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Silksong's Hornet runs through a green field.

Silksong’s Devs Didn’t Think It Would Take This Long Either

by admin August 21, 2025

Hollow Knight: Silksong will arrive seven years after the first game. Why? That’s what fans have been impatiently wondering for a while now. According to the developers at Team Cherry, there was no major drama or development snafus. Seven years is just how long it takes to make the Metroidvania Soulslike sequel to what some fans regard as one of the best games of the last decade.

“I remember at some point I just had to stop sketching,” cofounder Ari Gibson told Bloomberg in a new interview. “Because I went, ‘Everything I’m drawing here has to end up in the game. That’s a cool idea, that’s in. That’s a cool idea, that’s in.’ You realize, ‘If I don’t stop drawing, this is going to take 15 years to finish.’”

What began as DLC for 2017’s surprise Steam hit Hollow Knight eventually morphed into a full-fledged standalone game. Team Cherry officially revealed Silksong would become a sequel in 2019. The developers told Bloomberg they wanted to keep their team size small so as not to disrupt the creative flow responsible for the first game. But growing scope—bigger boss fights, multiple towns, a denser world—meant it would take even longer to finish, especially if it would exude the same level of tight controls, visual polish, and world-building mystery of the original Hollow Knight.

When Microsoft doubled down in 2022 on the promise that Silksong would arrive within the year, that was apparently the actual goal. “We did genuinely believe that was the case,” cofounder William Pellen confirmed. “There was a period of two to three years when I thought it was going to come out within a year.” The team just kept biting off more than it could chew while also calmly ignoring all of the online chatter about unhinged fans.

“I think we’re always underestimating the amount of time and effort it’ll take us to achieve things,” Gibson told Bloomberg. “It’s also that problem where, because we’re having fun doing it, it’s not like, ‘It’s taking longer, this is awful, we really need to get past this phase.’ It’s, ‘This is a very enjoyable space to be in. Let’s perpetuate this with some new ideas.’”

It seems to have helped that the original Hollow Knight has now sold 15 million copies, Team Cherry revealed. Silksong is already Steam’s most-wishlisted game. If it lives up to even a fraction of the hype, the team won’t be forced to release their next game any time soon, either.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Intel claims 18A, the node Pat bet the company on, is either 25% faster or 38% more efficient than Intel 3. Though that’s a node Intel didn’t have enough faith in to release for desktops or laptops

by admin June 19, 2025

Intel has been deep diving on its upcoming 18A chip node at the VLSI Symposium in Japan. And if the company’s claims are to be believed, 18A is looking pretty sweet. Among other factoids, Intel says it’s either up to 25% faster at the same power level, or up to 38% more efficient at the same frequency compared with the Intel 3 node. That’s very promising for laptop battery life in particular.

Of course, Intel 3 is a node of which we have absolutely zero experience. That’s because Intel has never used Intel 3 for a consumer chip, choosing instead to go with TSMC’s N3 node for both its Lunar Lake laptop chip and latest Arrow Lake desktop and mobile CPU family, as used for the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K.

The most advanced Intel node in the PC is Intel 7, which is a rebrand of Intel’s infamous 10nm technology, which ended up arriving the better part of a decade late. Anyway, what to make of these claims from Intel?

Specifically and compared to Intel 3, Intel says that in low voltage 0.65 V operation, 18A is either 18% faster or 38% more efficient, while in high voltage 1.1 V mode, it’s 25% faster or 36% more efficient. In other words, in low voltage mode you can either run the same clock speed as Intel 3 and use 38% less power, or use the same power and enjoy 18% faster clocks.

Meanwhile, in the high performance, high voltage mode, you can choose between either 25% higher clocks for the same power consumption as Intel 3 or the same clocks with 36% lower consumption.

Intel didn’t fancy its own Intel 3 node for Arrow Lake. (Image credit: Ordinary Uncle Tony)

Any way you slice it, these are very nice numbers. It’s just hard to draw too many conclusions given the scarcity of comparable Intel chips on the Intel 3 node. For now, it’s only the Xeon 6 Granite Rapids server CPU, launched earlier this year, that’s built on Intel 3.

Moreover, the fact that Intel passed over Intel 3 for Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake hardly seems like a vote of confidence in its own manufacturing tech. The point being that Intel also made some bullish claims about Intel 3 and an 18% performance-per-watt increase over Intel 4, but it seems like we’ll never get an Intel 3 chip in a PC.

What’s more, even if these claims are accurate, there’s the question of yields. Can Intel actually produce 18A chips at scale? Answers to all these questions will presumably come later this year when the Panther Lake mobile CPU with an 18A CPU die is supposed to be released.

If Intel’s numbers are accurate, Panther Lake ought to be a much more efficient laptop CPU, enabling clearly improved battery life. At least, that’s compared to Intel 3. Exactly how 18A compares with TSMC N3, which is the node used by Intel for Lunar Lake’s CPU cores is a separate matter.

The takeaway here, then, is that this is all very complicated. Intel has released some very promising numbers. But they involve comparison with another Intel node which itself is only available in a range of server chips and it’s unclear how 18A stacks up against TSMC’s competing technology.

The proof will be in the processing, so to speak, when Panther Lake arrives at the end of this year. It’s been a long time coming, but no CPU has ever felt as critical for Intel as Panther Lake.

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June 19, 2025 0 comments

Phasmophobia Bleasdale Farm rework images

Gaming Gear

‘It didn’t exist and I wanted to play it’: Phasmophobia’s lead dev got tired of trawling around Steam for a co-op horror puzzle game so decided to just make it himself

by admin June 16, 2025

When Larian Studios’ CEO Swen Vincke took the stage at The Game Awards to present Game of the Year he also relayed a bit of advice to other studios: Make a game that you want to play yourself, and your game will do well. Something that Daniel Knight, CEO of Kinetic Games and lead developer, did years ago with Phasmophobia.

“I don’t think there’s any main inspiration [for Phasmophobia],” Knight says in an interview with Andrea Shearon at Summer Game Fest. “The whole reason why I made [Phasmophobia] was because it didn’t exist and I wanted to play it.

“I got impatient waiting for a game to come out. I was constantly looking at the Steam store and waiting for something to come out; there was never anything. So I was like, I’ll just make it myself.”

Knight also theorises that Phasmophobia’s uniqueness was one of the reasons why it performed so well. I had certainly never played anything like it before, and I’ve played a lot of co-op horror games.

The other reason why I think Phasmo did so well, other than that fact it came out at the end of 2020 when people were still locked inside their homes trying to find new ways to entertain themselves and hang out with friends, was thanks to its odd take on horror games.

(Image credit: Kinetic Games)

Knight also told Andrea during this interview that he doesn’t even really like horror games, nor does he play a lot of them. Phasmophobia was actually made with the intention of creating a VR puzzle game which you could try and solve together with a bunch of your friends. The ghosts and scares all came second to that.

But just having the vision of something you want to create isn’t always enough. “[Phasmophobia] originally was a VR-only game, and I’d worked at a VR company so we did VR things before,” Knight says. “I took that knowledge to make a VR puzzle horror game. At the time there weren’t very many co-op horror VR games, and I was a huge fan of VR, so I just wanted to make something like that.

“But it’s very hard to make a co-op VR game on your own. So I ended up forcing it to be able to play without VR, and then I could get friends who didn’t have VR to help play test it.”

Phasmo does offer a VR mode now, but as someone who doesn’t own an Oculus or any VR kit, I’m very happy that this switch was made. It has meant that I had the chance to experience all the hilarity and horror which comes with hunting ghosts with friends.

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June 16, 2025 0 comments

Onion Knight Siegmeyer in Elden Ring Nightreign

Product Reviews

I didn’t realize how much Elden Ring Nightreign upgraded its Dark Souls skins until I saw them side-by-side with the originals

by admin June 15, 2025

FromSoft dataminer and YouTuber BonfireVN has uploaded a new video comparing Elden Ring Nightreign’s Dark Souls throwback skins to their original models, and I was surprised at how much they’ve actually been touched up since their original appearances.

I like to think I’m a tough, serious guy who’s not easily manipulated when a piece of intellectual property goes “Hey, remember this other intellectual property?” But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t squeal like a school girl when I saw the reprised Dark Souls bosses in Nightreign, or the Dark Souls skins you unlock by beating the game’s final boss.

Nightreign’s Dark Souls Skins vs. Original Armor Sets – YouTube

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I think I just assumed that all of these models were just straight ports of their original or Dark Souls iterations, but BonfireVN’s side-by-side shows that a lot of texture and fine modeling detail has been tweaked to make them better fit Elden Ring’s more advanced visuals.

My personal favorite reprise skin, the Llewellyn/Drang armor for Ironeye from Dark Souls 2 and 3, is a great example: Its fur collar has gotten a big structural rework, while its texture detail is a generational improvement on the Dark Souls 3 iteration.

The Llewellyn set also benefits from perhaps the biggest and most noticeable upgrade to any of the Dark Souls skins: An actual matching helmet. The OG versions left Fashion Souls-conscious players scrambling to find a matching hat, while Ironeye gets a sick helmet/hood combo I seriously wish had been in the original games.

The rest of the skins have similarly subtle, tasteful modernizations, and this all just has me thinking about what’s next. First, the inevitable future BonfireVN video(s) comparing the returning Dark Souls bosses to their originals, and second, new skins that will hopefully come with Nightreign’s unconfirmed DLC. My big wishlist item? A Sir Alonne outfit for Executor⁠—Dark Souls 2’s DLC samurai boss is a series favorite for me, and he perfectly fits the character.

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Seven years later, Nintendo fans beat Switch game even the devs didn’t

by admin June 15, 2025

For every massive success Nintendo releases, there’s an oddball that confuses everyone. In 2017, that was the two-player party game 1-2 Switch, a collection of accessible mini-games. Think Wii Sports, but without the cutesy Miis, or Mario Party without the brand recognition. Players would be prompted to do anything from milking digital cows, to inflating fake balloons as fast as possible. The casual party game sold a few million copies, but by and large the world seems to have forgotten Nintendo’s inclusive experiment. Except for at least two people, who recently sought out a record that defied the very people who made the game.

A gamer with the username Elfilin tells Polygon that they initially bought the game when it was released and they were in high school. It quickly became a favorite for introducing people to video games regardless of their background.

“I’m a big fan of Nintendo’s deeper, technical games, like Super Smash Bros., but with 1-2-Switch, I can pluck someone off the street and they might beat me in a Quick Draw,” Elfilin says, referring to mini game where players have to draw fake guns out as fast as possible, cowboy style. Elfilin thus brought 1-2 Switch to college, where it became a running bit that helped them develop a social life.

“It’s honestly a good ice-breaker when you’re just getting to know someone,” Elfilin says, noting that half of the games encourage players to maintain eye contact as they’re instructed to do things like thrust their butts at one another.

One of the games included in 1-2 Switch is called Plate Spin. As the name implies, players must balance platters using their Joy-Con. The twist is that players can try and mess with one another in real life while the game periodically shrinks the dishes further. It’s a fun game, but a tough one. Most of the time, matches of Plate Spin don’t last very long. Here’s one video from IGN in 2017 where the round lasts just barely over 20 seconds; here’s one where the match is over about 10 seconds in. Curiously, Plate Spin includes a 2 minute timer while the events unfold. A friend of Elfilin’s noticed this in 2024, and asked if they’d ever managed to get to the end of it.

“I said that I’ve never done it, and that I haven’t been able to find anyone online posting them beating it or even acknowledging that it could be beaten,” Elfilin recalls. “It was then that my friend agreed to join me in attempting this Herculean task.”

Over the course of three separate sessions, the duo pushed themselves to the limit in what is a surprisingly demanding game. You’ve got to move your hands the entire time, and so does your partner. If either of you fails, then the timer is over and neither of you gets to see what happens at the end. It didn’t take long for Elfilin’s arms to start getting sore, and the pair had to start using cushioned stools to rest their appendages.

Strategies had to be developed. Though it was difficult, the players realized that Plate Spin telegraphed some of its nuances. If you go slowly, the plates wobble. If you go too fast, the sticks holding up the plates go off-center. Recovering from speediness was possible, though — you could simply stop moving for a few seconds. The two resorted to trying to go as quickly as possible until the game gave its telltale warning.

Adjustments had to be made as the plates minimized every 30 seconds; the two had to maintain the same pace while the radius of their spins progressively got smaller. Easier said than done. It took six hours and plenty of soreness before the two got to see the timer hit zero.

So, what happens? See for yourself:

The audience roars, and the game acknowledges the player’s feat before calling a draw. It might sound silly — and it is — but to their credit, it’s something seemingly no one has done before. There’s no evidence online of a Plate Spin ending, which makes sense, because it’s not exactly the sort of thing that would typically bestow gaming glory, like a speedrunning world record in a popular game. Though it’s a first-party game developed by Nintendo itself, most people never played 1-2 Switch. If they did, they probably didn’t get through every single mini-game in its entirety. That includes the very people who made the game themselves.

After posting about the feat on Reddit, a game tester on 1-2 Switch came out of the woodwork to reveal that even folks internally hadn’t seen the ending of Plate Spin.

“As one of the testers on that game, congrats! I dont think any of us beat it in-house,” wrote a user named cellShock_r, which belongs to an account that has a history of posts revolving around game development prior to the thread. “Tbh I’m surprised we even bothered making it.”

Elfilin says that they technically accomplished this achievement last year, but with the launch of the Switch 2, it seemed like a good opportunity to brag about something outside of their immediate friend circle.

“There was clearly a lot of effort put into programming the mechanics of the minigame, which I appreciate,” Elfilin tells Polygon.

“It’s a big flex to be able to say that I’m the only person to complete a first-party Nintendo game, especially one that has sold 4 million copies.”

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

3 things I liked and 2 I didn’t after 30 minutes with Grounded 2

by admin June 12, 2025

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it’s the year of Obsidian: Microsoft’s fastest-working studio already has one 2025 RPG under its belt in Avowed, and it’s putting out another one in October with The Outer Worlds 2. Completing the trifecta of 2025 Obsidian launches is Grounded 2, the odd duck of the portfolio. Not only is it a survival game rather than an RPG, but it’s also the only Obsidian series that gets to release in early access.

Grounded 2 was one of the meatier demos I went hands-on with at Summer Game Fest. Microsoft let me loose at the beginning of the game with a timer, so I sped through the tutorial and made it to the new open world map ASAP—a city park that, when shrunk down to the size of an ant, looks like an alien planet.

I never got around to the original Grounded, so my impressions of the sequel might have some overlap with the first game. Below are a handful of likes and dislikes after 30 minutes with Grounded 2.

Cool 👍 – Ant mounts

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Mounts are new to Grounded 2, and they were by far the standout feature of my demo. Obsidian calls its rideable bugs “buggies”, and they’re a lot more than just a faster way to get around. The ant buggy I rode, which Obsidian spawned in since you don’t usually get mounts so early in the game, could run, sprint, attack, and crucially, carry around stacks of huge grass blades for construction projects.

I got the sense that hatching your first buggy is a big moment in Grounded 2, like building a sub in Subnautica or hatching a dinosaur army in Ark. Once you have a buggy, you’ll never be roaming alone again. Yes, you can pet them.

Meh 👎 – Combat

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Seeing the combat from the original Grounded in action is one of the reasons I never played it. Grounded 2 did not feel like a huge step up. Stabbing tiny ants with a makeshift spear was slow, janky, and lacked any satisfying feedback. Of course, I only messed with the weakest stuff in the tech tree, so maybe there’s a sick plasma ray I can craft after 20 hours, but I don’t think killing stuff will be the highlight of Grounded 2.

(Image credit: Obsidian)

The first tool you pick up in Grounded 2 is also the last one you’ll ever need. Like the Gerber multitool my dad kept clipped to his belt my entire childhood, the Omni-Tool is a shovel, axe, wrench, and hammer all in one. Unifying all the tools sounds like the sort of simplification that would annoy survival fans, but I think it’s more about freeing up inventory space for less permanent resources. You still need to enhance each individual tool through an upgrade tree.

Meh 👎 – Voice acting

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Adults doing their best impressions of young teens ain’t doing it for me. The nasally whine of the character I chose, Max Smalls, was so over-the-top that, 10 minutes in, I wondered if there’d be an option to turn off all dialogue in the final game.

Cool 👍 – Brookhollow Park

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Surely the whole “whoa, everything is big” trick will feel like any old day in the park for returning players, but I spent a lot of my demo time craning my neck up and admiring the scale of Obsidian’s shrunken world. Chopping down grass “trees”, slurping up individual dewdrops, and climbing random pieces of litter like they’re mountains felt like stepping into a Bug’s Life.

Obsidian says the opening area of Grounded 2 is the size of the entire Grounded 1 map, which is exciting. You’ll definitely need more ground to cover with the speed boost of buggies. I didn’t manage to reach the edge of the map before my demo was over, but I made it far enough to find what might be the chillest part of the map, a roughly 3ft by 5ft tunnel running under a couple of wooden boards.

Despite being revealed last, Grounded 2 is coming sooner than The Outer Worlds 2. Early access begins July 29 on all platforms (except PlayStation) with a large chunk of the final map (but not all of it) and the first chapter of its story.

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June 12, 2025 0 comments

Synology DiskStation DS925+ on a table wide image

Product Reviews

I spent weeks with the Synology DiskStation DS925+ NAS box and it didn’t miss a beat, no matter what I threw at it

by admin June 11, 2025

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Synology DiskStation DS925+: Two-minute review

Specs

(Image credit: Nick Ross)

CPU: AMD Ryzen V1500B
Graphics: None
RAM: 4GB DDR4 ECC SODIMM (Max 32GB)
Storage: 80TB (20TB HDD x4), 1.6TB (800GB M.2 x2)
Ports: 2x Type-A (5Gbps), 1x Type-C (5Gbps), 2x 2.5GbE Ethernet ports
Size: 166 x 199 x 223mm (6.5 x 7.8 x 8.8 inches)
OS installed: DSM 7
Accessories: 2x LAN cables, 2x drive-bay lock keys, AC power cord

Synology has been producing network attached storage (NAS) technology for over 20 years, and its devices have maintained a consistent look and feel. In that time, the company has developed a highly polished operating system that’s packed with a wide variety of bespoke and third-party apps that do everything from simply backing up files on a home or office network, through managing a household’s multimedia requirements, to running a business’s entire IT stack. The latter includes enterprise-grade backup, all kinds of server functionality, email and web-hosting, virtual machine management, surveillance camera management and much, much more.

In more recent years, Synology has hunkered down in its own segment of the NAS market – eschewing broad compatibility with third-party hardware providers and a Wild-West application community in favor of a more closed and professional operating environment, where you have to buy expensive Synology drives to populate the boxes. While these compatibility changes have driven some users away, what remains is still an incredibly robust, well-supported and well-documented ecosystem that has a huge community following.

The new DiskStation DS925+ is something of a popular, sweet-spot size that can suit new users and network admins alike. At a glance, it looks exactly like several generations of its predecessors and it operates very much like them. Its most significant features include four bays that support both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives and two M.2 NVMe SSD slots. Its tool-less design and simple setup wizards make it quick and easy to build, and you can be up and running in less than 15 minutes. It runs quietly and can be positioned on top of a desk or hidden away (in a ventilated location) discreetly. To casual users (with deep pockets) who want access to Synology’s apps and need only basic NAS functionality, we could stop there. Enthusiasts will want to know more.

Synology DiskStation DS925+: Price & availability

Synology’s DiskStation DS925+ only recently launched and has limited availability in only a few markets. It’s listed at $830 / £551 / AU$1,099.

Overall, it’s well priced compared to its closest competitors such as the TerraMaster F4-424 Max, as well as other Synology NAS devices.

Synology DiskStation DS925+: Design & build

While the DiskStation DS925+ looks like its predecessors, I felt that it was somewhat more robust and less rattly than some of its forebears. Regardless of that, it’s still a small and discreet black box that will not draw attention to itself, wherever it’s located.

(Image credit: Nick Ross)

The tool-less design makes adding hard drives simple. For 3.5-inch drives, you just lift up the drive bay door, pull out the drive tray, unclip the tray’s side bars, put the drive in the tray, clip the bars back on (they use rubber grommets to reduce sound and vibrations) and slide it back in. If you want, you can ‘lock’ each drive bay with a key to deter opportunistic thieves.

Adding RAM involves removing the drive bays and adding SO-DIMMs to the internal slots on the side. Adding the M.2 NVMe drives involves simply unclipping the covers on the base and sliding them in. Adding six drives takes less than five minutes.

A fully populated DS925+ runs very quietly – Synology says just 20dB – and I can attest that there’s only a very quiet whooshing noise made by the dual 92mm fans, and the drives only make occasional, very low clicking and popping sounds.

Installing the operating system is also simple. A QR code in the box provides access to an online setup document with a link that automatically finds your NAS on the network before offering to install everything for you. After a quick firmware update, it reboots and you’ll be looking at the DSM desktop, in a web browser, just a few minutes later. The NAS will then prompt you to sign into a Synology account, set up SSO and MFA log-ins and install some basic apps.

Newcomers might struggle at first with the terminology surrounding the initial setup of the drives, but (at the basic level) the NAS walks you through the process. It involves organizing the drives into a storage pool, then creating a volume and then adding folders. You’ll also be prompted to list which users can have View, Read or Write access. At this point you’ve got functional network-attached storage that can be accessed across your network.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Nick Ross)(Image credit: Nick Ross)(Image credit: Nick Ross)(Image credit: Nick Ross)

The operating system is well-polished and installing bespoke and third-party apps is simple thanks to the Package Center application which operates like a free App Store. It’s also simple to enable remote access using Synology’s QuickConnect ID short-web-link system.

An interesting change with the DiskStation DS925+ is the removal of the (6Gbps) eSATA port for connecting Synology’s optional, legacy, external drive bays and its replacement with a single (5Gbps) USB-C port which connects to a Synology DX525 5-bay expansion unit. I didn’t have an expansion bay on hand to test this, but the performance difference should be minimal.

While there are only two 2.5GbE network ports, you can combine them in various ways, with the easiest (load balancing) becoming operational in just a few clicks. It’s more suited to multiple connections rather than improving top speed, though.

Finally, it’s worth noting that compatibility with third-party drives is now strictly limited. At the time of writing, the DS925+ was only compatible with its own (up to 16TB) prosumer Plus Series hard drives, its (up to 20TB) Enterprise Series hard drives and (up to 7TB) SSDs, plus its 400GB and 800GB M.2 NVMe drives. All of these cost considerably more than third-party equivalents. Synology is blunt about why it has limited compatibility so much – it got sick of dealing with support requests that often boiled down to conflicts and crashes caused by drive failures and subsequent arguments with third-party drive vendors. While it’s annoying, I can sympathize with that.

Design & build score: 5 / 5

Synology DiskStation DS925+: Features

(Image credit: Nick Ross)

It’s tricky to know just where to start with the numerous features that are available with the DiskStation DS925+. It performs just about every business and consumer task you can imagine. For many smart-home users, the various multi-device backup utilities, multimedia organization tools and media-server functionality (including Plex, Emby and Jellyfin) will be used more than anything else.

For prosumer and business users, it can be your full-stack IT service provider. There are apps that can transform your NAS into an enterprise-grade backup solution with off-site (third-party and Synology C2) cloud capabilities; email server; web server; Synology Office application provider; surveillance camera manager; anti-malware protection; virtual machine manager and a VPN server.

In all of these applications, multiple user licenses are included, which boosts the value proposition through the roof.

There’s a multitude of third-party applications and high-quality documentation (covering just about everything) that has been created by a large and mature Synology-enthusiast community.

Network admins will also like the numerous drive-formatting options, granular user permission management and SSO and MFA security options.

Storage capacity can be increased via a USB-C connected, five-drive-bay expansion unit.

The two USB-A ports (front and rear) have had many functions removed so they can no longer be used to connect potential security nightmares like printers, media devices, or network adapters, but they can still be used for connecting external USB storage devices.

The twin 92mm fans are quiet and, in conjunction with well-designed vents, do a good job of cooling the NAS. That said, be sure to place it in a location where airflow isn’t impeded and the vents won’t get clogged with dust.

Synology DiskStation DS925+: Performance

(Image credit: Nick Ross)

To test the DiskStation DS925+, I installed four Synology 3.5-inch, 4TB hard drives and formatted them with Synology’s own RAID-5-like Btrfs file system which offers striped performance boosts, disk-failure redundancy protection and numerous enhancements that work with Synology’s backup utilities. It left me with a 10.4TB volume and meant I could lose/remove any one drive without suffering data loss.

I also installed two 400GB M.2 NVMe SSDs as a single Btrfs storage volume (they can also be used for caching) which gave me a usable capacity of 362.4GB.

I transferred files from one volume to the other and hit sustained transfer speeds that peaked at 435MB/s, but most people will be moving data externally.

I subsequently performed multiple tests to find its real-world limits, see what doing without a 10GbE port option meant and discover what benefits the two (configurable) 2.5GbE LAN ports offered. I did this by connecting the NAS to a high-end, TP-Link Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 Router (with 10GbE LAN ports) via Ethernet and downloading large video files using various wired and wireless configurations.

I compared the DS925+’s performance to that of an older, two-bay Synology DiskStation DS723+ that has a 10GbE wired connection, a dual 3.5-inch hard drive volume and a newly fitted, single, 800GB Synology M.2 NVMe SSD-based volume.

I tested using a high-end Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D gaming laptop with a 2.5GbE LAN connection and Wi-Fi 6E, as well as a new Core Ultra (Series 2) Asus Vivobook 14 Flip with Wi-Fi 7.

I started with the DS723+ which I’ve been using for testing Wi-Fi routers. With the Scar’s 2.5GbE Ethernet port connected by wire to the Deco router, I saw sustained transfer speeds that hit 245MB/s for both the DS723+’s HDD volume and its NVMe volume. Over a 5GHz Wi-Fi 6E wireless connection, this dropped to 194MB/s for both volumes. Over a 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E wireless connection, it achieved 197MB/s using the HDD volume and 215MB/s for the NVMe volume.

Switching to the Wi-Fi 7 VivoBook, on the 5GHz wireless connection, it managed 180MB/s for both the HDD and NVMe volumes. However, when using the 6GHz Wi-Fi 7 network, it achieved 244MB/s for the HDD volume and an astonishing 347MB/s for the NVMe volume. That right there is the power of having a 10GbE-equipped NAS (with an NVMe drive) connected to a Wi-Fi 7 network. Cables, schmables! That’s more than enough for editing multiple streams of UHD video at once.

(Image credit: Nick Ross)

So, how did the newer DS925+ compare? When it was connected to the Deco via a single 2.5GbE port, the 2.5GbE LAN connected Asus laptop reached 280MB/s for the HDD volume and 282MB/s for the NVMe volume – a good 35MB/s quicker than the two-bay DS723+. Over 5GHz Wi-Fi these scores both dropped to 190MB/s which is similar to the DS723+, illustrating a likely 5GHz Wi-Fi bottleneck. Interestingly, performance was consistently slower during the Scar’s 6GHz tests, where it hit 163MB/s (HDD volume) and 172MB/s (NVMe volume), but this is again likely caused by the network, not the NAS.

When the VivoBook connected via the 5GHz network, it managed 186MB/s transfers for both volumes. Over Wi-Fi 7 this jumped up to 272MB/s for the HDD volume and 278MB/s for the SSD volume. So, thus far, the file transfer performance benefits of having NVMe storage on the DS925+ aren’t significant when passing through the bottleneck of its 2.5GbE LAN port.

Consequently, I bonded the two 2.5GbE connections together to form a ‘single’ 5GbE connection in an effort to boost performance. This takes just a few clicks in DSM’s control panel. I opted for the basic Adaptive Load Balancing option, but there are several other configurations for various types of network topology.

(Image credit: Nick Ross)

So, with the DS925+’s two Ethernet cables forming a single 5Gbps connection to the Deco router, I ran the tests again. The 2.5GbE-connected ROG Strix Scar saw transfer speeds (to both the HDD and SSD volumes) only reach 168MB/s, which is around 120MB/s slower than when the NAS was connected via a single 2.5GbE wired connection. Over 5GHz Wi-Fi this boosted (slightly) to 188MB/s for both volumes and over the 6GHz network, it dropped back to 170MB/s for both volumes. It’s fair to say that combining the DS925+’s two 2.5GbE ports is better suited to handling multiple network streams rather than boosting performance of a single connection.

Nonetheless, I repeated the test with the VivoBook. Over 5GHz Wi-Fi, both volumes saw transfer speeds of 176MB/s. Over 6GHz Wi-Fi 7, it hit 283MB/s.

So, what have we learned about the DS925+’s file transfer-speed potential? Using a 2.5GbE wired connection to and from the router, it tops out at 280MB/s. Connecting the laptop via 5GHz Wi-Fi typically sees transfer speeds of between 160MB/s and 185MB/s, but over 6GHz Wi-Fi 7, up to 283MB/s is possible. This means that, in the right circumstances, Wi-Fi 7 can match 2.5GbE connection speeds.

We also learned that combining the DS925+’s two 2.5GbE connections (at least, in my particular setup) reduces the top transfer speed. Most importantly, that means losing the option for a 10GbE upgrade stops us hitting insane 347MB/s speeds over Wi-Fi 7, and 283MB/s is the reduced ceiling. As such, it’s straight-up not worth using the M.2 drives for file transfer performance boosting as the 2.5GbE connection(s) act as a bottleneck.

That all said, the M.2 drives can still improve performance through caching functionality and Synology notes it can give a 15x improvement to random read and write IOPS. This will be a much bigger deal in situations with multiple connections occurring simultaneously.

While some high-end users will miss the option to upgrade to a 10GbE performance ceiling, I found it’s still more than enough to facilitate very high bitrate, 60FPS, UHD+ video playback (and multiple UHD video stream editing) in addition to having multiple simultaneous connections performing numerous lesser tasks.

Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Synology DiskStation DS925+?

It has become normal to gripe about the design decisions and limitations that Synology imposes on each generation of its prosumer NAS boxes. However, if we eliminate the potential purchasers it won’t suit – i.e. those who need a 10GbE connection and those who cannot afford all the expensive Synology hard drives required to populate it – it’s absolutely worth buying.

Its highly evolved chassis is deceptively well built in terms of tool-less access, rigidity, cooling and airflow. Its operating environment remains secure, robust and intuitive and is packed with features. Its software library will satisfy casual and demanding consumers plus network admins alike and almost all of it is free.

While it’s lost the hodgepodge, stick-your-old-hard-drives-in-a-box-and-hack-a-NAS-together old-school vibe, it’s now a reliable (and scalable) professional backbone for any business or smart-home.

As an all-around package, it’s the best on the market for its target audience. Yes, it can be expensive to populate with drives, but the subsequent total cost of ownership borne through reliability, software licensing and built-in security features help offset the burden of the initial outlay. This means that the DS925+ is, once again, a highly desirable winner from Synology.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

A closed market makes buying drives expensive. But, the free software library can make it a bargain, regardless.

4.5

Design

It’s incredibly simple to put together thanks to its tool-less design. The software is voluminous, polished, mature, secure and reliable. It also runs cool and quiet.

Features

Whether you’re an undemanding consumer or a network admin, the DS925+ can do it all.

Performance

The lack of an upgrade option to a 10GbE port limits peak performance, but it’s still not slow.

4.5

Total

Synology’s latest 4-bay NAS is as attractive as its predecessors, which is high praise indeed.

(Image credit: Nick Ross)

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

For more network-attached storage options, we’ve also tested the best NAS & media server distro.

Synology DiskStation DS925+: Price Comparison

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June 11, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Apple Didn’t Design Controllers for the Vision Pro, but It Gave Us the Next Best Thing

by admin June 9, 2025

Apple’s bulky, powerful, occasionally beautiful, and way-too-expensive XR headset, the Vision Pro, is coming into the fold of Apple’s software ecosystem as well as the wider VR market. At WWDC25, Apple shared more info about this first step to a more mature “spatial” ecosystem with visionOS 26. The update should allow for easier controls with your eyes and—for the first time—actual controllers you can port from other headsets, like Sony’s PlayStation VR2.

While the rest of the Apple ecosystem is changing its look to match what was already on the Vision Pro, the look inside Apple’s headset isn’t changing much, despite the growth spurt from visionOS 2 to visionOS 26. The first big improvement is the introduction of eye-scrolling. It means users no longer have to pinch and drag to look through a web page or PDF. Apple’s “spatial computer” should instead use the headset’s eye-tracking to help you jump to where you want to be on the page. There are additional all-new widgets designed specifically for the Vision Pro. These are designed to be placed against a wall within AR space. They include a subtle 3D effect to make each widget appear like it was set into a wall. Another widget can act like a fake window to look out at a panorama photo you’ve taken with a phone. Apple is opening up its OS to support more 180- and 360-degree footage from companies like Insta360 and GoPro, which means you may have more access to 3D content than what Apple’s willing to share with users.

One of the headlining features for the Apple Vision Pro was “Personas,” which were supposed to act as lip-synced 3D avatars for users talking over FaceTime or other supported apps. At launch, these had a waxy, dead-eyed appearance that was equal parts intriguing and off-putting. The new update could finally offer a more lifelike appearance, with more texture on users’ hair and eyes.

Currently, the Apple Vision Pro hand-tracking recognizes several gestures for navigating through apps. Most important to daily use has been the pinch, though a bare few apps could also recognize the orientation of your fists as if you were holding onto an invisible steering wheel. This isn’t anywhere close to enough for most VR games. Finally, the AVP will accept third-party controllers. First on the list are the Logitech pen for mixed reality art apps and the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers. This should make it easier to use when you need pinpoint controls, like in drawing apps.

Apple suggested this “new class of games” available to AVP will include such heavy hitters as the pickleball simulator Pickle Pro. The introduction of third-party peripheral support could be a big deal—the headset tracks six degrees of freedom (DoF), and with vibration support, it could offer one of the more immersive VR experiences available. It also means we may finally get to experience more ports of other VR games. We can already imagine how nice it would be to get Steam Link working on a Vision Pro to play Half Life: Alyx on the relatively wide field of view with the twin 4K micro-OLED displays.

We shouldn’t feel too disappointed Apple didn’t craft its own first-party controllers; PlayStation’s VR2 Sense controllers are a solid option. The Apple Vision Pro sometimes feels like the red-headed stepchild of the Cupertino tech giant’s larger brand. It’s been around for more than a year, and it has improved significantly in the intervening months with every new update for visionOS 2 and onward. The latest updates to guest accounts made it a better device to share with people nearby. Plus, turning your Mac screen into an ultrawide monitor in AR space is both cool and surprisingly useful. What’s missing is pure content. Apple has produced numerous short- and long-form content viewable exclusively on the AVP, including a full-length biopic about Bono and small movies like Submerged. But for every bit of passive content that arrives on the platform, there has been a dearth of active content we mostly associate with VR and AR—especially gaming.

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June 9, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Like Us, the Director of ‘John Wick’ Didn’t Love ‘The Continental’

by admin June 5, 2025

This weekend, a new film from the world of John Wick is coming to theaters. It’s called Ballerina and we’re guessing you’ve heard about it. But two years ago, did you hear about a full-fledged John Wick streaming series that was on Peacock? Maybe not. The Continental: From the World of John Wick debuted on the streamer in 2023 to average reviews and tepid audience response. It has yet to return.

Part of that is probably because two of the most crucial people involved in the John Wick franchise, star Keanu Reeves and co-creator/director/current overseer Chad Stahelski, were not actively involved. And, in a new interview talking about both Ballerina and a new documentary called Wick is Pain, Stahelski sounds more than a little bummed about it.

“Keanu and I were—I wouldn’t say sidelined, but our opinion was heard and not really noted,” Stahelski told the Hollywood Reporter. “[The studio] tried to convince me they knew what they were doing. A group of individuals thought they had the magic sauce. But if you take out Basil Iwanyk’s producing intuitiveness, if you take out Keanu’s way of delivering quirky dialogue and if you take out all the visuals I have in my head from Wong Kar-wai, anime, Leone, Bernardo Bertucci or Andrei Tchaikovsky … then it’s not the same thing. They thought this was as easy as using anamorphic lenses, do a kooky hotel, put in weird dialogue, and insert crime drama.”

Chad Stahelski on the set of John Wick 2 with Keanu Reeves – Lionsgate

Stahelski continued, admitting his way of doing things doesn’t always line up with the status quo. “If you saw our process, you’d be like, ‘You’re telling me this billion-dollar franchise does it this way?’” he said. “I’m scouting my next film in London and we saw a cool location yesterday which totally changed the second act. We rewrote the whole thing. I find great cast members and rewrite their parts constantly. That’s what makes [the movies] so good and organic—we’re constantly upgrading. But the studio likes to know what they’re getting for their buck and want to lock a script for budget reasons. While we’re saying, ‘Just write the check, we’ll see you at the finish line.’”

Which, it sounds like, was the case with The Continental. It was not the case, however, with Ballerina, in which both Stahelski and Reeves were involved. And it will not be the case with a potential John Wick 5, which Stahelski knows everyone wants, but he’s still not completely sold on.

“I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a bit of a conundrum,” he said about bringing Wick, who died in the last film, back. “Me and Mike Finch— the writer on 4 who’s also writing 5—we’ve got a pretty good story that I think is cool. Once we have a 50-page book, and if we’re feeling it, we’ll sit with Keanu and shape this thing. Look, everybody seems to want it. It’s a matter of whether we crack it. We’re actively working on it. It’s just … is it going to be satisfying?”

As for John Wick 5, we’ll have to wait and see. But if you head over to the Hollywood Reporter we promise the rest of Stahelski’s interview is incredibly satisfying.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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June 5, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

35 Years Ago Today, Garfield’s Owner (Didn’t) Drink Dog Semen

by admin June 1, 2025

On May 30, 1990, the world received a new Garfield comic strip. This isn’t a big deal. We’ve been getting daily Garfield comic strips since 1978. We got a new one today! But 35 years ago, a single Garfield comic strip became one of the most infamous in the franchise’s history because a lot of people thought it depicted the lazy cat’s owner drinking dog semen.

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Here’s the Garfield comic strip that appeared in newspapers around the country exactly 35 years ago today:

Image: Paws Inc / Jim Davis / Kotaku

So yeah, that does seem like Garfield’s owner Jon Arbuckle just drank some dog semen that was sitting in a cup while trying to flirt (unsuccessfully) with veterinarian Liz. That would explain why she mentions that Jon should expect a “fine, healthy litter of puppies” and why he appears to have consumed something truly revolting.

And that’s what a lot of people thought after seeing the comic in 1990. For many, many years, Garfield fans and people who like weird facts would spread the story of Jon drinking dog semen around the web as people reacted in disbelief or assumed the strip was altered. And even if you chose to believe that Garfield creator Jim Davis didn’t intend the joke to be about dog semen, there wasn’t a readily available and funny alternative explanation.

In 2017, we finally got some answers. Buzzfeed contacted Davis and asked him about the dog semen comic strip. And to the disappointment of many, the creator behind the famous comic claimed Mr. Arbuckle didn’t drink dog semen. However, his explanation of the strip is still pretty weird and not very funny.

“On the farm, we used to give first-calf heifers a high-protein supplement to help them deliver healthier calves,” Davis told Buzzfeed. “The supplement was provided by our vet. Since Liz is a vet, I assumed that there would be a similar supplement for dogs. There you have it!”

I’m inclined to believe Davis, though it’s still wild to me that nobody involved with the Garfield strip pointed out to the creator how the comic could be misinterpreted. I also find it strange that Davis would assume everyone in the world is familiar with high-protein pre-natal cow supplements and would understand that this random comic was referencing that very specific concept.

Screenshot: Realnutsling / Kotaku

In 2017, however, Davis threw a wrench in the works when someone allegedly bought a signed copy of the infamous strip. And included on the artwork was a message from Davis: “These events are canon.”

You know what, I changed my mind. I think 35 years ago Jon Davis wanted to see if he could get away with making a comic about a dude drinking dog semen, and pulled it off, but can never admit it without destroying Garfield’s brand. But Davis, it’s 2025. The world is weird and loves this kind of shit now. If you admitted it, you could make shirts about it, and make even more money than you already have. So I say fuck it. It’s been nearly four decades. Admit the truth, Jim, and profit.

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June 1, 2025 0 comments