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Marvel Rivals Season 3: Phoenix gritting her teeth as she's pinned to the ground by Hela, who's out of frame.

Marvel Rivals dev’s transparent, 18-minute breakdown of how ranked isn’t rigged fails to placate players who hate losing

by admin August 22, 2025

To prove to the growing number of players who think Marvel Rivals’ ranked mode is rigged or somehow unfair, the official X account dropped a video that reveals a surprising amount of detail about why that’s totes not the case.

Lead combat designer Zhiyong spends a packed 18 minutes explaining the math that determines how high you climb based on ranked wins and how the matchmaking system tries to create fair games. The gist is that Marvel Rivals works like a lot of other competitive games, but because there are six-player teams and a roster of wildly different heroes it has to do some guesswork that won’t always lead to perfectly balanced matches.

It’s true that you might be put on a team with people who aren’t as good as you, but the system takes that into account when calculating how much a win or loss is worth. A player who performs much better than their team and still loses won’t be punished as hard, for example. But as you go up in ranks, personal performance isn’t weighted as heavily in the calculation.

Your individual performance on a hero is compared to every other player on the same hero at the same rank. The system then combines the averages for all your teammates and determines your team’s total average skill level. In a match where your team’s level is higher than the enemy team’s, you’ll gain fewer competitive points for winning and drop more points for losing.

The matchmaking system tries to match teams with the closest skill levels and will do its best to pit groups of players against other groups rather than people playing solo. But because of the number of variables with server regions and fluctuating skill levels, the teams are rarely perfectly even.

We’ve heard your feedback on matchmaking and ranking in Marvel Rivals, and your voices matter! Check out our Lead Combat Designer, Zhiyong, as he shares our developer insights on the matchmaking and ranking system. Watch the full video to see the systems behind the game! pic.twitter.com/OmErw2WMgU August 21, 2025

Anyone who has heard Blizzard talk about Overwatch’s ranked system will be familiar with a lot of this. Marvel Rivals isn’t very different apart from the fact that it doesn’t have a way to queue for a specific role you want to play, which Zhiyong says wouldn’t actually fix the problem of unbalanced matches.

However, Zhiyong doesn’t address what would happen if Marvel Rivals introduced placement matches to calibrate your skill level up front instead of gradually over time. Many players believe that this would make matches fairer when ranks are reset every season. It sounds like the studio has considered it, according to a reply from executive producer Danny Koo on X where he said he’s “on the placement side of things.”

There aren’t any huge revelations in the video if you’re familiar with competitive games. Zhiyong lays out what looks to be a fairly standard system for hero shooters, and he re-confirms that the game doesn’t use Engagement Optimized Matchmaking (EOMM) that ignores your skill level and feeds you wins to keep you hooked.

Even with the surprisingly in-depth explanation, not everyone is happy. Such is the curse of competitive games, I guess. There will always be players who believe the system is built to punish you with idiot teammates and loss streaks and not that probability plays a larger role than they’d think. Not that there isn’t room for improvement, but assuming there’s a way to achieve perfectly balanced matches for every single player is wishful thinking.

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

‘Star Trek’ Journalists, Ranked

by admin August 22, 2025

The potential for what journalism looks like in Star Trek is a heady idea that’s been around as long as the series itself. What does reporting the news look like in utopia? What does it mean that the Federation has its own news networks, alongside a host of interstellar media organizations? What does freedom of information mean in a universe that has Starfleet? And yet, we’ve actually had very few characters appear in the series as fully dedicated journalists and reporters.

That changed a little with this week’s episode of Strange New Worlds, “What Is Starfleet?”, which, well… okay, yeah. It was pretty atrocious journalism. But Mynor Lüken’s Beto Ortegas joins a rarefied crew of professional media in Star Trek to have significant roles in the series, for better or worse. So speaking of for better, at least, let’s take a look at who’s got their press hat on tightest in the arena of boldly going.

9) Beto Ortegas

Again, you should probably just read our recap of “What Is Starfleet?” to see why Beto is ranked here. There’s certainly an argument to be made that not necessarily all documentary filmmakers are journalists, but it’s pretty clear that Beto was, at least, trying to engage in investigative journalism in documenting life aboard Enterprise and its reflection of the Federation’s role. Emphasis on the trying there, because what he did really, really sucked!

8) Gannet

On the one hand, Gannet probably shouldn’t be on here. Her job as a journalist was in fact deep cover for her real work with Starfleet Intelligence during the events of Enterprise‘s fourth season—work that got her accused by Archer of potentially being a member of the human-supremacist group Terra Prime. On the other, while ostensibly acting as a journalist, Gannet did both wiretap translator devices at a conference to record attending delegates and, through Mayweather, did ultimately engage in a sexual relationship with a source while purportedly working on a story about the NX-01. Slightly different realm of ethics for an intelligence operative, but definitely not ideal for her cover story in journalism.

7) Natima Lang

Better known for her appearance in the Deep Space Nine episode “Profit and Loss” as a then-current professor of political ethics on Cardassia (and in actuality a radical member of the dissident movement fleeing the wrath of the Cardassian high command), Lang was previously a correspondent for the Cardassian Communication Service during the occupation of Bajor, working directly on Terok Nor. Unfortunately, it’s during that assignment that she met and fell in love with Quark, who promptly used her press access codes to directly steal money from the Cardassian government.

Good for Quark (although he was obviously not stealing from the Cardassian occupation forces for altruistic reasons), but deeply embarrassing for Lang.

6) Neelix

Neelix briefly dabbles in the world of independent journalism early on in Voyager, when he attempts to kickstart a daily news program aboard the ship in “Investigations” called A Briefing With Neelix. Although Neelix does attempt to rigorously defend his hard pivot from general interest puff pieces to investigative journalism when he breaks the news that Tom Paris had purportedly been removed from the ship for collaborating with the Kazon, even when pressured by Tuvok to drop his investigation, ultimately he does end up collaborating with Captain Janeway and Tuvok to allow A Briefing With Neelix to be used as bait to catch the real collaborator, Michael Jonas. Can you be state media if the state is a single starship?

5) Sylvia Ront

Do you know how bad everyone below Sylvia Ront on this list has to be at journalism to not even get past a character with a handful of minutes of screentime who simply just reads the broadcast news?

4) Jake Sisko

On the one hand, Jake gets away with an awful lot of his mistakes as a reporter for the Federation News Service on account of being a literal teenager on the front lines of one of the deadliest interstellar conflicts ever seen by the Federation. Hell, he reports from aboard the Defiant during military engagements and even willingly stays behind on the Dominion-occupied DS9 to report the stories of what is really going on there when the Federation is forced to abandon the station, even if his stories are ultimately censored from distribution by the Dominion.

On the other hand, kid or otherwise, Jake is kind of just not that great at his job. For one of his first stories, about a potential non-aggression agreement between Bajor and the Dominion, Jake sources key contextual information—that Captain Sisko, and through him the Federation, is against the pact—from offhand conversations with his father, who was unaware that his son had joined the Federation News Service. Ben shouldn’t have been discussing Starfleet matters with his son, arguably, but Jake also should’ve reached out to his dad as commander of DS9 and Starfleet’s primary representative for comment officially, instead of simply going “the source is literally my dad.” Speaking of that, what he should’ve done was have the story assigned to another reporter, given his direct personal relationship to important figures involved in it!

3) Marci Collins

Marci Collins—the late ’90s 3 Action News reporter we see in Voyager‘s Y2K-era flashback “11:59″—doesn’t really get to do much other than be a consistent voice reporting on the events the audience is watching unfold in the episode, as we see the story of how one of Janeway’s ancestors was convinced to close their bookstore and make way for the construction of the Millennium Gate, the first self-sustaining civic environment, a predecessor to future interstellar colonies. But the fact that the simple act of being a journalist who does their job completely perfunctorily makes her one of the best Star Trek has put on screen speaks to the franchise’s peculiar history with the press.

We’re ranking her above Ront simply because she’s on screen a bit more.

2) Richter

A reporter for the Federation News Network who appears in Picard‘s very first episode, we as an audience are kind of meant to see Richter in part as a bit of an antagonist: she agrees to a very strict set of conditions in order to get access to interview the retired Jean-Luc, including the stipulation that she not ask questions about why he left Starfleet. She does so anyway, leading to Picard having an angry outburst on camera and storming off mid-interview, reflecting very badly on himself in the process.

So sure, boo, the episode frames it as our beloved hero is seemingly ambushed and made to feel bad by a “mean” reporter. But even putting aside whether or not Richter should’ve agreed to the interview on the basis of controlling what questions she can ask, she did ask a perfectly reasonable question that was of considerable public interest to a person who still wielded a great deal of political power. She wasn’t particularly combative with him; she just didn’t offer a softball interview either. Sometimes journalism is about the risk of making people uncomfortable by asking the right questions!

1) Victoria Nuzé

The reporter behind the exposé “Starfleet’s Shame” that uncovered the misconduct (misconstrued or otherwise) by Captain Freeman aboard the Cerritos during the events of Lower Decks season three’s climax, Nuzé is shown to be an incredibly rigorous reporter, especially in light of Captain Freeman’s panicked overreaction to her presence aboard the ship. Her extensive report is not only built on interviewing tons of sources, but also her getting around Freeman’s attempts to blacklist certain personnel from talking to the press (mainly Mariner) speaks to her diligence as a reporter.

Also, she’s literally named “Nuzé.” Talk about the perfect person for the job.

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

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

Dealing with gaming peripheral apps frustration

Product Reviews

Gaming Peripheral Apps, Ranked From Worst to Worst

by admin June 21, 2025

Imagine this: You build a solid gaming PC, with a Corsair CPU cooler and a GPU that probably cost two months’ rent. You pick up a feature-packed keyboard from Asus and the most comfortable mouse Razer has ever made, and an ultra lightweight headset from HyperX. You want to program a couple of macros on the keyboard, check the battery life on the mouse, and change the auto-shutoff on the headset from 5 minutes to 20 minutes.

Does this seem like a task that requires a program that constantly runs 20+ background processes, uses 72% of your GPU, and secretly hoards 10GB of space on your hard drive? No? It doesn’t? Well, that’s technically correct — you don’t need a program; you need several of them, each of which eats up a lot of system resources and has its own unique set of issues.

But I’m sure you already knew this, if you’ve ever had to install any software for any gaming peripheral, ever. However, since you need to buy into at least one of these software suite-supported ecosystems (assuming you want one of the best gaming mice, gaming keyboards, gaming headsets, etc.) it seems worth exploring which company has the best software ecosystem to keep your rig running as smoothly as possible.

✳ Asus Armoury Crate

Armoury Crate is Asus’ software suite supporting its ROG-branded components and peripherals, including motherboards, monitors, graphics cards, keyboards, headsets, mice, desktops, laptops, coolers, etc. You can use Armoury Crate to update firmware, configure and calibrate hardware/peripheral settings, and customize RGB using Aura Sync (which is now part of Armoury Crate).

The best thing I can say about Armoury Crate is that it doesn’t bother me as often… because I always uninstall it, immediately, the second I no longer need it.

Case in point: I’m writing this on an Asus ROG monitor with Aura Sync enabled, and Armoury Crate sees nothing — doesn’t recognize it, can’t control it, nothing. (And yes, my Armoury Crate is up to date, my drivers are up to date, the monitor is listed as supported in Asus’ Armoury Crate FAQ, etc.) And this is actually an improvement — most of my experience with Armoury Crate in the past has been having it crash instantly upon launch.

In addition to often not recognizing the products it supports, or managing to stay launched for more than 3 seconds, Armoury Crate is just kind of a mess. The interface is confusing (and full of unnecessary movable tiles) and laggy — switching between tabs and clicking through menus is a chore. It also takes up over 1GB on my system for some reason and has suspiciously scheduled a bunch of logon tasks I didn’t ask for.

The cherry on top is that you’ll probably need to use the Armoury Crate Uninstall Tool to uninstall it — nothing says “easy to uninstall” like a dedicated uninstaller provided as a separate download. If you have an Asus motherboard, you also may need to change some settings, because Asus likes to put the Armoury Crate auto-installer in the BIOS.

Of course, that’s assuming Armoury Crate even recognizes your motherboard — Tom’s Hardware Senior Editor Andrew E. Freedman spent a month unable to turn off the RGB in his PC (when the PC was off) because the software wouldn’t recognize his motherboard. “Eventually uninstalling it and reinstalling it — using their official uninstaller — worked,” Andrew said. “But I couldn’t tell you why.”

Asus has taken note, however, and has been attempting to make a better Armoury Crate experience. Or at least, that’s what they’ve been telling me. Some peripherals now support Armoury Crate Gear, which is a “lightweight” peripheral-only version of Armoury Crate.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

However, whether this software is actually “lightweight” is questionable — it is lighter-weight than Armoury Crate, but it’s still taking up more of my PC’s performance than just about every other peripheral app — and that’s just for one device! I also can’t really tell, at the moment, if Armoury Crate Gear is separate for each peripheral device it supports, or if it’s part of one suite, or if it merges with the original Armoury Crate when you have both installed — Asus has gone out of its way to make this all extra-confusing.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Also, while this Armoury Crate Gear doesn’t install all the extra unnecessary apps you don’t need, it does continue to let you know about them: Every time I click on something in Armoury Crate Gear, it directs me to a “feature library” where I can, conveniently, install all that extra stuff I didn’t want.

✳ Corsair iCue

I asked my colleagues which peripheral software they disliked most, and while it wasn’t unanimous, and was clearly based primarily on whichever peripheral software had crashed or crippled their system within the last hour, one of the programs that was mentioned multiple times was Corsair’s iCue (currently: iCue 5).

Because what’s more infuriating than trying to download a simple app that will let you change your fan lighting and ending up with the resource-draining, performance-sucking, unsuspectingly huge piece of software that is iCue ?

While Corsair does make peripherals, it’s better known for its components — specifically, CPU coolers, fans, RAM, and cases. So while iCue does let you configure hardware, update firmware, and all that, we mainly turn to it for one thing: RGB. That’s it. Seriously. All we really want is to be able to change the color of the RGB lighting on our fans, maybe program some sort of pastel spectrum animation on the pump — and that’s it.

Now, iCue does let you do this, assuming you can figure out how to use the app’s lighting effects section to create the look you want, without getting overwhelmed by the various lighting profiles, colors, animations, and effects — not to mention using fan order to set up effects that move fluidly throughout your system. But it also uses a lot of, well, everything: resources, memory, space.

It’s hard to determine exactly how much space an app takes up in Windows 11.The OS lists reported app sizes in its settings menu, but this doesn’t tell the whole story (especially since not all apps report their size to Microsoft). But rest assured that iCue is somehow huge for an RGB-controlling companion app — its installer alone is approximately 1GB — and is not sorry. In the installed apps menu in Windows 11, iCue reports its size as 3.54GB. I used SpaceSniffer to confirm that on my system, iCue is taking up around 1.1GB in Program files, and is occupying another 2.35GB in ProgramData.

I can spare the 3.54GB, but I’ll admit that I’m pretty curious to know why iCue needs so much space just to change the colors of, like, seven lights. I know iCue also monitors hardware (unsolicitedly — I didn’t ask for this from my RGB software, Corsair), and this explains some of the app’s heavier resource usage, but not its size.

Taking a look at the Corsair folder in ProgramData reveals that approximately all of the space iCue uses here comes from…game integration — game/app developer-created presets to sync your system’s RGB lighting with the game you’re playing. It looks like there are around 30+ supported games (including a 1.64GB “common” folder for generic game integrations). Of the 30+ games supported, I played one, a couple of years ago — Subnautica Below Zero — but it’s very accommodating of Corsair to go ahead and store 2.35GB of RGB profiles on my PC, anyway.

But squatting in your ProgramData folder probably isn’t even the most draining thing iCue does. Anecdotally speaking, iCue is frequently responsible for using a ton of resources, crashing your system, crippling updates, and…basically everything else.

While I was writing this article — on cue (haha) — iCue apparently corrupted the AMD driver dll of Tom’s Hardware Deals Writer Stewart Bendle, who then had to run Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) — twice — before he was able to boot to Windows without it crashing within 20 seconds.

The next time your PC feels sluggish, your first step should be to uninstall iCue and Armoury Crate, and bask in the striking performance gain — you may not even need to do anything else.

✳ Logitech G Hub

Logitech has been in the peripherals game for a long time. And instead of creating one app back in 1994 and adding onto it piece by piece over years and years and years until it became an unrecognizable mishmash of settings, Logitech did the seemingly smart thing and created new apps for new products and lines.

Except now Logitech has something like 12 similar but different apps with overlapping support for different peripheral lines (which are somewhat haphazardly defined in the first place), meaning you’ll need at least three different Logitech apps to configure your keyboard, mouse, webcam, and headset. And somehow, none of these apps will be as functional or as intuitive as Logitech’s legacy apps.

But since we’re looking at gaming peripheral software, let’s focus on Logitech G Hub, which is designed to support Logitech G products: gaming keyboards, mice, headsets, controllers, and some random streaming gear (webcams, mics, and lights). G Hub is where you’ll go to configure hardware settings, program buttons and keybinds, adjust audio/mic settings (including Blue Vo!ce software), and play with RGB lighting colors and effects.

At a glance, G Hub actually looks pretty good. But don’t be fooled by its slick, deceptively straightforward-looking interface. With G Hub, Logitech has conveniently taken all of the settings you once knew how to change and turned them into something unnecessarily convoluted and zero percent intuitive.

After all, why would you want to reprogram keys using something simple, like…your keyboard…when you can instead scroll through several long lists of keys, actions, commands, system…commands, and approximately 3000 other options you didn’t know you never wanted to see? I’m sure there are some people who want to bind pre-recorded Blue Voice sound samples to their mouse buttons — but probably not so many that this warrants an entire built-in menu (especially one that may not even work — I had to wipe G Hub from my PC and reinstall it, twice, before half of the Blue Vo!ce software options even worked in G Hub).

My bigger issue with G Hub, however, is that your hardware is somehow entirely dependent on it. There’s no warning, of course — Logitech graciously allows you to discover this on your own, when G Hub suddenly shuts down and cripples all of your peripherals.

Just the other day, as I was casually playing Elder Scrolls Online using a Logitech G keyboard, G Hub abruptly quit and suddenly none of the assignable keys registered anything. And I don’t mean that my carefully-configured custom keybinds stopped working. I mean the assignable keys on this keyboard — the function keys — apparently have no default keybinds without G Hub; they’re just…empty. G Hub shut down and took my entire function row with it.

While it’s possible to use Logitech G peripherals without G Hub by saving settings to a device’s onboard memory, this only works if you turn the onboard memory on in G Hub — and then quit G Hub while it’s turned on. One might assume that a profile saved to a device’s onboard memory would remain on said device until overwritten. But if you turn off onboard memory in G Hub (which you’ll need to do to adjust any settings), G Hub immediately overwrites your saved profile with the original, default profile, e.g. one with an entirely empty function row, until you turn onboard memory back on.

G Hub also makes some other strange design choices, such as the fact that you can only program a mouse’s G-Shift while in G-Shift mode. Let me explain: G-Shift is Logitech’s gaming-oriented second layer functionality — accessible with the G-Shift key/button (user-programmed) — built into Logitech G mice and keyboards. (It’s Logitech’s version of Razer’s HyperShift, SteelSeries’ SS key, etc.)

To program G-Shift, open up G Hub and click the G-Shift toggle at the bottom of the screen. This puts your device in G-Shift mode, which is actually…terrible, because the entire point of G-Shift mode is to be able to program secondary functionality. For example: Why would you need your left mouse button — one of the most accessible buttons — to have primary click functionality in both default mode and G-Shift mode? You wouldn’t, unless an app forced you to remain in G-Shift mode while programming G-shift mode. If you unbind primary click in G-Shift you will no longer be able to click anything, because you’re stuck in G-Shift mode. This has been an issue for years, and I still can’t figure out why.

You can try to fix this by unplugging the mouse, but I’ve found that this happens to be the one time G Hub immediately saves all changes directly to your hardware. In this case, your best bet is to use a different mouse to rebind your primary click (you can also use Mouse Keys, a Windows accessibility feature that lets you control your mouse with your keyboard). Or, if you must, you can also uninstall and reinstall G Hub. If that seems like a ridiculous amount of effort given you accidentally clicked one button, that’s because it is.

✳ Razer Synapse

Razer’s Synapse is the brand’s one-stop (sort of) software suite supporting all of its products: keyboards, headsets, mice, webcams, mics, mouse pads, speakers, monitors, desktops, laptops, etc. You can download Synapse from Razer’s website — but you don’t have to, because Razer pioneered everyone’s favorite, not-at-all-infuriating, and previously exploitable practice of prompting an auto-installation of Synapse whenever you plug in a Razer peripheral. Yes, every time. Forever.

And don’t worry, installing Synapse won’t rid you of Synapse pop-ups, because Synapse updates approximately once every 15 minutes and prompts you to do fun things like restart your PC, login to your Razer account, or install a bunch of other Razer apps. You know — for fun!

Synapse is pretty robust — maybe too robust — and lets you remap keys and buttons, calibrate performance (on a pretty detailed level), and adjust some lighting settings. However, if you want to customize your lighting beyond one of Razer’s preset effects, you’ll need to use a separate “app” (which is now just a separate app, no longer listed as a standalone module? Or something) inside Synapse.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The current version of Synapse is Synapse 4, which (despite what Razer says) looks a lot like Synapse 3. It still requires you to login, as logging into a Razer account is a critical part of remapping your mouse buttons, and it still features a dashboard with modules, though some modules (like the Chroma modules) have been incorporated elsewhere in Synapse but still seem to function as separate apps (I’m really not sure, at this point).

Now, instead of opening up the Chroma Studio app from the module list, you open it up from the lighting tab inside each peripheral module. But, of course, it opens in a separate window (because it’s still a separate app), with several tabs that include other modules that used to be in the main Synapse dashboard, such as Chroma Visualizer and Chroma Connect.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Also, the issue of Chroma Studio saving your final lineup of effects into a profile but not saving the custom settings you used for the profile persists. You can make a profile in Chroma Studio with multiple lighting layers and effects, but you can’t adjust this once you’ve saved it without recreating layers from scratch. It’s bizarre and frustrating and will potentially make you quit RGB completely and embrace darkness.

Like most peripheral software, Synapse attempts to combine several years worth of hastily coded updates and side projects into one streamlined, central app. And, if you ignore the fact that it’s actually 15 different processes running in the background, it succeeds (sort of).

But Synapse’s real goal is clearly world PC domination via the most tenacious installer/updater ever created. Synapse has a ton of FOMO — not only will its installer sometimes anxiously pop up in the middle of Windows updates, it also hoards all of the update files it downloads…forever.

The Windows Installer folder on my laptop currently takes up around 10GB, 9.68GB of which belongs to Razer. Now, Synapse is not the only app that’s ever done this, and there are tools to clean the Installer folder. I’m working on it, but so far Synapse’s stockpile of installers has resisted PatchCleaner, CCleaner, and the Microsoft install/uninstall troubleshooter.

Oh, and the best thing about this is that Synapse updates so frequently, it apparently gets exhausted and quits — basically every single time I try to do something that requires Synapse to be running, nothing happens. So I’ll click on Razer’s icon in the System Tray and, yup — “Synapse is not running.”

✳ SteelSeries GG

SteelSeries GG is a software suite that combines SteelSeries’ peripheral settings app (Engine) with several things that are…not peripheral settings. Here’s a pro-tip: If you’re a hardware company trying to design supporting software that won’t be considered bloatware, don’t throw additional apps into the installation.

In addition to SteelSeries Engine — which lets you scan for firmware updates, configure and customize hardware settings, and includes an illumination section where you can adjust and sync RGB (and also create custom effects) — SteelSeries GG also contains Sonar (an audio app with a gamer-oriented EQ) and Moments (a game capture app). SteelSeries’ Engine is a little clunky (like…all of these apps) — and its focus on details can make it pretty overwhelming for anyone who doesn’t want to spend a lot of time getting to know it.

While you can argue that Sonar is an audio configuration app (it is), and therefore makes sense as part of GG…there’s still no reason to make it a compulsory download for someone plugging in a keyboard or a mouse. And I actually like playing around with Sonar — when it works.

But I’ve been using it with both SteelSeries and non-SteelSeries products for several months and it will frequently just…not work. It doesn’t seem to be consistent in any way — sometimes I’ll turn my headset on and I won’t hear anything no matter what my settings are until I force-quit the entire GG suite; other times I’ll be in the middle of listening to something and my sound will just go out for several seconds before resuming. Earlier today I was talking to one of my colleagues before our morning meeting, and he said I was barely audible — until I switched my mic input away from Sonar.

Sonar can be fun to play around with, but it’s just not reliable enough when I need my audio to work. And it’s not super intuitive when it is working as designed — it tries to wrestle control of every audio-enabled device I plug in, from speakers to headsets to webcams. It’s definitely an app I’d prefer to opt-into instead of (not having the option of) opting out. (Engine includes audio settings and an EQ for SteelSeries’ headsets and speakers, anyway, so Sonar really should be purely optional.)

✳ Turtle Beach Swarm II

In Turtle Beach’s Defense, the company adopted Swarm after it fully absorbed Roccat in 2024. Prior to this, Turtle Beach had even worse software, somehow — I recall needing one app just to update the firmware, and another app to adjust the settings on a headset.

Roccat’s Swarm was always kind of a mess, in the Armoury Crate way — trying way too hard to look cool (literally, like the UI of Warcraft III), and packed with features nobody has ever needed or wanted or even thought they wanted. I remember it featuring a keyboard typing sound effect that you could turn on in the software — why?! Not only was this for an actual, physical keyboard — which has its own real-time typing sound effects — but the typing sound was, naturally, delayed just enough that it was infuriating.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

60% of the time, works every time.

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

But now Roccat’s Swarm is Turtle Beach’s Swarm II, and while it looks a lot better, it just… doesn’t work. Perhaps this isn’t really as much of a software issue as it is a firmware issue, but as I had to go through the software to make firmware updates, the software remains at the forefront of my mind. The software itself does what you’d expect — lets you adjust various peripheral settings, including some fairly basic improvements for headsets and mics, etc. Or, well, it lets you adjust those things about half of the time. When I tested the Atlas Air, I found my settings saved automatically to the headset as I made changes in the app — unless they didn’t, which they sometimes… didn’t.

Swarm II downloads updates automatically, but it doesn’t install them. Or let you know they exist. (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

On the plus side, unlike Razer Synapse, Swarm II doesn’t prod you for updates constantly. Instead, it waits until you plug in a new peripheral and then requires all 700 updates at one time — sequentially, of course. So you’ll need to spend a good half hour updating and restarting and updating and restarting your PC just to use one headset, because Turtle Beach loves to push out firmware updates for not only the headset, but every part of the headset, such as both of the Stealth 700 Gen 3’s dongles.

What we need

First — I didn’t mention a number of apps, including (but not limited to): HyperX NGenuity, Cooler Master MasterPlus+, MSI Center, ThermalTake TT RGB Plus, etc. — but rest assured, they all have plenty of issues and remain competitive in the race to the bottom.

I won’t pretend like I truly understand the challenges of creating a piece of usable support software, especially one that needs to be updated every time a new product is released. And while there are third-party apps, such as SignalRGB and OpenRGB, attempting to create stripped-down, manufacturer-agnostic solutions, it’s clearly not perfectly cut-and-dry. But — as someone who tests peripherals and therefore always has at least 17 different pieces of bloated, laggy, space-hoarding software fighting for control on my PC, I have some general tips for improvement:

👉 Just the software

When I plug a new mouse or keyboard in, I want it to work. That’s all.

I don’t want to be bombarded with prompts to install optional software — let alone, optional, unnecessary software that demands hard drive space, resources, and an internet connection and an account. And I definitely don’t want this to happen every time I plug it in (peripherals are, by definition, devices that are easy to plug in and remove from a PC). If I need to change a setting or customize something, I will download the software.

👉 …And stop auto-updating

There’s no peripheral software update so critical that I need an app running 24/7 in the background, ready to update on a dime. Actually, now that I think about it, peripheral software updates aren’t just “not critical,” they’re almost entirely unnecessary unless I want to manually update a setting myself.

I shouldn’t have to restart my PC, get online, or sign up for an account to change some settings. I also shouldn’t have to tell you this.

👉 Don’t fix what ain’t broke

I don’t know why Logitech took a look at G Hub and thought, “instead of making remapping keys basic and boring, let’s turn it into a fun, maze-like adventure!” I’m just here to change some settings — I don’t mind if it’s a boring, basic process (in fact, I prefer it).

Of all the 764 different Logitech webcam apps I’ve tried, there’s one I always come back to: Logitech Webcam Software. It’s extremely basic, dated-looking, and definitely not perfect (nor has it been supported in, like, 10 years). But it’s the only Logitech webcam app with all of the manual sliders in one place, and that’s all I really want. I don’t need a sexy, fun settings menu. I just need the settings.

👉 I don’t need an ecosystem

I’m not sure why every company thinks they need to have a full software suite of apps and modules, complete with a customizable dashboard with 7 different themes and the option to upload your own background image and a user interface that looks like a cross between Minority Report and Star Craft. I’ve never opened any peripheral software thinking, “wow, I hope this looks cool and futuristic so I can leave it open on my desktop to admire.”

I already have an operating system, and ways to monitor my hardware, and an app that animates my wallpaper — I don’t expect or need (or want) my mouse software to replace that. There’s no need to divert clearly limited software development resources toward projects like the Razer Virtual Ring Light, which is an app that turns your monitor into a “source of illumination” (my monitor is already a source of illumination; I can just open up a blank Word doc).

I’ll acknowledge there are many challenges to making software that supports a decade’s worth of gaming peripherals, but I don’t think the solution is completely irrelevant software.

But what about web-based apps?

Many custom mechanical keyboards use the open-source QMK / VIA firmware/software suite for remapping and lighting customization, and while this is a useful tool for the keyboard enthusiast side, it definitely has limitations for the gaming side. But I’ve recently seen several gaming companies (mostly smaller, boutique ones, such as Arbiter) with web-based peripheral apps, and I’m not totally sure how I feel about this.

On one hand, it’s great to not have to download a bloated, resource-sucking app packed with features I didn’t want. On the other hand, I’m a little worried about what happens if this web-based app stops being supported for some reason, or the host goes down, or I’m offline and I desperately need to change my keyboard macros (unlikely, but you never know). I suppose that’s not a major concern right now, as those scenarios seem unlikely to happen in the near future (and some functions usually exist on the keyboard itself, like on-the-fly macro recording). Just because gaming companies wish you bought new peripherals every six months doesn’t mean that’s what most people actually do.

I have a mouse I bought around 10 years ago from Redragon that came with an incredibly basic (but usable) device-specific piece of software. It didn’t let me do nearly as much as the peripheral apps of today let you do, but it did let me remap buttons (it was one of those 19-button mice that I can’t get enough of, so this was important) and turn off the lighting. And I can still use that software, which is extremely lightweight, a decade later.

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June 21, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

The Nintendo Console Launches, Ranked From Worst To Best

by admin June 19, 2025

Image: Nintendo

By the time the SNES rolled around, Nintendo had millions of loyal young American fans, and it could do a proper build-up and launch in the States for the first time. Our hype was fueled by that commercial starring Paul Rudd—we didn’t know he was Paul Rudd at the time, of course, but he looked awesome playing and enjoying those games, and we, too, wanted a taste of this “Super Power” the new console promised. For many parents, meanwhile, the SNES seemed like a scam, an effort to extort even more money from their Nintendo-addled kids. (For an incredible, time-capsule glimpse of what the period surrounding the SNES launch was like as many parents lamented the hold that video games had developed over their children, you simply must watch this video of a local news report from 1991.)

But for those of us who were firmly in Nintendo’s grasp, the arrival of the SNES was cause for excitement, not concern. Today, game console launches often feel incremental; the PS5 felt like an important technological step up from the PS4, for instance, but not an awe-inspiring one. In the SNES era, however, new hardware could still inspire genuine awe. Oh my god, look at that 3D effect on those tracks in F-Zero! Look at all that color in Super Mario World! Sega’s Genesis had arrived two years prior, stepping up the technology that powered the games we played. Here, with the release of the SNES, Nintendo was firing its own salvo in the 16-bit wars, and once again, Mario was leading the way. The launch bundle included Super Mario World, maybe the best console pack-in of all time, giving players hours and hours of wonderful SNES gameplay right out of the box in a game that remains an enduring classic to this day. Now that’s how you make people feel good about their new console purchase, and eager to seek out the many wonderful new experiences that will be arriving for it in the months to come. — Carolyn Petit

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June 19, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Brad Pitt’s Sci-Fi Film Roles, Ranked

by admin June 19, 2025

Next week, one of our biggest movie stars hits theaters in one of the summer’s biggest movies. F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt, is out June 27 and it’s the kind of role only someone as huge as Pitt could play. Pitt has been one of the top movie stars in the world for decades. Rising to stardom in the early 1990s, he quickly jumped to leading man status and has never looked back since.

Pitt has had an incredibly varied career, making films in seemingly every genre imaginable. He’s been in romances, fantasy epics, crime thrillers, sports movies, you name it. He’s also made more than a few sci-fi films, which is our specialty here on io9. So, with Pitt on the mind thanks to his latest (decidedly non-sci-fi) movie coming out, here are our rankings of Brad Pitt’s sci-fi roles.

But, first, a clarification. As we said, Pitt has made a lot of movies, many of which straddle the line between genres. Just so you aren’t reading this article all day, we decided to be a little more strict in our classifications. So, for example, many of Pitt’s roles are almost on the edge of genre. Crime movies with spy elements, non-fiction characters in fantasy stories, and hyper-realistic settings. All of which kind of fit io9, but won’t be considered here. That includes Spy Game, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Inglourious Basterds, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Tree of Life, The Lost City, and Bullet Train. We’ve also decided not to count a few of Pitt’s films that are very much genre, but lack sci-fi elements. That takes Seven and Troy off the list. So, what’s on it? Here we go.

Pitt in Meet Joe Black – Fox

9. Deadpool 2

Pitt’s blink and you’ll miss it cameo as Vanisher, one of the members of X-Force, is absolutely hilarious but not big enough to rank highly here.

8. Meet Joe Black

In Meet Joe Black, Pitt plays the personification of Death, who then learns to live and love. It’s a strong, memorable, stoic performance in a rather dull movie. Not Pitt’s fault and not a terrible movie, merely lacking in comparison to some of his other work.

7. Cool World

One of Pitt’s earliest noteworthy starring roles sees him as the hard-nosed detective of a cartoon world. It’s a fun movie with a solid performance.

Pitt in World War Z – Paramount

6. World War Z

In a case of the movie being better than the performance, Pitt plays the lead in this story of a global zombie outbreak. It’s a solid movie with lots of action and effects, which forced Pitt into a by-the-book performance. It’s not his best work, but the scope of the movie brings it up a notch.

5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Playing a man who ages in reverse, this big, bold production is maybe a little bit too much. Pitt is amazing in it though, using visual effects to really give us a fully formed, wild performance… in a just okay movie.

4. Ad Astra

Just because, compared to several of these other films, it’s a little underrated, we’re putting Ad Astra higher than most would expect. Pitt plays an astronaut who travels deep into space looking for his lost father in a poignant, exciting film with a nuanced lead performance.

Pitt in Fight Club – Fox

3. Fight Club

Shock of shocks! Fight Club might be our favorite movie of the bunch but, we’re talking Brad Pitt roles. And as incredible as Pitt is as the unforgettable Tyler Durden, it really is a two-hander of a movie with Edward Norton, which just meant we ranked it a tiny bit lower.

2. Interview with the Vampire

As the eternal vampire Louis, Pitt shared the screen of this 1994 film with Tom Cruise, making up one of the most beautiful casts of the era. And it’s saying something that when paired up with a star as big as Cruise at the time, Pitt’s charisma and talent may just overshadow him.

1. 12 Monkeys

Pitt received his first Oscar nomation for his role in this film, a twisty, turny, sci-fi mindfuck from director Terry Gilliam. It’s not the biggest role, but damned if it isn’t unforgettable as Pitt just seems to be having the most fun he’s ever had on screen.

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June 19, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Disney Live-Action Remakes, Ranked From Wretched To Watchable

by admin June 4, 2025

Photo: Disney

We’ve been waiting a long time to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in live-action, but since its announcement in 2016, it’s been steeped in controversy. There was racist backlash over Rachel Zegler’s casting, a fire that engulfed the set, and anti-woke handwringing in response to Zegler stating this version of Snow White didn’t need to be rescued by her “stalker” prince. Plus, rumors swirled about tension between her and former IDF soldier Gal Gadot’s opposing views on Israel and Palestine. Despite all that, the only controversy to yield some on-screen change came from Peter Dinklage’s criticism of the film’s portrayal of dwarfism, leading Disney to replace the seven dwarfs with CGI abominations. Now, nearly a decade after the remake was announced, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is in our lives, and, predictably, the response has been as rotten as a poisoned apple. So much so that Disney and Variety have been accused of waging a smear campaign against the film’s young lead in efforts to shift blame for the flop from where it should be, and another forthcoming live-action Disney remake has been indefinitely shelved.

All of its baggage aside, the movie isn’t without its bright spots. Rachel Zegler is a true leading lady and does a lovely job creating a kindhearted princess you can root for. The only problem is she’s not all that recognizable. While no one expected her to mimic the warbling baby voice of the original, her extremely catchy new song, “Waiting On A Wish,” feels more like a Moana-style power ballad than something fit for the fairest of them all. What’s wrong with having a princess embody soft femininity? Why must they always have a battle cry? But more than anything, this modernized Snow White is completely dragged down by its CGI dwarfs—truly terrifying, soulless scene partners who are just as wooden as Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen. You simply can’t get past how their original animated adorableness is completely drained into the uncanny valley, rendering this remake a work of true irony: A lifeless imitation as pale as pure snow.

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June 4, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Cassian Andor’s Aliases, Ranked

by admin May 30, 2025

Cassian Andor lived a lot of lives before he gave it all on the beaches of Scarif in Rogue One. And part of living those lives, sometimes by choice, sometimes by necessity, was that Cassian Andor had to not be Cassian Andor. The man loved a secret identity, and with it a new name to inhabit, but some were clearly better than others.

10) Fulcrum

Not even a real name as it’s an Alliance codename, so by default it has to be last. It is fun however, especially after his encounter with the Force healer in Andor season two, to imagine Cassian inheriting this title from Ahsoka Tano, an actual-honest-to-god-backflipping-and-lightsaber-wielding Jedi, and just having it completely break his mind.

9) Aach

This is one of several operational aliases given to Cassian in the Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide–used on Darknell while masquerading as a Senatorial contact–so there’s something oddly charming about the idea that Cassian having a Rolodex of other names he’s had to come up with for missions has been there since the very beginning. Come on though, Cassian, this one just sounds like you stubbed your toe before you could use the name you actually wanted to use, and rolled with it.

8) Willix

Another from the Visual Guide, Willix was an identity Cassian used on Ord Mantell as a government agent. Points for sounding better than “Aach,” at least.

7) Joreth Sward

The last of Cassian’s Visual Guide aliases, and he finally decided to give himself a full name! Aside from being a great name, Sward was an alias Cassian had while infiltrating the inner circle of an Imperial Admiral, Grendreef—a name that itself is actually a reference to the classic West End Star Wars roleplaying game, a frequent source of Easter egg references in Andor. Again, nice to know that that that’s a connection that’s always been part of this character.

6) Varian Skye

Varian Skye, fashion designer, definitely looked the part on Ghorman with that gorgeous caped coat and his ginormous sci-fi shades, but really, the identity truly only comes together with that name. There’s an airiness, it just sounds like a foppishly charming artiste who’s here to rub shoulders with fellow followers of fashion. The clothes may make the man, but the name makes the secret identity.

5) Clem

Sure we previously knocked points off for Cassian only giving a first name to an alias, but you gain a massive amount of “d’awwwwwww” points when it’s the first mission we see him go on for the nascent rebellion and he picks his adoptive father’s name to go by. What a softie.

4) Keef Girgo

An incredible Star Wars name. Andor gave us a few people with just Normal Real Names Spelled Slightly Differently (shout out to Timm, who sucked, but was also named Timm), but Keef being both so close and so far from Keith is perfect. Also just a real delight to hear Diego Luna say it and put a nice roll on that “r” in Girgo. Love a name with mouthfeel.

3) Kassa

Does Cassian’s birth name count as an alias? I mean, kinda, if you accept that eventually Cassian Andor the man becomes a very different identity than that of Kassa the young boy of Kenari, the latter of which remains compartmentalized in the former’s thoughts for the remainder of his life. What if taking on myriad identities came so natural to Cassian because he was used to giving them up from a young age? Sorry to get a bit deep in a shitpost list about Star Wars names for a second.

2) Cassian Jeron Andor

Again, only kind of sort of an alias as the true self, but you’re still rolling with me after the Kassa bit. But anyway it’s already a fantastic name, and Andor‘s revelation of Cassian’s life on Kenari then raises delicious worldbuilding and character questions about Clem and Maarva choosing to name him Cassian (did he tell them his name was Kassa, and they then anglicized it for Galactic Basic? What is the term for anglicization in a galaxy where English doesn’t exist?). But adding the middle-name Jeron? Baby, that’s Star Wars.

1) Ronni Googe

I love Ronni Googe. Even putting aside that he’s a journalist—thank you for the representation—even putting aside the Star Wars-ification of an otherwise perfectly real-world name, even putting aside that once again, this is a name with that wonderful mouthfeel element to it, Ronni Googe is a brilliant alias for a spy.

You see, as Cassian tells multiple people when he adopts this persona in season two to extract Mon Mothma from the Imperial Senate building, “Googe” is pronounced Goo-juh. That’s very Star Wars, but also, again, it’s a genius alias. Ronni Googe has had to tell everyone “Actually, it’s Ronni Goo-juh” all the time, it’s a name that stands out as a name, so you remember that and its pronunciation instead of what Ronni Googe actually looks like, and how uncanny a resemblance he bears to noted Imperial criminal and Rebel agent Cassian Andor.

It’s a conversation starter, a way to appear polite and charming and put someone on the backfoot when you have to tell them this is how you actually say it, and it’s easy to remember and appear naturalistic for a spy with a zillion other things running around in their head—because, again, Ronni Googe, Senate journalist for the Mid-Rim network, has had to tell people on and off the record every day of his damn life that it’s Goo-juh.

Two words, and a whole life for that identity is built. It’s a fantastic alias, it’s a fantastic Star Wars name, it’s the total package. An alias worthy of the mission it was deployed on.

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May 30, 2025 0 comments

Warzone Ranked Play operators, wearing suits with yellow, green, and blue accents, look for enemies while on a building ledge in Verdansk.

Esports

Why is Warzone Ranked removed? (updated for season 4 launch)

by admin May 30, 2025

Call of Duty: Warzone runs into its fair share of problems now and then, and unfortunately, that sometimes means Activision has to temporarily disable Ranked Play.

Find out here why Warzone Ranked has been taken offline and when it might return to the playlist.

Warzone Ranked gone, explained

Ranked Play missing in action. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Warzone Ranked Play has been pulled more than once in the past, leaving players confused and frustrated, and the latest removal is no different. The mode has gone offline again due to a mix of technical issues, recent game updates, and surprise adjustments from the developers.

On May 29, 2025, Activision temporarily disabled Ranked Play following “performance issues” that players encountered with the launch of Call of Duty season four. Players have reported server instability, increased latency, and matchmaking errors across multiple platforms, prompting the developers to take Ranked Play: Battle Royale offline while they investigate and work on a fix to stabilize the game.

📢 Call of Duty: #Warzone

Update re. the launch of Season 04 Ranked Play:

Our team has been working diligently to resolve performance issues that players encountered following the initial Season 04 launch earlier today. On that note, we’ve decided to delay Ranked Play: Battle…

— Call of Duty Updates (@CODUpdates) May 29, 2025

“Our team has been working diligently to resolve performance issues that players encountered following the initial Season 04 launch earlier today. On that note, we’ve decided to delay Ranked Play: Battle Royale while we work on bringing the experience back to it’s intended fidelity. We will provide updates on timing as soon as we can. We apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience,” Activision said via the Call of Duty Updates X (formerly Twitter) account.

When is Warzone Ranked coming back?

Hoping it’s gonna be back soon. Image via Activision

At the time of updating this article, Activision has yet to re-enable Warzone Ranked Play, leaving players without access to the mode as the developers continue to address the technical problems introduced with the season four update. No official timeline has been provided for when Ranked Play will return, adding to the frustration among dedicated Warzone players.

I definitely hope that Activision gets things sorted out soon. These performance and server instability issues seem to pop up with almost every major update, and it’s really getting frustrating. With Ranked Resurgence on Rebirth Island expected to drop along with a bunch of content in mid-season, all we can do is cross our fingers and hope the launch goes smoothly this time around.

This article will be updated with any new developments as soon as Activision shares them.

Dot Esports is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy

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May 30, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Disney’s 23 Best And Most Memorable Songs Ever, Ranked

by admin May 24, 2025

Phil Collins knocked it out of the park with the entire Tarzan soundtrack. Somehow his earthy voice, drum-infused instrumentals, and heartfelt lyrics were the perfect mix for this jungle story. Rather than a traditional Disney musical, Phil Collins acts as an omnipresent narrator, commenting on the action or voicing the character’s thoughts. “You’ll Be In My Heart” rightfully earned the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Originally written as a lullaby for his own daughter, the song starts off tender, with Phil Collins almost gently whispering against soft marimbas.

Its lyrics of true love and devotion are moving, especially in the scene where Kala sings it to a baby Tarzan, who, despite being a different species, experiences a bond where love and care know no bounds. The song eventually crashes into driving drums, moving toward a bridge that sees the child fly free on their own: “When destiny calls you / You must be strong / I may not be with you / But you’ve got to hold on.” This song is touching for anyone who has ever loved someone and watched them grow, no matter what type of relationship.

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May 24, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Every mainline Elder Scrolls game and DLC, ranked

by admin May 20, 2025

The Elder Scrolls VI is coming. Slowly, but it is. We all dearly miss this series that’s already way older than many of the people playing it nowadays, so we should perhaps look to the past for some great TES moments that we might have missed.

What better time than now, or the four years that we’ll have to wait in line, to read about the best and worst games in the series to get you ready for TES VI? Note that this is about the single-player RPGs, so The Elder Scrolls Online is not part of our rankings here.

Image via MobyGames

I know I’m a big meanie for putting the oldest game in the franchise in the lowest rank, but this is actually a great achievement for the series. How many franchises can boast that every single sequel in their catalog has managed to outdo the original?

Arena, even with the help of some neat fan-made mods, looks and plays very dated nowadays. Still, it was a revolutionary thing back in the day—and one that you can still enjoy for some of its merits and archeological value.

Screenshot by Destructoid

Daggerfall greatly improved upon its predecessor in terms of graphics, scope, and size. Though ancient, Daggerfall remains one of the games with the largest play area in gaming history, although you’ll probably get bored before seeing one-tenth of the whole thing. I’d call Daggerfall too dated to play nowadays if you’re not a game history buff, but you can experience a much prettier version if you get the Unity remaster, which I totally recommend.

Oblivion’s first expansion begins with some dumb and repetitive design choices that might end up causing a bunch of players to give up on it, but those who brave through the great filter are in for one hell of a treat.

Knights of the Nine invites players to go through the trials and tribulations of knighthood, and it turns out it’s actually a pretty fun ordeal. Also, one of the things that always bothered me about Oblivion was the lack of a direct confrontation against a villain. Yeah, sitting back while a dragon goes on a kaiju fight against the Devil isn’t that awesome, Oblivion. Luckily, KON more than solves that problem.

Image via Bethesda

Remember when I talked about a confrontation with a cool villain in the entry above? Well, Shivering Isles is all about going after a mad god in an equally mad world. This one is filled with memorable moments worthy of Morrowind, but the star of the show is the main quest. One of the quarrels one can have with Oblivion is the lack of open-endedness, but you won’t find that here, as your decisions will finally impact the story.

Image by Bethesda

You can never do wrong with vampires and werewolves. Both had been staples of the series for a while, but now they take center stage in the main plotline. The main story is fun, but even more fun are the Werewolf and Vampire skill trees that you can now unlock and explore to quench your thirst.

Before there was Bloodborne, there was Skyrim’s Dragonborn. It teased a great confrontation with someone capable of rivaling the Dovahkiin, and we got that, but the star of the show, in my opinion, was the Lovecraftian elements. Skyrim is gorgeous, but I find the environments a bit repetitive. Dragonborn solves that in spades by taking us to a new area filled with eldritch horrors that will likely stay in your mind, as you slowly lose it to madness.

Tribunal, the first expansion for Morrowind does away with the massive and beautiful areas of the main game. It makes up for that, however, by inviting players to solve an engrossing conspiracy whose setting is based on classic TES concepts. It’s a short but sweet experience that you should totally get into if you like the original Morrowind, as it raises the overall difficulty and expands upon its challenges.

Important note: Do not install Tribunal as soon as you begin your adventure in the original game. This will create a high chance of powerful ninjas showing up to kill your character whenever they go to sleep. This is not a joke.

A hero arrives at a snow-covered island to go on a werewolf-hunting adventure. Bloodmoon isn’t Skyrim, but only because it doesn’t take place in Skyrim. Morrowind’s second expansion more than sows the seeds for what would become Skyrim by sending players on a darker adventure in a Norse mythology-inspired land. If you love Skyrim and want to experience a “demake” of sorts, this is the one for you.

Image via Bethesda Softworks

They finally did it. There was speculation, there were rumors, but when the Oblivion remaster shadow dropped on one sleepy day, the internet was damn near set on fire. It was a fun time, sure, but still just a remaster.

That’s why it ends up in the fourth spot on this list, two whole places behind the original. The OG was the one that showed us all what games could really do with its living world and roaming NPCs. The remaster is a fantastic homage to what is undoubtedly an Elder Scrolls classic.

Image via Bethesda/Steam.

Well, there’s not much left to say about this one. I mean, there are a lot of people talking crap about it on the Internet, but they write their negative reviews while on their coffee breaks from their 500+ hour-long playthroughs, so do those even count?

Skyrim is a massive success, a game that has remained popular for over a decade, and one that so many claim is the strongest entry in the series. I disagree, as I’m not a fan of how it hand-holds us throughout the main quest, but who am I to say that this is not the ultimate TES experience for you?

Image by Bethesda

Even though Skyrim blew its numbers out of the water a few years later, Oblivion was the breakthrough game for this series. Oblivion made not just the series, but RPGs in general, the hot new mainstream thing.

Back when it came out, Oblivion looked better and brighter, thanks, absurd HDR, than any other game on the market. Oblivion looked like an impossible feat for a console, but it was the real deal. Moreover, it featured a more console-friendly approach to its combat and overall gameplay than its predecessor, which sacrificed some depth but allowed Oblivion to put the Xbox 360 on the map as a serious threat to the PlayStation 3.

Image by Bethesda

Even though many might contest my decision, I must rub salt in the dissidents’ wounds by stating that this wasn’t even a close one. Though old enough to drink in the US, Morrowind remains not just one of the best RPGs of all time, but one of the best exploration games ever — an achievement it simply did not owe us.

If you ever feel like taking a break from the main quest, you can just walk in a direction — any direction. It’s ok, as you’ll surely stumble upon some underground area where you’ll have an unforgettable adventure and likely get a cool new item. Morrowind doesn’t take players by the hand and never fails to reward the adventurer inside you. The combat might be a bit dated by today’s standards, but it also features the deepest gameplay in the series, making it a perfect marriage between clunky and fun. We may never ever get anything quite like Morrowind, and the world is a sadder place for that.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments