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Snake looks at someone from his one good eye.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater: The Kotaku Review

by admin August 22, 2025

I find myself in a simulation of a simulation, a modern recreation of a fictional jungle that I and many others fought and persisted through decades ago. As I crawl through the grass, sneak through Soviet weapons facilities, and survive on the animals of the wild, my mind oscillates through deja vu, the pleasant stupor of nostalgia, and the thrill of a sophisticated stealth experience that challenges my reflexes as well as my ability to plan several steps ahead to stay in control of dangerous situations. An inspired story threads these sneaking sequences together, telling a tale of fractured relationships, the pain they cause, and how grand forces beyond our control shape us. I’ve been here before; I’m struck with a strange feeling of being caught between memory and newness. As I crawl through the mud, I think, is this an authentic experience? Is this a substitute for the “real thing” that came ages ago? I take a step forward. “Huh? Footsteps? Is someone there?” says someone around the corner. It’s time to put those thoughts about reality, simulations, and authenticity to the side; I’ve a mission to complete. Into the fray I go, silently, swiftly, with new, deadly precision.

To remake Metal Gear Solid 3 is an interesting proposition. The winding, cryptic narrative of the Metal Gear Solid series starts with the events of Snake Eater. It’s a prequel, and a well-written, rightly celebrated one at that. It also represents a maturation of the formula series creator Hideo Kojima, along with the team of developers at Konami, started with 1998’s Metal Gear Solid. Snake Eater digs deeper into the series’ stealth focus, with enemies more attuned to the sounds of your footsteps and more capable of spotting you from a greater distance. You also have to contend with needs such as hunger and treating your wounds, and using camouflage is essential to staying out of sight.

With the games that followed MGS3, the series began to lose much of its identity, becoming less an evolution of the original Metal Gear games that arrived on MSX in the late ‘80s and more a response to the third-person shooters of the Xbox 360 and PS3 era. With Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, we drifted even further from the original mold, embracing an open-world format, fracturing the traditional narrative structure many were used to, and perhaps most controversially, replacing the iconic voice of the American version of Snake while eliminating such series’ staples as dedicated “codec” conversations. This fractured series identity is what Delta steps into.

Fans of that original MGS experience might feel like we’ve lost our way from the kind of stealth and narrative adventures that we cherished so much in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Delta arrives as a potential reset for that, and succeeds with flying camo colors as a remarkably faithful remake of one of the all-time greats of our medium.

After MGS2’s switcheroo forced players to contend with a protagonist who, to put it mildly, challenged the masculine archetype the series had centered up to that point, MGS3 recenters traditional, Kurt Russell-inspired masculinity, the kind that defines itself through rugged violence essentialized as a struggle against nature; a thing to fight, a thing to kill, a thing to consume. And the women of the game are eager to show as much tits and ass as an M rating would allow at the time.

MGS3, and by extension Delta, is prone to complicated, often incorrect, assumptions about governments and economic systems, and its wiser moments can all too quickly be overshadowed by the excitement of wielding deadly weapons without caution and smashing up commies in the East. Still, it’s important to see MGS3 as a bold reaffirming of what worked in MGS and a rejection of what didn’t, in the eyes of some, in MGS2. Snake Eater would go on to be one of the most celebrated MGS titles. Now we’re here in 2025, and once again Snake Eater exists as a kind of course correction for the series; it’s an opportunity to take the missteps of MGSV, its open-world structure that often felt directionless and bland, its fractured narrative that was hard to parse for a story already playing with some high level concepts, and correct them.

In doing so, Delta stands to remind us of just how powerful this era of MGS was, when it was laser focused on captivating, linear level structure, along with a story you could enjoy as you would a film, not the disconnected threads that Phantom Pain asked players to stitch together themselves. It also streamlines those aspects of the original that saw you spending much of your time diving through cumbersome menus, and offers a more traditional camera and aiming experience via its “New Style” mode, which the game defaults to. It also, naturally, delivers the high level of graphical fidelity we expect from a modern AAA game, though some purists may take offense at differences in color grading (they should really just go play the original if it bothers them that much). I’d argue this stylistic change is in line with what Snake Eater was always aspiring to, and is in keeping with what Kojima envisioned for the future of the series, which was to bring it even closer to photorealism.

And so, we come back to Kojima, whose stamp is all over Snake Eater and who is nonetheless conspicuously absent from Delta. To be frank, the lack of Kojima on this project feels weird, even preposterous. Would we accept a Twin Peaks “remake” or fourth season without David Lynch? Would we tolerate a shot-for-shot remake of The Matrix without the participation of the Wachowski sisters? Crazy talk! Would we even want those things if their creators were intimately attached?

But of course, for all the genius and talent David Lynch gave to Twin Peaks, what would that show be without the incredible compositions of Angelo Badalamenti? Would The Matrix have warped our minds in the same way without the technical and creative genius of John Gaeta, who was able to bring bullet time to life? It is so often the case that the works which we remember and cherish dearly are collaborative works, brought to life by far more than just the director’s name.

Video games are no different. While MGS wouldn’t exist without the enthusiastic, eccentric creative energy of Hideo Kojima, it takes far more than one person to build a video game as ambitious as any Metal Gear Solid. Major AAA titles are team efforts, and success can never be attributed to any one individual. Who’s to say what MGS would’ve been like if even one other person on the teams that built these games were swapped out?

Delta makes no attempt at hiding the work of Hideo Kojima, with his name showing up a number of times in the opening credits. With very limited exceptions that will certainly be dissected vigorously by the MGS fanbase, the camera work in the cutscenes stays true to that in the original with frightening accuracy. The environment and characters look incredible, conveying well the emotional depth the original aimed for with its lofty cinematic goals. Add the fact that the game uses the original’s voice acting and music, and the combined effect plays a trick on the mind: Delta gave me both the thrills of a modern, polished AAA game and an active dose of nostalgia for the PS2 era in all the best ways.

When that camera is turned over to you, the default settings give you a different kind of perspective than what Snake Eater originally shipped with. You can freely rotate the camera, you can even move in first person like you could in MGS4 and V, though at a slower pace. You press the left trigger to raise your weapon, you fire it with the right. You reload with a face button.

For all these modern comforts, however, the game still feels like it’s playing in the world that MGS, Sons of Liberty, and the original Snake Eater built. Smartly, the d-pad becomes of use in a way that preserves the left and right corners of the screen as your dedicated item and weapon management system. Gone is the more Gears of War-esque weapon selection system of The Phantom Pain. Added to this layout is an up-press on the d-pad to scroll through a selection of camo to change outfits way faster than you could in the original. You can also press down on the d-pad to bring up a new codec/radio menu and swiftly hop on a call with the game’s NPCs–and yes, you can still call Para-Medic to save your progress and enjoy snippets of cinema history afterwards.

This streamlining takes elements of Snake Eater that once required you to sift through different screens to engage with them and instead places them in the heat of the moment, easier to reach for when you need them. In my experience, this improves the flow of Snake Eater’s gameplay so much that I prefer playing Delta over the original based on this alone. And while I have some serious reservations about the thought of any other MGS game getting remade, I have to say, if it’s going to play like Delta, have at it, Konami! (I will now hide under my desk to avoid getting struck by lightning.)

Most mechanics remain largely faithful to the original, rather than undergoing the kind of deep expansion you might expect them to receive in a remake such as this. Close-quarters-combat, for instance, has not been expanded beyond some flashier animations that mostly occur during certain boss fights–one fight in particular relies on these fancier animations instead of a sound cue like the original did. This marks perhaps Delta’s most extreme deviation from the original.

You can, however, crouch-walk. This was not in MGS DNA until Guns of the Patriots, and it’s a welcome modernization here; moving from cover, crouching, then going to a crawl all feels suitably smooth, sophisticated, and intuitive. It makes for a wildly impressive and immersive stealth experience that demands an adherence to form in the way you approach situations. You need to learn and memorize how best to turn corners, when and where to emerge from tall grass. Snake Eater encourages you to build those best practices, that stealth form, like an athlete training for an event; Delta gives you increased mobility and camerawork to be more immersed in the experience. It can make the game easier, however. With that in mind, I recommend that veterans of the original start on Hard difficulty unless they’re looking for a breezy first trip through.

The one downside to the new camera style is that it can, on occasion, feel claustrophobically close. There’s no FOV slider, even on the PC version, and the game’s environments are smaller than what we’re used to in modern shooters.

The pacing of the game has not changed much either. Snake moves at about the same speed as he did in the original. No sprint function was added, and things like swimming and wading through mud still feel like a chore. I think Konami could’ve stood to be a bit bolder by speeding that pace up, but it fits with a game that’s already trying to make its combat feel meatier and more impactful than that in a rapid, twitchy shooter. Despite feeling similar to modern games in terms of its controls, Delta also still feels like the original Snake Eater, not an MGS3 overhaul mod for MGSV or something. Indeed, it feels more like classic Metal Gear Solid than any MGS game has in decades, without feeling like a retro throwback that requires a rewiring of your brain.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

Back-of-the-box quote:
Same great snake taste you love, now with four times the pixels!
Developer:
Konami
Type of game:
Third-person stealth action game.
Liked:
Faithful recreation of a classic, wonderfully improved controls.

Disliked:
Lack of an FOV slider, some slower elements of the original remain.
Platforms:
PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (played).
Release date:
August 28, 2025 (playable on August 26 for those who pre-order the deluxe version).
Played:
30 hours on a non-lethal, never-spotted run on the game’s Hard difficulty setting using the “New Style” camera.

That extends to the menu systems, which have all of the character and detail that they exuded in the original. Eat a snake, and you’ll sometimes see a little cutscene of our protagonist chowing down, followed up by the sound of him chewing, swallowing, and commenting on how tasty it was. The game will play the audio every time you eat, as it did in the original. The remake could’ve given us an option to skip as it does feel a little tedious and repetitive when you’re more than a dozen hours into the game.

MGS3 was always far from my favorite Metal Gear Solid. It lacked MGS2’s fourth-wall-breaking meta stuff that had me captivated, putting me in a weird liminal space where I obsessed about what the purpose of a “sequel” even is. Its plot twists, in my opinion, don’t match up to the wild revelations of the first MGS or, for that matter, those of MGSV later on. And its survival mechanics always slowed the action down too much for me. But Delta really helped me appreciate what this game is by breaking down the rigid barriers of the original’s menu-diving while giving me a more sophisticated set of movement options and camera controls. And the game is visually impressive not just because it’s a modern-day AAA game with the horsepower of our modern consoles and GPUs. There’s real care in the presentation, from the improved fidelity of facial animations to carry those wonderfully well-written lines of dialogue, to bits of grass, leaves, and sticks getting stuck to your clothes and falling off as you move around. Delta’s graphics got more than a few “wows” out of me.

I’ve got my critiques of that 2004 premiere of Snake in the jungle, but there’s no denying that the original Snake Eater will remain one of the greatest games of all time and people should play it if they care about the history of this medium, and to see how the now humble processing power of the PS2 was pushed to its extreme to tell a captivating story about shifting allegiances, broken relationships, and the threat we humans pose to ourselves by using our intellect to build super weapons. For those returning to this jungle, expect a faithful and respectful rearticulation of a game you loved–and if you didn’t love it, maybe the slight modernizations will win you over as they did for me.

Should someone come across Snake Eater for the first time with Delta, they’ll find a phenomenal modern stealth experience housed in the kind of classic narrative and linear structure that modern games have been neglecting far too often in their quests to make their worlds bigger. Delta knows its subject matter can stimulate the imagination, and no piece of silicon can out muscle that.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater modernizes the classic mechanics of the original while preserving the breathlessly tense feeling of its stealth gameplay, and its painstakingly accurate recreation of the original’s aesthetic and vibrantly beating cinematic heart preserve so much of why these games have withstood the test of time. Should Delta be not just a one-off but the dawn of a new generation for Metal Gear Solid, it’s a promising one indeed.

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

A Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater screenshot.

Product Reviews

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater review: as great as it was in 2004, just don’t expect anything new

by admin August 22, 2025

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Konami’s 2004 stealth classic Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is one of the best games ever made. Yet the idea of a remake didn’t exactly conjure the joy that one would usually get from hearing their favourite game is getting remade. After the fallout between Konami and series creator Hideo Kojima and the 10-year series hiatus that ensued (not counting the dreadful Metal Gear Survive), I had my doubts.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5 Pro
Available on: Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PS5, PC
Release date: August 29, 2025

And yet, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is fantastic; there are no awkward changes to the story or pacing like the Silent Hill 2 remake, or really any attempts to touch the game I love so much… because it is still that game.

Metal Gear Solid Delta is firmly in the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster or The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening camp of remakes as it is so beholden to the source material that it struggles to find an identity of its own outside of the fact that it looks pretty now.

Remember the Alamo

(Image credit: Konami)

Snake Eater represents the earliest point in the Metal Gear timeline, in which you play as Naked Snake before he goes on to become the legendary soldier Big Boss in the midst of the Cold War. A rescue mission gone wrong means he has to battle his mentor, The Boss, destroy the not-quite-a-Metal-Gear, Shagohod robot, and prevent the Cold War from becoming a hot one.

Naked Snake is by far the most compelling protagonist in the series, by the sheer virtue of being the most relatable. Both Solid Snake and Raiden were bred to be the greatest possible soldiers, while Naked Snake is just a guy.

Early on you see him pull a stupid grin because he realises he can drop a beehive on someone; he completely blanks out sleeper agent Eva’s advances because he’s so enamoured with the cool gun she gave him. These little touches make him a far more compelling character and allow for the finale to deliver an absolute gut punch at its emotional climax.

(Image credit: Konami)

Your main adversaries this time are the Cobra unit, a group of legendary soldiers like one who shoots bees out of his mouth or the sniper who is 100 years old and can die of old age if you save the game during his fight and come back later.

Then there’s the main antagonistic trio of Snake’s mentor, The Boss; series staple Revolver Ocelot in his awkward early years; and Volgin, a sadistic colonel who is as filled with pomp as he is an abhorrent human being.

There really isn’t a character in Snake Eater that feels underdeveloped. I’m not typically a big audio log person, but I found myself returning to the codec call screen to chat with Snake’s allies – even after beating the game many times before now – just because I love the banter between them.

There are even characters who appear for literally one scene – like the Soviet scientist Aleksandr Granin – and are unforgettable thanks to Kojima’s signature monologue and exposition sequences.

The mission, or your beliefs?

(Image credit: Konami)

Snake Eater moved the series away from its then-standard military base infiltrations – where stealth was more straightforward – and moved into the Russian jungles. Now that you’re dealing with foliage, caves, mountains, and the odd encampment, stealth is very freeform.

In Metal Gear Solid Delta, it’s all pretty much how you remember it, the only difference being that the game’s control scheme has been updated to be more in line with later entries in the series. It introduces the over-the-shoulder camera and crouch-walk from Metal Gear Solid 4 (which was implemented into the 3DS version of Snake Eater) and makes the controls more in line with a standard third-person shooter (triggers to aim and shoot, circle to crouch etc.). But you shouldn’t expect something revolutionary.

Snake Eater’s other major addition was that of survival mechanics. You could change camo to help you blend into environments, eat food (including snakes, funnily enough) to keep your stamina up, and heal various injuries and ailments. In the original these were accessed through the pause menu, but while that’s still the case, this time it’s been streamlined somewhat.

Holding up on the d-pad will open up a camo menu for you, showing some combinations that you can switch to in an instant; when you’re injured, pressing up will take you straight to the cure screen too. Again, it’s nothing transformative, but it’s a nice quality of life update. You also get an autosave every time you enter a new area, which makes doing the hardest challenge run – Foxhound rank – less obnoxious.

Best bit

(Image credit: Konami)

Snake Eater is a game filled to the brim with memorable moments, but the updated visual fidelity and foliage really add to the intensity of the sniper battle with The End. What was already one of the best boss battles in the series gets a boost from it being even harder to find your opponent.

But Metal Gear Solid Delta isn’t really doing anything new. All of the level layouts, enemy placement and items are the exact same as they were on the PS2. It’s so strictly beholden to the original that you can interrogate guards, and they will still give you codes to use in the PSP’s Metal Gear Acid, which isn’t even a game you can buy officially anymore. Plus the opening and closing credits are ripped straight from the original (a lot of Hideo Kojima name drops), with you having to go into the extras menu to actually see the new development team.

Granted, it does bring back some of the things I would not expect, including things that were taken out of later re-releases like the Snake Vs Monkey mode, which isn’t as fantastic as the other half of that Metal Gear x Ape Escape crossover, but it’s a fun little distraction.

Plus, there’s a “Legacy Mode” option that lets you revert to the original control scheme complete with fixed cameras, a visual filter, and the old versions of the opening theme and main menu.

Kuwabara kuwabara

(Image credit: Konami)

The other major change with Metal Gear Solid Delta is how it looks, with the Russian jungle rendered beautifully in Unreal Engine 5, and I really can’t fault it on that front. The character models do present an issue, though. On paper they look great, and some characters really take to the new style – like Volgin, whose facial scarring looks much better and more identifiable with the new tech. But others like Ocelot and The Boss, look somewhat uncanny at points, with their faces feeling off at certain angles.

This is paired with Metal Gear Solid Delta using the original voice recordings from Metal Gear Solid 3 with only minor new lines recorded to cover for the different control scheme and a couple of easter eggs during codec calls. Metal Gear voice acting is always quite over the top, and as such feels a little weird coming out of the mouths of these hyper realistic character models.

Metal Gear Solid Delta is in a weird spot. I don’t think a massive overhaul like the Resident Evil remakes would have gone down well in a post-Kojima release, so I get why Konami remade it this way (and frankly it’s probably the way I wanted to see it remade). But, at the same time, I don’t really get a sense of what the series looks like going forward like I could with the Silent Hill 2 remake because it is so faithful.

But regardless, it’s still a remake that feels great to play and (mostly) looks fantastic. It doesn’t do much to carve out its own unique identity, but as an entire package Metal Gear Solid Delta is as much of a masterpiece as the original Snake Eater was in 2004.

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater features a number of accessibility options.

The majority of these are control-based allowing you to swap held inputs into tap. For example, when dragging an enemy, you typically would have to hold the button the entire time, but you have the option now to tap once to grab and tap again to let go.

There are also in-depth subtitle options allowing you to choose sizes, backgrounds, and speaker names with separate options for gameplay and cutscenes. There are colourblind filters present, but these are specifically for the UI and don’t seem to have any effect in-game.

(Image credit: Konami)

I played 30 hours of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater on PS5 Pro on a Samsung Q60D TV and a Samsung HW-T450 soundbar.

During this time I completed a 16 hour run of the game on Normal in the New Style with the majority of hidden items and weapons collected, defeated every enemy and boss non-lethally, attained the Tsuchinoko rank, and learnt the parry timing of the final boss the hard way.

I also completed the Virtuous Mission in Legacy mode on Hard and completed the New Game+ on Extreme, attaining the Foxhound Rank which is the toughest challenge in the game – made a bit less extreme thanks to autosaves.

First reviewed August 2025

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Review – No Going Back

by admin August 22, 2025

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a PlayStation 2 classic in a way not many games from that era are. Few games from that generation continue to hold up graphically, narratively, and remain fun to play. Metal Gear Solid 3 is still impressive to look at and play, even in 2025, which is a testament to Hideo Kojima and the team that created and released it in 2004. I never thought it needed a remake, but now that it’s here, I’m not sure I will ever be able to go back to the original versions.

Watch Our Metal Gear Solid Delta Review:

As Konami grapples with what to do with Metal Gear without its creator, the decision to specifically revisit Snake Eater makes sense. Along with ranking as a favorite among series fans (myself among them), it is also the first in the broader storyline. It has always been my recommendation for anyone looking to dive into the dense but engaging story, and this version will now be my recommendation moving forward.

My biggest fear with the remake was that without Kojima’s involvement, the game would lack a soul, an admittedly impossible-to-define element. However, because the game is such a direct adaptation of the original with only a handful of understandable changes, that element of the game came over just fine in the copy/paste/improve process. Even without the original creator’s involvement, the fact that it came from a team with such a specific and expertly executed idea and point of view remains intact. Decisions like not re-recording the dialogue (as they did for the GameCube remake of Metal Gear Solid, Twin Snakes) and keeping all of its strange bonuses and secrets (Snake can still have a nightmare), all add up to Delta feeling as compelling as it did in 2004, which is a feat. The few changes that were made, however, are smart.

Visually, the team at Konami has fully brought the game up to contemporary standards. Snake looks amazing, and you can see every scar from every battle on his exhausted face. The jungle, in particular, with its dense foliage and various animals, looks terrific. And though no element of the cinematography or cutscene choreography has been changed, it is filled with renewed life thanks to all the heightened detail and new lighting. Later sections of the game, when you are spending more time in plain military buildings than outdoors, lack the impressive pop of those early moments, but they still look fantastic.

You can use the original controls if you desire, but the new standard controls make Snake move and shoot more like a modern third-person shooter. It took some getting used to, and early in my playthrough, I would panic when I got caught, and muscle memory would make me press the wrong buttons, but I can’t imagine ever going back to the way things were. I was popping off tranquilizer headshots quickly and efficiently and having a good time doing it. Quick-changing camo with shortcut keys is also a godsend and finally fixes an element of the game that has always annoyed me.

One place where Delta’s age does show is in its writing. Don’t get me wrong – it has been years since I played without skipping most cutscenes. For this playthrough I remained fully and consistently engaged with the characters and the story’s direction. The Boss’ journey has always been the highlight of Snake Eater, and I appreciated it all the more playing the remake.

But there are moments where you just have to suspend disbelief. Why wouldn’t they take Snake’s radio when they put him in jail? Why do they let Tatyana, their prisoner, more or less come and go as she pleases? In one moment, antagonist Volgin literally says, “Very well. I’ll explain it before I kill you,” before settling into an extended and frankly absurd monologue doing precisely what he promised. It also takes entirely too long for the game to start. As a longtime fan of Snake Eater, I find these elements charming and even comedic, but I completely understand if a newcomer gets frustrated by the excessive and frequently self-indulgent character lectures.

Metal Gear Solid Delta makes the case for its existence quickly. It smartly adheres to what made the original game great with evident reverence and makes updates only to the most crucial elements. For fans like me, it colors Snake Eater in a new light and elevates it to something better than I remembered. It’s impossible for me to objectively imagine this being my first experience with Snake Eater, but I am extra excited for those players who have always been curious about Metal Gear for this to be their starting line.

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater review

by admin August 22, 2025

Remaking a classic video game for modern audiences is always a sketchy ordeal. Bringing forward decades-old gameplay and storytelling must be handled with care, but you also have to offer something different to set it apart from the original.

As a very dedicated, long-time fan of the series, I’m pleased to say Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is everything a remake should be. It remains true to the original in basically every single way, while offering enhanced visuals and a better take on gameplay than what was offered 21 years ago, making it feel like a new and complete package.

What a thrill

Screenshot by Destructoid

MGS Delta is, by and large, 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 with the same exact voice acting, cutscenes, and music that helped make it an all-time great single-player stealth action game. That’s a good thing.

Some may be turned off by the fact that the cutscenes are one-to-one recreations with a gorgeous coat of modern-day paint, but I love it. Over the course of two decades, I have played or watched playthroughs of MGS3 several dozen times. I know these songs and scenes by heart, and this is the same game, but way, way prettier.

The innovation in MGS Delta comes in the gameplay, which is remade through a new control scheme and over-the-shoulder camera angle for Snake in his 1960s spy-thriller adventure. It makes the game more accessible than, say, the HD Collection version of MGS3, which was re-released recently, featuring some dated controls from the PS2 game.

Other than that, MGS Delta is a dream for fans of the franchise. After creator Hideo Kojima’s departure from Konami 10 years ago, we’ve been left to wonder where the MGS franchise was headed. This remake was handled with care from the ground up, and it’s present in every facet of the title. Konami didn’t try to reinvent anything from Kojima’s original vision other than gameplay systems that have become unwieldy over time.

Outside of a few framerate hiccups on the base PS5 (I played on both PS5 and PS5 Pro, the latter of which is a spectacle to look at on a large 4K screen), the game runs smoothly. It plays well, too, apart from Snake’s movement sometimes feeling clunky or sluggish. For example, Snake contextually sticks to nearby walls, rather than when holding a direction on the analog stick like in the original. This is one of the game’s few misses.

Screenshot by Destructoid

Make no mistake, though, MGS Delta is stunningly gorgeous. I damn near broke the Share button on my PS5 controller, screenshotting everything from mid-gameplay vistas to iconic cutscene shots recreated in UE5. It’s an absolute joy to watch and witness, with special attention given to the game’s lighting effects, which are some of the best I’ve seen.

With the new engine, Snake and the various memorable characters are all brought to new life with more details in their expressions and models than ever before, down to every single hair on Snake’s beard or weird wound on Colonel Volgin’s face.

Some days, you feed on a tree frog

Screenshot by Destructoid

I’m really excited for a new generation of gamers to re-live MGS3 and all of its fun boss battles, intense action sequences, silly quirks, and heartbreaking ending. So many gamers have no idea what’s in store for them, and I can’t wait to see the reactions. And just like the original, MGS3 remains a good entry point for the franchise.

I generally recommend playing the series in release order, but you can easily play this game without any prior knowledge and experience it as a standalone title that could hook you on the rest, and I think that’s what Konami may have in mind with this release.

Every Easter egg from the original is here, including mid-cutscene button presses that allow you to see through Snake’s POV, looking at everything from ghoulish spectres in the background to EVA’s cleavage up close. Yeah, this is the same exact game I grew up with, and it’s still just plain wonderful.

Plus, with this new and powerful graphics engine, the Russian jungle of MGS3 is more detailed than ever. Leaves and dirt kick up when Snake rolls through, mud cakes on his sneaking suit and stays there through cutscenes, and the forest is absolutely teeming with wildlife.

There’s a solid amount of replayability here, too. The game logs everything you collect, including every weapon, item, camouflage, facepaint, and animal you eat, so completionists may feast. There’s also special mini-game modes Snake vs. Monkey or Snake vs. Bomberman (depending on the platform you play on), and a prop hunt-like multiplayer mode coming after launch.

There’s also inevitable replay value in playing and re-playing the game in either the new, over-the-shoulder perspective or with the classic legacy camera, although I think the latter does not feel quite right with the new control scheme.

Screenshot by Destructoid

One other minor difference I must mention is the classic “Snake Eater” theme song by Cynthia Harrell has been re-recorded for this version of the game. The opening title sequence has been re-done, too. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it just stands out from the rest of the remake that’s so dutifully recreated.

Regardless, I will be diving back into MGS Delta for several playthroughs and live streams to re-experience these classic scenes, battles, and moments all over again for a long time to come, while also hunting down every Kerotan frog and GA-KO duck in the wilderness. Welcome back, MGS.

9.5

Superb

A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won’t cause massive damage.

MGS Delta is a must-play for series veterans and newcomers alike. With it, Konami has taken one of gaming’s greatest achievements and respectfully recreated it with little interference other than gorgeous new visuals and a modern-day control scheme to make it more accessible to everyone.

Pros

An all-time classic respectfully reborn
Stunning visuals of a Kojima masterpiece reimagined beautifully with modern tech
Refined, modernized control scheme
Same exact epic voice acting and music as the original
Extra modes and multiple kinds of playthroughs add fun and longevity

Cons

Snake’s movement feels clunky and slow
Legacy camera takes some getting used to with new control scheme
Minor performance issues on base PS5
Over-the-shoulder perspective feels claustrophobic at times

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PS5 and PS5 Pro.

Review Guidelines

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Review – You’re Pretty Good

by admin August 22, 2025

There’s a good chance that, at some point in your life, you’ve been so enamored of a piece of media that you’ve considered what it’d be like to experience it for the first time again. Watching Terminator 2, hearing Enter the Wu-Tang, and reading The Dark Knight Returns shaped who I am and, as a result, I remember the moments I experienced them with crystal clarity. Over time, however, those memories have become divorced from the emotions they stirred and what’s left in their place is a longing for those lost feelings.

Video games are the only medium that I think are capable of making that first-time-again fantasy a reality–or as close to one as we’re going to get. Time puts distance between us and the emotionally significant moments we cherish, but it also brings us closer to exciting technologies that can make the old feel new. In the right hands, those technologies can create opportunities to stoke those profound emotions again, even if it’s just a little. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater does exactly that.

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Now Playing: Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Review

Before getting into what’s new, what can’t be overlooked in making Delta such a good game is the fact that Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remains a compelling, well-told story that has strong characterization and deals with some heavy subject matter. It approaches this with a strange mixture of self-seriousness and complete irreverence that is uniquely Metal Gear Solid and, for my money, balances both parts better than any other entry in the series. The stellar stealth is supported by systems that feed into the fantasy of surviving in the jungle and braving the elements, whether that be hunting for food or patching yourself up after sustaining injuries. Delta replicates it and, in my opinion, is better for it. The excellent work that the original Metal Gear Solid 3 dev team did remains the heart and soul of Delta, and it continues to shine.

Visual changes are the most noticeable contributor to elevating MGS3. While its fresh coat may have been painted on in the most clinical manner possible, that shouldn’t take away from the fact that it makes Metal Gear Solid 3–a third-person stealth-action game about sneaking through jungles, taking out soldiers, and uncovering vast, interlocking Cold War conspiracies–feel alive again.

What impressed me in the original PlayStation 2 release was how the jungle felt like it was teeming with life: numerous species of frogs hop about, snakes slither through grass, the distant sounds of birds, and the too-close buzz of agitated bees, not to mention thickets so dense that I felt like I was lost in an open-world as opposed to being deftly guided through a linear one. After years and countless playthroughs, the child-like wonder it initially inspired faded away, but Delta restores it using the brute force power of the Unreal Engine.

Delta looks absolutely stunning–jaw-dropping at times. In the jungle areas, the environments have the vibrancy and life that you’d expect to come from the naturality of green grass, towering trees, thick mud, decaying bricks, and worn wood, but it never feels artificial and, in fact, feels like it makes good on the Cold War-era, Soviet Union-set vibe in the same way the original did. I have no doubt that there will be discussions about the game’s visuals looking like a dispassionate implementation of Unreal Engine. Despite the fact that games like Fortnite prove it’s a misnomer at this point, Delta at times can look like it has the muted, greyish, brownish industrial footprint that people criticize the Unreal Engine for. But upon closer inspection of both individual details and how all of it coalesces, it becomes evident that skilled artists with a clear vision and direction have poured time and effort into elevating Delta above that.

The Unreal Engine sheen is replaced with touches that come together to give authenticity to the muddy floors, wet stone walls, and metal rusted-looking enough that you worry about Snake getting tetanus. And much of that is reflected on the character models too. Snake’s body–whether you’re wearing clothes or not–will pick up the dirt and grime of whatever he comes into contact with; sometimes even foliage in the environment will stick to him. In a similar fashion, damage is accurately represented on his body and can lead to scars or marks becoming visible. Counterintuitively, playing the game so that you rarely take damage robs you of the opportunity to see this impressive level of detail.

Nevertheless, the takeaway here is that there has undoubtedly been a great deal of work put into the character models. Every single character in the game, from key players like Snake, Eva, Ocelot, and Volgin to less present ones like Sokolov and Granin, or the rank-and-file GRU and Ocelot Unit soldiers, look intricately detailed and, I daresay, lifelike at times. Original MGS3 director Hideo Kojima’s flare for cinematic framing benefits from the new visuals since there are a number of up-close shots of faces or slow-motion movements to intensify action sequences. If you didn’t know that this is exactly how it was in the original, you’d think that Konami was doing all this to show off how good the graphics are in Delta.

If you’re a Metal Gear Solid fan, you’ll be aware of the infamous pachinko machine that gave us a look at The Boss rendered with a level of detail we’d never seen her in before. That elicited a fan response that I’m willing to bet was a factor in getting this remake off the ground–Delta betters that by a considerable margin. The character models look improved and, in particular, the lighting is spectacular. The game takes Snake through a variety of different times of day and cycles through different types of weather, and it’s genuinely impressive how the terrain is impacted and how the overall atmosphere and feel changes. Stepping out into the open in broad daylight when the sun is bearing down left me feeling exposed and desperate to quickly throw myself into nearby grass or behind a wall to cut off sightlines. Sneaking through a jungle at night, with surroundings illuminated only by moonlight and the threat of soldiers suddenly popping up because of limited visibility, was tense, even though I had a good memory of enemy locations and patrol patterns. When the game moves to internal locations such as labs and enemy bases, things become a little less interesting, but still impressive in their visual fidelity. It’s just that, next to the jungle, the interior environments provide fewer opportunities to be wowed as they’re more uniform and predictable.

There are so many details that I want to talk about in Delta, but getting to see just how thorough Konami has been with the visual overhaul is genuinely one of the joys of playing the game. Seeing micromovements of The Fear’s eyes accentuated his reptilian, animalistic nature; Snake’s reflection in The Fury’s glass helmet as he begins his fiery climactic ascent gave me a new level of appreciation for a lot of the character work that Kojima and the team did on the PS2, and there are instances of these kinds of details in every scene. What the limitations of old hardware left to the imagination, the power of modern technology now depicts in glorious detail.

Visuals have taken up the vast majority of this review, and for good reason. Not just because it’s where the most work has been done, but also because, for longtime fans, they’re what is going to be most impactful–those are the people that I think will have the strongest response to what they’re seeing and playing. A great deal of appreciation for what Delta achieves comes from my intimate familiarity with Metal Gear Solid 3–I have played this game so many times that every screen of it is burned into my mind, so seeing what I’m so familiar with but with a level of detail that was simply impossible in the 2000s and, by modern standards, is best-in-class, was often arresting. I’m sure that almost everyone can objectively agree that Delta looks great, but for people like me, the effect of and appreciation for the new visuals goes far beyond. Metal Gear Solid has never looked this good.

What’s more uniformly appreciable for everyone, however, is the new control scheme and the gameplay tweaks implemented to accommodate them. A big part of modernizing MGS3 has been switching to smoother movement and aiming. For the former, Konami has implemented animations and transitions that bring the game closer to the fluidity of Metal Gear Solid 5. Instead of jarringly switching from standing to crouching and then crawling, Snake now naturally moves between the different states and can transition while in motion, which makes navigating environments while using obstacles and hiding opportunities frictionless. Similarly, the way Snake moves his body when laying down and aiming is smooth. It’s not quite as robust as what you can do in MGS5 and crawling can sometimes still feel a bit unwieldy, but it’s vastly improved to the point where it shouldn’t be a stumbling block for anyone new, as it would be if you fired up the original version.

Complementing the freer and more fluid movement is a tighter viewpoint that brings the camera close to Snake, adopting the familiar over-the-shoulder perspective for aiming in third-person. This means you can be far more precise with shots, since Snake, his aiming trajectory, and what you’re aiming at are always in view. Those who haven’t played it may be shocked to hear that wasn’t the case in the original, which had a restricted isometric viewpoint and then more of a controllable camera in the Subsistence version. In both cases, it made for some awkward gameplay moments.

The one trade-off with all this is the fact that this Snake’s newfound efficiency in movement and proficiency with firearms does trivialize a lot of the boss fights, which make up the bulk of the coolest parts of the game. If you’re new to the game, you’ll still find they present a good challenge since each one has quirks that need to be figured out. However, if you know what you’re doing, you can tear through them very quickly. It doesn’t feel like I was able to dispatch them considerably faster than I could if I tried on the PS2 today, but being able to see more, get around more easily, and shoot better means that members of The Cobra Unit feel even more like pushovers now. That is, except for The End; that old geezer is still a geriatric menace.

Delta isn’t completely free of issues. Alongside the new perspective, there is a cover system that has a certain stickiness to it that can be frustrating. It’s not quite the Gears of War glued-to-the-wall level, but more of a gravitational pull towards walls, particularly the corners. That meant that I would accidentally snap into cover when I didn’t intend to, particularly in smaller rooms where the camera is close and there are boxes around Snake. On the one hand, intentionally going into corner cover is appealing since it’s much easier to pop out and fire a shot off with the new over-the-shoulder aiming system, but on the other, I didn’t find myself using that method very much since I could now reliably shoot from the hip or quickly swap into first-person mode and fire off a shot, so all in all, the system ends up getting in the way for me.

When it comes to the other new additions, for the most part they make sense and don’t drastically alter the gameplay experience, instead enhancing it. One is the introduction of a specific button that can be held to enter into a stalking mode that slows Snake’s movements down and makes him much quieter. It can be used when walking, crouch-walking, or crawling. Think of it as the slow-walk that you’d get from tilting the analog stick on the PS2 slightly. Initially, I didn’t really understand why this was necessary and felt it wasn’t that useful since it was so slow. But then I realized it was crucial if you want to sneak up on an enemy to hold them up or get them in a CQC move. The enemies in Delta have better awareness and perception, so if you slow walk or crouch walk behind a soldier without holding the stalking button, they will hear Snake and chaos will quickly erupt. Truthfully, I never got comfortable with getting up close to the extent that I relied on it as a frequent method of engagement like I would in the original; it felt far more risky, which meant when I was attempting a grab or hold-up, I felt more stressed out than I expected. I haven’t felt my palms get sweaty while playing MGS3 in many years, but I was wiping my hands on my pants frequently while playing Delta.

Enemies can now see much farther and have better awareness of what is above or below them. I was surprised to find that I aroused suspicions from positions that I know for sure are safe in the original game, so veterans shouldn’t underestimate soldiers in Delta–they’ve got some new tricks up their sleeves. On top of that, some of the weapons behave a little differently. In particular, as someone who prefers the non-lethal play style and relies on the MK22 for it, physics come into play and bullet drop is more severe, so you can’t easily send tranq darts into heads from long distances. Even at close range, you need to account for changes in trajectory. I went in thinking I could carry on running rings around enemies and putting them to sleep quickly, but found myself burning through ammo reserves and silencers due to the changes in gun behavior. The same goes for recoil on assault rifles and sway on the RPG during the escape sequence–careful where you’re firing those rockets.

The remaining differences come largely as quality-of-life tweaks. A new compass that is accessed from the equipment menu will pop up in the corner and point the way to the next objective when equipped; the life, stamina, and camo index have been moved to the bottom middle of the screen, freeing up the rest of it so you can soak in the visuals; the camo and face paint swap feature can be accessed through a shortcut assigned to the D-pad but uses pre-determined combinations, so there’s still value in going into the full menu and individually selecting your desired outfits. The codec can also be accessed through a D-pad shortcut, which makes getting to the save screen much easier, and you can also tune the radio to specific frequencies from the shortcut too. Finally, when enemies become suspicious or are alerted, an on-screen indicator where the enemy with eyes on you is located. You don’t get the last-chance shot from MGS5, so it’s mainly just a good way to improve situational awareness for the player and, if you’re quick enough, get out of sight.

There are other aspects of Delta that didn’t land for me. For some reason, Konami felt the need to re-record the Snake Eater vocal theme. Admittedly, I don’t dislike it–in fact, Cynthia Harrell’s vocal performance remains top notch–but it just feels… wrong. Again, a lot of that is because of my familiarity with the original and how jarring it is hearing a different version of it. However, it does throw the timing of the iconic ladder climb off slightly. And while the visuals are high-quality, there are moments where blemishes become far more noticeable. At times, there is artifacting around strands of hair when they’re up against certain backgrounds. Eva and The Boss can sometimes look like they’ve got a jumble of pixels stuck to the sides of their heads. And occasionally, there are stutters during cinematic sequences when a lot is going on, as the game lurches to get all the visuals and effects going after a cut.

But these are small idiosyncrasies in a game that has otherwise been made with a clear reverence for the source material. There has been a lot of toxicity around the Metal Gear Solid franchise for a while now, and some of that no doubt lingers and will color the sentiment around Delta. After all, Kojima isn’t involved in Delta and fans of Metal Gear Solid have a longstanding animosity toward Konami because of the high-profile break-up between the two parties, as well as the reported impact the dissolution of the relationship had on Metal Gear Solid 5.

However, it can’t be denied that Konami has done right by Metal Gear Solid 3 with Delta. There’s love put into the project and, at times, it feels like an appeal to fans from likeminded fans at the studio. It’s evident in the details that only longtime Metal Gear obsessives will appreciate: the fact that the game can be played in its original form with the new visuals through the Legacy control options; the various new camos from post-MGS3 titles that are available (though admittedly as DLC); the inclusion of extras such as the new secret theater; the food, camo, and model viewer, as well as Snake Vs. Monkey; or that the Guy Savage minigame, which has been omitted from various HD collections, making its return. It’s legitimately awesome in the new version, which is unsurprising since Platinum Games developed it.

Delta isn’t the first instance of Hideo Kojima’s beloved classic being updated and re-released, but it is the first complete rebuild of MGS3. It successfully modernizes visuals, tweaks game design, and updates controls so that the game sits comfortably alongside its action game contemporaries. From a content perspective, Konami has played it incredibly safe, using the same voice work and music, and leaving the story completely unaltered–effectively making Delta a one-to-one remake. But I can’t fault that, especially when I found myself once again enraptured by Snake’s tortuous mission to pull the world out of nuclear danger and fight for survival in a dangerous jungle. The impact of Konami’s efforts was such that, for eight hours, I wasn’t an adult yearning for the lost feelings that made me love Metal Gear Solid 3; I was the teenager living them for the first time again.

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Guilty Gear Strive Is Getting More Cyberpunk Content Than Lucy

by admin August 21, 2025

Catch me redownloading Guilty Gear Strive, as Lucy from the excellent Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime is joining the roster as a guest character. Arc System Works’ anime fighter is releasing its 1.48 patch tomorrow, August 21, and not only will it come with the usual balance changes and bug fixes, but it will also bring more Cyberpunk content to the game as well. However, there is one downer in the small print.

Lucy is the only Edgerunners character joining the roster, but there will be references to others in the 1.48 patch, with avatars based on Lucy, David, and Rebecca from Edgerunners being made available. Meanwhile, in one of the crossover’s coolest touches, a selection of tracks from Cyberpunk 2077‘s soundtrack will be available as background music for all your fights, regardless of whether or not you’ve paid to play as Lucy. This includes songs by Johnny Silverhand’s band Samurai, such as the lesser version of “Chippin’ In” (should’ve been the superior take by my trashbag boyfriend Kerry Eurodyne), as well as “Never Fade Away.” The best song on the list, however, is “I Really Want to Stay at Your House” by Rosa Walton, arguably the most iconic song from the game and anime. The song accompanies some of Edgerunners’ best moments, and is used to incredible effect. So if you want to have yearning pop perfection playing in the background as you climb up the ranks, you can do that…but only for a limited time.

According to the patch notes, “I Really Want to Stay at Your House” will be removed from Strive in 2027, and that’s as specific as the notes get. The specific end date will be “announced separately,” and “may be moved up without prior notice.” Bummer. Guess you can always play it through the Spotify app?

For more on Guilty Gear Strive’s latest update, check out the full patch notes.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

21 Best Early Labor Day Sales on WIRED-Tested Gear (2025)

by admin August 21, 2025

Labor Day is not until September 1, but retailers are already offering oodles of Labor Day deals. The unofficial end of summer, a celebration of the American worker’s contribution to our national prosperity, brings with it bargains on WIRED-tested gear, including home office essentials and some of our favorite gadgets. For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be cruising and perusing for the latest true discounts on the gear we recommend to our friends—and rounding them all up for you below.

Check our Best Labor Day Mattress Deals and upcoming outdoor gear deals stories for additional savings. We’ve also got some updated roundups for Back to School Deals and Back to School Laptop Deals.

Featured Labor Day Deals

Tech Deals

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

The Sony Bravia 7 II has been on sale for this price for a little while, but we have yet to see it drop lower. It’s in our Best TVs buying guide as the pick with the most immersive picture. It has natural yet vivid colors and excellent picture processing. Reviewer Ryan Waniata says it renders 4K and HD scenes “so clearly you’ll feel like they’re going to spill into your living room.” It could have better black levels and a few more ports, but it’s still an excellent set, especially at this price.

Our favorite electric scooter, the Apollo Go manages to strike an excellent balance between features and price. It weighs 46 pounds and has maximum speeds of 28 miles per hour, though you can tweak top speed, brake strength, and acceleration response in the app. It also has a few extra features like turn signals, a bell, and self-healing tires. We haven’t seen it sell for less.

This is the best price we’ve seen thus far for our favorite Android tablet. It’s not a high-performance powerhouse, but it can handle the tasks that most people need. You can watch videos (even outdoors in bright sunlight), play most games, and use the included stylus to take notes or efficiently browse the web. The battery lasts about 20 hours and only takes about 100 minutes to recharge.

Courtesy of Apple

The Apple iPad (A16, 2025) is the iPad we recommend for most people. It comes in fun colors like blue and yellow, and it’s plenty powerful to handle whatever you’ll throw at it on a day-to-day basis—from playing games to streaming videos to browsing the web. It doesn’t support Apple Intelligence, which may be a blessing or a curse depending on who you ask. It does have a modern bezel design around its 11-inch LCD screen, plus USB-C charging, a Touch ID sensor, and two 12-megapixel cameras—one in the back and one for selfies. It also works with many of the best iPad accessories.

The M4 Apple MacBook Air is the best MacBook for most people. This is the cheapest we’ve seen it. Where some MacBooks are overkill for basic everyday tasks, this lightweight model can handle them with ease—and you won’t be paying for performance that you won’t use. It has a bright display, long battery life, and support for up to two external displays as well as Apple Intelligence. And while you might want something else if you’ll be doing heavy video editing or need a giant screen, the M4 MacBook Air will be capable of handling multiple Google Chrome tabs and apps running in the background. We do wish it had some more ports, but you can always use a USB hub to customize them further.

These are the best noise-canceling earbuds we’ve tried. They have excellent sound quality and battery life, plus solid control options, and they’re comfortable to wear for long periods of time. But where they truly excel is in active noise canceling. They can make a busy subway car or crowded airplane disappear entirely, lending you extra focus or decompression with no effort.

Home and Outdoor Deals

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Branch has made our favorite office chair for years. It has oodles of adjustable elements, including the arms, armrests, seat depth, recline, lumbar support, and seat tilt. The foam cushion seat is comfortable and the mesh backrest is supportive, too. The affordable price tag is icing on the cake, and while it doesn’t go on sale very often, you can save ten percent until the sale ends with code LABORDAY.

If you don’t want to spring for the Ergonomic Chair Pro, this is the best budget-friendly office chair and an option worth considering. It’s very easy to assemble and there are a few adjustable areas for a better fit—the armrests, seat, recline, and lumbar support can all be dialed in. There are some fun fabric color options, like blue and orange, though the upholstery does tend to pill and is a magnet for pet hair. Even with its quirks, it will be a definite upgrade if you’re still working from the ratty chair you picked up off Craigslist when you first built your home office.

Sitting all day is bad for you! This telescoping desk can be raised up as high as 45 inches, with simple setup and two available sizes. It comes in a few different finishes. The leg motors aren’t the quietest, but they work well, and the desk looks great in any setup. For additional recommendations, check our home office buying guide.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

This coupon code gets you 20 percent off almost everything on Humanscale’s website. Humanscale makes some of the best office chairs. The Freedom Headrest is the best reclining office chair, and it drops from $1,743 to $1,394 with code SEMIANNUAL20. Editor Julian Chokkattu said, “this chair gracefully supports my back like a mother gently laying a baby in a crib.” We also like the Humanscale Path, which is great for tight spaces and even comes in armless versions. It falls from $1,294 to $1,035 after code.

The Silk & Snow S&S Organic Mattress is our favorite organic latex mattress. The latex-wrapped coils help to alleviate any tension or pressure points while you’re sleeping, and it’s especially great for side sleepers. Check our roundup of Labor Day Mattress Deals for additional expert recommendations.

This is the bed frame I’m currently using, and I love it very much. Assembly wasn’t my favorite, but once I got it all put together, I fell in love. It has a drawer at the foot of the bed that’s handy for storing extra linens or off-season clothing, and it’s sturdy too. I also appreciate that the platform lets me maneuver my mattress easily so I don’t have to fight to change my sheets.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

This well-made, luxurious sofa is one of the best couches you can buy online. Operations Manager Scott Gilbertson called it the best-looking and most comfortable couch he’s ever sat on. The website lets you order swatches and pick the layout you want, and you can even get a full-size printout to make sure the couch will look right in your living space. There are dozens of options for upholstery, legs, and cushion fill, so you can create the couch of your dreams. For a more affordable option, we also like the Benchmade Modern Laguna (pictured above) on sale for $2,397 ($599 off). “My family and I have been sitting on it for a year and a half now, and the single cushion (as well as the rest of the couch’s cushions) is comfortable and supportive,” says reviewer Nena Farrell.

Breeo makes the best upgrade fire pit. The American-made pit has a fire bowl that’s two feet wide, so it’ll fit pre-cut wood, and there are a ton of accessories available. (We especially like the live-fire pizza oven, on sale for $723—a $128 discount). The hefty, sturdy base and natural patina (on the Corten steel option) make this a centerpiece worthy of any backyard.

This is featured in our guide to the Best Kitchen Composters. It has the fastest compost breakdown of any model we tried. It has some quirks, like a lid that requires two hands to open and the machine’s tendency to make a loud whirring noise as it works. But it’s a great-entry level kitchen composter, and it doesn’t drop in price very often.

Courtesy of Ooni

The Ooni Volt is the very best electric pizza oven. It can heat up to 850 degrees Fahrenheit, and the triple-pane glass door always lets you see what’s going on. And while you might miss out on some of the vibes that come with a fire-powered oven, the Volt can safely be used indoors and outdoors—so you won’t have to brave the coming winter chill (or supply propane refills) to get your paws on some good ‘za.

Hydroviv makes one of the best shower water filters we’ve tested. The bacteriostatic showerhead was able to filter total chlorine down to undetectable levels in reviewer Matthew Korfhage’s chloramine-treated water system. This deal is for the automatically-replenishing subscription bundle. Hydroviv says you should replace filters every six months, but you can pause or cancel that subscription if you decide you want to order them separately.

WIRED Reviews Editor Julian Chokkattu tested and loved this outdoor couch and armchair set. The couches come with OuterShell, which is a built-in cover that helps protect the couch cushions from the elements (and stray bird poops). The performance fabric is made from recyclable materials, and the covers are machine washable. Julian still has to see how the couch fares New York winters, but so far, it’s sturdy and comfortable. We like that the couch is made with Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood. It’s also backed by a ten-year warranty and available in four different fabric options.

Photograph: Martin Cizmar

We really like this cooler from RTIC, and clipping the on-page coupon gets you 10 percent off the normal price, bringing it within $10 of the best discount we’ve seen. The rotomolded 45-quart cooler is heavy, but the padded handles make carrying it easier, and tester Martin Cizmar hasn’t experienced any issues with ice retention. And unlike coolers from Yeti, this one actually has its full listed capacity available inside. All the better to store your beer.

We’ve recommended the Albany Park Barton in our Couch Buying Guide for years. It’s soft and supportive, with deep seats and wide arms so you can put down your coffee cup or phone without needing an extra table. There are many different fabrics to choose from, and you can choose the stain of the wooden legs too. Assembly wasn’t too difficult—just be prepared to take out a lot of recycling afterward. The couch also comes with a 30-day trial so you can try it before committing.

Home Depot is offering up to 35 percent off a variety of appliances for Labor Day, including washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, dishwashers, and various bundles. This discount also applies to a few robot vacuums that we like from Roborock and iRobot, as well as a large selection of window air conditioners we recommend. If you’re in the market for a new home appliance, this sale is worth checking out.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments