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Adobe Premiere iPhone video editing app review

by admin October 4, 2025

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To me, as a video editor, being able to shoot, edit, and share a short film all from a small handheld device has always been these slabs of glass’ revolutionary concept. I’ve been editing and experimenting with them since I downloaded iMovie for the iPod Touch.

Since then, I’ve tested out all the best video editing apps, with some focusing on simplicity, while others try to cram a desktop video editor into a phone. There’s truly something for everyone. Even Adobe was on the scene with Rush.

But there’s a new Adobe app in town that, I think, might be a massive game-changer for creators on the go. Adobe Premiere, also known as ‘Premiere on iPhone’, likely to differentiate it from its desktop big brother, Premiere Pro.

Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps subscription options:

12 month plan – $59.99 per month ($719.88 total cost)

Adobe Premiere on iPhone: Pricing & plans

Most tools are free. What isn’t are the AI features and online storage, but if you already have a subscription with Adobe, it’s possible it could now include this new app, meaning you won’t have to fork out more of your precious money to take full advantage of Premiere.

Competing in the mobile market is hard, what with most apps being sold for so little… How can you expect to make a profit? That doesn’t seem to be too much of a concern for the mighty Adobe, as they’ve released Premiere on iPhone for free (henceforth just referred to as Premiere for simplicity). You can download it by clicking here.

Yes, there are in-app purchases in the form of monthly and annual subscriptions. These unlock some features on the app, including online storage, and likely a certain number of generative credits each month.

Do be aware however that these unlocked features can also be accessed simply by login into your Adobe ID, and if you already subscribe to one of their other plans, you might not even need to pay for an additional subscription.

For instance, I have access to the Creative Cloud All Apps package, and I’ve encountered no limitation in my use of Premiere. I realise this is quite nebulous: as of this writing I haven’t received a response from Adobe about what you get with a Premiere Mobile subscription, and which other subscriptions grant you the same access to this new app.

Adobe Premiere on iPhone: Interface

(Image credit: Adobe // Future)

An excellent, well polished interface, which makes it easy to control, while getting out of your way when editing, letting you see only what you need to see, when you need it.

Although Adobe refers to this app as ‘Premiere on iPhone’, it’s a bit of a misnomer as it’s also designed to work perfectly on iPad. Sorry Android users, you’ll have to wait a little longer for yours; it’s coming, but it’s just not quite ready.

On iPhone, just like Rush was, you’ll be working exclusively in portrait orientation. The iPad is way more flexible, and the interface will work in either portrait or landscape.

When you first launch the app, you’ll be greeted with a handful of tutorials, and a series of 8 icons at the top of the screen. Any project you’ve worked on will appear beneath them, represented by large thumbnails.

These icons allow you to start a new project, either one from scratch, or by choosing some clips from your Photos library. You also have dedicated tools, like being able to extract audio from a file, adding captions, or even access AI tools such as generating an image, turning a photo into a video, or expand an image beyond its original borders.

Once you’re working on a project, the screen is divided into two parts. The top section is for a Preview of your film, and the lower part represents the Timeline. There’s a very handy slider to the left which lets you resize both sections, which is a very clever addition, especially when your project becomes very complex with multiple layers, and you need to see all of them to fine tune your edit.

At the bottom is a contextual toolbar: by default, this is where you get to add additional video clips, audio files and titles. Tap on a clip in the Timeline, however, to reveal adjustment tools instead; tap on an edit point to see a paltry number of transitions. It’s a simple concept: you only see the tools you need when you need them.

You’ll also find a handful of icons at the top of the screen, and perhaps the most interesting one offers you various aspect ratios for your project. By default, it’ll take on the format based on the first clip you add to it, but if this isn’t right for you, this button enables you to override that.

Overall, the interface is simple, uncluttered and clean, and allows you to control your project with ease.

Adobe Premiere on iPhone: Video editing

(Image credit: Adobe // Future)

The interface is designed to make editing easy and fluid, and it works great, offering you surprising frame-accurate precision, whether you’re on an iPad or iPhone.

Editing is really nice and fluid. You can effortlessly zoom in and out of your project, select a clip, trim it, move it around, the works. I did mention when the app was announced, that it felt a lot more like Apple’s Final Cut Pro (FCP) than Adobe’s desktop Premiere Pro. The clips’ rounded look for one.

The fact clips reorder themselves when you drag one to another location, reminded me very much of Final Cut’s magnetic timeline. I’m obviously biased as I love the magnetic timeline, as it allows you to edit much quicker in my opinion, and here, it makes it so easy to work using only a finger or two. Also, just like FCP, the layers aren’t numbered; new ones appear as you need them. Good to see Adobe being comfortable with being inspired by its competitors, for the benefit of its users.

When it comes to altering clips, you have a handful of tools at your disposal. With them, you can change their speed, reverse them, alter their opacity, create a freeze frame, or perform some colour correction, among others. It’s all done through icons and sliders, and that interface resize tool I mentioned earlier to see more or less of the viewer and timeline, works great for this too, as you can see those parameters, your Timeline and the Viewer all at the same time, even on an (large) iPhone.

Some tools, such as Transitions and Adjust also have an ‘apply to all’ button which greatly speeds up your workflow if you wish to paste the same effects across the board. It’s impressive and very well done. Working with Premiere was slick and smooth, even on a 7 year old iPhone XS.

Adobe Premiere on iPhone: AI

(Image credit: Adobe // Future)

A good selection of AI tools which, along with the usual generative text prompts, are designed to enhance your project in useful and creative ways, especially the ‘generate sound effect’ one.

A sleek interface is already a big plus, and you get that for free, without having to log in to or create an Adobe ID. But if you don’t mind opening your wallet, or if you’ve already got an eligible subscription, then Adobe offers a string of very impressive tools, most based on some kind of AI.

Take ‘Enhance Speech’. It’s designed to improve the quality of spoken audio if you recorded something with a lot of background noise. It works extremely well, enriching the quality of the spoken audio immensely. You’re also offered a couple of sliders so you can choose how much of the background noise to keep.

You also have the ability to generate images and stickers, but perhaps the most impressive AI tool is ‘Generate Sound Effect’. On the surface, it looks like any other AI feature: you’ve got a text prompt where you input the description of what you hope to get, but what sets it apart is the optional extra: you can use your voice to ‘perform the sound’, and the AI will base the effect on your performance. It works surprisingly well, and could become quite addictive.

Adobe Premiere on iPhone: Exporting video

(Image credit: Adobe // Future)

Two easy to use options, one offers simple changeable parameters when exporting your project to your Photos library, the other is a way to send your project to the beta version of Premiere Pro via the Cloud.

You also have the ability to generate images and stickers, but perhaps the most impressive AI tool is ‘Generate Sound Effect’.

On the surface, it looks like any other AI feature: you’ve got a text prompt where you input the description of what you hope to get, but what sets it apart is the optional extra: you can use your voice to ‘perform the sound’, and the AI will base the effect on your performance. It works surprisingly well, and could become quite addictive.

Should I buy Adobe Premiere on iPhone?

(Image credit: Adobe // Future)

Buy it if…

You’re on the lookout for a very easy to use, and elegantly designed video editing app for your iPhone or iPad, with most tools being available for free.

Don’t buy it if…

To be honest, there’s no real reason not to get this app, at least to try it out. Most of the features are free, and you don’t need to subscribe to it if you don’t need to use those advanced AI-driven tools. Shame it’s not available for Android just yet.

For more essential creative tools, we’ve reviewed the best video editing software, best free video editing software, and the best video editing software for beginners.

Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps deals

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October 4, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Video Chats From Space? T-Mobile’s Service Broadens What Apps Can Do Over Satellite

by admin October 2, 2025

When T-Mobile took its T-Satellite service live during the summer, it teased the ability for developers to adapt their apps to work within the strict data limits required over satellite connections. Then, several apps were able to jump the gun and start working with the Starlink-based service at the launches of the Pixel 10 Pro and the iPhone 17. Now T-Satellite is open to any app configured to work with the network — with a few surprises I didn’t think we’d see so early.

Get ready to video chat with your friends from the middle of nowhere… Or prepare to be trapped by your friends who want to video chat no matter where you are.

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

T-Satellite breaks some Earth-bound limitations

T-Mobile isn’t the first company to connect a smartphone to a satellite network. Recent iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel models equipped with the proper hardware can talk to satellites when out of cellular range to access emergency services, text using the Messages app and send a location via Find My. But those are primarily based on sending short bursts of data, which is essential when communicating line-of-sight with satellites that are thousands of miles overhead and limited in their bandwidth capacities.

T-Satellite accesses a network of 657 Starlink satellites dedicated to cellular service using a band of cellular spectrum that works with most phones made during the last four years, according to T-Mobile. The company has also offered the service to customers of other providers for $10 a month. It shares the same text-centric limitations as the other companies, with the added ability to send and receive images using Multimedia Messaging Service.

With today’s announcement, T-Mobile is setting some of those limitations aside. In the WhatsApp app, for example, you can send texts, images, voice memos and video messages, which still fit (barely?) within the send-small-bursts-of-data model. WhatsApp now also supports live audio and video chats to other people using WhatsApp, but you can’t use it to make phone calls, emergency calls or texts.

Another example is the X app (formerly Twitter), which lets you scroll your feed and post text, photos, GIFs or videos. It also has the option to download high-resolution media when you need more detail.

Watch this: Hands-On with T-Mobile’s T-Satellite Service

01:55

Launching app data access

According to Jeff Giard, vice president of strategic partnerships at T-Mobile, getting to this point was largely due to customer feedback during the lengthy T-Satellite beta period while the Starlink constellation was still being completed. “We started seeing [customer feedback] start to shift to ‘Hey, this is awesome. I want more,'” he said. “So we started focusing on how do we enable great experiences on apps in an environment where it’s not our blazing-fast terrestrial network?”

Because T-Satellite is based on the LTE cellular standard, sending video and high-res images became a matter of maximizing the use of the spectrum and optimizing for better data transmission, said Giard.

During the beta period, there was some initial confusion about the network’s capabilities. “‘Oh my gosh, I get broadband Starlink on my phone now,’ [some customers believed] and it’s really not the case,” he said. “This is an entirely separate constellation of satellites that’s dedicated to … working on your phone.”

He also attributed the new capabilities to Apple and Google’s work at the operating system level, emphasizing that developers can tie into existing Application Program Interfaces, or APIs, to make their apps work with T-Satellite.

Importantly, Giard said that T-Mobile is not imposing any data caps or network throttling for T-Satellite customers who make heavy use of the service. “I don’t want to take anything off the table at this point,” he said, “but right now, what we’re launching [today] doesn’t have a data cap.”

In addition to built-in apps such as Apple Maps, Google Maps, Apple Music and Samsung Weather, that were added in September, T-Mobile announced the following list of apps that are working with T-Satellite: T-Life, AllTrails, AccuWeather, CalTopo and onX (plus X and WhatsApp).

As for which apps get optimized next for T-Satellite, Giard says he’s looking forward to what developers and customers start asking for. “Our driving mantra here is … what are we doing next? What pain point are we solving?” he said. The apps coming next “will be the ones that the customers tell us they really want, and [others that] are organically adopted along the way.”

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October 2, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Adam Mosseri’s ‘we’re totally not spying on you’ video is raising a lot of questions

by admin October 1, 2025

Today, the same day that Meta announced that it will soon use your AI chats to personalize the ads it shows you, Instagram head Adam Mosseri made a “myth busting” video attempting to set the record straight on a persistent rumor about Meta: “I swear, we do not listen to your microphone,” he says.

Meta’s ad targeting systems can be eerily precise, sometimes showing you things that you feel like you’ve only discussed in a verbal conversation and would only be possible for Meta to know about if it was listening through a device’s microphone. It’s a perception that Meta has been trying to push back on for years:

In 2016, the company, then known as Facebook, said that it “does not use your phone’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed.”
In a 2018 Senate hearing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to the question on the topic with a direct “no.”
In a support document titled “are Facebook and Instagram listening to your conversations without your knowledge?”, Meta says “No. We do not use your microphone unless you’ve given us permission, and even then, we only use it when you’re actively using a feature that requires the microphone.”

In Wednesday’s video, Mosseri says he’s had “a lot” of passionate conversations about the topic, including “at least a few” with his wife.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)

“We do not listen to you,” according to Mosseri. “We do not use the phone’s microphone to eavesdrop on you.” Listening to you through your phone’s microphone “would be a gross violation of privacy” and would drain your phone’s battery, he says.

Mosseri also offers a few possible explanations of why you “might see an ad for something that you recently talked to somebody about,” which I’ve block-quoted below:

One, maybe you actually tapped on something that was related or even searched for that product online on a website, maybe before you had that conversation. We actually do work with advertisers who share information with us about who is on their website to try to target those people with ads. So if you were looking at a product on a website, then that advertiser might have paid us to reach you with an ad.

Two, we show people ads that we think that they’re interested in, or products we think they’re interested in, in part based on what their friends are interested in and what similar people with similar interests are interested in. So it could be that you were talking to someone about a product, and they, before, had to actually looked for or searched for that product, or that, in general, people with similar interests were doing the exact same thing.

Three, you might have actually seen that ad before you had a conversation and not realized it. We scroll quickly, we scroll by ads quickly, and sometimes you internalize some of that, and that actually affects what you talk about later.

Four, random chance, coincidence, it happens.

Still, despite his video, Mosseri seemingly expects this rumor to persist. “I know some of you are just not going to believe me, no matter how much I try to explain it,” he says. And many comments on the video are skeptical of the explanation: “That is exactly what I would say if I was listening to people’s conversations,” according to one of the most-liked comments.

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October 1, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

OpenAI’s new video generation tool Sora 2 is here, but don’t worry, Sam Altman says it will avoid the ‘degenerate case of AI video generation that ends up with us all being sucked into an RL-optimized slop feed’

by admin October 1, 2025

Sora 2, the latest model of OpenAI’s text-to-video tech, has now launched alongside a dedicated app. Besides spitting out all of the soulless, AI-generated Studio Ghibli-style animation one could ever want, Sora 2 can now generate live action clips with both sound and a frankly scary level of visual accuracy.

Granted, not all of the clips OpenAI shares in its announcement are flawless, with its AI-generated snippet of a practicing martial artist featuring a warping bo staff and smooshed phalanges. Still, OpenAI is keen to highlight Sora 2’s gains in depicting consistent body mechanics that adhere to the rules of the physical world; the twirling body horror of earlier models generated gymnastics clips may be a thing of the past.

The company also touts Sora 2’s ability to “directly inject elements of the real world” into its AI-generated clips. It elaborates, “For example, by observing a video of one of our teammates, the model can insert them into any Sora-generated environment with an accurate portrayal of appearance and voice. This capability is very general, and works for any human, animal or object.” If you’re so inclined to descend into the realm of deepfakes, the Sora app, powered by Sora 2, is available on the iOS store now.

OpenAI touts the app as not just a video generator but also a social environment.

“You can create, remix each other’s generations, discover new videos in a customizable Sora feed, and bring yourself or your friends in via cameos,” the company writes. “With cameos, you can drop yourself straight into any Sora scene with remarkable fidelity after a short one-time video-and-audio recording in the app to verify your identity and capture your likeness.”

One can see the whimsical appeal of sharing AI-generated clips of yourself riding ostriches and pulling off extremely dangerous stunts, but I also can’t ignore the risk posed by deepfakes. For one thing, US president Donald Trump shared an expletive-laden deepfake video on Truth Social literally the day before Sora 2’s launch (via Ars Technica).

The sombrero superimposed over representative Hakeem Jeffries is hopefully a telltale sign for most viewers that the remarks senator Chuck Schumer is depicted as saying in this clip (which was not created using Sora 2) are wholly fabricated. However, given that a Microsoft study suggests folks struggle to accurately identify AI-generated still images 62% of the time, it’s hard not to be concerned about deepfakes’ capacity for disinformation.

Videos generated with Sora 2 don’t even feature a tiny AI watermark, like those introduced in Gemini’s ‘Nano Banana’ image-editing update. OpenAI say they are ‘launching responsibly,’ with in-app features designed to “maximize creation, not consumption,” and address “concerns about doomscrolling, addiction, isolation, and RL-sloptimized feeds.” But comments made by company CEO Sam Altman on his own blog read contrapuntal even to this stated feed philosophy.

“It is easy to imagine the degenerate case of AI video generation that ends up with us all being sucked into an RL-optimized slop feed,” Altman first admits.

As such, he shares that the app has various “mitigations to prevent someone from misusing someone’s likeness in deepfakes, safeguards for disturbing or illegal content, periodic checks on how Sora is impacting users’ mood and wellbeing, and more.”

Altman even goes as far as to say that, if OpenAI cannot sufficiently address aspects of the app that lead to negative social outcomes, then the company would discontinue the service.

But Altman also caps off a longer passage regarding how the Sora feed aims to show content that users are interested in by writing, “And if you truly just want to doom scroll and be angry, then ok, we’ll help you with that.” To me, this reads not only as a shrugging off of responsibility, but also fairly nihilistic; for all OpenAI’s talk about the Sora app’s safety features, what can be done if its users still choose to gaze into the abyss?

(Image credit: OpenAI)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also reference the existentialism and labour concerns the launch of the Sora 2 model will no doubt inspire in my freelance creative friends. Altman writes on his blog, “Creativity could be about to go through a Cambrian explosion, and along with it, the quality of art and entertainment can drastically increase.” And I would like to suggest that he may be right, just not how he thinks.

While Altman wants OpenAI’s app to be at the forefront of a tidal wave of creativity, my personal hope is that audiences get sick of realistic, computer generated imagery as a result of Sora 2’s proliferation. My blue sky thinking—however naive it may be—is the hope that, in response to audiences seeking out visual art that could only ever be made by humans, practical effects and puppets make a comeback in a big way.

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October 1, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Watch This ‘Stranger Things’ Video and and See Just How Much These Kids Have Aged

by admin October 1, 2025

Talk about a blast from the past. Just look at how much the Stranger Things cast has aged since 1983.

Kidding, just kidding. No, but really, there’s some sort of time warp happening because Netflix had Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, and Gaten Matarazzo, along with Cara Buono (who plays Wolfhard’s mom, Karen Wheeler), react to the star-making first scene. I cannot fathom how this was only nine years ago, since the original Hawkins heroes were just babies, and now they’re full-on adults. Check out the clip below released in the lead-up to the series’ final season later this year.

It’s a delight to witness Wolfhard, McLaughlin, and Matarazzo look back on that fateful Dungeons & Dragons game the night Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) disappeared. Little Mike, Lucas, and Dustin are just so pure! So unaware of just how long they would be making the rest of this show for!

In the clip, the trio shared some fun commentary about whether or not they’ve become casual D&D players since season one, and the answers are not surprising for the Gen Z stars. McLaughlin point-blank shared he hadn’t, while Matarazzo defended the game.

“I feel like it’s such a good game for actors, really, though, because it’s just like—it’s improv. It’s just like you’re playing characters, and you’re playing pretend. It’s really fun,” he said, and we get the sense that he might be a frequent player. His character is into it the most, taking the reins from Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), the Hellfire Club’s dearly departed (and not forgotten) Dungeon Master.

Wolfhard added, “I played two small campaigns. Honestly, if you’re not the dungeon master, it’s pretty fun because all you have to do is—you just have to be committed to staying with the bit.”

It only took nine years for these boys to become adults… and occasionally D&D ambassadors, to boot. Stranger Things‘ final season will debut in two main parts on November 26 and December 25, with the final episode streaming standalone on December 31.

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

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October 1, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Trump posts, then pulls bizarre AI video promoting MedBed conspiracy

by admin September 30, 2025

Donald Trump is no stranger to outlandish conspiracies or strange social media posts. But, by any measure, his post on Saturday night was particularly bizarre. The president posted (and later removed) a clip on Truth Social of a fake Fox News segment with Lara Trump detailing the White House’s announcement of the world’s first MedBed hospital and a national MedBed card system (two things that very much do not exist). Fox News told The Verge that the MedBed segment, “never aired on Fox News Channel or any other Fox News Media platforms.”

There was no additional context, no text to explain things. Confusing matters more, the video appears to be completely AI generated, including Trump himself discussing the program in the Oval Office. (Perhaps one of the biggest giveaways being the president’s ability to stay on script.)

MedBeds, for those that tend to avoid the more QANON-y corners of the internet, are an imaginary medical device that can do everything from treat asthma, to regrow missing limbs, to cure cancer. The fantasy of an all-in-one device that can cure all your ills has obvious appeal, but belief that these are real products being kept from the American public by Big Pharma has grown among conspiracy theorists in recent years.

Many of the presidents followers acknowledged that the video was AI-generated, but still seemed to believe that Trump was confirming the existence of MedBeds. Whatever the purpose of the post was, we may never know. The president frequently sends things out into the ether and never explains himself. And now that the video has been removed the White House will likely try to pretend the whole incident away.

Updated September 28th: Added comment from Fox News.

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September 30, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

As Hades 2 arrives in full, is early access good or bad for the overall video game experience?

by admin September 28, 2025

Hello and welcome to another entry in our “The Big Question” series, in which we present an argument to you, the Eurogamer community, for further interrogation. This week: Do you play games in early access or does playing them piecemeal lessen the overall experience?

What is early access? While most of you no doubt know what we mean by early access, we’re referring to when a game is released to a store (usually Steam) in an unfinished state, but with the promise that new content will be added over time and it’ll eventually launch as a complete 1.0 version. This week saw the 1.0 release of Hades 2, but the biggest game to ever do it is probably Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3, which was in early access for almost three years.

Today Tom and Bertie make their cases for and against games releasing in early access.

I don’t play games in early access, just like I don’t eat my lunchtime sandwich before I’ve put all the fillings in

Why would I lessen my first impression of a game like Hades 2 by playing it before it’s finished? | Image credit: Supergiant

Imagine paying £34 for a good game? That’s just utterly ridiculous, of course, but it’s fine to pay good money for a game that isn’t even finished? OK, that makes perfect sense. I’m firmly on the side of “buying and playing games in early access is a bizarre thing to do, and borderline sabotage of your own enjoyment,” just to be clear.

To be completely open, I have bought one game in early access, and that’s Slime Rancher 2, and I was under considerable pressure from my son to do so as he loved the original. It really just hammered home my feelings, though. Early access Slime Rancher 2 felt fine, but it was impossible to shake the feeling (and actual fact) that if I just waited a while I’d be able to experience the whole thing and not just this portion of the thing we both wanted to see and play. Playing it unfinished has in fact dampened our enthusiasm for the final game, which is now in its Version 1.0 form and we’re yet to try.

Hades 2, a game that is all about the characters and the way the areas connect with each other, to me just made no sense to play bit by bit. Maybe I’m a sourfaced curmudgeon simply refusing to accept modern ways, but I’ll be happy with the full release, thank you.

As I’ve been writing, and I hate to admit this, I’ve thought of a bit of a problem with my argument: Wobbly Life. This is a game I’ve watched my son play for years as it evolved through early access to a Version 1.0 release. You might think I’ve been hoisted by my own petard, but this game is designed in such a way that you’re really getting a sandwich to begin with, a tasty one, but then some sides to make the meal that bit more interesting. So, I’m still correct. Good luck arguing against that, Bertie!

-Tom O

Stop talking about sandwiches and play the games

Playing games in early access feels special, like you’re part of a cool gang. | Image credit: Eurogamer / Larian

When you said Wobbly Life there I thought you were making a comment on the mutability of our own existence. I didn’t realise you were talking about a sandwich-making game. I didn’t even know there was a sandwich-making game. You’ve upended my morning, Tom. But look, I think diving into an early access release is absolutely worthwhile.

For starters, it feels intimate, like you’re sharing in the privilege of an as yet unformed idea from a developer you might really admire. A chance to experience some of the development process with them, perhaps even to help shape it, depending on the willingness of the developer involved. It’s a chance to get closer to a game series and studio.

But the reason I try early access releases is because of collective excitement. Undeniably, a game will be better after it’s been in early access for a while. Things will be fixed, content will be added, feedback will be taken on board. There’s a reason studios put games in early access and nearly all of them improve because of the time they spend there.

But so much of a gaming experience – so much of the magic of a gaming experience – comes from it being shared. That might be something shared directly alongside people you’re playing the game with, or it might be playing the game on your own but at the same time others are playing it, and talking about it, and being excited about it. And the most exciting time for any game is when it’s first introduced, when its ideas are new, and when the worlds it presents are undiscovered. You can never have this moment twice.

That’s why early access presents game-makers with a bit of a conundrum. I looked into this a few years ago and talked to a few companies familiar with the early access procedure, and I’m fairly sure that most of them told me an early access release is treated as a bigger moment for a game than a 1.0 release. That’s the game’s introduction, the big reveal, the door opening. The problem being: if your game is a mess at that point, your big moment will be ruined.

So yes, you can wait, and arguably it’s better to wait to play a game – you’ll get a more complete and sophisticated game. But you’ll miss out on that initial surge of excitement when a game is unknown, when its secrets are still intact, and when everyone is on a level playing field. Those things are priceless.

-Bertie

The big question, then: do you play games in early access or does playing them piecemeal lessen the overall experience?

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

One of our favorite video doorbells is 47 percent off in the run-up to Prime Day

by admin September 27, 2025

The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is top pick for battery-powered doorbells, offering sharp 1536p video with a head-to-toe view that makes it easy to spot packages on the porch floor other doorbells might miss. It’s also the most responsive video doorbell our reviewer has tested, pulling up live feeds in about half the time of others.

Beyond that, the doorbell supports radar-based motion detection, which allows for more accurate notifications compared to previous models. It also retains support for color night vision, pre-recorded Quick Replies, and two-way talk, and, for $4.99 a month, you also get bonus features like package and people alerts. And because it works with Amazon Alexa, you can pull up the live feed on an Echo Show or Fire TV with just your voice for free.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Pokemon Company says Homeland Security’s use of its property in disturbing promotional video was unauthorized, but DHS doesn’t seem to care: ‘To arrest them is our real test, to deport them is our cause’

by admin September 24, 2025

The Pokémon Company says the US government did not have permission to use Pikachu and other Pokémon content promotional videos for the Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection agencies posted to X—but what it’s going to do about it, if anything, remains to be seen.

The first video, a montage of ICE agents and police blowing up doors and arresting people mashed up with music and video clips from the Pokémon TV show, was posted on the evening of September 22. It also features the words “Department of Homeland Security” spelled out in the Pokémon font. It’s the sort of thing I would not have believed could possibly be real if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but there it is.

DHS followed with a series of Pokémon-style “cards” bearing images of people convicted of crimes in the US.

But that wasn’t the end of it: A couple hours later, Customs and Border Protection got in on the act with an animated image of Pikachu, calling him “Border Patrol’s newest recruit.”

(Image credit: The Pokemon Company (via CBP))

Support for the display in replies was widespread—it’s X, after all—but there was pushback too, and calls from some for The Pokémon Company, or Nintendo, to take action against what was presumed to be unauthorized use of the property.

In a statement provided to PC Gamer, The Pokémon Company International confirmed that the US government did not have permission to use the content, but left the question of what comes next unanswered.

“We are aware of a recent video posted by the Department of Homeland Security that includes imagery and language associated with our brand,” it said. “Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property.”

Nintendo, one of the owners of The Pokémon Company, is notoriously litigious when it comes to dropping the hammer on people who can’t effectively fight back. But former Pokémon Company chief legal officer Don McGowan thinks this is likely a fight it doesn’t want: The Pokémon Company International is “INSANELY publicity-shy,” he said, and perhaps more compelling in light of the US government’s recent treatment of South Korean workers at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, “many of their execs in the USA are on green cards.”

“Even if I was still at the company I wouldn’t touch this, and I’m the most trigger-happy CLO [Chief Legal Officer] I’ve ever met,” said McGowan, who became well-known for his aggressive pursuit of Destiny 2 abusers and cheaters during his post-Pokémon years at Bungie. “This will blow over in a couple of days and they’ll be happy to let it.”

For its part, Homeland Security doesn’t seem inclined to change tack. In response to an inquiry about the unauthorized use of Pokémon intellectual property, a DHS spokesperson invoked lyrics from the Pokémon theme song, saying, “To arrest them is our real test. To deport them is our cause.”

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September 24, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Yakuza studio’s next game Stranger Than Heaven still a long way off, as teased in jazzy behind the scenes video

by admin September 24, 2025

Yakuza studio Ryu Ga Gotoku’s next project, Stranger Than Heaven, was teased at its RGG Summit as part of the Tokyo Games Show.

Previously known as Project Century, Stranger Than Heaven was properly unveiled earlier this year with a trailer revealing the name.

Now a further tease has been shown: the summit closed with a fresh look at the game alongside footage of the team working on the project. Check it out at the end of the stream below.

RGG SUMMIT 2025Watch on YouTube

The footage shows a female jazz singer, also part of the previous reveal, but behind the scenes footage also includes glimpses of other areas of development.

It’s not much to go on and somewhat proves the game is a way off yet. As per Sega’s last financial report, Stranger Than Heaven is expected to release in or beyond the company’s next financial year ending March 2027.

Little else is known about the game, though its codename does suggest it’ll take place in multiple time periods. At the least, the reveal trailer took place in 1943.

Also at the RGG Summit, the studio officially revealed Yakuza Kiwami 3, its latest remake.

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September 24, 2025 0 comments