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Final Fantasy 7 Remake Gets Ridiculously Easy Mode on Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S
Game Updates

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Gets Ridiculously Easy Mode on Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S

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After several years of being a PlayStation console exclusive, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is headed to Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2 in early 2026. Depending on how confident you feel, the game can be fairly challenging with its blend of real-time combat and action-RPG elements. But if you’re looking to cruise through each battle and just focus on the story, then you can choose to play the game with the “Streamlined Progression” options enabled.

This makes Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade even easier than the old-school combat mode that slows the action to a crawl with menu-based commands, giving you an extended window to choose your tactics. Streamlined Progression gives you unlimited MP and HP at all times, unlimited limit and ATB gauges during battles, and every attack will deal a whopping 9,999 points of damage.

Additionally, you’ll gain a faster weapon ability charge, and with some exceptions, you’ll always possess the maximum number of items at all times. This mode can be toggled on and off at any given time from the main menu.

Sephiroth won’t be smiling for long.

Square Enix has also revealed several of the preorder bonuses for the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade on new platforms. Players who preorder the digital edition will receive the original Final Fantasy 7 game to download and play–this offer expires on January 31, 2026–and if you preorder the physical edition, you’ll get a Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy Play Booster pack of 15 cards with it.

While it doesn’t have a release date yet, Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will also be headed to Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S in the future. As for the final chapter in the remake trilogy, producer Tetsuya Nomura recently said that Square Enix knows exactly when it will officially reveal the game.

It’ll still be a while before it arrives, but in the meantime, you can scratch your JRPG itch with upcoming games like Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, and Octopath Traveler 0.



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Today, College Kids Get Ridiculously Drunk. In Medieval England, They Got Ridiculously Murderous
Gaming Gear

Today, College Kids Get Ridiculously Drunk. In Medieval England, They Got Ridiculously Murderous

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What words come to mind when you think of the Middle Ages, also known as the medieval period? If you’re thinking “violence,” you’re not wrong (though I would have added “smelly”).

To investigate the spread of medieval violence, researchers in the U.S. and U.K. developed medieval “murder maps” of London, Oxford, and York by mapping out 355 murders between 1296 and 1398. They studied historic jury investigations into strange deaths, which describe when the attack took place, the location of the body, the murder weapon, and occasionally the reason behind it.

This approach revealed insightful patterns of 600- to 700-year-old urban violence—including the fact that university students were even more ridiculously troublesome than college kids today.

Armed, murderous students

“Homicides were highly concentrated in key nodes of urban life such as markets, squares, and thoroughfares,” in addition to such hotspots as waterfronts and ceremonial spaces, the researchers explained in a study published earlier this summer in the journal Criminal Law Forum. In terms of timing, Sundays were the most murderous days, especially around curfew. Church in the morning was frequently followed by drinking, sports, and fights later in the day.

Each of the three cities had very different local patterns of violence, however. Oxford, for example, had a homicide rate three to four times higher than London or York. While this might seem to be at odds with the posh university city you’re probably imagining, the posh university is actually the exact reason behind those surprising rates.

“The medieval university attracted young men aged between 14 and 21, many living far from home, armed and steeped in a culture of honour and group loyalty,” University of Hull’s Stephanie Brown and University of Cambridge’s Manuel Eisner, two criminologists and co-authors of the study, wrote for The Conversation. “Students organised themselves into ‘nations’ based on their regional origins and quarrels between northerners and southerners regularly erupted into street battles.”

To make matters worse, students were often considered above the common law, so their violence could go unpunished. In fact, Oxford’s homicides were concentrated in or near the university quarter, also as a result of conflicts between students and townspeople.

The more public, the better

In London, the medieval homicidal hotspots included Westcheap, the “commercial and ceremonial heart of the city,” according to Brown and Eisner, as well as the Thames Street waterfront. The former was the site of murders associated with guild rivalries, professional feuds, and public revenge attacks, while the latter saw violence among sailors and tradespeople.

York saw significant levels of homicide in one of its main town entrances, an area that hosted significant commercial, civic, and social life as well. The concentration of travellers, locals, and merchants would have naturally caused some conflict. Stonegate, an esteemed street in York that made up part of a ceremonial route, also experienced much violence. Perhaps unexpectedly, such wealthy areas provided opportunities for competition, vengeance, and public displays of honor.

In fact, “in all three cities, some homicides were committed in spaces of high visibility and symbolic significance,” the team wrote in the study. Such public spectacles could have solidified an individual’s reputation and/or made a gruesomely compelling point. Interestingly, there were fewer murder inquests in medieval England’s poorer, marginal neighborhoods—though it’s worth considering the possibility that there wasn’t much pressure to investigate unusual deaths in less privileged communities in the first place.

Nevertheless, “the study also raises broader questions about the long-term decline of homicide,” the researchers concluded in the study, “suggesting that changes in urban governance and spatial organization may have played a crucial role in reducing lethal violence.”



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The Levoit CirculAir is at its full height in the middle of a pink living room.
Product Reviews

Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan review: a versatile pedestal air circulator that’s ridiculously good

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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.

Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan: two-minute review

Product info

For this review, I tested the UK version of the Levoit CirculAir. A version with the same product code is available in the US, but there are minor differences compared to the UK model, including fewer fan speeds and slightly different onboard controls.

The Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan, also known as the Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator Fan in the UK, might be the best fan I’ve tested. I’ve been seriously impressed with the strong performance, convenience, and quiet operation.

This fan can be configured in two ways: either at full height or shorter, by simply unscrewing a section of the stand. This lower height is a little bit tall for use on a tabletop, but perfect for circulating air from heaters or floor-standing air conditioners.

(Image credit: Future)

It offers automatic horizontal and vertical oscillation, which makes for great air circulation, and also makes it really easy to fine-tune the position of the airflow just using the remote. The only thing it’s missing here is the option to select different oscillation ranges; instead, it’s limited to 90 degrees horizontally and 120 degrees vertically.

On the front of the stand there’s a well-lit LED screen that displays the selected mode, and either the fan speed or the ambient temperature. Below this are the onboard touch controls (which vary slightly depending on region), and the CirculAir can also be controlled with the easy-to-use circular remote, which is magnetic for convenient storage on the back of the air circulator.

(Image credit: Future)

The airflow proved impressively strong during testing, and I was very grateful for it during a recent heatwave. Even at its lowest speed, I could feel a good breeze from 8ft / 2.4m, and I ran out of space to back up any further at 18ft / 5.5m away when the fan was at its top speed of 12, so it’s clear it has super-strong airflow when running full blast.

Despite its strength, the CirculAir runs satisfyingly quietly. I measured a volume of just 29dB from around 2ft away on fan speed one, 37dB at speed five, and 51dB at speed 12. This means it can operate with whisper-quiet volume at its lowest speed, and only gets as loud as moderate rainfall.

All this for a not-too-painful price tag: this fan is available to purchase at Amazon at a list price of $89.99 / £119.99, but I’ve already spotted a few discounts, so you might be able to avoid full whack. That’s the short version; read on for my full Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan review.

Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan review: price & availability

  • List price: $89.99 / £119.99
  • Availability: US and UK

The Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan, AKA the Levoit Pedestal Air Circulator Fan in the UK, has a list price of $89.99 / £119.99, and is available at VeSync in the US, and at Amazon in both regions.

This is a good price considering the impressive performance the Levoit CirculAir delivered during testing, but I recommend keeping an eye out for offers, too, as there appear to be fairly regular deals available at Amazon. For example, at the time of writing, there’s a 10% limited-time deal knocking the price down to $80.99 in the US, and the price was regularly dropping to below £95 in the UK a couple of months ago.

I’ve tested the UK model, and while the model number is the same in the US, there are some slight differences, which I make note of in the following sections.

  • Value for money score: 5 out of 5

Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan review: specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Type:

Pedestal air circulator

Speeds:

9 (US) / 12 (UK)

Oscillation:

Automatic: 90 degrees horizontal, 120 degrees vertical

Dimensions:

43.7 x 12.5 x 14.5 in / ‎36.5 x 110.8 x 32 cm

Weight:

12.7lb / 5.8kg

Control:

Onboard buttons and remote control

Timer:

Yes

Additional modes:

Eco, Turbo, Sleep

Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan review: design & features

  • Automatic vertical and horizontal oscillation
  • 2 height options and 4 fan modes to choose between
  • Onboard touch controls and remote control

The Levoit CirculAir is a pedestal air circulator with two height options, so it can be placed on the floor or a tabletop. I personally found its shorter height to be a little taller than I’d prefer for a desktop fan, but this is a good option to have if you happen to be short on floor space. This shortened height could also prove useful if you wanted to, for example, position the fan in front of a heater or floor-standing AC unit, as it would be more efficient at circulating the heated or cooled air from that position.

I found it satisfyingly easy to get the Levoit CirculAir setup in either configuration – it was a simple case of screwing the poles together and into the base. The base is just the right weight: heavy enough that the fan felt sturdy on my medium-pile living room carpet, but not too heavy to move it around when required.

(Image credit: Future)

There are two ways to control the Levoit CirculAir: by using the circular remote or the large touch panel on the front of the stand. The remote was just the right size; small enough to be easy for me to hold and reach all the buttons, but large enough that the buttons were well-spaced and the icons were easy to read.

The large LED panel has a generous screen that displays either the fan speed or ambient temperature, as well as which mode the CirculAir is currently set to. The controls vary slightly on the UK model from the one in the US, but all controls are accessible on the remote in both regions.

(Image credit: Future)

The number of fan speeds also varies slightly between regions, curiously, with 12 fan speeds on offer on the UK model I tested, but only nine in the US. There are a few different modes that can be cycled through: Normal mode (where I could choose the fan speed), Turbo mode (which amps up the fan), Sleep mode (which silences the responsive beeps and dims the display), and Eco mode (which makes use of the CirculAir’s internal temperature sensor and adjusts the fan speed to suit).

Unlike most desktop fans, the Levoit CirculAir boasts automatic vertical oscillation, along with the standard horizontal oscillation. There isn’t the option to choose the degree of oscillation, sadly, so it’s either 90-degree horizontal oscillation and 120-degree vertical oscillation, or nothing. I did have the choice to use just one or the other, or both, though. Not only does this range of oscillation equal better air circulation, but it also means that it could be set to just the right angle from the comfort of my couch using the remote, which I loved.

  • Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan review: performance

  • Easy to use, responsive controls
  • Super strong airflow
  • Satisfyingly quiet operation

Controlling the CirculAir was straightforward, as the touch buttons on the well-lit display were simple to understand and responsive, as were the controls on the remote. I really liked that the remote control could be magnetically clipped onto the back of the air circulator, as this made it really easy to store and retrieve.

The Levoit CirculAir has delightfully strong airflow, and I found it to be a real help cooling me down during a recent heatwave here in the UK. In fact, it has the strongest airflow out of the fans I’ve tested to date, to the point where I wasn’t able to confirm how far the air travelled when it was running at its top speed, as I ran out of room at 18ft / 5.5 meters.

The airflow strength was great at lower speeds, too, as I could still feel a pleasantly cooling breeze from an impressive 8ft / 2.4m away at speed 1, and 15ft / 4.5m at speed 6, which means it reaches further at half power than the Dyson Purifier Cool Formaldehyde TP09 does at full blast.

(Image credit: Future)

I love it when a fan has an automatic mode, and ‘Eco mode’ (as it’s called in the CirculAir’s case) came in particularly handy during the recent heatwave. The CirculAir adjusted the fan speed in response to the rising ambient temperature throughout the day, though I found it to be much more conservative in terms of the fan speeds it applied compared to my current favorite air circulator, the MeacoFan Sefte 8in. This is good news for energy saving, though, and doesn’t make it any less efficient, really, considering the concentration of air kicked out even at the lower fan speeds.

The volume levels were pleasingly quiet, especially when taking into account the CirculAir’s punchy airflow. I got a reading of just 29dB from about 2ft away on fan speed 1, 37dB at speed 5, and 51dB at speed 12, so it was whisper quiet at its lowest, and only as loud as moderate rainfall when running at top speed.

(Image credit: Future)

Its low volume meant I had no problem at all sleeping with it toward the foot of my bed. I really appreciated the automatic vertical and horizontal oscillation at nighttime, too, as being able to control both with the remote meant I could get the angle of the airflow exactly where I wanted it without needing to get up and manually adjust it.

After testing, I have no complaints about the Levoit CirculAir. It was easy to use and responsive, and it operated at low volumes while delivering impressively strong airflow.

  • Performance score: 5 out of 5

Should I buy the Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan?

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Section

Notes

Score

Value for money

This air circulator’s fantastic performance and versatility make it great value for money, but it’s always worth keeping an eye out for discounts.

5/5

Design

With 2 height options, automatic horizontal and vertical testing, plus responsive controls with clever remote storage, there’s plenty of versatility.

4.5/5

Performance

The airflow is seriously strong, and yet the CirculAir runs pleasingly quietly. The automatic oscillation proved particularly convenient.

5/5

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

View Deal

Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan review: Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontallyHeader Cell – Column 0

Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan

Shark FlexBreeze

Meaco MeacoFan 1056P

Price

$89.99 / £119.99

$199.99 / £199.99

$189.99 / £149.99

Speed settings

9 US / 12 UK

5

12

Oscillation

Automatic: 90 degrees horizontal, 120 degrees vertical

Automatic:180 degrees horizontal

Manual: 55 degrees vertical

Automatic: 60 degrees horizontal, 80 degrees vertical

Timer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Controls

Touch buttons, remote control

Buttons, remote control

Buttons, remote control

Power

Corded

Corded or cordless

Corded

Additional modes

Eco, Turbo, Sleep

Boost, Mist

Sleep, Natural, Eco

Height adjustable

Yes

Yes

Yes

Dimensions

43.7 x 12.5 x 14.5 in / ‎36.5 x 110.8 x 32 cm

37 x 13.8 x 13.8in / 94 x 36 x 36cm

32.3-37.6 x 12.6 x 13.4 in / 82-95.5 x 32 x 33.9cm

Weight

12.7lb / 5.8kg

12.2 lb / 5.7kg

12lb / 5.4kg

View DealView Deal

How I tested the Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan

  • I tested the Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan for a week
  • I tried out the different modes and features
  • I tested its volume and how strong the airflow was

I used the Levoit CirculAir Oscillating Fan in our photo studio, my home office, and my bedroom over the course of a week. I evaluated the assembly process and build quality closely before using it passively and in specific tests that allowed me to assess the available features.

I tried the CirculAir at both heights, oscillating, and static. I tested out the different modes, particularly Eco mode, to see how the CirculAir would respond to fluctuating temperatures.

I assessed the airflow by checking the distance I could still feel a cooling breeze on the top, middle, and lowest settings. I used a decibel meter on my iPhone to check the noise levels, taking the readings from around 2ft / 600mm away, ensuring the fan wasn’t blowing directly into the microphone.

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Product Reviews

Samsung’s new $29,999 Micro RGB TV looks ridiculously good

by admin


Last week, Samsung announced the world’s first Micro RGB TV and while it sounded fantastic on paper, you can never really get a good sense of what a fresh display looks like until you see it in person. But after going to Samsung’s new headquarters in New Jersey, I can attest that it is truly a sight to behold.

Now, before we get to the TV itself, it’s probably a good idea to dive into what’s going on with Samsung’s latest panel tech. In many ways, Micro RGB is a step up from current Mini LED screens. On a technical level, the Micro LEDs and the self-emissive pixels of Samsung’s The Wall probably remain the more sophisticated end goal for next-gen TVs.

At its core, Micro RGB is still based on LCD tech, the difference is that instead of using blue or white backlighting like a lot of sets today, it features individually controlled red, green and blue Micro LEDs (hence the name Micro RGB) to produce an even wider range of colors. The result is that Samsung claims this is the first TV to cover 100 percent of the BT.2020 standard. For context, that covers more than 75 percent of the visible spectrum and has an even wider color range than what you get from DCI-P3, which is one of the most commonly used high-end standards for modern filmmaking.

1 / 7

Samsung Micro RGB TV

This sort of color richness is hard to appreciate unless you’re standing right in front of it.

In person, that means the TV can produce stunningly rich and vivid colors that put Samsung’s other top-tier TVs to shame, including the new Neo QLED QN90F which starts at a whopping $26,999. Like its sibling, Samsung’s Micro RGB TV is only available in one size (115 inches) and has a similar design, while its panel features a 144Hz refresh rate and a matte glare-free coating. But that’s kind of where the similarities end, because this new flagship model features four times the number of dimming zones. Furthermore, because the Micro RGB LEDs require more computing power to manage all those pixels, Samsung had to create a new RGB Engine AI processor to properly control everything.

In short, this is a lot of words to describe what might be the best-looking TV I’ve ever seen. While I only got to view some demo footage (which admittedly is designed to make the set look its best), I couldn’t help but appreciate the sheer intensity of the hues and shades on display. When the video loop shifted to primarily blue and green scenes, the TV’s color depth was almost overwhelming. That said, due to the immense size of the panel, when you get up close, it’s easy to see individual pixels. However, when you’re sitting in its sweet spot (about 11.5 feet from the display), everything looks ridiculously sharp and overflows with detail. And even for those off-center, there appeared to be no falloff in brightness or saturation.

While Samsung’s $26,999 Neo QLED QN90F boasts a price tag that’s nearly as expensive as the $29,999 Micro RGB TV, there’s still a very obvious difference in color.

(Sam Rutherford for Engadget)

Now, of course, the major downside of Samsung’s new Micro RGB TV is that at $29,999, it makes everything but The Wall (which starts at a cool $40,000) seem cheap. But the funny thing is that when compared to the Neo QLED QN90F, which Samsung also had on display in a nearby room, the difference in quality and color was immediately obvious. This sort of makes me wonder why anyone with super deep pockets would even consider the latter just to save a few thousand dollars, because when you see them in person, there’s no doubt which set is superior.

Unfortunately, the Micro RGB’s full glory doesn’t translate across the internet due to the much more limited specs of the web. It’s one of those things you need to see for yourself to fully grasp. But if you’re the kind of person with enough money that you don’t need to care about price tags, Samsung’s latest flagship should be an immediate contender as the centerpiece in your mansion.



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