Tag:

neat

The Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro in a sunny outdoor setting.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: a few neat features don’t save these problem-plagued open earbuds

by admin September 28, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

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

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro: Two-minute review

“I can hear your music,” is something my mother used to tell me when I was young, worried that I’d damage my hearing by cranking my music too loud, and it’s something I’ve heard from multiple people since I started testing even the best open earbuds.

These safety-focused open-fit headphones don’t put the earbud in your ear but just outside it, letting you hear surrounding sounds – but until the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro came along, this also meant that people around you could hear the distant ring of your tunes too.

No more! Xiaomi’s sophomore open-ear offering fixes the problem, with a bespoke 10mm driver that’s designed to eradicate sound leakage, and does a decent job at stopping bystanders hearing your music. My local park was no longer regaled by early-morning Busted and Hansen sprints, which I’m sure the community was overjoyed with.

That driver’s just one of five nestled into each earbud, a surprising spec given that most earbuds have one and even top-end ones have only two or three, and you can see them arranged in a flower-like pattern on each bud. But my first-glance comparison between this layout and the look of the five-camera Nokia 9 PureView, which was the first smartphone to use this many rear sensors, continues further than I’d like. Just as that phone offered a packed spec-sheet that didn’t deliver as promising results in testing, the OpenWear Stereo Pro may have the hardware but can’t seem to make good on it to stand a cut above the rest.

For most of my testing, I listened on the default sound profile and the buds sounded awful, really tinny and compressed – luckily I discovered that changing to one of the other few audio presets clears up lots of my problems, adding depth and range, and I wish I hadn’t written most of this review before discovering that! Oh well, a few hours of rewrites gave me more time to review the buds.

That extra testing time didn’t give me extra insight on the design, which isn’t quite as robust or rigid as open-ears need to be for gym users. Doing exercises that don’t see me stand upright like sit-ups, skull-crushers or anything reclined saw gravity drag the buds away from my ears, though thankfully they were okay when running or cycling.

It’s in the feature set that Xiaomi goes some way in winning me over. I’ve already mentioned the sound leak suppression system but the company has also brought back an easily-toggled voice note recording system, which I’ve found really useful in quickly letting me leave reminders to myself.

Despite winning points back, though, the Stereo Pro level out as being ‘fine’ buds, instead of the solid ones they’d need to be to compete in this rapidly-growing and hotly contested market.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Price and release date

(Image credit: Future)

Available from September 24, 2025
Costs £139.99 (roughly $180, AU$280)
In line with most open-ears

The Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro were announced in September 2025 at a launch event by the company, which also included the Xiaomi 15T smartphone, some new versions of existing wearables and a few other bits and pieces.

The earbuds cost £139.99 (roughly $180, AU$280). A US release is unlikely given precedent, and an Australian one is possible due to Xiaomi releasing some of its earbuds there, but not guaranteed.

That price puts the Stereo Pro in line with most other open-ears, which generally sit between £100 and £160 (or $/AU$ equivalent), though some of our favorite options sit at the lower end of that spectrum. More on that in the Competition section below.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Drivers

Tweeter + 2x balanced armatures + 18x13mm dynamic driver + 10mm driver

Active noise cancellation

Battery life (ANC off)

8.5 hours (buds) 45 hours (case)

Weight

9.7g (buds) 72g (case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Waterproofing

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

Two useful features
Presets, but no equalizer
8.5 hours of listening per charge

Xiaomi puts the battery life of the OpenWear Stereo Pro at 8.5 hours for the buds, a figure which my own testing gave me no reason to doubt. The charging case bumps that up to 45 hours and both are slightly above average, the case figure to a commendable degree.

The Xiaomi Earbuds app for your phone or tablet gives you some extra control over your buds, with the ability to customise touch controls and jump between a few sound profiles (like EQ presets, but without there being an actual EQ). I’ll mention these in more detail later but it’s not quite as much as customization as other buds give you.

The flashy feature that’s designed to make the Stereo Pro stand out from the crowd is a driver which is designed to stop sound leaking. By ‘leaking’, I mean music from the buds that people around you can hear, which is both annoying for them and embarrassing for you (especially if your music taste is poor but trust me, we’re all judging you).

From my testing (and my partner’s, due to her being my guinea pig) the feature does a decent job at reducing sound leaking. It doesn’t totally remove it and sound leaking is still apparent, but it downplays open earbuds’ natural tendency to spread music around (due to the design). It’s most efficient in public areas where it brings your music just quiet enough to be drowned out by background noises.

Another feature present, that Xiaomi has ported over from its standard earbuds, is a recording mode. You can enable this with a gesture command, and it records audio from the buds or, apparently, a built-in speaker in the case.

It’s a useful feature for people who like to record their own voice notes on the go (let’s be honest: it’s a lot easier than using your phone’s notes app) but many countries have laws against recording unawares people, so you’ve been warned.

Throughout testing, I bumped up against a problem that seemed to be a connectivity one, rather than a sound one, though it did affect the audio. Now and then the buds would jump between tunings, from the usual one to an extra-compressed one and back again after a few seconds. There was no way of controlling or pre-empting this. I put it down to a connectivity issue because from time to time the buds would also lose connection for a few moments, a problem likely linked.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

Very shiny earbuds
Comfortable to wear but unreliable hold
Hardy carry case

If you’re familiar with the look of open earbuds, the thing that’ll hit you about the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro is just how shiny they are. The counterweight and bud both come with a sheen so clean you can do your hair in them, making them look really rather premium. You can pick up the buds in gray, white or, like my test unit, rose gold.

And if we’re making judgements based on appearance, seeing the five drivers on the other side, complete with the text ‘5-driver sound system, designed by Xiaomi’ makes a loud statement about the buds’ audio quality.

Each bud weighs 9.7g, which is a little more than some rivals I’ve tested, but it doesn’t tell. They’re comfortable to wear for long gym sessions or trips, though when I wore them for my workout the bud would often move away from my ear if I leant down or lay down. I’ve found this problem in a few other open-ears and it seems to happen most when the material connecting the bud and counterweight is weak, and therefore unable to hold the bud rigidly.

The case is an oval clamshell that retains your color choice from the bud – and again, has a little ‘designed by Xiaomi’ in case you forget who made it (the name appears four times across the case and buds, not counting a little removable information sticker on the case).

Strong magnets grip the Stereo Pro when you put them in the case, so I never needed to fuss much about putting them in perfectly, which was handy when I wanted to sheathe the Xiaomi in a hurry. Features of the case include a USB-C charging port and pairing button but not much else.

Pre-release information provided to TechRadar didn’t mention an IP rating for the buds or case, so keep them safe from rain.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Sound quality

Five drivers per bud
Default sound profile is bad
Low max volume

(Image credit: Future)

A glance at the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro’s specs list sets up high expectations for the buds’ audio chops, and that’s because each bud has a startling five drivers (most rivals have one).

There’s a tweeter for refining treble, dual balanced armatures aimed again at higher-frequency tones, an 18x13mm dynamic driver that’s targeted at bass and the aforementioned 10mm sound leak reducer. And if that overwhelming hardware list somehow doesn’t impress you, perhaps the support for Hi-Res Audio and LDAC, SBC and AAC codecs will.

After reading all those specs, seeing the five drivers individually presented on the earbuds in a distinct way, and setting up my expectations fittingly, I was pretty shocked to discover that the Stereo Pro don’t sound good at all. In fact, I wrote a pretty scathing review of the sound – and then connected the buds to the phone app (not available immediately because I had early access to my review sample), changed from the default sound profile and found most of my issues vanish. If you’ve just bought these buds, make this change straight away.

In their default sound profile, the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro sound tinny, compressing a multitude of instruments into one sound and losing the details from almost all of them. In rock songs instruments like rhythm guitar, accompaniment keys and backing vocals are muddled and drum lines and more prominent guitar lines are akin to sleigh bells for how jangling they sound. Reverb fills the space that a detailed soundstage should take up.

Changing from the default sound profile really widens instruments, as well as the soundstage (though if you’re a masochist, the in-app toggle to increase the dynamic range turns the tinniness up to 11). It doesn’t make audio sound great, but it brings it in line with other open-ears.

The drivers’ emphasis on higher-end audio helps vocals and guitar solos stand out, and while there’s sufficient bass it sounds ill-defined and loose unless you fix it in the equalizer. Most of the time, it turns songs into a wall of distorted sound in which you can’t make up the textural details. I can see some listeners being okay with this aspect of the buds, especially ones who like high-powered metal music, but bear in mind that if you try head-banging these buds are going to go flying.

The buds don’t even go very loud, so I sometimes struggled to hear music when I was nearby a road.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Value

(Image credit: Future)

Your money could go further
…unless you want those features

As mentioned before, the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro sit around the average price of open earbuds, and also as mentioned, there’s lots of competition.

In fact, some of our favorite options are cheaper, making Xiaomi’s offering feel hard to recommend given that its performance also doesn’t match up.

The exception to this is whether or not the buds’ features sound enough to win you over, but for me, the sound quality is a sticking point.

Should I buy the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro?

(Image credit: Future)Swipe to scroll horizontallyXiaomi Openwear Stereo Pro score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

The decent battery life and useful extras make up for the wobbly connection.

4/5

Design

The buds are flashy and shiny with handy touch controls but the buds aren’t held in place reliably.

3.5/5

Sound quality

The Stereo Pro gives unconvincing sound, even when you’ve turned off the poor default mode.

3/5

Value

There’s bound to be something that works better within your budget… unless the features appeal to you.

3/5

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Xiaomi Openwear Stereo Pro review: Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontallyHeader Cell – Column 0

Xiaomi Openwear Stereo Pro

Huawei FreeArc

Honor Earbuds Open

Technics EAH-AZ100

Drivers

Tweeter + 2x balanced armatures + 18x13mm dynamic driver + 10mm driver

17x12mm

16mm

17x12mm

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Battery life

8.5 hours (buds) 45 hours (case)

7 hours (buds) 28 hours (total)

6 hours (buds) 40 hours (total)

7.5 hours (buds) 38.5 hours (case)

Weight

9.7g / charging case: 72g

8.9g / charging case: 67g

7.9g / charging case: 52.5g

9.6g / charging case: 88g

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.2

Bluetooth 5.4

Waterproofing

IP57

IP54

How I tested the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro

(Image credit: Future)

Tested for two weeks
Tested at home, in the office, on runs, at the gym and while cycling

I used the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro for two weeks before writing this review, which is the standard TechRadar testing time.

During the testing period I used the buds at home, on walks around my neighborhood, on runs, at the gym, while cycling and on busy public transport. I paired them to my Android smartphone and most of the testing was done on Spotify and Netflix.

I’ve been reviewing gadgets for TechRadar for nearly six years, which has included lots of Xiaomi gadgets in the past. For the last year I’ve been reviewing countless open earbuds, and so have a lot of experience in the area with which to compare the Xiaomis.

First reviewed in September 2025

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro: Price Comparison

Source link

September 28, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Turtle Beach Racer review: a top budget-friendly option with some very neat ideas

by admin September 27, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

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

Turtle Beach Racer: One-minute review

The Turtle Beach Racer absolutely has the potential to shake up the entry-level racing wheels market. Sim race enthusiasts need not apply; the Racer is a relatively basic offering that ditches higher-end features like force feedback and on-screen displays – the likes of which we see from the Thrustmaster T248R et al. But for more arcade-adjacent racing games like Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Forza Horizon 5, the Racer is a bit of a cheat code to unlocking even more fun from such titles.

I’ve had a blast testing the Turtle Beach Racer over the past week. Don’t let its relatively low price point fool you; it boasts surprisingly good build quality and is impressively versatile to boot.

While a pair of clamps on the base means you can mount the wheel on a desk, the inclusion of a pair of lap rests allows you to sit back and essentially use the Racer more like a traditional controller if you prefer to play on the couch. That’s driven (hehe) home even more with the addition of wireless connectivity via a 2.4GHz dongle compatible with Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC. No PlayStation-compatible version exists at the time of writing.

Put simply, the Turtle Beach Racer is one of the best Xbox racing wheels I’ve tested in a while. There are some small issues, like the slight bump you’ll feel every time the wheel travels past neutral, and the lack of a pedal set (you’ll instead use the rear paddles for acceleration and braking by default) puts a dampener on immersion. But overall, this is a very impressive package for the price, and makes for a great product for first-time wheel owners or younger players.

(Image credit: Future)

Turtle Beach Racer: Price and availability

$179.99 / £139.99 / AU$299
Available to buy now
Pricier than some budget models, but comfortably under the mid-range bracket

The Turtle Beach Racer is available to buy now for $179.99 / £139.99 / AU$299. It’s on the higher end of that budget ballpark, but it is comfortably more affordable than mid-range wheels that offer more features like the Thrustmaster T248R and the Logitech G923. It’s also costlier than similar budget wheels like the Hori Racing Wheel Apex ($119.99 / £99.99), though I do prefer what’s on offer here with the Racer at a slightly higher asking price.

Turtle Beach Racer: Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Price

$179.99 / £139.99 / AU$299

Weight

7.5lbs / 3.4kg

Dimensions

11.7 x 11.1 x 10.9in x 297 x 282 x 277mm

Rotation

360 degrees

Connection type

Wireless (2.4GHz), Wired (USB-C)

Compatibility

Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC

Battery life

Around 30 hours

Turtle Beach Racer: Design and features

As I mentioned in my initial Turtle Beach Racer preview at Gamescom 2025, it was the product’s build quality that immediately surprised me. It’s not something that many budget-facing wheels are known for, and while the Racer’s build is primarily plastic, it’s of a good quality. Plus, there are a number of flourishes that take the overall build up a notch.

The steering wheel’s rubberized textured grips are extremely welcome, allowing for a slip-free racing experience. The lap rests, meanwhile, are metallic and have a satisfying weight to them. They each have a strip of textured rubber, allowing them to sit firmly in place. The lap rests can be adjusted, too, meaning you won’t necessarily need to squish your thighs together. I preferred to place mine as far out as they could go, and was able to sit comfortably in my Razer Fujin Pro office gaming chair while playing.

On-board buttons aren’t particularly anything to write home about, but they feel good to press and are all within reach of the wheel itself. There’s a good amount here, too. You’re getting a d-pad, face buttons, and three multifunction buttons that you can assign to your preference.

A pair of pressure-sensitive paddles sit on either side of the wheel, and they’re impressively sturdy. That’s important, because you are likely going to use these for acceleration and braking in the absence of a set of pedals. These are the left and right trigger equivalents on the best Xbox controllers, and were assigned as such across all games I tested.

(Image credit: Future)

Turtle Beach Racer: Performance

I have very limited desk space at my home office, so I personally think that the inclusion of lap rests with the Turtle Beach Racer is a great, forward-thinking addition to the overall package. What’s important to note here, in relation to performance, is that I felt no loss of control in using the lap rests over the more traditional desk clamps. And having tested both methods for this review, either of them is a fine choice for your racing sessions.

Initially, I did feel as if the default wheel sensitivity was a bit on the low side, across titles like Forza Horizon 5 and Tokyo Xtreme Racer. However, this was quickly remedied with the Turtle Beach Control Center 2 software, which you can download on PC and Xbox consoles. Here, I was able to adjust sensitivity and remap buttons to my liking.

Another issue I had with the wheel is the slightly uncomfortable bump sensation when it returns to neutral. Let go of the wheel, and it snaps back to its default center position almost immediately. This means that while turning left to right, you will feel a bit of a hitch as it passes that neutral zone. I got used to it after an hour or two, but it’s something to keep in mind if you were hoping for an ultra-smooth racing experience.

Besides this hiccup, the Racer is an incredibly enjoyable racing wheel. The pressure-sensitive paddles are a delightful addition and are a decent substitute for pedals if you don’t mind the loss of immersion or tactility. Being able to apply specific amounts of pressure here made several things easier between games, such as drifting in Forza Horizon 5 and long-term tire management in F1 25. If the lap rests are the big winning feature here, then the paddles are certainly the unsung heroes of the package.

I also have to mention the Racer’s wireless performance, and it’s another area the product seriously impressed me. Turtle Beach estimates that the wheel can go up to 30 hours on a full charge. I find this to be accurate, as I didn’t have to charge the device until the tail end of my week of testing.

(Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the Turtle Beach Racer?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Also consider…

Not sold on the Turtle Beach Racer? Here are a couple of similarly priced alternatives worthy of your consideration.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyRow 0 – Cell 0

Turtle Beach Racer

Hori Racing Wheel Apex

Logitech G920

Price

$179.99 / £139.99 / AU$299

$119.99 / £99.99 (around AU$183)

$299.99 / £349.99 / AU$549.95

Weight

7.5lbs / 3.4kg

3.09lbs / 1.4kg

4.96lbs / 2.25kg

Dimensions

11.7 x 11.1 x 10.9in x 297 x 282 x 277mm

11 x 10.8 x 11.3 / 280 x 275 x 286mm

10.6 x 10.2 x 10.9 / 270 x 260 x 278mm

Rotation

360 degrees

270 degrees

900 degrees

Connection type

Wireless (2.4GHz), Wired (USB-C)

USB-A

Compatibility

Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC

PS5, PS4, PC

Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC

(Image credit: Future)

How I tested the Turtle Beach Racer

Tested for one week
Tested across Xbox Series X and PC
Played a wide variety of racing titles

I tested the Turtle Beach Racer over the course of a week, playing titles on Xbox Series X Digital Edition and my gaming PC. Games I played with the racing wheel include Forza Horizon 5, Tokyo Xtreme Racer, Old School Rally, and F1 25.

While lacking the multitude of buttons and immersive features that make it worthwhile for sim racing, I found the Turtle Beach Racer to be ideal for more casual, arcade-like experiences. In that regard, features like the lap rests and pressure-sensitive paddles made for an easy and comfortable testing period, and above all, a very fun one.

Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush review: neat, but should’ve been free

by admin September 15, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

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

Had Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush been released as a free update, I would be singing its praises.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: September 12, 2025

After all, if I had one complaint with Donkey Kong Bananza in the weeks since it launched, it’s that there’s no real reason to keep coming back for more after the credits roll, and this new downloadable content (DLC) expansion remedies that somewhat by bringing back the fan-favorite Donkey Kong Island and introducing a replayable side mode to dive into.

Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo Switch) (Switch) at Amazon for $84.99

It’s an enjoyable diversion for a couple of hours and gives you a delightful excuse to rediscover some of the best locations from the main game, but for $19.99 / £16.99, the content on offer is just too slim to fully recommend.

That’s the exact same price as the recently launched Drag X Drive and most Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrades, not to mention indie titans like Hollow Knight: Silksong if you venture outside the first-party catalog – all of which would be better value purchases.

Switching sides

(Image credit: Nintendo)

The entirety of DK Island & Emerald Rush takes place after the main game, with the new DK Island layer appearing the next time you visit the Eelevator. Situated on the surface, a short distance from Ingot Isle, the map is a novel interpretation of how the setting appeared in the original Donkey Kong Country. It’s a joy to explore for a little bit, with memorable landmarks like Donkey Kong’s little hit and the massive Kong head-shaped volcano sure to delight long-time fans.

There’s loads of gold to hoover up, particularly in the smattering of small challenge levels hidden in its various nooks and crannies, which makes it all feel like a fitting celebration now that you’ve finished the game.

Unfortunately, there’s very little to do beyond exploration. There are a few locations clearly designed for taking screenshots in the photo mode with the likes of Diddy Kong and Cranky Kong, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that there’s no real progression like a standard Bananza stage. There aren’t even any enemies to defeat, which leaves it all feeling rather empty.

Most of your time on DK Island is clearly meant to be spent in the Emerald Rush mode, accessed by visiting Void Kong on a wrecked piledriver adjacent to the island. There’s a sliver of story content, with Donkey Kong and Pauline unwillingly drafted into joining Void Company in order to collect a new emerald substance, and then you’re thrust straight into it.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

In the mode, you run around a past level in which all of the existing gold has been turned into bright green emerald. Your task is to smash through it quickly and hoover up as much as possible within ten timed rounds, meeting a certain threshold in each in order to continue into the next.

Void Kong feeds you objectives as you go, which usually boil down to defeating some special green enemies that have spawned on the map or completing a quick task like dipping yourself in water or using a nearby barrel launcher.

Completing objectives or collecting one of the now green Fossils or Banandium gems lets you choose a perk, mainly centered around increasing your rate of Emerald collection.

There are a decent number of them, and they stack in interesting ways, leading to some satisfying rogue-like progression. On one run, for example, each enemy I defeated at full health would result in a deluge of Emerald thanks to multiple similar bonuses, and on another, I earned hundreds of times the usual reward for each completed objective.

Climbing the corporate ladder

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Finishing Emerald Rush runs awards Banandium Chips that can be spent placing statues of characters on DK Island.

There’s no real way to interact with these statues beyond bashing or throwing them, so this whole addition feels completely superfluous unless your idea of enjoyment is tossing around an inanimate idol of Squarks the Parrot.

Best bit

(Image credit: Nintendo)

The new clothing items here are really strong. My favorite new addition equips Donkey Kong with a swinging Void Co employee badge – complete with an adorable picture of him and Pauline.

Thankfully, there is a much meatier progression system tied to your current employee rating, which increases with each successful run. Working your way up the ranks gives you the chance to return to other past maps (there are a total of six), puts new perks into rotation, and unlocks some cool Void Co outfits to wear.

Beyond messing around with the option to increase the difficulty of each Emerald Rush run, which raises the required quota to progress and removes some starting abilities, there’s really not much else to this DLC, and you’re going to have had your fill after just a few hours. The perks add plenty of variety, but many of the objectives in Emerald Rush are quite samey and mean that it gets stale before you’ve even managed to max out your employee level.

What’s here certainly isn’t terrible by any means and does successfully extend the game’s overall runtime, particularly if you want to unlock everything, but it’s not unreasonable to expect something more substantial at this price.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Should I play Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

As an expansion, Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush has the same suite of accessibility features as the base game. This means you can access an assist mode, which makes the game easier overall, in addition to the various difficulty options for each Emerald Rush run.

Camera controls can also be inverted, and your main actions can be customized using some presets. Subtitles are enabled by default.

How I reviewed Donkey Kong Bananza

I spent over three hours in the DK Island & Emerald Rush expansion using a Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld mode using the standard Joy-Con 2 controllers and the system’s built-in speakers.

Having written our Donkey Kong Bananza review, I compared my experience to that of the base game and carefully considered the value for money offered by this DLC compared to other Nintendo releases and various Nintendo Switch 2 games.

First reviewed September 2025

Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo Switch): Price Comparison

Source link

September 15, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ next update adds in a cool staff, Ezio’s threads, and some neat quality of life bits

by admin September 11, 2025

You want an Assassin’s Creed Shadows update? You’ve got an Assassin’s Creed Shadows update! Well, you will tomorrow, September 11th anyway, but Ubisoft did release the patch notes for the action game in any case. Here’s what you can expect for the Assassin’s Creed Shadows 1.1.1 title update! First up is the fact that the game will be ready for its first expansion, Claws of Awaji, which is due out next week, September 16th. The level cap is also being raised to 100 to account for the expansion!

For everyone who won’t be picking up the expansion, there is a new free story quest, Go With The Bo. Here you’ll join Junjiro as he sets out to meet a legendary Bo master and a new weapon that Naoe can use, the Bo staff. There’s also new hideout upgrades, including two more upgrade levels, 20 new enhancements, and three new Hideout levels. Upgrading the Nando to level two will now give you the ability to meditate and move the time forward to the next six o’clock, AM or PM.

If you upgrade the study to level four, scouts will now have the ability to reveal viewpoints and safehouses, and with upgrading the Kakurega to the same level, uncovering all viewpoints within a province reveals it completely.

There are two new gear quality tiers that you can upgrade your kit to if you’ve got your forge to level six, called mythic and artifact. “Once an item reaches a new quality, it can be further upgraded through eight additional levels to unlock its full potential,” the patch notes explain.

Ubisoft still can’t seem to let go of Ezio either, as in the Animus Hub there are some fresh rewards for a new project called Sanctuary. These include Ezio’s outfit, Ezio’s outfit but for a cat, an Ezio-themed kusarigama, and a Charm of Firenze trinket.

There are also new anomalies to be found in Awaji if you own the expansion, and cutscenes are no longer limited to 30 FPS. You’ll also find a number of other fixes and tweaks, but you can read the full patch notes to learn about those small details.

Source link

September 11, 2025 0 comments