(Image credit: Chris Price)

Whereas the previous model offered 1080p video resolution, the second-generation model boasts improved 1440p video resolution. Three video quality settings are on board (Best, Standard, and Saver). I settled on Best as it’s good to be able to see details more clearly although this will obviously reduce battery life. The second-generation model also offers improved night vision.

Of course, it’s not all good news. The downside of the camera lens being much bigger is that it also collects much more footage – too much. Blink cameras are known for being sensitive anyway and this latest model is no exception.

Even with privacy zones set up, I found it necessary to dial the sensitivity right down to avoid false alerts (Image credit: Chris Price)

With motion sensitivity set to five, I found the camera was recording around 100 events a day, most of them of people walking their dog past the house or delivery vans going by. Even with the ‘privacy zones’ set up to block out the extremes of the frame (including areas of sky) the camera was still extremely active. In the end it was necessary to reduce sensitivity to just two out of 10 so it only captured people actually coming to the door.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning the sync module. Whereas the previous model included the Sync Module 2 with a USB socket so you could insert a USB flash drive for storing video clips, this model comes with the Sync Module Core without local storage. Essentially this means if you want to store video clips you will need to pay a subscription of at least $3 / £2.50 a month.

Should you buy the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core?

Swipe to scroll horizontallyBlink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

This video doorbell represents pretty good value for money. Even the monthly subscription charge for premium features is around half the price of some devices.

4/5

Design

Available in black or white, the Blink doorbell is a much bulkier model than its predecessor. It is accompanied by a small sync module which connects to your router.

4/5

Performance

Although the motion sensor is a little overly-sensitive, performance is very good indeed particularly the 1:1 aspect ratio for ‘head-to-toe’ video capture.

4.5/5

Overall

When it comes to performance Blink have upped their game with improved quality images and longer battery life. Just a shame the supplied sync module can’t be used for storing clips.

4.5/5

Buy it if

Don’t buy it if

Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: also consider

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Product

Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module

Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 1) and Sync Module

Yale Smart Video Doorbell and Doorbell Chime

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus

Subscription price

From £2.50 a month

From £3.50 a month

From £4.99 a month

Viewing angle

150 degrees horizontal

135 degrees horizontal

154 degrees horizontal

150 degrees horizontal

Network connection

Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)

Audio

Two-way audio

Video

1440p Full HD resolution

1080p Full HD resolution

1536p Full HD resolution

Power

Battery

Mains or battery

Battery

Hardware price

£59 (with Sync Module Core)

£59 (with Sync Module 2)

£129 (video doorbell), £29 (chime)

£129 (video doorbell), £139 (with basic chime)

If you’re not sure whether the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core are the right combo for you, here are two other options to consider.

How I tested the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core

I used the doorbell every day for 10 days
I installed it myself
The doorbell was set up on the front door facing towards the road

To test a video doorbell properly you need to use it as part of your home system. Fortunately, I already have other Blink cameras so adding another one was particularly straightforward. But even if I didn’t then downloading the app would have been easy enough.

Installation takes around 15 minutes or so, requiring a screw driver to attach the mount to the door frame before positioning the camera in place. It’s roughly the same size as the previous one, in terms of length and width, so thankfully I didn’t have to worry about unsightly screw holes all over the door frame.

The new Blink Video Doorbell is roughly the same height and width as its predecessor, so I didn’t have to worry about messy screw holes when I upgraded (Image credit: Chris Price)

During the period of testing, I really began to appreciate the device’s head-to-toe viewing. I get a lot of deliveries, so being able to see if they have been left on the doorstep when I’m out is handy. Another bonus is the additional power that having another AA battery brings.

Whereas the previous model relied on two lithium AA batteries that had to be changed every three months, this one has three. However, I think it’s extremely unlikely these will last two years as Blink claims in its marketing blurb. I’m pretty sure I’ll be changing the batteries again in six months time given how sensitive the camera’s motion sensor is!.

For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar.

First reviewed August 2025

Blink Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) + Sync Module 2: Price Comparison

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September 2, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Why Snake Eater is a perfect example of the tension between the real and the unreal that’s at the core of every Metal Gear Solid game

by admin August 29, 2025

The hallmark of the Metal Gear Solid games isn’t the presence of one of the Snakes. It isn’t nuclear dread or even hide-and-seek, often involving a cardboard box. And it’s not tactical espionage action. I think it’s a tone, or rather a carefully un-careful blend of conflicting tones. On one side there’s a movement towards steely realism. On the other, there are these bright lunges at absolute fantasy. It’s realism and its opposite. I just tried to google what realism’s opposite actually is, by the way. There is no one standard answer as far as I can see. How very Metal Gear.

None of this is a criticism, by the way. I love this stuff about these games. And it’s in there deep. I noticed this jarring combination the first time I saw Metal Gear Solid in action – or rather the first time I saw it in action again. Many years ago, my housemate at university had the game. I ducked into his room one evening and he was playing the early stages. Here was this game about avoiding enemy patrols and searchlights, a game where your character’s breath or cigarette smoke might give him away to a passing baddy. Cor, I thought. Games are getting – I was 19 at the time – games are getting really real!

And then I ducked in again a few days later. Same game. Same room-mate. Same protagonist, but now he was fighting with an intermittently invisible ninja who was talking about how much he enjoyed being killed. Or something.

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That was an ideal introduction to Kojima’s work. I’m not sure if I could have crafted a better one for myself. Even so, I think the greatest expression of these two impulses – realism and whatever its opposite is called – and the weird dance that unfolds as these two opposing things flow together, is in Metal Gear Solid 3. I’ve spent the last few weeks waiting for Delta, the latest version of this game, and watching various bits of footage old and new. I think if anything, the new version actually only heightens the thrilling collision between realism and whatever realism is not. More detailing: more gleeful confusion.

The thing that’s so exciting to me about this collision in Metal Gear Solid 3 is that you see it most clearly in the places where the game is possibly trying to play it straight. When it’s not playing it straight, Metal Gear Solid 3 is a riot of unrealism, of course. There’s a boss that controls hornets, if I remember correctly. You fight a boss that controls hornets!

But it’s when the game’s seemingly trying to be real that things get truly odd. The game has an injury system, for example – bones can be broken and you need to bandage scrapes and slam home antidotes to poisoned arrow wounds and all that jazz. Sounds like realism! But games are uniquely strange about these kinds of things, whether it’s the pliers-picking-out-bullets animation from Far Cry 2 to Metal Gear Solid 3’s stylish menu of bodily accidents. Including this stuff in the game, and then mediating it by slick UI and whatnot to make it into a playable mechanic, by making health something you can attend to while pausing, just renders the whole thing wonderfully warped from the start.

And this inherent oddness is everywhere in this, the most organic Metal Gear Solid game. The setting’s the jungle! Plants and rivers and all that nature jazz? Sounds a bit more real than the series’ futuristic military bases and deep sea platforms? Sure, it does in a way, but this jungle is carved up into neat little maps and filled with bespoke systems for you to meddle with in the name of stealth or aggression. It’s gloriously, openly hand-crafted in every detail. And did the Soviets even have a jungle? (I asked a friend: sort of, apparently. But also, apparently the game’s jungle is an artificial construction within the fiction of the game itself. This stuff goes dizzyingly deep.)

Snaked and alone.

To put it another way, On the PS2 version, the game’s jungle was a wonderful thing to look at, but it was no more real than the corridors and gantries of Metal Gear Solid 1’s Shadow Moses. It was game-space, all the stranger for being so close to the organic world. And naturally, this is only further confused by the new game’s Unreal 5 graphics.

Whatever version you play, everywhere you look in the game there’s this blend of realism and its opposite. Snake meets a real president, but this real president has to share the game’s green room with that guy who controls hornets. There’s that famous ladder climb, that expands the scope of the tactile in-game world into almost impossible dimensions, and there’s a boss who moves through a dauntingly huge stretch of terrain sniping at you in a battle that can last for genuine real-world hours. All the while the same game also encourages you to defeat that same boss by meddling with the internal clock in the PlayStation.

Ultimately, I’m not sure how much of this is authorial intent and how much is simply a symptom of what Kojima is trying to do elsewhere. It’s worth remembering that a lot of games exist in a sweet spot where questions of realism simply don’t come into it, whether that’s the candy-coated Disney world of Castle of Illusion, or the Indiana Jones-adjacent world of Uncharted. But games, being inherently non-real, generally get super weird the closer they get to any form of realism.

And I sometimes think it’s not realism Kojima’s chasing so much as something that I almost want to term fidelity: an attempt to capture a kind of texture of intricacy. He wants the weird stuff to feel luxurious and richly made, and he wants the same feeling when you’re having a quiet moment in the galley at the start of Metal Gear Solid 2, shooting the ladles and watching them ping back and forth or watching the way rain splatters on your shoulders when you go outside. Is this realism, or is it just luxurious interaction, a mind that notices the little things and wants everything in a game to be memorable? Throw in the topsy-turvy world of espionage and what’s real and what’s fantasy gets even harder to unpick, of course. I remember a back issue of Arcade magazine – God, I miss Arcade magazine – in which a real special forces person was asked to weigh in on Metal Gear Solid. Their cardboard box verdict? I’ve hidden under worse.

Who said Bruce Springsteen had to be The Boss? | Image credit: Eurogamer

Regardless, this mixture of realism and its opposite is a Kojima fixation. It’s here for life. It’s there waiting for you the moment you step off your futuristic bike in Death Stranding and grasp the baby in a flask around your neck, and then stumble, with a gorgeously recognisable human awkwardness, over mossy rocks.

And most hauntingly of all, perhaps, it was there during the making of another Metal Gear, Phantom Pain, in which Kojima’s team created a perfect model of one of their real meeting rooms in order to test out lighting and character models and, yes, how real things felt. Here’s Snake, tall as a real man, clad in leather and realistically lit by migrainey overhead office lighting, and yet for the first time I realised just how stylised he is, how perfect the angles of his grim face come together. He’s standing right in front of me, on the other side of the computer monitor at least, and yet he looks like an old seadog from Tintin or a Dick Tracy villain. And somewhere, is that Kojima laughing at it all?

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August 29, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Depth, player expression, and years of iteration: Pragmata’s producer on the key to nailing the game’s weird and wonderful core mechanic

by admin August 28, 2025

“I don’t really want to delve into previous concepts,” Pragmata producer Naoto Oyama tactfully offers, after I prod at the prickly topic of the lengthy development of Capcom’s latest weird and wonderful offering.

This mysterious game about the unlikely pairing of a spacesuit-clad bloke and a barefoot young kid (who is, of course, actually an android) has been rattling around for years. First announced in 2020, it was originally slated for a 2022 release. It was then shunted to 2023, then delayed indefinitely. Now, it’s locked in for a 2026 release. Perhaps understandably, Oyama doesn’t really want to talk about all that.

“Just verbally it might sound like, ‘oh this was great and that was great’ – even if on the whole, in the game, it didn’t work,” the amiable producer, who also worked on Dragon’s Dogma 2, explains. “So we’re going to skip over talking about what we had in the past and delve into what we have here today.”

Which, y’know, fair enough. That tracks, especially in an era where many have a low desire for context and a high affinity for outrage. At the same time, though, Pragmata’s extended development is fascinating – and arguably key to the game’s clear successes.

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As has been touched on in two separate Eurogamer hands-on previews since the game broke cover in June, Pragmata is weird, wonderful, and unique. It’s the sort of genre mash-up and mechanical melding that is seldom seen from big-budget, big-money publishers like Capcom.

Experimental concepts like this, bluntly, are usually reserved for indie games. Such a development path is often reserved for smaller-scale game jams or private, never publicly-shown experimentation in the depths of company headquarters – not for games announced with a massive splash in a platform holder broadcast. Pragmata is just that, though – and it perhaps speaks to the strengths of Capcom and its increasingly sure-footed position that it has been willing to allow a team to iterate and experiment with this strange new property.

“The first trailer we put out back in 2020, that was our first base concept trailer. From that base concept to create something that we think is fun, that we think people will really enjoy – it’s taken us a bit of time,” Oyama explains via the Japanese-to-English interpretation of Edvin Edsö, a fellow producer on the title.

“We might have had a concept in the beginning that was fun for a part of the game, for the initial part of the game – that fun might not have reached the entire, full game when we looked at the full picture of it. Having something that’s fun all the way through the game is something we reached towards throughout development.”

room with a Hugh. | Image credit: Eurogamer

That core concept which has survived for the entire development is of course Pramata’s core conceit – the collision of worlds that is the hulking Hugh the the diminutive Diana. Hugh can control a variety of weapons and blast things. Diana hides over his shoulder and hacks enemies. Diana’s hacks aren’t truly enough to take down enemies on their own, but nor are Hugh’s ballistics. Powers combined, the duo has a chance.

I don’t want to retread our previews, but suffice it to say that this results in a curious and engaging system. Squeezing the left trigger to aim at an enemy offers two options – mashing the right trigger to fire away with Hugh’s equipped weapon, or using the face buttons to solve a small puzzle as Diana in order to hack the enemy. This must be undertaken in real time – juggling movement, enemy awareness, two different mechanics, and in a manner of speaking two different characters.

“The general concept of Hugh’s shooting – action – and Diane’s hacking – puzzle – that’s been part of the base concept from the beginning,” Oyama reiterates. “But getting that concept into a game system that’s fun – that took us a bit of trial and error to get to what you see today. Early on, the hacking wasn’t as you see – it was a different sort of style.”

Certainly, one can see where all of that iterative development time went. It would be very easy indeed for a game with a setup like this to be a totally confusing hot mess – but it isn’t. Pragmata is quirky, but the short demos I have experienced so far are nevertheless a joy. The vibes exuded are those of a game that has fallen out of another, more experimental era – from a time when genres were less defined and people were inventing new ones with reckless abandon. In this I find Pragmata instantly enormously refreshing, even if its idiosyncratic core might put some players off.

For this beat, the one thing that differs in the Pragmata hands-on to the previous I’d experienced is the addition of a boss battle. I enjoyed what I had to play before, but the boss really helped to elucidate the reasoning behind some of Pragmata’s weapon design – and how its systems might work across a full-length game. Where the previous demo had me marvelling at a very neat and tightly-executed gimmick, in experiencing a boss fight I now feel I can see the path for the full experience, so to speak.

“Once you see the boss fight, you can more fully see the entire experience,” Oyama agrees when I recount my experience to him.

The world on his shoulders. | Image credit: Capcom

Let me give you an example. Hugh’s Shockwave Gun is basically a shotgun, but it’s a real slow reload even by shotty standards. I didn’t feel very inclined to use the more powerful weapon on normal enemies due to the reload speed – but in a boss battle where regular and repeated hacking is required, those long reloads actually help to give the encounter a textured ebb and flow.

Oyama gets into that a little more, explaining to me how Hugh’s weaponry works. It’s all vaguely cagey stuff – only a tiny fraction of the game has been shown, and the developers clearly don’t want to reveal any unannounced kit. Broadly speaking, though, Hugh has two ‘power weapon’ slots; one slot always dedicated to a damage-dealing beast like that shotgun, and the other home to a weapon which will offer more battlefield control. In this demo that latter weapon was a ‘Stasis Net’ which held approaching enemies still for a short time while dealing minimal damage. Diana’s hacks, meanwhile, will grow over the game via a suite of power-ups.

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Through this, there’s a hope that players can have a good amount of freedom of expression in their play. Plus, there’s no one prescription for enemies – a shooter fan might play more ballistics-heavy, while someone who gets really into the hacking might do the opposite; Pragmata has been carefully designed to work both ways.

“Depending on the player… Well, they might want to play it safe – use the Stasis Net, back off a bit, and then hack and go for careful shots,” Oyama outlines. “Or I can go in hung-ho – skip the Stasis Net, and straight up hack and shoot.

“Also, the actual hacking itself does damage. With that in mind, you can have a playstyle that’s really focused on hacking, or you can hack the enemy once and then just go for shooting outright. So there’s a sort of balance in what you can do there.”

Probably not a paranoid android. | Image credit: Capcom

Part of the challenge of a game like this, with unique and strange systems, is that they can be a difficult sell. It’s plain that it was a difficult thing for Capcom to figure out internally throughout development. Pragmata now works – I can’t wait to play it – but now an arguably even more difficult task is on the horizon – how to explain and sell these mechanics to the public. Even describing it all in a preview is difficult, other than to say: it’s strange, and I love it.

“There’s a bit of a difference in the experience between watching videos of Pragmata and actually getting your hands on a controller, knowing it, and getting immersed in the game. In fact, it’s really different,” Oyama says. There’s a passion in his delivery of this statement – and plainly a clear belief that this team has made something special.

“We’ve worked hard, long years to get something here that people enjoy. And we’re just really glad to see that people are enjoying the game that we put so much time and so much effort into,” Oyama concludes.

He’s hoping that off the back of some strong trade show responses, Pragmata’s unique blend of mechanics can find a broad audience. Honestly, based on what I’ve experienced so far, I hope so too. We need more mad, weird experiments like this, after all.

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August 28, 2025 0 comments

Intel's Core i5-14600K is on sale for $149, with 'Battlefield 6' and other software included for free

Gaming Gear

Intel’s Core i5-14600K hits an all-time low of $149, with Battlefield 6 and other software included

by admin August 26, 2025

Newegg is promoting one of the best CPU bargains of the year right now, featuring Intel’s previous-generation Core i5-14600K discounted to historically low prices, combined with Intel’s Gamer Days Bundle, worth $315 by itself.

At Newegg, you can grab Intel’s Core i5-14600K for just $189.99 right now as part of its shell shocker sale. But on top of that, the listing also includes a $40 promo code you can enter at checkout, dropping the price of the CPU all the way down to $149. Paired with the Core i5-14600K is Intel’s Gamer Days bundle, which includes several games and apps: Battlefield 6 Phantom Edition, Assassin’s Creed Shadows Digital Deluxe Edition, Canvid, XSplit Premium Suite, and Vegas Pro 365.

The Core i5-14600K is still one of the fastest gaming CPUs in Intel’s arsenal, despite being a generation old. Our gaming results reveal that the Core i5-14600K is capable of producing gaming performance well within the ballpark of the fastest gaming CPU models Intel makes and the latest CPUs AMD makes — except for AMD’s pricier X3D parts.

Intel’s fumble with Arrow Lake-S has put the Core i5-14600K in the unusual spotlight of being Intel’s fastest mid-range gaming chip across two generations. The Core i5-14600K outperforms its successor, the Core Ultra 5 245K, and virtually matches the Core Ultra 9 285K in our game-focused performance tests.

Productivity performance is not bad either; thanks to the inclusion of eight E-cores, the 14600K boasts multi-core performance, approaching the Ryzen 7 9700X and outperforming the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in our testing with Cinebench.

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Newegg’s combo is hard to ignore if you are in the market for a mid-range CPU for your next build or CPU upgrade. Not even factoring in the game/app bundle, the Core i5-14600K deal alone is very competitive and makes the Raptor Lake chip arguably the best gaming CPU for $150.

The Intel Gamer Days bundle is the cherry on top, even if you only plan to play Battlefield 6. The cost of that game alone nearly cuts the 14600K’s $150 price tag in half. There is so much content in the Gamer Days bundle that it’s worth more than the CPU if you were going to buy it all.

In fact, the Intel Gamer Days bundle is being promoted on several Intel products right now, including the ASRock Challenger Arc B570 going for $229 and the Core Ultra 5 245K (which also happens to have a $50 promo code). Even with these higher-priced products, the software bundle is more valuable than the actual products themselves.

If you’re looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

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August 26, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Bloodlines 2 Locks Core Content Behind Costly Day-One DLC

by admin August 20, 2025

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has been through a hell of a journey to reach us. At last night’s Opening Night Live from Gamescom, Paradox revealed the long-delayed game finally has a release date, October 21. What the publisher didn’t boast about was is that it is locking two out of the six playable clans behind paid day-one DLC, and it’ll cost you an extra $30 to unlock them. A third of the ways to play the game.

Expensive day-one DLC was once the most loathed concept in gaming. Back in 2012 it was the talk of the industry, as companies deliberately developed a chunk of the launched game with the intention of hiding it behind a further paywall, and people understandably hated it. Times moved on, and now we’re screwed over in all manner of different ways, most usually seeing significant portions of games sectioned off behind so-called “battle passes,” where we’re expected to not just pay once but to buy new ones multiple times throughout the year! Yay video games! But Paradox is kicking us old-school with Bloodlines 2 by deciding that a full third of how you can play the game will require you to fork out 50 percent of the original asking price again. The cheapest version of the game will cost you $60 on PC, but if you want to buy everything they developed for launch, it’ll cost you an extraordinary $90. Not even the $70 “Deluxe Edition” will secure you either of the missing clans. (Thanks RPS.)

A huge part of how the original Bloodlines played was based on the clan you chose at the start. It affected not just more common features like stats, but entirely changed how you approached the game. Different clans within the world treated you accordingly, missions were experienced differently as a result, and the means by which you could approach the RPG quests were all affected by who you were. Play as Brujah and you were a mighty warrior but very vulnerable to “frenzy,” where you’d fully lose control of your bloodlust. But pick a Toreador and you were a schmoozer, expert in socializing, but weakened by your inability to turn away from the truly beautiful. Clearly these made for very different experiences of the game. But now, in Bloodlines 2, if you want to be a Toreador and play that way, it’s going to cost you an awful lot more.

As the game’s own FAQ makes clear, these choices are not cosmetic.

“How will the dialogue options differ in each playthrough?” asks one of the questions. The answer:

The dialogue options differ depending on which clan you’ve chosen and what choices you’ve made throughout the story. When hunting for Blood Resonance, specific disciplines and outfit choices can also affect NPCs on the street.

It also notes that “each clan offers new, unique abilities, playstyles, and distinct outfits.” Play style seems a hell of a thing to lock to day-one DLC.

For a while, Bloodlines 2 did look to have become vaporware, after its original development under Hardsuit Labs fell apart in 2021 following its former leads being fired. Then in 2023 it re-emerged, now being developed by The Chinese Room, the studio best known for their walking sims, which has had its own turbulent few years. Given The Chinese Room only released their most recent game, Still Wakes the Deep, in June of last year, it seemed unlikely that Bloodlines 2 could be imminent. But here we are! It’s out in just a couple of months.

We’ve reached out to Paradox to ask what has motivated the decision to lock away such a significant chunk of the core game behind day-one DLC. (Although we can guess it’s at least in part, “We desperately need to recoup some of the costs of the last six years of development across two different studios under multiple different leaderships for the sequel to a game that came out in 2004.”) We’ll report back if they respond.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

NewGenIvf to invest $30m in Solana staking strategy

GameFi Guides

Privacy is not a core factor of product-market fit

by admin August 18, 2025

Solana Labs founder Toly, says that privacy alone does not make a crypto product or feature compelling enough to alter how users engage with it.

In a recent post, the Solana (SOL) founder contributed to a thread on X discussing the biggest hurdles facing the DeFi industry. He does not recognize privacy as a “killer feature” in that sense.

“There is lack of pmf for privacy. In of itself it’s not a killer feature that would change user behavior,” said Toly in his post.

There is lack of pmf for privacy. In of itself it’s not a killer feature that would change user behavior.
— toly 🇺🇸 (@aeyakovenko) August 18, 2025

In this context, concepts such as privacy may have technical or ideological significance, but it doesn’t guarantee widespread adoption. For a feature to drive adoption, it must solve a tangible problem, offer clear utility, and encourage ongoing user engagement.

According to Toly, privacy fails to meet these criteria on its own. It is not a standalone “killer feature” that fundamentally changes user behavior or adoption patterns when it comes to crypto projects.

In the discussion thread, the trader on X that started the discussion tried to counter Toly’s point by saying that privacy is still a pretty determining factor, considering there have been incidents on-chain where the system doesn’t hold up to technical attacks like the case of the Hyperliquid whale which triggered mass liquidation due to the sheer size of the perp.

“Are there not cases where privacy is preferable for certain trades?” asked the trader.

“No. Complaining about a problem doesn’t mean that that there is pmf for the solution,” said Toly.

In an earlier post, former Solana Head of Growth Matty Taylor suggested that the achieving PMF would involve other criteria that are based on features centered on more economic and utility, such as sustainable revenue, demand, and liquidity instead of privacy.

How does Solana’s privacy stack up against other chains?

Solana offers native privacy features through its Token-2022 standard, which supports confidential transfers, encrypted balances, and optional auditor keys. However, these features are opt-in and require token migration.

Solana also hosts early-stage privacy projects that employ zero-knowledge proofs, such as Elusiv, Arcium, and Light Protocol.

Compared to other leading chains in privacy, Solana is pushing innovative native and app-layer privacy. However, it is still behind Ethereum (ETH) in terms of institution-grade privacy infrastructure and ecosystem maturity.

Ethereum doesn’t offer privacy at the base layer. Instead, it relies on a mature Layer 2 ecosystem zk-Rollups, zkEVMs, and protocols like Tornado Cash for privacy tooling.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments