AEW Fight Forever had all the makings of a title contender. The game marked developer Yuke’s’ return to the wrestling genre, five years on from WWE 2K19. With a fresh roster and promising a return to simpler, arcade-like play, AEW Fight Forever looked like it could’ve been something very special. Something that could’ve recaptured the phenomenal Smackdown vs. RAW era of wrestling games.

Despite the game putting its best foot forward in terms of modes and features, it’s packed with bugs. While certainly not quite as woeful as WWE 2K20, AEW Fight Forever is noticeably unpolished, with buggy combat and clumsy hitboxes plaguing most matches. Add in dated visuals, bare-bones creation suites, and a career mode that feels like a last-minute addition, and you’re better off buying WWE 2K23 instead, especially as both titles retail at full price. 

Kayfabe

AEW Fight Forever makes a solid first impression. When you reach the main menu, you’ll be greeted with a litany of modes and match formats. You’ll be well-served depending on your mood, whether you’ve got an appetite for more standard single or tag matches, or something more extravagant like a Fatal 4-Way, ladder match, or Casino Battle Royale (essentially just an elimination-style Royal Rumble).

Then there’s the hilariously cartoonish Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match. This ridiculous showpiece laces the ropes with electrified barbed wire, and a ring that explodes every two minutes, dealing huge damage to the wrestler closest to the sides. It’s good comical fun that’s perfect for couch play with friends, and certainly Fight Forever’s most unique match type. And yes, this mode absolutely delivers on the promise of comical amounts of blood.

There’s an utterly colossal roster of superstars, too. Close to 50 AEW stalwarts are among the roster at launch including favorites like Kenny Omega, Sting, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Thunder Rosa and so many more. If you’re big into All Elite Wrestling, you’ll find your fave here.

When AEW Fight Forever’s at its best, it can be brilliant (if simple) fun. Moves have a strong feeling of weight to them, and connected blows are sold almost as well as they are on TV. Special and signature moves hit particularly hard, with dynamic camera angles highlighting the strong animation work on display.

A few matches in, the facade starts to crumble. The game’s visuals are painfully dated. Superstars have a plastic, almost action figure-esque look to them that’s more reminiscent of a wrestling title from the PS3 and Xbox 360 era. There’s also no commentary to speak of whatsoever, which makes matches feel a touch lifeless. That’s a strange omission, given the likes of Jim Ross and Excalibur have lent their voice talents to the game for narration.

An overall lack of polish in the moment-to-moment combat makes it all seem worse. Hit detection is wildly inconsistent. At least once per match, I would have instances of a direct blow whiffing straight through my opponent’s face. Similarly, I’d often be pulled into a grapple as if the opposing superstar was fitted with a tractor beam. These are elements that’ll likely be patched and refined post-launch, but as it stands, the brawling of AEW Fight Forever feels amateurish. 

Not-so-superstar

As with most of the best wrestling games, AEW Fight Forever does feature various creation suites. You’re able to create your very own male or female superstar, teams, move lists and even arenas.

First off, arena customization is particularly impressive. Here, you can customize everything from the ring itself to the stage and ramp your superstars will descend from. You can even go a step further and completely change the colors of the canvas, lighting, surrounding floors, ropes and turnbuckles to make something genuinely unique. It’s easy to get lost in here for hours making custom arenas to suit your favorite moods and match formats.

Less impressive are the options given to you for custom superstars. In terms of face and body types, you’re stuck to a small handful of simple presets, with no sliders involved whatsoever. Options for clothing are also severely limited, with surprisingly few items available to trick your superstar out with at launch.

You can switch up every aspect of your superstars’ moveset, however. Punches, kicks, grapples, specials and signatures can be chosen from hundreds of options. This is where you can really set your superstar apart successfully, as they can be a totally unique wrestler, clad in one of the game’s scant outfit options. 

However, another problem arises here, as not all custom movesets are made equal. You’re in no way limited in which moves you choose, of course, but when forming combo strings, some don’t play well with others. I often ran into a bug where performing the last move in a string would freeze my character in place. They’d be unable to move, at all, until my opponent got a free hit in, which would then have my superstar slam to the floor within a single frame of animation. On one occasion, this even cost me the entire match.

Road to nowhere

Rounding out AEW Fight Forever’s main modes is the Road to Elite career. But if you choose to skip this in favor of just loading up some matches with friends, you’re really not missing out on much. That’s because Road to Elite feels more than a little tacked on – a formality rather than something Yuke’s wanting to put significant time and effort into.

The biggest problem with Road to Elite is that its progression is all over the place. You join the ranks of AEW instantly, with no buildup to sell your superstars’ arrival. My first match was a one-fall 4-way brawl, which I lost. Fortunes quickly turned for my superstar, though, as they became AEW World Champion in just their second match. Erm, what?

That’s right. Something I expected to happen hours into Road to Elite, I’d achieved in a matter of minutes. It left the rest of the career mode feeling rather listless, as I’d already managed to obtain one of its most prestigious belts in the first hour of play. The titular Road to Elite isn’t as long or winding as you might think, it seems.

There are some more charming elements, though. Your superstar will often run into others on the roster during text-based events. These aren’t anything special, but the writing is deliciously cheesy in all the right ways, acting as a decent incentive to plow through your matches week after week.

All around, what you have here is a serviceable wrestling game package, but one that falters with a lack of polish, generations-old visuals, and frequent bugs, that take much of the fun out of what should be well-paced matches.

Accessibility

There’s no particularly standout accessibility features in AEW Fight Forever, at least at launch. However, players may want to enable the easy counters feature if you’re having trouble getting the timing right on reversing strikes and grapples. 

There’s also a casual mode setting to make various inputs and prompts easier to gauge, as well as an option to reduce the screen shake effect if you’re prone to motion sickness. Subtitles are enabled for cutscenes, but there’s no way to turn them off in the options menu, nor are there settings to adjust subtitle size or background. 

How we reviewed AEW Fight Forever

In testing AEW Fight Forever, I made sure to try out as many of the game’s modes and match formats as possible. I also spent a considerable amount of time in the game’s various creation suites and Road to Elite career mode. To really get a feel for the action in AEW Fight Forever, I also played through each match format with multiple superstars to get an idea of the broad range of movesets, specials and signatures on offer.  

Audeze Euclid: One-minute review

The Audeze Euclid show how this company isn’t about to let the obvious physical constraints of in-ear monitors prevent it from deploying its favorite technology. The Euclid feature 18mm planar magnetic drivers, the performance of which is bolstered by bespoke waveguides and an extraordinarily involved array of magnets.

The result is a pair of wired earbuds that are more comfortable than they might seem, given their relative bulk. Earbuds that are built and finished to the sort of standard the lofty price-tag demands. Earbuds that are supplied with balanced and unbalanced cables for their audiophile audience, as well as a connecting cable that includes a Bluetooth 5.0 receiver with aptX HD compatibility so that they're a legit option whether you're looking for the best wired headphones or best wireless earbuds.

More importantly, though, the Audeze Euclid are a thrillingly informative and engaging listen. They seem to enjoy every genre of music, and although they’re no fans of low-res content or sub-par sources, they’re not the most judgemental in-ear monitors around. And most importantly of all, given the right stuff to work with the Audeze Euclid are a fanatically detailed and explicit listen, but with an emphasis on engagement and entertainment just as strongly as on analysis.

Some listeners will hanker after more out-and-out punch from the low frequencies, but those who enjoy a realistic and uncolored description of music will find a huge amount to enjoy here.

Audeze Euclid review: Price & release date

• Originally officially released in 2021
• Real release was more like June 2022
• Price: $1,299 / £1,249 / AU$1,999

While there have been delays in getting the Audeze Euclid out and in more hands, the wait has clearly been worth it, based on what we've talked about so far.

The question will be whether the price is worth it for you – we'll talk more about their value proposition later, but obviously we're talking about serious money for serious in-ear monitors here. They're in-line with the likes of the mighty Sennheiser IE900 or Westone Mach 70.

If you've got the money and the ear for it, you can certainly hear the difference in super-high-end stuff compared to the rest, but obviously earbuds at this price are at a rarified level.

Audeze Euclid review: Specs

Audeze Euclid review: Features

• 18mm ultra-thin planar magnetic transducer 
• Fazor waveguides
• Fluxor magnets

As we’ll discuss at greater length in the ‘design’ section later, the Audeze Euclid are – by prevailing standards – quite a large product. The reason for this, though, is simple: Audeze swears by planar magnetic driver technology, and it’s not about to alter course simply because people like earbuds to be as small as is realistically possible.

So each Euclid earbud is home to an 18mm planar magnetic transducer – and this type of speaker is, let’s not forget, roughly twice the size of the common dynamic driver alternative that’s fitted to virtually every alternative design among the best earbuds out there. This ultra-thin transducer features a voice-coil to take care of the actual business of ‘producing sound’, while Audeze’s patented ‘Fazor’ waveguide minimizes any phasing and/or distortion you might ordinarily expect to be introduced in a closed-back in-ear design like this. Distortion is further reduced by ‘Fluxor’ magnets, which also improve sensitivity and maintain as even a frequency balance as possible. This is, fundamentally, what Audeze always does in its larger headphones – just on a much smaller scale. 

And really, what further features does a premium in-ear monitor require, beyond the three connector types in the box – an unbalance cable with 3.5mm and 6.3mm connectors, and a balanced cable with 4.4mm connector? Exactly. That’s why the Euclid doesn’t have any.

Though there is one notable option: you can get a wireless adapter cable, which costs extra, but replaces the other cables to add regular Bluetooth and aptX connections, with eight hours of battery life.

• Features score: 4/5

Audeze Euclid review: Sound quality

• Extraordinary levels of detail and organisation
• Full-scale and vaultingly dynamic
• Ultra-realistic low end won’t be to everyone’s taste

Don’t tell me you’ve spent a comfortable four figures on some high end, specialist in-ear monitors in order to plug them straight into the headphone socket on your laptop or smartphone. Of course you haven’t. Of course you understand that a product like this requires an appropriate headphone amplifier or one of the best portable DACs (if you’re not using them wirelessly) and some digital audio files of suitably chunky size too. Anything else would be madness and, more importantly, a waste of money.

With big, information-rich files of Everything She Wants by Wham! and Metronomic Underground by Stereolab playing, the immediate impression the Euclid create is one of utter faithfulness and perhaps slight detachment. But you don’t have to listen very long to realise the first assumption is correct and the second just isn’t. What might initially seem like ‘detachment’ quite quickly proves to be ‘thrilling precision and realism’.

They’re certainly convincing when it comes to the full frequency range. Audeze is claiming low-frequency extension down to a subterranean 10kHz – and while that seems optimistic, the bass the Euclid generate is swift, fully detailed and pitilessly controlled. Some listeners may have been primed to expect more outright ‘punch’ than these earbuds can generate, but if the trade-off for all that momentum, and all that light and shade, in the Euclid’s bass sound is a slight lack of ultimate weight then I for one am here for it.

The opposite end of the frequency range is cut from the same cloth. It’s controlled, it’s rapid in the same way a bullet train is rapid, and its tonality is utterly convincing. Treble reproduction fairly shines, and attacks with crisp precision, but nothing about it ever gets hard or edgy – even if you like to listen at significant volume. Detail levels, again, are sky-high.

But it’s in the mid-range that the Euclid stop being ‘really impressive’ and start to stake their claim as the best earbuds around. The mid-range is so spacious, so lavishly detailed and textured, and so straight-ahead eloquent that every vocalist that comes into contact with it sounds immediate and articulate. Detail levels are such that even the most transient occurrences are given appropriate prominence, and the balance the Audeze strike between ‘muscular’ and ‘delicate’ has to be heard to be properly appreciated.    

The complete frequency range is evenly represented, with no convexity or concavity anywhere in the sweep from top to bottom. Low-level dynamic prowess is a given thanks to those prodigious detail levels, and the broader dynamics of ‘quiet/LOUD’ are handled with assurance too – big changes in attack are given complete expression. The Euclid handle rhythms with absolute confidence, and are sure-footed where even the most awkward tempos are concerned. And everything that occurs in a recording occurs on a big, well-defined and appreciably three-dimensional soundstage – so even when the going gets complex or a mix gets dense, each individual strand has the elbow-room to make itself heard.   

So yes, you can buy punchier, heftier earbuds than the Audeze Euclid, and you don’t have to spend anything like this much money to do so. But if it’s fidelity you’re interested in, accuracy and the sort of insight into recordings that can make even stuff you’ve heard a thousand times sound clean and fresh, with nothing added and nothing taken away, these are at the top of the game.

• Sound quality score: 4.5/5

Audeze review: Design

• Nine pairs of eartips in three different materials
• MMCX connections for cables
• 3.5mm and 4.4mm cables included

It’s no easy trick to make a product that’s small, light and unobtrusive seem like a premium product, even if – like the Euclid – it’s not quite as small (or light, or unobtrusive) as is the norm. But Audeze deserves credit for the design of these in-ear monitors. They don’t automatically look like they cost comfortably over a grand in any currency you care to mention, but they definitely look upmarket. Which I guess is as much as you can realistically ask for.

The precision-milled, smoothly finished and organically shaped aluminum housings feel as good as they look. The bright, shiny company logo that sits on the slice on carbon-fiber capping each earbud catches the light. One could almost call the look ‘sophisticated’. Each earbud weighs 7.5g (excluding the cable), which is on the heavy side but not ruinously so. And even though they’re a little more bulbous than is ideal, they sit comfortably enough in the ear in the classic ‘twist-to-lock’ fashion - the cables are then routed up and behind the ear.

As far as cables go, Audeze has supplied a few. Each is attached using click/click MMCX connectors at each earbud – one is terminated in a 3.5mm single-ended plug (with 6.3mm adapter), another is a 4.4mm balanced alternative for use with more expensive headphone amps, digital audio players or what-have-you. 

Optional is a cable with an in-line Bluetooth receiver that joins the two earbuds together – charging is via micro-USB (old-school), battery life is around eight hours (if you’re not cranking up the volume) and connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX HD codec compatibility. International pricing on this cable is elusive, but it's about £130 in the UK.

The package also includes nine pairs of eartips. There are ‘S’, ‘M’ and ‘L’ versions in Comply foam, Audeze silicone and SpinFit silicone – so if you can’t get a fit you’re happy with, while at the same time avoiding aggravating any latent skin conditions, then I doubt you ever will.

• Design score: 5/5

Audeze Euclid review: Value

• Premium materials and feel
• Uncompromising engineering for uncompromising sound
• But it’s a lot of money for not much stuff

‘Value’ is in the eye (and the ear) of the beholder, of course – but if you measure value by the amount of physical stuff your money buys, the Audeze Euclid might be found wanting. The flexibility of having a Bluetooth adapter is welcome, but that's an optional extra, of course.

If, however, you determine value by the amount of pleasure your outlay equates to, then you could conceivably consider these in-ear monitors as a bit of a bargain.

• Value score: 4/5

Should I buy the Audeze Euclid?

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

Audeze Euclid review: Also consider

How I tested the Audeze Euclid

• Tested with an iFi headphone amp for wired connection
• Tested with an aptX HD-compatible phone for wireless option
• Reviewed by a hi-fi expert with 20 years of experience

For our review, the Audeze Euclid were attached to a MacBook Pro via an iFi xDSD Gryphon headphone amplifier using its 4.4mm socket, and also to a Nothing Phone (1) using the Bluetooth adapter with its integrated 24-bit DAC. 

The smartphone has aptX HD compatibility we used with the Bluetooth adapter, and the laptop is running Colibri software to get around Apple’s refusal to believe anyone wants to listen to properly high-resolution audio.

I've been testing high-end audio gear for two decades, and I was previously the editor of What Hi-Fi?, where I got to use all kinds of headphones like this (and beyond).

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed: June 2023

Vying to be one of the best eSign software solutions, SignRequest promises to “boost efficiency” when getting digital documents digitally signed. But does the online service deliver on the speed and reliability it claims? We put one of the best Adobe Sign alternatives to the test. 

• You can try SignRequest by clicking here 

SignRequest: Pricing & plans

• Two plans, a free option, and a 14-day free trial - all very clean, clear, and simple 

SIgnRequest features a free plan and two subscription tiers.

Free users can work with up to ten documents a month. You’ll be able to login from any device, get an audit trail to keep track of your files, and get support for 17 languages. This could be good enough for most occasional needs, but if you require more, then it’s off to the paid plans, we go.

The first subscription tier is Professional, which removes any limit on the number of docs you can work on. It’s designed with small teams of up to five members, offering a wealth of additional features, such as the creation of up to 5 templates, reminders, and custom branding (including the ability to create a custom landing page. You also can determine a document’s signing order, receiving notification on your files’ status, adding attachments, Slack and Zapier integration, and SMS verification for a fee. All this will cost you $9 per user, per month.

The second tier is the Business plan, aimed more at larger companies. With that in mind, it removes the cap on members of your team. You’ll also be able to create an unlimited number of templates, and additional features include bulk send options (for an additional fee), premium integration with services like M-Files, Topdesk and Formdesk, and other customized options. All for $15 per user, per month.

If you’d like to explore SignRequest, they offer a 14-day free trial of either plan. In order to take advantage of this, you can login using either your Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Dropbox, LinkedIn, or Salesforce accounts. Alternatively, just give SignRequest your email address and create a new password for the occasion.

You will have to hand over your credit card details, so don’t forget to cancel your trial should you decide the service isn’t for you.  To do so, go to your Billing section, change your chosen subscription to Free, and click on Subscribe. Not as intuitive as it could be, but it gets the job done.

• Pricing & plans: 4.5/5

SignRequest: Interface

• Very simple and clean interface, making it easy to see what needs to be done, with a clear video tutorial available in case you get lost 

Once logged in, the interface looked strikingly simple - in fact it reminded us a lot of WeTransfer in its simplicity: a large rectangle with curved edges on the left sporting a button asking you to add a file at the top, with a list of contacts to send it to beneath it, and a tutorial video on the right, should you need help getting started.

We found that using the service was incredibly straightforward. Start by adding a document, followed by the number of contacts you need to fill it in. You’ll notice a different small coloured circle appears to the left of each email address - these colors will match the colored fields you’ll add to the file, making it easy to see at a glance who’s responsible for filling which part of the document.

An edit button to the right of each address allows you to alter various settings, such as assigning a signing order, password protecting the file, and also select the specific type of authorisation needed. This includes ‘needs to sign’, ‘needs to approve’, and ‘will only get notified’. Overall, we thought the whole process was so clear and simple, it would be hard to get lost. 

• Interface: 4.5/5

SignRequest: Tools

• A handful of tools offering you the basics with simplicity and ease of use

With such a sparse interface, you’d be forgiven for wondering where all the tools you need to prepare a document are hidden. The process is elegant in its simplicity, although if you don’t know, you’ll have a hell of a time trying to figure out how you’re supposed to do it: just click anywhere on the document.

This activates a large popup menu with four options: you can add a signature, a text box, a checkbox, or a date. You’ll find very few changeable parameters are available each time you add an item, but then again, very few are needed. The most important one is to make sure you’ve allocated the field to the right person. 

Everything else is pretty much optional. There are also item-specific parameters, like offering a multi-lined field for a text box, or limiting the date to the time the document is signed, for instance.

Once the field has been added, you can then reposition and resize it, so it fits perfectly.

You’ll find a handful of additional parameters in the Settings section, such as adding an email subject, setting up reminders, adding attachments to the file, or turning it into a template, if you feel you’ll be needing to use that same doc on a regular basis.

• Tools: 4.5/5 

SignRequest: Forms

• Follow the blue arrow to make sure you’ve filled in all the fields you have to. It’s hard to get lost with this process

When it’s time for you, or the people you sent the file to, to fill it in, SignRequest gently guides you through the process: a blue arrow points to the section you need to write in. Once done, it sends you to the next one. The process repeats until you get to Finalize.

You can of course edit your info prior to that, and should the font be too big for your liking, resizing the field is but a click and drag away.

If you’re used to similar online signing services, you’ll feel right at home when it comes to adding your signature: as usual, you’re given three choices: you can choose from one of the eight available cursive fonts or draw with your trackpad or mouse - we found SignRequest had one of the better experiences when it comes to this method. You can also upload a photo of your signature. Recipients don’t need to have an account with SignRequest in order to fill in their part of the document.

It’s as simple as that, really. No other options are available to you, such as changing fonts, or styles. Just type in, resize if necessary, sign, finalize, and you’re done.

• Forms: 4.5/5 

SignRequest: Audits

• The dashboard is where you get to check on your files, templates, and other information linked to your account

The service's main dashboard is where you can check out all the documents you’ve sent out, and check on their progress. This is also where you can see your templates, your own signature, billing information, details of your team, and the users of your account.

Despite its simplicity, SignRequest does cover the essentials when it comes to filling in a form, signing it, and tracking its progress. Some other services do offer more features, options,  changeable parameters, and so on. But if all you need to do is get the job done in a clear, simple and elegant way, then SignRequest is definitely worth a look.

• Audits: 4.5/5

SignRequest: Scorecard

Should I buy...?

Buy it if...

You need a simple way to sign documents electronically, and track their progress, without being burdened with too many options.

Don't buy it if...

You need more features not available with this service, or you only have to sign the occasional document, in which case the ‘free’ option might be a better fit.

SignRequest: Alternatives

We've tested a range of eSignature software solutions and services. For alternatives to SignRequest, check out our DocuSign review, PandaDoc review, and Apple Preview review.