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Boya Magic review: an impressive shapeshifting mic
Gaming Gear

Boya Magic review: an impressive shapeshifting mic

by admin October 3, 2025



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Boya Magic: one-minute review

One of the downsides to shooting video and content creation is the sheer amount of kit you have to carry; even the most pared-back setups require a plethora of accessories. Beyond that, how many different microphones might you need to cover a range of situations? It’s an issue that’s effectively addressed by the Boya Magic, a 4-in-1 wireless mic that’s designed to be a jack of all trades.

Lavalier (lapel), on-camera, handheld and desktop are all forms the Boya Magic mic can take. The mic is available in several kits, but if you opt for the most comprehensive and still competitively priced of the three you can connect the mics to smartphones, computers and cameras using USB-C, Lightning, and 3.5mm TRS, making it a significant upgrade over the Boya Mini and potentially one of the best wireless mics.

Since this is a multi-purpose mic, we could discuss its performance and characteristics at length, but we’ll delve into those later. Focusing on the lavalier mics, which are the transmitters in all configurations, and the backbone of the mic, these two tiny 7g units can be attached to clothing with clips or magnets, and produce impressive 24-bit sound quality. They’re incredibly easy-to-use with excellent noise cancellation to boot.

I have to admit that when I first received the Boya Magic, I was sceptical about its performance, but I’ve been impressed while testing the mic in all four configurations, attached to my smartphone, computer and my camera.

The Boya Magic lavalier mics are tiny (Image credit: James Abbott)

  • Boya Magic at Amazon for $85.49

Today’s best Boya Magic deals

Boya Magic: price and release date

  • Available now
  • Three kits to choose from
  • Prices start at $93 / £89 / AU$159

The Boya Magic is available from the Boya website and Amazon. The USB-C kit costs $93 / £89 / AU$159, the USB-C & Lightning kit costs $140 / £119 / AU$209 and the USB-C, Lightning & 3.5mm TRS kit costs $151 / £129 / AU$229. All in all, it’s extremely good value for money, given the versatility of the mic.

One slightly frustrating aspect of the Boya Magic is that you have to purchase the Boya Mini Tripod separately, and this is required for tabletop and on-camera use of the mic. It’s not the end of the world, and it only costs $30 / £20 / AU$46 (currently reduced to $20 in the US), but it would be better if it were included in at least the kit option with the 3.5mm TRS.

The Boya Magic comes in a handy case (Image credit: James Abbott)

Boya Magic: specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Dimensions

Magic TX 35 x 15.2 x 13mm, 3.5mm TRS RX 42.2 x 30 x 19.4mm, USB-C / Lightning RX 19.55 x 24 x 21mm, Charging Case 141.3 x 26.5 x 21mm

Weight

Magic TX 7g, 3.5mm TRS RX 16g, USB-C / Lightning RX 5g, Charging Case 62.5g

Transmission range

Up to 100m

Connectivity

USB-C, Lightning or 3.5mm TRS

Battery

Six hours / 30 hours total with the charging case

Audio

24-bit

Noise cancelling

Yes, one-click

Handheld mic with the foam cover attached (Image credit: James Abbott)

Boya Magic: Design

  • Innovative design
  • Highly versatile
  • Compact and lightweight

This 4-in-1 mic system is built around a compact charging case that triples up as the on-camera, handheld and desktop mic, with a foam and dead-cat wind cover in the kits. This measures just 141.3 x 26.5 x 21mm and weighs 62.5g. The lavalier mics are stored and charged inside, behind a clear plastic door. When used in these modes, it’s the lavalier mic at the top of the case, in the first slot, that records sound through holes in the glass door and at the top of the charging case.

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The lavalier mics are the backbone of the system, and in my opinion, the most impressive; and for content creators who are using lavalier mics as handheld mics, this system provides a much more comfortable and professional-looking solution.

The two lavalier mics are incredibly compact and lightweight at just 35 x 15.2 x 13mm and 7g. There’s a clip on the rear for attaching the mics to clothing, as well as a magnet plate on each clip to increase the options for attaching the mics to your clothes in more imaginative ways, although I fear that these may be easy to lose over time. The kits come with a couple of clip-on dead-cat wind covers for the mics.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: James Abbott)(Image credit: James Abbott)(Image credit: James Abbott)

The build quality of all of the components is great, and the small carry-bag accommodates everything safely and neatly. The overall design of the kit is innovative, while operation is incredibly simple, with just a single button on each mic and the charging case. This can be used to switch the mics on and off, and to switch the AI noise cancellation on and off.

The USB-C and Lightning receivers are small and lightweight, slot neatly into your phone’s port, and are powered by the phone. The 3.5mm TRS attaches to the camera hotshoe and offers six hours of battery life. It’s designed simply, with just a power button, a volume/gain button and a 3.5mm jack. There’s no Bluetooth connectivity as in some mics, beyond a Bluetooth connection to the receivers, so these receivers are essential.

Boya Magic: Performance

  • Incredibly easy to use
  • Excellent AI noise cancellation
  • 24-bit audio

Setting up the mic, from unpacking the kit to first use is incredibly easy. This is one of the more intuitive wireless mics I’ve used, and you can use the BOYA Central app to adjust settings including AI noise cancellation, the EQ, AI noise cancellation, and the limiter, and to apply camera gain presets and firmware updates.

The mics are omnidirectional, so they will pick up sound from all directions. This causes no issues when recording in quiet environments, but when there’s background noise you often need to use the AI noise cancellation, which is available with two strength settings depending on the level of background noise.

AI noise cancellation is powered by deep neural networks (DNNs) trained on over 700,000 real-world noise samples and 20,000 hours of deep learning. Boya claims it can separate voices from noise in milliseconds, with up to -40 dB suppression. In use, the AI noise cancellation is undoubtedly impressive, and it doesn’t distort voices or make them sound robotic.

Sound quality is fantastic, with audio recorded in 48 kHz/24-bit with an 80dB signal-to-noise ratio, a 144 dB dynamic range, and a frequency response from 20Hz to 20kH. You can set sound levels manually, but there’s also a handy built-in smart limiter to protect your audio from peaking. In addition, a second safety track is recorded at a lower (-12 dB) volume to ensure nothing is lost.

The transmission range is up to 100m without obstacles, and 10m with obstacles. During testing the connection was solid, and I never experienced any issues with any of the four mic configurations. Battery life is up to six hours per mic, with 30 hours in total available with the charging case. This is average, and is plenty of battery power for most situations.

Should I buy the Boya Magic?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Boya Magic: also consider

(Image credit: James Abbott)

How I tested the Boya Magic

  • I tested it in all four configurations
  • I used it attached to multiple devices
  • I tested all its features

I tested the Boya Magic over several weeks in all four configurations: lavalier, on-camera, handheld, and desktop mic. I also attached the mic to my smartphone, computer and camera so that I could assess performance across the board in real-world situations.

I was sent the complete kit, which includes the USB-C, Lightning and 3.5mm TRS receivers. I recorded audio in different environments to see how well the mics perform with and without AI noise cancellation. I also used the Boya Central app to access settings and assess the overall ease of use.

Boya Magic: Price Comparison



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October 3, 2025 0 comments
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Fox One Review: Fox's Streaming Service Is Heavy on Sports and News, and Made for Fox Fans
Gaming Gear

Fox One Review: Fox’s Streaming Service Is Heavy on Sports and News, and Made for Fox Fans

by admin October 3, 2025


Pros

  • Expansive access to sports games of all types
  • Immersive experience for sports fans, with sports, stats and analysis
  • Many ways to personalize feed
  • Unlimited DVR

Cons

  • Difficult accessibility features
  • User experience inconsistent across devices
  • Limited access to primetime shows
  • No original content

Fox One, Fox Corporation’s first-ever direct-to-consumer streaming service, launched on Aug. 21 — the same day ESPN launched its own. Fox’s entire channel portfolio, which includes Fox News Channel, Fox Nation, Fox Sports, B1G, FS1, FS2, local Fox stations and the Fox Network, can be found here for $20 a month. 

What makes Fox One appealing, or at least of interest, is its focus on live sports and news programming. This is an attractive feature for customers, and, if you look around, you’ll notice a growing number of streamers vying for a piece of the live TV pie. Outside of live TV, news and sports, Fox One’s library includes an array of on-demand programming and a selection of Fox’s primetime hit shows like The Simpsons and Hell’s Kitchen. 

Though the platform combines the functionality of an on-demand streamer with a cable-like experience, there are some limitations. Is this enough to make Fox One a viable option in a streaming landscape crowded with premium platforms, competitively priced bundles and FAST services and channels?

Fox One feels like a good fit if you’re a fan of Fox and want anytime access to its live programming library. To that point, though, there are other streaming services offering much more content (and value) that make it difficult to justify the streamer’s $20 price tag.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

What is Fox One and how much does it cost?

After the demise of Venu, the joint sports streaming venture from ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, the media companies involved pivoted to their own alternative streaming projects. This past May, Fox announced the name of its app, Fox One, and launched the platform in August, with an emphasis on live programming. Targeted toward cord-cutters and Fox’s news and sports audience, the streaming app features niche content.

Fox One has two main subscription tiers, depending on the type of programming you’re interested in watching. It’s available to pay TV customers (eg. cable and satellite) at no extra cost, and next month, the streaming service will be part of a bundle with Disney’s ESPN. The company plans to partner up and offer additional bundling options in the future.

The basic Fox One plan costs $20 a month, or $200 annually, and provides a mix of live sports, news and entertainment content from across the Fox portfolio. The Fox One-Fox Nation tier costs $5 more at $25 a month and features everything the basic Fox One plan has, along with full access to Fox News and Fox Nation. Both plans offer a seven-day free trial and an unlimited DVR, and if you get Fox through a cable or satellite TV subscription, you can access Fox One for free.

When you visit the site, you can choose to sign up for one of Fox’s standalone streaming subscriptions to Fox Nation or B1G Plus. Each of these platforms has been around for a few years now, with Fox Nation priced at $9 a month or $71 annually (also, with a seven-day free trial), and B1G Plus costing $13 a month or $90 annually. Bear in mind these services are separate from Fox One, but customers can conveniently sign up in one place.

What’s it like like to use?

The Fox One homepage on my smart TV shows the menu options on the left side of the screen.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

For over a week, I tested the Fox One app on multiple devices. The design and user experience are pretty standard, and navigating through the app is simple enough. The home menus will appear in different positions, depending on the device you are using. On the web, you’ll find the main buttons at the top of the screen for Home, Live, Sports, News, Shows and My Stuff. There are also network hub buttons on the home page to help you easily navigate to content for Fox, FS1, FS2, Fox News, Fox Weather, Fox Deportes, Fox Business and B1G Network.

The menu headers appear on the left side of the screen when the app is used on a Roku Stick and my Samsung Smart TV. When using the app on my Samsung Galaxy S25, I found the menu at the bottom of the screen, which also included a selection for Shorts — a section featuring short-form vertical TikTok-style video clips highlighting moments from news programming and sports.

The live programming options were the first tiles I saw when scrolling through the home page, followed by a row dedicated to upcoming news and sports-themed shows. There are also rows for networks, teams, and personalities — listed as Fox Voices — which you can click to follow to further customize your viewing experience.

The viewer experience becomes more personal to you the more you interact with the platform.

During playback, watching live and on-demand programming worked as expected, offering crisp video quality and solid streaming. Clicking on the rewind or fast-forward button on my TV moves the progress of the video in short increments. The same functionality exists on the web, but you can also simply use the mouse to drag the progress bar anywhere in the video, which I found more intuitive.

Recording a program to the DVR is best when using the mobile app, the smart TV app or something like a Roku or Amazon Fire TV. Any show I clicked on had an Add to My Stuff button, which does exactly that. I attempted to do the same thing when logged into the website but was only able to record future programming through the live guide.

The service allows users to watch a sporting event or news show live in the moment, with the option to start from the beginning. If you’re looking to catch up on the latest game and don’t have the time to sit through multiple hours, the service offers rows where you can view condensed games, shorter recaps, clips and analysis.

Fox One’s multiview feature, as seen on my Roku device.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

The multiview function has its own dedicated row for watching multiple live programs at once. Fox News and Fox Business are grouped together, as are Fox News, Fox Business and Fox Weather, FS1 and BTN and FS1 and Fox News. This function works as expected and plays the feeds side-by-side in real time with the audio from whatever program you highlight.

This is one of the features I was really looking forward to using. However I discovered that it can only be found using TV OS, Amazon Fire TV or Roku, the last of which I do have. Fox told CNET that more devices will support the feature in the future.

Selecting the guide pulls up a live programming schedule that features limited channels. You cannot remove them entirely or customize the order in which they appear. That said, you can browse upcoming scheduled shows by date up to 14 days ahead of time.

When you click on a show that hasn’t aired yet, you can add it to My Stuff and the app will automatically record it for you. If you choose a game from the guide, you’ll be able to add it to My Stuff, but the service will also give you a list of options that’ll allow you to follow the league and the teams going head-to-head, which will prompt Fox One to record all programming associated with both.

As I stated previously, I used the app for about a week, so I didn’t spend extensive time testing the DVR. It worked as expected, and if you’re concerned about missing any shows, you can record up to 14 days in advance.

Fox One’s vertical live guide on mobile.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

Design-wise, I noticed on my TV that the thumbnail art and episode descriptions within a show’s season overlapped, making it impossible to read. This didn’t happen with every title I clicked on, so I am assuming this is an issue that is being ironed out. That said, suggestions for similar programming came up cluttered with a hodgepodge of shows that had no similarities to the show I was watching at all.

Advertisements; you can’t get away from them. They’re here, but the ad load, as I experienced it, was lighter than what I’ve become used to when watching Hulu or even WWE Raw on Netflix. Since we’re still in the early days of the app, I have a feeling this will change. 

One more note about the ads: While I did experience ad breaks during the live news shows and live sports I clicked play on, there were no commercials interrupting the recap videos and clips.

Fox One’s accessibility settings are slim, and when I tinkered with closed captioning, I found the feature difficult to access and the experience was inconsistent across devices. On my TV, I was met with a QR code that directed me to a website that gave a support email address to contact. The same thing happened when using my Android mobile device. Fox advised that iPhone users are able to change these settings.

Since I don’t have an iPhone, though, the only way I could edit the style, appearance and placement of the captions was through the Fox One website. Instead of under my Account, I found the small CC icon at the bottom right corner of the video player itself.

The closed captioning settings menu, as it appears on Fox One’s web-based app.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

A tiny gear appears next to the CC icon, only when it’s turned on. Clicking that reveals a pop-up menu where changes can be made to font size, font style, font family, font color, font opacity, character edge, character edge color, background color, background opacity, window color and window opacity.

After changing things like size, color and style, the captions still varied in appearance, depending on the programming I was viewing and what device I was using.

What content is and isn’t on Fox One?

Don’t expect a deep library of Fox shows. Fox One’s library isn’t light, but it does feel light on Fox’s primetime TV hits. You’ll find shows like The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, The Masked Singer and Hell’s Kitchen here, but the episode and season count will be limited.

As I sifted through the shows, I began to notice that the newest seasons of shows — which have already completed their initial episode runs — were the only ones available to watch. If you’re looking to catch up on previous seasons of your favorite shows, you won’t find them here. However, you can watch primetime programming live by clicking on your Fox local channel in the live guide.

The app leans heavily into linear territory, instead of creating bespoke, original content. The reason, according to CEO Lachlan Murdoch, is to keep costs low and attract a cord-cutting crowd who wants access to Fox’s content, without subscribing to cable TV.

Fox One has plenty of content for sports fanatics and consumers of Fox News programming. The viewing experience is surprisingly immersive. The lineup of on-demand and live sports games goes quite deep here. For instance, football fans can find a plethora of NFL content on the app. It’s the first league listed in its programming row. Since Fox carries NFL games that are broadcast on Sunday afternoons, you can stream them on Fox One (and be sure to check out CNET’s NFL cord-cutters’ streaming guide).

The leagues row on the Fox One app is packed with sports programming options.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

There’s more than NFL games available on Fox One. A lot more. After a quick scroll-through on the Sports menu, I found the Leagues row halfway down the page. You can find nearly everything here, from MLB and college football to NASCAR, LIV Golf, college basketball, women’s college basketball and MLS. Take note: The NBA does not have a presence on Fox One.

There are rows upon rows of sports content dedicated to the leagues I listed above. It’s a bit overwhelming, to be honest. The amount of sport-specific replays and recaps can be dizzying to someone like me (I don’t really follow sports), but for die-hard fans, this is an absolute treasure trove. If you need a break from the games, you can find a plethora of sports analysis programming.

The app’s Top 10 picks are clickable for each menu listing — Sports, Shows and News — so if you want to watch the episodes of popular titles like Gutfeld!, Family Guy, Jesse Watters Primetime, The Joel Klatt Show or Outnumbered, you can stream new seasons (and in some cases, a few older seasons). If you have a favorite host or Fox personality, the Fox Voices row lists popular commentators like Tom Brady, Colin Cowherd and Nick Wright, and you can follow any of them to personalize your viewing experience.

Should you get it?

Only the latest season of The Simpsons is available to watch on the Fox One app.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

It really depends on what you’re looking for. Fox One, at least in its current iteration, is an app that’s meant to act as a supplemental means of watching Fox content. The library of Fox’s primetime hits may be lacking, but there’s a strong possibility that you’re already subscribed to Hulu, Disney Plus or another streamer that has these shows.

The app is stacked with content, though. If you’re a big sports fan or can’t get enough of Fox News, Fox One may be of interest. It’s got the desirable features like multiview and the live guide I mentioned earlier. Fox One is available on pretty much every device available on the market, but the user experience varies. And then there are the accessibility difficulties I mentioned above.

If you’re already a cable TV subscriber, I can see the value in using Fox One at no additional cost. But outside of that, Fox One, as a standalone app, doesn’t feel like it’s worth the $20 monthly price tag. Perhaps that’ll change now that the bundle with ESPN is live.



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October 3, 2025 0 comments
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Consume Me review - difficult to finish, in a different kind of way
Game Reviews

Consume Me review – difficult to finish, in a different kind of way

by admin October 3, 2025


Jenny Jiao Hsia’s dazzling, semi-autobiographical tale of teenage life finds wit and warmth in its WarioWare weirdness, even as it deals with difficult themes.

“Just think of it like a video game!”, Consume Me’s increasingly put-upon protagonist Jenny tells herself early on as she prepares to take the dieting plunge. The final year of school is approaching, adult life is looming, and if that wasn’t enough, the words of her overbearing mother – how will she ever get a boyfriend if she doesn’t lose some weight? – are lodged in her brain. It’d be enough to overwhelm anyone, let alone a teenager still trying to find her place in the world.

Consume Me review

  • Developer: Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder
  • Publisher: Hexecutable
  • Platform: Played on PC
  • Availability: Out now on PC (Steam, itch.io)

Consume Me is a semi-autobiographical work from co-designer Jenny Jiao Hsia that deals openly and honestly with some pretty tough themes, including dieting, disordered eating, and fatphobia. That might sound like a difficult sell, but Jiao Hsia’s slice-of-life adventure adopts a format that’s immediately, winningly approachable. This is a cheery, pastel-hued phantasmagoria of hyper-kinetic split-screen cutscenes, slapstick WarioWare-style minigames, and time management challenges that (“Just think of it like a video game!”) cleverly uses the language of the medium – its penchant for repetition and routine, its love of ever-escalating pressures – to mimic Jenny’s daily struggles.

Here, the perils of a drifting mind while studying are abstracted to a minigame where you attempt to align your furiously spinning gaze with the pages of your book as thought-bubble distractions rush in; where laundry folding is a game of lightning-fast reactions, and the simple act of walking the dog becomes a comical dance of poop dodging and cash grabbing as you navigate New York City’s streets. And all this minigame silliness is pulled together by a compellingly presented story, told with boundless energy and genuine wit, charting Jenny’s increasingly fraught journey into young adulthood.

Consume Me launch trailer.Watch on YouTube

Each chapter of Consume Me focuses on the kind of familiar right-of-passage events (summer pool parties, fledging romances, high school rivalries, and college applications) that, from the other side of youth at least, feel comparatively trivial. But most of us probably have enough residual trauma from our teenage years – when everything seemed to be of absolute, apocalyptic importance – that it’s easy to empathise with Jenny’s spiralling circumstances and feel the pressure of expectation just as vividly as she does; even if you didn’t have the kind of complex relationship she has with food.

For all its easy breeziness, Consume Me is, at its heart, a game about the unhealthy, unsustainable patterns people can become trapped in when trying to live up to impossible standards, whether they be external or self-imposed. And for Jenny, that manifests most prominently as an obsessive focus on her weight and food. Her initial dieting successes – swimsuit-body confidence! An adorable boyfriend! – are quickly internalised as a causal link that must be maintained, and so no matter what other complications emerge in her life, fastidious food management remains an ever-present aspect of the game. As she puts it, “If I can’t control this one part of my behaviour, then everything falls apart.”

Image credit: Eurogamer/Jenny Jiao Hsia/AP Thomson

Each day, you’ll diligently prepare another meal, attempting to place tetronimo-shaped food items into your grid-like stomach, Tetris-style. Each item has a Bite value (Consume Me explicitly avoids the term ‘calories’), and your goal is to fill Jenny’s Guts while keeping within the week’s Bite limit. It’s a brilliantly effective, and impressively economical, way of putting players into Jenny’s mindset, where food is framed as an adversary to be overcome rather than enjoyed.

There’s a lot of this kind of design elegance throughout Consume Me, where experiences – and even emotions – are conveyed as much through gameplay as story. That’s most evident in its overarching framework of time management, where you’ll need to use Jenny’s limited free time as efficiently as possible in order to complete each chapter’s checklist of objectives. Early on, her responsibilities – studying, chores, and sticking to her diet – seem manageable enough, but with only a few hours of free time available each day, staying on top of things quickly become a tricky (and stressful) balancing act. One wrong move can have a dramatic knock-on effect; overeat, for instance, and suddenly you’ll need to spend a precious hour exercising to get back within your Bite limit. Then there’s the added complexity of your ever-dwindling mood, energy, and guts meters, all requiring diligent maintenance in order to avoid locking yourself out of critical activities each day. You can probably see where this is going.

Image credit: Eurogamer/Jenny Jiao Hsia/AP Thomson

Once Jenny’s holidays are over and the school year begins, things get increasingly chaotic as her checklist of responsibilities grows ever-more demanding – essay writing, college applications, long-distance romance-ing, even the destruction of high school enemies, all piled on top of everything that’s come before. Increasingly, you’ll find yourself falling into unhealthy (and detrimental) habits – knocking back energy drinks and staying up late – just to squeeze a few more hours out of the day, and the sheer mental effort required to keep Consume Me’s plates spinning can be exhausting. Which is obviously the point.

Consume Me accessibility options

Reduce shake effect toggle; reduce flashing colours toggle; separate music and SFX volume sliders; subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

It’s hard to criticise something as intensely personal and mechanically deliberate as Consume Me, where Hsia and co-developer AP Thomson have made very specific design choices in order to tell a very specific story. But it’s clear from Consume Me’s surprisingly accommodating difficulty progression and its presentational breeziness, that – for all its intentionally wearying cycles of repetition – this is a game the team wants players to see through to the end. I’m not sure it finds quite the right balance though, and for me, even with its relatively scant eight hour runtime, it did begin to outstay its welcome, still marching slowly toward the next inevitable escalation long after it felt like its point had been made. And I can’t help wonder if it might have been a little more impactful if it’d wrapped up sooner.

But when I think back on my time with Consume Me, it’s not the stresses that stick with me; it’s the game’s effervescent wit and invention, its canny design and generous spirit (even the most adversarial characters are sympathetically written), and more than anything, the powerful authenticity of its voice. As daft as it often is, this is a game that captures Jenny’s struggles and triumphs so beautifully, and so convincingly, even a sequence introducing her relatively brief flirtations with religion manages to feel – and I say this as someone who’s long been iffy about the whole church thing – genuinely affecting. Consume Me’s pacing didn’t always work for me, but it remains a fascinating, thoughtful, and impressively assured creation all the same. And I can’t help admiring its method – and its message – immensely.

A copy of Consume Me was provided for this review by Hexecutable.



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Henry Quick Corded review: a robust vacuum that punches above its cheap price tag
Gaming Gear

Henry Quick Corded review: a robust vacuum that punches above its cheap price tag

by admin October 3, 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.

Henry Quick Corded: two-minute review

The Henry Quick Corded is one of the most unique vacuums I’ve tested. It’s a stick vacuum, but it’s also both corded and bagged. And it has a face. In terms of features, it’s far from the flashiest model on the market; but it’s solidly built, functional, and comes with an extremely affordable price tag.

Corded vacuums tend to offer more power than cordless models, and that’s just about true here. The Henry Quick Corded isn’t the suckiest vacuum I’ve used, but it still packs enough power to offer a solid clean in low-traffic homes (although it does have an unfortunate tendency to sometimes spit out dirt it previously cleared).

The bags and cord will divide opinion. The emptying process here is pleasingly free from clouds of escaped dust (good news for allergy-sufferers) but I’m not thrilled about the extra waste being created, nor would I necessarily trust myself to remember to replace the bags. Similarly, while I love not having to worry about running out of charge mid-clean, using the Henry Quick Corded in a four-storey house meant more instances of the cable becoming tangled and a therefore a great risk of trip-hazards than I was comfortable with.

Incidentally, both might be good news in terms of longevity – corded vacuums often last much longer than cordless ones, and the presence of a bag means there’s far less danger of ultra-fine particles making their way into the motor and causing issues. Add to that the chunky, robust build (from a brand that’s known specifically for making indestructible canister vacuums), and I’d predict the Numatic Henry Quick will last far longer than the average budget vac.

I like the fact you could turn the brushroll on or off – switching it off is the way forward when tackling chunky debris, because it meant more dirt was sucked up and less was flung across the room. Other vacuum brands should take note.

The lack of anti-hair-wrap features turned out to be a bit of an issue, though – my armpit length hair started to become tangled around the brushroll almost immediately, needing to be ripped out with the aid of scissors. I haven’t had to clear hair like this for some time, and it was quite the unwelcome blast from the past.

There are some compromises, but I still think you’re getting solid value for money here – the Henry Quick is one of the best cheap vacuums I’ve used. I also applaud Numatic’s trend-bucking approach. Most modern vacuums look exactly the same and offer similar features – it’s very rare to see cords and bags in the stick vacuum space, and both have their place as an option.

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That’s the short version; read on for my full Henry Quick Corded vacuum review.

(Image credit: Future)

Henry Quick Corded review: price & availability

  • List price: £160
  • Launched: September 2025
  • Available: UK

The Henry Quick Corded launched in September 2025, and is available in the UK only, exclusively at Argos. With a list price of £160, it sits firmly in the budget price bracket, and is the cheapest vacuum I’ve tested in a long time. The fact that it isn’t available at a range of retailers means there might not be quite so many discounts available – although, at time of writing, there was already £30 off at Argos, just a couple of weeks after the product launched.

I think you’re getting a really solid product for that price. If you’re not fussed about fancy features and don’t need ultra-powerful cleaning, it’s an especially strong recommendation.

In terms of what’s around in a similar price bracket, the Dreame R20 is often available for around £200. This model is cordless and has an Auto mode where the power will intelligently ramp up and down. If you want a corded stick vacuum, you’ll find a model in Shark’s range – but what’s available and at what price is a bit of a Wild West. At the time of writing, it’s the Stratos Pet Pro for £250.

  • Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Henry Quick Corded specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Weight (total):

9.3lbs / 4.2kg

Weight (body only):

4.3lbs / 1.9kg

Bin size:

1L (bagged)

Cord length:

32.8ft / 10m

Dimensions (H x L x W):

48 x 10.6 x 9.4in / 122 x 27 x 24cm

Wattage:

500W

Henry Quick Corded review: design

  • Corded stick vacuum with regular and “+” power modes
  • 1L bags made from recycled material; easy-empty system
  • Vacuum is solidly built, but rather long and heavy

The Henry Quick Corded is that rarest of things: a corded stick vacuum. So it looks roughly like your average cordless stick vacuum, except you plug it into the wall. The cable is 10m long, which is probably the most common length for corded vacuums, although some brands go shorter.

That gives you plenty of room to maneuver, without feeling like you’re too tethered to the wall, and there are clips on the wand around which you can wind the cable when the vacuum isn’t in use.

Corded vacuums tend to be more powerful than cordless models, and they often last longer, too. So if you can cope with the slight inconvenience the cable brings, there are potentially big benefits.

(Image credit: Future)

That’s not the only unusual thing about the Henry Quick Corded: it also uses bags to collect the dust. The “pod” holds a generous 1-liter of dust before it needs replacing, and I received several spares in the box with the vacuum. It’s released via a chunky flap on the main part of the machine.

Again, there are pros and cons of bagged vs bagless vacuums. Bags create less mess and can be a good choice for those with allergies, who are looking to minimize opportunities for particles to escape back into the air. They can also be better at trapping very fine particles. However, there’s the cost and annoyance of having to purchase bags, and the extra waste created. To Numatic’s credit, the Henry Quick pods are made from up to 65% recycled material, and “climate positive” as the brand is carbon offsetting all its pods, globally.

(Image credit: Future)

The iconic smiley Henry face is present and correct, although it doesn’t work quite as naturally here as it does on the brand’s canister options. The machine itself feels very tall for a stick vacuum. With the floorhead flat on the ground, it measures in at around 126cm tall, whereas my Dyson Gen5detect is 114.5cm, and the Dyson V8 is around 113.5cm. You can see all three below, for scale.

When placed next to a Dyson Gen5detect (middle) and V8 (bottom), the Henry Quick looks seriously chunky (Image credit: Future)

Interestingly, this vacuum turns on and off with a one-press button rather than a trigger. Overall, the controls are basic: there are no whizzy screens here. The power button launches standard mode, and pressing the “+” sign unleashes the higher-powered mode. There’s no automation and no low-power option, as you might find on a pricier model. There’s also no battery indicator – it isn’t needed.

The iconic Henry face is present and correct… if a slightly awkward inclusion (Image credit: Future)

Unusually, there’s a third button to switch the beater bar (brush roller) in the floorhead on and off. I’ve never seen this option before on a modern vacuum, but I guessed it was for tackling delicate floors or hard floors (the roller is mostly to agitate the carpet fibers and loosen dirt hiding within, so it’s not required so much on hard floors where all the dust is sat on the surface). On test, I found it was also great for tackling chunky spillages – more on that in a second.

There’s a headlight in the floorhead, which is on by default, but switches off when you disable the brush roller. I’m not sure the logic of that decision, but it’s so dim that it doesn’t make a difference anyway.

The roller in the floorhead can be switched on and off (Image credit: Future)

Thoughtfully, Numatic has added microfiber strips across the front and underside of the floorhead, the former presumably to prevent scratches if you accidentally hit a wall, and the latter to help sweep dust on hard floors. The roller doesn’t come with any anti-hair-wrap features; but if you press the red button you can release the roller to cut hair off as required. A chunky slider lets you adjust the amount of air that can get in, to make it easier to push.

It comes with a Crevice tool and 2-in-1 brush tool for detail work, and like all stick vacuums can be dismantled and reconfigured for use as a handheld.

  • Design score: 3.5 out of 5

Henry Quick Corded review: performance

  • Decent suction on hard floors and carpet, but can spit debris back out
  • The ability to switch the roller off is great for handling chunky debris
  • Hair wraps around the roller

In general use, the Henry Quick Corded felt a little heavy but easy enough to maneuver. There are pros and cons to the button operation – it’s great for longer vacuuming sessions, but annoying if you want a quick clean-up and don’t have a hand free to press the button (here it feels especially far away from the hand grip).

You’ll need a second hand free to reach the On button (Image credit: Future)

The thing with having a bag is that you can’t see how much dust you’ve busted. However, it felt like the Henry Quick Corded was doing a solid job of clearing dirt and pet hair from my floors.

I turned out to be a fan of the no-brushroll mode, because it’s much better for tackling chunky spillages without pinging particles all over the place. The boost mode is clearly a lot more powerful than the standard mode – I could hear things amping up considerably when I switched it on.

Clips help keep the cord tidy when not in use (Image credit: Future)

In general, I didn’t find the cord too annoying. However, testing in my home with four floors meant there were plenty of stairs to navigate, and at that point I did find myself wishing I was using something that was less of a trip hazard (and if I’m honest, lighter and smaller, too). I appreciate that Numatic has added a neat storage solution for the cable when the vacuum isn’t in use, though.

Hair began wrapping around the brushroll after cleaning a single room (Image credit: Future)

This vacuum does a decent job of sucking up pet and human hair. However, the lack of anti-hair-wrap features on the floorhead was immediately noticeable – my armpit-length hair quickly tangled itself around the brushroll. After testing numerous vacuums that don’t have this issue, it felt like an unwelcome blast from the past to have to painstakingly remove the roller and dig out the kitchen scissors to cut away the tangles.

Suction tests

To gain a more objective view of this vacuum’s suction power, I ran a series of standardized suction tests to see how well it coped with fine (loose, dry tea) and chunky (oats and dry lentils) debris.

On carpet, the Henry Quick Corded pulled up most of the tea on the first pass in standard mode, leaving a light sprinkling that took a few more passes to remove completely. It also picked up most of the oats and lentils, again leaving a smattering that required a few more passes to fully clear. However, it did spit a few oats and lentils out from its floorhead once I’d finished the cleaning session.

Henry cleaning tests on carpet

Image 1 of 4

Tea and oats/lentils on carpeted floor ready for the suction test(Image credit: Future)The remaining tea after a single forward pass with the Henry Quick Corded in standard mode(Image credit: Future)The remaining tea after two passes in standard mode with the Henry Quick Corded(Image credit: Future)The remaining oats/lentils after a single forward pass with the Henry Quick Corded(Image credit: Future)

That’s a decent result. (Later, I found that the vacuum picked up chunky debris slightly better with the brushroll turned off, because the rollers didn’t flick bits everywhere.)

I ran the same test with a Dyson V8 cordless alongside, and the pickup in standard mode was very similar with both machines. You can see the results below.

Comparison: Dyson V8 cleaning tests on carpet

Image 1 of 2

The remaining tea after a single forward pass with the Dyson V8 in standard mode(Image credit: Future)The remaining oats and lentils after a single forward pass with the Dyson V8 in standard mode(Image credit: Future)

I repeated the test on a hard, tiled floor. This time, I switched the brushroll off, and it cleared everything in a single pass. Not a complete win, though, because I could see bits of debris lingering in the floorhead. I switched the roller back on to try to encourage it to make its way up the wand. This worked to a certain extent, but when I came to lift up the vacuum it still dropped a light sprinkling of tea onto the floor.

Image 1 of 2

Oats and lentils, and tea, on a tiled floor ready for the suction tests(Image credit: Future)The Henry Quick Corded cleared everything in a single pass(Image credit: Future)

I used a mixture of the same products to test how well the vacuum coped with cleaning up to the edges of rooms. It took a few passes to clear everything, as you can see in the video below, but the Henry Quick got decently close to the edge of the room.

Overall, some solid, if not wildly impressive, cleaning results from the Henry Quick Corded. I’d probably recommend it to someone whose home has more hard floors than carpet, and who isn’t dealing with tons of dirt or pet hair. I especially like the extra level of control available by being able to switch the roller on or off to suit the situation.

  • Performance score: 3.5 out of 5

Should you buy the Henry Quick Corded?

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attribute

Notes

Rating

Value

Firmly in the budget bracket, and the cheapest vac from a trusted brand I’ve seen in a long time. Basic, but still strong value for money.

4 / 5

Design

Corded, bagged stick vacuum. The build is sturdy and functional, but feels rather heavy and tall.

3.5 / 5

Performance

Decent cleaning on carpet and hard floor, and the ability to turn off the roller is useful. However, it can spit out some previously cleaned particles.

3.5 / 5

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Henry Quick Corded review: alternatives to consider

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Model:

Henry Quick Corded (reviewed)

Dreame R20

Shark Stratos Pet Pro Upright

Type:

Corded, bagged stick vacuum

Cordless, bagless stick vacuum

Corded, bagless upright vacuum

Weight (total):

9.3lbs / 4.2kg

6lbs / 2.7kg

14.7lbs / 6.7kg

Bin size:

1L

0.6L

1.3L

Cord length:

32.8ft / 10m

N/A

26ft / 8m

Max runtime:

Unlimited

90 mins

Unlimited

Wattage:

500W

570W

750W

How I tested the Henry Quick Corded

I spent a couple of weeks using the Henry Quick Corded as my regular vacuum cleaner. I used in a four-floored house with mostly carpeted rooms, but also some engineered wooden flooring and tiled bathrooms and kitchens. It’s home to one long-haired and one short-haired human, and a Cocker Spaniel that likes to molt everywhere.

As well as getting a general feel for its cleaning performance – including how well it handles hair – and ease of use, I also ran a series of standard suction tests. For these, I sprinkled fine (dry tea) and chunky (oats and dry lentils) debris onto hard floors and carpet, and recorded how efficiently the vacuum cleared them. I ran the same tests alongside an older and newer Dyson cordless stick vacuums to see how the three compared. I also assessed how the Henry coped with cleaning along the edges of rooms.

Read more about how we test vacuum cleaners

  • First reviewed September 2025

Henry Quick Corded Vacuum Cleaner: Price Comparison



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SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite review: $599 for premium, pricey perfection
Product Reviews

SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite review: $599 for premium, pricey perfection

by admin October 3, 2025


I’ve been hooked on SteelSeries gaming headsets ever since the Arctis Pro launched more than five years ago. The Nova range upped the quality with feature, fit, and software improvements, and the company is now going one step further with a $599.99 Nova Elite headset — a price that I’ve been questioning every day during my last month of testing.

With the Nova Elite, SteelSeries has created a category of luxury gaming headsets that doesn’t really exist right now. It’s banking on hi-res wireless audio, carbon fiber speaker drivers, a metal frame, and the ability to simultaneously stream audio from a PC, Xbox, and PlayStation to make it the best gaming headset on the market.

But is $599.99 too much, even for the best gaming headset?

$600

The Good

  • Excellent metal build quality
  • Better wireless signal
  • Hi-res audio with carbon fiber speakers
  • Swappable battery dock

The Bad

  • That $599 price tag
  • Cryptic low-battery audio alerts

Aside from the new sage and gold color option, the Nova Elite looks very similar to the existing $379.99 Nova Pro — especially when comparing the black versions. The frame and control wheel are both metal now instead of plastic, and the memory foam ear cups are more plush and feel more comfortable on my ears this time around.

The mixture of aluminum and stainless steel materials also makes the Nova Elite a lot sturdier than the plastic Nova Pro, which also makes it fit better for me. I have a fairly large head so the Nova Elite fits snugly over my ears, instead of slightly loose like the Nova Pro. And while the active noise canceling nub inside the ear cans irritated me on the original Nova Pro, I don’t even notice it on the Elite.

The Nova Elite’s frame is metal instead of plastic.

The plush memory foam ear cups are super comfortable.

There’s an adjustable band to improve the fit.

The GameHub DAC lets you control the headset and charge its batteries.

All of these material and comfort improvements are coupled with a first for a gaming headset: hi-res wireless audio. You can stream 96kHz / 24-bit audio over 2.4GHz with the included GameHub DAC or via Bluetooth with LC3+. It’s a little fiddly to set up thanks to the complex audio interface in Windows, and once enabled, you’ll really need the right game or audio file to tell the difference.

The hi-res audio support is a subtle enough improvement that I had trouble noticing it, but the overall sound quality improvements, along with the carbon fiber drivers, are more obvious. I played the Battlefield 6 beta for hours last month with the Nova Elite, and then I switched back to my Nova Pro headset. The explosions, tanks, and gunfire all sounded better with the Nova Elite, but it really depends on what games you’re playing.

In a game like Valorant, I could barely notice the difference, because there’s far less environmental sound and you’re really only listening for footsteps and audio cues. I wouldn’t buy the Nova Elite over the Nova Pro if you’re mostly playing multiplayer shooters.

SteelSeries has improved the microphone system on the Nova Elite for multiplayer games and Discord calls. You now have the choice between a retractable boom mic or a new on-ear mic if you don’t want the boom mic getting in the way. Neither come anywhere close in quality to replacing the Shure SM7B that I use daily, but they’re both useful if I’m using the Nova Elite on my phone or a game console.

You can easily hot swap batteries, and the Nova Elite intelligently turns back on.

There’s always a battery ready and charged in the included GameHub.

One of the best things about the Nova Elite is the way that it works with up to four audio sources simultaneously. I can connect to my phone over Bluetooth, which is useful to take calls while I’m working on my PC, and I can also connect to a game console, like an Xbox Series X or PS5, via USB-C at the same time. Omniplay, as SteelSeries calls it, can mix the audio from up to four sources. You could be chatting on Discord on your PC with the GameHub 2.4GHz wireless connection while hearing the audio from an Xbox game using the USB-C connection, listening to TikTok videos on your phone via Bluetooth, and even getting audio from yet another source through the 3.5mm aux port.

While I primarily used the Nova Elite with my PC, SteelSeries also has a mobile app that lets you control EQ levels and even game audio presets for consoles or mobile play. These presets already impressed me with SteelSeries’ Arctis GameBuds, and they’re equally great on the Nova Elite, allowing you to use custom EQ levels for more than 200 games.

These presets are also available in the GG app on Windows. The GG app takes over the clunky Windows audio experience and makes it easy to manage what microphone you want to use and whether you want audio to play out of speakers or a monitor when you turn your headset off. SteelSeries’ Sonar software is also part of GG, and I really like how effortless it is to set up multiple audio channels so I can adjust the volume levels and sound profiles of media apps, Discord chat, and games individually.

The ANC on the Elite is very similar to the Pro. It’s good for a gaming headset, but it falls behind the ANC on Bose or Sony headsets I’ve used. SteelSeries does a good job of using AI-powered noise rejection to block out any unwanted sounds (like typing noises) from the headset microphone, so you’ll always sound clear over Discord or a call.

The GG app also pairs with the GameHub DAC that sits on your desk to give you volume information, battery level, and more control over the headset. You can adjust the headset volume and mute the microphone from the headset itself, but the GameHub also lets you customize the ANC levels, enable transparency mode, and even adjust all the microphone settings. The GameHub is relatively unchanged from the Nova Pro, but I did find that the wireless signal it provides is a lot better in the dead spots in my house where the Pro used to disconnect.

The GameHub also includes a charging dock for the Nova Elite’s battery. Like the Pro, the Elite comes with two batteries, so you never have to worry about battery life. Each battery lasts around 30 hours of use, and when it’s low, you simply swap it with the one charging in the GameHub. I love this system so much, and I wish every gaming headset had it.

The only thing I’ve found annoying about this headset are the low-battery alerts. At 15 percent battery, the headset starts playing a low beeping tone every five minutes. There’s no other indication of what’s going on, and the sound is close enough to those web chat bots that I kept hunting for a rogue browser tab at first. When the battery hits 8 percent, it plays a more urgent tone, and a light on the GameHub DAC starts to blink. There’s really no need for the 15 percent warning.

The Nova Elite is available in sage and gold or black.

After testing the Nova Elite over the past month, I don’t want to go back to the Nova Pro. The changes are often subtle enough that I only notice them when I do switch back, but then they’re obvious. Using the Nova Pro after using the Nova Elite feels like going back to a 60Hz panel after upgrading to a high refresh rate monitor.

The trouble is the price. SteelSeries wants to create a new category of luxury and premium gaming headsets, and how well it succeeds could come down to the $599 price tag, which is the same as an already expensive Xbox Series X console.

You’ll have to really want the compatibility with all game consoles, the hi-res audio support, the added comfort, and the material improvements in order to warrant the $220 premium over the Nova Pro. If you’re looking for one of the best gaming headsets on the market, then I’d pick the Nova Pro. But if you can stretch to the Nova Elite’s luxury territory, then I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Photography by Tom Warren / The Verge

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A King of Meat screenshot taken on PS5.
Product Reviews

King of Meat review: not the wurst

by admin October 2, 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.

This party platformer serves up a steady stream of challenges with buckets of content to unlock, ranging all the way from a robust roster of weapons to neat cosmetics that help you run wild in the excellent character creator.

Personalization and customization are consistent highlights in King of Meat, and when you’re not tackling its wide selection of community-made levels, the expansive dungeon maker gives you a powerful but approachable set of tools for crafting your own.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X, and Series S
Release date: October 7, 2025

It’s a meaty package given the modest $29.99 / £24.99 asking price, but there are some rough edges to bear in mind before you dive in. Its copious animated cutscenes are gorgeous, but the constant parody humor can sometimes grate. It’s perfectly serviceable if you’re willing to regard it with some degree of irony, but hardly entertaining material. The platforming can also be a drag, as it’s quite slow and precise – the opposite of what you would usually expect from a colorful multiplayer party game like this.

Pair this with a difficulty level that ranges all the way from a complete cakewalk to unbelievably punishing, depending on the design of your current dungeon, and the experience can often frustrate.

Meat your maker

(Image credit: Amazon Games)

Set in the fantasy kingdom of Loregok, everything in King of Meat is centered around the titular in-universe TV show.

Although online play is the focus, there’s a surprising amount of story here and heaps of voiced dialogue. The handful of vendors in its small hub world frequently dispense world-building lines, and there’s even a pretty solid single-player mode that has you traversing through a series of developer-crafted dungeons as little narrative segments play out.

Despite the reliance on rather passé parody humor, it’s certainly entertaining enough and offers a nice little diversion if you’re waiting for your friends to hop on for a multiplayer session. Reaching new high scores in these levels unlocks loads of neat goodies too, including in-game currency and some nifty cosmetics, giving you a good reason to replay each of them a handful of times.

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The star of the show is the multiplayer, though, divided into three distinct leagues that can be tackled with up to three other players. The league tryouts are your beginner levels, intended to be immediately approachable to low-level players. Populated by basic skeleton enemies or simplistic puzzles, they’re not particularly thrilling, leading to a rather weak first few matches, but soon give way to the much more exciting Global League playlist and the super challenging Imperial League.

Global League is where I routinely have the most fun, but enjoyment does hinge heavily on the design of the level that you’re playing. Although there is a fairly large selection of developer-made stages (which comprised the bulk of my early testing time), the community also has the power to create new levels that feed into the mix.

Sizzle reel

(Image credit: Amazon Games)

When you’re playing a well-designed level, everything just clicks.

One particularly memorable example had me completing quite complex spike-based puzzles with a team of randoms, all of us communicating through the in-game chat wheel (populated by barks like ‘nice’ or ‘sorry’) and the quick ping feature.

Carefully timing my position on pressure plates to disable traps so the other players could progress and do the same for me was immensely satisfying and had us all frictionlessly working like a hive mind despite the lack of detailed communication.

Going head-to-head with just the right mix of enemies in more wave-based challenges also helps the shockingly deep combat shine. Chaining different combos together to fill up the on-screen audience excitement meter is immediately rewarding, with more elaborate streaks resulting in louder cheers and higher points.

Best bit

(Image credit: Amazon Games)

The specials mode offers up a platter of limited-time challenges, with some aimed at solo players and others geared towards teams. They’re some of the best levels that I’ve seen, with a good mix of devious traps and combat challenges. Competing in them puts you on a huge leader board, and yes I managed to reach number one a handful of times.

There are loads of weapons to try too, with both a primary and secondary slot. Primaries range from your average medieval fare like swords and hammers to magical knuckle dusters and electric guitars, while secondaries include a bomb launcher and, my personal favorite, a literal gun. Completing challenges with each weapon feeds into a large set of skill trees, with unlocks increasing key stats and improving the efficiency of attacks.

Powerful Glory Moves are charged like an ultimate ability as your brawl, unleashing powerful effects, including healing for your team and an amusing burp that sends enemies flying. It’s all very strong on paper, but the issues start to come to the fore when you’re playing a less well-designed stage.

One random choice dumped me in a long, straight corridor that was just overflowing with super powerful enemies – a wildly unfair slog that saw me losing all five of my lives in a matter of seconds.

(Image credit: Amazon Games)

Platforming is rather slow and cumbersome, too, which makes some of the more parkour-oriented stages feel unfair. Your maximum running speed is a snail’s pace, and your jump is floaty and inaccurate. Throw in some consistent issues with hit direction thanks to server latency, and you have a recipe for annoyance when you’re trying to navigate everything from spike pits to moving platforms – which unfortunately are practically omnipresent.

I’m not exactly sure why developer Glowmade didn’t go for a lighter, faster style of platforming here, as it would easily make everything so much more exciting.

Dungeon master

(Image credit: Amazon Games)

Those with a creative streak will likely be able to forgive this, though, as King of Meat doesn’t fall short when it comes to customization.

The character creator is excellent, giving you loads of control over your armored competitor with a variety of outfit parts, plus decals and accessories that you can place anywhere. The unique, almost-modern-but-still-medieval look is cute too, and means that traffic cones and tracksuit bottoms don’t look at all out of place next to suits of armor.

There’s also the superb dungeon creator. It’s not quite as expensive as something like the level builder in Super Mario Maker, as it fundamentally relies on placing pre-set rooms, but you can achieve an awful lot with it. There are loads of decor items to place freely, tons of enemies, special effects, and a robust logic system for those keen to create more adventurous contraptions and puzzles.

The ability to quickly play your dungeon from the start or your current room in order to spot any sore spots is a blessing and makes creation fun and easy. Uploading your tracks for others to try is simple too, and I personally can’t wait to discover what kind of things players will come up with.

All of this leaves me a bit conflicted about King of Meat. The groundwork is all here for a fantastic experience, and the team behind the game has clearly put a huge amount of care and attention into almost all of its core elements – I just wish the platforming and comedy weren’t quite so tedious.

Should I play King of Meat?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

There are loads of accessibility options in King of Meat. This includes a range of speech-to-text options, including narration of the in-game menus and chat box. Subtitles are enabled by default, and you’re free and customize the size, color, and background opacity of them. The controls can also be customized with a huge range of input options that remove the need to hit buttons.

Photosensitive users can remove the screen flash that occurs when you take damage, or disable a selection of other in-game effects.

How I reviewed King of Meat

I played more than ten hours of King of Meat on PlayStation 5 ahead of the game’s launch. During that time, I played a heap of levels both alone and with other players online.

I also had a lengthy co-op session with a colleague in order to assess the game’s potential when you’re playing with friends. I unlocked the bulk of the game’s content, including most of its weapons, and played with all of the ones that were available to me. I became global number one in a handful of the daily challenge levels and also spent some time as the level creator, experimenting with the tools on offer.

Throughout my time with the game, I played it with the standard DualSense Wireless Controller and an Astro A20 X gaming headset for audio.

First reviewed September 2025

King of Meat: Price Comparison



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Key artwork for Hades 2
Gaming Gear

Hades 2 review: a faithful yet boldly reinventive sequel that somehow improves on perfection

by admin October 2, 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.

Though it’s only been five years since its predecessor, roguelite game Hades 2 feels long-awaited. The weight of expectation on developer Supergiant to surpass the massive success of Hades must have loomed more dauntingly than the sword of Damocles itself. So, how do you build on a game ranking among the best roguelites in modern history?

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
Release date: September 25, 2025

With a refreshed cast of Grecian heroes and gods, Hades 2 carves its own take on mythos, making for a game that feels both familiar and wildly different to Zagreus’ tale.

For one thing, gameplay mechanics have been boldly reinvented, and there’s a whole lot more variety in each run. In Hades 2, range and placement can make or break your strategy; the addition of Magick gives Melinoë an entirely different moveset to Zagreus, and with less mobility than her brother, it’s all to play for on the battlefield.

The stakes are immediately high, and nothing encapsulates the shift in priorities better than the art and world-building Supergiant is so famed for. An inventive array of new foes, friends, and plenty of frenemies make for a captivating narrative that rarely strays into “wall-of-text” territory, and it’s a breathtaking journey from start to finish.

With war brewing at the home front in Tartarus and on Olympus, a war of the gods has begun once again, but will the Princess of the Underworld be able to defeat Time itself?

Generational trauma

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

The game begins at a crossroads – the crossroads, in fact, between the surface and the road to Tartarus. Readying for battle in this liminal space between life and death, Melinoë, daughter of Hades and Persephone, prepares to battle primordial powers to rescue her family.

Your foe is Chronos, the Titan of Time and father of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades – for the nerds, yes, that’s an amalgamation of Chronos, the primordial concept of time itself, and Kronos, the leader of the Titans; two different figures from mythos. It’s fine, I’m not mad about it.

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Before the events of the game, Chronos captured his chthonic son, along with Persephone, Zagreus, and a host of other underworld dwellers. Thankfully, Melinoë was whisked away just beforehand and into the care of Hecate, Witch of the Crossroads, to be trained in the art of witchcraft and, hopefully, rescue her relatives – and thus the story begins, and the generational trauma continues.

For your first few runs, you’ll venture towards Tartarus through Erebus (and Oceanus, if you can trounce the first guardian), but after these first two more linear levels, there’s a lot more diversity in chambers and encounters.

However, you’ll also quickly unlock access to the Surface, where Chronos’ goons are mounting an attack on Olympus. Having two options to venture keeps the game feeling fresh, removing the frustrating feeling of repeatedly falling at the same hurdle, and it’s a welcome change to the formula.

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

There’s a lot of ebb and flow to the game’s two pathways, and each region offers dynamic maps with plenty of ways to progress by gathering resources, meeting with allies, and finding familiars to recruit. Some regions can feel a little gruelling; Tartarus’ Fields of Mourning, in particular, forces you into repetitive waves of enemies to cash in on multiple rewards per encounter, but you often only really want one of them.

However, other levels like the City of Ephyra play on the level design to push you to think harder about your build’s foundations, choosing six of ten possible rewards; both examples dismantle the classic two-door choice convention and keep the game varied.

Along the way, various gods from Hades – plus some new faces – will appear to deliver Boons: powerful upgrades to your attacks, movement, weaponry, chance modifiers, and beyond. These feel improved on Hades’ strong foundations; there’s a great variety on offer, and it’s rare that I really need a re-roll to find something useful.

Another noticeable difference is the increased focus on resource gathering. Doing away with the trade mechanics makes for much more rewarding progression materials, and there’s a lot more to find within each region. Your familiars can help you here, with each specializing in a different resource (spirits, seeds, fish, and foliage) as well as helping out during combat.

Which witch is which?!

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

Oft characterized in non-game lore as the goddess of ghosts, spirits, and sometimes nightmares, Melinoë is a wildly different protagonist from her brother Zagreus. She bears a glowing, enhanced arm capable of wielding various Arcana card power-ups, and can use Magick to charge and cast enhanced abilities through Omega spells.

Like your regular abilities, Omega spells have a further set of Boons, allowing you to build around your powerful charged attacks instead of just amping up your base damage. Alternatively, you can pretty much ignore your spells altogether if you prefer button-mashing your standard attack, special, and cast; the game rewards you for playing well, not for playing every feature.

Now, the cast has switched to an area of effect (AoE) crowd control move; you can sit in it to slash at enemies on the border or build it up to be a damage-dealing trap for your enemies. This is vital, and certainly the most significant change to combat at a base level. Using it well, and often, is key to surviving with enough strength for bigger battles, especially in later levels where you’re contending with hordes of the undead or fiddly ranged attackers.

There’s a great, gradual progression arc to power up throughout the game, and I found myself genuinely surprised on multiple occasions that there was still more to unlock.

Once again, there are keepsakes, weapon unlocks, and enhancements you can build into your runs to make your attacks hit even harder.

Best bit

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

Eris is a real pain to tackle the first few times, but hoo boy, is it fun to thrash her once you learn the ropes. She’s not as punishing as late-game bosses like Prometheus, but there’s a satisfying knack to timing your dodges and landing hits.

From an enormous, badass battle-axe to skulls that land with a “BOOM!”, Melinoë uses a mix of ranged and melee weapons to tackle her foes, but with way less mobility than her older brother. There’s no more double dash, but you can always use the new infinite sprint to zoom away from danger. Still, combat feels satisfyingly snappy, just with a greater emphasis on positioning.

Mel also swaps God Calls for Hexes, gifts from Selune that can be upgraded via a skill tree as you journey onwards. Personally, I’m a fan of the health regen Hex, which can be leveled to stack across regions and deliver huge amounts of health; particularly useful when you’re running with a squishier Mel build.

Each of these changes feels meaningful, and not just to differentiate Hades 2 from its successful predecessor. Plus, there’s so much variety and depth to each run that there’s no point in banking on specific builds; your Keepsakes can help pave the way for specific Boons, but you’re up against greater odds than in Hades.

That’s doubly true when you contend with the great variety of enemies, mini-bosses, and bosses. There’s no one way to play Mel, and the combatants want you to remember that; some punish you for an over-reliance on dashing, some for sitting too still or getting too close; others, you just have to hope you’ve built around strongly enough to kill before they can get you first (Prometheus, I’m looking at you. I’m judging you, in fact. Relentlessly.)

On the road again

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

Calling the crossroads a liminal space feels at odds with the teeming life, love, and emotion housed in the battle camp Mel and her associates call home, but perhaps that’s exactly the point. Here, in a space designed for passage, a band of heroes, villains, and gods alike from mythos find refuge and comfort from a world in a perpetual state of pre-apocalypse. Of course, that’s all tinged by the undertones of the dysfunctional Olympian family tree, but if you can look past the bickering siblings, Mel and Hecate’s mommy issues, and, of course, the many mortals left in the wreckage of godly pettiness, there are some beautiful bonds formed at the crossroads.

From shopping to decorating and even gardening, there’s a lot to do between runs. Hecate’s cauldron offers permanent upgrades both in and out of runs, and there are more interactive spaces like the salt baths and the fishing pier. There’s a huge amount of unlockable content and interactions here; characters react to the outcome of the previous run and even the items Mel takes with her to the field, making it genuinely rewarding to sit through dialogue.

Eris, Nemesis, Moros, and Icarus are the romancable options (at least, the only ones I’ve encountered), but I’d really encourage forming bonds with all of the main cast. Deep secrets and connections to other figures in mythos mean characters like Dora expand the universe even further and teach you more about Mel’s history and identity. Greg Kasavin was not messing around when he put pen to paper for Hades 2, though I do share some fans’ criticisms of the slightly rushed ending.

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

The world is, of course, more than its writing. Darren Korb’s tremendous musical talents are once again in full force, providing a dramatic underscore to the on-screen action with even greater zeal. Jen Zee also delivered with some excellent refreshed character designs, each with subtle hints to the more militant themes in the game.

Even Aphrodite now bears arms (though clothing still appears to be optional), and Zeus is armored up in preparation for the great battles on the horizon. New animations for character cards breathe life into the designs, aided of course by another stellar cast of talented voice actors.

Rolling credits for the first time is only the beginning; there’s a lot more you’ll want to eke out of these relationships on your road to the ‘true’ ending, and that’s the real magic of the Hades 2 formula. It takes repetition and makes it a thematic driver, pulling you deeper into the world of the Gods and their follies.

Hades 2 absolutely surpasses its predecessor in almost every way, building on its success reservedly but meaningfully, and it’s a must-play game for all to enjoy. It’s a masterpiece in its own right, though Mel’s story is inseparable from Zagreus’ successes in more ways than one.

Should Supergiant choose to revisit the land of the gods with a sequel, I’m once again left wondering how it could withstand its legacy, but with a fresh confidence that they can once again go the distance.

Should you play Hades 2?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

Within the settings, you have the option to toggle ‘God Mode’ under the Gameplay tab, which reduces the difficulty in the game, offering more damage resistance the more often you die. Alternatively, you can customize features like Auto-Fire/Auto-Sprint, Aim Assist, Dead Zones, and more to make gameplay more accessible. There are subtitles for both speech and song, as well as changeable vibration settings and visual effect settings.

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

How I reviewed Hades 2

I got 50 hours of the game, unlocking both the main ending and rolling credits on the ‘true’ ending of Hades 2 using a Nintendo Switch 2. I played it in both docked and undocked mode to see if legibility or performance is impacted by the screen size, comparing my experience against other roguelites, including Dead Cells, The Binding of Isaac, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, and, of course, the original Hades.

I tried different settings, including God Mode, to see the impact on the game’s accessibility and performance, and tried playing both with a Corsair Void Max Wireless v2 headset and through the Switch 2 speakers.

First reviewed September 2025

Hades 2: Price Comparison



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PolarPro Peter McKinnon VND Edition II filter review
Product Reviews

PolarPro Peter McKinnon VND Edition II filter review

by admin October 2, 2025



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PolarPro VND Filter Peter McKinnon Edition II: Two-minute review

The latest product of PolarPro’s ongoing collaboration with hugely popular videographer and YouTube creator Peter McKinnon, the VND Filter Peter McKinnon Edition II has become an interesting and valuable part of my camera setup over the past few weeks.

First, a quick explanation of what a ND filter does. One of the key principles of photography and videography is the so-called “exposure triangle” – the way that ISO, aperture and shutter speed interact to control the amount of light that hits an image sensor.

By adding a neutral-density (ND) filter – which reduces the amount of light coming in without affecting the color hue – to the equation, photographers gain one extra factor to influence how the camera behaves, and more control over shutter speed and aperture.

For photographers, the ability to reduce light means we can use longer shutter speeds than the lighting conditions would ordinarily allow. That means artfully blurred waterfalls, or night-time shots with streaking, laser-like car headlights. For videographers, control over shutter speed allows for motion blur and wide-open aperture shooting in brighter conditions.

The main selling point of the PolarPro VND Filter Peter McKinnon Edition II (also known as the PMVND II) is that it’s a variable ND filter. In other words, twisting the filter allows the photographer to select an ND value from anything between two and five stops, saving them the bother of having to add filters to and them filters from their lens. (PolarPro also sells a stronger 6-9 stop edition of the VND filter, plus mist-diffusion Black Mist versions of both).

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

  • PolarPro Peter McKinnon VND Edition II at Adorama for $199.99

Because my review sample sits at the weaker end of the range for ND filters, I found that it couldn’t stop enough light to get truly long exposures outdoors on a bright, sunny day. Even at its highest 5-stop setting, and with my camera at its lowest ISO setting, a shutter speed of anything longer than a second resulted in a blown-out, overexposed image. So, if you want to shoot multi-second daytime exposures on sunny days or in bright landscapes (like snowfields), you’ll want to have the 6-9 stop filter to hand. If you’re feeling flush, buying both filters provides a wide stopping range.

On more overcast days, at night or indoors, however, the two to five stop range feels very usable. Even during the day, it allowed me to set a wider aperture than I’d normally be able to use for video, resulting in a shallow depth of field with background bokeh while maintaining an ideal shutter speed (of roughly double my frame rate, as the rule of thumb suggests).

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The filter glass is extremely clear and neutral, although it does appear to add a very slight warm color cast when compared to shots with no filter attached. I couldn’t spot a single incidence of ghosting or chromatic aberration, however – two issues that can plague cheaper filters. And it doesn’t seem to affect the sharpness of images at all, which is what I would expect of a filter in this price range.

Today’s best PolarPro Peter McKinnon VND Edition II deals

I also encountered no vignetting when shooting with a wide-open aperture at my lens’ widest field of view (12mm on a Micro Four Thirds camera, equivalent to 24mm on a 35mm or full-frame camera). PolarPro claims the filter exhibits no vignetting right down to 16mm, but I wasn’t able to put that to the test myself.

I also noticed that a small amount of additional contrast could creep into shots as I moved up the ND stop range. That’s a side effect of the variable ND filter design, I think – VNDs require polarized glass to achieve their variable effect, and that will affect the final image slightly. If that’s a no-no for you, you’ll need to use regular, non-variable ND filters instead.

While performance is strong, build quality might be even better. I was sent a 67mm filter to review (it’s also available in 49mm, 77mm, 82mm and 95mm sizes), and used a step-up ring (also by PolarPro) to fit it to the 62mm thread on my Panasonic 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 lens. Both the filter and ring screwed on smoothly and securely, with no awkward threading.

Image 1 of 5

No filter attached(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)ND 2(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)ND 3(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)ND 4(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)ND 5 (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

The combined case and lens cap (known as the Defender 360) makes fitting even easier – and ensures greasy fingerprints stay well away from the filter glass. The cap features two parts, one metal (aluminum to be precise) and one rubber, with the rubber element gripping around the filter’s frame so that you can, with a twist, add or remove the filter from your lens. When not in use, the filter sits inside the rubber part while the metal screws back on over one side to keep it safe. It’s an ingenious piece of design.

The filter itself feels beautifully precision engineered. The machined ridges or knurls on the edge give your fingers plenty to grip onto, while the subtle ‘click’ expressed as each ND stop is reached is welcome (and useful) feedback. Of course, some users might prefer a completely smooth turn, particularly videographers who want to adjust the stopping value while rolling the camera. It’s something to note, but I personally found it a clever design touch.

And, while this is a subjective thing, I think the PMVND II looks really classy too, with its two-tone black and brass finish. It’s hydrophobic too, with water beading and running off the glass easily.

Overall, I’m hugely impressed by the quality of the PolarPro VND Filter Peter McKinnon Edition II. Yes, it’s expensive – but it’s also thoughtfully designed, impeccably constructed, and works exactly as a variable ND filter should. If you’re looking for an ND filter to expand your creative repertoire, this 4-in-1 champion should certainly be on your radar.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

PolarPro VND Filter Peter McKinnon Edition II: Price and availability

The PolarPro VND Filter Peter McKinnon Edition II is available now worldwide, priced at around $150 / £150 / AU$260 for the 49mm size or around $250 / £240 / AU$450 for the 67mm, 77mm, 82mm and 92mm sizes.

The filter is available in two ND stop ranges: 2-5 (which I’m reviewing here) and 6-9, with both models additionally available in a Black Mist version designed to soften highlights for a different look.

These are high prices for ND filters, but I think the quality and adaptability of the PMVND II makes it well worth the price to the right buyer.

Should I buy the PolarPro Peter McKinnon VND Edition II filter?

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

How I tested the PolarPro Peter McKinnon VND Edition II filter

  • I used it for several weeks
  • I fitted it to a Panasonic Lumix GH6
  • I tested it for photo and video capture

I used a 67mm PMVND II on and off for several weeks in the late summer and early autumn on the English south coast, threading it to a 12-60mm zoom lens on my Panasonic Lumix GH6 via a 62mm-to-67mm step-up ring (also supplied by PolarPro). I recorded video and shot photos using all of the filter’s ND levels, and tested it in various weather and light conditions, from overcast drizzly evenings to blazingly sunlit mornings.

First reviewed October 2025

PolarPro Peter McKinnon VND Edition II: Price Comparison



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Hotel Barcelona Review - Check Out Any Time You’d Like
Game Reviews

Hotel Barcelona Review – Check Out Any Time You’d Like

by admin October 2, 2025


I repeatedly asked myself one question while playing Hotel Barcelona: Why?

Why is the demonic spirit of a serial killer possessing a timid US Marshal? Why is the promising-looking combat so bland? Why is the storytelling so half-baked? Why does the game look as though it emerged from a time capsule from the mid-2000s? I don’t have the answers to most of these questions, but I know one thing: This collaboration between White Owls, the studio led by Deadly Premonition mastermind Swery, and Suda51 of Grasshopper fame, is a bad time. It also encapsulates the main critique of both creators’ works: an abundance of surreal humor and style, but severely lacking in polished substance.

Hotel Barcelona is a 2D action roguelike that sees players fighting across the grounds of the eponymous cursed hotel. As Justine, you’re a government agent looking to avenge your father’s murder by taking down a powerful witch with the supernatural assistance of Dr. Carnival, a murderous spirit inhabiting Justine’s body. This intriguing setup, and the dynamic between the shy Justine and ruthless Carnival, can lead to mildly amusing moments, but the payoff is neither interesting nor entirely coherent. Unfortunately, the action isn’t much better.

 

The game’s roguelike runs consist of time-limited romps through four stages of a level, which is assigned a random weather effect and time of day. You have upwards of two or three minutes to explore a stage before exiting one of several doors to the next area, granting bonuses like increased attack speed or health regeneration. I like that runs are mercifully short, because the mediocre combat lacks enough punch or finesse to make Justine’s revenge quest satisfying.

Slicing foes apart with various weapons like knives, axes, or buzzsaws, or gunning them down with pistols, shotguns, and other ranged options, feels just south of “fine” even after unlocking combos and other upgrades from a skill tree. To its credit, Hotel Barcelona has a few novel ideas. Weather comes into play by affecting how long it takes to build up Dr. Carnival’s special attack, a meter filled by coating Justine in the blood of the foes she slays. Rainy weather rinses the blood off her body, making it tougher to build toward unleashing this screen-filling attack to add a decent challenge.

One interesting concept is playing alongside the “ghosts” of your previous runs through a stage, who can attack any enemies caught in their predetermined path. These can be helpful, but are more unreliable than anything. You can also be invaded and killed by other players (and do the same to them) Dark Souls-style, but this happens so infrequently (possibly due to a low player count) that it’s virtually a non-factor. When someone did arrive and took my life, I cursed them for extending my time in Hotel Barcelona’s world.

The bland assortment of enemies similarly lacks punch, and some unleash infuriatingly cheap attacks that can stun-lock Justine to an early grave. Boss battles, such as ones against a deranged butcher or an alien social media influencer, commit the same sins, and I never looked forward to facing them time and again to farm upgrade resources. While the combat is unremarkable at worst, other gameplay diversions, such as a platforming sequence across a crumbling arena or a QTE-driven surfing segment, are outright terrible due to poor controls and a dated presentation.

Despite Hotel Barcelona seemingly taking the Hades route of advancing the story and unlocking new character conversations between runs, non-critical threads go nowhere, even though some present interesting personalities. I hoped to learn more about Barcelona’s strange patrons, such as an ear-obsessed bartender, a friendly monster living in Justine’s closet, and an unsettlingly chipper receptionist, so I was disappointed that their character development gets cut off at the knees so unexpectedly as the game approaches its climax. Justine’s quest to collect the hearts of three bosses to face the witch is shockingly short, padded by an unnecessary and tedious story mission to recollect these hearts by replaying the same (albeit shorter) stages. This culminates in an insultingly abrupt ending that sheds practically no light on the witch’s motives, the larger backstories of the hotel patrons, and Dr. Carnival’s true nature, which is only briefly teased.  

 

Perhaps these threads become more fleshed out after reaching the two unlockable, seemingly optional worlds, but the secret method of reaching them appears annoyingly vague. And believe me, I tried. I even replayed the final section to reach the game’s one big decision, then made the opposite choice I had before, only to find there is no choice. You’re forced into making the same decision no matter what, offering another example of how Hotel Barcelona shoots its promising narrative ideas in the foot at every turn. Whatever remaining secrets may lie beneath, I have no interest in seeing them.

I know the charm of Swery games (and, to a lesser extent, Suda51 titles) is how utterly bizarre they are, but any chuckles Hotel Barcelona’s quirky sense of humor may elicit were drowned under a sea of head-scratching and outright bad design and storytelling decisions. No matter how many secrets it may have or surreal moments it assaults players with, it’s all wrapped around a dull, limited, and flawed core gameplay experience. You don’t have to go home, but you shouldn’t stay here. 



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Google Forms 1
Product Reviews

Google Forms Review: Is This the Best Free Survey Tool?

by admin October 2, 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.

Google Forms is an online form builder with robust functionalities, both on the free and paid tiers. It simplifies the process of creating and managing online forms to gather data from various audiences. It doesn’t have the most advanced data collection features, but it works well for collecting and analyzing simple data.

I reviewed Google Forms extensively so that you don’t have to go through the same stress. My review focused on essential factors, including its features, pricing, ease of use, and customer service. Read on to learn about Google Forms’ unique strengths, weaknesses, features, and how it fares against rival online form builders.

(Image credit: Google)

Google Forms: Plans and pricing

Google Forms is a freemium tool. Anyone with a Google account can access the free version and enjoy most features. The free version lets you create surveys to gather and analyze data. There’s no limit on the number of responses you can collect, as long as it fits within your allocated storage space.

Free users have 15 GB of storage for data collected on Forms and other Google tools. They’re also limited to self-service and community support. If you need more storage space, direct support, enhanced security, and collaborative features, a Google Workspace subscription unlocks these benefits.

Google Workspace is designed for businesses with employees who need access to Google’s software suite, which includes Forms. It unlocks premium features on Google Forms and many other Google tools, such as Docs (document editing), Sheets (spreadsheets), and Meet (videoconferencing).

Google Workspace has three pricing plans: Starter, Standard, and Plus. The Starter plan costs $7 per user per month and unlocks 30 GB of storage for each account. It also unlocks access to Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, which can help you create online forms.

The Standard plan costs $14 per user per month. It provides 2 TB of storage per account, ample enough to store vast volumes of data collected via forms. It also includes access to Google Gemini and direct support from Google’s team if needed.

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The Plus plan costs $22 per user per month and increases storage to a sizable 5 TB per account. It unlocks enhanced security features for organizations where data security is paramount. Google Gemini and direct support, which are available on other plans, are also included.

Google offers an Enterprise Plus plan with no regular pricing. This plan is designed for large companies, typically with a minimum of a few hundred employees, that can negotiate a custom plan with Google’s sales team.

The core features of Google Forms remain the same in both the free and paid versions. What differentiates the paid plans is access to Google Gemini, higher storage space, enhanced security, and access to advanced features on other Google tools.

Google Forms is designed as a simple tool for individuals and enterprises to gather and analyze data. It doesn’t have the most sophisticated features you’ll find on form collection tools designed specifically for businesses, but it works well for everyday forms.

(Image credit: Google)

Google Forms: Features

Google Forms offers a decent set of functionalities that enable you to create and manage online forms. It lacks some sophisticated analytics, customization, and integration features, but it meets most basic form creation needs.

To start, Google Forms has a library of pre-loaded form templates. Examples include templates for party invites, event registrations, online orders, and RSVPs. You can use these templates as the foundation for your forms, instead of going through the hassles of creating them from scratch.

Whether you select an existing template or create a form from scratch, Google Forms makes the creation process noticeably easy. You can input as many questions as you like in a numbered format. Existing questions can be rearranged by dragging and dropping them in the desired positions.

Each question on a form can have various response formats, including a short text, paragraph, multiple choice, checkboxes, dropdown list, rating, date, time, and even a file upload. Any uploaded files will count towards your allocated storage space, so carefully consider this if you’re creating forms for a large number of recipients.

You can insert images to add context to a question. A question can be compulsory or optional, depending on your preferences for collecting data. The short text format lets respondents answer a question in a single line, and the paragraph format allows respondents to type their answers in multiple lines.

You may choose to make your questionnaire a quiz, with point values assigned to each answer and automatic feedback once the respondent completes the questions. You can choose to collect email addresses during your response, and respondents can receive an email copy of their answers after completing the form.

As a respondent completes a form, you can choose to display a progress bar highlighting how far they’ve gone and how many answers are left. You can also choose to shuffle the question order for each respondent. Likewise, you can display a custom message after a respondent clicks the submit button, e.g., “Thank you for your response!” These features may sound trivial, but they go a long way in creating an interactive form that people are encouraged to complete.

I liked that Google Forms allows respondents to edit their responses after submitting a form. This feature is helpful, given the tendency for people to make mistakes when filling out forms. For instance, if I create a form asking people for their opinion about a product, it’ll be helpful to allow them to edit their responses after interacting with the product repeatedly. However, the response editing feature isn’t enabled by default. You have to toggle it on manually.

(Image credit: Google)

Notably, respondents don’t have to complete a form in one go. If a respondent has a Google account, which includes most online users anyway, and is signed in, their responses to each question are saved as a draft for 30 days. They can close the form and return within 30 days to the same responses, then complete the rest and finally press the submit button.

With your form created, you can share the link via email, social media, or embed the form on your website. All responses will be collated and displayed in a single dashboard, making them easy to analyze. You can export the responses to Google Sheets for further analysis.

Google Sheets comes in handy if the responses are numerical, as you can use formulas to analyze them. For example, I created a mock quiz and got mock responses from some friends and colleagues. Then, I used Google Sheets to grade the forms automatically. You can conduct real quizzes and grade them just like I did, saving considerable time, especially when dealing with many respondents.

On Google Sheets, you can also generate charts to visualize responses, from bar charts to pie charts, line charts, and scatter plots. I liked that the charts were very customizable, but that sounds more like something to discuss in a Google Sheets review than in Google Forms.

I mentioned earlier that Google Forms’ core features don’t differ much between the free and paid plans, but the latter unlocks valuable collaboration functionalities. Under a Google Workspace plan, multiple users can collaborate in real-time to create and edit forms.

For example, five employees can work on the same form, with each adding questions and configuring settings. Every employee can monitor each other’s changes on the form and message each other via Google Chat to clarify changes.

A standout feature on Google Forms is its support for conditional logic, i.e., showing or hiding questions based on a responder’s previous answer. For example, in a survey about which smartphone brands people use, selecting “iPhone” opens a new question of “Which iPhone do you use?” and selecting “Samsung” opens a new question of “Which Samsung smartphone do you use?”

However, Google’s conditional logic support is basic. It doesn’t allow the most complex workflows that are permitted in various business survey tools. Generally, Google Forms excels in basic form management but has limited dynamic features. It doesn’t have as many integrations and customizations as you’d find in survey apps like Qualtrics XM.

For example, Google Forms doesn’t let you directly capture signatures from respondents, detect a respondent’s geographic location, or generate PDFs from form data. Though it’s slightly customizable, all forms created on Google Forms retain a similar structure, which doesn’t bode well for businesses that always want to deliver a unique experience.

Google Forms integrations are mostly limited to other Google tools, but with few third-party integrations compared to rival survey apps. Another drawback is that while Google Forms lets you embed forms on a website, you can’t host the form directly on a custom domain.

From my perspective, Google Forms was created mainly as a free tool for individuals and businesses to manage everyday online forms. It works excellently for basic forms, with features that many rivals charge money for. However, if you need an online form app with extensive integrations, customizations, and features, you’re better off with an alternative. 

Google Forms: Interface and in use

Google Forms scores an A+ in simplicity and ease of use. The interface is as simple as it gets, which I’ve observed as the norm with Google tools. From creating forms to viewing and analyzing responses, the Google Forms interface is easy to navigate. It helps that the app doesn’t have many complex features, so it isn’t hard to familiarize yourself with the interface.

You can easily add questions, rearrange them, and insert visual elements when creating forms. After creating a form, the Publish button is prominently displayed at the top-right corner, so you can click it and share the form with respondents. I liked that Google Forms has many keyboard shortcuts that make navigation more fun, although it took me some time to master them.

Google Forms is accessible only via the web interface. There are no dedicated desktop and mobile apps, unlike some rival tools.

Google Forms: Support

Google Forms users have access to reasonable support resources, depending on their tier. Free users can scour through the Help Center to resolve issues. The Google Forms section of the Help Center contains abundant user guides that will help you troubleshoot issues.

Free users can also check Google’s official support forum for answers to their questions. If the answer isn’t present, you can ask a new question and expect answers from other Google Forms users, but there’s no guarantee. Fortunately, Google Forms’ intuitive interface means you wouldn’t encounter many problems in the first place.

If you’re subscribed to Google Workspace, you can get direct help from Google’s support team via email, telephone, and live chat. Google has a 24/7 support team, but response times can vary depending on your location and the type of issue. Nonetheless, Google offers decent support with few complaints.

Google Forms: The competition

Google Forms has many rivals with unique strengths and weaknesses. As I’ve mentioned, Google Forms doesn’t have the most advanced features you’ll find in some rivals. SurveyMonkey is the main competitor I’d like to highlight and examine what sets it apart from Google Forms.

SurveyMonkey doesn’t have an interface as intuitive as that of Google Forms. However, it offers more sophisticated features, integration, and customizability. With SurveyMonkey, you can create more dynamic forms and customize them to fit your brand.

The built-in analytics features are more comprehensive on SurveyMonkey than on Google Forms. SurveyMonkey has many more third-party integrations, making it an ideal choice for businesses that want to conduct complex surveys.

The drawback is that SurveyMonkey isn’t as cost-effective as Google Workspace, considering the additional features you’ll get with the latter outside Google Forms. SurveyMonkey does have a free plan, but with minimal features compared to Google Forms’ free version.

Google Forms: Final verdict

Google Forms fulfills a valuable need for creating simple online surveys and collating responses. It’s the go-to tool I recommend for individuals or businesses seeking to conduct simple surveys.

However, if you need the most complex survey features and extensive customization, it’s not the best choice. Google Forms is perfect for small surveys but not large-scale ones.

We’ve featured the best survey tools.



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October 2, 2025 0 comments
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