Gaming - Organizer

1348 Ex Voto’s stylish sword fighting and strong premise caught my attention, but the game’s awful PC performance tainted the experience

5:00 pm | March 12, 2026

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: PC | Comments: Off

When I first heard about 1348 Ex Voto, I was instantly intrigued. A medieval Italian setting, sword fights, a dark and dramatic quest with a knight at the centre of it; and a lady knight at that? Count me in!

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, PC
Release date: March 12, 2026

In developer Sedleo's third-person action game set during 14th-century Italy, you play as Aeta, a young nobleman's daughter and trained knight-errant, who is dealing with the loss of her father after pestilence swept through her village.

When the rest of her hometown is massacred by unknown forces and Bianca, her closest companion and former household servant, is suddenly kidnapped, it's up to Aeta, armed with her determination and skill with a longsword, to come to the rescue.

A true knight

1348 Ex Voto screenshot showing Aeta pointing her sword at a enemy in the woods — (Image credit: Sedleo)

I'm a sucker for a dark tale that follows a character on a high-stakes quest, so the premise of Ex Voto had my attention immediately from the prologue. It's a classic narrative about whether the end can ever justifies the means, and Aeta's unfailing resolve and heroism, as well as her naivety, make for a compelling character amid a setting filled with lawlessness.

The game consists of nine relatively short chapters that take place across rocky landscapes, lush woodland, the ruins of ancient Rome, and the villas of a medieval Italian countryside. I finished it in roughly seven hours, but it's possible to beat it within one sitting if you don't die too often or spend the extra time scouring every corner looking for hidden treasures.

As childhood companions (and later suggested to be lovers), Aeta, played by Alby Baldwin, has an unwavering devotion to Jennifer English's Bianca, so her vow to track down and rescue her from her captors was a journey I was prepared to fall in love with.

As the playable protagonist, I did like Aeta for the most part. Throughout her quest, she is forced into encounters that test her faith, and you witness how resilient she becomes in not just tracking down Bianca but also finding those responsible for all this destruction.

1348 Ex Voto cinematic close-up screenshot of Bianca — (Image credit: Sedleo)

Heroes like Aeta, who are defined by their selflessness and driven by a strong moral code, are some of my favorite characters in fiction, especially in stories with a woman in the lead role.

Aeta is shaped by the chivalric tales she grew up with, which inspired her to become a knight-errant in the first place, but due to how short the game is, there weren't enough opportunities to dig deeper into her character beyond the vow she made to her god and devotion to Bianca, which felt like a missed opportunity.

Additionally, Ex Voto suffers from too much telling, and not enough showing. The simple premise of the game and Aeta's arduous quest should be strong enough to stand on its own, but her unnecessary commentary just becomes irritating.

I don't typically mind when protagonists have an internal monologue, but it gets to a point. In Ex Voto, instead of simply letting the lovely linear environments tell the story, Aeta often comments on literally everything she sees: whether it be pointing out the obvious, repeating her latest point of interest, or the countless times she proclaims her vow to save Bianca.

The latter is also one of the reasons why I wasn't completely sold on Aeta and Bianca's story. Aside from the short prologue and a few other scenes I won't spoil, the closeness they share just didn't feel real enough to grasp onto. Aeta wants to save Bianca; that's her main goal, but the journey lacks the emotional depth that I expected.

1348 Ex Voto's main character Aeta looking up in the middle of a hall — (Image credit: Sedleo)

Baldwin and English's great voice work does most of the heavy lifting in trying to make their bond believable, but their underdeveloped relationship couldn't make me to care too deeply. It's a shame, because these sorts of love stories are a dime a dozen in video games, and it wasn't helped by the disjointed story beats, particularly mid-game.

Each chapter tasks you with getting from one area to the next, on the trail of Bianca and her captors, followed by a short time skip that begins the proceeding chapter. This is a short, linear experience, so there's not much in terms of exploration; you'll mainly be stocking up on provisions, finding trinkets, treasures, and sword parts, or moving boxes or carts to overcome obstacles. And taking down baddies, of course.

Without spoiling anything, I will admit the final act took me by surprise but, because the exploration of Aeta and Bianca's bond felt so underutilized within the story, the climax rang hollow.

Performance woes

1348 Ex Voto gameplay screenshot showing Aeta fighting an enemy in third-person — (Image credit: Sedleo)

Now let's get the worst of it out of the way. I played 1348 Ex Voto on PC and let's just say I was sorely disappointed in the optimization.

My PC is fitted with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card, an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 8-core CPU, and 16GB of RAM, and with this mid-range build, I can typically play some pretty demanding modern games. However, the small indieEx Voto struggled tremendously.

When at high settings at 1440p resolution (though I tried 4K too), locked at 60 frames per second (fps), the game's performance dropped to between 20 and 30fps and stuttering was prevalent, with the same problems persisting even at medium settings.

After fiddling with settings for ages, I eventually resorted to putting the game in low settings and saw a big boost in performance up to 60fps, although the game frequently saw huge dips down to 30fps, especially in areas featuring an overwhelming amount of detail on screen, like in highly detailed woodland or places featuring atmospheric shadows.

Aeta and other characters also suffer the same fate. With all low settings, the realism and emotional weight that are intended to be translated through their models are lost, making them look like puppets, and I would be lying if I didn't say it put me off.

Best Bit

1348 Ex Voto review image — (Image credit: Sedleo)

1348's Ex Voto's strongest facet is its sword-fighting combat system. With two longsword stances on offer, a challenging parry, and a generous selection of upgradable skills, the combat feels the most fine-tuned out of everything the game has to offer.

It's a bummer, because the game's realistic style and appealing, cinematic direction were one of the things that drew me in in the first place. I was essentially forced to sacrifice the gorgeous visuals if I wanted even a crumb of good performance, and even then, it wasn't always perfect.

While less frustrating, I did run into a few annoying bugs, though they weren't game-breaking enough to require me winding back my save. At one point early on, I encountered an awful, yet hilarious issues where a character kept repeating his lines over and over again during a lengthy cutscene. It was so distracting that I couldn't even pay attention to any of the dialogue, and it basically ruined the atmosphere of the entire scene.

Aside from this, and a few other interaction bugs where I couldn't pick up provisions and move a box properly, the main issue revolved around the performance, and I think the game should've been kept in the oven a little longer so Sedleo could smooth out the cracks.

During the review period, I wasn't given the chance to try out the PlayStation 5 version, so I'm really curious if Ex Voto offers a more stable experience than PC.

Stick 'em with the pointy end

1348 Ex Voto's main character Aeta looking up at a huge tree in the middle of the woods — (Image credit: Sedleo)

Ex Voto's saving grace is its sword-fighting combat system. Your sole weapon is your longsword, which gives you a one-handed and two-handed stance. The first lets Aeta attack faster in broad strokes, but strikes deal slightly less damage, while the latter attacks slower, with a shorter range, and deals slightly more damage.

One-on-one battles is definitely the game's strongest suit; sword fights feel stylish and rewarding, particularly when you're able to repeatedly execute perfect parries and stagger an enemy by breaking their guard, leaving them open for a killing blow.

Aeta's longsword can also be upgraded by finding different parts along your journey, each with its own attributes that offer alternative fighting styles. The game's skill tree, which consists of four key categories and can be unlocked by finding scrolls in the world, also features additional ways to upgrade your Health, Guard, and Food gauges (which are vital in longer battles) as well as your two stances.

Trinkets are another special item that, when equipped, will impact gameplay with unique effects. Each trinket has a cost, so you can't equip them all, but they do make or break a fight.

You start with the Toy Knight, a trinket that automatically uses all the food in your inventory to prevent death, but you can find a handful more, including one that lets you heal for double, which comes in handy in the latter part of the game when you're up against numerous enemies at once.

If you don't do a good enough job of collecting provisions, you may get soft-locked into fights if you die

Speaking of, Ex Voto has a good variety of foes, along with three main bosses, across its nine chapters, all with their own weapon types and attack patterns that you'll need to learn how to counter by parrying and spending scrolls on the right skills.

There are points in combat where you are overwhelmed by multiple enemies at once, and, in the late game, additional foes spawn out of nowhere to join the fight making maintaining your gauges an even bigger challenge.

These five-on-one (even sometimes more) fights could sometimes feel finicky due to the game's lock-on mechanic, especially when you are pinned in close quarters. If you don't do a good enough job of collecting provisions, you may get soft-locked into fights when you die because of the autosave function.

While I enjoy combat a lot, there is no power scaling in the game so by the time I reached the final boss fight, I'd become so accustomed to the simple mechanics that I was able to beat them easily.

Just as it got in the way of being able to enjoy the visuals, the game's performance also affects gameplay. Not to the extent where it is unplayable, but stutters and small framerate dips are more noticeable in the aforementioned areas when so much is happening on screen.

Should you play 1348 Ex Voto?

Play it if...

You like dark, medieval stories about a knight on a quest
1348 Ex Voto is set in 14th-century Italy and brings the era to life through realistic graphics and linear areas to explore.

You like swords and fighting baddies
The game's sword-fighting combat system is the game's strongest feature, letting you parry and stagger enemies in challenging battles.

You like shorter games
1348 Ex Voto consists of nine chapters and takes around seven to nine hours to beat, so if you're looking for a short game to get lost in for a while, you might consider this worth your time.

Don't play it if...

You're hoping for an optimized PC performance
PC performance, right now, is awful and doesn't feel as fine-tuned as it could be. So if you don't want to sacrifice the game's pretty visuals by playing on low settings, best to wait for a performance patch

You're looking for a deep storyline
Although 1348 Ex Voto begins with a strong premise, Aeta and Bianca's close relationship lacks the emotional depth I was expecting and hoping to find, resulting in a weaker overall storyline.

Accessibility features

1348 Ex Voto suffers from a lack of accessibility options, only offering general graphics settings for motion blur and subtitles, and multiple language options. There are also no options to customize your keybinds on PC, which was something I struggled with.

How I reviewed 1348 Ex Voto

I spent roughly eight hours playing 1348 Ex Voto on my gaming PC with my Logitech G G715 wireless gaming keyboard and Logitech G703 wireless gaming mouse, completing the main storyline. I used a Gigabyte M32U gaming monitor, and used my Sony WH-CH520 wireless headphones for audio.

The game doesn't offer any additional performance modes to try out, but I compared the game's visuals and performance to other medieval action games, like Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

First reviewed March 2026

The Nintendo Switch 2 has a new worst accessory in the Virtual Boy — the best place for it is on your shelf

2:30 am |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo Software Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality | Tags: Nintendo Switch, VR | Comments: Off

It’s often said that if at first you don’t succeed, you should try again. With Nintendo’s Virtual Boy rerelease for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, I wonder if it maybe should have ignored that advice.

On the one hand, the Virtual Boy accessory for the Switch and Switch 2 is the ultimate novelty. The plastic recreation oozes an iconic 90s energy that somehow infected even me — someone born years after the Virtual Boy was discontinued — with a synthetic nostalgia that had me falling in love with its outer design. And as a VR fanatic, it’s a delight to experience one of VR’s earliest consumer interpretations.

On the other hand, Nintendo’s dedication to its history means it has left the headset and its games practically unchanged — which isn’t a good thing here. The Virtual Boy’s game library is as small and terrible as ever, and comfort very much feels like an afterthought.

So the question you have to ask yourself is this: do you want to spend $99.99 / £66.99 / AU$139.95 on a 10-minute novelty that will spend a lot more time on your shelf as a sculpture than on your face?

I firmly believe the answer is an emphatic 'No.'

Nintendo Virtual Boy: Price

The proper Virtual Boy accessory will cost you $99.99 / £66.99 / AU$139.95, though if you simply want to experience the Nintendo Classics collection and don’t want to waste too much money, there’s also a cardboard version that costs $24.99 / £16.99 / AU$29.95. You can pick up either from Nintendo's online store.

While this review isn’t generally positive about the Nintendo headset, if you are going to get one of the accessories, I believe you should at least get the proper non-cardboard version. I don’t believe you should get either for what it’s worth, but the properly recreated model looks rad and could be repurposed as shelf decoration when you’ve finished playing with it after a few short sessions.

The Virtual Boy on a gray sofa — (Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector)

Value score: 1/5

Nintendo Virtual Boy: Design

When Nintendo debuted this VR headset back in 1995, it promised the Virtual Boy would “totally immerse players into their own private universe." It certainly achieved this, though I do prefer my universes with a lot less red and a lot less nauseating.

It turns out plenty of other folks didn’t like what the Virtual Boy was delivering either. Despite predicting millions of global sales by the end of 1995, Nintendo shipped a mere 350,000 units in the US that year, and only around 770,000 globally by the time it was discontinued in 1996.

One of the big issues with the headset was, and still is with this Switch recreation, its design.

Too bulky to even attempt to wear on your head like a Meta Quest 3 — especially if you’re a kid, Nintendo’s typical target audience — Nintendo opted to have the original Virtual Boy rest on a stand. Despite being a lot lighter, the Switch accessory version can also only be perched on a roughly foot-tall stand at its max height. A design decision that created its own comfort conundrum.

Screenshot from the Nintendo Virtual Boy Nintendo Direct video — (Image credit: Nintendo)

After you’ve struggled to search for an appropriately tall table and/or a stack of books to place the headset on top of, you then have to hunch over to press your face into the console so you can peer into its stereoscopic worlds. This is not a comfortable way to sit for very long, and there’s no other alternative.

Here’s where you brush up against the next poor design decision: the red displays.

To act as a cost-cutting and processing power-saving method, the Virtual Boy’s screens were entirely red, and to mimic this, the Switch accessory uses two planes of red plastic — one for each eye. Opening up the headset, you slot your Switch or Switch 2 with the Virtual Boy software open to play games through this red filter to mimic the classic’s ruby hue.

If you think VR is nauseating at the best of times, just imagine what it would be like if your entire vision were merely shades of red.

Let’s just say my play sessions maxed out at 10 minutes before I needed a lie down — and I can usually stomach hours-long VR gaming if using other headsets.

Though I will say the Switch’s Virtual Boy add-on isn’t a total design flop.

As I mentioned in the intro, the classic Nintendo headset feels definitively like a gadget of the 90s, and half of that is how it looks — something this model recreates perfectly. Unboxing it in our office, even as someone who grew up in the 00s, I did feel like I was living out one of those grainy home videos of a kid ripping open their Christmas gifts.

There’s something magical about the Virtual Boy’s appearance, even if it’s not the most practically useful, though that’s where my praise ends.

Design score: 2/5

Virtual Boy: Software

The original saw 22 games released before it was canned entirely, but for now, the Nintendo Switch version only has seven: 3D Tetris, Galactic Pinball, Golf, Red Alarm, Teleroboxer, The Mansion of Innsmouth, and Virtual Boy Wario Land. With the March catalogue update for Mario Day, they’ll be joined by two more: Mario Tennis and Mario Clash.

All of these titles are accessed via the Nintendo Classics software included with your Switch Online + Expansion Pass membership, which will cost you $49.99 / £34.99 / AU$59.95 for 12 months.

The smallish collection size isn’t ideal, but it could be overlooked if there were a definite must-play or two amongst the selection. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything exciting enough to make me want to push through the discomfort of using the system.

Wario Land is fun if you’re a fan of Mario’s doppelganger, and I liked Galactic Pinball well enough, but titles I had hopes would be fun — Tetris and Red Alarm — lacked not only entertainment but made me want to hurl. It turns out a spinning red teris board just isn’t the best way to play the game if you like keeping your lunch in your stomach.

You can extract maybe 5 to 10 minutes of novelty from each title, and you might return to a handful when you want to subject your friends to this hardware, but none of them sell this accessory as a bona fide gaming machine.

Software score: 1/5

Nintendo Virtual Boy: scorecard

Attribute	Comment	Score
Design	From a usability perspective the Virtual Boy gets a very low score for its discomfort and red plastic displays, but the design does at least look wonderfully 90s so It gets some marks back.	2/5
Software	The Virtual Boy's library is small and none of its titles are all that enjoyable, especially given the nausea they can induce.	1/5
Value	The Virtual Boy is a complete novelty, and when there are so many other better things for you to spend your money on this terrible Switch accessory isn't worth it.	1/5

Should you buy the Nintendo Virtual Boy?

Buy it if…

You can accept it’s a novelty
If you have plenty of spare cash and can happily accept there’s maybe an hour or so worth of enjoyment to extract from this hardware at the absolute max (over a few sessions), then maybe you could consider getting the Virtual Boy for your Switch or Switch 2.

Don’t buy it if…

You’re on a tight gaming budget
There are way better things to buy for with Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2 — be they accessories or software — than this Virtual Boy clone. Almost any other game or add-on would be better.

You’re new to VR
If this will be your first VR experience it will likely put you off it entirely. This isn’t the best way to experience immersive 3D gameplay, but could be a novelty for existing fans of the medium.

You don’t own a Switch or Switch 2
This Virtual Boy recreation is a Switch accessory, not its own machine. If you don’t own either of Nintendo’s handheld hybrids, this headset is another level of useless.

How I tested the Nintendo Virtual Boy

I used the Virtual Boy for two weeks for this review, though my sessions admittedly didn’t last too long, as it kept making me feel ill. I relied on my Nintendo Switch 2 and its base Joy-Cons to experience this add-on’s VR experiences and used it in our office, at home, and even took it on a flight — it’s even more awful in the air, terrible VR and turbulence don’t mix.

First reviewed March 2026

Read more about how we test

My first-ever Pokémon adventure is still fantastic on the Switch 2, but I wish the LeafGreen and FireRed rerelease had something to make it a little more special

8:00 pm | March 11, 2026

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: Nintendo Switch | Comments: Off

I was six when my Pokémon journey began. In 2004, I got a Game Boy Advance SP and went to a local toy store with my parents to get two games — I chose Sonic Advance 2 and Pokémon LeafGreen.

I’d play FireRed later, as well as Yellow, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and so on through the series (though I did stop doubling up for most generations from Diamond onwards), but LeafGreen was where it started. So it felt right for me to celebrate the series’ 30th birthday by enjoying the Nintendo Switch rerelease.

It’s everything I remember it being.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: February 27, 2026

The look, the sound, the sense of adventure, it's all there perfectly recaptured on Nintendo’s latest system, and on Friday, 27th February, from 6pm until 3am, I couldn’t put this game down — I literally fell asleep on the sofa with my Switch 2 controllers in my hands.

When I awoke — at 1pm the next day — I grabbed a glass of water, nestled back into the groove in my couch, and picked up where I left off. I was in my own personal corner of heaven.

I adore this game. It hits the nostalgia sweet spot in a way only a few titles ever hope to be able to, and at the same time, I think it delivers the quintessential Pokémon experience that anyone can enjoy (be they newcomers or longtime fans like me). In fact, if you have yet to experience the phenomenon, this might be an excellent jumping-in point.

I do, however, feel this special release needed something a little more to completely justify itself to returning fans — beyond being simply existing in a way that isn’t a GBA cartridge.

Ivysaur fighting a Vileplume — (Image credit: Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.)

Let’s Go

Remakes of the original Red and Green, which kicked off the series, FireRed and LeafGreen follow the same classic beats of the Kanto region that players first experienced in 1996.

You begin in Pallet Town where in Professor Oak’s Lab you choose one of Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle to be your starting companion before heading off on your adventure to catch and train more Pocket Monsters (aka Pokémon), and defeat eight powerful Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and Kanto’s champion — while also foiling the plans of the evil Team Rocket, and collecting 150 Kanto ‘mons for your PokéDex (Mew isn’t available in the Switch version for now).

There’s a sense of exploration to Kanto that isn’t so present in later titles. While there are hints you can learn by talking to non-player characters (NPCs), there’s not often a clear ‘Go here next’ sign to follow — especially in the middle section of the story, post gym three, where you are much freer to explore the remainder of the map.

Trainers wanting to battle near Bill's house — (Image credit: Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.)

This imbues FireRed and LeafGreen with a sense that this is a proper adventure rather than a pre-defined story you’re wandering through the beats of.

There’s something tough about the battles, too, that presents a more engaging challenge than the most recent generations. EXP isn’t shared amongst your whole team in these classics, keeping your party at a more balanced level to your foes, and there isn’t an abundance of Pokémon to choose from to build a perfect team early on, like you can in later entries.

I’m playing through the game as a Nuzlocke — a fan-made challenge based on the Pokémon: Hard Mode web comic by Nick Franco which imposes a few extra rules limiting how many ‘mons you can catch, and forcing you to release any that are defeated in battle — and after Nuzlocking later generations, where the concept of losing two companions to a Rattata in a single fight is inconceivable, I haven’t been entirely respectful of the difficulties LeafGreen can present and faced the consequences.

Snorlax sleeping — (Image credit: Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.)

Hunting for something shiny

You can tell I adore LeafGreen and FireRed as much now as I did the original Game Boy games, but as I’m sitting playing them on my Nintendo Switch 2, I am left wanting more.

Unlike other Game Boy Advance ports on the Switch consoles, these aren’t part of the GBA catalogue you can access via the Switch Online + Expansion Pass membership, which costs $49.99 / £34.99 / AU$59.95 for 12 months. Instead, the games cost $19.99 / £16.99 / AU$30 each.

Best bit

The grassy safari zone — (Image credit: Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.)

The chiptune music is everything. The eeriness of Lavender Town, the tension of Gym Battles, the bombastic adventure exploring the routes between towns, it always perfectly captures the mood and is easily my favorite thing about these games.

There are some advantages to keeping these games separate from the emulator, such as indefinite offline play and Pokémon Home integration, and some of the Nintendo Classics emulator’s tools (like rewind) could enable exploits the series tends to avoid (though that didn’t stop the return of arbitrary code execution with these Switch ports).

However, if Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are asking us to pay a premium for these entries compared to other GBA games on the Switch system, I would have liked something a little more than a simple rerelease (though I do appreciate the inclusion of event tickets, which you can unlock after defeating the Elite Four).

I’m not asking for much. Maybe a new small area to help with filling out the National Dex, challenge mode options like a randomizer or releasing them as a double pack with Ruby and Sapphire.

The fossils in Mt Moon — (Image credit: Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.)

Perhaps I’m just spoiled by still having both of the original cartridges in a box under my bed alongside my aged Game Boy Advance, so I can play the originals whenever I want, but given this is the series 30th birthday, an extra splash of special to these launches would have been a cherry on top of what is otherwise a superb return to Kanto.

Should you play Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed?

Play it if...

You want the best Kanto experience
Whether you're a newcomer or a long-time Pokémon fan these games are the best way to enjoy the series' first region and its story.

You have a second Switch in your home
If you live with family or friends and there's a few Switches in your home these are excellent pickups as you can enjoy multipl;ayer battling and trading like you're back in 2006.

Don't buy it if...

You hate Pokémon
These games define what it means to be a classic Pokémon, in both good and bad ways. If you don't love the typical formula then you won't enjoy these remakes.

A traded Farfetch'd — (Image credit: Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.)

Accessibility

Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed don't have any specific in-built accessibility features, but they don't need them to be accessible.

The game's turn-based battles and simpler exploration allow you to play completely at your own pace in a way that should be approachable to almost everyone. You only ever need to be able to press one button at a time, so if you can do that, you can enjoy Pokémon LeafGreen.

How I tested Pokémon LeafGreen / FireRed

I have mostly played Pokémon LeafGreen for this review, and I have been enjoying it on my Nintendo Switch 2. To best mimic my classic GBA experience, I’ve played a lot of this game in handheld mode, though I did also play a lot in docked mode — especially during longer sessions where my Switch’s battery life became a concern.

On my Amazon Fire QLED TV, the classic game actually looked pretty good. I was expecting a blurry mess, but the sprites maintained their handheld charm.

My docked controller of choice is usually my 8BitDo Ultimate 2, though I did use my Joy-Cons a lot in my testing, so I could play a little more lazily on my couch.

First reviewed February-March 2026.

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is World War Z meets MudRunner and has already become my go-to co-op shooter

8:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is everything that I wanted from a new game by World War Z developer Saber Interactive. It has all the moreish zombie shooting that you would expect from that team, though now noticeably enhanced by thoroughly modernized gunplay that not only looks and feels great, but actually lets you aim down your weapon's sights properly for the first time.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: March 12, 2026

The charming ‘80s action movie script and a shift to more open levels also lend Toxic Commando a suitably distinct identity compared to its strictly linear spiritual predecessor. The same is true of the addition of vehicles, which benefits from some surprisingly meaty driving mechanics clearly inspired by the success of the studio’s MudRunner and SnowRunner games. Throw in seamless cross-play with up to three friends, and you have the recipe for an incredible time.

The campaign could certainly be a bit longer, and the progression system is definitely slightly too grindy for my taste (even when accounting for multiple playthroughs at each difficulty), but it’s hard to grumble when this modestly-priced release otherwise delivers such strong foundations.

With the promise of post-launch downloadable content (DLC) on the way, this is one co-op adventure that I’m going to come back to time and time again.

Going commando

A John Carpenter's Toxic Commando screenshot that shows the player fighting a Sludge Mass boss in an underground industrial environment. — (Image credit: Focus Entertiainment)

Set in the near future, Toxic Commando takes you to an infested wasteland that’s been walled off from the rest of civilization. Once the site of a high-tech mining operation, it turns out that humanity has accidentally awakened the Sludge God - an occult, ancient being that corrupts everything that it touches with an insidious black ooze.

You’re one of the self-proclaimed toxic commandos, four low-cost, somewhat bumbling mercenaries that have been brought in by the mining company’s desperate CEO to unwittingly assist in the cover-up by blasting everything in your path.

It’s a decent framing narrative that’s explained through cutscenes dripping with ‘80s style, complete with dramatic animated title cards and a pleasingly retro film grain effect. Dialogue is unapologetically cheesy, and while some might find the constant quipping of the four playable characters a tad grating, a handful of well-executed jokes meant that I was eager to watch each successive cinematic on my first playthrough.

Unfortunately, there are some moments where the game’s lower budget becomes evident: the odd bit of floaty animation and a particularly jarring moment where a cutscene late in the game seems to end a few seconds too prematurely immediately spring to mind.

A John Carpenter's Toxic Commando screenshot that shows the player engaging a group of zombies with an AK style rifle in the ruins of a burning shed. — (Image credit: Focus Entertiainment)

Crucially, all nine missions are plenty enjoyable thanks to a good range of objectives and plenty of unique mechanics to explore. They take place in increasingly large semi-open-world maps that offer a surprising amount of freedom. There’s always an objective marker on screen guiding you to the next story location, but you’re able to wander off and explore as a team without any penalties.

This is a massive departure from the very linear structure of World War Z, but taking the time to get to know each environment is vital as you crank the difficulty up. Hidden supply caches feed you a steady stream of valuable ammunition and health items, and rare Sludge Seeds (often nestled behind an army of powerful enemy types) can grant a vital second chance if you run out of lives.

Vehicles are littered throughout the maps to help you get around and are a key part of many objectives. Hopping into an armored all-terrain vehicle with a mounted gun dramatically increases your firepower, for example, while those who choose the comparatively fragile ambulance can give the team a much-needed health top-up.

SludgeRunner

A John Carpenter's Toxic Commando screenshot that shows the player driving an ambulance through a patch of mud in a forest clearing as a single sludge zombie approaches. — (Image credit: Focus Entertiainment)

Even if you choose the most kitted-out vehicles, you’re never close to invincible thanks to a range of environmental threats. Muddy terrain will stop you in your tracks as your tires lose traction, giving the many, many sludge zombies the opportunity to surround your vehicle and chip away at its overall health.

Most of the cars are equipped with an in-built winch that can be deployed to get you out of sticky situations with a well-placed pull, leading to delightfully frantic moments that have you crying out to your squad, desperately trying to free yourself before foes arrive.

Vehicles require plenty of fuel too, which has to be obtained from your environment and manually topped up whenever needed. There are generally a few cans of it in most locations, but the constant threat of running dry and ending up stranded without a ride adds a nice extra layer of tension.

I do wish the campaign was a little longer with a few more maps (I managed to roll credits in just under ten hours), but there are at least plenty of reasons to replay. There are four classes to choose from, each fulfilling the standard damage-dealing, healing, support, and tank archetypes with substantial ability trees to unlock and some unique specializations.

On top of this, the weapon arsenal is pretty meaty with a varied selection of assault rifles, shotguns, SMGs, pistols, sniper rifles, and so on - not to mention some powerful limited-use heavy gear that you can only acquire in the maps themselves.

Best bit

A John Carpenter's Toxic Commando screenshot that show — (Image credit: Focus Entertiainment)

Like World War Z, many of the levels in Toxic Commando have dramatic moments where you have to defend an area from thousands of zombies at once. The sense of scale is superb, and watching your prepared defences and gunfire cut through the oncoming horde is a consistent delight.

In addition to an overall power level that affects its damage, each gun can be fully customized with a modest but impactful selection of attachments. They all come with corresponding visual upgrades, lending a solid sense of progression to kitting out your favorite gear.

When you max out a gun’s level, you can even ‘prestige’ it a la Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, resetting its unlocks in exchange for unique skins. Sadly, leveling everything up is especially grindy and would require you to undertake multiple full playthroughs for each gun. This can be frustrating, basically locking you into committing to a specific one, as high-level weapons are essential for tackling hard and very hard difficulty missions. I’m optimistic that this can be addressed in a post-launch balance update, though.

Some new special enemy types also wouldn’t go amiss. Don’t get me wrong, there's an okay selection here already, but the current roster of ‘tanky ones’, ‘exploding ones’, ‘fiery ones’, and so on isn’t anything that hasn’t been done countless times before in other zombie games. At least they’re endlessly satisfying to mow down.

Should I play John Carpenter's Toxic Commando?

Play it if...

You want a highly enjoyable co-op shooter
If you’re looking for the kind of game that’s perfect for some mindless fun with friends after a hard day of work, then John Carpenter's Toxic Commando has you covered with its endless armies of sludge monsters.

You loved World War Z
It’s different, but John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is a strong follow-up to Saber Interactive’s World War Z with a host of interesting new mechanics. Like that game, I’m sure it’s only going to grow and get better with time, too.

Don't play it if...

You’re after more nuanced zombies
The idea of sludge zombie enemies is pretty interesting, but the selection of types here isn't anything that hasn’t been done before. Look to other zombie games like Dying Light or the Resident Evil series if you’re after a more unique take on the undead.

Accessibility features

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando doesn’t have a dedicated accessibility menu or many standard options like colorblind modes, but there are still a few useful settings.

The game features subtitles by default, which can be increased or decreased in size as needed. You can also add a background to make the subtitles a little easier to read. Keyboard and mouse controls can be fully customized on PC, and controller players have the option to enable aim assist.

A John Carpenter's Toxic Commando screenshot that shows the player shooting a large boss with a mounted turret. — (Image credit: Focus Entertiainment)

How I reviewed John Carpenter's Toxic Commando

I played more than ten hours of John Carpenter's Toxic Commando on PC, which is a 5070 Ti-powered model from retailer Scan. It has a compact Corsair 2000d RGB Airflow case, Asus ROG Strix B860-I motherboard, Intel Core Ultra 7 265K processor, a 2TB WD Black SN770 SSD, 32GB of DDR5 Corsair Vengeance RAM, and an Asus Nvidia 5070 Ti graphics card.

These specs were more than sufficient to run the game on its high visual preset with DLSS set to native. During my time with the game, I completed the entire campaign and experienced a mixture of both solo and co-op play, forcing a handful of my TechRadar colleagues to go commando and face the sludge legion.

I frequently compared my experience to my playthroughs of other zombie shooters, including the likes of Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood, and World War Z, in addition to other games by Saber Interactive, like MudRunner and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

First reviewed February-March 2026

GreedFall: The Dying World sets sail with confidence before sinking beneath an ocean of bad ideas and even poorer execution

12:00 pm | March 10, 2026

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: Dragon Age | Comments: Off

The original GreedFall was something of a balm for people starving for a particular flavor of sub-BioWare action role-playing games (RPGs) - games about reading lore codices and speaking to party members about their unresolved family drama.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: March 12, 2026

True to form for veteran “Temu versions of bigger RPGs” developer Spiders, it played like an earnest if haphazard version of The Witcher 2. GreedFall: The Dying World - no longer named GreedFall 2 to clarify its position as a prequel to the original - instead attempts to channel the spirit of classic late 90s or early 00s PC games as it becomes a real-time-with-pause tactical RPG.The other big shift is in your perspective: the original game cast you as a member of a noble house from a Europe-inspired industrialised nation, as it’s in the middle of colonising a new world of feather-wearing, magic-infused natives with a culture built out of thoughtlessly mashed together indigenous stereotypes. Presumably in response to criticism of their poorly handled parable of the colonisation of North America, Spiders has taken the bafflingly ill-advised decision to make it all an allegory for the transatlantic slave trade instead.

Troubled waters

A GreedFall: The Dying World screenshot showing third-person exploration in its fantasy world. — (Image credit: Nacon)

In The Dying World, you play as a member of a tribe indigenous to the fantasy island of Teer Fradee who is quickly ripped from their home by soldiers and shipped to the mainland in a prison ship. It’s a bold opening for a developer that doesn’t have a great track record for handling this sort of thing with any degree of sensitivity or consideration.Luckily, creative cowardice wins out, and you are immediately sprung from prison by a woman who is really very sorry about her job being to help ships bring back captured natives for cultish human experimentation. The rest of the game feels very much like a tour of apologism, as we find out that it’s actually only a few bad apples - and not the entire colonial apparatus - that has a penchant for human slavery and torture. It’s a shame how familiar things are, how quickly the player character becomes second fiddle to more traditional RPG stories starring your roster of deeply uninteresting party members. There is no opportunity for righteous fury at what all of these people have been doing to your homeland. You can’t go on a revenge rampage. You can’t assassinate business leaders. You just stumble along, being helpful and small while hoping someone in a position of power feels enough remorse to assist you in rescuing other captured natives or find a way home. The best you can hope for is for some official to possibly consider, maybe one day, looking into the whole slavery business.

A GreedFall: The Dying World screenshot showing some of the combat from a top-down perspective. The player is aiming an attack. — (Image credit: Nacon)

The lack of player agency can sometimes reach comical levels; you would think a party member becoming a captain of her own massive ship would be a solid ticket back home for the island natives. Raising it as a possibility makes the rest of the party act as if you’re being completely unreasonable to demand such an expensive and time-consuming diversion. It makes far more sense to help everyone else with whatever lingering lifelong mission they’ve been on first. It’s a bizarre decision for the studio to double down on the biggest weakness of the original game and flub the blank slate they had given themselves. There’s a game about a cool pirate lady going on adventures that they could have made, away from the baggage of the bad ideas they’d had. They’ve ended up with the worst of both worlds, lacking the conviction to focus on the indigenous storyline but also tarnishing the attempt to make a fun RPG about finding lost treasure and killing inexplicable packs of rabid monkeys in the countryside.

The trying world

A GreedFall: The Dying World screenshot showing the game's map screen. — (Image credit: Nacon)

The combat is also a step back. With GreedFall and Steelrising, it felt like Spiders had finally settled into a comfortable place with its attempts at real-time, vaguely soulslike combat. Here, it has looked at the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 and the rest of the computer role-playing game (CRPG) revival, and tried something more tactical - ending up with a system very close to Dragon Age: Origins. Exploration is done via a traditional third-person camera, but at the press of a button, the camera pulls out to an almost isometric view, and time freezes - allowing you to get a handle on the details of each foe, queue up individual actions for each party member, and position them for defensive or offensive purposes. Unpausing keeps you in the tactical view, letting you monitor how things play out and decide when you need to pause again and adapt to the battle as it unfolds. Not that you’ll ever be really surprised by anything. Most encounters play out the same way; the same way they do in most CRPGs - sending out a tank to draw enemy attention away from your preferred assortment of spell casters, archers and thieves who all chip away at enemy defences or hit them with afflictions or cast favourable buffs on the tank. Sometimes there’ll be an explosive barrel.It works fine. The studio has done a genuinely commendable job at mapping this sort of thing onto a console controller - you never feel like you’re struggling against the absence of a scroll wheel or a keyboard. You might find yourself struggling to stay engaged in your third, drawn-out battle against a dozen rabid monkeys in a row - as you find yourself pausing and pausing to carry out the same tried and tested tactics you’ve been relying on for 20 hours. Outside of a few standout bosses, the game rarely throws you a curveball or forces you to think outside of the box.

A GreedFall: The Dying World screenshot showing the beginning of a combat encounter in some ancient ruins. — (Image credit: Nacon)

Fortunately, The Dying World features some robust difficulty and control options - letting you do everything from making it so that a single badly timed or placed spell can result in wiping out your own party or turning the game into a third-person autobattler with infinite health. If the combat ever starts to feel like a slog, you can essentially make it play itself while you enjoy exploring the world or furthering the narrative. Or if you prefer to turn it into something like a 90s computer classic, you could play the entire thing like it’s a real-time strategy with a fixed isometric camera as you click your way around the environment.As a Spiders fan in general, this is ultimately a deeply frustrating experience. There’s a lot to be appreciated here. The towns and cities of the continent are a densely packed delight to explore, once you’re finally given the freedom to do so. There’s a calming quality to being able to sit back and consider your options as you look down on the battlefield. But there’s only so long you can spend clicking on the same combination of skill icons in battles that all overstay their welcome. Only so many times you can grimace as the writing constantly trips over itself. It’s heart breaking to say, given the effort involved - and knowing there’s a strong likelihood this could be Spiders’ swansong - but this is a world they should have let this world die in peace.

Should I play GreedFall: The Dying World?

Play it if...

You enjoy comparing trousers
While GreedFall: The Dying World's encounters leave much to be desired, preparing for them is deeply satisfying if you're the type of person who likes pouring over the statistical details of every item of clothing equipped on your party members. There's a steady trickle of loot to sort through, and all of it is reflected visually, so you'll be agonizing between form and function.

You like looking at cobblestones and trees
The world might be dying, but it's very nice to look at. It takes too long to reach the point where you can freely explore the towns of the continent, but once you do, you'll find they're oozing with detail and atmosphere. Each nation feels genuinely distinct in terms of architecture and personality, while feeling grounded in the same world.

Don't play it if...

You like well thought-out fantasy settings
Focusing on the already poorly conceived and broadly drawn native culture of the original is a perplexing, unforced error. What could have been a course correction only leads to more missteps, as every hour sees some plot beat or piece of dialogue that will make any player who is culturally or historically sensitive suck air through their teeth and tug at their collar.

You are hoping to show off your tactical genius
GreedFall: The Dying World's more complex combat ends up feeling like a tedious slog rather than a true test of your intelligence. Most builds don't feel particularly unique or interesting, offering nothing you haven't seen a thousand times already. All you can really do is shovel in some artificial difficulty in the form of damage modifiers or friendly fire, which grates very quickly.

Accessibility features

The game lets you change a variety of aspects of combat to taste, from friendly or enemy damage levels to when the game pauses automatically or how the camera reacts in certain contexts. You can determine how much autonomy your party members have during a fight. There are three presets available, which offer different ways to experience and engage with combat, from minimal to exact. Subtitle options are limited to one background and three sizes, but there are no colourblind settings. Commendably, they have included something that every video game should release with - an Infinite Health toggle switch in the options menu.

How I reviewed GreedFall: The Dying World

I played through the main storyline and the major companion quests of Greedfall: The Dying World for over 40 hours on a stock PlayStation 5 hooked up to a 50” OLED TV. The HDR really shows off the wide range of deep, rich browns and reds that make up the towns and forests you’ll be spending your time in. I played using the Quality Mode, which caps the FPS at 30 frames per second (fps) - which I found had little impact on the tactical combat. The Performance Mode caps at 60, but the significant reduction in resolution makes the detailed environments appear fuzzy and cluttered. First reviewed March 2026

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a creative creature-collecting RPG that more than scratches my turn-based itch

6:00 pm | March 9, 2026

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: RPG, XP | Comments: Off

Alongside heroic questing and tear-evoking character arcs, an integral part of any RPG experience is the grinding. From prancing around fields in search of herbs to trawling caves for high-level beasties, this inevitable practice makes up a sizable chunk of any save file.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Release date: March 13, 2026

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, the latest addition to Capcom’s beloved creature-catching dynasty, doesn’t shy away from this reality, providing moreish mechanical loops and plenty of side stories as you explore its glorious fantasy adventure.

Set in the pastoral kingdom of Azuria, you play as the prince or, in my case, the princess of the land, who, on top of their royal duties, acts as the leader of the Rangers, a group of eco-conscious warriors who maintain the land.

One day, during a routine realm-protecting venture, a group of troops from the less-than-thriving neighbouring kingdom of Vermeil is spotted, leading to a tense standoff between the two nations. What ensues is a complex action-packed role-playing game (RPG) that leads the regal heir to the throne down a pithy rabbit hole, opening up questions about their past as they venture beyond the edges of their home in search of answers.

One more troubling wrinkle here is that on top of the bureaucratic chaos, rogue monsters are becoming infected with a strange crystal sickness that turns them into raging, psychopathic beasts – very unfortunate timing. Over the runtime, these dual investigations start to intertwine, with Twisted Reflection culminating in an emotional finale I thoroughly enjoyed working towards.

A heavy helping of exposition and a host of time-consuming tutorials mean this expedition starts off slow, and seasoned Monster Hunter Stories players will likely need to button mash through much of this to get to the juicy turn-based meat. Still, if you’re new to the IP or this turn-based iteration, you’ll be well taken care of here.

The Wild Hunt

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection — (Image credit: Capcom)

Unlike the mainline Monster Hunter series, Stories switches up combat, cleverly adapting the high-octane experience into a much more friendly turn-based one.

You’ll still need to target specific body parts of monsters, and use the right weapon to break foot bones, puncture inflatable necks, and break down health bars until the monster stops budging. Notably, you’ll have plenty of time to decide how to deconstruct your prey without fear of them running off or slaughtering you mercilessly. Important disclaimer, though — even with the extra time on your side, they still might.

In combat, you control yourself and your monster, sharing hearts in the process, though you’ll often fight with compatriots from the Rangers team, too. Each member specialises in a type of support, with the adorable pink-haired Thea offering a higher critical hit rate with the caveat of lower defence, where the chiselled Gaul tends to heal up your party with his utility belt of items.

Picking a solid ally is extremely important to success, especially as you face more feral opponents down the line. While you’ll inevitably stumble along the way to finding your perfect match, the process is gratifying nonetheless, with failure never feeling too punishing.

Best bit

A screenshot from Monster Hunter Stories 3 Twisted Reflection — (Image credit: Capcom)

Nurturing digital pets can be hard work, but it’s extremely fulfilling. Twisted Reflection provides another opportunity for players to raise a lineage of virtual beings, procuring them in egg form and coaching them to become lovable killing machines. With six menacing protege pets in your pocket, you can name, train, and gleefully ride them across shifting horizons, bonding with your new buddies all the while.

As you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed Twisted Reflections’ combat, and, beyond the expected elemental attacks, buffs, debuffs, and stamina bar to contend with, there is a standout feature here – the attack type system.

A carryover from the previous Monster Hunter Stories games, this system plays a lot like rock, paper, scissors, but instead of losing to a friend, your life is on the line. During a battle, you and your prey have a chance to target each other, leading to a nerve-racking head-to-head.

If you correctly guess the beast's type – between Power, Technical, and Speed – and deal the opposing damage type, you have a chance to boost your destructive power. However, if you lose, you’ll take more damage as a result. The more you fend off enemies, the more you’ll get a feel for countering attacks, which leads to a satisfying cycle that encourages you to take risks and bet on yourself.

Combat is more than just a means to an XP end, though, and you’ll also earn some handy monster parts which can be crafted into gear to fortify your stats. From a technical perspective, I found great joy in recycling guts and scales into bows and armour, with beloved monsters like the Chatacabra and Nerscylla reimagined into stylish defensive garb and weapons.

Perhaps the greatest aspect of this process, though, is that what you craft carries the visual markers of monster parts, too. Ergo, if you cook up the leftovers from a fight with a Kut Kut into gear, your fit will have a distinct orange-scaled look. There’s a lot to love about these hectic designs, particularly as the outfit you choose will show up in cutscenes, leading to some unintentionally hilarious interactions.

What’s most important, though, is that it provides you with a reason to go out and hunt specific creatures beyond story progression and XP alone, which is important as you glide towards the challenging late game.

Dragon Quest

Over the course of this expansive journey, you’ll venture into fresh biomes like jungles and deserts, sneaking peeks and battling against a wider variety of creatures. If you aren’t familiar with Monster Hunter, the series has always made an effort to ensure the eponymous monsters feel at home where you find them, and I’m happy to note that Twisted Reflection is no different.

Where the lakes and rivers of each biome house aquatic creatures like the salamander-esque Ludthroth or bulldog-faced Somnacanth, the plains feature packs of scrappy scavengers like the Velocidrome. These touches ensure the world has a lived-in feel, as if it existed long before you decided to drop in and start swinging your sword.

It’s clever that the creatures in your party are held to the same standard, and to reach the peaks and valleys of each area, you’ll have to switch between rides – your winged steed isn’t going to take a dip just because you want to collect some herbs. It’s a shame, then, that the platforming can be extremely hit-and-miss.

I lost count of how many times I fell off a solid edge, plummeting from tree stumps or slipping off a vertical cliff, only to have to scale whole mountains again. Invisible walls appear out of nowhere, too, swiftly taking you out of the fantasy. Given all the intentionally immersive features, it’s a shame that a game so geared toward exploration struggles to make the process fun in the long term.

Three characters walk toward a glowing cave in a snowy landscape in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection — (Image credit: Capcom)

Side quests appear periodically across the saga, bolstering the story by reminding you that, on top of the impending threat of crystallised super monsters, you have a duty as a ranger, too. The missions are fairly simple fetch quests for the most part, sending you off to find specific monster eggs or herbs with some cute moments peppered in.

Thankfully, there are more focused friendship quests to complete, too, that feel much more thoughtfully written and allow you to embed in Twisted Reflection’s world and build richer relationships with the other rangers in your squad. Here you’ll get to know Kora, the tough warrior with a harrowing history, and Ogden, a warm if not eccentric father figure within the group.

If you don’t complete them as they appear, the story's pacing goes off kilter a touch, and you’ll find yourself warped back to maps that you almost certainly shouldn’t be visiting in context to the story at large. Still, if you can suspend your disbelief, the stories are silly and heartwarming, bolstered by spirited vocal performances from the game’s cast.

Should you play Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection?

Play it if...

You’re looking for a lengthy RPG set in a rich fantasy land
Monster Hunter 3 Stories: Twisted Reflection is a fantastic adventure, flush with fantasy fetch quests and heartwarming side stories to boot. Completionists will have hours upon hours of content at their fingertips.

You like the lore of the Monster Hunter series, but don’t love the speedy combat
Monster Hunter Stories trades the real-time combat of the mainline series for a much more approachable turn-based system. While there are quick-time events in battle, there is still ample time to react if you’re an anxious player.

Don't play it if...

You aren’t keen on grinding for XP
While there are plenty of side quests to check out, as well as a rogues' gallery of monsters to find, inevitably, you will need to grind out battles to level up your team. It’s not egregious by any means, but it is a core part of the experience.

Accessibility features

You can access Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection’s settings anytime from the pause menu. There’s a Controller and Mouse and Keyboard submenu where you can rebind keys for traversal, battling, and cutscenes to suit your preferences. In the Options submenu is you can toggle font size for subtitles and adjust cutscene dialogue to display speaker names. You can also adjust your minimap to rotate with the camera's orientation or remain fixed.

Where objectives are concerned, you can tweak the quest marker to always be on and choose to have a caution icon appear when you approach monsters of a much higher level than you own. Those struggling in combat can also choose to have a hint message appear if they lose in certain battles.

A fish on a plate for a meal in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection — (Image credit: Capcom)

How I reviewed Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

We played Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection’s main campaign on PC for over fifty hours. During that time, we invested in the side quests, Ranger stories, and the habitat rehabilitation portion of the game, in addition to the main questline.

It was completed on a Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 10 (RTX 5070) with the internal speakers for audio. A mouse and keyboard were used intermittently, while the campaign was primarily played with an Xbox Wireless Controller.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed February-March 2026

I spent a month with the Razer Enki Pro gaming chair, and my butt will eternally thank me

7:00 pm | March 8, 2026

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming Gaming Accessories | Comments: Off

Razer Enki Pro: One-minute review

The Razer Enki Pro is a premium, high-end gaming chair that provides you with immense comfort, to the point I would consider it one of the most comfortable gaming chairs I have ever sat in.

It offers exceptional lumbar support, even for those who enjoy sitting in weird positions in their chair - myself included. You get 4D armrests, which are a joy if you’re someone who prefers a certain position for typing and then another for gaming.

However, one of the major downsides here is the fact that it will set you back $999 / £999, which is double the cost of even some of the best gaming chairs on the market, like the Secretlab Titan Evo, which comes in at just $500 / £469.

At this hefty price point, you would expect a feature-packed seat with close to perfect ergonomics, but the Razer Enki Pro falls a tad short here. The Herman Miller x Logitech Embody gaming chair is another top-end premium seat, which comes with ergonomics designed to support your entire back and a 12-year warranty in comparison.

Another qualm I’ve got with the Razer Enki Pro, which is almost definitely more of a personal one, is the lack of style on offer from the chair here. It looks like a bog-standard gaming chair when it comes to colour, design and silhouette, which is a bit disappointing coming from Razer - whose products are typically very stylish.

Of course, this will be down to personal preference, but the hardback shell of the seat is just not for me.

The Razer Enki Pro gaming chair in a colorful gaming and office set-up. — (Image credit: Future)

Razer Enki Pro: Price and availability

Costs $999 / £999 / AU$1799
Pricey when compared to similar gaming chairs
Only one colorway available

At just under $1000, the Razer Enki Pro is a pricey chair considering what’s on offer. Chairs that offer a similar feature set include the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 and the AndaSeat Kaiser 3 XL, which both come in closer to the $500 mark.

You can pick up the Razer Enki Pro in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Stock is limited in other regions thanks to how large and heavy the chair is, which can make shipping difficult.

You can grab a couple of special editions for the Razer Enki Pro, including the Lamborghini, Williams Esports, or Koenigsegg editions, which come in at a higher price point of $1,299 / £1,299, but the base chair only comes in a black and green colourway.

The chair often goes on sale over at the Razer website, where you can typically grab the seat at $100 / £100 off making the value proposition a little better.

Razer Enki Pro: Specs

Max weight of user	299lbs / 136kg
Max height of user	6’ 8” / 204cm
Recline angle	152 degrees with reactive seat tilt
Warranty	3 years limited
Lumbar support	Built-in lumbar arch
Material	Alcantara and EPU synthetic leather

Razer Enki Pro: Design and aesthetics

Extremely heavy
4D armrests
Alcantara seat

One of the first things you’ll notice about the Razer Enki Pro, before even unboxing the chair, is the weight.

At around 30kg, this chair is extremely heavy, to the point that it feels weighty even when just moving it around or swivelling. While the weight does make the chair seem very heavy-duty, it can get annoying to constantly have to work hard to swivel the chair while you’re sitting in it, just because of how heavy it is.

A lot of this weight is likely down to the hard shell exterior of the seat, that isn’t my cup of tea in terms of style. It makes the chair appear bulky rather than sleek and slender, which is what I would prefer.

You have the benefit of 4D armrests, which is almost expected when spending this much on a gaming chair. These allow you to move the armrests completely so they can sit exactly as you like. They can be adjusted up and down, left and right, forwards and backwards, which makes this perfect for those who want their armrests a certain way for gaming and then another way for typing.

The Razer Enki Pro also comes with a 152-degree seat recline, which is pretty common in many gaming chairs. It also has weight-adjusted tilting, meaning you can lean back in the chair and it will adjust accordingly without the need for any manual adjustments.

I didn't use this feature very often because I’m currently trying my best to repair my absolutely awful posture by sitting up exceptionally straight all the time, but when I did decide to sit cross-legged in the seat, it was great to be able to comfortably lean back.

Something that sets the chair apart from alternatives on the market is the Alcantara leather, which feels like suede.

This is much harder wearing and moisture resistant when compared to typical leather, but still doesn’t absorb all of your sweat that some felt or cotton chairs do. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the feel of the Alcantara, but again, this will be down to personal preference and taste.

In terms of the silhouette, you get 110-degree extended shoulder arches and a 21” base to allow for optimal weight distribution for long-lasting comfort and all-day gaming.

These wider shoulder arches make the chair suited to those who may have a wider frame, but it's worth noting that it has a maximum user weight of 136kg. You get built-in lumbar support - which isn’t adjustable - that encourages you to sit upright.

Razer Enki Pro: Comfort and adjustability

Adjustable headrest
Extremely comfortable
Able to sit for long periods without strain

After constructing the chair, it was very quick and easy for me to determine that the Razer Enki Pro was one of the most comfortable chairs I have ever sat in. I typically find myself fidgeting a lot throughout the day, changing positions and trying to sit in weird ways just to feel comfortable, but this was an issue of the past - for the most part - with the Razer Enki Pro.

The lumbar support is pretty good; it would be nice to be able to adjust it to suit my back, but it still feels very comfortable even when I’m sitting at my desk all day long.

I feel content sitting in this chair for long periods of time without any strain. I often find myself getting up and stretching, and walking around every so often in my other chairs just because I feel achy and strained, but I didn’t need to do this in the Razer Enki Pro.

Of course, it's recommended to get up and move around at least once an hour if you’re sitting at a desk for long periods of time.

The one downside when it came to comfort was the headrest. It isn’t as well cushioned as I was expecting, so I ended up just removing it altogether. The headrest is magnetic, meaning that removing it or adjusting it is super simple, so no matter what your preference is, you’re able to get the headrest where you like it.

Razer Enki Pro: Assembly

All tools in the box including a pair of gloves
Very heavy box
I’d recommend two people for assembly

When first unboxing and constructing the chair, I struggled a tad. I’ve built countless gaming chairs in my time, thanks to the never-ending stream of review seats, but the Razer Enki Pro takes the crown for being one of the heaviest chairs I’ve ever built.

However, it was very easy to put together in spite of that, with everything just sliding into place. It only needed eight screws to attach the back to the base of the seat, which was very simple, but lifting the actual base up and trying to slide it onto the guide rail was so difficult to do alone, and I needed to call in some help in order to do this.

While it could be done solo, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Should I buy the Razer Enki Pro?

Buy it if...

You want one of the most comfortable chairs money can buy
The Razer Enki Pro is one of the most comfortable seats I have ever used. It provided me with excellent lumbar support to the point I wasn’t achy or strained even after sitting for long periods of time.

You’re a fan of the ‘typical’ gamer aesthetic
Considering it comes in one black/green colourway and features a hard shell exterior, this chair is very ‘gamer-y’ in style.

Don't buy it if...

You want more features out of your gaming chair
With 4D armrests and weight-adjusted tilting, there isn’t a lot on offer from the Razer Enki Pro. Other chairs at this price point come with footrests, cooling systems and adjustable lumbar support.

Also consider...

If you’re not sold on the Razer Enki Pro or you just want to weigh up some other options then here’s how it compares to two other alternatives that we’ve reviewed.

	Razer Enki Pro	Noblechairs Legend	Andaseat Kaiser 3 XL
Max weight of user	299lbs / 136kg	331lbs / 150kg	395lbs / 180kg
Max height of user	6’ 8” / 204cm	6’ 7” / 200cm	6’8” / 180cm
Recline angle	152 degrees with reactive seat tilt	90 - 125 degrees recline	90 - 165 degrees recline
Warranty	3 years limited	2 years	2 years
Lumbar support	Built-in lumbar arch	Yes	Yes (adjustable)
Material	Alcantara and EPU synthetic leather	High-tech faux leather	PVC leather or linen fabric

Noblechairs Legend
The Noblechairs Legend is a stunning chair that looks like it's been pulled straight out of a classy sports car. It looks and feels immaculate, and the material is plush and breathable. It provides you with amazing comfort even after extended periods of time.

Read our full Noblechairs Legend review

Andaseat Kaiser 3XL
The Andaseat Kaiser 3XL is designed for larger humans. Not only does it provide you with amazing comfort, but it also comes backed with features including adjustable lumbar support. It’s much more budget-friendly when compared to the Razer Enki Pro.

Read our full Andaseat Kaiser 3 XL review

How I tested the Razer Enki Pro

Sat in all day for work and all evening for gaming
Used for a month in total
Compared to other gaming chairs

I spent all day, every day, using the Razer Enki Pro for a month, including working all day and gaming all evening.

I would sit in it for multiple hours at a time, including full working days. I would adjust the armrests and recline often to change seat positions or to relax in the evenings when I was gaming.

I compared my experience to multiple other gaming chairs I have reviewed over the years, right down to the build experience and design, to the features on offer and the comfort.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed January 2026

God of War Sons of Sparta review: This series’ metroidvania prequel is serviceable, but shines like a red orb on PlayStation Portal

4:00 am |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off

If you're a God of War fan, you've likely noticed Sony's iconic, deity-destroying action series has been dominating the spotlight as of late. Following an announcement that the franchise's original trilogy is being remade, we got a first-look at Kratos and Atreus in Prime Video's upcoming live-action TV series adaptation.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5 (on PS5 Pro and PlayStation Portal)
Available on: PS5
Release date: February 12, 2026

But before a collective "Boy!" could be bellowed in celebration of all this news, we also got word that a new series' spin-off game is rumored to be in the works. Given that you'd need a Leviathan Axe to cut through all these recent reveals and rumors, you could be excused for overlooking God of War Sons of Sparta, a brand-new prequel entry that was shadow-dropped shortly after the Greek trilogy remake reveal.

A retro-flavored 2D action-platformer starring a teenage Kratos, Sons of Sparta is a far cry from what the franchise has previously delivered. Borrowing heavily from the Metroidvania genre, the smaller-scale game has also earned the ire of some players – including series' creator David Jaffe – who've been less than impressed by this fresh direction for the franchise.

But while the game never reaches the epic highs of its predecessors, I've mostly had a good time stabbing, puzzle-solving, and exploring the would-be god-slayer's early stomping grounds, especially when braving its land of Laconia on my PlayStation Portal.

A slow start, but stellar story

A screenshot of Kratos squaring up to a cyclops in God of War Sons of Sparta — (Image credit: Sony/PlayStation/Santa Monica Studio/ShopTo )

Admittedly, Sons of Sparta doesn't make a fantastic first impression. Its action is slow to start, and its early environments sport a muted tone that can come off a bit drab on a large display, like the 65" 4K TV I started my journey on.

The game's combat and world didn't immediately grab me, but its characters and narrative did. A collaboration between Sony Santa Monica Studio, who penned the story, and Mega Cat Studios, Sons of Sparta is cleverly framed as a tale adult Kratos – voiced by the protagonist's first performer, TC Carson – tells his young daughter Calliope.

Narration from the older Kratos, as well as some fun exchanges between him and his little girl, are peppered throughout the lengthy campaign. But the bulk of the storytelling is delivered by young Kratos and his brother Deimos. The siblings, who are enduring the agoge in hopes of becoming Spartan soldiers, are richly realized with top-notch writing and quality voice acting.

In fact, it's the brothers' engaging, evolving dynamic that drew me to revisit the game on my PlayStation Portal after all but abandoning it following a short session on my PS5 Pro. And I'm so glad I returned to it, as Sons of Sparta is not only a perfect fit for the portable platform, but investing more time in it allowed me to appreciate what it had to offer after its subpar start.

Combat that ultimately clicks

A screenshot from God of War Sons of Sparta showing young Kratos holding up a head — (Image credit: Sony/PlayStation/Santa Monica Studio/ShopTo )

The game's combat, which feels a bit plodding in the opening hours, really finds its footing a few hours in. Kratos can't do a whole lot with his equipped sword and shield initially, but it's not long before your inventory is brimming with abilities, upgrades, and skills. The franchise's familiar red orbs, as well as other collected resources, can be invested in a variety of offensive and defensive skills, while a number of weapon attachments can be acquired and upgraded.

The gods also get in on the action, gifting Kratos with a number of cool tools – like a fire-spewing tree branch – that can combat baddies, assist with puzzle-solving, and open previously obstructed parts of the map.

Speaking of the game's sprawling navigational interface, viewing and using the tool on the Portal's 8-inch, rectangular display immediately struck me with a satisfying sense of nostalgia. Having spent my youth studying maps in Metroid and Castlevania entries – as well as other classic side-scrollers – on Nintendo's many handhelds and Sony's own PlayStation Portable and Vita, it was a blast witnessing Sons of Sparta's map blossom in all directions on the more diminutive screen.

Playing with PlayStation Portal Power

A screenshot from God of War Sons of Sparta showing young Kratos and Deimos kneeling before an NPC — (Image credit: Sony/PlayStation/Santa Monica Studio/ShopTo )

But playing on the Portal did more than recall my favorite map-navigating memories. The prequel's painterly, hand-drawn pixel art style really pops on the portable hardware's 1080p HD display. Where the game felt a bit small and swallowed up by my TV's 65" screen, its varied, vibrant environments arguably presented much better on the smaller LED screen.

Of course, the innate intimacy of playing on a portable platform also deserves credit for putting the game in its best light; I was able to appreciate far more detail playing Sons of Sparta a few inches from my face rather than squinting at it from across my living room.

It also doesn't hurt that the Portal's handgrips deliver the same immersion-ratcheting features as the PS5's DualSense Wireless Controller. From feeling the rhythmic cadence of Kratos readying his Solar Sling – another fun gift from the gods – to the intense, sustained pulse that builds when opening a treasure chest, the handheld's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are easily on par with the standard DualSense controller.

And speaking again to that more intimate portable experience, seeing Sons of Sparta's action unfold directly between those rumbling, vibrating handgrips adds a level of immersion and immediacy that playing on a console just can't match.

Godlike audio

A screenshot from God of War Sons of Sparta showing young Kratos in front of a bonfire save point — (Image credit: Sony/PlayStation/Santa Monica Studio/ShopTo )

I further complemented my time behind Kratos' spear and shield by pairing Sony's PlayStation Pulse Elite headset with the Portal. As expected, this allowed me to absorb every detail of the game's dynamic soundscape, from ear-rattling boss encounters to the nuanced echo of water dripping in the game's atmospheric Grand Cistern environment.

Sons of Sparta is undoubtedly a smaller-scale entry in a series known for making big, bold, blood-soaked splashes with each release. But while the stakes of its story are lower, and it lacks some of the epic set pieces, cinema-rivaling effects, and adrenaline-pumping action of its predecessors, it still delivers a solid, albeit quite different, God of War action-adventure.

If you're expecting a 2D take on Kratos' previous god-slaying exploits, Sons of Sparta will likely disappoint. But if you're craving a fresh, canon story supported by a serviceable metroidvania structure, deep combat, and plenty of fan-pleasing call-outs to the larger franchise, this unconventional prequel's got you covered…especially when enjoyed on the PlayStation Portal.

Should you play God of War Sons of Sparta?

Play it if...

You're craving a new canon God of War story
God of War Sons of Sparta has its share of ups and downs in the gameplay department, but its prequel story and characters are consistently good. If you want to learn more about Kratos' young adult years and how they were shaped by his complex relationship with his brother Deimos, this entry is more than worth your time.

You're looking for the perfect game to play on your PlayStation Portal
From its retro art style and side-scrolling action to its platforming-fueled navigation and Castlevania-evoking map, Sons of Sparta looks and feels like the sort of game you might have sunk hours into while clutching a Nintendo handheld or Sony PSP. It's a perfect fit for the PlayStation Portal, one that arguably looks and plays better on the portable platform.

Don't play it if...

You're expecting the full God of War experience in 2D form
Sons of Sparta isn't a traditional God of War game presented as a 2D sidescroller, but rather a brand new direction for the franchise. More a metroidvania puzzle-platformer than gore-soaked action spectacle, the prequel will likely disappoint those expecting to jump in and carve through mythical creatures with Kratos' Leviathan Axe or Blades of Chaos.

Accessibility features

God of War Sons of Sparta includes an impressive suite of accessibility features, from various audio adjustments and visuals assists – including options for customizing color filters, text sizes, and blood and gore effects – to motion reduction aids and gameplay settings for decreasing difficulty.

In addition to including a number of presets for accessibility features, the game also offers plenty of individual selections for a more tailored experience.

A screenshot from God of War Sons of Sparta showing young Kratos running through a village — (Image credit: Sony/PlayStation/Santa Monica Studio/ShopTo )

How I reviewed God of War Sons of Sparta

I played a few hours of God of War Sons of Sparta on my PlayStation 5 Pro, on my 65" 4K display, before fully committing to it – and enjoying it much more – on my PlayStation Portal, streamed from the Pro.

I tested Sons of Sparta's audio with both the PlayStation Pulse Explore earbuds and PlayStation Pulse Elite headset, with the bulk of my 25-hour playtime using the latter. I paid particular attention to how the game looked and played on the portable device versus the console, and noted the various ways it incorporated the handheld's DualSense features.

First reviewed February-March 2026

I haven’t sat in a plusher gaming chair than this one – but this affordable GTPlayer model has one drawback

7:00 pm | March 7, 2026

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming Gaming Accessories | Comments: Off

One-minute review

GT player gaming chair — (Image credit: Future)

The GTPlayer LR002 is a budget-friendly gaming chair that hopes to match the comfort levels of costlier competition.

It’s less aggressive in its gamer stylings than many others in this sector. You could even call it smart, and my review unit’s light grey and blue finish helped to showcase the chair’s lighter side.

However, the fabric doesn’t look or feel especially premium, and neither do the solid materials employed throughout the LR002’s construction. It certainly won’t trouble the likes of the Secretlab et al in terms of build quality.

An area where it does compete with the best gaming chairs, though, is cushioning. Not only is the seat soft and plump, but so too are the arm rests and backrest, which makes the LR002 a comfortable chair to sink into. The lumbar and head pillows are less plush, but still provide me with sufficient support in the right areas.

Things take a turn for the worse, though, when it comes to adjustability. The LR002 lacks any form of adjustments for the arm rests, and there’s no rocking function: if you want to lean back, you can recline the backrest to your desired angle, but once there, you’re locked in.

The included footrest also disappoints, owing to its poor design and construction. It consistently failed to slide out smoothly, and even when fully retracted, I found it stopped far too short to be usable, even for someone of my short stature.

Taller gamers are also likely to be disappointed with the seat height range. Although it goes lower to the ground than many (something I often welcome), I imagine those six feet and over would find its maximum elevation too low.

Assembling the LR002 was mostly a straightforward process, thanks to the relatively light seat base and backrest. However, some of the bolts proved difficult to screw in fully, while the angles of some of the holes were awkward to reach.

With its reasonable price, the LR002 makes a compelling case in the budget gaming chair segment. It’s an even more attractive proposition with the huge discounts we’ve seen GTPlayer offer. However, if you’re tall or like plenty of adjustments in your seat, the LR002 is unlikely to satisfy.

GTPlayer LR002 review: Price and availability

$159.99 / £149.99 / AU$703
Available worldwide
Cheap for a gaming chair

The GTPlayer LR002 costs $159.99 / £149.99 / AU$703 and is available now in most territories around the world. It comes in multiple colorways, half of which are monochromatic; two shades of blue, a brown, and an orange finish comprise the rest.

This is a decent price for a gaming chair, putting the LR002 at the budget-end of the spectrum. What’s more, we’ve seen it on sale for less than half price in the UK, making it even more of a bargain. This was direct from GTPlayer's website, although the original price listed here is substantially more than that on Amazon.

It competes with the likes of the Corsair TC100 Relaxed, which commands a similar price to the LR002. We think this is one of the best cheap gaming chairs around, thanks to its comfort levels and adjustability; the LR002 can match the TC100 in the former area, but not the latter.

If you're willing to part with more cash, but still want to steer clear of the most expensive models, the Asus ROG Destrier Core is a solid bet. Not only does this gaming chair offer more adjustments than the LR002, its unique mesh backrest improves breathability and lends a certain style to the unit that sets it apart from many others in the sector.

GTPlayer LR002 review: Specs

	GTPlayer LR002
Price	$159.99 / £149.99 / AU$703
Dimensions	58.9 x 28.3 x 20.5in / 149.5 x 72 x 52cm
Max user weight	299.8lbs / 136kg
Min seat height	18.7in / 47.5cm
Seat width	20in / 51cm
Warranty	1 year

GTPlayer LR002 review: Design and aesthetics

Soft but basic looks
Cheap-feeling materials
Lightweight design

The LR002 takes the typical gaming chair approach in terms of overall form, although it’s softer and more rounded than others. These aspects make it a more inviting chair, in my view.

I was also fond of the light grey finish of my review unit, accented by light blue strips, which helps to make the LR002 look less austere than many others in this sector. Granted, it’s not the most elegant of designs, but it’s inoffensive and understated enough to suit most settings.

The lack of premium materials is perhaps the biggest aesthetic weakness of the LR002. The fabric, while smooth to the touch, looks and feels cheap. It’s more breathable than other gaming chair upholsteries, but I still think it’s too thick to keep me cool on a hot summer day.

The plastics used in the unit’s construction also look and feel like cut-price affairs. In their defense, they’re light, which helps to keep the chair’s weight down. In fact, the LR002 is one of the lightest gaming chairs I’ve come across.

There’s a strange hollowness to the backrest; it’s only partially filled, with what feel like small polystyrene balls. It crackled and popped as I leaned into it (it has plenty of give), which wasn’t something I was expecting or particularly wanting to feel, but fortunately, the effect wasn’t disruptive enough to ruin my time in the chair. The backrest is also very thin, which contributes to the aforementioned lightness of the LR002.

GTPlayer LR002 review: Comfort and adjustability

Cushioned on all contactable surfaces
Lacks fundamental adjustments
Very poor footrest

The soft appearance of the LR002 translates to all-round comfort. It offers more cushioning than your typical gaming chair; this is especially true of the backrest and armrests, which put it ahead of many others, even those costing much more.

The strapped lumbar cushion works well, allowing for easy height adjustments while seated, yet it remains in place once you’ve found the ideal height. It’s smaller than those included with other gaming chairs, but it was sufficient to get the support I needed.

It’s a similar story with the head pillow. It’s less plush than others, but again, it provided just enough support for my head and neck. As you might expect, given the budget nature of the LR002, it doesn’t attach magnetically, but via a humble strap.

While the arms are comfortable, thanks to their generous cushioning, they’re quite narrow, which might pose a problem for some gamers. The bigger issue, though, is their complete lack of adjustability.

This is especially frustrating given that they move when the backrest is reclined — but this is the only scenario in which they do. I was lucky that their height was ideal for my seating position, but I imagine there’ll be many gamers who won’t find them suitable.

Equally disappointing is the LR002’s lack of a tilt function. If you want to lean back, the backrest can recline all the way to 140 degrees — but once it’s set, the unforgiving rigidity prevents any form of rocking. At least the recline mechanism is smooth with no discernible notchiness, and the lever is easy to operate.

A retractable footrest is installed underneath the LR002. However, this has to be one of the most poorly designed examples I’ve come across. Every time I tried to slide it out, it would get stuck partway, requiring a few jiggles to set it free.

What’s more, the cushion itself doesn’t stay upright, requiring constant leg pressure to hold it in place. Worst of all, though, is its short extension. While it managed to support my legs, the front edge of the rest dug uncomfortably into the back of my calves — and I’m only 5”7. Anyone taller than this will find it laughably impractical.

Another issue for taller gamers is the seat height. The minimum setting is quite low to the ground, which is something I often welcome, but the maximum isn’t all that high. And since there’s only one size of the LR002, this could cause a problem for the long-legged.

GTPlayer LR002 review: Assembly

Light base and backrest
Clear instructions
Tight bolts

Assembling the LR002 was mostly an easy process, barring a few minor frustrations. It comes with a hex key that features a grip handle, which, while useful, was a little too short to get the leverage I hoped for when tightening the bolts.

What’s more, none of these bolts or their insert points were greased even slightly, which made them even more difficult to screw into place. Some also proved incredibly resistant to the point that I thought their threads must be misaligned.

Both the backrest and seat base are light relative to those of other gaming chairs. This is always a blessing, since wrangling these into place is nearly always the most laborious aspect of any build.

The instruction manual is largely clear, and aside from some aforementioned bold issues, installing the other elements is easy. This includes the under-seat bracket, which can sometimes be a fiddly process.

However, I found the spokes for the wheel base tough to fix to the central hub, since the bolt holes lie in a somewhat inaccessible position. The manual instructs hitting them with force to get them in place, and it’s not joking: I would take care not to damage your floor during this part of the process.

Should I buy the GTPlayer LR002?

Buy it if...

You want soft cushioning
It’s not just the seat base that’s padded: the arms and backrest are suitably plush, too, which isn’t a given.View Deal

You don’t want to spend the earth
The LR002 is certainly one of the more affordable gaming chairs out there. View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You’re tall
There’s only one size of the LR002, and the seat doesn’t go all that high. Also, the footrest barely extends far enough for those under six feet, let alone those over it.View Deal

You prioritize adjustability
The lack of adjustments is a real weak point of the LR002. There’s no adjustment at all for the arms, and there’s no tilt function for the seat.View Deal

GTPlayer LR002 review: Also consider...

Here are some alternatives to the GTPlayer LR002 if you need more in the way of adjustability or quality:

	GTPlayer LR002	Asus ROG Destrier Core Gaming Chair	Corsair TC100 Relaxed
Price	$159.99 / £149.99 / AU$703	$629.99 / £499.99 (about AU$600)	$199 / £199 / AU$399
Dimensions	58.9 x 28.3 x 20.5in / 149.5 x 72 x 52cm	53.1 x 27.8 x 24.1in / 135 x 70.7 x 61.3cm	53.5 x 23.4 x 19.7in / 136 x 59 x 50cm
Max user weight	299.8lbs / 136kg	299.8lbs / 136kg	264lbs / 120kg
Min seat height	18.7in / 47.5cm	18.5in / 47cm	17.7in / 45cm
Seat width	20in / 51cm	20in / 51cm	21.2in / 54cm (incl. bolsters), 14.2in / 36cm (excl. bolsters)
Warranty	1 year	2 years	2 years

Corsair TC100 Relaxed
The Corsair TC100 Relaxed is one of the best budget gaming chairs around, thanks to the levels of comfort and adjustability it provides for the cost. And although the arm rests aren’t 4D, they can be adjusted for both height and width, unlike the LR002’s.

Read our full Corsair TC100 Relaxed review.View Deal

Asus ROG Destrier Core
If you want something that stands out from the crowd, the Asus ROG Destrier Core is a fine choice. Its mesh back not only looks good, but it also makes the chair very breathable. The Destrier Core also has more adjustments than the LR002, including a movable headrest, which isn’t always seen on gaming chairs.

Read our full Asus ROG Destrier Core review.View Deal

How I tested the GTPlayer LR002

Tested for several days
Used for gaming and working
Plentiful gaming chair experience

I tested the GTPlayer LR002 for several days. I sat in it when gaming, working, and general browsing on both desktop and laptop devices. I made sure to try every adjustment and function available.

I’ve been PC gaming for over a decade, and experienced many chairs in that time, from office to gaming models. This includes those from high-end brands, such as Steelcase and Secretlab. I’ve also reviewed a number of gaming chairs previously, running the gamut of price points and functionality.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed February 2026.

I tried Logitech’s new G325 Lightspeed gaming headset, and it was so comfortable I forgot I was wearing it

5:00 pm | March 6, 2026

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: PC, Resident Evil | Comments: Off

Logitech G325 Lightspeed: Two-minute review

Logitech definitely knows the strengths of the G325 Lightspeed, its new budget wireless gaming headset.

Advertised as a model that’s “just as suitable for an OOTD selfie or wearing out and about” as gaming, the impressively lightweight design and unique look make it well worth considering if you're after something more stylish than your standard gamer fare.

This is an incredibly comfortable headset that you should have no trouble wearing for extended periods of time, whether you’re gaming or taking calls at the office. Its memory foam earcups are super soft, and the thin plastic headband is reinforced with some effective padding.

The fact that it’s made almost entirely from thin plastic means that it doesn't feel anywhere near as premium as competitors like HyperX Cloud III or Razer BlackShark V3 X, but this is a reasonable compromise given the high level of comfort the resulting lightness brings.

The Logitech G325 Lightspeed on a white table. — (Image credit: Future)

The microphone represents a similar trade-off. On one hand, I love how streamlined the built-in beamforming microphone is - in fact, it’s almost invisible aside from a tiny little grille on the left earcup. There’s no messing around with a retractable arm or removable parts that you might end up losing.

On the other hand, there’s no denying that those models with dedicated microphone arms sound much better, even if they are a bit more frustrating to use. The mic of the G325 Lightspeed picks up a lot of background noise, despite the best efforts of Logitech’s “AI-powered noise reduction”, and leaves you sounding quite distant and grainy.

It’s perfectly adequate if you’re chatting with friends on a Discord call, but there are gaming headsets with much better microphone performance out there at this price, like those aforementioned alternatives.

This is also a very basic headset when it comes to features. The built-in controls are a volume rocker, Bluetooth pairing button, microphone mute switch, and that’s your lot. The headset is compatible with Logitech’s brilliant G Hub software, but it doesn’t offer much here aside from some EQ options and a couple of extra settings. This is going to be more than enough for most casual gamers.

The sound here is also good for the asking price, but not exceptional. Like other Logitech headsets, it sounds a bit flat out of the box without much bass, but it’s decently detailed and performs well in games.

With all of this in mind, you should already know whether the G325 Lightspeed is for you. If comfort and aesthetics are your priority, it’s an easy recommendation given the relatively low asking price - but those after booming sound or a crystal clear mic are better served with other options.

Logitech G325 Lightspeed: Price and availability

Costs $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$199.95
Three colors available
One of Logitech’s cheapest wireless models

Priced at $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$199.95, the G325 Lightspeed is one of the cheapest wireless gaming headsets Logitech makes right now.

This price point puts it in budget territory and, given the brand’s frequent generous discounts on other products, I wouldn’t be surprised you could scoop it up for around the $50 / £50 / AU$95 mark in the future.

At full price, it still represents quite good value, though, with much of the cost accounted for in the wireless capabilities and attractive design. There are three colorways available: a black with subtle purple accents, white with grey and mint green highlights, and a cute lilac with hints of orange.

Logitech G325 Lightspeed: Specs

	Logitech G325 Lightspeed
Price	$79.99 / £69.99 / AU$199.95
Weight	7.4oz / 212g
Compatibility	PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, mobile
Connection type	Wireless (Lightspeed, Bluetooth 5.2)
Battery life	~24 hours
Features	Beamforming microphone
Software	Logitech G Hub (PC / Mobile)

Logitech G325 Lightspeed: Design and features

Attractive overall look
Very lightweight
Basic set of features

The design of the Logitech G325 Lightspeed eschews the usual gamer aesthetic of most headsets in favor of a more subtle look.

They’re sleek and seem more like a pair of music listening headphones than a gaming headset, which I quite like. You could easily wear these out of the house or in the office without embarrassment, which is certainly one of the biggest reasons to choose this model over others.

At only 7.4oz / 212g, the G325 Lightspeed is impressively lightweight, though it’s easy to see where Logitech has made the biggest sacrifices to achieve this. The headband feels particularly thin and cheap, with lots of flex to it. Importantly, it is still comfortable thanks to generous memory foam padding. The earcups, which can be adjusted up and down by a few inches, are similarly well-padded with memory foam cushioning.

The right earcup is completely plain aside from some subtle G325 branding, with all of this headset’s controls located on the back of the left one. There’s a power switch (situated beneath an LED indicator to denote battery level and charging status), a Bluetooth pairing button, a volume rocker, and a button to mute the microphone with a built-in and flush design on the front of the earcup.

The headset is compatible with the Logitech G Hub app, though it doesn’t give you access to many extra features. You can turn on side tone (which lets you hear yourself as you speak) or enable the microphone’s AI noise reduction features. There are also a number of audio presets to choose from, but the default one is well-balanced and a good fit for most uses.

Logitech G325 Lightspeed: Performance

Decent, balanced sound
As suitable for office work as gaming
Microphone could be better

Like other Logitech gaming headsets, the G325 Lightspeed sounds quite neutral out of the box. There is definitely some bass, but not overemphasized, and the mids and highs are decently presented. Is it the most detailed or breathtaking sound I’ve ever heard? No, but it’s firmly in line with what you should expect at this price.

I’ve been using the Logitech G325 Lightspeed for a few weeks now, and I never found the listening experience unpleasant, even when bobbing along to music as I worked. In games, the sound is more than sufficient for an enjoyable experience for a casual player, and this has been my go-to throughout my recent co-op playthrough of Resident Evil 6 and daily Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 matches.

Although I do have access to much better-sounding models, the ease of use of this one, not to mention the sheer comfort, is hard to argue with. Just plug the USB dongle in, and you’re ready to go.

I even like the built-in microphone despite its obvious flaws, too. This is not a gaming headset that you should use to start your streaming career, but the fact that the microphone is always present and incredibly unobtrusive is a plus. When I’m using the Astro A20 X, for example, I always have to dig the removable microphone out of my drawer and consciously attach it to my headset before I play - often struggling to find it in the process. Here, you just put the headset on, and you’re ready to go.

I do wish it did a better job of picking up your voice, though. I found that I often sounded quite quiet in comparison to other headsets, with a noticeably grainy quality to my voice. It also lets in an awful lot of background noise, with everything from typing to controller button presses picked up. This is easy to remedy with something like the Krisp noise suppression built into Discord, but still a clear area for improvement.

The battery life here isn’t anything special, but it’s good enough. Logitech claims that this headset will last more than 24 hours at 50% volume, and, in normal use, I found that it easily lasted about 20 hours at a time.

Should I buy the Logitech G325 Lightspeed?

Buy it if…

You want a light and comfortable headset
The Logitech G325 Lightspeed is incredibly comfortable thanks to its lightweight and generous memory foam padding. It’s one to choose if you want something that you can wear for hours and hours at a time.

You love the look
This headset also has quite a unique look that’s very different from most gaming models. Pick it up if you want something understated.

Don’t buy it if…

You need better sound
The sound here is good, but you can still get better performers for around the same price from brands like Razer or HyperX - especially if you don’t mind going for a wired alternative.

You want a great mic
The microphone here could do with some work. It gets the job done, but the performance isn’t as good as most models with a microphone arm.

Also consider...

Not sold on the Logitech G325 Lightspeed? See these two alternatives.

	Logitech G325 Lightspeed	Razer BlackShark V3 X	HyperX Cloud III
Price	$79.99 / £69.99 / AU$199.95	$99.99 / £99.99 / around AU$141	$99.99 / about £99.99 / AU$150
Weight	7.4oz / 212g	9.5oz / 270g	10.9oz / 310g
Compatibility	PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, mobile	PC, Xbox Series X/S (Xbox version), Playstation 4/5, (PlayStation version), mobile	PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, mobile
Connection type	Wireless (Lightspeed, Bluetooth 5.2)	2.4 GHz Wireless / Bluetooth / USB Wired	Wired (3.5mm)
Battery life	~24 hours	70 hours	N/A
Features	Beamforming microphone	7.1 virtual surround sound, unidirectional detachable cardioid mic	Detachable 10mm mic, DTS Headphone:X Spatial Audio
Software	Logitech G Hub (PC / Mobile)	Razer Synapse (PC)	HyperX NGENUITY (PC)

Razer BlackShark V3 X
This budget-oriented BlackShark headset from Razer is more expensive and heavier than the G325, but it offers significantly better battery life and much punchier sound, not to mention plenty more features.

For more information, check out our full Razer BlackShark V3 X review

HyperX Cloud III
The HyperX Cloud III might be getting on in years, but it’s still a top contender and regularly on sale for around the same price as the G325. It’s wired, but it comes with a phenomenal microphone.

For more information, check out our full HyperX Cloud III reviewView Deal

How I tested the Logitech G325 Lightspeed

Tested for multiple weeks
Used with PC, PS5, and Xbox
Relied on for both work and play

I tested the Logitech G325 Lightspeed for multiple weeks, using it as my primary wireless gaming headset for both work and play.

I used it with my PC in addition to my PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles, squeezing in plenty of game time with friends to test out the built-in mic. I also wore it daily while working, wearing it for online meetings and while listening to music, and found it to be a worthy companion.

I frequently compared its performance to a range of other models that I’ve tested, including the Logitech G522 Lightspeed, Astro A20 X, and SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5, plus more premium alternatives like the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro and Astro A50 X.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed February-March 2026

« Previous Page — Next Page »